Last month Australia dropped plans to extend its copyright safe harbor provisions to include platforms such as Google, Facebook and YouTube. A little over a month later and the topic is back on the agenda, with the government announcing a new consultation aimed at encouraging the growth of the digital economy while protecting copyright holders.
Millions of users lost access to their personal files when Megaupload was raided, and after more than half a decade not much has changed. Former Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin has been trying to get his files back for years. This week he urged the Appeals Court to intervene, before it's too late
Selling devices pre-configured to obtain copyright-infringing content is illegal, the European Court of Justice effectively ruled today. The decision, which evolved from a case involving anti-piracy group BREIN and a shop that sold piracy-configured media players, will have far-reaching consequences across the EU, particularly for those selling piracy-enabled Kodi setups.
Broad pirate sites blockades are disproportional, Mexico's Supreme Court of Justice has ruled. The Government can't order ISPs to block websites that link to copyright-infringing material because that would also restrict access to legitimate content and violate the public's freedom of expression. The ruling is a win for local ISP Alestra, which successfully protested the Government's blocking efforts.
Kim Dotcom has filed a formal complaint with police in New Zealand after FBI director James Comey arrived in the region for a conference. Dotcom's complaint says that Comey should be urgently interviewed over the unlawful removal of hard drive clones obtained following the raid on Megaupload in 2012.
Almost five million Brits are regularly streaming TV content from illegal Internet services. That's one of the findings from a new YouGov study which shows that Kodi-powered devices and Android apps are particularly popular with users. Of concern to authorized services is that hundreds of thousands of pirates say they're canceling their official subscriptions.
Music industry group RIAA, which represents the leading recording labels in the US, is now a major customer of anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp. In fact, the RIAA's commitment to the copyright troll outfit is so significant that its business accounted for 44% of Rightscorp's revenue in 2016.
BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen has already earned a spot in the Internet hall of fame, but he's not done yet. In recent years he's taken a strong interest in cryptocurrencies, something he will devote himself full-time to in the near future. This includes launching a new cryptocurrency which addresses some of the challenges facing Bitcoin.