Group items tagged

" By Ernesto on August 18, 2015 C: 28 Breaking The MPAA has dropped its request for a preliminary injunction that would require search engines, ISPs and hosting companies to stop linking or offering services to MovieTube. The decision comes a few days after prominent tech firms including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Yahoo branded the request as a broad censorship attempt."

" Ernesto on August 21, 2015 C: 39 Breaking Spotify is generally considered to be a piracy killer. Thanks to the company's ad-supported free tier it guarantees a smooth transition from the dark corners of the Internet to a fully licensed service. However, Spotify is now warning that without its freemium option, piracy may surge once again."

[ By Ernesto on July 23, 2015 C: 41 Breaking The European Union has today launched an antitrust investigation against several large U.S. movie studios and Sky UK. The European Commission wants to abolish geographical restrictions and has sent a statement of objections over the geo-blocking practices of six major US film studios including Disney, Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. ...]

" Ernesto on July 2, 2015 C: 20 Breaking A court in Hamburg, Germany, has ruled that YouTube is not required to actively monitor user uploads for pirated content. The court found that YouTube is not liable for what users upload, but did stress that Google's video platform has to do more to combat copyright infringement. "

" Ernesto on July 1, 2015 C: 5 Breaking In a new filing at a Washington District Court, Google has called out the MPAA for its "cozy" relationship with the Mississippi General Attorney. In addition to helping him draft anti-piracy measures, Google highlights that the Hollywood group organized fundraisers, donated money, and sent rather jovial emails to the Attorney General's staff. "

Ernesto on September 3, 2015 C: 32 Breaking The six-strikes Copyright Alert System will remain in place. The MPAA, RIAA and five large U.S. Internet providers have unanimously agreed to extend the program. The parties are currently negotiating if and how they can improve the warning system in the hope that it will eventually change people's attitudes toward piracy.

" Ernesto on July 30, 2015 C: 0 News Several prominent music groups including the RIAA, A2IM and ASCAP have accused CNET of hosting infringing apps on Download.com. In a letter sent to the CEO of parent company CBS, the groups urge the company to reconsider whether it's wise to offer "ripping" software."

" Ernesto on July 8, 2015 C: 60 Breaking A new study has found that blocking access to torrent and linking sites results in the opposite effect. Instead of driving people towards legal websites and services, many of the blocked sites simply move to other domain names where they enjoy a significant and sustained boost in traffic."

" Ernesto on July 6, 2015 C: 17 News For more than a decade piracy has been a hot topic in the music industry. While some of the major labels have tried to eliminate the problem by taking pirates to court, others prefer a more positive approach. DJ and producer David Guetta says that the industry should embrace piracy, noting that it helps him to sell out concerts."

" Ernesto on September 26, 2015 C: 0 News This week copyright holders applauded a 'groundbreaking' anti-piracy commitment from GroupM, the world's largest advertising media company. The announcement is the result of increasing efforts to ban advertisements on pirate sites. However, don't expect to see ads to disappear from The Pirate Bay and co. anytime soon."

" Ernesto on October 10, 2015 C: 57 News A leaked chapter of the final Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement proposes several changes to the copyright laws of participating countries. The intellectual property chapter covers a broad range of issues including extended copyright terms, ISP liability and criminalization of non-commercial piracy."

" Ernesto on October 12, 2015 C: 35 Breaking Seeking clarification, a Dutch court has referred several streaming related questions to the EU Court of Justice. The questions relate to a case between local anti-piracy group BREIN and a seller of so-called "pirate boxes" that come pre-loaded with streaming plugins. It is currently unclear whether streaming pirated movies is permitted under EU law."

" Ernesto on August 4, 2015 C: 36 News Adult movie studio Malibu Media has asked the Indiana federal court to ban negative terms during an upcoming trial against an alleged BitTorrent pirate. According to the copyright troll, descriptions such as "copyright troll," "pornographer" and "porn purveyor" could influence the jury."

" Ernesto on August 5, 2015 C: 156 News The High Court recently overturned private copying exceptions introduced last year by the UK Government, once again outlawing the habits of millions of citizens. The Intellectual Property Office today explains that ripping a CD in iTunes is no longer permitted, and neither is backing up your computer if it contains copyrighted content. "

" Ernesto on May 26, 2014 C: 6 Breaking A few hours after all polling booths across Europe closed, it now becomes clear that the Pirate Party has kept a seat at the European Parliament. The results show that the Pirates won one seat in Germany. That's also the only one, although the Czech Republic Pirates came awfully close. "

[ Ernesto on December 18, 2014 C: 0 Breaking While the BitTorrent ecosystem is filled with uncertainty and doubt, researchers at Delft University of Technology have released the first version of their anonymous and decentralized BitTorrent network. "Tribler makes BitTorrent anonymous and impossible to shut down," lead researcher Prof. Pouwelse says. ...]

" Ernesto on September 9, 2014 C: 16 Breaking Rightscorp, a prominent piracy monitoring firm that works with Warner Bros. and other copyright holders, wants Grande Communications to reveal the identities alleged pirates linked to 30,000 IP-addresses/timestamp combinations. Unlike other providers the Texas ISP refused to give in easily, instead deciding to fight the request in court." [ ...DMCA subpoenas are not allowed in file-sharing cases...]

[ Ernesto on January 14, 2015 C: 0 News Hoping to deter and stop the ongoing threat of 'cyber' attacks President Obama unveiled new cybersecurity plans yesterday. While the plans don't reference copyright infringement, the MPAA notes that Congress should keep online piracy in mind as it drafts its new cybersecurity bill. ] # Again, gnarled 'Authorities, linking -falsely, of course- sharing with any kind of 'threats'... (since 2001: Peer-to-peer terrorism http://www.salon.com/2001/09/26/osama_bin_napster/ and, of course, earlier references -from Techdirt, for example, "Seriously: Where Is The Link Between Copyright Infringement And Terrorism/Organized Crime" https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100129/0630057974.shtml)

[ Ernesto on January 17, 2015 C: 0 News With a rather peculiar takedown request Hollywood is going after OpenCulture.com, one of the largest collections of cultural and educational media online. ...]

" Ernesto on March 9, 2015 C: 0 News All records that are part of the now-closed case between Hotfile and the MPAA will be unsealed in the interests of the public. "