Traditional media companies — and independent artists — can learn a lot from the success of comedian Louis CK’s self-produced standup special, which he offered for download at $5 a copy without any digital-rights management protection. The project paid for itself in less than a day. Read more »
A bi-partisan group of senators and congressmen is proposing an alternative to the widely-criticized Stop Online Piracy Act. The new bill, known as OPEN, has already won some support from opponents of SOPA, who say OPEN’s approach to piracy is much less damaging to the web. Read more »
The principle behind copyright has been taking a beating from “remix culture,” driven in large part by YouTube and other video sites. Is the rise of the YouTube generation changing the way that we think about copyright — and if so, should we let that happen? Read more »
Paid movie downloads won’t be coming to RapidShare any time soon: The file host has abandoned its plans to launch a download store with Hollywood fare. But fear not: RapidShare competitor MegaUpload is apparently working on a commercial movie download venture of its own. Read more »
The Great Firewall of China is preventing local programmers from downloading the latest Node.js programming framework. The problem is that the version number corresponds to the June 4, 1989 government crackdown on Tiananmen Square demonstrators. Read more »
Opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act this week proposed an anti-piracy bill of their own that they claim will address counterfeiting issu… Read more at paidContent »
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek took the stage at Spotify’s first-ever press conference to expand the music streaming service’s Facebook integration t… Read more at paidContent »
Federal law enforcement agents celebrated cyber-Monday in their own peculiar fashion by seizing 150 websites to go along with the 72 they ba… Read more at paidContent »
The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, garners a lot of hatred from commentators and the Internet industry as whole, but it’s only the next logical step after the problematic Digital Millenium Copyright Act, the safe harbor of which is more like a plea bargain. Read more »
Two weeks ago, publisher John Wiley made headlines by suing 27 internet users who were allegedly swapping editions of the popular “For Dummi… Read more at paidContent »
Away from the Eurozone crisis, France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy has come up with one way to raise more funds in his country for one strugg… Read more at paidContent »
China has become an increasingly important part of Apple’s empire, and today it looks like the company has taken one more step to growing th… Read more at paidContent »
In testimony on new anti-piracy legislation, Google’s policy counsel argued the payment blockade against WikiLeaks was a good example of how copyright infringement could be handled. But that blockade is a disturbing attack on freedom of the press — is that really something Google wants to support? Read more »
America is fond of chiding other nations about freedom of speech in the internet age. Leaders including President Obama and Secretary of Sta… Read more at paidContent »
New laws such as the Stop Online Piracy Act threaten to give new powers to Congress and to content companies, and have serious implications for the web — they make it clear that content companies are in many ways fundamentally opposed to the way the internet works. Read more »
The Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is pushing back against critics like Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Facebook who say that impending p… Read more at paidContent »
Connectivity changes everything. That’s the credo driving just about every corner of our day-to-day lives. As human beings, we are now connected to one another through not just our social networks but also our cars, the books we read, the albums we download and even our own health and wellness habits (to name just a few areas). With that in mind, GigaOM Pro has singled out certain areas in the technology industry where we see this shift to constant connectivity taking place most drastically. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been going tooth and nail after big Android device makers, especially Samsung, accusing them in courts worldwide of l… Read more at paidContent »
Judges this year have shot down two unorthodox tactics used by the entertainment industry to collect money from file-sharers. But that hasn’… Read more at paidContent »
The Pirate Bay announced Wednesday morning that it is now in the business of offering 3-D movies, destroying the hopes of Hollywood that 3-D would be something of an automatic piracy deterrent. With prices for 3-D TVs declining, the phenomenon is poised to become more popular. Read more »
Netflix is coming to Brazil and other Latin American countries this week, where it will be competing with thousands of street vendors peddling unlicensed DVDs. Can the service beat piracy, or will it be too expensive for the average consumer in Brazil and beyond? Read more »
A stumbling economy with the threat of another recession, a price hike for Netflix customers, people canceling cable and a pay TV wall for fans of popular TV shows like Glee and Top Chef: Sounds like a perfect storm for piracy, doesn’t it? Read more »
Britain’s copyright laws have always been byzantine, but the digital age has put them under more pressure than ever. Now the news that the government plans a major makeover has sent rights holders into a spiral, but could be great news for startups. Read more »
Fox wants viewers of its TV shows to authenticate or subscribe to Hulu Plus in order to access full episodes of favorite shows online the day after they air on TV, but a significant number of viewers might simply just pirate them. Read more »
A little over a month after European authorities took down the popular movie streaming site Kino.to, two similar sites have emerged — and each claims to be the official heir, with one accusing the other of stealing its content. Pirates that steal stuff? That’s unheard of. Read more »
File sharers can download a spy thriller with a cast including Six Feet Under actor James Cromwell this Friday, thanks to a collaboration between the film makers and P2P distribution platform VODO. The site is asking for donations to bring the movie to theaters. Read more »
Martial arts movie fans that downloaded the action flick The Legend Is Born: IP Man earlier this month could get a letter from the movie’s U.S. distributor soon, asking them for a big lump of cash: FUNimation has sued 1427 alleged BitTorrent downloaders of the film. Read more »
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said this morning that one of the things he’s most proud of is beating BitTorrent, at least in the U.S. Now, he says, the challenge is to beat copyright infringement in places like Korea, where it runs rampant. Read more »
German content owners have been busy pursuing alleged infringers: Local ISPs have to hand out around 300,000 names and addresses of file sharers caught in the act every month, according to data from a German industry association. Will we see similar numbers in the U.S. soon? Read more »
Movies often show up on torrent sites as soon as they see the day of light. In the case of the new horror flick The Tunnel, this was done on purpose: The film makers are using BitTorrent as a way to raise money and awareness. Read more »
Suing Kino.to seemed too complicated because the site is hosted in Russia, so rights holders went after an ISP instead: Austria-based USP has to block access to the popular streaming video site to prevent its customers from accessing any unlicensed streams of Hollywood blockbusters. Read more »
The story of how a children’s book with an unusual title made it to number one on the Amazon bestsellers’ list before it was even published reinforces a lesson for content publishers of all kinds: sometimes what looks like piracy is actually marketing for your content. Read more »
Suprnova.org used to be the Internet’s biggest torrent site, and it inspired countless others to start sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova.org. We sat down with the site’s founder to talk about lessons learned from the past and his plans for Suprnova’s future. Read more »
Spanish shopkeeper Alejandro Fernandez is on trial amid accusations that he is aiding piracy by selling jailbreak cartridges for Nintendo devices. But he’s trying to fight back by leading a legal action against the Japanese games giant that accuses it of breaking European law. Read more »
Word leaked earlier this week that YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) was going to start renting out premium movie content, putting it in a position to co… Read more at paidContent »
New laws to track and disconnect Britons accused of illegally downloading copyrighted files has been controversial, but after an attempt to get it overturned by the U.K.’s two largest Internet providers failed, it looks certain to be put into action. Read more »
Italy’s famously fractious relationship with Internet companies doesn’t show any signs of improving, after a judge in Rome ruled Yahoo should do more to “inhibit” copyright infringement — a move that could open the door to lawsuits against YouTube and others. Read more »
A legitimate copy of The Dark Knight costs about $641 in India, if you adjust the price based on the comparative purchasing power of local consumers. These pricing discrepancies drive people in many emerging markets around the world to piracy, a new study finds. Read more »
Thought people upload torrents to sites like The Pirate Bay out of the goodness of their heart? Well, think again: A good portion of the content comes from people with clear financial interests at heart, and some make as much as $3700 per day with piracy. Read more »
Want to watch the ICC Cricket World Cup that’s starting this week? Then don’t expect to find many live streams on the big streaming sites. Piracy of live sports has moved to smaller for-pay sites, according to the official ICC World Cup streaming partner Willow.tv. Read more »
