The new "Operation Creative" tactic is designed to tackle the funding of copyright-infringement websites without making users vulnerable to malware, as an earlier pilot accidentally did. However, it's a bit worrying to see police censoring elements of webpages.…
Read MoreResearch
New data on “6-strikes” copyright system says 3% of alleged pirates had internet speed reduced
A new report finally sheds some details on a 6-strike system intended to deter piracy. One of the ways it does that is by slowing down pirates' internet connections in some cases.…
Read MoreOracle v. Google ruling shows why cloud players may have steered clear of Amazon APIs
Fear of litigation may have prevented cloud providers from adopting AWS APIs to begin with and today's Oracle ruling may have proved them prescient.…
Read MoreCopyright “safe harbors” shrink in wake of MP3Tunes, other red flag rulings
The CEO of a defunct music site is in trouble after a jury ruled he should have known about copyrighted songs on the site. The verdict is partly the result of studios' recent successes in shrinking the scope of so-called safe harbor laws.…
Read MoreDid NTIA just drive a stake through SOPA?
One interesting result of the NTIA's propsal to relinquish U.S. control over the DNS could be to drive a final stake through anti-piracy proposals like SOPA that rely on manipulating DNS queries as an enforcement mechanism.…
Read More
Oracle and Rimini Street trade claims of victory in long-running legal spat
A U.S. District Court Judge found that Rimini Street did infringe on some Oracle copyrights but not on others.…
Read MoreISP anti-“piracy” blockades are compatible with European law, says top advisor
European courts can order ISPs to block sites that offer copyright-infringing material, in the opinion of the EU advocate general. Of course, some EU countries already allow this.…
Read MoreAnti-piracy pushback
Over the past three months, a new website reports, only 20 percent of the most pirated movies as ranked by TorrentFreak were available legally available for online rental or streaming.…
Read MoreMPAA study discovers search engines are good at finding stuff online
With the wreckage of SOPA and PIPA still smoldering and an election underway in 2012, last year was quiet on the anti-piracy front. But this year's season is off to a fast start.…
Read MoreInduce me not
What makes the Hotfile decision notable is not simply that it marks the first time the studios have been able to take down a cyberlocker site but because it was done via summary judgment on an inducement standard.…
Read MoreU.S. copyright review expands
The Commerce Department recommendations, which represent the views of the Obama Administration, come as the Judiciary Committee remains very much in fact-finding mode in its review, setting up the potential for conflicting agendas and timetables in what will inevitably be a contentious process of revising current copyright law and policy.…
Read MoreFrance considers striking three-strikes, taxing connected devices
A report issued Monday by a special commission appointed to recommend changes to French media laws and regulations proposes dismantling Hadopi, the agency created in 2009 to enforce France's graduated-response system for policing online piracy.…
Read MoreMega Antigua (Updated)
A ruling by the WTO allows the government of Antigua to set up a website to sell movies, music and other material that infringes U.S. copyright without making payments to U.S. copyright owners.…
Read MoreWhy BuzzFeed’s photo spat with Reddit could be just the tip of the iceberg
BuzzFeed has been criticized for taking images from other sites such as Reddit without giving credit to the original creator -- something that the web's "remix culture" is making more and more difficult. But BuzzFeed's desire to create sponsored content makes it more important than ever.…
Read MoreSOPA gets washed out in election
The entertainment industry lost a number of key allies on Capitol Hill as a result of the election and the returns have scrambled the leadership of key committees in both the House and Senate at a time when a number of major IP and telecom issues are being teed up.…
Read MoreToday in Mobile
The U.S. Justice Department seized three web sites it claims were distributing illegal copies of copyrighted Android apps, PCWorld reported early this…
Read MoreWhat lawsuit? Boundless Learning pushes ahead with free textbook platform
Facing a lawsuit from major publishers, Boston-based free textbook startup Boundless Learning is now available for students at any university. Just in time for the new school year, the startup is opening to the public with an updated, more comprehensive platform.…
Read MoreFrance: Google may have to censor for piracy after all
France's Supreme Court has set aside a critical piracy ruling won by Google in 2011, leaving the door open to the search giant being forced to censor some of its autocomplete listings to prevent copyright infringement and piracy.…
Read MoreCriminalizing links: Why the Richard O’Dwyer case matters
The U.S. government continues to try and extradite British college student Richard O'Dwyer for simply linking to copyright-infringing files, on a site located in the UK. If they are successful, it could change the way we think about some of the fundamental underpinnings of the web.…
Read MoreFastest growing segment of piracy? Live TV
A new study from Google and the UK copyright collection society PRS for Music finds that live TV is the fastest-growing segment of copyright infringement -- and a large presence on social networking sites.…
Read MoreUK says three strikes is coming, but not until 2014
Under new proposals from the British media regulator Ofcom, internet providers will start sending warning letters to those accused of illegal filesharing in 18 months -- and will be forced to handed people's data over to copyright holders after three successive hits.…
Read MoreRussia looks to ISPs to crack down on piracy
The stereotype of Russia as a haven of copyright infringement could be a thing of the past, after officials in Moscow said they were considering holding internet providers liable for illegal filesharing that takes place on their networks.…
Read MoreNo third act likely in Viacom vs. YouTube drama
The court poked enough holes in YouTube's defense that it now has every incentive to try to settle with Viacom as quickly as possible and get on about its business. But on the one issue of law that might have made a difference to Viacom's business at this point, the court ruled in favor of YouTube, so it's unclear what Viacom would gain from carrying on.…
Read MoreWhy it’s wrong to call copyright infringement “theft”
We've gotten used to the content industries arguing that what happens when people download or make copies is "theft." But using that term muddies the waters when it comes to what copyright is supposed to be about, and lends support to irrational laws and court decisions.…
Read More