Thought the Pirate Bay saga was done and dusted? I’m sure you can spare a few more tears for Universal Music, EMI Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music, who are still chasing their money from the two Swedish escapees. More »
Well, this should make the Pirate Bay’s court appeal interesting. For the last couple of years, the guys have been working on an anything-goes, censor-free haven for online video sharing called VideoBay, and it’s now gone into “Beta Extreme.” More »
A delusional Minnesota court has ordered Jammie Thomas, wanton criminal Kazaa user, to pay a total of $US1.92 million for sharing 24 songs. As my own little protest, I’m going to illegally download Metallica’s entire discography. And I hate Metallica. More »
The European Parliament voted on anti-piracy bill that would boot persistent “file-sharers” off of the net, at the last minute shooting down that particular measure. More importantly, it added an amendment that said the European Union and its member countries should “avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality, effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of internet access.” The vote royally pissed off the EU’s RIAA-equivalent, the IFPI. Even still, the vote itself may not result in any kind of safe haven for, uh, P2P “enthusiasts”:
A Boston judge has just followed up on the previous NY judge ruling that just making files available isn’t enough to constitute copyright infringement. According to the EFF, it’s the most “extensive analysis yet of the recording industry’s ‘making available’ argument”, but doesn’t actually make things better for people who are being sued by the RIAA. The same judge ruled that even though the “offer to distribute” won’t be enough to decide a case, it is enough to permit a lawsuit to move forward. On the other hand, another NY judge has ruled in the opposite manner, that making an “offer to distribute” could violate copyright, even if nobody downloaded whatever you put up. [EFF via Boing Boing]
Japanese internet service providers plan on disconnecting evil filesharing pirates in some of the most severe anti-p2p tactics worldwide. Due to pressure from music, video game and movie companies, the ISPs would warn the offender via email before cutting the cord if the bootlegger in question didn’t cease and desist. Though such a punishment may not seem as bad as the multimillion-dollar fines levied by the RIAA in the US, we think a life without internet may be worse than one without money. [AFP]
