This is by no means the first time the MPAA has stepped on the little guy in their crusade to eradicate piracy, but it is a particularly egregious instance of it. The free Wi-Fi network in Coshocton, Ohio supported anywhere from “a dozen people a day to 100 during busy times”, all of whom are left without internet after the shut down. As nations like Finland move to make broadband access a legal right, it is unfortunately clear that some powerful people still consider it a privilege and not a necessity.

Let this be a lesson to those who not only enjoy but depend on free Wi-Fi networks. Enjoy it while it lasts, because if Dennis the Menace down the block can’t wait for Transformers 3 to come out on DVD, you might be out a connection. [Via BoingBoing]

So says a new survey out of the U.K., anyway. [The Independent via Boing Boing]

Sharp, at the request of Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, has developed a method to ruin the camcorder footage shot by pirates in movie theatres. By placing mega IR lights behind the screen (which are invisible to the human eye, of course), the light can tunnel through tiny holes that are already in screens for the passage of sound.

The result is a wash of light protruding from the screen, ruining camcorder footage. The other result is that, while you’ll still never buy a ticket to Wolverine, you’ll never get to know how bad the movie really was until, hungover on the couch one afternoon, you catch it on TV or something. [Fareastgizmos]

Note: Unfortunately, the IR blast won’t look nearly as awesome as it does in this photo. I imagine a lame grid of lights, not a reworking by JJ Abrams.

It kind of sucks that even a monitoring app got banned. But, according to Apple:

…this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.

So no torrent apps, at all, period. Right then.

Instructions on how to install µMonitor on a Jailbroken iPhone can be found here: [µMonitor via TorrentFreak]

With two major torrent sites all but snuffed out in the last few weeks, there are only a few decent alternatives left. Although if you’re of a hardier type, there’s always Usenet. [Torrentfreak]

*Spoiler: It’s B.

Even though large parts of Internets and many old and famous trackers have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Ifpi and all the odious apparatus of MPAA rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France…[Full version]

You can’t really blame the ISP. Yesterday’s rulings meant it faced $US70,600 in fines if it didn’t yank the cord.

And what of Swedish software outfit Global Gaming Factor? It votes this Thursday on whether or not to go ahead with its Pirate Bay buy out. But between all this, and its chairman stepping down, will it still go ahead with plans for a legal version?

If you’re looking for help to get your torrent on in the meantime, check out the Pirate Bay clone, or our favourite 5 Pirate Bay BitTorrent Alternatives.

A few days ago, amidst talk of how a new, improved, crowd-powered Pirate Bay would work should the sale go through, the trading of Global Gaming Factory shares on the Swedish Aktietorget exchange was frozen. Why? Its administrators found out that the CEO owes quite a few people quite of bit of money, including the government, for taxes. Today, the company’s chairman has stepped down for no obvious reason, and the stock exchange has said that they’re going to keep a freeze on stock trading until they figure out what on earth is going on. Something strange is a good guess!

What does this mean for the Pirate Bay? Well, GGF’s debt-ridden CEO has previously said that the deal to purchase the torrent site—which, remember, hasn’t actually happened yet—would be “rubber stamped” by shareholders by Thursday. That date is pretty much out of the question now and the whole plan is starting to look like it was doomed from the start. So what was the point? Was it some kind of weird share-inflating publicity stunt? An intentional distraction? An earnest bid to buy an illegal filesharing site, by idiots? As much as I like the last one, I don’t think that’s it. [TheLocal via Slashdot]

• Child abduction: Fine of $US25,000 and up to three years in prison, which can be accounted as $US50,233 per year (that was the median household income in 2007, probably down because of the economic crisis). Total: $US175,699.

• Steal the CDs: A total of $US275,000, counting up to five years in prison and the $US52,500 fine per CD.

• Steal a lawnmower from your neighbour: A total of $US375,000.

• Burn someone’s house while playing The Doors: Another $US375,000.

• Stalk a Gizmodo editor (yes, you know who you are): Class 4 felony that will result in just $US175,000.

• Start a dogfighting ring: $US50,000.

• Murder someone on the second degree, a Class 1 felony: $US778,495, which accounts for a $US25,000 fine and four to 15 years in prison.

Heck, you can do all these crimes, and the total amount will be only $US2.2 million. Of course, you can’t really quantify years spent in prison, but the case of Jammie—and many like hers—is absolutely outrageous.

Now, Ms Thomas got fined $US1.92 million for downloading 1700 songs. For some reason, a popular jury thought that was fair. That’s OK—there are mentally disturbed people everywhere. But I don’t care if it’s 1700 or 6000 songs, nobody can be punished like this. It may follow a draconian law to the last comma and period, but that doesn’t make the verdict just. The law is what is at fault here, with a punishment that is not proportional to the magnitude of the “crime”, and goes against the most basic sense of justice.

I know that el Señor Presidente has more serious issues to worry about than this case, but something needs to be done about it. Something drastic.

But then again, I’m not surprised, given the “class” of people now at the Department of Justice:

What a crying shame. [Gapers Block]

The anonymous uploader who compiled this huge torrent told TorrentFreak that he wanted to have a backup of the site in case all torrents mysteriously disappear after the site is sold. “I suppose I want us to have assurances. If the TPB deal disappoints us, we can just put it up again,” he said.

Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay is also hosting what it calls “the $US675,000 mixtape” — a collection of the 30 songs named after the amount that student Joel Tenenbaum was fined after being found guilty of file sharing.

[Pirate Bay via TorrentFreak — Thanks Mark!]