Tag: MPAA

So listen to this, casual users of copied software: If you get caught violating U.S. copyright laws, by, say, copying and distributing songs and movies illegally, you could face up to 10 years in prison and pay a cool half-million dollar fine. Sounds frightening, right? Well, not to a some politicians who are supporting the "Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act ...

Turns out the prosecutor who recently got a 19-year-old girl to plead guilty of a misdemeanor crime for recording 20 seconds of 'Transformers' wasn't necessarily inclined to actually prosecute the case. While Jhannet Sejas admitted to recording the snippet, she obviously wasn't a movie pirate looking to sell it on a street corner. However, Richard E. Trodden did prosecute the case and reportedly ...

We were somewhat disturbed earlier this month to learn that a 19-year-old girl was charged with a misdemeanor crime for filming 20 seconds of 'Transformers' on her digital camera. She was shocked to find herself facing a $2,500 fine plus a year in prison for her crime, and, frankly, so were we. We are happy to report that she won't be seeing any jail time and her savings are safe. She did plead ...

Jhannet Sejas, a 19-year-old from Arlington, Virginia, did something she had no idea would get her in big trouble. When the ending for 'Transformers' was spinning up to its highest point, she took out her cell phone and recorded 20 seconds' of the movie which, according to Sejas, was to show to her little brother. Soon after, she was greeted by police, who promptly confiscated her phone. Sejas ...

These days you just can't go downloading illegal copies of movies from just anywhere. Oh no, you have to be careful. Case in point: MiiVii.com. The site, which existed for only a few days, enabled users to upload and download copyrighted films. It even offered a software client you could download to speed up those downloads. The best part? It was created and run by Media Defender, the muscley, ...

With all the cries of bloody murder coming out of the MPAA about people stealing movies online, it's easy to forget that folks haven't given up on stealing them old-fashioned way from off of store shelves. But, it appears those days may be drawing to a close. Two companies have recently joined forces to develop a new technology that will render ripped-off DVDs unplayable. The system, invented by ...

Since its inception in 2001, the BitTorrent method of file-sharing's high download speeds and near user anonymity has earned it the ire of record labels, movie studios and just about anyone else that owns any sort of intellectual property. But for the BitTorrent user, the need for a separate client program to connect with downloads (instead of a Web browser) had been in a pain in the ...