Tag: PIRACY

Cash-strapped record labels are undoubtedly rejoicing today, now that LimeWire has officially shut down its peer-to-peer filesharing client. As All Things Digital explains, the move comes in response to a federal court injunction that requires the company to shut down "the searching, downloading, uploading, file trading and/or file distribution functionality, and/or all functionality" of its core ...

One would think that the first place the Pirate Party would go to avoid the authorities would be international waters, but the copyright-flouting movement is thinking of ditching the sea for the clouds. According to Forbes's Andy Greenberg, the Pirate Party has announced its intention to launch a server via weather balloon in order to escape any legislation threatening its operation on the Earth's ...

There are very few things this writer loves about France, but here are two: government-subsidized healthcare, and, now, government-subsidized music. That's right, the country of Debussy and Gainsbourg will now (partially) pay for its young citizens' digital music. As the BBC reports, the new program is aimed at encouraging French youth to get in the habit of actually paying for music. From now ...

Copyright law doesn't just pose a threat to file sharers and pirates. According to the Library of Congress, it may very well kill audio archiving, as well. In a recently published study, the Library of Congress concluded that current copyright law poses a formidable threat to music archivers, who must now work around strict regulations that the Library deems "restrictive and anachronistic" in ...

The London law firm ACS:Law has made a concerted effort to fight online piracy and punish illegal file-sharers. Andrew Crossley, the U.K. firm's manager, learned an agonizing lesson in humility this week, though, after agitating the Web's most infamous and dangerous group of pirate guerrillas. After his company's website endured an attack by 4chan renegades, a dismissive Crossley reportedly ...

On Tuesday, a so-called "master key" crack required to unlock the high-definition, copy-protection (HDCP) codes encrypted on Blu-ray discs began worming its way around the Internet. While many initially doubted the legitimacy of the key, Intel has now confirmed that it is indeed real, effectively declaring open season on Blu-ray copying. "We have tested this published material that was on the ...

Microsoft's pursuit of pirates (the software ones, not the eye-patch and parrot ones) has the company wrapped up in a bit of controversy in Russia. Kremlin authorities are allegedly using piracy investigations as a cover for seizing computers and other materials from political dissidents and news organizations critical of the government. According to a September 11th report from the New York ...

Share We get a big kick out of picking on the RIAA here at Switched. And with good reason. There are few organizations out there as openly hostile to its customers as this front for the recording industry. When the group isn't busy suing file sharers, it's spreading propaganda and pressuring Congress and universities to crack down on piracy. While we don't approve of illegal activity, the RIAA ...

Back in November, a moviegoer in Illinois was arrested and sent to jail for two days, after being caught trying to videotape segments of the latest 'Twilight' film on her digital camera. According to her team of lawyers, though, the movie theater is to blame for the entire thing. The 22-year-old woman has now filed suit against the movie theater, claiming that the manager at the Muvico ...

The halcyon days of freewheelin' file-sharing may be drawing to a quiet close today at universities across the country. As CNET reports, yesterday marked the final deadline for colleges receiving Title IV federal aid to comply with the anti-piracy measures outlined in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008. The act covers a broad range of issues pertaining to higher education, but ...

Readers, this is a sad, sad day for those of you who think movie piracy isn't such a bad thing. Yesterday, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, along with officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, disabled nine domains of websites that had been offering pirated films and TV shows. The crackdown spanned New York, New Jersey, Washington, North Carolina and even the ...

For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government has a coordinated strategy for protecting the intellectual property of American companies both here and abroad. The Department of Justice and the FBI will be working closely to enact 30 recommendations put together by the Obama administration, including closely monitoring foreign websites, especially in China, for pirated American music, ...

In March, 'The Hurt Locker' became the lowest-grossing film to take home Best Picture honors at the Oscars. A few months later, in an apparent attempt to shore up their balance sheet, the producers behind the film promised to file as many as tens of thousands of lawsuits against people accused of illegally downloading the movie. Now, Voltage Pictures has finally provided a little bite to back up ...

Share Warner Bros. is notorious for its attempts to squash piracy, which have included suing popular music search sites and hiring interns whose sole purpose is to find pirated content and issue takedown notices. The company also began embedding each film distributed to theaters and critics with a unique identifier, so that Warner could trace leaked and pirated movies back to their source. But, ...

Some began as a hobby, but now, many of the websites that publish song lyrics bring in serious revenue. For example, Metrolyrics.com, which is owned by 24-year-old Milun Tesovic, hauled in about $10 million last year. According to The New York Times, songwriters and music publishers are now grappling with how to grab their share of these profits. However, it's not easy for them to collect ...