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Porn-trolling Prenda lawyers slammed by federal judge
- In a satisfying case of justice well served, US District Judge Otis Wright made it definitively clear what the Internet has for months decried in comment boxes everywhere: porn-trolling, litigation-happy copyright law firm Prenda Law are a bunch of crooks.…
Phone-unlocking petition author launches "Fix the DMCA" campaign
- Sina Khanifar, co-found of OpenSignal, has launched a campaign to "fix" the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Interestingly, Khanifar is also the same person who authored a recent petition to legalize cellphone unlocking. His "We the People" submission was subsequently blessed…
Apple loses iPhone naming rights in Brazil (update)
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The Brazilian Institute of Industrial Property has ruled that Apple does not hold exclusive rights to the "iPhone" trademark in the country. According to the BBC, the decision only applies to handset devices, and won’t prevent Apple from marketing its popular smartphone under the iPhone brand unless IGB Electronica exercises its option of suing for exclusive control over the trademark.
Watch this: TPB AFK, The Pirate Bay documentary is out
- The Pirate Bay documentary TPB AFK premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival today after four years in the making. The film, directed by Swedish filmmaker Simon Klose and partially funded by Kickstarter, chronicles the site’s three founders during their…
Antigua preparing to lauch website to sell media sans copyright fees
- The small island nation of Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean is planning to launch a website that will sell music, movies and even software without paying copyright holder fees. The whole idea stems from a United States blockade preventing…
Google ends copyright dispute with Belgian newspapers
- Google has settled a long-running dispute with Belgian newspapers over copyright complaints. The case dates back to 2006 when a group of publishers sued Google claiming the use of headlines and snippets of Belgian newspaper articles in Google New amounted…
Police raid targets 9-year-old pirate, Winnie the Pooh laptop seized
- The fight against online piracy reached new levels of absurdity after the Copyright Information And Anti-Piracy Centre (CIAPC) in Finland cracked down on a 9-year-old suspected pirate and had the police seize her Winnie the Pooh laptop. Her crime was…
French court convicts first internet user over Hadopi anti-piracy law
- A French court has ordered a man to pay €150 for breaking the country’s controversial three-strike anti-piracy law, Hadopi, despite his soon to be ex-wife testifying under oath that she was responsible for downloading the two pirated songs in question. …
'Six Strikes' piracy warning system headed to the US this year
- Internet providers in the US are moving closer to launching a planned “six strikes” antipiracy program that would impose progressive warnings followed by penalties for those found violating copyright infringement laws on the web. The program is said to somewhat…
Ubisoft scraps always-on DRM, favors one-time activation
- In an interview with RPS, Ubisoft worldwide games director Stephanie Perotti divulged that the company is dropping its infamous always-on DRM strategy. In fact, Ubisoft already quietly euthanized the program a few months ago -- probably following the From Dust…
Site owner gets 4 years in prison for unauthorized video sharing
- Surfthechannel.com owner Anton Vickerman has landed himself a stiff four-year prison sentence after running a website which hosted links to unauthorized video content. That's substantially less than the maximum of 10 years he faced, but almost certainly more than he…
Judge rules that embedding copyright-infringing video is not illegal
- Judge Richard Posner of the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that embedding a copyright-infringing video on another website is not illegal. The decision overturns a 2011 preliminary injunction from a lower court following a lawsuit from Flava…
New Zealand's three-strikes law reportedly halved movie piracy
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Online piracy has been drastically reduced in New Zealand since the introduction of a graduation response system last year, according to the entertainment industry. The nation passed a three-strikes law (dubbed "Skynet") last April that works similar to France's policy...
Man fined $7,000 for sharing 'WordPress for Dummies' via BitTorrent
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Robert Carpenter of Poughkeepsie, New York has been ordered to pay $7,000 in damages for sharing a copy of "WordPress All-in-One For Dummies" on BitTorrent. Carpenter was part of a mass filing by publisher John Wiley & Sons last October that included 27 John Does...
Microsoft deploys takedown notices to those hosting Xbox 720 roadmap
- A 56-page PowerPoint file supposedly containing plans for Microsoft’s next generation gaming console was posted on Scribd last weekend. The file has since found a home on multiple hosting services and websites but that run could be short-lived as Microsoft’s…
Google Transparency Report reveals global political censorship trend
- Google blogged Sunday that it continues to be regularly disheartened by a portion of the removal requests it receives, requests which appear to promote "alarming" types of censorship. Political speech, in particular, is a growing request pegged for removal by…
Comcast refuses IP lookups, calls anti-piracy case a 'shake down'
- Comcast may be complicating the lives of copyright holders everywhere by rejecting recent requests made to link subscriber information to IP addresses. In an ongoing legal kerfuffle with AF Holdings, adult film publisher and plaintiff, Comcast requested an Illinois district…
Germany increases tax on flash storage by roughly 2,000%
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Germans can expect to pay a hefty premium on USB drives and memory cares as the nation raises taxes on flash storage by roughly 2,000%, according to Heise Online (translated). ZPÜ, the office tasked with setting levies against blank media, has reportedly increased the taxes...
Google infringed Oracle's Java copyrights, jury still undecided on 'fair use' argument
- The jury in the ongoing Oracle vs. Google trial returned a partial verdict yesterday, concluding that the internet search giant did breach the copyright of Oracle's Java programming language, but were unable to agree on whether the Android mobile OS' usage…
Apple awarded patent for look and feel of iTunes store
- After nearly 8 years of waiting, the USPTO has granted Apple a patent which aims to protect their iTunes Store interface. The patent covers the look and feel of the store, including how users browse, search for and purchase content…
Google strikes Paramount deal, adds 500 films to YouTube, Google Play
- YouTube has announced a content deal with Paramount which will provide access to nearly 500 new flicks. Google Play, formerly known as the Android Market, will also enjoy the additional content thanks to the new agreement. While what movies will…
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