The European Digital Rights organization is joining calls to annul the European directive on data retention. The group, along with 42 civil liberties non-governmental organizations say the data retention policy directive is illegal on material grounds. The European Digital Rights (EDRi) organization signed an amicus curiae brief which was started by the German non-governmental organization [...]

The Phorm storm may be taking place far away, but few are aware of a similar storm brewing in the United States. Should advertising have the ability to track online users? The FTC seems skeptical about the proposition. A recent posting on the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic official website says that they [...]

After a long hiatus, one of the BitTorrent community’s most beloved tracker sites rises back from the dead. Earlier today I reported how Deimos, the Admin of the BitTorrent tracker site Demonoid.com, had stepped aside to address “real-world issues.” In a blog posting on the SubDemon forums he also cryptically mentioned that we “…all, in [...]

Deimos leaves the BitTorrent tracker site to address “real-world” issues and says we will hear about the site’s future very soon. It’s been a little over five months now that the venerable Demonoid BitTorrent tracker site closed down thanks to pressure from the Canadian Recording Industry Association(CRIA). Since then it has been fondly missed since [...]

Claims that CD and download sales through its partnership with Amazon has increased by 119%. Back in January I wrote about how Last.FM had changed to begin offering music streaming on-demand instead of by keyword or genre. Up to three times a day users of the site are allowed to listen to a specific track [...]

French users who use Internet Service Provider “Free” recently found out that their ISP was ordered by the court to suspend access to 39 newsgroups. The order came after a complaint by the major record label organization operating in France known as the SCPP. Usenet may be the oldest and most widely popular traditional ways [...]

Slim majority votes for amendment to eliminate the the "three-strikes-and-your-out" policy that would have permanently disconnected accused file-sharers from the internet. Today the European Parliament rejected attempts to criminalize file-sharing by a slim majority vote. Some 314 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) cast their votes in favor of an amendment to the Report on [...]

Ray Beckerman of gives an interview in which he talks about the RIAA’s bullying tactics, its future, and how he came to be involved in standing up to them in the first place. Ray Beckerman is an attorney in New York City, a partner in the firm of Vandenberg & Feliu, LLP. He is noted [...]

$8 billion dollar state budget deficit has made a legislator call for consumers to pay a sales tax when purchasing music and movies online. Here in California – aka “The Left Coast” – we seem to have penchant for nutty and outlandish ideas. Sometimes we have good ones, medical marijuana and a ban on smoking [...]

Takes into account not just illegal file-sharing, but also illegal copying of music with family and friends, finding that 95% of 18-24yos engaged in some sort of illegal “home copying”. British Music Rights (BMR), is an umbrella organization that lobbies on behalf of composers, songwriters and music publishers. It’s a team of composed of legal, [...]

Spells out what a good collective music licensing plan would entail versus a mandatory fee collected by ISPs. The argument is no longer about whether or not the industry should compete with pirates or fight them, but how exactly the labels should compete. A few weeks ago Warner Music Group hired music industry veteran Jim [...]

There were tense moments in Europe regarding ISPs disconnecting users for filesharing. Now, making a three strike and your out rule mandatory throughout Europe was recently struck down and replaced with an amendment that could bar ISPs from disconnecting p2p users from the internet. Back in January, ZeroPaid reported on the European Union proposing that [...]

Allows victims of crimes to sue those who produce, publish or distribute written, audio, video or digital material that is considered “dangerous” or “obscene” and is believed to have been a cause of the attack. Arizona is the latest battleground between free speech advocates and those determined to hold accountable people who make produce movies [...]

In a bold move, the IFPI has announced that the organization is suing major search engine Baidu. A Chinese court has agreed to hear the $9 million USD lawsuit. Wikipedia describes Baidu as, “the leading Chinese search engine that can search websites, audio files, and images. It also has an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia (Baidu Baike), [...]

Research institute creates a BitTorrent-like transfer between your machine and its server, and determines whether or not your ISP is limiting such traffic. By now surely everyone is aware of how Comcast had been throttling BitTorrent connection speeds as part of its network traffic management program. It was only recently that it announced in a [...]

However, music tracks on new "PLAY" service will have DRM and expire 30 days after cancellation of internet subscription. TDC, the former Danish state telco, has announced that it’s offering their broadband and mobile customers unlimited free music – for no extra cost. The company sees it as a way to retain and attract customers [...]

An interesting technical analysis of the controversial Phorm technology has been released recently. It offers an informative look into the technology that is currently being rolled out for ISPs. Imagine every bit of information you receive being analyzed before it even reached it’s intended destination. It’s a thought that helped caused an uproar in the [...]

The Canadian Lawful Access debate was about as cold as the snow still lingering in the far north; but like the snow in some parts in Canada, the debate is now thawing with a new report surfacing over the latest moves. Lawful Access may be something that some have long forgotten about. In a sense, [...]

Rejects demands from the entertainment industry that it begin disconnecting customers suspected of illegal file-sharing. There’s a war brewing in the UK between ISPs and the music and film industries over demands that they begin disconnecting customers suspected of illegal file-sharing. A recent press release from TalkTalk, the home phone and broadband company from The [...]

ThePirateBay was celebrating April 1st with their own practical joke this year. Earlier, they blogged that a copyright law change forced them to move to Sinai Egypt. Of course, it was all an April Fools gag. A day later, they blogged about how it was all just a practical joke. April 1st can be a [...]