Respondents in both the US and UK admitted to making unauthorized copies of DVDs in the last 6 months, up from just over a quarter of respondents in 2007. The second annual study by Furturesource Consulting, a research and analysis firm, called “Consumer Home Piracy Research Findings,” once again surveyed respondents in both the US [...]

The US constitution, particularly in the eyes of digital rights activists, has been dealt with a major blow today. The FISA bill with amendments that would grant telecom immunity to ISPs that participated in a warrantless wiretapping program with the current administration has recently passed the senate and now awaits the presidents signature. There was [...]

“Piracy at the Pictures: Do the Figures Add Up?” examines film industry figures and the reality of their claims. Today the Pirate Party of the United States released the initial findings from it’s first study, entitled “Piracy at the Pictures: Do the Figures Add Up?,” that examines film industry figures and the reality of their [...]

The popular BitTorrent tracker site adds new features and functions that further set it apart from all the others. Mininova has introduced several cool and useful new features for BitTorrent users to enjoy. The first is personal bookmarks that of course lets you save torrents for later browsing and downloading. The second is remote downloading, [...]

Even though he was employed by them during his ENTIRE investigation of the The Pirate Bay BitTorrent tracker site, prosecutor decides to drop the investigation BEFORE it even begins. A few months back I mentioned how Jim Keyzer, the Chief police investigator in the preliminary investigation against The Pirate Bay, and a key witness in [...]

Investment firm employee shared more than he bargained for, including the names, dates, and social security numbers of some 2,000 of the firm’s clients with others using the popular file-sharing program. Everybody with the even the faintest knowledge of file-sharing programs and networks knows that although sharing content is integral for the health of a [...]

Things haven’t been going well lately for the scene in France. Four members of the French cam group were recently arrested over the release of a movie called Welcome to the Ch’tis. Late last month, three members of French release group CiNEFOX were arrested. Now comes word that four members of cam release group CaRNaGe [...]

Masters thesis examines proposals to allow P2P in exchange for a monthly fee that ISPs would collect and make available to copyright holders based on individual artists’ download rates. Matt Earp and Andrew McDiarmid, recent graduates of the UC Berkeley School of Information, have written an interesting masters thesis in which they construct a “working [...]

A French Court of Appeals judge looked at the convictions of two file-sharers and canceled the rulings because the IP addresses were illegally obtained. The news very likely comes as a major blow to the French record labels and employed anti-piracy outfits. France has been in the headlines for a while over the “Three Strike” [...]

The copyright reform debate in Canada has a new twist – and it comes from the party that wants to separate Quebec from Canada. Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe answered a concerned Canadian’s letter over bill C-61 with what his stance is. It may highlight what could be something that would send chills down the spines [...]

Head of the regulatory body for UK communications industries hopes for a “commercial or voluntary agreement,” but also suggests that more drastic action could be taken to “resolve these difficult issues.” Ed Richards, current head of the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom), which was established by the Office of Communications Act 2002 to be the [...]

Ruling comes after a protracted legal battle between the web hosting company LeaseWeb, and the local Anti-piracy group BREIN. . Last year, BREIN stepped up its attacks against Dutch-based BitTorrent websites. BREIN won an injunction against LeaseWeb, compelling the company to divulge the personal information of those running the site Everlasting.nl. A Dutch court sided [...]

ISP responds to growing complaints by broadband subscribers upset over its partnership with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). About a month ago I discussed how Virgin Media and the British Phonographic Industry(BPI) announced a new "education campaign" that seeks to "…help Virgin Media’s broadband customers safely download music from the internet and avoid the risk [...]

Iayn Dobsyn decided to download an episode of “Prison Break” using a mobile broadband card plugged into his laptop computer. Anyone who has used their cellphone abroad may have already experienced just how high roaming charges can get.  But, when it comes to using a mobile data package abroad, many people don’t realize just how [...]

An new European-wide package for ISPs has been discussed before, but new amendments could turn European Internet Service Providers into copyright police. Perhaps the only good news out of this is that network neutrality activism may get a new boost in Europe. The disturbing report comes right out of todays posting on EDRI.org, a European [...]

Approves use of DreamStream and its 2048-bit “military strength” anti-piracy encryption technology to protect content streamed to viewers online. The MPAA has taken an additional step to prevent pirates from copying digital streams of online content with news that it has approved the use of Dreamstream, a 2048-bit “military strength” encryption technology. “We are very [...]

BitTorrent tracker site helps college students battle high-priced textbooks. There’s a cool BitTorrent tracker site I heard about yesterday called Textbook Torrents that offers almost 6,000 different college textbooks for download in the .PDF format. “There are very few scanned textbooks in circulation, and that’s what we’re here to change,” says a welcome message on [...]

For those savvy enough to have switched over to Linux, this step-by-step guide will prove once again that Linux really does offer users almost complete control over their OS. It’s no secret that Comcast and other ISPs are actively throttling BitTorrent, but how to circumvent the practice is always subject to debate. Some find protocol [...]

To say that the new FRA law in Sweden is controversial is really an understatement at this point. New reports have surfaced that say how not only MPs of the Swedish government are currently being bombarded by a huge flood of e-mail over the new law, but now an investigation by the Chancellor of Justice [...]