The Copyright Alert System was conceived all the way back in 2011 as a new way to deal with seemingly unstoppable online piracy. It finally goes into effect today, and it will impact a huge portion of US Internet users. Sounds scary, but what is it, exactly? And what does it mean for you? More »
Google offered an olive branch to content producers when it promised to downrank pirate sites in its search results last summer. Really, the RIAA was looking for the whole tree; it just published a report claiming that Google’s technique hasn’t had any tangible impact. The agency argues that the millions of takedown requests didn’t lead to “significant” drops in rank for habitual violators. It further contends that many legitimate music sites only showed up in the top ten for about half of the searches, and were often kicked down the ladder by their bootleg counterparts. We’re reaching out to Google to get its side of the story, but the RIAA isn’t quite as patient: it’s demanding that Google “immediately” change the results and volunteers its help. While that’s a step forward from the music group’s previous accusatory stance, it doesn’t quite represent a two-way conversation on anti-piracy measures.
Via: The Verge
Source: RIAA
Google currently allows copyright holders to request a takedown from the search giant’s search results, but they only allow 10,000 URL requests per day, which just isn’t enough for some copyright holders nowadays, and they’re fighting with Google to raise the limit to 40,000 requests per day, which is supposedly enough for companies to request without reaching a cap.
Specifically, the Hollywood-funded anti-piracy organization BREIN and the RIAA, which both represent a handful of media companies, wants to increase the daily DMCA cap to 40,000, but wants to eventually remove the cap altogether at some point. Google has seen a huge spike in takedown requests recently, and it’s large enough amount that Google is worried that it violates freedom of speech, but copyright holders say they are just looking out for their businesses.
However, it doesn’t look like Google will budge on its set daily limit. The company says it can’t increase the limit because it may cause technical problems due to unexpected peaks in server performance. However, the RIAA isn’t having none of that, and has said that Google has the resources to increase the limit. They also say that Google’s number of allowed requests per day is “minuscule.”
Copyright holders are afraid that if Google doesn’t lift the limit of daily takedown requests, they fear that they will be unable to keep up with the numerous links (in the hundreds of thousands) that are added to Google search results every day. However, Google notes that BREIN is currently only sending under 5,000 takedown requests per day, far below the current 10,000 request limit. Then again, this certainly won’t be the last that we hear from the RIAA and BREIN, so get out the popcorn and stay tuned.
[via TorrentFreak]
Google under attack by anti-piracy groups over DMCA takedown limits is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Google is looking into a new strategy for cracking down on piracy sites: cutting off the sources of their funding so they’ll wither and die. More »
Google is looking into a new strategy for cracking down on piracy sites: cutting off the sources of their funding so they’ll wither and die. More »
You read that right. The Pirate Bay is the one doing the suing over copyright infringement this time. Even more hilariously, The Pirate Bay says it will sue CIAPC, an anti-piracy group, for copyright infringement. The Pirate Bay is completely serious! It has already asked the policy to investigate its claim that CIAPC has copied The Pirate Bay. More »
Kim Dotcom’s Mega has been marching on into the future, so far without any sort of considerable pestering from one pesky United States government. In the meantime, Dotcom’s been doing his best to beef the service up, offering cash money to anyone who can strengthen its encryption. And now Mega is taking Bitcoin. Because of course. More »
Everybody’s got their grand plans to put an end to piracy. Cable providers are instituting 6-strikes policies against alleged infringers, and the FBI, they like to take down sites like MegaUpload. But that doesn’t mean they don’t torrent, themselves. TorrentFreak dug up a little list of what’s been being pirated from FBI IPs. More »
Fittingly, The Pirate Bay documentary TPB AFK (which stands for The Pirate Bay—Away From Keyboard) is available to watch online for free. It’s not piracy though! The filmmakers put it on YouTube, made it available on The Pirate Bay for torrenters and has offered it as a digital download too. Makes total sense, right? You can watch the entire thing right here. More »
This weekend the documentary TPB AFK has gone live: start to finish a free download, entirely appropriate given the subject matter. This documentary covers none other than the rise and current operation of The Pirate Bay, the world’s most popular online file-sharing service. This documentary has been four years in the making and makes its mark right at the outset as the first film ever to be premiered at a major motion picture festival and offered as a digital download at the same time – and again, it’s totally free.
The film TPB AFK follows the three founders of the “TPB” (aka The Pirate Bay) as they discuss the beginnings of the site through the recent trials they each went through in Sweden. It’s Swedish producer and filmmaker Simon Klose that covers this major era in the history of The Pirate Bay’s history as both an epic series of events for the company and the world. It’s here that long-lasting internet-related bills and laws are being decided – no joke!
The premiere on the web exists right alongside the first viewing many users will have during the Berlin Film Festival in Germany. As will be made clear to you in viewing the documentary, it’s not just a peaches-and-cream team effort from start to finish – it’s as much an exploration of the way these founders went about their business as it is a telling of the story of the site’s goings-on. In the end, according to founder Peter Sunde, it was “Simon’s decision what to include and it’s his view of our story.” And not a bit of objectivism was left in the world.
Click the above thumbnail for a full-sized movie poster that you’ll be able to use for your smartphone or tablet wallpaper right this minute!
Sunde went on to note, according to Torrent Freak, that “I like that he’s independent from us and that he’s promised to release lots of extra material for some of the things that I might have wanted to have included.” So you’ll be wise to expect an “extended cut” in the future if not a B-Roll offering in the near future. By the general rules of our modern web, someone’s bound to release the full collection at some point – it’s just a matter of time.
You’ll be able to download the official TPB AFK film from Simon Klose’s own Pirate Bay account immediately if not soon. At the moment there are three different versions available, each of them the same cut at different quality video sizes. Let us know if you plan on popping in some popcorn and sitting down for a spell tonight!
Weekend watching: TPB AFK “Pirate Bay Documentary” download live! is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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