The Pirate Bay has been hit with yet another blow after an Irish court has ordered six internet service providers in the country to block access to The Pirate Bay. The court order was sparked by complaints from four music labels that the file-sharing website was hosting copyrighted content. The music labels claim that ISPs
Pirate Bay, a file-sharing oriented site, has been the object of an Irish court order which requires six local Internet Service Providers (ISP) to block it on their networks. This was reported by the IrishTimes which adds that about 200,000 […]
Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It Original content from Ubergizmo. 
     |
It’s been quite the journey for Mega founder Kim Dotcom, but it seems like things are slowly coming to a conclusion. The High Court of New Zealand has ordered the FBI to return confiscated hard drives that were taken from Dotcom’s home when it was initially raided last year. They have also ordered the US government to destroy all copies that they might have archived.
Essentially, the FBI messed up pretty badly, and so did New Zealand authorities when they raided Dotcom’s mansion. It’s said that they seized all sorts of stuff that actually had nothing to do with the reason that Dotcom’s house was being raided, which is illegal, but the New Zealand police cloned the hard drives anyways and gave them to the FBI.
New Zealand authorities are now required to go through all of the illegally-seized evidence and determine what is actually relevant to the ongoing trial and return any evidence that isn’t pertinent to Dotcom. However, we’re not sure how all of that will be enforced, so as far as we know, there’s no way to tell if all irrelevant evidence will be returned.
This is another win for Kim Dotcom and his legal team, and essentially a mark in the loss column for the New Zealand government. Dotcom is best known for launching Megaupload, which is a file-sharing site that was eventually shut down by the government because it hosted copyrighted content.
After the shutdown of Megaupload, Dotcom launched a similar service called Mega, but claimed it was completely legal this time around, thinking that he wouldn’t have to deal with anymore legal scrutiny. However, his new file-sharing service is receiving criticism and anti-piracy advocates are wanting to shut down Mega for hosting copyrighted material yet again.
SOURCE: TorrentFreak
FBI ordered to return confiscated hard drives to Kim Dotcom is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
We knew it would end up getting criticism from the start, but Kim Dotcom’s recently-launched Mega website is getting the stink-eye from movie studios in Hollywood. While Dotcom claims that his new service is completely legal, studios like NBC Universal and Warner Bros. think the contrary, and have asked Google to take down the website from search results.
Both movie studios have sent DMCA takedown notices to Google, saying that their copyrighted content is hosted on Mega and they want it taken down. Of course, Google receives takedown notices all the time, so this kind of thing is nothing new, but the fact that Mega’s founder is confident of the service’s legality has him up in arms with movie studios.
NBC Universal and Warner Bros. have asked Google to de-list the Mega.co.nz homepage from Google, but the homepage itself actually doesn’t include any links to files, making it a bit of a strange request. However, this could simply mean that the studios want the homepage, as well as all subdirectories to be removed.
Dotcom is aware of the takedown notices sent from these two movie studios, and he doesn’t agree with them one bit, saying that “the constant abuse of takedown rules and the ignorance of DMCA obligations by the content industry are based on the confidence that the current US administration is protecting this kind of behavior.” He also says that a takedown notice for Mega would be “the ultimate takedown by the content industry.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time that Dotcom has been put through this kind of abuse. Before he launched Mega, he ran Megaupload, which was eventually shut down due to the service hosting copyrighted content. He even had his house raided by police and federal officials, before he eventually was able to get back on his feet and launch Mega, which many anti-piracy advocates suggest is just exactly like Megaupload with a different name.
VIA: TorrentFreak
SOURCE: Chilling Effects (1), (2)
Mega under Hollywood fire: Google tapped to block search results is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Android‘s problem with app piracy remains a key issue for developers, anecdotal figures suggest, with rates of stolen Android software outnumbering their iOS counterparts almost 14:1. Towelfight 2 and Quadropus Rampage devs Butterscotch Shenanigans saw 34,091 pirated copies of their first game on Android, vastly outnumbering the 2,438 pirated copies on iOS, with 95-percent of users of Google’s OS hunting down an unofficial copy.
In contrast, only 5-percent of iOS users pirated Towelfight 2, Butterscotch revealed on the DroidGamers forums. On both platforms, the game was priced at $0.99; “these numbers are dwarfed by the size of an audience we could get with a free title” the developers suggest.
“While it’s great that the pirates are playing the game, and we’re happy for the exposure, they are operating “off the grid”. That is, our app rank doesn’t jump up in the app stores when a pirate downloads it, they can’t review it, and they tend not to contact us for support if something goes wrong with the game. They play the game in the shadows” Butterscotch Shenanigans
Although the statistics are from one game developer’s experience, and shouldn’t be extrapolated across the entire Android app industry, it’s not the first time we’ve seen Google’s platform criticized for how relatively straightforward it is to find and install unofficial apps. Last year, another developer made headlines by blaming “unbelievably high” piracy rates for being forced to drop the Android version of its game from $0.99 to the “freemium” model, where a free-to-download app is monetized with adverts.
That freemium switch is the approach Butterscotch will be taking with its newest title, the developer team says, with monetization “solely based” on in-app purchases. Progress within the game will be achievable both by beating goals and by paying for access, with cut to the price if partial-progress has already been made.
Attempts have been made to curtail Android piracy – last year, the US Department of Justice and FBI seized and shut down three app pirate sites for instance – but the more open nature of the Google Play store versus Apple’s App Store has meant circuitous routes to find and load titles without paying for them remains a key issue for the OS. Last month, one developer attempted to use irony to highlight the issues of stolen content, lacing a specially-leaked version of their dev-studio simulator game with inescapable failure through piracy, though many players didn’t appear to understand the message.
For Butterscotch, the initial piracy numbers were a tough lesson in how to monetize in different ways on different platforms. “We made a free game” the developers concluded, “we just didn’t know it at the time.”
95% Android game piracy experience highlights app theft challenge is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
BitTorrent has been moving its way up in the world as far as introducing new features and services, and today’s announcement goes right along with that. The company announced a new file format called Bundle, which will allow content creators to require users to pay or register an account before downloading the torrent.
Essentially, a Bundle consists of a couple of free pieces of content, whether it’d be a song, video, trailer, etc. However, in order to unlock more content within the Bundle, you have to pay (or at least submit an email address) for the bonuses to unlock. This could be a full-length album or a full movie where the trailer is the free part.
BitTorrent Bundle is in its alpha stages, so its way off from being a final product, but you can already try it out for yourself with the first Bundle being released today from BitTorrent, which is a promo for “Kaskade’s Freaks of Nature” DVD. In this case, the Bundle consists of a free song and trailer for the DVD, but if you submit your email address, it’ll unlock some sweet concert footage and “an exclusive digital tour booklet.”
Hopefully this move will make content creators less scared of BitTorrent and more willing to take advantage of the torrenting community. Plus, a method like this could cut down on piracy, as BitTorrent is actively seeking ways to come up with legal alternatives to prevent more people from illegally downloading content, and Bundles could be their saving grace.
BitTorrent introduces new file format for content creators is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
A few days ago, Netflix’s chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, claimed that there was a correlation between the piracy rate in a given region and the availability of Netflix in said region. He says that torrent traffic goes down whenever Netflix comes to town. However, BitTorrent has spoken on the matter and says that Sarandos is woefully ill-informed.
BitTorrent says that two of Sarandos’ statements are not true, the first being that the BitTorrent application is a synonym for internet piracy, and the second being that BitTorrent traffic drops when Netflix arrives in new markets around the world. BitTorrent says that neither of these statements is true.
BitTorrent says that it’s an excusable mistake to connect internet piracy with BitTorrent, but the company claims that it’s addressing the public’s concern with piracy. However, BitTorrent says that many companies use BitTorrent to “preserve terabytes of data,” including Facebook, Twitter, Blizzard, Eve Online, genetic researchers, and even CERN.
As for the piracy correlation that Sarandos mentioned, BitTorrent says that they are not competing with Netflix, and Netflix shouldn’t have to compete with BitTorrent. The company says that they are “actually finding ways to support companies like [Netflix], content creators, studios, and other rights-holders directly.” BitTorrent went as far as saying that they’re “getting ready to roll out an Alpha program” that they believe could drive more traffic to movie streaming services.
BitTorrent downplays Netflix’s claim of lower torrent traffic is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
If you’re a fan of science fiction books, odds are you’ve read something published by Tor Books. Tor is the largest publisher of science fiction content in the world. Last April the company decided to shed all digital rights management in its digital e-books. The move was met with concern from competitors that piracy would run rampant.
When the company ditched DRM, it said that DRM was preventing its buyers from using their legitimate purchases in perfectly legal ways. One of those perfectly legal ways that Tor said its readers were unable to use their books was in switching between different digital readers. The publisher has now offered up an update a year after it ditched DRM.
According to a company spokesman named Julie Crisp the company has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles.” You read that right, after having no DRM for a year the company says piracy hasn’t increased. Tor’s customers were very happy at the announcement that the company would remove any anti-piracy protections from its books.
Tor says that it’s authors were also very happy to sign up to have their books published without DRM. However, a letter the turned up from Hachette UK, another book publisher, said that the DRM free books from Tor would make it difficult for it to protect its own rights. In other words, Hachette feared it would be forced to follow suit with no DRM.
[via Arstechnica]
Shedding DRM hasn’t increased piracy says sci-fi publisher Tor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Media companies have been in a constant battle with piracy for several years now with no end in site. However, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos thinks that the best way to fight piracy isn’t through legislation or trying to catch people and throw them in jail, but rather to offer legal services that are reasonably priced.
Sarandos says that there is a correlation between Netflix launching in a certain country and BitTorrent traffic slowing down in that same region. It’s quite easy to see why, as well. Netflix offers unlimited streaming of a large collection of TV shows and movies for only $7.99 per month. Other streaming services, like Spotify and Rdio for music, also offer similar features for a low monthly cost.
Sarandos says that “people are mostly honest,” and a big reason why users illegally download content is because they can’t get it any other way conveniently and cheaply. For instance, you can buy and rent movies and TV shows from a variety of services, but they’re usually caked with DRM, which is a turn-off to any media junkie.
As for Netflix’s commitment to 4K streaming, there isn’t one just yet. Sarandos says that Netflix will wait until 4K evolves into a format where it can be streamed logically, at which point the company may look into it, but for now they’re only keeping their eye on it to see how 4K unfolds over these next few years.
Netflix: piracy rate goes down when we arrive is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
On February 25th, several United States ISPs got together and decided to launch the Copyright Alert System (CAS) in order to stop online piracy. With the CAS, ISPs would be able to detect when one of their users downloaded files illegally, and they would issue a warning to the user. The ISPs call it the “6 strikes” program, where the user would be warned up to 6 times, with each consecutive warning being more aggressive than the previous. Pirates from all around wanted to test out just how efficient the new CAS system was.
The pirates began testing out the Copyright Alert System shortly after it launched in late February. They proceeded to download many popular files illegally using Bittorrent and The Pirate Bay. They downloaded popular movies, TV shows, music albums, and even uploaded each file back into The Pirate Bay. These pirates made no attempts to mask their IPs and were intending to get caught.
But after quite a while, not a single warning was issued. Granted, these pirates were all using Verizon as their ISP, so we don’t really know just how efficient AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, or Cablevision’s system is. The pirates intentionally went after torrents that have been proven to trigger CAS alerts in countries like France and New Zealand, but apparently in the United States, they aren’t so heavily tracked.
The study lasted 3 weeks long, with the pirates downloading popular files and seeding them every day. But no warning was ever issued. A Verizon executive defended the company’s position, saying that despite the study performed by these pirates, they have been issuing copyright warnings frequently. While we know that Verizon’s Copyright Alert System needs a bit more tuning, we still don’t know yet how efficient the other ISPs are.
[via Daily Dot]
Pirates suggest Copyright Alert System inefficient with crowdsource tests is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
