STAR World, a prominent English language television channel in India owned by News Corp, has just announced a brand new programming segment. Interestingly, it is named after the country’s most popular torrent search engine, Torrentz. With ‘Torrentz’, which will air The Good Guys, The Walking Dead and Detroit 1-8-7, the TV-channel hopes to offer a convenient alternative to ever increasing BitTorrent use in India.
January is the month when the Brazilian version of the popular TV show Big Brother returns to the air. For three months, a bunch of people are locked inside a house and their lives are broadcast 24/7. A TV show premised on nonstop surveillance might so…
The owner of a file-sharing site active more than 5 years ago went on trial today in the French capital, Paris. Vincent Valade is accused by entertainment companies of profiting heavily from the unauthorized distribution of more than 7,000 movies. If convicted he faces up to 3 years in jail, 300,000 euros in fines and compensation settlements running to millions of euros.
The Free Press has revamped Biz Monday. Welcome to new columnists Gerry Macartney who will write about business and politics, and Andrea Halwa who will write about business and the arts. Columns will now run bi-weekly instead of weekly, including my column, and Allison Graham’s column. Another new addition will be a full page spread on [...]
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, ‘The Green Hornet’ tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Unstoppable’. ‘The King’s Speech’ completes the top three.
The avalanche of copyright infringement lawsuits in the United States, mainly against BitTorrent users, are about to hit a dubious milestone. In total 99,924 defendants have been sued in the last 12 months, and new cases are being filed at a rapid rate. Adult companies in particular have embraced the profitable pay-up-or-else scheme where tens of millions of dollars are at stake.
The war on piracy had simmered at a relatively low-level for many years, but with the advent of Napster and its predecessors it was inevitable that the entertainment industries would respond violently. But with that force comes the backlash and a hatred for those who would take everyone’s freedoms, especially online, to protect a business model. As a result, the vast majority of file-sharers get caught in the crossfire, between two parties who will always be at war. But peace can be found.
EFF has uncovered widespread violations stemming from FBI intelligence investigations from 2001 – 2008. In a report released today, EFF documents alarming trends in the Bureau’s intelligence investigation practices, suggesting that FBI intelligence i…
Two days ago it was reported that the MPAA had shut down 12 sites in the United States. In addition to these actions an additional 39 torrents sites were pulled offline in The Netherlands based on a MPAA tip-off. Although none of the sites have been named officially, TorrentFreak has learned that the file-sharing community DarksideRG was one of the casualties.
This is the start of something new. Not just a New Year, but here at ACLU.org we have some new and exciting programs launching, and more coming up in the near future. Starting this week, we’ll showcase the hot issues from the last seven days. …