LibertyVoice

Following a hearing today at the High Court in New Zealand, Kim Dotcom was again denied bail. The Megaupload founder, who authorities insist will likely flee should he be released, told the court that he’d been kicked and punched by police during his arrest. Dotcom added that during his time in prison he had been approached not only by women wanting to be his friend, but by an expert document forger.

Source: Megaupload Founder Accuses Police of Assault, Denied Bail Again

A 28-year old man from Comstock Park, Michigan, has been arrested and charged with criminal copyright infringement. Yonjo Quiroa is the alleged operator of nine of the sixteen streaming related domain names that were seized a few hours ago as part of ‘Operation Fake Sweep’.

Source: Feds Arrest Streaming Site Operator for Copyright Infringement

In the wake of the Megaupload shutdown, authorities in Hong Kong say they will set up a center to investigate electronic crime and copyright infringement later this year. Although there has been no suggestion of wrong-doing, the news will almost certainly unsettle other cyberlocker services such as Filesonic, Uploading, Uploaded.to, Zshare and Filepost, all of which have a presence in the region.

Source: Megaupload: Hong Kong Mulls Copyright Crackdown

In a new round of seizures the US authorities have taken control of domain names belonging to several popular sports streaming sites including Firstrowsports.tv, Firstrowsports.com and Soccertvlive.net. All affected sites now redirect to a notice from DOJ/ICE. In common with last year’s campaign, the new round of seizures appears to be part of another “Super Bowl Crackdown” targeting sites that link to unauthorized sports streams.

Source: Feds Seize Sports Streaming Domains in New Super Bowl Crackdown

Patent trolls, open source, do not track, SOPA, PIPA and much, much more: Facebook’s IPO filing has a real zoo of issues. The securities laws require that companies going public identify risk factors that could adversely affect the company’s stock. Facebook’s S-1 filing, which it sent to the SEC today, identified almost 40 such factors. [...]

Today’s Supreme Court rejection against The Pirate Bay signals the start of a new campaign targeting 150 file-sharing sites, say anti-piracy figures. A lawyer for the Hollywood movie studios says she expects Swedish sites and those providing them with infrastructure will stop their activities today. Antipiratbyran say they will take legal action against those that don’t.

Source: Pirate Bay Verdict SignalsThreat Of Huge New Anti-Piracy Campaign

After the court case against the founders of The Pirate Bay was concluded today, the operators of the site quickly moved to change their domain name from .ORG to the Swedish .SE. A Pirate Bay insider informed TorrentFreak that this move was made to prevent the US authorities from seizing the domain, which is a serious risk now the court case has completed.

Source: The Pirate Bay Moves to .SE Domain To Prevent Domain Seizure

1st February 2012 – Two journalists freed on bail Reporters Without Borders had learned of the release on bail on 3 January of the documentary film-maker Hassan Fathi, arrested on 12 November, and today of Fatemeh Khardmand, a journalist for the monthly Gozaresh Sanat Chap, who was detained on 7 January. They were released after paying a surety of 50 million tomans (about 45,000 euros) each. 30 January 2012- Four held over Facebook page Iran’s police responsible for Internet security (…)

A few moments ago Sweden’s Supreme Court announced its decision not to grant leave to appeal in the long-running Pirate Bay criminal trial. This means that the previously determined jail sentences and fines handed out to Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström will stand.

Source: Pirate Bay Founders’ Prison Sentences Final, Supreme Court Appeal Rejected

I was honored to be a guest on this morning’s episode of Oregon Public Broadcasting’s show Listen Out Loud, talking with host Dave Miller about the recent case of Schlossberg v. Solesbee. Listen to the interview here: MP3 We talked about the Fourth Amendment and, more specifically, the exceptions to the warrant requirement for searches [...]