LibertyVoice

Last week Hana Beshara, one of the founders of the popular NinjaVideo movie and TV show streaming site, was sentenced to 22 months in prison for conspiracy and criminal copyright infringement. Beshara was released until a bed opened up at a detention center, but after she posted critical notes on Facebook the authorities asked to reconsider this decision. As a result, the NinjaVideo founder was rushed to local prison today.

Source: US Authorities Silence NinjaVideo Founder, Rush Her to Prison

Despite protestations that merely linking to copyright material isn’t an offense in the UK, a judge has today ruled that the UK-based ex-administrator of the TVShack video linking website can be extradited to the US to face copyright infringement charges. Richard O’Dwyer, 23, has never set foot in United States but now faces being used as a ‘guinea pig’ for US copyright law.

Source: TVShack Admin Can Be Extradited To US, Judge Rules

After failing last year in its attempt to force a local Internet service provider to block online piracy, a major record label is now taking on a much bigger opponent. Yesterday, EMI Records filed a lawsuit against the Irish state for not fulfilling its obligations under European law which would otherwise allow for the “blocking, diverting or interrupting of internet communications” which breach copyright law.

Source: EMI Sues Irish State For Not Implementing Piracy Blocking Provisions

In October 2011, a court in Finland ordered local ISP Elisa to block The Pirate Bay to stop copyright infringement among its subscribers. Today, the blockade – which covers many domains and IP addresses – took effect, but behind the scenes there is an effort to unblock the site and render the court order useless. Meanwhile there is already collateral damage – the court order has succeeded in blocking a domain linking to Electronic Frontier Finland.

Source: The Pirate Bay Shows Futility of Domain and DNS Blocks

In its appeal against the file-sharing mom Jammie Thomas, the RIAA has asked the court to reinstate a massive fine which U.S. District Judge Michael Davis previously slashed because it was “monstrous and shocking.” The music group argues that awards as high as $1.5 million for sharing 24 songs are appropriate and constitutional. In their appeal, the RIAA is joined by the MPAA who also want to overthrow the standing verdict.

Source: MPAA Joins RIAA in “Monstrous” Jammie Thomas Appeal

After a legal process lasting more than 7 years, the creator of Japan’s most popular P2P file-sharing application has finally been cleared by the country’s Supreme Court. After his initial arrest in 2004 on copyright infringement grounds, the former university researcher has been on a roller coaster ride of convictions, fines, and appeals. Now, barring a dispute on rare technical grounds, his ordeal is over.

Source: File-Sharing App Creator Not Guilty of Copyright Infringement

The record-breaking lawsuit, filed by the makers of The Hurt Locker against 24,583 alleged BitTorrent users, has come to an end. Although this appears to be good news for the defendants, the lawyers representing the movie studio are continuing with their cash demands. During recent months the lawyers engaged in dubious behavior, asking people to settle with them after they were dismissed from the lawsuit, and targeting people who were never included to begin with.

Source: Hurt Locker BitTorrent Lawsuit Dies, But Not Without Controversy

Despite not owning a computer or even a router, a retired woman has been ordered by a court to pay compensation to a movie company. The woman had been pursued by a rightsholder who claimed she had illegally shared a violent movie about hooligans on the Internet, but the fact that she didn’t even have an email address proved of little interest to the court. Guilty until proven innocent is the formula in Germany.

Source: Retired, Computerless Woman Fined For Pirating ‘Hooligan’ Movie

A man described as the main administrator of movie streaming portal Kino.to has been sentenced to 3 years in jail for criminal copyright infringement. The 27-year-old is said to have made around 230,000 euros profit from the site, which was shut down earlier this year as part of the biggest anti-piracy operation ever to take place on European soil.

Source: Kino.to “Main Admin” Sentenced to 3 Years in Jail

An advertising network has been found not guilty of copyright infringement for serving ads to a site offering links to unauthorized copies of ebooks. The case, brought by Elsevier and ‘For Dummies’ publisher Wiley & Sons, sought to find the Chitika ad network liable for contributory infringement, even though it produced no evidence of direct infringement, or that the network had knowledge of the e-book site’s allegedly infringing behavior.

Source: Ad Network Not Guilty of Copyright Infringement For Serving Pirate Site