This week the MPAA ended the mystery surrounding the unexpected shutdown of the torrent site YTS.to and its associated release group YIFY.
While the announcement answered a lot of questions it also raises a few more.
Google has gone too far and has undertaken a "fishing expedition" in its bid to substantiate allegations the motion picture studios and Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood conspired with each other as Hood probed the search giant.
This year the entertainment industries reached agreement with the UK government to begin sending warning notices to Internet pirates. However, TorrentFreak has learned that the MPAA considered pulling out, fearful that the so-called VCAP scheme might prove ineffective.
One of the cornerstones of modern online piracy schemes are so-called ‘copyright alert’ programs. The idea is simple – rightsholders monitor online file-sharing networks, capture IP addresses of alleged pirates and have ISPs send warnings to subscribers.
For years, we've pointed out that the giant "settlements" that the MPAA likes to announce with companies it declares illegal are little more than Hollywood-style fabrications. Cases are closed with big press releases throwing around huge settlement numbers, knowing full well that the sites in question don't have anywhere near that kind of money available. At the end of 2013, it got two of these, with IsoHunt agreeing to 'pay' $110 million and Hotfile agreeing to 'pay' $80 million. In both cases, we noted that there was no chance that those sums would ever get paid.
A few years back, the entertainment industry used its unique charms (read: money) to glamour several members of Congress into supporting the Stop Online Piracy Act, one of the few pieces of legislation to draw almost universal disdain from everyone other than the industry that backed it, as it would have exacerbated the shoot-first-maybe-investigate-later model already in place thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The MPAA, RIAA and the Internet providers participating in the “six strikes” anti-piracy scheme have informed the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee about their plans. The MPAA’s Marianne Grant gave a detailed overview explaining how they gather evidence against illegal file-sharers. She further explained that the MPAA is particularly interested in tracking BitTorrent since it’s the best way for P2P file-sharers to download movies and TV-shows.
Hollywood's lobbyists are a bit alarmed at the possibility that Megaupload users may be getting their data back.
The Motion Picture Association of America told a federal judge in Virginia today that any decision to allow users of the embattled file locker to access their own files could "compound the massive infringing conduct already at issue in this criminal litigation." Megaupload's servers with approximately 25 petabytes of data are currently unplugged, offline, and in storage at Dulles, Va.-based Carpathia Hosting.
Don't let the Mickey Mouse shirt fool you. As far as the MPAA is concerned, the public needs a reminder of who Richard O'Dwyer really is.
“Being 24, posing for newspaper photo shoots in a cartoon sweatshirt, and having your mother and Jimmy Wales speak for you, does not mean you are incapable for breaking the law.”
Well, it's been a fun week on the international trade agreement front. Monday began yet another negotiating round for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, this time in San Diego. To the amazement of everyone, the US Trade Representative (USTR) announced on July 3 it would now include a provision in the intellectual property (IP) chapter recognizing the importance of "limitations and exceptions" to copyright and embracing the international 3-part test for what constitutes suitable limitations and exceptions.
The MPAA petitioned the court yesterday to block MegaUpload's efforts to purchase its servers back from the cash-strapped hosting company, Carpathia on fears that the file sharing service would restart off-shore.
Carpathia is losing about $9000 a day holding MegaUpload's data and has petitioned the court for financial relief. Specifically Carpathia has asked to be allowed to sell the servers back to MegaUpload—not just the 25 Petabytes of data, the physical servers themselves.
