Did you miss last night’s episode of The Walking Dead (where they finally reveal that Glenn shot J.R., but didn’t kill Laura Palmer) because you don’t have cable and just plan on grabbing a pirated version of it from the Internet? If you’re a Comcast customer who has been flagged a potential copyright violator, your web-browsing experience may be interrupted with pop-up warnings. [More]
file sharing
Comcast Can Interrupt Your Web Browsing With Warnings About Potentially Illegal File-Sharing
By 11.23.15
Report: Comcast Sends Out Around 1,800 Copyright Alert Notices Each Day
By 2.7.14
It’s been almost a year since the nation’s largest Internet service providers began using the Copyright Alert System, better known as Six Strikes, which identifies potentially illegal file-sharing and sends a series of increasingly severe warnings before the ISP penalizes the user. According to a new report from TorrentFreak, in the short time since Six Strikes launched, Comcast has sent out at least 625,000 such warnings. [More]
AT&T Patents System That Could Charge File-Sharers Extra For Data
By 1.31.14
While the Six Strikes alert system, in which Internet service providers send a series of notices to suspected illegal file-sharers before finally penalizing their accounts, is primarily a way for ISPs to placate Hollywood studios and the recording industry, it doesn’t do much to aid the ISPs in their ongoing war against consumers who use huge amounts of data, and doesn’t deal with wireless file-sharing. That must be why AT&T has filed a patent application for a system that would prevent what it deems “bandwidth abuse” by charging supposed data hogs more money. [More]
Gene Simmons Compares Napster To Nazis, Blames Fans For Killing Music Industry
By 1.17.14
In spite of the fact that superstar rock bands and pop artists still travel the world in private jets and tricked-out custom buses while having their every whim catered to before and after performing to thousands of fans who pay huge amounts of money for tickets, the music industry is dead. At least if you believe Gene Simmons of KISS. And who’s to blame for this death that has occurred only in Mr. Simmons’ mind? That would be music fans. [More]
After Much Delay, The Anti-Piracy “Six Strikes” Program Is Nearing Launch
By 2.25.13
A program intended to fight online piracy without resorting to prosecution was supposed to go live last year but was repeatedly delayed, most recently by Hurricane Sandy. But the folks running the Copyright Alert System (better known as Six Strikes) say it’s ready to go. [More]
Study Finds P2P Users Buy More Music, But Didn’t Pay For Most Of Their Tunes
By 1.21.13
Many in the music industry paint peer-to-peer file-sharers as devil’s spawn who suck the life blood out of artists. Some P2P proponents have countered that file-sharing has helped encourage the growth of many bands who would have gone unknown in the CD and cassette age. Now comes a new study that each side could point to as support. [More]
Who Is Really Making Money When We Don’t Buy The Music We Listen To?
By 6.19.12
The new 21-year-old intern on NPR’s All Songs Considered claims to have only purchased 15 CDs in her entire life. This amounts to shocking news for some, probably because it doesn’t match our collective mental image of a true music enthusiast, especially one who works on a national radio show about music. [More]
"Thor" And "Kung Fu Panda" Were Popular With Pirates This Year
By 12.30.11
While sailing the seven seas of legally questionable file sharing, freeloaders apparently cast their treasure nets for the likes of Thor, Glee, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Green Lantern. Those titles were reportedly among the most searched-for BitTorrent phrases in 2011. [More]
Studio Dismisses More Than 21,000 Sued For Downloading "Hurt Locker"
By 10.4.11
The studio that produced The Hurt Locker sued 24,583 unnamed people for illegally downloading the film. Now more than 21,000 of those John Does can breathe a little easier because the studio has dismissed them from the suit, leaving more than 2,300 in its sights. [More]
Appeals Court Rules $675,000 File-Sharing Judgment Is Constitutional After All
By 9.19.11
Last year, a Boston college student caught a break when a judge reduced an earlier file-sharing judgment against him from $675,000 to $67,500, calling the earlier figure unconstitutional. Now a federal appeals court has wiped that relief away by deciding the Constitution is cool after all with the $675,000 fee and has reinstated the earlier judgment. [More]
Few Pirated Titles Named In Copyright Infringement Case Against CBS Interactive
By 6.2.11
A copyright lawsuit against CBS Interactive, the parent company of CNET, claims the company helped others infringe on copyrights by promoting and profiting on LimeWire downloads via Download.com in 2008. But when asked to provide a list of songs and movies that CNET allegedly helped others pirate, the plaintiffs came up with only six obscure titles: one movie (2007’s Fish Tales) and five songs which don’t yet have U.S. copyright registration. [More]
23,000 Who Downloaded Stallone Flick Face Lawsuit
By 5.10.11
Hopefully 23,000 users who allegedly illegally downloaded The Expendables really, really enjoyed the movie, because now they’ll be paying for it with fear and loathing brought on by a lawsuit, as well as possibly tons of money. [More]
Fox Sues Screenwriter With Script Database For $15M
By 11.29.10
Instead of messing with Wolverine, smarmy Marvel anti-hero Deadpool has his sights set on a Long Island screenwriter. He’s called upon his bosses at 20th Century Fox to sue the writer for $15 million because she posted Fox screenplays, including an early copy of the script from his upcoming movie, the New York Post reports. [More]
Jury Slaps File Sharer With $1.5 Million Penalty Over 24 Songs
By 11.4.10
The third time was not the charm for Jamie Thomas-Rasset, who has spent the last several years wrapped up legal wranglings with the Recording Industry Association of America over 24 songs she downloaded through Kazaa back when people still used Kazaa. The latest development — a jury in her third trial has found her liable for $1.5 million ($62,500/song) in damages to Capitol Records. [More]
Federal Court Shuts Down LimeWire With Permanent Injunction
By 10.26.10
LimeWire, the Gnutella-based peer-to-peer file-sharing service, is no more. Major record labels, also known as file-sharers’ archnemesis the RIAA, obtained an injunction from a U.S. District Court judge in New York City that stops Limewire from distributing their software or facilitating any file-sharing. [More]
Judge Slashes RIAA's $675,000 File Sharing Award To $67,500
By 7.10.10
A federal judge yesterday bench slapped the Recording Industry of America, calling a jury’s $675,000 verdict against file sharer Joel Tenenbaum both eye-popping and unconstitutional. The judge struck a strikingly populist tone in reducing the verdict to $67,500, arguing that the same legal reasoning that protects large corporations from excessive punitive damages also protects “ordinary people” like Tenenbaum. [More]
4 Years And 2 Trials Later, The $1.92 Million RIAA Case Continues
By 6.22.10
Remember Jammie Thomas-Rasset? She was accused of sharing 24 songs on Kazaa in 2006. Two trials and four years later, the case still isn’t over. They’re now trying to avoid a third trial. [More]
