Internet users — not Internet companies — should be held legally accountable for uploading pirated content on web sites, Russian Communications and Press Minister Igor Shchyogolev has said. But Shchyogolev added that it is in the responsibility of the Internet companies to delete illegal content “upon the signal from the lawful property rights owner.” The […]

RapidShare has blasted a report characterising the file-hosting site as a home for pirated content.  Researchers from MarkMonitor crawled the Internet for sites offering counterfeit and pirated digital content tied to 22 high-profile brands. The results included 43 websites classified as digital piracy sites. An additional 48 sites were identified as selling counterfeit goods. One […]

A sampling of only 22 brands revealed that websites offering pirated digital content and counterfeit goods generate more than 53 billion visits per year, according to research carried out by enterprise brand protection specialist MarkMonitor. Sites offering pirated digital content draw the lion’s share of the 53 billion annual visits while sites selling counterfeit goods, […]

Kuwait is home to a number of satellite TV channels, many operating without a formal licence. Kuwait’s information ministry has ordered that these stations be immediately closed down.  BBC Monitoring is quoting Kuwaiti daily Al Jareeda saying: “The decision aims to regularise the work of the satellite channels and curb abuses by some of them,” […]

A report from the European Commission (EC) has suggested that rates of intellectual property infringement in the EU are “alarming”, and accepts that while an EU law on IP rights has had some effect, the legal measure was not designed to deal with online piracy. According to the EC, current laws are not strong enough […]

A Spanish parliamentary panel has rejected a bill that would let courts shut down websites offering peer-to-peer file sharing of copyrighted music and films. The 20-18 vote was a surprising defeat for Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government.  It came after frantic negotiations in which the ruling Socialists failed to win support from opposition […]

French anti-Internet piracy body Hadopi is reportedly sending only a fifth of the warning emails expected. The body, which has been operational since October, is meant to warn people found to have illegally downloaded copyright music and videos on the Internet, by email and then recorded delivery letter. In theory, if there are further offences […]

FilmOn has been halted by a restraining order from the four US networks but now founder Alki David is attacking one of the plaintiffs, CBS with YouTube addresses including ‘CBS You Suck.’ He claims CBS is hypocritical on rights in Internet distributed video and says that through its subsidiary CNET, it has distributed over one […]

A massive movie piracy ring is being investigated, and the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association is working behind the scenes. The Greater Toronto Area Federal Enforcement Section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has partnered with the Toronto Police Service in a joint investigation. Ten search warrants have been executed at businesses operating at […]

Dutch anti-internet piracy group Brein and the US Motion Picture Association have teamed up to seize the domain names of 29 US-based websites that allow file sharing. The sites are focused on the Netherlands and facilitate the illegal sharing of films, TV series, music, games and digital books, according to Brein. “This year we have […]