Google has hit back at Rupert Murdoch after he branded the search giant a “piracy leader” stating that it fought pirates and counterfeiters “every day”. Google told the BBC: “Google respects copyright – and we’ve worked hard to help rights holders deal with piracy. Last year we took down five million infringing web pages from […]
The White House has responded to two petitions about legislative approaches to combat online piracy. In their response, Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, US Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff stress that the important […]
Hollywood studio trade body the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has backed the Administration’s efforts to enact meaningful anti-piracy legislation. Michael O’Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs, said the MPAA welcomed the Administration’s “clear statement” that legislation was needed to stop foreign based thieves from stealing the hard work […]
Despite having earlier declared his intention to progress the passage of the Stop Online Privacy Act (SOPA) in the US House of Representatives, Lamar Smith, the measure’s chief sponsor, has now said he would remove a controversial provision from the bill until further study takes place. “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I […]
The European Commission is likely to propose collective copyright legislation that could lead to BSkyB and other digital TV operators being forced to make their programmes available to viewers across the EU. In a January 11th communication to government ministers and the European Parliament on ‘A coherent framework for building trust in the Digital Single […]
A Dutch court has ordered two major ISPs in the Netherlands to block their customers from accessing The Pirate Bay website or face large fines. The Swedish pirate website has helped millions of people download copyrighted music, movies and computer games. In 2010, a Swedish appeals court upheld the copyright infringement convictions of three men […]
While Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) author Lamar Smith is pressing ahead with the measure’s progress in the US House, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy has said that he would remove a controversial provision from his Protect IP Act bill that aims to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting on foreign websites. Leahy told Vermont […]
The US lawmaker behind a bill to combat online piracy has vowed to press ahead with the measure despite criticism from Internet giants such as Google and Facebook, and threats from sites such as Reddit to go ‘dark’ for a day in protest. “It is amazing to me that the opponents apparently don’t want to […]
Six Hollywood studios have responded to the Competition Commission judgement that their deals with Sky are anti-competitive. The watchdog gave a provisional ruling in August that the exclusive pay-TV deals were anti-competitive. In responses published by the Commission, Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony Pictures, NBC Universal and Warner Bros attacked the Commission for failing […]
Writing an op-ed piece in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, has strongly criticised the intentions of Nevada Senator Harry Reid to introduce the Protect IP Act (PIPA) to the Senate floor this month, backing instead the Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN). Highlighting […]