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Supreme Court Rules Against File Swapping update The Supreme Court handed movie studios and record labels a sweeping victory against file-swapping, ruling Monday that peer-to-peer companies such as Grokster could be held responsible for the copyright piracy on their networks. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled companies that build businesses with the active intent of encouraging copyright infringement should be held liable for their customers' illegal actions. "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is...

Later this week the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on MGM vs. Grokster, a ruling that likely will reshape the way entertainment is distributed over the Internet, experts told UPI's The Web. "This is an incredibly difficult decision to predict," said David Davis, an intellectual-property attorney who represents entertainment-industry clients at Baker & McKenzie, a Chicago law firm. http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20050622-070606-4130r.htm

While thousands of people waited in line for the premiere of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," hundreds of others didn't wait in line at all. And they didn't have to pay. They downloaded pirated copies of the movie, burned them onto DVDs, and watched the last and latest of the Star Wars saga in their homes. Illegal? Yes. And also very, very easy. What is apparently a pre-release studio copy of "Revenge of the Sith" was uploaded onto the BitTorrent file-sharing network. First hundreds, then thousands of people downloaded it. And one of the features of...

See that silvery two-sided disc in the jewel case of Bruce Springsteen's new set? That's a DualDisc. One side CD, the other DVD, this hybrid could be the recording industry's best defense against music pirating and illegal downloading on peer-to-peer networks. "You can't manufacture a DualDisc at home. It just can't be done because ... there's all this content," says Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG, which owns the Columbia label that released "Devils & Dust" exclusively on DualDisc. The only other high-profile artist to put out a DualDisc-only release was matchbox twenty frontman Rob Thomas,...

A new bill that would imprison pre-release file pirates for up to three years is just a few procedural steps away from becoming law. The bill, known as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which includes the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005 or the ART Act, was crafted to sentence distributors of prerelease copies of films, songs or other works for up to three years. The bill also would permit companies like ClearPlay to edit films for language and content. The bill, which is awaiting signature from President Bush, would assign the same penalties to...

Dear Sirs, I would appreciate if you can view on revolutionary anti-piracy technology. Please feel free to ask more information. The end of illegal peer to peer file sharing Viralg Oy, is a privately held Finnish company behind new breakthrough technology giving superior protection for those fighting against peer to peer pirates. On the market where our competitors can only offer a mediocre service for blocking illegal file swapping our solution means totally new level of revenue protection. By utilizing Viralg´s technology we can guarantee 99% protection for intellectual property like music, movie and game content in all the main...

DURHAM, N.H. -- Another round of lawsuits against college students accused of illegally sharing music and movie files has drawn attention to a new high-speed network used at colleges across the country. The University of New Hampshire is one of hundreds of colleges and organizations using Internet2, which boasts speeds hundreds of times faster than the Internet. UNH researchers use the network to share large files that would take minutes or hours to send over the standard Internet. According to UNH network manager Doug Green, with Internet2, those big files can be sent in seconds. "The Internet2 is a high-speed...

Maybe people would pay for music if they could profit from their honesty. That's the concept behind Peer Impact, a new Internet music-selling service that's done deals with the world's four biggest recording companies. Peer Impact is up and running as a closed beta test, with 2,500 users paying 99 cents per downloaded tune, and making some of the money back by trading their files.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday from representatives of major film studios and the recording industry who are seeking to shut down peer-to-peer services they say are costing them billions of dollars. One of the questions the court kept coming back to was this: What's more important — preventing potential copyright violations or allowing the market to come up with innovative new products? The case began when MGM and several record labels filed suit against StreamCast Networks and file-sharing network Grokster, arguing that they were intentionally created to allow people to illegally trade copyrighted material. That case was thrown out...

WASHINGTON, March 29 - The much-heralded Supreme Court showdown in the Grokster case between old-fashioned entertainment and newfangled technology found the justices surprisingly responsive on Tuesday to warnings from Grokster, the software maker that allows Internet users to share computer files on peer-to-peer networks, that a broad definition of copyright infringement could curtail innovation. Justice David H. Souter asked Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the lawyer arguing for the Hollywood studios and the recording industry, to envision "a guy sitting in his garage inventing the iPod." "I know perfectly well that I can buy a CD and put it on my...

Supreme Court justices questioned Tuesday whether the recording industry's attempts to shut down online file-sharing networks would deter inventors from developing new products like Apple's iPod music player.But the justices also suggested that peer-to-peer networks could be held accountable for copyright infringement because they attracted users by telling them that they could copy music and movies for free. Record labels and movie studios have sued to shut down peer-to-peer software makers like Grokster and Morpheus, arguing that the millions of songs and movies copied each day over these networks have cut into sales. Lower courts have ruled that Grokster and...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court expressed concerns Tuesday over allowing entertainment companies to sue makers of software that allows Internet users to illegally download music and movies, questioning whether the threat of such legal action might stifle Web innovation. During a lively argument, justices wondered aloud whether such lawsuits might have discouraged past inventions like copy machines, videocassette recorders and iPod portable music players - all of which can be used to make illegal duplications of copyrighted documents, movies and songs.Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the same software that can be used to steal copyrighted materials offered at least...

WASHINGTON - When the Supreme Court justices were growing up, swapping music meant exchanging vinyl records. And sharing a movie involved walking someone to the cinema. Today many of the latest hit songs and movies are a few mouse clicks away on the Internet, and those same justices are being asked to settle a multibillion-dollar dispute about how such items are shared. Entertainment companies want the court to let them sue the manufacturers of file-sharing software that allows computer users to download music and movies from each other's computers. The companies say such downloads violate copyright protections and amount to...

<p>For someone whose business is under attack in the United States Supreme Court, Mark Gorton was remarkably serene last week, sprawled on a couch in his Manhattan office. Mr. Gorton's company, the Lime Group, publishes LimeWire, one of the most popular software programs used to trade music, video and other files over the Internet.</p>

2 MSU students sued by RIAA Association files more lawsuits for illegal file sharing By MARGARET HARDING The State News Two MSU students are among the more than 700 illegal file sharers sued last month by the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA. MSU has yet to receive a subpoena, which forces university officials to turn over the names of the students who were logged onto the network using a computer Internet address suspected of illegally file sharing, said David Gift, vice provost for Libraries, Computing and Technology. This will be the third round of file sharing lawsuits filed...

Penalties of Stealing vs. Infringing Cease and Desist letters for people using BitTorrent to download TV shows are becoming more frequent (example). So I decided to read up on the United States Code cited in these letters. Just out of interest, I also decided to read up on what the penalties for real, physical theft are. The conclusion is that under our current laws, copying files over the Internet would seem to be more onerous than actual, physical stealing. Disclaimer I Am Not A Lawyer. I will quote the appropriate sections of the Code in detail below, and you can...

Evelyn won't return my phone calls. So that means she's ignoring me. Or she wants to talk to me, but can't, because the Recording Industry Association of America won't let her. In December, Evelyn found out she had been targeted by the RIAA in its ever increasing crusade against children, mothers and senior citizens who don't uncheck the "share" option in their peer-to-peer downloading software. The Daily Texan office received Evelyn's call on the last press day before winter break. She had received a notice from Time Warner stating that they were subpoenaed into releasing her personal information in a...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court is faced with the challenge of threading a very thorny needle now that the initial round of briefs in what has become known as the Grokster case has been submitted. At issue is a U.S. 9th Circuit Court decision that failed to halt the distribution of peer-to-peer file-sharing programs that, according to some estimates, have been used to circulate millions of copies of pirated movies, songs and computer software. The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the companies that develop or provide peer-to-peer file-sharing programs should be held responsible...

Jan. 19, 2005 Justice Dept. gains first P2P piracy convictions By Brooks BoliekWASHINGTON -- The Justice Department on Tuesday notched its first-ever convictions for copyright piracy perpetrated on P2P networks as two suspects nabbed by the G-men in the department's "Operation Digital Gridlock" pleaded guilty to felony intellectual property crimes. William Trowbridge, 50, of Johnson City, N.Y., and Michael Chicoine, 47, of San Antonio each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit felony criminal copyright infringement before Judge Paul Friedman in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The men made available millions of dollars worth...

A popular peer-to-peer file-sharing website has closed down amid mounting efforts by the movie industry to crack down on online piracy. The Suprnova website was one of the most popular places for people swapping and sharing links to illegal copies of films on the BitTorrent network.

The Supreme Court handed Internet services providers and privacy advocates a crucial victory yesterday when it decided to pass on an important Internet piracy case. The morning papers, however, missed the boat on reporting the significance of the case, with most newspapers skipping the development all together or running wire copy on their sites. In refusing to hear the case, the justices rebuffed an effort by the recording industry to establish once and for all that Internet service providers should have to hand over the identities of suspected file-swappers who subscribe to their networks. They also tacitly rejected the...

Representatives of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a coalition that includes the Consumer Electronics Association, the IEEE and NetCoalition said negotiations collapsed early yesterday, with the coalition groups blaming the RIAA for not being willing to work toward a compromise. The fate of the controversial Induce Act that would restrict file-sharing technology that can be used to illegally download and share copyrighted material was in question today after negotiations between the music and electronics industries broke down as the current Congressional session nears an end, possibly by this weekend. The bill, formally known as the Inducing Infringement...

I am a frequent file-sharer on the Gnutella Network, the most popular Peer-To-Peer File Sharing network. For the most part, I share Political and Funny pictures as well as Political Videos, many written by Freeper Jmstein7, 911 pictures, real war pictures as well as some War On Terror videos (beheading videos, et. al) (Know thy enemy type of stuff)I use a file-sharing client known as "Bearshare Pro", which is the "pay" version of this popular File Sharing Software.Recently, I logged on to Bearshare and was startled to find out that the search page (Their own page) has a voter registration...

Grokster, Morpheus not liable for user's actions, appeals court says. A U.S. federal appeals court ruled in favor of peer-to-peer software makers this week, stating that the companies behind the Grokster and Morpheus services are not liable for copyright infringement due to the actions of their users. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously backed a lower court ruling that Grokster, Streamcast Networks (maker of the Morpheus service), and Musiccity.com are not responsible for users who illegally copy or share content such as music and movies over their services. "The peer-to-peer file-sharing technology at issue...

The political firestorm surrounding filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" has found its way into the file-sharing world. The controversial film--like virtually every new release--has been circulating online for days. Early in the week, anti-Moore Web site MooreWatch.com posted a link to a pirated version of the film available elsewhere on a file-sharing network, noting that the director himself has publicly backed downloading the movie online. The result has been a torrent of criticism from Moore supporters and his distribution company, Lions Gate Entertainment. The site was even the target of a denial-of-service attack a few days ago. But MooreWatch co-founder...

Hollywood's major studios are taking the battle to stop Internet movie piracy to a whole new level beginning this week with a high-priced series of public service announcements in some of the nation's most influential newspapers and magazines. "Parental Guidance Suggested: Illegal downloading inappropriate for all ages," the ads blare in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other papers and magazines, including 100 college newspapers. The question is, will the ad campaign make a difference and save filmmakers millions in lost revenue from illegal downloads by mostly young, Internet-savvy users? "We wouldn't be spending several million...

A new type of MP3 format being released in the next few months of 2004 will benefit audio enthusiasts with superb digital surround sound 5.1 playback, but will disturb the peer-to-peer file traders. Current MP3 files only use two channels, the "Super MP3", as I call it, will support four channel audio from a down-mixed 5.1 surround sound source. Fraunhofer Institute, originator of the MP3, will add the Dubbed Light Weight Digital Rights Management (LWDRM) code to all new MP3 files. If the owner who originally purchased the rights to that MP3 file publishes it online in a shared environment,...

WASHINGTON - The recording industry sued 477 more computer users Wednesday, including dozens of college students at schools in 11 states, accusing them of illegally sharing music across the Internet. The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites), the trade group for the largest labels, praised efforts by colleges and universities to use technology and school policies to crack down on music piracy on their computer own networks. But it said the most egregious offenders on campus deserved to be sued. "There is also a complementary need for enforcement by copyright owners against the serious offenders to remind...

<p>TUCSON - A federal judge has ruled that the recording industry can force the University of Arizona to identify four people accused of using its computers to violate copyright law by downloading music.</p> <p>Federal Magistrate Jacqueline Marshall signed the order allowing recording companies to subpoena the university to provide the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses for four defendants referred to in the lawsuit.</p>

A study of file-sharing's effects on music sales says online music trading appears to have had little part in the recent slide in CD sales. For the study, released Monday, researchers at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina tracked music downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, matching data on file transfers with actual market performance of the songs and albums being downloaded. Even high levels of file-swapping seemed to translate into an effect on album sales that was "statistically indistinguishable from zero," they wrote.

A myth exploded By INQUIRER staff: Tuesday 30 March 2004, 07:11 RESEARCH APPEARS to back up what teenagers have been saying for years - file sharing is not stuffing the music industry. A study conducted jointly by researchers from Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has found that in 2002 music sales were unaffected by the increase in file sharing, and the industry may have even benefited from it. Researchers looked at data from file-sharing services was used and 1.75 million downloads during a 17-week period in 2002. They said that while there were a...

UPDATE:Music Industry Piracy Investigations this morning raided the offices of P2P companies Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment, along with the homes of key executives and several ISPs. MIPI obtained an Anton Pilar order – which allows a copyright holder to enter a premises to search for and seize material that breaches copyright without alerting the target through court proceedings – yesterday from Justice Murray Wilcox, and began raiding premises in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria this morning searching for documents and electronic evidence to support its case against the peer-to-peer companies. In addition to the offices of Sharman...

<p>ORLANDO, Fla. - The record industry's legal battles against music pirates couldn't be more effective if the swashbuckling ship's captain portrayed by Russell Crowe were at the helm, a study shows.</p> <p>Since the fall, the number of Americans engaged in swapping digital music files online has fallen 50 percent, a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project says.</p>

SAN FRANCISCO - The technology and entertainment industries have long been at odds over the best way to secure intellectual property rights as digital technology advances. Now, five of what industry executives say are the world's most powerful computer, cellphone and electronics companies are planning a new system for protecting digital music, video and software from illicit file sharing that they hope will at least narrow that gap. A global consortium of technology companies is laying the groundwork for a campaign to convince Hollywood and the recording industry that it has finally found an acceptable way not just to limit...

Online music sharing drops, but do figures tell real story? By D. PARVAZ SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER The number of people downloading and sharing music online has dropped significantly since the recording industry began filing lawsuits against alleged copyright violators last fall, according to a survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. About 18 million people admitted downloading music online, a 50 percent drop since the previous Pew survey, done in spring. But whether those numbers capture the true behavior of music downloaders and file sharers is another thing. The Pew study, released yesterday, didn't differentiate between paid...

<p>Internet service providers don't have to reveal the names of customers the music industry suspects of illegally swapping music files, a federal appeals court said yesterday.</p> <p>The ruling overturns a district court decision that gave the recording industry broad power to stop file sharing by enforcing a statute in a 1998 copyright law.</p>

AMSTERDAM/LONDON (Reuters) - The Dutch supreme court on Friday threw out an attempt by a music copyright agency to put controls on popular Internet file-swapping software system Kazaa, a ruling the music industry attacked as flawed. The decision is a fresh blow to the media industry, which has fought to shut down file-sharing networks they say have created a massive black-market trade in free music, films and video games on the Internet. "The victory by Kazaa creates an important precedent for the legality of peer-to-peer software, both in the European Union as elsewhere," Kazaa's lawyers Bird & Bird said in...

WASHINGTON (Dissociated Press) – Bradley A. Buckles, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, has announced his plan to retire in January and enter the private sector. He will head the Anti-Piracy Unit of the Recording Industry Association of America, which has already filed some 300 lawsuits, in just six months, against computer users who may have used the Internet to share copyrighted music files. "We're thrilled to have Director Buckles joining us," announced RIAA spokesman Norm DePlume. "He brings to the RIAA the gravitas that will strike terror in the hearts of all who might contemplate...

Send Them Back Not what you may think...

Colleges and universities derive tremendous benefits from high-speed Internet connections, but they have a duty to educate their students about the ethical issues surrounding the sharing of copyrighted music and movies, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America said Wednesday. Jack Valenti, in a speech to Penn State University faculty and students, said that while movie theater revenues have risen, video and DVD rentals and sales have dropped because so many people are using the Internet to download files for free. [snip] Valenti also said that parents should be wary of file-sharing sites because of the availability of...

Article on how to avoid being sued from RIAA, but leaves hanging note at the end on how to discover file sharing software on your computer.

Will Napster 2.0 Save Music? Now legitimate, Napster could be just what the industry is looking for. By Eric Hellweg, October 06, 2003 Today visitors to Napster.com can watch an animated cartoon in which the famous catlike Napster icon -- a Jonny Quest-level hero to many under-30-year-olds -- breaks out of jail, resuscitates itself in the hospital, and storms into a murderous record-company meeting (where fat-cat execs are fleecing fledgling online music services, natch). Firmly standing its ground, Napster demands its own deal, which is signed by the ink that splatters from a pen stabbed through another online music service's...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Several Internet "peer-to-peer" networks unveiled a code of conduct on Monday to encourage responsible behavior among the millions of users who copy music, pornography and other material from each others' hard drives. The networks also asked Congress to figure out some way that recording companies and other copyright holders can be reimbursed for the material traded online and urged users to get involved. The recording industry, stung by declining CD sales that it attributes to widespread peer-to-peer use, has taken the software makers and more recently their users to court in an attempt to squelch the practice....

MP3s Are Not the Devil Since every penny I earn depends on copyright protection, I'm all in favor of reasonable laws to do the job. But there's something kind of sad about the recording industry's indecent passion to punish the "criminals" who are violating their rights. Copyright is a temporary monopoly granted by the government -- it creates the legal fiction that a piece of writing or composing (or, as technologies were created, a recorded performance) is property and can only be sold by those who have been licensed to do so by the copyright holder. Without copyright, once a...

Maybe kids downloading music isn't such a bad thing, relatively speaking.

File-Sharing Elevated to Threat Condition Red September 11, 2003Hamas and al-Qaeda step aside...KaZaA and Morpheus are on the attack. Teenagers sharing music files have eclipsed the likes of bin Laden and upped the national Threat Advisory level to Code Red. Under the growing threat of MP3’s hurtling through cyberspace, America is redeploying its national defense resources. A recording industry trade group has sued 261 people for swapping music files. Over 8 million illegal immigrants within our borders can rest easy tonight.With a fury not seen since the "Shock and Awe" campaign, the U.S. recording industry has taken the offensive against...

A peer-to-peer group says it will cover costs for a 12-year-old New York girl who agreed to pay record labels $2,000 to settle a file-swapping lawsuit. P2P United, a peer-to-peer industry trade group that includes Grokster, StreamCast Networks, Limewire and other file-trading software companies, said Wednesday it had offered to reimburse Brianna Lahara and her mother's payment to the Recording Industry Association of America. Lahara's mother agreed Tuesday to settle copyright infringement charges on behalf of her daughter. "We do not condone copyright infringement, but someone has to draw the line to call attention to a system that permits multinational...

WASHINGTON - A 12-year-old girl in New York who was among the first to be sued by the record industry for sharing music over the Internet is off the hook after her mother agreed Tuesday to pay $2,000 to settle the lawsuit, apologizing and admitting that her daughter's actions violated U.S. copyright laws. The hurried settlement involving Brianna LaHara, an honors student, was the first announced one day after the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) filed 261 such lawsuits across the country. Lawyers for the RIAA said Brianna's mother, Sylvia Torres, contacted them early Tuesday to...

The Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) (RIAA) today said it filed lawsuits against 261 people accused of trading copyrighted songs on the Internet. The group also said that it would not sue file sharers who promise in writing not to do it again.The lawsuits, which were filed in federal courts across the country, are the RIAA's latest tactics in its war against the illegal file sharing that record companies blame for plummeting CD sales. In June, the RIAA promised to sue hundreds of Internet users suspected of illegally trading music using file-swapping services like Kazaa and...

WASHINGTON - The recording industry provided its most detailed glimpse to date Wednesday into some of the detective-style techniques it has employed as part of its secretive campaign to cripple music piracy over the Internet. The disclosures were included in court papers filed against a Brooklyn woman fighting efforts to identify her for allegedly sharing nearly 1,000 songs over the Internet. The recording industry disputed her defense that songs on her family's computer were from compact discs she had legally purchased. Using a surprisingly astute technical procedure, the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) examined song files...