headlines
BitTorrent After The Pirate Bay: Do You Still Need Trackers?
The Pirate Bay made headlines earlier this week with yet another dramatic announcement, this time that the notorious BitTorrent site’s tracker has been officially shut down. But the move won’t impact downloading, site admins explained on a blog. Trackers are no longer needed to facilitate BitTorrent transfers, the blog entry explained, because decentralized extensions of the P2P protocol are mature enough to pick up the tab.
Continue reading »BPI Decries ISP Inaction Against 100K Music Pirates
Last week, UK ISP BT Broadband made the headlines when their consumer division boss John Petter said that measures to tackle Internet piracy will be hugely costly . Petter said he fears that the anti-piracy process could cost ISPs a staggering £365m a year – £165m a year more than the £200m the BPI says the industry will lose to online music piracy in 2009. The BT boss went on to label the BPI’s losses assessment as “melodramatic.” Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI, is now hitting back, claiming that Petter has exaggerated his figures too.
Continue reading »Copyright Group Prosecuted For Failing to Pay Artists
Royalty collection agencies go to the extremes, ostensibly to claim money on behalf of artists and music composers. They target schools and kids’ community centers for singing Christmas carols without a license, and some even crash weddings if they have to. With all this dedication one would expect that such groups would handle the money they collect with care.
Continue reading »KaZaA’s Comeback? Yeah, Right.
KaZaA, whose once-popular file-sharing service was shut down in 2006 as part of a settlement with the music industry, is back in the headlines. Now it’s said to be launching a web-based legal music download service with the support of all four major labels. Sounds like a great story, especially in light of The Pirate Bay’s efforts to go legit.
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