piracy
O2 Criticizes Anti-Piracy Tactics
O2 added to the number of Internet service providers in UK that oppose the measures UK government wants to impose against illegal file-sharing. The company has recently spoken against the practice of sending warning letters to suspected file sharers, a practice in which UK law firm ACS:Law and its client DigiProtect have indulged lately. DigiProtect is an anti-piracy firm representing a large number of copyright holders and which has adopted the same tactics of intimidating alleged copyright infringers that have been become quite popular among such groups.
Continue reading »"Piracy" sounds too sexy, say rightsholders
For years, we’ve heard complaints about using the term “piracy” to describe the online copyright infringement—but most have come from Big Content’s critics. As noted copyright scholar William Patry argued in his most recent book, “To say that X is a pirate is a metaphoric heuristic, intended to persuade a policymaker that the in-depth analysis can be skipped and the desired result immediately attained… Claims of piracy are rhetorical nonsense.” Read the comments on this post
Continue reading »Dutch Pirate Party Joins Election Race
2009 was a breakthrough year for the Pirate Party movement. With more than 7 percent of the vote, the Swedish Pirate Party secured two seats in the European Parliament. A few weeks later, the Pirates in Germany entered the local Parliament after a member of another party switched sides.
Continue reading »French Youth Make Piracy a “National Sport”
Now boasts having one of the highest rates of software piracy in the European Union as the country’s youth challenge one another “to crack the most elaborate software programs” and rebel against the most repressive copyright legislation in the world. France appears be suffering from a delicious bit of irony these days with news that piracy in some areas of the country is almost double the rate of other members of the European Union. For after having formally passed the controversial “Creation and Internet” law last September the country has been on the fast track to give authorities the power to disconnect illegal file-sharers from the Internet, and would seem an unlikely place for piracy levels to be highest.
Continue reading »UK Says ‘No’ To Disconnecting File-Sharers, Sort Of
In November 2009, details finally became public concerning the UK Digital Economy Bill, which aimed to turn elements of Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report into law. Part of the proposals indicated that Internet users would face being monitored by the music and movie industries. Their ISPs would then be required to pass on copyright infringement notices based on evidence supplied by anti-piracy tracking companies.
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