Piracy

Google has announced it will punish websites accused of piracy by moving them lower in its search results rankings. However, there are some questions flying around the Internet about whether Google's own YouTube video site will get special ... treatment. The changes include a minor tweak to the way Google decides how high or low specific sites should appear in a search results list. The search giant says its automated system considers more than 200 factors, but doesn't say how much emphasis it gives to each one. The new ranking method takes effect this week. Afterwards, search results will ... (view more)

Authorities in New Zealand are currently testing a new "three strikes" policy designed to reduce copyright infringement. It's not yet clear, however, if the idea is having a significant deterrent effect on illegal file-sharing. The 'test' policy is ... based on the idea that a customer deserves two warnings about his or her alleged infringements, and then can face serious consequences for a third instance of illegal activity. In New Zealand, a law introduced last year allows a copyright holder to take a three-time infringer to a special tribunal where they can be fined as much as NZ $15,000 ( ... (view more)

Attempts by British courts to stop illegal file-sharing by blocking access to The Pirate Bay site appear to have failed. A major Internet Service Provider (ISP) has revealed that the amount of Pirate Bay file-sharing returned to typical levels just ... a week after the block took effect. Issued just over two months ago, Britain's court order to block access to The Pirate Bay was highly controversial. It was only the second time a UK court had ordered such a block on copyright grounds, and came despite the fact that The Pirate Bay does not host any actual files. The key to the case was that while ... (view more)

The case against Megaupload.com, the Hong Kong-based file-hosting website accused of providing illegal access to copyright-protected media files, has now been dealt a critical blow. A New Zealand judge has ruled that the search warrants used by ... police in that country to raid the home of Megaupload's leading members were illegal. Megaupload sites were shut down in January by the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) after the owners were indicted on charges of copyright infringement. At the heart of the scandal was Kim Dotcom, a.k.a. Kim Schmitz, a German national and current New Zealand ... (view more)

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has joined a campaign to fight the extradition of a British man facing trial in the United States for online piracy offenses. Richard O'Dwyer, accused of criminal behavior related to a site that linked to pirated TV ... shows, says he did not breach the law. US officials want to formally charge O'Dwyer with copyright infringement and other charges. If convicted in the US, he would face a maximum term of five years. In his own country, however, the equivalent crimes can be punished by a sentence of no more than six months. The charges stem from a website named TVShack ... (view more)

According to Google, Microsoft asked the search service to remove more than 500,000 links from its results pages because they directed people to sites containing pirated software. The revelations come via Google's "Transparency Index", which lists ... requests from governments and corporations to censor information in its databanks. (Source: blogspot.co.uk ) The figures cover only complaints specifically relating to the Google search index, not to other Google-owned sites, such as YouTube. They also cover only requests made online, rather than through fax or postal mail. During the past month, ... (view more)

During the past few weeks, The Pirate Bay file-sharing site has faced a number of serious challenges, including orders by British and Dutch courts forcing Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block user access. Now, the controversial site is facing ... an even bigger threat: a special type of web-based attack has disabled the site altogether. According to recent reports, The Pirate Bay was completely disabled and inaccessible for more than a day after it was struck by what appears to have been a distributed denial of service (or DDoS) attack. This kind of attack involves a massive number of ... (view more)

A Russian company says its "Pirate Pay" project can eliminate online piracy by blocking web users from sharing files via the BitTorrent system. The people behind Pirate Pay (not to be confused with The Pirate Bay) came up with an alternative method ... of combating illegal file-sharing via BitTorrent. To help them get started, they received $100,000 from Microsoft. The first major test of the Pirate Pay system involved attempting to block distribution of a Russian movie titled "Vysotsky: Thank God, I'm Alive". Pirate Pay says it managed to block 44,845 illegal downloads of that film in ... (view more)

The assault on The Pirate Bay continues with five Dutch Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ordered by The Court of The Hague to block all access to the file-sharing site. The ruling comes only a week after a number of British ISPs were given a ... similar order by the UK High Court. UK Internet providers Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media were told last week to block subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay. The new ruling was motivated by the site's prolonged activity in providing users with access to content that, in some cases, violates copyright law. Supporters ... (view more)

The highest court in the United Kingdom has ordered the country's Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block all access to popular torrent site 'The Pirate Bay.' The new ruling marks a stunning turn of events in what has been an ongoing war between ... copyright defenders and supporters of torrent-based websites. The UK ISPs affected by the order include Everything Everywhere, O2, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media. Each of them must now prevent their users from accessing The Pirate Bay website in one way or another. Proposed Blocking Process Unclear However, it currently remains unknown exactly what ... (view more)