P2P

Judge Blasts Personal-Injury Lawyer for Running P2P 'Shakedown'

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:13:18 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Richmond, Va. lawyer D. Wayne O'Bryan runs, as his website puts it, "a small law firm designed for personalized and professional legal services for dog attack injury and negligence claims." O'Bryan is quite clearly a personal injury lawyer, which is why it made perfect sense for him to file federal copyright lawsuits on behalf of the pornographic film <em>Gangbang Virgins</em> — or not. Now a federal judge has demanded that O'Bryan show cause for why he should not be sanctioned by the court for running a "shakedown" on the anonymous defendants.

BitTorrent Users Don't 'Act in Concert,' So Judge Slashes Mass P2P Case

Lindsy Embree — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 09:20:13 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Steele Hansmeier, the antipiracy law firm that has been routinely hammered by judges in Illinois, is now getting hammered by judges in California. The firm has tried desperately to head off all the common objections to its mass file-sharing lawsuits over online porn, and has even taken to geolocating IP addresses before filing a lawsuit; its Hard Drive Productions case in California only went after 188 IP addresses that appeared to be located in the state. But the firm still had its entire case severed down to a single defendant last week.

Who Pays for Your P2P Habit? ISPs or You?

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:33:29 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
Stacey Higginbotham
Who's paying for peer-to-peer traffic across the Internet? It's not the largest ISPs, which can actually profit from such traffic, but smaller regional Internet providers and those who operate campus or corporate networks, according to a new study.

German Rights Holders Go After 300,000 P2P Users Per Month

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:46:52 -0400

Full article: GigaOM
Janko Roettgers
German ISPs are handing out data on about 300,000 subscribers per month to content owners, according to new data from the country's Internet industry association.

Five Years Later, First P2P Case to Be Tried Still Chugging Along

Lindsy Embree — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 08:53:32 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Yes, the first file-sharing case in the US to go all the way to trial is still going. Filed on April 19, 2006 and progressing through a remarkable three trials, the recording industry case against Minnesota resident Jammie Thomas-Rasset continues to burn through cash and judicial attention.

P2P Lawyers Score a Victory; Mass Subpoenas Can Proceed

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 10:27:38 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Judges across the country have been hammering mass file-sharing lawsuits in recent months. But it's not all bad news for the attorneys bringing these suits, as they managed to score a victory this week. A federal judge in Washington, DC has decided that three such cases can continue, and the ISPs involved need to turn over names in a timely fashion.

P2P First Seeders: Pirates or 'Masked Philanthropists'

Lindsy Embree — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 10:19:43 -0500

Full article: Ars Technica
Matthew Lasar
Do some P2P file sharers see themselves as the Robin Hoods of the digital age -- taking from the greedy content companies and giving to the global have-nots? Amidst all the angst over illegal Internet file sharing and what to do about it, there's a related debate raging over two questions -- why do people share files and what do they think about the ethics of the practice?

No Harm, No Foul? P2P User Says $1.5M Award Should Be Zeroed Out

Lindsy Embree — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 10:00:50 -0500

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Jammie Thomas-Rasset, the first US citizen to take her file-sharing lawsuit all the way to a verdict, has been hit with three separate damage awards: $222,000, $1.92 million, and recently $1.5 million. The judge has made clear that these figures are absurd; after the second trial, he declared $54,000 the most that he could possibly allow. But what does Thomas-Rasset think she owes? Nothing.

New Zealand P2P Proposal: Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 07:02:38 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
Say you have a DSL connection at home. Should you be liable for big fines over infringements committed using your connection even if you had nothing to do with them? And should rightsholder complaints carry the assumption of accuracy? New Zealand politicians say yes.

U.S. Anti-P2P Law Firms Sue More in 2010 Than RIAA Ever Did

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 10:44:09 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
The new breed of anti-P2P entrepreneurial lawyers got started in early 2010. Together, they have managed to handily eclipse the RIAA's 18,000 lawsuits in the space of nine months, as feat that took the RIAA 5 years.