piracy

Viacom So Devastated by Piracy that CEO Gets $50 Million Raise

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:10:17 -0500

Full article: Ars Technica
Timothy B. Lee
Last year, Viacom said that "a new wave of digital piracy could threaten the U.S. media business" if it lost its copyright infringement case against YouTube. Similarly, the MPAA has argued that "when profits are reduced, the studios have fewer dollars to invest in movies, and when there is less money to invest they make fewer movies and the diversity and variety of films we love become more limited." So we were interested in this CNN story on the 20 biggest CEO pay raises. The winner? Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman.

A New Try at Curbing Piracy

Lindsy Embree — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:20:49 -0400

Full article: New York Times
This month, several major Internet service providers, including Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and Time Warner Cable, agreed to help movie studios and record labels identify Internet users who downloaded copyrighted content illicitly, warn them about the piracy and punish recalcitrant abusers. The agreement has troubling elements.

Top ISPs Poised to Adopt Graduated Response to Piracy

Stevie Converse — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 10:56:19 -0400

Full article: CNet
Greg Sandoval
Some of the country's largest Internet service providers are poised to leap into the antipiracy fight in a significant way. A group of bandwidth providers that includes AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are closer than ever to striking a deal with media and entertainment companies that would call for them to establish new and tougher punishments for customers who refuse to stop using their networks to pirate films, music and other intellectual property,

Policing the Internet

Stevie Converse — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 12:00:21 -0400

Full article: Los Angeles Times
A Senate bill aims to cut off support for any site found by the courts to be 'dedicated' to copyright or trademark infringement. Its goals are laudable, but its details are problematic. A group of leading Internet engineers has warned that the bill's attempt to hide piracy-oriented sites could hurt some legitimate sites because of the way domain names can be shared or have unpredictable mutual dependencies.

Music and Film Industries Split over Pirates

Lindsy Embree — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 10:19:54 -0400

Full article: Sydney Morning Herald
Asher Moses
The music industry has back-flipped on its long-held demands that repeat music pirates be disconnected from the Internet as a new UN report declares such a policy would be a breach of human rights and international law.

Netflix Is Killing BitTorrent in the U.S.

Lindsy Embree — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 09:47:06 -0400

Full article: TorrentFreak
Movie piracy is not quite gone yet, but Netflix shows that people are willing to pay for access to movies online, even when plenty of pirated copies are available. The next step is to offer easy access to movies in the rest of the world, and get rid of the artificial delays in release dates.

Google to Testify on Piracy Before House Subcommittee

Lindsy Embree — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 08:57:06 -0400

Full article: CNet
Greg Sandoval
Google's antipiracy efforts are likely to come under scrutiny during a congressional hearing scheduled for next week in Washington.

US Government Finally Admits Most Piracy Estimates are Bogus

Lindsy Embree — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 11:28:51 -0400

Full article: Ars Technica
Nate Anderson
We've all seen the studies trumpeting massive losses to the U.S. economy from piracy. Can we trust any of these claims about piracy? The government doesn't think so.

Digital Economy Act Likely to Increase Households Targeted for Piracy

Lindsy Embree — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 11:24:24 -0400

Full article: The Guardian
Dan Sabbagh
There are inherent problems in trying to suppress Internet piracy by identifying individuals who have supposedly engaged in the illegal filesharing and seeking some form of legal redress. Until now this has been a minority sport, but the Digital Economy Act will make the targeting of households more likely.

UK Approves Crackdown on Internet Pirates

Lindsy Embree — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:29:50 -0400

Full article: New York Times
Eric Pfanner
The British Parliament approved plans to crack down on digital media piracy by authorizing the suspension of repeat offenders' Internet connections. Following the House of Commons, the House of Lords approved the bill after heavy lobbying from the music and movie industries.