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News

• Music pirate mum deserves a new trial

  Attorneys for Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a Minnesota mother of four slapped with a $1.92 million fine by a federal jury last month for illegally downloading 24 songs, have filed a request for a new trial.

• The Pirate Bay will let users delete accounts ahead of sale

  The operators of The Pirate Bay will allow users to delete their accounts on the torrent-tracking site, a feature many users have requested since a deal to sell the site was announced Tuesday.

• Pirate Party finds France fertile territory

  Sweden's Pirate Party won 7.13 percent of the vote in elections earlier this month. Its campaign for the respect of privacy, the reform of copyright law and the abolition of the patent system earned it a seat in the European Parliament, and it may yet gain another seat there, if planned changes to the number of seats attributed to each country win approval.

• Dutch antipiracy organization takes aim at Pirate Bay

  The Pirate Bay is the target of yet another legal case -- the Dutch antipiracy organization BREIN wants to close the file-sharing site in the Netherlands, and wants to see its founders appear in the Amsterdam district court on July 21, it said Tuesday.

• Analysis: $US1.92M fine in music piracy case could hurt RIAA

  The massive $US1.9 million fine imposed by a US federal jury in the retrial of a woman accused of pirating 24 songs may could end up hurting the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy campaign more than anything else, a leading copyright lawyer said.

• Battle against file sharing starts in Norway

  Movie and record companies want Norwegian operator Telenor to block access to The Pirate Bay file-sharing site and have filed documents in a Norwegian district court seeking a temporary injunction.

• 7m Brits illegally download

  Around 7m Brits are using a file-sharing network once a week to illegally download music files, says the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property (SABIP).

• Record companies step up crusade against Pirate Bay

  Four record companies want to close the Pirate Bay file sharing service and have filed a motion with the Stockholm district court to fine the people behind the operation as long as its users can access copyright-protected material.

• French gov't passes illegal downloads legislation

  Legislation which will see illegal file sharers disconnected from the internet has been passed by the French National Assembly, despite initially being rejected last month.

• Microsoft gives controversial antipiracy tools new name

  Microsoft has rebranded its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation system in Windows 7, likely an attempt to shed the controversial image of the antipiracy program.

• Pay-as-you-go a way around piracy, Microsoft says

  Microsoft could reduce losses from software piracy by expanding pay-as-you-go plans like those it has tested in developing countries, a company executive said Wednesday.

• As expected, Facebook halts The Pirate Bay links

  Facebook has ended its brief e-relationship with The Pirate Bay, the controversial BitTorrent search engine.

• Microsoft loses anti-piracy patent case

  A jury in Rhode Island found Microsoft guilty of patent infringement, ordering it to pay US$38 million to Uniloc, the patent holder.

• US trade office releases information on secret piracy pact

  The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has released some new details about an anti-counterfeiting trade agreement that has been discussed in secret among the U.S., Japan, the European Union and other countries since 2006.

• UK hopes to cut piracy by making it easier to find movies

  The UK Film Council has launched a search engine FindAnyFilm.com so that film buffs will be able to find when, where and how more than 30,000 movies are available, including on the Internet.