WebProNews

The Slow Checkmate Of Internet Control

The specious arguments made and overly harsh penalties sought by the copyright (Big Media) industry would be comically absurd if systemic corruption didn’t immediately transform them into tragedies.

MPAA Knocks Movie Fan Site Offline

When the realities of business and art crash into each other, it’s usually art that suffers. Bulls and China shops come to mind, as does the MPAA and the Internet. The Motion Picture Association of America’s latest pile of previously beautiful bits: Fanedit.org.

MPAA Sues Two Movie Sites

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), acting on behalf of the major studios, has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles against Fombd.com and Movierumor.com for alleged copyright infringement.The MPAA says the sites contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, and indexing links to infringing content on the Internet allowing people to then view on-demand.

Studios Win $4 Million Suit Against Web Sites

Hollywood has won a major lawsuit against movie linking Web sites ShowStash.com and Cinematube.net.A federal judge in Los Angeles issued a $2.7 million judgment against Showstash for the infringement of more than a hundred copyrighted movies and television shows. A federal judge awarded the studios a similar judgment against Cinematube for $1.3 million.The judgments come on the heels of another settlement in favor of the studios, which recently won a $110 million judgment against TorrentSpy.com.

TiVo Comes Under Attack

Sparks fly over copyright at Tech Policy Summit | Lawgarithms | ZDNet.com Denise Howell has an informative write up on a copyright debate held last week at the Tech Policy Summit in Hollywood.Participants in the debate included TiVo VP and general counsel Matt Zinn, Executive Director of the Copyright Alliance Patrick Ross, Fred von Lohman from the EFF and moderator Doug Lichtman of UCLA Law School.Two things I found interesting in the article.

MPAA Wrong On Piracy Prevalence

The Motion Picture Association of America is the latest poster child for reasons not to trust research put out by entities with vested interests in the results of the research. The MPAA is having to send out word that their previous estimates of movie piracy on college campuses were a bit overstated—by a factor of three.

MPAA Files Suit Against Two Web Sites

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has filed lawsuits against two Web sites that it says are committing copyright infringement by allowing the viewing of pirated films.

AT&T Wants To Be Copyright Police

How would you feel about your ISP digging into the stuff you send out to check for pirated content? Sounds kind of Big-Brotherish, doesn't? A sort of TSA for your data packets. Enter Ma Bell and the Copyright Police.

First HD-DVD On BitTorrent, MPAA Trembles

The first HD-DVD movie has finally found its way into the hallowed halls of BitTorrent. The move could be the first small pebble that starts an avalanche of HD-DVD content to be ripped, released, and scorned by the MPAA as a bane to civilization itself.

MPAA Hired A Hacker, Lawsuit Alleges

The Motion Picture Association of America hired a hacker to steal information from a company it accused of helping copyright violators-this according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. In the suit, Torrentspy.com parent Valence Media alleges a man was paid $15,000 to pilfer e-mail correspondence and trade secrets.