A study by the Business Software Alliance is estimating global software piracy at 35% of all software installed last year, coming out to $40 billion in lost revenue for software makers, with 15% more losses since 2005, $5 billion not going to the people who created the software.

The fight that’s supposed to save boxing, Mayweather versus De La Hoya, ended up on YouTube, swiftly followed by a takedown request from HBO. It’s a missed opportunity for lots of potential boxing fans.

The online video copyright issue is set to get more intense as legal lines come closer into focus. The YouTube and Viacom case, in the unlikely event it sees a courtroom, would be large enough to solidify some ground rules. There are also international complications, which makes one wonder if the World Wide Web will one day necessitate a Virtual World Court.  

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, and nothing I say should be taken as any sort of informed legal opinion.

In its ongoing battle of futility against file sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has published a list of the academic institutions that the organization has deemed as the top offenders when it comes to sharing music over a peer-to-peer connection.

In total, the RIAA sent out over 14,500 copyright infringement notices during the last academic year, with Ohio University topping the list at 1,287 letters – accounting for nearly ten percent of the alleged illegal music sharing.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been relentlessly fierce in its pursuit of individuals it deems as “criminals” by filing numerous lawsuits over the past several years.

It looks like the RIAA is trying to do all it can to encourage ISPs to be more forthcoming with identifying information in order to fuel their tactics which amount to little more than a legal means of extorting money from everyday citizens.

Last November, Universal Music Group sued Bolt.com alleging various instances of copyright infringement. It appears that the two sides are nearing a settlement agreement that will see Bolt hand over several million dollars in damages as well as agree to pay future royalties on uploaded content that contains music from Universal Artists.

Fans have flocked by the millions to theatres worldwide to take in the first two installments of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise. While Captain Jack Sparrow is enjoying the spotlight, however, the film studios are turning their attention and ire toward pirates of another sort.

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been relentless in its pursuit of those individuals found to be taking part in peer-to-peer music sharing. Numerous lawsuits have been filed by the RIAA, most of which are settled out of court for an arbitrary fee.

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.

Microsoft has announced a series of legal actions taken in a continued effort to curb piracy of its widely used Windows and Office software packages. The company is specifically targeting online auctioneers who offer counterfeit or tampered versions of the software.

Symantec Corp. and McAfee Inc., long-established rivals, have joined forces to crack down on illegal online software sales. Certain eBay sellers are the first pirates to have been targeted by the corporations. So far, five sellers have been named in three lawsuits.

Not to the get into the intricacies of French lawmaking, I’ll defer to a source nearer to it (thanks ZDNet). French lawmakers have modified proposed legislation on digital rights management (DRM) that will make it legal for hackers to crack copyright protection and distribute the software at will.

Bill Gates says that governments trying to censor information on the Internet are wasting their time.

The Attorney General told a Chamber of Commerce conference the government needs more laws to better protect intellectual property creators.

Infrared LEDs form the core of a product that will be very popular with film studios and movie theater chains, as it thwarts the filming of movies playing on-screen.

Three California men created over 325,000 illegal copies of software and music CDs, and had enough “stampers,” or molds, to create up to 160,000,000 illicit CDs.

Microsoft has filed eight lawsuits in five states against firms accused of selling pirated or counterfeit copies of Windows.

Yahoo! Spain didn’t take too kindly to Spanish blog network Weblogs SL when they posted a third party tip on how to illegally download videos from Yahoo! Launch on their software blog Genbeta. After threat of legal action, the post has since been removed.

The Windows Genuine Advantage program leaves the pilot testing phase and becomes a mandatory check against pirated software.

The University of Washington will test a combination of hardware and software to try and make legal music downloads the norm.