Add another prestigious honor to the incredible career of Lady Gaga. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has announced that Lady Gaga’s 2008 smash hit “Poker Face” has gone diamond, meaning it’s surpassed 10 million in sales and streams.…
New Anti-Piracy Plan: Kindergarten Copyright Class?
The United States’ largest copyright lobbies, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, have initiated a highly controversial program nudging the educational system to shoulder the burden of teaching kids about how evil piracy…
The MPAA, RIAA Target Google Again
By now, it’s pretty clear the governing bodies behind the entertainment industry will not be happy unless Google turns over their search engine index over to the RIAA and the MPAA, allowing them to remove whatever infringing content they see…
Spotify Helps Dramatically Reduce Music Piracy In The Netherlands, Norway
While music piracy may not be the buzzworthy topic it was in the days of Napster and Limewire, an idea given life by the RIAA’s decision to stop suing downloaders, that doesn’t mean it’s a forgotten issue. The RIAA’s vehement…
SOPA And PIPA Are Not Coming Back
SOPA and PIPA were a major threat to the Internet. Only those in the entertainment industry denied the claim as they pushed for stricter control of the Internet. The two bills eventually spurred the single largest Internet protest as countless…
Don’t Expect To Get Your Megaupload Data Back Anytime Soon
Collateral damage is unavoidable in war. A good general tries to keep this to a minimum, however, as the people who have no stake in the fight can only suffer. It seems that those waging the war on piracy didn’t…
Are 30 Songs Really Worth $675,000? The Justice System Thinks So
We brought you the story of Joel Tenenbaum back in May. He was facing massive statutory damages at the hands of the RIAA for sharing 30 songs via the file sharing service, Kazaa. Unfortunately, he was denied an appeal with…
Kim Dotcom’s Megabox Will Launch This Year
Everybody knows about Kim Dotcom by now. The millionaire owner of Megaupload and all its related domains is under fire from the U.S. government. What you may not know is that he was working on a project before Megaupload was…
YouTube Users File Petition To Allow For The Use Of Third-Party Recording Tools
Should YouTube users be allowed to rip the content they like to their hard drive, much like a person would use a DVR to record a television show of interest? Some users believe they should have such capabilities, and so,…
UK ISP Comes Out Against The Pirate Bay Blockade
It’s been a little over a month since the The Pirate Bay was blocked in the UK due to a court order. The block was meant to cut down on the amount of file-sharing happening across the Internet, but it…
The Pirate Bay Wants To Thank The RIAA For Censorship
It’s no secret that the RIAA and the MPAA want Google and other search engines to stop listing sites like The Pirate Bay in their search results. The main problem is that Google makes it super easy to find pirated…
RIAA Inaccurately Criticizes Google’s Transparency
When organizations like the MPAA and the RIAA want to complain about the tech industry not helping with the fight against piracy, inevitably, their focus turns to Google. Bing? Not so much, but if you’re going to rattle cages, make…
RIAA Lawsuit Against LimeWire for $72 Trillion Shot Down
It was reported last May that now-defunct P2P file-sharing program LimeWire had settled with the Recording Industry Association of America for $105 million, though the RIAA wasn’t satisfied, and still demanded that the platform owed it $72 trillion in damages…
Supreme Court Refuses To Hear Tenenbaum File-Sharing Case
We reported last week on the efforts of Charles Nesson to have the Supreme Court hear his client’s (Joel Tenenbaum) case. The Supreme Court has denied Nesson’s petition. It’s unfortunate since a Supreme Court verdict would go a long way…
New Center For Copyright Info Set To Start Sinking Pirates Soon
Remember when Google defended itself from any culpability due to “safe-harbor” protection from hosting copyright-infringing material and, instead, argued that the responsibility of policing those infringements should rest with the copyright holders themselves? It appears as that several entertainment companies…
Head Of The RIAA Says ISPs To Implement Anti-Piracy Measures By July 12
Internet service providers are set to start clamping down on illegal file sharing this summer, according to the head of the RIAA. Speaking at the annual meating of the Association of American Publishers, RIAA CEO Cary Sherman said that ISPs…
Kim Dotcom Says Many MegaUpload Users Are From US Government
When MegaUpload went down in January, there were complaints from many legitimate users of the site saying that their personal files, including files for work, were gone. One of the solutions has been in the form of a lawsuit being…
Spotify and Artists Still Disagree Over Royalties
Spotify and artists are in the midst of a battle of sorts over royalties that each feel is deserved. The thing in question is, how much? How much is a digital stream worth? Some services pay more than others, some…
The Pirate Bay: RIAA Is Kid Screaming For Candy
The RIAA and The Pirate Bay are at it again. Both groups have fired at each other over blogs that paint each other in a negative light. Let’s watch the fireworks, shall we? Mitch Glazier, Senior Executive VP of the…
Google May One Day Face Lawsuit From Music Industry
The entertainment industry doesn’t like search engines. They may take that dislike to the next level soon. TorrentFreak is reporting that IFPI wants Google to play nice with the entertainment industries by removing “pirate” Web sites from search results and…