peer-to-peer news stories on Newser

Judge Kills Off LimeWire

Rob Quinn — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 05:50:00 CDT

File-sharing site LimeWire has been effectively killed off by a court order. A federal judge has issued an injunction ordering the service to permanently disable its software and to end the sharing of unauthorized music files, the Wall Street Journal reports. The popular site was found liable for copyright infringement...

Borrowers Ditch Banks, Turn to Peer Loans

Mat Probasco — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:38:48 CDT

As the banking pendulum swings from reckless lending to impossible-to-get credit, people are increasingly turning away from institutions and toward each other for loans, reports the Washington Post . The shaky stock market has made the peer-to-peer market ideal for investors, while borrowers happily trade credit card debt for interest rates...

Skype Sale in Doubt as Founders Sue eBay

Jason Farago — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:34:00 CDT

The founders of Skype are suing eBay and the investor consortium buying the Internet phone company, accusing them of copyright violation, reports the Wall Street Journal . The suit is only the latest bump in eBay's disastrous ownership of Skype and may complicate the planned $2 billion sale. Janus Friis and...

Swedish Pirate Party Scores EU Seat

Jess Kilby — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:45:00 CDT

Sweden’s Pirate Party scored a major victory last night, capturing one of the country’s 18 seats in the European parliament, AFP reports. The party—which advocates for the legalization of peer-to-peer file sharing, stronger digital privacy protections, and reforms in copyright law—was formed in 2006 and saw its membership...

Conficker Worm Threat Lingers

Ambreen Ali — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:58:27 CDT

April Fools’ Day passed without major incident, but the Conficker computer worm is still contacting 500 websites daily from millions of infected computers, reports PC World . A conglomerate of 27 tech heavyweights—including Microsoft, Facebook, and AOL—have managed to limit the peer-to-peer worm’s communicability. But Conficker is still amenable...

Comcast Caps Internet Use, Says 99% Won't Notice

Wesley Oliver — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:27:01 CDT

Comcast subscribers will soon have their Internet usage capped, Reuters reports. From Oct. 1, the nation’s largest cable operator will limit monthly residential data use to 250 gigabytes to improve the quality of Internet delivery. The company says up to 99% of its subscribers will be unaffected by the cap—...

Justice Breyer's Records Leaked in File-Sharing Snafu

Rob Quinn — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 10:08:13 CDT

An employee at an investment firm made much more than music available when he used a company computer to access the file-sharing site Limewire, reports the Washington Post . He also made it possible for users to access records of 2,000 of the firm's clients—including Supreme Court Justice Stephen...

Virgin May Try '3 Strikes' for File Sharers

Jonas Oransky — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:40:00 CDT

Virgin Media may become the second ISP to unplug users who share files illegally, the Register reports. The company is in talks with a UK record industry association over a "three strikes" system, which would disconnect users who share copyright-infringing files after two warnings. "We are taking this problem seriously...