file sharing news stories on Newser

Supreme Court Takes on Govt. Surveillance Case

Matt Cantor — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:20:03 CDT

The Supreme Court is taking on the heightened government surveillance that's sparked a furor since the 9/11 attacks. Justices will determine the validity of a 2008 law that has allowed the government to keep a closer eye on international communications, the New York Times reports. Activists, lawyers, and journalists say...

Dotcom Must Get by on $49K a Month

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:59:34 CDT

It will be hard, but as he waits for a decision on his extradition to the US, somehow Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom will have to survive on a monthly allowance … of almost $50,000. That's how much a New Zealand court granted Dotcom, who faces copyright infringement and other...

Fed Crackdown Panics File-Sharing Sites

Mark Russell — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:50:05 CST

The FBI-led shutdown of Megaupload last week has many of the top file-sharing sites around the world panicking, causing them to shut down their controversial services, reports ABC News . Two—Uploadbox.com and x7.to—are completely closing, while seven others have introduced restrictions. Limits include restricting users' ability to...

Sweden Has Official New Religion: File Sharing

Matt Cantor — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:33:00 CST

Sweden may not condone file-sharing—it's still illegal—but the country is officially OK with belief in the practice. Some 3,000 passionate file-sharers have gotten their beliefs recognized as an official religion. The Missionary Church of Kopimism—as in, "copy-me-ism"—has sought official status in Sweden since 2010, and...

Illegal Downloaders' Punishment: Slow Internet

Rob Quinn — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:19:05 CDT

Media companies and Internet providers have agreed on a system to put the brakes on the service of users of illegal file-sharing services. The ISPs have agreed to alert customers up to six times if they believe their account is being used to illegally download music and movie, Reuters reports....

NZ Pol Tweets About Breaking Her Own Law

Rob Quinn — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 08:02:51 CDT

This week's installment of "lawmakers ignoring their own laws" comes to you from New Zealand, which recently passed one of the world's strictest file-sharing laws. Melissa Lee voted for the "three-strikes" law, which says people can be fined up to $15,000 and lose Internet access if they are merely...

Harry Potter Film Leaked Online

Rob Quinn — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 02:20:35 CST

The first 36 minutes of the new Harry Potter movie have been leaked online days before its worldwide theatrical debut, and Warner Bros. officials are on a hunt to find the culprit. The footage made available for download on file-sharing sites like the Pirate Bay was watermarked, meaning it came...

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...

Europe Swoops In on Web Pirates

Rob Quinn — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 09:01:47 CDT

Police in 13 European countries have raided dozens of locations in an attempt to crush illegal file-sharing rings that distribute pirated movies and TV shows. A total of 48 servers were shut down, according to the BBC . Seven locations were raided in Sweden, including a university and the ISP believed...