BitTorrent news stories on Newser

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...

WikiLeaks Blames Guardian for Cable Leak

Rob Quinn — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:43:21 CDT

A lesson in the importance of changing your passwords, courtesy of WikiLeaks and the Guardian : An unredacted version of WikiLeaks' entire trove of US diplomatic cables has been leaked online and WikiLeaks says it's all the newspaper's fault, the BBC reports. A message from the site posted on Twitter accuses...

UK Student Faces Extradition to US Over Piracy Site

Kevin Spak — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:45:05 CDT

A 23-year-old British college student is facing extradition to the US and up to five years in prison for running a website that linked to pirated TV and movie content. Up until November, Richard O’Dwyer ran TVShack, a site that’s now been seized by the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the...

Massachusetts' New Political Party: Pirates

Kevin Spak — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 19:00:05 CST

Avast there, Massachusetts voters! A’fore ye register f’r some lilly-livered party like the “Democrats” or “Republicans,” ye might want to consider signin’ on with the state’s newest crew: the Massachusetts Pirate Party. That’s right, the Massachusetts Election Division has officially approved the swashbuckling party as a political designation, meaning voters...

Court Smacks Down FCC in Net Neutrality Case

Harry Kimball — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:25:00 CDT

A federal court today said the FCC does not have the power to force Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally. The ruling, in a closely watched case concerning Comcast's ban on BitTorrent, is a blow to the Obama administration’s crusade for net neutrality. But the FCC failed to...

New Software Can Delete Emails Permanently

Nick McMaster — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:24:01 CDT

Email is inherently insecure, because it has a long shelf-life—even deleted messages can be stored infinitely on the email service of the sender or recipient. Now a team of scientists is poised to unveil software later this month to make them disappear for keeps, reports the Economist . “Vanish” uses...

Music Industry Hunts for Cash in Pirate Bay Sale

Nick McMaster — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:53:20 CDT

The music industry wants its money back from those copyright vigilantes at Pirate Bay, and now it sees a decent chance to get it, reports CNET. An industry trade group plans to go after the $3.6 million in damages awarded by a Swedish court now that a software company...

Pirate Bay Ruling Invigorates Pirates

Harry Kimball — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 12:14:17 CDT

Last week’s guilty verdict against the Swedes behind the Pirate Bay filesharing site not only hasn’t shuttered the operation—it’s boosted support for the cause of free information, the Christian Science Monitor reports. The affiliated Pirate Party, which advocates for copyright reform, has doubled its membership just since the verdict...

Pirate Bay Founders Get Jail, Fines for File Sharing

Matt Cantor — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:53:00 CDT

In a big win for the movie and music business, four men behind the file-sharing service The Pirate Bay, including its two founders, have been found guilty of making copyrighted files available for downloading, CNET reports. A Swedish court sentenced each to a year in jail; the men must also...