File Sharing


Horizons

Playlist Author
Some interesting reading regarding the torrent site The Pirate Bay:

Pirate Bay four jailed for breaking copyright in Swedish file-sharing trial

The founders of file-sharing website The Pirate Bay have been sentenced to a year in jail in Sweden for breaking copyright laws by helping millions of users download music, movies and computer games for free.

Experts believe the ruling could be the first step towards ending illegal downloading, which has cost music and film companies billions of dollars in lost revenue.

Full story: Telegraph
Pirate Bay founders defy year's jail sentence and order to pay £2.5 million

Four men behind the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay remained defiant today despite being sentenced to a year in jail each and ordered to pay £2.5 million in damages for helping internet users to download protected music, films and computer games.

In a major victory for Hollywood and the music industry, Fredrik Neij, 30, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, 24, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi, 30, and Carl Lundström, 49, were found guilty of breaching copyright law in Sweden, where the site was founded.

Full story: Times Online
The Pirate Bay founders sentenced to prison

A Stockholm court Friday found four men guilty of promoting copyright infringement by running The Pirate Bay, one of the world's top websites for illegal filesharing, and sentenced them to a year in prison.

The court also ordered the four -- Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstroem -- to pay damages of 30 million kronor (2.72 million euros, 3.56 million dollars).

"The Stockholm district court has today convicted the four people charged with promoting other people's infringement of copyright laws," it said in a statement.

Full story: Breitbart
It makes you wonder whether any of this is going to start and trickle down to sites that provide Disney media, including the newsgroup feeds.
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
Yes, quite worrying.
There is (copyright speaking) no difference between sharing out of print stuff/non-released stuff/park audio and commercially available material - including films, of course, so one just hopes that Disney has a more tolerant attitude if they are not actually losing money because of it (and the people doing are not actually making money from it as well).
One can just hope.......................

Interestingly, the UK has some very tight laws regarding copyright including the fact that it's illegal to copy your purchased CD onto your PC or iPod for any reason (including backup) whatsoever.
There's quite a bit in the news at the moment following the Pirate Bay case and calls for the UK to follow many other countries where this is permitted.
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
The Pirate bay lot have, of course, appealed as the judge was also on the board of a copyright group so they are crying "conflict of interest".
Also, bear in mind, they were NOT discussing copyright but only their role as matchmakers by introducing those who want to break copyright laws. They say that, by only acting as a middle-man, it's nothing to do with them.
Yeah, right.
Copyright laws are simple: :eek:
You create something, it's yours. Full stop. You have the exclusive right to use it - and only you.
If someone steals it, you can sue because it's not allowed. :eek:
Of course, you can let someone copy it with or without permission. That's up to you but you have the legal right to stop them, should you want to.
Most people only sue to either
Ensure they retain the copyright (so it doesn't become public domain).
Ensure that their copyright isn't used in a manner which may reflect badly on them. (A picture of a certain mouse taking drugs, for instance)
To stop people making money out of your property (selling your work and not giving you any money for it).
Because they didn't want their work appearing where it did without permission.

In reality, copyright is broken all over the place but the copyright holders choose not to enforce their rights.
Taking a photo of a poster (copyright to the artist or company) is illegal copying. careful with what's in the background of any photos you publish :p
The important thing is your right to enforce copyright laws if you choose to.
Technically speaking, if you were to copy my words from here and post them somewhere else (once here, they are "published") you would be breaking my copyright and I could demand you remove them - if I chose to.
I may be happy with your use of them and choose not to enforce my copyright (for now).
There we go, the simplified form B)
 

eyore

DLRP explorer
Playlist Author
We have even more draconian laws here in the UK.
Here, it's also illegal to copy a CD you own onto a portable device for your own use (iPod or mp3 player, for example)or to copy it to your PC, make a backup copy to play in the car etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6095612.stm
They still haven't changed the laws (as far as I am aware) and it's still a breach of copyright to do it. :p
 

Magic Music

Administrator
Playlist Author
Mininova Ordered to Remove All 'Infringing' Torrents

Mininova has lost its civil dispute with Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN. The judge ruled that Mininova is not directly responsible for any copyright infringement, but ordered it to remove all torrents linking to copyrighted material within three months, or face a penalty of up to 5 million euros.

Full story: TorrentFreak
 

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