File Sharing

The trade group for the top Hollywood film studios told a federal court that it opposes any plan that would allow MegaUpload to buy back its servers.

That unyielding stance position could hurt MegaUpload's efforts to retrieve its servers, which company lawyer Ira Rothken said it needs to defend itself. In January, the United States filed criminal copyright charges against the cyberlocker service, founder Kim DotCom and other managers. DotCom and six others are expected to fight U.S. attempts to extradite them to this country.

The Motion Picture Association of America laid out its position in an 8-page … Read more

The major film studios and music companies will soon unveil plans for a "copyright center," an organization designed to oversee the implementation of the controversial graduated-response program, CNET has learned.

Last July, when some of the country's top Internet service providers, including AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, agreed to begin implementing a series of measures designed to discourage illegal file-sharing, the ISPs said they and the entertainment companies would establish a Center for Copyright Information (CCI) to "assist in the effort to combat online infringement."

The ISPs, major record labels, and Hollywood film studios … Read more

MediaFire is no 'rogue' Web site and is not run by any criminal gang, says Tom Langridge, one of the co-founders of the file-hosting service.

In a letter to CNET, Langridge has responded to comments made on Friday by Alfred Perry, vice president of worldwide antipiracy for Paramount Pictures. Perry appeared on a panel during the On Copyright conference at Columbia University.

Perry told attendees that the studios "continue to make criminal referrals" to authorities regarding "rogue" cyberlockers. He also said that some sites that enable piracy are often operated by criminal gangs that oversee multiple … Read more

NEW YORK -- In the wake of the MegaUpload indictment, the top Hollywood film studios are pushing for more cyberlocker services to be charged with crimes.

"We continue to make criminal referrals," Alfred Perry, vice president for worldwide content protection at Paramount Pictures, said during a panel discussion at the On Copyright conference here yesterday. Later he added that "more than 41 billion page views (yearly) are generated by the top 5 rogue cyberlocker services. That's five page views for every person on the planet."

After the panel, Perry provided CNET with the names of … Read more

Sean Parker is an enemy of music artists.

That's according to Patrick Carney, drummer of the rock band The Black Keys. Carney offered his opinion of Parker during an interview with radio station WGRD.

"He's an ass----," Carney told the station. "That guy has $2 billion that he made from figuring out ways to steal royalties from artists, and that's the bottom line. You can't really trust anybody like that."

Parker is an investor in Spotify and Facebook, but his connection to Spotify is presumably only one part of why Carney finds … Read more

The cost of hosting 25 petabytes of data belonging to MegaUpload's users is too much for Carpathia Hosting to support on its own.

Carpathia said in court filings on Tuesday that the company is dedicating 1,100 servers and spending $9,000 a day to maintain MegaUpload's files and needs someone to either fork over some money or allow the company to delete the information, according to a report by the Associated Press.

The data was frozen by the U.S. Department of Justice after issuing an indictment against MegaUpload's operators, including founder Kim DotCom in January. … Read more

New Zealand has decided to return some of the assets it seized from MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom, according to reports.

A high court there has bumped up the accused pirate's monthly living allowance from $20,000 in New Zealand currency to $60,000, the equivalent of $48,500 in U.S. currency, according to a report in the New Zealand Herald. In addition, the court is allowing him the use of one of his late-model Mercedes vehicles.

Police arrested DotCom at the mansion he lived in outside Auckland on January 19 at the request of the United States government. … Read more

MegaUpload founder Kim DotCom has six months to try and create the image of himself as a legitimate businessman as well as a victim of U.S. aggression.

The U.S. Department of Justice, which has accused him of criminal copyright violations, wire fraud, and racketeering, will seek to create the perception that DotCom is a digital Genghis Khan, a convicted felon who has dedicated most of his adult life to plunder.

For DotCom, 38, and the DOJ, the public relations war is on.

In January, New Zealand police, at the request of the United States, raided DotCom's home, … Read more

NEW YORK--The country's largest Internet service providers haven't given up on the idea of becoming copyright cops.

Last July, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers announced that they had agreed to adopt policies designed to discourage customers from illegally downloading music, movies and software. Since then, the ISPs have been very quiet about their antipiracy measures.

But during a panel discussion before a gathering of U.S. publishers here today, Cary Sherman, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said most of the participating ISPs are on track to begin implementing the program … Read more