File Sharing

When the government seizes a dope dealer's car, it can put the auto up for auction. But what happens when agents seize a Web domain?

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) said today that those sites seized for trafficking in counterfeit and pirated goods will now serve to help spread the government's message that "unfairly devalue America's contributions, compromise American jobs, and put consumers, families, and communities at risk."

The Obama administration and the U.S. Congress have declared war on online piracy and law enforcement agencies have seized more than 100 sites in the past year. Of those, 65 domain names now direct visitors to a public service announcement. … Read more

A watchdog group that is also a longtime Google ally on copyright issues, has accused the company of being hypocritical when it recently removed a controversial music app from its app store.

Two weeks ago, CNET reported that Grooveshark, a music service that provides free access to songs by enabling users to post their own music to the site, had seen its app banned from the Android Market. It later came out that Google acted after receiving a complaint about Grooveshark from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade group for the four largest record companies. The search … Read more

uTorrent 3.0 (download) graduated to beta yesterday, combining some impressive new features with initiatives from parent company BitTorrent to encourage legal torrent usage.

The new beta can stream videos and music while the files are still downloading, using progressive and sequential download technology. The streaming feature can also be used to preview a file before committing to a full download. The preview feature can lend itself to the new basic socialization features in uTorrent, which serve as a passive reminder while downloading that you can interact with other people also seeding or leeching the torrent.

You can now rate … Read more

Security firm AVG is doubling down on cloud storage.

The company today announced LiveKive, a service that allows people to upload data to the cloud that can then be downloaded to other computers or Android- and iOS-based devices with the LiveKive mobile app. It works on both Windows and Mac.

AVG is currently offering two packages: a $49.99 per year option that gives customers 25GB of online storage and a $79.99 a year plan with unlimited data. In either case, people can upload files, folder, and multimedia content. The service also supports automatic syncing for those who don'… Read more

WASHINGTON--The tone of a congressional hearing held today on antipiracy was set early when Rep. Bob Goodlatte suggested that Google was falling short in its antipiracy efforts.

Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of a U.S. House Judiciary subcommittee that is investigating Web sites accused of pirating intellectual property, started off the hearing by noting some of Google's antipiracy accomplishments. He cited a story published this morning by CNET about how Google has removed an app from music service Grooveshark, which has been accused of copyright violations by some of the major record companies.

But for Goodlatte, Google hadn't done … Read more

In what will surely be music to the ears of the major record labels, research firm NPD Group says that illegal file sharing of songs via peer-to-peer services has dramatically dropped off since Lime Wire shut down.

Lime Wire, the company that operated the popular peer-to-peer network LimeWire, was forced to shut down in October after a federal court found the company liable for copyright infringement. The Recording Industry Association of America had file a copyright suit against Lime Wire and CEO Mark Gorton in 2007, claiming the company encouraged the pirating of billions of songs.

NPD said today that … Read more

If you have been using the LogMeIn Ignition application as a cool way to run Windows 7 on the iPad, you now can do even more with it.

LogMeIn revealed today that it has just finished an update to the LogMeIn Ignition app for the iPad that adds a major new feature called File Manager.

Basically, now, in addition to allowing you to control a remote computer over the Internet using an iPad, the app also enables you to view and transfer files back and forth between the iPad and the remote computer.

I tried out the new version of … Read more

If Russia wants to prove the country is a good trade partner, then the country must be more aggressive in fighting online piracy. That's the message a group of U.S. congressmen wants Vice President Joe Biden to send during his visit to Moscow this week.

In a letter written Friday by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lawmakers reminded Biden that Russia appears to have once again grown soft on copyright violations and the congressmen want him to nudge leaders there back on track.

For more … Read more

Qtrax, the music company that once sought to create a legal file-sharing music service, has finally struck several music licensing agreements and will launch next week, the company said today.

Details about the arrangements are scant, but apparently three of the top four labels have agreed to extend Qtrax's former music licenses for three months to allow the company time to try and raise money. Qtrax still owes some of the big labels money and must get caught up before the three-month period ends or lose the rights to the songs, according to one source.

A company representative told … Read more