File Sharing

LOS ANGELES--An online locker service accused by some of Hollywood's biggest film studios of "massive copyright violations," has made counter claims that generated a lot of press attention last week.

Hotfile, a Florida-based online storage service sued by the studios in February, alleges that one of its accusers, Warner Bros. Entertainment, made numerous false copyright claims as part of attempt to remove content from Hotfile's site.

Some media pundits have suggested that Warner's actions are an example of how the studios abuse copyright law and have even drawn comparisons with Hotfile's situation to the … Read more

Megaupload lives to fight another day.

The Internet file-storage business accused of helping millions around the world to store pirated videos, music, and software, has settled a copyright suit filed against it in January by Perfect 10, a porn studio with a long history of accusing tech companies of copyright violations.

Terms of the settlement weren't disclosed and representatives from the two companies did not respond to CNET's requests for comment. Megaupload is the parent company of multiple services, such as Megaporn, MegaVideo and MegaPix.

In e-mail exchanges this year with CNET, the company confirmed that it is … Read more

Zediva, a start-up that tried to exploit what it considered was a loophole in copyright law to build an online video service, has received a death blow.

U.S. District Judge John Walter issued a permanent injunction against Zediva's operators that will force them to shut down the service for good.

According to a statement from the Motion Picture Association of America, the trade group representing the six major film studios, Zediva's operators have also agreed to a payment of $1.8 million to the studios.

The MPAA accused Zediva of copyright violations in a lawsuit filed in … Read more

BitTorrent has achieved stability on the Mac with the release today of the newly stable version of its "mainline" client, an update to the stable μTorrent for Mac, and the launch of a new remote management Web interface that's been optimized for iPad users. BitTorrent for Mac (download) and μTorrent for Mac (download) transports the most popular features of those programs from Windows to Mac, including RSS feeds, a scheduler, remote access, and power user controls.

As with the Windows versions, the features are fairly robust. The RSS feeds can be set to automatically grab and start … Read more

Looking for a boatload of free cloud storage? If you own an iDevice, you can score 50GB of it, no strings attached.

That's the deal being offered by Box.net: 50GB of online storage for anyone who installs the Box.net app on an iPhone, iPod Touch, or Pad. (Sorry, Android users--not sure why you're being left out.) The app itself is free, as is the Personal account you'll be creating. And if you already have an account, merely signing into it gives you that 50GB bump.

The promotion runs through December 2, but you get to … Read more

If you believe consumers should be allowed to freely share music, movies, and books over the Internet, then you've probably read Mike Masnick.

He's the founder and operator of Techdirt, a blog that champions the search for alternative business models for distributing songs, books, and movies. In that vein, Techdirt announced yesterday that it is launching a new message board that will pool the ideas and experiences of musicians, filmmakers, and writers who are experimenting with new ways to support their art.

The new discussion platform, which is designed in a Q&A style, can be found … Read more

A group of Congress members has asked advertisers to start doing more to fight online piracy.

According to a subscription-only post on the Politico blog, the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus has written letters to three of the large advertising associations to ask that they choke off revenue to sites suspected of illegally distributing copyrighted materials.

Members of the Anti-Piracy Caucus include Reps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). Washington lawmakers have begun targeting the revenue of sites that allegedly distribute intellectual property, such as unauthorized copies of songs, movies, … Read more

The company that develops μTorrent announced today that the paid upgrade version of the popular torrent client, called μTorrent Plus, was ready for limited public testing. μTorrent Plus comes with additional value-added features in an attempt to entice fans into upgrading. Originally announced earlier this year, parent company BitTorrent, which also makes the original torrent client BitTorrent, has revealed a bit more about the value-added features that will come in μTorrent Plus.

These include drag-and-drop file conversion for transcoding files and then transferring them to another device, a built-in media player, remote file transfers, and customer support. It also comes … Read more

Few companies are as closely aligned with the Obama administration or the Democratic Party as Google.

Google managers and employees gave generously to President Barack Obama's candidacy. Chairman Eric Schmidt stumped for the president and is a member of the White House council for science and technology. Marissa Mayer, a Google vice president, hosted an Obama fundraiser. Former Google employees now hold high-ranking positions with the administration.

Despite those close ties, Google is now taking a much more bipartisan approach than before. Word coming out of Washington last week was that leading up to a September 21 appearance by … Read more