pirates

Buzz Out Loud 1361: Celebrity zombies on Twitter (podcast)

Verizon's launching its LTE network on Sunday, the FCC is proposing a plan for Net neutrality tomorrow, and Google is about to take over the world EVEN MORE with its e-book venture (we're sure the EU is going to love that). Also, that deafening silence you hear on Twitter is the sound of a bunch of celebrities playing dead to raise money for AIDS. New meme: celebrity zombie impersonator accounts! Get yours today! --Molly

Torrents ahoy!

The Pirate Bay is one of the most popular sites on the Internet for finding BitTorrent files. Music, movies, software, games, and other types of media are widely (and often illegally) shared in this file format. The Pirate Bay Search is a simple add-on for Chrome that lets users search The Pirate Bay quickly without having to enter the Web address.

The extension's interface is plain. The Pirate Bay Search appears as an icon to the right of Chrome's address bar, and clicking on it produces a small box with seven buttons representing the different types of media: … Read more

EFF to courts: Don't name alleged porn pirates

Accusing someone in a federal lawsuit of illegally downloading pornography is by itself so potentially embarrassing that it puts undue pressure on an accused person to settle, a watchdog group has told judges in Texas and West Virginia.

Several porn studios have alleged in copyright complaints in those states that thousands of people illegally shared adult films via peer-to-peer networks and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, one of the best known advocates for tech companies and Internet users, has filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of the defendants.

EFF has asked the courts hearing the cases to "block requests [by … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1359: There's a Turkish academic born every day (podcast)

Wikileaks uncovers a treasure trove of diplomatic dish that could disrupt not only the political but social fabric of the world. Online spending finally takes off (again), and Homeland Security confirms it's planning to systematically dismantle the structure of the Internet at the behest of private companies. So, that's awesome. Also, the zombie apocalypse is nigh, led by a phalanx of terrifyingly young mice. --Molly

Pirate Bay appeal falls on deaf ears

In another blow to online file-sharing, a Swedish appeals court upheld on Friday the copyright convictions of three of the four founders of The Pirate Bay--perhaps the world's most well-known and notorious file-sharing Web site.

The court agreed with last year's ruling, which found Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde, and Carl Lundstrom guilty of helping Pirate Bay users break Sweden's copyright law. However, it revised the ruling to decrease the defendants' jail sentences and increase the amount they must pay in damages.

The lower court had sentenced the men to a year in prison and set damages at … Read more

Cost of suing file sharers could skyrocket soon

A setback in federal court last week appears to have prompted the law firm spearheading a litigation campaign against accused film pirates on behalf of independent movie studios to abandon a major part of its legal strategy, CNET has learned.

Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver, the law firm representing makers of such pics as "Far Cry" and Oscar-winner "The Hurt Locker," has filed copyright complaints against thousands of people from across the country this year and sought to pursue those cases in federal court in Washington, D.C., near its base of operations. Among the obstacles facing … Read more

Did Jammie Thomas case backfire on file sharers?

Jammie Thomas-Rasset was supposed to lead the major labels into a trap.

Proponents of less restrictive copyright laws predicted that the decision by the four biggest record labels to drag a single mother of modest means into court for allegedly sharing music over the Web would lead them into a legal, political, and public relations killing field.

Since 2006, when Thomas-Rasset first refused to settle the copyright complaint brought against her by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the labels' trade group, her supporters said her case would illustrate how impossible it was to definitively prove who was sitting … Read more

Porn maker sues 7,098 alleged film pirates

In a move sure to outrage both file-traders on BitTorrent networks and legal watchdogs, a well-known pornographer has filed a federal copyright suit against 7,098 individuals.

Axel Braun Productions filed the complaint Friday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, alleging that the defendants illegally shared the adult film "Batman XXX: A Porn Parody." The film was written and directed by Axel Braun and distributed by Vivid Entertainment, one of the country's best known porn studios.

In an interview about the suit with Xbiz Newswire, a publication that follows the adult-film … Read more

Accused 'Hurt Locker' pirates turn to law school

Confused, angry, and scared is how the accused film pirates come to Robert Talbot.

As of last week, Talbot, a law professor at the University of San Francisco, was representing 23 people accused by independent film studios of copyright violations. In lawsuits filed against thousands of people from across the country, the filmmakers allege that the defendants distributed unauthorized copies of their movies, such as the Academy Award-winning "The Hurt Locker," across file-sharing networks.

Talbot guesses that no other copyright lawyer in the country defends as many accused file sharers. His program's allure is obvious. He possesses … Read more

Digital City 99: Social Networks, laptop tans, and dreams of PS3/360 friendships

Can you believe we're only one episode away from No. 100? We can't either, and we discuss our various plans for next week's very special podcast. But, while Dan is away in Texas, it leaves Joey, Scott, and Julie feeling restless in the rainy city.

Scott's finally seen "The Social Network," and he finds it oddly self-contained but very well-made. But, as Julie points out, where are the other movies based on computer pioneers? Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were relegated to a 1999 made-for-TV movie. We wonder what other tech endeavors deserve feature treatment...the Palm Pre story?

Also, we discuss "Toasted Skin Syndrome" and whether we fear hot laptops on our skin; Andy Rooney's latest rant goes off on car gadgets, but we find them useful; Joey wonders why PS3/360 multiplatform games can't play with each other (can't a person dream?); and Scott talks about some recently-released games he's played, including the potential sleeper Enslaved and Nintendo's latest Mii-fest, Wii Party.

See you next week on Episode 100!