Piracy

Live-television streaming service Aereo is revving up its fight against major U.S. broadcasters.

The company took out a full-page ad in the front section of The New York Times on Tuesday, making a case as to why its business isn't breaking copyright law.

"People have enjoyed the right to access over-the-air broadcast television using an antenna for over 70 years," the ad says. "About 54 million Americans use some sort of antenna to watch TV. This is not piracy. This has been part of the American way since the beginning of broadcasting."

Aereo is … Read more

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Oakley and golf champ Bubba Watson have teamed to build the world's first hovercraft golf cart. A physicist invents a way to write e-mail using a guitar, and a "Star Trek" phaser rifle from the original series sells for a staggering sum. … Read more

Even the residents of Vatican City need to be entertained, but are they pirating porn?

The blog TorrentFreak recently compiled a report alleging that computers located in Vatican City are downloading pornography. A recent tale of Irish priests enjoying first-run hits at their home movie nights piqued the blog's interest to see what the residents of Vatican City have been downloading.

TorrentFreak recruited the help of ScanEye, a Web site that tracks and analyzes this type of online activity. ScanEye's data found that computers inside Vatican City were downloading films like "Love Actually" and TV shows … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Microsoft may announce the next generation of Xbox on May 21.

- Chinese people burn Apple products to pay respect to the dead; Americans do it just because.

- Here's a list of porn currently being watched in the Vatican.

- The season finale of "Alf": could it have been done differently?… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- The Valve Steam Box is coming.

- How HBO will tackle "Game of Thrones" piracy.

- The Last of Us has a unique plotline with clicking mushroom people.… Read more

The Pirate Bay has broken its operation in two after an organization backed by the music and movie industries took aim at its backer.

According to TorrentFreak, The Pirate Bay today shifted its operational duties to Norway and Spain. Previously, the Swedish Pirate Party was providing it with the bandwidth it needed to operate its site. However, the Rights Alliance, an organization backed by the biggest music and movie companies, threatened to sue the Swedish Pirate Party over its support. That lawsuit could have cut off the Swedish Pirate Party's ability to pay for The Pirate Bay's bandwidth … Read more

This isn't the first time, and probably won't be the last time, that the Recording Industry Association of America will complain about Google's work to tackle copyright infringement and piracy.

The trade group released a report card (PDF) today claiming that little has changed since Google promised to crack down on piracy six months ago.

"We recognize and appreciate that Google has undertaken some positive steps to address links to illegal music on its network," RIAA's EVP and general counsel Steven M. Marks said in a statement. "Unfortunately, our initial analysis concludes that … Read more

The names Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, and Fredrik Neij might not mean much to the average person, but in the annals of Internet history, they will always be known as the co-founders of The Pirate Bay -- one of the most popular file-sharing hubs of all time.

Now you can view an 82-minute documentary titled "TPB AFK" (The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard), a film that chronicles the people behind the Pirate Bay attempting -- and failing -- to navigate past Swedish authorities who accused them of numerous copyright infringement charges.

The movie, released under a Creative Commons license and directed by Simon Klose, officially debuted for free today online and at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. Here's the official synopsis from the "TPB AFK" Web site:… Read more

Thousands of legitimate files are being blocked and removed from users' Mega accounts, even when the file is legal for sharing, according to a report.

TorrentFreak tested the situation, uploading a number of files free for sharing, including, amusingly, a video explaining fair use and a copy of Mega founder Kim DotCom's own music single. All were removed within minutes, with TorrentFreak receiving e-mails from Mega explaining that a take-down notice had been issued on the files.

The problem is that Kim DotCom recently took to Twitter to claim that Mega was receiving only 50 copyright take-down notices a … Read more