piracy

An advocacy group created by a number of major media and technology companies plans to promote the Internet as a place for people to get songs, television shows and movies without turning to piracy.

The Motion Picture Association of America is the latest poster child for reasons not to trust research put out by entities with vested interests in the results of the research. The MPAA is having to send out word that their previous estimates of movie piracy on college campuses were a bit overstated—by a factor of three.

Google has faced a lengthy stream of complaints and a lawsuit from Viacom over the continued uploading of copyrighted videos by YouTube users. The debut of their long-awaited content ID tool could help its relationship with Hollywood.

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) did some more surfing on Google Video and found 300 films readily available to visitors.

American movie and music interests have pressured Canadian authorities on the adoption of copyright laws similar to ones in the US. Painting Canada as a piracy haven, however, does not seem to reflect reality.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, and nothing I say should be taken as any sort of informed legal opinion.

In its ongoing battle of futility against file sharing, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has published a list of the academic institutions that the organization has deemed as the top offenders when it comes to sharing music over a peer-to-peer connection. In total, the RIAA sent out over 14,500 copyright infringement notices during the last academic year, with Ohio University topping the list at 1,287 letters – accounting for nearly ten percent of the alleged illegal music sharing.

A promise to deliver software that will detect infringing content uploaded by YouTube's enthusiastic video sharing users has not been fulfilled.