EU Court: Downloaders Can Stay Private
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Record labels and film studios cannot demand that telecom companies hand over the names of people suspected swapping illegal downloads, the EUâs top court ruled.
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TWO FILE SHARING companies have been told by a court that they are not liable for people in their networks swapping illegal content.
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The European Union investigates whether saving search data violates privacy laws.
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Police cannot secretly search suspects' computer hard drives over the Internet, a German court ruled Monday.
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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has won a lawsuit against the operators of&#160;TorrentSpy.com, with the judge ruling in favor of the MPAA because the Web site operators tampered with evidence.In a ruling that could have implications for the privacy of Web site users, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ruled that TorrentSpy has infringed MPAA copyrights in a default judgment against the operators of the site.Cooper, in a ruling made public Monday, agreed with the MPAA that defendants Justin Bunnell, Forrest Parker, Wes Parker and Valence Media had destroyed evidence after another judge had ordered them to keep server logs, user IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and other information. TorrentSpy billed itself as a central location to find files distributed on BitTorrent P-to-P (peer-to-peer) networks.The defendants&#39; conduct was &quot;obstreperous,&quot; Cooper wrote in her decision. &quot;They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in a effort to hide evidence of such destruction,&quot; she wrote.TorrentSpy had located its servers in the Netherlands and argued that Dutch law protected them from having to turn over server logs and other information. In May, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian ruled that TorrentSpy must preserve server data logs held in random access memory, or RAM.That decision was widely criticized as being an unreasonable standard because information held in RAM is temporary, but Cooper, in her new ruling, said TorrentSpy destroyed or altered several types of evidence, including user IP addresses, discussion forum postings about the trading of movies and moderator identities. &quot;A substantial number of items of evidence have been destroyed,&quot; she wrote. &quot;Defendants were on notice that this information would be of importance in this case.&quot;TorrentSpy&#39;s lawyer Ira Rothken said his client had concerns about protecting users&#39; privacy. TorrentSpy will appeal Cooper&#39;s decision, he said.&quot;It&#39;s not a ruling on the merits of the case,&quot; he said. &quot;One person&#39;s willful destruction of evidence is another person&#39;s willful attempt to comply with customer privacy policies.&quot;The ruling, if it stands, could expose private information about Web site users in many civil lawsuits, Rothken added. &quot;This doesn&#39;t apply only to TorrentSpy, but to anyone who operates a Web site,&quot; he said.A ruling on damages in case will happen at a later date.The MPAA, which filed the case against TorrentSpy in February 2006, applauded Cooper&#39;s ruling. &quot;The court&#39;s decision ... sends a potent message to future defendants that this egregious behavior will not be tolerated by the judicial system,&quot; John Malcolm, the MPAA&#39;s executive vice president and director of worldwide antipiracy operations, said in a statement. &quot;The sole purpose of TorrentSpy and sites like it is to facilitate and promote the unlawful dissemination of copyrighted content. TorrentSpy is a one-stop shop for copyright infringement.&quot;
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A U.S. federal judge has ruled the Morpheus software program promoted illegal file sharing.
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In a major setback for the music and movie industries, a federal appeals court upholds a lower court's decision in the infamous Grokster case, ruling peer-to-peer services Morpheus and Grokster are not liable for the copyright infringement of their users. By Katie Dean.
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The US Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider whether Internet file-trading networks should be held responsible when their users copy music, movies and other protected works without permission.
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Computer giant Microsoft has told a European judge that it should not have to share its technological secrets with its rivals. In March, the European Commission ordered the firm to share details of its software
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Can the act of file sharing take place "passively," without the users' direct involvement; and if so, can they no longer be held liable for copyright infringement? That's the question a US district court is preparing to consider.
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A federal appeals court yesterday ruled that two developers of file-sharing programs are not legally liable for the copyrighted content their users swap online.
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Late last month, the Court of First Instance in Brussels issued a decision ordering Scarlet, one of Belgium&#39;s leading ISPs, to begin blocking copyrighted material that passes through its servers. The court gave the ISP six months to implement one or more technologies recommended by a court-appointed expert, and threatened the company with fines of up to 2,500 euros per day (roughly US$3,400) if it fails to comply.
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The popular file-sharing service may be forced to shut down if it can not control the uploading of pirated music to its service after a German court ruling.
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The ruling will state whether Microsoft is free of the sanctions imposed on it by EU for violating anti-trust laws. LUXEMBOURG: A European Union judge told a closed meeting he planned to rule within a month
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Slammed for touting unavailable but unlicensed content
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The British Phonographic Industry threatens tough action. &quot;We will get IP addresses and names,&quot; a spokesperson said. &quot;P2P users have a misconception that they are anonymous, but they are not.
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Internet providers do not have to give music firms the names of illegal file-sharers, rules Europe's top court.