TorrentFreak Email Update |
- EU Court Bans Anti-Piracy Filters On Hosting Services
- Music Industry Mulls Suing Google Over “Pirate” Search Results
- Book Publishers ‘Shut Down’ Library.nu and iFile-it
| EU Court Bans Anti-Piracy Filters On Hosting Services Posted: 16 Feb 2012 04:48 AM PST
Today the European Court of Justice delivered its ruling, concluding that the social network can’t be forced to install an anti-piracy filter. “This obligation would be contrary to the requirement that a proper balance is ensured between the protection of copyright and the freedom of entrepreneurship, the right to privacy freedom, and the freedom to obtain knowledge and information,” the Court announced. The Court noted that the privacy of users is more important than protecting copyright. In addition, it fears that a filter would result in censorship of legitimate content, thereby obstructing freedom of information. “[The filter] could potentially undermine freedom of information, since that system might not distinguish adequately between unlawful content and lawful content, with the result that its introduction could lead to the blocking of lawful communications,” the Court writes. The unprecedented decision may have major implications for all services in Europe that host user uploaded content, not least among cyberlockers such as RapidShare. Also, the verdict would prevent copyright holders ordering BitTorrent sites to filter uploaded files, something that isoHunt already does based on a US injunction. Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, is happy that the EU Court of Justice has placed the rights of people above those of corporations. “I think it is quite remarkable, and very promising, that Europe’s highest court says outright that the copyright monopoly and people’s right to privacy of correspondence cannot be protected at the same time – and most importantly, that the latter has unequivocal precedence,” Rick Falkvinge told TorrentFreak. “This is what we have been saying since 2006, that there is a strong conflict between the copyright monopoly and fundamental rights. It is quite a relief to see that not only confirmed in black and white, but also a verdict that the fundamental rights override the copyright monopoly.” The entertainment industry on the other hand, will be greatly disappointed, as they are pushing hard for online services to take greater responsibility when it comes to copyright infringement. Today’s ruling follows a similar European Court of Justice ruling last November which concluded that Belgian Internet provider Scarlet could not be forced to monitor subscriber traffic to detect piracy because that would violate the fundamental rights of both the ISP and its subscribers. Source: EU Court Bans Anti-Piracy Filters On Hosting Services
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| Music Industry Mulls Suing Google Over “Pirate” Search Results Posted: 16 Feb 2012 02:31 AM PST
Two months ago the RIAA and IFPI accused Google of massively profiting from piracy and obstructing efforts of rightsholders to reduce the availability of illegal content. Thus far, this row between Google and the entertainment industries has largely taken place behind closed doors, but a confidential document circulating among music industry executives shows that a lawsuit is also being considered. “IFPI’s litigation team, in coordination with the RIAA, is continuing to negotiate with Google to obtain better anti-piracy cooperation in various areas,” the unpublished document obtained by Handelszeitung and partly shared with TorrentFreak explains. It is noted that Google provided recording labels with a special online search interface that allows for mass queries to be marked as infringing. Using this interface, IFPI reported a massive 460,000 Google search results between August and December 2011. In addition, hundreds of Blogger sites were reported and shutdown upon request from the music industry group. But IFPI claims this is still not enough, and is considering suing Google because the company fails to censor links to infringing content. “Google continues to fail to prioritize legal music sites over illegal sites in search results, claiming that its algorithm for search results is based on the relevance of sites to consumers,” the document states. “With a view to addressing this failure, IFPI obtained a highly confidential and preliminary legal opinion in July 2011 on the possibility of bringing a competition law complaint against Google for abuse of its dominant position, given the distortion of the market for legitimate online music that is likely to result from Google’s prioritizing of illegal sites.” In other words, IFPI accuses Google of antitrust practices by failing to censor its search results in favor of the music industry. Strong words, and quite unprecedented if a lawsuit does indeed get filed. A “Voluntary Code of Practice” suggested by the entertainment industries last month revealed that the IFPI and RIAA want all search engines to de-list popular file-sharing sites such as The Pirate Bay, and give higher ranking to ‘legal’ alternatives. Today we learned that if Google doesn’t give in to these demands, an unprecedented lawsuit may follow. Source: Music Industry Mulls Suing Google Over “Pirate” Search Results
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| Book Publishers ‘Shut Down’ Library.nu and iFile-it Posted: 15 Feb 2012 01:11 PM PST
Today delivered another surprise when the site suddenly began redirecting to Google books. Initially it was unclear what motivated the site’s owners to take these drastic actions, but a statement by a coalition of the world’s largest book publishers including Cambridge University Press, Harper Collins, Elsevier and John Wiley & Sons, seems to have cleared up the mystery. The publishers obtained an injunction against Library.nu and the cyberlocker ifile.it from the regional court in Munich. They claimed that both sites were operating an unauthorized “internet library” that made available more than 400,000 high-quality e-books. In addition, the publishers said the sites made $11 million in revenue. The court agreed with the publishers and the owners of the sites were served with an order to halt their infringing activities. As a result, both sites have voluntarily pulled their services offline. Library.nu now redirects to Google books and ifile.it has put up a message stating “no upload servers currently available.” However, this doesn’t mean that the picture painted by the book publishers is accurate. TorrentFreak spoke to the owner of ifile.it who told us that they can barely cover the server costs with the revenue they make. “The site only had premium accounts since November 2011. It was free since 2006 and still is free for those who want to use it for free,” the owner told us. The legal team of the publishers estimated the revenue based on page impressions as well as estimated income from premium accounts, but this figure is laughable according to the ifile.it owner, which makes sense considering the site’s modest size. The owner further said they always try cooperate with publishers and that the site is still fully operational for registered users. Responding to the news, the book publishers declared victory. “This action reflects our commitment to protecting secure, safe, and legitimate use of the Internet,” said Stephen M. Smith, President and CEO of John Wiley & Sons. “It is also evidence of the growing strength of the international community of content creators and providers taking all available legal measures against large illegal platforms,” he added. Jens Bammel of the International Publishers Association, the umbrella organization responsible for tracking down the owners of the two sites, described the file-sharing sites as criminal outfits. “The global publishing industry has once again shown that it can and will stand up against large-scale organised copyright crime,” Bammel says commenting on the news. “We will not tolerate free-loaders who make unearned profits by depriving authors and publishers of their due compensation. This is an important step towards more transparent, honest, and fair trade of digital content on the Internet,” he added. Despite the preliminary success, there are no guarantees that both sites will remain inactive. ifile.it, for example, is still working as usual for registered users. Update: response added from the ifile.it owner, who noted that they only shut down anonymous uploads. Source: Book Publishers ‘Shut Down’ Library.nu and iFile-it
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For several years music rights group SABAM and the social networking site 
It's no secret that the entertainment industries believe search engines are not delivering enough when it comes to protecting copyright works. 
During the past week users of the popular book downloading portal Library.nu started to notice that the site no longer carried links to files. | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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