TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Swedish Piracy Crackdown: #2 Torrent Site Calls It Quits
- Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuits Stopped Over Unlicensed Attorney
- European Court of Justice To Examine ACTA For Rights Breaches
| Swedish Piracy Crackdown: #2 Torrent Site Calls It Quits Posted: 23 Feb 2012 02:44 AM PST On February 1st, Sweden's Supreme Court announced that it would not be granting leave to appeal in the long-running Pirate Bay case. This means that the prison sentences and millions of dollars in fines previously handed out to the four defendants will stand. Quickly, prominent copyright enforcers for the entertainment industries – Hollywood lawyer Monique Wadsted and Antipiratbyrån lawyer Henrik Pontén – announced that the decision would signal a new crackdown on file-sharing sites in Sweden. Although there was no immediate news of site closures, now there is a significant development. Tankafetast, Sweden’s second largest torrent site behind The Pirate Bay, has announced that it has ceased its operations with immediate effect. “After many ifs and buts, we have decided to close down TankaFetast,” the site’s operators said in a statement.  “Maybe we can one day see an end to the fascist tendencies that comfortable businessmen in the film industry and corrupt politicians have turned to something common in recent years.” While Tankafetast may not be hugely popular overseas, its importance in Sweden was reflected by its inclusion in Google’s 2010 Zeitgeist report. At the time the site claimed 39 million page views per month. “As long as we allow the reality of facing fossils bribe away our rights, they will do it. We will never agree that copying is theft, and will always consider the distribution of culture as something positive,” the site’s operators conclude. At the start of the month the entertainment industry lawyers said that more than 150 file-sharing sites with Swedish connections would be pressured to close. According to Henrik Pontén of Antipiratbyrån, Tankafetast’s closure is a result of their action. “We can confirm that we have acted against Tankafetast and many other similar sites,” he told TorrentFreak this morning. The bitterness in the site’s shutdown statement certainly appears to confirm that. However, the Swedish Pirate Party are claiming that Tankafetast’s loss is their gain. The site encouraged outgoing users to join up to Piratpartiet to assist with the fight against over zealous copyright enforcement, a push which resulted in 250 new members for the Party overnight.  “Tankafetast gave the party the best parting gift you can imagine,” says Party leader Anna Troberg. “By helping the party to get more activists we have strengthened the Party’s capacity to work for a reform of copyright which is in line with the times and can not be used to tighten the thumbscrews on ordinary culture lovers.” Significant copyright enforcement actions in Sweden have resulted in membership boosts for the Pirate Party not only locally but worldwide. Following the first Pirate Bay trial in 2009, the Party added record-breaking numbers of new members but administrative issues meant they couldn’t maintain all of them longer term. “We learned a lot from the huge influx of members after the first Pirate Bay trial. Then we weren’t able to take care of all new members,” says Troberg. “We will this time.” To the south-west of Sweden in the Netherlands, local anti-piracy outfit BREIN is reporting that during 2011 they managed to shut down 383 BitTorrent sites, 83 streaming sites, 71 cyberlocker link sites and 52 Usenet indexers. The news would of course be even more dramatic if we could back up these claims with some site names and other details, but BREIN are traditionally tight-lipped on providing extra information to accompany their annual reports. Source: Swedish Piracy Crackdown: #2 Torrent Site Calls It Quits
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| Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuits Stopped Over Unlicensed Attorney Posted: 22 Feb 2012 02:43 PM PST
Through these mass lawsuits the copyright holders are trying to obtain the personal details of BitTorrent users who allegedly shared their material online. Once this information is handed over, they then offer the defendant the opportunity to settle the case for a few hundred up to a couple of thousand dollars. The scheme is used by well known copyright holders such as the makers of the Oscar winning movie The Hurt Locker and book publishers John Wiley and Sons. However, the majority of the cases are filed by adult entertainment companies. Many of these companies can make more money from lawsuits than selling content and are often described as copyright trolls. Tarik Hashmi of the Transnational Law Group is one of the attorneys who filed dozens of cases on behalf of adult companies in Florida. However, these have now been halted by District Court Judge Hinkle and may be soon dismissed entirely. It appears that Hashmi is practicing law in the Florida federal court without the proper license, an issue that was brought up by a notice three defendants filed at the court. “All proceedings and all deadlines that have not passed are stayed pending a determination of whether these cases should be dismissed—or other appropriate action taken—based on the notice suggesting that the plaintiffs' attorney Terik Hashmi resides but is not licensed to practice law in Florida,” Judge Hinkle writes. While the attorney is given a chance to respond to the allegations, for now he is no longer allowed to demand settlements from the thousands of defendants who are accused in 27 separate mass-BitTorrent lawsuits. “Until this issue is resolved by a further order of this court, Mr. Hashmi must not attempt to settle any of these cases, must not accept any payment in settlement of any of these cases, and must not take any other action in any of these cases,” the judge writes. If the investigation into Hashmi concludes that the attorney is indeed not qualified, all cases are likely to be dismissed. Although this would be great news for the thousands of people accused in these specific cases, it will do little to stop new mass-BitTorrent lawsuits from being filed. As long as the scheme is greatly profitable for both attorneys and the copyright holders, the lawsuits will continue.
Source: Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuits Stopped Over Unlicensed Attorney
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| European Court of Justice To Examine ACTA For Rights Breaches Posted: 22 Feb 2012 06:38 AM PST
ACTA, a treaty aimed at harmonizing copyright enforcement globally, has been mired in controversy from its inception not least since its formulation has taken place behind closed doors. Critics fear it would introduce more online censorship and increased surveillance of Internet users. “We are planning to ask Europe's highest court to assess whether ACTA is incompatible – in any way – with the EU’s fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property,” said De Gucht. During the past few weeks protests against ACTA have swept across Europe, with citizens taking to the streets in several major cities. De Gucht said he understands why people are worried. “I share people's concern for these fundamental freedoms. I welcome that people have voiced their concerns so actively – especially over the freedom of the internet. And I also understand that there is uncertainty on what ACTA will really mean for these key issues at the end of the day,” the trade chief said. “So I believe that putting ACTA before the European Court of Justice is a needed step. This debate must be based upon facts and not upon the misinformation or rumor that has dominated social media sites and blogs in recent weeks.” De Gucht insists that ACTA will not lead to the censorship or closing down of websites and will not hinder freedom on the Internet or freedom of speech, but said that the referral to the European Court of Justice would help “cut through this fog of uncertainty.” So far the ACTA agreement has been signed by 22 EU member states, but several countries including Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria and Czech Republic have backed away (at least temporarily) from ratifying the agreement following the recent protests. Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States signed ACTA last October, leaving acceptance in the European Parliament and EU member states as the final hurdle before it goes into effect. The Court of Justice’s view on ACTA’s compatibility with EU’s fundamental rights and freedoms will be key for many lawmakers. Previously researchers concluded that ACTA does indeed violate human rights. Whether the Court of Justice will reach a similar conclusion has yet to be seen, but in two previous rulings on anti-piracy filters the court placed the rights of the general public above those of copyright holders. Source: European Court of Justice To Examine ACTA For Rights Breaches
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The ongoing mass-BitTorrent lawsuits in the U.S. continue to keep the United States judicial system busy. More than 250,000 people have been sued over the last two years and new lawsuits are being filed every week.
In an announcement this morning, EU trade chief Karel De Gucht said that following discussion with fellow Commissioners, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will be referred to the European Court of Justice.| 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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