Displaying items by tag: Piracy

How big is the Video Game Industry? About 10.5 Billion dollars a year (in 2009), according to the ESRB. Only .5 Billion or so came from computer game sales, leaving the other 10 Billion or so to come mostly from dedicated game consoles. This data accounts for both new and used video game purchases, as well as rentals. According to figures from September, 2012, about half of the video game market is digital, rental, or used sales.

The Dutch anti-piracy organization Brein has won a multi-year effort after a big court victory that could have far-reaching consequences for hosting companies in the EU and perhaps in the world. According to a verdict from the International Court of Justice in Hague, which is in charge of the process because XS Networks was found responsible for copyright infringement simply for hosting the Sumo Torrent site, the court gave the right to Brein to shut down XS Networks.

Internet subscribers to AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon have a nasty surprise ahead. Their freedoms online are about to be curbed. Torrent services and other means of downloading or accessing material questionably are being monitored via MarkMonitor. MarkMonitor is a company who has been contracted by the aforementioned Internet Service Providers and interested copy right holders. This conglomeration of big business is known as the Center for Copyright Information. MarkMontior is a firm whose sole purpose is to monitor and report on internet based activity which violates the legal interests of companies such as these.

Halo 4 will be released worldwide on November 6, 2012 but a pirated version of the game has already leaked to the web and can be found on popular torrent sites. We are not surprised that Halo 4 has already been pirated as this is one of Microsoft’s most popular games especially if you consider the multiplayer side. Users are eager to try it and they will, in most cases download the pirated version, at least to try it. This really pissed Microsoft off; they decided to permanently ban all Xbox Live users that are caught playing a pirated version of the game while their console is connected to the Internet.

There is something interesting happening in the US; ok several something’s actually and we are not sure if they are good or bad at this point. The first is that there appear to be more judges actually looking into the claims that the copyright lobby are trying to claim when they go after individuals and even corporations for copyright infringement. We have watched as precedent has been set in the form of very unusual verdicts such as one handed down recently that states Web Sites are not responsible for links posted by their members which might violate copyright. This nice ruling means that the MPAA and RIAA must prove that the links were placed on a site by the owner or that they encouraged the posting of these links. Of course we have seen that the MPAA, RIAA and other copyright holders rarely stand on ceremony and will claim a site is encouraging piracy right out of the gate (we don’t need no stinking proof).  So while the ruling was rather monumental it did not stop the unsubstantiated take down requests and certainly is not going to help Megaupload or any other site in reality.

Gottfrid Svartholm was arrested last month in Cambodia, transferred to Sweden, and kept in jail ever since. There was a lot of speculation as to why was he arrested and when he landed in Sweden the authorities stated it was because of his involvement in hacking IT company Logica and stealing around 9,000 tax numbers. He wasn’t officially charged in the Logica case so by Law he should have been kept in prison for just a few days. After that period has passed the Prosecutor Henry Olin extended this term for two more weeks, and last Friday he's done it again.

A Chinese court ruled that the Cupertino company, mostly known for their original ideas and patents on everything (sarcasm), was responsible for the sale of unauthorized digital copies of an encyclopedia published by Encyclopedia of China Publishing House. Even though the publisher asked for RMB 530,000 ($84,200), the final judgment that came on Thursday by Beijing's Second Intermediate People's Court was that Apple needs to pay a bit lower sum, RMB 520,000 ($82,600).

While downloading any sort of files via BitTorrent you are sure to leave a trace, and the whole BitTorrent system is under constant surveillance. uTorrent has decided to improve their users privacy by randomizing peer-id's, but the users IP is still public and relatively easy to find. If you can’t or don’t secure your privacy via VPN (Virtual Private Network) you will leave a trail that can cause some legal consequences; that is if you download illegal material. As mentioned above, there are two ways of tracking users, via IP addresses or via peer-id's and so far the peer-id has been a constant for BitTorrent and uTorrent users.

Four members of the popular release group IMAGiNE were arrested earlier this year, and this week the last of them, Jeramiah Perkins, admitted that he was breaking copyright law. They were all found guilty and now face a sentence of 5 years in prison, along with $250,000 fine. Their arrests came after they were reported by the MPAA to the feds and after they stopped publishing new movies in September it was pretty obvious that something went wrong. Possibly the main reason that the group was caught is their private BitTorrent tracker, UnleashTheNet. After its launch it became very popular very quickly and probably led to the discovery of the founders true identity

After Gottfrid Svartholm, Pirate Bay founder was sentenced to one year in jail he went missing. Now Cambodian police have arrested him on Thursday. It is still not clear if he was arrested because of his involvement in The Pirate Bay as it was stated by his lawyer Ola Salomonsson “As far as I understand it is because he is on an international wanted list”. He was arrested in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, his hometown for the last few years. Sources said that he was arrested in apartment above the cafe on the riverfront, a place named Cadilla Bar, where he apparently often stayed.