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Hollywood Sues Advertiser at Movie Piracy Sites
Sweden to Finally Get a Second Pirate MEP?
Pirate Bay The Movie To Be Funded By Peers

Hollywood Sues Advertiser at Movie Piracy Sites

Posted: 28 Aug 2010 04:09 AM PDT

A company that worked with sites that linked to copies of Hollywood blockbusters has become the target of a new lawsuit. The legal action filed by Disney and Warner Bros. says that Triton Media was guilty of both contributory and inducement of copyright infringement when it assisted several sites with advertising and referrals.

There have been many innovative anti-piracy strategies over the years, from simple scare tactics to high profile hammer-blow aggression, from ISP pressure to the more recent attempts at domain name seizure. This week, a new tactic has been witnessed in the United States – an attack on those who provide financing for file-sharing venues – the advertisers.

In a complaint dated 23rd August and filed in the U.S. District Court in California, movie giants Disney and Warner Bros revealed their intention to go after Triton Media, a Scottsdale, Arizona-based company they claim “owned, operated, provided advertising consulting and referrals for, and/or provided other material assistance” to nine movie-centric sites.

The Complaint

The sites – freetv-video-online.info, supernovatube.corn, donogo.com, watch-movies.net, watchmovies-online.tv, watch-movies-links.net, havenvideo.com and thepiratecity.org – are said to have a primary purpose to provide “their users access to content that has been unlawfully reproduced, distributed, publicly performed, and/or publicly displayed.”

The content listed includes Ratatouille and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for Disney, and The Bucket List, Fool’s Gold and Smallville for Warner Bros.

While the majority of the sites listed above merely offered links to Disney and Warner movies, the lawsuit states that two – supernovatube and donogo – are sites that actually stored the plaintiffs’ movies. Interestingly it states that donogo (currently offline) was actually owned and operated by Triton Media. Readers will recall that thepiratecity.org recently had its domain name seized as part of the FBI-run Operation In Our Sites.

The lawsuit states that Triton Media is guilty of both contributory copyright infringement and induced copyright infringement and as such the plaintiffs “are entitled to the maximum statutory damages as permitted by federal copyright law”.

Although details are scarce at the moment, the part that Triton played in the sites’ operation will prove key in this case. Definitely one to watch in the months to come, as the implications for other US-based advertisers could be huge.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

Sweden to Finally Get a Second Pirate MEP?

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 01:36 PM PDT

The EU election last June was a surprise for many, as the Piratpartiet got a seat with over 7% of the votes. Then when the Lisbon Treaty passed and they were awarded a second seat in the European Parliament. However, it wasn't without drawbacks as the second seat has yet to be filled. That may happen soon.

amelia The rise of the Piratpartiet (Swedish Pirate Party) over recent years has been fairly meteoric. From zero January 1st 2006, to the third largest party by membership in mid 2009, it has seemingly tapped the political imagination of the youth in Sweden in recent years.

Nowhere else was that more apparent than in the June 2009 EU elections, when they carried a surprise 7.3% of the vote. This election result gave them one seat in the European Parliament.

The seat was taken by Christian Engstrom, (who also happens to have been the most popular MEP) with the potential for an additional seat if the Lisbon Treaty went through. The treaty passed in November 2009 and came into force as of December 1st 2009. The Piratpartiet were confirmed to have gained a second seat, which went to 22 year old Amelia Andersdotter, but several months later she still had not been able to take her seat.

Fast forward to August 2010 – almost 15 months after the election and 9 months after the ratification of the treaty – the EU is finally realizing that there are a number of Parliament Members that were elected, but never seated (Ghost MEPs). That may be about to change.

Ms. Andersdotter notes on her blog that she may soon be able to start representing her country, as she was elected to do. She just needs an ‘aye’ from the Council of Presidents (funnily enough, headed by the EU President, a position created by the same Treaty as Ms Andersdotter’s seat, but filled without either election or delay) to gain observer status, meaning they can do everything but vote. They get that ability when all nations approve the ‘transition protocols’. While the first vote could take place within 2 weeks time, the latter will probably take longer, especially as some countries (France) still haven’t assigned their extra MEPs.

A report in yesterday’s Times of Malta has put some doubt on the process though, as the EU is apparently strapped for cash and unable to afford the extra MEPs.

An EU parliamentary official told the Times, "Unfortunately, it seems the new MEPs, including the one from Malta, will not be able to join as observers this year because the EP has not allocated funds for this purpose in this year's budget," adding there may be some money to pay for the Ghost MEPs in the 2011 budget, but that it’s not been decided to invite them even then, so it’s not been allocated yet.

Then again, this is a body that was unable to pass a law banning 3-strikes laws, despite 88% support, so anything is possible.

Article from: TorrentFreak.

Pirate Bay The Movie To Be Funded By Peers

Posted: 27 Aug 2010 08:00 AM PDT

TPB-AFK, the upcoming documentary about The Pirate Bay and its founders, is expected to be released during the fall of 2011. To complete the project, Swedish filmmaker Simon Klose is starting a campaign tomorrow through which he hopes to crowdsource the funding. True to BitTorrent's nature, peers are asked to contribute to the project.

tpb-afk The Pirate Bay has left its mark on the Internet in recent years, and continues to do so as the most visited torrent site of all time. As a result of their battles with Hollywood and other copyright holders, the people who founded the site have become Internet celebrities, celebrities that will soon have their own film credit.

To document the events that happen surrounding the Pirate Bay, Swedish filmmaker and producer Simon Klose started making a documentary about the site titled ‘TPB-AFK’. For the film, Klose followed the defendants both during the Pirate Bay trial of last year and after, and he will also be present at the upcoming appeal next month.

The film will eventually document all the events from a fly-on-the-wall perspective. To complete the documentary, however, Klose needs funding and he hopes to achieve that by asking people who believe in the project to contribute through donations. The official website of the project will be launched tomorrow, along with a discussion forum and a Kickstarter campaign where people can pledge funds.

“I want to prove that people who claim that the network is threatening cultural creation are wrong, and I will ask the Internet for help,” filmmaker Simon Klose said, commenting on his choice to crowdsource the film’s funding.

TorrentFreak contacted Peter Sunde, former Pirate Bay spokesperson and one of the film’s subjects, to ask him about his experiences thus far. “We’re happy with it, as long as the end result is good. So far it looks very good and Simon know that we are cautious, so he listens,” he explained.

Sunde further stressed that other than allowing the filmmaker into their lives, the Pirate Bay co-founders are not affiliated with the project in any way. “It is his project, we don’t own or direct anything. We just help by giving him our time,” he said.

Last year, some early TPB-AFK footage already found its way onto the Internet. The material shows the crew working out how much money they have earned from the site. More evil plans and true motivations of the former site owners are expected to be unfolded in the final release.

“leaked” TPB-AFK footage

Article from: TorrentFreak.

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