While many artists have stepped up to demonize piracy over the years, Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell prefers to see the upside. Describing the effects as “fantastic”, Campbell says there’s a whole new audience coming to the band’s shows, bringing fresh energy to the performance. But how much of this can be attributed to piracy in 2017?
TorrentFreak: Piracy Brings a New Young Audience to Def Leppard, Guitarist Says »
A long-running legal battle between Dutch ISPs and the local anti-piracy organization BREIN over blocking The Pirate Bay has concluded with a ruling in favor of BREIN. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said yesterday The Pirate Bay could be blocked because:
“Making available and managing an online platform for sharing copyright-protected works, such as ‘The Pirate Bay’, may constitute an infringement of copyright”
That summary, from the CJEU’s press release, doesn’t capture a key aspect of the case, which is that The Pirate Bay is not storing any copyright-protected works on its site, merely hosting links to torrents.
Glyn Moody @ PNO: EU’s top court says The Pirate Bay can be blocked, because it knowingly links to unauthorized copyright material »
Denmark’s ISPs are collectively putting their foot down and will no longer surrender identifying subscriber information to the copyright industry’s lawyer armies. This follows a ruling in neighboring Norway, where the Supreme Court ruled that ISP Telenor is under no obligation to surrender subscriber identities, observing that the infraction of the copyright distribution monopoly is not nearly a serious enough issue to breach telecommunications privacy. This has the potential to end a long time of copyright industry free reign in Denmark, and will likely create a long series of court cases.
Falkvinge: Danish ISPs stop providing copyright industry with subscriber identities »
Torrentfreak: Danish ISPs Stand Up Against ‘Mafia-Like’ Copyright Trolls »
Sky Deutschland has won a copyright infringement case against the operator of live streaming site Stream4u.tv, as well as the provider of the hardware that was used to decrypt a Sky signal. The District Court of Hamburg, Germany, ruled that they must pay €18,000 in damages.
Torrentfreak: Hardware Provider is Liable For Live Streaming Piracy, Court Rules »
Techdirt: Piracy Killing Hollywood So Bad That Disney Made More Money In 2016 Than Any Studio Ever »
A group of fansubbers who turned the tables on BREIN by taking the anti-piracy group to court have lost their legal battle. The Free Subtitles Foundation sought a legal ruling determining that fansubbers act within the law, but this week the Amsterdam District Court sided with BREIN on all counts.
Torrentfreak: Unauthorized Subtitles For Movies & TV Shows Are Illegal, Court Rules »
TNW: Court rules fan subtitles on TV and movies are illegal »
From almost a standing start, Sweden has a copyright troll crisis on its hands. Following a ruling by the Patent and Market Court, ISP Telia must hand over the personal details of individuals behind 5,300 IP addresses to companies known to make a business out of settlement fees. In all, around 20,000 persons could be sucked into the controversy.
Torrentfreak: Court Orders ISP to Hand Identities Behind 5,300 IP Addresses to Copyright Trolls »
Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget has begun blocking The Pirate Bay but it will not give up the fight. The provider says that in order to ensure that private players “do not have the last word regarding content that should be accessible on the Internet,” it will be forced to fight any new blocking demands. Meanwhile, several of the blocked domains appear to be linking to legal sites.
Torrentfreak: ISP Blocks Pirate Bay But Vows to Fight Future Blocking Demands »
At the end of 2014 Swedish police confiscated dozens of servers which many believed to belong to The Pirate Bay. The authorities later confirmed that an investigation involving copyright crimes was ongoing, but not much progress has been reported since. According to the prosecutor, the case isn’t getting any stronger, as the statute of limitations for several key crimes is expiring.
Torrentfreak: Pirate Bay Prosecution In Trouble, Time Runs Out For Investigators »
Wenn Gäste illegale Downloads starten, müssen Cafébetreiber keine Gerichtskosten mehr fürchten. Das soll ein neuer Gesetzentwurf regeln, der auch klarstellt: Es gibt weiterhin keine Passwortpflicht für offene Netze.
So, it seems that operators (cafés, hotels, etc.) of open WiFi nets in Germany no longer will be held liable or risk legal costs if it is used by someone for e.g. illegal downloads.
Nor will there be any requirement as such for password protection. However, a court or a national authority can issue an order against a WLAN operator to prevent the repetition of an infringement.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Weniger Haftungsrisiken für offene W-Lan-Netze »
