On Tuesday, the United Kingdom’s High Court ruled in Dramatic Entertainment v. British Sky Broadcasting that the operators of the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay were liable for copyright infringement in violation of the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1998, for both authorizing infringement and also under accessorial theories of liability. This recent [...]

Yesterday, an international alliance of 17 publishing companies, with support of Copyright Alliance member AAP, took legal action against two rogue websites peddling pirated e-books.  The operators of the sites www.library.nu and ww.ifile.it were served after an over seven-month effort spanning seven countries to identify and locate the perpetrators.  The website operators, who went to [...]

Earlier today, The Paley Center for Media hosted a discussion on Protecting Content and Promoting Innovation in the Digital World.  Guest speakers included Richard Cotton, Executive Vice President and General Counsel of NBCUniversal, and Fred Wilson, venture capitalist and principal at Union Square Ventures. The discussion focused on how the content and tech industries can work together in eliminating the [...]

During last month’s SOPA and PROTECT IP Act debates, one thing it appeared all sides could agree on was that the problem of piracy by rogue sites was one worth working on.  Over and over we heard from the bills’ opponents that digital theft was a legitimate problem, they were just opposed to the proposed [...]

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) released a new report on Friday, which documents in detail the worst foreign infringers of U.S. intellectual property as well as the scope of the problem. The report, which can be read in its entirety here, is the product of extensive research and meticulously documents the concerns of American [...]

Cary Sherman of the Recording Industry Association of America has an oped in today’s New York Times: What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You.  In it he calls out the most vocal opponents of recent rogue sites legislation for using their platform to spread misinformation: “The hyperbolic mistruths, presented on the home pages of some of the [...]

As millions of Americans prepare to watch the New York Giants take on the New England Patriots (or tune in to see Monday’s most talked about commercials) U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the NFL are taking steps to crack down on illegal live video streams and counterfeit merchandise.  At an NFL press conference today, [...]

The highly documented takedown of the site Megaupload.com on January 19th has provoked much speculation as well as retaliation.  We spent the last week looking over the indictment and to learn more about the takedown of Megaupload.com and what it means for future IP enforcement. Megaupload claimed to have over 150 million registered users and [...]

Today’s Wall Street Journal opinion page features an oped by economist Stan Liebowitz.  In it he refutes the oft-cited claim that some how piracy promotes sales and stresses that maintaining the status quo would continue to put content industries at risk while enabling for-profit pirates.  He writes:   “A balancing of competing legitimate interests is always [...]

The hours leading up to and during yesterday’s blackout of websites in the name of protesting anti-piracy legislation prompted a flurry of coverage, more stark claims about the impending death of the Internet, and knee-jerk reactions to the outcry. Much like waking up with a bad hangover, however, the morning after may provide a moment [...]