| QUOTE (Michelle @ Jun 1 2006, 03:02 PM) |
| http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5036268.stm Rather annoying. I used to use that site semi-regularly. <_< Wonder how long torrentspy and isohunt can keep out of the radar for? :ermm: |
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| Banned 'piracy' website re-opens A website accused of directing users to pirated films, music and software has reopened just days after it was closed by Swedish police. "We just got the servers up and running. They're not totally stable yet," said Fredrik Neij, one of those behind ThePirateBay.org. "But we expect the site to be w**king as normal within the hour," he added. Law enforcement officials raided 10 locations on Wednesday, confiscating computers and detaining three people. Neij told the AFP news agency on Friday that he was "not worried about further police action because we have hired more servers in the Netherlands". ThePirateBay.org had described itself to be the largest search index for BitTorrent, a system used for sharing large files across the internet. The entertainment industry welcomed the action against a site it argued was a major source of music and film piracy. Legal position The people behind the site argued they were not breaking the law. They maintain that the site's function was to direct users towards the files that they search for and manage the uploads and downloads. The website itself did not hold any copyright files themselves. Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal ThePirateBay.org statement The legality of the website has not been tested in Swedish courts. In a statement the police said the people had been taken in for questioning "on suspicion of breaking copyright law or abetting the breaking of copyright law". A statement on ThePirateBay.org website questioned the reason behind the police action. "The necessity for securing technical evidence for the existence of a web service which is fully official, the legality of which has been under public debate for years and whose principals are public persons giving regular press interviews, could not be explained," said the statement. "Asked for other reasoning behind the choice to take down a site, without knowing whether it is illegal or not, the officers explained that this is normal," it added. Story from BBC NEWS: |
| QUOTE (Bill The Bloodless @ Jun 3 2006, 01:34 PM) |
| Just bring back hanging for piracy and the problem will go away. ;) |
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Swedish piracy row gathers pace Pro file-sharing protestors, AP The raid prompted protests in Stockholm The row between supporters of a Swedish website accused of piracy and the nation's authorities is escalating. A raid on The Pirate Bay site by Swedish police is thought to have been the catalyst for hack attacks on official websites. The attacks are being investigated by the Swedish security service, its domestic intelligence agency. Protestors took to the streets of Stockholm on Saturday to show their support for the BitTorrent search site. Raid reaction The Swedish government website was unavailable late on Saturday following an attack that, it is thought, was related to the raids on The Pirate Bay. Although never entirely offline, the site was hard to reach for about nine hours, a government spokesman said. As a result of this seemingly irrational and disproportionate move by police, our entire business, in effect, has also been seized Christopher Adams, GameSwitch The Pirate Bay describes itself as a search site for BitTorrent, a net technology that lets people share large files over the net. It was raided by police amid claims that it was giving people access to copyrighted material. Some 200 servers were seized and three men arrested in the action. The day after the raids, the website of Sweden's police force was knocked offline. The Security Police intelligence agency is now investigating both attacks. Other official bodies in Sweden, including 21 local authorities and 31 organisations that deal with emergencies, were told to beef up defences on their websites to ward off attacks. The Pirate Bay, which claims to have more than a million registered users, was back up and running soon after the raids as servers were moved to the Netherlands. Street protest In 2005 Sweden passed laws that ban the downloading of copyrighted movies and music but the country is also home to a sizeable group who believe the net should give people free access to media files. Several hundred of these people staged a protest in Stockholm on Saturday to highlight what they saw as heavy-handed tactics by the nation's police forces. Protests also came from other firms caught up in the raids. Game Switch, which provides servers to support online gaming, said the police had mistakenly seized its hardware when it took action against The Pirate Bay. "As a result of this seemingly irrational and disproportionate move by police, our entire business, in effect, has also been seized," said Christopher Adams, GameSwitch director in the statement. |
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| Warning over 'illegal' MP3 site Britons using bargain music download website allofmp3.com have been warned that they are breaking the law. Record industry trade association the BPI said consumers were breaking UK copyright law because allofmp3.com was not licensed to sell recordings. The Russia-based site, which offers albums to download for as little as £1, claims to be licensed. The BPI said it planned to sue allofmp3.com in the UK courts but that users would not be prosecuted. Allofmp3.com is the second most popular download site in the UK, accounting for 14% of downloads, a survey has said. BPI spokesman Matt Phillips said: "There is no doubt it is totally illegal. "It is illegal for them to sell the recordings in Russia or anywhere else because they are not licensed, and UK consumers are infringing copyright law because they are making illegal copies from an unlicensed source." BPI General Counsel Roz Groome on Tuesday told the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee that allofmp3.com's claims to be legal were false. "We are going to sue allofmp3.com in the UK courts - we are going to seek a judgement not against the users of the site, but against the site itself," she said. Rock bottom Allofmp3.com offers individual tracks for as little as about 4p, compared with about 80p on most sites. "Because it is a professionally put together site it does look legitimate, although it should be obvious from the price that it isn't," Mr Phillips said. "It is able to charge rock bottom prices as it doesn't pay the artists and record companies, whatever it claims." The website says it is licensed by the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) and the Rightholders Federation for Collective Copyright Management of Works Used Interactively (FAIR). But the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said the ROMS licence was not legitimate and it would not cover consumers in other countries even if it was. It said criminal proceedings were ongoing in Russia related to allofmp3.com. Story from BBC NEWS: |