Los Angeles - The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this week expanded the ordinance that allows for the county to shutter a property that becomes a "public nuisance," such as in gang or drug-related instances, to include properties used to illegally manufacture and sell recordings and audiovisual works. "This ordinance is an important milestone in our efforts to curb piracy in Los Angeles," said Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). "In its approval of this ordinance, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have officially recognized that piracy isn't just an industry problem, but one that has a significant impact on the local economy as well."

Washington - The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved the PRO-IP Act, a bill pushed for by Hollywood studios that would beef up law enforcement dedicated to protecting intellectual property, as well as increase penalties for piracy. "We applaud the members of the House of Representatives for passing the PRO-IP Act, H.R. 4279," said Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) president Dan Glickman. "It is a comprehensive, bipartisan measure that will strengthen our nation's economy and generate more jobs for American workers by bolstering protections for intellectual property."

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a BitTorrent tracker site that lost a copyright infringement suit filed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) last year, has been ordered by a federal judge to pay a massive $110 million in damages. "This substantial money judgment sends a strong message about the illegality of these sites," said Dan Glickman, chairman and CEO of the MPAA. "The demise of TorrentSpy is a clear victory for the studios and demonstrates that such pirate sites will not be allowed to continue to operate without facing relentless litigation by copyright holders."

New York - New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Monday introduced new legislation, endorsed by leaders of the New York State Senate and Assembly, that would increase penalties on those caught trying to record films in movie theaters for piracy purposes.

Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) yesterday filed a federal copyright infringement suit against Pullmylink.com, saying the site "contributes to and profits from massive copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing and indexing links to infringing content found on the Internet." The site does not host content, but provides links in pop-up windows to third-party video sites where users have posted movies and TV shows.

Los Angeles - TorrentSpy, a site that indexed files available for download from the BitTorrent file-sharing network, and was the target of a lawsuit from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), has permanently closed down the site for all visitors worldwide, TorrentFreak reported.

Beijing - Jeboo, a company that provides Chinese Internet cafes with subscription movie download services, has filed a "reputation infringement" suit against the Motion Picture Association (MPA), according to JLM Pacific Epoch, which cited a report on ChinaNews.com.cn.

Los Angeles - The government of Antigua is threatening to legalize piracy of U.S. music and movies -- with World Trade Organization approval -- should the U.S. fail to end a running dispute over the legality of Internet gambling, Variety reports.

Hong Kong - Five Hollywood studios that sued Chinese Internet café chain media service provider Jeboo, over its subscription movie download service, have settled their pending litigation, with Jeboo agreeing to cease its infringements and pay a "significant" amount in damages.

Hong Kong - The Motion Picture Association (MPA) announced on Friday that six of its member studios have filed civil copyright infringement complaints totaling $1 million against Xunlei, a popular file-sharing network in China that is partly owned by Google (NASD: GOOG). The MPA stated that Xunlei's network offers "hundreds" of its members' titles, including "Spider-Man 3" and "Miami Vice," and noted that it sent 78 separate notices of infringement to Xunlei over a five-week period before initiating the litigation.

Washington - The U.S. House on Thursday approved an education bill that includes provisions stating that universities which receive federal funding need to come up with technological deterrents to campus file-sharing, and look towards offering legal alternatives, CNET News.com reported. The provisions are part of the College Opportunity and Affordability Act, and were applauded by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), while being derided by university groups like Educase and the Association of American Universities.

Washington - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has admitted there was a "human error" in a 2005 study on illegal downloading it commissioned, which attributed 40% of the movie industry industry's domestic losses from illegal downloading to college students -- a figure it now pegs at around 15%, the Associated Press reported. "We take this error very seriously and have taken strong and immediate action to both investigate the root cause of this problem as well as substantiate the accuracy of the latest report," the group said.

New York - Swedish prosecutors are preparing to file charges later this month against the operators of The Pirate Bay, the notorious file-sharing hub that U.S. entertainment companies and the U.S. government has targeted for years, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) estimates there are 157,000 movies, songs and other files available on The Pirate Bay, and that the site draws 1.5 million visitors daily, banking $60,000 a month in advertising revenue.

Los Angeles - A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled in favor of Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) member studios in their copyright infringement suits against BitTorrent index TorrentSpy.com, taking the extraordinary step of terminating the case after finding that TorrentSpy had intentionally destroyed evidence. The case will now proceed directly to the phase where damages are considered, although CNET News.com reports that TorrentSpy will appeal the decision.

Washington - A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a new bill that would increase civil penalties for copyright infringement, bolster criminal enforcement, and create a new federal agency tasked with copyright protection, CNET News.com reported.

Los Angeles - The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced on Wednesday that it has partnered with Singapore's Media Development Authority to create the Center for Content Protection, which will promote secure distribution of digital video content in the Asia-Pacific region. The MPAA says that, of the estimated $6.1 billion the studios lost to piracy worldwide in 2005, $1.2 billion came from piracy across the Asia-Pacific region. The stated goals of the Center are to promote secure distribution of digital TV; educate the public on the digital transition; support technical solutions for legal downloads, home networking and remote access; and discuss anti-piracy solutions among members.

Los Angeles - Five Hollywood movie studios have sued Jeboo, a Chinese service that offers what they say are unauthorized movie downloads through Internet cafes in China, as well as an individual Internet café that offered the service, Reuters reported, citing the state Xinhua news agency.

Washington - The U.S. House Education and Labor Committee on Thursday approved a major college spending bill that includes provisions urging schools to adopt anti-piracy programs on their campus networks, CNET News.com reported. However, it appears that the provisions -- which include investigating "technology-based deterrents" to file-sharing and looking into alternative, legal download services -- will not be directly tied to receiving federal financial aid.

Washington - A bill introduced in the U.S. House on Friday would withhold federal financial aid from colleges and universities that don't test copyright-protection technologies on their campus networks.

Washington - A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday would give the Justice Department the power to pursue civil copyright enforcement actions against individuals who use file-sharing networks. The Intellectual Property Enforcement Act was introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and committee member Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas).