IFPI

Norwegian Court: ISP Telenor Need Not Block The Pirate Bay

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 6, 2009 - 9:57am.
Oslo, Norway - International record label trade group IFPI has lost its court case that sought to compel Norwegian ISP Telenor to block its subscribers' access to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, TorrentFreak reported.

IFPI Names Banks as Director of Anti-Piracy

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 28, 2009 - 9:14am.
London - The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group, announced on Monday that it has appointed Jeremy Banks to the new position of director of anti-piracy. Banks has headed up the anti-piracy unit for several years, and will now oversee all of IFPI's London anti-piracy activities.

tags: Piracy | Music | Moves | Copyright | IFPI |

Report: Record Label Exec Arrested in Pre-release Piracy Raid

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 11, 2009 - 8:35am.
London - An "executive at a record label" was among those arrested in August in connection with raids conducted on the pre-release piracy group DV8, TorrentFreak reported, citing anonymous sources. Police reportedly believe the unnamed person was one of the sources from whom DV8 secured albums prior to their official release; the group then posts the unreleased tracks to file-sharing networks.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Piracy | Music | Copyright | IFPI | BPI | DV8 |

IFPI Planning Complaints Against Swedish File-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 8, 2009 - 10:27am.
Stockholm, Sweden - International record label trade group IFPI is observing enforcement actions taken by the publishing industry under Sweden's new IPRED anti-piracy law before it launches its own crackdown on file-swappers, TorrentFreak reported. Six months after the IPRED law was enacted -- which compels service providers to identify suspected file-swappers -- no litigation has been launched in the country by the recording industry. In April, on the first day the new law was in effect, file-sharing in Sweden saw a precipitous drop in traffic.

tags: Law | Lawsuits | Music | Sweden | Copyright | IFPI | IPRED |

Irish ISP Eircom Agrees to Block The Pirate Bay

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 20, 2009 - 10:46am.
Dublin, Ireland - Irish ISP Eircom has agreed to demands from copyright holders to block access to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, TorrentFreak reported.

Police Probing Web Leak of Leona Lewis/Timberlake Track

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 19, 2009 - 9:38am.

London - International record label trade group IFPI, and "American Idol" and "X Factor" producer Simon Cowell's record label SyCo have enlisted the police to help catch a hacker who leaked an unreleased track from artists Leona Lewis and Justin Timberlake, according to published reports. "IFPI is working with SyCo and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Europe to trace the individuals who stole the Leona Lewis/Justin Timberlake track," Jeremy Banks, head of IFPI's Internet anti-piracy unit, told Reuters.

Labels Look to Block Pirate Bay Founders From Sale Profits

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 7, 2009 - 9:15am.
San Francisco - The major record labels, through their IFPI trade body, are pressuring Global Gaming Factory to turn over any money they tender to purchase file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay to them instead, CNET News.com reported. Global Gaming Factory agreed in June to acquire The Pirate Bay for $7.8 million, and turn the service into a legitimate, copyright-respecting operation.

Report: Swedish File-Sharing Down in Wake of P2P Law

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 15, 2009 - 7:41am.
Stockholm, Sweden - The conviction of the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, paired with a newly enacted law aimed at prosecuting suspected illegal file-swappers has pushed the level of file-sharing down by 40 to 50% in Sweden, the local Dagens Nyheter reported.

Swedish Court Rejects Bias Charges Against Pirate Bay Judge

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 25, 2009 - 7:57am.
Stockholm, Sweden - A Swedish appellate court has rejected charges from the administrators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay that the judge who found them guilty of copyright infringement was biased because of his ties to several pro-copyright groups, Ars Technica reported. Judge Tomas Norström is a member of the Swedish Copyright Association, and sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, which the Pirate Bay administrators charged would bias him in the case against them.

U.K. Authorities Target Pre-Release Piracy Group DV8

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 22, 2009 - 12:07pm.
London - A U.K. man allegedly connected with the pre-release piracy group DV8 was arrested earlier this month, in the aftermath of a joint investigation by authorities and record label trade groups BPI and IFPI, according to published reports.
tags: Law | Piracy | Music | Copyright | IFPI | BPI | DV8 |

IFPI: 'Three-Strikes' Still Viable; French Will Appoint P2P Judge

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 12, 2009 - 10:02am.
London - In the wake of France's highest court's ruling that prevents cutting off a repeat copyright infringer's Internet access without a court order, international record label lobbying group IFPI believes that the French will instead appoint a special judge to rule on such cases, Billboard reported. "I firmly believe in the 'three-strikes' approach," IFPI head John Kennedy told Billboard. The record industry had pushed a law that would have established an independent body to assess when a user's Internet access could be severed as punishment, but the court ruled that free speech and due process would be infringed.

French High Court Strips Teeth Out of Three-Strikes P2P Law

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 11, 2009 - 9:06am.
Paris - After a rocky road to passage in the French Parliament, the country's controversial "three-strikes" law, which would have disconnected repeat file-swappers' Internet access, has seen the disconnection portion of the law stripped by the country's high court. The law as passed compels ISPs to send warning letters to suspected file-swappers on behalf of copyright holders; after two warnings, it would have enabled an independent administrative authority (HADOPI) to order ISPs to sever a subscriber's Internet access for up to a year.

Record Labels Seek More Pirate Bay Fines; Target ISP

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 20, 2009 - 11:37am.
Stockholm, Sweden - The major record labels have asked a Swedish court to levy additional fines against file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, which despite losing a landmark court case that provided fines and jail time to its operators, continues to operate unabated, TorrentFreak reports.

File-Sharing Hub Mininova Begins Filtering Copyrighted Media

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 6, 2009 - 11:48am.
Los Angeles - With a court date looming, Mininova, which is considered the largest BitTorrent tracker site on the Internet, has begun to implement technology recommended by content owners to filter copyrighted content, TorrentFreak reported.

Pirate Bay Judge's Copyright Interests Prompt Call for Retrial

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 23, 2009 - 8:45am.
Stockholm, Sweden - After a Swedish national radio show reported that the judge who sentenced the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay to a year in prison has connections with several pro-copyright groups, defense lawyers have called for a mistrial, TorrentFreak reports. Judge Tomas Norstrom sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property, and is a member of the Swedish Association of Copyright -- whose membership also includes Henrik Ponten, of the Swedish Anti-Piracy Bureau; movie industry lawyer Monique Wadsted; and Peter Danowsky, of the record label trade group IFPI.

Report: Global Music Sales Down 8% in '08; CD Sales Fall 15%

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 22, 2009 - 9:15am.
New York - Worldwide recorded music sales fell 8% in 2008 to $18.4 billion, dragged by a 19% decline in the U.S., Reuters reported, citing a report from record industry trade group IFPI. Music sales fell by a more modest 6% last year in Europe, and 5% in Latin America -- but were up 1% in Asia.
tags: Music | Reports | Retail | IFPI | Research |

French Parliament Rejects "Three-Strikes" P2P Legislation

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 9, 2009 - 8:20am.
Paris - The French Parliament has surprisingly voted against the "three-strikes" law that would see repeat file-swappers lose their Internet connections, after both the National Assembly and Senate approved differing versions of the bill, according to published reports. Apparently, the ruling UMP party was overconfident that it had enough votes to pass the legislation, but not enough members showed up for the vote, and Socialist parliamentarians showed up in force at the last minute to defeat the bill, by a vote of 21-15.

IFPI: Brazil's Largest Music-Sharing Community Shut Down

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 1, 2009 - 1:18pm.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a record label trade group, announced that it has aided authorities in shutting down what it claims was Brazil's largest Web community offering links to illegal music files. With just under a million registered users, "DiscorafiaS" was a group within Orkut, Google's (NASD: GOOG) social network -- which is the most popular social network in Brazil. IFPI said local industry trade association ABPD and anti-piracy firm APCM Brazil led the actions, which also shut down five other similar groups on Orkut.

Norwegian ISP Telenor Rejects Demands to Block The Pirate Bay

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 3, 2009 - 11:18am.
Oslo, Norway - Norway's Telenor has rejected a demand from record label and movie studio trade groups that its ISP service block access to Sweden-based file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay, Billboard reported.

The Pirate Bay Trial Wraps; Prosecutor Seeks Prison Terms

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 3, 2009 - 9:57am.
Stockholm, Sweden - The Swedish prosecutor and entertainment industry lawyers handling the case against file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay asked the judge for prison terms for the four defendants. The defendants also face up to $180,000 in fines for contributory copyright infringement, as well as $13 million in damages for the 30 copyrighted media files the plaintiffs claim were offered through the site.