TechReport: Skype Creators, eBay, Investors Near SettlementAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 4, 2009 - 9:29am.
San Francisco - Litigation between the inventors and former
owners of Internet phone service Skype, current owner eBay (NASD: EBAY), and an investor
group looking to acquire Skype from eBay, could be nearing a settlement, The New
York Times reported, citing several people who have been briefed on the
situation. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis -- the inventors of Skype and the
peer-to-peer technology behind file-sharing service Kazaa and video portal
Joost -- sued the investor group in a bid to block their acquisition of Skype
from eBay.
Norwegian Court: ISP Telenor Need Not Block The Pirate BayAuthored 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.
Walmart.com Prices Top 10 Pre-Order DVDs at $10Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 5, 2009 - 1:28pm.
Brisbane,
Calif. - Walmart.com (NYSE: WMT) is now
offering a $10 price tag and free home delivery on its top ten pre-order DVD
and Blu-ray movie titles. Titles available through the offer include
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," "Star Trek" and
"Julie and Julia." The DVD promotion comes as Walmart.com is engaged
in a price-cutting war with Amazon and Target.
Survey: Among Consumers, File-Swappers Spend Most on MusicAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on November 2, 2009 - 8:30am.
Swedish Court: Pirate Bay Operators Must Stop Running SiteAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 29, 2009 - 7:45am.
Stockholm,
Sweden - A
Swedish court has ordered two of the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate
Bay to cease their involvement in operating the site, or else face fines of
$71,000 each, TorrentFreak reported. The story notes that neither Gottfrid Svartholm
nor Fredrik Neij currently reside in Sweden,
nor is The Pirate Bay itself currently hosted on servers within Sweden.
tags: Law | Lawsuits | P2P | Copyright | The Pirate Bay | Peter Sunde | Gottfrid Svartholm | Fredrik Neij |
U.K. Parliament to Consider "Three-Strikes" P2P BillAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 10:14am.
London - The U.K. government plans to introduce a bill
mimicking France's
recently enacted "three-strikes" legislation on file-sharing, which
authorizes the suspension of the Internet accounts of those warned repeatedly
they are violating copyrights, according to published reports. The bill will
"make technical measures available, including account suspension," U.K.
business, innovation and skills minister Peter Mandelson said at a meeting of
government and entertainment industry heads, according to PaidContent's
coverage.
Report: Pirate Bay Being Courted by Four New SuitorsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 28, 2009 - 9:45am.
Stockholm, Sweden - In the wake of the unraveling of Global
Gaming Factory's unsuccessful attempt to acquire The Pirate Bay, as many as
four new suitors have emerged with an eye towards purchasing the file-sharing
hub, TorrentFreak reported, citing Sweden's Dagens Industri. Reservella, the
Seychelles-based holding company that currently owns the Pirate Bay,
is reportedly currently in talks with GamersGate, a Swedish online games firm.
tags: Deals | Video | P2P | Music | Acquisitions | Copyright | The Pirate Bay | Global Gaming Factory | Hans Pandeya | Reservella | GamersGate | Theodore Bergquist |
Roku Offers New HD Set-tops; Cuts Price of Base Model to $79Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 27, 2009 - 12:17pm.
Saratoga,
Calif. - Roku, a maker of
Internet-connected set-top boxes, on Tuesday introduced two new HD-capable models,
and new pricing for its standard model. The $99 Roku HD player and $129 Roku
HD-XR support HD-quality video and audio, while the standard model Roku SD
player will now sell for $79.The devices can deliver content directly from
partners including Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand and MLB.TV.
Dutch Court Orders Pirate Bay to Remove Torrents; Block AccessAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 10:51am.
Amsterdam
- The Amsterdam Court
on Thursday gave the operators of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay three months
to remove a list of copyrighted torrents, and block access to portions of the
site from Dutch users, or else face penalties of $7,500 each per day,
TorrentFreak reported.
France Approves "Three-Strikes" Law on File-SharingAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 22, 2009 - 9:59am.
Paris - France's Constitutional Court
on Thursday approved the country's "three-strikes" law, which will
sever the Internet connections of those found to have been repeatedly
infringing copyrights on file-sharing networks, The New York Times reported. An
earlier version of the law approved by France's Parliament was rejected by
the court, because it did not include a judge's approval before a user's
Internet connection was suspended.
Pirate Bay Appeal Postponed Until Summer 2010Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 19, 2009 - 9:20am.
Stockholm,
Sweden - The
appeal of the copyright infringement convictions of the four operators of
file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay has been delayed, likely until at least next
summer, as questions over potential conflicts of interest of several judges
assigned to hear the appeal are considered, TorrentFreak reported.
Nokia's Comes With Music Subscriber Base: 107,277Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 9:51am.
London
- Nokia's (NYSE: NOK) Comes With Music platform, where users pay extra for music-focused
handsets that come with an unlimited download service, counted just 107,277 users
in nine countries in July, some nine months after launch, according to Nokia
figures published by Music Ally. In the U.K., where the service has been
available since October 2008, the service counts 32,728 users. PaidContent
notes that the service "has been hampered by DRM and complex PC operation
and confusing PC-mobile sync."
Pirate Bay Four Appeal Judge Bias Claims to Supreme CourtAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 16, 2009 - 8:49am.
Stockholm, Sweden - The four operators of file-sharing hub
The Pirate Bay have taken their conflict of interest challenge against two of
the judges assigned to hear their appeal of a conviction on copyright
infringement charges to the Supreme Court in Sweden, TorrentFreak reported.
Skype Creators Seek Injunction Against Former Joost CEO VolpiAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 15, 2009 - 9:00am.
Wilmington,
Del. - The creators of
peer-to-peer services Kazaa, Skype and Joost have asked a federal court for an
injunction against former Joost CEO Mike Volpi and Index Ventures, where he is
now a partner, to prevent them from using trade secrets in their bid to acquire
Skype from eBay. Developers Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis allege that Volpi
breached his duties to Joost while employed there by dangling a prospective
workaround -- that would eliminate the need for Skype to use Zennstrom's and
Friis' peer-to-peer technology -- to investors looking to acquire Skype from
eBay (NASD: EBAY).
tags: Deals | Law | Lawsuits | P2P | eBay | Acquisitions | Skype | Joost | Index Ventures | Mike Volpi | Joltid | Janus Friis | Niklas Zennstrom |
Pirate Bay Buyer: Deal in Doubt; Operators Deny OwnershipAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 8, 2009 - 9:39am.
Stockholm, Sweden - Hans Pandeya, the CEO of would-be Pirate
Bay buyer Global Gaming Factory (GGF), has admitted in a statement that the
company is unsure whether the deal will be completed, Sweden's The Local
reports. Pandeya recently saw some of his assets seized and is facing
bankruptcy proceedings; the GGF executive had previously said he would secure
the acquisition with his own shares, but the company was recently deslited from
a Swedish exchange. "At present, GGF cannot discern whether the acquisition
will be completed regardless of the outcome of the trial," the company
said in a statement.
tags: Deals | P2P | Music | Movies | Acquisitions | Copyright | The Pirate Bay | BREIN | Global Gaming Factory | Hans Pandeya | Reservella |
AT&T to Allow VoIP Applications on its 3G NetworkAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 10:18am.
Dallas
- AT&T (NYSE: T) announced on Tuesday that it has "taken the steps necessary so
that Apple (NASD: AAPL) can enable VoIP application on iPhone to run on AT&T's wireless
network." Previously, such applications were only enabled for use over Wi-Fi
connections. The move will allow Internet-based phone services like Skype, and
potentially Google Voice (NASD: GOOG), to work on the iPhone over AT&T's 3G network.
Report: Studio Attorneys Targeting Pirate Bay Hosting ProvidersAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 6, 2009 - 10:17am.
San Francisco - The website
for file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay was down most of Monday, the result of the
efforts of local attorneys in Sweden
for the Hollywood movie studios to go after
the site's hosting providers, CNET News.com reported, citing Tweakers.net. The
site's current hosting provider, NForce, reportedly complied with the legal
requests to shut the site down. In recent weeks, The Pirate Bay has also been
moved from sites hosted by a Ukraine-based ISP, and Netherlands-based Black
Internet as a result of legal threats, according to the reports. The site is
currently back online.
Google: Pirate Bay Homepage Removal Was "Internal Error"Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 5, 2009 - 10:41am.
Mountain View,
Calif. - The homepage of the
website for file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay was removed from Google's (NASD: GOOG) search
index on Friday as a result of "an internal error and not part of a DMCA
request," Google said in a statement. Reports last week indicated that Google
had received a takedown notice for ThePirateBay.org under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA). The Web page does not itself host any copyrighted
content, but allows users to search out links to bits of files that may be
downloaded from third-party locations.
Google Removes Pirate Bay Homepage from Search ResultsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 2, 2009 - 7:39am.
Mountain View,
Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) has removed the
homepage of file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay from its search results after
receiving a takedown request under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA),
TorrentFreak reported. Users searching for "The Pirate Bay" no longer
see the site's homepage (ThePirateBay.org) in search results -- although the
site's "Browse" and "Movies" pages still come up. The top
result is now PirateBay.com, while the second link is to a Wikipedia entry.
Italian Court Reinstitutes Block on The Pirate BayAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on October 1, 2009 - 9:53am.
Milan
- The Italian Court of Cassation has overturned a prior ruling and once again
blocked access to file-sharing hub The Pirate Bay in the country, Billboard
reported.
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