On May 31, 2006, BitTorrent as many people know it came to a grinding halt. The Swedish National Criminal Police raided Rex|Port80, the home of The Pirate Bay and at least 200 other domains. The raid disrupted The Pirate Bay, throwing much of the BitTorrent community into chaos.

However, this bewilderment would prove temporary as The Pirate Bay is once again online. True to its defiant nature, The Pirate Bay is again indexing many of the same .torrent files that made it wildly popular.

News of The Pirate Bay’s resurrection comes as little surprise. The Pirate Bay spokesperson “brokep” promised Slyck.com the site would resolve under a different country’s flag if an immediate resolution could not be reached in Sweden.

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This is a court case from Virginia where officers searched a man’s car because they saw what appeared to be home made cds on the seat of the car. They then found marijuana and arrested the man. He appealed the decision and the eveidence of the marijuana was thrown out because of the unlawful search. What I find very interesting is the officers had “training from the recording industry in recognizing pirated cds.”

What if the guy was a musician and it was his music? Talk about guilty until proven innocent. Where does the recording industry’s influence stop? They are conducting raids in foreign countries, training police here, what next? Their own terror squad?

A man who duped customers into believing they could download copyrighted MP3 files without violating the law has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that his claims were false.

Cashier Myricks, Jr., operator of mp3downloadcity.com, agreed to pay $15,240 to the 611 customers who signed up to use the service to exchange music, movie and game files.

The FTC said in a statement that Myricks is also barred from misrepresentations about P2P (define) file-sharing products or services and must explain the civil and criminal liability risks of downloading copyrighted material without the owner’s permission.

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StreamCast sues eBay, Sharman sues P2Pnet, Creative sues Apple, and the MPAA sues TorrentSpy. In an online world turned upside down, what other bizarre combinations can occur? Reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon taking the offensive against an imperial Star Destroyer, TorrentSpy has filed a lawsuit against the MPAA. Read more »

Support a worthy course! This is from P2P net:

I’ve been doing my level best to keep this low key and between myself and Sharman Networks because I truly believe this is a 100%, solid gold, carved in rock freedom of speech issue, about people being able to say what they think and express what they believe online (or anywhere else) without fear. So Yes, I’m an evangelist. And Yes, I’m on a mission. Yes, I want to keep p2pnet online, and of course, I also want to keep my family safe because this has the potential to seriously affect us to a far greater extent than it’s done already, and no mistake.

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Several big travel sites are facing legal action in the US over unpaid hotel taxes.

Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego and Philadelphia are all taking action against sites including Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. The State of Texas is also getting involved. The different actions may be joined together as a class action case.

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US anti-piracy group the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) filed lawsuits yesterday against three suspected pirates who use eBay to sell copies of anti-virus software. The cases were filed at the District Court, Central District of California.

The three accused were selling copies of Symantec and McAfee products between October and November 2005.

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We don’t have an idiot section so we will place this story under humour.

Two teenagers were charged with setting fires in suburban Washington after they bragged about the blazes on MySpace.com, authorities said.

The 17-year-old schoolmates were involved in 17 fires in Montgomery County, fire officials said Friday. The teens face 22 charges, including two counts each of first-degree arson and four counts of second-degree arson.

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Six months after the world’s first criminal conviction of a movie uploader, Hong Kong customs authorities have arrested a 16-year-old Kwun Tong student for using his home computer to make more than 600 songs and 20 movies available for free download on a personal Web site.

Unlike previous file-sharing cases involving peer-to-peer software, the 16-year-old used a high-speed data line and special software to convert his computer into a server, inviting his friends and anyone else on the Internet to distribute the copyrighted files.

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The New York state attorney general has levied a $12 million fine against Universal Music Group for payola.

This is the largest fine so far in the war between Eliot Spitzer and the music industry, surpassing the $10 million that Sony had to pay and the $5 million for Warner Music Group.

But Universal — home of many overnight stars including several rappers who’ve come and gone — would be the place for this. The company has had enormous success, but at the same time encountered lawsuits from middle-men distributors claiming inflated sales numbers — double dipping at the cash register, so to speak.

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Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the families of George Harrison and John Lennon control the Apple Corps label.

They claimed the US firm broke a deal aimed at ensuring there would not be two Apples in the music industry.

But Mr Justice Anthony Mann ruled that the computer company used the Apple logo in association with its store, not the music, and so was not in breach.

The ruling means iPods and iTunes will still be able to carry the Apple name and logo.

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ohn Thys still hasn’t figured out how much his company has paid Google Inc. for bogus sales referrals caused by “click fraud” — a sham aimed at a perceived weakness in the Internet search leader’s lucrative advertising network.But Thys says he has uncovered enough of it to conclude that Google is trying to shortchange his company and thousands of other advertisers by offering refunds totaling $60 million to settle a lawsuit.

“It’s almost like an insult that they expect us to take this token money,” said Thys, director of Internet marketing for Radiator.com.

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Under the predawn sky on June 29, 2005, federal agents armed with arrest warrants and Glock handguns banged on the door of the house at 38244 Hastings St. in Fremont, Calif. “FBI!” they shouted. Their target was a heavyset 24-year-old biker named Chirayu Patel, alleged to be a leader of the “Boozers” and a handful of other underground gangs that illegally copy and load onto the Internet blockbuster movies such as Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins.

Patel’s dad answered the 6 a.m. wake-up call, FBI officials say. Ten agents swept the house, guns drawn. Patel was found in his bedroom, where he was cuffed and arrested.

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A Microsoft lawyer has told Europe’s Court of First Instance consumers benefited from Microsoft’s improved Windows, and competition in the audiovisual software industry was thriving, “contrary to the Commission’s predictions that rival media player providers would become extinct,” says Reuters.
But, “Microsoft ended a rival’s reign as the leading media player maker by bundling its own program with Windows and could do the same to others if its appeal of a landmark antitrust ruling is granted, the European Commission and its supporters warned Tuesday,” says the Associated Press.

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Two web sites popular with Canadian youngsters have been named in a murder tragedy.
Police in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, have asked Nexopia.com to take down items after two people, one of them, a 12-year-old girl, were accused of murdering a family of three in Medicine Hat.
“Are you stalking me? cuz that would be super” and “WelcomeToMyTragicEnd” were posted on Nexopia.com by the girl, says the story.

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