New record label lets you download music for free
“Download for free” is something of a taboo in the entertainment industry as bootleg content continues to take chunks out of studios’ revenue. But one record label is branching out and giving the people what they want: free music.
“At DigSin, we believe in the amazing talent of our artists, and we want to share their music with you,” DigSin says on its Facebook page. “We are committed to delivering the best new music to … Continue Reading
Video game developer CD Projekt RED to stop legal threats against alleged pirates
CD Projekt RED, the Polish developer behind last year’s critically acclaimed PC game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, is relenting in its hunt for alleged pirates.
Last month, it was revealed that the developer, via a German law firm, was going after people suspected of illegally downloading the game and demanding financial compensation for copyright infringement. At the time, website Torrentfreak claimed thousands of BitTorrent users were contacted by the company’s lawyers, who demanded … Continue Reading
Crysis 2 leads the list of 2011′s most pirated games
Editorial ‘game of the year 2011′ picks favored the likes of Uncharted 3 and Skyrim, but the pirate vote went to Crysis 2. According to statistics published by BitTorrent blog TorrentFreak, the PC version of Electronic Arts’ first-person shooter was the most-pirated game of the year 2011 with an estimated 3.92 million downloads.
The fact that Crysis 2 was more popular in the bootleg department than the year’s biggest-selling game Call of Duty: Modern … Continue Reading
CD Projekt demands $1,230 from suspected Witcher 2 pirates
Last month Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt talked about the estimated 4.5 million copies of its game that had been illegally downloaded via BitTorrent. Now it seems the company is going after users it believes have downloaded the game illegally, demanding $1,230 in damages from these individuals, via a German law firm.
CD Projekt has spoken to Eurogamer, saying “we could introduce advanced copy protection systems which, unfortunately, punish legal customers as well. Instead, we … Continue Reading
Expendables producers drop lawsuit against 23K BitTorrent file-sharers
The makers of action movie The Expendables have dropped an incredible lawsuit they had brought against more than 23,000 BitTorrent users who had allegedly downloaded the film illegally, according to TorrentFreak.
Over the past few years, lawsuits against users of BitTorrent and other file-sharing software have become increasingly common. Since 2010, the United States Copyright Group, a business that has no affiliation with the U.S. government, has sued thousands of file sharers in the hopes … Continue Reading
Super 8 leaks online, possibly from Howard Stern
A recent high-quality online leak of J.J. Abram’s Super 8 may have come from shock jock Howard Stern’s screener copy of the film, Torrentfreak reports.
All high-quality copies of the film floating around on file sharing services like Bittorrent and Usenet bear the watermark “H Stern.” That means there could potentially be another H Stern behind the leak — studios typically watermark early copies of films that they distribute to critics and other media types … Continue Reading
ISPs team up to take out web piracy
A group of major Internet service providers on Thursday declared they would take a larger role in fighting against the piracy of movies, music, and television shows. The ISPs include AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision.
Major music labels and Hollywood have been concerned about digital piracy since the days of Napster. These companies have made a concerted effort to put restrictions on digital content, but it hasn’t stopped the masses from using … Continue Reading
Washington judge: Mass lawsuits against file-sharers can continue
Lawyers can simultaneously sue thousands of anonymous people who share files online, based on a recent court ruling.
Any ruling that makes it easier to sue file sharers could hearten traditional content producers like Hollywood studios and record labels, while inconveniencing broadband-Internet providers, who bear a substantial burden in providing information about their users’ activities in connection with such lawsuits.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., announced that a mass lawsuit against users of BitTorrent, … Continue Reading
Video dominates BitTorrent sharing, but ebooks are on the rise
It’s no surprise that video is the most popular type of content shared on the controversial peer-to-peer protocol BitTorrent – according to one report, at the height of its popularity each episode of the TV show Heroes was downloaded five million times over the network – but the number of digital books and magazines that are available as ‘torrents’ is growing fast as well.
The statistics come from the Germany-based website TorrentFreak.com, which tracks data … Continue Reading
A startup once again, Kontiki raises $10.7M to give each company its own YouTube
Kontiki, a startup with clever Web video technology and a storied past in Silicon Valley, announced today that it has raised $10.7 million in its second round of funding.
Kontiki gives companies a way to publish and stream video content, much like YouTube, within an internal network by using peer-to-peer technology similar to torrent programs like BitTorrent.
The company was originally backed by the late former Netscape executive Mike Homer, who was widely mourned in … Continue Reading
