Dutch Advocate General proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the ECJ about the private copying levy

Advocate General Huydecoper of the Dutch Supreme Court proposes to submit prejudicial questions to the European Court of Justice about private copying levies. If the Supreme Court agrees with this, the ECJ will decide if the private copying exception is in compliance with the Berne three-step test, which is also laid down in the European Copyright Directive (2001/29/EG). The European Copyright...

Pirate Bay founder takes case to European Court of Human Rights

Fredrik Neij, one of the founders of The Pirate Bay, takes his case to the European Court of Human Rights after the Swedish Supreme Court rejected appeal in February. Neij is found guilty of copyright infringement offenses and is sentenced to 4 months in prison. http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founders-prison-sentences-final-supreme-court-appeal-rejected-120201/ However, according to Neij's...

New anti-piracy software against BitTorrent use launched in Russia

A Russian company called Pirate Pay has developed new anti-piracy software that can be used to prevent the exchange of copyrighted content on BitTorrent. Pirate Pay told Russian news website 'Russia Behind The Headlines' that their programme aims to confuses BitTorrent clients about the IP addresses of other nodes, so that the connection will be broken. A month after the premiere of the...

Pirate Party not allowed to offer bypass for TPB blockade

The Dutch Pirate Party is not allowed to offer a service that allows Internet users to bypass the blockade of The Pirate Bay that was ordered by Dutch courts recently. In a controversial set of lawsuits, initiated by the BREIN foundation, Dutch judges issued court orders that force Dutch Internet service providers to cut off their subscribers’ access to The Pirate Bay (TPB). BREIN, a group of...

Dutch Court orders remaining ISPs to block The Pirate Bay

After Dutch ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL were forced to block filesharing site The Pirate Bay by a court order, the district court of The Hague has now