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MILWAUKEE Nov 2, 2005 — A 67-year-old man who says he doesn't even like watching movies has been sued by the film industry for copyright infringement after a grandson of his downloaded four movies on their home computer. The Motion Picture Association of America filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against Fred Lawrence of Racine, seeking as much as $600,000 in damages for downloading four movies over the Internet file-sharing service iMesh. The suit was filed after Lawrence refused a March offer to settle the matter by paying $4,000. "First of all, like I say, I guess I'd have to plead...

An Oregon woman accused of illegal peer-to-peer downloading has countersued the Recording Industry Association of America, contending that the music trade group illegally invaded her privacy, searched her computer without her permission, and conspired with other companies to engage in "extreme acts of unlawful coercion, extortion, fraud, and other criminal conduct." At least one other defendant sued for downloading music online has sought to use laws typically applied to organized crime to countersue the RIAA. The lawyer who brought that case in New Jersey courts last year said Monday that his client had declared bankruptcy, and the case was no...

This is the case peer-to-peer file sharers have been waiting for. Tanya Andersen, a 41 year old disabled single mother living in Oregon, has countersued the RIAA for Oregon RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of "outrage", and deceptive business practices. Ms. Andersen's counterclaims demand a trial by jury. Ms. Andersen made the following allegations, among others:

File-Sharing Doomed, Warns Exec Peer-to-peer file-sharing companies in the U.S. will cease to exist in their current forms over the next few months, the president of MetaMachine, the company responsible for the eDonkey software, predicts. Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Sam Yagan said that in order to avoid expensive litigation, file-sharing companies will have to change their models to become similar to iTunes or the new Napster or face expensive legal battles. MetaMachine won't be an exception. "Because we cannot afford to fight a lawsuit--even one we think we would win--we have instead prepared to convert eDonkey's...

Two-thirds of U.S. college students see nothing unethical about downloading digital copyrighted files without paying, a survey found. In addition, 52 percent think downloading music without paying is acceptable behavior in the workplace, according to the survey released by Business Software Alliance. The survey reveals 45 percent of students are using campus networks for downloading activities. Downloading music is a gateway to downloading software, the survey found. Among students who say they would always download music or movies without paying for them, 27 percent said they regularly download software from a peer-to-peer network. Generation Y has largely grown up using...

The Supreme Court may have dealt file-swapping companies a blow on Monday, but its decision is unlikely to put a damper on the illegal sharing of music and other media online anytime soon, industry experts say. In its ruling, the nation's top court found that file-swapping companies Grokster and StreamCast Networks should be held liable for the widespread copyright infringement their technologies enable. The decision casts uncertainty on the fate of Grokster and other file-swapping companies, but not on the viability of file-swapping itself, an activity that has only flourished under legal attacks, observers said. That's because the software that...

If you had a chance to listen to the content companies' press conference on the afternoon the Supreme Court's decision in MGM v. Grokster was announced, you heard nothing but crows of victory. The word "unanimous" was repeated umpteen times (the decision was 9-0 against the peer-to-peer company defendants), and much was said about how unequivocal the record companies' and movie companies' victory was. As a technical matter the content companies won MGM v. Grokster; the decision remands the case to a trial court for further factfinding as to whether defendants "induced" infringement. But it's clear that they didn't win...

DALLAS - Christian teens are stealing Christian music through Internet downloads and CD burnings at the same rate non-Christians are stealing secular music, according to a new study. Christian pollster George Barna completed a study on teens and piracy for the Gospel Music Association. The study, which has not been made public, showed only 10 percent of Christian teens considered music piracy to be morally wrong, The Dallas Morning News reported. Of those, 64 percent have engaged in downloading or CD burning. That's virtually the same percentage as non-Christians. Last year, sales of Christian albums dropped 5.2 percent, to just...

Internet file-sharing services will be held responsible if they intend for their customers to use software primarily to swap songs and movies illegally, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, rejecting warnings that the lawsuits will stunt growth of cool tech gadgets such as the next iPod. The unanimous decision sends the case back to lower court, which had ruled in favor of file-sharing services Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. on the grounds that the companies couldn't be sued. The justices said there was enough evidence of unlawful intent for the case to go to trial. File-sharing services shouldn't get a...

Grokster and StreamCast Networks can be held liable for copyright infringements committed by users of their peer-to-peer file-sharing software, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The decision in the case Grokster v. MGM is a major win for the motion picture and recording industries, which took the case to the nation's highest court after losing in lower courts over the past two years or so. Lawyers for the plaintiffs--Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music Publisher's Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America--asked the court to recognize that the Grokster and StreamCast's Morpheus P-to-P (peer-to-peer)...

Supreme Court Rules Against File Swapping update The Supreme Court handed movie studios and record labels a sweeping victory against file-swapping, ruling Monday that peer-to-peer companies such as Grokster could be held responsible for the copyright piracy on their networks. In a unanimous decision, the justices ruled companies that build businesses with the active intent of encouraging copyright infringement should be held liable for their customers' illegal actions. "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is...

Later this week the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision on MGM vs. Grokster, a ruling that likely will reshape the way entertainment is distributed over the Internet, experts told UPI's The Web. "This is an incredibly difficult decision to predict," said David Davis, an intellectual-property attorney who represents entertainment-industry clients at Baker & McKenzie, a Chicago law firm. http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20050622-070606-4130r.htm

While thousands of people waited in line for the premiere of "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith," hundreds of others didn't wait in line at all. And they didn't have to pay. They downloaded pirated copies of the movie, burned them onto DVDs, and watched the last and latest of the Star Wars saga in their homes. Illegal? Yes. And also very, very easy. What is apparently a pre-release studio copy of "Revenge of the Sith" was uploaded onto the BitTorrent file-sharing network. First hundreds, then thousands of people downloaded it. And one of the features of...

See that silvery two-sided disc in the jewel case of Bruce Springsteen's new set? That's a DualDisc. One side CD, the other DVD, this hybrid could be the recording industry's best defense against music pirating and illegal downloading on peer-to-peer networks. "You can't manufacture a DualDisc at home. It just can't be done because ... there's all this content," says Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business for Sony BMG, which owns the Columbia label that released "Devils & Dust" exclusively on DualDisc. The only other high-profile artist to put out a DualDisc-only release was matchbox twenty frontman Rob Thomas,...

A new bill that would imprison pre-release file pirates for up to three years is just a few procedural steps away from becoming law. The bill, known as the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005, which includes the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005 or the ART Act, was crafted to sentence distributors of prerelease copies of films, songs or other works for up to three years. The bill also would permit companies like ClearPlay to edit films for language and content. The bill, which is awaiting signature from President Bush, would assign the same penalties to...

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DURHAM, N.H. -- Another round of lawsuits against college students accused of illegally sharing music and movie files has drawn attention to a new high-speed network used at colleges across the country. The University of New Hampshire is one of hundreds of colleges and organizations using Internet2, which boasts speeds hundreds of times faster than the Internet. UNH researchers use the network to share large files that would take minutes or hours to send over the standard Internet. According to UNH network manager Doug Green, with Internet2, those big files can be sent in seconds. "The Internet2 is a high-speed...

Maybe people would pay for music if they could profit from their honesty. That's the concept behind Peer Impact, a new Internet music-selling service that's done deals with the world's four biggest recording companies. Peer Impact is up and running as a closed beta test, with 2,500 users paying 99 cents per downloaded tune, and making some of the money back by trading their files.

The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday from representatives of major film studios and the recording industry who are seeking to shut down peer-to-peer services they say are costing them billions of dollars. One of the questions the court kept coming back to was this: What's more important — preventing potential copyright violations or allowing the market to come up with innovative new products? The case began when MGM and several record labels filed suit against StreamCast Networks and file-sharing network Grokster, arguing that they were intentionally created to allow people to illegally trade copyrighted material. That case was thrown out...

WASHINGTON, March 29 - The much-heralded Supreme Court showdown in the Grokster case between old-fashioned entertainment and newfangled technology found the justices surprisingly responsive on Tuesday to warnings from Grokster, the software maker that allows Internet users to share computer files on peer-to-peer networks, that a broad definition of copyright infringement could curtail innovation. Justice David H. Souter asked Donald B. Verrilli Jr., the lawyer arguing for the Hollywood studios and the recording industry, to envision "a guy sitting in his garage inventing the iPod." "I know perfectly well that I can buy a CD and put it on my...