piracy

China's government has raised the cap on the number of U.S. movies it allows to be screened in that country each year, according to the White House and the six major Hollywood film studios.

Negotiations between the U.S. and China have also yielded an agreement that will put a greater share of box-office revenues into the hands of U.S. filmmakers. This is only a marginal technology story because of the implications it has on online piracy.

The tech sector has long blasted Hollywood for not making films and TV shows more accessible at a more affordable … Read more

The European Union's highest court says social networks cannot be forced to monitor users just to stop piracy.

The European Court of Justice ruled today that forcing social networks to install monitoring systems just to see if people are illegally downloading copyrighted material creates a "complicated" and "costly" burden on the sites for little or no upside. The court was also concerned about the privacy of user data.

The court made a similar ruling in November, protecting the rights of Internet dervice providers, who argued that they shouldn't be forced to filter Web content … Read more

Fred Wilson, a well-known venture capitalist from New York, says he's in favor of creating a blacklist for Web sites found to traffic in pirated films, music, and other intellectual property.

The co-founder of Union Square Ventures told a gathering of media executives at the Paley Center for Media yesterday that he believes a good antipiracy measure would be for Google, Twitter, Facebook, and other major sites to issue warnings to people when they try to connect with a known pirate site.

Wilson favors establishing an independent group to create a "black and white list." "The … Read more

When the happily married have affairs, they tend to argue it didn't mean anything. When the happily connected are accused of piracy, they claim someone else must have used their Wi-Fi.

Somewhere in the midst of arguments like these lies a concealed truth: human beings are not what they claim to be.

Please, therefore, consider the troubling--and very human--emotions that surround the revelations that, at a Sundance party hosted by VEVO, there played on several screens an illegal stream of an NFL playoff game.

It so happened that a very nice man from TechCrunch was there, and he was … Read more

Rep. Lamar Smith could pay a steep political price for authoring two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act and an online surveillance measure, that have become loathed by millions of Internet users.

He's facing an unexpected primary challenge from an ex-lawman who believes Smith has little regard for the U.S. Constitution--and who plans to use those bills as a lever to pry his opponent out of a congressional seat he's occupied since 1987.

Richard Mack, an Arizona sheriff who retired to Fredericksburg, Texas, is a self-described "constitutional conservative" with a long history of supporting causes … Read more

Hollywood is responding to the defeat of a pair of controversial copyright bills last month with a new strategy: a charm offensive.

Paramount Pictures sent letters last week to universities saying the company was "humbled" by last month's online protests that involved millions of Internet users--and that it now wants to "exchange ideas about content theft" and the best way to thwart it.

The letters were signed by Alfred Perry, Paramount's vice president for worldwide content and outreach. Paramount is a subsidiary of Viacom and one of the members of the Motion Picture Association of America, … Read more

When saints become sinners we all breathe more easily, because we all realize the distance between them and us is not so great.

Many will feel their lungs expand, therefore, on hearing that the New England Patriots' quarterback and all-around perfect human being watched last year's Super Bowl illegally on his laptop.

You might think I exaggerate, but no. The Associated Press heard him make the admission quite casually in a Super Bowl news conference.

Here are his reported words: "Last year I was rehabbing my foot in Costa Rica, watching the game on an illegal Super Bowl … Read more

It took an Internet-wide outcry from millions of voters to prompt Rep. Lamar Smith, author of the Stop Online Piracy Act, to postpone a vote on the controversial Hollywood-backed bill.

Now Smith, a conservative Texas Republican, is being targeted a second time: for championing legislation that would require Internet service providers to keep track of their customers, in case police want to review those logs in the future. His bill is called H.R. 1981.

The latest campaign is designed to build on last month's remarkable protests, which included Wikipedia going dark for a day and Google and Amazon.… Read more

Facebook filed papers for its initial public offering and in the process provided us with the secrets to its success--as well as what it sees as its greatest threats.

The company filed an S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission, officially declaring its intention to raise $5 billion through the IPO. The last major tech IPO was Google's, which raised $1.9 billion.

Last year, it saw revenue double to $3.7 billion, while its profit grew 65 percent to $1 billion. Over the past two years, its revenue rose nearly fivefold, while its profit more than quadrupled. … Read more