internet service providers

The Swedish police seem to be going straight to the source in their battle against copyright infringement. According to Forbes, the country's authorities raided the Stolckholm-based Web host PRQ, which is known for hosting some of the most popular outlaw sites on the Internet, including the Pirate Bay, Wikileaks, the North America Man-Boy Love Association, Pedophile.se, and the Chechen rebel site Kavkaz Central.

It's unclear why police raided PRQ, but its owner Mikael Viborg told the Swedish news outlet Nyheter24 that he believes the investigation had to do with intellectual property violations, according to TorrentFreak. Viborg also … Read more

Last month it was blog users, this month it's blog owners. The Chinese government announced today that it will tighten restrictions on all Internet service providers for blogs, microblogs, and online forums -- forcing them to act as Web police, according to the Associated Press.

This is just the latest in a long list of restrictions that the government is enforcing on its citizens. According to the Associated Press, China began requiring real-name registration on all microblogs in December. However, people still seem to be sneaking under the radar.

The new restrictions entail making the Internet providers act as … Read more

As part of a plan to discourage customers from pirating films and music, some of the country's largest bandwidth providers announced last week that they will take punitive action against customers repeatedly caught in the act.

So far, most of the attention has been on the potential impacts to Internet users, but now some are asking how the major Hollywood film studios and four top record companies were able to convince the Internet service providers to take part. For years, executives from AT&T and Verizon have argued that enforcing copyright was up to the content creators and … Read more

A partnership announced today between big entertainment companies and some of the nation's largest Internet service providers will not mean the end of online piracy. To be sure, the parties involved know this.

The most savvy tech users and dedicated file sharers will continue to pirate content and perhaps there isn't any way to stop them. But the hope of Hollywood film studios and the four largest record companies is that the participating ISPs, which include Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, and Time Warner Cable, can help discourage mainstream Internet users from sharing content illegally over the Web.

The participating … Read more

Speed is only one way to measure an Internet service provider, said Clearwire, the wireless network that appeared to get slammed last week by a Netflix report on which ISPs were best at delivering streaming video the best.

Last Thursday, Netflix published data on how well various ISPs delivered the company's streaming video. Out of 16 companies, Clearwire came in last. The wireless carrier responded to Netflix's data in a blog post on Friday.

While Clearwire said it was "jazzed" about being the only wireless carrier on the list, the company suggested that Netflix omitted important … Read more

As promised, Netflix released a report today on the company's tech blog about which Internet service providers are best at distributing the company's streaming video to customers' homes. According to Netflix's data, the nation's largest cable operators are tops in delivering the company's content.

Netflix, the high-flying video rental service, said cable operator Charter Communications was the best-performing Internet service provider, with Cox Communications, Comcast, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable all outperforming phone companies AT&T and Verizon Communications, as well as wireless broadband provider Clearwire.

Ken Florance, Netflix's director of content delivery, … Read more

This man may soon know your name.

Thomas Dunlap is the attorney representing at least a dozen independent movie studios, including the makers of the Oscar-winning film, "The Hurt Locker." If you illegally shared any of his clients' films online then Dunlap, a founder of the law firm Dunlap, Grubb & Weaver may have collected your Internet Protocol address. He may, at this minute, be requesting a subpoena that compels your Internet service provider to turn over your identity.

Dunlap and his firm, which also operates as U.S. Copyright Group, will then likely file a copyright complaint … Read more

Suing people for illegal file sharing appears to have made a comeback.

News that Voltage Pictures, producers of the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," filed a federal copyright complaint last week against 5,000 alleged file sharers caught many in the file-sharing community off guard. Hadn't the film and music industries dumped a litigation strategy in favor of a much more subtle approach, one that didn't drag fans into court where they stood to lose thousands of dollars?

It's true, the trade groups for the major players in both these sectors, the Motion Picture Association … Read more

CNET published a story Wednesday morning headlined "Verizon ends service of alleged illegal downloaders." In it, Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson was quoted saying the company has "cut some people off" after they were accused multiple times of illegal file sharing.

That evening, Henson said David Carnoy, a CNET executive editor, misquoted her multiple times. "Your notes are wrong," Henson wrote in an e-mail to Carnoy. Other media outlets have since reported that Henson continues to say she was misquoted.

CNET stands behind Carnoy's story, and we thought we should tell our readers why. … Read more