Illegal File-sharing | featured news

US telecommunications group Verizon declares war on illegal downloaders, or pirates, who use technologies such as BitTorrent to steal copyrighted material.

Kim Dotcom, founder of the banned Megaupload filesharing site, has announced a new version called Mega designed to sidestep the American laws under which he is being prosecuted for £175m worth of alleged online piracy, racketeering and money laundering.

A Swedish man deported from Cambodia to serve a prison sentence for his involvement with file-sharing site The Pirate Bay faces new suspicions of hacking against the Swedish tax authority.

One of the masterminds behind file-sharing website The Pirate Bay was arrested last week in Cambodia, months after he was due to begin a one-year prison sentence in Sweden.

While Kim Dotcom's lawyers have been making steady progress in court, Mr. Dotcom has been gaining the public's favor in New Zealand... Mr. Dotcom — born Kim Schmitz and also known as Kimble and Kim Tim Jim Vestor — and three others connected with Megaupload were arrested in connection with U.S. indictments on charges involving copyright infringement and money laundering. At the time, the U.S. Department of Justice said that in all, seven people had been arrested around the world in connection with an investigation into online piracy of numerous copyrighted works, including music and films.

A court in New Zealand has ruled that the search warrants used by New Zealand police when they raided the home of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom were invalid. Reuters reported that a High Court judge said the search warrants were “too vague” and “did not adequately describe the offences to which they related.” The judge also ruled that the FBI acted unlawfully when it took copies of data from Dotcom’s computer offshore.

Sky has become the third internet service provider to prevent its users accessing file sharing site The Pirate Bay. It follows Virgin Media and Everything Everywhere which have already taken similar action.

A group of more than 30 rightsholders have won their case targeted against Grooveshark in Denmark. A court agreed that both the streaming music service and its users infringe recording label copyrights and granted an injunction forcing an ISP to initiate a block of the service. The anti-piracy group behind the action hopes that other ISPs will now follow suit.

In the indictment filed in a New Zealand court earlier this month, the U.S. Justice Department says Kim DotCom oversaw an attempt to copy all of YouTube's videos and tried to inform on rivals.

Federal prosecutors say data from users of Megaupload could be deleted as soon as Thursday. U.S. prosecutors blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and other content.