File-sharing, Movie Piracy | featured news

A New Zealand court has granted bail to two associates of the founder of online file-sharing website Megaupload, accused of being involved in a $175 million Internet piracy scheme.

The Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has conducted a major action to shut down MegaUpload, a popular file-sharing site widely used for free downloads of movies and television shows.

Hollywood-funded anti-piracy group BREIN says it will pursue a similar strategy to its counterparts in the United States and UK by pressuring payment processors like PayPal to stop doing business with file-sharing sites. But BREIN says the processors must go further. Either they can voluntarily hand over the names of the admins behind the site accounts, or they will go to court and sue them into submission.

The file-hosting service Rapidshare is seeking major entertainment industry partners for an online store where links to infringing material will redirect to.

Four men behind a Swedish file-sharing Web site used by millions to exchange movies and music have been found guilty of collaborating to violate copyright law in a landmark court verdict in Stockholm.