Law & Policy

EliteTorrents.org, a site being used by BitTorrent file-sharers to download the latest Star Wars film before it was in theaters, was shut down by the FBI and US Department of Homeland Security yesterday, the Associated Press reports. It was "the first criminal enforcement against individuals who are using BitTorrent," federal officials said. "Revenge of the Sith" was downloaded more than 10,000 … [Read more...] about FBI shut down P2P site

His daughter began using the Kazaa file-sharing service two years ago when she was 13, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Dave Bink, the dad, wasn't aware of the "hundreds of songs, including 'All You Wanted' by Michelle Branch, 'Eat You Alive' by Limp Bizkit and 'U Don't Have to Call' by Usher," on the family PC. Plus, because he only listens to Led Zeppelin and The Doors, he thought it was … [Read more...] about File-sharer’s dad goes to court

Not all file-sharers will find life more difficult with the law President Bush just signed, but if they share a film, tune, or software program before it has been released, they could go to jail. "The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act also includes sections criminalizing the use of camcorders to record a movie in a theater, and authorizing the use of technologies that can delete offensive … [Read more...] about New law after uber file-sharers

First we were breathless watching the phenomenal growth of the Web itself (see my lead item back in 10/00). Then it was the number of people going online. Now the breathtaking stats are about broadband adoption (fast connections in homes). And guess what's fueling its high-speed growth? File-sharing, Wired News reports. Because of it, "demand for bandwidth grew 42% in 2004." I was amazed to … [Read more...] about P2P: Fueling broadband growth everywhere

Grouper was thought to be a safe, legal alternative to P2P, but BMG Music thinks not, the Los Angeles Times reports. BMG says it doesn't see the difference between millions sharing files via, say, Kazaa, and a closed group of 30 people (Grouper's group limit) sharing files among each other. Grouper's creators say that group size isn't the only distinguishing factor; files are streamed, or played … [Read more...] about Flak for Grouper file-sharing