MOST-PIRATED MOVIES ARE ALSO BOX-OFFICE HITS

The most-pirated movies of all time are also some of the biggest box-office winners, according to TorrentFreak.com, which tracks BitTorrent use on the Internet. According to the website, Avatar, with 21 million downloads, is the most pirated movie ever, with The Dark Knight and 2007′s Transformers tied for second place with about 19 million. Avatar, [...]

REPORT: FREE HULU USERS FLEEING TO PIRATE SITES

Fox’s decision to make users of the free version of Hulu wait eight days before they can watch its shows on the video website has apparently backfired — sending them to pirate sites, according to TorrentFreak.com, which tracks BitTorrent usage. The website, which said it saw a drastic decrease of TV-show piracy after the introduction [...]

MEDIA EXEC: PIRATES SPEND MORE ON MOVIES THAN OTHERS

The former chief information officer of Google, who went on to become COO of New Music for EMI, has disclosed that research he conducted concerning users of the now-shuttered LimeWire peer-to-peer service indicated that those who pirated copyrighted content online were also some of the biggest spenders on such content. As reported by ComputerWorld (via [...]

BOLLYWOOD FORCES ALLEGED PIRATE SITES TO SHUT DOWN

Users in India of some of the leading file-hosting sites found those sites replaced by the following announcement on Wednesday: “This site has been blocked as per instructions from Department of Telecom (DOT). As reported by TorrentFreak.com, such sites as RapidShare, MegaUpload, MediaFire, and HotFile have been blocked. India produces the largest number of movies [...]

MOVIE TO HIT BITTORRENT SITE BEFORE GOING TO THEATERS

James Cromwell, the actor best known for his role as the farmer in 1995′s Babe and the father of Peter Parker’s love interest in Spider-Man 3, is exec producing a film that will, by design, be distributed first via BitTorrent — often damned as the platform of choice for movie pirates — before heading for [...]

WEBSITE CLAIMS LAWYERS ARE GETTING RICH ON COPYRIGHT SUITS

Making the case that numerous lawyers are turning anti-piracy into a business — by locating illegal file sharers and offering to settle their cases for around $2,000 — the website TorrentFreak.com tells the story of Mayra Gonzalez, who claims that because of a confusing file name, she inadvertently downloaded a gay porn film rather than [...]

WARNER INSTITUTES DELAY IN HUNGARY RELEASES

Warner Bros. has decided to delay the release of its films in Hungary after determining that a number of them that turned up on the Internet immediately after they were released were camcorded by pirates working out of theaters in that country. TorrentFreak.com, which tracks BitTorrent activity, speculated on Sunday that the studio had probably [...]

PIRATES NOT A HIT WITH PIRATES

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides may be tearing up the box-office charts domestically and overseas, but a pirated copy available via BitTorrent is a veritable flop. The copy was uploaded the day after the movie debuted in theaters overseas. Last week it was No. 4 on TorrentFreak’s list of most downloaded movies on [...]

WIKILEAKS DOCUMENT DESCRIBES ARREST OF MOVIE PIRATE

A Canadian “cammer” — a person who uses a camcorder to record movies in theaters, then releases them online or on disc — was arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in 2006 as a “personal favor” to an official of the Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association (CMPDA), even through the RCMP registered concern [...]

PORTUGUESE DVD RENTERS WANT PIRATE PENALTIES REDUCED

An association of Portuguese video rental stores, claiming that prosecutors are reluctant to file charges against persons who download movies illegally because the penalties are too severe, says it plans to begin reporting thousands of file-sharers to authorities beginning Jan. 5. According to the website TorrentFreak, which tracks BitTorrent activity, the Portuguese group ACAPOR (Associação [...]

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