FRANCE’S THREE STRIKES LAW MAY STRIKE OUT

France is likely to scrap its three-strikes anti-piracy law following a conclusion by a nine-member panel that the system has had little if any effect in increasing legitimate sales, while costing tens of millions of euros to implement. The so-called Hadopi law, enacted in 2009, was supposed to provide a “graduated response” to online piracy […]

IRAN TRIES TO LURE MOVIEGOERS TO FESTIVAL WITH HALF-OFF PRICING

Although several Iranian films have drawn international acclaim in recent years, ticket sales in the country continue to be weak. Apparently concerned that its upcoming Fajr Film Festival, which opens on Jan. 31 and runs through Feb. 10, will draw sparse audiences, organizers Iran Cinema Organization announced on Wednesday that they plan to sell tickets […]

CHINA CUTS 39 MINUTES FROM CLOUD ATLAS

Three months after it debuted in most of the world, Cloud Atlas finally came to China on Monday, with 39 minutes removed by Chinese censors. That is likely the biggest chunk of footage ever deleted from a Hollywood film, but the film’s directors, Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Twyker, speaking to a news conference […]

U.K. MAN SENTENCED TO 4 YEARS FOR “FACILITATING” PIRACY

The owner of a British website that allegedly “facilitated” copyright infringement has been sentenced to four years in prison after a private anti-piracy group collected an enormous dossier of evidence about his activities and his private life, including detailed information about his wife and family, according to TorrentFreak.com. Before being sentenced, Anton Vickerman, who ran […]

NEW APP MAKES PIRATING MOVIES A ONE-CLICK PROCESS

Almost certain to trigger a counteroffensive by Hollywood’s copyright cops, a new application called Boxopus can now download movies and TV shows to a user’s Dropbox folder from pirate sites without any need for a BitTorrent client. As reported by TorrentFreak.com, Boxopus, which is now being beta tested and is available free, can simultaneously make […]

HOME VIDEO MARKET BETTER THAN BELIEVED

The home video market may not be so depressed as some reports have suggested. While average household spending for sales and rentals of physical discs dropped 11 percent — to $133.31 in 2011 versus $149.53 in 2010 according to researchers IHS Screen Digest — the reason may have had less to do with piracy than […]

AVENGERS MAY BE SETTING MIDWEEK RECORDS, TOO

Disney/Marvel’s The Avengers continued to rack up ticket sales during midweek that would have been the envy of any studio on a weekend. On Monday, the movie earned $18.9 million, followed by $17.7 million on Tuesday. Those would appear to be near-record — or possibly record — figures for a film that did not open […]

GOOGLE SIDES WITH HOTFILE

Google has come to the defense of the cyberlocker Hotfile, which has been accused by the MPAA of promoting “massive digital theft.” In an amicus brief, Google accuses the MPAA of misleading the court about the intentions of the framers of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), insisting that under its provisions, it is the […]

SHUT-DOWN-PROTECTED PEER-TO-PEER TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED

Non-techie users may find it difficult understanding how it works, but that it does work is likely to fuel anger and frustration among members of the MPAA who appear to be adopting ever more stringent policies to shut down BitTorrent websites that pirate copyrighted material. “It” is Tribler, developed by researchers at Delft University of […]

OBAMA PROMISES TOUGH CRACKDOWN ON OVERSEAS PIRATES

In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama seemed to indicate that the recent attack on the MegaUpload website and the arrest of its leaders in New Zealand was only the beginning of his administration’s effort to stamp out international piracy. The president announced plans to create a “trade enforcement unit” that […]

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