Latest in Criminal Copyright Infringement

A coalition of copyright owners and Internet Service Providers including Comcast, AT&T, Cablevision, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon will begin issuing notices to illegal downloaders this week as part of the newly launched Copyright Alert System (CAS), it was announced Monday. The initiative, introduced last year by…

A British student who faced extradition to the U.S. and a possible prison term over a web site he created for sharing TV shows and movies has struck a deal, BBC reports. Richard O’Dwyer, of Sheffield in northern England, was arrested initially in 2010 when U.S. authorities charged that O’Dwyer’s TVShack website hosted…

It’s not shutting them down as many in Hollywood would like but if a site is repeatedly posting pirated material then Google announced today that they're going to flag it. "Starting next week, we will begin taking into account a new signal in our rankings: the number of valid copyright removal notices received for any…

A New Zealand judge has ruled that search warrants used to seize evidence in the Megaupload case were illegally broad and vague. Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom still faces a battle to avoid extradition to the U.S. but the search warrant ruling likely weakened the case, legal experts told Reuters today. The invalidated…

WASHINGTON — A founder of NinjaVideo.net, a website that provided millions of users with the ability to illegally download high-quality copies of copyright-protected movies and television programs, was sentenced today to 14 months in prison. The sentence is the result of an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration…

A 23-year-old British student faces possible extradition to the United States for trial on charges of copyright infringement for hosting a website that pointed visitors to illegal download sites. Richard O'Dwyer's website TV Shack listed links to other websites where users could access movies and TV shows but did not…

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales blogs that he is considering a blackout of pages on the popular site to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act. Wales has asked users and editors of Wikipedia to weigh in with their opinions before he makes a decision. The entertainment industry wants the government to take stronger action…

The last remaining co-founder of NinjaVideo.net pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court in Virginia. The site facilitated illegal downloads of movies and TV shows and took in $505,000 in revenue from ads and donations from users. Justin A. Dedemko, 28, of Brooklyn, N.Y., pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge…

The Hangover Part II is beginning to seem like a litigation magnet. The latest lawsuit was filed last week in federal court in Los Angeles according to Entertainment Weekly. It alleges that filmmakers mimicked a script that aspiring scribe Michael Alan Rubin based on his own marital misadventures in Asia. Plaintiff…

People who illegally download copyrighted movies, TV shows, and music will soon receive a series emailed warnings — and may temporarily see Internet speeds reduced or have their Web surfing blocked — a coalition of content producers and distributors announced this morning. The measures come from a new organization…

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) announced the launch Wednesday of "Operation In Our Sites," a new initiative aimed at Internet counterfeiting and piracy. In the first action carried out as part of the initiative, authorities seized nine…