By now, US torrent users are used to the nagging worry that a copyright holder could seek damages against them. Now these mass lawsuits appear to be making the journey to Canada, where Voltage pictures is seeking the identities of users they claim have pirated the film Hurt Locker. Major ISPs have been subpoenaed, but the number of defendants is not yet available. 
A 70-year-old grandmother and retired widow from San Francisco 
Both EMI and MP3tunes are claiming victory in a court case brought on by the former against the latter over claims that MP3tunes ran afoul of copyright law by failing to remove illegally obtained songs from its storage lockers. A federal judge in New York partially agreed with EMI and found MP3tunes liable for infringing on roughly 350 songs, which is 99 percent less than EMI claimed the service was responsible for, but there's another reason why MP3tunes came out ahead.
HTC sued Apple over mobile patents today. Again. Pretty soon Apple will likely sue them back. Again. Shrug. Throw it on the pile. And while the patent Cold War continues to heat up, weep for the real casualty: innovation.
Think the whole RIAA/MPAA lawsuit factory is ridiculous? You should see what what Righthaven's pulling in the newspaper world. The company's entire purpose is to sue the pants off of small-time bloggers, websites and forum members who post newspaper clips and articles online. They target itty-bitty operations who probably can't afford litigation and strong arm them into ponying up $2,000 to $5,000 settlements instead. Well, that M.O. backfired recently; a Righthaven case was tossed out of court and they were ordered to pay $34,000 in legal fees to the defendant – but you should hear the shenanigans they tried to pull to get out of paying.
In Britain, ripping music CDs to transfer songs onto portable media players or mobile phones is an act that runs afoul of the law. Lucky for U.K. residents, government officials are open to overhauling copyright law with an emphasis on common sense, two things that don't always go together. Britain's business secretary Vince Cable said new legislation will make it legal to copy CDs for personal use, which is one of 10 recommendations made in the Hargreaves Report, a six-month independent review into Intellectual Property (IP) led by Professor Ian Hargreavees.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Zediva, a video rental service that tried an end run around copyright law, has been ordered shut down by a federal judge. US District Judge John Walter sided with the MPAA and issued a preliminary injunction that will force Zediva to close down in one week.
Brace yourself for this one, it might come as a shock to the system. Ready for it? It turns out that copyright lawyers might not qualify as role models for how the ones they're suing should conduct themselves. Okay, so maybe you're not astonished to learn that copyright lawyers may lack a little something in the morals department, but what is surprising is how blatant at least one high profile lawyer holds a double standard for copyright law.
As law enforcement and content associations alike slowly recognize the fact that trying to track down and prosecute millions of illegal file sharers is nothing more than a high-tech game of whack-a-mole (that they're losing), they're turning to commercial help in combating the threat of piracy. American ISPs have already voluntarily signed as copyright cops. In Britain, the real copyright cops – i.e. the London Police – are relying on payment processors to help put a halt on music sold without proper licenses. Yesterday, PayPal UK announced it had signed on to the coalition.
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