Ukrainian authorities on Wednesday shut down popular file sharing website Ex.ua over copyright violations. The move comes just two weeks after US authorities put an end to the world’s most popular file sharing service Megaupload.com.

Speaking about the seizure Volodymyr Polishchuk, a spokesman for the countries Interior Ministry said the site was closed after various companies including Adobe and Microsoft filed complaints.

Also listing Ex.ua as one of the most popular piracy websites was the Recording Industry Association of America  (RIAA).

In the seizure more than 200 servers were taken away and 16 employees for the company face questioning for their part in multiple acts of piracy.

At this time officials have not said whether or not all of the company’s employees will be charged.

After the shutdown hackers railing against the government by disabling the Interior Ministry website and various other sites associated with the Ukrainian president.

Do you think recent actions taken against the likes of Megaupload and now Ex.ua means the end of file sharing websites as we have known them for more than a decade? Or will smart programmers figure out a way to send pirated files by other means?

Ukraine Officials Shut Down File Sharing Website Over Copyright Violations is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Electronic Frontier Foundation wants to save non-pirated user data from file sharing service Megaupload, allowing users to access their legitimate data before the company’s two U.S. based hosting services delete those files forever.

The EFF is currently working with Carpathia Hosting to “assess the scope of the issue facing Megaupload users.” In the meantime Carpathia has already launched the website MegaRetrieval.com which allows users to submit details of their data situation on an individual bases.

According to EFF staff attorney Julie Samuels:

“EFF is troubled that so many lawful users of Megaupload.com had their property taken from them without warning and that the government has taken no steps to help them,” and “We think it’s important that these users have their voices heard as the process moves forward.”

Carpathia is no longer being paid to house Megaupload data since the US Department of Justice froze the file sharing company’s assets, however they also state that they have “no immediate plans” to wipe out the data from their servers.

In the meantime some file retrieval may hinge on the US Government which copied a portion of the sites files allowed through a governmental search warrant before taking down Megaupload servers.

According to an official EFF statement:

“The government has finished its investigation of Megaupload’s servers and claims that the companies that own those servers – Carpathia and Cogent – are free to delete their contents,” and “Luckily, those companies aren’t following the government’s example of shooting first and asking later.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation isn’t the only group fighting for the retention of files, lawyers for Megaupload are also attempting to retain data for more than 50 million users.

Do you think users should be given one last shot to retrieve their data before Megaupload is closed permanently?

Electronic Frontier Foundation Vows To Save Megaupload User Data is a post from: The Inquisitr

It seems this is the month of shutting down file sharing sites. Microsoft and Adobe have filed to take down ex.ua, a file sharing service in the Ukraine. The site has been shut down after a six month investigation into claims of piracy.

Ex.ua is a very popular site in the Ukraine and even accounted for as much as 25% of Internet traffic in the country. Companies take piracy very seriously as they rely greatly off of software sales. Even though the concept of file sharing isn’t illegal, companies manage to find a way around it due to copyright infringement.

If thousands and thousands of people download say a $300 piece of software, well, it adds up in the long run. With the file sharing service being shut down, there’s a lot of data at stake too.

Via TheNextWeb:

“Ukranian news site Watcher reports that the Ministry of Internal Affiars states “the police closed ex.ua under criminal investigation under part 2 of article 176 of the criminal proceedings”. The article in question covers violation of copyright and related rights.”

“In all it’s being reported that 200 servers were confiscated, carrying among them 6,000 terabytes of data. At present, 16 people are facing charges in the investigation, which could lead to a maximum prison sentence of 5 years.”

To give you an idea of how much data that is, 1 terabyte is 1000 gigabytes. The average computer has 250 gigabytes of hard drive space so you do the math. Either way, it’s not good for the Ukranian file sharing service. With piracy and copyright infringement lawsuits heating up, these takedowns aren’t going to end anytime soon.

Do you believe Microsoft and Adobe had the right to get the service shut down?

Microsoft And Adobe Take Down File Sharing Service In Ukraine is a post from: The Inquisitr

Megaupload who recently got shut down due to claims of piracy, copyright infringement, and money laundering, had the chance of all its user’s data deleted this week. Fortunately, they’ve received an extension, but not for long.

Why the deletion of data? The simple fact is, since the file hosting service was shut down, the US government also froze all of the company’s assets which keeps them from making any payments. They rely off of a couple hosting companies and have contracts with them to host data.

Users are saved, for now at least.

Via Informationweek:

“In the United States, Megaupload leases servers from two hosting providers: Carpathia Hosting and Cogent Communications. Since the Justice Department froze Megaupload’s assets, however, the file-sharing site could no longer pay its leasing bills.”

“But Ira Rothken, Megaupload’s U.S. attorney, said the two hosting providers have since agreed that they won’t delete the Megaupload data they’re storing, for at least two more weeks. “The hosting companies have been gracious enough to provide additional time so we can work out some kind of arrangement with the government,” Rothken said, according to news reports. The negotiations are meant to free up funds to pay the hosting providers to recover some data, which he said may also aid Megaupload’s defense.”

While this is great, users still can’t access their data due to the site being shut down, however, there’s the hope that the site can eventually be restored after all the legalities and lawsuit is figured out.

Do you think they should save Megaupload user data?

Megaupload User Data Gets Saved, At Least For Another 2 Weeks is a post from: The Inquisitr

Megaupload, the notorious file hosting service that was abruptly shut down recently due to piracy and claims of money laundering, is taking another hit in the eyes of it’s once users. Data could be deleted this week which means anyone who uploaded content, will lose everything.

The recent debacle with the Hong Kong based company, has really ignited the Internet community on the topic of piracy and copyright infringement. Prosecutors claim to have cost the music and movie industry Billions of dollars because of people uploading copyrighted material and users then downloading it.

The service made it very easy to upload and get access to content, whether it was music or movies. Many people were using it, too, and paying for it at that. Unfortunately, the site doesn’t look to be making a comeback anytime soon.

Via The Washington Post:

“It is our understanding that the hosting companies may begin deleting the contents of the servers beginning as early as February 2, 2012,” U.S. District Attorney Neil MacBride wrote in the letter. Ira Rothken, attorney for Megaupload, told The Associated Press that, after this development, at least 50 million customers could lose their files. Megaupload had been contracting with the companies to store the information, but can no longer pay those contracts because its assets have been frozen.”

The situation is sure to make a lot of people upset, but what’s done has already been done. Since they can’t pay the hosting companies because their assets were frozen, there’s a good chance all the data will be deleted.

How do you feel about the whole Megaupload situation?

Megaupload User Data May Be Deleted This Week is a post from: The Inquisitr

The ripples following the takedown of Megaupload by the US government is still rippling through the tech industry with many wondering who could possibly be next.

Considering the fact that the US government feels that it doesn’t have to respect any country boundaries as long as the can convince the governments of those countries that it is in their best interests to go along with the US there are any number of similar businesses as Megaupload that could end up in the sites of the US Department of Justice.

Already we have seen sites like FileSonic and SileServer turn off the ability to share files with other people on their services and the other day we reported about how Uploaded.to had shut down access to the site to anyone from the United States.

So who else could possibly face the wrath of an entertainment industry paid for government.

Well according to Sean Ludwig at VentureBeat there are possibly 15 other companies that might be worried about what the future could hold; because it’s not like being located in a country other than the U.S. is going to make any difference.

It should be noted that the majority of companies on the list are equally as shady as Megaupload was which by all intents and purposes should put them directly in the cross-hairs of the DoJ.

• BayFiles - Hong Kong
• DepositFiles – Cyprus
• Divx Stage
• HulkShare
• MediaFire - Texas
• MegaShares
• NovaMov
• OvFile
• PutLocker
• RapidShare - Switzerland
• SockShare
• UploadHere
• UploadKing
• WUpload - Hong Kong
• ZShare - Hong Kong

Chances are that now that the DoJ has tasted blood by successfully taking down Megaupload we will be seeing a lot more actions like this against other companies in the same line of business.

With the Feds taking down Megaupload here’s some other file-sharing sites that could be next is a post from: The Inquisitr

While the practice of file sharing may not be condoned by the Sweden government they have allowed a group of more than 3,000 file-sharer to start a religion based around the practice.

In a humor turn of events the church has been named “The Missionary Church of Kopimism” which is pronounced “Copy-me-ism.”

At first Swedish lawmakers fought the religious request, in fact the group has been attempting to be recognized since 2010. Rejections first occurred according to TorrentFreak because authorities wants Kopimism to define their prayer practices.

In my head I see the group praying to their gods Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker (Napster‘s co-creators if you weren’t aware) while punishing those against the practices by promising to send them to a hell run by copyright protector Lars Ulrich of Metallica fame.

Speaking to Wired the churches founder Isak Gerson said:

“Our main ritual is the act of copying and connecting with each other by sharing information.”

He goes on to note:

“More people will have the courage to step out as Kopimists. Maybe not in the public, but at least to their close ones.”

In the meantime the group hopes that by gaining a unified voice with open “worship” of their practice they can gain the voices needed to work for and against certain legislation.

In speaking to their fellow believers they say: “Keep copying. Maintain hardline Kopimi.”

Will you be joining the Missionary Church of Kopimism anytime soon? I know plenty of people who have been unwitting members for years.

Sweden’s New Recognized Religion Is ‘File Sharing’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a move sure to drive more than a few music business mogul running and screaming it seems that the Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) has come out and said that they think that legalizing file-sharing might not be such a bad idea.

Now before you go claiming that this must be a bunch of crazy people who don’t know what they are talking about it is important to know that SAC has some pretty big names from the music business as part of the organization.  People like Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, and Carole Pope along with 1,500 other Canadian musicians all of whom have some pretty strong views on the industry, and opinion that doesn’t seem to coincide with the labels.

SAC believes that consumers should have access to all the music in the world, something that only file-sharing sites provide today. So instead of shutting these sites down the songwriters association wants to legalize file-sharing, while compensating the artists whose works are shared.

“People have always shared music and always will. The music we share defines who we are, and who our friends and peers are. The importance of music in the fabric of our own culture, as well as those around the world, is inextricably bound to the experience of sharing,” SAC writes in a detailed proposal.

via TorrentFreak

There are times when I am really proud of my country.

Oh those wacky Canadians and their wanting to legalize file-sharing is a post from: The Inquisitr

Although prison terms for founders of the Pirate Bay were reduced in a recent appeal, a judge upped fines in the case by two million dollars for a total of 46 million kronor- less than the 120 million kronor fine requested by entertainment companies.

Pirate Bay founder Fredrik Neij was sentenced to 10 months on appeal, Peter Sunde Kolmisoppi to eight months in prison and Carl Lundstroem to four months in jail. A fourth man, Gottfrid Swartholm Warg, was unable to be present in court due to illness, and he will be sentenced separately.

A lawyer for the entertainment industry, Monique Wasted, was thrilled with the exorbitant fines and prison terms again handed down:

“It’s a relief that the court of appeal finally affirmed that if you carry out this type of activity, you’ll go to prison,” she told TT.

“In two years, this type of piracy will be over. After a ruling like this and all the pioneers start to get older and have children and families, piracy won’t occur to this extent.”

Some say, however, that the decision- which, according to many tweets flying around this morning, saw fines far in excess of those for rape and murder- is an example of the court system being used to protect the interests of corporate entities and the very powerful above those of others:

“This was a political trial from the start and it must be resolved politically,” Rick Falkvinge, leader of the Pirate Party said in a response to the verdict. “The public has lost all confidence in the justice system in these matters, and it is beyond sad that the courts still persist in running special-interest justice.”

Peter Sunde, one of the three men sentenced on appeal, says the handling of the case was “wrong.”

“They’re giving us jail even though it’s not the right thing for the ‘crime.’ It’s just to scare people. That’s what you did in the 1600s…,” defendant Peter Sunde told TorrentFreak.

Sunde told TorrentFreak that all defendants plan to appeal at the Supreme Court as soon as possible.

[The Local, Torrent Freak, The Guardian]

Swedish judge upholds convictions, raises fines on Pirate Bay founders is a post from: The Inquisitr

The original founding members of the popular file-sharing site Pirate Bay are no longer working together according to a report published by the BBC.

Originally known as Piratbyran, which translates in English to “piracy bureau”, the site was started in 2003 and allowed users to search for files on the companies search portal and then download those files using the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer file sharing system.

According to founding member Marcin de Kaminski, there are two reasons for the recent parting of ways:

“[the team] feels that they are not needed” anymore and due to the recent death co-founder, Ibi Kopimi Botani.

Marcin added:

Our group was very small, and when one of our members are no longer alive, it is hard to keep the group alive.

It’s the end of an era, I would have really liked to see what else the team behind Pirate Bay was capable of accomplishing, but it looks like I’ll have to follow them individually instead. [Indyposted]

Original Pirate Bay Founders Disband is a post from: The Inquisitr

With a market share of around 35% Limewire is one of the best known filesharing applications and this was something they were hoping would become a success application on Facebook. The only problem is that Facebook doesn’t want anything to do with any application that even has a whiff of dirty filesharing connected to it.

Previously Facebook had blocked The Pirate Bay now it seems that Limewire is the next company to feel the puritanical slap of Facebook as they were informed their application’s sharing feature would be blocked by Facebook. So even though filesharing applications can be, and are being, used for sharing legal files Facebook is not taking any chances.

Speaking with TorrentFreak the Vice President of Product Management for Limewire, Jason Herskowit had this to say about the ban

Jason Herskowit, Vice President Product Management at LimeWire told TorrentFreak that Facebook has requested a number of changes to LimeWire’s Facebook integration after they introduced the new feature. LimeWire quickly complied with these requests, but that was not good enough.

“Unfortunately, this week we were contacted again. This time not with a change request, but with a notice that they were going to disable the feature,” Jason explained. “Rather than leave the users with a broken LimeWire, we decided to disable the feature before they did so. As an avid user of both Facebook and LimeWire myself, I am as disappointed by this as anyone.”

“It is unfortunate for us all, particularly considering that LimeWire and Facebook share the common vision of being ‘a place to connect and share’. We hope to find a way to work with Facebook to re-enable the features that you guys continue to ask for and we sincerely apologize for having to remove this feature in the near-term,” Jason added.

Myself, I’m not surprised in the least with Facebook’s action. The last thing they want to do is fall in the crosshairs of entertainment industry and their lapdogs.

Sharing on Facebook is a good thing unless it’s using Limewire is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well color me surprised but not all of the record companies are happy with UK ISP Virgin Media’s planned subscription service for downloading music.

The UK company believes that consumers want to be able to download as much music as they want and without it being loaded down with DRM restrictions. It’s newly announced subscription service is built around this idea that will allow their subscribers to download as much music as they want for an additional monthly fee and allow them to keep it permanently. The fee for the service hasn’t been announced but people in the know are suggesting it will be around the £15 mark.

At this point only Universal and some smaller indie labels have signed up with the ISP’s service. The other record companies, like Warner Bros, EMI, and Sony Music aren’t too happy with the service as they believe that it will cannibalize their existing digital sales. They also don’t believe that it will do anything to convert persistent file-sharers.

A Virgin Media spokeswoman said it’s committed to launching a “comprehensive” service this year. “We’re making good progress in developing the service and are on track to launch before Christmas,” she said. “We’re in talks with both major and independent labels and are committed to launching a comprehensive service.”

However, while record labels are keen to work with Virgin because of the reach it offers via its 3.7m broadband subscribers, they argue the music download service needs to make commercial sense.

A label executive involved in the negotiations said the labels support Virgin Media’s music plans in theory, but any service must deliver both feasibility and scale.

“We want to work with Virgin Media as a partner but any deal has to sit comfortably with how we value our assets against how it values its customers,” he said. “We have to evaluate each deal as it comes in and make sure we’re happy with the overall value of the proposition.”

Source: New Media Age – Record labels cast doubt on Virgin Media’s music model

Somehow I don’t hold out much hope that the Virgin Media subscription idea will end up seeing the light of day.

Virgin’s solution to piracy not sitting well with all record companies is a post from: The Inquisitr

After a weekend get together with David Geffen, a billionaire producer, and members of the Rothschild banking dynasty at their family holiday villa on the Greek island of Corfu, Lord Mandelson the British business secretary ordered a toughening of regulations against illegal file-sharing. Interestingly enough prior to this weekend get-away paid for by the Rothschild’s Lord Mendelson apparently had little interest in the Digital Britain agenda, now however he wants increasing powers granted to Ofcom, Britain’s communications regulator, that would see seven million people labeled as criminals.

Not only would the possible seven million be turned into criminals they could also face fines up to £50,000 as well as having severe restrictions placed on their, and their family’s internet access.

Whitehall sources said that Lord Mandelson has been persuaded by the need to take action to prevent copyright being breached. But Mr Watson, writing below, says: "Not only do the sanctions ultimately risk criminalising a large proportion of UK citizens, but they also attach an unbearable regulatory burden on an emerging technology that has the power to transform society, with no guarantees at the end that our artists and our culture will get any richer.

"Working on the safe assumptions that (a) people like downloading music from the internet, and (b) most people would prefer not to break the law, we should aim to map a way forward for businesses to take financial advantage of the digital market."

Source: Independent :: The Net closes in on internet piracy

Mr. Watson, the former minister for digital engagement also said in the same piece that rather than going after the downloaders it would make much more sense to go after those doing the uploading.

Britain to turn 7 million people into bona fide criminals is a post from: The Inquisitr

There are a lot of different arguments used by people brought to court by the RIAA and other entertainment trade groups in order to come out victorious. In the majority of cases they lose and the RIAA get’s to brag a little longer about how they are out their protecting the rights of musicians.

I’ll wait until you pick yourself up from the floor after the laughing fit that statement prompted.

All better know? good because there is a very interesting defense being put forward in the case of accused file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum. It would seen that well respected Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson will argue that what Tenenbaum did falls squarely within “fair use” and therefore he isn’t liable for any purported damages. Nesson claims that downloading of copyrighted works nor no other purpose than personal enjoyment satisfies the famous “four factor test” for fair use claims.

Those four factors according to Stanford University Library are

1. the purpose and character of your use
2. the nature of the copyrighted work
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion taken, and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market.

While some of Nesson’s equals consider this stretching the fair use clause a bit too far he believes he can convince a jury otherwise

"Defendant Tenenbaum expects and plans to offer the jury evidence relating to each one of these four factors," Nesson wrote in his court filing, "just as they are articulated in the statute, with the jury to decide their meaning as they apply to the facts of his particular case."

Source: Ars Technica

We’ll have to wait until this summer sometime for the case to start in a Massachusetts federal court to see if this rather unique defense will survive.

P2P filesharing seen as “fair use” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Most people will know of Drop.io as being a drop dead simple file-sharing services out there. Well today they pushed out a new addition to their service called Conference.io and just so I don’t mess up what the service is all about here’s the word from the horse’s mouth – so to speak

conference.io: is an applet from drop.io specifically tailored for real time collaboration and file sharing. Create a conference.io drop in one click and you are instantly in a rich media ‘chat’ feed. Invite participants (as many as you want), use all core drop.io settings, collaborate and exchange files at will in your browser, third party chat client, and mobile. Ideal for events, and with our free conference call function, teams working remotely.
pictures, video, audio, and documents all appear in-line and can be previewed and downloaded. Files can also be emailed in, and voicemail can be recorded on your conference.io’s private line. All files are stored (up to 100mb for free) and can be viewed in a variety of ways.

Source: conference.io

In keeping with drop.io’s well known ease of use you can be up and running using conference.io with as little as a username and a button click

There is also a Quicktime video walkthrough available here for those that want to have a bit more of a look before jumping in.

Drop.io ups the game with Conference.io is a post from: The Inquisitr

A new plan, just announced today, has the nation’s six biggest ISPs working hand-in-hand with regulating group Ofcom. Together, they’ll identify and then help monitor people believed to be illegally sharing music, movies, and other protected materials online.

Once an ISP flags you, you’ll get a government warning informing you that you are being monitored. Officials could then issue you more warnings, potentially using either what’s described as a “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” policy or eventually putting a filter on your account that’ll restrict your activity.

The ISPs involved thus far are Virgin Media, BSkyB, Carphone Warehouse, BT, Orange, and Tiscali.

Government to Monitor UK Internet Use is a post from: The Inquisitr