The case has raised some serious questions about how copyright firms pursue file-sharers.
According to music industry analysts, hundreds of thousands of Web users who frequent copyright-infringing file-sharing sites, including The Pirate Bay and TorrentSpy, have chosen to download In Rainbows illegally, distributing their contraband around the Internet just as they might with any other pirated album.
In fact, SOPA does include provisions to block payments and advertising on infringing sites, allowing copyright holders to file complaints with the payment providers and advertisers directly and only giving the infringing site five days from the time of that filing to respond before the payment firms and advertisers are legally obliged to cut off the site.
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It is the second time in a month that the US courts have upheld fines imposed in a file-sharing copyright infringement case.
Authorities around the world have been cracking down on file-sharing and copyright infringement, and The Pirate Bay is one of the biggest targets, especially since the Federal Raid on Megaupload.com.
The lawsuit represents an innovative form of offensive warfare against the movie industry, which like the Recording Industry Association of America has turned to litigation to try and stem the wave of illegal file-sharing of copyright materials.
In September 2011, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) teamed up with the ISPs to launch the Center for Copyright Information, a body dedicated to deterring copyright infringement and advising consumers on legal file sharing options.
On Wednesday, a Canadian judge ruled, in effect, that file-sharing was legal under Canadian copyright law.
UKNova has stopped offering BitTorrent links after becoming the latest file-sharing site to be targeted by copyright defenders.
But Real DVD doesn't appear to do anything clearly illegal, says Laurence Pulgram, an attorney with Fenwick and West LLP who defended the file-sharing program Napster in its 2001 copyright case.
One purpose of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is to protect the technology of file sharing, and companies that use it, by inventing a theoretical "safe harbor" that shelters all sorts of user-powered platforms from the consequences of illegal actions by the users.
It said the system will rely on humans to review the entire content of every file to make sure it qualifies as material protected under copyright laws.
Last week, in a dramatic police action spanning at least two continents, authorities arrested the founder of a file-sharing site known as Megaupload.com for criminal copyright infringement.
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India's Madras High Court has since changed its earlier censorship order, which centred on the issue of internet copyright, making it once again possible for web users to access video and file-sharing sites, including The Pirate Bay.
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In my second post about the new MEGA encrypted file service I discussed the chess game that Kim Dotcom was playing with the policers of copyright.
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From the point of view of copyright holders, though, the necessity to use an encryption key does act as valuable friction against a file being shared too freely.
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If file-sharing prevents people from selling books, CDs, DVDs, and boxed software, then copyright is dead.
Many view BitTorrent as an evolution from older file sharing programs such as Napster and Kazaa in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the copyright laws.
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"It's becoming more difficult for file-sharing sites to operate without getting into trouble both from the authorities and also lawsuits from copyright owners, " Ernesto Van Der Sar, editor of TorrentFreak told the BBC.
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