Billboard
Since October 2008, the Recording Industry Association of America said it has sent 1.8 million infringement notices to commercial internet service providers – and 269,609 to colleges and universities. But starting this month, colleges and universities that don’t do enough to combat the illegal swapping of Avatar or Lady Gaga over their computer networks put themselves at risk of losing federal funding. According to regulations that went into effect Thursday, colleges and universities must put in place plans “to effectively combat the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material by users of the institution’s network” without hampering legitimate educational and research use. Those that do not comply risk losing their eligibility for federal student aid. Read the above article for more information about the new regulations, responses of various universities, and the importance of the battle against online piracy.
FEDERAL REGULATORS SEIZE DOMAIN NAMES AND ABANK ASSETS OF ALLEGED MOVIE PIRATES
LA Times
Adding some swashbuckling to its tough talk on fighting piracy, the federal government on Wednesday seized several websites that had offered downloads of pirated movies such as Toy Story 3 and Iron Man 2 within hours of their release in theaters. Federal authorities announced that they had seized domain names from nine websites engaged in the “criminal theft of American movies and television.” Combined, the sites drew 6.7 million visitors a month, authorities said. Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New York, New Jersey and Washington. The crackdown, which involved 100 agents working in 11 states and the Netherlands, was part of a renewed campaign dubbed Operation in Our Sites by federal authorities to curb Internet counterfeiting and piracy. The announcement comes a week after the Obama administration unveiled a detailed plan on how to tackle global piracy, including targeting illegal websites. The studios say they lose hundreds of millions annually to piracy. Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement that the actions were necessary to protect the jobs and livelihoods of “ordinary working people” and warned others engaged in similar websites. “If your business model is piracy, your story will not have a happy ending,” Bharara said.
