After the Australian government announced its plan to filter the online media, the US ambassador in the country said the move can infringe the freedom of speech, adding that there are more effective ways to deal with child pornography and other insidious materials.
Some countries and organizations, including Internet giants Yahoo and Google, have also criticized [...]

United Kingdom: A watchdog said that copyright holders should seek a court order first before conducting activities to obtain the personal information of illegal file-sharers.  This warning came after several indie filmmakers have filed copyright infringement lawsuit against thousands of people who allegedly downloaded illegal files.
Ofcom, an independent regulator for communication industries, said the legal [...]

Several BitTorrent users complained of receiving a new malware scam that has accused them of copyright infringement, forcing them to settle the case by paying $400 through their online bank account.
According to reports, the malware has posed a message “Warning! Pirated content was detected on your PC.  You are seriously violating copyright” before opening a [...]

Columbia, South Carolina: An appellate court said the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has no authority to order cable operator Comcast to stop throttling Bittorrent, a program that allows fast transfer of movie and music files.
With the new court decision, FCC’s ruling in 2008 which forced Comcast to stop its network management efforts against Bittorrent [...]

A group of independent film makers has recently filed a patent infringement lawsuit against thousands of Bittorrent users who have allegedly downloaded movie files from unlicensed websites.
In an interview, Thomas Dunlap, the legal representative of the group, said that everybody with Bittorrent, a computer program that allows users to easily download large files from the [...]

United Kingdom: The Teeside Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has recently junked the copyright lawsuit involving a teenager accused of illegally uploading music files to a file-sharing website, according to a media report.
With this decision, the recording industry has expressed disappointment and said that illegal file-sharing, especially those involving pre-release music, has a negative impact on [...]