Advanced Television

Piracy

BT ordered to block file-sharing website Newzbin2

Hollywood film studios can claim a significant win in their ongoing fight against online piracy, after the UK High Court ruled that dominant telco and leading ISP BT must block access to an illegal file-sharing website. BT users will no longer be able to download illegally films and TV shows for free from Newzbin2. The […]

July 28, 2011By Colin Mann

Oscar winner Bardem denounces movie piracy

Spanish actor Javier Bardem has joined with film-makers in urging Internet users to support creative industries struggling to survive in an age of digital piracy by shunning illegal downloading of free films and music. British film director Iain Smith, Egyptian producer Esaad Younis and Indian producer and director Bobby Bedi joined Bardem in appealing for […]

July 20, 2011By Colin Mann

The Sun site is hacked

Hackers  from Lulz Sec seized control of the website of The Sun, the sister publication of the recently shuttered News of the World. The website briefly displayed a fake news story announcing that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch had been found dead. Soon after, the site began redirecting to the LulzSec Twitter feed of Lulz […]

July 19, 2011

Australian ISPs face further copyright action

The Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) has given some of the largest Internet providers until Wednesday July 13 to respond to an invitation to re-enter negotiations on piracy or face unspecified action. AFACT Executive Director Neil Gane is understood to have written to a number of ISPs, including Exetel. Gane’s letter refers to the […]

July 12, 2011By Colin Mann

Coalition draws up ‘copyright alert’ framework

Movie studios, record labels and leading US Internet Service Providers have drawn up a framework for combating online piracy. Under the agreement, which followed months of negotiations, the ISPs will send warnings to customers whose broadband accounts had been used to transmit or receive copyrighted works without permission. The collaboration will be overseen by the […]

July 8, 2011By Colin Mann

UK pirate downloads up 30%?

The number of illegally downloaded films in the UK has gone up nearly 30 per cent in five years, claim consultancy firm Envisional. They say their monitoring indicates that the top five box office movies were illegally downloaded in the UK a total of 1.4 million times last year. The film industry say it is […]

July 7, 2011

Creative America coalition to fight piracy

A new coalition has been created by the major movie studios, TV networks, entertainment guilds and the MPAA to fight piracy, protect jobs and creative works. The creation of Creative America describes itself as a “grassroots organisation” that will provide a unified voice for two million Americans whose jobs are supported by movies and TV, […]

July 7, 2011

Minister: ISPs are obstructive. Virgin: this isn’t the only way

Ed Vaizey, the UK Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries, has criticised the continued legal action by ISPs BT and TalkTalk in respect of implementing aspects of the Digital Economy Act. Vaizey, in a keynote speech at the Intellect Consumer Electronics Conference in London, noted that in cross-industry discussions his department had facilitated […]

July 5, 2011By Colin Mann

Industry actions can boost video uptake

Although soon-to-be-released figures suggest that video consumption has slipped into third place in terms of consumer spend behind cable and satellite subscriptions and ISP subscriptions, Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association contends that with appropriate actions, the sector’s position can be restored. Participating in the Industry Leadership Debate on ‘Owning a slice […]

July 5, 2011By Colin Mann

Apple hack endangers iCloud?

Computer hacker group Anonymous has posted data online that indicates it is able to breach Apple security. Reports say the breach, revealed via Twitter, gave a link to a public Pastebin page, which contained 27 internal Apple usernames and passwords. Although the data comes from an Apple server believed to be used for online surveys […]

July 4, 2011