Yes, the three founders of popular torrent tracker The Pirate Bay (and a rep from their ISP) were each sentenced to a year in prison and slapped with a $3.6 million fine. Luckily, they were able to sell the site off to a Swedish gaming company (Global Gaming Factory) for $7.8 million.
Below is a video recorded a week before The Pirate Bay closed the deal. It’s an interview between BBG’s Xeni Jardin and Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde. Of interest: “Peter’s explanation of why he believes filesharing and anonymity are good for democracy”.
The LA Times has an article summarzing the …read more

Over at the Guardian, Richard Wray writes:
Trying to stop people sharing copyrighted material over the internet is a game of cat and mouse in which the pirates will always win and calls for internet service providers to halt illegal file sharing are “naive”, according to the boss of Carphone Warehouse.
Instead, Charles Dunstone said, the solution is education about the benefits of respecting copyright coupled with services that allow consumers “to get content easily and cheaply“.
Amen brother! A friend from the Philippines recently complained about the iTunes Store’s lack of support for his country.
“Sure, currently you can buy applications and download …read more

Seems some states in the US are planning to apply taxes on digital downloads. According to Techdirt, this kind of tax is scheduled to apply this July 26 in Washington state. More important however is a potential legal ramification. To quote:
What is the value of the digital product for use tax purposes?
The value is the purchase price of the digital product. If the digital product is acquired by means other than a purchase, the value of the digital product is determined by the retail selling price of a similar digital product. [emphasis mine]
So, does this mean the state government can …read more