News written by Ben Reid (July, 2006)

Last November, software developer Shawn Hogan received a call from a lawyer representing Universal Pictures and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) notifying him that they were suing him for downloading "Meet the Fockers" over the BitTorrent network.

Hogan strongly denies the MPAA's accusation, adding that he even owns the movie on DVD. The attorney said they would settle for $2,500, however, Hogan declined.

Now he's locked in a legal fight with the MPAA. The MPAA, along with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), who represent the music industry, have filed thousands of similar lawsuits between them, but due to the legal costs involved, few have been challenged & none have gone to trial. This has left several controversies unresolved, including the lawfulness of the methods associations use access ISP records and whether it's possible to definitively link a person to an IP address in the age of Wi-Fi.

Hogan, who has amassed millions as the CEO of Digital Point Solutions, is determined to alter that trend. Although he expects to incur more than $100,000 in legal fees, he believes it is worth it to challenge the MPAA’s tactics. "They’re completely abusing the system," Hogan says. "I would spend well into the millions on this."

Microsoft has confirmed that it is developing a "Zune" digital music player to rival Apple's dominant iPod device.

After weeks of rumours of an potential "iPod killer" in the works, Microsoft on Friday said it will launch music software and players under the Zune brand, though the software maker left plenty unsaid in its confirmation.

"Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune," Chris Stephenson, a general manager of marketing for the software maker, said in a statement. "Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year."

The initial device will include Wi-Fi capability and will use a hard drive to store the music, Microsoft said. Stephenson's statement also shed some light regarding rumours that the device will use wireless connectivity to share music with other Zune devices.

"We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together," Stephenson said. A Microsoft representative declined to offer further details, although Stephenson told Billboard Magazine that other Zune devices, including a video player, are in the works.

Popular video streaming service YouTube was dealt a lawsuit on Friday in federal court for allowing its users to upload copyrighted video footage onto its website which included the beating of trucker Reginald Denny during the 1992 riots.

The owner and operator of Los Angeles News Service, Robert Tur, states in the lawsuit that within one week, one version of the Denny beating was viewed & downloaded 1,000 times via the site, which on Friday announced that its users are now viewing more than 100 million videos per day.

"The scope of the infringements is akin to a murky moving target, in that videos uploaded are not identified by copyright owner or registration number but rather by the uploader's idiosyncratic choice of descriptive terms to describe the content of the video — tags — making it extremely impractical to identify plaintiff's copyrighted works," Tur alleges in the lawsuit filed by attorney Francis Pizzulli of Santa Monica.

Tur is an award-winning journalist and helicopter pilot who has registered numerous copyrights for newsworthy footage. He also believes that YouTube is violating the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 landmark decision in MGM v. Grokster.

Internet Service Provider Tiscali has swiftly responded to allegations from the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) that it allowed its customers to illegally trade music files.

On Monday, the BPI sent official letters to both Tiscali and Cable And Wireless, and requested that they suspend some 59 accounts, (17 of which were Tiscali customers), which they claimed were being used for for "illegal filesharing".

A spokeswoman for Tiscali described the actions of the BPI as a 'media ambush'. She said the BPI had "[sent] their letter to the media before we even had a chance to read it and the information they went to press with was not strictly correct".

In a legal response to the BPI yesterday, Tiscali said it was concerned the way in which the issue was raised, what it feels was a lack of supporting evidence on 16 of the 17 customers indicated.

Jody Haskayne, the head of PR at Tiscali, said the ISP regularly cooperates with investigations and in no way condones illegal file-sharing, but feels it has a duty of care to its customers and must adhere strictly to the Data Protection Act.

The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) has been cleared to sue popular Russian music download site AllofMP3.com in London's High Court.

AllofMP3, which offers music downloads at extremely low costs (as little as £1 / $1.85 for an album), is Britain's second most popular online music download source, trailing only Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store for pole position according to one survey. AllofMP3 has always insisted it is a legal service in compliance with local copyright laws. However, according to the music labels, AllofMP3 doesn't have the required permission to distribute their songs.

"The reason AllofMP3.com downloads are cheap is that neither the artists nor the record companies are being paid," told BPI General Counsel Roz Groome. "We have maintained all along that this site is illegal and that the operator of the site is breaking UK law by making sound recordings available to UK based customers without the permission of the copyright owners."

"Now we will have the opportunity to demonstrate in the UK courts the illegality of this site," he continued.

The High Court has given its approval to serve legal proceedings against AllofMP3 and its owner MediaServices Inc. in Russia ahead of a UK court case, the BPI said in a statement on Monday.