Posted: 27 Nov 2014 12:12 AM PST

Last week during a hearing at the Auckland District Court, Crown Prosecutor Christine Gordon said that following an apparent breach of conditions an application had been made to revoke Kim Dotcom's bail.

The allegations, which are reportedly serious enough to put Dotcom back behind bars, resulted in the Court ordering tightened restrictions preventing the entrepreneur from using helicopters, traveling by boat, or going more than 80 kilometers from his Coatesville mansion.

The details of the allegations were set to be revealed this Monday during a second bail hearing but a day earlier a new affidavit containing more allegations led Dotcom’s lawyer Ron Mansfield to request and receive a delay until Thursday.

Dotcom arrived in good time for this morning’s hearing. Pulling up at the Auckland District Court in his familiar Mercedes G-Class, Dotcom exited the vehicle while ignoring questions from the waiting press.

“Mr Dotcom, are you worried about the prospect of returning to jail?” one reporter asked.

Wearing his trademark all black and carrying a small towel and water bottle, within seconds a somber Dotcom was inside, passing metal detectors and riding up an escalator to the next floor.

What happened next is largely cloaked in mystery due to a media blackout imposed by the court.

What we do know is that the hearing was due to begin at 10:00 and the topic would be whether to extend or revoke Dotcom’s bail. The Crown alleges that Dotcom breached his bail conditions and it now appears those claims date back to events in 2012, potentially almost three years ago.

The hearing took place before Judge Nevin Dawson. A veteran of Dotcom cases, at one point Dawson cleared the courtroom so that private discussions on how Dotcom should be cross-examined could take place.

More than seven hours after it began and having failed to reach a conclusion on Dotcom’s bail, the hearing was terminated around 5pm. It will resume lunchtime tomorrow with Dotcom potentially learning his fate before the end of the day.

Dotcom has been on bail since February 2012 following the raids a month earlier on his Coatesville mansion. His extradition battle with the United States has been running ever since and has now been delayed until 2015 to allow the Megaupload founder to put together a new legal team.

Although the companies involved have remained tight-lipped, Dotcom revealed this week that his high-profile New Zealand-based legal team quit after he ran out of money.

“I’m officially broke right now,” he told a digital technology conference in London this week. According to the entrepreneur, to date he’s spent $10m on his defense.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The Pirate Bay Goes Down Locally

Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:57 PM PST

Many U.S. Internet subscribers across various ISPs are experiencing trouble accessing The Pirate Bay at the moment.

Every time TPB becomes inaccessible thousands of people begin to worry that their ISPs have begun blocking or that something awful has happened to their beloved site.

However, the current downtime appears to be a routing issue as the site is still reachable in most parts of the world.

There’s also good news for people who can't access The Pirate Bay at the moment because many of the proxies are still working just fine, as do VPNs.

TF reached out to the TBC crew who confirmed that that there are connectivity problems. However, this appears to be beyond their control.

“As far as we are concerned TPB is online. Network connectivity issues are outside of our control. Many people are experiencing no issues connecting to TPB,” a TPB crew member says.

“Sooner or later these routing issues will be resolved. In the meantime, a proxy or VPN can be used,” he adds.

There is no ETA for when the problems will be resolved but the most resilient torrent site is expected come back online for everyone eventually.

Stay tuned.

Pirate Bay Downtime

tpb

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Record Biz Wants To Tax Brits For Copying Their Own Music

Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:38 AM PST

Until recently the vast majority of British citizens believed that copying music bought with their own money was something they could do without legal concerns.

The truth, however, was somewhat different. Until recently UK legislation did not permit so-called “private copying”, meaning that anyone who transferred music from a purchased CD to an MP3 player was committing an offense.

Recognizing this as a problem, earlier this year the government decided that it would be in the best interests of consumers to legalize copying for personal use. After a delay through the summer, last month changes were put into place enabling people to make copies of DVDs, CDs and other types of media, as long as they're for personal use.

But now, less than two months on, the music industry is voicing its collective displeasure at the government’s decision and announcing plans to have consumers pay a new “copy tax” to rightsholders.

The Musicians' Union (MU), The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA) and UK Music (of which the BPI is a member) say they have launched an application for a judicial review into the government’s decision to introduce a so-called “private copying exception” without including a kickback to rightsholders.

What the industry groups want is a tax to be applied to blank media including blank CDs, hard drives, memory sticks and other devices capable of recording. This money would then be funneled back to the music industry for distribution among rightsholders, a mechanism already operating in other European countries.

Despite never earning a penny from the billions of copies made before October 1, 2014, the music industry groups say that allowing citizens to record in future “will damage the musician and composer community” and amounts to a contravention of the EU Copyright Directive.

The judicial review will see the High Court examine the introduction of the levy-less copying exception to ascertain whether the government acted legally. The music groups’ aim is to have the legislation amended in the industry’s favor.

"We have sought judicial review because of the way the government made its decision not to protect the UK's creative industries – in stark contrast to other countries that have introduced copyright exceptions,” says Vick Bain, CEO of The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors.

“We fully support the right of the consumer to copy legally bought music for their own personal and private use, but there must be fair compensation for the creators of the music.”

UK Music CEO Jo Dipple says that licensing is the key to the industry’s success in the digital age so when the right to copy without a license is granted, in this case to the public, rightsholders must be compensated.

“Copyright enables people to earn a living out of their creativity and sustains jobs. The Government has made a serious error with regards to private copying. The legislative framework must guarantee musicians and composers are fairly compensated,” Dipple says.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

BT Starts Blocking Private Torrent Sites

Posted: 26 Nov 2014 07:01 AM PST

Following a series of High Court orders, six UK ISPs are currently required to block subscriber access to dozens of the world's largest torrent sites.

The latest order was issued last month after a complaint from the major record labels. It expands the UK blocklist by 21 torrent sites, including limetorrents.com, nowtorrents.com, picktorrent.com, seedpeer.me and torlock.com.

This weekend both BT and Sky implemented the new changes, making it harder for their subscribers to reach these sites. Interestingly, however, BT appears to have gone above and beyond the court order, limiting access to various other sites as well.

Over the past several days TorrentFreak has received reports from several users of private torrent sites who get an “error blocked” message instead of their favorite sites. These include the popular IPTorrents.com and TorrentDay.com trackers, as well as scene release site Scnsrc.me.

IPTorrents and Torrentday are significant targets. Although both sites require prospective users to obtain an invite from a current member (or from the site itself in exchange for cash), they have over a hundred thousand active users.

The error displayed when BT subscribers try to access the above URLs is similar to that returned when users to try access sites covered by High Court injunctions.

However, there is no known court decision that requires BT to block these URLs. In fact, no UK ISP has ever blocked a private torrent site before.

TF contacted BT’s press contact and customer service team but we have yet to receive a response to our findings. Meanwhile, several of the affected users are discussing on Facebook and Twitter how they can bypass the blockades.

It appears that for now IPTorrents is still accessible via https and via the site’s alternative .me and .ru domains. In addition, VPNs and proxy servers are often cited among suggested workaround techniques.

Whether the private torrent sites will remain blocked and on what grounds remains a mystery for now. We will update this article if BT sends us a response. BT users who spot more unusual blocks are encouraged to get in touch.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

PirateBay

Torrentfreak: “Kim Dotcom Leaves Bail Hearing a Free Man, For Now” plus 3 more

Torrentfreak: “Kim Dotcom Leaves Bail Hearing a Free Man, For Now” plus 3 more

Pirate Bay Downtime