As part of “Operation Music Box”, the Italian fiscal police have prosecuted forty-six people for uploading very large amounts of copyright infringing material through the Internet. The activity was carried out using eDonkey2000 and Direct Connect software. The investigation led to raids in 13 different provinces, turning up 1.7 million illegal mp3 files and more than 15,000 burnt CD-Rs containing copyright infringing music.
In total, 52 computers, two laptops, 81 external hard drives and 69 internal hard drives were seized. Under Italian law, the uploaders were held liable for more than €3 million in administrative sanctions. “People who upload hundreds or thousands of copyright infringing music tracks onto the Internet are breaking the law. They are stealing the livelihoods of artists, composers and record producers. I am delighted the Guardia di Finanza is holding them accountable for their actions,” said Enzo Mazza, president of FPM.
The trade value of the recording industry in Italy has shrunk from &euro370.1 million in 2003 to €266.2 million in 2007, and this fall has been largely blamed on the widescale availability of illegal MP3 copies.
Result for: internet
According to a new report published by Net Applications, Mozilla’s Firefox web browser can now boast 20 percent of the global market share for browsers, slowly chipping away at Internet Explorer’s once-thought of insurmountable lead.
The report says the browser has seen a huge surge in popularity thanks to the recent release of Firefox 3 as well as from converts fearing the infamously insecure Internet Explorer.
The milestone is even more impressive considering the growing popularity of Apple’s Safari browser and the introduction of Google’s Chrome browser.
Mozilla also added that they plan to replace their current JavaScript engine with TraceMonkey which will “improve operations within the application by 20 to 40 percent.”
Result for: internet
The French Senate has voted in favor of a law that will have pirates kicked off the Internet for multiple offenses and the bill now goes to the French National Assembly for final approval.
Pirates caught illegally sharing protected content will get two warning emails before having their Internet connection cut off.
The idea of the “three strikes law” has been around since late 2007 when French President Nicolas Sarkozy introduced it and called the proposal “a decisive moment for the future of a civilised internet”.
Under the law, ISPs will become Internet watchdogs keeping a closer look on the piracy tendencies of its users.
The Senate almost unanimously voted to back the law (297 to 15) and will also create a new government division to strictly oversee anti-piracy.
