We’re back this week with the music chart posted by the guys at Kickasstorrents. The Music Top 5 presented here applies for this site alone and this week it includes most downloaded music torrents which seem to have a lot of pop flavor in them.
1. Lady GaGa – The Fame Monster;
2. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach;
3. Lil Wayne – Rebirth;
4. Owl City – Ocean Eyes;
5. Alicia Keys – The Element of Freedom;
Last month Simon Cowell has taken another step against illegal file sharing with “his first piece of UK political lobbying” – now the music mogul has called in the FBI to stop hackers stealing music produced by his label.
Apparently, Cowell’s Syco label, part of Sony BMG, has been the target of many attacks lately, perhaps owing to Cowell’s recent moves against piracy.
Alexandra Burke's forthcoming single has found its way to p2p networks, and the same thing happened to the new material from 2005 X Factor winner Shayne Ward.
In a recent statement a Syco spokesman commented: "Hacking and stealing of songs is a real issue for many artists."We are doing everything we can to catch those behind this."
While in Spain non-profit file sharing has been declared legal, here it represents such a threat that the labels turns to the mighty FBI.
Filed under Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues by 
Recent studies conducted by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) suggest that the total number of UK Internet users who engage in illegal file-sharing activities may be well over seven million.
Worried by the overwhelming proportions of the P2P file-sharing trend, the UK government has attempted on many occasions to implement corrective solutions, many of which in the form of anti-piracy laws. The Digital Economy Bill (DEB), currently waiting for politicians’ approval in the Parliament, is by far the most controversial measure of all.
Primarily advertised by politicians as a means to discourage copyright infringement by warning and educating people away from this practice, the Digital Economy Bill is, in truth, powerful enough to enforce someone’s prosecution under the claim of illegal file-sharing. And even if it’s only meant to scare people off unlawful file-sharing, the Bill isn’t without its drawbacks.
The law stipulates tracking down people who repeatedly commit copyright infringement and warning them through a system of letter writing before considering whether to bring them before a judge. However, this letter system, along with other proposed measures cost money, lots of money in fact, which could lead to a significant rise in the overall price of broadband.
While BPI utopists estimate users' Internet bills would go up by less than £1 per year, Internet service providers in the UK present a more pessimistic prognosis, warning that the price rise could actually be a lot more pronounced than that. British Telecom foresees that Internet consumers will have to spend up to £25 more on their regular Internet service bills in order to compensate for the costs of letter writing, as well as monitoring and enforcing various technical measures. Paying that much for Internet access would be unrealistic and service providers could lose many costumers over the DEB.
Analysts fear that the DEB will manage to stir up things in the Internet market, and all this without noticeable effects on piracy. Apart from causing serious losses to Internet providers from all over the UK, security experts are convinced that the Bill will have little or no impact on copyright infringement, as the phenomenon will only go deeper underground:
"If people are going to find their internet is cut off, because people can find out who they are, then they will move immediately to systems where it's not possible to find out who they are," Dr Richard Clayton, a computer security expert at Cambridge University explained in a press interview.
(further reading: BBC News)
Filed under Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues by
