You are browsing the archives of 2007 August.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a report claiming that the lawsuits brought on by the RIAA are not effective in lowering the usage of P2P file sharing networks. (PDF)
Are the lawsuits working? Has the arbitrary singling out of more than 20,000 random American families done any good in restoring public respect for copyright law? [...]

The Guardian reports on how Japanese Organized Crime syndicates are expanding their business opportunities.
According to senior police officials, the yakuza is targeting the stock market and the construction industry to add to the earnings it already receives from illegal businesses such as prostitution, drug smuggling, extortion and gambling.
The article states that the yakuza is being [...]

As the policies of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez continues to create a black market, some currency traders has taken the opportunity to capitalize on it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some citizens are profiting from the price difference between the bolivar and the dollar.
First, the reason for the black market:

Since 2003, Mr. Chávez has more [...]

The Guardian (UK) had an exclusive interview this weekend with the  guys who run The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest bittorrent tracker.
The Pirate Bay has been able to evade the reach of Hollywood due to the fact that the website operates in a similar fashion to a search engine.
Filesharing and illegal downloading has been a [...]

The International Justice Mission has stated that one out of every four victims of forced labor or sexual exploitation is Filipino.
According to the Manila Standard:
One in every four victims of forced labor or sexual exploitation is a Filipino.
This was revealed yesterday by the International Justice Mission in the Philippines, quoting a United Nations report on [...]

Foreign businesses lose an estimated $500 million to piracy in India every year, according to BBC News.
The counterfeit market is in full display at traffic intersections in cities across India.
Barefooted lads aged between 10 and 20 dodge oncoming traffic, carrying stacks of counterfeit books to sell to passengers.
One of the counterfeit booksellers is 12-year-old [...]

Custom officials released counterfeit goods seizures at the nations ports for the first half of the Fiscal Year.  Nationally, seizures of counterfeit goods rose by 22 percent, with the estimated value of the goods rising by 141 percent.
From the Los Angeles Times:
Nationwide, Customs officials reported 7,245 counterfeit and piracy cases between October and March of [...]

One in four people surveyed by the Gallop Organization and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles knowingly bought, copied, or downloaded illegal goods in 2006.
The 25% piracy rate of Los Angeles County residents surveyed in May and June was slightly higher than the 20% nationwide rate the chamber found last year.
Not surprisingly, most [...]

USA Today has an interesting article on the case of Hisayoshi Kojima, a self proclaimed “Indiana Jones of Butterfly Smuggling”:

From Jamaica he could get the giant swallowtail Papilio homerus, whose velvety black and gold wings are depicted on the country’s $1,000 bank note.
From the Philippines he could get the Luzon peacock swallowtail or Papilio chikae.
And [...]

As college students in America head back to school, we thought it might be a good time to list the top ten schools downloading schools in the United States.
The figures are based on notice of violation letters sent by the Recording Industry Association of America. The figures were based during the time period of September [...]