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The trade group for the top Hollywood film studios told a federal court that it opposes any plan that would allow MegaUpload to buy back its servers.

That unyielding stance position could hurt MegaUpload's efforts to retrieve its servers, which company lawyer Ira Rothken said it needs to defend itself. In January, the United States filed criminal copyright charges against the cyberlocker service, founder Kim DotCom and other managers. DotCom and six others are expected to fight U.S. attempts to extradite them to this country.

The Motion Picture Association of America laid out its position in an 8-page … Read more

The country's top Internet service providers, along with major film and recorded music companies, announced that they have hired the person who will oversee their joint antipiracy efforts, scheduled to begin this summer.

Earlier today, CNET reported that Jill Lesser, who is currently managing director of the Glover Park Group, a lobbying and public policy firm, was the leading candidate to run the Center for Copyright Information (CCI), the organization that will help support the antipiracy program known as graduated response.

The ISPs and entertainment companies confirmed that Lesser has been appointed executive director of CCI. They also said … Read more

The major film studios and music companies will soon unveil plans for a "copyright center," an organization designed to oversee the implementation of the controversial graduated-response program, CNET has learned.

Last July, when some of the country's top Internet service providers, including AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon, agreed to begin implementing a series of measures designed to discourage illegal file-sharing, the ISPs said they and the entertainment companies would establish a Center for Copyright Information (CCI) to "assist in the effort to combat online infringement."

The ISPs, major record labels, and Hollywood film studios … Read more

MediaFire is no 'rogue' Web site and is not run by any criminal gang, says Tom Langridge, one of the co-founders of the file-hosting service.

In a letter to CNET, Langridge has responded to comments made on Friday by Alfred Perry, vice president of worldwide antipiracy for Paramount Pictures. Perry appeared on a panel during the On Copyright conference at Columbia University.

Perry told attendees that the studios "continue to make criminal referrals" to authorities regarding "rogue" cyberlockers. He also said that some sites that enable piracy are often operated by criminal gangs that oversee multiple … Read more

NEW YORK -- In the wake of the MegaUpload indictment, the top Hollywood film studios are pushing for more cyberlocker services to be charged with crimes.

"We continue to make criminal referrals," Alfred Perry, vice president for worldwide content protection at Paramount Pictures, said during a panel discussion at the On Copyright conference here yesterday. Later he added that "more than 41 billion page views (yearly) are generated by the top 5 rogue cyberlocker services. That's five page views for every person on the planet."

After the panel, Perry provided CNET with the names of … Read more

The Internet Society is hardly a fan of the Stop Online Piracy Act or the Protect IP Act. The venerable non-profit, which acts as the umbrella organization for the Internet's key standards bodies, bluntly warns that the pair of copyright laws would end the "viability of the Internet."

Which is why ISOC's decision this month to hire a senior executive from the Motion Picture Association of America -- a lawyer who has championed the wildly controversial legislation that would blacklist Web sites that supposedly violate copyright -- is raising eyebrows.

ISOC announced last week that it had hired Paul Brigner, … Read more

As Samuel L. Jackson's "Jurassic Park" character Ray Arnold says, "Hold on to your butts." Universal Pictures has announced that "Jurassic Park 3D" hits theaters on July 19, 2013.

When "Jurassic Park" arrived nearly 20 years ago, it served as one of the definitive visual spectacles of my generation (like "Star Wars" in the '70s).

The movie features many of the necessary ingredients in the ultimate-blockbuster recipe: Spielberg directing, solid acting, great script, and majestic orchestra pieces by John Williams. One could even say the animation and graphics hold ground to this day. … Read more

NEW YORK--The country's largest Internet service providers haven't given up on the idea of becoming copyright cops.

Last July, Comcast, Cablevision, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other bandwidth providers announced that they had agreed to adopt policies designed to discourage customers from illegally downloading music, movies and software. Since then, the ISPs have been very quiet about their antipiracy measures.

But during a panel discussion before a gathering of U.S. publishers here today, Cary Sherman, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, said most of the participating ISPs are on track to begin implementing the program … Read more

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With the release of iPhoto for iOS, Apple has introduced an fun way of sharing your photos with family and friends: Journals.

What is a Journal? By creating a journal, you can organize and show off photos from a recent trip, party, holiday, or just for fun on a personalized Web page. Journals allow you to appear like you have a creative flare, mixed with some Web development knowledge, all without requiring you to know anything more than how to drag-and-drop photos.

How to get started