Pirate Bay founders jailed and fined, vow to continue

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It’s taken two months to get here, and now a Swedish court has jailed the four men responsible for The Pirate Bay for one year.

Despite the fact that The Pirate Bay’s servers don’t host any copyright material themselves, merely acting as a gateway for users to torrent material from others’ machines, the court has ruled that they must also pay £2.4m in damages.

A representative of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), John Kennedy, said that, “There has been a perception that piracy is OK and that the music industry should just have to accept it. This verdict will change that.”…

Sharp, LG and Chunghwa get fined $585 million for price-fixing

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Wow. Wondered why your electronic devices cost so much? It’s because Sharp, LG and Chunghwa have been fixing the prices, but have no fear – they’ve just been hit with a $585 million fine for having done so. LG gets the biggest chunk – $400 million, Sharp are paying $120 for fixing the prices of iPod screens, RAZR screens and Dell laptop screens. Lastly, Chunghwa will pay a $65 million fine for participating with LG.

Only these three corporations have been charged, but Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Justice Department in Washington, Thomas Barnett, has said that the investigation is still ongoing and they aren’t ruling out charges against individuals or against other companies. Tough talk. Still, hopefully it’ll see screen-based device prices go down over the next few years.

(via CNN Money)

Related posts: Microsoft hammered by EU anti-trust body again – handed record £680m fine | TorrentSpy tortured even after death – US court fines closed bittorrent site $110m

Microsoft hammered by EU anti-trust body again – handed record £680m fine

microsoft-fined-eu-625-million-anti-trust.jpgThe European Union has just hit Microsoft a record fine of around £625m.

It’s in response to Microsoft charging “unreasonable prices” to developers for data on how to get their applications working happily on Windows. Naughty old MS was ordered by the EU in 2004 to start charging more reasonable fees for licensing out its patents – but clearly the EU thinks it hasn’t complied with that. Hence the cash windfall for Brussels…