Described as one of the largest leaks in history, the Panama Papers reveal where some of the wealthiest people in the world hide their fortunes. However, offshore companies are also widely used for anonymity, as the listing of two Megaupload defendants reveals. This could spell trouble for quite a few file-sharing sites and services that hide behind offshore companies.

The operating theory of incumbent industries is that piracy kills creativity. Try telling that to Nigeria. ... Years of history suggest rampant piracy is directly linked to the rise of the Nigerian film industry, a.k.a. "Nollywood." It's now 2016 and government officials and anti-piracy task force heads are still trying to deliver the same "piracy is killing the Nigerian film industry" arguments.

Alexandra Elbakyan is challenging the multibillion-dollar academic publishing industry.

In 1968, at the height of the hippie movement, everybody was convinced cannabis would be legalized next week. It would take another 40 years. Why?

As a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software and music, the Internet Archive has a keen interest in copyright law. In a submission to the U.S. Copyright Office the Archive says since the major studios often send invalid notices, they're suggesting a change in the law to allow content to remain up while disputes are settled.

Last week news broke that having dumped the recording industry on its head a decade-and-a-half ago, Napster founder Sean Parker is now turning his attentions to the world of cinema. Unlike his now infamous file-sharing service, this time Parker intends to do things by the book, licensing content from its creators and delivering it to the public. However, disruption is still a mainstay of the entrepreneur’s business model...

I’ve had the great privilege of working in the film and television business for nearly four decades. I count myself among the fortunate few who have been able to oversee the production of movies and TV shows beloved by millions. To this day, despite the success I’ve enjoyed, I take nothing for granted. So why would someone like myself care so deeply about combating piracy? Because this is not just about me.

The 38-year-old rapper Kanye West is at the centre of controversy once again. West is himself a Pirate Lover just like everyone else, and he proved it today by sharing a photo of his laptop screen on Twitter. The rapper tweeted an ill-judged picture on Tuesday night to show what he was listening to on YouTube (Sufjan Stevens’ 'Death With Dignity' song), but his fans discovered something he would have hide if realized before sharing that snap.

The UK culture secretary John Whittingdale has promised to set up a round-table between publishing companies and adblocking companies.

In recent months Sci-Hub has become the center of an academic debate about copyright's mark on science. Despite being sued by one of the largest academic publishers the site continues to operate and is now more popular than ever before, with its users downloading hundreds of thousands of papers per day.

The EFF has successfully intervened in a dispute between classic file-sharing service Soulseek and PayPal. In 2015 and after 14 years of business together PayPal nuked Soulseek's ability to receive donations, apparently over copyright concerns. While Soulseek is now a PayPal customer once more, others in the same sphere may not be so lucky.

New research suggests that software piracy has a detrimental effect on the adoption of Linux desktop operating systems. Piracy is one of the reasons why Windows has been able to maintain its dominant market position, making open source alternatives "forgotten victims" of copyright infringement.

When the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was first released in November last year, it included provisions dictating the kinds of penalties that should be available in cases of copyright infringement. Amongst those provisions, the following footnote allowed countries some flexibility in applying criminal procedures and penalties to cases of willful copyright infringement on a commercial scale:

Today we bring you the sixth episode of the Steal This Show podcast, with feature guest Lance Weiler. In this episode we discuss upsides of piracy and how digital distribution revolutionized indie filmmaking.

Lots of people are aware of the Constitutional underpinnings of our copyright system. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 famously says that Congress has the following power: To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

According to a court filing on Monday, music publisher Warner/Chappell will pay $14 million to end a lawsuit challenging its hold on the English language's most popular song, "Happy Birthday to You."

After getting shut down late last year, a website that allows free access to paywalled academic papers has sprung back up in a shadowy corner of the Internet.

One of the biggest victories of the copyright maximalists was the successful adoption of the 1996 WIPO Copyright Treaty, implemented by the DMCA in the US, and the Copyright Directive in the EU. Its key innovation was to criminalize the circumvention of copyright protection mechanisms. ... the anti-circumvention laws are now being used to prevent people from exploring or modifying physical objects that they own.

The MPAA, RIAA and various other anti-piracy groups have been trying to stop piracy for decades, without much result. A newly published paper on piracy and religion suggests that this is hardly surprising, as God appears to be one of the few who can really change people's attitude towards piracy.

The copyright industry keeps repeating the mantra that the copyright monopoly is somehow "necessary". Creative Commons proves conclusively that it isn't.