must reads: “Warner Bros: we issued takedowns for files we never saw, didn't own copyright to”

The studios are so worried about piracy, they’re cracking down on it even where it doesn’t exist. Timothy B. Lee at ars technica:

In a Monday court filing, Warner Brothers admitted that it has issued takedown notices for files without looking at them first. The studio also acknowledged that it issued takedown notices for a number of URLs that its adversary, the locker site Hotfile, says were obviously not Warner Brothers' content.

Lest you think this isn’t worth getting worked up about:

The recently-proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, which is backed by the major Hollywood studios, would give copyright holders new powers to cut off websites' access to payment processors and advertising networks.