What's the top illegally downloaded movie of 2014?

Martin Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" and Disney's animated fantasy hit "Frozen" were the two most pirated films of 2014, according to a firm tracking illegal downloads.

Numerous US media, including Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, on Monday published a list of this year's 20 most illegally downloaded movies, compiled by piracy tracker Excipio.

The firm tallied "torrent" downloads, where computer users illegally share movies and other media over the Internet, for the period from January 1 to December 23, according to Variety.

Excipio said "The Wolf of Wall Street" was illegally downloaded more than 30 million times, while "Frozen" was pirated more than 29.9 million times.

In third place was "RoboCop," with a little less than 29.9 million illegal downloads, although this included both 2014's re-booted version and the 1987 original.

Space drama "Gravity," directed by Mexico's Alfonso Cuaron, was downloaded just under 29.4 million times.

Popular among the pirated films were several superhero adventures, including "Thor: The Dark World," "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" and "X-Men: Days of Future Past." Each of these racked up more than 20 million illegal downloads.

This year's best-film Oscar winner "12 Years a Slave" was illegally downloaded 23.7 million times, while "American Hustle" and "Captain Phillips" were pirated 23.1 million and 19.8 million times respectively.

Excipio's list in full, as published by Variety and the Hollywood reporter:

1. "The Wolf of Wall Street": 30.035 million
2. "Frozen": 29.919 million
3. "RoboCop" (including original 1987 movie): 29.879 million
4. "Gravity": 29.357 million
5. "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug": 27.627 million
6. "Thor: The Dark World": 25.749 million
7. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier": 25.628 million
8. "The Legend of Hercules": 25.137 million
9. "X-Men: Days of Future Past": 24.380 million
10. "12 Years a Slave": 23.653 million
11. "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire": 23.543 million
12. "American Hustle": 23.143 million
13. "300: Rise of an Empire": 23.096 million
14. "Transformers: Age of Extinction": 21.65 million
15. "Godzilla": 20.956 million
16. "Noah": 20.334 million
17. "Divergent": 20.312 million
18. "Edge of Tomorrow": 20.299 million
19. "Captain Phillips": 19.817 million
20. "Lone Survivor": 19.130 million

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Megaupload founder now broke?

WELLINGTON - Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom, one of the world's most wanted cyber fugitives, says his nearly three-year fight against extradition to the United States to face online piracy charges has left him broke.

Dotcom, the New Zealand resident who once flaunted a fleet of vintage cars, a fully staffed rented mansion and globe-trotting holidays, said that his wealth had evaporated due to mounting legal fees which had resulted in the departure of most of his legal team.

The German national is due in a New Zealand court on Thursday, when he may be remanded in prison for allegedly breaching his bail conditions ahead of his extradition hearing, which has been pushed back to mid-2015.

Dotcom, who also goes by the name of Kim Schmitz, stands accused of massive copyright infringement related to the Megaupload file sharing site he founded in 2005.

"My legal team has recently resigned because I ran out of money after spending $10 million to try and defend myself," Dotcom said on Tuesday, speaking via teleconference at a digital technology conference in London. "I'm officially broke right now."

Set up in 2005, Megaupload accounted for around 4 percent of total traffic on the Internet in its heyday as users stored and shared files containing everything from wedding videos to Hollywood films.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

European parliament throws out global pact vs online piracy

STRASBOURG, France - The European parliament massively rejected a controversial global pact to battle counterfeiting and online piracy Wednesday, quashing any possibility of EU ratification.

Twenty-two of the 27 EU states as well as other countries, including the United States and Japan, signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) in January but the treaty has yet to be ratified anywhere amid protests that it would curtail Internet freedom.

The parliament ignored European Commission pleas that the treaty was needed to protect the economic interests of companies hit by counterfeiting and online piracy.

Members voted by 478 to 39 against the pact, with 165 abstentions, ignoring a last-minute call by conservatives for them to wait until the European Court rules on its conformity with European Union law.

The run-up to the vote, which followed the line of every parliamentary committee consulted on the pact, saw hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against ACTA and 2.8 million sign a petition decrying it.

Other signatories to the agreeement include Australia, Canada, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland.

The European parliament's rapporteur on ACTA, David Martin of Britain, acknowledged the importance of fighting counterfeiting and piracy, but he said the text of the agreement was too vague and hence threatened individual freedoms.

source: interaksyon.com