Spain passed the anti-piracy "Sinde Law" late last year, and with it going into effect this week opponents of the law (that allows for the government to block allegedly infringing sites based on complaints from copyright holders), are mobilized to cause confusion to its enforcers. The group Hackivistas and artist Eme Navarro (a staunch critic of the law and a member of the music rights group SGAE) have come up with a unique way of protesting that will test how the new law is used.

Android app developer RC3 has decided that it will fight lawyers representing teen heart throb Justin Bieber who sent the company a cease and desist over its game "Joustin' Beaver." The developer has preemptively filed a lawsuit against Bieber claiming that its game is a parody and therefore protected under the First Amendment. 

Megaupload Founder Kim Dotcom says that when all of the court room drama is over, his company will win the fight against the U.S. government. Speaking to TorrentFreak over the phone (because he is not allowed to use the Internet), Dotcom said that he was doing fine now that he is out on bail and catching up. Dotcom was released on bail February 22. During the interview he recalled the chaos of January 19 when New Zealand law enforcement invaded his home to arrest him.

A Tokyo District Court has ruled that DeNA violated GREE's copyright when it released its fishing game Tsurige Town 2 in 2009. The game bore a striking resemblance to GREE’s Tsuri Star fishing game. GREE filed the lawsuit against DeNA in October of 2009 in Japan claiming copyright infringement. This week the court agreed and ordered DeNA to pay GREE $2.9 million. DeNA said that it will appeal the ruling.

Following reports this week that several Pokémon-themed apps had shown up in Apple's App Store(which were fake in every sense of the word), Nintendo subsidiary The Pokémon Company has issued a strong statement warning hucksters that it will do everything in its power to teach them a lesson. The Pokémon Company handles all things related to the popular brand including merchandising, TV, Movies, toys, and video games.

The Federal District Court in Oakland, California has denied a motion to dismiss a suit against Zynga brought by game developer SocialApps LLC. The developer accused Zynga of copying its Facebook game, myFarm. SocialApps claimed that Zynga had shown interest in buying the rights and code for myFarm and began the process sharing due diligence material. The companies entered into a letter agreement in May 2009 and SocialApps began sharing information and source code.

Social networks can't be forced to police their services for copyrighted material or block users, according to a new ruling from Europe's highest court. The court said that it could not be forced to these things because that burden would drive their costs up and infringe on users' privacy. The Luxembourg-based Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled on a case involving two Belgian companies at odds over copyright infringement: a music royalty collecting society called SABAM and the online social network Netlog.

Google's ears must be ringing because the House of Commons seems to be saying its name a lot this week. Ministers in the UK are arguing over Google's supposed influence in UK copyright policy.

Pete Wishart, a Scottish MP from Perth, took to the floor earlier in the week to give online rights groups and companies like Google a piece of his mind. Ars Technica has a great news story chronicling the exchange among lawmakers. First up is MP Wishart:

Apple is apparently cracking down on applications that they consider to be clones of other popular apps on its App Store. Evidence of such a crackdown comes from web site VideoGameWriters, who noted that one particular app developer - who is fond of using "familiar titles" for his apps - seems to have less of them available on the APP Store today.

According to a Touch Arcade forum user, a company has been offering to boost the ranking of free apps using bots on Apple's App Store. According to a user named "walterkaman," the unnamed company will set up automated and repeated downloads of a client's app in order to push it into Apple's Top Free charts. While the company was not named and the story has - as of yet - remained unverified, it has caught the attention of Apple.

Those who have data on MegaUpload and were concerned that it might get deleted on Thursday by the companies that facilitate the site's storage get some good news this morning - the data has been given a slight extension. And on a related note, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has begun a campaign this week to get "innocent users" of MegaUpload’s service to get in touch with them to explore possible legal measures for retrieving their data. MegaUpload’s online storage service was shut down by U.S. law enforcement earlier this month.

The internet certainly isn’t wanting for videos that focus on the particulars of why legislation like SOPA and PIPA are unmitigated piles of horse dung.  Heck, this week’s Extra Credits episode is just such a video.

But if you’d like to see something a little different, check out the latest Game OverThinker episode in which Bob Chipman, better known as MovieBob over at The Escapist, forecasts what our post-SOPA futures might look like.

Story time!

Last month, musician Dan Bull rapped his thoughts about SOPA in a YouTube video called SOPA Cabana (you should watch it.  It’s really well done).  This video went viral and racked up over a million views.  As it happens, it was through this video that most people discovered Dan’s second album, Face, which he offered for free on Megaupload.

Yeah, I think you see where this is going.

CD Projekt, the oft-admired developer and publisher known for The Witcher series and its cool stance on offering DRM-free products to its customers, fell from the community's grace in December. A story surfaced that the company was using a copyright trolling law firm in Germany to send demand letters to people who had been identified as having illegally downloaded The Witcher 2. The company said at the time that it did this because, while it was all for offering its products without copyright protection, it did not support its games being pirated.

California has launched a new eCrime unit to combat various online crimes. The new law enforcement unit created by California Attorney General Kamala Harris and announced Tuesday, aims take on various "cyber crimes" such as email scams, online fraud, piracy, child pornography, and real-world theft of computer gear by organized crime.

"Today's criminals increasingly use the Internet, smartphones, and other digital devices to victimize people online and offline," Harris said while unveiling the unit in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose.

A TorrentFreak report asserts that CD Projekt has hired a law firm in Germany to go after those who downloaded DRM-free copies of The Witcher 2 - even as it extolled the virtues of its games being DRM-free. CD Projekt was not available for comment at the time of this writing due to the late hour in its home country of Poland - but we hope to bring you an official response to this story as soon as it becomes available.

While we're likely not going to post every letter we get from readers who receive some sort of response from their elected representatives concerning SOPA and Protect IP, the following response received by ECA president Hal Halpin from congressmen Jim Himes (D- Connecticut’s 4th District) is worth reading - only because it strikes a balance between thinking free speech and rights (like due process and fair use) should be protected with copyright holders' interests.

Anti-virus and security software maker Kaspersky is not happy with the Business Software Alliance's early support of SOPA and Protect IP in the U.S. Even though the BSA later walked back its support of SOPA, the Russian firm has had enough. It announced that it plans to leave the BSA over its support for SOPA. Kaspersky has announced that on January 1st 2012 it will withdraw its membership of the BSA.

While the United States has groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation to fight against unfair copyright law and government encroachment on internet freedoms, Canada has the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC for short). CIPPIC will be making oral arguments in what it calls the "Copyright Pentology" - five copyright cases that the Supreme Court of Canada will hear from December 6-7.

Left-leaning political blog DailyKOS joins the editorial pages of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times in opposition of the House's Stop Online Piracy Act and the Senate's Protect IP Act. In a post titled "Congress is close to destroying the internet (no hyperbole)," DailyKOS says that it is not hyperbole when they say that lawmakers, big Pharmaceutical companies, and the recording, and movie industries are out to destroy the internet.

While Americans were enjoying Thanksgiving last Thursday Australia's Internet service providers held a meeting to come to a consensus on how to deal with illegal file-sharing in the country.

Righthaven, the group that was trying to earn a living by suing websites for using the news stories and images of its clients (which included several Las Vegas Newspapers) has found itself on the wrong side of the law this week. The US Marshal for the District of Nevada has been authorized by a federal court to use "reasonable force" to seize the $63,720.80 in cash and/or assets after the company failed to pay a court judgment from August 15 and was late in filing an appeal.

It's bad enough when a fellow developer steals one idea from someone else, but how bad is it when they steal three and combine them? That's exactly what the makers of the iOS game Cut the Birds did. Taking the cuddly characters from Angry Birds, the slashing action of Fruit Ninja and the unique title of Cut The Rope, developer SolverLabs LLC managed to get the game on Apple's App Store

Righthaven has been ordered to pay nearly $119,488 in attorney fees, court costs after losing a lawsuit against former federal prosecutor Thomas DiBiase. The company, which trolls internet sites and sues them for alleged newspaper copyright infringement (it represented the rights of the Las Vegas Review-Journal in this case), couldn't afford to pay a previous judgment of $34,045, and likely faces an even bigger judgment in another case involving the Democratic Underground.

Using Justin Bieber (of all people) as a focal point for their message an advocacy group has created a campaign to warn U.S. citizens of the dangers found in an anti-piracy bill pending in the Senate. The bill, which was approved in the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill in June, would make it a felony for users to post unlicensed content online 10 times in 180 days. The bill is backed by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Ubisoft is facing a trademark complaint filed by a rock band that just happens to have the same name as one of its upcoming products. The claim has forced the company to delay the game in question in Europe and defend itself in court. The French publisher announced this morning that its music game Rocksmith won't be released in Europe until sometime in 2012, citing "music licensing" and "other external factors" as the causes.

A Zelda iOS game has made it on to iTunes. No, Nintendo has not succumbed to the madness of investors and analysts who think the company should put its marquee titles on Apple platforms. Nintendo has no idea (chances are they do as of now) that a game called Ultimate iZelda Climb even exists. But it does. Ultimate iZelda Climb, available now on iTunes for $.99, "borrows" the likeness of Windwaker's Link, who hops from one random floating island to another. Oh joy, oh rapture.

According to a report in The Escapist by way of a ModDB post from the Nexus: Battlestar Galactica team, NBC Universal has shut down their mod - as well as 20 or so other mods related to SyFy Networks' popular Battlestar Galactica TV series. From the ModDB post:

On Monday a ruling by a California judge suggested that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows for DVD ripping if you own the DVD in question. More importantly, educational institutions are entitled to stream legally purchased DVDs on campus without the permission of copyright holders.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, why isn't Electronic Arts blushing at the compliments inadvertently (or on purpose) bestowed upon them by Energy Armor? Because lawsuits take care of these sorts of things in corporate America, of course. Electronic Arts has sued Energy Armor, who do business using the same initials and because their logo looks suspiciously like EA's.