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In the crucial 7-year legal battle between a music rights group and an Internet service provider, the European Court of Justice has now delivered an important ruling. Music rights group SABAM wanted ISP Scarlet to spy on its customers and block their communications to stop file-sharing, but the Court decided that would breach privacy and violate the fundamental rights of both the ISP and its subscribers.

The intellectual property battle rages on between Apple and Samsung. In April 2011, Apple filed for patent infringement, claiming that Samsung copied its iPhone and iPad designs. Courts all over the world have taken on this battle. Europe and Australia, for instance, have ordered preliminary injunctions barring Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 from shelves -- just in time for the holiday season.

LUXEMBOURG — Internet service providers cannot be forced to install filters aimed at preventing people from illegally downloading music and other files, the EU’s top court ruled Thursday. The decision by the European Union Court of Justice is a defeat for backers of web filters, including artists and the entertainment industry.

As reported previously, Richard O’Dwyer, the former administrator of the now defunct UK-based video links site TVShack, is continuing with his fight against extradition to the United States. Richard appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court Tuesday, as usual with support from his mother Julia. “Yesterday we were supposed to continue with the arguments on dual criminality [...]

Efforts to censor the Internet are increasing in the Western world. In the US lawmakers are currently discussing legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that could take out The Pirate Bay, or disable access to it. In several other countries such as Italy, Finland and Belgium, courts have already ordered Internet Providers to block their users’ access to the site. Demonstrating the futility of these efforts, a small group of developers today releases a browser add-on called “The Pirate Bay Dancing

After a court ordered two of the largest Belgian Internet service providers to prevent their users accessing The Pirate Bay, the local anti-piracy outfit is now urging other ISPs to do the same. Internet providers who refuse to give in to this request within 10 days will be taken to court, a threatening letter explains. The blackmailing tactic seems to have worked, as one of the smaller ISPs has already disabled access to The Pirate Bay.

If you want to create a tablet computer or smartphone that's a pointy green pyramid, Apple has no objection. That’s the only logical conclusion from a curious court filing the company has made in an ongoing legal battle with Samsung. Long story short, Apple is suing Samsung for copying the design of its products with the Galaxy S phone and Galaxy Tab tablet.

While Samsung picked up a decisive victory over at Australia’s High Court today, it suffers a reversal in France, as the first-instance court for all French patent litigation threw out Samsung’s attempt to ban Apple’s iPhone 4S, touting that Samsung’s use of 3G-essential patents against Apple will not be able to achieve a successful result in other courts worldwide as well

Can the government really hold a domain for a year and then return it without so much as an apology? A legal expert tells Ars the courts have have done a poor job overseeing the domain seizure program, but the victims are unlikely to receive significant compensation.

Some of the world's biggest record labels have failed in their attempt to sue a file-sharing developer for copyright infringements carried out by users of his software.