Capt. Richard Phillips, central in the drama in the attempted hijacking of the cargo ship the Maersk Alabama, testified before Congress today, along with his boss, Maersk Inc. Chairman John P. Clancey.

Just days after Capt. Richard Phillips of the Maersk Alabama arrived back in the U.S., the only surviving member of the Somalian pirates who had taken him hostage arrived in New York.

Acts of piracy and terrorism at sea are on the rise, but there is little evidence to support concerns from some governments and international organizations that pirates and terrorists are beginning to collude with one another, according to a RAND Corporation study issued today.

Researchers at WMG at the University of Warwick have devised a high tech way to add Anti-counterfeiting to plastic products as they are created in the moulding process. The process could cost less than one per cent of the total cost of manufacturing the product.

YouTube has put in place software to block the posting of pirated videos and appease content owners that accuse the popular website of being a willing accomplice to copyright abuses.

Microsoft supports government anti-piracy actions to prevent modified chips in game consoles.

The final Harry Potter book is still being translated into Chinese, but eager mainland Chinese fans have posted their own translations online, a move that could lead to counterfeit books in a country where piracy is rampant.

Harry Potter might possess the powers to vanquish evil wizards - but not Chinese pirates. Bootleg English-language copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, JK Rowling's latest and last novel in her super selling series, have been appearing on the streets of Beijing - testimony to local pirates' ability to churn out copies of any in-demand entertainment in the blink of an eye.

The IMB report shows that so far this year, 13 vessels were hijacked by heavily armed attackers, 152 crew members were taken hostage, 41 were kidnapped and three were killed.

The notorious Russian pirate fish cargo ship, the Mumrinskiy, has been chained to the docks in the Dutch port of Eemshaven by activists to stop it from engaging in illegal activities with pirate fisheries and facilitating the plunder of the dwindling Barents Sea fish stocks.

Michael Moore's new movie "Sicko" has been leaked by an unknown source and is available for download online (using Pirate Bay, BitTorrent or the like). Although, by the time this post is published, many sites will probably have removed it.

ICC commended on June 13 G8 leaders for continuing to address the complicated and growing epidemic of counterfeiting and piracy at the annual G8 Summit, but expressed disappointment at the lack of substance on these issues in the outcome statement released at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm last week.