Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 20th, 2024

Dismantling a 22m User Pirate IPTV Service Led to Big Rise in ISP Blocking
Coordinated by Italy last month, a huge law enforcement operation reportedly 'dismantled' a pirate IPTV service with 22 million users. That's an extraordinary number and shows why countries like Italy have adopted mass site blocking measures. Logic suggests that the removal of such a huge player from the market might reduce the need for blocking measures, if only temporarily. The data shows that in the wake of the action, blocking demands significantly increased.
December 20th, 2024 — Source

EU and NL Domain Registries Take Down Piracy-Linked Domains
The easiest way to hurt a pirate site, at least temporarily, is by taking away its domain name. Historically, domain name registries have been hesitant to take action but with the right approach, progress can be made. This week, anti-piracy group BREIN reported that following their complaints, the .nl and .eu registries took action against several 'pirate' domains. On closer inspection, it appears that copyright has little to do with it.
December 20th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 18th, 2024

Judges Acquit a Total of 23 Pirate IPTV Subscribers: Personal Use is Not a Crime
Italians who simply view pirate IPTV via illicit subscriptions have been warned for months that their activities could be reported to the judicial authorities for potential prosecution. As part of an investigation into a pirate IPTV subscription seller, a total of 23 people have appeared in court in recent months for simply buying a pirate package. Judges in two separate proceedings have now acquitted all 23 after concluding that this type of piracy isn't actually a crime.
December 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 16th, 2024

Sonic The Hedgehog 3's End Credits Scene Has Leaked Online
Egg on your face, man.
December 16th, 2024 — Source

The Pirate Bay’s Million-Dollar Bitcoin Donations: Hidden Goldmine or Spent Treasure?
For over a decade, The Pirate Bay has been accepting Bitcoin donations. In dollar terms, this provided a relatively modest but consistent revenue stream. However, if the torrent site had held onto its early Bitcoin, it could have amassed a small fortune, worth $14 million today. The same applies to BitcoinTorrentz, which once charged today's equivalent of $8,000 per gigabyte transferred.
December 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 13th, 2024

Cox to Appeals Court: DMCA Subpoenas Don't Apply to Us, Period
In a recent filing at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, ISP Cox maintains that DMCA subpoenas don't apply to Internet providers. Several movie studios hope to convince the court otherwise, as that would strengthen their piracy enforcement efforts, making it easier to identify online pirates. According to Cox, however, Congress clearly excluded ISPs from this legal 'shortcut'.
December 13th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 10th, 2024

Best VPNs for torrenting 2024: Speed, privacy, and security matter
Stay safe while torrenting with these top VPN picks.
December 10th, 2024 — Source

Musi Decries Apple's App Store Removal: A "Backroom Scheme" with Music Industry
Music streaming app Musi claims Apple removed its app from the App Store after "backroom conversations" with key music industry players. The app developer alleges this was an "unfair" and "tainted" removal process designed to put it out of business. Musi is seeking a preliminary injunction to reinstate its app while the legal battle plays out.
December 10th, 2024 — Source

TorrentGalaxy's Troubles Silence Popular Upload Bots
Trouble continues for the popular torrent site TorrentGalaxy. After several technical issues last week, the site has become unreachable. At the same time, the related 'TGxGoodies' uploader accounts at other torrent sites have been inactive for days. TorrentGalaxy switched owners earlier this year, but it's unclear what's behind the recent problems.
December 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 6th, 2024

ACE Seizes Sports Piracy Domains including Crackstream and Streameast Clones
The ACE anti-piracy coalition sidelined dozens of sports streaming sites this week with action against dozens of domain names including Crackstream and various Streameast clones. The official Streameast was targeted by the U.S. Government earlier this year, but the copycat takedowns are just as important, as these sites drew more traffic than the original.
December 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — December 2nd, 2024

AnimeFenix Shuts Down & GogoAnime/Anitaku Freezes in Time
Trouble continues for some of the largest pirate sites specializing in Asian entertainment. Coinciding with the shutdown of Dramacool, GogoAnime and Anitaku stopped uploading new content. This weekend, AnimeFenix added to the trouble with a 'voluntary' shutdown citing more copyright pressure. "Piracy will never go away as long as there are companies with more greed than heart," the AnimeFenix team notes in its farewell message.
December 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 29th, 2024

EU Research Links Youth Unemployment and Income Inequality to More Piracy
A new EUIPO study reveals that while piracy rates have stabilized in the EU, significant variations exist across countries and content types. The research also links higher piracy rates and socioeconomic factors such as youth unemployment and income inequality. Higher average incomes and increased awareness of legal alternatives reduce piracy.
November 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 27th, 2024

€3bn Pirate IPTV Network Serving 22m Users "Dismantled" in Massive Operation
A two-year pirate IPTV investigation directed by the Catania District Attorney's Office in Italy, involving Europol, Eurojust, and law enforcement agencies across Europe, culminated in the early hours of this morning. Operation Takendown reportedly dismantled an international pirate IPTV network serving 22 million users and generating an estimated €3 billion per year. At least 11 suspects were detained, over 100 are under investigation.
November 27th, 2024 — Source

Court Rejects Appeal of Youtube-dl Hosting Provider 'Uberspace'
Hosting provider Uberspace has suffered another setback in a German court. The court of appeal ruled against youtube-dl's former hosting provider, holding it liable for alleged violations of YouTube's copyright protection measures. The owner of the company is currently considering further appeal options. Meanwhile, youtube-dl remains available on GitHub.
November 27th, 2024 — Source

Police bust pirate streaming service making €250 million per month
An international law enforcement operation has dismantled a pirate streaming service that served over 22 million users worldwide and made €250 million ($263M) per month.
November 27th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 25th, 2024

Court Expands Google and Cloudflare DNS Blocking to Combat Piracy
A highly controversial court order that required Cisco, Cloudflare, and Google to poison DNS earlier this year was just the beginning. To further combat sports piracy, broadcaster Canal+ sought several follow-up orders. Cisco had discontinued its OpenDNS service in France due to the legal restrictions, so only Google and Cloudflare put up a defense, but without the desired result.
November 25th, 2024 — Source

Pirate Sites Play Possum While Boosting Counter-Enforcement Measures
Pirates refusing to quit and pirate sites coming back to life isn't unheard of but, for those caught in the act, the consequences can be severe. That's mostly the case in the United States and Europe but the global piracy landscape today is significantly bigger. According to broadcaster beIN, previously shuttered streaming sites are quickly getting back in the game.
November 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 24th, 2024

'Piracy' Scam Exploited Movie Fans For 20 Years, Suddenly Cited as Major Threat
One of the most enduring online movie scams involves sites that claim to offer premium content, but turn out to be some type of scam. These services do not discriminate, so whether 'customers' are pirates or just regular people hoping to buy content, everyone is a potential victim. The scam has been running for at least 20 years yet, seemingly out of nowhere, pro site-blocking studies now describe it as a major piracy-related security threat.
November 24th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 23rd, 2024

AGCOM Piracy Shield Critic Receives Ominous Warning, Comes Out Fighting
Despite a series of failures concerning Italy's IPTV blocking platform Piracy Shield and the revelation that the 'free' platform will cost €2m per year, telecoms regulator AGCOM insists that all is going to plan. After breaking ranks, AGCOM board member Elisa Giomi called for the suspension of Piracy Shield while decrying its toll on public resources. When she was warned for her criticism, coupled with a threat of financial implications, Giomi came out fighting.
November 23rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 21st, 2024

Feds Shut Down Pirate Sports Streaming Service 247TVStream, Indict Operators
247TVStream, a pirate IPTV streaming service boasting over 1,000 channels and catering to sports fans worldwide, has been shut down by U.S. authorities. The service, allegedly operated by two brothers, generated millions in revenue. One of the defendants was arrested in New York and the other remains at large. Both men face multi-year prison sentences.
November 21st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 18th, 2024

Telegram Issues Piracy Warning as IPTV Tool 'Cristal Azul' Shut Down By Police
Spanish police have shut down Cristal Azul, a popular Kodi add-on with an estimated 78,000 users. As sports rightsholders claim the fraudulent access cost them €42 million, in piracy circles the shutdown is being linked to a change of policy at Telegram. A direct warning that personal details could be handed over by Telegram coincides with some piracy groups abandoning the platform.
November 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 17th, 2024

Porn Uploads: A Shield for Copyright Infringement Penalties on YouTube?
A new trend has emerged on YouTube where 'scammy' channels facing a ban for copyright infringement appear to evade penalties through the use of sexually explicit content. Questions remain, but evidence does suggest that a loophole is being exploited. By avoiding termination for copyright infringement, these channel owners may be able to protect their linked AdSense accounts.
November 17th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 16th, 2024

RIAA Should Disclose Anti-Piracy Details, Altice Argues
Altice, owner of Internet provider Optimum, is not content with the RIAA's refusal to share detailed information about its anti-piracy efforts. The ISP subpoenaed the music group to obtain potential key evidence for use in its defense against a piracy liability lawsuit filed by record labels. Faced with the RIAA's objections, Altice has filed a motion to compel.
November 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 15th, 2024

Nintendo v. Pomelo: Yuzu-Based iOS Switch Emu in Circumvention Dead End
2024 has been a pretty rough year for Nintendo-loving emulator fans. At this point it's clear that they can either choose Nintendo, or Switch emulators, but they can't have relationships with both. At least not in public. During the last few hours Nintendo began targeting Pomelo, a popular Switch emulator for iOS devices. Like similar emulators before it, Pomelo's disclaimer against piracy is redundant. Thanks to its family tree, it has nowhere left to go.
November 15th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 12th, 2024

Google's "Negligent" Piracy Response Prevented Critic Deindexing Its Own Site
Google is facing criticism in Spain and Italy for alleged anti-piracy failures. The latest claim accuses Google of ignoring notices that aim to remove pirate IPTV providers from search results. So here's the thing: why would a company take down 10 billion URLs from search but suddenly start acting differently? The public labeling of Google as "grossly negligent" deserves context too; two weeks ago, Google's diligence prevented one of its accusers from deindexing its own website.
November 12th, 2024 — Source

Best VPNs for torrenting 2024: Speed, privacy, and security matter
Stay safe while torrenting with these top VPN picks.
November 12th, 2024 — Source

Piracy Kingpin Behind 'Noonoo TV' and 'TVWiki' Arrested in Korea
Korean authorities have shut down the popular video piracy service TVWIKI, which had millions of users. A special unit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism arrested the alleged operator, who is also believed to be connected to other streaming platforms. These include OKTOON, which was also pulled offline, and piracy giant NoonooTV, which voluntarily threw in the towel last year.
November 12th, 2024 — Source

Record labels unhappy with court win, say ISP should pay more for user piracy
Music companies appeal, demanding payment for each song instead of each album.
November 12th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 10th, 2024

U.S. ordered TSMC to halt shipments of advanced AI processors to China: Report
Till TSMC's customers get an export license?
November 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 8th, 2024

Nintendo Sues Emulator Gamer Who Streamed Pirated Games Before Release
Nintendo has filed a devastating lawsuit against a gamer who not only live-streamed games before their commercial release, but used emulators and pirated ROMs to do so. Jesse Keighin, aka EveryGameGuru, faces claims of unauthorized public performance and reproduction, contributory infringement and inducement for sharing links to emulators and pirated ROMs, plus violations of the anti-circumvention and circumvention device trafficking components of the DMCA.
November 8th, 2024 — Source

Pirating "The Pirate Bay" TV Series is Ironically Difficult
The Pirate Bay made its debut as a TV series on the Swedish streaming platform SVT Play earlier today. International viewers are left waiting until other services pick it up. In the meantime, some may be tempted to explore unofficial channels for pirated copies of the show. But finding a pirated copy is proving surprisingly difficult.
November 8th, 2024 — Source

Police 'Infringing Website List' Portal Set For a £220K Makeover
A database of pirate sites maintained by City of London Police for more than a decade is set for a makeover. Earlier this year vendors were invited to bid for a contract to supply a new portal for Operation Creative, the anti-piracy initiative responsible for the Infringing Website List. Nominated for inclusion by mainly overseas rightsholders, the list predominantly features overseas pirate sites. The winning bid of just over £221,000 will be settled from the UK public purse.
November 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 7th, 2024

Cloudflare to EU: Anti-Piracy Measures Shouldn't Harm Privacy and Security
Cloudflare is urging the EU Commission to exclude the company from its upcoming Piracy Watch List, despite requests from several rightsholder groups for its inclusion. The American company says it's committed to addressing piracy concerns but not at the expense of user privacy and security. Instead, the European Commission should ensure that its Piracy Watch List does not become a tool for advocating policy changes.
November 7th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 5th, 2024

Google Asked to Remove 10 Billion "Pirate" Search Results
While search engines are extremely helpful for the average Internet user, copyright holders have also seen a massive downside.
November 5th, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV-Selling 'Law Enforcement Officer' Faces Wiretapping Claim
A lawsuit filed in the U.S. claims that a pirate IPTV seller adopted a novel marketing strategy to support a business with 450,000 subscribers . According to the plaintiffs, the owner of the service "held himself out as a Chicago-area law enforcement officer" to "mitigate potential concerns" over the unlawfulness of his business. A theoretical damages claim of more than a billion dollars, plus an allegation of wiretapping, makes this case a little more spicy than most.
November 5th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 2nd, 2024

Meta Denied Regulator's Request to Test Rights Manager's Effectiveness
Prompted by concerns aired by photographers, French telecoms regulator Arcom sought to evaluate content recognition tools deployed at online content-sharing platforms. Meta's Rights Manager and Pinterest's Claim Portal were of particular interest, but both companies denied Arcom's request to measure their effectiveness. Despite the regulator's authority under law, private agreements with rightsholders took priority.
November 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — November 1st, 2024

MPA Escalates Pirate Site Blocking in Philippines, Targeting Sflix and Myflixer
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) continues to play a key role in expanding global site blocking efforts. After helping to establish a voluntary site blocking agreement in the Philippines, the MPA also filed the first complaints under the new rule. Torrent site YTS was the first target, followed by popular pirate streaming sites SFlix and MyFlixer this week.
November 1st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 30th, 2024

Livehd7 Sports Piracy Network Shut Down By ACE, But Not For the First Time
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment says it has shut down Livehd7, a pirate site network providing free streams of Premier League, Serie A, and LaLiga matches. With over a quarter billion visits in the last 12 months alone, Livehd7 is a significant operation, but news of its demise may provoke dejà vu. In September 2023, ACE said that in collaboration with Egypt's Ministry of Justice, the operator of Livehd7 had been arrested, and the network shut down.
October 30th, 2024 — Source

Tech Companies Flag Piracy Blocking as Threat to the Open Internet & Digital Trade
Technology infrastructure companies including Amazon, Google, and Cloudflare, are warning the U.S. Government about the downsides of foreign piracy blocking measures. The coalition argues that anti-piracy initiatives, including those in France and Italy, disrupt international trade, increase costs for U.S. companies, and could lead to unintended censorship.
October 30th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 28th, 2024

BeStreamWise: Police, BBC, & DAZN Quietly Added to IPTV Piracy Campaign

Anti-piracy campaign BeStreamWise has been quietly expanding its membership since its launch just over a year ago. Hoping to suppress use of pirate IPTV, mostly in connection with live football, Sky, Premier League, and FACT have been busy driving the messaging home via the media.
October 28th, 2024 — Source

Mysterious "Theater" Rips Cause Excitement in Piracy Circles

For two decades, high quality screener rips leaked on pirate sites toward the end of the year. That 'tradition' ended a few years ago. More recently, however, there's been some excitement around a seemingly new type of leak, tagged "Theater". Are these high quality copies ripped from DCPs, or is something else going on?
October 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 25th, 2024

Piracy Warning For Russian Cinemas as Legal Streaming Revenues Skyrocket
With almost no legal access to popular Western movies, Russian cinemas have been selling tickets to short local movies to disguise the unlicensed screening of major Hollywood movies shown during the same sitting. Depending on the direction of the wind, Moscow turns a blind eye or warns of a crackdown on pre-screening piracy, including one expected anytime now. In parallel, legal streaming platforms are enjoying huge growth as business booms.
October 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 22nd, 2024

Google Victim Blamed For Piracy Shield Blunder, Warning Over Infiltration Risk
After Italy's Piracy Shield system blocked Google Drive last weekend, telecoms regulator AGCOM says that if Google had fully collaborated in the fight against piracy, the disruption could've been easily avoided. Meanwhile, an expert has raised the alarm over Piracy Shield's security, warning that nobody knows whether a bad actor has infiltrated the platform. Google Drive today, but will it be trains, hospitals, and government infrastructure tomorrow?
October 23rd, 2024 — Source

NFL Player Uses Pirate Streaming Site to Watch His Own Team
Seattle Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen, who reportedly earns over $1 million a year, used pirate streaming site MethStreams to watch his own team play. This revelation came from Woolen's Instagram story, where he shared an image clearly displaying the site's URL. While Woolen seemed unconcerned when the news reached him, the NFL, which actively combats piracy, will likely take a different view.
October 23rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 20th, 2024

Game Companies List 'FitGirl-Repacks' as a Key Piracy Threat
The ESA, which represents several major gaming companies, has shared an updated list of notorious piracy threats with the U.S. Government. One of the notable newcomers is FitGirl-Repacks, which has been a dominant player in the game piracy landscape for years. Meanwhile, ESA's report no longer mentions malware, cryptocurrencies, or Scene release groups, which were previously seen as 'growing trends'.
October 20th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 18th, 2024

Software Piracy Statistics -- 2025 Outlook
Once again, we've compiled aggregate Revenera Compliance Intelligence data to produce our annual list of the Top 20 Software License Misuse and Piracy Hotspots around the globe.
October 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 16th, 2024

IPTV Piracy Lawsuit Targets ‘DMCA Ignored’ Host in $42M Lawsuit
A lawsuit filed at a Seattle court this week targets Ukraine-based hosting Provider Virtual Systems. Coordinated by the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP), the lawsuit focuses on Virtual Systems' self-promotion as a 'DMCA-ignored' host. After allegedly ignoring over 500 DMCA-style infringement notices relating to dozens of pirate IPTV services, the lawsuit demands over $42m in copyright damages.
October 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 13th, 2024

Piracy Shield May Reduce Illegal Sports Streaming, Traffic Analysis Suggests
Italy's Piracy Shield blocking system was launched early 2024 promising to end the flood of pirate IPTV providers saturating the local market. Site-blocking proponents' claims of huge success were met by reports of significant failures. In the absence of any useful, credible data being made available by those behind Piracy Shield, researchers in Italy are trying to answer the big question: Is Piracy Shield effective at reducing access to pirated live sports streams?
October 13th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 12th, 2024

Cuevana Announces Voluntary Shutdown Following MPA Pressure
With many millions of regular visitors, Cuevana.biz is one of the largest pirate streaming sites in Latin America. However, the site may not be around for much longer. A notice posted by the operators, who claim to be Mexican students, suggests that they will voluntarily hand over their domains to the MPA, which recently reported the site to the U.S. government.
October 12th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 11th, 2024

Flawless IPTV Kingpin's 11-Year Prison Sentence Upheld at Court of Appeal
In May 2023, five men behind one of the most successful pirate IPTV services ever seen in the UK, were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison following a private prosecution by the Premier League. Flawless TV leader Mark Gould received an unusually harsh 11-year custodial sentence but hoped that the Court of Appeal would be a little more sympathetic.
October 11th, 2024 — Source

RIAA's Flags Latest Piracy Threats, Sees a Future for AI
The RIAA has submitted its most recent overview of notorious markets to the U.S. Trade Representative, listing familiar suspects including torrent sites, cyberlockers, and stream-ripping services. The RIAA views artificial intelligence as a potential threat, but also as a source for new revenue streams and innovation.
October 11th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 10th, 2024

Appeal Court Affirms Piracy Liability Verdict Against ISP Grande, Vacates $47m Damages Award
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a copyright infringement verdict against Internet provider Grande, which failed to take action against allegedly pirating subscribers. The jury's $47 million damages award in favor of the major music label plaintiffs is vacated. According to the Court, individual tracks that are part of an album, should not be counted as separate works.
October 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 8th, 2024

ACE Targets Piracy Giant HiAnime.to and Dozens of Other Streaming Sites
HiAnime.to has become a primary destination for many anime viewers. The site boosted its traffic to 300 million visits in September following the shutdown of a major competitor. This hasn't gone unnoticed by the MPA and ACE, which are now targeting the site and several dozen competitors in a new DMCA subpoena push.
October 8th, 2024 — Source

Alleged Switch modder takes on Nintendo's legal might without a lawyer
Pro se legal filing denies all of Nintendo's accusations, offers some novel defenses.
October 8th, 2024 — Source

Court Orders Seizure of Real Estate & Vehicles in Pirate IPTV Investigation
Authorities in Italy say that a major IPTV piracy investigation has uncovered a "sophisticated fraud" involving channels and content owned by Sky, DAZN, Netflix and Mediaset. Coordinated by the public prosecutor in the southern city of Lecce, specialist financial and forensic officers were able to identify four people suspected of piracy and money laundering offenses. A court ordered the preventative seizure of five pieces of real estate and two vehicles.
October 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 7th, 2024

‘Musi’ Sues Apple Over App Store Removal Following YouTube Complaint
After being removed from Apple's App Store, music streaming app Musi is fighting back with a lawsuit. Musi claims the app's removal, which was prompted by a YouTube complaint, was unjustified. The company sues Apple for breach of contract, seeking reinstatement and damages. The lawsuit raises questions about YouTube-related copyright claims, which have yet to be answered.
October 7th, 2024 — Source

Premier League’s Priority IPTV Piracy Threats Reported to U.S. Government
In response to a call from the United States Trade Representative, the Premier League has submitted its report on the world's most notorious pirate IPTV-related platforms and services. Premier League matches are reportedly broadcast to almost 900 million households worldwide and by calling out those who broadcast illegally, the UK's top football league may even reach the magical one billion milestone.
October 7th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 5th, 2024

ISPs 'Betrayed' Over Pirate Site-Blocking Threats, The Reckoning Will Be Invisible
Italian ISPs are required to work with AGCOM and rightsholders to ensure the Piracy Shield blocking system operates as intended. It's a burden that only benefits rightsholders, but the ISPs are expected to cover their own costs. That contribution was insulted this week by a legal amendment that threatens ISPs with prison for failing to report piracy to the authorities.
October 5th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 29th, 2024

Pirate IPTV Subscribers Warned They Face "Automated Fines"
The head of telecoms regulator AGCOM confirmed this week that a memorandum of understanding between the Prosecutor's Office, Guardia di Finanza, and AGCOM, heralds a new stage in Italy's fight against IPTV piracy. Massimiliano Capitanio said that automatic information exchange between the parties will enable subscribers of pirate IPTV services to be automatically fined.
September 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 28th, 2024

Homebrew Transparency Portal Reveals Needlessly Blocked 'Pirate' Sites
As the wave of pirate site blocking spreads globally, some European countries show weakness in their execution. In Germany, for instance, the local blocklist included domains that no longer linked to pirated content, violating the blocking agreement. Tellingly, this only came to the forefront after a 17-year-old developer put together an unofficial transparency portal.
September 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 25th, 2024

How Canva Scaled Real-Time Collaboration with WebRTC: from WebSockets to Seamless P2P Communication
Canva recently shared how it implemented real-time mouse pointers for collaborative whiteboarding. Canva chose a WebRTC-based solution to improve scalability, reduce latency, and lower backend load. Since WebRTC uses peer-to-peer communication, Canva can provide users with a smoother, more performant real-time experience than a traditional backend-based WebSocket and Redis solution.
September 25th, 2024 — Source

LaLiga Will "File Criminal Complaints Against Google" Over Pirate IPTV
After celebrating a court order that reportedly requires Google to remotely uninstall pirate IPTV app Magis TV from Android devices, LaLiga is far from done. President Javier Tebas has just informed the Europa Forum that LaLiga will file criminal complaints against Google in Spain, France, Brazil, and Ecuador. Tebas accused Google of collaborating with pirates when it could immediately "reduce piracy by 80%" instead. So what does LaLiga actually want?
September 25th, 2024 — Source

Major Private Music Torrenting Site Suffers 'Massive Peer Scraping Attack'
Orpheus Network tells users: "With great displeasure we need to inform you that a malicious actor has successfully carried out a massive peer scraping attack on our tracker."
September 25th, 2024 — Source

U.S. Court Orders LibGen to Pay $30m to Publishers, Issues Broad Injunction
A New York federal court has ordered the operators of shadow library LibGen to pay $30 million in copyright infringement damages. The default judgment comes with a broad injunction that affects third-party services including domain registries, browser extensions, CDN providers, IPFS gateways, advertisers, and more. These parties should stop facilitating access to the pirate site.
September 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 23rd, 2024

Court Orders Google to "Uninstall" Pirate IPTV App Sideloaded on Android Devices
Recent developments in the ongoing battle against pirate IPTV service MagisTV reveal an unprecedented move by an Argentine court. In addition to blocking 69 domains associated with the service, the court has ordered Google to "immediately uninstall" Magis TV apps from Android devices. This measure targets apps that users have sideloaded, as MagisTV is not available on the official Google Play store.
September 23rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 21st, 2024

X Loses Battle to Protect Genshin Impact Leaker's First Amendment Anonymity
In November 2023, the publisher of hit videogame Genshin Impact obtained a DMCA subpoena at a California district court to unmask an anonymous alleged infringer.
September 21st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 15th, 2024

Hackers Invited to Pirate IPTV Blocking Hackathon to Silence Illegal Devices
In recent years Brazil's telecoms agency has claimed significant success in its mission to prevent pirate set-top boxes from accessing premium content. Whether Anatel is feeling a little vulnerable, or would simply like some new blocking ideas, is up for debate. However, in roughly ten days' time, hackers will descend on São Paulo for a two-day hackathon. Cash prizes await those who manage to disable pirate IPTV devices to the extent they can no longer communicate with their owners.
September 15th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 14th, 2024

Seized Uptobox Servers Won't Be Returned, Requests Ruled Inadmissible
Initially reported as technical issues, in September 2023 file-hosting platform Uptobox watched as its servers went offline. In reality, they were being taken away due to a criminal complaint filed by Hollywood, Canal+, Apple, Amazon, and other rightsholders. Since then, the owners of Uptobox have turned to the legal system, hoping to salvage whatever they can. On Thursday, a Paris court informed the defendants that their servers will not be returned.
September 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 13th, 2024

French Pirate Site Blocking Order Targets Expired and Seized Z-Library Domains
A court in Paris, France, has ordered major Internet providers to block 98 domain names used by popular book download portal Z-Library. The order comes in response to a complaint from the National Publishers Union (SNE), but the victory may be bittersweet. Many of the listed domain names were previously seized by U.S. authorities, and expanding the current order could prove time-consuming.
September 13th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 10th, 2024

Verizon Asks Court to Dismiss Music Labels' Piracy Liability Lawsuit
Verizon is pushing back against a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by several major music labels, arguing that inaction in response to piracy notices doesn't equate to liability. Citing a recent Supreme Court ruling, Verizon is calling for an end to these "lucrative" piracy liability lawsuits.
September 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 9th, 2024

Hollywood and Netflix Report Piracy Threats to the EU, Call for 'Intermediary' Action
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has submitted its latest overview of piracy threats to the European Commission. The submission details many of the usual targets, including torrent sites, streaming portals, and piracy apps. The main theme, however, concerns the role of third-party intermediaries. According to the MPA, these companies should take more responsibility, whether they like it or not.
September 9th, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV Arrests in Sweden Should Include Users, Rightsholders Tell Govt.
Swedish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance has just announced the prosecution of a man allegedly behind pirate IPTV service 'Ghost Farmer TV'. The case is one of several initiated in Sweden in recent years but, for rightsholders, a few prosecutions simply isn't enough. Sweden's Justice Minister considers calls from anti-piracy groups to start going after subscribers premature. That said, the government isn't ruling it out.
September 9th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 6th, 2024

Man Arrested for Sharing Copyright Infringing Nude Scenes Through Reddit
Danish police have arrested a 39-year-old man who shared nude scenes of more than a hundred female actors through Reddit and porn sites. The suspect has been charged with copyright infringement. While posting small clips from movies or TV-shows typically doesn't result in criminal action, taking nude clips out of context is considered a breach of actors' and filmmakers' integrity.
September 6th, 2024 — Source

That's All Folks: KimCartoon's 120m Visit Piracy Caper Ends in a DMCA Disaster
KimCartoon, a pirate site dedicated to all things cartoon, surprised users this week with a sudden "That's All Folks" before shutting itself down. With an estimated 120 million visits over the last 12 months alone, KimCartoon was a very busy site and with that kind of traffic, life can get complicated. The site's operator says the site was shut down "due to DMCA" but, after weathering many storms over the years, maybe there's a little bit more to it than that.
September 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 3rd, 2024

Bell, Rogers & MPA's Pirate IPTV Lawsuit is a Slow-Motion Money Pit Nightmare
After obtaining an injunction and an invasive search and seizure order at Canada's Federal Court, teams from Bell, Rogers, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and Warner Bros. targeted the alleged operators of IPTV service SmoothStreams at their homes in Canada. The defendants were charged with contempt of court when they failed to comply with the terms of the order. Two years later, the defendants are paying a heavy price and the main case hasn't even started.
September 3rd, 2024 — Source

'Pirate' Site nHentai Sued in U.S. Court for Copyright Infringement
Nhentai, a popular adult site with dozens of millions of monthly visits, has been sued for copyright infringement. The lawsuit was filed by California company PCR Distributing, which operates several hentai brands. The complaint alleges that nhentai doesn't respond to takedown notices. The site attempted to settle the dispute confidentially months ago, but that attempt failed.
September 3rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 2nd, 2024

Court Denies Cheat Seller AimJunkies a New Trial, Affirms Bungie's $4.3m Win
Cheat seller AimJunkies has suffered two new setbacks in its legal battle with 'Destiny 2' developer Bungie. The Seattle District Court refused to overturn a jury verdict issued in May and will not grant a new trial. Separately, the Court of Appeals affirmed a $4.3 million arbitration award, concluding that no clear errors were made and that the scale of the award is not "completely irrational"
September 2nd, 2024 — Source

Can a VPN really hide all of your torrent activity?
A VPN is your best friend when it comes to torrenting.
September 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 1st, 2024

TorrentGalaxy Spooks Users with More 'Downtime'
Popular torrent site TorrentGalaxy once again confuses users with a mysterious message. Instead of the usual list of downloads, it simply shows an image from the film Logan and the brief message "TG Forever". This is similar to a notice that appeared on the site a few weeks ago, after which it eventually resumed business as usual.
September 1st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 27th, 2024

Pirate Streaming Giants Fboxz, AniWave, Zoroxtv & Others Dead in Major Collapse
After the recent shutdown of Fmovies, right now an entire streaming empire is collapsing. Big name casualties include Fboxz.to, Aniwave.to, Anix.to, AnimeSuge, Zoroxtv, the list goes on. In a message displayed on their homepages, visitors are advised to use legal options from now on. The exact same message appeared when 123movies threw in the towel a few years ago.
August 27th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 26th, 2024

Pssst… Want to Snitch on Sellers of Pirate Streaming Services?
Do you know someone who sells dodgy streaming boxes or pirate IPTV streams? In Ireland, anti-piracy group FACT in partnership with Crimestoppers would like you to 'report' this activity. These 'snitch' initiatives are not widely embraced by the public but with a six-week social media push, the campaign aims to identity new enforcement targets.
August 26th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 25th, 2024

‘Bonus’ Episode of ‘House of the Dragon’ Comes With a Nasty Surprise for Pirates
"House of the Dragon" is one of the most watched TV series, particularly among pirates. The second season ended earlier this month after the eighth episode, though many fans had hoped for more. Pirates who downloaded the unexpected 'House of the Dragon S02E09' release got a surprise bonus, but not the one they were hoping for.
August 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 22nd, 2024

Unofficial M3U8 Playlists For Pluto TV, Samsung & Plex, Shut Down By Warner
Offering movies and TV shows at no cost to the consumer has seen 'FAST' services like Pluto TV attract tens of millions of users. Consumption is also thriving via unofficial methods, including M3U8 playlists that are versatile despite their simplicity. During the past 24 hours, the most popular unofficial playlists were taken offline by Warner Bros, succeeding where earlier attempts failed.
August 22nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 21st, 2024

Webtoon Targets 170+ Pirate Domains Through DMCA Subpoena
In June, Webtoon Entertainment celebrated going public by sounding the closing bell at the Nasdaq exchange. Thus far, early investors haven't been rewarded, but the company itself sees a bright future ahead. By targeting roughly 170 pirate site domains though a DMCA subpoena, it hopes to unmask their rogue operators and clear the path for future growth.
August 21st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 16th, 2024

ACE Shuts US-Based Pirate IPTV Services, Poor Security Costs $2m
Larissa Knapp, the MPA's new Chief Content Protection Officer, and the team at ACE have announced the shutdown of several US-based pirate IPTV services. The FBI veteran revealed the closure of AnytimeTV plus other pirate brands, and a settlement with three operators worth over $2m. After appearing to disregard the importance of security, shutting down now may have helped to avoid a larger bill, further down the road.
August 16th, 2024 — Source

Billion Dollar Music Piracy Lawsuit Against Optimum is Over, Permanently
In December 2022, music industry giants including BMG, UMG, and Capitol, filed a massive copyright infringement lawsuit against Altice, owners of internet service provider Optimum. The complaint followed the familiar 'repeat infringer' format, with damages for works in suit worth over a billion dollars and everything on the line. A joint filing this week reveals that the lawsuit has been dismissed with prejudice, never to see the light of day again.
August 16th, 2024 — Source

Kim Dotcom, roguish face of 2010s online piracy, will finally be extradited to the US
New Zealand's order ends a nearly 13-year legal battle for Dotcom to face US charges.
August 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 14th, 2024

Popular Shadow Library 'LibGen' Breaks Down Amidst Legal Troubles
Popular shadow library LibGen appears to be struggling with technical problems. Regular book downloads stopped working last weekend and remain unavailable. The reason for the issues are unknown but, for now, internal troubles at the site seem more likely than a copyright-related enforcement action.
August 14th, 2024 — Source

Two IPTV Pirates Sentenced to Prison But After 5 Years Questions Remain
In the unlikely event that there's anyone left in the UK who hasn't been completely desensitized to the perils of IPTV, here's another case to strain the nerves. After being raided five years ago, two brothers from Ilford in Essex have been sentenced to prison. Whether both will actually see the inside of a cell is unclear; one turned up to face the music, the other failed to appear. The reason for his absence is unknown and just the start of a long list of other unanswered questions.
August 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 8th, 2024

Japan versus Manga Piracy: $800m Losses & 100 New Pirate Sites in One Month
The continued rise of Japanese manga is accompanied by interesting facts, figures, and curiosities alike. Of all graphic novels sold in the U.S. during 2023, half were manga. Of those who consume manga digitally in Japan, the most prolific are the over 50s; half read manga every day. Estimates show that over 1,300 pirate sites offer manga and in a recent single month, 100 new pirate manga sites appeared online. Cost to the industry: $800m per month.
August 8th, 2024 — Source

U.S. Copyright Groups Urge Canada to Prioritize Anti-Piracy Enforcement
The IIPA, which represents the MPA, RIAA, and other entertainment industry groups, believes that Canada could and should do more to tackle online piracy. The association argues that anti-piracy efforts, in the broadest sense, should be prioritized. In addition, copyright exceptions that, by IIPA's standards, grant the public too much freedom, should be scrapped.
August 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 6th, 2024

Record Labels Ask Court to Deny Cox's Challenge of '$1 Billion' Piracy Verdict
Internet provider Cox Communications wants a do-over of the piracy liability trial, where it was ordered to pay $1 billion in damages to the record label plaintiffs. The ISP previously argued that 'concealed' evidence warrants a new look at the case. According to the music companies, however, Cox is grasping at straws, relying on speculation in the hope of getting a do-over.
August 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 3rd, 2024

Premier League Pirates Caught Offside as Police Raid Their Car Wash Base
The Thai government's Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has carried out a major operation targeting the supply of pirated Premier League football streams, illegal gambling, and associated money laundering. A total of 21 raids, in five regions of the country, includes one that targeted an office hidden in a car wash.
August 3rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 2nd, 2024

Sports Leagues See 'X' as the 'Home of Social Media Piracy'
Several prominent football leagues and organizations, including UEFA, the Premier League, and LaLiga, have sent a letter to X urging the social media platform to take live-streaming piracy more seriously. Supported by broadcasters, they are demanding more advanced anti-piracy features. According to the letter, lack of enforcement has turned X into the home of social media piracy.
August 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 31st, 2024

IOC Sends Thousands of DMCA Notices to Deter 'Olympics' Piracy
The International Olympic Committee is working around the clock to protect its broadcasting rights. Over the past week, IOC has sent thousands of DMCA takedown notices to Google. They reveal that torrent sites are a problem of the past; live-streaming sites are the main concern now.
July 31st, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV Ops See Damages Reduced By $7m, Admin Panel Evidence Fell Short
After years of plain sailing followed by several years of bad luck, two convicted IPTV operators in Sweden were sentenced to prison and ordered to pay rightsholders $18m in damages. On appeal, the men successfully argued that the amount was excessive and based on incorrect information. A dispute over an admin panel photograph led to damages being slashed by $7m.
July 31st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 29th, 2024

Ad Blocking Infringes Copyright? Ancient Sony Cheat Lawsuit May Prove Pivotal
Despite suffering losses in a legal battle that has dragged on for years, German publishing giant Axel Springer is refusing to give up on its claim that ad blocking software illegally interferes with its business model. Thus far, Eyeo GmbH, the company behind Adblock Plus, has come out on top. However, with Axel Springer's reformulated claims now rooted firmly in copyright law, the stakes are high at Germany's highest court.
July 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 28th, 2024

Pirate IPTV Services Blocked For Pirating The Olympics
The Olympic Games 2024 is well underway with France responsible for hosting and beaming the spectacular to a global audience. Unauthorized broadcasters, including pirate streaming sites and IPTV providers, are already finding themselves blocked by French ISPs, following legal action by the International Olympic Committee.
July 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 26th, 2024

Major Labels Block 40 Pirate Domains, Search Deindexing More Concerning
The world's largest recording labels are expanding their site-blocking program after obtaining an order from a Paris court. The order also requires search engines to deindex blocked domains from search results, which pushes look-a-like platforms to the top making malicious sites more visible. This disproportionately affects inexperienced users, undermines confidence in search engines, and has only a limited effect on those who regularly pirate.
July 26th, 2024 — Source

Music Industry Puts Pressure on 'Parasitic' Streaming App Musi
Musi is one of the most popular music apps in Apple's App Store. The free iOS music streaming tool has millions of happy users, but is branded a parasitic threat by the music industry. Behind the scenes, music industry group IFPI has been working hard to get it removed from the App Store. Apple hasn't taken action thus far but further escalation involving the major labels, YouTube, and a potential lawsuit, were proposed earlier this year.
July 26th, 2024 — Source

Runway may have pirated videos to train its video model
Runway, another AI company crawling the tech industry, has a powerful video generation model called Gen-3 Alpha. While it's powerful, some folks aren't happy with how the company obtained videos to train it.
July 26th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 24th, 2024

Five Men Behind Huge Pirate Streaming Site Want Their Convictions Overturned
Five men found guilty of operating one of the largest pirate streaming services in the U.S. have filed requests for their convictions to be overturned. Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber, were convicted last month by a Las Vegas jury. Four of the men face up to 60 months in prison while Dallmann's maximum is 48 years.
July 24th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 22nd, 2024

Fmovies 'Sister' Sites Shut Down, Redirect to Pirate Streaming Alternatives
A few days after popular pirate streaming site Fmovies seemingly shut down for good, a flurry of 'related' streaming portals have closed shop too. Flixtorz.to, Flixhq.bz, Movies7.to, Swatchseries.mx and Yeahmovies.to are among more than a dozen sites that are no longer online. The sites all redirect to new domains that are, purportedly, managed by another team.
July 22nd, 2024 — Source

Pirated Movies Flood YouTube, Millions of Views on Compromised Channels
Despite the best efforts of YouTube and rightsholders, determined users can usually find a limited number of pirated movies available for viewing. Yet, at the time of writing, something more unusual catches the eye. Channels that have been dormant for 15+ years, or newer channels showing zero signs of previous infringement, are suddenly offering the latest Hollywood movies. Viewing numbers are vast - easily tens of millions - but the true number could be even higher.
July 22nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 19th, 2024

Sports Streaming Services Fight Piracy With... a Very Affordable Bundle
Sports streaming piracy is booming. Rightsholders are repeatedly sounding the alarm bell, calling for tougher legislation, website blocking, and instant takedowns to prevent further losses. In Greece, two of the largest streaming platforms are trying to battle the piracy issue with a highly experimental approach; cheap bundles, to lower the costs for legitimate viewers.
July 19th, 2024 — Source

What Killed Fmovies? Death By a 1000 Cuts, One Killer Blow, Or Possibly Both
The sudden closure of RARBG in 2023 left many unanswered questions. However, after studying political events in Bulgaria and the United States, it was possible to provide plausible information on potential contributing factors. Similar questions are now being asked about Fmovies.
July 19th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 18th, 2024

Anna's Archive Loses .GS Domain Name But Remains Resilient
Popular pirate library search engine Anna's Archive had its new .GS domain name suspended shortly after its recent switch. The site has returned to its .org domain and remains determined to preserve access to human knowledge. This should become much easier when storage costs come down, the team notes. "We are on the eve of a revolution in preservation."
July 18th, 2024 — Source

Russia Slams Google's 'Censorship' Yet Deleting 5.6m VPN Links is Just Fine
Russia has just ordered Google's CEO to unblock 200 pro-Kremlin YouTube channels. Telecoms regulator Rozcomnadzor said the restrictions "fundamentally violate the key principles of free dissemination of information" and accused Google of censorship within a "Russophobic policy".
July 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 9th, 2024

How streamer Pirate Software gained nearly two million subs in six months
Lightning struck twice for the game dev streamer.
July 9th, 2024 — Source

Pirate Sites Face a More Challenging Hosting Climate in Europe
Law-abiding hosting providers don't openly and explicitly welcome pirate sites. At the same time, many of these third-party service providers have historically taken a neutral position in copyright conflicts. However, under EU law and supporting legal precedents, hosting companies are required to take action against infringement, as doing nothing can become quite costly.
July 9th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 5th, 2024

Popular Pirate Site Animeflix Shuts Down 'Voluntarily'
Popular anime pirate site Animeflix has shut down without prior warning. The site's operators don't mention a reason for the site's closure, but note that the decision comes after 'careful deliberation'. The site faced considerable legal pressure in recent months, which may have been a motivating factor.
July 5th, 2024 — Source

Sony's Ancient Lawsuit versus Cheat Device Heads in Right Direction -- Sony's Defeat
After more than a decade of litigation in Germany, last year key questions in Sony's lawsuit against cheat device maker Datel were referred to Europe's highest court. If the Court of Justice's judgment ultimately favors Sony, the implications are likely to reach far beyond a device designed to interact with a game console discontinued a decade ago.
July 5th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 4th, 2024

Supreme Court Blow: ISP Bill Payers Aren't Piracy Police or Instantly Liable
When settlement-focused rightsholders spot a pirated movie being shared, they want to hold someone liable. Internet bill payers are regular targets, also in Canada where a movie studio painted 30 subscribers as 'authorizers' of movie piracy on BitTorrent. Hopes of a favorable ruling at the Supreme Court are now dead after the studio's appeal was denied.
July 4th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 2nd, 2024

Nintendo continues to target Switch pirates with new lawsuitsspan>
Nintendo is not giving up on its crusade against Switch piracy, as it has filed two new lawsuits against individuals who allegedly promoted and profited from modded consoles and pirated games. Interestingly, one of these lawsuits targets one of the moderators behind the popular r/SwitchPirates subreddit.
July 2nd, 2024 — Source

Pirate Streaming Giant FMovies Hasn't Updated in a Week
FMovies is one of the most visited pirate sites in the world, streaming movies and TV series to the masses. Anti-piracy groups have had the operators in their sights for a while, but thus far the site has managed to survive. Today, FMovies remains online, but new releases have been noticeably absent for a while.
July 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 29th, 2024

OpenDNS Suspends Service in France Due to Canal+ Piracy Blocking Order
This month, a French court went along with a demand from Canal+ to tighten up previously obtained anti-piracy measures. The court ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to poison their DNS records to prevent these third-party services acting as workarounds for existing pirate site blockades. Cisco's response became evident on Friday when it withdrew its OpenDNS service from the entire country.
June 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 28th, 2024

Kim Dotcom Can't Prevent NZ Govt. Sending Hard Drives & Passwords to FBI
Kim Dotcom's latest bid to prevent the New Zealand government from handing over his hard drives and passwords to the FBI has failed. In 2022, the High Court said the devices could be sent to the United States to assist in Dotcom's criminal prosecution there. Following Dotcom's inevitable appeal, the Court of Appeal has now dismissed the proceedings.
June 28th, 2024 — Source

Top FBI Official Now Heads the World's Leading Anti-Piracy Coalition
The Motion Picture Association has a new Global Chief of Content Protection, who will lead the ACE anti-piracy coalition. Larissa Knapp joins the MPA after 27 years with the FBI, where she was one of the highest-ranking officials. Instead of leading thousands of agents, Knapp will now front the global fight against piracy.
June 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 26th, 2024

Filmmakers Legal Battle Over Reddit Users' IP Addresses Heads to Appeal
The legal dispute between a group of filmmakers and Reddit is set to continue at the court of appeal. After several failed attempts to obtain the IP addresses of Redditors who made piracy-related comments, the film companies will try their luck at a higher court. The movie companies say the Redditors can provide crucial evidence in their case against ISP Frontier Communications.
June 26th, 2024 — Source

P2Pinfect Worm Now Dropping Ransomware on Redis Servers
The P2Pinfect worm targeting Redis servers has been updated with ransomware and cryptocurrency mining payloads.
June 26th, 2024 — Source

The RIAA versus AI, explained
Even if AI startups used copyrighted music without permission to make their song generators, there's still the question of fair use.
June 26th, 2024 — Source

TikTok Copyright Notices Up Again in 2023, Success Rate Collapses to 56%
In common with most large online platforms reliant on content uploaded by their users, TikTok must respond to copyright complaints filed by rightsholders or their agents. Reportedly servicing around a billion users per month, TikTok's latest transparency report reveals copyright complaints on a steep upward trend. Collapsing in the other direction is the percentage of notices that result in takedowns by TikTok.
June 26th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 24th, 2024

1.3m Pirate IPTV Users 'Blacked Out' During Euro 2024, Italian Police Claim
Italy's Guardia di Finanza has just outlined an anti-piracy investigation it links to Euro 2024. The operation led to searches targeting 13 pirate IPTV administrators, and 1.3 million pirate viewers reportedly had their screens "blacked out." The statement raises several important questions, but the decision to mention the "completely innovative way" the pirates obtained the content is not something usually discussed in public.
June 24th, 2024 — Source

IPTV Playlist Portal Survives DMCA Takedown From Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. asked GitHub to remove a popular IPTV playlist linking portal. The Hollywood major requested the page to be removed as it referred to allegedly infringing Warner channels, including HBO and Cartoon Network. Faced with a potential takedown, the owners of the site swiftly removed all Warner Bros. content from the site. At the time of writing, it remains online.
June 24th, 2024 — Source

Record labels sue AI music generators for 'massive infringement of recorded music'
Suno and Udio can reportedly produce uncanny copies of songs by The Temptations, Green Day and Michael Jackson.
June 24th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 22nd, 2024

Google Search Processed a Billion DMCA Takedowns in Four Months
Google Search's takedown department is facing the busiest year ever. The all-time takedown total has just surged to nine billion, adding the latest billion in just four months. The list of most targeted sites has also welcomed some newcomers, with shadow library "Anna's Archive" entering the top ten with two domain names.
June 22nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 21st, 2024

Five IPTV Operators Guilty of Movie & TV Piracy, Leader Faces 48 Years in Prison
Five men accused of operating one of the largest pirate IPTV services in the United States, have been convicted by a Las Vegas federal jury. Kristopher Dallmann, Douglas Courson, Felipe Garcia, Jared Jaurequi, and Peter Huber, generated millions of dollars in revenue through Jetflicks, a subscription service that reportedly offered more content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, and Amazon Prime. Four of the men face up to five years in prison; Dallmann's maximum is 48 years.
June 21st, 2024 — Source

IPTV Operator Who Was Sentenced For One Week of Piracy is Less Lucky at Court of Appeal
A man convicted of copyright infringement violations while operating a pirate IPTV service, had his sentence significantly increased this week by a Swedish court of appeal. A lower court previously held that the defendant had infringed the rights of major movie and TV companies, but due to limited evidence, only for a week. The court of appeal disagreed after his own use of the service was uncovered during a police raid.
June 21st, 2024 — Source

Men Behind Illegal Streaming Site Bigger Than Netflix, Hulu, And Prime Combined Convicted
One of the men is facing a maximum sentence of 48 years in prison.
June 21st, 2024 — Source

The DOJ has convicted five men for running a Netflix clone full of pirated TV shows
The team behind Jetflicks, an illegal Netflix knockoff, is now facing jail time.
June 21st, 2024 — Source or Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 20th, 2024

Ghana Warns Local TV Stations Not to Air 'Pirated' Films
Virtually anyone with an Internet connection can access pirated movies and TV shows in a few keystrokes. In some cases, an Internet connection isn't even required. In Ghana, TV stations are reportedly showing pirated films to their viewers. This is so rampant that the Government's film authority has issued a warning.
June 20th, 2024 — Source

Piracy Shield 2.0 IPTV Blocking Costs Will Be Paid By Italian Taxpayers
If all goes according to plan, Italy's Piracy Shield IPTV blocking system will be retired at the end of the year. In its place, Piracy Shield 2.0, a tech platform likely to be billed as the most formidable anti-piracy system on the planet. Year one running costs of two million euros will be paid by Italian taxpayers, rather than the main beneficiaries, some of the world's most famous football clubs.
June 20th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 17th, 2024

Cloudflare IPFS 'Takedowns' Skyrocket, But Not For Long
Cloudflare protects and facilitates access to millions of sites and services on the web. The company also offers an IPFS gateway, making it easier to access content on the censorship-resistant storage network. Takedown notices for this gateway have skyrocketed, according to the most recent transparency report, but that won't be for long.
June 17th, 2024 — Source

Sony DMCA Notice Nukes 200 Aniyomi Extensions as Tachiyomi Fork Feels Heat
Less than six months ago, manga reader app Tachiyomi was forced to call it quits following legal threats from South Korean publisher Kakao. A popular project fork, Aniyomi, introduced anime into the mix, accessed using extensions from the app's 200+ strong library. A single DMCA notice from Sony Pictures has now taken all but three extensions offline.
June 17th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 16th, 2024

ACE Subpoenas Target IPTV Services, Piracy Apps, and Streaming Portals
Anti-piracy coalition ACE has several new targets in its sights, ranging from IPTV services and piracy apps, to popular streaming portals such as Anitaku, Goojara and KickassAnime. The names are revealed in several new subpoenas, requested by the Motion Picture Association. While this legal information gathering tool can be effective, it's not perfect.
June 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 15th, 2024

Russia 'Humanizes" Criminal Copyright Law, 'Large Scale" Piracy Cut By 25%
Criminal copyright infringement offenses prosecuted under Russia's Criminal Code are expected to plummet by a quarter, thanks to a new law signed by President Putin this week. The amendments aim to "liberalize and humanize" Russian legislation in the area of copyright and related rights, by drastically increasing the threshold for infringement to be considered 'large scale'.
June 15th, 2024 — Source

TorrentGalaxy Goes Offline With Mysterious Message to Users
Popular torrent site TorrentGalaxy has gone 'offline' overnight. While downtime is quite common for pirate sites, a mysterious statement by the team is open for interpretation, leading some to believe that it will not return anytime soon. Since the site is a prominent source of new movie and TV show releases, this is a big deal.
June 15th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 14th, 2024

Denuvo Owner Shuts Down Clone Sites, Perpertrators Seem Up For a Chase
The company behind notorious anti-tamper technology Denuvo, filed an interesting DMCA takedown notice at GitHub this week. According to Irdeto, unnamed parties cloned the company's website, registered a similar domain, and ran their own mail server behind the scenes. A short investigation by TF suggests that the culprits may have known Irdeto would attempt to track them down and may have left Easter eggs along the way.
June 14th, 2024 — Source

TorrentGalaxy Goes Offline With Mysterious Message to Users
Popular torrent site TorrentGalaxy has gone 'offline' overnight. While downtime is quite common for pirate sites, a mysterious statement by the team is open for interpretation, leading some to believe that it will not return anytime soon. Since the site is a prominent source of new movie and TV show releases, this is a big deal.
June 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 12th, 2024

Biggest IPTV Piracy Trial in U.S. History Underway and Already Controversial
According to the U.S. government, subscription IPTV services Jetflicks and iStreamitAll were once two of the largest piracy platforms in the country. Several defendants are now on trial in Las Vegas in a case that generated 19TB of data and 175,000 pages of print discovery, and has taken five years to prepare. After accusing MPA and HBO executives of presenting prejudicial evidence to the jury, the lead defendant called for a mistrial; the government didn't give an inch.
June 12th, 2024 — Source

Plex Cracks Down on Media Server 'Hacks'
GitHub has removed several repositories following a copyright complaint from Plex. Through its anti-piracy partner, the streaming software service complained about code that enables 'Godmode' on its media server and provides free access to paid Plex Pass features.
June 12th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 10th, 2024

Redfox Disappearance Puts a Spotlight on Defiant StreamFab
RedFox, the outfit behind popular ripping software AnyStream and AnyDVD, seems to have disappeared. The domain name is inaccessible after A records were removed, and its mail server is unreachable too. Despite days of downtime, there is no sign of enforcement action and no word from the developers either. Meanwhile, its competitor, StreamFab, is picking up new users.
June 10th, 2024 — Source

The best VPN for torrenting: Speed, privacy, and security matter
Stay safe while torrenting with these top VPN picks.
June 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 8th, 2024

Court Bans DoodStream's Owners & Associates From Running The Site
As part of a copyright infringement lawsuit against DoodStream, the cyberlocker platform was handed orders by a court in India to remove links to all content owned by the major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, within 24 hours.
June 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 7th, 2024

BREIN Pulled 610 Pirate Sites and Services Offline Last Year
Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has just posted its latest annual report. The group shut down 610 illegal sites and services, ranging from proxies and streaming portals, to IPTV services and Facebook groups. BREIN also signed 41 settlement agreements and helped to completely remove hundreds of domains from Google search results following blocking orders.
June 7th, 2024 — Source

DoodStream"s 'Proprietors" Struggle to Comply With Hollywood Injunction
With its no-holds-barred 'dynamic+' injunctions, capable of blocking sites perpetually and forcing domain seizures in the U.S., India's emergence as a global copyright enforcer is remarkable. Yet, when the major Hollywood studios teamed up with Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, to obtain a strict, immediate injunction against a site considered a global piracy threat, early non-compliance wasn't harshly punished.
June 7th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 6th, 2024

Organized Crime Unit Arrest Suspected Sky TV Pirate -- What About His Users?
Officers of the North East Regional Organized Crime Unit say they arrested a man on Wednesday under suspicion of supplying articles for use in fraud in connection with illicit Sky TV streams. The 52-year-old from Stockton-on-Tees was arrested and subsequently released under investigation, including for suspected money laundering. So what are the implications for his alleged customers?
June 6th, 2024 — Source

YouTube Processed a Billion Content ID Copyright Claims in Six Months
YouTube's latest Transparency Report shows that fewer copyright holders used the Content ID system to protect their works. Despite the modest decline, the claim volume continues to grow. For the first time, the number of processed claims exceeded one billion in the six-month reporting period.
June 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 31st, 2024

Spain's Ongoing Pirate Site-Blocking War Targets Thousands of Subdomains
Data published by S2CPI, the body responsible for Spain's administrative pirate site blocking program, shows that the number of headline domains blocked during Q1 2024 is noticeably down on the same period in 2023 and 2022. Overall, sites are still being blocked in large numbers, but the real growth isn't found on main domains.
May 31st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 30th, 2024

Court Denies Filmmakers' Renewed Attempt to Get Redditors' IP Addresses
Reddit is not required to hand over to filmmakers the IP-addresses of several Redditors who made piracy-related comments. A California federal court denied the filmmakers' request for a 'de novo' review, after turning down their initial request in February. While this is bad news for the movie companies, a viable alternative appeared recently.
May 30th, 2024 — Source

FBI Carries Out Fresh Round of Z-Library Domain Name Seizures
The U.S. Government's crackdown against Z-Library continues. The FBI just carried out a new round of seizures affecting several of the site's key domain names, including Z-Library.se. These efforts have also taken out the shadow library's main email domain but, thus far, its servers appear to be unaffected.
May 30th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 29th, 2024

Activision Wins $14.5m Judgment After EngineOwning Cheat Makers Bailed Out
An Activision lawsuit targeting a group of Call of Duty cheat makers has ended with a $14.5m judgment in favor of the plaintiffs. The defendants, all linked to Germany-based EngineOwning UG, initially put up a spirited defense against alleged violations of the DMCA, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and civil RICO, among others. By last summer, all defendants had disengaged from the legal process. At the time of writing, EngineOwning is selling its latest MWIII and Warzone cheat.
May 29th, 2024 — Source

'Mastermind' Arrested After Pirate Site 'Ads' Were Painted on 630-Yr-Old Palace
After a five-month police investigation, the alleged 'mastermind' behind a nighttime graffiti attack on the 630-year-old Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, South Korea, has been arrested. Last December, CCTV footage revealed a figure in black spray-painting the words "free movie" time and again. The damage to the culturally significant building was meant to advertise a pirate video site.
May 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 25th, 2024

AI Models Reveal Pro-Copyright Bias By Shutting Down Piracy Research
The seemingly endless possibilities of generative AI are not on an unavoidable collision course with copyright law; the collision happened way back and sooner or later, someone will have to pick up the bill. In the meantime, popular LLMs seem to be developing a stubborn, pro-copyright streak, partly due to all the industry propaganda they've been consuming. But don't fight back, it's time to team up.
May 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 24th, 2024

Police Piracy Blacklist: No Celebrations For IWL's 10-Year Anniversary?
Operation Creative is a multi-agency anti-piracy initiative led by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, also known as PIPCU. The primary aim is to shut down pirate sites but if that proves elusive, depriving sites of advertising revenue by placing them on a blacklist is seen as the next best thing. The Infringing Website List (IWL) isn't made public but since there was no celebration of its recent 10-year anniversary, here's what the decade-old list has been getting up to lately.
May 24th, 2024 — Source

'UFC Ripper' Tool Can Download UFC Fight Pass Streams
While streaming dominates today's entertainment landscape, unauthorized downloads of UFC fights are widely available on pirate sites. Interestingly, a download option is now available for UFC fans who legally subscribe to UFC Fight Pass. The feature is available in the software "UFC Ripper" and its developer hopes that Dana White will allow the tool to exist.
May 24th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 23rd, 2024

Anti-Piracy Chief: Google's Gambling Ad Liability Should Be Adopted For Piracy
A decision by Italy's Council of State, overruling the decision of a lower court that Google couldn't be held liable for displaying locally illegal advertising, is being welcomed by the head of telecoms regulator AGCOM. Massimiliano Capitanio notes that Google's defense failed the moment it became more than a passive host. "The same line should be adopted to eradicate piracy," Capitanio says.
May 23rd, 2024 — Source

Hollywood Takes Down Animeflix, Vegamovies and Others With Broad Anti-Piracy Order
Netflix, Disney, Universal, and several other major Hollywood studios, have obtained a broad anti-piracy order in India. The High Court of New Delhi issued a dynamic+ blocking order targeting several pirate sites, mostly streaming portals. The order also requires domain registrars to suspend the associated domains and Namecheap appears to have already taken swift action in response.
May 23rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 21st, 2024

Cox Sues Insurers for Failing to Cover Landmark Piracy Lawsuit
Internet provider Cox Communication has fought several piracy-related claims in court over the past decade. In one of the lawsuits, against music rights group BMG, it chose to settle, presumably for millions of dollars. The company hoped that its insurers would help cover the costs, but after the companies declined, Cox is now back in court after suing them both.
May 21st, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV Seller Domain Names Taken Over in Bulk By ACE/MPA
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment regularly 'seizes' domain names from pirate sites and services that have been persuaded it's in their best interests to shut down. However, the anti-piracy coalition officially reports just a tiny minority. During Monday and over the weekend, a batch of pirate IPTV domains came under ACE/MPA control adding to the flood of domains already commandeered in 2024.
May 21st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 18th, 2024

YouTube Ripper Seeks IP-Addresses of 'Threatening' & 'DMCA-Abusing' Competitors
YTMP3.nu, one of the largest YouTube ripping sites on the web, is trying to pinpoint competitors who allegedly sent abusive takedown notices to Google in an SEO battle. The company behind the site filed a lawsuit and previously obtained email addresses of the defendants. In addition, they now want Google, Cloudflare and Namecheap to share more information, including IP-addresses.
May 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 17th, 2024

French Torrent Giant YggTorrent Goes Private
YggTorrent, the largest francophone torrent community, is no longer available as a public site. After going private, only registered users can access the site now. The change comes just a few weeks after new blocking measures were put in place in France. By going private and processing takedown notices, the site's operators hope to shake off their copyright troubles, at least as far as that's possible.
May 17th, 2024 — Source

Shueisha DMCA Subpoena Targets Two Dozen Manga Piracy Sites
Japan-based publisher Shueisha is maintaining the pressure on sites distributing vast quantities of pirated manga content. A DMCA subpoena obtained at a United States court reveals around two dozen targets, some with relatively low traffic but many enjoying millions of visits per month. One stand out platform is currently ranked the 14th most popular site in Vietnam, period.
May 17th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 14th, 2024

Four-in-Ten Aussies Pirated Content in 2023, Overall Online Consumption Up 6%
Since 2015, the Australian government has commissioned research to understand the level of online infringement and how that changes over time. The latest survey covering 2023 shows overall online content consumption, whether from legal or illegal sources, reached 78% of the population in 2023, up 6% on the previous year. Of those surveyed, however, 41% consumed content from illegal sources in 2023, up from 39% in the previous year.
May 14th, 2024 — Source

IMDb Struggles with Persistent Movie 'Piracy' Problem
Copyright holders are repeatedly flagging IMDb URLs for alleged copyright infringement. Historically, these DMCA notices were mostly sent in error, flagging legitimate IMDb listings. More recently, however, the takedowns are being triggered by a persistent 'piracy' spam problem that tricks both rightsholders and opportunistic pirates alike.
May 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 13th, 2024

Google Requests Default Judgment Against DMCA Scammers
Google's lawsuit against two men who it accuses of 'weaponizing' DMCA takedown notices is entering its final stage. The defendants allegedly targeted tens of thousands of URLs with fraudulent notices. Since the defendants failed to respond, Google now requests a default judgment at a California federal court. The company doesn't seek any money, but wants to put an end to the abusive and fraudulent actions.
May 13th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 11th, 2024

Marvel Subpoenas Instagram to Expose 'Captain America: Brave New World' Leaker
Last week, new footage of Marvel's upcoming 'Captain America: Brave New World' appeared online. The film is due to be released in 2025 but the allegedly leaked material, posted in an Instagram story by a well-known 'scooper', clearly has Disney and Marvel concerned. Through a DMCA subpoena, the movie companies aim to find out who's behind the social media account.
May 11th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 10th, 2024

Lord of the Rings Fan Film Restored After Brief YouTube Deletion
The Hunt for Gollum, which shares a title with a new official film, was removed in error.
May 8th, 2024 — Source

Premier League Targets SportsHub, GiveMeRedditStream & FreeStreamsLive
The Premier League has obtained a new blocking order in the UK, targeting three pirate sites receiving over 20 million visits per month. One of the targets is SportsHub, a site that's now generating enough traffic to make it one of the UK's top 1,000 most-visited sites, period. The surge in traffic coincides with a UK anti-piracy campaign that aims to deter consumption of pirated football streams.
May 8th, 2024 — Source

Supreme Court: There's No 'Time Limit' on Copyright Infringement Claims
Copyright holders can claim damages for copyright infringements that occurred years or even decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has clarified. In a majority decision, the Court rejected the lower court's argument that there's a three-year time limit for damages. Older claims are fair game, as long as the lawsuit is filed within three years of 'discovering' an infringement.
May 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 7th, 2024

Z-Library Confusion as 'Official" Social Media Announces Crackdown in China
Last month Z-Library reported that users in China were experiencing difficulties accessing the site, with new domains being blocked very quickly. The site's official WeChat and Bilibili social media accounts seemed unaffected until a surprise announcement was made on the former. It detailed a "recent crackdown by Chinese judicial authorities" on the site, its finances, and social media volunteers. Then just like that, both accounts disappeared.
May 7th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 3rd, 2024

Nintendo DMCA takedown wipes over 8,500 Yuzu emulator copies
Nintendo is trying to keep the Yuzu clones at bay.
May 3rd, 2024 — Source

Pirate Site Blocking Agency Reveals How and Why Pirates Circumvent Blocking
As the Motion Picture Association's site-blocking drive lands back on home turf, countries that have already implemented their own site-blocking programs are evaluating their effectiveness. A new survey carried out by French anti-piracy agency Arcom reveals how internet users circumvent blocking and their preferred tools. More importantly from a piracy mitigation perspective, the survey reveals why users feel the need to circumvent blocking in the first place.
May 3rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 1st, 2024

Newspapers Sue OpenAI for Copyright Infringement and 'Fake News' Hallucinations
Microsoft and OpenAI face yet another lawsuit for alleged copyright infringement. Eight newspapers, including the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune and the Denver Post, accuse the companies of training ChatGPT models on their content without permission or compensation. In addition, ChatGPT allegedly harms the plaintiffs' reputations by linking them to fake news.
May 1st, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV Owner's Conviction First Ever Under Protecting Lawful Streaming Act
Passed by Congress late December 2020, the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act (PLSA) was crafted to urgently close a loophole in copyright law that treated unlicensed reproduction and distribution as a felony, but unlicensed streaming as a misdemeanor. This week, well over three years later, a 40-year-old former operator of an illicit IPTV service became the first person to be convicted under the PLSA. While a win is a win, the case wasn't entirely straightforward.
May 1st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 30th, 2024

CJEU Gives File-Sharer Surveillance & Data Retention a Green Light
In a judgment published today, Europe's top court concludes that suspected file-sharers can be subjected to mass surveillance and retention of their data as long as certain standards are upheld. Digital rights groups hoped to end the French 'Hadopi' anti-piracy scheme, claiming that it violates the fundamental right to privacy. The CJEU's judgment leaves no stone unturned explaining why that isn't so, leaving case law to deal with the turbulence.
April 30th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 29th, 2024

Court Keeps DMCA Subpoena Shortcut Closed, Restricts Piracy Settlements
Earlier this year, a Hawaiian District Court blocked movie companies' efforts to unmask alleged BitTorrent pirates using a DMCA subpoena 'shortcut'. The filmmakers asked the court to reconsider its position but without success; the 'DMCA shortcut' will remain closed. The rightsholders will appeal the order but won't be able to use evidence previously obtained through settlements with pirating subscribers.
April 29th, 2024 — Source

DISH Sued Two IPTV Resellers: First Case Dismissed, Second Owes $30m
Most civil lawsuits against alleged IPTV pirates end badly for the defendants, something easily predicted after a single read of the initial complaint. Two separate lawsuits filed by DISH against two IPTV resellers in recent months were classic examples, at least until they weren't. One reseller has just been ordered to pay damages of $30m. The second, a reseller in the astrology business, just had his case suddenly dismissed. Nobody could've predicted that.
April 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 28th, 2024

Operation Anime Phase 2: New Anti-Piracy Crackdown Executed in Brazil
Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security has announced a second phase of Operation Anime, an initiative to disrupt piracy of Japanese anime and Korean webtoon content. This second wave follows the first which took place close to a year ago. In coordination with Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA and COA based in South Korea, authorities conducted 11 search and seizure warrants in five regions. No sites have been named but domains appeared to have been seized.
April 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 27th, 2024

Anti-Piracy Veteran Tim Kuik Retires After Leading BREIN for a Quarter Century
BREIN CEO Tim Kuik has retired, shutting down an impressive career that pre-dates the world wide web. Kuik started working at a home video distributor in the 1980s and became director anti-piracy at the Motion Picture Association a decade later. He eventually reached his pinnacle at BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group where Kuik took the lead for a quarter century.
April 27th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 26th, 2024

Nintendo versus Garry"s Mod: Dissecting the 'Fake" Domain Behind All the Chaos
Facepunch Studios has confirmed that years of Nintendo-related uploads are being deleted from Steam Workshop in response to takedown notices linked to Garry's Mod. What began as rumors of a Nintendo DMCA takedown campaign, suddenly shifted towards a 'fake notice' campaign, run from a suspicious domain. Frustrations then targeted Garry himself for "falling for a scam." "You didn't even look at the domain!" yelled one fan.
April 26th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 24th, 2024

'Expensive' Streaming Services Are a Key Reason for Americans to 'Pirate'
A new survey confirms that the high cost of online streaming services keeps piracy relevant. The findings suggest that one in three Americans have pirated a movie or TV series over the past year. Costs are a key motivator for these self-proclaimed pirates, with the number of legal subscription services and their price tags a key trigger.
April 24th, 2024 — Source

Vietnam Admits Manga Piracy Problem as New BestBuyIPTV Details Emerge
In a joint press release on Monday, the Premier League and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment revealed the first-ever online piracy conviction in Vietnam. The news came as a surprise, as did comment published in local media attributed to a government official. It may seem like a small step, but admitting that Vietnam has a manga piracy problem, one that causes "hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to copyright owners," is a big step forward.
April 24th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 22nd, 2024

'BestBuyIPTV' Operator Sentenced in Vietnam's First Ever Online Piracy Conviction
An operator of the widely popular piracy service 'BestBuyIPTV' has received a 30-month suspended prison sentence in Vietnam. The prosecution followed criminal referrals from the Premier League and ACE, who note that this is the country's first-ever piracy conviction. While this is significant, the BestBuyIPTV brand isn't gone.
April 22th, 2024 — Source

LaLiga Targets Apple & Google Bosses For Failing to 'Remote Delete' IPTV App
Spanish football league LaLiga has asked a local court to charge the directors of Google, Apple, and Huawei in a row over an IPTV player app. The companies removed the Newplay app from their stores in 2022 to comply with a court order but LaLiga says that apps already installed on users' phones must be remotely deactivated.
April 22th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 19th, 2024

Operator of 'Bitcoin Invested' Pirate Site Movie2K Charged After More Than a Decade
More than a decade ago, Movie2K was one of the largest pirate sites on the Internet. Serving a German audience, the streaming portal shut down in 2013, but that wasn't the end of the story. This week, a suspected operator of the site and an accomplice were charged by German authorities. The long delay is noteworthy but also lucrative; a Bitcoin haul with a current value of €3 billion was seized recently.
April 19th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 17th, 2024

Despite 155 Piracy Incidents in Cinemas, Pirates Suffer Worst Year Since 2012
With shorter theatrical windows, access to legal streaming services, and a preference for consuming movies in higher quality, copies of films recorded in theaters are less attractive to Western consumers than they once were. Still, camcorder piracy remains a threat; data just released by the Film Content Protection Agency reveals that exhibitors reported 155 piracy-related security incidents in 2023. The end result was the worst year for pirates in the UK since 2012.
April 17th, 2024 — Source

Reddit Reports Surge in Copyright-Related User Bans
Reddit's latest transparency report reveals that user bans for repeat copyright infringement skyrocketed in the last half of 2023. The company attributes the 258% increase to improved detection methods and increased operational capacity. The number of items that were removed from the site following copyright complaints dropped to little over half a million.
April 17th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 15th, 2024

Music Piracy Sites Targeted By Europol & Bulgarian Organized Crime Unit
In coordination with Europol, the General Directorate Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP), a specialist unit within Bulgaria's Ministry of Interior, says it has shut down a dozen music piracy sites. Carried out under the supervision of the District Prosecutor's Office in Sofia, the operation was executed within the framework of EMPACT, the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats.
April 15th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 12th, 2024

Block Innovation By Supporting the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act
Claiming to protect creators, or perhaps that should be 'identifiable copyright holders', the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act of 2024 has been introduced at the U.S. House of Representatives. At its core, the Bill requires those responsible for training or modifying a dataset, used to build a generative AI system, to notify the Copyright Office of any copyrighted works used in that process. In summary, AI must achieve the impossible, to benefit the few, or completely disconnect from the internet.
April 12th, 2024 — Source

Google Delisted Thousands of 'Music Piracy' Domains in Response to UK Blocking Orders
During CinemaCon 2024, the MPA announced a major push to cement pirate site blocking in U.S. law. Similar measures are commonplace in dozens of other countries including the UK, where ISP blocking is no longer a topic of discussion. Google plays along voluntarily and following requests from music industry group BPI, has already delisted thousands of domains previously blocked by court order.
April 12th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 11th, 2024

BREIN Battled ISPs For Years; They're United Against Pirate IPTV Services
Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and local ISPs Ziggo and KPN have long been at odds over the issue of piracy. In particular, the thorny issue of whether The Pirate Bay should be blocked in the Netherlands, dragged on for years. But now, as BREIN continues its battle against pirate IPTV providers, the ISPs' sales of bundled TV services are also feeling the squeeze.
April 11th, 2024 — Source

'Pirated' TikTok Clips Help to Promote TV Series, Research Finds
A new academic study shows that condensed video clips of TV shows, posted on services such as TikTok, can serve as free advertising. This means that efforts to take down these 'copyright infringing' or 'pirated' clips may be counterproductive. This type of 'piracy' can be helpful, though there are some important caveats.
April 11th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 10th, 2024

MPA: Site-Blocking Will Stop Pirate Site Owners Who Abuse Kids & Traffick Drugs
After a wait of more than 12 years, rightsholders in the United States will again seek legislation that will provide the framework for a site-blocking regime to combat online piracy. After promoting and guiding similar regimes in dozens of countries overseas, the push will see the Hollywood studios of the Motion Picture Association urge Congress to bring the United States up to date.
April 10th, 2024 — Source

The MPA plans to collaborate with Congress on piracy website-blocking legislation
The MPA CEO called pirates "real-life mobsters" who engage in child pornography
April 10th, 2024 — Source

US bill proposes AI companies list what copyrighted materials they use
Congressman Adam Schiff introduced the Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act on Tuesday.
April 10th, 2024 — Source

'X' Denies Music Companies' Remaining Piracy Liability Claims in Court
Elon Musk's social media platform X has denied all copyright infringement claims in response to a 'piracy' complaint filed last year by a group of record labels. The Nashville federal court already dismissed several key allegations and X hopes to defeat the remaining contributory infringement claims as well. Among its defenses, X notes that the music companies demand "unconstitutionally excessive and disproportionate" damages.
April 10th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 5th, 2024

Danish Torrent Tracker Crackdown Leads to Another 'Mild' Sentence
As part of a widespread torrent tracker crackdown in Denmark, the National Unit for Special Crime investigated and prosecuted more than two dozen suspects. The most recent defendant, a 48-year-old man from East Jutland, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the Asgaard tracker and was handed a conditional prison sentence.
April 5th, 2024 — Source

Pirate IPTV Investigations Are Expensive, Time-Consuming & Prone to Misfire
In September 2023, Swedish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance was looking forward to the upcoming trial of a man suspected of being behind a pirate IPTV service. He registered the site's domain and in 2020 received almost $190,000 in cryptocurrency from sales. The case was backed by IP address evidence and a financial investigation, but things didn't go exactly to plan. A court of appeal decision handed down Thursday couldn't alleviate the disappointment.
April 5th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 4th, 2024

Plex Asks GitHub to Take Down 'Reshare' Repository Over Piracy Fears
Plex is a multi-functional streaming platform that allows users to watch, organize, and curate their favorite media entertainment. Sharing Plex libraries is also an option; one that comes with piracy concerns. In an effort to "avoid the growth of piracy", Plex asked GitHub to remove a repository that allows people to reshare libraries that were not originally theirs.
April 4th, 2024 — Source

Russians Pirate Premier League, Add Their Own Graphics & Commentators
Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a Western rightsholder exodus. For the English Premier League, a £43m deal with Match TV was suspended but Russians wasted no time exploring other options. Pirate IPTV services, web-based streaming portals, and streams on betting apps filled the void. HD presentations on the social networking site VK also hit the spot, complete with homegrown commentary teams and custom graphics.
April 4th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Facebook — April 6th, 2024

Meta briefly blocked a local news organization critical of Facebook
It was accidental, the tech giant said.
April 6th, 2024 — Source

Meta wants the court to dismiss an FTC antitrust lawsuit... again
The company filed a motion for summary judgement Friday "because the FTC has failed to provide evidence."
April 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 2nd, 2024

Court Denies ISP's Request to Dismiss Music and Movie Piracy Liability Claims
Internet provider Frontier Communications asked a New York bankruptcy court to dismiss several piracy liability claims brought by movie and music industry companies. Citing a recent Supreme Court decision, the ISP argued that merely providing Internet service shouldn't invoke liability. The court agreed that liability isn't automatic but it denied the ISP's request, ruling that there are other copyright-specific factors at play.
April 2nd, 2024 — Source

Piracy Shield: Influential Consumer Union Attempts to Break AGCOM's Silence
Telecoms regulator AGCOM has either downplayed, dismissed, or flat-out ignored even the most constructive criticism concerning the Piracy Shield system. How AGCOM will handle a demand for information filed by the National Consumers Union (UNC) remains to be seen, but with its connections to the Ministry of Economic Development, dismissing UNC may be less straightforward. Meanwhile, we're informed Cloudflare won't be blocked in the future...
April 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 29th, 2024

Telegram Block Averted For Now But Escalating Threat is Far From Over
A week ago today in Spain's National Court, a judge rubber-stamped a request from rightsholders to have Telegram blocked in its entirety, nationwide. Following a fierce backlash, execution of the order was suspended, representing a victory of sorts for the eight million or so users of Telegram in Spain. What seems clear, however, is that in one form or another, these types of actions seem unlikely to go away.
March 29th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 28th, 2024

Hollywood Studios, Amazon & Netflix Sue 'Evasive' Pirate IPTV Operator From Texas
A Dallas resident is being sued by several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix for operating a pirate IPTV operation. In a complaint filed at a federal court in Texas, they accuse the defendant of widespread copyright infringement dating back to 2016. After cautioning the alleged (re)seller of 'TV Nitro', 'Streaming TV Now', and other services, the companies are taking the matter to court.
March 28th, 2024 — Source

Ukraine Commits to Piracy Crackdown, Draws Up Blacklist, Joins WIPO ALERT
Following an announcement by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine in February, the Ministry of Justice has registered an order that will see Ukraine become a full participant in the World Intellectual Property Organization's WIPO ALERT initiative. In common with its counterparts, Ukraine will maintain a list of pirate sites that advertisers will be required to boycott. The order also provides for administrative liability for companies that fail to adhere to the rules.
March 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 27th, 2024

'Operation 404' Results in First Prison Sentence for Pirate IPTV Operator
Brazilian anti-piracy campaign 'Operation 404' has taken down many pirate sites and services over the past five years, but criminal prosecutions have been scarce. This week, anti-piracy group ALIANZA announced a "historic" victory: The operator of pirate IPTV service "Flash IPTV" was sentenced to more than five years in prison, marking the first criminal conviction of this kind in Brazil.
March 27th, 2024 — Source

Z-Library Scammers Use Email Campaigns to Lure Users and Extract Payments
Popular pirate ebook repository Z-Library remains online despite a criminal prosecution by the United States. The site continues to release new features with support from users who appear happy to chip-in as part of a new fundraising campaign. At the same time, however, scammers are trying to 'steal' the site's traffic and money, through targeted email campaigns.
March 27th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 25th, 2024

Judge Blocks 8M Telegram Users After Platform Failed to Help Identify Pirates
A copyright complaint filed by Mediaset España, EGEDA, Atresmedia, and Movistar Plus, escalated Friday when a judge ordered ISPs to prevent eight million Telegram users from accessing the service in Spain. Expected imminently, the blockade is Telegram's punishment for not helping to identify IPTV pirates. Described as "necessary" and "proportional" by the judge, the order was made on behalf of rightsholders pursuing a private criminal prosecution.
March 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 20th, 2024

ISP's Landmark Piracy Liability Case Doesn't Get a Do-Over in Appeals Court
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has denied rehearing requests filed by Internet provider Cox and several record labels, who are engaged in a landmark piracy liability battle. The ISP warned that the current precedent threatens the Internet connectivity of millions of people, but the court sees no reason to reconsider its earlier findings.
March 20th, 2024 — Source

Music Industry Threatens 'Deepfake AI Music' Service With Legal Action
BPI, the UK's leading music industry group, views Voicify as one of the world's largest and most egregious 'deepfake' AI music sites. The group is now threatening to sue the vocal cloning service if it continues to operate in its current form. While the site hasn't commented on the allegations directly, it recently rebranded to "Jammable" citing legal troubles.
March 20th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 18th, 2024

Apple Joins Hollywood & Netflix on a Pirate Site Blocking Trip to Oz
Relative quiet over the past few months may have given the impression that Australia has lost interest in site-blocking injunctions. But just like waiting for a bus, suddenly two come along at once. The first aims to block Australians' view of more than 30 pirate sites, a disproportionate number serving the pirate anime market. A brand-new application sees Apple in a surprise partnership with Hollywood and Netflix, because everyone has exclusives to protect these days.
March 18th, 2024 — Source

BitTorrent dethroned as the main source of internet's upstream traffic
File sharing protocol is now being superseded by streaming and cloud storage
March 18th, 2024 — Source

Publishers Cite Napster and AI Training Threats in Legal Battle with the Internet Archive
A copyright lawsuit filed by several major publishers puts the future of the Internet Archive's scan-and-lend library at risk. In a recent appeal, the non-profit organization argued that its solution is protected by fair use and critical to preserving digital books. The publishers, however, frame it as a radical and unlawful threat to their exclusive right to publish ebooks.
March 18th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 15th, 2024

BitTorrent is No Longer the 'King' of Upstream Internet Traffic
BitTorrent is no longer the 'King' of upstream traffic. New data published by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine reveals that cloud storage, YouTube, and other apps have taken over. This marks the end of a period of declining dominance that started two decades ago when BitTorrent reportedly accounted for a third of all web traffic.
March 14th, 2024 — Source

YouTuber Liable For Bogus DMCA Notice "Awareness Campaign" Targeting Bungie
A gamer who impersonated a Bungie anti-piracy partner as part of a bogus copyright takedown campaign on YouTube, has been found liable for violations of the DMCA. 'Lord Nazos' sent bogus complaints to YouTube claiming to represent Bungie, to take down Destiny content creators' videos, to "raise awareness" of shortcomings in the takedown system. A remarkable investigation followed as Bungie tracked down the perpetrator.
March 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 14th, 2024

Nintendo Hits Circumvention Tool Linkers With DMCA Trafficking Violations
In the wake of its one-week lawsuit targeting the Yuzu Switch emulator, Nintendo is back to clean up the house. The company has just shut down around 30 GitHub repos offering circumvention tools with attempts to evade liability given short shrift. One Nintendo takedown notice makes it clear that, even when people link to a third-party site that hosts tools available via different links, it still amounts to trafficking in circumvention devices under the DMCA.
March 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 11th, 2024

Authors Sue NVIDIA for Training AI on Pirated Books
Several authors have filed a class action copyright infringement lawsuit against technology giant NVIDIA, which leads the AI revolution. In addition to selling hardware and services, NVIDIA has its own large language models. The authors allege that the AI models were trained on copyrighted works taken from the 'pirate' site Bibliotik, and as such they're entitled to compensation.
March 11th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 8th, 2024

DMCA Notices Took Down 20,517 GitHub Projects Last Year
GitHub received more than 2,000 valid DMCA takedown notices last year, which resulted in the removal of over 20,000 projects. Targeted repositories included pirate apps and games, as well as hundreds of RARBG backups. The number of takedowns has increased significantly in recent years. However, legitimate projects have grown faster and GitHub says it continues to take a developer-first approach.
March 8th, 2024 — Source

DSA: Google Reports Billions of Deletions on Google Play & Shopping
TorrentFreak can confirm a massive action against billions of content items reported under Europe's Digital Services Act. On Google Play, thousands of apps have been removed following rightsholders' copyright complaints, over 200,000 for other reasons. Other reports, over 13.5 billion of them and counting, include mass action against Google Shopping advertisers found in breach of agreed terms and conditions.
March 8th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 6th, 2024

X Partially Defeats Music Piracy Liability Claims in Nashville Federal Court
The federal court in Nashville has handed an early and partial win to Elon Musk's X as it fights back against a copyright complaint filed by several record labels. Judge Trauger dismissed the labels' direct and vicarious copyright infringement claims but left the contributory infringement claims intact. This means that X can still be held liable for failing to act properly against repeat copyright infringers.
March 6th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 4th, 2024

China Sentences Pirate Site Operators, Huge Win For Japan's Anime Industry
Three people arrested in China last year for operating major piracy site B9Good have been sentenced by a local court. Foreign companies face significant obstacles when attempting to enforce their rights in China but here, anti-piracy group CODA, acting for major Japanese anime rightsholders, came up with a novel strategy. The convictions of a pirate site operator and two uploaders are the first ever obtained by foreign rightsholders inside China.
March 4th, 2024 — Source

Publishers Target LibGen Domains, IPFS Gateways, Plus $30m in Piracy Damages
Several prominent textbook publishers including Cengage, Macmillan Learning , and Pearson Education, are seeking $30 million in piracy damages from the operators of shadow library, LibGen. Collecting payment from the unknown defendants will be complicated, but the terms of a proposed injunction reveal that the publishers aim to target the site's domain names and proxy services, even third-party IPFS gateways.
March 4th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 3rd, 2024

Piracy Shield: IP Addresses and Server Locations Blocked Since Launch
After dismissing concerns that overblocking needed to be taken more seriously, those behind Italy's Piracy Shield system pressed ahead regardless. After one major overblocking incident was branded 'fake news' and a bigger one wasn't addressed at all, promised transparency has also ground to a halt. Data obtained by TorrentFreak shows that the ten domains made available to the public, have led to domains and IP addresses being blocked in their thousands.
March 3rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 2nd, 2024

In Indonesia, Women Pirate More Music and Movies Than Men
Piracy was traditionally seen as something that predominantly young males were interested in. This is a largely outdated representation of reality, as girls and women began to catch up a long time ago. In some countries, including Indonesia, more women pirate music, movies, and TV-shows than their male counterparts.
March 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 1st, 2024

Piracy Moghul Aniwatch Rebrands to HiAnime
The massively popular anime pirate site Aniwatch has a new name. The site, which was known as Zoro.to just a year ago, just rebranded to HiAnime. The site's staff doesn't explain the latest brand switch but a recent 'dynamic+' site blocking order in India may have factored into their decision. With well over 100 million monthly visits globally, there is a lot at stake.
March 1st, 2024 — Source

Russia's 'VPN Ban' is Live as Authorities Warn of Bad VPNs & U.S. Spying
The latest stage of Russia's crackdown on VPNs and similar technologies went live a few hours ago. Contrary to some reports, today's changes don't amount to a total ban on VPNs. Use of state approved VPNs, which do everything except the useful stuff, remain legal. The new law criminalizes the promotion of VPNs for site-blocking circumvention. But Russia also wants citizen's to stay safe, warning that VPNs in the U.S. are prone to government spying.
March 1st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 28th, 2024

Video of New 'Masters of the Air' Episode Leaks on Pirate Sites
Unreleased footage of the Apple TV+ hit series "Masters of the Air" appears to have accidentally leaked online. The video track of the eighth episode, which is scheduled to be released next week, showed up on pirate sites as the latest release of another Apple series, "The New Look". Pirate release groups were swift to fix the 'mistake' but, now that it's out, the leak can't be unseen.
February 28th, 2024 — Source

Wading through the staggering amount of social media content being produced every second to find the nastiest bits is no task for humans alone.
Given its zero-tolerance approach to piracy, Nintendo's copyright lawsuit targeting the company behind Switch emulator 'Yuzu' isn't a big surprise. While the 41-page complaint throws almost everything at the hugely popular Switch emulation project, Nintendo's focus on specific functionality plus knowledge, conduct, and intent, seems to avoid a direct assault on general emulation. It could cover the entire scene with banana peels, however.
February 28th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 27th, 2024

Intelligence UX: Making Mobile AI Features Accessible and Intuitive for Everyone
Picture a world without language barriers and the ability to recreate scenes from the imagination with just a few touches. This vision may sound far-fetched, but AI is already making this a reality.
February 27th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 26th, 2024

Hollywood Used 'Dynamic+ Injunction' to Shut Down movie-web and Other Pirate Sites
Late last week, the public-facing demo website of movie-web went offline. New information shows that this was likely the result of a 'dynamic+ injunction', ordered by the High Court of Delhi, India on behalf of Netflix and the Hollywood majors. The order requires ISPs to block dozens of pirate sites and also applies to domain name registrars, including the American company Namecheap.
February 26th, 2024 — Source

Piracy Shield Cloudflare Disaster Blocks Countless Sites, Fires Up Opposition
Experts warned that a radical site-blocking program without proper checks and balances would end badly in Italy. On Saturday, at least one Cloudflare IP address was added to the Piracy Shield anti-piracy system. According to an expert, that ended up blocking a large number of websites, including a charity, a telecoms company, and several schools. It's the outcome many people predicted but one that could've been easily avoided.
February 26th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 25th, 2024

"Perfect" Piracy Shield & Propaganda: Blocking Blunders Branded "Fake News"
Just three weeks after launch, Italy's Piracy Shield blocking system is set for expansion. The news was revealed by the head of AGCOM and local anti-piracy group FAPAV, who also addressed media reports that overblocking is already affecting innocent parties. Those media reports, published by reputable outlets, were dismissed as "fake news."
February 25th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 23rd, 2024

Google Search Takedown Requests Rush to 8 Billion at Record Pace
Google has just processed the eight billionth DMCA takedown request for its search engine. With a recent increase in notices, the 10 billion milestone is just a year away. A recent uptick in activity is mainly pushed by publishers, including Korean media giant Kakao Entertainment, which is one of the most active senders over the past six months.
February 23rd, 2024 — Source

'IPFS Gateway Operator is not Liable for Pirated Software Keys'
The Interplanetary File System is known as a censorship-resistant technology. However, it's not immune to copyright holder complaints. When software company JetBrains warned an IPFS gateway operator that they are liable for the alleged availability of pirated keys, the Electronic Frontier Foundation stepped up in his defense. Liability questions are never straightforward, though.
February 23rd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 21st, 2024

Appeals Court Vacates $1 Billion Piracy Damages Award Against Cox, Orders New Trial
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals has vacated the $1 billion piracy damages award against Internet provider Cox Communications. While the ISP remains contributorily liable for pirating subscribers, a finding of vicarious copyright infringement was reversed. A new trial will determine the appropriate damages amount given these new conclusions.
February 21st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 19th, 2024

IPTV / Astrology Business Received Signals, Failed to Predict Copyright Lawsuit
The owner of an astrology business, who allegedly sold subscriptions to a 10,000 channel IPTV service, was warned that his illegal business had no future. A complaint filed at a California court claims the defendant believed he had enough time and space to dodge a cease-and-desist. Ultimately, the stars failed to align, rendering an inevitable copyright infringement lawsuit impossible to predict.
February 19th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 16th, 2024

Pirate Site Blocking Boosts Legal Consumption, Research Finds
A new study has found that pirate site blocking in Brazil and India boosted legal consumption. The non-peer-reviewed research confirms previously published findings that were limited to the UK. The effects on unblocked pirate sites are mixed, however, and whether the increased interest in legal content lasts over longer periods has yet to be researched.
February 16th, 2024 — Source

Pirate Site Shut Down For Trademark, Cybersquatting & Copyright Violations
A popular pirate site specializing in content from South Korea has been shut down by a court in the United States. Wavve Americas, a coalition of Korean broadcasters, filed a complaint against Kokoa TV in 2023, alleging trademark infringement, cybersquatting, copyright infringement, and other business-related violations. Kokoa TV had been receiving tens of millions of visits each month.
February 16th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 14th, 2024

Apple's App Store is Riddled With Popular Piracy Brands
Apple is relatively good at banning piracy-related software from its App Store. Now and then, a pirate app may slip through the cracks, as happened this week. These are typically dealt with right away, but not always. Just as intriguing is the fact that the App Store is riddled with apps that use pirate brands, presumably to attract users.
February 14th, 2024 — Source

MPA & ACE Rack Up Over 3,000 Pirate Site Domain Seizures
Over the past few weeks the volume of pirate site domains signed over or redirected to the MPA following ACE enforcement action reached record levels. Since researching and documenting them all has become all but impossible, a broader statement will suffice. Give or take, MPA/ACE appear to have amassed over 3,000 pirate site domains but the potential for that to expand exponentially isn't as outrageous as it might sound.
February 14th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 12th, 2024

Google: Piracy Shield Has Legal Limits, Anti-Piracy Chief: Think Ethics, Do More
Italy's Piracy Shield system has been fully-operational for almost two weeks yet usage remains surprisingly low. Meanwhile, responding to reports that pirate streaming apps are available on the Play Store, Google noted that, under law, it is not subject to Piracy Shield blocking orders. In a response that spoke of the need for "autonomous initiatives" inspired by "ethics and self-regulation," the head of telecoms regulator AGCOM disagreed.
February 12th, 2024 — Source

The U.S. Tops the Manga Piracy Chart, While Iran Leads in Music Piracy
Piracy continued to rise globally in 2023 across all content categories. The largest relative increase was visible in the music and software categories, which saw double-digit growth. In the publishing category, manga comics dominate with the United States the leading source of traffic. Surprisingly, most music pirates come from Iran today.
February 12th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 9th, 2024

Appeals Court Hears RIAA and Yout in 'High Stakes' Stream-ripper Case
Do online services that allow users to download content from YouTube break the law? This question is at the center of a legal battle between Yout.com and the RIAA. Last year, the district court dismissed the case in favor of the music group, before getting properly started. The dispute is now at the Court of Appeals where YouTube's absence in this "big stakes" matter was repeatedly mentioned.
February 9th, 2024 — Source

Reddit beats film industry again, won't have to reveal pirates' IP addresses
Firms wanted seven years' worth of IP address logs on users who discussed piracy.
February 9th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 7th, 2024

Lawsuit Accuses Anna's Archive of Hacking WorldCat, Stealing 2.2 TB Data
American nonprofit OCLC is known globally for its leading database of bibliographic records, WorldCat. A few months ago, many of these records were posted publicly by the shadow library search engine, Anna's Archive. OCLC believes that this is the result of a year-long hack and, with a lawsuit filed at an Ohio federal court, it demands damages.
February 7th, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 2nd, 2024

Lawsuit Targets Genshin Impact Hackers 'Akebi Group' & 'Crepe Team'
Members of two hacking groups allegedly responsible for the development and sale of Genshin Impact cheating software are being sued in Canada's Federal Court. The statement of claim, filed by publisher Cognosphere's HoYoverse entity, focuses on 'Akebi Group' & 'Crepe Team' and currently identifies just one defendant by name. Copyright infringement allegations dominate, including circumvention of technical measures.
February 2nd, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 1st, 2024

Jake Paul PPV Boxing Piracy Amnesty Misled The Public, Lawsuit Claims
In the wake of the Jake Paul versus Ben Askren fight in 2021, Triller filed a $100m lawsuit against entities that allegedly offered the event for free. In a subsequent media release, Triller said that to avoid being sued for $150K each, up to two million PPV pirates should step forward and voluntarily pay $49.99. As part of a long-running lawsuit against the H3 Podcast, Triller now faces allegations that its amnesty program aimed to deceive the public and smear the H3 Podcast.
February 1st, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 31st, 2024

ISP Suggests That Record Labels Can Sue Torrent Client Developers
Internet provider Grande Communications hopes to overturn a jury verdict that awarded $47 million in piracy damages to several record labels. The company argues that merely providing Internet services to pirates should not invoke liability. Others, including BitTorrent client developers and torrent site operators, are more directly related to piracy activity, the ISP notes.
January 31, 2024 — Source

World's Most Notorious Pirate Sites Listed in New USTR Report
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has published its annual overview of the world's most significant and problematic piracy websites. Familiar targets such as The Pirate Bay, Sci-Hub, and Fmovies, appear alongside major newcomers including rising force, Vegamovies. Despite enforcement action, 2embed remains on this year's list, joined by newcomer Aniwatch, the most-visited anime piracy site in the world.
January 31, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 29th, 2024

Viewing Illegal Streams: No Cautions, Fines or Arrests Say GM Police
After two UK regional police forces refused to supply information on the number of people cautioned, fined or arrested for simply watching illegal streams, this weekend it emerged that Greater Manchester Police received the same request and actually responded. For the years 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, the number of people cautioned, fined and/or arrested for simply watching illegal streams was.....zero.
January 29, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 26th, 2024

Dish & Sling Sue 'Pirate' IPTV Operation For Circumventing Widevine DRM
DISH Network and Sling TV have filed a lawsuit against a pirate IPTV operation that allegedly made more than $20 million. The defendants, who allegedly worked with many resellers, stand accused of circumventing Widevine DRM and rebroadcasting channels without permission. The set-top boxes that served as gateways were sold through Amazon stores.
January 26, 2024 — Source

Police Website Offers Pirated Live Sports Streams as IPTV FOIA Requests Denied
Two regional police forces have rejected Freedom of Information Act requests seeking data relating to cautions, penalty notices, and arrests in connection with illegal streaming. Since there is no way to run a report to provide the information requested, each potential case would need to be manually reviewed; too expensive, according to police. Meanwhile, a third regional police force's website appears to have been transformed into an illegal sports streaming platform.
January 26, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 22nd, 2024

ACE Shuts Down Huge Football Piracy Ring, Total Destruction TBC
Right now, dozens of domains linked to live football piracy sites are redirecting to the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. Domains began displaying the ACE seizure banner on Saturday and the list has been growing ever since. Once complete, ACE will quite rightly celebrate a significant win but unless those behind the sites have been taken out too, confirming total destruction may never be possible.
January 22, 2024 — Source

It's Copyright Week 2024: Join Us in the Fight for Better Copyright Law and Policy
We're taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of copyright law and policy, addressing what's at stake and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
January 22, 2024 — Source

The Public Domain Benefits Everyone -- But Sometimes Copyright Holders Won't Let Go
Every January, we celebrate the addition of formerly copyrighted works to the public domain. You've likely heard that this year's crop of public domain newcomers includes Steamboat Willie, the 1928 cartoon that marked Mickey Mouse's debut. When something enters the public domain, you're free to copy, share, and remix it without fear of a copyright lawsuit.
January 22, 2024 — Source

Warner Bros. Wants Tumblr to Identify Beetlejuice 2 'Leaker'
The upcoming "Beetlejuice 2" film, starring Jenna Ortega and Winona Ryder, is scheduled to premiere in September. However, it appears that someone managed to get their hands on early footage, leaking an 'on set' photo on Tumblr. Warner Bros. is unhappy with this teaser and has obtained a DMCA subpoena, requiring Tumblr to identify the user in question.
January 22, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 19th, 2024

ACE Shuts Down Popular Pirate Sites, 27+ 'Instant Pirate Sites' Fall Over
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, in partnership with TrueVisions, Thailand's leading pay-tv provider, announced the shutdown of all domains associated with two popular pirate sites. ACE has labeled one of the targets a Piracy-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform, which enabled anyone to become an instant owner and operator of a pirate site. In this case, 'anyone' only applies to people with $225 to spend.
January 19, 2024 — Source

Vietnam's Pirate Site Blocklist Quietly Adds Torrent Sites
Vietnam has become a focal point in the international battle against online piracy. Rightsholders have repeatedly spurred on the government to take action and while grave concerns remain, Vietnam has recently expanded its site-blocking efforts by targeting popular torrent sites.
January 19, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 18th, 2024

Sky's Industrial-Scale Pirate IPTV Blocking Becomes a War of Attrition
Last summer, Sky TV obtained a somewhat mysterious pirate IPTV blocking injunction at the High Court in London. In the months up to November 2023, that led to UK ISPs blocking at least 400 IPTV domains/subdomains, potentially many more. Available data today suggests a perpetual war of attrition on an unprecedented scale. In the last four weeks alone, Sky blocked almost 4,200 IPTV service URLs; the pirates' response is simple: churn out more.
January 18, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 16th, 2024

BREIN Takes Down Virtual Pirate Streaming Worlds on VRChat
With technology developing at a rapid pace, virtual reality is expected to be a growth market for entertainment, including films. While it's a relatively small market today, pirates are already venturing into these new worlds, with anti-piracy organizations following closely behind.
January 16, 2024 — Source

JW Player Suffers Severe Traffic Loss After Dynamic Piracy Blocking Blunder
A piracy blocking injunction handed down by an Indian court last September appears to have cost video delivery service JW Player over half of its usual website traffic from visitors in India. Plaintiffs Star India, Hotstar and Disney+ Hotstar, initially requested ISP blocking against less than 10 websites. However, since the court issued a dynamic+ injunction, they were free to keep adding domains, JW Player's included. Instructions to unblock JW Player's domain were not issued until January 9, 2024.
January 16, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 15th, 2024

'£1m' Pirate TV Box Seller Avoids Prison Due to Private Prosecution Delays
A man who sold "thousands" of piracy-configured TV boxes to customers in the UK has avoided prison, despite claims he generated up to £1 million. Jordon Longbottom faced a private criminal prosecution brought by the Federation Against Copyright Theft but avoided a custodial sentence after the case failed to be brought in a timely fashion.
January 15, 2024 — Source

FrostWire Returns to Google Play Store After Music Industry Takedown
With millions of users, BitTorrent client FrostWire is no small player. The content-neutral download tool distances itself from piracy but following an Indian music industry complaint, it was unavailable in the Play Store for more than a month. The 'misunderstanding' was eventually resolved so to commemorate the comeback, FrostWire has just released a new update, dubbing it the "Ice Phoenix" release.
January 15, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 13th, 2024

Meta admits using pirated books to train AI, but won't pay for it
The company is preparing a fair use-based defense after using copyrighted material
January 13, 2024 — Source

Yandex Yanked The Pirate Bay From its Search Results?
The Pirate Bay is no longer the leading pirate site on the Internet, but it remains the most censored one. Similar to other search engines, Yandex appears to make it hard to find the notorious torrent site's official domain name in the top results. The motivation is unclear but other more popular pirate sites remain easy to find.
January 13, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 12th, 2024

Domain & IP Seizures in UK's Criminal Justice Bill Could Apply to Pirate Sites
Measures in the UK's Criminal Justice Bill currently range from criminalizing the homeless in the event their "rough sleeping" is deemed a nuisance, to outlawing 3D printer firearms templates. Also likely to be approved are provisions to suspend domain names and IP addresses when used for serious criminal purposes.
January 12, 2024 — Source

Tachiyomi Manga Reader: Threats Motivate Pirates & Boost Engagement
On January 2, contributors to the open source Tachiyomi manga reader project received legal threats from Kakao Entertainment. The orders were clear: destroy the project and ensure the deletion of all forks. The events of the next 10 days show that by selecting the 'wrong' target, freshly motivated pirates boost their engagement and content-neutral apps like Tachiyomi reap the benefits.
January 12, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 11th, 2024

Film Companies and Reddit Clash Again in Court over Anonymous Piracy Comments
Reddit finds itself in court again as film companies continue to seek information on the site's 'anonymous' users. The latest attempt focuses on IP addresses and doesn't request names, emails, or other registration details. The targeted users are not in legal trouble, the filmmaker clarifies, but Reddit believes that their First Amendment right to anonymous speech is at stake.
January 11, 2024 — Source

Meta Admits Use of 'Pirated' Book Dataset to Train AI
With AI initiatives developing at a rapid pace, copyright holders are on high alert. In addition to legislation, several currently ongoing lawsuits will help to define what's allowed and what isn't. Responding to a lawsuit from several authors, Meta now admits that it used portions of the Books3 dataset to train its Llama models. This dataset includes many pirated books.
January 11, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 10th, 2024

Hope For Hollywood? Vietnam Police Raid Movie Piracy Group, Three Arrested
Police in Vietnam say they have arrested three people behind at least three websites that offered pirated movies and anime content for online streaming. It's claimed that the alleged 30-year-old ringleader launched the operation in 2019 and was assisted by people he recruited online. Action of this type is rare in Vietnam and may offer Hollywood a glimmer of hope that a wider crackdown sits somewhere on the horizon.
January 10, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 9th, 2024

Pirate Sites Worldwide Face Emerging, Perpetual Threat of Domain Seizures
Pirate sites are facing an emerging and potentially global threat of domain name seizures that goes way beyond anything seen before. A pirate site blocking order obtained by the studios of the MPA in India encapsulates the incremental steps taken in recent years. The end result is so expansive that almost any site offering the studios' content, even that yet to be made, could face perpetual domain name suspensions. No matter where they are in the world.
January 9, 2024 — Source

Video Piracy Visits Rose to 141 Billion in 2023, Report Shows
In 2023 there were over 141 billion visits to pirate sites worldwide, with the United States and India identified as the top traffic sources. New data published by piracy tracking firm MUSO and consulting firm Kearney further shows that movie and TV show piracy remains dominant. The report is limited to video content, which appears to have increased globally in recent years.
January 9, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 8th, 2024

Could Piracy Help Netflix Win the Streaming Wars?
Online video streaming services face fierce competition from online piracy. The same platforms are engaged in an online battle for subscribers with legitimate competitors. In the U.S. and many other countries, Netflix has a commanding lead in these streaming wars. Intriguingly, piracy may be an unintentional 'secret weapon' for Netflix.
January 8, 2024 — Source

DAZN DMCA Notice Hits Pluto TV Playlist Linking to DAZN's Own Streams
A DMCA takedown notice sent by DAZN to a host in the U.S. shows that even a complainant's own content, being made available legally from official servers, can be implicated as pirated content to justify the takedown of something else. The target in this case is a popular Pluto TV playlist but the legal basis for removal as cited in the takedown notice demands patience and a very open mind.
January 8, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 7th, 2024

Disney's 'Steamboat Willie' YouTube copyright claim is back, this time for audio
The public domain saga continues.
January 7, 2024 — Source

How Seized Firesticks in a Plastic Bag Opened Up a Pirate Rabbit Hole
When piracy-related news is delivered via press release, the information provided is rarely enough to fully understand the bigger picture. Whether for legal or commercial reasons, details can be frustratingly scarce or in some cases, simply a bit one-sided. That means looking for more interesting information elsewhere or even stumbling upon it, completely by chance.
January 7, 2024 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 5th, 2024

Disney backs down from 'Steamboat Willie' YouTube copyright claim
The company tacitly acknowledges that 'Steamboat Willie' is in the public domain.
January 5, 2024 — Source

Database of U.S. Internet Pirates will be Decentralized
Starting in a few months, millions of online 'pirates' will be monitored as part of an agreement between the MPAA, RIAA and all major U.S. Internet providers. Alleged infringers will be notified about their misbehavior, and repeat offenders will eventually be punished. Thus far the details on the operation have been very slim, but TorrentFreak has learned that unlike in France, the U.S. database of Internet pirates will be decentralized.
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UTorrent
is an efficient and feature rich BitTorrent client for Windows sporting a very small footprint.
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