Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 26th, 2025

The Streaming Piracy Crisis Suppressant That Nobody Wants To Discuss
History has shown that if the source of pirated content isn't eliminated, one way or another it will simply reappear somewhere else. Targeting consumer-facing streaming sites does cause disruption, but not as much as targeting the supplier of their streams. Or targeting that supplier's supplier and then hitting the supplier above them. Effective in theory, perhaps, but in the world of 'CDN leeching', pirate streams and legal streams share the same supplier.
October 26, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 25th, 2025

Proposal to Prevent LaLiga Site-Blocking Hurting Innocent Sites Rejected in Spain
A proposal calling for the Spanish government to protect innocent websites from pirate site overblocking has been rejected. The proposal before the Congressional Committee on Economy, Trade, and Digital Transformation, recognized that football league LaLiga needs to protect its rights, but said safeguards are necessary after the wrongful blocking of thousands of third-party websites.
October 25, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 24th, 2025

UEFA Joins Anti-Piracy Coalition ACE to Protect Growing Revenues from Piracy Surge
European football's governing body, UEFA, has joined global anti-piracy coalition ACE. The move will help the Champions League organizer to more effectively tackle live streaming piracy. While sports piracy is a growing problem, UEFA has also seen a spectacular increase in revenues. This has resulted in costly, fragmented subscriptions for fans, which some see as a primary driver for the very piracy UEFA is trying to defeat.
October 24, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 20th, 2025

IPTV Pirates May Soon Be Named and Shamed, Italian Minister Says
Having established itself as a moving and unpredictable target, it's widely accepted that piracy cannot be defeated using a single tool. Italy's toolbox is one of the most comprehensive available, having just added the ability to effectively fine IPTV pirates twice for the same offense. According to Italy's Minister for Sport and Youth, pirates may soon face the prospect of being named and shamed.
October 20, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 15th, 2025

Reddit Banned 709 Subreddits for Repeat Copyright Violations in First Half of 2025
Reddit banned 709 subreddits for repeat copyright infringement in the first half of the year. While this is more than double compared to the same period last year, in the grander scheme of removals it's just a speck on the radar. The same holds true for the 837 redditors whose accounts were terminated over copyright violations.
October 15, 2025 — Source

Y2Mate.com Among a Dozen YouTube Rippers Shut Down By IFP
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is celebrating the shutdown of YouTube-ripping giant Y2Mate.com and 11 similar platforms. IFPI says that during the last 12 months alone, the twelve domains received over 620 million visits from a global audience. The Y2Mate brand has been a thorn in the side of the record labels for years and has been 'permanently' shut down at least once before. Circumstances suggest that the final curtain may prove elusive.
October 15, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 13th, 2025

Anti-Piracy Firm Threatens ICANN with Lawsuit Over .to Domain Piracy
Anti-piracy firm Warezio is threatening Internet governance body ICANN with an unfair competition lawsuit for failing to take action against alleged piracy-enabling domain registries. The Czech outfit specifically highlights the .to registry as problematic, noting that it lacks transparency and accountability. The legal threat challenges ICANN's long-standing position that it lacks authority over ccTLD operators.
October 13, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 10th, 2025

Pinterest Accused of Sending 'False' DMCA Claims to Delist Downloader From Google
With the aim of making popular Pinterest downloader Pintere.com more difficult to find, the social media giant sent DMCA anti-circumvention notices to Google Search. Pintere.com URLs subsequently disappeared from Google's indexes, provoking a response from the site's operator. In correspondence with Google, Pintere.com accuses Pinterest of filing "false" claims and requests that its domain is immediately restored.
October 10, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 8th, 2025

Internet Archive Ordered to Block Books in Belgium After Talks With Publishers Fail
After initially avoiding external blocking measures, the Internet Archive must block access to various books in its Open Library project under the orders of a Belgian government department. While the final decision avoids a full site blockade, it forces the U.S. non-profit to implement country-specific censorship or face a €500,000 penalty, raising questions about the use of anti-piracy frameworks to settle complex copyright disputes.
October 8, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — October 3rd, 2025

MPA Highlights Rapidly Expanding "Hydra Sites" as an Emerging Piracy Problem
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has released its 2025 overview of the world's most notorious piracy markets, presenting a detailed picture of an ever-evolving landscape. In its submission to the U.S. Trade Representative, the Hollywood group coins the term "hydra sites" to describe a new wave of one-stop-shop piracy websites that offer frictionless, browser-based access to pirated content, free of charge.
October 3, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 29th, 2025

Men Who Uploaded Movies to Extract Cash From Pirates Have Been Acquitted
Six men have been acquitted for their part in a highly organized 'copyright-trolling' operation. After two movie companies were offered 20% of the spoils from the scheme, their movies were downloaded from BitTorrent and then seeded to downloaders who were subsequently sued. The acquittals overturn guilty verdicts handed down by a lower court.
September 29, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 22nd, 2025

Piracy Over-Blocking Victims Turn to the Blockchain Hoping to Make LaLiga Pay
When pirate sports streaming sites use Cloudflare, Spain's LaLiga has a choice between blocking pirate sites and countless innocent sites using the same IP addresses, or walking away having blocked nothing at all. Having opted for the former since February, sites blocked as collateral damage have had no viable opportunity to fight back. The Immutable Domain Monitor, a new blockchain-powered platform designed to empower victims of over-blocking, aims to change that.
September 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 19th, 2025

Filmmaker Tries to Unmask Private Torrent Tracker Owners through Cloudflare
Through a DMCA subpoena directed at Cloudflare, an independent filmmaker is trying to uncover the identities of people connected to several prominent private torrent trackers. The legal paperwork was obtained at a California federal court and targets HDbits, PassThePopcorn, BroadcasTheNet, KaraGarga, and others. The information was requested for copyright protection purposes, without clarifying what this would entail.
September 19, 2025 — Source

Previously-Convicted IPTV Pirates Arrested For Running $10m IPTV66 Service
In a major anti-piracy crackdown dubbed "Operation Domo," authorities in the Dominican Republic targeted an IPTV service that allegedly generated $10 million in revenue. The sting, supported by ACE and U.S. authorities, resulted in the arrest of four suspects who were reportedly convicted for similar piracy crimes in the U.S. just a few years ago. Whether the operation was effectively dismantled remains unclear, as a key IPTV66 domain remains online.
September 19, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 5th, 2025

U.S. Gov’t & Tech Giants Unite Against ISP Piracy Liability Ruling at Supreme Court
U.S. Gov’t & Tech Giants Unite Against ISP Piracy Liability Ruling at Supreme Court
September 9, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 5th, 2025

Behind the Curtain: The Three-Year Journey to the Block BEARD Site Blocking Act
The Block BEARD Site-Blocking Act, recently introduced to address foreign piracy in the United States, did not emerge from a vacuum. It is the result of a multi-year effort that began with a non-public proposal in 2022. This initial version became stranded when stakeholders were unable to reach an agreement, but remnants of the early proposal remain visible today.
September 5, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 4th, 2025

Threat Intelligence Researchers "Uncover a Massive Pirate IPTV Operation"
Researchers at threat intelligence platform Silent Push claim to have uncovered a massive pirate IPTV operation. Hosted across more than 1,000 domains and 10,000 IP addresses, the network reportedly exploits content owned by Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Premier League and many others. The identification of an individual and companies in Afghanistan is somewhat unexpected.
September 4, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — September 1st, 2025

Cox Brief Asks Supreme Court to Reverse Draconian Piracy Liability Ruling
Cox Communications has filed its Supreme Court brief in a high-stakes legal battle with the major record labels, seeking to overturn a landmark $1 billion verdict. The company argues it should not be held liable for its customers' piracy activities simply for providing internet access. The lower court's ruling would turn ISPs into an "internet police" force, Cox says, in a landmark case that has broad implications for all U.S. ISPs and their subscribers.
September 1, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 29th, 2025

U.S. Recommends 57-Month Prison Sentence in 'Spider-Man' Piracy and Firearm Case
The U.S. government has recommended a lengthy prison sentence for a former employee of a disc manufacturing company. He previously admitted stealing and distributing numerous DVD and Blu-ray discs, including 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. The recommendation is largely based on an unconnected firearm charge, not copyright infringement. The MPA has requested to speak at the sentencing hearing, noting that the movie studio victims likely lost tens of millions of dollars.
August 29, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 25th, 2025

'Leaked' Prerelease Films Were Shared on Vimeo by Industry Insiders
Screener and pre-release copies of numerous films that leaked online recently were not the result of a sophisticated hack. New evidence reveals that several of these films were already publicly accessible for weeks or months previously, after being shared by industry insiders on the video platform Vimeo.
August 25, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 22nd, 2025

Lithuanian Regulator Clashes With Data Firm Over "Misleading" Piracy Stats
Lithuania's broadcasting regulator (LRTK) challenges the accuracy of data reported by piracy tracking firm MUSO, which is the main input for key EUIPO reports. Citing flaws such as the inclusion of legal sites and an inability to track VPN or IPTV use, LRTK argues that its country is being unfairly portrayed as a piracy leader. In response, MUSO says the LRTK's statements are themselves misleading and the company demands a correction.
August 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 21st, 2025

Alleged Pirate Site Operator Arrested, Family Crowdfunds "David versus Goliath" Defense
With millions of monthly visits, sports streaming service 'Al Ángulo TV' was a massive success. The operator of the service, who wasn't shy about appearing in public, was very active on social media. This brazen stance didn't go unnoticed by rights holders. This week, Argentinian authorities arrested the alleged operator, Alejo Leonel Warles, who now faces a criminal prosecution. His family is reportedly backing a fundraiser to aid a "David versus Goliath" defense.
August 21, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 19th, 2025

'Ad Blocking is Not Piracy' Decision Overturned By Top German Court
German publisher Axel Springer, owner of brands including Bild and Die Welt, has been given another opportunity to have ad blocking outlawed on copyright grounds. After a series of defeats in its years-long legal action against the makers of Adblock Plus, the publisher appealed to the Federal Court of Justice. Germany's top court has now overturned a 2023 ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, referring the case back for reconsideration of the core issues.
August 19, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 17th, 2025

Sky's Piracy=Malware Campaign Aims For 'Holy Grail' of Behavioral Change
Since September 2023, a national campaign run by Sky and entertainment partners has attempted to convince illegal stream consumers to dump them in favor of platforms operating on the right side of the law. To encourage that important step, the BeStreamWise campaign focuses on the dangers of piracy; malware, credit card fraud, the risk of 'letting criminals in'. Through use of a particular model, the campaign hopes to achieve "the Holy Grail of behavioral change."
August 17, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 11th, 2025

Best VPNs for torrenting: 5 top picks for speed, privacy, and security
Stay safe while torrenting with these top VPN picks.
August 11, 2025 — Source

Netflix, Amazon & Hollywood Win $15M Judgment Against U.S. Pirate IPTV Operator
A California man has been ordered to pay $15 million in damages for operating the pirate IPTV service 'Outer Limits'. After the defendant failed to respond to a lawsuit brought by a coalition of Hollywood studios, Netflix, and Amazon, a district court judge in California awarded the maximum statutory damages for willful copyright infringement.
August 11, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 10th, 2025

Fines For Greek Pirate IPTV Users €750-€5,000, Double For Repeat Infringers
The details of a new procedure for imposing and collecting administrative fines for intellectual property offenses has been published in Greece. At the bottom end of the scale, fines for accessing pirated content such as pirate IPTV streams, start at €750 per violation, increasing to €5,000 if use is commercial. For repeat offenses, fines double to €1,500 and €5,000 respectively.
August 10, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 9th, 2025

Publishing Giants Escalate War on 'Shadow Libraries' With Broad Cloudflare Subpoena
Major academic publishers, including Elsevier and Springer Nature, are trying to unmask the operators of several shadow libraries including Anna's Archive, Z-Library and Libgen. They're also targeting SLUM, a third-party uptime monitor for these unofficial libraries. A DMCA subpoena, issued by a D.C. federal court, requires Cloudflare to hand over identifying user data for possible legal action.
August 9, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 8th, 2025

MovieBox is Still Alive and Preparing to Fight Intellectual Property Thieves
Reports that the Nigerian Copyright Commission had recently shut down a pirate site didn't sound especially interesting. Operating under MovieBox branding, currently seen on endless domains, the local site reportedly received over 130 million visits in the previous three months and was actually still in business. Indeed, plans to develop the MovieBox brand began last month, with an application for intellectual property protection underpinning all kinds of business opportunities.
August 8, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 4th, 2025

Canadian Court Rejects Reverse Class Action Lawsuit Against BitTorrent Pirates
After years of legal skirmishes, an ambitious strategy by film studio Voltage Pictures, to sue alleged BitTorrent pirates through a reverse class action in Canada, has been permanently shut down. The Federal Court of Appeal ruled that these cases, where IP addresses are the main initial evidence, are unsuited to this legal approach. Furthermore, the proposed methods for mass notification are deemed unlawful.
August 4, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 2nd, 2025

Pirate IPTV Operator Destroys Evidence Then Agrees to Pay Sky €580,000
A man described by Sky as a "top level" pirate has agreed to pay the broadcaster €480,000 in damages. Sky's investigation of David Dunbar reportedly began on social media last November, but soon benefited from a timely anonymous tip from another country. In May 2025, Sky obtained a court order to secure evidence from Dunbar's home, but that didn't go according to plan. After being denied access to the premises, evidence was destroyed and funds were "dissipated".
August 2, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — August 1st, 2025

Belgium Targets Internet Archive's 'Open Library' in Sweeping Site Blocking Order
The Business Court in Brussels, Belgium, has issued a broad site-blocking order that aims to restrict access to shadow libraries including Anna's Archive, Libgen, OceanofPDF, Z-Library, and the Internet Archive's Open Library. In addition to ISP blocks, the order also directs search engines, DNS resolvers, advertisers, domain name services, CDNs and hosting companies to take action. For now, Open Library doesn't appear to be actively blocked.
August 1, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 29th, 2025

'Fair Use' Prevails as Library of Congress Wins DMCA Anti-Circumvention Battle
Medical device associations behind a lawsuit challenging a Library of Congress exemption to the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, have failed to have the exemption ruled illegal. Motions for summary judgment from both sides went in favor of the defendants after a district court judge found that the exemption, granted for the maintenance and repair of medical devices, permits a non-infringing, transformative fair use.
July 29, 2025 — Source

The Risks of Pirate Site Blocking, Who Benefits, Who Pays, And at What Cost?
With site-blocking legislation currently under discussion in the United States, a new report examines site blocking measures elsewhere in the world. Commissioned by Cloudflare, the report warns that a patchwork of measures risks disruption to the internet's global technical infrastructure. It also questions whether the claimed benefits are worth the risk in the bigger picture.
July 29, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 27th, 2025

ACE & MPA Continued to Scoop Up Pirate Domains in Bulk During Q2 2025
In Q2 2025, anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continued to 'seize' domains in bulk, adding to the world's largest collection of former pirate domains maintained by the MPA. While the archive contains countless unique and memorable domains, many with interesting and informative backstories, new additions illustrate typical responses to site blocking measures and very little else.
July 27, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 25th, 2025

Copyright Lawsuit Accuses Meta of Pirating Adult Films for AI Training
Adult film producers Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media have filed a significant copyright infringement lawsuit against tech giant Meta. A complaint filed at a California federal court alleges that their films were downloaded via BitTorrent for AI training purposes. With at least 2,396 movies at stake, potential damages could exceed 350 million dollars.
July 25, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 22nd, 2025

Pirate Service 'MagisTV' Fails to Secure U.S. Trademark, Faces Malware Backlash
MagisTV, a leading pirate streaming brand in Latin America, finds itself caught between a legal storm and a mounting malware backlash. This week, the service saw its U.S. trademark application abandoned amidst growing scrutiny from authorities and rightsholders worldwide. At the same time, a barrage of local news reports warn consumers that using MagisTV's software could lead to identity theft and expose them to viruses.
July 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 19th, 2025

Former #1 Movie Piracy Site "Strongly Linked" to Global Infostealer Activity
Earlier this year, Microsoft published a report on an infostealer malware campaign identified as stemming from pirate streaming sites. With one million user devices infected, the potential for damage is clearly enormous but the threat isn't new. Data sourced from specialist breach databases reveals that Fmovies, the world's most popular pirate streaming site before its closure in 2024, was "strongly linked" to Infostealer activity targeting users worldwide.
July 19, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 18th, 2025

Pair Behind 400 Block-Evading Pirate Porn Sites Face Prosecution
Law enforcement authorities in Vietnam will prosecute the operators of around 400 pirate sites offering pornographic content. Such material is illegal in Vietnam and the authorities say the men made large profits from visitors viewing lucrative advertising. Also of note are claims that the men circumvented blocking measures at ISPs either owned by, or closely connected to, the government.
July 18, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 17th, 2025

Pirate Site Blockades Get Judicial Scrutiny in Germany, But No Transparency?
Germany's voluntary pirate site blocking regime has undergone a fundamental change, now requiring judicial oversight for all blocking actions. The participants will rely on court orders going forward, instead of their own recommendations. While the change ensures a proper review of blocking requests, it does not necessarily make the blockades more transparent for the public.
July 17, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 14th, 2025

Helix IPTV Owner Sentenced to 3 Years Prison For Piracy & Money Laundering
Arrested in 2019 following an investigation by the UK's Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, the former owner of pirate IPTV service Helix Hosting has just been sentenced to three years in prison by a court in the UK. Stephen Woodward, 36, reportedly generated around £1 million in revenue from three services, with offending that reportedly continued after his initial arrest.
July 14, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 12th, 2025

Google Says SCOTUS Decision in Cox versus Sony Will Impact Publishers' Lawsuit
A lawsuit, filed by several publishers in 2024, accused Google of not doing enough to prevent piracy while simultaneously profiting from it. A recent success for Google led to the dismissal of the publishers' vicarious liability claim, leaving a claim for contributory infringement to be decided. In a letter to the court on Thursday, counsel for Google requested a stay, pending the Supreme Court's decision in Cox versus Sony, and a "potentially dispositive" impact on the case.
July 12, 2025 — Source

Nintendo Switch pirates sunk by the FBI as they seize the site for hosting pirated games — American and Dutch authorities take down NSW2U.com
Nintendo Switch pirates sunk by the FBI as they seize the site for hosting pirated games — American and Dutch authorities take down NSW2U.com
July 12, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 11th, 2025

Australia's Pirate Site Blocking Regime is Methodical -- But is it Fast Enough?
Some rightsholders in the EU are now demanding blocking of pirated live streams, no later than 10 minutes after notification. In Australia, extreme 'live' blocking doesn't yet exist, but even dynamic blocking delays can be measured in days rather than minutes. A blocking order handed down this week took 90 days to navigate through a system designed to respect everyone's rights. Is that too slow? Or simply how long it takes to get things right.
July 11, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 10th, 2025

FBI Seizes Gaming Piracy Domains Including 'Pre-Release' Target NSW2U
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has seized the domain names of several gaming-related pirate sites, including NSW2U.com, which has been Nintendo's nemesis for years. The operation was carried out in collaboration with other law enforcement agencies, including the Dutch fiscal police. It is not immediately clear whether the action is linked to any arrests or indictments.
July 10, 2025 — Source

Sci-Hub's Crypto Coin Aims to Power a New Era of 'Open' Science
Sci-Hub has launched its own SCI token through which it hopes to unlock more paywalled research. The controversial shadow library, which is used by millions of researchers around the globe, sees this as the next step to decentralize science and reward knowledge sharing. Whether this pirate 'tokenomics' works in practice has yet to be seen.
July 10, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — July 7th, 2025

Best VPNs for torrenting: 5 top picks for speed, privacy, and security
Stay safe while torrenting with these top VPN picks.
July 7, 2025 — Source

Sky TV Piracy Pair Arrested & IPTV Servers Seized After UK Police Raids
Following an operation carried out last Thursday but reported just this morning, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit at City of London Police says it shut down a number of servers and arrested two people in a series of raids. A man and a woman in their 30s were arrested near to Birmingham and police say they disrupted several IPTV services after targeting a datacenter in Cheltenham.
July 7, 2025 — Source

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week -- 07/14/2025
Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Thunderbolts' tops the chart, followed by 'Ballerina'. 'Karate Kid: Legends' completes the top three.
July 7, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 30th, 2025

Supreme Court Grants Cox's Bid to Reexamine Liability for Pirating Subscribers
The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will take up a landmark piracy liability lawsuit between Cox Communications and several record labels. The Court granted Cox's petition for a writ of certiorari. It review the contributory infringement standards that determine how ISPs should respond to pirating subscribers, as well as the associated willfulness finding. The record labels' cross-petition was denied.
June 30, 2025 — Source

Tanggula 'Free Forever' IPTV Boxes Keep Costing Sellers Big Money
With an upfront payment starting around $200, buyers can pick up a set-top box and an IPTV subscription that lasts forever, at least as far as the sales pitch is concerned. Thanks to pervasive affiliate marketing, one of the most visible brands right now is Tanggula. Less visible are mounting lawsuits against Tanngula vendors, including a new complaint that strikes beyond local sellers.
June 30, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 29th, 2025

New VPN Service Can't Log Users by Design
VPN providers typically offer security and privacy as a service. They make it difficult for outsiders, including ISPs, to monitor users' activities. Instead, they require subscribers to trust them with their online traffic. VP.net, a new provider, takes a different approach. The company promises 'cryptographically verifiable privacy' by using special hardware 'safes' (Intel SGX), so even the provider can't track what its users are up to. Trust in technology and hardware is still required, of course.
June 29, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 28th, 2025

Amazon Remote Disables Piracy Apps Sideloaded on Fire TV Devices
Over the past 18 months, media reports concerning live sports piracy have systematically demonized the Fire TV Stick, hoping to pressure Amazon into action against pirate apps. Amazon doesn't allow infringing apps on its official store, so users manually sideload apps available elsewhere on the internet. In a rare event earlier this week, at least two pirate apps sideloaded by users onto Fire TV devices, were remotely and irreversibly disabled by Amazon.
June 28, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 25th, 2025

€850K IPTV Piracy Haul Ends in 4+ Years in Prison & 6,000 Users Facing Fines
Last month, Italian authorities issued fines to more than 2,200 subscribers of a pirate IPTV service busted in October 2024. Another service, Italia TV, was dismantled last December and its main operator has just been sent to prison for 52 months. For the service's 6,000 subscribers, news that an additional prosecutor has been working to identify them is a negative. In Italy, similar cases appear to be backing up.
June 25, 2025 — Source

ACE Shuts Down Filma24, Albania's Movie Piracy Juggernaut
For many thousands of Albanians, Filma24 was the top destination for pirated movies and TV shows. This weekend, however, that routine came to an abrupt halt when the site and many of its backup domains went offline. All signs point to an intervention from anti-piracy group ACE and parent organization the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which is the new owner of Filma24's domain names.
June 25, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 23rd, 2025

Pirate IPTV “Shock Block” Operations Boost France ISP Blocking +146%
Telecoms and audiovisual regulator Arcom has revealed that the number of pirate 'services' blocked in France has more than doubled each year since 2022. "Shock Block" operations targeting 250+ IPTV services at once are partly responsible for a 146% rise in domains blocked in 2024. Arcom still hasn't forgotten BitTorrent, far from it; rightsholders filed 2.3 million complaints last year, of which 1,610 cases were referred to the prosecutor.
June 23, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 22nd, 2025

Sky Views Personal Data as a Potential Weapon in IPTV Piracy War
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) says it has been "engaging with Sky for some time" over the use of personal data to crackdown on streaming piracy, including IPTV services accessed via set-top boxes. Ongoing engagement and a meeting between the DPC and Sky in two weeks time, will focus on the lawful sharing or processing of personal data outside the company under the GDPR.
June 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 21st, 2025

Sports Piracy Damages Soar in Italy Despite 'Piracy Shield' Blocking Efforts
Despite blocking thousands of illegal streaming sites and services, Italy's new anti-piracy law and the related 'Piracy Shield' blocking system have a limited effect on piracy rates. Meanwhile, new data shows that the damages suffered by sports rightsholders continue to soar. On the positive side, public awareness of the new anti-piracy law is widespread.
June 21, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 18th, 2025

Google Receives Piracy Shield Orders to Block Pirate Sites in Public DNS
Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM has regularly criticized Google over its anti-piracy efforts, but the signs suggest that change is on the way. AGCOM says a system activated last month, relayed blocking orders received by the Piracy Shield anti-piracy system, directly to Google, which "promptly" blocked pirate site domains on its public DNS resolver. AGCOM says the system should be fully operational "as soon as possible" but warns that Google will still have to do more.
June 18, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 16th, 2025

The 'Superlative' Injunction: India's Pirate Site Blockades Go Next Level
The High Court in New Delhi, India, has granted a new type of pirate site blocking order, dubbed the "superlative" injunction. The blocking order was obtained by Star India, a subsidiary of American entertainment giant Disney. It aims to disrupt IPTV Smarters Pro and related pirate sites and apps in 'real-time', with a temporary carte blanche to add new targets.
June 16, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 13th, 2025

France Escalates War on Sports Piracy with Real-Time IP Blocking
The French Senate has passed a new anti-piracy bill that opens the door to automated IP-address blocking. This legislative push is bolstered by a parallel, "secret" agreement between sports rightsholders and major ISPs, which aims to automate anti-piracy efforts and streamline direct blocking requests. Rightsholders hope these new powers will help to tackle the "mafia-like" piracy economy.
June 13, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 9th, 2025

Grande Slams Labels' "Egregious" Piracy Claims in Final Supreme Court Plea
Can internet service providers be held liable for pirating subscribers? This question is at the center of several federal lawsuits in the U.S. and could soon be taken on by the Supreme Court. This week, ISP Grande Communications urged the Court to accept its petition, characterizing an opposing call from music companies as an attempt to "blatantly rewrite the record."
June 9, 2025 — Source

ICANN's DNS Blocking Report Presents Three Key Recommendations
ICANN, the organization responsible for ensuring the stability of the internet's Domain Name System (DNS), has published advice for all entities involved in DNS blocking. Three key recommendations arrive as part of a comprehensive report from ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) on the technical means of DNS blocking and its effects - both intended and unintended.
June 9, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 6th, 2025

Napster.com Faced ISP Piracy Blockade For "Massive Copyright Violations"
Twenty-six years ago this week, Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker launched Napster, a music sharing platform that disrupted a global industry. After being sued and declaring bankruptcy, today's Napster is a legal streaming brand. Yet, in a recent complaint, a royalty collection outfit accused Napster of "massive" copyright violations. The aim was to have the site's domain blocked by every ISP in Italy, effectively denying its ability to do business there.
June 6, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — June 3rd, 2025

MPA Backs Automated Pirate Site-Blocking, Sees Role for VPN and CDN Companies
The Motion Picture Association sees automated, real-time, and dynamic site blocking mechanisms as a key tool to fight online piracy. In response to an inquiry from the European Commission, reviewing its recommendation to combat live-streaming piracy, the MPA further notes that VPN companies and CDN providers should be actively involved.
June 3, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 30th, 2025

Brazil Advances Criminal Prosecution of American Yout.com Operator
Popular stream-ripping site Yout.com has failed to have a criminal copyright complaint dismissed in Brazil. The prosecution will be allowed to continue its copyright claim against the American operator of the site, who faces a potential prison sentence. The court notes that the defense has strong arguments, but the burden of
May 30, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 28th, 2025

LaLiga's "Precise" Blocking Cut Piracy By 40-60%, "Without Collateral Impact"
After months of unprecedented site-blocking controversy, LaLiga informs TorrentFreak that piracy decreased by 40% at weekends and as much as 60% for a hotly-anticipated matchup. Yet interestingly, LaLiga's view of the nationwide overblocking crisis sits in stark contrast to reports published elsewhere. Primarily, there's no hard evidence that a crisis even exists; total formal complaints received by LaLiga in its dedicated inbox: zero.
May 28, 2025 — Source

U.S. Govt. Backs Cox in Landmark Supreme Court Battle Over ISP Piracy Liability
The U.S. Solicitor General has urged the Supreme Court to accept Cox Communications' petition in a landmark piracy liability lawsuit. The USSG argues that ISPs are not necessarily liable for pirating subscribers and warns that the current precedent may lead to disconnections for many innocent subscribers. At the same time, the USSG urged the court to deny a petition from the opposing music companies, which seeks to expand the current liability verdict.
May 28, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 27th, 2025

Musi Alleges Apple's App Store Removal Was Orchestrated, Seeks Sanctions
The legal dispute between Apple and music streaming app Musi has taken another unexpected turn. Following Apple's motion for sanctions, which dismissed Musi's allegations that a backroom deal was responsible for the app's removal, Musi has countered with a detailed overview of communications between Apple, YouTube, and music industry officials, while also calling for sanctions.
May 27, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 23rd, 2025

EU Piracy Watchlist Adds IPFS, FitGirl and Njalla
The European Commission has published the fourth edition of its 'Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List', providing a detailed overview of piracy-linked sites and services located outside the EU. Aside from many familiar names such as The Pirate Bay, the report also flags the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) as a piracy threat. Game repacker FitGirl and domain registration service Njalla also make the list, with the latter surprisingly branded as an 'off-the-shelf piracy facilitation service'
May 23, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 22nd, 2025

YouTube Processed 2.2 Billion Content ID Copyright Claims in 2024
YouTube's Content ID system processed a record-breaking 2.2 billion copyright claims in 2024, with automated detection accounting for more than 99% of the total. According to YouTube, rightsholders chose to monetize the content in the overwhelming majority of claims. Revenue paid out to content creators and owners through the Content ID system now exceeds $12 billion since inception.
May 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 13th, 2025

"Never Terminate" Policy: Music Labels Slam Grande's Supreme Court Piracy Appeal
Major music companies have fired back at Grande Communications' Supreme Court plea, arguing that the ISP's questions about copyright liability are "utterly divorced from reality". They note that the ISP's liability is not the result of shortcomings in copyright law, but from Grande's own "egregious" policy of never terminating even the most rampant infringers.
May 13, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 9th, 2025

Pirate IPTV Owner and 7 Associates "Stole TV Signals" From Bell & Rogers
A year after avoiding arrest in Canada, alleged pirate IPTV owner eric Grenier traveled back from Venezuela on Tuesday before appearing at the Trois-Rivières courthouse the next day. He faces ten charges in connection with the alleged theft of TV signals from Bell, Rogers and Quebecor, and the sale of illegal set-top boxes via Arubox TV and Stocker IPTV. A total of seven co-defendants face charges in the same case.
May 9, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 6th, 2025

Musi Faked UMG Email to Stay on App Store, Apple Claims in Sanctions Motion
The legal dispute between Apple and the iOS Musi app has escalated, with Apple seeking sanctions over allegedly false claims made by the developer after its App Store removal. Apple contests Musi's assertion of a "backchannel" scheme, citing evidence gathered during discovery. Underscoring its claims of dishonesty, Apple details how Musi allegedly regained App Store access in 2020 by fraudulently impersonating a UMG executive.
May 6, 2025 — Source

Spotify now shows how many times people listened to podcast episodes
YouTube continues to dominate the podcasting space, but Spotify is actively working to close the gap. The latest development: a new feature that lets users see how many times an audio-only or video podcast episode has been actively listened to or watched.
May 6, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 5th, 2025

Swedish IPTV Crackdown Tested as Users Seek Workarounds
Users of pirate IPTV services in Sweden are actively trying to circumvent new ISP blockades ordered by Stockholm's Patent and Market Court. The court sided with rightsholders Viaplay, TV4, and Discovery, requiring Telenor and other ISPs to block subscriber access to pirate IPTV providers. This triggered a cat and mouse game that will likely intensify the call for broader blocking measures.
May 5, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — May 2nd, 2025

DAZN's New Pirate IPTV Blocking Order and its 'Confidential' Secret Sauce
Early April, Belgian media reported new pirate IPTV blocking under a new court obtained by DAZN and 12th Player. Described as "the first of its kind," DNS providers reportedly faced fines of €100,000 per day for non-compliance. Soon after, OpenDNS left Belgium, a replay of its earlier departures from both France and Portugal. Hailed as a "real step forward" against piracy but no mention of a third loss to DNS, the order also contains an apparent secret sauce.
May 2, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 28th, 2025

DRM-Free OnlyFans Downloads See Widevine Project Nuked From GitHub
Used by major video platforms including Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Hulu to name just a few, Google content protection system Widevine can be found in leading browsers, games consoles, and most mobile devices. Circumvention has been ongoing for years, but after OnlyFans sent a complaint to GitHub, a Widevine decryption project has been ejected from GitHub.
April 28, 2025 — Source

That one famous anti-piracy PSA campaign may have used a pirated font
The creator of the official font says he finds the whole situation hilarious.
April 28, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 25th, 2025

'Piracy' to legitimacy: How companies like French ride-hailing platform Heetch can make their mark
The 2024 arrest and subsequent release of activist Paul Watson, the founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd that fights to protect ocean biodiversity, highlighted a division between two opposing camps. There are those who want to stay true to the NGO's DNA by continuing to practice strong activism against poaching states, and those who believe there is too much at stake in remaining confrontational and advocate instead for more measured actions to institutionalize the NGO.
April 25, 2025 — Source

"You wouldn't steal a car" anti-piracy ads may have used a stolen font
The anti-piracy campaign that failed its own background check
April 25, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 22nd, 2025

MPA and RIAA Want to be Heard in Crucial DMCA Subpoena Appeal
The MPA and RIAA want to have their say in a crucial third-party Ninth Circuit appeal about the use of DMCA subpoenas against alleged online pirates. Fearing a ruling that could limit their enforcement options, the groups requested speaking time at an upcoming hearing. This intervention, as well as previous commentary from the EFF, which is backed by a new party, underscores the high-stakes nature of the case.
April 22, 2025 — Source

Vercel Slams LaLiga Piracy Blocks as "Unaccountable Internet Censorship"
Cloud-based web application platform Vercel is among the latest companies to find their servers blocked in Spain due to LaLiga's ongoing IPTV anti-piracy campaign. In a statement, Vercel's CEO and the company's principal engineer slam "indiscriminate" blocking as an "unaccountable form of internet censorship" that has prevented legitimate customers from conducting their daily business.
April 22, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 17th, 2025

Alleged Anna's Archive Operator Dropped from U.S. 'Scraping' Lawsuit
American nonprofit OCLC sued Anna's Archive last year for alleged hacking and unauthorized publishing of its WorldCat database. The sole named defendant in the case, an archivist from the Seattle area, denied any involvement with the site. After the court referred several scraping-related questions to the state Supreme Court, OCLC has now agreed to drop the alleged operator from the lawsuit.
April 17, 2025 — Source

MPA & ACE Subpoenas Target Dozens of Potential 'Burner' Pirate Streaming Sites
A new batch of DMCA subpoenas obtained by ACE and the MPA target dozens of pirate streaming sites, some with a few thousand visits per month, others with up to 90 million. The presence of a few established names shows that tradition isn't dead just yet, but there are clear signs that pirate sites are becoming disposable. Here today yet easily burned to the ground tomorrow, few are built to last like they used to. Yet there's no waste; a recycled site performs like new.
April 17, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 11th, 2025

Porn Producer Targets Members of Gay Torrent Site in Court
Adult entertainment company Flava Works is demanding millions in damages in a new lawsuit targeting members of a private gay torrent site. The complaint names the alleged Canadian leaker, who is accused of distributing content downloaded from Flava's paid sites, and 47 'John Doe' defendants who are identified only by their GayTorrent.Ru usernames.
April 11, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 7th, 2025

DAZN Pirate IPTV Action Coincided With Massive Public DNS Blockade
A report in Belgian media on Saturday evening claimed that in conjunction with local ISPs, broadcasters DAZN and 12th Player had just launched a major campaign against more than 100 illegal streaming services and IPTV providers. Documents seen by TorrentFreak show that a court order required public DNS resolver operators Cloudflare, Google, and Cisco, to render over 130 domains inaccessible or face fines of €100,000 per day for non-compliance.
April 7, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 4th, 2025

LaLiga/Cloudflare Crisis: ISPs Urged to Action Amid Mass Overblocking
With assistance from Spain's leading ISPs, LaLiga continues to block pirate sites, Cloudflare, and thousands of innocents caught in the crossfire. Legal action by Cloudflare and hacking collective RootedCON tried to bring the chaos to an end but their requests were dismissed last month. Meanwhile, a non-profit group is demanding that all ISPs participate in nationwide blocking.
April 4, 2025 — Source

Unfinished Copy of 'A Minecraft Movie' Leaks on Pirate Sites
Ahead of its long-delayed American premiere, an unfinished 'workprint' copy of "A Minecraft Movie" is circulating on pirate sites. Warner Bros. is trying to contain this and other leaks, but that may prove difficult. The incident mirrors the infamous 2009 X-Men Origins: Wolverine workprint leak and the involvement of the FBI, which led to the arrest and conviction of an uploader. The source of that leak was never publicly disclosed.
April 4, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — April 2nd, 2025

Advertising Banned on All Sites Blocked in Russia Starting September
A bill that aims to further undermine operators of restricted platforms including Meta, Instagram, and X will have a much wider effect when it's expected to come into force in September. The amendments ban the placement of advertising on any blocked site in Russia, regardless of reason. Submitted in 2024, the bill will affect thousands of pirate sites and Russia's rapidly growing influencer market.
April 2, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 31st, 2025

Aylo Uses Cybersquatting Complaint to Take Out Pirate Site Domains
In a rare legal move, Aylo subsidiary Licensing IP used a cybersquatting lawsuit to take out pirate websites infringing on its trademarks. The 'in rem' approach allowed the court to order the direct transfer of domains including mydirtyhobby.to without requiring personal jurisdiction over the site operators. The ruling, issued last week, requires the .to registry to transfer the trademark-infringing domains.
March 31, 2025 — Source

UK Pirate Movie Cammers Thwarted 104 Times in 2024, Seven Arrested
Protecting movies during their relatively short theatrical window remains a priority for the industry. According to data released by the Film Content Protection Agency, UK cinema staff spotted and disrupted illegal recording activity 105 times in 2024, with seven individuals arrested by police. One recording did appear online, although that contained zero video.
March 31, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 28th, 2025

Judge Confirms LaLiga's Right to Block Cloudflare in Pursuit of IPTV Pirates
Last December, a Spanish judge authorized LaLiga to block Cloudflare's shared IP addresses to combat piracy. Thousands of innocent internet users were affected, prompting Cloudflare and cybersecurity group RootedCon to ask the court to overturn the order. A judge has now denied both requests, stating that no evidence was presented to show that blocking caused any damage.
March 28, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 24th, 2025

France Mulls Instant IPTV Blocks, €750K Fines & New Piracy Crime of 'Incitement'
Two senators have presented a bill to address what is now openly described as a crisis in French football. The draft envisions sweeping reform to tackle "structural" issues, including broadcasting rights and the ever-present threat from illegal streaming services. On the table, seven years in prison and a €750,000 fine for pirate IPTV suppliers operating as a group, three years and €300,000 for those not, and a new crime of inciting use of pirate IPTV services or software.
March 24, 2025 — Source

Torrent Site Uploader and Member of 'The Scene' Sentenced to Prison in Denmark
Danish authorities have claimed two new victories in the ongoing battle against online piracy. A 46-year-old man, who allegedly uploaded content to the Danish torrent trackers "SuperBits" and "DanishBytes", was sentenced to nine months in prison. The other defendant, a 48-year-old man, was linked to 'The Scene'. He received a twelve-month sentence for hosting two servers and sharing pirated content in one of the most elusive piracy groups.
March 24, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 21st, 2025

Court Orders Google to Poison Public DNS to Prevent IPTV Piracy
Last December the Court of Milan ordered Cloudflare to block sites added to Italy's Piracy Shield system. Cloudflare sees itself as a neutral intermediary but increasingly frustrated rightsholders say it should play a more active role by assisting their fight against piracy. A decision issued by the same court now requires Google to poison its Public DNS to prevent access to pirate sites. It was handed down on March 11 without Google being heard in the matter.
March 21, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 17th, 2025

"Secret Pirate Site Raids" Set for 20:15 & 21:15 Sunday, Invited Journalists Report
The big football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille should've been extremely difficult to pirate in France on Sunday. With rare direct assistance from French telecoms regulator Arcom, DAZN promised to "pull out all the stops" to block pirate sites. Journalists invited in to witness planning for the "secret commando raids" openly reported the exact times they were scheduled for.
March 17, 2025 — Source

Piracy Liability Lawsuit Against WOW! Survives Dismissal Attempt
Movie companies are battling internet provider WOW over piracy allegations, claiming the ISP turned a blind eye to its subscribers' widespread copyright infringement. WOW tried to dismiss the case, arguing it shouldn't be held liable for subscribers' actions, but a Colorado court has now ruled that the case can proceed. Interestingly, comments posted to Reddit played a key role in the court's decision.
March 17, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 14th, 2025

TorrentGalaxy Staff Fear the Worst as Site Stays Dark and Upload Bots Fail
Popular torrent site TorrentGalaxy has been offline for two weeks, with no explanation from its operators. Members of the site's staff are also being kept in the dark, and many fear the site may never return. To the delight of copyright holders, the site's troubles are now being felt across the torrent ecosystem after the site's upload bots also stopped working.
March 14, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 13th, 2025

Disqus is Deleting Pirate Site Communities on Short Notice
After 15 years or so of relatively plain sailing, comment platform Disqus is cracking down on sites that violate its terms of service. Pirate manga and anime sites have received notifications that Disqus will no longer provide services after copyright infringement came to its attention. With evictions now spreading to sites including FitGirl Repacks and KickassAnime, it's a race against the clock to export years of chat in the 24/48 hours notice given.
March 13, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 12th, 2025

Early Pirate Bay Backer Carl Lundström Dies in Plane Crash
Swedish businessman Carl Lundström, founder of the telecoms company Rix Telecom and one of the Wasabröd heirs, died in a plane crash on Monday. Lundström played a pivotal role in the Pirate Bay's rise to fame by supporting the site early on. For his involvement in the site, he was eventually sentenced to four months in prison.
March 12, 2025 — Source

Intermediaries Are (Still) Slow to Disconnect Pirate Live Streams, Report Finds
A new industry-backed report reveals that only a small fraction of takedown notices targeting pirated live streams result in suspensions, with dedicated server providers showing the lowest responsiveness. Rightsholders see the data as evidence that a previously issued recommendation by the EU failed to have an effect. Consequently, more needs to be done to tackle live streaming piracy.
March 12, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 11th, 2025

Authors Put a Spotlight on Meta's BitTorrent Leeching Activity
Meta's legal battle over its alleged use of pirated books as AI training data continues to deliver new twists. Fresh allegations that Meta may have shared data with third parties while "leeching" from torrents have added a critical layer to the legal dispute. The book authors obtained permission to put a spotlight on Meta's "leeching" activity and, in addition, requested summary judgment on copyright infringement.
March 11, 2025 — Source

Police Shut Down Pirate Streaming Network That Cost Broadcaster 'Millions'
Following a complaint filed two years ago by a national pay-TV broadcaster, police in Germany say they now have three main suspects in custody following a huge law enforcement operation. Over 150 officers carried out searches against 18 suspects in 17 locations, with the aim of shutting down an as-yet unnamed illegal streaming operation with an estimated 30,000 subscribers. The three men, aged between 36 and 59, face charges including suspected commercial computer fraud, which carries a potential sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
March 11, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 10th, 2025

Oscar Winner 'Anora' Sees Massive Surge in Pirate Downloads
Anora was the big winner at the Oscars a week ago, securing awards for best picture, actress, and director, among others. This major achievement puts the movie in the spotlight and increases interest through both legal and illegal channels. Fresh data collected by TorrentFreak shows that pirate downloads surged right after the awards ceremony ended.
March 10, 2025 — Source

Pirate Streaming Site Malware Campaign Infected One Million Devices
In December 2024, Microsoft Threat Intelligence identified a malware campaign stemming from pirate streaming sites. Using iframe malvertising redirector URLs to generate revenue, and redirects up to five layers deep, malware payloads hosted on GitHub, Discord and Dropbox, acted as a dropper for additional payloads hosted elsewhere. Microsoft says the goal was to steal information and it believes almost a million devices were infected.
March 10, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 9th, 2025

Employee Charged in 'Spider-Man' Pre-Release Blu-ray Theft Linked to Mass Piracy
A former employee of a disc manufacturing company in Memphis has been indicted on charges of stealing and selling pre-release DVDs and Blu-rays of popular films, including "Spider-Man: No Way Home." The indictment links the sales to widespread availability of the movie on pirate sites. The defendant faces charges of criminal copyright infringement and interstate transportation of stolen goods, with potential penalties of up to 20 years imprisonment.
March 9, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — March 8th, 2025

Ad-Funded Piracy's 'Biggest Open Secret' Revealed By Researcher
New research on ad-funded piracy centers on manga site Tu Manga Online (TMO). After switching to a new domain 'zonatmo.com' around September last year, it took just 90 days to transform a new start into half a billion visits per month. According to the research, the site's revenue generating scheme is an open secret. Yet, for unknown reasons, nobody tries to stop it.
March 8, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 28th, 2025

The best VPN services for torrenting: Expert tested
For legitimate purposes, these VPNs are the best options available for supporting safe, secure, and speedy downloads.
February 28, 2025 — Source

U.S. Government Seizes Dozens of Pirate Sports Streaming .Dev Domains
A sustained campaign by U.S. authorities has led to the seizure of a growing number of pirate sports streaming domains. The IPR Center is now listed as the owner of dozens of .DEV domains, which were signed over as part of the seizure operation. Previously, close to a hundred .APP domains linked to piracy suffered the same fate.
February 28, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 18th, 2025

Hacker group releases updated tool to activate almost all modern Microsoft software
The MAS project is donation-free because "profiting from piracy is not good," the pirates say
February 18, 2025 — Source

LaLiga Blocks Cloudflare Again, New Pirate IPTV Providers & Anything in The Way
After admitting it deliberately blocked Cloudflare to prevent a pirate IPTV service reaching users in Spain, LaLiga warned it would continue for as long as necessary to prevent live sports piracy. With thousands of innocent website owners and internet users suffering as collateral damage, a new LaLiga announcement reveals that two additional pirate IPTV providers with 400,000 local users have also been blocked, again by blocking Cloudflare. Charts and graphs produced by internet users leave little to the imagination.
February 18, 2025 — Source

Mexico threatens lawsuit against Google over "Gulf of America" name on Google Maps
Mexico's president suggested North America be renamed America Mexicana
February 18, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 17th, 2025

Incredible Fmovies Piracy Indictment is Not a "Stunning Victory" For Hollywood
The Hanoi People's Procuracy in Vietnam has issued an indictment against two men said to be the operators of the massive Fmovies piracy empire shut down last year. The indictment offers detail on when the men first met, when their plans for Fmovies began to take shape, and how the site generated revenue. Last year the MPA described the shutdown as a "stunning victory." New revelations are indeed stunning, but extremely puzzling too.
February 17, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 7th, 2025

Meta may have torrented over 80 terabytes of pirated books to train its AI models
Just how AI models should be trained has been a subject of debate for some time now, with there being a lot of focus in whether publicly posted social media content is ripe for the picking or not. Now a new lawsuit suggests that Meta has been using pirated ebooks as a data source.
February 7, 2025 — Source

Rightsholders Target VPN Providers in French Court to Block Piracy
In their ongoing battle against online sports piracy, French rightsholders are now seeking to extend site-blocking measures to VPN providers. Canal+ and the football league LFP have requested court orders to compel NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others to block access to pirate sites and services. The move follows similar orders obtained last year against DNS resolvers.
February 7, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 5th, 2025

KickAssAnime Flagged for 'Suspected Phishing' by Cloudflare
The domain names of popular anime streaming site KickAssAnime (KAA) have been flagged by Cloudflare for "suspected phishing," prompting a warning banner for visitors. The site suspects that the action was triggered by a potential mass reporting campaign, but the cause remains unconfirmed. Meanwhile, users are redirected to a new domain.
February 5th, 2025 — Source

Piracy Victories for Hollywood & Premier League Spark Progress Concerns
In 2024 the Motion Picture Association and the Premier League celebrated notable anti-piracy wins in Vietnam. The collapse of the Fmovies empire and the conviction of a person linked to a major IPTV provider, marked rare progress in a difficult region. Yet, increasing doubts over what happens next in Vietnam has sparked concerns that not even the biggest wins offer guaranteed progression.
February 5th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — February 3rd, 2025

MPA Shares Pirate Site Blocking 'Best Practices' at WIPO Meeting
MPA Senior Executive Vice President Karyn Temple will share the movie industry group's site blocking 'best practices' at a WIPO meeting. The insights arrive just few days after a new site blocking bill was introduced in the United States. Not surprisingly, the MPA's 'best practices' for site blocking largely align with proposed legislative amendments.
February 3rd, 2025 — Source

Publishers Ramp Up Pressure versus Anna's Archive, Sci-Hub, Z-Library & Libgen
The world's major publishers claim that unlicensed libraries cast a permanent shadow over authors' ability to make a living from their work. In common with the movie and movie industry counterparts, site-blocking is one of the weapons of choice, albeit against well-prepared opponents.
February 3rd, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 24th, 2025

Tech giants urge EU to review Italy's anti-piracy measures amid overblocking concerns
In one incident, Google Drive was mistakenly blocked for three hours
January 24th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 22nd, 2025

Tech Industry Urges EU to Halt Italy's Overreaching Anti-Piracy Measures
The CCIA, which represents global tech firms including Amazon, Cloudflare and Google, is sounding the alarm over Italy's "Piracy Shield" blocking scheme. The group's European branch urges the EU Commission to step in to prevent overblocking and to promote transparency. Additional measures requiring Internet services to actively report illegal activity on their networks are seen as problematic too.
January 22nd, 2025 — Source

Telegram 'Suspends RuTracker's Channel' For Copyright Infringement
Following the surprise arrest of founder Pavel Durov in France last year, Telegram's suddenly improved attitude towards content complaints was unexpected, and appears to be holding. After channels operated by Z-Library and Anna's Archive were shut down recently, Russian media outlets are reporting the suspension of a channel operated by RuTracker, one of the most resilient torrent trackers in history.
January 22nd, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 20th, 2025

Authors Seek Meta's Torrent Client Logs and Seeding Data in AI Piracy Probe
Meta is among a long list of companies being sued for allegedly using pirated material to train its AI models. Meta has never denied using copyrighted works but stressed that it would rely on a fair use defense. However, with rightsholders in one case asking for torrent client data and 'seeding lists' for millions of books allegedly shared in public, the case now takes a geeky turn.
January 20th, 2025 — Source

Man Jailed For Pirate IPTV Used By "Hundreds of Thousands" Had 2,000 Users
A man who ran an IPTV piracy operation from his home in Birmingham, UK, has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for fraud offenses. The case is a rare example of a seller sourcing their own content but may have been slightly overhyped. Following raids in 2021, "hundreds of thousands" were said to use the service, a figure quietly rounded down to just 2,000.
January 20th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Podcast — January 20th, 2025

9to5Mac Daily: January 20, 2025 -- TikTok ban latest, iOS 19 rumors
Gurman: Redesigned Apple Mail app coming to Mac and iPad in April. Apple responds to TikTok ban in the United States. TikTok has officially shut down in the United States. TikTok is back, here's everything you need to know. The 850 billion reasons Apple and others aren't taking a chance on TikTok. iOS 19 rumored to bring completely redesigned Camera app.
January 20th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 17th, 2025

Court Orders Pirate Site MissAV to Pay $4.5m in Damages, Domains Seized
This week, several domain names of the Japanese adult pirate website MissAV were redirected to seizure banners. The legal basis for these confiscations wasn't initially clear, but new information ties the action to a U.S. court order. In addition to losing their domain names, the MissAV defendants must pay $4.5 million in damages.
January 17th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 13th, 2025

ISP Huffs and Puffs Then Apologizes to 3 Little Piggies Over Pirate Downloads
Making use of free Wi-Fi offered by pubs, bars, cafes, and other businesses, is now an everyday event for millions of people. For the owner of the 3 Little Piggies cafe in Cork, Ireland, providing free Wi-Fi led to an allegation of music piracy from his ISP and advance notice of potential disconnection. What followed was an extremely rare apology, for reasons deserving of a much closer look.
January 13th, 2025 — Source

Meta accused of training its AI using pirated content from torrents
A new day, a new controversy around artificial intelligence. This time, Meta has been accused of using pirated content from torrents to train its large language model (LLM) Llama, which powers Meta AI. The case was one of the first copyright lawsuits filed against a tech company for training AI.
January 13th, 2025 — Source

MissAV: One of the World's Largest 'Pirate' Sites Targeted in Takedown Effort
With billions of annual visits, MissAV ranks among the 60 most-visited websites on the internet. The porn site mostly caters to an Asian audience where rightsholders see the 'pirate' site as a major threat to their business. Through a legal procedure, adult entertainment company FANZA 'confiscated' the MissAV.com domain, as well as ThisAV.com. However, MissAV swiftly bounced back on a new domain.
January 13th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 10th, 2025

'Strike 3' Filed a Record Number of Piracy Lawsuits in 2025
Adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings is once again the most prolific copyright litigant in the United States. The company tracks down individual pirates and holds them responsible via copyright infringement lawsuits. The company is linked to over 3,900 lawsuits filed in 2024 alone, breaking its own record once again.
January 10th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 9th, 2025

DoodStream Can't Comply With Court Orders, Major Investor is a Russian Dude
According to the MPA, in 2023 video hosting platform DoodStream received 2.69 billion visits, largely driven by pirated content. So when the High Court of Delhi gave the site's operators 24 hours to end infringement in March 2024, that looked promising. Yet the site remains online, despite subsequent High Court orders. According to site's Indian operators, it is not possible to comply with High Court orders because a major DoodStream investor comes from Russia.
January 9th, 2025 — Source

EFF Sides with Cox to Protect Piracy-Accused Internet Users from ‘Copyright Trolls’
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has got involved in a lawsuit between several movie companies and ISP Cox, who disagree over the use of DMCA subpoenas to identify alleged pirates. The EFF argues this could be abused by "copyright trolls" to target innocent users. They urge the court to require a full lawsuit with judicial oversight.
January 9th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 8th, 2025

Google Deindexes 200 Streaming Sites For Violating EU Sanctions on Russia
In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU banned a number of Russian news outlets from broadcasting to any member state, including via websites and IPTV. Following a recent move by Lithuania, Google has reportedly deindexed over 200 websites offering EU-sanctioned content. The list includes the websites of specific broadcasters but also many portals offering pirated movies, TV shows, and unlicensed live TV streams, including some from Ukraine.
January 8th, 2025 — Source

U.S. Trade Representative Lists the Most Notorious Piracy Threats
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has published its annual list of problematic piracy websites and other "notorious markets." This year's overview includes the usual suspects operating in the torrent and streaming sectors, as well as some intermediaries, including various hosting companies. The USTR hopes that by highlighting the threats, platform operators or foreign authorities will take action.
January 8th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 7th, 2025

IPTV Piracy Expert Urges Restraint in Rush Towards Automated Blocking
In the live sports broadcasting arena, dynamic blocking of pirate IPTV streams is seen as increasingly useful to tackle a prevalent and highly resilient form of illicit content delivery. Yet as the highly-publicized blunders of 2024 showed, getting blocking wrong benefits nobody. To that background, a blocking specialist at anti-piracy company Friend MTS is encouraging restraint.
January 7th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 6th, 2025

Anti-Piracy Group Wants to Expand Italy’s ‘Piracy Shield’ to Protect Movies
Italy's 'Piracy Shield' blocking system was originally invented to protect time-sensitive live sports streams from pirates. A year later, rightsholders are pushing for an update to cover a wider range of content, including films. This move, which is expected to be discussed in a forthcoming consultation, aims to gradually expand the 'next-gen' blocking system.
January 6th, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 3rd, 2025

Manga Publisher Shueisha Wants X to Expose 'One Piece' Pirates
In a continued effort to combat online piracy, Japanese publishing giant Shueisha has requested a DMCA subpoena to compel X to expose two 'pirate accounts'. This is the latest move to identify the operators of major manga pirate portals through U.S. federal courts. If the operators of Spoilerplus and Mangaraw are identified, they could potentially be sued in Japan.
January 3rd, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 2nd, 2025

TV Group Couldn't Force U.S. ISPs to Block Pirates, UK ISPs May Offer Help
In 2022, a group of Israel-based TV companies obtained a court order in the U.S. It compelled every ISP in the country to block three resilient pirate sites that blocking in Israel had failed to stop. Intervention by Cloudflare ended that dream and 2.5 years later, despite other measures targeting the sites, it appears that at least one is still going strong. The TV companies are now taking legal action against UK ISPs; they're unlikely to put up a fight, they may not even turn up in court.
January 2nd, 2025 — Source

Internet — Peer to Peer (P2P) — January 1st, 2025

Piracy Shield: Top 10 Countries Blocked For Hosting IPTV Pirates in 2025
Italy launched its ambitious "Piracy Shield" platform in early 2024, hoping to finally curb the rampant piracy of live sports events. Throughout the year, the system has primarily targeted the domains and IP addresses used by pirate IPTV providers to stream illegal content. Official data made available to the public is limited but with help from data provided by an anonymous source, we can identify key trends from a very controversial year.
January 1st, 2025 — Source

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

ACE Wraps Up Transformative Year with a Fresh List of Pirate Site Targets
In 2017, a new global anti-piracy coalition formed under the umbrella of the Motion Picture Association (MPA).
December 31st, 2024 — Source

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

Danish Court Greenlights Copyright Protection for Live Sports in Landmark Blocking Case
The final verdict in a Danish site blocking battle, involving LaLiga and Rojadirecta, confirms that live sports broadcasts are protected copyright works. This marks a significant victory for rightsholders, who believe that this landmark decision paves the way for increased blocking of pirate streaming services across Europe.
December 27th, 2024 — Source

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

Bogus Pirate IPTV Portals Run By Law Enforcement "Entrap Hundreds"
According to a phrase popularized by Carl Sagan, extraordinary claims should be supported by extraordinary evidence. A new piracy scare story published on Sunday takes a different approach. The extraordinary claim is that fake IPTV portals run by law enforcement are entrapping "ordinary users" to obtain evidence of their crimes. Supported by exactly zero evidence, the report claims that hundreds of internet users have already been identified.
December 26th, 2024 — Source

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

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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