Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive Software are taking a clear stand against cheat developers. An Australian Federal court has granted search and seizure orders against several people who are believed to be connected to the cheating software "Infamous." | Continue reading
Last year the film industry launched a legal search engine that targets 'pirates' specifically. The site is set up in such a way, that it draws people who search for pirate related terms. However, this also appears to have confused the "Web Sheriff," who targeted the site's URLs … | Continue reading
Over the past weeks, there has been a lot of discussion about 'paid' seeding, which is one of the new proposals from the Tron/BitTorrent team. However, this idea is far from new. The Tribler research team has been working on its 'bandwidth as currency' idea for over a decade, and … | Continue reading
With more than 1.7 million subscribers, 'Golden Modz' ranks among the more popular gaming YouTubers. In his videos, he often showcases GTA 5 and Fortnite cheats, referring to them as 'magical powers,' which are sold on a linked website. This type of magic is not what Epic Games w … | Continue reading
With record companies licensing more than 45 million tracks to hundreds of digital services around the world, consumers have fewer reasons than ever to pirate music. Nevertheless, a new report by IFPI reveals that 38% of global music consumers still obtain content illegally. Whil … | Continue reading
Large numbers of Internet subscribers, mainly in the United States, have been taking to the Internet in recent months worried about piracy warnings sent to them by their ISPs. Despite much discussion of these online, questions continue to be asked. So, what should users do when t … | Continue reading
In Canada, there have been ongoing discussions and proposals about new levies and fees to compensate creators for 'missed revenue.' There have been calls to levy a tax on mobile devices such as iPhones, for example. This week the Screen Composers Guild of Canada took things up a … | Continue reading
A California man who uploaded a pirated copy of the movie Deadpool to Facebook has been sentenced to three weeks prison. The film was shared to the social media network, shortly after it premiered, where it was viewed 6,386,456 times. The man was indicted following an FBI investi … | Continue reading
Academic publishers American Chemical Society and Elsevier have sued scientist and researcher networking site ResearchGate. The publishers claim that research papers uploaded to the platform infringe their copyrights and for that, they're demanding damages of $150,000 per infring … | Continue reading
In March, Kim Dotcom was awarded damages after his requests for the government to hand over information held on him were denied. That ruling was immediately appealed by the Crown. The New Zealand High Court has now overturned the earlier decision by the Human Rights Review Tribun … | Continue reading
The world's oldest active torrent file turned fifteen-years-old this week, a remarkable achievement. TorrentFreak catches up with the creator of "The Fanimatrix" torrent file, who saw BitTorrent as the only affordable option to share the Matrix fan film with the world. | Continue reading
After more than 14 years developing file-sharing applications, the FrostWire team has dramatically quit following what appears to be an invalid DMCA takedown notice. The notice targeted FrostWire’s Android app, which Google deleted from its Play Store and refuses to reinstate. | Continue reading
Stage 9, a beautiful fan-made recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation, has been shut down following a cease-and-desist from CBS. The people behind the two-year-old project tried to reason with CBS, offering to make changes to keep their dream project … | Continue reading
Stage 9, a beautiful fan-made recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation, has been shut down following a cease-and-desist from CBS. The people behind the two-year-old project tried to reason with CBS, offering to make changes to keep their dream project … | Continue reading
A recent DMCA subpoena has ordered Cloudflare to expose the people linked to various popular pirate sites and tools. The request, quietly submitted out of public sight, comes from a group of movie studios attempting to hold site owners responsible for piracy damages. | Continue reading
Last week NitroXenon, the developer of popular 'pirate' app Terrarium TV, announced he was shutting the project down for good. While that was a big enough blow to fans around the world, the developer has worrying news for former users. NitroXenon informs TorrentFreak that if requ … | Continue reading
The US Government is recommending a six-month prison sentence for a California man who uploaded a pirated version of the movie Deadpool to Facebook. In just a few days the copy was viewed 6,386,456 times. A strong sentence is needed to deter the defendant, other Facebook users, a … | Continue reading
In this day and age ownership of digital media is often an illusion. When you buy a book or movie there are severe restrictions on what you can do with these files. In some cases, purchased content can simply disappear overnight. These limitations keep copyright holders in contro … | Continue reading
The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that ISPs are entitled to compensation for looking up the details of alleged copyright infringers. This is the result of a dispute between Rogers and movie company Voltage Pictures, which demanded details of tens of thousands of alleged pirate … | Continue reading
In a plenary vote, the European Parliament backed a slightly amended version of the original Article 13 proposal, one that would still result in an indirect upload filter requirement for many Internet services. Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda regrets the outcome of the votes. However … | Continue reading
BitTorrent has proven to be an ideal tool for pirates. The protocol's decentralized nature makes it impossible to interfere with transfers between users. Torrent sites and indexes are the only weak link in the chain, but there are novel solutions to that 'problem' as well, it app … | Continue reading
A rogue version of file-hosting platform MEGA's Chrome extension has triggered a major security alert from the company. The variant was able to steal user credentials for sites including Amazon, Live.com, Github.com and Google's webstore, in addition to private keys to cryptocurr … | Continue reading
YouTube's Content ID system aims to protect copyright holders but in some cases works against the public interest. After German music professor Dr. Ulrich Kaiser had one of his educational videos pulled down, he ran a test which shows that public domain performances of Beethoven, … | Continue reading
Four Swedish men sentenced in 2017 for their part in running the pirate sites Dreamfilm, TFplay, Tankafetast, and PirateHub, were initially given jail sentences. Following a 2018 appeal, those immediate jail sentences were removed but their significant fines were increased four-f … | Continue reading
The video portal of Russian search giant Yandex will be blocked today on the orders of the Moscow City Court after the company refused to remove links to pirated content. Yandex says the order is unlawful and will launch an appeal but the local telecoms watchdog is already warnin … | Continue reading
Russian search giant Yandex is facing a copyright crisis. Late last week the Moscow City Court handed down a ruling that required Yandex to remove links to pirated content owned by Gazprom-Media. On Monday, that instruction was reiterated by telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor. If Yan … | Continue reading
The owner of an adult foster care home who operated an open WiFi network has booked a big win against a copyright troll. Thomas Gonzales was accused of downloading the Adam Sandler movie The Cobbler but won $17k last year after being wrongfully targeted. The case went to appeal a … | Continue reading
The owner of an adult foster care home who operated an open WiFi network has booked a big win against a copyright troll. Thomas Gonzales was accused of downloading the Adam Sandler movie The Cobbler but won $17k last year after being wrongfully targeted. The case went to appeal a … | Continue reading
During the past few months, several sections of Reddit dedicated to piracy have been closed down. The big question among some users now, it seems, is whether the site's flagship /r/piracy sub-Reddit will suffer the same fate. The answer is entirely dependent on whether the sub's … | Continue reading
Court-ordered pirate site blockades are pretty common nowadays. While not everyone sees these as the ideal solution for the problem at hand, they follow the letter of the law. More problematic are the private blocking efforts by various Wifi providers, which we are frequently the … | Continue reading
Court-ordered pirate site blockades are pretty common nowadays. While not everyone sees these as the ideal solution for the problem at hand, they follow the letter of the law. More problematic are the private blocking efforts by various Wifi providers, which we are frequently the … | Continue reading
GOG, the digital distribution platform for DRM-free video games and video, has launched a new initiative designed to promote content without embedded DRM. While Digital Rights Management is seen by many companies as necessary to prevent piracy, GOG believes that its restrictions … | Continue reading
BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen is making it clear that he has nothing to do with the TRON cryptocurrency. While the company he founded was recently acquired by TRON founder Justin Sun, Cohen is no longer officially involved. Instead, he's working on this own groundbreaking crypto … | Continue reading
After finding out a new album from one of his bands had been uploaded to a private torrent site, this week debut metal label owner Grim Darkthrone took to Twitter to announce he's demanding compensation from the tracker. While he was criticized for his stance, doesn't everyone ha … | Continue reading
Paul Hansmeier, one of the lead attorneys behind the controversial law firm Prenda, has pleaded guilty to mail, wire fraud, and money laundering. The Pirate Bay provided important evidence in the case, where Hansmeier and his colleague were found creating and uploading porn movie … | Continue reading
The popular video download service KeepVid no longer allows users to download videos. Instead, the site has transformed into an educational page warning people about copyright issues and urging visitors to use legal options, if available. | Continue reading
In a series of bizarre takedown requests, a DMCA takedown outfit is inadvertently going after a wide variety of legitimate sites. Some requests specifically target news about the EU upload filters, or censorship machines, as they are sometimes called. As a result, one article fro … | Continue reading
Founded in 2003 by a group of hackers and activists, The Pirate Bay aimed to bring file-sharing to the masses. In the fifteen years that followed, the site transformed from a small community to Hollywood's resilient arch-rival, serving millions of users. And that's not the only t … | Continue reading
A browser extension that acted as an anti-censorship tool for 185,000 people has been kicked out of the Chrome store by Google. The open source Ahoy! tool facilitated access to more than 1,700 blocked sites but is now under threat. Despite several requests, Google has provided no … | Continue reading
A browser extension that acted as an anti-censorship tool for 185,000 people has been kicked out of the Chrome store by Google. The open source Ahoy! tool facilitated access to more than 1,700 blocked sites but is now under threat. Despite several requests, Google has provided no … | Continue reading
A research report published by anti-piracy firm Irdeto counters the notion that P2P piracy is becoming less relevant. The company shows that P2P sites, mostly BitTorrent-related, remain more popular than streaming in several countries. P2P traffic is growing in several regions an … | Continue reading
An ISP in Germany says it is required to block access to Libgen, a huge online repository of free books and academic articles. Vodafone says that publishing giants Elsevier, Springer, and Macmillan obtained an injunction from the Munich Regional Court in July, one that will preve … | Continue reading
New court documents suggest that the BBC has yet to find the source of the leaked 'Doctor Who' footage that previously appeared online. The British company is hoping that Microsoft can help. At a federal court in Washington, the BBC requested a DMCA subpoena targeted at a OneDriv … | Continue reading
Snap Inc., the owner of Snapchat, has taken action after its source code was illegally leaked online. The code, which was uploaded to Github by a user who claims to be in Pakistan, was removed from the Microsoft-owned development platform in response to a DMCA takedown notice. | Continue reading
Major labels including Universal, Warner Bros, Sony, and others have teamed up to sue two more YouTube-ripping sites. FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com are reportedly operated out of Russia, but according to information provided to the US Trade Representative by rightsholders earlier this … | Continue reading
BitTorrent has been acquired by the founder of the TRON cryptocurrency, with the latter considering the possibility of introducing currency incentives for people who seed. The big question now is whether this would cause people to share more freely or, given the huge culture shoc … | Continue reading
BitTorrent has been acquired by the founder of the TRON cryptocurrency, with the latter considering the possibility of introducing currency incentives for people who seed. The big question now is whether this would cause people to share more freely or, given the huge culture shoc … | Continue reading
Despite two lost legal battles in the US, domain name seizures, and millions of dollars in damage claims, Sci-Hub continues to offer unauthorized access to academic papers. The site's founder says that she would rather operate legally, but copyright gets in the way. Sci-Hub is no … | Continue reading