The music industry faces piracy adversaries of all shapes and sizes. While most pirate sites and services simply offer all the music they can find, there is a mysterious group that has a more narrow focus. Music Mafia specializes in selling access to some of the hottest unrelease … | Continue reading
Video games have deployed a number of techniques over the years to deter pirates, with some more entertaining than others. Evil Bite, the small developer team behind the 'Depraved' city builder game, have got in on the action with a time-bomb DRM that slowly fills the game's ware … | Continue reading
A group of major record labels including Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros, has filed a piracy liability lawsuit against Internet provider Cox Communications. In common with a previous case filed by BMG, they accuse the ISP of turning a blind eye to persistent pirates. With more t … | Continue reading
Five years ago this week, Russia embarked on a site-blocking regime that was designed to drastically slow the piracy phenomenon. Currently, more than 5,000 sites remain blocked on copyright grounds, but is the country any closer to a solution than it was in 2013? | Continue reading
It's hard to spot consistent trends in the mass influx of DMCA takedown notices Google receives. One thing is pretty clear though, the search engine consistently refuses to remove The Pirate Bay's homepage from its index. This, despite dozens of attempts from a wide variety of co … | Continue reading
Electronic Arts has asked GitHub to remove a fan-created remake of the classic SimCity 2000 release. While the original game is a quarter-century old, the publisher points out that the assets are not free to use, adding that a copy of the game can still be purchased legally. | Continue reading
Mozilla sees intellectual property legislation as a threat to the open Internet because it stifles creativity and innovation. The foundation, best known for its development of the Firefox browser, is now asking the NTIA to shield the Internet from bad policies while reforming out … | Continue reading
A high-profile defender of artists' rights is calling for a "full-blown criminal investigation" into what happened during the Article 13 'copyright filters' vote earlier this month. Lawyer Chris Castle, who has an impressive music industry track record with various labels and gro … | Continue reading
This week UK telecoms regulator Ofcom announced that streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon are now more popular than traditional pay-TV. It's a sign that the Internet plays a crucial role in today's distribution of video entertainment. However, according to research and a … | Continue reading
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the alleged operator of the popular console ROM sites LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co. The sites are among the most notorious online hubs for pirated games, according to Nintendo, and face millions of dollars in potential damages. | Continue reading
The Bulgarian responsible for cracking the latest variants of the Denuvo anti-tamper technology has slammed SEGA for being "anti-consumer". Voksi says that when cracking the protection on Sonic Mania Plus, he noticed that the anti-piracy system hadn't been deployed properly, mean … | Continue reading
NetEase, the Chinese developer of the popular mobile games 'Rules of Survival' and 'Knives Out', has responded to PUBG's copyright infringement claims. The company asked the California federal court to dismiss PUBG's lawsuit, describing it as an attempt to monopolize the popular … | Continue reading
The High Court has granted the Premier League permission to continue blocking live pirate streams of football matches in the UK. The football organization obtained a pioneering injunction early 2017, with a second order expiring in May 2018. That has now been renewed by Justice A … | Continue reading
According to the US Constitution, copyrights exist to "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts." It's meant to facilitate and encourage artists to create content, which the public can enjoy. But is this how copyright still functions today? Texan A&M law professor Glynn Lu … | Continue reading
Russia's State Duma has adopted a draft law that aims to tackle software applications through which pirated content is distributed. The proposals foresee the owner or operator of an application being warned that infringement is taking place while giving them time to remove the of … | Continue reading
While the French Government mulls how to counter streaming piracy, local pirates are increasingly going legal. Not only are there less French pirates, the remaining ones are also consuming less and are increasingly signing up with legal streaming services such as Netflix. | Continue reading
Copyright cases in the United States are dominated by two companies which are generally unknown to the public at large. This year alone, Malibu Media and Strike 3 Holdings have filed more than 1,700 lawsuits, breaking a new file-sharing lawsuit record in the most recent quarter. | Continue reading
As of yesterday, social media use in Uganda became a taxable activity, with users of Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, Tinder and dozens of other services all hit by new legislation. With users flooding to VPNs to avoid this new assault on their pockets, VPN use has gone through the r … | Continue reading
NYC.com advertises itself as the world's go-to source for everything there is to love about New York City. Since its inception, the site has sold over $100 million in ticket and hotel inventory. However, as of recently, the site has a copy of the popular torrent site 1337x hidden … | Continue reading
With the aim to protect the interests of copyright holders, Google is making ‘pirate’ sites more difficult for its users to find. This week the search engine revealed more information about the scope of this effort. Thus far, Google has downranked 65,000 sites, a measure that led … | Continue reading
Article 13, the proposed EU legislation that aims to restrict safe harbors for online platforms, was crafted to end the so-called "Value Gap" on YouTube. However, according to YouTube's global head of music, it's something that simply not on the agenda. “I do know, from every sin … | Continue reading
The Pirate Bay has been hard to reach for the past week. No further details have been announced but the Tor version of the site remains operational. However, with many instances of downtime this year already, this hardly passes as "news" anymore. | Continue reading
This week the EU's controversial "upload filter" plans moved ahead. Opponents of the plans warn that this could "ban memes" and "destroy the Internet" as we know it. If that rhetoric is true, the Internet is actually already being destroyed right under our noses, with surprisingl … | Continue reading
YouTube is a great video platform that has a lot to offer to both consumers and creators. At least, those who play by the rules. For creators, there is a major drawback though, one that put a spotlight on the alternative 'free-libre' software PeerTube this week. | Continue reading
YouTube is a great video platform that has a lot to offer to both consumers and creators. At least, those who play by the rules. For creators, there is a major drawback though, one that put a spotlight on the alternative 'free-libre' software PeerTube this week. | Continue reading
Faced with a copyright infringement related ban in Mexico, streaming media platform Roku is working hard to win hearts and minds. In May, the company invited a group of Mexican journalists to its Silicon Valley headquarters to hear about its anti-piracy efforts. However, Mexico's … | Continue reading
Faced with a copyright infringement related ban in Mexico, streaming media platform Roku is working hard to win hearts and minds. In May, the company invited a group of Mexican journalists to its Silicon Valley headquarters to hear about its anti-piracy efforts. However, Mexico's … | Continue reading
The EU's plans to modernize copyright law in Europe are moving ahead. The Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament (JURI) just adopted several proposals, including the controversial "upload filters." Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda is disappointed but notes that the fight is not ove … | Continue reading
BitTorrent Inc, the parent company behind the popular file-sharing client uTorrent, recently made a deal to sell to Justin Sun, the founder of cryptocurrency TRON. According to new information, Sun has agreed to pay $140 million for the company. While no details have yet been con … | Continue reading
Several popular YouTube accounts, including those belonging to 'MIT OpenCourseWare' and the 'Blender Foundation,' have had all their videos blocked. People who try to access the videos are informed that they are not available in their country, suggesting that YouTube's piracy fil … | Continue reading
Russia's most powerful entertainment producers and distributors have written to Yandex, the country's leading search provider, demanding the removal of 'pirate' sites from search results. The letter, signed by movie, music, and TV bosses, demands both detection and deletion of co … | Continue reading
Spanish soccer league "La Liga" is using its official Android app to create an army of millions of piracy spies. The app can access microphone and location data to scan for restaurants, bars, and other establishments that broadcast their matches without a license. "Protect your t … | Continue reading
Over the past couple of years, copyright holders have continuously claimed that people using Kodi to access copyright-infringing content are being exposed to malware. This week, a security expert working with a Hollywood-affiliated group claimed that "embedded in the media itself … | Continue reading
A controversial phishing campaign where scammers used fake piracy settlements to extort cash was brought to the forefront again recently. ISP Grande Communications wants to use it as evidence in their repeat infringer case against the RIAA, but the music group sees this effort as … | Continue reading
VPN provider Private Internet Access, which has a strict no-logging policy, has proven once again that it is unable to link online activities with a user's identity. The conclusion, which was revealed as part of a hacking trial in San Jose federal court, is the second time that t … | Continue reading
IPVanish, a VPN provider that for years claimed a strict no-logging policy, led Homeland Security to a suspect using a Comcast IP address, court papers filed in 2016 reveal. StackPath, the new operator of IPVanish, informs TorrentFreak that they won't speak on behalf of the forme … | Continue reading
New research has revealed that 60 percent of all UK citizens have used pirate services to stream or download TV, films or music. However, the vast majority of these self-proclaimed pirates say they tend to find legal options first. These and other findings suggest that piracy rem … | Continue reading
Flight sim company FlightSimLabs caused controversy earlier this year after embedding malware in its software to tackle piracy. Now the company is at the center of a new storm after unhappy users on Reddit reported anti-piracy files being installed into Windows systems folders. I … | Continue reading
For years, novelist Chuck Palahniuk saw piracy as one of the reasons behind his dwindling income. People were 'stealing' his books without paying for them, after all. However, last weekend it turned out that the real thief was closer to home than he ever imagined, and in no way l … | Continue reading
GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, has reportedly agreed to disable access to another piracy-related domain following copyright complaints from a member of music group IFPI. A precautionary measure handed down by the Peruvian Copyright Commission found that Fox-M … | Continue reading
The Michael Jackson Estate is suing the Walt Disney Company and ABC for using dozens of its copyrighted works without permission. According to Disney, no harm has been done, since including these works in "The Last Days of Michael Jackson" documentary is "fair use." The Estate cl … | Continue reading
Two movie studios have sued an employee of a Hawaiian phone store who allegedly recommended the 'pirate' application Showbox to a customer. The makers of the films 'Mechanic: Resurrection' and 'A Family Man' accuse the woman of contributory copyright infringement and demand damag … | Continue reading
In response to a growing threat of Internet surveillance and censorship, VPN services have surged in popularity in recent years. Encrypting one's traffic through a VPN connection helps to keep online communications private, but what more does your VPN provider do to keep you anon … | Continue reading
One of the most active piracy litigants in the US is facing setback in the Minnesota District Court. Several subpoena requests from Strike 3 Holdings were denied, with magistrate judges ruling that the privacy of alleged BitTorrent pirates trumps the rights of the adult filmmaker … | Continue reading
A California federal court has denied Cloudflare's request to exclude evidence related to its termination of neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer from the upcoming piracy liability trial against ALS Scan. The CDN provider fears that mentioning the site at trial could cloud the perception … | Continue reading
Sci-Hub, often known as 'The Pirate Bay for Science', has lost control of several security certificates after they were revoked by Comodo CA, the world's largest certification authority. Comodo CA informs TorrentFreak that the company responded to a court order which compelled it … | Continue reading
The California-based software company Quest is suing Nike for copyright infringement. Nike stands accused of using pirated software keys which are generally only available through unauthorized sites. The software company uncovered the alleged copyright infringements during an aud … | Continue reading