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

Posted On:2024-04-30 04:47:06 READMORE
Court Keeps DMCA Subpoena Shortcut Closed, Restricts Piracy Settlements
Earlier this year, a Hawaiian District Court blocked movie companies' efforts to unmask alleged BitTorrent pirates using a DMCA subpoena 'shortcut'. The filmmakers asked the court to reconsider its position but without success; the 'DMCA shortcut' will remain closed. The rightsholders will appeal the order but won't be able to use evidence previously obtained through settlements with pirating subscribers. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-29 20:53:14 READMORE
Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/29/2024
Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Dune: Part Two' tops the chart, followed by 'Monkey Man'. ‘'Love Lies Bleeding' completes the top three. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-29 08:09:40 READMORE
Operation Anime Phase 2: New Anti-Piracy Crackdown Executed in Brazil
Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security has announced a second phase of Operation Anime, an initiative to disrupt piracy of Japanese anime and Korean webtoon content. This second wave follows the first which took place close to a year ago. In coordination with Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA and COA based in South Korea, authorities conducted 11 search and seizure warrants in five regions. No sites have been named but domains appeared to have been seized. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-28 17:35:30 READMORE
Anti-Piracy Veteran Tim Kuik Retires After Leading BREIN for a Quarter Century
BREIN CEO Tim Kuik has retired, shutting down an impressive career that pre-dates the world wide web. Kuik started working at a home video distributor in the 1980s and became director anti-piracy at the Motion Picture Association a decade later. He eventually reached his pinnacle at BREIN, the Dutch anti-piracy group where Kuik took the lead for a quarter century. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-27 22:16:24 READMORE
U.S. Trade Representative Flags Vietnam as a Leading Source of Online Piracy
The Office of the United States Trade Representative has released its annual Special 301 Report, calling out countries that fall short on anti-piracy enforcement and other forms of intellectual property protection. Countries such as Argentina and China are listed as priority threats, while Vietnam is labeled a leading source of online piracy. The USTR urges the Asian country to tackle the problem and take criminal prosecutions seriously. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-27 05:33:53 READMORE
Nintendo vs. Garry’s Mod: Dissecting the ‘Fake’ Domain Behind All the Chaos
Facepunch Studios has confirmed that years of Nintendo-related uploads are being deleted from Steam Workshop in response to takedown notices linked to Garry's Mod. What began as rumors of a Nintendo DMCA takedown campaign, suddenly shifted towards a 'fake notice' campaign, run from a suspicious domain. Frustrations then targeted Garry himself for "falling for a scam." "You didn't even look at the domain!" yelled one fan. Let's do that. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-26 18:47:13 READMORE
U.S. “Know Your Customer” Proposal Will Put an End to Anonymous Cloud Users
Late January, the U.S. Department of Commerce published a notice of proposed rulemaking for establishing new requirements for Infrastructure as a Service providers (IaaS) . The proposal boils down to a 'Know Your Customer' regime for companies operating cloud services, with the goal of countering the activities of "foreign malicious actors." Yet, despite an overseas focus, Americans won't be able to avoid the proposal's requirements, which covers CDNs, virtual private servers, proxies, and domain name resolution services, among others. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-26 01:38:30 READMORE
Researchers Showcase Decentralized AI-Powered Torrent Search Engine
Researchers from Delft University of Technology plan to amplify their BitTorrent client "Tribler" with decentralized AI-powered search. A new demo shows that generative AI models make it possible to search for content in novel ways, without restriction. The ultimate goal of the research project is to shift the Internet's power balance from governments and large corporations back to consumers. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-25 18:49:54 READMORE
Vietnam Admits Manga Piracy Problem as New BestBuyIPTV Details Emerge
In a joint press release on Monday, the Premier League and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment revealed the first-ever online piracy conviction in Vietnam. The news came as a surprise, as did comment published in local media attributed to a government official. It may seem like a small step, but admitting that Vietnam has a manga piracy problem, one that causes "hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to copyright owners," is a big step forward. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-25 04:09:18 READMORE
‘Expensive’ Streaming Services Are a Key Reason for Americans to ‘Pirate’
A new survey confirms that the high cost of online streaming services keeps piracy relevant. The findings suggest that one in three Americans have pirated a movie or TV series over the past year. Costs are a key motivator for these self-proclaimed pirates, with the number of legal subscription services and their price tags a key trigger. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-24 18:26:13 READMORE
There’s More to Copyright Than Financial Incentives, Internet Archive Argues in Court
The Internet Archive is doubling down on its position that its digital lending library service operates under the bounds of fair use. Major publishers assert that digitizing books without appropriate licensing amounts to infringement but IA counters that the practice is in the public interest. It also fits copyright's ultimate purpose; to promote the broad public availability of literature and other arts. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-24 02:23:48 READMORE
New Piracy Shield Legal Challenge Filed at Italy’s Council of State
Long before the launch of Italy's Piracy Shield blocking system, ISP association ASSOProvider warned that trouble lay ahead and innocent parties were likely to get caught up in the crossfire. After failing to stop the launch of the platform with a legal bid in 2023, ASSOProvider has mounted a new legal challenge at the Council of State, the body that ensures public administration is carried out legally in Italy. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-23 21:43:23 READMORE
‘BestBuyIPTV’ Operator Sentenced in Vietnam’s First Ever Online Piracy Conviction
An operator of the widely popular piracy service 'BestBuyIPTV' has received a 30-month suspended prison sentence in Vietnam. The prosecution followed criminal referrals from the Premier League and ACE, who note that this is the country's first-ever piracy conviction. While this is significant, the BestBuyIPTV brand isn't gone. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-22 23:24:38 READMORE
LaLiga Targets Apple & Google Bosses For Failing to ‘Remote Delete’ IPTV App
Spanish football league LaLiga has asked a local court to charge the directors of Google, Apple, and Huawei in a row over an IPTV player app. The companies removed the Newplay app from their stores in 2022 to comply with a court order but LaLiga says that apps already installed on users' phones must be remotely deactivated. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-22 18:38:28 READMORE
Premier League Wants GoDaddy to Identify Live Streaming Pirates
The Premier League wants domain registrar GoDaddy to identify people connected to dozen of pirate sports streaming domains that broadcast live football matches. The information, including IP-addresses and payment information, could assist with enforcement efforts. In addition, the Premier League would like GoDaddy to take action against these infringements but, as far as we know, that hasn't happened yet. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-21 19:58:33 READMORE
‘Smart IPTV’ App Blocked By ISPs, Despite it Carrying Zero Illegal Streams
Media player app Smart IPTV is available on Google Play from where over 500,000 users have downloaded it. As its name suggests, it can be directly installed on smart TVs, thanks to listings on the official LG and Samsung app stores. In Spain, ISPs have just started blocking access to Smart IPTV's official site on copyright grounds. For an app that contains no streams, period, a cynical move like this gains perfect cover under an administrative blocking scheme. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-20 17:28:12 READMORE
Filmmakers Expand Piracy Liability Lawsuit, Add Dozens of Millions in Potential Damages
Independent movie companies have filed an updated complaint in their joint piracy liability lawsuit against Internet provider WOW!. With the addition of hundreds of new works, the potential damages are raised to well over $50 million. The update also adds two new piracy tracking companies, and doubles down on site blocking demands. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-20 05:19:15 READMORE
Operator of ‘Bitcoin Invested’ Pirate Site Movie2K Charged After More Than a Decade
More than a decade ago, Movie2K was one of the largest pirate sites on the Internet. Serving a German audience, the streaming portal shut down in 2013, but that wasn't the end of the story. This week, a suspected operator of the site and an accomplice were charged by German authorities. The long delay is noteworthy but also lucrative; a Bitcoin haul with a current value of €3 billion was seized recently. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2024-04-19 19:49:16 READMORE