Sony Promotes Kodi Streaming Add-Ons as Ideal for its Android TVs
Despite always operating within the law, the team behind the popular Kodi media player have found themselves at the middle of huge piracy controversy. While a stock Kodi installation is entirely legal, millions of users install special third-party add-ons that grant access to huge libraries of infringing content. This isn’t recommended by the official Kodi team but there’s little doubt that most Kodi users now connect the...
Rapidvideo Responds to MPAA’s Piracy Claims: “We’re Totally Legal”
A few weeks ago the MPAA, together with several other trade groups, submitted its annual list of ‘notorious markets’ to the US Trade Representative (USTR). These submissions help to guide the U.S. Government’s position toward foreign countries when it comes to copyright enforcement, putting significant pressure on the mentioned sites. The MPAA’s submission included many of the usual targets including The Pirate...
Steam Bans All Links to TorrentFreak News as “Potentially Malicious”
Once upon a time, Internet users were free to look at whatever content they liked. There was an almost complete absence of intervention from third-parties, which was mostly a good thing. However, after the number of Internet users rocketed, more threats began to emerge. Viruses and other types of malware became pervasive, aiming to abuse users’ computers in various ways, from creating botnets to simple vandalism. As a result,...
Operator of YouTube Rippers Should Stand Trial in the US, Major Labels Say
Streamripping sites are seen as the largest piracy threat to the music industry, so record labels are doing their best to shut them down. Last year YouTube-MP3, the world’s largest ripping site at the time, shut down after being sued, and several other folded in response to increased legal uncertainty. Not all stream-ripping sites are folding without a fight though. FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com, owned by the Russian developer Tofig...
Pirate Bay Founder’s ‘Njalla’ Criticized For Protecting Pirate Sites
After many years of targeting people who share larger volumes of content on peer-to-peer file-sharing apps and services, Japan is now taking aim at pirate sites. In basic terms, rightsholders would like to see overseas pirate sites blocked by local ISPs, in much the same way as they are in dozens of countries elsewhere in the world. However, the process is proving a difficult one to move forward, as interference with communications is...
Yandex Under Fire Again, This Time For Linking to Blocked RuTracker
With copyright holders and anti-piracy outfits continue their battle to make infringing content harder to find, legitimate companies are increasingly finding themselves in the firing line. In Russia, pressure is building on search giant Yandex, which is being targeted by rightsholders from multiple directions. Their main point of concern is that Yandex’s indexes sometimes carry links to allegedly infringing content. However,...
