Rightsholders Want to Completely Delist ‘Pirate’ Domains From Search Results
The anti-piracy wars are fought on many fronts, from plugging leaks to issuing millions of takedown notices to both sites and search engines. Despite no deliberate role in piracy, the latter are often described as facilitators of piracy who could do more, by making pirate sites less visible in search results, for example. While companies like Google have taken such steps both voluntarily (UK) and in response to legal requirements...
Stream-Ripping Giant Convert2MP3 Settles With Music Industry and Shuts Down
The music industry views stream-ripping as one of the largest piracy threats, worse than torrent sites or direct download portals. In 2016, the RIAA, IFPI, and BPI filed legal action against YouTube-MP3, the largest stream ripping site at the time. This case eventually resulted in a settlement in which the site agreed to shut down voluntarily. This was a clear victory for the music industry, which swiftly moved on to its next targets....
Court Orders Danish ISPs to Block Copyright-Infringing News Site
For more than a decade, Denmark has been a testbed for pirate site blockades. The first blocks date back to 2006, when music industry group IFPI filed a complaint targeting the unlicensed Russian MP3 site AllofMP3. Not much later, Denmark became the first European country to force an ISP to block access to The Pirate Bay. Since then, many other pirate sites have received the same treatment. These are typically download or...
Video Piracy Study Estimates Billions in Lost Revenue, But Misses Crucial Data
Despite the growing availability of legal options, online piracy remains rampant. Every day pirate sites and services are used by millions of people worldwide. This is a serious problem for major content producers, Hollywood included. At the same time, it’s also seen a threat to the wider U.S. economy, which generates hundreds of billions of dollars from video entertainment. How copyright infringement affects the economy in...
More Kodi Add-On Repos Shut Down in Wake of UK Arrest
Developers of Kodi add-ons, including those who maintain places to download them (repositories), have long been at risk of legal action, should they provide access to infringing content. Many have been targeted directly, having received cease-and-desist letters from groups including the massive Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). Until recently, action through the civil courts has been the assumed course of action for...
Kodi Add-On Developer Arrested On Same Day as Popular Repo Goes Down
While overall interest in Kodi appears to be on a downward trend, millions of people still use the software to organize their media. Larger numbers still augment Kodi with software add-ons which allow them to stream movies, TV shows, and sports events, often in a way that infringes copyright. As a result, entertainment companies and their agents are keen to reduce the use of such tools. With little fanfare, the Covert Development and...
