Two Alleged Pirate IPTV Operators Sent to Prison For Contempt of Court
A little over three years ago, SmoothStreams was considered one the most reliable and well-known pirate IPTV providers. Several years of what appeared to be fairly plain sailing in relatively calm waters proved to be deceptive. Following a years-long investigation, a huge coalition of entertainment industry companies including Bell Media and Rogers Media, members of MPA-Canada (Motion Picture Association Canada) and ACE (Alliance for...
‘Ad Blocking is Not Piracy’ Decision Overturned By Top German Court
There’s little doubt that online businesses reliant on advertising revenue are negatively affected by increasing use of ad blocking solutions. Yet it’s thanks to abusive and invasive ads, and threats to privacy due to incessant online tracking, that ad blockers became so popular. There’s a good argument today that an effective ad blocking solution is not just a way to keep out an avalanche of mostly unwanted advertising. In many cases...
Court of Appeals: DMCA Subpoena Shortcut to Unmask Pirates Remains Closed
Under U.S. law, rightsholders have an option to identify alleged copyright infringers without directly having to file a lawsuit. Instead, they can request a DMCA subpoena which is typically signed by a court clerk and don’t require any judicial oversight. Specifically, they allow rightsholders to obtain the personal details of anonymous alleged infringers from third-party internet services where the infringing material was stored or...
Sky’s Piracy=Malware Campaign Aims For ‘Holy Grail’ of Behavioral Change
From its initial launch and relentless coverage in the media for a solid 18 months, there had to be something more to the BeStreamWise anti-piracy campaign than initially met the eye. Anti-piracy campaigns come and go; BeStreamWise made itself comfortable in people’s living rooms, took over the Sky remote, and even now still refuses to leave. Those who took refuge online found little respite. BeStreamWise has maintained a constant...
Why a Court Order to Block Internet Archive’s Open Library Was Put On Hold
Early August, we reported on a remarkable court order handed down by the Dutch Business Court in Brussels. It compelled internet providers, hosting companies, and other intermediaries to block access to several ‘pirate’ sites and deny access to payment providers. The targeted domain names are linked to known shadow libraries such as Anna’s Archive, LibGen, and Z-Library. However, the order also listed Internet Archive’s Open Library...
New Cloudflare Pirate Site Blocking May Already Involve Thousands of Domains
After 15 years of pirate site blocking by ISPs including BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, and Plusnet, last month a new player quietly entered the UK site blocking arena. Cloudflare’s blocking measures in the UK were confirmed when attempts to access pirate streaming sites returned Error 451, indicating a site unavailable for legal reasons. To help visitors understand why access had been blocked, Cloudflare provided a link on its...
