Filmmaker Tries to Unmask Private Torrent Tracker Owners through Cloudflare
Private torrent sites, or private trackers as they are commonly known, have a special place in the piracy ecosystem. These sites tend to be more community-oriented than public torrent and streaming sites, which most people simply visit with a hit-and-run mentality. Many private trackers have come and gone over the years, but some have been going for decades. With most anti-piracy enforcement focused on public platforms, predominantly...
New Pirate IPTV Police Operation Raises Stakes For Resellers & Customers
Law enforcement operations against pirate IPTV networks are now a regular occurrence, particularly inside the EU. Yet those that manage to physically take down or seriously disrupt an entire supply chain are very rare indeed and in practical terms, increasingly unlikely to happen. The fact that international law enforcement collaboration can be very effective is undisputed, with the caveat that success often extends only as far as...
DAZN, SKY & Serie A Prepare Action Against IPTV Pirates Already Fined By the State
When Italy passed new anti-piracy legislation in the summer of 2023, football fans were warned that anyone involved in the supply, sale or consumption of illicit IPTV streams should consider themselves a target for enforcement. IPSOS research had previously estimated that around 25% of the adult population consume pirate streams in Italy. On one hand, that means there are millions of potential targets for fines starting at around...
Internet Archive vs. Music Labels: $693m Copyright Battle Ends with Confidential Settlement
The Internet Archive (IA) is widely known for its Wayback Machine, which preserves copies of the web for future generations. These archiving efforts, which started decades ago, will become more valuable over time. The same could apply to IA’s other projects, including the digitization of old books and records. Six years ago, the Archive began archiving the sounds of long obsolete 78 rpm gramophone records. In addition to capturing...
Kim Dotcom Extradition Decision Was Lawful, Judicial Review Denied
After riding a wave of popularity, fame and fortune, in 2012 Kim Dotcom’s file-storage empire, with Megaupload as the centerpiece, was dismantled in a high-profile law enforcement operation. Coordinated action in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania was unprecedented in a copyright case. The extent of the collaboration between the United States and New Zealand authorities was always controversial, with some aspects of the local...
ReVanced Complies With Spotify Takedown But Explores Options to Fight Back
ReVanced is a massively popular tool that allows users to add a range of new features and customizations for third-party Android apps including YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, and Spotify. The project gained significant traction as the spiritual successor to YouTube Vanced, a similar project that was discontinued in 2022 after receiving a cease and desist letter from Google. ReVanced has not been without controversy either. The project...
