Pirate IPTV Operation Dismantled, 9 Arrested, 43 Customers Investigated
With few signs that public appetite for cheap but illegal streaming services will subside anytime soon, law enforcement agencies all over Europe are working to disrupt suppliers wherever they can. The Directorate for the Prosecution of Electronic Crime in Athens, Greece, is reporting an apparently successful operation against an organization that until recently serviced customers in five regions of the country. A series of raids last...
EU Mulls Expansion of Geo-Blocking ‘Bans’ to Video Streaming Platforms
Consumers who want to watch movies or TV-shows online are limited to the content that they are permitted to see in their home country. This means that the Netflix or Amazon library in one country can be entirely different to those made available in a neighboring nation. This is a direct result of the territorial licensing deals the entertainment industry is built on. However, now that people are more connected online, these...
Legal Manga App User Banned After Taking ‘Fraudulent Screenshots’
While no digital content is ever entirely immune from being copied and distributed illegally, photographs and other images are especially vulnerable. Tools enabling users to download, copy, share, and then ultimately mass distribute images exist in, or are accessible from, most phones, tablets, and computers. Photographers aside, no businesses are more aware of these vulnerabilities than publishers of Japanese comics, commonly known...
Cloudflare Applauds Court for Rejecting DNS Piracy Blocking Order
Copyright holders have made serious work of website blocking in recent years, expanding the practice to over forty countries worldwide. In Germany, for example, the largest Internet providers agreed to voluntarily block pirate sites as part of a deal they struck with rightsholders. These blockades, which are put in place following a thorough vetting process, are generally implemented at DNS level. This is a relatively easy option, as...
Record Labels Urge Court to Uphold $47 Million Piracy Liability Verdict
Late 2022, several of the world’s largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music prevailed in their lawsuit against Internet provider Grande Communications. The record labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers. The trial lasted more than two weeks and ended in a resounding victory for the...
Movie Companies Sue Lawyer in Dispute Over Piracy Settlement Cash
While opinions, definitions, and scope vary, it seems fairly clear that lawsuits targeting BitTorrent pirates do little to prevent mass piracy. A steady stream of suspected pirates continuously line up to become the next individuals to face potential legal action, regardless of how many that has happened to previously. For companies whose movies are downloaded and shared illegally, solutions have been developed that allow them to...
