Sci-Hub Blocked in India, Founder Tells Plaintiffs to Expect Disappointment
A multi-year legal campaign by academic and scientific publishers continued in 2020 with a lawsuit filed at the High Court in Delhi. Once again the target was Sci-Hub and site founder Alexandra Elbakyan, and by naming local ISPs as defendants, Elsevier, Wiley, and American Chemical Society aimed to have the shadow library blocked nationwide in India. The publishers left no stone unturned in their 2,169-page complaint, carefully...
‘Leaked’ Prerelease Films Were Shared on Vimeo by Industry Insiders
Earlier this month, we reported that a screener copy of In the Hands of Dante had leaked online from an unknown source. The unreleased Julian Schnabel film, featuring a star cast, is officially set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month. However, pirates got early access. The same was true for other independent films, including The Best Thing About Christmas, Agon, American Cryptids, Life Is, and Extreme Family, all of...
Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 08/25/2025
The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have four newcomers on the list. “Superman” is the most shared title. The most torrented...
Is 4chan the Perfect ‘Pirate Bay’ Poster Child to Justify Wider UK Site-Blocking?
The UK’s Online Safety Act (OSA) claims to protect children but has faced fierce criticism for censoring everything from legitimate news reporting from war zones, to critical discussion of the Act itself. There are many problems, not least a requirement for adults in the UK to prove their identity when accessing sites meeting criteria dictated by Ofcom. Large sites, many in the United States, face huge fines for allowing children to...
UK Live Sports Piracy Sets New Record, Movie Piracy Returns to 2019 Peak
The Online Copyright Infringement Tracker (OCI) has provided data on piracy carried out online for more than a decade. After publication of Wave 12 in 2022, there was no report covering 2023. The latest Wave 13 edition covers online infringement in 2024, spanning various categories including movies, music, TV shows, and live sports. The online survey component was conducted among a representative 5,000 person sample of the UK...
Lithuanian Regulator Clashes With Data Firm Over “Misleading” Piracy Stats
Late last year, the European Union Intellectual Property Office released its latest copyright infringement monitor report. The research is part of a recurring series that has tracked European piracy rates since 2017. Among other things, the data helps to shape future policy decisions. The report draws on data provided by UK-based piracy monitoring company MUSO. The data is largely based on web-based visits to pirate sites and doesn’t...
