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...
Alleged Pirate Site Operator Arrested, Family Crowdfunds “David vs. Goliath” Defense
Sports streaming services are popular worldwide, with different regions having their local favorites. In Latin America, the Magis TV brand is particularly popular but another name also popped up more frequently: ‘Al Ángulo TV’. Al Ángulo was available through various domain names as well as an Android app, offering access to a variety of pirated sports streams. As its logo suggests, football was a particularly popular sport on the...
Spotify Takes Down EeveeSpotify; ‘Reborn’ Version Immediately Surfaces
With nearly 700 million monthly active users across over 180 markets, Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming service by a significant margin. The streaming giant has always positioned itself as a competitor to pirate services, but its success also relied on pirates. In the early days, Spotify allegedly used MP3s from The Pirate Bay to populate its beta service. The notorious Swedish torrent site was instrumental in other...
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...
