Authors Seek Meta’s Torrent Client Logs and Seeding Data in AI Piracy Probe
Over the past two years, AI development has progressed at a rapid pace. This includes large language models, which are typically trained on broad datasets of texts; the more, the better. When AI hit the mainstream, it became apparent that many rightsholders had concerns over the unauthorized use of their copyright works. Creatives including photographers, artists, musicians, journalists, and authors, responded by filed copyright...
Man Jailed For Pirate IPTV Used By “Hundreds of Thousands” Had 2,000 Users
Official figures on exactly how many people have been arrested, prosecuted and sentenced for piracy-linked offenses, are not easily obtained in the UK. Indeed, disclosure in response to FOIA requests seems to become more difficult when petty offending results in no arrests, or when suspects are later released without charge. When it comes to those who sell or resell subscriptions or operate illegal IPTV services, the last couple of...
‘Piracy Shield’ Fails to Convert Pirates to Paying Subscribers, Data Suggest
Nearly a year has passed since Italy officially implemented ‘Piracy Shield‘, a system that aims to deter and decrease live sports streaming piracy. Since last February, Piracy Shield has blocked access to thousands of IP-addresses and domain names associated with unauthorized broadcasts. This massive blocking operation is seen as a grandiose success by the authorities and many participating rightsholders. There were some mishaps,...
MAME Devs Spent 628 Years Cracking Protection on 712 Retro Games
With the next cutting-edge big-budget AAA masterpiece never too far away, thousands of 8bit and 16bit classics dating back almost 50 years sit quietly by, waiting for the arrival of the next wave of curious explorers. The magic of emulation makes all of this happen and for many retro gaming enthusiasts, the Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) rules them all. First released on February 7, 1997, development of this open source giant...
Telefónica & LaLiga’s Anti-Piracy Collaboration Runs in Both Directions
After steadfastly protecting the privacy rights of subscribers, usually against aggressive rightsholders determined to unmask them, ISPs today are more likely to view disclosure from a different perspective. At a time when internet subscriptions paid most of the bills, protecting customers accused of illicit file-sharing led to prolonged litigation. Cases were fought up to the highest courts in the United States. In Europe, further...
Court Orders Pirate Site MissAV to Pay $4.5m in Damages, Domains Seized
With billions of annual visits, MissAV ranked among the top 60 most-visited websites on the internet. For years, the site appeared to operate without any significant setbacks, but that changed a few days ago, when several domain names including MissAV.com and ThisAV.com were seized. Initially, it wasn’t clear how permanent these seizures were, as the domains briefly became accessible again. However, that changed a few hours ago when...
