Court of Appeals: DMCA Subpoena Shortcut to Unmask Pirates Remains Closed
Under U.S. law, rightsholders have an option to identify alleged copyright infringers without directly having to file a lawsuit. Instead, they can request a DMCA subpoena which is typically signed by a court clerk and don’t require any judicial oversight. Specifically, they allow rightsholders to obtain the personal details of anonymous alleged infringers from third-party internet services where the infringing material was stored or...
Sky’s Piracy=Malware Campaign Aims For ‘Holy Grail’ of Behavioral Change
From its initial launch and relentless coverage in the media for a solid 18 months, there had to be something more to the BeStreamWise anti-piracy campaign than initially met the eye. Anti-piracy campaigns come and go; BeStreamWise made itself comfortable in people’s living rooms, took over the Sky remote, and even now still refuses to leave. Those who took refuge online found little respite. BeStreamWise has maintained a constant...
Why a Court Order to Block Internet Archive’s Open Library Was Put On Hold
Early August, we reported on a remarkable court order handed down by the Dutch Business Court in Brussels. It compelled internet providers, hosting companies, and other intermediaries to block access to several ‘pirate’ sites and deny access to payment providers. The targeted domain names are linked to known shadow libraries such as Anna’s Archive, LibGen, and Z-Library. However, the order also listed Internet Archive’s Open Library...
New Cloudflare Pirate Site Blocking May Already Involve Thousands of Domains
After 15 years of pirate site blocking by ISPs including BT, Virgin Media, Sky, TalkTalk, EE, and Plusnet, last month a new player quietly entered the UK site blocking arena. Cloudflare’s blocking measures in the UK were confirmed when attempts to access pirate streaming sites returned Error 451, indicating a site unavailable for legal reasons. To help visitors understand why access had been blocked, Cloudflare provided a link on its...
LaLiga Warns “You Get Pirated Football, They Get You”
Copyright holders have made numerous attempts in recent years to deter people from visiting pirate websites. Simply stating that piracy is illegal doesn’t appear to work very well, so anti-piracy messaging often tries to appeal to other emotions too. Anti-piracy campaigns frequently warn of the malware and security risks posed by some pirate operations, for example. These concerns are warranted as some sites and services have been...
Pirate Library Operator Arrested, Study Canceled For 330K Members
Piracy of movies, TV shows, music, games and similar content, purely for the purpose of recreation, is an internet wide phenomenon that would otherwise find funding from consumers’ disposable income. Once gainfully employed, piracy of leisure products largely becomes a matter of choice. In the educational context, textbooks can be both expensive and effectively mandatory for those seeking an education, a job, and the luxury of income...
