LaLiga’s 360° Piracy Blitz, New Blocking Tactics & Fines, Meet Rising Disapproval
LaLiga’s escalation of its anti-piracy enforcement measures began back in February with unprecedented blocking of Cloudflare IP addresses used by pirate sites, affecting large numbers of innocent websites using them too. After a brief pause between seasons, blocking returned in August. There was no shortage of complaints during the previous season, but momentum appears to be shifting, in part due to more people making themselves...
Company Offers $100 Million for the Right to Sue ISPs Using Redbox’s Piracy Claims
Last year, the video rental and streaming company Redbox shut down its service and filed for bankruptcy. The service, owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment (now CSS Entertainment), was running hundreds of millions in losses per year and no longer saw a path to profitability. The decision also had a direct impact on its ongoing litigation, including some piracy-related lawsuits. Through its subsidiary Screen Media Ventures,...
Thailand Hits Premier League Pirates, Anticipates USTR Watchlist Removal
Most countries have an underlying piracy problem and there’s no shortage of rightsholders prepared to remind governments that work still needs to be done. The prospect of one day being removed from the USTR’s piracy and counterfeiting Watch List may provide additional incentive for those hoping to improve trade relations with the United States. Thailand was placed on the Priority Watch List in 2007 and it was another decade before the...
beIN Says Issues at RIPE NCC Help Piracy-as-a-Service Entities Stay Online
For those interested in how policy takes shape under pressure from a constantly adapting piracy landscape, submissions to the USTR for its annual review of ‘notorious markets’ often carry clues on the performance of current strategies. Beyond the work of the USTR, some issues raised in submissions aren’t easily fixed but can develop into topics for wider discussion. A joint submission by broadcasting group beIN and Miramax, a company...
MPA Highlights Rapidly Expanding “Hydra Sites” as an Emerging Piracy Problem
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has been a key player in the anti-piracy fight for decades, a position that has only strengthened in recent years. As the driving force behind the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the MPA finds itself at the center of an international enforcement apparatus. For example, MPA and ACE helped to shut down a popular ring of sports piracy sites last month, which reportedly received over 1.4...
Sports Piracy Operator Goes from Jail to Getting Hired by a Tech Unicorn in a Month
Every year, dozens of pirate site operators and their affiliates are arrested worldwide. Aside from highlighting the damage to rightsholders and the risks involved, little context is provided. The case against the Argentinian operator of Al Ángulo TV provides a welcome exception, with a rather unique plot twist. With assistance from top-tier Spanish football league LaLiga, on August 20 Argentinian police arrested Alejo Warles. The...
