Napster.com Faced ISP Piracy Blockade For “Massive Copyright Violations”
The original Napster service was launched by Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker on June 1, 1999. Had it not been sued into oblivion by the record labels, it would’ve celebrated its 26th anniversary last Sunday. In reality, Napster didn’t live for very long at all. The service was shut down by court order in July 2001 and in this month 23 years ago, Napster Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Napster Brand Lives On, Legally For more than two...
Unveiled: New U.S. Anti-Piracy Bill ‘ACPA’ Proposes Alternative Site Blocking Path
After a decade of focusing efforts overseas, the push for website blocking has landed back on American shores. Earlier this year, U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced a new site blocking bill, titled: Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA). With piracy blocking efforts expanding globally, the introduction of a U.S. site blocking bill was perhaps only a matter of time. But it took time. The new bill arrived more than thirteen years after...
Operator of South Korea’s Largest Pirate Site Sentenced to 3 Years in Prison
As online piracy continued to cause headaches for South Korea, in 2023 key media entities formed the Video Copyright Protection Council. The VCPC coalition adopted a unified “stronger together” strategy for operational efficiencies and greater governmental leverage, swiftly putting its first target on notice with a criminal complaint and a $3.7 billion damages claim. NunuTV / NooNooTV Popular in the local market, streaming site NunuTV...
MPA Backs Automated Pirate Site-Blocking, Sees Role for VPN and CDN Companies
In recent years, the European Commission has proposed and adopted various legislative changes to help combat online piracy. The Copyright Directive and the Digital Services Act both envisioned tighter copyright takedown rules for online service providers. Many rightsholder groups felt that the new rules were insufficient to target live streaming piracy, sports content in particular. They wanted more incentives for online service...
Anti-Piracy Group BREIN Ramps Up IPTV Actions Under New Leadership
BREIN has just published its latest annual report, providing insights into the priorities of the organization and the progress being made. This was BREIN’s first year under new leadership. After Tim Kuik retired in 2024, Bastiaan van Ramshorst became the new director flanked by Birre Büller, the new head of legal affairs. BREIN’s 2024 Annual Report Last week, the group published its 2024 annual report which shows that anti-piracy...
Enders’ Piracy Report Blames Big Tech; That’s What Anti-Piracy Lobbyists Do
If Hollywood studios, major record labels, broadcasters, and sports organizations stopped publishing their own piracy research, the scale of the phenomenon and potential solutions would likely be less clearly defined than they are today. What we have instead is a largely unified response across multiple industries, featuring broadly similar claims on the scale of the problem, what needs to be done, and by whom. Everyone pushing in the...
