Pirate IPTV Box Evades Blocking But is Also Critically Vulnerable to Attack
Described by the MPA, Premier League and other rightsholders as a priority piracy threat, a set-top box available to buy right now on popular markets, initially sounds like an attractive buy. Manufactured in China, EVPAD TV boxes look fairly unremarkable, and with an Android 7.0 operating system under the hood, they are. When purchased with a cheap ‘lifetime’ subscription, with installable apps providing access to all the content most...
Yout and RIAA Clash in Court Over YouTube’s Alleged Copyright Barriers
Five years ago, YouTube ripper Yout.com sued the RIAA, asking a Connecticut district court to declare that the site does not violate the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. The music group had previously used DMCA takedown notices to remove many of Yout’s links from Google’s search results. This had a significant impact on Yout’s advertising revenues, according to operator Johnathan Nader, who always believed he wasn’t breaking any...
Pirate Site Operator’s Appeal Goes Bad, Court Extends Prison Term By 50%
Despite a stream of news reports that seem to suggest the opposite, there are more examples of pirate site operators surviving unscathed than there are public catastrophes. That’s to be expected when facing finite anti-piracy resources, yet some individuals do seem to fly under the radar with very little effort. Others prefer to weigh the likelihood of enforcement against available resources and confidence in their personal skill set....
MPA Shut Down OnionPlay’s Discord & Tries to Unmask Pirate Site Operator
Founded in 2019, pirate streaming service aggregator OnionPlay has been around for half a decade already. While the site had to switch domain names occasionally, OnionPlay maintained its core identity while its user base continued to grow. Discord Deletes OnionPlay Channel At a time when pirate streaming sites are under heavy pressure from the MPA and its anti-piracy branch ACE, staying online can be quite a feat. This pressure also...
Share-Online Operator Gets Two Years Probation in Landmark ‘Cyberlocker’ Verdict
In October 2019, an international police operation brought an abrupt end to Share-Online.biz, the largest file-hosting platform in Germany at the time. The raids, which targeted data centers in the Netherlands and France as well as residential addresses in Germany, resulted in the seizure of many servers and the shutdown of a platform that served more than a million registered users. Files stored on Share-Online were typically...
Greek Cybercrime Unit Shuts Down IPTV Pirates, 68 End Users Face Fines
A new legal framework to tackle online infringement in Greece went live just a couple of months ago, and reports of prosecutions are already coming in. Early September, it was reported that a man from Sparta faces prosecution and a fine of up to 6,000 euros for two IPTV piracy offenses. The suspect, reportedly a café owner, was targeted at his workplace on a Saturday, allegedly in front of customers. One told local media that they...
