Pirate IPTV Reseller Who Made Millions of Euros Sent to Prison For Eight Years
Like many of its European counterparts, Greece has a pirate site blocking program that receives regular updates through an administrative process. The first domains blocked by Greek ISPs (xrysoi.online, xrysoi.se and xrysoi.eu) were restricted in 2018 and the most recent (antenasports.ru, sporthd.me) were blocked this August, to a total of 655 domains in roughly six years. Greece also regularly blocks IP addresses, mostly to restrict...
Pirate IPTV Subscribers Warned They Face “Automated Fines”
As the financial stakes increase and rightsholders become increasingly desperate to suppress piracy, the nature of information delivered to the media demands scrutiny like never before. Almost all major announcements are geared to elicit a prescribed response, as part of an overall strategy to shape public opinion while delivering on various policy goals. Claims in Italy, that the Piracy Shield system would virtually eliminate piracy,...
Homebrew Transparency Portal Reveals Needlessly Blocked ‘Pirate’ Sites
Copyright holders and anti-piracy groups repeatedly argue that pirate site blocking is an effective and proportional measure. This message is highlighted more frequently now that the U.S. is seriously considering blocking measures again. Effective and Proportional? On the effectiveness-side, blocking proponents are helped by academic research, which concluded that blocking measures can be effective. The proportionality argument is...
Will Piracy Kill Football in Italy? Not if Football Damages the Internet First
Despite warnings from internet experts, the government passed a law in 2023 aimed at combating illegal IPTV services. However, the legislation has failed to achieve its intended outcomes. What followed wasn’t a meeting of minds with all stakeholders involved, but a steely determination to make the system work for the rightsholders. For a framework that had measures in place to punish internet companies for failing to block, but...
Apple Removes ‘Parasitic’ Streaming App ‘Musi’ Following Persistent Complaints
App stores are littered with apps that promise free access to music, but only a few live up to expectations. Musi is one of them. The music app first made headlines in 2016 when its founders, who were teenagers at the time, presented their brainchild in an episode of the Canadian edition of Dragons’ Den. The software itself works relatively simply. Musi can stream music, sourced from YouTube, and allows users to create and share...
U.S. Court Orders LibGen to Pay $30m to Publishers, Issues Broad Injunction
Library Genesis, often shortened to LibGen, is one of the longest-running shadow libraries online. It provides free access to a vast collection of millions of books and academic papers that typically require payment. In recent years, rightsholders have made several attempts to shut the site down. Court orders have led to LibGen being blocked in several countries, but completely eliminating the threat has been extremely difficult. This...
