Hackers Invited to Pirate IPTV Blocking Hackathon to Silence Illegal Devices
Android-based set-top devices have saturated the market in recent years, and it’s not uncommon for households to have several; downstairs, upstairs, and probably at least one in a drawer. These devices, including the ubiquitous Amazon Firestick, are mostly content agnostic and equally capable of streaming video from legal sources such as Netflix or BBC iPlayer, or from unlicensed IPTV platforms. The problem for rightsholders and...
Seized Uptobox Servers Won’t Be Returned, Requests Ruled Inadmissible
Next Thursday, September 19, 2024, will mark the one-year anniversary of the raids on French datacenters that brought down file-hosting platform Uptobox. Founded in 2011, Uptobox was a very popular site with over 34 million visits per month, a third of which were generated by French users. After being blocked by ISPs in mid-2023, enforcement action became more likely than not. Around 20 police officers participated in the raids on...
French Pirate Site Blocking Order Targets Expired and Seized Z-Library Domains
A few weeks before the U.S. Department of Justice announced the criminal prosecution of two alleged Z-Library operators in 2022, the French Publishers Union (SNE) had already targeted the site indirectly. In August that year, SNE obtained an order at a Paris Court, requiring French ISPs to block more than 200 domain names. By November 2022, the order was largely moot. U.S. authorities didn’t just call for the arrest of two people...
‘Parasitic’ IPTV Piracy is Killing Football, “It’s Them or Us” Says Serie A CEO
Supported by almost constant life-or-death messaging, one has to wonder whether Serie A’s seemingly endless financial problems really are insurmountable. Yet for reasons that aren’t easily understood, let alone explained, every week matches go ahead as planned. With decaying stadiums at some clubs and billions of euros in persistent overall debt, companies in other industries would’ve stopped spending beyond their means long ago, or...
ACE Helps Egypt to Dismantle the Region’s Largest Piracy Site
In recent years, rightsholders have repeatedly teamed up with Egyptian law enforcement to tackle several large pirate sites and services. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) booked several successes, shutting down domains related to popular piracy rings, streaming portals such as Egybest, MyCima, Movizland, and, more recently, Cimaclub and Cima4U. Laroza Shuts Down This week, anti-piracy alliance ACE reports that it...
Namecheap Flagged for EU ‘Piracy Watchlist’ After Failing to Block Infringing Sites
Supported by Hollywood and other content industries, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has a long and well-established track record. The group celebrated its 25th anniversary on Monday, with now-retired director Tim Kuik receiving a royal decoration as Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau for his achievements. While Kuik undeniably proved to be a major player in the anti-piracy field in recent decades, BREIN’s work continues without him....
