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When it comes to civil anti-piracy enforcement, BREIN is without a doubt one of the most active players in the industry.<\/p>\nWhen it comes to civil anti-piracy enforcement, BREIN is without a doubt one of the most active players in the industry.<\/p>\n
The group, which receives support from Hollywood and other content industries, has a track record of targeting a wide range of piracy threats, both large and small. <\/p>\n
While most of these anti-piracy actions are the result of in-house investigative work, BREIN certainly doesn\u2019t shy away from court appearances, where setting a favorable precedent is seen as more important than obtaining monetary damages. <\/p>\n
This week, the group announced its latest annual report<\/a>, providing insights into the priorities of the organization and the progress being made.<\/p>\n Looking at the numbers we see that the anti-piracy group has closed the books on a rather productive year. In total, it completed 368 investigations which resulted in the shutdown of 349 illegal sites and services.<\/p>\n These targets include 179 Pirate Bay proxies, 39 streaming sites, and 38 heavy uploaders, plus open directories, Facebook groups, and sellers of illegal IPTV subscriptions. <\/p>\n In addition, over 650,169 links to pirate sites were removed from third-party search engines such as Google.<\/p>\n BREIN also kept a close eye on advertisements for pirate services and other illegal offerings. A total of 3,210 advertisements were flagged and reported, while 18 persistent advertisers were identified and stopped. <\/p>\n The above numbers surely make a difference but there is more to report. Following ten years of legal action, in 2020 BREIN finally won<\/a> the site-blocking battle in the Netherlands and last year this blockade was strengthened.<\/p>\n In November, BREIN signed a deal with all large Dutch Internet providers to streamline the blocking process. Through this \u201cWebsite Blocking Covenant<\/a>,\u201d the Internet providers promise to block pirate sites when rightsholders obtain a blocking order against one of the other ISPs.<\/p>\n While not mentioned in BREIN\u2019s annual report, the group booked another significant blocking victory last year. Following a notice from BREIN, Google voluntarily removed all Pirate Bay URLs<\/a> from its search results in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n The blocking doesn\u2019t stop at The Pirate Bay either. In 2021, BREIN initiated a new legal proceeding to block six additional torrent sites. That effort eventually resulted in a new blocking order<\/a> against the ISP Delta a few months ago, which was voluntarily adopted by other ISPs.<\/p>\n Aside from the blocking action, BREIN also took a variety of other enforcement actions. The group investigated six illegal cam recordings that appeared to originate from Dutch movie theaters. This investigation, which also involves the MPA, remains pending.<\/p>\n The anti-piracy group further reports that 54 settlements were reached with pirates, while 18 received a house visit, often with help from a debt collector. The targets often include site operators or people who make pirated content available.<\/p>\n Amidst all the positive achievements, there was also a setback. Several years ago BREIN initiated a campaign to identify heavy BitTorrent uploaders so they could be warned and educated<\/a>. Thus far, the first warning is yet to go out. <\/p>\n The annual report notes that 920 persistent uploaders have been identified by their IP addresses thus far but Internet provider Ziggo is refusing to forward<\/a> infringement notices. Ziggo has a court decision in its favor but that is under appeal and may eventually end up at the Supreme Court. <\/p>\n From: TF<\/a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.<\/p>\n349 Shutdowns<\/h2>\n
Pirate Bay Blockade Expands<\/h2>\n
Camcording, Settlements and Warnings<\/h2>\n