Breaking File-sharing, Copyright and Privacy News
A new academic study offers a detailed look inside Telegram's video piracy ecosystem, spotting more than 19,000 pirated titles linked in posts that were viewed more than 4 billion times. The researchers built an AI-powered tool that can spot pirate channels and bots, which were reported to Telegram and shared with major rightsholders. The takedown effort produced results but was far from flawless.…
A California federal court has ordered YouTube to unmask three popular South Korean creators of anime recap channels. The creators filed a motion to quash the DMCA subpoena, requested by Japanese publisher KADOKAWA, but the court rejected the fair use claim, which is now under appeal. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
In May, the UK High Court granted several Hollywood studios a broad "omnibus" site blocking order, allowing them to block rotating networks of pirate sites, without the need to link them to known pirate brands. This breakthrough order was recently cited in a Canadian court order, but remained unavailable to the public, until now. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and…
Europe's football seasons kick off again this month, with the Champions League to follow in September. In preparation, Canal+ has secured fourteen site-blocking orders spanning ISPs, DNS resolvers, VPNs, and search engines. It's a broad, coordinated effort — and one of the last that France will run by hand before an automated system takes over. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles,…
Three years ago the European Commission rejected calls for binding anti-piracy legislation, issuing a 'recommendation' instead. A new study commissioned by the European Parliament concludes that this soft approach has fallen short. It calls for a binding EU Regulation built around the 30-minute blocking clock popularized by Italy's Piracy Shield. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright…
Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day' tops the chart, followed by 'Supergirl.' 'Disclosure Day' completes the top three. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Japanese police have arrested an alleged seeder who's connected to the widely popular anime torrent site NYAA. Anti-piracy group CODA tells TorrentFreak that the tool which helped find the suspect didn't monitor the torrent swarms, but analyzed traffic at the index and tracker level. How that identified the seeder, and how three other NYAA targets, caught in a separate action, were identified,…
YggTorrent was France's largest torrent site until a hacker gutted it in March. In July, the police arrested twelve suspected operators. That was not the end of it, however. Following a purported takeover, YggTorrent's domains are back online and counting down to a "grand return" on September 1 under a new team. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Mexican broadcaster TelevisaUnivision has obtained one of the broadest anti-piracy injunctions ever issued by a U.S. federal court. After initially targeting five pirate IPTV streaming operations, the case expanded to cover well over 500 domain names, requiring intermediaries including Cloudflare, GitHub, and a Mexican bank to comply. In addition, the injunction also covers pirate services and…
The European Space Agency's Cosmos portal is dedicated to space exploration. While the organization scans stars and galaxies far away, its own infrastructure is quietly hosting hundreds of PDFs promoting shady IPTV services, ranking them in Google right beside official Gaia mission updates. The SEO 'hack' is reminiscent of an exploit that previously hit the European Commission's Eurostat website.…
After the Supreme Court's Cox ruling reshaped ISPs piracy liability, the record labels behind a $46.8 million verdict against Grande Communications are ready to walk away from the case entirely. Grande won't let them, however. The Internet provider is holding out for a formal win and the millions in bond costs it says the appeal ran up. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy…
Operation Offsides seized more than 1,000 pirate streaming domains during the FIFA World Cup. While the enforcement efforts were broadly praised, domain seizures are no silver bullet. In an op-ed, leaders of the MPA and the IPR Center suggest that more is needed to tackle piracy effectively, supporting a renewed push for U.S. site blocking legislation that comes with an Iranian twist. From: TF ,…
Popular pirate streaming sites, including Streamzy and Lordflix, are key targets in a new Indian site-blocking order obtained by HBO and other major studios. The order, which lists over 120 domain names, refines how India deals with new mirror domains that surface after the initial block. The order also demands action from domain registrars and, as a result, several domains, including Streamzy.to,…
Facing potential U.S. trade sanctions over online piracy, Vietnam is using the recent shutdown and its criminal prosecution of the HiAnime piracy ring as a key line of defense. Notably, Vietnam's response was submitted on the same day that the HiAnime prosecution was made public. While the enforcement action is notable, the outcome and potential sentences will be even more important. From: TF ,…
French lawmakers have officially adopted a new sports law that replaces manual domain checks with support for automated, real-time piracy blocking. The system allows for instant blockades during live sports broadcasts, with oversight checks from regulator ARCOM being applied afterward rather than before. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Scammers are allegedly exploiting a flaw in Facebook's 'Edit Post' feature to backdate stolen videos and hijack copyright claims through Meta's Rights Manager. This allows them to monetize content of other creators, while also hitting them with strikes. The problem is at the center of several Indian lawsuits that want the American tech giant to close this surprisingly simple loophole. From: TF ,…
Meta has responded to the amended multi-million copyright lawsuit filed by adult film producer Strike 3 Holdings. While flatly denying that it pirated adult films for AI training, Meta confirmed that a key IP address is traced to the home of one of its former data engineers. At the same time, Meta proposes a novel "de minimis" BitTorrent defense. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright…
Three years of litigation that triggered explosive allegations of DMCA "weaponization" and "maximum pain" pressure tactics quietly ended in coordinated settlements. X Corp and several music companies settled the copyright infringement lawsuit and X's antitrust counterstrike, with prejudice. The dismissals come shortly after X Corp.'s new parent company SpaceX went public, identifying the legal…
For the first time, a Canadian site-blocking order can target pirate sites that don't exist yet. The Federal Court has ordered ISPs to block thirteen piracy brands including 123Movies and FMovies, and its catch-all "Expanded Scope" allows Hollywood studios and broadcasters to add unrelated sites later, without having to go back to court. From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy…