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Internet Archive vs. Music Labels: $693m Copyright Battle Ends with Confidential Settlement
A copyright lawsuit launched by several major record labels against the Internet Archive, over the ambitious Great 78 Project, is officially over. On Monday, the parties informed a federal court in California that they had reached a settlement. The details remain confidential, but a potential $693 million damages claim is off the table. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-17 04:54:43 READMORE
Kim Dotcom Extradition Decision Was Lawful, Judicial Review Denied
In 2024, New Zealand's Minister of Justice approved Kim Dotcom's extradition to the United States, where the Megaupload founder faces charges of criminal copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering. As expected, Dotcom requested a judicial review of the Minister's decision, arguing bias, bad faith, and the potential for grossly disproportionate punishment. The High Court found no argument persuasive. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-16 15:28:55 READMORE
ReVanced Complies With Spotify Takedown But Explores Options to Fight Back
ReVanced, a popular open-source project that provides patches for various Android applications, has pulled its Spotify Premium workaround. The developers complied with a Spotify takedown notice to avoid escalation but do not necessarily agree with the position as stated. The team is currently seeking legal advice and will consult GitHub to see if they can fight back. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-15 20:02:08 READMORE
Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 09/15/2025
Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Weapons' tops the chart, followed by 'The Naked Gun'. 'Superman' completes the top three. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-15 08:09:40 READMORE
Pirates ‘Hide Uploads With Morse Code’, RuTube ‘Hides’ Movies on its Front Page
A new piracy study published in Russia has some good news, and some more good news. Due to blocking and lower payouts from advertisers, pirates' revenue fell by 14.5% in the first half of 2025. Search traffic fell too, down 13.9% with some pirates using morse code to thwart detection. With piracy on social media and hosting sites reportedly falling from 12.1% to 1.6% of piracy overall, the tactic of hiding Hollywood movies on RuTube's front page may have been overlooked. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-14 23:10:10 READMORE
Internet Society: Italy’s “Piracy Shield” Failures Are a Warning Against “Blunt” Piracy Blocking
As U.S. lawmakers consider new pirate site blocking legislation, the influential Internet Society has issued a stark warning against the practice. In a new policy brief, the organization argues that DNS and IP address blocking are "blunt" instruments that cause widespread collateral damage, using the failures of Italy's "Piracy Shield" as a key example. Alongside the warning, the brief provides a set of recommendations for policymakers who nonetheless push the blocking proposals forward. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-13 21:38:36 READMORE
Employee Who Leaked ‘Spider-Man’ Blu-ray Sentenced to Nearly 5 Years Prison on Gun Charge
A former employee of a disc manufacturing company in Memphis who stole hundreds of DVDs and Blu-ray discs, has been sentenced to 57 months in prison by a Memphis federal court. The length of the sentence is driven by an unrelated firearm charge. For the copyright infringement offenses, to which the defendant pleaded guilty, the court handed down a 21-month sentence to be served concurrently. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-12 21:28:47 READMORE
Takedown Notices for Pirate Live Streams Skyrocket, But Why?
A new industry-backed report reveals that takedown notices for pirated live sports streams skyrocketed to over 15 million in the first half of 2025, nearly tripling previous levels. At the same time, the effectiveness of these notices has plummeted to a historic low. While the report is positioned to demand more action from EU lawmakers, claiming that online piracy continues to escalate, a closer look at the methodology reveals that rightsholders themselves played a key role in the surge. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-11 18:32:12 READMORE
ACE & DAZN Shut Down a Major Sports Piracy Site in a “DMCA Ignored” Country
The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment and DAZN have announced a successful operation to shut down Calcio, the most popular live sports piracy site in Italy. Calcio was reportedly run from Moldova, a country with sky-high piracy rates, with services reportedly ignoring the DMCA. It seems like the last place an operator would easily shut down a prosperous site and hand over 130+ viable domains. But as the song goes, the times they are a changing. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-10 16:44:37 READMORE
U.S. Gov’t & Tech Giants Unite Against ISP Piracy Liability Ruling at Supreme Court
The battle over a $1 billion piracy judgment against internet provider Cox Communications has reached the Supreme Court, where the company receives broad support. Amicus briefs from the U.S. government, major tech companies, and various other parties, warn that the current ruling creates a dangerous precedent. They argue that the Fourth Circuit ruling, which makes passive service providers liable for their customers' actions, invokes broad liability and puts people's internet access at risk. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-09 19:56:56 READMORE
‘Modded Hardware’ Agrees to Settle Nintendo’s Copyright Lawsuit for $2 Million
The lawsuit between Nintendo and Modded Hardware has been settled, with the site's operator agreeing to a final judgment of $2 million. The proposed settlement includes a broad permanent injunction that bans operator Ryan Daly from selling, distributing, or even linking to circumvention devices such mod chips and hacked consoles. The defendant also agreed to transfer his website domain to Nintendo and destroy any remaining circumvention devices. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-09 06:04:59 READMORE
Piracy Shield Study Reveals Massive Overblocking & Collateral Damage
Faced with rampant piracy of content that generates a significant chunk of their revenue, sports leagues and their broadcasting partners are deploying increasingly aggressive anti-piracy measures. Italy's Piracy Shield was promoted as the solution, but a new peer-reviewed study casts a very different light. Researchers reveal an ineffective anti-piracy system easily circumvented by pirates, that causes collateral damage affecting hundreds of entirely innocent websites. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-08 17:00:42 READMORE
Dynamic Pirate Site Blocking Injunctions and the Transparency Illusion
When a major rightsholder obtains a site blocking order to counter rampant piracy, transparency is not always guaranteed. More often than not, the public isn't routinely updated. Draft legislation in the U.S. would see initial blocking orders published in the spirit of transparency. As a recent order obtained in India by DAZN illustrates, the true scale can only be appreciated by observing what comes next. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-08 05:33:19 READMORE
U.S. Government’s Focus on Sports Piracy Puts Spotlight on Streameast Saga
The U.S. Trade Representative has started collecting input for its annual list of notorious piracy markets. In 2025, there's a special focus on sports broadcast piracy, giving rightsholders an opportunity to discuss the takedown of the largest sports piracy ring earlier this week. The ring used the name Streameast but the real, original Streameast was not shut down. On the contrary, it's enjoying a boost in traffic thanks to the demise of an imposter. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-07 03:55:24 READMORE
Behind the Curtain: The Three-Year Journey to the Block BEARD Site Blocking Act
The Block BEARD Site-Blocking Act, recently introduced to address foreign piracy in the United States, did not emerge from a vacuum. It is the result of a multi-year effort that began with a non-public proposal in 2022. This initial version became stranded when stakeholders were unable to reach an agreement, but remnants of the early proposal remain visible today. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-05 22:40:32 READMORE
Threat Intelligence Researchers “Uncover a Massive Pirate IPTV Operation”
Researchers at threat intelligence platform Silent Push claim to have uncovered a massive pirate IPTV operation. Hosted across more than 1,000 domains and 10,000 IP addresses, the network reportedly exploits content owned by Amazon, Netflix, Disney, Premier League and many others. The identification of an individual and companies in Afghanistan is somewhat unexpected. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-04 18:47:49 READMORE
ACE Shuts Down Giant ‘Streameast’ Piracy Ring, But the Original Survives
In a major anti-piracy action against a Streameast-branded operation, ACE has shut down what it calls the world's largest illegal sports streaming ring. Conducted alongside Egyptian authorities, the operation dismantled a network of more than 80 domain names responsible for 1.6 billion visits in the past year. Interestingly, the original Streameast operation, previously targeted by U.S. authorities, remains online and claims it has no connection to the dismantled 'copycat'. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-04 06:49:26 READMORE
LaLiga Touts ‘Historic’ IPTV Piracy Crackdown, Key Questions Remain Unanswered
A massive police operation in Argentina, backed by LaLiga, dismantled a global IPTV network that reportedly served over eight million paid users. The piracy crackdown implicates several technology companies, including BitKernel and Goose, as key players in the network's infrastructure. However, with no arrests announced, and official information kept to a minimum, the 'historic' takedown leaves crucial questions about their alleged involvement unanswered. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-03 18:45:52 READMORE
Court of Appeal Throws Bell Canada a Lifeline in $291m Movie Piracy Lawsuit
A group of movie companies known for targeting ISPs in the U.S. went on to file a similar lawsuit against Bell Canada. They argued that since Bell failed to forward ~40,000 infringement notices to its subscribers, the ISP can be held liable. After a series of setbacks, the Federal Court of Appeal has thrown Bell a lifeline in lawsuit worth up to CAD$400m (US$291m) in damages. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Posted On:2025-09-02 17:10:43 READMORE