Italy's Piracy Shield blocking system was launched early 2024 promising to end the flood of pirate IPTV providers saturating the local market. Site-blocking proponents' claims of huge success were met by reports of significant failures. In the absence of any useful, credible data being made available by those behind Piracy Shield, researchers in Italy are trying to answer the big question: Is Piracy Shield effective at reducing access to pirated live sports streams?

Piracy Shield’s first birthday is still several months away so the appearance of a study into its effectiveness came as a surprise but not an unwelcome one.

Commentary by Italian telecoms regulator AGCOM, mirrored by top-tier football league Serie A and streaming service DAZN, hasn’t been at all useful for those seeking answers to the two most important questions:

1) How effective is Piracy Shield at denying access to pirate live sports streams?
2) What is the effect (if any) on new subscriber uptake and customer churn?

Thus far, success has been expre...

Read entire story Yesterday at TorrentFreak

With many millions of regular visitors, Cuevana.biz is one of the largest pirate streaming sites in Latin America. However, the site may not be around for much longer. A notice posted by the operators, who claim to be Mexican students, suggests that they will voluntarily hand over their domains to the MPA, which recently reported the site to the U.S. government.

For well over a decade, Cuevana has been a dominant piracy streaming brand in Latin America.

The original Cuevana site was founded by Argentine Tomas Escobar, who was an engineering student at the time. By offering a Netflix-type streaming experience, with a bigger catalog and without any subscription fees, the pirate service quickly took off.

The Cuevana Whack-a-Mole

It didn’t take long before rightsholders started to take notice of the millions of users flocking to the site. That marked the start of a series of enforcement campaigns that continues to this day.

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Read entire story 10/12/2024 at TorrentFreak

The RIAA has submitted its most recent overview of notorious markets to the U.S. Trade Representative, listing familiar suspects including torrent sites, cyberlockers, and stream-ripping services. The RIAA views artificial intelligence as a potential threat, but also as a source for new revenue streams and innovation.

The artificial intelligence boom promises progress and innovation but, at the same time, it poses a threat to existing industries.

Over the past two years, dozens of lawsuits were filed against technology companies. Most of these amount to copyright infringement complaints, challenging the unauthorized use of protected works as AI training data.

The RIAA and its members are also involved in these legal battles. The music group is a driving force in lawsuits against the AI companies Udio and Suno, for example, and recently backed a lawsuit against the AI startup Anthropic. Read entire story 10/11/2024 at TorrentFreak

In May 2023, five men behind one of the most successful pirate IPTV services ever seen in the UK, were sentenced to more than 30 years in prison following a private prosecution by the Premier League. Flawless TV leader Mark Gould received an unusually harsh 11-year custodial sentence but hoped that the Court of Appeal would be a little more sympathetic.

In May 2023, five men behind pirate IPTV service Flawless TV were sentenced at Chesterfield Justice Center in the UK.

After a five-year investigation involving four territorial police forces, three regional Trading Standards units, plus entities from the private sector, the men were sentenced to over 30 years’ prison on various counts, primarily conspiracy to defraud.

Mark Gould, described as the mastermind of the operation, received a landmark sentence of 11 years’ prison following a private prosecution by the Premier League.

The sentences were a signifi...

Read entire story 10/11/2024 at TorrentFreak

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a copyright infringement verdict against Internet provider Grande, which failed to take action against allegedly pirating subscribers. The jury's $47 million damages award in favor of the major music label plaintiffs is vacated. According to the Court, individual tracks that are part of an album, should not be counted as separate works.

In late 2022, several of the world’s largest music companies including Warner Bros. and Sony Music prevailed in their lawsuit against Internet provider Grande Communications.

The record labels accused the Astound-owned ISP of not doing enough to stop pirating subscribers. Specifically, they alleged that the company failed to terminate repeat infringers.

The trial lasted more than two weeks and ended in a resounding victory for the labels. A Texas federal jury found Grande guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement, and the ISP was ordered to pay $47 million in dam...

Read entire story 10/10/2024 at TorrentFreak

In August, New Zealand's Justice Minister authorized Kim Dotcom's immediate arrest and extradition. Dotcom's response to his followers on X was simple: "I'm not leaving." Another post mid-September - "we are very close to disaster" - led to Dotcom disappearing for three weeks. On his return, Dotcom said X had suspended his account, based on an extremely serious allegation. After accusing Elon Musk of failing to help, yesterday Dotcom warned that a Trump loss would see Musk indicted and "fighting for his life." Dotcom has a plan to avoid extradition; chaos like this provides the fuel.

Kim Dotcom’s war of attrition, against the governments of New Zealand and the United States, seems to have entered a new phase.

After 12 years of legal action, New Zealand Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith approved Dotcom’s extradition to the United States back in August.

New Zealand Herald recently obtained a copy of the order. As far as we know, the order still hasn’t been published in full, but it did authorize Dotcom’s immediate arrest.

“I authorize any constable to take Kim Dotcom, who is currently on bail, into custody,” the order re...

Read entire story 10/9/2024 at TorrentFreak

HiAnime.to has become a primary destination for many anime viewers. The site boosted its traffic to 300 million visits in September following the shutdown of a major competitor. This hasn't gone unnoticed by the MPA and ACE, which are now targeting the site and several dozen competitors in a new DMCA subpoena push.

The anime industry has experienced a surge in popularity, but this growth is not limited to legal streaming platforms.

A significant portion of the demand for anime arrives from unofficial channels, with several major pirate websites dedicated solely to anime content.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) recognizes this as a serious threat and is not sitting idly by.

ACE Crackdown

A few weeks ago, ACE booked one of its largest successes in history with the shutdown of the Fmovies piracy ring. As a result, roughly a billion monthly pirate site visits we...

Read entire story 10/8/2024 at TorrentFreak

Authorities in Italy say that a major IPTV piracy investigation has uncovered a "sophisticated fraud" involving channels and content owned by Sky, DAZN, Netflix and Mediaset. Coordinated by the public prosecutor in the southern city of Lecce, specialist financial and forensic officers were able to identify four people suspected of piracy and money laundering offenses. A court ordered the preventative seizure of five pieces of real estate and two vehicles.

As Italy’s measures continue against pirate IPTV providers and any entity directly or indirectly associated with them, it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that those who carry out infringement exist in the physical world.

Until suspects are confronted in this environment, the risk of recurring infringement never really goes away. Law enforcement in Italy will be hoping that an investigation in the city of Lecce will produce lasting results after uncovering a “sophisticated fraud scheme.”

Multi-Agency Investigation

Coordinated by the public prosecutor&#...

Read entire story 10/8/2024 at TorrentFreak

Every week we take a close look at the most pirated movies on torrent sites. What are pirates downloading? 'Deadpool & Wolverine' tops the chart, followed by 'Wolfs'. 'The Killer's Game' completes the top three.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.

Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

This week we have three newcomers on the list. “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the most shared title.

The most torrented movies for the week ending on October 07 are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer ...

Read entire story 10/8/2024 at TorrentFreak

After being removed from Apple's App Store, music streaming app Musi is fighting back with a lawsuit. Musi claims the app's removal, which was prompted by a YouTube complaint, was unjustified. The company sues Apple for breach of contract, seeking reinstatement and damages. The lawsuit raises questions about YouTube-related copyright claims, which have yet to be answered.

Last month, Apple removed the popular music streaming app Musi from its App Store. The removal is rather significant because the app has millions of users.

Apple’s action didn’t come as a complete surprise, as music industry groups had been trying to take the app down for months. They branded Musi a ‘parasitic’ app that skirts the rules.

Why action is being taken now remains a mystery. None of the parties involved have commented in detail on the reason for the removal. Musi, in response to the takedown, acknowledged the problem and said that it hoped t...

Read entire story 10/7/2024 at TorrentFreak