The draft of Rep. Darrell Issa's new U.S. pirate site blocking bill 'ACPA' is not without controversy. In public comments, opponents warn that the bill's legal framework risks overblocking, which can impact legitimate sites and services. And in a new twist, it appears the bill may come with a potential self-destruct button: a "sunsetting clause".
After a decade of focusing efforts overseas, the push for pirate site blocking has landed back on American shores.
There are currently two bills in the making; the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA) introduced by Representative Zoe Lofgren in February, and Representative Darrell Issa’s ‘American Copyright Protection Act’ (ACPA), which tackles the same issue from a different angle.
ACPA has yet to be formally introduced, but a draft of the framework was shared with stakeholders late May, with a request for input. While most of the back and forth takes p...
In a pivotal moment for artificial intelligence and copyright law, Meta has secured a bittersweet partial fair use victory in its defense of a 'piracy' lawsuit filed by several book authors. While granting Meta summary judgment on specific claims, the court outlined how copyright challenges against AI developers might succeed in the future. The decision emphasizes the critical importance of proving potential market harm, specifically by AI-generated books.
Over the past two years, rightsholders of all kinds have filed lawsuits against companies that develop AI models.
Most of these cases allege that AI developers used copyrighted works to train LLMs without first obtaining authorization.
Meta is among a long list of companies now being sued for this allegedly-infringing activity, including a class action lawsuit filed by authors Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden. This case has a clear piracy angle, as Meta used libraries of pirated books as training material.
Meta admitted the use of these unofficial...
Last month, Italian authorities issued fines to more than 2,200 subscribers of a pirate IPTV service busted in October 2024. Another service, Italia TV, was dismantled last December and its main operator has just been sent to prison for 52 months. For the service's 6,000 subscribers, news that an additional prosecutor has been working to identify them is a negative. In Italy, similar cases appear to be backing up.
Selling pirate IPTV subscriptions has always been illegal and after the EU’s top court confirmed as much in 2017, consuming unlicensed content is illegal too. Nevertheless, these offenses are typically treated differently.
Once identified, those who operate or sell access to illicit services are unlikely to get a free pass. Yet subscribers to those services have almost always walked away completely unscathed.
Limited Time For SuccessThe difference isn’t just about supply being more serious. Since fines and similar measures punish those directly responsible for th...
For many thousands of Albanians, Filma24 was the top destination for pirated movies and TV shows. This weekend, however, that routine came to an abrupt halt when the site and many of its backup domains went offline. All signs point to an intervention from anti-piracy group ACE and parent organization the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which is the new owner of Filma24's domain names.
Online piracy is a global problem for copyright holders, but some threats are relatively localized.
In addition to internationally oriented sites such as The Pirate Bay, Hianime, Cineby and many others, there are also many local favorites.
Filma24Five years ago, Filma24 was Albania’s leading pirate site, with over half of its visitors hailing from the Southeastern European country, making it one of the nation’s most popular websites.
The site’s popularity attracted the attention of the MPA’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which a...
In a move to protect the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 from piracy, DAZN has obtained an injunction from the Delhi High Court. The order targets not just local internet service providers, but also global domain name registrars such as Namecheap and 1API. As a result, the injunction is having a worldwide effect, rendering several pirate sites unreachable for users anywhere on the planet.
The High Court in Delhi, India, regularly issues site blocking orders, requiring Internet providers to block access to pirate sites.
These orders have targeted sites that stream movies and TV series, both from Hollywood and Bollywood, but also sites that specialize in pirated sports streams.
Last week we covered a new “superlative” injunction that temporarily extends blocking powers to deal with pirated cricket matches, protecting the ongoing England Tour of India. However, “dynamic+” orders are still being issued and while less advanced on paper, the...
Telecoms and audiovisual regulator Arcom has revealed that the number of pirate 'services' blocked in France has more than doubled each year since 2022. "Shock Block" operations targeting 250+ IPTV services at once are partly responsible for a 146% rise in domains blocked in 2024. Arcom still hasn't forgotten BitTorrent, far from it; rightsholders filed 2.3 million complaints last year, of which 1,610 cases were referred to the prosecutor.
Hot on the heels of a live sports piracy report published last month, French telecoms/audiovisual regulator Arcom has just published its comprehensive annual report for 2024.
Weighing in at over 200 pages, the report covers all aspects of Arcom’s responsibilities, for which it received a €51.3 million budget in 2024.
From regulating the entire audiovisual sector, tackling online misinformation and hateful content, ensuring the safety of women and children, to the suppression of online piracy, Arcom is certainly busy. Especially so once piracy of live sporting events h...
Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) says it has been "engaging with Sky for some time" over the use of personal data to crackdown on streaming piracy, including IPTV services accessed via set-top boxes. Ongoing engagement and a meeting between the DPC and Sky in two weeks time, will focus on the lawful sharing or processing of personal data outside the company under the GDPR.
Sky’s war on TV piracy has raged for well over thirty years and despite the passing of time, the goal remains the same.
In broad terms, pirates retain their original goals too, but how that can be achieved is always subject to change, largely depending on who has taken the lead in an increasingly complex arms race.
News emerging from Ireland suggests that Sky’s use (or proposed use) of a valuable asset to boost its fight against piracy, has led to a powerful Irish authority “engaging” in the process for quite some time. Only very rarely are the stakes...
Despite blocking thousands of illegal streaming sites and services, Italy's new anti-piracy law and the related 'Piracy Shield' blocking system have a limited effect on piracy rates. Meanwhile, new data shows that the damages suffered by sports rightsholders continue to soar. On the positive side, public awareness of the new anti-piracy law is widespread.
Last year, Italy officially implemented the ‘Piracy Shield‘, a system that aims to deter and decrease live sports streaming piracy.
Since then, Piracy Shield has blocked access to thousands of IP-addresses and domain names associated with unauthorized broadcasts.
Despite overblocking concerns, the massive blocking operation is seen as a key success by the authorities and many participating rightsholders. The same is true for the updated copyright law in general, which introduced fines of up to €5,000 for pirate consumers.
Study Reveals Piracy-Shield ImpactWhile t...
Authorities in Greece are making good on their promise to crack down and deter use of pirate sites and services. Arrests during a significant action to disrupt pirate IPTV last month are now followed by news of an immediate five-year prison sentence and a €10,000 fine. The 59-year-old defendant was reportedly found guilty of running a private torrent site; P2Planet.net. Curiously, the site announced its closure over a decade ago, making the offenses even older than that.
The most obvious downward piracy trends have arrived in response to rightsholders addressing market demands.
But, when authorities feel something drastic needs to be done, legal crackdowns can also be the weapon of choice. The idea is that these actions will punish offenders while also sending a deterrent message to others who operate in the same business.
Climate of ChangeA man recently sentenced in Greece for his role running private torrent site P2Planet, appeared in court at a time when Greek authorities insist piracy will not be tolerated. Right on cue, the criminal cou...
After two years of litigation, X Corp. and leading music publishers are eyeing a settlement in their copyright infringement dispute. The move follows X Corp.'s recent "maximum pain" allegations against the NMPA, suggesting the lawsuit aimed to force licensing agreements. A 90-day case stay has been approved to allow both sides to amicably resolve their disagreements.
In a complaint filed at a Nashville federal court two years ago, Universal Music, Sony Music, EMI and others, accused X Corp of ‘breeding’ mass copyright infringement.
The social media company allegedly failed to respond adequately to takedown notices and lacked a proper termination policy.
The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) claimed it had sent over 300,000 formal infringement notices, many of which didn’t lead to immediate removals.
“Twitter routinely ignores known repeat infringers and known infringements, refusing to take simple steps th...