One of the internet's leading shadow libraries is calling for an overhaul of copyright law. Anna's Archive believes that if countries want to stay relevant in the AI race, change is a necessity. While it's unlikely that the trove at Anna's Archive will ever be legally accessible by consumers, the site argues that access for AI companies is paramount. "It's a matter of national security," Anna's Archivist says.
The Artificial Intelligence boom promises unparalleled progress which, in theory, can change the fabric of society.
As startups and established tech giants explore their options, data has become the new oil in the race to develop AI. Archives of text, in particular, are key to training Large Language Models (LLMs).
Early on, many tech giants used shadow libraries to train their models. Rightsholders objected to this unauthorized use in various courts, transforming these repositories into ‘forbidden fruit’ in the U.S. and elsewhere. Such restrictions aren’t ne...
There's no ideal time to promote a blocking system that by design restricts freedom and, for the vast majority of citizens, offers no tangible benefit. Yet, over the past 15 years or so, the major Hollywood studios have convinced authorities in dozens of countries that blocking pirate sites benefits everyone. If the FADPA bill passes, the MPA's export-only site-blocking system will be reimported to the U.S. at close to maximum strength, straight off the bat.
When U.S. site-blocking proposals died alongside SOPA in 2012, major Hollywood studios and their music industry counterparts, switched up their plans a little.
A SOPA victory would’ve sent a powerful message that site-blocking is a reasonable response to infringement, and that U.S. partners overseas should follow the example. Yet even with no victory to celebrate, for more than a decade the MPA promoted site-blocking measures to any country willing to listen, anywhere in the world.
The tools envisioned by SOPA may have evaporated, but work to protect the studios’ ...
The future of AI innovation may hinge on the outcome of a global copyright debate. In the U.S., rightsholders are taking a hard line, pursuing legal action against AI companies that utilize copyrighted works without permission. However, other countries are adopting more lenient approaches, allowing AI models to learn from the vast troves of data found in 'pirate' libraries. This 'copyright schism' could have far-reaching consequences.
Earlier this week, various rightsholder groups submitted their recommendations for the 2025 Special 301 Report.
This annual overview, compiled by the U.S. Trade Representative, highlights countries that fail to live up to U.S. copyright protection standards.
Various groups stressed the importance of copyright protection when it comes to new AI technologies. They argued that foreign governments should be mindful of potential copyright infringements.
The Chinese government is called out, for example, for considering the introduction of a text and data mining (TDM) excep...
Musi's initial attempt to force Apple to reinstate its music app to the App Store has failed. A California federal court denied a request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that Apple did not act unreasonably or in bad faith when it removed the app following complaints from music industry players and YouTube. The court found that Musi’s proposed injunction would not serve the public interest.
Last September, Apple removed popular music streaming app Musi from its App Store, affecting millions of users.
Apple’s action didn’t come as a complete surprise. Music industry groups had been trying to take Musi down for months, branding it a ‘parasitic’ app that skirts the rules.
IFPI took the lead, calling on other music industry players and YouTube to complain to Apple as well. The mounting pressure eventually paid off.
Delisting from the App Store puts the future of Musi directly at risk. The company initially hoped to resolve the matter w...
A new report from consultancy firm Mediavision provides data on IPTV piracy that the Swedish government didn't want to hear. Between spring and fall of 2024, illegal subscriptions increased by a record 25%, with an estimated 700,000 households now regularly paying to pirate. The government considers a 'viewing ban' for citizens but, there appears to be no clear idea how or even if that would work.
With the original Pirate Bay generation now all grown up, those few years of pirate rebellion aired on the world stage have been fading in Sweden for quite some time. On the rapidly evolving internet, such things are inevitable.
Yet, even those most dedicated to The Pirate Bay’s downfall may take a moment to consider how things were, and how that led to the almost unrecognizable piracy arena that exists today. The Pirate Bay didn’t just survive, it continues to live, but on the way the streaming revolution changed everything.
The illegal streaming platforms and IPT...
Pirate site blocking orders are a step closer to becoming reality in the United States after Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act earlier today. Should it become law, FAPDA would allow rightsholders to obtain site blocking orders targeted at verified pirate sites, presumably run by foreign operators. The blocking orders would apply to both ISPs and DNS resolvers. The latter is a novelty.
For a long time, pirate site blocking was regarded as a topic most U.S. politicians would rather avoid.
This lingering remnant of the SOPA debacle drove copyright holders to focus on the introduction of blocking efforts in other countries instead, mostly successfully.
Those challenging times are now more than a decade old and momentum is shifting. Today, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act (FADPA), which paves the way for blocking injunctions targeting foreign operated pirate sites, being implemented on home soil.
A ‘New a...
TorrentGalaxy was taken over by new owners last year and faced repeated difficulties in the months that followed. Official updates have been sparse, but according to a new message posted by the operators, they're having trouble paying the bills. Further details are lacking, but the call for help resulted in a healthy stream of crypto donations, which will be of interest to anti-piracy groups too.
Founded in 2018, TorrentGalaxy has grown to become a leading player in the torrent ecosystem.
The site was launched by former members of ExtraTorrent, a popular torrent site that had just shut down. The founders of TorrentGalaxy aimed to provide a home for ExtraTorrent ‘refugees’ but, over time, it evolved into one of the leading torrent sites.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Trade Representative flagged TorrentGalaxy among the most notorious pirate sites. According to the report, the site was one of the main beneficiaries of RARBG’s shutdown in 2023.
Torr...
A Nintendo lawsuit filed last November targeted video gamer Jesse Keighin, aka EveryGameGuru. Given the scope of the allegations, narrowly focused on a single defendant, the action seems unusually punitive. Yet if the plan was to push Keighin into a corner, the Colorado resident hasn't read the script. Allegations of destruction of evidence, obstructing service, and abuse of Nintendo's legal team, combine to make a dire situation even worse. But not for Nintendo.
Lawsuits filed to address infringement can also play a key role as part of a wider deterrent messaging campaign. In the online arena inhabited by millions of pirates, dual-purpose lawsuits are especially common.
Even for Nintendo, suing every infringer isn’t just impractical. Negative exposure in the media has direct implications for image and branding. Additional risk of polluting or even displacing otherwise positive articles, could jeopardize what amounts to free advertising worth millions of dollars.
A deterrent message delivered on the back of the right case, howev...
The use of copyrighted material in training large language models (LLMs) has sparked legal battles and takedown notices. In the Netherlands, anti-piracy group BREIN takes credit for forcing the popular 'GEITje' LLM offline, which in part was trained on copyrighted texts. The developer didn't necessarily agree with BREIN, but lacked the resources to fight back.
Development of AI continues to progress at a rapid pace. This includes work on large language models (LLMs), which are typically trained on broad datasets of texts.
These technologies promise unparalleled progress which could benefit society as a whole. Yet despite widely recognized potential, areas of significant concern remain.
That many LLMs were trained on datasets containing copyrighted content is now widely known. This has led to numerous complaints and high-profile lawsuits, with companies like OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and NVIDIA facing allegations of copyrigh...
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held an anti-piracy symposium last week to discuss the latest achievements, challenges, and solutions in combating piracy. Experts from the public and private sectors came together to discuss various topics, including the need to deploy balanced and effective site blocking measures in the United States.
Last week, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) organized an anti-piracy symposium where several experts discussed recent achievements, new challenges, and potential solutions.
Held at the USPTO headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, the meeting brought together public and private sector players to discuss various copyright and piracy-related topics.
For example, trial attorney Vasantha Rao, who works as the Department of Justice Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, discussed the Gears Reloaded case, the Z-Library takedown, plus international domain seizu...