114 Stories To Learn About Piracy

Let's learn about via these 114 free stories. They are ordered by most time reading created on HackerNoon. Visit the to find the most read stories about any technology. Piracy /Learn Repo 1. World's Oldest Active Torrent File Can Now Legally Drink in a Few States The world's oldest active torrent file turns 18 years old this month and it's still being seeded by dozens of people. 2. What is a Website Blocking Injunction? the group has now been granted an expansion in an effort to restrict access to domains that helped to circumvent the aims of the High Court order. 3. Web3 is Like Piracy and That's a Good Thing “It’s better to be a pirate than join the Navy.” said Steve Jobs. 4. 8 Best Torrent Sites That are Still Working in 2023 The Pirate Bay, 1337x, and RARBG are some of the best torrent sites still online today. 5. Report Finds Pirates are Making Millions off Amazon, Facebook and Google A new report published by the Digital Citizens Alliance suggests that pirates sites earn more than a billion dollars in revenue per year. 6. Piracy is Banned By New Technology Pending Patent Patent application has been filed for a technology that can detect and ban rogue devices on its network. This can block orphan and cloned modems. 7. What is a Digital Death Penalty? Two years ago Internet provider Cox Communications lost its legal battle against a group of major record labels. 8. YesPornPlease Restricts Access as PayPal & Cloudflare Are Asked to Unmask Operators Following a massive lawsuit filed by adult entertainment giant MG Premium, video site YesPornPlease temporarily shut itself down. It is now operating behind what appears to be geo-based blocking mechanism that promotes the use of a VPN. Meanwhile, MG Premium wants permission from the court to force several US-based service providers including Cloudflare and PayPal to reveal what they know about the site's operators. 9. MangaDex Returns Under a New Domain, Confirms Legal Issues After several days of downtime, manga scanlation giant MangaDex has reappeared online. In addition to confirming the existence of a DMCA subpoena first reported here on TF last week, MangaDex says it has legal issues that have resulted in the temporary loss of its .org domain and removal from Cloudflare. It is now operating under a new domain while the problems are dealt with. 10. How to Use a Seedbox to Download Torrents Anonymously and Fast Seedboxes are a way of helping users torrent many files at once simultaneously. They are an effective way of accessing more content more quickly anonymously. 11. Anti-Piracy Chief: Pirated Content is Now Harder to Find in Search Engines An anti-piracy memorandum aimed at removing allegedly-infringing content from search engines is beginning to have an effect in Russia. That's according to the chief of the Internet Video Association, an anti-piracy group representing the interests of numerous licensed online video distribution platforms. 12. What Happens When a Legal Complaint is Fatally Flawed and Overall a Mangled and Mangy Mess? In a scathing motion to dismiss filed with the court yesterday, the defendants pull no punches in their response to Triller. 13. The Pirate Bay: Over 2.5 Petabytes Are Still Being Seeded The Pirate Bay has revealed some intriguing statistics on its decentralized archive of data. Over the years more than 6.7 petabytes of data were made available through the site. Less than half of this is still being seeded. The data further reveal that the 2014 raid did some serious damage to the infamous torrent site. 14. YesPornPlease and VShare.io Go Offline Following Massive Copyright Lawsuit YesPornPlease, an adult-focused video site that was until recently servicing more than 100 million visitors per month, has disappeared following the filing of a lawsuit in the United States. The complaint, filed by Mindgeek-owned MG Premium, also targets hosting site VShare.io, demanding a broad injunction and potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. 15. Video Game Piracy: CS.RIN.RU Says Cash is Needed to Stay Online CS.RIN.RU is probably the largest forum dedicated to video games piracy on the planet. However, after a reported 17 years in operation, the site's sponsor has reportedly decided to stop funding the site. As a result, the gaming pirates' paradise will have to rely on user donations to keep going. 16. YggTorrent Website Lost Control Over Its Main Domain France's largest torrent site YggTorrent has lost control over its main domain. According to the site's operators, YggTorrent.ws was suspended by the domain registrar without providing additional information. Given that Alexa reports that YggTorrent is one of the most-visited websites in the whole of France, the disruption is likely to affect millions of visitors. 17. How Free Streaming Websites Could Harm Your Online Security Learn how free streaming and online free movies websites could negatively affect your security 18. Nintendo Shuts Down Kickstarter Campaign For Violating Animal Crossing Copyrights A law firm acting for Nintendo of America has shut down a successful Kickstarter campaign for alleged breaches of copyright. According to the gaming giant, the fundraiser used characters and images from the Animal Crossing series without obtaining the necessary permission. 19. US Movie Companies Prosecute YTS Users Plus The One With a VPN The operator of YTS recently 'settled' a lawsuit that was filed by the US. movie company Wicked Nevada. Soon after, the same movie company joined other filmmakers to sue several users of the notorious torrent site. According to the complaint, the rightsholders know the email addresses that the defendants used to register with at YTS, as well as the VPN IP-address of one user. This raises some questions. 20. Can Piracy Trigger Innovation? Piracy motivates software companies to spend resources on research. 21. Social Work Student Sentenced For Selling Pirated Textbooks Over a 21-month period the woman sold access to 38 different copyrighted books used in the social worker sector. 22. How Microsoft Envisions a Blockchain-Based System for Preventing Piracy A new paper published by Microsoft's research department proposes to tackle piracy with a blockchain-based bounty system titled "Argus." 23. Effects Of Video Game Piracy What Exactly Is The Meaning Of Video Game Piracy? 24. The Pirate Bay Alternatives: 5 Torrent Sites To Visit Well, if you are a frequent torrent user, then you might be well aware of the mass torrent ban that happened in 2016. After that, almost every major torrent portals like Torretz, KickAsss Torrents, ExtraTorrents, etc has been shut down by the authority. Not only that, but the Government is also trying hard to restrict users from visiting torrent sites. 25. The Pirate Bay: A File-Sharing Legacy Millions of torrent users all over the world must have come across the name called PirateBay. It needs no introduction, as it's been one of the most popular file-sharing websites all across the world for years, now. The downloading portal, which came into existence in 2003, took the world by storm in the free file sharing marketplace. People can freely download whatnot, you can name it, movies, software, games, ebooks, music packages, and much more without getting into the hassle of complicated user interfaces and unnecessary files. 26. Streaming Site Nites.tv Gets The "Seizure" Notice, Causing More Talks Movie and TV show streaming site Nites.tv hit the mainstream during the past few weeks, with news sites on several continents reporting on the platform seemingly out of nowhere. Now, however, the site is redirecting to the anti-piracy portal of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment after an apparent seizure. Strangely, a number of things don't add up. 27. The ‘Netflix for Pirates’ Got in Trouble With the Law. Duh. A group of independent movie companies asked a Virginia federal court to grant millions in copyright damages against the piracy app Popcorn Time domains. 28. What Type of Anti-Piracy Campaign Is More Likely to Work on Infringers? There have been dozens of anti-piracy campaigns over the years but which ones are more likely to work on illicit consumers? According to some of the findings in a government report published in the UK this week, different approaches may be needed to convince both casual and savvy pirates to stop or reduce their activities. 29. Facebook Deems Copyright Misuse As One of the Site's Major Threats Facebook says that it takes abuse and misuse of its 'Rights Manager' system very seriously. The company sees this type of abuse as one of its main challenges and it spends a lot of time making sure that legitimate content isn't blocked. The social media giant made these statements in a recent "Article 17" stakeholder meeting at the EU Commission. 30. Bad Boys For Life Leads Wave of Early Movie Releases Flooding Pirate Sites As cinemas around the globe continue their shutdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic, a number of movies are now enjoying early digital releases. Of course, many of these are also hitting pirate sites, with Bad Boys For Life, Bloodshot and The Gentlemen currently proving most popular with downloaders. 31. Two Piracy-Configured ‘Kodi Box’ Sellers Handed One-Year Suspended Sentences Two men who sold piracy-configured set-top boxes and coached the public on how to use them to access infringing content have been sentenced to one-year prison terms under the Fraud Act, suspended for two years. The pair, who supplied 'BlackBox.tv' devices, must also do 120 hours of unpaid work. 32. Nintendo Launching a New Round of DMCA Complaints (Inadvertently Helping Microsoft as Well) Nintendo has launched a new wave of DMCA complaints at Google in an effort to make piracy-enabling devices harder to find. In common with previous efforts, the gaming giant is making strategic use of DMCA anti-circumvention notices, to permanently delete listings from search results. 33. Russia Pirate Sites Dump 1XBET in Favor of Identical Yet Legal 1XStavka A study published in 2019 revealed that controversial gambling company 1XBET, known for placing adverts on pirate sites, had become the third most active online advertiser in Russia. 34. Comparing Piracy Cycles: Movie Pirates are Ready to Wait For HD Quality Releases New data shared by piracy tracking company MUSO shows that most torrenting movie pirates prefer HD quality releases, even if they have to wait for months. 35. Another Lawfirm Sues 'Copyright Troll' Malibu Media A law firm hired by notorious 'copyright troll' outfit Malibu Media is suing the company over breach of contract and unpaid bills. According to a lawsuit filed this week by The Lomnitzer Law Firm, Malibu 'circumvented' an agreement between the companies by hiring other attorneys to conduct litigation. The law firm is also demanding that Malibu pay more than $280K to settle its debts with the company. 36. Mysterious Group Tries to Wipe Dozens of Reputable Sites From Google Search Google says that it's aware of these fraudulent notices but, thus far, they are not without damage. 37. Disney Claims Rights to Denmark’s The Little Mermaid Statue A woman who uploaded one of her own photographs to print-on-demand site RedBubble says she has been hit with a takedown notice by Disney. The photograph, which features the 107-year-old The Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, apparently violates Disney's rights. According to a copy of the complaint, the statue depicts one of "Disney's Princesses". 38. Activision Subpoenas Ordering a DMCA for Reddit, to Recognize a Modern Warfare's Warzone Leaker In response to the many Call of Duty Warzone leaks appearing online, Activision has been filing aggressive takedowns on copyright grounds. According to documents obtained by TorrentFreak, the gaming giant has also obtained a DMCA subpoena from a US court, which compels Reddit to hand over the personal details of a user who allegedly posted a leaked image to the site. 39. The Pirate Bay Is Still Alive: Words From One of the Co-Founders Peter Kolmisoppi explains why The Pirate Bay is still alive and some websites aren't. 40. How One of the Largest Piracy Scam Operations Brought Down an Affiliate Network The Montreal-based affiliate network AdCenter has closed shop overnight. Scammers have been around for centuries but, on the Internet, they can reach higher. 41. Warhorse Studios Turning Tables on the Cracking Group to Prop up the Developer The developer of action role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance has hilariously turned the tables on the cracking group that first put a pirated copy of its game on the Internet. With its tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Czech company is now selling limited edition metal posters of Codex's game-accompanying NFO file, hoping that sales of the high-quality knock-off will "support the developer". 42. The Perks of Piracy: How Sports Industry Earns Thanks to a Portion of Pirates New research published by Synamedia shows that the sports industry can potentially earn billions in extra revenue with a tailored approach to piracy. 43. A Majority of Aussies Not Motivated to Pursue Content Further After Facing Blocked Pirate Sites Research commissioned by the Australian government says 59% of people faced with a blocked pirate site are more likely to simply give up than try other means. 44. That Time US Lawmakers Suggested Piracy Was a Part of Twitter’s Business Model A group of bipartisan U.S. House Representatives has sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, urging the company to take copyright infringement seriously. 45. What Publishers Had to Say About Internet Archive’s Sales Data Demand Hachette, HarperCollins, John Wiley and Penguin Random House are asking a court to reject Internet Archive's request to access huge volumes of data 46. How Shorter Movie Release Windows Impact Piracy Movie studios are increasingly experimenting with shorter release windows or even simultaneous theatrical and digital premieres. 47. Rivendell Makes History By Reporting 500 Millionth Infringing URL To Google This week anti-piracy company Rivendell made history by reporting its 500 millionth infringing URL to Google. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the founder of Rivendell and sister company LeakID says that his team works closely with Google and finds the search giant very cooperative and helpful. He credits pirates for being resourceful but loves finding ways to "outsmart" them. 48. Men Selling Pirate TV Boxes Found Guilty Under The Fraud Act Two men who sold piracy-enabled TV boxes and encouraged buyers to access content without an appropriate subscription have been found guilty after a four-day trial in the UK. The individuals, who will be sentenced later this month, face potentially lengthy sentences under the Serious Crime Act 2007 and Fraud Act 2006. 49. Cloudflare Agrees to Stop Caching Pirate Content in Japan, If Court Declares Sites Illegal In 2018, four of Japan's largest manga publishers filed a motion at a Tokyo court demanding that Cloudflare stop providing services to several 'pirate' sites, including Mangamura replacement Hoshinoromi. The companies now reveal that a settlement has been reached with Cloudflare to "stop the replication" of the sites on its Japan-based servers, if a court declares them illegal. 50. Russia's Search Engine Anti-Piracy Deal Drawn Out Until 2021 The ground-breaking anti-piracy deal signed by Russia-based content and Internet platforms in 2018 will not be written into local law any time soon. The agreement, which sees search engines voluntarily delete allegedly-infringing links, was supposed to be formalized in recent months but in the face of complexities and parliament being tied up with other things, will now be extended until 2021. 51. AMD Uses DMCA to Mitigate Massive GPU Source Code Leak (Updated) AMD has filed at least two DMCA notices against Github repos that carried "stolen" source code relating to AMD's Navi and Arden GPUs, the latter being the processor for the upcoming Xbox Series X. The person claiming responsibility for the leak informs TorrentFreak that if they doesn't get a buyer for the remainder of the code, they will dump the whole lot online. 52. DMCA Notices Took Down 14,320 Github Projects in 2019 Github has revealed that throughout 2019, the coding hosting platform took down more than 14,300 projects following DMCA complaints. Of the total notices received, only a tiny proportion was contested via counter-notice. Interestingly, the Microsoft-owned platform also reveals that one copyright complaint cannot be detailed as it's the subject of a gagging order. 53. DJs and Piracy Cases: Watch What You Rinse Selecta Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN says it has shut down a music piracy service that offered an illegal pool of 350,000 tracks in exchange for an annual payment of 2 54. How to Block Illegal Streams High Court injunctions that order ISPs to block certain websites deemed to be infringing have been in existence for around a decade in the UK. 55. The Art of War: Tutorial For Pirate Sites Owners And Their Antagonists There have been countless anti-piracy strategies deployed over the years and pirates have deployed their own in response. In the end, the parties "at war" aren't so different and may even benefit from the same techniques. The most fundamental ones aren't new either, having been around for at least 2,500 years. 56. John Van Stry Claims That Former Piracy Site Owner Is Trying to Bust Him Since early 2019, author John Van Stry has been spending huge sums of money in an effort to bring the former operator of download site eBook.bike to justice. The site itself has been down for months but legal costs are mounting to the point that Van Stry feels there might be an effort to bankrupt him. As a result, a practical win for either side seems a distant proposition. 57. Movie And TV Show Portal Attacks Google With Odd DMCA Notices Movie and TV show information portal AlloCiné has reportedly sent a wave of DMCA notices to Google to have allegedly-infringing content taken down. Unfortunately, however, the complaints are littered with clearly erroneous URLs that target everything from Netflix and Amazon listings to news reports from sites like Wired, plus content on rival movie portals such as JustWatch and Rotten Tomatoes. 58. Texas Court Orders Easybox IPTV to Pay $9.9m in Copyright Infringement Damages A judge at a Texas court has ordered two individuals behind the pirate IPTV service Easybox IPTV to pay $9.9m in copyright infringement damages. In a judgment handed down this week, the judge awarded the maximum $150,000 in statutory damages for each of 66 copyrighted works willfully infringed by the defendants via their unlicensed streaming platform. 59. Man Who Sold Pirate IPTV Must Pay £521,000 or Face Five More Years in Prison A man who was sentenced in 2018 to 4.5 years in prison for selling pirate IPTV devices to pubs and clubs has been ordered to pay £520,000 to the public purse. Failure to come up with the funds will result in John Dodds having his prison sentence extended by an additional five years. The Premier League, which brought the action, welcomed the judgment. 60. YouTube Fair Use: Documentary Makers Defeat Gaye, Thicke, Bee Gees & Jackson In December 2019 a web-series dedicated to debunking copyright and copying myths was hit with four copyright complaints over the alleged illegal use of tracks from Robin Thicke, Marvin Gate, Bee Gees and Michael Jackson. However, the makers of The Creativity Delusion: Geniuses Steal, decided to fight back and have now defeated every single claim against their video. Fair use, they say, is worth fighting for. 61. Unofficial Paywall-Free COVID19 Archive Consumes Half a Terabyte of Bandwidth With the world still grappling with the new coronavirus outbreak, an unofficial paywall-free archive of scientific papers is spreading hope, not disease, to the scientific community. Speaking with TF, the operators of the project reveal that since its launch under a week ago, visitors from all over the world to the 5,300+ study resource have consumed almost half a terabyte of bandwidth. 62. NBCUniversal Sued For Using New York Photographer's Photos New York-based photographer Mark Seliger has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against NBCUniversal demanding millions of dollars in damages. 63. Olympic Committee and Leading Soccer Organizations Urge the US Trade Apply Pressure The International Olympic Committee and leading soccer organizations including FIFA and the Premier League are urging the United States Trade Representative to apply maximum pressure to Saudi Arabia over TV piracy. While beoutQ's illegal satellite broadcasts stopped last August, its set-top boxes now present an Internet-based pirate IPTV threat, the sports groups say. 64. Christian Rapper Who Filed Lawsuit Against Katy Perry Gets an Infringement Complaint Katy Perry's writers lost a $2.8m lawsuit against Christian rapper Flame last year over the use of a handful of notes. Musician Adam Neely published a hit video on YouTube slamming the lawsuit but in a bizarre twist, Perry's publisher Warner Chappell has now filed an infringement complaint against Neely. Not only have they claimed all of the advertising revenue from his video, they've turned the entire matter into an unbelievable trainwreck. 65. Why Did Kendall Jenner Get Sued For Using a Video of Herself? Model Kendall Jenner generates considerable sums from her Instagram account but according to a lawsuit filed in California, not all of that is raised legally. The complaint states that Jenner obtained a video of herself taken by a third-party and posted it on Instagram, in breach of copyright law. After gaining almost 23 million views, the owner now wants up to $150,000 in damages. 66. What Happened to Megaupload? Chairman and CEO Mitch Glazier has been oulining some of the RIAA's successes since he joined the industry group. Interestingly, he went straight to the Kim Dotcom and Megaupload case, which he described as a "huge significant victory". While the case hasn't yet gone to trial, its destruction more than eight years ago may be a good enough result for the RIAA. 67. Court Authorizes ‘Dynamic’ Pirate Site-Blocking in Spain A Spanish court has handed down an order that will compel local ISPs to block pirate sites and services, primarily to prevent the unlicensed distribution of live football matches. Several interesting novelties can be observed in the ruling, including that broadcaster Telefónica Audiovisual Digital can add new sites, IP addresses, and URLs, without judicial oversight. 68. Court Calls Cloudflare for Denying Access to Copyright Infringement or Face Penalties or Lockup This week visitors to pirate music site DDL-Music were greeted with a rare 'Error 451' message from Cloudflare, indicating that the site had been rendered unavailable due to legal reasons. It now transpires that following legal action by Universal Music, Cloudflare was served with a court injunction , which threatened fines and potential prison time for non-compliance. 69. Court Of Appeal Refuses Kim Dotcom's Access To Outlawed Spy Recording The New Zealand Supreme Court has declined Kim Dotcom's appeal in his bid to access private communications captured illegally by the country's spy agency. Dotcom will still be entitled to damages for the unlawful intrusion into his private life but he says this matter is not about money. Instead, he seeks to hold the GCSB agency accountable for its illegal behavior, for the benefit of all New Zealanders. 70. Canadian Pirate Site Blockade Expands With New Domains months ago Canada's Federal Court issued the country's first pirate 'site' blocking order. The order was requested by Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA, who recently asked the court to amend the order to ban additional domains that provide access the pirate IPTV service GoldTV. This request was granted. Despite attempts from the rightsholders to keep the update quiet, the new domains have been revealed as well. 71. Should VPN Companies Listen to the Film Industry and Log User Data? A group of movie companies continues its legal efforts to hold VPN services liable for pirating subscribers. 72. John Van Stry Wins Piracy Case, Reducing Damages Claim To $9,000 Author John Van Stry has won his copyright infringement lawsuit against former Pirate Party of Canada leader Travis McCrea and his long-defunct eBook download platform eBook.bike. After a year of stressful litigation, the court asked the author to consider reducing his $180,000 damages claim to $9,000 to avoid a full trial. Van Stry accepted but with McCrea now claiming to be broke, it remains to be seen whether the amount will ever be recovered. 73. What Do You Do When a Fan Infringes on Your Copyright? Take-Two Interactive has sued several programmers and enthusiasts said to be behind the popular re3 and reVC Grand Theft Auto fan projects. 74. Plex Slammed By Huge Copyright Coalition For Not Policing Pirates Plex has become the latest neutral technology to get slammed for not doing enough to prevent movie and TV show piracy. According to pro-copyright lobby group CreativeFuture, which represents more than 560 companies and organizations, Plex - like Kodi - is a "dangerous digital media player" that has joined the ranks of "internet heavyweights who refuse to take responsibility for the criminal behavior on their platforms." 75. Mixing Popcorn and Piracy Can Be Very Expensive A federal court in Texas has ordered a former employee of a local phone store to pay $6,250 in piracy damages. 76. The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt Hit Pirate Sites After Rushed VOD Releases A decision by Universal Pictures to quickly make movies available on VOD services due to the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in the inevitable. Titles including The Invisible Man, Emma, and The Hunt, which are still in their theatrical windows, are now all available for download on pirate sites, just hours after release. 77. There’s Fewer Pirates in the UK, but Their Motives Stay the Same A report by the UK Intellectual Property Office shows that a quarter of all online entertainment consumers downloaded or streamed content illegally in 2020. 78. Pirate IPTV Supplier One Box Fails to Put up a Defense, Ordered to Pay $3.8m In 2019, 'pirate' IPTV supplier One Box TV found itself on the wrong end of a DISH Networks lawsuit. Filed in a Florida court, the complaint alleged that the IPTV supplier was transmitting DISH programming unlawfully via the Internet. After failing to put up a defense, One Box TV and its owner have now been ordered to pay $3.8 million in damages. 79. YouTube Cartoon Featuring Creepy Bugs Bunny Copyright Claimed By Warner Bros. A dark parody cartoon depicting a washed-out Bugs Bunny as a sex offender has been hit with a DMCA complaint by Warner Bros. MeatCanyon, a channel with more than 66 million views, has responded with a new animation in which characters mourn his passing, stating that since Warner claimed the content as its own, they have now confirmed that "Bugs was a struggling rapist all along." 80. ‘Academic’ Torrent Client Hopes to Shake up the Entertainment Industry Researchers at Delft University of Technology have secured another €3.3 million in funding for academic research into the ‘Internet-of-Trust’. The money will in large part be used to continue development on the Tribler BitTorrent client. Professor Johan Pouwelse, who leads the Tribler lab, hopes that the software and underlying technology will shake up the entertainment industry by shifting the balance of power. 81. ‘Hacked’ Netflix MENA Twitter Account Asks For Movie Torrent Recommendations (Updated) Last night the Twitter account of Netflix in the MENA region suddenly had its 'N' logo replaced with a pirate-themed graphic. Then, in a series of bizarre tweets declaring a hack, followers were asked for recommendations on movie torrents. This morning Netflix apparently regained control and apologized but could there be more to this than meets the eye? 82. Giant Pirate Platform Jetflicks Disguised as Aviation Video Service, US Government Reports After being shut down by the FBI, Jetflicks and associated site iStreamitAll were described by the US Government as two of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States. A new filing in the Jetflicks case now reveals that the giant pirate platform ran alongside a fledgling aviation video service that quite literally failed to get off the ground. 83. Japanese Publisher Sues Cloudfare For Copyright Violation Major Japanese publisher Takeshobo has sued Cloudflare in a Tokyo court for alleged copyright infringement. The publisher says it was forced into the action after requests to remove content being offered by a Cloudflare customer were ignored. Takeshobo is taking care not to mention the name of the 'pirate' site in question but TorrentFreak has uncovered a DMCA subpoena from 2019 which may shine some light on proceedings. 84. Cloudflare Sued For Failing to Terminate 99 ‘Repeat Copyright Infringing’ Sites Two companies that design and manufacture wedding dresses are suing Cloudflare for copyright infringement after it failed to terminate service to 99 'repeat infringer' websites. Allure Bridals and Justin Alexander claim that they sent 7,000 DMCA complaints to the CDN company but aside from passing the notices on, Cloudflare failed to take more meaningful action. 85. YouTube Refuses to Process DMCA Counternotice for ‘Creepy Bugs’ Cartoon An artist who uploaded a parody cartoon to YouTube and received a strike against his channel following a Warner Bros. complaint has been denied the opportunity to fight his corner. MeatCanyon uploaded a cartoon featuring a creepy 'Bugs Bunny' and later appealed using a DMCA counternotice. YouTube, however, refused to pass the notice on and dismissed the claim. 86. What Happens When a Popular File Linking Storage Site Gets Shut Down? Back in June, the hugely popular Filelinked service, which enabled Amazon Fire TV users to easily install piracy-related apps, disappeared. 87. MPA Takes Further Action on Pirate Video App TeaTV, Requests Github To Consider 17 U.S. Code TeaTV is one of the most popular 'pirate' video apps around, providing ready access to movies and TV shows. The app received mainstream media attention in 2019 and following on from that exposure, the MPA has been trying to disrupt the application. The movie industry group is now asking code platform Github to take down three versions of the application while considering its repeat infringer policy. 88. We are Surprisingly Unaware of the Risks of Illegal Streaming UK’s Federation Against Copyright Theft published the results of a new survey, finding that 62% of consumers are unaware of the hidden dangers of piracy. 89. First Ever Interpol 'Red Notice' in South Korea, Issued Over a Copyright Violator South Korean authorities say they have rquested their first ever Interpol 'Red Notice' in an effort to apprehend the suspected operator of a torrent site that indexed around 455,000 copyright works. Information released by the Ministry of Culture and National Police suggests that the unnamed person is Australian. Police are demanding his or her arrest and extradition. 90. Zero People Charged With Online Pirating, Swedish Prosecutor's Office Reports For the first time in almost a decade, not a single person was charged with a file-sharing or streaming related crime in Sweden during 2019. The news comes from the Prosecutor's Office, which reveals that just 23 offenses were reported during the year, the lowest number since 2010. 91. Internet Archive’s National Emergency Library is “Vile” Says Copyright Alliance Last week the Internet Archive responded to the coronavirus outbreak by offering a new service to "displaced learners". Combining scanned books from three libraries, the Archive offered unlimited borrowing of 1.4 million books, so that people can continue reading while in quarantine. What followed was a huge backlash from publishing and pro-copyright groups, with the Copyright Alliance decribing the actions of IA's operator as "particularly vile." 92. Judge Asks Author to Consider a Massively Reduced Claim after Suing eBook.bike for Infringement The copyright infringement lawsuit filed by author John van Stry against former Pirate Party leader Travis McCrea may be edging closer to financial discomfort. 93. A YouTuber Faces Issues Over Reviewing Apps Available on Google Play TechDoctorUK is experiencing some interesting problems with YouTube's policies that ban discussion of ways to bypass payment for digital content and services. 94. US Congress Starts on New Copyright-Focused Initiative A new copyright-focused initiative has got underway in the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. Its goal is to evaluate the 22-year-old Digital Millennium Copyright Act with a view to modernizing the legislation to better deal with today's Internet following the dramatic changes of the last two decades. 95. ACE Coalition Seizes Four More ‘Pirate’ IPTV Domains The Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment has been quietly comandeering more pirate site domains, presumably as part of settlement arrangements with their former owners. One domain relates to a previously announced case but three others, all connected to pirate IPTV, are reported today for the first time. 96. As UK Pirates Swarm to Live Sports & Movies, Hardcore Pirates Diminish The UK's Intellectual Property Office has published the latest edition of its Online Copyright Infringement Tracker report. Illicit consumption of movies increased considerably over the previous period, with a new category of live sports leaping almost to the top of the infringement tables. Interestingly, the report also highlights a significant decrease in hardcore pirates. 97. Doom Eternal Debacle May Have Dismantled Denuvo DRM on Debut Day In what appears to be a monumental screw-up somewhere in the game's supply chain, the Denuvo anti-tamper technology deployed on Doom Eternal may have already been compromised. Early purchasers of the game discovered a folder in the game's directory containing an .exe file that can be used to replace the original one protected by Denuvo. 98. How MalwareBytes Once Blocked Pirate Bay Service MalwareBytes persistently blocked an essential element of the Pirate Bay platform due to the presence of "a few" cryptocurrency miners on a secondary domain. 99. ACE Scalps Ulango TV App Seizing Domain The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has claimed another scalp in the 'pirate' IPTV space. The UlangoTV app provided free access to thousands of unlicensed TV streams but there was also an option to pay for more reliable content. Today, however, its clear it is unlikely to be returning after its domain was taken over by the global anti-piracy coalition. 100. Big Movie Studios Handed a Site-Blocking Injunction Against 86 Piracy Sites A judge at the Federal Court of Australia has handed down a site-blocking injunction against 86 piracy-related sites accessible from 115 domains. The application, filed by the MPA including Netflix, plus Roadshow Films and several other studios, targets torrent sites, streaming portals, subtitle sites, and various related unblocking/proxy platforms. All must be rendered inaccessible by 50 local ISPs. 101. Anime Fans Find ‘Pirate’ Subtitles in Netflix Streams of City Hunter Netflix subscribers in France shared a wry smile over the weekend when a screenshot from the anime movie City Hunter was shared on Twitter. The screenshot revealed that the subtitles hadn't been obtained from an official supplier. Instead, they were apparently culled from a 'pirate' file distributed by an IRC channel specializing in anime content, one that could've been dead for some time. 102. How Does Releasing More Movies in Less Time Impact Piracy? Movie studios are increasingly experimenting with shorter release windows or even simultaneous theatrical and digital premieres. 103. Comcast Got FBI to Pursue Gears IPTV Case - Claims YouTuber OMI IN A HELLCAT Popular YouTuber OMI IN A HELLCAT was raided by the FBI last year in connection with his 'pirate' IPTV service Gears TV. 104. Russian Watchdog to Place a Blockade on Pirate Apps Russia is planning action against apps that facilitate access to pirated content. If app developers don't quickly respond to a request from authorities to cease distribution of their software, telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor will demand action against platforms such as Google Play and Apple's App Store. Failure to respond could result in ISP blockades. 105. The Case for Online Content Piracy Pirated content is openly available out there on the web! Who exactly is to blame for it? What's a long term solution for it? Is Piracy justified? Lets find out 106. DISH Calls For $9.9m In Damages From Easybox IPTV A lawsuit filed by US broadcaster DISH Network against Easybox IPTV looks set to end with significant cost to the men behind the unlicensed IPTV provider. In a motion for final judgment and permanent injunction, DISH is demanding $9.9m in damages for direct copyright infringement of 66 copyrighted works, broadcast by Easybox without permission. 107. How Two Dozen Movie Companies Launched an Attack on Grande Communications More than two dozen movie companies have sued Grande Communications demanding it should terminate BitTorrent pirates and block sites including The Pirate Bay. 108. Dish Network Envisions Blockchain-Based Patent Application Dish Network is fighting online streaming piracy on many fronts. Aside from lawsuits and other legal campaigns, the company also looks at the broader picture. In a new patent application, Dish envisions a blockchain-based anti-piracy management system that promises to be open and accessible to all. 109. Could "Pirates" Be The Saviors Of Cryptocurrencies - Again? To my mind, the main reasons are not the volatility and lack of clear legal regulation, but the lack of new users (new blood), which creates a ‘’narrow’’ market. 110. Cloudflare Displaying Rare 'Error 451' to German Visitors, Deny Access to a Music Piracy Site CDN company Cloudflare is displaying an extremely rare 'Error 451' to German visitors who attempt to access a music piracy site. The message currently affecting DDL-Music.to states that the site has been rendered "Unavailable for Legal Reasons'. Contrary to Cloudflare's own error code guide, no explanatory legal demand specifics have been published. 111. Kim Dotcom Domain Case Solved, Followed By Bid To Halt Extradition After falling into third-party hands, the main domain of Kim Dotcom's K.im project has been returned following a settlement agreement. While this progress is being welcomed by the Megaupload founder, even more serious matters lie on the horizon. Will the New Zealand Supreme Court decide against extradition to the US? Dotcom predicts that while close, the judgment will not go in his favor. 112. Lawsuit Filed Against BitTorrent, The Company Accused of Illegal Profiting A lawsuit filed against BitTorrent owner Rainberry Inc, TRON Foundation's Justin Sun, and one of his colleagues, is based in employment law. However, the allegations it contains could pique interest in Hollywood, with claims that movies including The Lion King were involved in a "fraudulent scheme" to "make a profit from the illegal piracy of those materials." 113. The Internet Archive's National Emergency Library Controversy The National Emergency Library recently launched by the Internet Archive now finds itself in the middle of a controversy. 114. Viral Headbutt Video Taken Down Following Gogus Copyright Complaints A man from the US became a hero last year when a video of him subduing a man who had headbutted someone in the face went viral. The video has been reposted numerous times since but is regularly taken down following bogus copyright complaints. However, the censorship efforts massively backfired this week when someone tried to delete a Reddit thread using a DMCA anti-circumvention notice. Duh... Thank you for checking out the 114 most read stories about Piracy on HackerNoon. to find the most read stories about any technology. Visit the /Learn Repo