A group of major record labels has fired back at an amicus brief from the U.S. Solicitor General, which urges the Supreme Court to accept Cox Communications' petition in a landmark piracy liability lawsuit. The labels characterize the Solicitor General's recommendation to back Cox's petition while denying their own as 'bewildering'.

After a Virginia jury ordered internet provider Cox to pay $1 billion in damages for failing to take appropriate actions against pirating subscribers, shockwaves rippled through the ISP industry.

The verdict, in favor of major record labels including Sony and Universal, was a catalyst for many other ‘repeat infringer’ lawsuits. This resulted in yet more multi-million dollar claims and awards, with more still in the pipeline today.

Meanwhile, Cox did all it could to fight the verdict. This resulted in some small wins, including a recent ruling that the billion-doll...

Read entire story Yesterday at TorrentFreak

The French Senate has passed a new anti-piracy bill that opens the door to automated IP-address blocking. This legislative push is bolstered by a parallel, "secret" agreement between sports rightsholders and major ISPs, which aims to automate anti-piracy efforts and streamline direct blocking requests. Rightsholders hope these new powers will help to tackle the "mafia-like" piracy economy.

Traditional site-blocking measures that require local ISPs to block subscriber access to popular pirate sites, have been utilized by rightsholders in France for years. The aim is to deter piracy by making sites more difficult to find, but these measures are only partially effective.

More recently, site blocking requests have targeted other intermediaries. DNS providers including Google and Cloudflare, plus several of the largest VPN providers, were all ordered to make pirate websites unavailable through their services.

While several of these orders are still under appeal, rig...

Read entire story 6/13/2025 at TorrentFreak

Earlier this week, Japanese manga publisher Shueisha filed a DMCA subpoena application in the U.S., as it continues to pursue the operators of major pirate sites. At the very top of Shueisha's latest list is Mangajikan, a site that appears to have received 185 million visitors in May alone. In Japan, that made Mangajikan more popular than Instagram, Facebook, and ChatGPT. But right now, on what used to be its front page, is a very clear message: Website Closed.

The extraordinary online popularity of Japanese manga comics shows no sign of retreat, with pirate site-based consumption at unprecedented levels fueled by billions of visits.

Japanese publishers are pursuing pirate site operators all around the world but no matter where they’re physically located, the majority have some kind of infrastructure directly behind a reverse proxy at Cloudflare. All rightsholders have to do is obtain a DMCA subpoena, serve Cloudflare, and sift through the resulting mountain of logs for clues and, in an ideal world, signs of an operator security blund...

Read entire story 6/13/2025 at TorrentFreak

Internet providers are increasingly tasked in the role of anti-piracy enforcers and instructed to block pirate websites and services. In Europe, court-ordered blockades are now commonplace, but ISPs are cautious when it comes to further expansion. In a recent submission to the EU Commission, EuroISPA, which represents over 3,300 ISPs, complains about "disproportionate" blocking measures, as recently seen in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, dozens of rightsholders and copyright groups urged the European Commission to pave the way for more robust measures to tackle live-streaming piracy.

Two main themes in many of these submissions were broad pirate site blocking powers and effective Know-Your-Business-Customer (KYBC) requirements for online service providers.

Ideally, this would enable rightsholders to swiftly block pirate sites while allowing them to track down the identities of those responsible. According to the MPA, IFPI, beIN, Eurocinema, FEVIP, Premier League and others, blocking and/o...

Read entire story 6/12/2025 at TorrentFreak

When platforms like Facebook and YouTube receive takedown notices from a reputable sender, Japan's CODA for example, the vast majority of requests are usually honored. Yet, the responses from obvious pirate sites and more legally ambiguous platforms couldn't be more varied. Some refuse to act, period. Others have compliance rates higher than Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok.

In countries where protection is granted automatically, it’s possible for ordinary people to become copyright owners in a matter of minutes.

For the lucky few with a sudden viral video on their hands, a general understanding of the ‘rules’ governing what can, can’t, or should be done next, could be of benefit.

What those ‘rules’ cannot do is prevent 500, 1000, or 5,000 unauthorized copies appearing in a matter of minutes. The best on offer in that respect is a potential means to remove them.

Mass Takedowns Every Day

Japan-based anti-...

Read entire story 6/11/2025 at TorrentFreak

Fresh data for 2024 reveals that while overall pirate site traffic dipped to 216 billion visits, the landscape is shifting dramatically. Publishing piracy is booming, largely driven by an insatiable global demand for manga. In stark contrast, both music and film piracy have tanked. Despite these changes, the United States remains the top traffic source for pirate sites.

Despite the widespread availability of legal options, online piracy remains rampant. Every day, pirate sites are visited hundreds of millions of times.

Website visits are only part of the full piracy picture, as IPTV streaming is popular too. Nonetheless, traffic trends can provide valuable insight, especially when there are clear divergences across content categories.

216 Billion & America First

Fresh data released by piracy tracking outfit MUSO shows that pirate sites remain popular. In a report released today, MUSO reveals that there were 216 billion pirate site visits...

Read entire story 6/10/2025 at TorrentFreak

ICANN, the organization responsible for ensuring the stability of the internet's Domain Name System (DNS), has published advice for all entities involved in DNS blocking. Three key recommendations arrive as part of a comprehensive report from ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) on the technical means of DNS blocking and its effects - both intended and unintended.

In 2006 alone, Russia-based AllOfMP3 reportedly banked $30 million from sales of an unauthorized music product for which the major labels received no payment.

The unlikely stage for the industry’s response to global sales of cheap, unlicensed DRM-free music, was Denmark. Under pressure from industry group IFPI, ISP Tele2 blocked AllofMP3’s domain, an event that will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary.

While never likely to threaten the site’s overall traffic, the Danish block was at once symbolic and historic. Nineteen years later, Denmark has almost 2,800 d...

Read entire story 6/9/2025 at TorrentFreak

Can internet service providers be held liable for pirating subscribers? This question is at the center of several federal lawsuits in the U.S. and could soon be taken on by the Supreme Court. This week, ISP Grande Communications urged the Court to accept its petition, characterizing an opposing call from music companies as an attempt to "blatantly rewrite the record."

In late 2022, music industry giants including Warner Bros. and Sony Music secured a victory in their lawsuit against Internet provider Grande Communications.

The record labels had accused the Astound-owned ISP of failing to adequately address its subscribers’ copyright infringement, specifically by not terminating repeat offenders.

This resulted in a Texas federal jury finding Grande liable for willful contributory copyright infringement and $47 million in damages.

While the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld the infringement verdict, the lower court’...

Read entire story 6/9/2025 at TorrentFreak

A lawsuit filed by educational publishers in 2024 accuses Google of profiting from textbook piracy. At the heart of the complaint are claims that Google's ‘systemic and pervasive advertising’ of infringing copies promotes pirated copies sold by third parties. In its recent motion to dismiss, Google argued that the publishers' vicarious liability claim fails to meet the legal standard. In an opinion and order handed down this week, the judge agreed - but not on everything.

In common with many services provided by Google, its search engine is wide open and free of charge at the point of delivery.

The quid pro quo is the user’s consumption of Google ads, placed by millions of advertisers for all kinds of products.

Given the scale, it’s no surprise that some offer products of dubious origin. The question is who can be held liable beyond the seller, and under what specific circumstances.

Textbook Pirates

In June 2024, some of the world’s largest publishers came together in a joint lawsuit targeting Google. In a complaint f...

Read entire story 6/8/2025 at TorrentFreak

American Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare is pushing back against increasing calls to broaden pirate site blocking in the EU. The company notes that since similar efforts in Spain and Italy have resulted in extensive collateral damage, there's a need for more transparency and constructive collaboration on the anti-piracy front. Cloudflare also wants rightsholders to pay for their overblocking mistakes.

Two years ago, the European Commission published a non-binding recommendation to tackle the problem of live-streaming piracy, sports in particular.

For instance, the EU encouraged member states to introduce measures to facilitate prompt takedowns of live streams, while service providers and rightsholders were encouraged to tackle challenges through collaboration.

To the disappointment of many rightsholders, the recommendation required no mandatory action by EU member states. So, when the Commission recently launched an evaluation asking stakeholders to share their views on th...

Read entire story 6/7/2025 at TorrentFreak