IPTV Pirates May Soon Be Named and Shamed, Italian Minister Says
With an industrial-scale Piracy Shield blocking program not quite the panacea some had predicted, Italian authorities and rightsholders have recently upgraded their deterrent messaging capabilities. After a database of 2,200 individuals who subscribed to a pirate IPTV service was obtained by police during the course of a raid, authorities made good on their promise to issue fines to those exposed. For some of those who accepted...
ISP Blocking of No-IP’s Dynamic DNS Enters Week 2
In a legal dispute now at the U.S. Supreme Court, the world’s leading record labels and Cox Communications disagree on many things, including how to respond to online piracy. The labels’ preferred solution is to sever subscribers’ access to the internet. Cox believes that denying internet access is excessive. The case is much more complex than that as the venue suggests, but one aspect seems clearer when viewed in its own light. When...
Manga Pirate Site Operator Fails to Dodge DMCA Subpoena Over Cloudflare Cache
To combat online piracy, copyright holders frequently use DMCA subpoenas to compel service providers to unmask alleged infringers. Because these requests don’t require a judge’s approval and are typically signed off by a court clerk, they offer a swift and powerful tool to identify pirates. In recent years, Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare has been targeted with DMCA subpoenas dozens of times. While the personal information...
Direct Sales & Direct Anti-Piracy Action Underpin Japan’s Plan For Explosive Growth
In the decade preceding 2023, overseas sales of Japanese content tripled, reaching approximately 5.8 trillion yen or roughly US$38.3 billion at today’s rates. According to the five-year action plan laid out in the 2025 Entertainment and Creative Industry Strategy report, that figure surpassed the exports of the semiconductor and steel industries, leaving only the car industry out in front. Now positioned as a ‘core industry,’ and with...
Record Labels Fire Back at Cox in $1B Supreme Court Piracy Case, Cite Termination ‘Hypocrisy’
The Supreme Court case between several major record labels and Cox Communications is a landmark legal battle. The outcome will determine how Internet providers should deal with pirating subscribers on their networks. Should alleged pirates be disconnected from the Internet after repeated third-party allegations of copyright infringement? Or does that go too far? In its opening brief, Cox argued that the company should not be held...
Y2Mate.com Among a Dozen YouTube Rippers Shut Down By IFPI
Under the international umbrella of IFPI, the RIAA in the United States, and the BPI in London, the world’s leading recording labels have been on a constant upwards trajectory for a decade. After the likes of Napster, Grokster, and LimeWire gatecrashed the party and introduced unwelcome (not to mention illegal) competition into the equation, in 2002 revenues tumbled and somehow managed to keep going south until 2014. Making peace with...
