Piracy Giant Mangajikan’s “Website Closed” After 185m Visits in May Alone
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...
European ISPs Complain About ‘Disproportionate’ Pirate Site Blocking
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...
Pirate Sites’ Takedown Compliance Beats YouTube, Facebook, 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...
Pirate Site Visits Dip to 216 Billion a Year, But Manga Piracy is Booming
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...
ICANN’s DNS Blocking Report Presents Three Key Recommendations
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...
Grande Slams Labels’ “Egregious” Piracy Claims in Final Supreme Court Plea
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...
