Piracy

A man described by Sky as a "top level" pirate has agreed to pay the broadcaster €480,000 in damages. Sky's investigation of David Dunbar reportedly began on social media last November, but soon benefited from a timely anonymous tip from another country. In May 2025, Sky obtained a court order to secure evidence from Dunbar's home, but that didn't go according to plan. After being denied access to the premises, evidence was destroyed and funds were "dissipated".

Efforts to introduce pirate site blocking to the United States continue with the introduction of the "Block BEARD" bill in the Senate. The bipartisan proposal, backed by Senators Tillis, Coons, Blackburn, and Schiff, aims to create a new legal mechanism to combat foreign piracy websites. Block BEARD is similar to the previously introduced House bill "FADPA", but doesn't directly mention DNS resolvers.

Medical device associations behind a lawsuit challenging a Library of Congress exemption to the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, have failed to have the exemption ruled illegal. Motions for summary judgment from both sides went in favor of the defendants after a district court judge found that the exemption, granted for the maintenance and repair of medical devices, permits a non-infringing, transformative fair use.

Facebook has several anti-piracy tools and technologies to keep problematic content off the platform. This apparently includes automated keyword filters that ban mentions of piracy-related terms, regardless of the context. This resulted in the removal of several MagisTV news articles, including a press release from anti-piracy coalition ACE. Trying to spot these errors is not without risk either, as Facebook bans repeat offenders.

A new report investigates the cybersecurity risks consumers face when using digital piracy services in Southeast Asia. The findings clearly show that pirate sites are a bigger threat than legal streaming platforms, suggesting that countermeasures are warranted. However, does is also mean that pirates are 65 times more likely to be infected by malware? And is that even important?

In Q2 2025, anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment continued to 'seize' domains in bulk, adding to the world's largest collection of former pirate domains maintained by the MPA. While the archive contains countless unique and memorable domains, many with interesting and informative backstories, new additions illustrate typical responses to site blocking measures and very little else.

Adult film producers Strike 3 Holdings and Counterlife Media have filed a significant copyright infringement lawsuit against tech giant Meta. A complaint filed at a California federal court alleges that their films were downloaded via BitTorrent for AI training purposes. With at least 2,396 movies at stake, potential damages could exceed 350 million dollars.

Top-tier Spanish football league LaLiga and Latin American anti-piracy group Alianza have joined forces to maintain the pressure on illegal IPTV service Magis TV. In conjunction with law enforcement partners in Argentina, multiple arrest warrants were executed in five regions against local sellers of premium Magis TV packages. Two of the locations targeted are operated by a local internet service provider; reports indicate that the owner of the ISP is now considered a fugitive.

In a move that could reshape the online copyright enforcement landscape, last month the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a pivotal piracy liability lawsuit. The Court's decision will have a direct impact on similar lawsuits, including that between major record labels and ISP Altice, which is now on hold. Verizon has asked the court for a similar stay, but since that lawsuit is in its early stages, the labels are firmly opposed to any further delay.

MagisTV, a leading pirate streaming brand in Latin America, finds itself caught between a legal storm and a mounting malware backlash. This week, the service saw its U.S. trademark application abandoned amidst growing scrutiny from authorities and rightsholders worldwide. At the same time, a barrage of local news reports warn consumers that using MagisTV's software could lead to identity theft and expose them to viruses.

FMHY NSFW index is deleted, as far as I can see.

Any others?

Today, online piracy is largely driven by unauthorized streaming sites and services. When it comes to lawsuits, however, BitTorrent users are the prime target, as they are easy to track. In recent years, one adult entertainment company has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of all cases filed in thhe U.S. against individual pirates. While these rarely make the news, they can have consequences, court records show.

Earlier this year, Microsoft published a report on an infostealer malware campaign identified as stemming from pirate streaming sites. With one million user devices infected, the potential for damage is clearly enormous but the threat isn't new. Data sourced from specialist breach databases reveals that Fmovies, the world's most popular pirate streaming site before its closure in 2024, was "strongly linked" to Infostealer activity targeting users worldwide.

Disclaimer: It's been a few years since I was torrenting regularly. This week I went searching for a few specific torrents, and I was shocked and dismayed by the state of things.

First, I wanted to download a bunch of movie soundtracks. A few years ago, this would have been fairly straightforward. But I was surprised to find that, well, I couldn't find. Almost all the albums I went after were nowhere to be found.

Then, last night, I tried to torrent the new Superman. I downloaded 3 different torrents... each one had a super annoying, non-transparent watermark moving around the screen constantly. It made the movie totally unwatchable.

Is this really the state of piracy? What happened??

Law enforcement authorities in Vietnam will prosecute the operators of around 400 pirate sites offering pornographic content. Such material is illegal in Vietnam and the authorities say the men made large profits from visitors viewing lucrative advertising. Also of note are claims that the men circumvented blocking measures at ISPs either owned by, or closely connected to, the government.

Germany's voluntary pirate site blocking regime has undergone a fundamental change, now requiring judicial oversight for all blocking actions. The participants will rely on court orders going forward, instead of their own recommendations. While the change ensures a proper review of blocking requests, it does not necessarily make the blockades more transparent for the public.

Late last week, the FBI seized the domain names of several gaming piracy websites, including NSW2U.com. The sites in question were used to download more than a million games per month, according to a press release, which inadvertently identified a nonexistent domain. The FBI eventually seized the correct domain, and the investigation continues. Meanwhile, opportunists are moving in to lure displaced pirates to new "NSW2U" domains.