For the fourth year in a row Game of Thrones has been identified as the most pirated TV-show on the Internet according to TorrentFreak. The Walking Dead is firmly in second place, followed by The Big Bang Theory. With an estimated 14.4 million downloads via BitTorrent,
A New Zealand court has ruled that Kim Dotcom, founder of closed-down file-sharing site Megaupload, can be extradited to the United States to face online piracy charges. After a nine-week hearing, Judge Nevin Dawson found there was “overwhelming” evidence to support extradition. The decision comes almost four years after NZ police raided Dotcom’s mansion at […]
Following the successful 2013 raid of five homes in The Netherlands cities of Apeldoorn, Enschede, Vlagtwedde and The Hague, content pirates arrested during these raids have been sentenced at the Zutphen courthouse. Two defendants received 100 hours of community service, two months of conditional imprisonment and two years’ probation. This followed an extensive collaborative effort […]
Disney has felt a great financial disturbance in the Force, as thousands of people downloaded the latest Star Wars film for free instead of paying to see it at the cinema. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened in cinemas worldwide last week and a copy of it has now somewhat inevitably landed on the major […]
Five members of a UK underground piracy group that wanted to be the first to release the latest blockbusters on the web have been jailed for more than 17 years. The case, which marks the first time that ‘release groups’ have been prosecuted, follows an investigation led by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) – […]
US Trade Representative Michael Froman has announced the findings of the Special 301 Out-of-Cycle Review of Notorious Markets for 2015, which highlights specific physical and online markets around the world that are reported to be engaging in and facilitating substantial copyright piracy and trademark counterfeiting. This activity harms the American economy by undermining the innovation […]
Internet users, including many who acknowledge visiting content theft websites to watch free movies, TV shows and listen to music, report that if they knew that it could expose them to malware and other viruses they would steer clear of these websites, according to a new survey. According to the survey, one in five Americans […]
Speaking at a press event on the Copyright Amendment Bill sponsored by the Hong Kong Copyright Alliance, CASBAA Chief Policy Officer John Medeiros has expressed support for immediate passage of the Bill, but without the three Committee Stage Amendments, describing them as “unacceptable”, suggesting they would create huge loopholes in copyright protection. “Passage of the […]
An Australian Federal Court judgement has given a reprieve to Australian Internet users who pirated copies of Dallas Buyers Club. The makers of the film had sought compensation from illegal downloaders and launched legal action against Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to reveal the names of such users. The Court threw the attempt to not only […]
Content theft sites pose a serious and growing threat to Internet users by exposing them to harmful malware that can lead to identity theft, financial loss and computers being taken over by hackers, according to Digital Bait – a new research report commissioned by the Digital Citizens Alliance, a consumer-oriented coalition focused on educating the […]