Tag Archives: piracy

Media companies are constantly trying to gain access to user information in their fight against online pirates and from time to time, courts do sympathize with them. This week, a Dutch court has ordered Google to hand over the personal details of a user who put pirated eBooks up on …

One of the most hotly contested aspects of film, tv and games piracy, is whether it leads to a drop in sales or not. Some argue that those that downloaded would have bought it if there was no illegal source, whilst others suggest that the reason they pirate rather than …

Torrent uploaders – and to a lesser extent downloaders – face the ever present threat of being discovered. If they're prolific, the knock at the door may come from a SWAT battering ram, but casual seeders may just receive a letter or email from a music lobby group or copyright …

Netflix has had 4K content for a while now. All of its original shows are filmed in ultra HD and it even has a few third-party offerings, like Breaking Bad. Unfortunately, only specific devices have access to 4K streaming on Netflix and that list mostly consists of smart TVs. This …

Remember Dallas Buyers Club? The film featured Matthew Mcconaughey dealing with his personal prejudices, a deadly diagnosis and helping others along the way. It was a beautiful movie about altruism, determination and a struggle against insurmountable forces. When it comes to those that pirated the movie though, the company behind …

Although Kim Dotcom has said a lot about the corporate and governmental people he's dealt with over the years running file lockers and other various services, there has rarely been proof to back up that these conversations actually took place. Now though, he's revealed a recording of a conversation between …

Microsoft recently updated its EULA for Windows 10, noting that the operating system can seek out and potentially disable any pirated software, like games, running on your PC. The new clause in question is found under section 7b of the EULA, which says that Microsoft may check your software at …

More often than not, we see media companies throwing DMCA claims all over the web, quite a few of which turn out to be bogus. However, what happens when a network uses someone else's content without their permission? Well apparently CNN and CBC Canada are about to find out as …

BitTorrent Inc. the parent company behind the Utorrent peer to peer sharing software and more media focused ventures like the BitTorrent bundle, has always maintained that it does not endorse piracy or the use of its programs for such sharing. The RIAA is now calling on it to make good …

Although Kim Dotcom's Internet Party has been the most attention grabbing, alternative party championing online freedoms in recent years, Europe's various Pirate Parties have been holding the fort for the better part of a decade. In the UK in-fact, it's just celebrated its sixth birthday, at which time the head, Cris Chesha …

Google gets hit with thousands of takedown requests a day, a significant portion of which tend to be from movie studios attempting to combat piracy. Unfortunately, these requests often tend to be automated and sometimes don't make any sense at all. This week, Universal Pictures sent a Google a new …

It is hard for companies to keep secrets these days, something that Warner Bros learned the hard way during Comic Con last week when the trailer for Suicide Squad was posted to the internet and spread around like wild fire in all of its blurry, pixelated glory. This has caused …

Customers of Sky broadband in the UK are finding themselves the target of piracy threat letters once again, following a court case last year which saw the ISP forced to hand over information on those that may have illegally downloaded the film The Company You Keep, starring Robert Redford and …

Since they haven't had any real involvement with the site for many years, it's no surprise that most of the founders of the torrent search site, The Pirate Bay, don't feel as if they have much of a tie to it anymore. However, recently released from his 10 month stint …

There has been quite a bit of confusion surrounding Microsoft's stance on piracy with Windows 10. Earlier this year reports suggested that Microsoft would be allowing pirates to upgrade to Windows 10 for free and many assumed that the license would be genuine and grant access to regular updates. However, …

Even though pirating many pieces of software, movies and games is incredibly easy for those with a bit of technical know-how, its the long term upkeep that can be difficult. Official updates aren't likely to work and worse yet, they get complacent, which is where the likes of Microsoft can …

It seems that Hollywood has completely missed the point once again. MPAA backed anti-piracy initiative, WheretoWatch.com is a tool designed to point consumers towards legal alternatives to piracy but there is a catch, it is only accessible to those in the US, meaning a VPN is required if people elsewhere …

It seems amazing that the biggest TV show in the world at the moment is a fantasy epic featuring dragons, dark magic and giants, but that's clearly the case, whether you're looking at official watches, or pirated downloads. This season of Game of Thrones, much like the ones before it, …

HBO is cutting off those who are paying for the on-demand HBO Now service from outside of the US with a VPN. The network has sent emails to people around the world, who were found to be using tools to watch Game of Thrones from countries like Canada, Germany, Australia …

One of the biggest movie leaks in the history of internet based piracy was last year's early release of Expendables 3. It didn't just hit the torrent sites after the film was in cinemas, or when a screener copy was released, it came out in HD quality even before cinemagoers …

An Irish court has ruled in favour of several large record labels, forcing Ireland based Internet Service Provider, UPC, to introduce a three strike rule, that will disconnect repeat offenders when it comes to copyright infringement and illegal downloads. The case originally kicked off half a year ago when the …

It is no secret that plenty of Netflix subscribers use a VPN to access content from other countries, mainly the US as it tends to have the most relevant library of content. It is also no shock that Hollywood companies aren't too happy about this practice, but instead of blocking …

Although the tactics of media lobby groups that claim to be protecting the rights of movie makers have been dubious in the past, one of the more deplorable practices some take part in is the sending of extortive letters to households, threatening a court room if a fine isn't paid. …

In some strange amalgamation of biting off its ball to take it home and spite its face, an Indian government body called the Tamil Film Producer's Council, has announced that it plans to halt the release of all movies in the region for three months in an attempt to send pirates out of …

Although it seems to be the case that most media corporations and lobby groups have moved on from attempting to target movie and TV show pirates with lawsuits, that was a pretty popular tactic in the '00s. Not only was it designed to financially punish those that were found to …

It says something about the software industry when it isn't just penniless students that are pirating music programs, but multi-millionaire DJs as well. Quite a few of them in-fact, as footage from recent interviews with several of them has shown a good number utilising pirated and cracked copies of the world's …

The Motion Picture Association of America recently released a statement claiming that complaining about availability with movies was ridiculous, as clearly there are many legal avenues to go down when it comes to buying and renting movies in your own home. However research suggests that most of the top-torrented films …

Adobe is suing clothing store chain, Forever 21, as it turns out that the retail outlet has been pirating Photoshop software, according to the new lawsuit filing. The company is now facing serious fines as a result. The lawsuit was filed yesterday in a California District Court. This wasn't a …

The biggest reason people pirate, isn't because it's free, it's because the service offered by it has always been better than the legitimate one. Netflix gets this, it's why the CEO recently stated in a letter to shareholders that piracy was its real competition and it's why music piracy has been …

While nothing is intrinsically wrong with movie studios and record labels trying to protect the content they spend a lot of money creating, they never consider piracy as direct competition for their service, seeing it instead as outright thievery. This is a very different view from the one held by media streaming …