Several major ISPs have blocked dozens of pirate torrent and streaming platforms following orders from the Singapore High Court. The action, which covers platforms including The Pirate Bay plus KickassTorrents and Solarmovie variants, follows a successful application from the MPAA, which accuses the platforms of flagrant copyright infringement.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Avengers: Infinity War'. 'Deadpool 2' completes the top three.
Earlier this week Fairplay Canada, the coalition lobbying for a national piracy blocking mechanism, countered its critics in a detailed reply. Buried in the footnotes, the document also included a stab at TorrentFreak, 'discrediting' our coverage by labeling us a "pro-piracy" site. Interestingly, however, the same report later cites TorrentFreak as a reputable source on site-blocking jurisprudence.
Telenor, an ISP that has long fought against site-blocking in Sweden, will now begin blocking The Pirate Bay, apparently voluntarily. The development isn't the result of a direct court order against the company, rather its final consolidation with Bredbandsbolaget, an ISP owned by Telenor that was previously ordered to block the infamous torrent site.
The poet going by the name Shaun Shane has come to the forefront again, half a decade after his one-line poem triggered a takedown controversy. In a series of DMCA notices sent to Google, the poet posits that people are using black hat SEO to get to him. Targeted sites include BoingBoing and Techdirt, but also entirely unrelated ones, including the homepage of the company 'Shaun Shane Bricklaying.'
More than 150 law enforcement officers in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Spain have coordinated to dismantle a large pirate IPTV operation. TV channel sources, which were spread among companies, commercial premises and even private homes, were targeted in dozens of locations. The investigation focused on 49 suspects, five of whom were arrested and taken into custody.
Kodi addon library TVAddons was dragged to court last year by Dish Networks over alleged copyright infringement. However, in a new filing TVAddons' operator Adam Lackman denies these allegations. In addition, the defense states that the broadcast provider can't claim statutory damages without copyright registrations.
ExtraTorrent.ag, one of the Internet's most popular torrent sites, appears to have some serious domain issues. The site sprang up in the wake of the original ExtraTorrent's demise exactly a year ago, hoping to scoop up some of its traffic. But yesterday the domain, which was previously home to a top 10 torrent site, began pointing to a generic landing page and is now returning security warnings.
Fairplay Canada sees its own site blocking proposal as the best option to counter infringing websites. In a reply response to the CRTC, the coalition argues that the 'alternative' judicial option is uncertain, costly, and will take a lot of time. The response further criticizes misleading and false comments from the public, while adding more support for its blocking plans.