Several popular YouTube accounts, including those belonging to 'MIT OpenCourseWare' and the 'Blender Foundation,' have had all their videos blocked. People who try to access the videos are informed that they are not available in their country, suggesting that YouTube's piracy filters have been triggered. It's unclear, however, who or what is to blame.
Foxtel has returned to Federal Court in Sydney with a new application to block 'pirate' sites. The company is targeting several torrent indexes including ETTV and Torrents.me plus streaming sites Sockshare, WatchFreeMovies, and others. Each stand accused of providing unlawful access to TV shows including Game of Thrones. Due to streamlining, the order could be granted in just days.
The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'Escape Plan 2: Hades' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘Tomb Raider'. 'Pacific Rim: Uprising' completes the top three.
When the aspiring Italian author Wallace Lee had his stories about Rambo targeted with a takedown notice, he considered becoming a "pirate writer." Luckily, however, Rambo's creator came to the rescue by officially sanctioning his work. And with help from torrent sites, "Rambo Year One" is now a critically acclaimed success.
Sceper, one of the most popular release blogs of recent times, disappeared without warning earlier this year after "real-life" issues got in the way of delivering pirate media to the masses. Now the site is preparing a comeback after the planned sale of the platform reportedly turned into an attempted scam. Sceper's co-owner gives TorrentFreak the lowdown.
The US Government has asked a federal court in Georgia to dismiss the indictment against an alleged pirate app store operator. This means that, after more than half a decade, this case will be closed. The US previously accused the defendant of being linked to Applanet, but could not back up the copyright infringement charges.
Russia's most powerful entertainment producers and distributors have written to Yandex, the country's leading search provider, demanding the removal of 'pirate' sites from search results. The letter, signed by movie, music, and TV bosses, demands both detection and deletion of content. According to one of the signatories, Google will receive the same letter.
Soulseek, one of the oldest file-sharing applications around, has been banned from accepting donations through PayPal due to piracy concerns. According to digital rights group EFF, which tried to intervene on behalf of Soulseek, this is a form of "financial censorship" that's become increasingly widespread.
Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games hoped to get a default judgment against an alleged cheater from Russia, but the court is not yet convinced. US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler believes that the copyright infringement claims are not sufficient to grant a permanent injunction and has asked the developer to clarify several issues in a new complaint.