RuTracker, Russia's largest torrent site, is celebrating its 13th year online. The huge site, which creates torrents at a rate of more than 170,000 per year, has more than 15 million registered members. Every single one over the age of 18 is invited to St. Petersburg tonight to enjoy a Chinese meal together.
Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of set-top boxes with pirate channels and add-ons. This has also affected Roku, but the popular media player is doing its best to keep its system pirate free. Two new job postings reveal that the company is putting together its own anti-piracy team.
Dutch Internet service providers Ziggo and XS4ALL have been ordered to block The Pirate Bay. A ruling handed down today by The Court of The Hague compels the ISPs to block the infamous site within 10 days or face significant fines. The blocks will remain in place pending a final decision from the Supreme Court.
One of the most important aspects of online piracy is whether it affects sales. So, when the EU Commission spends 360,000 euros on a study to find out, one might think it would be useful to publish the results. Instead, Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda had to jump through hoops to obtain them. Why all the secrecy?
Following in the footsteps of The Pirate Bay, streaming link search engine Alluc has also added a cryptocurrency miner, hoping to generate some extra revenue through its visitors. This begs the question: Are these cryptocurrency miners the future for pirate sites?
Google has signed a deal with the audio-visual industry in France to more effectively target piracy on YouTube. The agreement, reached with anti-piracy outfit ALPA with government oversight, will see rightsholders gaining direct access to takedown mechanisms. Google will also provide financial support and training.
U.S. Internet provider Windstream has given up on its preemptive "piracy liability" case against BMG and Rightscorp. The ISP hoped to get legal clarity after it was accused of direct and contributory copyright infringement, but after an initial setback and subsequent appeal, it has now dropped the case.
Reports coming out of China indicate that another citizen has been caught up in the country's VPN dragnet. The software developer reportedly set up a VPN for his own use but sensing demand, sold access to the service to third parties. Despite making just $164 from his business, he was arrested and detained for three days.
New data not only reveals that stream ripping remains the music industry's main piracy threat, but it's growing too. IFPI's latest music consumer insight report shows that more than a third of all Internet subscribers use stream rippers to access unlicensed music.