Piracy

In a major anti-piracy action against a Streameast-branded operation, ACE has shut down what it calls the world's largest illegal sports streaming ring. Conducted alongside Egyptian authorities, the operation dismantled a network of more than 80 domain names responsible for 1.6 billion visits in the past year. Interestingly, the original Streameast operation, previously targeted by U.S. authorities, remains online and claims it has no connection to the dismantled 'copycat'.

A group of movie companies known for targeting ISPs in the U.S. went on to file a similar lawsuit against Bell Canada. They argued that since Bell failed to forward ~40,000 infringement notices to its subscribers, the ISP can be held liable. After a series of setbacks, the Federal Court of Appeal has thrown Bell a lifeline in lawsuit worth up to CAD$400m (US$291m) in damages.

The issue of pirate IPTV overblocking by LaLiga was raised in Congress this week for a second time. Political party ERC called for urgent intervention by the Spanish state. "A private company cannot act with impunity and indiscriminately in defense of its business," said spokesperson Gabriel Rufián. Not only does LaLiga take issue with the terminology, its position remains unchanged. Because it's a "supervised judicial procedure with very restrictive safeguarding criteria," there is no overblocking. At least not of anything important, LaLiga says.

The U.S. government has recommended a lengthy prison sentence for a former employee of a disc manufacturing company. He previously admitted stealing and distributing numerous DVD and Blu-ray discs, including 'Spider-Man: No Way Home'. The recommendation is largely based on an unconnected firearm charge, not copyright infringement. The MPA has requested to speak at the sentencing hearing, noting that the movie studio victims likely lost tens of millions of dollars.

A pirate IPTV reseller investigated by Sky, who destroyed evidence and dissipated assets in violation of two High Court orders, has been found guilty of contempt of court. David Dunbar of Co Wexford, Ireland, operated 'IPTV is Easy' and according to him, generated nearly €500k in profits while doing so. Since that money is now owed to Sky, a judge at Ireland's High Court imposed a fine of €30,000 rather than a prison sentence, concluding that on balance, he'd suffered enough.

A 2020 lawsuit filed by publishers at the High Court in Delhi targeted the infamous shadow library, Sci-Hub. The aim was to have the site blocked by ISPs, which triggered a strong response from academics, scientists, teachers and students, who argued that free access to knowledge is vital in India. Close to five years later, the Court has sided with the publishers. Sci-Hub's founder informed them via email that the results of blocking may be disappointing.

TorrentFreak, Republished under Creative Commons.

Screener and pre-release copies of numerous films that leaked online recently were not the result of a sophisticated hack. New evidence reveals that several of these films were already publicly accessible for weeks or months previously, after being shared by industry insiders on the video platform Vimeo.

Earlier this month, we reported that a screener copy of In the Hands of Dante had leaked online from an unknown source.

The unreleased Julian Schnabel film, featuring a star cast, is officially set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month. However, pirates got early access.

The same was true for other independent films, including The Best Thing About Christmas, Agon, American Cryptids, Life Is, and Extreme Family, all of which leaked early. What stood out is that several titles had an Italian connection.

The source of the leaks was initially unclear, but new information shared with TorrentFreak shows that many, if not all the leaked films, were already publicly available on video-sharing platform Vimeo long before they appeared on pirate sites.

Post-production Studio Uploads on Vimeo

Multiple versions of In the Hand of Dante, using the shorthand “ITHOD,” were uploaded to the Vimeo channel of Augustus Color Srl. This is the name of a prominent Italian company specializing in color grading and digital post-production.

The upload dates range from June to October 2024, confirming the films were exposed for the better part of a year before they appeared on pirate sites. The most recent ‘edit’ on Vimeo is identical in length compared to the copy that leaked on pirate sites and also comes with a screener watermark.

ITHOD

This wasn’t the only film posted to the account. Augustus Color has over 1,000 videos on their Vimeo account which has been in use for more than seven years. The account uses the logo of the studio and also posted the official promotional reel, various edits, and several additional films.

Augustus Color

After some digging, we also found the leaked Agon film on the same Vimeo account. Again, this copy was posted on the video sharing platform long before it appeared on pirate sites, suggesting this is where the leaks originated. The same account also shared many other films that were not posted to pirate sites.

Before publishing, we reached out to Augustus Color, requesting a comment on our findings, but the company did not respond. The company may have been under the impression that these uploads were not publicly accessible, as the official showreel is private.

There’s More, Much More

Not all recently leaked movies could be traced back to this Vimeo account. It’s a much broader issue. For example, The Best Thing About Christmas screener was also publicly available, posted on Vimeo by the official account weeks before it leaked.

A screenshot from the leak, shown below, notes that it’s a director’s cut. The same cut was also posted on Vimeo.

Producer’s Cut

When we reached out to the filmmakers, they informed us that the screener was not meant to be publicly accessible. They believed that it had been shared privately with specific people. That is clearly not the case here.

Similar uploads are common elsewhere on the video platform. A copy of Extreme Family was published in early July by an account linked to a Vietnamese film organization, before it appeared on pirate sites.

Extreme Family on Vimeo

Similarly, a copy of the film American Cryptids was uploaded to Vimeo by a Florida-based industry insider in early August. Soon after, a ‘leak’ appeared on pirate sites, days in advance of the official theatrical premiere on Friday, August 15.

The person who shared the American Cryptids film on Vimeo did not respond to our request for comment, but the upload is now password protected. This suggests that it wasn’t meant to be publicly accessible either.

The more we dig on Vimeo, the more films we find. These include dozens of unreleased films, but also several films that were posted on Vimeo longer ago, before their official releases. These are linked to the accounts of industry insiders, ranging from small production outfits to videographers’ personal accounts.

Without additional comments from the players involved, we don’t know if these public uploads were the result of a misunderstanding about Vimeo’s privacy settings or if there is more to it than that. Whatever the reason, it’s a bombshell and a wake-up call all the same.

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Note: we privately tested the privacy setting on Vimeo videos and that appears to work as intended.

A new edition of the UK's Online Copyright Infringement Tracker has landed after taking a year off. The headline figure indicates a small decrease in the overall piracy rate, down from 32% in 2022 to 29% in 2024. In the movies, music and live sports categories, pirate consumption increased in 2024, with live sports increasing to a new high at the same time as legal subscriptions fall.

Lithuania's broadcasting regulator (LRTK) challenges the accuracy of data reported by piracy tracking firm MUSO, which is the main input for key EUIPO reports. Citing flaws such as the inclusion of legal sites and an inability to track VPN or IPTV use, LRTK argues that its country is being unfairly portrayed as a piracy leader. In response, MUSO says the LRTK's statements are themselves misleading and the company demands a correction.

With millions of monthly visits, sports streaming service 'Al Ángulo TV' was a massive success. The operator of the service, who wasn't shy about appearing in public, was very active on social media. This brazen stance didn't go unnoticed by rights holders. This week, Argentinian authorities arrested the alleged operator, Alejo Leonel Warles, who now faces a criminal prosecution. His family is reportedly backing a fundraiser to aid a "David vs. Goliath" defense.

Responding directly to a takedown notice from Spotify, GitHub removed the popular EeveeSpotify tool that allowed music fans to unlock premium features without a paid subscription. Soon after GitHub complied with the DMCA notice, the tool's developer relaunched the project as 'EeveeSpotifyReborn', offering the same functionality but with a legal twist.

Two men said to be the operators of SmoothStreams, a pirate IPTV service shut down by entertainment companies over three years ago, have been imprisoned in Canada. Marshall Macciacchera and his father Antonio were both found guilty of contempt and sentenced to an initial term of six months. Marshall's sentence will continue until he complies with a court order to hand over financial information and a laptop password, among other things.

German publisher Axel Springer, owner of brands including Bild and Die Welt, has been given another opportunity to have ad blocking outlawed on copyright grounds. After a series of defeats in its years-long legal action against the makers of Adblock Plus, the publisher appealed to the Federal Court of Justice. Germany's top court has now overturned a 2023 ruling by the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg, referring the case back for reconsideration of the core issues.

Source: Maxim Emulator Tweet on X/Twitter - Xcancel.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has confirmed that copyright holders can't use a "DMCA subpoena shortcut" to identify internet subscribers suspected of copyright infringement. The Court sides with ISP Cox Communications, which intervened in the matter. The ruling blocks a legal tactic filmmakers have used to bypass the traditional, more expensive "John Doe" lawsuits. At the same time, it's also bad news for the MPA and RIAA.

Republished here, as AI content is in the Public Domain. References are available in the original article.

Frustrated by rising subscription costs and fragmented content availability, viewers worldwide are returning to piracy at unprecedented levels, reversing years of progress made by affordable streaming services. Recent data from London-based monitoring firm MUSO shows piracy visits skyrocketed from 130 billion in 2020 to 216 billion by 2024, with the industry facing projected losses exceeding $113 billion.

Subscription Fatigue Drives Digital Exodus

The streaming landscape has transformed from Netflix's early promise of "everything in one place" into what critics call "Cable 2.0"—a fractured ecosystem requiring multiple subscriptions. According to The Guardian, the average European household now spends close to €700 annually on three or more video-on-demand subscriptions. With Netflix's standard plan reaching $15.49 monthly and competitors following suit, consumers are increasingly viewing piracy as a rational alternative.

"Piracy is not a pricing issue, it's a service issue," Valve co-founder Gabe Newell observed in 2011—a prediction that appears prophetic as streaming platforms struggle with content fragmentation and rising prices. In Sweden, birthplace of both Spotify and The Pirate Bay, 25% of people surveyed admitted to pirating content in 2024, predominantly driven by those aged 15 to 24.

Content Wars Create Consumer Casualties

The fragmentation crisis has worsened as studios create exclusive content silos. Viewers face scenarios where favorite shows vanish from one platform only to appear on another, or require separate purchases despite existing subscriptions. Even purchased content can become unavailable due to licensing disputes, prompting consumer lawsuits against platforms like Amazon Prime Video.

MUSO data reveals that unlicensed streaming now accounts for 96% of all TV and film piracy, representing a fundamental shift in how content theft occurs. Modern pirates leverage sophisticated tools including AI-driven search engines and encrypted networks that adapt faster than anti-piracy measures can respond.

Industry Scrambles for Solutions

Streaming executives are experimenting with bundled offerings and cracking down on password sharing, but these measures often backfire by further alienating users. According to Antenna research, one-quarter of U.S. streamers are "chronic churners," frequently canceling subscriptions due to cost and frustration.

The resurgence marks a stark reversal from the mid-2010s when convenient, affordable streaming services nearly eliminated piracy. As one industry analyst noted, studios have created "artificial scarcity in a digital world that promised abundance", suggesting that without addressing core affordability and access issues, the piracy revival may continue reshaping entertainment consumption patterns.