Hacker News with Generative AI: Piracy

Meta Trained Its AI on a Notorious Piracy Database (wired.com)
Meta just lost a major fight in its ongoing legal battle with a group of authors suing the company for copyright infringement over how it trained its artificial intelligence models.
Artificial Intelligence, Copyright Infringement, Legal Battles, Meta, Piracy
7 points by mdhb 8 days ago | 1 comments
A swashbuckling tale of Italian software piracy – 1983-1993 (2022) (genesistemple.com)
Everyone had a favorite videogame shop as a kid, where plenty of happy – or perhaps, not-so-happy – memories took place. Maybe it was EG or a Game, if one is UK based, or perhaps a Gamestop, Blockbuster or a mom-and-pop shop even. As for me, well, most of my games, as a child, I bought them at newspaper kiosks.
Video Games, Piracy, Italy, History, Nostalgia
115 points by alberto-m 12 days ago | 47 comments
TV Group Couldn't Force U.S. ISPs to Block Pirates, UK ISPs May Offer Help (torrentfreak.com)
More than two-and-a-half years ago, a group of Israel-based TV companies entered a new phase of their multi-year war against the country’s most popular and resilient pirate sites.
Internet, Piracy, Law, Technology, Media
7 points by gslin 15 days ago | 0 comments
More Than Half of All Google Search Takedowns Now Come from Link-Busters (torrentfreak.com)
Link-Busters is the unofficial DMCA takedown champion of 2024. The anti-piracy outfit works for many of the world's largest publishing companies and is currently flagging the majority of all 'pirate' URLs to Google search; more than two billion in total. Despite this stellar effort, book pirates are chalking up new records too.
Copyright, Piracy, Google Search, DMCA, Publishing
14 points by isaacfrond 16 days ago | 0 comments
Piracy in the UK: the failed war on illegal content (huckmag.com)
Piracy, UK, Law, Content, Media
50 points by CarbonBasedUnit 20 days ago | 32 comments
Bogus Pirate IPTV Portals Run by Law Enforcement "Entrap Hundreds" (torrentfreak.com)
According to a phrase popularized by Carl Sagan, extraordinary claims should be supported by extraordinary evidence. A new piracy scare story published on Sunday takes a different approach. The extraordinary claim is that fake IPTV portals run by law enforcement are entrapping "ordinary users" to obtain evidence of their crimes. Supported by exactly zero evidence, the report claims that hundreds of internet users have already been identified.
IPTV, Piracy, Law Enforcement, Crime
15 points by gslin 22 days ago | 0 comments
Court of Milan orders Cloudflare to block ‘piracy shield’ domains, IP addresses (torrentfreak.com)
In a landmark ruling, the Court of Milan has ordered Cloudflare to block pirate streaming services that offer Serie A football matches.
Legal Issues, Piracy, Streaming Services, Italy, Football
148 points by DanAtC 24 days ago | 157 comments
Canada's First Pirate Site Blocking Order Expires (torrentfreak.com)
Canada, Copyright Law, Piracy, Internet Law
61 points by gslin 33 days ago | 30 comments
French Piracy Blocking Order Goes Global, DNS Service Quad9 Vows to Fight (torrentfreak.com)
In an ongoing escalation of its fight against online sports piracy, media giant Canal+ secured court orders compelling DNS providers Quad9 and Vercara to block access to pirate streaming sites in France. Quad9 says that it's determined to appeal what it sees as an absurd application of copyright law. For now, however, it will block the targeted domain names globally.
Copyright Law, Piracy, DNS, France, Internet
36 points by latexr 37 days ago | 22 comments
Piracy Shield Blacks Out Tech News Site by Blocking Another CDN IP (torrentfreak.com)
Italy's Piracy Shield IPTV blocking system is back in the news today after yet another completely avoidable blocking blunder. On Monday night, yet another CDN IP address was added to the blocklist rendering innocent sites unavailable. Italian tech news site DDaY, a long-standing critic of Piracy Shield's indiscriminate blocking, was among those affected.
Piracy, Censorship, Italy, CDN, News
10 points by gslin 38 days ago | 0 comments
We have been pirated; we're a real game studio now (itch.io)
Gaming, Piracy, Indie Games
9 points by stoatstudios 44 days ago | 0 comments
UK Police and Fact Continue IPTV Piracy Whack-a-Mole (torrentfreak.com)
A 42-year-old man was arrested in a recent UK crackdown on illegal IPTV suppliers, with a special mention for 'illicit Firesticks'. Local police, in collaboration with anti-piracy group FACT, also sent cease and desist letters to thirty other suspects. While FACT warns that pirate operators risk criminal penalties, there appears to be no end in sight for the streaming piracy whack-a-mole.
IPTV, Piracy, Law Enforcement, Technology, Digital Rights
9 points by hn_acker 45 days ago | 0 comments
Police bust pirate streaming service making €250M per month (bleepingcomputer.com)
An international law enforcement operation has dismantled a pirate streaming service that served over 22 million users worldwide and made €250 million ($263M) per month.
Cybercrime, Piracy, Streaming, Law Enforcement
88 points by woldemariam 47 days ago | 166 comments
Nintendo Wants Reddit to Expose R/SwitchPirates Users in 'Pirate Shop' Lawsuit (torrentfreak.com)
As part of an ongoing piracy lawsuit, Nintendo has filed a motion to subpoena Reddit, Discord, and other online platforms for information related to the alleged operator of several pirate shops.
Nintendo, Piracy, Lawsuits, Gaming, Online Platforms
37 points by gslin 48 days ago | 3 comments
Largest piracy network [serving over 22M users in Europe] taken d (independent.co.uk)
Police across 10 countries have taken part in a massive operation targeting what is believed to be the world’s largest piracy network.
Piracy, Law Enforcement, Europe, Security
8 points by taimurkazmi 49 days ago | 5 comments
European Police Pull Plug on 'Largest' Illegal Streaming Service (barrons.com)
An international police operation has shut down "one of the world's largest" illegal online streaming services, used by some 22 million people worldwide and causing billions of euros in copyright damages, EU law agencies said on Wednesday.
Copyright, Piracy, Streaming Services, Law Enforcement, Europe
11 points by SirLJ 51 days ago | 10 comments
Supreme Court wants US input on whether ISPs should be liable for users' piracy (arstechnica.com)
The Supreme Court signaled it may take up a case that could determine whether Internet service providers must terminate users who are accused of copyright infringement.
Law, Copyright, Internet, Piracy, Supreme Court
45 points by nobody9999 53 days ago | 51 comments
Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, Study Finds (torrentfreak.com)
A recent study published in the Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice sheds light on people's motivations to use Z-Library. Expensive books and limited access to academic material play a key role among those surveyed. That includes a group of Chinese postgraduate students who believe that shadow libraries help to overcome (academic) poverty.
Academic Poverty, Education, Piracy, Research, Libraries
419 points by hn_acker 58 days ago | 130 comments
Etsy Accuses Game Boy Publisher of Piracy for Selling Its Own Games (timeextension.com)
"The retro publisher FerranteCrafts has taken to social media to provide an update on why some of its physical games are disappearing from their Etsy store, and the reason is honestly pretty baffling to us."
Piracy, Video Games, Business Disputes, Retro Gaming
6 points by josephcsible 66 days ago | 2 comments
Key Pirate Bay Figures Don't Recognize Themselves in TV Series (torrentfreak.com)
The long-awaited Pirate Bay TV series premiered in Sweden on Friday, through official channel and (eventually also) on The Pirate Bay.
Entertainment, Piracy, Sweden
21 points by hn_acker 67 days ago | 0 comments
Every arthouse buff you know is pirating films (i-d.co)
Earlier this year, Daniel, a filmmaker from England, wanted to watch Béla Tarr’s take on Macbeth, a TV movie by the Hungarian auteur that had aired in 1982 on the Magyar Televízió network.
Filmmaking, Piracy, Arthouse Cinema
115 points by XzetaU8 67 days ago | 135 comments
Pirating "The Pirate Bay" TV Series Is Ironically Difficult (torrentfreak.com)
The Pirate Bay made its debut as a TV series on the Swedish streaming platform SVT Play earlier today. International viewers are left waiting until other services pick it up. In the meantime, some may be tempted to explore unofficial channels for pirated copies of the show. But finding a pirated copy is proving surprisingly difficult.
Television, Piracy, Streaming Services
112 points by HieronymusBosch 70 days ago | 85 comments
DeCENC is another way to beat web video DRM (theregister.com)
An anti-piracy system to protect online video streams from unauthorized copying is flawed – and can be broken to allow streamed media from Amazon, Netflix, and others to be saved, replayed, and spread at will, we're told.
Video Streaming, Security, Piracy, Online Content
20 points by be_erik 73 days ago | 1 comments
Google Asked to Remove 10B "Pirate" Search Results (torrentfreak.com)
Rightsholders have asked Google to remove more than 10 billion 'copyright infringing' URLs from its search results.
Copyright Law, Google, Search Engines, Piracy
33 points by gslin 74 days ago | 7 comments
New Nintendo Music app could spell more trouble for illicit soundtrack posters (arstechnica.com)
Last night, Nintendo pulled off a surprise launch of a new Nintendo Music smartphone app, offering many of the company's staple soundtrack songs as a perk to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. But the new subscription freebie could give Nintendo additional motivation to once again crack down on Internet users who have been collecting and posting Nintendo music online for years now.
Video Games, Music Streaming, Copyright, Piracy
4 points by duxup 79 days ago | 0 comments
Google Drive Blackout in Italy After Another Major Anti-Piracy Blunder (torrentfreak.com)
After blocking Cloudflare to prevent IPTV piracy just a few months ago, on Saturday the rightsholders behind Piracy Shield ordered Italy's ISPs to block Google Drive. The subsequent nationwide blackout, affecting millions of Italians, wasn't just a hapless IP address blunder. This was the reckless blocking of a Google.com subdomain that many 10-year-olds could identify as being important. Reckless people and internet infrastructure, what could possibly go wrong next?
Google, Piracy, Italy, Internet Censorship, Technology
141 points by gslin 89 days ago | 79 comments
Pirate IPTV Subscribers Warned They Face "Automated Fines" (torrentfreak.com)
The head of telecoms regulator AGCOM confirmed this week that a memorandum of understanding between the Prosecutor's Office, Guardia di Finanza, and AGCOM, heralds a new stage in Italy's fight against IPTV piracy.
IPTV, Piracy, Italy, Law Enforcement, Telecom
12 points by austinallegro 95 days ago | 2 comments
U.S. Judge Asked to Collect $1.4M Moldovan Judgment Against Cloudflare (torrentfreak.com)
Two book authors are asking a U.S. federal court to enforce a $1.4 million piracy judgment against Cloudflare.
Law, Cybersecurity, Piracy, Cloudflare
78 points by isaacfrond 95 days ago | 33 comments
5th Circuit rules ISP should have terminated Internet users accused of piracy (arstechnica.com)
Music publishing companies notched another court victory against a broadband provider that refused to terminate the accounts of Internet users accused of piracy.
Law, Copyright, Internet, Piracy
27 points by impish9208 98 days ago | 9 comments
New Italian Law Threatens ISPs with Prison over Piracy Reporting Failures (torrentfreak.com)
Italian ISPs are required to work with AGCOM and rightsholders to ensure the Piracy Shield blocking system operates as intended. It's a burden that only benefits rightsholders, but the ISPs are expected to cover their own costs. That contribution was insulted this week by a legal amendment that threatens ISPs with prison for failing to report piracy to the authorities. Google describes it as a requirement to flood the judiciary to avoid prison.
Piracy, Law, Italy, Copyright
73 points by isaacfrond 103 days ago | 53 comments