After being removed from Apple's App Store, music streaming app Musi is fighting back with a lawsuit. Musi claims the app's removal, which was prompted by a YouTube complaint, was unjustified. The company sues Apple for breach of contract, seeking reinstatement and damages. The lawsuit raises questions about YouTube-related copyright claims, which have yet to be answered.
Last month, Apple removed the popular music streaming app Musi from its App Store. The removal is rather significant because the app has millions of users.
Apple’s action didn’t come as a complete surprise, as music industry groups had been trying to take the app down for months. They branded Musi a ‘parasitic’ app that skirts the rules.
Why action is being taken now remains a mystery. None of the parties involved have commented in detail on the reason for the removal. Musi, in response to the takedown, acknowledged the problem and said that it hoped t...
In response to a call from the United States Trade Representative, the Premier League has submitted its report on the world's most notorious pirate IPTV-related platforms and services. Premier League matches are reportedly broadcast to almost 900 million households worldwide and by calling out those who broadcast illegally, the UK's top football league may even reach the magical one billion milestone.
For the UK’s Premier League, the United States is still a relatively untapped market but given the potential, growth is being taken very seriously indeed.
As highlighted in its submission to the United States Trade Representative for its 2024 Review of Notorious Markets, in 2023 the Premier League opened an office in Manhattan, New York. This is the second international office for the UK’s top football league after opening in Singapore in 2019, primarily for the purpose of fighting piracy.
The Premier League’s submission to the USTR is significant in that th...
The alleged operator of Modded Hardware has filed an answer to Nintendo's copyright complaint, denying any wrongdoing. The defendant, who represents himself in court, counters with a long list of affirmative defenses including fair use. The case will now move forward to the discovery process. Meanwhile, the Modded Hardware site has gone private.
Nintendo is doing everything in its power to stop the public from playing pirated games on the Switch console.
The Japanese gaming company has won several lawsuits in recent history, including shutting down websites that distributed pirated ROMs.
Most notably, perhaps, was the criminal referral that resulted in the demise of the infamous hacking group Team-Xecuter. The group had previously released several ‘jailbreak’ hacks for gaming consoles and was widely regarded as Nintendo’s main nemesis.
With the win against Team-Xecuter, Nintendo hoped that the moddin...
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. ISPs speak of betrayal; it doesn't get any worse than that.
Fresh amendments to Italian law were passed by Senators this week and their effects will soon be felt on the IPTV piracy battlefield.
Covered in detail in our earlier report, this advanced legal weaponry is incapable of dealing with distant pirate IPTV services. Instead, it mainly targets communications infrastructure, much of it operated by rightsholders’ supposed allies – ISPs – who were given no say in the matter.
Clever Amendments, Guilt-Free Friendly Fire, and a Year Off WorkVPN and DNS services anywhere on planet earth will be required to join Piracy ...
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has sent its latest overview of notorious piracy markets to the U.S. Government. The Hollywood group, which also represents Netflix and Amazon, lists a broad variety of online piracy threats. Aside from traditional pirate sites, it also includes domain registries and hosting providers.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has been a key player in the anti-piracy fight for decades and this position has only strengthened in recent years.
As the driving force behind the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the MPA finds itself at the center of an international enforcement apparatus.
A few weeks ago, ACE helped to shut down Fmovies, the largest pirate streaming conglomerate. While this was a hard fought and important achievement, Hollywood’s piracy problem hasn’t disappeared.
MPA Flags Piracy ChallengesThis week, MPA sent its latest sub...
In August, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was arrested in France and later charged with complicity in crimes allegedly carried out on Telegram. The platform's failure to cooperate with French authorities appears to have been a significant aggravating factor. The multi-billionaire was eventually released on bail, offering assurances that Telegram would change for the better. Interestingly, reports from France suggest that broadcasters of live sports are already seeing improvements on the piracy front.
When news broke in August that Telegram founder Pavel Durov had been arrested after his private plane touched down in France, speculation on the reasons behind that were in plentiful supply.
After letting the rumor mill boil for a few days, French authorities said they had charged Durov with criminal offenses related to his role at Telegram and the platform’s “near-total absence” of cooperation with French authorities. After initially being quite bullish, Durov appeared to adopt a more conciliatory tone, noting that staff had deployed AI tools in an effort to remove problem...
The Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) has released its 2025-2029 manifesto, requesting the EU to enable stronger anti-piracy protections. Most suggested improvements are targeted at combating live-streaming piracy. They include near instant takedowns as well as broader site blocking injunctions, which AAPA would like to expand to VPNs and web browsers.
In recent years, the European Commission has proposed and adopted various legislative changes to help combat online piracy.
They include the Copyright Directive which passed in 2019 and the Digital Services Act (DSA), which followed not long after.
These measures have been spurred on by major copyright holders, who have long called for stricter enforcement of pirated content online. At the same time, there are continued calls for additional legislation, particularly in respect of live-streaming events, including sports.
Last year, The European Commission adopted a reco...
Open source Nintendo Switch emulator Ryujinx has thrown in the towel under pressure from Nintendo. Lead developer 'gdkchan' was reportedly contacted by the gaming giant on Monday. He was given the opportunity to stop working on the project and shut down everything under his control, presumably to avoid further action. The project's repo on GitHub has already been deleted.
When a Nintendo lawsuit targeted the people behind the Yuzu emulator in February, leading to its shutdown just a few weeks later, dark clouds appeared over the future of Switch emulation.
With momentum on its side and tacit acceptance of its core claims via settlement agreement with Yuzu, Nintendo targeted key software tools underpinning emulation of its copyrighted games. Takedown notices eliminated dozens of repos containing tools designed to provide access to Switch encryption keys, those who linked to similar tools were targeted too.
Ryujinx Alone in the WastelandAs Ninte...
The RIAA and MPA are concerned about a recent court ruling that could hinder their ability to combat online piracy using DMCA subpoenas. The court's decision suggests that IP addresses may not be considered "links", potentially limiting the scope of these subpoenas. This interpretation could impact the music and film industries' efforts to identify and take action against infringers and operators of piracy services.
Tackling online piracy is a complicated endeavor that often starts by identifying the operators of infringing sites and services. This is also where the first hurdles show up.
Many pirates keep their identities concealed. This applies to the operators of sites and services as well as their users.
This relative anonymity is a nuisance to anti-piracy groups, including the RIAA and MPA. While most online services refuse to voluntarily hand over user details, there are some legal tools that can help rightsholders move forward.
In recent years, DMCA subpoenas have establishe...
Italy's Senate Budget and Finance Committees have approved amended legal proposals that require VPN and DNS services located anywhere, to block pirated content flagged by rightsholders. Other service providers, including ISPs, will face prison for failing to report "known" criminal conduct. A vote on the text is scheduled for today and the new legislation could be in place in less than a week.
In 2023, the Italian government passed new legislation that aimed to rid the country of illegal IPTV services and web-based streaming platforms. At least in part, this would be achieved by blocking their domain names and IP addresses via the now-infamous Piracy Shield system.
To drive the message home, the law also introduced tougher criminal sanctions at the supply end of the market, with increased fines and custodial sentences on the table. For consumers, it meant that those pirate IPTV users face fines of up to 5,000 euros, and authorities suggest that automated fines might be jus...