Court Rejects Musi’s Bid to Force Apple to Reinstate its Music App
Updated: 2025-01-31 11:43:03
Musi's initial attempt to force Apple to reinstate its music app to the App Store has failed. A California federal court denied a request for a preliminary injunction, ruling that Apple did not act unreasonably or in bad faith when it removed the app following complaints from music industry players and YouTube. The court found that Musi’s proposed injunction would not serve the public interest.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A new report from consultancy firm Mediavision provides data on IPTV piracy that the Swedish government didn't want to hear. Between spring and fall of 2024, illegal subscriptions increased by a record 25%, with an estimated 700,000 households now regularly paying to pirate. The government considers a 'viewing ban' for citizens but, there appears to be no clear idea how or even if that would work.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Pirate site blocking orders are a step closer to becoming reality in the United States after Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced the Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act earlier today. Should it become law, FAPDA would allow rightsholders to obtain site blocking orders targeted at verified pirate sites, presumably run by foreign operators. The blocking orders would apply to both ISPs and DNS resolvers. The latter is a novelty.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
TorrentGalaxy was taken over by new owners last year and faced repeated difficulties in the months that followed. Official updates have been sparse, but according to a new message posted by the operators, they're having trouble paying the bills. Further details are lacking, but the call for help resulted in a healthy stream of crypto donations, which will be of interest to anti-piracy groups too.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A Nintendo lawsuit filed last November targeted video gamer Jesse Keighin, aka EveryGameGuru. Given the scope of the allegations, narrowly focused on a single defendant, the action seems unusually punitive. Yet if the plan was to push Keighin into a corner, the Colorado resident hasn't read the script. Allegations of destruction of evidence, obstructing service, and abuse of Nintendo's legal team, combine to make a dire situation even worse. But not for Nintendo.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The use of copyrighted material in training large language models (LLMs) has sparked legal battles and takedown notices. In the Netherlands, anti-piracy group BREIN takes credit for forcing the popular 'GEITje' LLM offline, which in part was trained on copyrighted texts. The developer didn't necessarily agree with BREIN, but lacked the resources to fight back.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) held an anti-piracy symposium last week to discuss the latest achievements, challenges, and solutions in combating piracy. Experts from the public and private sectors came together to discuss various topics, including the need to deploy balanced and effective site blocking measures in the United States.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
'Screener season' used to make its annual appearance as reliably as the Oscars themselves. Copies of the most significant movies, intended for awards voters, would somehow end up online, for the unintended perusal of millions of pirates. A few years ago, screener copy leaks completely dried up, potentially forever. Then a few hours ago, a pair of Oscar-nominated movies, each with the same unusual feature, made their surprise entrance online.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Software company Bitmanagement has been dealt another blow in its piracy battle against the U.S. Navy. Instead of winning over $155 million in damages, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court's ruling, awarding a mere $154,400 for the Navy's unauthorized installations of the German company's software.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
City of London Police formed the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit over a decade ago. Since then, the specialist anti-piracy unit has targeted pirates of all kinds. The Intellectual Property Office's latest Report and Accounts states that PIPCU is funded using millions of pounds from 'IPO surpluses.' That money appears to have been put to work; PIPCU reports reveal successes against large-scale IPTV pirates and in one case, a record-breaking restraint of ill-gotten gains.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The French Supreme Court has confirmed that Société Générale rightfully terminated a payment processing agreement with file-hosting service 1fichier. The cyberlocker failed to monitor and prevent the storage of pirated material, which it had contractually agreed to do. When Mastercard raised red flags, the bank was therefore was within its right to take action.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
The CCIA, which represents global tech firms including Amazon, Cloudflare and Google, is sounding the alarm over Italy's "Piracy Shield" blocking scheme. The group's European branch urges the EU Commission to step in to prevent overblocking and to promote transparency. Additional measures requiring Internet services to actively report illegal activity on their networks are seen as problematic too.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Following the surprise arrest of founder Pavel Durov in France last year, Telegram's suddenly improved attitude towards content complaints was unexpected, and appears to be holding. After channels operated by Z-Library and Anna's Archive were shut down recently, Russian media outlets are reporting the suspension of a channel operated by RuTracker, one of the most resilient torrent trackers in history.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Reddit finds itself in court once again as movie companies continue to seek information on the site's users. After several rejections, the case is now before the Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals. The rightsholders argue that the IP addresses of six users who discussed piracy related matters are key evidence in a lawsuit against ISP Frontier. Reddit counters, stressing that the users' First Amendment right to anonymous speech is at stake.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Meta is among a long list of companies being sued for allegedly using pirated material to train its AI models. Meta has never denied using copyrighted works but stressed that it would rely on a fair use defense. However, with rightsholders in one case asking for torrent client data and 'seeding lists' for millions of books allegedly shared in public, the case now takes a geeky turn.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
A man who ran an IPTV piracy operation from his home in Birmingham, UK, has been sentenced to two years and nine months in prison for fraud offenses. The case is a rare example of a seller sourcing their own content but may have been slightly overhyped. Following raids in 2021, "hundreds of thousands" were said to use the service, a figure quietly rounded down to just 2,000.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
Despite blocking thousands of illegal streaming sites, Italy's 'Piracy Shield' anti-piracy program has failed to deliver increased viewership for legal services like DAZN. This revelation appears in data provided by telecoms regulator AGCOM, which oversees the blocking regime. It adds fuel to the already heated discussions, which divide stakeholders and copyright representatives.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.