Andy Maxwell

Australia's Federal Court has responded to an urgent request by the major Hollywood studios, Netflix and Apple, to protect the movie “Wicked: For Good” from some of the world's most notorious pirate streaming sites. After issuing an initial blocking order in November, an unprecedented second was issued two weeks later. Targeting “Additional Urgent Access Means”, the order empowers the studios to tackle pirate site countermeasures immediately, without further recourse to the Court.

After enjoying years of relative freedom to do whatever they liked with their Amazon Fire TV Sticks, last month users were informed that apps linked to piracy would be blocked, banned, or even deleted moving forward. With alerts now appearing on users' devices relating to one app in particular, it transpires that bypassing Amazon's restrictions is really easy, at least for now. The bigger question being asked right now is this: what happens when you do?

In 2024, a man convicted for his involvement in pirate IPTV service Viking IPTV received a relatively modest suspended sentence, despite serving several thousand customers. However, a cryptocurrency analysis revealed transactions dating back to 2018 and police were eventually able to seize 12.7 bitcoin. The Swedish Enforcement Authority recently sold the haul at auction, with proceeds in excess of US$1 million set to benefit the Swedish state.

New evidence shows that blocking pirate sites can lead to distracted pirates being directed to malicious content.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment says it was behind the sudden closure of MKVCinemas, a popular India-based streaming site that disappeared unexpectedly last month. As part of the same operation, ACE says it also shut down a "cloning tool" that enabled pirates to share content in private while evading takedowns. Factor in drama from the iBomma shutdown, and Indian pirates have had quite the month.

French telecoms regulator Arcom says it expects an automated, real-time pirate IPTV blocking system to be operational no later than the first half of 2026. Inspired by systems in place in the UK and Italy, Arcom aims to simplify existing processes to boost blocking volumes from a few hundred requests, to thousands of requests every week. Arcom says that monitoring the quality of rightsholders' detection systems will replace systematic pre-blocking verification.

An ambitious four-pronged defense, against a DMCA subpoena aiming to unmask the owners of ~100 alleged-infringing domains, has failed.

Proposals to combat pirate IPTV led to claims that Denmark will ban VPNs. The government denies that, but will removing a term change anything?

With the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) set to kick off in Morocco on December 21, a "vast operation" against illegal IPTV services is reportedly in the works. The plan follows an anti-piracy summit on Tuesday, where copyright groups from Morocco, France, and the EU joined forces with Interpol, the MPA, and ACE. The high-level meeting took place in Morocco, a jurisdiction where meaningful piracy enforcement has historically been nonexistent.

RuTracker is not only Russia's largest torrent site, it's one of the oldest and most resilient pirate sites anywhere in the world. Most major entertainment companies have had issues with RuTracker at some point during its 21 years online, and those in the videogame sector are no exception. Under the umbrella of The ESA, some of the largest are now showing renewed interest in the torrent site veteran.