Google was asked to remove a TorrentFreak article from its search results this week. The article in question reported that "The Mandalorian" was the most pirated TV show of 2020. Interestingly, it's not Disney who takes offense with our reporting, but GFM Films.

Apparently, the news that The Mandalorian is widely pirated – which was repeated by dozens of other publications – is seen as copyright infringement? Needless to say, we wholeheartedly disagree. This is not the way.

Two weeks ago the RIAA asked GitHub to remove the open-source stream-ripper software youtube-dl. This request wasn't well-received by developers, many of whom retaliated by posting copies of the code.

We have seen similar requests in the past but this one struck a nerve, especially among developers. They believe that the RIAA went too far. As we highlighted earlier, hundreds of new copies of the youtube-dl code appeared online in response, also on GitHub.

This is yet another example that shows how the RIAA’s takedown request has actually made things worse for the music group, at least for now.

File-sharing sites like The Pirate Bay were widely used to illegally download music, but they have waned in popularity thanks to successful efforts to shut them down.

However, they have been replaced by websites and apps that allow users to download music taken from licensed streaming sites including YouTube and Spotify.

"Literally every single penny can make a massive difference in their ability to survive to the next great song."

Streaming platform Mux this week issued a study stating that during one three-week period measured by the company, streaming video usage overall jumped 239%.

None of this should be particularly surprising given that pirates are some of the heaviest consumers and buyers of movies, films, and television content.

Just because an entertainment industry executive doesn't think its fair that they have to compete with privacy has never mattered -- and still doesn't.

The focus has largely been on YouTube, where some sites have declined to play games and accepted defeat. But the RIAA is also targeting these sites to have them delisted from search engines.

Whatever you may think of the RIAA's claim that stream-ripping sites ought to be taken down, a claim that I very much disagree with, we should all certainly be able to agree that this current strategy is completely pointless.

For years, the RIAA and MPAA have pointed to the millions upon millions of takedown notices sent to Google as "evidence" that the DMCA notice-and-takedown process doesn't work.

Google removed none of the links requested. Obviously, it can't remove the non-indexed ones, but it appears that even when they were in Google's index, they were deemed non-infringing or, in some cases, duplicates to URLs that had already been received in earlier takedowns.

Of all of the latest requests from the RIAA, I noticed that, once again, it shows no removals by Google. Why? Because the RIAA is submitting duplicates of URLs already removed.

The culprit: an increase in exclusivity deals that force subscribers to hunt and peck among a myriad of streaming services to actually find the content they’re looking for.+

“More sources than ever are producing "exclusive" content available on a single streaming or broadcast service—think Game of Thrones for HBO, House of Cards for Netflix, The Handmaid's Tale for Hulu, or Jack Ryan for Amazon,” Sandvine’s Cam Cullen said in a blog post.

Studies have shown that nearly every major broadcaster will have launched their own streaming service by 2022. And these companies are increasingly choosing to keep their own content as in-house exclusives in order to drive subscriptions.

The admin for a prolific file-sharing site that helped pirates score more than 1 billion tracks now faces five years in prison after pleading guilty to a single count of criminal copyright infringement.

"Through ShareBeast and other related sites, this defendant profited by illegally distributing copyrighted music and albums on a massive scale," Atlanta US Attorney John Horn said. "The collective work of the FBI and our international law enforcement partners have shut down the ShareBeast websites and prevented further economic losses by scores of musicians and artists."

The 2Dark crack proves that the newly revamped version of the DRM is just as breakable as the old version (which was itself considered unbreakable for quite a while). That also means Mass Effect: Andromeda, which had Denuvo v4 patched in alongside other improvements after launch, may soon see a cracked version that includes the game's post-launch updates.

The Court found that merely providing links does not qualify as distributing files protected by copyright, even though the sites generated revenue via advertising.

“In fact, the Judge ruled that file sharing, i.e the sharing of files protected by copyright, is a saving of expense and not a for-profit business. Therefore, in these cases you cannot apply the penal provisions of copyright law and the resulting administrative sanctions,” Sarzana notes.