Though it no longer grabs many headlines, video piracy remains a major issue for pay-TV services, according to data released last month by consumer research firm Parks Associates. If just 10 percent of pay-TV subscribers should discontinue paying for services by 2023, the loss in revenue to operator…
Amazon has announced Project Zero, a program that empowers vendors to help drive counterfeits down. The anti-counterfeit campaign will employ Amazon’s advanced technology, machine learning and innovation. Amazon will partner with Project Zero’s participating vendors to protect their intellectual pro…
Showtime Networks apparently has mined the websites of online viewers using the same Coinhive technology that The Pirate Bay recently used in a test run on its site. A subsidiary of CBS, Showtime is a premium television network that offers professional boxing, feature films, original scripted televi…
The Pirate Bay has come under fire for testing a Monero javascript miner as a possible means for generating new revenue to replace its current model of making money through advertising on the site. It reportedly hijacked the processing power of its own users to help generate revenue. Monero is an o…
I don’t know about you but I can’t seem to get out of my head the image of that poor Asian doctor who, seemingly unconscious, was dragged off that United flight. The fact that the airline did that to a 69-year-old doctor just so it could save money moving employees around is nearly as unbelievable a…
Where would the PC gaming market be without Steam, the digital distribution platform that was developed by Valve Corporation more than a decade ago? It likely would be in worse shape than it is now, but that’s not to say it would be bad. First, despite the repeated cries that “PC gaming is dead,” th…
The European Commission on Thursday announced three separate investigations into online pricing and other sales practices that may have breached EU antitrust rules. The EC investigations will assess whether consumers were able to enjoy cross-border choice when it came to buying video games and consu…
The music industry is showing its best surge in revenue in nearly two decades, led by a major shift toward streaming subscription services by Apple, Spotify and others firms, according to a new mid-year report the RIAA released this week. The report shows an 8.1 percent gain in retail revenue to $3….
Polish authorities last week arrested the alleged owner of pirate website KickassTorrents, or KAT, 30-year-old Artem Vauln of Kharkiv, Ukraine. Vaulin faces charges in the United States of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement, criminal copyright infringement and conspiracy to commit …
A patent for an infrared system that could be used to shut off iPhone cameras and microphones at live performances is one of dozens awarded to Apple last month. The system could assist the music and movie industries by automatically disabling camera functions at movies or concerts. However, the tech…
Google on Wednesday released an update of its online antipiracy efforts. YouTube has generated more than $2 billion to content copyright holders by monetizing user-uploaded content through its Content ID rights management system, Google said, adding that more than 90 percent of all Content ID claims…
It took a hacker just a day to come up with a workaround for the platform update Oculus released last week, which blocked users from running the company’s games on rival virtual reality systems. Version 1.4 of the Oculus App blocked a hack from LibreVR called “Revive” that allowed users to play Ocul…
Getty Images on Wednesday filed a competition law complaint against Google with the European Commission. The company last year filed an “interested third party” submission in support of the EC’s investigation into Google’s anticompetitive business practices. Getty’s complaint, in essence, is that Go…
The Pirate Bay may be vying to become the world’s largest streaming site. It recently began testing a plug-in that turns browsers into torrent-streaming clients. Having returned from its latest exile, The Pirate Bay now is using the Torrents Time plugin to deliver an illegal answer to Netflix. Users…