Welcome to Piracy Monitor

Digital media piracy, the unlicensed use or theft of copyrighted content, is the greatest enemy to creative professionals, consumers, rights-holders and their distribution partners the world over.  And today, piracy doesn’t occur in a vacuum: it’s often a consequence of flawed or inadequate cybersecurity practices; and while AI can be a tool in the fight against piracy, AI can also enable content theft and stealth attacks on a massive scale.

Since 2019, Piracy Monitor has been an informative resource, helping persons and media stakeholders better understand the risks that reside at the intersection of copyright theft, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and personal agency; including use-cases, causes, examples, available countermeasures, solutions and research

Latest News

US Trade Representative 2026 ‘Special 301’ report: 87 comments received

Each year, the Office of the US Trade Representative publishes two reports pertinant to media piracy: the Special 301 Review and Notorious Markets List.  The...

Sweden: Defendant thought to be associated with illegal IPTV King service is acquitted, appeal pending

The Danish The Patent and Market Court handed down on a verdict regarding the man who was recently charged for his involvement in the...

Wixen accuses Meta of cutting royalties in anticipation of AI, sues Meta in license dispute

In 2020, Meta introduced a feature called "Reels" which allows Instagram users to create, share, and watch videos up to 20 minutes long, which...

China court sentences operator of ZzzFun manga piracy site to one year prison, fines

The man who operated ZzzFun, a piracy website which distributed Japanese anime and other content to users in China without authorization, as well as...

ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 AI video generator is a ‘high-speed piracy engine;’ echoing MiniMax suit

On February 13, The Walt Disney Company sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, contending that it has engaged in copyright infringement by ingesting its...

DMTN IPTV is sued for $21M after ignoring hundreds of infringement and takedown notices

According to the Complaint filed in US District Court in New York, the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy, Inc. (IBCAP), an anti-piracy organization assisting...

Spain: NordVPN and ProtonVPN are designated as piracy intermediaries, a win for rights-holders

The Commercial Court No. 1 of Córdoba notified the Spanish football league LALIGA and one of its distributors, Telefónica Audiovisual Digital (TAD), that the...

Vietnam: New Copyright Decree now in effect. Piracy is part of it

The Vietnamese government issued Decree No. 341/2025/ND-CP, which went into effect on February 15, 2026.  The Decree details what constitute infringing acts, the forms...

AI: Anthropic Claude 4.6 focuses on security. For what, and what about anti-piracy?

In February 2026, Anthropic released the Opus 4.6 model for its Claude generative AI platform, which Anthropic promotes as having a "Security-First" architecture.  But...

Vietnam: Multiple pirate sites shut down after increased collaboration between ISPs and authorities

On February 5, 2026, Ro Phim, a piracy network in Vietnam that provided illegal access to movies and TV programming posted notices across its...

US-Argentina trade agreement specifies intellectual property, anti-piracy protections

On February 5, 2026, the US and Argentina announced a trade agreement that will require Argentina to ensure protection of intellectual property flowing physically...

Spain: 2 years jail plus fine for ‘The Green Engineer,’ who used Telegram to...

It was a deal that was hard to pass up.  An individual known as "The Green Engineer" (El Inginiero Verde) was charging just €80...

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Unless noted otherwise, all articles and site content are produced by and © Advanced Media Strategies LLC. Steve Hawley is Managing Director. 

Piracy Monitor is an initiative of tvstrategies (Advanced Media Strategies LLC), and is active in four areas: Piracy Awareness, Market Intelligence, Industry Marketing and Consulting. Piracy Monitor also conducts online events devoted to piracy/anti-piracy and cybersecurity.

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