As the most prolific copyright litigant in the United States for several years in a row, Strike 3 Holdings has a name to keep up.

The porn producer is known for filing lawsuits against alleged pirates who download their ‘Milfy,’ ‘Tushy,’ and ‘Vixen’ videos via BitTorrent sites.

Strike 3 monitors pirate sites, and, when their videos are shared in public, it takes decisive action. After tracking down the pirating IP-addresses, it typically files a federal lawsuit, requesting a subpoena to obtain the subscriber’s details.

Once the target is identified, the case can then move forward. While these cases can technically go to trial, they typically result in out-of-court settlements of a few thousand dollars. It’s unknown how profitable these cases are, but the fact that Strike 3 files thousands a year suggests that the business model remains lucrative.

Record: 4,088 Lawsuits in 2025

Strike 3 kept its “settlement machine” going over the past 12 months. In 2025, the company filed 4,088 ^(*) new piracy lawsuits in U.S. federal courts, barely surpassing the previous record of 3,932 set just last year.

Almost all these cases were filed against John Does who are initially only identified by their IP-address. Historically, the lawsuits are settled swiftly after the defendant is identified, and that appears to hold true this year as well. Of all cases filed this year, 2,775 (67.9%) are already closed.

Most of these closed cases disappear from the docket within months, typically following a confidential settlement where defendants pay several thousand dollars to resolve the porn piracy lawsuit without further exposure.

The Cumulative 20,000-Case Milestone

Beyond the annual numbers, 2025 saw Strike 3 cross a historic threshold. Since filing its first case in 2017, the company has now initiated over 20,000 federal copyright lawsuits.

The graph below shows that the number of complaints filed per year has risen steadily since 2020, breaking record after record.

To put these numbers in perspective, Strike 3’s cases alone account for more than half of all copyright lawsuits in the United States in recent years.

While critics and judges have occasionally characterized the business model as a “high-tech shakedown” or an “ATM for the courts,” the company shows no signs of slowing down. On the contrary, it appears to expand to a new class of targets.

$359m Lawsuit Against Meta

While the thousands of “John Doe” cases against individuals have likely brought in millions for Strike 3 over the years, the company’s most ambitious move of 2025 was its lawsuit against tech giant Meta .

In July, Strike 3 accused the tech company of using adult films to assist its AI model training. This follows a broader trend of copyright litigation against AI developers, including several high-profile claims brought by book authors.

Strike 3’s cases specifically focus on Meta’s BitTorrent activity, with the porn producer seeking astronomical damages of up to $359 million. The lawsuit alleges that Meta willfully pirated and redistributed 2,396 adult films to train its AI models, including LLaMA and Movie Gen.

Responding to the lawsuit, Meta dismissed all claims of a coordinated download action. Instead of an AI training effort, Meta suggested that the alleged downloads were “personal use” by its own employees, contractors, or visitors using its corporate networks and servers.

Whether the Meta lawsuit ends in a landmark ruling or a quiet settlement, Strike 3’s litigation engine shows no signs of cooling down. Whatever happens on the AI front in 2026, the company’s “John Doe” settlement machine will likely continue to churn out new complaints in the background.

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(*) Note: the data presented here are based on a PACER search for cases filed between January 1 and December 31, 2025, where ‘Strike 3’ is listed as a party. All known non-copyright cases have been filtered out.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

For writers and readers, news often comes and goes, with major headlines swiftly fading into the background.

Therefore, it can be a good idea to stop and reflect now and then. After covering piracy news and copyright challenges for more than two decades, we look back at some of the most memorable moments.

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it surely shows that times have changed. And they continue to do so.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

As England’s top football competition, the Premier League draws hundreds of millions of viewers from all over the world.

Aside from the sportive stakes, the Premier League also has a vested interest in selling broadcast rights. These rights generate billions of pounds in revenue per year; a staggering amount unmatched by any other football league.

Yet, other leagues are not the main threat to these broadcast revenues. Instead, piracy has emerged as the Premier League’s main nemesis, with many football fans turn to cheaper pirate streaming services to watch ‘the people’s game’.

In recent years, the Premier League has tried several legal avenues to tackle the piracy problem . In addition to obtaining blocking orders in multiple countries, the organization has been a driving force behind several lawsuits , some of which resulted in prison sentences.

Cloudflare & Pirate Sites

While the football league typically finds the law on its side, identifying its ‘opponents’ isn’t always easy. Operators of streaming sites and services are typically aware of the legal risks and do their best to remain anonymous. Presumably as part of this strategy, they use services made available by Cloudflare.

Cloudflare doesn’t make the operators of piracy sites ‘anonymous’ but it does shield their hosting locations from public view. Rightsholders can overcome this barrier through formal complaints, after which Cloudflare identifies the hosting services. To obtain additional information, however, rightsholders have to go to court.

Earlier this month the Premier League took this follow-up step by asking a California federal court to issue a DMCA subpoena. The request, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, identifies dozens of target pirate streaming sites and “Access Points”. Through the court, the Premier League hopes to identify the persons connected to these domains.

Premier League Requests Action

Before going to court, the Premier League’s American law firm, Hagan Noll & Boyle , sent a formal notification to Cloudflare.

“Cloudflare is asked to remove or disable access to Premier League’s copyrighted works, which, based on the infringement that has occurred to date through the websites and domain names identified above, will continue to be infringed in this same manner throughout the Premier League season,” attorney Timothy M. Frank wrote.

The letter identifies specific streaming site domains and includes screenshots of the websites where these are shown.

In addition to public-facing sites, the Premier League pointed to various “backend links” where the pirated football streams are actually being sourced. The legal paperwork shows unauthorized broadcasts of various matches including Brentford v. Leeds United, Crystal Palace v. Manchester City, and Nottingham Forest v. Tottenham Hotspur.

Several of the targeted sites utilize sophisticated redirection chains to reach their audience. For example, dooball345.com was found to redirect through dooball345s.com before landing on dooball345x.com. Similarly, pelotalibrevivo.net redirects users to pirlotvenvivo.club.

The court records also highlight how these sites often use unique CDN links and m3u8 playlists, sometimes involving tokens and session IDs—to serve live content to millions of global viewers.

Cloudflare Must Identify Operators?

The Premier League’s letter to Cloudflare didn’t result in the immediate termination of the accounts, but it is used to request the DMCA subpoena at the the California federal court.

The proposed subpoena, which has yet to be signed off on, would require Cloudflare to hand over information sufficient to identify the alleged infringers, including any names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, payment information, account updates, and account histories.

Whether the Premier League will find any of the information usable is another matter. Many pirate site owners use inaccurate data, but the explicit request for payment information and account history aims to provide a clearer financial trail than standard subscriber data.

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A copy of the requested DMCA subpoena is available here (pdf) and the Premier League’s declaration can be found here (pdf) . Below is a list of the targeted “Access Point” domain names identified in the legal filing:

– 247sport.org
– 4k-yalla-shoot.info (redirects to yallashootspro.com and 3arabsports.net)
– antenasport.org
– bingsport.site
– deporte-libre.click
– dooball345.com (redirects to dooball345s.com and dooball345x.com)
– goaldaddyth.com
– hesgoal.watch
– librefutboltv.su
– livesports088.com (redirects to keelalive52.com)
– ovogoaal.com
– pelotalibrevivo.net (redirects to pirlotvenvivo.club)
– rbtvplus17.help (redirects to fctv33.work and nplb6earneyhtycourage.sbs)
– ronaldo7.me (redirects to streameasthd.com)
– t4tv.click
– vachvoi.link
– wearechecking.online (redirects to wac.rip)
– yallalshoot.com
– yalla4shoot.com
– yallla-shoot.com (redirects to yallashoot-4k.com, yallashootlivehd.com, wuyh.online )
– sportshd.app

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

As one of the leading Internet infrastructure companies, Cloudflare finds itself at the center of various copyright disputes.

The American company says it powers nearly 20% of the web. This includes several Fortune 500 companies, but also many pirate sites and services.

For years, rightsholders have urged Cloudflare to do something about these pirate sites. However, the company typically doesn’t take action against customers that use its CDN services. Instead, it simply forwarded takedown notices to their respective hosting services.

If customers do use hosting-related Cloudflare services, they will have their content removed. These types of customers have increased significantly over time, and this year, Cloudflare reports a significant spike in takedown activity.

3,800% Increase in Takedowns

Cloudflare’s latest Transparency Report , published last week, shows that the company received 124,872 hosting-related copyright complaints in the first half of 2025. Of these reports, 54,357 resulted in Cloudflare taking action, presumably by disabling or removing the content in question.

These figures represent a dramatic year-over-year increase, as Cloudflare reported ‘only’ 1,394 copyright-related takedown actions in the six months prior. That’s an impressive 3,800% increase.

If we zoom out further, we see that the hosting-related reports and takedowns have grown steadily over the years.

#333;text-align:left;">

Period	Reports Received	Reports Actioned
#eee;"> 2023 H1	#eee;text-align:right;"> 376	#eee;text-align:right;"> 252
#eee;"> 2023 H2	#eee;text-align:right;"> 1,111	#eee;text-align:right;"> 1,078
#eee;"> 2024 H1	#eee;text-align:right;"> 10,892	#eee;text-align:right;"> 1,046
#eee;"> 2024 H2	#eee;text-align:right;"> 11,508	#eee;text-align:right;"> 1,394
#0056b3;"> 2025 H1	#0056b3;text-align:right;"> 124,872	#0056b3;text-align:right;"> 54,357

Source: Cloudflare Transparency Report Data / TorrentFreak

The most recent spike is not merely the result of increased hosting activity, however. Cloudflare notes that it started to actively engage with rightsholders in the first half of the year to tackle unlicensed sports streaming.

Rightsholders Get API Access

Justin Paine, Cloudflare’s Vice President of Trust & Safety, notes that this increase is partly the result of a shift toward more automated processes. Specifically, the company offered rightsholders access to a dedicated API, designed to streamline the submission of copyright complaints.

Through the API, rightsholders were able to automate takedown requests. This resulted in a higher takedown volume and a lower median reaction time, which is key when dealing with time-sensitive content such as live sports streams.

“This engagement resulted in a significant increase in both reports of streaming and corresponding DMCA takedown actions on hosted content, which jumped from 1,394 to 54,357,” Cloudflare’s transparency report reads.

This collaboration and the newly gained insights further boosted the enforcement efforts and resulted in actions against thousands of Cloudflare R2 storage accounts . In the first half of 2025, Cloudflare terminated 21,218 accounts, of which 19,817 were processed automatically.

Increased Blocking & DNS at Risk

Site blocking also remained a hot topic. In response to various court orders or regulatory authorities, Cloudflare has also geo-blocked access to several domains that use its CDN pass-through services. It is clear that the blocking pressure is mounting, with most requests coming from France.

Cloudflare typically does not meddle with its DNS resolver. Instead, it geo-blocks requests for these domains. The transparency report doesn’t mention any data regarding DNS blocking orders and notes that DNS-based blocking will be avoided at all costs.

“Cloudflare has pursued legal remedies before complying with requests to block access to domains or content through the 1.1.1.1 Public DNS Resolver or identified alternate mechanisms to comply with relevant court orders.”

“To date, Cloudflare has not blocked content through the 1.1.1.1 Public DNS Resolver,” the transparency report adds.

Clunky Blocks & UK Cooperation

In addition to being subject to direct orders, Cloudflare services are also blocked by third parties. For example, ISPs in Spain and Italy were required to block Cloudflare infrastructure to comply with IP-address blocking actions targeted at illegal sports streams.

Commenting on these efforts, Justin Paine specifically calls out the Spanish football league LaLiga for its “clunky” blocking approach and its “unapologetic” stance .

“The disproportionate effect of IP address blocking is well known. LaLiga has nonetheless been unapologetic about causing the blocking of countless unrelated websites, suggesting that their commercial interests should trump the rights of Spanish Internet users to access the broader Internet during match times,” Paine notes.

While Cloudflare remains vehemently against aggressive blocking demands, it is slowly but steadily increasing its cooperation with rightsholders. In addition to the earlier mentioned streaming takedown efforts, Cloudflare also started to voluntarily block pirate sites in the UK.

As previously unveiled here , Cloudflare started blocking domain names based on older site-blocking orders where it wasn’t a party. This is similar to the approach Google takes in various countries.

According to Paine, this blocking action in the UK is part of a voluntary agreement with rightsholders, affecting Cloudflare’s pass-through CDN and security services.

“When we take action on domains pursuant to these orders, we post an interstitial page that returns a 451 status code that directs the visitor to the specific order, which includes a process for affected parties to contest the blocking action.”

According to Paine, Cloudflare’s voluntary blocking gesture shows that the company is willing to take action as long as the requests are reasonable.

“Our efforts in the UK to block content based on a finding of infringement in an order directed to a third party reflect our desire to experiment with more targeted approaches than the overblocking we have seen in other countries in Europe,” Paine notes.

Combined with the increased automated reporting and API-driven takedowns, it seems likely that the copyright enforcement volume will continue to increase in the years to come.

At the same time, however, Cloudflare will continue to resist egregious piracy-blocking efforts that break the foundations of the Internet, including DNS-based blocking.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In October, several Reddit posts appeared online that supposedly linked to a leaked copy of the Minions 3 audio.

These postings were swiftly removed by Reddit , presumably after they were targeted by DMCA takedown notices, but the user kept submitting new posts.

The leaker, known as DrChoclateBob on Reddit, also relied on YouTube to share the audio using the “CHOCOLATE BOB” and “ChoclateBob” handles. These uploads were also spotted by rightsholders and were eventually removed.

Despite multiple warnings and strikes, the leaker continued sharing copies on YouTube, Google Drive, and elsewhere.

Eventually, this resulted in account terminations on Reddit and YouTube , after which the calm returned.

NBCUniversal Goes After DrChoclateBob

The leaked audio was reportedly recorded during a test screening. With more than half a year to go before the official premiere, it’s understandable that distributor Universal Pictures would like to know who leaked it.

To find out more, NBCUniversal requested two DMCA subpoenas at a California federal court this week, targeting Reddit and Google.

The subpoenas, which were swiftly signed off on by a court clerk, require both companies to share all identifying information that’s linked to the leaker’s accounts, including names, physical addresses, IP addresses, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses.

Plugging Leaks

It’s worth noting legal paperwork also mentions a potentially unrelated YouTube user, mightyvortex5973, who allegedly uploaded a pirated copy of The Lorax. That said, the primary focus of the subpoenas is clearly on protecting the “pre-release film content”.

Whether this DrChoclateBob recorded the audio or if they received it from someone else is something Universal would like to know.

While requesting the subpoena, NBCUniversal said that it would use the requested information to protect its rights. Whether this means that it will take follow-up legal action is unknown, but it is certainly determined to stop future leaks.

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A copy of the declaration for the DMCA subpoena request targeted at Reddit is available here (pdf) , and the Google equivalent can be found here (pdf) .

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.