No other country in Europe generates as much noise around physical anti-piracy crackdowns as Italy, where ‘boots-on-the-ground’ operations have become a regular occurrence.

While the number of affected users doesn’t always seem to add up , it is clear that Italy can and is willing to take action, where other countries do not see IPTV as a priority.

This week, the local authorities announced another major crackdown. Led by the District Prosecutor’s Office of Catania and the Italian Postal Police, “ Operation Switch Off ” involved raids in 11 Italian cities and 14 countries, including the UK, India, Canada, and Romania.

Operation Switch Off

With support from Eurojust, Europol, and Interpol, the operation dismantled a global network allegedly generating between €8 million and €10 million in illicit revenue every month. Authorities say that they identified 31 key suspects and reportedly disconnected more than 125,000 users in Italy alone, with millions more affected globally.

While the police press release does not mention any names , several sources confirm that the popular IPTV services IPTVItalia, DarkTv, and migliorIPTV are affected. In addition, reseller panels and associated Telegram accounts have been taken offline.

A “Preventive” Strike for the Winter Olympics?

The timing of the raids is also worth highlighting. While the police do not mention the Olympics, this preventive strike a week before the opening ceremony certainly does not hurt.

Coincidence or not, the crackdown can also be seen as a proactive measure to secure the broadcasting market. Italy’s Minister for Sport and Youth, Andrea Abodi, directly connected the operation to the Olympics.

“I thank the State Police, the Catania Prosecutor’s Office, and the international authorities for the results achieved by this raid, which is particularly significant less than ten days before the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics,” Abodi said .

While this week’s actions are new, the evidence is not. According to Italian tech outlet DDay.it , the investigation was fueled by forensic analysis from “ Operation Taken Down ” in November 2024.

Investigators spent over a year mining data from the seized devices, tracking cryptocurrency flows, and monitoring communication channels. This eventually resulted in a good overview of the broader organization, which led to the crackdown and arrests throughout this week.

International Tentacles

In addition to hardware in Italy, including a SIM farm in Naples that was used to create Telegram bots, the operation also relied on servers elsewhere. This reportedly included six servers strategically placed across Eastern Europe and an unnamed African country to evade law enforcement.

In Kosovo, a local report from Telegrafi confirms that raids also hit Pristina and the village of Zaplluxhë, where police seized computers and hard drives belonging to a suspect identified only as “P.B.”

All in all, Operation Switch Off is yet another successful Italian crackdown. Understandably, the actions received praise from local and international rightsholder groups, including ACE , which sees it as evidence that sustained cross-border cooperation in the fight against piracy pays off.

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

Five years ago, Bulgaria informed the U.S. authorities that it would like to shut down prominent torrent trackers such as ArenaBG, Zamunda, and Zelka.

To get that done, the Eastern European country specifically asked the U.S. Government for assistance.

Today, it appears that these shutdown plans have finally come to fruition, at least as far as the domain names go. A few hours ago, three of the largest torrent trackers became unreachable, directing users to a seizure banner.

“This domain has been seized by Homeland Security Investigations as part of an international law enforcement operation in accordance with a court order issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi,” the banner reads.

The listed law enforcement logos are, from left to right:

• U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) – United States
• Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) – United States
• National IPR Coordination Center – United States
• Europol – European Union
• GDBOP (General Directorate for Combating Organized Crime) – Bulgaria
• National Investigative Service (НСлС) – Bulgaria
• State Agency for National Security (DANS) – Bulgaria
• Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria – Bulgaria

The order issued by the Mississippi federal court purportedly compelled the domain name registrars or the domain registries to take action. With domain names linked to American domain intermediaries, this explains why it would be crucial for the U.S. to be involved.

At the time of writing, ArenaBG.com, Zamunda.net, and Zelka.org all point to seizedservers.com nameservers, which means that the domains are now controlled by the U.S. authorities.

To give an idea of the popularity of these sites, Zamunda.net was up until recently the 11th most visited website in Bulgaria with millions of monthly visitors.

In the past, Bulgaria has asked the U.S. for assistance to seize torrent tracker servers as well. However, thus far there is no information about additional enforcement actions. We have also yet to see a press release from the authorities formally confirming the action.

The authorities in Bulgaria previously said that “pre-trial proceedings were opened” against torrent trackers for “intellectual property and tax crimes.” However, it is not clear if today’s actions go beyond the domain seizures.

If the current action is limited to the domain names, the sites will likely switch to alternative ones soon enough.

—

Note: This is a breaking story, and we will continue to monitor the situation and add updates when more information comes in.

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

Last week, many Babato-related communities threw in the towel , following legal pressure from Kakao Entertainment.

That sealed the deal for many Batoto followers who still had hopes that the site would return to its former glory after its operator, “Larry”, suddenly disappeared last November. This disappearance was triggered by an entirely different force.

CODA Reported Bato.to Operator in China

Today, the Japanese anti-piracy group CODA steps forward as the main driver behind Bato.to’s demise. The group, which represents publishers Kadokawa, Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Square Enix, filed a criminal complaint against the alleged operator in China.

The complaint was submitted to the public security bureau of China in September 2025. After talks with CODA, the local publisher China Literature Limited filed an additional complaint, adding to the pressure.

These high-profile criminal referrals eventually led to a police raid on the suspect’s home in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The operator was detained, questioned, and eventually admitted to operating the sites.

The operator is currently out on bail awaiting a formal indictment, which has yet to be filed. Initially, Babo.to also remained operational, and CODA now noted that this was for evidence preservation purposes. Earlier this month, it finally shut down.

World’s Largest Manga Piracy Operation

It is worth stressing that this crackdown is not limited to Bato.to. The same Chinese man is also accused of running roughly 60 other manga pirate sites, including mangapark.io.

CODA notes that this effectively formed the largest manga piracy ring on the Internet, which was good for an estimated 350 million visits in May 2025.

While the criminal prosecution has yet to start, CODA issued a press release that reveals several intriguing details. For example, it notes that the operator blocked visitors from China, presumably not to upset local rightsholders and the authorities.

“The site employed geoblocking to prevent access from within China, thereby creating the appearance that no infringement was occurring domestically, while in reality attracting massive global traffic and generating substantial illicit advertising revenue,” CODA writes.

In addition, the operator reportedly confessed that the site generated significant revenue, which exceeded 400,000 RMB (~$58,000) a month at its peak.

CODA’s Detailed Investigations

Speaking with TorrentFreak, CODA notes that it was not in any way involved in the earlier reported enforcement actions by Kakao Entertainment, which focused on remaining communities on Reddit and Discord. Similarly, Kakao was not involved in the high-profile criminal referral in China.

CODA’s case originally started in the summer of 2024. At the time, the anti-piracy group signaled Bato.to as a key threat under its Cross-Border Enforcement Project (CBEP), which kicked off the investigations. This eventually identified the operator.

“Through collaboration with cybersecurity experts, including ethical hackers, CODA conducted open-source intelligence (OSINT) investigations. Upon discovering that Chinese services were being used, CODA worked with a Chinese investigative firm to identify the operator, leading to the filing of a criminal complaint with China’s public security bureau.”

Bato.to and related sites rely in large part on scanlations. These are effectively translations of manga comics in other languages. While these have always been a major concern, AI technologies have made this even easier, effectively worsening the problem.

Legal Sales Surge

According to CODA, the takedown of Bato.to and the pending criminal investigation in China are groundbreaking. They believe it will serve as a significant deterrent, and, thus far, the first signs are indeed positive.

NTT Solmare , which operates the legal ebook store Mangaplaza in the U.S., reported that its daily sales numbers doubled following Bato.to’s shutdown.

Responding to the news, CODA’s Representative Director Takero Goto thanks the Chinese and Japanese authorities for their assistance

“The closure of the world’s largest manga piracy site through criminal enforcement is highly significant for cross-border anti-piracy efforts. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Chinese authorities, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and all others involved who devoted their efforts to this case,” Goto notes.

While the effect of this massive shutdown should not be underestimated, CODA and others need to stay vigilant. New manga portals that are willing to take the risk will likely be eager to pick up millions of new visitors.

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

Njalla is the name for a traditional Sámi hut, specifically designed to function as a safe storage location, keeping food away from bears and other predators.

On the web, the Njalla name was adopted by a privacy-focused domain name service that helps to shield website operators from external threats, including takedown efforts and foreign court orders.

Music Industry vs. Anna’s Archive

Earlier this month, this feature of Njalla was brought to the fore again in the lawsuit Spotify and several record labels filed against Anna’s Archive . Fearing the publication of millions of scraped tracks , the music companies obtained a preliminary injunction to shut off the archive’s domain names.

The case was filed under seal to prevent tipping off Anna’s Archive . This partially worked, as the suspension of the .ORG and .SE domain names came as a surprise. However, Anna’s Archive was certainly not planning to throw in the towel.

After the federal court in New York issued an ex parte temporary restraining order on January 2, the .ORG registry suspended the official annas-archive.org domain. Around the same time, Cloudflare also complied with the court order, disabling the nameservers for the targeted domains, including annas-archive.li.

U.S. Domain Suspension Injunction

While these actions rendered several of Anna’s Archive unreachable, the .LI variant soon became accessible again. Instead of relying on Cloudflare’s nameservers, it switched to Njalla. The same also applies to the .PM and .IN domains, which were registered as a backup.

Spotify and the labels also noticed this switch to Njalla and, while the case was still under seal, they applied for a broad preliminary injunction to cover the new domains. This also included Njalla as a targeted intermediary, alongside hosting services, domain registrars, and registries.

This injunction, signed by U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff on January 16, does not only cover existing domain names but also any domain names that will be registered in the future.

To get an idea of how these domains and services are connected, TorrentFreak compiled the following non-exhaustive and unverified overview. This also includes the new .in domain that was suspended by the National Internet Exchange of India.

U.S. Courts Have Limited Jurisdiction

The U.S. court order spurred American organizations into action (.ORG registry and Cloudflare) and also helped to get the .IN domain offline. However, not all intermediaries were eager to respond. In fact, the .PM and .LI versions remain accessible today.

While none of the intermediaries would encourage piracy, it appears that they don’t automatically comply with foreign court orders either. Njalla, for example, is operated by Njalla.srl , which is based in Costa Rica, may require a local court order to take action.

We don’t know for certain that the music companies sent the injunction to all named intermediaries involved, but given the gravity of their concerns, that would make sense.

To get more clarity, we asked Njalla for a comment on the situation, but due to privacy issues, it could not share any further information at this stage. The company did note that, generally speaking, it’s not against sharing culture.

“Since we are privacy focused people it is not possible for us to comment on this. However, we can say that we in general think the world becomes a better place when people share what they have with each other, be it food, water, money or culture.”

We also contacted the Switzerland-based Switch Foundation , which is the registry for the .LI domain, but did not receive a reply. Spotify, which previously responded to our inquiries, has also stopped responding.

AFNIC Confirms Jurisdiction Challenge

The AFNIC registry did respond to our request for clarification. The company is not mentioned in the injunction directly, but as the ‘registry of record’ for the .PM domain name, it should be covered.

AFNIC informs us that they have not received a request to comply with the injunction, nor have they been informed about the court order. However, even if it were to receive the U.S. injunction, AFNIC clarified that it would not comply.

“Decisions from U.S. courts are not directly applicable to Afnic regarding actions concerning .fr domain names or the French overseas extensions under its jurisdiction. To be enforceable, a foreign decision must be recognized by the French court,” an Afnic spokesperson informed us.

This effectively means that the plaintiffs must hire French counsel and petition a French court to recognize the U.S. judgment under Article 509 of the French Civil Code.

Whether Spotify and the music companies plan to go through this trouble is unknown. Anna’s Archive, meanwhile, has disabled the Spotify torrent downloads until further notice, which may have defused the situation somewhat.

That said, thus far the music industry’s enforcement efforts show that the reach of U.S. courts has its limitations. While it is possible to expand the scope through mutual legal assistance requests in foreign courts, these have yet to surface.

At this stage, the music industry doesn’t appear to know who is behind the site. The RIAA previously discovered that “Cyberdyne S.A.” was the registrant for the .se domain. However, that trace doesn’t appear to lead anywhere either.

“‘Cyberdyne’ is also the name of the fictional technology company in the ‘Terminator’ movie series behind the ‘Skynet’ artificial intelligence network that achieved super intelligence and self-awareness, leading to nuclear devastation,” RIAA’s content protection chief informed the court, noting that this may be a fabricated name.

—

Copies of the various unsealed court documents referenced in this article are available below.

– Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
– Declaration of Mark McDevitt (RIAA)
– Reply memorandum requesting to expand the injunction

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

For fans of manga and manhwa comics, Bato.to has been an icon for many years.

The pirate site has reportedly changed owners over the years, but through the main site and dozens of mirrors, it kept its many millions of monthly visitors on board.

Since last November, the site has not been running smoothly, however. Several moderators reported that the site’s operator, Larry, had become unreachable, which resulted in various technical problems.

Batoto Communities Shut Down

Earlier this week, the trouble appeared to worsen when the official Batoto Discord server, run by the moderation team, announced that it would shut down as well, citing legal challenges and ongoing issues with the site. This effectively confirmed that the site’s moderators were throwing in the towel.

Not much later, the official Batoto subreddit followed the same route. While it would not shut down completely, the moderators officially cut its ties with anything piracy or Batoto-related.

“Due to recent legal developments, it is clear that all activity, discussion, or support related to the former website and its services has permanently ended,” the subreddit mods wrote.

“Out of respect for creators, rights holders, and applicable laws, this subreddit will no longer be affiliated with, connected to, or associated with the website in any way.”

The seemingly obligatory mention of supporting legal services suggests that this soft shutdown was also the result of legal action. In fact, it appears that Batoto-related people and communication channels are targeted across the board.

This includes newly launched Discord channels. Only those who abide by a strict set of rules to ban any type of infringement appear to survive. This includes the newly launched Yoru reading community, which specifically prohibits illegal content, pointing people to official Webtoon and Tapas releases instead.

Kakao Entertainment Takes Credit

While it is clear that legal pressure is being applied, the source remained unmentioned. Today we can officially confirm that Kakao Entertainment is driving the action.

Through its dedicated anti-piracy enforcement arm, P.CoK, the South Korean entertainment giant is categorically targeting Bato.to and many related people and services.

The most significant blow to the operation is the identification of Bato.to’s founder and core developer. P.CoK confirmed to TorrentFreak that they have tracked the individual to their country of residence, where legal proceedings are now active.

Responding to this threat, the P.CoK team tackled the problem from multiple sides. In addition to preparing a lawsuit against the operator, it went after other key channels, including the aforementioned communities on Reddit and Discord.

“We adopted a strategy that categorizes individuals involved in the operation into multiple tiers and applies tailored countermeasures to each group. Legal proceedings are currently underway in the country of residence of the founder and core developer,” P.CoK notes.

Cease and Desist

The people in lower tiers, including admins and moderators, were also identified. These all received personalized cease-and-desist letters, urging them to shut down their operation, or else.

“We have identified the majority of individuals who are directly or indirectly involved in the operation—such as sub-developers, moderators, and community administrators—and have sequentially issued Cease and Desist (C&D) letters to them,” P.CoK told us.

These cease-and-desist notices came with the relevant legal justification and a specific set of actions these people were expected to take. That likely means showing respect for rightsholders, as we have seen in a few of the public responses.

New Targets?

A final update by the subreddit team confirms the pressure from Kakao Entertainment. Clearly worried that ‘Reddit mods could be next,’ the subreddit was set to restricted.

The subreddit also clearly distances itself from a new Batoto-‘inspired’ site that surfaced online this week.

P.CoK, which has a history of unconventional but effective anti-piracy actions , will undoubtedly keep an eye on any new sites that emerge. At the same time, it is also going after MangaPark and AniXL, which have repeatedly been linked to Batoto. In fact, the anti-piracy group notes that new legal proceedings are already being prepared.

“We are aware that some of these individuals are also involved in the operation of MangaPark and AniXL, and we are preparing strong legal actions against Mangapark as well as newly established Bato-affiliated sites,” P.CoK concludes, suggesting that their work is not done yet.

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

The Oscars remain the most anticipated movie awards show of the year, followed closely by hundreds of millions of film enthusiasts around the globe.

In March, the 98th Academy Awards ceremony will return to the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, where millions of fans will watch the crowning of this year’s “Best Picture”.
.
There are currently ten contenders in the race for the prestigious award. The nominees range from Hollywood heavyweights such as F1 and One Battle After Another , to international critical darlings such as Norway’s Sentimental Value and Brazil’s The Secret Agent .

Sinners’ Oscar Nominations Record

While these are all serious contenders, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners clearly stands out. The movie received a record-breaking number of sixteen nominations last week, including one for the best picture category.

The record elevated the press attention for the film, which directly impacted legal demand. After the nominations, Sinners immediately shot back into the Top 10 on Max, while VOD sales on Prime Video and Apple TV also got a boost.

There is also a darker side to this increased exposure in the form of online piracy. Pirates are simply a subset of movie fans, and when legal demand increases, interest in pirate sites follows in the same direction.

We have reported on this phenomenon in the past, but this year offers one of the most clear examples.

Sinners’ Piracy Triples

By looking at the BitTorrent download estimates collected through a large sample of data, we can see the interest in Sinners tripling after the nominations were announced last Thursday.

These data, collected with help from Iknow , also show a healthy 50% boost in downloads for Bugonia , another best picture nominee. However, that pales in comparison to the Sinners surge.

Meanwhile, the 2025 Superman release, which acts as a control group because it wasn’t nominated, saw no download boost at all. This confirms that the other observed increases are triggered by the Oscars nominations.

These findings once again show how the Oscar nominations can have a clear and direct effect on piracy numbers. And if Sinners can convert its record number of nominations into a record number of wins, we can expect an even bigger surge.

In closing, it is worth stressing that the download estimates reported here are based on a large sample of BitTorrent activity. This represents merely a fraction of the overall piracy interest, which also includes pirate streaming portals that are good for many millions of unauthorized views.

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

In recent years, Aylo has taken an aggressive stance against pirate sites, doing everything possible to shut these down.

The parent company of Pornhub, which owns popular brands such as “Reality Kings”, “Brazzers”, “MOFOS”, has already won several lawsuits against high profile targets such as Daftsex and Goodporn .

Early last year, Aylo filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington against a collection of pirate adult websites, including ‘Freshporno,’ ‘Kojka’, ‘PornHeal’. These eight sites were allegedly operated by someone named Anton Popravkin.

To stop the infringing activity, Aylo’s copyright enforcement arm sent more than 10,000 DMCA takedown notices to the piracy ring. However. These notices failed to get the infringing videos removed, so Aylo decided to take the matter to court.

Aylo Requests Multi-Million Dollar Default

Aylo accused the piracy network, which reportedly received more than three million monthly visits, of publicly displaying many thousands of works without permission. This was done with a profit motive, making the operator liable for willful copyright infringement.

“Popravkin Anton willfully infringed Plaintiff’s Works at least 9,006 times: Plaintiff identified 9,006 of its copyrighted registered works being displayed across 27,105 infringing URLs on the Websites,” the complaint read.

“The sheer volume of infringements demonstrates Popravkin Anton’s deliberate and willful disregard for copyright law, as well as his ongoing operation of a business that operates by monetizing copyright infringement.”

The operator of the site never responded to the lawsuit, which left Aylo no other option than to request a default judgment. While Aylo could theoretically request $150,000 per work, for a total of more than a billion dollars in damages, it settled for a tenth of that.

In its motion for a default judgment, Aylo requested $15,000 in statutory damages per work infringed. With 9,006 works, this brings the total to $135,090,000 in statutory damages.

Court Awards $90,060,000 in Damages

Last Friday, U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson granted Aylo’s motion for default judgment. However, instead of awarding $15,000 per work, she reduced it to $10,000 per infringed work. In addition, Aylo was granted attorney’s fees and costs of $20,350.

In the order, Judge Evanson notes that Aylo hasn’t shared any persuasive evidence to justify its $15,000 claim. In addition, the court deems $10,000 per work sufficient to send a deterrent message to other prospective pirates.

“Because Plaintiff has not presented persuasive evidence to support its $15,000 valuation of each infringed work, the Court declines to assume that the full amount requested is appropriate,” the order reads.

“The amount awarded will nonetheless discourage wrongful conduct and uphold the integrity of copyright laws,” Judge Evanson adds.

Domain Name Seizures

While a $90 million damages award sounds good, it is unlikely that Aylo will recoup this, as the main defendant was not located. And since Anton Popravkin likely doesn’t reside in the United States, they will likely ignore the court order.

Therefore, the real value of the default judgment lies in the domain name transfers that were granted in response to the “willful” and “malicious” copyright ingringement.

The court issued a broad permanent injunction ordering the U.S.-based domain name registry Verisign to change the registrar for the eight targeted domains to EuroDNS. EuroDNS is subsequently instructed to change the registrant for those domain names directly to Aylo Premium Ltd.

“Verisign, Inc. shall change the registrar for the domain names 3prn.com, freshporno.net, frprn.com, homexvideo.com, kojka.com,mojva.com, onlineporno.cc, and pornheal.com to EuroDNS, and instruct EuroDNS to change the registrant for those domain names to Aylo Premium Ltd,” the order reads.

At the time of writing, all domains remain linked to the piracy ring, but it is expected that these will become unavailable later this week, when Aylo takes them over. Whether that will permanently keep the pirate sites offline remains to be seen.

—

A copy of the order granting the default judgment, issued by U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson, is available here (pdf) . The order signed by the court clerk can be found here (pdf) .

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

The Diary of Anne Frank , written by a young girl hiding from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II, is one of the best-known literary works in history.

While the diary’s importance is widely agreed upon, the accessibility of its digital likeness remains at the center of a modern-day copyright battle.

These copyrights are controlled by the Swiss-based Anne Frank Fonds, which was the sole heir of Anne’s father, Otto Frank. The Fonds states that many print versions of the diary remain protected for decades , and even the manuscripts are not freely available everywhere.

In the Netherlands, for example, certain sections of the manuscripts remain protected by copyright until 2037, even though they have entered the public domain in neighboring countries like Belgium.

Anne Frank ©

To navigate these conflicting laws, the Dutch Anne Frank Stichting published a scholarly edition online using “state-of-the-art” geo-blocking to prevent Dutch residents from accessing the site. Visitors from the Netherlands and other countries where the work is protected are met with a clear message, informing them about these access restrictions.

“The scholarly edition of the Anne Frank manuscripts cannot be made available in all countries, due to copyright considerations,” is the message disallowed visitors get to see.

Despite these blocking measures, the Swiss-based Anne Frank Fonds was not pleased. The Fonds essentially argued that if a block isn’t 100% bypass-proof, the content shouldn’t be online at all.

The Dutch lower court dismissed this argument, stating the defendants had taken reasonable measures to prevent access from the Netherlands. The Fonds appealed, without result, and the case is now before the Dutch Supreme Court, which referred several questions to the EU’s top court (CJEU) to decide the fate of VPN neutrality and the sufficiency of geo-blocking.

Court Adviser Backs VPN Neutrality

In an opinion published this month, Advocate General Rantos of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) sides with common sense, concluding that geo-blocking is a sufficient measure to protect against unauthorized access.

The opinion concludes that digital copyright protections can always be broken or bypassed. That by itself should not automatically mean that the publisher is liable, especially if ‘state-of-the-art’ geo-blocking measures are in place, as the Anne Frank Stichting argued.

“Liability would only arise if the technical measures were found to be deliberately ineffective so that they could be easily circumvented,” the opinion reads.

Equally important, Rantos concludes that a VPN provider isn’t liable for the unlawful actions of users who use their service to bypass geographical restrictions.

“The mere fact that those or similar services may be used for [unlawful] purposes is not sufficient to establish that the service providers themselves communicate the protected work to the public,” the Advocate General writes.

“It would be different if those service providers actively encouraged the unlawful use of their services. In that case, the service providers could be regarded as playing an essential role in making the works in question available.”

In other words, the opinion concludes that VPNs are neutral services and that they can only be held liable if they actively encourage copyright infringement or other wrongdoing.

What’s Next?

The opinion is not binding for the CJEU, which is expected to issue its final ruling later this year. This final ruling will be key for the digital future of the Anne Frank Diary, as well as all other geo-blocked content on the Internet.

If the court agrees with the opinion of Advocate General Rantos, the status quo will remain. However, if geo-blocking were somehow not to be sufficient, this would impact hundreds of popular sites and services, including all popular video streaming platforms.

Even worse, if VPNs were to be held liable for the actions of users without the providers’ awareness, that would create some significant backlash.

—

A copy of the opinion of Advocate General Athanasios Rantos, delivered on 15 January, is available here (pdf) .

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

Originally the home of The Pirate Bay, Sweden has a long and well-documented history when it comes to online piracy.

As in other countries, however, many Swedish pirates have made the switch from relatively cumbersome torrents to on-demand streaming. That includes pirate IPTV services.

According to recent estimates, some 700,000 Swedish households have access to illegal IPTV services. These low-cost subscriptions are substantially cheaper than those offered by legitimate streaming services, but they nonetheless bring in serious revenue for the operators.

To curb the IPTV problem, Sweden has convicted operators and issued blocking orders . In addition, the Government plans to update local law to make it possible to issue fines to IPTV subscribers, effectively outlawing the purchase of these subscriptions.

New IPTV Crackdown

These potential fines are relevant again after Swedish authorities recently toppled the high-profile IPTV operation Nordicplay. As reported by Expressen , the prosecution has charged a 43-year-old man and a 55-year-old associate with gross accounting fraud.

The younger man is the main suspect, and he reportedly earned an estimated 35 million Swedish Kronor (approx. $3.8 million USD) in revenue. These IPTV payments came in through several companies, which acted as a front to disguise the operation.

Many of these payments came in through the Swedish mobile payment system Swish , as shown below. Swish is tied directly to a personal identity number, which likely explains why the subscribers could be accurately identified.

The men, who both deny any wrongdoing, are not being prosecuted for copyright-related crimes, but for fraud. According to the prosecution, they failed to report the proceeds for tax purposes.

The 43-year-old, who was previously convicted of fraud, was a relatively large reseller of Nordic One, which reportedly serves half of the Swedish IPTV market. And indeed, with many thousands of subscribers, the size of the operation was substantial.

4,886 Subscribers

When investigators searched the computer and phone of the main suspect, they found a list of more than 20,000 contact details. After follow-up investigations, 4,886 of these could be linked to payments.

These subscribers are not being prosecuted, but Sara Lindbäck of the local anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance , suggests that the police could reach out to these subscribers to send a warning.

“If the police would inform them that ‘Hi, your customer information is found in a criminal investigation,’ I think people might become a little more aware,” Lindbäck told Expressen.

This type of outreach would not be unprecedented. Previously, similar warnings went out to IPTV customers in the UK.

In the near future, however, Sweden could have an even stronger deterrent. As announced last September by Minister of Culture, Parisa Liljestrand, new legislation aims to make it possible to fine IPTV subscribers.

This updated legislation explicitly outlaws the consumption/viewing of pirate IPTV services, which is largely seen as a legal grey area now. If approved, this proposal will go into effect on July 1, 2026.

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