Bulgaria was one of the first countries in the world to consider pirate site blocking nearly two decades ago.

As part of a crackdown on local torrent trackers, the government ordered ISPs to block access to the ArenaBG tracker in 2007.

The blocking actions resulted in public outrage and street protests. Some Internet providers pushed back as well, questioning the legality of the requested measures, and the blocking instructions were eventually withdrawn.

Today, nearly twenty years have passed and Bulgaria continues to struggle with site blocking. This, despite being part of the EU, where site blocking mechanisms are widely authorized.

Blocking The Pirate Bay and Zamunda

In February 2020, the Bulgarian Association of Music Producers ( BAMP ) and IFPI launched a civil lawsuit against three ISPs, seeking a court order requiring them to block The Pirate Bay and Zamunda, the country’s most-visited torrent site.

Two of the three ISPs fought back hard. They described the claim as “inadmissible” and “baseless.” One, identified only as ‘N.1’ in court documents, pointed out that Bulgarian law does not recognize a claim “for blocking access to Internet sites,” and argued that EU law requiring member states to ensure access to injunction applications against intermediaries would not apply because Bulgaria had not yet transposed those provisions into national law.

The Sofia City Court disagreed. In May 2023, it ordered the three ISPs to block both sites , including all mirrors and proxies, within six months. BAMP called it “a major step forward” in the fight against music piracy. IFPI chief executive Francis Moore welcomed the ruling. It was, by all appearances, a landmark win.

However, the first Bulgarian site blocking order wasn’t final yet, as the ISPs appealed.

ISPs Win Blocking Appeal at Supreme Court

Earlier this year, Bulgaria’s Supreme Court of Cassation (SCC) issued its final ruling in the blocking case, siding with the ISPs. The court held that under current Bulgarian copyright law, rightsholders cannot obtain pirate site blocking injunctions in standard civil proceedings.

EU law, specifically the Enforcement Directive ( IPRED ), requires member states to provide mechanisms for injunctions against intermediaries. However, the court found that Bulgaria has not fully transposed those provisions into its national copyright legislation in a way that makes permanent blocking injunctions an option.

The court noted that ISPs are seen as mere conduits. Without clear national rules balancing freedom of information and proportionality, courts cannot issue site blocking injunctions based on current copyright law.

This effectively means that Bulgarian lawmakers have to address the shortcomings with new legislation, before site blocking orders can be granted.

BAMP Wants EU to Step In

The Supreme Court appeal concluded earlier this year but largely went unnoticed, as local press didn’t pick it up. The only public mention was a brief client bulletin published by Sofia law firm Dimitrov, Petrov & Co. , which is intended for corporate clients rather than the public.

The ruling came on our radar last week, when BAMP submitted its response to the European Commission’s Call for Evidence on a targeted initiative for a better copyright environment. The Supreme Court ruling shows that the EU must require its members to implement existing EU directives.

“The Court identified a legislative deficiency, holding that the existing provisions of the Bulgarian Copyright Act do not provide a legal basis for granting final website-blocking injunctions against intermediaries on the merits and that this deficiency can only be remedied through legislative action.”

“This illustrates the importance of ensuring the full and correct implementation of the existing EU acquis across all Member States before considering further legislative initiatives,” BAMP’s submission adds.

It’s Not Over Yet

The Bulgarian ruling means that, after all these years, local rightsholders are still without site blocking options. This doesn’t mean that the country isn’t making any copyright enforcement progress. With help from the U.S., Bulgaria shut down the country’s largest torrent trackers earlier this year, including ArenaBG, Zamunda, and Zelka.

Not much later, the U.S. Trade Representative removed the country from the “Watch List” category in its annual Special 301 Report. The U.S. praised the country for its significant enforcement actions, among other things.

The Supreme court ruling presents a clear setback for rightsholders. However, they are not without recourse. As highlighted by Dimitrov, Petrov & Co., the Supreme Court noted that rightsholders that are harmed by Bulgaria’s failure to fully implement EU requirements, could potentially sue the state for damages.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian lawmakers have been working on an amendment to the Copyright and Related Rights Act that could potentially address the shortcomings. The amendment has been in preparation since at least 2022 but, as of today, it has yet to be approved.

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A copy of BAMP’s submission to the European Commission Call for Evidence is available here (pdf) . TorrentFreak did not have access to the Supreme Court’s full ruling. The reporting here is based on the BAMP submission and the coverage from Dimitrov, Petrov & Co.

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

Last December, the High Court in New Delhi, India, granted a broad pirate site blocking order in favor of American movie industry giants, including Apple, Warner, Netflix, Disney and Crunchyroll.

In addition to targeting residential ISPs, the order also lists global domain name registrars and registries as defendants, compelling them to suspend domains.

By January, several registrars had indeed taken action. Domains linked to the American registrar Porkbun, the UK-based WHG Hosting services, and the Lithuanian registrar Hostinger were all fully suspended, suggesting that these companies complied with the Indian order. However, many other domains remained online.

For example, the long-running German websites S.to and BS.to, which both have millions of monthly visits, remained online. This did not come as a surprise. Tonga’s .to domains have generally been considered a safe haven for pirate sites, as it generally would not comply with foreign court orders.

Rightsholders, including the MPA , have repeatedly complained about the .to registry and last year anti-piracy company Warezio even threatened to sue ICANN over .to domain piracy. And then something changed.

.To Domain Names Suspended

Yesterday, the operator of SerienStream informed us that S.to and BS.to were suspended. The operator mentioned that ‘Tonic’ informed him that the domains were suspended in response to an Indian court order. Indeed, that is the December order, which was amended a few times over the past months.

The suspensions are also apparent from the WHOIS information, which shows that the domains are put on clientHold. This is an ICANN status code that is set by the domain name registrar, often in response to legal disputes.

The WHOIS result is telling in more ways than one. It clearly identifies the Government of Kingdom of Tonga as the domain registrar. Which indicated that Tonga applied the clientHold status code, presumably in response to the Indian court order.

At the same time, the WHOIS data confirms that the .to domain management changed drastically. The ccTLD was previously managed by the US-based Tonic Domains Corporation, which did not offer a WHOIS service, nor could it apply ICANN’s EPP status codes .

Tonga Domains Restructured

Since last year, however, the Canadian domain name company Tucows is managing the technical registry backend for .to domains, with the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga being listed as the ccTLD manager or sponsor .

The structure change is more than a simple backend swap. Old IANA delegation records show that the .to registry was previously operated by Tonic’s US-based co-founder Eric Gullichsen, who was listed as both administrative and technical contact, working from the Tongan consulate address in Burlingame, California.

Gullichsen has since been replaced and the administrative contact is now Justin Kaitapu in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, while the technical contact points to Tucows in Toronto.

Tonic’s old system was in operation since 1997 and did not support EPP status codes such as clientHold. The current Tucows-powered platform does. In other words, the infrastructure that made .to a safe haven for pirate sites simply didn’t have a suspension button. Now it does.

As mentioned earlier, the clientHold status code suggests that the Tongan registrar took action. However, when we reached out to the hostmaster address at Tonic.to, we were brushed off.

“With reference to your recent inquiry, we regret to advise that Tonic has no interest to discuss or make available the details of it’s [sic] actions or internal policies,” Tonic’s hostmaster told TorrentFreak.

We also reached out to Tucows, which handles .to’s registry services now, but the Canadian company informed us that the action was taken by the domain registrar, without providing further detail. That brings us back to the Government of the Kingdom of Tonga, which is the registrar on record.

No Safe Haven

While we were unable to get a comment on the record, it is clear that .to domain names are no longer the safe haven they were once considered. This conclusion was also drawn by the operator of SerienStream.

“In the long term, this will result in significant financial losses for Tonga and its .to domains, if they are no longer considered to be stable and safe,” the operator informed TorrentFreak.

“The Indian court has no jurisdiction in this matter, nor should an Indian judgment be binding on a German-language website,” he added.

As shown above, SerienStream now points its users to a backup (serienstream).to domain name, which was not listed in the Indian court order. These orders are regularly amended, though, so it might only be a matter of time before this one is suspended too.

In addition to S.to and BS.to, all other .to domain names listed in the Indian court order were also put on clientHold over the weekend. This includes yflix.to, anigo.to, watchflix.to, and 24drama.to and confirms that it is indeed linked to the Indian order.

Whether rightsholders will now target .to domain names en masse has yet to be seen, but the infrastructure to suspend them is now in place.

—

A copy of the paperwork shared by SerienStream’s operator, including the December order from the High Court in New Delhi and several additions, is available here (pdf) .

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

With more than 150 million monthly visits, HiAnime was one of the most popular piracy portals to ever exist.

The site, which was a prime destination for many anime pirates, surprisingly shut down in March without offering an explanation for the sudden move.

HiAnime has been a major target for rightsholders for years. The operators were believed to reside in Vietnam, which was highlighted in the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) Notorious Markets report just days before HiAnime said its goodbyes.

American rightsholders and the U.S. Government urged the Vietnamese authorities to take action against the site. These calls were serious, as the USTR doubled down in May with its latest Special 301 Report classifying Vietnam as a “Priority Foreign Country,” opening the door to potential trade sanctions .

Vietnam Arrests HiAnime Piracy Ring

The Vietnamese authorities take these concerns seriously. Late last week, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security announced that its anti-corruption and economic crime unit (C03) has charged seven suspects with copyright infringement and money laundering in connection with a pirate streaming network that operated more than 100 websites.

The written reports don’t mention any sites by name, but a broadcast of the government operated state broadcaster Vietnam Television clearly identifies footage of HiAnime.to, which is crossed out.

The investigation identified four alleged ringleaders, Nguyễn Đình Minh Khoa, Nguyễn Trung Anh, Nguyễn Đình Xuân, and Nguyễn Hoàng Thanh, who were arrested and charged with copyright infringement and money laundering. Three others, Nguyễn Phước Toàn, Doãn Thành Luân, and Nguyễn Khương Duy, were charged with copyright infringement only.

According to C03, the group operated from 2020 until April 2026, offering more than 26,000 unlicensed titles across their network of sites. The operation allegedly generated roughly $12.8 million through advertising revenue.

HiAnime has already been inactive since March and in a VTV broadcast investigators browse through the Wayback Machine , which clearly identifies HiAnime.to as the target. No other domain names are mentioned.

ACE and HSI Cooperation

The investigation was not a purely Vietnamese effort. According to the Ministry of Public Security, C03 acted on intelligence provided by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment ( ACE) , the MPA’s anti-piracy arm.

The U.S. involvement comes as no surprise as both countries have been discussing the piracy problems for years. In addition to the USTR’s recent diplomatic escalation , ACE has been seeking identifying information about the operators of HiAnime.to and related sites for years.

The American intelligence eventually helped the Vietnamese authorities to locate the suspects and dismantle one of the largest piracy rings that ever operated.

Crypto and Real Estate

The seven suspects are all relatively young and some are described as recent IT graduates. The four ringleaders remain in custody while they await their trial and the others were placed under travel restrictions.

The national broadcaster featured interviews with several suspects including Nguyễn Đình Minh Khoa, who managed relationships with advertising platforms and was responsible for driving traffic to the sites.

Khoa reportedly confessed on camera to earning approximately 50 billion Vietnamese đồng (roughly $2 million) in revenue from 2019 onward, which he spent on cars and personal expenses. The other ringleaders, who reportedly worked on website design or IT infrastructure, also generated substantial revenue.

According to investigators, the suspects received payments in cryptocurrency from foreign advertising platforms. These funds were then laundered through multiple intermediaries, after which they were transferred to personal Vietnamese bank accounts.

From there, the money was used to purchase real estate and vehicles, which prosecutors allege was intended to legitimize the illicit proceeds.

‘Deterrent Prison Sentences’

This is not the first time that Vietnamese authorities shut down a large piracy operation with help from ACE and U.S. law enforcement. American intelligence also helped to shut down the Fmovies piracy ring in 2024.

Two Fmovies operators were eventually prosecuted and, while both confessed in full to all alleged crimes, they received only suspended prison sentences . This means that, similar to previous convictions in Vietnam, they did not have to serve any prison time.

These relatively mild sentences are a thorn in the side of rightsholders. The USTR also highlighted it as a problem in its recent report, urging the Vietnamese authorities to seek “significantly more criminal prosecutions against online piracy operations” while “seeking deterrent-level prison sentences”.

The first part of this request already appears to have started. On May 5, Vietnam’s Prime Minister issued Urgent Telegram No. 38, ordering a nationwide crackdown on intellectual property violations. The Ministry of Public Security followed with its own classified directive the next day.

During the following weeks, Vietnamese police reportedly opened 90 cases involving 142 suspects across various IP crimes, and shut down hundreds of infringing websites, including eight pirate film sites and 159 unnamed pirate football streaming platforms.

Whether the prosecution of the HiAnime-linked defendants will result in more deterrent sentences has yet to be seen, but it is clear that American rightsholders and U.S. authorities will be watching it closely.

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

Most torrent sites that were active in 2005 are long gone and the same applies to the software project from that era.

The academic torrent client Tribler is a notable exception and if it’s up to the people running it, it will go on indefinitely.

Tribler is part of a research project at Delft University of Technology, headed by associate professor Johan Pouwelse. Over the years, Tribler found itself to be a safe haven for pirate site channels, a decentralized music streaming platform, and an AI-powered search engine, among other things.

The core idea always revolved around decentralization. The software and the network should be impossible to shut down. While academic achievements are not always picked up broadly, the research project’s output is highly valued and just secured funding through 2032.

Ironically, the development of the decentralized BitTorrent client is highly centralized. It’s run by a university team and paid for by subsidies. However, its own research may offer an eventual solution to that problem, starting with a self-replicating seedbox.

The Self-Replicating Seedbox

One of Tribler’s latest projects is a self-replicating seedbox called Mycelium, named after the underground fungal networks it is meant to resemble. This is part of a larger superorganism experiment into a decentrally governed community.

In simple terms, the seedbox starts a single server. When community members fund the project with bitcoin a new VPS server launches a fresh seedbox, after which the process will repeat itself. This results in an ever-expanding service as long as sufficient funds come in.

The content being seeded is Creative Commons material, not copyrighted works. The BitTorrent seeding is managed by libtorrent and the Bitcoin mechanics by a standard wallet. Once it’s set up, it can function independently.

The combination of all these elements, including voting and payment, could do more than replicate seedboxes. The same technology and framework can also be used to set up mirror websites, to replicate URLs, or to register new domain names.

A Decentralized Digital Democracy

The seedbox project isn’t completely decentralized, as it relies on GitHub and the VPS provider SporeStack. The researchers acknowledge this and in a recent master thesis, Stan Verlaan described this as the “governance paradox of decentralized systems”.

While there is no immediate solution, the thesis does offer a solution for how a community can help decide on the future of a project, while also funding it.

The proposed solution is a TwoStepDemocracy. In the first step, users vote on which problems are worth solving or which feature needs to be implemented. Based on these votes, the developers can then submit solutions.

The community then votes on whether the proposed solutions or changes should be implemented. If a solution passes that community vote and enough users have pledged Bitcoin to fund it, the developer gets paid.

This setup sounds straightforward, but it is significantly different from how software development usually works. A project’s evolution doesn’t rely on a group of gatekeepers who decide, but on the votes of a broader community, which in turn is independent of the funding.

The Utopian Dream

The researchers don’t understate their ambitions. On the superorganism-experiment GitHub page, the project’s future vision, or “Utopian dream”, is described with little reservation

“We are creating our own society. A place citizens have FULL control, have their own MONEY, have AI that serves THEM, and CONTROL together. Unstoppable by design, self-replicating, self-hosted, self-evolving, and human oversight with democratic governance,” the description reads.

That framing isn’t necessarily limited to software. Tribler’s Dr. Pouwelse tells TorrentFreak that the project has been collaborating with the Dutch tax authority and the authority for the financial markets on trust, identity en governance isues. At the same time, he’s increasingly finding an audience among European Commission officials as well.

The connection makes sense. In recent years, Internet infrastructure and AI development have become further concentrated in the hands of a few large American companies, so Europe has a growing interest in public, decentralized alternatives.

Tribler’s research doesn’t propose any groundbreaking new technologies. Its strength lies in the combination of technologies. Whether this can scale into anything concrete remains highly uncertain.

For now, the TwoStepDemocracy idea remains a technical proof of concept. The thesis itself acknowledges this, and stresses that a larger study is needed to combine all elements, from voting to payment to development, to see how it functions.

The Tribler team isn’t letting the self-replicating seedbox loose on The Pirate Bay either, for those who are wondering. But they may have planted a seed.

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The Superorganism repository is available on GitHub . The TwoStepDemocracy thesis can be found here (pdf).

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

The European Commission is reviewing the Copyright Directive, with a legislative proposal for a ‘better copyright environment’ to follow next year.

As part of this process, the Commission launched a public consultation, inviting rightsholders, intermediaries, and other stakeholders to weigh in.

We previously reported that the submission of European ISPs argued that rightsholders should be held accountable when site-blocking orders result in avoidable overblocking. The same submission also warned against IP-address blocking, as that could more easily affect legitimate services.

Blacklist for the ‘European Internet’

Not all stakeholders share this cautious attitude. In fact, many rightsholders believe that the European Commission could do more to block pirate sites and services. For example, by facilitating the creation of an EU blacklist for rogue hosting providers.

The blacklist idea is proposed in the submission of broadcaster beIN Sports , which holds sports media rights across several continents. The company specifically argues for broader blocking powers, not narrower ones.

BeIN’s proposal goes beyond IP-address blocking and suggests creating a blacklist of problematic hosting providers. These companies can be identified by their autonomous system number ( ASN ), which is a collection of connected IP-addresses.

“beIN proposes that the Commission should establish a means for rights owners to report offshore noncompliant hosting providers, identified by their ASNs,” beIN writes.

“A competent authority would assess these providers based on criteria such as failure to comply with takedown requests, involvement in illegal content, non-compliance with legal obligations, and location outside the EU.”

Blocking the Tubes

BeIN envisions a European blacklist that would be enforced by ICT providers which would cover data centers, transit providers, internet exchanges, ISPs, among others. These companies would be required to block the associated traffic, with the goal to keep these rogue providers out of the European Internet ecosystem.

“‘Designated providers’ IP addresses and ASNs would be placed in a public database, which compromises [sic] a ‘blacklist’. European ICT providers would then be under a legal obligation to stop providing services to, or transmitting data from, these identified entities, thereby limiting their ability to operate within the European internet ecosystem,” the submission reads.

The Internet is a global network, which typically doesn’t stop at the European borders, so these measures could potentially introduce new overblocking concerns. However, beIN stresses that it is needed to curb online piracy.

The company’s vision is supported by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance ( AAPA ), which also represents other sports rightsholders, including the Premier League, LaLiga, DAZN, Sky and Viaplay. Like its member beIN, AAPA’s submission explicitly mentions blocking hosting providers on the network level

“Provide a regulatory means for a competent authority, on application of rights owners, to designate ASNs and IP ranges associated with off-shore non-compliant hosting providers,” AAPA notes.

“This information should then be communicated to European Information and Communication Technology (ICT) providers, who would be obliged to cease carrying traffic from, and otherwise deny services to the designated ASNs and IP ranges.”

Porn Industry Agrees

The ASN blacklist proposal isn’t limited to sports and broadcast interests. Adult content producer Aylo, the company behind Pornhub and brands such as Brazzers and Reality Kings, filed its own submission backing a similar ASN blacklist.

Aylo proposes a central European blocking scheme. This would include a framework where an appropriate authority can “designate the ASNs and IP ranges of offshore non-compliant hosts.”

In addition to the European blacklist for rogue hosting providers, rightsholders also made various other suggestions. For example, beIN asked for a strict 30-minute takedown window for hosting companies, real-time dynamic blocking orders, and “know your business customer” obligations for key Internet infrastructure companies.

Whether any of these recommendations will be picked up has yet to be seen. However, the submissions show a clear divergence between rightsholders demanding tougher measures on the one hand, versus intermediaries cautioning against overbroad blocking powers.

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A copy of beIN’s submission to the call for evidence is available here (pdf) , AAPA’s version can be found here (pdf) , and Aylo’s copy is here (pdf) .

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

More than fourteen years have passed since Megaupload became the prime target in a high-profile law enforcement operation, which led to the collapse of Kim Dotcom’s file-storage empire.

The U.S. accused Dotcom of being the leader of a criminal “Mega Conspiracy,” which it claims earned many millions of dollars by profiting from copyright infringement.

With the stakes this high, no legal resources are being spared. Many millions of dollars have been poured into this legal battle since 2012, with Dotcom doing everything in his power to avoid being extradited to the United States.

In 2020, the Supreme Court of New Zealand ruled that Kim Dotcom and his colleagues could indeed be extradited to the United States. After further challenges, New Zealand’s Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith approved Kim Dotcom’s extradition in 2024.

By then, Megaupload defendants van der Kolk and Ortmann had already opted for a deal. The pair pled guilty but were allowed to serve their respective 30 and 31-month prison sentences in New Zealand. Dotcom, meanwhile, kept fighting.

Court of Appeal Rejects New Zealand Prosecution

Dotcom’s latest opposition targets two decisions. The first is the Police Commissioner’s refusal to charge Megaupload’s founder in New Zealand, and the second targets the Minister’s order to surrender him to the United States.

The High Court rejected these challenges in September 2025, but as expected, Dotcom appealed again. Today , New Zealand’s Court of Appeal ruled on the matter, rejecting all challenges .

Dotcom argued that the Police Commissioner should have charged him in New Zealand, pointing out that his co-defendants signed plea deals with the authorities in 2022. These deals allowed them to avoid extradition to the U.S.

The Court of Appeal concludes that there was a proper basis for the Commissioner’s decision.

The Commissioner previously refused to charge Dotcom, who did not offer to plead guilty, noting that his position as Megaupload’s ringleader differed from the other defendants. More importantly, the U.S. would not be willing to cooperate.

“Most critically of all, however, the US was not prepared to withdraw its request for extradition of Mr Dotcom in the way it was for the others,” the Court of Appeal writes in a summary of the order.

30 Years to 150 Years in Prison

The second challenge deals with the severity of the sentence Dotcom faces in the United States. A court can block an extradition request if a foreign punishment is so severe that it would “shock the conscience” of properly informed New Zealanders.

Before signing the extradition order, the Justice Minister heard from an expert that Dotcom faces an estimated sentence of 30 to 150 years, if he’s convicted in the United States.

While that is substantially higher than the comparable sentence in New Zealand, which would fall in the range of 12 to 15 years, the Minister concluded that it would not “shock the conscience” of properly informed New Zealanders given the scale of the alleged offending.

Dotcom argued that the comparison should factor in the actual sentences his co-defendants received. The Court of Appeal disagreed, finding that the correct approach compares the likely sentence in the requesting country with the likely sentence in New Zealand for the same conduct, not the sentences of his co-defendants.

Dotcom separately argued that the U.S. sentence would likely amount to an “irreducible life sentence,” which could violate international human rights law. However, the Court of Appeal rejected this, noting that the U.S. system allows for both compassionate release and executive clemency, which allow sentences to be reduced.

All in all, the Court of Appeal dismissed the challenge in its entirety, with Dotcom ordered to pay costs. However, this isn’t necessarily the end of the legal challenges yet, as Dotcom and his lawyer Ron Mansfield KC could still take the matter up with the Supreme Court.

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

Last year, EuroISPA warned the European Commission that site blocking was becoming disproportionate.

Fast-forward a year, and the providers’ concerns have only grown.

In a new filing to the Commission’s ongoing assessment of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive , EuroISPA once again sounds the alarm, pointing out that the piracy blocking climate in some countries is getting more extreme.

EuroISPA starts by explicitly referencing the Commission’s own conclusions. Its evaluation of the 2023 Recommendation on combating piracy of live events concluded that the measures had “limited positive effects” and did not lead to a substantial reduction in piracy.

“This finding is an important baseline for this consultation: it suggests that in many cases the problem lies in the enforcement of existing law, not in a gap in the legislative framework,” the ISP organization notes.

The European Commission should prioritize the implementation of current law, instead of introducing any new enforcement obligations, the filing argues. That doesn’t mean that everything is functioning fine now. On the contrary, the ISPs flag a myriad of overblocking incidents.

Blocking Goes Beyond ISPs

In recent years, site blocking orders have expanded to other intermediaries, including DNS resolvers and VPN providers. This is problematic, EuroISPA argues, as these services have no direct link to the infringing content and often lack the technical means to implement geographically restricted blocks.

This expansion, combined with various overblocking incidents throughout Europe, is problematic, the ISP association notes, while listing various examples.

In Italy, Piracy Shield’s IP-level blocking caused collateral damage to over 7,700 domain names. In addition, a Portuguese hosting provider lost email connectivity with Italian customers for 16 days. When Cloudflare declined to comply with blocking demands, Italy’s communications regulator AGCOM fined it 14 million euros.

In Spain, LaLiga obtained a blocking order that targeted shared IP addresses, which were also used by thousands of legitimate sites. EuroISPA says that millions of Spanish internet users have lost access to banking apps, developer tools, and payment platforms, as a result of the site blocking measures.

In Belgium and France, site blocking is also expanding. Cisco pulled OpenDNS from France in 2024 and Belgium in 2025, after being ordered to block pirate sites. It resumed its service in Belgium when it appealed this decision , which could have far-reaching consequences.

“The outcome of that appeal may have significant consequences for the scope of future blocking orders across the EU, as the trend of extending obligations to DNS resolvers and VPN providers continues to grow across Member States,” EuroISPA notes.

Overblocking Accountability

The ISP organization cites the CEPS report published in April , which cautioned against IP-address blocking.

The same report also recommended that rightsholders should be held liable for overblocking damage. EuroISPA is now making the same demand directly to the Commission. This doesn’t require any new legislation, as EU’s Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) supports it.

EuroISPA argues that “rightsholders should be held accountable” for “collateral damage caused by overbroad blocking actions, with compensation mechanisms that are clearly defined and enforceable.”

The ISP organization also argued against the rapid blocking requirements, which require services to implement blockades in a short timeframe. That would include Italy, where providers have to take action within 30 minutes, which can be problematic for smaller companies.

“The current absence of such mechanisms creates a structural burden that falls disproportionately on smaller providers,” the submission notes.

Whether the Commission will pick up these suggestions has yet to be seen. For now, the CDSM review continues, which will undoubtedly also see calls from rightsholders to further expand the current site blocking powers.

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A copy of EuroISPA’s submission to the European Commission’s CDSM review is available here (pdf) .

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

With the FIFA World Cup being partially hosted by the United States, the chance of a U.S.-led pirate domain seizure round was significant.

In 2022, the U.S. government already carried out a similar World Cup-themed enforcement action , which was repeated yesterday at roughly five times the scale.

The Department of Justice announced that it had seized nearly 400 domains that were used to illegally stream the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The action, branded “Operation Offsides 2026”, was led by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center with HSI Washington and the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.

“We have seized hundreds of domains, used to illegally stream World Cup matches for profit, to disrupt the international networks that profit from the global popularity of the World Cup,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

Seizures with Broad Support

This is far from an isolated action. The DOJ credits FIFA as the lead rightsholder, with supporting information from beIN Media Group, NBCUniversal, the MPA’s Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and Warner Bros.

The seizure banner, shown below, also reveals support from a variety of foreign organizations and authorities, including Europol, City of London Police, Ecuador’s SENADI, Argentina’s Ministerio Público Fiscal, the NCFTA, as well as anti-piracy outfit FriendMTS.

In addition to the domain seizures, international coordination through the ICHIP network also targeted pirate streaming services in various other countries.

“Servers and domains linked to illegal streaming of World Cup games were targeted in Peru and Bulgaria, two known centers of online piracy activity. Additional ICHIP-supported disruptions took place in Croatia, Romania, Poland and Colombia,” the press release states.

Tracing the Seized Domains

The DOJ released no list of seized domain names. However, DNS data shows that dozens of new domain names have added seizedservers.com nameservers in the past 24 hours. These nameservers are used in the U.S. government’s seizure actions for well over a decade.

The domains we traced include kooora365.com, kora-shoot.com, bein-match-worldcup.com, beinmatchtv.com, rojadirectastv.org, pelotalibrehd.org, futbollibreusa.com, viper-play.org, and redditsoccerstreams.name. A non-verified and non-exhaustive list of domains can be found below.

These domains all use popular brands, either from beIN as a broadcaster, or popular pirate brands such as rojadirecta and futbollibre. That doesn’t necessarily mean that these domain names were popular, as most appear to be copycats.

For example, the seizure action targeted futbollibreonline.com, which had just over 166,000 visits last month, while futbol-libre.su remains online with more than 73 million monthly visits. A likely explanation is that domains operated by foreign registries, such as the Russian-operated .su, typically don’t fall under U.S. jurisdiction.

The seized domain names we identified all use .com, .name, and .org domains, which are maintained by the American organizations Verisign and the Public Interest Registry . The affidavit from the first Operation Offsides targeted both registries and registrars.

A Fitness Blog and a CBD Site

At first glance, the list of seized domains includes several unusual targets. fitforcedaily.com, for example , was a site that presented itself as a fitness blog with articles on insulin sensitivity, strength training, and pregnancy workouts. But there was more going on under the hood, as the domain’s main referral traffic came from a Rojadirecta site.

Several other entries in the slice appear to be expired and reused domains. Freedomgloryproject.com was originally an Iranian-American music activism site, last updated in 2015. Gonutradeal.com hosted CBD wellness content as recently as 2023. Interoutemediaservices.com matches the brand of a European telecom, Interoute, acquired by GTT Communications in 2018 and retired shortly after.

This is not as unusual as it seems, as pirate site clone operators often buy lapsed domains to leverage their existing search-engine credibility.

Since the news broke hours ago, it is possible that the seizure actions are ongoing, so more domains, including different gTLDs, may be added as well. We will update this article if new information becomes available.

—

The DOJ press release for Operation Offsides 2026 is available here . The seizure warrant and affidavit, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, were not immediately available to us on PACER.

A list of several domain names that added seizedservers nameservers in the past 48 hours is available below. These are traced by TorrentFreak, not confirmed by the authorities.

viper-play.org
surfg.org
rojadirectastv.org
pelotalibrestv.org
pelotalibrehd.org
pelota-libretv.org
kora-yalla.org
kevinsport.org
futbollibrehd.org
futbol-libres.org
kora999live.com
kora999.com
kora999-live.com
kora48.com
kora360-tv.com
kora360-lives.com
kora360-live.com
kora1lives.com
kora-show.com
kora-shoot.com
kora-onlineone.com
kora-online24.com
kora-live4k.com
kora-gol.com
kora-city.com
kora-999.com
koorati.com
koorallive24.com
kooraliveworldcup.com
kooralive69.com
kooralite.com
kooragol-live.com
kooragoal24.com
kooraa4live.com
koora4livehd.com
koora48.com
koora1live.com
koora-tv.com
koora-live-live.com
koooraa4live.com
kooora4livetv.com
kooora365.com
kooora-sport.com
kooora-sia.com
kooora-mobashir.com
kevinsport.com
interoutemediaservices.com
hdlive7.com
hd7-new.com
hayasport.com
gosporttv.com
gonutradeal.com
golygoal.com
gollibre.com
golkoora.com
goheali.com
goalkora.com
go4koraa.com
go4kora.com
fuutbollibre.com
futbollibreusa.com
futbollibreonline.com
futbollibre-tv.com
futbollibre-hd.com
fullmatch-hd.com
freekora.com
freedomgloryproject.com
fotytv.com
flixmv.com
fitforcedaily.com
ekoralive.com
egynoww.com
deportelibretv.com
deportelibree.com
defendersportstreams.com
crichdbest.com
childluresprevention.com
cagesharkdive.com
bolasrolando.com
beinmatsh.com
beinmatchtv.com
beinmatch26.com
bein4kora.com
bein-mattch.com
bein-match.com
bein-match-worldcup.com
bein-live.com
beiin-match.com
alwansport.com
alkooralive.com
akora-live.com
ahsa-news.com
808ball13.com
360koratv.com
360kora.com
360koora-live.com
360kkora.com
1kora.com
11kora.com
redditsoccerstreams.name

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

Earlier this month, BREIN published its latest annual report, providing insights into its priorities and achievements.

Among other things, the Dutch anti-piracy group reports that it shut down 50 IPTV/VOD subscription vendors, 42 streaming sites, while also stopping 673 pirate site proxies and mirrors.

BREIN also keeps the Dutch pirate site blocklist up to date. By the end of 2025 it covered 303 unique domains, 13 platforms, and 8 IP addresses. These are part of the dynamic blocking efforts, backed by a voluntary agreement with ISPs, as well as court orders.

BREIN Shares Blocklist Data With DNS4EU

By now, most Dutch site blocking efforts are standard practice, but BREIN also shared a new and intriguing detail in its full report, which involves the European DNS resolver DNS4EU .

As it turns out, BREIN is actively and automatically sharing the Dutch blocklist data with DNS4EU.

BREIN was under the impression that the blocklist data would be used to block pirate sites. Understandably, that is something the group wholeheartedly supports.

“BREIN sees several advantages, particularly the ability to block illegal sites more effectively. BREIN therefore shares the details of websites blocked in the Netherlands and sends DNS4EU up-to-date lists of blocked websites,” BREIN’s annual report reads.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, BREIN’s director Bastiaan van Ramshorst explains that they offer secure access to the same blocklist server that ISPs use. In addition, DNS4EU reportedly said that it would be interested in getting similar data from other countries as well.

Funded by the EU, Blocking in Mind

BREIN’s report and comment don’t explain why the DNS provider might be interested in blocklists, but the DNS provider’s origins provide useful context.

DNS4EU is a public DNS resolver, co-funded by the European Commission and currently operated by a consortium led by Czech cybersecurity company Whalebone . The service launched last year as a sovereign European alternative to non-EU resolvers such as Google Public DNS and Cloudflare.

When the European Commission published its call for proposals in 2022, the tender specified that the resolver should be able to filter illegal material on legal grounds. As we reported at the time , the documentation listed the following requirement.

“Filtering of URLs leading to illegal content based on legal requirements applicable in the EU or in national jurisdictions (e.g. based on court orders), in full compliance with EU rules.”

This type of blocking can also expand to copyrighted content. This is already taking place in response to court orders, such as in France , but the agreement between BREIN and DNS4EU suggests that voluntary blocking could be an option too.

Whalebone now runs DNS4EU without EU funding, but it appears that the interest in blocking remained.

No Voluntary Pirate Site Blocks

The logical assumption that DNS4EU would use the blocklist data to block sites can’t be backed up by data. TorrentFreak’s tests show that blocked domains, including The Pirate Bay, are readily accessible, also from The Netherlands.

To find out more about DNS4EU’s plans with this case, we reached out to the operating company Whalebone, which declined to confirm any blocking and pointed to the DNS4EU resolver policy instead.

Under that policy , DNS4EU commits “not to block DNS resolution except for when required by law, enforceable decision of the competent court or other government authority or elected by the User.”

The Dutch blocklist is based on civil court orders against the ISPs, not against DNS4EU. This means that DNS4EU is not legally required to take action.

DNS4EU’s own numbers confirm that it is not taking any voluntary action, at least where copyright is concerned. Its first transparency report, covering June through December 2025, logs roughly 63 million voluntary “own-initiative” blocks. These are almost all linked to phishing and scam domains.

The number of blocked domains in the copyright infringement category is zero, as is the total for the broader intellectual property category.

No Reason to Block

This chain of events raises an obvious question. Why would DNS4EU reach out to BREIN to request access to the blocklist, and ask for more, only to leave it untouched?

When we first pressed Whalebone, a spokesperson explained that, while the company leads the DNS4EU consortium , other members are involved and there was no agreement yet on how to move forward.

“I need to check with them what was the agreement,” the Whalebone spokesperson informed us two weeks ago. “These discussions are currently ongoing.”

Shortly before publication, after consulting the consortium, Whalebone followed up with a fuller statement, which it says was also sent to BREIN. This time the answer was clear: the data will not be used.

“DNS4EU team contacted BREIN regarding this matter, however, we later discovered that BREIN is not the governmental regulatory body. Therefore, there is no reason to proceed with implementing their blocking list. The data has not been used in any way,” the statement reads.

This neatly explains why BREIN’s blocklist is not put to use by the DNS provider. However, it also raises additional questions. Does DNS4EU currently block sites based on blocklists from governmental regulators, and if so, are any of these blocklists currently in place?

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