DVD piracy news stories on Newser

China's Top Search Engine Is Piracy Hub: US

Nick McMaster — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:15:47 CST

The US has listed China's top search engine—one of the 10 most popular websites in the world—as one of the most "notorious markets" for pirated software and media, Reuters reports. Baidu.com, the most popular website within China, was again singled out by the US trade representative's office...

Danish Man Turns Himself In for Copying DVDs

Nick McMaster — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:25:02 CST

A Danish man has reported himself to police for copying his DVD collection to his computer. Henrik Anderson is looking to test two contradictory Danish laws—one that allows the creation of "personal use" backup copies and another that prohibits the breaking of DRM, or digital rights management, to make...

French Court Throws Out Anti-Piracy Law

Kevin Spak — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:26:01 CDT

France’s constitutional council today shot down the country’s newly minted “three strikes” law against Internet piracy, Ars Technica reports. The council said the law, which set up an administrative body to punish pirates, violated basic principles of French law, assigning essentially judicial duties to a non-judicial body, and putting the...

Streaming Sites Thwart Studios' Piracy Crackdowns

Rob Quinn — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:17:41 CST

The rise of video streaming sites has defeated movie studios' toughest anti-piracy efforts, the New York Times reports. Consumers can watch copyrighted material online—often from sites hosted in countries with slack anti-piracy rules—more easily than ever. The industry estimates "digital theft" now accounts for 40% of all its...

Studio Went Super-Secret to Protect Batman

Harry Kimball — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 16:20:01 CDT

In a dazzling covert operation, Warner Bros. kept the lid on The Dark Knight so tight pirated copies didn’t hit the Web until 2 days after its Australian premiere—long enough to keep the film’s record opening on track, the Los Angeles Times reports. Digital piracy can keep fans online...

DVD Dogs Sniff Out Pirates

Rob Quinn — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 08:27:50 CDT

Two dogs trained to sniff out counterfeit DVDs are so good at their jobs that infuriated pirates have put a bounty on their heads, Wired reports. The dogs—Labrador retrievers who were taught to detect the scent of polycarbonate—have helped locate millions of fake discs hidden in warehouses and...

Nielsen Wants Role as Online Video Cop

Jim O'Neill — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:11:31 CST

Television ratings giant Nielsen is getting set to take a new role—video piracy cop. The company says its new service, Digital Media Manager, will fingerprint programming to make sure videos can be posted on Internet sites like MySpace and YouTube only if they have owners' permission, reports the Wall...

DRM Pirates Get Help From Caribbean

Rob Quinn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:22:40 CST

Digital rights management technologies are doing more for the profits of software companies than the copyright holders they're supposed to protect, Techdirt reports. The new AACS system was meant to stop HD-DVD or Blu-Ray players from showing protected disks, but hackers easily beat it. Overseas companies are now getting rich...

DVD Pirates Outwit Hollywood

Jane Yager — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 07:18:33 CDT

The high-profile Oscar hopeful American Gangster opens next week—but it's already available as a pirated DVD for $5 or for free via internet file-sharing sites. American Gangster is the latest example of the upper hand that bootleggers have gained of late in their war against security measures, the Wall...