Piracy – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Piracy

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Déjà vu.

As expensive bundled packages, premium live sports pricing, and restrictive walled gardens proliferate, customers have turned to TV piracy instead. Now why do I feel like I’ve seen this one before?

NotSoSavvy:

Hey, the exact same problem that drove people to Torrenting comes up again! It’s weird that as soon as watching things legally becomes more of a hassle than watching them illegally, people start watching illegally again. It’s almost like people hate walled gardens and it’s generally in a company’s best interests to have wider, easier distribution they get a smaller cut from than try and make their own Netflix or something.

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Jess Weatherbed
Jess Weatherbed
Defying Wicked’s anti-piracy policy.

Fans of the new musical keep uploading photos and minutes-long clips — including the conclusion — from their screenings to social platforms like X and TikTok. It’s a growing trend that Hollywood is struggling (or doesn’t care) to address, with lawyers focusing on removing fully pirated movies instead of playing whack-a-mole with clips.

One anonymous movie executive told Variety:

“Something has happened post-pandemic where movie theater behavior has really changed. They have a different relationship with the material, it’s all just content to them.”

Jon Porter
Jon Porter
Reddit won’t have to rat out pirate users, judge rules.

A federal court has ruled that Reddit won’t have to reveal the identities of users that openly discussed torrenting on the platform, Gizmodo reports. As with a similar decision reported in May, the judge ruled that the First Amendment’s right to anonymous speech is more important.