3 Count: Not the Rock

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1: Disney, Major Studios Get $30M From Illegal Streaming Sites Amid Piracy Crackdown

First off today, Winston Cho at The Hollywood Reporter Esquire reports that a group of entertainment companies have secured a settlement against Dwayne Johnson (not the actor), the operator of two pirate networks that streamed their content.

Johnson was the operator of both AllAccessTV and Quality Restreams. Both platforms offered subscriptions to access pirates movies and TV shows. The studios filed the lawsuit in December 2021, accusing Johnson of running the networks and being fully aware that what he was doing was illegal.

However, the sides have now reached a settlement, with Johnson agreeing to pay some $30 million in damages and to an injunction barring him from operating any service that trades in pirate content. According to the original complaint, Johnson allegedly received $3 million per year from operating AllAccessTV.

2:  Chinese Authorities Take Down Pirated Japanese Anime Site

Next up today, The Japan Times reports that the Chinese government has taken action against four individuals that they say operated a major pirate Japanese anime website in the country.

The announcement comes from Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), a Japanese anti-piracy group that targets overseas sites and services. They claim that the website in question, b9good, had been in operation under various names since 2008. However, they claim that, after a complaint to the Chinese government, the country took action and have arrested four people that they claim are connected with the site.

The site is now closed and CODA has called this a “hugely significant” win as the site was both aimed at the Japanese market and had high levels of traffic. That traffic is estimated to include 300 million accesses between March 2021 and February 2023.

3: GTA 6 Leaks Go Off The Internet Due to Copyright Strikes

Finally today, Tanya Jacobs at the Nashville Chatter reports that Rockstar Games, the developer behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games, has begun filing takedown notices to content connected with a recent leak of the upcoming game Grand Theft Auto 6.

Recently, Rockstar suffered a leak that included an early playable build of the game. Fans quickly snapped up the in-production version and began making content based up on it.

This included a 50-minute video created by a member of a Grand Theft Auto forum member that, like a great deal of other such content, has been removed from the internet after gaining popular attention. Perhaps the hardest hit is the Subreddit related to Grand Theft Auto 6, which has been the frequent target of copyright notices despite a policy against posting leaked content. Reddit has threatened to freeze the community should the problem continue.

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