Word.ws English Dictionary

copyright troll

copyright troll noun: a person or company that enforces copyrights that it holds for purposes of generating income through strategic litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic.

Noun

copyright troll (plural copyright trolls)

  1. (derogatory) A person or company that enforces copyrights that it holds for purposes of generating income through strategic litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic.
    1. (Internet, derogatory, torrenting) A copyright holder, or agent working on their behalf, who participates in torrents in order to note down and report those unlawfully downloading their copyrighted content.
      • If you join a popular torrent using your own IP address, a copyright troll might make sure you get a sternly-worded threat from your ISP.

Forms of copyright troll

pluralcopyright trolls

Questions about copyright troll

What does copyright troll mean?
Copyright troll means a person or company that enforces copyrights that it holds for purposes of generating income through strategic litigation, in a manner considered unduly aggressive or opportunistic.
What part of speech is copyright troll?
Copyright troll is a noun.
What is the plural of copyright troll?
The plural of copyright troll is copyright trolls.

Words near copyright troll in the dictionary

  1. copyright laundering
  2. copyright symbol
  3. copyright symbols
  4. copyright trap
  5. copyright traps
  6. copyright troll
  7. copyright trolls
  8. copyrightability
  9. copyrightable
  10. copyrightables
  11. copyrightably

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: copyright troll (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “copyright troll.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/copyright_troll. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.