There was a time when music and movie industry aggression against The Pirate Bay was met with aggression right back, with sites belonging to the MPAA, RIAA, IFPI and others targeted in retaliatory moves.

In recent times, however, that kind of reaction has largely been on the wane. It’s not immediately clear why, but it’s certainly possible that supporters have become used to the world’s largest torrent site being under assault.

And under assault it has definitely been, with web blockades now in place all over Europe. Yesterday the phenomenon spread to Argentina, where local music industry group CAPIF obtained a preliminary blocking injunction against the famous torrent site, the first of its type in Latin America.

The order issued by the 67th District Federal Court compels eleven ISPs to block 256 Pirate Bay IP addresses and 12 domains, which will soon render The Pirate Bay pretty much inaccessible across Argentina.

However, unlike their European counterparts, the Argentinians didn’t get the memo about not retaliating against music industry aggression. With the blockade now in place across several ISPs, it appears that local hackers have already turned the ban on its head in the most dramatic way possible.

Right at this moment, CAPIF’s very own website is operating as a fully functioning Pirate Bay proxy site. Visitors to adminlic.capif.org.ar are greeted with the familiar TPB homepage and are granted full access to the site.

It’s very likely that CAPIF will soon move to shut down access to the proxy, but already the damage will have been done. This act of rebellion has the potential to generate more headlines than the blockade itself, meaning that over the next couple of days all blocked Argentinian TPB users will know what a reverse proxy is and what they are capable of.

Activism in support of torrent and file-sharing sites might be an art on the decline, but its ability to send powerful messages remains, especially when it turns the resources of ‘enemies’ right back against themselves.

Update: After serving torrents for at least 10 hours the proxy has now been pulled offline.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

It’s very common to hear of a country in Europe opting to block The Pirate Bay. Court orders across the region compel dozens of ISPs to block the infamous torrent site following action by the world’s largest recording labels and movie studios.

On the heels of those multiple actions spanning several years comes news today that Argentina has become the first Latin American country to block The Pirate Bay on copyright grounds.

The action against the site was initiated by Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas (CAPIF), an Argentinian music industry group. A local member of the IFPI, CAPIF represents both leading and independent labels. In its application to the court the group said it wanted to do something about the rampant copyright infringement being enabled by The Pirate Bay.

The 67th District Federal Court looked favorably upon the labels’ plight and last month issued an order to have local ISPs block The Pirate Bay. Details of the case and court order, obtained by Acceso-Directo, only leaked out a few hours ago. Here are the key points.

In a directive stamped May 28 and June 26, the National Communications Commission, an organization that regulates and supervises telecommunications and the post office in Argentina, ordered ISPs to take action against a range of domain names and IP addresses associated with the site.

As can be seen from the image below, the ISPs – Arnet, Speedy, Fibertel, Claro, Personal, Movistar, Prima, Telecentro, Iplan, Metrotel and Sion – are now required to block 12 Pirate Bay domains and a total of 256 IP address.

According to local sources, the ISPs Arnet, Fibertel, Telecentro, Iplan and Metrotel are already blocking the site.

An interesting side-effect of the Argentinian blockade was reported to TorrentFreak by a reader in Paraguay. Internet services in the landlocked country are supplied jointly by Argentina and Brazil. This means that anytime now much of Paraguay will also be blocked from accessing The Pirate Bay, even though no court order was issued in that country.

The blocking injunction in Argentina is preliminary, so will take effect pending the outcome of a full trial.

Update: Hackers started a Pirate Bay proxy on a CAPIF’s subdomain.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The MPAA, RIAA and associated groups such as the International Intellectual Property Alliance, rarely have positive things to say about Switzerland.

“The country has become an attractive haven for services heavily engaged in infringing activity,” the IIPA said in its 2013 USTR submission, while referring to the land-locked nation as “a major exporter of pirated content.”

In addition to legislation tipped in favor of service providers, the Swiss also present a fairly unique problem. Thanks to the so-called ‘Logistep Decision’, which was bemoaned in a recent International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus report, the monitoring of file-sharers is effectively outlawed. As a result it’s estimated that more than a third of Swiss Internet users access unlicensed services each month.

With international pressure building the Swiss promised to address the situation and have been doing so via AGUR12, a working group responsible for identifying opportunities to adapt copyright law. In parallel, another working group has been looking at service provider liability.

This month the Federal Council took the groups’ recommendations and mandated the Federal Department of Justice and Police to prepare a draft bill for public consultation by the end of 2015.

What’s on the table

The Federal Council says its aim is to improve the situation for creators without impairing the position of consumers, so there is an element of give-and-take in the proposals for file-sharing, with a focus on balance and “careful consideration” given to data protection issues.

Personal file-sharing

Current download-and-share-with-impunity will be replaced with an acceptance of downloading for personal use, but with uploading specifically outlawed. This means that while downloading a pirated album from a cyberlocker would be legal, doing so using BitTorrent would be illegal due to inherent uploading.

Warnings and notifications

While commercial level infringers can already be dealt with under Swiss law, the proposals seek to lower the bar so that those who flout an upload ban on a smaller but persistent scale can be dealt with. AGUR12 has recommended that this should be achieved by sending warning notices to infringers via their ISPs.

Only when a user fails to get the message should his or her details be handed over to rightsholders for use in civil proceedings. The Federal Council says it likes the idea, but first wants to investigate how the notification process will work, where the thresholds on persistent infringement lie, and under what process identities can be revealed to rightsholders.

Provider liability

Under AGUR12′s recommendations, Internet providers will not only be required to remove infringing content from their platforms, but also prevent that same content from reappearing, a standard that U.S. rightsholders are currently pressuring Google to adopt.

Additionally, in serious cases authorities should be able to order the blocking of “obviously illegal content or sources”. Any new obligations on service providers would be balanced by granting them with exemption from liability.

Conclusion

While Switzerland does not wish to render mere downloading illegal, its effective outlawing of BitTorrent for unlicensed content transfers will put it on a par with most Western countries.

Furthermore, if service providers are forced to take copyrighted content down and keep it down, Switzerland could become the model that the United States has to live up to.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

The movie industry sees the illegal recording of movies as one of the biggest piracy threats and for years has gone to extremes to stop it.

It started well over a decade ago when visitors began sneaking handheld camcorders into theaters. These big clunkers were relatively easy to spot, but as time passed the recording devices grew smaller and easier to obfuscate.

Google Glass is one of the newest threats on the block. Earlier this year the FBI dragged a man from a movie theater in Columbus, Ohio, after theater staff presumed he was using Google Glass to illegally record a film. While the man wasn’t recording anything at all, the response from the cinema employees was telling.

This month Google Glass went on sale in the UK, and unlike their American counterparts, British cinemas have been quick to announce a blanket ban on the new gadget.

“Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not,” Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association told the Independent.

The first Glass wearer at a Leicester Square cinema has already been instructed to stow his device, and more are expected to follow. Google Glass wearers with prescription lenses would be wise to take a pair of traditional glasses along if they want to enjoy a movie on the big screen.

Movie industry group FACT sees Google Glass and other new recording devices as significant threats and works in tandem with local cinemas to prevent film from being recorded.

“Developments in technology have led to smaller, more compact devices which have the capability to record sound and vision, including most mobile phones. FACT works closely with cinema operators and distributors to ensure that best practice is carried out to prevent and detect illegal recordings taking place,” the group says.

In recent years the UK movie industry has intensified its efforts to stop camcording and not without success. In 2012 none of the illegally recorded movies that appeared online originated from a UK cinema while several attempts were successfully thwarted.

Last year, cinema staff helped UK police to arrest five people and another nine were sent home with cautions. As a thank you for these vigilant actions, the Film Distributors’ Association awarded 13 cinema employees with cash rewards of up to £500.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

This week we have three newcomers in our chart.

Rio 2 is the most downloaded movie this week.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1	(7)	Rio 2	6.7 / trailer
2	(1)	A Million Ways to Die in the West (Webrip)	6.4 / trailer
3	(3)	X-Men: Days of Future Past (HDCAM)	8.5 / trailer
4	(…)	Captain America: The Winter Soldier (HDTS)	8.2 / trailer
5	(2)	300: Rise Of An Empire	6.6 / trailer
6	(…)	Neighbors (Webrip)	7.0 / trailer
7	(4)	Godzilla (TS)	7.2 / trailer
8	(6)	Maleficent (TS)	7.4 / trailer
9	(5)	The Grand Budapest Hotel	8.3 / trailer
10	(…)	Bad Words	6.8 / trailer

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.