YTS is the most-visited torrent site on the Internet. With millions of daily visitors, it even beats the legendary Pirate Bay.

The site ‘unofficially’ took over the YTS brand when the original group threw in the towel in 2015. Since then, it has amassed a rather impressive user base. However, that growth didn’t go unnoticed by copyright holders.

The movie industry sees the popular torrent site as one of the main piracy threats and last year YTS became the target of three different copyright infringement lawsuits in the US.

These cases were not filed by the big law firms that represent Hollywood’s major movie studios. Instead, they were filed by a single attorney from Hawaii, Kerry Culpepper, who works for Millennium Films and several of its daughter companies.

With these lawsuits, the filmmakers hoped to take the site offline and recoup damages. That can be an extremely difficult endeavor, especially when a site operator resides abroad, but part of this mission has now been achieved.

In the case filed on behalf of Wicked Nevada LLC, known for the thriller “Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile“, the filmmakers agreed to a consent judgment with Senthil Vijay Segaran, the suspected operator of YTS.

The original complaint referred to the operator as a John Doe. However, this was later updated to name Segaran as the person in charge. Segaran was also the person who previously agreed to remove several torrents linking to Millenium Films’ movies from YTS.

In the consent judgment, signed a few days ago, Segaran denies liability for copyright infringements. However, he confirms that he is the ‘John Doe’ described in the complaint and admits that people used YTS to share pirated content.

“Senthil Vijay Segaran denies liability but acknowledges that he is Defendant JOHN DOE dba YTS as identified in the original complaint and concedes that one or more third parties uploaded the torrent file of Plaintiff’s motion picture to the website YTS.LT,” the judgment reads.

Segaran specifically admits that “his website YTS.LT provided links for distributing the torrent file under the file name ‘Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil, And Vile (2019) [WEBRip] [720p] [YTS.AM]’.”

According to the consent judgment, which is signed by both parties, the operator didn’t upload the ‘Wicked’ torrent to the site. Who did, remains unmentioned.

Although Segaran denies liability, he did agree to pay $150,000 in damages, which also happens to be the maximum amount of statutory damages for copyright infringement.

“A Money Judgment is awarded in favor of Plaintiff Wicked Nevada, LLC against Defendant Senthil Vijay Segaran in the amount of $150,000 for damages,” the consent judgment reads.

The judgment was signed by US District Judge Susan Oki Mollway. In addition to the damages amount, it also includes a permanent injunction. This prevents YTS’s operator from distributing and/or promoting torrent files that point to Wicked Nevada’s film.

A damages judgment against the operator of the largest torrent site in the world is a major achievement. Although more people could manage the site, several Millenium Films movies are no longer listed on the platform.

That said, the site remains up and running. And as long as Wicked Nevada’s movie is not listed, YTS.lt doesn’t violate the permanent injunction.

The two remaining lawsuits against YTS, by the makers of movies including Hellboy, Singularity, The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and Hunter Killer, remain ongoing. However, given that they are handled by the same attorney based on a nearly identical complaint, we may see similar consent judgments there as well.

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TorrentFreak obtained a copy of the stipulated consent judgment between Wicked Nevada and Senthil Vijay Segaran, signed by United States District Judge Susan Oki Mollway, which is available here (pdf).

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The Canadian Government is no stranger to having its copyright policies critiqued.

The US Trade Representative, for example, has repeatedly placed its northern neighbor on a “watch list” because it fails to properly deter piracy.

While Canada has made several changes to its copyright regime in recent years, many rightsholders are not satisfied. Through political pressure from foreign governments, they hope to urge the country to address what they see as problematic issues.

This doesn’t only take place through the US Government – the European Commission is chiming in as well. Repeating many of the points that were previously highlighted by the USTR, the Commission summarized its main complaints in a report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in
third countries

“The Canadian IPR system still features certain shortcomings. Despite recent positive developments, a number of issues remain to be addressed, in particular in copyright and related rights as well as in enforcement,” the European Commission writes.

One of the highlighted problems is Canada’s fair dealing rules, which add educational use to the list of copyright infringement exceptions. According to the EU Commission, the language used in the law is too broad, damaging the rights of educational publishers.

“Broad exceptions in copyright law are applied in a way that appears to be detrimental to right holders. EU stakeholders are particularly concerned about the fair dealing exception for educational purposes and the exception for non-commercial user-generated content,” the Commission writes.

The same issue was previously pointed out by the US Government. That’s also true for the second problem, Canada’s lack of a takedown procedure to ensure that infringing content is removed by online service providers.

Canada previously implemented a “notice-and-notice” scheme. This only requires services to alert infringing parties, but it should ideally be complemented with a takedown requirement, the Commission notes.

“Stakeholders indicate that the ‘notice and notice’ regime for online copyright infringements, which came into effect in January 2015, still needs to be supplemented by a ‘notice and take down’ requirement, as well as by other measures to encourage all players to address online infringements in an effective way,” the Commission writes.

“There is currently no requirement for the internet service provider (ISP) or the user to take down infringing material and the only way to enforce a takedown is via the courts,” it adds.

The repeated use of the term “stakeholder” shows that the Commission heavily relies on input from copyright holders. While this is common, it may not be the most balanced approach.

Finally, the Commission also points out that many pirate websites are still hosted in Canada. This is a concern, it writes, as rightsholders are not able to request an injunction to have websites blocked by ISPs.

That last complaint is outdated, as Canada’s Federal Court recently issued the country’s first website blocking order. This is likely because copyright holders already submitted their complaints before that happened.

All in all the complaints are nothing new for Canada’s Government so whether they will make an impact has yet to be seen. The country previously wasn’t very impressed by “one-sided” foreign complaints on its copyright policies.

Canada is working on an update of its copyright law. Earlier this year, the Government’s Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology clearly rejected a non-judicial site-blocking regime, while it advised keeping the current safe harbor policy intact.

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A copy of the European Commission’s Report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries is available here (pdf).

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The Federation Against Copyright Theft, or FACT as it’s more commonly known, has developed a reputation for cracking down on mostly video-based piracy in the UK.

During its recent history, FACT has worked on behalf of the Premier League, Sky, and BT Sport, among others. FACT’s activities in this respect have been fairly broad, from tackling IPTV providers and sellers, creators and distributors of Kodi add-ons, to bringing prosecutions against pub landlords who show live football without an appropriate license.

Recently, however, it appears that FACT has struck up a partnership with H&B Administration LLP, a company closely connected to controversial copyright-trolling activities in the UK.

Given FACT’s traditional modus operandi, of not targeting end-users but going after suppliers and facilitators, the pairing comes as a surprise, to say the least. We recently contacted FACT with a request for comment on the partnership but we received no response.

News of the partnership was made public in a filing to the UK’s Companies House, which reveals that FACT Worldwide Ltd became a member of H&B Administration LLP on September 11, 2019.

 

The addition of FACT means that the LLP now has four officers – the (in)famous Robert Croucher, FACT Worldwide Ltd, Hatton & Berkeley Management Ltd, and TCYK LLC – the company behind the Robert Redford movie, The Company You Keep.

H&B previously targeted UK Internet subscribers demanding cash settlements on behalf of TCYK while making various grand anti-piracy announcements that never lived up to their billing. On November 5, 2019, Companies House described H&B Administration LLP as a “dormant company”.

While FACT didn’t respond to our request for comment, Hatton and Berkeley founder Robert Croucher previously told us that the purpose of H&B Administration LLP is to provide an “insured and administrative wrapper” to mitigate risk when suing pirates.

“I can say that these type of proceedings [cases against alleged infringers] are to be wrapped with an insurance policy hereon providing a level of risk mitigation to rights holders seeking reparation for damages sought at trial,” Croucher said.

Quite why FACT has decided to get into bed with H&B remains open to question but if Croucher’s explanation still stands, limiting risk during litigation is a potential plus for the company.

FACT CEO Kieron Sharp is now listed on H&B’s website as part of the team there conducting “civil and criminal enforcement.” Given FACT’s client base of well-known companies such as the Premier League, Sky and BT Sport – all of which have plenty of funds available for their own litigation, even if a case or two went wrong – the news of the partnership with H&B is indeed curious.

That being said, FACT Worldwide’s latest set of accounts may indicate a need for financial caution.

To the year ended December 31, 2018, FACT Worldwide’s revenues were £1,343,310, resulting in a gross profit of £201,907. However, after administrative expenses were deducted, the company made an operating loss of £393,115.

The accounts also reveal that on May 1, 2019, the company underwent a financial restructuring. A company called Global Due Diligence Limited, which gave FACT Worldwide a loan of £1,428,500, repayable in 4.5 years’ time, also acquired 70% of FACT Worldwide’s share capital.

The big remaining question is whether the image of FACT as a strictly professional targeter of piracy facilitators will be blended or indeed confused with H&B’s less palatable penchant for targeting the man in the street, and whether public perceptions of the parties will be adjusted to suit.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Every year we publish around 800 articles here at TorrentFreak, all of them covering copyright, piracy, privacy and closely related issues.

Over the course of 2019, many have detailed the efforts of content companies and their anti-piracy partners who have filed lawsuits, copyright complaints, and DMCA-type takedown notices to have content removed from allegedly-infringing sites.

In many cases those legal efforts were warranted but there have been some obvious screw-ups too.

Time and again, anti-piracy companies have overstepped the mark, attempting to have legitimate content removed. And, yet again, TorrentFreak.com has also been targeted by companies, their bots, or even individuals who simply can’t tell the difference between pirated content and legitimate news and informational pieces.

In previous years we’ve received erroneous complaints from the likes of Amazon, Electronic Arts, Disney, Entertainment One, Vertigo Films, Magnolia Pictures, NBCUniversal, Paramount, and even BBC Worldwide. This year we can add more.

According to Google’s Transparency Report, in 2019 Google received a further 11 DMCA takedown notices targeting our domain, sent on behalf of Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, and sundry others. All of them were completely bogus.

In January, we were accused of infringing the rights of Dreamworks, among others, after simply mentioning that a DVD Screener copy of the movie Green Book was the 9th most popular movie downloaded using BitTorrent during the first week of 2019.

In March, a complaint sent on behalf of Columbia Pictures told Google that an archive page referencing Boss Baby downloads (dating back to 2016) was somehow infringing their rights.

In April we were the dubious recipient of two complaints, both from the Estonian Organization for Copyright Protection. The first claimed that we were offering the CBS movie Five Feet Apart, simply because we have a content tag on the site mentioning torrent site YTS.

The second claimed we’d somehow helped to distribute the Finnish movie The Eternal Road after publishing a list of the top 10 most popular torrent sites of 2016.

After a whole month of peace, Google received yet another bogus complaint about TF in June, this time from Japanese company ‘유니콘미디어” stating that we were offering the Illumination/Universal Pictures title The Secret Life of Pets for download. We were not.

In July we received two complaints, both on behalf of Sony Pictures. The first because we referenced the movie Inferno and the second because we did the same for the movie Breathe.

The complaint filed against us in August was even more absurd than the others. Fourteen years ago, back in 2005 when TorrentFreak was in its formative years, we published a list of public domain movies that are not only free but also legal to download and share.

However, according to a complaint filed by movie company Vertigo Releasing, that article included pirate links to the 2019 movie ‘The Gangster, the Cop, the Devil’. Why? We have no idea but there were a total of five public domain movies in that list that included either the word ‘cop’ or ‘devil’ in their titles.

A DMCA notice filed with Google in October set pulses racing. According to an adult content creator called ‘LittleSubGirl’, our 2018 article explaining how Netflix was dominating Internet traffic infringed her copyrights. It’s really not the kind of dominating we had in mind when the piece was written, honest.

In November a shockingly broad notice was sent to Google targeting not only us but Facebook, Beatport, TrustPilot, RottenTomatoes and a swathe of others. It claimed that we were offering John Wick 3 for download but was immediately flagged by Google as suspect.

“We believe that an impostor or someone else abusing the process submitted this request. We report it here for the sake of completeness and to provide a view into one kind of abuse of the DMCA process,” the company advised.

Finally, December brought yet another complaint from a company that can’t tell the difference between a news report detailing the most popular titles being shared on BitTorrent and a pirate site offering links to the same.

Grand total: 11 DMCA complaints filed in 2019, all of them completely bogus.

See you next year folks….

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Every year we write over 800 articles here at TorrentFreak, and some are more popular than others.

On the brink of the new year, we look back at 2019 by going over the 19 most read news items of the year.

All in all, it was quite a controversial year once again. There were some very prominent enforcement actions and shutdowns, with Xtream Codes, Openload, Gears Reloaded, CotoMovies, Vaders and many others being targeted.

In addition, there was a lot of interest in leaks as well, especially those of Avengers: Endgame and screeners of the TV-shows American Gods, The 100, Bless This Mess, and Knightfall.

But what will 2020 bring?

1. Xtream Codes IPTV System Targeted in Massive Police Operation

Police in Italy announced a huge anti-piracy operation against the company operating popular IPTV service management system Xtream Codes. Searches were conducted in several countries including Italy, the Netherlands, France and Bulgaria, in a claimed effort to dismantle the company’s entire infrastructure.

2. Avengers: Endgame Leaks Online in China, Begins to Spread

Just hours after Avengers: Endgame premiered in China, a cammed copy appeared online. Data reviewed by TorrentFreak revealed that the movie was initially shared by exclusively China-based torrent users, but it soon spread all over the world.

3. Gears Reloaded: FBI Just Took Everything, Says Pirate IPTV Boss OMI IN A HELLCAT

YouTube sensation and founder of ‘pirate’ IPTV Gears Reloaded ‘OMI IN A HELLCAT’ said he was raided by the FBI who “took everything”, including his huge car collection. According to him, the FBI are investigating a variety of issues including the IPTV service, tax filings, and money laundering.

4. Openload and Streamango Shut Down by Anti-Piracy Alliance ACE

Openload, one of the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet, agreed to shut down its service. Openload.co and several related domains, including Streamango, were taken over by global anti-piracy coalition ACE.

5. The Xtream Codes IPTV Takedown is Complex and Confused

The international law enforcement action against Xtream Codes and what appear to be several entities using its services, turned out to be a complex affair.

6. Which VPN Services Keep You Anonymous in 2019?

Our yearly overview of the logging policies and other privacy and security features of dozens of VPN providers.

7. Reddit KOs Piracy-Focused MMA Community, Ex-UFC Fighter Gets The Blame

Reddit banned its popular /r/mmastreams sub-Reddit. Following numerous copyright infringement complaints, the 165,000 member community must now find a new home. After a controversial Twitter outburst, some believed that an ex-UFC fighter should shoulder part of the blame.

8. Piracy App ‘CotoMovies’ Shuts Down, Apologizes, and Exposes Users

Popular movie piracy app CotoMovies shut down following legal pressure. The app’s developer issued an apology to filmmakers while urging former users to switch to legal services instead. CotoMovies further stated that it would transfer user data to the copyright holders.

9. Pirated Promo Screeners of ‘American Gods’ and Other TV-Shows Leak Online

Unreleased episodes of several high-profile TV-shows including American Gods, The 100, Bless This Mess, and Knightfall leaked online. The leaks came from promotional screeners, some of which carried revealing watermarks.

10. RARBG Adds .EXE Files to Torrents, But No Need to Panic

RARBG began adding what first appear to be .exe files to their torrents. Considering that these executables are often linked to malware, some people started to panic.

11. The Pirate Bay is Trialing High-Quality Video Streaming Links

In addition to traditional magnet links, many Pirate Bay titles started to feature a streaming button, which allows users to stream movies and TV shows directly in the browser on a new site called BayStream.

12. Disney+ Launched and Pirates Love It, Especially Mandalorian

When Disney’s exclusive streaming service launched millions of users signed up. However, others went to pirate sites instead. For some, this is the only way to watch the highly anticipated Mandalorian series.

13. Top Torrent Site 1337x Blocked By MalwareBytes For Alleged ‘Fraud’

1337x.to, one of the world’s most popular torrent sites, was blocked by anti-malware company MalwareBytes. The tool claimed that 1337x is engaged in “fraud” and that it tries to steal people’s information or credit card details.”

14. Torrent Paradise Creates Decentralized ‘Pirate Bay’ With IPFS

A developer going by the handle ‘Urban Guacamole’ launched Torrent-Paradise, a torrent index that is powered with IPFS. Short for InterPlanetary File System, IPFS is a decentralized network where users make files available among each other.

15. The Pirate Bay’s Stuck in Time, No New Uploads

The Pirate Bay’s upload functionality broke down for several days. This meant that users were unable to upload any new torrents to the site.

16. Vader: Large ‘Pirate’ IPTV Provider Shuts Down, Promises to Protect Customers

Vader, one of the leading providers of pirate IPTV services, shut down. The service insisted that no customer information would fall into the wrong hands. It was later revealed that the platform was targeted by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.

17. ‘Pirate’ Site Manga Rock Starts Shutdown, Will Go Legal

The massively popular manga comic scanlation platform Manga Rock announced its pending shutdown. The site’s operators say that they now realize how much damage piracy does. They are committed to relaunching as an authorized service, MR Comics, in the near future.

18. The Pirate Bay Moves to a Brand New Onion Domain

The Pirate Bay ditched its old and mostly unreadable Onion domain for something more recognizable and potentially more permanent. The switch was reported to TorrentFreak after Pirate Bay proxy sites noticed extended downtime on the old domain.

19. Bandersnatch is a Pirate Hit Without Interactivity, But They’re Missing Out

Netflix released Bandersnatch. The latest installment of the Black Mirror series was interactive, allowing viewers to make choices. One of the big questions is whether the format poses a big challenge for pirates to replicate.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.