Week in and week out copyright holders scour the Internet to detect and report millions of alleged infringements.

On YouTube most takedown notices are automated through the Content-ID system, a tool which allows rightsholders to upload their work and take down unauthorized copies.

Unfortunately this process is far from flawless which results in many false and inaccurate DMCA claims. We’ve highlighted this issue before, but today it’s literally hitting mainstream news.

Starting a few hours ago the online live feed of Sky News stopped working. Not because of a technical issue, but due to a copyright complaint from fellow news network Fox News, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch.

As a result, visitors to the Sky News Live stream page, which is hosted by YouTube, are now welcomed by the following message.

“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Fox News Network, LLC.”

Sky News Live

There is no further information available on the reason for the takedown, but it seems plausible that it’s the result of a Content-ID mismatch.

Fox News is adding its broadcasts to YouTube’s system and this most likely included the same footage Sky News showed. This would make sense, as many news organizations rely on the same independently licensed material.

At the time of writing the official Sky News Live feed on YouTube is still offline. There is an alternative live feed available through YouTube that still works.

Unless there’s a real copyright feud between Sky News and Fox News this latest example shows that YouTube’s Content-ID system is far from optimal. In this case, the error will probably be swiftly corrected, but for independent publishers it can take weeks for their content to be reinstated.

TF contacted Sky News and Fox News Network for a comment. At the time of publication we haven’t heard back yet.

Update: Fox also took down its own livestream briefly, which supports the theory that it’s the result of a Content-ID mismatch.

Update: After at least 8 hours Sky News has now changed the embed on their live stream page. The original video is still down.

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

In many countries including the UK, Italy, Denmark and France, the leading torrent sites are no longer freely accessible.

These court-ordered blockades requested by the music and movie industries are becoming widespread, but so are the tools to circumvent them.

For every domain name blocked, many proxies and mirrors emerge. These sites allow people to access the blocked sites and effectively bypass the restrictions put in place by the court.

Initially, the proxy sites were launched to help users gain access to their favorite torrent sites. However, more recently the demand for circumvention tools is being abused by people who are out to make hard cash.

Instead of offering a simple workaround, many proxies add their own scripts. In some cases these scripts are harmless, but according to security researcher Gabor Szathmari the majority serve questionable content.

Szathmari examined a sample of 6,158 proxy sites and found that over 99% added their own code. Only 21 sites in the sample did not modify the original site.

“99.7% of the tested torrent mirrors are injecting additional JavaScript into the web browsing traffic. A great share of these scripts serve content with malicious intent such as malware and click-fraud,” he notes.

The researcher informs TF that many of the researched proxies are suspicious because they use code that is either obfuscated or has a lot of random redirects. These scripts pretty much all use the proxyads.net domain name.

Taking a closer look at the proxies reveals that several of the ads link to malware. In addition, one of the scripts generated fake views of car racing videos in the background.

The original torrent sites, including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents and ExtraTorrent, are aware of the problem and are trying to minimize the damage by blocking suspicious proxies and mirrors.

“It’s a serious issue. We have been fighting against it for a long time,” the ExtraTorrent team informs TF.

“Most unauthorized proxy websites loaded ExtraTorrent in a frame and added malware JavaScript code or replaced ET’s banners with others,” they add.

ExtraTorrent has been able to block several proxies, but they can’t do anything against those that use a cached version of the site. To guide users in the right direction they therefore publish a list of official mirrors on their site.

Copyright holders often warn that pirate sites may serve malware, but this research suggests that they are only making the problem worse by censoring the original sites.

“I am an advocate for unfiltered Internet, and this example shows that censorship can violate the security of end-users,” Szathmari tells TF.

Of course, some of the original sites may also run dubious ads, but the malicious proxies appear to be much worse and should be avoided.

“I would advise downloaders to always use the original sites or the official proxy sites whenever possible,” the researcher says.

“If the original sites are blocked by the ISP, I would recommend to bypass the filtering with a reputable VPN service that does not modify traffic, or a reputable mirror that does not alter the website in any way.”

Szathmari published the full findings and his research methodology in a recent blog post.

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

Just like the citizens of most developed nations, the Chinese public has developed a healthy appetite for movies, music and TV shows. However, much to the disappointment of countries such as the United States, many have become accustomed to obtaining that content for free.

Faced with a massive piracy problem that will take years to erode, Chinese companies have been looking towards improving legitimate services in an effort to tempt more than 650 million Internet users away from the dark side.

Leading international record labels including Sony and Warner have forged local licensing deals but revenues remain low, in part due to cheap licensed services (one offered by Internet giant Tencent costs just $1.60 per month) and in part due to online piracy.

Now, after years of relative inaction, the Chinese government seems willing to do more for the music industry. Early July an announcement from the National Copyright Administration of the People’s Republic of China (NCAC) made it clear that unlicensed music would no longer be tolerated.

As part of the “Sword Net 2015″ anti-piracy campaign designed to strengthen copyright enforcement supervision, promote the establishment of “good order” and develop the online music ecosystem, NCAC said that it was drawing a line in the sand.

Starting last Saturday, all online music providers were ordered to cease distribution of unlicensed music and permanently remove such content from their systems. Or, if they prefer, face criminal consequences.

“After 31 July 2015, online music service providers who continue to disseminate unauthorized pieces of music online will be investigated by the State Copyright Bureau and dealt with severely according to the law,” the NCAC announced.

With just days having passed since its deadline, the government department says the response to the directive has been encouraging. Already local music sites are reported to have deleted in excess of 2.2 million unlicensed tracks, with action taken by Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and others.

Furthermore, the NCAC says that site operators are also increasing their efforts to generally comply with copyright law and cooperate with the wishes of the government.

“In carrying out self-examination and rectification of their online music services, providers continue to strengthen their self-discipline and increase their copyright cooperation efforts,” NCAC adds.

In addition to the threats, the copyright agency says it will continue to support service providers to explore ways to obtain official licensing, offer pay services, and “disseminate musical works in an orderly fashion.”

Only time will tell if the actions of the Chinese government will live up to its words though, but the labels appear to be optimistic.

“International record companies have gained a firm foothold in China and are looking to step up their ownership and investment in local music,” IFPI reports.

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

Late last year the UK Government legalized copying for private use, a practice which many citizens already believed to be legal.

The UK Intellectual Property Office noted that the changes were “in the best interest” of consumers and that they would bring copyright law into the 21st century.

However, the new regulation was short-lived. Fearing a loss of income several music groups objected at the High Court, which subsequently agreed that the new legislation is unlawful.

As a result the changes were overturned last month and the previous limitations were reinstated. To find out what the public can and can’t do under the law, TF reached out to the UK Intellectual Property Office, which provided some very clear answers.

“It is now unlawful to make private copies of copyright works you own, without permission from the copyright holder – this includes format shifting from one medium to another,” a spokesperson informed us.

The IPO specifically notes that copying a CD to an MP3 player is not permitted. This means that iTunes’ popular ripping feature, which Apple actively promotes during the software’s installation, is illegal.

Also, under the current law iTunes is actively facilitating copyright infringement by promoting their CD-ripping functionality. This means that the company could face significant claims for damages.

Apple’s iTunes installer offers ripping advice

There is more though, as the law affects much more than just ripping CDs. Simply copying a song in an automated computer backup or storing a copy on a private cloud hosting service is also against the law.

“…it includes creating back-ups without permission from the copyright holder as this necessarily involves an act of copying,” we were informed by the Government spokesperson.

Strictly speaking this means that UK citizens are not allowed to make a backup of their computer. After all, pretty much every computer contains copyrighted media. Needless to say, this turns almost the entire country into ‘outlaws’.

The Government is not happy with the High Court decision but it hasn’t decided whether it will propose revised private copying exceptions in the future. Copyright holders previously suggested allowing private copying in exchange for a tax on blank CDs and hard drives.

“As this is a complex area of law, the Government is carefully considering the implications of the ruling and the available options, before deciding any future course of action.”

As reassurance, the Government notes that that people shouldn’t be too concerned because copyright holders are not known to come after people who make a backup of their computers.

“The Government is not aware of any cases of copyright holders having prosecuted individuals for format shifting music solely for their own personal use,” the IPO spokesperson says.

However, copyright holders can take people to court over both CD-ripping and computer backups, if they want to.

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

Russia’s recent efforts to combat online infringement date back to 2013 with the introduction of a new anti-piracy law. Initially protecting only movies, the law compels local ISPs to blocking infringing sites if they fail to respond to takedown complaints.

In 2014 the law received further amendment when it was expanded to cover other digital media, with the notable exception of images. Fresh noises from Russia now suggest that its copyright laws could be expanded again, this time in an effort to protect written text.

According to comments made to local news agency TASS this week, politicians are preparing to tackle infringement in some elements of the media.

“Indeed, there is a conversation with the journalistic community on the topic of additional changes in legislation, including for copy-paste [infringement],” said Leonid Levin, deputy head of the Duma Committee on information politics.

“We will analyze this situation and we are certainly going to look at the possibility of changes, including for the protection of media publications.”

At this stage it seems likely that Levin is referring to the wholesale online ‘piracy’ of complete articles and publications but no further details have yet been made public. But whatever the intent, plenty of space will be required to report news, generate analysis, express opinion and offer criticism.

More details should become available later in the year.

“I think that in the fall session we will analyze the legislation in this matter,” Levin concludes.

Last month YouTube was just days away from having sections of its site blocked in Russia after failing to remove copyrighted content in a timely manner. That dispute appears to have ended peacefully.

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