# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168487
title: Dutch Filmworks Continues Quest to Identify Alleged Pirates
uri: Dutch-Filmworks-Continues-Quest-to-Identify-Alleged-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/k-gw2X5tD6E/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-143720" src="media/4e7b92bb.hitmansbo-e1549650274271.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hitmansbo-e1549650274271.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="222">Piracy settlement letters have become a serious threat in several countries.</p>
<p>Until now, Dutch Internet users have been spared&nbsp;from this&nbsp;practice, but if it&#8217;s up&nbsp;to local&nbsp;movie&nbsp;distributor Dutch&nbsp;Filmworks, that will soon change.</p>
<p>Little over a year ago the company received <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-film-distributor-wins-right-to-chase-pirates-store-data-for-5-years-171208/">permission</a> from the&nbsp;Dutch Data Protection Authority&nbsp;to&nbsp;track the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who&nbsp;shared pirated movies.</p>
<p>However, that was only the first hurdle, as Dutch Internet provider Ziggo didn&#8217;t want to share any customer data without a court order.</p>
<p>The case went to court, where the movie company requested personal&nbsp;details of 377 account&nbsp;holders whose addresses were used to share a copy of &#8220;The Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard&#8221;.</p>
<p>This turned out to be a disappointment for Dutch Filmworks (<a href="https://www.dfw.nl/">DWF</a>). The court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-isp-does-not-have-to-expose-alleged-pirates-court-rules-190208/">rejected</a> the request, ruling that&nbsp;it’s&nbsp;unclear how the movie company plans to approach the account holders, and whether it sees these people as the offending downloaders.</p>
<p>In addition, it is unclear whether the proposed settlements, which are expected to be around €150 per infringement, do indeed match up with the actual damages the movie company suffered. That number may be a ‘fine’ to some extent, which shouldn’t be part of a settlement.</p>
<p>DWF was disappointed with the outcome but it&#8217;s not letting the case go. A few days ago, the company announced that it will appeal. According to the movie distributor, it should be entitled to find out who the &#8216;infringing&#8217; subscribers are.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the verdict, the judge agreed with DWF on almost all points. In the end, after weighing all interests, the judge rejected the claim of DFW nonetheless,&#8221; the company <a href="https://www.dfw.nl/single-post/2019/02/15/DFW-zet-strijd-tegen-illegaal-downloaden-voort">writes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;DFW is of the opinion that this decision should have been in favor of the rightsholder and it is convinced that the claim should be awarded on appeal.&#8221;</p>
<p>Since the initial request was denied because several issues were unclear, a win on appeal is certainly possible. DWF notes that while the court ruled that subscribers are not by definition liable for everything that happens on their connection, they do have a certain responsibility.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moreover, in its&nbsp;verdict, the court indicated that the fact that the IP address holder is not necessarily the infringer&nbsp;does not relieve the subscriber of the same IP address from his or her responsibility for what happens from that IP address,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>As such, there may be a reason to hand over personal information of subscribers to the movie distributor. For example, to contact the account holder in an attempt to track down the actual infringer.</p>
<p>Overall, Dutch Filmworks is confident that the appeal will turn out in its favor. Ziggo hasn&#8217;t&nbsp;commented in detail on DWF&#8217;s decision. &#8220;We wait and see,&#8221; a spokesperson <a href="https://www.nu.nl/internet/5745324/dutch-filmworks-in-beroep-in-rechtszaak-over-downloadboetes.html">told</a> the local&nbsp;news site Nu.nl.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168494
title: EU Commission Deletes Article 13 Post Because ‘Mob’ Understood it Incorrectly
uri: EU-Commission-Deletes-Article-13-Post-Because-Mob-Understood-it
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kxdK8sdG13E/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/6542fb40.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-136985"/></figure></div>



<p>Last week the European Parliament and European Council&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-reaches-deal-on-article-13-and-other-copyright-reform-plans-190213/">agreed on the final text</a>&nbsp;of the EU Copyright Directive. </p>



<p>Supporters of Article 13 say this will lead to a better deal for the entertainment industries at the expense of Google&#8217;s YouTube, since it will have to obtain proper licenses for content uploaded to platform, while taking responsibility for infringing uploads.</p>



<p>Opponents, on the other hand, believe that the Article 13 proposals will be bad news for the Internet as a whole, since they have the potential to stifle free speech and expression, at the very least.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s important to note that Article 13 opponents come in all shapes and sizes, some more militant than others. However, last Friday the EU Commission took the &#8216;one size fits all approach&#8217; by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">labeling every dissenting voice</a> as being part of a &#8220;mob&#8221;, one groomed, misinformed and misled by Google.</p>



<p>Given that the Commission&#8217;s own Code of Conduct mandates that &#8220;both Commissioners and Commission staff are bound to act objectively and impartially&#8221;, the publication of the piece was a real surprise. That it also appeared to demean and devalue the public protests of millions of its own citizens bordered on the outrageous.</p>



<p>Proponents and opponents of any pending legislation should be free to undermine the position of their opponents by any legal, non-violent means, but this intervention by the EU seemed flat-out wrong. Taking sides&nbsp;in this way &#8211; <em>even if the piece had been against Article 13</em> &#8211; is inappropriate at this stage of the game.</p>



<p>Before we published our report on Friday, a short discussion here at TF concluded that a record of the piece should be taken. None of us here believed it would stay up for long and it transpires that gut instinct was right. Visitors to the Medium page where the piece was published now see the following text;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/c5e79aa1.image-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168496" width="600"/><figcaption>The people just don&#8217;t understand&#8230;.</figcaption></figure>



<p>The piece appears to have been removed (archive copy <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190216094123/https://medium.com/@EuropeanCommission/the-copyright-directive-how-the-mob-was-told-to-save-the-dragon-and-slay-the-knight-b35876008f16">here</a>) following a torrent of complaints on social media, with supporters of Article 13 incensed that they were essentially being told they hadn&#8217;t made up their own minds about the proposed legislation, but had become mindless zombies hypnotized by an insidious Google campaign.</p>



<p>Whether there is any truth to claims that Google is behind some kind of &#8216;bot&#8217; campaign will be for future dissection but organizations like the EU Commission shouldn&#8217;t go around implying that voters are stupid. They&#8217;re allowed to think it (don&#8217;t we all to a degree?), but saying it is incredible. </p>



<p>Quite why this line was crossed is anyone&#8217;s guess but someone reasonably important sanctioned this piece and it would be nice to know who &#8211; and why.</p>



<p>What is even more bewildering is that the Commission is not sorry for what was written. The article was removed not because it was incorrect, but because the public apparently doesn&#8217;t have the capacity to understand it. Evidently, a simple update and clarification wouldn&#8217;t have been understood either, hence the deletion of the entire piece.</p>



<p>Mentioning SOPA in the same breath as Article 13 always raises hackles among entertainment industry groups because there are plenty of legitimate reasons why they want it to be forgotten. Now, seven years on, they might finally get their wish because what is happening now is arguably much more ugly. This could be the new benchmark, the new low.</p>



<p>Let&#8217;s be absolutely clear and honest here. In common with every political campaign in history, there has been misinformation on both sides of the Article 13 debate. In the middle, however, are genuine people who either want to protect their creative revenues or keep their Internet free and open<g class="gr_ gr_78 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="78" data-gr-id="78">.</g></p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_78 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="78" data-gr-id="78">The</g> bias presented in the piece by the EU Commission undermined the credibility of all of them. It doesn&#8217;t need to be explained, it speaks for itself. </p>



<p>If the music industries and the EU want to take on the dominance of Google, then they should do so. If Google is found to have done wrong in this campaign, then it should face whatever is coming. That said, why do hundreds of millions of citizens have to be caught in the crossfire?</p>



<p>George Carlin said we should never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. Or was that the EU Commission, I forget now.</p>



<p>What <g class="gr_ gr_12 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling multiReplace" id="12" data-gr-id="12">i&#8217;m</g> absolutely certain of is that it was David Brent, the world&#8217;s greatest living philosopher, who <a href="https://twitter.com/davidbrentmovie/status/531886458437910529?lang=en">said</a> that when we treat people greatly, they will show themselves to be great. I guess it&#8217;s a bit late for that now.</p>



<p> </p>



<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168196
title: Cloudflare Suspends Streaming Sites and File Hosters, But Not Over Piracy
uri: Cloudflare-Suspends-Streaming-Sites-and-File-Hosters-But-Not-Over-Pir
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LXwG26ZENUg/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767" src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135"></p>
<p>As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/">Cloudflare</a> is used by millions of websites across the globe.</p>
<p>As with any service of its size, it doesn&#8217;t come as a surprise that the company&#8217;s clientele includes many pirate sites. This includes the likes of The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>In recent years many copyright holders have complained about Cloudflare’s involvement with these platforms. However, the company maintains its position as a neutral Internet intermediary.</p>
<p>Copyright holders can request Cloudflare to share which hosting company serves the underlying content, but the CDN provider doesn&#8217;t assume the role of copyright police. That is, it doesn&#8217;t terminate accounts for copyright infringement unless there&#8217;s a court order.</p>
<p>Considering this well-known stance, it came&nbsp;as a surprise when the owner of the video hosting service <a href="https://www.rapidvideo.com/">RapidVideo</a> informed us late last year that Cloudflare suspended the site&#8217;s account.</p>
<p>While RapidVideo&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rapidvideo-responds-to-mpaas-piracy-claims-were-totally-legal-181019/">doesn&#8217;t see itself</a> as a &#8216;pirate&#8217; site, many copyright holders beg to differ. In fact, the website was reported as a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-reports-notorious-piracy-threats-to-the-us-government-181003/">notorious&nbsp;market</a> to the US Government just a few months ago.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Cloudflare&#8217;s didn&#8217;t suspend the site for copyright infringement though. Instead, support informed the owner that they took this action due to a breach of <a href="https://www.cloudflare.com/terms/">the terms</a>. More specifically, because it exceeded the &#8220;limitation on Non-HTML Caching.&#8221;</p>
<p>As it turns out, Cloudflare can suspend the accounts of customers who use the service to cache a disproportionate&nbsp;amount of non-HTML&nbsp;files, including images, movies, or audio files. RapidVideo&nbsp;didn&#8217;t use Cloudflare to cache images, but it did cache video thumbnails through it.</p>
<p>Apparently, that was enough to trigger a suspension, the CDN&#8217;s support team informed the site owner.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not a hosting provider nor do we allow our services to store files, or be linked to file storage sites. Using Cloudflare’s services primarily as an online storage space, including the storage or caching of a disproportionate percentage of images, movies, audio files or other non-HTML content is prohibited.&#8221;</p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/da81e0f5.cloudflaredearuser.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflaredearuser.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168221"/><figcaption>Dear user</figcaption></figure>


<p>After RapidVideo contacted us we learned that several other video&nbsp;hosting sites had suffered the same fate. Some of these were linked to major streaming sites and generated large amounts of traffic since they were caching video files.</p>
<p>RapidVideo&#8217;s operator told TorrentFreak that he believes that the number of DMCA complaints may have influenced this decision. The &#8220;non-HTML&#8221; rule may be a convenient option to throw out sites that could cause trouble, especially since Cloudflare has been taken to court over alleged copyright infringement a few times already.</p>
<p>Since many of the suspended sites are indeed branded as pirate services, we asked Cloudflare whether reported copyright infringements played a role in the suspension decisions. However, the company informed us that this was not the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cloudflare takes steps periodically to address the disproportionate caching of certain resources relative to the other traffic for a domain in a content-neutral way,&#8221; Cloudflare&#8217;s General Counsel Doug Kramer says.</p>
<p>&#8220;This includes situations, covered in our Terms of Service, such as the streaming video/audio across our platform, as well as &#8216;file lockers&#8217; sites which are not permitted,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>The response states that Cloudflare&#8217;s suspension decisions are content-neutral and not piracy related. According to Kramer,&nbsp;disproportionate caching activity could potentially&nbsp;lead&nbsp;to a negative impact on other Cloudflare users.&nbsp;</p>
<p>But what about the statement that Cloudflare can&#8217;t be used to store files, or be linked to file storage sites? That suggests that file-hosting sites are simply outlawed. However, that&#8217;s not covered in the Terms of Service.</p>
<p>So it appears that these sites are &#8216;fine&#8217; as long as they don&#8217;t cache a disproportionate amount of non-HTML content. This is likely what Mediafire does. As one of the largest file storage platforms on the Internet, Mediafire can still use Cloudflare without problems.</p>
<p>RapidVideo&nbsp;didn&#8217;t attempt to make amends. The site, which previously routed several terabytes of data through Cloudflare, moved on to Cloudflare competitor <a href="https://www.cloudns.net/">CloudDNS</a> and continues to operate from there.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168484
title: 93 Students At One University Suspended From Web for Pirate Downloads
uri: 93-Students-At-One-University-Suspended-From-Web-for-Pirate-Downloads
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CfReslx-e78/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/1b97a33a.deniedblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/deniedblocked.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-143825" width="236" height="174"/></figure></div>



<p>Downloading and sharing copyrighted content without permission is illegal everywhere in the EU.</p>



<p>It doesn&#8217;t matter whether users obtain infringing content via BitTorrent sites, web streaming services, or their favorite Kodi addon, doing so is potentially actionable under existing law.</p>



<p>A minority of users discover this the hard way (particularly in countries like Germany and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolling-in-sweden-grows-massively-putting-us-efforts-in-the-shade-190127/">Sweden</a>) when they receive a demand for cash from copyright trolls who track their activities when using BitTorrent.</p>



<p>In reality, however, most small-time pirates are able to carry on with their activities relatively unhindered, since the mainstream movie and music companies rarely chase down individuals for settlement or prosecution.</p>



<p>But that doesn&#8217;t mean they&#8217;re not watching and that some people can suffer serious consequences.</p>



<p>Back in 2017, a UK student made international <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/girl-busted-for-pirating-chicken-run-provides-food-for-thought-170521/">headlines</a> after she downloaded and shared the movie Chicken Run using BitTorrent. What was unusual about this case is that she did so <g class="gr_ gr_209 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="209" data-gr-id="209">using</g> her university&#8217;s WiFi, which was monitored by an anti-piracy company working for the <g class="gr_ gr_231 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="231" data-gr-id="231">film&#8217;s</g> owners.</p>



<p>What followed was a 20-day ban from <a href="https://www.eduroam.org/">Eduroam</a> (education&nbsp;roaming), a worldwide roaming access service developed for the international research and education community<g class="gr_ gr_111 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="111" data-gr-id="111">.</g></p>



<p>Eduroam allows students and staff to access the Internet across campus and other participating sites, unless they&#8217;re currently under a suspension for piracy, of course. And, it transpires, that is more common than one might think.</p>



<p>According to <a href="https://thetab.com/uk/sheffield/2019/02/15/sheffield-student-banned-from-eduroam-after-illegally-downloading-kung-fu-panda-2-38639">The Tab Network</a>, which describes itself as a &#8220;guerilla army of bold and subversive student reporters across the country&#8221;, a staggering 93 students at the University of Sheffield in the UK were banned from the Eduraom network between 2017 and 2018 following copyright complaints.</p>



<p>The surprising statistic was obtained following a Freedom of Information request. The details suggest that those downloading movies and TV shows are most at risk of being tracked by anti-piracy companies. While dozens of titles are listed, the most complained about content is listed as follows:</p>



<ul><li>Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (6)</li><li>Rick and Morty (5)</li><li>Ghost in the Shell (4)</li><li>IT (4)</li><li>South Park (4)</li><li>The Accountant (3)</li></ul>



<p>While most of the titles in the full list appear new or relatively so, it&#8217;s clear that entertainment industry groups are monitoring films from decades ago.</p>



<p>The Naked Gun 2 (1991) is one such example but complaints were also received for The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), despite both movies moving dangerously close to half a century old.</p>



<p>As the full list indicates, TV shows were also complained about regularly, with Rick and Morty and South Park unsurprisingly proving popular with students. Various episodes of MTV&#8217;s reality show <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie_Shore">Geordie Shore</a> featured in a number of complaints too, as did Impractical Jokers.</p>



<p>That downloading and sharing highbrow material such as Geordie Shaw has resulted in an Internet ban for many Sheffield University students must come as a disappointment to those involved, but they can&#8217;t claim they weren&#8217;t warned.</p>



<p>While the University does allow the use of peer-to-peer software such as BitTorrent, it does not permit the sharing of copyrighted content and appears to have a robust process in place to deal with allegations.</p>



<p>&#8220;University computing facilities (including any University provided connection to the Internet) must not be used to copy or distribute copyright material without authorization of the copyright owner. This includes movies, music, software and electronic books,&#8221; the facility&#8217;s <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/cics/copyright/index">copyright policy</a> states.</p>



<p>&#8220;The use of University facilities in breach of copyright law is a serious matter, which can damage the good name of the University and is against University Regulations and English Law.</p>



<p>&#8220;Material that is proven to infringe the law or is in breach of University policy will be removed.&nbsp;Users found to be in breach of this policy may have their accounts temporarily or permanently suspended and/or face disciplinary action,&#8221; it adds.</p>



<p>While the anti-piracy companies monitoring these movies and TV shows are happy to catch any infringer in their dragnets, there can be little doubt that they absolutely know that in these cases they are targeting students.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s up for debate whether having an education disrupted is an appropriate and proportionate response to small-time infringements but given that this type of peer-to-peer piracy has been chased down for almost two decades, students really can&#8217;t complain that they don&#8217;t know the risks.</p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168167
title: Hollywood Uses ‘False Whois’ Domain Suspensions as Anti-Piracy Tool
uri: Hollywood-Uses-False-Whois-Domain-Suspensions-as-Anti-Piracy-Too
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_OI6ybrB-FQ/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510" src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152">Besides website blocking, which is gradually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nearly-4000-pirate-sites-are-blocked-by-isps-around-the-world-190210/">spreading</a> all over the world, targeting the domain names of pirate sites is considered to be a somewhat effective anti-piracy tool.</p>
<p>For years, copyright holders and local enforcement authorities have reached out to domain&nbsp;registries and registrars, asking these companies to terminate sites for alleged copyright infringements.</p>
<p>In addition, Hollywood&#8217;s MPAA also struck <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-signs-anti-piracy-deal-with-large-domain-registry-160413/">voluntary deals</a> with companies in the domain name industry, to suspend the domain names of infringing sites. While these agreements are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/private-anti-piracy-deals-with-domain-registries-are-worrisome-professor-warns-170302/">criticized&nbsp;by some outsiders</a>, the participating parties appear to be happy with it.</p>
<p>Recently we learned of a relatively new voluntary agreement that also targets pirate domains, but not for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The International Intellectual Property&nbsp;Alliance&#8217;s (IIPA) latest submission to the US Government explains that Hollywood&#8217;s MPA has a voluntary agreement with the National Internet Exchange of India (<a href="http://www.nixi.in/">NIXI</a>) and India&#8217;s Department of Industrial Policy &amp; Promotion (DIPP).</p>
<p>Under this agreement, which has been in place for a while, copyright holders can report &#8220;pirate&#8221; sites with an .IN domain. Not for copyright infringement, but because they used false Whois data to register the domain in question.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle2">&#8220;In 2017, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) agreed to a voluntary arrangement with DIPP and NIXI to suspend infringing websites based on false&nbsp;</span><span class="fontstyle3">whois </span><span class="fontstyle2">information; it focused on domains in breach of statutory and contractual obligations to maintain accurate and complete&nbsp;</span><span class="fontstyle3">whois </span><span class="fontstyle2">information,&#8221; IIPA writes.</span></p>
<p>As far as we know this deal hasn&#8217;t been made public until now. However, it is seen by copyright holders as an effective anti-piracy tool in addition to site blocking.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle2">&#8220;This [agreement] has led to disruption of dozens of websites in India and should be considered an additional enforcement tool to traditional enforcement or site blocking,&#8221; IIPA notes.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">The &#8216;false Whois&#8217; suspensions are not the only domain name actions taken in India. The relatively new Maharashtra Cyber Digital Crime Unit (MCDCU)</span>&nbsp;is also taking action against pirate sites, which resulted in suspensions of more than 200 domains.</p>
<p>The Digital Crime Unit has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/registrars-suspend-11-pirate-site-domains-89-more-in-the-crosshairs-180423/">taken a page</a> from the City of London Police, reporting sites that are suspected of crimes to various domain registrars.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle2">&#8220;In addition, since 2017, the MCDCU has suspended 203 domains impacting approximately 160 million users accessing these sites per month. </span><span class="fontstyle2">In conjunction with fighting to suspend these domains, convicting those involved in content theft is also under the MCDCU’s jurisdiction.&#8221;</span></p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear how many domain registrars rejected the suspension requests from the&nbsp;Digital Crime Unit. A few years ago we revealed that most domain name registrars <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/domain-registrars-deny-police-requests-suspend-pirate-sites-140808/">refused to suspend</a> domains based on a mere accusation&nbsp;from the City of London Police.</p>
<p>In addition to domain suspension, the Indian unit was also involved in other enforcement actions. This includes including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-pirates-arrested-for-leaking-episode-early-170814/">the arrests</a> of four people in connection to a leaked episode of Game of Thrones last year, which was covered by news media all around the world.</p>
<p>IIPA notes that there is still plenty of improvement possible when it comes to copyright enforcement and anti-piracy actions in India. It is happy with the help from <span class="fontstyle0">MCDCU and NIXI though and encourages these outfits to continue their &#8220;excellent work&#8221; suspending domain names.</span></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168563
title: China to Crack Down on ‘CAM’ Piracy & Online Distribution Platforms
uri: China-to-Crack-Down-on-CAM-Piracy-Online-Distribution-Platform
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yixsFkJkjSo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/3f34000a.cammer1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cammer1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-65828"/></figure></div>



<p>China has long been associated with rampant counterfeiting and copyright infringement, with the country facing criticism in the West on an almost daily basis.</p>



<p>Over the past couple of years, however, Chinese authorities have become increasingly vocal when these activities are perceived to have a negative effect locally. In particular, the government appears to have a new interest in curtailing movie piracy.</p>



<p>Last year, MPAA chairman Charles Rivkin declared that China will become the world&#8217;s top movie market &#8220;in short order&#8221;, overtaking the likes of the United States and Canada, despite the country (<a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2169837/china-quietly-opens-door-more-foreign-films">at least officially</a>) capping foreign films to around three dozen per year.</p>



<p>At this scale, China clearly sees importance in protecting revenues in its local market and to this end has just announced fresh moves to curtail piracy in the region, declaring it a &#8220;priority&#8221; for 2019.</p>



<p>The National Copyright Administration (<a href="http://en.ncac.gov.cn/">NCAC</a>) says that it will pour resources into reducing the unauthorized recording of movies in theaters, an act known colloquially as &#8220;camming&#8221;. Given that the majority of the movies released in the region are local productions, it seems unlikely that the West will benefit greatly, but the action will be welcomed nonetheless.</p>



<p>The NCAC adds that with the assistance of the China Film Administration, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, it will &#8220;dig deep&#8221; into the sources of piracy and &#8220;sternly investigate&#8221; online platforms that help to distribute pirated content, such as websites, chat platforms, and smartphone apps.</p>



<p>In serious cases, the NCAC <a href="http://www.ncac.gov.cn/chinacopyright/contents/518/394005.html">says</a> platforms will be dealt with under a criminal process but at the same time, major Internet platforms will also be encouraged to strengthen their &#8220;corporate responsibility&#8221; when dealing with infringement complaints.</p>



<p>The NCAC suggests that sites outside the country are mainly responsible for hosting pirated movies (with links shared locally) so it intends to improve cooperation with other interested parties internationally. This is of particular interest given a piece published on the NCAC site on Monday.</p>



<p>While written by an outside source, the article on the copyright agency site appears to praise the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the global anti-piracy organization headed up by the MPAA.</p>



<p>&#8220;[T]he Motion Picture Association of America and its member companies have joined forces with&nbsp;30 companies around the world, such as Netflix and Amazon, to form a global organization,&#8221; the <a href="http://www.ncac.gov.cn/chinacopyright/contents/555/393995.html">piece</a> reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;Through the cooperation between global companies, we will make full use of the technology and experience of all parties to enhance the level of combating online piracy.&#8221;</p>



<p>Again, the article wasn&#8217;t written by the NCAC, but the fact that it chose to publish the piece in full tends to suggest that the agency agrees with the strategy. There are certainly strong indications that the way forward is through collaboration on a global scale, but that&#8217;s not to say there isn&#8217;t work to be done at home.</p>



<p>Last week, the NCAC <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-aks-the-public-to-help-crack-down-on-movie-piracy-190212/">asked the public</a> to report discovered instances of piracy&nbsp;through direct messages on Weibo, WeChat, and email.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Please provide infringement clues and clean up the online copyright environment. Let’s work together,” the agency wrote.</p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168560
title: Omniverse Hopes to Swiftly Resolve ACE’s Streaming Piracy Lawsuit
uri: Omniverse-Hopes-to-Swiftly-Resolve-ACE-s-Streaming-Piracy-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/26QdWGEtsPs/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168567" src="media/8636f80c.omniverse1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/omniverse1.jpg" alt="" width="284" height="162"></p>
<p>Last week, several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix filed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-sues-cord-cutting-service-omniverse-for-copyright-infringement/">a&nbsp;lawsuit</a> against&nbsp;Omniverse One World Television.</p>
<p>Under the flag of anti-piracy group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a>, the companies accused Omniverse and its owner Jason DeMeo of supplying of pirate streaming channels to various IPTV services.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.omniversetv.com/">Omniverse</a>&nbsp;doesn’t offer any streaming boxes but sells live-streaming services to third-party distributors, such as Dragon&nbsp;Box, HDHomerun, Flixon TV, and SkyStream TV, which in turn offer live TV streaming packages to customers.</p>
<p>According to ACE, Omniverse offered these channels without permission from its members. As such, the company is now branded as a pirate streaming TV supplier.</p>
<p>Omniverse initially didn&#8217;t respond but in a statement sent to TorrentFreak a few hours ago, the company states that,&nbsp;even though it doesn&#8217;t agree with the allegations, it supports ACE&#8217;s anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;While Omniverse disagrees with the substance and the specifics of the allegations made against the company in a recent California court filing, we are highly supportive of the mission that the plaintiffs and their partners in the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are carrying out,&#8221; the company says.</p>
<p>With a lawsuit from some of the most powerful entertainment industry companies hanging over its head, Omniverse says that it intends to&nbsp;quickly and constructively resolve the concerns of the ACE members.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is our belief that when this process is complete, that both sides will be satisfied with the outcome,&#8221; the company notes.</p>
<p>In its statement, Omniverse further suggests that there may be some misunderstanding, stating that the company is also a victim of &#8220;unlicensed&#8221; distribution.</p>
<p>&#8220;Omniverse believes there is no place in the industry for media pirates and, consistent with the plaintiffs, believes their legitimate business has been harmed by the unlicensed distribution of media content,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p>Although Omniverse is the legal target, many other companies are directly affected by the lawsuit. This includes&nbsp;Silicondust, which operates the <a href="https://www.silicondust.com/premium-tv/">HDHomeRun</a> Premium service.</p>
<p>Theodore Head, President of SiliconDust, <a href="https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/hdhomerun-premium-tv-is-looking-for-ways-to-mitigate-any-potential-interruptions-to-their-services-after-the-omniverse-lawsuit/">told</a> Cord Cutters News that it&#8217;s aware of this risk and that it is trying to find a way to cope with the potential fallout for its customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;SiliconDust is not a party of the lawsuit, but we can be indirectly&nbsp;affected by Omniverse not able to continue their service and so we are in the process of finding out a way to best mitigate any potential interruptions to our service and will let our customers know as soon as we know if there will be any change to the current services,” Head said.</p>
<p>Omniverse itself will also try to address the matter and prevent any major disruptions, but it&#8217;s unknown whether it can continue with the same channels.</p>
<p>According to ACE, several channels were offered without permission from rightsholders, so that&#8217;s one of the key issues to be resolved. The finer details of the allegations and Omniverse&#8217;s response will likely become apparent as the case progresses.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168595
title: Academics Issue ‘Emergency’ Statement Over Japan’s Proposed Download Law
uri: Academics-Issue-Emergency-Statement-Over-Japan-s-Proposed-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PKNP-0m6N50/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/c8299d44.japan.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png" alt="" class="wp-image-57939"/></figure></div>



<p>Since 2012, downloading music and movies that have been illegally placed online has been prohibited in Japan under the country’s Copyright Act<g class="gr_ gr_43 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="43" data-gr-id="43">.</g></p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_43 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="43" data-gr-id="43">However</g>, the legislation only applies to movies and music, leaving many other copyrighted works exposed.</p>



<p>To close this apparent loophole and to protect other content such as still images (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga">manga</a> publications, for example), last year the Cultural Affairs Agency mulled the expansion of Japan&#8217;s Copyright Act. Last week, a government panel <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloading-any-pirate-content-to-be-made-illegal-in-japan-190214/">adopted</a> the policy, recommending that current anti-downloading legislation should be expanded to cover all copyrighted content.</p>



<p>With punishments of up to two years in prison and fines of two million yen (US$18,039) on the table, the public clearly needs to know where the line will be <g class="gr_ gr_54 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="54" data-gr-id="54">drawn</g>. As it stands, however, the recommendations seem absolute. If a user believes something &#8211; anything &#8211; to be copyrighted and placed online illegally, they are breaking the law by downloading it.</p>



<p>Understandably, this is not only causing concern among Internet users, but also those who feel that such a broad law could prevent research, stifle creativity, and cause the public to lose faith in the true purpose of copyright.</p>



<p>In an &#8216;Emergency Statement&#8217; <a href="http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/~ip/20190219seimei.html">signed</a> by 87 academics, researchers, lawyers, and other experts, the government is urged to think again about the scope of the proposed legislation. Under the current proposals, the group believes that private copying could be rendered illegal, even to the extent of outlawing screenshots for private use.</p>



<p>&#8220;We believe that the limitation on the right of reproduction for private use purposes has the function of restricting the freedom of information gathering in the private domain. It is a legal foundation that supports the intellectual and cultural activities of individuals, and even Japanese industry,&#8221; the signatories write.</p>



<p>The group believes that the proposed legislation has been rushed through in a very short time (five meetings in three months), without carefully considering the consequences. They want the authorities to think again, to protect the public interest.</p>



<p>Citizens regularly need to take screenshots, copy and paste, and other similar acts in order to educate themselves, exchange opinions, and express themselves. Covering all copyrighted content in all circumstances will prove damaging and counter-productive, the group argues.</p>



<p>Importantly, those calling for the proposals to be considered more closely appear to be broadly in favor of tightening up the law to protect rightsholders. However, there are serious concerns over the potential for collateral damage when even snippets of text could be criminalized.</p>



<p>To that end, they suggest amendments to the proposals to mandate that it&#8217;s only a crime to reproduce copyright works when the act causes real financial damage to content owners, in the case of those who pirate whole movies, music, manga publications, books, and so on.</p>



<p>Keeping the proposals as they are would not only be damaging to society as a whole, it could even undermine public faith in the rights system, they add.</p>



<p>&#8220;Rapid reform of the law exerts an excessive atrophy effect on the freedom to gather information in the private domain. It may also cause the public to lose confidence in the validity of the copyright system,&#8221; the statement warns.</p>



<p>Only time will tell how the statement will be received in government but as things stand, criminalizing millions of citizens over small-scale and even private copying seems likely to cause more problems than it solves.</p>



<p></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168603
title: Facebook Held Liable for Copyright Infringing ‘Links’ in Italy
uri: Facebook-Held-Liable-for-Copyright-Infringing-Links-in-Italy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LbRELk57Irw/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-139520" src="media/139ebf81.facebook-pirate-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebook-pirate-1.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="122"></p>
<p>Similar to other sites that rely on user-generated content, Facebook has to battle a constant stream of unauthorized copyright material.</p>
<p>When it comes to targeting infringement, Facebook has rolled out a few anti-piracy initiatives in recent years. The company has a “Rights Manager” tool that detects infringing material automatically. In addition, it also processes some takedown requests manually.</p>
<p>Not all of these notices result in a takedown. For a variety of reasons, Facebook may choose not to intervene. In Italy, this resulted in a drawn-out legal battle which has now come to a conclusion at the Court of Rome.</p>
<p>The case in question was filed by <a href="https://www.mediasetplay.mediaset.it/">Mediaset</a>, the media conglomerate founded by former Italian prime minister&nbsp;Silvio Berlusconi. Mediaset noticed that links to copyrighted clips of the cartoon &#8220;Kirarin Revolution&#8221; were posted on Facebook.</p>
<p>The actual content was hosted by YouTube, but&nbsp;Mediaset&#8217;s legal team went after Facebook instead. It asked the social network to remove the postings of a particular Facebook group, which were shared with derogatory comments about the people involved in the show.</p>
<p>This week the Court of Rome ruled that Facebook is indeed liable for failing to remove the copyright-infringing hyperlinks. The company was ordered to pay&nbsp;€9,000 in damages as a result. As Facebook is also held liable for defamation, the total damages add up to&nbsp;€35,000.</p>
<p>While the damages amount is not groundbreaking, for Mediaset this was a matter of principle.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Mediaset lawyer Alessandro La Rosa, who handled the case together with colleagues at the <a href="https://www.previti.it/">Previti</a> law firm. The Court of Rome&#8217;s order shows intermediaries such as Facebook can be held liable when they fail to respond in copyright infringement allegations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite Facebook&#8217;s role as a passive hosting provider, in this case, it&#8217;s obliged to take down and prevent access to illicit information uploaded on its website. The provider is expected to carry out its economic activity with the due diligence that&#8217;s reasonably expected to identify and prevent the reported illegal activities,&#8221; Mr.&nbsp;La Rosa tells us.</p>
<p>Mediaset sent the first notice regarding the infringing activity in 2010, but Facebook decided not to take any action at the time. Although the offensive group was identified, the takedown requests didn&#8217;t include a link to the infringing content, Facebook argued.</p>
<p>The Court considered this defense but concluded that a link to the infringing hyperlink isn&#8217;t necessary. Facebook was alerted to the group and the alleged activities and could have taken action based on this information.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to the Court, the identification of URL is only technical data which doesn’t coincide with the individual harmful content present on the platform, but only indicates the &#8216;place&#8217; where this content is found and, therefore, isn’t an indispensable prerequisite for its identification,&#8221;&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;La Rosa says.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that Mediaset never attempted to remove the actual infringing clip from YouTube. Mediaset mostly wanted Facebook to deal with the Facebook group which posted the infringing material in a defamatory context.</p>
<p>Mediaset is happy with the outcome according to its legal team. Since the verdict is partly based on EU law,&nbsp;Mr.&nbsp;La Rosa believes that it will help other rightsholders to make a case against Facebook and similar platforms going forward.</p>
<p>Facebook is currently considering whether to file an appeal. The company can easily pay the damages, but it may be worried about the broader implications of the ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are examining the decision of the Court of Rome,&#8221; a&nbsp;Facebook&nbsp;spokesperson told <a href="https://www.adnkronos.com/soldi/economia/2019/02/20/mediaset-copyright-diffamazione-facebook-condannata_hZVLH2Q3bIj7pxUW9AwQVM.html?refresh_ce">Adnkronos</a> in response, adding that it takes the protection of copyright holders &#8220;very seriously&#8221;.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168671
title: UK ISP Will Ban Two Million Kids From Accessing Pirate Sites
uri: UK-ISP-Will-Ban-Two-Million-Kids-From-Accessing-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wkDRC8Ufy3o/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a7e273b1.ukflagwallblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ukflagwallblocked.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-154673"/></figure></div>



<p>Citizens of the United Kingdom with a taste for free <g class="gr_ gr_24 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="24" data-gr-id="24">conte</g>nt are becoming more and more familiar with the idea of website blocking.</p>



<p>Thousands of &#8216;pirate&#8217; domains are blocked by major Internet service providers such as Sky, Virgin, TalkTalk, and BT, following legal action from the movie and music industries.</p>



<p>These blocking efforts are all officially sanctioned by the High Court via injunction but a new pirate-blocking initiative just announced by the London Grid for Learning (<a href="https://www.lgfl.net">LGfL</a>) appears to be entirely voluntary.</p>



<p>Among other things, LGfL &#8211; a not-for-profit&nbsp;Charitable&nbsp;Trust &#8211; supplies high-speed broadband to around 3,000 schools in the UK. It also has a mission to save schools money and keep children safe. It now appears that will involve preventing them from accessing very large numbers of pirate sites whilst in school.</p>



<p>LGfL DigiSafe (LGfL&#8217;s &#8216;safeguarding arm&#8217;) has just announced that it will work with the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) to ensure that pirate sites are rendered inaccessible to anyone using the LGfL network.</p>



<p>The list of domains to be blocked will be obtained from PIPCU&#8217;s &#8216;Infringing Website List&#8217; (IWL), a database of platforms deemed by the authorities to be engaged in copyright infringement. The same list is used by EU advertisers to prevent brand ads appearing on pirate sites, as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/project-brand-integrity-aims-to-purge-ads-from-pirate-sites-190212/">detailed</a> earlier this month.</p>



<p>According to LGfL DigiSafe, blocking the sites will help prevent children and teachers from accessing &#8220;risky&#8221; content while allowing schools to be more relaxed about the implications of copyright infringement taking place on site.</p>



<p>&#8220;LGfL DigiSafe is committed to partnering with relevant stakeholders in order to achieve our mission of saving schools money and keeping children safe,&#8221; says Mark Bentley,  Online Safety and Safeguarding Manager at LGfL DigiSafe.</p>



<p>&#8220;By working with City of London police to block its List of Infringing Websites to our community of over two million students we not only prevent <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="11" data-gr-id="11">children</g> accessing inappropriate material but also provide reassurance to senior leaders that this illegal activity cannot be committed on the school site, meaning headteachers do not need to fear liability for copyright infringements.&#8221;</p>



<p>Detective Constable Steve Salway of PIPCU says that his unit is pleased that LGfL will be keeping students safe by utilizing its database of infringing sites.</p>



<p>&#8220;The online safety of school children is of paramount importance and our IWL is able to prevent them from viewing inappropriate material. It will also put a stop to them accessing copyright infringing content, leaving London schools with extra peace of mind,&#8221; Salway notes.</p>



<p>LGfL literature indicates that 97% of London schools are part of its network, meaning that the capital will be the first city in the UK to face an almost complete &#8216;pirate blackout&#8217; in its schools.</p>



<p>Still, with most kids these days spending large amounts of time on legal platforms such as YouTube and Spotify, there shouldn&#8217;t be too much of a drought of free media, should pirate sites be eliminated. However, <a href="https://www.lgfl.net/youtube">YouTube is often restricted</a> on LGfL&#8217;s network too, so the party may be coming to an end, at least for those who don&#8217;t have a smartphone and 4G.</p>



<p>  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168565
title: Potential Abuse Prompts US Court to ‘Re-evaluate’ Treatment of Piracy Cases
uri: Potential-Abuse-Prompts-US-Court-to-Re-evaluate-Treatment-of-Pir
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/g50Gg7Iingk/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-108977" src="media/17a592c8.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167">For more than a decade, alleged file-sharers around the world have been pressured to pay significant settlement fees.</p>
<p>These so-called &#8216;copyright-trolling&#8217; efforts are pretty straightforward. Copyright holders obtain a list of ‘pirating’ IP-addresses and then request a subpoena from the court, compelling ISPs to hand over the associated customer data.</p>
<p>This scheme can be rather lucrative. With minimal effort, rightsholders can obtain hundreds or thousands of dollars per defendant. These cases generally don&#8217;t go to trial. On the contrary, the copyright holders often drop cases when a defendant pushes back.</p>
<p>This was also the case when Bodyguard Productions, known for The Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard, sued Ernesto Mendoza. The defendant, <span class="fontstyle0">who is in his 70s and suffering from end-stage renal disease, denied that he downloaded the film and fought back. </span></p>
<p>The alleged pirate turned the tables with a list of counterclaims, accusing the rightsholder of running a “business model that cannot and should not be authorized by the courts.”</p>
<p>These type of lawsuits equate to a “sue then settle” or “cut and run,” scheme that is meant to “intimidate defendants into paying them money out of fear,” the defense argued.</p>
<p>In response, Bodyguard Productions appeared to &#8220;run,&#8221; as it swiftly filed for voluntary dismissal. However, Mendoza and his lawyer didn&#8217;t want to let the case go without being compensated for the legal fees they had already incurred.</p>
<p>This presented the court with an unusual situation where the accusing party wants to drop its case, but the defendant wants to continue. After hearing both sides, Illinois District Court Judge Robert Dow decided to dismiss the case, ordering both parties to pay their own fees.</p>
<p>This was a huge disappointment for the alleged file-sharer, who now has to bear the costs for a case that he isn&#8217;t allowed to fight. According to his attorney <a href="http://clayatlaw.com/">Lisa Clay</a>, the Court should ensure that plaintiffs are ready and willing to prove their case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the Court’s recent order does not,&#8221; Clay tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;Granting the Plaintiff’s disingenuous motion to dismiss without penalty has the real consequence of strengthening the troll business model.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Order deprived Mr. Mendoza of the opportunity to prove his innocence and expose the Plaintiff’s extortion enterprise. What is worse, the Court’s denial of Mr. Mendoza&#8217;s request for reimbursement of costs and attorneys’ fees all but guarantees the continued success of the troll model.&#8221;</p>
<p>On a broader scale, there&#8217;s a positive note for future defendants. In the order, Judge Dow notes that the Court should re-evaluate how it handles these cases. In addition, the potential for abuse may also deserve the attention of the Rules Committee.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;[T]he points advanced by Defendant about the potential for abuse across the universe of peer-to-peer copyright infringement cases convince the Court that it should re-evaluate its own overall treatment of these cases and consider whether to suggest that the Rules Committee in this district look into the matter as well,&#8221; Judge Dow writes.</span></p>
<p>The order notes that special rules are already available in Oregon, where the number of defendants is limited to one per case, and where ISP subpoenas should alert potential defendants to the availability of pro-bono attorneys.</p>
<p>This is a significant statement for a Court that has generally been very &#8216;friendly&#8217; towards rightsholders in these type of file-sharing lawsuits. That said, the defense isn&#8217;t celebrating.</p>
<p>While Clay would like to take solace in this statement, she and her client are still left with nothing. And there are no guarantees that anything will change.</p>
<p>&#8220;Promises of this nature do not compensate my client for the time and expense we were both forced to incur to defend a baseless lawsuit. Sadly, the Court’s ruling all-but ensures that even if such changes are implemented, there will be no pro bono attorneys left to handle this work.</p>
<p>&#8220;Knowing that I have no hope of being reimbursed my fees will make it that much more challenging for me (and others) to find the time and resources to do this growingly thankless work,&#8221; Clay adds.</p>
<p>But while the case has been dismissed, it may not be the end of the road quite yet. Mr. Mendoza&#8217;s attorney says that a motion for reconsideration is still an option. That would provide the Court with an ideal situation to re-evaluate its position.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of Judge Dow&#8217;s order is available <a href="media/74f214ed.doworder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/doworder.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168590
title: Sweden Asks Advertisers to Blacklist Streaming and Torrent Sites
uri: Sweden-Asks-Advertisers-to-Blacklist-Streaming-and-Torrent-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lG8texke7kk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110"/></figure></div>



<p>In many regions of the world, copyright holders, anti-piracy companies, and authorities are teaming up to tackle the problem of pirate sites.</p>



<p>In the past, emphasis was placed on aggressive shutdowns but increasingly there is a tendency to &#8220;follow the money&#8221;, a strategy that aims to starve site operators of their income while making sites less lucrative to run.</p>



<p>A big part of this is restricting the amount of quality advertisers prepared to have their ads appear on pirate sites. Indeed, there are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/project-brand-integrity-aims-to-purge-ads-from-pirate-sites-190212/">significant programs</a> in the United States and Europe dedicated to encouraging companies to stay away from pirate sites.</p>



<p>Over in Sweden, one such initiative was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-blacklisted-by-600-advertising-companies-150919/">announced</a> in 2015 by Rights Alliance and the Association of Swedish Advertisers. The headline was that 600 advertisers had banned The Pirate Bay from their networks but there were actually an additional nine sites on the worst offenders list, most of which have now faded away.</p>



<p>Now, less than four years later, the partnership has published a new&nbsp;and updated blacklist containing ten domains, <g class="gr_ gr_22 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="22" data-gr-id="22">which</g> advertisers are encouraged to boycott, especially the gambling industry which is claimed to support pirate sites more than most.</p>



<p>&#8220;Advertising finances the illegal services,&#8221; says Sara Lindbäck, <g class="gr_ gr_46 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="46" data-gr-id="46">lawyer</g> at Rights Alliance. </p>



<p>&#8220;After a major survey, we can see that gaming companies are the largest advertisers.&nbsp;By updating the blacklist, we make it easy for all advertisers, including the gaming companies, not to place their advertising on the illegal services.&#8221; </p>



<p>The top 10 list of &#8216;worst-offending&#8217; pirate sites to be avoided by advertisers in Sweden reads as follows:</p>



<ul><li>ThePirateBay.org</li><li> FMovies.to </li><li> DreamfilmHD.cc </li><li> Nyafilmer.com</li><li> Nya-filmer.tv </li><li> Swefilmer.<g class="gr_ gr_25 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="25" data-gr-id="25">eu</g></li><li> Dreamfilm.pro </li><li> Dreamfilm.fun</li><li> Swesub.net</li><li> Streamtajm.com </li></ul>



<p>Given that only a handful of these domains looked immediately familiar to us (branding aside), we checked them out, one by one. The Pirate Bay needs no explanation, of course, but others warrant further explanation.</p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4"><g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">FMovies</g></g>.to is a very popular streaming site, with SimilarWeb reporting in excess of 40 million visitors per month. The site is not only significant locally in Sweden but also on an international scale. It&#8217;s certainly no surprise this site is featured prominently in the list.</p>



<p>At the time of writing, DreamfilmHD.cc is currently non-operational but Lindbäck informs TF that the site might only be &#8220;down temporarily&#8221; and since it has had a lot of advertising placed on it for a long time, its place on the list is justified. However, SimilarWeb reports a worldwide site-rank in excess of a million, so its importance seems limited.</p>



<p>Nyafilmer.com <g class="gr_ gr_24 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="24" data-gr-id="24">is </g>a completely different ball game. The streaming platform is currently Sweden&#8217;s 74th most-popular site, period, so it&#8217;s absolutely clear why Rights Alliance and Swedish Advertisers have blacklisted the domain.</p>



<p>Both Swefilmer.eu and Streamtajm.com, on the other hand, are much less significant, with the former barely moving the traffic needle and the latter bringing in around 750,000 visitors per month. Dreamfilm.fun isn&#8217;t listed by SimilarWeb but according to Alexa, it pulls in around 200k visitors per month.</p>



<p>That brings us to the final three sites in the list, which we&#8217;ll bundle together since they have something in common on the advertising front.</p>



<p>Nyafilmer.tv, Dreamfilm.pro, and Swesub.net are all streaming platforms. The former is very tiny, with a world site-rank in excess of four million, but the others appear to be growing and derive most of their traffic from Swedish visitors. However, all three use a particularly irritating form of advertising.</p>



<p>As a test, we chose to search for the movie Aquaman on the sites, since it&#8217;s new and shouldn&#8217;t be available to stream legally, especially via a pirate site. After clicking the thumbnail, the user is greeted with an embedded video player at the top of the screen (the real movie is <g class="gr_ gr_51 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="51" data-gr-id="51">way</g> underneath) that begins to play the familiar Universal intro reel, which is a red flag since the movie is actually a Warner/DC affair.</p>



<p>Needless to say, Aquaman did not play. Instead, the user is greeted with this message (translated);</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/92fe4c9d.image-4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-4.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168620" width="600"/><figcaption>Sign up? No way&#8230;.</figcaption></figure>



<p>The link takes users to GamesHeaven.net (we&#8217;re not going to link) which claims that the movie is available there for &#8216;free<g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="3" data-gr-id="3">&#8216;,</g> if only people sign up. </p>



<p>However, this site does not have this movie at all (or most others that users sign up to receive for that matter) and actually requires people to enter credit card details, which, <a href="https://forum.adguard.com/index.php?threads/fake-scam-phishing-sites-resolved.27736/">as this thread and others show</a>, often goes nowhere good. This platform, and others that are based on the same underlying <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">system,</g> have been the subject of large numbers of complaints.</p>



<p>This type of advertising is extremely misleading so pirate (and other) sites should consider not directing their customers to such platforms in this manner when they clearly don&#8217;t have the content being claimed. If people want to pay for movies, they should go to platforms like Netflix, that <g class="gr_ gr_176 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="176" data-gr-id="176">are</g> simplicity itself to use and indeed cancel, when required.</p>



<p>Unfortunately, however, not even Sweden&#8217;s advertising ban is likely to prevent these ads from appearing on lower-tier pirate sites since we&#8217;re informed they&#8217;re based overseas and quite lucrative. Also, since the underlying services do indeed have other (albeit less popular) licensed content available, they&#8217;ve been running along trouble free for years.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=165374
title: NBCUniversal Repeatedly Flags BitTorrent.com as a “Pirate” Site
uri: NBCUniversal-Repeatedly-Flags-BitTorrent-com-as-a-Pirate-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wvNqPIEDthE/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-79637" src="media/21af8fa2.bittorrent-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrent-crime.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="202">Invented more than 15 years ago, BitTorrent has become the protocol of choice for file-sharers.</p>
<p>While BitTorrent is used by many pirates, the technology itself is neutral and does a lot of good for content creators as well.</p>
<p>This is also the message BitTorrent Inc, the parent company of the popular mainline and uTorrent clients, frequently communicated in the past. On numerous occasions, the company has distanced itself from those who download infringing content.</p>
<p>Last year, the company was acquired by TRON which will undoubtedly mean keeping to this course. However, the piracy stigma is persistent. That becomes clear when we look at a series of recent takedown requests issued by NBCUniversal.</p>
<p>The notices in question are addressed to Google. NBCUniversal has sent millions of these requests in recent years, most of which do indeed point out pirated content. However, the company also repeatedly flags BitTorrent&#8217;s official site, BitTorrent.com.</p>
<p>In fact, Google has received 387 reports containing BitTorrent.com URLs since it started keeping track, and more than three-quarters of these (293) came from NBCUniversal. As can be seen below, all recent requests for the domain come from the mass media conglomerate.</p>
<p><center><strong>Recent takedown requests that include BitTorrent.com</strong></p>
<p></center><center><img class="size-full wp-image-168601 aligncenter" src="media/49a85188.nbcdown9.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nbcdown9.png" alt="" width="559" height="361"></center></p>
<p>So what exactly does the media giant see as infringing pages?</p>
<p>According to a request sent <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/18054165">last&nbsp;week</a>, the Spanish download page for the Mainline client infringes the rights of the thriller &#8220;Dream House.&#8221; A few days earlier the <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/18071290">company</a> <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/18072691">flagged</a> the <a href="https://www.bittorrent.com/speed/">BitTorrent Speed</a> and <a href="https://www.bittorrent.com/bittorrent-pro">BitTorrent Pro</a> pages, accusing them of linking to a pirated copy of the movies &#8220;About Time&#8221; and &#8220;Upgrade&#8221; respectively.</p>
<p><center><strong>Upgrade?</strong></p>
<p></center><center><img class="size-full wp-image-168600 aligncenter" src="media/3155fb84.bittorrentupgrade.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrentupgrade.png" alt="" width="600" height="209"></center></p>
<p>While the BitTorrent Pro page features a large &#8220;<a href="media/3b27a5f2.upnow.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/upnow.png">Upgrade Now</a>&#8221; banner, that&#8217;s not the Upgrade NBCUniversal is after.</p>
<p>We have no doubts that this is an honest mistake and that NBCUniversal will correct their anti-piracy bots to prevent this from happening in the future. Still, it shows that these types of automated filters are far from perfect.</p>
<p>Luckily for BitTorrent, their website hasn&#8217;t been downgraded in search results, as Google caught the false positives before any real harm was done.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168649
title: Scribd Files Complaint Against DRM Circumvention Tool
uri: Scribd-Files-Complaint-Against-DRM-Circumvention-Tool
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cjjxZHOHKgQ/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/17558222.image-6.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-6.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168656" width="256" height="146"/></figure></div>



<p>Founded in 2007, Scribd billed itself as the &#8220;world&#8217;s first open publishing platform.&#8221;</p>



<p>In 2013, the platform debuted &#8220;the first reading subscription service&#8221;, offering readers access to all books for a single flat fee.</p>



<p>The following year, Scribd added audiobooks to its service, later adding access to sheet music and magazines. By 2017, the site had established itself as a base for news articles, publishing works from The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and others under its subscription model.</p>



<p>With an estimated 100 million visitors per month and a place in the world&#8217;s top 200 websites, Scribd is now huge. According to the latest company information, it has 700,000 premium subscribers, but not everyone plays by the rules when obtaining content from the service.</p>



<p>Various tools and services enable people to download Scribd content to keep (rather than using the Netflix-like <a href="https://support.scribd.com/hc/en-us/articles/210135746-How-do-I-enjoy-Scribd-without-an-internet-connection-">features provided by the platform</a>) and a recent complaint filed with Github shows the company is still looking to plug the leaks.</p>



<p>Scribd-Downloader is a tool created by an India-based student. The 19-year-old says he began coding aged 10, working on various projects since, including YouTube and Spotify downloading tools. But while those remain active, his Scribd tool has now been targeted by the company.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/7a8dd49c.image-7.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-7.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168658" width="600"/><figcaption>Scribd-Downloader features (via Github)</figcaption></figure>



<p>&#8220;Scribd, Inc. (www.scribd.com) is an online service that hosts copyrighted material such as documents, books, and audiobooks, that are available to view or listen to on a subscription basis,&#8221; the company said in a <g class="gr_ gr_21 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="21" data-gr-id="21"><a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/40593ab615172bf25d6bcaaeb48a65fcd418b536">compl</a></g><a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/40593ab615172bf25d6bcaaeb48a65fcd418b536">aint</a> filed with Github this week.</p>



<p>&#8220;Scribd uses digital rights management (&#8216;DRM&#8217;) technology to prevent users from downloading or saving copies of this copyrighted material. This takedown request concerns a script hosted on GitHub that allows a user to circumvent Scribd&#8217;s DRM technology to make a copy of and download copyrighted material from the Scribd website in violation of 17 U.S.C. 1201.&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201">17 U.S.C. 1201</a> deals with the circumvention of copyright protection systems, stating that &#8220;no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title,&#8221; adding that circumvention means &#8220;to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner.&#8221;</p>



<p>In that respect, Scribd-Downloader does appear to breach the DMCA, particularly since its hosted on a US-based platform that must respond to takedown requests when they are <a href="https://help.github.com/en/articles/guide-to-submitting-a-dmca-takedown-notice#complaints-about-anti-circumvention-technology">appropriately filed</a>. However, the software does have limitations and in some cases still requires a premium account to access all its features.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, it&#8217;s clear that Scribd wants to control when and how access to content occurs, something made clear when it notes that &#8220;books stored on your device can only be opened through the app and we don&#8217;t permit access to a stored book&#8217;s file.&#8221; Of course, Scribd-Downloader does.</p>



<p>Following the complaint, Github quickly removed Scribd-Downloader from its platform but there are other services and tools around that have the same or similar functionality.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a game of cat-and-mouse that will probably go on for some time, one that underlines the fact that people like to keep hold of content once they&#8217;ve paid for it, rather than let it disappear behind a walled garden when subscriptions lapse.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168631
title: ‘CracksNow’ Apologizes For Ransomware Torrents, Says Accounts Were Hacked
uri: CracksNow-Apologizes-For-Ransomware-Torrents-Says-Accounts-Were
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DFcYg1g2Q-Q/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168637" src="media/ac0b4892.hackerhacked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hackerhacked.jpg" alt="" width="278" height="189">It&#8217;s no secret that scammers are constantly trying to trick torrent users into downloading malicious content.</p>
<p>These files are generally easy to spot and swiftly removed from well-moderated sites. As such, they are mostly a nuisance for novices.</p>
<p>But, when a well-known uploader with a “trusted’ status on some torrent sites gets involved, things change. Last week <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-sites-ban-popular-uploader-cracksnow-for-sharing-ransomware-190217/"> we reported</a> that &#8220;CracksNow,&#8221; who shared tens of thousands of cracked software titles in recent years, had been banned from several sites after posting torrents with ransomware.</p>
<p>While we have reported on the torrent ecosystem for more than a decade, a reputable uploader &#8216;going rogue&#8217; was something we had never seen before. Was it another sign of a decaying torrent community? Or perhaps an uploader who wanted to &#8220;cash in&#8221; on his work?</p>
<p>To find out more, we reached out to &#8220;CracksNow&#8221; days before we published our article. We initially received no response, but this week the uploader contacted us, explaining that there was no malicious intent on his part.</p>
<p>The ransomware was real and it did harm the computers of an unknown number of downloaders. However, CracksNow says he didn&#8217;t upload these malicious files. In fact, he went to quite a bit of trouble to ensure that his releases did not trigger any alarm bells.</p>
<p>&#8220;I had a person who checked all the files for malware before they were uploaded. All the files were run in a sandbox and were dynamically analyzed for malware,&#8221; CracksNow tells us.</p>
<p>When the malware reports kept coming in, resulting in bans for the uploader, the files were checked again. That&#8217;s when he noticed that some uploads were different.</p>
<p>&#8220;When I was demoted on TorrentGalaxy, I was testing all the files again for malware to see which torrents were infected. During my testing, I discovered that the infohash of the torrent file on my server was different from those on the torrent sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>An admin at TorrentGalaxy shared some of the account logs which revealed that CracksNow torrents were being deleted and replaced with new files. These newer files,&nbsp;presumably uploaded by someone else, came with the ransomware which caused all the trouble.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to TorrentGalaxy admin LRS, who confirmed that the site logs indeed showed that torrents were deleted and reuploaded.</p>
<p>However, by then the damage had already been done. After an admin at 1337x helped TorrentGalaxy by pointing out the ransomware issues, both sites banned the Cracksnow account.</p>
<p></p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/05e8c092.bannedcracksnow.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bannedcracksnow.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168378"/><figcaption>Banned&#8230;</figcaption></figure>


<p>The upload irregularities could mean that CracksNow&#8217;s accounts were compromised by an outsider. While this is impossible to verify independently, it sounds like a plausible explanation.</p>
<p>The uploader has no idea how someone managed to get his credentials but he doesn&#8217;t want to hide behind any excuses either. Even if someone else uploaded the malware, CracksNow takes full responsibility for what happened.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my responsibility to keep my account secure and I failed in that. A lot of users who trusted CracksNow got infected and got their files encrypted. I feel really bad about this and I am sorry to everyone who got infected,&#8221; CracksNow says.</p>
<p>The result is that the uploader lost his accounts with thousands of torrents at several popular sites, but he understands this as well. There was no way to check which uploads were infected, so deleting everything was the logical option.</p>
<p>&#8220;I fully support the decision. All the torrents should be deleted so that nobody else gets infected. I don&#8217;t want anyone to get infected because of me. The damage done to the reputation of CracksNow is irreversible. I will never be able to upload on the torrent sites again and I understand that.&#8221;</p>
<p>The good news for the uploader is that he still has <a href="https://cracksnow.com/">his own site</a>. However, this was also affected by last week&#8217;s news. The site was hacked over the past week and infected with malware. As a result, Google&#8217;s ominous red warning banner is now showing up in many web browsers.</p>
<p>While we felt obliged to report CracksNow&#8217;s side of the story, we are not passing any judgment one way or the other. It&#8217;s impossible to verify the complete backstory. This means that, as always, people should tread with caution, which applies anywhere on the web.</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168713
title: New Govt. Proposals Aim to Restrict Pirate Sites in India
uri: New-Govt-Proposals-Aim-to-Restrict-Pirate-Sites-in-India
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zNTARWI3CVc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110"/></figure></div>



<p>With close to half a billion broadband subscribers, India is undoubtedly a global powerhouse in the connected arena.</p>



<p>Add the thirst of its citizens for free media into the mix and it&#8217;s clear why copyright holders are keener than ever stem to tide of pirated content.</p>



<p>Thus far we&#8217;ve seen huge numbers of sites blocked following requests to various courts. However, India is now looking to formalize its response to the many thousands of torrent, streaming, and similar sites facilitating access to infringing copies of movies, music, and other digital media.</p>



<p>The latest draft of India&#8217;s National E-Commerce Policy outlines various strategies designed to curtail piracy, many of them taken from schemes already active in other regions of the world.</p>



<p>Intermediaries, such as Internet service providers, play a key <g class="gr_ gr_9 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="9" data-gr-id="9">role</g> in the spread of pirated content but holding them liable for infringement can be difficult. The new draft states that they should &#8220;put in place measures to prevent online dissemination of pirate content&#8221; although at least for now, those measures are yet to be detailed.</p>



<p>Intermediaries will also be required to identify &#8220;trusted entities&#8221; who should get priority when it comes to handling copyright complaints. Again, there is no detail on whose those entities might be but one can safely presume that movie companies will be at the forefront, with other content companies close behind.</p>



<p>In any event, &#8220;The identification of trusted entity and anti-piracy measures shall be done on a voluntary basis&#8221;, suggesting that this element of the draft is not only open interpretation but also might come with an opt-out clause.</p>



<p>The proposed rules seem much tighter when it comes to the actual platforms engaging or facilitating the spread of pirated content<g class="gr_ gr_9 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="9" data-gr-id="9">.</g></p>



<p>When notices of infringement are sent by a copyright holder, ISPs will be required to &#8220;remove or disable access to the alleged content.&#8221; On first inspection, this seems to loosely marry up with the takedown provisions of the DMCA.</p>



<p>India also appears to be mulling a &#8220;follow-the-money&#8221; approach, which operates on the premise that pirate sites only exist to generate profit for their owners. To this end, stakeholders will first create a list of &#8220;rogue websites&#8221; that &#8220;host predominately pirated content.&#8221;</p>



<p>After a verification process, these sites will be added to the &#8220;Infringing Websites List&#8221; (IWL), an initiative that appears similar to the database of pirate sites operated by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in the UK. This will then allow authorities to take a range of measures to deplete their traffic and reduce revenues.</p>



<p>First up, Internet service providers will be required to &#8220;remove or disable access to the websites identified in the IWL within set time-lines.&#8221; This differs from the process in the UK where a separate High Court order is required for blocking, even if a site is already present on the list.</p>



<p>Secondly, India seems eager to prevent pirate sites from having access to revenue, whether generated by advertising or via subscriptions. The draft aims to prevent these payments from being processed.</p>



<p>&#8220;Rogue websites earn their revenues through online payments made based on a subscription or advertisement revenue models. Such payments have to be routed through Payment Gateways, which shall not permit flow of payments to or from such rogue websites,&#8221; the proposals read.</p>



<p>In addition, Indian advertisers and advertising agencies will be forbidden from placing their ads on sites <g class="gr_ gr_16 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="16" data-gr-id="16">appe</g>aring in the Infringing Website List. The proposals don&#8217;t indicate how this will be achieved or policed but if models in the UK and Europe are followed, participation is usually via trade group bodies.</p>



<p>Finally, and perhaps most importantly, search engines operating in India will be required to &#8220;take necessary steps&#8221; to ensure that sites listed in the Infringing Website List do not appear in their search results. It is far from clear how this will be carried out or whether foreign companies will be prepared to comply.</p>



<p>Google is by far the dominant search engine in the country with an estimated 95% of the market, so it will be most affected. It has also demonstrated a reluctance to remove links that aren&#8217;t clearly infringing but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-begins-removing-banned-sites-from-search-results-190213/">recent movement in Russia</a> shows that the company is prepared to bend, when enough pressure is applied.</p>



<p>Stakeholders are invited to comment on the draft proposals <em>(<a href="media/cea9d43c.DraftNational_e-commerce_Policy_23February2019.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DraftNational_e-commerce_Policy_23February2019.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> by March 9, 2019</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168716
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 02/25/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-02-25-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J_LaoOTk4Ac/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168725" src="media/be565117.spider.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spider.png" alt="" width="280" height="240"></p>
<p>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>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 Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a>&nbsp;for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-02-18-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg52up16eq0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYBOVWLNIs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6343314/">Creed II</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6343314/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovFpFtZ2Tvk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7401588/">Instant Family</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7401588/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUfZq3DUd3Y">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5848272/">Ralph Breaks the Internet</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5848272/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T73h5bmD8Dc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/">Bohemian Rhapsody</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4532826/">Robin Hood</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4532826/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwPn9ZnbCo0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/">Green Book</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-_Gon2p9M">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571234/">Mortal Engines</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2709692/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6D-i8YpHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">Aquaman</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmqJJqFX_CU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168703
title: Teksavvy Wins Appeal in Defense of Accused ‘Pirating’ Subscribers
uri: Teksavvy-Wins-Appeal-in-Defense-of-Accused-Pirating-Subscribers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6839oqjMK3Q/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168730" src="media/e37e6987.savvy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/savvy.png" alt="" width="292" height="95">Over the past several years, hundreds of thousands of piracy warnings have been sent out to Canadian pirates under the &#8216;notice-and-notice&#8217; scheme.</p>
<p>While these notices can <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-prohibits-piracy-settlement-demands-in-isp-copyright-notices-181218/">no longer include settlement demands</a>, following a recent update in legislation, accused pirates can still get in trouble. Several movie companies have filed for Norwich orders, asking the court to subpoena ISPs to hand over customer information, so they can contact these people directly.</p>
<p>These cases lead to the so-called &#8216;copyright trolling&#8217; practices we&#8217;re seeing elsewhere in the world. They are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-outfits-are-quietly-targeting-canadian-file-sharers-in-court-180904/">filed by</a> rightsholders of films such as The Hitman’s Bodyguard, Criminal, London Has Fallen, and Dallas Buyers Club. And with hundreds of IP-addresses being targeted per case, their scope is quite broad.</p>
<p>Most ISPs don&#8217;t challenge these subpoena requests but in a recent case Internet provider <a href="https://teksavvy.com">Teksavvy</a> decided to take a stand. When ME2 Productions, the company behind the film Mechanic: Resurrection, requested the personal details of several customers, the ISP decided to appeal.</p>
<p>Among other things, TekSavvy argued that the evidence provided by the copyright holder is not sufficient enough to warrant handing over customer information.</p>
<p>Last week the Federal Court of Canada sided with the Internet provider.&nbsp; Judge William Pentney <a href="https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/363655/index.do">concluded</a> that the evidence put forward by the movie company was not sufficient. This is problematic, as it could result in the wrong persons being targeted, he concluded.</p>
<p>&#8220;This case illustrates why it is so important for the Court to have the best available evidence,&#8221;&nbsp;Judge Pentney writes.</p>
<p>For example, unlike the movie company claimed, it appeared that several of the targeted subscribers never received an initial notice of copyright infringement, which is a requirement in these cases.</p>
<p>&#8220;One can easily imagine the reaction of such individuals when this is the first notice they would have received of the matter. This is precisely what Parliament was seeking to avoid when it adopted the notice and notice regime in the&nbsp;Act,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>Perhaps even worse, one of the IP-addresses that was listed didn&#8217;t even belong to&nbsp;TekSavvy. These and other issues make it clear that subpoenas should only be issued when there&#8217;s sufficient evidence.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.plaideurs.ca/en/the-firm/james-plotkin/">James Plotkin</a>&nbsp;of law firm CazaSaikaley, who has defended accused file-sharers in the past, notes that this is an important ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Federal Court sent a strong message that copyright plaintiffs must put forward &#8216;the best available evidence&#8217; in order to obtain a Norwich order, or otherwise explain why that evidence is unavailable,&#8221; Plotkin says.</p>
<p>Among the issues highlighted in the order is the declaration of Daniel Arheidt, who works for the German BitTorrent tracking outfit <a href="https://www.maverickeye.de/">Maverickeye</a>. His evidence is at the basis of the clerk’s affidavit, but it&#8217;s not a sworn statement, and nor is Mr. Arheidt available for cross-examination.</p>
<p>The court also highlighted the privacy aspect of this case. Specifically, the order states that ISPs have a legal obligation to protect the privacy of their customers. While most ISPs chose not to appeal the order, TekSavvy certainly has an interest in doing so.</p>
<p>&#8220;TekSavvy is in possession of the personal information of its customers. It has a legal obligation to protect such information and an obvious commercial interest in doing so,&#8221; Judge Pentney noted.</p>
<p>This important angle was also raised by Plotkin, who noted that because the accused file-sharers are no party at this stage, their ISPs are the only ones who can protect them.</p>
<p>&#8220;The subscribers are not parties to the motion, so they have no say in whether the Norwich order that would force disclosure of their information should issue. The ISPs are the only ones able to look after their subscribers’ interests,&#8221; Plotkin says.</p>
<p>In the present case, the court found that several mistakes were made. If TekSavvy didn&#8217;t stand up for its customers, the privacy of these people would have been at stake.</p>
<p>“Mistakes like this can result in violations of privacy on the basis of erroneous information furnished to the court by the plaintiff. This might be accidental and not malicious,” Plotkin says.</p>
<p>“But regardless of intent, the court should not countenance corner-cutting by plaintiffs when the privacy interests of subscribers, who are without a voice in the proceeding, are at stake.”</p>
<p>TekSavvy did not immediately reply to our request for comment. In a statement to <a href="https://thewirereport.ca/">The Wire Report</a>, the ISP&#8217;s vice-president of regulatory affairs, Andy Kaplan-Myrth, said that they are pleased with the decision which confirms that copyright enforcement requires a balance of disclosure and privacy interests.</p>
<p>The Federal Court order is by no means the end of these type of cases. Movie companies and other copyright holders can still request Norwich orders going forward. However, they will have to make sure that they base their requests on the best available evidence.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168778
title: Piracy Is Driven By Availability & Price, People Prefer Not to Break the Law, ISP Study Says
uri: Piracy-Is-Driven-By-Availability-Price-People-Prefer-Not-to-Break-t
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BIuGKNiwzDo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/1e966c9f.piracydown.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracydown.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-73866"/></figure></div>



<p>While free media has always been attractive to those traversing torrent sites, streaming platforms, and similar services, there have always been complaints that price is just one piece of the puzzle.</p>



<p>Often painted as cheapskates, people who pirate have historically been at the cutting edge of content availability, obtaining movies and music quickly, with legal alternatives scrambling in their wake. </p>



<p>Over the years, of course, both the music and movie industries have taken giant strides in bridging the gap, making lots of content available and, in the case of Netflix and Spotify, for example, often at a reasonable price. As a result, millions of citizens are taking advantage of these offers.</p>



<p>According to a new study commissioned by New Zealand telecoms group <a href="https://www.vocus.co.nz">Vocus Group NZ</a> and conducted in December 2018, this enhanced availability is having a positive effect.</p>



<p>&#8220;Legitimate streaming content providers are achieving what was impossible for Hollywood to get right: they are stamping out piracy by making available the shows people want to enjoy at reasonable cost and with maximum convenience,&#8221; Vocus announced this morning.</p>



<p>The company believes that &#8220;piracy is dying a natural death&#8221; as more locals choose to access content legitimately, via legal services that are both accessible and easier to use than pirate options.</p>



<p>&#8220;In short, the reason people are moving away from piracy is that it’s simply more hassle than it’s worth,” says Taryn Hamilton, Consumer General Manager at Vocus Group.</p>



<p>&#8220;The research confirms something many internet pundits have long instinctively believed to be true: piracy isn’t driven by law-breakers, it’s driven by people who can’t easily or affordably get the content they want.&#8221;</p>



<p>An overwhelming majority (75%) of those surveyed said that free-to-air TV services are their weapons of choice for viewing content, with 61% utilizing free on-demand channels offered by broadcasters. Around 58% of respondents said they visit the cinema, with paid streaming services such as Netflix utilized by 55%.</p>



<p>Of course, piracy still figures into the equation but according to Vocus, the practice is on a downward trend.</p>



<p>&#8220;The big findings are that whilst about half of people have pirated some content in their lives, the vast majority no longer do so because of the amount of paid streaming sites that they have access to,&#8221; Hamilton added in a video interview with NZHerald.</p>



<p>Indeed, the company&#8217;s study shows that 11% of consumers now obtain copyrighted content via illegal streaming platforms, with around 10% downloading infringing content via torrent and similar services.</p>



<p>&#8220;Generally the survey has said that the vast minority of people are undertaking piracy &#8211; it&#8217;s just too hard. People prefer to pay for good quality, cheap, legal content, so we think that&#8217;s the best way forward,&#8221; Hamilton said.</p>



<p>While Vocus says it conducted its research to validate its view of the market and the belief that streaming services are key to dealing with piracy, the company also has other concerns. A review of New Zealand&#8217;s Copyright Act is underway and Hamilton expresses a preference for dialog over legal action.</p>



<p>&#8220;We certainly don&#8217;t want a judicial approach, where it goes in front of a court and one judge sets precedent. We think it should be debated through the copyright amendment process,&#8221; he added.</p>



<p>In January 2018, the Motion Picture Distributors’ Association, which represents the major Hollywood studios in New Zealand, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-says-only-site-blocking-left-to-beat-piracy-in-new-zealand-180123">said</a> that &#8220;nothing&#8221; can be done to tackle piracy in the country other than site-blocking. Vocus, however, is opposed to this type of action.</p>



<p>The company believes that while the overall appetite for piracy is on the wane, its research shows that just 22% of respondents believe that it&#8217;s possible to stop pirates using blocking, with the remainder thinking pirates are just too savvy.</p>



<p>&#8220;The simple fact for those who know anything about the <g class="gr_ gr_15 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="15" data-gr-id="15">internet,</g> is that censoring the internet doesn’t work,&#8221; Hamilton says.</p>



<p>&#8220;People know there are multiple sites where it is possible to download illegal material. They also know that blocking the most popular ones simply means you’ll get pirated material elsewhere.&#8221; </p>



<p>In conclusion, Vocus insists that the solution can be found using a straightforward formula &#8211; give people the content they want, in a format they can consume, at a price they can afford.</p>



<p>&#8220;Piracy is finally dying. The reason for that requires an understanding of why people pirated in the first place. They didn’t do it because of inherent criminality, but rather because they couldn’t get the shows they wanted at a price they were prepared to pay,” Hamilton concludes. </p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=167335
title: Oscars Screener Leaks Drop to All-Time Low
uri: Oscars-Screener-Leaks-Drop-to-All-Time-Low
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fVOGye_czDY/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-22131" src="media/7cffd0f4.oscartorrents.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oscartorrents.png" alt="" width="185" height="198">The Oscars is the most watched awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.</p>
<p>On Sunday, Hollywood’s finest gathered at the red carpet once again. Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther, Green Book, and&nbsp;Roma <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/91st_Academy_Awards">emerged as the big winners</a>, all winning multiple awards.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in Hollywood, there may have been a celebration&nbsp;of a different kind as well. The months leading up to the Oscars is usually a time when some of the most high-profile leaks take place. However, this year there were fewer screener leaks than before.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Many of the screeners that appear on pirate sites are linked to the Oscars. The films are sent out to voting members and, despite tough security measures, some always fall into the hands of outsiders.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This also happened this year. With &#8220;Green Book&#8221; and &#8220;Ralph Breaks the Internet,&#8221; the&nbsp;first pirated DVD screeners made their way onto various pirate sites <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-pirated-dvd-screeners-leak-online-181229/">in December</a>. However, the rate at which the screeners have leaked this year is significantly lower than before.</p>
<p>Relying on <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H8eds6jEe-BXoXIFH1RdbgigVtWdpyc8A9gyqHUt4Do/edit#gid=1">data</a> released by Oscar piracy watcher <a href="https://waxy.org/about/">Andy Baio</a>, we see that screeners for only seven of the nominated* films leaked before the awards ceremony. That&#8217;s roughly half of what we were used to seeing&nbsp;during previous years.&nbsp;</p>
<p>As can be seen below, the number of leaked screeners has gradually declined over the past decade-and-a-half, from a high of 29 in 2007 to seven this year.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/6d81c588.screeners.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/screeners.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168768"/><figcaption>Screener leaks of nominated films by Oscar night</figcaption></figure>


<p></p>
<p>We should be cautious&nbsp;of drawing strong conclusions, but there are some hints that could explain the drop. According to the pirate release group EVO, which leaked &#8220;Ralph Breaks the Internet,&#8221; the security on the DVD they got their hands on was stronger than before.&nbsp;</p>
<p>“From what I’ve seen, doing Ralph, the DVD protection on it was increased, since it was a nightmare to crack,” a EVO team member <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/replacing-dvd-screeners-with-online-versions-wont-stop-pirates-190126/">informed us</a> previously</p>
<p>Hive-CM8, the group that was responsible for most leaks in recent years, also signaled a possible reason for the slowdown.&nbsp;The group apparently lost access to its mail and website, which meant that many important contacts are gone as well.</p>
<p>“Since we lost our site/mail with no backup and with it all contacts gone, it’s quite complicated to get things going this year. We want to get things back as they were, but it will take time,” they <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-pirated-dvd-screeners-leak-online-181229/">said early on</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s also worth noting that there&#8217;s a limited number of groups getting involved in these screener&nbsp;leaks. Perhaps it&#8217;s harder to get access nowadays, or other groups simply decided to avoid these high profile releases, as they are associated with a higher risk.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Finally, the state of the movie industry may also play a significant role in the decreased number of screener leaks. This is a point that was previously&nbsp;<a href="https://medium.com/message/pirating-the-2015-oscars-hd-edition-6c78e0cb471d">raised</a> by Andy Baio.</p>
<p>Screeners are generally only released if there is no higher quality leak out already. Since release windows are getting smaller and WebRips and Web-DLs are more common, screeners are less relevant. This is also what we see in the data.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The graphs below show the number of leaked screeners dropped from more than 75% to under 25% over the past several years. However, the number of high-quality leaks remained fairly constant, around or above 90%.</p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/db5ca393.leakedperc.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/leakedperc.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168767"/><figcaption>HQ leaks vs. Screeners</figcaption></figure>


<p>As a concrete example, Netflix&#8217;s Oscar nominee &#8220;The Ballad of Buster Scruggs&#8221; was already out on pirate sites as a high-quality WebRip in November, before the screener version went out. Also, Netflix&#8217;s big Oscar winner Roma leaked in a high-quality format a few days after the first screener was sent.</p>
<p>When high-quality releases are already available, release groups have no incentive to put a screener version out. Hence, there are fewer screeners by definition.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s no doubt that the number of leaked screeners at the Oscar night was at an all-time low this year, it&#8217;s hard to pinpoint a single reason. Perhaps all the factors mentioned contributed to the drop, one way or another.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In any case, it&#8217;s unlikely that we will ever see 29 leaked Oscar nomination screeners in one year again, as happened in 2007.&nbsp;However, the widespread availability of high-quality leaks shows that piracy remains a challenge for Hollywood.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><sup>* &#8211; Foreign film and documentary categories are not included</sup></p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168811
title: Reelplay IPTV Service Faces Blocking Action in Australian Court
uri: Reelplay-IPTV-Service-Faces-Blocking-Action-in-Australian-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ucFBWcW-SmY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/be575134.image-8.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-8.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168817" width="241" height="136"/></figure></div>



<p>Hundreds &#8211; perhaps thousands &#8211; of companies and individuals around the globe provide IPTV services to the public.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s a rapidly expanding market but a significant number of providers operate without appropriate licensing, in some cases offering many thousands of channels to subscribers for extremely low monthly fees.</p>



<p>As a result, some of these services attract the attention of rightsholders, who target them with legal action for damages or, in many cases, blocking by Internet service providers to render their platforms less accessible to the public.</p>



<p>In Australia, a new action filed in the Federal Court by TV distributor International Media Distribution (IMD) targets <a href="https://reelplay.co/">Reelplay</a>, an IPTV provider that specializes in Italian, Greek, and Arabic programming.  </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/63c96637.Reelpay_banner_01.jpg" data-original-source="https://reelplay.co/images/banner_rotation/Reelpay_banner_01.jpg" alt="" width="600"/><figcaption>The Reelplay offering (from Reelplay.co)</figcaption></figure>



<p><a href="http://www.imd.lu/about-us/">IMD</a> says it&#8217;s &#8220;the leading aggregator and marketer of niche television services to various ethnic communities around the globe,&#8221; with the distribution rights for over 40 premium Arabic and Italian channels.</p>



<p>The company is registered in Luxembourg but has its marketing office headquartered in New York, where a local agent provides customer services under <a href="http://www.reachmediatv.com/">Reach Media</a>. IMD claims to be the single largest provider of ethnic channels to US-based multi-billion dollar TV distributor, Dish Network.</p>



<p>According to court documents obtained by <a href="https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/658232/international-tv-distributor-launches-court-action-targeting-reelplay-set-top-box/?fp=16&amp;fpid=1">ComputerWorld</a> and shared with TorrentFreak, IMD is joined in the case by two other applicants &#8211; Netherlands-based distributor Overlook Management BV and Lebanon-based pan-Arab TV station Al Jadeed (previously NewTV).</p>



<p>Together the applicants claim that Reelplay (which sells its <a href="https://reelplay.co/reelplay-arabic-iptv-package.html">Arabic package</a> for US$150, complete with a &#8216;free&#8217; Android-based hardware player) offers 15 TV channels for which they are the exclusive licensee. The channels include Al Arabiya, MTV Lebanon, and BBC Arabic. <a href="https://www.aljadeed.tv/arabic">Al Jadeed</a> (the third applicant) is listed as a copyright holder licensing its channel content to IMD.</p>



<p>The applicants claim that <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">Reelplay&#8217;s</g> IPTV service infringes their exclusive licenses in Australia so are now asking the Federal Court for an injunction under the Copyright Act to compel local ISPs to block the platform along with various ancillary services, all referred to as &#8220;online locations&#8221;.</p>



<p>&#8220;Without the license or other permission of the Applicants, the owners or operators of the Target Online Locations infringe, or facilitate infringement of, the copyright subsisting in the Applicants&#8217; Copyright Broadcasts by facilitating users of the Infringing Application on the Reel Play Device to access Streaming Locations that, without license or other permission of the Applicants communicate the Applicants&#8217; Copyright Broadcasts to Reel Play Device users&#8230;,&#8221; the application reads.</p>



<p>Describing the operators of Reelplay as demonstrating &#8220;a flagrant disregard for copyright&#8221;, the applicants state that disabling access to the &#8220;online locations&#8221; associated with the service (which include software update servers, an EPG, actual streams of infringing content, and a sales/registration portal) is both proportionate and in the public interest. </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/cff830a5.image-9.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-9.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168828" width="600"/><figcaption>&#8216;Online locations&#8217; requested for blocking</figcaption></figure>



<p>Reelplay says it offers a &#8220;best-in-class user experience&#8221; powered by a &#8220;proprietary streaming system, which we built from the ground up.&#8221; It also claims extensive logging of subscriber information and activities.</p>



<p>In addition to harvesting IP addresses and WiFi details, Reelplay<a href="https://reelplay.co/terms-and-conditions.html"> claims</a> to store users&#8217; search histories (including any voice-activated searches), search results, any advertising viewed, plus channel viewing history including times and duration of <g class="gr_ gr_153 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="153" data-gr-id="153">reception</g>.</p>



<p>Perhaps of most interest to the applicants in the case, however, Reelplay suggests it has no licenses for the content offered within its subscription package.</p>



<p>&#8220;Reelplay [is] not responsible for the content and do not guarantee nor claim any rights to the content. Reelplay devices provide streams of all the channels as they are available on the internet,&#8221; its documentation reads. </p>



<p>If granted by the Federal Court, an injunction would require ISP groups Telstra, Optus, Vocus, TPG, VHA, plus subsidiaries (52 providers total) to block the &#8216;online locations&#8217; listed in the table above.</p>



<p>While such cases have the potential to become complicated, the Court has previously shown to be thorough, with rightsholders not automatically given an easy ride. </p>



<p>However, under the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australian-parliament-passes-tough-new-anti-piracy-law-181128/">recently enhanced</a> Section 115a of Australia’s Copyright Act the process is now a familiar one and if the operators of Reelplay fail to defend (or produce licensing), an injunction will be the most likely result.</p>



<p><em>Court documents (courtesy of CW) <a href="media/4bd4df95.2019.02.13-Originating-Application-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2019.02.13-Originating-Application-1.pdf">here</a> and <a href="media/4cc8e6f9.2019.02.13-Concise-Statement-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2019.02.13-Concise-Statement-1.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168770
title: Sony Wants $16,800 in Damages From ‘Jailbroken’ PS4 Seller
uri: Sony-Wants-16-800-in-Damages-From-Jailbroken-PS4-Seller
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/y8b0Qmf45hM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-145223" src="media/774a9e8d.ps4.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ps4.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="122">For many years, the PlayStation 4 (PS4) appeared to be an&nbsp;<span data-dobid="hdw">impregnable fortress for pirates.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>This slowly began to change during the summer of 2017 and, following the release of a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-ps4-jailbreak-hits-firmware-4-55-excites-the-masses-180228/">new jailbreak version</a> a year later, the popular console has now fallen prey to pirates large and small.</p>
<p>The outburst of piracy prompted the&nbsp;Japanese company to take a stand. Last October, it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sony-sues-jailbroken-ps4-seller-for-copyright-infringement-181008/">filed a lawsuit</a> against&nbsp;a California man, accusing him of selling jailbroken PS4s filled with pirated games.</p>
<p>According to Sony, defendant Eric Scales used the handle “Blackcloak13” to sell the jailbroken PS4s preloaded with dozens&nbsp;of pirated games on eBay. In addition, he also maintained his own website, informing people that they can <a href="media/e3c34c6c.stopbuying.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/stopbuying.jpg">“stop buying games”</a> and use pirated versions instead.</p>
<p>In the months after Sony filed its complaint at the California federal court not much happened, with the defendant failing to respond. This left the gaming company with few other options than to file for a default judgment.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This is exactly what Sony did last week. In the accompanying memorandum, Sony reiterates its accusations.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant Eric David Scales advertises and sells &#8216;jailbroken&#8217; PlayStation®4&nbsp; video game consoles on eBay. These &#8216;jailbroken&#8217; PS4 consoles are loaded with pirated copies of PS4 video games. Defendant Scales also advertises on his website that he provides &#8216;jailbreaking&#8217; services,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p></p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/8e2ac893.scales.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/scales.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168803"/><figcaption>From the Memorandum</figcaption></figure>


<p>According to the gaming giant, it&#8217;s clear that the defendant infringed the copyrights of dozens of games. However, Sony requests compensation based on violations of the DMCA, due to the defendant circumventing the technical protection measures of the consoles.</p>
<p>Specifically, Sony requests $800 for the two consoles that were sold and another $200 per pirated game, which it sees as separate products that violate the DMCA&#8217;s anti-circumvention provisions. With 76 listed games, that brings the total damages to&nbsp;$16,800.</p>
<p>This is a reasonable amount according to the company, which notes that it didn&#8217;t include the man&#8217;s<span class="fontstyle0">&nbsp;July 2018 offer on eBay to sell a jailbroken PS4 console with a “170 game collection,”</span>&nbsp;or any of his other offerings. In addition, it&#8217;s also far below the statutory maximum damages.</p>
<p>The&nbsp;$16,800 is also warranted since the California man knew that he was breaking the law and failed&nbsp;to show up in court to defend himself, Sony adds.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;This amount is warranted in light of Defendant’s willful infringement and<br>violations of the DMCA, his refusal to appear in this action, and his acknowledged understanding and intent that his products be used to deprive [Sony] of the opportunity to sell genuine PS4 video games..,&#8221; Sony writes.</span>&nbsp;</p>
<p>In addition to the damages,&nbsp;Sony also requests&nbsp;<span class="fontstyle0">$3,458</span>&nbsp;in costs and attorney&#8217;s fees. If the judgment is granted, this brings&nbsp;the total amount owed to more than $20,000.&nbsp; Sony hopes that the court will issue the judgment. If not, it fears a dangerous precedent.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]f this Court were to decline entry of a default judgment against Defendant Scales, it could set a dangerous precedent, allowing the purveyors of pirated PS4 video games and &#8216;jailbroken&#8217; PS4 consoles to avoid liability by simply not responding to [Sony&#8217;s] claims,&#8221; the company concludes.</p>
<p>At the time of writing the defendant&#8217;s website is <a href="http://foxhoundoutfitters.wixsite.com/ps3-jailbreak-mods">no longer online</a>. The eBay account where the infringing items were previously sold has <a href="https://www.ebay.com/usr/blackcloak13">nothing on offer</a>&nbsp;either.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>Here are copies of the proposed default judgment (<a href="media/f7e6e20f.scales.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/scales.pdf">pdf</a>) and Sony&#8217;s full memorandum (<a href="media/58f8d2a3.scales1.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/scales1.pdf">pdf</a>), both obtained by TorrentFreak.</em></p>
<p></p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168896
title: Pirate Site Blocking Rejected By Swiss Supreme Court
uri: Pirate-Site-Blocking-Rejected-By-Swiss-Supreme-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UkKJxUWHtNY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/2911f25e.swiss-usb.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swiss-usb.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-43153"/></figure></div>



<p>The blocking of pirate sites is now common in many countries of the world. In Europe, it&#8217;s particularly prevalent but a case just concluded in Switzerland has just bucked that trend.</p>



<p>While Switzerland is located geographically in Europe, it is not in the EU, meaning that the rules that cover the 28 members of the Union do not automatically apply. In a case involving a local film producer brought against a major ISP, that has provided an interesting twist.</p>



<p>In 2015, Zurich film company Praesens-Film filed a lawsuit targeting local <a href="https://www.swisscom.ch/">Swisscom</a>. It demanded that the ISP prevent its customers from accessing pirate sites but the action was far from straightforward, with the Commercial Court of the Canton of Bern rejecting the action in 2017.</p>



<p>Praesens-Film refused to give up, eventually taking its complaint all the way to the highest court in the land &#8211; the Federal Supreme Court. Now, however, that action has also been dismissed due to a reluctance to hold Swisscom liable for the infringing actions of others.</p>



<p>&#8220;In order for Swisscom to be obliged to block the Internet sites in question, it would need to be a participant in <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">a copyright</g> infringement by third parties, by making a legally relevant contribution to it. That&#8217;s not the case,&#8221; the Court wrote this week.</p>



<p>The Court agreed that the operators of the sites in question (and the companies making the movies available via hosting services) are breaking the law, but it refused to connect the ISP to those infringements.</p>



<p>&#8220;[S]wisscom <g class="gr_ gr_26 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="26" data-gr-id="26">can not</g> be accused of making a concrete contribution to these copyright infringements. The activity of Swisscom is limited to offering access to the worldwide Internet,&#8221; the Court added.</p>



<p>&#8220;The films are not [released by Swisscom] but released by third parties from unknown locations abroad. These Third parties are neither customers of Swisscom nor are they otherwise in a relationship with them.&#8221;</p>



<p>The Court said that the fact that Swisscom and other ISPs in Switzerland provide technical infrastructure to enable customers to access the Internet is insufficient to directly link them to the infringement. If it ruled otherwise, all ISPs could be found liable.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s at this point it becomes clear why the Swiss Court&#8217;s opinion differs from others around the EU, who &#8211; with guidance from the European Court of Justice &#8211; have found that ISPs can indeed be held liable for infringement of <g class="gr_ gr_13 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="13" data-gr-id="13">copyr</g>ight.</p>



<p>The infringements in such cases are not only carried out by pirate sites<g class="gr_ gr_217 gr-alert gr_tiny gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="217" data-gr-id="217">,</g> they&#8217;re also carried out by the customers of ISPs, who illegally stream or download copyrighted content to their home connections. In Switzerland, however, downloading or streaming content &#8211; even when that content is from an unlicensed source &#8211; is not illegal.</p>



<p>&#8220;[T]here is no copyright infringement on the part of the users,&#8221; the Court said.</p>



<p>&#8220;Copyright law allows this use of published works for personal use, regardless of whether the source is lawful or unlawful. Legislators <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-copyright-law-proposals-good-news-for-pirates-bad-for-pirate-sites-171124/">rejected</a> the copyright revision, which would have prohibited the duplication of works from illegal sources for their own use.&#8221;</p>



<p>In conclusion, the Court ruled that any decision on future blocking of pirate sites lies in the hands of legislators.</p>



<p>While tackling the problem of overseas pirate sites is an issue for most countries, it&#8217;s claimed that Switzerland is actually home to many. According to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-switzerland-remains-extremely-attractive-for-pirate-sites-181111/">recent submission</a> to the USTR by the MPAA, the country&#8217;s copyright laws are &#8220;wholly inadequate&#8221;, meaning that it has become a significant base for pirate services.</p>



<p><em>The decision of the Federal Supreme Court can be found here (<a href="media/fdd09813.Swisscom-ruling-27-2-19.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Swisscom-ruling-27-2-19.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168862
title: Pirate Proxy ‘Unblocked’ Fights Censors With 38th Domain Name
uri: Pirate-Proxy-Unblocked-Fights-Censors-With-38th-Domain-Name
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GUISU-0nkCc/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-147564" src="media/a70e19c9.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="207" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px">The entertainment industries generally view website blocking as one of the best tools available to prevent people from pirating.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The practice has been around for over a decade and has slowly expanded to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nearly-4000-pirate-sites-are-blocked-by-isps-around-the-world-190210/">more than 30 countries</a> around the world.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While these blockades may help to deter some casual pirates, there are plenty of people who find their&nbsp;ways to pirate content through workarounds. VPN services are often used as well as dedicated proxy sites, including those provided by &#8220;<a href="https://unblocked.pet/">Unblocked</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unblocked started in 2013, mainly in response to the UK blocking efforts. It began with links to a few dozen blocked pirate sites, and today that number has grown to more than a hundred.</p>
<p>The site quickly gained popularity. While that&#8217;s usually good news, in this case it presented a problem as well, since the Unblocked site itself has now become a blocking target. It didn&#8217;t take long before it was added to various blocklists, which means that it has to regularly &#8216;relocate&#8217;.</p>
<p>In recent years this has resulted in domain change after domain&nbsp;change. Initially, this only happened sporadically, but the Unblocked team informs TorrentFreak that it&#8217;s done roughly once a month now, usually after users report new blockades.</p>
<p>Just a few weeks ago the site moved from unblocked.llc to unblocked.cx to evade another block, for example. However, the latter domain was swiftly suspended by the domain name registry CoCCA.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Domain suspensions are not common, but they happen. In this case, the registry took action after a complaint from a copyright holder, the Unblocked team informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;We contacted the registry and they said the use of unblocked.cx was against their TOS and showed us an automated DMCA complaint they received regarding some movie links. We then changed the domain to unblocked.pet.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unblocked.pet is the 38th domain for the site,&#8221; the Unblocked team adds.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/f5f293c6.unblovked.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/unblovked.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168868"/><figcaption>Unblocked</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>To stay true to its name, the site has to find new domain names time and again. The total count of 38 domain names thus far says enough. While this is a nuisance for the operator, it doesn&#8217;t appear to hurt the userbase too much.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;We haven&#8217;t noticed any major shifts in traffic caused by the blocks. As long as we have a new domain up and running, people are able to find it immediately through different means,&#8221; the Unblocked team notes.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;After domain updates, traffic levels return to normal after about one or two days. It takes a little more time for traffic to recover after a domain suspension, such as what we just saw with unblocked.cx.&#8221;</p>
<p>After losing the .cx domain it took four to five days for the traffic levels to recover. That was also the case a few years earlier when the CoCCA registry suspended Unblocked&#8217;s .pe domain name.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It appears&nbsp;that Unblocked users have become accustomed to regular changes. They can usually find the new domain through the <a href="https://twitter.com/ThePirateProxy">official Twitter</a> account, or by going to the <a href="https://unblocked-pw.github.io/">GitHub mirror</a>, which has been operational since 2015.</p>
<p>In any case, Unblocked is determined to keep going, and the site will probably burn through a few more domains before the end of the year.</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168848
title: German Data Privacy Commissioner Sounds Alarm Over ‘Upload Filter Oligopoly’
uri: German-Data-Privacy-Commissioner-Sounds-Alarm-Over-Upload-Filter-Ol
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/b61wKRfjRJk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/6542fb40.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-136985"/></figure></div>



<p>After <g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="14" data-gr-id="14">lengthy</g> discussion, campaigning, and sometimes hostile debate, earlier this month the European Parliament and Council <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-reaches-deal-on-article-13-and-other-copyright-reform-plans-190213/">finally agreed</a> on the final text of the EU&#8217;s copyright reform proposals.</p>



<p>Based on a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/article-13-moves-forward-with-new-french-german-deal-190206/">compromise deal</a> struck between France and Germany, the final version of Article 13 requires for-profit Internet platforms to license content from copyright holders. In the event that&#8217;s not possible, platforms will be required to take infringing content down and ensure that it&#8217;s not re-uploaded to their services. </p>



<p>Proponents of the legislation argue that this does not automatically mean the use of so-called &#8220;upload filters&#8221; but those in opposition simply cannot see any way the objectives can be achieved without them. Needless to say, privacy advocates aren&#8217;t happy with the prospect of their data being analyzed every time they carry out an upload to qualifying platforms.</p>



<p>While most of the furor has centered around known false positive weaknesses in existing content recognition systems such as YouTube&#8217;s Content ID, there is increasing concern that only the richest of platforms will be able to build their own competing systems.</p>



<p>Those that don&#8217;t will be required to use third-party vendors and the fear is that the big players will scoop up the market, effectively channeling the traffic of millions of EU citizens through a small number of companies<g class="gr_ gr_188 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="188" data-gr-id="188">.</g></p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_188 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="188" data-gr-id="188">This</g>, it appears, has raised alarm bells in the office of Ulrich <g class="gr_ gr_121 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="121" data-gr-id="121">Kelber</g>, Germany&#8217;s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.</p>



<p>In a statement published this week in <a href="https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Pressemitteilungen/2019/10_Uploadfilter.html;jsessionid=B4190157E6A16C7DB3E58255422229E5.2_cid329">German</a> <em>(translated by  <br>Florian Mueller of </em><a href="http://www.fosspatents.com/2019/02/germanys-federal-data-protection.html#translation"><em>fosspatents.com</em></a><em> and officially approved by the government agency),&nbsp;</em><g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">Kelber</g> states that the proposals currently on the table in Brussels pose significant risks to data privacy rights.</p>



<p>&#8220;Even though upload filters are not explicitly mandated by the bill, they will be employed as a practical effect. Especially smaller platform operators and service providers will not be in a position to conclude license agreements with all [copy]right holders. Nor will they be able to make the software <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">develoment</g> effort to create upload filters of their own,&#8221; <g class="gr_ gr_49 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="49" data-gr-id="49">Kelber</g> writes.</p>



<p>&#8220;Instead, they will utilize offerings by large IT companies just the way it is already happening, for one example, in the field of analytics tools, where the relevant components created by Facebook, Amazon <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="3" data-gr-id="3">and</g> Google are used by many apps, websites, and services.&#8221; </p>



<p>This, <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">Kelber</g> says, would have the undesirable effect of a small number <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">of  companies</g> being able to scoop up even more data on Internet users, as they examine all uploads for allegedly infringing content.</p>



<p>&#8220;At the end of the day, this would result in an oligopoly consisting of a few vendors of filtering technologies, which would then be instrumental to more or less the entire Internet data traffic of relevant platforms and services,&#8221; <g class="gr_ gr_19 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="19" data-gr-id="19">Kelber</g> notes.</p>



<p>&#8220;The wealth of information those vendors would receive about all users in the process is evidenced by, among other examples, current media coverage of data transfers by eHealth apps to Facebook.&#8221;</p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">Kelber</g>, a computer scientist himself, describes this looming side-effect of Article 13 as a &#8220;clear and present danger&#8221; and is calling on the EU to explain how the regime detailed in the proposals can be achieved <em>without upload filters,&nbsp;</em>as many supporters are claiming.</p>



<p>&#8220;If the EU believes platform operators can meet their new obligations [under the proposed copyright directive] without upload filters, it must make a clear showing. That is why I am <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="4" data-gr-id="4">awaiting</g> with great interest the [European] Commission&#8217;s forthcoming recommendations.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the other event, data privacy considerations require a thorough overhaul of the bill. Notwithstanding the need to update the protection of author&#8217;s rights in our times, such a measure must not harm or compromise the protection of Internet users&#8217; data,&#8221; he concludes.</p>



<p>Also this week, the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee voted through the final draft of the Copyright Directive, with sixteen votes in favor and nine against. Then, following the &#8216;mob&#8217; PR disaster (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">2</a>) last month, the EU managed to make a mess of things again with the following Tweet/video.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter aligncenter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Your memes are safe ?<br>Freedom of expression is not affected ?<br>It&#39;s all about fair payment to content creators ?   <br><br>Watch to learn more about the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/copyrightdirective?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#copyrightdirective</a> ? <a href="https://t.co/ztYzrl4sdH">pic.twitter.com/ztYzrl4sdH</a></p>&mdash; European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/status/1100697243521294336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2019</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div><figcaption>The troublesome video</figcaption></figure>



<p>If you didn&#8217;t spot the need for clarification or correction of errors already, here&#8217;s Julia Reda MEP with the details.</p>



<p>&#8220;The video claims that the reform is directed at &#8216;large platforms&#8217;: In fact, the size of the platform does not matter for the application of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/article13?src=hash">#<strong>article13</strong></a>, merely whether it hosts &#8216;large amounts&#8217; of protected content. This can also be the case for a platform run by a single person,&#8221; Reda <a href="https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1101072982808641536">wrote</a> on Twitter, adding:</p>



<p>&#8220;The video <a href="https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1101074118353608704">says</a> a lighter regime applies to platforms that have a turnover below 10 Million *or* less than 5 million unique visitors. This is just wrong. Actually, the lighter regime only applies if both criteria are met, and platforms are also younger than 3 years old.&#8221;</p>



<p>While the errors are of course a problem, the fact that the EU is weighing in yet again in a manner that appears to be biased is not being well received by opponents of Article 13. Indeed, it only appears to have further fueled the fire.</p>



<p>At the time of writing more than 4.9 million people have signed a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet">Change.org petition to stop Article <g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style multiReplace" id="14" data-gr-id="14">13</g></a><g class="gr_ gr_14 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style multiReplace" id="14" data-gr-id="14"> ,</g> with 67 MEPs publicly pledging to <a href="https://pledge2019.eu/en">vote against the law</a>.</p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168946
title: Steal This Show S04E12: Software Will Eat The World (Part Two)
uri: Steal-This-Show-S04E12-Software-Will-Eat-The-World-(Part-Two)
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EO7okendP1s/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928" src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="" width="180" height="180">We continue the episode starting with the idea of Silicon Valley as a new empire, restructuring the world’s institutions through software, we consider the ideology of this empire, and how it differs from that of the previous order of transnational capitalism.</p>
<p>Have what Evan calls Silicon Valley’s ‘social libertarian’ values survived the terrific enlargement of the second-wave web services like Uber, Facebook and Airbnb into global superpowers?</p>
<p>Finally, we discuss <a href="https://about.me/rabble">@Rabble</a>’s work developing Scuttlebutt as a future platform for decentralised community, content distribution and monetisation. Are we moving away from the cycles of centralisation we’ve seen with platforms like Google and Facebook and towards a cycle of decentralisation?</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing crypto, privacy, copyright and file-sharing developments. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest: </strong><a href="https://twitter.com/rabble/">Rabble</a></p>
<p><center><iframe src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&amp;lpe-season=4&amp;lpe-episode=12" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &amp; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Lucas Marston<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Barch</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168983
title: As More Universities ‘Ditch’ Elsevier, Sci-Hub Blossoms
uri: As-More-Universities-Ditch-Elsevier-Sci-Hub-Blossoms
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9znyHMF84ww/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-148552" src="media/a00bfc67.sci-hub1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub1.png" alt="" width="225" height="281">Little more than three years ago, Elsevier, one of the world&#8217;s largest academic publishers, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/elsevier-cracks-down-on-pirated-scientific-articles-150609/">took Sci-Hub to court</a>.</p>
<p>It was a mismatched battle from the start. With a net income of more than $2.4 billion per year, the publisher could fund a proper case, while its nemesis relied on donations.</p>
<p>Elsevier won the case, including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-ordered-to-pay-15-million-in-piracy-damages-170623/">millions of dollars</a> in damages. However, the site remained online and grew bigger. Ironically, the academic publisher itself appears to be one of the main drivers of this growth.</p>
<p>In recent years there&nbsp;has been a major push in academic circles&nbsp;to move to Open Access publishing. Instead of locking academic&nbsp;publications behind paywalls, they should be freely available to researchers around the world as well as the public at large, the argument goes.</p>
<p>There has been some progress on this front, but it&#8217;s been slow. Meanwhile, Elsevier and other publishers continue to sell expensive subscriptions to universities. So expensive, that many institutions can&#8217;t afford them.</p>
<p>This means that their researchers run into paywalls, so they can&#8217;t do their work properly. It&#8217;s an absurd situation for the academic&nbsp;world, which is built on the premise that researchers build upon the work of others.</p>
<p>In an attempt to force a breakthrough, the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California">University of California&nbsp;</a>(UC), which includes <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California#Campuses_and_rankings">ten campuses</a>, requested that all its research be made available to the public from Elsevier without cost. This was possible, but only if UC&#8217;s authors paid extra publishing fees.</p>
<p>This was not an option for UC, which already had to pay a multi-million dollar subscription, so it <a href="https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-terminates-subscriptions-worlds-largest-scientific-publisher-push-open-access-publicly">cut its ties</a> with Elsevier. The university notes that it doesn&#8217;t want to pay the rapidly escalating costs when its own work isn&#8217;t freely available.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t a problem that&#8217;s limited to UC, many other institutions can&#8217;t or are not willing to pay millions in subscription fees. This has reached a point where it&#8217;s pretty much impossible, even for wealthy universities, to access all academic knowledge.</p>
<p>“Make no mistake: The prices of scientific journals now are so high that not a single university in the U.S. — not the University of California, not Harvard, no institution — can afford to subscribe to them all,” says Jeffrey MacKie-Mason, university librarian and economics professor at UC Berkeley.</p>
<p>“Publishing our scholarship behind a paywall deprives people of the access to and benefits of publicly funded research. That is terrible for society,”&nbsp;MacKie-Mason adds.</p>
<p>This issue is not new and Elsevier is not the only publisher to demand high subscription fees. As the largest academic publisher, however, the effects of canceled subscriptions are felt most at Elsevier.</p>
<p>Several universities from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-00492-4?fbclid=IwAR2LfG9TXPFxhUliozjB5EnbtvbsFSF8FdpAxCdRO0ImquiYX8af1sCcIhk">Germany, Hungary, and Sweden</a> previously let their Elsevier subscriptions expire, which means that tens of thousands of researchers don&#8217;t have access to research that is critical to their work.</p>
<p>This is where Sci-Hub comes into play.</p>
<p>The &#8220;Pirate Bay of Science&#8221; might just quietly play a major role in this conflict. Would the universities cancel their subscriptions so easily if their researchers couldn&#8217;t use Sci-Hub to get free copies?</p>
<p>Without access to critical research, their employees can&#8217;t function properly, so this &#8216;pirate&#8217; backup comes in handy for sure.</p>
<p>Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan has always been forthcoming about her goals. Sci-Hub wants to remove all barriers in the way of science. She also made that crystal clear when we interviewed her back in 2015.</p>
<p>“Everyone should have access to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s absolutely legal. Also, the idea that knowledge can be a&nbsp;private property of some commercial company sounds absolutely weird to me,” <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/">she said at the time</a>.</p>
<p>While Sci-Hub may not be a permanent solution, its existence definitely pays a major role as a bargaining chip in a changing academic publishing world. While it&#8217;s early days, Sci-Hub certainly helped to make the paywalls crumble.</p>
<p>A quick look at <a href="https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/sci-hub.tw#trafficstats">some traffic stats</a> shows that the site&#8217;s visitors continue to grow at a rapid rate, and with UC&#8217;s most recent decision to cancel its Elsevier subscription, this trend is likely to continue.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168825
title: Uploaded.net Has No Real Ties to Switzerland, Criminal Investigation Shows
uri: Uploaded-net-Has-No-Real-Ties-to-Switzerland-Criminal-Investigation-S
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ibHeJC2JRf4/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-126196" src="media/4cf2e55b.uploadedlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uploadedlogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="89"></p>
<p>With millions of visitors per month, <a href="https://uploaded.net/">Uploaded</a> is one of the largest file-hosting services on the Internet.</p>
<p>Like many of its ‘cloud-hosting’ competitors, the service is also used to share copyright-infringing material, which is a thorn in the side of various copyright holder groups.</p>
<p>This led&nbsp;to all sorts of trouble for Uploaded’s parent company Cyando AG. It was<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-uploaded-net-failed-to-prevent-piracy-faces-damages-160812/"> sued in Germany</a>, called out <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-brands-torrent-streaming-cyberlocker-sites-as-notorious-markets-180115/">by the US Government</a>, and subjected to a criminal investigation&nbsp;in Switzerland, where it&#8217;s believed to operate from.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s&nbsp;whereabouts are not really a secret. Uploaded clearly <a href="https://uploaded.net/about">displays</a> the Swiss &#8216;base&#8217; on its website. Switzerland is widely known for its strict data protection regulations, something Uploaded&#8217;s parent company also highlighted in a <a href="http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2016/03/cyando-ag-swiss-perfection-comes-to-the-cloud/">sponsored post</a>&nbsp;on Gizmodo.</p>
<p><em>&#8220;The big cheese &#8211; sorry &#8211; in Swiss cloud computing is Cyando AG. </em>Cyando<em> AG is the name behind Uploaded.net, the file hosting service with millions of worldwide users. It’s growing quickly, and so is its reputation: individual and corporate users alike know that they can trust Uploaded.net with their most precious data.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>The apparent Swiss link prompted the&nbsp;International Intellectual Property Alliance (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Intellectual_Property_Alliance">IIPA</a>) to include it in its latest report to the US Trade Representative. By offering a home to these types of sites, Switzerland poses a threat to the interests of American copyright holders, it argued.</p>
<p>However, Switzerland doesn&#8217;t agree. A few days ago, the country submitted a rebuttal to the USTR. The Swiss point out that proposed updates to copyright law will alleviate many current concerns, and they also suggest that Uploaded.net is not their problem.</p>
<p>Local law enforcement authorities completed a criminal investigation into the site, but concluded that there are &#8220;no real ties&#8221; to Switzerland, unlike the IIPA suggests.</p>
<p>&#8220;IIPA seems to be unaware that a criminal proceeding has been conducted against Cyando AG/Uploaded.net. The investigation showed that there are no real ties to Switzerland and that the operation is very likely conducted from a neighboring EU member state,&#8221; Switzerland&#8217;s rebuttal reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the investigation proved unsuccessful for lack of ties to Switzerland, it nevertheless proves the ability and willingness of the Swiss authorities to act against Internet piracy,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>IIPA also mentioned Oboom, another file-hosting service which has a &#8220;Swiss made&#8221; logo on its homepage. However, according to the response from Switzerland&#8217;s Government, this site is no longer a problem either.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;Concerning&nbsp;</span><span class="fontstyle2">Oboom</span><span class="fontstyle0">, consulting the Commercial Register shows that the company is being liquidated and is therefore no longer a threat to copyright owners,&#8221; the Swiss write.</span></p>
<p>While the company may be liquidated soon, it&#8217;s unclear whether the site will also disappear. At the time of writing it is still <a href="https://www.oboom.com/index">fully functional</a>, with no hint that anything is about to change soon.</p>
<p>The Swiss Government believes that their enforcement efforts and the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-copyright-law-proposals-good-news-for-pirates-bad-for-pirate-sites-171124/">proposed changes</a> to the copyright law should put an end to criticism directed against Switzerland as a host country for infringing sites.</p>
<p>As such, they hope that the US Government won&#8217;t list the country in its upcoming <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_301_Report">Special 301 Report</a>, which provides an overview of countries with lacking copyright regulations.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;Despite the erroneous picture the industry submissions convey, enforcement of copyright protection in the online context is possible in Switzerland,&#8221; the Swiss write in their letter.</span></p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;Given the steady progress made in the ongoing legislative process, Switzerland considers a further inclusion on the Watch List to be unjustified and inappropriate,&#8221; they add.</span></p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of Switzerland&#8217;s submission to the United States Trade Representative is <a href="media/82d32352.301-2019_Public-Comment-Switzerland_20190220.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/301-2019_Public-Comment-Switzerland_20190220.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168878
title: Sky TV Sends Google Thousands of Complaints to Delist Pirate IPTV Services
uri: Sky-TV-Sends-Google-Thousands-of-Complaints-to-Delist-Pirate-IPTV-Serv
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PPCSDdZNUXM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/2dae909e.skylogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-124729" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo-220x129.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px"></figure></div>



<p>Like the majority of commercial broadcasters around the world, Sky has genuine competitors, eager to capture the company&#8217;s market share.</p>



<p>However, with the rise of unlicensed IPTV providers, which are offered either directly or through a staggering number of re-sellers and affiliates, Sky also faces huge competition from pirates. It is not difficult to see why.</p>



<p>While Sky subscriptions start at somewhat affordable prices, enhanced packages that involve premium movies and sports can escalate to sums that many households simply cannot muster. Pirate IPTV services, on the other hand, are cheap and offer channel packages that eclipse all legal offers.</p>



<p>To that end, companies like Sky are keen to wipe such platforms from the map but there&#8217;s currently a huge deficiency in what can actually be done to take them down. Nevertheless, that doesn&#8217;t stop Sky from trying to make a dent in the volume of eyes landing on their websites.</p>



<p>During the past few weeks, Sky has been sending takedown notices to Google targeting many thousands of URLs that make up the websites of pirate IPTV providers servicing customers everywhere.</p>



<p>A single notice <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18001114">here</a>, for example, attempts wipe 500 URLs belonging to EpicIPTV, Enjoy-IPTV, TalentIPTV, BestIPTV, and many, many more. Another, sent <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121263">just this week</a>, targets the websites of a dozen more, systematically attempting to delist every URL. A <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18001128">third</a>, sent at the beginning of February, attempts to remove 500 pages belonging to just a single provider.</p>



<p>The list of notices (mainly sent by Sky in Italy, followed by Sky UK) goes on and on (<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18132470">1</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18133734">2</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121259">3</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121176">4</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121193">5</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121186">6</a>,<a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/18121085">7)</a> but most have something in common. Despite the fact that a regular DMCA takedown notice should list URLs containing infringing content, the vast majority of those sent by Sky do not.</p>



<p>Instead, they target the sales portals, information databases, FAQs, and other ancillary pages that support infringing activity carried out elsewhere. None of the services targeted appear to offer pirate streams from the websites listed in the takedown notices, meaning that from a strictly technical perspective, none should be removed by Google.</p>



<p>While Google does indeed reject some of the notices for reasons unknown, many have been removed as requested. All that being said, it&#8217;s somewhat difficult to criticize Sky for not playing strictly by the rules when so many illicit services aren&#8217;t playing by them in any capacity.</p>



<p>So, as things stand, it looks like the strategy of targeting providers&#8217; web presences will continue, since it often removes them from view and, as this <a href="https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/site-hidden-due-to-dmca-violation.1098480/">forum post shows</a>, can cause significant irritation and loss of profits for some <g class="gr_ gr_19 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="19" data-gr-id="19">peop</g>le (re)selling IPTV services.</p>



<p>That being said, this removal of web presences does little to stop the underlying IPTV services from continuing, business as usual. That makes this a game of <g class="gr_ gr_159 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="159" data-gr-id="159">whac-a-mole</g> that will never <g class="gr_ gr_184 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="184" data-gr-id="184">end,</g> unless the underlying services are dealt with.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168259
title: Record Label Targets Copyright Experts With “Bogus” Takedown Request
uri: Record-Label-Targets-Copyright-Experts-With-Bogus-Takedown-Reque
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Je0S-smtjtY/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211" src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="164">Takedown notices are a particularly useful tool for copyright holders who want to make sure that infringing copies of their work are not widely distributed.</p>
<p>Every single day, rightsholders and their representatives scour the web for references to pirated content, which generally aren’t hard to find.</p>
<p>These links are then reported to various online services, such as Google, with requests for their operators to remove the allegedly infringing content. This system works well in most cases, but it&#8217;s far from flawless.</p>
<p>We have documented a wide variety of mistakes in the past, ranging from movie studios who target their own content to outright censorship attempts. Today we can add another unusual example to the list.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/11130285">DMCA notice</a> in question was sent to Google on behalf India&#8217;s oldest record label, Saregama. At first glance, it appears to be fine, listing dozens of domain names where its work is published without permission. On closer inspection, however, one URL definitely stands out.</p>
<p>The record label requests Google to remove a link to <a href="https://spicyip.com/">SpicyIP</a>, a widely respected and well-known blog among copyright experts and lawyers, frequently rated as one of the top sources in the field.</p>
<p>The site was founded by professor Shamnad Basheer, a legal scholar from India, who&#8217;s helped by a team of ten other copyright specialists. Not a site one would typically associate with hosting pirated songs, as the label suggests in its takedown notice.</p>
<p>And indeed, no pirated content was linked on the site. Still, Google informed SpicyIP that it received a takedown notice, with which it had to comply.</p>
<p>“Google has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that some of the material found on your site allegedly infringes upon the copyrights of others,&#8221; Google wrote.</p>
<p><span class="by-author">SpicyIP author&nbsp;<span class="author vcard">Divij Joshi, who also happens to be a lawyer, <a href="https://spicyip.com/2019/02/saregama-pa-rdon-me-you-have-the-wrong-address-on-the-perils-and-pitfalls-of-notice-and-takedown.html">notes</a> that the search engine went ahead and removed the page from its index. </span></span><span class="by-author"><span class="author vcard">If the site disagreed with this decision, it could file a counter-notice or reach out to a legal expert, the search engine noted.&nbsp;</span></span>In this case, that wasn&#8217;t a problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;Thankfully, we don’t have to look far in these parts to find a lawyer to handle this process, and our counter-notice was successful. Our post was eventually reinstated on January 21,&#8221;&nbsp;<span class="by-author"><span class="author vcard"> Joshi writes.&nbsp;</span></span></p>
<p>SpicyIP notes that it&#8217;s &#8220;funny&#8221; and &#8220;appropriate&#8221; that the takedown notice was sent to a copyright law blog. However, it also gives rise to critical notes about these automated takedown systems.</p>
<p>&#8220;Had it happened to a non-lawyer, or even someone who had ceased to take interest in their old blog, as it often does, it would result in the permanent removal of public information from an index which serves as the gateway to the internet, due to the ‘mistakes’ of private parties whose interests do not coincide with public access,&#8221; Joshi cautions.</p>
<p>The implications for the future of access to knowledge shouldn&#8217;t be ignored according to the copyright blog. Especially at a time where &#8220;upload filters&#8221; become more prevalent. Also in India, where the Government recently <a href="https://spicyip.com/2019/01/draft-intermediary-guidelines-rules-will-undermine-fair-dealing-and-access-to-knowledge-online.html">proposed a law</a> that imposes automated takedowns requirements, much like Article 13.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=167954
title: The Interesting Double Standards in the Piracy World
uri: The-Interesting-Double-Standards-in-the-Piracy-World
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NhEdUqQd5Ew/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/abffda08.oldpirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oldpirate.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-102818"/></figure></div>



<p>There are hundreds of millions of pirates online every month, each with their own reasons for obtaining content without paying for it.</p>



<p>For this reason alone, attempting to generalize the feelings and motivations of these vast swathes of individuals into a convenient soundbite is <g class="gr_ gr_21 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="21" data-gr-id="21">a some</g>what futile exercise. Quite literally, every single pirate is an individual, with their own personal reasons for doing what they do.</p>



<p>Calling all pirates &#8216;thieves&#8217;, for example, discredits the large volumes of money spent by many &#8216;part-time&#8217; pirates on services such as Netflix, Spotify, iTunes, and even their home TV packages. On the other hand, there are plenty of pirates who won&#8217;t pay a single penny for any media, for reasons as diverse as restrictive DRM, poor content availability, or simply not having the funds to do so.</p>



<p>That being said, there are still some interesting observations to be made, including the tendency among more experienced pirates to treat their activities as a serious hobby, one that is governed by <a href="https://scenerules.org/">written</a> and unwritten rules and regulations that have developed organically over the years.</p>



<p>Many pirates have invested years learning the technology, nurturing connections and developing friendships within pirate communities, all while observing the etiquette of their own subculture. However, interesting complications can arise when adhering to those rules presents a clash with similar standards laid down in civil and criminal law.</p>



<p>For example, piracy release groups like to take credit for leaking or releasing movies, TV shows, or software by adding their own text (or tag) to a release name to identify them as the source. For decades, this has been seen as a badge of honor and it ensures recognition among peer groups for putting the content online. The more quality releases under a certain group name, the greater the respect received from fellow pirates.</p>



<p>However, hundreds of conversations over the years have centered on the cardinal sin of torrent site release groups relabeling releases first made by other groups by adding their own &#8216;tag&#8217; to those releases. While some pirates are oblivious that this even happens, the act is considered the height of bad manners in many piracy circles and something that flies in the face of the unwritten and often complex etiquette observed by countless purists.</p>



<p>Many commenters vigorously attack such relabeling of pirate releases, painting it as an unforgivable insult to the original release groups who put &#8220;so much time and effort&#8221; into placing the content online. While completely understandable to most piracy veterans, it is not hard to spot the glaring double standard here.</p>



<p>If we take a step back just for a moment, it appears that while it&#8217;s never acceptable for pirates to plagiarize or wrongfully claim the work of other pirates, there doesn&#8217;t appear to be a problem with copying, sharing, distributing or otherwise handling copyrighted content created by entertainment companies. This is content that&#8217;s protected under official law, no less, rather than the largely unwritten &#8216;regulations&#8217; of the piracy subculture.</p>



<p>As highlighted earlier, it can be difficult to explain why one set of people find relabeling more offensive than breaking copyright law, since there is likely to be as many combinations of reasons as there are users. However, it cannot be denied that many piracy groups have become heroes in their own right, with many seen as doing more for the regular Joe than the majority of &#8220;greedy entertainment companies&#8221; who &#8220;place profits over respect for their customers&#8221;.</p>



<p>It could be argued, therefore, that the anger at those taking credit for another group&#8217;s releases is based in the perception that this is a direct insult to the reputation of people who are highly respected in piracy circles. Everyone has their own heroes and some are completely off-limits, it seems.</p>



<p>A similar conversation was spotted recently in a Kodi add-on community forum, which centered on the heavy criticism of an add-on distributor that had been spreading add-ons without obtaining the proper permission from their respective developers.</p>



<p>It was interesting to note that the add-ons in question seemed designed for the purposes of providing access to copyright-infringing content, which of course is distributed online without the proper permission of copyright holders. There&#8217;s the apparent double standard once again, but that&#8217;s not really a surprise.</p>



<p>Through seemingly endless litigation (against both users and sites) and restrictions such as web-blocking and filtering (Article 13, for example) a strong culture of &#8220;them and us&#8221; has been brewing online for many years. As a result, pirates often feel like an oppressed group that should be seen to stand together, in order to show a united front against perceived oppression.</p>



<p>In other words, by sticking together and not committing &#8216;wrongs&#8217; against each other, pirates are able to maintain some sort of order in respect of things they have some control over. When certain groups breach those rules or display a lack of respect for accepted etiquette or trusted releasers, another &#8216;enemy&#8217; appears from within to undermine the cause.</p>



<p>This muddying of the battle lines is typical of certain aspects of regular culture, where it&#8217;s somewhat frictionless for many to commit a wrong against a stranger but absolutely taboo to do the same to a close friend or relative. Again, this is also a type of double standard but when viewed through the prism of close alliances and human nature, it&#8217;s one that&#8217;s entirely understandable.</p>



<p>Perhaps the big take-home message for content companies from this type of internal conflict is to become much closer to their customers, so that pirate consumers end up feeling a similar kind of loyalty towards them as they do pirate release groups, app makers, add-on developers, and site operators.</p>



<p>It may take years to do so but underneath everything is a genuine will among all people (hardcore pirates included) to stand up for those who have really earned their respect. Once that is achieved, a big part of the puzzle is in place.</p>



<p> </p>



<p></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168592
title: Anti-Piracy Company Offers Advertising Deal to ‘Pirate’ Sites
uri: Anti-Piracy-Company-Offers-Advertising-Deal-to-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/G9ukQ4v1fLU/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168917" src="media/af93ed06.dmcaforce.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dmcaforce.png" alt="" width="259" height="94"></p>
<p>In recent years copyright holders, with help from advertisers and other key players, have worked hard to cut off revenue streams to pirate sites.</p>
<p>The Trustworthy Accountability Group, an anti-piracy certification program operated by giants including Google, Facebook, Disney, and Warner, has been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/project-brand-integrity-aims-to-purge-ads-from-pirate-sites-190212/">very active</a> on this front, for example.</p>
<p>The basic idea behind this &#8220;follow the money&#8221; approach is that once the revenue sources of pirate sites dry up, their operators will eventually throw in the towel. While that may work on paper, <a href="https://dmcaforce.com/">DMCAForce</a> appears to take the direct opposite approach.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy outfit, which works with a wide <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/reporters/8237">variety of clients</a> including Dreamroom Productions, Liberty Media, and Udemy, is actively seeking cooperation with pirate sites.</p>
<p>Over the past several years, the company has regularly asked torrent sites, hosting platforms, and streaming services to remove content, and still does. But, in an email to the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2019/">prominent</a> torrent site <a href="https://www.limetorrents.info/">LimeTorrents</a>, DMCAForce also included a &#8220;revenue sharing&#8221; opportunity.</p>
<p>&#8220;DMCAForce recently launched a new way for File Sharing sites to work with content creators. Where you as the file sharing site can distribute their content for free, but in exchange provide the advertising space around the product,&#8221; the email reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the case of direct products, we can provide you affiliate tracking links, where instead of REMOVING the content, you can KEEP the content up, and we direct that user together back to the product on a commission basis,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy outfit explains that it has already made deals in the adult space. This worked well, with one of the producers currently generating $15,000 in advertising revenue per month from a single site.</p>
<p>&#8220;This has encouraged content creators to keep their content up and build a better relationship,&#8221; DMCAForce notes.</p>
<p>The operator of LimeTorrents, who&#8217;s not interested in the deal, was asked to reply within three days to find out how it can monetize the content. If not, the anti-piracy outfit said it would proceed with a regular DMCA takedown notice.</p>
<p>The revenue sharing program is fairly new. In addition to reaching out to file-sharing sites, DMCAForce also invites its clients to join the program.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you have a product you are selling, and want to ask these pirate sites to put advertising around your stolen content or replace the stolen content with linkbacks, we offer that as well,&#8221; DMCAForce informed its clients recently.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s quite unique for an anti-piracy company to offer a monetization option to what it sees as pirate sites. We, therefore, would love to find out more about the details of the program. Unfortunately, however, DMCAForce did not immediately reply to our request for comment.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169002
title: Notorious ‘Copyright Troll’ Outfit Hands Over its US Operations to New ‘Joint Venture’
uri: Notorious-Copyright-Troll-Outfit-Hands-Over-its-US-Operations-to
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7sCC_6ExiOo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/67ffec03.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-108977"/></figure></div>



<p>Every year, many thousands of BitTorrent users find themselves targeted for alleged copyright infringement.</p>



<p>Many will get a strongly-worded letter from their ISP asking them to stop downloading and sharing copyrighted content. Others, targeted by so-called &#8220;copyright trolls&#8221;, aren&#8217;t so lucky, since the letters they receive contain a demand for cash, if they are to avoid a costly legal process.</p>



<p>While the names of content owners are clearly listed in court documents as plaintiffs, there is an industrial-scale system run by a company called GuardaLey operating behind the scenes in many such cases in both the US and Europe.</p>



<p>Perhaps most famously,&nbsp;GuardaLey was behind the record-breaking <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-sue-5000-bittorrent-users-100529/">The Hurt Locker</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/23322-expendables-downloaders-accused-in-bittorrents-biggest-lawsuit-110510/">The Expendables</a> lawsuits in the US but make no mistake, the company is the engine behind cases targeting many thousands of individuals all around the world.</p>



<p>GuardaLey (and close partners) provide the tracking data, business structure, and experience to enable these lawsuits to go ahead, actively monitoring file-sharing networks then approaching content companies with an offer to help generate revenue from alleged pirates.</p>



<p>Despite its scale, GuardaLey operates somewhat silently, rarely making the headlines itself. It was a surprise, therefore, to see a new announcement from the company that it had entered into a &#8220;joint venture&#8221; early February with American Films, Inc.</p>



<p>&#8220;This is a significant opportunity for American Films, Inc. given our team’s knowledge in the data and film industry, we bring great synergies previously unavailable to this territory and industry,” said American Films CEO John Carty.</p>



<p>The &#8220;joint venture&#8221; just announced is somewhat intriguing.</p>



<p>Firstly, American Films, Inc, &#8220;will own 100% of this joint venture company&#8221; which will &#8220;take over the USA&#8221; operations of GuardaLey.  Secondly, given the name, American Films doesn&#8217;t appear to have any films, at least as far as its GoDaddy <a href="https://americanfilms.us/">website-builder page shows</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;American Films Inc. is an emergent entertainment industry company focused on opportunities for equity investors,&#8221; its promo material reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;In an industry environment that is historically unfavorable to equity participation, American Films seeks to create alternative investment participation vehicles that provide <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="3" data-gr-id="3">necessary</g> funding to appropriate projects while offering <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">reasonable</g> return on investment and mitigation of the significant business risks traditionally encountered.&#8221;</p>



<p>That said, according to Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=3171645">data</a>, &#8220;American Films, Inc. does not have significant operations&#8221; and was previously involved in a research project being &#8220;conducted at NYU relating to DNA Nanotechnology.&#8221;</p>



<p>Despite not appearing to have any experience in the file-sharing market, American Films (Pink Sheets: <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/quote/AMFL:US">AMFL</a>) will join GuardaLey in a joint venture that will work with an all-new &#8220;strong setup of prestigious law firms across the nation&#8221; to &#8220;provide education&#8221; to copyright infringers. </p>



<p>&#8220;The partnership with American Films will combine the resources of GuardaLey and American Films, to monitor peer-to-peer <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">file sharing</g> networks, search for illegally downloaded digital media files and provide the resources to enforce against repeat offenders,&#8221; said Joint Venture manager Tom Murphy. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s open to speculation why GuardaLey needs a <a href="https://www.apnews.com/Business%20Wire/73708882a7c642d7872e5c3a9b1567b9">partnership</a> with American Films and why it would hand over 100% ownership of the joint venture to the company. Until recently, MarketScreener.com <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:FkrKKirpsyYJ:https://www.marketscreener.com/AMERICAN-FILMS-INC-10155317/company/+&amp;cd=1&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=uk">listed</a> American Films Inc. as &#8220;a shell company whose sole purpose is to locate and consummate a merger or acquisition with a private entity.&#8221; </p>



<p>In 2017, American Films <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171213005222/en/American-Films-Announces-Acquisition-Paloozoo.com-Operating-Social">acquired</a> social media platform <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">Paloozoo</g> in what was touted as a &#8220;tremendous opportunity to scale and to realize compelling synergies between our two company&#8217;s offerings.&#8221; Paloozoo.com is currently parked with GoDaddy and appears inactive.</p>



<p> </p>



<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169011
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/04/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-04-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1wiQyIo6ZPM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168725" src="media/be565117.spider.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spider.png" alt="" width="280" height="240"></p>
<p>This week we have one newcomer in our chart.</p>
<p>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>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 Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-02-25-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg52up16eq0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/">Isn&#8217;t It Romantic</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVYzxm_RqMg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571234/">Mortal Engines</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2709692/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6D-i8YpHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYBOVWLNIs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/">Green Book</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uC-_Gon2p9M">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6343314/">Creed II</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6343314/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovFpFtZ2Tvk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7401588/">Instant Family</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7401588/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUfZq3DUd3Y">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5848272/">Ralph Breaks the Internet</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5848272/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T73h5bmD8Dc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/">Bohemian Rhapsody</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727824/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">Aquaman</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmqJJqFX_CU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169016
title: Court Sanctions Anti-Piracy Lawyer for “Willful Disobedience”
uri: Court-Sanctions-Anti-Piracy-Lawyer-for-Willful-Disobedience
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PWTHzZUg-MA/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169019" src="media/e9e11861.bandlow-e1551689447125.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bandlow-e1551689447125.png" alt="" width="222" height="182"></p>
<p>Two years ago, Strike 3 Holdings had never filed a single lawsuit, but today the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-online-piracy-lawsuits-hit-a-record-high-last-year-190104/">has thousands of cases</a> on its record.&nbsp;</p>
<p>These lawsuits were filed across the United States, targeting people whose Internet connections were allegedly used to download and share copyright infringing content via BitTorrent.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In the case of Strike 3, this refers to adult videos which are made available via the Blacked, Tushy, and Vixen websites. The company&#8217;s legal campaign has kept the courts busy and contributed to the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-online-piracy-lawsuits-hit-a-record-high-last-year-190104/">record-breaking</a> breaking number of piracy lawsuits that were filed last year.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Many of these cases were handled by veteran lawyer <a href="https://twitter.com/LALincolnLawyer">Lincoln Bandlow</a>, who&#8217;s a partner at the&nbsp;law firm <a href="https://www.foxrothschild.com/lincoln-bandlow/">Fox Rothschild LLP</a>.&nbsp; While the attorney, who&#8217;s also a visiting professor at USC, has plenty of experience it turns out that handling dozens of cases at once can be quite a challenge.</p>
<p>Last November, Bandlow was slapped on the wrist for failing to meet the court&#8217;s deadlines. The attorney explained that this was due to&nbsp;calendaring issues or incorrectly reading the court’s orders. He apologized and promised to&nbsp;take steps to prevent similar issues going forward.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, it didn&#8217;t take long before more deadlines were missed in two dozen cases at the Eastern District of California. This time the attorney forgot to submit status reports. Again, the court requested clarification, asking Bandlow why he shouldn&#8217;t be sanctioned for failing to follow its orders.</p>
<p>In this reply, Bandlow attributed the failures to a variety of reasons including technical issues such as an overactive email spam filter, as well as a lack of personnel over the holidays. The attorney also highlighted his track record by noting that he was never sanctioned in 25 years.</p>
<p>This reply didn&#8217;t convince the court. In an order issued last week, US Magistrate Judge&nbsp;Carolyn Delaney wrote that Bandlow&#8217;s excuses and explanations are unavailing, especially since he was already reprimanded just weeks earlier.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The technological &#8216;issues&#8217; are no excuse, the Judge writes, noting that people were already practicing law long before there were computers.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;The practice of law predates the computer. Computer and technological problems do not justify failing to comply with court-ordered deadlines, especially under the specific circumstances of these cases.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;Once Mr. Bandlow became aware of his technological problems, he could have—and indeed should have—manually calendared and tracked all deadlines,&#8221;&nbsp;Judge&nbsp;Delaney adds.</p>
<p>In addition, Strike 3&#8217;s attorney&#8217;s explanation that 19 out of the 24 cases with missed deadlines were the result of inadequate staffing, is both &#8220;unacceptable and inexcusable&#8221;. Especially since Bandlow explained that his law firm Fox Rothschild LLP employs 900 lawyers.</p>
<p>Taken together, the Magistrate Judge concludes that the attorney&#8217;s actions&nbsp;are not mere mistakes, but&nbsp;willful disobedience of the court.</p>
<p>&#8220;After he was reprimanded for failing to meet deadlines in related matters, Mr. Bandlow was on notice of problems with his calendaring procedure and he was explicitly warned to make sure that he properly calendared all future deadlines.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead of doing so, Mr. Bandlow failed to comply with court-ordered deadlines twenty-four additional times. Mr. Bandlow’s conduct constitutes willful disobedience of court orders, which is tantamount to bad faith,&#8221;&nbsp;Judge&nbsp;Delaney notes.&nbsp;</p>
<p>So, after 25 years of practicing law Bandlow now has his first sanction.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/1ab60c50.sanc.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sanc.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169024"/><figcaption>Sanctions</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>The good news for the attorney is that the &#8220;bad faith&#8221; is not the worst of its kind. Also, the court believes that his apology is sincere. Nonetheless, this type of conduct is unacceptable, especially for an attorney with&nbsp;over twenty-five years of experience.&nbsp;As such, a&nbsp;$750 sanction is warranted.</p>
<p>While this amount can easily be recouped via a single settlement against an alleged pirate, it&#8217;s not good for one&#8217;s reputation. In any case, Law.com <a href="https://www.law.com/litigationdaily/2019/02/28/judge-sanctions-fox-rothschild-partner-in-porn-copyright-cases-407-5074/">quotes</a> the attorney saying that the $750 will be paid &#8220;immediately.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether the massive volume of cases has anything to do with it is unclear. It wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise. However, Bandlow is not slowing down much in the new year and has already filed more than 100 new cases on behalf of Strike 3 in 2019.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of&nbsp;Magistrate Judge&nbsp;Carolyn Delaney&#8217;s order is available <a href="media/5b768d59.sanctionsfox.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sanctionsfox.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169061
title: Rightsholders Can’t Sue Without a Copyright Certificate, Supreme Court Rules
uri: Rightsholders-Can-t-Sue-Without-a-Copyright-Certificate-Supreme-Cou
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t5P6MBXXerk/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211" src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="164">In pretty much every part in the world, creators can claim copyright on their work without having to register anything.</p>
<p>This is also true in the United States. However, when rightsholders want to sue someone for copyright infringement, they have to back up this claim.</p>
<p>Over the years, US&nbsp;courts have issued mixed judgments&nbsp;on what kind of &#8216;proof&#8217; is required. Some held that it&#8217;s enough when a creator applied for a registration certificate at the Copyright Office, while others required registration to be completed.</p>
<p>This week the US Supreme Court put an end to the split decisions. In the case between <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate_Public_Benefit_Corp._v._Wall-Street.com">Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corporation and Wall-Street.com</a>, the Court unanimously decided that copyright holders must wait for a registration certificate before filing a lawsuit.</p>
<p>The case in question dealt with news articles&nbsp;that were published without permission, but the outcome of the case will affect all future copyright cases. This ranges from potential pre-release movie and leaks to the thousands of copyright-trolling cases that are filed every year.</p>
<p>The latter is particularly relevant as the majority of the copyright lawsuits are filed against alleged BitTorrent downloaders. The rightsholders that file these suits don&#8217;t always have a copyright registration certificate.&nbsp;Following the Supreme Court decision, several defense&nbsp;attorneys indicated&nbsp;that this decision may help their clients.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is very relevant for our BitTorrent copyright defense practice,&#8221;&nbsp;Jeffrey Antonelli <a href="https://twitter.com/Antonelli_Law/status/1102595763064975360">noted</a> on Twitter.</p>
<p>Rightsholders are less pleased with the Supreme Court&#8217;s opinion, however. The RIAA said it is disappointed with the ruling which will require more time before copyright holders can take action against alleged copyright infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;This ruling allows administrative backlog to prejudice the timely enforcement of constitutionally based rights and prevents necessary and immediate action against infringement that happens at Internet speed,&#8221; the RIAA commented.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given this ruling, the Copyright Office must also work at Internet speed to ensure adequate enforcement protects essential rights.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the moment it takes months before a copyright registration certificate is issued. That can be problematic in a world where new content is produced&nbsp;at an increasingly rapid rate. This problem is also <a href="https://copyrightalliance.org/ca_post/scotus-resolves-fourth-estate-registration-concerns-remain/">highlighted</a> by the Copyright Alliance.</p>
<p>&#8220;[O]n average, it takes the Copyright Office six months to process a claim. That average goes up to nine months if a Copyright Office Examiner needs to correspond with a copyright owner. In a world of viral, online infringement, a lot of damage can be done to a copyrighted work while an owner is powerless to stop it,&#8221; Copyright Alliance&#8217;s&nbsp;Terry Hart writes.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court is well aware of the registration delays. However, in the order, it notes that this doesn&#8217;t change how Congress intended the law, which requires a proper copyright registration certificate.</p>
<p>&#8220;Delays, in large part, are the result of Copyright Office staffing and budgetary shortages that Congress can alleviate, but courts cannot cure. Unfortunate as the current administrative lag may be, that factor does not allow this Court to revise §411(a)’s congressionally composed text,&#8221; Justice Ginsburg notes.</p>
<p>While the ruling is seen as a drawback for major rightsholders, pre-registration of copyright still remains available to certain classes. This was granted under the&nbsp;Artist&#8217;s Rights and Theft Prevention Act&nbsp;of 2005 and applies to movies and music that have yet to be published.</p>
<p>For various types of user-generated content, the ruling may pose a challenge though. People who want to sue someone for copying their viral video without permission will first need to go through the full registration process.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of the Supreme Court ruling in&nbsp;Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com is available <a href="media/c133fc71.registrationwall-street.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/registrationwall-street.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169049
title: “Legal Product Everywhere” is Best Defense Against Football Piracy
uri: Legal-Product-Everywhere-is-Best-Defense-Against-Football-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jm6Jfee7LN4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/16e8a921.redcard.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/redcard.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-131227"/></figure></div>



<p>Dedicated fans of top-tier soccer (or football, as it&#8217;s more widely known in Europe) who don&#8217;t attend matches generally have to pay for the privilege to watch on TV.</p>



<p>In many countries, the only options are expensive ones, which can be reason enough for some to bypass the system altogether and turn to piracy. But even those who can pay the prices aren&#8217;t always offered what they need.</p>



<p>In the UK, for example, the 3pm Saturday &#8216;blackout&#8217; means that some of the most important Premier League games ever played simply aren&#8217;t available to the public on TV as they happen. As a result, Saturday afternoons now feature a secondary game of finding a pirate stream online in order to watch something that isn&#8217;t legally available on home turf, at any price.</p>



<p>The Premier League tries to combat this activity in collaboration with local ISPs via &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-piracy-blocking-order-for-2018-19-season-180719/">dynamic blocking</a>&#8216; but while this has had some effect in the past, anecdotal evidence on dedicated piracy forums suggests that pirates have begun to adapt, so this is having only a limited effect.</p>



<p>While several big leagues in Europe would also like to have these kinds of blocking tools at their disposal, it&#8217;s blatantly obvious that they can&#8217;t compete with piracy if they aren&#8217;t offering customers what they want legally. It&#8217;s a sentiment shared by Arne Rees, executive vice president of strategy for Germany&#8217;s powerful Bundesliga.</p>



<p>“One of the best defenses against [piracy] is certainly having legal product everywhere,” Rees said, as cited by <a href="https://www.sportsvideo.org/2019/03/04/sports-anti-piracy-summit-in-battling-streaming-piracy-technology-is-both-friend-and-foe/">SportsVideo.org</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;If a fan simply can’t get you, their <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="6" data-gr-id="6">mind-set</g> is, I want to watch it, and, if only a pirated stream is available, they will justify that<g class="gr_ gr_33 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="33" data-gr-id="33">.</g></p>



<p>&#8220;At the very least. we have to create an environment where legal product competes with the illegal product. The legal product will&nbsp;<em>always</em>&nbsp;be the better product,&#8221; Rees added.</p>



<p>This isn&#8217;t to say that legal football content isn&#8217;t available to fans already.  <br></p>



<p>Bundesliga matches are broadcast to more than 200 countries around the world, as are matches from the Premier League. However, licensing deals mean that fans are almost always restricted in some way, either through prevention of watching key matches live, or even having access to them at all.</p>



<p>For example, TV 2 &#8211; Norway&#8217;s largest commercial television broadcaster &#8211; has had the rights to show Premier League matches since 2010 and last year <a href="https://www.dn.no/tv/tv-2/premier-league/fotball/tv-2-kuppet-premier-league-rettighetene/2-1-359465">struck</a> a new deal which extends to 2022<g class="gr_ gr_218 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="218" data-gr-id="218">.</g></p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_218 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="218" data-gr-id="218">The</g> company doesn&#8217;t want to reveal how much it paid this time around but for the preceding three years paid around NOK 1.9 billion (around $220m). Nevertheless, it still has a piracy problem and it&#8217;s mostly about availability.</p>



<p>In 2019, TV 2 has the rights to show 205 matches, which is around half of those actually played. This means that when crunch matches appear in the other half, hooked fans must either miss out on the action, or turn to piracy. </p>



<p>A report by <a href="https://www.aftenposten.no/100Sport/fotball/Frykter-strommetrenden-av-fotballkamper-vil-oke--Bidrar-til-svart-okonomi---268864b.html">Aftenposten</a> last month detailed how fans were shut out of the key match between Everton and Manchester City so turned to pirate streams instead. Sarah Willand, Communications Director at TV 2, said the company understands the dilemma faced by fans.</p>



<p>&#8220;We would be happy to broadcast all the matches so that people see everything from the Premier League,&#8221; Willand said.</p>



<p>&#8220;I <g class="gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation replaceWithoutSep" id="5" data-gr-id="5">therefore</g> understand people&#8217;s frustration, it&#8217;s annoying not to be able to watch their favorite team on TV when you have a subscription.&#8221;</p>



<p>Of course, companies like TV 2 are countering by warning consumers that unlicensed services offering matches are illegal, which is correct. However, claims that subscription IPTV services &#8211; the main competitor to legal offerings &#8211; are dangerous (viruses etc), are at best speculative and at worst, completely untrue.</p>



<p>Apart from being available at a very cheap price (easy when you don&#8217;t have to pay for content, of course), what these subscription services do (very effectively) is cut through all the red tape. Prohibitive licensing deals are completely ignored, so fans in Norway get all the matches. Fans in the UK get &#8216;banned&#8217; Premier League matches on Saturday afternoons.</p>



<p>This is achieved by cherry-picking football content from all over the world. Premier League content that isn&#8217;t shown on a Saturday afternoon can be available in Canada, for example. Matches that aren&#8217;t available in Norway might be available in several other regions, on several different channels. So, the IPTV providers scoop them all up, to ensure that fans can watch all the matches, wherever they are.</p>



<p>This, of course, is completely illegal and to some extent probably hurts the earning potential of the various leagues around Europe and their broadcasting partners. However, it&#8217;s clear that the companies involved have the power &#8211; if they so choose &#8211; to solve this problem by offering all content, to all people, wherever they are, at a fair price.</p>



<p>Given the tangle of licensing agreements across dozens of regions, this is much &#8211; <em>much</em> &#8211; more easily said than done, few people will argue with that. But the cold, hard truth is that most fans don&#8217;t care. If they can&#8217;t get matches legally (and particularly if they already have an underperforming subscription service), many will feel justified turning to the high seas.</p>



<p>And it doesn&#8217;t matter how &#8216;clever&#8217; blocking gets either.</p>



<p>A little over a month ago, a person in charge of <g class="gr_ gr_273 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="273" data-gr-id="273">a licensed</g> premises quickly showed TF an IPTV service offering HD streams of Premier League matches (on a Saturday and all week, for that matter) for £2 per month &#8211; along with more than 6,000 other channels too.</p>



<p>The only motivation for this person to buy this package was access to <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Style multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">3pm</g> Saturday football, on top of an already expensive Sky subscription that only offers just over 120 matches per season, which is 85 matches less than <em>Norwegian viewers</em> get on TV 2. Why should that draw any understanding from UK subscribers?</p>



<p>Now, via this cheap IPTV service, the person we spoke with finds he can watch all matches and has no need for the Sky package either &#8211; talk about counter-productive. Something really needs to be done because blocking is not going to solve this problem.</p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_162 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation multiReplace" id="162" data-gr-id="162">Make it available legally, at a fair price, everywhere. Or get eaten by pirates.</g></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169079
title: Former Pirate Party Leader “Trolls” Authors to Push Traffic to eBook Site
uri: Former-Pirate-Party-Leader-Trolls-Authors-to-Push-Traffic-to-eBo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yOutbCJAGHw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/4d640de6.ebook-ereader.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ebook-ereader.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-144637"/></figure></div>



<p>Activists associated and allied with the many variants of the Pirate Party worldwide are regularly painted as hardcore Internet pirates<g class="gr_ gr_25 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="25" data-gr-id="25">.</g></p>



<p>It&#8217;s not hard to see why given the Party&#8217;s history, but that&#8217;s certainly not the full picture.</p>



<p>Today&#8217;s Pirates, of which there are many flavors around the world, are just as likely to lobby in favor of transparency, privacy, free speech <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">and</g> anti-corruption, as they copyright reform and free sharing of information.</p>



<p>But while the former topics are now the focus for many, others are still very much interested in the latter. Take Travis McCrea, the former leader of the Pirate Party of Canada, for example.</p>



<p>Back in 2011, when McCrea was just 21-years-old, he launched Tormovies, a now-defunct torrent site designed for the sharing of movies. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-politician-starts-movie-torrent-site-110813/">Speaking with TorrentFreak at the time</a>, McCrea said he had zero intentions of backing down in the face of opposition. It now transpires that eight years later, he has similar things on his mind.</p>



<p>One of McCrea&#8217;s latest ventures (he describes himself as an entrepreneur) is the eBook site, <a href="https://ebook.bike/">Ebook.bike</a>. Unlike most official eBook platforms offering premium content, everything is without cost to the user. Simply by navigating to the site, choosing a title, and selecting a convenient format, books are downloaded for free with zero DRM.</p>



<p>However, it seems pretty clear that McCrea doesn&#8217;t have licenses for the content being offered. Perhaps that&#8217;s why the site, according to <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/ebook.bike">SimilarWeb stats</a>, is currently receiving more than a million visits per month. While this is great news for McCrea (who previously told us he has both American and Canadian passports), authors and publishers everywhere are extremely unhappy.</p>



<p>Opposition to the site (and its predecessor TUEBL) has been sizzling away for some time now but during the past few days, more and more authors have been attacking McCrea on Twitter over what they see as blatant copyright infringement.</p>



<p>Their position is that the site has no authority to publish their work. McCrea&#8217;s position is that his site is an upload platform &#8211; much like YouTube &#8211; which is protected under the terms of the DMCA. If they want content taken down, they should file a DMCA takedown notice, he <a href="https://twitter.com/TravisVancouver/status/1102002749472817152">says</a>.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/cb1205a2.image-10.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-10.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169090"/></figure>



<p>At the same time, however, McCrea &#8211; in his own inimitable style &#8211; admits he has been deliberately provocative on Twitter in response to complaints, something that hasn&#8217;t gone down well with authors who&#8217;ve found their work uploaded to his site.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/a20d854f.image-11.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-11.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169091" width="650"/></figure>



<p>McCrea isn&#8217;t shy to admit why he&#8217;s been behaving the way he has on <g class="gr_ gr_35 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="35" data-gr-id="35">social</g> media. In what appears to be an <a href="https://twitter.com/TravisVancouver/status/1102002747992203264">honest post</a>, he says that it&#8217;s been all about driving traffic to his site.</p>



<p>&#8220;Lot&#8217;s [sic] of <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="6" data-gr-id="6">anger,</g> and I&#8217;ll admit I am responsible for fanning the flames. The honest truth is trolling you gets you to post links of my website to your fans and we have hit 10K additional unique visitors this week…  however, I am realizing I should be more compassionate,&#8221; he wrote.</p>



<p>If attention is what McCrea wanted, he&#8217;s been successful. An article published on <a href="https://www.thebookseller.com/news/harris-hits-out-pirate-site-and-calls-legal-precedent-965311">The Bookseller</a> has <a href="http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/">Joanne Harris</a> (MBE), the author of the award-winning novel Chocolat, calling for publishers to relegate McCrea&#8217;s site to history.</p>



<p>&#8220;We need to get the site taken down and publishers need to do something about it. It’s certainly possible to do,&#8221; Harris said.</p>



<p>&#8220;The music industry has done this successfully for many years. But big publishers are sometimes not very quick to pick up on new developments. They need to learn from the film industry and the music industry and be very muscular.</p>



<p>&#8220;People say pirate sites are like mushrooms, you take one down then one pops up somewhere else. I can’t help thinking there actually needs to be a court case and a precedent set.&#8221;</p>



<p>The author&#8217;s <a href="http://joannechocolat.tumblr.com/post/183215519391/why-book-piracy-is-killing-libraries-indie">stance</a> is receiving plenty of support. The piece indicates that the Society of Authors has filed a copyright infringement complaint with McCrea&#8217;s <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">webhost</g>, with publisher Hachette UK refusing to comment on &#8220;specific legal actions&#8221; but promising to continue its fight against book piracy.</p>



<p>But despite McCrea&#8217;s previous connections with the Pirate Party of Canada, he claims his site is in place to help &#8211; not hinder &#8211; authors.</p>



<p>&#8220;Imagine a world where authors can make money by giving digital versions of their books away to their readers, and readers could explore all sorts of books that they may have never even considered reading before. In a nutshell, this is Ebook Bike, the Ultimate Ebook Library,&#8221; the site&#8217;s promo page reads.</p>



<p>McCrea says his platform is based on the idea that when people are favorably exposed to authors&#8217; work, they go on to become good customers, buying physical copies of books while promoting the same content to friends and family. He also says that his platform has more to offer. </p>



<p>&#8220;We want to give authors even more though, so we provide analytics to authors who want them so they can learn where their users are coming from and other useful information which they can then use to target book sales, advertise, and market themselves more effectively. We also have user feedback, so authors can learn what people like and don&#8217;t like in their writing,&#8221; he adds.</p>



<p>McCrea claims that his <g class="gr_ gr_10 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="10" data-gr-id="10">site</g> has &#8220;1,500+ confirmed partner authors&#8221; who are &#8220;excited about bringing change to the way people consume their books.&#8221;</p>



<p>While that may very well be the case, those authors are not currently making themselves known on social media, or perhaps they&#8217;re simply being drowned out by the opposition. McCrea did not immediately respond to our request for comment.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169096
title: Pirate “Aquaman” Release Suggests iTunes 4K May Be Breached
uri: Pirate-Aquaman-Release-Suggests-iTunes-4K-May-Be-Breached
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pUFdnlOzfZE/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169105" src="media/f775cc6a.aquaman.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aquaman.png" alt="" width="300" height="215">Pirated copies of movies appear online every day in a variety of formats, such as CAM, DVDRip, WEBRip, and Web-DL.</p>
<p>The latter,&nbsp;which usually come from streaming and download services such as Netflix, Amazon, or iTunes, have proven to be a reliable source for pirates over the years.</p>
<p>While most releases are nothing unusual, a 4K Aquaman release that came out this week was received with cheers and surprise among pirate film fanatics.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The title, &#8220;<em>Aquaman.2018.2160p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.HDR.HEVC-MOMA</em>,&#8221; suggests that this is a 4K release that was decrypted directly from iTunes. This is something that has never happened before with a 4K WEB-DL.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The pirate release appeared online shortly after it was listed for sale on iTunes, so the timing would fit. Also, there are no 4K releases of the film on either Netflix or Amazon at the moment, meaning that it didn&#8217;t come from those services.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The release immediately sparked rumors that iTunes&#8217; 4K protection may have somehow been cracked or breached. If that&#8217;s the case, then many more high-quality releases could follow in the future.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;Looks like MOMA managed to somehow decrypt 2160p iTunes,&#8221; one commenter noted on a popular torrent site, with another adding that it&#8217;s &#8220;amazing news because there&#8217;s a lot of 4k iTunes-only content out there.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Apple for a comment and more background information but at the time of publication, we have yet to hear back.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/f1db57ba.E0C.png" data-original-source="https://malzo.com/i/2019/03/05/E0C.png" alt=""/><figcaption>From the 4k release</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>While this would be the first ever 4K WEB-DL from iTunes, it&#8217;s too soon to jump to conclusions. Some have suggested that the release could somehow be mislabeled.</p>
<p>We can&#8217;t rule anything out but since the 4K digital version is not widely available, there are few other possible sources. In addition, the release has been posted by reputable sources who are certainly not known for making stuff up.</p>
<p>There is currently a 4K release available on Vudu but the pirate version was uploaded before it went on sale there. A source who has experience with the matter believes that it most likely comes&nbsp;from iTunes, as advertised. How, exactly, remains a mystery, but there may be a vulnerability in Apple&#8217;s tvOS.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;Apple has 4k only on Apple TV running tvOS. I assume they skipped&nbsp;checks, if the device is jailbroken, and someone just dumped the encrypted stream and decrypted it via what&#8217;s in memory as keys,&#8221; says our source, who prefers to remain anonymous.</p>
<p>If iTunes is indeed breached then Apple will likely do everything in its power to patch the hole as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m pretty&nbsp;sure Apple will react fast and block it via updates because they don&#8217;t have to keep compatibility with any devices like the iTunes desktop version,&#8221; our source adds.</p>
<p>Whether that&#8217;s the case or not, the release has already created plenty of buzz, and pirates are dreaming of many more 4K iTunes releases like this one.</p>
<form id="form-t1_ehuxd340g8" class="usertext warn-on-unload" action="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/aximxo/aquaman20182160pwebdlddp51hdrhevcmoma/#">
<div class="usertext-body may-blank-within md-container ">
<div class="md">
<p>&#8220;Maybe we will be able to get the 007 catalogue off iTunes? In any way, exciting times!&#8221; a commenter on Reddit <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/aximxo/aquaman20182160pwebdlddp51hdrhevcmoma/ehuxd34/">notes</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p>While we were writing this article two other 4K Web-DL releases appeared online;&nbsp;&#8220;Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse&#8221; and &#8220;Can You Ever Forgive Me?&#8221;</p>
<p>These are internal releases from the group DEFLATE&nbsp;and could trace back to iTunes as well.&nbsp; The bitrate and channel layout for the Spider-Man&nbsp;release certainly seems to suggest so, our source says.</p>
<p>To be continued.</p>
<p></p>
</div>
</div>
</form>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/7c058bb7.morereleases.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/morereleases.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169134"/><figcaption>More&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169161
title: Omniverse Counters ACE’s “Reckless” Piracy Lawsuit, Says It’s Fully Licensed
uri: Omniverse-Counters-ACE-s-Reckless-Piracy-Lawsuit-Says-It-s
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4sSfNtGdHZk/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168567" src="media/8636f80c.omniverse1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/omniverse1.jpg" alt="" width="284" height="162"></p>
<p>Last month, several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix filed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-sues-cord-cutting-service-omniverse-for-copyright-infringement/">a lawsuit</a> against Omniverse One World Television.</p>
<p>Under the flag of anti-piracy group <a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a>, the companies accused Omniverse and its owner Jason DeMeo of supplying of pirate streaming channels to various IPTV services.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.omniversetv.com/">Omniverse</a> doesn’t offer any streaming boxes but sells live-streaming services to third-party distributors, such as Dragon Box, HDHomerun, Flixon TV, and SkyStream TV, which in turn offer live TV streaming packages to customers.</p>
<p>According to ACE, Omniverse offered these channels without permission from its members. As such, the company was branded a pirate streaming TV supplier.</p>
<p>Omniverse swiftly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/omniverse-responds-to-aces-streaming-piracy-lawsuit-190220/">refuted</a> this claim in a statement to TorrentFreak. The company said that it supports anti-piracy efforts in general but didn&#8217;t go into detail about ACE&#8217;s allegations or the licenses it has.</p>
<p>That changed his week. After being repeatedly branded as a pirate service, Omniverse CEO Jason DeMeo provided further details to <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/video/video-services/omniverse-ceo-im-doing-everything-literally-by-the-book-/d/d-id/749924?_mc=RSS_LR_EDT">Lightreading</a>. The company is completely legal, he said, backed by an unprecedented licensing deal that was signed decades ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone is framing me as some sort of pirate&#8230; when I&#8217;m 100% compliant with what I&#8217;m supposed to do,&#8221; DeMeo said.</p>
<p>The licensing deal in question was obtained by a company called Hovsat, which is linked to the US-based real-estate company <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hovnanian_Enterprises">Hovnanian Enterprises</a>. According to DeMeo, the agreement was signed by Hovsat in the early 90s for the duration of 100 years. Such a long term was required to allow home-builders to serve communities for decades to come.</p>
<p>Aside from the long duration, there apparently are no geographical restrictions either. And with IPTV still being a pipe dream in the early 90s, that wasn&#8217;t excluded either. The only requirements in the agreement are linked to copyright protection in general.</p>
<p>The existence of such a deal was already hinted at by DeMeo months ago when he was <a href="https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/are-all-of-these-new-live-tv-streaming-services-for-cord-cutting-legal-we-take-a-look/">questioned</a> by Cord Cutters News. Although Hovsat was not named then, Omniverse already used it as a tag on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/OmniBox_TV/status/953644501075202048">more than a year ago</a>.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s clear that Omniverse believes that it&#8217;s doing everything by the book, a coalition of ACE rightsholders clearly disagree, as their lawsuit shows. Also, DirectTV, <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/video/video-services/is-omniverse-sourcing-video-feeds-from-directv-/a/d-id/749828">whose logos appear</a> on some Onmiverse broadcasts, clearly states that its content can&#8217;t be licensed in this manner.</p>
<p>So, it appears that the lawsuit between ACE and Omniverse may be different from traditional &#8216;pirate&#8217; lawsuits. Based on DeMeo&#8217;s comments, the validity of the 100-year licensing deal will likely be at the center of it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m literally doing everything by the book,&#8221; DeMeo told Lightreading, describing ACE&#8217;s lawsuit as &#8220;reckless.&#8221; He further noted that his company makes sure that all its licenses are in order and that its distribution partners stick to the rules as well.</p>
<p>Omniverse and its legal counsel believe that the licensing agreement allows it to operate in this manner. This feeling was strengthened when it defeated cease and desist orders from companies such as Discovery Communications and Viacom.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fifty percent of the channels that I provide have already sent cease and desists, and we&#8217;ve won,&#8221; DeMeo commented. &#8220;They never went to court. We proved our agreements, and we passed.&#8221;</p>
<p>Until now, the joint venture between Hovsat and Omniverse was not made public but DeMeo said that his company pays all the required fees. Whether the licensing deal will indeed hold up will likely become apparent in the upcoming court battle.</p>
<p>While Omniverse has commented in public, it has yet to file a response to ACE&#8217;s complaint at the California District Court.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was initially assigned to Judge Dale S. Fischer, who recused himself due to a conflict of interest. It was reassigned to Judge Christina A. Schnyder, who also recused herself stating that she has a financial interest in one of the parties, before being handed over to Judge Dolly M. Gee.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169106
title: Canada’s New Anti-Abuse Copyright Notice Rules Are Being Ignored
uri: Canada-s-New-Anti-Abuse-Copyright-Notice-Rules-Are-Being-Ignored
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/T8OrwNI9TKs/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/4d2ce87e.canada.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60888"/></figure></div>



<p>When Internet users download or share copyrighted content online, particularly using BitTorrent, they should presume that copyright holders are watching.</p>



<p>Transfers that take place without the protection of a VPN, for example, are easily traced back to ISPs, who have the ability to link that activity to a specific <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="11" data-gr-id="11">account,</g> when asked to do so.</p>



<p>In many cases this results in an ISP forwarding an infringement notice to a customer on behalf of a rightsholder, to warn that an account <em>may have been used</em> to breach copyright. However, over the years some rightsholders (often referred to as &#8216;copyright trolls&#8217;) have taken things a step further by including demands for cash in their notices.</p>



<p>In Canada, where a so-called &#8216;<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/canadian-isps-vpns-now-alert-pirating-customers-150102/">notice-and-notice</a>&#8216; system is in place, this wasn&#8217;t well received by the government. So much so that during December 2018, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-prohibits-piracy-settlement-demands-in-isp-copyright-notices-181218/">law was amended</a> to prohibit companies from sending notices containing the following: </p>



<p><em>(a) an offer to settle the claimed infringement;<br>(b) a request or demand, made in relation to the claimed infringement, for payment or for personal information;<br>(c) a reference, including by way of <g class="gr_ gr_35 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar only-ins doubleReplace replaceWithoutSep" id="35" data-gr-id="35">hyperlink</g>, to such an offer, request or demand;</em></p>



<p>&#8220;Such notices are deemed to be invalid under the regime,&#8221; government advice <a href="http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/oca-bc.nsf/eng/ca02920.html">reads</a>.</p>



<p>Unfortunately, however, copyright holders are ignoring the new law.</p>



<p>A notice sent by <a href="https://www.eastlink.ca/">Eastlink</a>, an ISP headquartered in Halifax, Canada, to one of its customers and reviewed by TorrentFreak, reveals a copyright holder breaching every single rule detailed above.</p>



<p>Filed by anti-piracy outfit Digital Millennium Forensics, on behalf of Elevation Pictures, the notice claims infringement of the 2015 movie &#8216;Into The Forest&#8217;. It lists the time and date of the alleged infringement (in January 2019) along with the alleged infringer&#8217;s IP address.</p>



<p>What follows is a wall of text, citing various laws and &#8220;recent amendments to the Copyright Act, which came into force on November 7, 2012&#8221; outlining the rights of Elevation Pictures and warning that the company could seek to unmask the subscriber through the courts, &#8220;should this matter remain unresolved.&#8221;</p>



<p>Of course, like all such companies, Elevation Pictures doesn&#8217;t want to take the matter to court. What it really wants is money.</p>



<p>&#8220;In order to help avoid legal action, we have been authorized by  Elevation Pictures to offer you a settlement opportunity that we believe is reasonable for everyone,&#8221; Digital Millennium Forensics writes.</p>



<p>That offer, of course, clearly breaches rules (a) and (b) detailed above but the notice soon creeps ever closer to a full house by breaching rule (c) too.</p>



<p>&#8220;To access the settlement offer for this claim, you have until [<em>a date three weeks after the notice was issued (redacted&nbsp;for&nbsp;privacy&nbsp;reasons)</em>] to visit the provided URL and complete the settlement instructions,&#8221; it reads.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak obtained written permission from the Eastlink customer to access the provided URL. Below is a redacted version of the offer to settle, which is clearly in breach of the new government guidelines. <em>(Note: TF has redacted the dollar amount too since it is very specific indeed and may identify the subscriber. However, we can confirm it is between CAD$250 and CAD$300)</em>  </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/47383c2d.image-14.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-14.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169128"/><figcaption>A clear demand for cash, contrary the government&#8217;s wishes</figcaption></figure>



<p>It&#8217;s no surprise that both copyright holders and anti-piracy companies are failing to respect the terms of the new regime. There are no penalties for sending non-compliant notices, so there&#8217;s no incentive for copyright holders and their agents to follow the rules.</p>



<p>Furthermore, while there is no obligation on ISPs to forward non-compliant notices, that is clearly happening at Eastlink. The ISP does inform its customers that any notices falling foul of the rules (a), (b), or (c) are invalid, but sends them anyway.</p>



<p>This is problematic. Not only will some people feel pressured to pay up whether they&#8217;re the infringer or not, the notice seen by TF contains references to the &#8220;<em>Copyright Act, R.SC, 1985&#8243;</em>, and &#8220;<em>(i) the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, (ii) the Universal Copyright Convention, (iii) bilateral treaties with other countries including Canada, and/or those copyright laws and regulations as cited herein.&#8221;</em> </p>



<p>Legal jargon such as that highlighted above is not easily understood by the layman and can be difficult to comprehend without professional legal advice. It&#8217;s not unexpected, therefore, to find recipients who are overwhelmed by notice that simply shouldn&#8217;t have been sent.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak wrote to Eastlink asking why clearly abusive notices are being forwarded to its customers. Jill Laing, Head of Public Relations &amp; Media, informed us that the volume of notices being received presents a problem for Internet service <g class="gr_ gr_49 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="49" data-gr-id="49">prov</g>iders.</p>



<p>&#8220;The federally regulated Notice and Notice regime <g class="gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="5" data-gr-id="5">has</g> resulted in ISPs receiving millions of such notices a year, which presents significant challenges for operators to filter,&#8221; Laing said.</p>



<p>&#8220;While we are compliant with the federal government’s legislation, we have and continue to provide clear communication to our customers that these specific types of notices are not valid. We fully support and encourage government and industry initiatives that would prevent copyright holders from sending invalid notices such as these.&#8221;</p>



<p>While it can indeed be reasonably argued that the government&#8217;s recent amendments go some way to dealing with the issue, the loopholes are clear to see and, as predicted, are now being abused by rightsholders. </p>



<p>Late last year, a coalition including Canada&#8217;s major ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-call-for-piracy-notice-standard-to-deal-with-millions-of-warnings-190111/">called on the Government </a>to create a standard for copyright infringement notices. This would make it easier to handle the massive volume of notices. In addition, the companies asked for a meaningful deterrent to stop those who breach the rules.</p>



<p>TF asked Eastlink if it had ever told complainants that sending abusive notices is unacceptable. We also asked whether the company would consider not sending abusive notices to customers in the future. We received no response to either question.</p>



<p>With the loopholes in the new rules clearly being exploited, notice recipients should be aware that the government offers the following advice:</p>



<p><em>&#8220;The Notice and Notice regime does not impose any obligations on a subscriber who receives a notice, and it does not require the subscriber to contact the copyright owner or the intermediary.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169083
title: European Parliament’s Pro-Article 13 Video Has Backfired
uri: European-Parliament-s-Pro-Article-13-Video-Has-Backfired
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2jXA3OWopQ8/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-136985" src="media/19bd259d.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167">Later this month, Members of the European&nbsp;Parliament will&nbsp;cast their final&nbsp;vote on the EU Copyright Directive.</p>
<p>This includes the controversial&nbsp;Article 13 which&nbsp;is praised or condemned, depending on which side you&#8217;re on.</p>
<p>With just days to go, both camps are doing all they can to have their voices heard.&nbsp;Various rightsholder groups are calling on the public to support the livelihoods&nbsp;of artists and creators, for example. On the other hand, opponents are organizing protests, both on and offline.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the European Commission and Parliament also got involved, both with a clear pro Article 13 stance. The Commission started mid-February by referring to opponents of the proposed legislation as a &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">Mob</a>.&#8221; This article <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">was later deleted</a>, as it was apparently &#8220;misunderstood&#8221; by the public at large.</p>
<p>Then last week, the European Parliament chimed in by publishing a <a href="https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/status/1100697243521294336">pro Article 13 and Article 11 video</a>.&nbsp;This was an odd move, as it&#8217;s clear that not all Members of the European Parliament are in favor of the proposals. There still is a final vote, after all.</p>
<p>Making matters worse, the video includes all kinds of misleading or plain false information, as Pirate Party MEP Julia Reda <a href="https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1101074118353608704">highlighted</a>.</p>
<p>“The video says a lighter regime applies to platforms that have a turnover below 10 Million *or* less than 5 million unique visitors. This is just wrong. Actually, the lighter regime only applies if both criteria are met, and platforms are also younger than 3 years old.”</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Your memes are safe ?<br>Freedom of expression is not affected ?<br>It&#39;s all about fair payment to content creators ?   </p>
<p>Watch to learn more about the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/copyrightdirective?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#copyrightdirective</a> ? <a href="https://t.co/ztYzrl4sdH">pic.twitter.com/ztYzrl4sdH</a></p>
<p>&mdash; European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) <a href="https://twitter.com/Europarl_EN/status/1100697243521294336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>These errors only served to rile up the &#8220;mob&#8221; of opponents, instead of convincing them that all was fine. While that was enough reason&nbsp;for concern already, things took a turn for the worse yesterday. At least, from a PR perspective.</p>
<p>Reda decided to use her privileges as an MEP to look into the origin of the video. She found out that it wasn&#8217;t created by the European Parliament itself but was outsourced to a third-party contractor, Agence France-Presse (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agence_France-Presse">AFP</a>).</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t unusual in itself. External contractors are used all the time and AFP is a reputable&nbsp;news agency. However, in this case, it certainly looks bad, as the same organization was the <a href="https://www.lalettrea.fr/medias_presse-ecrite/2018/12/04/pour-defendre-les-droits-voisins-l-afp-s-est-assure-les-services-des-lobbyistes-de-gplus,108335069-brl">driving force</a> behind a pro Article 11 lobbying campaign last September.</p>
<p>&#8220;The video by the European Parliament to inform the public about the Copyright Directive was made by an organization which has a massive conflict of interest,&#8221; says Reda,&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1103582295523553280">summarizing</a> her findings.</p>
<p>Even if all the wording in the video came directly from Parliament, involving a third-party stakeholder doesn&#8217;t look good PR-wise. Especially when the video itself is highly controversial and in part misleading.</p>
<p>In all fairness, there has also been plenty of misinformation from some opponents of Article 13. There are always extremes on both sides. Ideally, however, the European Parliament should remain as objective as possible, at least until the final votes are cast.</p>
<p>With its video, the European Parliament only riled up the opposition, something which runs completely counter to its intentions.</p>
<p>Something similar also happened when&nbsp;Volker Rieck, managing director of the anti-piracy firm File Defense Service, released &#8216;evidence&#8217; of a smoking gun recently.</p>
<p>In the past Rieck&nbsp;has frequently accused US tech companies of funding Article 13 opposition, describing it as an <a href="http://webschauder.de/assault-on-politics-2-organization/">assault on politics</a>.&nbsp; This belief was strengthened by a study which looked at the location of people who Tweeted in opposition of the Copyright Directive, including the&nbsp; #saveyourinternet tag.</p>
<p>The research, which used the social media analytics tool&nbsp;Talkwalker, revealed that a disproportionate amount of all tweets came from the United States, mostly from Washington DC. In some cases, more tweets came from the US than the EU.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>From the report (<a href="http://webschauder.de/wer-zwitschert-zum-eu-urheberrecht/">now removed</a>)</strong></p>
<p><img class="size-full wp-image-169247 alignnone" src="media/bc21901a.saveyourinternet-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/saveyourinternet-1.png" alt="" width="653" height="368"></p>
<p>These findings, which led to the suggestion that US corporate interests are influencing EU politics, were shared in a letter to Members of the EU Parliament. However, soon after it was sent it became apparent that the data is far from perfect.</p>
<p>It turns out that&nbsp;Talkwalker attributes tweets to Washington DC when the user doesn&#8217;t share his or her location. This explains why the tweets of Julia Reda and others &#8216;appeared&#8217; to come from the US, when they were clearly not.</p>
<p>While there <a href="http://webschauder.de/statement-on-the-publication-of-28-02-2019/">is no sign</a> of any deliberate intent to mislead in this instance, the whole episode was rather unfortunate. And again, it only added fuel to the fire for those who are staunchly against Article 13. After being branded a &#8216;mob&#8217; they were now branded as &#8216;bots.&#8217;</p>
<p>This inspired some people to take their protests to the streets. In Berlin, Germany, people protested at the headquarters of the CDU party this week, shouting&nbsp;&nbsp;&#8220;We are no bots!&#8221; And they certainly didn&#8217;t travel all the way from Washington DC.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="de" dir="ltr">? So viele rufen der <a href="https://twitter.com/CDU?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CDU</a>-Parteizentrale auf der spontanen <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Artikel13Demo?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Artikel13Demo</a> entgegen: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WirSindKeineBots?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WirSindKeineBots</a> &#8211; Der Platz wird immer voller. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Uploadfilter?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Uploadfilter</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Artikel13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Artikel13</a> <a href="https://t.co/UtnF90tN9R">pic.twitter.com/UtnF90tN9R</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Change.org DE (@ChangeGER) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChangeGER/status/1102981122147958785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>During the weeks to come there are more offline <a href="https://savetheinternet.info/demos">demonstrations planned</a> throughout Europe, mostly Germany.</p>
<p>Responding to questions from the public on Reddit, Julia Reda called on people from other countries to get involved as well. These demonstrations make a bigger impact than writing to MEPs&nbsp;or tweeting a message.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is the most powerful proof that people really do care about it, and it has led many MEPs to change their minds. But we can&#8217;t win this vote with protests in Germany alone, they need to spread to other countries,&#8221; Reda said.</p>
<p>Those in favor of Article 13 are not sitting still either and are continuing to both lobby and protest.</p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s wise for the European Parliament to get actively involved any further is doubtful. The video has shown that such efforts are not going to convince those who have made up their mind. On the contrary, in this case, it completely backfired.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169211
title: Russia Holds Talks to Enshrine Landmark Anti-Piracy Agreement into Law
uri: Russia-Holds-Talks-to-Enshrine-Landmark-Anti-Piracy-Agreement-into-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nfIZPWcjd2I/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110"/></figure></div>



<p>Dealing with the flood of infringing content placed on the Internet for public consumption is a key aim of rightsholders around the world.</p>



<p>In both the United States and Europe, this is largely tackled via a notice-and-takedown regime, whereby copyright holders file complaints and hosts, search engines, and other platforms respond by removing content.</p>



<p>Under huge pressure from rightsholders, last year a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-anti-piracy-database-agreement-signed-in-moscow-181101/">ground-breaking agreement</a> was reached in Moscow, one that would see much tougher measures to deal with the problem in Russia.</p>



<p>The voluntary agreement &#8211; signed by major rightsholders, Internet platforms, and search providers &#8211; aims to create an ever-growing centralized database of infringing content to enable web companies to take down media and links both quickly and efficiently.</p>



<p>Signatories who host and index content are expected to query the database regularly for designated content and links while deleting the same from their sites within hours.</p>



<p>It isn&#8217;t yet clear how complete the database is, or which companies are already interfacing with it, but it&#8217;s understood that the participants are now conducting takedowns broadly in line with the agreement.</p>



<p>The memorandum is valid until September 1, 2019 but the plan from the beginning was to make the arrangement a legal obligation by writing its terms into law. Plans for that are now underway.</p>



<p>Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor reports that an &#8220;extended meeting&#8221; was held on March 6 with rights holders, search engines, and video hosting site operators in attendance. Also present was Roscomnadzor deputy head, Vadim Subbotin.</p>



<p>&#8220;The meeting discussed the most optimal version of the concept for the bill.&nbsp;Thus, the basis for the new legislation will be the provisions of the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of protection of exclusive rights in the era of the development of digital technologies,&#8221; Roscomnadzor&#8217;s press office confirmed.</p>



<p>The plan is for the terms of the currently voluntary memorandum to be written into law before it expires on September 1, 2019. However, if an agreement cannot be reached before the anniversary of its signing, it&#8217;s suggested that the memorandum could be extended beyond its initial one-year term. </p>



<p>Channel One, the National Media Group, Gazprom-Media, the Internet Video Association, the Association of Film and Television Producers, Yandex, Rambler Group, Mail.Ru Group, vKontakte, and RuTube, are all signatories of the current memorandum. </p>



<p>&#8220;The memorandum lays the foundations for sectoral self-regulation within the framework of the execution of the &#8216;anti-piracy&#8217; law.&nbsp;The document introduces a pre-trial procedure for resolving disputes between copyright holders and search engines regarding the illegal placement of links to pirated content,&#8221; Roscomnadzor re-emphasized this week.</p>



<p>Google did not sign up last year and there has been no clear indication that it intends to participate moving forward. However, there have been multiple suggestions that other companies and groups may be allowed to join the voluntary agreement, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/publishing-giants-ask-to-join-landmark-anti-piracy-agreement-181109/">such as publishers</a>, for example.</p>



<p>Should the memorandum be written into law as planned, it&#8217;s likely to be the toughest &#8211; if not <em>the</em> toughest &#8211; anti-piracy regime seen anywhere in the world. Add Russia&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=russia+block">site-blocking regime</a> into the mix, and the country is on course to become a world leader in online infringement mitigation.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169242
title: Google Opposes Mandatory Standard for Australian Takedown Notices
uri: Google-Opposes-Mandatory-Standard-for-Australian-Takedown-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fPkX0Cpb1oM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798" src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="159">Last December the Australian Competition and Consumer&nbsp;Commission (ACCC) released a <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/preliminary-report">preliminary report</a> on its Digital Platform Inquiry.</p>
<p>One of the main recommendations&nbsp;it made was to create a mandatory standard for takedown notices to enable timely and effective removal of infringing content.</p>
<p>To make sure that digital platforms indeed implement this standard, the Commission said that these companies could be subjected to a $250,000 fine for each contravention.</p>
<p>&#8220;Making this mandatory code would ensure breaches could attract penalties under the Telecommunications Act,&#8221; ACCC wrote in its report.</p>
<p>Following the release of the report, various stakeholders were asked for their input. Over the past several weeks, dozens of responses were filed and it&#8217;s clear that a mandatory standard is not widely embraced.</p>
<p>Google, which operates a range of services that are subject to takedown notices, including its search engine and YouTube, warns that a new standard would be at odds with the well-established procedures in place around the world today.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle3">&#8220;A Mandatory Standard would represent a significant departure from the globally accepted standard for issuing take-down notices that is relied upon by digital platforms, online service providers and content creators around the world,&#8221; Google writes.</span></p>
<p><span class="fontstyle3">The takedown procedures which are currently used&nbsp;in the UK, the EU, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea&nbsp;already</span><span class="fontstyle3">&nbsp;require digital platforms to respond “expeditiously” to disable access to infringing content, according to&nbsp;Google.</span></p>
<p>Creating more strict requirements with the added threat of possible &#8216;fines&#8217; could lead to censorship and may stifle innovation, the company adds.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle3">&#8220;A more rigid standard with high fines for errors could incentivize automated</span> <span class="fontstyle0">censorship on an unacceptable scale and a curtailment of innovation and investment in alternative rights management approaches,&#8221; Google notes.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p>The company further stresses that the comments from various copyright holder groups about the ineffectiveness of the current process are inaccurate. Google says that it presently takes a wide variety of measures to counter piracy, including automated removal of pirated content.</p>
<p>Many of these points were also highlighted in Google&#8217;s most recent overview of <a href="https://www.blog.google/outreach-initiatives/public-policy/protecting-what-we-love-about-internet-our-efforts-stop-online-piracy/">how it fights piracy</a>. For example, the company stresses that it prevents certain piracy-associated keywords from appearing as autocomplete suggestions.</p>
<p>This is indeed true. Just last year Google added &#8220;Kodi&#8221; to its lists of banned words, which was quite a controversial move. However, according to some rightsholders, these autocomplete removals are far from perfect.</p>
<p>Village Roadshow CEO Graham Burke, who&#8217;s one of the most vocal Google critics, highlights this in his company&#8217;s submission to the ACCC. Roadshow believes that companies such as Google should go much further in their anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, Google’s search results could easily remove links to websites blocked by Australian courts as well as clean up autocomplete which is a fast track, easy way to piracy,&#8221; Burke writes.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Village Roadshow&#8217;s submission comes with various screenshots showing how autocomplete suggestions still link to problematic content. For example, while &#8220;Pirate Bay&#8221; is banned, Google now suggests &#8220;Pirate Bays&#8221; related searches as an alternative which can be used to bypass ISP blockades.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/af13ed03.bays.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bays.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-169291"/><figcaption>Village Roadshow&#8217;s example</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Village Roadshow&#8217;s CEO hopes that the ACCC will come up with additional measures to ensure that infringing content is swiftly removed and to ensure that Google and other platforms take responsibility for keeping illegal content off their services.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only winners in the current climate are pirates who are criminals because their business model is totally dependent on scamming and robbing people,&#8221; Burke writes.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;They attract people with the promise of free first run movies only then through a multitude of paths to scam and rob them. Whether it by misrepresentation obtaining their contact details or ransomware,&#8221; he adds</p>
<p>Google clearly disagrees and it&#8217;s not alone in its criticism&nbsp;of the automated takedown standard. Twitter also objects&nbsp;to the proposal and AFR <a href="https://www.afr.com/technology/technology-companies/google/google-leads-tech-industry-resistance-to-accc-copyright-plan-20190307-h1c3tr">reports</a> that StartupAUS also signals various problems.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&#8220;If adopted, [the mandatory standard] would result in a scheme that implemented a take-down mechanism without the accompanying safe harbour that provides the incentive with which to cooperate &#8211; essentially, it is all stick and no carrot,&#8221; the startups&nbsp;warn.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Interestingly, various copyright holder groups are not happy with it either, albeit for other reasons. Music Rights Australia, for example, recommends removing the proposal for a mandatory takedown standard, noting that a DMCA-style system won&#8217;t work</p>
<p>&#8220;A one size fits all solution like a US style Notice and Takedown regime will not be effective or efficient. For example, a US style notice and takedown regime would be ineffective to stop an illegal stream of a live concert on a social digital platform.&#8221;</p>
<p>Similarly, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) believes that the proposal doesn&#8217;t go far enough either.</p>
<p>&#8220;MEAA believes that much greater effort is required by digital platforms to act promptly in response to copyright owners’ requests to remove unauthorised content from their sites,&#8221; the group writes.</p>
<p>Based on the wide variety of responses it&#8217;s clear that there isn&#8217;t unanimous support for the proposal from either side. A full overview of the responses is available <a href="https://www.accc.gov.au/focus-areas/inquiries/digital-platforms-inquiry/preliminary-report-submissions">on the ACCC&#8217;s website</a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169167
title: Kodi Users at Risk From Github Repo ‘Hijack’ But Solution is Already Available
uri: Kodi-Users-at-Risk-From-Github-Repo-Hijack-But-Solution-is-Alrea
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5EWf1X9jjNI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/81d7c5cd.github.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/github.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-95413" width="163" height="163" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/github.jpg 180w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/github-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 163px) 100vw, 163px"></figure></div>



<p>While many pirates appear to get along with each other just fine, parts of the Kodi addon community regularly descend into chaos.</p>



<p>This so-called &#8216;drama&#8217; happens on a regular basis and gets covered on various blogs that cover the scene far more closely than we do here on TF. </p>



<p>However, every now and again an issue raises its head that&#8217;s worthy of additional coverage, particularly when it has the potential to affect a broad range of users of popular Kodi addons.</p>



<p>Developers of Kodi add-ons, of all types and intent, regularly host their tools on coding platform Github. The US-based service is ideal for development and when users sign up, they&#8217;re allocated a unique URL, which can be referenced (just like a regular URL), all over the Internet.</p>



<p>These URLs can also be used to pull updates to add-ons that are installed on users&#8217; machines. However, there is a loophole that can allow add-ons to pull updates that weren&#8217;t supplied by the original developer.</p>



<p>The problem was highlighted at least a couple of years ago when famous Kodi add-on developer MetalKettle deleted his Github repo. Shortly after, a third-party signed up to the platform with the same username (something which Github expressly allows) to obtain the same URL<g class="gr_ gr_272 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="272" data-gr-id="272">.</g></p>



<p>This meant that this third-party was allowed to push updates to people using MetalKettle add-ons in their Kodi setup. It&#8217;s not difficult to see the problem when a previously-trusted URL is suddenly placed in the hands of a potentially malicious third-party.</p>



<p>This &#8216;hijacking&#8217; of accounts has happened several times since but things boiled over again recently when the popular &#8217;13Clowns&#8217; repo was deleted by its developer, only to be quickly re-registered on Github with the same name and, indeed, the same URL<g class="gr_ gr_99 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="99" data-gr-id="99">.</g></p>



<p>As the pair of images below show, the original repo (first) and imposter repo (second) are quite different, despite having the same username and appearing on the same URL.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/2bfc28a6.image-16.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-16.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169172"/><figcaption> <br>The original 13Clowns repo (previously at https://github.com/13Clowns) <br></figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/1a4eb550.image-15.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-15.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169171"/><figcaption> <br>The imposter 13Clowns repo, using the exact same Github URL </figcaption></figure>



<p>The software hosted in the new repo began sending updates to former users of &#8217;13Clowns&#8217;, which included a fork of the Exodus add-on and, controversially, tools that originate from <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons</a>, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=tvaddons">under-fire</a> Canada-based Kodi add-on indexing site.</p>



<p>Those familiar with the add-on scene see TVAddons as what the Brits might describe a &#8216;marmite&#8217; resource &#8211; people <a href="https://www.marmite.co.uk/geneproject">either love it, or hate it</a> &#8211; and there is no shortage of Kodi users expressing both opinions.</p>



<p>Those that hate the site immediately claimed that the existence of TVAddons tools in the update means that the site was logically involved in the &#8216;hijack&#8217;, with KodiTips going as far as <a href="https://koditips.com/13-clowns-kodi-addon/">publishing a guide</a> on how to remove the software pushed by the update. The software doesn&#8217;t seem malicious as such, but it does help TVAddons.</p>



<p>In response, those in support of TVAddons claimed that anyone could&#8217;ve &#8216;hijacked&#8217; the repo (which is true, of course), with TVAddons itself going to great lengths to <a href="https://twitter.com/tvaddonsco/status/1103481795335647232">deny the allegations</a>. </p>



<p>They state they have nothing to do with <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">it,</g> while suggesting that a TVAddons supporter could be responsible. Or, alternatively, it might be a &#8220;copyright holder trying to destroy the Kodi community through the most effective method to date: in-fighting.&#8221;</p>



<p>The truth is that only the people behind this somewhat underhand tactic know exactly what has happened here, so we&#8217;ll leave the speculation to other publications. However, perhaps of more interest is the manner in which this situation came to pass via Github allowing people to re-register accounts with not only the same username as a former <g class="gr_ gr_24 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="24" data-gr-id="24">user,</g> but also granting access to the same URL.</p>



<p>As a law-abiding company, Github is known for quickly responding to takedown requests, fully in line with the requirements of the DMCA. That being said, this loophole can also be exploited by developers of completely legitimate add-ons too, should they decide to delete their accounts.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak contacted Github with an outline of the problem and asked whether it would be possible to implement measures that might reduce the risk, such as disallowing the re-use of usernames and identical URLs for a period of six months following deletion. </p>



<p>While the company didn&#8217;t respond directly to this suggestion, TorrentFreak was informed that systems are already in place to deal with this type of abuse.</p>



<p>The company&#8217;s <a href="https://github.blog/2018-04-18-new-tools-for-open-source-maintainers/#popular-repository-namespace-retirement">repository namespace retirement</a> policy supports mitigating this issue while its <a href="https://help.github.com/en/articles/github-terms-of-service#2-content-restrictions">Acceptable Use Policy</a> prohibits any kind of exploit. We can confirm that reusing a previously registered repo name to deliver add-ons to Kodi in the manner highlighted above is considered an exploit.</p>



<p>Therefore, this problem &#8211; which has caused so much conflict recently &#8211; can be dealt with under Github&#8217;s existing systems. Anyone sending a detailed complaint to Github via <a href="https://github.com/contact/report-abuse">this form</a> can have it investigated by the company, with offending <g class="gr_ gr_49 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling" id="49" data-gr-id="49">repos</g> being taken down.</p>



<p>In the meantime, it appears that those holding much of the power here are the developers themselves. By not deleting their Github accounts they constantly remain in charge of their own <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">repos</g>, meaning that no imposters can come in to masquerade as them.</p>



<p></p>



<p></p>



<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169085
title: Label Apologizes For All The Cracked Software Visible in Rapper’s YouTube Video
uri: Label-Apologizes-For-All-The-Cracked-Software-Visible-in-Rapper-s-Yo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hqX1UQ3GtQA/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/729747e2.facepalm.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/facepalm.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-127813"/></figure></div>



<p>Once upon a time, people with an interest in music production could get into the game cheaply.</p>



<p>Back in the 80s, Amiga users (like myself) could mess around with tools like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_Soundtracker">SoundTracker</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OctaMED">OctaMED</a> for hours, producing music at home that could be <em>potentially</em> fit for human consumption, if it wasn&#8217;t for a lack of talent.</p>



<p>Later, software like Cubase began to gain traction, since it was often bundled (in cut down form) with PC sound cards. But, of course, times moved on and in the short years that followed an avalanche of amazing tools became available; Fruity Loops and Reason, to name just two.</p>



<p>These days users are spoiled for choice but great production software in the 2010s often has <g class="gr_ gr_11 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="11" data-gr-id="11">great</g> prices attached too, meaning that many <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Grammar multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">turn</g> to torrent and similar sites for their fix. Anyone who&#8217;s visited a back street studio will also let you know &#8211; they are often rammed with pirate software.</p>



<p>While controversial, pirate software gets many people into the music production business and, in common with those familiar with Windows or Adobe products, also trains people to stick with products when they can afford to pay. Some, however, forget to clean up the mess after.</p>



<p>Earlier this month, K-pop star <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeon_So-yeon">Jeon So-<g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">yeon</g></a> (Soyeon) learned that lesson the hard way. The rapper, singer, songwriter and general <g class="gr_ gr_5 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del" id="5" data-gr-id="5">all-round</g> star <g class="gr_ gr_7 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="7" data-gr-id="7">is</g> signed to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cube_Entertainment">Cube Entertainment</a>, which had put out a video on the label&#8217;s official YouTube channel (now deleted) which included a snapshot of her desktop. That turned out to be a big mistake.</p>



<p>Not only is Soyeon&#8217;s workspace the most cluttered in human history, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the star had some interesting additions that should&#8217;ve been kept away from the public eye.</p>



<p> </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/7423baba.SoyeonDesktop.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.asianjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SoyeonDesktop.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Pirate software galore &#8211; <em><a href="media/7423baba.SoyeonDesktop.jpg" data-original-source="http://www.asianjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/SoyeonDesktop.jpg">Full size</a> (Credit: <a href="http://www.asianjunkie.com/2019/03/01/gi-dles-soyeon-apologizes-for-righteously-stealing-expensive-ass-software/">Asian Junkie</a>)</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>The revelations in the video left the star having to explain why she had cracked copies of Native Instruments&#8217; Komplete, Kontakt, and several other pieces of pirated production software on her desktop.</p>



<p>Like many before her, Soyeon&#8217;s excuse was that she made mistakes with pirated software before she became famous a few years ago, and forgot to clean up the free stuff she&#8217;d trained herself with.</p>



<p>&#8220;First of all, I would like to sincerely apologize for causing any worry due to such disgraceful news,&#8221; she said, as translated by <a href="http://www.asianjunkie.com/2019/03/01/gi-dles-soyeon-apologizes-for-righteously-stealing-expensive-ass-software/">Asian Junkie</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;I remember using many different programs back when I first started learning how to compose music. For reasons that I neither deleted nor organized these files in the past, and for not even having consciously thought about it, I sincerely reflect back on it with remorse.&#8221; </p>



<p>While it&#8217;s certainly not unusual for starting musicians to learn their trade using pirated software, it becomes a bigger issue when they use that software to sell records. Soyeon, however, insists that wasn&#8217;t the case with her.</p>



<p>&#8220;Ever since I began in earnest to produce music, up to the recent songs that I have made, I have only used official programs, but I apologize once again for worrying you with <g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="4" data-gr-id="4">an ignorance</g> of copyright issues as a creator, no matter what the circumstances. From now on, I will study and act more carefully, never to use or own any kind of illegal file in the future.&#8221;</p>



<p>In an apology, Cube Entertainment sang the same tune.</p>



<p>&#8220;The program in question <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">were</g> downloaded when Soyeon was a trainee and was just beginning to learn about composing music in the process of her using various programs and learning about them. The program was never used again after Soyeon began seriously committing to musical composition,&#8221; the company <a href="https://www.soompi.com/article/1307274wpp/gi-dles-soyeon-and-cube-entertainment-issue-apologies-for-her-past-use-of-pirated-programs">said</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have confirmed that all of Soyeon’s compositions that have been released till now were created with a licensed Logic program, instruments we own, as well as Splice, which requires a monthly subscription fee.&#8221;</p>



<p>Fans don&#8217;t seem to be too concerned about Soyeon&#8217;s use of pirated software but of <g class="gr_ gr_34 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="34" data-gr-id="34">course</g> the news will be an embarrassment to her label which will have piracy issues of its own. That said, she certainly isn&#8217;t the first artist to get caught using pirated production tools.</p>



<p>Stars including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-offers-tech-support-to-pirating-kanye-west-160302/">Kanye West</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/avicii-and-other-djs-produce-hits-using-pirated-software-150223/">Avicii (rip)</a> and Martin Garrix have all been caught using less-than-licensed software in the past. They certainly won&#8217;t be the last.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169047
title: Anti-Piracy Outfit Still Sends Takedown Notices For Megaupload
uri: Anti-Piracy-Outfit-Still-Sends-Takedown-Notices-For-Megaupload
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DUFipbjEswU/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-146015" src="media/bf96111a.megauploadsong.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megauploadsong.jpg" alt="" width="255" height="174">More than seven years have passed since the file-storage empire of Kim Dotcom collapsed, with Megaupload being the prime target.</p>
<p>Since then, the New-Zealand based entrepreneur and several of his colleagues are still waiting to hear whether they will be extradited to the US.</p>
<p>During this time, US authorities initially held the iconic Megaupload.com domain name in their possession. However, the domain <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iconic-megaupload-com-domain-has-a-new-owner-180509/">ended up</a> in the hands of domain broker RegistrarAds last year, marking the end of an era.</p>
<p>By now, even the most die-hard Megaupload fans have moved on. While their files may still be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-megauploads-failing-drives-can-be-fixed-but-not-accessed-170330/">stored in a&nbsp;backup</a> somewhere in the US, to serve as evidence for a possible criminal trial, they took their losses and flocked to other sites and services.</p>
<p>This is totally understandable. It&#8217;s been more than seven years after all. However, not everyone is willing to let Megaupload.com go that easily. Ironically, some copyright holders still see it as a threat, an evil ghost of the past perhaps.</p>
<p>A quick glance through Google&#8217;s transparency report shows that &#8220;copyright infringing&#8221; Megaupload.com URLs are still being <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/megaupload.com">reported</a> on behalf of several rightsholders. This, despite the fact that they are <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amegaupload.com">no longer listed</a> in search results.</p>
<p>In February, more than 100 URLs of the defunct file-hosting service were targeted by the anti-piracy outfit Link-Busters. The company kindly requested Google to remove these links, which no longer exist.</p>
<p>These puzzling notices were all sent around the same time on behalf of a variety of copyright holders including game publisher&nbsp;Feral Interactive, book publisher Penguin Random House, and software developer&nbsp;AudioRealism.</p>
<p></p>


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/8ad2d82a.feraldmca.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/feraldmca.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169191"/><figcaption><a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/request/7279015">Megaupload.com and more</a>&#8230;</figcaption></figure>


<p>What&#8217;s interesting is that Megaupload is not the only defunct file-hosting site that&#8217;s being targeted. The same notices also list thousands of links to <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/hotfile.com">Hotfile</a>, <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/fileserve.com">FileServe</a>, and <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/filesonic.com">FileSonic</a>, which all folded years ago. </p>
<p>Hotfile, for example, shut down in 2014 following an $80 million settlement with the MPAA, which later<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-secretly-settled-hotfile-4-million-80-million-141224/"> turned out to be</a> $4 million. FileSonic went <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/major-cyberlocker-filesonic-goes-offline-after-traffic-plummets-120831/">offline</a> a few months after the Megaupload raid and FileServe is no longer around either.</p>
<p>Clearly, none of these defunct sites are a threat.</p>
<p>While the latest Megaupload.com URL was reported to Google roughly a month ago, Link-Busters&#8217; notices continue to target Hotfile links as recent as <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/hotfile.com">this week</a>.  </p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear where the anti-piracy company found these URLs as they are no longer live or indexed by Google. Perhaps some old database was accidentally revived, or perhaps it&#8217;s a matter of nostalgia. In any case, it&#8217;s pretty pointless.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169330
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/11/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-11-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Z_jW9F7xZw8/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169105" src="media/f775cc6a.aquaman.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aquaman.png" alt="" width="300" height="215">This week we have five newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Aquaman is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>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 Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a>&nbsp;for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-03-04-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">Aquaman</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1477834/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmqJJqFX_CU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5028340/">Mary Poppins Returns</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5028340/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZgUW88D15w">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633694/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tg52up16eq0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154664/">Captain Marvel</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154664/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1BCujX3pw8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9573980/">Leaving Neverland</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9573980/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Ze8LjzV7Q">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/">Isn&#8217;t It Romantic</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2452244/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVYzxm_RqMg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1571234/">Mortal Engines</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2709692/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf6D-i8YpHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4123430/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYBOVWLNIs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4951982/">Kursk</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4951982/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xExzwSc4_eQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3513498/">The Lego Movie 2</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3513498/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11K013qpRR4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169313
title: “Internet Atrophy” Fears Put Japan’s Downloading Bill On Hold
uri: Internet-Atrophy-Fears-Put-Japan-s-Downloading-Bill-On-Hold
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dG_1l8sqf5o/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110"/></figure></div>



<p>Downloading movies and music <g class="gr_ gr_33 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="33" data-gr-id="33">is</g> currently prohibited under Japan&#8217;s Copyright Act, meaning that anyone who does so is liable to criminal prosecution or civil suits. </p>



<p>Over the past several months, rightsholders and authorities have been seeking to make the downloading of any copyrighted content a crime, something that has raised alarm bells in the country of 127 million citizens.</p>



<p>While many can see the benefits of preventing people from unlawfully duplicating or sharing full copyright works (if that deprives creators of their income), the proposals currently on the table go way beyond what many citizens see as reasonable.</p>



<p>As the wording currently stands, even those making screenshots of copyrighted content would be criminalized, as would those reproducing song lyrics or snapshots of manga publications, for example. With penalties of two years in prison and fines of two million yen (US$18,000) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloading-any-pirate-content-to-be-made-illegal-in-japan-190214/">on the table</a>, it&#8217;s no wonder that people are concerned.</p>



<p>Last month more than 80 academics, researchers, lawyers, and other experts issued an &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/academics-issue-emergency-statement-over-japans-proposed-download-law-190221/">emergency statement</a>&#8216; urging the government to reconsider the scope of new proposals. It&#8217;s not clear whether this alone prompted a review but it seems that the rush to criminalize large numbers of Internet users is causing those in power to pause for thought.</p>



<p>The planned copyright amendments were set to be submitted to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet">Diet</a> on March 8, <g class="gr_ gr_45 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="45" data-gr-id="45">2019</g> but according to local <a href="https://www.sankei.com/politics/news/190308/plt1903080002-n1.html">sources</a>, Japan&#8217;s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP or Jimintō) put the brakes on the proposals the day before they were due to be submitted.</p>



<p>Reports suggest that the party had such serious concerns over the scope of the law that its implementation might mean that &#8220;use of the Internet would be atrophied.&#8221;</p>



<p>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly held a telephone call with Keisya Furuya, the former National Public Safety Commissioner and chairman of the bipartisan MANGA (Manga-Animation-Game) parliamentary group on March 6, 2019. According to <a href="https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/interest/2019-03-08/japanese-lawmakers-put-expanded-copyright-bill-on-hold-amid-concerns-of-internet-atrophy/.144345">AnimeNewsNetwork</a>, this led to the decision to remove the proposals from the agenda.</p>



<p>The bill will now be presented for further discussion during the Diet&#8217;s Ministry of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology&#8217;s next meeting. However, there are no clear indications whether there will be any amendments,  ones that might calm the fears of those who feel these overzealous proposals are not only several steps too far but potentially unenforceable.</p>



<p>Scholars and other experts are suggesting that the best route is to only criminalize actions that cause real financial damage to content owners<g class="gr_ gr_229 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="229" data-gr-id="229">.</g></p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_229 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="229" data-gr-id="229">The</g> general consensus among the academics is that making infringement criminally punishable may be acceptable, but only when full copyright works &#8211; such as movies, music, manga publications, and books &#8211; are exploited in their entirety.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169279
title: ‘Rival Studios Leak Each Other’s Movies to Hurt Box Office Revenue’
uri: Rival-Studios-Leak-Each-Other-s-Movies-to-Hurt-Box-Office-Revenue
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/y9awJZiGD5c/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-140846" src="media/e6de503d.stealacar.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stealacar.png" alt="" width="278" height="157"></p>
<p>With Bollywood, India has a thriving movie industry that’s worth billions of dollars and is known all around the world.</p>
<p>At the same time, the country also has one of the highest piracy rates, which is seen as a major threat to the industry.</p>
<p>Pirated copies of films swiftly make their&nbsp;way onto the Internet and are sold on physical media around the country. In many cases, these leaks occur just hours after a movie premieres in theaters.</p>
<p>In an effort to curb this activity, India&#8217;s Government recently&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/indian-government-approves-prison-sentences-for-cam-pirates-190207/">amended the Cinematograph Act,</a> making it illegal to record or transmit&nbsp;movies and movie audio without permission. Those who do, face a three-year prison sentence.</p>
<p>As with any law, the effectiveness depends&nbsp;on implementation and enforcement. This is something that has yet to be fleshed out and various prominent&nbsp;voices from the local movie industry are calling on the Government to take strict action.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everything boils down to implementation. Police feel piracy is not a priority. If the government can ensure plastic ban overnight, why not show the same vigor in this issue,&#8221; movie producer G. Dhananjayan told the <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/film-piracy-law-gets-teeth-but-can-it-bite-the-violators/articleshow/68310667.cms">Times of India</a>.</p>
<p>The local newspaper ran an article last week on the new anti-piracy measures. Aside from the calls for stricter enforcement, the publication also delivered a bombshell. Apparently, movie piracy is frequently facilitated by the industry itself.</p>
<p>According to a Tamil cinema DVD seller, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, piracy is mostly an inside job. The source explains that movie companies are leaking each other&#8217;s films, as a competitive move.</p>
<p>&#8220;People from rival production companies or those from the creative department secretly release the movie online or circulate it as DVDs to hit the collection at the box office,&#8221; the source said.</p>
<p>This sounds like a Wild West story, but the allegations don&#8217;t stop there. Another source said that the local censor board and&nbsp;distribution houses are also on the piracy bandwagon.</p>
<p>&#8220;Another industry source said insiders in the censor board and distribution houses sell these copies for up to `5 lakh. The copies are uploaded on&nbsp;private portals that have dedicated passkeys,&#8221; the Times of India reports.</p>
<p>&#8220;For a few lakhs of rupees, these copies can be downloaded and replicated on DVD,&#8221; the newspaper adds.</p>
<p>When it comes to recording video and audio at movie theaters, it is believed that some&nbsp;movie industry insiders work in tandem with theater owners to leak high profile films. As a result, some films appear online just hours after their official premiere.</p>
<p>At TorrentFreak, we can&#8217;t verify any of these claims independently, but it does put the various arrests of Indian movie theater owners in a different perspective.</p>
<p>Indian police have apprehended several theater owners in the past. Late last year the Indian Film Exhibitors Association&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/film-group-asks-court-to-stop-arrests-of-theater-owners-over-piracy-181115/">called on&nbsp;the Madras High Court</a>&nbsp;to put a halt to these overbroad crackdowns, stressing that the arrestees were innocent.</p>
<p>However, based on the sources referenced by the Times of India, there are some rogue cinema owners out there.</p>
<p>All in all, it is clear that Bollywood&#8217;s piracy problem is rather complex, and that shutting down a few websites is certainly not going to cut it. The new anti-camming law may help, but if the industry itself is corrupted, there&#8217;s still a long way to go.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169369
title: UN Human Rights Rapporteur: Upload Filters “Disproportionate Response” to Copyright Infringement
uri: UN-Human-Rights-Rapporteur-Upload-Filters-Disproportionate-Respons
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YI_ISKRvBRw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/6542fb40.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-136985"/></figure></div>



<p>Later this month, Members of the European&nbsp;Parliament are set to&nbsp;cast their final&nbsp;votes on the EU Copyright Directive.</p>



<p>Given the almost continuous outrage online, it&#8217;s clear that both Article 11 and Article 13 remain highly controversial.</p>



<p>While there is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/article-13-negotiations-move-ahead-artists-slam-labels-for-disrespecting-them-190211/">some dissent</a>, the latter is generally supported by rightsholder groups and artists. Opponents, however, fear that the proposals will lead to <em>de facto</em> upload filtering, the potential for abuse, and serious unintended consequences. The latest heavyweight to add an opinion in support of this stance is UN human rights experts David Kaye.</p>



<p>Speaking in his role as UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Kaye is now warning the European Union that the proposed amendments to the Copyright Directive will fall short of international standards on freedom of expression.</p>



<p>&#8220;Europe has a responsibility to modernize its copyright law to address the challenges of the digital age but this should not be done at the expense of the freedom of expression that Europeans enjoy today,&#8221; Kaye said in a statement Monday.</p>



<p>&#8220;Article 13 of the proposed Directive appears destined to drive internet platforms toward monitoring and restriction of user-generated content even at the point of upload.&nbsp; Such sweeping pressure for pre-publication filtering is neither a necessary nor proportionate response to copyright infringement online.&#8221;</p>



<p>Proponents of Article 13 continue to insist that the proposed amendments create no obligation to filter. But, despite outcry from online platforms and activists, no one has yet put forward any explanation as to how such filters can be avoided. Platforms that fit the criteria could be held liable, if they host content for which they hold no license.</p>



<p>Indeed, less than two weeks ago, Ulrich&nbsp;Kelber, Germany&#8217;s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, issued a similarly stark warning over the potential for an &#8220;oligopoly&#8221; of third-party filtering vendors having significantly increased access to huge volumes of user data.</p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_4 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="4" data-gr-id="4">Kelber</g> suggested that the EU should explain how its Article 13 aims can be achieved <em>without</em> filtering of uploaded content but thus far, silence appears to have been the response.</p>



<p>While some platforms would be exempt from the requirements of Article 13 under the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-reaches-deal-on-article-13-and-other-copyright-reform-plans-190213/">current proposals</a> (platforms less than three years old, with fewer than five million unique visitors per month, and an annual turnover of less than €10 million), the limits are still too tight, <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=24298&amp;LangID=E">the UN expert added.</a></p>



<p>&#8220;Most platforms would not qualify for the exemption and would face legal pressure to install and maintain expensive content filtering infrastructure to comply with the proposed Directive.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the long run, this would imperil the future of information diversity and media pluralism in Europe, since only the biggest players will be able to afford these technologies,&#8221; Kaye said.</p>



<p>Kaye also foresees problems with upload filtering systems&#8217; inability to differentiate between infringing works and those that are uploaded within the parameters of existing law &#8211; when exercising the freedom to quote, criticize, review, caricature, parody, and pastiche, for example.</p>



<p>Computers cannot do that today and even proficient humans have difficulty, Kaye explained.</p>



<p>&#8220;Even the most experienced lawyers struggle to distinguish violations of copyright rules from exceptions to these rules, which vary across <g class="gr_ gr_21 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="21" data-gr-id="21">Member</g> States. The lack of clear and precise language in the Directive would create even more legal uncertainty,&#8221; the UN expert warned.</p>



<p>But while content companies state that their support of Article 13 is based on an urgent need to protect artists and creators, Kaye believes that those individuals will be the first people to suffer, if the law is passed in its current form.</p>



<p>&#8220;Misplaced confidence in filtering technologies to make nuanced distinctions between copyright violations and legitimate uses of protected material would escalate the risk of error and censorship. Who would bear the brunt of this practice<g class="gr_ gr_45 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="45" data-gr-id="45">?</g></p>



<p>&#8220;Typically it would be creators and artists, who lack the resources to litigate such claims,&#8221; he warned.</p>



<p>Kaye&#8217;s opposition comes on the heels of a series of PR disasters (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-commission-portrays-article-13-opponents-as-a-misled-and-misinformed-mob-190215/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/european-parliaments-pro-article-13-video-has-backfired-190308/">3</a>) for supporters of Article 13 within the corridors of power at the EU itself. Even impartiality appears to be a problem, opponents argue.</p>



<p>Simultaneously, opposition among the public is continuing to build, via a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/european-parliament-stop-the-censorship-machinery-save-the-internet">record-breaking petition</a> on Change.org (now visibly being signed every second) which is set to culminate in a <a href="https://savetheinternet.info/demos">series of physical protests</a> throughout Europe later this month.</p>



<p> </p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169422
title: 100s of Rightsholder Groups Urge EU Parliament to Adopt the Copyright Directive
uri: 100s-of-Rightsholder-Groups-Urge-EU-Parliament-to-Adopt-the-Copyright
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AD--qgIhoFU/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169427" src="media/0d222478.yescopyright.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/yescopyright.png" alt="" width="300" height="153">Last month the European Parliament and Council <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-reaches-deal-on-article-13-and-other-copyright-reform-plans-190213/">agreed</a> on the final text of the EU Copyright Directive.</p>
<p>This includes the controversial Article 13 and Article 11, which opponents condemn as &#8220;upload filters&#8221; and &#8220;link tax&#8221; proposals respectively.</p>
<p>Many organizations in the creative and publishing sectors are of a different opinion. They see the copyright reform plans as a much-needed step in the right direction of an Internet&nbsp;that treats creators more fairly.</p>
<p>With the final vote just two weeks away, a massive coalition of 243 organizations representing a wide variety of rightsholders is calling on the European Parliament to adopt the plans.</p>
<p>&#8220;We, the undersigned organisations, representing authors, composers, writers, journalists, performers and others working in all artistic fields, news agencies, book, press, scientific and music publishers, audiovisual and independent music producers call on the European Parliament to adopt the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>The full list of supporters includes popular names such as Thomson Reuters, The Independent, the Association of Independent Music,&nbsp;Getty Images,&nbsp;PRS for Music,&nbsp;SACEM,&nbsp;Eurocinema, and many, many others.</p>
<p>The different groups have a shared goal of better copyright protection but some elements of the Copyright Directive may apply more to some than others.</p>
<p>The music groups, for example, are likely to be the most focused on Article 13. This requires for-profit Internet platforms to license content from copyright holders or, if that is not possible, ensure that infringing content is taken down and not re-uploaded to their services.</p>
<p>For their part, news publishers will be more interested in Article 11. This allows these organizations to charge Internet&nbsp;platforms, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, for displaying snippets of their content to the public at large.</p>
<p>The joint letter the groups released this week mentions neither article, only the Copyright Directive in general. However, they make it very clear that the proposed changes are needed to&nbsp;create a fair and sustainable Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;This Directive has been long sought to create a much-needed level playing field for all actors of the creative sector in the European Digital Single Market, whilst giving citizens better access to a wider array of content,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is an historic opportunity. We need an internet that is fair and sustainable for all. This is why we urge policymakers to adopt the Directive quickly, as agreed in trilogue negotiations,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>The sheer number of organizations show that there is broad support for the Copyright Directive in the creative community.</p>
<p>But there is plenty of opposition as well. Earlier today we mentioned that the UN&#8217;s Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression has&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/un-human-rights-rapporteur-upload-filters-disproportionate-response-to-copyright-infringement/">raised</a> the alarm over Article 13 and its de facto filtering requirements.</p>
<p>In the days to come, we will likely see more calls for support while protests look set to escalate.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;-</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of the letter including the full list of signatories is available below.&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" title="Joint Letter Update Without Logos" src="https://www.scribd.com/embeds/401700427/content?start_page=1&amp;view_mode=scroll&amp;show_recommendations=false&amp;access_key=key-RevVoEBFD6NuXxqlRMld" width="600" height="800" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="null"></iframe></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169058
title: GTA V ‘Cheat’ Developer Settles Copyright Infringement Case
uri: GTA-V-Cheat-Developer-Settles-Copyright-Infringement-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/M5uLoTSe8dU/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-104438" src="media/46fecebb.gtav-cov.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gtav-cov.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="210">In recent years, there has been a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against alleged cheaters or cheat makers.</p>
<p>Two of the driving forces behind these cases are GTA V developer Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive.</p>
<p>In Australia, the companies filed a complaint last September, targeting several people believed to be linked to the popular &#8216;Infamous&#8217; cheat.</p>
<p>A few months earlier, Take-Two launched a lawsuit against two men in the United States, accusing both of copyright infringement and breach of contract, among other things. They too were linked to the &#8216;Infamous&#8217; cheat.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The first defendant, Christopher Pei, admitted his wrongdoing and swiftly settled the case last summer. This week, his co-defendant, Erik Cameron followed suit.&nbsp;</p>
<p>In a signed consent judgment, Cameron admits that he worked on the &#8216;Infamous&#8217; cheat with a group of people, including Pei and unnamed&nbsp;persons from Europe and Australia.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The legal paperwork, filed last week, also makes it clear that this constituted copyright infringement as well as a breach of the user agreement. As a result, GTA V&#8217;s Take-Two suffered damage, while the cheat developer reaped profits.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mr. Cameron’s violations of the Copyright Act and New York law have caused, and continue to cause, Take-Two great and irreparable injury that cannot be fully compensated or measured in money,&#8221; the judgment reads.</p>
<p>While the cheat developer takes the blame, it is unclear at what cost. The judgment merely mentions that there&#8217;s a &#8220;confidential settlement for an undisclosed amount of money.&#8221;</p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/97b46228.gtasettle.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/gtasettle.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169305"/><figcaption>From the judgment</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>The judgment also comes with a permanent injunction which prohibits Cameron from developing or promoting any software that alters Take-Two&#8217;s software. All Infamous copies or any similar cheat tools that remain in his possession, must be destroyed.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Although the scale of the settlement remains unknown, it is likely less than the&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/gta-v-cheat-maker-has-to-pay-150000-in-copyright-damages/">$150,000</a> a fellow GTA V cheat developer was ordered to pay in a default judgment last month.</p>
<p>The order brings an end to these two US cases that were related to the &#8216;Infamous&#8217; cheat. The Australian case against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-returns-seized-laptops-to-accused-gta-v-cheat-developer-181222/">another alleged developer</a> of the same software remains ongoing.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of the consent judgment, signed by US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan is <a href="media/36cb3be2.cameronsigned.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cameronsigned.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.&nbsp;</em></p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169447
title: Japan Abandons Tough Anti-Downloading Copyright Law
uri: Japan-Abandons-Tough-Anti-Downloading-Copyright-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OBiG9Qelsso/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110"/></figure></div>



<p>Distribution and uploading of copyrighted content without an appropriate license <g class="gr_ gr_18 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Grammar multiReplace" id="18" data-gr-id="18">is</g> illegal in most countries of the world.</p>



<p>It is seen as the most damaging form of infringement, largely on the basis that this fuels illicit downloading.</p>



<p>Straightforward downloading of movies, TV shows and other unlicensed content is rarely, if ever, policed, even when such activity is proscribed under law, as is the case in the EU following rulings from the European Court of Justice.</p>



<p>In Japan, however, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloading-any-pirate-content-to-be-made-illegal-in-japan-190214/">new legislation</a> under consideration by the government would&#8217;ve taken things to a whole new level. Criminalizing the unlicensed downloading of all content &#8211; including the pasting of lyrics or taking of screenshots &#8211; struck fear into Internet users and experts alike.</p>



<p>With serious punishments <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloading-any-pirate-content-to-be-made-illegal-in-japan-190214/">under consideration</a> (up to two years in prison and fines of two million yen &#8211; US$18,000), serious alarm bells were sounded, with academics coming out <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/academics-issue-emergency-statement-over-japans-proposed-download-law-190221/">strongly in opposition</a>. Now, however, the government has become sufficiently unsettled and has shelved the proposals altogether.</p>



<p>The planned copyright amendments were set to be submitted to the&nbsp;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Diet">Diet</a>&nbsp;on March 8,&nbsp;<g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-ins replaceWithoutSep" id="3" data-gr-id="3">2019</g>&nbsp;but Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP or Jimintō) put the brakes on the proposals the day before they were due to be submitted<g class="gr_ gr_25 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Style replaceWithoutSep" id="25" data-gr-id="25">.</g></p>



<p>Early this morning the Japanese government took the decision not to submit the bill to the Diet at all, after executives failed to approve it.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have yet to eliminate the worries of both copyright holders and [internet] users,&#8221; said House of Councillors lawmaker Masaaki Akaike, as cited by <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190313/p2g/00m/0na/057000c">Mainichi</a>. &#8220;We should work on it anew.&#8221; </p>



<p>The proposals also contained measures to deal with &#8216;pirate&#8217; indexing sites (known locally as &#8220;leech sites&#8221;) which don&#8217;t host any infringing content themselves but provide hyperlinks to content hosted elsewhere. Estimates suggest that around 200 such sites exist in Japan.</p>



<p>The aim was to criminalize the act of knowingly linking to copyrighted content, or linking to the same when site operators should “reasonably be expected” to know that the content is infringing. Unlike the anti-downloading provisions, plans to criminalize site operators with sentences of up to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japan-plans-to-criminalize-pirate-link-sites-up-to-five-years-in-jail-for-operators-181015/">five years in prison</a> were met with little opposition.</p>



<p>If approved, the revisions to Japan&#8217;s copyright law were set to take effect on January 1, 2020, but it&#8217;s now unclear whether that target will be met.</p>



<p></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169311
title: YouTube is Not Liable for Copyright Infringing Videos, Appeal Court Rules
uri: YouTube-is-Not-Liable-for-Copyright-Infringing-Videos-Appeal-Court-Ru
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/R9_Vb5mmYqM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-130150" src="media/0052363b.youtubehappy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtubehappy.png" alt="" width="230" height="158"></p>
<p>On an average day, roughly half a million hours of video are uploaded to YouTube. As with any user-generated content site, this also includes copyright-infringing content.</p>
<p>YouTube processes takedown notices and uses its Content-ID system to automatically remove allegedly infringing content to address this.</p>
<p>However, major copyright holders are not all happy with the platform&#8217;s efforts. Record labels want to see more compensation, for example, and others want YouTube to do more to prevent pirated videos from appearing on the site.</p>
<p>In Austria, this led to a lawsuit between the local television channel <a href="https://www.puls4.com/">Puls 4</a> and YouTube.&nbsp;In an initial order last summer, the court ruled that the video platform can be held directly liable for users&#8217; copyright infringements. YouTube was not seen as a neutral intermediary and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-can-be-liable-for-copyright-infringing-videos-court-rules-180607/">should do more</a> to prevent infringing uploads.</p>
<p>The court noted that YouTube takes several motivated actions to actively organize and optimize how videos are displayed. By doing so, it becomes more than a neutral hosting provider. Therefore, it can&#8217;t rely on a safe harbor defense.</p>
<p>“Through the connections, sorting, filtering and linking, in particular by creating tables of contents according to predefined categories, determining the surfing behavior of users and creating a tailor-made surfing proposal, offering help etc, YouTube leaves on the role of a neutral intermediary and therefore cannot claim the host provider privilege,” the court wrote.</p>
<p>YouTube disagreed with the ruling and appealed the matter at the&nbsp;Higher Regional Court of Vienna.&nbsp;The video service maintained that, as a neutral hosting provider, it&#8217;s protected under the safe harbor provisions of the Austrian E-Commerce Act.</p>
<p>After a careful review of the case, the&nbsp;Higher Regional Court of Vienna agreed with YouTube, overturning the previous order. According to the appeal court, YouTube doesn&#8217;t have an &#8220;active role&#8221; and is therefore shielded from liability through its safe harbor defense.</p>
<p>The Court doesn&#8217;t dispute that YouTube provides&nbsp;search, categorization, and advertising services. However, these are seen as part of the normal business model of hosting platforms, which do not make the company liable.</p>
<p>&#8220;If it had to forgo structuring and search options in order to avoid a damaging &#8216;appropriation&#8217; of video content, its video platform would lose all user-friendliness,&#8221; the Court writes in its decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;The less users are able to find videos of interest to them amid the vast multitude of uploaded videos (several hundred million in this case), the less it would make sense even to visit such a video platform,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>Puls 4 cited the GS Media/Sanoma case, where the European Court of Justice ruled that posting infringing hyperlinks, during the course of business, can lead to liability. However, that doesn&#8217;t apply in this case, the Court notes, as YouTube wasn&#8217;t aware of the infringing nature of the videos.</p>
<p>In summary, the&nbsp;Higher Regional Court of Vienna concludes that, as a hosting platform, YouTube benefits from the safe harbor privilege. This means that it&#8217;s not liable for uploads of users and Puls 4&#8217;s complaint is dismissed as a result.</p>
<p>The outcome is good news for YouTube, as the order from the lower court severely threatened the operation of the video platform. However, it is not the end of the road yet.</p>
<p>Higher Regional Court of Vienna allows the case to be appealed at the Supreme Court and Puls 4 informs TorrentFreak that it will use this opportunity.</p>
<p>Puls 4 stresses that the current decision does not take into account relevant decisions of the CJEU, including the case regarding the infringing nature of The Pirate Bay. Nor does it reference the recent developments regarding liability under the proposed Article 13&nbsp;of the EU copyright directive.</p>
<p>&#8220;Puls4 will therefore definitely file an appeal to the Supreme Court,&#8221; a company spokesperson informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>A German court referred various&nbsp;copyright infringement <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=211267&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=2717644">related questions</a> to the European Court of Justice a few months ago. Since this involves YouTube directly, the Austrian Supreme Court will likely consider the pending outcome in this case too.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy of the&nbsp;Higher Regional Court of Vienna&#8217;s verdict is <a href="media/843a79a4.uls-4-vs-YouTube_original_31-1-2019_made-available-14-2-2019.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Puls-4-vs-YouTube_original_31-1-2019_made-available-14-2-2019.pdf">available here (pdf)</a></em></p>
<p><em>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169454
title: Stream Ripper Verdict Gives Carte Blanche to Internet Pirates, Record Labels Say
uri: Stream-Ripper-Verdict-Gives-Carte-Blanche-to-Internet-Pirates-Record
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/C9bCxXg5e0E/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-167641" src="media/ca1a4a3f.flvto-2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flvto-2.png" alt="" width="277" height="175">YouTube downloaders, often called stream rippers, are seen as the largest piracy threat to the music industry. As such, record labels are doing their best to shut them down.</p>
<p>In 2017, YouTube-MP3, the world&#8217;s largest ripping site at the time, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-settles-with-riaa-site-will-shut-down-170904/">went offline</a> after being sued, and several others&nbsp;<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/youtube-download-sites-throw-in-the-towel-under-legal-pressure-180614/">folded in response</a> to increased legal uncertainty.</p>
<p>Last summer, a group of major record labels, helped by the RIAA, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/major-labels-sue-more-youtube-ripper-sites-180806/">targeted two of the larger stream-rippers</a> that remained online. FLVTO.biz, 2conv.com, and their owner Tofig Kurbanov were sued for copyright infringement at a Virginia District Court.</p>
<p>While the record labels hoped for an easy win, their lawsuit didn&#8217;t go as planned.&nbsp;Kurbanov, who resides in Russia, fought back&nbsp;with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-ripper-slams-record-labels-over-absurdity-and-amnesia-181027/">motion to dismiss</a>. He argued that the Virginia federal court lacked jurisdiction over a site that&#8217;s managed&nbsp;from abroad.</p>
<p>The Court agreed with this assessment. In a verdict released this January,&nbsp;US District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-ripper-wins-dismissal-of-record-labels-us-piracy-lawsuit-190123/">dismissed the case</a>.&nbsp;The Court carefully reviewed how the sites operate and found no evidence that they&nbsp;purposefully targeted either Virginia or the United States.</p>
<p>“As the Websites are semi-interactive, the interactions with the users are non-commercial, and there were no other acts by the Defendant that would demonstrate purposeful targeting, the Court finds that Defendant did not purposefully avail himself of the benefits and protections of either Virginia or the United States,&#8221; the verdict read.</p>
<p>The record labels and the RIAA were disappointed with the outcome and swiftly announced they would appeal. This week they submitted their opening brief which argues that the District Court came to the wrong conclusion.</p>
<p>The record labels state that the site owner&#8217;s contacts with Virginia or with the United States are well established. The stream ripping sites transmit hundreds of millions of infringing files to U.S. devices&nbsp;and are monetized by ads which are partly targeted at U.S visitors.</p>
<p>If the current verdict stands, the companies fear that Internet pirates will have &#8220;carte blanche&#8221; to facilitate copyright infringement, as they will remain out of the reach of U.S. courts.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;The result of the district court’s ruling is that the </span><span class="fontstyle2">only </span><span class="fontstyle0">court in which U.S. record companies can bring suit to challenge millions of instances of U.S.-based online piracy is in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, where Kurbanov purportedly resides,&#8221; the labels write.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;The district court’s decision thus gives carte blanche to Internet pirates to set up shop outside of the United States, safe in the knowledge that they are&nbsp; effectively immune from the reach of U.S. courts seeking to vindicate the rights of U.S. plaintiffs for violations of U.S. copyright law, even as they cater to U.S. users.&#8221;<br>
</span></p>
<p>In their opening brief the labels reiterate that FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com have millions of US-based users, including hundreds of thousands in Virginia. The interactions with these users are&nbsp;<span class="fontstyle1">repeated and interactive, they say.</span></p>
<p>The District Court previously ruled that the number of U.S. users is irrelevant, as the sites&#8217; contacts with these people are &#8220;unilateral&#8221; and&nbsp;<span class="fontstyle1">“non-commercial.&nbsp;</span>The site does generate income from US users through ads, but that was not enough to be seen as a commercial contract.</p>
<p>The labels clearly disagree with this conclusion, calling it absurd.</p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;To isolate the content from the revenue generating advertisements as the district court did here would be to say that Google, Facebook, Snapchat, and countless other Internet companies’ relationships with their users is non-commercial. That position is absurd,&#8221; they counter.</span></p>
<p>The labels further point out that<span class="fontstyle0">&nbsp;the sites used a U.S.-based advertising firm, U.S.-based domain registrars and, until</span> <span class="fontstyle0">recently, U.S.-based servers. In addition, the site owner registered a DMCA agent with the U.S. Copyright Office, which isn&#8217;t typical for a site that doesn&#8217;t target the U.S.</span></p>
<p><span class="fontstyle0">&#8220;Appellee has, for example, registered a DMCA agent with the U.S. Copyright Office—the only purpose of which is to seek to qualify for the DMCA’s safe harbor defense to claims of copyright infringement in U.S. courts,&#8221; the brief reads.</span></p>
<p>Based on these arguments the labels ask&nbsp;the appeals court to overturn the District Court&#8217;s verdict. Or, as an alternative,&nbsp;<span class="fontstyle0">vacate it to allow for jurisdictional discovery.</span></p>
<p>Tofig Kurbanov and his legal team have yet to respond to the accusations. They don&#8217;t believe that U.S. courts have jurisdiction over the sites and its owner, and will likely make that clear during the weeks to come.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p><em>A copy </em>of&nbsp; the<em> record labels&#8217; opening brief is available <a href="media/0b6b715a.flvtoappeal.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/flvtoappeal.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169517
title: Supreme Court Denies Kim Dotcom Permission to Appeal
uri: Supreme-Court-Denies-Kim-Dotcom-Permission-to-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Hj7A0R1CQdU/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-76556"/></figure></div>



<p>In 2012, file-hosting site Megaupload was shut down by the United States government and founder Kim Dotcom and several associates were arrested in New Zealand.</p>



<p>For the past seven years, the US government has been engaged in a battle to extradite Dotcom, so that he can face trial in the US on several counts including copyright infringement, racketeering, and money laundering. </p>



<p>Dotcom has fought back every step of the way and in 2016, filed an eight-point statement of claim for judicial review, aimed at &#8220;attacking the underpinnings of the extradition process” by filing an eight-point statement of claim for judicial review.</p>



<p>In a 22-page High Court ruling&nbsp;<em>(<a href="http://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/kim-dotcom-v-the-district-court-at-north-shore/@@images/fileDecision?r=996.450243406">pdf</a>)</em>&nbsp;handed down in December 2017, Justice Timothy Brewer sided with the US and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcoms-extradition-battle-suffers-high-court-setback-171215/">rejected</a> seven out of the eight causes of action, stating they were either not reasonably arguable or were abuses of process.</p>



<p>The eighth point, which wasn’t challenged by the US, concerns the decision by the Deputy Solicitor-General in June 2017 to direct that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcoms-seized-data-could-soon-be-in-u-s-hands-150716/">clones be made</a> of the electronic devices seized from Mr Dotcom’s homes so they could be sent to the US.</p>



<p>Dotcom appealed but the Court of Appeal dismissed the action. Dotcom then sought permission to appeal that decision at the Supreme Court. In a judgment handed down this morning by Justices William Young, O’Regan and Ellen France JJ, the Supreme Court denied leave to appeal.</p>



<p>&#8220;The applicant [Dotcom] argues that the criteria for the grant of leave to appeal in s 74 of the Senior Courts Act 2016 are met in relation to the present application either because the application raises matters of general and public importance or because a substantial miscarriage of justice may occur if leave is not granted,&#8221; the judgment reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are not persuaded that the proposed appeal raises matters of general and public importance.&#8221;</p>



<p>Dotcom argued that a miscarriage of justice would take place if he was denied permission to appeal. However, the Supreme Court said that was not correct.</p>



<p>&#8220;The applicant is seeking to challenge concurrent findings in the Courts below on almost every point that would be in issue if leave were granted. We do not see the arguments foreshadowed by the applicant in his application for leave and the submissions in support of that application as having sufficient prospects of success to justify the grant of leave,&#8221; the judgment adds.   </p>



<p>After dismissing Dotcom&#8217;s application for a hearing at the Supreme Court on the matter, the Court then ordered him to pay $2,500 to the US Government to cover its costs.</p>



<p>Thus far, Dotcom hasn&#8217;t commented publicly on the judgment but did find a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-is-not-liable-for-copyright-infringing-videos-appeal-court-rules-190312/">report published here on TF</a> yesterday darkly amusing. Safe harbor for YouTube, but not him, apparently.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">But the US Govt still wants me in jail for 88 years. Hilarious ?? <a href="https://t.co/ECaRQjHRk9">https://t.co/ECaRQjHRk9</a></p>&mdash; Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1105918380165390336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 13, 2019</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<p><em>The judgment can be obtained </em><a href="media/e2858adf.2019NZSC27_Dotcom_v_District_Court.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2019NZSC27_Dotcom_v_District_Court.pdf"><em>here</em></a><em> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169367
title: Zippyshare is Blocked for UK Visitors, But Why?
uri: Zippyshare-is-Blocked-for-UK-Visitors-But-Why
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3knUhLZfU7M/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169483" src="media/24ded5d5.zippylogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zippylogo.png" alt="" width="275" height="86">Founded in 2006,&nbsp; Zippyshare has gathered an impressive userbase over the years.</p>
<p>While early competitors such as Rapidshare, Hotfile, and Megaupload, are now long gone, the free file-hosting service continued to thrive.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The site currently has millions of visitors per day from all over the world. There are also significant&nbsp;numbers hailing from the&nbsp;UK, where it is one of the most-used download&nbsp;portals not currently blocked by a High Court order.&nbsp;</p>
<p>However, starting a few days ago, UK&nbsp;visitors are no longer able to access the site. Instead of the usual download page, they are welcomed by a &#8220;403 forbidden&#8221; error message in their browsers. This remains the case today.&nbsp;</p>
<p></p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/800381ee.forbiddenzippy.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/forbiddenzippy.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169486"/><figcaption>Forbidden!</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>The site serves as a popular hosting location for both third-party &#8216;linking&#8217; sites and individual users. Some people have used it for over a decade, but that recently came to an abrupt end. For now at least.</p>
<p>This mysterious blockade&nbsp;led to numerous complaints and unanswered questions all over the Internet.&nbsp;</p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/e359ef45.zippygone.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/zippygone.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169507"/><figcaption>One of the many<a href="https://twitter.com/RokoBelfast/status/1105832396295991296"> tweets</a></figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Even several anti-piracy outfits were puzzled by the issue. <a href="https://twitter.com/VideoLock/status/1105804387342008320">VideoLock</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/DigCopyright/status/1105838845042536450">Digital Copyright</a>&nbsp;both mentioned the issue on Twitter. The latter initially suspected an ISP block, it seems, which would be a surprise as Zippyshare has always been&nbsp;extremely cooperative.</p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/cd656274.digitalcop.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/digitalcop.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169508"/><figcaption>Blocked?</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Since court-ordered site blockades are fairly common, several people reached the conclusion that Zippyshare had become the latest target. This suspicion even made it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_websites_blocked_in_the_United_Kingdom&amp;action=history">into the Wikipedia entry</a>, although it was deleted soon after, probably for good reason.&nbsp;</p>
<p>It is true that some UK ISPs may block Zippyshare under their <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://zippyshare.com">parental control filters</a>, but court-ordered&nbsp;blockades don&#8217;t result in &#8220;403&#8221; errors. And since users of UK&nbsp;based VPN IP-addresses see the same error message, there&#8217;s clearly something else going on. But what?</p>
<p>The error message in question suggests that Zippyshare is blocking UK&nbsp;visitors. This could be intentional or due to some misconfiguration. To find out more, TorrentFreak reached out to Zippyshare at the beginning of this week but, thus far, we haven&#8217;t heard back.&nbsp;</p>
<p>This leaves us with little other option than to speculate.&nbsp;One possibility is that Zippyshare took this step after some kind of legal pressure. It wouldn&#8217;t be the first time that a website does this. Two years ago, several stream-rippers also <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-converters-block-uk-traffic-to-avoid-trouble-171029/">blocked UK&nbsp;traffic</a>,&nbsp;presumably over legal concerns.</p>
<p>Without jumping to too many conclusions, it is evident that Zippyshare has been under quite a bit pressure. A few months ago the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bulletproof-hosting-is-an-emerging-piracy-threat-riaa-warns-181004/">RIAA reported it</a> as a notorious pirate site to the US Trade Representative, which already <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-targets-torrent-sites-and-other-piracy-havens-151218/">called out the site</a> in the past.</p>
<p>Without an official explanation from Zippyshare, we can only guess what the real reason for the UK visitor blockade is. In any case, no matter who&#8217;s initiating the blockade, there&#8217;s always a way around it. UK visitors can still access the site from a non-UK VPN server.</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169529
title: Russia Plans to Block Pirate Sites Without Trial & De-Anonymize Their Operators
uri: Russia-Plans-to-Block-Pirate-Sites-Without-Trial-De-Anonymize-Their
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KZTbNFxZ7sg/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/9eb9cac7.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-147564" width="256" height="193" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 256px) 100vw, 256px"></figure></div>



<p>Like most regions in the world, Russia has an online piracy problem, with millions of citizens regularly using pirate sites to access free movies, music, TV shows, and other content.</p>



<p>Russia is already a world-leader when it comes to site-blocking but if new proposals are written into law, life for pirate site owners could become much more difficult.</p>



<p>Back in 2018 the Ministry of Culture began mulling amendments to copyright law and this week it became clear that it has a tightened site-blocking regime in mind, along with other significant changes.</p>



<p>Local publication <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/13/03/2019/5c88a9d79a79477aa7e0a71b">RBC</a> had the opportunity to review the draft, which includes measures for the blocking of sites where pirated content is made available, without rightsholders having to go to court as they do now.</p>



<p>Instead, they will be able to go directly to the web hosts of sites making content available without a license, with instructions to block platforms, if they are unresponsive to takedown demands. </p>



<p>Furthermore, if the amendments are approved, owners of platforms where pirated content is made available will be compelled to sacrifice their anonymity. All such sites will be required to publish the names, addresses, and other contact details of their owners.</p>



<p>It isn&#8217;t yet clear how this requirement will be enforced, or how contact details will be checked for authenticity. However, it seems unlikely that company names and/or home addresses (in the case of individuals) will be willingly given up, particularly when site operators are already breaking the law by knowingly hosting or linking to infringing content.</p>



<p>The draft amendments were agreed by the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media, telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, and the Ministry of Economic Development, after consultation with entertainment industry companies, RBC reports.</p>



<p>News of the amendments arrives just days after authorities held talks with major rightsholders, hosting platforms, and search providers, with the aim of writing the terms of an anti-piracy memorandum <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-holds-talks-to-enshrine-landmark-anti-piracy-agreement-into-law-190308/">into law</a>.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-anti-piracy-database-agreement-signed-in-moscow-181101/">currently voluntary agreement</a> aims to create an ever-growing centralized database of infringing content to enable hosting platforms and search engines to take down media and links both quickly and efficiently. </p>



<p>According to comments made this week by Sergey Selyanov, head of the Association of Film and Television Producers, the memorandum is working as planned.</p>



<p>Finally, local search giant Yandex has reportedly developed and launched its own set of tools for detecting pirated content online. Using information being made available in the recently-established piracy database, Yandex is using machine learning to &#8220;clean up&#8221; its own search results. The company is currently <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2019/03/14/796426-yandeks-robota">declining</a> to offer any additional details. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169589
title: Scammers Use Fake Copyright Notices to Steal Instagram Accounts
uri: Scammers-Use-Fake-Copyright-Notices-to-Steal-Instagram-Accounts
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sf3ED7MsLbM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169597" src="media/b0924759.insta-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/insta-1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="242">There is no denying that many people spend several hours per day on their social media accounts.</p>
<p>Those who gain enough status on sites such as Instagram&nbsp;can even make a living out of it.</p>
<p>When this livelihood is threatened, panic and fear can ensue. This is something scammers are well aware of and some are gladly exploiting it for their benefit.</p>
<p>According to cybersecurity company and anti-virus provider&nbsp;<a href="https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/instagram-hijack-new-wave/25997/">Kaspersky</a>, a new phishing scheme that uses fake copyright notices is &#8220;gaining momentum.&#8221;&nbsp; The email campaign uses an Instagram letterhead and warns recipients that their accounts will be suspended.</p>
<p>&#8220;We regret to inform you that your account will be suspending because you have violated the copyright laws. Your account will be deleted within 24 hours. If you think we make a mistake please verify, to secure your account,&#8221; the email reads.</p>
<p></p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/7635da90.instacopy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/instacopy.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-169595"/><figcaption>Example of the email, courtesy of <a href="https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/instagram-hijack-new-wave/25997/">Kaspersky</a>. </figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Most native speakers will spot the grammatical&nbsp;errors, which should sound the alarms bells. On the other hand, people who are less fluent in English, or&nbsp;don&#8217;t read closely, might easily be drawn to the &#8220;verify account&#8221; button which leads to a heap of trouble.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you click it, you end up on a convincing phishing page, where fraudsters put an image saying they care very much about copyright protection and offer you a link to &#8216;Appeal&#8217;,&#8221; Kaspersky writes.</p>
<p>People who click the appeal link will be asked to enter their Instagram credentials, which will obviously be stolen. And while the scammers are at it, victims&nbsp;are also asked&nbsp;to verify their email addresses.</p>
<p>“We need to verify your feedback and check if your e-mail account matches the Instagram account,” the fake notice reads. Those who proceed will be asked to choose their email provider and submit&nbsp;their address and password, which undoubtedly be stolen as well.</p>
<p>None of these phishing&nbsp;tricks are new and it appears that this scam has been running for a few months already. What&#8217;s interesting, however, is that copyright infringement is used as a threat to spur people into action.</p>
<p>With all the recent talk about upload filters and disappearing memes, people are likely to be more&nbsp;susceptible to fall for this scheme than an ordinary &#8220;verify your account&#8221; email. Especially if their precious social media accounts are supposedly at risk.</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=168306
title: Rightholders Have Asked Google to ‘Remove’ 4 Billion Pirate Links
uri: Rightholders-Have-Asked-Google-to-Remove-4-Billion-Pirate-Links
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fL3N7c1wjag/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-128445" src="media/3c5b1a66.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" width="267" height="257"></p>
<p>For most people, search engines such as Google are an essential tool to enjoy&nbsp;the web in all its glory.</p>
<p>With clever algorithms, the company offers a gateway to billions of sites, many of which would otherwise remain undiscovered.</p>
<p>This also includes many &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites. While there are plenty of people who don&#8217;t mind seeing these show up in search results, their presence is a thorn in the side of copyright holders.</p>
<p>At the beginning of this decade, this problem was hardly recognized. When Google published its first transparency report, it received just a few thousand requests&nbsp;per day. Today, that number has grown to well over two million.</p>
<p>For years this number kept going up and up. While that trend was broken recently, the total now adds up to an impressive figure.</p>
<p>Google&#8217;s transparency report shows that copyright holders have asked the company to remove four billion links to alleged copyright-infringing content. The majority or these requests, more than 90%, were indeed removed or put on a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-blocks-pirated-search-results-prophylactically-180103/">preemptive blacklist</a>.</p>
<p>The four billion links were reported by&nbsp;168,180 copyright holders who identified&nbsp;2,283,811 separate domains. These domains also include false positives, including websites of <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/whitehouse.gov">The White House</a>, <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/fbi.gov">the FBI</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/disney.com">Disney</a>, <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/netflix.com">Netflix</a>, the <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/nytimes.com">New York Times</a>, and even <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>.</p>
<p></p>


<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/6f12e262.4billion.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/4billion.png" alt="" class="wp-image-169582"/><figcaption>4 Billion&#8230;</figcaption></figure></div>


<p>Most reported links do indeed point to copyrighted material, however. Google typically takes these out of their search engine softly after a request comes in. This means that the takedown process works as intended. However, it remains controversial.</p>
<p>Several major copyright groups see the huge number of reported links as evidence that their efforts are futile. No matter how many links they submit, there are always new ones to find the next day.</p>
<p>“Every day we have to send new notices to take down the very same links to illegal content we took down the day before. It’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ for takedowns,” RIAA CEO Cary Sherman described the situation previously.</p>
<p>Ideally, the major copyright groups would like Google to remove all results from known pirate sites. However, the search engine believes that this goes a step too far, warning that it could lead to overbroad censorship.</p>
<p>&#8220;When it comes to entire websites, Google may demote a site in our search results if we receive enough copyright removal notices for it, but we do<br>not remove full sites from search results for copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Although this would reduce our operational burden, whole-site removal is ineffective and can easily result in the censorship of lawful material,&#8221; Google wrote in its latest overview of anti-piracy measures, published late last year.</p>
<p>Google itself is not completely apathetic to the piracy issue. It does &#8216;demote&#8217; sites for which it has received a substantial number of takedown notices. These will then appear lower in search results.&nbsp;The demotion &#8216;signal&#8217; can weigh even stronger for specific keywords, such as recently released films.</p>
<p>This demotion strategy gives copyright holders a &#8220;powerful tool against rogue sites,&#8221; Google notes. When new pirates sites appear, copyright holders can target these with takedown notices, after which Google will demote them.</p>
<p>As such, the four billion reported links will likely be five billion by the end of next year.</p><p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169622
title: Steal This Show S04E13: Faircoin
uri: Steal-This-Show-S04E13-Faircoin
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6cm6jQFBbbg/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928" src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="" width="180" height="180">This is part one of a two-part series with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enric_Duran">Enric Duran</a>, leader of the <a href="https://fair-coin.org/">Faircoin project</a> and founder of<a href="https://fair.coop/en"> Fair Coop</a>.</p>
<p>Faircoin is a fascinating experiment in cryptocurrency: a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_exchange_trading_system">LETS</a>-style community currency which also functions as an exchange-traded token. With it, Duran’s Fair Co-op wants to power an international co-operative movement based on ideas and principles emerging from the Catalan Integral Co-operative: peer-to-peer organization, and horizontal governance by consensus.</p>
<p>We discuss how the Fair Co-Op project co-opted (!) the original Fair Coin for its own use; trust and reciprocity in small communities and how crypto can extend this into the wider world; and just how to think about the ‘ecological cost’ of Bitcoin as a means to create a truly trustless global exchange network.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing crypto, privacy, copyright and file-sharing developments. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest: </strong><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enric_Duran">Enric Duran</a></p>
<p><center><iframe src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&amp;lpe-season=4&amp;lpe-episode=13" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &amp; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Lucas Marston<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Barch</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=169383
title: Travis McRae: Sue Me Over EBook Site, I Want the BS Over & Done With
uri: Travis-McRae-Sue-Me-Over-EBook-Site-I-Want-the-BS-Over-Done-With
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7oAdQ9bVMSc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/a2489c59.3geINt6a_400x400.jpg" data-original-source="https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/893359655312687105/3geINt6a_400x400.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="240"/></figure></div>



<p>Most entities behind user-generated upload platforms know that lawsuits are always a possibility and accept them as a risk of doing business.</p>



<p>YouTube, for example, knows that it can be sued but since the company follows applicable law to the letter, it&#8217;s not a straightforward prospect for opponents. It also has the deepest of deep pockets.</p>



<p>Then there&#8217;s Travis <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">McRea</g>, the former leader of the Pirate Party of Canada and the brains behind what is now becoming one of the world&#8217;s most controversial eBook platforms, Ebook.bike.</p>



<p><g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">McRea</g> also understands he could be sued for his activities but informs TorrentFreak he is actually looking forward to the day. It seems clear; McRea is on a mission.</p>



<p>After <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-politician-starts-movie-torrent-site-110813/">launching</a> a movie torrent site in 2011, the keen pilot is now in the eBook market. His site is simple and free to use but authors and publishers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/former-pirate-party-leader-trolls-authors-to-push-traffic-to-ebook-site-190306/">are furious</a> that he appears to hold no licenses for the content on his platform. Not unlike YouTube, however, <g class="gr_ gr_48 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="48" data-gr-id="48">McRea</g> says he&#8217;s DMCA compliant, so doesn&#8217;t need any.</p>



<p>Earlier this week, <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">McRea</g> appeared on BBC Radio&#8217;s You and Yours show, facing off against <a href="http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk/">Joanne Harris</a>&nbsp;(MBE), the author of the award-winning novel Chocolat.</p>



<p>McRea told the show that his website isn&#8217;t based around the idea of copyright infringement but was actually designed &#8220;by authors, for authors&#8221; and is a group effort to share books. He also insisted that he isn&#8217;t hiding behind the DMCA, stating that it&#8217;s not a &#8220;cover my butt answer&#8221; and authors he knows are actually uploading content to his platform.</p>



<p>Joanne Harris, whose books also appeared on EBook.bike without permission, countered by saying she has never encountered any author who uploads content to <g class="gr_ gr_3 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_disable_anim_appear ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="3" data-gr-id="3">McRea&#8217;s</g> site.</p>



<p>&#8220;It is copyright theft, it&#8217;s not sharing. Sharing is when an author decides to put their own book online for purposes of their own,&#8221; she said.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been involved in a three-day Twitter conversation with many, many hundreds of people who are very annoyed that their books are there. I haven&#8217;t yet met one defending the site.&#8221;</p>



<p>The conversation then moved to McCrea&#8217;s claim that content is taken down quickly. Harris said her publisher doesn&#8217;t believe the system is good enough and it had been trying to take down content &#8220;over several weeks&#8221;,  while insisting that McRea hasn&#8217;t been &#8220;consistent in taking things down.&#8221;</p>



<p>McCrea disagreed and reiterated that the website isn&#8217;t dedicated to copyright infringement, it&#8217;s there to help authors. He also said that personal attacks on Twitter against his family mean that authors are unlikely to step forward to support him.</p>



<p>&#8220;My mother, my girlfriend &#8211; notably not my father &#8211; all had their public information shared on Twitter, <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">doxxing</g> the people who come to my aid. These are the people who are around me. So why would anyone willingly want to come up and defend me against these baseless attacks if this is what they&#8217;re going to be met with?&#8221; <g class="gr_ gr_7 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="7" data-gr-id="7">McRea</g> complained.</p>



<p>Having listened to the show, TorrentFreak spoke with McRea who told us that he wasn&#8217;t happy with the final broadcast.</p>



<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t hear the final interview, I didn&#8217;t like the way the interview went. There were technical issues and all my questions were worded with a bias,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>&#8220;I get that I&#8217;m going to have an uphill battle but at least from the sound booth the interview sounded like a hit piece.&#8221;&nbsp; </p>



<p>That being said, an uphill battle appears to be exactly what McRea is gunning for.</p>



<p>&#8220;My statement remains what it always was. I want someone to sue me. I want to win that case and then have legal precedent which should let me start finding ad partners, not having to deal with as much BS,&#8221; he told TF.</p>



<p>Wanting to be sued is usually at the bottom of most people&#8217;s bucket list, but McCrea is clearly no ordinary player. He told us that living Canada means that he&#8217;s not compelled to follow the terms of the DMCA but does so out of choice. For those still unhappy, he&#8217;s throwing down the gauntlet.</p>



<p>&#8220;While we stay committed to following all US copyright laws and ensuring  we maintain our DMCA compliance, I would like to reiterate that I am a  Canadian and my focus is on upholding the laws of my country. It just has always been that the DMCA provides the best framework for how to  handle copyright complaints,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>&#8220;I use the DMCA because it offers the best framework, not because I feel I&#8217;m obligated to. If they feel I&#8217;m liable, come sue me.&#8221;</p>



<p>While McRea is certainly taking a tough stance, in a follow up he told us that he&#8217;s also developing policies and tools to help both authors and users to better understand their rights while using his website.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m also working on a copyright tool that can be built into ebooks like a robots.txt file which allow authors to specify what platforms their book can be uploaded to. Ebook Bike will search for that file and honor it if it exists,&#8221; he concludes.</p>



<p>Whether publishers will now take McCrea up on his offer to battle this out in court will remain to be seen. Public standoffs like this are very rare indeed, particularly when legal precedents are there for the taking.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s unclear whether the former Pirate Party leader has the resources to take on a giant like Harper Collins, for example, but his confidence suggests he may have a plan. We&#8217;ll have to wait to find out the details.  </p>



<p><em>The full BBC show, You and Yours, can be heard <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000357c">here</a>, (skip to 30m40s)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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