# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112804
title: Should RuTracker Delete 320,000 Torrents to Pacify Record Labels?
uri: Should-RuTracker-Delete-320-000-Torrents-to-Pacify-Record-Labels
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S2ft1vbibRs/
content:
<p><img src="media/b0692145.rutracker1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker1.jpg" width="250" height="95" class="alignright">Previously known as Torrents.ru, RUTracker.org is a very large torrent tracker and one of Russia’s most popular sites overall. It&#8217;s also facing a huge dilemma which has the potential to seriously affect the site&#8217;s functionality and perhaps its entire future.</p>
<p>RuTracker&#8217;s problems arise from its poor relationship with the National Federation of the Music Industry (NFMI), a group which counts Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI among its members. They insist that RuTracker repeatedly infringes their copyrights on a grand scale and as a result they want the site blocked in Russia.</p>
<p>To achieve this aim, earlier this month NFMI <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rutracker-lifetime-block-lawsuit-filed-by-music-industry-151013/">filed a lawsuit </a> at the Moscow City Court, the first of its kind against a torrent site. If successful, RuTracker would be permanently blocked by all Russian ISPs. However, it appears that RuTracker&#8217;s operators see the chance of a negotiated way out.</p>
<p><strong>Takedown</strong></p>
<p>RuTracker insists that it cooperates with rightsholders who want torrents removed and says that since the start of the year around 10,000 have been deleted. It has also responded to 19 direct requests (covering 60 torrents) from telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor.</p>
<p>&#8220;We cooperate with right holders, precisely because the role of RuTracker is a non-profit library,&#8221; the site said in a statement this week.</p>
<p>According to the site (and present issues aside), things have been running pretty smoothly too. In the past three years no complaints have been filed with its ISP or domain registrar. Furthermore, no copyright holders have ever publicly complained that the site refuses to take down torrents.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, RuTracker says it has been handed an ultimatum.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have been handed a huge list containing several million artists, albums and songs with an ultimatum to remove everything that is in this list and block the appearance of any of these songs, albums or artists on RuTracker in the future. Otherwise the NFMI will insist on blocking RuTracker in the territory of the Russian Federation through the courts,&#8221; the site says.</p>
<p>After trawling through the lists provided by the labels, RuTracker says it has drawn a number of conclusions.</p>
<p>First, they contain matches for around 22,000 music albums/torrents accessible via the site. Second, &#8220;full or partial matches&#8221; for songs present on the list appear in a further 300,000 torrents.</p>
<p>While not all of the songs on the second batch of albums are a problem individually, as long as just one NFMI track exists in a torrent (in a compilation, for example), that whole torrent becomes an issue. The site believes that to wade through them all properly could take months or even years to complete.</p>
<p><strong>Let the people decide</strong></p>
<p><img src="media/c7105c3f.delete.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/delete.jpg" alt="delete" width="200" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78884">So, in a nutshell, RuTracker is presenting its users with a choice. Do they want the site&#8217;s operators to delete 320,000 torrents to pacify the labels, or would they prefer them to be left intact but face a nationwide ISP ban?</p>
<p>While the choice appears simple on first view, on closer examination it becomes more complex. Losing 320,000 torrents would obviously be a blow, but an estimated 50% of RuTracker&#8217;s users are from Russia and it&#8217;s far from clear how many would be capable of circumventing a blockade.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not all users from Russia will be able to bypass the ISP block so the current audience of RuTracker (about 13 million active accounts) would be quickly reduced. Also, the number of new torrents would decrease strongly and the speeds available on existing torrents would be noticeably lower,&#8221; the site explains.</p>
<p>And of course, even if the site does remove 320,000 torrents as asked, who&#8217;s to say the demands will stop there? The site predicts that sooner or later there will be other unresolved copyright issues which will result in RuTracker being blocked in Russia anyway.</p>
<p>RuTracker reportedly has around 1.6 million torrents so the chances of further complaints are indeed extremely high. Nevertheless, the site is currently running a poll among its members to decide its fate. Delete the torrents and try to stay useful to all, or refuse and have millions of members locked out?</p>
<p>Currently the poll has attracted almost 278,317 votes, an indication of just how big RuTracker is. Thus far nearly three-quarters are defiant. While 30% think the site should remove the torrents to avoid being blocked, 70% disagree. That large majority believes that the site should leave the torrents where they are and trust users to find a way to circumvent any blockade.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a dilemma no other torrent site has ever faced. The outcome and fallout will be extremely interesting.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112840
title: YIFY/ YTS Shuts Down Forever – The End of a Piracy Icon
uri: YIFY-YTS-Shuts-Down-Forever-The-End-of-a-Piracy-Icon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_fM5bs5cX9U/
content:
<p><img src="media/82494202.YTS.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/YTS.png" alt="YTS" width="211" height="91" class="alignright size-full wp-image-100810">Ten days ago the popular movie torrent site YTS <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-yts-may-be-gone-for-good-151026/">stopped working</a>. </p>
<p>The downtime raised concern among many BitTorrent users, not least because the site belongs to movie release group YIFY, which has dominated public BitTorrent sites for several years. </p>
<p>Today we can report that this reign has come to an end. YIFY and YTS have shutdown permanently, as predicted earlier this week. </p>
<p>A lot of information has been made available over the past several days and multiple sources have now confirmed that YTS and YIFY will not return. The entire operation has stopped which means that no new official YIFY movie releases will appear on any torrent site, anywhere.</p>
<p>TF has received additional explanatory details from trusted sources, but we have been asked not to reveal all of the information just yet. However, our sources confirm without doubt that the shutdown is permanent.</p>
<p>The operator of YTS/YIFY, meanwhile, remains silent. </p>
<p>The news marks the end of a remarkable era. YIFY first arrived on the scene in 2010 and the group has shared over 6,000 movie releases since. </p>
<p>The group&#8217;s website (YTS.to) also gained popularity in recent years. Earlier this year the operator <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-rolls-new-design-features-150202/">informed TF</a> that they had close to a million unique visitors per day, generating six million pageviews.  </p>
<p>The YTS/YIFY shutdown doesn&#8217;t mean that piracy will end anytime soon, but it&#8217;s one of the most significant changes to the landscape in recent history. YIFY releases were consistently among the most-pirated movies, week after week. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-hollywood-nemesis-becomes-iconic-piracy-brand-131005/">interview in 2013</a>, YIFY attributed this popularity to the presentation and consistency of its releases.</p>
<p>“I personally think that many people are following and downloading YIFY encodes due to the consistency we offer in our releasing. Everything from the consistent film cover art, to the information layout, and ultimately to the file-size of our encodes,” YIFY said.</p>
<p>“I believe this is important because people like stability and assurance with what they are downloading. By adding consistency to a reasonable file-size, we have filled a spot in the community, which seemingly has a lot of demand,” he added.</p>
<p>YIFY also played a crucial part as the primary movie supplier for many Popcorn Time forks. The size of the shutdown fallout will become apparent during the weeks to come. </p>
<p>Over the past several days many people have been misled by fake YIFY websites, Facebook accounts and impostors. These should not be trusted and are trying to profit from the confusion. </p>
<p>To be continued. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112825
title: With Popcorn Time Faltering, Stremio Eyes the Top Spot
uri: With-Popcorn-Time-Faltering-Stremio-Eyes-the-Top-Spot
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Fr-Pku_7bWY/
content:
<p><img src="media/936ad95e.stremio-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stremio-logo.jpg" alt="stremio-logo" width="180" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-112834">Most readers will not need to be reminded of the chaos that has surrounded the Popcorn Time brand this last couple of weeks, but for those needing a short summary, here goes.</p>
<p>The main fork of Popcorn Time, PopcornTime.io, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-chaos-triggers-more-downtime-151023/">is now dead</a>. Previously sanctioned by the original Popcorn Time creator, the project in its most recent form is now consigned to history. In its place sits &#8216;<a href="http://butterproject.org/">Butter</a>&#8216;, a new project which aims to take the legal heat off the project&#8217;s developers but is less likely to become an instant hit like its predecessor.</p>
<p>Making matters worse, most variants of Popcorn Time relied on the YTS torrent site for their main movie content. That site has now been down for well over a week and will not be coming back. As a result the Popcorn Time applications installed on users&#8217; computers are less useful than they previously were.</p>
<p>While movie companies around the world will have hoped that disenchanted users simply switched off Popcorn Time at the first signs of trouble and signed up with Netflix, life just isn&#8217;t that simple. There&#8217;s now room at the top of the unofficial streaming market for a new challenger and a group of programmers from Europe think they have such a contender up their sleeve. It certainly looks impressive.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0dee8f90.stremio1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stremio1.png" alt="stremio1" width="650" height="366" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-112827"></center></p>
<p>Under development since 2012, <a href="http://strem.io/">Stremio</a> is hardly a newcomer. Back then, however, it was known under a different name.</p>
<p>&#8220;We always knew that torrents were a huge source of video content so we decided to try building an app that can stream torrents &#8211; for fun,&#8221; Stremio co-founder Ivo informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;A few months later, we had our first prototype called Cinematic. The app was based on libtorrent, python and nw.js. We basically had a click-and-play movie catalog streaming from torrents.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cinematic utilized the <a href="https://github.com/mafintosh/peerflix">Peerflix</a> engine and Ivo says he loved what developer &#8216;<a href="https://github.com/mafintosh">Mafintosh</a>&#8216; was doing.</p>
<p>&#8220;We helped with Peerflix as well as integrated it into Cinematic,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>At this point in its life Cinematic remained an unpublished project. &#8220;It wasn&#8217;t as polished or legally sustainable as we&#8217;d like,&#8221; Ivo says. But then another application with Peerflix roots hit the big time.</p>
<p>&#8220;Born out of Peerflix, came Popcorn Time,&#8221; Ivo says. &#8220;It was very interesting for us to see what was going to happen with their product.&#8221;</p>
<p>With Popcorn Time grabbing the majority of the headlines, Ivo and his co-founder continued work on their own software and last year had a breakthrough.</p>
<p>&#8220;In 2014 we focused on creating a general-purpose app that&#8217;s a movie/series browser, which provides content from different sources. Not just torrents. We started developing an add-on system to supply the content. That&#8217;s how Stremio was born,&#8221; he reveals.</p>
<p>&#8220;We left the development of our torrent streaming add-on to our community. Currently we have &#8216;Torrent Stream&#8217; &#8211; a third-party add-on available if Stremio users want to enable it.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Stremio had the ability to pull content from YTS, that site is gone for good. However, in its absence it uses sites such as Kickass, Torrentz and others. It then augments the video content with artwork and data pulled from the world&#8217;s leading movie databases.</p>
<p>&#8220;Stremio associates every usable video file within the torrents with an IMDB ID. The beautiful thing here is that even if YTS goes off, and never recovers, this system will continue working with other sources,&#8221; Ivo says.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s based on the <a href="http://github.com/Ivshti/multipass-torrent">Multi-Pass Torrent</a> open-source software. In comparison to Popcorn Time, I think Torrent Stream and the way it works makes Stremio more content rich and reliable streaming from torrents, if you enable it and if it is legal in your area.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to pulling video from torrents (people can also post a magnet link in the search bar), Stremio is also able to grab recorded and even live content from elsewhere.</p>
<p><Center><img src="media/24f87216.stremio2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stremio2.png" alt="stremio2" width="650" height="425" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-112838"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Right now, Stremio&#8217;s official add-ons allow people to watch from YouTube and [live TV broadcasts from] Filmon.tv. We also have an add-on providing you with the cheapest legal source to stream a movie / TV show. You can also watch videos locally from a hard drive,&#8221; Ivo notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our plan for the future is to provide a one-stop place to organize and watch instantly all your favorite video content &#8211; movies, TV shows, video channels, TV channels.&#8221;</p>
<p>But in addition to merely viewing content, Stremio&#8217;s devs hope to assist users to remain both organized and mobile. The app already has a library feature to keep track of TV series and movies plus notifications and recommendations. It can also cast (work in progress) to Smart TVs and mobile devices. </p>
<p>Furthermore, since Stremio uses an add-on system (making it a little more like Kodi than Popcorn Time), third-party developers are free to chime in with their own ideas and tools for extra functionality. For those that way inclined, anime and adult add-ons are reportedly on the way.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re also working on providing more official add-ons ourselves &#8211; in fact, we even have a TV show officially licensed for us now in the Cinema add-on,&#8221; Ivo concludes.</p>
<p><a href="http://strem.io/">Stremio</a> is still <a href="https://github.com/Stremio">being developed</a> (PC, Mac, Linux &#8211; partially open source) so can be a little temperamental at times. However, it illustrates perfectly where a Popcorn Time-style application can go in the future when plug-ins are utilized. Perhaps this is what &#8216;<a href="http://butterproject.org/">Butter</a>&#8216; has in mind.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112843
title: RIAA Wants $17 Million Damages From ‘New’ Grooveshark
uri: RIAA-Wants-17-Million-Damages-From-New-Grooveshark
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/s5BO7IU5SAI/
content:
<p><img src="media/4489416f.groove2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/groove2.jpg" alt="groove2" width="190" height="89" class="alignright size-full wp-image-47909">Earlier this year the long running lawsuit between the RIAA and Grooveshark <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/grooveshark-shuts-down-apologizes-to-the-riaa-150501/">came to an end</a>. However, within days a new site was launched <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/resurrected-grooveshark-is-actually-an-mp3juices-clone-150506/">aiming to take its place</a>. </p>
<p>The RIAA wasn’t happy with this development and quickly sued the reincarnation, obtaining a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-sue-new-grooveshark-seize-domains-150515/">restraining order</a> to prevent domain registrars and hosting companies from offering their services to the site.</p>
<p>Namecheap quickly suspended the original domain name. CloudFlare initially refused to cooperate, but after protests the CDN provider was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-cloudflare-to-disconnect-new-grooveshark-150605/">ordered</a> by the court to comply. </p>
<p>The new Grooveshark wasn&#8217;t giving up easily though and continued to operate for a while under several new domain names. However, in recent weeks the entire operation has gone dark. </p>
<p>The RIAA, undeterred, has no intention of dropping the case. This week the music group asked a New York federal court to issue a default judgment against the site&#8217;s operator. </p>
<p>In their motion the record labels describe the site as a copyright-infringing operation which tried to use the Grooveshark brand to gain popularity with former users. </p>
<p>This worked, as the site was widely covered in the press. However, with the labels controlling Grooveshark&#8217;s trademarks it only provided the RIAA with more legal ammunition. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ Counterfeit Service prominently featured counterfeit replicas of the Grooveshark Marks as well as identical graphical elements taken from the original Grooveshark website,&#8221; the RIAA writes in its motion (<a href="media/c28058f8.grooveriaa.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/grooveriaa.pdf">pdf</a>) this week. </p>
<p>In addition, the labels also accuse the new Grooveshark of distributing numerous copyrighted tracks without permission. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have provided conclusive evidence that infringing copies of MP3 files that correspond to each of the Works-in-Suit have been streamed, reproduced, and distributed via the Counterfeit Service to computers located in New York.&#8221; </p>
<p>The RIAA lists 89 tracks as evidence and asks for the maximum statutory damages for each infringement. This brings the total amount to a massive $13,350,000.</p>
<p>In addition, the record labels are asking for $4 million for willful counterfeiting of two Grooveshark marks, and another $400,000 for cybersquatting, by registering four Grooveshark domain names in bad faith.  </p>
<p>Finally, the RIAA has also filed a request for the court to transfer the four Grooveshark domain names so they can&#8217;t be used for any infringing actions in the future. </p>
<p>There is little doubt that the RIAA will win the case, especially since the operator of the new Grooveshark has not appeared in court. However, since the operator is reportedly located in Ukraine, it may be difficult to cash in on those millions.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112845
title: Pirate Sites and Their Users Are Suffering a Trademark Crisis
uri: Pirate-Sites-and-Their-Users-Are-Suffering-a-Trademark-Crisis
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4RkBMiJmAEE/
content:
<p><img src="media/990a5f8c.trademark.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trademark.jpg" alt="trademark" width="190" height="191" class="alignright size-full wp-image-112877">Anti-piracy activities often get plenty of negative press and when they&#8217;re overreaching and cynical, why shouldn&#8217;t they? However, in much the same way as one might have reluctant admiration for a brilliant but criminal genius, occasionally an anti-piracy strategy is also capable of generating a wry smile.</p>
<p>At first view the purpose of &#8216;pirate&#8217; domain seizures and blocking seems obvious. Take away or reduce the effectiveness of a site&#8217;s most visible asset and that will not only hit its traffic but will also undermine its standing with users. Based on the fact that no site anywhere wants its domain screwed with, the strategy must be at least partially effective.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the effect of seizures and blockades can be mitigated. Sites can get a new domain in a matter of minutes. Proxies and mirrors can be set up to allow blocked users to access sites again. It&#8217;s a never-ending game of whac-a-mole, a never-ending game of cat-and-mouse.</p>
<p>And it&#8217;s making a huge mess.</p>
<p>While plenty of people know that The Pirate Bay is still accessible on its .SE domain, fewer will be able to recall the other domains that the site now redirects to. Certainly, .la has less ring than most other TLDs, and by the time one gets to .mn and .gd, the memorable factor almost completely disappears.</p>
<p>Add in the fact that The Pirate Bay now has hundreds of proxies, mirrors and clones, all of which look just like the real site but are operated independently, and it&#8217;s clear to see that the real, original Pirate Bay has a branding crisis. What started off as a genuine intent to mitigate anti-piracy measures, has ended up creating a digital quagmire where nothing is quite what it seems.</p>
<p>But The Pirate Bay is not the only &#8216;victim&#8217;. There are copies of almost every key pirate site around today, some with good intentions, some with bad. There are few people out there, experts included, who can quickly and definitively tell the difference in all cases. This means that the brand images of all the major sites are being eroded by shady impostors on a daily basis.</p>
<p>If only there was a mechanism to stop people passing off their fake product or site as the real deal (he said without a hint of irony). Well, there is of course, but trademark protection isn&#8217;t a thing that any torrent site is going to invest much time in. Turning up in court for any kind of legal battle is well down their bucket lists, guaranteed.</p>
<p>But in the absence of such protection, users of those sites (or rather their nefarious clones) will suffer.</p>
<p>During the past week, in the wake of the YTS/YIFY closure, TF received a steady stream of emails from people who believed the operation was still running. Some pointed to sites with YIFY in the title, others pointed to dubious Facebook pages. All of them were fake, with each and every one abusing the YTS and YIFY &#8216;trademarks&#8217; to further their own goals.</p>
<p>And of course, anti-piracy groups love this. They know that when fake sites appear they undermine the brand reputation of the genuine sites. They know that when malware gets offloaded or dodgy signups are required, people lose faith in the sites they&#8217;re trying to kill. When one thinks about it, people pirating pirate sites are doing their work for them.</p>
<p>With specialist branding/anti-piracy companies like <a href="https://www.markmonitor.com/">MarkMonitor</a> onboard, rest assured entertainment industry companies fully understand the value of undermining pirate branding. Their strategy is both cunning and clever too, since pirates are completely unable to protect their trademarks in the way that a normal company might. Popcorn Time <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/developer-registers-popcorn-time-trademark-to-prevent-abuse-140919/">tried</a> &#8211; it didn&#8217;t get them very far.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s truly ironic then that if sites themselves could get trademark and copyright protection, they would be in a much stronger position than they are today. Failing that, consumers are left to try and understand which are the fakes sites and which ones are real. And for the layman that is getting more and more difficult every day.</p>
<p>Equally, some unlicensed services (such as Popcorn Time and Stremio covered yesterday) are difficult to tell apart from authorized products such as Netflix. Who would&#8217;ve imagined that both sides of the copyright wars would end up having the same weaknesses and vulnerabilities?</p>
<p>&#8230;and their respective branding efforts undermined by pirates&#8230;.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112830
title: PIA Runs VPN Traffic Through VPN to Avoid BitTorrent Ban
uri: PIA-Runs-VPN-Traffic-Through-VPN-to-Avoid-BitTorrent-Ban
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/70ezHLy08gE/
content:
<p><img src="media/ff34a468.pia1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pia1.jpg" alt="pia" width="250" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-112870">It&#8217;s no secret that millions of people use VPN services to make sure that their BitTorrent download habits remain private. </p>
<p>This is a valid reason, but since many torrent users share copyrighted material, it also presents problems for VPN providers. </p>
<p>Increasingly, datacenters around the world are banning services with heavy BitTorrent traffic due to the vast amount of copyright infringement notices they trigger. </p>
<p>In response <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">several VPN providers</a> are now only allowing P2P traffic on specific servers. Private Internet Access (PIA) is also presented with this problem, but the solution they chose is different. </p>
<p>Instead of banning torrent traffic, <a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/">PIA</a> has decided to route it through BitTorrent-friendly regions instead. </p>
<p>&#8220;Certain regimes/regions and data centers have strict discriminatory policies towards the BitTorrent protocol. In order to provide a free and open internet to everyone, we were forced to create a technical fix,&#8221; the company informs TF. </p>
<p>The policy affects a few servers in Japan, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Singapore and Hong Kong. Subscribers who are connected to these servers may notice that their BitTorrent traffic is rerouted through another region. </p>
<p>PIA doesn&#8217;t mention any of the datacenters by name. However, a quick lookup shows that its Australian servers are hosted at SoftLayer Technologies, which <a href="http://knowledgelayer.softlayer.com/jp/faq/may-i-use-bittorrent-protocols">strictly prohibits</a> copyright infringement. </p>
<p>The &#8220;double VPN&#8221; solution doesn&#8217;t affect regular browsing but since it&#8217;s targeted at a range of ports, other applications including BitCoin, gaming and VoIP may also be affected at times.  </p>
<p>PIA believes that routing the traffic is the best solution from a privacy point of view, as it doesn&#8217;t require DPI or other invasive techniques. </p>
<p>&#8220;Due to the fact that packets were routed in an unidentifiable manner and double hop is a known and accepted technology by privacy advocates, we believe this technical solution adheres to the strongest of privacy ideals.&#8221;</p>
<p>Not all users are happy with the change and the initial lack of communication on the issue. However, PIA notes that it has the best interests of its customers in mind. </p>
<p>Unless datacenters are forbidden from banning certain types of traffic, there are few other options than to bypass the block or shutdown the servers altogether. </p>
<p>&#8220;We want to make clear, that privacy is in fact our single policy. However, in order to help our users who are censored in certain regions, we needed to find a way to provide close servers while still being able to provide users with true and free/open internet access.  </p>
<p>&#8220;This was our solution and we still think that using technology to create a solution is better than waiting for politicians to fix this problem,&#8221; PIA informs us. </p>
<p>PIA has published the <a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/discussion/18692/p2p-fix-in-certain-regions">full statement</a> on its website. The company notes that it will try to help users who are experiencing additional latency in the affected regions.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Note: PIA is one of TorrentFreak&#8217;s sponsors but this article was written independently without any form of compensation.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112942
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 11/02/15
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-11-02-15
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HsaOTbl9kAo/
content:
<p><img src="media/615ca9ec.theunc.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/theunc.jpg" alt="theunc" width="300" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-112945">This week we have two newcomers and one returnee in our chart. </p>
<p>The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 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 BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-102615/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_man_from_uncle/">The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</a> (HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638355/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ky4KPzKwY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">Inside Out</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitman_agent_47/">Hitman Agent 47</a> (HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2679042/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQlJDRnQkE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/everest_2015/">Everest</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2719848/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHS-mxn0RQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">No Escape</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781922/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Wvi0LsukI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/southpaw_2015/">Southpaw</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798684/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2ebPxhoLs">trailer</a></td>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(back)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/minions/">Minions</a> (HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2293640/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisKxhjBnZ0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jurassic_world/">Jurassic World</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFinNxS5KN4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/trainwreck/">Trainwreck </a> (WEB-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3152624/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MxnhBPoIx4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/tomorrowland_2015/">Tomorrowland</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1964418/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZ7O-RrATY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112953
title: Kim Dotcom Finally Launches Extradition Defense
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Finally-Launches-Extradition-Defense
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ut6PiXZEcbk/
content:
<p><img src="media/2724d109.kim-court.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-court.jpg" alt="kim-court" width="180" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-111200">Two-thirds through September Kim Dotcom’s long-awaited extradition hearing finally <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-extradition-hearing-gets-underway-150921/">got underway</a>.</p>
<p>Expected to last just four weeks, progress was hindered by legal argument, much of it centered around claims that Dotcom and former colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk, weren&#8217;t getting a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-accuses-u-s-of-unfair-tactics-seeks-stay-151005/">fair hearing</a>.</p>
<p>Attempts to delay the extradition on those grounds ultimately failed last week and today Kim Dotcom&#8217;s defense finally got underway. As expected, lawyer Ron Mansfield immediately began painting a negative picture of U.S. prosecutors, highlighting selective use of evidence and subtle attempts at twisting discussion transcripts in their favor.</p>
<p>Much had previously been made of apparently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-uncovers-kim-dotcoms-self-incriminating-skype-calls-150924/">incriminating Skype</a> calls Dotcom had placed with his former business partners, but today Mansfield said the U.S. had knowingly translated those from German to suit their cause.</p>
<p>One, in which Dotcom allegedly said: &#8220;At some point a judge will be convinced how evil we are and then we are in trouble,&#8221; was <a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/dotcoms-lawyer-gives-evidence-against-extradition-2015110216">corrected</a> by Mansfield to state: &#8220;Because at some stage a judge will be talked into how bad we allegedly are – and then we will be a mess.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another instance, seen in the 3News image below, shows a Dotcom reference to individuals who uploaded large amounts of content to the site. For both sides in this fight the differences between the two translations are small but significant.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/c88a28e1.exhearing1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exhearing1.jpg" alt="exhearing1" width="600" height="330" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-112958"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not only a misrepresentation which was known by the United States, it is one which it has exploited for its own benefit,&#8221; Mansfield told the court.</p>
<p>The U.S. had cherry-picked evidence sampled over several years, he said, discarding everything that contradicted their case and retaining anything that didn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>&#8220;What the United States have done here is simply bundle up years of selective or &#8216;cherry-picked&#8217; conversations where those conversations [appear to show] an awareness or knowledge of copyright infringement,&#8221; Mansfield said.</p>
<p>While actual knowledge of copyright infringement is indeed a serious matter, Mansfield argued that there are limits on how far a company like Megaupload can be held liable for the actions of its users.</p>
<p>He said that in both New Zealand and the United States laws exist to protect people like Dotcom and the service provider companies they create, and the U.S. is attempting to create criminal liability where non exists.</p>
<p>&#8220;What the US is effectively saying to Internet service providers is: &#8216;You need to actively investigate copyright infringement and stop it, because if you don&#8217;t you&#8217;ll not only be civilly liable but criminally liable&#8217;,&#8221; Mansfield said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Internet giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter are immune from prosecution and to indict them would result in unprecedented public outrage.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, U.S. prosecutors aren&#8217;t placing Megaupload in the same category as the companies listed above. However, Dotcom&#8217;s lawyer said that Megaupload was not only legitimate, but also had the backing of some of America&#8217;s biggest stars.</p>
<p>To prove his point, Mansfield began playing the controversial &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-label-artists-a-list-stars-endorse-megaupload-in-new-song-111209/">Mega Song</a>&#8216;, an advert that gained so much traction late 2011, just weeks before the raid on Dotcom.</p>
<p>Starring P Diddy, Will.i.am, Alicia Keys, Snoop Dogg and Kanye West, among others, Mega Song showed that Megaupload was mainstream and &#8216;up front&#8217;. Judge Nevin Dawson apparently didn&#8217;t see the video&#8217;s relevance, however, and ordered it to be switched off part way through.</p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s defense is expected to run for the remainder of the week. If extradited to the U.S. and subsequently found guilty, both he and his former colleagues face several decades in jail.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112974
title: New Arrow Episode Leaks Online Before it Airs
uri: New-Arrow-Episode-Leaks-Online-Before-it-Airs
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hntke8YFTX8/
content:
<p><img src="media/71770c18.arrowleak.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arrowleak.jpg" alt="arrowleak" width="290" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-112977">With millions of downloads per episode, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrow_(TV_series)">Arrow</a> is one of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/most-pirated-tv-show-of-2014-141225/">most pirated TV-series</a> of the year. </p>
<p>Featuring the DC Comic character Green Arrow the show is currently in its fourth season. </p>
<p>Many fans of the show are <a href="http://comicbook.com/2015/10/31/what-does-constantine-s-character-moving-to-the-cw-mean-for-dc-s/">looking forward</a> to the next episode later this week, where another DC Comic character will make his appearance. After a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantine_(TV_series)">failed series</a> on NBC, John Constantine will join the Arrow storyline. </p>
<p>Interestingly, not all fans will have to wait this long as thousands just jumped on a leaked copy that appeared online earlier today. Even though TV-show leaks are relatively rare, the fifth episode of Arrow was uploaded to public and private torrent sites a few hours ago. </p>
<p>The source of the leak is unknown but a warning screen at the starts shows that it originates from a preview copy, which was sent out for review by Warner Bros. Television. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/95697bfe.arrowleakw.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arrowleakw.jpg" alt="arrowleakw" width="600" height="334" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-112978"></center></p>
<p>The message warns the viewer not to distribute the video to third parties and suggests that the leaked version is not the final cut. </p>
<p>&#8220;The episode contained on this DVD is a rough cut and is not final.  It may be missing key special visual effects, and additional sound effects and music are temporary,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/7c9fcd34.arrowleaksc.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arrowleaksc.jpg" alt="arrowleaksc" width="600" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-112979"></center></p>
<p>However, judging from the comments online the copy is fairly complete.</p>
<p>&#8220;Good copy, great episode, will grab the episode this week to see the changes but it doesn&#8217;t look like there will be much,&#8221; one commenter notes. </p>
<p>The video quality isn&#8217;t particularly great, which is usually the case with these type of leaks. Still, that won&#8217;t deter many from having a sneak peek. </p>
<p>Whether the leak will hurt the ratings, or if it will serve as a promotion for the &#8220;<a href="http://comicbook.com/2015/11/01/arrow-non-spoiler-review-haunted-is-the-most-important-episode-o/">most important</a>&#8221; episode of the season remains up for debate.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112967
title: Court Orders Shutdown of Libgen, Bookfi and Sci-Hub
uri: Court-Orders-Shutdown-of-Libgen-Bookfi-and-Sci-Hub
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2FcfPNk1ecQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/3211b23e.libgen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/libgen.jpg" alt="libgen" width="299" height="145" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106655">With a net income of more than $1 billion Elsevier is one of the largest academic publishers in the world.</p>
<p>Through its ScienceDirect portal the company offers access to millions of scientific articles spread out over 2,200 journals, most of which are behind a paywall.</p>
<p>Websites such as Sci-Hub and The Library Genesis Project, or Libgen for short, have systematically breached this barrier by hosting pirated copies of scientific publications as well as mainstream books.</p>
<p>Earlier this year one of the largest publishers went into action to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/elsevier-cracks-down-on-pirated-scientific-articles-150609/">stop this threat</a>. Elsevier filed a complaint at a New York District Court, accusing the sites&#8217; operators of systematic copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The publisher requested damages and asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent the sites from distributing their articles while the case is ongoing. </p>
<p>Late last week District Court Judge Robert Sweet approved the request (<a href="media/3a1d6c3b.sci-hub.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub.pdf">pdf</a>), ordering the operators of Sci-Hub.org, Bookfi.org, Elibgen.org and several sister sites to cease their activities. </p>
<p>In addition, the responsible domain name registries are ordered to suspend the associated domain names until further notice. </p>
<p>Previously the Public Interest Registry (.ORG) refused to do so when Elsevier put in a request, noting that it would require a valid court order to suspend a domain name.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/3af22504.sciorder.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sciorder.png" alt="sciorder" width="500" height="241" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-112972"></center></p>
<p>According to the order Elsevier showed that it&#8217;s likely to succeed based on its copyright infringement claims. In addition, there&#8217;s enough evidence to suggest that the defendants violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.</p>
<p>&#8220;The balance of hardships clearly tips in favor of the Plaintiffs. Elsevier has shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits, and that it continues to suffer irreparable harm due to the Defendants&#8217; making its copyrighted material available for free,&#8221; Judge Sweet writes.</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s operators have few grounds on which to fight the injunction, as they don&#8217;t have the right to distribute most of the articles in the first place. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Defendants cannot be legally harmed by the fact that they cannot continue to steal the Plaintiff&#8217;s content, even if they tried to do so for public-spirited reasons,&#8221; the order reads.  </p>
<p>Alexandra Elbakyan, the founder of Sci-Hub, is the only person who responded to Elsevier&#8217;s complaint. In <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/science-pirate-attacks-elseviers-copyright-monopoly-in-court-150916/">a letter</a> she sent to the court before the injunction hearing, she argued that the publisher is exploiting researchers and blocking access to knowledge.</p>
<p>Judge Sweet agrees that there is a public interest to safeguard broad access to scientific research. However, simply putting all research online without permission is not the answer.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Elbakyan&#8217;s solution to the problems she identifies, simply making copyrighted content available for free via a  foreign website, disserves the public interest,&#8221; Judge Sweet writes. </p>
<p>The Judge notes that under current law researchers and the public are allowed to publicly share &#8220;ideas and insights&#8221; from the articles without restrictions. People can also freely use the copyrighted articles for research or educational purposes under the fair use doctrine. </p>
<p>&#8220;Under this doctrine, Elsevier&#8217;s articles themselves may be taken and used, but only for legitimate purposes, and not for wholesale infringement,&#8221; the order reads. </p>
<p>At the time of writing several of the websites, including Sci-hub.org and Bookfi.org, are still online. It is expected that they will be suspended by the registry in a matter of days. </p>
<p>Time will tell whether the site operators will also stop offering copyrighted articles, or if they will simply move to a new domain name and continue business as usual.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113000
title: Dotcom: Copyright Charges Not Enough For Extradition
uri: Dotcom-Copyright-Charges-Not-Enough-For-Extradition
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PDtanwfePNk/
content:
<p><img src="media/2724d109.kim-court.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-court.jpg" alt="kim-court" width="180" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-111200">The extradition hearing of Kim Dotcom and former colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk, continued in the Auckland District Court today.</p>
<p>The quartet is fighting deportation to the United States on serious charges including conspiring to commit copyright infringement, conspiring to commit money laundering, and engaging in a racketeering conspiracy.</p>
<p>However, the court heard from the defense that the offenses don&#8217;t meet the criteria for the men to be sent to the United States.</p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s lawyer Ron Mansfield said the Crown, arguing on behalf of the United States, has been attempting to characterize the charges against the men as fraud, an extraditable offense.</p>
<p>However, he <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/288733/charges-not-enough-to-extradite-dotcom-lawyer">pointed out</a> that the US Supreme Court previously ruled that copyright infringement can not be considered fraud. A key case, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dowling_v._United_States">Dowling v. United States</a></em>, is referenced in a white paper published by Kim Dotcom <em>(<a href="media/371e32ca.whitepaper.pdf" data-original-source="http://kim.com/whitepaper.pdf">pdf</a>)</em>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s important for Dotcom to make a clear distinction between copyright infringement and fraud. Mansfield says that all of the 13 charges against the Megaupload founder are underpinned by copyright infringement allegations.</p>
<p>Also muddying the waters is the fact under United States law one of the criminal copyright infringement charges brought against Dotcom has already exceeded its time limitations. The others, Mansfield said, are not aimed at his client and are dependent on other charges being proven.</p>
<p>&#8220;Categorically there is no case to answer under US law,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/dotcom-case-us-accused-of-omitting-legal-facts-to-make-prosecution-look-possible">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unless the United States can show an offense of criminal secondary copyright infringement in the United States as a matter of law, this court must reject this application for surrender.&#8221;</p>
<p>But locally there are issues too. Mansfield told the court that New Zealand legislation does not recognize copyright infringement as fraud either and the extradition treaty between the two countries does not hold copyright infringement as being an extraditable offense.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the end of the story, really,&#8221; he told Judge Nevin Dawson.</p>
<p>Further boosting Dotcom&#8217;s position, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-finally-launches-extradition-defense-151102/">Mansfield argued</a> yesterday that even charges of (non-extraditable) copyright infringement are excessive.</p>
<p>As the operator of a service provider company, Dotcom and his colleagues should&#8217;ve enjoyed &#8216;safe harbor&#8217; and not been held liable for the infringing acts of their users.</p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s defense is expected to conclude this week but no matter what the outcome, it&#8217;s unlikely to be the end of the extradition legal process. Whichever side loses, both are expected to take their case to appeal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112940
title: Man Freed Early From Record Music Piracy Sentence
uri: Man-Freed-Early-From-Record-Music-Piracy-Sentence
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8Mx9kcRkuVU/
content:
<p><img src="media/4ee85ff3.d-jesus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/d-jesus.jpg" alt="d-jesus" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-94845">Following an investigation carried out by the BPI and IFPI, with assistance from the US Department of Homeland Security, in 2011 file-sharing links forum Dancing Jesus was taken offline.</p>
<p>Two men, one the owner of the site and the other one of the forum’s top uploaders, were arrested by City of London Police. Homeland Security seized a Dancing Jesus server hosted in the United States.</p>
<p>After years of quiet, last October it became evident that the BPI was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bpi-set-to-privately-prosecute-pre-release-music-pirates-141005/">pursuing a private prosecution</a> against the pair. In January 2014, site owner Kane Robinson of South Shields pleaded guilty to illegally distributing music. Key uploader Richard Graham of Leicestershire entered a guilty plea at a later date.</p>
<p>On November 10, 2014, Robinson and Graham <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/online-music-pirates-hit-with-lengthy-jail-sentences-141111">were sentenced</a> and received the harshest punishments ever handed down to UK-based file-sharers. For his part in offering a reported 22,500 links to 250,000 titles, Robinson was sentenced to 32 months. Graham received 21 months.</p>
<p>At the time the sentences were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hey-uk-jailing-file-sharers-for-years-is-shameful-141116/">criticized</a> as being both harsh and disproportionate but within months positive signs began to emerge.</p>
<p>In August a posting to a Facebook campaign page titled &#8216;Justice for Kane Robinson&#8217; carried an optimistic message.</p>
<p>&#8220;We saw Kane at the weekend he is doing well and it is hopeful he could be out soon..thanks for all your continued support guys!&#8221; it read.</p>
<p>Then last Thursday, after receiving the toughest sentence of its kind and serving time in three separate prisons, Robinson was <a href="http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/north-shields-file-sharing-mastermind-10363684">freed</a> &#8216;just&#8217; 11 months into his sentence.</p>
<p>His Facebook campaign carried two simple hashtags: #‎Justice4Kane‬ ‪and #‎Missioncomplete‬</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear why Robinson has been released so early. Chronicle Live said it had approached the Ministry of Justice but the office declined to comment on individual cases. Robinson himself has also remained silent.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak caught up with David Cook, a specialist cyber crime solicitor who was previously instructed to provide expert opinion to the defense in the case. He told TF that he no longer represents Robinson or Graham but confirmed both had previously filed appeals.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, this probably has a more simple explanation,&#8221; Cook explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;A 34 month sentence would equate to 17 months in custody and 17 months &#8216;on license&#8217; in the community.  If a person behaves and is deemed suitable then they may be released earlier.&#8221;</p>
<p>Both men will now be looking to rebuild their lives, probably far away from the file-sharing arena.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113002
title: Dallas Buyers Club Can’t Interrogate ‘Pirates,’ Judge Rules
uri: Dallas-Buyers-Club-Can-t-Interrogate-Pirates-Judge-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/L2ax4RrjLHk/
content:
<p><img src="media/2381f8ad.dallas1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dallas1.jpg" alt="dallas" width="275" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96710">The makers of Dallas Buyers Club <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dallas-buyers-club-sues-bittorrent-pirates-citing-oscar-wins-140312/">have sued</a> thousands of BitTorrent users over the past two years. </p>
<p>Many of these cases end up being settled for an undisclosed amount. This usually happens after the filmmakers obtain the identity of the Internet account holder believed to have pirated the movie.</p>
<p>Not all alleged downloaders are eager to pay up though. In fact, many don&#8217;t respond to the settlement letters they receive or claim that someone else must have downloaded the film using their connection.</p>
<p>This presents a problem for the filmmakers, who need to gather additional evidence to prove guilt. In several recent cases they even went through social media profiles of defendants and Google map images of their neighborhoods, for example. </p>
<p>In addition to this info Dallas Buyers Club want to speak to the accused directly so have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dallas-buyers-club-wants-to-interrogate-suspected-pirates-150820/">asked</a> the court to grant dozens of depositions. This would help to determine who the true pirates are, they argue. </p>
<p>The request covers five active cases with 61 IP-addresses which have yet to respond or settle. </p>
<p>The court carefully reviewed the request and in an order late last week U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones denied the depositions. </p>
<p>In his order (<a href="media/6f0b4796.dallasslam.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dallasslam.pdf">pdf</a>) the Judge writes that depositions are meant to &#8220;discover relevant information&#8221; but he doubts that Dallas Buyers Club intends to take any of these cases to trial. </p>
<p>When the filmmakers were allowed to depose people in a previous case it didn&#8217;t result in the naming of any defendants. </p>
<p>&#8220;All this implies that Plaintiff is not actually interested in bringing these cases to conclusion on their merits and is instead trying to use these proceedings to leverage settlements out of unidentified Doe defendants through the threat of Court order.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><img src="media/c5d6d3e7.dbcsl.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dbcsl.jpg" alt="dbcsl" width="600" height="279" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113022"></center></p>
<p>Instead, the depositions may be used as a pressure tool, which would be a clear sign of abuse. </p>
<p>&#8220;Numerous other courts have considered the possibility of abusive litigation tactics in addressing similar motions. And this Court is increasingly tired of the slow progress of these cases and increasingly apprehensive of the possibility of abuse,&#8221; Judge Jones adds. </p>
<p>The Judge admits that depositions may often be helpful, but notes that Dallas Buyers Club wouldn&#8217;t be in any better position if the defendant denies being the primary infringer during the deposition. </p>
<p>The filmmakers already have the name and address of the account holders, and should make their case based on this information, the order concludes. </p>
<p>While there&#8217;s no direct accusation the mention of possible abuse and the growing impatience with the many Doe lawsuits is a clear blow for the movie studio. </p>
<p>For their part the accused pirates can chalk up a win as they have been saved from having to go through an &#8216;interrogation&#8217;, a potentially threatening and intimidating process. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=112908
title: MPAA: We Shut Down YTS/YIFY and Popcorn Time
uri: MPAA-We-Shut-Down-YTS-YIFY-and-Popcorn-Time
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/89NDuNdGo6c/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="popcornt" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">The BitTorrent piracy ecosystem lost several key players in recent weeks.</p>
<p>The main Popcorn Time fork operating from the PopcornTime.io domain name <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-chaos-triggers-more-downtime-151023/">closed its doors on October 23</a>, citing internal issues. </p>
<p>Part of the trouble was started by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/lawsuit-rumors-break-up-popcorn-time-team-151019/">rumors of legal pressure</a>, which the MPAA confirmed today. </p>
<p>The major movie studios have sued three Popcorn Time developers in Canada, the group announced in an official statement. The MPAA obtained an injunction on October 16 ordering the shutdown of the Popcorntime.io site.</p>
<p>The complaint accuses the developers of various copyright infringing acts and also lists the VPN provider VPN.ht, which was operated by two of the Popcorn Time developers.  </p>
<p><center><strong>The complaint</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/fbd3a2b8.complaintpop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/complaintpop.jpg" alt="complaintpop" width="500" height="416" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113068"></center></p>
<p>The legal action in Canada was not an isolated incident, however. Around the same time, movie industry representatives targeted the operator of YTS/YIFY who&#8217;s a New Zealand resident. </p>
<p>The movie industry representatives had a warrant and threatened a multi-million dollar lawsuit, urging the operator to cooperate. </p>
<p><img src="media/82494202.YTS.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/YTS.png" alt="YTS" width="211" height="91" class="alignright size-full wp-image-100810"></p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-yts-shuts-down-the-end-of-a-piracy-icon-151030/">YTS went dark two weeks ago</a> as a result of the legal trouble and is not coming back.</p>
<p>The status of the lawsuits in Canada and New Zealand is currently unclear, but sources told us last week that several of the accused are working on an agreement to minimize their harm, possibly in exchange for information. </p>
<p>The MPAA, meanwhile, is ready to declare the outcome as a clear victory. </p>
<p>“This coordinated legal action is part of a larger comprehensive approach being taken by the MPAA and its international affiliates to combat content theft,” MPAA boss Chris Dodd says.</p>
<p>“Popcorn Time and YTS are illegal platforms that exist for one clear reason: to distribute stolen copies of the latest motion picture and television shows without compensating the people who worked so hard to make them,” he adds.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The article was updated to remove some unrelated info, and add other bits and pieces that came in. </p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The Popcorn Time <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/288405925/Injunction">injunction</a> and <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/288406019/Claim">claim</a>. </p>
<p><em>Breaking story, more info may follow later. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113078
title: Largest BitTorrent Tracker Demonii Will Shut Down Soon
uri: Largest-BitTorrent-Tracker-Demonii-Will-Shut-Down-Soon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0itN0RNwH78/
content:
<p><img src="media/3c71d30b.demonii.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonii.png" alt="demonii" width="190" height="185" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70906">A few hours ago the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">took credit</a> for shutting down one of the biggest piracy icons in recent history. </p>
<p>The YIFY release group and the YTS website shut down facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, which the New Zealand-based operator couldn&#8217;t fight. </p>
<p>The downfall is a loss to many YIFY fans. However, the BitTorrent ecosystem at large will also be severely affected as it also signals the end for <a href="http://demonii.com/">Demonii</a>, the largest standalone BitTorrent tracker. </p>
<p>What only a few people know is that in recent years Demonii was run by YIFY&#8217;s operator. As a result of the legal troubles with the movie studios, Demonii will soon go offline as well, bringing down another key player. </p>
<p>With over 40 million people connected at any given time during the day, Demonii is currently the largest torrent tracker.</p>
<p>At the time of writing Demonii still serves torrents to 41,622,554 peers, which translates to well over a billion connections per day. Impressive numbers that will soon become history. </p>
<p><center><strong>Demonii&#8217;s current stats</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/af631676.demoniilateststats.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demoniilateststats.png" alt="demoniilateststats" width="600" height="198" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113087"></center></p>
<p>Even without Demonii most torrents will still work fine, thanks to DHT and PEX, but the initial connections will take more time. This can slow down download times for many people. </p>
<p>Trackers are also essential for those who use proxies, as they often have DHT and PEX disabled to prevent their real IP-addresses from leaking out.</p>
<p>With Demonii, YTS and YIFY gone there&#8217;s no doubt that the torrent ecosystem has lost several big players. However, history has also shown that these are never mourned for long.  </p>
<p>It may be hard for other tracker to pick up Demonii&#8217;s load without increasing their capacity. But there are plenty of alternatives still around to fill the gap and more are expected to rise because of it.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113113
title: Found a New YTS / YIFY Site? It’s a FAKE
uri: Found-a-New-YTS-YIFY-Site-It-s-a-FAKE
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3ayZ0tRonnc/
content:
<p><img src="media/23431dd4.fake.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fake.jpg" alt="fake" width="190" height="126" class="alignright size-full wp-image-71690">Despite concerns from BitTorrent elitists that the site was a cesspit of poor quality rips, YTS was one of the world&#8217;s most popular torrent indexes for a reason.</p>
<p>Simple to find, publicly accessible, nice to look at and bulging with movies, YTS carried thousands of the world&#8217;s most popular titles in an easily digestible, convenient format.</p>
<p>Previously the home of YIFY rips, YTS is no more. The site was shuttered by a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">multi-million dollar lawsuit</a> filed in a New Zealand court by the MPAA and it won&#8217;t ever be coming back.</p>
<p>However, considering the number of tips received at TF this morning you&#8217;d think nothing was wrong. Email after email has declared that &#8220;YTS is back!!&#8221; and in fighting form too.</p>
<p>As can be seen from the screenshot below, it certainly looks like it.</p>
<p><Center><img src="media/11736d73.yify-fake.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/yify-fake.jpg" alt="yify-fake" width="600" height="401" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113116"></center></p>
<p>But to the disappointment of all YTS and YIFY fans, the above site is a fake. It&#8217;s located at yts.ag and it&#8217;s being promoted by the same people who carried out a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eztv-shuts-down-after-hostile-takeover-150518/">hostile takeover of EZTV</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p>However, as pointed out by a TF reader, the site does indeed index some old YIFY rips. That may be, but in the same way that EZTV no longer carries genuine EZTV releases, YTS.ag won&#8217;t have new &#8216;genuine&#8217; YIFY rips either, since YIFY is no longer in business.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a blatant attempt to cash in on the void left by the demise of YTS and rest assured it won&#8217;t be the last. If they aren&#8217;t already appearing, torrent sites will soon be flooded with fake torrents claiming to be from YIFY. They won&#8217;t be, guaranteed.</p>
<p>Of course, there&#8217;s a certain irony in declaring a clone site as a bad player on the basis that it&#8217;s pirating another pirate site&#8217;s image. But, nevertheless, if a site can&#8217;t make it on its own merits and is prepared to mislead now, who&#8217;s to say what other tactics it will employ when it has a nice unsuspecting userbase on board.</p>
<p>Copying is the name of the game, no doubt, but being upfront about it is probably a better long-term strategy.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113073
title: MPAA Can Access Popcorn Time Services & VPN, Court Rules
uri: MPAA-Can-Access-Popcorn-Time-Services-VPN-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jBmHGDW5H1g/
content:
<p><img src="media/48cbce81.pop-yts.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pop-yts.jpg" alt="pop-yts" width="170" height="149" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113104">After weeks of rumor and sealed lips, last evening it was made official. Movie torrent site YTS is dead, release group YIFY is no more, and the main Popcorn Time fork, PopcornTime.io, have all been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">shut down by the MPAA</a>.</p>
<p>The operation involved legal action in two territories. In New Zealand the operator of YTS and related release group YIFY was hit by a multi-million dolalr lawsuit lodged at the High Court on October 12. Confidentiality agreements are in place so public details are scarce, but its believed that YTS has already settled with the MPAA.</p>
<p>In Canada, however, information is more readily available. On October 9, 2015, Paramount Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal City Studios, Universal Network Television, Warner Bros. and Disney, filed a statement of claim in the Federal Court.</p>
<p>Their targets were people and companies associated with PopcornTime.io, including key developer David Lemarier and his company Wasabi Technologie plus VPN.ht Limited, the outfit behind Popcorn Time&#8217;s VPN.</p>
<p>The demands of the studios were broad but clear &#8211; stop infringing their rights, stop developing Popcorn Time, shut down its websites and shut down VPN.ht. </p>
<p>&#8220;Since April 2014, the individual Defendants David Lemarier, Robert English and Louie<br>
Poole have been developing, operating, distributing and promoting the computer<br>
application &#8216;Popcorn Time&#8217;,&#8221; the studios wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;In December, 2014, a paid VPN service provided by the Defendant VPN.ht Limited was integrated in Popcorn Time (PT Add-On). The integration of the PT Add-On acts as an important enticement for users of Popcorn Time to engage in acts of copyright infringement, and is explicitly marketed as such on its website.&#8221;</p>
<p>The studios claim that Lemarier is the CEO of VPN.ht and Louie Poole has worked there as a software engineer &#8220;at least as early as September, 2015.&#8221; Owned by Lemarier, Wasabi Technologie is the company operating VPN.ht&#8217;s PayPal account.</p>
<p>&#8220;The sale of the PT Add-On service generates important monthly revenues which directly profit the Defendants David Lemarier and VPN.ht Limited, and the Defendant Louie Poole as an employee of VPN.ht Limited. All the individual Defendants as well as VPN.ht Limited derive financial benefits from their participation in Popcorn Time,&#8221; the studios add.</p>
<p>Just seven days later on October 16, 2015, Mr Justice Martineau in the Federal Court responded to the studios&#8217; demands by handing down an interim injunction (<a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/288405925/Injunction">pdf</a>) against the defendants listed above.</p>
<p>In broad terms it restrains them from infringing the studios&#8217; copyrights, including by continuing to develop, operate, distribute or promote Popcorn Time or &#8220;any similar software application&#8221; or website. However, it goes further &#8211; much, much further.</p>
<p>The injunction includes a huge list of domains and sub-domains which the studios say must be dealt with in order to &#8220;fully deactivate&#8221; Popcorn Time. PopcornTime.io. and a further 17 are said to relate to the service&#8217;s API while 39 relate to the website and four the blog. Dozens of others make up discussion forums, development platforms, mail servers, nameservers, content delivery and sundry others.</p>
<p>The injunction orders the defendants to hand over the login credentials &#8220;for the hosting providers and/or registrars accounts&#8221; for all of them. They are also required to do the same for the official Popcorn Time Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts. This is so that computer forensics experts &#8220;acting under the supervision&#8221; of the studios can gain access to them.</p>
<p>Also under the microscope is VPN.ht. The injunction orders the defendants, including VPN.ht&#8217;s operators, to hand over the login credentials for &#8220;hosting providers and/or registrars&#8221; hosting the VPN.ht domains and sub-domains. They are also required to authorize computer forensics experts under the eye of the MPAA to log into VPN.ht&#8217;s infrastructure and deactivate the service.</p>
<p>While this development will be of concern to VPN.ht&#8217;s customers, the service itself says that there is currently nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>&#8220;VPN.ht is not a Canadian company, nor has any of its operations located in Canada, this means Canadian laws are not relevant in out case what so ever,&#8221; VPN.ht said in a <a href="https://vpn.ht/en/blog/post/vpnht-popcorn-time-shutdown">statement</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We understand that some of you might be worried or intimidated by the idea of the film studios, but we want to remind you that VPN.ht never logs, never shares any information with anyone else and mostly, cares about our clients and their safety. After all this is why we started VPN.ht, to protect the vulnerable.&#8221;</p>
<p>The company says it <a href="http://www.vpn.ht/canary.txt">operates a warrant canary</a> to notify users in the event it has been compromised. Currently that alone raises no alarms but it&#8217;s highly likely that user confidence will be undermined by the forceful nature of the injunction and the international reach of the MPAA.</p>
<p>To be continued&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113144
title: U.S. Asks Judge to Rule Kim Dotcom’s Evidence Inadmissible
uri: U-S-Asks-Judge-to-Rule-Kim-Dotcom-s-Evidence-Inadmissible
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/a2kev2cDfIU/
content:
<p><img src="media/292c15a0.kim-court.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-court.jpg" width="180" height="172" class="alignright">This week is an extremely important one for Kim Dotcom and former Megaupload colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk.</p>
<p>They&#8217;re attending a crucial extradition hearing in the Auckland District Court that could determine whether the four are sent to the United States to face charges including conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit racketeering.</p>
<p>Much of the developments this week have centered on argument from Dotcom&#8217;s lawyer Ron Mansfield that the alleged offenses don’t meet the criteria for the men to be sent to the United States. While fraud is an extraditable offense, copyright infringement is not, and U.S. case law backs that up, he <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dotcom-copyright-charges-not-enough-for-extradition-151003/">argued</a>.</p>
<p>But while Mansfield argues the technicalities, including whether the defendants should have protection from liability due to their former position operating as service providers, the United States has other ideas about whether Dotcom should have his say.</p>
<p>Earlier today the U.S. government asked Judge Nevin Dawson to rule that the evidence of the defense is inadmissible, meaning that Dotcom would be left without a defense at all.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak approached Dotcom for comment on this bold move. Fortunately for him the Judge quickly dismissed the U.S. attempt at having a one-sided battle.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Judge just ruled that our evidence is admissible,&#8221; Dotcom told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;The US Govt seriously asked the Judge to rule that all of our evidence is inadmissible because in their submission it was not relevant. The Judge has said that he wants a fair extradition hearing and has therefore rejected the US Govt position.&#8221;</p>
<p>The decision will come as a relief to Dotcom whose defense is set to wind up this week. While a final decision is not expected for some time, it&#8217;s unlikely that having come this far either side will accept a defeat. Both are expected to take their case to appeal in the event of a negative ruling.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Dotcom remains upbeat. After the entire court was cleared today after a false alarm, the Megaupload founder took the time to pose for photographs with fans &#8211; and take another shot at the U.S.</p>
<p><center><br>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Fire Alarm at the Court House. Entire building evacuated. I guess the US case is blowing too much smoke ;-) <a href="https://t.co/ZgyjSp6Med">pic.twitter.com/ZgyjSp6Med</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/662035909349498881">November 4, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113155
title: Google’s “Pirate Update” Fails to Punish Streaming Sites
uri: Google-s-Pirate-Update-Fails-to-Punish-Streaming-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lH-_UJFYr-Q/
content:
<p><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" alt="google-bay" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21875">Over the past few years the entertainment industries have repeatedly asked Google to step up its game when it comes to anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>These remarks haven’t fallen on deaf ears and in response Google has slowly implemented various new anti-piracy measures.</p>
<p>Last year Google <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-will-downrank-pirate-sites-starting-next-week-141018/">made changes</a> to its core algorithms aimed at lowering the visibility of &#8220;pirate&#8221; sites. Using the number of accurate DMCA requests as an indicator, these sites are now demoted in search results for certain key phrases. </p>
<p>This &#8220;Pirate Update&#8221; <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/googles-new-downranking-hits-pirate-sites-hard-141023/">hit torrent sites hard</a>, as early analysis previously showed. However, new research from streaming search engine <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/is-google-supporting-piracy#3rdPage">JustWatch</a> shows that the effect is limited. </p>
<p>Using search engine visibility data from SearchMetrics as well as SimilarWeb&#8217;s page statistics, the company evaluated how much search engine traffic the top torrent and streaming sites received before and after the algorithm change.</p>
<p>The findings confirm that torrent sites did indeed lose a lot of Google traffic. The graph below shows the search engine visibility ranking for the top 20 torrent sites including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents and Torrentz.</p>
<p><center><strong>Torrent site search engine visibility</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7b68a547.googletorup.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googletorup.jpg" alt="googletorup" width="600" height="247" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113159"></center></p>
<p>However, while Google&#8217;s update had a dramatic effect on torrent sites, frequently visited streaming portals are seemingly unaffected by the change. </p>
<p>The graph below shows that on average the top streaming sites increased their search engine presence. This means that these streaming portals, including Solarmovie, Couchtuner and Movie4k, remain frequently featured in the top search results.</p>
<p><center><strong>Streaming sites remain strong</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9936ba9d.googleplusstream.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googleplusstream.png" alt="googleplusstream" width="600" height="243" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113160"></center></p>
<p>While SearchMetrics data doesn&#8217;t directly measure traffic, <a href="https://www.justwatch.com/us/is-google-supporting-piracy">the report</a> estimates that the visibility of streaming sites is 15 times larger than that of torrent sites. </p>
<p>Translated to a traffic number, JustWatch estimates that roughly a third of all visits to the top streaming sites come from search engines, which number nearly three billion since Google&#8217;s &#8220;pirate&#8221; update. </p>
<p><center><strong>Search engine traffic to illegal streaming sites</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/cca4d48c.googbeforeafter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googbeforeafter.png" alt="googbeforeafter" width="600" height="267" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113161"></center></p>
<p>The critique is not new. In recent months several entertainment industry groups have urged Google to improve its downranking methods or completely remove pirate sites from search results.</p>
<p>Google, however, has stated that removing entire domain names <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-opposes-whole-site-removal-of-pirate-domains-151021/">goes too far</a> and could possibly be counterproductive.</p>
<p>As a streaming search engine JustWatch of course has a significant interest in the results they report. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they also encourage Google to improve.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google should stand by their word to use the DMCA takedown requests per domain and factor it stronger into their ranking signals,&#8221; JustWatch CEO David Croyé tells TF.</p>
<p>According to JustWatch pirate streaming sites still dominate the top search results when people enter phrases such as &#8220;300 watch online&#8221;</p>
<p>Croyé understands that the algorithms want to rank pirate sites higher, because this is actually what people are looking for. However, that makes it harder for legal services to compete.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are a self funded startup that wants to connect fans with their favorite movie content worldwide and make it easier also for Google to show more legal offers. We&#8217;ve already aggregated them in a structured way for them&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;So it&#8217;s in our own interest as a startup to be able to compete with free, but illegal alternatives on Google,&#8221; Croyé adds.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113114
title: YTS / YIFY Signs Unprecedented Settlement With MPAA
uri: YTS-YIFY-Signs-Unprecedented-Settlement-With-MPAA
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FQxEtPFDipA/
content:
<p><img src="media/82494202.YTS.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/YTS.png" alt="YTS" width="211" height="91" class="alignright size-full wp-image-100810">This week the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">ended</a> the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-yts-shuts-down-the-end-of-a-piracy-icon-151030/">mystery</a> surrounding the unexpected shutdown of the torrent site YTS.to and its associated release group YIFY. </p>
<p>While the announcement answered a lot of questions it also raises a few more. </p>
<p>The alleged mastermind behind the operation, a New Zealand citizen, was facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit. However, the dispute was already settled before the case got properly underway. </p>
<p>Sources have informed TorrentFreak that the operator and the movie studios reached a private agreement. It&#8217;s unclear what the terms are but judging from previous deals it&#8217;s likely to involve a damages payment as well as some type of information sharing</p>
<p>The news of a quick resolution is corroborated by local MPAA representatives who informed the NZ Herald that the case against the YTS/YIFY operator was settled out of court. </p>
<p>To many this deal comes as a surprise, as the MPAA previously preferred to send a strong and deterring message. In this case, however, other factors may have weighed stronger. </p>
<p>It could be that the operator has very valuable information to trade. It&#8217;s also possible that the MPAA wanted to avoid another piracy case besides Megaupload in New Zealand. Or they might simply want to settle the case without incurring large legal fees.</p>
<p>Whatever the case, the settlement is unprecedented when compared to other MPAA cases that dragged on for years, including the ones against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isohunt-shuts-down-after-110-million-settlement-with-the-mpaa-131017/">isoHunt</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-wins-piracy-battle-against-hotfile-130829/">Hotfile</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrentspy-loses-case-against-mpaa-071218/">TorrentSpy</a>. </p>
<p>It also stands in sharp contrast to the criminal referrals the MPAA made against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/">Megaupload</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ninjavideo-admins-and-uploaders-indicted-by-grand-jury-110910/">NinjaVideo</a> and the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/imagine-bittorrent-piracy-group-face-years-in-prison-120426/">IMAGiNE</a> release group.  </p>
<p>Since YTS/YIFY was both a release group and a major torrent site, it was certainly just as big of a target as the aforementioned, if not bigger.</p>
<p>TF contacted the MPAA for information on the decision to settle as well as further details on the agreement. The movie group said it couldn&#8217;t comment.</p>
<p>Thus far the YTS operator has remained silent. Perhaps we&#8217;ll hear the true story from him one day a few years from now&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113195
title: U.S. Judge Explores Return of Megaupload Data
uri: U-S-Judge-Explores-Return-of-Megaupload-Data
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YpHKsevsTe8/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Nearly four years have passed since Megaupload’s servers were raided by U.S. authorities. Since then very little progress has been made in the criminal case.</p>
<p>Kim Dotcom and his Megaupload colleagues are currently awaiting the result of their extradition hearing in New Zealand and have yet to formally appear in a U.S. court.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Megaupload servers from Carpathia Hosting remain in storage in Virginia, some of which contain crucial evidence as well as valuable files uploaded by users. The question is, for how long.</p>
<p>In August QTS, the company that now owns the servers after acquiring Carpathia, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hosting-company-wants-to-wipe-1103-megaupload-servers-150814/">asked the court</a> if it can get rid of the data which is costing them thousands of dollars per month in storage fees.</p>
<p>This prompted a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-user-asks-court-to-return-his-files-150824/">response</a> from a former user who wants to preserve his data, as well as Megaupload, who <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-wants-u-s-to-pay-the-server-storage-bills-150825/">don’t want</a> any of the evidence to be destroyed.</p>
<p>For its part the U.S. Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-denies-responsibility-for-megauploads-servers-150901/">denied</a> any responsibility for the servers stating that they already copied all the crucial evidence. </p>
<p>Faced with these different positions, U.S. District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady now has to decide how to move forward. A few days ago he sent off a set of questions to the relevant stakeholders, including Megaupload, the U.S. Government and the MPAA. </p>
<p>The questions deal with the logistics and financial implications of a possible return of the data, as well as the concerns and problems that may arise. </p>
<p>For example, the hosting company was asked if the data stored on the servers is recoverable at all. Several years have passed, which may mean that some hard drives have degraded significantly. </p>
<p>Also, the Judge wants to know how much Megaupload is willing to pay for the servers and how it would preserve these while protecting any confidential data. </p>
<p>Previously Megaupload offered to buy back the servers for $1 million, but in their latest submission Dotcom&#8217;s legal team suggested that the U.S. Government should bear the costs. </p>
<p><center><strong>Judge O&#8217;Grady&#8217;s questions (<a href="media/f8dd6e68.megaservers.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaservers.pdf">pdf</a>)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba327ab5.serverqs.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/serverqs.png" alt="serverqs" width="600" height="237" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113206"></center></p>
<p>The Judge also asked the MPAA about its concerns regarding the copyrighted material stored on the servers, which may become an issue if users are granted access to their data. </p>
<p>Finally, Judge O&#8217;Grady asks all parties to estimate the costs of returning the files to innocent users, and how they would go about contacting them. </p>
<p>The questions suggest that the servers could indeed be opened up in the near future. This is good news for users who still hope to retrieve their files, and also for Kim Dotcom and the other Megaupload defendants who say they contain crucial evidence. </p>
<p>The responses to the full set of questions are due before the end of next week and the court is likely to issue an order soon after. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113158
title: Aurous Gets Beaten Up By the RIAA But Peace is Near
uri: Aurous-Gets-Beaten-Up-By-the-RIAA-But-Peace-is-Near
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nkCxGHuNrUc/
content:
<p><img src="media/e2a8bd59.aurous.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/aurous.png" width="174" height="62" class="alignright">Within days of its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aurous-promises-to-be-a-popcorn-time-for-music-150911/">October 10 launch</a>, music discovery tool Aurous was in big legal trouble. Aurous Group and developer Andrew Sampson are now <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-popcorn-time-for-music-151013/">being sued</a> by the RIAA and pretty this definitely ain&#8217;t.</p>
<p>Last month, plaintiffs Atlantic Records, Warner Bros, UMG, Sony and Capital Records <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-obtains-restraining-order-against-aurous-151015/">obtained a temporary restraining order</a> (TRO) from a Florida district court, forbidding Sampson and everyone else associated with the project from infringing their copyrights.</p>
<p>Shortly after, Sampson published the &#8216;back-end&#8217; Aurous source code to Github, enraging the RIAA who accused him of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aurous-offers-to-shutdown-but-riaa-isnt-interested-151027/">breaching the TRO</a>. Aurous&#8217; legal team had previously offered to settle and throw in the towel, but the alleged breach appeared to scupper those plans.</p>
<p>Instead, the RIAA asked for Sampson and Aurous Group to be held in contempt of court and punished via monetary sanctions, all while plowing ahead in pursuit of a preliminary injunction. Aurous made two attempts at convincing the court that a preliminary injunction should not be issued and earlier this week the RIAA issued its response. It makes for train-wreck reading.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants continue to ignore critical evidence of their liability for copyright infringement and the irreparable harm they are causing, while misciting the law and misstating the facts,&#8221; the RIAA begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants make a fundamental error in asserting that &#8216;[t]he motion for a preliminary<br>
injunction is an attempt to hold Aurous responsible for the actions of its users.&#8217; To the contrary, this motion is about Defendants’ conduct in creating a service through<br>
which Defendants cause and facilitate copyright infringement..&#8221;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s a good reason why legal advice often begins with &#8220;say nothing&#8221; and in this respect the RIAA is making hay while the sun shines.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is too late for Defendants to pretend that they &#8216;had no knowledge of the infringement of either the consumers, or the websites in which the consumers were directed towards&#8217;,&#8221; the RIAA states.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ belated profession of innocence rings with hypocrisy, particularly in light of Defendant Sampson’s own earlier statements (some of which he has tried to delete) reflecting his own sophisticated knowledge of copyright infringement and his commitment to aiding infringers while thwarting copyright owners.&#8221; </p>
<p>Noting that Sampson marked as &#8216;favorite&#8217; a Twitter message declaring &#8220;dead [A]pple [M]usic, dead Spotify, as soon as Aurous launches its [sic] all over”, the RIAA references comments made by Sampson in a Billboard article which detailed his attitude towards takedown efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you were to receive a cease-and-desist, what would your reaction be?&#8221; the publication asked.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ignore it,&#8221; Sampson responded.</p>
<p>Things only get worse when the RIAA recalls what happened when one of their representatives sent Sampson a DMCA notice asking for content to be removed from his &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/strike-public-tracker-dht-searches-presented-cleanly-150321/">Strike</a>&#8216; search engine.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sampson responded by telling the representative to &#8216;f*ck off&#8217;,&#8221; the RIAA explains.</p>
<p>The RIAA continues by picking apart almost every defense put forward by Aurous, including that pulling music from YouTube and SoundCloud without a license is permissible under law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have not authorized the streaming or downloading (copying) of their recorded music from websites except pursuant to agreements that control the terms on which such works are made available,&#8221; the RIAA notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants can only cause such downloads to occur by circumventing the protections such sites have against such downloading and violating the sites’ terms of service that expressly prohibit such conduct.&#8221;</p>
<p>Even efforts by Aurous to claim a &#8220;safe harbor&#8221; defense under the DMCA appear to have fallen on stony ground, with the RIAA noting that the music service failed at the first hurdle.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants cannot satisfy the basic threshold requirements for eligibility because they do not have a designated agent for receipt of infringement notifications registered with the U.S. Copyright Office,&#8221; the labels explain, adding that the service also failed to display an agent&#8217;s details on its website.</p>
<p>Pressing on, the RIAA says that safe harbor protection also requires that a service adopts and reasonably implements &#8220;a policy to terminate repeat infringers&#8221;. Aurous has no such policy but the RIAA suggests that point is moot since DMCA safe harbor immunity is &#8220;granted only to ‘innocent’ service providers.”</p>
<p>To support the latter point the RIAA digs out case history from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isohunt-shuts-down-after-110-million-settlement-with-the-mpaa-131017/">isoHunt versus the MPAA</a>, which noted that no safe harbor is available when “the record is replete with instances of [the defendants] actively encouraging infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wrapping up, the RIAA criticizes the earlier release of the Aurous source code while demanding a preliminary injunction.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is particularly telling that Defendants no longer deny that Defendant Sampson violated the TRO by making the current Aurous source code available to the public for more than five hours on Sunday, October 25. Instead, they now shamelessly suggest that &#8216;[i]f this is the case, then the cat is out of the bag&#8217;,&#8221; the RIAA writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is precisely this type of blatant disregard for Plaintiffs’ rights and this Court’s Orders that requires entry of a preliminary injunction.&#8221;</p>
<p>But despite the aggression from the RIAA, there are now signs of peace on the horizon. At the start of an evidentiary hearing yesterday, both sides requested time for a discussion. Out of that discussion came an agreement to put the preliminary injunction hearing on hold and work towards &#8220;a global resolution of the case within the next ten days.&#8221;</p>
<p>Considering the background to the case, this apparent offer to enter into settlement negotiations is excellent news for Andrew Sampson and Aurous Group. On the downside, any conclusion is also guaranteed to involve the total closure of the Aurous service and anything similar Sampson may have up his sleeve.</p>
<p>Considering what the RIAA could&#8217;ve inflicted upon him, that is probably a very small price to pay.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113124
title: Portugal Rapidly & Voluntarily Blocks Dozens More ‘Pirate’ Sites
uri: Portugal-Rapidly-Voluntarily-Blocks-Dozens-More-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UupAMai1T5Q/
content:
<p><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076">In July, Portugal&#8217;s Ministry of Culture announced the signing of a memorandum between its own General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), ISP group APRITEL, rightsholders, the body responsible for administering Portugal’s .PT domain and representatives from the advertising industry.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rapid-pirate-site-blocking-mechanism-introduced-by-portugal-150731/">memorandum</a> laid out the framework for a voluntary site-blocking mechanism which would see sites with more than 500 infringing links and those whose indexes contain more than 66% infringing content quickly subjected to a nationwide ISP blockade.</p>
<p>After The Pirate Bay was blocked <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-will-blocked-portugal-150302/">back in March</a> via court order, the new process paved the way for rapid site blocking and it didn&#8217;t take long for the first batch to be processed.</p>
<p>Last month the country <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/portugal-blocks-popular-torrent-and-streaming-sites-151026/">blocked more than 50 sites</a> including KickassTorrents (Kat.cr), ExtraTorrent, Isohunt, YTS and RARBG, no court order required. And, just as predicted, the country is now preparing its second wave of blockades.</p>
<p>Almost 40 sites are included and unsurprisingly torrent sites feature prominently. BitSnoop, YourBitorrent, SeedPeer, Torlock, Torrentfunk, TopTorrent and Torrents.net head up the list, with &#8216;release blog&#8217; favorites RLSlog and Sceper making an appearance.</p>
<p>Streaming sites will also be blocked as part of the current action, including ProjectFreeTv and TubePlus on the video front and MP3Skull in audio. The full list, courtesy of <a href="http://tek.sapo.pt/noticias/internet/artigo/mais_39_sites_com_conteudos_piratas_vao_ser_bloqueados_em_portugal-44854zmn.html">Tek</a>, can be found below.</p>
<p>While blocking sites is hardly a new activity, the way it&#8217;s being carried out in Portugal is raising concern.</p>
<p>Since the process is voluntary there&#8217;s no unwieldy court process to navigate, which is certainly a plus for local anti-piracy outfit MAPINET. However, there are those who feel that the system is too streamlined and that judicial oversight is an absolute must if there is to be no abuse. Questions are also <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/legality-of-voluntary-pirate-site-blocking-regime-under-fire-151028/">being raised</a> over the legality of the scheme itself.</p>
<p>The other issue of concern is the sheer number of sites that could end up on Portugal&#8217;s blocklist. Currently, rightsholders can only file two complaints with the government each month but each complaint can carry up to fifty domains.</p>
<p>That means that if all sites are accepted as infringing and MAPINET works to capacity, more than 1200 allegedly infringing sites could be blocked by this time next year.</p>
<p>That would make Portugal the world leader in &#8216;pirate&#8217; site blocking and a shining example of what entertainment companies could aim for if bypassing the courts became an option elsewhere.</p>
<p><strong>The full list for November 2015</strong></p>
<p>tugahd.com<br>
serieshared.blogspot.pt<br>
tudodownloadpt- pt2.blogspot.pt<br>
amofilmes.net<br>
avxhome. is<br>
bitsnoop.com<br>
dramatize.com<br>
ilovefilmesonline.com<br>
megafilmeshd.tv<br>
megafilmesonline.net<br>
projectfreetv.so<br>
rapidmoviez.com<br>
sanet.me<br>
sceper.ws<br>
series-cravings.me<br>
topdezfilmes.org<br>
toptorrent.org<br>
watch-series-tv.to<br>
armagedomfilmes.biz<br>
baixartorrent.net<br>
clubedodownload.info<br>
cucirca.<br>
ddlvalley.rocks<br>
filmesdetv.com<br>
megafilmesonlinehd.com<br>
onlinemovies-pro.com<br>
rlslog.net<br>
seedpeer.eu<br>
supercineonline.com<br>
telona.org<br>
torlock.com<br>
torrentfunk.com<br>
torrents.net<br>
tubeplus.is<br>
tuga-filmes.com<br>
yourbittorrent.com<br>
mp3skull<br>
gigatuga.io<br>
megapirata.net</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113197
title: UK Piracy Police Deprioritize Domain Suspension Requests
uri: UK-Piracy-Police-Deprioritize-Domain-Suspension-Requests
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fZNaFKM9nbQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/31176dbb.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg" alt="cityoflondonpolice" width="200" height="82" class="alignright size-full wp-image-71397">Deterring online piracy has become one of the main goals of City of London Police in recent years.</p>
<p>In September 2013 the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit was founded, marking the start of a broad enforcement campaign to decrease online piracy rates.</p>
<p>PIPCU initially began by sending out <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-launch-campaign-to-shut-down-torrent-sites-130604/">warning letters</a> to pirate site owners, asking them to go legit or shut down. This was soon followed by a campaign targeted at domain registrars, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/">asking them</a> to suspend the domain names of several “illegal” sites.</p>
<p>The domain suspension requests haven&#8217;t been particularly effective. Information obtained by TorrentFreak following a Freedom of Information request filed last year revealed that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/domain-registrars-deny-police-requests-suspend-pirate-sites-140808/">only 5</a> out of 70 domain registrars complied with police requests. </p>
<p>This year we asked PIPCU for an update to see if any progress was being made, but months passed by without a response. Normally, police must respond within 20 working days but this request proved to be more difficult. </p>
<p>After several delays and passed deadlines we finally received a response this week. However, it was not the number of rejected domain suspensions we asked for. Instead, PIPCU sent a statement explaining that domain suspensions are no longer a top priority. </p>
<p>“Whilst PIPCU continues to make domain suspension requests as a component of Op Creative, more emphasis is now placed onto other disruption activities,&#8221; they note.</p>
<p>&#8220;This decision was taken following an adverse response by ICANN to a challenge to our domain suspension requests.&#8221;</p>
<p>This response suggests that the police changed their strategy after a successful challenge by domain registrar EasyDNS, who they accused of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-accuse-domain-name-registrar-of-facilitating-criminal-activity-140830/">facilitating criminal activity</a> by its refusal to suspend several websites. </p>
<p>In response EasyDNS took the matter to the overseeing body ICANN which ruled that registrars <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/registrars-cant-hold-pirate-domains-hostage-without-court-order-140110/">are not required</a> to suspend a domain name without a valid court order. </p>
<p>ICANN&#8217;s decision was a blow to the police who therefore decided to place less emphasis on domain suspension efforts.</p>
<p>However, even though PIPCU has changed its enforcement priorities we previously learned that it still sent shutdown requests for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-piracy-police-asked-domain-registrars-to-shut-down-317-sites-150821/">317 &#8216;pirate&#8217; domain names</a>, which is much more than the year before. </p>
<p>Again, we asked PIPCU how many of these were rejected.</p>
<p>Just before publishing we received what appears to be the final answer. Despite earlier indications that the numbers are available, PIPCU now says they are no longer recorded. </p>
<p>One thing&#8217;s obvious though, the efforts weren&#8217;t very effective. </p>
<p>&#8220;Whilst information is recorded on the number of suspension requests sent out, information is no longer recorded on registrar responses to individual domain suspension requests, however as a guide these requests have predominantly refused,&#8221; PIPCU concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113201
title: Government Owned ISP Runs a Public Torrent Tracker
uri: Government-Owned-ISP-Runs-a-Public-Torrent-Tracker
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rJtwxGqYgGg/
content:
<p><img src="media/f7e362eb.kaz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kaz.jpg" alt="kaz" width="250" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113252">The Internet is littered with torrent indexes and search engines, all offering a wide range of content to their visitors.</p>
<p>For this content to travel from A to B the BitTorrent ecosystem needs reliable trackers. Sadly, good public torrent trackers are a rarity these days.</p>
<p>Earlier this year OpenBitTorrent and PublicBitTorrent disappeared for good, and the same is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/largest-bittorrent-tracker-demonii-will-shut-down-soon-151104/">about to happen to Demonii</a>. This means that all trackers with more than 30 million active peers are gone. </p>
<p>So who will fill this gap? Running a large standalone tracker doesn&#8217;t come cheap, but this week we spotted a worthy contender. </p>
<p>To our surprise, the largest telecoms company in Kazakhstan is running a fully functioning tracker powered the well-known Opentracker software.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhtelecom">Kazakhtelecom</a>, which has the local Government as a majority shareholder, can certainly afford to run it. The company has a yearly revenue of half a billion U.S. dollars.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/b16c81bc.kaztracker.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kaztracker.jpg" alt="kaztracker" width="424" height="101" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113236"></center></p>
<p>At the time of writing the ISP already tracks <a href="http://retracker.telecom.kz/stats">461,274 torrents</a>, coordinating the transfers of more than 2.5 million people worldwide. The tracker can be used by anyone and supports both http and udp connections. </p>
<p>The retracker.telecom.kz:80/announce URL appears in torrents of all shapes and sizes and had been in use for at least a few months. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the ISP&#8217;s higher level management is aware of the tracker, or if it was configured by a torrent-friendly employee, but for now it works just fine. </p>
<p>The connection to the Kazakh Government may become a problem though, since peer-to-peer services and torrent trackers are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2013/kazakhstan">not allowed</a> under current law. Whether the Government will enforce that policy against itself has yet to be seen. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113142
title: YTS Reaches MPAA Deal But Dotcom Faces Decades in Jail?
uri: YTS-Reaches-MPAA-Deal-But-Dotcom-Faces-Decades-in-Jail
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F538HL_0VGs/
content:
<p>After reporting on thousands of file-sharing related stories around the globe for almost ten years, the folks here at TF have a &#8216;feel&#8217; for how certain scenarios play out. With that in mind, something doesn&#8217;t feel right with the ongoing drama involving YTS / YIFY.</p>
<p>When sites as big as YTS get taken down by the MPAA, RIAA, or their partners around the world, these organizations usually order their PR departments to repeatedly bash the big button marked &#8220;CONGRATULATIONS TO US&#8221;. Yet for weeks following the YTS shut down there was complete silence.</p>
<p>Details of the multi-million dollar lawsuit supposedly filed in New Zealand are nowhere to be found either. And if one was expecting the usual &#8220;Shut down by ICE/FBI/DELTA FORCE&#8221; banner to appear on YTS.to instead of the usual YIFY movie rips, then there&#8217;s only disappointment there too.</p>
<p>Ok, the MPAA have this week <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">admitted</a> they&#8217;re behind the shutdown, but the way it&#8217;s being handled is extremely puzzling. The announcement from MPAA chief Chris Dodd was muted to say the least and the somewhat compulsory gloating at having taken down one of the world&#8217;s most important piracy sites is almost non-existent.</p>
<p>This is odd for a number of reasons, not least when one considers the nature and scale of the operation. YIFY / YTS released as many as five thousand copies of mainstream movies onto the Internet. Between them they were shared dozens of millions of times, at least. Over the past decade those kinds of numbers &#8211; and a lot less &#8211; have seen people jailed for up to five years in the United States and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Yet according to credible sources the operator of YTS &#8211; a 21-year-old who for unknown reasons isn&#8217;t even being named &#8211; <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-yify-signs-unprecedented-settlement-with-mpaa-151105/">has already settled his beef</a> with the MPAA. This, despite running a site that has been repeatedly listed as a worldwide notorious market in the USTR&#8217;s Special 301 Report.</p>
<p>Of course, the operator of YTS isn&#8217;t in the United States, he&#8217;s in New Zealand, but geographical boundaries are rarely an issue for Hollywood. Take the drama surrounding Kim Dotcom and his former site Megaupload, for example.</p>
<p>Like the operator of YTS, Dotcom also lives in New Zealand. Importantly, it&#8217;s never been claimed that Dotcom uploaded anything illegal to the Internet (let alone thousands of movies) yet he was subjected to a commando-like raid on his home by dozens of armed police. He&#8217;s also facing extradition to the United States where he faces decades in jail.</p>
<p>Now, think of the flamboyant Dotcom what you will. Then feel relieved for the admin of YTS, who by many accounts is a thoroughly nice guy and has somehow managed to save his own skin, despite providing much of the content for global phenomenon Popcorn Time.</p>
<p>But then try to get a handle on how differently these two people are being treated after allegedly committing roughly the same offenses in exactly the same country. One case is still dragging on after almost four years, with tens of millions spent on lawyers and no end in sight. The other was a done deal inside four weeks.</p>
<p>Earlier this week TorrentFreak spoke with Kim Dotcom who told us he&#8217;d been following the YTS story in the media. Intrigued, we wanted to know &#8211; how does it feel to be raked over the coals for close to four years, have all your property seized, face extradition and decades in jail, while someone just up the road can walk away relatively unscathed from what would&#8217;ve been a slam-dunk case for the MPAA?</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a double standard isn&#8217;t it?&#8221; Dotcom told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think our case has chilled law enforcement and Hollywood against pursuing the criminal route in cases such as this. Quick civil settlements seem to be the new way to go.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom may well be right and the fact that New Zealand already has a massive headache because of his case may well have been a factor in the decision not to make a huge example of the YTS operator. At the moment no one is talking though, and it&#8217;s entirely possible that no one ever will.</p>
<p>That makes a case like this all the more unsettling. Are we witnessing Hollywood&#8217;s ability to switch on a massive overseas law enforcement response in one case and then reel in the United States government in another? It&#8217;s worth saying again &#8211; YTS was a &#8216;notorious market&#8217; in the eyes of the USTR yet apparently that be dealt with privately these days.</p>
<p>But with all that being said, it is quite possible that the U.S. government has learned lessons from its heavy-handed actions in 2012 and doesn&#8217;t want to repeat them again, least of all in New Zealand, a country whose judges must be growing tired of the Dotcom debacle.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the DOJ admitted the Megaupload case is a test case. The test isn&#8217;t going well for them,&#8221; Dotcom concludes.</p>
<p>And for that the guy behind YTS must be thanking his lucky stars.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113277
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 11/07/15
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-11-07-15
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HaPDPVWyjiY/
content:
<p><img src="media/7bc44a63.antman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/antman.jpg" alt="antman" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113281">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Ant Man 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 BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-110215/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/antman/">Ant-Man</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdKf3MneyI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_man_from_uncle/">The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638355/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ky4KPzKwY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">Inside Out</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_scorch_trials/">Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44_igsZtgU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/everest_2015/">Everest</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2719848/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHS-mxn0RQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_assassin_2015/">The Assassin</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3508840/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKFtNsQ78oI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">No Escape</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781922/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Wvi0LsukI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitman_agent_47/">Hitman Agent 47</a> (HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2679042/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQlJDRnQkE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/minions/">Minions</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2293640/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eisKxhjBnZ0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/southpaw_2015/">Southpaw</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798684/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh2ebPxhoLs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113302
title: RuTracker Counters Lifetime ISP Ban By Going Public
uri: RuTracker-Counters-Lifetime-ISP-Ban-By-Going-Public
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RBtueMwNdBY/
content:
<p><img src="media/b0692145.rutracker1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker1.jpg" width="250" height="95" class="alignright">As previously reported, huge Russian torrent site RuTracker has been having some serious legal issues with copyright holders, not least the music industry.</p>
<p>Labels including Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI want the tracker to stop infringing their copyrights. This, or face being blocked by Russian ISPs &#8211; for eternity.</p>
<p>After the filing of a lawsuit at the Moscow City Court last month, RuTracker was faced with a dilemma. On the one hand the site could delete around 320,000 torrents to comply with the labels&#8217; wishes. On the other they could leave the content intact and face a ban.</p>
<p>Late last month the site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/should-rutracker-delete-320000-torrents-to-pacify-record-labels-151030/">polled its members</a> and the response was clear. While 33% were prepared to delete the torrents, 67% said no way, voting in favor of accepting a blockade and then circumventing it.</p>
<p>At the time of writing 983,400 people have voted, all of them members for at least one month to avoid rigging. RuTracker&#8217;s operators believe this could be one of the biggest online votes in the entire history of the Russian Internet.</p>
<p>But RuTracker&#8217;s problems aren&#8217;t only with the music industry. Earlier, local publishing giant &#8216;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eksmo">Eksmo</a>&#8216; also filed a legal complaint after content wasn&#8217;t quickly removed from the site.</p>
<p>So with defiance on the table the Court had a simple decision to make. Given that it agrees that RuTracker isn&#8217;t removing copyrighted content as it should, Russian law now allows for strict measures to be taken against the site. Earlier this morning that&#8217;s exactly what happened.</p>
<p>After repeatedly infringing Eksmo&#8217;s rights, the Moscow City Court handed down an order which instructs local ISPs to block RuTracker, forever. The site is currently still accessible in Russia and will remain so for at least the next 30 days, a period in which the site will have an opportunity to consider its options.</p>
<p>On the one hand RuTracker could appeal the decision, although considering the polling of its users on the music matter and the desire of the majority not to delete torrents, that seems unlikely. On the other it has a month to train its Russian users on how to access the site after a blockade, whether that&#8217;s through Tor, VPNs, proxies, or other similar tools.</p>
<p>Not only does the latter seem more likely, RuTracker has just made a historic move which will allow new users of the site, wherever they may be, to access it much more easily.</p>
<p>Previously, users needed an account to use the site, which wasn&#8217;t really a problem for those who can speak Russian. However, RuTracker has now removed the need to sign up, meaning that anyone with a browser and Google translate can easily find content in the site&#8217;s forums and download it by clicking on a link.</p>
<p>For now unregistered users can only download via magnet links but with users of most torrent sites already prepared with a compatible client, that&#8217;s unlikely to provide much of an obstacle.</p>
<p>Even more simply, RuTracker&#8217;s forums are all indexed by Google and since the titles of English language content appear in English, a &#8220;site:rutracker.org&#8221; search is an extremely easy option.</p>
<p>Add this to the fact that Google receives relatively few takedown requests for the domain, RuTracker could quickly gain more popularity outside Russia. That is not what the book publishers or major record companies had in mind when they pressed for a national and permanent blockade against this enduring torrent site.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113314
title: Leaked Draft Reveals EU Anti-Piracy Enforcement Plan
uri: Leaked-Draft-Reveals-EU-Anti-Piracy-Enforcement-Plan
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ev-VJANO2sE/
content:
<p><img src="media/3737aed5.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png" width="222" height="146" class="alignright">The EU Commission is currently working on proposals for the modernization of copyright with the aim of providing a framework more suited to the digital age.</p>
<p>The EU&#8217;s plan was set to go public exactly a month from today but just before the weekend <a href="http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/kat-exclusive-eu-commission-due-to.html">IPKat</a> said it had obtained a leaked copy of the draft communication from a &#8216;Brussels insider&#8217;.</p>
<p>&#8220;EU copyright rules need to be adapted so that all market players and citizens can seize the opportunities of this new environment. A more European framework is needed to overcome fragmentation and frictions within a functioning single market,&#8221; the leaked draft reads.</p>
<p>The document, which could be subject to change before its release next month, advises that the Commission will issue legislative proposals for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/europe-will-abolish-geo-blocking-and-other-copyright-restrictions-150506/">content portability</a> during the Spring of 2016.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a first step, the Commission is presenting together with this Communication a proposal for a regulation on the ‘portability’ of online content services, to ensure that users who have subscribed to or acquired content in their home country can access it when they are temporarily in another Member State,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>But in addition to making life easier for citizens, the Commission also wants to make life more difficult for pirates. Noting that creative rights have little value if they cannot be enforced, the Commission calls for a &#8220;balanced civil enforcement system&#8221; to enable copyright holders to fight infringement more cheaply and across borders. </p>
<p>&#8220;A ‘follow-the-money’ approach, which sees the involvement of different types of intermediary service providers, seems to be a particularly promising method that the Commission and Member States have started to apply in certain areas,&#8221; the draft reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;It can deprive those engaging in commercial infringements of the revenue streams (for example from consumer payments and advertising) emanating from their illegal activities, and therefore act as a deterrent.&#8221;</p>
<p>On this front the Commission says it intends to take immediate action to set up a &#8220;self-regulatory mechanism&#8221; with a view to reaching agreement next spring. While voluntary, the EU says the mechanism can be backed up by force if necessary.</p>
<p>&#8220;Codes of conduct at EU level could be backed by legislation, as required to ensure their full effectiveness,&#8221; the draft notes.</p>
<p>By the fall of next year the Commission says it will have assessed its options in respect of an amended legal framework covering a number of enforcement issues. No additional details are provided but one of the key items in the draft concerns the rules for the identification of infringers.</p>
<p>The document also highlights a need to address &#8220;the (cross-border) application of provisional and precautionary measures and injunctions&#8221;. Clarification is needed, but this appears to be a reference to EU-wide site blocking.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the EU indicates it will examine the rules for copyright takedowns and the potential for illicit content to be taken down and remain down.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Commission is also carrying out a comprehensive assessment and a public consultation on online platforms, which also covers ‘notice and action’ mechanisms and the issue of action remaining effective over time (the ‘take down and stay down’ principle),&#8221; the draft reads.</p>
<p>Finally, Julia Reda MEP is raising alarms over the Commission&#8217;s intent to clarify the legal definition of ‘communication to the public’ and of ‘making available’.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Commission is considering putting the simple act of linking to content under copyright protection,&#8221; Reda <a href="https://juliareda.eu/2015/11/ancillary-copyright-2-0-the-european-commission-is-preparing-a-frontal-attack-on-the-hyperlink/">writes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This idea flies in the face of both existing interpretation and spirit of the law as well as common sense. Each weblink would become a legal landmine and would allow press publishers to hold every single actor on the Internet liable.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full document can be <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6d07lh0nNGNaXFzUFBPaE0tY0E/view">downloaded here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113286
title: MPAA: Online Privacy Hurts Anti-Piracy Enforcement
uri: MPAA-Online-Privacy-Hurts-Anti-Piracy-Enforcement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HdkAKz_0LXo/
content:
<p><img src="media/fdb36aee.mpaa-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo.png" alt="mpaa-logo" width="259" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89856">Every year the United States Trade Representative (USTR) inventorizes what problems local industries face when doing business abroad. </p>
<p>The major Hollywood studios, represented by the MPAA, just submitted their latest overview listing trade barriers across the globe. </p>
<p>The MPAA points out that many countries don&#8217;t do enough to deter piracy. This is also a common theme in Europe, where privacy laws and regulations make it harder for copyright holders to go after online pirates. </p>
<p>&#8220;Privacy has always been a major issue in the European Union. EU Member States have implemented a number of privacy directives to protect individuals’ personal data,&#8221; MPAA writes.</p>
<p>According to the MPAA, European privacy rules are extremely complex and difficult. As a result they are often used against efforts that could help to prevent copyright infringement. </p>
<p>For example, IP-addresses are protected as private personal information in several countries including Italy, where they can only be used in criminal cases. </p>
<p>&#8220;All EU Member States have detailed data protection laws. These rules, often very strict, are subject to the interpretation of the national data protection authorities,&#8221; MPAA notes (<a href="media/b69731e8.MPAA_2016_NTE_Comments.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MPAA_2016_NTE_Comments.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of them consider IP addresses as personal data and believe that the privacy rules apply to their use,&#8221; they add. </p>
<p>The MPAA points out that privacy rights of citizens often trump the rights of copyright holders, which they believe is a &#8220;very problematic&#8221; development. </p>
<p>As a result, Internet providers often refuse to cooperate with copyright holders claiming that this violates the privacy of their users. This makes it hard for the content industries to cooperate with these companies in various anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;Telecommunications operators and ISPs constantly invoke data protection rules to avoid any meaningful cooperation with the content sector,&#8221; MPAA writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Such restrictive interpretations preclude meaningful cooperation with Internet intermediaries, such as telecommunications operators and ISPs, in particular cooperation to combat IP theft.&#8221; </p>
<p>In addition, the MPAA is not happy with the EU Court of Justice <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-overturns-data-retention-directive-140408/">decision</a> to no longer make data retention mandatory. As a result, many ISPs no longer keep extensive IP-address logs. </p>
<p>The movie studios believe that data retention is an important law enforcement tool, suggesting that it&#8217;s harder to track down online pirates without logs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Data retention remains a very valuable tool for law enforcement. Rights holders have always claimed the need for reasonable rules and legal certainty. This decision has created even more legal uncertainty in this field.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Member States have started to respond to the consequences of this decision with legislation and some have invalidated their rules,&#8221; MPAA adds.  </p>
<p>The data retention argument is not new, but it&#8217;s worth noting that the U.S. itself has no mandatory data retention laws. This makes it hard for the U.S. Government to demand that other countries adopt them. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear though, that the MPAA is not happy with the increased interest in online privacy. With or without help from the U.S. government, they will continue to try and minimize the impact it has on their enforcement efforts. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113319
title: MPAA OK With Copyright Law But Seeks Allies For Piracy Fight
uri: MPAA-OK-With-Copyright-Law-But-Seeks-Allies-For-Piracy-Fight
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rT7Zr0hTIyE/
content:
<p><img src="media/02c18d1a.mpaa-logo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo.png" width="259" height="170" class="alignright">As Europe conducts a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/leaked-draft-reveals-eu-anti-piracy-enforcement-plan-151109/">reassessment of copyright law</a> and its ability to keep pace with technology, the United States is doing likewise.</p>
<p>In a speech during the World Intellectual Property Day celebrations at the Library of Congress in April 2013, Chairman Bob Goodlatte announced that the House Judiciary Committee would carry out a comprehensive review of United States copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am announcing today that the House Judiciary Committee will hold a comprehensive series of hearings on U.S. copyright law in the months ahead. The goal of these hearings will be to determine whether the laws are still working in the digital age,&#8221; Goodlatte said.</p>
<p>As of mid-October 2015 the Committee had held <a href="http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/us-copyright-law-review">20 hearings</a> on various topics, from the scope of copyright protection and Fair Use, the preservation and reuse of copyright works, to the first sale doctrine and music licensing.</p>
<p>With additional meetings with hearing witnesses now underway, the House Judiciary Committee is conducting a &#8220;listening tour&#8221; to gather input from those involved in the creative process. After stopping off in Nashville, Goodlatte and other members of the Committee appeared at Santa Clara University in Northern California yesterday. Today they&#8217;re hosting a roundtable discussion at the University of California, Los Angeles.</p>
<p>In addition to Google&#8217;s senior copyright counsel Fred von Lohmann, Dean Marks, the MPAA&#8217;s chief of global content protection, is also expected to attend. Neil Fried, SVP, Government and Regulatory Affairs, says that while the MPAA welcomes the discussion to Hollywood, changes to copyright law aren&#8217;t high on its agenda.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although not perfect, the Copyright Act is fulfilling its mission of promoting the production and dissemination of creative works,&#8221; Fried says.</p>
<p>&#8220;In 2014 alone, viewers used lawful online services to access 66.6 billion television episodes and 7.1 billion movies. We expect these TV and film numbers to reach 101.6 billion and 11.7 billion by 2019. Clearly the market and copyright law are working.&#8221;</p>
<p>But while the MPAA says it&#8217;s broadly satisfied with the law, it insists that more must be done to combat piracy. Cooperation with other stakeholders will provide the solutions the industry is looking for, the movie group says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Internet’s decentralized nature allows anyone around the world to contribute to its content and architecture, but that also means no single entity can solve problems that arise, like piracy,&#8221; Fried says.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is why we are currently focusing our attention on forging cross-industry, voluntary initiatives to ensure a safe and innovative digital environment, rather than seeking a legislative rewrite of copyright policy.&#8221;</p>
<p>And to date there have indeed been significant developments on this front.</p>
<p>In addition to attempting to choke the finances of pirate sites by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/senator-uses-piracy-report-to-pressure-visa-mastercard-141125/">forging closer relationships</a> with processors including PayPal, MasterCard and Visa, there have been national and international campaigns to ensure that big brands avoid placing their ads on pirate sites. Users have been targeted too.</p>
<p>&#8220;The motion picture and recording industries have also partnered with the five largest ISPs to create the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-and-rightsholders-extend-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-150903/">Copyright Alert System</a>, a progressive system of alerts that is used to make consumers aware of possible infringing activity that has occurred over peer-to-peer networks using their Internet accounts, provide them with information on how to prevent such activity from happening again, and also inform them of the wide range of legal online alternatives,&#8221; Fried adds.</p>
<p>But while some ISPs, processors and advertising networks may be on board, bigger challenges lie ahead for the development of voluntary agreements. For example, the MPAA is desperate to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pushes-icann-policy-changes-target-pirate-domains-150227/">find a simple way</a> to stop pirate sites from easily registering and then using domain names for infringing purposes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Even though the terms of service for domain name registrars and registries almost uniformly prohibit the use of domain names for illicit activities, these provisions are rarely enforced,&#8221; Fried explains.</p>
<p>To date progress on this front has been slow and in some cases responses have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/icann-refuses-to-play-piracy-police-150612/">somewhat hostile</a>.</p>
<p>And of course, the MPAA will be pleased that Fred von Lohmann is expected at today&#8217;s roundtable. The Hollywood group is still not happy with how easy it is for Internet users to find infringing content using Google search. Google previously stated that people tend to find infringing content because they&#8217;re specifically looking for it, but the MPAA sees things somewhat differently.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nearly 60 percent of the queries that led to stolen content contained only generic or title-specific keywords, indicating consumers were not specifically seeking pirated material,&#8221; Fried says.</p>
<p>With the heat of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-emails-expose-dirty-media-attack-against-google-150727/">Project Goliath debacle</a> still simmering beneath the surface, the MPAA&#8217;s current tone is certainly measured. Only time will tell whether its claimed satisfaction with copyright law will continue longer term should Google and others decide not to play ball.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113331
title: Destroyed Piracy Tracking Code Should End Lawsuit, Cox Says
uri: Destroyed-Piracy-Tracking-Code-Should-End-Lawsuit-Cox-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/a1pmXTIi5H4/
content:
<p><img src="media/96cc090f.rightscorp.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.jpg" alt="rightscorp" width="180" height="71" class="alignright size-full wp-image-85915">Last year BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-communications-sued-for-not-disconnecting-pirates-141128/">sued Cox Communications</a> arguing that the ISP fails to terminate the accounts of subscribers who frequently pirate content.</p>
<p>The companies, which control publishing rights to songs by Katy Perry, The Beatles and David Bowie among others, claim that Cox gave up its DMCA safe harbor protections due to this inaction.</p>
<p>The case revolves around data gathered by Rightscorp and Cox believes that the anti-piracy company is the driving force behind it, in part to retaliate for Cox’s refusal to forward their infringement notices.</p>
<p>Both parties have been preparing for trial but Cox now believes that one isn&#8217;t needed. A few weeks ago the court ruled that Rightscorp spoiled evidence by failing to preserve historical versions of its piracy tracking code. As a result, Cox insists that the entire case should now be dropped. </p>
<p>According to the ISP all evidence of direct copyright infringement relies on Rightscorp&#8217;s system. Without the option to assess the accuracy of the tracking technology, it&#8217;s impossible to review the reliability and accuracy of the accusations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cox cannot analyze, and the jury cannot assess, the operation or accuracy of Rightscorp’s pivotal systems. That is because Rightscorp intentionally destroyed every version of its technological systems that existed prior to July 15, 2015,&#8221; the ISP writes in its motion (<a href="media/0f95388a.coxspoil.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coxspoil.pdf">pdf</a>).  </p>
<p>According to Cox&#8217;s legal team the copyright holders and Rightscorp&#8217;s failure to keep track of the code changes did not occur by accident. </p>
<p>&#8220;Despite actively planning this lawsuit for over three years, Plaintiffs and their litigation agent, Rightscorp, knowingly and intentionally failed to preserve the most critical evidence in the case.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;As a result of that misconduct, as Judge Anderson found, it is literally impossible for Cox or the jury &#8216;to know how the Rightscorp system operated during the relevant time period&#8217;,&#8221; Cox adds. </p>
<p>While Magistrate Judge Anderson ruled that Rightscorp did indeed spoil crucial evidence, he referred a decision of specific evidentiary sanctions to District Court Judge O’Grady. </p>
<p>In its motion Cox is clear about what the final decision should be. The ISP sees a dismissal of the entire case as the most fitting outcome. It&#8217;s impossible for a jury to review how reliable some of the most crucial evidence is, so the case should be dismissed, Cox argues. </p>
<p>&#8220;In these circumstances, the most appropriate sanction is dismissal, particularly given that Judge Anderson’s factual findings effectively defeat Plaintiffs’ claims in<br>
any event. For the many reasons Cox addresses below, this case should end now,&#8221; the motion reads. </p>
<p>The motion will be discussed at an upcoming hearing. In a reply, BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music have already objected to the request, describing it as an untimely motion for summary judgment. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113355
title: MPAA Plans For Site Blocking in the U.S. Dealt a Blow
uri: MPAA-Plans-For-Site-Blocking-in-the-U-S-Dealt-a-Blow
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BT-PlKjFZ0I/
content:
<p><img src="media/8fb6ef42.mpaa-logo1-150x112.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo1-150x112.jpg" width="150" height="112" class="alignright">It&#8217;s 2012 and you&#8217;re the organization representing the world&#8217;s largest movie studios. You&#8217;ve just received a bloody nose while failing to get the extremely unpopular SOPA legislation passed. All that SOPA entailed, site blocking included, is now off the table. What do you do, give up? Not a chance.</p>
<p><strong>Help us block, ITC</strong></p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-prepares-to-bring-pirate-site-blocking-to-the-u-s-141211/">As revealed</a> last year, the MPAA continued to explore other options to have unauthorized sites and content blocked in the United States, one of which involved leveraging the powers of the International Trade Commission (ITC).</p>
<p>The ITC determines the impact of imports on industry in the U.S. and can tackle unfair trade practices including those involving patents, trademarks and copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The MPAA quietly hoped that it could encourage the ITC to order blocks against ISPs carrying infringing content across U.S. borders. It also hoped it could obtain injunctions against regular ISPs to stop them providing access to overseas &#8220;rogue&#8221; sites. At the time the MPAA&#8217;s lawfirm highlighted several problems, not least that no actual goods are sent across U.S. borders by &#8216;rogue&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>This is important. The definition of &#8220;articles&#8221; under Section 337 of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1337">Tariff Act of 1930</a> is what allows the ITC to take action in such cases. The big question is whether an &#8220;article&#8221; must be a physical item or whether it can relate to content in the digital realm. The answer lies in a case about crooked teeth.</p>
<p>At first view <a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/an-undead-sopa-is-hiding-inside-an-extremely-boring-case-about-invisible-braces">ClearCorrect v. ITC</a> looks like just another boring patent case but it has been closely monitored by the MPAA.</p>
<p>ClearCorrect, a competitor of invisible brace manufacturer Invisalign, had one of its subsidiaries in Pakistan create 3D models of braces. These were sent over the Internet and 3D-printed in its office in Texas, potentially infringing Invisalign&#8217;s patents.</p>
<p>Invisalign parent company Align Technologies complained to the International Trade Commission in the hope of getting something done about the alleged cross-border infringement. In the short term it paid off, with the ITC ruling against ClearCorrect while noting that the Tariff Act of 1930 does allow it take action against the transmission of digital files.</p>
<p>ClearCorrect objected against the decision and the case was heard by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals. Yesterday the Court handed down its decision, overturning the ITC&#8217;s initial ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Commission’s decision to expand the scope of its jurisdiction to include electronic transmissions of digital data runs counter to the &#8216;unambiguously expressed intent of Congress&#8217;,&#8221; Judge Sharon Prost wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here, it is clear that &#8216;articles&#8217; means &#8216;material things,&#8217; whether when looking to the literal text or when read in context &#8216;with a view to [the term’s] place in the overall statutory scheme.&#8217; We recognize, of course, that electronic transmissions<br>
have some physical properties — for example an electron’s invariant mass is a known quantity — but commonsense dictates that there is a fundamental difference between electronic transmissions and &#8216;material things&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Court&#8217;s majority 2-1 ruling (Judge Newman dissenting) that the ITC has no jurisdiction in this case and possesses no expertise when it comes to ensuring that the &#8220;Internet remains an open platform for all&#8221; has upset the MPAA. </p>
<p>&#8220;This ruling, if it stands, would appear to reduce the authority of the ITC to address the scourge of overseas web sites that engage in blatant piracy of movies, television programs, music, books, and other copyrighted works,&#8221; the Hollywood group <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/mpaa-dealt-a-blow-appellate-838797">said</a>.</p>
<p>After filing a brief in the case, interests group Public Knowledge described the ruling as a &#8220;big win&#8221; for the open Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;By rejecting the ITC&#8217;s attempt to expand its jurisdiction, the Federal Circuit helps to ensure that Internet users have unfettered access to the free flow of information that has proved so useful for innovation and free expression,&#8221; said Charles Duan, Director of Public Knowledge&#8217;s Patent Reform Project.</p>
<p>&#8220;In particular, Judge O&#8217;Malley&#8217;s concurrence strongly recognized the importance of ensuring that &#8216;the Internet remains an open platform for all.&#8217; This recognition of the central role that open information flow has played in the digital age is heartwarming to advocates like us who have tirelessly worked to protect that Internet openness.&#8221;</p>
<p>Countering, the MPAA chose to cite the opinions of the one dissenting judge.</p>
<p>&#8220;As Judge Newman&#8217;s dissent trenchantly argues, the majority &#8216;ignores precedent and logic, and removes a vast body of technology from the protection of a statute designed for its protection.&#8217; We will be watching closely for further proceedings in this case, including potential en banc review, and continue to support the ITC in its efforts to address 21st Century challenges.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, the MPAA won&#8217;t be giving up on its site-blocking ambitions just yet.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113365
title: Blizzard Sues Bot Maker For Copyright Infringement
uri: Blizzard-Sues-Bot-Maker-For-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MfqlDWG_7ug/
content:
<p><img src="media/50295694.blizz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg" alt="blizz" width="250" height="147" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113379">Over the years video game developer and publisher <a href="http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/">Blizzard Entertainment</a> has released many popular game titles.</p>
<p>However, to the disappointment of the developer and the majority of its customers there exists a small subgroup of players who are happy to deceive their opponents to get an edge in Blizzard&#8217;s games. Through hacks and cheats these players are often able to dominate the competition with minimal effort.</p>
<p>In an attempt to stamp out this type of abuse Blizzard has now filed a lawsuit against James Enright (aka &#8220;Apoc&#8221;), the individual behind a popular series of gaming bots. Enright&#8217;s software allows users to cheat in World of Warcraft, Diablo and Heroes of Storm, among others.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed at a California federal court, Blizzard notes that the “<a href="http://www.honorbuddy.com/">HonorBuddy</a>,” “<a href="http://www.honorbuddy.com/">DemonBuddy</a>” and “<a href="http://www.stormbuddy.tv/">StormBuddy</a>” bots infringe on its copyrights. In addition, the bots ruin the fun for other players, which causes financial damage to the company. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Bots created by Enright and his team have caused, and are continuing to cause, massive harm to Blizzard. Blizzard’s business depends upon its games being enjoyable and balanced for players of all skill levels,&#8221; the complaint (<a href="media/74a3a6e6.blizbots.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blizbots.pdf">pdf</a>) reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Bots that Enright has programmed and helps distribute destroy the integrity of the Blizzard Games, alienating and frustrating legitimate players, and diverting revenue from Blizzard to Defendants,&#8221; they add. </p>
<p>Blizzard believes that the bots cause legitimate players to lose interest, costing the company millions in lost revenue. The bot maker, meanwhile, is generating a significant profit. </p>
<p>&#8220;As a result of Enright’s conduct, Blizzard has lost millions or tens of millions of dollars in revenue and in consumer goodwill. Meanwhile, Enright and his team have been massively and unjustly enriched at Blizzard’s expense,&#8221; Blizzard adds.</p>
<p>Blizzard believes that Enright may have made millions through the bot sales, which start at €24.98 ($27) for the most basic World of Warcraft version.  </p>
<p><center><strong>The WoW Honorbot</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8e694820.honotbuddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/honotbuddy.jpg" alt="honotbuddy" width="600" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113378"></center></p>
<p>Aside from breach of contract, by violating the EULA which prohibits the use of bots and cheats, Enright and his team are accused of copyright infringement. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants have infringed, and are continuing to infringe, Blizzard’s copyrights by reproducing, adapting, distributing, and/or authorizing others to reproduce, adapt, and distribute copyrighted elements of the Blizzard Games without authorization,&#8221; Blizzard writes.</p>
<p>Blizzard asks the court to issue an order against the defendants to prevent them from distributing the software. In addition, they demand actual or statutory damages for the alleged copyright infringements, which could add up to tens of millions of dollars.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s claimed losses are supported by <a href="media/48fd2f59.botdetection-article.pdf" data-original-source="https://iseclab.org/papers/botdetection-article.pdf">research</a> which has shown that WoW bots can create a massive amount of in-game gold, which raises the prices of items for legitimate users. These users may then lose their motivation and stop playing, hurting Blizzard&#8217;s revenue.  </p>
<p>At the time of writing the <a href="https://www.thebuddyforum.com">Buddy Forum</a> and the associated website remain operational, <a href="media/2b34560e.n1r4DYf.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/n1r4DYf.png">claiming</a> that &#8220;botting is not against any law.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113404
title: TorrentFreak Turns Ten Today
uri: TorrentFreak-Turns-Ten-Today
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tynL1wbg4n8/
content:
<p><img src="media/72a5c6ae.tfoldlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tfoldlogo.png" alt="tfoldlogo" width="248" height="114" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113408">Ten years ago I decided to install WordPress to start a blog about the intriguing world of BitTorrent and file-sharing. </p>
<p>Motivated by the lack of news reporting and information on the relatively new technology, TorrentFreak was born on November 12, 2005. </p>
<p>Today, TF is still here and bigger than I could have ever imagined. </p>
<p>I&#8217;m not the type of person to write a lengthy essay about how it all came to be, but with this post I would like to thank all the people who helped to get the site were it is right now. </p>
<p>Although the number of visitors has steadily grown over the years the core TF team is still very small. With two main writers and no editorial staff we&#8217;re just a tiny operation compared to most other news sites.</p>
<p>Andy joined TF roughly a year after it started and without him the site wouldn&#8217;t be where it is today. His passion for news and the ability to spot and break the right stories has played a central role in the site&#8217;s evolution. </p>
<p>Long-time contributor Ben also helps to moderate the comments behind the scenes, aided by a handful of dedicated volunteers. And then there&#8217;s our server hamster and his loyal keeper, who have managed to keep the site online during the most demanding times.</p>
<p>TF is also grateful to have many reliable sources who are always willing to confirm news, provide comments, or send in leads. We couldn&#8217;t have come this far without them. </p>
<p>Finally, thanks to everyone who has helped us in any way, shape or form, especially the readers and all of our dedicated followers. Let&#8217;s add another ten years.</p>
<p>Onwards!</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113422
title: Swedish Pirates are More Likely to Buy Legal Content
uri: Swedish-Pirates-are-More-Likely-to-Buy-Legal-Content
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/50u9FisvVRs/
content:
<p><img src="media/62a13a20.piratesaint.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratesaint.jpg" alt="piratesaint" width="180" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73755">With a long history that pre-dates the Internet, computer fans in Sweden have always been in the thick of various file-sharing scenes. If they weren&#8217;t sharing discs at swap meets, Swedes were sharing content via now-ancient BBS systems.</p>
<p>When the Internet came along things began to take off, but it wasn&#8217;t until the launch of The Pirate Bay in 2003 that Sweden was catapulted onto the world stage. However, after emerging as some of the world&#8217;s most passionate file-sharers, a new study has found that interest in the activity is trending downwards, despite 91% of the population being online.</p>
<p>Titled &#8220;Swedes and the Internet&#8221; the survey was carried out by The Internet Foundation In Sweden (<a href="http://iis.se">IIS</a>). The annual report aims to give a broad view of how local citizens use the Internet and reveals that not only is file-sharing on the wane, but consumption of legal content is maintaining its upward trend.</p>
<p>This year just 18% of respondents said that they share files on the Internet. According to IIS, the decrease is largest among those aged between 12 and 25, but in the 36 to 55 year-old group little has changed. </p>
<p>2015&#8217;s result represents a decrease on the 19% reported in last year&#8217;s survey and the second year in a row that file-sharing decreased in Sweden. 2014 marked the first drop in years, with 21% having been sustained since 2011.</p>
<p>Notably, one has to track back to the last decade in order to match the low-level of file-sharers currently active in 2015. But alongside file-sharing&#8217;s loss comes authorized content&#8217;s gain and there&#8217;s even an interesting twist for those looking to demonize Sweden&#8217;s remaining pirates.</p>
<p>In 2015, 70% of Internet users reported watching film and video content online, that&#8217;s up from the 52% in last year&#8217;s survey. A total of 40% of those who watch films online claim to pay for their content too, that&#8217;s up from just 14% in 2014. </p>
<p>According to the report Netflix is the major player, with 28% of the population watching the service, increasing to 47% among 26 to 35 year-olds.</p>
<p>Music remains popular too, with 77% listening to tracks on the Internet and just over half of all respondents (54%) paying for the privilege. The figures are impressive, having increased from 38% in 2014. In 2011 those paying sat at just 15%.</p>
<p>But customers come in all shapes and sizes and in common with similar surveys elsewhere, the IIS survey has found that pirates are some of the entertainment industry&#8217;s best customers.</p>
<p>In 2015, The Internet Foundation found that those who file-share movies illegally are also more likely to pay for legal video. In fact, 46% of pirates put their hands in their pockets to pay versus just 24% of non-filesharers.</p>
<p>In the music market the story is similar. When it comes to spending money on content, 58% of music pirates say they do so. Among non-filesharers the number drops to just 39%.</p>
<p>The report can be downloaded <a href="media/b8ab3bf4.Svenskarna_och_internet_2015.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.iis.se/docs/Svenskarna_och_internet_2015.pdf">here</a> <em>(Swedish, PDF, 133 pages)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113447
title: Filmmakers Sue Dutch State Over Lost Piracy Revenue
uri: Filmmakers-Sue-Dutch-State-Over-Lost-Piracy-Revenue
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TZEMyW6Ngm4/
content:
<p><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520">Compared to many other countries around the world, pirating movies and TV-shows is hugely popular in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Up to a third of the population is estimated to download and stream copyrighted content without paying for it.</p>
<p>This high percentage is not surprising as the Netherlands has traditionally been a relative safe haven for pirates. Downloading movies without permission was not punishable by law until last year when the European Court of Justice <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-netherlands-must-outlaw-downloading-eu-court-rules-140410/">spoke out</a> against the tolerant stance.</p>
<p>In response the Dutch Government quickly outlawed unauthorized downloading but breaking the habits of a large section of the population will take more than that and local piracy rates remain high.</p>
<p>According to the Dutch Association of Professional Film Entrepreneurs (VPSO) and several independent distributors, the local Government is not doing enough to enforce the ban on unauthorized file-sharing. </p>
<p>As a result the filmmakers today announced <a href="http://tweakers.net/nieuws/106270/nederlandse-filmmakers-stellen-staat-aansprakelijk-voor-schade-door-downloaden.html">plans to sue</a> the Dutch state over its weak enforcement. The VPSO estimates that the local movie industry is losing hundreds of millions of euros per year, in part due to the Government&#8217;s lax stance on the issue.</p>
<p>The group argues that the Government should follow Germany&#8217;s lead when it comes to anti-piracy enforcement. German authorities frequently prosecute pirate site operators, which is one of the reasons why VOD and DVD sales are rising again, the filmmakers state.</p>
<p>In addition, this year Dutch film companies have increasingly hinted that they&#8217;re prepared to take <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-movie-industry-wants-to-monitor-and-warn-pirates-140908/">civil action</a> against online pirates.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago the distribution company Dutch Filmworks <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/large-movie-distributor-grabs-popcorn-time-trademark-151008/">registered</a> the local Popcorn Time trademarks for possible future enforcement actions and the company also said it is <a href="http://nos.nl/artikel/2064120-dutch-filmworks-wil-popcorn-time-gebruikers-aanpakken.html">considering</a> going after individual file-sharers.</p>
<p>Earlier this year Dutch filmmakers’ association SEKAM submitted a claim for piracy damages to the Ministry of Security and Justice, but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-filmmakers-claim-piracy-damages-from-government-150929/">this was denied</a>.</p>
<p>The timing of the announced lawsuit doesn&#8217;t appear to be a coincidence. This coming Friday the Ministry of Security and Justice will organize a consultation on how to tackle illegal downloading, and today&#8217;s news will certainly heat up the debate.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113510
title: UK ‘Pirate’ Blacklist Silently Expands With 170+ Domains
uri: UK-Pirate-Blacklist-Silently-Expands-With-170-Domains
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xSxwculNY1o/
content:
<p><img src="media/114a07a1.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg" width="180" height="120" class="alignright">Between April 2012 and May 2015, a handful of international rightsholder groups went to the UK High Court to obtain blocking injunctions against some of the world&#8217;s most popular &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>In response to these blockades, dozens of alternative domains appeared. Some simply provided a new way to access an existing site while some were clones or mirrors offering a similar experience to the original. However, the vast majority were proxy-style operations, ones which allowed users to bypass blockades by visiting a new URL.</p>
<p>This appearance of new domains epitomized the &#8220;whac-a-mole&#8221; analogy so often referenced in connection with pirate sites. When one gets struck down, another appears. It&#8217;s a neverending game for rightsholders but in the UK it seems to be one they&#8217;re willing to play.</p>
<p>As recently as October, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dozens-of-pirate-domains-quietly-added-to-uk-isp-blocklists-151019/">dozens of new domains</a> were added to the UK&#8217;s blocklist adding to the hundreds already present. And now, during the second week of November, around 170 more have been silently tagged on.</p>
<p>The full list can be found below and it contains many familiar names. The vast majority are connected, however loosely, to sites covered by earlier court orders. As is usually the case, many of the targeted URLs are Pirate Bay proxies, mirrors and/or clones, with the same holding true for KickassTorrents.</p>
<p>One &#8216;sleeper&#8217; site definitely worth a mention is PirateProxy.la. According to Alexa, from a standing start in September the site has grown to become the 278th most popular site in the UK overall. That growth will almost certainly come to an abrupt end with the latest block.</p>
<p>Popular MP3 sites also get a look in (MP3Bear, MP3Clan, MP3Lemon, MP3Monkey, MP3Raid, MP3Skull etc) but at this point it&#8217;s almost impossible to say with any certainty how or if they are connected to the original sites. It&#8217;s a situation playing out across the whole file-sharing site spectrum and is potentially <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-sites-and-their-users-are-suffering-a-trademark-crisis-151101/">putting users at risk</a>.</p>
<p>While rightsholders used to announce blockades when a new court order was won, these days sites are added almost silently to the blocklists operated by BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk.</p>
<p>Initially the BPI, MPA, The Premier League and Members of The Publishers Association, obtained more than 20 injunctions against &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites but now additional domains are simply added to those orders. Pirate Bay proxies, for example, are considered part of the Pirate Bay operation and no new court order is required to have them blocked.</p>
<p><strong>The list of domains blocked in the most recent wave</strong></p>
<p><em>1337x.unblocked2.bz<br>
bushtorrente.com<br>
dadotorrent.com<br>
emp3world.unblocked.la<br>
emp3world1.com<br>
etmirror.com<br>
ikwilthepiratebay.nl<br>
limetorrenturlx.com<br>
monova.unblocked.la<br>
mp3raid.unblocked.la<br>
mp3raid.work<br>
mp3skull.unblocked.la<br>
mp3skull.wtf<br>
pirateproxy.la<br>
seedpeer.unblocked.la<br>
torrentcrazy.unblocked.la<br>
torrentdb.li<br>
avoidcensorship.com<br>
bayproxy.net<br>
bayproxy.org<br>
beemp3s.org<br>
bittorrent.am<br>
bittorrent.am<br>
bittorrent.pm<br>
bittorrent.pm<br>
btloft.com<br>
bts.ph<br>
bts.to<br>
btscene.cc<br>
btscene.com<br>
btscene.eu<br>
btscene.net<br>
btscene.org<br>
btsdl.cc<br>
emp3world.com<br>
emp3world.so<br>
emp3world.to<br>
etproxy.com<br>
extratorrent.ee<br>
extratorrent.tv<br>
extratorrentlive.com<br>
extratorrentonline.com<br>
fastpiratebay.eu<br>
fullsongs.net<br>
ikwilthepiratebay.nl<br>
ka.tt<br>
kat.sx<br>
katproxy.bz<br>
katproxy.com<br>
katproxy.is<br>
kickass.la<br>
kickassto.co<br>
kickasstorrents.ee<br>
kickasstorrents.to<br>
kickassunblock.eu<br>
kickassunblock.net<br>
kuiken.co<br>
limetor.com<br>
limetor.net<br>
limetorrents.cc<br>
limetorrents.co<br>
limetorrents.in<br>
limetorrents.net<br>
mega-search.me<br>
megasear.ch<br>
megasearch.co<br>
mp3.ink<br>
mp3.re<br>
mp3.supply<br>
mp3bear.biz<br>
mp3bear.com<br>
mp3bear.org<br>
mp3bear.to<br>
mp3boo.com<br>
mp3boo.me<br>
mp3clan.com<br>
mp3clan.mobi<br>
mp3clan.net<br>
mp3clan.ninja<br>
mp3clan.ro<br>
mp3lemon.net<br>
mp3monkey.net<br>
mp3raid.com<br>
mp3raid.info<br>
mp3raid.work<br>
mp3skull.com<br>
mp3skull.cr<br>
mp3skull.is<br>
mp3skull.to<br>
mp3soup.net<br>
mymirrorpirate.com<br>
mypirateproxy.com<br>
myproxypirate.com<br>
newbursalagu.com<br>
outlaw.is<br>
picktorrent.com<br>
pirateahoy.eu<br>
piratebay.net<br>
piratebay1.com<br>
piratebayproxy.be<br>
piratebayproxy.co.uk<br>
pirateproxy.bz<br>
pirateproxy.ca<br>
pirateproxy.in<br>
pirateproxy.net<br>
pirateproxy.nl<br>
pirateproxy.se<br>
pirateproxy.sx<br>
pirateproxy.ws<br>
pirateuropa.net<br>
plixid.com<br>
proxybay.co<br>
proxybay.eu<br>
proxybay.net<br>
proxybay.pl<br>
proxybay.pw<br>
proxybay.xyz<br>
proxytpb.nl<br>
stafaband.co.uk<br>
techtoy.co.uk/pirate-bay-mirrors<br>
thehiddenbay.net<br>
thepiratebay-proxylist.com<br>
thepiratebay.ae.org<br>
thepiratebay.ar.com<br>
thepiratebay.com<br>
thepiratebay.com.ua<br>
thepiratebay.cr<br>
thepiratebay.de.com<br>
thepiratebay.ee<br>
thepiratebay.gb.com<br>
thepiratebay.gg<br>
thepiratebay.je<br>
thepiratebay.lv<br>
thepiratebay.mg<br>
thepiratebay.net<br>
thepiratebay.org.in<br>
thepiratebay.org.ua<br>
thepiratebay.website<br>
thepirateboat.eu<br>
thepiratemirror.com<br>
theproxypirate.com<br>
torrentbit.net<br>
torrentbit.nl<br>
torrentcrazy.ee<br>
torrentcrazy.to<br>
torrentdb.li<br>
torrentdownload.biz<br>
torrentdownload.co<br>
torrentdownload.me<br>
torrentdownload.ws<br>
torrentdownloads.cc<br>
torrentdownloads.co<br>
torrentdownloads.me<br>
torrentdownloads.net<br>
torrentexpress.net<br>
torrentfunk.info<br>
torrentfunk.net<br>
torrentfunk.org<br>
torrents.am<br>
torrentsdownload.org<br>
tpbproxy.cc<br>
uberadserver.biz<br>
uberadserver.com<br>
uberadserver.mobi<br>
uberadserver.net<br>
uberadserver.org<br>
ukbay.co<br>
ukbay.org<br>
unblockthepiratebay.net<br>
xspyz.com<br>
zooqle.eu<br>
zooqle.in<br>
zooqle.net</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113552
title: EU Court of Justice to Decide on Legality of Pirate Bay Blockades
uri: EU-Court-of-Justice-to-Decide-on-Legality-of-Pirate-Bay-Blockades
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PoeJet_CrMY/
content:
<p><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470">Early last year The Court of The Hague handed down its decision in a long running case which had previously forced two Dutch ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>The Court ruled against local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, concluding that the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isps-no-longer-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-dutch-court-rules-140128/">blockade was ineffective</a> and restricted the ISPs’ entrepreneurial freedoms.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay was unblocked by all local ISPs after the decision while local anti-piracy organization BREIN took the matter to the Supreme Court. </p>
<p>Today, the Court decided to postpone its final decision. Following a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/attorney-general-doubts-legality-of-pirate-bay-blockade-150529/">recommendation</a> from the Advocate General it decided to stay the proceedings and <a href="http://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:HR:2015:3307">refer two key questions</a> to the EU Court of Justice, seeking clarification.</p>
<p>The first question that requires a European review is whether The Pirate Bay is actually communicating illegal content to the public. </p>
<p>More specifically, whether the operator of a website is communicating copyrighted works to the public if the site doesn&#8217;t host any content, but merely links to and categorizes meta-information so users can download the linked files. </p>
<p>If this question is answered negatively then the EU Court should clarify whether ISPs can be ordered to block a site if the operator facilitates copyright infringement in this way.</p>
<p>A decision at the European level will be important, as it may also affect court orders in other countries, such as the UK, Italy and Belgium where The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites are blocked as well.</p>
<p>After the questions are resolved at the EU Court the Dutch Supreme Court will make its final decision.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113357
title: Popular Torrent Sites Block YTS.ag and YIFY Impostors
uri: Popular-Torrent-Sites-Block-YTS-ag-and-YIFY-Impostors
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6mCfGqO_hws/
content:
<p><img src="media/92650739.ytsag.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ytsag.png" alt="ytsag" width="216" height="70" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113361">Late last month one of the biggest piracy icons <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-yts-shuts-down-the-end-of-a-piracy-icon-151030/">ended</a> its operation. </p>
<p>Faced with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-yify-signs-unprecedented-settlement-with-mpaa-151105/">multi-million dollar lawsuit</a> from Hollywood the operator of YTS and the YIFY release group decided to throw in the towel. </p>
<p>However, that doesn&#8217;t mean that these famous have disappeared for good. Several <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/found-a-new-yts-yify-site-its-a-fake-151104/">unrelated sites</a> are trying to take over YIFY&#8217;s dedicated followers, with YTS.ag being the most successful thus far. </p>
<p>The site, which is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/found-a-new-yts-yify-site-its-a-fake-151104/">connected</a> to the people who <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eztv-shuts-down-after-hostile-takeover-150518/">hijacked EZTV</a> earlier this year, want the public to believe that they are the real YTS. They misleadingly use the name of a member of the real YTS team, <a href="media/dd522efb.pESxSxd.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/pESxSxd.png">for example</a>, and suggest that YTS simply decided to move to a new domain. </p>
<p>This strategy appears to have worked since hundreds of thousands of visitors have viewed the site already. And after the &#8216;fake&#8217; YTS decided to encode their own rips, many believe that it&#8217;s business as usual.</p>
<p>Hoping to push the traffic numbers up even further, YTS.ag also contacted several of the most popular torrent sites, asking if they can release their torrents there as well. </p>
<p>In their email the operators make it clear that they have nothing to do with the original YTS/YIFY team. However, they say they would like to pick up where the original group left off.</p>
<p>&#8220;Do we have acknowledgement from previous YIFY team to do this? The answer is that we could not reach them,&#8221; the email reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;We do our best to continue their work, thus so far we have uploaded our own encodes/releases with very similar quality/size of previous YTS team and even improving a bit the audio part of the encodes. We have our own seedboxes and upload very fast the releases.&#8221;</p>
<p>The YTS.ag team offers the torrent sites a &#8220;partnership&#8221; and hopes it will be able to add their releases to these sites, using the popular YTS brand. </p>
<p>&#8220;You have a very strong community and your users are searching daily for new YTS releases. Even though they can find them at yts.ag we would like to partnership with you and add our new releases to your website,&#8221; they write.  </p>
<p><center><img src="media/b6709c7e.ytsagmail.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ytsagmail.png" alt="ytsagmail" width="560" height="395" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113363"></center></p>
<p>TF spoke with several torrent site operators who say they will not allow YTS.ag to publish on their websites with a YTS or YIFY inspired tag, stating that it would be inappropriate. </p>
<p>RARBG isn&#8217;t allowing any YTS.ag rips on their site and ExtraTorrent is banning YTS and YIFY impostors as well. </p>
<p>&#8220;They are cheap groups who want to benefit and make a quick name by jumping on something that was already there,&#8221; the ET team tells us, adding that the same thing happened when aXXo disappeared several years ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;They will fade away, even though many downloaders will fall prey to the scam,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>KickassTorrents is another site taking a similar stance. The KAT team says it will only accept releases if YTS.ag uses an unrelated name. </p>
<p>&#8220;Here at KAT we don’t think it’s a good idea for a release group to use the name of the other group confusing our users. So no platform will be provided at least until they choose another name,&#8221; the team informs us. </p>
<p>KAT moderator Mr. Black understands that other groups want to trade on the popular YIFY/YTS name but adds that in addition to the possible confusion, KAT would never allow it out of respect for the original group. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is something that is always going to happen but we also understand that the quality of these groups will never be the same. To allow this would be insulting to the original release group who we trusted in the past and gained so much respect with us,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over the past weeks we thanked YIFY for his input to our site over the years. His reply was that the appreciation from ourselves made them pleased and he thanked us for having trust in them.&#8221;</p>
<p>That being said, KAT can&#8217;t ban regular users from uploading the releases. </p>
<p>None of the torrent sites we spoke with will allow YTS.ag to take over from the old group but the releases are presently appearing on some automated search engines including isoHunt. </p>
<p>While the operators and moderators at the major torrent sites are quite loyal, many users don&#8217;t seem to care. They are happy as long as they can get their weekly dose of pirated movies. </p>
<p>At the time of writing thousands of people are sharing the YTS.ag releases as if nothing ever happened.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113352
title: Pirate Bay Censorship Marks the End of Open Internet, ISP Warns
uri: Pirate-Bay-Censorship-Marks-the-End-of-Open-Internet-ISP-Warns
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dR0em-MXZ0w/
content:
<p><img src="media/6cb6a973.censorship.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/censorship.jpg" alt="censorship" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-47463">Almost exactly one year ago, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry teamed up against Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company).</p>
<p>In a lawsuit filed at the Stockholm District Court, the entertainment industry plaintiffs argued that Bredbandsbolaget should be held liable for Internet piracy carried out by its own subscribers. The companies argued that if the ISP wants avoid liability it should block its customers from accessing The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer.</p>
<p>Telenor subsidiary Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) has fought the action every step of the way and will find out at the end of November whether those efforts have paid off.</p>
<p>Should it prevail the decision will be a historic one &#8211; no other ISP in Europe (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-takes-pirate-bay-blocking-case-supreme-court-140623/">complex Netherlands&#8217; case aside</a>) has managed to avoid blocking The Pirate Bay following a legal battle. If the ISP loses (and the odds suggest that it will) the provider will be required to censor the site, something it is desperate to avoid.</p>
<p>In a joint statement this week Patrik Hofbauer, CEO of Telenor and Bredbandsbolaget, and Anna Bystrom, company legal counsel, warned that an adverse ruling could put the model of a free and open Internet at risk.</p>
<p>&#8220;When a judgment becomes precedent a trial is about so much more than an Internet service provider and two controversial websites,&#8221; the executives begin.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the media companies are given the right it will lead to absurd consequences and Internet subscribers will ultimately end up using a severely censored Internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>Hofbauer and Bystrom highlight the fact that should the case go the plaintiffs&#8217; way, Bredbandsbolaget and other Internet providers will be regarded as accomplices to infringement committed on sites such as Swefilmer and The Pirate Bay. However, the implications stretch far beyond those two domains. </p>
<p>&#8220;A conviction that makes us criminals because we do not block these sites is very dangerous and opens a door must remain closed,&#8221; they explain.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moving forward, will ISPs then be forced to block social media if we are deemed to contribute to copyright infringement, threats and defamation that may occur there?&#8221;</p>
<p>Indeed, copyright is the tip of the iceberg. Could ISPs&#8217; liability stretch further still, to controversial sites such as Wikileaks for example?</p>
<p>&#8220;Will sites where whistle-blowers can reach out with secret classified material also need to be blocked? If so, Sweden would then be subjected to a harsh level of censorship unique in the EU,&#8221; Hofbauer and Bystrom warn.</p>
<p>While the copyright holders in the legal action are clear on their goals, it&#8217;s clear that Bredbandsbolaget is concerned that this case represents the thin end of a wedge, one that starts with copyright but has the potential to expand into unforeseen areas. Once the genie is out of the bottle, the company argues, the threat to the open Internet could be great. </p>
<p>Bredbandsbolaget says the legal and ethical choices it is confronted with are not always easy ones and it sometimes finds itself in the middle of contradictory demands from legislators on one side and stakeholders on the other. But on this issue, initially involving The Pirate Bay but with the potential to spread much further, the ISP&#8217;s position has been easy.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our role in society should be about making information available and we can not risk engaging in censorship,&#8221; the ISP explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we faced pressure from individual players in this case, we put our values ​​to the test. We are against piracy, but the idea that under threat of punishment ISPs must make assessments of the sites that Swedish people visit is absurd.&#8221;</p>
<p>In conclusion and while welcoming a positive outcome to the case, the executives say that if they&#8217;re forced to bend to the whims of outside influences, people may have to kiss goodbye to a free and open Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;The day when we and other operators must be guided by private interests, that may represent the beginning of the end for what we in Sweden know as the open Internet. With that said, we welcome a decision that will hopefully strengthen our conviction,&#8221; Hofbauer and Bystrom conclude.</p>
<p>Whichever way it goes, there&#8217;s only two weeks left to find out.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113511
title: U.S. and MPAA Protest Return of Megaupload’s Servers
uri: U-S-and-MPAA-Protest-Return-of-Megaupload-s-Servers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_u-Bxh3t9Q0/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="225" height="288" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">When Megaupload was raided early 2012 the U.S. Government seized 1,103 servers at Carpathia’s hosting facility in the United States.</p>
<p>Nearly four years have since passed and it&#8217;s still uncertain what will happen to the servers, which are safely stored in a Virginia warehouse at the moment. </p>
<p>After a renewed request for guidance on the issue, District Court Judge O&#8217;Grady <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-judge-explores-return-of-megaupload-data-151106/">started to explore</a> what options are on the table. He asked the various parties what would be required to release the servers and whether their possible return has any complications. </p>
<p>In a response, hosting company QTS/Carpathia says that most data will still be intact but that retrieving it will be a costly endeavor.</p>
<p>The equipment that was used to link the servers together is no longer on the market. Used parts are still available but this would cost roughly $500,000. In addition, hundreds of thousands of dollars are needed to move the servers and set them up properly. </p>
<p>United States Attorney Dana Boente notes that a successful data return would likely cost millions. However, the Government has no interest in the servers and doesn&#8217;t want any of Megaupload&#8217;s restrained funds to be released to pay for the costs.</p>
<p>According to the Government some of Megaupload&#8217;s money comes from illicit proceeds. In addition, the possible return of the servers is a concern because they contain child pornography. </p>
<p>&#8220;The United States further reminds the Court that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found that many of these servers contain, as indicated more particularly under seal, copies of known images of child pornography,&#8221; Boente writes (<a href="media/2961f349.usmegaserv.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usmegaserv.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>The MPAA also responded to questions posed by the court. The Hollywood group says it&#8217;s still gravely concerned that the copyrighted movies and TV-shows may fall into the hands of others. </p>
<p>&#8220;The MPAA members remain gravely concerned about the potential release of the copyrighted works that are stored on the [&#8230;] servers at issue here,&#8221; the movie industry group writes (<a href="media/224ec52c.MPAA-megaservers.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MPAA-megaservers.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>Transferring the data to Megaupload or another party would be copyright infringement in and by itself, they argue.</p>
<p>&#8220;The release of these digital files would not only risk the further infringing distribution of the MPAA members’ highly valuable copyrighted works, but any transfer of these files by QTS to Megaupload or a third party would itself be an infringement of the MPAA members’ copyrights in those works.&#8221;</p>
<p>Based on the reasoning above it&#8217;s nearly impossible to move any of the data without violating the rights of the movie studios. </p>
<p>However, former Megaupload user Kyle Goodwin, represented by the EFF, stresses that there&#8217;s no need to restore the entire infrastructure. He only wants access to the personal files he lost during the raid. </p>
<p>Finally, Megaupload&#8217;s defense argues that it can&#8217;t pay for the servers as long as their assets are restrained. </p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s defunct file-hosting service suggests placing the servers “under a litigation hold” at a reputable eDiscovery vendor such as KPMG, to ensure the confidentiality of the files. Recovering the data won&#8217;t come cheap though. </p>
<p>&#8220;Megaupload had previously received an e-vendor’s estimate of US$7.7 million for forensic duplication of the data needed for e-discovery and evidence purposes,&#8221; they write (<a href="media/a5cd4326.megamega.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megamega.pdf">pdf</a>).  </p>
<p>It&#8217;s now up to District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady to make a recommendation regarding the possible return of Megaupload&#8217;s servers. Based on the input from the parties above this may prove to be a difficult task. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113483
title: Google Must Take Blame For Spreading Bizarre Piracy News
uri: Google-Must-Take-Blame-For-Spreading-Bizarre-Piracy-News
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xF2Iv-F-9Hw/
content:
<p><img src="media/8d252f04.sadpirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadpirate.jpg" alt="sadpirate" width="160" height="187" class="alignright size-full wp-image-47490">The music and movie industries love to poke the finger at Google and blame the technology giant for a world of woes, not least the appearance of &#8216;rogue&#8217; sites in its search results.</p>
<p>Well, you know what? They&#8217;re not the only ones that can play that game.</p>
<p>Here at TF we do our very best to bring the latest file-sharing news to our readers and always try to bring something fresh to our reports, whether we&#8217;re the initial source or not. However, there are other sites who don&#8217;t appear to care much about the topics they cover, only the number of clicks they can generate.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m talking about headlines like this from the file-sharing experts at Christian Today.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/892130cf.pic-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pic-1.jpg" alt="pic-1" width="638" height="113" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113485"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;[W]ith reports saying that Microsoft&#8217;s new platform has more stringent security measures against torrents, fans are wondering if TPB and other sites will make it to Windows 10-enabled devices,&#8221; the site <a href="http://www.christiantoday.com/article/the.pirate.bay.update.tpb.still.defying.authorities.site.tackled.by.windows.10/70272.htm">warns</a>.</p>
<p>The article quotes fellow torrent-nonsense-farmers &#8216;<a href="http://www.vcpost.com/articles/105275/20151111/pirate-bay-still-up-running-amidst-strong-take-down-efforts.htm">Venture Capital Post</a>&#8216; as the source, claiming that people upgrading to Windows 10 &#8220;will not have access to torrent sites, as Microsoft will reportedly actively block The Pirate Bay, Kickass Torrents and other file-sharing websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>These twisted accounts are based on erroneous claims about Windows 10 that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-trackers-ban-windows-10-over-privacy-concerns-150822/">date back to August</a> and have been well and truly debunked. Still, both sites reported them only this week, with more misinformation and scaremongering thrown in for good measure.</p>
<p>Of further concern is how VCPost then links to <a href="http://www.ibtimes.com.au/pirate-bay-stands-strong-amidst-legal-battles-1481748">International Business Times</a> as the source of the story, a site known for its <ahem> &#8216;advanced&#8217; SEO techniques and its 2013 <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/BannedDomains/comments/1hplpv/ibtimescom_international_business_times_banned/">banning from Reddit</a>.</p>
<p>Only adding to the hall of mirrors, IBTimes cites <a href="http://www.christianpost.com/news/the-pirate-bay-update-after-the-takedown-of-yify-is-the-pirate-bay-next-149387/">Christian Post</a> as its &#8216;source&#8217; with its totally baseless and speculative article titled &#8220;The Pirate Bay Update: After The Takedown Of YIFY, Is The Pirate Bay Next?&#8221;</p>
<p>That in turns links to a site called &#8216;Yibada&#8217; with its article &#8220;The Pirate Bay (TPB) Last Man Standing After YTS/YIFY Shutdown: TPB Next In Line?&#8221; and home to other gems including (deep breath) &#8220;<a href="http://en.yibada.com/articles/82889/20151108/after-taking-down-the-pirate-bay-will-mpaa-go-easy-on-tpb-like-it-did-with-yts-yify-megaupload-s-kim-dotcom-cries-double-standard.htm">After Taking Down The Pirate Bay, Will MPAA Go Easy On TPB Like It Did With YTS/YIFY? Megaupload’s Kim Dotcom Cries Double Standard</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>Then, shock/horror, Yibada directs back to International Business Times as the source &#8211; are we noticing a pattern here? Yeah? Well, the end result when searching for Pirate Bay in Google search often looks something like this.</p>
<p><Center><img src="media/4c6072e7.baitshots-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/baitshots-1.jpg" alt="baitshots-1" width="650" height="466" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113489"></center></p>
<p>This sorry state of affairs is entirely the fault of Google. Instead of monitoring and reading every single story in its indexes and carrying out quality control of every opinion and claim linked therein, the search giant is blatantly sending unwitting visitors to uninformed sites which misleads the public and starves creators.</p>
<p>So, just like elements of the entertainment industry, we&#8217;re demanding a totally self-serving modification of Google&#8217;s algorithm to push this nonsense way down the results. We&#8217;re not going to accept no for an answer either. If Google can do it for child porn, malware, and wait &#8211; Hollywood and the RIAA, they can do it for us too, surely?</p>
<p>Oh, and apparently there are hundreds of other companies waiting in the wings with similar plights and demands. Each is keen to feature more prominently in Google&#8217;s results and each is prepared to endlessly wail over why its case deserves special attention and how Google must be to blame.</p>
<p>Sadly, and as the pettiness over the mind-bending Google-gaming articles listed above highlights, no one really gives a damn and it&#8217;s no wonder that Google doesn&#8217;t either. Now excuse me while I cozy up to a few politicians and go crying like a baby to the US government. Need to get in early, there&#8217;s going to be massive queue if Google becomes compliant. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113474
title: BitTorrent Usage Doesn’t Equal Piracy, Cox Tells Court
uri: BitTorrent-Usage-Doesn-t-Equal-Piracy-Cox-Tells-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vbs045n_tRA/
content:
<p><img src="media/21af8fa2.bittorrent-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrent-crime.jpg" alt="bittorrent-crime" width="222" height="202" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79637">Last year BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-communications-sued-for-not-disconnecting-pirates-141128/">sued Cox Communications</a>, arguing that the ISP fails to terminate accounts that are frequently used to pirate content.</p>
<p>The case is crucial as it may define the obligations of Internet providers hoping to keep their safe harbor protections. Ideally, the music companies would like to have the accounts of repeat infringers terminated.</p>
<p>Both sides are currently preparing for trial and Cox recently submitted a motion to the court, where it asks for a ban on statements and evidence which equate BitTorrent to piracy. </p>
<p>Earlier this week we reported on Cox&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/destroyed-piracy-tracking-code-should-end-lawsuit-cox-says-151110/">argument</a> that the direct piracy evidence gathered by the music companies can&#8217;t be trusted, and now the ISP also wants to cut off alternative arguments. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs seek to introduce testimony and third-party hearsay — with inflammatory statements such as &#8216;File-Sharing Is Really About Piracy&#8217; — as proof that BitTorrent use equates to the existence of infringement,&#8221; Cox writes (<a href="media/6acb8122.bittorrent-piracy.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrent-piracy.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>&#8220;Once they have argued that BitTorrent use is automatically infringing, Plaintiffs seek to introduce other testimony and documents showing that some proportion of data traffic on Cox’s network is associated with BitTorrent in order to mislead the jury into thinking that Cox knew or should have known about the infringement that Plaintiffs allege.&#8221;</p>
<p>Instead of generalizing BitTorrent traffic as copyright infringement, the music companies should offer direct proof that Cox subscribers pirated their work. Any other allegations are inappropriate and misleading according to Cox. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs are free to try to prove that specific BitTorrent users on Cox’s network actually infringed Plaintiffs’ copyrights, but the Court should preclude Plaintiffs from relying on mere innuendo that BitTorrent inherently allows individuals to infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights.&#8221; </p>
<p>The Internet provider further stresses that there are plenty legitimate uses for the popular file-sharing protocol. It&#8217;s not just a technology that&#8217;s exclusidely used by pirates.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cox disputes Plaintiffs’ characterization of BitTorrent — it is demonstrably not true that there are no legitimate uses for BitTorrent,&#8221; the ISP writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have no evidence that most or all use of BitTorrent, which is simply a communication protocol, constitutes infringement of Plaintiffs’ copyrights.&#8221; </p>
<p>In conclusion, Cox asks the court to prohibit BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music from testifying or arguing that BitTorrent is primarily used for copyright infringement, so that it can&#8217;t mislead the jury during trial. </p>
<p>For their part, the music companies submitted a similar request related to Cox&#8217;s use of the terms “troll” or “extortionist.” In addition, they don&#8217;t want the ISP to argue that their tracking company Rightscorp violated debt collection or private investigation licensing laws.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s now up to the court to decide which arguments will be permitted during trial and what will be off-limits. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113581
title: Anne Frank Scandal: An Underreported Copyright Monopoly Abuse
uri: Anne-Frank-Scandal-An-Underreported-Copyright-Monopoly-Abuse
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WLnSflfXrn8/
content:
<p><img src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="copyright-branded" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Frank">Anne Frank</a>&#8216;s Diary, if you haven&#8217;t heard of it, is the notes of a girl who hid in Amsterdam from the nazis toward the end of World War II. Sadly, she didn&#8217;t make it, and died at nazi hands in 1945. </p>
<p>Her diary has become a seminal work to understand what people in the occupied countries went through on a personal level, beyond the statistics. It was compiled after her death and after the war by her father, Otto Frank. </p>
<p>As Anne Frank died in 1945, this work would be elevated to the public domain in six weeks, on January 1, 2016 &#8211; 70 years after her death. However, the foundation that holds the copyright (and therefore collects a significant amount of money from this work) is now trying an obvious abuse of their monopoly, by suddenly naming her father Otto a <em>co-author</em> of her diary where he was previously just an editor. This move purportedly extends their own monopoly on the piece of heritage by decades &#8211; all the way through 2050 &#8211; out of the blue. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s really infuriating about this is how oldmedia doesn&#8217;t call it out as fraud at all, but takes a completely neutral stance. Most outlets seem to be rewrites of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/14/books/anne-frank-has-a-co-as-diary-gains-co-author-in-legal-move.html">New York Times</a> story, which just neutrally reports &#8220;the book now has a co-author&#8221;, quotes a few people in the worst form of abdicative &#8220;he-said-she-said journalism&#8221;, and leaves it at that.</p>
<p>Let&#8217;s be clear on three points here: One, this is a fraud committed for the sole purpose of preventing the work from being elevated to the public domain; two, it is committed now as the book would otherwise be elevated to the public domain a mere six weeks from now &#8212; if Otto Frank was objectively a co-author, it would reasonably have said so from the beginning, and not when then monopoly was down to the wire; and three, oldmedia remains abysmally ignorant of how the copyright monopoly is used to punish and withhold, rather than the illusory encourage and reward.</p>
<p>Not one single oldmedia outlet has called out the fraud, even though it&#8217;s right in their face.</p>
<p>The tech outlets are less inhibited. <a href="http://boingboing.net/2015/11/14/copyfraud-anne-frank-foundati.html">BoingBoing</a> is much more upright, calling it fraud in the very header.</p>
<p>The thing is that this ignorance is endemic to oldmedia. The Internet is the single most important piece of infrastructure we have, and policymakers are letting an old printing monopoly decide how it can and cannot be used &#8211; which should be cause for revolts and uprisings. Instead, oldmedia are collectively treating it with a yawn, while tech writers who understand the issue are calling a spade a spade.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s worse, it&#8217;s widely assumed that the cost of the monopoly is zero. But as BoingBoing observes, there have been two houses fighting in lockstep over petty monopolies to bring the story of Anne Frank to the world &#8211; and seeing how that number is typically limited to one, now that it&#8217;s evidently possible to have two, what sets a cap at two? Why can&#8217;t it be two hundred or two thousand?</p>
<p><strong>That&#8217;s the harm of the copyright monopoly. Putting it differently, were it not for the copyright monopoly, we wouldn&#8217;t have had seven Harry Potter books but rather upwards of seven <em>thousand</em>, many utter crap but some outright stellar. There&#8217;s a real cultural cost, a real cost to our common heritage, right there. That&#8217;s how the copyright monopoly punishes and withholds us all.</strong></p>
<p>And oldmedia is completely oblivious to it.</p>
<p><center>
<div class="alignfull" style="border:2px solid #3F3F3F;width:100%;padding:15px;padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:4px;margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:10px;border-radius:10px">
<h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<div style="float:right;height:130px;width:39px;margin-left:20px;margin-right:10px"><img src="media/98818a80.Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" data-original-source="http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/themes/WpNewspaper/images/falkvinge/Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" style="border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none" class="quimby_search_image"></div>
<p><span style="color:#3F3F3F;font-size:125%">About The</span> <span style="color:#FF3C78;font-size:125%">Author</span></p>
</h3>
<p style="font-family:PTSansRegular,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-weight:400;line-height:150%;margin-bottom:14px"><small>Rick Falkvinge is a regular columnist on TorrentFreak, sharing his thoughts every other week. He is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, a whisky aficionado, and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. His blog at <a href="http://falkvinge.net">falkvinge.net</a> focuses on information policy.</small></p>
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<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113576
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 11/16/15
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-11-16-15
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oKZp0FWoZYI/
content:
<p><img src="media/7bc44a63.antman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/antman.jpg" alt="antman" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113281">This week we have four newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Ant Man is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.</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 BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-110715/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/antman/">Ant-Man</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdKf3MneyI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/another_world_2014/">Another World/a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1920846/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJJfwzVPfo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771432049/">Ronaldo/a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5065822/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lScZLH5b-og">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_man_from_uncle/">The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638355/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ky4KPzKwY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">No Escape</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1781922/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Wvi0LsukI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">Inside Out</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/everest_2015/">Everest</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2719848/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHS-mxn0RQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/american_ultra/">American Ultra</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3316948/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLGFwkRx2HA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_scorch_trials/">Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44_igsZtgU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unthinkable/">Unthinkable</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0914863/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIpenejMR8I">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113572
title: Demonii Torrent Tracker Shuts Down For Good
uri: Demonii-Torrent-Tracker-Shuts-Down-For-Good
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j81qZTE_ndU/
content:
<p><img src="media/3c71d30b.demonii.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonii.png" alt="demonii" width="190" height="185" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70906">Trackers are a crucial part of the BitTorrent infrastructure, making it easier for downloaders and uploaders to connect to each other. </p>
<p>Technically speaking trackers are similar to a DNS provider, they function as a ‘phone book’ pointing people to content without knowing what it is. </p>
<p>Over the past several months Demonii became the largest torrent tracker online, handling requests from more than <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-torrent-trackers-now-handle-up-to-56-million-peers-each-150531/">50 million peers</a>, resulting in more than two billion connections per day. </p>
<p>However, since this weekend <a href="http://demonii.com/">Demonii is no more</a>. </p>
<p>The tracker simply vanished without an official explanation from the operator. Since <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/largest-bittorrent-tracker-demonii-will-shut-down-soon-151104/">it&#8217;s connected</a> to the now <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">defunct</a> YTS/YIFY group, it&#8217;s safe to assume that the tracker is not coming back. </p>
<p>In addition to the suspicions, a well-informed source has also confirmed that this is the end for the tracker.</p>
<p>Started in 2013 Demonii was a relatively young tracker that soon became the largest of its kind. After OpenBitTorrent and PublicBT suffered prolonged downtime earlier this year it was the only top tracker left standing. </p>
<p>Demonii&#8217;s demise shows that the MPAA&#8217;s legal action against YTS/YIFY will have an even larger impact on the BitTorrent ecosystem than expected. </p>
<p><center><strong>Demonii&#8217;s growth over the past year</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d74b8309.demoniigrowth.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demoniigrowth.png" alt="demoniigrowth" width="518" height="471" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113601"></center></p>
<p>After a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-yify-signs-unprecedented-settlement-with-mpaa-151105/">settlement</a> the YTS.to domain name is now controlled by the MPAA, but as far as we can see the Demonii.com domain hasn&#8217;t yet fallen into the hands of the Hollywood group.</p>
<p>Although one of the largest trackers has folded, most torrents will still work fine thanks to DHT, PEX, and some other large trackers that remain online. That said, in some cases it may take longer to connect to peers.</p>
<p>With Demonii, YTS and YIFY gone there’s no doubt that the torrent ecosystem has lost one of its biggest players. However, this is not the first time that a large BitTorrent tracker has folded and historically others have stood up to take the strain. </p>
<p>OpenBitTorrent and PublicBT have been up and running again for a while, and other sizable trackers such as Coppersurfer.tk and Leechers-Paradise remain available as well.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113609
title: Sky Warns Subscribers of More Piracy Threats Incoming
uri: Sky-Warns-Subscribers-of-More-Piracy-Threats-Incoming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tlilEwji9Ks/
content:
<p><img src="media/9d18746b.sky.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky.jpg" alt="sky" width="180" height="108" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80878">All around the world entertainment companies are augmenting their traditional sales with revenue generated from alleged copyright infringers.</p>
<p>Known as copyright-trolling, the practice sees companies monitor file-sharing networks for people sharing their content. They then use IP addresses to track users down via their ISPs. What follows are threats of legal action and demands for cash to make it all go away.</p>
<p>The UK has a long history of &#8216;trolls&#8217; but in more recent times a company called Golden Eye International (GEIL) has been the most active. Run by the individuals behind the &#8216;Ben Dover&#8217; porn brand, the company has targeted hundreds of people with allegations they downloaded and shared adult content without permission.</p>
<p>Last week it became evident that GEIL is back again when Sky Broadband began sending out warning letters to its subscribers. A copy obtained by TorrentFreak sent to us by a concerned Sky customer details the situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need to let you know about a court order made against Sky earlier this year that requires us to provide your name and address to another company,&#8221; the letter from Sky begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;A company called Golden Eye International, which owns rights to several copyrighted films, has claimed that a number of Sky Broadband customers engaged in unlawful file sharing of some of its films.</p>
<p>&#8220;In support of this claims Golden Eye International says it has gathered evidence of individual broadband accounts (identified online by unique numbers called IP addresses) from which it claims the file sharing took place.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sky says that it was not involved in gathering any of the evidence and cannot comment on its accuracy. However, since the company was presented with a court order, it must hand the subscribers&#8217; personal details to Golden Eye International.</p>
<p>Of course, like everyone familiar with these kinds of matters, Sky Broadband is only too aware why Golden Eye is sending out these letters. The company wants hard cash from Sky&#8217;s customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s likely that Golden Eye International will contact you directly and may ask you to pay them compensation,&#8221; the ISP warns.</p>
<p>As far as we&#8217;re aware, Golden Eye hasn&#8217;t yet contacted any Sky customers following this most recent warning from Sky but those letters probably won&#8217;t be too far off. However, the advance letter from Sky is already causing concern.</p>
<p>In the latter part of last week and over the weekend, TorrentFreak spoke with more than half a dozen Sky subscribers in receipt of the letter. We&#8217;re giving each one anonymity but most were concerned about what lies ahead. However, a couple had been reassured by an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/o2-be-customers-all-you-need-to-handle-a-ben-dover-file-sharing-letter-121204/">earlier article</a> on the topic.</p>
<p>Michael Coyle, a <a href="http://www.lawdit.co.uk/">Southampton-based solicitor</a> with huge experience of these cases, says he&#8217;s also been receiving calls from worried Sky customers. Previously he&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/received-a-piracy-letter-uk-solicitor-will-defend-you-for-free-150320/">handled such cases</a> in return for a charitable donation but we understand that he&#8217;s now offering to help people for a fraction of the £400 to £600 usually demanded by GEIL.</p>
<p><em>Received a letter from Sky or GEIL? <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/contact/">Contact us</a> in complete confidence.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113618
title: MPAA Wants $10 Million Piracy Damages From MovieTube
uri: MPAA-Wants-10-Million-Piracy-Damages-From-MovieTube
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7prcxKmTmik/
content:
<p><img src="media/a170b517.movietube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/movietube.jpg" alt="movietube" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108589">Last summer the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-sues-movietube-sites-over-mass-piracy-150725/">MPAA sued</a> several popular movie streaming websites which all operated under the MovieTube flag.</p>
<p>In their complaint the movie studios listed MovieTube.cc, TuneVideo.net, Watch33.tv, MovieTube.cz, Anime1.tv, MovieTube.pm, FunTube.co, MovieTube.la, KissDrama.net and several related sites. </p>
<p>The websites in question were typical streaming services, where users could watch videos and in some cases download source files to their computers. Since they used the same hosting facilities and design elements the studios believed that they were operated by the same people.</p>
<p>Several months have passed since the action was filed and the operators of the MovieTube sites have yet to appear in court. They were quick to pull the accused sites offline after the compliant was filed, but never responded to any of the claims. </p>
<p>Due to this inaction, the MPAA now requests a default judgment. In an affidavit submitted to a New York federal court before the weekend they point out that MovieTube made a healthy profit from its operations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ aggressive promotion and search-engine optimization of the  MovieTube Websites permitted them to profit off their blatantly infringing activities,&#8221; the MPAA&#8217;s attorney writes (<a href="media/d43c4974.movietube1.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/movietube1.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>According to the MPAA the MovieTube sites attracted over 81 million estimated visits per month, including more than 60 million visits from the United States. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ advertising-based revenue model would have yielded them significant profits given their high traffic, little to no overhead, and the fact that, unlike legitimate digital content services, they paid not a single dollar to license the content on their websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a proposed default judgment (<a href="media/d43c4974.movietube1.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/movietube1.pdf">pdf</a>) the MPAA requests a permanent injunction that would prohibit the accused from offering or linking to any copyright infringing material. In addition, the movie studios want the domain names to be transferred to them.</p>
<p>In addition, the MPAA requests statutory damages for willful copyright infringement in the amount of $75,000 per title, for a total of $10.5 million. </p>
<p>The proposed injunction no longer requires search engines, ISPs and hosting companies to stop linking or offering services to MovieTube. This request was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-ducks-censorship-battle-with-google-twitter-and-facebook-150818/">dropped earlier</a> after Google, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Yahoo branded it as a broad censorship attempt.</p>
<p>Without any opposition from the defendants the MPAA is destined to win this case. However, whether they will ever see any damages is highly doubtful. For now the true operators of the MovieTube sites remain unknown. </p>
<p>That said, the Hollywood group has already scored a victory by shutting down the MovieTube ring when the lawsuit was filed. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113622
title: Rightscorp Burns $4 For Every Dollar Pirates Pay in Fines
uri: Rightscorp-Burns-4-For-Every-Dollar-Pirates-Pay-in-Fines
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uIjRkhYhczw/
content:
<p><img src="media/96cc090f.rightscorp.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.jpg" alt="rightscorp" width="180" height="71" class="alignright size-full wp-image-85915">The idea is a relatively simple one. Every day millions of pirates are downloading content online without permission, so tracking them down and asking them to pay a fine should enable rightsholders to make a few extra bucks.</p>
<p>Of course, there are countless millions of infringements every day so those small payments soon add up, an attractive proposition for people doing business with Rightscorp, the US-based anti-piracy company hoping to turn piracy into profit.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s little doubt that Rightscorp&#8217;s clients are making at least some money from the deal. To date the anti-piracy company reports closing more than 230,000 cases of infringement, so at $20 and more recently $30 a shot, that&#8217;s a bit more than chump change.</p>
<p>However, as Rightscorp&#8217;s most recent filing reveals, the numbers in the whole package simply don&#8217;t add up.</p>
<p>For the three months ended September 30, 2015 the company generated revenues of $215,196, that&#8217;s 13% down on the $248,387 it made during the same period last year.</p>
<p>Not great, but since copyright holders get roughly 50% of collected revenues, Rightscorp paid them $107,598, a nice little return for doing very little. That said, it&#8217;s less than the $124,194 they received during the same period in 2014.</p>
<p>After paying out 50% of its revenues, Rightscorp not only has to run a business with what&#8217;s left, but also turn a profit. To date the company has not been able to do that. Its latest filing reveals a continuation of that trend and a set of issues that could hinder the company on a long term basis.</p>
<p>The rot starts with the company&#8217;s basic running costs. For the three months ended September 30, Rightscorp&#8217;s bill for wages and related expenses stood at $345,449, an amount way in excess of its total revenues for the same period. That, however, is just the beginning.</p>
<p>As previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-monetization-firm-rightscorp-sued-harassment-abuse-141124/">reported</a> Rightscorp has managed to get itself bogged down in several legal battles and they are costing the company dearly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Legal fees related to various matters totaled $295,865 for the three months ended September 30, 2015, compared to $90,552 for the three months ended September 30, 2014,&#8221; the company reports.</p>
<p>Overall, Rightscorp&#8217;s general and administrative expenses for three months ended September 30, 2015 amounted to $1,116,589. That means that the company recorded a net loss of $424,168. Bad, but certainly an improvement over the same period last year when it lost $894,241.</p>
<p>The totals, however, paint a dismal picture. Although revenues were up in the first nine months of 2015 versus the same period last year ($756,916 vs $688,801), the company&#8217;s costs ($1,355,407 on wages, $3,967,527 general and admin) meant the company managed to lose substantially more money.</p>
<p>&#8220;During the nine months ended September 30, 2015, we recorded a net loss of $3,120,197 compared to a net loss of $2,299,522 for the nine months ended September 30, 2014,&#8221; Rightscorp reveals.</p>
<p>As noted above, legal fees are a major problem. After spending &#8216;just&#8217; $326,985 in the first nine months of last year, during the same period in 2015 Rightscorp burned through $1,058,188.</p>
<p>But the costs incurred are only part of the problem. Rightscorp says the time being spent on legal matters is having a negative effect on its core business.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decrease in revenues [during the last quarter] was due to a disproportionate amount of time being spent by the Company supporting clients in legal matters,&#8221; the company says.</p>
<p>Overall, Rightscorp&#8217;s position this year thus far can be boiled down to one sad statistic &#8211; for every dollar paid in fines by pirates, Rightscorp loses $4. That&#8217;s definitely not turning piracy into profit.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113633
title: Popcorn Time’s Alive, Full Comeback In the Works
uri: Popcorn-Time-s-Alive-Full-Comeback-In-the-Works
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bOQfb_gbdm4/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="popcornt" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">The main Popcorn Time fork operating from the PopcornTime.io domain name <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-chaos-triggers-more-downtime-151023/">shut down its servers</a> late October citing internal problems.</p>
<p>A few days later the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">MPAA took credit</a> for the fall, announcing that it had filed a lawsuit against several of the developers in Canada. In response some developers backed out. </p>
<p>Faced with an abrupt ending several Popcorn Time users were keen to revive the defunct application. The effort has been a success, with a fully working fix now circulating <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PopCornTime/comments/3sbsz6/download_working_installers_or_fix_your_current/">on Reddit</a>.</p>
<p>The fixed version uses new APIs so movies and TV-shows now show up again. Instead of using YTS as a movie provider the revived application uses TorrentsAPI, and the TV-show feed has been replaced by a custom API.</p>
<p>The Reddit fix is only the start. Users of VPN.ht, the VPN service associated with Popcorn Time, were also alerted about a new update to the movie streaming application recently. </p>
<p>&#8220;VPN.ht Movies API FIX installed,&#8221; the message read, prompting users to restart the application.</p>
<p>It turns out that the VPN provider made several changes which allows users to access the Popcorn Time website and client without any issues.</p>
<p><center><strong>Popcorn Time alert</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/937fef77.popcornht.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornht.png" alt="popcornht" width="948" height="410" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113640"></center></p>
<p>After the fix is applied Popcorn Time becomes fully operational again, filled with the latest movies as if nothing has happened. </p>
<p>For now the general public can&#8217;t use their old Popcorn Time client without manually applying a fix, but this may change in the near future.</p>
<p>Popcorn Time developer Wally, who also founded the VPN.ht service, informs TorrentFreak that he could revive Popcorn Time to its full glory. </p>
<p>&#8220;I am still considering a full comeback, I just do not want to release a half working version,&#8221; Wally says. </p>
<p>The developer, who controls both the official Twitter account and mailing list, first wants to make sure that all domain names are out of the MPAA&#8217;s reach. This is a concern, as the Canadian lawsuit is still ongoing.</p>
<p>Wally is not listed as a defendant in the Canadian lawsuit but his name was mentioned in the complaint. In addition, the VPN.ht company was mentioned in both the claim and injunction. </p>
<p>Instead of fighting Popcorn Time, Wally believes the MPAA should embrace its concept and technology.</p>
<p>&#8220;The popularity of Popcorn Time should be an example for the MPAA to a build a future streaming platform that will be open to the entire world,&#8221; Wally says. </p>
<p>Lawsuits or not, it&#8217;s clear that the technology is hard to stop. Even now that the original sources no longer work, people can still use the application as a basic torrent streaming client, manually loading torrents into it. </p>
<p>The MPAA is not going to be pleased with the plans to relaunch the popular Popcorn Time fork. However, neutral spectators may want to get the popcorn out, as this saga is far from over. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113669
title: Operator of U.S. Music Piracy Sites Jailed For Three Years
uri: Operator-of-U-S-Music-Piracy-Sites-Jailed-For-Three-Years
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pj-wHiWgAfE/
content:
<p><img src="media/328083ef.IPRC_Seized.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/IPRC_Seized.jpg" width="299" height="224" class="alignright">In 2010, U.S. authorities launched Operation in Our Sites, an anti-piracy campaign aimed at taking copyright-infringing sites offline.</p>
<p>After targeting thousands of domains linked to counterfeit goods and making several arrests connected to file-sharing sites, renewed efforts last year saw the closure of two large music sites.</p>
<p>During October 2014, RockDizFile.com and RockDizMusic.com <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-music-sharing-sites-141022/">were taken offline</a> to be replaced by the ICE &#8211; Homeland Security Investigations seizure banner.</p>
<p>Founded in 2011, RockDizMusic had acted as an index for popular new music while RockDizFile was a file-storage site serving as a storage facility for the former.</p>
<p>During the period of quiet following their shutdown it transpired that their operator, Rocky P. Ouprasith of Charlotte, N.C., had been arrested following the execution of an HSI search warrant.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/381fe0db.rockdizmusic.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rockdizmusic.jpg" width="869" height="580" class="aligncenter"></center></p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-music-site-op-pleads-guilty-faces-five-years-in-prison-150824/">Papers</a> filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia last August claimed that both sites had been operated for profit, with Ouprasith sourcing pirated content online, uploading it to RockDizFile, and offering it for download on RockDizMusic.</p>
<p>According to the RIAA, in 2013 RockDizFile emerged “as the second largest online file-sharing site in the reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted music in the United States.” Court documents placed the market value of the content pirated by the site at more than $6 million.</p>
<p>In response, Ouprasith entered a guilty plea, admitting one count of criminal copyright infringement. In return he risked five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Yesterday the 23-year-old was sentenced and it&#8217;s bad, but not as bad it could&#8217;ve been.</p>
<p>According to the Department of Justice, Ouprasith was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the Eastern District of Virginia to serve a total of 36 months in prison. </p>
<p>In addition, Ouprasith was sentenced to two years supervised release and was ordered to forfeit almost $51,000 and pay more than $45,000 in restitution. The latter will become payable 60 days after his release at the rate of $200.00 per month or 25% of net income, whichever is greater. No fines were imposed.</p>
<p>The DoJ said that Ouprasith admitted obtaining copyrighted songs and albums, some pre-release, and uploading them to RockDizFile while encouraging affiliates to do the same. Ouprasith further admitted that he paid those affiliates based on the number of times their content was downloaded from his websites.</p>
<p>Another apparently aggravating factor was how Ouprasith handled copyright complaints. Instead of taking down content as required, according to the DoJ he either ignored the requests or simply pretended to take remedial action.</p>
<p>Ouprasith&#8217;s attorney, Bobby Howlett Jr. of Norfolk, told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/11/17/operating-a-music-piracy-site-gets-man-three-years-in-prison/">Washington Post</a> that while he&#8217;s never happy with a custodial sentence, in this instance he&#8217;s satisfied with the conclusion of the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m happy with the outcome — of course, I don&#8217;t want many of my clients to go jail and I hate that he&#8217;s a young kid with no criminal history facing this, but it could&#8217;ve been worse,&#8221; Howlett said.</p>
<p>The RIAA welcomed the sentence and said that Ouprasith&#8217;s incarceration should serve as a warning to others thinking of embarking on a similar venture.</p>
<p>“We congratulate the Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations and thank them for their diligence and hard work to bring to justice those who cause millions of dollars in damage to music creators,&#8221; said Brad Buckles, EVP of Anti-Piracy.</p>
<p>“This sentence should send a message that operating a flagrantly illegal business that steals from others by engaging in criminal activity online has real consequences.”</p>
<p>While three years is a long time inside for a young man, the Court did recommend that the Bureau of Prisons allow Ouprasith to &#8220;further his education towards obtaining his college degree&#8221; in a facility as &#8220;close as possible&#8221; to North Carolina.</p>
<p>The 23-year-old will also get time to put his affairs in order and spend Christmas with family and friends. His sentence is set to begin on January 4, 2016.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113696
title: Movie Studio Will Interrogate Suspected Popcorn Time Users
uri: Movie-Studio-Will-Interrogate-Suspected-Popcorn-Time-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5RicS9BQzWc/
content:
<p><img src="media/8108dd50.cobbler.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cobbler.jpg" alt="cobbler" width="275" height="223" class="alignright size-full wp-image-109549">Lawsuits against alleged file-sharers are a common occurrence in United States federal courts. </p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of people have been accused in recent years, most after using standard BitTorrent clients.</p>
<p>More recently there&#8217;s been a specific focus on Popcorn Time users, who were targeted in a series of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studio-sues-popcorn-time-users-in-the-u-s-150819/">lawsuits</a> this summer. </p>
<p>One of the cases was filed by the makers of The Cobbler, who listed the IP-addresses of several Popcorn Time users in their complaint. The goal of the filmmakers is to identify the account holders and settle the dispute out of court, which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-popcorn-time-pirates-settle-with-movie-studio-151018/">some have already done</a>. </p>
<p>However, not all of the accused are cooperating. </p>
<p>In a new filing submitted this week (<a href="media/623af55d.popdepo.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popdepo.pdf">pdf</a>) the movie studio explains that while they have already settled with five Popcorn Time users, four Comcast subscribers failed to respond to their inquiries. </p>
<p>&#8220;Four of the subscribers have refused to respond to plaintiff’s letters and plaintiff is without means to obtain voluntary cooperation with its investigation to identify whom may have used their Internet Service to infringe plaintiff’s rights,&#8221; the studio writes. </p>
<p>Instead of naming the account holders as defendants, the filmmakers say they would rather depose the subscribers first to ask face-to-face if they can pinpoint the true Popcorn Time pirates.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the named subscriber is often the proper defendant, plaintiff wishes to ensure that investigations are complete and proper and submits that in this matter something beyond the mere identification of a subscriber by an ISP is proper before a defendant is named,&#8221; the company explains.</p>
<p>Through a testimony under oath the movie studio hopes to identify the real culprits so they can be named in the lawsuit. The depositions can take place at a location the account holders&#8217; lawyers determine and should take no longer than two hours.</p>
<p>The movie studio&#8217;s request was granted a day after it was submitted, which means that the depositions will now go ahead. </p>
<p>In the accompanying subpoena (<a href="media/d3d9c213.popdepos.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popdepos.pdf">pdf</a>) the subscribers are ordered to identify all persons who had access to the Comcast connections in question. In addition, they must bring along copies of any copyright infringement notices they&#8217;ve received. </p>
<p>While the movie studio states that the depositions should help to track down the offenders, more critical observers may note that they&#8217;re also an optimal tool to pressure ISP subscribers who choose to ignore settlement requests and other threats.</p>
<p>Depositions in these type of file-sharing cases are relatively new and not all courts are eager to grant them. A few weeks ago a Washington District Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dallas-buyers-club-cant-interrogate-pirates-judge-rules-151103/">rejected</a> a similar request noting that it may be used as a threat just to get subscribers to settle. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113732
title: Arrests as Police Target Latin America’s Largest Pirate Site
uri: Arrests-as-Police-Target-Latin-America-s-Largest-Pirate-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Xg_WYnQUpBo/
content:
<p><img src="media/07b27c6c.megalogo1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megalogo1.jpg" alt="megalogo" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-large wp-image-113760">When it comes to enforcement of intellectual property rights, Brazil isn&#8217;t exactly a world leader. The country has long been criticized for its lack of progress in this area and has regularly found itself targeted by complaining authorities in the United States.</p>
<p>In 2009, former President Lula was even <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brazilian-president-shows-warmth-to-pirate-bay-spokesman-090627/">photographed</a> cozying up to none other than The Pirate Bay&#8217;s Peter Sunde. But six years later and it appears that the tides have changed.</p>
<p>Yesterday Federal Police in Brazil launched Operation Blackbeard, a coordinated action to take down MegaFilmesHD.net, Latin America&#8217;s most popular pirate site.</p>
<p>Launched in 2010 and mainly serving the Portuguese-speaking market, MegaFilmesHD has grown to become one of Brazil&#8217;s most popular sites, with a reported 60 million visits per month.</p>
<p><img src="media/1d72c4f9.megafilmesops.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megafilmesops.jpg" alt="megafilmesops" width="197" height="215" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113746">Following a two month investigation, police executed 14 search warrants targeted at the alleged operators of the popular streaming portal.</p>
<p>A man and a woman believed to be a couple were arrested at their home on suspicion of copyright offenses. Four cars, two of them reportedly luxury (local media showed a $US58,000 Porsche SUV), were seized along with around US$5,300 in cash.</p>
<p>Police also questioned five alleged admins of the site and blocked seven bank accounts believed to be used for money laundering. Along with the site&#8217;s owners the admins will be indicted for running a criminal operation. Police say they face between three and eight years in prison on that count plus two to four years for copyright infringement offenses, plus fines.</p>
<p>Like many similar operations of its type, Mega Filmes HD listed thousands of movies and linked to files hosted on third-party cyberlocker-style sites. According to police the site generated around US$18,500 per month from advertising. Tests carried out by TF last evening revealed aggressive techniques, with most clicks resulting in the appearance of some kind of ad.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/12cb1a45.megafilmeshdnet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megafilmeshdnet.jpg" alt="megafilmeshdnet" width="650" height="503" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113747"></center></p>
<p>While it&#8217;s clear that the owners of Mega Filmes HD are now in serious trouble, the lawyer for the couple says that their arrest came as a complete surprise. Apparently one of his clients originally ran the business from Asia and expected no problems in Brazil.</p>
<p>&#8220;My client came from Japan and there the practice is common. He never imagined he would be arrested,&#8221; the lawyer told <a href="http://globo.com">Globo</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly (although perhaps not surprisingly) figures reported by Brazilian police concerning Mega Filmes HD largely tie up with ones cited in a report the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-and-mpaa-report-notorious-piracy-sites-to-u-s-government-151007/">MPAA filed last month</a> with the United States Representative. </p>
<p>&#8220;Megafilmeshd.net is a popular streaming linking site that currently offers more than 150,000 links to more than 6,000 illegally reproduced national and international titles including films, television series, and concerts,&#8221; the MPAA reported.</p>
<p>Also of interest is the current status of the site. Although its operators were arrested yesterday morning, until just a few hours ago Megafilmeshd.net remained operational. Currently the site is offline but that appears to be due to a massive influx of traffic following news of the raid.</p>
<p>Possibly complicating a shutdown is that MegaFilmesHD was only partially operated from Brazil. According to the MPAA the site had connections in both Poland and Bulgaria. Nevertheless, if it stays down the impact will be felt most locally. Police says that 85% of the site&#8217;s visitors were from Brazil, with an impressive 4.5 million followers on social media.</p>
<p>But despite the existence of MegaFilmesHD and a reported 41% of citizens downloading illegally from the Internet, legal services are thriving in Brazil. The country is now the fourth-largest market for Netflix behind the US, Canada and the United Kingdom, with Netflix chief Reed Hastings describing the country as a &#8220;rocket ship&#8221; for his company.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113753
title: Blizzard ‘Stole’ Our Source Code, Bot Maker Says
uri: Blizzard-Stole-Our-Source-Code-Bot-Maker-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oQuCSvervaM/
content:
<p><img src="media/50295694.blizz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg" alt="blizz" width="250" height="147" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113379">Last week video game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment went after the alleged developers of the popular &#8220;<a href="https://www.thebuddyforum.com/stormbuddy-forum/">buddy</a>&#8221; cheating bots. </p>
<p>The company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blizzard-sues-bot-maker-for-copyright-infringement-151111/">filed a lawsuit</a> against James Enright (aka “Apoc”) and several unnamed defendants who developed software which allows users to cheat in World of Warcraft, Diablo, and Heroes of Storm, among others.</p>
<p>While Apoc is described as the mastermind of the operation, his role appears to be less prominent. In fact, <a href="https://www.thebuddyforum.com/stormbuddy-forum/">the websites</a> of the “HonorBuddy,” “DemonBuddy” and “StormBuddy” bots clearly list Bossland GmbH as the owner. </p>
<p>TF spoke with Bossland&#8217;s CEO Zwetan Letschew who says that Apoc works for the company as a freelancer. This is something Blizzard should know, as they are already involved in several legal proceedings against the bot maker in Germany.</p>
<p>&#8220;Activision Blizzard is fully aware that Bossland GmbH, and not Apoc, is the owner of the intellectual property of Honorbuddy, Demonbuddy and Stormbuddy, considering that there are six cases that are still in progress [&#8230;] in Germany,&#8221; Letschew says.</p>
<p>However, that didn&#8217;t stop Blizzard&#8217;s legal team from going after Apoc. The lawyers reportedly offered the freelancer a deal, under which he agreed to hand over the source code for the Stormbuddy software.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today Blizzard acted in a manner as shady as possible for a multi-billion-dollar corporation. We were informed that the deal compelled Apoc to submit the entire source code of Stormbuddy, which is actually the intellectual property of Bossland GmbH, to Blizzard,&#8221; Letschew notes. </p>
<p><center><strong>Stormbuddy website</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f88eb9b9.stormbuddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stormbuddy.jpg" alt="stormbuddy" width="600" height="371" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113755"></center></p>
<p>While the German bot maker doesn&#8217;t object to a deal, the company is outraged that Blizzard took its code. Turning the tables, the CEO now accuses the game publisher of copyright infringement. </p>
<p>&#8220;Blizzard now possesses the whole Stormbuddy source code. There was no permission given by Bossland GmbH, nor were we contacted by Activision Blizzard, nor had Apoc the rights to give out our intellectual property.&#8221; </p>
<p>Fearing that Blizzard may take action against the users of its software, Bossland has decided to stop sales of StormBuddy later today and discontinue its development. The company&#8217;s other bots will still be available.</p>
<p>Bossland, meanwhile, says it will sue Blizzard in Germany next week hoping to get a copy of the deal the company made with its freelancer, and under what terms the code was shared. </p>
<p>&#8220;We do not know the outcome of this, but we are sure that Stormbuddy can no longer be developed as it is, and that it can no longer be sold,&#8221; Letschew says.</p>
<p>Due to the nature of their products bot developers usually enjoy little sympathy, but if Blizzard did indeed obtain the entire source code without the proper rights, Bossland may have a case.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted Blizzard&#8217;s legal representative for a comment but haven&#8217;t heard back at the time of publication. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113739
title: Australian ISP Rejects ‘Pirate Site’ Blocking Attempt
uri: Australian-ISP-Rejects-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Attempt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rFKvEOnSNZA/
content:
<p><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="aus" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798">Following pressure from entertainment industry groups, the Australian Government has implemented legislation which allows foreign ‘pirate’ sites to be blocked at the ISP level.</p>
<p>The law went <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-passes-pirate-site-blocking-law-150622/">into effect</a> earlier this year but thus far no websites have been blocked. However, this may change in the near future as a small Aussie ISP recently received its first threat. </p>
<p>While the law mostly aims to target classic pirate sites such as The Pirate Bay and unauthorized streaming services, the first blocking demand targets a site operating in a different area. </p>
<p>Lawyers representing the local construction company Simonds Homes sent a request to a small ISP ordering it to block subscriber access to the website of its competitor <a href="http://chmconstructions.com/">CHM Constructions</a>, claiming it infringes their copyrights. </p>
<p>The demand letter states that the ISP is obliged to take action under copyright law, citing that it may seek to enforce a blockade under Section 115&#8217;s blocking provisions, as the website is hosted abroad. </p>
<p>The letter is believed to be the first legal threat received by an ISP that mentions the new site blocking legislation. However, the Internet provider in question has no intention to comply. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with a senior employee of the ISP who asked us not to mention his name or that of his company. He told us that his company rejected the request because it&#8217;s overbroad. </p>
<p>&#8220;We did not honor the request because they were trying to by-pass an already flawed legislation. The copyright act of 1968, Section 115 lays out in clear terms the process a party is meant to follow,&#8221; he said. </p>
<p><center><strong>The letter (<a href="media/39cbe559.letter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/letter.jpg">full</a>)</strong></center><center><img src="media/c5bf0e83.letterblock.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/letterblock.jpg" alt="letterblock" width="620" height="288" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113819"></center></p>
<p>Since the construction company has yet to obtain a court order there is no legal requirement to block the site yet. Also, the case in question appears to apply to a trademark issue instead of a copyright infringement. </p>
<p>In general, the ISP is not happy with the new site blocking regulation. It will make it quite costly for smaller ISPs to defend themselves against dubious claims to favor a few large entertainment industry companies. </p>
<p>The ISP hopes that this example will reveal how problematic the new legislation can become and he hopes that it will lead to less abusive demands in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Section 115 is a flawed policy to appease the people who donate large sums of monies to a certain political party. The legislation places an unfair financial strain on the ISP industry which is already a cut-throat industry. </p>
<p>&#8220;I am extremely hopefully that my actions here lead to less unwarranted blocking attempts. The legislation itself has led to this situation today however by a small ISP standing up for themselves, I am hopeful others will follow,&#8221; the ISPs senior employee concludes.</p>
<p>The ISP&#8217;s concerns are shared by Internet Australia, a non-profit organization which defends the rights of Internet users and businesses. </p>
<p>&#8220;The problem for smaller ISPs is the potential costs involved in defending a matter like this and so they simply may not bother,&#8221; Australia&#8217;s CEO Laurie Patton <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-19/small-australian-isp-refuses-to-bow-to-legal-threats-to-block-w/6955432">told ABC</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The risk is that sites will be blocked without having been tested at law. So innocent sites could be victims of malicious actions, say, by competitors or aggrieved customers.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s expected that more site blocking attempts will arrive during the months to come. Faced with this first flawed attempt, ISPs will be eager to prevent any further abuse.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113823
title: YouTube Pays Users’ Legal Bills to Defend Fair Use
uri: YouTube-Pays-Users-Legal-Bills-to-Defend-Fair-Use
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2UQADdDPrzU/
content:
<p><img src="media/a5365da2.youtubeface.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtubeface.jpg" alt="youtubeface" width="222" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-107705">According to Google more than half a million hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every day. Although with <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en">ContentID</a> the company tries, determining the copyright status of every single minute is an almost impossible task.</p>
<p>While identifying copyrighted movies, TV shows and music are all within the company&#8217;s abilities, when used in certain ways all of those things can be legally shown on YouTube, even without copyright holders&#8217; permission.</p>
<p>Under U.S. law the concept is known as &#8216;fair use&#8217; and it enables copyrighted material to be used for purposes including criticism, news reporting, teaching and research. However, some copyright holders like to contest the use of their content on YouTube no matter what the context, issuing DMCA takedown notices and landing YouTube users with a &#8216;strike&#8217; against their account.</p>
<p>YouTube has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to protect its users against wrongful claims but now the company appears to be drawing a line in the sand, albeit a limited one, in defense of those legally using copyrighted content in transformative ways.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.nl/2015/11/a-step-toward-protecting-fair-use-on.html">blog post</a> Google&#8217;s Copyright Legal Director says that YouTube will showcase several user-created videos in its <a href="https://www.youtube.com/yt/copyright/">Copyright Center</a> and cover all legal costs should rightsholders challenge how each uses copyrighted content.</p>
<p>&#8220;YouTube will now protect some of the best examples of fair use on YouTube by agreeing to defend them in court if necessary,&#8221; Fred von Lohmann said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’re doing this because we recognize that creators can be intimidated by the DMCA’s counter notification process, and the potential for litigation that comes with it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The first four titles showcased can be <a href="https://youtube.com/yt/copyright/fair-use.html#yt-copyright-protection">found here</a> and each presents a classic demonstration of fair use. For example, the <a href="https://youtu.be/tzbjtKeihD0">first</a> uses game clips for the purposes of review, while the second <a href="https://youtu.be/gHvfHSmOZ0M">offers a critique</a> of third-party UFO videos.</p>
<p>Google hopes that by standing behind videos such as these, YouTubers and those seeking to take down content will become educated on what is and isn&#8217;t appropriate when it comes to using other people&#8217;s copyrighted content.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to protecting the individual creator, this program could, over time, create a &#8216;demo reel&#8217; that will help the YouTube community and copyright owners alike better understand what fair use looks like online and develop best practices as a community,&#8221; Google&#8217;s Copyright Legal Director adds.</p>
<p>Perhaps needless to say, Google isn&#8217;t in a position to offer legal support to everyone uploading content to YouTube but it has pledged to &#8220;resist legally unsupported DMCA takedowns&#8221; as part of its normal processes.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe even the small number of videos we are able to protect will make a positive impact on the entire YouTube ecosystem, ensuring YouTube remains a place where creativity and expression can be rewarded,&#8221; Fred von Lohmann concludes.</p>
<p>Of course, it&#8217;s unlikely that any video showcased by Google will experience any legal problems so the defense offer from the company is largely symbolic. However, the overall gesture indicates that the company is paying attention to the fair use debate and is prepared to help its users stand up for their rights. That will be gratefully received.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113841
title: Movie Studios Shut Down New Popcorn Time Alternative, But Not For Long
uri: Movie-Studios-Shut-Down-New-Popcorn-Time-Alternative-But-Not-For-Long
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Hc4tnvMtqvM/
content:
<p><img src="media/07e3de05.popas.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popas.png" alt="popas" width="300" height="213" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113849">In less than two years Popcorn Time has become a piracy icon, offering free access to Hollywood&#8217;s latest blockbusters but without obtaining permission.</p>
<p>This popularity has triggered a wave of legal threats including a lawsuit against three developers filed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">in Canada</a> last month. </p>
<p>Despite being a major target for copyright holders the rise of new Popcorn Time alternatives appears to be never-ending. For example, a few days ago another Popcorn Time-inspired website launched at Popa.cr. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s visually similar to the application, the browser version operates more like a traditional streaming site with a Popcorn Time theme. Nevertheless, it was enough to attract the attention of the Motion Picture Association (MPA). </p>
<p>Just hours after the site was first advertised <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PopCornTime/comments/3t66zr/popacr_new_popcorntime_alternative_which_runs_in/">on Reddit</a> its operator received an MPA letter, sent on behalf of several major Hollywood movie studios.</p>
<p>In the email the MPA&#8217;s Jan van Voorn puts the site operator on notice, alerting him to European jurisprudence under which he may be held liable for linking to pirated movies and TV-shows.</p>
<p>“Without prejudice to our contention that you are already well aware of the extensive infringements of copyright, this Notice fixes you with actual knowledge of facts and circumstances from which illegal activities […] are apparent,” Van Voorn writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>The MPA&#8217;s email</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4a0a0e8d.mpaletter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaletter.png" alt="mpaletter" width="564" height="586" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113848"></center></p>
<p>Among other things the email mentions that Article 14 of the E-Commerce Directive requires sites to stop offering infringing material. In addition, the Hollywood group cites other recent cases supporting their claim.</p>
<p>Without making a specific threat the MPA demands that the site&#8217;s operators stop offering infringing material within 24 hours.</p>
<p>“This Notice requires you to immediately (within 24 hours) take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement. All opportunities provided by the Website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the Entertainment Content should be disabled permanently,” the email reads.</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s operator was worried about the email, but wanted to continue the site nonetheless. However, after a few hours he apparently changed his mind informing us that it wasn&#8217;t worth the trouble. </p>
<p>As a result, Popa.cr shut down on Thursday, but not for long.</p>
<p>Instead of vanishing completely the original operator decided to sell the domain and site to someone else, who brought it back to life today. How long it will last remains to be seen but the relaunch only adds to Hollywood&#8217;s frustration. </p>
<p>The MPA informed TorrentFreak that the email they sent is part of an ongoing strategy to curb copyright infringement and encourage consumers to use legal sources. This means that Popa.cr&#8217;s new owner is likely to receive a similar threat, along with others who start similar sites. </p>
<p>And so the Whack-a-Mole continues.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113671
title: Google Counsel Sees Problems With ‘Take Down, Stay Down’
uri: Google-Counsel-Sees-Problems-With-Take-Down-Stay-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lMqaIYMyQsM/
content:
<p>The Internet today is awash with millions of items of infringing content and links to the same and as long as Internet users have free will that position is unlikely to change.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the situation for copyright holders is far from hopeless and those who feel their rights are being abused have remedies available. Provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act allow copyright owners to order hosts, websites and search engines to take down infringing content. And, to avoid being held liable, those providers must do so quickly.</p>
<p>However, copyright holders feel that the DMCA lets them down. They complain that despite sending millions of notices, sooner or later the same content reappears, having been reuploaded by humans or reindexed by automated systems. What is needed, they argue, is a system that requires content to remain down once it has been taken down.</p>
<p>The &#8216;Take Down, Stay Down&#8217; movement even has its <a href="http://www.takedownstaydown.org/">own website</a> but campaigning for legislative change that erodes safe harbors for legitimate service providers is an extremely sensitive topic for all in the technology sector. Nevertheless, that&#8217;s what Hollywood and the major record labels want long-term. </p>
<p>So as companies including Google come under continued pressure to move towards a &#8216;take down, stay down&#8217; response to copyright complaints, just how willing will they be to accommodate such a regime? Well, if comments made this week by a Google counsel are anything to go by, not very keen at all.</p>
<p>Speaking at the Academy of European Law’s Annual <a href="https://www.era.int/cgi-bin/cms?_SID=NEW&#038;_sprache=en&#038;_bereich=artikel&#038;_aktion=detail&#038;idartikel=124996">Copyright Conference</a>, Google copyright counsel <a href="http://www.cedricmanara.com/">Cédric Manara</a> poured cold water on the idea.</p>
<p>Manara told the conference that takedowns have a limited effect and when applied to search engines a &#8216;Take Down, Stay Down&#8217; regime is “not a solution and just does not work,” IP Magazine <a href="http://www.intellectualpropertymagazine.com/copyright/take-down-stay-down-unjustified-google-counsel-says-113023.htm">reports</a>. </p>
<p>Importantly, Manara explained that applying such a regime to search engines is problematic, since such intermediaries can&#8217;t block content they don&#8217;t host.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Internet is a game of ‘whack-a-mole’. Blocked and removed content will be reposted back online, which is a key problem. When one road is cut off, other roads will appear leading to other directions,” he said.</p>
<p>Also of interest is the whole concept of content staying down on a permanent basis following a copyright complaint. While content might be unauthorized today, it&#8217;s possible that it may not be so in the future. Equally, the process isn&#8217;t flexible enough to accommodate everyone&#8217;s legal status when it comes to using content.</p>
<p>“Take down stay down doesn’t understand an authorized user, so it can have an overreaching effect and go too far,&#8221; Manara said. &#8220;Additionally, stay down is forever, whereas copyright has a term.&#8221;</p>
<p>While it may not prove popular with frustrated copyright holders desperate to stop whacking moles, Manara has an excellent point. While Disney might be well within its rights to protect its content today, removing it from any number of providers on an infinite basis clearly has implications when such content falls into the public domain, for example.</p>
<p>Of course, stifling the future and legal use of copyright works probably isn&#8217;t what most small copyright holders are trying to achieve when they ask for content to stay down once taken down. However, the current conversation is very broad in scope and definitely has the potential to cause unintended consequences that some corporate giants will be happy to exploit.</p>
<p>As the discussion develops, Google and other stakeholders will be keen to tread very carefully.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113826
title: TorrentFreak Presents: Steal This Show
uri: TorrentFreak-Presents-Steal-This-Show
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bAtvUGGsDik/
content:
<p><img src="media/8851f1ed.stslogo1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo1.png" alt="stslogo" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113912"><a href="http://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show</a> (STS) is a TF-supported initiative produced by Jamie King, who&#8217;s known for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steal_This_Film">Steal This Film</a> documentaries and the independent filmmaker platform <a href="http://vodo.net/">VODO</a>. </p>
<p>STS plans to release high quality episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary and analysis. </p>
<p>The guests for our news discussions will vary and we&#8217;ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the big innovators and minds, one-on-one. </p>
<p>Below is the first pilot of STS&#8217;s first discussion show, we hope you enjoy it. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><center><strong><a href="http://stealthisshow.com/s01e01-fight-for-the-future/">STEAL THIS SHOW E1: Fight For The Future</a></strong></center></p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guests:</strong> <a href="https://www.fightforthefuture.org">Tiffiniy Cheng</a> and <a href="https://www.fightforthefuture.org">Holmes Wilson</a></p>
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<p><a href="media/85d22234.STEAL_THIS_SHOW_S01E01_Fight_For_The_Future.mp3" data-original-source="http://media.blubrry.com/stealthisshow/content.blubrry.com/stealthisshow/STEAL_THIS_SHOW_S01E01_Fight_For_The_Future.mp3">Download MP3</a></p>
<p><a href="http://subscribeonandroid.com/stealthisshow.com/feed/podcast/">Subscribe with RSS</a></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Bouthiller<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana</p>
<p>Topics being discussed this week:</p>
<li>
<ul><a href="https://www.fightforthefuture.org">Fight For The Future</a></ul>
</li>
<li>
<ul><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-times-alive-full-comeback-in-the-works-151117/">Popcorn Time&#8217;s Alive, Full Comeback In the Works</a></ul>
</li>
<li>
<ul><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anne-frank-scandal-an-underreported-copyright-monopoly-abuse-151115/">Anne Frank Scandal: An Underreported Copyright Monopoly Abuse</a></ul>
</li>
<li>
<ul><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-of-justice-to-decide-on-legality-of-pirate-bay-blockades/">EU Court of Justice to Decide on Legality of Pirate Bay Blockades</a></ul>
</li>
<li>
<ul><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership">Trans-Pacific Partnership</a> (TPP)</ul>
</li>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113692
title: Sci-Hub, BookFi and LibGen Resurface After Being Shut Down
uri: Sci-Hub-BookFi-and-LibGen-Resurface-After-Being-Shut-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/E-F0vokGPSM/
content:
<p><img src="media/2e55b841.libhen.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/libhen.png" alt="libhen" width="236" height="116" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106658">Last month a New York District Court issued a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-shutdown-of-libgen-bookfi-and-sci-hub-151102/">preliminary injunction</a> against several sites that provide unauthorized access to academic journals. </p>
<p>As a result the operators were ordered to quit offering access to any Elsevier content and the associated registries had to suspend their domain names.</p>
<p>After a few days the registries did indeed disable the domain names mentioned in the lawsuit which are currently all unavailable, much to the disappointment of the sites&#8217; users. </p>
<p>However, the operators of Sci-Hub, BookFi and LibGen have no intention of complying with the U.S. court order. Instead, they&#8217;re rendering the domain suspensions ineffective by switching to several new ones. </p>
<p>At the time of writing LibGen is readily available again via several <a href="http://online.golibgen.com/">alternative</a> domains. Except from a new URL, not much has changed and the site is fully operational. Similarly, BookFi is also accessible via various domains including Bookfi.info. </p>
<p>The same is true for Sci-Hub, which changed its address to a <a href="http://sci-hub.io/">.io domain</a>. TF spoke with the site&#8217;s operator, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/">Alexandra Elbakyan</a>, who confirmed the move and is still hopeful that she can get the original domain back.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Several new domains are operating already,&#8221; Elbakyan says. &#8220;For some reason, I think that in future justice will prevail and all our domains will be unblocked.&#8221;</p>
<p>To make sure that the site remains accessible, Sci-Hub also added an <a href="http://vk.com/sci_hub?w=wall-36928352_5896">.onion address</a> which allows users to access the site via Tor, and bypass any future domain name suspensions.</p>
<p>Despite the domain problems and a disappointing court order, Elbakyan is glad that the case brought attention to the paywall problems academia faces. </p>
<p>&#8220;In some sense, this case was helpful: more people now agree that copyright should be destroyed, and that academic publishing needs serious reform,&#8221; Sci-Hub&#8217;s operator says. </p>
<p>&#8220;Before, many people would say: why bother acting against copyright laws if they can be so easily bypassed? Or what is the point in an open access movement if anyone can download any paid article for free?&#8221;</p>
<p>Elsevier may have the law on their side, but the largest academic publisher can&#8217;t count on universal support from the academic community. </p>
<p>In recent weeks many scientists and scholars have come out in <a href="https://twitter.com/mbeisen/status/666556863715123200">support</a> of Sci-Hub, BookFi and LibGen, arguing that access to academic research should be free and universal. </p>
<p>For Elbakyan and others this support offers enough motivation to continue what they do. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113765
title: Perfect 10 Owes Giganews $5.6m But Won’t Pay Up
uri: Perfect-10-Owes-Giganews-5-6m-But-Won-t-Pay-Up
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pk-1EGUWAno/
content:
<p><img src="media/85e3d070.giganews.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/giganews.png" alt="giganews" width="267" height="149" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96972">Over the course of several years, adult publisher Perfect 10 became less known for its love of women of a certain size and more for its desire to drag companies to court on dubious copyright grounds.</p>
<p>In fact, the company became so litigious that one of its main sources of &#8216;business&#8217; was the suing of everyone from Google, Amazon, MasterCard and Visa, to RapidShare, Depositfiles and hosting providers <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/leaseweb-settles-piracy-hosting-lawsuit-perfect-10-140611/">LeaseWeb</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/ovh-slapped-with-188m-lawsuit-for-hosting-pirate-websites-140805/">OVH</a>.</p>
<p>Like most copyright trolls Perfect 10 prefers private settlements since court wins are harder to come by. However, when the adult publisher took on Usenet provider Giganews, a company that was never likely to fold, things went from bad to worse.</p>
<p>In November 2014 a court found that Giganews <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/giganews-not-liable-for-pirating-customers-court-rules-141117/">was not liable</a> for the infringing activities of its customers and in February this year Perfect 10 received its biggest mauling so far, with a court handing Giganews victory and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/giganews-wins-perfect-10-copyright-battle-150209/">slamming Perfect 10</a> for the way it conducted its case.</p>
<p>In March 2015 came the icing on the cake, when the United States District Court for the Central District of California <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/perfect-10-ordered-to-pay-giganews-5-6m-after-failed-copyright-battle-150325/">ordered the publisher</a> to pay Giganews $5.6m in attorney’s fees and costs. However, the battle is not over yet.</p>
<p>According to various court filings in recent weeks, Giganews is having trouble getting money out of Perfect 10. In a request for a writ of execution last month, Giganews&#8217; attorney outlined the situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Judgment for $5,637,352.53 was entered on March 24, 2015 on the docket of the above-entitled action in the U.S. District Court, District of California in favor of Giganews, Inc. and Livewire Services, Inc. as Judgment Creditor, and against Perfect 10, Inc. as Judgment Debtor,&#8221; the request reads.</p>
<p>While $5.6m is indeed a large amount, the attorney reveals that in the past eight months Perfect 10 hasn&#8217;t paid the Usenet provider a single penny.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/82459e00.gigapay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gigapay.png" alt="gigapay" width="650" height="55" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-113770"></center></p>
<p>Furthermore, as Perfect 10 persists with non-payment the company&#8217;s bill is increasing. Although in this case limited to a rate of just 0.25%, Perfect 10 already owes an additional $8,610.03 in accrued interest.</p>
<p>With Giganews running out of patience, on Wednesday District Court Judge Andre Birotte JR granted the company&#8217;s request to appoint a process-server to serve a writ of execution on Perfect 10. In the meantime the countdown to another important date begins.</p>
<p>Following an order issued by Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth, Perfect 10 is now ordered to appear before the court December 10 to &#8220;furnish information&#8221; to aid in enforcement of the money judgment the company is currently ignoring.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you fail to appear at the time and place specified in this order, you may be subject to arrest and punishment for contempt of court and the court may make an order requiring you to pay the reasonable attorney fees incurred by the judgment creditor in this proceeding,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>Whether Perfect 10&#8217;s days as a going concern are numbered remains to be seen, but it&#8217;s trolling activities in the United States are certainly on life support following the company&#8217;s disastrous campaign against Giganews. Should the company launch a similar action in the future, Judge Andre Birotte Jr&#8217;s assessment of its business will almost certainly come back to haunt.</p>
<p>“Perfect 10’s undisputed conduct in this action has been inconsistent with a party interested in protecting its copyrights,&#8221; the Judge wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;All of the evidence before the Court demonstrates that Perfect 10 is in the business of litigation, not protecting its copyrights or ‘stimulat[ing] artistic creativity for the general public good’.&#8221;</p>
<p>Then again, no one ever doubted that.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113654
title: Google Asked to Remove 1,500 “Pirate Links” Per Minute
uri: Google-Asked-to-Remove-1-500-Pirate-Links-Per-Minute
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7bhjovlKVnY/
content:
<p><img src="media/c7105c3f.delete.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/delete.jpg" alt="delete" width="200" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78884">In recent years copyright holders have flooded Google with DMCA takedown notices, asking the company to delete links to pirated content.</p>
<p>The number of requests issued has increased dramatically. In 2011, the search engine received only a few hundred takedown notices per day, but in the same period it now <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/">processes</a> more than two million “pirate” links.</p>
<p>This translates to 1,500 links per minute, or 25 per second, and is double the amount being handled last year around the same time. The graph below illustrates the continuing increase.</p>
<p><center><strong>Google takedown surge</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d96393d4.google2m25.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google2m25.png" alt="google2m25" width="477" height="244" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113781"></center></p>
<p>Over the past month Google received takedown notices from 5,609 different copyright holders targeting 65 million links, together spanning 68,484 different domain names.</p>
<p>Most of the reported URLs indeed point to pirated content and the associated links are often swiftly removed from Google’s search results. However, with the massive volume of reports coming in, mistakes and duplicate requests are also common.</p>
<p>The availability of pirated content in search results is a hot button issue for copyright holders, who believe that Google sometimes steers legitimate customers to unauthorized sites. </p>
<p>Google addressed this issue last year by implementing a significant change to its search algorithm, which downranks sites that receive many copyright infringement notices. </p>
<p>These efforts helped to make most large torrent sites less visible, but recent research shows that many streaming sites are still among the top results.</p>
<p>According to industry groups such as the MPAA and RIAA, Google should take a more aggressive approach and blacklist the worst offenders entirely. However, Google believes that this type of site-wide censorship goes too far. </p>
<p>For now, the dispute between both camps remains unresolved, which means that the takedown surge and purge is likely to continue.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113926
title: Dotcom’s Extradition Hearing ‘Ambushed’ With New Evidence
uri: Dotcom-s-Extradition-Hearing-Ambushed-With-New-Evidence
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/E2AwpDrlhfg/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">After <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-extradition-hearing-gets-underway-150921/">beginning</a> just beyond the mid-point of September, by now the extradition hearing of Kim Dotcom should be long over.</p>
<p>Instead, the hearing &#8211; which will decide the fates not only of the Megaupload founder but also colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk &#8211; has dragged on for some 10 weeks. It&#8217;s due to draw to a close sometime tomorrow but as usual things started normally and then went downhill.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m back in court today listening to the last episode of Alice in copyright land. 10 weeks of U.S. copyright fiction are coming to an end,&#8221; Dotcom <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/668514707704123392">announced</a> before setting off to court this morning.</p>
<p>However, Dotcom&#8217;s journey didn&#8217;t go smoothly and he was late to arrive after allegedly being detained by the police. The reasons aren&#8217;t clear but a report by TVNZ, which has now been deleted, had Judge Nevin Dawson asking if that was for speeding and lawyer Simon Cogan responding &#8220;I hope not, sir&#8221;.</p>
<p>Eventually Dotcom appeared in time to hear Crown lawyers began summing up their case against the Megaupload defendants. The defense had finished its arguments relatively smoothly last week but today there were surprises in store.</p>
<p>Grant Illingworth, lawyer for Bram van der Kolk and Mathias Ortmann, told the Court he&#8217;d been reading through the US summary of the case and had discovered that the prosecution intends to introduce new evidence before the case wraps up tomorrow.</p>
<p>In response to Mr Illingworth describing the 11th hour effort as &#8220;an ambush situation&#8221;, Christine Gordon for the prosecution offered to make the evidence available immediately. But Illingsworth <a href="https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/prosecutions-new-evidence-at-kim-dotcom-hearing-causes-a-stir.html">declined</a> and asked for the evidence to be stood down and the hearing stalled.</p>
<p>After ordering the evidence to be made available, Judge Dawson indicated he wouldn&#8217;t yet rule on whether it can be used by the prosecution. Gordon, meanwhile, accused defense lawyers of trying to bog the case down.</p>
<p>&#8220;[They&#8217;ve tried to do] what has been done in the last three-and-a-half years: to conduct their trial defense through the extradition process,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>But distractions aside, Christine Gordon again reiterated that the aims of the extradition hearing are very simple ones.</p>
<p>While the men might argue on technicalities the Judge does not have to decide whether Dotcom and his former colleagues are guilty of any offense.</p>
<p>Judge Dawson only has to decide whether there is a case for them to answer in the United States covered by the extradition agreement with New Zealand. The threshold for that is low, Gordon said, and attempts to distance copyright infringement with extraditable fraud offenses would not work.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are millions of people whose lives are prejudiced by this type of behavior,&#8221; she argued, noting that the defendants even used the word &#8220;fraud&#8221; when talking about their activities among themselves.</p>
<p>So, after more than four years of legal argument, counter argument, appeals and delays (and further surprises aside), the fate of Kim Dotcom and his three co-accused will lie in the hands of Judge Nevin Dawson later this week.</p>
<p>Kim Dotcom, Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk and Finn Batato all face extradition to the United States on charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering and together face decades in jail. The stakes could hardly be higher.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113931
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 11/23/15
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-11-23-15
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/haJrCk0PKE0/
content:
<p><img src="media/389e92a0.maze.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/maze.jpg" alt="maze" width="300" height="246" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113933">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials 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 BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-111615/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maze_runner_the_scorch_trials/">Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4046784/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-44_igsZtgU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/antman/">Ant-Man</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdKf3MneyI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/another_world_2014/">Another World</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1920846/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMJJfwzVPfo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/771432049/">Ronaldo</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5065822/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lScZLH5b-og">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hitman_agent_47/">Hitman Agent 47</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2679042">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alQlJDRnQkE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/everest_2015/">Everest</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2719848/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHS-mxn0RQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_man_from_uncle/">The Man from U.N.C.L.E.</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1638355/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Ky4KPzKwY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/criminal_activities/">Criminal Activities</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3687310/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoYfdgskwqg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/inside_out_2015/">Inside Out</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2096673/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seMwpP0yeu4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_33/">The 33</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2006295/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoIBOYqHyw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113906
title: BREIN Stops and Settles With Popcorn Time Developers
uri: BREIN-Stops-and-Settles-With-Popcorn-Time-Developers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eCwngPQ_Nw8/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="popcornt" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">In less than two years Popcorn Time has become a piracy icon as well as one of Hollywood&#8217;s main nemeses. </p>
<p>Through various enforcement actions around the world the major movie studios hope to eventually contain this threat. </p>
<p>They recently booked a major victory when the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">filed a lawsuit</a> against several key developers of the popular popcorntime.io fork in Canada. While this suit took down the associated website, there are several <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-times-alive-full-comeback-in-the-works-151117/">efforts to revive the project</a>. </p>
<p>The problem for the movie studios is that Popcorn Time&#8217;s code is open source, allowing anyone to help out or distribute forks of their own. With minimal effort, developers can easily have their own improved version up and running.</p>
<p>While this results in a perpetual game of whack-a-mole, Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group <a href="http://anti-piracy.nl/english.php">BREIN</a> has just announced a win. </p>
<p>The group reports that has tracked down two Dutch developers who helped to keep Popcorn Time alive, and urged them to stop their activities immediately. </p>
<p>&#8220;Since the recent action by the MPAA against popcorntime.io, which took the website offline, various parties are breathing new life into the software, as were these two Dutch individuals,&#8221; the group says.</p>
<p>According to BREIN the pair used GitHub to submit code and Reddit to share news about their accomplishments. </p>
<p>Preventing a possible court case, the developers signed a settlement with the anti-piracy group in which they agreed to stop their Popcorn Time development. The pair face a fine of €2,000 per day if they breach the agreement.</p>
<p>The Dutch developers don&#8217;t seem to be part of the core development team of the .io fork, which could explain why they got off with a relatively mild warning. </p>
<p>The lawsuit against three of the main popcorntime.io developers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">in Canada</a> is still ongoing. They face millions in damages due to their involvement with the popular application and the associated VPN.ht service, which generated significant revenues. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113992
title: Hulu Accidentally Leaks Upcoming Fargo Episode
uri: Hulu-Accidentally-Leaks-Upcoming-Fargo-Episode
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wCpklgYHXaU/
content:
<p><img src="media/40484417.hulu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hulu.png" alt="hulu" width="225" height="189" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113996">Impatient fans of the popular FX series <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fargo_(TV_series)">Fargo</a> got lucky today. At least, those who are used to downloading or streaming it without permission. </p>
<p>The seventh episode of season two is scheduled to air tonight but thousands of people have already grabbed a copy from various torrent sites. </p>
<p>The leak originates from <a href="http://www.hulu.com/">Hulu</a> where the video was made freely available this weekend, by mistake. Hulu offers the second season of Fargo with a select cable subscription but the upcoming episode was <a href="media/e331c7c7.kZlqjbS.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/kZlqjbS.png">reportedly</a> listed under season one. </p>
<p>The error was noticed by several people and after roughly a day Hulu took the video down. But by then it was already too late. </p>
<p>This morning several copies of the leaked episode were uploaded onto torrent sites and since then thousands of people have downloaded it. Although some were skeptical, the episode is indeed real and the full version. </p>
<p><center><strong>Screenshot of the leaked Fargo episode</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/bd867dae.fargoleak.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fargoleak.jpg" alt="fargoleak" width="600" height="337" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113993"></center></p>
<p>The leak is unique as the source of the pre-release is an online streaming service. Most TV-show leaks we&#8217;ve seen recently come from so-called screener DVDs which are sent out for promotional purposes. </p>
<p>For Hulu, which is owned by media giants NBCUniversal Television, Fox Broadcasting and Disney–ABC Television, the mistake is quite an embarrassment. However, since it happened less than a day before the official premiere the effect of the leak should be limited. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak has asked Hulu for a comment on the news but at the time of publishing we have yet to receive a reply. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114013
title: Kim Dotcom Slams U.S. “Bullies” as Extradition Hearing Ends
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Slams-U-S-Bullies-as-Extradition-Hearing-Ends
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8WNY8y0nFoA/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Despite criticisms emanating from both sides, it will be difficult to argue that New Zealand has skipped on the amount of time it&#8217;s dedicated to the Megaupload case.</p>
<p>Hundreds of hours of legal resources have been expended since the fateful raid on Kim Dotcom&#8217;s mansion in 2012 and with 2016 just a few short weeks away, it will soon be determined whether the Internet entrepreneur will be shipped to the United States.</p>
<p>That decision now lies with Judge Nevin Dawson, who today listened to the closing submissions in an extradition hearing that has lasted (some say dragged on) for 10 long weeks after being scheduled for just four.</p>
<p>Both sides have demonstrated only one common ground &#8211; each feels they have a solid case and that the other is dead wrong.</p>
<p>Prosecutors acting for the United States say that Megaupload was business built from the ground up for illegal purposes. They argue that Dotcom and fellow defendants Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk knew that their users were breaching copyright and even financially rewarded those who infringed the most.</p>
<p>Rather than removing content as the law requires, Megaupload merely removed the links, leaving content intact so that it could live to infringe another day, the U.S. claims. Communications between some of the company&#8217;s executives only served to underline the above, with admissions that Megaupload was profiting from 90% infringing files.</p>
<p>The former Megaupload operators see things very differently. From day one they have argued that their Internet business was a legitimate cloud storage service, originally setup to overcome the limitations of sending files via email.</p>
<p>Megaupload was not dissimilar to Dropbox, Dotcom et al argued, and had deals with copyright holders so that any content they wanted removed could be taken down in a timely fashion.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not only did Megaupload achieve 99.999% takedown compliance, numerous emails from major content owners thanked us for our compliance,&#8221; Dotcom <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/668941738099118080">reiterated</a> today.</p>
<p>But despite complying with the laws of the land, Dotcom says that Megaupload was cut down in its prime by an aggressive and malicious U.S. government who from the very beginning has been doing Hollywood&#8217;s bidding. Those same authorities closed down his site, seized his funds and then denied him access to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-accuses-u-s-of-unfair-tactics-seeks-stay-151005/">fair trial</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;My defense team has shown how utterly unreliable, malicious and unethical the U.S. case against me is. They have exposed a dirty ugly bully,&#8221; Dotcom said this morning.</p>
<p>But allegations of dirty tricks aside, Dotcom and his former associates insist that the very basis of the U.S. case falls on stony ground, that the copyright infringement charges on which all of the other charges are based simply aren&#8217;t extraditable offenses. In any event, Internet service providers such as Megaupload can&#8217;t be prosecuted for their users&#8217; crimes, they say.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the reality remains. Dotcom and his former Megaupload operators face charges of copyright infringement, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering in the United States and after putting up a colossal battle, U.S. prosecutors aren&#8217;t likely to be backing down anytime soon.</p>
<p>But for now the fate of the now famous quartet lies in the hands of Judge Nevin Dawson, the man who has sat patiently &#8211; sometimes less so &#8211; through ten weeks of hearings and hundreds of pages of submissions from both sides in this epic war of words.</p>
<p>&#8220;The 10 week extradition hearing has ended. My life is in the hands of Judge Nevin Dawson. He was the Judge who granted me bail. There&#8217;s hope!&#8221; Dotcom said after the hearing ended today.</p>
<p>When Judge Dawson will deliver his final decision is unclear, but when he does so it will be to an open court in the presence of men facing decades of jail time in the United States.</p>
<p>It will be an agonized wait for both sides but history shows us that no matter which side loses, neither will easily accept defeat. This show is definitely not over yet.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114025
title: Cox Has No DMCA Safe Harbor Protection, Judge Rules
uri: Cox-Has-No-DMCA-Safe-Harbor-Protection-Judge-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lIetEpl_Y1E/
content:
<p><img src="media/015f41e0.cox-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-logo.png" alt="cox-logo" width="200" height="99" class="alignright size-full wp-image-68146">Last year BMG Rights Management and Round Hill Music <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-communications-sued-for-not-disconnecting-pirates-141128/">sued Cox Communications</a>, arguing that the ISP fails to terminate the accounts of subscribers who frequently pirate content.</p>
<p>The companies, which control publishing rights to songs by Katy Perry, The Beatles and David Bowie among others, claim that Cox gave up its DMCA safe harbor protections due to this inaction.</p>
<p>The case is scheduled to go to trial before a jury next month, but an order just issued by District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady already puts the Internet provider at a severe disadvantage.</p>
<p>In his order Judge O&#8217;Grady ruled on a <a href="media/1dbe6c26.gov.uscourts.vaed.310858.310.0.pdf" data-original-source="http://ia801407.us.archive.org/30/items/gov.uscourts.vaed.310858/gov.uscourts.vaed.310858.310.0.pdf">motion</a> for partial summary judgment from the music companies, which argued that Cox has not met the requirements for safe harbor protection under the DMCA.</p>
<p>Although Cox does have a policy to disconnect accounts of pirating subscribers, it discarded the copyright infringement notices from the plaintiffs. These notices are bundled with settlement requests, something Cox <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-were-not-responsible-for-pirating-customers-150122/">likens to harassment</a>. </p>
<p>After reviewing the arguments from both sides Judge O&#8217;Grady has sided with the copyright holders, as <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-rules-cox-not-absolved-842367">HWR</a> first reported. </p>
<p>&#8220;The court grants the motion with respect to defendant&#8217;s safe-harbor defense under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The is no genuine issue of material fact as to whether defendants reasonably implemented a repeat-infringer policy as is required&#8230;,&#8221; the order (<a href="media/305e19ea.gov.uscourts.vaed.310858.675.0.pdf" data-original-source="http://ia801407.us.archive.org/30/items/gov.uscourts.vaed.310858/gov.uscourts.vaed.310858.675.0.pdf">pdf</a>) reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>Judge O&#8217;Grady&#8217;s order</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/450ff2a7.coxord.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coxord.png" alt="coxord" width="600" height="139" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-114030"></center></p>
<p>The judge has yet to publish his full opinion motivating the decision and we will follow this up as soon as it&#8217;s handed down. However, the ruling makes it clear that Cox is in a very tough spot. </p>
<p>DMCA safe-harbor is a crucial protection for ISPs against copyright complaints. Aside from the liability Cox faces in the case, it also suggests that ISPs should disconnect subscribers solely based on accusations from copyright holders, which affects the entire industry.</p>
<p>Judge O&#8217;Grady, who&#8217;s also in charge of the criminal case against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, doesn&#8217;t appear to be concerned about any collateral damage though.</p>
<p>Techdirt <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151120/15104732874/judge-mocks-public-interest-concerns-about-kicking-people-off-internet-tells-cox-not-protected-dmca.shtml">reports</a> that he previously lashed out against the EFF and Public Knowledge, which submitted an amicus brief in support of Cox. </p>
<p>&#8220;I read the brief. It adds absolutely nothing helpful at all. It is a combination of describing the horrors that one endures from losing the Internet for any length of time,&#8221; O&#8217;Grady said, rejecting the brief. </p>
<p>&#8220;Frankly, it sounded like my son complaining when I took his electronics away when he watched YouTube videos instead of doing homework. And it&#8217;s completely hysterical.&#8221;</p>
<p>To be continued.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114043
title: Insurer Refuses to Cover Cox in Massive Piracy Lawsuit
uri: Insurer-Refuses-to-Cover-Cox-in-Massive-Piracy-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VoIwYTf37OU/
content:
<p><img src="media/015f41e0.cox-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-logo.png" alt="cox-logo" width="200" height="99" class="alignright size-full wp-image-68146">Following a ruling from a Virginia federal court that Cox <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-has-no-dmca-safe-harbor-protection-judge-rules-151124/">is not protected</a> by the safe-harbor provisions of the DMCA, the Internet provider must now deal with another setback. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.beazley.com/">Beazley</a>, a high risk insurance underwriter for <a href="https://www.lloydsbank.com/">Lloyds</a>, is refusing to cover legal costs related to the &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; case which goes to trial next week. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-were-not-responsible-for-pirating-customers-150122/">crucial case</a> that could define how Internet providers must handle copyright infringement complaints. At the moment it&#8217;s rare for ISPs to disconnect pirating users but the case has the potential to alter the landscape.</p>
<p>The case also exposes Cox to dozens if not hundreds of millions in potential piracy damages plus substantial legal fees. The Internet provider hoped to cover some of the costs under an insurance policy at Lloyd&#8217;s but the insurer is refusing to cooperate.</p>
<p>In a request for a declaratory judgment (<a href="media/a046daca.insurecox.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/insurecox.pdf">pdf</a>) Lloyd&#8217;s underwriter asks the court to rule that it doesn&#8217;t have to cover the costs, which have already exceeded $1 million in legal fees alone.</p>
<p>In the complaint Beazley states that Cox was well aware of the potential liabilities. Rightscorp, the company that sends the copyright infringement notices, had already warned the ISP over its precarious position several years ago. </p>
<p>&#8220;By letter dated January 9, 2012, Cox was advised by an agent of copyright holders that if it did not forward those notices to its customers, it would be exposed to claims of contributory and vicarious copyright infringement,&#8221; the insurer writes. </p>
<p>Cox, however, refused to forward the millions of notices as they were bundled with settlement demands, which are seen by some as extortion. This refusal eventually lead to the lawsuit filed by music rights companies BMG and Round Hill.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cox continued to intentionally ignore the notices and did not forward them to its customers,&#8221; the complaint notes.</p>
<p>In light of the above, Beazley argues that the lawsuit is the result of an intentional business policy rather than the act of rendering Internet services, which is what the insurance policy covers. </p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230;the BMG Claim arose out of Cox’s policy and practice of ignoring and failing to forward infringement notices and refusing to terminate or block infringing customers’ accounts, not acts in rendering internet services.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition Beazley point out that the piracy lawsuit was filed November last year, several days before the December 1, 2014 date the insurance policy began. </p>
<p>If the court grants Beazley&#8217;s request for declaratory judgment then Lloyd&#8217;s policy will not cover any of the costs related to the lawsuit. This will be a costly setback for the ISP if it loses the piracy lawsuit.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114075
title: MPAA Wins $10.5 Million Piracy Damages From MovieTube
uri: MPAA-Wins-10-5-Million-Piracy-Damages-From-MovieTube
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/O6D_W1lD4PM/
content:
<p><img src="media/a170b517.movietube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/movietube.jpg" alt="movietube" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108589">Unauthorized movie streaming sites have been a thorn in the side of Hollywood for many years. </p>
<p>Responding to this threat the MPAA decided to take one of the most prominent players <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-sues-movietube-sites-over-mass-piracy-150725/">to court</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p>MPAA members 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros filed a lawsuit against a group of MovieTube affiliated websites, which were operating from more than two dozen domain names.</p>
<p>In the complaint the MPAA listed several popular websites including MovieTube.cc, TuneVideo.net, Watch33.tv, MovieTube.cz, Anime1.tv, MovieTube.pm, FunTube.co, MovieTube.la and KissDrama.net, which were all believed to be operated by the same people.</p>
<p>Despite facing millions of dollars in damages, the site&#8217;s operators remained silent. They swiftly pulled the targeted sites offline after the compliant was filed, but never responded to any of the claims in court.</p>
<p>Due to this inaction the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-wants-10-5-million-piracy-damages-from-movietube-151117/">requested</a> a default judgment at a New York federal court, demanding a permanent injunction as well as millions of dollars in damages. </p>
<p>This week a federal court judge ruled in favor of the MPAA, finding MovieTube liable for copyright infringement, federal trademark counterfeiting, and unfair competition (<a href="media/e434b82c.MTdef.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MTdef.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>The court agreed to statutory damages for willful copyright infringement in the amount of $75,000 per work, which brings the total to $10.5 million.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/245cf45e.MTdama.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MTdama.png" alt="MTdama" width="598" height="144" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-114093"></center></p>
<p>The default judgment also includes a permanent injunction that prohibits MovieTube&#8217;s operators from offering or linking to any copyright infringing material. In addition, the movie studios will now take ownership of all domain names.</p>
<p>Dean Marks, the MPAA&#8217;s Executive Vice President, is happy with the outcome and says it helps to protect the livelihood of movie industry workers.</p>
<p>&#8220;By shutting down these illegal commercial enterprises we are protecting not only our members’ creative work and the hundreds of innovative, legal digital distribution platforms, but also the millions of people whose jobs depend on a vibrant motion picture and television industry.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;This court order will help ensure the sites stay down and are not transferred to others for the purposes of continuing a piracy operation on a massive scale.”</p>
<p>While shutting down the MovieTube sites is a significant win for the MPAA, they are unlikely to see any of the money that&#8217;s been awarded to them. The true operators of the MovieTube sites remain unknown and will do their best to keep it that way.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The full list of domain names that will be signed over to the MPAA is as follows: </p>
<p>MovieTube.tw, MovieTube.ph, TVStreaming.cc, MovieTube.sx, MovieTube.pw, MovieTubeNow.com, MovieTube.tf, MovieTube.co, MovieOnDrive.com, MovieTube.vc, TuneVideo.net, MovieTube.mn, MovieTube.cc, Watch33.tv, MovieTube.cz, Anime1.tv, MovieTube.pm, FunTube.co, MovieTube.la, KissDrama.net, MovieTube.so, MovieTube.click, MovieTubeHD.co, MovieTubeHD.net, MovieTubeHD.org, MovieTubeHD.tv, MovieTubeHD.us, MovieTubenow.in and TuneMovie.me.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114100
title: Busted Pirate Told to Get 200K YouTube Hits or Face Huge Fine
uri: Busted-Pirate-Told-to-Get-200K-YouTube-Hits-or-Face-Huge-Fine
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j5FL9fsDujI/
content:
<p><img src="media/721115a9.jakubf.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jakubf.jpg" alt="jakubf" width="180" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-114102">Over the past 15 years countless individuals have faced financial punishments due to online copyright infringement offenses. But what happens when a case is won by copyright holders but the alleged pirate simply cannot pay?</p>
<p>Answers to that question vary, but over in the Czech Republic the people at the Business Software Alliance (BSA) have come up with the most unusual solution so far to settle their case with a long-time pirate.</p>
<p>The case involves an individual known as Jakub F who was accused by the BSA of pirating software including Microsoft&#8217;s Windows. Over many years he uploaded links to various forums which allowed others to download content from file-hosting sites. The BSA took exception to that and tracked him down. Eventually the police ended up at Jakub&#8217;s house, confiscating his computer, DVDs and an external hard drive.</p>
<p>The case went to trial and in September Jakub was found guilty, with a district court handing him a three-year suspended sentence and ordering the confiscation of his equipment. But for Jakub the matter was not over yet.</p>
<p>Various companies involved in the lawsuit including Microsoft, HBO, Sony Music and Twentieth Century Fox estimated that Jakub had caused them around $373,000 in damages, with Microsoft alone calling for $223,000. However, it appears that the court wasn&#8217;t prepared to accept the companies&#8217; somewhat hypothetical calculations.</p>
<p>Whether the companies ever intended to claw back these sums remains unclear but it now transpires that the plaintiffs and Jakub F reached agreement on what they describe as an &#8220;alternative sentence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Instead of paying out a small fortune to his tormentors at the BSA, Jakub F agreed to star in an anti-piracy PSA about his life as a pirate. The video, which is embedded below and titled &#8220;The Story of My Piracy&#8221;, is being promoted on <a href="http://www.mojepiratstvi.cz/">mojepiratstvi.cz</a>, a site ostensibly setup by Jakub himself, with the aim of deterring others from following in his footsteps.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/d7a48cac.jakubflarge.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jakubflarge.jpg" alt="jakubflarge" width="650" height="365" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-114109"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;I had to start this site because for eight years I spread pirated software and then they caught me. I thought that I wasn&#8217;t doing anything wrong. I thought that it didn&#8217;t hurt the big companies. I didn&#8217;t even do it for the money, I did it for fun,&#8221; Jakub begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;I felt in the warez community that I meant something. I was convinced that I was too small a fish for someone to get to me. But eventually, they got me. Even for me, the investigators came to work.&#8221;</p>
<p>The video is a professional affair starring Jakub himself. Set to a dramatic soundtrack, Jakub talks about the fun he had on warez forums, sharing content for the pleasure of others. However, it all came crashing down when he was told that copyright holders wanted hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages, damages he could never pay.</p>
<p>But while Jakub appears to have kept up his side of the bargain so far, the BSA say that the 30-year-old&#8217;s fate lies with how popular the video becomes. Unless the video gets 200,000 views on YouTube, there&#8217;s a suggestion that a huge fine will become payable.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I promote my story and my video gets at least 200 thousand views, I will only serve the general part of my sentence,&#8221; Jakub explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the video I play myself and this is really my story. I shot the video with a professional firm. Sharing is how this started and sharing is how I would like my story to end up.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the time of writing Jakub&#8217;s video has more than 80,000 views so he needs 120,000 more to clear his debt. Needless to say, this is one <strike>propaganda film</strike> video he&#8217;ll be hoping doesn&#8217;t get pirated.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CKjPutIlBCA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114077
title: Judge Worries That Piracy Lawsuits Will Flood Courts
uri: Judge-Worries-That-Piracy-Lawsuits-Will-Flood-Courts
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ddMyfGZz04I/
content:
<p><img src="media/fe566856.finland1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/finland1.jpg" width="200" height="143" class="alignright">So-called &#8216;copyright-trolling&#8217; is quite clearly big business as 2015 comes to a close. Often portrayed by content owners as a necessary evil designed to send a deterrent message to pirates, overall the practice is lucrative for the many companies involved.</p>
<p>The whole system relies on intimidating people into paying a &#8216;fine&#8217; or settlement fee, often between a few hundred and a few thousand euros or dollars. The threat is to take cases to court if people don&#8217;t pay, alongside a clear suggestion that things will get more costly thereon in.</p>
<p>Over in Finland, Hedman Partners &#8211; a law firm acting on behalf of several movie, TV show and adult distributors &#8211; has been employing this exact tactic and after failing to get the desired number of pirates to pay, is now taking people to court.</p>
<p>Lawyer Joni Hatanmaa <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolls-begin-taking-finnish-pirates-to-court-151026/">announced the first three cases</a> against Finnish citizens last month and as previously promised, those people are now being told to expect big bills. However, according to the law firm things could get substantially worse.</p>
<p>Speaking with state-owned <a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/latasitko_netista_ilmaisen_elokuvan_siita_saattaa_kohta_ihan_oikeasti_joutua_oikeuteen/8440926">YLE</a>, Hatanmaa now warns that his company is hoping to obtain the personal details of more than 10,000 alleged pirates in the coming year and if necessary will eventually take up to hundreds of cases to court.</p>
<p>The prospect of these kinds of copyright cases bogging down the legal system hasn&#8217;t been well received and already there a worries over where capacity to handle them will be found. Such cases are filed at the <a href="http://www.markkinaoikeus.fi/en/index.html">Market Court</a>, a specialist venue hearing IP, competition and market law disputes, and its chief judge says a flood could prove problematic.</p>
<p>&#8220;If these cases become this plentiful, then how can we organize them with our existing resources? We already have an abundance of pending things here,&#8221; says Chief Judge Kimmo Mikkola.</p>
<p>While the Judge is right to express concern, history shows that in Europe there is less willingness to take cases to court than there is in the U.S., for example. Statutory damages in the United States mean that defendants could face bills of $150,000 for a single infringement if found guilty, an amount that serves to encourage early settlement.</p>
<p>In Europe the position is somewhat different, with alleged pirates more willing to take a chance on ignoring threatening letters while hoping the whole matter simply disappears. That does indeed happen in some cases, but precise and current numbers are impossible to come by. However, since &#8216;trolls&#8217; keep coming back for more, the suggestion is that enough pay to keep the scheme going &#8211; and profitable.</p>
<p>In Finland it does appear that at least in limited numbers, Hedman Partners are prepared to take some cases to court to prove their point. However, some experts believe that it won&#8217;t be an easy ride. </p>
<p>Copyright specialist Herkko Hietanen of the Turre Legal law firm says that guilt will be difficult to prove since the court will require the copyright holder to show that the Internet account holder is the person liable for the infringement, since that&#8217;s who their claims are addressed to.</p>
<p>Judge Kimmo Mikkola agrees that identifying the precise infringer could be an issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is a problem of showing who has used the Internet connection. We can get clarity on these issues when we start to deal with them,&#8221; the Judge concludes.</p>
<p>That was certainly an issue for the Salminen family, who two years ago were accused of downloading and sharing thousands of songs. They&#8217;ve had an uphill struggle but have finally cleared their names after Mr Salminen, an IT expert, went all out to prove the case brought against them was false.</p>
<p>This week the family got the recognition they deserved when it was <a href="http://yle.fi/uutiset/innocent_family_threatened_with_lawsuit_for_1000s_of_song_downloads/8480667">reported</a> in local media that the anti-piracy group involved admitted that somewhere in the chain there had been an error and the wrong people had been accused.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had a lot of watertight, technical evidence backing us up that would be impossible for anyone other than someone in the IT field to gain access to,&#8221; Salminen said.</p>
<p>&#8220;If a letter like this would be delivered to a little old grandmother, how would she ever get this resolved?&#8221;</p>
<p>The truth is, people like this don&#8217;t have much of a chance. And trolls know it.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114145
title: Supreme Court Opens Door for Pirate Site Blockades in Germany
uri: Supreme-Court-Opens-Door-for-Pirate-Site-Blockades-in-Germany
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Zu5XqNaTt8k/
content:
<p><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076">Domain name blocking has become one of the entertainment industries’ go-to methods for reducing online copyright infringement. </p>
<p>Blocking requests from both the music and movie sector are widespread around Europe, but until now <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/german-court-will-issue-pirate-site-blocking-decision-in-november-150804/">Germany has been excluded</a>. </p>
<p>However, this may soon change. In a landmark ruling the Supreme Court has today opened the door to German pirate site blockades. </p>
<p>The origin of the ruling dates back seven years when German music rights group GEMA, known for its aggressive anti-piracy stance, found music tracks on major file-hosting sites being distributed via the music linking site 3DL.am. </p>
<p>After GEMA failed in its efforts to contact 3DL’s operators to deal with the infringement, the music group tried another tactic. </p>
<p>In a subsequent complaint, GEMA demanded that in order to reduce further copyright infringement, leading German ISP Deutsche Telekom should take technical steps to stop its customers from accessing 3DL.am.</p>
<p>The ISP refused, stating that as a mere ‘dumb pipe’ it has nothing to do with the infringement on the site. Furthermore, blocking one site would simply lead to increasing numbers of similar demands, the ISP argued.</p>
<p>Together with a similar lawsuit against the site Goldesel.to, the case eventually ended up at the Supreme Court which <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/bundesgerichtshof-ebnet-weg-fuer-netzsperren-a-1064678.html">ruled on the issue</a> today. </p>
<p>In its order the court argues that an ISP blockade is warranted if copyright holders have exhausted all their options to identify the operators or hosting providers of pirate sites.</p>
<p>The court also noted that it doesn&#8217;t matter if users can circumvent blockades. Simply rendering sites more difficult for the general public to access is sufficient.</p>
<p>GEMA is delighted with the decision and says it will be a great tool to combat online piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;We welcome the judgment of the Supreme Court. This landmark decision was long overdue, since it leads the way in protecting our copyrights in the digital music market,&#8221; GEMA CEO Harald Heker <a href="https://tarnkappe.info/bgh-bestaetigt-zulaessigkeit-von-netzsperren/">says</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;At last we have legal clarity about the fact that ISP blockades of websites that offer illegal copyrighted music works en masse, are permitted. An important step to combat Internet piracy,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s expected that the first blocking requests will be filed in the near future. While 3DL.am is no longer online, other high-profile pirate sites including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents are probably high on GEMA&#8217;s wish list.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113979
title: Huge Security Flaw Can Expose VPN Users’ Real IP-Adresses
uri: Huge-Security-Flaw-Can-Expose-VPN-Users-Real-IP-Adresses
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uQZHG07IxE4/
content:
<p><img src="media/f7a82faa.ip-address.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ip-address.png" alt="ip-address" width="225" height="153" class="alignright size-full wp-image-50438">For the past several years interest in encrypted and anonymous communications has spread to a much wider audience.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">VPN providers</a> are particularly popular among BitTorrent users, who by default broadcast their IP-addresses to hundreds of people when downloading a popular file. </p>
<p>The goal of using a VPN is to hide one&#8217;s ISP IP-address, but a newly discovered vulnerability shows that this is easily bypassed on some providers. </p>
<p>The problem, uncovered by VPN provider <a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/">Perfect Privacy</a> (PP), is a simple port forwarding trick. If an attacker uses the same VPN as the victim the true IP-address can be exposed by forwarding traffic on a specific port. </p>
<p>The security flaw affects all VPN protocols including OpenVPN and IPSec and applies to all operating systems. </p>
<p>&#8220;Affected are VPN providers that offer port forwarding and have no protection against this specific attack,&#8221; PP notes.</p>
<p>For example, if an attacker activates port forwarding for the default BitTorrent port then a VPN user on the same network will expose his or her real IP-address. </p>
<p>The same is true for regular web traffic, but in that case the attacker has to direct the victim to a page that connects to the forwarded port, as Perfect Privacy explains <a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/blog/2015/11/26/ip-leak-vulnerability-affecting-vpn-providers-with-port-forwarding/">in detail</a>. </p>
<p>The vulnerability affected the setup of various large VPN providers, who were warned last week. This included Private Internet Access (PIA), Ovpn.to and nVPN, who have all fixed the issue before publication. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/">PIA</a> informs TorrentFreak that their fix was relatively simple and was implemented swiftly after they were notified. </p>
<p>&#8220;We implemented firewall rules at the VPN server level to block access to forwarded ports from clients&#8217; real IP addresses. The fix was deployed on all our servers within 12 hours of the initial report,&#8221; PIA&#8217;s Amir Malik says. </p>
<p>In addition, PIA complimented Perfect Privacy for responsibly disclosing the vulnerability prior to making it public and awarded their competitor with a $5,000 bounty under its Whitehat Alert Security Program.</p>
<p>Not all VPN providers were tested so it is likely that many others are still vulnerable. Hopefully, these will address the issue in the near future.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113971
title: No Pirate Bay Blockade in Sweden, Court Rules
uri: No-Pirate-Bay-Blockade-in-Sweden-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4Skpeh7sUWw/
content:
<p><img src="media/7e02aab6.tpb3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb3.png" alt="tpb" width="230" height="243" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106334">The Pirate Bay is blocked by dozens of ISPs around Europe but anti-piracy outfits have always hoped that one day the notorious site would be rendered inaccessible in Sweden, its country of origin.</p>
<p>To that end, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry teamed up in a lawsuit last year designed to force Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) to block the site. </p>
<p>They claimed that the ISP should be held liable for the infringements of its customers, unless it blocks Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Bredbandsbolaget flat out refused to comply, stating categorically that its only role is to provide customers with Internet access while facilitating the free-flow of information. The case went to trial and was heard in the Stockholm District Court during October. After nearly a month the Court has handed down its decision and its a huge win for the ISP and, indirectly, two famous pirate sites.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down just minutes ago, the Stockholm District Court completely rejected rightsholder demands that Bredbandsbolaget should block its subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer.</p>
<p>The Court reports that the case was heard in light of an EU directive which notes that member states shall ensure that rightholders have the possibility to ask for an injunction against intermediaries whose services are used by a third party to commit copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The District Court says that in its opinion Swedish legislation meets the requirements of the <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32001L0029:EN:HTML">Infosoc directive</a>. Furthermore, the Court also considers that the actions of Bredbandsbolaget do not constitute participation in crimes in accordance with Swedish law.</p>
<p>&#8220;A unanimous District Court considers, therefore, that it is not in a position to authorize such a ban as the rights holders want and therefore rejects their request,&#8221; said presiding Chief Magistrate Anders Dereborg.</p>
<p>Of course, there are higher courts in Sweden and it is very likely that&#8217;s where this case will end up. Today&#8217;s decision can be taken to the Svea Court of Appeal no later than December 18, 2015.</p>
<p>In the meantime the plaintiffs in the case must pay Bredbandsbolaget&#8217;s costs, expected to exceed US$160,000.</p>
<p><em>Breaking news story, updates to follow</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114185
title: Megaupload Programmer Already Freed From U.S. Prison
uri: Megaupload-Programmer-Already-Freed-From-U-S-Prison
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GkeLR9qeCbE/
content:
<p><img src="media/37e6b3c4.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" width="250" height="208" class="alignright">Acting on a lead from the entertainment industry, in January 2012 the U.S. Government shut down Megaupload.</p>
<p>To date, much of their efforts have been focused on extraditing Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues from New Zealand to the United States but earlier this year it became apparent that they&#8217;d already snared an important piece of the puzzle.</p>
<p>Operating under key mega figure Matthias Ortmann, Andrus Nomm was a Megaupload programmer who reportedly earned a little over $3200 per month.</p>
<p>In common with his former colleagues, Nomm was cited in the Megaupload indictment, meaning that the FBI wanted the Estonian in the United States to face criminal charges. With few funds at his disposal to put a Dotcom-like fight, Nomm flew from the Netherlands and handed himself over to U.S. authorities after three years.</p>
<p>In February the 36-year-old <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-programmer-arrested-in-the-u-s-150210/">was arrested</a> and carried through with a deal he&#8217;d promised to cut with U.S. authorities. Just days later the Department of Justice announced that Nomm had pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement, and he was sentenced to 366 days in prison.</p>
<p>Dotcom slammed the development.</p>
<p>&#8220;An innocent coder pleads guilty after 3 years of DOJ abuse, with no end in sight, in order to move on with his life,” Dotcom said. “I have nothing but compassion and understanding for Andrus Nomm and I hope he will soon be reunited with his son.”</p>
<p>This week it appears Dotcom&#8217;s wishes came true. According to <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&#038;objectid=11551882">NZHerald</a>, after serving just nine months in prison, Nomm&#8217;s name appeared on a list of prisoners due to be released this week.</p>
<p>However, the Estonian&#8217;s release will be bitter-sweet since according to the same report Nomm&#8217;s evidence is already being used against Dotcom and as recently as his just-concluded extradition hearing.</p>
<p>The details will not be made public until have Judge Nevin Dawson hands down his decision but it&#8217;s believed that Nomm has stated on the record that Dotcom and his former colleagues knowingly profited from copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Dotcom still feels that Nomm pleaded guilty to a crime he didn&#8217;t commit.</p>
<p>&#8220;One year in jail was his way out. I don&#8217;t blame him. I can understand why Andrus did it. But it doesn&#8217;t change the fact that he is innocent,&#8221; Dotcom told the Herald.</p>
<p>Underlining his point, Dotcom points to a video recorded by Nomm just three months after the raid and uploaded to YouTube after Nomm signed the plea deal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Andrus made it clear in his documentary interview that he had done nothing wrong,&#8221; Dotcom said.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TC6YzYu1vd0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Although three years in limbo and a year in jail will have had a considerable impact on Nomm&#8217;s life, his deal with the U.S. now means that he can get on with his life. The same cannot be said of Dotcom and his former colleagues.</p>
<p>Nomm plead guilty to two counts of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, charges that Dotcom and his former colleagues continue to deny. The U.S. also dropped the money laundering and racketeering charges against the Estonian &#8211; the same is unlikely to happen in Dotcom&#8217;s case. However, Nomm still has a &#8220;money judgment&#8221; of US$175m to contend with, a not inconsiderable amount that he will presumably never pay.</p>
<p>The conviction of Nomm is a considerable feather in the cap of U.S. authorities who indicate that Nomm has given them much more evidence than has been revealed thus far. Only time will tell how valuable that will prove.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=114123
title: Anti-Piracy Group Stops Prolific KickassTorrent’s Uploader
uri: Anti-Piracy-Group-Stops-Prolific-KickassTorrent-s-Uploader
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4uttz4RICG4/
content:
<p><img src="media/10ce2bd6.KAT.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/KAT.png" alt="KAT" width="278" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-93273">Netherlands-based anti-piracy group <a href="http://anti-piracy.nl/">BREIN</a> is one of few such outfits to directly go after both the operators and users of pirate sites.</p>
<p>The Hollywood-backed group doesn&#8217;t target random file-sharers but focuses on prolific uploaders, who share hundreds or thousands of files. </p>
<p>This month these efforts led to another victory for the organization. A Breda court ruled in favor of BREIN in an ex-parte case against a 20-year-old student, who uploaded over 750 torrents to KickassTorrents. </p>
<p>Most torrents were targeted at the Dutch public, including a full season of The Walking Dead and the film Avengers: Age of Ultron, both with subtitles. </p>
<p>BREIN argued that the man&#8217;s infringing activities were causing irreparable damage for the various copyright holders involved. In addition, his efforts help frustrate the growth of legal services such as Spotify and Netflix. </p>
<p>The court agreed with BREIN&#8217;s assessment and ordered the uploader to stop sharing pirated content on KickassTorrents (<a href="media/91f66143.t-Brabant20520november20201520IEF2054442028Brein20tegen20D29.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.ie-forum.nl/backoffice/uploads/file/Rb_%20Zeeland-West-Brabant%205%20november%202015%20IEF%205444%20%28Brein%20tegen%20D%29.pdf">pdf</a>). Refusing to do so will result in a €2,000 fine per day, with a maximum of €50,000. </p>
<p>Responding to the verdict, the man, whose name is not made public, deleted his account as well as all uploads. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak tracked down what appears to be the user in question. This person frequently uploaded torrents with Dutch subtitles, some of which were mentioned in the case.</p>
<p><center><strong>The deleted profile</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/42456851.kickassuser.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickassuser.jpg" alt="kickassuser" width="600" height="293" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-114137"></center></p>
<p>BREIN notes that the student also agreed to pay compensation to the copyright holders as well as costs for the legal proceedings. While calculating the appropriate &#8216;damages&#8217; figure BREIN took the man&#8217;s personal circumstances into account. </p>
<p>This means that the uploader has gotten off relatively unharmed, when compared to the million dollar claims we&#8217;ve seen elsewhere at least.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear how BREIN tracked down the uploader. The anti-piracy group is known to scour the Internet for information that can identify infringers, some of whom are surprisingly easy to find. </p>
<p>In addition, BREIN also uses previously convicted file-sharers to gather intelligence, and rival uploaders also rat out their competitors voluntarily every now and then. </p>
<p>“We do get anonymous tips regarding offenders and from time to time it is clear that a tip comes from a ‘competitor. It’s just like with other crime on any turf,” BREIN&#8217;s Tim Kuik <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-site-uploaders-agree-to-snitch-on-colleagues-150816/">told us previously</a>. </p>
<p>Looking ahead, BREIN is planning to intensify its efforts to hold prolific uploaders responsible. Not just those who upload to torrent sites, but also those who simply download and share.</p>
<p>Last week <a href="http://nos.nl/artikel/2070287-stichting-brein-gaat-meer-illegale-uploaders-aanpakken.html">NOS reported</a> that BREIN is preparing to monitor IP-addresses systematically to identify prolific sharers, which they then hope to identify through their Internet providers.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113803
title: Book Publishers Expand UK Pirate Site Blocking
uri: Book-Publishers-Expand-UK-Pirate-Site-Blocking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YsTcwh7muRg/
content:
<p><img src="media/31ccbd18.e-books.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/e-books.jpg" alt="e-books" width="220" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26365">For several years Hollywood studios and international recording labels have engaged in legal action to have &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites blocked in the UK.</p>
<p>The injunction applications were all filed at the High Court with the earliest example dating back to the 2012 blocking of The Pirate Bay at the hands of the BPI (British Recorded Music Industry).</p>
<p>Since then more than 20 injunctions have been handed down targeting a range of content but it took until May 2015 for the book publishing sector to land its first victory.</p>
<p>In an injunction application targeting major ISPs including BT, Sky, Virgin Media, O2, EE and TalkTalk, the Publishers Association successfully argued that their rights were being infringed by a number of e-book download sites.</p>
<p>Shortly after, Avaxhome, Ebookee, Freebookspot, Freshwap, Libgen, Bookfi and Bookre <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/high-court-orders-uk-isps-to-block-ebook-sites-150527/">were all blocked at the ISP level</a>, with Internet users in the UK confronted with a message similar to the one below.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/2704d838.virgin-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/virgin-blocked.jpg" alt="virgin-blocked" width="599" height="519" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-79880"></center></p>
<p>Of course, blocking a handful of sites was never likely to achieve long-term results, especially with fresh domains, proxies, mirrors, and other workarounds being deployed on a regular basis. No surprise then that the Publishers Association has recently applied to have yet more URLs blocked by ISPs. <em>(full list below)</em></p>
<p>All appear to relate in some way to sites that were blocked in the earlier court order, including Avaxhome, eBookee, FreeBookSpot and Library Genesis.  This means that the Publishers Association won&#8217;t have needed to start a fresh process and will have simply added these URLs to the existing injunction.</p>
<p>This latest expansion is only the latest in a long line of applications made by a wide range of entertainment industry groups.</p>
<p>Earlier this month the UK&#8217;s blocklist silently expanded with the addition of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-blacklist-silently-expands-with-170-domains-151113/">around 170 sites</a>, an effort that was preceded in October with the blocking of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dozens-of-pirate-domains-quietly-added-to-uk-isp-blocklists-151019/">dozens of new domains</a>, including those relating to Popcorn Time.</p>
<p><strong>Updated Publishers Association blocklist</strong></p>
<p>avxhome.se.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
avxhome.unblocked.la</p>
<p>ebookee.co<br>
ebookee.unblocked.la<br>
ebookooabc.org<br>
ebookooawe.org<br>
www.pdfbooksplanet.ru</p>
<p>freebookspot.unblocked.la<br>
freebookspot.unblockme.co<br>
freebookspot.unblockme.net</p>
<p>libgen.unblocked.la<br>
libgen.unblockme.co<br>
libgen.unblockme.net<br>
libgen.unblock.al</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=113982
title: Pirates Can Now Rip 4K Content From Netflix and Amazon
uri: Pirates-Can-Now-Rip-4K-Content-From-Netflix-and-Amazon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Xp_IazgBYJc/
content:
<p><img src="media/73aea967.amazonnetflix.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazonnetflix.png" alt="amazonnetflix" width="250" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113986">While the average consumer is generally not equipped to play 4K content on their TV or computer, many video geeks are looking forward to every new release.</p>
<p>Thus far the physical offerings have been limited to adult content mostly, with just a handful of mainstream productions. However, with the adoption of a Blu-Ray standard for Ultra High Definition video more releases will follow soon.</p>
<p>4K streaming releases have been available for a while already though, with Netflix and Amazon as the two key vendors in this market. </p>
<p>These online streams were always well protected against pirates. The High-Bandwidth Digital Copy Protection (HDCP) version 2.2 or higher is still believed to be secure today, but there are signs that pirates have found a way to bypass the protection. </p>
<p>Earlier this year the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-netflix-4k-content-leaks-to-torrent-sites-150828/">first</a> 4K Netflix leak surfaced. After that it went quiet. However, a few days ago something changed, as many more releases started to appear online. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to a release group insider who confirmed that this is a significant change. </p>
<p>&#8220;Many groups started releasing 4K rips recently and they are working perfectly. I expect that 4K resolution releases will become more popular now,&#8221; TorrentFreak was told.</p>
<p>The new 4K leaks come from both Netflix and Amazon, suggesting that there&#8217;s a general loophole that allows pirates to circumvent the copy protection on both services. </p>
<p>Up until recently this was impossible to do. There were a handful of upscaled releases floating around with a lot of pixelation and low bitrates, but these don&#8217;t come close to real 4K. </p>
<p>The new releases are true 4K and include Amazon&#8217;s The Man in the High Castle as well as the recent pilots Edge, Good Girls Revolt, Highston, One Mississippi<br>
and Patriot.</p>
<p><center><strong>Amazon&#8217;s 4k leaks</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/092c4577.amazon4kpilots.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazon4kpilots.jpg" alt="amazon4kpilots" width="600" height="307" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-114217"></center></p>
<p>Another series of high-profile 4K leaks that came out this week are of Netflix&#8217;s Jessica Jones. As with the other rips the file-sizes are much larger than traditional HD-releases, well over 10 gigabytes for a single episode. </p>
<p><center><strong>Netflix&#8217; Jessica Jones 4k leaks</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/60396757.jessi.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jessi.jpg" alt="jessi" width="600" height="247" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-114218"></center></p>
<p>The <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Marvels.Jessica.Jones_.S01E13.2160p.txt">media info</a> for one of the Jessica Jones leaks show that it&#8217;s 4K, at a 32.5 Mbps bitrate. Unfortunately, that doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that the video quality is always exceptional. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example for Marvel’s Jessica Jones new TV series from Netflix the 4K captures look bad, because the master from Netflix is probably bad,” we were told by an insider.</p>
<p><center><strong>Jessica Jones 4k (<a href="media/21eab1a5.72511660776432083802.png" data-original-source="http://cdn.imagecurl.com/images/72511660776432083802.png">large</a>)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/21eab1a5.72511660776432083802.png" data-original-source="http://cdn.imagecurl.com/images/72511660776432083802.png" alt="jessica jones" width="600" height="336"/></center></p>
<p>Downloading a 4K release from Amazon or Netflix and getting a pirated copy out is not something that&#8217;s easily done. The original rips are often well over 100 gigabytes in size. Still, many groups are jumping on the 4K bandwagon.</p>
<p>The main question that remains is how the groups are able to circumvent the copy protection. Our source says that Amazon’s Fire TV and Roku 4K are likely sources, as they may not be as well protected as some believe.</p>
<p>Amazon&#8217;s Fire TV uses the weaker HDCP 1.4b protection and 23.976 frames/s, which only supports Amazon 4K releases and not Netflix. </p>
<p>Roku recently released their new streaming player with 4K support and native refresh rate switching, which can play Netflix&#8217;s 4K library. It arrived in stores early November, just before the 23.976 frames/s 4k rips started coming out. </p>
<p>Whatever the source is, the stream of new releases is unprecedented and marks the start of a new era of high quality video releases. </p>
<p>In recent years many people have been downloading higher quality rips already, but it will probably take a few years before 4K becomes the new standard. Overall, however, pirating video geeks will be happy with the news.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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