# articles

feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=186915
title: ETTV & ETHD Stopped Uploading Torrents But a Comeback is Planned
uri: ETTV-ETHD-Stopped-Uploading-Torrents-But-a-Comeback-is-Planned
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BRc7K7AGK-Q/
content:
<p><img src="media/88f2b6f3.ettvlo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ettvlo.png" alt="" width="225" height="126" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148211" />The piracy ecosystem is more structured than most people assume. While anyone can upload a file online, the most popular content is distributed by a small number of uploaders. </p>
<p>ETTV and ETHD are in this top echelon. The groups, which have their roots in the defunct ExtraTorrent site, have shared tens of thousands of videos in recent years. This has resulted in a following of millions of people. </p>
<p>In reality, these &#8216;groups&#8217; are little more than some lines of code, or <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ettv-how-an-upload-bot-became-a-pirate-hero-171210/">bots</a>. These pull videos from private sources to make them available to the public. It&#8217;s an effective system but one that relies on a central hosting facility that has to be paid for. That is where things went wrong recently. </p>
<p>Little over a week ago, avid torrenters began to notice that ETTV and ETHD releases had stopped appearing online. Not just on the main <a href="https://www.ettvdl.com/">ETTVdl</a> site but also on other torrent sites, including 1337x. It seemed like the groups had simply disappeared. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/0b712a47.ethd-600x192.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ethd-600x192.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="192" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-186962" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ethd-600x192.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/ethd.jpg 762w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>Initially, it wasn&#8217;t clear what was going on, but ETTV administrator ‘sidekickbob’ tells us that the outage is linked to the recent troubles at the torrent site. They started when the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ettv-moves-to-new-domain-name-after-operator-goes-missing-200104/">original operator disappeared</a> and that situation still hasn&#8217;t improved. </p>
<p>Sidekickbob has taken it upon himself to salvage the situation. A few weeks ago, he moved the ETTV site to a new domain, fearing that it would become inaccessible. However, the hosting accounts are also at risk and that&#8217;s where the ETTV and ETHD bots were hit. </p>
<p>The hosting accounts of the bots expired as the bills were not paid and Sidekickbob says that funding remains an issue. However, he ordered new servers to get the bots up and running again in the near future. </p>
<p>&#8220;Just got new servers today and I will reinstall the script that will start uploading again on all sites it uploaded before. Should be back to normal by Thursday&#8230; or close to normal,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>This is good news for ETTV and ETHD fans. That said, the trouble at ETTV is bigger than just the bots. As we mentioned before, the future of the site is uncertain and as the original operator remains missing in action, things could start to fall further apart.</p>
<p>ETTV&#8217;s official image hosting services, extraimage.net is down as well, including all content. This site was often used by uploaders to add screenshots. Sidekickbob says he still has access to snoopimages.com, but all older content on this site has gone.</p>
<p>&#8220;We lost all the previous content we had on both extraimage.net and snoopimages.com &#8230; because also those servers went down as they were on a hosting I didn&#8217;t have access to, or time to move it all&#8230; extraimage had a massive database of images, gone forever,&#8221; Sidekickbob says.</p>
<p>On top of that, the ettv.online domain is set to expire if the original operator doesn&#8217;t resurface. Sidekickbob managed to redirect that to ettv.be, which is under his control, but ettv.online might eventually disappear. </p>
<p>It is clear that the troubles at ETTV are far from over. This, despite efforts from the remaining team members who continue to do whatever they can to keep things afloat. </p>
<p>While we don&#8217;t want to speculate too much, there might be an even larger drama at play since the site&#8217;s operator hasn&#8217;t disappeared without a reason. Thus far, however, there is no further information on precisely what happened. </p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=186742
title: ‘Come Over’ Lets You Stream Videos Together with Friends Through BitTorrent
uri: Come-Over-Lets-You-Stream-Videos-Together-with-Friends-Through-B
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VM1sNjQSnpw/
content:
<p><img src="media/f6e1debd.popcorn-1330014_640-e1586246986836.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn-1330014_640-e1586246986836.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="184" class="alignright size-full wp-image-185061" />The coronavirus pandemic has severely impacted the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the world. </p>
<p>Health concerns obviously have priority at the moment, but in many cases that comes at the expense of social interaction. </p>
<p>A few months ago, people could still go to a concert, a sporting event, a movie theater, or organize a barbecue with friends. Today, these types of mass interactions are discouraged or even forbidden. </p>
<p>Luckily, there are options to connect remotely, both in text and through specialized video apps. Those who want to watch Netflix with friends can use &#8220;<a href="https://www.netflixparty.com/">Netflix Party</a>,&#8221; for example. &#8220;<a href="https://twoseven.xyz/">TwoSeven</a>&#8221; does the same and also supports other platforms including Amazon, HBO Now, and YouTube. </p>
<p>But outside of the main video services, things get tricky. Watching that video compilation you made of last year&#8217;s party or vacation, for example. Luckily, the torrent-powered service &#8220;<a href="https://comeover.io/">Come Over</a>&#8221; can do exactly that. And you don&#8217;t have to sign up for anything either. </p>
<p>With Come Over you simply select a video from your computer. The service then returns a link, which can be shared with anyone who&#8217;s invited. When everyone&#8217;s present, the host can start the video and it will play everywhere at the same time, from a regular web browser.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/548daf98.comeover8.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeover8.jpg"><img src="media/e8322129.comeover8-600x286.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeover8-600x286.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="286" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187006" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeover8-600x286.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeover8.jpg 769w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a></center></p>
<p>To add an extra layer of social interaction, the site has a built-in chat functionality. This allows viewers to comment and interact while the video is playing.</p>
<p>The beauty of it all is that the site itself doesn&#8217;t store any video. Instead, Come Over uses WebRTC, which allows browsers to communicate directly. WebTorrent is built on top of that, which coordinates the video streaming part. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/13683205.comeovertpbafk.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeovertpbafk.jpg"><img src="media/ab6bcb9c.comeovertpbafk-600x441.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeovertpbafk-600x441.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="441" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187000" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeovertpbafk-600x441.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/comeovertpbafk.jpg 906w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Luc, the creator of Come Over, who informs us that he wanted to make a peer-to-peer video streaming service. This is ideal for a hobby project, as there are barely any costs involved. All the streaming is done by users. And it&#8217;s not only cost-effective but also very useful. </p>
<p>&#8220;I spend a lot of time online with friends from the internet and Come Over came to me as something that could be really useful, also for myself,&#8221; Luc tells us. </p>
<p>The developer initially wanted to use the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), which is also P2P-based. However, when he soon became aware of <a href="https://webtorrent.io/">WebTorrent</a> and this turned out to be an even better match.</p>
<p>&#8220;When I started to build the website, I stumbled upon WebTorrent, which is way more simple and targeted for my use case,&#8221; Luc says.</p>
<p>The end result is a service where users can stream videos to anyone in just a few clicks and without the need to create torrents or having to wait until an upload is finished.</p>
<p>Come Over is a hobby project and Luc doesn&#8217;t have the time to work on it around the clock. In the future, however, he hopes to make it even more decentralized. For example, the site currently relies on a &#8216;hub&#8217; to post torrent tracker details which he plans to embed in the URL in the future. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak tested <a href="https://comeover.io/">Come Over</a> by streaming a copy of the TPB AFK documentary, which worked. However, the service is not without limitations. The users obviously need plenty of bandwidth and Luc says that there are other bugs as well. </p>
<p>Perhaps people shouldn&#8217;t rely on it without proper testing, but as a demonstration of a simple torrent-powered streaming service, it certainly works. </p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187014
title: ‘Viral’ Pirate Site Nites.tv is Back From the Dead Following ACE Seizure
uri: Viral-Pirate-Site-Nites-tv-is-Back-From-the-Dead-Following-ACE-S
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n0lKaBEy47I/
content:
<p><a href="media/52ce8b81.nites-is-back.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nites-is-back.png"><img src="media/52ce8b81.nites-is-back.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nites-is-back.png" alt="" width="270" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187019" /></a>If there&#8217;s one thing that movie and TV show companies hate more than regular pirate streaming services, it&#8217;s pirate streaming services that look and feel like the real deal.</p>
<p>Popcorn Time was arguably the first mainstream entrant to this niche but, over the past six years, there have been many pretenders to the throne. Nites.tv certainly fell into that category and then some.</p>
<p>Appearing seemingly out of nowhere just a few short months ago, Nites.tv gained significant traction with an unusually polished interface that in presentation terms certainly gave Netflix a run for its money. But then, just as the site was beginning to soar, a major setback became apparent.</p>
<p>Around April 19, Nites.tv <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nites-tv-suddenly-goes-viral-apparently-gets-seized-by-ace-but-questions-remain-200420/">suddenly disappeared</a> and was replaced by the familiar ‘seizure’ notice of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the global anti-piracy coalition that has taken down dozens of piracy-related domains during the past couple of years.</p>
<p>Two days later Nites.tv made an announcement via Twitter, declaring that since it took &#8220;copyright violations very seriously&#8221; and intended to &#8220;vigorously protect the rights of legal copyright owners&#8221;, it would be shutting down. By early May the circle was complete when its domains were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nites-tv-mystery-solved-as-mpa-takes-over-domain-of-viral-pirate-site-200502/">officially taken over</a> by the Motion Picture Association (MPA).</p>
<p>At that point, it seemed unlikely that we would be writing about Nites again. But, today, we have news that can be firmly filed under the &#8220;ACE isn&#8217;t going to like this&#8221; category.</p>
<p>Nites.tv appears to be back in full effect under a new domain, <a href="https://nites.is/">Nites.is</a>, and as the image below shows, the reincarnation is indistinguishable from the original.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/2cb9ef45.bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png"><img src="media/2cb9ef45.bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png" alt="" width="600" height="191" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187021" /></a></center></p>
<p>The new Nites.is domain was registered on April 23, just days after the original domain first displayed signs of conflict with the dozens of entertainment industry giants that make up ACE. It was registered with Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde&#8217;s <a href="https://njal.la/">Njalla</a> privacy service, meaning that it won&#8217;t be easy to find out who is behind it, a big plus for whoever&#8217;s at the helm.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s little doubt that ACE will now seek to take the site down and there is no shortage of reasons for that. Putting the obvious embarrassment aside for a moment, with its tight interface, video previews, and even a Netflix-like &#8220;+MY LIST&#8221; feature, Nites.is is an unusually glossy platform with a number of interesting features behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Aside from streaming the latest movies and TV shows from direct hosting sources in both 720 and 1080 qualities, the site provides movie trailers for those undecided on what to watch next and even provides torrent download links culled from popular torrent index YTS. It also has other BitTorrent technologies quietly waiting under the hood including Webtorrent tracker <a href="http://openwebtorrent.com/">OpenWebTorrent</a> and Webtorrent client <a href="https://btorrent.xyz/">βtorrent</a>.</p>
<p>The only thing the new site doesn&#8217;t have at the moment is a new logo but the text &#8220;Nites is Back&#8221; on some open tabs is a clear statement that Nites.is aims to pick up where Nites.tv left off.</p>
<p>The big question now, however, is how long it will last.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187063
title: Movie & TV Giants Obtain Court Injunction to Shut Down Nitro TV
uri: Movie-TV-Giants-Obtain-Court-Injunction-to-Shut-Down-Nitro-TV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OeOUU_e0mUg/
content:
<p><a href="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034" /></a>Last month several major movie and TV show companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-tv-giants-sue-pirate-nitro-iptv-for-massive-copyright-infringement-200406/">filed a copyright infringement lawsuit</a> against Alejandro Galindo, the alleged operator of unlicensed IPTV provider Nitro TV, and 20 additional &#8216;Doe&#8217; defendants.</p>
<p>Owned by Columbia, Amazon, Disney, Paramount, Warner, and Universal, the companies alleged that Nitro TV offers subscription packages consisting of thousands of “live and title-curated television channels” available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the United States and abroad. </p>
<p>Of particular interest to the entertainment companies were Nitro TV&#8217;s &#8217;24/7&#8242; channels and VOD service, consisting of movies and TV shows that, according to the lawsuit, could only function if their content had been unlawfully copied in advance. These included movies and TV shows including The Office, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Toy Story 3, Star Trek Beyond, Homecoming and Joker.</p>
<p>Citing the &#8216;unfair competition&#8217; presented by Nitro&#8217;s service, the companies&#8217; complaint alleged willful direct copyright infringement and in the event Nitro claimed that third-parties streamed the content, contributory copyright infringement, with each offense carrying maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work.</p>
<p>In common with most lawsuits of this type, the companies demanded preliminary and permanent injunctions not only against all of the defendants but also third-party companies acting in concert with them, such as domain registrars.</p>
<p>In an April 23 filing, Galindo filed a notice of non-opposition to the plaintiffs&#8217; motion for a preliminary injunction but according to court records, did not shut down the Nitro TV service. This claim appears to be supported by numerous videos on YouTube discussing whether customers should ditch the service as soon as possible due to the lawsuit, despite it continuing to operate.</p>
<p>District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson was tasked with deciding whether in advance of a trial, Nitro TV should be shut down. In an injunction handed down Monday, he sided with the entertainment companies.</p>
<p>&#8220;As copyright holders, Plaintiffs have the exclusive right to publicly perform the Copyrighted Works. <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106">17 U.S.C. § 106(4)</a>,&#8221; his order reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The internet streaming of full copyrighted works without authorization constitutes a violation of this exclusive right. By streaming the Copyrighted Works on Nitro TV without authorization, Defendant likely violates this exclusive right.</p>
<p>&#8220;Accordingly, Plaintiffs are likely to be successful on their copyright claims. Because Plaintiffs have successfully established a likelihood of success on their direct infringement claims, the Court does not reach Plaintiffs’ secondary infringement claims.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite concluding that the plaintiffs are likely to be successful in their copyright infringement claims against Nitro TV, Judge Wilson notes that he was required to consider whether, in the absence of an injunction, the plaintiffs would suffer &#8220;irreparable&#8221; injury. He decided that would indeed be the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have shown they are likely to be irreparably harmed by the continued infringement of their copyrights. Due to the diffuse nature of streaming services, it will be difficult for Plaintiffs to discern the full extent of Defendant’s copyright violations,&#8221; he writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not only is Defendant directly infringing Plaintiffs’ copyrights, creating a financial loss to Plaintiffs, but Plaintiffs have provided evidence that the unlawfully distributed Copyrighted Works may undermine the value of Plaintiffs’ legitimate licenses. This could also lead to unquantifiable customer confusion and an overall diminution of value of the Copyrighted Works.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given that preliminary injunctions can have an effect on all parties in a dispute, the Judge also considered whether damage could be caused to Nitro. He found that since the operator of the service had not disputed he was infringing the entertainment companies&#8217; rights and that illegal conduct does not merit &#8220;significant equitable protection&#8221;, no injury would be suffered by Nitro TV.</p>
<p>&#8220;The balance of the equities tips strongly in Plaintiffs’ favor,&#8221; his order reads.</p>
<p>Finally, the Judge considered whether a preliminary injunction would be in the public interest. Similarly, he found in the plaintiffs&#8217; favor, noting that Nitro TV had offered no evidence to counter the claim that its alleged copyright infringements offered no lawful benefit to the public.</p>
<p>The preliminary injunction handed down Monday requires that Galindo and all individuals acting in concert, participation, or in privity with him in connection with his alleged activities, must immediately cease all direct and secondary copyright infringement related to the plaintiffs&#8217; copyrighted works, including all public performances and reproduction.</p>
<p>In response to requests in the original complaint, the Judge specifically ordered Namecheap and Domain.com, the domain registrars for Tekkhosting.com and NitroIPTV.com respectively, to prevent the domains from being modified, sold, transferred or deleted.</p>
<p>Alongside an instruction for the domains to be disabled, the Judge ordered that current WHOIS information must be preserved alongside all evidence related to the domains&#8217; ownership.</p>
<p><em>The preliminary injunction can be obtained <a href="media/d852c1cd.tries-v-Alejandro-Galindo-NITRO-prelimnary-injunction-200511.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-20-cv-03129-Columbia-Pictures-Industries-v-Alejandro-Galindo-NITRO-prelimnary-injunction-200511.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=186996
title: Takedown Notices From Netflix are Skyrocketing, But Are They Legit?
uri: Takedown-Notices-From-Netflix-are-Skyrocketing-But-Are-They-Legit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AysgPhwg_XA/
content:
<p><img src="media/97118de6.netflixlogonew.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflixlogonew.png" alt="" width="267" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145677" />When Netflix had just started offering online video content years ago, piracy wasn&#8217;t seen as a major threat.</p>
<p>This changed when the streaming platform transformed itself into one of the biggest content producers, offering a wide variety of exclusive content. </p>
<p>Adapting to this changed reality, the company started working with third-party companies to issue takedown requests. Soon after, it also launched an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-gets-serious-about-its-anti-piracy-efforts-170324/">in-house anti-piracy team</a> and joined several <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-joins-another-major-anti-piracy-coalition-191221/">copyright protection groups</a>, including the MPA. </p>
<p>Today, Netflix is a major player in the anti-piracy scene. The company is involved in a wide variety of enforcement efforts, ranging from cease-and-desist letters and lawsuits to DMCA takedown notices. </p>
<p>In the latter category, we noticed an unusual change over the past few weeks. The number of takedown notices Netflix is sending to Google has skyrocketed. </p>
<p>The streaming service started sending these notices in 2016 and over the years averaged roughly 20,000 requests per week, which is fairly normal for a company of its size. However, over the past few weeks his number went up and up, reaching <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/owners/48184">more than half a million reported URLs last week</a>.</p>
<p>The graph below clearly shows a drastic increase towards the end. The first peak this year came in mid-March when 127,000 URLs were reported, a sixfold increase compared to previous weeks. This figure increased to 153,000 then 260,000 and after a temporary dip, went all the way up to 622,000.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/2a6b6877.netflixdmca.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflixdmca.jpg" alt="" width="620" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187105" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflixdmca.jpg 699w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflixdmca-600x332.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear what&#8217;s behind this 3000% increase in just a few months. Looking more closely at the targeted sites we see that French pirate streaming sites are among the major targets. </p>
<p>For example, Netflix reported more than 100,000 URLs from serie-streaming.net during the first week of May. This is more than half of the total number of links that were ever reported from the site. We see similar spikes with other domains, including hdpstream.la, ds-streamingvf.com, and voirseriestreaming.com.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/53025010.serie-streaming.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/serie-streaming.jpg" alt="" width="620" height="348" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187106" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/serie-streaming.jpg 694w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/serie-streaming-600x337.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /></center></p>
<p>We asked Netflix for a comment on these increased enforcement measures but, at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back. One possible explanation could be that the company is ramping up its efforts as traffic to pirate streaming sites has increased during the coronavirus pandemic. </p>
<p>That said, there is another viable option as well. In theory, these notices may have been sent by a competing pirate site masquerading as Netflix. We <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/impostors-manipulate-google-fake-takedown-request-180805/">have seen similar abuses in the past</a>, where pirate sites exploit the DMCA to downrank competitors in Google&#8217;s search results. </p>
<p>The latter theory is not unlikely. The recent notices seem to generate hundreds of separate &#8220;reporter&#8221; accounts in Google&#8217;s transparency report, which we have also seen in similar abuse cases. Also, they target content that&#8217;s not available on Netflix, <a href="http://All works on this website is copyrighted for netflix and this website not allowed to share this content, <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20886483?access_token=TXSCCULWbQUMChN5rWWb0Q">including Disney&#8217;s The Mandalorian</a> and <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20880116?access_token=gK6Iy63iNw7-M_PNMxDU2A">HBO&#8217;s Westworld</a>.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/a28237d1.DMCA_Copyright_Complaint_to_Google_Notices_Lumen.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DMCA_Copyright_Complaint_to_Google_Notices_Lumen.png" alt="" width="600" height="228" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187117" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DMCA_Copyright_Complaint_to_Google_Notices_Lumen.png 1082w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/DMCA_Copyright_Complaint_to_Google_Notices_Lumen-600x228.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>On top of that, the requests aren&#8217;t phrased in proper English either. &#8220;All works on this website is copyrighted for netflix and this website not allowed to share this content,&#8221; one reads.</p>
<p>Without an official comment from Netflix, that&#8217;s just speculation. But, what we do know is that Google hasn&#8217;t flagged any of the submissions as suspect and has removed many of the reported URLs. So whether they are legit or not, the notices have definitely had a major impact on the targeted sites. </p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187198
title: Music, Publishing and Sports Industries Back Canada’s Pirate Site Blockades
uri: Music-Publishing-and-Sports-Industries-Back-Canada-s-Pirate-Site-Bl
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/f_zwF2oLIvw/
content:
<p><img src="media/a2cf27d4.canada.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg" alt="canada flag" width="222" height="165" class="alignright size-full wp-image-60888" />Two years ago, Canadian broadcasting giants Groupe TVA, Bell, and Rogers took the relatively small pirate IPTV service GoldTV to court.</p>
<p>What started as a straightforward copyright lawsuit soon became much more than that. With the pirate site not responding, the rightsholders requested an injunction requiring local ISPs to block the service. </p>
<p>Fast forward a few months and Canada became the first North American country to implement a court-ordered Internet provider <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/federal-court-approves-first-pirate-site-blockade-in-canada-191118/">blockade of a pirate site</a>. </p>
<p>This was a big win for the three companies whose plan for a Government-sanctioned pirate site blocking scheme <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/telecoms-regulator-denies-canadian-pirate-site-blocking-application-181002/">was previously denied</a>. And, given the interest in site-blocking orders around the world, it was likely just the start. </p>
<p>While most ISPs accepted the order without protest, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/teksavvy-appeals-first-canadian-pirate-site-blockade-191126/">TekSavvy appealed</a>. This appeal is ongoing and has gained the interest of many copyright groups, which would all like to have their say in court. </p>
<p>Last week, several companies and groups representing the music industry, publishers, and sports organizations, asked the Federal Court of Appeal to have their say in the matter. As so-called intervenors, they plan to stress the importance of pirate site-blocking.</p>
<p>The first filing comes from the International Confederation of Music Publishers (ICMP), Music Canada, and IFPI. They inform the court that their opinion should be heard as they have vast experience with anti-piracy measures, which they believe are vital to the survival of the music industry.</p>
<p>The music organizations inform the court that they have &#8220;significant international experience&#8221; when it comes to &#8220;effective enforcement&#8221; against Internet piracy. This includes site-blocking efforts in other countries.</p>
<p>In addition, they argue that they have a good understanding of the broader implications of these anti-piracy measures, which can guide the Federal Court of Appeal to make the right decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;[A]s representatives of the music industry, which has long been at the forefront of the battle against online copyright piracy, the Music Industry Associations seek to assist the Court in understanding the broader impacts of its decision across the cultural industries,&#8221; their submission reads.</p>
<p>The second motion to intervene comes from a broader group of rightsholders. This includes several publisher groups, such as the International Publishers Association, and sports companies, including the Premier League and streaming service DAZN.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/54bee08e.sports-pubishing-intervene.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sports-pubishing-intervene.jpg" alt="screenshot from the publishing and sports organizations&#039; motion to intervene in the site blocking appeal" width="1215" height="491" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187247" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sports-pubishing-intervene.jpg 1215w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/sports-pubishing-intervene-600x242.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1215px) 100vw, 1215px" /></center></p>
<p>Similar to the music industry, the groups offer to bring their own unique perspective to the table. They argue that their respective industries are harmed by piracy and see site-blocking as a prime tool to limit the effects. </p>
<p>The groups don&#8217;t agree with Teksavvy&#8217;s argument that blockades violate freedom of speech values or rights and would like to present their own argument in court. </p>
<p>In addition, they also counter similar arguments from United Nations Special Rapporteur David Kaye, who <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/un-human-rights-rapporteur-warns-against-canadian-pirate-site-blocking-plan-180402/">previously warned</a> that website blocking is an extreme measure that could restrict people&#8217;s freedom of expression.</p>
<p>&#8220;The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression analysis is flawed, is inconsistent with the international jurisprudence, and should not be relied on by this Court,&#8221; the publishing and sports groups write.</p>
<p>In their motion, the groups acknowledge that any site-blocking decision should balance the interests of copyright holders, ISPs and internet users. However, they believe that the scale clearly tips in their favor. </p>
<p>The Federal Court of Appeal will now review the motions to see if the music industry, publishing and sports organizations can have their say in court. If anything, this broad interest shows that if Teksavvy loses the appeal, many more site-blocking applications are expected to come in.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the motion from the music groups is <a href="media/9fca806b.publishing-sports-intervene.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/publishing-sports-intervene.pdf">available here (pdf)</a> and a copy of the publishers and sports groups submissions can be <a href="media/9fca806b.publishing-sports-intervene.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/publishing-sports-intervene.pdf">found here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187202
title: MPA/ACE Wants Cloudflare to Identify Operators of Nites Pirate Streaming Site
uri: MPA-ACE-Wants-Cloudflare-to-Identify-Operators-of-Nites-Pirate-Streami
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dpdjqB1ItT0/
content:
<p><a href="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png"><img src="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png" alt="" width="212" height="205" class="alignright size-full wp-image-177349" /></a>There are many strategies for disrupting the activities of pirate sites and services. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=blocking">Blocking</a>, for example, leaves sites intact but aims to prevent users from visiting platforms so easily.</p>
<p>This presents a window of opportunity for pirates who through <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPNs</a>, proxies and mirror platforms, can still <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denmark-blocked-141-pirate-sites-in-2019-but-pirates-are-bypassing-the-system-200503/">access the sites in question</a>. A much more permanent option is shutting services down completely, a tactic currently being deployed by the Motion Picture Association and global anti-piracy coalition ACE, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/global-entertainment-giants-form-massive-anti-piracy-coalition-170613/">Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment</a>.</p>
<p>While details are hammered out behind the scenes, ACE &#8211; which is headed up by the studios of the MPA plus Netflix and Amazon &#8211; reaches agreements with site operators to shut down their operations. This can sometimes involve a cash settlement (such as in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/openload-and-others-taken-down-by-anti-piracy-alliance-ace-191031/">Openload case</a>) but the most visible sign is the handing over of domain names to the MPA, to prevent any resurrection.</p>
<p>This appears to have been the plan behind the recent closure of Nites.tv, a polished streaming and torrent platform that rapidly grew in popularity over the past several months. In April, following an announcement that it was shutting down to protect copyrights, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nites-tv-suddenly-goes-viral-apparently-gets-seized-by-ace-but-questions-remain-200420/">Nites.tv disappeared</a> and its domain was eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nites-tv-mystery-solved-as-mpa-takes-over-domain-of-viral-pirate-site-200502/">taken over by the MPA</a>. However, that wasn&#8217;t the end of the matter.</p>
<p>This week, an almost perfect clone of Nites.tv <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/viral-pirate-site-nites-tv-is-back-from-the-dead-following-ace-seizure-200512/">reappeared under a new domain</a>, Nites.is. It has all of the features of the old site with identical functionality, suggesting that the ACE action to shutter the original site had been seriously undermined. Who is behind this reincarnation isn&#8217;t known but several major Hollywood studios are now trying to find out.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/2cb9ef45.bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bad-boys-ss1-e1589285634358.png" width="600" height="191" class="aligncenter size-full" /></center></p>
<p>In an application for a DMCA subpoena filed at a California court this week, Jan Van Voorn, the Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection at the MPA, explained that Nites.is infringing on the rights of Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal City Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Amazon Content Services and Netflix Studios.</p>
<p>&#8220;The purpose for which this subpoena is sought is to obtain the identities of the individuals assigned to these websites who have exploited ACE Members’ exclusive rights in their copyrighted motion pictures without their authorization,&#8221; the application reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;This information will only be used for the purposes of protecting the rights granted to ACE Members, the motion picture copyright owners, under Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c31e435f.mpa-cloudflare-nites-dmca-subpoena-app-e1589440614626.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpa-cloudflare-nites-dmca-subpoena-app-e1589440614626.png"><img src="media/c31e435f.mpa-cloudflare-nites-dmca-subpoena-app-e1589440614626.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpa-cloudflare-nites-dmca-subpoena-app-e1589440614626.png" alt="" width="600" height="442" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187222" /></a></center></p>
<p>The companies, all members of ACE and represented by the MPA, request an order that would compel Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of the entities behind Nites.is. That information, according to the MPA, should include names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, payment information, account updates and account histories.</p>
<p>What happens next is dependent on a few factors, starting with the information held by Cloudflare. Presuming the subpoena is granted, the big question is whether the CDN company has any useful information to hand over to the MPA. If it doesn&#8217;t, the trail could go cold, at least for now. If Cloudflare does have pertinent details, however, then the people behind Nites.is can expect a follow-up from the MPA.</p>
<p>The big question is whether those people, whoever they might be, are the same people as those behind Nites.tv. If they are (and presuming a settlement agreement was signed with the MPA/ACE to shut down permanently), then it will be a question of whether MPA/ACE are open to another settlement or in light of any breach, feel inclined to take the matter further.</p>
<p>ACE does not respond to requests to comment on any ongoing cases so at least for now, it will be a waiting game to see how this plays out.</p>
<p><em>The DMCA subpoena application documents can be found here (<a href="media/079e5401.2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc1.pdf">1</a>,<a href="media/8e5fa767.2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc2.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc2.pdf">2</a>,<a href="media/f693d15e.2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc3.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-20-mc-00053-ACE-v-Cloudflare-Nites-DMCA-Subpoena-doc3.pdf">3</a>)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187306
title: Wrong Pirate Bay URL in BBC Video Report Triggers Malware Warnings
uri: Wrong-Pirate-Bay-URL-in-BBC-Video-Report-Triggers-Malware-Warnings
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/93aApjiGagU/
content:
<p><a href="media/9dd69e0d.tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg"><img src="media/9dd69e0d.tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" alt="" width="256" height="219" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142141" /></a>During these uncertain times caused by the coronavirus pandemic, people are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/coronavirus-lockdown-boosts-interest-in-pirate-sites-and-services-200316/">increasingly turning to pirate sources</a> for their entertainment fix.</p>
<p>As previously reported, downloads of the movie <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/coronavirus-outbreak-triggers-surge-in-pirated-downloads-of-the-film-contagion/">Contagion skyrocketed</a>, and torrent-based piracy went up in several countries <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/covid-19-lockdowns-directly-impacted-torrent-download-numbers-in-several-countries-200413/">in line with their lockdown measures</a>.</p>
<p>This morning the BBC published a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/entertainment-arts-52646868/why-i-m-downloading-pirated-films-in-lockdown">video news piece</a> titled &#8216;Why I&#8217;m downloading pirated films in lockdown&#8217;. It begins with a short interview with MUSO CEO Andy Chatterley, who discussed data captured by his monitoring company during the lockdown indicating that piracy had increased significantly. The piece also features &#8216;Freddy&#8217;, a disguised 29-year-old New Yorker who explains why he&#8217;s downloading films during the pandemic.</p>
<p>To illustrate the process, the BBC report shows &#8216;footage&#8217; of The Pirate Bay in action, revealing that movies including 1917 and Bad Boys For Life are available on the platform. However, instead of showing The Pirate Bay&#8217;s true domain, the BBC fell into the trap of showing the wrong site.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/230fa8fd.tpb-wrongurl-bbc-e1589535692566.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-wrongurl-bbc-e1589535692566.png"><img src="media/230fa8fd.tpb-wrongurl-bbc-e1589535692566.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-wrongurl-bbc-e1589535692566.png" alt="BBC shows the wrong domain for The Pirate Bay" width="600" height="336" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187323" /></a></center></p>
<p>At first view, this may not appear to be a significant blunder but the publication of the wrong domain is likely to have prompted some people who aren&#8217;t aware of The Pirate Bay&#8217;s real domain (or may not have even heard of the site before) tapping the URL into their browser in search of movies to watch. Unfortunately, movies might not be the only thing on offer. </p>
<p>People who visit the URL in question who have MalwareBytes installed are informed that the domain quickly accesses another domain, tpb.party, which immediately triggers a trojan warning from the anti-malware software, blocking the platform.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/2cd58fe9.tpb-party-trojan.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-party-trojan.png"><img src="media/2cd58fe9.tpb-party-trojan.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-party-trojan.png" alt="TPB.party malware warning" width="516" height="325" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187324" /></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak has contacted Malwarebytes for more information on why it considers tpb.party and/or thepirate-bay.org unsafe and will update this article when that response comes in. However, we can confirm right now that there a no malware warnings at all on thepiratebay.org, The Pirate Bay&#8217;s true domain.</p>
<p>Importantly, this isn&#8217;t really a question of the BBC making a massive error here. Rather, it appears they may have been led into a search trap, a by-product of anti-piracy activities that force Google to make pirate popular sites harder to find and gives prominence to lesser-known domains. </p>
<p>For some time and under massive industry pressure, Google has been downranking pirate sites in its search results. The precise algorithm is unknown but Google says it uses the number of DMCA notices received against a domain as a marker to show that the site is problematic to rightsholders and should be pushed down in search results.</p>
<p>In fact, if one carries out a search for &#8216;the pirate bay&#8217; on Google from a UK IP address (where the BBC is based), thepiratebay.org won&#8217;t appear in at least the first 10 pages of results. Instead, due to the downrankings, Google now prioritizes a Wikipedia and entry and two sites that claim to be The Pirate Bay but are not.</p>
<p>Both of them trigger the same malware warning and one of them is the domain published by the BBC.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/7b2dc743.tpb-bbc-e1589536755523.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-bbc-e1589536755523.png"><img src="media/7b2dc743.tpb-bbc-e1589536755523.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-bbc-e1589536755523.png" alt="Google results for The Pirate Bay search" width="600" height="412" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187325" /></a></center></p>
<p>While only the creator of the BBC video will know why he or she included the wrong URL for The Pirate Bay, it seems likely that they expected a very high-ranking Google search result to be authoritative. Unfortunately, that isn&#8217;t the case with these types of Google searches anymore. That will be music to the ears of copyright holders for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>Firstly, true pirate sites with plenty of quality releases are already harder to find in many regions, something entertainment companies have been trying to achieve for a long time. Also, poor quality results are pushed from the bottom to the top of search results, leading to dissatisfaction among people looking for content.</p>
<p>Finally, the claim that pirate site visitors are vulnerable to malware can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as the sites where that is least likely to happen are disappeared and the ones that are in it to make money from any means possible get more and more traffic.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187288
title: Pirate Release Group ‘TRUMP’ Promises the Best From the US, but Don’t Count Out ‘HILLARY’
uri: Pirate-Release-Group-TRUMP-Promises-the-Best-From-the-US-but-Do
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1Hfu92kRICo/
content:
<p><img src="media/1d7c6531.whoarethesepeople.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/whoarethesepeople.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187311" />For decades the top of the piracy pyramid was the territory of release groups. While these come in all shapes and sizes nowadays, it all started with The Scene.</p>
<p>Scene groups tend to be highly organized and only share content among themselves through topsites. At least, that’s what they are supposed to do.</p>
<p>For most Scene release groups reputation is key. Their goal is not to share files with as many people as possible, but to beat other groups by releasing content first. While the stakes are high, the game is simple. </p>
<p>In recent months a new name appeared among these groups while catching the attention of a broader audience. Tucked in between names such as ALiGN, CAFFEiNE, KILLERS and LEViTATE, the name TRUMP appeared. </p>
<p>Needless to say, a group carrying this name is bound to get people talking. And indeed, when TRUMP releases made their way to torrent sites, people started to associate them with the U.S. President. </p>
<p>Some people think TRUMP is the best thing ever, others hate the name and all that comes with it. Just search for &#8216;Trump&#8217; on any social media platform and you get a pretty good idea.</p>
<p><center><strong>TRUMP</strong></center><center><br /></center><center><img src="media/2557929c.trump-2-e1589533554989.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trump-2-e1589533554989.png" alt="" width="450" height="180" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187300" /></center></p>
<p>Of course, the word TRUMP has been around much longer than the President, so it&#8217;s not 100% certain that Donald Trump is the inspiration. However, there are some interesting observations to make. </p>
<p>For example, in their release notes, TRUMP used the following tagline: &#8220;<em>Bringing you the best from the US</em>.&#8221; Also, TRUMP&#8217;s first release ever was an episode of the TV-show &#8220;American Ninja Warrior.&#8221;</p>
<p>It seems plausible that the release group in question supports the US President. Or perhaps they&#8217;re just stirring things up. Whatever the reason, it didn&#8217;t take too long before another familiar name entered the scene. </p>
<p>A few months ago, the group HILLARY showed up, which directly competes with TRUMP in getting pirated copies of the latest TV-shows online. A coincidence?</p>
<p><center><strong>HILLARY</strong></center><center><br /></center><center><img src="media/55d81a75.hillary-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hillary-1.jpg" alt="" width="1320" height="440" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187304" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hillary-1.jpg 1320w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/hillary-1-600x200.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1320px) 100vw, 1320px" /></center></p>
<p>Whatever the case, it&#8217;s certainly not the first time that US political elements have appeared in pirate circles. Back in 2006, Bushtorrent.com was one of the most popular torrent sites. That was clearly inspired by the then incumbent president. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak has it on good authority that this site was operated from Russia, which adds another intriguing element to the mix. Not to mention the many fake torrents that were shared there.</p>
<p><center><strong>Bushtorrent.com</strong></center><center><br /></center><center><img src="media/e87923ea.bushtorrent8-e1589533611819.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bushtorrent8-e1589533611819.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="563" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187302" /></center></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187200
title: DISH Sues Pirate IPTV Suppliers Who Sold Through Amazon and Walmart
uri: DISH-Sues-Pirate-IPTV-Suppliers-Who-Sold-Through-Amazon-and-Walmart
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HgvzLcM9vFY/
content:
<p><a href="media/62b29e54.dishc.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dishc.jpg"><img src="media/62b29e54.dishc.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dishc.jpg" alt="DISH logo" width="244" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-160937" /></a>Given the huge number of pirate IPTV providers, sellers and resellers operating all around the world today, shutting them all down must seem like an impossible dream for copyright holders.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the MPA, anti-piracy coalition ACE, plus companies like DISH Network persist in their quest, targeting operators large and small in the hope that a combination of lawsuits and threats will eventually prove a suitable deterrent.</p>
<p>This week DISH filed yet another lawsuit in the United States targeting several individuals and companies said to be behind the capture of DISH content, the manufacture of infringing devices, and the sale of pirate IPTV subscriptions in the US.</p>
<p>Filed in a Texas district court, the complaint begins by detailing the activities of defendant and Texas resident Yahya Alghafir. According to DISH, he distributes, sells and promotes Super Arab IPTV (also known as Super IPTV, herein SAIPTV) using a variety of aliases and companies including Texas Communication and Technology LLC (TCT), one of the other defendant entities named in the suit. </p>
<p>Two other defendants, Shenzhen Street Cat Technology Co. and Shenzhen Jiemao Technology Co., are described as companies operating out of Shenzhen City in China.</p>
<p>According to DISH, Street Cat plays a key role by capturing broadcasts of exclusively-licensed DISH content and retransmitting it over the Internet to subscribers of the SAIPTV service.</p>
<p>&#8220;Street Cat captures live broadcast signals of the Protected Channels, transcodes these signals into a format useful for streaming over the Internet, transfers the transcoded content to one or more servers provided, controlled, and maintained by Street Cat, and then transmits the Protected Channels to Service Users through OTT delivery,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>The company is further accused of manufacturing, distributing and selling SAIPTV set-top boxes and subscriptions, including to Jiemao Technology Co. which in turn sells them to Alghafir and TCT, the provider&#8217;s distributor in the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;No need to install Dish&#8221; and &#8220;Best after-sales service&#8221; were phrases allegedly used to promote the devices and service to customers.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c68daa43.superarabiptvdevices-e1589466263744.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/superarabiptvdevices-e1589466263744.png"><img src="media/c68daa43.superarabiptvdevices-e1589466263744.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/superarabiptvdevices-e1589466263744.png" alt="Super Arab IPTV devices" width="600" height="428" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187259" /></a></center></p>
<p>In 2017, DISH says it sent numerous copyright infringement notices to Jiemao Technology. A response received from the company claimed that it was &#8220;only rebranding and reselling&#8221; the IPTV devices and had disabled the websites used to sell them. Its reseller in the United States would soon run out of boxes to sell so the matter would be closed, the company added.</p>
<p>DISH says that the sales didn&#8217;t stop with devices and subscriptions continued to be offered on a number of dedicated websites, Amazon.com and Walmart.com, plus via a network of distributors and resellers throughout the United States.</p>
<p>DISH also reveals that in response to copyright infringement notices sent to Street Cat, the manufacturer of the devices and the apparent IPTV service supplier, the company offered a &#8220;business deal&#8221; with DISH. The company said it could stop assembling and activating the SAIPTV devices but never followed through on that promise.</p>
<p>In 2018, the company did acknowledge that DISH has the rights to its exclusive channels but refused to capitulate, claiming that as a non-US-based company with no servers in the US, it didn&#8217;t need to. Street Cat also suggested that a big company like DISH wouldn&#8217;t be negatively affected by the sale of SAIPTV devices.</p>
<p>DISH claims that it matched Alghafir and TCT to numerous domains used to sell the pirate devices and service to customers in the United States. The TV provider then sent &#8220;numerous&#8221; copyright infringement notices to which Alghafir responded on August 29, 2017.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do not sell any service for any of the channels you have listed,” he claimed. In follow-up correspondence, Alghafir demanded that DISH should remove references to TCT and his email address from any future notices.</p>
<p>Overall, DISH says it sent at least 34 copyright infringement notices to the defendants between May 2017 and this week, demanding that defendants &#8220;cease transmitting the Protected Channels identified in the notices, or otherwise cease distributing, selling, and promoting&#8221; the SAIPTV service in the United States.</p>
<p>At least 27 additional complaints were sent to CDN companies utilized by the service plus numerous targeted at Amazon and Walmart to remove listings for the product.</p>
<p>As recently as January 2020, the devices and accompanying service were still being sold in the US. DISH says that one of its investigators bought one from Alghafir and TCT via Amazon for $299.00, which included a two-year subscription.</p>
<p>With no progress to report, this week&#8217;s lawsuit claims that Street Cat is liable for direct copyright infringement in violation of 17 U.S.C. § 501 after distributing and publicly performing DISH programming.</p>
<p>It further seeks to hold Alghafir, TCT and Jiemao liable for inducing and materially contributing to copyright infringement by providing their customers with illegal access to DISH content. For a sample of 21 or more registered works, DISH demands statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work. It also seeks a broad injunction preventing future infringement of its rights.</p>
<p>Finally, DISH wants to seize any remaining pirate devices and have the defendants transfer over all domain names used to infringe the TV company&#8217;s rights.</p>
<p><em>The DISH complaint and supporting documents can be found <a href="media/376f6885.20-cv-01678-DISH-v-Alghafir-Super-Arab-IPTV-complaint-200513.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/4-20-cv-01678-DISH-v-Alghafir-Super-Arab-IPTV-complaint-200513.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=186939
title: Google Removes Pirate Movie Showcase from Search Results
uri: Google-Removes-Pirate-Movie-Showcase-from-Search-Results
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/l5mkxBjkfJo/
content:
<p><img src="media/243e6971.howgooglefights.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/howgooglefights.png" alt="" width="250" height="229" class="alignright size-full wp-image-163828" />The purpose of search engines is to lead people to what they are looking for. Today&#8217;s web would be pretty much unusable without it. </p>
<p>Over the past two decades, Google has excelled at this up to the point where Googling became a verb. </p>
<p>There has also been critique. Major entertainment companies, in particular, are not happy with the fact that Google also made pirated content easy to discover. The search engine has taken steps to address these comments, which improved the relationship recently. </p>
<p>However, every now and then Google algorithms put this improved relation to the test. This also happened last week when we discovered that Google was prominently highlighting <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-showcases-yts-and-yify-movie-releases-in-search-results-200507/">movie releases of pirate sites</a> in its featured snippets. </p>
<p>Searching for &#8220;Movies YTS,&#8221; YIFY Movies&#8221; and &#8220;Fmovies Films&#8221; didn&#8217;t just bring up the associated pirate sites. It also displayed a carousel of movies that are available on these sites. Whoops.</p>
<p>There was little doubt that this pirate showcase was collateral damage to an otherwise useful feature. The question remained, how long it would stay in place? It didn&#8217;t take long before that was answered too. </p>
<p>Today the pirate searches no longer show the associated movie carousels. Also, a related search that featured an overview of &#8220;pirated movies&#8221; is gone too. The pirate sites themselves remain in the search results of course.</p>
<p>We contacted Google to find out what happened but the company has yet to respond. The fact that the snippets were removed speaks for itself, of course.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s easy for rightsholders to blame Google when issues like this arise, they also have a responsibility of their own. The search engine and its associated companies are generally very quick to respond to takedown requests. </p>
<p>Whether these featured snippets were removed following a complaint is not known. However, in some cases, it almost seems as if copyright holders don&#8217;t really mind, as this search for &#8220;YTS&#8221; on YouTube illustrates.</p>
<p><center><strong>YTS Youtube</strong></center><br /><center><img src="media/1a708796.yts-youtube.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-youtube.png" alt="" width="1475" height="487" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187141" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-youtube.png 1475w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-youtube-600x198.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1475px) 100vw, 1475px" /></center></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187121
title: Do Justifications For Content Piracy Really Hold Up Under Scrutiny?
uri: Do-Justifications-For-Content-Piracy-Really-Hold-Up-Under-Scrutiny
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qkChAXrzEdo/
content:
<p><a href="media/3d5a45b0.pirateflag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateflag.jpg"><img src="media/3d5a45b0.pirateflag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateflag.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-175547" /></a>There are hundreds of places around the Internet inhabited by content pirates. From dedicated forums and chat channels attached to file-sharing sites to more public entities like Reddit, discussion about piracy isn’t difficult to find.</p>
<p>Reddit’s /r/piracy sub-Reddit, for example, is both huge, public, and intriguing. To outsiders, its 534,000+ members are hardcore content pirates who will copy anything digital, in any way humanly possible. But that only describes a sub-set of the population.</p>
<p>For those who stick around long enough, a more diverse mix can be discerned. While the place is clearly inhabited by some who flat-out refuse to buy anything, there are also plenty of contributors who appear to buy content but pirate on the odd occasion, to supplement an already expensive monthly outlay. Reasons to pirate can be seen everywhere and are often expressed by posters.</p>
<p>Some of the most common and recurring posts are now titled/flaired “dAtS wHy I pIrAtE!!!” These can range from a picture of an empty wallet to memes bemoaning security systems such as Denuvo. Dozens of variants can be found, such as the timeless classic of depriving increasingly ‘greedy’ corporate entities of cash to ensure they don’t &#8220;take over the world&#8221;.</p>
<p>When put under the microscope, however, do they stand up to scrutiny? As personal <em>reasons</em> to pirate, they are all legitimate, as legitimate as something can be when it&#8217;s illegal, of course. But as strict justification, as a solid argument that piracy is actually a reasonable response to a complicated set of negative circumstances and perceptions, things begin to get interesting.</p>
<p>This week one Reddit user attempted to put <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/givl0o/why_do_we_pirate_almost_all_reasons_found/">every reason</a> why someone might pirate into a single post and while the list seems pretty comprehensive, it fails &#8211; as this article will too &#8211; to cover every possible angle. That is because everyone is different or, as some will argue, the reasons aren&#8217;t reasons at all but merely <em>excuses</em> to pirate.</p>
<p>It will come as no surprise that not being able to afford content comes at the top of the list. It is the most enduring reason for piracy since piracy began but one that can be viewed from another angle too. Is it always about not having the money, period, or is it often about saving that money so it can be spent elsewhere on things that can&#8217;t be obtained for free?</p>
<p>This leads to another infamous theory, the one regarding the so-called &#8216;lost sale&#8217;. If people genuinely have no money, then there isn&#8217;t a lost sale. If they do have money but choose not to spend it, that raises questions of whether something was lost as a result of that instance of piracy and why another business sector, one selling alcohol or sneakers, for example, has more right to that revenue than content creators.</p>
<p>Ah, content creators&#8230;and distributors. Now there&#8217;s an interesting bunch. There can be little doubt that video services like Netflix and Disney+ and gaming platforms like Steam are smash-hits with consumers. They appear to offer content not only at a fair price but also surrounded by a user-friendly experience. At least to some extent they are solving the piracy puzzle by hitting that sweet spot of being pocket-friendly and a pleasure to use. Until they aren&#8217;t.</p>
<p>While Netflix aims to release its own content around the world simultaneously, its country-specific libraries are a constant pain in the neck for consumers. How many times have Netflix customers read online that a show is available to stream and yet when they try to find it, it&#8217;s unavailable in their region? These geo-restrictions seem absolutely ridiculous to Joe Public and while they don&#8217;t provide a cast-iron reason to pirate, some people &#8211; arguably quite rightly &#8211; feel <em>justified</em> in obtaining that content for free.</p>
<p>After all, they&#8217;re being short-changed, aren&#8217;t they?</p>
<p>The problem here is that while there are genuine business reasons for geo-blocking due to licensing issues, people with access to piracy sources have very little time or sympathy for them. The same is true for DRM on games, which may prevent a certain amount of piracy but only affects legitimate buyers. By their very nature, pirated games come without DRM. It isn&#8217;t difficult to see why people feel aggrieved at being punished for being a loyal customer and why excuses for piracy suddenly become justifications.</p>
<p><em>Justification</em> for piracy is perhaps most keenly witnessed among people who already invest significant sums on official content and media every month but then find themselves backed into a corner on specific items they&#8217;d like to experience. With budgets only stretching so far, why would anyone be happy to subscribe to yet another service to access a single TV show &#8216;exclusive&#8217; when that is all they want from the platform?</p>
<p>Equally, why would someone happily subscribe to a massive TV package in order to access a single channel that gets watched for an hour each week, purely because the TV company insists on selling an overpriced bundle that it refuses to split? Is this a reason to pirate or is it a justification? Indeed, after spending all of their available funds on official media, does accessing this TV channel for free even represent a &#8216;lost sale&#8217; now?</p>
<p>Like all of the other questions in this niche, the answer is not straightforward. In fact, we&#8217;re dealing with a moving target here. Once we determine that this is a lost sale in the example above and then decide to shift the available funds from one company to another, the consumer loses out by paying for things he doesn&#8217;t want, loses out by losing access to things that he does, and generally walks away feeling disappointed.</p>
<p>And disappointed customers are bad things. Disappointed customers, those who feel like they&#8217;ve been exploited or taken for granted, can turn against companies long-term. Then, as if by magic, their excuses to pirate suddenly become their personal and solid justifications to pirate, which could last for a very long time. But, not only that, it might lead them down the track of paying for even less media, media that they are now particularly militant about obtaining for free.</p>
<p>So, do justifications for content piracy really hold up under scrutiny? Well, it&#8217;s a question of personal perspective but broadly, some do and some don&#8217;t. Others absolutely don&#8217;t, while others are borderline. The argument always remains that if someone has created something the least people can do is pay for it, or not &#8220;steal it&#8221; in industry parlance. Perhaps the real question is this: does it really make any difference why people pirate to the people who do it?</p>
<p>Multi-billion dollar content companies and smaller players alike already know what they must do to win and maintain business while converting pirates. They have to deliver the best product they can and ensure that the offer is perceived as good value for money by customers. Perhaps most importantly of all, they must never offer a product that is inferior to piracy in any significant way and then, when they have customers on board, they shouldn&#8217;t take them for granted.</p>
<p>Because when they do, reasons to pirate are tossed aside and people start to feel justified in not buying the real thing. That&#8217;s when the real problems begin.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/6-ways-to-download-torrents-with-your-web-browser/
title: 6 Ways to Download Torrents with your Web-Browser
uri: 6-Ways-to-Download-Torrents-with-your-Web-Browser
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3kfWPGdER2Q/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383" src="media/39cc8e99.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="138" />In a world where playing music or watching videos on-demand is the standard, downloading torrents can seem quite cumbersome.</p>
<p>This is particularly true for people who are new to file-sharing. Why would I install software to download a small file that then downloads a larger file, you hear them think.</p>
<p>The hesitation is understandable and the good news is that there are many ways to download torrents in a regular web browser. We already addressed this topic <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20070620060753/https://torrentfreak.com/6-ways-to-download-torrents-with-your-web-browser/">thirteen<em>!</em> years ago</a>. But, since all the older options are now defunct, we&#8217;ll revisit the topic once more.</p>
<p>Below are some of the browser torrenting options that work in 2020, each with a small description and a list of pros and cons.</p>
<h2>1. WebTorrent</h2>
<p>For the name alone we have to start with <a href="https://webtorrent.io/">WebTorrent</a>, which was specifically created to integrate BitTorrent with the browser. The technology <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/webtorrent-brings-bittorrent-to-the-web-impresses-netflix-151213/">impressed Netflix</a> and there are dozens of projects that use the code to make it easy for people to share files in a browser. WebTorrent&#8217;s <a href="https://instant.io/">Instant.io</a> is a good example of a basic client.</p>
<p>Another more feature-rich WebTorrent client is <a href="https://btorrent.xyz/">βTorrent</a>, which also operates its own tracker. This web client allows people to select files, set download priorities, or seed files to share with others.</p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187127" src="media/85728942.btorrent.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btorrent.png" alt="βTorrent screenshot" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btorrent.png 1800w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/btorrent-600x200.png 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/btorrent-1536x512.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>It works anywhere, without the need to install separate software or to register an account.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>WebTorrent relies on WebRTC, which has to be supported and enabled in the browser. Also, since communication between peers relies on WebRTC it can&#8217;t communicate with standard clients by default.</em></p>
<h2>2. uTorrent and BitTorrent Web</h2>
<p>For more than a decade, <a href="https://www.utorrent.com/">uTorrent</a> and <a href="https://www.bittorrent.com/">BitTorrent</a> were standalone applications with no connection to the browser. That changed recently. Parent company BitTorrent Inc. is now pushing the browser versions of these clients, which come with all the features one would expect from a standalone client.</p>
<p>Like many other browser solutions, they allow users to stream torrents directly in the browser too. When enough people are sharing a file and there is plenty of bandwidth available, videos can be streamed near enough instantly.</p>
<p><center><strong>uTorrent Web</strong></center></p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187133" src="media/f46bbf5f.utorrentweb-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb-1.png" alt="uTorrent Web downloading torrents" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb-1.png 1801w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb-1-600x200.png 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb-1-1536x512.png 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1801px) 100vw, 1801px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>Well-known brands with all the features most people desire in a torrent client. Quick to connect to other clients.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>You have to install a separate application. The interface promotes &#8220;trending videos&#8221; from Ddlive.tv.</em></p>
<h2>3. Seedr</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.seedr.cc/">Seedr</a>&#8216;s tagline is &#8220;get stuff instantly.&#8221; It is a browser-based service where you can <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-from-the-cloud-with-seedr-160117/">add torrents</a> which will then be downloaded through Seedr&#8217;s servers. This means that other downloaders won&#8217;t see your IP-address, making the process more anonymous. And if the file has already been downloaded by someone else, it will show up instantly.</p>
<p>When a download is finished at Seedr&#8217;s end you can download the files to your computer, stream them directly in the browser, or cast to your TV via Chromecast or Airplay. The service works in any browser without having to install a separate application. Users will first have to register, however, and the free tier is limited to 3GB in storage.</p>
<p><center><strong>Seedr</strong></center></p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187278" src="media/113c5e79.seedr-screen.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/seedr-screen.jpg" alt="seedr downloading torrents" width="1400" height="490" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/seedr-screen.jpg 1400w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/seedr-screen-600x210.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>Fast, downloads anywhere, and more anonymity than regular torrent clients.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>It requires an account and the free plan comes with limitations.</em></p>
<h2>4. Cloud downloaders</h2>
<p>Seedr introduces us to a vast array of cloud downloading services. <a href="https://put.io/">Put.io</a>, for example, which has been around for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/download-or-stream-your-torrents-with-put-io-091208/">over a decade</a>. In addition to torrents, it also supports downloading from YouTube, while it integrates with many other services and apps including Chromecast, Roku, iOS, and Kodi.</p>
<p>Other Cloud downloaders such as <a href="https://www.premiumize.me/">Premiumize.me</a> go a step further, allowing people to download much more than just torrents. This premium service also supports Usenet downloads and can grab files from several file-hosting services. Like other cloud downloaders, it integrates with many apps, services, and devices.</p>
<p><center><strong>Put.io</strong></center></p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187276" src="media/a384d7d6.putio-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/putio-1.jpg" alt="put.io downloads" width="1400" height="490" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/putio-1.jpg 1400w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/putio-1-600x210.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>Fast, nothing to install, relatively anonymous.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>No free options and an account is required.</em></p>
<h2>Brave</h2>
<p>When we first addressed this topic in 2007, Opera was one of our top suggestions. It was far ahead of its time when it first supported torrent downloads. Interestingly, torrent support was dropped around 2013, pretty much out of nowhere.</p>
<p>Luckily, there&#8217;s a good browser that still allows users to download torrents natively. The <a href="https://brave.com/">Brave browser</a>, which also blocks trackers and intrusive ads, has a private browsing mode that relays your traffic through Tor. This is certainly the most convenient option of all if you already use it.</p>
<p><center><strong>Brave</strong></center></p>
<p><center><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187277" src="media/569a8e05.bravetorrent.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bravetorrent.jpg" alt="brave downloading torrents" width="1470" height="490" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bravetorrent.jpg 1470w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/bravetorrent-600x200.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1470px) 100vw, 1470px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>It works out of the box, is free, and doesn&#8217;t require an account.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>You will possibly have to install another browser. Controls and features are very limited.</em></p>
<h2>Extensions and Addons</h2>
<p>Browser extensions and addons to download torrents were very popular early on. Today, it&#8217;s hard to find a good and stable one. However, that doesn&#8217;t mean that there aren&#8217;t any helpful extensions out there. <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/torrent-control/?src=search">Torrent Control</a>, for example.</p>
<p>Torrent control allows people to easily add files to your torrent client, without having to use the application. This works with all clients that have a remote interface, including uTorrent, Transmission, BiglyBT and BitTorrent. This also allows you to add torrents remotely, from work, school, or on the road.</p>
<p>There are similar add-ons available for other browsers as well, including Chrome, which offers <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/torrent-to-transmission/fjfeeonbeiocojnpfboldpckcgcfknll?hl=en">.torrent to Transmission</a> and the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/utorrent-easy-client/fmfiejlelblhoaflnjajjjjkkgbeifpn?hl=en">Easy uTorrent</a> addon.</p>
<p><center>Torrent Control</center></p>
<p><center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187267" src="media/c3f2f1b7.torrentfirefox.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentfirefox.jpg" alt="torrent control" width="1200" height="400" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentfirefox.jpg 1200w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentfirefox-600x200.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /></center></p>
<p><strong>Pros:</strong> <em>It can be quick and simple. Allows for remote downloading.</em></p>
<p><strong>Cons:</strong> <em>Not all extensions are regularly updated. Remote downloading still requires a torrent client.</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>That it&#8217;s. There are plenty of options available for people to use a browser to download torrents. What&#8217;s right for you mostly depends on how you plan to consume content. We&#8217;ll take another good look at the available options in 2033.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187451
title: Ubisoft Sues Google & Apple For Copyright Infringement Over Rainbow Six: Siege Clone
uri: Ubisoft-Sues-Google-Apple-For-Copyright-Infringement-Over-Rainbow-Si
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W2vjkV_rMAo/
content:
<p><a href="media/734ae7da.areaf2.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/areaf2.png"><img src="media/734ae7da.areaf2.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/areaf2.png" alt="" width="270" height="270" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187458" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/areaf2.png 391w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/areaf2-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px" /></a>French video game company Ubisoft is one of the most well-known brands in the industry.</p>
<p>Its franchises including Assassin&#8217;s Creed, Far Cry, Just Dance, and the Tom Clancy series contributed to revenues of almost 1.6 billion euros in its last financial year but according to the gaming giant, one of its competitors is trading off that success.</p>
<p>Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege (R6S) has a reported 60 million players clocking up more than a billion session days in 2019-2020. However, the emergence of a direct clone of this smash-hit produced by a Hong Kong-based company has prompted Ubisoft to file a copyright infringement lawsuit in the United States.</p>
<p>Filed in a California district court on Friday, the complaint targets game developer Ejoy which conducts business under the brand Qookka Games. Ubisoft alleges that the company&#8217;s mobile game Area F2 is an illegal direct rip-off of R6S from the ground up, from the story to gameplay mechanics and beyond.</p>
<p>&#8220;That AF2 is a near carbon copy of R6S cannot seriously be disputed. Virtually every aspect of AF2 is copied from R6S, from the operator selection screen to the final scoring screen, and everything in between,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;This copying includes, but is not limited to, R6S’s storytelling as expressed in the way in which games unfold in real-time; the player-controlled &#8216;operators&#8217; (including their special abilities and weapons loadouts) and the selection and arrangement of those operators; the collection, selection, and arrangement of weapons, gadgets, and equipment available to players and specific operators.&#8221;</p>
<p>Many games in the same niche can share a lot of similarities but Ubisoft says AF2 goes much further by copying the design of its maps, gaming surfaces, object interactions, sound effects and animations, even going as far as closely duplicating the advertising and marketing material for RS6.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ea6a26f5.r6s-areaf2-compare-e1589787633238.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/r6s-areaf2-compare-e1589787633238.png"><img src="media/ea6a26f5.r6s-areaf2-compare-e1589787633238.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/r6s-areaf2-compare-e1589787633238.png" alt="Comparison between R6S and Area F2" width="600" height="172" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187459" /></a></center></p>
<p>While the main target of the lawsuit is Ejoy (which according to the complaint is owned by Alibaba), both Google and Apple are also named as defendants. According to Ubisoft, this is because despite filing complaints with the companies, neither removed AF2 from their stores and instead continued to profit from its distribution.</p>
<p>Ubisoft alleges that it informed Google on April 28/29 via a DMCA complaint that AF2 infringed its copyrights in R6S and that by continuing to distribute the title via Google Play, Google was infringing those rights too. On May 11, however, Google told Ubisoft that it would not be removing the game from the Play store.</p>
<p>Around the same time, Ubisoft filed a similar DMCA complaint with Apple which reportedly forwarded the complaint to Ejoy. In common with Google, Apple also failed to remove the game from its App Store.</p>
<p>Ubisoft says that both Google and Apple are profiting from every copy of AF2 distributed via their platforms. AF2 is free to play but according to the lawsuit the game actively targets the existing userbase for R6S, relying on revenue generated by in-app purchases of which Google and Apple take around 30%.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ubisoft is informed and believes, and on that basis alleges, that Google and Apple have received (and as long as AF2 remains available will continue to receive) substantial revenue in connection with the game, and further, that each either has sent or intends to send a portion of that revenue to a foreign bank account maintained by Ejoy and to retain the remainder for itself as profit,&#8221; the complaint notes.</p>
<p>Ubisoft says that by creating and distributing AF2, all defendants are willfully infringing its copyrights in R6S and authorizing others to reproduce the title in violation of the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101">Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. § 101</a>.</p>
<p>In respect of Google and Apple, their failure to remove AF2 from their respective stores, despite receiving notice from Ubisoft, means that they have &#8220;actual and constructive knowledge&#8221; of the infringement and since they obtain a financial benefit from that infringement, are not able to claim safe harbor under Section 512 of the DMCA.</p>
<p>As a result, Ubisoft says it is entitled to statutory damages up to a maximum of $150,000 for each copyright infringed (or actual damages and defendants&#8217; profits) plus attorneys&#8217; fees and costs.</p>
<p>To curtail the ongoing infringement, Ubisoft is also demanding preliminary and permanent injunctions against all defendants and anyone acting in concert with them, including but not limited to Internet service providers.</p>
<p><em>The complaint can be obtained <a href="media/7449f53d.isoft-v-EJOY-COM-Qookka-Games-GOOGLE-LLC-APPLE-INC-complaint.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-20-cv-04419-Ubisoft-v-EJOY-COM-Qookka-Games-GOOGLE-LLC-APPLE-INC-complaint.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187395
title: Nintendo Sues Stores Selling New ‘Team-Xecuter’ Switch Piracy Hack
uri: Nintendo-Sues-Stores-Selling-New-Team-Xecuter-Switch-Piracy-Hack
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bffcbVmEWnE/
content:
<p> <img src="media/86834a6d.xecuter1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/xecuter1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187463" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/xecuter1.jpg 845w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/xecuter1-600x397.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Two years ago, infamous hacking group Team-Xecutor announced the release of an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/modding-legends-team-xecuter-announce-future-proof-nintendo-switch-hack-180104/">‘unstoppable’ Nintendo Switch hack</a>.</p>
<p>The hack made it possible to load pirated games onto the popular console, an opportunity many people have taken advantage of. But Nintendo is now firing back.</p>
<p>Last week, the Japanese gaming giant filed two complaints in US courts, targeting nine online stores that sell Switch hacks and mods. The first complaint, filed at an Ohio federal court, lists local resident Tom Dilts Jr. and his company Uberchips LLC as defendants.</p>
<p>They stand accused of operating the Uberchips.com website through which hacks and mods are sold to the public. This allegedly results in massive theft and copyright infringement.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Tom Dilts Jr. and Uberchips LLC operate a website at UBERCHIPS.COM through which they offer devices to the public, the sole purpose of which is to hack the Nintendo Switch video game console in order to allow people to play pirated video games,&#8221; Nintendo writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Specifically, Defendants’ website sells products from an anonymous group of hackers called &#8216;Team Xecuter.&#8217; Team Xecuter unlawfully designs and manufactures an unauthorized operating system called the &#8216;SX OS,&#8217; and accompanying piracy tools that install it,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>The devices Uberchips sells violate the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, Nintendo says. This includes Team-Xecuter&#8217;s SX Pro dongle that was released in 2018, but there&#8217;s also a new threat. </p>
<p>Late last year Nintendo released an updated version of the Switch console as well as a Switch Lite version. At the moment these devices are not hackable but that is about to change. </p>
<p>At the and of 2019 Team-Xecutor announced new circumvention tools, the SX Core and SX Lite chips, which will work on all Switch consoles. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/aab482c3.xecuter-new-e1589793060728.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/xecuter-new-e1589793060728.jpg" alt="" width="620" height="437" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187480" /></center></p>
<p>SX Core and SX Lite are currently being tested by <a href="https://team-xecuter.com/community/threads/sx-core-sx-lite-samples-are-now-shipping-to-reviewers-and-testers.134103/">approved reviewers</a> and some third-party stores have already accepted pre-orders. This is a major problem for Nintendo, which it hopes to resolve in court. </p>
<p>&#8220;Together, these new Circumvention Devices threaten to expose more than 35 million additional Nintendo Switch consoles and Nintendo Switch Lite handheld devices to piracy,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>Uberchips is one of the &#8216;authorized resellers&#8217; to have already taken pre-orders. Within a day the first batch was sold out, presumably to 342 customers, and two new pre-order batches have followed since. </p>
<p>Nintendo says that this will cause &#8220;tremendous harm&#8221; and hopes to stop these sales through this lawsuit. It accuses Uberchips and its owner of trafficking in devices that violate the DMCA&#8217;s anti-circumvention provisions and want that to stop. </p>
<p>The videogame company is requesting compensation for the damages it has suffered. Just as importantly, however, it also requests an injunction to seize or destroy all circumvention devices. </p>
<p>Nintendo also wants the domain registrar of Uberchips.com to immediately transfer the domain over to its possession. And, on top of that, it would like third-party intermediaries to stop facilitating access to any or all domain names, URLs, and websites through which the defendants infringe Nintendo&#8217;s copyrights.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/c185ccad.uberchips.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchips.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="306" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187505" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchips.jpg 1200w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchips-600x306.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>The last request could, in theory, be applied to Internet providers as well. That&#8217;s worth noting considering the renewed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-industry-praises-the-effectiveness-of-pirate-site-blocking-in-u-s-senate-200311/">interest in site blocking in the US</a>. Nintendo is not new to this either having previously obtained a blocking injunction against Team-Xecuter domains <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-wins-blocking-injunction-against-four-piracy-enabling-sites-190911/">in the UK.</a></p>
<p>There is no solid evidence that Nintendo has similar plans for the US, but it&#8217;s worth keeping in mind. </p>
<p>The second lawsuit, filed late last week in Washington, is nearly identical. It targets eight stores &#8211; Anxchip.com, Axiogame.com, Flashcarda.com, Mod3dscards.com, Nx-card.com, Sxflashcard.com, Txswitch.com, and Usachipss.com &#8211; which are all accused of selling circumvention devices. </p>
<p>One key difference is that the operators of these sites are unknown. Nintendo suspects that they are not located in the US, but has no further information at this point. </p>
<p>In addition to trafficking in circumvention devices, five of these stores are also accused of copying and distributing copyright-infringing content, as they sell pirated games as well. </p>
<p>Similar to the Uberchips case, Nintendo requests compensation for the losses it has suffered and asks for injunctions to stop the activity, destroy the products, and to seize or block the associated domain names.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak obtained copies of the legal paperwork. The complaint against Tom Dilts, Jr. and Uberchips, LLC, filed in an Ohio federal court, is <a href="media/b7b38f31.nintendo-uberchips.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nintendo-uberchips.pdf">available here</a>. The complaint against the other eight stores, filed in the District of Washington, can be <a href="media/b6b1baf3.nintendo-chips.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nintendo-chips.pdf">found here</a>.</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also help you to find the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">best anonymous VPN</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187518
title: The Music Mission Campaign Aims to Shut Down 200 Music Piracy Sites
uri: The-Music-Mission-Campaign-Aims-to-Shut-Down-200-Music-Piracy-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Kk6YekeebPE/
content:
<p><a href="media/11ee0a0f.musicmission-e1589875054171.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/musicmission-e1589875054171.png"><img src="media/11ee0a0f.musicmission-e1589875054171.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/musicmission-e1589875054171.png" alt="The Music Mission" width="270" height="76" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187709" /></a>The existence of torrent indexes and streaming portals is broadly acknowledged online. Equally, people are well aware of the hundreds of lower-quality music sites that often pull their content from YouTube for download.</p>
<p>However, there is another class of music piracy sites that are mentioned in public much less often. These are professionally presented, so much so that many consumers could be forgiven for thinking they are official platforms. While that may sound attractive to pirates, users soon find that access to the content on offer is conditional on paying a fee, albeit at a fraction of the rates offered by officially-sanctioned distributors.</p>
<p>This combination of highly-polished interfaces, advanced features, alongside a broad range of content means that these pirate platforms represent direct competition for digital platforms such as Beatport, Juno, and Traxsource, undermining their business models and those of the labels that rely upon them.</p>
<p>To illustrate how similar these platforms are and the type of advanced features they offer, the images below show the same track &#8211; the first on Beatport and the second on a pirate competitor. From cover art, genre, artist tags, BPM and even a DJ-friendly track key, the pirate platform has everything covered.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/a49cf2b8.balaclava-beatport-e1589877341616.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/balaclava-beatport-e1589877341616.png"><img src="media/a49cf2b8.balaclava-beatport-e1589877341616.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/balaclava-beatport-e1589877341616.png" alt="Beatport track image" width="600" height="164" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187714" /></a></center></p>
<p><center><a href="media/33d2b608.balaclava-pirate-e1589877434689.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/balaclava-pirate-e1589877434689.png"><img src="media/33d2b608.balaclava-pirate-e1589877434689.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/balaclava-pirate-e1589877434689.png" alt="Beatport pirate competition" width="600" height="232" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187716" /></a></center></p>
<p>In response to this threat, a new anti-piracy initiative has just been launched. Spearheaded by anti-piracy company <a href="https://www.audiolock.net/">AudioLock</a> and digital label service <a href="https://www.label-worx.com/">LabelWorx</a>, The Music Mission campaign aims to tackle around 200 of these unlicensed competitors.</p>
<p>After mapping and investigating the underlying infrastructure and dependencies of these sites, the project will target their hosting providers but perhaps more importantly, seek to cut off their source of revenue by disrupting their payment gateways, thus preventing them from taking orders from subscribers.</p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, AudioLock founder and CEO Ben Rush explains that with well-architected structures designed to funnel traffic to other resources and provide protection from takedowns, the mission to take these sites won&#8217;t be straightforward. However, given that they are mostly professional paysites, there is a determination to do whatever is needed to disrupt their activities and return revenue to official distributors.</p>
<p>&#8220;The expectation is that pirate means free and when discussing piracy with rights holders such a belief is often followed by &#8216;How can you fight free?&#8217;,&#8221; Rush says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The awareness of what is occurring and the size of it needs to be pushed because not only are the majority of the sites not providing a free option, so users can only access the music by paying, but there is a section of users who have been paying infringing sites without knowingly doing so. So this should mean that more of the money being paid to these infringing sites can be redirected to legitimate platforms.&#8221;</p>
<p>While some coordinated anti-piracy initiatives struggle to gain support, the same cannot be said for The Music Mission. As its <a href="https://themusicmission.net/the-music-mission-supporters">supporter page</a> shows, the project currently boasts hundreds of distributors, labels and other industry players, including the UK&#8217;s PRS For Music, an entity that has previously undertaken <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-kickasstorrents-music-uploader-jailed-for-a-year-161216/">successful anti-piracy operations</a> of its own.</p>
<p>For operational reasons AudioLock doesn&#8217;t want to make the full list of targeted sites public at this stage but a sample shared with TorrentFreak reveals sites making revenue via at least two mechanisms.</p>
<p>While some present &#8216;download&#8217; buttons that link to file-hosting platforms where content can be downloaded, that can only be achieved by taking out a premium account with the file-hosting provider. However, the main goal, it appears, is to have site users sign up to a subscription with the platforms themselves, with packages ranging from one months&#8217; access right up to a discounted one year plan.</p>
<p>Considering these are pirate platforms, those reviewed by TF request a lot of personal information even before an account can be obtained. This includes full name, email address, country of origin, and even links to valid social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and SoundCloud, with the suggestion that platforms will vet prospective customers.</p>
<p>Despite apparent barriers to entry, The Music Mission believes that these sites are causing considerable financial damage to their partners. While Beatport, Juno Download and Traxsource alone pull in around 9.4 million visitors to their portals every month, it&#8217;s estimated that these pay-piracy sites trump that with around 11 million visits.</p>
<p>&#8220;The subscriptions on these infringing sites range from £8.50 to £41 per month, in comparison to our legitimate dance music stores charging between £1 to £2 per track and are paying the content owners,&#8221; Rush explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;While it is impossible to be sure, even if you assume that out of those 11 million visits to pay-for-access pirate sites, that only 35,000 visitors (0.32%) decide to pay for a subscription (at an average of £15 per month), that is still over £500,000 paid to the pirates currently per month. This cash injection back to our industry would make a substantial difference.&#8221;</p>
<p>In order to bring more labels on board, The Music Mission site has a tool they can use to see how much of their content is currently being made available illegally via these platforms. Rush informs TF that the scanner is being developed all the time and from tomorrow will be updating daily to scan for the latest releases.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/eabb07e7.defected-scan-e1589882395511.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/defected-scan-e1589882395511.png"><img src="media/eabb07e7.defected-scan-e1589882395511.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/defected-scan-e1589882395511.png" alt="Scan for Defected releases" width="600" height="243" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187745" /></a></center></p>
<p>Targeting payment gateways is not a new anti-piracy strategy but The Music Mission hopes that by attracting a large volume of labels keen to support the cause, leverage against payment processors and server companies will be more effective. And with more scanning and information tools just around the corner, we are informed that this is just the beginning.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187777
title: Take That’s Gary Barlow: Use a VPN to Bypass YouTube Geoblock of Lockdown Concert
uri: Take-That-s-Gary-Barlow-Use-a-VPN-to-Bypass-YouTube-Geoblock-of-Loc
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TnADdZkxQZ0/
content:
<p><a href="media/ae3661b7.barlow.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/barlow.png"><img src="media/ae3661b7.barlow.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/barlow.png" alt="" width="239" height="227" class="alignright size-full wp-image-187781" /></a>The coronavirus pandemic has managed to spread its misery to every corner of the earth, with millions out there feeling there&#8217;s little to look forward to. For fans of Take That, however, there&#8217;s a little light at the end of the tunnel.</p>
<p>This Friday 29th May at 8:00pm, Take That&#8217;s Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, and Mark Owen &#8211; together with former band member Robbie Williams &#8211; will perform a charity concert directly from their own homes. The event is being put together by insurance company Compare the Market (Compare the Meerkat) at a reported cost of hundreds of thousands of pounds, without an official venue in sight.</p>
<p>Instead, the quartet will broadcast to fans via the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/CompareTheMeerkat">Meerkat Music</a> YouTube channel and Facebook Live and considering the absolute dearth of new programming currently on TV (not to mention the massive popularity of Take That and Robbie Williams), millions are expected to tune in.</p>
<p>That, however, comes with a caveat. The one-off event is reportedly only going to be available for residents of the UK, so for fans across the rest of Europe, the United States and beyond, the concert will be off-limits. This is already proving a source of frustration for international fans and there have been a number of complaints that restricting the show, especially at such a sensitive time, is really unfair.</p>
<p>Of course, people aren&#8217;t just going to sit back and accept that so, inevitably, there have been many people posting online on how to access the show on YouTube from outside the UK. VPNs are the logical choice since they allow people to change their online locations and convince YouTube that they&#8217;re in good old Blighty.</p>
<p>What was slightly unexpected was for Gary Barlow himself to give the movement his support. After receiving advice on VPN use from a fan on Twitter, Barlow gave a shout out to fans, asking &#8220;the army&#8221; to spread the word on how to bypass YouTube&#8217;s restrictions.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/7a0a5a42.barlow-twitter-e1589897646922.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/barlow-twitter-e1589897646922.png"><img src="media/7a0a5a42.barlow-twitter-e1589897646922.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/barlow-twitter-e1589897646922.png" alt="Gary Barlow VPN" width="600" height="546" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187783" /></a></center></p>
<p>That Gary Barlow himself is encouraging fans to skirt geo-blocking is interesting for a number of reasons, not least that given the planned restrictions, music licensing is probably at the root of the issue. The details of the Compare the Market / Take That / Williams / YouTube deal aren&#8217;t public but if the concert isn&#8217;t planned for worldwide broadcast, it probably isn&#8217;t licensed for that eventuality.</p>
<p>Of course, millions of fans around the world could care less about that and it&#8217;s difficult not to have sympathy with them. </p>
<p>&#8220;How about just make it global like other artists are? You have fans worldwide. We want to support you. It’s sometimes like you don’t believe you have that many fans. It’s the same with gigs on iTunes. Can’t get them in NZ,&#8221; a fan <a href="https://twitter.com/LilyOfT03638037/status/1262454583063973890">wrote on Twitter</a>. &#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a shame things like that are necessary for &#8216;the army&#8217; outside the UK,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/SirGaryOBE/status/1262454566588645376">added another</a>.</p>
<p>While the VPNs suggested in the tweet may very well do the job, there should be concerns that Take That fans who aren&#8217;t so tech-savvy will head off to Google Play to download any old VPN in the hope that they grant access to the event. That isn&#8217;t advisable.</p>
<p>Given the numerous reports that free VPNs can be a privacy and security nightmare, fans should exercise caution by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">doing their research</a> before choosing one for long-term use.</p>
<p>In summary, Take That fans should never forget that picking the right VPN could help them rule the world, even if they do take a little patience to set up. These days, fortunately, most only take a minute, so for many fans Friday might turn out to be the greatest day after all.</p>
<p><em>I&#8217;ll get my coat&#8230;</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187785
title: GitHub Reinstates Popcorn Time Code Despite MPA ‘Threat’
uri: GitHub-Reinstates-Popcorn-Time-Code-Despite-MPA-Threat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GzdNyTAl0lE/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac12bf8c.popcornt.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106" />For more than half a decade, Popcorn Time has been a thorn in the side of Hollywood. </p>
<p>The &#8216;Netflix for Pirates&#8217; offers an easy-to-use application that opens the door to a library of thousands of streamable movies and TV-shows. </p>
<p>The Motion Picture Asociation (MPA) recognized this threat early on and pressured the original developers to throw in the towel. That worked, but it came too late as the open-source project was swiftly revived by others.</p>
<p>Today, Popcorn Time lives on through many project forks. The most popular is PopcornTime.app, which like its predecessor, <a href="https://github.com/popcorn-official">shares its source code publicly</a> on the developer hosting platform GitHub. This allows others to download, modify, and share it. </p>
<p>The MPA is not happy with this and took action recently. The movie industry group <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-suggests-github-could-be-held-liable-for-popcorn-times-copyright-infringements-200505/">informed GitHub</a>, which is owned by Microsoft, about the infringing nature of the software. According to the MPA, the application includes links to pirate sites, pirate APIs, and pirate torrent trackers, which are used to download pirated movies and TV-shows.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/849f98c6.mparequest.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mparequest.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="354" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187817" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mparequest.jpg 625w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/mparequest-600x424.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></center></p>
<p>On top of that, the MPA suggested that GitHub itself may be liable for copyright infringement if the company fails to take action. </p>
<p>While the MPA&#8217;s interpretation of the law is likely not shared by GitHub, the company did remove the Popcorn Time code. In most cases that would be the end of the story, but Popcorn Time was not backing off without a fight. </p>
<p>The developers submitted a DMCA counternotice explaining that the MPA&#8217;s request is not legitimate. The code is owned by Popcorn Time, not the MPA, and Popcorn Time asked GitHub to restore access. </p>
<p>&#8220;The code is 100 % ours and do not contain any copyright [sic] material please check again,&#8221; the <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/d7f4a6a3aade92999d4d86962972c4b27af820e3/2020/05/2020-05-04-MPA-counternotice.md">developer wrote</a>.</p>
<p>The app&#8217;s developers made a good point here. The identified code (not the built app) is not directly copyright infringing and it contains no direct links to copyright-infringing material either. This means that a DMCA notice may not be the right tool here.</p>
<p>Faced with both requests, GitHub has now decided to restore full access to the Popcorn Time repository. </p>
<p>This decision doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that it agrees with the app developers, however. The DMCA simply prescribes that, following a counternotice, content can be restored after two weeks, unless the claiming party files a lawsuit. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/2f3cf86a.popcorngit.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorngit.jpg" alt="" width="590" height="451" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187816" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorngit.jpg 1101w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorngit-600x459.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px" /></center></p>
<p>In this case, the MPA chose not to file a lawsuit against the Popcorn Time operators, so the code repositories are back online again. </p>
<p>Whether the MPA will follow-up with further action has yet to be seen. However, the whole episode highlights an interesting issue. There is little doubt that the Popcorn Time application is a pirate app. However, the code, as hosted by GitHub, is not infringing per se. As such, regular takedown notices don&#8217;t appear to work here.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187909
title: The Simpsons Writer Promotes Disney+ Premiere With Pirate Movie Screenshot
uri: The-Simpsons-Writer-Promotes-Disney-Premiere-With-Pirate-Movie-Screen
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sWPIx9Ds80g/
content:
<p><a href="media/baa85359.simpsons.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/simpsons.jpg"><img src="media/baa85359.simpsons.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/simpsons.jpg" alt="bart simpson illegal downloading" width="270" height="114" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78899" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/simpsons.jpg 500w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/simpsons-300x126.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px" /></a>In 2012, the short film &#8216;The Longest Daycare&#8217; hit the big screen attached to screenings of the 20th Century Fox release Ice Age: Continental Drift.</p>
<p>At just five minutes long it&#8217;s much shorter than a standard The Simpsons episode but, according to Al Jean who has worked on the show for more than 30 years, it was a &#8220;thank you&#8221; note to Simpsons fans who had stuck with the show for two-and-a-half decades. And things went well.</p>
<p>The Longest Daycare was nominated for an Oscar and now, more than eight years later, is about to make its debut on the streaming platform Disney+. That was pointed out by Al Jean himself just an hour ago on Twitter, who posted the following in celebration.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/9175db4c.maggie-tweet-e1589999408299.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-tweet-e1589999408299.png"><img src="media/9175db4c.maggie-tweet-e1589999408299.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-tweet-e1589999408299.png" alt="Al Jean Simpsons tweet" width="450" height="362" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187915" /></a></center></p>
<p>While that presents nothing out of the ordinary at first view, those who take the time to scratch below the surface will find something amusing. Clicking on the image to expand it fully reveals that the screenshot was taken from a pirate release of the show that was released more than seven years ago on torrents and then uploaded to YouTube.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/3d0463db.maggie-tweet-youtube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-tweet-youtube.jpg"><img src="media/3d0463db.maggie-tweet-youtube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-tweet-youtube.jpg" alt="The Longest Daycare" width="450" height="800" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187916" /></a></center></p>
<p>The release, Maggie.Simpson.in.The.Longest.Daycare.720p.HDTV.x264-2HD, is still being seeded today and can be found without too much difficulty on The Pirate Bay. The upload date on TPB is February 18, 2013 and the copy on Youtube, which currently has 88,337 views, was uploaded a day later on February 19, 2013.</p>
<p>We won&#8217;t embed it here but as the screenshot below illustrates, this is the exact pirate release showcased in Jean&#8217;s tweet, which is available all over the place for download albeit in much lower quality than will be available on Disney+ next week &#8211; hopefully.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/a373ad3d.maggie-simpson-youtube-e1589999955598.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-simpson-youtube-e1589999955598.png"><img src="media/a373ad3d.maggie-simpson-youtube-e1589999955598.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/maggie-simpson-youtube-e1589999955598.png" alt="Maggie SImpson YouTube" width="550" height="442" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187917" /></a></center></p>
<p>The big question perhaps is whether this was intentional. The writers of The Simpsons haven&#8217;t shied away from the topic of piracy in the past, that&#8217;s for certain.</p>
<p>In addition to Bart scrawling, &#8220;I must not illegally download this movie&#8221; on a school blackboard as penance for his sins, he has also been seen surfing <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-simpsons-cleverly-cover-the-pirate-bay-anti-piracy-enforcement-140106/">&#8216;The Bootleg Bay&#8217; on his laptop</a>. The writers of the show have also been happy to poke fun at the heavy-handed tactics of Hollywood in their mission to chase down TV show and movie pirates.</p>
<p>All that being said, it could have been a good old-fashioned blunder. After all, Jean couldn&#8217;t get a screenshot from Disney+ yet and YouTube is way more convenient, even if it does reveal a little bit more than perhaps intended.</p>
<p>DOH!</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187805
title: Pirate IPTV Reseller Boom Media Ordered to Pay $3.3m in Damages
uri: Pirate-IPTV-Reseller-Boom-Media-Ordered-to-Pay-3-3m-in-Damages
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dKAF0XbLjSk/
content:
<p><a href="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034" /></a>Last October, DISH Network filed a lawsuit in the United States targeting Boom Media LLC, a reseller of IPTV services sourced from a number of well-known &#8216;pirate&#8217; suppliers.</p>
<p>Filed in a New York district court, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-reseller-boom-media-sued-in-the-united-states-191102/">complaint</a> also named John Henderson of New York and Debra Henderson of North Carolina as defendants, stating that the LLC was operated from John&#8217;s home (with him as the sole member) while his mother provided key support for the operation by receiving customer payments.</p>
<p>&#8220;The codes [DISH terminology for subscriptions] are designed and produced to enable a set-top box or other Internet-enabled device to access servers used to transmit DISH programming to customers of the MFG TV, Beast TV, Nitro TV, Murica Streams, Epic IPTV, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vader-streams-was-shut-down-by-ace-must-pay-10m-damages-190821/">Vader Streams</a> and OK2 services,” the complaint read.</p>
<p>DISH claimed that subscriptions were sold to customers for between $10 and $20 per month with an option to buy a “pre-loaded” set-top box for $150. Boom Media&#8217;s sales efforts were high-profile, with DISH pointing to YouTube videos of John Henderson telling his customers that &#8220;[y]ou guys are buying pirated streams, this shit is not Hulu, it’s not Netflix, it’s pirated f**cking streams. It’s no different than buying f**king knockoff shoes. It’s black market shit.”</p>
<p>As reported in November 2019, John Henderson said he would take the case <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-reseller-boom-media-wants-250000-in-donations-to-fight-lawsuit-191130/">all the way to trial</a> but to finance that he would need at least $250,000 in donations. In the end <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/f/legal-fee039s-to-fight-dish-network-lawsuit">his fundraiser</a> made just $1,029.</p>
<p>The case has simmered along in the background ever since but for all parties the show is now over after Boom Media and the Hendersons failed to mount a defense.</p>
<p>In a memorandum decision and order handed down yesterday by District Court Judge Mae D&#8217;Agostino, the Court found that the defendants violated Section 605(a) of the Federal Communications Act after they &#8220;retransmitted DISH Programming originating from DISH&#8217;s satellite communications to customers of the Services, or worked closely with others to do so.&#8221;</p>
<p>Additionally, the defendants were found liable under Section 605(e)(4), which makes it unlawful to distribute &#8220;any electronic, mechanical, or other device or equipment&#8221;, knowing or having reason to know that the device or equipment is primarily of assistance in the unauthorized decryption of direct-to-home satellite services.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Device Codes [IPTV subscriptions], which Defendants sold individually and preloaded onto a set-top box, were designed and produced for purposes of allowing access to the servers that support the Services, and thus are a &#8216;device; or &#8216;equipment&#8217; for purposes of Section 605(e)(4),&#8221; the judgment reads.</p>
<p>Having established defendants&#8217; liability in response to DISH&#8217;s request for default judgment, Judge D&#8217;Agostino turns to the question of appropriate damages.</p>
<p>Statutory damages of between $1,000 and $10,000 are available for each violation of Section 605(a) and up to $100,000 if the violation was committed willfully and for financial gain. Section 605(e)(4) allows for statutory damages of between $10,000 and $100,000 for each violation.</p>
<p>In the event, DISH sought statutory damages of &#8216;just&#8217; $1,000 for each violation of Section 605(e)(4) but given that amount relates to each subscription, that figure was always set to explode. However, since DISH didn&#8217;t have access to enough information to put a precise figure on the number of subscriptions, it was forced to get creative.</p>
<p>Back in June 2019, John Henderson took to YouTube to complain that a credit card processor Boom used between February 2019 and May 2019 had refused to release $50,000 owed to Boom following the sale of IPTV subscriptions. Hoping to get revenge on the processor, he asked Boom subscribers to initiate chargebacks with their credit card issuers to get a refund, without risking the accounts they had with Boom.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants sold Device Codes [IPTV subscriptions] for an average price of $15.00 for each month of service. Accordingly, Defendant John Henderson&#8217;s statement that Defendants were waiting for $50,000 in payments owed to them for Device Codes previously distributed to customers is evidence of 3,333 Device Codes sold by Defendants,&#8221; the judgment reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given that Plaintiffs &#8216;are entitled to all reasonable inferences from the evidence they presented&#8217; when seeking damages against a party in default&#8230;the Court finds that this number represents a fair approximation of the total number of Device Codes sold during this time frame (February through May of 2019).&#8221;</p>
<p>Multiplying 3,333 device codes by $1,000 damages per violation, the Court awarded DISH $3.33 million in statutory damages, with Boom Media LLC and John and Debra Henderson held jointly and severally liable.</p>
<p>The Court found this to be a reasonable amount, given that the $50,000 represented a fraction of Boom Media&#8217;s sales. Also, the Court acknowledged that DISH could&#8217;ve demanded much more, given the willfulness of John Henderson&#8217;s behavior generally and his comments posted to YouTube mentioning DISH.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1e4736e6.Boom-Media-Henderson-comments-e1589974656820.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Boom-Media-Henderson-comments-e1589974656820.png"><img src="media/1e4736e6.Boom-Media-Henderson-comments-e1589974656820.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Boom-Media-Henderson-comments-e1589974656820.png" alt="Boom Media - Henderson comments" width="600" height="241" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187844" /></a></center></p>
<p>While DISH did not seek attorneys&#8217; fees or costs, it did demand a permanent injunction.</p>
<p>The Court was happy to oblige, enjoining all defendants and anyone acting in concert with them from &#8220;conducting the Rebroadcasting Scheme, or otherwise receiving or assisting others in receiving DISH&#8217;s satellite communications or the television programming that comprises such communications without authorization from DISH.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Court also ordered the defendants to stop selling IPTV subscriptions granting unauthorized access to DISH programming.</p>
<p><em>The memorandum decision and order can be downloaded <a href="media/324f3fe8.5-19-cv-01310-Dish-v-Henderson-Boom-Media-judgment-200519.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/5-19-cv-01310-Dish-v-Henderson-Boom-Media-judgment-200519.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187513
title: Anti-Piracy Lawyer Sues Torrent Sites for ‘YTS’ Trademark Infringement
uri: Anti-Piracy-Lawyer-Sues-Torrent-Sites-for-YTS-Trademark-Infringe
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kEcxE-UQkUk/
content:
<p><img src="media/e916bb48.ytslogo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ytslogo.jpg" alt="YTS logo" width="238" height="107" class="alignright size-full wp-image-185947" />The Hawaiian company &#8217;42 Ventures&#8217; doesn&#8217;t immediately ring a bell with most torrent users. However, when we say that it owns the trademarks for &#8216;YTS&#8217; and &#8216;Popcorn Time,&#8217; interests will pique.</p>
<p>Founded last year, the company doesn&#8217;t operate a pirate site. On the contrary, it&#8217;s represented by Kerry Culpepper, a well-known anti-piracy lawyer who works with several Hollywood film companies.</p>
<p>Following its inception, 42 Ventures registered several piracy-related trademarks which it uses to target pirate sites and apps, including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/company-registers-yts-and-popcorn-time-trademarks-to-promote-legal-streaming-200407/">a popular Popcorn Time fork</a>. The lawyer has used trademark complaints to suspend Twitter accounts, offering to lift the claims in return <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-lawyer-offers-to-withdraw-twitter-complaint-against-popcorn-time-200426/">for a settlement</a>.</p>
<p>As the trademark owner 42 Ventures can do this. However, the method is unusual, to say the least, and some wonder whether it would hold up in court. The Popcorn Time dispute was never litigated though and the developers didn&#8217;t pay a settlement either. The Twitter handle remains suspended.</p>
<p>A few days ago another trademark issue popped up. This time, 42 Ventures went directly to court where it filed an infringement lawsuit against the operators of YTS.ws, YTS.ms, YST.lt, YTS.tl, YTSag.me, YTS.ae, YTSmovies.cc and YTS-ag.com.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants distributed and/or streamed motion pictures in violation of US Copyright law to numerous individuals in Hawaii and the United States via their interactive websites under names identical and/or confusingly similar to Plaintiff’s registered trademark,&#8221; 42 Ventures writes.</p>
<p>The Hawaiian company obtained the <a href="https://trademark.trademarkia.com/yts-88488164.html">YTS trademark</a> earlier this year but wasn&#8217;t the first to use the YTS name of course. The name was first used by the original YIFY group which shut down years ago. Since then, others have used the brand, with YTS.mx turning it into one of the most-visited torrent sites. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/e9ef32a2.yts-trademark.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-trademark.png" alt="YTS trademark" width="540" height="239" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187944" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-trademark.png 775w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-trademark-600x265.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px" /></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, YTS.mx is not mentioned in this lawsuit. This is noteworthy not just because it&#8217;s by far the largest YTS site, but also because 42 Ventures&#8217; lawyer previously reached <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-agrees-to-million-dollar-in-piracy-settlements-and-remains-online-200424/">settlements with the torrent platform</a>. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the lawyer to ask why YTS.mx was not targeted, but he prefers not to comment on the matter. We also asked how 42 Ventures uses the YTS trademark, but this question remains unanswered as well. </p>
<p>The legal paperwork doesn&#8217;t provide any further detail either. 42 Ventures simply write the following: &#8220;Plaintiff distributes licensed content to the public from a plurality of means including, but not limited to, websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>We previously learned that the company owns and operates <a href="http://popcorntime4u.com/">Popcorntime4u.com</a> through which it licenses and promotes YouTube videos. This site also includes a YTS link at the bottom, which links to the free app generator Appsgeyser. Perhaps that how 42 Ventures &#8216;uses&#8217; the trademark.</p>
<p>Whether any of the defendants will show up in court is uncertain. The complaint lists them as being in Serbia, Russia, India and China, and all face a damages claim of $2 million for willful trademark infringement. </p>
<p>In addition to the damages, 42 Ventures also requests an injunction to prevent third-party intermediaries from facilitating access to the domains. This also applies to hosting companies, search engines, and domain registrars, which makes it likely that these sites will disappear if the injunction is granted.  </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the trademark infringement lawsuit filed by 42 Ventures at a Hawaii federal court is <a href="media/65eae905.culpepper-yts-trademark-complaint.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/culpepper-yts-trademark-complaint.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.<br />
</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187807
title: YouTube Faces Permanent ISP Blocking in Repeat Copyright Infringer Lawsuit
uri: YouTube-Faces-Permanent-ISP-Blocking-in-Repeat-Copyright-Infringer-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-_DzVyFSV3Q/
content:
<p><a href="media/72389cbc.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg"><img src="media/72389cbc.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="Sad YouTube" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196" /></a>Five years ago, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki revealed that 400 hours of video were being uploaded to the platform every minute. Today that volume has increased to a staggering 500 hours per minute, a vast amount of content by any standard.</p>
<p>While the majority of the video uploaded to YouTube isn&#8217;t problematic for the company or third-parties, some users breach copyright law by uploading content that infringes on the rights of others. When that content is discovered by YouTube&#8217;s Content ID system or is manually claimed by a rightsholder it can be monetized or removed, but not everything goes smoothly.</p>
<p>In 2018, Russia-based HR-solutions company <a href="https://ontarget.ru/">OnTarget</a> obtained a ruling from the Moscow City Court which compelled Google-owned YouTube to remove some of its content uploaded without permission. Among other things, the company creates personnel assessment test videos and some of these had been uploaded to YouTube by channels that reportedly assist people to obtain jobs by gaming the system.</p>
<p>According to a report from Kommersant, Google appealed in 2019, stating that the content was no longer on YouTube. However, the court dismissed the case, stating that the platform had &#8220;not eliminated the threat&#8221; of the plaintiff&#8217;s rights being violated in the future. It now appears that prediction has come to pass.</p>
<p>OnTarget has now filed another copyright infringement complaint against Google at the Moscow City Court. Founder and CEO of the company Svetlana Simonenko says that YouTube channels informing job seekers on how to &#8220;trick future employees and pass tests for them&#8221; has posted video tests developed by OnTarget to the platform in breach of copyright.</p>
<p>Speaking with <a href="https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/4349185">Kommersant</a>, Simonenko says that the lawsuit demands that YouTube should be completely blocked by local ISPs as the violations against her company continue. She claims that Google has not deleted the infringing content and this means YouTube should be considered a repeat infringer under Russia&#8217;s anti-piracy laws.</p>
<p>The permanent blocking of websites is a measure only usually taken against the most blatant of infringing platforms, such as massive torrent site RuTracker that despite repeated warnings, fails to remove any copyrighted content following complaints.</p>
<p>As written, Russia&#8217;s copyright laws require that sites that repeatedly infringe copyright should be completely blocked in the country but according to experts, demands to have a site like YouTube blocked across Russia over a few videos are likely to fail under pressure.</p>
<p>“It is clear that the requirement to block the whole of YouTube due to several videos is excessive, and the Moscow City Court should reject the normal course of events due to the fact that it is not proportional to the violation,&#8221; says Anatoly Semenov, Deputy Head of the IP Committee of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (<a href="http://rspp.ru/">RSPP</a>).</p>
<p>Semenov says that due to the way the law is written the Court isn&#8217;t in a position to push aside the requirement to block the entire site and replace that with a requirement to block individual links to content. However, it could simply refuse to apply it in this case or even refer the matter to the Constitutional Court.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187994
title: US Copyright Office’s Proposed DMCA Fine-Tuning Could Be Bad News for Pirates
uri: US-Copyright-Office-s-Proposed-DMCA-Fine-Tuning-Could-Be-Bad-News-fo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nICBXy9CXMM/
content:
<p><img src="media/bffe1ecd.copyright-office.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-office.png" alt="" width="276" height="235" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188008" />In 2016, the U.S. Government launched a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-reviews-impact-and-efficacy-of-dmca-safe-harbor-160105/">public consultation</a> to evaluate the impact and effectiveness of the DMCA’s Safe Harbor provisions.</p>
<p>In response, the Copyright Office received a lot of input, including more than 92,000 comments. Various rightsholders weighed in, as expected, and so did technology companies, law scholars and civil rights groups.</p>
<p>This week, the <a href="https://www.copyright.gov/">Copyright Office</a> released its long-awaited <a href="media/fd6617bd.USCO-512-Report.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/USCO-512-Report.pdf">report (pdf)</a>, summarizing the public input, while offering several recommendations to lawmakers on how to move forward. </p>
<p>The overall conclusion is that there&#8217;s a clear discrepancy between how copyright holders and online services view the DMCA. Online service providers (OSPs) are quite pleased with it, while rightsholders see it as outdated and ineffective. </p>
<p>This imbalance comes as no surprise. However, the task of the Copyright Office is to find a way forward. To that end, the report provides some guidance to &#8216;fine-tune&#8217; a variety of issues but doesn&#8217;t propose any broad changes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Office is not recommending any wholesale changes to section 512, instead electing to point out where Congress may wish to fine-tune section 512’s current operation in order to better balance the rights and responsibilities of OSPs and rightsholders in the creative industries.&#8221;</p>
<p>This fine-tuning also applies to the &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; issue, which has become a hot topic in recent years. Repeat infringers are at the center of several lawsuits between copyright holders and ISPs, which most recently resulted in a billion-dollar damages award against Cox.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f41d9eae.copyriht-office-report.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyriht-office-report.png" alt="" width="500" height="551" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188010" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyriht-office-report.png 628w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyriht-office-report-600x661.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px" /></center></p>
<p>The Copyright Office recognizes that there is quite a lot of uncertainty in this area. One problem is the lack of transparency, as ISPs are not required to have a published, or even written repeat infringer policy. </p>
<p>A repeat infringer policy that exists merely in someone&#8217;s head is good enough at the moment. This is not ideal, and Congress could address this.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given the broad scope of the safe harbors, having a clear, documented, and publicly available repeat infringer policy seems like the appropriate minimum requirement in order to comply with the statute, as well as to act as a deterrent to infringement,&#8221; the Office notes. </p>
<p>In addition, it also recommends Congress to provide more clarity on when a user&#8217;s account should be terminated. There is currently no clarity on when ISPs should take action and if that requires a takedown notice from a copyright holder.</p>
<p>Another very relevant topic addressed in the report highlights the current restrictions on DMCA subpoenas. At the moment, these suboenas are regularly used to request details of website owners from third-party intermediaries such as Cloudflare or domain name registrars. </p>
<p>These subpoenas are cheap and quick, as they are signed off by a court clerk and don&#8217;t require any oversight from a judge. However, they come with restrictions as well, as courts previously concluded that they can&#8217;t be used to identify pirating subscribers. </p>
<p>The Copyright Office wonders whether this should change. In mentions that, at the moment, the tool is rarely used, also because the current interpretation doesn&#8217;t allow it to be used against regular ISPs to identify pirating subscribers. </p>
<p>&#8220;This provision has proven to be little-used by rightsholders, in part because of how restrictively courts have interpreted it and in part because the information gleaned from such subpoenas is often of little use,&#8221; the Office notes.</p>
<p>The report recommends Congress to clarify the language of this section. While it understands that some companies might abuse a broader interpretation to extract settlements from file-sharers (i.e. copyright trolls), that shouldn&#8217;t hold back lawmakers from considering it.</p>
<p>[&#8220;T]he Office does not countenance stripping rightsholders from any realistic ability to enforce their rights, even if doing so may prevent some bad actors from abusing the primary mechanism by which rightsholders may vindicate those rights,&#8221; it notes.</p>
<p>The Copyright Office says that it favors &#8220;a legislative fix&#8221; to address ambiguity in this section of the DMCA to clarify whether this applies to regular ISPs, or not. At the same time, however, the &#8220;litigation tactics&#8221; of &#8220;certain companies&#8221; deserve a proper discussion.</p>
<p>&#8220;To properly address these concerns, however, the conversation should focus on the actual tactics at issue, rather than using section 512(h) as a proxy to wage those battles,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>This is an important recommendation, as making DMCA subpoenas available to identify pirating subscribers will change piracy enforcement drastically. The RIAA tried to use this method over a decade ago and failed. However, if the DMCA language is changed, rightsholders could go after hundreds of thousands of pirates at minimal cost and without judicial oversight.</p>
<p>The report runs to nearly 200 pages and it&#8217;s impossible to summarize it all. What is worth mentioning, however, is that the Copyright Office is not sold on two of the top demands from copyright holders. Those are, a &#8216;notice and staydown&#8217; requirement and &#8216;site blocking.&#8217;</p>
<p>The Copyright Office understands that rightsholders would like a requirement to prevent pirated content from being uploaded, as is also required in the EU by Article 17 of the new Copyright Directive. However, it&#8217;s not yet convinced that this is right for the US.</p>
<p>First of all, it would require a &#8220;fundamental shift of intermediary liability&#8221; in the country. In addition, it is not clear what effect a filtering requirement would have on speech and competition. Those issues would need more research for Congress to consider it at all.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]t is the opinion of the Office that a general staydown requirement and/or mandatory OSP filtering should be adopted, if at all, only after significant additional study, including of the non-copyright implications they would raise,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>The same is true for pirate site blocking. While there is some evidence on the effectiveness and implications in other countries, this is not always consistent, and more research is needed. </p>
<p>&#8220;While some of these studies report statistically significant reductions in piracy, other studies have shown smaller or no reductions,&#8221; the Copyright Office writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Thus, it is difficult to weigh the benefit of such orders against the potential speech impacts, arguing in favor of additional, dedicated study before adopting such a proposal.&#8221;</p>
<p>Overall, the report includes some positive and some negative elements for both sides. This was unavoidable, as rightsholders and online service providers have opposing views on how the DMCA safe harbors should function. </p>
<p>The Copyright Office believes that more balance can be achieved by file-tuning the current language. While this sounds mild, the implications for the repeat infringer and DMCA subpoenas could be far-reaching. </p>
<p>That said, the report just provides recommendations. Whether these will be turned into amendments and new legal requirements is up to Congress. </p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187991
title: Hacker Mods Old Calculator to Access the Internet, CASIO Files DMCA Complaint
uri: Hacker-Mods-Old-Calculator-to-Access-the-Internet-CASIO-Files-DMCA-Co
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-Wj_7P7faQg/
content:
<p><a href="media/6ce1a939.casio-calculator-e1590143548819.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/casio-calculator-e1590143548819.png"><img src="media/6ce1a939.casio-calculator-e1590143548819.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/casio-calculator-e1590143548819.png" alt="" width="270" height="161" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188007" /></a>Hobbyist electronics hacker and YouTuber &#8216;Neutrino&#8217; only has 10 videos on his channel but many are extremely popular.</p>
<p>Back in April he constructed his own interactive and contactless <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_-7oMFJ18k">handwash dispenser</a> to help people avoid the coronavirus and earlier this month published an absolute gem, transforming an old CASIO scientific calculator into something better.</p>
<p>After a not inconsiderable amount of work, Neutrino&#8217;s device was able to communicate with similar devices nearby and even connect to the Internet. Pretty impressive for a supposed amateur.</p>
<p>As standard, the CASIO calculator chosen for the project can be picked up on eBay for just a few dollars but other components are also required, as listed on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGjS5958g1g">Neutrino</a>&#8216;s YouTube channel. After desoldering the solar panel and various other steps, Neutrino managed to squeeze an OLED display into the space, along with a WiFi module and other goodies.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since we were in lockdown I wanted to do something really fun, which can keep me occupied for a week or two,&#8221; Neutrino informs TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;I did not have many components to work with so using this calculator (CASIO fx-ms991) was not a problem, because it was roughly 5+ years old and it was given by my uncle.&#8221; </p>
<p>Gizmodo <a href="https://gizmodo.com/calculator-hacked-for-cheating-includes-a-secret-oled-s-1843314318">published an article</a> on the invention earlier this month, highlighting that it could potentially be used to cheat in exams. Neutrino says he doesn&#8217;t want that but does hope that the hack will inspire others to learn and participate in the &#8216;maker community&#8217;.</p>
<p>But now, just a couple of weeks after winning plenty of praise, the project has also attracted the attention of an anti-counterfeiting organization working for CASIO.</p>
<p>REACT describes itself as a not-for-profit organization with over 30 years experience in fighting counterfeit trade. &#8220;One of our main objectives is to keep the costs of anti-counterfeiting actions affordable,&#8221; its site <a href="https://www.react.org/">reads</a>. A wide range of high-profile companies are listed as members, from Apple to Yves Saint Laurent and dozens in between. </p>
<p>This week REACT wrote to Github, where Neutrino has his &#8216;<a href="https://github.com/Neutrino-1/Hack-Casio-Calculator">Hack-Casio-Calculator</a>&#8216; repository, with a demand that it should be completely taken down for infringing its client&#8217;s intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am writing on behalf of CASIO, which is a member of REACT (also known as the Anti-Counterfeiting Network ). REACT actively fights the trade-in counterfeiting products on behalf of its members,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;It came to our attention that the below-mentioned repository is using copyrighted source code in order to modify Casio&#8217;s copyrighted program.</p>
<p>&#8220;The code the repository contains is proprietary and not to be publicly published. The hosted content is a direct, literal copy of our client’s work. I hereby summon you to take expeditious action: to remove or to disable access to the infringing content immediately, but in any case no later than ten days as of today.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/9e55c3b6.casio-complaint-github-e1590146167826.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/casio-complaint-github-e1590146167826.png"><img src="media/9e55c3b6.casio-complaint-github-e1590146167826.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/casio-complaint-github-e1590146167826.png" alt="" width="600" height="345" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188018" /></a></center></p>
<p>The full DMCA notice submitted to Github is available <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/1e533a25356944db37d238361989ec1ceb2cc215">here</a> and claims that the &#8220;entire repository is infringing&#8221; and that hosted content is a &#8220;direct, literal copy of [CASIO&#8217;s] work. </p>
<p>The repository has been disabled by Github in response to the complaint so validating the notice&#8217;s claims is not straightforward. That being said, Neutrino informs TF that the claim is nonsense and all work is his own.</p>
<p>&#8220;They accuse me of using copyrighted source code in order to modify CASIO&#8217;s copyrighted program. But my code has nothing to do with it,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;The code was written completely from scratch and all the libraries included in my source file were open-source. Everything was clearly mentioned in the [now removed] readme file of my GitHub repository. They also allegedly accuse me by stating that &#8216;The entire repository is infringing&#8217;, but in reality whatever the original content they pointed out has nothing to do with my code.&#8221;</p>
<p>Neutrino informs us that he has already filed a DMCA counternotice with Github to get his project back. While he may yet be successful, this is just the type of action that has &#8216;freedom-to-tinker&#8217; proponents throwing their hands up in despair wondering why big corporations have nothing better to do.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, these types of complaints can discourage people from being innovative or sharing their ideas and knowledge, the exact opposite of what Neutrino hoped to achieve. CASIO may somehow feel it&#8217;s in the right here but it does seem just a little bit petty.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xGjS5958g1g" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187719
title: ‘App Watch’ Allows Operators to Monitor and Ban Piracy Apps on Android Set-Top Boxes
uri: App-Watch-Allows-Operators-to-Monitor-and-Ban-Piracy-Apps-on-And
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t934lR_WrMg/
content:
<p><img src="media/dca69425.piratebox.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebox.png" alt="pirate box" width="275" height="202" class="alignright size-full wp-image-153702" />Many content providers and networks have their own set-top boxes that can be connected to any modern TV. </p>
<p>These devices are often running on Android and sometimes allow users to install third-party apps, via Google&#8217;s Play store, for example. </p>
<p>This opens the door to a wide range of other apps which can be problematic, especially when they offer a gateway to pirated content that directly competes with the operator&#8217;s service. </p>
<p>To address this potential threat, digital security company Irdeto is offering an &#8216;App Watch&#8217; service. This is part of the company&#8217;s broad range of piracy tools and services which also includes the game anti-tamper software Denuvo, which recently expanded with an <a href="https://blog.irdeto.com/2020/05/14/denuvo-anti-cheat-goes-live-a-message-to-doom-eternal-fans-and-gamers/">anti-cheat service</a>. </p>
<p>App Watch is targeted at providers of streaming services who have their own set-top boxes. It&#8217;s meant to safeguard these companies against abuse and prevent consumers from using their boxes as piracy tools.</p>
<p>&#8220;The problem with giving consumers choice is that they may get distracted from your services, on your platform,&#8221; Irdeto writes, pointing out the worst-case scenario.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers may use your top-of-the-line STB for everything EXCEPT your services, or at most just your basic package. The potential damage ranges from losing content upsell opportunities to outright enabling piracy on your box.&#8221;</p>
<p>Irdeto mentions that Google has a vetting process and removes clearly infringing apps from its store. However, the system isn&#8217;t perfect, with apps remaining on set-top boxes even after deletion by Google. <a href="https://resources.irdeto.com/video-entertainment/datasheet-irdeto-app-watch">App Watch</a> monitors pirate apps and can delete them from users&#8217; devices if needed. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/606736e4.irdeto-app-watch.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/irdeto-app-watch.png" alt="irdeto app watch" width="600" height="296" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187954" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/irdeto-app-watch.png 732w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/irdeto-app-watch-600x296.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>In addition, it tackles another major problem that software like Kodi presents. Irdeto stresses that Kodi is perfectly legal. However, it can be abused and exploited by pirate add-ons. This is something App Watch can take care of as well. </p>
<p>App Watch monitors all activity on set-top boxes and it can also see how apps are used. When they connect to pirate streaming sites or use pirate add-ons, the operator can take action. This includes blocking or removing Kodi add-ons, while Kodi itself remains available to users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Irdeto provides a range of actions you can take to stop app-based piracy on the set-top box, such as disabling add-ons or blocking URLs,&#8221; Irdeto explains, adding that its services can also be used to pursue legal action against pirate suppliers.</p>
<p>All the options and data can be monitored through a dedicated dashboard which reveals how many pirate apps and services are installed. This gives providers full control over their users&#8217; devices.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0409972f.appwatch-dashboard.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/appwatch-dashboard.png" alt="" width="600" height="365" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187959" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/appwatch-dashboard.png 1083w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/appwatch-dashboard-600x365.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>These app usage data are collected anonymously, but providers can use it to reach out to users directly, and point them back toward the legal options if needed. </p>
<p>&#8220;By knowing the demand and methods used to bypass your offers, you can devise promotional strategies and on-screen features that entice and enable viewers to easily switch back to your content offers.&#8221;</p>
<p>All in all App Watch sounds like a pretty clever system. Whether consumers will appreciate the monitoring and tracking remains to be seen. </p>
<p>Looking at Irdeto&#8217;s Denuvo technology, an often-heard complaint is that the anti-piracy tool decreases performance. While that claim has been disputed, the company is aware of the sensitivities and stresses that App Watch users have nothing to worry about.</p>
<p>&#8220;The agent running on the set-top box for monitoring app usage is lightweight and has no performance impact on the viewing experience,&#8221; Irdeto concludes. </p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187809
title: Spotify Launches Crackdown on Tools Offering Premium Service For Free
uri: Spotify-Launches-Crackdown-on-Tools-Offering-Premium-Service-For-Free
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GgOZXq4W0Qc/
content:
<p><a href="media/c0d2aa8a.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg"><img src="media/c0d2aa8a.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="230" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138752" /></a>Spotify is currently the most popular music streaming platform in the world with 286 million users. An impressive 130 million subscribe to the company&#8217;s premium service with the remainder using the ad-supported tier.</p>
<p>Somewhere in those figures are a small minority who enjoy the features of Spotify Premium but yet manage to do so without paying the subscription fees charged by the company. This is achieved by deploying various hacks and workarounds that remove the restrictions imposed on users of the ad-supported service.</p>
<p>In many cases this means users obtaining a hacked variant of the Spotify software, often on the Android platform. These applications don&#8217;t subject users to adverts and in some cases claim to enable other features such as unlimited track skipping and a departure from enforced shuffling.</p>
<p>Needless to say, Spotify views these applications as a threat to its business model. The company has previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-hits-windows-software-that-downloads-tracks-removes-drm-200313/">taken action</a> against specific tools in an effort to make them harder to find but more recently the Swedish streaming service appears to have stepped up its efforts.</p>
<p>Beginning back in March but increasing as the weeks have passed, Spotify AB has been sending DMCA notices to Google targeting domains that appear to be offering the types of tools highlighted above. Torrentfreak learned of the complaints from a third-party and we were able to track many of them down using the <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/">Lumen Database</a> repository.</p>
<p>The majority targeted at Google&#8217;s search indexes contain similar wording, with claims that the domains in question are infringing on Spotify&#8217;s intellectual property rights. However, the company goes further still with allegations that the tools are designed for fraudulent purposes.</p>
<p>&#8220;This site uses Spotify intellectual property in its content without authorization and this falsely suggests Spotify sponsorship or endorsement of the website and violates Spotify exclusive rights,&#8221; many <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20679145?access_token=LN1JuYQ0efaHMuTkMHthQA">read</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We reasonably believe that it is the intention of its owners to use it as an instrument of fraud.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/8625f47a.spotify-dmca1-e1589992668811.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-dmca1-e1589992668811.png"><img src="media/8625f47a.spotify-dmca1-e1589992668811.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-dmca1-e1589992668811.png" alt="Spotify DMCA complaint to Google" width="600" height="318" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187894" /></a></center></p>
<p>At the time of writing Spotify has targeted at least 20 domains with requests <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20769591?access_token=YiE7YNBPULAPDIOtgJbYYg">like this one</a> to remove more than 60 URLs. Many seem to be so-called APK download sites or similar platforms giving hints and tips about how to obtain Spotify and indeed other services for free, with accompanying links.</p>
<p>However, when testing the domains in the numerous takedown notices our interest was piqued by at least one that triggered a <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20289309?access_token=McLIRXDyFqeeIIIf4dxyUg">Malwarebytes &#8216;fraud&#8217; alert</a>. Spotify took a particular interest in this domain by targeting 14 of its URLs, which raises the question of what type of fraud is taking place on the site.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/de571179.spotifyplus-blocked.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotifyplus-blocked.png"><img src="media/de571179.spotifyplus-blocked.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotifyplus-blocked.png" alt="SpotifyPlus.com blocked" width="513" height="328" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187895" /></a></center></p>
<p>Spotify appears to use the term in connection with using its intellectual property and accessing its platform in an unauthorized manner but it wouldn&#8217;t be a huge stretch to think that something even more nefarious might be at play with some modified APK files available online today.</p>
<p>In the vast majority of cases, Google has complied by delisting the requested URLs. At the time of writing there are a handful of more recent Spotify complaints marked as pending a decision (<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/21004011?access_token=LmQV9nbIbDioZTbIUTvnzg">1</a>,<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/21004031?access_token=nLrZcVxdAv0KlAudgU0t4w">2</a>,<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/21004014?access_token=XR_W4OS2blqUf-yXSq-hfw">3</a>)but it would be no surprise if they were removed during the days to come.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187903
title: Pirate ‘Treasures’ Continue to Show Up on Google Maps
uri: Pirate-Treasures-Continue-to-Show-Up-on-Google-Maps
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Np7Yw8UxS4o/
content:
<p><img src="media/1223f323.google-pirate-map-600x380.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-pirate-map-600x380.jpg" alt="pirate map lego" width="300" height="190" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-187918" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-pirate-map-600x380.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-pirate-map.jpg 686w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Google Maps is a wonderful tool that helps millions of people find their way around the world. Some would be literally lost without it. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, Maps is used to navigate the real world. However, spammers are also using it to guide prospective pirates on the Internet. </p>
<p>This leads to rather unusual findings. For example, this week one of our searches guided us to a user-generated Google Map that marked a location in the middle of New Delhi, India. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s no secret that there are millions of pirates in the Asian country, it was still a bit of a surprise to see the location tagged as &#8220;<em>GTA V Free Download For PC Full Version Setup+Torrents</em>&#8221;</p>
<p>Below is a screenshot on the map, <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?mid=1e8ZzI4ek0NBYfeoNy037AZjTmIQ&#038;ll=28.70490797334549%2C77.45499460300061&#038;z=11">which links to</a> a now-removed page at hellboundgamers.com. It also reveals that these links can generate quite a lot of traffic, with this particular map having been viewed more than 12,000 times.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/b9554163.gta-v-map.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/gta-v-map.jpg" alt="GTA Maps pirate scam" width="620" height="453" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-187913" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/gta-v-map.jpg 1413w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/gta-v-map-600x439.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /></center></p>
<p>When we investigated further, we found dozens of these pirates &#8216;treasures&#8217; scattered around Google Maps. Some pinpoint specific locations, others just load a generic map. What they all have in common is that they are filled with pirate keywords. </p>
<p>For example, one Google Maps layer targets prospective pirates of the movie &#8220;Boy Erased.&#8221; It is advertised with a bunch of related terms, such as &#8216;Full Movie Online Boy Erased,&#8217; &#8216;Online Free Watch Boy Erased online free HDQ,&#8217; &#8216;Boy Erased watch online free 1080P,&#8217; to name a few.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/7ae90862.boyerased2-600x342.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/boyerased2-600x342.png" alt="boy erased pirate keywords" width="600" height="342" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-187967" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/boyerased2-600x342.png 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/boyerased2.png 618w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>Some links are more nefarious than others. The trick can be used by pirates to draw attention to their sites, but more often it&#8217;s abused by scammers who link to some kind of paysite, where people should never leave their credit card details.</p>
<p>That begs the question of how many people who viewed these links fell into a trap?</p>
<p>The scammers use the My Maps trick because these search results are more likely to rank well. Google Maps is seen as a trusted site, as opposed to a random page where links are spammed. </p>
<p>This problem isn&#8217;t entirely new either. We signaled similar issues <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spammers-populate-google-maps-with-pirate-links-170422/">in the past</a> and Google is undoubtedly aware of them too. As is often the case with user-generated content, however, they rely on copyright holders to alert them.  </p>
<p>When <a href="media/f096a380.mymaps.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mymaps.png">we look</a> at Google&#8217;s received takedown notices reported <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/">by Lumen</a>, we see that many of these My Maps links have been reported by copyright holders. However, that doesn&#8217;t deter scammers and spammers from hiding new &#8216;treasures&#8217; on Google Maps.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=186516
title: Which VPN Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously in 2020?
uri: Which-VPN-Providers-Really-Take-Anonymity-Seriously-in-2020
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VUwgJz7H_4k/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187853" src="media/1c602f89.private-small.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/private-small.jpg" alt="" width="290" height="163" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/private-small.jpg 640w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/private-small-600x338.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 290px) 100vw, 290px" />The VPN industry is booming and prospective users have hundreds of options to pick from. All claim to be the best, but some are more anonymous than others.</p>
<p>The VPN review business is also flourishing. Just do a random search for “<em>best VPN service</em>” or “<em>VPN review</em>” and you’ll see dozens of sites filled with recommendations and preferred picks.</p>
<p>We don’t want to make any recommendations. When it comes to privacy and anonymity, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/do-you-take-your-vpn-security-seriously-180506/">an outsider can’t offer any guarantees</a>. Vulnerabilities are always lurking around the corner and even with the most secure VPN, you still have to trust the VPN company with your data.</p>
<p>Instead, we aim to provide an unranked overview of VPN providers, asking them questions we believe are important. Many of these questions relate to anonymity and security, and the various companies answer them in their own words.</p>
<p>We hope that this helps users to make an informed choice. However, we stress that users themselves should always make sure that their VPN setup is secure, working correctly, and not leaking.</p>
<p>This year’s questions and answers are listed below. We have included all VPNs we contacted that don’t keep extensive logs or block torrent traffic on all of their servers.</p>
<p>The order of the providers is arbitrary and doesn&#8217;t carry any value. A few links in this article are affiliate links. This won’t cost you a penny more but it helps us to keep the lights on.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>1. Do you keep (or share with third parties) ANY data that would allow you to match an IP-address and a timestamp to a current or former user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold/share and for how long?</em></p>
<p>2. What is the name under which your company is incorporated (+ parent companies, if applicable) and under which jurisdiction does your company operate?</p>
<p>3. What tools are used to monitor and mitigate abuse of your service, including limits on concurrent connections if these are enforced?</p>
<p>4. Do you use any external email providers (e.g. Google Apps), analytics, or support tools ( e.g Live support, Zendesk) that hold information provided by users?</p>
<p>5. In the event you receive a DMCA takedown notice or a non-US equivalent, how are these handled?</p>
<p>6. What steps would be taken in the event a court orders your company to identify an active or former user of your service? How would your company respond to a court order that requires you to log activity for a user going forward? Have these scenarios ever played out in the past?</p>
<p>7. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why? Do you provide port forwarding services? Are any ports blocked?</p>
<p>8. Which payment systems/providers do you use? Do you take any measures to ensure that payment details can’t be linked to account usage or IP-assignments?</p>
<p>9. What is the most secure VPN connection and encryption algorithm you would recommend to your users?</p>
<p>10. Do you provide tools such as “kill switches” if a connection drops and DNS/IPv6 leak protection? Do you support Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality?</p>
<p>11. Are any of your VPN servers hosted by third parties? If so, what measures do you take to prevent those partners from snooping on any inbound and/or outbound traffic? Do you use your own DNS servers?</p>
<p>12. In which countries are your servers physically located? Do you offer virtual locations?</p>
<p><strong>Tip:</strong> Here&#8217;s a list of all <a href="#allvpns">VPN providers</a> covered here, with direct links to the answers.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a name="pia"></a><a href="https://bit.ly/VPNPIATF2020" rel="nofollow sponsored">Private Internet Access</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-112870" src="media/95cf1402.pia1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pia1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="141" />1. We do not store any logs relating to traffic, session, DNS or metadata. There are no logs kept for any person or entity to match an IP address and a timestamp to a current or former user of our service. In summary, we do not log, period. Privacy is our policy.</p>
<p>2. Private Internet Access, Inc. is an Indiana corporation, under the parent company Kape Technologies PLC, a company listed on the London Stock Exchange.</p>
<p>3. We have an active, proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse including attempts to bypass our simultaneous connection limit.</p>
<p>4. At the moment we are using Google Apps Suite and Google Analytics on our website only with interest and demographics tracking disabled and anonymized IP addresses enabled. We utilize DeskPro for our support team.</p>
<p>5. Primarily, we stress that our service is not intended to be used for illegal activities and copyright infringements and we request our users to comply with this when accepting our Terms of Use. That said, we have an active, proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse that preserves the privacy of our customers while following the letter of the law.</p>
<p>6. Every subpoena is scrutinized to the highest extent for compliance with both the “spirit” and “letter of the law.” While we have not received any valid court orders to identify an active or former user of service, we do periodically receive subpoenas from law enforcement agencies that we scrutinize for compliance and respond accordingly. If forced to provide logs by a court of law, Private Internet Access has verified in court multiple times that we keep no logs. Our company would fight a court order that requires us to do any sort of logging.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and file-sharing traffic are not discriminated against or throttled. We do not censor our traffic, period. We do provide port forwarding services on some of our VPN servers, check here for the full list of PIA VPN servers that support port forwarding.</p>
<p>8. We utilize a variety of payment systems, including, but not limited to: PayPal, Credit Card (with Stripe), Amazon, Google, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash, CashU, OKPay, PaymentWall, and even support payment using major store-bought gift cards. Payment details are only linked to accounts for billing purposes. IP assignments and other user activity on our VPN servers aren&#8217;t linkable to specific accounts or payment details because of our strict and demonstrated no-log policy.</p>
<p>9. At the moment, the most secure and practical VPN connection and encryption algorithm that we recommend to our users would be our cipher suite of AES-256 + RSA4096 + SHA256 over OpenVPN.</p>
<p>10. Our users gain access to a plethora of additional tools, including but not limited to a Kill Switch, IPv6 Leak Protection, DNS Leak Protection, Shared IP System, and MACE, which protect users from malware, trackers, and ads.</p>
<p>11. We utilize our own bare metal servers in third-party data centers that are operated by trusted business partners with whom we have completed serious due diligence. When countries or data centers fail to meet our high privacy standards, we remove our VPN server presence as has previously happened in Brazil, South Korea, Germany, and Russia.</p>
<p>12. We currently operate 3,395 servers across 64 locations in 44 countries. For more information on what countries are available, please visit our PIA network page. All of our locations are physical and not virtualized.</p>
<p><a href="https://bit.ly/VPNPIATF2020" rel="nofollow sponsored">Private Internet Access details</a></p>
<h2><a name="expressvpn"></a> <a href="https://www.xvbelink.com/?a_aid=home" rel="nofollow sponsored">ExpressVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187041" src="media/6f8f4bd5.expressvpnlogo-1-e1589295809186.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/expressvpnlogo-1-e1589295809186.png" alt="" width="250" height="74" />1. No, ExpressVPN doesn’t keep any connection or activity logs, including never logging browsing history, data contents, DNS requests, timestamps, source IPs, outgoing IPs, or destination IPs.</p>
<p>2. Express VPN International Ltd is a British Virgin Islands (BVI) company.</p>
<p>3. We reserve the right to block specific abusive traffic to protect the server network and other ExpressVPN customers. With regards to limits on the number of devices, our systems are merely able to identify how many active sessions a given license has at a given moment in time and use that counter to decide whether a license is allowed to create one additional session. This counter is temporary and is not tracked over time.</p>
<p>4. We use Zendesk for support tickets and SnapEngage for live chat support; we have assessed the security profiles of both and consider them to be secure platforms. We use Google Analytics and cookies to collect marketing metrics for our website and several external tools for collecting crash reports (only if a user opts into sharing these reports). ExpressVPN is committed to protecting the privacy of our users, and our practices are discussed in detail in our comprehensive Privacy Policy.</p>
<p>5. As we do not keep any data or logs that could link specific activity to a given user, ExpressVPN does not identify or report users as a result of DMCA notices. User privacy and anonymity are always preserved.</p>
<p>6. Legally our company is only bound to respect subpoenas and court orders when they originate from the British Virgin Islands government or in conjunction with BVI authorities via a mutual legal assistance treaty. As a general rule, we reply to law enforcement inquiries by informing the investigator that we do not possess any data that could link activity or IP addresses to a specific user. Regarding a demand that we log activity going forward: Were anyone ever to make such a request, we would refuse to re-engineer our systems in a way that infringes on the privacy protections that our customers trust us to uphold.</p>
<p>Not storing any sensitive information also protects user privacy and security in the event of law enforcement gaining physical access to servers. This was proven in a high-profile case in Turkey in which law enforcement seized a VPN server leased by ExpressVPN but could not find any server logs that would enable investigators to link activity to a user or even determine which users, or whether a specific user, were connected at a given time.</p>
<p>7. We do not believe in restricting or censoring any type of traffic. ExpressVPN allows all traffic, including BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic (without rerouting), from all of our VPN servers. At the moment, we do not support port forwarding.</p>
<p>8. ExpressVPN accepts all major credit cards, PayPal, and a large number of local payment options. We also accept Bitcoin, which we recommend for those who seek maximum privacy in relation to their form of payment. As we do not log user activity, IP addresses, or timestamps, there is no way for ExpressVPN or any external party to link payment details entered on our website with a user’s VPN activities.</p>
<p>9. By default, ExpressVPN automatically chooses the protocol best-suited to your network depending on a variety of factors. For example, our primary protocol, OpenVPN, uses a 4096-bit CA with AES-256-GCM encryption, TLSv1.2, and SHA256 signatures to authenticate traffic.</p>
<p>10. Yes, our Network Lock feature, which is turned on by default, prevents all types of traffic including IPv4, IPv6, and DNS from leaking outside of the VPN. We do not yet support IPv6 routing through the VPN tunnel. ExpressVPN also protects users from data leaks in a <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/privacy-research-lab">number of ways</a>.</p>
<p>11. Our VPN servers are hosted in trusted data centers with strong security practices, where the data center employees do not have server credentials. The efforts we take to secure our VPN server infrastructure are extensive and have been audited. For example, with our proprietary TrustedServer technology, we reinstall the entire VPN server software stack from scratch with every reboot, ensuring we have complete confidence in what software is running on each of our servers and that no unauthorized software or backdoors can persist on these servers. More details are available <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/privacy-research-lab">here</a>.</p>
<p>We run our own logless DNS on every server, meaning no personally identifiable data is ever stored. We do not use third-party DNS.</p>
<p>12. ExpressVPN has over 3,000 servers in <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/vpn-server">94 countries</a>. For more than 97% of these servers, the physical server and the associated IP addresses are located in the same country. For countries where it is difficult to find servers that meet ExpressVPN’s rigorous standards, we use virtual locations. The specific countries are published on our website <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/support/troubleshooting/virtual-server-locations/">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.xvbelink.com/?a_aid=home"></a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/expressvpn-anonymous-review">ExpressVPN details</a></p>
<h2><a name="nordvpn"></a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nordvpn17" rel="nofollow sponsored">NordVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187724" src="media/353f29e2.nordvpn-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nordvpn-1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="139" />1. We do not keep connection logs nor timestamps that could allow us to match customers with their activity.</p>
<p>2. Tefincom S.A., operating under the jurisdiction of Panama.</p>
<p>3. We are only able to see the server load. We also use an automated tool that limits the maximum number of concurrent connections to six per customer. Apart from that, we do not use any other tools.</p>
<p>4. NordVPN uses third-party data processors for emailing services and to collect basic website and app analytics. We use Iterable for correspondence, Zendesk to provide customer support, Google Analytics to monitor website and app data, as well as Crashlytics, Firebase Analytics and Appsflyer to monitor application data. All third-party services we use are bound by a contract with us to never use the information of our users for their own purposes and not to disclose the information to any third parties unrelated to the service.</p>
<p>5. NordVPN is a transmission service provider, operating in Panama. DMCA takedown notices are not applicable to us.</p>
<p>6. If the order or subpoena is issued by a Panamanian court, we would have to provide the information if we had any. However, our zero-log policy means that we do not store any information about our users’ online activity – only their email address and basic payment info. So far, we haven’t had any such cases.</p>
<p>7. We do not restrict any BitTorrent or other file-sharing applications on most of our servers. We have optimized a number of our servers specifically for file-sharing. At the moment, we do not offer port forwarding and block outgoing SMTP 25 and NetBIOS ports.</p>
<p>8. Our customers are able to pay via all major credit cards, regionally localized payment solutions and cryptocurrencies. Our payment processing partners collect basic billing information for payment processing and refund requests, but they cannot be connected to an internet activity of a particular customer. Bitcoin is the most anonymous option, as it does not link the payment details to the user identity or other personal information.</p>
<p>9. All our protocols are secure, however, the most advanced encryption is used by NordLynx. NordLynx is based on the WireGuard® protocol and uses ChaCha20 for encryption, Poly1305 for authentication and integrity, and Curve25519 for the Elliptic-curve Diffie–Hellman key agreement protocol.</p>
<p>10. We provide automatic kill switches and DNS leak protection. Dual-Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality is not yet supported with our service; however, all NordVPN apps offer an integrated IPv6 Leak Protection.</p>
<p>11. Most of our servers are leased; however, the security of our infrastructure is our top priority. To elevate our standards to a higher level, we have partnered with VerSprite, a global leader in cybersecurity consulting and advisory services. Due to our special server configuration, no one is able to collect or retain any data, ensuring compliance with our no-logs policy. We do have our own DNS servers, and all DNS requests travel through a VPN tunnel. Our customers can also manually setup any DNS server they like.</p>
<p>12. We do not offer virtual locations, our servers are located in places we state they are. At the time of writing, we have almost <a href="https://nordvpn.com/servers">6000 servers in 59 countries</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-review-anonymous-nordvpn/" rel="nofollow sponsored">NordVPN details</a></p>
<h2><a name="hideipvpn"></a><a href="http://www.hideipvpn.com/">HideIPVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187736" src="media/e02d5145.hideip-e1589880270789.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hideip-e1589880270789.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="189" />1. We do not store or share any such information that allows doing that. The only information we store is that related to the payment process. But it is not shared anywhere outside the payment systems.</p>
<p>2. The registered name of the company is Server Management LLC and we operate under US jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. A single subscription can be used simultaneously for three connections. Abuses of service usually mean using non-P2P servers for torrents or DMCA notices.</p>
<p>Also, our no-log policy makes it impossible to track who downloaded/uploaded any data from the internet using our VPN. We use IPtables plugin to block P2P traffic on servers where P2P is not explicitly allowed. We block outgoing mail on port 25 to prevent spamming activity.</p>
<p>4. We use the live chat provided by tawk.to and Google Apps for incoming email. For outgoing email, we use our own SMTP server.</p>
<p>5. Since no information is stored on any of our servers there is nothing that we can take down. We reply to the data center or copyright holder that we do not log our user&#8217;s traffic and we use shared IP-addresses, which make it impossible to track who downloaded any data from the internet using our VPN.</p>
<p>6. HideIPVPN may disclose information, including but not limited to, information concerning a client, to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation, or governmental request. But because we have a no-logs policy and we use shared IPs there won’t be anything to disclose, excepting billing details. This has never happened before.</p>
<p>7. This type of traffic is welcomed on our German (DE VPN), Dutch (NL VPN), Luxembourg (LU VPN) and Lithuanian (LT VPN) servers. It is not allowed on US, UK, Canada, Poland, Singapore, and French servers as stated in our TOS. The reason for this is our agreements with data centers. We do not allow port forwarding and we block ports 22 and 25 for security reasons.</p>
<p>8. HideIPVPN accepts the following methods: PayPal, Bitcoin, Credit &amp; Debit cards, JCB, American Express, Diners Club International, Discover. All our clients&#8217; billing details are stored in the WHMCS billing system.</p>
<p>9. SoftEther VPN protocol looks very promising and secure. Users can currently use our VPN applications on Windows and OSX systems. Both versions have a “kill switch” feature in case the connection drops. Our apps can re-establish a VPN connection and once active restart closed applications. Also, the app has the option to enable DNS leak protection.</p>
<p>10. Yes, our free VPN apps have both features built-in. It is worth mentioning that our free VPN apps for Windows and macOS – there is a brand new version of them – have even more cool and unique features. We were one of the first – if not THE FIRST &#8211; to introduce as you call it a “kill switch” in our apps. Now, we give users the ability to easily choose the best, “fastest” VPN server available for them in their location – a “Sort by speed” option.</p>
<p>11. We don&#8217;t have physical control of our VPN servers. Servers are outsourced in premium data-centers with high-quality Tier 1 networks. Our servers are self-managed and access is restricted to our personnel only.</p>
<p>12. At the moment we have <a href="https://www.hideipvpn.com/vpn-servers-location/">VPN servers located in 11 countries</a> &#8211; US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Canada, Poland, France, Australia and Singapore.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hideipvpn.com/">HideIPVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ivpn"></a><a href="http://www.ivpn.net/">IVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187759" src="media/74b20c45.ivpn-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ivpn-1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="111" />1. No. We believe that not logging VPN connection related data is fundamental to any privacy service regardless of the security or policies implemented to protect the log data. Specifically, we don’t log: traffic, DNS requests, connection timestamps and durations, bandwith, IP address or any account activity except simultaneous connections.</p>
<p>2. Privatus Limited, Gibraltar. No parent or holding companies.</p>
<p>3. We limit simultaneous connections by maintaining a temporary counter on a central server that is deleted when the user disconnects (we detail this process in our Privacy Policy).</p>
<p>4. No. We made a strategic decision from day one that no company or customer data would ever be stored on third-party systems. All our internal services run on our own dedicated servers that we setup, configure and manage. No third parties have access to our servers or data. We don’t host any external scripts, web trackers or tracking pixels on our website. We also refuse to engage in advertising on platforms with surveillance-based business models, like Google or Facebook.</p>
<p>5. Our legal department sends a reply stating that we do not store content on our servers and that our VPN servers act only as a conduit for data. In addition, we inform them that we never store the IP addresses of customers connected to our network nor are we legally required to do so. We have a detailed Legal Process Guideline published on our website.</p>
<p>6. Firstly, this has never happened. However, if asked to identify a customer based on a timestamp and/or IP address then we would reply factually that we do not store this information. If legally compelled to log activity going forward we would do everything in our power to alert the relevant customers directly (or indirectly through our warrant canary).</p>
<p>7. We do not block any traffic or ports on any servers. We provide a port forwarding service.</p>
<p>8. We accept Bitcoin, Cash, PayPal, and credit cards. When using cash there is no link to a user account within our system. When using Bitcoin, the transaction is processed through our self-hosted BitPay server. We store the Bitcoin transaction ID in our system.<br />
If you wish to remain anonymous to IVPN you should take the necessary precautions when purchasing Bitcoin. When paying with PayPal or a credit card a token is stored that is used to process recurring payments but this is not linked in any way to VPN account usage or IP-assignments.</p>
<p>9. We offer and recommend WireGuard, a high-performance protocol that utilizes state-of-the-art cryptography. Since its merge into Linux Kernel (v5.6) and the release of 1.0 version of the protocol, we consider it to be ready for wide-scale use. Alternatively, we also offer OpenVPN with RSA-4096 / AES-256-GCM, which we also believe is more than secure enough for the purposes for which we provide our service.</p>
<p>10. Yes, the IVPN client offers an advanced VPN firewall that blocks every type of IP leak possible including IPv6, DNS, network failures, WebRTC STUN etc. Our VPN clients work on a dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 but we currently only support IPv4 on our VPN gateways.</p>
<p>11. We use bare metal dedicated servers leased from third-party data centers in each country where we have a presence. We install each server using our own custom images and employ full disk encryption to ensure that if a server is ever seized the data is worthless.<br />
We also operate an exclusive multi-hop network allowing customers to choose an entry and exit server in different jurisdictions which would make the task of legally gaining access to servers at the same time significantly more difficult. We operate our own network of log-free DNS servers that are only accessible to our customers through the VPN tunnel.</p>
<p>12. We have servers in 32 countries. No virtual locations. Full list of servers is <a href="https://www.ivpn.net/status">available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ivpn.net/">IVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="azirevpn"></a><a href="https://www.azirevpn.com/">AzireVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187757" src="media/6c8daff4.azirevpn.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/azirevpn.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="110" />1. No, we do not record or store any logs related to our services. No traffic, user activity, timestamps, IP addresses, number of active and total sessions, DNS requests, or any other kind of logs are stored.</p>
<p>2. The registered company name is Netbouncer AB and we operate under Swedish jurisdiction where there are no data retention laws that apply to VPN providers.</p>
<p>3. We took extra security steps to harden our servers. They are running using Blind Operator mode, a software module that ensures that it is extremely difficult to set up any kind of traffic monitoring. Abuses like incoming DDoS attacks are usually mitigated with UDP filtering on the source port used by an attacker.</p>
<p>4. No, we do not rely on and refuse to use external third-party systems. We run our own email infrastructure and encourage people to use PGP encryption for reaching us. The ticketing support system, website analytics (Piwik, with anonymization settings) and other tools are hosted in-house on open-source software.</p>
<p>5. We politely inform the sender that we do not keep any logs and are unable to identify a user.</p>
<p>6. In the case that a valid court order is issued, we will inform the other party that we are unable to identify an active or former user of our service due to our particular infrastructure. In that case, they would probably force us to handover physical access to the server, which they would have to reboot to disable the Blind Operator mode and to be able to gain any kind of access. Since we are running our custom system images directly into RAM, all data would be lost.</p>
<p>So far, we have never received any court order and no personal information has ever been given out.</p>
<p>7. Yes, BitTorrent, peer-to-peer and file-sharing traffic is allowed and treated equally to any other traffic on all of our servers. We do not provide port forwarding services yet, however, we do provide a public IPv4+IPv6 addresses mode on OpenVPN which assigns IP addresses being used by only one user at a time for the whole duration of the connection to the server. In this mode, all ports are opened, with the exception of unencrypted outgoing port 25 TCP, usually used by the SMTP protocol, which is blocked to prevent abuse by spammers.</p>
<p>8. As of now, we offer a variety of payment options including anonymous methods such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero and some other cryptocurrencies, and cash money via postal mail. We also offer PayPal (with or without recurring payments), credit cards (VISA, MasterCard and American Express through Paymentwall) and Swish. We do not store sensitive payment information on our servers, we only retain an internal reference code for order confirmation, and the customer connected to the transaction information is removed after 6 months.</p>
<p>9. We recommend our users to use our WireGuard servers, using official clients available on Windows, Linux, macOS and OpenWrt (routers). We propose an easy-to-use WireGuard-based client on Android and iOS.</p>
<p>– Data channel cipher: ChaCha20 with Poly1305 for authentication and data integrity.<br />
– Authenticated key exchange: Noise Protocol Framework&#8217;s Noise_IKpsk2, using Curve25519, Blake2s, ChaCha20, and Poly1305. It uses a formally verified construction.</p>
<p>10. We offer a custom open-source VPN application called azclient for all major desktop platforms (Windows, macOS and Linux) which currently supports OpenVPN. Its source code is released on Github under the GPLv2 license. We are currently revamping this client to a WireGuard-based one and are planning to add a kill switch and DNS leak protection features to it in the future.</p>
<p>As we provide our users with a full dual-stack IPv4+IPv6 functionality on all servers and VPN protocols, we do not need to provide any IPv6 leak protection. Our tunnels are natively supporting IPv6 even from IPv4 only Internet lines, by tunneling IPv6 traffic into IPv4 transparently. Also, our WireGuard servers can be reached through both IPv4 and IPv6.</p>
<p>11. We physically own all our servers in all locations, co-located in closed racks in different data centers around the world meeting our strict security criteria, using dedicated network links and carefully chosen network upstream providers for maximum privacy and network quality. We host our own non-logging DNS servers in different locations.</p>
<p>12. As of now, we operate across <a href="https://www.azirevpn.com/docs/servers">11 locations on 3 continents</a>. New locations in France, Germany, Romania, Spain and Switzerland are planned soon. There are no virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.azirevpn.com/">AzireVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="windscribe"></a> <a href="https://windscribe.com/">Windscribe</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187730" src="media/06803bd6.windscribe-e1589879113676.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/windscribe-e1589879113676.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="200" />1. No.</p>
<p>2. Windscribe Limited. Ontario, Canada.</p>
<p>3. Byte count of all traffic sent through the network in a one month period as well as a count of parallel connections at any given moment.</p>
<p>4. No. Everything is self-hosted.</p>
<p>5. Our transparency policy is <a href="https://windscribe.com/transparency">available here</a>.</p>
<p>6. Under Canadian law, a VPN company cannot be compelled to wiretap users. We can be legally compelled to provide the data that we already have (as per our ToS) and we would have to comply with a valid Canadian court order. Since we do not store any identifying info that can link an IP to an account, the fact that emails are optional to register, and the service can be paid for with cryptocurrency, none of what we store is identifying.</p>
<p>7. We allow P2P traffic in most locations. Yes, we provide port forwarding for all Pro users. Only ports above 1024 are allowed.</p>
<p>8. Stripe, Paypal, Coinpayments, Paymentwall. IP addresses of users are not stored or linked to payments.</p>
<p>9. The encryption parameters are similar for all protocols we support. AES-256 cipher with SHA512 auth and a 4096-bit RSA key. We recommend using IKEv2, as it&#8217;s a kernel space protocol that is faster than OpenVPN in most cases.</p>
<p>10. Our desktop apps have a built-in firewall that blocks all connectivity outside of the tunnel. In an event of a connection drop, it fails closed &#8211; nothing needs to be done. The firewall protects against all leaks, IPv4, IPv6 and DNS. We only support IPv4 connectivity at this time.</p>
<p>11. We lease servers in over 150 different datacenters worldwide. Some datacenters deploy networking monitoring for the purposes of DDOS protection. We request to disable it whenever possible, but this is not feasible in all places. Even with it in place, since most servers have dozens/hundreds of users connected to them at any given moment, your activity gets &#8220;lost in the crowd&#8221;. Each VPN server operates a recursive DNS server and performs all DNS resolution locally.</p>
<p>12. Our server overview is available <a href="https://windscribe.com/status">here</a>. We don&#8217;t offer virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://windscribe.com/">Windscribe website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnarea"></a> <a href="http://vpnarea.com/">VPNArea</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187732" src="media/43610767.vpnarea-e1589879301561.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnarea-e1589879301561.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="118" />1. We do not keep or record any logs. We are therefore not able to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of our service.</p>
<p>2. The registered name of our company is “Offshore Security EOOD” (spelled “ОФШОР СЕКЮРИТИ ЕООД” in Bulgarian). We’re a VAT registered business. We operate under the jurisdiction of Bulgaria.</p>
<p>3. To prevent email spam abuse we block mail ports used for such activity, but we preemptively whitelist known and legit email servers so that genuine mail users can still receive and send their emails.</p>
<p>To limit concurrent connections to 6, we use an in-house developed system that adds and subtracts +1 or -1 towards the user’s “global-live-connections-count” in a database of ours which the authentication API corresponds with anonymously each time the user disconnects or connects to a server. The process does not record any data about which servers the subtracting/detracting is coming from or any other data at any time, logging is completely disabled at the API.</p>
<p>4. We host our own email servers. We host our own Ticket Support system on our servers. The only external tools we use are Google Analytics for our website and Live Chat software.</p>
<p>5. DMCA notices are not forwarded to our users as we’re unable to identify a responsible user due to not having any logs or data that can help us associate an individual with an account. We would reply to the DMCA notices explaining that we do not host or hold any copyrighted content ourselves and we’re not able to identify or penalize a user of our service.</p>
<p>6. This has not happened yet. Should it happen our attorney will examine the validity of the court order in accordance with our jurisdiction, we will then inform the appropriate party that we’re not able to match a user to an IP or timestamp, because we’re not recording any logs.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and torrents in general are allowed on all our servers. We offer port forwarding only on the dedicated IP private VPN servers at the moment with the goal to allow it on shared servers too. The only ports which are blocked are those widely related to abuse, such as spam.</p>
<p>8. We accept PayPal, Credit/Debit cards, AliPay, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, WebMoney, GiroPay, and bank transfers. In the case of PayPal/card payments, we link usernames to the transactions so we can process a refund. We do take active steps to make sure payment details can’t be linked to account usage or IP assignments. In the case of Bitcoin, BCH, ETH we do not link usernames to transactions.</p>
<p>9. We use AES-256-CBC + SHA256 cipher and RSA4096 keys on all our OpenVPN servers without exception. We also have Double VPN servers, where for example the traffic goes through Russia and Israel before reaching the final destination. We also have Tor over VPN servers to provide diversity in the anonymous setup a user prefers.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we provide both KillSwitch and DNS Leak protection. We actively block IPv6 traffic to prevent IP leaks, so connections are enforced via IPv4.</p>
<p>11. We use our own no-logs DNS servers. We work with reliable and established data centers. Nobody but us has virtual access to our servers. The entire logs directories are wiped out and disabled, rendering possible physical brute force access to the servers useless in terms of identifying users.</p>
<p>12. All our servers are physically located in the stated countries. A list of our servers in 60+ countries is <a href="https://vpnarea.com/front/home/servers">available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://vpnarea.com/">VPNArea website</a></p>
<h2><a name="airvpn"></a><a href="https://airvpn.org/">AirVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187728" src="media/9f87fc33.airvpn-1-e1589879014656.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/airvpn-1-e1589879014656.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="137" />1. No, we do not keep or share with third parties ANY data that would allow us to match an IP address and a timestamp to a current or former user of our service</p>
<p>2. AirVPN in Italy. No parent company/companies.</p>
<p>3. No tools are used.</p>
<p>4. No, we do not use any external email providers, analytics, or support tools that hold information provided by users.</p>
<p>5. They are ignored if they pertain to P2P, they are processed, verified and handled accordingly (rejected or accepted) if they pertain to web sites (or FTP services etc.) hosted behind our VPN servers.</p>
<p>6. a) We would co-operate to the best of our abilities, although we can&#8217;t give out information we don&#8217;t have. b) We are unable to comply due to technical problems and limitations. c) The scenario in &#8216;case b&#8217; has never occurred. The scenario in &#8216;case a&#8217; has occurred multiple times, but our infrastructure does not monitor, inspect or log customers&#8217; traffic, so it is not possible to correlate customer information (if we had it) with customers&#8217; traffic and vice-versa.</p>
<p>7. a) Yes, BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is allowed on all servers. AirVPN does not discriminate against any protocol or application and keeps its network as agnostic as possible. b) Yes, we provide remote inbound port forwarding service. c) Outbound port 25 is blocked.</p>
<p>8. We accept payments via PayPal and all major credit cards. We also accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dash, Doge, and Monero. By accepting directly various cryptocurrencies without intermediaries we get rid of privacy issues, including correlations between IP addresses and payments. By accepting directly Monero we also offer the option to our customers to pay via a cryptocurrency which protects transactions with a built-in layer of anonymity.</p>
<p>9. CHACHA20-POLY1305 and AES-256-GCM</p>
<p>10. We provide Network Lock in our free and open-source software. It can prevent traffic leaks (both IPv4 and IPv6 &#8211; DNS leaks included) even in case of application or system processes wrong binding, in case of UPnP caused leaks, wrong settings, WebRTC and other STUN related methods, and of course in case of unexpected VPN disconnection. b) Yes, we do provide DS IPv4/IPv6 access, including IPv6 over IPv4, pure IPv4 and pure IPv6 connections. In this way even customers whose ISP does not support IPv6 can access IPv6 services via AirVPN.</p>
<p>11. We do not own our datacenters and we are not a transit provider, so we buy traffic from Tier 1, Tier 2 and only occasionally Tier 3 providers and we house servers in various datacenters. The main countermeasures are: exclusive access to IPMI etc. via our own, external IP addresses or specific VPN for the IPMI etc.; reboot inhibition (requiring remote validation); some other methods we will not reveal. However, if servers lines are wiretapped externally and transparently, and server tampering does not occur, there is no way inside the server to prevent, or be aware of, ongoing wiretapping. Wiretapping prevention must be achieved with other methods on the client-side (some of them are integrated into our software), for example, VPN over Tor, Tor over VPN etc.</p>
<p>12. NO, we do not offer virtual locations and/or VPS. We declare only <a href="https://airvpn.org/status">real locations</a> of real &#8220;bare metal&#8221; servers.</p>
<p><a href="https://airvpn.org/">AirVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="cactusvpn"></a> <a href="https://www.cactusvpn.com/">CactusVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187739" src="media/8345352a.cactusvpn-e1589880882298.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cactusvpn-e1589880882298.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="166" />1. No, we don&#8217;t keep any information of this type.</p>
<p>2. CactusVPN Inc., Canada</p>
<p>3. We restrict our services with up to 5 devices per package for VPN connections and to unlimited devices for our SmartDNS service as long as all of them have the same IP address. Abuse of services is regulated by our Linux firewall and most of the datacenters we hire servers from provide additional security measures for server attacks.</p>
<p>4. No</p>
<p>5. We did not receive any official notices yet. We will only respond to a local court order.</p>
<p>6. If we have a valid order from Canadian authorities we have to help them identify the user. Bus as we do not keep any logs we just can&#8217;t do that. We did not receive any orders yet.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is allowed on Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Latvia and Romanian servers.</p>
<p>8. PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Bitcoin &amp; Altcoins, Alipay, Qiwi, Webmoney, Boleto Bancario, Yandex Money and other less popular payment options.</p>
<p>9. We recommend users to use SoftEther with ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256 cipher suite.</p>
<p>10. Yes, our apps include Kill Switch and Apps. Killer options in case a VPN connection is dropped. Also, they include DNS Leak protection. We only support IPv4.</p>
<p>11. We use servers from various Data Centers. All the VPN traffic is encrypted so the datacenters cannot see the nature of the traffic, also the access on all servers is secured and no datacenter can see its configuration.</p>
<p>12. Here&#8217;s the link to <a href="https://www.cactusvpn.com/vpn-server-locations/">all our servers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cactusvpn.com/">CactusVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="trustzone"></a><a href="https://trust.zone/">Trust.Zone</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187726" src="media/85dbed61.trustzone-1-e1589878598794.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trustzone-1-e1589878598794.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="88" />1. Trust.Zone doesn’t store any logs. Therefore, we have no data that could be linked and attributed to the current or former user. All we need from customers is an email to sign up.</p>
<p>2. Trust.Zone is under Seychelles jurisdiction. The company is operated by Internet Privacy Ltd.</p>
<p>3. Our system can understand how many active sessions a given license has at a given moment in time. This counter is temporarily placed in RAM and never logged or saved anywhere.</p>
<p>4. Trust.Zone has never used any third-party tools like Google Analytics, live chat platform, support tools or other.</p>
<p>5. If we receive any type of DMCA requests or Copyright Infringement Notices – we ignore them. Trust.Zone is under offshore jurisdiction, out of 14 Eyes Surveillance Alliance. There is no data retention law in Seychelles.</p>
<p>6. A court order would not be enforceable because we do not log information and therefore there is nothing to be had from our servers. Trust.Zone supports Warrant Canary. Trust.Zone has not received or been subject to any searches, seizures of data, or requirements to log any actions of our customers.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and file-sharing traffic is allowed on all Trust.Zone servers. Moreover, we don’t restrict any kind of traffic. Trust.Zone does not throttle or block any protocols, IP addresses, servers or any type of traffic whatsoever.</p>
<p>8. All major credit cards are accepted. PayPal, Alipay, wire transfer, and many other types of payments are available. As we don&#8217;t store any logs, there is no way to link payment details with user&#8217;s internet activity</p>
<p>9. We use the most recommended protocols in the VPN industry &#8211; IKEv2/IPSec, OpenVPN. We also support our own protocol which is faster than OpenVPN and also includes Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). Trust.Zone uses AES-256 Encryption by default.</p>
<p>10. Trust.Zone supports a kill-switch function. We also own our DNS servers and provide users with the ability to use our DNS to avoid any DNS leaks. All features listed above are also available with a 30-day Free Plan. Trust.Zone does not support IPv6 to avoid any leaks. We also provide users with additional recommendations to be sure that there are no DNS leaks or IP leaks.</p>
<p>11. We have a mixed infrastructure. Trust.Zone owns some physical servers and we have access to them physically. In locations with lower utilization, we normally host with third-parties. But the most important point is that we use dedicated servers in this case only, with full control by our network administrators. DNS queries go through our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. We are operating with 175+ dedicated servers in 93 geo-zones and are still growing. We also provide users with dedicated IP addresses if needed. The full map of the server locations is available <a href="https://trust.zone/servers">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://trust.zone/">Trust.Zone website</a></p>
<h2><a name="switchvpn"></a><a href="https://switchvpn.net/">SwitchVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187846" src="media/58bb2eab.switchvpn.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/switchvpn.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="124" />1. No, SwitchVPN does not store any logs which would allow anyone to match an IP address and a time stamp to a current or former user of our services.</p>
<p>2. Our company name is “CS SYSTEMS, INC” and it comes under United States jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. We pro-actively take steps to mitigate abuse of our service/servers by implementing certain firewall rules. Such as blocking default SMTP ports which are likely to be abused by spammers.</p>
<p>4. We use Chatra for providing Live Chat and our web-based ticketing system which is self-hosted. No personal information is collected.</p>
<p>5. SwitchVPN is transitory digital network communications as per 17 U.S.C § 512(a) of the Copyright Act. So in order to protect the privacy of our users we use shared IP addresses, which makes it impossible to pinpoint any specific user. If the copyright holder only provides us with an IP address as identifying information, then it is impossible for us to associate a DMCA notice with any of our users.</p>
<p>6. There have been no court orders since we started our operation in 2010, and as we do not log our users’ sessions and we utilize shared IP addresses, it is not possible to identify any user solely based on timestamps or IP addresses. Currently, there are no mandatory data logging requirements in the United States but in case the situation changes, we will migrate our company to another privacy-friendly jurisdiction.</p>
<p>7. Yes, We have P2P optimized servers that provide dynamic port forwarding. It can be easily filtered in our VPN application.</p>
<p>8. We accept all major payment methods such as Credit Card, PayPal, Bitcoin and other Crypto Currencies. We use shared IPs and every account is assigned an alias username for connecting to the VPN server.</p>
<p>9. SwitchVPN utilizes AES-256bit encryption with SHA512 Authentication Channel by default.</p>
<p>10. Yes, Kill Switch &amp; DNS Leak protection is provided on our Windows and Mac application. Currently we only support IPv4.</p>
<p>11. Before we get into an agreement with any third party, we make sure the company does not have any poor history for privacy and we make sure the company is in-line with our privacy requirements for providing our users with a no-log VPN service. We also use our own DNS servers to anonymize all DNS requests.</p>
<p>12. All of <a href="https://switchvpn.net/servers">our servers</a> are physically located in the countries we have mentioned, we do not use virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://switchvpn.net/">SwitchVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="privatevpn"></a><a href="https://privatevpn.com/">PrivateVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187764" src="media/df937bb8.privatevpn-e1589886616676.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/privatevpn-e1589886616676.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="68" />1. We DO NOT keep any logs. We do not store logs relating to traffic, session, DNS, or metadata.</p>
<p>2. We&#8217;re registered in Sweden under the name &#8220;Privat Kommunikation Sverige AB&#8221;</p>
<p>3. The nature of our VPN service makes it practically impossible for us to do any sort of monitoring of abuses. We do monitor the realtime state of the total amount of connections per user account as we allow 6 connections simultaneously. This specific information is never stored.</p>
<p>4. We are using LAdesk support tools, included ticket system and Live Chat. They remain on the chat server for the duration of the chat session, then optionally sent by email to a user, and then destroyed.</p>
<p>5. Since we don&#8217;t keep any information on any of our servers DMCA is not applicable to our service as it is not a codified law or act under Swedish jurisdiction</p>
<p>6. We don’t retain or log any identifiers at all. So, basically even when ordered to actively investigate a user we are limited to the number of active logins which is just a numerical value. That being said, we have not received a court order to date</p>
<p>7. P2P is allowed on all our servers as a matter of policy. We are not in the business of restricting and throttling things. The whole point of a user connecting to our VPN servers is to get uncensored and unrestricted Internet. We do support port forwarding with one open port to all ports opened.</p>
<p>8. We accept all forms of Credit/Debit card payments through the Stripe payment gateway, PayPal payment method, and Bitcoins. A credit card or a PayPal payment has to be linked to a user account for us to be able to refund a customer due to our 30-day money-back guarantee. More important, a VPN IP can&#8217;t be linked to a user account.</p>
<p>9. OpenVPN over UDP with 256-bit security for both data and TLS control channel encryption and Wireguard.</p>
<p>10. Our Windows and macOS VPN app offers a robust Kill switch and DNS leak protection. DNS leaks on any major platform are owing to broken installations which are fixed as soon we see a report or any issues. IPv6 leak protection is available on every platform and multiple VPN protocols. We offer guides and instructions to set up a kill switch on macOS, GNU/Linux, and Android. At this stage, we do not support any Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality.</p>
<p>11. We have physical control over our servers and network in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, United Kindom &#8211; London, Netherlands, France Italy, Spain, Switzerland, USA &#8211; NYC &#8211; LA, and Canada &#8211; Toronto as those locations and networks are 100% managed and owned by PrivateVPN. With all other locations, we use a variation of different hosting providers such as M247. All inbound and outbound traffic is encrypted and can&#8217;t be inspected. Yes, each VPN server has its own DNS server which is pushed to the VPN client.</p>
<p>12. We use a mix of physical and virtual servers depending on the demand and needs of a given location. Virtual servers are categorized in our <a href="https://privatevpn.com/serverlist">server list</a> on our website to avoid confusion and maintain transparency.</p>
<p><a href="https://privatevpn.com/">PrivateVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="whattheserver"></a><a href="http://whattheserver.me/">WhatTheServer</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187722" src="media/d167b404.whatteserver8.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/whatteserver8.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="110" />1. We <a href="https://whattheserver.com/softether-vpn-log-purging/">do not maintain any logs</a> that would allow us to identify a user.</p>
<p>2. What The * Services, LLC is incorporated in the USA.</p>
<p>3. As mentioned above we do not log. We have no way to log bandwidth. All limiting is done by active sessions to prevent one person from sharing an account with hundreds of people. We use a custom session management system that operates completely on real-time data and keeps no logs.</p>
<p>4. We run our own communications infrastructure. No analytics are used currently.</p>
<p>5. We send out the below response as we have no logs. &#8220;Thanks for the note today. Just for clarification to you (&#8216;InsertDatacenterNameHere&#8217;) and you only (this message is not for distribution); the operator(s) of the named network(s) within the notification provide no validation of any claim(s) made on behalf of an &#8216;abuse&#8217; complainant. The operator(s) of this network, hosts, and network devices have no knowledge of any activities named in the complaint and operate in the absence of logs, records, or other commonly used identifying materials. We appreciate you (&#8216;InsertDatacenterNameHere&#8217;) bringing such items to our attention, and if we are able to assist in any way in the future, please let us know. Thanks. This ticket may be closed upon receipt and review.&#8221;</p>
<p>6. We have only had one of these requests for a VPS client. We responded by replying to the requester letting them know we were looking into it, and we notified the customer via his email on file. Then we contacted the EFF and they put us in touch with a lawyer who helped us get the case dropped, because we did not have the information requested. If we do have another request in the future we will take several steps. First, we would consult with our lawyers to confirm the validity of the order/subpoena, and respond accordingly if it is NOT a valid order/subpoena. Then we would alert our user of the event if we are legally able to.</p>
<p>If the order/subpoena is valid, we would see if we have the ability to provide the information requested, and respond accordingly we do NOT have the information requested. If we DO have the information requested,<br />
we would immediately reconfigure our systems to stop keeping that information. Then we would consult with our lawyer to determine if there is anyway we can fight the order/subpoena and/or what is the minimum<br />
level of compliance we must meet, as well as, notify the user of the event if we are legally able to do so. If we were forced to start keeping logs on our users, we would go out of business and start a new company in a different jurisdiction.</p>
<p>7. We allow file sharing on our network. We do ask people to use the EU nodes for file-sharing. We have no way to enforce that, but it helps to prevent the USA-based nodes from complaints and shutdown from overzealous copyright trolls. We do offer port forwarding plans with our Perfect Dark Plans. We do not block any ports or monitor.</p>
<p>8. We accept PayPal and Cryptocurrency. All that is required is a working email for signup. Signups via Tor or proxies are highly encouraged along with placeholder information if paying in cryptocurrency. We also use a completely different authentication infrastructure and random usernames for the VPN accounts.</p>
<p>9. We recommend OpenVPN and Our VPN has Perfect Forward Secrecy setup with ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 for all our VPN servers which is based on Softether and Ubuntu which allows people to use any protocols their devices supports. This ensures maximum compatibility and the best protection for all.</p>
<p>10. Our VPN profiles are compatible with Qomui (Qt OpenVPN Management UI) and others that have this built into the opensource VPN client. We push custom Adblocking DNS to clients. We also have ‘push “block-outside-dns”’ in our OpenVPN server config files which will prevent the client from leaking DNS requests. Additionally, we include “resolve-retry infinite” and “persist-tun” in the OpenVPN client config files which will prevent the client from sending data in the clear if the VPN connection goes down. We do have dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 support which can be used if IPv6 is enabled on the device.</p>
<p>11. All of our infrastructure is hosted in third-party colocations. However, we use full-disk-encryption on all of our servers. We also use custom DNS servers with adblocking to mitigate tracking from ad networks. We notice this also speeds up mobile devices and removes ads from lots of the apps without paid ad-free versions.</p>
<p>12. We offer <a href="https://whattheserver.com/vpn-service/">VPN server locations</a> in US,NL,UK,HK,JP. We do offer virtual locations upon request.</p>
<p><a href="http://whattheserver.me/">WhatTheServer website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ibvpn"></a> <a href="http://www.ibvpn.com/">ibVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187743" src="media/ea59ad15.ibvpn-e1589882082742.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ibvpn-e1589882082742.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="127" />1. We do not keep and we do not share with third parties ANY logs that can identify a user of our service with an IP address and/or a timestamp. We are also GDPR compliant and (in our opinion) keeping this kind of logs is not respecting the Privacy by Design guidelines.</p>
<p>2. The company’s registered name is Amplusnet SRL. We are a Romanian company, which means we are under EU jurisdiction. In Romania, there are no mandatory data retention directives.</p>
<p>3. We limit the number of concurrent connections and we are using Radius for this purpose.</p>
<p>4. The back end of the website is a dedicated WHMCS for billing and support tickets. We do not use external email providers (we host our own mail server). Our users can contact us via live chat (Zendesk). The chat activity logs are deleted on a daily basis. There is no way to associate any information provided via live chat with the users’ accounts.</p>
<p>5. So far we did not receive any DMCA notice for any P2P server from our server list. That is normal considering that the servers are located in DMCA-free zones. For the rest of the servers, P2P and file-sharing activities are not allowed/supported.</p>
<p>6. So far, we have not received any court order. We do not support criminal activities, and in case of a valid court order, we must follow the EU laws under which we operate.</p>
<p>7. We have dedicated P2P servers that allow BitTorrent and other file-sharing applications. The servers are located in Netherlands, Luxembourg, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Hong Kong and Lithuania. We do not reroute P2P connections. We do not provide port forwarding. We are blocking the SMTP ports 25 and 465 to avoid spam from our servers.</p>
<p>8. Payments are performed exclusively by third-party processors, thus no credit card info, PayPal ids, or other identifying info are stored in our database. For those who would like to keep a low profile, we accept BitCoin, LiteCoin, Ethereum, WebMoney, Perfect Money etc.</p>
<p>9. We support SSTP and SoftEther on most of the servers. We also offer double VPN and TOR over VPN.</p>
<p>10. Yes, Kill Switch and DNS leak protection are implemented in our VPN clients. Kill Switch is one of the most-used features. Our users can decide to block all the traffic when the VPN connection drops or to kill a list of applications. We allow customers to disable IPv6 traffic and to make sure that only our DNS servers are used while connected to the VPN. Also, we support SOCKS5 on our P2P servers which can be used for downloading torrents and do not leak any data if the connection to the SOCKS5 proxy drops.</p>
<p>11. We do not have physical control over our VPN servers. We have full remote control to all servers. Admin access to servers is not provided for any third-party.</p>
<p>12. The full list of server locations is <a href="https://www.ibvpn.com/server-list/">available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibvpn.com/">ibVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="mullvad"></a><a href="http://mullvad.net/en">Mullvad</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187734" src="media/f4f16a3f.mullvad8-e1589880055244.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mullvad8-e1589880055244.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="162" />1. No, all details are explained in our <a href="https://mullvad.net/guides/no-logging-data-policy/">no-logging data policy</a>.</p>
<p>2. Mullvad VPN AB &#8211; Swedish. Parent company is Amagicom AB &#8211; Swedish.</p>
<p>3. We mitigate abuse by blocking the usage of ports 25, 137,139, and 445 due to email spam and Windows security issues. The number of connections: Each VPN server reports to a central service. When a customer connects to a VPN server, the server asks the central service to validate the account number, whether or not the account has any remaining time, if the account has reached its allowed number of connections, and so on. Everything is performed in temporary memory only; none of this information is permanently stored to disk.</p>
<p>We also monitor the real-time state of total connections per account as we only allow for five connections simultaneously. As we do not save this information, we cannot, for example, tell you how many connections your account had five minutes ago.</p>
<p>4. We have no external elements at all on our website. We do use an external email provider; for those who want to email us, we encourage them to use PGP encryption which is the only effective way to keep email somewhat private. The decrypted content is only available to us.</p>
<p>5. As <a href="https://www.mullvad.net/en/guides/swedish-legislation/">explained here</a>, there is no such Swedish law that is applicable to us.</p>
<p>6. From time to time, we are contacted by governments asking us to divulge information about our customers. Given than we don&#8217;t store activity logs of any kind, we have no information to give out. Worst-case scenario: we would discontinue the servers in the affected countries. The only information AT ALL POSSIBLE for us to give out is records of payments since these are stored at PayPal, banks etc.</p>
<p>7. All traffic is treated equally, therefore we do not block or throttle BitTorrent or other file-sharing protocols. Port forwarding is allowed. Ports 25, 137,139, and 445 are blocked due to email spam and Windows security issues.</p>
<p>8. We accept cash, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, bank wire, credit card, PayPal, and Swish. We encourage anonymous payments via cash or one of the cryptocurrencies. We run our own full node in each of the blockchains and do not use third parties for any step in the payment process, from the generation of QR codes to adding time to accounts. Our website explains how we handle payment information.</p>
<p>9. We offer OpenVPN with RSA-4096 and AES-256-GCM. And we also offer WireGuard which uses Curve25519 and ChaCha20-Poly1305.</p>
<p>10. We offer a kill switch and DNS leak protection, both of which are supported in IPv6 as IPv4. While the kill switch is only available via our client/app, we also provide a SOCKS5 proxy that works as a kill switch and is <a href="https://mullvad.net/en/blog/2016/11/29/increased-security-socks5-proxy/">only accessible through our VPN</a>.</p>
<p>11. At 12 of our locations (4 in Sweden, 1 in Denmark, 1 in Amsterdam, 1 in Norway, 1 in UK, 1 in Finland, 1 in Germany, 1 in Paris, 1 in Zurich) we own and have physical control over all of our servers. In our other locations, we rent physical, dedicated servers (which are not shared with other companies) and bandwidth from carefully selected providers. Keep in mind that we have 5 locations in the UK and 3 in Germany, the servers we physically own are the ones hosted by 31173.se (they start with gb-lon-0* and de-fra-0* , and gb4-wireguard, gb5-wireguard, de4-wireguard and de5-wireguard).</p>
<p>Yes, we use our own DNS servers. All DNS traffic routed via our tunnel is &#8216;hijacked&#8217;, even if you accidentally select another DNS our DNS will anyhow be used. Except if you have setup DNS over HTTPS or DNS over TLS.</p>
<p>12. We don&#8217;t have virtual locations. All locations are <a href="https://mullvad.net/servers">listed here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://mullvad.net/en">Mullvad website</a></p>
<h2><a name="torguard"></a><a href="http://bit.ly/torguardvpn">TorGuard</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187742" src="media/23ce1eba.torguard-1-e1589881967802.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/torguard-1-e1589881967802.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="131" />1. TorGuard has never kept or retained logs for any user. No timestamps or IP logs are kept on any VPN or authentication server. The only information TorGuard has is statistical network data which helps us to determine the load of a given server.</p>
<p>2. TorGuard is owned by VPNetworks LLC and its parent company Data Protection Services. We operate under US jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. We use custom modules in a platform called Nagios to monitor VPN/Proxy hardware utilization, uptime and latency. TorGuard does enforce an eight device per user limit in real-time and each session is immediately wiped once the user has logged out. If that user failed to logout or was disconnected accidentally, our system automatically discards these stale sessions within a few minutes.</p>
<p>4. We use Google Apps for email and anonymized Google Analytics data for performance reporting. All support is handled internally and TorGuard does not utilize third-party tools for customer support.</p>
<p>5. If a valid DMCA takedown notice is received it would be handled by our legal team. Due to our no-log policy and shared IP network, we are unable to forward any requests to a single user.</p>
<p>6. If a court order is received, it is first handled by our legal team and examined for validity in our jurisdiction. Should it be deemed valid, our legal representation would be forced to further explain the<br />
nature of our shared IP network configuration and the fact that we do not hold any identifying logs or time stamps.</p>
<p>TorGuard’s network was designed to operate with minimum server resources and is not physically capable of retaining user logs. Due to the nature of shared VPN servers and the large traffic volume flowing through our network, it would not be possible to retain such logs. No, that scenario has never played out.</p>
<p>7. Yes, torrents work on all servers except our residential IP network as these are performance optimized for specific streaming platforms. TorGuard does offer port forwarding for all ports above 2048 and the only port we block outgoing is SMTP port 25 to prevent abuse.</p>
<p>8. We use Stripe for credit or debit card processing and utilize our own BTCPay instance for Bitcoin and Litecoin transactions. TorGuard accepts all cryptocurrency through coinpayments.net and use Paymentwall and PayGarden for Gift Card payments. TorGuard has gone through extreme measures by heavily modifying our billing system to work with various payment providers and to help protect our users&#8217; privacy.</p>
<p>9. For a high level of security, we would recommend using OpenVPN with AES-256-GCM-SHA512 using our stealth VPN protocol as an added measure through the TorGuard desktop or mobile apps.</p>
<p>10. Yes &#8211; our kill switch is uniquely designed to send all traffic into a *black hole* if the user loses connectivity or the app crashes for any reason. Dual stack IPv4/IPv6 is currently in development and will be released very soon.</p>
<p>11. We do have servers hosted at third parties but only select a location after extensive due diligence on very specific security criteria. We encrypt all disks and run 80% so far on virtual RAM disks. We do provide secure public DNS but we also provide our internal DNS on every endpoint which queries root VPN servers directly.</p>
<p>12. At this time we have three virtual locations: Taiwan, Greece and Mexico. TorGuard would rather not provide any virtual locations but occasionally if we cannot find a bare-metal data center that meets our security criteria we won’t take the risk.</p>
<p><a href="http://bit.ly/torguardvpn">TorGuard website</a></p>
<h2><a name="perfectprivacy"></a><a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/">Perfect Privacy</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187755" src="media/336384e0.perfect-privacy-e1589885298530.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/perfect-privacy-e1589885298530.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="86" />1. We do not store or log any data that would indicate the identity or the activities of a user.</p>
<p>2. The name of the company is VECTURA DATAMANAGEMENT LIMITED COMPANY and the jurisdiction is Switzerland.</p>
<p>3. The number of connections/devices at the same time is not limited because we do not track it. In case of malicious activity towards specific targets, we block IP addresses or ranges, so they are not accessible from our VPN servers. Additionally, we have limits on new outgoing connections for protocols like SSH, IMAP, and SMTP to prevent automated spam and brute force attacks. We do not use any other tools.</p>
<p>4. Our websites use Google Analytics to improve the quality of the user experience and it&#8217;s GDPR compliant with anonymized IP addresses. You can prohibit tracking with just one click on a provided link in the privacy policy. If a customer has a problem with Google, he has the possibility to disable the tracking of all Google domains in TrackStop. I believe we are the only VPN provider who offers this possibility. All other solutions like email, support and even our affiliate program is in-house software and under our control.</p>
<p>5. Because we do not host any data, DMCA notices do not directly affect us. However, we generally answer inquiries. We point out that we do not keep any data that would allow us to identify a user of the used IP address.</p>
<p>6. If we receive a Swiss court order, we are forced to provide the data that we have. Since we don’t log any IP addresses, timestamps or other connection-related data, the only step on our side is to inform the inquiring party that we do not have any data that would allow the identification of a user based on that data. Should we ever receive a legally binding court order that would require us to log the activity of a user going forward, we’d rather shut down the servers in the country concerned than compromise our user’s privacy.</p>
<p>There have been incidents in the past where Perfect Privacy servers have been seized, but no user information was compromised that way. Since no logs are stored in the first place and additionally all our services are running within RAM disks, a server seizure will never compromise our customers. Although we are not subject to US-based laws, there’s a warrant canary page available.</p>
<p>7. With the exception of our US servers and French servers, BitTorrent and other file-sharing software is allowed. We offer port forwarding and do not block any ports.</p>
<p>8. We offer Bitcoin, PayPal and credit cards for users who prefer these options and over 60 other payment methods. Of course, it is guaranteed that payment details are not associated with any IP addresses. The only<br />
thing you know about a person is that he or she is a customer of Perfect Privacy and which email address was used.</p>
<p>9. The most secure protocol we recommend is still OpenVPN with 256-bit AES-GCM encryption. With our VPN Manager for Mac and Windows you also have the possibility to create cascades over four VPN servers. This Multi<br />
Hop feature works tunnel in tunnel. If you choose countries for the hops which are known not to cooperate with each other, well you get the idea. On top of that you can activate our NeuroRouting feature, which changes the routing depending on the destination of the visited domain and dynamically selects different hops for the outgoing server to ensure it is geographically close to the visited server.</p>
<p>10. Yes, our servers support full Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality, even when your ISP does not support IPv6. Our VPN Manager has a &#8220;kill switch&#8221; which has configurable protection with three security levels.</p>
<p>11. We run dedicated bare-metal servers in various data centers around the world. While we have no physical access to the servers, they all are running within RAM disks only and are fully encrypted.</p>
<p>12. Currently, we offer servers in 26 countries worldwide. All servers are located in the city displayed in the hostname – there are no virtual locations. For full details about all servers locations, please<br />
check our <a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/en/serverstatus">server status site</a> as we are constantly adding new servers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/">Perfect Privacy website</a></p>
<h2><a name="slickvpn"></a><a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/">SlickVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187761" src="media/e476efed.slickvpn-e1589886002478.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/slickvpn-e1589886002478.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="137" />1. SlickVPN doesn’t log traffic or session data of any kind. We don’t store connection time stamps, used bandwidth, traffic logs, or IP addresses.</p>
<p>2. Slick Networks, Inc. is our recognized corporate name. We operate a complex business structure with multiple layers of offshore holding companies, subsidiary holding companies, and finally some operating companies to help protect our interests. The main marketing entity for our business is based in the United States of America but the top level of our operating entity is based out of Nevis.</p>
<p>3. We block port 25 to reduce the likelihood of spam originating from our systems. The SlickVPN authentication backend is completely custom and limits concurrent connections.</p>
<p>4. We utilize third party email systems to contact clients who opt-in for our newsletters and Google Analytics for basic website traffic monitoring and troubleshooting. We believe these platforms to be secure. Because we do not log your traffic/browsing data, no information about how users may or may not use the SlickVPN service is ever visible to these platforms.</p>
<p>5. If a valid DMCA complaint is received while the offending connection is still active, we stop the session and notify the active user of that session. Otherwise, we are unable to act on any complaint as we have no way of tracking down the user. It is important to note that we rarely receive a valid DMCA complaint while a user is still in an active session.</p>
<p>6. This has never happened in the history of our company. Our customer’s privacy is of topmost importance to us. We are required to comply with all valid court orders. We would proceed with the court order with complete transparency, but we have no data to provide any court in any jurisdiction. SlickVPN uses a warrant canary to inform users if we have received any such requests from a government agency. Users can monitor our warrant canary here: SlickVPN Warrant Canary.</p>
<p>7. Yes. All traffic is allowed. SlickVPN does not impose restrictions based on the type of traffic our users send. Outgoing mail is blocked but we offer a method to split tunnel the mail out if necessary. We can forward ports upon request. Some incoming ports may be blocked with our NAT firewall but these can be opened on request</p>
<p>8. We accept PayPal, Credit Cards, Bitcoin, Cash, and money orders. We keep user authentication and billing information on independent platforms. One platform is operated out of the United States of America (marketing) and the other platform is operated out of Nevis (operations).</p>
<p>Payment details are held by our marketing company which has no access to the operations data. We offer the ability for the customer to permanently delete their payment information from our servers at any point and all customer data is automatically removed from our records shortly after the customer ceases being a paying member.</p>
<p>9. We recommend using OpenVPN if at all possible (available for Windows, Apple, Linux, iOS, Android) and we use the AES-256-CBC algorithm for encryption.</p>
<p>10. Our leak protection (commonly called a ‘kill-switch’) keeps your IPv4 and IPv6 traffic from leaking to any other network and protects against DNS leaks. Your network will be disabled if you lose the connection to our servers and the only way to restore the network is manual intervention by the user. We don&#8217;t offer IPv6 connections at this time.</p>
<p>11. We physically control some of our server locations where we have a heavier load. Other locations are hosted with third parties unless there is enough demand in that location to justify racking our own server setup. To ensure redundancy, we host with multiple providers in each location. We have server locations in over forty countries.</p>
<p>In all cases, our network nodes load over our encrypted network stack and run from RAMDisk. Anyone taking control of the server would have no usable data on the disk. We periodically remount our ramdisks to remove any lingering data. Each of our access servers acts as the DNS server for customers connected to that node.</p>
<p>12. SlickVPN offers VPN service in<a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/locations/"> 40 countries around the world</a>. We do not do offer virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/">SlickVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="headvpn"></a> <a href="https://headvpn.com/">HeadVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-152262" src="media/94d5669c.new-headvpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/new-headvpn.png" alt="" width="180" height="55" />1. We do not keep any logs on our network servers that can match an IP address and time stamp with a user.</p>
<p>2. Our service is incorporated under a company in Seychelles for our users&#8217; security and anonymity. The company name is Global Stealth, Inc.</p>
<p>3. There are no such limits on our network.</p>
<p>4. Yes, we are using Google Analytics for our website traffic analysis. We also use Zendesk for chat platform.</p>
<p>5. We don’t receive DMCA notices as we have a special server network in DMCA-free zones.</p>
<p>6. It will be basically ignored.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and P2P are allowed on our special networks designed for this purpose. These networks have all ports open.</p>
<p>8. We support credit card and PayPal. Payments can be linked to accounts.</p>
<p>9. We support AES256 SSL encryption supported protocols over multiple ports.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we do support Kill Switch for our users.</p>
<p>11. All our servers are hosted on globally known data centers with high security. We have our global DNS and SmartDNS network.</p>
<p>12. We have servers in more than 80 countries globally.</p>
<p><a href="https://headvpn.com/">HeadVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnhub"></a> <a href="https://www.vpnhub.com/">VPNhub</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-169961" src="media/4da6a93f.vpnhub.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnhub.png" alt="" width="180" height="74" />1. We do not keep any logs of data transmitted through our service and we have no way of knowing what our users are doing while connected to our servers. However, we will note that all payment processors store IP data for the purpose of fraud mitigation. Our payment processor is no different.</p>
<p>2. We operate under AppAtomic, physically headquartered with personnel in Cyprus. We also have offices in Montreal where sales, development, and support take place.</p>
<p>3. We have proprietary systems being used to mitigate abuse, but don’t enforce limitations on concurrent connections at the current time.</p>
<p>4. We use Google’s Firebase and Analytics for basic statistical reporting, however, those services do not have access to data transferred by our users. ZenDesk is currently employed to provide support, however, we plan on migrating everything in-house in the near future.</p>
<p>5. Since we keep no logs, there is virtually nothing we can do to respond to DMCA or equivalent inquiries.</p>
<p>6. Since we do not log activity, we have no way of identifying users. In the event that we are somehow forced to log activity for a user going forward, it would be reflected in the Warrant Canary within our Privacy Policy.</p>
<p>7. We do not restrict torrents, file-sharing or P2P.</p>
<p>8. We use ProBiller as a payment provider on our web site, as well as Apple and Google within our iOS and Android apps respectively. Since we have no logs, there is never anything that can be linked to usage of our service nor IP assignment.</p>
<p>9. It depends on the platform. Open VPN and IKEv2 are both considered to be the best in the industry.</p>
<p>10. We have a kill-switch feature within our desktop apps, as well as our Android app. For iOS, incorporating a kill-switch is not possible due to operating system restrictions, but we do have an Auto-Reconnect upon Disconnect feature there.</p>
<p>11. We’ve contracted StackPath for the purpose of network infrastructure. Our agreement forbids the snooping of any traffic, and we use DNS servers they host.</p>
<p>12. Here&#8217;s a <a href="/images/vpnhublist.txt">full list</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vpnhub.com/">VPNhub website</a></p>
<h2><a name="cyberghost"></a> <a href="http://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_us">CyberGhost</a></h2>
<p>1. <img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187766" src="media/6acfb9bd.cyberghost-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cyberghost-1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="90" />We have a strict <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/no-logs-vpn">No-Logs policy</a>, so none of our traffic or DNS servers log or store any user info.</p>
<p>2. We’re part of Kape.</p>
<p>3. Our dedicated team monitors the whole service and infrastructure for any abuse of service. We have several tools in place, from CDN protection to firewalls and our own server monitoring system. Concurrent connections limits are monitored &amp; also enforced via our systems to avoid such types of abuses.</p>
<p>4. We use Google Analytics, Zendesk, and Active Campaign.</p>
<p>5. Back in 2011, we were the first in the VPN industry to publish a Transparency Report. It’s something we still do today when we launch our reports <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/transparency-report">quarterly</a>. When we receive a lot of DMCA takedown notices our reply is always the same: we keep no logs and cannot comply with the request.</p>
<p>6. Since we store no logs, such requests do not affect us. Under Romanian law, data retention is not mandatory. This allows us to give our &#8216;Ghosties&#8217; complete digital privacy.</p>
<p>7. In some countries, local legislation prevents us from offering adequate service for torrenting. Other locations have performance constraints. We currently do not support port forwarding services. What’s more, specific ports related to email services are also blocked as an anti-spam security measure.</p>
<p>8. We do not any store payment details. These are handled by our payment providers, which are entirely Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard compliant.</p>
<p>9. We generally favor the AES-256 encryption platform &amp; protocol wide for its good balance of performance and security.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we have a kill switch in place, but we do not support dual stack.</p>
<p>11. We use disk encryption to make sure no third party can access the contents of our VPN servers. Furthermore, we have additional server authenticity tests in place to eliminate the risk of Man-in-the-middle attacks. We use self-managed DNS servers to ensure the E2E protection of online activity.</p>
<p>12. We have over 6,500 VPN servers in 90 countries. Most of them are physically located within the borders of the specified country. All details are <a href="https://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_US/vpn-server">available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cyberghostvpn.com/en_us">CyberGhost website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ovpn"></a><a href="https://www.ovpn.se/">OVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187752" src="media/fc200a8f.ovpn-e1589885121719.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ovpn-e1589885121719.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="168" />1. Our entire infrastructure and VPN service is built to ensure that no logs can be stored – anywhere. Our servers are locked in cabinets and operate without any hard drives. We use a tailored version of Alpine, which doesn’t support SATA controllers, USB ports etc.</p>
<p>2. OVPN Integritet AB (Org no. 556999-4469). We operate under Swedish jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. We don’t monitor abuse. In order to limit concurrent connections, our VPN servers validate account credentials by making a request to our website. Our web server keeps track of the number of connected devices. This is stored as a value of 0-4, where it is increased by one when a user connects and decreased by one when a user disconnects.</p>
<p>4. For website insights, we use Matomo/Piwik, an Open Source solution that we host ourselves. The last two bytes of visitors’ IP addresses are anonymized; hence no individual users can be identified. Automatic emails from the website are sent using Postmark. Intercom is used for support.</p>
<p>5. Since we don’t store any information, such requests aren’t applicable to us.</p>
<p>6. We can’t provide any information to the court. A court wouldn’t be able to require logging in our jurisdiction – but in case it did happen we would move the company abroad. OVPN has insurance that covers legal fees as an additional layer of safety, which grants us the financial muscles to refute any requests for information.</p>
<p>7. We don’t do any traffic discrimination. As such, BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic are allowed on all servers. We do provide port forwarding services as incoming ports are blocked by default. The allowed port range is 49152 to 65535. For other ports, we recommend users to purchase our Public IPv4 add-on.</p>
<p>8. PayPal, credit cards (via Braintree), Bitcoin (via Bitpay), Bitcoin Cash (via Bitpay), cash in envelopes as well as a Swedish payment system called Swish. We never log IP addresses of users, so we can’t correlate an IP address to a payment.</p>
<p>9. OVPN’s default settings, which uses AES-256-GCM for OpenVPN. In terms of connection, we recommend using our Multihop add-on.</p>
<p>10. Our desktop client provides a kill switch as well as DNS leak protection. All our servers support dual-stack IPv4 &amp; IPv6. Our browser extension blocks WebRTC leaks.</p>
<p>11. We own all the servers used to operate our service. All VPN servers run without any hard drives – instead we use tmpfs storage in RAM. Writing permissions for the OpenVPN processes have been removed, as well as syslogs. Our VPN servers do not support physical console access, keyboard access nor USB access. The servers are colocated in various data centers that meet our requirements. OVPN does not rent any physical or virtual servers. We operate our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. We do not offer any virtual locations. All our regions are <a href="https://www.ovpn.com/en/network">listed here</a>. We have photos of our servers at all locations, which are viewable by clicking on the region names</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ovpn.se/">OVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="surfshark"></a> <a href="https://surfshark.com/">Surfshark</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187763" src="media/74f73aaa.surfshark-e1589886472699.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/surfshark-e1589886472699.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="75" />1. We do not keep any logs, data, timestamps or any other kind of information that would enable anyone to identify current or former users of our service.</p>
<p>2. Surfshark is a registered trademark of Surfshark Ltd., a company registered in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Surfshark Ltd. is not a subsidiary of any other company.</p>
<p>3. We do not limit the number of simultaneous connections. We have safeguards against abuse of our service: our Terms of Service has a clause on Fair Usage Policy; if this policy is intentionally violated, we have an automated network maintenance system that indicates the abnormalities on server load, and can limit an immoderate number of devices simultaneously connected to one session to make sure that none of our customers are affected by potentially deteriorated quality of our services.</p>
<p>4. We do not use any Alphabet Inc. products except for Google Analytics, which is used to improve our website performance for potential customers. For a live 24/7 customer support and ticketing service, we use industry-standard Zendesk. For our communication, we use a secure email system Hushmail. For transactional communication, we use SendGrid and Iterable for user communication.</p>
<p>These third-party services have no access to any other kind of user information outside the scope of the one specified in our Privacy Policy. Also, we have legally binding agreements with all third-party service providers to not disclose any of the information they have to anyone outside the scope of the services they provide to us</p>
<p>5. DMCA takedown notices do not apply to our service as we operate outside the jurisdiction of the United States. In case we received a non-US equivalent, we would not be able to provide any information because we have none (strict no logs policy).</p>
<p>6. We have never received a court order from the British Virgin Islands (BVI) authorities. If we ever received a court order from the BVI authorities, we would truthfully respond that we are unable to identify any user as we keep no logs whatsoever. If data retention laws would be enacted in the BVI, we would look for another country to register our business in. For any information regarding received legal inquiries and orders we have a live warrant canary.</p>
<p>7. Surfshark is a torrent-friendly service. We allow all file-sharing activities and P2P traffic, including BitTorrent. For that, we have hundreds of specialized servers in various countries, and the user will always be connected to the fastest specialized server in case of P2P activities. We do not provide port forwarding services, and we block port 25.</p>
<p>8. Surfshark subscriptions can be purchased using various payment methods, including cryptocurrency, PayPal, Alipay, major credit cards, and many country-specific options. None of these payments can be linked to a specific user as we do not collect any timestamps, IP addresses, session information, or other data.</p>
<p>9. We recommend using advanced IKEv2/IPsec and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) security protocols with strong and fast AES-256-GCM encryption and SHA512 signatures. Also, on our Windows and Android apps we support Shadowsocks protocol as an option. The AES-256-GCM is different from AES-256-CBC as it has an inbuilt authentication which makes the encryption process faster.</p>
<p>10. We provide ‘kill switches’ in all our apps and have an inbuilt DNS leak protection. Also, Surfshark provides IP masking, IPV6 leak protection, WebRTC protection, ad, malware and tracker blocking on DNS level, MultiHop (double VPN), Whitelister (works bots as direct and reverse split tunneling), etc. Currently, we do not support Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6 functionality.</p>
<p>11. We use our own DNS servers which do not keep any logs as per our Privacy Policy. All our servers are physically located in trusted third-party data centers. 80% of our servers are already RAM-only, and we’ll have a 100% RAM-only server network by the end of June 2020.</p>
<p>Before choosing a third-party service provider, we have a strict due diligence process to make sure they meet our security and trust requirements. To prevent unauthorized snooping, we use the 2FA method to reach our servers and have developed a special authorization procedure so that only authorized system administrators can access them for configurations.</p>
<p>12. As of May 2020, we have over 1700 servers physically located in <a href="https://surfshark.com/servers">109 locations, in 64 countries</a>. As per user requests, we have only a few virtual locations that are clearly indicated within our apps’ user interfaces.</p>
<p><a href="https://surfshark.com/">Surfshark website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnac"></a> <a href="https://vpn.ac/">VPN.ac</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-187971" src="media/d0f8dc6f.vpnac-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnac-1.png" alt="vpn.ac logo" width="275" height="141" />1. We keep minimal connection session logs to help us in troubleshooting customers’ connection problems but also to identify attacks.</p>
<p>This information contains IP address, connection start and end time, protocol used (including port) and amount of data transferred for OpenVPN connections. This info isn’t stored on any server disk and is wiped out on session-end time or daily. For WireGuard connections, the endpoint IP (public user&#8217;s IP) is erased within a few minutes after closing the connection (no handshakes within a specific time).</p>
<p>2. Cryptolayer SRL, registered in Romania.</p>
<p>3. There are automated firewall rules that can kick-in in the event of some specific abusive activities. Manual intervention can take place when absolutely necessary, in order to maintain the infrastructure stable and reliable for everyone. Concurrent connections are limited by the authentication back-ends.</p>
<p>4. No, we don’t.</p>
<p>5. We are handling DMCA complaints internally without involving the users (i.e. we are not forwarding anything). We use shared IP addresses so it’s not possible to identify the users.</p>
<p>6. This has never happened. In such an event, we would rely on legal advice. It&#8217;s worth noting that we use shared public IPs on all servers so it&#8217;s not possible to identify a user based on past activity using a specific VPN gateway IP.</p>
<p>7. It is allowed on all servers. Port forwarding is not supported due to security and privacy weaknesses that come with it, ports aren’t blocked except for SMTP/25.</p>
<p>8. All popular cryptocurrencies, PayPal, credit cards, several country-specific payment methods, some gift cards. Crypto payments can be anonymous.</p>
<p>9. OpenVPN using Elliptic Curve Cryptography for Key Exchange (ECDHE, curve secp256k1) is used by default in most cases. We also support RSA-4096, SHA256 and SHA512 for digest/HMAC. For data encryption we use AES-256-GCM and AES-128-GCM. We are also supporting the WireGuard VPN protocol with its parameters (Curve25519, Blake2s, ChaCha20, Poly1305)</p>
<p>10. Yes, these features are embedded in our client software. We also provide guides and support on how to set effective &#8220;kill switches&#8221; for specific applications like torrent clients.</p>
<p>11. We have physical control over our servers in Romania. In other countries, we rent or collocate our hardware. We use our own DNS resolvers and all DNS traffic between VPN gateways and DNS resolvers is encrypted, not logged.</p>
<p>12. We don’t use “virtual locations”. All servers are physically located in several countries, a <a href="https://vpn.ac/status">full list is available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://vpn.ac/">VPN.ac website</a></p>
<p>—–</p>
<p><em><a name="***"></a>*Note: Private Internet access, ExpressVPN and NordVPN are TorrentFreak sponsors. We reserve the first three spots for them as a courtesy. This article also includes a few affiliate links which help us pay the bills. We never sell positions in our review article or charge providers for a listing.</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a name="allvpns"></a>All VPNs</h2>
<p>&#8211; <a href="#pia">Private Internet Access</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#expressvpn">ExpressVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#nordvpn">NordVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#hideipvpn">HideIPVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#ivpn">IVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#azirevpn">AzireVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#windscribe">Windscribe</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#vpnarea">VPNArea</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#surfshark">Surfshark</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#airvpn">AirVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#cactusvpn">CactusVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#trustzone">Trust.Zone</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#switchvpn">SwitchVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#privatevpn">PrivateVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#whattheserver">WhatTheServer</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#ibvpn">ibVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#mullvad">Mullvad</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#torguard">TorGuard</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#perfectprivacy">Perfect Privacy</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#slickvpn">SlickVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#headvpn">HeadVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#vpnhub">VPNhub</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#cyberghost">CyberGhost</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#ovpn">OVPN</a><br />
&#8211; <a href="#vpnac">VPN.ac</a></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187800
title: DISH Sues Canada-Based Pirate IPTV Provider ‘Voodoo IPTV’
uri: DISH-Sues-Canada-Based-Pirate-IPTV-Provider-Voodoo-IPTV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rc_sr9taS4Y/
content:
<p><a href="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="IPTV" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034" /></a>TV broadcaster DISH Network has filed more lawsuits against &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV providers and resellers than any other company in the world. Depending on how the services operate, the company either brings cases under the Copyright Act or the Federal Communications Act (FCA).</p>
<p>This week DISH won a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-reseller-boom-media-ordered-to-pay-3-3m-in-damages-200521/">$3.3 million default judgment</a> against pirate IPTV reseller Boom Media and its operators John and Debra Henderson. The case was actioned under the FCA and before the judge&#8217;s ink was dry, DISH was in court again filing a similar lawsuit against Voodoo IPTV and its alleged operators.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service is, and has been, retransmitting the DISH Programming without authorization from DISH. The DISH Programming was received from DISH’s satellite television service without authorization,&#8221; the complaint alleges.</p>
<p>Unlike many other cases filed by DISH, the defendants in this matter aren&#8217;t based in the United States. Cren Motasaki, Atta Ur Rauf, Rafayet Alam and Pepin Woolcock are all said to be based in Ontario, Canada. A fifth defendant, Sajan Kyubi Shrestha, is reportedly a resident of Nepal while the locations of 11 &#8216;Doe&#8217; defendants are yet to be determined.</p>
<p>Filed in a Texas court this week, the complaint alleges that Motasaki is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of Voodoo IPTV and has overall decision-making power. He is said to have a history of involvement with piracy-related activities and was identified as a member of the WorldofIPTV.com forum having made posts in an Xtream Codes-related thread.</p>
<p>Alam (aka Rafa Abdul) is reportedly in charge of sales at Voodoo, with DISH claiming that he operated CDN.tm which hosted VOD content for the JadooTV service, including DISH programming.</p>
<p>Woolcock, a programmer and developer for Voodoo, reportedly controls another domain offering IPTV services while Shrestha, who has the same role at Voodoo, is said to run four piracy-related repos on Github including Stalker, Xtream-Codes-2.2.0-Nulled, and eurekatv.</p>
<p>Rauf is said to be the person who manages sales and finance at Voodoo while several others are accused of being the sources for some of its content.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants Does 1-11 are one or more persons responsible for eleven DISH subscription accounts that were created with false information and used to receive DISH’s channels for retransmission on the Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service without authorization. An Internet Protocol (&#8216;IP&#8217;) address located in Toronto, Canada was used to access at least seven of these eleven DISH subscription accounts,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>DISH says that all defendants act in concert to steal its programming and as a result requests relief that holds them jointly and severally liable. The company says that the court has jurisdiction over the defendants because they have purposefully directed their conduct towards the United States while causing injury there.</p>
<p>&#8220;Upon information and belief, Defendants sold subscriptions to approximately 50,000 users of the Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service, many of whom are located in the United States,&#8221; DISH notes.</p>
<p>The complaint alleges that &#8216;device codes&#8217; (aka IPTV subscriptions) were sold on various websites including IPTVVoodoo.com, VoodooTV.in, and BuyIPTVOnline.net. At the time of writing only the latter is still available, offering monthly subscriptions at US$15 or CAD$20 up to US$75 or CAD$100 for six months.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/f2f6ec6c.buyiptv-voodoo-e1590054274816.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/buyiptv-voodoo-e1590054274816.png"><img src="media/f2f6ec6c.buyiptv-voodoo-e1590054274816.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/buyiptv-voodoo-e1590054274816.png" alt="Voodoo IPTV subscription" width="550" height="353" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-187975" /></a></center></p>
<p>As the image above shows, processors including PayPal are used to buy and sell the Voodoo service and DISH indicates it has identified at least three connected email accounts that were also used to pay for computer servers running the Voodoo platform.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ sale and distribution of Android TV Boxes and Device Codes [subscriptions] for accessing the Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service assists end users to receive the DISH Programming or the content therein, without having authorization from DISH and for the benefit of the Voodoo IPTV end users, in violation of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/605">47 U.S.C. § 605(a)</a>,&#8221; the complaint notes, adding:</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants sell and distribute Android TV Boxes and Device Codes used for accessing the Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service in violation of <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/605">47 U.S.C. § 605(e)(4)</a>. The Android TV Boxes and Device Codes are knowingly provided by Defendants for purposes of enabling customers access to the servers that are used to stream the television programming on the Voodoo IPTV pirate streaming service, including the DISH Programming.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to a permanent injunction, DISH predictably requests a damages award to compensate for the activities of Voodoo in the United States.</p>
<p>Statutory damages of between $1,000 and $10,000 are available for each violation of Section 605(a) and up to $100,000 if the violation was committed willfully and for financial gain.</p>
<p>Section 605(e)(4) allows for statutory damages up to $100,000 for each violation which at least on paper has the potential to push any damages award into the hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
<p><em>The complaint filed by DISH this week can be found <a href="media/1a778c41.4-20-cv-01702-DISH-vs-Voodoo-IPTV-complaint-200515.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/4-20-cv-01702-DISH-vs-Voodoo-IPTV-complaint-200515.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188235
title: Chrome and Firefox Block Torrent Site YTS over “Phishing”
uri: Chrome-and-Firefox-Block-Torrent-Site-YTS-over-Phishing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dCE-B9vXgZ0/
content:
<p><img src="media/e916bb48.ytslogo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ytslogo.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="107" class="alignright size-full wp-image-185947" />Google regularly checks websites for harmful and malicious content to help people avoid running into dangerous situations.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://safebrowsing.google.com/">Safe Browsing</a> service is used by popular browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. When a site is flagged, they throw up a warning before people attempt to visit risky sites.</p>
<p>This is also what&#8217;s happening to YTS.mx at the moment, which is one of the most popular <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2020-200105/">torrent sites</a> around. While the site&#8217;s homepage can be visited just fine, navigating to a torrent detail page throws up the following warning in Chrome. </p>
<p>&#8220;Deceptive site ahead. Attackers on yts.mx may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information (for example, passwords, phone numbers, or credit cards).&#8221; </p>
<p><center><img src="media/14ee9685.yts-phishing.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-phishing.jpg" alt="YTS phishing warning" width="600" height="388" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188238" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-phishing.jpg 991w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/yts-phishing-600x388.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>Firefox shows a similar alert and also prevents people from going directly to the download pages. In both browsers, people can, however, accept the risk and visit the page they were looking for.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear what the exact problem is but the Chrome warning mentions that YTS was caught phishing. This is also reflected in Google&#8217;s Safe Browsing report, which states the torrent site recently tried to <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=https:%2F%2Fyts.mx%2Fmovie%2F&#038;hl=en-US">trick visitors into sharing personal info or downloading software</a>.</p>
<p>Whether any of this is intentional remains a question. It seems more likely that the warning was triggered by some type of malicious advertisement. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/4a5ed63f.unsafe.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/unsafe.jpg" alt="google says unsafe" width="600" height="191" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188241" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/unsafe.jpg 750w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/unsafe-600x191.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>While we don&#8217;t encounter these kinds of warnings on pirate sites often, this isn&#8217;t the first time that we&#8217;ve seen them. Similar issues have affected other sites, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chrome-and-firefox-brand-the-pirate-bay-as-a-phishing-site-again-161006/">including The Pirate Bay</a>. These warnings generally disappear when the site operator takes appropriate action.</p>
<p>We have checked several other popular pirate sites for similar warnings but this particular issue seems to be limited to YTS. The other sites we looked into were all reported as clean. </p>
<p>However, Google has a caveat when it comes to The Pirate Bay. Instead of reporting the torrent site as safe or unsafe, Google asks users to <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=thepiratebay.org">check a more specific URL</a> than the homepage. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to provide a simple safety status for sites like thepiratebay.org, which have a lot of content. Sites that are generally safe sometimes contain some unsafe content. For more detailed safety info, check a specific directory or webpage,&#8221; Google notes. </p>
<p>While we expect YTS to resolve the matter in due course, being flagged by Google is not without risk. A few years ago the Safe Browsing team announced that &#8220;<a href="https://security.googleblog.com/2016/11/protecting-users-from-repeatedly_8.html?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed:+GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog+(Google+Online+Security+Blog)">repeat offenders</a>&#8221; will remain flagged for 30 days at least, which will seriously harm traffic.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187840
title: Hellboy’s $270,000 Piracy Damages Calculation Fails to Convince Judge
uri: Hellboy-s-270-000-Piracy-Damages-Calculation-Fails-to-Convince-Judg
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jEi0foPLsn8/
content:
<p><img src="media/b9ea03ed.dollars.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dollars.jpg" alt="dollars" width="280" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-170290" />Until last summer, uploads from MKVCage frequently appeared on popular torrent sites. In addition, the &#8216;group&#8217; also operated its own website. </p>
<p>This changed when the makers of the film &#8216;Hellboy&#8217; took the alleged mastermind behind MKVCage to court last year. </p>
<p>In a lawsuit filed at a Hawaii federal court, HB Productions identified a Pakistani man named Muhammad Faizan as the operator. Soon after, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-torrent-site-mkvcage-faces-lawsuit-and-goes-offline/">the website went offline</a> and the uploads stopped. </p>
<p>Hellboy&#8217;s makers weren&#8217;t pleased, however. When Faizan failed to show up in court, the movie company asked the court clerk to issue a default judgment, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hellboy-makers-want-270000-in-piracy-damages-from-mkvcage-operator-200305/">totaling more than $270,000</a> in infringement damages.</p>
<p>According to the movie company&#8217;s attorney, this amount was warranted. It represented the price of a Blu-ray copy of the film, multiplied by 16,942 US people who shared MKVCage&#8217;s Hellboy torrents.</p>
<p>When reviewing the request, Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield wasn&#8217;t convinced. He advised the court to deny the damages request, as the “sum” is not as “certain” as Hellboy’s attorney makes it out to be.</p>
<p>At this point, it&#8217;s good to mention that &#8220;sum certain&#8221; mentions refer to a legal concept where the damages amount is obvious or easily calculated. For example, when a tenant fails to pay rent. However, in this case the damages number is not that straightforward.</p>
<p>After Judge Mansfield <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hellboy-must-explain-calculation-for-the-270000-piracy-damages-claim-200326/">recommended denying the request</a> for a default judgment, Hellboy&#8217;s attorney filed a supplement. He clarified that $15.95 per infringement is fair, as it represents the price of a Blu-ray disc at Walmarts across the US.</p>
<p>While that may be true, it wasn&#8217;t good enough for Judge Mansfield. Last week he issued a new recommendation where he again stated that Hellboy&#8217;s arguments are not sufficient.</p>
<p>The problem doesn&#8217;t appear to be the valuation of the Blu-ray. Instead, Judge Mansfield is not convinced that using the retail price multiplied by the number of infringements qualifies as a &#8216;sum certain.&#8217; </p>
<p>&#8220;The Complaint does not allege that $15.95 is a fair representation of the nationwide price for the Hellboy Blu-ray,&#8221; Judge Mansfield writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Even if it did, however, the Motion and the Supplement fail to explain why an alleged &#8216;fair representation&#8217; of the price for a Blu-ray of a motion picture is sufficient to render a copyright infringement claim &#8216;sum certain&#8217; for purposes of Rule 55(b)(1).&#8221;</p>
<p>As there is no case law to support this type of damages for a clerk-issued default judgment, the Judge recommended that the court should deny the motion. This means that Hellboy must go back to the drawing board, again.</p>
<p>Late last week, a few days after the recommendation, the movie company did indeed reply. In a written objection, Hellboy&#8217;s attorney argued that their calculation of the damages &#8220;sum&#8221; is as &#8220;certain&#8221; as it gets.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiff’s allegation that the retail price of a Blu-ray copy of the motion picture is $15.95 is deemed true. Accordingly, the calculation of 15.95 x 16,942 = $270,902.58 is as certain and straight forward calculation that can be done.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s now up to the court to make a final decision.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Magistrate Judge Kenneth J. Mansfield’s latest findings and recommendations is <a href="media/4e7d4c14.sum-certain-recommendation.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sum-certain-recommendation.pdf">available here.</a> Hellboy&#8217;s opposition brief can be found <a href="media/7d13c450.hellboy-opposition.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hellboy-opposition.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p></em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=187938
title: Cloudflare Ordered to Reveal Operators of Popular Pirate Sites Manga1000.com
uri: Cloudflare-Ordered-to-Reveal-Operators-of-Popular-Pirate-Sites-Manga10
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/x-XyrJNZm3Q/
content:
<p><a href="media/d2bcf64e.cloudflare-logo-e1497134379554.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflare-logo-e1497134379554.png"><img src="media/d2bcf64e.cloudflare-logo-e1497134379554.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflare-logo-e1497134379554.png" alt="" width="250" height="126" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140211" /></a>Obtaining the personal details of individuals behind pirate sites is rarely straightforward.</p>
<p>When they&#8217;re visible at all, domain registrations can be hidden behind privacy services, faked, or even both, while hosting companies tend not to comply with demands to reveal information when they&#8217;re unsupported by a valid court order.</p>
<p>One of the methods increasingly deployed in recent times is to target a potential weak spot. Thousands of pirate sites use the services of CDN company Cloudflare and as a US-based entity, Cloudflare is compelled to comply with the orders of the court. So, with copyright infringement allegations in hand, rightsholders apply for a so-called DMCA subpoena to force Cloudflare to hand over site operators&#8217; personal details.</p>
<p>This tactic was recently used by Shogakukan, one of Japan&#8217;s largest publishers of manga content. In an application for DMCA subpoena filed at a California district court this month, lawyers for the company explained that in order to protect its copyrighted content, Shogakukan needs to identify the people behind two domains &#8211; manag1000.com and manga1001.com.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/7a9445d9.manga1000-e1590495767517.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/manga1000-e1590495767517.png"><img src="media/7a9445d9.manga1000-e1590495767517.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/manga1000-e1590495767517.png" alt="Manga1000.com screenshot" width="600" height="452" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188318" /></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;It has recently come to Shogakukan&#8217;s attention that certain users of your services have unlawfully published and posted certain contents on the website located at [<a href="https://manga1000.com/">manga1000.com</a> and <a href="https://manga1001.com/">manga1001.com</a>],&#8221; the application reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;We demand that you immediately disable access to the Infringing Work [detailed in the image below] and cease any use, reproduction, and distribution of the Original Work. Specifically, we request that you remove or disable the Infringing Work from [the websites] or any of your system or services.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/df12b369.Shogakukan-infringedworks-e1590495380908.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Shogakukan-infringedworks-e1590495380908.png"><img src="media/df12b369.Shogakukan-infringedworks-e1590495380908.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Shogakukan-infringedworks-e1590495380908.png" alt="Shogakukan Infringed Works" width="600" height="327" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188314" /></a></center></p>
<p>In all but a slight domain difference, manga1000.com and manga1001.com seem identical. They both offer manga titles in &#8216;raw&#8217; format and enjoy a decent number of visitors &#8211; around five million per month per domain according to SimilarWeb stats.</p>
<p>Manga1000 enjoys slightly more traffic at around 5.1 million visits per month which means it&#8217;s almost ready to break into the list of Top-500 most-visited sites in Japan, period.</p>
<p>Shogakukan has taken interest in both domains more recently, filing DMCA takedown complaints with Google to delist more than 500 URLs. Now, however, it appears to have more concrete legal plans on the horizon, demanding that Cloudflare spills the beans on its allegedly pirating customers.</p>
<p>The DMCA subpoena, which was duly signed off by the court, now compels Cloudflare to hand over highly-detailed information.</p>
<p>That includes all information sufficient to identify the operator and/or owner of both sites who &#8220;uploaded, hosted, and/or contracted with another provider to host the infringing content&#8221; owned by the publisher. Shogakukan also demands billing and administrative records that reveal the infringers&#8217; names, physical addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card numbers, and hosting providers, plus any and all logs of IP addresses.</p>
<p>Cloudflare is required to present the relevant details to Shogakukan&#8217;s legal team in San Francisco by June 5, 2020, but whether that request will lead to any useful information remains to be seen.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/manga-publishers-sue-pirate-site-hoshinoromi-in-new-york-court/">reported</a> last September, Shogakukan and three other major manga publishers previously sued <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mangamura-uploader-pleads-guilty-another-denies-charges-190909/">Mangamura</a> &#8216;replacement&#8217; site Hoshinoromi in a New York federal court, noting that Cloudflare was helping the site&#8217;s operators to conceal their identities.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, however, the publishers filed a notice of voluntary dismissal after months of work trying to identify the operators of the site ended without bearing fruit. Back in February, a lawyer for the plaintiffs <a href="media/e7bf318f.Shueisha-Inc-et-al-v-Does-1-100-1-19-c-v-08227.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Shueisha-Inc-et-al-v-Does-1-100-1-19-c-v-08227.pdf">told the court (pdf)</a> that the defendants had &#8220;gone to considerable lengths to conceal their identities and avoid legal process.&#8221;</p>
<p>After the court granted the publishers&#8217; request for expedited discovery, the publishers served subpoenas on four Internet companies that provided services to Hoshinoromi, demanding that they hand over information on the defendants. While they received plenty of information back, things didn&#8217;t go especially well.</p>
<p>After receiving dozens of files including technical logs containing 1,000 unique records and more than 100 unique IP addresses spanning a 16-month period, the publishers were forced to hire an outside consulting company to perform an analysis of the data. In the end, however, none of the data personally identified the operators of Hoshinoromi.</p>
<p>Shogakukan will be hoping for a better result this time around.</p>
<p><em>Shogakukan&#8217;s application for DMCA subpoena against Cloudflare be found here (<a href="media/dc7e58c9.akukan-v-Manga-1000-Manga1001-DMCA-subpoena-Clouflare-200515.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/3-20-mc-80086-Shogakukan-v-Manga-1000-Manga1001-DMCA-subpoena-Clouflare-200515.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188344
title: Stores Selling Switch Piracy Hacks ‘Disappear’ Following Nintendo Lawsuit
uri: Stores-Selling-Switch-Piracy-Hacks-Disappear-Following-Nintendo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AbX6or0L4mQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/a8e45b5b.team-xecuter-banner.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/team-xecuter-banner.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="221" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188358" />Hacking group Team-Xecuter has long been a thorn in Nintendo&#8217;s side. </p>
<p>The group offers hardware and software solutions that allow people to install and play pirated games on Nintendo consoles, including the popular Nintendo Switch. </p>
<p>After cracking Switch&#8217;s original technical protections in 2018, Team-Xecuter is now gearing up to release a hack for newer versions as well as the Switch Lite. But while Nintendo&#8217;s efforts to take down the hacking group have failed thus far, the game company isn&#8217;t sitting idly by.</p>
<p>Last week it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-stores-selling-new-team-xecuter-switch-piracy-hack-200518/">filed two lawsuits</a> in US federal courts, targeting a total of nine websites. These include Uberchips.com, USAchipss.com, NC-card.com and Flashcarda.com which, according to Nintendo, are official resellers of hacking tools. </p>
<p>While it can be hard to shut down sites through legal action, especially if they are operated and sell products from outside of the US, in this case Nintendo&#8217;s strategy has already paid off. Or so it appears.</p>
<p>Soon after the news about the lawsuits was made public, several stores began to disappear. This includes Uberchips.com which, according to the complaint, is operated from the US by Ohio resident Tom Dilts Jr.</p>
<p>Initially, Uberchips removed all listings of Team-Xecuter hacks, referring to some unnamed issues. Soon after, however, the store completely disappeared showing just a blank page instead. </p>
<p>People who preordered the new SX Core and SX Lite chips won&#8217;t get them delivered. According to customer reports the website will issue refunds, but most just want the chips. </p>
<p>&#8220;Very disappointed to receive email from uberchips.com saying that they are issuing full refund and are no longer processing any pre-orders. Where else am I able to order from that ships to Canada?&#8221; one customer wrote.</p>
<p>Uberchips is not the only site to throw in the towel, several other stores have vanished too. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/2b5edf00.google-404.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-404.jpg" alt="google hosting error" width="620" height="345" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188348" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-404.jpg 961w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/google-404-600x333.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /></center> </p>
<p>At the time of writing the Mod3dscards.com domain links to a parked page, while NX-card.com, Flashcarda.com, USAchipss.com, and Anxchip.com all point to a Google hosting error, suggesting that the sites were removed.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, there is no official word from Team-Xecuter on the lawsuits. Interestingly, the site still lists &#8220;recommended seller&#8221; banners for some of the sites that are down. However, these banners now link to new URLs that offer pretty much the same products. </p>
<p><img src="media/b65e01c8.recommended-sellers.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/recommended-sellers.jpg" alt="recommended team-xecuter sellers" width="285" height="443" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188363" />For example, the Flashcarda.com banner links to Free-switch.com, which looks very similar to the original site. </p>
<p>The Mod3dscards.com banner is also still up, but the link is now pointing to Mod-switch.com. </p>
<p>In addition, three of the sued sites &#8211; TXswitch.com, SXflashcard.com and Axiogame.com &#8211; are still online and accepting orders.</p>
<p>For now, none of the targeted sites has responded in court. While some foreign operators may choose to ignore the case, the US-based operator of Uberchips.com has been summoned already and will have to appear in court or face a default judgment.</p>
<p>Although the lawsuits have clearly had some effect, Team-Xecuter hacks and mods remain widely available. But by going after resellers, Nintendo may be able to get a step closer to the source of the problem.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188340
title: Vapor Store Looks a Lot Like a Popcorn Time For Pirated Steam Games
uri: Vapor-Store-Looks-a-Lot-Like-a-Popcorn-Time-For-Pirated-Steam-Games
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0B82jem-A1Q/
content:
<p><a href="media/8afbe2fe.vapor-store-small-e1590566928287.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-store-small-e1590566928287.png"><img src="media/8afbe2fe.vapor-store-small-e1590566928287.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-store-small-e1590566928287.png" alt="Vapor Store" width="270" height="202" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188352" /></a>Websites are some of the most popular hangouts for pirates but over the past several years there&#8217;s been an increased appetite for app-based solutions.</p>
<p>Modified Kodi installations, for example, have proven popular for close to a decade but in 2014 Popcorn Time sparked a revolution by providing a Netflix-like experience for movie and TV show consumers.</p>
<p>Since then, dozens of Popcorn Time-like applications have appeared on the scene with varying levels of success but most have stuck to providing access to video content. This week, however, a new tool called Vapor Store debuted online targeting the video games niche.</p>
<p>As the image below shows, a fully-configured Vapor Store looks very much like a Popcorn Time for pirated games.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/0504cbfb.vapor-v-large-e1590567778271.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-v-large-e1590567778271.png"><img src="media/0504cbfb.vapor-v-large-e1590567778271.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-v-large-e1590567778271.png" alt="Vapor Store" width="600" height="337" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188353" /></a></center></p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, Vapor Store developer &#8216;Sushy&#8217; (who appears to be still at school) says that he&#8217;d always liked the idea of having a simple-to-use program to download games. So, putting his newly-acquired coding skills to the test, he embarked on this &#8220;challenging and rewarding&#8221; open-source project. </p>
<p>&#8220;Vapor Store is a program that simplifies downloading and installing games on Windows,&#8221; Sushy informs TF. </p>
<p>&#8220;All games are direct downloads [not torrents as is the case with Popcorn Time] and to use Vapor Store you will need to find a source that already has a list of games with download links and import them into Vapor Store. Vapor Store will generate a list based on the data from the site the user inserted.&#8221;</p>
<p>For legal reasons, this step is pretty important. While Popcorn Time comes ready-configured with all pirate sources and resources, Vapor Store does not. Users are required to input a source site to render it useful and it&#8217;s already an open secret that the software currently only works with video game download site <a href="https://steamunlocked.net/">Steamunlocked</a>.</p>
<p>Once connected to that site, Vapor Store utilizes the <a href="https://www.igdb.com/discover">database at IGDB</a>, presenting game titles, previews and screenshots along with cover art.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/2affa47e.vapor-store-meta-e1590575910285.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-store-meta-e1590575910285.png"><img src="media/2affa47e.vapor-store-meta-e1590575910285.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/vapor-store-meta-e1590575910285.png" alt="Vapor Store meta data" width="600" height="338" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188395" /></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;When you click on a game you get even more information such as a short description and some screenshots. To install a game the user simply needs to click on the &#8216;Download&#8217; button and then Vapor Store will do its thing,&#8221; Sushy explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once the install is complete the game will automatically get added to the user&#8217;s library and from there they will be able to run the game.&#8221;</p>
<p>Vapor Store is still very much in development <a href="https://github.com/CrypticShy/vapor-store">over at Github</a>, with updates to its interface, storefront and ability to work with ROM sites on the horizon. The developer acknowledges that there are things still to be fixed but believes the tool has reached the stage where it can be tested by the public.</p>
<p>Vapor Store is currently limited by the slow download speeds associated with file-hosting sites and due to the nature of games themselves (which cannot be streamed in the same way video can), it does not enjoy the immediacy of its movie and TV show equivalents. From a technical perspective, people shouldn&#8217;t begin holding their breath anytime soon for that kind of functionality.</p>
<p>That being said, Vapor Store is an interesting concept that could be built upon in the future. It&#8217;s no Steam replacement at this early stage but has the potential to spark plenty of curiosity.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188292
title: Russia Adopts Law to Block Pirate Apps and if Necessary, App Stores Too
uri: Russia-Adopts-Law-to-Block-Pirate-Apps-and-if-Necessary-App-Stores-To
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pE8BlolzI2A/
content:
<p><a href="media/8b8ae225.pirateapple.gif" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateapple.gif"><img src="media/8b8ae225.pirateapple.gif" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateapple.gif" alt="Pirate Apple" width="270" height="270" class="alignright size-full wp-image-29587" /></a>As torrent indexes and streaming portals continue to provide access to copyrighted content, there has also been a considerable increase in the availability of software applications that facilitate access to movies, TV shows and similar content.</p>
<p>These tools, which can be installed with minimal effort, often act as aggregators of content and presenting it in easy-to-use interfaces on mobile phones, tablets and similar devices. While the sources for this content can be handled with traditional takedown and blocking mechanisms, authorities in Russia have been seeking to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-plans-to-block-access-to-pirate-apps-on-google-play-and-apples-app-store-200419/">take direct action</a> against the apps themselves.</p>
<p>Following its third reading, Russia&#8217;s State Duma adopted new legislative <a href="https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/386109-7">amendments</a> yesterday that will allow them to do just that. </p>
<h2>How the New Law to Tackle Piracy Within Apps Will Work</h2>
<p>After receiving a complaint from a copyright holder, local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadazor will have 72 hours to determine where the allegedly-infringing application is being hosted. This might typically be an official repository such as Google Play or Apple&#8217;s App Store but could also be a third-party distributor or website offering a similar service or functionality.</p>
<p>Roscomnadzor will then send an infringement notice to the platform informing it of the alleged violation while highlighting a requirement to limit the availability of the content identified in the notice. The app distribution platform will then have 24 hours following the receipt of the complaint to notify the application&#8217;s owner that an infringement complaint has been filed. </p>
<p>Within 24 hours of the developer being made aware of the details of the complaint, they will be required to prevent the specified content from being made available in their application. If they do not comply, the responsibility to prevent ongoing infringement will then fall back on the app distribution platforms themselves, requiring them to stop distributing the entire application.</p>
<p>In the event that the application distributor fails to take the mandated removal or blocking steps, Roscomnadzor will then be able to issue an instruction to have the distributor itself blocked by all Internet service providers in Russia, thereby preventing consumers from having access to the platform in its entirety.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the owner of the information resource [Google Play, Apple&#8217;s App Store] has not limited access to the software application, the information necessary for taking measures to restrict access to the software application is sent to telecom operators,” an announcement from the <a href="http://duma.gov.ru/news/48670/">State Duma</a> reads.</p>
<h2>Last-Ditch Efforts to Soften the Law Were Ignored</h2>
<p>In the original draft of the legislation, responsibility for blocking access to pirated content was limited to the developers/operators of the allegedly-infringing applications themselves. However, subsequent amendments expanded liability to application distribution platforms too.</p>
<p>Several trade groups made last-minute appeals to the State Duma requesting that measures to block distribution platforms be removed from the legislation but their calls went unheeded. As a result, there are now fears that key app distribution players could be negatively affected by the measures due to additional requirements to monitor for the alleged infringements of third-parties.</p>
<p>After two years in the making, the new law will be signed by President Vladimir Putin and into force on October 1, 2020.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188479
title: YTS Bypasses Security Warnings with Simple URL Update
uri: YTS-Bypasses-Security-Warnings-with-Simple-URL-Update
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SrD2hEiIdgU/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-168363" src="media/b155e2d8.riskwarndanger.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riskwarndanger.jpg" alt="" width="289" height="229" />The Internet is full of threats. To help people steer clear from trouble, Google launched its <a href="https://safebrowsing.google.com/">Safe Browsing</a> tool in 2012.</p>
<p>This service marks problematic websites when there are potential malware and phishing problems. This information can then be used by third-parties to take action.</p>
<p>In the past, several popular pirate sites have been flagged. These issues are usually caused by malicious advertisers. The operators of the sites get a heads up form Google, and after the problem is addressed, the flag is removed.</p>
<h2>YTS Pages Were Blocked by Chome and Firefox</h2>
<p>Last weekend, YTS had first-hand experience of this process. The torrent site, which serves millions of people per day, was branded a &#8216;phishing&#8217; threat by Google.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chrome-and-firefox-block-torrent-site-yts-over-phishing-200525/">Chrome and Firefox blocked users</a> from directly accessing some pages on the site. While the homepage showed no issues, the movie detail pages returned a full-screen red warning, cautioning people to stay away.</p>
<p><center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188498" src="media/e1159dd1.deceptive-site-yts.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/deceptive-site-yts.jpg" alt="Firefox warning YTS" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/deceptive-site-yts.jpg 1211w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/deceptive-site-yts-600x253.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/deceptive-site-yts-500x210.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 1211px) 100vw, 1211px" /></center></p>
<p>Needless to say, these types of warnings will have a negative impact on the site&#8217;s traffic, whether they are warranted or not. In other words, fixing the issue should be a high priority for the site&#8217;s operator.</p>
<p>And indeed, when we visited YTS today everything had returned to normal. Or so it seemed. The movie detail pages no longer threw up any warnings and downloading .torrent files worked just fine.</p>
<h2>Simple Trick Makes Security Warnings Disappear</h2>
<p>While this might appear to be a matter of &#8216;case solved&#8217;, taking a closer look at the site reveals a tiny but important change. The movie detail pages are no longer linked from a /movie/ subdirectory, but from /movies/, as shown below.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/4d0ff164.tpb-afk-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-afk-1.jpg" alt="TPB afk on YTS extra s" width="940" height="457" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188514" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-afk-1.jpg 940w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-afk-1-600x292.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 940px) 100vw, 940px" /></center></p>
<p>Adding an &#8216;s&#8217; to the URL appears to be insignificant but, in this case, it&#8217;s not. Apparently, this extra letter is the reason why users no longer see any warnings. The old URLs, without the &#8216;s&#8217; remain blocked.</p>
<p>It seems odd that a site can bypass Google&#8217;s elaborate Safe Browsing tool by simply updating a URL, but it works. A quick check in the Safe Browsing tool confirms that the new link to <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=https:%2F%2Fyts.mx%2Fmovies%2F&amp;hl=en-US">YTS.mx/movies</a> is clean, while the old <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=https:%2F%2Fyts.mx%2Fmovie%2F&amp;hl=en-US">YTS.mx/movie</a> link is still &#8216;unsafe.&#8217;</p>
<p>Whether YTS also tackled the underlying problem is unknown. However, we assume that the new links will eventually be flagged too if the issue persists.</p>
<h2>Enhanced Safe Browsing?</h2>
<p>The bypass trick comes just a few days after Google announced that it had started rolling out an &#8216;enhanced Safe Browsing&#8217; for Chrome users. This has nothing to do with the YTS issues, but Google&#8217;s intro is worth noting.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over the past few years we’ve seen threats on the web becoming increasingly sophisticated. Phishing sites rotate domains very quickly to avoid being blocked,&#8221; <a href="https://security.googleblog.com/2020/05/enhanced-safe-browsing-protection-now.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog+%28Google+Online+Security+Blog%29">Google wrote</a>.</p>
<p>We wouldn&#8217;t classify the addition of extra letter in the URL as &#8216;sophisticated,&#8217; but it certainly helped to get rid of the security warning.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188089
title: US Copyright Office’s DMCA Tweaks Trigger ‘Internet Disconnection’ Concerns
uri: 2020-05-29-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/G5gIHU1QSzw/
content:
<p><img src="media/eae84aa1.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211" />After several years of public consultations and stakeholder meetings, the US Copyright Office <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-copyright-offices-proposed-dmca-fine-tuning-could-be-bad-news-for-pirates-200522/">issued its review of the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor provisions</a>.</p>
<p>The report doesn&#8217;t propose any major overhauls of the DMCA. Instead, it aims to fine-tune some parts, to better balance the interests of copyright holders and online service providers (OSPs).</p>
<p>More drastic suggestions were put on the backburner. Those include pirate site blocking and a &#8216;takedown and staydown&#8217; requirement for online services, which would require mandatory upload filtering.  </p>
<h2>Not Everyone Is Happy with the Report</h2>
<p>The Copyright Office&#8217;s attempt to create more balance is well-intended but not everyone is pleased with it. For example, <a href="https://www.riaa.com/big-tech-platforms-can-do-better-address-copyright-problems-identified-by-new-government-study/">a statement</a> released by several prominent music industry groups, including the RIAA, shows that they wanted and expected more. </p>
<p>The music groups provide a list of things big technology platforms could do to address the concerns raised in the report. However, their first suggestion is to ensure that ‘takedown’ means ‘staydown.&#8217; That&#8217;s one of the things the Copyright Office explicitly did not recommend, as there may be a negative impact.</p>
<p>On the other side, there was a lot of critique of the apparent disregard for a key party in the DMCA debate, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200522/11164044557/does-us-copyright-office-not-know-that-copyright-policys-main-stakeholders-are-public.shtml">the public at large</a>. The Copyright Office frames DMCA issues as a &#8216;copyright holders&#8217; vs. &#8216;online service provider&#8217; debate, but the voice of the public is glanced over at times. </p>
<p>Looking at the suggestions in the report, however, it&#8217;s clear the public will be heavily impacted by the proposed changes. This is also a problem signaled by some digital rights groups.</p>
<h2>Disconnecting Alleged Copyright Infringers</h2>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/">Public Knowledge,</a> the Copyright Office’s recommendations are ill-considered. The digital rights group believes that the report heavily favors copyright holders while totally overlooking the interests of millions of regular Internet users.</p>
<p>The proposals don&#8217;t only harm the general public, they also fail to recognize copyright abuses, including false DMCA notices, the group adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;In a contentious debate, it comes down on the same side (copyright holders) in nearly every instance, and disregards ample evidence that the DMCA is often abused by people looking to censor content they have no rights over,&#8221; the group notes. </p>
<p>Public Knowlege takes offense to the Office&#8217;s comments regarding repeat infringers. These stress that people&#8217;s Internet access be disconnected based on allegations of copyright infringements by copyright holders.</p>
<p>“Astonishingly, the Copyright Office buys into the idea that users should be subject to being cut off from internet access entirely on the basis of allegations of copyright infringement,&#8221; Public Knowledge writes. </p>
<p>The DMCA text is currently not clear on whether allegations are good enough, but the Office&#8217;s recommendation is backed by an Appeals Court order. Nonetheless, Public Knowledge doesn&#8217;t believe it should be law. </p>
<p>&#8220;Congress should not be making it easier for private actors to completely and unilaterally remove a person’s ability to access the internet,&#8221; the group writes. “The internet is not just a giant copyrighted-content delivery mechanism; it is the fundamental backbone of modern life.&#8221;</p>
<p>Public Knowledge is not alone in its criticism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (<a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>) also stresses that the interests of the public are largely ignored, tilting the &#8220;balance&#8221; towards copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, the proposal to terminate someone’s Internet access—at any time, but especially now—is a hugely disproportionate response to unproven allegations of copyright infringement,&#8221; EFF <a href="https://twitter.com/EFF/status/1263574085688127488">wrote</a> on Twitter.</p>
<h2>Copyright Office Cherry-Picking?</h2>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that court decisions are not always leading to the Copyright Office. The Appeals Court previously ruled that a repeat infringer policy doesn&#8217;t have to be written down, for example, but the Office now suggests updating the DMCA to change this.</p>
<p>Requiring a written repeat infringer policy, contrary to the Appeal Court ruling, would favor copyright holders. The same is true for confirming the other Appeal Court ruling, which concluded that ISPs must deal with repeat infringers based on allegations alone.</p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t mean that the Office is always taking one side, however. As mentioned earlier, the report also denied the top demands from copyright holders by not recommending site blocking and &#8216;takedown &#8211; staydown&#8217; policies. </p>
<h2>Disagreement Remains</h2>
<p>By highlighting these positions from two opposing sides of the debate, it is clear that the Copyright Office report includes positive and negative elements for all stakeholders. While it attempts to create more balance, disagreement remains. </p>
<p>This has also been the general theme of the DMCA revision debate over the past several years. The demands from one side usually hurt the other, and vice versa. It took a long time before the Office finalized its views and given what&#8217;s at stake, pushing any changes through Congress is not going to be easy.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188522
title: US Court Hands Down Preliminary Injunction Against Pirate IPTV Provider
uri: US-Court-Hands-Down-Preliminary-Injunction-Against-Pirate-IPTV-Provide
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ThQhMp8dFQ8/
content:
<p><a href="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="IPTV" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034" /></a>Pirate IPTV services have flourished in the past few years with little to hold them all back.</p>
<p>To counter the threat, however, US-broadcaster DISH Network hasn&#8217;t taken its foot off the gas, filing numerous lawsuits in local courts in an effort to shut at least some of them down.</p>
<p>DISH seems to pick its targets wisely, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=dish+networks">enjoying success</a> in many of not all of its lawsuits. This week the company added another victory to its collection after obtaining a preliminary injunction to prevent a pirate IPTV service from infringing its rights.</p>
<p>Filed under seal back in late January at a Florida court, the complaint targeted Robert Reich, an alleged resident of Riviera Beach, Florida. Reich&#8217;s IPTV service reportedly operates under various business names including Channel Broadcasting Corporation of Belize Ltd, Channel Broadcasting Cable, CBC Cable, and CBC.</p>
<h2>The &#8216;Pirate&#8217; Rebroadcasting Scheme</h2>
<p>According to DISH, Reich is the owner and operator of the &#8216;CBC X-View Cable Service&#8217; which does business at <a href="https://cbc.bz/">CBC.bz</a>. DISH alleges that the service is actually a pirate TV operation that utilizes official DISH subscriber accounts (many of which have Florida addresses) to steal the company&#8217;s programming before retransmitting it via the Internet.</p>
<p>The image below shows <a href="media/fd630e2a.cbc-channel-guide-back-2020-scaled.jpg" data-original-source="https://cbc.bz/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/cbc-channel-guide-back-2020-scaled.jpg">around half</a> of the channels offered by the service, many of which are licensed exclusively by DISH.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/cc9c3f23.cbc-channel-guide-e1590745225620.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cbc-channel-guide-e1590745225620.png"><img src="media/cc9c3f23.cbc-channel-guide-e1590745225620.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cbc-channel-guide-e1590745225620.png" alt="" width="550" height="660" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188576" /></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant sells subscriptions to the CBC pirate television service for $60 per month plus a $55 installation fee. To purchase a subscription, customers can contact CBC through a variety of means according to CBC&#8217;s website, including telephone, email, Facebook, and WhatsApp VOIP service,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>In addition to regular subscribers, DISH alleges that the service is also being used in several hotels in Belize including the Radisson Fort George. DISH claims that error messages from its services were observed on television sets in the hotels showing that the programming had indeed been retransmitted from its platform.</p>
<p>DISH commonly files anti-IPTV lawsuits under copyright law or the Federal Communications Act, with the latter being used in this case. The company alleges breaches of 47 U.S.C. § 605(a) and 47 U.S.C. § 605(e)(4) which covers the sale of device codes (aka subscriptions) and piracy devices such as configured set-top boxes.</p>
<p>Statutory damages of between $1,000 and $10,000 are available for each violation of Section 605(a) and up to $100,000 if the violation was committed willfully and for financial gain. Section 605(e)(4) allows for statutory damages up to $100,000 for each violation.</p>
<h2>Defendant Tracked Down and Served in Belize</h2>
<p>The docket shows that on April 24, 2020, a former police officer and process server hired by DISH served documents on Robert Reich at his residence in Belize, including an ex parte motion for temporary restraining order and motion for preservation order and asset freeze previously granted by the court.</p>
<p>In response, Reich filed a motion to quash, arguing that the court that it had no jurisdiction over him because he hadn&#8217;t been properly served. After highlighting conflicting statements submitted by Reich and his wife, earlier this month Judge Rodney Smith dismissed the motion and sided with DISH.</p>
<h2>Temporary Restraining Order Converted to Preliminary Injunction</h2>
<p>This week the court noted that it had previously granted a temporary restraining order (TRO) against Reich based on several findings, including that since DISH was likely to succeed in its claims under the FCA, the continued distribution of pirate subscriptions and devices would cause &#8220;irreparable injury&#8221; to the company.</p>
<p>Since then, however, the court acknowledged that the parties had met and agreed to convert the TRO into a preliminary injunction to be formalized by the court, in advance of an upcoming hearing.</p>
<p>As a result, Judge Smith was happy to carry that out by restraining Reich and all of his businesses from continuing to infringe DISH&#8217;s rights. That includes receiving and/or distributing DISH programming without permission and selling or distributing devices &#8220;marketed, designed or intended for receiving or assisting others&#8221; in receiving DISH programming.</p>
<p>Reich was further restrained from destroying, hiding or transferring any computer servers, satellite equipment, software, set-top boxes and documentation that have been used (or could be used) to support his pirate IPTV service.</p>
<p>Finally, Reich had severe restrictions placed on his assets, including physical items, cash and bank accounts, preventing any transfer beyond what&#8217;s required for &#8220;reasonable&#8221; living and business expenses. The court told Reich that he must now &#8220;keep detailed records&#8221; of all his expenditures.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant, and anyone acting in active concert or participation with Defendant or Defendant’s CBC TV Service at issue in this action who receives actual notice of this Order, is warned that any act in violation of any of the terms of this Order may be considered and prosecuted as contempt of this Court,&#8221; Judge Smith warned. </p>
<p><em>The complaint and supporting documents can be found here (<a href="media/54f1fab4.9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-CBC-complaint.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-CBC-complaint.pdf">1</a>,<a href="media/856373b1.9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-server.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-server.pdf">2</a>,<a href="media/aec475ad.9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-order-denying-motion-to-quash.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-order-denying-motion-to-quash.pdf">3</a>,<a href="media/a26e611d.9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-CBC-preliminary-injunction.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/9-20-cv-80088-DISH-v-Reich-CBC-preliminary-injunction.pdf">4</a> pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188547
title: Watch Tower DMCA Subpoena Row Settled After Judge Hands Out Vulgarity Warning
uri: Watch-Tower-DMCA-Subpoena-Row-Settled-After-Judge-Hands-Out-Vulgarity
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W7uVK8MliI4/
content:
<p><img src="media/eaf48e81.pray.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pray.png" width="270" height="180" class="alignright size-full" />Back in March we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/jehovahs-witness-body-uses-dmca-to-subpoena-youtube-for-apostates-identity-200308/">reported</a> that the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the publisher for the Jehovah’s Witness religious group, had gone to court to obtain a DMCA subpoena.</p>
<p>The aim of the group was to discover the personal details of a self-declared &#8216;apostate&#8217; who uploaded Jehovah&#8217;s Witness sermons to YouTube in breach of copyright. These are usually open-and-shut cases but when an anonymous movant stepped in to contest the application, things got pretty stormy to say the least.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/watchtower-dmca-subpoena-case-hots-up-as-anonymous-objector-gains-traction-200407/">reported</a> in April, the anonymous individual filed a series of documents with the court, branding leaders of the religious group as &#8216;pedophiles&#8217; and suggesting that Judge Cathy Seibel&#8217;s alleged friendship with Watch Tower&#8217;s attorney could be undermining the judicial process. While largely irrelevant to our copyright-focused reporting, it should be noted that those claims were just the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<p>Profanities aside (and they were present in abundance), the anonymous movant declared protection under fair use doctrines and drew attention to the fact that despite filing applications for 59 DMCA subpoenas, Watch Tower had never followed up with an actual copyright lawsuit. These matters and more were subsequently addressed by Watch Tower and Judge Seibel.</p>
<h2>Watch Tower: DMCA Subpoena Process Was Used in Good Faith</h2>
<p>In a memorandum and declaration, Watch Tower attorney Paul D. Polidoro said that beginning June 2018, the religious group undertook &#8220;concentrated efforts&#8221; to address the &#8220;global theft&#8221; of its intellectual property. Part of this was exercising its rights under the DMCA, including applying for subpoenas. According to Polidoro, however, these didn&#8217;t bear much fruit.</p>
<p>Using the words of the anonymous movant against him, the attorney noted that things like &#8220;VPNs, anonymous proxies, and TOR exit nodes&#8221; frustrate Watch Tower&#8217;s enforcement efforts to discover the true identities of alleged infringers.</p>
<p>&#8220;When some identifying information was obtained, usually the infringer resided outside of the United States, such as in South America or Europe,&#8221; Polidoro wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the end of last year, Watch Tower’s Legal Department was finally able to identify a few potential domestic defendants to bring a copyright infringement action. Undertaking litigation with its attendant expenses was and is carefully considered because Jehovah’s Witnesses’ efforts are &#8216;supported entirely by voluntary donations&#8217;.”</p>
<p>In the end, however, Watch Tower decided that legal action against someone was required and in December 2019 took the decision to sue an alleged copyright infringer. According to the filing, work on the case has been taking place since the beginning of 2020 but due to the coronavirus pandemic, the complaint was delayed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Watch Tower’s forthcoming copyright infringement lawsuit will not end its efforts to take steps to address other ongoing continued infringements. To this end, Watch Tower will continue to avail itself of its statutory rights to pursue DMCA subpoenas to identify other potential defendants,&#8221; Polidoro warned.</p>
<h2>Watch Tower: No Fair Use in This Case</h2>
<p>What followed was a case-by-case analysis of five videos posted by the movant to YouTube. In previous filings, the movant stated that the videos were &#8220;undercover&#8221; recordings of Jehovah&#8217;s Witness sermons but according to the religious group, they were all posted in their entirety and without criticism, as might be the case when attempting to make a fair use claim.</p>
<p>Only making matters more complicated was a subsequent motion to quash by the anonymous movant which stated that the DMCA subpoena itself was invalid because the five videos referenced by Watch Tower had already been removed from YouTube by YouTube itself, before the notices had been issued.</p>
<p>&#8220;[B]y the time Watch Tower had issued its DMCA notices for the five allegedly infringing videos in the case at hand, the five videos had already been removed by Google/YouTube because Google is a huge piece of shit who doesn’t have to do their fucking jobs right,&#8221; the motion notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;So &#8216;Hooray for the pieces of shit at Google for being so quick on the trigger and heavy-handed with their ban hammer!&#8217; But I guess that means that this subpoena must be quashed.&#8221;</p>
<h2>No, Possibly, and Mind Your Language, Judge Declares</h2>
<p>&#8220;Having heard further from the parties, I deny the motion to quash,&#8221; Judge Siebel wrote in her recent order settling the matter.</p>
<p>&#8220;Watch Tower has provided an explanation for why it has not pursued more cases, as well as evidence that the alleged infringement would not constitute fair use because the videos are full-length and not accompanied by criticism. That there may be criticisms in the comments section [on YouTube] does not render the initial postings fair use.&#8221;</p>
<p>On the validity of the DMCA subpoena, the anonymous movant may enjoy more success, but only within tight parameters.</p>
<p>&#8220;Movant argues that the subpoena is unenforceable because the videos were all taken down before Google received notice. I am dubious, because this allegation contradicts what Movant alleges elsewhere &#8212; that the videos were taken down only after the notices were received &#8212; and because in Watch Tower&#8217;s initial declaration, it attached a letter it sent to Google asking it to take down the videos,&#8221; the Judge notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;But the subpoena would be unenforceable if the material had been taken down before the notices were received, so Watch Tower&#8217;s counsel should provide Google with a copy of this text order, and Google is advised that compliance with the subpoena is not required if in fact the videos were taken down before Google received any notice of the possible infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>With the matter of the DMCA subpoena now apparently over, Judge Siebel took the time to add some personal advice to conclude her order. Having made no attempt to rein in any of the language used in the dispute thus far, she had the last word indicating she was far from happy.</p>
<p>&#8220;Finally, some free advice for Movant: Inflammatory, vulgar and abusive language in court filings is not a good idea.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>Related court filings can be found <a href="media/1333866b.7-20-mc-00119-doc1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/7-20-mc-00119-doc1.pdf">here</a> and <a href="media/f2caaabb.7-20-mc-00119-doc2.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/7-20-mc-00119-doc2.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p><em>Image credit: <a href="https://pixabay.com/photos/praying-god-christianity-belief-2179326/">Pixabay</a></em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188285
title: Netflix Impostor Bombards Google With Fake DMCA Takedown Notices
uri: Netflix-Impostor-Bombards-Google-With-Fake-DMCA-Takedown-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CxvIu-y1GR0/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-188306" src="media/a55361bf.notflix.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/notflix.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="120" />Earlier this month we reported on an interesting trend. Suddenly, the number of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/takedown-notices-from-netflix-are-skyrocketing-but-are-they-legit-200513/">DMCA takedown notices sent by Netflix</a> to Google shot through the roof.</p>
<p>As a possible explanation, we suggested an increase in enforcement following the surge of piracy during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there were also some signs that hinted towards possible abuse by a third party.</p>
<p>After our publication, the number of &#8216;Netflix&#8217; DMCA notices sent to Google only increased. Two weeks ago the streaming platform reportedly flagged 1.2 million pirate URLs in a month, a sharp contrast to the few thousand it filed a few weeks earlier.</p>
<h2>Google Takes Action</h2>
<p>At the same time, however, Google started to pick up the issue as well. Where all reported pirate links sent by &#8220;Netflix&#8221; were previously removed, the search engine has now started to reject more and more requests.</p>
<p>In fact, Google&#8217;s Transparency Report is actively flagging several Netflix notices as abusive. While they do contain links to pirated material, Google believes they were sent by impostors.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that an impostor or someone else abusing the process submitted this request. We report it here for the sake of completeness and to provide a view into one kind of abuse of the DMCA process,&#8221; Google writes.</p>
<p><center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188308" src="media/0b841a3f.netflix-impostor.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix-impostor.jpg" alt="netflix impostor" width="620" height="230" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix-impostor.jpg 810w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix-impostor-600x222.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" /></center></p>
<p>The notices that are flagged show the same fishy characteristics we highlighted in our earlier article. They generate separate &#8216;reporting organization&#8217; listings in Google&#8217;s transparency report, submit long lists of URLs from the same domains, and often identify content that&#8217;s not owned by Netflix.</p>
<p>Also, the message that comes with these notices isn&#8217;t exactly proper English and reads: &#8220;<em>All works on this website is copyrighted for netflix and this website not allowed to share this content.</em>&#8221;</p>
<h2>Competing Pirate Sites?</h2>
<p>Who is responsible for these abusive notices remains a question. It seems very likely, however, that they&#8217;re being sent by the owner of a pirate streaming site, who wants links from competing sites removed from Google search. </p>
<p>Given that most reported sites are French we assume that the sender &#8211; pirate or not &#8211; is French-speaking as well.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s good to see that Google is now aware of the problem. However, this is not the first time this type of abuse has come up, so it would be good to know if it can be prevented going forward.</p>
<h2>Google Is Taking Action</h2>
<p>Google obviously doesn&#8217;t like this type of abuse, but in some cases it&#8217;s unavoidable. The company says its DMCA removals process aims to strike a balance between making it easy and efficient for rightsholders to report infringing content, and protecting free expression on the web.</p>
<p>&#8220;This system has been effective at significantly reducing access to infringing content via Search, but there are bad actors who attempt to abuse this system and limit access to information, which is something we actively fight against,&#8221; a Google spokesperson informed TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>&#8220;Over the years, we’ve continued to invest in new tools and establish processes like the Trusted Copyright Removal Program to tackle this issue at scale, while also developing new ways to counter abuse, which continues to evolve.”</p>
<p>As a result of these measures, Google rejects all requests it believes were sent by impostors. That said, many of the &#8216;dubious&#8217; notices that were sent previously have not been flagged, or the URLs that were reported <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/20886483?access_token=TXSCCULWbQUMChN5rWWb0Q">remain deindexed</a>.</p>
<p>Google says that there are various types of abuse, some effecting legitimate content, and others target pirate content. While reported links form abusers are not always reinstated, affected sites can always submit counternotices. However, Google will not reinstate pirate URLs.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188052
title: ACE/MPA Seize Four More Sites For Facilitating Movie & TV Show Piracy
uri: ACE-MPA-Seize-Four-More-Sites-For-Facilitating-Movie-TV-Show-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5-3-31hGWsI/
content:
<p><a href="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png"><img src="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png" alt="MPA logo" width="212" height="205" class="alignright size-full wp-image-177349" /></a>Domain takeovers and seizures have been part of the piracy landscape for at least 15 years.</p>
<p>Previously implemented mostly by government agencies, including the Department of Justice and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as part of criminal investigations, seizure banners are used as messages to deter former and would-be pirates.</p>
<p>Given the finite resources of law enforcement agencies and their tendency to focus on high-profile targets, domain seizures/takeovers are now much more likely to be actioned privately. This usually involves an approach to a site owner by entertainment industry lawyers, who politely request that all infringing activity ceases and domains are handed over to avoid more punishing action.</p>
<p>The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is now emerging as the leader in this type of enforcement tactic. Comprised of the world&#8217;s leading video-focused entertainment companies, ACE has shut down dozens of platforms in this manner. However, instead of shouting its achievements from the rooftops, ACE prefers to conduct most of this activity behind the scenes.</p>
<h2>Four More Domains Officially &#8216;Seized&#8217; by ACE/MPA This Month</h2>
<p><em>1. Rokuenmexico.com</em></p>
<p>Until recently, visitors to <a href="http://rokuenmexico.com">&#8216;Roku in Mexico&#8217;</a> were greeted with an offer to buy what appears to have been an unlicensed IPTV product called Future TV. </p>
<p>&#8220;Premium TV at the best price. Forget about SKY and Netflix,&#8221; the site declared. &#8220;The largest catalog of films including some that are still in the cinema. Access the latest movies from your home.&#8221;</p>
<p>Priced at 230 pesos (around $10) per month, the service claimed to be compatible with Android, iOS, Windows and Mac devices, playable on up to three at any one time. The service could be &#8216;activated&#8217; via WhatsApp with payments accepted via PayPal and other means.</p>
<p>Curiously, however, the underlying Future TV portal seems to have been unaffected by the MPA&#8217;s seizure of the Rokuenmexico.com domain. That remains <a href="http://playtv.mx/">available today</a>, as the image below shows.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/17f4ff58.future-tv-e1590658582344.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/future-tv-e1590658582344.png"><img src="media/17f4ff58.future-tv-e1590658582344.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/future-tv-e1590658582344.png" alt="Future TV" width="500" height="542" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188487" /></a></center></p>
<p><em>2. Android-Latino.com</em></p>
<p>The MPA&#8217;s takeover of <a href="http://Android-latino.com">Android-Latino.com</a> is more difficult to decipher. The minimal volume of cached pages available on the Wayback Machine suggest that the site published news and reviews of pirate IPTV services and apps. It may have also published links to URLs where people could watch IPTV channels for free.</p>
<p>In any event, the original page (which wasn&#8217;t professionally presented) is long gone and now diverts to the ACE anti-piracy portal.</p>
<p><em>3. TVnota10.net</em></p>
<p>In common with the above seizure, the takeover of TVnota10.net isn&#8217;t immediately straightforward either. While the main site is down and redirecting to ACE citing breaches of copyright law, it appears to have functioned as a sales/promotional platform for a similarly-named service, <a href="https://tvn10.com/">TVN10.com</a>.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/dd06771d.tvnota10-e1590660409389.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tvnota10-e1590660409389.png"><img src="media/dd06771d.tvnota10-e1590660409389.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tvnota10-e1590660409389.png" alt="" width="500" height="236" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188495" /></a></center></p>
<p>That site appears to be completely functional, offering access to an almost certainly unlicensed IPTV service offering everything from live TV channels and movies, to TV shows and international sports.</p>
<p><em>4. Crowdstream.ml</em></p>
<p>To complete this weird quartet of domain takeovers we have Crowdstream.ml. Not only had we never heard of this platform before, it seems that the major companies of ACE may have only heard of it recently too. Google&#8217;s Transparency Report reveals that Twentieth Century Fox and Disney sent a handful of <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/19714101?access_token=oSplBVOtVG_2KF9nRzw8bA">takedown notices</a> in December 2019 with French free-to-air television channel TF1 taking an interest at roughly the same time.</p>
<p>Major search engines only have a handful of Crowdstream pages indexed but the suggestion is that the service hosted or linked to mainstream movies and may have been directed at the French market.</p>
<p>Coverage of previous ACE/MPA domain seizures can be found <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=ace+domain">here</a>.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188098
title: How Anonymous Are Cloud Torrenting Services?
uri: How-Anonymous-Are-Cloud-Torrenting-Services
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DIQbAJezXE0/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-188410" src="media/7457d8c5.surveillance.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/surveillance.jpg" alt="cctv cameras surveillance" width="300" height="197" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/surveillance.jpg 653w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/surveillance-600x393.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />Every day, millions of people download files through BitTorrent. This works well but there is one major drawback; everything you download can be tracked.</p>
<p>To bypass this privacy concern many people have started to use VPNs, many of which provide good anonymity. Others prefer cloud torrenting tools, which also help to hide users&#8217; IP-addresses.</p>
<p>Over the past few years we&#8217;ve regularly asked <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/">VPN providers how anonymous</a> they really are. However, little is known about the privacy policies and logging practices of cloud torrenting services. Today, we hope to fill this gap.</p>
<p>At the start of the week we reached out to several of the leading cloud torrenting services to ask some detailed questions. In particular, we wanted to know what information they store and if that can expose users.</p>
<p>The list of all questions, including the answers from providers, is listed below. At the bottom of the article we provide a summary, as well as a list of those who failed to respond at all.</p>
<p>&#8212;<br />
<em>1. Does your service collect any temporary or permanent data that can link a timestamp and IP-address to a specific user on your service? If so, what information do you collect and how long is that stored?</em></p>
<p><em>2. Does your service store any personally identifiable information of users (including IP-addresses)? If so, what information do you store, and for how long?</em></p>
<p><em>3. Does your service store the names/hashes or other identifying information of downloaded content (stored on your servers) that can be connected with a specific user? If so, for how long?</em></p>
<p><em>4. Does your service store the names/hashes or other identifying information of previously downloaded content (after being removed from the user&#8217;s account) that can be connected with a specific user? If so, for how long?</em></p>
<p><em>5. How does your service respond to DMCA notices or similar takedown requests?</em></p>
<p><em>6. Do you have a repeat infringer policy? If so, what does it entail?</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a href="https://www.premiumize.me/">Premiumize</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright wp-image-188464 size-full" src="media/428455e4.premiumize.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/premiumize.jpg" alt="premiumize logo" width="250" height="130" />1. No, we don&#8217;t log any IP access data. Our whole service is built to have minimal logging and is very light on the database level. That keeps things simple.</p>
<p>2. The most unique userkey is the user&#8217;s email address. We keep that for obvious reasons &#8211; to secure the account and reach the user. We keep it until the account is deleted. Apart from that we don&#8217;t store anything, but other information might be stored by our payment gateways. Nothing really can be done there except moving to Bitcoin &#8211; which we support and love.</p>
<p>3. There are two parts to our service. One is for fetching (eg a transfer job for importing the files into cloud storage) and then there&#8217;s the actual cloud storage. There is obviously a database that links the files to the user&#8217;s account but that connection is gone once the user deletes(removes) the file from their cloud. We cannot restore files and cannot backtrack who added/transferred what.</p>
<p>4.No, we do not.</p>
<p>5. Luckily we don&#8217;t have this problem since our business model does not contain any sort of sharing or publishing. Generated filelinks are locked to the user&#8217;s account and cannot be accessed externally.</p>
<p>6. We do not and it would be pretty hard since we do not have the logs. For now, we are content with the current legal situation.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em><strong>TorrentFreak summary:</strong> There are no logs that can connect a person&#8217;s IP-address to an account. Premiumize can link files to user accounts and information</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a href="https://transfercloud.io/">Transfercloud</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-188466" src="media/edc1bcd9.transfercloud.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/transfercloud.jpg" alt="transfercloud logo" width="250" height="97" />1. The last IP address is registered when the user logs on and it is cleared when the user logs out. This IP is only used to permit access to their downloaded files, and it is correlated with the login cookie. This is temporary and the privacy of the user is assured when they logout. The email is used to register and as an account recovery mechanism.</p>
<p>2. Each account is associated with an email address. Even though we frown on &#8216;temporary&#8217; or &#8216;disposable&#8217; emails, we make no effort in collecting the real name. In fact, if the user logs in with a Facebook account and refuses to share their email address, we don&#8217;t store any address at all. Email is only used to ensure the ownership of the account and allow users to &#8216;recover&#8217; their own account and not be available for anyone else.</p>
<p>At any point, users can change their email address or delete it. Also, at any point any user can ask for account deletion and all information will be purged on request. We are working on adding an automatic mechanism for this.</p>
<p>Now, if the user upgrades their account, our payment processor asks for PII to ensure the identity of the user to protect against credit card fraud. This information STAYS on their servers and is not available from ours. We don&#8217;t use that information at all, we just receive the activation for a specific account.</p>
<p>3. See the next answer.</p>
<p>4. On all active or previous transfers the original request is stored as long as the user leaves them on their &#8216;downloaded&#8217; list. As soon as they clear this list, that information is purged and can no longer be connected with the user.</p>
<p>5. We respond as soon as the request is received. We delete the referred content and comply, informing the user why it was deleted and suggesting they do not try downloading any copyrighted content.</p>
<p>6. We have not had to enforce any &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; policies, but we do not disclose the limits we would consider as abuse to avoid users trying to &#8220;pass below the radar&#8221;. To be clear, although we do have a &#8220;fair use&#8221; policy for bandwidth usage, we have not had to impose any limits, as we try to permit the users to use the service to their maximum potential, and instead, we are really happy to see users enjoy it that much.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em><strong>TorrentFreak summary:</strong> There are temporary logs that can connect a person&#8217;s IP-address to an account. TransferCloud can link non-deleted files and download histories to user accounts and information</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a href="https://put.io/">Put.io</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/2ea3cac8.putio-2.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/putio-2.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="142" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188557" />1. Since we are a Turkish company we are required to abide by Turkish laws, which are more concerned about curtailing free speech than privacy. And since there is no speech at put.io we&#8217;re not keeping a list of [&#8216;all&#8217;] used IP addresses.</p>
<p>We do keep the last used IP address to generate a download token that invalidates download links when requested from other IP addresses. We keep this last IP address as long as the user is logged in. It is erased when the user logs out or is inactive for 7 days. This is a precaution against abuse. We are currently working on a solution that will make it unnecessary to keep the last IP address.</p>
<p>2. We keep the username, reported email address and the last IP address for the purpose explained above. We have no access to users&#8217; payment information. These are stored by our payment providers</p>
<p>3. There is an association with the account and the transfer jobs as long as they are displayed on the transfers page, and there is an association between the account and the files as long as they are stored under that account. There is also a history page that lists the latest transfer jobs, but it can be turned off. </p>
<p>These associations disappear the moment the transfers page is cleared, the files are deleted or the history page is cleared (or disabled). We wouldn&#8217;t be able to answer the question &#8220;What has this user downloaded?&#8221; after that.</p>
<p>Also, if the user ever destroys their account, we destroy everything related to the account. The only record we keep is a log entry that states that an account with that username was destroyed on that date. We had to add this to solve some mysteries with unintended account deletions.</p>
<p>4. No. If it&#8217;s not visible in the user interface we don&#8217;t keep it.</p>
<p>5. After 10 years in operation we have received only one DMCA request and that was meant for another service called Putlocker. The copyright holder had mixed up the services. We don&#8217;t receive DMCA requests, but if we ever did, we would comply and remove the content from our servers. That would be the end of it.</p>
<p>6. We have never had to develop a policy to deal with this.</p>
<p><em><strong>TorrentFreak summary:</strong> There are temporary logs that can connect a person&#8217;s IP-address to an account. Put.io can link the non-deleted files and download history to user accounts and information.</em></p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2>Summary: How Anonymous Are Cloud Torrenting Services</h2>
<p>Cloud torrenting services help people to hide their IP-addresses from the public. By doing so, they add an extra privacy layer. Outsiders can&#8217;t see what people download. However, true anonymity is a different matter.</p>
<p>The services can link stored files &#8211; and in some cases non-deleted download histories &#8211; to the personal information they store in their database. In that regard, they are similar to cloud hosting services. This is worth keeping in mind, as services can be compromised or legally required to share information.</p>
<h2>Cloud Torrenting Services That Haven&#8217;t Responded (fully)</h2>
<p>The following services didn&#8217;t respond to our questions. If they do, we will update the article accordingly. Bitport submitted a partial response after our deadline, we will add the full response if it comes in.<br />
&#8211;</p>
<p><em>&#8211; Boxopus<br />
&#8211; Cloudload<br />
&#8211; Filestream<br />
&#8211; Seedr<br />
&#8211; Offcloud<br />
&#8211; Torrentsafe<br />
&#8211; Transfercloud<br />
&#8211; Zbigz</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188389
title: Rights Alliance Reinforces Pirate Site Blocking Agreement With Danish ISPs
uri: Rights-Alliance-Reinforces-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Agreement-With-Danish
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3eT5-nT_KTE/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-148128" src="media/b66805ad.denmark-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/denmark-1.jpg" alt="denmark flag" width="277" height="217" />For more than a decade, Denmark has been a a frontrunner when it comes to pirate site blockades.</p>
<p>The first blocks date back to 2006 when music industry group IFPI filed a complaint targeting the unlicensed Russian MP3 site AllofMP3.</p>
<p>Not much later, Denmark became the first European country to force an ISP to block access to The Pirate Bay. Since then, many other pirate sites have received the same treatment.</p>
<h2>Denmark&#8217;s Voluntary Pirate Site Blockades</h2>
<p>The Danish model is seen as a prime example by copyright holders worldwide, partly because of successes in court but also due to a voluntary agreement which requires local ISPs to follow these orders, even if they&#8217;re not sued.</p>
<p>When copyright holders win a court case against a single ISP, others have agreed to follow suit. According to the local anti-piracy group <a href="https://rettighedsalliancen.dk/">Rights Alliance</a>, which is at the center of these legal battles, this covers roughly 95% of all residential Internet users.</p>
<p>The system works pretty well, from the perspective of copyright holders, but there have been challenges as well. Many of the blocked sites switch to new URLs or become available through proxy sites, for example. To address this, the voluntary agreement was updated recently.</p>
<h2>New Code of Conduct</h2>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Rights Alliance, which clarified that so-called &#8220;dynamic&#8221; blocks were already an option. However, with the new code of conduct, they can be implemented faster as the owners of alleged pirate sites no longer have to be notified if there&#8217;s no contact address listed.</p>
<p>&#8220;The illegal market is constantly evolving, and so it has been necessary to revise the agreement in order to keep up with the creative behavior of the criminals who circumvent the blockades,&#8221; Rights Alliance explains.</p>
<p>In return, Rights Alliance now carries responsibility for any overblocking that may occur. The anti-piracy group doesn&#8217;t see any issues on this front, however, and is pleased that it can implement these dynamic blocks more swiftly.</p>
<p>&#8220;The crucial thing about dynamic blocking is that the court does not have to decide on each of the new addresses if they offer the same illegal content. The Rights Alliance is tasked with identifying the new addresses and passing them on to ISPs so that they can be blocked,&#8221; the group notes.</p>
<p>The agreement was also updated to allow for local .dk domains to be blocked. These were previously exempted, as rightsholders could address their concerns directly with the registrar. However, that has proven to be a complicated process.</p>
<h2>Future Updates May Be Needed</h2>
<p>The Rights Alliance is happy with the changes, but it believes that there&#8217;s more to come. When pirate sites continue to adapt to evade blocking measures, the agreement will also be updated in response. </p>
<p>&#8220;We can already see developments in illegal live streaming, with the use of so-called cyberlockers and the use of alternative DNS services. It is a priority for the Rights Alliance to ensure that this operational part of enforcement follows developments so that effective action can be taken against online criminals.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the time of writing, Danish ISPs block a total of 478 sites, which is up from <a href="http://478 sites blocked https://torrentfreak.com/danes-deploy-disruption-machine-to-curb-online-piracy-171119/">roughly 100 less than three years ago</a>. A recent report revealed that the blocks drastically reduce traffic to pirate sites. However, the number of pirating users <a href="http://of people who pirate in the country remains unchanged as tech-savvy users deploy circumvention methods including VPNs and alternative DNS providers.">remains stable</a>, as they use VPNs and other tools to bypass the restrictions.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188679
title: Publishers Sue the Internet Archive Over its Open Library, Declare it a Pirate Site
uri: Publishers-Sue-the-Internet-Archive-Over-its-Open-Library-Declare-it
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Fgrkd2jbUr0/
content:
<p><a href="media/16a360f4.internet-archive.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/internet-archive.png"><img src="media/16a360f4.internet-archive.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/internet-archive.png" alt="Internet Archive" width="200" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55299" /></a>Back in March, the Internet Archive responded to the coronavirus pandemic by offering a new service to help &#8220;displaced learners&#8221;.</p>
<p>Combining scanned books from three libraries, the Archive offered unlimited borrowing of more than a million books, so that people could continue to learn while in quarantine.</p>
<p>While the move was welcomed by those in favor of open access to education, publishers and pro-copyright groups <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/internet-archives-national-emergency-library-is-vile-says-copyright-alliance-310331/">slammed the decision</a>, with some describing it as an attempt to bend copyright law and others declaring the project as mass-scale piracy.</p>
<p>Today, major publishers Hachette Book Group, Inc., HarperCollins Publishers LLC, John Wiley &#038; Sons, Inc., and Penguin Random House LLC went to war with the project by filing a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Internet Archive and five &#8216;Doe&#8217; defendants in a New York court.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs, all member companies of the Association of American Publishers, effectively accuse the Internet Archive (IA) of acting not dissimilarly to a regular pirate site. In fact, the complaint uses those very words.</p>
<h2>&#8220;The Open Library Is Not a Library, It Is an Unlicensed Aggregator and Pirate Site&#8221;</h2>
<p>&#8220;Defendant IA is engaged in willful mass copyright infringement. Without any license or any payment to authors or publishers, IA scans print books, uploads these illegally scanned books to its servers, and distributes verbatim digital copies of the books in whole via public-facing websites. With just a few clicks, any Internet-connected user can download complete digital copies of in-copyright books from Defendant,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The scale of IA’s scheme is astonishing: At its &#8216;Open Library,&#8217; located at www.openlibrary.org and www.archive.org.., IA currently distributes digital scanned copies of over 1.3 million books. And its stated goal is to do so for millions more, essentially distributing free digital copies of every book ever written.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Internet Archive Does &#8220;Violence to the Copyright Act&#8221;, Publishers Claim</h2>
<p>Since the library was launched there has been discussion over whether the library itself is legal, with the Internet Archive firmly believing that it sits on the right side of the law. However, the publishers&#8217; lawsuit stresses that they aren&#8217;t suing over the &#8220;occasional transmission of a title under appropriately limited circumstances&#8221;. What they are concerned with is their belief that the IA&#8217;s library is a tool for mass infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The lawsuit] is about IA’s purposeful collection of truckloads of in-copyright books to scan, reproduce, and then distribute digital bootleg versions online. IA’s Website includes books of every stripe — from bestsellers to scholarly monographs, from entertaining thrillers and romances to literary fiction, from self-help books to biographies, from children’s books to adult books,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>The publishers also counter IA&#8217;s assertions that it only offers older 20th-century books for download, stating that is neither &#8220;accurate nor a defense.&#8221; IA scans, uploads and distributes huge numbers of in-copyright titles, the publishers state, including those published in the last few years. </p>
<p>&#8220;IA’s unauthorized copying and distribution of Plaintiffs’ works include titles that the Publishers are currently selling commercially and currently providing to libraries in ebook form, making Defendant’s business a direct substitute for established markets. Free is an insurmountable competitor,&#8221; they write.</p>
<h2>Controlled Digital Lending is an &#8220;Invented Theory&#8221;, Complaint Alleges</h2>
<p>At the heart of IA&#8217;s reasoning that its library is both legitimate and legal is that it offers content via <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_digital_lending">Controlled Digital Lending</a>, with titles only loaned for a limited period and on a controlled volume basis. However, opponents claim that scanning and lending can not be used as a cover for copyright infringement and distribution. It&#8217;s a position held by the plaintiffs in this lawsuit.</p>
<p>Claiming that IA is hiding behind &#8220;an invented theory&#8221; simply labeled Controlled Digital Lending, the publishers maintain there is nothing in copyright law that allows anyone to systematically copy and distribute digital book files simply because they claim to own an original physical copy.</p>
<p>Furthermore, IA&#8217;s loosening of its own CDL rules at the time of the pandemic only made matters worse, as it came precisely when book market players were also under pressure to survive.</p>
<p>&#8220;IA’s blatant, willful infringement is all the more egregious for its timing, which comes at the very moment that many authors, publishers, and independent bookstores, not to mention libraries, are both struggling to survive amidst economic uncertainty and planning deliberatively for future, changing markets,&#8221; the lawsuit adds.</p>
<p>In summary, the publishers state that the function of the library is similar to that of the publishers themselves. Both distribute entire books to the public for reading but unlike the publishers, the IA avoids having to invest any money in order to do so.</p>
<p>&#8220;In short, Defendant merely exploits the investments that publishers have made in their books, and it does so through a business model that is designed to free-ride on the work of others. Defendant pays for none of the expenses that go into publishing a book and is nothing more than a mass copier and distributor of bootleg works.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Damages Could Run Into Tens of Millions of Dollars</h2>
<p>The publishers are going straight for the jugular with their claim, alleging direct copyright infringement for each of the publishers&#8217; copyright works offered by the library at a rate of $150,000 in statutory damages per infringement. In the alternative, should IA &#8220;attempt to evade responsibility&#8221; by blaming its own users for infringement, the lawsuit also alleges secondary copyright infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant is secondarily liable under theories of contributory liability, inducement liability, and vicarious liability for the underlying reproduction, distribution, public display, and public performance of Plaintiffs’ Works, as well as the making of infringing derivatives of Plaintiffs’ Works,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>Summing up, the plaintiffs seek a declaration that the Internet Archive&#8217;s actions in respect of the Open Library constitute willful copyright infringement. On top, they demand preliminary and permanent injunctions to restrain it from offering their copyrighted works alongside a judgment for a yet-to-be-determined amount in statutory damages.</p>
<p><em>A copy of the complaint can be found <a href="media/a94f3121.-Hachette-Book-Group-Inc-v-Internet-Archive-complaint-200601.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/1-20-cv-04160-Hachette-Book-Group-Inc-v-Internet-Archive-complaint-200601.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188596
title: BREIN Shut Down 564 Pirate Sites & Blocked 258 Pirate Bay Proxies in 2019
uri: BREIN-Shut-Down-564-Pirate-Sites-Blocked-258-Pirate-Bay-Proxies-in-2
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MSpIzSX6Ksk/
content:
<p><a href="media/718c9c88.brein-new-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/brein-new-1.png"><img src="media/718c9c88.brein-new-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/brein-new-1.png" alt="BREIN logo" width="276" height="101" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188646" /></a>Founded in 1998, BREIN is one of the world&#8217;s most recognizable anti-piracy groups and has taken on some of the largest names in piracy, including the infamous Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>BREIN has a laundry list of significant anti-piracy victories under its belt, not only by introducing <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">site blocking to the Netherlands</a> via a case against The Pirate Bay but also winning a landmark decision in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">Filmspeler case</a>, which found that selling piracy-configured set-top boxes is illegal under EU law.</p>
<p>Many of BREIN&#8217;s achievements aren&#8217;t so widely publicized in real-time but via its annual report, the Dutch anti-piracy group shines a light on its activities of the preceding 12 months. Its latest publication reveals that 2019 was a busy year, as BREIN sought to protect the rights of copyright holders in the fields of movies, TV shows, music and publishing, plus games and images.</p>
<h2>BREIN Investigations Increase Year on Year</h2>
<p>The global anti-piracy landscape is huge and almost impossible to map comprehensively given its fluid nature. However, BREIN is certainly taking on its fair share of cases and looking into a surprising number of matters at any one time.</p>
<p>During 2019, BREIN said it completed 596 investigations, up from the 511 it concluded during the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-brein-dealt-with-339-pirate-sites-last-year-190119/">previous year</a>. The anti-piracy group doesn&#8217;t provide a precise overview of the nature of each of these investigations or the reasons for discontinuing each of them. Nevertheless, at the close of last year, 243 were still active, up from the 97 that remained ongoing at the end of 2018.</p>
<h2>The War Against Downloading and Streaming Platforms</h2>
<p>For many years, BREIN has reported successes against pirate platforms, often taking down hundreds in a 12 month period and 2019 was no exception. When downloading and streaming platforms are combined, BREIN says that it disabled 564 overall during the period. Sites targeted by the anti-piracy group commonly operate in the torrent, Usenet, linking, and cyberlocker niches.</p>
<h2>Continuing to Tackle The Pirate Bay</h2>
<p>After unrelenting pressure by BREIN, in 2012 a Dutch court issued an order for ISPs to block The Pirate Bay in the Netherlands. While that decision was overturned two years later, BREIN took the matter to the Supreme Court, which led to an EU Court of Justice referral.</p>
<p>In 2017, Europe&#8217;s highest court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">ruled</a> that The Pirate Bay could indeed be blocked. The case in the Netherlands is still pending but with an interim injunction in place, ISPs are blocking the site. That has led to the emergence of hundreds of mirrors and proxies, all of which keep BREIN busy.</p>
<p>According to the group&#8217;s annual report, 258 mirrors and proxies of The Pirate Bay were blocked by ISPs using IP address and DNS methods while 333 proxies &#8220;ceased their service&#8221; during 2019.</p>
<h2>Illegal IPTV and VOD suppliers</h2>
<p>One of BREIN&#8217;s most notable achievements in 2019 took place in partnership with the MPA. Together the groups took legal action against Russian pirate CDN &#8216;Moonwalk&#8217; (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-mpa-and-ace-shut-down-massive-pirate-cdn-191021/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/more-pirate-cdns-shut-down-following-brein-mpa-ace-legal-action-191025/">2</a>) which reportedly serviced around 80% of Russia-based streaming sites.</p>
<p>Lower down the chain of supply, BREIN reports it also curtailed the activities of &#8220;23 illegal dealers&#8221; in &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV and VOD subscriptions plus another 12 sellers operating via Facebook. A seller of piracy-configured IPTV devices offered through an online marketplace agreed to pay a settlement to BREIN after being tracked down by the group. During the past several years, BREIN has taken down around 300 pirate IPTV sellers and obtained settlements worth tens of thousands of euros.</p>
<p>BREIN also took on a more unusual case targeting the operator of a so-called &#8216;Plex share&#8217; offering 5,700 movies and 10,000 TV-shows. That individual <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-goes-after-pirate-plex-share-with-thousands-of-movies-and-tv-shows-190425/">agreed to shut down</a> and pay a settlement to the anti-piracy group.</p>
<h2>Uploaders and other distributors</h2>
<p>BREIN doesn&#8217;t have a history of regularly targeting small-time &#8216;personal&#8217; file-sharers but does take action against people who supply content for download or devices designed for copyright infringement on a larger scale.</p>
<p>During 2019, BREIN targeted several Facebook and other social media-based groups offering eBooks, shutting them down and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-obtains-court-order-to-stop-pirate-ebook-sharing-on-facebook-190704/">obtaining settlements</a> from their operators. The anti-piracy outfit also concluded a case against a seller of Nintendo R4 cartridges pre-loaded with up to 100 games after the seller signed a cease-and-desist with a financial penalty clause. A similar agreement was reached with a Usenet uploader.</p>
<p>In a sign that BREIN expects these types of settlements to be adhered to, the anti-piracy group reports that it took action against at least two offenders who previously agreed to comply and then reneged.</p>
<p>In response, a repeat eBook pirate who continued her activities had her house and assets seized by BREIN before payments were resumed. A major uploader who did not comply with the terms of his settlement was summoned to court, with additional legal and collection costs.</p>
<h2>Upcoming Activities in 2020</h2>
<p>After being granted permission to monitor BitTorrent users several users ago, BREIN <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-threatens-pirates-with-high-fines-warns-vpn-users-160314/">indicated</a> that it might be prepared to demand cash settlements from people who repeatedly upload infringing content. While that never appeared at any scale, the anti-piracy group does have something up its sleeve for the months ahead.</p>
<p>&#8220;The dealing with frequent uploaders includes an awareness program of 6 months in which a maximum of 1000 accounts a month will receive an educational warning by email. For research into its effect, funding has been obtained,&#8221; BREIN says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The start of the education is planned mid-2020. Whether enforcement will eventually take place is subject to the effect of the awareness program.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>The full BREIN Review 2019 report can be obtained <a href="media/b8714b9d.BREIN-review-2019-pub.pdf" data-original-source="https://stichtingbrein.nl/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/BREIN-review-2019-pub.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188690
title: Former Police Officer Handed 12 Month Sentence For Selling Pirate TV Devices
uri: Former-Police-Officer-Handed-12-Month-Sentence-For-Selling-Pirate-TV-D
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JPkNnwMt6ZI/
content:
<p><a href="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="IPTV" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034" /></a>Over the years there have been many claims that people involved in piracy are linked to other areas of criminality but a case concluded yesterday probably wasn&#8217;t the leading example the authorities had in mind.</p>
<p>In 2017, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) assisted by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) launched an investigation into Daniel Aimson, who at the time was a serving officer with the force. Another matter, which we&#8217;ll come to shortly, triggered an investigation into Aimson&#8217;s finances and his connection to <a href="https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10424442">A1MSN Ltd</a>, a company registered in the UK during October 2016 directed by his then-wife, Rachel Aimson.</p>
<p>It transpired that this company, which described itself as being involved in the &#8220;retail sale of audio and video equipment in specialized stores&#8221;, was being used to supply piracy-configured IPTV devices providing access to sport and movies for a monthly subscription.</p>
<p>According to GMP, the company also sold pirate streaming subscriptions that allowed users to log into a web-based portal where the content could be viewed without the need for a dedicated device.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over a seven-month period between January to August 2017, the turnover for just one of the accounts linked to the company was in excess of £300,000, none of which was declared to HMRC,&#8221; GMP said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Further analysis of the account revealed that between September 2016 and May 2017, approximately 1,640 illicit IPTV devices were sold.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Alleged losses for SKY TV</h2>
<p>In September 2017, Aimson was arrested at his home under suspicion and fraud and he was suspended from his role with the police. An analysis by Sky TV suggested it could have lost around £5 million in official subscriptions but a figure of $2.124m is now being cited by GMP.</p>
<p>Yesterday, after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud, a judge at Manchester Crown Court sentenced the former police officer to 12 months in prison.</p>
<p>“Aimson was making enormous amounts of money from what he knew to be an illegal activity,&#8221; commented Detective Constable Paul Bayliss of Greater Manchester Police.</p>
<p>&#8220;He was a police employee with a good career. That is now in tatters and he’s facing a lengthy prison sentence during which to contemplate his foolish and deceitful actions.&#8221;</p>
<p>While 12 months may sound like a long time in prison, many offenders spend just half of their sentences behind bars. However, Daniel Aimson&#8217;s case goes much deeper than that, something that went unmentioned in the force&#8217;s statement this morning.</p>
<h2>Already Serving a Six-Year Sentence for Drugs Offenses</h2>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/police-officer-who-led-double-15565299">archives</a> of the Manchester Evening News, in 2015 when Daniel Aimson was still a serving officer, he and several other individuals were producing cannabis on a commercial scale. One of the growing locations was leased using the identity of the member of the public after Aimson stole the individual&#8217;s driving license during a spot check.</p>
<p>Aimson&#8217;s farms continued to produce cannabis for at least 30 months but in June 2017 the operation was raided by police and shut down.</p>
<p>“He (Aimson) was seen at various stages on his own CCTV hard drive to wear a t-shirt depicting the lead character Walt in the hit TV series called Breaking Bad,&#8221; Prosecutor Owen Edwards previously commented.</p>
<p>&#8220;In his various text messages it is clear that Aimson reveled in his double life as officer and criminal.”</p>
<h2>IPTV Piracy Continued While Aimson Was On Bail</h2>
<p>While Aimson was on bail for the drugs offenses, financial investigators found links to his still-operating set-top box business, his wife&#8217;s limited company through which they were sold, and bank accounts operated by other family members used to handle the money.</p>
<p>In 2017, Aimson was handed a prison sentence of six years and four months for running the cannabis operation. Yesterday, just two and a half years into that sentence, he was handed an additional 12 months inside for selling the pirate TV devices.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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