# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151330
title: Tickbox Must Remove Pirate Streaming Addons From Sold Devices
uri: Tickbox-Must-Remove-Pirate-Streaming-Addons-From-Sold-Devices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Rs9OuTUhong/
content:
<p><img src="media/d10d8b10.tickbox.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tickbox.png" alt="" width="250" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145879">Online streaming piracy is on the rise and many people now use dedicated media players to watch content through their regular TVs.</p>
<p>This is a thorn in the side of various movie companies, who have launched a broad range of initiatives to curb this trend. </p>
<p>One of these initiatives is the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), an anti-piracy partnership between Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and more than two dozen other companies.</p>
<p>Last year, ACE <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-giants-sue-kodi-powered-tickbox-tv-over-piracy-171014/">filed a lawsuit</a> against the Georgia-based company <a href="https://www.tickboxtv.com/">Tickbox TV</a>, which sells Kodi-powered set-top boxes that stream a variety of popular media.</p>
<p>ACE sees these devices as nothing more than pirate tools so the coalition asked the court for an injunction to prevent Tickbox from facilitating copyright infringement, demanding that it removes all pirate add-ons from previously sold devices.</p>
<p>Last month, a California federal court issued an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-tickbox-to-keep-pirate-streaming-addons-out-180131/">initial injunction</a>, ordering Tickbox to keep pirate addons out of its box and halt all piracy-inducing advertisements going forward. In addition, the court directed both parties to come up with a proper solution for devices that were already sold.</p>
<p>The movie companies wanted Tickbox to remove infringing addons from previously sold devices, but the device seller refused this initially, equating it to hacking.</p>
<p>This week, both parties were able to reach an &#8216;agreement&#8217; on the issue. They drafted an updated preliminary injunction which replaces the previous order and will be in effect for the remainder of the lawsuit.</p>
<p>The new injunction prevents Tickbox from linking to any “build,” “theme,” “app,” or “addon” that can be indirectly used to transmit copyright-infringing material. Web browsers such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are specifically excluded. </p>
<p>In addition, Tickbox must also release a new software updater that will remove any infringing software from previously sold devices.</p>
<p>&#8220;TickBox shall issue an update to the TickBox launcher software to be automatically downloaded and installed onto any previously distributed TickBox TV device and to be launched when such device connects to the internet,&#8221; the injunction reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Upon being launched, the update will delete the Subject [infringing] Software downloaded onto the device prior to the update, or otherwise cause the TickBox TV device to be unable to access any Subject Software downloaded onto or accessed via that device prior to the update.&#8221;</p>
<p>All tiles that link to copyright-infringing software from the box&#8217;s home screen also have to be stripped. Going forward, only tiles to the Google Play Store or to Kodi within the Google Play Store are allowed.</p>
<p>In addition, the agreement also allows ACE to report newly discovered infringing apps or addons to Tickbox, which the company will then have to remove within 24-hours, weekends excluded.</p>
<p>&#8220;This ruling sets an important precedent and reduces the threat from piracy devices to the legal market for creative content and a vibrant creative economy that supports millions of workers around the world,” ACE spokesperson Zoe Thorogood says, commenting on the news.</p>
<p>The new injunction is good news for the movie companies, but many Tickbox customers will not appreciate the forced changes. That said, the legal battle is far from over. The main question, whether Tickbox contributed to the alleged copyright infringements, has yet to be answered. </p>
<p>Ultimately, this case is likely to result in a landmark decision, determining what sellers of streaming boxes can and cannot do in the United States.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the new Tickbox injunction is available <a href="media/0525b49f.tickinjunction.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tickinjunction.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151356
title: ‘Pirate’ Kodi Addon Devs & Distributors Told to Cease-and-Desist
uri: Pirate-Kodi-Addon-Devs-Distributors-Told-to-Cease-and-Desist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lF9ULypMXb8/
content:
<p><img src="media/b447d2ef.ace-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ace-logo.jpg" width="315" height="141" class="alignright size-large">Last November, following a year of upheaval for third-party addon creators and distributors, yet more turmoil hit the community in the form of threats from the world’s most powerful anti-piracy coalition – the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE).</p>
<p>Comprised of 30 companies including the studios of the MPAA, Amazon, Netflix, CBS, HBO, BBC, Sky, Bell Canada, CBS, Hulu, Lionsgate, Foxtel, Village Roadshow, and many more, ACE warned several developers to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-developers-quit-following-threats-from-mpa-netflix-amazon-171116/">shut down &#8211; or else</a>.</p>
<p><center><b>The letter: shut down &#8211; or else</b><a href="media/b17b72db.thealpha_mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/thealpha_mpa.jpg"><img src="media/cf3e9c16.thealpha_mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thealpha_mpa.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="987" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-147313"></a></center></p>
<p>Now it appears that ACE is on the warpath again, this time targeting a broader range of individuals involved in the Kodi addon scene, from developers and distributors to those involved in the production of how-to videos on YouTube.</p>
<p>The first <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/noobsandnerds-down-reports/">report</a> of action came from TVAddons, who noted that the lead developer at the Noobs and Nerds repository had been targeted with a cease-and-desist notice, adding that people from the site had been &#8220;visited at their homes.&#8221;</p>
<p>As seen in the image below, the Noobs and Nerds website is currently down. The site&#8217;s Twitter account has also been disabled.</p>
<p><center><strong>Noobs and Nerds &#8211; gone</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/195d599b.nandn-down.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/nandn-down.png"><img src="media/d1555f0b.nandn-down.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nandn-down.png" alt="" width="600" height="236" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151359"></a></center></p>
<p>While TVAddons couldn&#8217;t precisely confirm the source of the threat, information gathered from individuals involved in the addon scene all point to the involvement of ACE.</p>
<p>In particular, a man known online as Teverz, who develops his own builds, <a href="http://repo.teverz.com/">runs a repo</a>, and creates Kodi-themed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/teverz/">YouTube videos</a>, confirmed that ACE had been in touch. </p>
<p><center><strong>An apparently unconcerned Teverz&#8230;.</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/790f3b7a.teverz-e1518605164944.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/teverz-e1518605164944.png"><img src="media/790f3b7a.teverz-e1518605164944.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/teverz-e1518605164944.png" alt="" width="600" height="289" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151361"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;I am not a dev so they really don&#8217;t scare me lmao,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>Teverz claims to be from Canada and it appears that others in the country are also facing cease and desist notices. An individual known as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/Doggmatic71">Doggmatic</a>, who also identifies as Canadian and has Kodi builds under his belt, says he too was targeted.</p>
<p><center><strong>Another target in Canada</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/e1a13505.doggmatic-e1518605868285.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/doggmatic-e1518605868285.png"><img src="media/e1a13505.doggmatic-e1518605868285.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/doggmatic-e1518605868285.png" alt="" width="600" height="144" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151364"></a></center></p>
<p>Doggmatic, who appears to be part of the <a href="http://repo.illuminatitemple.xyz/">Illuminati repo</a>, says he had someone call the people who sent the cease-and-desist but like Teverz, he doesn&#8217;t seem overly concerned, at least for now.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have a legal representative calling them. The letters they sent aren&#8217;t legal documents. No lawyer signed them and no law firm mentioned,&#8221; Doggmatic said.</p>
<p>But the threats don&#8217;t stop there. Blamo, the developer of the Neptune Rising addon accessible from the <a href="http://repo.mrblamo.xyz/">Blamo repo</a>, also claims to have been threatened.</p>
<p>SpinzTV, who offers unofficial Kodi builds and an associated repository, is also under the spotlight. Unlike his Canadian counterparts, he has already thrown in the towel, according to a short announcement on Twitter.</p>
<p><center><strong>For SpinzTV it&#8217;s all over&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/3fdd3f69.spinz-e1518606723817.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spinz-e1518606723817.png"><img src="media/3fdd3f69.spinz-e1518606723817.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spinz-e1518606723817.png" alt="" width="600" height="146" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151365"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, asking them if they could confirm the actions and provide any additional details. At the time of publication they had no information for us but we&#8217;ll update if and when that comes in.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151383
title: Court Dismisses Playboy’s Copyright Claims Against Boing Boing
uri: Court-Dismisses-Playboy-s-Copyright-Claims-Against-Boing-Boing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sk1YNMFCGnc/
content:
<p><img src="media/df753675.http-link-hyperlink.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/http-link-hyperlink.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120483">Early 2016, Boing Boing co-editor Xeni Jardin <a href="https://boingboing.net/2016/02/29/every-playboy-playmate-centerf.html">published</a> an article in which she linked to an archive of every Playboy centerfold image till then.</p>
<p>“Kind of amazing to see how our standards of hotness, and the art of commercial erotic photography, have changed over time,” Jardin commented.</p>
<p>While the linked material undoubtedly appealed to many readers, Playboy itself took offense to the fact that infringing copies of their work were being shared in public. While Boing Boing didn’t upload or store the images in question, the publisher filed a lawsuit late last year.</p>
<p>The blog’s parent company Happy Mutants was accused of various counts of copyright infringement, with Playboy claiming that it exploited their playmates’ images for commercial purposes.</p>
<p>Boing Boing saw things differently. With help from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) it filed a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/playboys-copyright-lawsuit-threatens-online-expression-boing-boing-argues-180202/">motion to dismiss</a>, arguing that hyperlinking is not copyright infringement. If Playboy would&#8217;ve had their way, millions of other Internet users could be sued for linking too. </p>
<p>“This case merely has to survive a motion to dismiss to launch a thousand more expensive lawsuits, chilling a broad variety of lawful expression and reporting that merely adopts the common practice of linking to the material that is the subject of the report,” they wrote.</p>
<p><center><strong>The article in question</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b00a1451.playboynolink.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/playboynolink.jpg" alt="" width="540" height="489" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-150172"></center></p>
<p>Yesterday US District Court Judge Fernando Olguin ruled on the matter. In a brief order, he concluded that an oral argument is not needed and that based on the arguments from both sides, the case should be dismissed with leave. </p>
<p>This effectively means that Playboy&#8217;s complaint has been thrown out. However, the company is offered a lifeline and is allowed to submit a new one if they can properly back up their copyright infringement allegations.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court will grant defendant’s Motion and dismiss plaintiff’s First Amended Complaint with leave to amend. In preparing the Second Amended Complaint, plaintiff shall carefully evaluate the contentions set forth in defendant’s Motion. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, the court is skeptical that plaintiff has sufficiently alleged facts to support either its inducement or material contribution theories of copyright infringement,&#8221; Judge Olguin adds.</p>
<p>According to the order, it is not sufficient to argue that Boing Boing merely &#8216;provided the means&#8217; to carry out copyright infringing activity. There also has to be a personal action that &#8216;assists&#8217; the infringing activity.</p>
<p>Playboy has until the end of the month to submit a new complaint and if it chooses not to do so, the case will be thrown out.</p>
<p>The order is clearly a win for Boing Boing, which vehemently opposed Playboy&#8217;s claims. While the order is clear, it must come as a surprise to the magazine publisher, which won a similar <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">&#8216;hyperlinking&#8217; lawsuit</a> in the European Court of Justice last year.</p>
<p>EFF, who defend Boing Boing, is happy with the order and hopes that Playboy will leave it at this.</p>
<p>&#8220;From the outset of this lawsuit, we have been puzzled as to why Playboy, once a staunch defender of the First Amendment, would attack a small news and commentary website,&#8221; EFF comments</p>
<p>&#8220;Today’s decision leaves Playboy with a choice: it can try again with a new complaint or it can leave this lawsuit behind. We don’t believe there’s anything Playboy could add to its complaint that would meet the legal standard. We hope that it will choose not to continue with its misguided suit.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of US District Court Judge Fernando Olguin&#8217;s order is available <a href="media/353b00eb.playboydismiss.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/playboydismiss.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151385
title: Pirates Crack Microsoft’s UWP Protection, Five Layers of DRM Defeated
uri: Pirates-Crack-Microsoft-s-UWP-Protection-Five-Layers-of-DRM-Defeate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XeGgETAp0j0/
content:
<p><a href="media/979d33cb.UWP.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/UWP.jpg"><img src="media/a22b917c.UWP.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/UWP.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="219" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151397"></a>As the image on the right shows, Microsoft&#8217;s Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is a system that enables software developers to create applications that can run across many devices.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Universal Windows Platform (UWP) is the app platform for Windows 10. You can develop apps for UWP with just one API set, one app package, and one store to reach all Windows 10 devices – PC, tablet, phone, Xbox, HoloLens, Surface Hub and more,&#8221; Microsoft explains.</p>
<p>While the benefits of such a system are immediately apparent, critics say that UWP gives Microsoft an awful lot of control, not least since UWP software must be distributed via the Windows Store with Microsoft taking a cut.</p>
<p>Or that was the plan, at least.</p>
<p>Last evening it became clear that the UWP system, previously believed to be uncrackable, had fallen to pirates. After being <a href="https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2017/10/20/zoo-tycoon-ultimate-animal-collection-qa/">released</a> on October 31, 2017, the somewhat underwhelming Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection became the first victim at the hands of popular scene group, CODEX.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is the first scene release of a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) game. Therefore we would like to point out that it will of course only work on Windows 10. This particular game requires Windows 10 version 1607 or newer,&#8221; the group said in its release notes.</p>
<p><center><strong>CODEX release notes</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/57f7b892.zoo-codex-e1518685904377.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zoo-codex-e1518685904377.png"><img src="media/57f7b892.zoo-codex-e1518685904377.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zoo-codex-e1518685904377.png" alt="" width="600" height="683" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151404"></a></center></p>
<p>CODEX says it&#8217;s important that the game isn&#8217;t allowed to communicate with the Internet so the group advises users to block the game&#8217;s executable in their firewall.</p>
<p>While that&#8217;s not a particularly unusual instruction, CODEX did reveal that various layers of protection had to be bypassed to make the game work. They&#8217;re listed by the group as MSStore, UWP, EAppX, XBLive, and <a href="https://www.arxan.com/solutions/gaming/">Arxan</a>, the latter being an anti-tamper system.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the equivalent of Denuvo (without the DRM License part),&#8221; cracker Voksi previously explained. &#8220;It&#8217;s still bloats the executable with useless virtual machines that only slow down your game.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Arxan features</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/dbddb073.arxan-e1518685223974.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arxan-e1518685223974.png"><img src="media/dbddb073.arxan-e1518685223974.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arxan-e1518685223974.png" alt="" width="600" height="193" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151403"></a></center></p>
<p>Arxan&#8217;s marketing comes off as extremely confident but may need amending in light of yesterday&#8217;s developments.</p>
<p>&#8220;Arxan uses code protection against reverse-engineering, key and data protection to secure servers and fortification of game logic to stop the bad guys from tampering. Sorry hackers, game over,&#8221; the company&#8217;s marketing reads.</p>
<p>What is unclear at this stage is whether Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection represents a typical UWP release or if some particular flaw allowed CODEX to take it apart. The possibility of additional releases is certainly a tantalizing one for pirates but how long they will have to wait is unknown.</p>
<p>Whatever the outcome, Arxan calling &#8220;game over&#8221; is perhaps a little premature under the circumstances but in this continuing arms race, they probably have another version of their anti-tamper tech up their sleeves&#8230;..</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151392
title: Court Orders Spanish ISPs to Block Pirate Sites For Hollywood
uri: Court-Orders-Spanish-ISPs-to-Block-Pirate-Sites-For-Hollywood
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JDv5e0G2zIw/
content:
<p><a href="media/38f7671b.mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpa.jpg"><img src="media/32cbee81.mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpa.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="117" class="alignright size-full wp-image-77324"></a>Determined to reduce levels of piracy globally, Hollywood has become one of the main proponents of site-blocking on the planet. To date there have been multiple lawsuits in far-flung jurisdictions, with Europe one of the primary targets.</p>
<p>Following complaints from Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner, Spain has become one of the latest targets. According to the studios a pair of sites &#8211; HDFull.tv and Repelis.tv &#8211; infringe their copyrights on a grand scale and need to be slowed down by preventing users from accessing them.</p>
<p>HDFull is a platform that provides movies and TV shows in both Spanish and English. Almost 60% its traffic comes from Spain and after a huge surge in visitors last July, it&#8217;s now the 337th most popular site in the country according to Alexa. Visitors from Mexico, Argentina, United States and Chile make up the rest of its audience.</p>
<p>Repelis.tv is a similar streaming portal specializing in movies, mainly in Spanish. A third of the site&#8217;s visitors hail from Mexico with the remainder coming from Argentina, Columbia, Spain and Chile. In common with HDFull, Repelis has been building its visitor numbers quickly since 2017.</p>
<p><center><strong>The studios demanding more blocks</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c13c9e2f.mpa-members.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpa-members.png"><img src="media/34cd00ba.mpa-members.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpa-members.png" alt="" width="600" height="392" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-150098"></a></center></p>
<p>With a ruling in hand from the European Court of Justice which determined that sites can be blocked on copyright infringement grounds, the studios asked the courts to issue an injunction against several local ISPs including Telefónica, Vodafone, Orange and Xfera. In an order handed down this week, Barcelona Commercial Court No. 6 sided with the studios and ordered the ISPs to begin blocking the sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;They damage the legitimate rights of those who own the films and series, which these pages illegally display and with which they profit illegally through the advertising revenues they generate,&#8221; a statement from the Spanish Federation of Cinematographic Distributors (FEDECINE) reads.</p>
<p>FEDECINE General director Estela Artacho said that changes in local law have helped to provide the studios with a new way to protect audiovisual content released in Spain.</p>
<p>&#8220;Thanks to the latest reform of the Civil Procedure Law, we have in this jurisdiction a new way to exercise different possibilities to protect our commercial film offering,&#8221; Artacho said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Those of us who are part of this industry work to make culture accessible and offer the best cinematographic experience in the best possible conditions, guaranteeing the continuity of the sector.&#8221;</p>
<p>The development was also welcomed by Stan McCoy, president of the Motion Picture Association&#8217;s EMEA division, which represents the plaintiffs in the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have just taken a welcome step which we consider crucial to face the problem of piracy in Spain,&#8221; McCoy <a href="https://cincodias.elpais.com/cincodias/2018/02/13/companias/1518529141_811679.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;These actions are necessary to maintain the sustainability of the creative community both in Spain and throughout Europe. We want to ensure that consumers enjoy the entertainment offer in a safe and secure environment.&#8221;</p>
<p>After gaining experience from blockades and subsequent circumvention in other regions, the studios seem better prepared to tackle fallout in Spain. In addition to blocking primary domains, the ruling handed down by the court this week also obliges ISPs to block any other domain, subdomain or IP address whose purpose is to facilitate access to the blocked platforms.</p>
<p>News of Spain&#8217;s &#8216;pirate&#8217; blocks come on the heels of fresh developments in Germany, where this week a court ordered ISP Vodafone <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blockades-enter-germany-with-kinox-to-as-first-target-180213/">to block KinoX</a>, one of the country&#8217;s most popular streaming portals.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151447
title: Embedding a Tweet Can be Copyright Infringement, Court Rules
uri: Embedding-a-Tweet-Can-be-Copyright-Infringement-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7sNpHP8vN_s/
content:
<p><img src="media/b4239d69.pirate-twitter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-twitter.png" alt="" width="198" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-98627">Nowadays it&#8217;s fairly common for blogs and news sites to embed content posted by third parties, ranging from YouTube videos to tweets.</p>
<p>Although these publications don&#8217;t host the content themselves, they can be held liable for copyright infringement, a New York federal court has ruled.</p>
<p>The case in question was filed by Justin Goldman whose photo of Tom Brady went viral after he posted it on Snapchat. After being reposted on Reddit, it also made its way onto Twitter from where various news organizations picked it up.</p>
<p>Several of these news sites reported on the photo by embedding tweets from others. However, since Goldman never gave permission to display his photo, he went on to sue the likes of Breitbart, Time, Vox and Yahoo, for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>In their defense, the news organizations argued that they did nothing wrong as no content was hosted on their servers. They referred to the so-called &#8220;server test&#8221; that was applied in several related cases in the past, which determined that liability rests on the party that hosts the infringing content.</p>
<p>In an order that was just issued, US District Court Judge Katherine Forrest disagrees. She rejects the &#8220;server test&#8221; argument and rules that the news organizations are liable. </p>
<p>&#8220;[W]hen defendants caused the embedded Tweets to appear on their websites, their actions violated plaintiff’s exclusive display right; the fact that the image was hosted on a server owned and operated by an unrelated third party (Twitter) does not shield them from this result,&#8221; Judge Forrest writes.</p>
<p>Judge Forrest argues that the server test was established in the &#8216;Perfect 10 v. Amazon&#8217; case, which dealt with the &#8216;distribution&#8217; of content. This case is about &#8216;displaying&#8217; an infringing work instead, an area where the jurisprudence is not as clear.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court agrees with plaintiff. The plain language of the Copyright Act, the legislative history undergirding its enactment, and subsequent Supreme Court jurisprudence provide no basis for a rule that allows the physical location or possession of an image to determine who may or may not have “displayed” a work within the meaning of the Copyright Act.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a result, summary judgment was granted in favor of Goldman.</p>
<p>Rightsholders, including Getty Images which supported Goldman, are happy with the result. However, not everyone is pleased. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) says that if the current verdict stands it will put millions of regular Internet users at risk. </p>
<p>&#8220;Rejecting years of settled precedent, a federal court in New York has ruled that you could infringe copyright simply by embedding a tweet in a web page,&#8221; <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/02/federal-judge-says-embedding-tweet-can-be-copyright-infringement">EFF comments</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;Even worse, the logic of the ruling applies to all in-line linking, not just embedding tweets. If adopted by other courts, this legally and technically misguided decision would threaten millions of ordinary Internet users with infringement liability.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given what&#8217;s at stake, it&#8217;s likely that the news organization will appeal this week&#8217;s order. </p>
<p>Interestingly, earlier this week a California district court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-dismisses-playboys-copyright-claims-against-boing-boing-180215/">dismissed Playboy&#8217;s copyright infringement complaint</a> against Boing Boing, which embedded a YouTube video that contained infringing content.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>A copy of Judge Forrest&#8217;s opinion can be found here (<a href="media/31a10826.embedopinion.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/embedopinion.pdf">pdf</a>). </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151222
title: Major US Sports Leagues Report Top Piracy Nations to Government
uri: Major-US-Sports-Leagues-Report-Top-Piracy-Nations-to-Government
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hfwb8g7w_1A/
content:
<p><img src="media/a737f238.ufcrefer.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ufcrefer.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151241">While pirated Hollywood blockbusters often score the big headlines, there are several other industries that have been battling with piracy over the years. This includes sports organizations. </p>
<p>Many of the major US leagues including the NBA, NFL, NHL, MLB and the Tennis Association, are bundling their powers in the Sports Coalition, to try and curb the availability of pirated streams and videos.</p>
<p>A few days ago the Sports Coalition put the piracy problem on the agenda of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). </p>
<p>&#8220;Sports organizations, including Sports Coalition members, are heavily affected by live sports telecast piracy, including the unauthorized live retransmission of sports telecasts over the Internet,&#8221; the Sports Coalition wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Internet piracy of live sports telecasts is not only a persistent problem, but also a global one, often involving bad actors in more than one nation.&#8221;</p>
<p>The USTR asked the public for comments on which countries play a central role in copyright infringement issues. In its response, the Sports Coalition stresses that piracy is a global issue but singles out several nations as particularly problematic.</p>
<p>The coalition recommends that the USTR should put the Netherlands and Switzerland on the &#8220;Priority Watch List&#8221; of its 2018 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_301_Report">Special 301 Report</a>, followed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles and Sweden, which get a regular &#8220;Watch List&#8221; recommendation.</p>
<p>The main problem with these countries is that hosting providers and content distribution networks don&#8217;t do enough to curb piracy. </p>
<p>In the Netherlands, sawlive.tv, strikezoneme, wizlnet, AltusHost, Host Palace, Quasi Networks and SNEL pirated or provided services contributing to sports piracy, the coalition writes. In Switzerland, mlbstreamme, robinwidgetorg, strikeoutmobi, BlackHOST, Private Layer and Solar Communications are doing the same.</p>
<p>According to the major sports leagues, the US Government should encourage these countries to step up their anti-piracy game. This is not only important for US copyright holders, but also for licensees in other countries.</p>
<p>&#8220;Clearly, there is common ground &#8211; both in terms of shared economic interests and legal obligations to protect and enforce intellectual property and related rights &#8211; for the United States and the nations with which it engages in international trade to work cooperatively to stop Internet piracy of sports programming.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether any of these countries will make it into the USTR&#8217;s final list has yet to be seen. For Switzerland it wouldn&#8217;t be the first time but for the Netherlands it would be new, although it has been considered before.  </p>
<p>A document we received through a FOIA request earlier this year revealed that the US Embassy reached out to the Dutch Government in the past, to discuss similar complaints from the Sports Coalition. </p>
<p>The same document also revealed that local anti-piracy group BREIN consistently urged the entertainment industries it represents not to advocate placing the Netherlands on the 301 Watch List but to solve the problems behind the scenes instead.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151195
title: Subtitle Heroes: Fansubbing Movie Criticized For Piracy Promotion
uri: Subtitle-Heroes-Fansubbing-Movie-Criticized-For-Piracy-Promotion
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/m6k6X7KrgJU/
content:
<p><a href="media/5139f5da.subs-heroes.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/subs-heroes.jpg"><img src="media/a1e59319.subs-heroes.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/subs-heroes.jpg" alt="" width="148" height="216" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151315"></a>With many thousands of movies and TV shows being made available illegally online every year, a significant number will be enjoyed by speakers of languages other than that presented in the original production.</p>
<p>When Hollywood blockbusters appear online, small armies of individuals around the world spring into action, translating the dialog into Chinese and Czech, Dutch and Danish, French and Farsi, Russian and Romanian, plus a dozen languages in between. TV shows, particularly those produced in the US, get the same immediate treatment.</p>
<p>For many years, subtitling (&#8216;fansubbing&#8217;) communities have provided an incredible service to citizens around the globe, from those seeking to experience new culture and languages to the hard of hearing and profoundly deaf. Now, following in the footsteps of movies like TPB:AFK and Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web, a new movie has premiered in Italy which celebrates this extraordinary movement.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6823032/">Subs Heroes</a> from writer and director Franco Dipietro hit cinemas at the end of January. It documents the contribution fansubbing has made to Italian culture in a country that under fascism in 1934 banned the use of foreign languages in films, books, newspapers and everyday speech.</p>
<p>The movie centers on the large subtitle site <a href="https://www.italiansubs.net/">ItalianSubs.net</a>. Founded by a group of teenagers in 2006, it is now run by a team of men and women who maintain their identities as regular citizens during the day but transform into &#8220;superheroes of fansubbing&#8221; at night. </p>
<p>Needless to say, not everyone is pleased with this depiction of the people behind the now-infamous 500,000 member site.</p>
<p>For many years, fansubbing attracted very little heat but over time anti-piracy groups have been turning up the pressure, accusing subtitling teams of fueling piracy. This notion is shared by local anti-piracy outfit FAPAV (Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content), which has accused Dipietro&#8217;s movie of glamorizing criminal activity.</p>
<p>In a statement following the release of Subs Heroes, FAPAV made its position crystal clear: sites like ItalianSubs do not contribute to the development of the audiovisual market in Italy.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is necessary to clarify: when a protected work is subtitled and there is no right to do so, a crime is committed,&#8221; the anti-piracy group says.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Italiansubs] translates and makes available subtitles of audiovisual works (films and television series) in many cases not yet distributed on the Italian market. All this without having requested the consent of the rights holders. Ergo the Italiansubs community is illegal.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><strong>Italiansubs <em>(note ad for movie, top right)</em></strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/2dd9e78a.italiansubs-e1518547715332.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/italiansubs-e1518547715332.png"><img src="media/2dd9e78a.italiansubs-e1518547715332.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/italiansubs-e1518547715332.png" alt="" width="600" height="501" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151317"></a></center></p>
<p>FAPAV General Secretary Federico Bagnoli Rossi says that the impact that fansubbers have on the market is significant, causing damage not only to companies distributing the content but also to those who invest in official translations.</p>
<p>The fact that fansubbers often translate content that is not yet available in the region only compounds matters, Rossi says, noting that unofficial translations can also have &#8220;direct consequences&#8221; on those who have language dubbing as an occupation.</p>
<p>&#8220;The audiovisual market today needs to be supported and the protection and fight against illicit behaviors are as fundamental as investments and creative ideas,&#8221; Rossi notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone must do their part, respecting the rules and with a competitive and global cultural vision. There are no &#8216;superheroes&#8217; or noble goals behind piracy, but only great damage to the audiovisual sector and all its workers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Also piling on the criticism is the chief of the National Cinema Exhibitors&#8217; Association, who wrote to all of the companies involved to remind them that unauthorized subtitling is a crime. According to local reports, there seems to be an underlying tone that people should avoid becoming associated with the movie.</p>
<p>This did not please director Franco Dipietro who is defending his right to document the fansubbing movement, whether the industry likes it or not.</p>
<p>&#8220;We invite those who perhaps think differently to deepen the discussion and maybe organize an event to talk about it together. The film is made to confront and talk about a phenomenon that, whether we like it or not, exists and we can not pretend that it is not there,&#8221; Dipietro <a href="https://www.ivg.it/2018/02/documentario-sugli-eroi-dei-sottotitoli-nella-bufera-regista-andorese-vogliono-censurarci/">concludes</a>.</p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/244791771" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/244791771">Subs Heroes Trailer 1</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/duelfilm">Duel:</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p></center></p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/250624906" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/250624906">Subs Heroes Trailer 2</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/duelfilm">Duel:</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151375
title: Game Companies Oppose DMCA Exemption for ‘Abandoned’ Online Games
uri: Game-Companies-Oppose-DMCA-Exemption-for-Abandoned-Online-Games
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/le14NNPQiiY/
content:
<p><img src="media/5355a57a.starwarsf.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/starwarsf.png" alt="" width="235" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148899">There are a lot of things people are not allowed to do under US copyright law, but perhaps just as importantly there are exemptions. </p>
<p>The U.S. Copyright Office is currently considering whether or not to loosen the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions, which prevent the public from &#8216;tinkering&#8217; with DRM-protected content and devices.</p>
<p>These provisions are renewed every three years after the Office hears various arguments from the public. One of the major topics on the agenda this year is the preservation of abandoned games.</p>
<p>The Copyright Office previously included game preservation exemptions to keep these games accessible. This means that libraries, archives, and museums can use emulators and other circumvention tools to make old classics playable.</p>
<p>Late last year several gaming fans including the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (the MADE), a nonprofit organization operating in California, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/gamers-want-dmca-exemption-for-abandoned-online-games-171221/">argued</a> for an expansion of this exemption to also cover online games. This includes games in the widely popular multiplayer genre, which require a connection to an online server.</p>
<p>“Although the Current Exemption does not cover it, preservation of online video games is now critical,” MADE wrote in its comment to the Copyright Office.</p>
<p>“Online games have become ubiquitous and are only growing in popularity. For example, an estimated fifty-three percent of gamers play multiplayer games at least once a week, and spend, on average, six hours a week playing with others online.”</p>
<p>This week, the Entertainment Software Association (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Association">ESA</a>), which acts on behalf of prominent members including Electonic Arts, Nintendo and Ubisoft, opposed the request. </p>
<p>While they are fine with the current game-preservation exemption, expanding it to online games goes too far, they say. This would allow outsiders to recreate online game environments using server code that was never published in public. </p>
<p>It would also allow a broad category of “affiliates” to help with this which, according to the ESA, could include members of the public</p>
<p>&#8220;The proponents characterize these as &#8216;slight modifications&#8217; to the existing exemption. However they are nothing of the sort. The proponents request permission to engage in forms of circumvention that will enable the complete recreation of a hosted video game-service environment and make the video game available for play by a public audience.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;Worse yet, proponents seek permission to deputize a legion of &#8216;affiliates&#8217; to assist in their activities,&#8221; ESA adds. </p>
<p>The proposed changes would enable and facilitate infringing use, the game companies warn. They fear that outsiders such as MADE will replicate the game servers and allow the public to play these abandoned games, something games companies would generally charge for. This could be seen as direct competition.</p>
<p>MADE, for example, already charges the public to access its museum so they can play games. This can be seen as commercial use under the DMCA, ESA points out. </p>
<p>&#8220;Public performance and display of online games within a museum likewise is a commercial use within the meaning of Section 107. MADE charges an admission fee – &#8216;$10 to play games all day&#8217;. </p>
<p>&#8220;Under the authority summarized above, public performance and display of copyrighted works to generate entrance fee revenue is a commercial use, even if undertaken by a nonprofit museum,&#8221; the ESA adds. </p>
<p>The ESA also stresses that their members already make efforts to revive older games themselves. There is a vibrant and growing market for “retro” games, which games companies are motivated to serve, they say. </p>
<p>The games companies, therefore, urge the Copyright Office to keep the status quo and reject any exemptions for online games. </p>
<p>&#8220;In sum, expansion of the video game preservation exemption as contemplated by Class 8 is not a &#8216;modest&#8217; proposal. Eliminating the important limitations that the Register provided when adopting the current exemption risks the possibility of wide-scale infringement and substantial market harm,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>The Copyright Office will take all arguments into consideration before it makes a final decision. It&#8217;s clear that the wishes of game preservation advocates, such as MADE, are hard to unite with the interests of the game companies, so one side will clearly be disappointed with the outcome.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of ESA&#8217;s submissionavailablelble <a href="media/5d07a524.Class_08_Oppn_ESA.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Class_08_Oppn_ESA.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151431
title: Sweden Considers Six Years in Jail For Online Pirates
uri: Sweden-Considers-Six-Years-in-Jail-For-Online-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iW-aSAbEXYk/
content:
<p><a href="media/339209a8.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg"><img src="media/9c39c603.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70302"></a>Ever since the infamous Pirate Bay trial more than a decade ago, prosecutors in Sweden have called for a tougher approach to breaches of copyright law. In general terms, the country has been painted as soft on infringement but that could all be about to change.</p>
<p>After reaching the conclusion that penalties in Sweden &#8220;appear to be low&#8221; when compared to those on the international stage, the government sought advice on how such crimes can be punished, not only more severely, but also in proportion to the alleged damage caused.</p>
<p>In response, Minister for Justice Heléne Fritzon received a report this week. It proposes a new tier of offenses with &#8220;special&#8221; punishments to tackle large-scale copyright infringement and &#8220;serious&#8221; trademark infringement.</p>
<p>Presented by Council of Justice member Dag Mattsson, the report envisions new criminal designations and crime being divided into two levels of seriousness.</p>
<p>&#8220;A person who has been found guilty of copyright infringement or trademark infringement of a normal grade may be sentenced to fines or imprisonment up to a maximum of two years,&#8221; the government notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;In cases of gross crimes, a person may be convicted of gross copyright infringement or gross trademark infringement and sent to prison for at least six months and not more than six years.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last year the Supreme Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sweden-supreme-court-dont-presume-prison-sentences-for-pirates-171010/">found</a> that although prison sentences can be handed down in such cases, there were no legislative indications that copyright infringement <em>should</em> be penalized via a term of imprisonment.</p>
<p>For an idea of the level of change, one only need refer to The Pirate Bay case, which would undoubtedly be considered as &#8220;gross infringement&#8221; under the new proposals.</p>
<p>Under the new rules, defendants Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundström would be sentenced to a minimum of six months and a maximum of six years. As things stood, with infringement being dealt with via fines or up to two years&#8217; imprisonment, they were sentenced to prison terms of eight, ten and four months respectively.</p>
<p>Under the new proposals, damage to rightsholders and monetary gain by the defendant would be taken into account when assessing whether a crime is &#8220;gross&#8221; or not. This raises the question of whether someone sharing a single pre-release movie could be deemed a gross infringer even if no money was made.</p>
<p>Also of interest are proposals that would enable the state to confiscate all kinds of property, both physical items and more intangible assets such as domain names. This proposal is a clear nod towards the Pirate Bay case which dragged on for several years before the state was able to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-set-to-take-over-pirate-bay-domains-171222/">take over</a> its thepiratebay.se domain.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today there is organized online piracy that has major consequences for the whole community,&#8221; Minister Fritzon said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore, it is good that the punishments for these crimes have been reviewed, as the sentence will then be proportional to the seriousness of the crime.&#8221;</p>
<p>The legislative amendments are proposed to enter into force on July 1, 2019.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151311
title: Epic Games Uses Private Investigators to Locate Cheaters
uri: Epic-Games-Uses-Private-Investigators-to-Locate-Cheaters
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-trV9LbJkLc/
content:
<p><img src="media/56a4e275.battlefortnite.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/battlefortnite.jpg" alt="" width="267" height="212" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145747">Last fall, Epic Games released Fortnite’s free-to-play “Battle Royale” game mode for the PC and other platforms, generating massive interest among gamers.</p>
<p>This also included thousands of cheaters, many of whom were subsequently banned. Epic Games then went a step further by taking several cheaters to court for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>In the months that have passed several cases have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/epic-games-settles-first-copyright-case-against-fortnite-cheater-171201/">settled</a> with undisclosed terms, but it appears that not all defendants are easy to track down. In at least two cases, Epic had to retain the services of private investigators to locate their targets. </p>
<p>In a case filed in North Carolina, the games company was unable to serve the defendant (now identified as B.B) so they called in the help of Klatt Investigations, with success.</p>
<p>&#8220;[A]fter having previously engaged two other process servers that were unable to locate and successfully serve B.B., Epic engaged Klatt Investigations, a Canadian firm that provides various services related to the private service of process in civil matters. </p>
<p>&#8220;In this case, we engaged Klatt Investigations to locate and effect service of process by personal service on Defendant,&#8221; Epic informs the court.</p>
<p>As Epic Games didn&#8217;t know the age of the defendant beforehand they chose to approach the person as a minor, which turned out to be a wise choice. The alleged cheater indeed appears to be a minor, so both the Defendant and Defendant’s mother were served.</p>
<p>Based on this new information, Epic Games asked the court to redact any court documents that reveal personal information of the defendant, which includes his or her full name. </p>
<p><center><strong>Epic&#8217;s request to seal</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9ccfd6c8.epicminor.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/epicminor.png" alt="" width="600" height="112" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151417"></center></p>
<p>This is not the first time Epic Games has used a private investigator to locate a defendant. It hired S&#038;H Investigative Services in another widely reported case, where the defendant also turned out to be a minor. </p>
<p>In that case, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mom-defends-14-year-old-fortnite-cheater-in-court-171125/">the mother of the alleged cheater</a> wrote a letter to the court in her son&#8217;s defense, but after that, things went quiet. </p>
<p>This lack of response prompted Epic Games to ask the court to enter a default in this case, which means that the defendant risks a default judgment for copyright infringement.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Epic&#8217;s declaration for the motion to seal the personal details of minor B.B. is available <a href="media/51f0ac46.minordefault.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/minordefault.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. The request to enter a default in the separate C.R case can be found (<a href="media/51f0ac46.minordefault.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/minordefault.pdf">here pdf</a>).</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151504
title: Google on Collision Course With Movie Biz Over Piracy & Safe Harbor
uri: Google-on-Collision-Course-With-Movie-Biz-Over-Piracy-Safe-Harbor
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WJDuar33J-w/
content:
<p><a href="media/ebe343ca.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png"><img src="media/3c5b1a66.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" width="267" height="257" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128445"></a>Wherever Google has a presence, rightsholders are around to accuse the search giant of not doing enough to deal with piracy.</p>
<p>Over the past several years, the company has been attacked by both the music and movie industries but despite overtures from Google, criticism still floods in.</p>
<p>In Australia, things are definitely heating up. Village Roadshow, one of the nation&#8217;s foremost movie companies, has been an extremely vocal Google critic since 2015 but now its co-chief, the outspoken Graham Burke, seems to want to take things to the next level.</p>
<p>As part of yet another broadside against Google, Burke has for the second time in a month accused Google of playing a large part in online digital crime.</p>
<p>“My view is they are complicit and they are facilitating crime,&#8221; Burke <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/sue-me-village-roadshow-chief-slams-google-for-facilitating-crime-20180214-p4z0c4.html">said</a>, adding that if Google wants to sue him over his comments, they&#8217;re very welcome to do so.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s highly unlikely that Google will take the bait. Burke&#8217;s attempt at pushing the issue further into the spotlight will have been spotted a mile off but in any event, legal battles with Google aren&#8217;t really something that Burke wants to get involved in.</p>
<p>Australia is currently in the midst of a consultation process for the Copyright Amendment (Service Providers) Bill 2017 which would extend the country&#8217;s safe harbor provisions to a broader range of service providers including educational institutions, libraries, archives, key cultural institutions and organizations assisting people with disabilities.</p>
<p>For its part, Village Roadshow is extremely concerned that these provisions may be extended to other providers &#8211; specifically Google &#8211; who might then use expanded safe harbor to deflect more liability in respect of piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;Village Roadshow&#8230;.urges that there be no further amendments to safe harbor and in particular there is no advantage to Australia in extending safe harbor to Google,&#8221; Burke wrote in his company&#8217;s recent submission to the government.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is very unlikely given their size and power that as content owners we would ever sue them but if we don&#8217;t have that right then we stand naked. Most importantly if Google do the right thing by Australia on the question of piracy then there will be no issues. However, they are very far from this position and demonstrably are facilitating crime.&#8221;</p>
<p>Accusations of crime facilitation are nothing new for Google, with rightsholders in the US and Europe having accused the company of the same a number of times over the years. In response, Google always insists that it abides by relevant laws and actually goes much further in tackling piracy than legislation currently requires.</p>
<p>On the safe harbor front, Google begins by saying that not expanding provisions to service providers will have a seriously detrimental effect on business development in the region.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Excluding] online service providers falls far short of a balanced, pro-innovation environment for Australia. Further, it takes Australia out of step with other digital economies by creating regulatory uncertainty for [venture capital] investment and startup/entrepreneurial success,&#8221; Google&#8217;s submission reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he Draft Bill’s narrow safe harbor scheme places Australian-based startups and online service providers — including individual bloggers, websites, small startups, video-hosting services, enterprise cloud companies, auction sites, online marketplaces, hosting providers for real-estate listings, photo hosting services, search engines, review sites, and online platforms —in a disadvantaged position compared with global startups in countries that have strong safe harbor frameworks, such as the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and other EU countries.</p>
<p>&#8220;Under the new scheme, Australian-based startups and service providers, unlike their international counterparts, will not receive clear and consistent legal protection when they respond to complaints from rightsholders about alleged instances of online infringement by third-party users on their services,&#8221; Google notes.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Google then delivers what appears to be a loosely veiled threat.</p>
<p>One of the key anti-piracy strategies touted by the mainstream entertainment companies is collaboration between rightsholders and service providers, including the latter providing voluntary tools to police infringement online. Google says that if service providers are given a raw deal on safe harbor, the extent of future cooperation may be at risk.</p>
<p>&#8220;If Australian-based service providers are carved out of the new safe harbor regime post-reform, they will operate from a lower incentive to build and test new voluntary tools to combat online piracy, potentially reducing their contributions to innovation in best practices in both Australia and international markets,&#8221; the company warns.</p>
<p>But while Village Roadshow argue against safe harbors and warn that piracy could kill the movie industry, it is quietly optimistic that the tide is turning.</p>
<p>In a presentation to investors last week, the company said that reducing piracy would have &#8220;only an upside&#8221; for its business but also added that new research indicates that &#8220;piracy growth [is] getting arrested.&#8221; As a result, the company says that it will build on the notion that &#8220;74% of people see piracy as ‘wrong/theft’&#8221; and will call on Australians to do the right thing.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the pressure on Google will continue but lawsuits &#8211; in either direction &#8211; won&#8217;t provide an answer.</p>
<p><em>Village Roadshow&#8217;s submission can be found <a href="media/e0fdecc2.Sub10.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WJDuar33J-w/torrentfreak.com/images/Sub10.pdf">here</a>, Google&#8217;s <a href="media/bb31a0ca.Sub24.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WJDuar33J-w/torrentfreak.com/images/Sub24.pdf">here</a> (pdf).</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151456
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 02/19/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-02-19-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ps9ArJVWMyA/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b1d39f9.justicel.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/justicel.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="191" class="alignright size-full wp-image-149120">This week we have four newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Justice League is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-021218/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">Justice League</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">Thor Ragnarok</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">Pitch Perfect 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsOXRgjeeU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">Coco</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">8.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga6RYejo6Hk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> (DVDScr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIU1STH8ac">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5657846/">Daddy&#8217;s Home 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5657846/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyW_EX7iRW0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Lady Bird</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/">Blade Runner 2049 </a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856101/">8.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCcx85zbxz4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6179746/">The Gateway</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6179746/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gInFXtRvwlM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151548
title: Flight Sim Company Embeds Malware to Steal Pirates’ Passwords
uri: Flight-Sim-Company-Embeds-Malware-to-Steal-Pirates-Passwords
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/V4un-MWPOCw/
content:
<p><a href="media/9ef6a551.warning.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/warning.png"><img src="media/40fc3a89.warning.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warning.png" alt="" width="250" height="213" class="alignright size-full wp-image-109065"></a>Anti-piracy systems and DRM come in all shapes and sizes, none of them particularly popular, but one deployed by flight sim company FlightSimLabs is likely to go down in history as one of the most outrageous.</p>
<p>It all started yesterday on Reddit when Flight Sim user &#8216;crankyrecursion&#8217; reported a little extra something in his download of FlightSimLabs&#8217; A320X module.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using file &#8216;FSLabs_A320X_P3D_v2.0.1.231.exe&#8217; there seems to be a file called &#8216;test.exe&#8217; included,&#8221; crankyrecursion <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/flightsim/comments/7yh4zu/fslabs_a320_installer_seems_to_include_a_chrome/">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This .exe file is from http://securityxploded.com and is touted as a &#8216;Chrome Password Dump&#8217; tool, which seems to work &#8211; particularly as the installer would typically run with Administrative rights (UAC prompts) on Windows Vista and above. Can anyone shed light on why this tool is included in a supposedly trusted installer?&#8221;</p>
<p>The existence of a Chrome password dumping tool is certainly cause for alarm, especially if the software had been obtained from a less-than-official source, such as a torrent or similar site, given the potential for third-party pollution. </p>
<p>However, with the possibility of a nefarious third-party dumping something nasty in a pirate release still lurking on the horizon, things took an unexpected turn. FlightSimLabs chief Lefteris Kalamaras made a statement basically admitting that his company was behind the malware installation.</p>
<p>&#8220;We were made aware there is a Reddit thread started tonight regarding our latest installer and how a tool is included in it, that indiscriminately dumps Chrome passwords. That is not correct information &#8211; in fact, the Reddit thread was posted by a person who is not our customer and has somehow obtained our installer without purchasing,&#8221; Kalamaras <a href="https://forums.flightsimlabs.com/index.php?/announcement/10-a320-x-drm-clarification/">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]here are no tools used to reveal any sensitive information of any customer who has legitimately purchased our products. We all realize that you put a lot of trust in our products and this would be contrary to what we believe.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is a specific method used against specific serial numbers that have been identified as pirate copies and have been making the rounds on ThePirateBay, RuTracker and other such malicious sites,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, FlightSimLabs installed a password dumper onto ALL users&#8217; machines, whether they were pirates or not, but then only activated the password-stealing module when it determined that specific &#8216;pirate&#8217; serial numbers had been used which matched those on FlightSimLabs&#8217; servers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Test.exe is part of the DRM and is only targeted against specific pirate copies of copyrighted software obtained illegally. That program is only extracted temporarily and is never under any circumstances used in legitimate copies of the product,&#8221; Kalamaras added.</p>
<p>That didn&#8217;t impress Luke Gorman, who published an <a href="https://medium.com/@lukegorman97/flightsimlabs-alleged-malware-analysis-1427c4d23368">analysis</a> slamming the flight sim company for knowingly installing password-stealing malware on users machines, even those who purchased the title legitimately.</p>
<p><center><strong>Password stealer in action <em>(credit: Luke Gorman)</em></strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/16766c0d.pass-steal-e1519054012686.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pass-steal-e1519054012686.png"><img src="media/16766c0d.pass-steal-e1519054012686.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pass-steal-e1519054012686.png" alt="" width="600" height="293" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151549"></a></center></p>
<p>Making matters even worse, the FlightSimLabs chief went on to say that information being obtained from pirates&#8217; machines in this manner is likely to be used in court or other legal processes.</p>
<p>&#8220;This method has already successfully provided information that we&#8217;re going to use in our ongoing legal battles against such criminals,&#8221; Kalamaras revealed.</p>
<p>While the use of the extracted passwords and usernames elsewhere will remain to be seen, it appears that FlightSimLabs has had a change of heart. With immediate effect, the company is pointing customers to a new installer that doesn&#8217;t include code for stealing their most sensitive data.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to reiterate and reaffirm that we as a company and as flight simmers would never do anything to knowingly violate the trust that you have placed in us by not only buying our products but supporting them and FlightSimLabs,&#8221; Kalamaras said in an update.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the majority of our customers understand that the fight against piracy is a difficult and ongoing battle that sometimes requires drastic measures, we realize that a few of you were uncomfortable with this particular method which might be considered to be a bit heavy handed on our part.  It is for this reason we have uploaded an updated installer that does not include the DRM check file in question.&#8221;</p>
<p>To be continued&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151517
title: Canadian Pirate Site Blocks Could Spread to VPNs, Professor Warns
uri: Canadian-Pirate-Site-Blocks-Could-Spread-to-VPNs-Professor-Warns
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BxVSeQ1pp8M/
content:
<p><img src="media/af081baa.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" alt="" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83641">ISP blocking has become a prime measure for the entertainment industry to target pirate sites on the Internet.</p>
<p>In recent years sites have been blocked throughout Europe, in Asia, and even Down Under.</p>
<p>Last month, a coalition of Canadian companies called on the local telecom regulator CRTC to establish a local <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">pirate site blocking program</a>, which would be the first of its kind in North America. </p>
<p>The Canadian deal is backed by both copyright holders and major players in the Telco industry, such as Bell and Rogers, which also have media companies of their own. Instead of court-ordered blockades, they call for a mutually agreed deal where ISPs will block pirate sites. </p>
<p>The plan has triggered a fair amount of opposition. Tens of thousands of people have protested against the proposal and several experts are warning against the negative consequences it may have. </p>
<p>One of the most vocal opponents is University of Ottawa law professor <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/">Micheal Geist</a>. In a series of articles, processor Geist highlighted several problems, including potential overblocking. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.fairplaycanada.com/">Fairplay Canada</a> coalition downplays overblocking, according to Geist. They say the measures will only affect sites that are blatantly, overwhelmingly or structurally engaged in piracy, which appears to be a high standard.</p>
<p>However, the same coalition uses a report from MUSO as its primary evidence. This report draws on a list of 23,000 pirate sites, which may not all be blatant enough to meet the blocking standard.</p>
<p>For example, professor Geist notes that it includes a site dedicated to user-generated subtitles as well as sites that offer stream ripping tools which can be used for legal purposes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Stream ripping is a concern for the music industry, but these technologies (which are also found in readily available software programs from a local BestBuy) also have considerable non-infringing uses, such as for downloading Creative Commons licensed videos also found on video sites,&#8221; Geist <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/02/case-bell-coalitions-website-blocking-plan-part-5-inevitable-expansion-block-list-standard-piracy-sites/">writes</a>.</p>
<p>If the coalition tried to have all these sites blocked the scope would be much larger than currently portrayed. Conversely, if only a few of the sites would be blocked, then the evidence that was used to put these blocks in place would have been exaggerated.</p>
<p>&#8220;In other words, either the scope of block list coverage is far broader than the coalition admits or its piracy evidence is inflated by including sites that do not meet its piracy standard,&#8221; Geist notes. </p>
<p>Perhaps most concerning is the slippery slope that the blocking efforts can turn into. Professor Geist fears that after the standard piracy sites are dealt with, related targets may be next. </p>
<p>This includes VPN services. While this may sound far-fetched to some, several members of the coalition, such as Bell and Rogers, have already criticized VPNs in the past since these allow people to watch geo-blocked content.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once the list of piracy sites (whatever the standard) is addressed, it is very likely that the Bell coalition will turn its attention to other sites and services such as virtual private networks (VPNs). </p>
<p>&#8220;This is not mere speculation. Rather, it is taking Bell and its allies at their word on how they believe certain services and sites constitute theft,&#8221; Geist adds. </p>
<p>The issue may even be more relevant in this case, since the same VPNs can also be used to circumvent pirate sites blockades.</p>
<p>&#8220;Further, since the response to site blocking from some Internet users will surely involve increased use of VPNs to evade the blocks, the attempt to characterize VPNs as services engaged in piracy will only increase,&#8221; Geist adds.</p>
<p>Potential overblocking is just one of the many issues with the current proposal, according to the law professor. Geist previously highlighted that current copyright law already <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/02/case-bell-coalitions-website-blocking-plan-part-1-canadas-current-copyright-law-provides-effective-anti-piracy-tools/">provides sufficient remedies</a> to deal with piracy and that piracy isn&#8217;t <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/02/case-bell-coalitions-website-blocking-plan-part-3-piracy-little-impact-thriving-digital-services-tv-production/">that much</a> of a problem in Canada in the first place.</p>
<p>The CRTC has yet to issue its review of the proposal but now that the cat is out of the bag, rightsholders and ISPs are likely to keep pushing for blockades, one way or the other.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151533
title: Copyright Trolls Target Up to 22,000 Norwegians for Movie Piracy
uri: Copyright-Trolls-Target-Up-to-22-000-Norwegians-for-Movie-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kg8dhZuU8Eg/
content:
<p><a href="media/67ffec03.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg"><img src="media/17a592c8.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108977"></a>Last January it was revealed that after things had <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-troll-backs-down-when-faced-with-exposure-161109/">become tricky in the US</a>, the copyright trolls behind the action movie London Has Fallen were testing out the Norwegian market. </p>
<p>Reports emerged of letters being sent out to local Internet users by Danish law firm Njord Law, each demanding a cash payment of 2,700 NOK (around US$345). Failure to comply, the company claimed, could result in a court case and damages of around $12,000.</p>
<p>The move caused outrage locally, with consumer advice groups advising people not to pay and even major anti-piracy groups distancing themselves from the action. However, in May 2017 it appeared that progress had been made in stopping the advance of the trolls when another Njord Law case running since 2015 hit the rocks.</p>
<p>The law firm previously sent a request to the Oslo District Court on behalf of entertainment company Scanbox asking ISP Telenor to hand over subscribers’ details. In May 2016, Scanbox won its case and Telenor was ordered to hand over the information.</p>
<p>On appeal, however, the tables were turned when it was decided that evidence supplied by the law firm failed to show that sharing carried out by subscribers was substantial.</p>
<p>Undeterred, Njord Law took the case all the way to the Supreme Court. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-lands-supreme-court-win-over-copyright-trolls-170505/">The company lost</a> when a panel of judges found that the evidence presented against Telenor’s customers wasn&#8217;t good enough to prove infringement beyond a certain threshold. But Njord Law still wasn&#8217;t done.</p>
<p>More than six months on, the ruling from the Supreme Court only seems to have provided the company with a template. If the law firm could show that the scale of sharing exceeds the threshold set by Norway&#8217;s highest court, then disclosure could be obtained. That appears to be the case now.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down by the Oslo District Court in January, it&#8217;s revealed that Njord Law and its partners handed over evidence which shows 23,375 IP addresses engaged in varying amounts of infringing behavior over an extended period. The ISP they have targeted is being kept secret by the court but is believed to be Telenor.</p>
<p>Using information supplied by German anti-piracy outfit MaverickEye (which is involved in numerous copyright troll cases globally), Njord Law set out to show that the conduct of the alleged pirates had been exceptional for a variety of reasons, categorizing them variously (but non-exclusively) as follows:</p>
<p>&#8211; IP addresses involved in BitTorrent swarm sizes greater than 10,000 peers/pirates<br>
&#8211; IP addresses that have shared at least two of the plaintiffs&#8217; movies<br>
&#8211; IP addresses making available the plaintiffs&#8217; movies on at least two individual days<br>
&#8211; IP addresses that made available at least ten movies in total<br>
&#8211; IP addresses that made available different movies on at least ten individual days<br>
&#8211; IP addresses that made available movies from businesses and public institutions</p>
<p>While rejecting some categories, the court was satisfied that 21,804 IP addresses of the 23,375 IP addresses presented by Njord Law met or exceeded the criteria for disclosure. It&#8217;s still not clear how many of these IP addresses identify unique subscribers but many thousands are expected.</p>
<p>&#8220;For these users, it has been established that the gravity, extent, and harm of the infringement are so great that consideration for the rights holder&#8217;s interests in accessing information identifying the [allegedly infringing] subscribers is greater than the consideration of the subscribers&#8217;,&#8221; the court writes in its ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;Users&#8217; confidence that their private use of the Internet is protected from public access is a generally important factor, but not in this case where illegal file sharing has been proven. Nor has there been any information stating that the offenders in the case are children or anything else which implies that disclosure of information about the holder of the subscriber should be problematic.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the ISP (Telenor) will now have to spend time and resources disclosing its subscribers&#8217; personal details to the law firm, it will be compensated for its efforts. The Oslo District Court has ordered Njord Law to pay costs of NOK 907,414 (US$115,822) plus NOK 125 (US$16.00) for every IP address and associated details it receives.</p>
<p>The decision can be appealed but when contacted by Norwegian publication <a href="https://www.nettavisen.no/nyheter/21804-norske-nettbrukere-kan-bli-sakskt-for-fildeling/3423417601.html">Nettavisen</a>, Telenor declined to comment on the case.</p>
<p>There is now the question of what Njord Law will do with the identities it obtains. It seems very likely that it will ask for a sum of money to make a potential lawsuit go away but it will still need to take an individual subscriber to court in order to extract payment, if they refuse to pay. </p>
<p>This raises the challenge of proving that the subscriber is the actual infringer when it could be anyone in a household. But that battle will have to wait until another day.</p>
<p><em>The full decision of the Oslo District Court can be found <a href="https://lovdata.no/dokument/TRSIV/avgjorelse/toslo-2016-199281">here</a> (Norwegian)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151611
title: Steal This Show S03E13: The Tao of The DAO
uri: Steal-This-Show-S03E13-The-Tao-of-The-DAO
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hz4YDHrvzqk/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="stslogo180" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928"><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p>In this episode, we meet Chris Beams, founder of the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange <a href="https://bisq.network/">Bisq</a>. We discuss the concept of DAOs (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decentralized_autonomous_organization">Decentralised Autonomous Organisations</a>) and whether The Pirate Bay was an early example; how the start of Bitcoin parallels the start of the Internet itself; and why the meretricious Bitcoin Cash fork of Bitcoin is based on a misunderstanding of Open Source development. </p>
<p>Finally, we get into Bisq itself, discussing the potential political importance of decentralized crypto exchanges in the context of any future attempts by the financial establishment to control cryptocurrency.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis. </p>
<p>The guests for our news discussions will vary, and we&#8217;ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds. </p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/cbeams?lang=en">Chris Beams</a></p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=3&#038;lpe-episode=13" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Riley Byrne<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Siraje Amarniss</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151561
title: BitTorrent Client uTorrent Suffers Security Vulnerability (Updated)
uri: BitTorrent-Client-uTorrent-Suffers-Security-Vulnerability-(Updated)
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Em6v41cttao/
content:
<p><img src="media/0b16e39f.utorrentdark.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentdark.png" alt="" width="265" height="81" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140675">With dozens of millions of active users a day, <a href="http://www.utorrent.com/">uTorrent</a> has long been the most used torrent client.</p>
<p>The software has been around for well over a decade and it&#8217;s still used to shift petabytes of data day after day. While there haven&#8217;t been many feature updates recently, parent company BitTorrent Inc. was alerted to a serious security vulnerability recently.</p>
<p>The security flaw in question was reported by Google vulnerability researcher Tavis Ormandy, who first reached out to BitTorrent in November last year. Google&#8217;s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Zero">Project Zero</a> allows developers a 90-day window to address security flaws but with this deadline creeping up, BitTorrent had remained quiet.</p>
<p>Late last month Ormandy again <a href="https://twitter.com/taviso/status/958487979135139842">reached out</a> to BitTorrent Inc&#8217;s Bram Cohen, fearing that the company might not fix the vulnerability in time.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think bittorrent are going to make a 90 day disclosure deadline, do you have any direct contacts who could help? I&#8217;m not convinced they understand the severity or urgency,&#8221; Ormandy wrote on Twitter.</p>
<p><center><strong>Nudge</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6333cd4e.tavistweet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tavistweet.png" alt="" width="578" height="118" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151580"></center></p>
<p>While Google&#8217;s security researcher might have expected a more swift response, the issue wasn&#8217;t ignored.</p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc has yet to fix the problem in the stable release, but a patch was deployed in the Beta version last week. BitTorrent&#8217;s Vice President of Engineering David Rees informed us that this will be promoted to the regular release this week, if all goes well.</p>
<p>While no specific details about the vulnerability have yet to be released <em>(update below)</em>, it is likely to be a remote execution flaw. Ormandy previously exposed a similar vulnerability in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-client-transmission-suffers-remote-takeover-vulnerability-180116/">Transmission</a>, which he said was the “first of a few remote code execution flaws in various popular torrent clients.”</p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc. told us that they have shared their patch with Ormandy, who according to the company confirmed that this fixes the security issues <em>(update below)</em>. </p>
<p><center><strong>uTorrent Beta release notes</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/34d6614f.utorrentreleasen.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentreleasen.png" alt="" width="545" height="69" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151592"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;We have also sent the build to Tavis and he has confirmed that it addresses all the security issues he reported,&#8221; Rees told us. &#8220;Since we have not promoted this build to stable, I will reserve reporting on the details of the security issue and its fix for now.&#8221;  </p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc. plans to release more details about the issue when all clients are patched. Then it will also recommend users to upgrade their clients, so they are no longer at risk, and further information will also be available on Google&#8217;s Project Zero site. </p>
<p>Of course, people who are concerned about the issue can already upgrade to the latest uTorrent <a href="http://utclient.utorrent.com/offers/beta_release_notes/release_notes.html">Beta release</a> right away. Or, assuming that it&#8217;s related to the client&#8217;s remote control functionality, disable that for now.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> More details about the vulnerability (and a demo) have been <a href="https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/detail?id=1524">published by Ormandy </a> after we finished this article. It is indeed a DNS rebinding issue that potentially allows outsiders to remotely execute code through uTorrent&#8217;s remote control feature.</p>
<p>Also, uTorrent&#8217;s patch appears not to be as solid as BitTorrent Inc. believes, according to Google&#8217;s security researcher.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hmm, it looks like BitTorrent just added a second token to uTorrent Web. That does not solve the DNS rebinding issue, it just broke my exploit,&#8221; he writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>Still vulnerable?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7b971022.ormandy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ormandy.png" alt="" width="570" height="110" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151646"></center></p>
<p>and&#8230;</p>
<p><center><strong>Fixed?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/495bd153.fixed.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fixed.png" alt="" width="584" height="129" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151651"></center></p>
<p>To be continued.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p><sub>Note: uTorrent&#8217;s Beta changelog states that the fixes were applied on January 15, but we believe that this should read February 15 instead.</sub></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151630
title: Pirate Site Admin Sentenced to Two Years Prison & €83.6 Million Damages
uri: Pirate-Site-Admin-Sentenced-to-Two-Years-Prison-83-6-Million-Dama
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/X9P4y107MY4/
content:
<p><a href="media/339209a8.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg"><img src="media/9c39c603.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70302"></a>Way back in 2011, Streamiz was reported to be the second most popular pirate streaming site in France with around 250,000 visitors per day. The site didn&#8217;t host its own content but linked to movies elsewhere.</p>
<p>This prominent status soon attracted the attention of various entertainment companies including the National Federation of Film Distributors (FNDF) which filed a complaint against the site back in 2009.</p>
<p>Investigators eventually traced the presumed operator of the site to a location in the Hauts-de-Seine region of France. In October 2011 he was arrested leaving his Montrouge home in the southern Parisian suburbs. His backpack reportedly contained socks stuffed with almost 30,000 euros in cash.</p>
<p>The man was ordered to appear before the investigating judge but did not attend. He also failed to appear during his sentencing this Monday, which may or may not have been a good thing, depending on one&#8217;s perspective.</p>
<p>In his absence, the now 41-year-old was found guilty of copyright infringement offenses and handed one of the toughest sentences ever in a case of its type.</p>
<p>According to an AFP report, when the authorities can catch up with him the man must not only serve two years in prison but also pay a staggering 83.6 million euros in damages to Disney, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros and SACEM, the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers.</p>
<p>Streamiz is now closed but at its peak offered around 40,000 movies to millions of users per month. In total, the site stood accused of around 500,000,000 infringements, earning its operator an estimated 150,000 euros in advertising revenue over a two year period.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a clear case of commercial counterfeiting&#8221; based on a &#8220;very structured&#8221; system, David El Sayegh, Secretary General of SACEM, <a href="http://www.lepoint.fr/culture/deux-ans-ferme-contre-l-administrateur-en-fuite-d-un-site-de-streaming-illegal-20-02-2018-2196426_3.php">told</a> AFP. His sentence &#8220;sends a very clear message: there will be no impunity for pirates,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>With an arrest warrant still outstanding, the former Streamiz admin is now on the run with very few options available to him. Certainly, the 83.6 million euro fine won&#8217;t ever be paid but the prison sentence is something he might need to get behind him.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151568
title: SkyTorrents Dumps Massive Torrent Database and Shuts Down
uri: SkyTorrents-Dumps-Massive-Torrent-Database-and-Shuts-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/e1RR40K8W9g/
content:
<p><img src="media/91a1e168.sky_mini.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky_mini.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="90" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138349">About a year ago we first heard about <a href="https://www.skytorrents.in">SkyTorrents</a>, an ambitious new torrent site which guaranteed a private and ad-free experience for its users. </p>
<p>Initially, we were skeptical. However, the site quickly grew a steady userbase through sites such as Reddit and after a few months, it was still sticking to its promise. </p>
<p>“We will NEVER place any ads,&#8221; SkyTorrents’ operator <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/skytorrents-a-refreshing-ad-free-and-privacy-focused-torrent-site-170430/">informed</a> us last year.</p>
<p>&#8220;The site will remain ad-free or it will shut down. When our funds dry up, we will go for donations. We can also handover to someone with similar intent, interests, and the goal of a private and ad-free world.”</p>
<p>In the months that followed, these words turned out to be almost prophetic. It didn&#8217;t take long before SkyTorrents had several million pageviews per day. This would be music to the ears of many site owners but for SkyTorrents it was a problem. </p>
<p>With the increase in traffic, the server bills also soared. This meant that the ad-free search engine had to cough up roughly $1,500 per month, which is quite an expensive hobby. The site tried to cover at least part of the costs with donations but that didn&#8217;t help much either.</p>
<p>This led to the rather ironic situation where users of the site encouraged the operator to serve ads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone is saying they would rather have ads then have the site close down,&#8221; one user wrote on Reddit last summer. &#8220;I applaud you. But there is a reason why every other site has ads. It&#8217;s necessary to get revenue when your customers don&#8217;t pay.&#8221; </p>
<p>The site&#8217;s operator was not easily swayed though, not least because ads also compromise people&#8217;s privacy. Eventually funds dried up and now, after the passing of several more months, he has now decided to throw in the towel. </p>
<p>&#8220;It was a great experience to serve and satisfy people around the world,&#8221; the site&#8217;s operator says.</p>
<p>The site is not simply going dark though. While the end has been announced, the site&#8217;s operator is giving people the option to <a href="http://46.166.187.105:8080/">download and copy</a> the site&#8217;s database of more than 15 million torrents.</p>
<p><center><strong>Backup</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ce364358.skytorrentsgb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/skytorrentsgb.png" alt="" width="570" height="241" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151632" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/skytorrentsgb.png 570w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/skytorrentsgb-500x210.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px"></center></p>
<p>That&#8217;s 444 gigabytes of .torrent files for all the archivists out there. Alternatively, the site also offers a listing of just the torrent hashes, which is a more manageable 322 megabytes.</p>
<p>SkyTorrents&#8217; operator says that he hopes someone will host the entire cache of torrents and &#8220;take it forward.&#8221; In addition, he thanks hosting company NFOrce for the service it has provided.</p>
<p>Whether anyone will pick up the challenge has yet to be seen. What&#8217;s has become clear though is that operating a popular ad-free torrent site is hard to pull off for long, unless you have deep pockets. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>Update: </strong>While writing this article Skytorrents was still online, but upon publication, it is no longer accessible. The <a href="http://46.166.187.105:8080/">torrent archive</a> is still available.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151717
title: TVAddons Suffers Big Setback as Court Completely Overturns Earlier Ruling
uri: TVAddons-Suffers-Big-Setback-as-Court-Completely-Overturns-Earlier-Rul
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uw0WDnzYENw/
content:
<p><a href="media/a1ff1533.tvaddonsnew.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddonsnew.png"><img src="media/b1019d68.tvaddonsnew.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddonsnew.png" alt="" width="277" height="119" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145066"></a>On June 2, 2017 a group of Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, filed a complaint in Federal Court against Montreal resident, Adam Lackman.</p>
<p>Better known as the man behind Kodi addon repository TVAddons, Lackman was painted as a serial infringer in the complaint. The telecoms companies said that, without gaining permission from rightsholders, Lackman communicated copyrighted TV shows including Game of Thrones, Prison Break, The Big Bang Theory, America’s Got Talent, Keeping Up With The Kardashians and dozens more, by developing, hosting, distributing and promoting infringing Kodi add-ons.</p>
<p>To limit the harm allegedly caused by TVAddons, the complaint demanded interim, interlocutory, and permanent injunctions restraining Lackman from developing, promoting or distributing any of the allegedly infringing add-ons or software. On top, the plaintiffs requested punitive and exemplary damages, plus costs.</p>
<p>On June 9, 2017 the Federal Court handed down a time-limited interim injunction against Lackman <em>ex parte</em>, without Lackman being able to mount a defense. Bailiffs took control of TVAddons&#8217; domains but the most controversial move was the granting of an Anton Piller order, a civil search warrant which granted the plaintiffs no-notice permission to enter Lackman&#8217;s premises to secure evidence before it could be tampered with.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-returns-ugly-war-canadian-telcos-kodi-addons-170801/">The order was executed June 12, 2017</a>, with Lackman’s home subjected to a lengthy search during which the Canadian was reportedly refused his right to remain silent. Non-cooperation with an Anton Piller order can amount to a contempt of court, he was told.</p>
<p>With the situation seemingly spinning out of Lackman&#8217;s control, unexpected support came from the Honourable B. Richard Bell during a subsequent June 29, 2017 Federal Court hearing to consider the execution of the Anton Piller order.</p>
<p>The Judge said that Lackman had been subjected to a search &#8220;without any of the protections normally afforded to litigants in such circumstances&#8221; and took exception to the fact that the plaintiffs had ordered Lackman to spill the beans on other individuals in the Kodi addon community. He described this as a hunt for further evidence, not the task of preserving evidence it should&#8217;ve been.</p>
<p>Justice Bell concluded by ruling that while the <em>prima facie</em> case against Lackman may have appeared strong before the judge who heard the matter <em>ex parte</em>, the subsequent adversarial hearing undermined it, to the point that it no longer met the threshold.</p>
<p>As a result of these failings, Judge Bell vacated the Anton Piller order and dismissed the application for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlocutory_injunction">interlocutory injunction</a>.</p>
<p>While this was an early victory for Lackman and TVAddons, the plaintiffs took the decision to an appeal which was heard November 29, 2017. Determined by a three-judge panel and signed by Justice Yves de Montigny, the decision was handed down Tuesday and it effectively turns the earlier ruling upside down.</p>
<p>The appeal had two matters to consider: whether Justice Bell made errors when he vacated the Anton Piller order, and whether he made errors when he dismissed the application for an interlocutory injunction. In short, the panel found that he did.</p>
<p>In a 27-page ruling, the first key issue concerns Justice Bell&#8217;s understanding of the nature of both Lackman and TVAddons.</p>
<p>The telecoms companies complained that the Judge got it wrong when he characterized Lackman as a software developer who came up with add-ons that permit users to access material &#8220;that is for the most part not infringing on the rights&#8221; of the telecoms companies.</p>
<p>The companies also challenged the Judge&#8217;s finding that the infringing add-ons offered by the site represented &#8220;just over 1%&#8221; of all the add-ons developed by Lackman. </p>
<p>&#8220;I agree with the [telecoms companies] that the Judge misapprehended the evidence and made palpable and overriding errors in his assessment of the strength of the appellants’ case,&#8221; Justice Yves de Montigny writes in the ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nowhere did the appellants actually state that only a tiny proportion of the add-ons found on the respondent’s website are infringing add-ons.&#8221; </p>
<p>The confusion appears to have arisen from the fact that while TVAddons offered 1,500 add-ons in total, the heavily discussed &#8216;featured&#8217; addon category on the site contained just 22 add-ons, 16 of which were considered to be infringing according to the original complaint. So, it was 16 add-ons out of 22 being discussed, not 16 add-ons out of a possible 1,500.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Justice Bell] therefore clearly misapprehended the evidence in this regard by concluding that just over 1% of the add-ons were purportedly infringing,&#8221; the appeals Judge adds.</p>
<p>After gaining traction with Justice Bell in the previous hearing, Lackman&#8217;s assertion that his add-ons were akin to a &#8220;mini Google&#8221; was fiercely contested by the telecoms companies. They also fell flat before the appeal hearing.</p>
<p>Justice de Montigny says that Justice Bell &#8220;had been swayed&#8221; when Lackman&#8217;s expert replicated the discovery of infringing content using Google but had failed to grasp the important differences between a general search engine and a dedicated Kodi add-on.</p>
<p>&#8220;While Google is an indiscriminate search engine that returns results based on relevance, as determined by an algorithm, infringing add-ons target predetermined infringing content in a manner that is user-friendly and reliable,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The fact that a search result using an add-on can be replicated with Google is of little consequence. The content will always be found using Google or any other Internet search engine because they search the entire universe of all publicly available information. Using addons, however, takes one to the infringing content much more directly, effortlessly and safely.&#8221;</p>
<p>With this in mind, Justice de Montigny says there is a &#8220;strong <em>prima facie</em> case&#8221; that Lackman, by hosting and distributing infringing add-ons, made the telecoms companies&#8217; content available to the public &#8220;at a time of their choosing&#8221;, thereby infringing paragraph 2.4(1.1) and section 27 of the Copyright Act. </p>
<p>On TVAddons itself, the Judge said that the platform is &#8220;clearly designed&#8221; to facilitate access to infringing material since it targets &#8220;those who want to circumvent the legal means of watching television programs and the related costs.&#8221;</p>
<p>Turning to Lackman, the Judge said he could not claim to have no knowledge of the infringing content delivered by the add-ons distributed on this site, since they were purposefully curated prior to distribution.</p>
<p>&#8220;The respondent cannot credibly assert that his participation is content neutral and that he was not negligent in failing to investigate, since at a minimum he selects and organizes the add-ons that find their way onto his website,&#8221; the Judge notes.</p>
<p>In a further setback, the Judge draws clear parallels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-box-sellers-fail-overturn-sales-ban-canada-170321/">with another case before the Canadian courts</a> involving pre-loaded &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top boxes. Justice de Montigny says that TVAddons itself bears &#8220;many similarities&#8221; with those devices that are already subjected to an interlocutory injunction in Canada.</p>
<p>&#8220;The service offered by the respondent through the TVAddons website is no different from the service offered through the set-top boxes. The means through which access is provided to infringing content is different (one relied on hardware while the other relied on a website), but they both provided unauthorized access to copyrighted material without authorization of the copyright owners,&#8221; the Judge finds.</p>
<p>Continuing, the Judge makes some pointed remarks concerning the execution of the Anton Piller order. In short, he found little wrong with the way things went ahead and also contradicted some of the claims and beliefs circulated in the earlier hearing.</p>
<p>Citing the affidavit of an independent solicitor who monitored the order&#8217;s execution, the Judge said that the order was explained to Lackman in plain language and he was informed of his right to remain silent. He was also told that he could refuse to answer questions other than those specified in the order.</p>
<p>The Judge said that Lackman was allowed to have counsel present, &#8220;with whom he consulted throughout the execution of the order.&#8221; There was nothing, the Judge said, that amounted to the &#8220;interrogation&#8221; alluded to in the earlier hearing.</p>
<p>Justice de Montigny also criticized Justice Bell for failing to take into account that Lackman &#8220;attempted to conceal crucial evidence and lied to the independent supervising solicitor regarding the whereabouts of that evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Much was previously made of Lackman apparently being forced to hand over personal details of third-parties associated directly or indirectly with TVAddons. The Judge clarifies what happened in his ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;A list of names was put to the respondent by the plaintiffs’ solicitors, but it was apparently done to expedite the questioning process. In any event, the respondent did not provide material information on the majority of the aliases put to him,&#8221; the Judge reveals.</p>
<p>But while not handing over evidence on third-parties will paint Lackman in a better light with concerned elements of the add-on community, the Judge was quick to bring up the Canadian&#8217;s history and criticized Justice Bell for not taking it into account when he vacated the Anton Piller order.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he respondent admitted that he was involved in piracy of satellite television signals when he was younger, and there is evidence that he was involved in the configuration and sale of &#8216;jailbroken&#8217; Apple TV set-top boxes,&#8221; Justice de Montigny writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;When juxtaposed to the respondent’s attempt to conceal relevant evidence during the execution of the Anton Piller order, that contextual evidence adds credence to the appellants’ concern that the evidence could disappear without a comprehensive order.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dismissing Justice Bell&#8217;s findings as &#8220;fatally flawed&#8221;, Justice de Montigny allowed the appeal of the telecoms companies, set aside the order of June 29, 2017, declared the Anton Piller order and interim injunctions legal, and granted an interlocutory injunction to remain valid until the conclusion of the case in Federal Court. The telecoms companies were also awarded costs of CAD$50,000.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that despite all the detail provided up to now, the case hasn&#8217;t yet got to the stage where the Court has tested any of the claims put forward by the telecoms companies. Everything reported to date is pre-trial and has been taken at face value.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with Adam Lackman but since he hadn&#8217;t yet had the opportunity to discuss the matter with his lawyers, he declined to comment further on the record. There is a <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/appeal-lost-canada/">statement on the TVAddons website</a> which gives his position on the story so far.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151643
title: Australian Pirate Site Blocks Actually Block Pirate Sites
uri: Australian-Pirate-Site-Blocks-Actually-Block-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WpV9HftqDQY/
content:
<p><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798">Australian copyright holders and lawmakers have been struggling to find an adequate response to online piracy for several years. </p>
<p>Progress has been slow, but with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-will-be-blocked-in-australia-161215/">pirate site blockades</a> now in effect, there appears to be some movement. </p>
<p>New <a href="https://www.creativecontentaustralia.org.au/research/2018">research published </a>by INCOPRO this week shows that traffic to blocked pirate sites has decreased 53.4% since the first measures were implemented a year ago. In total, usage of the top 250 pirate sites dropped a significant 25.4% in Australia.</p>
<p>In summary, the research confirms that direct traffic to blocked sites has decreased dramatically. Or put differently, the site blocking efforts actually block pirate sites, which by itself should hardly come as a surprise.</p>
<p>In fact, one might wonder how effective the blockades really are when nearly half of all direct traffic to the blocked sites in Australia remains intact and dozens of the country&#8217;s ISPs are involved. </p>
<p>On top, it&#8217;s also worth mentioning that the research doesn&#8217;t take VPN usage into account. Australian <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australias-pirate-site-blockade-boosts-demand-for-vpns-161217/">interest in VPNs surged</a> after the blockades were announced, so many people are likely to be circumvented the blockades using foreign VPNs.</p>
<p>While VPNs were not factored in, the current research did look at proxy site traffic and concludes that this only substitutes a small portion of the traffic that went to pirate sites before the blockades.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s undoubtedly true that direct traffic to blocked sites has dropped, the research also includes some odd results. For example, it attributes a recent drop in Isohunt.to traffic to the blocking measures, when in reality the site actually shut down.</p>
<p>&#8220;ISOHunt usage has been on a downward trend since December 2016, and is now at its lowest on record having reduced by 96.4% since blocking began,&#8221; the report reads, drawing on data from Alexa. </p>
<p>But perhaps we&#8217;re nitpicking.</p>
<p>Creative Content Australia (CCA) is happy with these results and states that the fight against piracy has claimed a significant victory. However, the anti-piracy group also stressed that more can be done. </p>
<p>&#8220;The reduction in piracy is exciting news but that 53% could be 90%,&#8221; CCA Chairman Graham Burke says, using the opportunity to take <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-on-collision-course-with-movie-biz-over-piracy-safe-harbor-180219/">another stab</a> at Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;The government has shut the front door, but Google is leading people to the back door, showing no respect for Australian law or courts let alone any regard for the Australian economy and cultural way of life,&#8221; Burke adds.</p>
<p>INCOPRO’s research will undoubtedly be used to convince lawmakers that the current site blocking efforts should remain in place. </p>
<p>With this in mind, the release of the report comes at an interesting time. The previously unpublished results were drawn up last December, but were only made public this week, a few days after the Australian Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australian-government-launches-pirate-site-blocking-review-180214/">announced a review</a> of the site blocking measures. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151739
title: Dutch Continue to Curb Illegal Downloading But What About Streaming?
uri: Dutch-Continue-to-Curb-Illegal-Downloading-But-What-About-Streaming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZiCtbuXA_gg/
content:
<p><a href="media/4f1c3776.policedownload.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload.jpg"><img src="media/d9df9e10.policedownload-300x172.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload-300x172.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-67910" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload-300x172.jpg 300w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload.jpg 490w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></a>After many years of downloading content with impunity, 2014 brought a culture shock to the Dutch.</p>
<p>Citizens were previously allowed to obtain content for their own use due to a levy on blank media that compensated rightsholders. However, the European Court of Justice found that system to be illegal and the government quickly moved to ban downloading from unauthorized sources.</p>
<p>In the four years that have passed since the ban, the downloading landscape has undergone change. That&#8217;s according to a study published by the Consumer Insights panel at Telecompaper which found that while 41% of respondents downloaded movies, TV shows, music and games from unauthorized sources in 2013, the figure had plunged to 27% at the end of 2016. There was a further drop to 24% by the end of 2017.</p>
<p>Of the people who continue to download illegally, men are overrepresented, the study found. While 27% of men obtained media for free during the last year to October 2017, only 21% of women did likewise.</p>
<p>While as many as 150 million people still use P2P technologies such as BitTorrent worldwide, there is a general decline in usage and this is reflected in the report.</p>
<p>In 2013, 18% of Dutch respondents used torrent-like systems to download, a figure that had fallen to 8% in 2016 and 6% last year. Again, male participants were overrepresented, outnumbering women by two to one. However, people appear to be visiting P2P networks less.</p>
<p>&#8220;The study showed that people who reported using P2P to download content, have done so on average 37 times a year [to October 2017]. In January of 2017 it was significantly higher, 61 times,&#8221; the study notes. P2P usage in November 2015 was rated at 98 instances per year.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, one of the oldest methods of downloading content has maintained its userbase in more recent years. Usenet, otherwise known as the newsgroups, accounted for 9% of downloaders in 2013 but after falling to around 6% of downloaders in 2016, that figure remained unchanged in 2017. Almost five times more men used newsgroups than women.</p>
<p>At the same time as showing a steady trend in terms of users, instances of newsgroup downloading are reportedly up in the latest count. In November 2015, people used the system an average of 98 times per year but in January 2017 that had fallen to 66 times. The latest figures find an average use of 68 times per year.</p>
<p>Drilling down into more obscure systems, 2% of respondents told <a href="https://www.telecompaper.com/nieuws/slechts-24-procent-nederlanders-doet-nog-aan-gratis-downloaden--1233037">Telecompaper</a> that they&#8217;d used an FTP server during the past year, a method that was entirely dominated by men.</p>
<p>While the Dutch downloading ban in 2013 may have played some part in changing perceptions, the increased availability of legal offers cannot be ignored. Films and TV shows are now widely available on services such as Netflix and Amazon, while music is strongly represented via Spotify, Apple, Deezer and similar platforms.</p>
<p>Indeed, 12% of respondents said they are now downloading less illegally because it&#8217;s easier to obtain paid content, that&#8217;s versus 11% at the start of 2017 and just 3% in 2013. Interestingly, 14% of respondents this time around said their illegal downloads are down because they have more restrictions on their time.</p>
<p>Another interesting reason given for downloading less is that pirate content is becoming harder to find. In 2013, just 4% cited this as a cause for reduction yet in 2017, this had jumped to 8% of respondents, with blocked sites proving a stumbling block for some users.</p>
<p>On the other hand, 3% of respondents said that since content had become easier to find, they are now downloading more. However, that figure is down from 13% in November 2013 and 6% in January 2017.</p>
<p>But with legal streaming certainly making its mark in the Netherlands, the illegal streaming phenomenon isn&#8217;t directly addressed in the report. It is likely that a considerable number of citizens are now using this method to obtain their content fix in a way that&#8217;s not as easily trackable as torrent-like systems.</p>
<p>Furthermore, given the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-film-distributor-wins-right-to-chase-pirates-store-data-for-5-years-171208/">plans</a> of local film distribution Dutch FilmWorks to chase and demand cash settlements from BitTorrent users, it&#8217;s likely that traffic to streaming sites will only increase in the months to come, at least for those looking to consume TV shows and movies.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151731
title: Bell Asks Employees to Back Pirate Site Blocking Plan
uri: Bell-Asks-Employees-to-Back-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Plan
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KIYeQWd_coI/
content:
<p><img src="media/b78e60a6.helpstopbell.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/helpstopbell.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="166" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151745">Last month, a coalition of Canadian companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">called on</a> the local telecom regulator CRTC to establish a local pirate site blocking program, which would be the first of its kind in North America.</p>
<p>The Canadian deal is supported by Fairplay Canada, a coalition of both copyright holders and major players in the Telco industry, such as Bell and Rogers, which also have media companies of their own. </p>
<p>Thus far, there&#8217;s been a fair amount of opposition to the proposal. While CTRC is reviewing FairPlay Canada’s plans, OpenMedia has <a href="https://act.openmedia.org/stopbellcensorship">launched a petition</a> to stop the effort in its tracks, which has already been signed by tens of thousands of Canadians.</p>
<p>However, there are also people who are backing the blocking efforts. In some cases, with a gentle push from their employer. </p>
<p>Canadian law Professor Micheal Geist, who&#8217;s one of the most vocal opponents of the blocking plans, recently <a href="https://twitter.com/mgeist/status/966061853422923776">tweeted</a> a note Bell sent to its employees. Through an internal message, the ISP asks its workers to &#8220;help stop online piracy and protect content creators.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Bell&#8217;s internal message</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/eedc4887.bellinternal.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bellinternal.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="481" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151744"></center></p>
<p>The company clearly hopes that its employees will back the site-blocking agenda, but according to Geist, this may not be the best way to do it. </p>
<p>Geist points out that the internal message doesn&#8217;t encourage employees to disclose their affiliation with Bell. This raises eyebrows, in particular, because Bell agreed to a <a href="http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/03992.html">$1.25 million settlement</a> in 2015 after it encouraged some employees to write positive reviews and ratings on Bell apps.</p>
<p>In this case, the message has nothing to with app ratings, but it&#8217;s clear that the company is encouraging its employees to support a regulatory effort that serves Bell&#8217;s interests.</p>
<p>&#8220;All Canadians can provide their views on the website blocking proposal, but corporate encouragement to employees to participate in regulatory processes on the company’s behalf may raise the kinds of concerns regarding misleading impressions that sparked the Commissioner of Competition to intervene in 2015,&#8221; Geist&#8217;s writes in a <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/02/bell-employees-click-support-website-blocking-proposal-crtc/">blog post</a>.</p>
<p>Even if Bell&#8217;s request is &#8216;fair play&#8217; and within the boundaries of what&#8217;s allowed, it may do more harm than good. </p>
<p>Geist&#8217;s observation was picked up by local media with iPhoneinCanada <a href="http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/carriers/bell/bell-employees-file-crtc-submissions-website-blocking/>describing</a> Bell&#8217;s effort as “disingenuous,” which might lead to even more opposition in response.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151735
title: Chrome and Firefox Block Torrentz2 Over “Harmful Programs”
uri: Chrome-and-Firefox-Block-Torrentz2-Over-Harmful-Programs
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pJXA6sN4MxM/
content:
<p><img src="media/2fcc6f90.torrentz2-3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentz2-3.png" alt="" width="203" height="55" class="alignright size-full wp-image-149061" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentz2-3.png 203w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentz2-3-200x55.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 203px) 100vw, 203px">For the past few hours, Chrome and Firefox users have been unable to access Torrentz2.eu without running into a significant roadblock.</p>
<p>Instead of the usual torrent search box, visitors to the meta-search engine now see an ominous red warning banner when they try to find a torrent.</p>
<p>“The site ahead contains harmful programs,” Google Chrome informs its users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Attackers on torrentz2.eu might attempt to trick you into installing programs that harm your browsing experience (for example, by changing your homepage or showing extra ads on sites you visit),” the warning adds.</p>
<p>Mozilla’s Firefox browser displays an equally worrying message.</p>
<p><center><strong>Firefox&#8217;s Torrentz2 warning</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/945b52d5.torrentz2harmf.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentz2harmf.png" alt="" width="600" height="232" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151767"></center></p>
<p>These warning messages are triggered by Google’s Safebrowsing algorithm which flags websites that pose a potential danger to visitors. Chrome, Firefox, and others use this service to prevent users from running into unwanted software.</p>
<p>Usually, these warnings are the result of malicious ads, but here that&#8217;s less apparent. The operator of Torrentz2 informs us that he only advertises a VPN at the moment, which is by no means malicious. </p>
<p>According to Google&#8217;s Safebrowsing report, however, <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/safe-browsing/search?url=torrentz2.eu">Torrentz2 is flagged</a> for installing &#8220;unwanted or malicious software on visitors’ computers.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak previously learned from another site admin that Google also flags &#8220;social engineering&#8221; attempts. That is, for example, when users are tricked by false claims to take a certain action. </p>
<p>Torrentz2&#8217;s ad warned: &#8220;Your Internet Provider is tracking your torrent activity!&#8221; which in theory could fit this category, as ISPs generally don&#8217;t keep track of users&#8217; torrenting habits. </p>
<p>In any case, Chrome and Firefox users should be familiar with these intermittent warning notices by now. If users believe that an affected site is harmless they can always take steps (<a href="https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/99020?hl=en">Chrome</a>, <a href="https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-does-phishing-and-malware-protection-work#w_how-do-i-use-the-phishing-and-malware-protection-features">FF</a>) to bypass the blocks, but that&#8217;s completely at their own risk. </p>
<p>For Torrentz2 a bypass is not going to help much at the moment. The torrent site is currently down due to hosting issues, which the operator hopes to fix soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151614
title: Spanish Authorities Launch New Campaign to Block Pirate Websites
uri: Spanish-Authorities-Launch-New-Campaign-to-Block-Pirate-Websites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xC66BdJLAh0/
content:
<p><a href="media/2afc6514.spain-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spain-flag.jpg"><img src="media/31a0f46d.spain-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spain-flag.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22866"></a>Following complaints from Disney, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner, a court in Spain recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-spanish-isps-to-block-pirate-sites-for-hollywood-180216/">ordered</a> local ISPs to block HDFull.tv and Repelis.tv, a pair of popular pirate sites.</p>
<p>Citing changes in local law which helped facilitate the action, the MPA welcomed the blockades as necessary to prevent further damage to the creative industries. Now, just a week later, it seems that Spain really has the bit between its teeth.</p>
<p>An announcement from the Guardia Civil (Civil Guard), the oldest law enforcement agency in the country, reveals that almost two dozen websites have just been blocked for infringing intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Civil Guard, within the framework of the &#8216;Operation CASCADA&#8217;, has initiated a campaign to block websites that allow people to download content protected by copyright and disseminate them through links in P2P networks, that is, networks of computers that work without fixed servers,&#8221; the Civil Guard said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;In this first phase, a total of 23 web domains have been blocked from which direct download links of all kinds of protected audiovisual material such as movies, series, music and video games were accessed, many of them of recent creation and without being released yet in our country.</p>
<p>&#8220;High-quality versions of films available on the cinema billboards of our country were offered, although they had not yet been sold in physical or digital format and dubbed with audio in several languages.&#8221;</p>
<p>A full list of websites and domains hasn&#8217;t yet been provided by the authorities but familiar names including divxtotal.com and gamestorrents.com are confirmed to be included in the first wave.</p>
<p>The Civil Guard, which is organized as a military force under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Defense, said that the administrators of the sites operate their platforms from abroad, generating advertising revenue from Spanish visitors who are said to make up 80% of the sites&#8217; traffic.</p>
<p>In common with similar sites, the authorities accuse their owners of taking evasive action to avoid being shut down, including hiding the true location of their servers while moving them from country to country and masking domain registration data.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cases have been detected in which previously judicially blocked domains were reactivated in a matter of hours, with practically identical domain names or even changing only the extension thereof. In this way, and even if several successive blocks were made, they were able to &#8216;resurrect&#8217; the web pages again in a very short space of time,&#8221; the Civil Guard reports.</p>
<p>&#8220;For all these reasons, components of the Department of Telematic Crimes of the Central Operative Unit of the Civil Guard, responsible for the investigation, were forced to implement a series of measures tending to cause a total blockade of them that would be effective and definitive, being currently inaccessible web pages or lacking download links.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to the authorities, the sites are now being continuously monitored, with replacement domains being blocked in less than three hours. That doesn&#8217;t appear to have been the case yesterday, however.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s claimed that the blocked sites were created by &#8220;a person of Spanish origin&#8221; who subsequently sold them to a company in Argentina. On Thursday, Argentina-based site Dixv.com.ar fired back against the blockade with a new site called Yadivx.com, which is reportedly serving all of the former&#8217;s content to users in Spain.</p>
<p>The sites&#8217; owners continue to administer the rogue sites from Argentina, Spanish authorities believe. Only time will tell who will emerge victorious but at least for now, the sites are remaining defiant.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151656
title: New uTorrent Web Streams and Downloads Torrents in Your Browser
uri: New-uTorrent-Web-Streams-and-Downloads-Torrents-in-Your-Browser
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2weYp-IOD2A/
content:
<p><img src="media/e588ad43.utorrentweb1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb1.png" alt="" width="277" height="91" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151794">While dozens of millions of people use uTorrent as their default BitTorrent client, the software has seen few feature updates in recent years. </p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that the development team has been sitting still. Instead of drastically expanding the current software, they have started a new ambitious project: <a href="https://web.utorrent.com/">uTorrent Web</a>. </p>
<p>This new piece of software, which launched rather quietly, allows users to download and stream torrents directly in their default web browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox. </p>
<p>The way it works is pretty straightforward. After installing the client, which is Windows-only at the moment, torrent and magnet links are automatically opened by uTorrent Web in a browser window.</p>
<p>People can use their regular torrent sites to find torrents or use the app&#8217;s search box, which redirects them to Google.</p>
<p><center><strong>Let&#8217;s start&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a542a433.utorrentweb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb.png" alt="" width="600" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151797"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak took the application for a spin and it works quite well. Videos may take a short while to load, depending on the download speed, but then they play just fine. As in most modern video players, subtitles are also supported, if they&#8217;re included. </p>
<p>The streaming functionality supports both audio and video, with the option to choose a specific file, if a torrent contains more than one. </p>
<p>Applications and other files can also be downloaded, but these are obviously not streamed.  </p>
<p><center><strong>uTorrent Web in action</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/180e3044.utorrentweb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentweb.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="585" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151795"></center></p>
<p>The current <em>Beta</em> release comes with several basic preferences settings and users can change things such as the download location and upload speed. It&#8217;s likely that more options will follow as development matures, however.</p>
<p>While the quiet release comes as a surprise, BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-will-move-to-the-web-browser-170421/">previously told us</a> that the browser version was coming. In the long run, this version could even replace the &#8220;original&#8221; client, he seemed to suggest.</p>
<p>“We’re very, very sensitive. We know people have been using uTorrent for a very long time and love it. So we’re very, very sensitive to that and gonna be sure to make sure that people feel that it’s an upgrade that’s happening. Not that we’ve just destroyed the experience,&#8221; Bram said.</p>
<p>“We’re going to roll it out and get feedback and make sure that people are happy with it before we roll it out to everybody.&#8221;</p>
<p>For now, however, it appears that BitTorrent is offering both products side-by-side.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s been a turbulent week for BitTorrent Inc., thus far. The company had to deal with a<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-client-utorrent-suffers-security-vulnerability-180220/"> serious vulnerability</a> in its flagship software uTorrent. This same issue also affected uTorrent Web, but the most recent version is fully patched, we were told, <a href="https://engineering.bittorrent.com/2018/02/22/httprpc-security-vulnerabilities-resolved-in-utorrent-bittorrent-and-utorrent-web/">as is the stable release</a>.</p>
<p>We reached out to BitTorrent Inc. to find out more about this release, but we haven&#8217;t heard back for several days. Perhaps we&#8217;ll get an opportunity to find out more in the near future. </p>
<p>Until then, people are free to take <a href="https://web.utorrent.com/">uTorrent Web for a spin here</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151617
title: Russia VPN Blocking Law Failing? No Provider Told To Block Any Site
uri: Russia-VPN-Blocking-Law-Failing-No-Provider-Told-To-Block-Any-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AEWA7tDH5Z8/
content:
<p><a href="media/1b97a33a.deniedblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/deniedblocked.jpg"><img src="media/f6cbbbd7.deniedblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deniedblocked.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143825"></a>Continuing Russia&#8217;s continued pressure on the restriction of banned websites for copyright infringement and other offenses, President Vladimir Putin signed a brand new bill into law July 2017.</p>
<p>The legislation aimed to prevent citizens from circumventing ISP blockades with the use of services such as VPNs, proxies, Tor, and other anonymizing services. The theory was that if VPNs were found to be facilitating access to banned sites, they too would find themselves on Russia&#8217;s national Internet blacklist.</p>
<p>The list is maintained by local telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor and currently contains many tens of thousands of restricted domains. In respect of VPNs, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs is tasked with monitoring &#8216;unblocking&#8217; offenses, which they are then expected to refer to the telecoms watchdog for action.</p>
<p>The legislation caused significant uproar both locally and overseas and was widely predicted to signal a whole new level of censorship in Russia. However, things haven&#8217;t played out that way since, far from it. Since being introduced November 1, 2017, not a single VPN has been cautioned over its activities, much less advised to block or cease and desist.</p>
<p>The revelation comes via Russian news outlet <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/20/02/2018/5a8af1fb9a79475ec4680ca4">RBC</a>, which received an official confirmation from Rozcomnadzor itself that no VPN or anonymization service had been asked to take action to prevent access to blocked sites. Given the attention to detail when passing the law, the reasons seem extraordinary.</p>
<p>While Rozcomnadzor is empowered to put VPN providers on the blacklist, it must first be instructed to do so by the FSB, after that organization has carried out an investigation. Once the FSB gives the go-ahead, Rozcomnadzor can then order the provider to connect itself to the federal state information system, known locally as FGIS.</p>
<p>FGIS is the system that contains the details of nationally blocked sites and if a VPN provider does not interface with it within 30 days of being ordered to do so, it too will be added to the blocklist by Rozcomnadzor. Trouble is, Rozcomnadzor hasn&#8217;t received any requests to contact VPNs from higher up the chain, so they can&#8217;t do anything.</p>
<p>&#8220;As of today, there have been no requests from the members of the RDD [operational and investigative activities] and state security regarding anonymizers and VPN services,&#8221; a Roskomnadzor spokesperson said.</p>
<p>However, the problems don&#8217;t end there. RBC quotes Karen Ghazaryan, an analyst at the Russian Electronic Communications Association (RAEC), who says that even if it had received instructions, Rozcomnadzor wouldn&#8217;t be able to block the VPN services in question for both technical and legal reasons. </p>
<p>&#8220;Roskomnadzor does not have leverage over most VPN services, and they can not block them for failing to comply with the law, because Roskomnadzor does not have ready technical solutions for this, and the law does not yet have relevant by-laws,&#8221; the expert said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Copying the Chinese model of fighting VPNs in Russia will not be possible because of its high cost and the radically different topology of the Russian segment of the Internet,&#8221; Ghazaryan adds.</p>
<p>This apparent inability to act is surprising, not least since millions of Russian Internet users are now using VPNs, anonymizers, and similar services on a regular basis. Ghazaryan puts the figure as high as 25% of all Russian Internet users.</p>
<p>However, there is also a third element to Russia&#8217;s VPN dilemma &#8211; how to differentiate between VPNs used by the public and those used in a commercial environment. China is trying to solve this problem by forcing VPN providers to register and align themselves with the state. Russia hasn&#8217;t tried that, yet.</p>
<p>&#8220;The [blocking] law says that it does not apply to corporate VPN networks, but there is no way to distinguish them from services used for personal needs,&#8221; <a href="https://roskomsvoboda.org/36496/">concludes</a> Sarkis Darbinian from the anti-censorship project, Roskomvoboda.</p>
<p>This week, Russia&#8217;s Ministry of Culture unveiled yet more new proposals for dealing with copyright infringement via a bill that would allow websites to be blocked without a court order. It&#8217;s envisioned that if pirate material is found on a site and its operator either fails to respond to a complaint or leaves the content online for more than 24 hours, ISPs will be told to block the entire site.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151831
title: Copyright Holders Call Out Costa Rica Over ThePirateBay.cr
uri: Copyright-Holders-Call-Out-Costa-Rica-Over-ThePirateBay-cr
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FrhSwSnE4Ec/
content:
<p><img src="media/282bf922.cr.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cr.png" alt="" width="250" height="160" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151835">The International Intellectual Property Alliance (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Intellectual_Property_Alliance">IIPA</a>) has submitted its latest submission for the U.S. Government&#8217;s 2018 Special 301 Review, pinpointing countries it believes should better protect the interests of the copyright industry.</p>
<p>The IIPA, which includes a wide range of copyright groups including the MPAA, RIAA, BSA, and ESA, has listed its complaints against a whole host of countries. </p>
<p>Canada is prominently discussed, of course, as are Argentina, China, India, Mexico, Switzerland and many others. The allegations are broad, ranging from border protection problems to pirate site hosting and everything in between. </p>
<p>What caught our eye, however, was a mention of ThePirateBay.cr. This domain name which, unlike the name suggests, sports a KickassTorrents logo, uses the Costa Rican Top Level Domain .cr.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s a relatively small player in the torrent site ecosystem, it appears to be of great concern in diplomatic circles.</p>
<p><center><strong>ThePirateBay.cr</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0afb0632.piratebaycr.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebaycr.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="436" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151836"></center></p>
<p>Previously, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-embassy-threatens-to-close-domain-registry-over-pirate-bay-domain-170620/">U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica threatened</a> to have the country&#8217;s domain registry shut down unless it suspended ThePirateBay.cr. This hasn&#8217;t happened, yet, but it was a clear signal. </p>
<p>In the IIPA&#8217;s recent submission to the USTR, the domain is also brought into play. The copyright holders argue that Costa Rica is not living up to its obligations under the CAFTA-DR trade agreement. </p>
<p>&#8220;One of the key DR-CAFTA obligations that has not been implemented is introducing clear rules on copyright, liability, as well as providing meaningful legal incentives for inter-industry cooperation to deal with online infringements,&#8221; the IIPA writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Instead, Costa Rica’s law offers largely unconditional liability exceptions to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and others, even allowing identified infringing activity to remain on their systems for as long as 45 days.&#8221; </p>
<p>Next, it puts a spotlight on the local domain registry, which it described as a safe haven for sites including ThePirateBay.cr.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are still many instances where the Costa Rican Top Level Domain (ccTLD) registry has provided a safe haven to notorious online enterprises dedicated to copyright infringement,&#8221; IIPA writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, thepiratebay.cr domain is still online despite actions against it from ICANN and the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. Costa Rica’s failure to deal effectively with its obligations regarding online infringement, more than six years after these came into force under DR-CAFTA, is a serious concern.&#8221;</p>
<p>The latter is worth highlighting. It claims that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICANN">ICANN</a>, the main oversight body for the Internet’s global domain name system, also &#8220;took action&#8221; against the notorious domain name. </p>
<p>While it is true that ICANN was made aware of the tense situation between the US Embassy and the Costa Rican domain registry through a letter, we were not aware of any action it took.</p>
<p>Interestingly, ICANN itself also appears to be unaware of this, when we asked the organization whether it took any action in response to the domain or letter. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Governmental Advisory Committee and ICANN Org took note of the letter but did not provide a response as it was not warranted. While the letter was addressed to the GAC Chair, it did not contain any specific question or request for action,&#8221; an ICANN spokesperson responded.</p>
<p>Whether ICANN got involved or not is irrelevant in the larger scheme though. The IIPA wants the US Government to use ThePirateBay.cr domain to spur Costa Rica into action. After all, no country would like a local domain registry to serve a Pirate Bay proxy.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the official Pirate Bay domain remains operational from ThePirateBay.org, which happens to be using the US-based <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Interest_Registry">PIR registry</a>. But let&#8217;s not bring that up&#8230;</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>IIPA&#8217;s full submission is available <a href="media/34680648.IIPA_2018_Special_301_Review_Comments.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/IIPA_2018_Special_301_Review_Comments.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151772
title: Most Users of Exclusive Torrent Site Also Pay For Services Like Netflix or Prime
uri: Most-Users-of-Exclusive-Torrent-Site-Also-Pay-For-Services-Like-Netfli
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ckAAfCuQyIc/
content:
<p><a href="media/dad34aaa.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg"><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383"></a>Despite a notable move to unlicensed streaming portals, millions of people still use public torrent sites every day to obtain the latest movies and TV shows. The process is easy, relatively quick, and free.</p>
<p>While these open-to-all platforms are undoubtedly popular, others prefer to use so-called &#8216;private trackers&#8217;, torrent sites with a private members&#8217; club feel. Barriers to entry are much higher and many now require either an invitation from someone who is already a member or the passing of what amounts to an entrance exam.</p>
<p>Once accepted as a member, however, the rewards can be great. While public sites are a bit of a free-for-all, private trackers tend to take control of the content on offer, weeding out poor quality releases and ensuring only the best reach the user. Seeders are also plentiful, meaning that downloads complete in the fastest times.</p>
<p>On the flipside, some of the most exclusive trackers are almost impossible to join. A prime example is HDBits, a site that at last count wouldn&#8217;t accept more than 21,000 users yet keeps actual memberships down to around the 18,000 mark. Invites are extremely rare and those already inside tend to guard their accounts with their lives.</p>
<p>Second chances are rare on a site indexing more than 234,000 high-quality releases seeded by more than 950,000 peers and one of the broadest selection of Blu-ray offerings around. That&#8217;s what makes the results of a survey currently being carried out on the site even more remarkable.</p>
<p>In a poll launched by site staff, HDBits members &#8211; who by definition are already part of one of the most exclusive pirate haunts around &#8211; were asked whether they also pay for legal streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime. </p>
<p>At the time of writing more than 5,300 members have responded, with a surprising 57% (3,036) stating that they do indeed subscribe to at least one legal streaming service. When questioned on usage, more than a quarter of respondents said they actually use the legal service MORE than they use HDBits, which for a site of that caliber is quite a revelation.</p>
<p><center><strong>HDBits poll &#8211; 57% of pirates pay for legal services</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c46ea6c7.hdbits-poll-e1519307445353.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hdbits-poll-e1519307445353.png"><img src="media/c46ea6c7.hdbits-poll-e1519307445353.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hdbits-poll-e1519307445353.png" alt="" width="600" height="205" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-151774"></a></center></p>
<p>Keeping in mind that the site is creeping towards a quarter of a million torrents and is almost impossible to get into, it&#8217;s perhaps no surprise that unscrupulous people with access to an invitation on the site are selling them (against the site&#8217;s wishes) for up to $350 each online.</p>
<p>Let that sink in. For access to a pirate service, people are being asked to pay the equivalent of <em>three years&#8217;</em> worth of Netflix subscriptions. Yet of those that are already members, more than a quarter use their Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime account more than they do HDBits. That&#8217;s a huge feather in the cap for the legal platforms that have nowhere near the selection that HDBits does.</p>
<p>One commenter in the HDBits survey thread gave his opinion on why Netflix might be winning the war.</p>
<p>&#8220;A thread several years ago like this was why I bought Netflix stock. Stunned not just that people here would actually pay for streaming 1 year old content in poor quality, but that almost everyone seemed to be doing it. If Netflix can win over [HDBits] then it is clearly a solution that will win over everyone,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>Of course, perhaps the most important thing here is that even the most hardcore pirates have no problem purchasing official content, when the environment is right.</p>
<p>Unlike other surveys that can scare people away from admitting they&#8217;re breaking the law, most people on HDBits have nothing to hide from their peers. They know they&#8217;re pirates and aren&#8217;t afraid to admit it, yet almost 60% of them are happy to pay for legal content on top.</p>
<p>Entertainment companies often like to put pirates in one box and legitimate customers in another. Once again it&#8217;s now being made clear that such neatly defined barriers aren&#8217;t easy to come by.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151442
title: When a Pro-Copyright Rant Goes Wrong….
uri: When-a-Pro-Copyright-Rant-Goes-Wrong
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dbyOXR2Ntac/
content:
<p><img src="media/bd0abf4c.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120567">At TorrentFreak, we keep a close eye on copyright debates and discussions. This includes the opinion pieces of musician and industry activist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lowery_(musician)">David Lowery</a> at The Trichordist</p>
<p>While we don&#8217;t agree with his general style, which doesn&#8217;t shun <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/julia-reda-mep-likened-to-nazi-in-sweeping-anti-pirate-rant-170926/">rather outrageous</a> personal attacks, everybody has the right to voice an opinion.</p>
<p>In Lowery&#8217;s case, this often comes in the form of discrediting people who, in his view, are a threat to the pro-copyright agenda. These people hurt the interests of artists and keep piracy alive, his message goes.  </p>
<p>When Canadian law professor Michael Geist opposed efforts to block websites in his country, Lowery responded in his typical fashion, <a href="https://thetrichordist.com/2018/02/14/with-us-tanks-massed-on-canadian-border-law-prof-michael-geist-saves-canada-by-sacrificing-canadian-artists-culture/">making it personal</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;So Canada’s most &#8216;internet famous&#8217; copyright law professor Michael &#8216;Neville Chamberlain&#8217; Geist is simply selling out Canadian artists for no apparent reason?!?&#8221; he wrote. </p>
<p>&#8220;And the beneficiaries of his tortured interpretation of facts and data is predictably the US Silicon Valley monopolies that indirectly benefit from the massively infringing pirate website operations?&#8221; </p>
<p>We won&#8217;t repeat the entire article here, which is best read in context, but there&#8217;s a sweet bit of irony in it all. We don&#8217;t make a habit of calling people out, but given the circumstances, we&#8217;ll make an exception.</p>
<p>To illustrate his opinion piece Lowery decided to use a photo of US tanks. Not massing at the Canadian border, as his title suggests, but other than that the imagery fits well. </p>
<p>What caught our eye, however, was the fact that the photographer wasn&#8217;t mentioned. Initially, we assumed that it might be a royalty free stock photo, but that&#8217;s not the case.</p>
<p><center><strong>The blog post (© added by TF)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2cdb26a8.lowerycopyr.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lowerycopyr.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="664" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151708"></center></p>
<p>The photo in question was taken by photographer David Mdzinarishvili, who makes a living this way. We contacted Mdzinarishvili about the lack of credit, who told us that the copyright belongs to his employer Reuters.</p>
<p>So how did it end up on The Trichordist? </p>
<p>In theory, it&#8217;s possible that Lowery licensed the photo from Reuters, but even then, the news organization requires its users to credit both Reuters and the photographer.  </p>
<p>&#8220;You agree that you will provide a clearly visible written credit to Reuters and to any Photographer credited in the caption of a Photograph which you publish..,&#8221; Reuters&#8217; terms of use reads.</p>
<p>This is exactly what RT did when it <a href="https://www.rt.com/news/376513-us-tanks-arrive-estonia/">published the same photo last year</a>. </p>
<p>What Lowery did here is <a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotlinking">hotlink</a> to the image on RT&#8217;s servers, without mentioning the copyright holder or the photographer. Without a proper license, some would equate that to &#8220;stealing&#8221; RT&#8217;s bandwidth as well as Reuters&#8217; intellectual property.</p>
<p>Now, would The Trichordist license a 2016 premium news photo from Reuters and use it in an unrelated article without attribution and hotlink it from another unrelated site? No, it turns out that it was embedded without permission. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard not to see the irony&#8230; </p>
<p>Michael Geist, while being accused of &#8220;selling out&#8221; artists in the same article, does things differently. He has made a habit of <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/02/case-bell-coalitions-website-blocking-plan-part-9-violates-canadian-net-neutrality-rules/">using Creative Commons licensed images</a> in his articles, with permission, and with a credit to the photographer.</p>
<p>We hope someone&#8217;s taking notes&#8230;</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em></p>
<p>We reached out to David Lowery shortly before publication to ask for an explanation. He thought the photo came from a US Defense Department press release, but confirmed that it was hotlinked from RT instead. </p>
<p>Lowery initially said that us that Reuters or the photographer can contact the Trichordist, and that they will &#8220;gladly unlink the photo&#8221;  if needed, but he decided to take it offline later.</p>
<p>At the time of publication the original article is still visible in<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qw-Wto0v9PIJ:https://thetrichordist.com/2018/02/14/with-us-tanks-massed-on-canadian-border-law-prof-michael-geist-saves-canada-by-sacrificing-canadian-artists-culture/+&#038;cd=1&#038;hl=en&#038;ct=clnk&#038;gl=nl"> Google&#8217;s cache</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151813
title: Pirate Site Operators’ Jail Sentences Overturned By Court of Appeal
uri: Pirate-Site-Operators-Jail-Sentences-Overturned-By-Court-of-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cflAb0S8jUQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/38c76fe8.smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg"><img src="media/82334688.smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="176" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148048"></a>With The Pirate Bay proving to be somewhat of an elusive and irritating target, in 2014 police took on a site capturing an increasing portion of the Swedish pirate market.</p>
<p>Unlike The Pirate Bay which uses torrents, Dreamfilm was a portal for streaming content and it quickly grew alongside the now-defunct Swefilmer to dominate the local illicit in-browser viewing sector. But after impressive growth, things came to a sudden halt.</p>
<p>In January 2015, Dreamfilm announced that the site would be shut down after one of its administrators was detained by the authorities and interrogated. A month later, several more Sweden-based sites went down including the country’s second largest torrent site Tankefetast, torrent site PirateHub, and streaming portal Tankefetast Play (TFPlay).</p>
<p>Anti-piracy group Rights Alliance described the four-site networks as one of &#8220;Europe’s leading players for illegal file sharing and streaming.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>Image published by Dreamfilm after the raid</b><img src="media/60b9af79.dreamfilm-polis.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dreamfilm-polis.jpg" alt="dreamfilm"></center></p>
<p>After admitting they&#8217;d been involved in the sites but insisting they&#8217;d committed no crimes, last year four men aged between 21 and 31-years-old appeared in court charged with copyright infringement. It didn&#8217;t go well.</p>
<p>The Linköping District Court found them guilty and decided they should all go to prison, with the then 23-year-old founder receiving the harshest sentence of 10 months, a member of the Pirate Party who reportedly handled advertising receiving 8 months, and two others getting six months each. On top, they were ordered to pay damages of SEK 1,000,000 ($122,330) to film industry plaintiffs.</p>
<p>Like many similar cases in Sweden, the case went to appeal and late last week the court handed down its decision which amends the earlier decision in several ways.</p>
<p>Firstly, the Hovrätten (Court of Appeals) agreed that with the District Court&#8217;s ruling that the defendants had used dreamfilm.se, tfplay.org, tankafetast.com and piratehub.net as platforms to deliver movies stored on Russian servers to the public.</p>
<p>One defendant owned the domains, another worked as a site supervisor, while the other pair worked as a programmer and in server acquisition, the Court said.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dagensjuridik.se/2018/02/fyra-miljoner-fildelning-av-svensk-deckare-men-hovratten-undanrojer-fangelsestraff">Dagens Juridik</a> reports that the defendants argued that the websites were not a prerequisite for people to access the films, and therefore they had not been made available to a new market.</p>
<p>However, the Court of Appeal agreed with the District Court&#8217;s assessment that the links meant that the movies had been made available to a &#8220;new audience&#8221;, which under EU law means that a copyright infringement had been committed. As far as the samples presented in the case would allow, the men were found to have committed between 45 and 118 breaches of copyright law.</p>
<p>The Court also found that the website operation had a clear financial motive, delivering movies to the public for free while earning money from advertising. </p>
<p>While agreeing with the District Court on most points, the Court of Appeals decided to boost the damages award from SEK 1,000,000 ($122,330) to SEK 4,250,000 ($519,902). However, there was much better news in respect of the prison sentences.</p>
<p>Taking into consideration the young age of the men (who before this case had no criminal records) and the unlikely event that they would offend again, the Court decided that none would have to go to prison as previously determined.</p>
<p>Instead, all of the men were handed conditional sentences with two ordered to pay daily fines, which are penalties based on the offender&#8217;s daily personal income.</p>
<p>Last week it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sweden-considers-six-years-in-jail-for-online-pirates-180218/">reported</a> that Sweden is preparing to take a tougher line with large-scale online copyright infringers. Proposals currently with the government foresee a new crime of &#8220;gross infringement&#8221; under both copyright and trademark law, which could lead to sentences of up to six years in prison.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151923
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 02/26/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-02-26-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HQxsSbJoKtk/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b1d39f9.justicel.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/justicel.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="191" class="alignright size-full wp-image-149120">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Justice League is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-021918/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">Justice League</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">Thor Ragnarok</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> (DVDScr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">Coco</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">8.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga6RYejo6Hk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Lady Bird</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">Pitch Perfect 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsOXRgjeeU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521126/">The Disaster Artist</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521126/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMKX2tE5Luk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIU1STH8ac">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5657846/">Daddy&#8217;s Home 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5657846/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyW_EX7iRW0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151930
title: BMG Wants Appeals Court to Rehear Cox Piracy Liability Case
uri: BMG-Wants-Appeals-Court-to-Rehear-Cox-Piracy-Liability-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tZCYIAEBS58/
content:
<p><img src="media/472c3690.coxcomms.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coxcomms.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128587">Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/appeals-court-throws-out-25-million-piracy-verdict-against-cox-doesnt-reinstate-safe-harbor-180201/">overturned</a> the $25 million piracy liability verdict against Internet provider Cox.</p>
<p>The panel of three judges concluded that the district court made an error in its jury instruction and ordered a new trial.</p>
<p>The erroneous instruction said that the ISP could be found liable for contributory infringement if it &#8220;knew or should have known of such infringing activity.” The Court of Appeals agrees that based on the law, the &#8220;should have known&#8221; standard is too low.</p>
<p>As a result of the ruling, music publisher BMG Rights Management and Cox would have to go head to head again in a new trial. However, according to BMG, the Court of Appeals itself made a mistake. </p>
<p>A few days ago the copyright holder petitioned the court for a rehearing en banc, asking for a do-over before all the judges of a court.</p>
<p>The music publisher argues that the appeals court judges mistakenly reached their decision based on a legal principle that applies to &#8220;inducement&#8221; of liability, while BMG was pursuing a claim of &#8220;material contribution.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The panel’s unprecedented application of a heightened knowledge standard creates a conflict with decisions and pattern jury instructions from other circuits as well as with the common-law rules underlying contributory infringement. </p>
<p>&#8220;All of those recognize that BMG’s material-contribution theory requires only constructive knowledge,&#8221; BMG&#8217;s brief adds.</p>
<p>Even if the appeals court persists with its assertion that the liability standard is “willful blindness” rather than “should have known,” a new trial would not be warranted, according to the music publisher. </p>
<p>They point out that plenty of evidence was presented which proved that Cox was wilfully blind to the copyright infringements and describe the erroneous instruction as a &#8220;harmless error of the most benign kind.&#8221; </p>
<p>The music publisher&#8217;s request for a rehearing is supported by the RIAA, which filed an amicus curiae brief together with the National Music Publishers Association.</p>
<p>Both music industry groups back BMG&#8217;s arguments and ask the appeals court to consider a rehearing, stating that it would be in the best interests of artists, songwriters, and other rightsholders.</p>
<p>&#8220;The level of copyright infringement that takes place over the Internet is &#8216;staggering,&#8217; and it is vital that copyright owners have effective mechanisms to address it. It is also critical that copyright owners can adequately address infringement that occurs in other contexts.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the panel’s decision is not corrected, it would threaten the very incentives of artists, songwriters, and others to create valuable works and distribute them to the public,&#8221; the RIAA and NMPA add.</p>
<p>For the RIAA the case is particularly important since it filed a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-cox-ruling-shows-that-grande-can-be-liable-for-piracy-too-180207/">similar lawsuit against</a> Internet provider Grande Communications last year. </p>
<p>Given what&#8217;s at stake, we can assume that Cox will protest the request for a rehearing. And it wouldn&#8217;t be a big surprise if other telecommunications companies take the same position.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>BMG&#8217;s petition is available <a href="media/30bb23c3.rehearingbanc.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rehearingbanc.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and a copy of the RIAA/NMPA motion can be found <a href="media/56881f82.riaabriefm.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaabriefm.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151964
title: Hollywood Commissioned Tough Jail Sentences for Online Piracy, ISP Says
uri: Hollywood-Commissioned-Tough-Jail-Sentences-for-Online-Piracy-ISP-Say
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ICRJT1fnzHA/
content:
<p><a href="media/0c775611.karlung.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/karlung.jpg"><img src="media/392dd613.karlung.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/karlung.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="256" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121773"></a>According to local prosecutors who have handled many copyright infringement cases over the past decade, Sweden is nowhere near tough enough on those who commit online infringement.</p>
<p>With this in mind, the government sought advice on how such crimes should be punished, not only more severely, but also in proportion to the damages alleged to have been caused by defendants&#8217; activities.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sweden-considers-six-years-in-jail-for-online-pirates-180218/">corresponding report</a> was returned to Minister for Justice Heléne Fritzon earlier this month by Council of Justice member Dag Mattsson. The paper proposed a new tier of offenses that should receive special punishment when there are convictions for large-scale copyright infringement and “serious” trademark infringement.</p>
<p>Partitioning the offenses into two broad categories, the report envisions those found guilty of copyright infringement or trademark infringement &#8220;of a normal grade&#8221; may be sentenced to fines or imprisonment up to a maximum of two years. For those at the other end of the scale, engaged in &#8220;cases of gross crimes&#8221;, the penalty sought is a minimum of six months in prison and not more than six years.</p>
<p>The proposals have been criticized by those who feel that copyright infringement shouldn&#8217;t be put on a par with more serious and even potentially violent crimes. On the other hand, tools to deter larger instances of infringement have been welcomed by entertainment industry groups, who have long sought more robust sentencing options in order to protect their interests.</p>
<p>In the middle, however, are Internet service providers such as Bahnhof, who are often dragged into the online piracy debate due to the allegedly infringing actions of some of their customers. In a statement on the new proposals, the company is clear on why Sweden is preparing to take such a tough stance against infringement. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not a daring guess that media companies are asking for Sweden to tighten the penalty for illegal file sharing and streaming,&#8221; says Bahnhof lawyer Wilhelm Dahlborn.</p>
<p>&#8220;It would have been better if the need for legislative change had taken place at EU level and co-ordinated with other similar intellectual property legislation.&#8221; </p>
<p>Bahnhof chief Jon Karlung, who is never afraid to speak his mind on such matters, goes a step further. He believes the initiative amounts to a gift to the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s nothing but a commission from the American film industry,&#8221; Karlung <a href="https://www.nyteknik.se/digitalisering/bahnhof-sagar-forslaget-om-hardare-straff-for-piratkopiering-6901098">says</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do not mind them going for their goals in court and trying to protect their interests, but it does not mean that the state, the police, and ultimately taxpayers should put mass resources on it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Bahnhof notes that the proposals for the toughest extended jail sentences aren&#8217;t directly aimed at petty file-sharers. However, the introduction of a new offense of &#8220;gross crime&#8221; means that the limitation period shifts from the current five years to ten.</p>
<p>It also means that due to the expansion of prison terms beyond two years, secret monitoring of communications (known as <a href="https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avlyssning">HÖK</a>) could come into play.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the police have access to HÖK, it can be used to get information about which individuals are file sharing,&#8221; warns Bahnhof lawyer Wilhelm Dahlborn.</p>
<p>&#8220;One can also imagine a scenario where media companies increasingly report crime as gross in order to get the police to do the investigative work they have previously done. Harder punishments to tackle file-sharing also appear very old-fashioned and equally ineffective.&#8221;</p>
<p>As noted in our earlier report, the new proposals also include measures that would enable the state to confiscate all kinds of property, both physical items and more intangible assets such as domain names. Bahnhof also takes issue with this, noting that domains are not the problem here.</p>
<p>&#8220;In our opinion, it is not the domain name which is the problem, it is the content of the website that the domain name points to,&#8221; the company says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moreover, confiscation of a domain name may conflict with constitutional rules on freedom of expression in a way that is very unfortunate. The issues of freedom of expression and why copyright infringement is to be treated differently haven&#8217;t been addressed much in the investigation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under the new proposals, damage to rightsholders and monetary gain by the defendant would also be taken into account when assessing whether a crime is “gross” or not. This raises questions as to what extent someone could be held liable for piracy when a rightsholder maintains damage was caused yet no profit was generated.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151615
title: MPAA Wants Filmmakers to Pay Licenses, Not Rip Blu-rays
uri: MPAA-Wants-Filmmakers-to-Pay-Licenses-Not-Rip-Blu-rays
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xLJlU_hIRo0/
content:
<p><img src="media/60f6e242.filmmakermoviedirector-e1513852940830.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/filmmakermoviedirector-e1513852940830.png" alt="" width="277" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148951">Technically speaking it’s not hard to rip a DVD or Blu-ray disc nowadays, and the same is true for ripping content from Netflix or YouTube. </p>
<p>However, in the US people can break the law when they do this. The DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions specifically forbid it. </p>
<p>There are some exemptions, such as educational and other types of fair use, but the line between legal and illegal is not always clear, some argue. </p>
<p>Filmmakers, for example, are allowed to use small pieces of other copyrighted films under some conditions. However, this only applies to the documentary genre. </p>
<p>This is confusing and creates uncertainty, according to the International Documentary Association, Kartemquin Films, Independent Filmmaker Project, University of Film and Video Association, and several other organizations.</p>
<p>Late last year they penned a submission to the Copyright Office, which is currently <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=COLC-2017-0007-0070">considering updates to the exemptions</a>, where they argued that all filmmakers should be allowed by break DRM and rip Blu-rays. The documentary exemptions have been in place for years now and haven&#8217;t harmed rightsholders in any way, they said.</p>
<p>“There is no reason this would change if the ‘documentary’ limitation were removed. All filmmakers regularly need access to footage on DVDs and without an exemption to DVDs, many non-infringing uses simply cannot be made,” the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/filmmakers-want-the-right-to-break-drm-and-rip-blu-rays-171228/">groups noted.</a></p>
<p>Not everyone agrees with this assessment though. A group of &#8220;joint creators and copyright owners&#8221; which includes Hollywood&#8217;s MPAA, the RIAA, and ESA informs the Copyright Office that such an exemption is too broad and a threat to the interests of the major movie studios.</p>
<p>The MPAA and the other groups point out that the exemption could be used by filmmakers to avoid paying licensing fees, which can be quite expensive.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many of the filmmakers who have participated in the rulemaking assert that license fees are often higher than they are willing to pay,&#8221; the Joint Creators and Copyright Owners write.</p>
<p>&#8220;While unfortunate, the fact that a copyright owner has chosen to make works available on terms that are not palatable to a particular user does not make that user’s proposed use fair or justify granting an exemption.&#8221; </p>
<p>If the filmmakers don&#8217;t have enough budget to license a video, they should look for alternatives. Simply taking it without paying would hurt the bottom line of movie studios, the filing suggests.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many filmmakers work licensing fees into their budgets. There is clearly a market for licensing footage from motion pictures, and it is clear that unlicensed uses harm that market. </p>
<p>&#8220;MPAA members actively exploit the market for licensing film clips for these types of uses. Each year, MPAA member companies license, collectively, thousands of clips for use in a variety of works,&#8221; the group writes.</p>
<p>The Copyright Office has limited the exemption to the documentary genre for a good reason, the creators argue, since non-documentaries are less likely to warrant a finding of fair use.</p>
<p>In addition, they also refute the claim that the documentary category is &#8220;vague.&#8221; They note that the International Documentary Association, which argued this, has an award ceremony for the same category, for example. </p>
<p>Finally, the MPAA and other creators respond to calls to extend the current exemptions to 4K content, such as AACS2 protected Ultra HD discs. They see no need for this, as the filmmakers and other groups haven&#8217;t shown that they suffer negative consequences in the current situation.</p>
<p>They have alternatives, such as regular Blu-ray discs, while allowing AACS2 circumvention could severely impact the Ultra HD ecosystem, they argue.</p>
<p>&#8220;No one has released a universal hack to all Ultra HD films protected by AACS2. The integrity of the AACS2 and Ultra HD technology is an especially important component of the ecosystem that is resulting in the increased availability of motion pictures. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Register and the Librarian should not undermine this integrity by authorizing widespread hacking, which could negatively impact &#8216;the market for or value of&#8217; some of the industry’s most exciting products,&#8221; the Joint Creators add.</p>
<p>The Copyright Office will take all arguments into consideration before it makes a final decision later this year.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the Joint Creators reply is <a href="media/cc62f1cb.Class_01_Oppn_Joint_Creators_II-1.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Class_01_Oppn_Joint_Creators_II-1.pdf">available here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152056
title: Switzerland Hopes New Law Will Keep it Off U.S. ‘Pirate Watchlist’
uri: Switzerland-Hopes-New-Law-Will-Keep-it-Off-U-S-Pirate-Watchlist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QOcDOKOj8tg/
content:
<p><img src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510">In a few weeks, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) will publish its yearly Special 301 Report, highlighting countries that fail to live up to U.S copyright protection standards. </p>
<p>In recent years Switzerland was among countries that were placed on the &#8216;Watch List.&#8217; In 2017, the US reported that the Swiss had made some progress, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-and-switzerland-remain-on-us-pirate-watchlist-under-president-trump-170501/">but not enough</a>. Its policies towards online piracy were not up to par, according to U.S. standards.</p>
<p>&#8220;Switzerland remains on the Watch List this year due to U.S. concerns regarding specific difficulties in Switzerland’s system of online copyright protection and enforcement,&#8221; USTR <a href="media/5ff23241.201720Special2030120Report20FINAL.PDF" data-original-source="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/301/2017%20Special%20301%20Report%20FINAL.PDF">wrote</a> in its Special 301 Report.</p>
<p>One of the key issues the United States identified is the lack of enforcement against hosting companies that do business with pirate sites. Branding these as a &#8220;safe haven&#8221; for pirates, the US called for suitable countermeasures.</p>
<p>A second problem that was highlighted is the so-called ‘Logistep Decision.‘ In 2010 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court barred anti-piracy outfit Logistep from harvesting the IP addresses of file-sharers. The Court ruled that IP addresses amount to private data, and outlawed the tracking of file-sharers in Switzerland.</p>
<p>According to the USTR, this ruling prevents copyright holders from enforcing their rights, and they called on the Swiss Government to address this concern as well.</p>
<p>Today nearly a year has passed and it looks like the recommendations were not ignored. In a letter to the USTR, the Swiss Government writes that the two main complaints are dealt with in their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-copyright-law-proposals-good-news-for-pirates-bad-for-pirate-sites-171124/">new copyright law</a>, which was introduced late last year.</p>
<p>&#8220;The draft bill, adopted by the Federal Council at its meeting on November 22, 2017, addresses both of those concerns. It aims at further modernizing Swiss copyright law for the purposes of the digital environment and steps up the fight against Internet piracy,&#8221; the Swiss write. </p>
<p>The new copyright law addresses the hosting problem by introducing a &#8220;take-down-and-stay-down” policy. Internet services will be required to remove infringing content from their platforms and prevent that same content from reappearing. Failure to comply will result in prosecution. </p>
<p>&#8220;The &#8216;stay down&#8217; will prevent rogue websites from being hosted in Switzerland and will make the fight against Internet piracy more effective and sustainable. That should put an end to criticism directed against Switzerland as a host country for infringing sites,&#8221; Switzerland informs the U.S.</p>
<p>Similarly, the Logistep ruling will no longer be an issue either if the country&#8217;s new copyright law is implemented.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he draft bill clarifies that the processing of data for the purposes of prosecuting copyright infringement is permissible. With that, it puts an end to the debate that followed the Logistep decision about the extent to which the recording of IP addresses for prosecution purposes is admissible.&#8221; </p>
<p>Many copyright holder groups have also asked for ISP blocking of pirate sites, but Switzerland notes that this idea is off the table for now. There is not enough support in Parliament for an Internet blocking provision which may jeopardize acceptance of the entire draft bill, their letter explains.</p>
<p>While not mentioned in the letter, downloading and streaming copyright infringing content for personal use also remains unpunished, video games and software excepted. Uploading and other types of distribution of infringing content are not permitted, however.</p>
<p>Still, the Swiss hope that the newly proposed changes to its copyright law will be enough to have it removed from the Special 301 Watch List.</p>
<p>&#8220;Switzerland is confident that the revision of the Swiss Copyright Act will more effectively address the challenges posed by the Internet,&#8221; the Swiss Government writes, adding that it  &#8220;looks forward to continuing to work with the U.S. to further clarify any issue relating to online piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Switzerland&#8217;s letter to the United States Trade Representative is available here <a href="media/b4a974b0.2018_Special_301_Review_Public_Comment_Switzerland-2.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2018_Special_301_Review_Public_Comment_Switzerland-2.pdf">(pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152078
title: New PS4 Jailbreak Hits Firmware 4.55, Excites the Masses
uri: New-PS4-Jailbreak-Hits-Firmware-4-55-Excites-the-Masses
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iwYjQ1Q0S1A/
content:
<p><a href="media/c9915b06.ps4.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ps4.jpg"><img src="media/774a9e8d.ps4.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ps4.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145223"></a>Largely since the advent of the third generation of games consoles in the early to mid 80s, adventurous users have been interested in making their machines do things they&#8217;re not supposed to.</p>
<p>In common with the 8bit games-capable computers that preceded them, much emphasis was placed on piracy, with people seeking to cut console games costs with copies of what would otherwise be expensive investments. Alongside, however, was a rapidly developing &#8220;homebrew&#8221; scene in which often amateur coders sought to utilize their purchased hardware for non-conventional means.</p>
<p>These days the process of digitally cracking open a device is much more complex and has given birth to the term &#8216;jailbreaking&#8217;. It can be applied to devices as diverse as iPhones and PlayStations but it all means the same thing &#8211; the removal of restrictions put in place by manufacturers in order to control what can be done with a device.</p>
<p>These restrictions mostly relate to the running of software, with the big manufacturers wanting people to not only use &#8216;app stores&#8217; that they control but also to pay for the privilege. The jailbreaking scene often aims to undermine the former but despite many good intentions, it often gets dragged into piracy as a result.</p>
<p>Yesterday there was cause for both homebrew coders and pirates-in-waiting to celebrate with the announcement that developer &#8216;Qwertyoruiop&#8217; had <a href="http://crack.bargains/hax455.txt">released the full code</a> for his PS4 firmware 4.55 kernel exploit.</p>
<p>While the release caused much excitement, the kernel exploit still needs a usermode entry point. As <a href="http://wololo.net/2018/02/27/ps4-exploit-hacker-qwertyoruiop-releases-kernel-exploit-4-55/">reported</a> by Wololo, that could come via the Webkit exploit previously released by Qwertyoruiop for PS4 firmware 4.07 a while back.</p>
<p>So, to put things into basic terms, while the new exploit works up to v4.55, the user exploit only works up to those with PS4s running v4.07, at least until another usermode exploit for later firmwares is released.</p>
<p>But with anticipation in the air, a few hours later yet more exciting news appeared on the horizon.  Taking Qwertyoruiop’s v4.55 kernel exploit and running with it, developer SpecterDev announced on Twitter that he&#8217;d published a full implementation of the exploit <a href="https://github.com/Cryptogenic/PS4-4.55-Kernel-Exploit">on Github</a>.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">4.55 Full Stack <a href="https://t.co/mFQdmZlIt9">https://t.co/mFQdmZlIt9</a> Enjoy :) Cheers <a href="https://twitter.com/qwertyoruiopz?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@qwertyoruiopz</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/flat_z?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@flat_z</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Specter (@SpecterDev) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpecterDev/status/968572598211698688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>In other words, SpecterDev has released a fully-functional jailbreak of PS4 firmware 4.55, which opens up a whole world of opportunities for the homebrew scene &#8211; and beyond. That being said, he&#8217;s careful to note on Github that others will have to step up to fill in the gaps from here.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The implementation] will allow you to run arbitrary code as kernel, to allow jailbreaking and kernel-level modifications to the system. This release however, does not contain any code related to defeating anti-piracy mechanisms or running homebrew,&#8221; he explained.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, SpecterDev&#8217;s code has an inbuilt &#8216;ear&#8217; that can take instructions (a so-called &#8216;payload&#8217;) and do something useful with them.</p>
<p>&#8220;This exploit does include a loader that listens for payloads on port 9020 and will execute them upon receival,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>Rumors suggest that there&#8217;s already some kind of payload being shared privately. We haven&#8217;t been able to confirm what it does yet but people seem excited by it.</p>
<p><strong>Update</strong>: Confirmation of what it does from <a href="http://wololo.net/2018/02/28/ps4-4-55-holy-grail-ps4hen-released-enables-pkg-support-homebrew-backups/">Wololo</a>: &#8220;When run in combination with the recently released exploit for PS4 4.55, Holy Grail lets users install and run unsigned packages. In practice, this will let 4.55 owners install and run homebrews as well as, yes, pirated PS4 games.&#8221;</p>
<p>A video showing the jailbreak in action has been uploaded to YouTube and can be seen below.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oZuNWUoMIuU" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152130
title: Dotcom: Obama Admitted “Mistakes Were Made” in Megaupload Case
uri: Dotcom-Obama-Admitted-Mistakes-Were-Made-in-Megaupload-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5eNdq6i9oM4/
content:
<p><a href="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg"><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>When Megaupload was forcefully shut down in 2012, it initially appeared like &#8216;just&#8217; another wave of copyright enforcement action by US authorities.</p>
<p>When additional details began to filter through, the reality of what had happened was nothing short of extraordinary.</p>
<p>Not only were large numbers of Megaupload servers and millions of dollars seized, but Kim Dotcom&#8217;s home in New Zealand was subjected to a military-style raid comprised of helicopters and dozens of heavily armed special tactics police. The whole thing was monitored live by the FBI.</p>
<p>Few people who watched the events of that now-infamous January day unfold came to the conclusion this was a routine copyright-infringement case. According to Kim Dotcom, whose life had just been turned upside down, something of this scale must&#8217;ve filtered down from the very top of the US government. It was hard to disagree.</p>
<p>At the time, Dotcom <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-joe-biden-ordered-the-megaupload-shutdown-120703/">told</a> TorrentFreak that then-Vice President Joe Biden directed attorney Neil MacBride to target the cloud storage site and ever since the Megaupload founder has leveled increasingly serious allegations at officials of the former government of Barack Obama.</p>
<p>For example, Dotcom says that since the US would have difficulty gaining access to him in his former home of Hong Kong, the government of New Zealand was persuaded to welcome him in, knowing they would eventually turn him over to the United States. More recently he&#8217;s been turning up the pressure again, such as a tweet on February 20th which cast more light on that process.</p>
<p>&#8220;Joe Biden had a White House meeting with an ‘extradition expert’ who worked for Hong Kong police and a handful of Hollywood executives to discuss my case. A week prior to this meeting Neil MacBride hand-delivered his action plan to Biden’s chief of staff, also at the White House,&#8221; Dotcom <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/966076149192212482">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>But this claim is just the tip of an extremely large iceberg that&#8217;s involved illegal spying on Dotcom in New Zealand and a dizzying array of legal battles that are set to go on for years to come. But perhaps of most interest now is that rather than wilting away under the pressure, Dotcom appears to be just warming up.</p>
<p>A few hours ago Dotcom commented on an <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/372185-obama-to-visit-new-zealand-in-march">article</a> published in The Hill which revealed that Barack Obama will visit New Zealand in March, possibly to celebrate the opening of Air New Zealand&#8217;s new route to the U.S.</p>
<p>Rather than expressing disappointment, the Megaupload founder seemed pleased that the former president would be touching down next month.</p>
<p>&#8220;Great. I’ll have a Court subpoena waiting for him in New Zealand,&#8221; Dotcom <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/968882356198100992">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>But that was just a mere hors d&#8217;oeuvre, with the main course was yet to come. But come it did.</p>
<p>&#8220;A wealthy Asian Megaupload shareholder hired a friend of the Obamas to enquire about our case. This person was recommended by a member of the Chinese politburo &#8216;if you want to get to Obama directly&#8217;. We did,&#8221; Dotcom revealed.</p>
<p>Dotcom says he&#8217;ll release a transcript detailing what Obama told his friend on March 21 when Obama arrives in town but in the meantime, he offered another little taster.</p>
<p>“Mistakes were made. It hasn’t gone well,&#8221; Obama reportedly told the person reporting back to Megaupload. &#8220;It’s a problem. I’ll see to it after the election.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, Obama&#8217;s position after the election was much different to what had gone before, but that didn&#8217;t stop Dotcom&#8217;s associates infiltrating the process aimed at keeping the Democrats in power.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our friendly Obama contact smuggled an @EFF lawyer into a re-election fundraiser hosted by former Vice President Joe Biden,&#8221; he revealed.</p>
<p>&#8220;When Biden was asked about the Megaupload case he bragged that it was his case and that he &#8216;took care of it&#8217;,&#8221; which is what Dotcom has been claiming all along.</p>
<p>On March 21, when Obama lands in New Zealand, Dotcom says he&#8217;ll be waiting.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m looking forward to @BarackObama providing some insight into the political dimension of the Megaupload case when he arrives in the New Zealand jurisdiction,&#8221; he teased.</p>
<p>Better get the popcorn ready&#8230;.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152154
title: The Pirate Bay Suffers Extended Downtime
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Suffers-Extended-Downtime
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rLS8vOiH2hc/
content:
<p><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470">The Pirate Bay has been hard to reach for roughly a day now.</p>
<p>For most people, the site currently displays a CloudFlare error message across the entire site, with the CDN provider mentioning that the &#8220;connection timed out.&#8221;</p>
<p>No further details are available to us and there is no known ETA for the site&#8217;s full return.  However, judging from past experience, it&#8217;s likely a small technical issue that needs fixing.</p>
<p><center><strong>TPB 522 Cloudflare error</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e17c786e.tpb522.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb522.png" alt="" width="600" height="324" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152165"></center></p>
<p>The Pirate Bay has had quite a few stints of downtime in recent months. The popular torrent site usually returns after several hours, but an outage of more than 24 hours has happened before as well.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay team has a <a href="https://pirates-forum.org/misc.php?page=tpbstatus">status page</a> in the forums where people can check to see if an outage is affecting everyone or not. This also shows that the Tor version of the site is suffering downtime, although it briefly reappeared a few times. </p>
<p>As always, the TPB team advises people to be patient.</p>
<p>&#8220;If our sites are down we&#8217;ll already know and be working on getting them back up. We don&#8217;t issue estimates so don&#8217;t ask how long it will take,&#8221; the status page notes.</p>
<p>In any case, there&#8217;s no need to panic. But we expect that seasoned TPB users will probably know the drill by now…</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151970
title: TVAddons and ZemTV Should Stand Trial in the US, Dish Tells Court
uri: TVAddons-and-ZemTV-Should-Stand-Trial-in-the-US-Dish-Tells-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Dxr0wK3zWGo/
content:
<p><img src="media/0af8686f.zemtvadd.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zemtvadd.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="194" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139977">Last year, American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network targeted two well-known players in the third-party Kodi add-on ecosystem.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas, add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">were accused of copyright infringement</a>. As a result, both are facing up to $150,000 in damages for each offense.</p>
<p>While the case was filed in Texas, neither of the defendants live there, or even in the United States. The owner and operator of TVAddons is Adam Lackman, who resides in Montreal, Canada. ZemTV&#8217;s developer Shahjahan Durrani is even further away in London, UK.</p>
<p>According to the legal team of the two defendants, this limited connection to Texas is reason for the case to be dismissed. They filed a <a href="media/c171cb49.179129183598.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/179129183598.pdf">motion to dismiss</a> in January, asking the court to drop the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lackman and Durrani have never been residents or citizens of Texas; they have never owned property in Texas; they have never voted in Texas; they have never personally visited Texas; they have never directed any business activity of any kind to anyone in Texas [&#8230;] and they have never earned income in Texas,&#8221; the motion reads.</p>
<p>Dish, however, sees things differently. Yesterday the broadcast provider replied to the motion, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence documenting TVAddons and ZemTV&#8217;s ties to the United States.</p>
<p>According to Dish, both defendants utilized US companies such as Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Cloudflare to facilitate their infringing activities. In addition. US residents were directly addressed in various messages on the TVAddons site and social media.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants used TV Addons to target residents of the United States and it was designed to appeal to United States television consumers. The TV Addons Home page stated &#8216;Whether you’re in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, India or anywhere else, Kodi Addons will work great for you!&#8217;,&#8221; Dish writes. </p>
<p>Furthermore, TVAddons own data showed that most of its users came from the United States, more than one-third of the total user base.</p>
<p>&#8220;The United States was Defendants’ largest market with approximately 34% of all TV Addons traffic coming from users located in the United States, which was three times the traffic from the second largest market.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dish points out that the Court has personal jurisdiction under the &#8220;Calder effects test,&#8221; because defendants knew that the focal point of the harm from their action was in the US, and because their actions connect the defendants to the US in a meaningful way. </p>
<p>The focal point of the harm from TVAddons and ZemTV was in the United States, Dish states, adding that both defendants were well aware of their infringing activities.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ boasting on TV Addons that their services allow users &#8216;to cut down your cable or satellite television bill substantially, if not entirely&#8217; shows that Defendants were well aware that TV Addons and ZemTV were harming DISH and other legitimate, subscription television service providers in the United States,&#8221; Dish writes.</p>
<p>Without getting too deep into the legal jargon, Dish relies on an alternative basis for jurisdiction as the defendants did in their motion to dismiss, which means that they don&#8217;t have to address specific connections to the state of Texas. </p>
<p>The broadcast provider hopes that the Court agrees, and wants the case to proceed.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Dish Network&#8217;s reply is <a href="media/31e74f22.dishreply.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dishreply.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152179
title: The Pirate Bay’s Domain Suffers “40% Traffic Drop” After Dutch Blocking
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-s-Domain-Suffers-40-Traffic-Drop-After-Dutch-B
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/k6VbrpvGGlM/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd06f581.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470"></a>Over the past several years, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN has been engaged in continuous legal action against local ISPs Ziggo and XS4All. BREIN felt they should block The Pirate Bay to reduce copyright infringement but the ISPs felt blocking was disproportionate.</p>
<p>The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and then to the EU Court of Justice for clarification. Last June, the ECJ ruled that as a platform effectively communicating copyright works to the public, The Pirate Bay can indeed be blocked by ISPs.</p>
<p>The case will go back to the Supreme Court which is likely to give permanent blocking the go ahead. However, BREIN wanted a blocking decision more quickly and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/block-the-pirate-bay-within-10-days-dutch-court-tells-isps-170922/">got one</a> last September when The Hague Court of Appeal told Ziggo and XS4All to block The Pirate Bay pending a Supreme Court decision.</p>
<p>With The Pirate Bay blocked by the ISPs from September last year, BREIN has been monitoring the effect of the blockade on traffic to the site. In a statement, the anti-piracy outfit suggests that blocking is doing its job.</p>
<p>&#8220;Monitoring by ComScore shows that the number of unique visitors to thepiratebay.org from the Netherlands has dropped by more than 40% between September 2017 and December 2017 after internet providers Ziggo and XS4ALL were ordered by the court to demand access to the site on the basis of BREIN&#8217;s claim,&#8221; BREIN writes.</p>
<p>Ziggo is the largest cable operator in the Netherlands and XS4All one of the longest standing, so it comes as no surprise to learn that traffic to The Pirate Bay&#8217;s main domain has been hit. However, since the site can be accessed in numerous different indirect ways, including via proxies, mirrors and VPNs, to name a few, does BREIN&#8217;s claim that &#8220;blocking works&#8221; still hold water? </p>
<p>According to BREIN director Tim Kuik, yes it does.</p>
<p>&#8220;We also are blocking many proxies and mirrors. There is a whole list of them which also changes. New ones are added and others may be deleted,&#8221; Kuik informs TF. </p>
<p>&#8220;The monitoring compares like with like and shows a trend that correlates with other sources. I think this trend holds true for all blocked sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, to be clear, the 40% does not represent a drop in Dutch traffic to The Pirate Bay&#8217;s site and/or content <em>overall</em>, it only represents traffic which goes directly to the specific thepiratebay.org domain. Anyone circumventing the blockade isn&#8217;t counted.</p>
<p>Of course, that&#8217;s not to say that the overall traffic numbers from the Netherlands aren&#8217;t down as well, but there are no public figures to prove that one way or another. The precise impact of proxies and mirrors is also unclear but Kuik thinks that the blockades themselves send a message.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bypassing a blockade requires users to take action to illegally download and it is now clear that they are committing a criminal offense and most people do not want that,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>VPNs are undoubtedly an effective unblocking solution for some but Kuik doesn&#8217;t believe they represent a big threat, currently at least.</p>
<p>&#8220;We think VPN use is not common under the average user, that is more something for the hardcore and not all of those will use it for access to illegal sources,&#8221; he informs TF.</p>
<p>While BREIN is fairly relaxed about VPNs for now, the group suggests it could take action if they begin to pose a risk to the site-blocking regime they&#8217;ve fought so hard for.</p>
<p>&#8220;If it becomes problematic, blocking could in principle also be demanded from VPN services,&#8221; Kuik warns.</p>
<p>Given the 40% figure and the caveats above, it is likely that the direct traffic figure to The Pirate Bay&#8217;s domain will fall again in the months to come. Mid-January a Dutch court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-expands-dutch-pirate-bay-blockade-to-more-isps-180113/">ruled</a> that local Internet providers KPN, Tele2, T-Mobile, Zeelandnet and CAIW must follow Ziggo and XS4All by also blocking The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no doubt that blocking has at least some effect on direct traffic to pirate sites and it&#8217;s clear that entertainment industry groups feel it&#8217;s essential as part of a bigger anti-piracy toolkit.</p>
<p>Thus far, however, pirates have proven to be extremely resilient so the Netherlands will probably need further action against a much broader range of sites if blocking is to have any meaningful effect.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151972
title: All Oscar Contenders Leaked on Pirate Sites, Again
uri: All-Oscar-Contenders-Leaked-on-Pirate-Sites-Again
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bES27vnxDD8/
content:
<p><img src="media/7cffd0f4.oscartorrents.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oscartorrents.png" alt="" width="185" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22131">The Oscars are the most watched awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.</p>
<p>This weekend Hollywood’s finest are gathering on the red carpet once again. While they associate the celebration with eternal fame and recognition, online pirates are keeping an eye on it as well.</p>
<p>Traditionally, Oscar winners see a surge in piracy activity, so we decided to take a look at the availability of this year’s nominees through unauthorized channels.</p>
<p>Relying on <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H8eds6jEe-BXoXIFH1RdbgigVtWdpyc8A9gyqHUt4Do/edit#gid=1">data</a> released by Oscar piracy watcher <a href="https://waxy.org/">Andy Baio</a>, we see that all nominated* films are now available on pirate sites, most in decent quality too. There are just three films that haven&#8217;t been released as a screener, Blu-ray or other high-quality rip, including the highly anticipated &#8220;Star Wars: The Last Jedi.&#8221;</p>
<p>That all films are readily available isn&#8217;t really new. This has happened consistently over the past decade. This year, however, that tradition was nearly broken. A pirated copy of &#8220;The Breadwinner&#8221; only leaked last week.</p>
<p>On the screener front, there&#8217;s not much movement. Like previous years, most of the leaked screeners have been released by Hive-CM8. A dozen screeners of Oscar nominees are available on pirate sites at the time of writing.</p>
<p><center><strong>Screener leaks 2003 &#8211; 2018</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9caa6613.screener-leaks2018.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/screener-leaks2018.png" alt="" width="576" height="358" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151988"></center></p>
<p>There is another trend visible, however, one which we didn&#8217;t immediately expect. </p>
<p>The number of Cam releases, which are recorded in movie theaters, is on the rise. This year 20 camcorded (Cam) copies of Oscar contenders have leaked, which is a record high for the last decade.</p>
<p>As Cams usually come out early, when films are still playing in theaters, Hollywood sees these leaks as a great threat. </p>
<p><center><strong>Cam leaks 2003 &#8211; 2018</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c65e0f46.cams2018.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cams2018.png" alt="" width="580" height="366" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-151989"></center></p>
<p>The same increase is also visible for Telesync releases, which are higher-quality Cam releases that use a direct sound input. There have been 14 Telesync leaks for the 2018 Oscar contenders, which is a significant uptick compared to previous years.</p>
<p>While these releases reach millions of people they tend to originate from a small circle. As the Hive-CM8 situation has shown, one group can make an enormous impact on the numbers. </p>
<p>This also means that next year&#8217;s figures can easily turn around if one or two prominent sources are cut off.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><sup>* &#8211; Foreign film and documentary categories are not included</sup></p>
<p><sup>&#8211; The high quality leak of Ferdinand was not included in Baio&#8217;s data at the time of writing, but it was included in the analysis above.</sup></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152149
title: Rightsholders & Belgian ISPs Cooperate to Block 450 ‘Pirate’ Domains
uri: Rightsholders-Belgian-ISPs-Cooperate-to-Block-450-Pirate-Domai
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/f59yaXH_hCU/
content:
<p><a href="media/9eb9cac7.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg"><img src="media/a70e19c9.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-147564" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px"></a>While site-blocking on copyright infringement grounds is now widespread, in most countries it requires intervention from the courts.</p>
<p>The process nearly always involves rightsholders grouping together with claims that customers of ISPs are infringing their rights by using &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites to obtain movies, TV shows and music. As such, it isn&#8217;t pirate sites that are targeted by rightsholder legal action, but the ISPs themselves.</p>
<p>Of course, none of the ISPs targeted are breaking the law by providing access to the sites. However, the demands for a blocking injunction frame the ISPs as the wrong-doers, even if there is an underlying understanding that the pirate sites themselves are the issue. For this reason, ISPs around the world have regularly found themselves in an adversarial process.</p>
<p>In the Netherlands, for example, ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">took their fight</a> to the highest court in Europe to avoid blocking but will <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/block-the-pirate-bay-within-10-days-dutch-court-tells-isps-170922/">almost certainly fail</a> after spending large sums of money. In others, such as the UK where the blocking process has matured, ISPs rarely object to anything, smoothing the process for both them and the rightsholders.</p>
<p>With the knowledge that site-blocking injunctions are likely to be granted by national courts in Europe, rightsholders and ISPs in Belgium now appear to be taking a collaborative approach. Sites have been blocked in the country before but future blocking efforts will be much easier to implement if a case before the Commercial Court of Brussels runs to plan.</p>
<p>It involves the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA) on one side and ISPs Proximus, Telenet and VOO on the other. Rather than squabbling over the details, it appears that the parties will jointly present a list of 33 websites and 450 domain names to a judge, alongside claims that they facilitate the illegal downloading of copyrighted material.</p>
<p>According to a report from L&#8217;Echo (<a href="https://www.lecho.be/actualite/archive/L-industrie-du-film-et-de-l-internet-ensemble-contre-la-piraterie/9987531">paywall</a>), the companies hope to avoid complex and costly legal proceedings by working together and accepting the inevitability of a blocking injunction.</p>
<p>The case has been running for a year already but during a hearing before the Commercial Court of Brussels this week, Benoît Michaux, lawyer for the Belgian Entertainment Association, explained the new approach.</p>
<p>&#8220;The European legislator has put in place a mechanism that allows a national judge to request injunctions to order the providers to block access to the websites in question&#8221;, Michaux said.</p>
<p>After being presented to the Court, the list of sites and domains will be assessed to determine whether they&#8217;re acting illegally. Michaux said that the parties have settled on a common approach and have been able to identify &#8220;reasonable measures&#8221; that can be ordered by the Court that are consistent with case law of the European Court of Justice.</p>
<p>&#8220;This joint request is a little unusual, things are changing, there is a certain maturation of minds, we realize, from all sides, that we must tackle the problem of piracy by blocking measures. There is a common vision on what to do and how to handle piracy,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>While the ISPs are clearly on a path of cooperation, L&#8217;Echo reports that concerns over possible breaches of the E-Commerce Directive mean that the ISPs don&#8217;t want to take action against the sites themselves without being ordered to do so by the Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;The responsible actors want to demonstrate that it is possible to stop piracy through procedural law,&#8221; says Benoît Van Asbroeck, lawyer for Proximus and Telenet.</p>
<p>The Court is expected to hand down its judgment within a month. Given the cooperation on all sides, it&#8217;s likely to be in favor of mass site-blocking.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151909
title: OfflineBay ‘Saves The Day’ When Pirate Bay Goes Down
uri: OfflineBay-Saves-The-Day-When-Pirate-Bay-Goes-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Db9mkPfihBA/
content:
<p><img src="media/932e6d7d.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122">The Pirate Bay is touted as one of the most resilient torrent sites. While it has indeed weathered many storms, occasional downtime is no longer an exception, as became clear again <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-suffers-extended-downtime-180301/">this week</a>.</p>
<p>This can be quite frustrating for users, including software developer TechTac, who came up with a simple but effective solution: OfflineBay. </p>
<p>Simply put, OfflineBay is a multi-platform application that people can install on their local computer. As the same suggests, it helps users to store a copy of all Pirate Bay torrents locally, in case the site does down. </p>
<p>The idea for the tool started a few weeks ago when TechTac realized that he had quite a bit of his monthly bandwidth quota left. However, as The Pirate Bay and other sites were down, he was unable to download anything through the usual channels.</p>
<p>&#8220;All of that remaining quota went to waste. Only if I had a tool like OfflineBay at that moment. So I thought &#8216;Never again&#8217; and ended up developing this tool,&#8221; TechTac tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The end result is an application that allows users to search and download Pirate Bay torrents, without having to use the website. Instead, the application searches through the publicly available TPB dump file, which users have to download first.</p>
<p>This means that only those torrents that were available at the time of the latest dump file update will be in the local database as a backup, in case TPB and other major torrent indexes go down.</p>
<p><center><strong>OfflineBay</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I95l6pKvV1Q?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>&#8220;OfflineBay is designed to discover torrents when online torrent search providers are not available. Torrents will be available up to the time the last dump file was created,&#8221; TechTac says.</p>
<p>The developer realizes that downloading and updating the dump file, which is just under 100 MB in size, is a major drawback. While he considered automating the process, there&#8217;s not really an elegant way to implement that at the moment. </p>
<p>This may change in the future though. TechTac will continue to develop the software. While it&#8217;s closed source at the moment, open sourcing the code is under consideration for the future.</p>
<p>One of the most interesting plans is to use a blockchain for this project. This would mean that the torrent database is stored and shared among users, without the need to import a dump file.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m planning to move this project to the blockchain so it won&#8217;t be depending on the dump file anymore. This is the ultimate goal,&#8221; TechTac tells us.</p>
<p>These types of changes require a lot of time though, and that&#8217;s proven to be a bottleneck. TechTac is doing all the work on his own right now but he hopes that other developers will join the project.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently, I&#8217;m the only one developing this tool. I can&#8217;t handle this on my own anymore. Waiting for more developers to get in contact. There&#8217;s a lot to discuss,&#8221; he says. </p>
<p>The official OfflineBay announcement and related information are available in the Pirate Bay forums <a href="https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-Release-OfflineBay-1-0-2-Download-torrents-from-thePirateBay-offline">over at Suprbay</a>, where it was posted with permission of the Pirate Bay crew.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152061
title: Comcast’s Protected Browsing Blocks TorrentFreak as “Suspicious” Site
uri: Comcast-s-Protected-Browsing-Blocks-TorrentFreak-as-Suspicious
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EMZXkqd0ZOA/
content:
<p><img src="media/26f51c6f.xfinpirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/xfinpirate.png" alt="" width="202" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152062" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/xfinpirate.png 202w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/xfinpirate-200x135.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px">Regular TorrentFreak readers know that website blocking is rampant around the globe. </p>
<p>Thousands of pirate sites have been blocked by court orders for offering access to infringing content. However, there are plenty of voluntary blocking measures as well. </p>
<p>Some Internet providers offer web filtering tools to help their customers avoid malware, adult content, pirate services, or other suspicious content. Comcast&#8217;s <a href="https://www.xfinity.com/learn/internet-service/wifi">Xfinity Xfi</a> service, for example, has a &#8220;protected browsing&#8221; feature.</p>
<p>While this can be useful in some situations, it&#8217;s far from perfect. The blocklists that are used can be quite broad. Websites are sometimes miscategorized or flagged as dangerous while that&#8217;s not the case.</p>
<p>This also appears to be happening with Xfinity&#8217;s protected browsing feature. A reader alerted us that, when he tried to access TorrentFreak, access was denied stating that a &#8220;suspicious&#8221; site was ahead.</p>
<p>A pirate logo on the blocking page suggests that there&#8217;s copyright-infringing activity involved. While it&#8217;s no secret that we cover a lot of news related to piracy, it goes a bit far to label this type of news reporting as suspicious. </p>
<p><center><strong>Suspicious&#8230;..</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/f4f9d026.xfinityprotected.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/xfinityprotected.jpg"><img src="media/f4f9d026.xfinityprotected.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/xfinityprotected.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="313" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152063"></a></center></p>
<p>While we don&#8217;t know whether the blockade is intentional or a false positive, this is certainly not the only &#8216;problem&#8217; with Xfinity&#8217;s protected browsing feature. </p>
<p>Previously, Comcast users reported that this system prevented people from accessing <a href="http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Xfinity-xFi/Protected-Browsing-blocking-https-www-paypal-com/td-p/3028390">PayPal as well</a>, which is a bit much, and others reported that it stopped <a href="http://forums.xfinity.com/t5/Email-Web-Browsing/Steam-Store-Not-Loading-Correctly/td-p/3024728">the Steam store</a> from loading properly.</p>
<p>The good news is that the blocking &#8216;feature&#8217; isn&#8217;t mandatory. Subscribers can enable and disable it whenever they please, by <a href="https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/xfi-advanced-settings">changing their network settings</a>.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Xfinity&#8217;s blocking efforts are not unique. We regularly get reports from users who can&#8217;t access TorrentFreak because it&#8217;s blocked, often on <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/datavalet-wi-fi-blocks-torrentfreak-over-criminal-hacking-skills-170903/">public WiFi networks</a>. In these and other cases, a VPN can always come in handy. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152120
title: Torrent Seedbox Veterans Bow Out of Changing Market
uri: Torrent-Seedbox-Veterans-Bow-Out-of-Changing-Market
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2eCuJvVh7uY/
content:
<p><a href="media/e8490062.seedstuff.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/seedstuff.jpg"><img src="media/3114079c.seedstuff.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/seedstuff.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="166" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152162"></a>BitTorrent users today have several basic ways to download content. The most popular is via a dedicated torrent client installed on a Windows, Linux, Android or similar operating system at home.</p>
<p>While this kind of activity is necessarily &#8216;local&#8217;, power users over the years have turned to systems that enable them to download and share potentially huge quantities of data.</p>
<p>Essentially computer servers running torrent client software in remote locations, these so-called &#8216;seedboxes&#8217; became a must-have for anyone looking to stand out in the torrent world as a sharing sensation.</p>
<p>While widespread, companies selling access to seedboxes haven&#8217;t really generated much noise publicly over the years. However, this week an announcement from one of the longer-standing companies caught our attention. After being founded eight years ago, popular provider SeedStuff.ca has decided to exit the seedbox business.</p>
<p>&#8220;We originally opened in 2010, however we have seen an ever changing climate in the industry and as new technologies emerge and people shift to more conventional means of file sharing our services have seen a steady decline over the past few years,&#8221; the company said in a statement published on its website.</p>
<p>&#8220;At this time, it simply is no longer viable to continue offering the services we do.&#8221;</p>
<p>Considering BitTorrent itself made its mark as a disruptive technology, it&#8217;s interesting that a company like SeedStuff would have its business disrupted by other file-sharing methods. So, we asked the provider a little more about its history and its ultimate decision to close down.</p>
<p>&#8220;We started from the backroom IRC channels on 56k connections, so torrents have always been a blessing,&#8221; a spokesperson said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Between 2005 and 2010, I think the rise of &#8216;Private&#8217; trackers really started to make the scene shine. You were able to find and connect with the content you wanted as well as the communities of people who shared interests as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;The private trackers gamified seeding and rewarded their best members, this is what really paved the way for seedboxes. The users felt a need to compete and often did not have access to the means to do so, but could contract these machines out to help them succeed. The demand for seedboxes started in about 2010, which I think you will see coincided with a huge spike of private tracker activity.&#8221; </p>
<p>SeedStuff says its initial aim was to improve user experience by not following the decision by many existing providers to &#8220;stuff as many users as possible&#8221; into each server. Restricting each unit to a maximum of four users and accepting just a small profit on each, the service grew while gaining support from customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;At our peak, we serviced over 4000 customers per month. Our total email database was well over 10,000 customer accounts. We did not monitor bandwidth or user activities as we felt this to be intrusive. We only dealt with server providers who offered unlimited bandwidth so that we were able to allow for the best user experience without limits,&#8221; the company explains.</p>
<p>But after several years of growth, SeedStuff noticed a change. In addition to suffering a painful database crash caused by a host and a failed backup regime, in 2015 the company observed a shift in user patterns.</p>
<p>&#8220;We noticed around this time that streaming services had started to become mainstream in almost every home and people were simply not using our services anymore. The main cancellation reason for the last three years has been &#8216;Not needed anymore&#8217;,&#8221; SeedStuff notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think torrenting developed for many reasons including ease of use, availability and cost to access media. Many of these issues have been improved by current systems so there is no need for consumers to use torrents for half their content, but we aren&#8217;t there yet and the industry seems to be dialing it back again.&#8221;</p>
<p>SeedStuff believes that while there will be a steady decline in torrent usage, the protocol will remain relevant for a long time to come. It could even enjoy a resurgence if distribution companies restrict availability or require multiple accounts to access all content.</p>
<p>&#8220;If a customer needs dedicated Netflix, HBO, CBS and Hulu accounts to access the shows they want, they might see these costs as too much compared to a decent torrenting connection,&#8221; the company says.</p>
<p>Of course, market changes can always have an effect on a company&#8217;s direction but SeedStuff says that in addition to tackling a myriad of technical issues, in the end there were also problems with team members migrating to other areas.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some of our team also moved on to new projects and started new companies which are now more exciting to them. Everything compounded and eventually lead us to split and go our separate ways. We just wanted to thank everyone who remained a customer through the years and are sorry we had to shut down,&#8221; the company concludes.</p>
<p>While there are plenty of other seedbox providers around, it seems fairly clear that things aren&#8217;t what they used to be, with streaming and other technologies all helping to disrupt the market. SeedStuff points towards <a href="https://ipfs.io/">IPFS</a> as yet another potential torrent disrupter of the future. Time will tell.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=151003
title: Which VPN Services Keep You Anonymous in 2018?
uri: Which-VPN-Services-Keep-You-Anonymous-in-2018
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-hoPZIET1rY/
content:
<p><img src="media/9b13b8a6.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135982">Using a VPN service is a great way to protect your privacy online.</p>
<p>However, not all VPN services are as private as you might think. In fact, some are <a href="http://blog.hidemyass.com/2011/09/23/lulzsec-fiasco/">known to keep extensive logs</a> that can easily identify specific users on their network.</p>
<p>This is the main reason why we publish a yearly VPN review, asking providers about their respective logging policies as well as other security and privacy aspects. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth keeping in mind though that not all VPN protocols and encryption algorithms are equally secure. PPTP is known to be vulnerable for example, and pre-shared keys are also a risk. We ask all VPN providers what their best recommendation is, but we encourage readers to fully research all options.</p>
<p>This year&#8217;s questions are as follows:</p>
<p><em>1. Do you keep ANY logs which would allow you to match an IP-address and a time stamp to a user of your service? If so, exactly what information do you hold and for how long?</p>
<p>2. What is the name under which your company is incorporated, 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 of 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 are taken when a court orders your company to identify an active or past user of your service? How would your company respond to a court order that requires you to log activity going forward? Has any of this ever happened?</p>
<p>7. Is BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic allowed on all servers? If not, why?</p>
<p>8. Which payment systems/providers do you use? Do you take any measures to ensure that payment details can&#8217;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 &#8220;kill switches&#8221; if a connection drops and DNS leak protection?</p>
<p>11. Do you have physical control over your VPN servers and network or are they outsourced and hosted by a third party (if so, which ones)? Do you use your own DNS servers? (if not, which servers do you use?)</p>
<p>12. What countries are your servers physically located? Do you offer virtual locations? </em></p>
<p>&#8212;-</p>
<p>Below is the list of responses from the VPN services in their own words. These are not endorsements and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/can-you-trust-your-vpn-provider-130929/">trust is crucial</a>. Providers which didn’t answer our questions directly, blocked certain traffic, or are logging extensively were excluded. We specifically chose to leave room for detailed answers where needed. The order of the list holds no value. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<h2><a name="pia"></a><a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/">Private Internet Access</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/d2a1e068.pia.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pia.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-41039" title="torrentprivacy" src="media/d2a1e068.pia.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pia.png" alt="VPN review" width="180" height="40"></a>1. We do not store any logs relating to traffic, session, DNS or metadata. We do not keep any logs for any person or entity to match an IP address and a timestamp to a user of our service. In other words, we do not log, period. Privacy is our policy.</p>
<p>2. Private Internet Access is operated by London Trust Media, Inc., with branches in the US and Iceland, which are a few of the countries that still respect privacy and do not have a mandatory data retention policy. </p>
<p>3. We have an active, proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse.</p>
<p>4. At the moment we are using Google Apps Suite and Zendesk. However, we are in the process of migrating our support to Deskpro, an in-house self-hosted solution.</p>
<p>5. We do not monitor our users, and we keep no logs, period. That said, we do have an active, proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse.</p>
<p>6. Every court order is scrutinized to the highest extent for compliance with both the “spirit” and “letter of the law.” We do periodically receive subpoenas from law enforcement agencies that we scrutinize for compliance and respond accordingly. This is all driven based upon our commitment to privacy. All this being said, we do not log and do not have any data on our customers other than their signup e-mail and account username.</p>
<p>7. Yes, BitTorrent and file-sharing traffic are allowed and treated equally to all other traffic (although it’s routed through a second VPN in some cases). We do not censor our traffic because we believe in an open internet, period.</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, PaymentWall, and any major store-bought gift card and OKPay. Payment data is not linked nor linkable to user activity do to our no logs 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.</p>
<p>10. Yes, our users gain access to a plethora of additional tools, including but not limited to:</p>
<p>(a) Kill Switch: Ensures that traffic is routed through the VPN such that if the VPN connection is unexpectedly terminated, the traffic will not route.<br>
(b) IPv6 Leak Protection: Protects clients from websites which may include IPv6 embeds, which could lead to IPv6 IP information coming out.<br>
(c) DNS Leak Protection: This is built-in and ensures that DNS requests are made through the VPN on a safe, private, no-log DNS daemon.<br>
(d) Shared IP System: We mix clients’ traffic with many other clients’ traffic through the use of an anonymous shared-IP system ensuring that our users blend in with the crowd.<br>
(e) MACE™: Protects 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 friends and, now, business partners whom we have met and on which we have completed serious due diligence. Our servers are located in facilities including 100TB, Choopa, Leaseweb, among others.</p>
<p>We also operate our own DNS servers on our high throughput network. These servers are private and do not log.</p>
<p>12. As of the beginning of 2018, we operate 3172 servers across 43 locations in 28 countries. For more information on what countries are available, please visit our <a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/network/">network information page</a>. All of our locations are physical and not virtualized.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/">Private Internet Access website</a></p>
<h2><a name="nordvpn"></a><a href="https://nordvpn.com/">NordVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-118226" src="media/daf4bb6e.nordv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nordv.jpg" alt="nordv" width="180" height="40">1. We do not keep any logs nor timestamps that could allow our customers to be identified.</p>
<p>2. The registered company name is Tefincom co S.A., and it operates under the jurisdiction of Panama.</p>
<p>3.We have developed and implemented an automated tool that limits the maximum number of connections to six devices. We do not use any other tools.</p>
<p>4. We use Google Analytics and third-party ticket/live chat tools (Zendesk/Zopim). Google Analytics is used to improve our website and provide our users with the most relevant information. The ticket/live chat tool is used to provide the best support in the industry (available 24/7), but not tracking our users by any means. </p>
<p>5. We operate under Panama’s jurisdiction, where DMCA and similar orders have no legal bearing. Therefore, they do not apply 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 don’t have any information about our users’ online activity. So far, we haven’t had any such cases.</p>
<p>7. Yes, we allow P2P traffic. We have optimized a number of our servers specifically for file-sharing; this way, we ensure that other servers, which are meant for streaming and other purposes, have uninterrupted speeds.</p>
<p>8. Our customers are able to pay via credit card, PayPal and Bitcoin. Our payment processing partners collect basic billing information for payment processing and refund requests, but it cannot be related to any Internet activity of a particular customer. Bitcoin is the most anonymous option, as it does not link the payment details with the user identity or other personal information.</p>
<p>9. The ciphers we use along with the OpenVPN and IKEv2/IPSec protocols have never been cracked. Therefore, both of these protocols are highly secure. For OpenVPN connection, we use the AES 256 CBC algorithm. IKEv2/IPSec ciphers used to generate Phase1 keys are AES-256-GCM for encryption, coupled with SHA2-384 to ensure integrity, combined with PFS (Perfect Forward Secrecy) using 3072-bit Diffie Hellmann keys.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we do provide both an automatic kill switch and a feature for DNS leak protection. </p>
<p>11. We use a hybrid model, whereby we control some of our servers but also partner with premium data centers with strong security practices. Due to our special server configuration, no one is able to collect or retain any data, ensuring compliance with our no-logs policy. We also have specific requirements for network providers to ensure highest service quality for our customers. We do have our own DNS servers, and all DNS requests go through those. </p>
<p>12. All of our servers are dedicated and located in the same countries we state they are – we do not offer virtual locations. At the moment, NordVPN provides more than 3000 servers in 59 countries. Full location list can be found at <a href="https://nordvpn.com/servers">nordvpn.com/servers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://nordvpn.com/">NordVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="expressvpn"></a> <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/">ExpressVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-123282" src="media/524f4f75.expressvpnlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expressvpnlogo.png" alt="expressvpnlogo" width="180" height="53">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. This ensures that we cannot ascertain whether a given user was connected to the VPN at a certain time, assumed a particular outgoing IP address, or generated any specific network activity. It is not possible to match a user to data points that we never possess.</p>
<p>2. Express VPN International Ltd. is a BVI (British Virgin Islands) company. Being under BVI jurisdiction helps to protect user privacy, as the BVI has no data retention laws, is not party to any 14 Eyes intelligence sharing agreements, and has a dual criminality provision that safeguards against legal overreach.</p>
<p>3. To protect our customers’ privacy, we do not monitor or log any user activity on our network. We do however 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 simultaneously connected, no timestamps or IP addresses are ever logged; 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 externals tools for collecting crash reports (a setting that can be switched off in any of our apps). ExpressVPN is committed to protecting the privacy of our users, and our practices are discussed in detail in our comprehensive <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/privacy-policy">Privacy Policy</a>.</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 BVI law enforcement 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>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 re-routing), from all of our VPN servers. </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 with 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 any VPN activities.</p>
<p>9. ExpressVPN apps generally default to our recommended protocol for security and performance: OpenVPN UDP. Our apps use a 4096-bit CA, AES-256-CBC encryption, TLSv1.2, and SHA512 signatures to authenticate our servers. </p>
<p>10. Yes, ExpressVPN protects users from privacy and security leaks in a number of ways (for more info about leak protection, see our <a href="https://www.expressvpn.com/privacy-research-lab">Privacy Research Lab</a>). 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, such as when your internet connection drops or in various additional scenarios where other VPNs might leak.</p>
<p>11. Our VPN servers are hosted in trusted data centers with strong security practices. The data center employees do not have server credentials, and the server disks are fully encrypted to mitigate risks from physical seizure. Our policy of not collecting activity or connection logs also means that servers do not contain any data that could map users to specific activity.</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 2,000 servers covering <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 — a physical footprint covering every continent save Antarctica, ensuring there are server locations near all users.</p>
<p>For countries where it is difficult to find servers that meet ExpressVPN’s rigorous standards for server security, reliability, and speed, we use virtual locations to still make it possible for users to assume IP addresses from those countries. These locations represent less than 3% of ExpressVPN’s server count, and 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.expressvpn.com/">ExpressVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ipredator"></a><a href="https://ipredator.se/">Ipredator</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-135425" src="media/d6bc50ed.ipredator_brand_blue.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ipredator_brand_blue.png" alt="" width="179" height="32">1. No logs are retained that would allow the correlation of the user&#8217;s IP address to a VPN address. The session database does not include the origin IP address of the user. Once a connection has been terminated the session information is deleted from the session database.</p>
<p>2. The name of the company is PrivActually Ltd which operates out of Cyprus.</p>
<p>3. Real abuse is mitigated by meatware [humans]. User traffic is not monitored or inspected in any way. TCP/IP sessions are not limited individually, but by server, to 10 million established connections. Packet floods are dealt with by using adaptive packet rate limiters at the switch port level and kick in at 90k pps. The number of concurrent connections is limited by the VPN backend software.</p>
<p>4. There is no visitor tracking mechanism, not even passive ones analyzing the web server logs. IPredator runs its own mail infrastructure and does not use third party products like GMail. Neither do we use data hogs like a ticket system to manage support requests. IPredator sticks to a simple mail system and deletes old data after three months from the mailboxes.</p>
<p>5. Requests are evaluated according to the legal frameworks set forth in the jurisdictions the service operates in and we react accordingly. After receiving a request its validity is verified.  DMCA takedown abuse using fake credentials seems to be all the rage these days.</p>
<p>6. <a href="https://ipredator.se/static/downloads/canary.txt">A canary</a> is maintained to indicate the current legal state of affairs. In case of a court order that forces us to enable log activity we would rather shut down the service than comply.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is allowed. </p>
<p>8. PayPal, Bitcoins, Payza, and Payson are fully integrated. Other payment methods are available on request. An internal transaction ID is used to link payments to the payment processor. We do not store any other data about payments associated with the user’s account. The systems dealing with payments have no connection to the part of the infrastructure that handles VPN connections. Frontend proxies are used to make sure user IP addresses do not show up in any of the backend systems.</p>
<p>9. IPredator provides config files for various platforms and clients that enforce TLS1.2 on supported systems. Ideally, the client negotiates ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM as a suite for the control and AES256 for the data channel. For further protection, detailed setup instructions and howtos are provided to our users.</p>
<p>10. <a href="https://ipredator.se/netsplice">Netsplice</a>, IPredator&#8217;s cross-platform VPN client, has native support for various types of kill switches. You can kill a program, just put it to sleep, shutdown your machine or wipe your hard disk &#8230; it is up to you. Users can use <a href="https://check.ipredator.se">this page</a> to check for a number of leaks, not just DNS leaks.</p>
<p>11. We own every server, switch, and cable we use to provide the VPN service up to our uplink network. The machines are located in Sweden due to the laws that allow us to run our service in a privacy-protecting manner. If the situation should change we are able to move operations to a different country. The core for any privacy service is trust in the integrity of the underlying infrastructure. Everything else has to build upon that, which includes the DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. Sweden.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ipredator.se/">Ipredator website</a></p>
<h2><a name="torguard"></a><a href="https://torguard.net/">TorGuard</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/7f0bb0e5.torguard_TF_logo2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torguard_TF_logo2.png" alt="" width="180" height="59" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139106">1. No logs or timestamps are kept whatsoever. TorGuard does not store any traffic logs or user session data on our network. In addition to a strict no logging policy we run a default shared IP configuration across all servers. Because there are no logs kept and multiple users sharing a single IP address, it is not possible to match any user with an IP and time stamp.</p>
<p>2. TorGuard is owned and operated by VPNetworks LLC under US jurisdiction, with our parent company VPNetworks LTD, LLC based in Nevis.</p>
<p>3. We utilize a number of highly customized scripts to monitor network performance and limit simultaneous connections through a radius-based authentication server.  </p>
<p>4. We use anonymized Google Analytics data to optimize our website and Sendgrid for transactional email. TorGuard’s 24/7 live chat services are provided through Livechatinc’s platform. Customer support desk requests are maintained by TorGuard’s own private ticketing system.</p>
<p>5. In the event a valid DMCA notice is received it is immediately processed by our abuse team. Due to our no log and no time stamp 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 nature of our shared IP network configuration and the fact that we do not hold any identifying logs or time stamps. TorGuard’s network was designed to operate with minimum server resources and is not physically capable of retaining such logs. There is no on/off switch to log activity so it would be impossible to comply with such a request. No, this has never happened.</p>
<p>7. Yes, BitTorrent and all P2P traffic is allowed. By default we do not block, re-route, or limit any types of traffic across our network.</p>
<p>8. We currently offer over 200 different payment options. This includes all forms of credit card, PayPal, Bitcoin, cryptocurrency (e.g. Litecoin, Ethereum, Monero + many more), Alipay, WeChat Pay, UnionPay, 100+ Gift Card brands, and many other worldwide local payment options. No user can be linked back to account usage or IP assignments because we maintain zero logs across our network.</p>
<p>9. For best security, we advise clients to use OpenVPN and select the cipher option AES-256-GCM, with 4096bit RSA and SHA512 HMAC. We use TLS 1.2 on all servers with perfect forward secrecy enabled. For faster speeds and “obfuscated” Stealth VPN access, we suggest using OpenConnect SSL VPN with cipher option AES-256-GCM. TorGuard offers a wide range of VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, iKEV2, IPsec, SSTP, OpenConnect/AnyConnect, Stunnel, and Shadowsocks.</p>
<p>10. TorGuard’s VPN software provides strict security features by automatically disabling IPv6 and blocking any potential DNS or WebRTC leaks. We offer a full connection kill-switch that safeguards your VPN traffic against accidental disconnects and can hard kill your interfaces if needed, and an application kill-switch that can terminate specific apps if the VPN connection is interrupted for additional safety. </p>
<p>11.  We retain full physical control over all hardware and only seek partnerships with data centers who can meet our strict security criteria. All servers are deployed and managed exclusively by TorGuard staff. By default, the TorGuard VPN app uses private no log DNS on each VPN endpoint. The TG also app allows clients to modify their VPN session with a custom DNS entry of their choosing.</p>
<p>12. TorGuard currently maintains thousands of servers in over 55 countries <a href="https://torguard.net/vpn-network.php">around the world</a>, and we continue to expand the network each month. All servers are physically located in the stated country of origin and we do not use any virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://torguard.net/">TorGuard 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-118357" src="media/f9db3f6b.azire-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/azire-1.png" alt="azire" width="180" height="61">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. System logs are disabled. Anonymity of our users is very important to us as described in our Terms of Service.</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. Our servers are running using Blind Operator mode which means we took extra security steps to ensure that we cannot monitor any traffic at all. 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. Ticketing support system, website analytics (Piwik, with anonymization settings) and other tools are hosted in-house on open-source software. We have plans to replace some of these tools by solutions developed by ourselves.</p>
<p>5. We politely inform the sender party 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 user or past user of our service while running as a Blind Operator, which is preventing live analysis of traffic. In that case, they would probably force us to handover physical access to the server, which is fine since they would have to reboot to gain any kind of access, and since we are running diskless in RAM &#8211; all data will be lost. So far, we have never received any court order and no personal information has ever been given away.</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 locations. We strongly believe in net neutrality.</p>
<p>8. As of now, we propose a variety of payments options including anonymous methods such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Monero, Ethereum and some other cryptocurrencies (through CoinPayments) and cash money via postal mail. We also offer PayPal, 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.</p>
<p>9. We recommend our users to use our new WireGuard servers available on Linux, some routers (LEDE/OpenWRT), and soon on Android.<br>
&#8211; Data channel cipher: CHACHA20 with POLY1305 for authentication and data integrity<br>
&#8211; Authenticated key exchange: Noise Protocol Framework&#8217;s Noise_IKpsk2, using Curve25519, Blake2s, and CHACHA20-POLY1305, a formally verified<br>
construction.</p>
<p>Otherwise, we recommend OpenVPN with default configuration available in UDP and TCP modes. These settings offer the highest grade of security achieved through OpenVPN on all of our servers:<br>
&#8211; Data channel cipher: AES-256-GCM (OpenVPN 2.4) or AES-256-CBC with HMAC-512 for authentication and data integrity (OpenVPN 2.3)<br>
&#8211; Control channel cipher: TLS v1.2 using TLS-DHE-RSA-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384 (AEAD)<br>
&#8211; Authenticated key exchange: Diffie-Hellman method and Perfect Forward Secrecy (DHE) using a RSA key with a 4096 bit key size, re-keying every 120 minutes (can be lowered)<br>
&#8211; Additional auth key: RSA with a 2048 bit key size<br>
&#8211; Additional crypt key: RSA with a 2048 bit key size</p>
<p>10. We offer a new custom open-source VPN application called azclient, for all desktop platforms (Windows, macOS and Linux), with source code released on Github under the GPLv2 license, currently supporting OpenVPN. Our client is developed by a security expert and designed with ease of installation and use in mind, allowing users to connect to the VPN servers with only a few clicks. We plan to add a kill switch and DNS leak protection features to the client in the future.</p>
<p>11. We physically own all of our hardware, in all of our locations, including bare metal dedicated servers and switches, co-located in closed racks on different data centers around the world meeting our strict security criteria, using network dedicated links and carefully chosen providers for maximum network quality and throughput. We host our own non-logging DNS servers in different locations and provide DNSCrypt support for DNS requests encryption.</p>
<p>12. As of now, we operate across five locations including Canada, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. Moldova is planned later this<br>
year, as indicated on <a href="https://www.azirevpn.com/docs/roadmap">our roadmap</a>. There are no virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.azirevpn.com/">AzireVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="hideipvpn"></a><a href="http://www.hideipvpn.com/">HideIPVPN</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/c4783f6f.hideipvpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hideipvpn.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-83070" src="media/c4783f6f.hideipvpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hideipvpn.png" alt="hideipvpn" width="180" height="68"></a>1. Currently, we store no logs related to any IP address. There is no way for any third-party to match a user IP to any specific activity on the internet.</p>
<p>2. 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 means using non-P2P servers for torrents or DMCA notices. 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 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 datacenter or copyright holder that we do not log our users&#8217; traffic and we use shared IP-addresses, which makes 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, in order to comply with a court order, subpoena, summons, discovery request, warrant, statute, regulation, or governmental request. But due to the fact that 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 &#8211; the reason for this is our agreements with data centers. We also have specific VPN plan for torrents.</p>
<p>8. Currently, HideIPVPN accepts following methods: PayPal, Bitcoin, Credit &#038; Debit cards, JCB, American Express, Diners Club International, Discover. All our clients billing details are stored in 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. </p>
<p>10. Yes, our free VPN apps have both features built in. </p>
<p>11. We don&#8217;t have physical control on our VPN servers. Servers are outsourced in premium data-center with high-quality tier1 networks.</p>
<p>12. At the moment we have VPN servers located in 10 countries &#8211; US, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Canada, Poland, France and Singapore. As you can see number of available locations is steadily growing.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.hideipvpn.com/">HideIPVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="hideme"></a> <a href="http://hide.me">Hide.me</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/f8c10362.hideme.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hideme.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-85360" src="media/f8c10362.hideme.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hideme.png" alt="hideme" width="181" height="75"></a>1. No, we don&#8217;t keep any logs. We have developed our system with an eye on our customers’ privacy, so we created a distributed VPN cluster with independent public nodes that do not store any customer data or logs at all. </p>
<p>2. Hide.me VPN is operated by eVenture Limited and based in Malaysia with no legal obligation to store any user logs at all.</p>
<p>3. We do not limit or monitor individual connections. To mitigate abuse we deploy general firewall rules on some servers that apply to specific IP ranges. By design, one username can only establish one simultaneous connection.</p>
<p>4. Our landing pages, which are solely used for advertising purposes, include a limited amount of third-party tracking scripts, namely Google Analytics. However, no personal information that could be linked with the VPN usage is shared with these providers. We do not send information that could compromise someone’s security over email.</p>
<p>5. Since we don’t store any logs and/or host copyright infringing material on our services, we’ll reply to these notices accordingly.</p>
<p>6. Although it has never happened, in such a scenario, we won&#8217;t be able to entertain the court orders because our infrastructure is built in a way that it does not store any logs and there is no way we could link any particular cyber activity to any particular user. In case we are forced to store user logs, we would prefer to close down rather than putting our users at stake who have put their trust in us.</p>
<p>7. There is no effective way of blocking file-sharing traffic without monitoring our customers which is against our principles and would be even illegal. Usually, we only recommend our customers to avoid the US &#038; UK locations for file-sharing but it is on a self-regulatory basis since these countries have strong anti-copyright laws in place.</p>
<p>8. We support a wide range of popular payment methods, including all major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Dash, Monero, PayPal, Credit Cards and Bank transfer. All payments are handled by external payment providers and are linked to a temporary payment ID. This temporary payment ID can&#8217;t be connected to the user’s VPN account/activity. After the payment is completed, the temporary payment ID will be permanently removed from the database.</p>
<p>9. After all, modern VPN protocols that we all support &#8211; like IKEv2, OpenVPN and SSTP &#8211; are considered secure even after the NSA leaks. We follow cryptographic standards and configured our VPN servers accordingly in order to support a secure key exchange with 8192-bit key size and a strong symmetric encryption (AES-256) for the data transfer.</p>
<p>10. Our users’ privacy is of utmost concern to us. Our Windows client has the features such as Kill Switch, Auto Connect, Auto Reconnect etc which makes sure that the user is always encrypted and anonymous. </p>
<p>11. We operate our own non-logging DNS-servers to protect our customers from DNS hijacking and similar attacks. We operate 30+ server locations in 27 different countries. However we do not own physical hardware. There is intrusion detection and other various security measures in place to ensure the integrity and security of all our single servers. Furthermore, we choose all third-party hosting providers very carefully, so we can assure that there are certain security standards in place (ISO 27001) and no unauthorized person can access our servers. Among our reputable partners are Leaseweb, NFOrce, Equinix and Softlayer.</p>
<p>12. Our servers are located in countries all over the world, among the most popular ones are Canada, Netherlands, Singapore, Germany, Brazil, Mexico and Australia. Below is the complete list of countries, alternatively you can view all available <a href="https://hide.me/en/network">locations here</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://hide.me">Hide.me website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ivpn"></a><a href="http://www.ivpn.net/">IVPN</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/a656cf52.ivpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ivpn.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-85390" src="media/a656cf52.ivpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ivpn.png" alt="ivpn" width="150" height="69"></a>1. No, not doing so is fundamental to any privacy service regardless of the security or policies implemented to protect the log data. In addition, it is not within our interest to do so as it would increase our liability and is not required by the laws of any jurisdiction that IVPN operates in.</p>
<p>2. Privatus Limited, Gibraltar.</p>
<p>3. We use a few custom scripts (based on PSAD) to proactively detect and alert malicious activity. From a management perspective, we monitor our network using Zabbix. In the almost 10 years we&#8217;ve been operating its safe to say we&#8217;ve seen almost everything.</p>
<p>4. No. We made a strategic decision from day one that no company or customer data would ever be stored on 3rd party systems. All our internal services run on our own dedicated servers that we setup, configure and manage. No 3rd parties have access to our servers or data.</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.</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. Yes, all file-sharing traffic is permitted and treated equally on all servers. We do encourage customers to use non-USA based exit servers for P2P as any company receiving a large number of DMCA notices is exposing themselves to legal action and our upstream providers have threatened to disconnect our servers in the past.</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, we store the Bitcoin transaction ID in our system. 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 anyway to account usage or IP-assignments.</p>
<p>9. We provide RSA-4096 / AES-256-GCM with OpenVPN, which we believe is more than secure enough for our customers’ needs.</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. </p>
<p>11. We use bare metal dedicated servers leased from 3rd 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. 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.</p>
<p>12. Please see <a href="https://www.ivpn.net/server-locations">https://www.ivpn.net/server-locations</a>. We do not offer virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ivpn.net/">IVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="windscribe"></a> <a href="https://windscribe.com/">Windscribe</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/900e3207.windscribe-e1488796046663.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/windscribe-e1488796046663.png" alt="" width="180" height="61" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136112">1. We don’t keep any logs that can match a user to an IP and timestamp. </p>
<p>2. Windscribe Limited, Ontario (Canada) Corporation.</p>
<p>3. We store the total amount of bytes transferred in a 30 day period. This counter gets reset monthly and there is no historical usage. We block SMTP port 25 to prevent email spamming.</p>
<p>4. Everything is self-hosted including but not limited to email, support desk, and live chat.</p>
<p>5. We notify the sender that the IP address is a VPN node and is shared by hundreds of people at any given moment, so there is no way to trace the activity to any single user.</p>
<p>6. We received multiple subpoenas and court orders requesting subscriber information. Our response was identical to what we send in case of a DMCA related request in every case. We were never ordered to log users (although there were requests), but since we’re in Canada which has no mandatory data retention directives that apply to VPNs, we wouldn’t need to comply.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent is allowed in all locations as we don’t interfere with the traffic. We request that users don’t do it in Japan and India due to more stringent providers in those regions, but it’s more of a guideline than a rule.</p>
<p>8. Credit cards (Stripe), PayPal, all major cryptocurrencies and various gift cards. As we store no logs of this type, there is nothing to link the payments to.</p>
<p>9. We support OpenVPN and IKEv2. Both are equally secure as we use the strongest encryption possible (GCM-AES-256) with both. We recommend trying IKEv2 first, as it’s faster almost in all cases. If it’s blocked on your network, then you can use OpenVPN which operates on common ports and is a lot harder to block, especially when using Stealth (Stunnel) mode. Our application tries all the protocols automatically and uses the best one for your specific network.</p>
<p>10. Windscribe Firewall is built into our Windows and Mac applications. It blocks all connectivity outside of the tunnel to ensure there is zero chance of any kind of leak, including but not limited to DNS leaks, IPv6 leaks, WebRTC leaks, etc.</p>
<p>A firewall blocks ALL connectivity outside of the tunnel. If the VPN connection drops, there is nothing that needs to be done, and not a single packet can leave the machine, since the firewall will not allow it. In geek terms, it fails closed.</p>
<p>11. All our servers are bare metal machines which are leased from various reputable hosting providers worldwide. As we have servers in over 100 different data-centers, listing them here would create a fairly lengthy list.</p>
<p>Each VPN node we operate has a recursive DNS server running on it, which is only accessible over the tunnel as it listens exclusively on a LAN IP address.</p>
<p>12. We have servers in 50 countries and over 100 cities. <a href="https://windscribe.com/upgrade">The full list is shown here</a>. All our servers are physically where they are claimed to be, as we don’t have any fake/virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://windscribe.com/">Windscribe website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnbaron"></a> <a href="http://vpnbaron.com/">VPNBaron</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/3b7d62d3.vpnbaron.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vpnbaron.png" rel="attachment wp-att-102027"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-102027" src="media/f82f2520.vpnbaron.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnbaron.png" alt="vpnbaron" width="180" height="45"></a>1. We do not keep traffic logs that match an IP address with a user. We do monitor the number of active connections for the user in order to prevent unlimited connections from one subscription.</p>
<p>2. Our registered legal name is Hexville SRL. We’re under Romanian jurisdiction, inside of the European Union.</p>
<p>3. Our tools are developed in-house. To limit the concurrent connections we keep track of the active connections of users. Every user has a limited number of concurrent connections, depending on his subscription. When he connects, we subtract one. When he disconnects, we add one back. Reach zero and the service will not allow the user to connect until he disconnects one of his active instances.</p>
<p>To limit the brute force types of abuses, we monitor the health of the servers and limit the network priority of the obvious DDOS that might be masked through our service.  SMTP abuses will also result in temporary port blocking for that service.</p>
<p>4. Emails and the support platform are hosted in-house. For our sales site analytics, we rely on Google Analytics. Live support is hosted by tawk.to which has a great privacy policy.</p>
<p>5. We designed our system in such a way that DMCA notices cannot be forwarded to our users. A diverse approach is needed to deal with this particular industry issue: from explaining that we don’t host any content to replacing IPs and servers that received multiple strikes.</p>
<p>6. No subpoena has been received by our company. If that happens, we’ll be sure to assist as much as we’re legally obliged. Keep in mind that we don’t have much information to provide.</p>
<p>7. Net neutrality is king. We allow any kind of traffic. P2P included.</p>
<p>8. We use Bitcoins (and many other kinds of virtual currencies: ETH, XRP, DGB, LTC ), PayPal, PerfectMoney and Credit Cards. The sales &#038; billing platform is stored separately of the actual VPN system.</p>
<p>9. We use only OpenVPN protocol, one of the most secure and hard to crack protocols, with AES-256-CBC cipher, TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES512-SHA, 2048 bit RSA.</p>
<p>On top of the OpenVPN, you can also choose one of the two anti DPI (Deep Package Inspection) protocols: “TOR’s OBFSPROXY Scamblesuit” and “SSL” that mask your VPN connection from your ISP. These protocols come handy in places that actively block VPN connections, like China, Egypt or university campuses.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we have an incorporated kill switch in our client and DNS leak protection. </p>
<p>11. We do use our own DNS and Google DNS for some servers.</p>
<p>Because of the nature of the industry, we consider that replacing servers and blacklisted IPs as fast as possible, having the ability to migrate from one ISP to another, and not existing in a constant physical location is a great plus. That’s why decided to rent the VPN servers.</p>
<p>12.  At the time of writing this, we do not offer virtual locations. We offer more than 30 servers in 18 countries and we’re expanding fast. You can find the full list <a href="https://vpnbaron.com/#locations">here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://vpnbaron.com/">VPNBaron website</a></p>
<h2><a name="securevpnto"></a><a href="https://www.securevpn.to/">SecureVPN.to</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-86764" src="media/cbbacf80.SecureVPNto1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/SecureVPNto1.png" alt="SecureVPNto" width="180" height="42">1. We don&#8217;t log any individually identifying information. The privacy of our customers is our top priority. </p>
<p>2. Our service is operated by a group of autonomous privacy activists outside of &#8220;Fourteen Eyes&#8221; or &#8220;Enemy of the Internet&#8221; countries. Each server is handled within the jurisdiction of the server&#8217;s location.</p>
<p>3. There are no tools which monitor our customers but we use techniques which don&#8217;t require any logging to prevent the abuse of our service.</p>
<p>4. Our website has been entirely developed by ourselves and thus we don&#8217;t rely on external service providers.</p>
<p>5. We reply to takedown notices but can&#8217;t be forced to hand out information because of our non-logging policy.</p>
<p>6. This hasn&#8217;t happened yet, but if we were forced to identify any of our customers at a specific server location, we would immediately terminate this location. We are not going to log, monitor or share any information about our customers under any circumstances.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is allowed and treated equally to other traffic on all servers.</p>
<p>8. We offer a wide range of anonymous payment methods like Bitcoin, Dash, Ethereum, Paysafecard and Perfect Money. No external payment processor receives any information because all payments are processed by our own payment interface.</p>
<p>9. We would recommend OpenVPN, available in UDP and TCP mode. We are using AES-256-GCM/CBC for traffic encryption, 4096 bit RSA keys for the key exchange and SHA-512 as HMAC. These settings offer you the highest grade of security available.</p>
<p>10. Our VPN Client provides advanced security features like a Kill Switch, DNS Leak Protection, IPv4/IPv6 Leak Protection, WebRTC Leak Protection and many more.</p>
<p>11. We rent 27 servers in 20 countries and are continuously expanding our server park. During the last year we focused on replacing our 100 Mbit/s servers with high-end dedicated gigabit servers and thus the number of servers slightly decreased. It is impossible to have physical control over all widespread servers but we took security measures to prevent unintended server access. At the moment we are using the nameservers of Quad9 which offer good privacy.</p>
<p>12. Every server is physically located in its specified country and thus we don&#8217;t offer virtual locations. You can find our server list at the <a href="https://www.securevpn.to/index.php?page=serverlist">following link</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.securevpn.to/">SecureVPN.to website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnarea"></a> <a href="http://vpnarea.com/">VPNArea</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-124690" src="media/8bba5ef5.vpnarea.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnarea.png" alt="vpnarea" width="180" height="59">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 mail 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 our in-house developed system that adds and subtracts +1 or -1 towards the user&#8217;s &#8220;global-live-connections-count&#8221; 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 in Switzerland. We host our own Ticket Support system on our servers in Switzerland. The only external tools we use are Google Analytics for our website and Zopim Live Chat.</p>
<p>5. DMCA notices are not forwarded to our members 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 delegate our no logs policy to the appropriate party pointing out that we’re not able to match a user to an IP or timestamp due to not keeping or recording any logs. In our six year history we&#8217;ve upheld our reputation and we believe one of the reasons such court orders don&#8217;t reach us is our clearly stated no-logs policy.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent/P2P is allowed on most of our servers but not all of them. Why not? Some servers that we use are not tolerant to DMCA notices, but some of our members utilize them for other activities not related to torrenting. That is why we keep them in our network despite the inability to use P2P/torrents on them. Most of our VPN servers and locations do allow torrents and P2P. We even allow torrenting on server locations that most VPN providers don&#8217;t, such as USA and Canada.</p>
<p>8. We accept PayPal, Credit/Debit cards and Webmoney via third party payment processor, plus Bitcoin and Payza. We do not require personal details to register an account with us. In the case of PayPal/Payza/card payments we link usernames to their transactions so we can process a refund. We do take active steps to make sure payment details can&#8217;t be linked to account usage or IP assignments. We do not use a recurring payments system.</p>
<p>9. We use AES-256-CBC + SHA256 cipher and RSA4096 keys on all our VPN servers with without exception. We also have Double VPN servers, where for example the traffic goes through Russia and Israel before reaching the final destination.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we provide both KillSwitch and DNS Leak protection for our Windows and Mac apps. Our new Android app already has DNS Leak protection and AdBlocking and within a couple of days will also have KillSwitch in the upcoming new version.</p>
<p>11. 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 70 countries <a href="https://vpnarea.com/front/home/servers">can be found 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><a href="media/fb6bdebe.airvpn.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/airvpn.png"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-85470" src="media/8e86e5a7.airvpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/airvpn.png" alt="airvpn" width="180" height="48"></a>1. No, we don&#8217;t.</p>
<p>2. The name of the company is Air and it is located in Italy.</p>
<p>3. We do not use any monitoring or traffic inspection tools. We do associate a connections counter for each account to enforce the limit of five simultaneous connections per account. We also promptly investigate any service (website etc.) running behind our service to prevent phishing and other scams (malware spreading, bot controllers, etc) if we receive a complaint about them. However, checking those services after a complaint or a warning from a third-party does not require any traffic monitoring.</p>
<p>4. Absolutely not.</p>
<p>5. They are ignored.</p>
<p>6. The matter is handled by our law firm which explains to the competent authorities how our system works and why it is not possible to track a user &#8220;ex-post&#8221; when such identification requires access to traffic logs, which simply do not exist. We have so far not received any order trying to force us to &#8220;log activity going forward&#8221; and we would not be able to comply for strictly technical reasons.</p>
<p>7. Yes, BitTorrent (just like any other protocol) is allowed on all servers without any re-routing.</p>
<p>8. Nowadays we use Coinpayments, BitPay, PayPal and Avangate. We accept a wide variety of cryptocurrencies and several credit cards. We also planned to accept payments in Bitcoin (and some other cryptocurrency) directly in late 2018, with no need for any third party payment processor, which anyway does not require any personal data to complete a transaction.</p>
<p>We do not keep any information about account usage and/or IP address assignments, so there can&#8217;t be any correlation with any payment. As usual a customer needs to consider that any payment via a credit card or PayPal will be recorded for an indefinite amount of time by the respective financial companies. We also accept cryptocurrencies inherently designed to provide a strong layer of anonymity.</p>
<p>9. We recommend only and exclusively OpenVPN. A proper configuration must include TLS mode, Perfect Forward Secrecy, 4096 bit Diffie-Hellmnn keys, and at least 2048 bit (preferably 4096 bit) RSA keys. About the channels ciphers, AES-256 both on the Control Channel and the Data Channel is an excellent choice, while digests like HMAC SHA (when you don&#8217;t use an AED cipher such as AES-GCM) for authentication of packets are essential to guarantee integrity (preventing for example injection of forged packets in the stream), both on the Control and the Data channels.</p>
<p>Our service provides all of the above. About Elliptic Curve Cryptography, since it is finally of public domain that at least one random number generator (Dual_EC_DRBG) had a backdoor, and that an NSA program did exist with the aim to implement backdoors in some curves and then have exactly those curves recommended by NIST, momentarily we would suggest to drop ECC completely, just to stay on the safe side and according to Bruce Schneier&#8217;s considerations.</p>
<p>10. Yes, of course. They are integrated in our free and open source software &#8220;Eddie&#8221; released under GPLv3. Anyway, usage of our software is not mandatory to access our service, so we also provide guides to prevent any kind of traffic leaks outside the VPN &#8220;tunnel&#8221; on a variety of systems.</p>
<p>11. The VPN server management is never outsourced. Even the IPMI, which has proven to be the source of extremely dangerous vulnerabilities, is patched and access-restricted by the AirVPN core management persons only. The Air company does not own datacenters. Owning a datacenter would put Air in a vulnerable position in the scenario described in your question number 6 (second part: court order to start logging traffic).</p>
<p>12. We do not offer &#8220;virtual&#8221; locations. No IP address geo-location trick, hidden re-routing or any other trick is ever performed. We do not use Virtual Servers at all. Currently, we have physical (bare metal) servers really located in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States. </p>
<p><a href="https://airvpn.org/">AirVPN 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-118118" src="media/6c7f7954.trustzone.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trustzone.jpg" alt="trustzone" width="180" height="63">1. Trust.Zone doesn’t store any logs. All we need from users is just an email to sign up. No first name, no last name, no personal info, no tracking, no logs.</p>
<p>2. Trust.Zone is under Seychelles jurisdiction and we operate according to the law in Seychelles. There is no mandatory data retention law in Seychelles. In our jurisdiction, a foreign court order would not be enforceable and since we don’t store any logs, there is nothing to be taken from our servers. The company is operated by Extra Solutions Ltd.</p>
<p>3. We have no usage restriction on our service. As we don&#8217;t have any logs, we can&#8217;t track any user online activity. Trust.Zone doesn&#8217;t use any third party tools on the website. The single restriction we have is three simultaneous connections per user. </p>
<p>4. Trust.Zone does not use any third-party support tools, tracking systems like Google Analytics or live chats. If a user loads our website in a browser, all information like Javascript, HTML and CSS belongs to trust.zone domain only.</p>
<p>5.  If we receive any type of DMCA requests or Copyright Infringement Notices – we ignore them. Why? Trust.Zone is under Seychelles offshore jurisdiction. There is no mandatory data retention law in Seychelles. Since we don’t store any logs, there is nothing to be had from our servers. </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 is a VPN provider with a <a href="https://trust.zone/canary">Warrant Canary</a>. Trust.Zone has not received or has been subject to any searches, seizures of data or requirements to log any actions of our customers.  </p>
<p>7.  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. Besides, Bitcoin, PayPal, Webmoney, Alipay, wire transfer and many other types of payments are available. To stay completely anonymous, we highly recommend using anonymous payments via Bitcoin. </p>
<p>9. Trust.Zone uses the highest level of data encryption. We use a protocol which is faster than OpenVPN and also includes Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS). The unique feature of Trust.Zone VPN is that you can forward your VPN traffic via ports – 21(FTP) 22 ( SCP, SFTP ), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS) or 1194 (OpenVPN), most of which can’t be blocked by your ISP. Trust.Zone uses AES-256 Encryption by default. We also offer L2TP over IPsec which also uses 256bit AES Encryption.</p>
<p>10.  Trust.Zone supports a  kill-switch function. We also own our DNS servers and provide users with using our DNS to avoid any <a href="https://trust.zone/post/does-trust.zone-vpn-protect-users-from-dns-leak-and-webrtc-leak-definitely-yes">DNS leaks</a>.  Trust.Zone has no support for IPv6 connections to avoid any leaks. We also provide users with additional recommendations to be sure that there are no any 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 150+ servers in 30+ countries and still growing. The most popular Trust.Zone locations are France, Australia, US, Canada and UK. 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="cactusvpn"></a> <a href="https://www.cactusvpn.com/">CactusVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-102343" src="media/7fbdb460.cactus.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cactus.png" alt="cactus" width="180" height="84">1. We don&#8217;t keep any logs.</p>
<p>2. CactusVPN Inc., Canada</p>
<p>3. We restrict our services with up to five devices per package for VPN connection and to unlimited devices for 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 servers 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 and Romanian servers.</p>
<p>8. PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Bitcoin &#038; Altcoins, Alipay, Qiwi, Webmoney, Boleto Bancario, Yandex Money and other not so 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.</p>
<p>11. We use servers from various data centers.</p>
<p>12. USA, UK, France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, South Korea, Australia, Poland, Japan, Switzerland, Singapore, Romania.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cactusvpn.com/">CactusVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="shadeyouvpn"></a><a href="http://shadeyouvpn.com/">ShadeYou VPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-86763" src="media/eab9d102.shadeyou.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/shadeyou.png" alt="shadeyou" width="180" height="41"><br>
1. ShadeYou VPN does not keep any logs. To use our service only a username and e-mail are required. No personal or real data is required.</p>
<p>2. We are incorporated as DATA ACCENTS LP and operate under the United Kingdom jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. Limits of concurrent connections are regulated in real time on the server side by our own developed tools without any logs kept.</p>
<p>4. We are using Google Analytics as a tool which allows us to improve our website and bring our users better experience. Also, we are using SiteHeart online support. But none of these tools track / hold personal information.</p>
<p>5. The abuse team of ShadeYou VPN answers as follows: A) We do not store any illegal content on our servers. B) Every user agrees with our privacy policy while registering, so we warned that illegal actions are prohibited and at this time we are not responsible. C) We have no any personal data of our users or any logs of their activities that can be shared with third-parties because we simply do not store it.</p>
<p>6. There are no any special steps since we have no logs to share and analyze. It means we can’t help with identifying the active or past user of our service. Logging activity is not acceptable for our service. We had different cases but we can guarantee that none of our users were compromised.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and any other file-sharing traffic is allowed mostly on all our servers. There are only a few exceptions (such as when traffic is limited on the servers).</p>
<p>8. ShadeYou VPN uses payment systems including PayPal, Perfect Money, Webmoney, Qiwi, Yandex Money, Easy Pay, Ligpay, UnionPay, AliPay, MINT, CashU, Ukash also accept payments via Visa, Master Card, Maestro and Discover. Of course, Bitcoin is available. Important note: we do not store billing information which is required to improve users safety.</p>
<p>9. We strongly recommend using OpenVPN since it is the safest and uses the strongest encryption (TLS Protocol with 4096-bit key length and AES-256-CBC crypto-algorithm).</p>
<p>10. We support “Kill switches” and DNS leak protection using our desktop client.</p>
<p>11. All our servers are collocated around the world in data centers of different leading hosting companies. Yes, we are using our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. Here is an <a href="https://shadeyouvpn.com/support/network-status">overview</a> and all servers are physically located.</p>
<p><a href="http://shadeyouvpn.com/">ShadeYou VPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="privatevpn"></a></h2>
<h2><a href="https://privatevpn.com/">PrivateVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-101901" src="media/9a2ae7cb.privatevpn1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privatevpn1.png" alt="privatevpn" width="180" height="55">1. We don&#8217;t retain or log any identifiers namely IP addresses, timestamps of any sort of connections on our VPN or authentication servers, data used, the speed of connection at all. Period. </p>
<p>2. PrivateVPN is run by a Swedish company viz. &#8216;Privat Kommunikation Sverige AB&#8217; under Swedish jurisdiction. </p>
<p>3. Owing to our above-mentioned privacy promise, active monitoring of our service is out of the question.</p>
<p>4. We use a service known as LiveAgent to provide email or ticket and live chat support. They do not hold any information about chat sessions. Chat conversation transcripts are not stored on chat servers. 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. DMCA is not applicable to our service as it is not a codified law or act under Swedish jurisdiction. So, it is none of our business. A Swedish equivalent isn&#8217;t in the scene as of now in our jurisdiction at all. </p>
<p>6. As already mentioned above, we don&#8217;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. Of course, 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. </p>
<p>8. We support PayPal, Stripe, and Bitcoin. Alipay as a payment method is en route.  We offer a 30-day money-back guarantee and in order to enforce it, we keep a track of payments linked to a user account. There is no way to link an IP address assigned from us to a user account as we do not log such data. </p>
<p>9. No single VPN protocol works for everyone. We support multiple VPN protocols viz. PPTP,L2TP,IPsec,IKEv2,OpenVPN,Shadowsocks(beta) and soon SSH(in labs). Our default VPN protocol on all the platforms other than iOS is OpenVPN over UDP with 256-bit AEAD ciphers when you use our VPN application. </p>
<p>We recommend a user with an ideal ISP to use OpenVPN over UDP/1194. In case your ISP happens to throttle default OpenVPN port 1194, you can use OpenVPN over TCP/443, which is deployed with the latest &#8211;tls-crypt that OpenVPN offers for additional privacy and very basic obfuscation of the protocol itself.</p>
<p>For users who love built-in VPN clients for an OS, like Windows, Mac, Blackberry, iOS etc, we recommend IKEv2. For users from UAE, Egypt, some parts of China etc, we are working on secure Shadowsocks over TCP/80 with AEAD cipher and/or SSH-based solutions to tunnel their OpenVPN traffic. Shadowsocks is already being tested and working with many happy users new and old users from Egypt &#038; UAE. For Tor lovers, we offer a guide, help, instructions on how to connect to our OpenVPN servers over Tor for additional security and privacy.</p>
<p>10. Our Windows VPN App offers 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, BSD etc and are rapidly working with our developers to add these features in our easy to use and install VPN applications. </p>
<p>11. We have physical control over our servers and network in Sweden. We’re only using trusted data centers with strong security. Our providers have no access to PrivateVPN’s servers and most importantly, there is no customer data/activities stored on the VPN servers or on any other system we have.</p>
<p>We have deployed our own multiple DNS nameservers which work from within tunnel and are automatically pushed to VPN clients upon successful connection. You are at liberty to use whatever DNS nameservers you like though. For example, if you or someone you trust hosts a server with additional security features like DNSCRYPT and DNSSEC, it is fair if you wish to use it. </p>
<p>12. We use a mix of physical and <a href="https://privatevpn.com/serverlist/">virtual servers</a> depending on the demand and needs of a given <a href="https://privatevpn.com/why-privatevpn/server-locations">location</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://privatevpn.com/">PrivateVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="octanevpn"></a> <a href="https://octanevpn.com/">OctaneVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-85308" src="media/c041b3ba.octane.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/octane.png" alt="octane" width="180" height="52">1. No. </p>
<p>2. Octane Networks, LLC.  US registered company. </p>
<p>3. We block port 25 outbound to reduce the possibility of spam. Our auth system limits concurrent connections via our custom backend. </p>
<p>4. We use Google Analytics for general website trends.  We use Hotjar occasionally for A/B and user experience testing.  Support is internal.</p>
<p>5. If the customer session is still connected to our service we take action. Repeat infringers must be disabled since we are a US based company and must comply with DMCA.  </p>
<p>6. This has not happened. We would take every action we legally could to maintain the privacy of our customers. Since logs are not used, there is little information we could provide if ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction.</p>
<p>7. Yes. We operate with net neutrality with the exception of restricting outgoing SMTP to prevent spammers from abusing the service.  </p>
<p>8. Bitcoin, Credit/Debit Card and PayPal. IP addresses are not linked to payment details.</p>
<p>9. OpenVPN<br>
tls-cipher TLS-ECDHE-RSA-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384<br>
cipher AES-256-CBC<br>
auth SHA512</p>
<p>10. Our client disables IPv6 completely as part of our DNS and IP leak protection in our Windows and Mac OS X OctaneVPN clients. Our OpenVPN based client&#8217;s IP leak protection works by removing all routes except the VPN route from the device when the client has an active VPN connection.</p>
<p>This a better option than a &#8216;kill switch&#8217; because our client ensures the VPN is active before it allows any data to leave the device, whereas a &#8216;kill switch&#8217; typically monitors the connection periodically, and, if it detects a drop in the VPN connection, reacts. With a &#8216;kill switch&#8217;, data sent during the time between checks is potentially vulnerable to a dropped connection.  Our system is proactive vs a reactive kill switch.</p>
<p>Customers should vigilant as other software such as JavaScript, Flash, Java and WebRTC can leak IP independently of their VPN connection.  Customers might want to consider creating a profile in their web browser specifically tailored toward web browsing privacy by disabling 3rd party plugins/extensions.  </p>
<p>11. In our more active gateway locations, we colocate. In locations with lower utilization, we normally host.  We do not do the virtual location BS you hear about sometimes.  Each of our gateways acts as a DNS server for the end-user.</p>
<p>12. We have gateways in <a href="http://www.octanevpn.com/server-locations.html">45 countries and 92 cities</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://octanevpn.com/">OctaneVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="slickvpn"></a><a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/#a_aid=570ec1e3eb913">SlickVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-135978" src="media/66914728.slick-e1488485082900.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/slick-e1488485082900.png" alt="" width="180" height="104">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: <a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/warrant-canary/">SlickVPN Warrant Canary</a></p>
<p>7. Yes. All traffic is allowed. SlickVPN does not impose restrictions based on the type of traffic our users send.</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 &#8216;kill-switch&#8217;) 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. </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. We’re currently in the process of deploying 10Gb connected nodes that are physically controlled by our company.</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. At SlickVPN we actually go through the expense of putting a physical server in each country that we list. SlickVPN offers <a href="https://www.slickvpn.com/locations/">VPN service in 40 countries</a> around the world.  We do not do offer virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/review/slickvpn-reviews/">SlickVPN reviews</a></p>
<h2><a name="cryptostorm"></a><a href="https://cryptostorm.is/">CryptoStorm</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-102256" src="media/31c4cee8.cryptostorm.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cryptostorm.png" alt="cryptostorm" width="180" height="77">1. No. The only logs on our servers are security related, such as: [root@wilno ~]# tail -n1 /var/log/messages Feb 21 17:27:51 wilno kernel: grsec: exec of /usr/bin/tail (tail -n1 /var/log/messages ) by /usr/bin/tail[bash:14447] uid/euid:0/0 gid/egid:0/0, parent /bin/bash[bash:12336] uid/euid:0/0 gid/egid:0/0</p>
<p>This is so we can monitor for unauthorized commands in the unlikely event that a server is compromised by some 0day exploit. Strict privilege separation and access control is done to minimize the access any potential attackers would get if any of our services were vulnerable to a 0day exploit. None of those logs contain any customer-related data.</p>
<p>2. Cryptostorm consists of several different entities that are in different regions. This is so if any adversary were to put legal pressure on one of those entities, we can simply drop and replace it, along with any resources that might be under it. The names and locations of these entities are not publicly disclosed, simply to make it more difficult for any potential adversaries.</p>
<p>3. Abuse is mitigated by using snort&#8217;s NFQ DAQ as an Intrusion Prevention System. This allows us to block the most basic or automated attacks/scans that would violate the Terms of Service at most data centers. It also allows us to prevent basic attacks without requiring us to keep any data that could be used to identify a customer. No customer IPs ever show up in those snort alerts.</p>
<p>4. No.</p>
<p>5. Most of the data centers we&#8217;ve chosen aren&#8217;t legally required to do anything about DMCA or similar complaints. The few that are legally required to do something, are only required to forward the complaint to us. Currently, the only exception is one of our Netherlands data centers, who requires a response from us. For them, we use a template very similar to <a href="https://www.torproject.org/eff/tor-dmca-response.html">this</a>.</p>
<p>If an ISP, data center, or anyone else were to request customer information related to a DMCA complaint, we wouldn&#8217;t be able to provide anything since we don&#8217;t have anything. If a data center threatens to suspend our server if we don&#8217;t comply, we simply stop doing business with that data center.</p>
<p>6. The locations of the entities that make up Cryptostorm were specifically chosen for their strong privacy and business laws. We wouldn&#8217;t be able to comply with any court order requesting customer information since we don&#8217;t have any information to give. If a court successfully ordered one of our entities to start collecting customer information, we would absolve any entities in that court&#8217;s region.</p>
<p>In the highly unlikely event that international courts coordinating together were successful in ordering all of our entities to comply, we would shut down Cryptostorm, Lavabit style. As of February 2018, we have never received any such court orders. If we were to receive any &#8220;gag orders&#8221;, our <a href="https://cryptostorm.is/canary.txt">warrant canary</a> would inform customers of its existence.</p>
<p>7. Yes.</p>
<p>8. Credit/debit card payments are accepted via PayPal and Stripe. Bitcoin is accepted through BitPay. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, BlackCoin, Dash, DigiByte, Dogecoin, Ether Classic, Ether, GameCredits, Litecoin, PotCoin, Vertcoin, Monero, and Zcash are accepted through CoinPayments.net. Our anonymous token authentication system plus our no-logging policy prevents us from knowing which customers are connected to which server, or what traffic they&#8217;re generating on that server.</p>
<p>9. Our most secure OpenVPN instances use: SHA512 for authentication; AES-256-GCM to encrypt the data channel; TLS-ECDHE-ECDSA-WITH-AES-256-GCM-SHA384 for the control channel, forced to TLS v1.2 to prevent downgrade attacks; Unique 4096-bit DH parameters for perfect forward secrecy; prime256v1 ECC server/CA certificates, signed with ecdsa-with-SHA512; 2048-bit static key for additional encrypting/authenticating of control channel packets.</p>
<p>For backwards compatibility on older devices that might not support OpenVPN 2.4.x, we also provide instances using: SHA512 for auth, AES-256-CBC for the data channel, TLS-DHE-RSA-WITH-AES-256-CBC-SHA for the control channel, and unique 2048-bit DH parameters for perfect forward secrecy.</p>
<p>10. We do provide firewall rule sets for IPtables, ufw, pf, etc. For Windows users, our open-source VPN client includes a kill switch.</p>
<p>11. We rent/lease servers at various data centers throughout the world. To account for the possibility of physical compromise (i.e., a confiscated server), each server is designed to be as disposable as possible. We don&#8217;t keep any data on the servers that can be used to identify a customer, and the data cannot be used to gain access to any other server. We do use our own DNS servers, and we also provide more secure alternatives to DNS such as DNSCrypt and DNSChain.</p>
<p>12. Currently, we have servers in Germany, Netherlands, Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Moldova, Spain, Latvia, Canada, England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Portugal, and eight US servers. We do not use VPS/VMs for our VPN servers. Only bare metal dedicated servers.</p>
<p><a href="https://cryptostorm.is/">CryptoStorm website</a></p>
<h2><a name="whatheserver"></a><a href="http://whattheserver.me/">WhatTheServer</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-135970" src="media/420c367c.whatheserver-e1488473253988.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/whatheserver-e1488473253988.png" alt="" width="180" height="60">1. Our OpenVPN servers are configured with “verb 0” so that they keep no logs at all. </p>
<p>2. What The * Services, LLC is incorporated in the USA. We have VPN servers in the USA, Germany, and the Netherlands.</p>
<p>3. We use a custom session management system which operates completely on real-time data and keeps no logs. The session management infrastructure (and all VPN servers) is built on top of OpenBSD and uses the services built into OpenBSD to enforce user management.</p>
<p>4. We run all of our own communications infrastructure. However, we do use Google Analytics on the WhatTheServer.me website.</p>
<p>5. We have never received a DMCA take-down notice or a non-US equivalent regarding our VPN service. However, we did receive a DMCA take-down notice regarding a website one of our customers was running on our  Virtual Private Servers.</p>
<p>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. The customer&#8217;s identity was never revealed to the people making the DMCA take-down request, because the bill was paid in Bitcoin &#038; a throwaway email account was used.</p>
<p>6. We have not yet received such a court order or subpoena for user information. However, if we do 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 that we do NOT have the information requested. If we DO have the information requested, we would immediately reconfigure our systems to stop keeping that information. Then we would consult with our lawyer to determine if there is any way we can fight the order/subpoena and/or what is the minimum level of compliance we must meet, as well as, notify the user of the event if we are legally able to do so.</p>
<p>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. BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is allowed on all VPN/Proxy servers which are NOT located in the USA.</p>
<p>8. We accept PayPal, as well as Monero, Bitcoin and over 140 CryptoCurrencies and AltCoins via CoinPayments.net We encourage our users to pay with anonymous payment methods and supply false contact information. We also use a completely different authentication infrastructure and random usernames for the VPN accounts.</p>
<p>9. All of our OpenVPN and SOCKS Proxy servers are running OpenBSD and are using LibreSSL instead of OpenSSL. This protects our servers from a wide range of attacks on the encryption. Our OpenVPN Servers use AES-256-CBC &#038; SHA512 HMAC for the Data Channel, and DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 on the Control Channel. Our OpenVPN  Servers are also configured with 4096bit RSA keys and a custom 4096bit Diffie-Hellman parameters. Our SOCKS Proxy is based on OpenSSH, so they support any ciphers the client wants to use. With the OpenSSH protocol, the Client decides what cipher to use instead of the Server.</p>
<p>10. We push Google DNS 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 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.</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 use Google DNS at this time but we are currently testing alternatives.</p>
<p>12. We offer VPN server locations in the USA, Germany, and Netherlands.</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-102028" src="media/3382efee.ibvpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ibvpn.png" alt="ibvpn" width="180" height="68">1. We do not keep any log that can identify a user of our service with an IP address and/or a timestamp. We are getting ready to be GDPR compliant and (in our opinion) keeping this kind of logs is not respecting the Privacy by Design guidelines.</p>
<p>2. Company’s registered name is Amplusnet SRL. We are a Romanian company, which means we are under EU jurisdiction.</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 e-mail providers (we host our own mail server). Our users can contact us via live chat (Zopim). 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’ account.</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 allows 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. </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 protections 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. </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/product/server-list/">available here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ibvpn.com/">ibVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ovpn"></a> <a href="https://www.ovpn.com/">OVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-118114" src="media/ea310744.ovpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ovpn.png" alt="ovpn" width="148" height="61">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 ofAlpine, which doesn’t support SATA controllers, USB ports etc. To further increase security, we use TRESOR and grsecurity to be resistant to cold boot attacks.</p>
<p>2. OVPN Integritet AB (Org no. 556999-4469). We operate under Swedish jurisdiction.</p>
<p>3. None.</p>
<p>4. For website insights, we use 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. For support, we use an internally built system.</p>
<p>The mail server is hosted by Glesys, a trusted provider in Sweden. Automatic emails from the website are sent using Mailgun, but we never send any sensitive information via email. Zendesk chat is used for live chat, which we will eventually migrate from when we’ve built a satisfactory in-house solution.</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 do that [require logging] in our jurisdiction &#8211; but in case it did happen we would move the company abroad.</p>
<p>7. Yes.</p>
<p>8. We offer PayPal, credit cards (via Braintree), Bitcoin (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. We offer AES-256-GCM. In terms of connection, we recommend using our Multihop add-on.</p>
<p>10. Yes.</p>
<p>11. Yes. We own all the servers and routers, and they’re co-located in various data centers in locked cabinets.</p>
<p>12. USA, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada and Norway. No virtual locations are offered.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ovpn.com/">OVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="mullvad"></a><a href="http://mullvad.net/en">Mullvad</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/032a295b.mullvad.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mullvad.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-41059" title="mullvad" src="media/032a295b.mullvad.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mullvad.jpg" alt="VPN review" width="180" height="37"></a>1. No, all details are explained in our no-logging data policy.</p>
<p>2. Amagicom AB, Sweden.</p>
<p>3. We limit the number of simultaneous connections to five per account. This is monitored in real time by our VPN servers which report this information to our central service. When a customer connects to one of our servers, the server asks the central service if the account has reached its connection limit. 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. 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 that we don&#8217;t store activity logs of any kind, we have no information to give out. So far this has never happened.</p>
<p>In addition, we do not believe that it&#8217;s possible for Swedish law to order us to actually give out information about our users. Not that we would anyway. We started Mullvad for political reasons and would rather discontinue the service than have it work against its purpose.</p>
<p>7. All traffic is treated equally, therefore we do not block or throttle BitTorrent or other file-sharing protocols.</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 <a href="https://mullvad.net/en/guides/no-logging-data-policy/">explains</a> how we handle payment information.</p>
<p>9. On Windows, macOS, and mobile, we offer OpenVPN with RSA-4096 and AES-256-GCM. On Linux, we also offer WireGuard which uses Curve25519 and ChaCha20-Poly1305. We also offer an experimental post-quantum secure VPN tunnel using WireGuard and NewHope.</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 only accessible through our VPN.</p>
<p>11. Yes, we use our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. Our website has an <a href="https://mullvad.net/guides/our-vpn-servers/">up-to-date server list</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://mullvad.net/en">Mullvad website</a></p>
<h2><a name="acevpn"></a> <a href="https://acevpn.com/">AceVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-102037" src="media/fbda25d2.ace.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ace.png" alt="ace" width="180" height="63">1. We do not log period. No meta-data logging, no traffic logging, no bandwidth usage tracking. We do not have any hidden fair usage policy. We respect our users&#8217; privacy. We do not store any personal or billing information on VPN servers. IP’s are shared amongst users and our configuration makes it extremely difficult to single out any user.</p>
<p>2. We are registered in USA and operate as AceVPN.com</p>
<p>3. We have developed tools to mitigate abuse.</p>
<p>4. We use Google Analytics on www.acevpn.com (marketing site). We do not track proxied pages. We use G Suite for email. Emails are deleted regularly.</p>
<p>5. If we receive DMCA takedown, we block the port mentioned in the complaint. IPs are shared by other users and our configuration makes it extremely difficult to single out any user. We do not share any information with third parties.</p>
<p>6. To date, we have not received a court order. We only store billing information which the payment processor or bank or credit card issuer has.</p>
<p>7. We have special servers for P2P and are in datacenters that allow such traffic. These servers also have additional security to protect privacy when p2p programs are running. We do not reroute traffic as this require inspecting and analyzing traffic which contradicts with our no logs policy.</p>
<p>8. We accept Paypal, Bitcons and Credit cards for payments. We store billing information on a secure server separate from VPN servers and do not track usage nor IP assignments.</p>
<p>9. Both our IKEv2 and OpenVPN supports Elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) which we recommend for secure connectivity. To give an idea, 384 bits ECDSA is equivalent to RSA 7680 bits. Higher the bits, more secure it gets. </p>
<p>10. Yes, we do provide kill switches if a connection drops. Our servers are tested for DNS leak.</p>
<p>11. We have full control over our servers. Servers are housed in reputed datacenters. Many of them are ISO certified and are designed to the highest specifications for performance, reliability and security.  We operate our own DNS servers (Smart DNS) for streaming videos. For VPN, we use Google, OpenDNS and Level3 DNS.</p>
<p>12. We have servers in 26+ countries and over 50+ locations /datacenters. USA, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and South Africa.</p>
<p><a href="https://acevpn.com/">AceVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="blackvpn"></a><a href="https://www.blackvpn.com/">BlackVPN</a></h2>
<p><a href="media/67c6712f.blackvpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blackvpn.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-41043" title="blackvpn" src="media/67c6712f.blackvpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blackvpn.jpg" alt="VPN review" width="180" height="61"></a>1. No. We purge all this information when the user disconnects from the VPN.</p>
<p>2. The name of the company is BLACKVPN LIMITED and is registered in Hong Kong and operates under the jurisdiction of Hong Kong.</p>
<p>3. Most of the time we use iptables to manually monitor and mitigate abuse, but in some special and complicated cases we have used fwsnort and psad to detect hacking and spamming from our platform. Limiting concurrent sessions is done through built in functionality in FreeRadius.</p>
<p>4. We run our own email server plus support and live chat systems using open source tools. We use StreamSend for sending generic welcome and renewal reminder emails, as well as for the occasional news updates. We have Twitter widgets on our frontpage that may track visitors. We use our own website analytics (Piwik) where we only save anonymous IP data.</p>
<p>5. We block the port in the firewall on the server listed in the notice.</p>
<p>6. If we received a valid court order from a Hong Kong court, then we would be legally obliged to obey it. So far this has never happened.</p>
<p>7. Bittorrent traffic is not restricted in our Privacy VPN locations, but due to stricter enforcement of DMA notices in the USA and UK we restrict most BitTorrent traffic and only whitelist torrents of known open source software.</p>
<p>8. PayPal and PaymentWall for Credit Cards, Bank Transfers and Prepaid cards. Coingate for all kind of Cryptocurrencies. The transaction details (ID, time, amount, etc) are linked to each user account.</p>
<p>9. We recommend to use IKEv2 or OpenVPN for the most secure VPN connection. We support the very secure GCM cipher mode (AES-256-GCM) together with 4096 bit RSA and Diffie Hellman keys. We also enforce DHE/ECDHE enabled cipher suites and key exchange is done with Diffie-Hellman, providing forward secrecy.</p>
<p>10. For OpenVPN, we stop IPv6 and DNS leaks with the OpenVPN config, and we also disable and blackhole all IPv6 traffic server side.  Our custom VPN app provides 100% IPV6 and DNS leak protection client side and we are working on adding a 100% working kill switch there soon.</p>
<p>11. We use dedicated servers which are hosted in 3rd party data centers, but they do not have access to login or manage the server. We run our own DNS servers which do not save any logs. Among others we use Steadfast, i3D, Zenex5ive, Worldstream, Evoluso, Estnoc,Amanah, Voxility, Rackend, CherryServers. </p>
<p>12. We do not now offer virtual locations. Our servers are in USA, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Switzerland and Ukraine.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.blackvpn.com/">BlackVPN 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-92195" src="media/d6caff16.pplogovpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pplogovpn.jpg" alt="pplogovpn" width="178" height="178" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pplogovpn.jpg 178w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pplogovpn-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 178px) 100vw, 178px">1. We do not log or store any traffic, IP addresses or any other kind of data that would allow identification of our users or their activities. The anonymity and privacy of our users is our highest priority and the Perfect Privacy infrastructure was built with this in mind.</p>
<p>2. Perfect Privacy is operated by Vectura Datamanagement, registered in Zug, Switzerland.</p>
<p>3. The primary method to mitigate abuse is reacting to email tickets. 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 limit or keep track of the number of connections per user.</p>
<p>4. All email and support tools are developed and hosted in-house under our control. We use Google Analytics for website optimization and better market reach, but with the anonymizeIp parameter set. However, Perfect Privacy users are exempted from any tracking by Google Analytics and are also able to use our TrackStop filter which will block any tracking (as well as ads and known malware domains) directly on our servers.</p>
<p>5. Because we do not host any data, DMCA notices do not directly affect us. However, we do receive copyright violation notices for file-sharing in which case we truthfully reply that we have no data that would allow us to identify the responsible party.</p>
<p>6. The only step on our side is to inform the contacting party that we do not have any data that would allow the identification of a user. There had been incidents in the past where Perfect Privacy servers have been seized but never was any user information compromised that way. Since no logs are stored in the first place and additionally all our services are running within ramdisks, a server seizure will never compromise our customers. In August 2016 Dutch Authorities seized two of our servers in Rotterdam and no user data was compromised.</p>
<p>7. Yes, BitTorrent and other file sharing is generally allowed and treated equally to other traffic. However, at certain locations that are known to treat copyright violations rather harshly (very quick termination of servers) we block the most popular torrent trackers to reduce the impact of this problem. Currently, this is the case for servers located in the United States and France.</p>
<p>8. We offer a variety of payment options ranging from anonymous methods such as sending cash, or Bitcoin. However, we also offer payment with PayPal and credit cards for users who prefer these options. Because we do not monitor or log IP assignments or account usage, there is no link to the payments.</p>
<p>9. While we offer a range of connection possibilities we would recommend using OpenVPN with 256 bit AES encryption. Additional security can be established by using a cascaded connection over up to four hops and by activating NeuroRouting for optimized routing to keep all traffic in the encrypted VPN network as long as possible.</p>
<p>10. Our VPN client versions for Windows and MacOS both have &#8220;kill-switch&#8221; functionality (firewall protection against IP and DNS leaks) integrated.</p>
<p>11. All our VPN servers are dedicated servers that run 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. We operate our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. Currently, we offer servers in 23 countries. All servers are located in the city displayed in the host name &#8211; there are no &#8220;virtual locations&#8221;. For full details about all servers locations please check our <a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/serverstatus/">server status</a> site as we are constantly adding new servers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.perfect-privacy.com/">Perfect Privacy website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnht"></a><a href="https://vpn.ht/">VPN.ht</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-135963" src="media/42744d39.vpnht-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnht-1.png" alt="" width="180" height="63">1. We keep 0 logs about usage or to match IP-Timestamp to a user.</p>
<p>2. VPN.ht Limited, a Hong Kong Company</p>
<p>3. We allow five concurrent connections with the same UserID.</p>
<p>4. Google Analytics.</p>
<p>5. We do not handle DMCA notices, our data center partners do, and in all cases we do not keep logs so we cannot identify the customer.</p>
<p>6. We will stop updating our Warrant Canary. It has never happened before.</p>
<p>7. Allowed on all our servers.</p>
<p>8. We accept various payment methods: Credit card / PayPal / Cryptocurrency / Other national payments. All are linked by an email.</p>
<p>9. For general use 128bit AES, but we do offer 256bit AES as maximum encryption level.</p>
<p>10. On the next application update.</p>
<p>11. We don’t, but we do have a strong relationship with our partners who operate data centers.</p>
<p>12. We have 127 servers in around <a href="https://vpn.ht/servers">33 countries</a> and we try our best to expand to locations most requested by our customers.</p>
<p><a href="https://vpn.ht/">VPN.ht website</a></p>
<h2><a name="vpnland"></a><a href="https://www.vpnland.com/">VPN Land</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/d3da001b.vpnland-1-e1488550455715.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnland-1-e1488550455715.png" alt="" width="180" height="60" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136034">1. We store only payment IP addresses for the reasons of fraud prevention, applies to Credit Card and PayPal payments. We don’t record or store information about what our clients do online and it is practically impossible to reverse track an external IP with a timestamp back to a real user.</p>
<p>2. VPNLand Inc., Canada</p>
<p>3. We use custom modified Radius databases to limit concurrent connections. We have AVs installed on all servers, and obvious known attacks are blocked at the firewall level.</p>
<p>4. We use ZenDesk (former Zopim online chat) online chat. Email and support databases are all in-house.</p>
<p>5. Ignored</p>
<p>6. We haven’t received any court order, thankfully. If there is a court order it will be evaluated first and then any action will be taken.</p>
<p>7. P2P is OK on all our VPN servers, except the US ones</p>
<p>8. We use Stripe, PayPal, PaymentWall, BitPay. As said above – IP addresses are logged only for fraud prevention purposes. Payment details are not linked to account usage</p>
<p>9. OpenVPN with AES-256-CBC key, SHA512 Hash Auth, and additional 2048 bit “tls-crypt” key</p>
<p>10. At this moment no, but the work is in progress and with our updated iOS, Android, Windows and Mac apps a “kill-switch” feature will be offered</p>
<p>11. We own half of our infrastructure in Canada, UK and Netherlands. In other countries we rent dedicated servers from hosting companies.</p>
<p>12. USA, Canada, UK, Netherlands, Germany, France, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Russian Federation, Singapore, Korea and Japan. VPN Land has no “virtual locations.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vpnland.com/">VPN Land website</a></p>
<h2><a name="bolehvpn"></a><a href="http://bolehvpn.net/">BolehVPN</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-66056" src="media/3266372e.bolehvpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bolehvpn.jpg" alt="bolehvpn" width="182" height="61">1. We do not keep any logs on our VPN servers that would allow us to do this.</p>
<p>2. BV Internet Services Limited, in the Seychelles.</p>
<p>3. Generally, we just look at network graphs and number of connections and see if there is any abnormal activity. We also block certain sensitive ports that are often used for hacking/spamming.</p>
<p>4. We use Zendesk to deal with support queries and do track referrals from affiliates. We also provide the option to send us PGP encrypted messages via e-mail and also Zendesk. We do not use Cloudflare.</p>
<p>5. We generally find providers that are friendly towards such DMCA notices or where it cannot be avoided, we just keep them as surfing/streaming servers with P2P disabled. These servers are more for geo-location or general purpose surfing rather than P2P. We at no times give out customer information to handle this.</p>
<p>6. We maintain a <a href="https://www.bolehvpn.net/canary.txt">warrant canary</a> which we do update once a month or when there is a request for information (even if we have not complied with it).</p>
<p>7. We marked a few servers as surfing-streaming, as they are on providers with strict DMCA requirements. All other servers support P2P and are not treated differently from any other traffic.</p>
<p>8. PayPal, Paymentwall, Coinpayments, Paydollar, MolPay, Z-Coin/Z-Cash, direct bank-in and we also accept direct Bitcoin/Dash payments.</p>
<p>9. We recommend OpenVPN, with our Cloak servers running AES-256 bit encryption as well as an XOR patch that obfuscates your traffic. This obfuscation prevents it from being recognized as VPN traffic.</p>
<p>10. Yes we do. Our leak prevention also includes IPv6.</p>
<p>11. They are bare metal boxes hosted in various providers. We use our own DNS servers.</p>
<p>12. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA.</p>
<p><a href="http://bolehvpn.net/">BolehVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="safervpn"></a> <a href="https://www.safervpn.com/">SaferVPN</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/c4301991.safervpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/safervpn.png" alt="" width="180" height="71" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152030">1. No logs, timestamps or IP addresses are kept whatsoever. At SaferVPN, we guarantee that we will never log your browsing activity, data, or IP addresses. This includes any websites you visited, any data you may have downloaded, shared or viewed, and any of your IP address or DNS queries.</p>
<p>In respecting everyone’s right to privacy, we also encrypt all of your data traffic, never share or sell any of your traffic details, never read your traffic, and never identify which traffic is yours.</p>
<p>2. SaferVPN operates under our Safer Social Limited company, under Israeli jurisdiction. Israel has strict privacy regulations which do not include a mandatory data retention policy and only apply specifically within the state.</p>
<p>3. Firstly, we do not monitor our users, and we keep no logs, period. That said, we have an active, proprietary system in place to help mitigate abuse. In addition, we also limit our simultaneous connections to five devices per user. </p>
<p>4. We use standard business tools including Google Analytics to improve our website and provide users with the most relevant information. We also use Zendesk as a secure third-party support platform and SendGrid for transactional emails. Our users’ information is never stored within these apps, rather in a separate proprietary database used solely for support and billing requirements.</p>
<p>Any information about how our customers use the VPN itself (such as browsing history, traffic data or DNS queries) is never revealed to third parties and is never logged or stored by SaferVPN.</p>
<p>5. We have not received any court orders as of yet, but in the case that we would be served with one, we would not be able to offer any information at all. We do not log IP addresses nor browsing activity, and we cannot match any activity to real IP addresses, even if we were asked by the court. We simply don’t have that data.</p>
<p>6. See above.</p>
<p>7. BitTorrent and other file-sharing traffic is welcome on our Dutch (NL) VPN servers without any throttling. It isn’t allowed on our other servers as stated in our Terms of Service, due to our agreements with data centers. </p>
<p>8. Our customers can pay via credit card, PayPal and Bitcoin. Payments are performed exclusively by third-party processors &#8212; BlueSnap for credit cards, PayPal for PayPal and CoinBase for Bitcoin &#8212; who only get the necessary data to verify the payment. As we don’t monitor account usage, payment details cannot be linked to any IP assignments.</p>
<p>9. In most cases we recommend (and default to) OpenVPN UDP and our cipher suite of AES-256 + RSA4096 + SHA256. Our apps use a 4096-bit CA, AES-256-CBC encryption, TLSv1.2, and SHA512 signatures to authenticate our servers. We use TLS 1.2 on all servers with enabled Perfect Forward Secrecy keys. At the same time, we also offer a wide range of VPN protocols, including OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, OpenConnect/AnyConnect (SSL VPN), and iKEV2 – we still offer PPTP for those of you who need it, but we don’t recommend it.   </p>
<p>10. SaferVPN provides both an automatic app-level kill switch and a feature for DNS leak protection across all mobile and desktop platforms. We also ensure that our users enjoy Automatic Wi-Fi Security that activates immediate VPN protection across public Wi-Fi hotspots.</p>
<p>11. We use dedicated servers at premium data centers with strong security practices. Due to our special server configuration, no one can access, retain or collect any data. All servers have been set up with a zero logs policy, ensuring that no customer data nor activity is stored on any VPN server. </p>
<p>12. <a href="https://www.safervpn.com/vpn-servers">Our servers</a> are physically located in over 34 countries, and across every continent except Antarctica (we’re working on that!). </p>
<p><a href="https://www.safervpn.com/">SaferVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="headvpn"></a> <a href="https://headvpn.com/">HeadVPN</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/356c3c27.headvpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/headvpn.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="63" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152024">1. We DO NOT keep any logs. We do not store logs relating to traffic, session, DNS or metadata. </p>
<p>2. We’re registered in the United Kingdom under the name “HEADVPN LTD” </p>
<p>3. We use a pre-configured firewall which is configured by our own technology.</p>
<p>4.  Google is the one mail external based system we use. We make standard use of Google Apps and Google Analytics. Of course, we provide 24/7 Live Chat support (powered by Tawk). All other support tools are kept internal for our users and visitors. </p>
<p>5. Since we don’t keep any information on any of our servers there is nothing that we can take down. If we receive a valid DMCA notice we can only take action if the connection is still active (we notify the user and stop the session). </p>
<p>6. We haven’t received any court orders. If that happens, the agency will be informed that no user information is available as we DO NOT keep log. In our practice this was not the case.</p>
<p>7. Yes, we allow P2P/BitTorrent downloading. For P2P/Bittorent traffic we have special VPN servers (which are located in a data center that allows such traffic). On other VPN servers, P2P/Bittorent traffic is blocked. </p>
<p>8. We accept all forms of Credit/Debit cards payments through the Stripe payment gateway, Bitcoins, QIWI, Yandex.Money, WebMoney, AliPay, CashU, iDeal, PaySafecard, and PayPal payment method. We do not store any billing information such as credit cards or addresses. </p>
<p>9. We provide all kinds of encryption methods, including PPTP, L2TP/IPsec, SSTP, OpenVPN and SoftEther protocols. We recommend using OpenVPN protocol as it’s the most secure and using RSA 4096 bit and AES 256 bit encryption keys. </p>
<p>10. We do not offer DNS leak protection via kill switches. DNS leak protection is best handled by using OpenVPN protocol (AES-256-CBC algorithm for encryption). </p>
<p>11. All our VPN servers are hosted in 3rd party data centers with the highest specifications for performance, reliability and security. We have direct access to each server and they all are running within RAM disks (which are fully encrypted). </p>
<p>12. Our VPN servers are located in the United Kingdom, United States, Germany and Netherlands. We do not offer virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://headvpn.com/">HeadVPN website</a></p>
<h2><a name="zenmate"></a> <a href="https://zenmate.com/">Zenmate</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/ba09798f.zenmate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zenmate.png" alt="" width="180" height="62" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152027">1. No, we do not keep any such logs. We do not monitor the bandwidth usage, nor the websites that users visit.</p>
<p>2. ZenMate is incorporated under the legal entity “ZenGuard GmbH”, registered and operating under German jurisdiction. Germany is known for its strict internet privacy and security laws, we are therefore bound to Germany’s data privacy rules. The latter are reflected in the company’s strict privacy policies, which are followed rigorously. </p>
<p>3. All of our VPN systems and tools that are used to prevent abuse are proprietary and maintained in-house.</p>
<p>4. For user support we use ZenDesk that holds the email address the user provided us and a name if the user added that to the support ticket. For our website we do use Google Analytics, but with the “anonymize_IP” setting enabled.</p>
<p>5. We answer that due to the absence of any user-related data in regards to the usage with ZenMate we cannot give any support to these authorities, as this kind of data is not logged.</p>
<p>6. Due to the absence of any log data we cannot give any historical data to these authorities. As of now, no judge was ever willing to sign a court order to make us start logging (in general, without a specific suspicion) in the future, as this would result in a breach of several other German/European laws. We therefore have been successfully defending our users’ rights for now more than five years, without having to fear any change anytime soon.</p>
<p>7. Yes, we allow all traffic on all servers &#8211; as we do not have any control over the user’s traffic at all.</p>
<p>8. We offer a variety of payment methods depending on the country you are located in. Among others, we support payments via VISA, MasterCard, American Express, PayPal, Sofort Banking. We do not process payments on our own. We contracted with Adyen B.V. as our payment provider for the processing of payments &#8211; who is fully PCI DSS and PCI SAQ compliant.</p>
<p>We do not have a linked connection between payment details (which is on Adyen’s side) and account usage (which we do not log) or IP assignment (which happens completely automatically), as these are completely different systems at two different companies.</p>
<p>9. We use the latest TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) protocol and support different cipher suites with PFS (Default for Chrome is TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_128_GCM_SHA256) and up to TLS_ECDHE_RSA_WITH_AES_256_GCM_SHA384. No known attack currently target these cyphers. AES 128 is preferred to AES 256. There have been discussions on whether AES 256 extra security was worth the cost, and the result is far from obvious. At the moment, AES 128 is preferred, since it provides bulletproof security, it is really fast and seems to be more resistant to timing attacks.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we provide kill switches in the browser extensions, Windows and Android.</p>
<p>11. We work with a small number of trusted partners that operate premium data centers with strong security practices. Nevertheless, due to the high encryption and the zero-logging policy even at an unauthorized access, the attacker could not get any information about the activity of a specific user, as there is none on our VPN servers.</p>
<p>12. With ZenMate you can relocate your IP address to hide your real location and circumvent network restrictions to unblock geo-restricted sites.</p>
<p>We are currently offering over 30 different country locations to choose from, for example: Germany, Romania, Hong Kong, United States, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States.</p>
<p><a href="https://zenmate.com/">Zenmate website</a></p>
<h2><a name="buffered"></a> <a href="https://buffered.com/">Buffered</a></h2>
<p><img src="media/0e89b2b2.buffered-2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/buffered-2.png" alt="" width="180" height="49" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152029">1. We do not keep any logs that can link a user to a certain IP address. We keep anonymized logs of some usage so that we can improve the service. No single user can ever be identified.</p>
<p>2. We are incorporated in Gibraltar as Buffered Ltd. All card payments are taken via this entity. We take payments on PayPal via our Hungarian subsidiary, which is fully owned by the Gibraltar company.</p>
<p>3. Our own internal tools monitor how many devices a user has connected.</p>
<p>4. We do not use any external email providers, we only use internal traffic analytics (no Google Analytics or any other tracking). We use Livechat.com for live support.</p>
<p>5. We are not a content provider, but a network/transit service, therefore DMCA requests are not applicable to us. If we do receive one we do not attempt to identify the user (since we cannot anyway).</p>
<p>6. This has not happened.</p>
<p>7. Yes, we do not interfere with traffic in this way. </p>
<p>8. We use Checkout.com and PayPal, and Bitpay for bitcoin payments. Since we do not store usage logs of users this cannot be linked to payment providers, however, users should be aware that paying for a VPN with anything other than bitcoin will make it easy to identify that you have at least paid for that particular VPN.</p>
<p>9. Even though blowfish is sufficiently secure, now with hardware-accelerated AES, this is faster than blowfish. Consequently, we are rolling this out everywhere as it greatly improves battery consumption and security, especially in resource-constrained environments like routers and mobiles.</p>
<p>10. Yes we do, we recently released a firewall based killswitch. It blocks all traffic in case of the VPN connection dropping.</p>
<p>11. We use our own DNS servers. We rent servers across the world from providers like Leaseweb and 100TB.</p>
<p>12. We offer connections in 45 countries, and there are no virtual locations.</p>
<p><a href="https://buffered.com/">Buffered website</a></p>
<h2>VPN providers With Some Logs</h2>
<h2><a name="seed4me"></a> <a href="http://seed4.me">Seed4.me</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-86263" src="media/9e130b50.seed4me.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/seed4me.jpg" alt="seed4me" width="180" height="83">1. We do not analyze or DPI traffic. We also do not keep logs on VPN nodes. General connection logs are stored on a secure server for seven days to solve network issues if there are any (for example if VPN IP is blocked in China and needs replacement). These logs are deleted after seven days if there are no network problems.</p>
<p>2. Taiwan. Seed4.Me Inc. We are not aware of any legislation requiring to share client information and we are not aware of any precedents in Taiwan, where client information was disclosed. We do not hold much information anyway. On the other hand, we do not welcome illegal activities which potentially harm other people.</p>
<p>3. We use simple firewall rules to avoid some abuses in advance. Regarding concurrent connections: we do not have any limits when Client uses our Windows, MAC, iOS or Android app. When Customer sets up L2TP/PPTP VPN manually he has one simultaneous connections by default, this number can be increased and it&#8217;s totally free. We use our own solution to manage abusive accounts and limit concurrent L2TP/PPTP connections.</p>
<p>4. Currently, we utilize Google Analytics and G Suite (ex. Google Apps). Regarding G Suite, we do not store any sensitive information there, only support issues.</p>
<p>5. In case of abuse we null route the IP to keep ourselves in compliance with the DMCA. Currently, we use simple firewall rules to block torrents in countries where the DMCA applies.</p>
<p>6. We will act in accordance with the laws of the jurisdiction, only if court order comes from a jurisdiction where the affected server is located. Fortunately, as I said before, we do not keep any logs on VPN nodes, on the other hand &#8211; we do not encourage illegal activity. This never happened.</p>
<p>7. Torrents are allowed on our VPN servers in Switzerland, Sweden, and Latvia. This is torrent-friendly countries with high-quality data centers and networks.</p>
<p>8. We accept Bitcoin, PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, Webmoney, QIWI, Yandex.Money, Bank transfer and In-App purchases in our mobile apps. We do not store sensitive payment information on our servers, in most cases payment system simply sends us a notification about successful payment with the amount of payment. We validate this data and grant access to VPN. BTW, we do not require name of the cardholder when he pays for the VPN in our desktop app.</p>
<p>9. Obfuscated OpenVPN with 2048-bit key will be a good choice, it’s available in our Desktop and Android apps. Also our iOS App has Automatic protection option that guarantees for example that all outgoing connections on open Wi-Fi will be encrypted and passed through secure VPN channel.</p>
<p>10. Yes, we have a kill switch in our Desktop VPN app. Yes, we provide DNS leak protection in our Desktop VPN app.</p>
<p>11. All servers are remotely administered by our team only, no outsourcing. No data is stored on VPN nodes (if the node is confiscated, there will not be any data). We prefer to deal with trustworthy Tier-3 (PCI-DSS) data centers and providers to ensure reliable service with high security. As for DNS, we use Google, users can override these settings with their own.</p>
<p>12. Currently we offer VPN nodes in 21 location: USA, UK, Canada, France, Russia, Switzerland (torrent-friendly), Sweden (torrent-friendly), Belgium, Ukraine, Latvia (torrent-friendly), Bulgaria, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Italy, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Israel, Taiwan and South Korea.</p>
<p>We offer one virtual location. Currently, we try not to fake IP locations and provide real IPs directly from the country where the VPN server is physically located.</p>
<p><a href="http://seed4.me">Seed4.me 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-85315" src="media/bcec9486.vpnac.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnac.png" alt="vpnac" width="180" height="63">1. We keep connection logs for one day to help us in troubleshooting customers&#8217; connection problems but also to identify attacks (e.g. bruteforce, account theft). This information contains IP address, connection start and end time, protocol used (including port) and amount of data transferred. </p>
<p>2. Netsec Interactive Solutions 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 be done 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. </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&#8217;s not possible to identify the users. </p>
<p>6. It never happened. In such event, we would rely on legal advice. </p>
<p>7. It is allowed. </p>
<p>8. All major cryptocurrencies, PayPal, credit cards, Perfect Money, several country-specific payment methods, gift cards. Payment with cryptocurrencies 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.</p>
<p>10. Yes, such features are embedded in our client software. </p>
<p>11. We have physical control of 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. </p>
<p>12. We don&#8217;t use &#8220;virtual locations&#8221;. All servers are physically located in several countries (and growing), such as: Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Singapore, Taiwan, UK, USA. </p>
<p><a href="https://vpn.ac/">VPN.ac website</a></p>
<h2><a name="ironsocket"></a><a href="https://ironsocket.com/">IronSocket</a></h2>
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-97072" src="media/bf6fc694.ironsocket.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ironsocket.png" alt="ironsocket" width="180" height="59">1. We keep limited session logs for all of our services. These logs record the duration of a connection, the IP address used for the connection and the number of bytes transferred.</p>
<p>These logs are typically kept for 72 hours, usually less, after which they are purged. We log this data for fraud and abuse detection/prevention. Since we use shared IPs on our servers, and do not log activity, it is difficult to associate specific activity with individual users.</p>
<p>2. IronSocket is owned and operated by Pusa and Daga Hong Kong Limited in the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.</p>
<p>3. We do not use any third-party email providers or support tools. We use Google Analytics and HasOffers which have minimal visitor tracking information used for website usage reporting and management of our affiliate program, respectively.</p>
<p>4. IronSocket is not subject to the DMCA or any international equivalent. We do NOT host any user-uploaded content on any of our servers. While IronSocket is not subject to DMCA, some of our hosting and data center partners reside in locations that are. If they escalate a DMCA notice to us, we reply to the provider that we are a service provider like them, and that we do not log our user’s activity.</p>
<p>5. This has not happened. It is our policy to cooperate with legal orders that are valid under Hong Kong SAR law. The process to address such request is: (A) Verify the order is legal and valid. (B) Consult with legal counsel to determine what we are required to provide. (C) Determine if we have the data being requested.</p>
<p>Because of our privacy policy, terms of service, shared IP usage, and anonymous payment methods, it would be difficult to impossible to associate a specific activity with an individual user.</p>
<p>6. P2P traffic is allowed on servers in countries where such traffic is not restricted. We do not allow P2P on all servers due to the legal pressure on the data centers in certain regions of the world. All traffic is treated equally on our network.</p>
<p>7. We accept credit / debit card payments via SafeCharge and PayPal. Bitcoin transactions are processed by BitPay and major US brand gift cards are handled by PayGarden. We do not collect sensitive payment information. Any sensitive payment information is maintained by each respective payment processor and is linked by a unique transaction number.</p>
<p>8. OpenVPN with strong encryption: AES 256-bit encryption with SHA256 message authentication, using a 4096-bit key for secure authentication.</p>
<p>9. We are currently beta testing a new client for Microsoft Windows systems that offers DNS leak protection and VPN drop protection.  VPN drop protection has the option of killing specific applications or the system’s network connection.</p>
<p>10. We are currently beta testing a new client for Microsoft Windows systems that offers support for the OpenVPN, L2TP, and PPTP VPN protocols.</p>
<p>11. We host and maintain our own DNS servers. We manage all our VPN servers but they are hosted and maintained by third-party data centers. We vet all providers prior to engaging their services and we continuously evaluate the quality of service and responsiveness to our requirements and requests.</p>
<p>12. We have hundreds of servers in 38 different countries and are always adding more. The most up-to-date list can be <a href="https://ironsocket.com/network">found here</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://ironsocket.com/">IronSocket website</a></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8211;</p>
<p><em>Note: several of the providers listed in this article are TorrentFreak sponsors. We reserve the first three spots for our sponsors, as a courtesy.</p>
<p>VPN providers who want to be in future question rounds are free to get in touch.<br>
</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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