# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143168
title: ‘Pirate’ Site Uses DMCA to Remove Pirated Copy from Github
uri: Pirate-Site-Uses-DMCA-to-Remove-Pirated-Copy-from-Github
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kwSfXzgdcbA/
content:
<p><img src="media/fc66134a.soccerstreams.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/soccerstreams.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143458">Every day, copyright holders send out millions of takedown notices to various services, hoping to protect their works.</p>
<p>Pirate sites are usually at the receiving end of these requests but apparently, they can use it to their advantage as well. </p>
<p>A few days ago the operators of sports streaming site <a href="http://soccerstreams.net/">soccerstreams.net</a> informed the developer platform GitHub that a copy of their code was being made available without permission.</p>
<p>The targeted repository was created by &#8220;mmstart007,&#8221; who allegedly copied it from Bitbucket without permission. The operator of the streaming site wasn&#8217;t happy with this and sent a DMCA takedown notice to GitHub asking to take the infringing code offline.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not an open source work its [a] private project we [are] using on our site and that was a private repo on bitbucket and that guy got unauthorized access to it,&#8221; Soccerstreams <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/8ed1ab7c69f135db54f6d221336b1d7ea1b69022">writes</a>. </p>
<p>The operators stress that the repository &#8220;must be taken down as soon as possible,&#8221; adding the mandatory &#8216;good faith&#8217; statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, or its agent, or the law. I have taken fair use into consideration,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>GitHub responded swiftly to the request and pulled the repository offline. Those who try to access it today see <a href="https://github.com/mmstart007/soccerstreams">the following</a> notification instead.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/2d40dcc5.soccerstreamsdmca.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/soccerstreamsdmca.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="371" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-143457"></center></p>
<p>The people running the Soccer Streams site, which is linked with a similarly named Reddit community, are certainly no strangers to takedown requests themselves. The website and the Reddit community was recently targeted by the Premier League recently for example, which accused it of providing links to <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14186503">copyrighted streams</a>.</p>
<p>While soccerstreams.net regularly links to unauthorized streams and is seen as a pirate site by rightsholders, the site doesn&#8217;t believe that it&#8217;s doing anything wrong. </p>
<p>It has a dedicated <a href="https://soccerstreams.net/dmca">DMCA page</a> on its site stating that all streams are submitted by its users and that they cannot be held liable for any infringements. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s a bit unusual for sites and tools with a &#8220;pirate&#8221; stigma to issue takedown requests, it&#8217;s not unique. Just a few weeks ago one of the popular Sickrage forks was removed from GitHub, following a <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/28e5cf59bd7000c8ddecb2597294aadb67596c66/2017/2017-07-17-SiCKRAGE.md">complaint</a> from another fork. </p>
<p>This episode caused a bit of a stir, but the owner of the targeted Sickrage repository eventually managed to get the project <a href="https://sickrage.github.io/">restored</a> after a successful <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/8b9a875b250cfac888c41ee1020ce73bb2151851/2017/2017-07-21-SickRage-CounterNotice.md">counter-notice</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143215
title: How Much Does ‘Free’ Premier League Piracy Cost These Days?
uri: How-Much-Does-Free-Premier-League-Piracy-Cost-These-Days
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/32v_vvdhLS0/
content:
<p><a href="media/43cda600.premierleague.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/premierleague.jpg"><img src="media/7be95e09.premierleague.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/premierleague.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116272"></a>Right now, the English Premier League is engaged in perhaps the most aggressively innovative anti-piracy operation the Internet has ever seen. After obtaining a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-wins-new-stream-blocking-injunction-to-fight-piracy-170727/">new High Court order</a>, it now has the ability to block &#8216;pirate&#8217; streams of matches, in real-time, with no immediate legal oversight.</p>
<p>If the Premier League believes a server is streaming one of its matches, it can ask ISPs in the UK to block it, immediately. That&#8217;s unprecedented anywhere on the planet.</p>
<p>As previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-premier-league-blocking-disrupts-pirate-iptv-providers-170814/">reported</a>, this campaign caused a lot of problems for people trying to access free and premium streams at the start of the season. Many IPTV services were blocked in the UK within minutes of matches starting, with free streams also dropping like flies. According to information obtained by TF, more than 600 illicit streams were blocked during that weekend.</p>
<p>While some IPTV providers and free streams continued without problems, it seems likely that it&#8217;s only a matter of time before the EPL begins to pick off more and more suppliers. To be clear, the EPL isn&#8217;t taking services or streams down, it&#8217;s only blocking them, which means that people using circumvention technologies like VPNs can get around the problem.</p>
<p>However, this raises the big issue again &#8211; that of continuously increasing costs. While piracy is often painted as free, it is not, and as setups get fancier, costs increase too.</p>
<p>Below, we take a very general view of a handful of the many &#8216;pirate&#8217; configurations currently available, to work out how much &#8216;free&#8217; piracy costs these days. The list is not comprehensive by any means (and excludes more obscure methods such as streaming torrents, which are always free and rarely blocked), but it gives an idea of costs and how the balance of power might eventually tip.</p>
<p><strong>Basic beginner setup</strong></p>
<p>On a base level, people who pirate online need at least some equipment. That could be an Android smartphone and easily installed free software such as Mobdro or Kodi. An Internet connection is a necessity and if the EPL blocks those all important streams, a VPN provider is required to circumvent the bans.</p>
<p>Assuming people already have a phone and the Internet, a VPN can be bought for less than £5 per month. This basic setup is certainly cheap but overall it&#8217;s an entry level experience that provides quality equal to the effort and money expended. </p>
<p><em>Equipment: Phone, tablet, PC<br>
Comms: Fast Internet connection, decent VPN provider<br>
Overal performance: Low quality, unpredictable, often unreliable<br>
Cost: £5pm approx for VPN, plus Internet costs</em></p>
<p><strong>Big screen, basic</strong></p>
<p>For those who like their matches on the big screen, stepping up the chain costs more money. People need a TV with an HDMI input and a fast Internet connection as a minimum, alongside some kind of set-top device to run the necessary software.</p>
<p>Android devices are the most popular and are roughly split into two groups &#8211; the small standalone box type and the plug-in &#8216;stick&#8217; variant such as Amazon&#8217;s Firestick.</p>
<p><center><b>A cheap Android set-top box</b><a href="media/6ba5f758.Android-Box.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Android-Box.png"><img src="media/b57c5448.Android-Box.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Android-Box.png" alt="" width="650" height="430" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143296"></a></center></p>
<p>These cost upwards of £30 to £40 but the software to install on them is free. Like the phone, Mobdro is an option, but most people look to a Kodi setup with third-party addons. That said, all streams received on these setups are now vulnerable to EPL blocking so in the long-term, users will need to run a paid VPN.</p>
<p>The problem here is that some devices (including the 1st gen Firestick) aren&#8217;t ideal for running a VPN on top of a stream, so people will need to dump their old device and buy something more capable. That could cost another £30 to £40 and more, depending on requirements.</p>
<p>Importantly, none of this investment guarantees a decent stream &#8211; that&#8217;s down to what&#8217;s available on the day &#8211; but invariably the quality is low and/or intermittent, at best.</p>
<p><em>Equipment: TV, decent Android set-top box or equivalent<br>
Comms: Fast Internet connection, decent VPN provider<br>
Overall performance: Low to acceptable quality, unpredictable, often unreliable<br>
Cost: £30 to £50 for set-top box, £5pm approx for VPN, plus Internet</em></p>
<p><strong>Premium IPTV &#8211; PC or Android based</strong></p>
<p>At this point, premium IPTV services come into play. People have a choice of spending varying amounts of money, depending on the quality of experience they require. </p>
<p>First of all, a monthly IPTV subscription with an established provider that isn&#8217;t going to disappear overnight is required, which can be a challenge to find in itself. We&#8217;re not here to review or recommend services but needless to say, like official TV packages they come in different flavors to suit varying wallet sizes. Some stick around, many don&#8217;t.</p>
<p>A decent one with a Sky-like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_program_guide">EPG</a> costs between £7 and £15 per month, depending on the quality and depth of streams, and how far in front users are prepared to commit.</p>
<p><center><b>Fairly typical IPTV with EPG (VOD shown)</b><a href="media/5d36a7f6.IPTV-4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/IPTV-4.png"><img src="media/d05de33b.IPTV-4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/IPTV-4.png" alt="" width="600" height="345" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-131256"></a></center></p>
<p>Paying for a year in advance tends to yield better prices but with providers regularly disappearing and faltering in their service levels, people are often reluctant to do so. That said, some providers experience few problems so it&#8217;s a bit like gambling &#8211; research can improve the odds but there&#8217;s never a guarantee.</p>
<p>However, even when a provider, price, and payment period is decided upon, the process of paying for an IPTV service can be less than straightforward.</p>
<p>While some providers are happy to accept PayPal, many will only deal in credit cards, bitcoin, or other obscure payment methods. That sets up more barriers to entry that might deter the less determined customer. And, if time is indeed money, fussing around with new payment processors can be pricey, at least to begin with.</p>
<p>Once subscribed though, watching these streams is pretty straightforward. On a base level, people can use a phone, tablet, or set-top device to receive them, using software such as Perfect Player IPTV, for example. Currently available in free (ad supported) and premium (£2) variants, this software can be setup in a few clicks and will provide a decent user experience, complete with EPG.</p>
<p><center><b>Perfect Player IPTV</b><a href="media/71783a22.iptv-perfect-player.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv-perfect-player.png"><img src="media/f02f7766.iptv-perfect-player.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv-perfect-player.png" alt="" width="650" height="367" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143297"></a></center></p>
<p>Those wanting to go down the PC route have more options but by far the most popular is receiving IPTV via a Kodi setup. For the complete novice, it&#8217;s not always easy to setup but some IPTV providers supply their own free addons, which streamline the process massively. These can also be used on Android-based Kodi setups, of course.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, if the EPL blocks the provider, a VPN is still going to be needed to access the IPTV service.</p>
<p><center><b>An Android tablet running Kodi</b><a href="media/ffca3b8c.kodi-tablet.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-tablet.png"><img src="media/9f2334ca.kodi-tablet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-tablet.png" alt="" width="650" height="363" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143298"></a></center></p>
<p>So, even if we ignore the cost of the PC and Internet connection, users could still find themselves paying between £10 and £20 per month for an IPTV service and a decent VPN. While more channels than simply football will be available from most providers, this is getting dangerously close to the £18 Sky are asking for its latest football package.</p>
<p><em>Equipment: TV, PC, or decent Android set-top box or equivalent<br>
Comms: Fast Internet connection, IPTV subscription, decent VPN provider<br>
Overal performance: High quality, mostly reliable, user-friendly (once setup)<br>
Cost: PC or £30/£50 for set-top box, IPTV subscription £7 to £15pm, £5pm approx for VPN, plus Internet, plus time and patience for obscure payment methods.<br>
Note: There are zero refunds when IPTV providers disappoint or disappear</em></p>
<p><strong>Premium IPTV &#8211; Deluxe setup</strong></p>
<p>Moving up to the top of the range, things get even more costly. Those looking to give themselves the full home entertainment-like experience will often move away from the PC and into the living room in front of the TV, armed with a dedicated set-top box. Weapon of choice: the Mag254.</p>
<p>Like Amazon&#8217;s FireStick, PC or Android tablet, the Mag254 is an entirely legal, content agnostic device. However, enter the credentials provided by many illicit IPTV suppliers and users are presented with a slick Sky-like experience, far removed from anything available elsewhere. The device is operated by remote control and integrates seamlessly with any HDMI-capable TV.</p>
<p><center><b>Mag254 IPTV box</b><a href="media/10bec10c.mag-box.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mag-box.png"><img src="media/24a38c96.mag-box.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mag-box.png" alt="" width="650" height="416" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143299"></a></center></p>
<p>Something like this costs around £70 in the UK, plus the cost of a WiFi adaptor on top, if needed. The cost of the IPTV provider needs to be figured in too, plus a VPN subscription if the provider gets blocked by EPL, which is likely. However, in this respect the Mag254 has a problem &#8211; it can&#8217;t run a VPN natively. This means that if streams get blocked and people need to use a VPN, they&#8217;ll need to find an external solution.</p>
<p>Needless to say, this costs more money. People can either do all the necessary research and buy a VPN-capable router/modem that&#8217;s also compatible with their provider (this can stretch to a couple of hundred pounds) or they&#8217;ll need to invest in a small &#8216;travel&#8217; router with VPN client features built in.</p>
<p><center><b>&#8216;Travel&#8217; router (with tablet running Mobdro for scale)</b><a href="media/2a4f4249.micro-router.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/micro-router.png"><img src="media/a552b44a.micro-router.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/micro-router.png" alt="" width="650" height="338" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143300"></a></center></p>
<p>These devices are available on Amazon for around £25 and sit in between the Mag254 (or indeed any other wireless device) and the user&#8217;s own regular router. Once the details of the VPN subscription are entered into the router, all traffic passing through is encrypted and will tunnel through web blocking measures. They usually solve the problem (ymmv) but of course, this is another cost.</p>
<p><em>Equipment: Mag254 or similar, with WiFi<br>
Comms: Fast Internet connection, IPTV subscription, decent VPN provider<br>
Overall performance: High quality, mostly reliable, very user-friendly<br>
Cost: Mag254 around £75 with WiFi, IPTV subscription £7 to £15pm, £5pm for VPN (plus £25 for mini router), plus Internet, plus patience for obscure payment methods.<br>
Note: There are zero refunds when IPTV providers disappoint or disappear</em></p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>On the whole, people who want a reliable and high-quality Premier League streaming experience cannot get one for free, no matter where they source the content. There are many costs involved, some of which cannot be avoided.</p>
<p>If people aren&#8217;t screwing around with annoying and unreliable Kodi streams, they&#8217;ll be paying for an IPTV provider, VPN and other equipment. Or, if they want an easy life, they&#8217;ll be paying Sky, BT or Virgin Media. That might sound harsh to many pirates but it&#8217;s the only truly reliable solution.</p>
<p>However, for those looking for something that&#8217;s merely adequate, costs drop significantly. Indeed, if people don&#8217;t mind the hassle of wondering whether a sub-VHS quality stream will appear before the big match and stay on throughout, it can all be done on a shoestring.</p>
<p>But perhaps the most important thing to note in respect of costs is the recent changes to the pricing of Premier League content in the UK. As mentioned earlier, Sky now delivers a sports package for £18pm, which sounds like the best deal offered to football fans in recent years. It will be tempting for sure and has all the hallmarks of a price point carefully calculated by Sky.</p>
<p>The big question is whether it will be low enough to tip significant numbers of people away from piracy. The reality is that if another couple of thousand streams get hit hard again this weekend &#8211; and the next &#8211; and the next &#8211; many pirating fans will be watching the season drift away for yet another month, unviewed. That&#8217;s got to be frustrating.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that high-quality streaming piracy is becoming a little bit pricey just for football so if it becomes unreliable too &#8211; and that&#8217;s the Premier League&#8217;s goal &#8211; the balance of power could tip. At this point, the EPL will need to treat its new customers with respect, in order to keep them feeling both entertained and unexploited.</p>
<p>Fail on those counts &#8211; especially the latter &#8211; and the cycle will start again.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143815
title: Director of Kim Dotcom Documentary Speaks Out on Piracy
uri: Director-of-Kim-Dotcom-Documentary-Speaks-Out-on-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LpbotEobrdk/
content:
<p><img src="media/9f4c8914.kimcaught.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kimcaught.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143586">When you make a documentary about Kim Dotcom, someone who&#8217;s caught up in one of the largest criminal copyright infringement cases in history, the piracy issue is unavoidable.</p>
<p>And indeed, the topic is discussed in depth in &#8220;<a href="http://kimdotcom.film/">Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web</a>,&#8221; which enjoyed its digital release early last week. </p>
<p>As happens with most digital releases, a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirates-leak-copy-of-kim-dotcom-documentary-online-170824/">pirated copy soon followed</a>. While no filmmaker would actively encourage people not to pay for their work, director Annie Goldson wasn&#8217;t surprised at all when she saw the first unauthorized copies appear online.</p>
<p>The documentary highlights that piracy is in part triggered by lacking availability, so it was a little ironic that the film itself wasn&#8217;t released worldwide on all services. However, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0326139/">Goldson</a> had no direct influence on the distribution process.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was inevitable really. We have tried to adopt a distribution model that we hope will encourage viewers to buy legal copies making it available as widely as possible,&#8221; Goldson informs TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>&#8220;We had sold the rights, so didn’t have complete control over reach or pricing which I think are two critical variables that do impact on the degree of piracy. Although I think our sales agent did make good strides towards a worldwide release.&#8221;</p>
<p>Now that millions of pirates have access to her work for free, it will be interesting to see how this impacts sales. For now, however, there’s still plenty of legitimate interest, with the film now appearing in the iTunes top ten of independent films.</p>
<p>In any case, Goldson doesn&#8217;t subscribe to the ‘one instance of piracy is a lost sale’ theory and notes that views about piracy are sharply polarized. </p>
<p>&#8220;Some claim financial devastation while others argue that infringement leads to ‘buzz,&#8217; that this can generate further sales – so we shall see. At one level, watching this unfold is quite an interesting research exercise into distribution, which ironically is one of the big themes of the film of course,&#8221; Goldson notes.</p>
<p>Piracy overall doesn&#8217;t help the industry forward though, she says, as it hurts the development of better distribution models.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m opposed to copyright infringement and piracy as it muddies the waters when it comes to devising a better model for distribution, one that would nurture and support artists and creatives, those that do the hard yards.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><strong>Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web trailer</strong><br></br></center></center></p>
<div style="position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/M8iTRn8GUWc?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p></center></p>
<p>The director has no issues with copyright enforcement either. Not just to safeguard financial incentives, but also because the author does have moral and ethical rights about how their works are distributed. That said, instead of pouring money into enforcement, it might be better spent on finding a better business model.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales who says [in the documentary] that the problem is primarily with the existing business model. If you make films genuinely available at prices people can afford, at the same time throughout the world, piracy would drop to low levels. </p>
<p>&#8220;I think most people would prefer to access their choice of entertainment legally rather than delving into dark corners of the Internet. I might be wrong of course,&#8221; Goldson adds. </p>
<p>In any case, &#8216;simply&#8217; enforcing piracy into oblivion seems to be an unworkable prospect &#8211; not without massive censorship, or the shutdown of the entire Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;I feel the risk is that anti-piracy efforts will step up and erode important freedoms. Or we have to close down the Internet altogether. After all, the unwieldy beast is a giant copying machine – making copies is what it does well,&#8221; Goldson says.</p>
<p>The problems is that the industry is keeping piracy intact through its own business model. When people can&#8217;t get what they want, when, and where they want it, they often turn to pirate sites. </p>
<p>&#8220;One problem is that the industry has been slow to change and hence we now have generations of viewers who have had to regularly infringe to be part of a global conversation.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do feel if the industry is promoting and advertising works internationally, using globalized communication and social media, then denying viewers from easily accessing works, either through geo-blocking or price points, obviously, digitally-savvy viewers will find them regardless,&#8221; Goldson adds.</p>
<p>And yes, this ironically also applies to her own documentary.</p>
<p>The solution is to continue to improve the legal options. This is easier said than done, as Goldson and her team tried hard, so it won&#8217;t happen overnight. However, universal access for a decent price would seem to be the future.  </p>
<p>Unless the movie industry prefers to shut down the Internet entirely, of course.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>For those who haven&#8217;t seen &#8220;Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web yet,&#8221; the film is available globally on Vimeo OnDemand, and in a lot of territories on iTunes, the PlayStation Store, Amazon, Google Play, and the Microsoft/Xbox Store. In the US there is also Vudu, Fandango Now &#038; Verizon. </p>
<p>If that doesn&#8217;t work, then&#8230; </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143591
title: Pirate Sites and the Dying Art of Customer Service
uri: Pirate-Sites-and-the-Dying-Art-of-Customer-Service
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4umxV4UmHew/
content:
<p><a href="media/13426ea2.crypirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/crypirate.jpg"><img src="media/b9037aa7.crypirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crypirate.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="274" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120440"></a>Consumers of products and services in the West are now more educated than ever before. They often research before making a purchase and view follow-up assistance as part of the package. Indeed, many companies live and die on the levels of customer support they&#8217;re able to offer.</p>
<p>In this ultra-competitive world, we send faulty technology items straight back to the store, cancel our unreliable phone providers, and switch to new suppliers for the sake of a few dollars, pounds or euros per month. But does this demanding environment translate to the &#8216;pirate&#8217; world?</p>
<p>It&#8217;s important to remember that when the first waves of unauthorized platforms appeared after the turn of the century, content on the Internet was firmly established as being &#8216;free&#8217;. When people first fired up KaZaA, LimeWire, or the few fledgling BitTorrent portals, few could believe their luck. Nevertheless, the fact that there was no charge for content was quickly accepted as the standard.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s a position that continues today but for reasons that are not entirely clear, some users of pirate sites treat the availability of such platforms as some kind of right, holding them to the same standards of service that they would their ISP, for example.</p>
<p>One only has to trawl the comments section on The Pirate Bay to see hundreds of examples of people criticizing the quality of uploaded movies, the fact that a software crack doesn&#8217;t work, or that some anonymous uploader failed to deliver the latest album quickly enough. That&#8217;s aside from the continual complaints screamed on various external platforms which bemoan the site&#8217;s downtime record.</p>
<p>For people who recall the sheer joy of finding a working <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pivotal-bittorrent-sites-of-the-decade-suprnova-091230/">Suprnova</a> mirror for a few minutes almost 15 years ago, this attitude is somewhat baffling. Back then, people didn&#8217;t go ballistic when a site went down, they savored the moment when enthusiastic volunteers brought it back up. There was a level of gratefulness that appears somewhat absent today, in a new world where free torrent and streaming sites are suddenly held to the same standards as Comcast or McDonalds.</p>
<p>But while a cultural change among users has definitely taken place over the years, the way sites communicate with their users has taken a hit too. Despite the advent of platforms including Twitter and Facebook, the majority of pirate site operators today have a tendency to leave their users completely in the dark when things go wrong, leading to speculation and concern among grateful and entitled users alike.</p>
<p>So why does The Pirate Bay&#8217;s blog stay completely unattended these days? Why do countless sites let dust gather on Twitter accounts that last made an announcement in 2012? And why don&#8217;t site operators announce scheduled downtime in advance or let people know what&#8217;s going on when the unexpected happens?</p>
<p>&#8220;Honestly? I don&#8217;t have the time anymore. I also care less than I did,&#8221; one site operator told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;11 years of doing this shit is enough to grind anybody down. It&#8217;s something I need to do but not doing it makes no difference either. People complain in any case. Then if you start [informing people] again they&#8217;ll want it always. Not happening.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rather less complimentary was the operator of a large public site. He told us that two decades ago relationships between operators and users were good but have been getting worse ever since.</p>
<p>&#8220;Users of pirate content 20 years ago were highly technical. 10 years ago they were somewhat technical. Right now they are fucking watermelon head puppets. They are plain stupid,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pirate sites don&#8217;t have customers. They have users. The definition of a customer, when related to the web, is a person that actually buys a service. Since pirates sites don&#8217;t sell services (I&#8217;m talking about public ones) they have no customers.&#8221; </p>
<p>Another site operator told us that his motivations for not interacting with users are based on the changing legal environment, which has become steadily and markedly worse, year upon year.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not enjoying being open like before. I used to chat keenly with the users, on the site and IRC [Internet Relay Chat] but i&#8217;m keeping my distance since a long time ago,&#8221; he told us.</p>
<p>&#8220;There have always been risks but now I lock everything down. I&#8217;m not using Facebook in any way personally or for the site and I don&#8217;t need the dramas of Twitter. Everytime you engage on there, problems arise with people wanting a piece of you. Some of the staff use it but I advise the contrary where possible.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interested in where the boundaries lie, we asked a couple of sites whether they should be doing more to keep users informed and if that should be considered a &#8216;customer service&#8217; obligation these days.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is not Netflix and i&#8217;m not the &#8216;have a nice day&#8217; guy from McDonalds,&#8221; one explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;If people want Netflix help then go to Netflix. There&#8217;s two of us here doing everything and I mean everything. We&#8217;re already in a pinch so spending time to answer every retarded question from kids is right out.&#8221;</p>
<p>Our large public site operator agreed, noting that users complain about the most crazy things, including why they don&#8217;t have enough space on a drive to download, why a movie that&#8217;s out in 2020 hasn&#8217;t been uploaded yet, and why can&#8217;t they login &#8211; when they haven&#8217;t even opened an account yet.</p>
<p>While the responses aren&#8217;t really a surprise given the &#8216;free&#8217; nature of the sites and the volume of visitors, things don&#8217;t get any better when moving up (we use the term loosely) to paid &#8216;pirate&#8217; services.</p>
<p>Last week, one streaming platform in particular had an absolute nightmare with what appeared to be technical issues. Nevertheless, some of its users, despite only paying a few pounds per month, demanded their pound of flesh from the struggling service.</p>
<p>One, who raised the topic on Reddit, was advised to ask for his money back for the trouble caused. It raised a couple of eyebrows.</p>
<p>&#8220;Put in a ticket and ask [for a refund], morally they should,&#8221; the user said.</p>
<p>The use of the word &#8220;morally&#8221; didn&#8217;t sit well with some observers, one of which couldn&#8217;t understand how the word could possibly be mentioned in the context of a pirate paying another pirate money, for a pirate service that had broken down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Wait let me get this straight,&#8221; the critic said. &#8220;You want a refund for a gray market service. It&#8217;s like buying drugs off the corner only to find out it&#8217;s parsley. Do you go back to the dealer and demand a refund? You live and you learn bud. [Shaking my head] at people in here talking about it being morally responsible&#8230;too funny.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear when pirate sites started being held to the same standards as regular commercial entities but from anecdotal evidence at least, the problem appears to be getting worse. That being said and from what we&#8217;ve heard, users can stop holding their breath waiting for deluxe customer service &#8211; it&#8217;s not coming anytime soon.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no way to monetize support,&#8221; one admin concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143744
title: Datavalet Wi-Fi Blocks TorrentFreak Over ‘Criminal Hacking Skills’
uri: Datavalet-Wi-Fi-Blocks-TorrentFreak-Over-Criminal-Hacking-Skills
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Q2nQfeWrGlQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">At TorrentFreak we regularly write about website blocking efforts around the globe, usually related to well-known pirate sites. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, our own news site is not immune to access restrictions either. While no court has ordered ISPs to block access to our articles, some are doing this voluntarily. </p>
<p>This is especially true for companies that provide Wi-Fi hotspots, such as <a href="http://datavalet.com/en">Datavalet</a>. This wireless network provider works with various large organizations, including McDonald&#8217;s, Starbucks, and airports, to offer customers free Internet access. </p>
<p>Or rather to a part of the public Internet, we should say. </p>
<p>Over the past several months, we have had several reports from people who are unable to access TorrentFreak on Datavalet&#8217;s network. Users who load our website get an ominous warning instead, suggesting that we run some kind of a criminal hacking operation. </p>
<p>&#8220;Access to TORRENTFREAK.COM is not permitted as it is classified as: CRIMINAL SKILLS / HACKING.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Criminal Skills?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f82714e0.blockedtf.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blockedtf.png" alt="" width="560" height="251" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-143828"></center></p>
<p>Although we see ourselves as skilled writing news in our small niche, which incidentally covers crime and hacking, our own hacking skills are below par. Admittedly, mistakes are easily made but Datavalet&#8217;s blocking efforts are rather persistent.</p>
<p>The same issue was brought to our attention several years ago. At the time, we reached out to Datavalet and a friendly senior network analyst promised that they would look into it.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have forwarded your concerns to the proper resources and as soon as we have an update we will let you know,&#8221; the response was. But a few years later the block is still active, or active again.</p>
<p>Datavalet is just one one the many networks where TorrentFreak is blocked. Often, we are categorized as a file-sharing site, probably due to the word &#8220;torrent&#8221; in our name. This recently happened at the NYC Brooklyn library, for example. </p>
<p>After a reader kindly informed the library that we&#8217;re a news site, we were suddenly transferred from the &#8220;Peer-to-Peer File Sharing&#8221; to the &#8220;Proxy Avoidance&#8221; category.</p>
<p>&#8220;It appears that the website you want to access falls under the category ‘Proxy Avoidance’. These are sites that provide information about how to bypass proxy server features or to gain access to URLs in any way that bypass the proxy server,&#8221; the library explained.</p>
<p>Still blocked of course.</p>
<p>At least we&#8217;re not the only site facing this censorship battle. Datavelet and others regularly engage in overblocking to keep their network and customers safe. For example, Reddit was <a href="https://twitter.com/ErsatzLuc/status/898990304317100032">recently banned</a> because it offered &#8220;nudity,&#8221; which is another no-go area. </p>
<p>Living up to our &#8220;proxy avoidance&#8221; reputation, we have to mention that people who regularly face these type of restrictions may want to invest in a VPN. These are generally quite good at bypassing these type of blockades. If they are not blocked themselves, that is.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144069
title: YouTube-MP3 Settles With RIAA, Site Will Shut Down
uri: YouTube-MP3-Settles-With-RIAA-Site-Will-Shut-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NPPIbziHYPI/
content:
<p><img src="media/34e023fb.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196">With millions of visitors per day, <a href="http://www.youtube-mp3.org/">YouTube-MP3.org</a> is one of the most visited websites on the Internet. </p>
<p>The site allows its visitors to convert YouTube videos to MP3 files, which they can then listen to where and whenever they want. The music industry sees such &#8220;stream ripping&#8221; sites as a serious threat to its revenues, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/stream-ripping-problem-worse-than-pirate-sites-ifpi-says-160913/">worse</a> than traditional pirate sites. </p>
<p>In an attempt to do something about it, a coalition of record labels, represented by the RIAA, took YouTube-MP3 to court last year. </p>
<p>A complaint filed in a California federal court accused the site&#8217;s operator of various types of copyright infringement. In addition, the labels accused the site of circumventing YouTube&#8217;s copying protection mechanism, violating the DMCA.</p>
<p>&#8220;Through the promise of illicit delivery of free music, Defendants have attracted millions of users to the [YouTube-MP3] website, which in turn generates advertising revenues for Defendants,” the labels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-ripping-site-sued-by-ifpi-riaa-and-bpi-160926/">complained</a>.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/1d5b33a3.youtmp3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtmp3.png" alt="" width="540" height="352" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144073"></center></p>
<p>Today, a year later, both parties have settled their differences. While there haven&#8217;t been many updates in the court docket, a recent filing states that both parties have agreed to a settlement. </p>
<p>The details of the deal are not public, but YouTube-MP3 is willing to take all the blame. In a proposed final judgment, both parties ask the court to rule in favor of the labels on all counts of the complaint. In addition, the site&#8217;s owner Philip Matesanz agreed to pay a settlement amount.</p>
<p><center><strong>On all counts</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4c9e7705.allcounts.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/allcounts.png" alt="" width="585" height="244" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144095" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/allcounts.png 585w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/allcounts-500x210.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px"></center></p>
<p>In addition to the order, a proposed injunction will prohibit the site&#8217;s operator from &#8220;knowingly designing, developing, offering, or operating any technology or service that allows or facilitates the practice commonly known as “streamripping,” or any other type of copyright infringement for that matter.</p>
<p>This injunction, which RIAA and YouTube-MP3 both agreed on, also states that the site&#8217;s domain name will be handed over to one of the record labels.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants are ordered to transfer the domain name www.youtube-mp3.org to the Plaintiff identified in, and in accordance with the terms of, the confidential Settlement Agreement among the parties,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>If the owner refuses to comply, the registrar will be ordered to sign over the domain name, which means that there&#8217;s no escaping.</p>
<p>While the court has yet to sign the proposed judgment and injunction (<a href="media/0d20dc5a.yoump3prop.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/yoump3prop.pdf">pdf</a>), it is clear that YouTube-MP3 has thrown in the towel and will shut down. At the time of writing the site remains online, but this likely won&#8217;t be for long.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144064
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/04/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-04-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_udSZhOkKGU/
content:
<p><img src="media/a1b3b674.hitmansbo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hitmansbo.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143720">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard 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-082817/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Afusxc2SM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz-KBBfAAo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1469304/">Baywatch</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1469304/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKOgnaf0BU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/?">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duGqrYw4usE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4695012/">It Comes At Night</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4695012/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-0hcF97wy0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">Spider-Man: Homecoming</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4536768/">The Osiris Child</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4536768/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVB7dmbG2VY">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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144061
title: Chinese Man Jailed For Nine Months For Selling VPN Software
uri: Chinese-Man-Jailed-For-Nine-Months-For-Selling-VPN-Software
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kJSygWMsX9I/
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>Back in January, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-ban-unauthorized-vpn-services-in-internet-crackdown-170123/">announced</a> that due to Internet technologies and services expanding in a “disorderly” fashion, regulation would be needed to restore order.</p>
<p>The government said that it would take measures to “strengthen network information security management&#8221; and would embark on a “nationwide Internet network access services clean-up.”</p>
<p>One of the initial targets was reported as censorship-busting VPNs, which allow citizens to evade the so-called Great Firewall of China. Operating such a service without a corresponding telecommunications business license would constitute an offense, the government said.</p>
<p>The news was met with hostility, with media and citizens alike bemoaning Chinese censorship. Then early July, a further report suggested that the government would go a step further by ordering ISPs to block VPNs altogether. This elicited an immediate response from local authorities, who quickly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-denies-user-vpn-crackdown-blames-false-foreign-media-reports-170713/">denied the reports</a>, blaming &#8220;foreign media&#8221; for false reporting.</p>
<p>But it was clear something was amiss in China. Later that month, it was revealed that Apple had <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/apple-bans-vpns-from-app-store-in-china-170729/">banned VPN software</a> and services from its app store.</p>
<p>“We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines,” Apple informed developers.</p>
<p>With an effort clearly underway to target VPNs, news today from China suggests that the government is indeed determined to tackle the anti-censorship threat presented by such tools. According to local media, Chinese man Deng Mouwei who ran a small website through which he sold VPN software, has been sentenced to prison.</p>
<p>The 26-year-old, from the city of Dongguan in the Guangdong province, was first arrested in October 2016 after setting up a website to sell VPNs. Just two products were on offer but this was enough to spring authorities into action.</p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.ajxxgk.jcy.cn/html/20170419/2/5261188.html?from=groupmessage&#038;isappinstalled=0">prosecution notice</a>, published by Chinese publication <a href="http://www.whatsonweibo.com/chinese-man-sentenced-prison-selling-vpn-software/">Whatsonweibo</a>, reveals the university educated man was arrested &#8220;on suspicion of providing tools for illegal control of a computer information system.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s alleged that the man used several phrases to market the VPNs including &#8220;VPN over the wall&#8221; and &#8220;Shadow shuttle cloud&#8221;. The business wasn&#8217;t particularly profitable though, generating just 13957 yuan ($2,133) since October 2015.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court held that the defendant Deng Mouwei disregarded state law, by providing tools specifically for the invasion and illegal control of computer information systems procedures,&#8221; the Guandong Province&#8217;s First People&#8217;s Court said in its ruling, handed down earlier this year but only just made public.</p>
<p>&#8220;The circumstances are serious and the behavior violated the &#8216;Criminal Law of the People&#8217;s Republic of China Article 285.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><b>Article 285 &#8211; don&#8217;t interfere with the state</b><a href="media/1b336552.article-285.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/article-285.png"><img src="media/50add46b.article-285.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/article-285.png" alt="" width="669" height="313" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144087"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;The facts of the crime are clear, the evidence is true and sufficient. In accordance with the provisions of Article 172 of the Criminal Procedure Law of the People&#8217;s Republic of China, the defendant shall be sentenced according to law.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under Chinese law, Article 172 references stolen goods, noting that people who &#8220;conceal or act as distributors&#8221; shall be sentenced to not more than three years of fixed-term imprisonment, or fined, depending on circumstances. Where VPNs fit into that isn&#8217;t clear, but things didn&#8217;t end well for the defendant.</p>
<p>For offering tools that enable people to &#8220;visit foreign websites that can not be accessed via a domestic (mainland) IP address,&#8221; Deng Mouwei received a nine-month prison sentence.</p>
<p>News of the sentencing appeared on Chinese social media over the weekend, prompting fear and confusion among local users. While many struggled to see the sense of the prosecution, some expressed fear that people who even use VPN software to evade China&#8217;s Great Firewall could be subjected to prosecution in the future.</p>
<p>Whatever the outcome, it&#8217;s now abundantly clear that China is the midst of a VPN crackdown across the board and is serious about stamping out efforts to bypass its censorship. With the Internet&#8217;s ability to treat censorship as damage and route round it, it&#8217;s a battle that won&#8217;t be easily won.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144067
title: Sci-Hub Faces $4.8 Million Piracy Damages and ISP Blocking
uri: Sci-Hub-Faces-4-8-Million-Piracy-Damages-and-ISP-Blocking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LHWsPSJXCNk/
content:
<p><img src="media/398ad51b.scilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/scilogo.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-118526">In June, a New York District Court handed down a default judgment against <a href="http://sci-hub.io/">Sci-Hub</a>.</p>
<p>The pirate site, operated by Alexandra Elbakyan, was ordered <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-ordered-to-pay-15-million-in-piracy-damages-170623/">to pay $15 million</a> in piracy damages to academic publisher Elsevier. </p>
<p>With the ink on this order barely dry, another publisher soon tagged on with a fresh complaint. The American Chemical Society (ACS), a leading source of academic publications in the field of chemistry, also accused Sci-Hub of mass copyright infringement. </p>
<p>Founded more than 140 years ago, the non-profit organization has around 157,000 members and researchers who publish tens of thousands of articles a year in its peer-reviewed journals. Because many of its works are available for free on Sci-Hub, ACS wants to be compensated.</p>
<p>Sci-Hub was made aware of the legal proceedings but did not appear in court. As a result, a default was entered against the site, and a few days ago ACS specified its demands, which include $4.8 million in piracy damages.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here, ACS seeks a judgment against Sci-Hub in the amount of $4,800,000—which is based on infringement of a representative sample of publications containing the ACS Copyrighted Works multiplied by the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for each publication,&#8221; they write. </p>
<p>The publisher notes that the maximum statutory damages are only requested for 32 of its 9,000 registered works. This still adds up to a significant sum of money, of course, but that is needed as a deterrent, ACS claims.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sci-Hub’s unabashed flouting of U.S. Copyright laws merits a strong deterrent. This Court has awarded a copyright holder maximum statutory damages where the defendant’s actions were &#8216;clearly willful&#8217; and maximum damages were necessary to &#8216;deter similar actors in the future&#8217;,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>Although the deterrent effect may sound plausible in most cases, another $4.8 million in debt is unlikely to worry Sci-Hub&#8217;s owner, as she can&#8217;t pay it off anyway. However, there&#8217;s also a broad injunction on the table that may be more of a concern. </p>
<p>The requested injunction prohibits Sci-Hub&#8217;s owner to continue her work on the site. In addition, it also bars a wide range of other service providers from assisting others to access it. </p>
<p>Specifically, it restrains &#8220;any Internet search engines, web hosting and Internet service providers, domain name registrars, and domain name registries, to cease facilitating access to any or all domain names and websites through which Defendant Sci-Hub engages in unlawful access to [ACS’s works].&#8221;</p>
<p>The above suggests that search engines may have to remove the site from their indexes while ISPs could be required to block their users&#8217; access to the site as well, which goes quite far.</p>
<p>Since Sci-Hub is in default, ACS is likely to get what it wants. However, if the organization intends to enforce the order in full, it&#8217;s likely that some of these third-party services, including Internet providers, will have to spring into action. </p>
<p>While domain name registries are regularly ordered to suspend domains, search engine removals and ISP blocking are not common in the United States. It would, therefore, be no surprise if this case lingers a little while longer.</p>
<p><strong>Update: </strong> Sci-Hub is reportedly shutting down its service in Russia as Alexandra Elbakyan feels that local scientists are running a smear campaign against her.</p>
<p>&#8220;Recently, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences decided to name a parasitic insect in honor of Alexandra,&#8221; a public statement reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;What I consider to be an extreme injustice: if you analyze the situation with scientific publications, the real parasites are scientific publishers, and Sci-Hub, on the contrary, fights for equal access to scientific information and makes a useful case.&#8221; </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of ACS&#8217;s proposed default judgment, obtained by TorrentFreak, is available <a href="media/afa054d3.sciproporder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sciproporder.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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144119
title: Russia Blocks 4,000 Pirate Sites Plus 41,000 Innocent as Collateral Damage
uri: Russia-Blocks-4-000-Pirate-Sites-Plus-41-000-Innocent-as-Collateral-Da
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xhQcpRRW-ho/
content:
<p><a href="media/0702e6e5.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg"><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850"></a>After years of criticism from both international and local rightsholders, in 2013 the Russian government decided to get tough on Internet piracy.</p>
<p>Under new legislation, sites engaged in Internet piracy could find themselves blocked by ISPs, rendering them inaccessible to local citizens and solving the piracy problem. Well, that was the theory, at least.</p>
<p>More than four years on, Russia is still grappling with a huge piracy problem that refuses to go away. It has been blocking thousands of sites at a steady rate, including RuTracker, the country&#8217;s largest torrent platform, but still the problem persists.</p>
<p>Now, a new report produced by <a href="https://rublacklist.net/31658/">Roskomsvoboda</a>, the Center for the Protection of Digital Rights, and the Pirate Party of Russia, reveals a system that has not only failed to reach its stated aims but is also having a negative effect on the broader Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s already been four years since the creation of this &#8216;anti-piracy machine&#8217; in Russia. The first amendments related to the fight against &#8216;piracy&#8217; in the network came into force on August 1, 2013, and since then this mechanism has been twice revised,&#8221; Roskomsvoboda said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;[These include] the emergence of additional responsibilities to restrict access to network resources and increase the number of subjects who are responsible for removing and blocking content. Since that time, several &#8216;purely Russian&#8217; trends in &#8216;anti-piracy&#8217; and trade in rights have also emerged.&#8221;</p>
<p>These revisions, which include the permanent blocking of persistently infringing sites and the planned blocking of mirror sites and anonymizers, have been widely documented. However, the researchers say that they want to shine a light on the effects of blocking procedures and subsequent actions that are causing significant issues for third-parties.</p>
<p>As part of the study, the authors collected data on the cases presented to the Moscow City Court by the most active plaintiffs in anti-piracy actions (mainly TV show distributors and music outfits including Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music). They describe the court process and system overall as lacking.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court does not conduct a &#8216;triple test&#8217; and ignores the position, rights and interests of respondents and third parties. It does not check the availability of illegal information on sites and appeals against decisions of the Moscow City Court do not bring any results,&#8221; the researchers write. </p>
<p>&#8220;Furthermore, the cancellation of the unlimited blocking of a site is simply impossible and in respect of hosting providers and security services, those web services are charged with all the legal costs of the case.&#8221;</p>
<p>The main reason behind this situation is that &#8216;pirate&#8217; site operators rarely (if ever) turn up to defend themselves. If at some point they are found liable for infringement under the Criminal Code, they can be liable for up to six years in prison, hardly an incentive to enter into a copyright process voluntarily. As a result, hosts and other providers act as respondents.</p>
<p>This means that these third-party companies appear as defendants in the majority of cases, a position they find both &#8220;unfair and illogical.&#8221; They&#8217;re also said to be confused about how they are supposed to fulfill the blocking demands placed upon them by the Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;About 90% of court cases take place without the involvement of the site owner, since the requirements are imposed on the hosting provider, who is not responsible for the content of the site,&#8221; the report says. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, hosts and other providers have been ordered to block huge numbers of pirate sites.</p>
<p>According to the researchers, the total has now gone beyond 4,000 domains, but the knock on effect is much more expansive. Due to the legal requirement to block sites by both IP address and other means, third-party sites with shared IP addresses get caught up as collateral damage. The report states that more than 41,000 innocent sites have been blocked as the result of supposedly targeted court orders.</p>
<p>But with collateral damage mounting, the main issue as far as copyright holders are concerned is whether piracy is decreasing as a result. The report draws few conclusions on that front but notes that blocks are a blunt instrument. While they may succeed in stopping some people from accessing &#8216;pirate&#8217; domains, the underlying infringement carries on regardless.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blocks create restrictions only for Internet users who are denied access to sites, but do not lead to the removal of illegal information or prevent intellectual property violations,&#8221; the researchers add.</p>
<p>With no sign of the system being overhauled to tackle the issues raised in the study (<em><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzXDkyCilByUb2xMdzJiR081Umc/view">pdf</a>, Russian</em>), Russia is now set to introduce yet new anti-piracy measures.</p>
<p>As recently reported, new laws requiring search engines to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-will-open-systems-to-prove-piracy-vpn-blocking-170901/">remove listings</a> for ‘pirate’ mirror sites comes into effect October 1. Exactly a month later on November 1, VPNs and anonymization tools <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-bans-unrestricted-vpns-proxies-and-tor-in-russia-170731/">will have to be removed too</a>, if they fail to meet the standards required under state regulation.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144159
title: ‘Game of Thrones Season 7 Pirated Over a Billion Times’
uri: Game-of-Thrones-Season-7-Pirated-Over-a-Billion-Times
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J9_zqqi4OPA/
content:
<p><img src="media/821a106b.got-thrones7-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got-thrones7-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142026">The seventh season of Game of Thrones has brought tears and joy to HBO this summer.</p>
<p>It was the most-viewed season thus far, with record-breaking TV ratings. But on the other hand, HBO and Game of Thrones were plagued by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hackers-leak-more-confidential-game-of-thrones-files-170808/">hacks</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-episode-s07e06-leaks-online-early-170816/">leaks</a>, and piracy, of course. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s hard to measure piracy accurately, streaming in particular, piracy tracking outfit <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> has just released some staggering numbers. According to the company, the latest season was pirated more than a billion times in total. </p>
<p>To put this into perspective, this means that on average each episode was pirated 140 million times, compared to 32 million views through legal channels. </p>
<p>The vast majority of the pirate &#8216;views&#8217; came from streaming services (85%), followed by torrents (9%) and direct downloads (6%). Private torrent trackers are at the bottom with less than one percent.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate sources</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b5df3ceb.GOT-Type-Breakdown_MUSO.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/GOT-Type-Breakdown_MUSO.png" alt="" width="600" height="333" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144177"></center></p>
<p>Andy Chatterley, MUSO’s CEO and Co-Founder, notes that the various leaks may have contributed to these high numbers. This is supported by the finding that the sixth episode, which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-episode-s07e06-leaks-online-early-170816/">leaked several days in advance</a>, was pirated more than the season finale.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s no secret that HBO has been plagued by security breaches throughout the latest season, which has seen some episodes leak before broadcast and added to unlicensed activity,&#8221; Chatterley says. </p>
<p>In addition, the data shows that despite a heavy focus on torrent traffic, unauthorized streaming is a much bigger problem for rightsholders.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to the scale of piracy when it comes to popular shows, these numbers demonstrate that unlicensed streaming can be a far more significant type of piracy than torrent downloads.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although the report shares precise numbers, it&#8217;s probably best to describe them as estimates.</p>
<p>The streaming data MUSO covers is sourced from SimilarWeb, which uses a sample of 200 million ‘devices’ to estimate website traffic. The sample data covers thousands of popular pirate sites and is extrapolated into the totals.</p>
<p>While more than a billion downloads are pretty significant, to say the least, MUSO is not even looking at the full pirate landscape. </p>
<p>For one, Muso&#8217;s streaming data doesn&#8217;t include Chinese traffic, which usually has a very active piracy community. As if that&#8217;s not enough, alternative pirate sources such as fully-loaded Kodi boxes, are not included either.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear though, which doesn&#8217;t really come as a surprise, that Game of Thrones piracy overall is still very significant. The torrent numbers may not have grown in recent years, but streaming seems to be making up for it and probably adding a few dozen million extra, give or take.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>Total Global Downloads and Streams by Episode</strong></p>
<p>Episode one: 187,427,575<br>
Episode two: 123,901,209<br>
Episode three: 116,027,851<br>
Episode four: 121,719,868<br>
Episode five: 151,569,560<br>
Episode six: 184,913,279<br>
Episode seven (as of 3rd Sept): 143,393,804<br>
All Episode Bundles &#8211; Season 7: 834,522<br>
TOTAL (as of 3rd September) = 	1,029,787,668</p>
<p><strong>Total Breakdown By Type</strong></p>
<p>Streaming: 84.66%<br>
Torrent: 9.12%<br>
Download: 5.59%<br>
Private Torrent: 0.63%</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144151
title: Mandatory Piracy Filters Could Breach Human Rights, EU Members Warn
uri: Mandatory-Piracy-Filters-Could-Breach-Human-Rights-EU-Members-Warn
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6tPpbn5X-wE/
content:
<p><img src="media/23e20654.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png" alt="" width="222" height="146" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79290">Last year, the European Commission published its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-proposes-mandatory-piracy-filters-for-online-services-160914/">long-awaited proposal</a> to modernize EU copyright law. Among other things, it will require online services to do more to fight piracy.</p>
<p>Specifically, Article 13 of the proposed Copyright Directive requires online services to monitor and filter pirated content, in collaboration with rightsholders. </p>
<p>This means that online services, which deal with large volumes of user-uploaded content, must use fingerprinting or other detection mechanisms to block copyright infringing files, similar to YouTube&#8217;s Content-ID system.</p>
<p>The Commission stressed that the changes are needed to support copyright holders. However, many <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mandatory-piracy-filters-may-violate-eu-law-scholars-warn-161203/">legal scholars</a>, <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/03/eu-internet-advocates-launch-campaign-stop-eus-dangerous-copyright-filtering">digital activists</a>, and members of the public worry that they will violate the rights of regular Internet users.</p>
<p>They believe that mandatory filters ignore established case law and human rights. This critique is now, in part, backed up by questions from several EU member states. </p>
<p>Authorities in Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Ireland and the Netherlands have recently sent a series of questions to the Council Legal Service, requesting clarification on several issues.</p>
<p>The <a href="media/96b9dfbf.pyright-directive-ms-questions-council-legal-service-25-7-17.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright-directive-ms-questions-council-legal-service-25-7-17.pdf">document (pdf)</a>, published by <a href="http://www.statewatch.org/news/2017/sep/eu-copyright-ms-questions.htm">Statewatch</a>, asks whether a mandatory piracy filter is proportionate and compatible with existing law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Would the standalone measure/ obligation as currently proposed under Article 13 be compatible with the Charter of Human Rights [&#8230;] in the light of the jurisprudence of the CJEU that aims to secure a fair balance in the application of competing fundamental rights?</p>
<p>&#8220;Are the proposed measures justified and proportionate?&#8221; the member states add.</p>
<p>Specifically, the member states suggest that the filters may hinder people&#8217;s right to freedom of expression and information, the right to protection of personal data, and freedom to conduct a business.</p>
<p>One of the problems is that such filters work by monitoring the communications of all citizens uploading to platforms, which would go against existing EU law. In the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-bans-anti-piracy-filters-on-hosting-services-120216/">Sabam v Netlog case</a>, the European Court of Justice ruled that hosting sites can’t be forced to filter copyrighted content, as this would violate the privacy of users and hinder freedom of information.</p>
<p>The letter, which was sent on July 25, also stresses that important copyright exceptions, such as parody and the right to quote, are not taken into account. </p>
<p>&#8220;The [Commission&#8217;s] proposal does not provide for appropriate measures that would enable these users to actually benefit from public interest copyright exceptions. It is important to point out that certain exceptions to copyright, such as e.g. parody or the quotation right are the embodiment in copyright of fundamental rights other than the right to property.&#8221; </p>
<p>This is not the first time that member states have responded critically to the proposal. Tweakers <a href="https://tweakers.net/nieuws/129231/nederland-en-belgie-bekritiseren-eu-verplichting-voor-filteren-geuploade-content.html">notes</a> that the Dutch Government previously stressed that there should be a better balance between the rights of consumers and copyright holders.</p>
<p>The recent letter from the six member states backs up many of the questions that have been asked by activists, scholars and members of the public, including the &#8220;<a href="https://savethememe.net/en">Save the Meme</a>&#8221; campaign. These critics hope that the proposal will be changed substantially, ideally without mandatory piracy filters, when it&#8217;s voted on in the EU Parliament.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144183
title: Perfect 10 Takes Giganews to Supreme Court, Says It’s Worse Than Megaupload
uri: Perfect-10-Takes-Giganews-to-Supreme-Court-Says-It-s-Worse-Than-Meg
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9QGFr40awfQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/93aed424.giganews.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/giganews.png"><img src="media/85e3d070.giganews.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/giganews.png" alt="" width="267" height="149" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96972"></a>Adult publisher Perfect 10 has developed a reputation for being a serial copyright litigant.</p>
<p>Over the years the company targeted a number of high-profile defendants, including Google, Amazon, Mastercard, and Visa. Around two dozen of Perfect 10’s lawsuits ended in cash settlements and defaults, in the publisher&#8217;s favor.</p>
<p>Perhaps buoyed by this success, the company went after Usenet provider Giganews but instead of a company willing to roll over, Perfect 10 found a highly defensive and indeed aggressive opponent. The initial copyright case filed by Perfect 10 alleged that Giganews effectively sold access to Perfect 10 content but things went badly for the publisher.</p>
<p>In November 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found that Giganews was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/giganews-wins-perfect-10-copyright-battle-150209/">not liable</a> for the infringing activities of its users. Perfect 10 was ordered to pay Giganews <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/perfect-10-ordered-to-pay-giganews-5-6m-after-failed-copyright-battle-150325/">$5.6m in attorney’s fees and costs</a>. Perfect 10 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/usenet-provider-giganews-wins-landmark-copyright-battle-170124/">lost again</a> at the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.</p>
<p>As a result of these failed actions, Giganews is owned millions by Perfect 10 but the publisher has thus far refused to pay up. That resulted in Giganews <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/usenet-provider-giganews-sues-perfect-10-for-fraud-demands-20m-170712/">filing a $20m lawsuit</a>, accusing Perfect 10 and President Dr. Norman Zada of fraud.</p>
<p>With all this litigation boiling around in the background and Perfect 10 already bankrupt as a result, one might think the story would be near to a conclusion. That doesn&#8217;t seem to be the case. In a fresh announcement, Perfect 10 says it has now appealed its case to the US Supreme Court.</p>
<p>“This is an extraordinarily important case, because for the first time, an appellate court has allowed defendants to copy and sell movies, songs, images, and other copyrighted works, without permission or payment to copyright holders,” says Zada.</p>
<p>“In this particular case, evidence was presented that defendants were copying and selling access to approximately 25,000 terabytes of unlicensed movies, songs, images, software, and magazines.&#8221;</p>
<p>Referencing an Amicus brief previously filed by the RIAA which described Giganews as &#8220;blatant copyright pirates,&#8221; Perfect 10 accuses the Ninth Circuit of allowing Giganews to copy and sell trillions of dollars of other people’s intellectual property &#8220;because their copying and selling was done in an automated fashion using a computer.&#8221;</p>
<p>Noting that &#8220;everything is done via computer&#8221; these days and with an undertone that the ruling encouraged others to infringe, Perfect 10 says there are now 88 companies similar to Giganews which rely on the automation defense to commit infringement &#8211; even involving content owned by people in the US Government.</p>
<p>“These exploiters of other people’s property are fearless. They are copying and selling access to pirated versions of pretty much every movie ever made, including films co-produced by treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin,&#8221; Nada says.</p>
<p>&#8220;You would think the justice department would do something to protect the viability of this nation’s movie and recording studios, as unfettered piracy harms jobs and tax revenues, but they have done nothing.&#8221;</p>
<p>But Zada doesn&#8217;t stop at blaming Usenet services, the California District Court, the Ninth Circuit, and the United States Department of Justice for his problems &#8211; Congress is to blame too.</p>
<p>&#8220;Copyright holders have nowhere to turn other than the Federal courts, whose judges are ridiculously overworked. For years, Congress has failed to provide the Federal courts with adequate funding.  As a result, judges can make mistakes,” he adds.</p>
<p>For Zada, those mistakes are particularly notable, particularly since at least one other super high-profile company was shut down in the most aggressive manner possible for allegedly being involved in less piracy than Giganews.</p>
<p>Pointing to the now-infamous Megaupload case, Perfect 10 notes that the Department of Justice completely shut that operation down, filing charges of criminal copyright infringement against Kim Dotcom and seizing $175 million &#8220;for selling access to movies and songs which they did not own.&#8221;</p>
<p>“Perfect 10 provided evidence that [Giganews] offered more than 200 times as many full length movies as did megaupload.com. But our evidence fell on deaf ears,” Zada complains.</p>
<p>In contrast, Perfect 10 adds, a California District Court found that Giganews had done nothing wrong, allowed it to continue copying and selling access to Perfect 10&#8217;s content, and awarded the Usenet provider $5.63m in attorneys fees.</p>
<p>&#8220;Prior to this case, no court had ever awarded fees to an alleged infringer, unless they were found to either own the copyrights at issue, or established a fair use defense. Neither was the case here,&#8221; Zada adds.</p>
<p>While Perfect 10 has filed a petition with the Supreme Court, the odds of being granted a review are particularly small. Only time will tell how this case will end, but it seems unlikely that the adult publisher will enjoy a happy ending, one in which it doesn&#8217;t have to pay Giganews millions of dollars in attorney&#8217;s fees.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144229
title: Private Torrent Site Legal Battle Heard By Court of Appeal
uri: Private-Torrent-Site-Legal-Battle-Heard-By-Court-of-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fGLXH_GlaAk/
content:
<p><img src="media/14cc0b6b.swepiracy.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swepiracy.jpg" width="180" height="50" class="alignright size-large">Founded way back in 2006, SwePiracy grew to become one of the most famous private torrent sites on the Swedish scene. Needless to say, it also became a target for anti-piracy outfits.</p>
<p>Six years after its debut and following an investigation by anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån (now Rights Alliance), during 2012 police in Sweden and the Netherlands cooperated to shut down the site and arrest its operator.</p>
<p>In early 2016, more than four years on, SwePiracy&#8217;s then 25-year-old operator appeared in court to answer charges relating to the unlawful distribution of a sample 27 movies between March 2011 and February 2012. The prosecution demanded several years in prison and nearly $3.13 million (25 million kronor) in damages.</p>
<p>SwePiracy defense lawyer Per E. Samuelsson, who previously took part in The Pirate Bay trial, said the claims against his client were the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-site-founder-faces-outrageous-damages-claim-lawyer-says-160917/">most unreasonable</a> he’d seen in his 35 years as a lawyer. </p>
<p>In October 2016, three weeks after the full trial, the Norrköping District Court handed down its decision. Given some of the big numbers being thrown around, the case seemed to turn out relatively well for the defendant.</p>
<p>While SwePiracy’s former operator was found guilty of copyright infringement, the prosecution’s demands for harsh punishment were largely pushed aside. A jail sentence was switched to probation plus community service, and the millions of dollars demanded in damages were reduced to ‘just’ $148,000, payable to movie outfit Nordisk Film. On top, $45,600 said to have been generated by SwePiracy was confiscated.</p>
<p>Almost immediately both sides announced an appeal, with the defendant demanding a more lenient sentence and the prosecution naturally leaning the other way. This week the case was heard at the Göta Court of Appeal, one of the six appellate courts in the Swedish system.</p>
<p>&#8220;We state that the District Court made an inaccurate assessment of the damages. So the damages claim remains at the same level as before,&#8221; Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Pontén told Sweden&#8217;s <a href="https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.688159/asanisse-swepiracy-25miljoner">IDG</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are two different approaches. We say that you have to pay for the entire license [for content when you infringe]. The District Court looked at how many times the movies were downloaded during the period.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Pontén, the cost of such a license is hypothetical since there are no licenses available for distributing content through entities such as torrent sites, which have no mechanisms for control and no limits on sharing. That appears to have motivated the prosecution to demand a hefty price tag.</p>
<p>In addition to Rights Alliance wanting a better deal for their theoretical license, the official prosecutor also has issues with the amount of money that was confiscated from the platform.</p>
<p>&#8220;The operator has received donations to run the site. I have calculated how much money was received and the sum that the District Court awarded was almost half of my calculations,&#8221; Henrik Rasmusson told IDG.</p>
<p>Only time will tell how the Court of Appeal will rule but it&#8217;s worth noting that the decision could go either way or might even stand as it is now. In any event, this case has dragged on for far too long already and is unlikely to end positively for any of the parties involved.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144333
title: Kodi Declares ‘War’ on Trademark Trolls
uri: Kodi-Declares-War-on-Trademark-Trolls
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/R_P6t8blgk0/
content:
<p><img src="media/8aa05985.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png" alt="" width="212" height="212" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144339">More and more people are starting to use Kodi-powered set-top boxes to stream video content to their TVs.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://kodi.tv/">Kodi</a> itself is a neutral platform, unauthorized add-ons give it a bad name. This is one of the reasons why the Kodi team is actively going after vendors who sell “fully loaded” pirate boxes and YouTubers who misuse their name to promote copyright infringement.</p>
<p>However, these &#8220;pirates&#8221; are not the only intellectual property problem the team is facing; trademark trolls are a serious threat as well. </p>
<p>When XBMC changed its name to Kodi, they noticed that several parties swiftly registered the Kodi trademark around the world, presumably to make money off it. This came as a total surprise to the foundation, which never faced any trademark issues before, and it continues to cause problems today. </p>
<p>The Kodi team has since convinced some of these &#8220;trolls&#8221; to hand over the trademarks, but not all are willing to give in. This is causing problems, particularly in Canada, where the local trademark owner is actively blackmailing hardware vendors and removing content from Amazon, the Kodi team says.</p>
<p>The Canadian trademark is owned by Geoff Gavora, who is no stranger to the XBMC Foundation. Before the trouble started, Gavora had already sent several emails to the Kodi team, expressing how important the software was to his sales. After the trademark registration, however, the friendly tone changed. </p>
<p>&#8220;We had hoped, given the positive nature of his past emails, that perhaps he was doing this for the benefit of the Foundation. We learned, unfortunately, that this was not the case,&#8221; XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen <a href="https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-trademark-trolls-hidden-battle">notes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead, companies like Mygica and our sponsor Minix have been delisted by Gavora on Amazon, so that only Gavora&#8217;s hardware can be sold, unless those companies pay him a fee to stay on the store,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>Gavora is <a href="http://www.tvboxnews.com/canada-kodi-owner-geoff-gavora-launched-a-battle-against-kodi-tv-boxes-from-china/">actively using his trademark</a> to stop the sales of other Kodi based devices in Canada, the XBMC Foundation warns. This means that people who buy a Kodi product in the local Amazon store may end up filling the pocket of the local trademark owner.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now, if you do a search for Kodi on Amazon.ca, there&#8217;s a very real chance that every box you see is giving Gavora money to advertise that they can run what should be the entirely free and open Kodi. Gavora and his company are behaving in true trademark troll fashion,&#8221; Betzen writes.</p>
<p>There are several reasons why the Kodi team is making this problem public now. For one, they want the public to be aware of the situation. At some point, trademark trolls may even try to stop Kodi from distributing the software through their own site, they warn.</p>
<p>However, the foundation is not going to let this happen without a fight. They are ready to deal with the problem head on. Trademark trolls should not be allowed to exploit the Kodi name for financial profit. </p>
<p>&#8220;We want to let the trolls know that we have caught on to this game and will not accept it. We are actively taking the necessary steps to ensure that the Kodi trademark trolls are dealt with appropriately. There is no value proposition in trolling the Kodi name,&#8217; Betzen writes.</p>
<p>If this means that the foundation has to go to court, they are prepared to do so, hoping that the community will have their back.</p>
<p>&#8220;While our goal has always been to avoid going to the court to ensure Kodi remains free in countries where trolls are attempting to get rich off of the Kodi name, we will not back down from protecting the free, open source nature of our software. </p>
<p>&#8220;If that time comes for legal action, we hope to have the community&#8217;s support,&#8221; Betzen concludes. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144264
title: New UK IP Crime Report Reveals Continued Focus on ‘Pirate’ Kodi Boxes
uri: New-UK-IP-Crime-Report-Reveals-Continued-Focus-on-Pirate-Kodi-Bo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/l1jEPpCM7Mo/
content:
<p><a href="media/65280bc5.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg"><img src="media/4f6f21d0.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="140" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80208"></a>The UK&#8217;s Intellectual Property Office has published its annual IP Crime Report, spanning the period 2016 to 2017.</p>
<p>It covers key events in the copyright and trademark arenas and is presented with input from the police and trading standards, plus private entities such as the BPI, Premier League, and Federation Against Copyright Theft, to name a few.</p>
<p>The report begins with an interesting statistic. Despite claims that many millions of UK citizens regularly engage in some kind of infringement, figures from the Ministry of Justice indicate that just 47 people were found guilty of offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act during 2016. That&#8217;s down on the 69 found guilty in the previous year.</p>
<p>Despite this low conviction rate, 15% of all internet users aged 12+ are reported to have consumed at least one item of illegal content between March and May 2017. Figures supplied by the Industry Trust for IP indicate that 19% of adults watch content via various IPTV devices &#8211;  often referred to as set-top, streaming, Android, or Kodi boxes. </p>
<p>&#8220;At its cutting edge IP crime is innovative. It exploits technological loopholes before they become apparent. IP crime involves sophisticated hackers, criminal financial experts, international gangs and service delivery networks. Keeping pace with criminal innovation places a burden on IP crime prevention resources,&#8221; the report notes.</p>
<p>The report covers a broad range of IP crime, from counterfeit sportswear to foodstuffs, but our focus is obviously on Internet-based infringement. Various contributors cover various aspects of online activity as it affects them, including music industry group BPI.</p>
<p>&#8220;The main online piracy threats to the UK recorded music industry at present are from BitTorrent networks, linking/aggregator sites, stream-ripping sites, unauthorized streaming sites and cyberlockers,&#8221; the BPI notes.</p>
<p>The BPI&#8217;s website blocking efforts have been closely reported, with 63 infringing sites blocked to date via various court orders. However, the BPI reports that more than 700 related URLs, IP addresses, and proxy sites/ proxy aggregators have also been rendered inaccessible as part of the same action.</p>
<p>&#8220;Site blocking has proven to be a successful strategy as the longer the blocks are in place, the more effective they are. We have seen traffic to these sites reduce by an average of 70% or more,&#8221; the BPI reports.</p>
<p>While prosecutions against music pirates are a fairly rare event in the UK, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) Specialist Fraud Division highlights that their most significant prosecution of the past 12 months involved a prolific music uploader.</p>
<p>As first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-arrest-prolific-pirate-bay-uploader-150903/">revealed</a> here on TF, Wayne Evans was an uploader not only on KickassTorrents and The Pirate Bay, but also some of his own sites. Known online as OldSkoolScouse, Evans reportedly cost the UK&#8217;s Performing Rights Society more than £1m in a single year. He was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-kickasstorrents-music-uploader-jailed-for-a-year-161216/">sentenced</a> in December 2016 to 12 months in prison.</p>
<p>While Evans has been free for some time already, the CPS places particular emphasis on the importance of the case, &#8220;since it provided sentencing guidance for the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, where before there was no definitive guideline.&#8221;</p>
<p>The CPS says the case was useful on a number of fronts. Despite illegal distribution of content being difficult to investigate and piracy losses proving tricky to quantify, the court found that deterrent sentences are appropriate for the kinds of offenses Evans was accused of.</p>
<p>The CPS notes that various factors affect the severity of such sentences, not least the length of time the unlawful activity has persisted and particularly if it has done so after the service of a cease and desist notice. Other factors include the profit made by defendants and/or the loss caused to copyright holders &#8220;so far as it can accurately be calculated.&#8221;</p>
<p>Importantly, however, the CPS says that beyond issues of personal mitigation and timely guilty pleas, a jail sentence is probably going to be the outcome for others engaging in this kind of activity in future. That&#8217;s something for torrent and streaming site operators and their content uploaders to consider. </p>
<p>&#8220;[U]nless the unlawful activity of this kind is very amateur, minor or short-lived, or in the absence of particularly compelling mitigation or other exceptional circumstances, an immediate custodial sentence is likely to be appropriate in cases of illegal distribution of copyright infringing articles,&#8221; the CPS concludes.</p>
<p>But while a music-related trial provided the highlight of the year for the CPS, the online infringement world is still dominated by the rise of streaming sites and the now omnipresent &#8220;fully-loaded Kodi Box&#8221; &#8211; set-top devices configured to receive copyright-infringing live TV and VOD.</p>
<p>In the IP Crime Report, the Intellectual Property Office references a former US Secretary of Defense to describe the emergence of the threat.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The echoes of Donald Rumsfeld’s famous aphorism concerning ‘known knowns’ and ‘known unknowns’ reverberate across our landscape perhaps more than any other. The certainty we all share is that we must be ready to confront both ‘known unknowns’ and ‘unknown unknowns’,&#8221; the IPO writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not long ago illegal streaming through Kodi Boxes was an ‘unknown’. Now, this technology updates copyright infringement by empowering TV viewers with the technology they need to subvert copyright law at the flick of a remote control.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the set-top box threat has grown in recent times, the report highlights the important legal clarifications that emerged from the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">BREIN v Filmspeler case</a>, which found itself before the European Court of Justice.</p>
<p>As widely reported, the ECJ determined that the selling of piracy-configured devices amounts to a communication to the public, something which renders their sale illegal. However, in a submission by PIPCU, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, box sellers are said to cast a keen eye on the legal situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Organised criminals, especially those in the UK who distribute set-top boxes, are aware of recent developments in the law and routinely exploit loopholes in it,&#8221; PIPCU reports.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given recent judgments on the sale of pre-programmed set-top boxes, it is now unlikely criminals would advertise the devices in a way which is clearly infringing by offering them pre-loaded or ‘fully loaded’ with apps and addons specifically designed to access subscription services for free.&#8221;</p>
<p>With sellers beginning to clean up their advertising, it seems likely that detection will become more difficult than when selling was considered a gray area. While that will present its own issues, PIPCU still sees problems on two fronts &#8211; a lack of clear legislation and a perception of support for &#8216;pirate&#8217; devices among the public.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no specific legislation currently in place for the prosecution of end users or sellers of set-top boxes. Indeed, the general public do not see the usage of these devices as potentially breaking the law,&#8221; the unit reports.</p>
<p>&#8220;PIPCU are currently having to try and ‘shoehorn’ existing legislation to fit the type of criminality being observed, such as conspiracy to defraud (common law) to tackle this problem. Cases are yet to be charged and results will be known by late 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether these prosecutions will be effective remains to be seen, but PIPCU&#8217;s comments suggest an air of caution set to a backdrop of box-sellers&#8217; tendency to adapt to legal challenges.</p>
<p>&#8220;Due to the complexity of these cases it is difficult to substantiate charges under the Fraud Act (2006). PIPCU have convicted one person under the Serious Crime Act (2015) (encouraging or assisting s11 of the Fraud Act). However, this would not be applicable unless the suspect had made obvious attempts to encourage users to use the boxes to watch subscription only content,&#8221; PIPCU notes, adding;</p>
<p>&#8220;The selling community is close knit and adapts constantly to allow itself to operate in the gray area where current legislation is unclear and where they feel they can continue to sell ‘under the radar’.&#8221;</p>
<p>More generally, pirate sites as a whole are still seen as a threat. As reported last month, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-narrative-isnt-about-ethics-anymore-its-about-danger-170812/">current anti-piracy narrative</a> is that pirate sites represent a danger to their users. As a result, efforts are underway to paint torrent and streaming sites as risky places to visit, with users allegedly exposed to malware and other malicious content. The scare strategy is supported by PIPCU.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unlike the purchase of counterfeit physical goods, consumers who buy unlicensed content online are not taking a risk. Faulty copyright doesn’t explode, burn or break. For this reason the message as to why the public should avoid copyright fraud needs to be re-focused.</p>
<p>&#8220;A more concerted attempt to push out a message relating to malware on pirate websites, the clear criminality and the links to organized crime of those behind the sites are crucial if public opinion is to be changed,&#8221; the unit advises.</p>
<p>But while the changing of attitudes is desirable for pro-copyright entities, PIPCU says that winning over the public may not prove to be an easy battle. It was given a small taste of backlash itself, after taking action against the operator of a pirate site.</p>
<p>&#8220;The scale of the problem regarding public opinion of online copyright crime is evidenced by our own experience. After PIPCU executed a warrant against the owner of a streaming website, a tweet about the event (read by 200,000 people) produced a reaction heavily weighted against PIPCU’s legitimate enforcement action,&#8221; PIPCU concludes.</p>
<p>In summary, it seems likely that more effort will be expended during the next 12 months to target the set-top box threat, but there doesn&#8217;t appear to be an abundance of confidence in existing legislation to tackle all but the most egregious offenders. That being said, a line has now been drawn in the sand &#8211; if the public is prepared to respect it. </p>
<p><em>The full IP Crime Report 2016-2017 is available here (<a href="media/48c8b821.IP_Crime_Report_2016_-_2017.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/642324/IP_Crime_Report_2016_-_2017.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144203
title: MPAA: Net Neutrality Rules Should Not Hinder Anti-Piracy Efforts
uri: MPAA-Net-Neutrality-Rules-Should-Not-Hinder-Anti-Piracy-Efforts
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LIW0RzzZ_eg/
content:
<p><img src="media/ff71e480.netneutrality.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/netneutrality.png" alt="" width="250" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-126933">This summer, millions of people <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/net-neutrality-is-not-a-pirates-fight-anymore-170712/">protested</a> the FCC’s plan to repeal the net neutrality rules that were put in place by the former Obama administration.</p>
<p>Well over 22 million comments are listed on the FCC site already and among those we spotted a response from the main movie industry lobby group, the MPAA.</p>
<p>Acting on behalf of six major Hollywood studios, the MPAA is not getting involved in the repeal debate. It instead highlights that, if the FCC maintains any type of network neutrality rules, these shouldn&#8217;t get in the way of its anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>The Hollywood group stresses that despite an increase in legal services, online piracy remains a problem. Through various anti-piracy measures, rightsholders are working hard to combat this threat, which is their right by law. </p>
<p>&#8220;Copyright owners and content providers have a right under the Copyright and Communications acts to combat theft of their content, and the law encourages internet intermediaries to collaborate with content creators to do so,&#8221; the MPAA writes.</p>
<p>Now that the net neutrality rules are facing a possible revision or repeal, the MPAA wants to make it very clear that any future regulation should not get in the way of these anti-piracy efforts. </p>
<p>&#8220;The MPAA therefore asks that any network neutrality rules the FCC maintains or adopts make explicit that such rules do not limit the ability of copyright owners and their licensees to combat copyright infringement,&#8221; the group writes to the FCC.</p>
<p>This means that measures such as website blocking, which could be considered to violate net neutrality as it discriminates against specific traffic, should be allowed. The same is true for other filtering and blocking efforts.</p>
<p>The MPAA&#8217;s position doesn&#8217;t come as a surprise and given the FCC&#8217;s actions in the past, Hollywood has little to worry about. The current net neutrality rules, which were put in place by the Obama administration, specifically <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-net-neutrality-has-a-massive-copyright-loophole-150315/">exclude pirate traffic</a>.</p>
<p>“Nothing in this part prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider of broadband Internet access service to address copyright infringement or other unlawful activity,” the current net neutrality order reads.</p>
<p>“We reiterate that our rules do not alter the copyright laws and are not intended to prohibit or discourage voluntary practices undertaken to address or mitigate the occurrence of copyright infringement,” the FCC previously clarified.</p>
<p>Still, the MPAA is better safe than sorry.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that the MPAA has got involved in net neutrality debates. Behind the scenes the group has been lobbying US lawmakers on this issue <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-lobbies-lawmakers-internet-tax-net-neutrality-141101/">for several years</a>, previously arguing for similar net neutrality exceptions <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-seeks-net-neutrality-exceptions-to-block-pirates-150413/">in Brazil</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-demands-net-neutrality-exceptions-to-tackle-piracy-170502/">India</a>.  </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The MPAA&#8217;s full comments can be found <a href="media/8b913f3a.170830-MPAA-Net-Neutrality-Reply-final.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/170830-MPAA-Net-Neutrality-Reply-final.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144308
title: WordPress Reports Surge in ‘Piracy’ Takedown Notices, Rejects 78%
uri: WordPress-Reports-Surge-in-Piracy-Takedown-Notices-Rejects-78
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bvKGPv1r-3Q/
content:
<p><img src="media/0edc2364.wpwordpress1-e1489656793433.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wpwordpress1-e1489656793433.png" alt="" width="270" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136592">Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress.com blogging platform, receives thousands of takedown requests from rightsholders.</p>
<p>A few days ago the company published its latest <a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/">transparency report</a>, showing that it had processed 9,273 requests during the first half of 2017. </p>
<p>This is more than double the amount it received during the same period last year, which is a significant increase. Looking more closely at the numbers, we see that this jump is solely due to an increase in incomplete and abusive requests.</p>
<p>Of all the DMCA notices received, only 22% resulted in the takedown of allegedly infringing content. This translates to 2,040 legitimate requests, which is less than the 2,342 Automattic received during the same period last year.</p>
<p>This logically means that the number of abusive and incomplete DMCA notices has skyrocketed. And indeed, in its most recent report, 78% of all requests were rejected due to missing information or plain abuse. That&#8217;s much more than the year before when 42% were rejected.</p>
<p><center><strong>Automattic&#8217;s transparency report (first half of 2017)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0ff4549b.wordpress2017-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wordpress2017-1.png" alt="" width="577" height="513" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144317"></center></p>
<p>WordPress prides itself on carefully reviewing the content of each and every takedown notice, to protect its users. This means checking whether a takedown request is properly formatted but also reviewing the legitimacy of the claims.</p>
<p>&#8220;We also may decline to remove content if a notice is abusive. &#8216;Abusive&#8217; notices may be formally complete, but are directed at fair use of content, material that isn’t copyrightable, or content the complaining party misrepresents ownership of a copyright,&#8221; Automattic notes. </p>
<p>During the first half of 2017, a total of 649 takedown requests were categorized as abuse. Some of the most blatant examples go into the &#8220;<a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/hall-of-shame/">Hall of Shame</a>,&#8221; such as a recent case where the Canadian city of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/city-of-abbotsford-enters-wordpress-dmca-hall-of-shame-170506/">Abbotsford tried to censor a parody of its logo</a>, which replaced a pine tree with a turd.</p>
<p>While some abuse cases sound trivial they can have a real impact on website operators, as examples outside of WordPress show. Most recently the operator of Oro Jackson, a community dedicated to the anime series &#8220;One Piece,&#8221; was targeted with <a href="https://orojackson.com/threads/oro-jackson-needs-your-help-to-fight-against-corporate-bullying-by-comeso.43533/">several dubious DMCA requests</a>. </p>
<p>The takedown notices were sent by the German company Comeso and were forwarded through their hosting company Linode. The notices urged the operator to remove various forum threads because they included words of phrases such as &#8220;G&#8217;day&#8221; and &#8220;Reveries of the Moonlight,&#8221; not actual infringing content. </p>
<p><center><strong><strike>G&#8217;day</strike></strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/591de32f.gday.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gday.png" alt="" width="599" height="252" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144362" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/gday.png 599w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/gday-500x210.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px"> </center></p>
<p>Fearing legal repercussions, the operator saw no other option than to censor these seemingly harmless discussions (starting a thread with &#8220;G&#8217;day&#8221;!!), until there&#8217;s a final decision on the counter-notice. They remain offline today.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s understandable that hosting companies have to be strict sometimes, as reviewing copyright claims is not their core business. However, incidents like these show how valuable the skeptical review process of Automattic is. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144299
title: The Things Pirates Do To Hinder Anti-Piracy Investigations
uri: The-Things-Pirates-Do-To-Hinder-Anti-Piracy-Investigations
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4ni2HUhqZ8g/
content:
<p><a href="media/71374742.spongepirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spongepirate.jpg"><img src="media/9231f6fe.spongepirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spongepirate.jpg" alt="" width="170" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-102272"></a>Dedicated Internet pirates dealing in fresh content or operating at any significant scale can be pretty sure that rightsholders and their anti-piracy colleagues are interested in their activities at some level.</p>
<p>With this in mind, most pirates these days are aware of things they can do to enhance their security, with products like VPNs often get discussed on the consumer side.</p>
<p>This week, in a report detailing the challenges social media poses to intellectual property rights, UK anti-piracy outfit Federation Against Copyright Theft published a list of techniques deployed by pirates that hinder their investigations.</p>
<p><strong>Fake/hidden website registration details</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Website registration details are often fake or hidden, which provides no further links to the person controlling the domain and its illegal activities,&#8221; the group reveals.</p>
<p>Protected WHOIS records are nothing new and can sometimes be uncloaked by a determined adversary via court procedures. However, in the early stages of an investigation, open records provide leads that can be extremely useful in building an early picture about who might be involved in the operation of a website.</p>
<p>Having them hidden is a definite plus for pirate site operators, especially when the underlying details are also fake, which is particularly common practice. And, with companies like <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-launches-anonymous-domain-registration-service-170419/">Peter Sunde&#8217;s Njalla</a> entering the market, hiding registrations is easier than ever.</p>
<p><strong>Overseas servers</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Investigating servers located offshore cause some specific problems for FACT’s law-enforcement partners. In order to complete a full investigation into an offshore server, a law-enforcement agency must liaise with its counterpart in the country where the server is located. The difficulties of obtaining evidence from other countries are well known,&#8221; FACT notes.</p>
<p>While FACT no doubt corresponds with entities overseas, the anti-piracy outfit has a history of targeting UK citizens who are reportedly infringing copyright. It regularly involves UK police in its investigations (FACT itself employs former police officers) but jurisdiction is necessarily limited to the UK.</p>
<p>It is possible to get overseas law enforcement entities involved to seize a server, for example, but they have to be convinced of the need to do so by the police, which isn&#8217;t easy and is usually reserved for more serious cases. The bottom line is that by placing a server a long way away from a pirate&#8217;s home territory, things can be made much more difficult for local investigators.</p>
<p><strong>Torrent websites and DMCA compliance</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Some torrent website operators who maintain a high DMCA compliance rate will often use this to try to appease the law, while continuing to provide infringing links,&#8221; FACT says.</p>
<p>This is an interesting one. Under law in both the United States and Europe, service providers are required to remove infringing content from their systems when they are notified of its existence by a rightsholder or its agent. Not doing so can render them liable, if the content is indeed infringing.</p>
<p>What FACT appears to be saying is that sites that comply with the law, by removing infringing content when asked to, become more difficult targets for legal action. It sounds very obvious but the underlying suggestion is that compliance on the surface is used as a protective mechanism. No example sites are mentioned but the strategy has clearly hindered FACT.</p>
<p><strong>Current legislation too vague to remove infringing live sports streams</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Current legislation is insufficient to effectively tackle the issue of websites illegally offering coverage of live sports events. Section 512 (c) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) states that: upon notification of claimed infringement, the service provider should &#8216;respond expeditiously&#8217; to remove or disable access to the copyright-infringing material. Most live sports events are under two hours long, so such non-specific timeframes for required action are inadequate,&#8221; FACT complains.</p>
<p>Since government reports like these can take a long time to prepare, it appears that FACT and its partners may have already found a solution to this particular problem. Major FACT client the Premier League now has a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-wins-new-stream-blocking-injunction-to-fight-piracy-170727/">High Court injunction</a> in place which allows it to block infringing streams on a real-time basis. It doesn&#8217;t remove the content at its source, but it still renders it largely inaccessible in the UK.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, FACT calls for takedowns to be actioned more swiftly, noting that &#8220;the law needs to reflect this narrow timeframe with a specified required response period for websites offering such live feeds.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Camming content directly from cinema screen to the cloud</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Recent advancements in technology have made this a viable option to ‘cammers’ to avoid detection. Attempts to curtail and delete illicitly recorded film footage may become increasingly difficult with the emergence of streaming apps that automatically upload recorded video to cloud services,&#8221; FACT reports.</p>
<p>Over the years, FACT has been involved in numerous operations to hinder those who record movies with cameras in theaters and then upload them to the Internet. Once the perpetrator has exited the theater, FACT has effectively lost the battle, but the possibility that a live upload can now take place is certainly an interesting proposition.</p>
<p>&#8220;While enforcing officers may delete the footage held on the device, the footage has potentially already been stored remotely on a cloud system,&#8221; FACT warns.</p>
<p>Equally, this could also prove a problem for those seeking to secure evidence. With a cloud upload, the person doing the recording could safely delete the footage from the local device. That could be an obstacle to proving that an offense had even been committed when a suspect is confronted in situ.</p>
<p><strong>Virtual currencies</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;There is great potential in virtual currencies for money launderers and illicit traders. Government and law enforcement have raised concerns on how virtual currencies can be sent anonymously, leaving little or no trail for regulators or law-enforcement agencies,&#8221; FACT writes.</p>
<p>For many years, pirates of all kinds have relied on systems like PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa, to shift money around. However, these payment systems are now more difficult to deploy on pirate services and are more easily traced, even when operators manage to squeeze them through the gaps.</p>
<p>The same cannot be said of bitcoin and similar currencies that are gaining in popularity all the time. They are harder to use, of course, but there&#8217;s little doubt accessibility issues will be innovated out of the equation at some point. Once that happens, these currencies will be a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p><em>The UK government&#8217;s Share and Share Alike report, which examines the challenges social media poses to intellectual property rights, can be downloaded here (<a href="media/262f4ba0.Share_and_share_alike_report.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/641461/Share_and_share_alike_report.pdf">pdf</a>) </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144240
title: YouTube Doesn’t Have to Expose IP-Addresses of Movie Pirates, Court Rules
uri: YouTube-Doesn-t-Have-to-Expose-IP-Addresses-of-Movie-Pirates-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/m1DPdpuQjd0/
content:
<p><img src="media/34e023fb.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196">YouTube is known to be a breeding ground for creators. At the same time, however, it&#8217;s also regularly used to share copyrighted material without permission, including full-length films.</p>
<p>If these “pirating” YouTube users are caught they generally get a slap on the wrist by Google, or have their YouTube accounts terminated at worst. Sometimes, however, rightsholders can take things a bit further.</p>
<p>This is what happened in Germany, where a German filmmaker went after three YouTube users. These account holders had uploaded two movies without permission, which were then viewed thousands of times.</p>
<p>Through a local court, the filmmaker tried to obtain the identity of the alleged infringers, presumably to take further action. It demanded that Google and YouTube should share the emails, IP-addresses, and phone numbers that were tied to these accounts.</p>
<p>Initially, this request was turned down by the Frankfurt District Court, but the Higher Regional Court recently ruled that YouTube has to hand over the associated email addresses. The video streaming service is not required to hand over the IP-addresses or phone numbers, however.</p>
<p>The reasoning for this <a href="media/4ce2cfa3.12701-pi_11u07116_google_-_youtube.pdf" data-original-source="http://docs.dpaq.de/12701-pi_11u07116_google_-_youtube.pdf">decision (pdf)</a> is based on Article 101 of the German Copyright Act. The law specifies that a service provider can be ordered to hand over the name and address of an infringer. </p>
<p>The legislation, put in place in 1990, specifically references &#8220;written&#8221; communication and while it doesn&#8217;t mention email, the court argued that email addresses are covered. </p>
<p>The same reasoning doesn&#8217;t apply to IP-addresses. Although they have the term &#8220;address&#8221; in the name, they can&#8217;t generally be used to send a written message to a person, at least not directly.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the case of IP addresses &#8211; despite the word component &#8216;address&#8217;, this is not an &#8216;address&#8217;, since the IP address does not have any communication function, and it serves solely to identify the terminal from which a particular web page is accessed,&#8221; the Court clarifies.</p>
<p><center><strong>Unrelated pirated movies on YouTube</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9b02a46a.youpirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youpirate.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="353" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144261" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/youpirate.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/youpirate-220x130.jpg 220w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"></center></p>
<p>The judgment of the Higher Regional Court is not yet legally binding. Golem <a href="https://www.golem.de/news/e-mail-adresse-reicht-youtube-muss-bei-verstoessen-keine-ip-adressen-herausgeben-1709-129882.html">reports</a> that, due to the importance of the case, the Federal Court of Justice has to review it first. </p>
<p>For the filmmaker, the ruling comes as a disappointment since an email address alone is probably not enough to identify the infringer in question. </p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean that there are no other options. In the United States, it&#8217;s relatively easy to obtain information from copyright infringers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-demands-personal-details-of-pirating-youtube-users-140327/">with a DMCA subpoena</a>, for example.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144220
title: No, Google Drive is Definitely Not The New Pirate Bay
uri: No-Google-Drive-is-Definitely-Not-The-New-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8oVBhuquzuk/
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>Running close to two decades old, the world of true mainstream file-sharing is less of a mystery to the general public than it&#8217;s ever been. </p>
<p>Most people now understand the concept of shifting files from one place to another, and a significant majority will be aware of the opportunities to do so with infringing content.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, this is a major thorn in the side of rightsholders all over the world, who have been scrambling since the turn of the century in a considerable effort to stem the tide. The results of their work have varied, with some sectors hit harder than others.</p>
<p>One area that has taken a bit of a battering recently involves the dominant peer-to-peer platforms reliant on underlying BitTorrent transfers. Several large-scale sites have shut down recently, not least <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-kickasstorrents-shutdown-one-year-later-170720/">KickassTorrents</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrentz-shut-down-a-year-ago-but-the-name-lives-on-170805/">Torrentz</a>, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/extratorrent-shuts-down-for-good-170517/">ExtraTorrent</a>, raising questions of what bad news may arrive next for inhabitants of Torrent Land.</p>
<p>Of course, like any other Internet-related activity, sharing has continued to evolve over the years, with streaming and cloud-hosting now a major hit with consumers. In the main, sites which skirt the borders of legality have been the major hosting and streaming players over the years, but more recently it&#8217;s become clear that even the most legitimate companies can become unwittingly involved in the piracy scene.</p>
<p>As reported here on TF back <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-video-streaming-sites-exploit-googles-servers-140417/">in 2014</a> and again several times this year (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/porn-pirate-sites-use-backdoor-to-host-videos-on-youtube-170114/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-has-a-hard-time-keeping-streaming-pirates-at-bay-170527/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spammers-populate-google-maps-with-pirate-links-170422/">3</a>), cloud-hosting services operated by Google, including Google Drive, are being used to store and distribute pirate content.</p>
<p>That news was echoed again this week, with a <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/internet/features/creative-ways-pirates-use-google-drive-google-maps-to-torrent-movies-1745774">report</a> on Gadgets360 reiterating that Google Drive is still being used for movie piracy. What followed were a string of follow up reports, some of which declared Google&#8217;s service to be &#8216;The New Pirate Bay.&#8217;</p>
<p>No. Just no.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s always tempting for publications to squeeze a reference to The Pirate Bay into a piracy article due to the site&#8217;s popularity, it&#8217;s particularly out of place in this comparison. In no way, shape, or form can a centralized store of data like Google Drive ever replace the underlying technology of sites like The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>While the casual pirate might love the idea of streaming a movie with a couple of clicks to a browser of his or her choice, the weakness of the cloud system cannot be understated. To begin with, anything hosted by Google is vulnerable to immediate takedown on demand, usually within a matter of hours.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google Drive has a variety of piracy counter-measures in place,&#8221; a spokesperson <a href="http://mashable.com/2017/09/05/google-drive-piracy-torrenting-files/">told</a> Mashable this week, &#8220;and we are continuously working to improve our protections to prevent piracy across all of our products.&#8221;</p>
<p>When will we ever hear anything like that from The Pirate Bay? Answer: When hell freezes over. But it&#8217;s not just compliance with takedown requests that make Google Drive-hosted files vulnerable.</p>
<p>At the point Google Drive responds to a takedown request, it takes down the actual file. On the other hand, even if Pirate Bay responded to notices (which it doesn&#8217;t), it would be unable to do anything about the sharing going on underneath. Removing a torrent file or magnet link from TPB does nothing to negatively affect the decentralized swarm of people sharing files among themselves. Those files stay intact and sharing continues, no matter what happens to the links above.</p>
<p>Importantly, people sharing using BitTorrent do so without any need for central servers &#8211; the whole process is decentralized as long as a user can lay his or her hands on a torrent file or magnet link. Those using Google Drive, however, rely on a totally centralized system, where not only is Google king, but it can and will stop the entire party after receiving a few lines of text from a rightsholder.</p>
<p>There is a very good reason why sites like The Pirate Bay have been around for close to 15 years while platforms such as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/">Megaupload</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hotfile-shuts-down-and-takes-user-files-with-it-131204/">Hotfile</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-icon-rapidshare-shuts-150210/">Rapidshare</a>, and similar platforms have all met their makers. File-hosting platforms are expensive-to-run warehouses full of files, each of which brings direct liability for their hosts, once they&#8217;re made aware that those files are infringing. These days the choice is clear &#8211; take the files down or get brought down, it&#8217;s as simple as that.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay, on the other hand, is nothing more than a treasure map (albeit a valuable one) that points the way to content spread all around the globe in the most decentralized way possible. There are no files to delete, no content to disappear. Comparing a vulnerable Google Drive to this kind of robust system couldn&#8217;t be further from the mark.</p>
<p>That being said, this is the way things are going. The cloud, it seems, is here to stay in all its forms. Everyone has access to it and uploading content is easier &#8211; much easier &#8211; than uploading it to a BitTorrent network. A Google Drive upload is simplicity itself for anyone with a mouse and a file; the same cannot be said about The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>For this reason alone, platforms like Google Drive and the many dozens of others offering a similar service will continue to become havens for pirated content, until the next big round of legislative change. At the moment, each piece of content has to be removed individually but in the future, it&#8217;s possible that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mandatory-piracy-filters-could-breach-human-rights-eu-members-170906/">pre-emptive filters</a> will kill uploads of pirated content before they see the light of day.</p>
<p>When this comes to pass, millions of people will understand why Google Drive, with its bots checking every file upload for alleged infringement, is not The Pirate Bay. At this point, if people have left it too long, it might be too late to reinvigorate BitTorrent networks to their former glory.</p>
<p>People will try to rebuild them, of course, but realizing why they shouldn&#8217;t have been left behind at all is probably the best protection.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143243
title: Demonoid Hopes to Return to Its Former Glory
uri: Demonoid-Hopes-to-Return-to-Its-Former-Glory
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/upi-tIpUHb0/
content:
<p><img src="media/a6e16bbf.demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144142"><a href="https://www.demonoid.pw">Demonoid</a> has been around for well over a decade but the site is not really known for having a stable presence. </p>
<p>Quite the opposite, the torrent tracker has a ‘habit’ of going offline for weeks or even months on end, only to reappear as if nothing ever happened.</p>
<p>Earlier this year the site made another one if its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-returns-two-months-downtime-170320/">trademark comebacks</a> and it has been sailing relatively smoothly since then. Interestingly, the site is once again under the wings of a familiar face, its original founder Deimos. </p>
<p>Deimos decided to take the lead again after some internal struggles. “I gave control to the wrong guys while the problems started, but it’s time to control stuff again,” Deimos told us earlier.</p>
<p>Since the return a few months back, the site&#8217;s main focus has been on rebuilding the community and improving the site. Some may have already noticed the new logo, but more changes are coming, both on the front and backend.</p>
<p>&#8220;The backend development is going a bit slow, it&#8217;s a big change that will allow the server to run off a bunch of small servers all over the world,&#8221; Deimos informs TorrentFreak.  </p>
<p>&#8220;For the frontend, we&#8217;re working on new features including a karma system, integrated forums, buddy list, etc. That part is faster to build once you have everything in the back working,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p><center><strong>Demonoid&#8217;s new logo</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a7be9a58.logo-final-e1504614884878.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/logo-final-e1504614884878.png" alt="" width="600" height="209" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144140"></center></p>
<p>Deimos has been on and off the site a few times, but he and a few others most recently returned to get it back on track and increase its popularity. While the site has around eight million registered users, many of these have moved elsewhere in recent years. </p>
<p>&#8220;I want to to see the community we had back. Don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;s possible but that&#8217;s my aim,&#8221; Deimos says, admitting that he may not stay on forever.</p>
<p>Many torrent sites have come and gone in recent years, but they are still here today.  Looking back, Demonoid has come a long way. What many people don&#8217;t know, is that it was originally a place to share demo tapes of metal bands. Hence the name DEMOnoid.</p>
<p>&#8220;It originally started as a modified PHP based forum that allowed posting of .torrent files. At some point, we started using a full torrent indexing script written in PHP that included a tracker, and started building the first version of the indexing site it is today,&#8221; Deimos says.</p>
<p>The site required users to have an invite to sign up, making it a semi-private tracker. This wasn&#8217;t done to encourage people to maintain a certain ratio, as some other trackers do, but mostly to keep unsavory characters away.</p>
<p>&#8220;The invitation system was implemented to keep spammers, trolls and the like out,&#8221; Deimos says. &#8220;Originally it was due to some very problematic people who happened to have a death metal band, back in the DEMOnoid days. </p>
<p>&#8220;We try to keep it open as often as possible but when we start to get these kinds of issues, we close it,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>In recent years, the site has had quite a few setbacks, but Deimos doesn&#8217;t want to dwell on these in public. Instead, he prefers to focus on the future. While torrent sites are no longer at the center of media distribution, there will always be a place for dedicated sharing communities.</p>
<p>Whether Demonoid will ever return to its former glory is a big unknown for now, but Deimos is sure to do his best.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144374
title: ShareBeast & AlbumJams Operator Pleads Guilty to Criminal Copyright Infringement
uri: ShareBeast-AlbumJams-Operator-Pleads-Guilty-to-Criminal-Copyright-In
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AgBPitzlJmI/
content:
<p><img src="media/2d418779.sharebeast.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sharebeast.jpg" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-large">In September 2015, U.S. authorities announced action against a pair of sites involved in music piracy.</p>
<p>ShareBeast.com and AlbumJams.com were allegedly responsible for the distribution of “a massive library” of popular albums and tracks. Both were accused of offering thousands of tracks before their official release dates.</p>
<p>The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) placed their now familiar seizure notice on both domains, with the RIAA claiming ShareBeast was the largest illegal file-sharing site operating in the United States. Indeed, the site&#8217;s IP addresses at the time indicated at least some hosting taking place in Illinois.</p>
<p>“This is a huge win for the music community and legitimate music services. Sharebeast operated with flagrant disregard for the rights of artists and labels while undermining the legal marketplace,” RIAA Chairman &#038; CEO Cary Sherman commented at the time.</p>
<p>“Millions of users accessed songs from Sharebeast each month without one penny of compensation going to countless artists, songwriters, labels and others who created the music.”</p>
<p>Now, a full two years later, former Sharebeast operator Artur Sargsyan has pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal copyright infringement, admitting to the unauthorized distribution and reproduction of over 1 billion copies of copyrighted works.</p>
<p>“Through Sharebeast and other related sites, this defendant profited by illegally distributing copyrighted music and albums on a massive scale,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn.</p>
<p>“The collective work of the FBI and our international law enforcement partners have shut down the Sharebeast websites and prevented further economic losses by scores of musicians and artists.”</p>
<p>The Department of Justice says that from 2012 to 2015, 29-year-old Sargsyan used ShareBeast as a pirate music repository, infringing works produced by Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber, among others. He linked to that content from Newjams.net and Albumjams.com, two other sites under his control.</p>
<p>The DoJ says that Sargsyan was informed at least 100 times that there was infringing content on ShareBeast but despite the warnings, the content remained available. When those warnings produced no results, the FBI &#8211; assisted by law enforcement in the UK and the Netherlands &#8211; seized servers used by Sargsyan to distribute the material.</p>
<p>Brad Buckles, EVP, Anti-Piracy at the RIAA, welcomed the guilty plea.</p>
<p>“Sharebeast and its related sites represented the most popular network of infringing music sites operated out of the United States.  The network was responsible for providing millions of downloads of popular music files including unauthorized pre-release albums and tracks.This illicit activity was a gut-punch to music creators who were paid nothing by the service,&#8221; Buckles said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are incredibly grateful for the government’s commitment to protecting the rights of artists and labels. We especially thank the dedicated agents of the FBI who painstakingly unraveled this criminal enterprise, and U.S. Attorney John Horn and his team for their work and diligence in seeing this case to its successful conclusion.”</p>
<p>Sargsyan, of Glendale, California, will be sentenced December 4 before U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144386
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/11/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-11-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_frXlozdpXY/
content:
<p><img src="media/249d9cae.piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" alt="" width="250" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139042">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales 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-090417/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5V5C8mEVzY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Afusxc2SM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462602/">The Big Sick</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462602/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF14JJkOrSI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz-KBBfAAo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1469304/">Baywatch</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1469304/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyKOgnaf0BU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458169/">Kidnap</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1458169/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-Ht8VRPRvU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/?">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duGqrYw4usE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">Spider-Man: Homecoming</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU">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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144303
title: Music Industry Urges YouTube to Block Stream Rippers
uri: Music-Industry-Urges-YouTube-to-Block-Stream-Rippers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3AoTjDuRnDk/
content:
<p><img src="media/34e023fb.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196">With over a billion users, YouTube is the largest video portal on the Internet.</p>
<p>The site is a blessing to thousands of content creators, but there are also <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/stream-ripping-problem-worse-than-pirate-sites-ifpi-says-160913/">concerns</a> among rightsholders. The music industry, in particular, is not happy with the fact that music can easily be ripped from the site through external services.</p>
<p>Last week the major record labels managed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-settles-with-riaa-site-will-shut-down-170904/">take out YouTube-MP3</a>, the largest ripping site of all. Still, there are many like it that continue business as usual. For many music industry insiders, who see streamripping as one of the largest piracy threats, this is a constant source of frustration.</p>
<p>In the UK, music industry group BPI worked hard to tackle the issue proactively. Last year the organization already signed an agreement with YouTube-MP3 to block UK traffic. This limited the availability of the site locally, but the group believes that YouTube itself should take responsibility as well. </p>
<p>Geoff Taylor, BPI&#8217;s Chief Executive, tells TorrentFreak that they, and several other industry groups, have asked YouTube to step up to help solve this problem. </p>
<p>&#8220;BPI and other music industry bodies have been urging YouTube for several years to take effective action to block access to its servers for stream ripping sites, which infringe copyright on a huge scale and also breach YouTube&#8217;s terms of service.</p>
<p>“There are more steps YouTube could take to prevent stream ripping but so far the music community has been forced to pursue the stream ripping sites directly,&#8221; Taylor adds.</p>
<p>BPI is not alone in its criticism. After we broke the story last Monday, many reports followed, including an opinion piece on the industry outlet Hypebot asking why YouTube didn&#8217;t take more responsibility. In the comment section, long-time RIAA executive Neil Turkewitz, who left the organization a few weeks ago, came in with a strong opinion.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is something that Google/YouTube should have handled on its own. They were well aware of it, and didn&#8217;t need RIAA to step up to identify it as problematic,&#8221; Turkewitz notes.</p>
<p>The former RIAA exec speaks freely on the issue in his new role. He is now the head of his own Turkewitz Consulting Group, which fittingly focuses on expanding accountability in the Internet ecosystem.</p>
<p>&#8220;I should add, sadly, that Google is still steering people to stream rippers through auto-complete. If you search &#8216;YouTube,&#8217; one of the first auto-complete recommendations you get is &#8220;YouTube to MP3!&#8221; Turkewitz states.</p>
<p>&#8220;C&#8217;mon Google, what&#8217;s with that? Not only have they not disabled access to available stream rippers, but they are driving traffic to them. That is inexcusable,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p><center><strong>Google&#8217;s &#8220;suggestions&#8221;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/91ec3885.yout.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/yout.png" alt="" width="522" height="226" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144405"></center></p>
<p>In YouTube&#8217;s defense, the company isn&#8217;t completely apathetic when it comes to the stream-ripping problem. They have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-threatens-to-sue-huge-youtube-mp3-conversion-site-120619/">threatened legal action</a> against YouTube-MP3 and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-threatens-legal-action-video-downloader-160530/">similar sites</a> in the past and implemented some restrictive measures. Still, they never went to court and, restrictions or not, the problem didn&#8217;t go away.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted YouTube to hear their stance on the issue, but at the time of publication we haven&#8217;t heard back.</p>
<p>While many of the frustrations are not played out in public, it is clear that the stream-ripping problems further complicate the relationship between the labels and YouTube&#8217;s parent company Google. </p>
<p>In recent years, rightsholders have called out Google on many occasions over <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-says-youtube-is-running-a-dmca-protection-racket-160412/">copyright-infringing content</a> on YouTube, in their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bpi-reports-quarter-billion-pirate-links-to-google-ask-uk-govt-for-help-161024/">search engine</a> results, and on their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-has-a-hard-time-keeping-streaming-pirates-at-bay-170527/">cloud hosting</a> services. While the company has made several changes to accommodate the concerns, the critique hasn&#8217;t gone away.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144438
title: SceneAccess Torrent Tracker Shuts Down
uri: SceneAccess-Torrent-Tracker-Shuts-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9crpiVRgeLs/
content:
<p><img src="media/62dbff63.scc.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/scc.png" alt="" width="251" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144439"><a href="http://sceneaccess.org/">SceneAccess</a> (ScT) has been a respected and well-connected private BitTorrent tracker for more than a decade, but a few hours ago it closed its doors.</p>
<p>The operators of the tracker, which recently stopped enforcing a mandatory <a href="https://opentrackers.org/sceneaccess/">share ratio</a>, had been complaining about a lack of financial support for a while. </p>
<p>&#8220;As we stand now, we have NO money left to pay our bills and the lights WILL go out,&#8221; one of the staffers wrote earlier this year, urging the site&#8217;s members to chip in to help the site stay online. </p>
<p>Apparently, these frequent donation reminders were unsuccessful. Today, members of the tracker, some of which have been with the site for more than tens years, are greeted by a farewell notice. </p>
<p>&#8220;After putting a decade of blood, sweat and tears &#8211; it is time to throw in the towel. It is time for us to close this chapter&#8230;&#8221; it reads, thanking all donors who helped the site over the years.</p>
<p>&#8220;As times change, so do peoples priorities and without continued economical support from the community, it is impossible to run a site of this size. It&#8217;s been a pleasure for all of us to serve you with pride and honor.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><strong>SceneAccess shuts down</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ef150be1.sceneaccess.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sceneaccess.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="534" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144440"></center></p>
<p>SceneAccess has seen its fair share of trouble over the years. The site was raided in its early days, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sceneaccess-and-nforce-under-pressure-from-brein-080521/">forced</a> by anti-piracy group BREIN to switch hosts, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ddos-attacks-take-down-what-cd-btn-and-more-bittorrent-trackers-121111/">DDoSed</a> on several occasions, and suffered a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/private-tracker-member-data-leaked-via-bbcode-exploit-160313/">leak</a> of user data, among other things. </p>
<p>While it recovered from all these events, a lack of financial support now means that the end has finally come. </p>
<p>The tracker is not the only site to run low on donations. Many trackers, including several of the big players, have complained about the same issue in recent years. </p>
<p>While there may always be additional factors in play when a site shuts down, it is clear that SceneAccess is not coming back, unless there is some magical turnaround. This means that its users have to find a new home, wherever that may be. </p>
<p>&#8220;Thank you for 11 amazing years. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors,&#8221; SCC concludes.</p>
<p>Another one bites the dust&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144436
title: KinoX / Movie4K Admin Detained in Kosovo After Three-Year Manhunt
uri: KinoX-Movie4K-Admin-Detained-in-Kosovo-After-Three-Year-Manhunt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zSop-90CVIE/
content:
<p><img src="media/197987ec.kinox-susp2.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kinox-susp2.jpg" width="140" height="187" class="alignright size-large">In June 2011, police across Europe carried out the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kino-to-raided-in-massive-police-operation-admins-arrested-110608/">largest anti-piracy operation</a> the region had ever seen. Their target was massive streaming portal Kino.to and several affiliates with links to Spain, France and the Netherlands.</p>
<p>With many sites demonstrating phoenix-like abilities these days, it didn&#8217;t take long for a replacement to appear.</p>
<p>Replacement platform KinoX soon attracted a large fanbase and with that almost immediate attention from the authorities. In October 2014, Germany-based investigators acting on behalf of the Attorney General carried out raids in several regions of the country looking for four main suspects.</p>
<p>One <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/big-pirate-sites-raided-admins-on-the-run-141027/">raid</a>, focused on a village near to the northern city of Lübeck, targeted two brothers, then aged 21 and 25-years-old. The pair, who were said to have lived with their parents, were claimed to be the main operators of Kinox.to and another large streaming site, Movie4K.to. Although two other men were arrested elsewhere in Germany, the brothers couldn&#8217;t be found.</p>
<p>This was to be no ordinary <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/manhunt-underway-for-possibly-armed-kinox-bitshare-and-freakshare-operators-141031/">manhunt</a> by the police. In addition to accusing the brothers of copyright infringement and tax evasion, authorities indicated they were wanted for fraud, extortion, and arson too. The suggestion was that they&#8217;d targeted a vehicle owned by a pirate competitor, causing it to &#8220;burst into flames&#8221;.</p>
<p>The brothers were later named as Kastriot and Kreshnik Selimi. Born in 1992, 21-year-old Kreshnik was born in Sweden. 25-year-old Kastriot was born in Kosovo in 1989 and along with his brother, later became a German citizen.</p>
<p>With authorities piling on the charges, the pair were accused of being behind not only KinoX and Movie4K, but also other hosting and sharing platforms including BitShare, Stream4k.to, Shared.sx, Mygully.com and Boerse.sx.</p>
<p>Now, almost three years later, German police are one step closer to getting their men. According to a <a href="http://www.handelsblatt.com/my/unternehmen/it-medien/filmreifes-finale-behoerden-fassen-mutmasslichen-betreiber-von-kinox-to/20309870.html">Handelsblatt</a> report via <a href="https://tarnkappe.info/kinox-to-kreshnik-selimi-in-kosovo-festgenommen/">Tarnkappe</a>, Kreshnik Selimi has been detained by authorities.</p>
<p>The now 24-year-old suspect reportedly handed himself to the German embassy located in the capital of Kosovo, Prestina. The location of the arrest isn&#8217;t really a surprise. Older brother Kastriot previously published a picture on Instagram which appeared to show a ticket in his name destined for Kosovo from Zurich in Switzerland.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1ffb788d.boarding-pass-Selimi-Kastriot.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/boarding-pass-Selimi-Kastriot.jpg"><img src="media/aceee01b.boarding-pass-Selimi-Kastriot.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/boarding-pass-Selimi-Kastriot.jpg" alt="" width="612" height="304" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144455"></a></center></p>
<p>But while Kreshnik&#8217;s arrest reportedly took place in July, there&#8217;s still no news of Kastriot. The older brother is still on the run, maybe in Kosovo, or by now, potentially anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>While his whereabouts remain a mystery, the other puzzle faced by German authorities is the status of the two main sites the brothers were said to maintain.</p>
<p>Despite all the drama and unprecedented allegations of violence and other serious offenses, both Movie4K and KinoX remain stubbornly online, apparently oblivious to the action.</p>
<p>There have been consequences for people connected to the latter, however.</p>
<p>In December 2015, Arvit O (aka “Pedro”) who handled technical issues on KinoX, was sentenced to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kinox-to-operator-sentenced-to-40-months-in-prison-151217/">40 months in prison</a> for his involvement in the site.</p>
<p>Arvit O, who made a partial confession, was found guilty of copyright infringement by the District Court of Leipzig. The then 29-year-old admitted to infringing 2,889 works. The Court also found that he hacked the computers of two competitors in order to improve Kinox’s market share.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144424
title: Narcos’ Cali Cartel Threatens to ‘Kill’ Illegal Downloaders
uri: Narcos-Cali-Cartel-Threatens-to-Kill-Illegal-Downloaders
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EsfXpxyDYBM/
content:
<p><img src="media/b74898be.narcos.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/narcos.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144429">Netflix offers a great alternative to piracy, and for dozens of millions of people it&#8217;s a favorite pastime. </p>
<p>Since Netflix&#8217;s priorities are shifting more to the production of original content, piracy is turning into a more serious problem for the company. </p>
<p>This shows, as the video giant now has an anti-piracy policy that&#8217;s on par with many major Hollywood studios. Over the past year, Netflix issued over a million takedown requests to Internet services, but they also target downloaders in a more direct fashion. </p>
<p>Where other Hollywood companies approach pirates with settlement demands or warning letters, Netflix is enlisting the stars of the latest <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcos">Narcos</a> season, who play the Cali Cartel.</p>
<p>In the message, targeted at the French market, the four drug lords warn people not to download any episodes without permission. Or else..</p>
<p>&#8220;Hey you, yes you, do you think you&#8217;re smart? Do you think we didn&#8217;t see you Googling &#8216;Narcos season 3 download&#8217;? Don&#8217;t be a fool. Narcos is a business,&#8221; Pepe begins. </p>
<p>&#8220;If you want your entertainment. If you want your show. You&#8217;re gonna pay the Cali Cartel, &#8216;hijo de puta&#8217;,&#8221; Pacho adds, using the strong language one expects from a cartel leader.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TfhK1HnPIe8?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>The message continues with Miguel referencing the French three-strikes law <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/hadopi/">Hadopi</a>, under which file-sharers received several warnings before facing a possible Internet disconnection. The Cali Cartel doesn&#8217;t do courtesy letters, he stresses.</p>
<p>&#8220;Do you think we&#8217;re like Hadopi? Do you think we&#8217;re going to send you a nice and polite letter first? Please, sir / madam, could you please not illegally download Narcos? We don&#8217;t do courtesy letters.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no please, no por favor, no s&#8217;il vous plait,&#8221; Pepe adds.</p>
<p>Finally, the big boss chimes in delivering the final threat. People who continue to download or point others to &#8220;shitty&#8221; websites with pop-ups that offer Narcos for free, can expect to meet the bullet.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s bullets for you, your family, and all the people you send to watch Narcos on all those shitty websites full of questionable pop-ups,&#8221; Gilberto says. </p>
<p>&#8220;You know where to find us. Don&#8217;t mess around &#8216;hijo de puta&#8217;,&#8221; his brother adds.</p>
<p>While the message is amusing and might even be good PR for the show, one has to wonder whether it will be enough for people to sign up for a subscription. Netflix might be wondering the same, as they are still sending out takedown requests targeting pirate download and streaming sites, just in case.</p>
<p><center><strong><strong>Narcos &#8220;takedown&#8221;</strong></strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ebcc58f5.narcostakedown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/narcostakedown.png" alt="" width="599" height="267" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144431"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144504
title: Indian Movie Actor Mobbed By Press After Arrest of Torrent Site Admin
uri: Indian-Movie-Actor-Mobbed-By-Press-After-Arrest-of-Torrent-Site-Admin
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_POoJAE-Vjc/
content:
<p><a href="media/f5bf3520.vishal.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vishal.jpg"><img src="media/7b83a529.vishal.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vishal.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="215" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144515"></a>While most of the headlines relating to Internet piracy are focused on North America and Europe, there are dozens of countries where piracy is a way of life for millions of citizens. India, with its booming economy and growth in technology, is certainly one of them.</p>
<p>According to a recently published <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/internet-trends">report</a>, India now has 355 million Internet users out of a population of more than 1.3 billion. Not only is there massive room for growth, that figure is up from 277 million just two years ago. The rate of growth is astonishing.</p>
<p>Needless to say, Indians love their Internet and increasing numbers of citizens are also getting involved in the piracy game. There are many large sites and prominent release groups operating out of the country, some of them targeting the international market. Carry out a search for DVDSCR (DVD screener) on most search indexes globally and one is just as likely to find Indian movie releases as those emanating from the West. </p>
<p>If people didn&#8217;t know it already, India is nurturing a pirate force to be reckoned with, with local torrent and streaming sites pumping out the latest movies at an alarming rate. This has caused an outcry from many in the movie industry who are determined to do something to stem the tide.</p>
<p>One of these is actor Vishal Krishna, who not only stars in movies but is also a producer working in the Tamil film industry. Often referred to simply by his first name, Vishal has spoken out regularly against piracy in his role at the Tamil Film Producers Council.</p>
<p>In May, he referred to the operators of the hugely popular torrent site TamilRockers as &#8216;Internet Mafias&#8217; while demanding their arrest for leaking the blockbuster Baahubali 2, a movie that pulled in US$120 million in six days. Now, it appears, he may have gotten his way. Well, partially, at least.</p>
<p>Last evening, reports began to surface of an arrest at Chennai airport in north east India. According to <a href="http://www.india.com/showbiz/tamilrockers-third-level-admin-gauri-shankar-arrested-a-huge-leap-for-actor-vishal-and-tamil-film-industry-2467109/">local media</a>, Gauri Shankar, an alleged administrator of Tamilrockers.co, was detained by Triplicane police.</p>
<p>This would&#8217;ve been a huge coup for Vishal, who has been warning Tamilrockers to close down for the past three years. He even claimed to know the identity of the main perpetrator behind the site, noting that it was only a matter of time before he was brought to justice.</p>
<p>Soon after the initial reports, however, other media outlets claimed that Gauri Shankar is actually an operator at Tamilgun, another popular pirate portal currently blocked by ISPs on the orders of the Indian government.</p>
<p>So was it rockers or gun? According to <a href="http://www.indiaglitz.com/vishal-causes-arrest-of-tamil-rockers-admin-by-triplicane-police--tamil-news-195631">Indiaglitz.com</a>, Vishal rushed to the scene in Chennai to find out.</p>
<p><center><b>Outside the police station</b><a href="media/48b8c90a.krishna.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/krishna.png"><img src="media/b3e9469c.krishna.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/krishna.png" alt="" width="850" height="373" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144513"></a></center></p>
<p>What followed were quite extraordinary scenes outside the Triplicane police station. Emerging from the building flanked by close to 20 men, some in uniform, Vishal addressed an excited crowd of reporters. A swathe of microphones from various news outlets greeted him as he held up his hands urging the crowd to calm down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just give us some time, I will give you the details,&#8221; Vishal said in two languages. </p>
<p>&#8220;Just give us some time. It is too early. I&#8217;ll just give it to you in a bit. It&#8217;s something connected to website piracy. Just give me some time. I have to give you all the details, proper details.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, even after all the excitement, it&#8217;s unclear who the police have in custody. Nevertheless, the attention this event is getting from the press is on a level rarely seen in a piracy case, so more news is bound to follow soon.</p>
<p>In the meantime, both TamilRockers and TamilGun remain online, operating as normal. Clearly, there is much more work to be done.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xbl2fDdudtc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144506
title: Pirates Are Not Easily Deterred by Viruses and Malware, Study Finds
uri: Pirates-Are-Not-Easily-Deterred-by-Viruses-and-Malware-Study-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SngMSnHGvFI/
content:
<p><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">Despite the widespread availability of legal streaming services, piracy remains rampant around the world.</p>
<p>This is the situation in Singapore where a new study commissioned by the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (<a href="http://www.casbaa.com/">CASBAA</a>) found that 39% of all Singaporeans download or stream movies, TV shows, or live sports illegally. </p>
<p>The survey, conducted by Sycamore Research, polled the opinions and behaviors of a weighted sample of 1,000 respondents. The research concludes that nearly half of the population regularly pirates and also found that these people are not easily deterred. </p>
<p>Although the vast majority of the population knows that piracy is against the law, the lure of free content is often hard to ignore. Many simply see it as socially acceptible behavior.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notion that piracy is something that everybody does nowadays turns it into a socially acceptable behavior”, Sycamore Research Director Anna Meadows says, commenting on the findings. </p>
<p>“Numerous studies have shown that what we perceive others to be doing has a far stronger influence on our behavior than what we know we ‘ought’ to do. People know that they shouldn’t really pirate, but they continue to do so because they believe those around them do as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>One of the main threats pirates face is the availability of malware and malicious ads that are present on some sites. This risk is recognized by 74% of the active pirates, but they continue nonetheless. </p>
<p>The dangers of malware and viruses, which is a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-narrative-isnt-about-ethics-anymore-its-about-danger-170812/">key talking point</a> among industry groups nowadays, do have some effect. Among those who stopped pirating, 40% cited it as their primary reason. That&#8217;s more than the availability of legal services, which is mentioned in 37% of cases.</p>
<p>Aside from traditional download and streaming sites, the growing popularity of pirate media boxes is clearly present in Singapore was well. A total of 14% of Singaporeans admit to having such a device in their home. </p>
<p>So why do people continue to pirate despite the risks? </p>
<p>The answer is simple; because it&#8217;s free. The vast majority (63%) mention the lack of financial costs as their main motivation to use pirate sites. The ability to watch something whenever they want and a lack of legal options follow at a distance, both at 31%. </p>
<p>“There are few perceived downsides to piracy,&#8221; Meadows notes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Whilst the risk of devices being infected with viruses or malware is understood, it is underweighted. In the face of the benefit of free content, people appear to discount the risks, as the idea of getting something for nothing is so psychologically powerful.” </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144560
title: NSA Spied on Early File-Sharing Networks, Including BitTorrent
uri: NSA-Spied-on-Early-File-Sharing-Networks-Including-BitTorrent
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h2fLceM1lHc/
content:
<p><a href="media/5f0dfd25.spy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spy.jpg"><img src="media/3d881413.spy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spy.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-39770"></a>In the early 2000s, when peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing was in its infancy, the majority of users had no idea that their activities could be monitored by outsiders. The reality was very different, however.</p>
<p>As few as they were, all of the major networks were completely open, with most operating a &#8216;shared folder&#8217; type system that allowed any network participant to see exactly what another user was sharing. Nevertheless, with little to no oversight, file-sharing at least felt like a somewhat private affair.</p>
<p>As user volumes began to swell, software such as KaZaA (which utilized the FastTrack network) and eDonkey2000 (eD2k network) attracted attention from record labels, who were desperate to stop the unlicensed sharing of copyrighted content. The same held true for the BitTorrent networks that arrived on the scene a couple of years later.</p>
<p>Through the rise of lawsuits against consumers, the general public began to learn that their activities on P2P networks were not secret and they were being watched for some, if not all, of the time by copyright holders. Little did they know, however, that a much bigger player was also keeping a watchful eye.</p>
<p>According to a fascinating document just released by <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/09/13/nsa-broke-the-encryption-on-file-sharing-apps-kazaa-and-edonkey/">The Intercept</a> as part of the Edward Snowden leaks, the National Security Agency (NSA) showed a keen interest in trying to penetrate early P2P networks.</p>
<p>Initially published by internal NSA news site SIDToday in June 2005, the document lays out the aims of a program called FAVA &#8211; File-Sharing Analysis and Vulnerability Assessment.</p>
<p>&#8220;One question that naturally arises after identifying file-sharing traffic is whether or not there is anything of intelligence value in this traffic,&#8221; the NSA document begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;By searching our collection databases, it is clear that many targets are using popular file sharing applications; but if they are merely sharing the latest release of their favorite pop star, this traffic is of dubious value (no offense to Britney Spears intended).&#8221;</p>
<p>Indeed, the vast majority of users of these early networks were only been interested in sharing relatively small music files, which were somewhat easy to manage given the bandwidth limitations of the day. However, the NSA still wanted to know what was happening on a broader scale, so that meant decoding their somewhat limited encryption.</p>
<p>&#8220;As many of the applications, such as KaZaA for example, encrypt their traffic, we first had to decrypt the traffic before we could begin to parse the messages. We have developed the capability to decrypt and decode both KaZaA and eDonkey traffic to determine which files are being shared, and what queries are being performed,&#8221; the NSA document reveals.</p>
<p>Most progress appears to have been made against KaZaA, with the NSA revealing the use of tools to parse out registry entries on users&#8217; hard drives. This information gave up users&#8217; email addresses, country codes, user names, the location of their stored files, plus a list of recent searches.</p>
<p>This gave the NSA the ability to look deeper into user behavior, which revealed some P2P users going beyond searches for basic run-of-the-mill multimedia content.</p>
<p>&#8220;[We] have discovered that our targets are using P2P systems to search for and share files which are at the very least somewhat surprising &#8212; not simply harmless music and movie files. With more widespread adoption, these tools will allow us to regularly assimilate data which previously had been passed over; giving us a more complete picture of our targets and their activities,&#8221; the document adds.</p>
<p>Today, more than 12 years later, with KaZaA long dead and eDonkey barely alive, scanning early pirate activities might seem a distant act. However, there&#8217;s little doubt that similar programs remain active today. Even in 2005, the FAVA program had lofty ambitions, targeting other networks and protocols including DirectConnect, Freenet, Gnutella, Gnutella2, JoltID, MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger and&#8230;&#8230;BitTorrent.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you have a target using any of these applications or using some other application which might fall into the P2P category, please contact us,&#8221; the NSA document urges staff. &#8220;We would be more than happy to help.&#8221;</p>
<p>Confirming the continued interest in BitTorrent, The Intercept has published a couple of further documents which deal with the protocol directly.</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/document/2017/09/13/grimplate-first-steps-toward-identifying-adversarial-use-of-bittorrent/">The first</a> details an NSA program called GRIMPLATE, which aimed to study how Department of Defense employees were using BitTorrent and whether that constituted a risk.</p>
<p><a href="https://theintercept.com/document/2017/09/13/sebacium-from-gcwiki/">The second</a> relates to P2P research carried out by Britain&#8217;s GCHQ spy agency. It details DIRTY RAT, a web application which gave the government to &#8220;the capability to identify users sharing/downloading files of interest on the eMule (Kademlia) and BitTorrent networks.&#8221;</p>
<p>The SIDToday document detailing the FAVA program can be viewed <a href="https://theintercept.com/snowden-sidtoday/3991308-the-answer-is-peer-to-peer-file-sharing/">here</a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144606
title: Founder of Fan-Made Subtitle Site Convicted for Copyright Infringement
uri: Founder-of-Fan-Made-Subtitle-Site-Convicted-for-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5YmEHXydgfI/
content:
<p><img src="media/560d45e6.undertex.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/undertex.png" alt="" width="219" height="136" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144616">Every day millions of people enjoy fan-made subtitles. They help foreigners understand English-speaking entertainment and provide the deaf with a way to comprehend audio.</p>
<p>Quite often these subtitles are used in combination with pirated files. This is a thorn in the side to copyright holder groups, who see this as a threat to their business.</p>
<p>In Sweden, Undertexter was one of the leading subtitle resources for roughly a decade. The site allowed users to submit their own translated subtitles for movies and TV shows, which were then made available to the public.</p>
<p>In the summer of 2013, this reign came to an end after the site was pulled offline. Following pressure from Hollywood-based movie companies, police <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fan-created-subtitle-site-raided-by-swedish-police-130710/">raided the site and seized its servers</a>.</p>
<p>The raid and subsequent criminal investigation came as a surprise to the site&#8217;s founder, Eugen Archy, who didn&#8217;t think he or the site&#8217;s users were offering an illegal service. </p>
<p>“The people who work on the site don’t consider their own interpretation of dialog to be something illegal, especially when we’re handing out these interpretations for free,” he said at the time.</p>
<p>The arrest made it clear that the authorities disagreed. The Undertexter founder was prosecuted for distributing copyright-infringing subtitles, risking a possible <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fan-created-movie-subtitle-site-operator-facing-prison-160525/">prison sentence</a>. While Archy was found guilty this week, luckily for him he remains a free man. </p>
<p>The Attunda District Court sentenced the now 32-year-old operator to probation. In addition, he has to pay 217,000 Swedish Kroner ($27,000), which will be taken from the advertising and donation revenues he collected through the site.</p>
<p>While there were millions of subtitles available on Undertexter, only 74 movies were referenced by the prosecution. These were carefully selected to ensure a strong case it seems, as many of the titles weren’t commercially available in Sweden at the time.</p>
<p>During the trial, the defense had argued that the fan-made subtitles are not infringing since movies are made up of video and sound, with subtitles being an extra. However, the court disagreed with this line of reasoning, the verdict shows.</p>
<p>While the copyright holders may have hoped for a heftier punishment, the ruling confirms that fan-made subtitles can be seen as copyright infringements. Prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson is <a href="https://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.688777/undertexter-domd">satisfied</a> with the outcome, IDG reports, but he will leave the option to appeal open for now.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144563
title: Australian Government Want ISPs to Adopt Anti-Piracy Code
uri: Australian-Government-Want-ISPs-to-Adopt-Anti-Piracy-Code
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/z5F4ZcTLm8I/
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">Australia has been struggling to find an adequate response to online piracy for several years, but progress has been slow. </p>
<p>While <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-will-be-blocked-in-australia-161215/">pirate site blockades</a> are in effect now, an earlier plan to implement a three-strikes anti-piracy regime <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-officially-abandons-three-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-160524/">failed</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this setback, Australian legislators are still determined to tackle widespread copyright infringement. The most recent effort comes through an overhaul of the country&#8217;s copyright regulations, with a new <a href="media/baed95f0.copyright-regulations-darft.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-regulations-darft.pdf">proposal (pdf)</a> to adopt a voluntary anti-piracy code. </p>
<p>The code would apply to carriage service providers, including Internet providers, to agree on a joint anti-piracy strategy. The voluntary code should be supported by &#8220;broad consensus&#8221; and include technical measures that are &#8220;used to protect and identify copyright material.&#8221;</p>
<p>The proposal further stresses that the anti-piracy measures should be &#8220;non-discriminatory.&#8221; They also shouldn&#8217;t impose &#8220;substantial costs&#8221; on the service providers or &#8220;substantial burdens on their systems or networks.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>The code proposal</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/66b73c25.agreementaus.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/agreementaus.png" alt="" width="556" height="298" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144581"></center></p>
<p>The description of the code is quite broad can include a wide variety of measures, including a new iteration of the &#8220;strikes&#8221; scheme where copyright holders report copyright infringements. A website blocking agreement, which avoids costly court procedures, also belongs to the options.</p>
<p>An accompanying consultation paper published by the Government stresses that any monitoring measures to track infringements should not interfere with the technology used at the originating sites, <a href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/government-urges-industry-piracy-code-under-new-regulations/">ZDNet notes</a>.  </p>
<p>While the Government pushes copyright holders and ISPs to come to a voluntary agreement, the failed &#8220;three strikes&#8221; negotiations suggest that this will be easier said than done.  </p>
<p>At the time, the Australasian Music Publishers Association (AMPAL) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-group-wants-isps-to-spy-on-customers-to-stop-piracy-150324/">noted</a> that merely warning users did not go far enough. Instead, they recommended a system where ISPs themselves would implement monitoring and filtering technology to stop piracy.</p>
<p>It appears, however, that extensive monitoring and filtering on the ISPs&#8217; networks goes beyond the scope of the proposed regulations. After all, that would be quite costly and place a significant burden on the ISPs.</p>
<p>The proposed regulations are not limited to the anti-piracy code but also specify how Internet providers should process takedown notices, among other things.</p>
<p>Before any changes are implemented or negotiations begin, the Government is first inviting various stakeholders to share their views. While it doesn&#8217;t intend to change the main outline, the Government welcomes suggestions to simplify the current proposal where possible.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144639
title: EU Prepares Guidelines to Force Google & Facebook to Police Piracy
uri: EU-Prepares-Guidelines-to-Force-Google-Facebook-to-Police-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UqlIrpRsU0w/
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>In the current climate, creators and distributors are forced to play a giant game of whac-a-mole to limit the unlicensed spread of their content on the Internet.</p>
<p>The way the law stands today in the United States, EU, and most other developed countries, copyright holders must wait for content to appear online before sending targeted takedown notices to hosts, service providers, and online platforms. </p>
<p>After sending <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-removed-2-5-billion-pirate-search-results-170706/">several billion</a> of these notices, patience is wearing thin, so a new plan is beginning to emerge. Rather than taking down content after it appears, major entertainment industry groups would prefer companies to take proactive action. The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-proposes-mandatory-piracy-filters-for-online-services-160914/">upload filters</a> currently under discussion in Europe are a prime example but are already <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mandatory-piracy-filters-could-breach-human-rights-eu-members-170906/">causing controversy</a>.</p>
<p>Continuing the momentum in this direction, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eu-internet-illegal/eu-set-to-demand-internet-firms-act-faster-to-remove-illegal-content-idUSKCN1BO1IK">Reuters</a> reports that the European Union will publish draft guidelines at the end of this month, urging platforms such as Google and Facebook to take a more proactive approach to illegal content of all kinds.</p>
<p>“Online platforms need to significantly step up their actions to address this problem,” the draft EU guidelines say.</p>
<p>“They need to be proactive in weeding out illegal content, put effective notice-and-action procedures in place, and establish well-functioning interfaces with third parties (such as trusted flaggers) and give a particular priority to notifications from national law enforcement authorities.”</p>
<p>On the copyright front, Google already operates interfaces designed to take down infringing content. And, as the recent agreement in the UK with copyright holders shows, is also prepared to make <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">infringing content harder to find</a>. Nevertheless, it will remain to be seen if Google is prepared to give even &#8216;trusted&#8217; third-parties a veto on what content can appear online, without having oversight itself.</p>
<p>The guidelines are reportedly non-binding but further legislation in this area isn&#8217;t being ruled out for Spring 2018, if companies fail to make significant progress. </p>
<p>Interestingly, however, a Commission source told Reuters that any new legislation would not &#8220;change the liability exemption for online platforms.&#8221; Maintaining these so-called &#8216;safe harbors&#8217; is a priority for online giants such as Google and Facebook &#8211; anything less would almost certainly be a deal-breaker.</p>
<p>The guidelines, due to be published at the end of September, will also encourage online platforms to publish transparency reports. These should detail the volume of notices received and actions subsequently taken. Again, Google is way ahead of the game here, having published this kind of data for the past several years.</p>
<p>&#8220;The guidelines also contain safeguards against excessive removal of content, such as giving its owners a right to contest such a decision,&#8221; Reuters adds.</p>
<p>More will be known about the proposals in a couple of weeks but it&#8217;s quite likely they&#8217;ll spark another round of debate on whether legislation is the best route to tackle illegal content or whether voluntary agreements &#8211; which have a tendency to be rather less open &#8211; should be the way to go.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144657
title: BREIN Tracks Down and Settles With “Libra Release Team”
uri: BREIN-Tracks-Down-and-Settles-With-Libra-Release-Team
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VP35IxfjBv4/
content:
<p><img src="media/4838a439.upload.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/upload.png" alt="" width="240" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-114664">Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN has been very active in recent years, targeting uploaders on various sharing sites and services.</p>
<p>This week the anti-piracy group announced yet another victory against a group of frequent copyright infringers in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>BREIN successfully <a href="https://stichtingbrein.nl/nieuws.php?id=473">tracked down and settled</a> with two key members of the &#8220;Libra Release Team&#8221; (LRT), which is estimated to consist of eight to ten people in total. </p>
<p>LRT is best known in the Netherlands for repackaging English movie and TV releases with Dutch subtitles. These were then shared on torrent sites and Usenet forums.</p>
<p>According to court papers, the files in question were uploaded to place2home.org and place2home.net. However, they often spread out over other sites as well. In total, the release team has published nearly 800 titles. </p>
<p>BREIN tracked down the founder of LRT, who had already stopped uploading, and obtained an ex-parte court order against a more recent uploader. Both have settled with the anti-piracy group for a total of 8,000 euros, an amount that takes their financial situations into account.</p>
<p>The uploader was further summoned to and stop his activities effective immediately. If not, an ex-parte court order requires him to pay an additional penalty of €2,000 per day, up to a maximum of €50,000.</p>
<p>The court papers don&#8217;t mention how the members were uncovered, but it is likely that they left traces to their real identities online, which is often the case. The group also recruited new members publicly, using Skype and Gmail as contact addresses. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear whether the settlements means the end of the Libra Release Team. While the targeted persons are unlikely to pick up their old habit, some of the others may still continue, perhaps under a new name.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144680
title: MetalKettle Addon Repository Vulnerable After GitHub ‘Takeover’
uri: MetalKettle-Addon-Repository-Vulnerable-After-GitHub-Takeover
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OejbwUhnFCU/
content:
<p><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 href="https://torrentfreak.com/renowned-kodi-addon-developer-metalkettle-calls-it-quits-170829/">A few weeks ago</a> MetalKettle, one of the most famous Kodi addon developers of recent times, decided to call it quits.</p>
<p>Worried about potential legal risks, he saw no other option than to halt all development of third-party Kodi addons.</p>
<p>Two months before this announcement, the developer proceeded to remove the GitHub account which was used to distribute his addons. However, he didn&#8217;t realize that this might not have been the best decision. </p>
<p>As it turns out, GitHub allows outsiders to re-register names of deleted accounts. While this might not be a problem in most cases, it can be disastrous when the accounts are connected to Kodi add-ons that are constantly pinging for new updates.</p>
<p>In essence, it means that the person who registered the Github account can load content onto the boxes of people who still have the MetalKettle repo installed. Quite a dangerous prospect, something MetalKettle realizes as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;Someone has re-registered metalkettle on github. So in theory could pollute any devices with the repo still installed,&#8221; he warned <a href="https://twitter.com/metal_kettle/status/908652243615928321">on Twitter</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;Warning : if any users have a metalkettle repo installed on their systems or within a build &#8211; please delete ASAP,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p><center><strong>MetalKettle warning</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/57fe3bf5.MKwarning.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MKwarning.png" alt="" width="543" height="199" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144710"></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear what the intentions of the new MetalKettle user are on GitHub, if he or she has any at all. But, people should be very cautious and probably remove it from their systems.  </p>
<p>The real MetalKettle, meanwhile, was contacted by <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons</a> regarding the situation and they have placed the repository on their Indigo blacklist of banned software. This effectively disables the repository on devices with Indigo installed. </p>
<p>GitHub on their turn may want to reconsider their removal policy. Perhaps it&#8217;s smarter to not make old usernames available for registration, at least not for a while, as it&#8217;s clearly a vulnerability. </p>
<p>This is also shown by another Kodi repo controversy that appeared earlier today. Another <a href="https://github.com/lewblack125/">GitHub account</a> that was reportedly deleted earlier, resurfaced today pushing a new version of the Exodus addon and other sources. </p>
<p>According to some, the GitHub account is operated by the original Exodus developers and perfectly safe, but <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Addons4Kodi/comments/707sw6/dont_install_that_new_exodus_update/">others warn</a> that the name was reregistered in bad faith. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144753
title: The Pirate Bay Website Runs a Cryptocurrency Miner (Updated)
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Website-Runs-a-Cryptocurrency-Miner-(Updated)
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4plxXiKCYL4/
content:
<p><img src="media/82b1bfcc.coinhive.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coinhive.png" alt="" width="236" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144756">Four years ago many popular torrent sites added an option to donate via Bitcoin. The Pirate Bay was one of the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-bitcoin-donations-130423/">first to jump on board</a> and still lists its address on the website.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s nothing wrong with using Bitcoin as a donation tool, adding a Javascript cryptocurrency miner to a site is of a totally different order. </p>
<p>A few hours ago many Pirate Bay users began noticing that their CPU usage increased dramatically when they browsed certain Pirate Bay pages. Upon closer inspection, this spike appears to have been caused by a Bitcoin miner embedded on the site. </p>
<p>The code in question is tucked away in the site&#8217;s footer and uses a miner provided by <a href="https://coin-hive.com/">Coinhive</a>. This service offers site owners the option to convert the CPU power of users into Monero coins.</p>
<p><img src="media/9abcbc22.foot.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/foot.png" alt="" width="647" height="131" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144755"></p>
<p>The miner does indeed appear to increase CPU usage quite a bit. It is throttled at different rates (we&#8217;ve seen both 0.6 and 0.8) but the increase in resources is immediately noticeable. </p>
<p>The miner is not enabled site-wide. When we checked, it appeared in the search results and category listings, but not on the homepage or individual torrent pages. </p>
<p>There has been no official comment from the site operators on the issue <em>(update, see below)</em>, but many users have <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/thepiratebay/comments/70aip7/100_cpu_on_all_8_threads_while_visiting_tpb/?sort=new">complained</a> about it. In the official site forums, TPB supermoderator Sid is clearly <a href="https://pirates-forum.org/Thread-PIRATE-BAY-OFFICIAL-SITE-MINER">not in agreement</a> with the site&#8217;s latest addition.</p>
<p>&#8220;That really is serious, so hopefully we can get some action on it quickly. And perhaps get some attention for the uploading and commenting bugs while they&#8217;re at it,&#8221; Sid writes.</p>
<p>Like many others, he also points out that blocking or disabling Javascript can stop the automatic mining. This can be done via browser settings or through script blocker addons such as NoScript and ScriptBlock. Alternatively, people can block the miner URL with an ad-blocker.</p>
<p>Whether the miner is a new and permanent tool, or perhaps triggered by an advertiser, is unknown at the point. When we hear more this article will be updated accordingly.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> We were told that the miner is being tested for a short period (~24 hours) as a new way to generate revenue. This could eventually replace the ads on the site. More info may be revealed later.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144556
title: UK Copyright Trolls Cite Hopeless Case to Make People Pay Up
uri: UK-Copyright-Trolls-Cite-Hopeless-Case-to-Make-People-Pay-Up
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XBmf0CcVIxk/
content:
<p><img src="media/efd05bc4.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-large">Our coverage of Golden Eye International dates back more than five years. Much like similar companies in the copyright troll niche, the outfit monitors BitTorrent swarms, collects IP addresses, and then heads off to court to obtain alleged pirates&#8217; identities.</p>
<p>From there it sends letters threatening legal action, unless recipients pay a &#8216;fine&#8217; of hundreds of pounds to settle an alleged porn piracy case. While some people pay up, others refuse to do so on the basis they are innocent, the ISP bill payer, or simply to have their day in court. Needless to say, a full-on court battle on the merits is never on the agenda.</p>
<p>Having gone quiet for an extended period of time, it was assumed that Golden Eye had outrun its usefulness as a &#8216;fine&#8217; collection outfit. Just lately, however, there are signs that the company is having another go at reviving old cases against people who previously refused to pay.</p>
<p>A post on Slyck forums, which runs a support thread for people targeted by trolls, reveals the strategy.</p>
<p>&#8220;I dealt with these Monkeys last year. I spent 5 weeks practically arguing with them. They claim they have to prove it based on the balance of probability&#8217;s [sic]. I argue that they actually have to prove it was me,&#8221; &#8216;Matt&#8217; <a href="http://www.slyck.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=66&#038;t=57634&#038;start=3125#p621348">wrote</a> in August.</p>
<p>&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t me, and despite giving them reasonable doubt it wasn&#8217;t me. (I&#8217;m Gay&#8230; why would I be downloading straight porn?) They still persuaded it, trying to dismiss anything that cast any doubt on their claim. The emails finished how I figured they would&#8230;. They were going to send court documentation. It never arrived.&#8221;</p>
<p>After months of silence, at the end of August this year &#8216;Matt&#8217; says GoldenEye got in touch again, suggesting that a conclusion to another copyright case might encourage him to cough up. He says that Golden Eye contacted him saying that someone settled out of court with TCYK, another copyright troll, for £1,000.</p>
<p>&#8220;My thoughts&#8230;Idiots and doubt it,&#8221; &#8216;Matt&#8217; said. &#8220;Honestly, I almost cried I thought I had got rid of these trolls and they are back for round two.&#8221; </p>
<p>This wasn&#8217;t an isolated case. Another recipient of a Golden Eye threat also revealed getting contacted by the company, also with fresh pressure to pay.</p>
<p>&#8220;You may be interested to know that a solicitor, acting on behalf of Robert Kemble in a claim similar to ours but brought by TCYK LLC, entered into an agreement to settle the court case by paying £1,000,&#8221; Golden Eye told the individual.</p>
<p>&#8220;In view of the agreement reached in the Kemble case, we would invite you to reconsider your position as to whether you would like to reach settlement with us. We would point out, that, despite the terms of settlement in the Kemble case, we remain prepared to stand by our original offer of settlement with you, that is payment of £500.00.&#8221;</p>
<p>After last corresponding with the Golden Eye in January after repeated denials, new contact from the company would be worrying for anyone. It certainly affected this person negatively.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am now at a loss and don&#8217;t know what more I can do. I do not want to settle this, but also I cannot afford a solicitor. Any further advice would be gratefully appreciated as [i&#8217;m] now having panic attacks,&#8221; the person wrote.</p>
<p>After citing the Robert Kemble case, one might think that Golden Eye would be good enough to explain the full situation. They didn&#8217;t &#8211; so let&#8217;s help them a little bit in that respect, to help their targets make an informed decision.</p>
<p>Robert Kemble was a customer of Sky Broadband. TCYK, in conjunction with UK-based <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolls-announce-uk-anti-piracy-invasion-151002/">Hatton and Berkeley</a>, sent a letter to Kemble in July 2015 asking him to pay a &#8216;fine&#8217; for alleged Internet piracy of the Robert Redford movie The Company You Keep, way back in April 2013.</p>
<p>So far, so ordinary &#8211; but here&#8217;s the big deal.</p>
<p>Unlike the people being re-targeted by Golden Eye this time around, Kemble admitted in writing that infringement had been going on via his account.</p>
<p>In a response, Kemble told TCYK that he was shocked to receive their letter but after speaking to people in his household, had discovered that a child had been downloading films. He didn&#8217;t say that the Redford film was among them but he apologized to the companies all the same. Clearly, that wasn&#8217;t going to be enough.</p>
<p>In August 2015, TCYK wrote back to Kemble, effectively holding him responsible for other people&#8217;s actions while demanding a settlement of £600 to be paid to third-party company, Ranger Bay Limited.</p>
<p>&#8220;The child who is responsible for the infringement should sign the undertakings in our letter to you. Please when replying specify clearly on the undertakings the child&#8217;s full name and age,&#8221; the company later wrote. Nice.</p>
<p>What took place next was a round of letter tennis between Kemble&#8217;s solicitor and those acting for TCYK, with the latter insisting that Kemble had already admitted infringement (or authorizing the same) and demanding around £2000 to settle the case at this later stage.</p>
<p>With no settlement forthcoming, TCYK demanded £5,000 in the small claims court.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Defendant has admitted that his internet address has been used to infringe the Claimant&#8217;s copyright whereby, through the Defendant&#8217;s licencees&#8217; use of the Defendant&#8217;s internet address, he acquired the Work and then communicated the Work in a digital form via the internet to the public without the license or consent of the Claimant,&#8221; the TCYK claim form reads.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak understands that the court process that followed didn&#8217;t center on the merits of the infringement case, but procedural matters over how the case was handled. On this front, Kemble failed in his efforts to have the case &#8211; which was heard almost a year ago &#8211; decided in his favor.</p>
<p>Now, according to Golden Eye at least, Kemble has settled with TCYK for £1000, which is just £300 more than their final pre-court offer. Hardly sounds like good value for money.</p>
<p>The main point, though, is that this case wouldn&#8217;t have gotten anywhere near a court if Kemble hadn&#8217;t admitted liability of sorts in the early stages. This is a freak case in all respects and has no bearing on anyone&#8217;s individual case, especially those who haven&#8217;t admitted liability.</p>
<p>So, for people getting re-hounded by Golden Eye now, remember the Golden Rule. If you&#8217;re innocent, by all means tell them, and stick to your guns. But, at your peril tell them anything else on top, or risk having it used against you.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144776
title: Steal This Show S03E08: P2P Money: Trouble For Governments?
uri: Steal-This-Show-S03E08-P2P-Money-Trouble-For-Governments
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/A4HSmjQJwXQ/
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 look at how the first P2P revolution in filesharing is segueing into a new P2P money revolution – even bringing along some of the same developers like Zooko and Bram Cohen.</p>
<p>The big question is, given the devastating effect filesharing had on the entertainment industries, how will decentralizing money effect banks and, even more critically, governments?</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="http://twitter.com/ioptio">Paige Peterson</a></p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=3&#038;lpe-episode=08" 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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144399
title: Kodi ‘Trademark Troll’ Has Interesting Views on Co-Opting Other People’s Work
uri: Kodi-Trademark-Troll-Has-Interesting-Views-on-Co-Opting-Other-Pe
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EyRvEcIWtuU/
content:
<p><a href="media/13c1e1a2.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png"><img src="media/8aa05985.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png" alt="" width="256" height="256" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144339"></a>The Kodi team, operating under the XBMC Foundation, announced last week that a third-party had registered the Kodi trademark in Canada and was using it for their own purposes.</p>
<p>That person was Geoff Gavora, who had previously been in communication with the Kodi team, expressing how important the software was to his sales.</p>
<p>“We had hoped, given the positive nature of his past emails, that perhaps he was doing this for the benefit of the Foundation. We learned, unfortunately, that this was not the case,” XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-declares-war-on-trademark-trolls-170908/">said</a>.</p>
<p>According to the Kodi team, Gavora began delisting Amazon ads placed by companies selling Kodi-enabled products, based on infringement of Gavora&#8217;s trademark rights.</p>
<p>“[O]nly Gavora’s hardware can be sold, unless those companies pay him a fee to stay on the store,” Betzen explained.</p>
<p>Predictably, Gavora&#8217;s move is being viewed as highly controversial, not least since he&#8217;s effectively claiming licensing rights in Canada over what should be a free and open source piece of software. TF obtained one of the notices Amazon sent to a seller of a Kodi-enabled device in Canada, following a complaint from Gavora.</p>
<p><center><b>Take down Kodi from Amazon, or pay Gavora</b><a href="media/e134b967.gavora-amazon.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/gavora-amazon.png"><img src="media/4d330d47.gavora-amazon.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gavora-amazon.png" alt="" width="809" height="303" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144600"></a></center></p>
<p>So who is Geoff Gavora and what makes him tick? Thanks to a <a href="http://www.alisalman.ca/escape-the-9-to-5-grind/building-a-company-from-ground-up-geff-gavora">2016 interview</a> with Ali Salman of the Rapid Growth Podcast, we have a lot of information from the horse&#8217;s mouth.</p>
<p>It all began in 2011, when Gavora began jailbreaking Apple TVs, loading them with XBMC, and selling them to friends.</p>
<p>&#8220;I did it as a joke, for beer money from my friends,&#8221; Gavora told Salman.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d do it for $25 to $50 and word of mouth spread that I was doing this so we could load on this media center to watch content and online streams from it.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>Intro to the interview with Ali Salman</b><a href="media/0528c2d3.raw1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/raw1.png"><img src="media/310ebdd3.raw1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw1.png" alt="" width="1043" height="544" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144469"></a></center></p>
<p>Soon, however, word of mouth caused the business to grow wings, Gavora claims.</p>
<p>&#8220;So they started telling people and I start telling people it&#8217;s $50, and then I got so busy so I start telling people it&#8217;s $75. I&#8217;m getting too busy with my work and with this. And it got to the point where I was making more jailbreaking these Apple TVs than I was at my career, and I wasn&#8217;t very happy at my career at that time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Jailbreaking was supposed to be a side thing to tide Gavora over until another job came along, but he had a problem &#8211; he didn&#8217;t come from a technical background. Nevertheless, what Gavora did have was a background in marketing and with a decent knowledge of how to succeed in customer service, he majored on that front.</p>
<p>Gavora had come to learn that while people wanted his devices, they weren&#8217;t very good at operating XBMC (Kodi&#8217;s former name) which he&#8217;d loaded onto them. With this in mind, he began offering web support and phone support via a toll-free line.</p>
<p>&#8220;I started receiving calls from New York, Dallas, and then Australia, Hong Kong. Everyone around the world was calling me and saying &#8216;we hear there&#8217;s some kid in Calgary, some young child, who&#8217;s offering tech support for the Apple TV&#8217;,&#8221; Gavora said.</p>
<p>But with things apparently going well, a wrench was soon thrown into the works when Apple released the third variant of its Apple TV and Gavorra was unable to jailbreak it. This prompted him to market his own Linux-based set-top device and his business, Raw-Media, grew from there.</p>
<p>While it seems likely that so-called &#8216;Raw Boxes&#8217; were doing reasonably well with consumers, what was the secret of their success? Podcast host Salman asked Gavora for his &#8216;networking party 10-second pitch&#8217;, and the Canadian was happy to oblige.</p>
<p>&#8220;I get this all the time actually. I basically tell people that I sell a box that gives them free TV and movies,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>This was met with laughter from the host, to which Gavora added, &#8220;That&#8217;s sort of the three-second pitch and everyone&#8217;s like &#8216;Oh, tell me more&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Who doesn&#8217;t like free TV, come on?&#8221; Salman responded. &#8220;Yeah exactly,&#8221; Gavora said.</p>
<p>The image below, taken from a January 2016 YouTube <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s31cr5Ka21w">unboxing video</a>, shows one of the products sold by Gavora&#8217;s company.</p>
<p><center><b>Raw-Media Kodi Box packaging (note Kodi logo)</b><a href="media/53a603ca.raw2aa.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/raw2aa.png"><img src="media/bef44d07.raw2aa.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw2aa.png" alt="" width="803" height="551" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144542"></a></center></p>
<p>Bearing in mind the offer of free movies and TV, the tagline on the box, &#8220;Stop paying for things you don&#8217;t want to watch, watch more free tv!&#8221; initially looks quite provocative. That being said, both the device and Kodi are perfectly capable of playing plenty of legal content from free sources, so there&#8217;s no problem there.</p>
<p>What is surprising, however, is that the unboxing video shows the device being booted up, apparently already loaded with infamous third-party Kodi addons including PrimeWire, Genesis, Icefilms, and Navi-X.</p>
<p><center><b>The unboxing video showing the Kodi setup</b><a href="media/349f693f.raw2a.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/raw2a.png"><img src="media/75087f76.raw2a.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw2a.png" alt="" width="1069" height="547" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144480"></a></center></p>
<p>Given that Gavora has <a href="http://www.trademarkia.com/ca/company-2009809-alberta-ltd-947235-page-1-2">registered the Kodi trademark</a> in Canada and prints the official logo on his packaging, this runs counter to the official Kodi team&#8217;s aggressive stance towards boxes ready-configured with what they categorize as banned addons. Matters are compounded when one visits the product support site.</p>
<p>As seen in the image below, Raw-Media devices are delivered with a printed card in the packaging informing people where to get the after-sales services Gavora says he built his business upon. The cards advise people to visit <a href="http://www.no-issue.ca/">No-Issue.ca</a>, a site setup to offer text and video-based support to set-top box buyers.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/714985b0.raw3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/raw3.png"><img src="media/484464b9.raw3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw3.png" alt="" width="747" height="418" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144481"></a></center></p>
<p>No-Issue.ca (which is <a href="media/6d3a64df.raw-domain.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw-domain.png">hosted on the same server</a> as raw-media.ca and claimed officially as a sister site <a href="http://no-issue.is/blog/?p=128">here</a>) now redirects to No-Issue.is, as per a <a href="http://no-issue.is/blog/?p=357">2016 announcement</a>. It has a fairly bland forum but the connected tutorial videos, found on No Issue&#8217;s YouTube channel, offer a lot more spice.</p>
<p>Registered under Gavora&#8217;s online nickname <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/gombeek/videos">Gombeek</a> (which is also used on the <a href="https://forum.kodi.tv/search.php?action=results&#038;sid=fefb77a62a5757d8b628d2ec23162ac5">official Kodi forums</a>), the channel is full of videos detailing how to install and use a wide range of addons.</p>
<p><center><b>The No-issue YouTube Channel tutorials</b><a href="media/b4f9574e.raw4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/raw4.png"><img src="media/82be9495.raw4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/raw4.png" alt="" width="1277" height="826" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144483"></a></center></p>
<p>But while supplying tutorial videos is one thing, providing the actual software addons is another. Surprisingly, No-Issue does that too. Filed away under the URL <a href="http://solved.no-issue.is/">http://solved.no-issue.is/</a> is a Kodi repository which distributes a <a href="media/5a0a13de.repository.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/repository.png">wide range of addons</a>, including many that specialize in infringing content, according to the Kodi team.</p>
<p><center><b>The No-Issue repository</b><a href="media/31ff28c1.no-issue5.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/no-issue5.png"><img src="media/0d0d4054.no-issue5.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/no-issue5.png" alt="" width="639" height="728" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144494"></a></center></p>
<p>A source familiar with Raw-Media&#8217;s devices informs TF that they&#8217;re no longer delivered with addons installed. However, tools hosted on No-Issue.is automate the installation process for the customer, with <a href="http://no-issue.is/videos/raw-media.html">unlisted YouTube Videos</a> (<a href="https://youtu.be/4y-VNDdIaRw">1</a>,<a href="https://youtu.be/xTK8tPR4hgg">2</a>) providing the instructions.</p>
<p>XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen says that situation isn&#8217;t ideal.</p>
<p>&#8220;If that really is his repo it is disappointing to see that Gavora is charging a fee or outright preventing the sale of boxes with Kodi installed that do not include infringing add-ons, while at the same time he is distributing boxes himself that do include the infringing add-ons like this,&#8221; Betzen told TF.</p>
<p>While the legality of this type of service is yet to be properly tested in Canada and may yet emerge as entirely permissible under local law, Gavora himself previously described his business as operating in a gray area.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I could go back in time four years, I would&#8217;ve been more aggressive in the beginning because there was a lot of uncertainty being in a gray market business about how far I could push it,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I really shouldn&#8217;t say it&#8217;s a gray market because everything I do is completely above board, I just felt it was more gray market so I was a bit scared,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>But, legality aside (which will be determined in due course through various cases <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-box-sellers-fail-overturn-sales-ban-canada-170321/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-returns-ugly-war-canadian-telcos-kodi-addons-170801/">2</a>), the situation is still problematic when it comes to the Kodi trademark.</p>
<p>The official Kodi team indicate they don&#8217;t want to be associated with any kind of questionable addon or even tutorials for the same. Nevertheless, several of the addons installed by No-Issue (including PrimeWire, cCloud TV, Genesis, Icefilms, MoviesHD, MuchMovies and Navi-X, to name a few), are present on the Kodi team&#8217;s <a href="http://kodi.wiki/view/Official:Forum_rules/Banned_add-ons">official ban list</a>.</p>
<p>The fact remains, however, that Gavora successfully registered the trademark in Canada (one month later it was transferred to a <a href="https://albertacorporations.com/2009809-alberta-ltd">brand new company</a> at the <a href="media/5eeec826.01_Jan14_Registrar.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.qp.alberta.ca/documents/gazette/2017/pdf/01_Jan14_Registrar.pdf">same address</a>), and Kodi now have no control over the situation in the country, short of a settlement or some kind of legal action.</p>
<p>Kodi matters aside, though, we get more insight into Gavora&#8217;s attitudes towards intellectual property after learning that he studied gemology and jewelry at school. He&#8217;s a long-standing member of jewelry discussion forum Ganoskin.com (<a href="https://orchid.ganoksin.com/u/geoff_gavora/summary">his profile</a> links to Gavora.com, <a href="https://whoisology.com/email/archive_11/geoff@gavora.com">a domain Gavora owns</a>, as per information <a href="http://bbs.ichuanglan.com/thread-49153-1-1.html">supplied by Amazon</a>).</p>
<p>Things get particularly topical in a 2006 thread titled &#8220;<a href="https://orchid.ganoksin.com/t/when-your-work-gets-ripped/29787/5">When your work gets ripped</a>&#8220;. The original poster asked how people feel when their jewelry work gets copied and Gavora made his opinions known.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that what most people forget to remember is that when a piece from Tiffany&#8217;s or Cartier is ripped off or copied they don&#8217;t usually just copy the work, they will stamp it with their name as well,&#8221; Gavora said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is, in fact, fraud and they are deceiving clients into believing they are purchasing genuine Tiffany&#8217;s or Cartier pieces. The client is in fact more interested in purchasing from an artist than they are the piece. Laying claim to designs (unless a symbol or name is involved) is outrageous.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unless that &#8216;design&#8217; is called Kodi, of course, then it&#8217;s possible to claim it as your own through an administrative process and begin demanding licensing fees from the public. That being said, Gavora does seem to flip back and forth a little, later suggesting that being copied is sometimes ok.</p>
<p>&#8220;If someone copies your design and produces it under their own name, I think one should be honored and revel in the fact that your design is successful and has caused others to imitate it and grow from it,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;I look forward to the day I see one of my original designs copied, that is the day I will know my design is a success.&#8221;</p>
<p>From their public statements, this opinion isn&#8217;t shared by the Kodi team in respect of their product. Despite the Kodi name, software and logo being all their own work, they now find themselves having to claw back rights in Canada, in order to keep the product free in the region. For now, however, that seems like a difficult task.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak wrote to Gavora and asked him why he felt the need to register the Kodi trademark, but we received no response. That means we didn&#8217;t get the chance to ask him why he&#8217;s taking down Amazon listings for other people&#8217;s devices, or about something else that came up in the podcast.</p>
<p>&#8220;My biggest weakness, I guess, is that I&#8217;m too ethical about how I do my business,&#8221; he said, referring to how he deals with customers.</p>
<p>Only time will tell how that philosophy will affect Gavora&#8217;s attitudes to trademarks and people&#8217;s desire not to be charged for using free, open source software.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144411
title: Can an Army of Bitcoin “Bounty Hunters” Deter Pirates?
uri: Can-an-Army-of-Bitcoin-Bounty-Hunters-Deter-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QcFSiodqQkQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/c3f587a1.ebook-ereader.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ebook-ereader.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144637">When we first heard of the idea to use <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bitcoin-bounties-aim-to-turn-pirates-into-snitches-150710/">Bitcoin bounties</a> to track down pirated content online, we scratched our heads.</p>
<p>Snitching on copyright infringers is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bsa-offers-facebook-users-cash-rat-pirates-140215/">not a new concept</a>, but the idea of instant cash rewards though cryptocurrency was quite novel. </p>
<p>In theory, it&#8217;s pretty straightforward. Content producers can add a unique identifying watermark into movies, eBooks, or other digital files before they&#8217;re circulated. When these somehow leak to the public, the bounty hunters use the watermark to claim their Bitcoin, alerting the owner in the process.</p>
<p>This helps to spot leaks early on, even on networks where automated tools don&#8217;t have access, and identify the source at the same time.  </p>
<p>Two years have passed and it looks like the idea was no fluke. <a href="https://custostech.com/">Custos</a>, the South African company that owns the technology, has various copyright holders on board and recently announced a new partnership with book publisher <a href="http://www.eruditiondigital.co.uk/">Erudition Digital</a>.</p>
<p>With help from anti-piracy outfit Digimarc, the companies will add identifying watermarks to eBook releases, counting on the bounty hunters to keep an eye out for leaks. These bounty hunters don&#8217;t have to be anti-piracy experts. On the contrary, pirates are more than welcome to help out.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Custos approach is revolutionary in that it attacks the economy of piracy by targeting uploaders rather than downloaders, turning downloaders into an early detection network,&#8221; the companies announced a few days ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;The result is pirates turn on one another, sowing seeds of distrust amongst their communities. As a result, the Custos system is capable of penetrating hard-to-reach places such as the dark web, peer-to-peer networks, and even email.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/dad135a7.bitbounty.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitbounty.png" alt="" width="600" height="293" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144636"></center></p>
<p>Devon Weston, Director of Market Development for <a href="https://www.digimarc.com">Digimarc</a> Guardian, believes that this approach is the next level in anti-piracy efforts. It complements the automated detection tools that have been available in the past by providing access to hard-to-reach places. </p>
<p>“Together, this suite of products represents the next generation in technical measures against eBook piracy,” Weston commented on the partnership. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Custos COO Fred Lutz to find out what progress the company has made in recent years. We were informed that they have been protecting thousands of copies every month, ranging from pre-release movie content to eBooks.</p>
<p>At the moment the company works with a selected group of &#8220;bounty hunters,&#8221; but they plan to open the extraction tool to the public in the near future, so everyone can join in.</p>
<p>&#8220;So far we have carefully seeded the free bounty extractor tool in relevant communities with great success. However, in the next phase, we will open the bounty hunting to the general public. We are just careful not to grow the bounty hunting community faster than the number of bounties in the wild require,&#8221; Lutz tells us.</p>
<p>The Bitcoin bounties themselves vary in size based on the specific use case. For a movie screener, they are typically anything between $10 and $50. However, for the most sensitive content, they can be $100 or more.</p>
<p>&#8220;We can also adjust the bounty over time based on the customer’s needs. A low-quality screener that was very sensitive prior to cinematic release does not require as large a bounty after cam-rips becomes available,&#8221; Lutz notes.</p>
<p>Thus far, roughly 50 Bitcoin bounties have been claimed. Some of these were planted by Custos themselves, as an incentive for the bounty hunters. Not a very high number, but that doesn&#8217;t mean that it&#8217;s not working.  </p>
<p>&#8220;While this number might seem a bit small compared to the number of copies we protect, our aim is first and foremost not to detect leaks, but to pose a credible threat of quick detection and being caught.&#8221; </p>
<p>People who receive content protected by Custos are made aware of the watermarks, which may make them think twice about sharing it. If that&#8217;s the case, then it&#8217;s having effect without any bounties being claimed.</p>
<p>The question remains how many people will actively help to spot bounties. The success of the system largely depends on volunteers, and not all pirates are eager to rat on the people that provide free content. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there&#8217;s also room to abuse the system. In theory, people could claim the bounties on their own eBooks and claim that they&#8217;ve lost their e-reader. That would be fraud, of course, but since the bounties are in Bitcoin this isn&#8217;t easy to prove. </p>
<p>That brings us to the final question. What happens of a claimed bounty identifies a leaker? Custos admits that this alone isn&#8217;t enough evidence to pursue a legal case, but the measures that are taken in response are up to the copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;A claim of a bounty is never a sufficient legal proof of piracy, instead, it is an invaluable first piece of evidence on which a legal case could be built if the client so requires. Legal prosecution is definitely not always the best approach to dealing with leaks,&#8221; Lutz says. </p>
<p>Time will tell if the Bitcoin bounty approach works&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=143180
title: Inside the MPAA, Netflix & Amazon Global Anti-Piracy Alliance
uri: Inside-the-MPAA-Netflix-Amazon-Global-Anti-Piracy-Alliance
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BFUg_Gg5cYY/
content:
<p><img src="media/51f4f7b3.ace-members.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ace-members.png" width="260" height="341" class="alignright size-large">The idea of collaboration in the anti-piracy arena isn&#8217;t new but an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/global-entertainment-giants-form-massive-anti-piracy-coalition-170613/">announcement</a> this summer heralded what is destined to become the largest project the entertainment industry has ever seen.</p>
<p>The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (<a href="http://alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a>) is a coalition of 30 companies that reads like a who’s who of the global entertainment market. In alphabetical order its members are:</p>
<p><em>Amazon, AMC Networks, BBC Worldwide, Bell Canada and Bell Media, Canal+ Group, CBS Corporation, Constantin Film, Foxtel, Grupo Globo, HBO, Hulu, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Millennium Media, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount Pictures, SF Studios, Sky, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Star India, Studio Babelsberg, STX Entertainment, Telemundo, Televisa, Twentieth Century Fox, Univision Communications Inc., Village Roadshow, The Walt Disney Company, and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.</em></p>
<p>The aim of the project is clear. Instead of each company considering its anti-piracy operations as a distinct island, ACE will bring them all together while presenting a united front to decision and lawmakers. At the core of the Alliance will be the MPAA.</p>
<p>“ACE, with its broad coalition of creators from around the world, is designed, specifically, to leverage the best possible resources to reduce piracy,”<br>
outgoing MPAA chief Chris Dodd said in June.</p>
<p>“For decades, the MPAA has been the gold standard for antipiracy enforcement. We are proud to provide the MPAA’s worldwide antipiracy resources and the deep expertise of our antipiracy unit to support ACE and all its initiatives.”</p>
<p>Since then, ACE and its members have been silent on the project. Today, however, TorrentFreak can pull back the curtain, revealing how the agreement between the companies will play out, who will be in control, and how much the scheme will cost.</p>
<p><strong>Power structure: Founding Members &#038; Executive Committee Members</strong></p>
<p>Netflix, Inc., Amazon Studios LLC, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLC, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, are the &#8216;Founding Members&#8217; (Governing Board) of ACE. </p>
<p>These companies are granted full voting rights on ACE business, including the approval of initiatives and public policy, anti-piracy strategy, budget-related matters, plus approval of legal action. Not least, they&#8217;ll have the power to admit or expel ACE members.</p>
<p>All actions taken by the Governing Board (never to exceed nine members) need to be approved by consensus, with each Founding Member able to vote for or against decisions. Members are also allowed to abstain but one persistent objection will be enough to stop any matter being approved.</p>
<p>The second tier &#8211; &#8216;Executive Committee Members&#8217; &#8211; is comprised of all the other companies in the ACE project (as listed above, minus the Governing Board). These companies will not be allowed to vote on ACE initiatives but can present ideas and strategies. They&#8217;ll also be allowed to suggest targets for law enforcement action while utilizing the MPAA&#8217;s anti-piracy resources.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/51f4f7b3.ace-members.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ace-members.png" width="650" height="854" class="aligncenter size-large"></center></p>
<p><strong>Rights of all members</strong></p>
<p>While all members of ACE can utilize the alliance&#8217;s resources, none are barred from simultaneously &#8216;going it alone&#8217; on separate anti-piracy initiatives. None of these strategies and actions need approval from the Founding Members, provided they&#8217;re carried out in a company&#8217;s own name and at its own expense.</p>
<p>Information obtained by TorrentFreak indicates that the MPAA also reserves the right to carry out anti-piracy actions in its own name or on behalf of its member studios. The pattern here is different, since the MPAA&#8217;s global anti-piracy resources are the same resources being made available to the ACE alliance and for which members have paid to share.</p>
<p><strong>Expansion of ACE</strong></p>
<p>While ACE membership is already broad, the alliance is prepared to take on additional members, providing certain criteria are met. Crucially, any prospective additions must be owners or producers of movies and/or TV shows. The Governing Board will then vet applicants to ensure that they meet the criteria for acceptance as a new Executive Committee Members.</p>
<p><strong>ACE Operations</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/1b5440c0.mpaa-logo1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo1.jpg"><img src="media/394b6768.mpaa-logo1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo1.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="112" class="alignright size-full wp-image-36694"></a>The nine Governing Board members will meet at least four times a year, with each nominating a senior executive to serve as its representative. The MPAA&#8217;s General Counsel will take up the position of non-voting member of the Governing Board and will chair its meetings.</p>
<p>Matters to be discussed include formulating and developing the alliance&#8217;s &#8216;Global Anti-Piracy Action Plan&#8217; and approving and developing the budget. ACE will also form an Anti-Piracy Working Group, which is scheduled to meet at least once a month.</p>
<p>On a daily basis, the MPAA and its staff will attend to the business of the ACE alliance. The MPAA will carry out its own work too but when presenting to outside third parties, it will clearly state which &#8220;hat&#8221; it is currently wearing.</p>
<p>Much deliberation has taken place over who should be the official spokesperson for ACE. Documents obtained by TF suggest that the MPAA planned to hire a consulting firm to find a person for the role, seeking a professional with international experience who had never been previously been connected with the MPAA.</p>
<p>They appear to have settled on <a href="http://www.apcoworldwide.com/about-us/our-people/bios/zoe-thorogood">Zoe Thorogood</a>, who previously worked for British Prime Minister David Cameron.</p>
<p><strong>Money, money, money</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/d579eec9.dollar-money.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dollar-money.jpg"><img src="media/2efdb268.dollar-money.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dollar-money.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-38877"></a>Of course, the ACE program isn&#8217;t going to fund itself, so all members are required to contribute to the operation. The MPAA has opened a dedicated bank account under its control specifically for the purpose, with members contributing depending on status.</p>
<p>Founding/Governing Board Members will be required to commit $5m each annually. However, none of the studios that are MPAA members will have to hand over any cash, since they already fund the MPAA, whose anti-piracy resources ACE is built.</p>
<p>&#8220;Each Governing Board Member will contribute annual dues in an amount equal to $5 million USD. Payment of dues shall be made bi-annually in equal shares, payable at<br>
the beginning of each six (6) month period,&#8221; the ACE agreement reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The contribution of MPAA personnel, assets and resources&#8230;will constitute and be considered as full payment of each MPAA Member Studio’s Governing Board dues.&#8221;</p>
<p>That leaves just Netflix and Amazon paying the full amount of $5m in cash each.</p>
<p>From each company&#8217;s contribution, $1m will be paid into legal trust accounts allocated to each Governing Board member. If ACE-agreed litigation and legal expenses exceed that amount for the year, members will be required to top up their accounts to cover their share of the costs.</p>
<p>For the remaining 21 companies on the Executive Committee, annual dues are $200,000 each, to be paid in one installment at the start of the financial year &#8211; $4.2m all in. Of all dues paid by all members from both tiers, half will be used to boost anti-piracy resources, over and above what the MPAA will spend on the same during 2017.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fifty percent (50%) of all dues received from Global Alliance Members other than<br>
the MPAA Member Studios&#8230;shall, as agreed by the Governing Board, be used (a) to increase the resources spent on online antipiracy over and above&#8230;.the amount of MPAA’s 2017 Content Protection Department budget for online antipiracy initiatives/operations,&#8221; an internal ACE document reads.</p>
<p><strong>Intellectual property</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/cdef4830.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg"><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"></a>As the project moves forward, the Alliance expects to gain certain knowledge and experience. On the back of that, the MPAA hopes to grow its intellectual property portfolio.</p>
<p>&#8220;Absent written agreement providing otherwise, any and all data, intellectual property, copyrights, trademarks, or know-how owned and/or contributed to the Global Alliance by MPAA, or developed or created by the MPAA or the Global Alliance during the Term of this Charter, shall remain and/or become the exclusive property of the MPAA,&#8221; the ACE agreement reads.</p>
<p>That being said, all Governing Board Members will also be granted &#8220;perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive licenses&#8221; to use the same under certain rules, even in the event they leave the ACE initiative.</p>
<p><strong>Terms and extensions</strong></p>
<p>Any member may withdraw from the Alliance at any point, but there will be no refunds. Additionally, any financial commitment previously made to litigation will have to be honored by the member.</p>
<p>The ACE agreement has an initial term of two years but Governing Board Members will meet not less than three months before it is due to expire to vote on any extension.</p>
<p><strong>To be continued&#8230;&#8230;</strong></p>
<p>With the internal structure of ACE now revealed, all that remains is to discover the contents of the initiative&#8217;s &#8216;Global Anti-Piracy Action Plan&#8217;. To date, that document has proven elusive but with an operation of such magnitude, future leaks are a distinct possibility.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144785
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/18/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-18-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/O5cysAavJpw/
content:
<p><img src="media/249d9cae.piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" alt="" width="250" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139042">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are 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-091117/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5V5C8mEVzY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">Transformers: The Last Knight</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vtf0MszgP8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/">Baby Driver</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9YZw_X5UzQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Afusxc2SM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/">It</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUTdjf9rko">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462602/">The Big Sick</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5462602/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MF14JJkOrSI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz-KBBfAAo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/">Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3896198/?">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duGqrYw4usE">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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144789
title: Ukraine Faces Call for US Trade Sanctions over Online Piracy
uri: Ukraine-Faces-Call-for-US-Trade-Sanctions-over-Online-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mvr8ghJOOMc/
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">The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is recommending that the U.S. Government should suspend Ukraine&#8217;s <a href="https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/266/~/generalized-system-of-preferences-%28gsp%29">GSP trade benefits</a>, claiming that the country doesn&#8217;t do enough to protect the interests of copyright holders.</p>
<p>Last year Ukraine enjoyed $53.7 million in unilateral duty-free benefits in the US, while US companies suffering millions of dollars in losses in Ukraine due to online piracy, they argue. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.iipawebsite.com/">IIPA</a>, which includes a wide range of copyright groups including the MPAA, RIAA, BSA and ESA, characterizes the country as a safe harbor for pirate sites. While physical piracy was properly addressed ten years ago after a previous sanction, digital piracy remains rampant. </p>
<p>One of the main problems is that local hosting companies are offering their services to a wide variety of copyright-infringing websites. Without proper enforcement, more and more websites have moved their services there.</p>
<p>&#8220;By allowing these problems to fester for years, weak digital enforcement has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of illegal peer-to-peer (&#8216;P2P&#8217;) hosting and website-based Internet piracy sites, including some of the world’s largest BitTorrent sites located in Ukraine,&#8221; IIPA writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Some Internet pirates have purposefully moved their servers and operations to Ukraine in the past few years to take advantage of the current lawless situation. Many of these illegal services and sites target audiences throughout Europe and the United States.&#8221;</p>
<p>The copyright holders highlight the defunct ExtraTorrent site as an example but note that there are also many other torrent sites, pirate streaming sites, cyberlockers, and linking sites in Ukraine. </p>
<p>While pirate sites are hosted all over the world, the problem is particularly persistent in Ukraine because many local hosting companies fail to process takedown requests. This, despite repeated calls from copyright holders to work with them. </p>
<p>&#8220;Many of the websites offering pirated copyright materials are thriving in part because of the support of local ISPs,&#8221; IIPA writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The copyright industries have, for years, sought private agreements with ISPs to establish effective mechanisms to take down illegal websites and slow illegal P2P traffic. In the absence of legislation, however, these voluntary efforts have generally not succeeded, although, some ISPs will delete links upon request.&#8221; </p>
<p>In order to make real progress, the copyright holders call for new legislation to hold Internet services accountable and to make it easier to come after pirate sites that are hosted in Ukraine.</p>
<p>&#8220;Legislation is needed to institute proper notice and takedown provisions, including a requirement that service providers terminate access to individuals (or entities) that have repeatedly engaged in infringement, and the retention of information for law enforcement, as well as to provide clear third party liability regarding ISPs.&#8221; </p>
<p>In addition to addressing online piracy, IIPA further points out that the collecting societies in Ukraine are not functioning properly. At the moment there are 18 active and competing organizations, creating a chaotic situation where rightsholders are not properly rewarded, they suggest. </p>
<p>IIPA recommends that the U.S. Government accepts its petition and suspends or withdraws Ukraine’s benefits until the country takes proper action. </p>
<p>Ukraine&#8217;s Government, for its part, informs the US Government that progress is being made. There are already several new laws in the works to improve intellectual property protection. The issue is one of the Government&#8217;s &#8220;key priorities,&#8221; they state, hoping to avert any sanctions.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>IIPA&#8217;s full submission to the US Trade Representative is <a href="media/020893a8.Ukraine.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Ukraine.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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144794
title: TVAddons: A Law Firm is Not Spying on Our Kodi Users
uri: TVAddons-A-Law-Firm-is-Not-Spying-on-Our-Kodi-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OZLw0abXJZ0/
content:
<p><a href="media/a8fa363c.tvaddons-co.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-co.jpg"><img src="media/af219c81.tvaddons-co.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-co.jpg" alt="" width="358" height="146" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144800"></a>A few months ago, TVAddons was without doubt the leading repository for third-party Kodi addons.</p>
<p>During March, the platform had 40 million unique users connected to the site’s servers, together transferring a petabyte of addons and updates.</p>
<p>In June, however, things started to fall apart. After news broke that the site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">being sued</a> in a federal court in Texas, TVAddons disappeared. It was assumed these events were connected but it later transpired the platform was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-returns-ugly-war-canadian-telcos-kodi-addons-170801/">being used in Canada</a> as well, and that was the true reason for the downtime.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s easy to be wise after the event, in hindsight it might&#8217;ve been better for the platform to go public about the Canadian matter quite a bit sooner than it did. Of course, there are always legal considerations that prevent early disclosure, but when popular sites disappear into a black hole, two plus two can quickly equal five when fed through the web&#8217;s rumor machine.</p>
<p>Things weren&#8217;t helped in July when it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/several-tvaddons-domains-transferred-to-canadian-lawfirm-170718/">discovered</a> that the site&#8217;s former domains had been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-security-risk-emerges-after-tvaddons-shutdown-170723/">handed over</a> to a Canada-based law firm. Again, no official explanation was forthcoming and again, people became concerned.</p>
<p>If this had been a plaintiff&#8217;s law firm, people would&#8217;ve had good reason to worry, since it would have been technically possible to spy on TVAddons&#8217; users. However, as the truth began to filter out and court papers became available, it soon became crystal clear that simply wasn&#8217;t the case.</p>
<p>The bottom line, which is backed up by publicly available court papers, is that the law firm holding the old TVAddons domains is not the law firm suing TVAddons. Instead, it was appointed by the court to hold TVAddons&#8217; property until the Canadian lawsuit is brought to a conclusion, whenever that might be.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have a legal obligation to protect our property at all cost, and prevent anyone (especially the law firm who is suing is) from gaining access to them,&#8221; <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/tvaddons-xbmchub-domains/">says</a> TVAddons. </p>
<p>&#8220;The law firm who is holding them is doing nothing more than protecting our property until the time that it will finally be returned after the appeal takes place.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unfortunately, assurances provided by TVAddons and information published by the court itself hasn&#8217;t been enough to stop some people fearing the worst. While the facts have plenty of support on Twitter and Facebook, there also appears to be an element who would like to see TVAddons fail in its efforts to re-establish itself.</p>
<p>Only time will tell who will win that battle but in the meantime, TVAddons has tried to cover all the bases in an <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/tvaddons-xbmchub-domains/">update post</a> on its blog.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144854
title: A Million ‘Pirate’ Boxes Sold in the UK During The Last Two Years
uri: A-Million-Pirate-Boxes-Sold-in-the-UK-During-The-Last-Two-Years
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NT8c18PWAg0/
content:
<p><a href="media/19b8c4e4.fact-man.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fact-man.jpg"><img src="media/a7dcb68e.fact-man.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fact-man.jpg" alt="" width="228" height="220" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144864"></a>With the devices hitting the headlines on an almost weekly basis, it probably comes as no surprise that &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top boxes are quickly becoming public enemy number one with video rightsholders.</p>
<p>Typically loaded with the legal Kodi software but augmented with third-party addons, these often Android-based pieces of hardware drag piracy out of the realm of the computer savvy and into the living rooms of millions.</p>
<p>One of the countries reportedly most affected by this boom is the UK. The consumption of these devices among the general public is said to have reached epidemic proportions, and anecdotal evidence suggests that terms like Kodi and Showbox are now household terms.</p>
<p>Today we have another report to digest, this time from the Federation Against Copyright Theft, or FACT as they&#8217;re often known. Titled &#8216;Cracking Down on Digital Piracy,&#8217; the report provides a general overview of the piracy scene, tackling well-worn topics such as how release groups and site operators work, among others.</p>
<p>The report is produced by FACT after consultation with the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit, Intellectual Property Office, Police Scotland, and anti-piracy outfit Entura International. It begins by noting that the vast majority of the British public aren&#8217;t involved in the consumption of infringing content.</p>
<p>&#8220;The most recent stats show that 75% of Brits who look at content online abide by the law and don’t download or stream it illegally – up from 70% in 2013. However, that still leaves 25% who do access material illegally,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>The report quickly heads to the topic of &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top boxes which is unsurprising, not least due to FACT&#8217;s current focus as a business entity.</p>
<p>While it often positions itself alongside government bodies (which no doubt boosts its status with the general public), FACT is a private limited company serving <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-wins-new-stream-blocking-injunction-to-fight-piracy-170727/">The Premier League</a>, another company desperate to stamp out the use of infringing devices.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it&#8217;s difficult to argue with some of the figures cited in the report.</p>
<p>&#8220;At a conservative estimate, we believe a million set-top boxes with software added<br>
to them to facilitate illegal downloads have been sold in the UK in the last couple<br>
of years,” the Intellectual Property Office reveals.</p>
<p>Interestingly, given a growing tech-savvy public, FACT&#8217;s report notes that ready-configured boxes are increasingly coming into the country.</p>
<p>&#8220;Historically, individuals and organized gangs have added illegal apps and add-ons onto the boxes once they have been imported, to allow illegal access to premium channels. However more recently, more boxes are coming into the UK complete with illegal access to copyrighted content via apps and add-ons already installed,&#8221; FACT notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Boxes are often stored in &#8216;fulfillment houses&#8217; along with other illegal electrical items and sold on social media. The boxes are either sold as one-off purchases, or with a monthly subscription to access paid-for channels.&#8221;</p>
<p>While FACT press releases regularly blur the lines when people are prosecuted for supplying set-top boxes in general, it&#8217;s important to note that there are essentially two kinds of products on offer to the public.</p>
<p>The first relies on Kodi-type devices which provide on-going free access to infringing content. The second involves premium IPTV subscriptions which are a whole different level of criminality. Separating the two when reading news reports can be extremely difficult, but it&#8217;s a hugely important to recognize the difference when assessing the kinds of sentences set-top box suppliers are receiving in the UK.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, FACT correctly highlights that the supply of both kinds of product are on the increase, with various parties recognizing the commercial opportunities.</p>
<p>&#8220;A significant number of home-grown British criminals are now involved in this type of crime. Some of them import the boxes wholesale through entirely legal channels, and modify them with illegal software at home. Others work with sophisticated criminal networks across Europe to bring the boxes into the UK.</p>
<p>&#8220;They then sell these boxes online, for example through eBay or Facebook, sometimes managing to sell hundreds or thousands of boxes before being caught,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>The report notes that in some cases the sale of infringing set-top boxes occurs through cottage industry, with suppliers often working on their own or with small groups of friends and family. Invetiably, perhaps, larger scale operations are reported to be part of networks with connections to other kinds of crime, such as dealing in drugs.</p>
<p>&#8220;In contrast to drugs, streaming devices provide a relatively steady and predictable revenue stream for these criminals – while still being lucrative, often generating hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, they are seen as a lower risk activity with less likelihood of leading to arrest or imprisonment,&#8221; FACT reports.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s certainly the potential to earn large sums from &#8216;pirate&#8217; boxes and premium IPTV services, operating on the &#8220;hundreds of thousands of pounds a year&#8221; scale in the UK would attract a lot of unwanted attention. That&#8217;s not saying that it isn&#8217;t already, however.</p>
<p>Noting that digital piracy has evolved hugely over the past three or four years, the report says that the cases investigated so far are just the &#8220;tip of the iceberg&#8221; and that many other cases are in the early stages and will only become known to the public in the months and years ahead.</p>
<p>Indeed, the Intellectual Property Office hints that some kind of large-scale enforcement action may be on the horizon.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have identified a significant criminal business model which we have discussed and shared with key law enforcement partners. I can’t go into detail on this, but as investigations take their course, you will see the scale,” an IPO spokesperson reveals.</p>
<p>While details are necessarily scarce, a source familiar with this area told TF that he would be very surprised if the targets aren&#8217;t the growing handful of commercial UK-based IPTV re-sellers who offer full subscription TV services for a few pounds per month.</p>
<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re brazen. Watch this space,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p><em>FACT&#8217;s full report, Cracking Down on Digital Piracy, can be downloaded here (<a href="media/adcb1a48.Cracking-Down-on-Digital-Piracy-Report-Sept-2017.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.fact-uk.org.uk/files/2017/09/Cracking-Down-on-Digital-Piracy-Report-Sept-2017.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144884
title: Stream Ripping Piracy Goes From Bad to Worse, Music Industry Reports
uri: Stream-Ripping-Piracy-Goes-From-Bad-to-Worse-Music-Industry-Reports
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KJl6264jKhQ/
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">Free music is easy to find nowadays. Just head over to YouTube and you can find millions of tracks including many of the most recent releases.</p>
<p>While the music industry profits from the advertisements on many of these videos, it&#8217;s not happy with the current state of affairs. Record labels complain about a &#8220;value gap&#8221; and go as far as accusing the video streaming platform of operating a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-says-youtube-is-running-a-dmca-protection-racket-160412/">DMCA protection racket</a>. </p>
<p>YouTube doesn&#8217;t agree with this stance and points to the <a href="https://youtube.googleblog.com/2017/08/five-observations-from-my-time-at.html">billions of dollars</a> it pays copyright holders. Still, the music industry is far from impressed.  </p>
<p>Today, IFPI has released a new <a href="http://www.ifpi.org/news/IFPI-releases-2017-music-consumer-insight-report">music consumer insight report</a> that highlights this issue once again, while pointing out that YouTube accounts for more than half of all music video streaming.</p>
<p>&#8220;User upload services, such as YouTube, are heavily used by music consumers and yet do not return fair value to those who are investing in and creating the music. The Value Gap remains the single biggest threat facing the music world today and we are campaigning for a legislative solution,&#8221; IFPI CEO Frances Moore writes. </p>
<p>The report also zooms in on piracy and &#8220;stream ripping&#8221; in particular, which is another YouTube and Google related issue. While this phenomenon is over a decade old, it&#8217;s now the main source of music piracy, the report states. </p>
<p>A survey conducted in the world&#8217;s leading music industry markets reveals that 35% of all Internet users are stream rippers, up from 30% last year. In total, 40% of all respondents admitted to obtaining unlicensed music.</p>
<p><center><strong>35% stream ripping (source IFPI)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/21fdd71f.streamrip.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamrip.png" alt="" width="600" height="244" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144888"></center></p>
<p>This means that the vast majority of all music pirates use stream ripping tools. This practice is particularly popular among those in the youngest age group, where more than half of all Internet users admit to ripping music, and it goes down as age increases.</p>
<p>Adding another stab at Google, the report further notes that more than half of all pirates use the popular search engine to find unlicensed music. </p>
<p><center><strong>Stream rippers are young (source IFPI)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/18181509.streamrip1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamrip1.png" alt="" width="600" height="362" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144889"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to former RIAA executive Neil Turkewitz, who has been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-industry-urges-youtube-to-block-stream-rippers-170911/">very vocal</a> about the stream ripping problem. He now heads his own consulting group that focuses on expanding economic cultural prosperity, particularly online. </p>
<p>Stream ripping is a &#8220;double whammy,&#8221; Turkewitz says, as it&#8217;s undermining both streaming and distribution markets. This affects the bottom line of labels and artists, so YouTube should do more to block stream rippers and converters from exploiting the service.</p>
<p>&#8220;YouTube and Alphabet talk of their commitment to expanding opportunities for creators. This is an opportunity to prove it,&#8221; Turkewitz informs TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;Surely the company that, as Eric Schmidt likes to say, &#8216;knows what people want before they know it&#8217; has the capacity to develop tools to address problems that inhibit the development of a robust online market that sustains creators.&#8221;</p>
<p>While stream ripping remains rampant, there is a positive development the music industry can cling to.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago the major record labels managed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-settles-with-riaa-site-will-shut-down-170904/">take down YouTube-MP3</a>, the largest ripping site of all. While this is a notable success, there are many sites and tools like it that continue business as usual.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144879
title: Another Chinese Developer Arrested For Selling VPN Access
uri: Another-Chinese-Developer-Arrested-For-Selling-VPN-Access
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/aey79untMDA/
content:
<p><img src="media/e49204f7.deniedblocked.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/deniedblocked.jpg" width="270" height="199" class="alignright size-large">Early 2017, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that due to Internet technologies and services expanding in a “disorderly” fashion, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-ban-unauthorized-vpn-services-in-internet-crackdown-170123/">regulation</a> would be needed to restore order.</p>
<p>Announcing measures to strengthen network information security management, the government said it would begin a &#8220;nationwide Internet network access services clean-up.”</p>
<p>Months later, it became evident that authorities were taking an even more aggressive stance towards Virtual Private Networks, since these allow citizens to evade the so-called Great Firewall of China. The government said that in future, operating such a service without a corresponding telecommunications license would constitute an offense.</p>
<p>Now, according to local news reports, a citizen who apparently failed to heed the government&#8217;s warnings has fallen foul of the new rules.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.thenanjinger.com/index.php/news/local-stories/item/2315-nanjing-man-detained-for-selling-vpns">The Nanjinger</a> reports that a software developer, named as Mr. Zhao from Nanjing, was arrested August 21 for contravening the new laws on VPN licensing.</p>
<p>Zhao reportedly told authorities he&#8217;d initially set up the VPN for his own use in order to access content hosted abroad, which presumably involved circumventing China&#8217;s firewall. However, once he recognized there was a demand, the developer decided to let others use the service for a small fee.</p>
<p>The prices he asked were indeed small &#8211; just $1.50 per month or around $18 for two years&#8217; service. Based on reported total revenues of just $164 for the entire business, it&#8217;s possible he had around 100 customers, or indeed far fewer.</p>
<p>What will happen to the man isn&#8217;t clear but he&#8217;ll be keen to avoid the fate of Deng Jiewei, who previously ran a small website through which he&#8217;d sold around $2,100 worth of VPN software.</p>
<p>Early September it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chinese-man-jailed-for-nine-months-for-selling-vpn-software-170904/">reported</a> that the 26-year-old had been sentenced to nine months in prison for offering tools that enable people to “visit foreign websites that cannot be accessed via a domestic (mainland) IP address.&#8221;</p>
<p>These cases are part of an emerging pattern in China centered around the supply and sale of VPN products and services. Back in July, Apple began <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/apple-bans-vpns-from-app-store-in-china-170729/">banning VPN applications</a> from its iOS store in China. The company reported that the apps contained content that is illegal locally, thereby violating the company&#8217;s policies.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144814
title: Windstream Gives Up Preemptive Fight Over ISP’s Piracy Liability
uri: Windstream-Gives-Up-Preemptive-Fight-Over-ISP-s-Piracy-Liability
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/r55KAb2KzT8/
content:
<p><img src="media/72f3c90d.windstream-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/windstream-logo.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="96" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124229">Can an Internet provider be held liable for subscribers who share pirated files? Yes, a Virginia federal jury <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">ruled two years ago</a>.</p>
<p>This verdict caused great uncertainty in the ISP industry, as several companies suddenly realized that they could become the next target.</p>
<p>Internet provider Windstream is among the companies that are worried about the fallout. With 1.1 million subscribers nationwide, it is one of the larger Internet providers in the United States. As such, it receives takedown notices on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Many of these notices come from music rights group BMG, which accused Windstream and its subscribers of various copyright infringements. These notices are issued by the monitoring outfit Rightscorp and often come with a settlement demand for the account holders.</p>
<p>When Windstream refused to forward these notices, as it&#8217;s not required to do so by law, BMG and Rightscorp increased the pressure. They threatened that the ISP could be liable for millions of dollars in piracy damages for failing to disconnect repeat infringers.</p>
<p>Faced with this threat, Windstream filed a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/were-not-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-windstream-tells-court-160629/">request for declaratory judgment</a> at a New York District Court last year, requesting a legal ruling on the matter. This preemptive lawsuit didn&#8217;t turn out as planned for the ISP. </p>
<p>In April the court ruled that there is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-cant-have-blanket-immunity-from-pirating-subscribers-court-rules-170420/">no &#8216;actual controversy&#8217;</a> and that it can’t issue a hypothetical and advisory opinion without concrete facts. As such, the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.</p>
<p>Windstream didn&#8217;t throw in the towel right away though and appealed the verdict. The ISP argued that the $150,000 in damages per infringement BMG claimed caused a real controversy.</p>
<p>&#8220;BMG’s accusations were not idle threats in light of the undisputed fact that BMG had recently obtained a $25,000,000 recovery against another conduit ISP based on similar claims,&#8221; the ISP wrote in a brief last month. </p>
<p>&#8220;Thus, the undisputed facts conclusively establish that an actual controversy exists to support Windstream’s request for a declaration that it is not liable for any alleged infringement of BMG’s copyrights.&#8221; </p>
<p>Despite Windstream&#8217;s initial persistence, something changed in recent weeks. Without any prior signs in the court docket, the company has now asked the Judge to dismiss the case entirely, with both parties paying their own costs. </p>
<p>&#8220;Windstream respectfully requests that this Court dismiss in full Windstream’s present appeal with prejudice against BMG and Rightscorp, with each party bearing its own costs in this appeal.&#8221;</p>
<p>While there is no mention of a settlement of any kind, BMG and Rightscorp do not oppose the request. This effectively means that the case is over. The same previously happened in a similar lawsuit, where Internet provider RCN demanded a declaratory judgment. </p>
<p>This means that all eyes are once again on the case between BMG and Cox Communications, which got this all started and is currently under appeal. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144981
title: Google Signs Agreement to Tackle YouTube Piracy
uri: Google-Signs-Agreement-to-Tackle-YouTube-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7kgvHC8HFj8/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec295b70.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png"><img src="media/367885e7.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="83" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135049"></a>Once upon a time, people complaining about piracy would point to the hundreds of piracy sites around the Internet. These days, criticism is just as likely to be leveled at Google-owned services.</p>
<p>YouTube, in particular, has come in for intense criticism, with the music industry complaining of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-says-youtube-is-running-a-dmca-protection-racket-160412/">exploitation of the DMCA</a> in order to obtain unfair streaming rates from record labels. Along with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/stream-ripping-piracy-goes-from-bad-to-worse-music-industry-reports-170919/">streaming-ripping</a>, this so-called Value Gap is one of the industry&#8217;s hottest topics.</p>
<p>With rightsholders seemingly at war with Google to varying degrees, news from France suggests that progress can be made if people sit down and negotiate.</p>
<p>According to local reports, Google and local anti-piracy outfit ALPA (l’Association de Lutte Contre la Piraterie Audiovisuelle) under the auspices of the <a href="http://www.cnc.fr/web/en/about-us">CNC</a> have signed an agreement to grant rightsholders direct access to content takedown mechanisms on YouTube.</p>
<p>YouTube has granted access to its Content ID systems to companies elsewhere for years but the new deal will see the system utilized by French content owners for the first time. It&#8217;s hoped that the access will result in infringing content being taken down or monetized more quickly than before.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not want fraudsters to use our platforms to the detriment of creators,&#8221; said Carlo D&#8217;Asaro Biondo, Google&#8217;s President of Strategic Relationships in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.</p>
<p>The agreement, overseen by the Ministry of Culture, will see Google provide ALPA with financial support and rightsholders with essential training.</p>
<p>ALPA president Nicolas Seydoux welcomed the deal, noting that it symbolizes the &#8220;collapse of the wall of incomprehension” that previously existed between France’s rightsholders and the Internet search giant.</p>
<p>The deal forms part of the French government&#8217;s &#8220;Plan of Action Against Piracy&#8221;, in which it hopes to crack down on infringement in various ways, including tackling the threat of pirate sites, better promotion of services offering legitimate content, and educating children &#8220;from an early age&#8221; on the need to respect copyright.</p>
<p>&#8220;The fight against piracy is the great challenge of the new century in the cultural sphere,&#8221; said France&#8217;s Minister of Culture, Françoise Nyssen.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope this is just the beginning of a process. It will require other agreements with rights holders and other platforms, as well as at the European level.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.nextinpact.com/news/105211-piratage-ce-que-dit-laccord-signe-entre-google-et-lalpa-sous-legide-cnc.htm">NextInpact</a>, the Google agreement will eventually encompass the downgrading of infringing content in search results as part of the Trusted Copyright Removal Program. A similar system is already <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">in place in the UK</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144778
title: Are Cryptocurrency Miners The Future for Pirate Sites?
uri: Are-Cryptocurrency-Miners-The-Future-for-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hicWpNPdrLE/
content:
<p><img src="media/82b1bfcc.coinhive.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coinhive.png" alt="" width="236" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144756">Last weekend The Pirate Bay surprised friend and foe by adding a Javascript-based <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-website-runs-a-cryptocurrency-miner-170916/">cryptocurrency miner</a> to its website.</p>
<p>The miner utilizes CPU power from visitors to generate Monero coins for the site, providing an extra revenue source. </p>
<p>Initially, this caused the CPUs of visitors to max out due to a configuration error, but it was later adjusted to be less demanding. Still, there was plenty of discussion on the move, with greatly varying opinions. </p>
<p>Some criticized the site for &#8220;hijacking&#8221; their computer resources for personal profit, without prior warning. However, there are also people who are happy to give something back to TPB, especially if it can help the site to remain online. </p>
<p>Aside from the configuration error, there was another major mistake everyone agreed on. The Pirate Bay team should have alerted its visitors to this change beforehand, and not after the fact, as they did last weekend. </p>
<p>Despite the sensitivities, The Pirate Bay&#8217;s move has inspired others to follow suit. Pirate linking site Alluc.ee is one of the first. While they use the same mining service, their implementation is more elegant. </p>
<p>Alluc shows how many hashes are mined and the site allows users to increase or decrease the CPU load, or turn the miner off completely.</p>
<p><center><strong>Alluc.ee miner</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/cb9cdf21.alluccoin.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/alluccoin.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="190" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-144927"></center></p>
<p>Putting all the controversy aside for a minute, the idea to let visitors mine coins is a pretty ingenious idea. The Pirate Bay said it was testing the feature to see if it&#8217;s possible as a replacement for ads, which might be much needed in the future.</p>
<p>In recent years many pirate sites have struggled to make a decent income. Not only are more people using ad-blockers now, the ad-quality is also dropping as copyright holders actively go after this revenue source, trying to dry up the funds of pirate sites. And with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chromes-default-ad-blocker-is-bad-news-for-torrent-sites-170705/">Chrome planning</a> to add a default ad-blocker to its browser, the outlook is grim. </p>
<p>A cryptocurrency miner might alleviate this problem. That is, as long as ad-blockers don&#8217;t start to interfere with this revenue source as well. </p>
<p>Interestingly, this would also counter one of the main anti-piracy <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hackers-use-pirate-sites-to-ruin-your-life-state-attorneys-general-warn-170727/">talking points</a>. Increasingly, industry groups are using the &#8220;public safety&#8221; argument as a reason to go after pirate sites. They point to malicious advertisements as a great danger, hoping that this will further their calls for tougher legislation and enforcement.</p>
<p>If The Pirate Bay and other pirate sites can ditch the ads, they would be less susceptible to these and other anti-piracy pushes. Of course, copyright holders could still go after the miner revenues, but this might not be easy.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to <a href="https://coin-hive.com/">Coinhive</a>, the company that provides the mining service to The Pirate Bay, and they don&#8217;t seem eager to take action without a court order.</p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t track where users come from. We are just providing servers and a script to submit hashes for the Monero blockchain. We don&#8217;t see it as our responsibility to determine if a website is &#8216;valid&#8217; and we don&#8217;t have the technical capabilities to do so,&#8221; a Coinhive representative says.</p>
<p>We also contacted several site owners and thus far the response has been mixed. Some like the idea and would consider adding a miner, if it doesn&#8217;t affect visitors too much. Others are more skeptical and don&#8217;t believe that the extra revenue is worth the trouble. </p>
<p>The Pirate Bay itself, meanwhile, has completed its test run and has removed the miner from the site. They will now analyze the results before deciding whether or not it&#8217;s &#8220;the future&#8221; for them.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144995
title: EU Piracy Report Suppression Raises Questions Over Transparency
uri: EU-Piracy-Report-Suppression-Raises-Questions-Over-Transparency
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pW0rWS61h6U/
content:
<p><a href="media/6542fb40.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg"><img src="media/19bd259d.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136985"></a>Over the years, copyright holders have made hundreds of statements against  piracy, mainly that it risks bringing industries to their knees through widespread and uncontrolled downloading from the Internet.</p>
<p>But while TV shows like Game of Thrones have been downloaded millions of times, the big question (one could argue the only really important question) is whether this activity actually affects sales. After all, if piracy has a massive negative effect on industry, something needs to be done. If it does not, why all the panic?</p>
<p>Quite clearly, the EU Commission wanted to find out the answer to this potential multi-billion dollar question when it made the decision to invest a staggering 360,000 euros in a dedicated study back in January 2014.</p>
<p>With a final title of &#8216;Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU&#8217;, the completed study is an intimidating 307 pages deep. Shockingly, until this week, few people even knew it existed because, for reasons unknown, the EU Commission decided not to release it.</p>
<p>However, thanks to the sheer persistence of Member of the European Parliament <a href="https://juliareda.eu/2017/09/secret-copyright-infringement-study/">Julia Reda</a>, the public now has a copy and it contains quite a few interesting conclusions. But first, some background.</p>
<p>The study uses data from 2014 and covers four broad types of content: music,<br>
audio-visual material, books and videogames. Unlike other reports, the study also considered live attendances of music and cinema visits in the key regions of Germany, UK, Spain, France, Poland and Sweden.</p>
<p>On average, 51% of adults and 72% of minors in the EU were found to have illegally downloaded or streamed any form of creative content, with Poland and Spain coming out as the worst offenders. However, here&#8217;s the kicker.</p>
<p>&#8220;In general, the results do not show robust statistical evidence of displacement of sales by online copyright infringements,&#8221; the study notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;That does not necessarily mean that piracy has no effect but only that the statistical analysis does not prove with sufficient reliability that there is an effect.&#8221;</p>
<p>For a study commissioned by the EU with huge sums of public money, this is a potentially damaging conclusion, not least for the countless industry bodies that lobby day in, day out, for tougher copyright law based on the &#8220;fact&#8221; that piracy is damaging to sales.</p>
<p>That being said, the study did find that certain sectors can be affected by piracy, notably recent top movies.</p>
<p>&#8220;The results show a displacement rate of 40 per cent which means that for every ten recent top films watched illegally, four fewer films are consumed legally,&#8221; the study notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;People do not watch many recent top films a second time but if it happens, displacement is lower: two legal consumptions are displaced by every ten illegal second views. This suggests that the displacement rate for older films is lower than the 40 per cent for recent top films. All in all, the estimated loss for recent top films is 5 per cent of current sales volumes.&#8221;  </p>
<p>But while there is some negative effect on the movie industry, others can benefit. The study found that piracy had a slightly positive effect on the videogames industry, suggesting that those who play pirate games eventually become buyers of official content.</p>
<p>On top of displacement rates, the study also looked at the public&#8217;s willingness to pay for content, to assess whether price influences pirate consumption. Interestingly, the industry that had the most displaced sales &#8211; the movie industry &#8211; had the greatest number of people unhappy with its pricing model.</p>
<p>&#8220;Overall, the analysis indicates that for films and TV-series current prices are higher than 80 per cent of the illegal downloaders and streamers are willing to pay,&#8221; the study notes. </p>
<p>For other industries, where sales were not found to have been displaced or were positively affected by piracy, consumer satisfaction with pricing was greatest.</p>
<p>&#8220;For books, music and games, prices are at a level broadly corresponding to the<br>
willingness to pay of illegal downloaders and streamers. This suggests that a<br>
decrease in the price level would not change piracy rates for books, music and<br>
games but that prices can have an effect on displacement rates for films and<br>
TV-series,&#8221; the study concludes.</p>
<p>So, it appears that products that are priced fairly do not suffer significant displacement from piracy. Those that are priced too high, on the other hand, can expect to lose some sales.</p>
<p>Now that it&#8217;s been released, the findings of the study should help to paint a more comprehensive picture of the infringement climate in the EU, while laying to rest some of the wild claims of the copyright lobby. That being said, it shouldn&#8217;t have taken the toils of Julia Reda to bring them to light.</p>
<p>&#8220;This study may have remained buried in a drawer for several more years to come if it weren’t for an access to documents request I filed under the European Union’s Freedom of Information law on July 27, 2017, after having become aware of the public tender for this study dating back to 2013,&#8221; Reda explains. </p>
<p>&#8220;I would like to invite the Commission to become a provider of more solid and timely evidence to the copyright debate. Such data that is valuable both financially and in terms of its applicability should be available to everyone when it is financed by the European Union – it should not be gathering dust on a shelf until someone actively requests it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full study can be downloaded here <em>(<a href="media/3a43ad9f.displacement_study.pdf" data-original-source="https://netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145003
title: Block The Pirate Bay Within 10 Days, Dutch Court Tells ISPs
uri: Block-The-Pirate-Bay-Within-10-Days-Dutch-Court-Tells-ISPs
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GSZ-m-lgV5c/
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>Three years ago in 2014, The Court of The Hague handed down its decision in a long-running case which had previously forced two Dutch ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Ruling against local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, which brought the case, the Court decided that a blockade would be ineffective and also restrict the ISPs’ entrepreneurial freedoms.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay was unblocked while BREIN took its case to the Supreme Court, which in turn referred the matter to the EU Court of Justice for clarification. This June, the ECJ ruled that as a platform effectively communicating copyright works to the public, The Pirate Bay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">can indeed be blocked</a>.</p>
<p>The ruling meant there were no major obstacles preventing the Dutch Supreme Court from ordering a future ISP blockade. Clearly, however, BREIN wanted a blocking decision more quickly. A decision handed down today means the anti-piracy group will achieve that in just a few days&#8217; time.</p>
<p>The Hague Court of Appeal today ruled <em>(<a href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:RBDHA:2017:10789">Dutch</a>)</em> that the 2014 decision, which lifted the blockade against The Pirate Bay, is now largely obsolete.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to the Court of Appeal, the Hague Court did not give sufficient weight to the interests of the beneficiaries represented by BREIN,&#8221; BREIN said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court also wrongly looked at whether torrent traffic had been reduced by the blockade. It should have also considered whether visits to the website of The Pirate Bay itself decreased with a blockade, which speaks for itself.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a result, an IP address and DNS blockade of The Pirate Bay, similar to those already in place in the UK and other EU countries, will soon be put in place. BREIN says that four IP addresses will be affected along with hundreds of domain names through which the torrent platform can be reached.</p>
<p>The ISPs have been given just 10 days to put the blocks in place and if they fail there are fines of 2,000 euros per day, up to a maximum of one million euros.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is nice that obviously harmful and illegal sites like The Pirate Bay will be blocked again in the Netherlands,&#8221; says BREIN chief Tim Kuik.</p>
<p>&#8220;A very bad time for our culture, which was free to access via these sites, is now happily behind us.&#8221; </p>
<p>Today&#8217;s interim decision by the Court of Appeal will stand until the Supreme Court hands down its decision in the main case between BREIN and Ziggo / XS4ALL.</p>
<p>Looking forward, it seems extremely unlikely that the Supreme Court will hand down a conflicting decision, so we&#8217;re probably already looking at the beginning of the end for direct accessibility of The Pirate Bay in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144827
title: Roku Is Building Its Own Anti-Piracy Team
uri: Roku-Is-Building-Its-Own-Anti-Piracy-Team
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PAmGBVU9_2U/
content:
<p><img src="media/2d29bd11.roku-e1502784984505.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roku-e1502784984505.png" alt="" width="277" height="241" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143176">Online streaming piracy is on the rise and many people use dedicated media players to watch unauthorized content through their regular TV.</p>
<p>Although the media players themselves can be used for perfectly legal means, third-party add-ons turn them into pirate machines, providing access to movies, TV-shows and more.</p>
<p>The entertainment industry <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-sees-illegal-streaming-devices-as-piracy-3-0-170502/">isn&#8217;t happy</a> with this development and is trying to halt further growth wherever possible.</p>
<p>Just a few months ago, Roku was harshly confronted with this new reality when a Mexican court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-sales-banned-in-mexico-over-piracy-concerns-170619/">ordered</a> local retailers to take its media player off the shelves. This legal battle is still ongoing, but it&#8217;s clear that Roku itself is now taking a more proactive role.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.roku.com/index">Roku</a> never permitted any infringing content, the company is taking steps to better deal with the problem. The company has already begun <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-gets-tough-on-pirate-channels-warns-users-170815/">warning</a> users of copyright-infringing third-party channels, but that was only the beginning.</p>
<p>Two new job applications posted by Roku a few days ago reveal that the company is putting together an in-house anti-piracy team to keep the problem under control.</p>
<p>One of the new positions is that of Director Anti-Piracy and Content Security. Roku stresses that this is a brand new position, which involves shaping the company&#8217;s anti-piracy strategy.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Director, Anti-Piracy and Content Security is responsible for defining the technology roadmap and overseeing implementation of anti-piracy and content security initiatives at Roku,&#8221; the application reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;This role requires ability to benchmark Roku against best practices (i.e. MPAA, Studio &#038; Customer) but also requires an emphasis on maintaining deep insight into the evolving threat landscape and technical challenges of combating piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>The job posting</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f2c20ce1.rokujob.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rokujob.png" alt="" width="600" height="347" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144831"></center></p>
<p>The second job listed by Roku is that of an anti-piracy software engineer. One of the main tasks of this position is to write software for the Roku to monitor and prevent piracy. </p>
<p>&#8220;In this role, you will be responsible for implementing anti-piracy and content protection technology as it pertains to Roku OS,&#8221; the application explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;This entails developing software features, conducting forensic investigations and mining Roku&#8217;s big data platform and other threat intelligence sources for copyright infringement activities on and off platform.&#8221;</p>
<p>While a two-person team is relatively small, it&#8217;s possible that this will grow in the future, if there aren&#8217;t people in a similar role already. What&#8217;s clear, however, is that Roku takes piracy very seriously. </p>
<p>With Hollywood closely eyeing the streaming box landscape, the company is doing its best to keep copyright holders onside.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144839
title: Russia’s Largest Torrent Site Celebrates 13 Years Online in a Chinese Restaurant
uri: Russia-s-Largest-Torrent-Site-Celebrates-13-Years-Online-in-a-Chines
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bXmDbFN35wI/
content:
<p><a href="media/b1cb7277.rutracker1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker1.jpg"><img src="media/a96f2ae8.rutracker1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker1.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="95" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55533"></a>For most torrent fans around the world, The Pirate Bay is the big symbol of international defiance. Over the years the site has fought, avoided, and snubbed its nose at dozens of battles, yet still remains online today.</p>
<p>But there is another site, located somewhere in the east, that has been online for nearly as long, has millions more registered members, and has proven just as defiant.</p>
<p>RuTracker, for those who haven&#8217;t yet found it, is a Russian-focused treasure trove of both local and international content. For many years the site was frequented only by native speakers but with the wonders of tools like Google Translate, anyone can use the site at the flick of the switch. When people are struggling to find content, it&#8217;s likely that RuTracker has it.</p>
<p>This position has attracted the negative attention of a wide range of copyright holders and thanks to legislation introduced during 2013, the site is now subject to complete blocking in Russia. In fact, RuTracker has proven so stubborn to copyright holder demands, it is now permanently blocked in the region by all ISPs.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, especially given the enthusiasm for blockades among copyright holders, this doesn&#8217;t seem to have dampened demand for the site&#8217;s services. According to SimiliarWeb, against all the odds the site is still pulling in around 90 million visitors per month. But the impressive stats don&#8217;t stop there.</p>
<p><center><b>Impressive stats for a permanently blocked site</b><a href="media/81b42a0f.rutracker-stat.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker-stat.png"><img src="media/740854ad.rutracker-stat.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker-stat.png" alt="" width="1121" height="434" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144852"></a></center></p>
<p>This week, RuTracker celebrates its 13th birthday, a relative lifetime for a site that has been front and center of Russia&#8217;s most significant copyright battles, trouble which doesn&#8217;t look like stopping anytime soon.</p>
<p>Back in 2010, for example, RU-Center, Russia’s largest domain name registrar and web-hosting provider, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/huge-russian-bittorrent-site-has-domain-suspended-100218/">pulled the plug</a> on the site&#8217;s former Torrents.ru domain. The Director of Public Relations at RU-Center said that the domain had been blocked on the orders of the Investigative Division of the regional prosecutor’s office in Moscow. The site never got its domain back but carried on regardless, despite the setbacks.</p>
<p>Back then the site had around 4,000,000 members but now, seven years on, its ranks have swelled to a reported 15,382,907. According to figures published by the site this week, 778,317 of those members signed up this year during a period the site was supposed to be completely inaccessible. Needless to say, its operators remain defiant.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today we celebrate the 13th anniversary of our tracker, which is the largest Russian (and not only) -language media library on this planet. A tracker strangely banished in the country where most of its audience is located &#8211; in Russia,&#8221; a site announcement reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;But, despite the prohibitions, with all these legislative obstacles, with all these technical difficulties, we see that our tracker still exists and is successfully developing. And we still believe that the library should be open and free for all, and not be subject to censorship or a victim of legislative and executive power lobbied by the monopolists of the media industry.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s interesting to note the tone of the RuTracker announcement. On any other day it could&#8217;ve been written by the crew of The Pirate Bay who, in their prime, loved to stick a finger or two up to the copyright lobby and then rub their noses in it. For the team at RuTracker, that still appears to be one of the main goals.</p>
<p>Like The Pirate Bay but unlike many of the basic torrent indexers that have sprung up in recent years, RuTracker relies on users to upload its content. They certainly haven&#8217;t been sitting back. RuTracker reveals that during the past year and despite all the problems, users uploaded a total of 171,819 torrents &#8211; on average, 470 torrents per day.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the content most uploaded to the site also points to the growing internationalization of RuTracker. During the past year, the NBA / NCAA section proved most popular, closely followed by non-Russian rock music and NHL games. Non-Russian movies accounted for almost 2,000 fresh torrents in just 12 months.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is thanks to you this tracker lives!&#8221; the site&#8217;s operators informed the users.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is thanks to you that it was, is, and, for sure, will continue to offer the most comprehensive, diverse and, most importantly, quality content in the Russian Internet. You stayed with us when the tracker lost its original name: torrents.ru. You stayed with us when access to a new name was blocked in Russia: rutracker.org. You stayed with us when [the site&#8217;s trackers] were blocked. We will stay with you as long as you need us!&#8221;</p>
<p>So as RuTracker plans for another year online, all that remains is to celebrate its 13th birthday in style. That will be achieved tonight when every adult member of RuTracker is <a href="https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5447482">invited to enjoy Chinese meal</a> at the <a href="https://yandex.ru/maps/2/saint-petersburg/?text=%D1%82%D1%8F%D0%BD%D1%8C%D1%86%D0%B7%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%8C%20%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%20%D1%81%D0%BF%D0%B1&#038;source=serp_navig&#038;mode=search&#038;sll=30.364690%2C59.946166&#038;ol=biz&#038;oid=1079735366&#038;ll=30.364690%2C59.946166&#038;z=18&#038;sspn=0.003819%2C0.001319&#038;sctx=CQAAAAIAWdqpudxQPkAna9RDNPhNQCYYzjXM0OA%2FP%2BPCgZAs1j8AAAAABQAAAAAAAAABzaLYLLYZ2llo1wEAAaz%2Ffz8AAAAAAAAAAAIAAABydQ%3D%3D">Tian Jin Chinese Restaurant</a> in St. Petersburg.</p>
<p>Turn up early, seating is limited.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144987
title: Belgium Wants to Blacklist Pirate Sites & Hijack Their Traffic
uri: Belgium-Wants-to-Blacklist-Pirate-Sites-Hijack-Their-Traffic
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cTbwtYKl6Cc/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>The thorny issue of how to deal with the online piracy phenomenon used to be focused on punishing site users. Over time, enforcement action progressed to the services themselves, until they became both too resilient and prevalent to tackle effectively.</p>
<p>In Europe in particular, there&#8217;s now a trend of isolating torrent, streaming, and hosting platforms from their users. This is mainly achieved by website blocking carried out by local ISPs following an appropriate court order.</p>
<p>While the UK is perhaps best known for this kind of action, Belgium was one of the early pioneers of the practice.</p>
<p>After filing a lawsuit in 2010, the Belgian Anti-Piracy Foundation (BAF) weathered an <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isps-dont-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-court-rules-100710/">early defeat</a> at the Antwerp Commercial Court to achieve <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/belgian-isps-ordered-to-block-the-pirate-bay-111004/">success</a> at the Court of Appeal. Since then, local ISPs have been forced to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Since then there have been several efforts (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/belgian-isps-quietly-expand-torrent-site-blockade-130828/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-isps-to-police-the-internet-for-pirate-bay-proxies-131120/">2</a>) to block more sites but rightsholders have complained that the process is too costly, lengthy, and cumbersome. Now the government is stepping in to do something about it.</p>
<p>Local media <a href="https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2017/09/21/illegaal-downloaden-wordt-strenger-aangepakt/">reports</a> that Deputy Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kris_Peeters">Kris Peeters</a> has drafted new proposals to tackle online piracy. In his role as Minister of Economy and Employment, Peeters sees authorities urgently tackling pirate sites with a range of new measures.</p>
<p>For starters, he wants to create a new department, formed within the <a href="http://economie.fgov.be/en/fps/mission_objectives/">FPS Economy</a>, to oversee the fight against online infringement. The department would be tasked with detecting pirate sites more quickly and rendering them inaccessible in Belgium, along with any associated mirror sites or proxies.</p>
<p>Peeters wants the new department to add all blocked sites to a national &#8216;pirate blacklist. Interestingly, when Internet users try to access any of these sites, he wants them to be automatically diverted to legal sites where a fee will have to be paid for content.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not unusual to try and direct users away from pirate sites, for the most part Internet service providers have been somewhat reluctant to divert subscribers to commercial sites. Their assistance would be needed in this respect, so it will be interesting to see how negotiations pan out.</p>
<p>The Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), which was formed nine years ago to represent the music, video, software and videogame industries, welcomed Peeters&#8217; plans.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so important to close the doors to illegal download sites and to actively lead people to legal alternatives,&#8221; said chairman Olivier Maeterlinck.</p>
<p>&#8220;Surfers should not forget that the motives of illegal download sites are not always obvious. These sites also regularly try to exploit personal data.&#8221;</p>
<p>The current <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-narrative-isnt-about-ethics-anymore-its-about-danger-170812/">narrative</a> that pirate sites are evil places is clearly gaining momentum among anti-piracy bodies, but there&#8217;s little sign that the public intends to boycott sites as a result. With that in mind, alternative legal action will still be required.</p>
<p>With that in mind, Peeters wants to streamline the system so that all piracy cases go through a single court, the Commercial Court of Brussels. This should reduce costs versus the existing model and there&#8217;s also the potential for more consistent rulings.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a good idea to have a clearer legal framework on this,&#8221; says Maeterlinck from BEA.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are plenty of legal platforms, streaming services like Spotify, for example, which are constantly developing and reaching an ever-increasing audience. Those businesses have a business model that ensure that the creators of certain media content are properly compensated. The rotten apples must be tackled, and those procedures should be less time-consuming.&#8221;</p>
<p>There&#8217;s little doubt that BEA could benefit from a little government assistance. Back in February, the group <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-movie-gaming-industries-seek-piracy-blockades-170206/">filed a lawsuit</a> at the French commercial court in Brussels, asking ISPs to block subscriber access to several ‘pirate’ sites.</p>
<p>“Our action aims to block nine of the most popular streaming sites which offer copyright-protected content on a massive scale and without authorization,” Maeterlinck told TF at the time.</p>
<p>“In accordance with the principles established by the CJEU (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-isps-can-be-forced-to-block-pirate-sites-140327/">UPC Telekabel</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">GS Media</a>), BEA seeks a court order confirming the infringement and imposing site blocking measures on the ISPs, who are content providers as well.”</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=144871
title: How Much Money Can Pirate Bay Make From a Cryptocoin Miner?
uri: How-Much-Money-Can-Pirate-Bay-Make-From-a-Cryptocoin-Miner
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GiWf05Y1ptI/
content:
<p><img src="media/82b1bfcc.coinhive.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coinhive.png" alt="" width="236" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144756">In recent years many pirate sites have struggled to make a decent income. </p>
<p>Not only are more people using ad-blockers now, the ad-quality is also dropping as copyright holders actively go after this revenue source, trying to dry up the funds of pirate sites. </p>
<p>Last weekend The Pirate Bay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-website-runs-a-cryptocurrency-miner-170916/">tested a cryptocurrency miner</a> to see whether that could offer a viable alternative. This created quite a bit of backlash, but there were plenty of positive comments too.</p>
<p>The question still remains whether the mining efforts can bring in enough money to pay all the bills.</p>
<p>The miner is provided by Coinhive which, at the time of writing, pays out 0.00015 XMR per 1M hashes. So how much can The Pirate Bay make from this?</p>
<p>To get a rough idea we did some back-of-the-envelope calculations, starting with the site&#8217;s visitor numbers. </p>
<p>SimilarWeb estimates that The Pirate Bay has roughly 315 million visits per month. On average, users spend five minutes on the site per &#8220;visit&#8221;. While we have reason to believe that this underestimates the site’s popularity, we’ll use it as an illustration.</p>
<p>We spoke to <a href="https://coin-hive.com/">Coinhive</a> and they estimate that a user with a mid-range laptop would have a hashrate of 30 h/s. </p>
<p>In Pirate Bay&#8217;s case this would translate to 30 hashes * 300 seconds * 315M visits = 2,835,000M hashes per month. If the miner is throttled at 30% this would drop to 850,000M hashes.</p>
<p>If Coinhive pays out 0.00015 XMR per million hashes, TPB would get 127.5 XMR per month, which is roughly $12,000 at the moment. Since the miner doesn’t appear on all pages and because some may actively block it, this number will drop a bit further. </p>
<p>Keep in mind that this is just an illustration using several estimated variables which may vary greatly over time. Still, it gives a broad idea of the potential.</p>
<p>Since Pirate Bay tested the miner several other sites jumped on board as well. We&#8217;ll keep a close eye on the developments and hope we can share some real data in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145016
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/25/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-25-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kLToOI3QJRc/
content:
<p><img src="media/249d9cae.piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratesofthec5-e1494916509625.png" alt="" width="250" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139042">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is the most downloaded movie for the third week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are 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-091817/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5V5C8mEVzY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/">Baby Driver</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3890160/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9YZw_X5UzQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euz-KBBfAAo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">Transformers: The Last Knight</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vtf0MszgP8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959563/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Afusxc2SM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3722614/">Revolt</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3722614/">5.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9gfgqSsNCo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/">It</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1396484/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUTdjf9rko">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5689068/">Killing Gunther</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5689068/">?.?</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeLp9-k9-LQ">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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145043
title: Landmark ‘Pirate’ Kodi Box Trial Canceled After Man Changes Plea to Guilty
uri: Landmark-Pirate-Kodi-Box-Trial-Canceled-After-Man-Changes-Plea-t
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3xm6sJuIBr8/
content:
<p>Over the past year, there have been a lot of discussions about UK-based Brian ‘Tomo’ Thompson. The Middlesbrough-based shopkeeper was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-pirate-android-box-sellers-six-arrested-160318/">raided by police</a> and Trading Standards in 2016 after selling “fully loaded” Android boxes from his small shop.</p>
<p>The case against Thompson is being prosecuted by his local council but right from the very beginning, he insisted he&#8217;d done nothing wrong.</p>
<p>“All I want to know is whether I am doing anything illegal. I know it’s a gray area but I want it in black and white,” he said last September.</p>
<p><center><b>&#8216;Tomo&#8217; in his store</b><a href="media/9db8164f.tomo-kodi.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tomo-kodi.png"><img src="media/65089a1e.tomo-kodi.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tomo-kodi.png" alt="" width="582" height="586" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-145046"></a></center></p>
<p>In January this year, Thompson appeared before Teeside Crown Court for a plea hearing. He pleaded not guilty to two offenses under section 296ZB of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. This section deals with devices and services designed to circumvent technological measures.</p>
<p>“A person commits an offense if he — in the course of a business — sells or lets for hire, any device, product or component which is primarily designed, produced, or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures,” the law reads.</p>
<p>This section of the law has never been tested against infringing Kodi/IPTV boxes so a full trial would have been an extremely interesting proposition. However, everyone was denied that opportunity this morning when Thompson appeared before Teesside Crown Court with a change of heart.</p>
<p>Before Judge Peter Armstrong, the 54-year-old businessman changed his previous not guilty plea to guilty on both counts.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/live-kodi-dealer-court-landmark-13669561">GazetteLive</a>, defense barrister Paul Fleming told the Court there had been “an exchange of correspondence” in the case.</p>
<p>“There is a proposal in relation to pleas which are acceptable to the prosecution,&#8221; Fleming said.</p>
<p>Judge Armstrong told Thompson that the case will now be adjourned until October 20 to allow time for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.</p>
<p>“Your bail is renewed until that date. I have to warn you that the renewal of your bail at this stage mustn’t be taken by you as any indication of the type of sentence that’ll be passed,&#8221; the Judge said.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what the sentence will be but all options will be open to the court when you’re dealt with. Free to go on those terms.”</p>
<p>Thompson will be sentenced on the same day as Julian Allen, who was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-android-tv-box-sellers-raided-by-police-150612/">arrested</a> following raids at his Geeky Kit businesses in 2015.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145023
title: Peru Authorities Shut Down First ‘Pirate’ Websites, Three Arrested
uri: Peru-Authorities-Shut-Down-First-Pirate-Websites-Three-Arrested
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BcJFWJD9ZGc/
content:
<p><a href="media/91647e94.pelis24small.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pelis24small.jpg"><img src="media/2191d42f.pelis24small.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pelis24small.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145026"></a>For a country with a soaring crime rate, where violent car-jackings and other violent crime are reportedly commonplace, Internet piracy isn&#8217;t something that&#8217;s been high on the agenda in Peru.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, under pressure from rightsholders, local authorities have now taken decisive action against the country&#8217;s most popular &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>On the orders of prosecutor Miguel Ángel Puicón, a specialized police unit carried out searches earlier this month looking for the people behind Pelis24 (Movies24) and Series24, sites that are extremely popular across all of South America, not just Peru.</p>
<p>Local media <a href="http://www.todotvnews.com/news/Fiscala-peruana-suspende-el-dominio-Pelis24.tv-por-infraccin-a-derechos-de-autor.html">reports</a> that an initial search took place in the Los Olivos district of the Lima Province where two people were arrested in connection with the sites. On the same day, a second search was executed in the town of Rimac where a third person was detained.</p>
<p>The case was launched following a rightsholder complaint to the Special Prosecutor&#8217;s Office for Customs Crimes and Intellectual Property in Lima. It stated that three domains &#8211; <a href="http://pelis24.com/">pelis24.com</a>, pelis24.tv and series24.tv were offering unlicensed movies and TV shows to the public.</p>
<p>&#8220;In view of the abundant evidence, the office requested measures indicative of the right to the criminal judge. A search was carried out in search of the property and the preliminary 48-hour detention of the people investigated was requested,&#8221; authorities said in a statement.</p>
<p>The warrant not only covered seizure of physical items but also the domain names associated with the platforms. As shown in the image below, they now display the following seizure banner (translated from Spanish).</p>
<p><center><b>Pelis24/Series24 Seizure Banner</b><a href="media/e0ee3bc2.peru1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/peru1.png"><img src="media/aa90a32f.peru1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peru1.png" alt="" width="1076" height="468" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-145027"></a></center></p>
<p>Authorities say that a detailed preliminary investigation took place in order to corroborate the information provided by the complainant. Once the measures were approved by a judge, the Prosecutor&#8217;s Office acted in coordination with the Investigations Division of the High Technology Crimes unit to carry out the operation. </p>
<p>According to Puicón, this is the first action against the operators of a pirate site in Peru.</p>
<p>&#8220;The purpose was to have the detainees close the sites voluntarily after providing us with the login codes,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We do not have a technology department, so the specialized high-tech police and complainants were present to preserve evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Local sources <a href="http://kancha.pe/poder-judicial-comienza-a-bloquear-paginas-que-van-contra-los-derechos-de-autor-en-peru/">indicate</a> that sentences for piracy can be as long as six years in serious cases. However, Peru has been exclusively tackling counterfeiting of physical discs, with online piracy being allowed to run rampant. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Office of the Prosecutor has the competency to deal with crimes against intellectual property but has been working exclusively in cases of physical piracy,&#8221; Puicón says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Online piracy has another connotation, we must use other procedures, another form of investigation and another strategy. Therefore, the authorities that are aware of these crimes must be trained on technological issues.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s believed that at least a million Peruvians download infringing content from the Internet each week, a problem that will need to be tackled moving forward, when the authorities can gather the expertise to do so.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145020
title: Canadian ISP Bell Calls For Pirate Site Blacklist in NAFTA Hearing
uri: Canadian-ISP-Bell-Calls-For-Pirate-Site-Blacklist-in-NAFTA-Hearing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZKP5PzmoFO8/
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">Website blocking has become a common tool for copyright holders to target online piracy. </p>
<p>In most countries, these blockades are ordered by local courts, which compel Internet providers to restrict access to certain websites. </p>
<p>While most ISPs initially object to such restrictions, the largest Canadian telco Bell is actively calling for such measures. In <a href="http://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/CIIT/meeting-76/notice">a hearing</a> before the Standing Committee on International Trade on NAFTA, the company is clear on how online piracy should be curbed.</p>
<p>Rob Malcolmson, Bell&#8217;s Senior Vice-President Regulatory Affairs, mentioned that the United States has repeatedly complained about Canada&#8217;s apparent lack of copyright enforcement. To make NAFTA &#8220;work better&#8221; for Canadian culture in the digital economy, stronger enforcement is crucial.</p>
<p>&#8220;US interests have long complained that widespread online copyright infringement here in Canada is limiting the growth of the digital economy. In fact, many of the most prominent global players in the piracy ecosystem operate out of Canada as a relative safe harbor,&#8221; Malcolmson said. </p>
<p>&#8220;We recommend that the Government commits to stronger intellectual property enforcement by having an administrative agency dedicated to such enforcement and by prioritizing enforcement against digital pirates.&#8221;</p>
<p>In Bell&#8217;s view, all Canadian Internet providers should be required to block access to the most egregious pirate sites, without intervention from the courts.</p>
<p>“We would like to see measures put in place whereby all Internet service providers are required to block consumer access to pirated websites. In our view, that is the only way to stop it,” Malcolmson said.</p>
<p>The telco, which is a copyright holder itself, has clearly thought the plan through. It notes that Internet providers shouldn&#8217;t be tasked with determining which sites should be blocked. This should be the job of an independent outfit. Alternatively, the Canadian telco regulator <a href="http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/home-accueil.htm">CTRC</a> could oversee the blocking scheme.</p>
<p>&#8220;In our view, it would be an independent agency that would be charged with that task. You certainly would not want the ISPs acting as censors as to what content is pirate content,&#8221; Malcolmson said. </p>
<p>&#8220;But, surely, an independent third party agency could be formed, could create a blacklist of pirate sites, and then the ISPs would be required to block it. That is at a high level how we would see it unfolding, perhaps overseen by a regulator like the CRTC.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to website blocking, Bell also recommends criminalizing commercial copyright infringement, which would support stronger enforcement against online piracy.</p>
<p>Canadian law professor Micheal Geist, who <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2017/09/bell-calls-crtc-backed-website-blocking-system-complete-criminalization-copyright-nafta/">picked up</a> Bell&#8217;s controversial comments, is very critical of the recommendations. Geist says that the proposal goes above and beyond what US copyright holders have asked for.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Bell proposals [&#8230;] suggest that the company’s position as a common carrier representing the concerns of ISPs and their subscribers is long over,&#8221; Geist writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Instead, Bell’s copyright advocacy goes beyond what even some U.S. rights holders have called for, envisioning new methods of using copyright law to police the Internet with oversight from the CRTC and implementing such provisions through NAFTA.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the Canadian Government considers the suggestions, there is bound to be pushback from other ISPs on the blocking elements. Internet providers are generally not eager to block content without a court order. </p>
<p>It is also worth keeping in mind that while Bell&#8217;s plans are in part a response to criticism from US interests, American ISPs are still not required to block any pirate sites, voluntarily or not.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145068
title: Julia Reda MEP Likened to Nazi in Sweeping Anti-Pirate Rant
uri: Julia-Reda-MEP-Likened-to-Nazi-in-Sweeping-Anti-Pirate-Rant
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3_kCpI64Zvs/
content:
<p><img src="media/1bf03f9a.anne.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/anne.png" width="200" height="225" class="alignright size-large">The debate over copyright and enforcement thereof is often polarized, with staunch supporters on one side, objectors firmly on the other, and never the twain shall meet.</p>
<p>As a result, there have been some heated battles over the years, with pro-copyright bodies accusing pirates of theft and pirates accusing pro-copyright bodies of monopolistic tendencies. While neither claim is particularly pleasant, they have become staples of this prolonged war of words and as such, many have become desensitized to their original impact.</p>
<p>This morning, however, musician and staunch pro-copyright activist David Lowery published an article which pours huge amounts of gas on the fire. The headline goes straight for the jugular, asking: <em>Why is it Every Time We Turn Over a Pirate Rock White Nationalists, Nazi’s and Bigots Scurry Out?</em></p>
<p>Lowery&#8217;s opening gambit in his piece on The Trichordist is that one only has to scratch below the surface of the torrent and piracy world in order to find people aligned with the above-mentioned groups.</p>
<p>&#8220;Why is it every time we dig a little deeper into the pro-piracy and torrenting movement we find key figures associated with &#8216;white nationalists,&#8217; Nazi memorabilia collectors, actual Nazis or other similar bigots?  And why on earth do politicians, journalists and academics sing the praises of these people?&#8221; Lowery asks.</p>
<p>To prove his point, the Camper Van Beethoven musician digs up the fact that former Pirate Bay financier Carl Lündstrom had some fairly unsavory neo-fascist views. While this is not in doubt, Lowery is about 10 tens years too late if he wants to tar The Pirate Bay with the extremist brush. </p>
<p>“It’s called guilt by association,&#8221; Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-politics-for-dummies/">explained</a> in 2007.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of our previous ISPs [owned by Lündstrom] (with clients like The Red Cross, Save the Children foundation etc) gave us cheap bandwidth since one of the guys in TPB worked there; and one of the owners [has a reputation] for his political opinions. That does NOT make us in any way associated to what political views anyone else might or might not have.”</p>
<p>After dealing with TPB but failing to include the above explanation, Lowery moves on to a more recent target, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom. Dotcom owns an extremely rare signed copy of Hitler&#8217;s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf (My Struggle) and once wore a German World War II helmet. It&#8217;s a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/13/world/europe/prince-harry-apologizes-for-nazi-costume.html?mcubz=0">mistake</a> Prince Harry made in 2005 too.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve bought memorabilia from Churchill, from Stalin, from Hitler,&#8221; Dotcom <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9871410/Dotcom-owns-copy-of-Hitlers-Mein-Kampf">said</a> in response to the historical allegations. &#8220;Let me make absolutely clear, OK. I&#8217;m not buying into the Nazi ideology. I&#8217;m totally against what the Nazis did.&#8221;</p>
<p>With Dotcom dealt with, Lowery then turns his attention to the German Pirate Party&#8217;s Julia Reda. As a Member of the European Parliament, Reda has made it her mission to deal with overreaching copyright law, which has made her a bit of a target. That being said, would anyone really try to shoehorn her into the &#8220;White Nationalists, Nazi’s and Bigots&#8221; bracket?</p>
<p>They would.</p>
<p>In his piece, Lowery highlights comments made by Reda last year, when <a href="https://twitter.com/senficon/status/697736377820192768">she complained about the copyright situation</a> developing around the diary written by Anne Frank, which detailed the horrors of living in occupied countries during World War II.</p>
<p>Anne Frank died in 1945 which means that the book was elevated into the public domain in the Netherlands on January 1, 2016, 70 years after her death. A copy was made available at Wikisource, a digital library of free texts maintained by the Wikimedia Foundation, which also operates Wikipedia.</p>
<p>However, in early February that same year, Anne Frank’s diary <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-copyright-law-forces-wikimedia-to-remove-public-domain-anne-frank-diary-160211/">became unavailable</a>, since U.S. copyright law dictates that works are protected for 95 years from date of publication.</p>
<p>“Today, in an unfortunate example of the overreach of the United States’ current copyright law, the Wikimedia Foundation removed the Dutch-language text of The Diary of a Young Girl,” said Jacob Rogers, Legal Counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation</p>
<p>“We took this action to comply with the United States’ Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), as we believe the diary is still under US copyright protection under the law as it is currently written,” he added.</p>
<p>Lowery ignores this background in its entirety. He actually ignores all of it in an effort to paint a picture of Reda engaging in some far-right agenda. Lowery even places emphasis on Reda&#8217;s nationality to force his point home.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don’t really know what to make of her except to say that this <em>German</em> politician really should find something other than the Anne Frank Diary and the Anne Frank Foundation to use as an example of a work that should be freely available in the public domain,&#8221; he writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Think of all the copyrighted works out there for which she might reasonably argue a claim of public domain. She decided to pick the Anne Frank diary. Hmm.&#8221;</p>
<p>Lowery then accuses Reda of urging people on Twitter to pirate the book, in order to hurt the fight against anti-Semitism and somehow deprive Jewish people of an income.</p>
<p>&#8220;After all sales of the book are used by the Anne Frank Foundation to fight anti-semitism. It’s really quite a bad look for any MP, German or not. (Even if it is just the make-believe LARPing RPG EU Parliament),&#8221; Lowery writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Or maybe that is the point? Defund the Anne Frank Foundation. Cause you know I read in the twittersphere that copyright producing media conglomerates are controlled by you-know-who.&#8221;</p>
<p>At this point, Lowery moves on to Fight For the Future, stating that their lack of racial diversity caused them to stumble into a racially charged copyright dispute involving the famous Martin Luther King speech.</p>
<p>The whole article can be read <a href="https://thetrichordist.com/2017/09/26/why-is-it-every-time-we-turn-over-a-pirate-rock-white-nationalists-nazis-and-bigots-scurry-out/">here</a> but hopefully, most readers will recognize that America needs less division right now, not more hatred.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145095
title: Cryptocurrency Miner Targeted by Anti-Virus and Adblock Tools
uri: Cryptocurrency-Miner-Targeted-by-Anti-Virus-and-Adblock-Tools
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EnG8KRNgmE0/
content:
<p><img src="media/82b1bfcc.coinhive.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coinhive.png" alt="" width="236" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144756">Earlier this month The Pirate Bay caused some uproar by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-website-runs-a-cryptocurrency-miner-170916/">adding</a> a Javascript-based cryptocurrency miner to its website.</p>
<p>The miner utilizes CPU power from visitors to generate Monero coins for the site, providing an extra revenue source.</p>
<p>While Pirate Bay only tested the option briefly, it inspired many others to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/are-cryptocurrency-miners-the-future-for-pirate-sites-170921/">follow suit</a>. Streaming related sites such as <a href="http://www.alluc.ee/">Alluc</a>, <a href="http://vidoza.net/">Vidoza</a>, and <a href="https://www.rapidvideo.com/">Rapidvideo</a> jumped on board, and torrent site <a href="https://www.demonoid.pw">Demonoid</a> also ran some tests. </p>
<p>During the weekend, Coinhive&#8217;s miner code even <a href="https://badpackets.net/coinhive-miner-found-on-official-showtime-network-websites-in-latest-case-of-cryptojacking/">appeared</a> on the official website of Showtime. The code was quickly removed and it&#8217;s still unclear how it got there, as the company <a href="https://gizmodo.com/showtimes-websites-may-have-used-your-cpu-to-mine-crypt-1818763497">refuses to comment</a>. It&#8217;s clear, though, that miners are a hot topic thanks to The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>The revenue potential is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/how-much-money-can-pirate-bay-make-from-a-cryptocoin-miner-170924/">also real</a>. TorrentFreak spoke to Vidoza who say that with 30,000 online users throughout the day (2M unique visitors), they can make between $500 and $600. That&#8217;s when the miner is throttled at 50%. Although ads can bring in more, it&#8217;s not insignificant. </p>
<p>That said, all the uproar about cryptocurrency miners and their possible abuse has also attracted the attention of ad-blockers. Some people have coded <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/minerblock/emikbbbebcdfohonlaifafnoanocnebl">new browser add-ons</a> to block miners specifically and the popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBlock_Origin">uBlock Origin</a> added Coinhive to its default blocklist as well. And that&#8217;s just after a few days.</p>
<p>Needless to say, this limits the number of miners, and thus the money that comes in. And there&#8217;s another problem with a similar effect.</p>
<p>In addition to ad-blockers, anti-virus tools are also flagging Coinhive. Malwarebytes is one of the companies that lists it as a malicious activity, warning users about the threat. </p>
<p>The anti-virus angle is one of the issues that worries Demonoid&#8217;s operator. The site is used to ad-blockers, but getting flagged by anti-virus companies is of a different order. </p>
<p>&#8220;The problem I see there and the reason we will likely discontinue [use of the miner] is that some anti-virus programs block it, and that might get the site on their blacklists,&#8221; Deimos informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p><center><strong>Demonoid&#8217;s miner announcement</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/42c04e4e.democry.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/democry.png" alt="" width="503" height="100" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-145098" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/democry.png 503w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/democry-500x100.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 503px) 100vw, 503px"></center></p>
<p>Vidoza operator Eugene sees all the blocking as an unwelcome development and hopes that Coinhive will tackle it. Coinhive may want to come out in public and start to discuss the issue with ad-blockers and anti-virus companies, he says. </p>
<p>&#8220;They should find out under what conditions all these guys will stop blocking the script,&#8221; he notes.</p>
<p>The other option would be to circumvent the blocking through proxies and circumvention tools, but that might not be the best choice in the long run.</p>
<p>Coinhive, meanwhile, has <a href="https://coin-hive.com/blog">chimed in as well</a>. The company says that it wasn&#8217;t properly prepared for the massive attention and understands why some ad-blockers have put them on the blacklist.</p>
<p>&#8220;Providing a real alternative to ads and users who block them turned out to be a much harder problem. Coinhive, too, is now blocked by many ad-block browser extensions, which &#8211; we have to admit &#8211; is reasonable at this point.&#8221;</p>
<p>Most complaints have been targeted at sites that implemented the miner without the user&#8217;s consent. Coinhive doesn&#8217;t like this either and will take steps to prevent it in future.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re a bit saddened to see that some of our customers integrate Coinhive into their pages without disclosing to their users what&#8217;s going on, let alone asking for their permission,&#8221; the Coinhive team notes. </p>
<p>The crypto miner provider is working on a new implementation that requires explicit consent from website visitors in order to run. This should deal with most of the negative responses.</p>
<p>If users start mining voluntarily, then ad-blockers and anti-virus companies should no longer have a reason to block the script. Nor will it be easy for malware peddlers to abuse it. </p>
<p>To be continued.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145058
title: TVAddons and ZemTV Operators Named in US Lawsuit
uri: TVAddons-and-ZemTV-Operators-Named-in-US-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cIWJOXLbwiA/
content:
<p><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">Earlier this 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 for each offense.</p>
<p>Initially, the true identities of the defendants unknown and listed as John Does, but an amended complaint that was submitted yesterday reveal their alleged names and hometowns. </p>
<p>The Texas court previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-grants-subpoenas-to-unmask-tvaddons-and-zemtv-operators-170621/">granted subpoenas</a> which allowed Dish to request information from the defendants&#8217; accounts on services including Amazon, Github, Google, Twitter, Facebook and PayPal, which likely helped with the identification.</p>
<p>According to Dish ZemTV was developed by Shahjahan Durrani, who&#8217;s based in London, UK. He allegedly controlled and maintained the addon which was used to stream infringing broadcasts of Dish content.</p>
<p>&#8220;Durrani developed the ZemTV add-on and managed and operated the ZemTV service. Durrani used the aliases  &#8216;Shani&#8217; and &#8216;Shani_08&#8242; to communicate with users of the ZemTV service,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>The owner and operator of TVAddons is listed as Adam Lackman, who resides in Montreal, Canada. This doesn&#8217;t really come as a surprise, since Lackman is publicly listed as TVAddons&#8217; owner on Linkedin and was previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-returns-ugly-war-canadian-telcos-kodi-addons-170801/">named in a Canadian lawsuit</a>.</p>
<p>While both defendants are named, the allegations against them haven&#8217;t changed substantially. Both face copyright infringement charges and potentially risk millions of dollars in damages. </p>
<p>Durrani directly infringed Dish&#8217;s copyrights by making the streams available, the plaintiffs note. Lackman subsequently profited from this and failed to take any action in response.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lackman had the legal right and actual ability to supervise and control this infringing activity because Lackman made the ZemTV add-on, which is necessary to access the ZemTV service, available for download on his websites.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Lackman refused to take any action to stop the infringement of DISH’s exclusive rights in the programs transmitted through the ZemTV service,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to a <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons</a> representative who refutes the copyright infringement allegations. The website sees itself as a platform for user-generated content and cites the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor as a defense.</p>
<p>&#8220;TV ADDONS is not a piracy site, it&#8217;s a platform for developers of open source add-ons for the Kodi media center. As a community platform filled with user-generated content, we have always acted in accordance with the law and swiftly complied whenever we received a DMCA takedown notice.&#8221; </p>
<p>The representative states that it will be very difficult for them to defend themselves against a billion dollar company with unlimited resources, but hopes that the site will prevail.</p>
<p><center><strong>The new TVAddons</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8bf13a0b.lessaddons.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lessaddons.png" alt="" width="600" height="354" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-145071" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lessaddons.png 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/lessaddons-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"></center></p>
<p>After the original TVAddons.ag domain was seized in the Canadian lawsuit the site returned on TVaddons.co. However, hundreds of allegedly infringing add-ons are no longer listed. </p>
<p>The site previously relied on the DMCA to shield it from liability but apparently, that wasn&#8217;t enough. As a result, they now check all submitted add-ons carefully.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since complying with the law is clearly not enough to prevent frivolous legal action from being taken against you, we have been forced to implement a more drastic code vetting process,&#8221; the TVAddons representative says. </p>
<p>If it&#8217;s not entirely clear that an add-on is properly licensed, it won&#8217;t be submitted for the time being. This hampers innovation, according to TVAddons, and threatens many communities that rely on user-generated content.</p>
<p>&#8220;When you visit any given web site, how can you be certain that every piece of media you see is licensed by the website displaying it? You can assume, but it&#8217;s very difficult to be certain. That&#8217;s why the DMCA is critical to the existence of online communities.&#8221;</p>
<p>Now that both defendants have been named the case will move forward. This may eventually lead to an in-depth discovery process where Dish will try to find more proof that both were knowingly engaging in infringing activity. </p>
<p>Durrani and Lackman, on the other hand, will try to prove their innocence. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the amended complaint is available <a href="media/ff8ce540.99fdbac1-9ded-4231-a026-52fc91831ad2.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/99fdbac1-9ded-4231-a026-52fc91831ad2.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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=145118
title: Of Course Atlus Hit RPCS3’s Patreon Page Over Persona 5
uri: Of-Course-Atlus-Hit-RPCS3-s-Patreon-Page-Over-Persona-5
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MmWx7P12xCk/
content:
<p><a href="media/65d5104b.rpcs3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rpcs3.png"><img src="media/2420c704.rpcs3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rpcs3.png" alt="" width="312" height="104" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145143"></a>For the uninitiated, RPCS3 is an open-source Sony PlayStation 3 emulator for PC. This growing and brilliant piece of code was publicly released in 2012 and since then has been under constant development thanks to a <a href="https://rpcs3.net/about">decent-sized team</a> of programmers and other contributors.</p>
<p>While all emulation has its challenges, emulating a relatively recent piece of hardware such as Playstation 3 is a massive undertaking. As a result, RPCS3 needs funding. This it achieves through its <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Nekotekina">Patreon page</a>, which currently receives support from 675 patrons to the tune of $3,000 per month.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s little doubt that there are plenty of people out there who want the project to succeed. Yesterday, however, things took a turn for the worse when RPCS3 attracted the negative attention of Atlus, the developer behind the utterly beautiful RPG, Persona 5.</p>
<p>According to the RPCS3 team, Atlus filed a DMCA takedown notice with Patreon requesting the removal of the entire RPCS3 page after the team promoted the fact that Persona 5 would be compatible with the under-development emulator.</p>
<p>“The PS3 emulator itself is not infringing on our copyrights and trademarks; however, no version of the P5 game should be playable on this platform; and [the RPCS3] developers are infringing on our IP by making such games playable,” Atlus told Patreon.</p>
<p>Fortunately for everyone involved, Patreon did not storm in and remove the entire page, not least since the page itself didn&#8217;t infringe on Atlus&#8217; IP rights. However, Atlus was not happy with the response and attempted to negotiate with the fund-raising platform, noting that in order for Persona 5 to work, the user would have to circumvent the game&#8217;s DRM protections. </p>
<p>The RPCS3 team, on the other hand, believe they&#8217;re on solid ground, noting that where their main developers live, it is legal to make personal copies of legally purchased games. They concede it may not be legal for everyone, but in any event, that would be irrelevant to the DMCA notice filed against their Patreon page. Indeed, trying to take down an entire fundraiser with a DMCA notice was a significant overreach under the circumstances</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/72lo12/statement_atlus_usa_attempts_to_shut_down/?st=j827oeko&#038;sh=d9aed132">statement</a> from the team, ultimately a decision was taken to proceed with caution. In order to avoid a full takedown of their Patreon page, all mentions of Persona 5 were removed from both the fund-raiser and <a href="https://rpcs3.net/">main RPSC3 site</a> yesterday.</p>
<p>The RPSC3 team noted that they had no idea why Atlus targeted their project but an announcement from the developer later shone a little light on the issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that our fans best experience our titles (like Persona 5) on the actual platforms for which they are developed. We don’t want their first experiences to be framerate drops, or crashes, or other issues that can crop up in emulation that we have not personally overseen,&#8221; Atlus <a href="http://atlus.com/atlus-and-emulation/">explained</a>.</p>
<p>While some gamers expressed negative opinions over Atlus&#8217; undoubtedly overbroad actions yesterday, it&#8217;s difficult to argue with the developer&#8217;s main point. Emulators can be beautiful things but there is no doubt that in many instances they don&#8217;t recreate the gaming experience perfectly. Indeed, in some cases when things don&#8217;t go to plan, the results can be pretty horrible.</p>
<p>That being said, for whatever reason Atlus has chosen not to release a PC version of this popular title so, as many hardcore emulator fans will tell you (this one included), that&#8217;s a bit of a red rag to a bull. The company suggests that it might remedy that situation in the future though, so maybe that&#8217;s some consolation.</p>
<p>In the meantime, there&#8217;s a significant backlash against Atlus and what it attempted to do to the RPCS3 project and its fund-raising efforts. Some people are threatening never to buy an Atlus game ever again, for example, and that&#8217;s their prerogative.</p>
<p>But really &#8211; is anyone truly surprised that Atlus reacted in the way it did?</p>
<p>While Persona 5 isn&#8217;t available on PC yet, this isn&#8217;t an out-of-print game from 1982 that&#8217;s about to disappear into the black hole of time because there&#8217;s no hardware to play it on. This is a game created for relatively current hardware (bang up to date if you include the PS4 version) that was released April 2017 in the United States, just a handful of months ago.</p>
<p>As such, none of the usual &#8216;moral&#8217; motivations for emulating games on other platforms exist for Persona 5 and for that reason alone, the decision to heavily mention it in RPCS3 fund-raising efforts was bound to backfire. It doesn&#8217;t matter whether emulation or dumping of ROMs is legal in some regions, any company can be expected to wade in when someone threatens their business model.</p>
<p>The stark reality is that when they do, entire projects can be put at risk. In this case, Patreon stepped in to save the day but it could&#8217;ve been a lot worse. Martyring the whole project for one game would&#8217;ve been a disaster for the team and the public. All that being said, Atlus is unlikely to come out of this on top.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whatever people may wish, there&#8217;s no way to stop any playable game from being executed on the emulator,&#8221; the RPCS3 team note.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blacklisting the game? RPCS3 is open-source, any attempt would easily be reversed. Attempting to take down the project? At the time of this post, this and many other games were already playable to their full extent, and again, RPCS3 is and will always be an open-source project.&#8221;</p>
<p>The bottom line here is that Atlus&#8217; actions may have left a bit of a bad taste in the mouths of some gamers, but even the most hardcore emulator fan shouldn&#8217;t be surprised the company went for the throat on a game so fresh. That being said, there are lessons to be learned.</p>
<p>Atlus could&#8217;ve spoken quietly to RPCS3 first, but chose not to. RPCS3, on the other hand, will probably be a little bit more strategic with future game compatibility announcements, given what&#8217;s just happened. In the long term, that will help them, since it will ensure longevity for the project.</p>
<p>RPCS3 is needed, there&#8217;s no doubt about that, but its true value will only be felt when the PS3 has been consigned to history. At that point people will understand why it was worth all the effort &#8211; and the occasional hiccup. </p>
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