# articles

feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188342
title: Dutch ISPs Must Block The Pirate Bay Despite Fierce Protest, Court Rules
uri: Dutch-ISPs-Must-Block-The-Pirate-Bay-Despite-Fierce-Protest-Court-Rul
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1U64NUFHPwg/
content:
<p><img src="media/d4dd039c.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122" />The Pirate Bay is blocked in dozens of countries around the world. In most cases, ISPs are ordered to take action after a relatively short legal process. </p>
<p>In the Netherlands, however, pirate site blocking has proven to be a rather cumbersome and slow-moving process, lasting over a decade. </p>
<p>The blocking <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-wants-isp-to-block-the-pirate-bay-100429/">battle started in 2010</a> when Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN went to court, demanding that local ISP Ziggo should block The Pirate Bay. The ISP, which was later joined by XS4ALL, fought tooth and nail and used all options at its disposal to prevent a blocking requirement.</p>
<h2>Appeals, EU Court, and a Do-over</h2>
<p>A Dutch court first issued an order to block The Pirate Bay in 2012, but this order was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-no-longer-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-dutch-court-rules-140128/">overturned</a> two years later. Anti-piracy group BREIN then took the matter to the Supreme Court, which subsequently referred the case to the EU Court of Justice, seeking further clarification.</p>
<p>After a careful review of the case, last year the EU Court of Justice decided that 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>. The top EU court ruled that Pirate Bay&#8217;s operators knowingly provide users with a platform to share copyright-infringing links, which violates the EU Copyright Directive.</p>
<p>The EU ruling put the case back with the Dutch Supreme Court for a final say. However, instead of ending the matter, the country&#8217;s highest court decided that the case should <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-pirate-bay-blocking-case-180316/">get a do-over</a>. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the Court of Amsterdam for a fresh look at the matter.</p>
<h2>ISPs&#8217; Long List of Defenses Fail</h2>
<p>Today the Court of Amsterdam issued its <a href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:GHAMS:2020:1421&#038;showbutton=true">new ruling</a>, which is a clear win for BREIN. Based on existing jurisprudence from the EU Court of Justice as well as local law, it concluded that a Pirate Bay block is warranted. </p>
<p>In its decision, the Court waved away a long list of defenses from the Internet providers. For example, the argument that legal content would also be blocked failed, as the vast majority of The Pirate Bay&#8217;s links &#8211; 90 to 95% &#8211; point to copyright-infringing material. If this changes in the future, subscribers have options to address this in court.</p>
<p>The fact that Pirate Bay users will circumvent the blockades is not seen as a stumbling block either, nor is the argument that pirate streaming services are a bigger problem than torrent sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;The streaming phenomenon and its magnitude are irrelevant to the decision in this case, as both parties assume, as mentioned, that TPB is still a well-visited website,&#8221; the Court writes.</p>
<p>Other defenses failed as well. These include the alleged violation of the ISPs&#8217; entrepreneurial freedoms, BREIN&#8217;s alleged failure to go after the Pirate Bay&#8217;s operators, and BREIN&#8217;s unauthorized collection of subscribers&#8217; IP-addresses. </p>
<h2>Dynamic Blocking Order</h2>
<p>The Court ordered that the two ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, must block The Pirate Bay&#8217;s domain and IP-addresses. This is a so-called dynamic blocking order, which means that new IP-addresses and domain names of TPB and its proxies can be added along the way. </p>
<p>The ISPs were also ordered to pay BREIN&#8217;s legal costs, which comes down to more than €250,000 for Ziggo and roughly €60,000 for XS4ALL.</p>
<h2>What&#8217;s Next?</h2>
<p>The Pirate Bay has been blocked by Dutch ISPs for several years. This was the result of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-expands-dutch-pirate-bay-blockade-to-more-isps-180113/">preliminary ruling</a> which first required the most-used ISPs to take measures while the legal process makes its way through the courts. So for TPB users, not much will change.</p>
<p>Ziggo and XS4ALL have yet to comment on the verdict but are expected to be disappointed. </p>
<p>For BREIN and the copyright holders, however, this first blocking case is a crucial victory. Research has shown that blocking measures are not effective if a single site is blocked, so they are eager to request more pirate site blockades. </p>
<p>BREIN is happy with the outcome and it expects that this will be the end of the legal proceedings. However, if the ISPs see any reason to continue the case, the anti-piracy group is confident that the blocking order will stay in place.</p>
<p>BREIN also intends to ask other ISPs to follow suit. While these are not covered in this proceeding, the anti-piracy group can use the court order to back up their request.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188805
title: Massive Piracy Damages Award Against Cox is Not Excessive, Court Rules
uri: Massive-Piracy-Damages-Award-Against-Cox-is-Not-Excessive-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/w4i9JfidM3A/
content:
<p><img src="media/a34c6170.cassettapemusic.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cassettapemusic.png" alt="" width="276" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-175024" />Last year, Internet provider Cox Communications lost its legal battle against a group of major record labels.</p>
<p>Following a two-week trial, a Virginia jury held Cox liable for its pirating subscribers, ordering the company to pay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-hit-with-1-billion-damages-verdict-191220/">$1 billion in damages</a>.</p>
<p>Heavily disappointed by the decision, Cox later asked the court to set the jury verdict aside and decide the issue directly. In addition, the ISP argued that the &#8220;shockingly excessive&#8221; damages should be lowered. If that wasn&#8217;t an option, Cox wanted a new trial. </p>
<p>These requests were fiercely opposed by the record labels and, after weighing the evidence from both sides, US District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady decided over the matter this week. </p>
<p>O&#8217;Grady&#8217;s 75-page opinion is mostly bad news for Cox. It starts by discussing the motion for judgment as a matter of law, which argues that the jury verdict should be set aside in exchange for a verdict by the court. The court, however, sees no reason to fully grant this. </p>
<p>Cox argued that the evidence presented during trial doesn&#8217;t show that the ISP is liable for direct or secondary copyright infringement. The court disagrees. For example, when it comes to vicarious infringement, the record shows that Cox directly benefited from pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here, there was ample evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude, as this jury did, that Cox gained some direct financial benefit from the infringement, no matter how small,&#8221; Judge O&#8217;Grady writes.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court agrees with Plaintiffs’ argument that Cox’s treatment of repeat infringer accounts suffices as a causal connection between the infringement and financial gain. Internal emails among Defendants clearly establish a connection between infringing accounts and continued collection of revenue rather than termination.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><img src="media/26dad2ab.cox-order.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-order.jpg" alt="Cox order" width="600" height="312" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188813" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-order.jpg 743w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-order-600x312.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>While the vast majority of Cox&#8217;s arguments &#8220;fall flat,&#8221; according to Judge O&#8217;Grady, there is a small win for the ISP as well, one that could have large financial consequences. The court agrees with the ISP that damages should be issued per &#8216;work&#8217; and not for each &#8216;copyright.&#8217; </p>
<p>There are 10,017 copyrights listed in the case which were multiplied by $99,3830 in damages per work, which led to the final figure of $1 billion. However, that should be adjusted as there are some overlapping works as well, where one song is covered by multiple copyrights. </p>
<p>The court explains that infringers shouldn&#8217;t be punished multiple times for one pirated track simply because there are more copyrights related to it. As an example, Judge O&#8217;Grady mentions mashups where tracks can easily have 20 different copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is difficult to fathom that Congress intended such dramatic discrepancies in liability for substantially the same conduct. As willful infringement exposes the defendant to a maximum of $150,000 per work infringed, that three-minute mash-up could cost a defendant $3 million,&#8221; Judge O&#8217;Grady writes. </p>
<p>This means that Cox can go over the list of copyrights in the suit to see how many &#8216;works&#8217; these cover. This could be substantially less than the 10,017 copyrights previously indicated.</p>
<p>Moving on, the court reviewed the scale of the damages, which was set at $99,3830 per work. Cox summed up a list of arguments why this &#8220;historic&#8221; amount is &#8220;shockingly&#8221; excessive. However, the court notes that the amount wasn&#8217;t grossly excessive in light of the evidence. There was no &#8220;miscarriage of justice,&#8221; as Cox claims.</p>
<p>The ISP knew very well what the requirements of the DMCA are, what the possible statutory damages could be, and how many works were infringed. </p>
<p>&#8220;As there is no potential ambiguity in construing the statutory dollar amounts, and Cox was keenly aware of the volume of infringement notices it received, the product of these two values was reasonably foreseeable,&#8221; Judge O&#8217;Grady notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;In sum, Plaintiffs were well within their rights to elect both a jury trial and statutory damages. After significant deliberation, the jury awarded $99,830.29 per work, well within the Act’s statutory range of $750.00-$150,000.00.&#8221;</p>
<p>All in all, this means that the damages per work stay the same. Cox is not entitled to a new trial but the $1 billion damages award may be lowered based on the number of works that have more than one copyright. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of US District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady&#8217;s Memorandum Opinion and Order is <a href="media/caa365d7.cox-memo.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cox-memo.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>. </em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188830
title: Project Gutenberg Public Domain Library Blocked in Italy For Copyright Infringement
uri: Project-Gutenberg-Public-Domain-Library-Blocked-in-Italy-For-Copyright
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IA8Wnt3qmjg/
content:
<p><a href="media/ac66422d.projectgutenberg-e1591183509878.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/projectgutenberg-e1591183509878.png"><img src="media/ac66422d.projectgutenberg-e1591183509878.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/projectgutenberg-e1591183509878.png" alt="" width="270" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188835" /></a>Project Gutenberg, a volunteer effort to digitize and archive books, is sometimes described as the world&#8217;s oldest digital library.</p>
<p>Founded in 1971, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a>&#8216;s archives now stretch to a total of more than 62,000 books, with a focus on titles that entered the public domain after their copyrights expired. The library does carry some and in-copyright books but these are distributed with the express permission of their owners.</p>
<p>The project has an excellent reputation and its work is considered a great contribution to education and culture. However, it now transpires that the site has been rendered inaccessible by ISPs in Italy under the instructions of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Rome.</p>
<p>Project Gutenberg Chief Executive and Director posted an <a href="https://twitter.com/gutenberg_org/status/1264512881309085702">announcement</a> to Twitter apologizing for the disruption of service while revealing that the surprise action had been taken by the Italian authorities.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/eec7c58c.gutten-twitter.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/gutten-twitter.jpg"><img src="media/eec7c58c.gutten-twitter.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/gutten-twitter.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="693" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188839" /></a></center></p>
<h2>Investigation was carried out by police financial crimes unit</h2>
<p>As the above shows, the action involves the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian police unit tasked with financial crimes. GdF is regularly involved in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/telegram-piracy-channels-face-blocking-as-italian-prosecutor-issues-emergency-order-200427/">enforcement actions</a> against pirate sites and with the assistance of the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Rome, is heavily involved in site-blocking decisions. Indeed, a <a href="media/3d35b276.0053965-2020.pdf" data-original-source="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6934022/0053965-2020.pdf">court order</a> published by <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20200531/18264644616/italian-public-prosecutor-says-project-gutenbergs-collection-public-domain-books-must-be-blocked-copyright-infringement.shtml">Techdirt</a> reveals that Project Gutenberg&#8217;s issues are directly linked to a copyright infringement case.</p>
<p>Published in Italian, the document is a &#8220;notification of preventative seizure decree&#8221; actioned under Article 321 of the Italian Criminal Code. It lists a total of 28 domains including what appears to be many platforms dedicated to the distribution of pirated literary content.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, Project Gutenberg has also been thrown into the mix for reasons that aren&#8217;t immediately clear.</p>
<h2>Gutenberg.org Declared an Illegal For-Profit Pirate Site</h2>
<p>The seizure/blocking notice states that all of the targeted domains &#8220;distributed, transmitted and disseminated in pdf format, magazines, newspapers and books (property protected by copyright) after having illegally acquired numerous computer files with their content, communicating them to the public, [and] entering them into a system of communication networks.&#8221;</p>
<p>Similar allegations are made against eight monitored Telegram channels with the following explanation:</p>
<p>&#8220;The investigation, conducted by a special unit of the Guardia di Finanza, has been developed in the context of monitoring the targeted Internet networks to combat economic and financial offenses perpetrated online.</p>
<p>&#8220;In this context, the operators identified some web resources registered on foreign servers which make content and magazines available to the public early in the morning, allowing users to view or download digital copies,&#8221; the court document reads. <em>(translated from Italian)</em></p>
<h2>Court Order Also Sent to Google</h2>
<p>The order from the Court of Rome was also sent to Google, <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/21013940?access_token=k0t-i6oUaqKb222u3_CFyA">a copy of which</a> was acquired by TorrentFreak from the <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/">Lumen Database</a>. The sender was Reccia Giovanni who is <a href="http://www.gdf.gov.it/amministrazione-trasparente/personale/dirigenti/dirigenti-non-generali/dirigenti-2/attivi/reccia-giovanni">listed</a> as a commander with the GdF. As the image below shows, Gutenberg.org is 15th on the list of allegedly infringing sites.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/dbd18b1e.lumen-guten.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lumen-guten.png"><img src="media/dbd18b1e.lumen-guten.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lumen-guten.png" alt="GdF Gutenber.org complaint" width="566" height="760" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188851" /></a></center></p>
<p>Despite Project Gutenberg&#8217;s best efforts, copyright holders still file plenty of DMCA infringement notices with Google complaining that it infringes copyright law. Luckily, however, the search giant doesn&#8217;t seem particularly interested in taking the complaints seriously.</p>
<p>According to its transparency report, Google has received requests to have 1,110 URLs from Gutenberg.org deleted from its search results. The company took &#8220;no action&#8221; for 85.9% and marked the remaining 14.1% as duplicate requests, for which it also did nothing.</p>
<p>This seems to suggest that while Google understands the business of Project Gutenberg and was able to respond appropriately, the combined forces of the Italian financial police, the court, and telecoms watchdog AGCOM (which handles blocking), aren&#8217;t able to tell the difference between a pirate site and a public domain library.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188873
title: Hollywood Studios & Netflix Target ‘Movies Time’ Piracy App
uri: Hollywood-Studios-Netflix-Target-Movies-Time-Piracy-App
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ndeP226fTf8/
content:
<p><a href="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png"><img src="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png" alt="MPA logo" width="220" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-177349" /></a>Ever since the rise of Popcorn Time more than six years ago, developers have been coming up with similar-looking clones to try and grab a slice of the market.</p>
<p>Given the massive reach of Android, which can be found running on phones, tablets and set-top devices, this operating system is the weapon of choice for most coders. As a result there are hundreds of apps available online today that provide ostensibly free access to pirated movies and TV shows.</p>
<p>The Motion Picture Association, which these days includes Netflix, and the global anti-piracy coalition ACE, have been working hard to hold back the tide but like the little boy and the dam, plugging a hole at a time seems a neverending task.</p>
<p>The latest target for the MPA is Movies Time, a relative newcomer to the space having appeared online less than a year ago. The developer identifies variously as Prince Sharma and/or Audionetime and markets his app as follows:</p>
<p><a href="media/d644ea5e.movies-time.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies-time.png"><img src="media/d644ea5e.movies-time.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies-time.png" alt="" width="220" height="263" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188893" /></a>&#8220;Tired of annoying ads interrupting your entertainment? Not anymore!! We at Movies Time welcomes you to the world of hassle free entertainment.</p>
<p>&#8220;Movies time is the most awaited app where you can get access to latest movies, web series and LiveTv on your fingertips &#8216;free of cost&#8217;,&#8221; the blurb reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Add movies and web series to your watch-list from our largest library including Bollywood, Hollywood, Tollywood, Punjabi and much more on the go on your smartphone.&#8221;</p>
<p>This, of course, is a problem for the MPA and this week it became a problem for Github too. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are writing to notify you of, and request your assistance in addressing, the extensive copyright infringement of motion pictures and television shows that is occurring by virtue of the operation of the infringing service titled &#8216;Movies Time&#8217;,&#8221; the MPA complaint to Github reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Movies Time is a software application – specifically an APK – that is preconfigured to provide unauthorized access to copyrighted motion pictures and television shows; a user need only download the APK, and on launch it will allow the user to search for, select and stream large numbers of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows, without any further configuration by the user, and all without authorization.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/9f5e7888.movies-time-apk-e1591256853209.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies-time-apk-e1591256853209.png"><img src="media/9f5e7888.movies-time-apk-e1591256853209.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies-time-apk-e1591256853209.png" alt="" width="550" height="265" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188899" /></a></center></p>
<p>According to the MPA, Github provides &#8216;supporting services&#8217; to Movies Time including hosting its repository, hosting its website, and hosting the app (APK). As a result it asked the Microsoft-owned platform to take preventative action.</p>
<p>&#8220;Movies Time – your customer – blatantly infringes the MPA Member Studios’ copyrights and countless other copyrights. Indeed, copyright infringement is so prevalent on Movies Tim that infringement plainly is its predominant use and purpose,&#8221; the MPA complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;By this notification, we are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping your customer’s unauthorized activity. Specifically, we request that you cease providing all supporting services to Movies Time, by (1) removing or disabling access to the infringing Website, and (2) removing the APK from your Repository&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>The MPA provided Github with a list of infringing works and <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/d25eaea249a443d87aa349e5168afa5696b20b64">asked</a> the platform to consider the repeat infringer provision of the DMCA and breaches of its own acceptable use policy. All this appears to have been enough for Github which has now disabled access to the <a href="https://github.com/Audionetime/Movie-s-Time-Apia">repository</a> and the <a href="https://moviestimeapp.github.io/">Movies Time website</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, with these type of applications there is more than one hole to plug. Movies Time has a domain, MoviesTimeApp.xyz, which previously linked to the website hosted on Github. While that was rendered useless yesterday, any visitors to that domain today are now given a &#8216;drive-by&#8217; download of the Movies Time APK &#8211; whether they wanted one or not.</p>
<p>Also, the <a href="https://t.me/Moviestimeapp">MoviesTime Telegram channel</a> remains in operation and its growing membership now exceeds 25,600 users, a figure apparently swelled by the Github takedown.</p>
<p>Like many &#8216;pirate&#8217; APKs, it&#8217;s interesting to note that MoviesTime may have a piracy problem of its own. A cursory search reveals several sites offering a modded version of the application which claims to have ads and banner placeholders removed and ads during playback disabled. The mod also states that analytics, unneeded permissions and root check code have been removed.</p>
<p>Why any app would need the final pair in place is open to debate so perhaps needless to say, installing either variant isn&#8217;t recommended.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188933
title: More Than Half of All Sports Fans Regularly Pirate Content
uri: More-Than-Half-of-All-Sports-Fans-Regularly-Pirate-Content
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FENAO9s0xjA/
content:
<p><img src="media/413852f6.oldball.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/oldball.jpg" alt="" width="267" height="183" class="alignright size-full wp-image-150389" />Copyright holders are no fans of piracy. However, pirates tend to be the biggest fans of their content, whether that&#8217;s movies, games or music.</p>
<p>Research has consistently shown that illegal downloaders and streamers are more engaged consumers. They also tend to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/most-aussie-pirates-are-the-industrys-best-customers-150722/">spend more money</a> on subscriptions, merchandise, theater visits and concerts.</p>
<p>Thus far most surveys and studies have zoomed in on music and video entertainment. However, there is a massive market for sports piracy as well. With a new report, <a href="https://www.synamedia.com/">Synamedia</a> tried to fill this gap with an extensive survey of over 6,000 respondents in ten countries. </p>
<h2>The Survey Results</h2>
<p>As expected, the study found that frequent pirates are among the most engaged consumers, with 42% watching sports fixtures on a daily basis. This is twice as much as regular sports fans. </p>
<p>What really stands out, however, is that piracy is not a niche activity for sports fans. On the contrary, more than half of all sports fans consume pirated content at least once a month. </p>
<p>It turns out that finding a sports fan who has never pirated anything is quite a challenge. Of all the people who were surveyed, only 16% said that they had never pirated sports content. This is also clear from the overview of the key results, listed below.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0c845b55.synamedia-report-results.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/synamedia-report-results.jpg" alt="Synamedia sports piracy summary results" width="630" height="470" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-188943" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/synamedia-report-results.jpg 938w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/synamedia-report-results-600x448.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/synamedia-report-results-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>Not all sports pirates are equal, according to Synamedia. The company identifies three different groups, which each differ in their viewing preferences, content demands, and views on piracy. </p>
<h2>Loyal Stalwarts, Fickle Superfans, and Casual Spectators</h2>
<p>The first group are the &#8220;Loyal Stalwarts,&#8221; which are mostly older men who consume a broad variety of sports content. Most think illegal services are wrong and they plan to keep their legal subscriptions.</p>
<p><center><strong>Loyal Starwarts</strong></center><br /><center><img src="media/f49aabc9.loyal-starwats.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/loyal-starwats.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="419" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188944" /></center></p>
<p>The second group covers the &#8220;Fickle Superfans.&#8221; They are younger and often have a strong focus on local and niche games and sports. These Superfans can be divided into &#8216;Content Plunderers&#8217; who believe piracy is not wrong, and &#8216;Internet Buccaneers,&#8217; who prefer legal content. </p>
<p><center><strong>Fickle Superfans</strong></center><br /><center><img src="media/b5967a7d.fickle-suprtfans.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fickle-suprtfans.jpg" alt="" width="545" height="445" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188946" /></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Casual Spectators&#8221; make up the last group. As the name suggests, they don&#8217;t consume pirated content very often. This covers both &#8216;Ocean Explorers&#8217; who are fine with piracy but prefer legal content, as well as &#8216;Silver Islanders,&#8217; who clearly believe piracy is wrong.</p>
<p><center><strong>Casual Spectators</strong></center><br /><center><img src="media/6400abfc.casual-spectators.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/casual-spectators.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="441" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188947" /></center></p>
<p>While all these different groups and subgroups are a bit confusing, it helps to convey the point that not all pirates are equal. Not by a long shot. This makes sports piracy a complicated enforcement area. </p>
<h2>No One-Size-Fits-All Solution</h2>
<p>For example, some groups are worried about fines, while others clearly aren&#8217;t. Similarly, some pirates are eager to pay, while others are more likely to keep pirating.</p>
<p>What is important, however, is that legal options are available. If people have no way to watch something legally, they often turn to unauthorized channels.</p>
<p>Synamedia hopes that their research will help copyright holders and content providers to understand pirates better, even though there&#8217;s no &#8220;one-size-fits-all&#8221; solution. In any case, sports pirates should not be universally written off as cheapskates.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers who most indulge in illicit viewing are also the most engaged sports fans and potentially most willing to pay for legitimate content,&#8221; Synamedia writes.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The challenge for rights holders and platform operators is to combine enforcement activity to frustrate illegal viewing with products that address the underlying triggers for consumers to stray. Done right there is potential to generate incremental revenue,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188925
title: Torrent Site BTDB.io Has Domain Suspended By Registry Without Warning
uri: Torrent-Site-BTDB-io-Has-Domain-Suspended-By-Registry-Without-Warning
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5GVKtMubmUk/
content:
<p><a href="media/4c6edd7a.btdb-logo-e1591289156492.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-logo-e1591289156492.png"><img src="media/4c6edd7a.btdb-logo-e1591289156492.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-logo-e1591289156492.png" alt="BTDB logo" width="270" height="121" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188960" /></a>In terms of sheer traffic, BitTorrent Database (BTDB) doesn&#8217;t rub shoulders with The Pirate Bay and RARBG but with seven million visitors per month, it&#8217;s certainly no slouch.</p>
<p>The site began by allowing people to search BitTorrent&#8217;s Distributed Hash Table (DHT) but has more recently allowed users to upload their own torrents into categories including movies, TV, music, games and others. </p>
<p>According to its search engine there are more than 27.6 million torrents to choose from but this week, completely out of the blue and literally overnight, the site&#8217;s traffic dropped by 90%.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1971d616.btdb-ss-e1591292442176.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-ss-e1591292442176.png"><img src="media/1971d616.btdb-ss-e1591292442176.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-ss-e1591292442176.png" alt="BTDB" width="550" height="262" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188963" /></a></center></p>
<p>At least initially, the site&#8217;s operator thought that some kind of ISP blocking might have struck his site but when other techniques to access his main domain at BTDB.io failed, attention turned elsewhere. Indeed, after running a closer check on the domain in question, the problem soon became apparent.</p>
<p>As the following image of BTDB.io&#8217;s WHOIS entry shows, the final line of the &#8216;Domain Status&#8217; section contains a code site owners dread &#8211; &#8216;serverHold&#8217;.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/b6ab63aa.btdb-io-whois-e1591292301539.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-io-whois-e1591292301539.png"><img src="media/b6ab63aa.btdb-io-whois-e1591292301539.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/btdb-io-whois-e1591292301539.png" alt="BTDB Whois" width="550" height="300" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-188962" /></a></center></p>
<p>According to ICANN the <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en">serverHold</a> domain status is something people shouldn&#8217;t come across very often but, when it appears, it&#8217;s usually the result of &#8220;legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.&#8221;</p>
<p>Domains such as BTDB.io are assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory and administered by the <a href="https://www.icb.co.uk/">Internet Computer Bureau</a>. In this case the domain was registered via <a href="https://njal.la/">Njalla</a>, the domain privacy company associated with former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde. However, neither BTDB&#8217;s operator nor Njalla were informed of any issues before the domain was suspended.</p>
<p>A support email seen by TorrentFreak shows a Njalla team member explaining the serverHold status code while confirming that it had been set by the registry. Njalla had no idea what the BTDB.io domain was being used for but did offer to try and find out what the issue was. At the time of writing, BTDB&#8217;s operator is still in the dark.</p>
<p>Given the nature of the platform, however, it seems possible that some kind of copyright dispute could be the underlying reason for the suspension. Google reports that 1,387 copyright holders have filed DMCA notices targeting 235,806 URLs on the BTDB site, meaning that there is no shortage of suspects when it comes to considering who may have thrown a spanner in the works.</p>
<p>The top notice-senders are all very well-known too, including the BPI, CBS, Disney, BREIN, and the RIAA, although at this stage there is no suggestion that any of these are responsible for the issues.</p>
<p>While BTDB&#8217;s .io domain is currently out of action, its alternative <a href="https://btdb.eu/">BTDB.eu</a> domain is still operational. The underlying BTDB site is currently restoring its database but should be fully functional at that URL moving forward.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188881
title: Google ‘Promotes’ Pirate Book Sales, Authors Guild Says
uri: Google-Promotes-Pirate-Book-Sales-Authors-Guild-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-TeOkolXrUQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/83b20ce7.piratebook.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebook.jpg" alt="google pirate book" width="330" height="280" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188992" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebook.jpg 621w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebook-600x510.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 330px) 100vw, 330px" />The <a href="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/">Senate Judiciary</a> Subcommittee on Intellectual Property is actively looking for options through which the US can better address online piracy.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, it held a hearing to see what could be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-industry-praises-the-effectiveness-of-pirate-site-blocking-in-u-s-senate-200311/">learned from copyright policies in other countries</a>. This week a new meeting was put on the agenda, which zoomed in on the effectiveness of the DMCA itself. </p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that the US Government has heard stakeholders on the DMCA and many of the arguments, both in favor and against the law, have been brought up before. The overall theme is that online services are fine with the current system while rightsholders want online services to do more.</p>
<p>One of the testimonies worth highlighting comes from Douglas Preston, president of the <a href="https://www.authorsguild.org/">Authors Guild</a>, which represents over 10,000 professional writers. Many of the Guild&#8217;s members are struggling due to piracy, he says, because the DMCA doesn&#8217;t work as intended.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notice-and-takedown system is not working — at least not for authors, other individual creators, and small creative businesses,&#8221; Preston informed the Senate Subcommittee. </p>
<h2>Book Piracy is Rampant and the DMCA Does Little to Help</h2>
<p>The testimony continues by describing the book piracy landscape in detail. According to Preston, the number of piracy complaints has skyrocketed over the past decade, with pirate sites and pirate booksellers growing more and more popular.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is nearly impossible to estimate the number of active pirate sites at any given moment,&#8221; Preston notes, while mentioning Ebook.bike, LibGen, Sci-Hub, Epub.pub, Graycity.net and Kissly.net as some of the worst actors. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that at least some of the sites don&#8217;t care about the DMCA. Even with much stricter legislation including &#8216;staydown&#8217; and &#8216;filtering&#8217; requirements, they would keep going. However, the Authors Guild believes that some online services have room to improve. </p>
<h2>Google&#8217;s Role in the Piracy Ecosystem</h2>
<p>Preston is particularly critical of Google. This doesn&#8217;t come as a surprise, as both parties previously met in court over a copyright dispute. That said, the Authors Guild doesn&#8217;t spare the search engine in its testimony to the Senators.</p>
<p>According to the Authors Guild, search engines make pirate sites easily accessible. While the comments also apply to other search engines, Google is the only one that&#8217;s specifically named.</p>
<p>Terms such as &#8216;free ebook,&#8217; &#8216;download,&#8217; or &#8216;ebook&#8217; return a &#8220;bewildering variety&#8221; of links to pirate sites, the Authors Guild notes. That&#8217;s not limited to regular searches either, as Google shopping links also list pirate book stores or link to cheap pirated books on eBay.</p>
<p>&#8220;Those Google Shopping buy buttons include links to pirate sites and pirate eBay sellers mixed in with legitimate vendors, sometimes even ranking above legitimate vendors in search results if the pirates have bought promotional placement on the page. </p>
<p>&#8220;And since there is no way to tell a licensed ebook copy apart from a pirated copy, users will usually choose the cheapest offer not knowing that these cheap ebooks are in fact pirated copies,&#8221; the Authors Guild adds.</p>
<p><center><strong>Spot the Pirate Book&#8230;</strong></center><br /><center><img src="media/272f182b.pirate-book.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-book.jpg" alt="" width="630" height="405" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-189008" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-book.jpg 834w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-book-600x386.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>Copyright holders can take down the links by sending a DMCA request. However, the authors want more. Ideally, they would like shopping links to be carefully vetted. In addition, known pirate sites should be completely removed from Google&#8217;s search index.</p>
<h2>Removing Pirate Domains from Search Results</h2>
<p>The Authors Guild points out that Google does filter out other illegal content, including child pornography. Thus far, however, it has rejected rightsholders&#8217; requests for the wholesale removal of pirate domains. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Authors Guild has asked Google in the past to de-index sites like Ebook.bike and Epub.pub from search results for books, but we were only successful in getting them demoted so they don’t appear whenever a user searches for a book title on Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no reason for search engines and other legitimate platforms covered by the DMCA to continue linking to pirate sites—not when they clearly have abundant knowledge of the pirate nature of these sites,&#8221; the testimony adds.</p>
<p>The authors are very critical of search engines. However, they also point out that other online services including Facebook, Linkedin, Scribd, Slideshare, and eBay can do more as well. Ideally, the DMCA would require these companies to take action.</p>
<h2>The Solution?</h2>
<p>According to the Authors Guild, the current interpretation of the DMCA doesn&#8217;t work. Online services should be required to do more. And if they don&#8217;t, they should be held liable. </p>
<p>Preston says that the DMCA has allowed for-profit companies to grow and prosper &#8220;to an obscene measure&#8221; which hurts copyright holders, while &#8220;leaving individual creators poorer than ever.&#8221;</p>
<p>Instead of continuing on the same foot, the authors want a “takedown and staydown” policy. This can be achieved by changing the interpretation of the current law or by proposing new legislation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Congress could enact a new provision that provides that a takedown notice applies to every full-length, identical copy of the particular work. In other words, one notice does not result in one takedown, but in the removal of all current and infringing copies of that work,&#8221; it suggests. </p>
<p>This proposal is not new but whether Congress is open to it is questionable. Last month the US Copyright Office <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-copyright-offices-proposed-dmca-fine-tuning-could-be-bad-news-for-pirates-200522/">released its detailed report</a> on the state of the DMCA. This specifically recommended not to implement any &#8220;staydown&#8221; requirements.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the full testimony from Authors Guild President Douglas Preston is available <a href="media/fbef9407.Preston20Testimony.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Preston%20Testimony.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188983
title: Japan Passes New Copyright Law to Criminalize Manga Piracy & Linking Sites
uri: Japan-Passes-New-Copyright-Law-to-Criminalize-Manga-Piracy-Linking-S
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jT6ED8srlS8/
content:
<p><a href="media/ac10fa01.japan.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png"><img src="media/ac10fa01.japan.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png" alt="Japan flag" width="200" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57939" /></a>Eight years ago, Japan <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-downloading-law-hits-japan-up-to-2-years-in-prison-from-today-121001/">passed legislation</a> that made it illegal to download unlicensed movies and music from the Internet. </p>
<p>The move to criminalize this activity with a prison sentence of up to two years received a general welcome from copyright holders. However, rightsholders offering other types of content felt left out. Ever since they&#8217;ve called for the law to be expanded to include manga (local comics) and other literary works.</p>
<h2>Fines and Prison Sentences For Downloaders</h2>
<p>This week and after years of work, their goals were achieved. Japan&#8217;s parliament passed new copyright amendments Friday that ban the unlicensed downloading of manga, magazines and academic texts from the Internet, in line with the previously outlawed media categories.</p>
<p>In common with the penalties already available for movies and music, those illegally downloading publications from the Internet now face a theoretical sentence of two years in prison or a fine of up to two million yen (US$18,300).</p>
<p>The new downloading law will come into effect on January 1, 2021, but there will be some exceptions.</p>
<p>Those who download a small section of a manga publication or a handful of pages from a larger book, for example, will not face prosecution. After protests over the strict nature of an early draft of the law, people who accidentally include copyrighted works in screenshots will also avoid breaking the law.</p>
<h2>New Criminal Penalties For &#8216;Leech Site&#8217; Operators</h2>
<p>Other amendments passed Friday including the outlawing of so-called &#8220;leech&#8221; sites. Outside Japan, these are often called indexing or linking sites since they host no copyrighted content themselves but link to external platforms or users that do. These have previously proven a thorn in the side of local copyright holders who previously claimed that around 200 were operating with impunity in the country.</p>
<p>As of October 1, 2020, however, site operators or those publishing apps that have the same function will face the harshest sentences available under the law. Such offenses will carry a sentence of up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of five million yen (US$45,760), or in some cases, both.</p>
<h2>New Legislation Overcame Significant Hurdles to Become Law</h2>
<p>In early 2019, the Cultural Affairs Agency proposed an expansion of the law to cover all copyrighted content but things didn’t go smoothly. Opponents argued that the proposed legislation was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/academics-issue-emergency-statement-over-japans-proposed-download-law-190221/">too tight</a> and could even meet the private copying of images with a prison sentence.</p>
<p>Due to these and similar fears, the amendments were eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japan-abandons-tough-anti-downloading-copyright-law-190313/">shelved</a>. This led to the production of an amended bill that received <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japanese-government-approves-new-bill-to-criminalize-manga-piracy-200311/">approval in March</a>. </p>
<p>Passed by parliament this week, the government says that the amendments represent a fair yet effective compromise.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188895
title: Uberchips Denies Nintendo’s Piracy Claims and Wants Case Dismissed
uri: Uberchips-Denies-Nintendo-s-Piracy-Claims-and-Wants-Case-Dismissed
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/X5hiHS0XMoo/
content:
<p><img src="media/17a2e998.sx-core.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sx-core.jpg" alt="" width="255" height="166" class="alignright size-full wp-image-188908" />Nintendo is doing everything in its power to stop the public from playing pirated games on the Switch console. </p>
<p>Their major adversary is the infamous hacking group <a href="https://team-xecuter.com/">Team-Xecuter</a>, which released several &#8216;jailbreak&#8217; hacks for the games console.</p>
<p>The group is about to launch its latest products, SX-Core and SX-Lite, which will be the first to work on recent Switch consoles including the Lite variant. Nintendo sees this as a major threat and with a series of lawsuits, hopes to limit the availability of these mod devices.</p>
<p>As Nintendo&#8217;s efforts to go directly after Team-Xecuter failed, the games company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-stores-selling-new-team-xecuter-switch-piracy-hack-200518/">went after nine stores</a> that offered these new hacks for pre-sale instead. This includes Uberchips.com, which is operated by Ohio resident Tom Dilts Jr.</p>
<h2>Uberchips Responds in Court</h2>
<p>Soon after the lawsuits were filed Uberchips and other sites pulled the plug but that didn&#8217;t make the legal problems disappear. Uberchips&#8217; owner realizes this and through his attorney responded to Nintendo&#8217;s complaint in court this week. </p>
<p>The response is far from spectacular. It&#8217;s a standard answer where the defendants either &#8220;deny the allegations&#8221; in the complaint or state that they don&#8217;t have &#8220;sufficient knowledge or information&#8221; to say whether the allegations are true or not. </p>
<p>The image below gives a pretty good indication of the entire reply. The only outlier, where Uberchips &#8220;admits&#8221; an allegation, refers to Nintendo&#8217;s claim that Mr. Dilts is the founder and managing member of<br />
Uberchips, LLC.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/31131f21.uberchipsdeny.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchipsdeny.jpg" alt="Uberchips response to Nintendo complaint" width="630" height="405" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188910" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchipsdeny.jpg 813w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchipsdeny-600x385.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>The answer also lists some affirmative defenses but these are pretty basic as well. Uberchips, for example, says that Nintendo failed to state a claim and adds that its request is barred by the statute of limitations. As such, Uberchips want the case dismissed. </p>
<p>To get a dismissal, Uberchips will likely have some more explaining to do, as Nintendo will have some more questions. The video games company will be very interested in Uberchips&#8217; links to Team-Xecuter and the reason to suddenly shut the site down, for example. </p>
<p>As reported last week, several sued stores &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/stores-selling-switch-piracy-hacks-disappear-following-nintendo-lawsuit-200527/">disappeared</a>&#8216; after the lawsuits were filed but others vanished too, including Xecuter-sx.com. While that doesn&#8217;t reference any legal trouble, it&#8217;s likely related to Nintendo&#8217;s enforcement efforts. </p>
<p>&#8220;We regret to inform you that this page will be permanently closed. Pre-sales purchases made on this website will be returned in the order they were received,&#8221; the site informed its customers. </p>
<h2>Team-Xecuter Continues Despite Legal Pressure</h2>
<p>Meanwhile, Team-Xecuter is moving full steam ahead with the release of its new hacks. In a message posted on their official site, the group announced that testing is going well. </p>
<p>&#8220;The testing phase for our new SX Core and Lite products is well under way. We have gotten a lot of feedback and are actively working on in-cooperating these suggestions and details to bring you the best end-user experience.[sic]&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, the group also published the <a href="https://sx.xecuter.com/">official manuals</a> for installing the SX Core and SX Lite chips.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f7acd6fc.sx-lite-manual.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sx-lite-manual.jpg" alt="screenshot from Team Xecuter's SX lite Manual" width="630" height="417" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188911" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sx-lite-manual.jpg 1207w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/sx-lite-manual-600x397.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>With a determined Team-Xecuter and many stores that are still happy to sell the chips, Nintendo will have a hard time preventing a new wave of incoming Switch pirates. That said, the games company is likely to keep up the pressure.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Uberchips and Tom Dilts Jr.&#8217;s answer to the complaint from Nintendo is available <a href="media/f31a8ba9.uberchips-reply.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uberchips-reply.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188815
title: Top Mistakes Made By BitTorrent Users That Lead to Lawsuits & DMCA Notices
uri: Top-Mistakes-Made-By-BitTorrent-Users-That-Lead-to-Lawsuits-DMCA-Not
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dHu-owQrj3o/
content:
<p><a href="media/70326b63.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png"><img src="media/70326b63.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" width="222" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108110" /></a>Once upon a time, most BitTorrent users could download whatever they liked with relative impunity. </p>
<p>Movies, TV shows, music, games and software could mostly be obtained trouble-free but more than 15 years on, the game has changed significantly. Copyright holders and their anti-piracy partners are highly-organized and Internet service providers in some countries, notably the United States, are keener than ever to forward complaints to lessen their own liability.</p>
<p>Yet despite the thousands of articles that have been written on the topic of DMCA notices, ISP account suspensions, and even lawsuits, BitTorrent users still hit the web every week to complain that even in the face of all of their efforts, they are now facing varying degrees of legal trouble. Here are the top reasons, misconceptions, and urban myths that lead to people getting into a fix.</p>
<h2>Download and Sharing Copyrighted Content</h2>
<p>Sherlock Holmes shouldn&#8217;t be needed to highlight why people who download and share pirated content can get themselves into legal hot water. In most countries that care to enforce copyright, the duplication and distribution of pirated content is illegal and punishable under law, whether in civil or in extreme cases, criminal procedures.</p>
<p>Sharing any kind of copyrighted content without the protection offered by a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/">VPN or similar tool</a>, for example, always carries an element of risk. For instance, people think that by downloading older content, such as decades-old films or less popular material, they can completely avoid being tracked by copyright holders. That is not the case.</p>
<p>In summary, the only cast-iron guaranteed way to avoid being sent an infringement notice or potentially being subjected to a lawsuit is not to share any copyrighted content at all. Some people may argue that their country doesn&#8217;t care about such matters and to those there is a simple response: Maybe today they don&#8217;t.</p>
<h2>Can People Avoid Getting a Notice By Not Seeding or Not Uploading?</h2>
<p>In a word &#8211; NO. Most copyright holders and anti-piracy companies could care less whether BitTorrent users downloaded or uploaded part of a film or all of it. There might be implications in a copyright lawsuit if someone was observed seeding a torrent for a very long time but simply being part of a sharing swarm is enough for anyone to get a copyright infringement notice and/or a &#8216;strike&#8217; from their ISP in the United States.</p>
<p>Equally, there is a persistent belief among some that people who set their upload speed to zero won&#8217;t get a copyright notice or even find themselves on the end of a lawsuit. That is completely false. While some are more thorough, there are plenty of companies that will detect a BitTorrent user&#8217;s IP address in a swarm (this information is public) and then accuse them of copyright infringement just for being there.</p>
<p>This also applies to people who may have gotten halfway through downloading a movie, for example, and then backed out. Many notice senders and copyright trolls do not care how much people downloaded or whether they backed out or not.</p>
<p>Some people also claim that since they didn&#8217;t upload anything the copyright holder has a weaker case but these are not matters that the ISP notification system cares about. Those targeted may also believe that they could stand up in court and argue that they didn&#8217;t distribute anything but, at this point, the defense process will have already cost plenty of time and money.</p>
<p>In short and broadly speaking, if a case ends up in court any ordinary Joe who values their time and money has already lost. People do win cases but instances are few and far between.</p>
<h2>But I Subscribe to a VPN and Still Got a Notice. Why?</h2>
<p>Using a VPN is all well and good when the user understands how they work, sets them up properly, and remains cautious about their limitations. However, in some cases all of these conditions are overlooked, which can again lead to ISP notifications and even lawsuits.</p>
<p>All good VPN providers will supply accurate instructions on how to get their tools up and running but one of the most common blunders is to misunderstand the capabilities of the main products they supply. While those who obtain and correctly set up a good whole-system VPN should have few problems, there are plenty of cases reported online where people wrongly believed that using a browser-based VPN would protect their BitTorrent transfers.</p>
<p>While it is common for some BitTorrent clients/systems to have web interfaces these days, the transfers themselves do not take place through a browser. They use an entirely different process that must be protected in its own right or globally on the host system. In short, no browser plug-in will anonymize downloading and/or uploading with BitTorrent.</p>
<h2>I had my VPN Set Up Correctly System-Wide and Still Got a Notice. Why?</h2>
<p>Like anything on a computer, VPNs aren&#8217;t completely fool-proof unless additional precautions are taken. For any number of reasons a VPN connection can temporarily fail, including but not limited to the underlying Internet connection itself dropping and causing a reconnection.</p>
<p>For this reason, some VPN providers provide a &#8216;kill switch&#8217; function, which prevents Internet connectivity when a problem occurs. If this is not enabled, users can find their real IP addresses exposed to a BitTorrent swarm and people trying to monitor them.</p>
<p>Another basic failure is more simply prevented. Some people configure their torrent client to start when their machine boots up. If for any reason their VPN is not activated before this happens, their IP addresses will be exposed in public. While there are a number of possible workarounds, a simple option is to disable the torrent client&#8217;s autostart feature and only launch the software once a VPN connection is established.</p>
<p>Finally, not all VPN providers are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/">no-log services</a> so by choosing the wrong supplier, anonymity can be undermined.</p>
<h2>I Enabled the Encryption Option in My Torrent Client and Still Got a Notice, Why?</h2>
<p>Most major torrent clients do indeed have an encryption option hidden away in their settings and there&#8217;s no shortage of <a href="https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/149378/what-is-torrent-encryption-and-does-it-make-my-traffic-anonymous">reports</a> online from people who have still received a notice after enabling this option.</p>
<p>The reason is that this encryption is only aimed at hindering ISPs from identifying BitTorrent traffic so they have more difficulty slowing it down. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_protocol_encryption">Client encryption</a> offers no protection whatsoever on the anonymity front and those using it will still have their IP addresses exposed.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>There are many people out there who claim to have used torrents for years, downloaded and shared terabytes of data, yet have never received a complaint or been on the sharp end of a lawsuit. Just as many people drive around above the speed limit most days of their lives without getting a ticket, that is entirely possible.</p>
<p>However, in common with speeding drivers, those who take extra risks or don&#8217;t exercise caution are putting themselves in danger of falling foul of those who would like to punish them. As a result, always staying below the limit or never sharing any copyrighted material online are the only <em>guaranteed</em> solutions for not getting a fine or, if people are lucky, getting off with a warning.</p>
<p>Everything else requires work, additional tools, and/or the acceptance of risk and the attached consequences.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188657
title: Manga, Scanlation, and The Curious Case of The ‘Pirating’ Anti-Piracy Advocate
uri: Manga-Scanlation-and-The-Curious-Case-of-The-Pirating-Anti-Pir
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/B_X49V7ss5U/
content:
<p><img src="media/f26d54f6.bleachmanga.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bleachmanga.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="235" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-188745" />Manga comics and magazines are extremely popular. Early on this was mostly limited to Japan but nowadays it&#8217;s a global phenomenon. </p>
<p>In part, this worldwide success was facilitated by piracy. We use this loaded term lightly here, particularly when it refers to scanlation. </p>
<h2>How Scanlation &#8216;Piracy&#8217; Popularized Manga</h2>
<p>When some of the early torrent sites appeared in the first half of the 2000s, many had anime or manga sections. At the time, this category was alien to the majority of western users but that changed over time. </p>
<p>This shift was in part the result of the efforts from manga fans who translated scans of manga magazines from Japanese to English, so-called &#8216;scanlation&#8217;. In the early days, official publishers weren&#8217;t bothered by this practice. Some even saw it as flattering. </p>
<p>As the years passed the foreign manga audience kept growing and growing, with dedicated &#8216;scanlation&#8217; sites and groups showing up. What started as a small niche pastime became a massive community of new consumers. Consumers who could be monetized.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re not exaggerating when we say that the scanlation community created an entirely new industry &#8211; English manga &#8211; which created opportunities, challenges, drama, and conflict. </p>
<h2>The Anti-Pirate Hyporite?</h2>
<p>Last weekend an example of this drama was brought to the forefront on 4Chan, Discord, Twitter, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/gsyhr4/antipiracy_advocate_got_caught_working_for_piracy/">and Reddit</a>. The key player is <a href="https://twitter.com/ontakahashi?lang=en">On Takahashi</a>, the owner of Irodori Comics, a company that works with Japanese authors to publish &#8216;Doujinshi&#8217; manga overseas. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.irodoricomics.com/">Irodori Comics</a> basically turned scanlation into a business. It&#8217;s not alone in doing so, but On Takahashi did more than that. He also began to take a harsh stance against pirates and organized sites.</p>
<p>For example, he went after manga aggregators that posted scanlations without permission. This includes MangaRock, which turned &#8216;legal&#8217; late last year after increased pressure from copyright holders.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/56f0250d.irodori.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/irodori.jpg" alt="Irodori Comics" width="630" height="277" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188841" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/irodori.jpg 1327w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/irodori-600x264.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>This is quite an extreme stance for the owner of a company that built its business on what started as a pirate activity. These and other observations were shared in a Reddit post, which also revealed another intriguing detail. </p>
<h2>Working With a Pirate Group</h2>
<p>Apparently, Takahashi has close ties to the Shinmai Maou scanlation group, which posts translations without permission from rightsholders. Three years ago, Takahashi also <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20200527050828/https://www.shinmaimaoutranslation.com/sample-translations/volume-8/chapter-1/">helped the group by doing some translation work himself</a>.</p>
<p>After this was brought to the forefront, his name was swiftly purged from the group&#8217;s site. By then, however, copies were already made and the whole episode blew up on Reddit. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/e52713ae.shinmai-maou.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/shinmai-maou.jpg" alt="Shinmai Maou translations" width="610" height="310" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188842" /></center></p>
<p>Needless to say, this is not a good look. The post speaks for itself and raised some great points. It fits particularly well in today&#8217;s fast-pace social media-fueled discourse where siloed groups unite in pointing fingers at those who do wrong. </p>
<p>However, what intrigued us the most is why Takahashi would do this? It&#8217;s clear that he doesn&#8217;t like pirates, so why work with a group that can be defined as a pirate outlet, one that&#8217;s even charging people for access to full content?</p>
<h2>Takahashi responds</h2>
<p>When the news broke Takahashi remained quiet. However, the Irodori Comics owner was willing to talk to us to provide some background and context. This doesn&#8217;t change any of the facts really, but it shows how &#8216;complicated&#8217; the relationship between piracy and manga can get.</p>
<p>Takashi doesn&#8217;t dispute large parts of the Reddit thread and he does believe that piracy hurts sales. That said, he starts out by pointing out that the tweet &#8211; where he supposedly condemned the use of VPNs and stated that an unauthorized download equals a lost sale &#8211; was faked.</p>
<p>Takahashi also admits that he wrote a translation for the &#8216;Shinmai Maou translation&#8217; group. He is good friends with the organizer and helped out when he needed assistance a few years ago. In fact, he is still in good contact today and hangs out in the Discord channel. </p>
<p>Even though the group doesn&#8217;t have permission to publish these translations, Takahashi doesn&#8217;t see it as a pirate group because it focuses on older works that have no official English translation. These are &#8220;fair game,&#8221; he told us. Also, the group supports authors by sending any excess donations to the original authors.</p>
<p>&#8220;I still have a relationship with the group, because they aren&#8217;t a piracy group. It is a private group that only had the fantranslation between the people who funded it and the people who supported the official Japanese release and the artist. None of these guys are free-riders,&#8221; Takahashi says.</p>
<p>This is all a matter of perspective of course. Technically the group is pirating, whatever the intentions or motivations are. However, Takahashi draws a clear line between fan translations of manga that doesn&#8217;t have an official translation and those that have. The first is not piracy but the latter is, according to him.</p>
<h2>Scanlation ≠ Piracy</h2>
<p>The Reddit and 4Chan crowd see things differently. They don&#8217;t draw the same lines as Takahashi does, branding him a hypocrite. They view him as a pirating anti-pirate, one who helped to bring down MangaRock, which was a massively popular scanlation aggregator. </p>
<p>It appears that there are two rights and two wrongs here, depending on which position you take. If you see all unauthorized translations as piracy, the hypocrite label makes total sense. Especially for someone who has been a very vocal anti-pirate. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/b1b2850f.mangarock.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mangarock.jpg" alt="Mangarock" width="630" height="393" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-188843" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mangarock.jpg 1039w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/mangarock-600x374.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px" /></center></p>
<p>Takahashi, however, is fine with scanlations that don&#8217;t have an official version, but he does condemn groups and aggregators that publish scanlations that are also available legally. That includes MangaRock.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some might accuse me of being a hypocrite, but aggregator websites like MangaRock are completely different in nature to a scanlation group, and should not be lumped into the same category. That&#8217;s insulting to scanlators. The English manga industry&#8217;s foundation was built from scanlation after all,&#8221; Takahashi says.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s why I took my stance against aggregator sites like MangaRock, that took from scanlation group&#8217;s labor of love and put it in their subscription system. But I&#8217;m not against scanlations of works that don&#8217;t have an official English version.&#8221;</p>
<p>The ultimate conclusion is that both sides are right. And both sides are wrong. </p>
<h2>Pirate Roots</h2>
<p>The positive historical links between piracy and the popularity of manga are undeniable. However, in recent years things have become more complicated as publishers and other companies work hard to get their piece of the legal pie. </p>
<p>With a legal translation business, Takahashi got his piece but with his strong anti-piracy stance, he clearly offended others in the scanlation community. This is a sensitive issue as some of the same people he now condemns helped to build everything up. </p>
<p>Just how thin the lines are is exemplified by the fact that Takahashi now sells content through Fakku, a massive publishing imperium that started out by posting scanlations without permission.</p>
<p>Ultimately, this article isn&#8217;t about who&#8217;s right or wrong. We merely want to provide some more context. Perhaps the real lesson is that &#8216;extremes rarely work&#8217; and that piracy often plays a role in creating new industries. And that&#8217;s not limited to manga, of course.</p>
<p>Spotify also has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-beta-used-pirate-mp3-files-some-from-pirate-bay-170509/">pirate roots</a>, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-are-porn-perfomers-scared-to-talk-about-internet-piracy-140413/">so has</a> the largest online adult entertainment company. Pirate radio helped to create commercial radio, and even Hollywood started out with a <a href="https://www.history.com/news/the-renegade-roots-of-hollywood-studios">pirate mentality</a>.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=189095
title: Movie Studios Apply For Injunction Against ISP With “Close Links” to The Pirate Bay
uri: Movie-Studios-Apply-For-Injunction-Against-ISP-With-Close-Links
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/aZOjot1kbmQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/0e036607.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><img src="media/0e036607.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470" /></a>Despite dozens of legal actions against The Pirate Bay, including the jailing of its founders, the world&#8217;s most famous torrent site remains online today.</p>
<p>That it continues to operate can only be an irritant to the many companies that have partnered to take it down and at least for a while, it seemed that tackling the site may have fallen down the list of priorities. Now, however, there is clear evidence that movie companies in Scandinavia are back on the trail.</p>
<p>Svensk Filmindustri is the leading distribution and production company in the Nordic region. Denmark-based Nordisk Film is one of the oldest film studios in the world. With the assistance of Swedish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, they have taken a keen interest in an Internet service provider and hosting company that they claim have &#8220;close ties&#8221; to The Pirate Bay.</p>
<h2>Cloudflare Handed Over an IP Address Linked to TPB</h2>
<p>The Pirate Bay&#8217;s real IP addresses are a closely guarded secret since these can be useful in tracking down where its servers are physically located. When people access the site they currently see IP addresses related to Cloudflare, the CDN company through which The Pirate Bay reaches the public. However, when faced with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare will hand over a clients&#8217; hosting details.</p>
<p>After being issued with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare recently handed over an IP address that was reportedly being used by The Pirate Bay on June 2, 2020. According to <a href="https://www.dagensjuridik.se/nyheter/sf-och-nordisk-film-vill-satta-stopp-for-pirate-bay/">Dagensjuridik</a>, the movie companies and Rights Alliance then used this information to formulate an application for an information injunction against the IP address operator, <a href="https://www.obenetwork.com/">Obenetwork</a>.</p>
<h2>Staff at Obenetwork Have &#8220;Close Ties&#8221; to The Pirate Bay</h2>
<p>The application is characterized by its urgency. The studios asked the court not to hear Obenetworks in the matter but to issue a swift order that would prevent Obenetworks from destroying information detailing its business dealings with The Pirate Bay or face a fine of SEK 100,000 (US$10,872).</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]here is reason to believe that the staff of the defendant [Obenetwork] have close links to Pirate Bay. There is a risk that the information requested by the applicant will be destroyed or prevented from being disclosed,&#8221; the application reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Staff at Obenetworks have appeared in previous investigations against Pirate bay. There is thus a risk that the information referred to in the action could be destroyed or withheld from the applicants.&#8221;</p>
<p>Complaining of ongoing infringement of their copyrights via The Pirate Bay, the studios state that an order to obtain the information held by Obenetwork is the only option they have to enforce their rights.</p>
<h2>Information Road to Nowhere?</h2>
<p>The big question now is whether this information &#8211; should it be handed over at all &#8211; will be of any assistance to the movie studios in their quest to track down their prey.</p>
<p>The operators of The Pirate Bay are veterans when it comes to dealing with anti-piracy actions and they will be acutely aware that Cloudflare hands over server details when it has a legal obligation to do so.</p>
<p>On that basis, it seems reasonable to conclude that TPB&#8217;s operators knew this day would come and that the IP address at Obenetwork won&#8217;t yield anything directly useful. It could, however, provide another piece of the puzzle.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=170186
title: Kodi Team: Pirate Add-ons Only Care About Popularity or Money
uri: Kodi-Team-Pirate-Add-ons-Only-Care-About-Popularity-or-Money
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RT0H9XwvOR4/
content:
<p>https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-builds-streaming-add-ons-and-free-lunches</p>
<p>But some are illegal. A few are both illegal and just downright nasty, and some rogue developers even think your hardware is their hardware.</p>
<p>These developers and the surrounding ecosystem only care about popularity or money. Yes, they do make money from you, selling that marvellous VPN that you so desperately need to feel safe, showing you ads galore, promising everything for free.</p>
<p>Now, if it sounds like it can&#8217;t be legit because it literally sounds too good to be true and that they must be dodgy or bonkers doing all this for nothing, I can tell you your spidey senses are absolutely correct.</p>
<p>It is too good to be true and there is no such thing as a free lunch.</p>
<p>We can see the appeal of Kodi builds, but please stop using them. Help us improve our documentation, suggest usability improvements, a feature, whatever helps us improve Kodi.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=188740
title: Anti-Piracy Lawyer Uses Trademark Claim to Expose ‘Showbox’ Sites
uri: Anti-Piracy-Lawyer-Uses-Trademark-Claim-to-Expose-Showbox-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lI6B5v7RJsQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/b71f07af.showbox.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/showbox.jpg" alt="showbox logo" width="277" height="229" class="alignright size-full wp-image-189082" />Earlier this year, a popular Popcorn Time fork had its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/company-registers-yts-and-popcorn-time-trademarks-to-promote-legal-streaming-200407/">Twitter account suspended over an alleged trademark violation</a>.</p>
<p>This was the work of anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper who, on behalf of the company 42 Ventures, used the “Popcorn Time” trademark as ammunition.</p>
<p>As it turned out, the Hawaiian company had registered a series of piracy-linked keywords including Popcorn Time, YTS, and Terrarium, as well as an image mark that&#8217;s pretty much identical to the logo of another piracy app, Showbox.</p>
<p>42 Ventures doesn&#8217;t hold any notable copyrights. However, its anti-piracy actions definitely stand out. As reported earlier, it tried to negotiate a licensing deal with Popcorn Time, which failed. And not much later it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-lawyer-sues-torrent-sites-for-yts-trademark-infringement-200521/">sued a series of YTS sites</a> over alleged trademark infringement. </p>
<p>Today, we can report on yet another enforcement action. Armed with the Showbox-like image mark, 42 Ventures and Culpepper are targeting several websites that host or link to Showbox apps. This time they have opted for DMCA subpoenas, through which they hope to identify the operators of the sites. </p>
<p>These subpoenas are addressed at Cloudflare, Namecheap, Godaddy, and Domains by Proxy. These third-party companies offer services to the allegedly-infringing sites, which include movieboxpro.app, appvalleyapp.com, showbox.care, showboxvpn.com, moviebox.online, and many others. </p>
<p>Below is a copy of the subpoena which is directed at Cloudflare. It lists a series of domains and IP-addresses, ordering the CDN provider to hand over personal information on these customers. </p>
<p>&#8220;Owner is investigating Copyright Infringement of its visual design. Owner’s investigator has determined that the websites at following IP addresses infringe owner’s visual design. These IP addresses are associated with Cloudflare.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><img src="media/84a4e4e9.showboxsubpoen.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/showboxsubpoen.jpg" alt="Showbox subpoena" width="600" height="277" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-189087" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/showboxsubpoen.jpg 774w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/showboxsubpoen-600x277.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>Most of the targeted domains are specifically set up to link people to Showbox-type apps. These display the Showbox logo, which is indeed similar to the registered image mark. However, there are also some broader targets added to the mix, such as the publishing platform Medium.com.</p>
<p>Medium can&#8217;t be considered a pirate site. It&#8217;s an open platform that&#8217;s widely used by millions of people, including Fortune 500 companies and governments. However, 42 Ventures included it in their request, and want to know who runs it. </p>
<p>The requested information includes any physical addresses, web addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, as well as all IP-addresses, names, and payment details of these customers. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/8f1b69af.subipaddresses.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/subipaddresses.jpg" alt="Medium.com subpoena targeted" width="600" height="213" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-189089" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/subipaddresses.jpg 1342w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/subipaddresses-600x213.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></center></p>
<p>While these DMCA subpoenas are not uncommon, the trademark angle certainly is. TorrentFreak reached out to Culpepper to find out the purpose of these claims but he preferred no to comment on the most recent legal action.</p>
<p>Previously, the anti-piracy lawyer told us that it&#8217;s his goal to protect the rights of 42 Ventures. These rights are linked to Popcorntime4u.com, which indeed displays the Showbox-like logo, referencing &#8220;Popcorn Time&#8221; as well.</p>
<p>It is likely that 42 Ventures hopes to shut the sites down with these enforcement efforts, or at least negotiate some kind of settlement. While we doubt that Medium will be open to this, the strategy may work on some of the other sites.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak obtained copies of the requested DMCA subpoenas targeting <a href="media/2b998d36.movie-cloudflare.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-cloudflare.pdf">Cloudflare (pdf)</a>, <a href="media/40c3c2b1.movie-namecheap.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-namecheap.pdf">Namecheap (pdf)</a>, <a href="media/7627aab4.movie-proxy.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-proxy.pdf">Domains by Proxy (pdf)</a>, and <a href="media/23b3a91d.movie-godaddy.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-godaddy.pdf">Godaddy (pdf)</a>. </em></p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=189080
title: Google Promotes Pirate Videogame Repacker ‘FitGirl’ to ‘Musical Artist’ Status
uri: Google-Promotes-Pirate-Videogame-Repacker-FitGirl-to-Musical
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-6wRBbSzF-c/
content:
<p><a href="media/5831b489.fitgirl.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl.png"><img src="media/5831b489.fitgirl.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl.png" alt="" width="220" height="220" class="alignright size-full wp-image-189086" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl.png 220w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl-150x150.png 150w" sizes="(max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px" /></a>In a world where Internet connection speeds have risen to heights we could only dream about a few short years ago, for most people complex videogames still take an absolute age to download, even from legal services such as Steam.</p>
<p>The situation is not much different for people downloading pirate releases using torrents either, but there are people out there who aim to make life a little bit easier. So-called &#8216;repackers&#8217; heavily compress pirate releases and place them online, helping those with limited bandwidth or low Internet speeds obtain games using limited resources.</p>
<p>With legions of fans, &#8216;FitGirl&#8217; is perhaps the most well-known and best-loved &#8216;repacker&#8217; on the Internet today. &#8216;She&#8217; (gender is up for debate) regularly releases popular pirated videogames but according to Google, this shadowy figure also has other hidden talents.</p>
<h2>FitGirl Racing Up The Charts</h2>
<p>As the image below shows, Google&#8217;s search algorithm has given this famous pirate her very own &#8216;knowledge panel&#8217; which has elevated her to the status of &#8216;musical artist&#8217; complete with a list of her most famous &#8216;songs&#8217;.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/cda50e1c.fitgirl-google.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl-google.png"><img src="media/cda50e1c.fitgirl-google.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl-google.png" alt="FitGirl Google" width="550" height="649" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-189091" /></a></center></p>
<p>Google&#8217;s full list of FitGirl&#8217;s most &#8216;famous tracks&#8217; is also amusing. In addition to the self-titled track &#8216;FitGirl&#8217;, Google has amusingly conjured up the timeless song &#8216;Installers&#8217; and, of course, the chart-topping classic &#8216;Repacks&#8217;. None of these tracks exist, despite the optimistic inclusion of a link to Deezer where her songs are supposedly available (they&#8217;re not).</p>
<p>That being said, it&#8217;s interesting to see that Google has linked FitGirl with Hiromitsu Agatsuma, noting that people who searched for her also searched for this Japanese musician.</p>
<p>The reason for this connection is that Fitgirl has included Agatsuma&#8217;s track &#8216;Tsuki Sayu Yoru&#8217; in her installers, popularizing it among pirates. Indeed, checking the track on YouTube reveals <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClKuzAK6wms">people commenting</a> that the only reason they&#8217;re listening to the artist is because of FitGirl&#8217;s releases.</p>
<h2>Fun and Games Until The Malware Appears</h2>
<p>While this amusing algorithmic anomaly will raise a few smiles, there is a darker side to this too.</p>
<p>The supposed song titled &#8216;Repacks&#8217; has been given a pink joypad graphic which is of course entirely fitting if a little spooky given the data Google&#8217;s algorithms must be picking up. However, when clicked, we aren&#8217;t treated to extra information about this imaginary track but a &#8216;pirate&#8217; search that throws up several results, including what some might conclude is the official FitGirl site, right at the top.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/10f46083.fitgirl-search.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl-search.png"><img src="media/10f46083.fitgirl-search.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fitgirl-search.png" alt="" width="550" height="612" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-189159" /></a></center></p>
<p>Despite the claims that Fitgirlrepacks.co is the &#8220;ONLY official site for FitGirl Repacks&#8221;, this site is far from official. As per the warning on the <a href="https://fitgirl-repacks.site/">real FitGirl site</a>, this is a fake, &#8220;made to infect you with malware, show you tons of ads and get your money as donations.&#8221;</p>
<p>The claim that the domain is a malware trap appears to be supported by anti-malware software MalwareBytes, which blocks the platform while warning of &#8216;trojans&#8217;. The big question is why this domain (and the several others that appear following a basic &#8216;FitGirl&#8217; search) are promoted to the top spots by Google.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to be precise but given that sites that are demoted based on the number of DMCA notices that are filed against them, the official site certainly suffers more in this respect, something which may have hurt its search ranking.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-showcases-yts-and-yify-movie-releases-in-search-results-200507/">reported</a> earlier this month, Google&#8217;s code previously and inadvertently showcased YTS and YIFY pirate movie releases in a similar manner. That error was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-removes-pirate-movie-showcase-from-search-results-200516/">quickly fixed</a> as this one will be too, cutting short what could&#8217;ve been a great musical career for one of the world&#8217;s most famous pirates.</p>
<p>From: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.</p>
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