# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161148
title: ACE Scores Legal Victory and Wins $25m Piracy Damages From Tickbox
uri: ACE-Scores-Legal-Victory-and-Wins-25m-Piracy-Damages-From-Tickbox
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xqzA_DAniNQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/d10d8b10.tickbox.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tickbox.png" alt="" width="250" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145879">Last October, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-giants-sue-kodi-powered-tickbox-tv-over-piracy-171014/">filed a lawsuit</a> against the Georgia-based company <a href="https://www.tickboxtv.com/">Tickbox TV</a>, a seller of Kodi-powered set-top boxes that stream a variety of popular media.</p>
<p><a href="http://alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a> sees these devices as nothing more than pirate tools and earlier this year it found the court on its side. </p>
<p>In January, a California federal court issued a preliminary injunction, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-tickbox-to-keep-pirate-streaming-addons-out-180131/">ordering</a> Tickbox to keep pirate addons out of its box and halt all piracy-inducing advertisements going forward. </p>
<p>Following this order, both sides got together and today mutually agreed judgment in favor of the Hollywood giants. </p>
<p>The parties just submitted a proposed stipulated judgment and permanent injunction to the court to resolve their dispute. This comes at a significant cost for Tickbox, which also has to comply with several anti-piracy restrictions. </p>
<p>The judgment is entered for contributory copyright infringement as well as inducing copyright infringement. It requires Tickbox and its owner to pay $25 million in damages.</p>
<p>&#8220;Damages are awarded in favor of Plaintiffs and against Defendants TickBox TV, LLC and Jeffrey Goldstein, jointly and severally, in the total amount of twenty-five million dollars ($25,000,000).&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>The proposed judgment</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/88db9ea1.proposedjud1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/proposedjud1.png" alt="" width="540" height="271" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161155"></center></p>
<p>Tickbox and its owner must also comply with the agreed permanent injunction. This stipulates that they remove all tiles, menus and other options which allow users of the company&#8217;s boxes to directly or indirectly access third-party cyberlockers or streaming sites associated with piracy.</p>
<p>If ACE or its members notify Tickbox of any infringing links or content, these must be removed from Tickbox devices within 24 hours, weekends excluded.</p>
<p>Both the proposed stipulated judgment (<a href="media/34acc226.tickinjud.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tickinjud.pdf">pdf</a>) and permanent injunction (<a href="media/9a306113.tickinj.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tickinj.pdf">pdf</a>) have yet to be sanctioned by the court. However, since both parties have reached an agreement this is only a formality.</p>
<p>ACE spokesperson Jolyon Kimble notes that the coalition is happy with the outcome, which they say will compel Tickbox to immediately cease all piracy activities.</p>
<p>“TickBox and many other piracy devices and streaming apps are a threat to the millions of creators around the world who make films and television shows,&#8221; Kimble says. </p>
<p>&#8220;Today’s stipulated judgment and permanent injunction is a significant victory for ACE and the creative community, ensuring TickBox will no longer sell illegal access to pirated movie and television content.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to ACE, the stipulated orders set an important legal precedent. However, the legal battles are far from over. The Tickbox case was the coalition&#8217;s first and has been resolved, but similar lawsuits against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-kodi-powered-dragon-box-over-piracy-180111/">Dragon Box</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-set-tv-over-iptv-piracy-180422/">Set TV</a> remain pending.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161125
title: Pirate IPTV Investigation Leads to Two Arrests in the UK
uri: Pirate-IPTV-Investigation-Leads-to-Two-Arrests-in-the-UK
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/q_-X0Bg_WAQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>Illegal IPTV services can be found all over the world but if recent investigations are an accurate barometer, several countries in the European Union are hotter locations than most.</p>
<p>While <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-forces-around-europe-hit-pirate-iptv-operation-180519/">Spain</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/further-details-emerge-on-huge-iptv-raids-in-europe-180117/">Bulgaria and the Netherlands</a> have all seen raids or arrests, it is the UK that keeps featuring regularly in IPTV investigations. This week is no exception.</p>
<p>Following an investigation and referral by the Federation Against Copyright Theft, two people were arrested yesterday in connection with the unauthorized streaming of TV broadcasts.</p>
<p>Officers from Hampshire County Council’s Trading Standards unit assisted by local police executed a warrant at an address in Bursledon, Hampshire.</p>
<p>Local media <a href="https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/crime/pair-from-hampshire-arrested-for-television-streaming-offences-1-8631440">reports</a> that a 41-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were arrested under suspicion of offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and money laundering.</p>
<p>&#8220;Providing copyright material such as that from Sky or BT Sport, brings a significant loss to legitimate businesses – this is illegal and I would urge residents to be careful when they are signing up to subscription services from third parties as it is also illegal to watch,&#8221; Hampshire County councilor Roy Perry said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is possible to trace this type of online activity, and we will continue to investigate and pursue those involved in illegal streaming of copyright television as it threatens the livelihoods of those working legitimately in the industry and the wider UK economy.&#8221;</p>
<p>The arrests stem from a year-long multi-agency investigation, initiated by the Federation Against Copyright Theft, which identified pirate IPTV suppliers in the UK. Portsmouth.co.uk adds that yesterday&#8217;s arrests are part of a wider investigation coordinated by Europol, which has already led to warrants in South Ireland and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-conducting-worlds-largest-pirate-box-crackdown-160528/">Scotland</a>.</p>
<p>Investigations involving Trading Standards are relatively rare in the UK but not unheard of (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-android-tv-box-sellers-raided-by-police-150612/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-authorities-launch-facebook-piracy-crackdown-150625/">2</a>). Perhaps the most notable was the prosecution of modded Kodi box seller Brian &#8216;Tomo&#8217; Thompson who was handed a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-kodi-box-seller-handed-a-suspended-prison-sentence-171021/">suspended sentence</a> in 2017.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161060
title: EU Parliament Adopts Controversial ‘Upload Filter’ Proposal
uri: EU-Parliament-Adopts-Controversial-Upload-Filter-Proposal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZLzqGcoshxU/
content:
<p><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">Two years ago the European Commission announced its plans to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-proposes-mandatory-piracy-filters-for-online-services-160914/">modernize EU copyright law</a>.</p>
<p>While the plans initially received little mainstream attention, in recent months there has been an outpouring of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/article-13-lobbying-efforts-clash-before-crucial-copyright-filters-vote-180703/">opinions, warnings, and advice</a> from both supporters and opponents.</p>
<p>The issue that grabbed most headlines is the &#8220;upload filter&#8221; language specified in Article 13 of the proposal. </p>
<p>While the word &#8220;filter&#8221; has been removed following earlier critique, the Article would require service providers that are not properly licensed to remove infringing works. In addition, they have to ensure that these works are not reuploaded anywhere on their servers, which is generally achieved by filtering.</p>
<p>The Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament (JURI) adopted the proposals in June, a major setback for opponents. However, a month later the European Parliament said no to the Copyright Directive mandate. This meant that the controversial copyright reform proposal would be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-parliament-sends-upload-filters-back-to-the-drawing-board-180705/">opened for amendments and a new vote</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past several weeks, more than 100 amendments were submitted, several of which proposed an alternative to Article 13. These changes were presented in a plenary session this afternoon, where Members of European Parliament (MEPs) submitted their votes. </p>
<p>In a plenary vote, 438 MEPs voted to support the Article 13 proposal put forward <a href="media/109981e0.Copyright_Sept12_Voss.pdf" data-original-source="https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Copyright_Sept12_Voss.pdf">by the EPP group</a>. 226 MEPs voted against and there were 39 abstentions.</p>
<p>This is a revised version of the original proposal, but one that would still pave the way for upload filters.</p>
<p>&#8220;The European Parliament endorses #uploadfilters for all but the smallest sites and apps. Anything you want to publish will need to first be approved by these filters, perfectly legal content like parodies &#038; memes will be caught in the crosshairs,&#8221; Reda <a href="https://twitter.com/Senficon/status/1039830405942263808">notes</a>.</p>
<p><center><strong>Article 13</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/bb6a26ee.copyright13.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright13.png" alt="" width="519" height="325" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161197"></center></p>
<p>The EU Parliament also voted on proposed amendments of Article 11, after which opponents were met with disappointment. The MEPs voted in favor of a <a href="media/109981e0.Copyright_Sept12_Voss.pdf" data-original-source="https://juliareda.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Copyright_Sept12_Voss.pdf">proposal</a> by the EPP group, which keeps much of the original link tax language intact.  </p>
<p>So what&#8217;s next?</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s vote is an important next step but it&#8217;s not the end of the lawmaking process. The Copyright Directive and the agreed amendments will now enter the stage of trilogue negotiations with the EU Council and Commission. </p>
<p>The result of these private discussions will determine the final text the European Parliament will have to vote on early next year. In most cases, the result of the trilogue negotiations is confirmed, but when that&#8217;s not the case the entire process of changes, negotiations, and a vote, starts over.</p>
<p>If the Copyright Directive is eventually adopted, individual Member States will have to implement it into local law, which is another hurdle that has to be passed. </p>
<p>&#8212; </p>
<p><em>Developing story, more info will be added later.</em></p>
<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><sub>Header photo <a href="media/d8904b6b.European_Parliament" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament">credit</a> CC BY-SA 3.0</sub></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161186
title: Europol Operation Targets Pirate IPTV Providers, Four More Arrested
uri: Europol-Operation-Targets-Pirate-IPTV-Providers-Four-More-Arrested
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2nYrdapFw2I/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>Earlier this week, officers from Hampshire County Council’s Trading Standards unit assisted by local police executed a warrant at an address in Bursledon, Hampshire.</p>
<p>A 41-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-investigation-leads-to-two-arrests-in-the-uk-180912/">were arrested</a> as part of a pirate IPTV investigation. They were detained under suspicion of offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and money laundering.</p>
<p>In a statement, Hampshire County councilor Roy Perry said that illegally offering content from companies such as Sky and BT Sport causes losses to legitimate business and perpetrators will continue to be pursued by the authorities.</p>
<p>The statement indicated that others involved in illegal IPTV were being targeted in both Scotland and Ireland. An announcement from Europol now provides additional detail.</p>
<p>Citing a complex year-long investigation coordinated by Europol and involving the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Police Scotland, Trading Standards, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) and Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), the law enforcement agency confirmed four further arrests in Southern Ireland.</p>
<p>Two men, aged 42 and 45, and two women, aged 37 and 40, were detained following house searches in Crumlin, Dublin and Ashbourne, Co Dublin.</p>
<p>All were arrested and questioned under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.</p>
<p>Authorities said moves were underway to freeze six bank and two credit union accounts containing €84,000. Nine other third-party accounts are said to have been limited. Reports indicate that more than €700,000 was paid into the accounts during the past three years.</p>
<p>During the house searches, computer equipment and cash were also seized</p>
<p>&#8220;This is an organized criminal enterprise where consumers are funding criminality and depriving genuine industry of legitimate revenue,&#8221; said Detective Superintendent George Kyne, Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers are providing their payment details to unknown individuals and leaving themselves open to being the victims of fraud and/or data theft. The security around these devices and illegal streaming platforms exposes customers and leaves their home systems vulnerable.&#8221;</p>
<p>With details of the operation in England and Southern Ireland filtering through, events in Scotland are yet to be clarified. Europol has only confirmed that &#8220;several actions took place&#8221; and as yet there are no reports of any arrests.</p>
<p>Europol added that the investigation received intelligence and assistance from major TV companies and the Motion Picture Association.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161184
title: Copyright Cop? ISP Willingly Kept Pirates On Board, Labels Say
uri: Copyright-Cop-ISP-Willingly-Kept-Pirates-On-Board-Labels-Say
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UhqoVMxpGGA/
content:
<p><img src="media/0a6858fb.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" width="222" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108110">Last year several major record labels, helped by the RIAA, filed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">a lawsuit</a> against ISP Grande Communications, accusing it of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>According to the labels, the Internet provider knew that some of its subscribers were frequently distributing copyrighted material, but failed to take any meaningful action in response.</p>
<p>The ISP refuted these claims and in August it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-paid-handsomely-for-bittorrent-piracy-evidence-180817/">submitted a motion</a> for summary judgment in its favor. Grande argued that the labels are trying to expand copyright liability for Internet services, largely based on flawed evidence. </p>
<p>&#8220;Having given up on actually pursuing direct infringers due to bad publicity, and having decided not to target the software and websites that make online file-sharing possible, the recording industry has shifted its focus to fashioning new forms of copyright liability that would require ISPs to act as the copyright police,&#8221; Grande wrote. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs’ legal theories represent an absurd expansion of copyright liability. In essence, Plaintiffs want to require ISPs to terminate the accounts of subscribers based on nothing more than unsubstantiated and unverifiable allegations of copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>The strongly worded motion triggered a response from the labels this week. Their reply doesn&#8217;t respond directly to the &#8216;copyright cop&#8217; comments, but the record labels argue that Grande was more than a passive bystander.  </p>
<p>The labels oppose many of Grande&#8217;s claims and also submit a motion for summary judgment themselves, relying on testimony from various experts, as well as the ISP&#8217;s own documents and witnesses. </p>
<p>&#8220;The record evidence and relevant law conclusively establish Plaintiffs’ entitlement to summary judgment that Grande is liable for contributory copyright infringement,&#8221; the labels write, stressing that the ISP knowingly facilitated and greatly profited from pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>In its motion, Grande raised serious doubts over the accuracy of the Rightcorp infringement notices being used as evidence. However, the labels counter that this isn&#8217;t reflected in the company&#8217;s actions. </p>
<p>Before the lawsuit was filed, Grande forwarded Rightcorp notices to its customers, they argue, and more recently the company terminated several accounts. These &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; terminations relied in part on Rightscorp notices. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that these terminations only happened after the lawsuit started. Perhaps triggered by the legal trouble, Grande changed its policy which meant that subscribers could lose their Internet access following Rightscorp notifications. </p>
<p>&#8220;Grande’s general manager admitted that subscribers who had engaged in similar conduct in the past would have been terminated had Grande’s current policy been in place prior to 2017,&#8221; the labels argue. </p>
<p>Without spelling it out, the labels use Grande&#8217;s new termination policy against the company. How can Rightscorp&#8217;s notices be inaccurate and flawed, if they are good enough to terminate subscribers now? And why change the earlier policy?</p>
<p>Rightscorp&#8217;s notices aside, the record companies argue that Grande was well aware of the large number of pirating subscribers on its network. In addition, there is abundant evidence that Grande acted intentionally, or at the very least recklessly, they argue. </p>
<p>For example, Grande&#8217;s employees internally discussed that repeat infringers would not be terminated, no matter how many notices were received against them. </p>
<p>Also, following the Cox verdict in (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">a similar case</a>), a senior manager at the ISP repeatedly suggested that the company should delete emails to avoid having the sort of incriminating evidence which made Cox liable for pirating subscribers.</p>
<p><center><strong>Recklessly?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c692ad74.granderep.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/granderep.png" alt="" width="505" height="259" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161231"></center> </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that Grande and the record labels differ in their view on whether the ISP is liable or not. </p>
<p>Is the lawsuit a push to expand liability and turn ISPs into copyright cops based on shoddy evidence? Or was Grande willingly ignoring all copyright infringement notices so it could continue to profit from pirating subscribers?</p>
<p>These questions are now up to the court to answer after which the case will likely proceed to trial, currently scheduled for early next year. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>The labels&#8217; opposition to Grande&#8217;s motion for summary judgment is available here (<a href="media/b41f822f.riaagrande1.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaagrande1.pdf">pdf</a>). The same document also includes a cross-motion for summary judgment from the record companies. Grande asked the court to strike this from the record (<a href="media/af8beb53.grandestrike.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/grandestrike.pdf">pdf</a>) as it constitutes a second motion for summary judgment.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161278
title: Kodi Addons Linked to Malicious Cryptomining Campaign
uri: Kodi-Addons-Linked-to-Malicious-Cryptomining-Campaign
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Pl8pwArSfDo/
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="226" height="226" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144339"></a>Last month it was reported that a Netherlands-based repository, which contained several popular Kodi addons, had been shut down by anti-piracy group BREIN.</p>
<p>The Dutch developer and administrator of XvBMC-NL was visited by bailiffs in July and soon after the repository shut down. BREIN offered to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-repo-operator-shuts-down-following-threats-from-brein-180811/">settle the matter</a> for 2,500 euros as long as the admin known as &#8216;Z&#8217; signed an abstention agreement. </p>
<p>Months earlier, however, the XvBMC-NL repo was an unwitting participant in a campaign to infect Kodi users with cryptocurrency-mining malware, security firm <a href="https://www.welivesecurity.com/2018/09/13/kodi-add-ons-launch-cryptomining-campaign/">ESET</a> reports. </p>
<p>&#8220;According to our research, the malware we found in the XvBMC repository was first added to the popular third-party add-on repositories Bubbles and Gaia (a fork of Bubbles), in December 2017 and January 2018, respectively,&#8221; ESET writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;From these two sources, and through update routines of unsuspecting owners of other third-party add-on repositories and ready-made Kodi builds, the malware spread further across the Kodi ecosystem.&#8221;</p>
<p>ESET reports that the malware has a multi-stage architecture and uses techniques to hide the fact that the cryptominer came from a malicious addon. The miner, which is Monero-based, runs on Windows and Linux only, a relief to Android and macOS users who appear to be unaffected. </p>
<p>The three potential infection routes appear to be fairly cunning, ESET notes.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>1. [Users] add the URL of a malicious repository to their Kodi installation so as to download some add-ons. The malicious add-on is then installed whenever they update their Kodi add-ons.</p>
<p>2. [Users] install a ready-made Kodi build that includes the URL of a malicious repository. The malicious add-on is then installed whenever they update their Kodi add-ons.</p>
<p>3. [Users] install a ready-made Kodi build that contains a malicious add-on but no link to a repository for updates. They are initially compromised, though receive no further updates to the malicious add-on. However, if the cryptominer is installed, it will persist and receive updates.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Further analysis by ESET shows that the top five countries affected by the threat are the United States, Israel, Greece, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.</p>
<p>With the Bubbles repo now down, that is no longer a source for the malware. Gaia, ESET reports, is no longer serving the malicious code either. However, Kodi users who were infected could still have the malware on their machines and there&#8217;s a risk that other repos and Kodi builds could be distributing the code, &#8220;most likely&#8221; without their knowledge.</p>
<p><center><b>Timeline of the attack, as per ESET</b><a href="media/c70a9fd0.Timeline_edit-1024x800-e1536859834156.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Timeline_edit-1024x800-e1536859834156.png"><img src="media/c70a9fd0.Timeline_edit-1024x800-e1536859834156.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Timeline_edit-1024x800-e1536859834156.png" alt="" width="600" height="469" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161281"></a></center></p>
<p>A very detailed technical analysis of the attack has been <a href="https://www.welivesecurity.com/2018/09/13/kodi-add-ons-launch-cryptomining-campaign/">published by ESET</a> along with instructions on how users can discover if they&#8217;re affected.</p>
<p>&#8220;To check if your device has been compromised, scan it with a reliable anti-malware solution. ESET products detect and block these threats as Win64/CoinMiner.II and Win64/CoinMiner.MK on Windows and Linux/CoinMiner.BC, Linux/CoinMiner.BJ, Linux/CoinMiner.BK, and Linux/CoinMiner.CU on Linux,&#8221; the company reports.</p>
<p>&#8220;On Windows you can use the ESET Free Online Scanner, and on Linux the free trial of ESET NOD32 Antivirus for Linux Desktop, to check your computer for the presence of these threats and remove anything that is detected. Existing ESET customers are protected automatically.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the attack is undoubtedly serious, at the time of writing its reach appears to be limited. By examing the malware authors&#8217; Monero wallet, ESET estimates that a minimum of 4,774 users are infected. Between them they have unwittingly generated around 5,700 euros or $6,700 for the attackers.</p>
<p>As ESET notes, Kodi malware is very rare. Aside from the case detailed above and the DDoS attack carried out briefly by an addon and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kodi-addon-exodus-turned-users-into-a-ddos-botnet-170203/">reported here on TF</a>, no other evidence of malware being distributed via Kodi addons has been reported. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161007
title: Fox Sports Obtains New Order to Block Pirate Sport Site Rojadirecta
uri: Fox-Sports-Obtains-New-Order-to-Block-Pirate-Sport-Site-Rojadirecta
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ne-Yyb4tWyI/
content:
<p><a href="media/119c53ec.roja.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/roja.png"><img src="media/f43ec131.roja.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roja.png" alt="" width="252" height="252" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106243"></a>In dozens of countries around the world, website blocking has become one of the preferred ways for copyright holders to restrict access to pirate sites.</p>
<p>While very popular in Europe, the tactic has been spreading, with blockades now in place from Asia to South America. The latest involves infamous sports streaming portal Rojadirecta.</p>
<p>Targeted at mainly Spanish speaking visitors, Rojadirecta has experienced legal issues in several countries, the latest being Peru where the site is again accused of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Concerned about its sports content being made available without the required licensing, Fox Sports Latin America &#8211; part of Fox Network Group Latin America &#8211; filed a complaint with the authorities, requesting a block of the popular portal.</p>
<p>The Copyright Commission (CDA) of the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (INDECOPI) handled the complaint and has just handed down its decision.</p>
<p>The Commission says it considered a number of factors, including whether the site infringes copyright by knowingly providing links to various sporting events, even though the content was transmitted from elsewhere. Ultimately it decided this was a breach of the law so a blocking order was handed down.</p>
<p>&#8220;[W]ithin the framework of its powers, [the Commission] issued two precautionary measures which order the blocking of the website named &#8216;Roja Directa&#8217;, which facilitates allegedly illicit access to the transmission of various sporting events, in particular, football matches of the so-called &#8216;Copa Libertadores de América&#8217; ​and &#8216;Copa Sudamericana&#8217;, among others,&#8221; the Commission states.</p>
<p>As a result, local ISPs Telefónica del Perú and América Móvil Perú are required to block Rojadirecta.me, the platform&#8217;s main domain.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are very pleased with the decision of INDECOPI, which has already notified the main Internet service providers to implement the blockade as soon as possible,&#8221; said Daniel Steinmetz, Chief Anti-Piracy Officer of Fox Networks Group Latin America (FNG).</p>
<p>&#8220;We see this decision as a clear message of opposition to illegality and support for the efforts of companies that do comply with and respect copyright and the rights of the owners of the works and productions they use.&#8221;</p>
<p>Back in April 2018, FNG obtained another blocking order against Rojadirecta in Uruguay, their first in the country.</p>
<p>Describing the ruling as &#8220;exemplary&#8221;, Steinmetz <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fox-networks-obtains-piracy-blocking-injunction-against-rojadirecta-180405/">said</a> it marked the &#8220;beginning of judicial awareness&#8221; on online piracy issues.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s understood that Fox intends to take action against Rojadirecta and similar sites in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161273
title: Rapidshare’s Founder, Wife and Lawyer Stand Trial in Piracy Case
uri: Rapidshare-s-Founder-Wife-and-Lawyer-Stand-Trial-in-Piracy-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VAmZLlqHeCI/
content:
<p><a href="media/3a10b4cd.rapidsharelogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rapidsharelogo.jpg"><img src="media/acccd156.rapidsharelogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapidsharelogo.jpg" alt="rapidsharelogo" width="200" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21844"></a>Founded in 2002, Swiss-based RapidShare was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidShare">one of the first</a> and most popular one-click file-hosting services on the Internet. </p>
<p>Like most sites of this nature, <a href="http://rapidshare.com">RapidShare</a> was frequently used by people to share copyright-infringing material. It was a relationship that got the company into trouble on multiple occasions.</p>
<p>RapidShare fought many <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rapidshare-not-liable-for-pirating-users-court-rules-100504/">legal battles</a> with entertainment companies seeking to hold the company liable for the actions of its users, and to top it off the site was called out by the U.S. Government as a &#8220;notorious market.&#8221;</p>
<p>In response, the company implemented a wide variety of anti-piracy measures. These seemed to work but as a result, RapidShare’s visitor numbers and revenues plunged, eventually costing most of RapidShare’s employees their jobs.</p>
<p>Early 2015 the company decided to quit its business. RapidShare shut down, giving users a few weeks notice to secure their files. </p>
<p>While the site is little more than a distant memory for many people, it remained in sight of Swiss law enforcement. Following up on several complaints from rightsholders, including several academic publishers, the site&#8217;s founder, his wife, and one of RapidShare&#8217;s former lawyers went on trial this week. </p>
<p>The public prosecutor of the court in Zug, Switzerland, accuses the three executives of &#8220;commercial misconduct by multiple offenses against copyright.&#8221; The proceedings started on Wednesday and are scheduled to take a total of four days. </p>
<p>RapidShare&#8217;s founder prefers to remain silent. &#8220;I really do not want to make any statements,&#8221; the 38-year-old said at the start of the trial, <a href="https://www.bote.ch/nachrichten/zentralschweiz/zug/zug-der-rapidshare-prozess-hat-begonnen;art93,1124146">Bote reports</a>. Most of the talking was done by the company&#8217;s former lawyer instead. </p>
<p>According to the prosecutor, RapidShare&#8217;s business prioritized profit over copyright, and the three defendants are accused of assisting copyright infringement. </p>
<p>The founder and the two other accomplices were in a position to prevent copyright infringements but failed to do so appropriately, according to the prosecution. As such, they are all liable and subject to high fines. </p>
<p>During the hearing, the judge asked how RapidShare&#8217;s filtering system worked. The company&#8217;s former lawyer explained that, following a takedown notice, files could no longer be reuploaded. When the judge asked whether this would still be the case when the filename changed, the lawyer said no.  </p>
<p>At that point, RapidShare&#8217;s founder broke his silence. He jumped in to clarify that, in addition to the name, the file itself also had to be changed in order to bypass the filter. </p>
<p>Whether RapidShare&#8217;s executives are eventually held liable or not, the company was certainly profitable. Documents reveal that in 2009 alone, RapidShare&#8217;s gross dividend was 47 million Swiss francs, the equivalent of nearly $49 million. </p>
<p>With this in mind, the damages amount of 190,000 francs ($197,000) requested by the copyright holders is relatively mild. In addition to the damages, the prosecution also demands several hundreds of thousands of francs in fines. </p>
<p>While RapidShare is long gone, the present case could have an effect on other hosting services. As <a href="https://tarnkappe.info/rapidshare-firmengruender-ehefrau-und-anwalt-vor-gericht/">Tarnkappe</a> points out, this includes Uploaded.net, which is also based in Switzerland.</p>
<p>This was also confirmed by renowned Swiss IT lawyer Martin Steiger.</p>
<p>&#8220;Depending on the ruling, service providers&#8217; liability in Switzerland would be strengthened in favor of the providers or the rightsholders,&#8221; Steiger <a href="https://www.bote.ch/nachrichten/zentralschweiz/zug/am-mittwoch-beginnt-in-zug-ein-bedeutender-urheberrechtsprozess;art93,1123197">told local press</a>.</p>
<p>After two days of trial, the case will continue next week. The last hearing day is set for the week after. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161332
title: Pirate Bay and Demonoid Face Technical Troubles
uri: Pirate-Bay-and-Demonoid-Face-Technical-Troubles
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rNrNFNU_rSU/
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">More than two weeks ago we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-suffers-downtime-tor-domain-is-up-180828/">reported</a> that The Pirate Bay was suffering a long stretch of downtime. </p>
<p>The site came back eventually, went offline again, and later reappeared. While this is normal behavior by now, for a significant group of people the downtime is rather persistent. </p>
<p>Quite a few people are still unable to reach the site through the usual thepiratebay.org domain name. Instead, they get a Cloudflare notice mentioning that TPB is not responding. </p>
<p>While writing this article we tried to access from various locations, with mixed results. On some connections, it <a href="https://pirates-forum.org/misc.php?page=tpbstatus">works just fine</a>, while it&#8217;s unreachable in others. There&#8217;s not really a clear pattern.</p>
<p><center><strong>No TPB in Dallas</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/397f5083.dallasissues.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dallasissues.png" alt="" width="546" height="246" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161336"></center></p>
<p>The Pirate Bay&#8217;s moderators have no explanation for what&#8217;s going on, and the tech admins haven&#8217;t made any statement. As is often the case, it&#8217;s probably some kind of technical issue, one that&#8217;s not going away easily. The Tor domain and many proxies remain unaffected though. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Demonoid users are also having a hard time getting the latest torrents.</p>
<p>Last month we reported that Demonoid&#8217;s torrents <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoids-torrents-and-owner-are-missing-in-action-180811/">had gone missing</a>. While these came back eventually, new problems were on the horizon. At the moment, torrent detail pages are <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonoidP2P/comments/9f1663/cant_get_to_torrents/">not accessible</a> to many people and others can&#8217;t get past the site&#8217;s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonoidP2P/comments/9f82xk/fix_the_captcha_problem_or_remove_the_captcha/">Captcha</a>.</p>
<p><center><strong>No torrent&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center> <img src="media/ea9b7bb1.notorrent.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/notorrent.png" alt="" width="470" height="232" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161335"></center></p>
<p>Demonoid staffer Phaze1G informed TorrentFreak that there are indeed some issues. However, Deimos, the site&#8217;s administrator, is still unreachable. While he has logged in sporadically, staffers haven&#8217;t heard from him in weeks.</p>
<p>The staffer shared what he knows in the Demonoid forums, but can&#8217;t do anything personally. </p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t know why Deimos is not on Demonoid, but if I have to guess those are real-life issues and Demonoid at this moment is not a priority. I really hope that he will return in next 1-2 months and keep this place up and running like he did last year,&#8221; Phaze1G notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Right now, we can only wait as Demonoid is hosted on 6 continents and if one of the locations have some minor issue, the whole site will face partial issues.&#8221;</p>
<p>While these issues are inconvenient for users, both Demonoid and The Pirate Bay have faced rougher waters over the years. As for the users? They must have learned to be patient by now. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161189
title: Russia to Amend Copyright Law After Yandex was Forced to Remove Pirate TV Content
uri: Russia-to-Amend-Copyright-Law-After-Yandex-was-Forced-to-Remove-Pirate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KGXMfAiqeoQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/560a9ef5.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg"><img src="media/e92721d2.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="156" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135409"></a>After complaining that Russian Internet giant Yandex had failed to keep pirated versions of their content out of its search results, several major broadcasters filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court.</p>
<p>Gazprom-Media outlets including TNT, TV-3, 2×2, and Super went straight for the jugular, petitioning the Court to have ISPs block Yandex&#8217;s video indexing platform. The Court granted the request and gave Yandex until August 30 to remove all of the offending content. </p>
<p>Initially, Yandex flat-out refused. The company said the law was being misinterpreted, claiming that current legislation states that pirate content must be removed from sites hosting it and that search engine links are not covered.</p>
<p>However, after announcing that it would appeal the decision of the Moscow City Court, Yandex suddenly changed its mind on removing the content. Fearing its entire platform would be blocked by ISPs, Yandex erred on the side of caution, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yandex-refuses-to-remove-pirate-content-blocking-imminent-despite-appeal-180830/">deleting all content</a> that may (or indeed may not) have infringed the media companies&#8217; rights.</p>
<p>Early September the TV channels again filed lawsuits with the Moscow City Court, again over the appearance of links to their content appearing in search results.</p>
<p>&#8220;Four lawsuits were filed by Yandex. In all the lawsuits, the TV channels ask the Court to oblige the defendant to stop creating technical conditions that ensure the placement of works on the Yandex.ru website,&#8221; press secretary of the court Ulyana Solopova told <a href="https://www.interfax.ru/russia/628046">Interfax</a>.</p>
<p>With a decision on the matter pending (and the underlying aim of Gazprom Media to reach a settlement agreement with Yandex), soon after the Moscow City Court <a href="http://www.interfax.ru/russia/628361">responded</a> to Yandex&#8217;s original appeal against a preliminary blocking injunction.</p>
<p>In a blow to Yandex, the Court upheld its original ruling, meaning that the decision to remove the content before an ISP ban was put in place was well-timed by the search company.</p>
<p>However, it now appears that the confusion over the requirements of the law will see the government step in to offer a solution. According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov, the country&#8217;s anti-piracy legislation needs to be &#8220;improved&#8221; following the Yandex/Gazprom Media dispute.</p>
<p>&#8220;Regarding the regulation of data in terms of copyright and intellectual property rights, of course, the improvement of legislation, including anti-piracy, is exactly necessary,&#8221; Akimov told <a href="https://www.interfax.ru/vef2018/628935">Interfax</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;By the end of the year we will try to present the necessary amendments to the Duma, which will allow us to more clearly define the rights of the parties,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Akimov said that the amendments will be the product of negotiations between the Federal Antimonopoly Service, intellectual property bodies, and the Ministry of Economic Development and Business.</p>
<p>It is currently unclear which direction the talks will go and whether any changes will favor Yandex&#8217;s perception of the law or the Moscow City Court&#8217;s interpretation.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161384
title: ISP Can Charge Money to Expose Pirates, Canadian Supreme Court Rules
uri: ISP-Can-Charge-Money-to-Expose-Pirates-Canadian-Supreme-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JFQdpBLygYM/
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">Movie studio Voltage Pictures is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloaded-dallas-buyers-club-the-piracy-lawsuits-are-coming-140207/">no stranger</a> to suing BitTorrent users.</p>
<p>The company has filed numerous lawsuits against alleged pirates in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, and is believed to have made a lot of money doing so.</p>
<p>In 2016, Voltage launched a &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-movie-pirates-targeted-in-reverse-class-action-160429/">reverse class action</a>&#8221; in Canada to demand damages from tens of thousands of Internet users whom they accuse of sharing films, including The Cobbler, Pay the Ghost, Good Kill, Fathers and Daughters, and American Heist.</p>
<p>This meant that, in a single swoop, many Internet subscribers were at risk of having their personal details exposed. However, Internet provider Rogers was not willing to hand over this information freely. </p>
<p>Instead, the ISP demanded compensation for every IP-address lookup, as is permitted by copyright law. The provider asked for $100 per hour of work, plus taxes, to link the addresses to subscriber accounts.</p>
<p>The Federal Court initially agreed that the charges were permitted under the Copyright Act. However, when Voltage Pictures appealed the decision, this was reversed. Unhappy with this outcome, Rogers took the matter to the Supreme Court</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/17254/index.do">9-0 decision</a>, the Supreme Court ruled in Rogers&#8217; favor this week. The Internet provider is entitled to recover costs to link IP-addressed to customer details. Exactly how much will be determined in a future Federal Court hearing.</p>
<p>Justice Russell Brown argues that while the costs may be relatively small, they are not negligible, as the Court of Appeal argued. </p>
<p>&#8220;While these costs, even when combined, may well be small, I would not assume that they will always be &#8216;negligible&#8217;, as the Federal Court of Appeal anticipates,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>
<p>According to Justice Brown, &#8220;an ISP is entitled to the reasonable costs of steps that are necessary to discern a person’s identity.&#8221;</p>
<p>The scale of the costs Rogers can recover will play a major role in the profitability of these file-sharing cases. In the event the costs are set relatively high, Voltage and other copyright holders may have to try their luck elsewhere. </p>
<p>David Watt, Rogers senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, is happy with the ruling and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/supreme-court-sides-with-rogers-in-illegal-movie-downloading-case-1.4093981">told the local press</a> that it&#8217;s &#8220;an important win for our customers and millions of internet subscribers facing open season on their personal information.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161246
title: You Don’t Really ‘Own’ That Movie You Bought, But Pirates…
uri: You-Don-t-Really-Own-That-Movie-You-Bought-But-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vKhVb91ySTc/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-161265" src="media/5cb1327d.buynow.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/buynow.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="208" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/buynow.jpg 277w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/buynow-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 277px) 100vw, 277px">The digital world has made it much easier to buy and consume entertainment.</p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s a movie, music track, or book, a shiny &#8220;buy now&#8221; button is usually just a few keystrokes away.</p>
<p>Millions of people have now replaced their physical media collections for digital ones, often stored in the cloud. While that can be rather convenient, it comes with restrictions that are unheard of offline.</p>
<p>This is best illustrated by an analogy I read a few years ago in a research paper by Aaron Perzanowski and Chris Jay Hoofnagle, titled: &#8220;<a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2778072">What We Buy When We Buy Now</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>It goes something like this:</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><em>Imagine purchasing a book on Amazon, which is promptly delivered to your home. You put it on the bookshelf so you can crack it open on a rainy day. However, when you wake up the next morning there&#8217;s an empty spot on the shelf. The book disappeared.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">In an email, Amazon customer service explains that it was recalled at the behest of a copyright holder. They quietly dispatched a drone, which entered your home at night to take the book away, and issued a refund.</em></p>
<p>This may sound utterly crazy, but in the digital world, it&#8217;s a reality. A few years ago, Amazon remotely wiped several books from customers&#8217; Kindle e-readers because of a copyright complaint.</p>
<p>When these Amazon customers woke up the following day they found that the books they thought they owned, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">which ironically included</a> George Orwell&#8217;s &#8220;1984,&#8221; were no longer theirs. Just like that.</p>
<p>This issue is much broader than just Amazon of course, there are restrictions on most of the online media you can &#8220;Buy Now.&#8221; This was brought to the forefront again this week when Anders G da Silva noticed that Apple had <a href="https://twitter.com/drandersgs/status/1039270646243414016">removed three movies</a> from his iTunes library. Movies he bought.</p>
<p>Apple informed him that the movies were not accessible to &#8220;redownload&#8221; because they were no longer offered by the Canadian iTunes Store. Apparently, Apple&#8217;s license to distribute the titles has expired.</p>
<p><center><strong>Hey Apple</strong></center><center><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161323" src="media/2ff0b1c4.anders.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/anders.png" alt="" width="535" height="329"></center></p>
<p>In this case, it only applies to the copies that were stored in the cloud. Any movies already downloaded on a device should work fine. While not widely known, this is <a href="https://theoutline.com/post/6167/apple-can-delete-the-movies-you-purchased-without-telling-you?zd=1&amp;zi=7g7bkfqc">covered</a> by Apple&#8217;s terms of service.</p>
<p>&#8220;Content may not be available for Redownload if that Content is no longer offered on our Services,&#8221; iTunes&#8217; <a href="https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/us/terms.html">terms read</a>.</p>
<p>Technically it makes sense. If Apple no longer has a license, they can&#8217;t distribute the files. But wouldn&#8217;t it make more sense to adapt these licensing agreements to the modern time? Why not allow indefinite redistribution to people who previously bought something legally?</p>
<p>Today&#8217;s reality is that &#8216;owning&#8217; something in the digital world is something entirely different than owning something offline. A movie studio or book publisher can&#8217;t barge into your house and take a Blu-ray or book, but online it&#8217;s an option.</p>
<p>It is rare that downloaded media actually disappears from people&#8217;s devices, as happened in the aforementioned Amazon case, but there are other &#8216;digital&#8217; restrictions too.</p>
<p>If you buy a Blu-ray disc of the latest &#8220;Pirates of the Caribbean&#8221; movie you are free to lend it to a friend, or even sell it on eBay after you&#8217;ve watched it. In the digital world that&#8217;s often not an option. You don&#8217;t really <em>own</em> what you buy.</p>
<p>This brings us back to the research paper I mentioned earlier, which was previously <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-digital-content-20160513-snap-story.html">featured</a> by the LA Times.</p>
<p>The researchers examined how the absence of the right to resell and lend affects people&#8217;s choice to buy. They found that, among those who are familiar with BitTorrent, roughly a third would prefer The Pirate Bay over Apple or Amazon if they are faced with these limitations.</p>
<p>These rights restrictions apparently breed pirates.</p>
<p>&#8220;Based on our survey data, consumers are more likely to opt out of lawful markets for copyrighted works and download illegally if there is no lawful way to obtain the rights to lend, resell, and use those copies on their device of choice,&#8221; the researchers concluded.</p>
<p>The paper in question is two years old by now, but still very relevant today. While we don&#8217;t expect that anything will change soon, people should at least be aware that you don&#8217;t always own what you buy.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an illusion.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161089
title: The Catch-22 Situation Faced By ‘Pirate’ App Developers
uri: The-Catch-22-Situation-Faced-By-Pirate-App-Developers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Gbq9ueEG70E/
content:
<p><a href="media/946a17f2.rubik.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rubik.png"><img src="media/a5257f19.rubik.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rubik.png" alt="" width="250" height="243" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161092"></a>With software development and associated skills now accessible to millions of regular citizens, applications are released and updated every few minutes of every day.</p>
<p>While undoubtedly useful, the vast majority are completely benign, helpfully solving problems experienced by computer users with little fanfare.</p>
<p>On the other hand, applications that seek to provide simplified access to copyrighted movies, TV shows and another content face an inherently uncertain future, largely due to opposition from entertainment industry groups.</p>
<p>In itself, this precarious position can deter many developers but for others with an interest in file-sharing (and often the freedom from worry that comes with relative youth), the challenge can prove irresistible. As a result, dozens of applications are available today, providing mainly Android and Windows users with a free alternative to Netflix and similar products.</p>
<p>However, being the creator of such software presents a catch-22 situation that&#8217;s almost impossible to beat and even harder to extricate oneself from.</p>
<p>There is a theory that none of us ever does anything completely altruistically. Donating to charity, supporting a friend in need, or providing free access to content, are all driven by the reward we get from the experience, whether that&#8217;s pride, warm satisfaction, or the inevitable recognition. </p>
<p>Few app developers think that their hobby project is going to make worldwide headlines but when they are really, <em>really</em> good, word spreads &#8211; quickly. </p>
<p>Software like Popcorn Time, Showbox, or more recently Terrarium TV, all started under the radar but as their popularity grew, their developers received the confirmation that most had longed for &#8211; that their skills and hard work had resulted in something great.</p>
<p>This reward (and the adulation that comes with it) is an intoxicating mix that few can resist. As a result, these apps and others like them go from strength to strength, with the download numbers further encouraging their creators to continue. Meanwhile, however, we know that many would prefer not to be in the limelight.</p>
<p>Recently there has been some controversy in the Kodi community when popular YouTubers reviewed addons that their creators would rather have kept low-key. This publicity boosts interest but at the same time increases pressure on developers who really don&#8217;t want copyright holders knocking on their door.</p>
<p>The only answer, of course, is not to produce these tools in the first place. Any addon or APK that does something great WILL get traction, it&#8217;s as simple as that. There is no way to stop people talking about these tools and with that comes even more publicity. And downloads. And reward, even if grudgingly received.</p>
<p>Before developers know it, they have a monster on their hands, and then what? Shut it down, throwing thousands of hours of work away and losing all that recognition and feelings of reward? Or carry on, knowing that the better they do, the more likely it is that copyright holders will come calling?</p>
<p>In most instances, developers appear to ride the wave. With great popularity comes great responsibility, and with hundreds of thousands of users now relying on them, shutting down is difficult. And for those who generate revenue from their work via advertising or affiliate schemes, the problem is even more complicated &#8211; or straightforward &#8211; depending on perspective.</p>
<p>In the end, there are three basic types of developers who &#8216;survive&#8217; to tell the tale.</p>
<p>Those who back away voluntarily with perfect timing (it&#8217;s otherwise convenient for them not to develop anymore), those who are threatened or sued into doing so, and those that somehow &#8211; against all the odds &#8211; manage to keep their identities a secret from start to finish.</p>
<p>Achieving the latter is not impossible but it is extremely difficult, requiring much forward planning and caution. This, it appears, is the only way to have a really successful project or application that doesn&#8217;t prove to be a huge liability when the masses really get on board.</p>
<p>Trouble is, few people expect this level of success at the beginning, meaning they&#8217;re ill-prepared for the fallout when things get big. Erasing online history is virtually impossible so the crumbs often lead to their demise.</p>
<p>An unknown pirate hero, an unsuccessful or fringe project, or legal worries. Pick one.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161244
title: U.S. Wants Prison Sentence for Facebook User Who Pirated ‘Deadpool’
uri: 2018-09-16-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6rlc7731XGs/
content:
<p><img src="media/139ebf81.facebook-pirate-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebook-pirate-1.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139520">While most people use Facebook to share relatively harmless content, some share things they are not supposed to. A pirated copy of Deadpool, for example.</p>
<p>This is what now 22-year-old Trevon Franklin from Fresno, California, did early 2016. Just a week after the first installment of the box-office hit premiered in theaters, he shared a pirated copy of the movie on the social network.</p>
<p>To be clear, Franklin wasn&#8217;t the person who originally made the copy available. He simply downloaded it from the file-sharing site Putlocker.is and then proceeded to upload it to his Facebook account, using the screen name &#8216;Tre-Von M. King.&#8217;</p>
<p>This post went viral with more than six million viewers &#8216;tuning in.&#8217; While many people dream of this kind of attention, in this case, it meant that copyright holder Twentieth Century Fox and the feds were alerted.</p>
<p>The FBI launched a full-fledged investigation which eventually led to an <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/fresno-man-arrested-federal-copyright-violations-alleged-illegal-upload-deadpool-movi-0">indictment</a> and the arrest of Franklin <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/man-faces-prison-for-sharing-pirated-deadpool-movie-on-facebook-170614/">last summer</a>. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, Franklin signed a plea agreement with the Government where he admitted to sharing the pirated film on Facebook. In return, the authorities recommended a sentence reduction.</p>
<p>This week the Government submitted its sentencing recommendation. Franklin pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor which carries a maximum prison term of a year. While the Government doesn&#8217;t go that far, it believes a significant sentence is required.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he government recommends the high-end sentence of six months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a one-year term of supervised release, and a mandatory special assessment of $100,&#8221; the sentencing position reads.</p>
<p>The Government argues that a prison sentence is warranted given the &#8220;brazen and public&#8221; manner in which Franklin broke the law and &#8220;appeared not to care&#8221; that this would affect the makers of the movie.</p>
<p>This is also illustrated in dozens of pages of Facebook comments which were presented as evidence. Among other things, these show that many Facebook users warned Franklin that uploading a pirated copy of Deadpool was a crime. </p>
<p><center><strong>A few of the comments</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/395c8a3c.warnings.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warnings.png" alt="" width="567" height="354" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161253"></center></p>
<p>Instead of taking these comments as a warning, Franklin found them irritating. &#8220;If it&#8217;s a crime, why my shit ain&#8217;t got reported??? That part, Just stfu already,&#8221; he responded to one user. </p>
<p>In addition, he also went on to create a new Facebook group titled &#8220;Bootleg Movies,&#8221; indicating that more movies would be shared in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant even created a Facebook group for the purpose of illegally sharing movies with others, posting &#8216;EVERYBODY JOIN&#8217; in relation to the Facebook group he created called &#8216;BOOTLEG MOVIES&#8217;,&#8221; the Government writes, pointing out the screenshot below.</p>
<p><center><strong>Bootleg</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/486cef3f.bootleg.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bootleg.png" alt="" width="570" height="180" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161256"></center></p>
<p>All in all, the Government argues that a six-month prison sentence is needed to send a strong message to Facebook users and the public at large, to show that there are real consequences for such a crime.</p>
<p>The defense, for its part, points out that Franklin has endured many personal problems in the past. </p>
<p>He has no criminal record but regrets the mistakes that were made and hopes to turn things around. As such, his attorney believes that a sentence of one year probation is sufficient. </p>
<p>&#8220;Such a sentence would be sufficient, but not greater than necessary, in light of Mr. Franklin’s tumultuous personal history, remorse for the offense, and his continued desire to redirect his life,&#8221; the defense attorney writes.</p>
<p>The matter is now with the court which will decide what sentence is appropriate in this case.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161402
title: Terrarium TV Dev Says He Could Hand User Info to Authorities
uri: Terrarium-TV-Dev-Says-He-Could-Hand-User-Info-to-Authorities
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VWepiyvH-0U/
content:
<p><a href="media/0808e723.terrariumtv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/terrariumtv.jpg"><img src="media/999bde15.terrariumtv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/terrariumtv.jpg" alt="" width="203" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148354"></a>Terrarium TV was one of the most impressive &#8216;pirate&#8217; apps in recent years. Utilizing video content hosted on file-hosting platforms, it grew to become a serious competitor to apps like Showbox and Popcorn Time.</p>
<p>Last week, however, developer NitroXenon <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/terrarium-tv-one-of-the-best-loved-pirate-apps-shuts-down-180911/">announced</a> that the project would be shutting down</p>
<p>“It has always been a great pleasure to work on this project. However, it is time to say goodbye. I am going to shut down Terrarium TV, forever,” he wrote.</p>
<p>“I know this day will come eventually. I know it would be hard to let go. But it is really time for me to move on to other projects.”</p>
<p>As always, people wanted to know why the project was <em>really</em> being shut down. TorrentFreak spoke with NitroXenon who told us&#8230;.very little. When questioned he refused to speak about his motivation, which of course led to speculation, some of it reasonable, some of it less so.</p>
<p>The big possibility, of course, is legal threats. Given that NitroXenon refused to answer, we might deduce that he&#8217;s under pressure not to speak. However, no substantial facts were available to definitively back that up so we had to take his statement at face value.</p>
<p>And then this weekend, out of the blue, NitroXenon scared thousands of Terrarium TV fans with a surprise announcement.</p>
<p>Former users of Terrarium TV, who didn&#8217;t immediately uninstall the app as NitroXenon had previously advised, suddenly started receiving notifications on their devices. </p>
<p>&#8220;Uninstall immediately!&#8221; one warned. &#8220;Your IP address and location are being tracked!&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;We can&#8217;t guarantee that details won&#8217;t be shared upon request,&#8221; advised another.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/0998437b.terr-warn.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/terr-warn.png"><img src="media/e491a2ca.terr-warn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/terr-warn.png" alt="" width="600" height="504" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161406"></a></center></p>
<p>These kinds of notifications are not what the average user expects and of course, panic ensued. Was this some kind of scare tactic to ensure the last few people uninstalled the app or were the notifications sent out of genuine concern for users?</p>
<p>On Sunday, TorrentFreak was able to reach NitroXenon and ask him what on earth is going on. He had nothing reassuring to say.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m just telling the truth,&#8221; he told TF. &#8220;Almost every app tracks user’s IP [addresses]. And if I must [hand] the info to authorities then I’ll do it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Other than this statement, NitroXenon had nothing to add. However, on behalf of people getting the scary notifications, we asked the obvious question. Why would NitroXenon retain logs after the application had been shut down and why, if he hasn&#8217;t been asked to retain them already, didn&#8217;t he simply purge them?</p>
<p>We received no response but if we have to analyze this situation, we&#8217;d say that something doesn&#8217;t feel right here. </p>
<p>Presuming for a moment that NitroXenon has come under pressure to a) shut down the app and b) not speak about the fact that he&#8217;s been threatened, that would fit the current pattern of developers who have found themselves in a similar situation over the past few months. </p>
<p>That being said, if IP address and location details are indeed being logged (the app had permissions for location), then why publicly warn users that is the case? The data has already been logged and deleting Terrarium now probably isn&#8217;t going to make much difference. Also, if the aim is to collect details of pirates, why sabotage that by giving out a warning while, potentially, undermining a non-disclosure agreement?</p>
<p>That leads us to the <em>possibility</em> that these are scare tactics but, put very simply, we have no proof either way. There might be a threat and there might not but we&#8217;ve never heard of a case where people who have simply streamed content (rather than uploaded) have been pursued by content companies.</p>
<p>There are several other possibilities too, including that NitroXenon got sick of the whole project and decided to burn the thing to the ground (unlikely, given how friendly he was in the past) or maybe he&#8217;s having his strings pulled by parties keen to send a message to movie and TV show pirates.</p>
<p>To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented development for &#8216;pirate&#8217; applications, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Whether users choose to uninstall the app moving forward is their prerogative but it seems unlikely that IP address evidence would prove of much use in this case, given that Terrarium never hosted the infringing content itself.</p>
<p>There are no guarantees, of course, so the rumors and speculation will continue, including that a hostile third-party, not content companies, have taken over both the app and NitroXenon&#8217;s Reddit account&#8230;..</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161417
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/17/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-17-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YXMMG-tNQnk/
content:
<p><img src="media/659dd161.oceans.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oceans.png" alt="" width="298" height="247" class="alignright size-full wp-image-160679">This week we have four newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Skyscraper 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 articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</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-09-03-18/">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="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">Skyscraper </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9QePUT-Yt8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">Solo: A Star Wars Story</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEYpryMp2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">Sicario: Day of the Soldado</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMChzE_aCo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn9mMeWcgoM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164214/">Ocean&#8217;s Eight </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164214/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LoVcVsiSQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">Mission: Impossible &#8211; Fallout</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHiW4N7-bo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">Deadpool 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86RtevtfrA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Avengers: Infinity War </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7133686/">Next Gen</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7133686/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uf3ALGKgpGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6987770/">Destination Wedding</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6987770/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjXQzRWmb_I">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161420
title: Australian Court Slams Brakes on ‘GTA V’ Cheat Developer
uri: Australian-Court-Slams-Brakes-on-GTA-V-Cheat-Developer
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/flGzkbLusRQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/46fecebb.gtav-cov.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gtav-cov.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-104438">Over the past year, there has been a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against alleged cheaters or cheat makers.</p>
<p>Most of the action we&#8217;ve seen thus far has taken place in the US, but there has also been some activity Down Under recently. </p>
<p>Earlier this year Take-Two Interactive Software, the company behind ‘Grand Theft Auto V’ (GTA V), filed a lawsuit against modder Jeremy Taylor. </p>
<p>Known under the alias &#8216;Chr0m3 x MoDz,&#8217; Taylor has been involved in several mods and cheats, including &#8220;African Engine.&#8221;</p>
<p>As in the cases against other cheaters, Taylor stood accused of copyright infringement and circumvention of technical protection measures, among other things. </p>
<p>Faced with the legal claim, the developer chose to control the damage. As a part-time employee of a local go-kart track, the 24-year-old has limited means. However, with a crowdfunding campaign, he raised over $1,000. Not to fight the allegations, but to find a way out without being made bankrupt.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]his is a battle I can not afford to take part in, so I am reaching out to the community for any help I can get,&#8221; Taylor wrote in his GoFundMe campaign brief.</p>
<p>&#8220;The funds will be withdrawn and used for my legal expenses (lawyers, travel, etc..), I want to be very clear about this, I am not fighting Take-Two Interactive, I am simply trying to survive and get to the end.&#8221;</p>
<p>This strategy appears to have paid off. Last week the Federal Circuit Court of Australia issued a consent order, which both parties agreed on, that effectively ends the matter.</p>
<p>The order also includes a permanent injunction which prevents Taylor from infringing Take-Two&#8217;s copyrights, including any work on mods and cheats such as African Engine. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Respondent be permanently restrained from infringing copyright in the Software and any T2 Software,&#8221; the <a href="media/4c0e2c58.ausorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ausorder.pdf">order</a> reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Respondent be permanently restrained from possessing, distributing, accessing, or using any software that alters the operation of the Software and any T2 Software [&#8230;], including but not limited to the African Engine Source Code, GTAV The Purge Source Code, GTAV Engine and GTAV Fucker Menu Source Code.&#8221; </p>
<p>Interestingly, the injunction also requires Taylor to take down his GoFundMe campaign, which is <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/legal-support-for-jeremy">no longer active today</a>. </p>
<p><center><strong>Destroy..</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/980e8a16.destroygta.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/destroygta.png" alt="" width="600" height="224" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161425"></center></p>
<p>There is no mention of a settlement payment which suggests that Taylor, or &#8216;Chr0m3 x MoDz,&#8217; came out of it relatively unscathed. The costs of his lawyer have already exceeded the crowdfunding donations, however. </p>
<p>Take-Two also got what they wanted. The company stopped a prolific &#8216;cheat&#8217; maker, shut down the associated cheats, and sent a clear warning signal to others. </p>
<p>Whether that will be as effective as they hoped is doubtful though. The African Engine cheat was previously hosted by NiNJA, for example. While this was pulled offline upon request from the developer, NiNJA itself is not impressed by Take-Two&#8217;s legal action.</p>
<p>&#8220;We at NiNJA will never be bullied by lawyers with no lawful standing. We are going to continue to operate exactly as we always have,&#8221; they <a href="https://xbl.ninja/african">write</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the near future, we will make an announcement regarding the new GTA V menu that we will be selling. We will make note of the time and date when African Engine stops functioning, and make up all time to those affected buyers. We will not take your money without giving you something back.&#8221; </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="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161287
title: Japan Government Presents Pirate Website Blocking Proposals
uri: Japan-Government-Presents-Pirate-Website-Blocking-Proposals
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Pug49cxTwII/
content:
<p><img src="media/68673fe7.anime-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/anime-pirate.jpg" width="222" height="159" class="alignright size-large">Back in March, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the government was considering measures to prevent access to pirate sites.</p>
<p>Manga and anime are considered national treasures and the government should consider &#8220;all measures&#8221; to prevent illegal downloading, Suga added.</p>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main option put forward was that of website blocking. In Japan, however, that&#8217;s not a straightforward option given the constitution&#8217;s support for freedom of speech and prevention of censorship.</p>
<p>Despite the hurdles, a month later the government decided to introduce emergency measures to prevent access to websites hosting pirated manga, anime and other content. ISPs would not be forced to comply but would be asked to assist instead.</p>
<p>NTT Communications Corp., NTT Docomo Inc. and NTT Plala Inc. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japan-isp-says-it-will-voluntarily-block-pirate-sites-as-major-portal-disappears-180424/">responded</a> by blocking access to three sites identified by the government – Mangamura, AniTube! and MioMio &#8211; adding that more sites could be blocked upon request.</p>
<p>This interim measure proved controversial but it appears the government isn&#8217;t planning to step back from its plans to protect copyright. The Cabinet Office has now presented a draft report indicating that blocking websites to protect copyright could become a policy option for the government.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180914/p2a/00m/0na/005000c">Mainichi</a>, the proposal was presented at a meeting attended by experts, who criticized the draft as a move that would undermine citizens&#8217; constitutional right to secrecy of communications.</p>
<p>Intercepting users&#8217; Internet requests have the potential to cause significant problems under Japanese law. The Telecommunications Business Act guarantees privacy of communications and prevents censorship, as does Article 21 of the Constitution.</p>
<p>Cited by the publication, lawyer Ryoji Mori said that denying users&#8217; access to blocked sites would enable Internet service providers to &#8220;collect information about users unrelated to the piracy issue.&#8221; Visitors to blocked websites should have warnings automatically displayed in their browser, the proposal adds.</p>
<p>The draft also envisions pirate sites being removed from search engine results while preventing their operators from generating revenue from advertising. These are options being tested in a number of other countries to varying degrees but it appears that Japan faces more obstacles than most due to its constitution.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, it appears the government could ask copyright holders to take the initiative instead. By applying for lawsuits that would force Internet service providers to take preventative action, constitutional difficulties could be avoided, the proposal notes.</p>
<p>Whether that will satisfy hardline anti-censorship supporters is unclear, but in most other countries where blocking takes place, validation from the courts is seen as vital to ensuring that all parties are covered in the event of a challenge.</p>
<p>Indeed, the voluntary blocking measures put in place earlier this year by NTT were immediately seen as problematic. Just days after the bans were implemented, local lawyer Yuichi Nakazawa <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-sued-for-breaching-user-privacy-after-blocking-pirate-sites-180428/">launched legal action</a> against the ISP, demanding that the corporation should end its site-blocking operations.</p>
<p>A further session to discuss the proposals in greater depth is planned for later this week.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161471
title: International Day Against DRM Celebrates its 12th Anniversary
uri: International-Day-Against-DRM-Celebrates-its-12th-Anniversary
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WC9OM-JYlqw/
content:
<p><img src="media/97a915ad.anti-drm5.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/anti-drm5.jpg" width="250" height="175" class="alignright size-large">For creators of intellectual property, from movies, TV shows and software, through to the devices that allow them to be played, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is essential to control access to those products.</p>
<p>Proponents argue that without the digital locks of DRM, rampant copying of their content and designs would ensue, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/square-enix-drm-boosts-profits-and-its-here-to-stay-140415/">reducing revenues</a> and threatening the very business models that bring these products to market.</p>
<p>On the flip side, DRM is seen as a huge hindrance by many consumers, particularly when its existence restricts, as it always does, what legitimate buyers of content and devices are able to do with <em>their</em> purchases.</p>
<p>From copying a DVD or game disc for backup purposes through to a myriad of legitimate fair-use scenarios, DRM is an ever-present mesh of digital barbed wire laid down for the sole purpose of restricting freedom.</p>
<p>While DRM aims to be its own protection (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spore-most-pirated-game-ever-thanks-to-drm-080913/">which can also backfire</a>), it is also supported by legislation. Circumvention is criminalized under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the EU Copyright Directive, meaning those that choose to undermine it can <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/voksi-retires-cyberpolice-raid-cracker-after-denuvo-criminal-complaint-180726/">face the wrath</a> of the legal system.</p>
<p>For these reasons and many others, the Free Software Foundation&#8217;s (FSF) Defective by Design (DbD) campaign has sought to draw attention to the anti-consumer effects of DRM. From its roots back in 2006, today the FSF celebrates its 12th annual International Day Against DRM, inviting supporters to protest against digital locks while envisioning a world without DRM. </p>
<p>&#8220;DRM is a major problem for computer user freedom, artistic expression, free speech, and media,&#8221; says John Sullivan, executive director of the FSF.</p>
<p>&#8220;International Day Against DRM has allowed us to, year after year, empower people to rise up together and in one voice declare that DRM is harmful to everyone.&#8221;</p>
<p>The FSF and those who share their concerns over DRM believe that the addition of digital locks actually causes damage to a product. While offering no benefits to the consumer, DRM can fail catastrophically when those behind such systems are no longer able to maintain them, resulting in &#8220;massive digital book-burnings&#8221; when content is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/you-dont-really-own-that-movie-you-bought-but-pirates-180915/">rendered inaccessible</a>.</p>
<p>DRM also gives companies a reason and a route to spy on consumers and the use of their products. &#8216;Phoning home&#8217; is commonplace, allowing media companies to conduct &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/drm-is-used-to-lock-in-control-and-spy-on-users-161108/">large-scale surveillance</a>&#8221; over people&#8217;s viewing habits.</p>
<p>For these reasons and many others, FSF has been fighting against DRM for more than a decade and today they&#8217;re calling on like-minded groups and individuals to support their mission to rid the world of DRM and return freedom to consumers. With that in mind, they have set a challenge for the day.</p>
<p>&#8220;This year&#8217;s theme is <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm">A Day Without DRM</a> – the FSF invites people around the world to avoid DRM for the day,&#8221; FSF writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;DRM is lurking in many electronic devices we use, both online and offline, and you&#8217;ll find it everywhere from media files to vehicles. Its impact is echoed in the fight for the Right to Repair and the fight for the right to investigate the software in medical devices.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>Key Day Against DRM supporters</b><a href="media/3d96bc5b.against-drm.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/against-drm.png"><img src="media/5121bf32.against-drm.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/against-drm.png" alt="" width="600" height="401" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161481"></a></center></p>
<p>For online dwellers, going even a few hours without DRM today is likely to prove problematic, if not impossible. Users of Windows or any Apple device, for example, will find DRM baked into the system, meaning that the only option is to use <a href="https://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Main_Page#Query_or_Browse">DRM-free alternatives</a>.</p>
<p>And if you&#8217;re thinking of enjoying your Kindle, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-use-of-google-drm-means-rooted-android-devices-are-banned-170515/">Netflix</a> or Spotify, DRM is part of the deal too. Even the now-infamous Kodi has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-embraces-drm-to-invite-content-publishers-180627/">joined the party</a>, albeit in a limited way.</p>
<p>The main aim of the FSF however, is to raise awareness of DRM and how it negatively affects consumers.</p>
<p>Content with DRM is restricted by default yet by its very nature only affects legitimate purchases. Those who pirate their software, for example, are unaffected since piracy groups remove the DRM from content before release. Bizarrely, however, some pirates have even protected <em>their work</em> <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/team-xecutor-piracy-code-has-drm-can-brick-your-nintendo-switch-180628/">with DRM</a>, signalling that no one is immune. There are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/gog-launches-fckdrm-to-promote-drm-free-art-and-media-180822/">great alternatives</a>, however.</p>
<p>The International Day Against DRM campaign site can be found <a href="https://www.defectivebydesign.org/dayagainstdrm">here</a>. Those looking to support FSF can do so by <a href="https://shop.fsf.org/tshirts-hoodies/drm-no-one-admitted">purchasing an anti-DRM t-shirt</a>. It was designed by Mark Lindhout, a winner in TorrentFreak&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-drm-t-shirt-design-contest-the-winners-are/">anti-DRM competition</a> way back in 2007.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/755db7c7.DRM-shirt-e1537263267244.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/DRM-shirt-e1537263267244.png"><img src="media/755db7c7.DRM-shirt-e1537263267244.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/DRM-shirt-e1537263267244.png" alt="" width="600" height="441" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161482"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161427
title: Music Group Celebrates Millions of ‘Pointless’ Piracy Takedown Notices
uri: Music-Group-Celebrates-Millions-of-Pointless-Piracy-Takedown-Not
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0RGbLviQKuE/
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 Association of Independent Music (<a href="http://www.musicindie.com/">AIM</a>) represents the interests of more than 800 independent music companies in the UK. </p>
<p>With online copyright infringement as one of the major threats, the organization also offers assistance on the anti-piracy front. </p>
<p>Earlier this year, AIM teamed up with anti-piracy tracking outfit <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> to help its members remove pirated links from the web. With MUSO&#8217;s automatic takedown service, the labels can remove infringing URLs with minimal effort. </p>
<p>This week AIM sent out a press release showing how much has been achieved over the past four months. The results, shared by AIM’s Head of Legal &#038; Business Affairs Gee Davy are impressive indeed. </p>
<p>“AIM’s partnership with MUSO began in May this year, and to see 5 million takedowns achieved already reflects the speed and efficiency with which MUSO has covered the catalogs across the independent music community,&#8221; Davy notes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Our members report that they are delighted with the service, which not only protects their releases from online piracy, but creates a visual dashboard to track piracy and protection activity in real time.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the comments suggest that pirated content was pulled offline, the reality appears to be quite different. </p>
<p>The press release doesn&#8217;t mention it, but, from what we can see, the five million takedown requests were (nearly) all targeted at Google. This means that no infringing content was taken down there, only search results. </p>
<p>Looking more closely at all the takedown requests MUSO sent to Google, on behalf of AIM, an even more disturbing picture emerges. </p>
<p>Google&#8217;s Transparency Report confirms that AIM sent <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/owners/221947">close to five million</a> &#8216;pirate&#8217; URLs to the search engine. However, as it turns out, the vast majority of all reported URLs were not removed. And for a good reason. </p>
<p>Most of the links that were reported are simply not in Google&#8217;s search index. So, logically, there is nothing to remove.</p>
<p><center><strong>Not removed</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/01ff1e3f.musoaim1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musoaim1.png" alt="" width="600" height="314" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161467"></center></p>
<p>This also means that MUSO and AIM shouldn&#8217;t refer to these as removed links, or even takedown notices. These are reports of &#8220;non-existent&#8221; search results. </p>
<p>While Google previously noted that it accepts takedown notices <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-blocks-pirated-search-results-prophylactically-180103/">for these types of URLs</a> in some cases, which could end up on some sort of preemptive blacklist, there is more reason for concern.</p>
<p>Not only are most of the reported links missing from Google&#8217;s search results, they don&#8217;t always link to anything infringing on the pirate sites either.</p>
<p>Here&#8217;s a random sample that was taken from one of the recent takedown requests. <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/17255332">This shows </a>search results on a Zooqle proxy in various languages, which appears to be automated. </p>
<p><center><strong>Takedown request</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/04c0b894.mattieldmca.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mattieldmca.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="318" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161462"></center></p>
<p>As mentioned before, these links were never indexed by Google. However, even the torrent site in question doesn&#8217;t return any infringing content, as the searches in question return no results. </p>
<p><center><strong>No results</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f092e483.zooqnotorrents.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zooqnotorrents.png" alt="" width="599" height="211" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161463"></center></p>
<p>The above suggests that most of these takedown efforts are rather pointless. The URLs are not in Google&#8217;s index and even if they were, many would not point to infringing content. </p>
<p>To us, it appears that many of these notices are automatically generated by using variations of search strings on pirate sites, whether these point to actual pirated content or not. This is something we have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-outfits-boost-numbers-with-bogus-takedown-notices-150628/">spotted before</a>.</p>
<p>This makes it easy to get to 5 million &#8216;takedowns&#8217; in four months, of course, but it is rather futile.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak asked both AIM and MUSO for a comment yesterday. Both confirmed receipt of our inquiry, but at the time of publication, we have yet to receive a response to our questions.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161490
title: PIPCU Wins Piracy Enforcement Award From US Chamber of Commerce
uri: PIPCU-Wins-Piracy-Enforcement-Award-From-US-Chamber-of-Commerce
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DVeKOortQgs/
content:
<p><a href="media/57ab39a0.city-pipcu.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/city-pipcu.png"><img src="media/7d486e43.city-pipcu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/city-pipcu.png" alt="" width="270" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-133985"></a>First announced in the summer of 2013, the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) said it had a mission to tackle IP crime wherever it may take place.</p>
<p>With a special focus on online infringement, PIPCU has always been closely in step with the music, movie, and publishing industries and it didn&#8217;t take long for its presence to be felt. Even before its official launch in December 2013, PIPCU began writing letters to torrent and streaming sites, advising them to shut down – or else. But that was just the beginning.</p>
<p>Over the past five years the unit has publicised various actions against alleged infringers including <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-make-third-pirate-streaming-arrest-140902/">streaming arrests</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/">attempted domain seizures</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-confirm-arrests-blackcats-games-operators-161020/">torrent site closures</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/city-of-london-police-launches-pirate-site-blacklist-for-advertisers-140331/">advertising disruptions</a>. PIPCU also <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-streaming-site-admin-several-domains-suspended-140409/">shut down</a> several sports streaming and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-police-begin-targeting-ebook-pirates-140921/">ebook sites</a> plus a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-operator-torrent-site-proxies-140806/">large number of proxies</a>.</p>
<p>Now, however, with its fifth official birthday looming, PIPCU has received prestigious recognition from overseas.</p>
<p>During the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center&#8217;s (GIPC) 6th annual IP Champions event in Washington, PIPCU was among 11 &#8220;innovators and creators&#8221; to be honored for their contribution to the intellectual property arena. Two key players from PIPCU were handed the IP Champion for Excellence in Enforcement award.</p>
<p>Detective Chief Superintendent Pete O’Doherty, the head of the City of London Police’s Economic Crime Directorate, was recognized for his leadership at PIPCU which has &#8220;successfully swept millions of pounds’ worth of counterfeit goods off the streets.&#8221;</p>
<p>Nick Court, PIPCU&#8217;s Acting Detective Chief Inspector, was credited for combating illegal online streaming and other digital piracy, while suspended 30,000 websites linked to the sale of counterfeit goods.</p>
<p>The GIPC award is notable in itself but PIPCU will be particularly pleased that this is the first year that the award has been handed to an international law enforcement body outside the United States.</p>
<p>“This is a significant achievement for the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) which has gone from strength to strength since its inception in 2013,&#8221; said Detective Chief Superintendent Pete O’Doherty.</p>
<p>“The dedication of the officers in this unit is a credit to the force and it is an honor to have that recognized as the first recipient of this award within the international law enforcement community.”</p>
<p>Dr. Ros Lynch, Director of Copyright and Enforcement at the Intellectual Property Office, congratulated PIPCU on their achievement.</p>
<p>“I’m delighted to hear that PIPCU has won the Excellence in Enforcement award. To be the first international law enforcement body to win this award is a huge achievement,&#8221; Lynch said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’d like to congratulate and thank PIPCU’s officers for helping to protect UK industries and the public from counterfeit goods.”</p>
<p>While PIPCU was initially very aggressive against torrent and streaming platforms, it later became involved in a number of cases against people selling streaming devices containing modified Kodi setups, free illegal streaming apps, and premium illicit IPTV subscriptions. It has been quieter on this front lately but the unit certainly hasn&#8217;t gone away.</p>
<p>Last August, the Intellectual Property Office confirmed that PIPCU had received £3.32m in additional government funding, safeguarding the unit until June 30, 2019. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161422
title: Cloudflare Ordered to Expose YTS, Showbox, and Popcorn Time Site ‘Operators’
uri: Cloudflare-Ordered-to-Expose-YTS-Showbox-and-Popcorn-Time-Site-Op
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lC0crCBgX0E/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767">As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, Cloudflare is used by millions of websites across the globe, some of which are notorious pirate sites.</p>
<p>The company has taken a lot of heat from copyright holders over the past few years, who want it to expose the operators of these platforms.</p>
<p>However, instead of taking a proactive stance, Cloudflare maintains its position as a neutral service provider. If copyright holders want it to take action, they have to follow the legal process.</p>
<p>This usually means obtaining a subpoena, ordering the company to share the personal details of its customers. </p>
<p>This is exactly what a group of movies companies, including Bodyguard Productions, Cobbler Nevada, Criminal Productions, Dallas Buyers Club, and Venice PI, recently did through a federal court in Hawaii.  </p>
<p>These companies are involved in a series of piracy lawsuits. Best known are the so-called &#8220;copyright trolling&#8221; cases against alleged BitTorrent pirates, but more recently they began expanding their horizons to the people behind piracy services, such as the popular streaming app Showbox.</p>
<p>The subpoena was issued in the latter case after being <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-sue-founder-and-distributors-of-popular-pirate-app-showbox-180524/">filed last May</a>.  </p>
<p>The documents were not posted publicly but TorrentFreak managed to obtain a copy, which shows that the movie companies want details of the operators behind Showboxbuzz.com, Showbox.software, Rawapk.com, Popcorn-time.to, Popcorntime.sh, YTS.ag, and YTS.gg.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the DMCA subpoena</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a5ff45c2.cloudshow.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudshow.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="333" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161479"></center></p>
<p>Some additional digging revealed that no motion to quash was filed by Cloudflare, so it is likely that the requested information will be handed over.  </p>
<p>The subpoena itself doesn&#8217;t reveal anything about the intentions of the movie companies, however. </p>
<p>The targeted sites are not listed in the original lawsuit, but it&#8217;s possible the owners are suspected of being linked to the defendants. In any case, it is clear that the movie outfits see the information as potentially valuable evidence in their legal battle.  </p>
<p>The question remains, of course, whether the information Cloudflare has on record will be of use. Many operators of pirate sites and services do their best to shield the true operators from being exposed. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161530
title: EU Publishes Research into Malware & PUPs on Pirate Sites
uri: EU-Publishes-Research-into-Malware-PUPs-on-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Qn5MzY1BTM4/
content:
<p><a href="media/90fa6d36.euipo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/euipo.png"><img src="media/ef1c23c4.euipo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/euipo.png" alt="" width="250" height="77" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124768"></a>As part of their strategy to deter the public from using pirate sites, entertainment industry groups have often painted these portals as havens for malware. A new study carried out by the EU Intellectual Property Office investigates the phenomenon.</p>
<p>In the first phase of the research, the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) collaborated with the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights to form an expert support group established to provide advice on methodology and to select the websites to be analyzed.</p>
<p>The group was comprised of representatives from Observatory stakeholders, rights holder organizations, academia, law enforcement, and EU agencies. As research spanning all EU Member States wasn&#8217;t possible, 10 sample countries were randomly selected from the 28 in the block.</p>
<p>Five movies, TV shows, music, and video games were selected (20 titles in all) for their popularity in one or more of the ten countries at the start of the collection period in June 2017. The titles were subsequently used in online searches to find infringing websites and applications.</p>
<p>Websites suspected of offering infringing content (including streaming, linking, hosting, cyberlockers, and torrent platforms) were selected on the basis that they were popular in the ten sample countries or worldwide and were accessible by the &#8220;average user.&#8221; These were later studied for the presence of malware and &#8220;potentially unwanted programs&#8221;, such as those that provide advertisements.</p>
<p>A concurrent analysis of malware and PUPs specific to Android devices focused on streaming, torrent, and hosting applications, providing they facilitated access to a broad range of &#8220;suspected&#8221; copyright-infringing content.</p>
<p>&#8220;The data acquisition phase included two rounds of malware collection and analysis performed during the summer of 2017,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The first round of malware collection resulted in 1,054 unique domain names and the second round gave 1,057 unique domain names across 10 selected EU Member States. Malware was collected in both a manual and automated manner in order to simulate an average user’s experience.&#8221;</p>
<p>The researchers used the Tor browser and a sandbox to collect the malware and PUPs and carried out searches &#8220;in a manner consistent with low security-awareness internet browsing.&#8221; No ad-blockers were used and all suspicious links and buttons were pressed.</p>
<p>During the two rounds of analysis, the researchers checked their chosen infringing sites (none are named in the study) against VirusTotal&#8217;s database, to see whether they were already suspected of &#8220;performing malicious activities&#8221; or distributing malicious or otherwise unwanted software targeting the end-user. The table below reveals that around 8% had been previously flagged.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/9eaaecc6.eu-malware1-e1537354836628.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware1-e1537354836628.png"><img src="media/9eaaecc6.eu-malware1-e1537354836628.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware1-e1537354836628.png" alt="" width="600" height="277" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161532"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;In addition, during the two rounds of malware collection from the identified copyright-infringing websites, several malicious and suspected-of-being-malicious files were collected,&#8221; the paper reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;These were files directly downloaded from the websites. In addition, several files were acquired upon installation of the directly downloaded files. Those included any kind of side packages, software libraries, and other files that can pose threats to end-users wanting to use them.&#8221;</p>
<p>The researchers found 4,000 files in their search, broken down into about 100 different types. <em>(Note: The files for the second round contain only new unique files that were not discovered during the first round of malware collection)</em></p>
<p><center><a href="media/25a178e4.eu-malware2-e1537355435718.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware2-e1537355435718.png"><img src="media/25a178e4.eu-malware2-e1537355435718.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware2-e1537355435718.png" alt="" width="600" height="141" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161534"></a></center></p>
<p>The report details a number of the techniques used by sites to deploy malware and PUPs, or to persuade users to part with personal details such as names, addresses, and email addresses. Some were contained in &#8220;useful&#8221; tools that may claim to block ads, provide installation or license key files, or facilitate access to infringing content.</p>
<p>After obtaining 60 anti-virus reports from VirusTotal on the files acquired during the collection stage, the researchers decided on the following categories:</p>
<p><em>• Benign — software that does not cause any harm to users, designed for specific good purposes, such as content-distribution platforms or office programs.<br>
• Potentially unwanted program (PUP) — software that provides advertisements, etc.<br>
• Malware — harmful software that tampers and steals personal data and accesses files on the computer without proper authorization.<br>
• Malware/PUP — a piece of software that can be included equally in both categories. </em></p>
<p><center><a href="media/c1730134.eu-malware3-e1537356215944.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware3-e1537356215944.png"><img src="media/c1730134.eu-malware3-e1537356215944.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware3-e1537356215944.png" alt="" width="600" height="348" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161538"></a></center></p>
<p>All pieces of software collected by the researchers were further categorized.</p>
<p><em>• Fake installers — software that lures users into disclosing personal information or providing payment card details by simulating game installation processes.</p>
<p>• Streaming — software that provides free access to pirated video or audio content. </p>
<p>• ‘Useful’ software — programs that may or may not improve something, yet promote a functionality that may be perceived as useful by some users. </em></p>
<p>&#8220;Most of the programs are known as ‘useful’ software, which advertises various benefits to end-users, such as installing missing drivers and cleaning old files from PCs. Fake game installers and streaming services follow with a smaller share, yet one that is still considerable in comparison with the rest of the analyzed programs,&#8221; the study reads. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/23ecd960.eu-malware4-e1537356580615.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware4-e1537356580615.png"><img src="media/23ecd960.eu-malware4-e1537356580615.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware4-e1537356580615.png" alt="" width="600" height="358" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161545"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Four general categories [of malware] can be distinguished: Trojan, adware, backdoor, and agent. Additionally, ‘-’, in the figure below, means that there was no information available on community accepted malware type even though multiple anti-virus vendors marked files as malicious,&#8221; the report adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;In this case, the labeling includes following general keywords such as ‘not trusted’, ‘unsafe’, ‘unwanted’, etc., which does not provide any additional semantic information about specific functionality or characteristics of malware. Therefore, in this study, such files were considered as generally malicious without a specific type.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/e2a073ab.eu-malware5-e1537356761735.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware5-e1537356761735.png"><img src="media/e2a073ab.eu-malware5-e1537356761735.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-malware5-e1537356761735.png" alt="" width="600" height="425" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161546"></a></center></p>
<p>The researchers say they found &#8220;no profoundly harmful&#8221; malware samples, such as ransomware, botnets or others. However, most of the collected malware samples were identified as trojans, with some potentially containing additional adware and/or backdoors. Additional analysis also revealed some malware with multiple payloads, including keyloggers, network tampering efforts, and rootkits.</p>
<p>While the existence of malware on any site or service is a cause for concern, the report offers this relatively calming summary, with cautionary advice moving forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;At present, suspected copyright-infringing websites and streaming services are not normally considered to be dominant sources of malware or otherwise unwanted software distribution.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, considering the increasing popularity of streaming services, increased bandwidth of broadband networks, and the deployment of 4G networks, it cannot be ruled out that they may pose a growing risk moving forward,&#8221; the report notes.</p>
<p>The EUIPO notes that the study isn&#8217;t designed to provide an assessment of the likelihood of malware or PUP infection from using infringing sites, nor does it seek to offer advice to consumers. That being said, common sense deployed alongside a good anti-virus program and adblocker can nullify many of the threats on sites where the user is especially concerned about security.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s also worth noting that the practices of the EUIPO researchers during the study &#8211; deliberately clicking all suspect links and buttons while deliberately installing suspect programs &#8211; should be avoided at all costs. Equally, users of Android software not distributed by Google Play or Amazon should carefully consider the permissions requested by each application and deny any and all that require access to personal information.</p>
<p>The report is available here <em>(<a href="media/1ede2d96.2018_Malware_Study_en.pdf" data-original-source="https://euipo.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/observatory/documents/reports/2018_Malware_Study/2018_Malware_Study_en.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161597
title: FAB IPTV Says it Has Shut Down Following Europol-led Raid
uri: FAB-IPTV-Says-it-Has-Shut-Down-Following-Europol-led-Raid
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ap6mQrNFpCg/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>Last week it became evident that a new crackdown against IPTV providers based in the UK and Southern Ireland was underway.</p>
<p>In the first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-investigation-leads-to-two-arrests-in-the-uk-180912/">wave of action</a>, a 41-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were arrested in Bursledon, Hampshire, and detained under suspicion of offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and money laundering. The pair were accused of illegally offering content from companies including Sky and BT Sport.</p>
<p>Soon after, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/europol-operation-targets-pirate-iptv-providers-four-more-arrested-180913/">four more arrests</a> were announced in Southern Ireland. Two men, aged 42 and 45, and two women, aged 37 and 40, were detained following house searches in Crumlin, Dublin and Ashbourne, Co Dublin. All were arrested and questioned under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.</p>
<p>Shortly after, a Europol statement said the arrests had taken place after a complex year-long investigation involving the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Police Scotland, Trading Standards, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) and Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).</p>
<p>The law enforcement agency also noted that a warrant had been executed in Scotland but provided no additional detail. A statement just published on the official website of <a href="https://www.fabiptv.com/">FAB IPTV</a>, an IPTV provider known to operate from addresses in Scotland, appears to fill in the blanks.</p>
<p>&#8220;On the morning of Tuesday September 11th a co-operation raid took place on one of the administrators homes whilst on holiday led by EUROPOL/Police Scotland and members from SKY/BT/Virgin/Possibly HBO and other Film/TV organizations. A number of devices were seized,&#8221; the statement reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is on that note we will no longer be operational and will come to a COMPLETE close. Unfortunately nothing else is known right now as no information will be given on the case and that this will take many months.&#8221;</p>
<p>FAB IPTV was incorporated in Scotland under the name FAB Hosting Ltd on February 22, 2017. A notice for compulsory strike-off was published on May 15, 2018. On July 30, 2018, the company was dissolved after filing no accounts.</p>
<p>The service continued to operate but during August its operators advised customers that it would eventually shut down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately we are no longer accepting new subscriptions or renewals of current subscriptions due to closure. Any active subs will be honored until expiry,&#8221; the announcement noted.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and we wish you luck with your future viewing.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>The statement</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0a0dd203.fabtv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fabtv.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="333" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161616"></center></p>
<p>With some of FAB&#8217;s customers having purchased subscriptions that are yet to expire, many are going to be out of pocket following the closure announcement. Equally, resellers of FAB&#8217;s service, who will have invested much greater sums, will also find themselves in the red. However, FAB indicates that funds could be reclaimed.</p>
<p>&#8220;I/We would advise that anyone whom would like a refund and are within 180 days as per PayPal limitations you should raise a dispute as we have zero access to any financial accounts associated with FAB,&#8221; the statement reads.</p>
<p>Whether former subscribers and resellers will choose to elevate their heads above the parapet will remain to be seen, but given what FAB has to say next, the option to cut their losses might be easiest for most.</p>
<p>&#8220;Please note this is an active investigation and doing so [asking for a refund] may bring action towards you so proceed with caution,&#8221; FAB warns.</p>
<p>&#8220;I/We highly suggest taking precautions if you have used your REAL information with us or any IPTV service as this is only the beginning of what is a huge fight against illicit services. More information will come in due course no doubt on EUROPOL&#8217;s website and other IPTV related media sites. Thank you for being loyal to FAB and stay safe,&#8221; the announcement concludes.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s simplicity itself to fill in fake details when signing up to a service like FAB, many people use their real identities. However, the operator of a similar service previously told TF that they never check if names and addresses are real, meaning that people can fill anything in with no consequences.</p>
<p>Finally, it&#8217;s worth noting that at least as far as TF&#8217;s previous investigations revealed, FAB IPTV and its administrators were extremely easy to track down and identify. Quite why such services operate with such a low level of security and privacy isn&#8217;t immediately clear but now the perhaps inevitable costs will have to be counted.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161607
title: Steal This Show S04E05: ‘Satoshi Is Dead’
uri: Steal-This-Show-S04E05-Satoshi-Is-Dead
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0WgBORsEVmA/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928">In this episode we meet Emin Gün Sirer. We discuss the current state of cryptocurrency, and just what Emin means when he says that Satoshi Nakamoto is ‘dead.’ </p>
<p>We discover the secret shared lineage between BitTorrent and Cryptocurrency, and how they both tackle the ‘chaos of the commons’. </p>
<p>Of course, TRON’s recent acquisition of BitTorrent, Inc. comes in for some scrutiny — Emin remains, let’s say, skeptical. And, finally, we look at Emin’s work on and around the all-new Avalanche protocol, which he sees as the most significant contribution to cryptocurrency since Bitcoin itself. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing crypto, privacy, copyright and file-sharing developments. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis. </p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/el33th4xor">Emin Gün Sirer</a></p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=4&#038;lpe-episode=05" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><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><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Lucas Marston<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Barch</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161505
title: Canada’s Supreme Court Offers Hope to Falsely Accused File-Sharers
uri: Canada-s-Supreme-Court-Offers-Hope-to-Falsely-Accused-File-Sharers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qnlZ1FwIO6E/
content:
<p><img src="media/c89c2205.canada.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="165" class="alignright size-full wp-image-60888">Last week the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-can-charge-money-to-expose-pirates-canadian-supreme-court-rules-180915/">entitled to compensation</a> for looking up the details of alleged copyright infringers. </p>
<p>This verdict, a result of a dispute between Rogers and movie company Voltage Pictures, can have far-reaching consequences as it makes so-called &#8220;copyright trolling&#8221; more expensive.</p>
<p>However, there is another nugget in the Supreme Court&#8217;s unanimous opinion that may be helpful to people who are wrongfully accused. In his comments, Justice Russell Brown notes that the owner of an IP-address isn&#8217;t automatically guilty. </p>
<p>&#8220;It must be borne in mind that being associated with an IP address that is the subject of a notice under s. 41.26(1)(a) is not conclusive of guilt,&#8221; he writes.   </p>
<p>While this comment doesn&#8217;t change the outcome of this case, it certainly carries some weight. And Justice Brown is even more specific, explaining why the person connected to the IP-address isn&#8217;t automatically guilty.</p>
<p>&#8220;As I have explained, the person to whom an IP address belonged at the time of an alleged infringement may not be the same person who has shared copyrighted content online. </p>
<p>&#8220;It is also possible that an error on the part of a copyright owner would result in the incorrect identification of an IP address as having been the source of online copyright infringement,&#8221; Justice Brown notes. </p>
<p><center><strong>From the Court&#8217;s ruling</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e52029f1.cansupreme.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cansupreme.png" alt="" width="572" height="216" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161649"></center></p>
<p>The comments were <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/09/scccopyrightnotices/">highlighted by</a> Law Professor Michael Geist earlier this week, who notes that this is good news for accused file-sharers. The Supreme Court comments clearly suggest that an IP-address alone may not be good enough to build a case.</p>
<p>In other words, future defendants have a powerful reference to highlight in their defense.</p>
<p>&#8220;While some may feel that they have little alternative but to settle, the Supreme Court’s language sends a reminder that IP address alone may be insufficient evidence to support a claim of copyright infringement,&#8221; Geist says.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Those that fight back against overly aggressive notices may find the claims dropped. Alternatively, contesting a claim would require copyright owners to tender more evidence than just an allegation supported by an identifiable IP address.&#8221;</p>
<p>For an on-the-ground analysis, TorrentFreak reached out to <a href="http://www.plaideurs.ca/en/the-firm/james-plotkin/">James Plotkin</a> of law firm CazaSaikaley, who represented two defendants in file-sharing cases recently. </p>
<p>He also sees Justice Brown&#8217;s statement as favorable to defendants who have not shared any infringing works themselves.</p>
<p>&#8220;When one reads the first two sentences of paragraph 41 together, it appears Brown J. is intimating, though not outright saying, that only the person who shares the work might be liable for infringement,&#8221; Plotkin tells us. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s good news for defendants, the attorney also notes that the Court&#8217;s comment is made &#8220;obiter dictum.&#8221; This means that it&#8217;s part of the non-precedential part of the opinion, which is open to debate.</p>
<p>&#8220;That said, it still holds persuasive value, especially since it was stated on behalf of eight members of the Supreme Court,&#8221; Plotkin adds.</p>
<p>For now, file-sharing cases in Canada <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-outfits-are-quietly-targeting-canadian-file-sharers-in-court-180904/">will continue</a>, but perhaps the Court&#8217;s comments will inspire defendants and their attorneys to push back a bit more, when appropriate.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161629
title: Illegal Anthony Joshua v Alexander Povetkin Boxing Streams Will Be Blocked
uri: Illegal-Anthony-Joshua-v-Alexander-Povetkin-Boxing-Streams-Will-Be-Blo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Fl3KpE05SQw/
content:
<p><a href="media/b473f239.boxing.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/boxing.png"><img src="media/8d270f81.boxing.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/boxing.png" alt="" width="240" height="258" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161634"></a>In March 2017, the Premier League <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-uk-kodi-piracy-blocking-injunction-is-a-pretty-scary-beast-170314/">obtained a blocking injunction</a> from the High Court which compelled ISPs including BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to block unauthorized soccer streams under Section 97a of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.</p>
<p>A second order was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-wins-new-stream-blocking-injunction-to-fight-piracy-170727/">handed down</a> by the High Court in July 2017, running from August 12, 2017 to May 13, 2018. An extension <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-piracy-blocking-order-for-2018-19-season-180719/">was granted</a> by the Court in July 2018.</p>
<p>Given the claimed success of the blockades and the problem of live sports piracy generally, other sports organizations showed interest in the scheme. One of those was <a href="http://www.matchroomsport.com">Matchroom</a>, the owner, manager, and promoter of various sporting events.</p>
<p>Although the company has interests in darts, snooker, and poker, it is best known for its involvement in boxing. World champion Anthony Joshua and former champions Kell Brook and Tony Bellew have all featured in Matchroom bouts, and all of these events have been heavily pirated online.</p>
<p>Now, however, Matchroom is hoping to put an end to that practice in the UK following a successful application to the High Court.</p>
<p>Following in the footsteps of the Premier League, Matchroom applied for an injunction against ISPs BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media. None of the ISPs appeared to represent themselves and either supported or did not oppose the application. As a result, the application was considered &#8220;on paper&#8221;.</p>
<p>Sky has an exclusive agreement with Matchroom to broadcast the company&#8217;s events. Matchroom owns the copyrights when Anthony Joshua fights and Sky owns them when other fighters appear. However, Joshua is fighting this Saturday night against Alexander Povetkin at Wembley so for the sake of these proceedings, Sky assigned the rights to Matchroom.</p>
<p>Anthony Joshua is a huge draw and according to the High Court order, his previous fights have been heavily pirated, depriving both Matchroom and Sky of substantial pay-per-view revenue. Since Sky is losing money from piracy, the company supports Matchroom&#8217;s application as it did with the Premier League&#8217;s.</p>
<p>While the blocking order sought was similar to those previously granted to the Premier League <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-uefa-can-expand-its-pirate-stream-blocking-efforts-180728/">and later UEFA</a>, there are two key differences. </p>
<p>&#8220;First, because of the irregular timing of the Events, and in particular PPV Events, it is not possible for the Target Servers to be identified in quite the same way,&#8221; Justice Arnold writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although the criteria are very similar, they are to be applied by a particular form of monitoring carried out in a seven-day period prior to each Event. The details of this are confidential, in order to prevent circumvention. While it creates a theoretically greater risk of over-blocking, Matchroom&#8217;s evidence is that in practice there should be no real difference.&#8221;</p>
<p>Secondly, the Premier League and UEFA orders cover part or all of a season, dates that are already planned. In the boxing world, however, dates of bouts are fluid, so Matchroom has been granted the ability to notify the ISPs of upcoming events at least four weeks in advance.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he order is proportionate. It does not impair the rights of the Defendants to carry on business,&#8221; Justice Arnold writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;To the limited extent that it interferes with the rights of internet users to impart or receive information, the interference is justified by a legitimate aim, namely preventing infringement of Matchroom&#8217;s and Sky&#8217;s rights on a large scale, and it is proportionate to that aim.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will be effective and dissuasive, no equally effective but less onerous measures are available to Matchroom, it avoids creating barriers to legitimate trade, it is not unduly complicated or costly and it contains safeguards against misuse.&#8221;</p>
<p>The order handed down by the High Court in Matchroom&#8217;s favor will run for two years and will be in place to tackle piracy during this Saturday&#8217;s much-anticipated fight.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161591
title: ‘Dragon Box’ Changes Business Model Following Hollywood Lawsuit
uri: Dragon-Box-Changes-Business-Model-Following-Hollywood-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IcY7axAm0cQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/56c5ad97.blendtv.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blendtv.png" alt="" width="277" height="149" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161619">Earlier this year, several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-kodi-powered-dragon-box-over-piracy-180111/">filed a lawsuit</a> against Dragon Media Inc, branding it a supplier of pirate streaming devices. </p>
<p>Under the flag of the newly formed anti-piracy group ACE, the companies accused Dragon of using the Kodi media player in combination with pirate addons. As such, the company facilitates mass copyright infringement, it was argued.</p>
<p>While the lawsuit remains ongoing, the legal pressure prompted <a href="https://www.thedragonbox.com/">Dragon Box</a> to take a good look at its business. With ACE filing lawsuits against several &#8216;streaming boxes,&#8217; the problem was not going away anytime soon.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s been a tough 9 months for the company and the industry,&#8221; the company writes in a Facebook message picked up by <a href="https://www.cordcuttersnews.com/after-copyright-lawsuit-the-popular-kodi-box-dragon-box-plans-to-launch-a-legal-streaming-service/">Cord Cutters News</a>.</p>
<p>However, Dragon Box is not throwing in the towel. The company will change its business model and promises to continue serving the latest entertainment, albeit at a cost. </p>
<p>&#8220;Instead of closing our doors and shutting down all boxes and riding off into the sunset we decided that it was in the best interest of you the customers and the company to change our business model..,&#8221; Dragon Box writes. </p>
<p>The company adds that it will continue to try and bring customers &#8220;the best legal content we can and add in as many services we can to make Dragon Box the box that beats any competitors out there.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the announcement isn&#8217;t very concrete, a company representative informs TorrentFreak that they plan to officially announce their &#8220;<a href="https://blendtv.net/">Blend TV</a>&#8221; subscription service next week.</p>
<p>This service, which has a similar website design as the box seller, is operated by uMedialink LLC and works on various platforms and devices. However, it does come with a subscription, starting at $39.95 per month for access to 65+ US Channels, including live sports streaming.</p>
<p><center><strong>Blend TV&#8217;s channels</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/075117f0.blendtvchannels.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blendtvchannels.png" alt="" width="600" height="261" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161626"></center></p>
<p>While Blend TV is not exactly a household name, its FAQ section notes that it is perfectly legal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Absolutely! BlendTV has the required rights and permission&#8217;s for the distribution of all our channels and movies on demand,&#8221; Blend TV&#8217;s website reads.</p>
<p>Dragon Box has also put up their boxes <a href="https://www.thedragonbox.com/buy-now/">up for sale</a> again. However, these are completely different to the ones that were offered last year. They are configured for easy access to Blend TV, and no longer come with Kodi and infringing add-ons pre-installed.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to someone familiar with the situation, who explained that this move was inevitable. The company believes that this change is in their own best interests and the interests of their customers.</p>
<p>Dragon Box still believes that online streaming is the future. And they hope that, by partnering with Blend TV, they can continue doing business without legal trouble. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161595
title: Broadcaster Wins Streaming Piracy Blocking Case in Australia
uri: Broadcaster-Wins-Streaming-Piracy-Blocking-Case-in-Australia
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xGzx7Ib796Y/
content:
<p><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-large">Last year, Hong Kong-based broadcaster Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) applied for a blocking injunction in Australia against several unauthorized IPTV services.</p>
<p>Under the Copyright Act, the broadcaster asked the Federal Court to order ISPs including Telstra, Optus, Vocus, and TPG plus their subsidiaries to block access to seven Android-based services named as A1, BlueTV, EVPAD, FunTV, MoonBox, Unblock, and hTV5.</p>
<p>TVB&#8217;s application was unusual in that it not only required ISPs to block URLs, domains and IP addresses related to the technical operation of the services, but also hosting platforms akin to Google Play and Apple’s App Store that host the app.</p>
<p>Back in May, due to the relative complexity of the application, Justice Nicholas <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-blocking-case-is-no-slam-dunk-says-federal-court-judge-180502/">reserved his decision</a>, telling TVB that his ruling could take a couple of months after receiving his “close attention.”</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down by the Federal Court yesterday, TVB discovered it had been worth the wait.</p>
<p>Justice Nicholas notes in his judgment that the primary purpose of the illicit streaming set-top boxes is to facilitate the infringement of copyright by making such material available in Australia without permission from copyright owners. He also notes, however, that many people using these devices did not know they are infringing copyright.</p>
<p>&#8220;Be that as it may, I regard as flagrant the copyright infringements of the persons who have made the TVB broadcasts available online, including those persons responsible for the establishment and maintenance of the target online locations that make it possible for users of the streaming devices to view the TVB broadcasts either in close to real time or at some later time using the VOD service,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>
<p>In an earlier hearing, TVB was confronted with the fact that some of the content it broadcasts has uncertain copyright status in Australia. While Hong Kong is a member of the World Trade Organization, it is not a party to the 1961 Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations. </p>
<p>The Judge says that considering the low volume of that content, blocking would not be an issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;I accept that access to some of content that was originally broadcast (ie. which was not pre-recorded) in which copyright does not subsist may also be blocked, but my strong impression from the evidence is that this is likely to constitute a relatively small proportion of the total content the subject of TVB’s television broadcasts in Hong Kong,&#8221; he <a href="http://www.judgments.fedcourt.gov.au/judgments/Judgments/fca/single/2018/2018fca1434">notes</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is not a case, in my view, where blocking orders, if made, will significantly curtail non-infringing use of the streaming devices.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Judge adds that other than blocking, TVB has no other practical remedies available to curtail infringement of its rights. This is due to the likelihood that the operators of the service are &#8220;almost certainly&#8221; based overseas and &#8220;impossible&#8221; to track down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Obtaining any form of effective injunctive relief against them in Australia is not a realistic option,&#8221; Justice Nicholas adds.</p>
<p>ISPs including Telstra, Optus, Vocus and TPG now have 15 days to block the &#8220;online locations&#8221; supplying content and services to the infringing set-top boxes in Australia. Meanwhile, TVB continues its battle against pirates.</p>
<p>“Actions are being taken by TVB in Singapore and other overseas markets to block piracy websites. We will keep in contact with the Hong Kong government to push similar site-blocking in Hong Kong,” a TVB spokesman said.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161295
title: Reddit Gets Tough With Multiple Bans of Piracy Sub-Reddits
uri: Reddit-Gets-Tough-With-Multiple-Bans-of-Piracy-Sub-Reddits
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cC8k3M2lBOI/
content:
<p><a href="media/af6fa99d.redditp.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png"><img src="media/35045417.redditp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png" alt="" width="250" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125451" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px"></a>While the DMCA contains a &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; clause, copyright cases filed in the United States are now helping to more accurately define what the term means.</p>
<p>Multiple cases involving ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-file-billion-dollar-piracy-lawsuit-against-isp-cox-180802/">Cox</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-has-no-safe-harbor-defense-in-piracy-case-record-labels-argue-180816/">Grande Communications</a>, and their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-pays-substantial-settlement-to-end-repeat-infringer-piracy-lawsuit-180827/">subscribers</a>, appear to be having a knock-on effect on platforms that rely on user-submitted content. No longer as vague as it was, the repeat infringer clause now means that platforms are quicker to take action against persistent pirates.</p>
<p>With its tens of millions of users, Reddit is one such site. All content is submitted by users and while copyright infringements are dealt with following complaints from rightsholders, the site now appears to deal more swiftly with those who continually flout the rules.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/reddit-repeat-infringer-policy-shuts-down-megalinks-piracy-sub-180430/">previously reported</a>, Reddit has issued stern warnings to several communities after they were subjected to multiple complaints from rightsholders. It now appears the ban-hammer is being swung with increasing force.</p>
<p>Several sub-Reddits connected to copyright infringing content have recently been banned from Reddit. One of those is <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/FullMoviesOnAnything/">FullMoviesOnAnything</a>, a previously 23,000-strong community that posted links to full movies hosted on external sites.</p>
<p><center><b>How FullMoviesOnAnything used to look</b><a href="media/015504ed.fullmoviesonanything1-e1537450020457.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesonanything1-e1537450020457.png"><img src="media/015504ed.fullmoviesonanything1-e1537450020457.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesonanything1-e1537450020457.png" alt="" width="600" height="413" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161651"></a></center></p>
<p>Following complaints, users are no longer greeted with a large index of links to infringing content. Instead, the sub-Reddit displays the familiar &#8216;banned&#8217; screen indicating that the community has been shuttered for good.</p>
<p><center><b>Permanently banned from Reddit</b><a href="media/b3ae6226.fullmoviesbanned11-e1537450249577.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesbanned11-e1537450249577.png"><img src="media/b3ae6226.fullmoviesbanned11-e1537450249577.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesbanned11-e1537450249577.png" alt="" width="600" height="389" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161654"></a></center></p>
<p>Another sub-Reddit with a similar name and purpose has also been banned. FullMoviesOnAnything_ (note the underscore) was also nuked, apparently for spam. Like its namesake, however, the community also posted links to copyright-infringing content. </p>
<p><center><b>How FullMoviesOnAnything_ used to look</b><a href="media/72936bc6.fullmoviesanthing-e1537449352436.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesanthing-e1537449352436.png"><img src="media/72936bc6.fullmoviesanthing-e1537449352436.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fullmoviesanthing-e1537449352436.png" alt="" width="600" height="368" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161646"></a></center></p>
<p>These aren&#8217;t the only &#8216;infringing&#8217; sub-Reddits to be closed in recent times.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TvShowsOnAnything">TvShowsOnAnything</a>, a nod to its namesake in the movie sector, has also been permanently removed from the site. The same thing happened to <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/fullmoviesonline">/r/fullmoviesonline</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p>While Reddit doesn&#8217;t always display precise reasons for a sub-Reddit being banned on each individual landing page, one doesn&#8217;t have to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that copyright infringement was an issue in the above cases. In other instances, however, the site is more clear.</p>
<p>The &#8216;banned&#8217; notices on sub-Reddits including <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/fullmovies">/r/fullmovies</a> and <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/crackedsoftware">/r/crackedsoftware</a> are crystal clear, with a specific note that the sub-Reddit violated the site&#8217;s repeat infringer policy and were shut down.</p>
<p><center><b>Repeat infringer policy in effect</b><a href="media/aa3d49dc.crackedsoftwareban.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/crackedsoftwareban.png"><img src="media/befd0d87.crackedsoftwareban.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crackedsoftwareban.png" alt="" width="599" height="397" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161669"></a></center></p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/will-reddits-r-piracy-sub-reddit-get-shut-down-180826/">As highlighted last month</a>, sub-Reddits dealing with piracy-related topics need to be increasingly careful not to break Reddit&#8217;s rules. Tight moderation is the key, along with common sense from users.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161679
title: Judge Sees No Evidence that Pirates Were Drawn by ISP’s Lack of ‘Policing’
uri: Judge-Sees-No-Evidence-that-Pirates-Were-Drawn-by-ISP-s-Lack-of-P
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TS8xz3rNljM/
content:
<p><img src="media/ec1448ed.grandecomm.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/grandecomm.png" alt="" width="234" height="116" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140705">Last year several major record labels, represented by the RIAA, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">filed a lawsuit</a> against ISP Grande Communications accusing it of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>According to the labels, the Internet provider knew that some of its subscribers were frequently distributing copyrighted material, but failed to take any meaningful action in response.</p>
<p>Grande refuted the accusations and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The ISP <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-books-partial-victory-against-riaa-in-piracy-lawsuit-180405/">partially succeeded</a> as the claims against its management company Patriot were dropped. </p>
<p>The same was true for the vicarious infringement allegations. The court saw no evidence that potential customers would specifically sign up with Grande because it did not police infringing conduct by its subscribers.</p>
<p>The labels disagreed, however, and were not ready to let any claims go. In May they submitted a motion for leave to file an amended complaint including new evidence obtained during discovery. Among other things, they argued that Grande willingly kept pirating subscribers aboard, to generate more revenue. </p>
<p>This week, US Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin issued his “report and recommendation” on the matter, which delivers a significant setback for the RIAA labels.</p>
<p>Judge Austin sees no new evidence which shows that &#8216;pirate&#8217; subscribers were specifically drawn to Grande. The new evidence may indicate that Grande failed to terminate pirating subscribers for years, but that&#8217;s not enough.</p>
<p>&#8220;First, the original Complaint alleged essentially the same or similar facts,&#8221; the recommendation reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Second, the new allegations still fail to say anything about the motivations of Grande’s subscribers when they sign up with Grande. That is, Plaintiffs still fail to plead facts showing Grande gained or lost customers because of its failure to terminate infringers.&#8221; </p>
<p>The alleged pirates used BitTorrent to share infringing works, which is something they could have done through any ISP, the Magistrate Judge adds.</p>
<p>The RIAA labels also argued that Grande’s management company Patriot Media Consulting, which is also listed as a defendant, should be held liable too.</p>
<p>However, the court previously ruled that, while Patriot employees were involved in policy making, they didn&#8217;t take any decisions or actions that led to the alleged infringements.</p>
<p>According to the order, the labels&#8217; new evidence doesn&#8217;t change this.</p>
<p>&#8220;Though there is more detail in the proposed amendment, these allegations are “more of the same” when compared to the original complaint,&#8221; Magistrate Judge Austin writes.</p>
<p>In conclusion, Judge Austin recommends denying the RIAA labels&#8217; motion to file an amended complaint. If this recommendation is adopted by the District Court Judge, the case against Grande will continue based on the contributory infringement claim alone.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Judge Austin’s full report and recommendations filing is available <a href="media/800b81eb.reportandreccom.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/reportandreccom.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161503
title: ETTV Feeds EZTV ‘Fake’ Torrents… ‘Stop Taking Our Releases!’
uri: ETTV-Feeds-EZTV-Fake-Torrents-Stop-Taking-Our-Releases
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OGCK0KhwrTs/
content:
<p><img src="media/885d0ad9.ettveztv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ettveztv.jpg" alt="" width="211" height="176" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161540">Online pirates are generally not known to be the most law-abiding citizens. However, they certainly have their own set of standards. </p>
<p>Scene groups, for example, have to follow a <a href="https://scenerules.org/">strict set of rules</a> which define how they are supposed to share their booty. </p>
<p>Further down the piracy pyramid, we find P2P distribution groups. These operate out in public, making sure that scene releases find their way to the masses on a regular schedule.</p>
<p><a href="https://ettv.online">ETTV</a> is one of these groups. Specializing in the latest TV content, it uploads dozens of scene releases to public sites, including their own. The group prides itself on its selection and speed, something appreciated by millions of pirates.</p>
<p>While ETTV is running steady, the site&#8217;s operators have one major nuisance. EZTV, one of their main &#8216;competitors&#8217;, is releasing &#8216;their&#8217; content without permission. </p>
<p>While the original EZTV shut down following a hostile takeover, the people who took over are still serving torrents to millions of people every month. And according to ETTV, many of these torrents are sourced from ETTV. </p>
<p>To show their discontent, ETTV recently added a fake torrent to their feed. Specifically, they uploaded a rather explicit adult film, disguising it as the latest &#8220;Taskmaster&#8221; episode. </p>
<p>As can be seen below, the title comes with an additional message: &#8220;EZTV and TGX stop ridding our releases,&#8221; which made its way onto the EZTV site. </p>
<p><center><strong>Stop!</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/28719682.stopridding.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stopridding.png" alt="" width="600" height="334" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161522"></center></p>
<p>The fake release has since been removed from EZTV&#8217;s website but ETTV didn&#8217;t stop there. Another fake release appeared on Thursday, disguised as a Mr. Mercedes episode. </p>
<p>However, as <a href="media/2a9dc8ff.mercedes.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mercedes.jpg">several commenters noted</a>, this was something entirely different.</p>
<p><center><strong>Not Mr. Mercedes</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2288eb00.ettvenjoy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ettvenjoy.jpg" alt="" width="587" height="328" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161688"></center></p>
<p>Looking at the various release feeds, it indeed appears that EZTV, in particular, is a near copy of that of ETTV. The main difference is that the torrents appear a few minutes later. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to ETTV, who told us that they decided to take a stand because they are tired of EZTV&#8217;s antics.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are always using our content and we are getting tired of it. If you want to be a distribution group you should be getting your source files privately,&#8221; ETTV says. </p>
<p>While ETTV is a bot that operates <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ettv-how-an-upload-bot-became-a-pirate-hero-171210/">mostly automated</a>, this process is certainly not free. The group pays various sites which offer scene content, so they can access these files.</p>
<p>Of course, ETTV itself also uses the &#8216;work&#8217; of others, including scene groups (and movie studios), but it stresses that it&#8217;s not okay for one public distribution group to blatantly copy from another.</p>
<p>&#8220;We owe them nothing and don&#8217;t want anything from them either,&#8221; ETTV says. </p>
<p>&#8220;They can play the &#8216;sharing is caring card&#8217; all they want, but only amateurs and freeloading scum think its ok to run their sites by [taking content from] other public sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>The other group that was called out in the fake release is TGX. However, as far as we&#8217;ve seen these fake releases were not republished with their tag. TGX did use torrents from ETTV&#8217;s feed earlier.</p>
<p>Whether EZTV will be bothered by the accusations is doubtful. The group doesn&#8217;t have the best reputation after the hostile takeover of the original EZTV, and copying YIFY and ExtraTorrent, but most of their visitors don&#8217;t seem to care. </p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time a &#8216;fake&#8217; torrent has made its way onto EZTV&#8217;s website. A few weeks ago we already reported on a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spooky-torrent-warns-eztv-users-about-huge-security-risk-180408/">similar incident</a>, which ETTV had nothing to do with.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161587
title: ‘Piracy is Booming in Russia, With Help From Online Casinos’
uri: Piracy-is-Booming-in-Russia-With-Help-From-Online-Casinos
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PHXxW56IYbk/
content:
<p><img src="media/bd26baa0.azinol1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/azinol1.png" alt="" width="232" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161727">Piracy is very much a worldwide phenomenon, but there are some noteworthy differences between various regions. </p>
<p>Earlier this year <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/camcording-piracy-is-dropping-but-not-in-russia-180311/">we reported</a> that there&#8217;s a notable decrease in camcording piracy globally. However, in Russia, this trend is going in the opposite direction. </p>
<p>This finding was corroborated this week by the international cybersecurity outfit <a href="https://www.group-ib.com/">Group-IB</a>. The company&#8217;s Anti-Piracy department reported that there has been a clear increase in locally camcorded movies. </p>
<p>In 2016 there were &#8216;only&#8217; 33 Russian cinema leaks. This increased more than 500% to 211 a year later and, during the first eight months of 2018, the counter has already reached 280 leaked recordings.</p>
<p>&#8220;Almost every film released in 2018 has been pirated and leaked to the web. In 2017, the country’s cinemas showed 477 movies, and 211 of them were pirated, which is 6 times more than a year earlier,&#8221; Group-IB notes.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Andrey Busargin, Director of Brand Protection at Group-IB, who informed us that there is an organized group of &#8220;camcording&#8221; pirates which has been very active.</p>
<p>&#8220;This group is financed by online-casinos, which support online-pirates as well. Online-casinos integrate their ads in the pirated copies and TV-shows in the form of logos, captioning or even as audio tracks,&#8221; Busargin says. </p>
<p>These pirated copies than spread across the web. As an example, Group-IB provided screenshots of ads for &#8220;Azino 777&#8221; before and <a href="media/ddfde70c.azinofull.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/azinofull.png">during</a> pirated movies, as well as a branded watermark, seen below.</p>
<p>&#8220;This scheme allows online casinos to generate leads, wherever a user watches a pirated copy and whatever ads are displayed on a website with pirated copies,&#8221; Busargin adds. </p>
<p><center><strong>Destination Wedding, with Azino 77 watermark</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/fe5eb907.azino.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/azino.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="317" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161712"></center></p>
<p>According to Group-IB, pirate sites are also profiting handsomely from the availability of infringing content. </p>
<p>&#8220;On average pirates earn $3 per 1000 views. Therefore, an average monthly income of pirated websites owners can reach $10,000. It would cost roughly $240 to create a pirated website, which allows owners to quickly recoup their &#8216;business&#8217;.&#8221; </p>
<p>That sounds profitable indeed. However, an operator of a large torrent site told us, on the condition of anonymity, that it&#8217;s a rather optimistic estimate. While popups in countries such as Japan can indeed earn up to $3 per 1000 impressions, in Russia this figure is closer to $0.3-0.5, he said. </p>
<p>Also, these popups are often restricted to one impression per unique visitor per day, not all website views. And then there are the ad-blockers, which take out roughly 40% of all traffic. </p>
<p>This means that one million Russian pageviews, from 100,000 unique users, would bring in &#8216;only&#8217; $20 per popup ad. This is, effectively, $0.02 per 1000 pageviews. </p>
<p>Sites can run multiple ads at once, of course, but Group-IB&#8217;s figure appears to be optimistic. Even BitTorrent Inc, which is a legitimate company, doesn&#8217;t charge more than <a href="https://orders.bitmedianetwork.com/">a few cents per 1000 views</a> for its banners.</p>
<p>The cybersecurity company further estimates that there were a massive 10 billion search queries for “free” movies and TV-shows in Russia in a year. The company directly translates this to 110 pirate movies views for all 90 million Internet users, but that may be a bit much as well. </p>
<p>When we asked the company about this estimate, they told us that 110 movies per year shouldn&#8217;t be taken too literally and that it&#8217;s meant as a &#8220;snapshot&#8221; of the number of films people &#8220;intended&#8221; to watch. </p>
<p>All in all Group-IB&#8217;s data is quite intriguing, especially the rapid increase in cammed movies and the allegation that casinos facilitate this activity. </p>
<p>On that note, it&#8217;s worth mentioning that the aforementioned &#8220;Azino 777&#8221; casino was mentioned earlier this year as one of the top online advertisers in Russia. Despite a site blocking ban by Roskomnadzor, it <a href="http://handofmoscow.com/2018/03/02/prohibit-online-casino-azino777-was-one-of-the-largest-advertisers/">beats the likes of</a> Yandex, Coca-Cola, and Tele2. </p>
<p><center><strong>Group-IB infographic</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3da2e3c3.groupib.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/groupib.png" alt="" width="600" height="624" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161723"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161501
title: Why Kodi Addons & Pirate Apps Are Disappearing…Quietly
uri: Why-Kodi-Addons-Pirate-Apps-Are-Disappearing-Quietly
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h-F0rwAwsIs/
content:
<p><a href="media/bd33cab6.silence.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/silence.png"><img src="media/d0ae4a31.silence.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/silence.png" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161641"></a>It&#8217;s impossible to say how many lawyers have been deployed to shut down piracy-related projects over the years. Dozens would be a conservative estimate but just one beating down the door can be an intimidating experience.</p>
<p>In the early 2000s and for at least the next decade and beyond, many efforts to shut down pirate sites and services were accompanied by triumphant press releases. Arrests, court appearances, and usually negative verdicts against pirates became a rallying point for the content industries, with the head-on-a-pike deterrent proving a valuable tool in the propaganda wars.</p>
<p>Last year, however, a new tactic appeared to gain momentum. In addition to strategic publicized cases against larger-scale infringers, a steady undercurrent of threats became evident in the Kodi addon and pirate application community. Rather than breaking down doors, content owners approached developers quietly, warning that shutting down is the only real way to avoid punishing legal action.</p>
<p>Most of the approaches were made by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the global anti-piracy coalition made up of 30 of the world&#8217;s most powerful entertainment companies. This fact has been made public by a number of developers, with some <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-warns-kodi-addon-developer-to-sign-settlement-agreement-or-else-180306/">publishing correspondence</a> on the web.</p>
<p>Many others, however, simply announced their retirement and disappeared, often around the same time that other developers took the same course of action. When approached for comment most refused to offer details but it&#8217;s clear that decisions weren&#8217;t being made freely. It won&#8217;t come as a surprise to learn that many, in exchange for not having their lives ruined, agreed to take a vow of silence.</p>
<p>After collating information from a number of sources, we can now reveal some of the tactics being used against developers involved in &#8216;pirate&#8217; projects.</p>
<p>While the details vary from case to case, most approaches begin with a detailed overview of the project the developer is involved in and various laws that ACE believe are being broken. This is followed up with details of a multi-point settlement deal which can potentially see the developer exit with a minimum of costs.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-warns-kodi-addon-developer-to-sign-settlement-agreement-or-else-180306/">previously reported</a>, some of the terms are fairly unpalatable, including an agreement to report on associates and colleagues involved in the project and associated projects. We have no idea whether anyone targeted has done so but we know the settlement agreement contains such clauses. However, aside from ending all infringing activities, the number one insistence is that recipients keep their mouths firmly shut.</p>
<p>In order to protect those who have disclosed information to TF, we aren&#8217;t publishing direct quotes from the settlement agreements. However, we can disclose that those entering settlements are forbidden from speaking to anyone (apart from their legal advisors) about the contents of the agreement, but it goes further than that.</p>
<p>Those targeted are expressly forbidden from telling anyone that they have even been contacted or that discussions are taking place, something that really isolates people seeking to receive external help and advice.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if the recipient&#8217;s case is discussed with ACE at all, no information &#8211; whether spoken or in written form &#8211; can be revealed to any third-party (outside legal counsel). As far as we can see from the documents available, this means they aren&#8217;t even allowed to discuss the terms with a close friend or family member.</p>
<p>However, in return for their full cooperation, it appears that ACE will keep their identities a secret. If announcements to the press are made (which thus far hasn&#8217;t been the coalition&#8217;s modus operandi), ACE has told those who sign agreements that they won&#8217;t be named or identified in other ways.</p>
<p>With this background, it&#8217;s not difficult to see why developers are choosing to shut down their projects and disappear quietly. While some will find the terms of ACE&#8217;s settlement agreement difficult, it&#8217;s undoubtedly better than the alternative. With billions of dollars up their collective sleeves, ACE members have unlimited access to legal weaponry and could drain the average person&#8217;s finances in a matter of months in legal fees alone.</p>
<p>Quite why ACE has chosen to act against developers so quietly isn&#8217;t clear but given that most of their targets thus far have been bedroom-based Joe Publics, it&#8217;s possible that the &#8220;30 Goliaths versus David&#8221; imagery is something some its members would prefer not to be associated with.</p>
<p>Finally, users worried by a potential hand over of information to authorities as highlighted by the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/terrarium-tv-dev-says-he-could-hand-user-info-to-authorities-180917/">Terrarium TV case this week</a> <em>(note: we have no confirmation that ACE was involved)</em> shouldn&#8217;t be surprised when developers act to save their own skin. Privacy and security is the user&#8217;s own responsibility and in the Wild West of piracy, anything can happen.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161777
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/24/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-24-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qYkfGljmK7I/
content:
<p><img src="media/e3ca0fdb.purge.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/purge.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161780">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The First Purge 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 articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</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-09-17-18/">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="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6133466/">The First Purge</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6133466/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL29y0ah92w">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">Solo: A Star Wars Story</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEYpryMp2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">Sicario: Day of the Soldado</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMChzE_aCo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">Skyscraper </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9QePUT-Yt8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn9mMeWcgoM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164214/">Ocean&#8217;s Eight </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164214/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5LoVcVsiSQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/">The Meg</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsLk0NPRFAc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">Mission: Impossible &#8211; Fallout</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHiW4N7-bo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">Deadpool 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86RtevtfrA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Avengers: Infinity War </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZfuNTqbHE8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161783
title: Demonoid Goes Down While Owner Remains ‘Missing’
uri: Demonoid-Goes-Down-While-Owner-Remains-Missing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_5Fz0ywIrQc/
content:
<p><img src="media/a6e16bbf.demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" alt="" width="211" height="211" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144142">As one of the oldest torrent communities around, <a href="https://www.demonoid.pw/">Demonoid</a> has run into quite a few rough patches over the years. </p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s media industry pressure, lawsuits, blocking orders, hosting problems or police investigations, Demonoid has seen it all. </p>
<p>The site has established a reputation as the &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-back-140330/">comeback kid</a>,&#8221; due to its tendency to go offline for weeks or even months, and then reappear in full glory as if nothing ever happened. </p>
<p>Over the past weeks, the site has hit some rough patches again. In August the site&#8217;s torrents <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoids-torrents-and-owner-are-missing-in-action-180811/">mysteriously disappeared</a> and while these eventually came back, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-and-demonoid-face-technical-troubles-180914/">more technical issues</a> were around the corner. </p>
<p>While technical troubles are nothing out of the ordinary, there was a reason for concern as the site&#8217;s owner, Deimos, was missing in action as well. </p>
<p>Late last week things took a turn for the worse. Over the past few days, Demonoid has been completely unreachable, and its owner is still nowhere to be seen. </p>
<p>Demonoid staffer Phaze1G informs TorrentFreak that it&#8217;s unclear what&#8217;s going on. The domain names work just fine, but in addition to Demonoid, the tracker&#8217;s sister site Hypercache.pw has also gone offline, which is unusual. </p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s nothing new, unfortunately,&#8221; Phaze1G told us yesterday, noting that all staff members are waiting in a small chat box, looking out for something positive to cling onto.  </p>
<p>At the moment both the site&#8217;s users and staff are completely in the dark. There has been come continued activity in the official <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonoidP2P/">Reddit forums</a>, but other than that things have remained quiet. </p>
<p>The site&#8217;s staff do want to highlight, however, that there are no proxies or other alternatives available. There are some copycats around, but these are all fake.</p>
<p>&#8220;Users should be REALLY aware that there is no: .onion address, mirrors, alternative Demonoids and such. Especially to avoid demonoid.to,&#8221; Phaze1G says.</p>
<p>The staffer believes that Deimos&#8217; absence may be due to personal circumstances. However, the owner also made it clear that he would do his best to avoid legal issues if something concrete ever happened. </p>
<p>That said, Deimos is not the kind of person to leave the site adrift without reason. He resurrected it back in 2014, hoping to rebuild the great community it was during the early days. In a way, it&#8217;s his baby. </p>
<p>&#8220;In his vision, Demonoid is a place which helps the world to be just a tiny bit of a better place,&#8221; Phaze1G says. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, when a user had cancer and needed money for a surgery, the Demonoid and its members helped to pay the bills, and there were cases where users had car accidents and got all kinds of support.&#8221; </p>
<p>Over the past several years, Demonoid was gradually expanding its userbase again. The current downtime is a major setback, but perhaps that&#8217;s part of the Demonoid&#8217;s spirit too. It&#8217;s the comeback kid after all.</p>
<p>&#8220;Demonoid will most likely return, but for now, we have to wait,&#8221; Phaze1G concludes. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161677
title: Google, Yandex Discuss Creation of Anti-Piracy Database
uri: Google-Yandex-Discuss-Creation-of-Anti-Piracy-Database
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RwYta4DMM8U/
content:
<p><a href="media/560a9ef5.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg"><img src="media/e92721d2.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="156" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135409"></a>Every day, countless thousands of pieces of infringing content are uploaded to the Internet including most movies, TV shows, games, and commercial software.</p>
<p>Rightsholders everywhere are struggling to the contain the influx, often having to resort to filing millions of takedown notices with Internet companies, the bulk of which target the world&#8217;s major search engines.</p>
<p>While this doesn&#8217;t take down the actual content itself, there is a theory that citizens often turn to search engines to find their fix. These sites, in turn, direct users to sites hosting infringing content. To combat this facilitation, copyright holders want search companies to remove these results from their indexes.</p>
<p>Takedowns like this are common in the West, with Google removing billions of links upon request. In Russia, however, search engine Yandex found itself in hot water recently after <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yandex-refuses-to-remove-pirate-content-blocking-imminent-despite-appeal-180830/">refusing to remove links</a> on the basis that the law does not require it to do so. This prompted the authorities to suggest that a compromise agreement needs to be made, backed up by possible changes in the law.</p>
<p>It now appears that this event, which could&#8217;ve led to Yandex being blocked by ISPs, has prompted both Internet companies and copyright holders to consider a voluntary agreement. Discussions currently underway suggest a unique and potentially ground-breaking plan.</p>
<p>The initial meeting between telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor, Internet companies Yandex, Google, and Mail.ru, plus representatives of the Association of Producers of Cinema and Television (APKiT), the National Media Group, and Gazprom Media Holdings, took place September 19.</p>
<p>According to news outlet <a href="https://www.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/20/09/2018/5ba372319a7947014e85ce89">RBC</a>, the topic of discussion was the creation of a special database holding the details of known infringing copies of content including movies, games, software and other pirated content.</p>
<p>The proposals envision that once details of content are placed in the database, search engines and video hosting sites that sign up to a memorandum of understanding with rightsholders will automatically query the database every five minutes for updates.</p>
<p>Once the details are fed back, search companies will remove links to pirate resources from their search results within six hours, without any need for a court process. This will run alongside the current database currently maintained by Roscomnadzor and utilized by ISPs, which contains links to sites that are blocked due to having multiple complaints filed against them at the Moscow City Court.</p>
<p>If adopted, this new extrajudicial process will go some way to clearing up the problems caused by the current legal gray area, which led to Yandex removing links to content from its video portal to avoid a potential ISP blockade, even though the company believes that the law does not require it to do so.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s suggested that the infringing resource database, should it go ahead, could be maintained by the Internet Video Association (IVA), which represents intellectual property rights holders. Alternatively, RBC notes, an alternative coalition of entertainment companies including legal streaming platforms could be put in charge of the project.</p>
<p>Talks appear to be fairly advanced, with agreements on the framework for the database potentially being reached by the middle of this week. If that&#8217;s the case, a lawsuit recently filed by Gazprom Media against Yandex could be settled amicably. It&#8217;s understood that Yandex wants all major Internet players to become involved, including social networks. </p>
<p>With the carrot comes the possibility of the stick, of course. Gazprom Media indicates that if a voluntary agreement cannot be reached, it will seek <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-to-amend-copyright-law-after-yandex-forced-to-remove-pirate-tv-content-180915/">amendments to copyright law</a> that will achieve the same end results.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161807
title: Sky TV Wants The Pirate Bay Blocked in New Zealand
uri: Sky-TV-Wants-The-Pirate-Bay-Blocked-in-New-Zealand
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Grh55BsQn6Y/
content:
<p><img src="media/a70e19c9.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-147564" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px">Earlier this year Hollywood&#8217;s Motion Picture Distributors’ Association stated that site-blocking was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-says-only-site-blocking-left-to-beat-piracy-in-new-zealand-180123/">the only option left</a> to beat online piracy. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s impossible to completely eradicate the phenomenon, rightsholders generally see ISP blockades as one of the most effective tools at their disposal.</p>
<p>This is also true for <a href="https://www.sky.co.nz/">Sky TV</a> New Zealand. Last year the company took its first steps in this direction, and it is now pushing on. Newsroom <a href="https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/09/24/250444/sky-tv-taking-pirate-sites-to-court">reports</a> that Sky hopes to file a lawsuit targeting The Pirate Bay and an unnamed sports streaming site before the end of the year. </p>
<p>The company just released the results of an extensive piracy survey which shows that 29% of all New Zealanders have pirated sport and entertainment during the last month. The majority of pirates prefer streaming, but downloading and pirate boxes are popular too.</p>
<p>“We’ve known that piracy is a problem for a while, but the scale is even bigger than we thought,&#8221; SKY spokesperson Sophie Moloney says. </p>
<p>“If piracy remains unchecked, it risks really hurting the sports and entertainment industry in New Zealand, and our ability to create great content,” she adds.</p>
<p>The lacking availability of legal viewing options is the main reason why people pirate, the research reveals. Legal content is either not available or it&#8217;s significantly delayed. Interestingly, non-pirates believe that people mainly turn to unauthorized offerings to avoid paying.</p>
<p>Sky TV, however, believes that there are plenty of legal option and will push its blocking plans through. </p>
<p>“Other countries are taking steps to stop piracy and encourage people not to steal content, and we want to do the same here in New Zealand, including by way of blocking pirate websites,” Sky TV&#8217;s Moloney says.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, there is even support for this effort among self-proclaimed pirates. </p>
<p>Just over half of all pirates agreed that they &#8220;would be happy for my ISP to block access to a piracy website if it was required by a court to do so.&#8221; This is also preferred over other options, such as tighter regulation or lawsuits against individual pirates.  </p>
<p>“Site-blocking is used in 42 countries around the world, including Australia and the UK.  It’s good to see that many New Zealanders would prefer that these dodgy sites are blocked from view using this approach,” Moloney notes. </p>
<p>Whether Internet providers feel the same way has yet to be seen. When Sky TV first announced its blocking intentions last year, local ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/skys-pirate-site-blocking-move-is-something-for-north-korea-isps-say-171129/">responded</a> critically.</p>
<p>“SKY’s call that sites be blacklisted on their say so is dinosaur behavior, something you would expect in North Korea, not in New Zealand. It isn’t our job to police the Internet and it sure as hell isn’t SKY’s either, all sites should be equal and open,” said Taryn Hamilton of local IPS <a href="https://www.vocus.co.nz/">Vocus</a> at the time.</p>
<p>ISPs instead pointed out that rightsholders should focus on improving the legal options. And with Sky TV&#8217;s research revealing &#8216;limited legal options&#8217; as the main motivation to pirate, they are likely to stick with this.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161811
title: Grindr Playing DMCA Whac-A-Mole With Privacy Threat ‘Fuckr’
uri: Grindr-Playing-DMCA-Whac-A-Mole-With-Privacy-Threat-Fuckr
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/N8cFsurOsQg/
content:
<p><a href="media/7a6ad3aa.Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png"><img src="media/7a6ad3aa.Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png" alt="" width="260" height="260" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161823"></a><a href="https://www.grindr.com/">Grindr</a> bills itself as the &#8220;largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people.&#8221; Back in March the company faced a crisis with <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/03/29/grindr-security-flaws-risk-exposing-users-location-data/">reports</a> of security breaches with privacy implications.</p>
<p>The first involved the use of a third-party website, which was able to extract normally hidden information from Grindr, including the email addresses and locations of people who had opted not to share that data.</p>
<p>The second alleged that unencrypted location data was being sent by the Grindr app, something the company later <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/28/security-flaw-in-grindr-exposed-locations-to-third-party-service/">denied</a>. A <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/azeenghorayshi/grindr-hiv-status-privacy">third report</a> indicated that Grindr had been sharing users&#8217; HIV status with outside companies.</p>
<p>Then, less than two weeks ago, a <a href="https://www.queereurope.com/it-is-still-possible-to-obtain-the-exact-location-of-cruising-men-on-grindr/">further report</a> criticized Grindr for the existence of a third-party app known as &#8216;Fuckr&#8217;. Released back in 2015, Fuckr gives users the ability to precisely locate hundreds of Grindr users to an accuracy of just a few feet, a privacy nightmare for those not looking for that kind of immediate intimacy.</p>
<p><center><b>Locations laid bare</b> <em>Credit: Fuckr/Queer Europe</em><a href="media/1eba8eb9.trackingindividual-e1537862332892.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trackingindividual-e1537862332892.jpg"><img src="media/1eba8eb9.trackingindividual-e1537862332892.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trackingindividual-e1537862332892.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="357" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161824"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;The technique used to locate Grindr users is called ‘trilateration’. Hereby, the distance towards a certain user is measured from three (or more) virtual points nearby them,&#8221; Queer Europe reported.</p>
<p>&#8220;This can be done by making a call to Grindr’s server, which is accessible via an API (Application Programming Interface). After having obtained the distance between users and the three virtual locations nearby them, it is simple to find out where they are located.&#8221;</p>
<p>As revealed by <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-09-13-Grindr.md">Github</a>, Grindr took almost immediate action. Via a DMCA notice, the dating service demanded that the entire <a href="https://github.com/tomlandia/fuckr">&#8216;Fuckr&#8217; repository</a> be taken down from Github.</p>
<p>&#8220;The purpose of &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; is to facilitate unauthorized access to the Grindr app by circumventing Grindr’s access controls, such that &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; functions as &#8216;an unofficial desktop Grindr client&#8217;,&#8221; the notice reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Among other things, the Grindr app contains mechanisms that prevent users from identifying the precise geographic locations of other users. &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; is designed to bypass those mechanisms such that users can &#8216;[p]inpoint any guy&#8217;s exact location&#8217;.&#8221; </p>
<p>Grindr also points out that Fuckr is able to spoof a user&#8217;s location as well as granting access to otherwise non-downloadable images. For these reasons, Grindr states that Fuckr is primarily designed for the purpose of &#8220;circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work&#8221; protected under the Copyright Act. Github responded by deleting the repository.</p>
<p><center><b>Fuckr &#8211; gone</b><a href="media/e4ebef79.fuckr-gone-e1537863313468.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fuckr-gone-e1537863313468.png"><img src="media/e4ebef79.fuckr-gone-e1537863313468.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fuckr-gone-e1537863313468.png" alt="" width="600" height="365" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161826"></a></center></p>
<p>But while the immediate threat appeared to be over, Fuckr wasn&#8217;t dead just yet. Plenty of forks of Fuckr remained available and now it appears Grindr is engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole to have them taken down. In a fresh DMCA notice filed with Github yesterday, the dating platform demanded that dozens of &#8216;forks&#8217; of the software be taken down.</p>
<p>&#8220;As you are aware, we previously submitted a takedown notice for the &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; repository ([repository disabled per previous DMCA takedown]) as it violated the Copyright Act and the anti-circumvention prohibitions of 17 U.S.C. Section 1201. The original project was taken down on or about September 13, 2018,&#8221; the notice reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Forks of the &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; repository are still active and equally violate the law, GitHub’s Terms, Grindr’s Terms, and endanger the safety of Grindr users by facilitating unauthorized access to the user’s location and exposing the user to real threats of anti-LGBT violence. Therefore, Grindr requests that these Forks be taken down for the same reasons as the original project.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>New takedown notice targets 90 Fuckr forks</b><a href="media/ed177aa6.grindr-new-notice-e1537864034780.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/grindr-new-notice-e1537864034780.png"><img src="media/ed177aa6.grindr-new-notice-e1537864034780.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/grindr-new-notice-e1537864034780.png" alt="" width="600" height="194" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161827"></a></center></p>
<p>The <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-09-24-Grindr.md">DMCA takedown notice</a> targets around 90 &#8216;forks&#8217; or clones of the original Fuckr desktop application, showing that the process of removing the threat is still far from over.</p>
<p>Grindr says it has attempted to contact &#8220;the infringer&#8221; (presumably the people behind the original Fuckr) using the only address it was able to find, but its letters were returned as undeliverable. With that, the company seeks Github&#8217;s help to mitigate the ongoing problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;[W]e are certain GitHub will appreciate the gravity of the above-described violations and will not knowingly allow its services to perpetuate such illegal and threatening activity without swift action to protect the integrity of GitHub and members of the public who use its platform,&#8221; Grindr adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;Grindr respectfully requests GitHub immediately take down the Forks for the &#8216;Fuckr&#8217; repository and appreciates a receipt of confirmation once the take down has been put into effect.&#8221;</p>
<p>Checks carried out by TF indicate that Github acted swiftly to disable the allegedly infringing repositories yesterday.</p>
<p>With so many clones of Fuckr still available online, it remains unclear why Grindr can&#8217;t make changes to its system to prevent Fuckr from gaining access to its data. Until it does, it seems likely that Fuckr will still remain a serious security threat to the company&#8217;s users.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161832
title: BitTorrent Traffic is Not Dead, It’s Making a Comeback
uri: BitTorrent-Traffic-is-Not-Dead-It-s-Making-a-Comeback
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MNGBB9jLhaM/
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">Many Internet traffic reports have been published over the years, documenting how traffic patterns change over time.</p>
<p>One of the trends that emerged in recent years, is that BitTorrent&#8217;s share of total Internet traffic decreased.</p>
<p>With the growth of services such as YouTube and Netflix, streaming started to generate massive amounts of bandwidth. As a result, BitTorrent lost a significant chunk of its &#8216;market share.&#8217; </p>
<p>This trend gradually increased, until recently. In some parts of the world file-sharing traffic, BitTorrent in particular, is growing.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s what&#8217;s suggested by Canadian broadband management company <a href="https://www.sandvine.com/">Sandvine</a>, which has kept a close eye on these developments for over a decade. The company will release its latest <a href="https://www.sandvine.com/resources">Global Internet Phenomena</a> report next month but gave us an exclusive sneak peek.</p>
<p>Globally, across both mobile and fixed access networks file-sharing accounts for 3% of downstream and 22% of upstream traffic. More than 97% of this upstream is BitTorrent, which makes it the dominant P2P force.</p>
<p>In the EMEA region, which covers Europe, the Middle East, and Africa there&#8217;s a clear upward trend. BitTorrent traffic now accounts for 32% of all upstream traffic. This means that roughly a third of all uploads are torrent-related.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that overall bandwidth usage per household also increased during this period, which means that the volume of BitTorrent traffic grew even more aggressively.</p>
<p>BitTorrent traffic also remains the top upstream source in the Asia Pacific region with 19% of total traffic. Percentage-wise this is down compared to two years ago, but in volume, it&#8217;s relatively stable according to Sandvine. </p>
<p>Other popular file-sharing upload sources in the Asia Pacific region are the Korean P2P app &#8220;K grid&#8221; (7%) and &#8220;Afreeca TV&#8221; (2%).</p>
<p>In the Americas, BitTorrent is the second largest source of upstream traffic. It has a market share of little over 9% and is most popular in Latin America. BitTorrent is only a fraction behind MPEG-TS, which is used for backhauling data from video cameras and security systems.</p>
<p><center><strong>BitTorrent dead?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/96e707fc.bittorrentnotdead.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrentnotdead.png" alt="" width="576" height="426" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161859"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Sandvine&#8217;s Vice President of Solutions Marketing Cam Cullen, who notes that more details will be released in the upcoming report. However, it&#8217;s clear that BitTorrent is not dead yet.</p>
<p>The next question is why BitTorrent traffic is on the rise again? According to Cullen, increased fragmentation in the streaming service market may play an important role.</p>
<p>&#8220;More sources than ever are producing &#8216;exclusive&#8217; content available on a single streaming or broadcast service – think Game of Thrones for HBO, House of Cards for Netflix, The Handmaid&#8217;s Tale for Hulu, or Jack Ryan for Amazon. To get access to all of these services, it gets very expensive for a consumer, so they subscribe to one or two and pirate the rest. </p>
<p>&#8220;Since these numbers were taken in June for this edition, there were no Game of Thrones episodes coming out, so consider these numbers depressed from peak!&#8221; Cullen <a href="https://www.sandvine.com/blog/global-internet-phenomena-preview-file-sharing-reverses-a-downward-trend">notes</a>. </p>
<p>And we haven&#8217;t even mentioned non-filesharing traffic sources such as cyberlockers and streaming sites, which are even more popular than BitTorrent&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161932
title: Illuminati Kodi Repository Throws in the Towel After ACE Threats
uri: Illuminati-Kodi-Repository-Throws-in-the-Towel-After-ACE-Threats
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iLVfYP83mPI/
content:
<p><a href="media/665a24e7.lUcLpXki_400x400-e1537971872954.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lUcLpXki_400x400-e1537971872954.jpg"><img src="media/665a24e7.lUcLpXki_400x400-e1537971872954.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lUcLpXki_400x400-e1537971872954.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="260" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161939"></a>As one of the most popular media players of all time, Kodi has amassed tens of millions of users.</p>
<p>While completely legal in its own right, the open source platform is often augmented with third-party addons that regularly provide access to huge amounts of infringing content. This has attracted the negative attention of copyright holders who are keen to prevent unlicensed content being exploited by the masses.</p>
<p>Since last year, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) has been at the forefront of anti-piracy enforcement against such addons. This huge global coalition, made up of 30 of the world’s most powerful entertainment companies, have been knocking on doors (physically in many cases) with letters that order addon developers, addon repositories, and build developers, to cease their activities or face legal consequences.</p>
<p>This week, ACE claimed yet another scalp.</p>
<p>Team Illuminati advertised itself as a great source for the &#8220;very best addons&#8221; and &#8220;stunning&#8221; Kodi builds (pre-configured Kodi installers), all available from its own repository.</p>
<p><center><b>All previously available from Illuminati</b><a href="media/5bf55c7b.DlNC6OWX4AEp7jE-e1537970600319.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/DlNC6OWX4AEp7jE-e1537970600319.jpg"><img src="media/5bf55c7b.DlNC6OWX4AEp7jE-e1537970600319.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/DlNC6OWX4AEp7jE-e1537970600319.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="338" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161936"></a></center></p>
<p>The group built up a decent following but with hundreds of posts on its Twitter account detailing efforts to bring infringing content including movies, TV shows, plus live and recorded sports to the masses, it probably isn&#8217;t a surprise they attracted the negative attention of ACE.</p>
<p>Yesterday, in a tweet to the group&#8217;s followers, Team Illuminati announced its demise after receiving a visit from the world&#8217;s most powerful anti-piracy coalition.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sorry guys our entire team got hit with ACE letters today so we&#8217;re leaving twitter, this group closes tomorrow AM thanks for your support all,&#8221; Illuminati wrote.</p>
<p><Center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Sorry guys our entire team got hit with ACE letters today so we&#39;re leaving twitter,this group closes tomorrow am thanks for your support all</p>
<p>&mdash; Team Illuminati (@illuminati_xyz) <a href="https://twitter.com/illuminati_xyz/status/1044641468999245827?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 25, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not completely unheard of, it is relatively unusual for Kodi addon developers and repositories to announce that they&#8217;ve had a visit from ACE. As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-kodi-addons-pirate-apps-are-disappearing-quietly-180923/">recently highlighted</a>, those entering into settlement agreements with ACE are required not to mention they&#8217;ve had any contact whatsoever.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether Illuminati intend to simply cease-and-desist, as others in a similar position have done so previously, or whether its members will eventually sign the ACE settlement agreeement. TF has seen copies of previous agreement letters which indicate that cooperation will be required moving forward, including providing information on others closely connected with the addon, build, repository, or other service.</p>
<p>For now, however, it seems clear that Team Illuminati have thrown in the towel.</p>
<p>Visitors to their repository URL at <a href="http://repo.theunjudged.xyz">repo.theunjudged.xyz</a> are simply greeted with a pentagon-shaped &#8216;Illuminati&#8217; logo, rather than the addons (including the recent &#8216;Underdog&#8217; addon shown below) they&#8217;ve grown accustomed to.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Team illuminati is proud to announce, &quot;The Underdog&quot; is now live in the repo.<br>We the think its the best, largest selection of our entire team&#39;s 1 click  direct link content, New Releases, True Crime, Horror, Kids, Documentaries, Comedy, 3D, 4K, MMA, WWE, Football and Motor Sports <a href="https://t.co/4Llnnpjp8J">pic.twitter.com/4Llnnpjp8J</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Team Illuminati (@illuminati_xyz) <a href="https://twitter.com/illuminati_xyz/status/1040684961274257408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Currently, Android APK (installation files) are accessible from another URL but quite how long these will remain available is yet to be seen.</p>
<p>The takedown of Team Illuminati is the latest in a long line of efforts by ACE to stem the tide of allegedly-infringing Kodi addons. Earlier this month, players known as Blamo and UrbanKingz exited under similar circumstances with several other individuals and groups (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-developers-quit-following-threats-from-mpa-netflix-amazon-171116/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ares-kodi-project-calls-it-quits-after-hollywood-cease-desist-171117/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-addon-devs-distributors-told-to-cease-and-desist-180214/">3</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-warns-kodi-addon-developer-to-sign-settlement-agreement-or-else-180306/">4</a>) meeting with a similar fate over the past year.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161968
title: CBS Shuts Down Stage 9, a Fan-Made Recreation of the USS Enterprise
uri: CBS-Shuts-Down-Stage-9-a-Fan-Made-Recreation-of-the-USS-Enterprise
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DOuZ2Yp_3bA/
content:
<p><a href="media/a04adaf7.elaCajAq_400x400-e1538035433686.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/elaCajAq_400x400-e1538035433686.jpg"><img src="media/a04adaf7.elaCajAq_400x400-e1538035433686.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/elaCajAq_400x400-e1538035433686.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="260" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161971"></a>For those unfamiliar with the project, Stage 9 is a beautiful virtual recreation of the Enterprise ship from Star Trek: The Next Generation for Windows, Mac and Linux.</p>
<p>More experience than game, Stage 9 was built by fans over two years in the Unreal Engine.</p>
<p>&#8220;There were two things that we were always pretty careful with,&#8221; says project leader &#8216;Scragnog&#8217;.</p>
<p>&#8220;We made it as clear as we possibly could that this was NOT an officially licensed project. We had no affiliation with CBS or Paramount and the IP we were trying our hardest to treat with respect was not our own. We were fans, just creating fan art.&#8221;</p>
<p>In an announcement this week, Scragnog reminded fans that no one involved in the project was in it for any financial reason and everyone was well aware that throwing money into the mix could be a problem. However, the team says it has always known that they could be shut down at any time on the whim of a license holder because in this world, that&#8217;s what can happen.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that day has come all too soon for the impressive project. Stage 9 was hit with an intellectual property complaint from CBS just over two weeks ago and has now been shut down.</p>
<p>&#8220;This letter was a cease-and-desist order,&#8221; Scragnog explains. &#8220;Over the next 13 days we did everything we possibly could to open up a dialog with CBS. The member of the CBS legal team that issued the order went on holiday for a week immediately after sending the letter through, which slowed things down considerably.&#8221;</p>
<p>During this interim period, the team began to consider statements made by CBS Vice President for Product Development John Van Citters, who in 2016 indicated that Star Trek owes so much to fans and that fan creations are of value to the brand.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want fans to be involved, very much so,&#8221; Van Citters said, as cited by Scragnog. &#8220;And it&#8217;s going to help us evolve and bring Star Trek to a bigger and brighter future.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re not going to hear from us,&#8221; Citters continued. &#8220;They&#8217;re not going to get a phone call, they&#8217;re not going to get an email. They&#8217;re not going to get anything that&#8217;s going to ruin their day one way or another and make them feel bad, like they&#8217;ve done something wrong.&#8221;</p>
<p>After noting Van Citter&#8217;s friendly approach, the Stage 9 team reached out to him twice to see if Stage 9 could be kept alive in some form. Sadly, the exec did not respond to the team &#8220;in any way.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, thirteen days after receiving the cease-and-desist, Stage 9 was able to speak with their original contact in the CBS legal department. It proved a complete waste of time.</p>
<p>&#8220;We were hoping, perhaps naively, that the elements of Stage 9 that CBS did not approve of would be highlighted to us, so we could be sure to remove these elements from the project and create something that met with, if not their approval, then at least their acceptance,&#8221; Scragnog explains.</p>
<p>To keep the project alive, the team were prepared to make any changes ordered by CBS. Sadly, CBS said that the project could not continue in any form, no matter what changes were made. They provided no further details and, as noted by <a href="https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-26-cease-and-desist-causes-fan-recreation-of-the-enterprise-from-star-trek-the-next-generation-to-self-destruct">Eurogamer</a>, did not indicate how Stage 9 had violated the <a href="http://www.startrek.com/fan-films">fan art guidelines</a> previously published by CBS and Paramount.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a truly horrible situation to be in when something that tries to respect Star Trek can be eliminated without any opportunity for open dialog,&#8221; Scragnog <a href="https://youtu.be/-0zycZdKymg">concludes</a>.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ht_yNFm1nuE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161894
title: Cox Highlights Double Standard and Wildly Inaccurate Notices in Piracy Case
uri: Cox-Highlights-Double-Standard-and-Wildly-Inaccurate-Notices-in-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IUgzi0E93Lg/
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">Last month, Cox ended its piracy liability lawsuit with music company BMG, agreeing to a “<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-pays-substantial-settlement-to-end-repeat-infringer-piracy-lawsuit-180827/">substantial settlement</a>.”</p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that the ISP is now in the clear. Cox is also caught up in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-file-billion-dollar-piracy-lawsuit-against-isp-cox-180802/">another lawsuit</a> filed by a group of major music labels, all members of the RIAA. </p>
<p>The labels argue that Cox categorically failed to terminate repeat copyright infringers and that it substantially profited from this ongoing &#8216;piracy&#8217; activity. All at the expense of the record labels and other rightsholders.</p>
<p>This week Cox submitted a reply to the complaint, denying all these allegations. It requests a declaratory judgment from the court stating that it&#8217;s not liable for any copyright infringements carried out by its customers. </p>
<p>&#8220;Cox does not control the Internet,&#8221; the company writes, adding that it has &#8220;no ability to remove or take down infringing content from its customers’ computers&#8221; and &#8220;cannot restrict, or even detect, the specific content that its customers access or share.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Cox does not spy on its customers or monitor their Internet traffic. Even if it could do so — and it cannot — it wouldn’t. Engaging in surveillance in such a fashion would violate Cox’s policies, ethics, and corporate culture.&#8221;</p>
<p>The record labels are unlikely to refute any of the above. The real dispute, however, is about whether Cox should have terminated customers for whom it received many notices. The labels previously argued that 20,000 Cox subscribers can be categorized as blatant repeat infringers, some of whom have been ‘warned’ more than 100 times.</p>
<p>Writing to the court, the ISP counters that these notices could not be trusted or easily verified.</p>
<p>&#8220;The systems Plaintiffs used to detect infringement and send copyright infringement notices were unreliable, and were known to be unreliable,&#8221; Cox writes, adding that it &#8220;lacked the ability to verify Plaintiffs’ allegations of infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Indeed, studies and published reports show that such notices can be wildly inaccurate,&#8221; Cox writes, pointing to an academic <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/28-of-piracy-takedown-requests-are-questionable-160331/">report</a> as well as a TorrentFreak article which shows how <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hbo-wants-google-to-censor-hbo-com-130203/">HBO targeted its own website</a>. </p>
<p><center><strong>DMCA notice inaccuracies</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a7731bc3.dmcaissues.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dmcaissues.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="363" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161966"></center></p>
<p>This critique on the accuracy of DMCA notices is not new. It has repeatedly been highlighted in similar cases.</p>
<p>Perhaps more novel is Cox&#8217;s mention of the &#8220;six strikes&#8221; <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/">Copyright Alert System</a>. This <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-us-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-is-dead-170128/">was</a> a partnership between US ISPs and copyright holders, including many of the labels, to forward infringing notices to pirating customers. </p>
<p>This groundbreaking deal set a limit on the number of copyright notices ISPs had to process. Perhaps more crucially, it didn&#8217;t require the companies to terminate repeat infringers, even after 100+ warnings.</p>
<p>This is an interesting &#8216;double standard&#8217; angle, as the labels now accuse Cox of failing to terminate repeat infringers, something that was never a requirement under the Copyright Alert System. </p>
<p>This deal (which Cox wasn&#8217;t part of) was still active during the time period that&#8217;s covered by the lawsuit, and apparently, the RIAA was pretty happy with it at the time.</p>
<p>&#8220;In May 2014, RIAA Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman described the Center for Copyright Information as &#8216;a model for success,&#8217; Cox writes, adding that he lauded program and all its accomplishments.</p>
<p>Fast forward a few years and now ISPs are being sued for adhering to the same standard as set out in the groundbreaking Copyright Alert System.</p>
<p>Based on these and other arguments, Cox requests a declaratory judgment stating that it&#8217;s not liable for contributory infringement, and another declaratory judgment clarifying that it&#8217;s not vicariously liable for pirating subscribers.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Cox recent filing is available <a href="media/66dff911.coxreply-1.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/coxreply-1.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162032
title: FrostWire Team Calls it Quits After Google Deletes Android App
uri: FrostWire-Team-Calls-it-Quits-After-Google-Deletes-Android-App
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6rsJ3nsSkRk/
content:
<p><a href="media/00cc3f2a.frostwire.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/frostwire.jpg"><img src="media/333610af.frostwire.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/frostwire.jpg" alt="" width="190" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-36883" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/frostwire.jpg 190w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/frostwire-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 190px) 100vw, 190px"></a>Back in 2004, when LimeWire was the file-sharing client of choice for millions of users, a new kid appeared on the block.</p>
<p>FrostWire was originally an open source fork of LimeWire distributed under the GNU General Public License.</p>
<p>In 2006, FrostWire added BitTorrent support and in 2011, as LimeWire drew its final breath under pressure from the RIAA, its Gnutella base was dropped completely <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/frostwire-kills-gnutella-to-go-all-bittorrent-110627/">in favor of BitTorrent</a>.</p>
<p>Over the years, FrostWire became available on multiple platforms including Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android. However, a huge problem with their Android variant has now caused the FrostWire team to make a rather sad announcement.</p>
<p>The issues began back on September 18 when the FrostWire Android app was taken down from Google Play following a DMCA takedown request.</p>
<p>“In the notice, the company claimed their content was uploaded to the FrostWire app and provided screenshots of their content being played in the FrostWire Music Player,” the FrostWire team explains.</p>
<p>“Asking for reinstatement, we made it clear that it is technically impossible to upload any content to FrostWire. We explained that FrostWire is a tool, a BitTorrent client, a downloader for a distributed peer-to-peer network and that as such, it does not host, index, nor has the ability to control the content it is technically capable of downloading from third party sources.”</p>
<p>But despite a DMCA counter-notice to Google, the Internet giant stood its ground. Google refused to reinstate the Android app, a surprise decision given FrostWire’s reputation for staying within the law.</p>
<p>After almost eight successful years on the Google Play store, the FrostWire team says they have been left “dumbfounded” by what they say is an “unsubstantiated claim” from a single company.</p>
<p>Sadly, this unfortunate situation appears to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Heavily reliant on their Android variant, the team indicate they will now move away from FrostWire.</p>
<p>“With over 80% of our user-base running on the Android platform, in a world where the majority of android installs occurs through a centralized app store monopoly, we don’t see a viable path forward. After 14 years the team is ready to move on to other passions and challenges,” they <a href="https://frostwire.wordpress.com/2018/09/27/frostwire-for-android-is-no-longer-available-on-google-play/">reveal</a>.</p>
<p>Thanking users past and present for their support, the FrostWire team say that users should now take the opportunity to update their clients using FrostWire’s <a href="https://github.com/frostwire/frostwire/releases">Github repository</a> or its <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/frostwire/">SourceForge page</a>.</p>
<p>While this sounds like the beginning of the end for FrostWire, it isn’t the first time that the project has had a run-in with Google over its popular client.</p>
<p>In April 2015, FrostWire was temporarily <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-removes-frostwire-bittorrent-app-from-play-store-150408/">removed</a> from Google Play in a dispute over YouTube integration. Earlier that year, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-bans-bittorrent-app-frostwire-over-piracy-concerns-150128/">Amazon removed FrostWire</a> citing copyright concerns.</p>
<p>This reliance on centralized and near monopoly app databases is clearly a big negative for applications like FrostWire. The team hopes that, moving into the future, Internet freedom will come to the forefront.</p>
<p>“We hope that in the end, a free, uncensored and decentralized internet will prevail,” the team concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161983
title: BitTorrent and Tron Hope Other Clients Will Embrace ‘Paid’ Seeding
uri: BitTorrent-and-Tron-Hope-Other-Clients-Will-Embrace-Paid-Seeding
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/md00w4sjhmk/
content:
<p><img src="media/f7996f8a.prohectatlas.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prohectatlas.png" alt="" width="277" height="181" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161994">It&#8217;s been only a few weeks since BitTorrent was officially <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-inc-confirms-acquisition-by-tron-foundation-180724/">aquired by Tron</a>, a relatively new cryptocurrency.</p>
<p>Both companies were built around decentralization, which makes for a good match. However, it doesn&#8217;t stop there. </p>
<p>BitTorrent and Tron plan to integrate blockchain technology into future releases of their torrent clients. In short, they want to make it possible for users to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tron-wants-to-give-bittorrent-users-financial-incentives-to-seed-180731/">&#8216;earn&#8217; tokens</a> by seeding. At the same time, others can &#8216;bid&#8217; tokens to speed up their downloads. </p>
<p>The new plan is dubbed &#8220;Project Atlas&#8221; and BitTorrent currently has seven people working on it full-time. In theory, the incentives will increase total seeding capacity, improving the health of the torrent ecosystem. </p>
<p>&#8220;By adding tokens we&#8217;ll make it so that you can effectively earn per seeding and create incentives for users not only to seed longer but to dedicate more of their bandwidth and storage overall,&#8221; Project Atlas lead Justin Knoll says.</p>
<p>The idea to merge the blockchain with file-sharing technology isn&#8217;t new. Joystream, previously implemented <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/can-bittorrent-be-better-with-bitcoin-150627/">a similar idea</a> and <a href="https://www.upfiring.com/">Upfiring</a> is also working on incentivized sharing. BitTorrent itself also considered it before Tron came into the picture.</p>
<p>&#8220;Even before the Tron acquisition, our R&#038;D team was looking at ways to add blockchain based incentives to the protocol. Now with the addition of Tron&#8217;s expertise, we can accelerate that effort,&#8221; Knoll says.</p>
<p>It remains unclear when the project will be ready for the public, but this week the team announced some further details. In particular, BitTorrent and Tron stress that there won&#8217;t be any need for BitTorrent users to change their current habits. </p>
<p>The BitTorrent protocol will always remain open and Project Atlas will be implemented as a series of <a href="http://bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0000.html">optional protocol extensions</a>. These will be available for anyone to use, much like uTorrent&#8217;s previous uTP extension. </p>
<p>This means that users of third-party BitTorrent clients can still download from and seed to blockchain enhanced clients, and vice versa.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to keep using your current client, it will still work with project Atlas clients. If you don&#8217;t want to bid or earn tokens per seeding, you don&#8217;t need to,&#8221; Knoll clarifies.</p>
<p><center><strong>Project Atlas</strong><br></br></center><center></p>
<style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }</style>
<div class='embed-container'><iframe src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/n_BA8tUlRLA' frameborder='0' allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<p></center></p>
<p>While backward compatibility is a major upside, it seems likely that new clients will prioritize each other, at least in some instances. After all, that&#8217;s a requirement to speed up torrents.</p>
<p>BitTorrent says it will start implementing the technology in its desktop clients, such as uTorrent. The next step is mobile. In addition, the company encourages developers of other BitTorrent clients to follow suit.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll release the details of our implementation and encourage third-party clients and the whole ecosystem to implement this,&#8221; Knoll says. </p>
<p>The developer of the third-party torrent client Frostwire previously showed his interest in the idea <a href="https://twitter.com/frostwire/status/1035536550975614977">late August</a>. He asked BitTorrent and Tron whether the technology would be public but never received an answer. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/79c2f01b.frosttron1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/frosttron1.png" alt="" width="548" height="287" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162041"></center></p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, developer Angel Leon confirmed his interest. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s something we were interested in and that we think is necessary to fulfill a vision of a decentralized Apple Store/Google Play/Amazon Music|Video competitor with BitTorrent as the transport mechanism,&#8221; Leon told us. </p>
<p>However, the developments come too late for Frostwire, as the torrent client just <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/frostwire-team-calls-it-quits-after-google-deletes-android-app-180928/">shut down</a>. Whether other client developers are also interested, remains a question for now. </p>
<p>In any case, BitTorrent and Tron stress that any changes will be backwards compatible. The protocol and its extensions remain open, the clients will remain free of charge, and there is absolutely no mining involved.</p>
<p>More information about Project Atlas&#8217; plans is expected to be unveiled in a few hours, during a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1C8A8bHw1c&#038;feature=youtu.be">live presentation</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161799
title: Putin Told That 6,000 Pirate Sites Have Been Blocked in Three Years
uri: Putin-Told-That-6-000-Pirate-Sites-Have-Been-Blocked-in-Three-Years
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EYKcm-EJmR4/
content:
<p><a href="media/37b74db8.russia.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/russia.jpg"><img src="media/273d96fc.russia.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/russia.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="121" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22592"></a>As entertainment giants and governments in the West struggle to deal with the ongoing flood of pirate content hitting the Internet, Russia has emerged from the shadows as a surprise front-runner in the anti-piracy wars.</p>
<p>The country has passed several pieces of legislation over the past few years, all designed to limit the availability of pirated content. Court processes are now swift and particularly voluminous, with large numbers of sites ordered to remove illegal content or face the proposition of temporary and indeed permanent blocking.</p>
<p>This week, Alexander Zharov, the head of the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Communications, Information Technologies and Mass Media (better known as Roscomnadzor), met with President Vladimir Putin to provide a one-on-one update on the situation in the country.</p>
<p>Two topics were on the agenda &#8211; the protection of personal data held by millions of Russian companies and the thorny issue of intellectual property protection.</p>
<p><center><b>Putin &#038; Zharov discussing piracy</b> <em>(Credit:Kremlin)</em><a href="media/540f892b.rShqfrAAE8nfAoCdWu7osXQAuyfPmioN-e1537879433519.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rShqfrAAE8nfAoCdWu7osXQAuyfPmioN-e1537879433519.jpg"><img src="media/540f892b.rShqfrAAE8nfAoCdWu7osXQAuyfPmioN-e1537879433519.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rShqfrAAE8nfAoCdWu7osXQAuyfPmioN-e1537879433519.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="370" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161843"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;For three years already, the law on the protection of intellectual property rights is working. Most of the complaints from copyright holders are related to movies,&#8221; Zharov told Putin.</p>
<p>&#8220;More than six thousand claims over three years were filed mainly by [local] companies, and a very small percentage of Western companies, that for some reason are suing at the Moscow City Court.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Moscow City Court is tasked with receiving lawsuits from copyright holders demanding that sites with infringing content either remove it, or face blocking procedures implemented by local ISPs.</p>
<p>Zharov said that three entities are involved in copyright action in Russia; the copyright holders who file the complaints, the Moscow City Court which decides on what course of action to take, and telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, which is tasked with executing the orders of the Court. In total, complaints have been filed against 17,000 pirate sites, Zharov told the President.</p>
<p>&#8220;A few years ago, the Russian Internet was absolutely a safe haven for pirates. Any premiere immediately appeared on hundreds and thousands of resources, and people watched them for free, even in poor quality, but nevertheless, that&#8217;s how it was,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now the situation has changed dramatically: six thousand resources have been blocked and 11,000 have deleted such content. And the numbers speak for themselves.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the first time in the history of Russian cinematography, our very good film, the premiere of 2018, &#8216;Move Up&#8217;, raised about three billion rubles (US$45.5m). This is comparable, perhaps, with only one American blockbuster, which raised the same amount.&#8221;</p>
<p>Zharov also updated Putin on the development of legal offerings in Russia, claiming that last year legal online streaming services earned 60% more than a year earlier, to the tune of eight billion rubles (US$121.4m). Traditional cinemas are also doing well, he added, noting that 55 million people attended premieres, 40% more than a year earlier.</p>
<p>&#8220;We intend to continue this work with rights holders. And, in general, all the largest pirate sites are now blocked. We will continue to clean up the Internet,&#8221; he concluded.</p>
<p>The positive messages from the meeting with Putin follow hot on the heels of a rather less optimistic <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-booming-in-russia-with-help-from-online-casinos-180923/">report</a> from Group-IB.</p>
<p>The cyber-security company reported that in 2016, there were ‘only’ 33 Russian cinema leaks via illegal camcording. By 2017, that had increased more than 500% to 211 but in the first eight months of 2018, 280 movies had leaked online &#8211; despite site blocking.</p>
<p>“Almost every film released in 2018 has been pirated and leaked to the web. In 2017, the country’s cinemas showed 477 movies, and 211 of them were pirated, which is 6 times more than a year earlier,” Group-IB reported.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161805
title: World’s Oldest Torrent Still Alive After 15 Years
uri: World-s-Oldest-Torrent-Still-Alive-After-15-Years
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ogCbYCqyoBI/
content:
<p><img src="media/1ce83441.fanimatrix.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fanimatrix.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161978">In 2003 the &#8216;world wide web&#8217; was an entirely different place than it is today. </p>
<p>This was especially true for streaming video. YouTube had yet to be invented, while Netflix only sent out films via the postal service.</p>
<p>It was at this time that a group of New Zealand friends was shooting a fan film of The Matrix, appropriately titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0395147/">The Fanimatrix.</a>&#8221; With a limited budget of just $800, of which nearly half went into a leather jacket, they managed to complete the project in nine days. </p>
<p>There was a problem though. As video streaming services were still non-existent, distribution was a challenge. The makers managed to reduce the filesize down to 150MB, but even that was too expensive. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to the film&#8217;s &#8216;IT-guy&#8217; Sebastian Kai Frost, who also had a bit part in front of the camera, in addition to being a wire-work counterweight, gopher, and light holder. According to Frost, regular centralized hosting was not an option.</p>
<p>&#8220;In New Zealand this would have resulted in a completely unaffordable amount of bandwidth to be used sharing the file via traditional HTTP or FTP methods. Especially given that the entire bandwidth in and out of the country at the time was less than a modern WiFi link,&#8221; Frost tells TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>With no budget left they had to find something cheap, or free. Frost, who was working as a network administrator at the time, went looking for a solution and stumbled upon a new technology that could help. Something called &#8220;BitTorrent.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;It looked promising because it scaled such that the more popular the file became, the more the bandwidth load was shared. It seemed like the perfect solution,&#8221; Frost says, looking back. </p>
<p>After convincing the crew that BitTorrent was the right choice, Frost created a torrent on September 28, 2003. He also compiled a tracker on his own Linux box and made sure everything was running correctly. </p>
<p>That was fifteen years ago. Today, this torrent is still up and running with a handful of seeders. As far as we know, it&#8217;s the oldest active torrent on the Internet. A real piece of history. </p>
<p><center><strong>Fanimatrix torrent created 15 years ago</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/20b4cbdf.fanimatrixdetails.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fanimatrixdetails.png" alt="" width="581" height="411" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161980"></center></p>
<p>In a way, Fanimatrix became one of the first showcases of what BitTorrent can do. </p>
<p>Sure, at the time people were already sharing movies and TV-shows on sites such as Suprnova.org, Donkax.com, Bytemonsoon.com, and Torrentse.cx, but that was mostly pirated stuff. For the Fanimatrix, BitTorrent was a necessity.</p>
<p>&#8220;It turns out that using BitTorrent was a really really good idea because the file was downloaded over tens of thousands of times in the first week and then REALLY took off based off feature news articles on both New Zealand and American TV news,&#8221; Frost recalls.</p>
<p>In a New Zealand Herald <a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/ict-news/news/article.cfm?c_id=55&#038;objectid=3526734">report from 2003</a>, the film&#8217;s director Rajneel Singh noted that the torrent had been downloaded 70,000 times is just one week. An impressive statistic, even by today&#8217;s standards.</p>
<p>BitTorrent was not only able to handle all the downloads, but it was also a serious cost saver. The film crew did some back-of-the-napkin calculations at the time which showed that BitTorrent saved them roughly $550,000 in bandwidth bills during the first month alone.</p>
<p>Frost and the team were blown away by the experience. And while the film is dated by today&#8217;s special effect standards, it&#8217;s good to see that people are still interested. Whatever their reason may be. </p>
<p>&#8220;The fact that people still seed it after all these years is a good feeling. Though I suspect a lot of people are on board now because they want to be part of keeping the world&#8217;s oldest active torrent going. Which is in itself pretty cool,&#8221; Frost says. </p>
<p>Frost plans to keep a restored version of the <a href="https://www.thefanimatrix.net/download.html">original site</a> and the torrent up and running during the decade to come. It&#8217;s a piece of Internet history, after all.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the time we had no idea how popular this &#8216;BitTorrent&#8217; thing would become, but being there at the beginning, and having it still operating and seeding even now is a pretty awesome thing. </p>
<p>&#8220;I intend to keep it going as long as I have a seed left to give,&#8221; Frost concludes. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><sup><em>Note: If anybody knows of any torrents that beat this record, feel free to let us know. </em></sup></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161803
title: Anti-Piracy Group Wipes ‘Torrent9’ From Google With ‘Dubious’ Requests
uri: Anti-Piracy-Group-Wipes-Torrent9-From-Google-With-Dubious
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SD_iIgIfG9M/
content:
<p><img src="media/a9d2ccc6.torrent9.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrent9.png" alt="" width="233" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161866">With millions of visitors per week, <a href="https://www.torrent9.ph/">Torrent9</a> is a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>The site is most popular in French-speaking countries, which hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed to local copyright holders. </p>
<p>Last year, the Paris Court of First Instance ordered French ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/might-google-class-torrent-a-dirty-word-france-is-about-to-find-out-171223/">to block</a> the site. However, Torrent9 was quick to take countermeasures and moved to a new domain name. </p>
<p>Quite recently, it was operating from <a href="https://www.torrent9.blue/">Torrent9.blue</a>. This went fine until the site&#8217;s owner started to notice that Google traffic had tanked. The torrent site used to get roughly 20% of its visitors through the search engine, but that suddenly dropped to less than 5%. </p>
<p>As it turned out, the French anti-piracy outfit SACEM had sent takedown requests for hundreds of thousands of URLs in the span of a few days. Google then removed these from the search engine, adding a downranking punishment on top. </p>
<p>SACEM&#8217;s &#8216;carpet-bomb&#8217; of takedown requests was clearly targeted and massive in scope. In one week in August, the group asked Google to remove over <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/torrent9.blue">350,000 torrent9.blue URLs</a>. For comparison, The Pirate Bay usually gets <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/thepiratebay.org">a tenth of that</a>, from all copyright holders combined. </p>
<p><center><strong>Torrent9.blue takedowns</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8053d3a5.sacemblue.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sacemblue.png" alt="" width="600" height="298" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161909"></center></p>
<p>While we were taking a closer look at the notices in question, we spotted another peculiarity. </p>
<p>It almost looks like the French anti-piracy group submitted each and every URL they could find, regardless of whether it actually points to works from their music industry members.</p>
<p>Some URLs do indeed point to music, but there are also plenty of others, targeting movies, TV-shows, games, and software. In some cases, the torrents are not even infringing, such as the open source copy of Ubuntu listed below. </p>
<p><center><strong>Pirated Ubuntu?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/71efac1a.ubunsac.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ubunsac.png" alt="" width="600" height="182" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-161911"></center></p>
<p>Google appears to have removed nearly all URLs including the ones that don&#8217;t point directly to copyright infringing content of SACEM members. </p>
<p>The removals were probably automated, but they certainly warrant a closer look. There is no question that Torrent9 offers links to pirated content, but should such broad takedown requests be permitted?</p>
<p>This endeavor left Torrent9 no other choice than to move to another new domain. At the time of writing the torrent site is operating from <a href="https://www.torrent9.ph/">Torrent9.ph</a>, but this could easily change again in the near future, as SACEM has already started to target the new domain with <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/torrent9.ph">another carpet-bombing</a> of &#8216;dubious&#8217; DMCA takedown notices. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161882
title: Grindr Will Now Have to Sue Fuckr to Keep Controversial Tool Down
uri: Grindr-Will-Now-Have-to-Sue-Fuckr-to-Keep-Controversial-Tool-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0W4LF2m73rs/
content:
<p><img src="media/0e9c45b2.Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Grindr-Xtra-icon-iOS7-300x300-e1537861067365.png" width="260" height="260" class="alignright size-large">Released back in 2015, the Fuckr desktop application provides enhanced access to the popular Grindr dating service. However, the extra features offered by the software are controversial, to say the least.</p>
<p>Fuckr gives users the ability to precisely locate hundreds of Grindr users to an accuracy of just a few feet. In addition, Fuckr offers access to a trove of information about Grindr users not freely available, including photos, HIV status, and even their preferred sexual position.</p>
<p>Early September, following an exposé by Queer Europe, Grindr decided to end Fuckr&#8217;s party. The company filed a DMCA notice with Github, where the application&#8217;s code was hosted. This resulted in Fuckr being taken down.</p>
<p>As reported Tuesday, Grindr is still battling availability of the software. Dozens of &#8216;forks&#8217; of Fuckr were still available for download from Github so, in response, Grindr filed a new notice with the coding platform. It <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/grindr-playing-dmca-whac-a-mole-with-privacy-threat-fuckr-180925/">targeted around 90 Fuckr clones</a>, all of which were taken down by Github. Now, however, Grindr has another problem on its hands.</p>
<p>When content is taken down following the filing of a DMCA notice, the target of the notice (in this case a user called &#8216;tomlandia&#8217;) has the right to issue a DMCA counter-notice. This is a challenge to the statement of facts in the original notice and will usually point out deficiencies therein. </p>
<p>In its original complaint, Grindr claimed that Fuckr &#8220;facilitate[s] unauthorized access to the Grindr app by circumventing Grindr’s access controls,&#8221; adding that the software was primarily designed for the purpose of “circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work” protected under the Copyright Act.</p>
<p>In a DMCA counter-notice filed this week, &#8216;tomlandia&#8217; argues that Grindr&#8217;s claims are false. After confirming that he is indeed the creator of Fuckr, the Github user offers a short rejection of the dating app&#8217;s copyright complaint..</p>
<p>&#8220;Fuckr does not bypass any technical access control mechanism and does not access any work copyrighted by Grindr LLC,&#8221; the notice reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good-faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>Fuckr DMCA counter-notice</b><a href="media/640ae49e.fuckr-counter-e1537950458296.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fuckr-counter-e1537950458296.png"><img src="media/640ae49e.fuckr-counter-e1537950458296.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fuckr-counter-e1537950458296.png" alt="" width="600" height="283" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-161903"></a></center></p>
<p>While DMCA takedown notices themselves can be filed at will with almost no consequences when they&#8217;re inaccurate, DMCA counter-notices open up a can of worms for those who file them, as Github explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Submitting a DMCA counter notice can have real legal consequences. If the complaining party disagrees that their takedown notice was mistaken, they might decide to file a lawsuit against you to keep the content disabled,&#8221; the code platform says.</p>
<p>&#8220;You should conduct a thorough investigation into the allegations made in the takedown notice and probably talk to a lawyer before submitting a counter notice.&#8221;</p>
<p>Neither Grindr or TF has been able to contact &#8216;tomlandia&#8217; to ask whether he sought legal advice but by submitting the counter-notice, he opens himself up to potential legal action. Github explains that copyright complaints can prove complicated, highlighting the very reason given by Grindr for taking Fuckr down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sometimes a takedown notice might allege infringement in a way that seems odd or indirect. Copyright laws are complicated and can lead to some unexpected results,&#8221; Github notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;In some cases a takedown notice might allege that your source code infringes because of what it can do after it is compiled and run. For example: The notice may claim that your software is used to circumvent access controls to copyrighted works.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the argument over whether that really is the case with Fuckr probably lies with lawyers and ultimately the Court, the counter-notice from &#8216;tomlandia&#8217; now sets in motion a process in which Grindr will either have to put up or shut up.</p>
<p>For the next 10 to 14 days, Github will keep the Fuckr repository down and if the company doesn&#8217;t hear anything from Grindr during that period, the repository will go back up. However, if Grindr believes its claim is valid, it will be forced to take swift legal action against &#8216;tomlandia&#8217; to ensure Github doesn&#8217;t reactivate the repo.</p>
<p>If &#8216;tomlandia&#8217; is in the United States, his counter-notice states that he consents for legal action to go ahead in the &#8220;jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which [his] address is located&#8221; or the Northern District of California where GitHub is located.</p>
<p>Only time will tell where the battle, if one is to take place, will be fought.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161850
title: Fine For Sky ‘Piracy’ Not Enough? FACT Renders Landlady Unemployed
uri: Fine-For-Sky-Piracy-Not-Enough-FACT-Renders-Landlady-Unemployed
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ADpjMIVzhZw/
content:
<p><a href="media/1feecd9e.factbanner1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/factbanner1.png"><img src="media/33e4b919.factbanner1-300x228.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/factbanner1-300x228.png" alt="" width="255" height="177" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-61581"></a>A typical case featured here on TorrentFreak will usually feature companies, anti-piracy groups, site operators and/or members of the public fighting it out in the legal arena due to someone allegedly infringing someone else&#8217;s intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>Sky TV and anti-piracy group FACT have featured on a number of occasions, as they target IPTV providers, Kodi box sellers, or others involved in facilitating access to infringing content. However, the pair also target licensed premises &#8211; mostly pubs &#8211; which are regularly accused of showing Sky&#8217;s content without an appropriate license.</p>
<p>These cases are not our usual beat but one in particular is worth highlighting since it shows how far these companies are prepared to go and what infringers should expect to be confronted with when they pull out the stops.</p>
<p>Sky charges commercial premises large sums of money to air content (usually Premier League football matches) so it&#8217;s perhaps no surprise that pubs that can least afford it gravitate towards securing a drastically cheaper residential subscription. </p>
<p>To be clear, this is illegal and plenty of landlords have found themselves on the end of legal action and court appearances following Sky and FACT investigations. One of those is Middlesbrough pub landlady Catherine Beadnall, who should&#8217;ve been paying £820 per month to Sky but instead used a Virgin Media residential package at a fraction of that.</p>
<p>Back in June the 61-year-old, who runs the Park End pub in Middlesbrough, admitted in court that she&#8217;d screened Premier League matches without a commercial Sky license. One of those matches was Middlesbrough&#8217;s home game against Sunderland last November. There were nine customers in the pub at the time. Other match screenings had between six and nine people in attendance.</p>
<p>After ignoring warnings from FACT advising her to obtain a license, Beadnall was eventually fined £320 and ordered to pay costs of £210 after admitting four counts of dishonestly receiving matches with intent to avoid payment, Gazette Live <a href="https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/pub-landlady-faces-uncertain-future-15193669">reports</a>.</p>
<p>Since Beadnall was given every chance to correct her behavior in advance, the fine and costs were to be expected. However, it transpired last week that FACT was not happy with the punishment handed down by the court and wanted even more aggressive action taken against Beadnall.</p>
<p>In view of the fact that the landlady had been given a conditional discharge for a similar offense in 2009, FACT wrote to local authorities demanding that they take further action. According to an application sent by the anti-piracy outfit, FACT demanded that the pub, which Beadnall had managed for almost 16 years, have its license revoked.</p>
<p>Of course, having no license would be a death sentence for the pub, one that would not only affect management and staff but would also prove damaging to the communities built around it. It was a dramatic request with the potential to negatively transform the lives of dozens of families.</p>
<p>Fortunately, according to a document published recently by Middlesbrough Council Licensing Sub Committee, it appears that almost three weeks later, FACT scaled down its demands, but not by much.</p>
<p>&#8220;On 21 August 2018 further correspondence was received from FACT which stated that having given the matter further consideration they would consider that the removal of Catherine Beadnall from the premises as being a satisfactory outcome for FACT,&#8221; the document reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;[To] facilitate this they would consider a suitable resolution to be the canceling of Catherine Beadnall’s lease by the Premises Licence holder and an undertaking that they would not issue a new lease to her or her family members.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given the detail above, it&#8217;s clear that Beadnall acted irresponsibly given her previous conviction. There&#8217;s also no doubt that she should&#8217;ve heeded the warnings of FACT and either bought an official subscription or stopped airing matches altogether. She foolishly did not, and for that error of judgment she went to court and had to pay a fine determined by local magistrates, as per the law.</p>
<p>The problem here, however, is the apparent determination of a disappointed FACT to either shut down an entire pub or, alternatively, deprive Beadnall of her livelihood and presumably her main source of income. At 61-years-old, Beadnall probably doesn&#8217;t have that many options open to her, particularly after managing the pub in question for almost 16 years.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been to court for it [but because] I only got a £500 fine they [want] the pub shutting down they saying its criminal,&#8221; Beadnall wrote on her <a href="https://www.facebook.com/cath.beadnall">Facebook page</a> recently, a post that drew support from her friends and customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s disgusting. They are trying to victimize you by trying to get you out of the premises! That is totally unjust given the &#8216;offense&#8217; you committed for God&#8217;s sake!&#8221; one wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;So you played a few unlicensed football games, got caught and paid a fine! That&#8217;s no reason for them to try and now attempt to take away your livelihood. Bunch of Arseholes!&#8221;</p>
<p>Another commenter noted the social importance of the pub and its positive effects on the area.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the last pub standing in the area we grew up in,&#8221; a customer called Tracy added. &#8220;Good luck Cath it&#8217;s not just a boozer it actually does events for kids in the community at affordable prices for low income parents.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;They wanna look at the good things you do for our community,&#8221; added another.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no way on this earth that any of us will stand by and let them take the pub, your livelihood away from you without a fight.&#8221;</p>
<p>With words like &#8220;victimization&#8221; and &#8220;bullying&#8221; regularly appearing in Facebook responses, other commenters criticized Sky for their sky-high prices, noting that people in the council estates nearby don&#8217;t have that kind of disposable income. </p>
<p>While that may be the case, the law is the law and Beadnall could&#8217;ve avoided this wretched attempt on her pub, livelihood, career, and customers if only she&#8217;d heeded the warnings. That being said, one would think that the people filing this application would&#8217;ve seen fit to put this matter into perspective.</p>
<p>Ruining lives is never going to be a great advertisement for your product or your way of doing business. To Joe Public it looks bad &#8211; really bad &#8211; and is a great way to further cultivate the them-versus-us culture that&#8217;s attached to the wickedly high prices charged by Sky which have to be charged to fund the billions demanded by the Premier League.</p>
<p>On the other hand, taking down an offender in such a dramatic way could prove a great deterrent to others considering a similar course of action. There&#8217;s no doubt that figured into the equation.</p>
<p>Last week, following a council hearing in Middlesbrough, FACT and Sky&#8217;s plan probably achieved both. Catherine Beadnall was stripped of her license and her career was brought to an end.</p>
<p>According to a report from <a href="https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/landlady-loses-lease-after-hearing-15210717">Gazette Live</a>, FACT dug up every possible piece of negative information they could in order to achieve their aims, including mentioning that Beadnall was fined in 2007 for not having fully-functioning CCTV at the pub and that in 2013 &#8220;someone&#8221; discharged a shotgun outside.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy outfit also mentioned that someone had been stabbed at the pub. However, during the meeting, it transpired that it was Beadnall&#8217;s own son who had been attacked when trying to remove a man from the premises.</p>
<p>The belief all along was that FACT only targeted Beadnall&#8217;s livelihood because the earlier court fine wasn&#8217;t as heavy as they&#8217;d hoped. Statements at the meeting seemed to support that.</p>
<p>When Andrew Cochrane of Stars Pubs and Bars, which owns the pub, asked FACT representative Stephen Gerrard if they&#8217;d called for a review due to being &#8220;aggrieved&#8221; by the relatively small fine handed down in earlier in the year, the response was positive.</p>
<p>“I was disappointed yes,” Gerrard said, adding: “I don’t consider it to be a deterrent.”</p>
<p>But despite two local councilors speaking in support of Beadnell, it wasn&#8217;t enough. The landlady and her entire family were banned from managing or being employed at the pub. The pub itself had its license suspended for three months.</p>
<p>While Beadnall really should&#8217;ve acted more responsibly, the six to nine people present during the match screenings at her pub doesn&#8217;t seem like a reasonable fit for the termination of her career and the suspension of the entire pub&#8217;s license. Nevertheless, it appears the authorities think otherwise.</p>
<p>Fortunately, however, Beadnall is trying to look on the bright side, noting that this Christmas, for the first time in 15 years, she&#8217;ll be able to cook her family a dinner at home. It seems unlikely that Sky TV will accompany the mince pies and coffee.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162079
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 10/01/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-10-01-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zAGwrOHDs6M/
content:
<p><img src="media/e3ca0fdb.purge.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/purge.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-161780">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The First Purge 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 articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</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-09-24-18/">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="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6133466/">The First Purge</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6133466/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL29y0ah92w">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">Solo: A Star Wars Story</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPEYpryMp2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5220122/">Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5220122/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EzB6eTni2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4881806/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn9mMeWcgoM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">Skyscraper </a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5758778/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9QePUT-Yt8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">Sicario: Day of the Soldado</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052474/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIMChzE_aCo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834262/">Hotel Artemis</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5834262/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqfuKsoEEms">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5057140/">Hold The Dark</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5057140/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFAwDO6b5KI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">Mission: Impossible &#8211; Fallout</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4912910/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHiW4N7-bo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/">The Meg</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4779682/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsLk0NPRFAc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162081
title: ‘NAFTA’ Replacement Extends Canada’s Copyright Term to Life +70 years
uri: NAFTA-Replacement-Extends-Canada-s-Copyright-Term-to-Life-70
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_hnj4TC8t3c/
content:
<p><img src="media/bd0abf4c.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120567">The North American Free Trade Agreement (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement">NAFTA</a>) between the United States, Canada, and Mexico was negotiated more than 25 years ago.</p>
<p>Over the past quarter-century trade has changed drastically, especially online, and to accommodate these changes the three countries have been working hard to modernize the international deal.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago the US and Mexico reached <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-and-mexico-modernize-copyright-protection-in-new-trade-deal-180828/">consensus</a> on many key issues and last night Canada came along, resulting in a new version of NAFTA. Titled the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), <a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/united-states-mexico-canada-agreement/united-states-mexico">the deal</a> covers a wide variety of trade issues including various copyright related subjects. </p>
<p>&#8220;USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region,&#8221; US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2018/september/joint-statement-united-states">joint statement</a>.</p>
<p>One key change for Canada is that the country&#8217;s current copyright term will be extended by 20 years. At the moment copyrighted works are protected for the term of the author&#8217;s life, plus 50 years. This will be extended to life plus 70 years, at a minimum. </p>
<p>The Canadian Government has previously shown reluctance to make this change but gave in eventually. </p>
<p><center><strong>Life +70 years</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/510af8c9.lifeplus.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lifeplus.png" alt="" width="600" height="298" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162089"></center></p>
<p>Another controversial subject that was widely debated by experts and stakeholders are &#8216;safe harbors.&#8217; In the US, Internet services are shielded from copyright infringement liability under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, but in Mexico and Canada, that&#8217;s not the case.</p>
<p>The new USMCA includes a safe harbor section. This means that Internet services will be shielded from direct liability for copyright-infringing users. However, this protection doesn&#8217;t come without obligations. </p>
<p>The agreement specifies that ISPs should have legal incentives to work with ISPs to ensure that copyright infringements are properly dealt with.</p>
<p>This framework shall include &#8220;legal incentives for Internet Service Providers to cooperate with copyright owners to deter the unauthorized storage and transmission of copyrighted materials or, in the alternative, to take other action to deter the unauthorized storage and transmission of copyrighted materials,&#8221; the agreement reads.</p>
<p>ISPs that want to apply for safe harbor protection also have to take down pirated content and implement a repeat infringer policy, which the US already has. This means that ISPs will have to disconnect persistent pirates. </p>
<p>This is achieved by &#8220;adopting and reasonably implementing a policy that provides for termination in appropriate circumstances of the accounts of repeat infringers,&#8221; as the agreement prescribes.</p>
<p><center><strong>Repeat infringer</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2915d918.repeatinfringer.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/repeatinfringer.png" alt="" width="599" height="105" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162090"></center></p>
<p>The current text is quite vague and doesn&#8217;t define what the &#8220;appropriate circumstances&#8221; are to terminate accounts. This was also the case in the US, but after a series of lawsuits, ISPs have recently tightened their termination policies. </p>
<p>Crucially, the takedown and repeat infringer termination policies don&#8217;t apply to Canada. There is an annex to the agreement stating that when a country applies to various other conditions at the time of signing (including a notice and notice scheme), these do not apply. </p>
<p>It is clear, however, that the safe harbors will provide protection for ISPs against copyright claims. And with regard to the EU&#8217;s filtering plan, it&#8217;s worth noting that the agreement specifically states that &#8220;monitoring&#8221; or &#8220;affirmatively seeking facts indicating infringing activity&#8221; is not required.</p>
<p>At the time of writing the agreement has only been available for a few hours, but it&#8217;s expected that further analysis from experts will provide more context during the days to come. </p>
<p>While there is a final agreement, lawmakers in the three countries have yet to sign off on the new text, which isn&#8217;t a done deal yet. This means that, for now, the current NAFTA agreement remains in place.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162107
title: Kim Dotcom Loses Privacy Battle Following High Court Appeal
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Loses-Privacy-Battle-Following-High-Court-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5coSIwEcj0M/
content:
<p><a href="media/a2a853ec.kim-court.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kim-court.jpg"><img src="media/2724d109.kim-court.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-court.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-111200"></a>Ever since his cloud storage site Megaupload was shut down in a blaze of publicity in 2012, Kim Dotcom has been fighting legal battles on several fronts.</p>
<p>One of those was aimed at forcing the government to hand over information relating to his case. </p>
<p>In 2015, Dotcom asked dozens of ministers and multiple government departments to &#8220;urgently&#8221; disclose information. Most of the entities receiving the requests transferred them to then-Attorney General Chris Finlayson. He denied the requests, describing them as vexatious and baseless.</p>
<p>Dotcom subsequently filed a complaint with the Human Rights Review Tribunal (HRRT), accusing the New Zealand Government of wrongfully withholding information. In March 2018, the Tribunal ruled in Dotcom’s favor, stating that the Crown was “in clear breach of its obligations under the Privacy Act.&#8221; </p>
<p>Dotcom was awarded NZ$60,000 in damages for “loss of dignity or injury to feelings” plus NZ$30,000 to compensate for the information not being handed over. However, the Crown quickly appealed the decision and in September the matter was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-privacy-act-appeal-underway-at-the-high-court-180911/">heard</a> before the High Court in Wellington.</p>
<p>In a decision published today, Dotcom was handed defeat after the High Court sided with the Attorney-General&#8217;s appeal.</p>
<p>&#8220;We find that there was a proper and lawful purpose for the transfer of the requests and that, because of the insistence that all 52 requests were required to be responded to urgently, on the ground that the information sought was relevant to the eligibility proceedings, they were vexatious,&#8221; <a href="https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/the-attorney-general-v-dotcom/@@images/fileDecision?r=757.272481766">ruling</a> reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Had we been required to determine the issues of remedies, we would have quashed the remedies ordered against those entities that were not defendants; set the awards of damages aside on the basis they were wholly erroneous and remitted the question of damages to the HRRT for determination in accordance with the principles outlined in this decision.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, the High Court ruling states that Dotcom should not have received the damages he was granted back in March.</p>
<p>&#8220;The damages awarded were wholly erroneous as there was no evidential basis for assuming that the information sought would have been relevant to the proceedings and there was no direct evidence relating to Mr Dotcom having suffered loss of dignity or injury to feelings such as to warrant an award..,&#8221; the Court notes.</p>
<p>True to form, Kim Dotcom received the news with defiance. This morning the serial entrepreneur slammed the decision as bad for New Zealanders.</p>
<p>&#8220;The High Court did not just ignore the law and parliaments intention. New law was made from the bench. This new law means Kiwis will have a harder time to access information they are legally entitled to. The Government will use this against Privacy Act requests it doesn’t like,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1046995686040985601">said</a>.</p>
<p>Shortly after the decision was published, Kim added to his earlier comments with an outburst on Twitter, suggesting that some judges in New Zealand are corrupt and care little about the law.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Let me break a tabu here. There are corrupt Judges in New Zealand. They don’t care about the law. They are not impartial. They do favors. They assist former associates or current friends. Relationships win cases, especially Government cases. All lawyers know this. Including mine.</p>
<p>&mdash; Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1047006026753613824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Of course, like most decisions handed down against Dotcom, this one can be appealed. A short time ago the Megaupload founder confirmed that his team will be taking that option.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will obviously appeal today&#8217;s judgment from the Wellington High Court. It is ignorant of the law and parliament&#8217;s intention to provide citizens with access to information that the Government holds about them. A bad day for human rights in New Zealand. The fight goes on,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161605
title: File-sharing Site Openload Generates More Traffic Than Hulu or HBO Go
uri: File-sharing-Site-Openload-Generates-More-Traffic-Than-Hulu-or-HBO-Go
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OevnrHG2NXo/
content:
<p><img src="media/1df934b9.openload.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/openload.png" alt="" width="250" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-162114"><a href="https://openload.co/">Openload</a>, one of the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet, is a thorn in the side of many copyright holders. </p>
<p>Content hosted on the site has served as a source for many pirate apps and sites. As a result, it recently earned a mention on United States Trade Representative <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-brands-torrent-streaming-cyberlocker-sites-as-notorious-markets-180115/">list of &#8220;notorious&#8221; markets</a>. </p>
<p>Today the site makes it onto another list, one that shows how much bandwidth the site is generating around the world.</p>
<p>The data come from Canadian broadband management company Sandvine, which <a href="https://www.sandvine.com/phenomena">just published</a> its latest Global Internet Phenomena report. This provides an overview of which sites, applications, and protocols generate the most Internet traffic. </p>
<p>This list of traffic sources is dominated by video. Netflix is in the lead, with 14.97% of all downstream bandwidth, followed by the more generic HTTP Media Streaming (13.07%), and YouTube (11.35%). Overall, the video category is good for more than half of all bandwidth generated. </p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-traffic-is-not-dead-its-making-a-comeback-180926/">BitTorrent remains relevant too</a>, especially on the upstream side. As we highlighted in a preview last week, torrent traffic is growing in some parts of the world, mostly due to piracy.</p>
<p><img src="media/e77e948e.sandvinevideoashare.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sandvinevideoashare.png" alt="" width="238" height="574" class="alignright size-full wp-image-162117">When zooming in on downstream-video bandwidth, Openload comes into the picture. Sandvine&#8217;s data shows that the file-hosting site generates 0.8% of all video traffic online.  </p>
<p>That&#8217;s a massive amount of bandwidth, more than various legal streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go use.</p>
<p>&#8220;One interesting appearance in the top 10 is Openload, which is #8 with 0.80% of video traffic worldwide ahead of services like Hulu, HBO Go, and BBC iPlayer with a service that likely will not make movie studios happy,&#8221; Sandvine writes.</p>
<p>This comparison is perhaps not entirely fair since, in contrast to the other services, Openload is available globally, but it clearly shows how much traffic a file-sharing site can generate.</p>
<p>There are significant differences in Openload&#8217;s &#8216;traffic share&#8217; in various regions. Sandvine was kind enough to share some additional details that provide some further insight into this. </p>
<p>In the Asia Pacific region, 3.66% of all downstream traffic is credited to Openload, which makes it the 7th most used data source. In the EMEA and the Americas, the percentages are 0.79% and 0.39% respectively. </p>
<p>The massive interest in Openload and BitTorrent&#8217;s apparent comeback are signs that consumers still see the need to access entertainment through unofficial channels. According to Sandvine, the increased fragmentation of online video is one of the reasons. People don&#8217;t want to pay for a handful of subscription services.</p>
<p>&#8220;With more content choices and channels than ever before, consumers do not have good options to get access to all the content that may interest them and are still resorting to piracy,&#8221; Sandvine writes in its report.</p>
<p>While Openload is generally characterized as a piracy site, the site&#8217;s operators have rejected this notion. Instead, they point out that they have a <a href="https://openload.co/copyright">DMCA-compatible takedown policy</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are offering several methods of taking down files according to the DMCA law, which is practically a standard in the whole world,&#8221; Openload previously said.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162167
title: Telecoms Regulator Denies Canadian Pirate Site Blocking Application
uri: Telecoms-Regulator-Denies-Canadian-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Application
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vb_cf-k5NGk/
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">Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.fairplaycanada.com/">FairPlay Canada</a> proposed to institute a national pirate site blocking scheme.</p>
<p>The coalition of copyright holders and major players in the telco industry, including Bell and Rogers, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">submitted its plan</a> to the Canadian telecoms regulator CRTC, which subsequently asked the public for input.</p>
<p>This consultation triggered a wave of responses. Many ISPs and rightsholder groups were in favor, but there was also a big wave of opposition from academics, activists, and members of the public. </p>
<p>After a careful review, the CRTC today <a href="https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2018/2018-384.htm">decided</a> to deny FairPlay Canada&#8217;s pirate site blocking application. In its decision, the regulator explains that it lacks the jurisdiction to implement the proposed measures. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Commission determines that it does not have the jurisdiction under the Telecommunications Act to implement the FairPlay Coalition’s proposed website blocking regime to address copyright piracy and, consequently, it will not consider the merits of implementing the regime,&#8221; CRTC writes. </p>
<p>The FairPlay coalition argued that piracy brings serious harm to the Canadian entertainment industry. While the CRTC doesn&#8217;t deny this, it stresses that the Telecommunications Act is not meant to implement such copyright remedies.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Commission acknowledges that there is evidence that copyright piracy results in harm to the Canadian broadcasting system and to the economy in general,&#8221; CRTC writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;However, there are other avenues to examine the means of minimizing or addressing the impact of copyright piracy, including the ongoing parliamentary review of the Copyright Act and the expert panel review of the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act.&#8221;</p>
<p>This means that the controversial site blocking proposal is off the table for now. It&#8217;s certainly possible, however, that a revised version will be brought up again in the future.</p>
<p>Digital rights group <a href="https://openmedia.org/">OpenMedia</a>, a fierce opponent of the plan, is happy with the outcome. Executive Director Laura Tribe describes it as a big win for the open Internet and a true demonstration of democracy in action.</p>
<p>“Today the CRTC protected the open Internet, in an important victory,&#8221; Tribe notes, adding that &#8220;all eyes will now turn to the Copyright Act Review, to see the final act of this play.&#8221; </p>
<p>At the time of writing the FairPlay Canada coalition itself <a href="https://www.fairplaycanada.com/news/">has yet to comment</a> on the decision through their official channels.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162201
title: ESA Reports Pirate Bay, ROM Sites and Cheaters to the US Govt.
uri: ESA-Reports-Pirate-Bay-ROM-Sites-and-Cheaters-to-the-US-Govt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cHQTlLX3Ip4/
content:
<p><a href="media/c3f26a05.ESA-logo-e1538561896507.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ESA-logo-e1538561896507.png"><img src="media/c3f26a05.ESA-logo-e1538561896507.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ESA-logo-e1538561896507.png" alt="" width="250" height="118" class="alignright size-full wp-image-162208"></a>In response to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), the Entertainment Software Association has submitted a list of so-called &#8216;Notorious Markets&#8217; that undermine the interactive gaming market in the United States.</p>
<p>The ESA represents some of the biggest names in video gaming. From Activision, EA, Nintendo, and Ubisoft, to Capcom, Microsoft, Konami, and Square Enix, the group acts as a voice for companies turning out billions of dollars worth of content. All are reportedly under multi-directional threat, from sites that facilitate direct copying to those who undermine business models and the actual gaming experience. </p>
<p><strong>Linking and Hosting</strong></p>
<p>According to the ESA, linking websites (those that link to content hosted on third-party cyberlocker-type sites) are a key threat.</p>
<p>&#8220;These sites typically generate revenue from user donations and/or online advertisements,&#8221; the ESA writes. &#8220;The following links sites are notable due to their heavy traffic, high volume of infringing video game file links that are indexed, and non-responsiveness to rights holder [takedown] notices.&#8221;</p>
<p>First up is a site that most gaming pirates won&#8217;t have heard of, which could prove a little counter-productive. P30Download.com is based in Iran, a country that&#8217;s rarely linked with a sympathetic attitude towards United States copyright enforcement.</p>
<p>According to the ESA, in August 2018 the platform made available more than 3,000 links to infringing content belonging to ESA members, of which just 2.64% were taken down. Hosted in Iran and published in Persian (not an obstacle for Google Translate), the site is most popular in its home territory and is Iran&#8217;s 25th most popular site.</p>
<p>Another site that&#8217;s off the radars of most casual pirates is DarkSoftware.net. According to the ESA, the platform indexed almost 4,800 new links in August and is enjoying an upsurge in traffic due to its focus on &#8220;circumventing the technical protection measures&#8221; in games consoles.</p>
<p>The ESA notes that DarkSoftware uses the &#8220;services of a U.S.-based content delivery network&#8221; but doesn&#8217;t mention CloudFlare by name. It doesn&#8217;t mention where the actual site or its owners are based either but publicly available information points to an address in Florida, which may or may not be legitimate.</p>
<p>Of course, linking sites cannot function if they have nothing to link to so it&#8217;s no surprise that file-hosting sites are high on the ESA&#8217;s list. Its main candidate is the fairly low profile Rapidu.net, which is popular in Poland and also uses Cloudflare, although the ESA again hesitates to name the platform.</p>
<p>1Fichier, on the other hand, is a site with a much greater following. Hosted in France, the site has a global rank of 1,093 and reportedly hosts at least 2,700 links to ESA member content. This cyberlocker-type site is reluctant to respond to takedown notices, with just 0.59% of content removed following complaint, the ESA notes.</p>
<p><center><strong>ESA Members</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/b94f17ab.esa-members.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/esa-members.png"><img src="media/bf596bc9.esa-members.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/esa-members.png" alt="" width="600" height="223" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-162224"></a></center></p>
<p><strong>ROMs</strong></p>
<p>Given the recent furore surrounding classic gaming ROMs (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-console-rom-sites-for-mass-copyright-infringement-180720/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-rom-fallout-emuparadise-terminates-all-game-downloads-180809/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-nintendo-will-never-defeat-retro-gamers-180912/">3</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/theisozone-yet-another-retro-gaming-site-shuts-down-180817/">4</a>), it&#8217;s perhaps no surprise that ROMUniverse.com appears in the ESA&#8217;s submission to the USTR. Claiming a catalog of 60,000 ROMS serving 375,000 members, the ESA says the site has enjoyed &#8220;significant traffic increases&#8221; recently due to offering downloads for the latest video games consoles. </p>
<p>Interestingly, given the fact that the USTR&#8217;s report focuses on overseas sites, the ESA notes that ROMUniverse is hosted in the United States at Frontier Communications. Similar US-based hosting is provided by GoDaddy for ISOsLand.net, another platform on the ESA&#8217;s list.</p>
<p><strong>Torrent Sites</strong></p>
<p>Few submissions to the USTR would be complete without a complaint about The Pirate Bay, and this entry from the ESA is no different.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite some recent downtime, this site continues to be a major source of infringing copies of ESA member company video games,&#8221; the ESA notes. &#8220;Over 2,200 infringing URLs were found on the site in August 2018. It currently operates with the assistance of the U.S.-based CDN referenced above,&#8221; the trade groups adds, without directly naming CloudFlare.</p>
<p>While The Pirate Bay is certainly the highest-profile torrent site, the ESA appears to have bigger problems with a site called PeerTorrents. In August, the group found 8,100 infringing downloads available via the site, which the ESA notes is similar in appearance to LimeTorrents.cc. The site also uses CloudFlare.</p>
<p><strong>Private gaming servers</strong></p>
<p>In this section of its report, the ESA highlights threats to &#8220;free-to-play&#8221; games that generate revenue from micro-transactions, advertising, and subscriptions. Unauthorized third-party &#8216;private&#8217; servers allow users to play such games, bypassing the original revenue model and stopping publishers from monetizing their content.</p>
<p>&#8220;Establishing and maintaining unauthorized game servers often involves multiple acts of copyright infringement as well as the circumvention of technological protection measures,&#8221; the ESA notes, citing Warmane.com and Firestorm-servers.com (World of Warcraft) as culprits.</p>
<p><strong>Cheats and other digital goods</strong></p>
<p>Over the past year, lawsuits against those who maintain and distribute game cheating tools have been frequently reported (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-halts-gta-v-cheat-maker-over-copyright-claim-180820/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/epic-settles-with-copyright-infringing-fortnight-cheater-pubg-cheaters-arrested-180502/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blizzard-beats-cheat-maker-wins-85-million-copyright-damages-170403/">3</a>) so similar complaints in the ESA&#8217;s filing are not unexpected. </p>
<p>Established in 2000, Unknowncheats.me heads the ESA&#8217;s list, offering up to 10,000 cheats for around 100 gaming titles while generating advertising revenue from its 2.4 million users. Fellow cheat site MPGH.net is said to offer &#8220;several hundred thousand&#8221; cheats to more than four million users while Iwantcheats.net and Artificialaiming.net service around 720,000 users between them.</p>
<p>Several other platforms are listed in the report as locations to purchase in-game items, CD keys, skins, accounts, and even CD keys, with others offering online subscriptions sourced in cheaper regions of the world and sold in the US.</p>
<p>&#8220;We would like to underscore our appreciation to the U.S. officials who drive and administer the out-of-cycle review of notorious markets,&#8221; the ESA <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=USTR-2018-0027-0007">says</a> in its summing up.</p>
<p>&#8220;The resulting Notorious Markets List provides important insights that allow national and local policymakers, as well as law enforcement officials, to evaluate and fairly demand accountability from those marketplaces and the services that support them,&#8221; the trade group concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162202
title: MPAA Reports ‘Notorious’ Pirate Sites to The US Government
uri: MPAA-Reports-Notorious-Pirate-Sites-to-The-US-Government
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/e8CVbh4Ii4E/
content:
<p><img src="media/7b941d96.ustrb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustrb.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-132637">Responding to a request from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), various copyright holder groups have submitted their annual overviews of &#8216;notorious&#8217; markets. </p>
<p>These submissions help to guide the U.S. Government’s position toward foreign countries when it comes to copyright enforcement.</p>
<p>Earlier today we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/esa-reports-pirate-bay-rom-sites-and-cheaters-to-the-us-govt-181003/">covered how ESA</a> reported several game-specific threats, including ROM sites and cheater portals, and on the heels of that comes the MPAA&#8217;s submission.</p>
<p>In its letter, Hollywood&#8217;s industry group notes that its list is not meant to be comprehensive, it&#8217;s mostly an overview of pirate sources that are prime examples of the rampant copyright infringement problems that exist on the Internet.</p>
<p>Browsing through the submission, we see many of the usual targets, including torrent sites such as The Pirate Bay, RARBG, 1337x, Rutracker, and Torrentz2. The Chinese P2P client Xunlei also makes a comeback, after it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-wins-movie-piracy-case-in-china-after-failed-anti-piracy-deal-170822/">failed to reach an agreement</a> with the MPAA. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s new this year is a focus on IPTV services, which are seen as an emerging threat. The MPAA notes that it has identified more than a thousand of these platforms around the world.</p>
<p>&#8220;An emerging global threat is piracy from illegal internet protocol television (IPTV) services that provide stolen telecommunication signals/channels to a global audience via dedicated web portals, third-party applications and piracy devices configured to access the service,&#8221; the industry group writes.</p>
<p>The MPAA specifically highlights BestBuyIPTV.com, GoIPTV.me, and TVMucho.com, adding that most of these services generate their revenue through subscriptions. They provide access to hundreds, if not thousands, of TV-channels as well as video on demand content. </p>
<p>Another category covers linking and streaming websites. These operate from various countries around the world and include B9good.com, Cda.pl, Dytt8.net, Dy2018.com, Filmeseseriesonline.net, Fmovies.is, Indoxx1.com, Kinogo.cc, and Pelispedia.tv.</p>
<p><center><strong>Fmovies</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a59b5e3a.fmovies1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fmovies1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="397" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162215"></center></p>
<p>Direct download sites and video hosting services also get a mention. Openload.co, Rapidgator.net, Uploaded.net, Rapidvideo.com, Streamango.com, Uploaded.net, Uptobox.com, and the Russian social network VK.com are all listed. </p>
<p>Many of these services refuse to properly process takedown notices, the MPAA claims.</p>
<p>The final category covers piracy devices and apps, including streaming boxes. These allow users to conveniently stream pirated content, and include 3DBoBoVR, TVPlus, TVBrowser, and KuaiKan, which are particularly popular in Asia.</p>
<p>In addition to sites and services that directly offer access to pirated content, the Hollywood group also points a finger towards third-party intermediaries, including hosting providers and advertising networks. </p>
<p>The Panama-based host Private Layer is called out specifically and the same is true for the Canadian advertising network WWWPromoter. Both were also highlighted in the MPAA&#8217;s submission last year.</p>
<p>The MPAA’s full report is available <a href="media/d8177563.MPAA_2018_Notorious_Markets_OCR.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/MPAA_2018_Notorious_Markets_OCR.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. The USTR will use this input above to make up its own list of notorious markets. This will help to identify current threats and call on foreign governments to take appropriate action.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162221
title: ‘Bulletproof’ Hosting is An Emerging Piracy Threat, RIAA Warns
uri: Bulletproof-Hosting-is-An-Emerging-Piracy-Threat-RIAA-Warns
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Q6i9hNKq-oo/
content:
<p><img src="media/faecb005.bulletproof.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bulletproof.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-162236">In tandem with many other copyright industry groups, the RIAA sent its overview of “notorious markets” to the US Trade Representative (USTR) this week.</p>
<p>The group lists more than two dozen pirate sites, categorized by stream-ripping, MP3 download and search portals, torrent indexers, cyberlockers, and unlicensed pay-for-download sites. </p>
<p>The RIAA&#8217;s overview is in many regards the same as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-identifies-top-youtube-mp3-rippers-and-other-pirate-sites-171006/">last year&#8217;s</a>, and the full list of the sites is provided below. What is new, however, is the focus on so-called &#8220;bulletproof&#8221; hosting providers. </p>
<p>These hosting companies have very lenient policies and protect the identities of their customers. As such, they are often used by spammers, scammers, and also pirate sites. This isn&#8217;t by any means a new phenomenon, but the RIAA has flagged it as an emerging threat.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]nfringing sites are turning more towards offshore hosting ISPs that support the sites’ infringing activities,&#8221; the RIAA informs the USTR. </p>
<p>&#8220;These &#8216;Bulletproof&#8217; ISPs support various types of criminality through considerable leniency in the kinds of materials they permit to be uploaded and distributed via their networks.&#8221;</p>
<p>The problem with these companies is obvious. Ideally, copyright holders want hosting providers to shut down blatantly infringing sites, but these outfits are not responsive to warning letters or infringement notices.</p>
<p>The RIAA highlights two of these bulletproof hosts. The first is the Ecatel/Quasi Networks pair, which are believed to be closely related. Both companies are known to law enforcement and were targeted <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-is-taking-infamous-piracy-hosting-provider-ecatel-to-court-170815/">in a lawsuit</a> filed by anti-piracy group BREIN last year.</p>
<p>&#8220;Quasi Networks is responsible for hosting various sites engaged in the transmission of pre-release works, including dbr.ee, xclusivejams, nippyspace, mp3monkey.net, gosongs, and leakth.is. </p>
<p>&#8220;With little recourse to remove infringements, both Ecatel and Quasi represent a significant danger to our member companies,&#8221; the RIAA adds.</p>
<p>The second bulletproof hosting provider is FlokiNET, which offers servers in Romania, Iceland, and Finland. The RIAA recently uncovered that the host was listed as the registrant for the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-wants-to-uncover-the-music-mafia-pirates-180726/">pre-release leak site musicmafia.to</a>, likely to protect a customer. The site itself disappeared soon after.</p>
<p><center><strong>FlokiNET</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/508f1dd7.floik.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/floik.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162243"></center></p>
<p>On its website, the hosting provider notes that customers don&#8217;t have to share any personal details or identification, which is appealing to a certain audience.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a result, many different types of websites hosted on the ISP host bestiality pornography and fraudulent sites, amongst others.  Other infringing sites hosted on FlokiNet include avxhome.se, djnotorioussam.com, and x1337.to. </p>
<p>&#8220;The operator of FlokiNET is known to the authorities and resides in Romania but, to date, no action has been taken to close the service,&#8221; the RIAA adds.</p>
<p>Aside from bulletproof hosting services, the RIAA signals another trend. Over the past year, it has observed a sharp rise in the number of pre-release pirate sites hosted by Nigerians. Apparently, this number has grown to more than 400, and most use the Nigerian-operated ISP speedhost247.com.</p>
<p>By reporting these sites and companies, the RIAA hopes to have them placed on the USTR&#8217;s final list of notorious markets. This can then be used as a political pressure tool against the countries from where they operate.</p>
<p>The full list of the RIAA’s “notorious” pirate sites can be found below. The full report, as submitted to the USTR, is available <a href="media/8f983921.RIAA_2018_Notorious_Markets_OCR.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/RIAA_2018_Notorious_Markets_OCR.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p><em>—</p>
<p>Stream-Ripping Sites</p>
<p>&#8211; Flvto.biz and 2conv.com<br>
– Mp3juices.cc<br>
– Convert2mp3.net<br>
– Ytmp3.cc<br>
– Onlinevideoconverter.com<br>
– Peggo.tv<br>
– H2converter.com<br>
&#8211; Y2mate.com<br>
&#8211; Convertmp3.io</p>
<p>Search-and-Download Sites</p>
<p>– Newalbumreleases.net<br>
– Rnbxclusive1.com<br>
– Leakth.is</p>
<p>BitTorrent Indexing and Tracker Sites</p>
<p>– Thepiratebay.org<br>
– Torrentz2.eu<br>
– Rarbg.to<br>
– 1337x.to</p>
<p>Cyberlockers</p>
<p>&#8211; Nippyspace.com<br>
&#8211; Hitfile.net<br>
&#8211; Suprafiles.me and cloudyfiles.me<br>
&#8211; Dbr.ee<br>
&#8211; Turbobit.net<br>
– Zippyshare.com<br>
– Rapidgator.net<br>
– Chomikuj.pl</p>
<p>Unlicensed Pay-for-Download Sites</p>
<p>– Mp3va.com<br>
– Mp3fiesta.com</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162278
title: ACS and Elsevier Sue ResearchGate For Copyright Infringement
uri: ACS-and-Elsevier-Sue-ResearchGate-For-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GJbe1eA6MWs/
content:
<p><a href="media/38c76fe8.smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg"><img src="media/82334688.smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="176" class="alignright size-full wp-image-148048"></a>Founded in 1876, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is a leading source of chemistry-focused academic publications. Founded in 1880, Elsevier is one of the world&#8217;s largest academic publishers.</p>
<p>Both companies have been very active in recent times, suing various platforms (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/elsevier/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/american-chemical-society/">2</a>) that facilitate unauthorized access to their papers.</p>
<p>This week, in a lawsuit filed at a U.S. federal court in Maryland, the pair accuse scientist and researcher networking site <a href="https://www.researchgate.net">ResearchGate</a> of committing the same offenses.</p>
<p>&#8220;This action arises from the massive infringement of peer-reviewed, published journal articles (&#8216;PJAs&#8217;). Plaintiffs publish the articles in their journals and own the respective copyrights. Defendant deliberately uses infringing copies of those PJAs to drive its business,&#8221; the lawsuit reads.</p>
<p>Based in Germany, ResearchGate promotes itself as a professional network for scientists and researchers. The site claims 15 million members, who use the platform to &#8220;share, discover, and discuss research.&#8221; It&#8217;s mission is to make research &#8220;open to all.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to ACS and Elsevier, however, that openness had led to serious infringement of their rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;The lawsuit is not about researchers and scientists collaborating, asking and answering questions; promoting themselves, their projects, or their findings; or sharing research findings, raw data, or pre-prints of articles,&#8221; the complaint states.</p>
<p>&#8220;This lawsuit focuses on ResearchGate&#8217;s intentional misconduct vis-à-vis its online file-sharing / download service, where the dissemination of unauthorized copies of PJAs constitutes an enormous infringement of the copyrights owned by ACS, Elsevier and other journal publishers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The publishers claim that the alleged infringement taking place on ResearchGate isn&#8217;t an accident, since the platform utilizes plaintiffs&#8217; content to grow its traffic, content, and revenues. Indeed, they claim that ResearchGate not only induces others to upload infringing works but also does so itself. As a result, ResearchGate has turned into a &#8220;focal point for massive copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>ACS and Elsevier claim that when users upload a copy of a PJA to ResearchGate, the company stores them on its servers where they are made available for viewing or download as a PDF file. Users are also able to share links to these works on social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit.</p>
<p>&#8220;ResearchGate consistently and successfully attempts to encourage and trick authors into uploading copies of PJAs that it knows should not be posted on the RG Website. One tactic is the combination of creating author profiles, publication pages, and journal pages, along with the &#8216;Request full-text&#8217; feature,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>
<p>However, in addition to user uploads, the companies claim that ResearchGate also adds content itself, using scraping techniques to acquire copyrighted works which are them uploaded to its website for viewing or download. The publishers say that ResearchGate hints at its own involvement in providing content with a statement on its website. </p>
<p>&#8220;Proprietary content <em>generally</em> appears on ResearchGate only when it has been uploaded by an author,&#8221; the statement reads. &#8220;So, if there&#8217;s already a full-text of your publication available on ResearchGate, the <em>most likely explanation</em> is that it has been uploaded by one of your co-authors.&#8221; <em>(emphasis as per complaint)</em></p>
<p>Furthermore, the plaintiffs note that ResearchGate previously published a job posting in which it attempted to hire someone &#8220;with hands-on experience in building and maintaining web crawlers&#8221; to &#8220;build web crawlers to discover and index university websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>ACS and Elsevier state that before filing this lawsuit, they attempted to negotiate with ResearchGate to have it operate &#8220;within the law.&#8221;</p>
<p>Working through a trade group called the International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers, the publishers say they asked ResearchGate sign up to a voluntary scheme to regulate article sharing but the company refused. The publishers do acknowledge that some infringing works were taken down but ResearchGate has not explained why.</p>
<p>With large numbers of allegedly-infringing works on the site, the publishers are now suing ResearchGate for direct copyright infringement, inducement of copyright infringement, contributory copyright infringement, and vicarious copyright infringement.</p>
<p>In conclusion, ACS and Elsevier ask the Court to order ResearchGate to cease-and-desist all infringement of their copyrights, delete all content owned by the plaintiffs, and award statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the only lawsuit ACS and Elsevier have filed against ResearchGate. In October 2017, the companies took action in Germany, claiming that since ResearchGate knows files are infringing, it has an obligation to remove them, even when they haven&#8217;t received a specific takedown notice.</p>
<p>The lawsuit is available here <em>(<a href="media/d85237fa.ACS-Elsevier-ResearchGate.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ACS-Elsevier-ResearchGate.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162159
title: ‘Blocking Pirate Sites is Not Enough, Russia Should Shut Them Down’
uri: 2018-10-04-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kO8e_b4Ggjg/
content:
<p><img src="media/a70e19c9.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-147564" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px">There can be little doubt that Russia has some of the most agressive anti-piracy policies in the world. </p>
<p>After it became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2012, the country made several promises to protect creators&#8217; rights and take action against infringing websites.</p>
<p>In the years that followed, processes for website takedown policies were streamlined, and more recently Russia&#8217;s telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor issued ISP blockades against thousands of pirate sites.</p>
<p>To ensure that it wouldn&#8217;t be easy to circumvent these blockades, Russia&#8217;s Government also implemented a law that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-bans-unrestricted-vpns-proxies-and-tor-in-russia-170731/">outlaws all VPNs and anonymizers</a> that bypass site blocking measures. Companies which violate this, risk a $12,000 fine. </p>
<p>To tighten things up even further, search engines are also prohibited from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yandex-refuses-to-remove-pirate-content-blocking-imminent-despite-appeal-180830/">linking to blocked pirate sites</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russian-govt-approves-fines-for-search-engines-linking-to-banned-vpns-180608/">unauthorized VPNs and anonymizers</a>. </p>
<p>These are rather tough measures, especially compared to the United States where site blocking is still a no-go. Still, a coalition of prominent rightsholder groups, including the RIAA and MPAA, is still not happy.</p>
<p>The groups are united in the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) which asked to testify during today&#8217;s US Trade Representative hearing on the implementation of Russia’s WTO Commitments. </p>
<p>In its application, IIPA recognizes the progress made thus far, but these recent changes are not enough. The rightsholder groups tell the US Government that they would like Russia&#8217;s actions to have an impact on Americans as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, in recent years, these new procedures and processes have been directed only at online piracy by users within Russia. The result has been a substantial and persistent international copyright piracy problem of illegal sites and services accessed by users outside of Russia,&#8221; the IIPA writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Russian Government needs to engage in enforcement targeting illegal sites and streaming services that operate in Russia, even if the users are abroad.&#8221; </p>
<p>While Russian interference over the Internet is not always appreciated, in this case, it would be welcomed. And since the Russian Government can&#8217;t force US ISPs to start blocking, they will have to go after thousands of sites directly.</p>
<p>The IIPA would like to see more criminal investigations and prosecutions of pirate site operators, mentioning Rapidgator, Rutracker, vKontakte, and Sci-Hub as persistent offenders.</p>
<p>&#8220;In short, more enforcement is needed, targeting these and the myriad of other infringing websites. Proper enforcement actions would include steps to keep infringing sites down and taking criminal enforcement actions against the owners and operators of these sites that are causing significant economic harm to rights holders,&#8221; the IIPA writes.</p>
<p>There is no denying that there are pirate sites operating from Russia. However, considering Russia&#8217;s recent progress, it would be no surprise if Putin and his comrades pointed the finger right back at the US.</p>
<p>They only have to use The Pirate Bay as an example. The world&#8217;s most &#8216;notorious&#8217; pirate site has been operating freely from a US-controlled .org domain, using the caching services of the US company Cloudflare, while earning most of its revenue from entirely unblocked American visitors. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the IIPA&#8217;s full letter, sent to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, is <a href="media/ec204c1c.rtz_and_IIPA_Comments_on_Russias_WTO_Compliance_2018_B366275.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/IIPA_Request_to_Testify_and_Summary_of_Testimony_of_Eric_Schwartz_and_IIPA_Comments_on_Russias_WTO_Compliance_2018_B366275.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162325
title: uTorrent Web Reaches One Million Daily Users
uri: uTorrent-Web-Reaches-One-Million-Daily-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iC0DXEgqLiw/
content:
<p><img src="media/42c37501.uweb.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uweb.png" width="255" height="113" class="alignright size-large">Back in February, uTorrent owner BitTorrent Inc. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-utorrent-web-streams-and-downloads-torrents-in-your-browser-180223/">quietly rolled out</a> a brand new product. Leveraging the hugely popular brand identity of its flagship product, <a href="https://www.utorrent.com/utweb-index">uTorrent Web</a> provided new ways to consume torrents online.</p>
<p>The premise is simple. Rather than rely on a completely stand-alone torrent client, uTorrent Web allows users to download and even stream torrents, directly in their web browser. A piece of software does have to be installed (Windows only currently) but the rest of the action takes place in Chrome, Firefox, or compatible browsers.</p>
<p>Early September, with rather more fanfare, BitTorrent Inc. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-launches-utorrent-webs-first-full-release-180905/">announced</a> that uTorrent Web had exited beta. The company said that the product&#8217;s focus is on simplicity and quick playability. </p>
<p>“With a simple download to play experience as the focal point of µTorrent Web, we see more users successfully downloading and playing torrents than with any other product in BitTorrent’s history,” the company said.</p>
<p>While it will be a long time before uTorrent Web eclipses the 100+ million active users of uTorrent desktop and mobile, BitTorrent Inc. says that uTorrent Web has just reached a significant milestone</p>
<p>Celebrating its first month out of beta, the browser-based torrent client now has one million daily active users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our users have already downloaded our licensed content, which features both top-tier and emerging content creators, well over 100 million times,&#8221; <a href="https://ethereumworldnews.com/%C2%B5torrent-web-passes-1-million-daily-active-users/">says</a> Jordy Berson, Chief Product Officer and COO at BitTorrent Inc.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the growth in our daily active users is a great validation of product market fit, we are equally proud to see that µTorrent Web drives dramatically more user engagement and playback than any product in BitTorrent’s history, which is a huge win for our 30,000+ licensed content creators.&#8221;</p>
<p>With uTorrent Web clearly on a roll, the product could be in for some additional upgrades before the year is out. A feature to stream files stored on a home computer to an Android device is the first to be announced.</p>
<p>uTorrent Web was first teased last year by BitTorrent inventor Bran Cohen, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-will-move-to-the-web-browser-170421/">who said</a> that browser-based torrenting is “just a nicer experience.” It&#8217;s also more accessible to a generation of content consumers who have grown up with the explosion of web-based streaming.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162319
title: Facebook User Who Uploaded Pirated ‘Deadpool’ Copy Sentenced to 3 Weeks Prison
uri: Facebook-User-Who-Uploaded-Pirated-Deadpool-Copy-Sentenced-to-3
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J352NYMstJg/
content:
<p><img src="media/139ebf81.facebook-pirate-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebook-pirate-1.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139520">With roughly two billion active users per month, Facebook is by far the largest social networking site around.</p>
<p>While most of the content posted to the site is relatively harmless, some people use it to share things they are not supposed to. A pirated copy of Deadpool, for example.</p>
<p>This is what the now 22-year-old Trevon Franklin from Fresno, California, did early 2016. Just a week after the first installment of the box-office hit Deadpool premiered in theaters, he shared a pirated copy of the movie on the social network.</p>
<p>To be clear, Franklin wasn&#8217;t the person who originally made the copy available. He simply downloaded it from the file-sharing site Putlocker.is and then proceeded to upload it to his Facebook account, using the screen name “Tre-Von M. King.”</p>
<p>This post went viral with more than six million viewers &#8216;tuning in.&#8217; This also caught the attention of Twentieth Century Fox, and to make matters worse, the FBI launched a full-fledged investigation. </p>
<p>With all Facebook credentials readily available Franklin was an easy catch. Last summer he was <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/fresno-man-arrested-federal-copyright-violations-alleged-illegal-upload-deadpool-movi-0">indictment</a>. Faced with a limited defense, he signed a plea agreement a few months later, admitting that he indeed uploaded the pirated film.</p>
<p>Yesterday, a federal court in California <a href="https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Sentencing-Set-for-Illegal-Posting-Deadpool-On-Facebook-495201501.html">sentenced</a> Franklin to a prison sentence of three weeks. </p>
<p>The sentence is significantly lower than the high-end sentence of six months’ prison <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-wants-prison-sentence-for-facebook-user-who-pirated-deadpool-180916/">recommended by the Government last month</a>. The authorities argued that a higher sentence was warranted given the “brazen and public” manner in which Franklin broke the law and how he “appeared not to care” how this would affect the makers of the movie.</p>
<p>The Government noted that a six-month prison sentence would send a strong message to Facebook users and the public at large, to show that there are real consequences for such a crime.</p>
<p>It appears, however, that the Court was receptive to the defense counsel&#8217;s argument that Franklin has no prior criminal record and regrets the mistakes that were made.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear why the US Government decided to pursue this case to begin with. Copyright infringement isn&#8217;t exactly rare on Facebook. However, it may be that the media attention and the high number of views may have prompted the authorities to set an example.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162209
title: 123movies Was Shut Down Following a Criminal Investigation
uri: 123movies-Was-Shut-Down-Following-a-Criminal-Investigation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xcEmK6rFhrc/
content:
<p><img src="media/aaec4e10.123movieshub.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123movieshub.png" alt="" width="275" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151159">At the start of this year pirate streaming site 123movies was one of the largest pirate streaming sites on the web.</p>
<p>The site received millions of visitors per day which prompted none other than the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-brands-123movies-as-the-worlds-most-popular-illegal-site-180316/">to label it</a> &#8220;the most popular illegal site in the world.&#8221;</p>
<p>For Hollywood, the blatantly infringing activity was a thorn in their side, so behind the scenes the movie studios did all they could to take the site offline, helped by US authorities. </p>
<p>In 2017, the US Ambassador to Vietnam <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-ambassador-asks-vietnam-to-target-123movies-putlocker-and-kisscartoon-170323/">called on the local Government</a> to criminally prosecute the site&#8217;s operators on their alleged home turf. In addition, the site was also on the radar of the office of the US Trade Representative, which featured 123movies in its latest <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-brands-torrent-streaming-cyberlocker-sites-as-notorious-markets-180115/">Notorious Markets report</a>.</p>
<p>March this year, the MPAA sent its own people to Vietnam to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-brands-123movies-as-the-worlds-most-popular-illegal-site-180316/">expedite the issue</a>. The movie industry group teamed up with the local Office of the Police Investigation Agency, hoping that this would lead to the downfall of the streaming site. </p>
<p>A few days later, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-streaming-giant-123movies-announces-shutdown-180319/">123movies shut down</a>. </p>
<p>“Now it’s time to say goodbye. Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long,” the 123movies team wrote, asking users to  “respect” filmmakers by paying for movies and TV-shows instead of pirating them.</p>
<p>There was never an official explanation for this radical decision but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-did-the-worlds-largest-streaming-site-suddenly-shut-down-180401/">it wasn&#8217;t hard to figure out</a> that the ground had become too hot for the operators. Movie industry pressure was mounting and Vietnam also appeared to get more strict on copyright enforcement issues. </p>
<p>While 123movies never elaborated on its reason to shut down, the MPAA has now provided some more insight. In its latest list of “notorious markets” sent to the US Government this week, the group links it to a criminal investigation. </p>
<p>&#8220;An important development in 2018 was the shuttering of a ring of piracy services that had operated under the names 123movies, 123movieshub, gostream, and gomovies following the launch of a criminal investigation in Vietnam and significant industry engagement,&#8221; MPAA writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>MPAA on 123movies&#8217; demise.</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/456f73ca.notorious123.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/notorious123.png" alt="" width="538" height="111" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162282"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak asked the MPAA whether this investigation resulted in any arrests, charges, or if it&#8217;s still ongoing. We are yet to receive a response. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear though, that the mounting pressure resulted in 123movies being shut down. This is arguably one of the major anti-piracy successes of the year so far, but the problem isn&#8217;t over yet. </p>
<p>Following the demise of 123movies, several clones and copies stepped up to take its place. However, the MPAA says that it has these on its radar as well. </p>
<p>&#8220;Since its closure, many copycat sites have emerged. This ring of piracy services had been blocked in at least eight countries prior to its shut down and efforts are underway to shut down the copycats as well,&#8221; the MPAA notes.</p>
<p>This is not a veiled threat, it appears. Last month, the biggest clone 123movieshub.sc suddenly went offline as well, as the site&#8217;s domain was deactivated by the domain name registry. As expected, other 123movies clones were quick to take over the top spot. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162260
title: MPAA Granted ‘Dynamic’ Pirate Site Blocking Order in Singapore
uri: MPAA-Granted-Dynamic-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Order-in-Singapore
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wnCwjTLV5YM/
content:
<p><a href="media/cdeb3942.mpaa-new.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-new.png"><img src="media/aef711a6.mpaa-new.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-new.png" alt="" width="252" height="182" class="alignright size-full wp-image-158950"></a>Four years ago, Singapore became the latest in a long line of countries to use copyright law to block access to &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites. The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/singapore-passes-pirate-bay-blocking-anti-piracy-law-140708/">amendments</a> were passed during the summer of 2014 and took effect in December the same year. </p>
<p>After a break of almost two years, a request by the MPA(A) rendered Solarmovie.ph inaccessible in 2016. Several major ISPs were ordered by the High Court to block the streaming platform, the first such action in the country.</p>
<p>In April this year the MPA(A) chalked up another victory when its application to have 53 sites operating across 154 domains – including those operated by variants of The Pirate Bay and  KickassTorrents – was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/singapore-isps-block-53-pirate-sites-following-mpaa-legal-action-180521/">granted</a> by the High Court. ISPs including Singte﻿l, StarH﻿ub, M1, MyRepublic ﻿and﻿ View﻿Qwes﻿﻿t blocked the sites shortly after.</p>
<p>The blocking process in Singapore appears to be thorough. The High Court must be satisfied that sites targeted are “flagrantly infringing”, i.e with a primary purpose of breaching copyright and generally showing a lack of respect for copyright law. Site operators are also able to defend themselves although thus far, none have done so.</p>
<p>With plenty of experience of sites around the world taking evasive counter-measures to avoid blocking, the injunction in Singapore allowed copyright holders to return to Court to request an amended order to block new domains and/or IP addresses. However, this model has proven cumbersome in the past so it&#8217;s no surprise the MPA(A) has now persuaded the Court to adopt a more streamlined approach.</p>
<p>After highlighting that several of the blocked sites changed their domains to avoid blocking, the High Court has now handed down a &#8220;dynamic injunction&#8221; which will allow the Hollywood studios to block any new methods deployed by the 53 sites covered by the earlier injunction.</p>
<p>“Without a continuing obligation to block additional domain names, URLs and/or IP addresses upon being informed of such sites, it is unlikely that there would be effective disabling of access to the 53 (infringing websites),” said Justice Lee Seiu Kin, as quoted by <a href="https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/court-order-makes-it-easier-copyright-owners-curb-access-piracy-websites">TodayOnline</a>.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the new order, companies including Disney, Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox, will be able to liaise with ISPs M1, MyRepublic, Singtel, StarHub and ViewQwest to have additional domains and IP addresses blocked, if they facilitate access to the previously blocked sites.</p>
<p>According to Justice Lee, the new injunction &#8220;provides a practical means of ensuring the continued effectiveness of the original injunction since it provides an expedited process for the blocking of additional (piracy websites).”</p>
<p>The Judge added that ISPs will only have to block the new resources if they are satisfied there is enough evidence to do so but according to TodayOnline, this was highlighted as potentially problematic by local lawyers.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is questionable if this is a good enough safeguard when the most expeditious way for an Internet service provider to respond, upon receipt of a request to block an additional domain name, would simply be to comply with the request, rather than to incur the time and cost of disputing the matter with the copyright owner,” said representatives from the Bird &#038; Bird law firm.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the judgment was welcomed by Neil Gane, general manager of the Asia Video Industry Association&#8217;s Coalition Against Piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no one silver bullet to deterring online piracy,&#8221; Gane said. &#8220;What is required is a holistic solution to include enforcement; disabling access to egregious piracy websites through effective site blocking; cooperation with technology platforms and other intermediaries; and consumer outreach.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-reveals-scale-of-worldwide-pirate-site-blocking-180410/">report</a> published by the Motion Picture Association Canada earlier this year, at least 42 countries are now obligated to block infringing sites. In Europe alone, 1,800 sites and 5,300 domains have been rendered inaccessible, with Portugal, Italy, the UK, and Denmark leading the way.</p>
<p>In Canada this week, site-blocking efforts <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/telecoms-regulator-denies-canadian-pirate-site-blocking-application-181002/">suffered a setback</a> when local telecoms regulator CRTC denied FairPlay Canada&#8217;s application for a broad pirate site blocking scheme. CRTC cited a lack of jurisdiction under the Telecommunications Act.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=161898
title: Canadian Music Group Proposes ‘Copyright Tax’ on Internet Use
uri: Canadian-Music-Group-Proposes-Copyright-Tax-on-Internet-Use
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Z4ZsauFkDOM/
content:
<p><img src="media/5e52dada.canadadoll.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canadadoll.jpg" alt="" width="299" height="166" class="alignright size-full wp-image-162185">When CD copying was all the rage in the late 1990s, many countries started to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy">levy a tax on blank media</a>. </p>
<p>This meant that consumers had to pay an extra fee on every recordable disc, because these can be used to duplicate copyrighted content. </p>
<p>In some countries, this model has expanded to other media, such as hard disks, MP3 players and phones. In Canada, however, this didn&#8217;t happen. Despite several attempts in the past, there is no private copying levy on smartphones, tablets or hard disks.</p>
<p>During recent copyright reform discussions, the matter was brought to the forefront once again. But there&#8217;s also another copyright compensation issue, one that&#8217;s potentially even more controversial. </p>
<p>A proposal from the Screen Composers Guild of Canada (<a href="http://screencomposers.ca/">SCGC</a>), put forward during last week&#8217;s Government hearings, suggests to simply add a levy on Internet use above 15 gigabytes per month. </p>
<p>The music composers argue that this is warranted because composers miss out on public performance royalties. One of the reasons for this is that online streaming services are not paying as much as terrestrial broadcasters. </p>
<p>The composers SCGC represents are not the big music stars. They are the people who write music for TV-shows and other broadcasts. Increasingly these are also shown on streaming services where the compensation is, apparently, much lower. </p>
<p>&#8220;With regard to YouTube, which is owned by the advertising company Alphabet-Google, minuscule revenue distribution is being reported by our members. Royalties from the large streaming services, like Amazon and Netflix, are 50 to 95% lower when compared to those from terrestrial broadcasters,&#8221; SCGC <a href="media/b0c2c241.ScreenComposersGuildOfCanada-e.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ScreenComposersGuildOfCanada-e.pdf">writes (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;Statistics like this indicate that our veteran members will soon have to seek employment elsewhere and young screen-composers will have little hope of sustaining a livelihood,&#8221; the guild adds, sounding the alarm bell.  </p>
<p>SCGC&#8217;s solution to this problem is to make every Canadian pay an extra fee when they use over 15 gigabytes of data per month. This money would then be used to compensate composers and fix the so-called &#8216;value gap&#8217;. </p>
<p>As a result, all Internet users who go over the cap will have to pay more. Even those who don&#8217;t watch any of the programs where the music is used. </p>
<p>However, SCGC doesn&#8217;t see the problem and believes that 15 gigabytes are enough. People who want to avoid paying can still use email and share photos, they argue. Those who go over the cap are likely streaming not properly compensated videos.</p>
<p>&#8220;An ISP subscription levy that would provide a minimum or provide a basic 15 gigabytes of data per Canadian household a month that would be unlevied. Lots of room for households to be able to do Internet transactions, business, share photos, download a few things, emails, no problem,&#8221; SCGC notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;[W]hen you’re downloading and consuming over 15 gigabytes of data a month, you’re likely streaming Spotify. You’re likely streaming YouTube. You’re likely streaming Netflix. So we think because the FANG companies will not give us access to the numbers that they have, we have to apply a broad-based levy. They’re forcing us to.&#8221;</p>
<p>The last comment is telling. The composers guild believes that a levy is the only option because Netflix, YouTube, and others are not paying their fair share. </p>
<p>That sounds like a licensing or rights issue between these services and the authors. Dragging millions of Canadians into this dispute seems questionable, especially when many people have absolutely nothing to do with it. </p>
<p>According to Canadian law professor Michael Geist, <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/09/canadian-music-group-calls-for-copyright-tax-on-broadband-data-use/">who highlighted the issue</a>, it would also result in an unfair double-payment. </p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he SCGC proposal would represent double-payment by consumers, who would pay to access the content on services such as Spotify and Netflix and pay for the transmission of the same content with the ill-advised copyright tax on broadband data,&#8221; Geist writes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s doubtful that there will be broad support for the proposal among the public. However, proposing to add a levy or tax on Internet use certainly gets people&#8217;s attention, which might have been part of the plan.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162230
title: Received a Piracy Warning From Your ISP? Here’s What to Do
uri: Received-a-Piracy-Warning-From-Your-ISP-Here-s-What-to-Do
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_c6i60d7H5Y/
content:
<p><a href="media/9ef6a551.warning.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/warning.png"><img src="media/40fc3a89.warning.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warning.png" alt="" width="250" height="213" class="alignright size-full wp-image-109065"></a>Millions of Internet subscribers use their connections to download and share copyright-infringing content. It&#8217;s been going on for almost two decades already and shows no sign of stopping.</p>
<p>For the vast majority of users, this kind of activity has no consequences. People grab the latest movies or TV shows, for example, and then hear no more. For many, this means they simply carry on, oblivious to the fact that their unauthorized transfers are probably being monitored by someone, somewhere.</p>
<p>In the majority of cases, this monitoring is simply for research purposes but increasingly, as content companies seek to reduce copyright infringement, further action might be the next step. That usually means that ISPs are contacted, with a request for them to tell their customers to stop pirating content.</p>
<p><strong>Copyright infringement notices</strong></p>
<p>The first time an Internet user realizes this has happened is when they receive correspondence from their ISP. This could potentially be a letter but it&#8217;s more likely to arrive in the form of an email, delivered to the account registered with the ISP.</p>
<p>From reports posted online, this is where many users begin to panic. The idea they&#8217;ve been caught doing something illegal seems to prevent them from reading the notice slowly and taking in all the details. This is a fundamental mistake and one that should be immediately rectified in order to understand what&#8217;s happened and is likely to happen moving forward.</p>
<p><strong>Read the warning notice &#8211; and now read it again</strong></p>
<p>While notices sent to subscribers differ between ISPs, they are all very clear. They will explain what is alleged to have happened and when, who made the complaint, the content involved (movies, TV shows etc), and what the user should do next. They are designed to be easy to understand and when read calmly, they are.</p>
<p>Generally, a notice will state that a subscriber&#8217;s Internet connection was allegedly used on a certain time and date to download and share copyright-infringing material. The notice will provide the IP address in use at the time and the name of the company that owns the rights to the content in question. It will also order the subscriber to prevent it from being shared again in the future.</p>
<p>While notices can be sent in error, anecdotal evidence indicates that the majority are accurate. When that is the case, users should <em>follow the instructions in the infringement email</em>. They might include ensuring WiFi networks are secure, speaking with other people in the house who may have committed the infringement, and checking computers to ensure they aren&#8217;t infected with malware.</p>
<p>In any event, subscribers who are required to respond to notices should take care not to incriminate themselves or others. For initial offenses, however, ISPs tend not to ask for feedback from the user so when that&#8217;s the case, no response needs to be provided.</p>
<p><strong>Demands in infringement notices</strong></p>
<p>In basic terms, most infringement notices are like speeding tickets but without the immediate cash fine. They are designed to be a warning and to prevent the same thing from happening again. When this is the case, the infringement notice makes that clear.</p>
<p>If users are still downloading and sharing the same content in their torrent client (the source of most infringement notices) the notices demand that they remove that content immediately and never share it again. Carrying on sharing in the face of a warning could result in more notices being sent for the same ongoing infringement, with additional consequences we&#8217;ll come to later.</p>
<p>Some ISPs also ask the account holder to fill in a questionnaire, which acknowledges that the subscriber has received the warning, understood it, and &#8211; in appropriate circumstances &#8211; has taken action to stop the infringement being repeated. Again, recipients should be cautious not to incriminate themselves but they are rarely asked to do so.</p>
<p>Importantly, there is sometimes an opportunity to contest the infringement claim so if notices are erroneous, the subscriber might choose to file a counter-complaint after assessing the situation.</p>
<p><strong>Receiving no more notices is relatively simple</strong></p>
<p>While many users panic when receiving infringement notices from their ISP, in the majority of cases there is no need to worry. Stopping sharing the content in question usually solves the problem and if no additional sharing takes place, no further warnings should be received, for that content at least.</p>
<p>However, those who disregard warning notices or fail to check the email address registered with their ISP (so they don&#8217;t know they&#8217;ve been receiving warnings), things can get complicated.</p>
<p><strong>Repeat infringers are at risk</strong></p>
<p>Subscribers whose Internet connections are used to infringe copyright on a number of occasions are now labeled &#8216;repeat infringers&#8217;. Under US law, this can turn into a more serious situation.</p>
<p>As clarified in a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-pays-substantial-settlement-to-end-repeat-infringer-piracy-lawsuit-180827/">recent case</a> involving ISP Cox Communications, action must be taken by ISPs against those who keep on infringing, or they risk being held liable themselves. This has probably contributed to the increased volume of infringement notices being passed on to subscribers and the corresponding reports of them online.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/comcast-explains-how-it-deals-with-persistent-pirates-180210/">article published by TF</a> back in February reveals how Comcast deals with persistent pirates. Other ISPs will follow different processes but the basic idea is that if users keep on infringing, at some point they&#8217;ll be faced with consequences, possibly a suspension or even termination of their Internet connection.</p>
<p><strong>How can Internet users be sure never to receive a warning?</strong></p>
<p>The clearest and most foolproof piece of advice is that those who don&#8217;t share infringing files with others are the ones that never receive a notice. While some innocents do get sent notices in error, the safest approach is not to share infringing files using BitTorrent and similar peer-to-peer software. These transfers are public and can be tracked.</p>
<p>However, as any file-sharing forum reader will know, plenty of pirates carry out their hobby on daily basis without ever receiving an infringement notice.</p>
<p>The reasons for this are varied, but it usually boils down to people using streaming and/or direct download sites, or by protecting their BitTorrent connections <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">with a VPN</a>. Others are simply lucky or have chosen content that for some reason isn&#8217;t being monitored for infringements.</p>
<p><strong>Important: Not all infringement notices are benign</strong></p>
<p>In a relatively small number of cases, copyright holders aren&#8217;t interested in warning alleged pirates &#8211; they want to sue them and/or extract a cash settlement. When this is the case, correspondence received from a user&#8217;s ISP usually makes it clear that a copyright holder is trying to obtain their identity and personal details with a view to legal action. </p>
<p>If users receive such a notice, immediate legal advice should be sought since there are no second chances. Under no circumstances should recipients ignore this type of &#8216;warning&#8217; as doing so could potentially lead to an expensive default judgment.</p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>Notices of infringement targeted at regular Internet subscribers in the US are usually issued for the purposes of a) stopping the current infringement and b) encouraging users to stop infringing in future.</p>
<p>The decision to stop infringing (or carry on behind a VPN or similar) is obviously a personal choice but in 2018 it&#8217;s clear that being caught on multiple occasions puts ISPs in a position where they must take action, or face potential consequences themselves. No prizes for guessing who&#8217;ll get thrown under the bus when the pressure is on.</p>
<p><em>None of the above should be construed as legal advice. If there is any uncertainty concerning the nature of an infringement notice, users should seek professional advice.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=162313
title: MPAA and RIAA’s Megaupload Lawsuits Remain on Hold
uri: 2018-10-07-MPAA-and-RIAA-s-Megaupload-Lawsuits-Remain-on-Hold
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uCi04AjpF_w/
content:
<p><img src="media/bf96111a.megauploadsong.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megauploadsong.jpg" alt="" width="255" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-146015">Well over six years have passed since Megaupload was shut down and it’s still unclear how the criminal proceedings will unfold.</p>
<p>Aside from Andrus Nomm&#8217;s <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-programmer-sentenced-to-a-year-in-prison-150213/">plea deal</a>, progress in the criminal proceedings has been slow. </p>
<p>Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues are currently fighting a legal battle in New Zealand to prevent their extradition to the US, for which the final decision has yet to be issued.</p>
<p>While all parties await the outcome, the criminal case in the United States remains pending. The same goes for the civil cases launched by the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/">MPAA</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/now-the-riaa-sues-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-theft-140411/">RIAA</a> in 2014, more than four years ago.</p>
<p>Since the civil cases may influence the criminal proceedings, Megaupload’s legal team previously managed to put these cases on hold, and last week they requested another extension. </p>
<p>This is not the first time that such a request had been made. There have been several extensions already, which caused some issues.</p>
<p>There were previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-megauploads-failing-drives-can-be-fixed-but-not-accessed-170330/">concerns</a> that the long delays could result in the destruction of evidence, as some of Megaupload’s hard drives were starting to fail. However, after the parties agreed on a solution to back-up and restore the files, this is no longer an issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the preservation order in place, and there being no other objection, Defendant Megaupload hereby moves the Court to enter the attached proposed order, continuing the stay in this case for an additional six months,&#8221; Megaupload&#8217;s legal team informed the court this week.</p>
<p>Without any objections from the MPAA and RIAA, U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady swiftly granted Megaupload’s request to stay both lawsuits until April next year.</p>
<p>And so that wait continues&#8230;</p>
<p><center><strong>Order to stay</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5ad30573.megauploaddelay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megauploaddelay.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="398" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-162314"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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