# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141516
title: Hardcore UK Pirates Dwindle But Illegal Streaming Poses New Threat
uri: Hardcore-UK-Pirates-Dwindle-But-Illegal-Streaming-Poses-New-Threat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Hw1_e8DYLKw/
content:
<p><a href="media/096bd33d.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg"><img src="media/468f0769.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426"></a>For as many years as &#8216;pirate&#8217; services have been online it has been clear that licensed services need to aggressively compete to stay in the game.</p>
<p>Both the music and movie industries were initially slow to get off the mark but in recent years the position has changed. Licensed services such as Spotify and Netflix are now household names and doing well, even among people who have traditionally consumed illicit content.</p>
<p>This continuing trend was highlighted again this morning in a press release by the UK&#8217;s Intellectual Property Office. In a fairly upbeat tone, the IPO notes that innovative streaming models offered by both Netflix and Spotify are helping to keep online infringement stable in the UK.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Online Copyright Infringement (OCI) Tracker, commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO), has revealed that 15 per cent of UK internet users, approximately 7 million people, either stream or download material that infringes copyright,&#8221; the IPO reports.</p>
<p>The full tracking report, which is now on its 7th wave, is yet to be released but the government has teased a few interesting stats. While the 7 million infringer number is mostly unchanged from last year, the mix of hardcore (only use infringing sources) and casual infringers (also use legal sources) has changed. </p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers accessing exclusively free content is at an all-time low,&#8221; the IPO reveals, noting that legitimate streaming is also on the up, with Spotify increasing its userbase by 7% since 2016.</p>
<p>But despite the positive signs, the government says that there are concerns surrounding illicit streaming, both of music and video content. Unsurprisingly, &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top boxes get a prominent mention and are labeled a threat to positive trends.</p>
<p>&#8220;Illicitly adapted set top boxes, which allow users to illegally stream premium TV content such as blockbuster movies, threaten to undermine recent progress. 13 per cent of online infringers are using streaming boxes that can be easily adapted to stream illicit content,&#8221; the IPO says.</p>
<p>Again, since the report hasn&#8217;t yet been published, there are currently no additional details to be examined. However, the &#8220;boxes that can be easily adapted&#8221; comment could easily reference Amazon Firesticks, for example, that are currently being used for entirely legitimate means.</p>
<p>The IPO notes that an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-box-consultation-launched-by-intellectual-property-office-170228/">IPTV consultation</a> is underway which may provide guidance on how the devices can be dealt with in the future. A government response is due to be published later in the summer.</p>
<p>Also heavily on the radar is a fairly steep reported increase in stream-ripping, which is the unlicensed downloading of music from streaming sources so that it can be kept on a user&#8217;s hard drive or device.</p>
<p>A separate report, commissioned by the IPO and PRS for Music, reveals that 15% of Internet users have stream-ripped in some way and the use of ripping services is on the up.</p>
<p>&#8220;The use of stream-ripping websites increased by 141.3% between 2014 and 2016,&#8221; the IPO notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;In a survey of over 9000 people, 57% of UK adults claimed to be aware of stream-ripping services. Those who claimed to have used a stream-ripping service were significantly more likely to be male and between the ages of 16 to 34 years.&#8221;</p>
<p>PRS goes into a little more detail, claiming that stream-ripping is now &#8220;the most prevalent and fastest growing form of music piracy in the UK.&#8221; The music licensing outfit claims that almost 70% of music-specific infringement is accounted for by stream-ripping.</p>
<p>The survey, carried out by INCOPRO and Kantar Media, looked at 80 stream-ripping services, which included apps, websites, browser plug-ins and other stand-alone software. Each supplied content from a range of sources including SoundCloud, Spotify and Deezer, but YouTube was found to be the most popular source, accounting for 75 of the 80 services.</p>
<p>There are several reported motivations for users to stream-rip but interestingly the number one reason involves what some people consider to be &#8216;honest&#8217; piracy. A total of 31% of stream-rippers said that since they already own the music, and only use ripping services to obtain it in another format.</p>
<p>Just over a quarter (26%) said they wanted to listen to music while not connected to the Internet while 25% said that a permanent copy helps them while on the move. Around one in five people who stream-rip say that music is either unaffordable or overpriced.</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope that this research will provide the basis for a renewed and re-focused commitment to tackling online copyright infringement,&#8221; says Robert Ashcroft, Chief Executive, PRS for Music.</p>
<p>&#8220;The long term health of the UK’s cultural and creative sectors is in everyone’s best interests, including those of the digital service providers, and a co-ordinated industry and government approach to tackling stream ripping is essential.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ros Lynch, Copyright and IP Enforcement Director at the IPO, took the opportunity to praise the widespread use of legitimate platforms. However, he also noted that innovation also continues in piracy circles, with stream-ripping a prime example.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s great that legal streaming sites continue to be a hugely popular choice for consumers. The success and popularity of these platforms show the importance of evolution and innovation in the entertainment industry,&#8221; Lynch said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ironically it is innovation that also benefits those looking to undermine IP rights and benefit financially from copyright infringement. There has never been more choice or flexibility for consumers of TV and music, however illicit streaming devices and stream-ripping are threatening this progress.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141481
title: Court Orders Advertisers to Freeze Revenue of ‘Pirate’ Sites
uri: Court-Orders-Advertisers-to-Freeze-Revenue-of-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7BWzGP4797s/
content:
<p><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520">When one thinks of anti-piracy efforts in the United States, the MPAA and RIAA are often the first groups that come to mind.</p>
<p>While that may be true, there&#8217;s another player which has made a massive impact, while barely being noticed at all. </p>
<p>ABS-CBN, the largest media and entertainment company in the Philippines, has filed a series of lawsuits against pirate sites in the US, with the popular streaming portal Fmovies as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-court-orders-pirate-streaming-site-fmovies-to-pay-210000-170609/">biggest target</a>. </p>
<p>The company has already won several cases with damages ranging from a few hundred thousand to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-operator-slapped-10-million-damages-141030/">millions of dollars</a>. However, the associated injunctions in these cases are perhaps even more significant. </p>
<p>We previously covered how ABS-CBN managed to get court orders to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-domain-seizures-are-easy-in-the-united-states-150521/">seize domain names</a>, without the defendants getting actively involved. This is also the case in a recent lawsuit where a Florida federal court signed a broad injunction targeting more than two dozen sites. </p>
<p>The websites, including dramasget.com, latestpinoymovies.com, pinoydailyshows.com, tvnijuan.org and weeklywarning.org, may not ring a bell with a wide audience but their domain names have all been suspended, linking to a takedown message instead.</p>
<p>And there is another interesting element to the injunction, which hasn&#8217;t been widely used in the past. Hoping for a good shot at some damages down the road, ABS-CBN put in a request to freeze the advertising revenues of these sites at Google Adsense, MGID, Popads.net, and elsewhere.</p>
<p>The court signed off on this, and added it to the preliminary injunction. As a result, the advertisers must freeze the funds until further notice.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230;all funds in the advertising accounts related to Defendants as identified on Schedule B, including but not limited to those which are currently held by the advertising services [&#8230;] are immediately restrained from movement, transfer, or otherwise being disturbed, as opposed to ongoing activity.&#8221;</p>
<p>None of the funds of the defendants are allowed to be moved. Instead, the court order directs the advertising companies to transfer everything to a holding account that is known to the court.</p>
<p>On top of that, Google Adsense, MGID, and the other advertising companies must send the copyright holder an overview of the revenue in each account and all transactions associated with it. </p>
<p>&#8220;(i) an accounting of the total funds restrained and identifies the advertising/financial account(s) which the restrained funds are related to, and (ii) the account transactions related to all funds transmitted into the advertising/financial account(s) which have been restrained.&#8221;</p>
<p>Needless to say, this injunction will have a pretty severe effect on alleged pirate sites. Not only do they lose their preferred advertising outlets, but they also miss out on any pending revenue. </p>
<p>The sites that are targeted in this case are relatively small, but it could, in theory, happen to the big players as well. While the RIAA and MPAA are not involved in this case, we&#8217;re pretty confident that they are watching this case very closely. </p>
<p>Finally, the injunction sheds an interesting light on which registrars and registries swiftly respond to US court orders. At the time of writing all .com, .org and .net domains are suspended, but some of the .ag, .ch and .ph domains are still operational. With new ads, of course.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>A copy of the preliminary injunction is available <a href="media/9684b183.fccb57c7-b666-4495-aa07-783c429e6613.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fccb57c7-b666-4495-aa07-783c429e6613.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141496
title: Pirate Site Admin Must Pay 13 Million Euros – If Anyone Can Find Him
uri: Pirate-Site-Admin-Must-Pay-13-Million-Euros-If-Anyone-Can-Find-Him
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nydc7qjS58k/
content:
<p><img src="media/1a9d6ad2.dmitri.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dmitri.png" width="202" height="225" class="alignright size-large">Founded in 2006 by Dimitri Mader, Wawa-Mania grew into a million member strong ‘warez’ forum specializing in a broad range of ‘pirate’ content. But just three years later things were already starting to go bad.</p>
<p>In 2009, the Frenchman was detained by the authorities after the Association Against Audiovisual Piracy (ALPA) identified more than 3,600 films being made available via the platform without permission. In the meantime the site continued, generating income from advertising and accepting donations via PayPal.</p>
<p>The case dragged on for years but reached its goal in 2015. Mader was found guilty, sentenced to a year in prison, and hit with a 20,000 euro fine. But by this time the Frenchman was long gone and living with his family in the Philippines. He didn&#8217;t even attend the hearing &#8211; but things weren&#8217;t over yet.</p>
<p>With Mader&#8217;s guilt established, the court had to determine the level of damages payable to the plaintiffs, which included Columbia Pictures, Disney, Paramount, Tristar, Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros. The amount eventually arrived at by the court was around $15m.</p>
<p>“I won’t think about the penalty, it is just beyond any common sense,&#8221; Mader <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/petty-hollywood-stops-pirate-admin-from-going-home-150711/">told</a> TF at the time.</p>
<p>&#8220;I will surely not [pay anything] and even if a new court makes the penalty lower, it won’t change anything. Five million, 15 million or 30 million. What’s the difference after all?”</p>
<p>Being outside the country with a jail sentence and huge fines hanging over his head was a big problem for Mader, who told us that returning home after years outside the country would be a complicated affair. But things still weren&#8217;t over.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down last month and just made public, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the lower court, affirming that Mader owes the plaintiffs 13 million euros ($14.85m).</p>
<p>According to a report from <a href="http://www.numerama.com/politique/273479-piratage-le-fondateur-de-wawa-mania-condamne-en-appel-a-13-millions-deuros.html">Numerama</a>, the court said that &#8220;the likely harm [to rightsholders] must be assessed in light of the extent of visitors to this site [at the time of the investigation], the number of creative works involved, and the &#8216;views&#8217; duly established.&#8221;</p>
<p>The court determined that every visit to the site wouldn&#8217;t necessarily have resulted in an illegal download, but it still placed a value of two euros on every work believed to have been downloaded by users.</p>
<p>Mader did not attend the appeal and was not represented, so things were never likely to go his way. His current whereabouts are not clear, but it seems likely that he remains in the Philippines with his family.</p>
<p>Correspondence sent by TF to his encrypted email account bounced. Only time will tell whether Hollywood will have equal difficulty contacting him.</p>
<p>The full decision can be found <a href="https://www.legalis.net/jurisprudences/cour-dappel-de-paris-pole-5-ch-13-arret-du-7-juin-2017/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=140784
title: Pirate Bay Re-enters List of 100 Most Popular Sites on the Internet
uri: Pirate-Bay-Re-enters-List-of-100-Most-Popular-Sites-on-the-Internet
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mse8Q3NzLq8/
content:
<p><img src="media/932e6d7d.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="thepirate" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122">When the The Pirate Bay suffered over a month of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">downtime</a> late 2014, many of the site&#8217;s regular visitors went elsewhere. </p>
<p>This resulted in a significant traffic dip afterwards, but in recent months the notorious torrent site has seen a massive uptick in visitors. </p>
<p>At the beginning of the year TPB was already the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2017-170107/">largest torrent site</a>. Today, Internet traffic ranking service Alexa lists the site among the 100 most-visited domains in the world once again, in 99th place. That&#8217;s the first time in three years.</p>
<p>While external traffic measurements are far from perfect, the graph below shows a steady increase in ranking since last summer. Exactly how many visitors The Pirate Bay has remains unknown, but SimilarWeb estimates it at a quarter billion &#8216;visits&#8217; per month.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/3a9f6d60.tpbalexa.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbalexa.png" alt="" width="470" height="313" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141549"></center></p>
<p>Keep in mind that the estimates above don&#8217;t account for the dozens of Pirate Bay proxies that serve users in countries where the site is blocked. That will likely add several millions of monthly visitors, at least. </p>
<p>Whether Pirate Bay&#8217;s recent resurgence is something torrent users should be happy about is another question. The recent uptick in traffic is mostly caused by the demise of other torrent sites. </p>
<p>Last summer both KickassTorrents and Torrentz left the scene, and ExtraTorrent followed a few weeks ago. Many of these users have flocked to The Pirate Bay, which is the prime source for user uploaded torrents.</p>
<p>That the Pirate Bay is still around is somewhat of an achievement in itself. Over the years there have been numerous attempts to shut the site down. </p>
<p>It started in 2006, when Swedish authorities raided the site following pressure from the United States, only for the site to come back stronger. The criminal convictions of the site’s founders didn’t kill the site either, nor did any of the subsequent attempts to take it offline.</p>
<p>While many pirates have fallen in love with TPB&#8217;s deviant behavior, the recent downfall of other sites means that there&#8217;s a lot of pressure and responsibility on the shoulders of the site now. Many other indexers rely on TPB for their content, which is something not everyone realizes. </p>
<p>For now, however, TPB continues its reign.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141519
title: Online Pirates Have No Constitutional Right to Internet Access, BMG Says
uri: Online-Pirates-Have-No-Constitutional-Right-to-Internet-Access-BMG-Sa
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/olngV2uHYLY/
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 week ISP Cox Communications told the Supreme Court that pirating subscribers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-supreme-court-suggests-that-pirates-shouldnt-lose-internet-access-170627/">should not be disconnected</a> from the Internet.</p>
<p>The Internet provider found support for this claim in the recent  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packingham_v._North_Carolina">Packingham v. North Carolina</a> decision, where the highest court ruled that it’s unconstitutional to bar convicted sex offenders from social media. </p>
<p>If convicted sex offenders still have the right to use social media, accused pirates should not be disconnected from the Internet on a whim, Cox argued. Especially, if these piracy allegations are solely based on copyright holder complaints. </p>
<p>The argument is part of Cox&#8217;s appeal in its case against music rights group BMG. In 2015 the ISP was ordered to pay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">$25 million in damages</a>, after it was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement for refusing to disconnect alleged pirates.</p>
<p>Cox presented the new evidence to strengthen its appeal, but according to a new filing just submitted by BMG&#8217;s lawyers, the argument is irrelevant. </p>
<p>&#8220;The First Amendment does not guarantee Cox’s subscribers the right to use Cox’s internet service to steal music any more than it prevents Cox from terminating subscribers who violate Cox’s policies or fail to pay their bills,&#8221; they argue. </p>
<p>The music rights group notes that the Packingham ruling doesn&#8217;t apply to “specific criminal acts.” The copyright infringements reported by BMG were specific and targeted at individual accounts, so these would warrant an account termination.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just as criminalizing the use of Facebook for sexual exploitation does not violate the First Amendment, the civil law of copyright liability may incentivize ISPs to terminate those subscribers who repeatedly use their service to infringe,&#8221; BMG explains.  </p>
<p>The question remains, of course, whether alleged infringements can be classified as specific acts. One of Cox&#8217;s main objections has been that they don&#8217;t want to disconnect an entire household from the Internet, based on rightsholder complaints alone. In part, because it&#8217;s unknown who committed the act. </p>
<p>BMG is convinced that the Packingham order doesn&#8217;t change the standing verdict. It says nothing about repeat copyright infringers, and the company doesn&#8217;t believe that account terminations violate the First Amendment rights of accused pirates. </p>
<p>&#8220;Infringers do not have First Amendment right to use Cox’s internet service to commit crimes, and Packingham does not hold otherwise,&#8221; BMG concludes. </p>
<p>It is now up to the Supreme Court to review the evidence and determine its applicability in the current case. No matter what the outcome, the case is likely to have a massive impact on how ISPs treat repeat infringers going forward.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>BMG&#8217;s full letter is available <a href="media/a52180f5.bmgreply.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bmgreply.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141479
title: Could Pirate TV Box Users Be Prosecuted For Fraud?
uri: Could-Pirate-TV-Box-Users-Be-Prosecuted-For-Fraud
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OP4U9Rud7JA/
content:
<p><a href="media/f630555a.android-box.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/android-box.jpg"><img src="media/c8e5dd3a.android-box.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/android-box.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="240" class="alignright size-full wp-image-123456"></a>With the issue of piracy-enabled set-top boxes still making the headlines, the English Premier League (EPL) has emerged as the most likely organization to prosecute sellers of infringing boxes in the UK.</p>
<p>However, last month the Federation Against Copyright Theft, who provide anti-piracy services for the EPL, revealed that mere users of boxes (such as those containing augmented Kodi setups) could be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fact-threatens-users-of-pirate-kodi-add-ons-170628/">targeted for prosecution</a> sometime in the future.</p>
<p>As noted in our earlier coverage, people who merely stream pirated content into their own homes are difficult to track online. They pose much greater challenges than BitTorrent users, for example, who can lead investigators straight to their door. But for FACT chief executive Kieron Sharp, there are opportunities to find people via non-technical means.</p>
<p>“When we’re working with the police against a company that’s selling IPTV boxes or illicit streaming devices on a large scale, they have records of who they’ve sold them to,” Sharp said.</p>
<p>The suggestion here is that box sellers&#8217; customer lists contain the personal details of people who obtain Premier League and other content for free so, once identified, could be open to prosecution.</p>
<p>With conventional thinking under copyright law, prosecuting a set-top box/Kodi user for streaming content to his own home is a bit of a daunting prospect, not to mention an expensive one. Copyright cases are notoriously complicated and an individual putting up a spirited defense could cause problems for the prosecution. The inevitable light sentence wouldn&#8217;t provide much of a deterrent either.</p>
<p>With all that in mind, it appears that FACT is more interested in prosecuting under other legislation.</p>
<p>During an <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08wmw1g">interview</a> with BBC Radio 5 Live&#8217;s Chris Warburton this week, Sharp said that people streaming into their own homes are committing a criminal offense, i.e., something that could interest the police and attract a fine or custodial sentence. </p>
<p>&#8220;The law has always been the case that people who are doing something illegal, streaming in their own homes, through these devices, are committing a crime. What&#8217;s happened recently is that&#8217;s been clarified by an EU judge in one case and by a civil judge in another,&#8221; Sharp said.</p>
<p>The EU case was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">BREIN v Filmspeler</a>, which in part determined that people who stream content from an illegal source do so in breach of copyright law. The judge in the civil case was Justice Arnold, who in a UK Premier League blocking case reached the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-pirate-video-is-illegal-high-court-judge-says-170319/">same conclusion</a>.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s now fairly clear that streaming pirate content in the EU is indeed illegal, is a civil wrong, and can be dealt with by suing someone, it&#8217;s not immediately clear how that turns into a criminal offense. It wasn&#8217;t clear in the interview either, so Warburton pressed Sharp again.</p>
<p>&#8220;What is the bit of the law that you are breaking when you&#8217;re streaming, how are you committing a criminal act?&#8221; he asked Sharp.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are various pieces of legislation,&#8221; the FACT chief said. &#8220;The one we&#8217;ve been looking at is under the Fraud Act which would say you are committing a fraud by streaming these football matches through to your television, watching them at home, and not paying for the license to do so.&#8221;</p>
<p>At this point, everything begins to slot into place.</p>
<p>For the past several years through several high-profile Internet piracy cases, FACT has shied away from prosecutions under copyright law. Each time it has opted for offenses under the Fraud Act 2006, partly because longer sentences were available at the time, i.e., up to 10 years in prison.</p>
<p>However, earlier this year FACT&#8217;s lawyer <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fact-lawyer-reveals-challenges-kodi-box-seller-prosecutions-170106/">revealed</a> that prosecutions under the Fraud Act can be easier for a jury to understand than those actioned under copyright law.</p>
<p>With this wealth of experience in mind, it&#8217;s easy to see why FACT would take this route in set-top box cases, especially when fraud legislation is relatively easy to digest.</p>
<p><strong>Possession etc. of articles for use in frauds</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;A person is guilty of an offense if he has in his possession or under his control any article for use in the course of or in connection with any fraud,&#8221; the Fraud Act <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/6">reads</a>.</p>
<p>To clarify, an &#8216;article&#8217; includes &#8220;any program or data held in electronic form,&#8221; which is perfect for infringing Kodi addons etc.</p>
<p>Given the above, it seems that if the Court can be convinced that the person knowingly possessed a pirate set-top box programmed for fraudulent purposes, there could, in theory, be a successful prosecution resulting in a prison sentence and/or a fine.</p>
<p><strong>Obtaining services dishonestly</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;A person is guilty of an offense under this section if he obtains services for himself or another&#8230;.by a dishonest act, and&#8230;.he [knowingly] obtains them without any payment having been made for or in respect of them or without payment having been made in full,&#8221; the <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/section/11">relevant section</a> of the Act reads.</p>
<p>There are probably other angles to this under the Fraud Act but these seem to fit so well that others might not be needed. But how likely is it that someone could be prosecuted in this manner?</p>
<p>Sharp reiterated to the BBC that FACT could get the identities of box buyers as part of investigations into sellers, and as part of that &#8220;would see what the situation is&#8221; with their customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;It may well be that in the future, somebody who is an end-user may well get prosecuted,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>But while the possibilities are there, Sharp really didn&#8217;t seem that keen to commit to the hounding of stream consumers in the future, and certainly not now. FACT&#8217;s strategy appears to be grounded in getting the word out that people are breaking the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;[People] think they can get away with it and that&#8217;s an important message from our perspective, that they must understand that they are committing offenses, apart from all the other issues of why they should be paying for the legal product. This is something that should be of concern to them, that they are committing offenses,&#8221; Sharp said.</p>
<p>The big question that remains is whether FACT and the English Premier League would ever take a case against a regular end-user to court. History tells us that this is fairly unlikely, but if any case did end up in court, it would definitely be hand-picked for best results.</p>
<p>For example, someone who bought a box from eBay would probably be of no real interest, but someone who had extended email exchanges with a seller, during which they discussed in detail how to pirate English Premier League games specifically, would provide a more useful test subject.</p>
<p>And then, when there are two people involved (the knowingly infringing buyer and the seller, who would also be prosecuted) that also raises the question of whether there had been an element of conspiracy.</p>
<p>Overall though, what people probably want to know is whether lots of people are going to get prosecuted for fraud and the answer to that is almost certainly &#8216;no.&#8217; Prosecutions against the little guy are resource hungry, expensive, offer little return, and tend to generate negative publicity if they&#8217;re perceived as vindictive.</p>
<p>A single highly publicized case is a possible outcome if FACT and the EPL got really desperate, but there&#8217;s no guarantee that the Crown Prosecution Service would allow the case to go ahead.</p>
<p>&#8220;Prosecutors should guard against the criminal law being used as a debt collection agency or to protect the commercial interests of companies and organizations,&#8221; recent <a href="http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/fraud_act/#a04">CPS advice</a> reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, prosecutors should also remain alert to the fact that such organizations can become the focus of serious and organized criminal offending.&#8221; </p>
<p>FACT could, of course, conduct a private prosecution, which they have done several times in the past. But that is a risk too, so it seems likely that education efforts will come first, to try and slow things down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our desire has always been that sports fans, football fans, would pay for the commercial package, they would pay a fee to watch and that is still our position,&#8221; Sharp told the BBC.</p>
<p>&#8220;But working with our clients and members such as the Premier League and Sky and BT Sports, we have to consider all the options available to us, to put a bit of a brake on this problem because it&#8217;s growing all the time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141288
title: Handy: Google Highlights ‘Best Torrent Sites’ in Search Results
uri: Handy-Google-Highlights-Best-Torrent-Sites-in-Search-Results
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uCTfiNb2n8Y/
content:
<p><img src="media/3c5b1a66.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" width="267" height="257" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128445">With torrent sites dropping like flies recently, a lot of people are looking for alternatives. </p>
<p>For many, Google is the preferred choice to find them, and the search engine is actually quite helpful. </p>
<p>When you type in &#8220;<a href="https://www.google.com/#q=best+torrent+sites">best torrent sites</a>&#8221; or just &#8220;torrent sites,&#8221; Google.com provides a fancy reel of several high traffic indexers. </p>
<p>The search engine displays the names of sites such as RARBG, The Pirate Bay and 1337x as well as their logo. When you click on this link, Google brings up all results for the associated term. </p>
<p><img src="media/0d78b799.besttorrentsites1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/besttorrentsites1.png" alt="" width="713" height="353" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141410"></p>
<p>While it&#8217;s a thought provoking idea to think that Google employees are manually curating the list, the entire process is likely automated. Still, many casual torrent users might find it quite handy. Whether rightsholders will be equally excited is another question though. </p>
<p>The automated nature of this type of search result display also creates another problem. While many people know that most torrent sites offer pirated content, this is quite different with streaming portals. </p>
<p>This leads to a confusing situation where Google lists both legal and unauthorized streaming platforms when users search for &#8220;<a href="https://www.google.com/#q=streaming+sites">streaming sites</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>The screenshot below shows the pirate streaming site Putlocker next to Hulu and Crackle. The same lineup also rotates various other pirate sites such as Alluc and Movie4k.to.</p>
<p><img src="media/cdf36784.gstream.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gstream.png" alt="" width="746" height="340" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141412"></p>
<p>The reels in question are most likely generated by algorithms, which don&#8217;t distinguish between authorized and unauthorized sources. Still, given the repeated criticism Hollywood has for Google for its supposed facilitation of piracy, it&#8217;s a bit unfortunate, to say the least. </p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that Google&#8217;s &#8220;rich&#8221; search results have featured pirate sites. The same happened in the past when the search engine displayed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-promotes-pirate-movie-ratings-in-search-snippet-160531/">pirate site ratings</a> of movies, next to ratings from regular review sites such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes.</p>
<p>We can expect the MPAA and others to take note, and bring these and other issues up at their convenience. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Note: the search reel doesn&#8217;t appear on many localized Google domains. We tested and confirmed it only on Google.com. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141608
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 07/10/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-07-10-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S0ZiyC85Iqs/
content:
<p><img src="media/0bb2a5be.covenant.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/covenant.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="169" class="alignright size-full wp-image-141610">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Alien Covenant is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-070317/">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>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">Alien Covenant</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost In a Shell</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBi41reeF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fate-furious-torrent-downloads/">The Fate of the Furious</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XBmsl7wbIQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">Transformers: The Last Knight</a> (TC/HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3371366/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vtf0MszgP8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/boss-baby-torrent-downloads/">The Boss Baby</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquIfapGVqs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141618
title: Pirate App Store Operator Jailed for Criminal Copyright Infringement
uri: Pirate-App-Store-Operator-Jailed-for-Criminal-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XaGCG5DzWdk/
content:
<p><img src="media/21abd508.snappz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/snappz.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86897">Assisted by police in France and the Netherlands, the FBI took down the “pirate” Android stores Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket during the summer of 2012.</p>
<p>The domain seizures were the first ever against “rogue” mobile app marketplaces and followed similar actions against BitTorrent and streaming sites.</p>
<p>During the years that followed several people connected to the Android app sites were arrested and indicted. This is also true for the now 27-year-old Joshua Taylor, a resident of Kentwood, Michigan.</p>
<p>Taylor, who arranged SnappzMarket&#8217;s servers, was previously convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and has now been <a href="media/5e169da9.9fc53f05-dbaa-4816-83df-fa0bf8b0efa8.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/9fc53f05-dbaa-4816-83df-fa0bf8b0efa8.pdf">sentenced (pdf)</a> to 16 months in prison for his role in the operation.</p>
<p>According to the Department of Justice, SnappzMarket distributed more than one million pirated apps with a retail value exceeding $1.7 million. </p>
<p>In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorney John Lovell argued that his client never made any &#8220;profits&#8221; from his involvement, noting that the co-conspirators played a much more significant role.</p>
<p>&#8220;Josh Taylor is 27 years old with no other criminal history. His offense involved procuring storage space for the masterminds of the operation,&#8221; Lovell wrote. &#8220;SnappzMarket did not pay Josh. Whatever profits were generated by SnappzMarket were split between Sharp and Peterson.&#8221; </p>
<p>The court record further reveals that Taylor had a very tough childhood and was plagued by both mental and physical challenges. </p>
<p>According to the testimony from his psychologist Meredith Davis, he didn&#8217;t understand that he was committing a felonious act, and lacked the cognitive capacity do so intentionally. </p>
<p>The psychologist stressed that her client deeply regrets what happened and she doesn&#8217;t think it&#8217;s likely that would run into similar problems in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;He has expressed a great deal of remorse for his involvement in the charged crime. Mr. Taylor possesses a high degree of vigilance to avoid any further contact with the law,&#8221; Davis wrote to the court.</p>
<p>Despite these arguments, U.S. District Judge Timothy Batten Sr. found a prison sentence appropriate. </p>
<p>While 16 months is significant, it&#8217;s not as much as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-android-app-store-member-jailed-for-46-months-160831/">46 month prison sentence</a> co-conspirator Scott Walton received earlier. Kody Peterson, another key SnappzMarket operator, only received a one year sentence but he agreed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/android-pirate-agrees-to-work-undercover-for-the-feds-140416/">to do undercover work</a> for the FBI.</p>
<p>Gary Edwin Sharp II, the only remaining defendant, previously pleaded guilty and is currently scheduled to be sentenced in November. Like the others, he also faces up to several years in prison.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141631
title: Tumbleweed at Vuze as Torrent Client Development Grinds to a Halt
uri: Tumbleweed-at-Vuze-as-Torrent-Client-Development-Grinds-to-a-Halt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n1KdpjqxYZQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/f3231612.vuzefrog.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vuzefrog.jpg"><img src="media/bcdf5126.vuzefrog.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vuzefrog.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="108" class="alignright size-full wp-image-58590"></a>Back in the summer of 2003 when torrenting was still in its infancy, a new torrent client hit the web promising big things.</p>
<p>Taking the Latin name of the blue poison dart frog and deploying a logo depicting its image, the Azureus client aimed to carve out a niche in what would become a market of several hundred million users.</p>
<p>Written in Java and available on Windows, Linux, OSX, and Android, Azureus (latterly &#8216;Vuze&#8217;) always managed to divide the community. Heralded by many as a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vuze-reinvents-its-bittorrent-client-081013/">feature-rich</a> powerhouse that left no stone unturned, others saw the client as bloated when compared to the more streamlined uTorrent.</p>
<p>All that being said, Vuze knew its place in the market and on the bells-and-whistles front, it always delivered. Its features included <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vuze-speeds-up-torrent-downloads-through-swarm-merging-150320/">swarm-merging</a>, built-in search, DVD-burning capabilities, and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vuze-integrates-with-itunes-xbox-360-and-ps3-090323/">device integration</a>. It felt like Vuze was always offering something new.</p>
<p>Indeed, for the past several years and like clockwork, every month new additions and fixes have been deployed to Vuze. Since at least 2012 and up to early 2017, not a single month passed without Vuze being tuned up or improved in some manner via beta or full versions. Now, however, all of that seems to have ground to a halt.</p>
<p>The last full release of Vuze (v5.7.5.0) containing plenty of tweaks and fixes was released on <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/azureus/news/2017/02/vuze-5750-released/">February 28 this year</a>. It followed the previous full release by roughly three months, a pattern its developers have kept up for some time with earlier versions. As expected, the Vuze 5.7.5.1 beta versions followed but on April 10, everything stopped.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s now three whole months since Vuze the last beta release, which may not sound like a long time unless one considers the history. Vuze has been actively developed for 14 years and its developers have posted communications on their <a href="http://devblog.vuze.com/archive">devblog archives</a> every single month, at least as far back as July 2012. Since then &#8211; nothing.</p>
<p>Back in May, a <a href="https://forum.vuze.com/Thread-RIP-Vuze">user</a> on Vuze forums noted that none of Vuze&#8217;s featured content (such as TED Talks) could be downloaded, while another reported that the client&#8217;s anti-virus definitions weren&#8217;t updating. Given past scheduling, a new version of the client should have been released about a month ago. Nothing appeared.</p>
<p>To illustrate, this is a screenshot of the Vuze source code repository, which shows the number of code changes committed since 2012. The drastic drop-off in April 2017 (12 commits) versus dozens to even hundreds in preceding months is punctuated by zero commits for the past three months.</p>
<p><center><The past five years commits at Vuze</b><a href="media/91708896.vuze-commits.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vuze-commits.png"><img src="media/877d4004.vuze-commits.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vuze-commits.png" alt="" width="952" height="377" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-141635"></a></center></p>
<p>Of course, even avid developers have offline lives, and it&#8217;s certainly possible that an unusual set of outside circumstances have conspired to give the impression that development has stopped. However, posting a note to the Vuze blog or Vuze forum shouldn&#8217;t be too difficult, so people are naturally worried about the future.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak has reached out to the respected developer identified by Vuze forum users as the most likely to respond to questions. At the time of publication, we had received no response.</p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, torrent users have a love/hate relationship with Vuze and Azureus but there is no mistaking this clients&#8217; massive contribution to the torrent landscape. Millions will be hoping that the current radio silence is nothing sinister but until that confirmation is received, the concerns will continue.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141645
title: Daily Mail Sued For ‘Pirating’ Dozens of Viral Videos
uri: Daily-Mail-Sued-For-Pirating-Dozens-of-Viral-Videos
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sN2JWDq6CH4/
content:
<p><img src="media/faedbf10.whackmolecat.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/whackmolecat.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-141653">A cat playing a game of whack-a-mole, a goat hitching a ride on the back of donkey, and a flying squirrel that&#8217;s eaten too much.</p>
<p>Besides being animals, they have something else in common. They&#8217;re all stars in viral videos. </p>
<p>With millions of views these lucky clips draw a lot of eyeballs. This is good news for the creators, who can monetize the views. And mainstream news sites and tabloids like them as well, since ithey can add some amusement to their online publications.</p>
<p>The problem, however, is that quite a few websites don&#8217;t pay for the viral content they put up. In some cases, they assume that videos can be shared freely, while others ignore the copyright issue on purpose. </p>
<p>According to a complaint submitted to a US District Court late last week,<br>
popular British tabloid <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daily_Mail">Daily Mail</a> is guilty of the latter. The lawsuit was filed by <a href="https://rumble.com/">Rumble</a>, a company that manages the rights of hundreds of thousands of viral videos.</p>
<p>Rumble informs the court that it&#8217;s representing small creators who often don&#8217;t have the means to put up a fight against companies that &#8216;steal&#8217; their content.</p>
<p>&#8220;By themselves, these individual content creators cannot effectively police and enforce their copyrights against those infringers who use their videos without approval, authorization or paying anything,&#8221; Rumble writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;These serial infringers can and do make very large sums of money using these  copyright-protected videos without ever paying one penny to the content-creator,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0a71ad20.rumble.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rumble.png" alt="" width="591" height="476" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141658"></center></p>
<p>Initially, Rumble and the Daily Mail had a license agreement to use the videos on their website. However, according to the complaint, the British tabloid continued to publish them after the license expired.</p>
<p>When the infringing usage continued, Rumble retained legal counsel to solve the matter, but that didn&#8217;t help either. This eventually culminated in legal action.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rumble asserts that the infringement here is of the most bold and bald-faced kind, exhibiting an utter disrespect for the copyrights of others,&#8221; the complaint reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;That [the infringment] is &#8216;willful&#8217; in the factual and legal sense of the word is beyond dispute, such that the ultimate damages to be awarded will be reasonably and justifiably enhanced, including an award of Rumble’s attorneys fees as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rumble expects that Daily Mail will claim that they were not aware of the infringing activities so cautions the court not to fall for these type of excuses. The video platform stresses that turning a blind eye to the copyrights of others is part of the tabloid&#8217;s playbook, and plans to prove this at trial.</p>
<p>With dozens of videos listed in the legal paperwork, the potential piracy damages requested by the company are around $10,000,000. In addition, Rumble asks for an injunction to stop the infringing activity as soon as possible.</p>
<p>While Rumble prides itself for sticking up for the small guy, as the main rightsholder it has a direct financial interest in the case, of course. We asked the company whether the creators will also get a share of any potential damages, but at the time of publication, we have yet to hear back.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>A copy of the complaint is available here (<a href="media/3691a68e.rumblecomplaint.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rumblecomplaint.pdf">pdf</a>).</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141686
title: Three Months On, eBay’s “Total Kodi Ban” Doesn’t Exist
uri: Three-Months-On-eBay-s-Total-Kodi-Ban-Doesn-t-Exist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NAOas8w2lwY/
content:
<p><a href="media/b356fd08.kodi.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi.jpg"><img src="media/86968eca.kodi.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106816"></a>Over the past twelve months, the sale of &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top devices in the UK has reached epidemic proportions.</p>
<p>Augmented Kodi setups are now the talk of both the Internet and the street, with unauthorized streaming sources now commonplace in British homes.</p>
<p>Many of these devices, which are often Android-based, were sold through platforms such as eBay and Amazon. Buyers have been spoilt for choice, with every hardware format and software configuration just a few clicks and a quick delivery away. However, at the end of March, things appeared to change.</p>
<p>As first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-bans-sales-of-pirate-media-players-will-destroy-them-170331/">reported</a> by TF, Amazon updated its terms and conditions to effectively ban any devices capable of, or even suggesting, infringing purposes.</p>
<p>“Products offered for sale on Amazon should not promote, suggest the facilitation of, or actively enable the infringement of or unauthorized access to digital media or other protected content,&#8221; the policy reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any streaming media player or other device that violates this policy is prohibited from sale on Amazon.&#8221;</p>
<p>Then, a couple of weeks later, UK tabloid The Sun published <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3308901/ebay-follows-amazons-lead-and-issues-total-ban-on-kodi-box-which-lets-brits-stream-sports-and-films-for-free/">an article</a> with the headline &#8220;eBay follows Amazon’s lead and issues total ban on Kodi box which lets Brits stream sports and films for free.&#8221;</p>
<p>The breathless tone of the headline was nothing new but the content came as a bit of a surprise. The article claimed that eBay had decided to &#8220;wipe any Kodi boxes claiming to be &#8216;fully loaded&#8217; (with access to illegal streams) from its site.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given eBay&#8217;s traditional stance, that it is not responsible for potentially infringing listings until advised of their existence by authorized rightsholders or their representatives, it seemed unlikely that the company was about to embark on a sudden spring cleaning session.</p>
<p>Indeed, comments from an eBay spokesperson suggested that in respect of business policy, little had changed.</p>
<p>“We run several initiatives designed to combat the infringement of intellectual property rights, including the Verified Rights Owner Program (VeRO),&#8221; the spokesperson said.</p>
<p>“We work with the police and regulators to ensure that all listings on eBay comply with the law. There are blocks in place to prevent the listing of illegal items, but we also constantly monitor our marketplace. Anyone found to be knowingly selling items that don’t comply with the law will be investigated and could face account restrictions or suspension.”</p>
<p>Today, that announcement is exactly three months old and from even a cursory search of the platform, &#8216;pirate&#8217; Kodi and similar setups are still a huge problem. In fact, if one wants to purchase a device, it&#8217;s not only just as easy as before, but prices appear to have fallen too.</p>
<p><center><b>&#8220;Kodi Box&#8221; search on eBay UK, first result</b><a href="media/6d834f3d.fully-loaded-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fully-loaded-1.png"><img src="media/c7c6ee2b.fully-loaded-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fully-loaded-1.png" alt="" width="1000" height="489" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-141698"></a></center></p>
<p>Indeed, no matter which searches one uses, whether that refers to the software installations (Kodi, Showbox, etc) or terms like &#8220;fully loaded&#8221;, all roads point to either infringing devices or devices which strongly suggest in their descriptions that infringement is the aim.</p>
<p>But while some might point to eBay as the problem here (in much the same way that rightsholders quickly level blame at Google), there seems to be a fairly straightforward solution to the problem. In fact, eBay mentioned it themselves, three months ago.</p>
<p>eBay&#8217;s Verified Rights Owner Program (<a href="http://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/listing/create-effective-listings/vero-program.html">VeRO</a>) enables rightsholders and their representatives to have infringing eBay listings taken down if they contain infringing logos or other IP, or advertise items that infringe intellectual property rights. </p>
<p>Once an infringing listing is found, rightsholders can manually submit a Notice of Claimed Infringement (NOCI) in the first instance and via a dedicated tool thereafter. If the complaint is upheld by eBay the listing will be removed, and if sellers are guilty of multiple offenses, their accounts could be suspended or even closed.</p>
<p>Given the large number of infringing listings still present on the site, one might think that the big rightsholders aren&#8217;t making use of the NOCI system, but that doesn&#8217;t appear to be the case. eBay actually publishes a huge list of participating companies on its site and all the big ones are there.</p>
<p>The MPAA has its <a href="http://www.ebay.com/gds/vero-profile-the-motion-picture-association-of-america-inc-mpaa/58489c8fc864282c3bc8f7fc/g.html">own page</a>, for example, as do companies like <a href="http://www.ebay.com/gds/vero-profile-vero-profile-versace/58506187a013115391b8d98a/g.html">Versace</a>, who are worried about counterfeiting.</p>
<p>But being more UK specific, since that&#8217;s where most of the &#8220;Kodi&#8221; complaints originate, we can also see that the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) has its own <a href="http://www.ebay.com/gds/vero-profile-federation-against-copyright-theft-fact-ltd/581240ec78a7bf692beb26ee/g.html">VeRO account</a>, as does key partner the <a href="http://www.ebay.com/gds/vero-profile-the-premier-league/584af374399d3101c5a79dd6/g.html">English Premier League</a>.</p>
<p>Given that both eBay, Amazon and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/facebook-bans-sale-of-piracy-enabling-products-devices-170525/">even Facebook</a> have been criticized for allowing sales of &#8216;pirate&#8217; boxes on their platforms, it seems unusual that despite the grand announcements, devices are still so prolific and easy to find.</p>
<p>Whether a full three months hasn&#8217;t been long enough for rightsholders to file appropriate complaints is unknown, but it would probably be preferable to go down that route first, before threatening the man in the street with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/could-pirate-tv-box-users-be-prosecuted-for-fraud-170709/">a criminal prosecution</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141642
title: Net Neutrality is Not a Pirates’ Fight Anymore
uri: Net-Neutrality-is-Not-a-Pirates-Fight-Anymore
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HhhsccF7Afo/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">Today, millions of people are protesting the FCC&#8217;s plan to repeal the net neutrality rules that were put in place by the former Obama administration.</p>
<p>In this &#8220;<a href="https://www.battleforthenet.com/">Battle for the Net</a>,&#8221; they are joined by many prominent groups and companies, including Amazon, BitTorrent, Dropbox, Netflix, and even Pornhub.  </p>
<p>Under the present net neutrality rules, there&#8217;s a clear standard that prevents ISPs from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization of “lawful” traffic. In addition, they allow Internet providers to be regulated as carriers under Title II.</p>
<p>If the current net neutrality rules disappear, some fear that throttling and &#8216;fast lanes&#8217; for some services will become commonplace. </p>
<p>Historically, there is a strong link to between net neutrality and online piracy. The throttling concerns were first brought to the forefront in 2007 when Comcast started to slow down both legal and unauthorized BitTorrent traffic, in an affort to ease the load on its network. </p>
<p>When we uncovered this <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-throttles-bittorrent-traffic-seeding-impossible/">atypical practice</a>, it ignited the first broad discussion on net neutrality. This became the setup for the FCC’s Open Internet Order which was released three years later.</p>
<p>For its part, the Open Internet Order formed the foundation of the net neutrality rules the FCC adopted in 2015. The big change compared to the earlier rules was that ISPs can be regulated as carriers under Title II.</p>
<p>While pirates may have helped to get the ball rolling, they&#8217;re no longer a player in the current net neutrality debate. Under the current rules, ISPs are allowed to block any unlawful traffic, including copyright infringing content.</p>
<p>In fact, in the net neutrality <a href="media/bb3d4e7d.FCC-15-24A1.pdf" data-original-source="http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0312/FCC-15-24A1.pdf">order</a> the FCC has listed the following rule:</p>
<p>“Nothing in this part prohibits reasonable efforts by a provider of broadband Internet access service to address copyright infringement or other unlawful activity.”</p>
<p>The FCC reasons that copyright infringement hurts the US economy, so Internet providers are free to take appropriate measures against this type of traffic. This includes the voluntary censoring of pirate sites, something the MPAA and RIAA are currently lobbying for.</p>
<p>“For example, the no-blocking rule should not be invoked to protect copyright infringement, which has adverse consequences for the economy, nor should it protect child pornography. We reiterate that our rules do not alter the copyright laws and are not intended to prohibit or discourage voluntary practices undertaken to address or mitigate the occurrence of copyright infringement,” the FCC explains.</p>
<p>That gives ISPs plenty of leeway. ISPs could still block access to The Pirate Bay and other alleged pirate sites as a voluntary anti-piracy measure, for example. And throttling BitTorrent traffic across the board is also an option, as long as it’s framed as reasonable network management.</p>
<p>The worrying part is that ISPs themselves can decide what traffic or sites are unlawful. This could potentially lead to overblocking. Currently, there is no indication that any will, but the net neutrality rules do not preventing these companies from doing so. </p>
<p>This glaring &#8220;copyright loophole&#8221; doesn&#8217;t mean that the net neutrality rules are irrelevant. They&#8217;re certainly not perfect, but there are many aspects that benefit the public and companies alike.  </p>
<p>What should be clear though clear though, is that the fight for net neutrality is no longer a pirate&#8217;s fight. </p>
<p>While the current protest is reminiscent of the massive &#8220;Internet blackout&#8221; revolt against the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/historic-the-internet-protests-anti-piracy-bills-120118/">SOPA anti-piracy law five years ago</a>, where many pirate sites joined in as well, you won&#8217;t see many of these sites calling for net neutrality today. Not out of personal interest, at least. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141711
title: Usenet Provider Giganews Sues Perfect 10 For Fraud, Demands $20m
uri: Usenet-Provider-Giganews-Sues-Perfect-10-For-Fraud-Demands-20m
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SHAx_f9aFZ4/
content:
<p><a href="media/93aed424.giganews.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/giganews.png"><img src="media/85e3d070.giganews.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/giganews.png" alt="" width="267" height="149" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96972"></a>For many years, Perfect 10 went about its business of publishing images of women in print and on the Internet. At some point along the way, however, the company decided that threatening to sue online service providers was more profitable.</p>
<p>Claiming copyright infringement, Perfect 10 took on a number of giants including Google, Amazon, Mastercard, and Visa, not to mention hosting providers such as LeaseWeb and OVH.</p>
<p>With court papers revealing that Perfect 10 owner Norman Zada worked 365 days a year on litigation and that the company acquired copyrights for use in lawsuits, it&#8217;s no surprise that around two dozen of Perfect 10&#8217;s lawsuits ended in cash settlements and defaults.</p>
<p>With dollar signs in mind, Perfect 10 went after another pretty big fish in 2011. The publisher claimed that Usenet provider Giganews was responsible when its users uploaded Perfect 10 images to the newsgroups. Things did not go well.</p>
<p>In November 2014, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California found that Giganews was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/giganews-wins-perfect-10-copyright-battle-150209/">not liable</a> for the infringing activities of its users. Perfect 10 was ordered to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/perfect-10-ordered-to-pay-giganews-5-6m-after-failed-copyright-battle-150325/">pay Giganews $5.6m</a> in attorney’s fees and costs. Perfect 10 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/usenet-provider-giganews-wins-landmark-copyright-battle-170124/">lost again</a> at the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.</p>
<p>But even with all of these victories under its belt, Giganews just can&#8217;t catch a break. </p>
<p>The company is clearly owed millions but Perfect 10 is refusing to pay up. As a result, this week Giganews filed yet another suit, accusing Perfect 10 and Norman Zada of fraud aimed at depriving Giganews of the amounts laid out by the court.</p>
<p>The claims center around an alleged conspiracy in which Perfect 10 transferred its funds and assets to Zada.</p>
<p>&#8220;As of now (over two years since the judgment), Perfect 10 has not voluntarily paid any amount of the judgment,&#8221; the complaint begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead, Perfect 10, through the unlawful acts of Zada and in conspiracy with him, has intentionally avoided satisfaction of the judgment through a series of fraudulent transfers of Perfect 10’s corporate assets to Zada’s personal possession.&#8221;</p>
<p>Giganews says these &#8220;illegal and fraudulent&#8221; transfers began back in 2014, when Perfect 10 began to realize that the fight against the Usenet provider was going bad.</p>
<p>For example, on November 20, 2014, around six days after the court granted summary judgment in favor of Giganews, Perfect 10 transferred $850,000 to Zada&#8217;s personal account. The Perfect 10 owner later told a Judgment Debtor’s Examination that the transfer was made due to the summary judgment orders, a statement that amounts to a confession of fraud, Giganews says.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had a settlement of $1.1 million in, I believe, June. I was entitled to that money,&#8221; Zada told the hearing. &#8220;And after the summary judgment orders were issued, I did not see any point in keeping more cash than we needed in the account.&#8221; </p>
<p>Giganews says that Perfect 10 transferred at least $1.75m in cash to Zada.</p>
<p>Then, within weeks of the court ordering Perfect 10 to pay $5.6m in attorneys fees and costs, Giganews says that Zada &#8220;fraudulently transferred substantially all<br>
of Perfect 10’s physical assets&#8221; to himself for an amount that did not represent their true value.</p>
<p>Those assets included a car, furniture, and computer servers. When Zada was questioned why the transfers took place, he admitted that &#8220;it would have been<br>
totally disruptive to have those [assets] seized” in satisfaction of the judgment. Indeed, the complaint alleges that the assets never moved physical location.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly given the judgment, Giganews alleges that Zada continues to run Perfect 10&#8217;s business in much the same way as he did before. The company even has copyright infringement litigation underway against AOL in Germany, despite having few assets.</p>
<p>This is made possible, Giganews says, by Perfect 10 calling on assets it previously transferred to Zada. When required by the company, Zada simply &#8220;gives&#8221; them back.</p>
<p>In summary, Giganews says these transfers display the &#8220;badges of fraud&#8221; that indicate attempts to &#8220;hinder, delay or defraud&#8221; creditors, while leaving Perfect 10 practically insolvent.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a consequence, Plaintiffs are entitled to a judgment against Defendants, and each of them, in the sum of the unlawfully transferred amounts of at least $1,750,000, or in an amount to be proven at trial, together with interest on that amount at the legal rate of 10% per annum from and after March 24, 2015,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>But the claim doesn&#8217;t stop there. Giganews asks the court to prevent Perfect 10 from transferring any more cash or assets out of Perfect 10 to Zada or anyone acting in concert with him or on his behalf. This is rounded off with a claim for punitive and exemplary damages of $20m to be considered during a jury trial.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141749
title: China Denies User VPN Crackdown, Blames False “Foreign Media” Reports
uri: China-Denies-User-VPN-Crackdown-Blames-False-Foreign-Media-Repo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4i85sBQL3uo/
content:
<p><a href="media/0702e6e5.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg"><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850"></a>A notice published by China&#8217;s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in January said that the government had launched <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-ban-unauthorized-vpn-services-in-internet-crackdown-170123/">a 14-month campaign</a> to crack down on local &#8216;unauthorized&#8217; Internet platforms.</p>
<p>The idea is that all Internet services such as data centers, ISPs, CDNs, and VPNs, will eventually need pre-approval from the government to operate. Operating such a service without a corresponding telecommunications business license will constitute an offense.</p>
<p>After the news broke, a source with contacts at a high-level telecoms company in the region told TF that, in his opinion, user-based VPNs were not the target and that MPLS VPNs were. These types of VPN <em>(<a href="https://uk.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/vpns/mpls-vpn-anyway-718">pdf</a>)</em> allow businesses, including those in China, to connect their geographically separated business locations, such as those in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia, for example.</p>
<p>This week, however, Bloomberg broke the news that China&#8217;s Government had ordered telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to Virtual Private Networks. This, the publication said, would stop citizens from accessing the global Internet.</p>
<p>According to the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-10/china-is-said-to-order-carriers-to-bar-personal-vpns-by-february">report</a>, the government ordered at least three state-run telecommunications firms, including China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, to stop people from using VPNs which allow people to circumvent censorship restrictions, otherwise known as the Great Firewall, by February next year.</p>
<p>Jake Parker, Beijing-based vice president of the US-China Business Council, agreed that the move &#8220;seems to impact individuals,&#8221; but last evening the Chinese authorities were attempting to pour cold water on the report.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1730060">comments</a> to China-based media outlet The Paper, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology denied issuing a notice to the telecoms companies requiring them to block user VPNs. It said that &#8220;foreign media reports&#8221; were inaccurate.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our subordinate Secretary did not issue the relevant notice, what foreign media reported was false,&#8221; the Ministry said.</p>
<p>The local media report then has the Ministry citing news that previously broke in January, detailing the new government measures that require cross-border enterprise-level VPN systems to be authorized and licensed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foreign trade enterprises and multinational companies, due to office for personal use and other reasons, need to access cross-border networking,&#8221; the Ministry said, adding that licensing is available and won&#8217;t have a detrimental effect on normal operations.</p>
<p>Given this statement, the announcement in January, and the comments made to TF regarding the government targeting enterprise-level VPNs, it raises the question whether the term &#8216;VPN&#8217; has perhaps been interpreted too widely, to include user-based services.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, in a follow-up <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-07-12/china-says-will-not-disrupt-legitimate-internet-access">report</a> last evening, Bloomberg repeated its claims that Beijing had ordered state-run telecoms firms to stop people from using VPNs that route traffic overseas to avoid censorship.</p>
<p>&#8220;The clampdown will shutter one of the main ways in which people both local and foreign still manage to access the global, unfiltered web on a daily basis,&#8221; the report said.</p>
<p>Only time will tell how the landscape will pan out, but it&#8217;s safe to say that China would like a tighter hold on the web than it has now and that VPNs of all kinds will continue to undermine that control, unless something is done.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141747
title: Copyright Troll Claims Texan Woman Downloaded Over 54,000 Torrents
uri: Copyright-Troll-Claims-Texan-Woman-Downloaded-Over-54-000-Torrents
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ms5VqAUFRCs/
content:
<p><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383">In recent years, file-sharers around the world have been pressured to pay significant settlement fees, or face legal repercussions.</p>
<p>These so-called “copyright trolling” efforts have been a common occurrence in the United States for more than half a decade, and still are.</p>
<p>Malibu Media, the Los Angeles-based company behind the ‘X-Art’ adult movies, is behind many of these cases. The company has filed <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/adult-movie-outfit-is-most-litigious-copyright-plaintiff-in-u-s-150812/">thousands of lawsuits</a> in recent years, targeting Internet subscribers whose accounts were allegedly used to share Malibu’s films via BitTorrent.</p>
<p>When the accused pirates don&#8217;t want to settle, Malibu generally ramps up the pressure. This is also what happened to Jenna Howard, a 29-year-old consultant from Houston, Texas. </p>
<p>When Howard protested her innocence and refused to pay the proposed settlement for downloading 15 pirated videos, the adult company came back with two spreadsheets of additional downloads that were linked to her IP-address. </p>
<p>This tactic isn&#8217;t new. Copyright trolls regularly provide lists of other downloads, of content they don&#8217;t own, to show that the defendant is a prolific downloader. However, in this case, the list is unusually long.</p>
<p>The spreadsheets provided by Malibu Media suggest that Ms. Howard&#8217;s connection was used to download fifty-four thousand torrents in recent years. </p>
<p>The downloads in question are all over the map, literally, with titles ranging from &#8220;100MB Woman Ass Pictures,&#8221; through &#8220;этот неловкий момент,&#8221; to &#8220;육룡이 나르샤&#8221; and &#8220;La casa di Topolino.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>A small selection of the alleged downloads</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/bf467eee.54kselection.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/54kselection.png" alt="" width="524" height="593" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141767"></center></p>
<p>According to a recent filing by Ms. Howard&#8217;s attorneys, the spreadsheets are part of Malibu&#8217;s intimidation tactics. </p>
<p>&#8220;Malibu also produced two spreadsheets that suggest Ms. Howard made over fifty-four thousand downloads consisting of an estimated 27 terabytes of data over a four-year period, which is an average of 31 items every day for the last four years, and literally hundreds of items on certain days, including for example downloads of movies in the hundreds and in languages that Ms. Howard does not even speak.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;This leads to only two possible conclusions: first, either Ms. Howard’s network was hacked, or second, Malibu’s research is wrong,&#8221; Ms. Howard&#8217;s attorneys write.</p>
<p>They stress, however, that there is no credible evidence to suggest that their client is responsible for downloading all these files. They point out that their client was even accused of downloading dozens of files from her home connection while she was on her honeymoon.</p>
<p>&#8220;The spreadsheets also show that Ms. Howard downloaded 31 items on her wedding day, and somehow managed to download an average of 22 items at her home IP address each day of her international honeymoon when she was overseas in the Bahamas,&#8221; the filing reads. </p>
<p>The attorneys believe that the adult company has gone too far and ask the court to deny further discovery requests targeted at her Internet provider AT&#038;T, including information about her download activity.</p>
<p>&#8220;Malibu’s shoddy research simply does not support the implication that Ms. Howard illegally downloaded the pornographic movies that are the subject of this suit, as well as an additional 54,000 other, unrelated, downloads,&#8221; the attorneys write. </p>
<p>&#8220;The supposed overlap between the downloads and Ms. Howard’s interests is also not credible. Malibu peddles smut as a commercial enterprise, and is trying to strong-arm a settlement from Ms. Howard while threatening to link Ms. Howard as a purveyor of its pornographic product.&#8221; </p>
<p>Malibu&#8217;s efforts are a textbook case of discovery abuse, the defense argues. They hope that the court agrees with this assessment and denies the request.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The full request for a protective order is available <a href="media/be098789.txsd-16-cv-02319-document-30.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/txsd-16-cv-02319-document-30.pdf">here (pdf)</a>, with help from <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/">FCT</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141807
title: Pirate Bay Founder Wants to Save Lives With His New App
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founder-Wants-to-Save-Lives-With-His-New-App
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cBKYgd3iIIM/
content:
<p><a href="media/faf17427.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg"><img src="media/1ceafd41.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-85601" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg 225w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px"></a>Of all the early founders of The Pirate Bay, it is Peter Sunde who has remained most obviously in the public eye. Now distanced from the site, Sunde has styled himself as a public speaker and entrepreneur.</p>
<p>Earlier this year the Swede (who is of both Norwegian and Finnish ancestry) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/adblock-plus-acquires-pirate-bay-founders-micropayment-service-flattr-170405/">sold his second most famous project Flattr</a> to the parent company of Adblock Plus. Now, however, he has another digital baby to nurture, and this one is quite interesting.</p>
<p>Like many countries, Sweden operates a public early warning system. Popularly known as &#8216;Hesa Fredrik&#8217;, it consists of extremely loud outdoor sirens accompanied by radio and television messages.</p>
<p>The sirens can be activated in specific areas of the country wherever the problems exist. Fire, floods, gas leaks, threats to the water system, terrorist attacks or even war could trigger the alarm. </p>
<p>Just recently the &#8216;Hesa Fredrik&#8217; alarm was sounded in Sweden, yet there was no planned test and no emergency. The public didn&#8217;t know that though and as people struggled to find information, authority websites crashed under the strain. The earliest news report indicating that it was a false alarm appeared behind a news site&#8217;s paywall. The national police site published no information.</p>
<p><center><b>The false alarm</b><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DbIGhZGn0bQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Although Sunde heard the sirens, it was an earlier incident that motivated him to find a better solution. Speaking with Swedish site <a href="http://www.breakit.se/artikel/8253/efter-falsklarmet-i-stockholm-pirate-bay-grundaren-bygger-appen-hesa-fredrika">Breakit</a>, Sunde says he got the idea during the Västmanland wildfire, which burned for six weeks straight in 2014 and became the largest fire in Sweden for 40 years.</p>
<p>&#8220;I got the idea during Västmanland fire. It took several days before text messages were sent to everyone in the area but by then it was already out of control. I thought that was so very bad when it is so easy to build something better,&#8221; Sunde said.</p>
<p>Sunde&#8217;s solution is the Hesa Fredrika app, which is currently under development by himself and several former members of the Flattr team.</p>
<p>&#8220;The goal is for everyone to download the app and then forget about it,&#8221; Sunde says.</p>
<p>When one thinks about the problem Sunde is trying to solve (i.e. the lack of decent and timely information in a crisis) today&#8217;s mobile phones provide the perfect solution. Not only do most people have one (or are near someone who does), they provide the perfect platform to deliver immediately deliver emergency services advice to people in a precise location.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is not enough for a small text to appear in the corner of the screen. I want to build something that makes the phone vibrate and sound so that you notice it properly,&#8221; Sunde told Breakit.</p>
<p>But while such an app could genuinely save lives in the event of a frankly rare event, Sunde has bigger ideas for the software that could extend its usefulness significantly.</p>
<p>Users will also be invited to add information about themselves, such as their doctor&#8217;s name or if they are a blood donor. The app user could then be messaged if there was an urgent need for a particular match. But while the app will be rolled out soon, it won&#8217;t be rushed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since it is extremely important to the quality of the messages, we want as many partnerships as possible before we launch something,&#8221; Sunde says, adding that in true Pirate Bay style, it will be completely free for everyone.</p>
<p>&#8220;So it will remain forever,&#8221; he says. &#8220;My philosophy is such that I do not want people to pay for things that can save their lives.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141690
title: GoMovies Moves to GoStream.is and Evades Google ‘Ban’
uri: GoMovies-Moves-to-GoStream-is-and-Evades-Google-Ban
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ix2lj07IE-M/
content:
<p><img src="media/9da5ec2b.gomovies.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gomovies.png" alt="" width="250" height="98" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137115">Pirate video streaming sites are booming. Their relative ease of use through on-demand viewing makes them a viable alternative to P2P file-sharing, which traditionally dominated the piracy arena.</p>
<p>The popular movie streaming sites GoMovies, formerly known as 123movies, is one of the most-used streaming sites. While it&#8217;s built a steady userbase of millions of users over the past year, the site&#8217;s home keeps changing. </p>
<p>The latest move came this week. Going forward, the site will be active from GoStream.is, operating from the Icelandic <a href="http://gostream.is">gostream.is</a> domain name. </p>
<p>While the site hasn&#8217;t officially commented on the reason for the move,  on Twitter a site representative <a href="https://twitter.com/GoMoviesHD/status/884848402256678912">mentioned</a> a Google &#8216;penalty&#8217; as the main driver behind the recent change. </p>
<p><center><strong>Penalized</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/60955142.gostreamgooglelol.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gostreamgooglelol.png" alt="" width="553" height="213" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141727"></center></p>
<p>When we looked at the issue more closely, we found that it&#8217;s not so much a penalty, but rather a response to a DMCA takedown request.</p>
<p>Earlier this week the site&#8217;s homepage was removed from Google&#8217;s search engine following a takedown notice from Warner Bros. This made it harder for users to find the site through Google, as various knockoffs were ranked higher in the search results for the &#8220;Gomovies&#8221; keyword.</p>
<p>In addition to relocating to a new domain name, the site has also changed the look of its homepage. Instead of a page filled with the most popular movies and TV-shows, it now lists a basic search box. </p>
<p><center><strong>New GoMovies homepage</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f5d08025.gomoviesnew.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gomoviesnew.png" alt="" width="514" height="265" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141858"></center></p>
<p>The homepage change is likely a response to Google&#8217;s search engine removal as well. The previous GoMovies domain was targeted by Warner Bros. because it listed a link to a pirated movie, but such links are no longer present on the new homepage. </p>
<p>That said, users who prefer the old look can still access it with a single click, which is prominently mentioned on the site. </p>
<p>Despite the domain name change, the GoMovies brand hasn&#8217;t changed. The logo and all other references to the site&#8217;s name remain intact. Confusingly, people who search for GoMovies on Google still won&#8217;t see the Gostream.is URL in the top results, but perhaps that will change in the future. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141796
title: Pirate Sites Ordered to Pay $1 Million in Damages to ABS-CBN
uri: Pirate-Sites-Ordered-to-Pay-1-Million-in-Damages-to-ABS-CBN
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EvrBn-2PN60/
content:
<p><img src="media/468f0769.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABS-CBN">ABS-CBN</a>, the largest media and entertainment company in the Philippines, has booked another victory in the United States. </p>
<p>This week a federal court in Florida signed a default judgment against 19 websites that offered links to copyright infringing streams of ABS-CBN owned movies. </p>
<p>The lawsuit in question was filed in April and targets cinesilip.net, pinoychannel.co, pinoy-hd.com, and several other streaming portals that specialize in Philippine content. These sites also attract visitors from other countries, including the United States, where they target people of Philippine origin. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ entire Internet-based website businesses amount to nothing more than illegal operations established and operated in order to infringe the intellectual property rights of ABS-CBN and others,” the company wrote in its original complaint.</p>
<p>Despite facing hefty damages, none of the defendants turned up in court. This prompted ABS-CBN to file for a default judgment which was granted this week. </p>
<p>In his verdict, US District Judge Robert Scola Jr orders the 19 websites to pay $1 million in damages each. These damages are not for copyright infringement, as one would expect, but for violating ABS-CBN&#8217;s trademark. In addition, four of the defendants received an additional $30,000 in copyright infringement damages on top. </p>
<p>The media giant initially suggested that it would request the maximum of $2 million in trademark infringement damages per site, but has opted go &#8220;only&#8221; for half. </p>
<p><center><strong>Part of the order</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6a397e95.absdamages.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/absdamages.png" alt="" width="573" height="352" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141837"></center></p>
<p>ABS-CBN&#8217;s most recent win follows a pattern of similar verdicts in recent months. The company has managed to score dozens of millions in damages from a wide variety of streaming sites with relative ease.</p>
<p>In addition to the millions of dollars that were awarded, Judge Scola also signed off on a permanent injunction to sign over the websites&#8217; domain names to the media giant. </p>
<p>The question remains, of course, whether the company will ever see a penny in return. Most of the defendants remain unknown and even if they&#8217;re identified, most won&#8217;t have an extra million lying around. </p>
<p>To increase the chance of seeing something of monetary value in return, ABS-CBN also requested an injunction <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-advertisers-to-freeze-revenue-pirate-sites-170707/">against the advertisers</a> of several pirate sites in its latest lawsuit. If granted, this would allow the company to claim the pending advertising payouts. However, no such injunction was requested in the current case.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>A copy of the default judgement is available <a href="media/3193488d.abs-default.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/abs-default.pdf">abs-default</a>, and a list of all the defendants is available below.</p>
<p>cinesilip.net<br>
pinoychanneltv.me<br>
pinoytambayantv.me<br>
pinoytambayanreplay.net<br>
drembed.com<br>
embeds.me<br>
fullpinoymovies.com<br>
lambingan.ph<br>
magtvna.com<br>
pinoye.com<br>
pinoyteleserye.org<br>
pinoytvnetwork.net<br>
pinoytopmovies.info<br>
teleserye.me<br>
watchpinaytv.com<br>
wildpinoy.net<br>
pinoy-hd.com<br>
pinoytvreplay.ws<br>
pinoychannel.co<br>
wowpinoytambayan.ws<br>
pinoytelebyuwers.se</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141785
title: Just How Risky is Internet Piracy in 2017?
uri: Just-How-Risky-is-Internet-Piracy-in-2017
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NDv5azd8j3U/
content:
<p><a href="media/cf654c6a.piratekay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratekay.jpg"><img src="media/0fe8e43a.piratekay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratekay.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108106"></a>The world&#8217;s largest entertainment companies in the spheres of music, movies, and gaming would jump for joy if the Internet piracy phenomenon came to a crashing halt tomorrow. (Spoiler: it won&#8217;t)</p>
<p>As a result, large sums of money are expended every day in an effort to keep unlawful distribution under control. Over the years there have been many strategies and several of these have involved targeting end users.</p>
<p>The world is a very big place and the tackling of piracy differs from region to region, but what most consumers of unauthorized media want to know is whether they&#8217;re putting themselves at risk.</p>
<p>The short answer is that no matter where people are, there is always some level of risk attached to obtaining and using pirate content. The long answer is more nuanced.</p>
<p><strong>BitTorrent and other P2P protocols</strong></p>
<p>By its very nature, using BitTorrent to access copyrighted content comes with a risk. Since downloaders are also distributors and their IP addresses are necessarily public, torrent users are extremely easy to track. In fact, with a minimum of equipment, any determined rightsholder is able spot and potentially uncover the identity of a file-sharer.</p>
<p>But while basic BitTorrent sharing gets a 0/10 for privacy, that&#8217;s a bit like saying that a speeding car gets 0/10 for stealth. Like the speeding car, anyone can see the pirating torrent user, but the big question is whether there&#8217;s anyone around who intends to do anything about it.</p>
<p>The big surprise in 2017 is that users are still statistically unlikely to face any consequences.</p>
<p>In the United States, for example, where copyright trolling can be a serious issue for those who get caught up in the net, the problem still only affects a tiny, tiny proportion of pirates. A one percent risk of getting snared would be overstating the risk but these are still odds that any gambler would be happy to take.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, pirates are also less likely to encounter a simple friendly warning than they were last year too. The &#8220;Six Strikes&#8221; Copyright Alerts System operated by the MPAA and RIAA, that set out to advise large volumes of pirates using notices sent via their ISPs, was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-us-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-is-dead-170128/">discontinued in January</a>. Those behind it gave in, for reasons unknown.</p>
<p>This means that millions of torrent users &#8211; despite exposing their IP addresses in public while sharing copyrighted content &#8211; are doing so without significant problems. Nevertheless, large numbers are also taking precautions, by using anonymization technologies including VPNs.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s not to say that their actions are legal &#8211; they&#8217;re not &#8211; but outside the few thousand people caught up in trolls&#8217; nets each year, the vast and overwhelming majority of torrent users (which number well over 100 million) are pirating with impunity.</p>
<p>In the UK, not even trolling is a problem anymore. After a few flurries that seemed to drag on longer than they should, copyright trolls appear to have left the country for more lucrative shores. No cases have gone through the courts in recent times which means that UK users are torrenting pretty much whatever they like, with no legal problems whatsoever.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s important to note though, that their actions aren&#8217;t going unnoticed. Unlike the United States, the UK has a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-piracy-warnings-coming-month-heres-works-170111/">warning system in place</a>. This means that a few thousand customers of a handful of ISPs are receiving notices each month informing them that their piratey behavior has been monitored by an entertainment company.</p>
<p>Currently, however, there are no punishments for those who are &#8216;caught&#8217;, even when they&#8217;re accused of pirating on a number of occasions. At least so far, it seems that the plan is to worry pirates into submission and in some cases that will probably work. Nevertheless, things can easily change when records are being kept on this scale.</p>
<p>Germany aside (which is overrun with copyright trolling activity), a handful of other European countries have also endured <em>relatively</em> small troll problems (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-copyright-trolls-invade-finland-140326/">Finland</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolls-abandon-sweden-in-blaze-of-bad-publicity-161101/">Sweden</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/danish-isps-stand-up-against-mafia-like-copyright-trolls-170530/">Denmark</a>) but overall, file-sharers go about their business as usual across the continent. There are no big projects in any country aiming to punish large numbers of BitTorrent users and only France has an active warning notice program.</p>
<p>Canada and Australia have also had relatively small problems with copyright trolls (the former also has a fairly toothless ISP warning system) but neither country is considered a particularly &#8216;dangerous&#8217; place to share files using BitTorrent. Like the United States, UK, and Europe, the chances of getting prosecuted for infringement are very small indeed.</p>
<p><strong>Why such little enforcement?</strong></p>
<p>There are a number of reasons for the apparent lack of interest in BitTorrent users but a few bubble up to the top. Firstly, there&#8217;s the question of resources required to tackle millions of users. Obviously, some scare tactics could be deployed by hitting a few people hard, but it feels like most companies have moved beyond that thinking.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s partly due to the more recent tendency of entertainment groups and governments to take a broader view of infringement, hitting it at its source by strangling funds to pirate sites, hitting their advertisers, blocking their websites, and attempting to forge <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-anti-piracy-agreement-will-target-domain-hopping-share-search-data-170307/">voluntary anti-piracy schemes</a> with search engines.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s also worth noting that huge numbers of people are routinely protecting themselves with VPN-like technology, which allows them to move around the Internet with much improved levels of privacy. Just recently, anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp partly blamed this for falling revenues.</p>
<p>Importantly, however, the nature of infringement has been changing for some time too.</p>
<p>A few years ago, most people were getting their movies and music from torrent sites but now they&#8217;re more likely to be obtaining their fix from a streaming source. Accessing the top blockbusters via a streaming site (perhaps via Kodi) is for the most part untraceable, as is grabbing music from one of the hundreds of MP3 portals around today.</p>
<p>But as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hardcore-uk-pirates-dwindle-but-illegal-streaming-poses-new-threat-170707/">recent news revealed</a>, why bother with &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites when people can simply rip music from sites like YouTube?</p>
<p>So-called stream-ripping is now blamed for huge swathes of piracy and as a result, torrent sites get far fewer mentions from anti-piracy groups than they did before. </p>
<p>While still a thorn in their side, it wouldn&#8217;t be a stretch to presume that torrent sites are no longer considered the primary problem they once were, at least in respect of music. Now, the &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ifpi-sneers-at-youtubes-1-billion-music-industry-revenue-payout-161207/">Value Gap</a>&#8216; is more of a headache.</p>
<p>So, in a nutshell, the millions of people obtaining and sharing copyrighted content using BitTorrent are still taking <em>some</em> risks in every major country, and those need to be carefully weighed.</p>
<p>The activity is illegal almost everywhere, punishable in both civil and criminal courts, and has the potential to land people with big fines and even a jail sentence, if the scale of sharing is big enough.</p>
<p>In truth, however, the chances of the man in the street getting caught are so slim that many people don&#8217;t give the risks a second thought. That said, even people who drive 10mph over the limit get caught once in a while, so those that want to keep a clean sheet online <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304">often get a VPN</a> and reduce the risks to almost 0%.</p>
<p>For people who stream, life is much less complicated. Streaming movies, TV shows or music from an illicit source is untraceable by any regular means, which up to now has made it almost 100% safe. Notably, there hasn&#8217;t been a single prosecution of a user who streamed infringing content anywhere in the world. In the EU it is illegal though, so something might happen in future, potentially&#8230;..possibly&#8230;..at some point&#8230;.maybe.</p>
<p>And here&#8217;s the thing. While this is the general position today, the &#8216;market&#8217; is volatile and has the ability to change quickly. A case could get filed in the US or UK next week, each targeting 50,000 BitTorrent users for downloading something that came out months ago. Nobody knows for sure so perhaps the best analogy is the one drummed into kids during high-school sex education classes.</p>
<p>People shouldn&#8217;t put themselves at risk at all but if they really must, they should take precautions. If they don&#8217;t, they could easily be the unlucky one and that is nearly always miserable.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141809
title: That Horrible Sinking Feeling When You See a Pirate’s Dark Future
uri: That-Horrible-Sinking-Feeling-When-You-See-a-Pirate-s-Dark-Future
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eq_57RFwwo4/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>In the very early days of BitTorrent, making a list of decent file-sharing sites wasn&#8217;t particularly difficult. There was a list of ten or so that everyone knew, with a couple of dozen sundry others that mattered to the people who ran them and few others.</p>
<p>Then, out of nowhere, everything exploded. Soon it was impossible to keep up, sites appeared like mushrooms overnight and the lists got longer and longer. Today there isn&#8217;t a comprehensive list anywhere that can claim to cover them all, although some anti-piracy outfits think they&#8217;re close.</p>
<p>With that in mind, whenever a new and significant site or service appears seemingly out of nowhere, it&#8217;s always of interest to us at TF. With so many other pirate competitors around, how did this one manage to burst to the top so quickly? And, of course, when is it likely to do something newsworthy and how can we get in touch?</p>
<p>Getting information often involves asking around contacts built up over the years but everyday Internet tools also do a great job. After seeing where a site is hosted (special thanks to Cloudflare for making that more difficult), one of the early ports of call is a basic domain WHOIS. In the early days, these were often a goldmine. Today, thanks to increased security awareness, they&#8217;re much less useful.</p>
<p>But not always.</p>
<p>A couple of months ago it became apparent that a new streaming site/service was getting a lot of attention on various discussion platforms. The people who tried it said it was good, one of the best they&#8217;d seen actually. There was a lot of praise for the people behind the site too but no contact of mine had any idea who they were. That&#8217;s the idea, of course, but having this information never hurts when building the bigger picture.</p>
<p>So off to WHOIS we go, expecting something useless. A name was there alongside an address, but they&#8217;re often fake so there&#8217;s never much optimism at this point. Google StreetView showed the address exists but it never stood out as authentic. However, there was an email address and a reverse search showed that other domains were connected to the same person.</p>
<p>In the old days, nobody thought to isolate their pirate activity from their other stuff, so searches like this were usually quite useful. These days people are more savvy. Correction: some people are.</p>
<p>Although the same name was present on the other non-piracy related domains, the street address was different but the same on each. One of the domains also had a phone number that was confirmed real. So, armed with a name, email address and this telephone number, a Google search was formulated and a handful of results came up. One in particular stood out.</p>
<p>The page had been indexed by Google some time ago but the posting on the third party site had gone, probably because it became outdated. Of course, the Internet never forgets and Google Cache returned the post to its former glory. The forum post had been made by a somewhat likeable unemployed guy, clearly brilliant with computers, trying to get back on his feet with a fresh job.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m not entirely sure what image people have when they think of people who run pirate sites but much of the media has been bathed in the images of The Pirate Bay founders and their &#8220;screw you&#8221; approach. But this guy was polite to a fault and didn&#8217;t mind telling the forum&#8217;s users that despite his undeniable skills managing servers, he&#8217;d been battling depression and could no longer work full time.</p>
<p>At this juncture, you realize that while at one point you&#8217;d been trying to find out something about a swashbuckling pirate, instead you&#8217;ve actually found a real-life and perhaps vulnerable human being. And with further crucial details culled from this post (that linked to a previously uncovered domain and sundry other pieces of private information), there was little doubt this was the same guy.</p>
<p>Several weeks after that plea for work, the streaming site/service that prompted these searches got off the ground and as far as we know has been going full steam ahead ever since. It wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise, however, to see it disappear in a cloud of smoke.</p>
<p>All of the information above, when put together, leads to a proper company, run by a gentleman with the same name as the one in the domain&#8217;s WHOIS. The address for the company is fake, which offers some security, but the guy doesn&#8217;t appear to have considered that it&#8217;s possible to cross-reference with other companies incorporated in the past. In this case, the second company leads to his home address and other members of his family.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a strange mixture of feelings when digging around on the Internet like this pays off. On the one hand, there&#8217;s a sense of achievement in piecing together the puzzle for research purposes. But on behalf of the guy at the other end, in this case there&#8217;s a sense of impending doom. Yes, he&#8217;s breaking the law. Yes, he should know better. But we&#8217;ve been writing about this stuff for long enough to know what might come next.</p>
<p>With just a few minutes of searching, there&#8217;s not much more to learn about this guy now, apart from his online alias, which is what I was hoping to find out in the beginning. In some ways i&#8217;d settle for that now &#8211; it&#8217;s not pleasant worrying about the future of people you don&#8217;t even know.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that i&#8217;m probably not alone in searching for this kind of information. Given the size of the operation, the attention it&#8217;s already receiving, and the content it offers and where, this same information is likely to be common knowledge at one anti-piracy group at least.</p>
<p>We all know it&#8217;s impossible to scrub the Internet clean but what&#8217;s most amazing in 2017 is that brilliant computer engineers have no idea how to keep themselves safe online. In this case, if it all goes bad, a criminal prosecution is likely. Upon conviction and given similar previous cases, a jail sentence is probable.</p>
<p>Unless this is the best decoy job ever undertaken by a careful pirate. In which case, it&#8217;s by far the best i&#8217;ve ever seen. Bravo&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141676
title: Movie Studios Wipe Pirate Site Homepages From Google Search
uri: Movie-Studios-Wipe-Pirate-Site-Homepages-From-Google-Search
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/R9queTd8snA/
content:
<p><img src="media/194856e0.destroy-delete-remove.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/destroy-delete-remove.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-141816">Over the past two weeks several pirate streaming sites have seen their homepages disappear from Google&#8217;s search results. </p>
<p>Earlier this week we reported how GoMovies switched to a new domain name, for this very reason, but on closer inspection it appears that several other sites have suffered the same fate.</p>
<p>While homepages have been removed before, the takedown notices that triggered the recent removals seem to be a systematic effort. They are all sent by the prominent law firm Kilpatrick Townsend, which acts on behalf of a variety of Hollywood movie studios.</p>
<p>The notices, of which the first was sent roughly two weeks ago, all follow a similar pattern. They identify infringing content on pirate streaming sites and list the individual URLs for these movies. In addition, however, many also include the homepage, which often highlights the same movie as a &#8220;new&#8221; or popular title. </p>
<p>In the case of Gomovies.is, <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/14598209">a request</a> was sent on behalf of Warner Bros. to remove Wonder Woman&#8217;s streaming page from Google, as well as the homepage where the movie was listed in the popular section. </p>
<p>This worked, not only for the GoMovies domain name but also for dozens of other streaming sites including yesmovies.org, watchfree.ac, xmovies.is, watch29.com, vivo.to, tunemovie.com, putlockervip.com, playmovies.to, moviesub.is and fmovies.ac.</p>
<p><center><strong>The takedown notice</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/92734909.removestream.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/removestream.png" alt="" width="570" height="438" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141818"></center></p>
<p>The example above is just the tip of the iceberg. Over the past two weeks the law firm has targeted many pirate streaming sites, acting on behalf of Warner Bros, Walt Disney Studios, Paramount Pictures, NBC Universal and others. This effectively removed dozens of pirate site homepages from search results. </p>
<p>To outsiders, it may seem like a homepage is just another link but for site owners, it&#8217;s a crucial matter. Many of these streaming sites rely on their brand name to remain findable in search engines, and when the homepage is removed, it&#8217;s nearly impossible to rise to the top of search results. </p>
<p>Although Google removed many of the early requests, it&#8217;s not blindly removing all URLs. </p>
<p>In response to several <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/requests/?id=4792098">recent notices</a> the search engine decided to take &#8220;no action&#8221; for the homepages, which is why gomovies.sc, cmovieshd.com, ap551.com, and others remain indexed. It&#8217;s possible that the infringing content was no longer linked on these homepages when Google reviewed the DMCA notices in question.</p>
<p>As for GoMovies, they simply decided to move to a new URL and remove any infringing content from the homepage so they don&#8217;t face the same problem in the future. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141888
title: Village Roadshow Invests $1.5m in Anti-Piracy Technology Company
uri: Village-Roadshow-Invests-1-5m-in-Anti-Piracy-Technology-Company
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pRHNlshrWXw/
content:
<p><a href="media/096bd33d.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg"><img src="media/468f0769.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426"></a>Aussie entertainment giant Village Roadshow is front-and-center of Australia&#8217;s fight against Intenet piracy.</p>
<p>Co-Executive Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer Graham Burke can often be found bemoaning rampant piracy Down Under, but today it&#8217;s his equal at Village Roadshow making the headlines.</p>
<p>Robert G Kirby&#8217;s presence at Village Roadshow dates back to the 1980s, but now both he and the company are making a significant outside investment in patented streaming technology. It aims to help in the fight against piracy while offering benefits in other areas of innovation.</p>
<p>The deal centers around the Linius Video Virtualisation Engine, an intriguing system patented by Australia-based Linius Technologies that allows the content of a video stream to be heavily modified live and on-the-fly, between its source and destination.</p>
<p>Linius explains that in the current marketplace, video files are static and not so different from an &#8220;old can of film&#8221;. People who want to watch online content press play on their devices and a message is sent to the datacenter holding the video. It&#8217;s then streamed to the user as-is and very little can be done with it on the way.</p>
<p>With its system, Linius says it places a &#8220;ghost&#8221; file on the user&#8217;s device which calls the data and recompiles it on the fly on the device itself. Instead of being a complete file at all times during transit, it only becomes a video when it&#8217;s on the device.</p>
<p>This means that the data is &#8220;manageable and malleable,&#8221; making it possible to add, delete and splice parts to make custom content, even going as far as &#8220;inserting new business rules&#8221; and other tech innovations, including payment gateways and security features.</p>
<p>One of the obvious applications is granting broadcasters the ability to personalize advertising on a per-user basis, but Linius says there is also the potential to enhance search engine monetization.</p>
<p>The attractive part for Village Roadshow, however, appears to center around the claim that since the physical video file never appears on the device, it cannot be saved, transferred or broadcast, only watched by the person who purchased the rights to the virtual video.</p>
<p>The company offers <a href="https://www.linius.com/anti-piracy/">few further details</a> publicly, but Village Roadshow is clearly keen to invest, since  &#8220;there&#8217;s no file to steal.&#8221;</p>
<p>This morning, Linius announced a $1 million private placement of ordinary shares to Village Roadshow Ltd, accompanied by a $500,000 private placement to Kirby family interests.</p>
<p>“We have followed the Linius story closely and are delighted to back the business with direct investment. We can see many applications for the technology across the video industry,&#8221; Robert Kirby said in a statement.</p>
<p>“Village Roadshow has long been a leading voice in tackling global piracy. We are particularly interested in the anti-piracy solutions that Linius is developing and are actively working together with Linius to introduce its technology to industry leaders in the hope of reducing global piracy.”</p>
<p>In May, Linius announced a collaboration with IBM to promote the Video Virtualisation Engine, including building onto the IBM&#8217;s <a href="https://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/bluemix/what-is-bluemix">Bluemix</a> cloud platform, to IBM&#8217;s network of corporate clients.</p>
<p>&#8220;I feel Linius could be a game changer in the world of video, from personalized advertising to search and security,&#8221; said Anthone Withers, Head of Software as a Service, IBM.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re now actively working with Linius to identify and market the technology to target customers.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/208633767?title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/208633767">Linius Overview</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/linius">Linius Technologies</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141890
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 07/17/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-07-17-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ztLKBA_gza4/
content:
<p><img src="media/bb7d2d4a.mummy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mummy.png" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140666">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Mummy, which came out as a subbed HDRip last week, is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-071017/">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>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost In the Shell</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/boss-baby-torrent-downloads/">The Boss Baby</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquIfapGVqs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">Alien Covenant</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBi41reeF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fate-furious-torrent-downloads/">The Fate of the Furious</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XBmsl7wbIQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2568862/">Going in Style</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2568862/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBla_mCREX4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141882
title: Game of Thrones Premiere Ignites Annual Piracy Bonanza
uri: Game-of-Thrones-Premiere-Ignites-Annual-Piracy-Bonanza
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fvCVVP2yi7c/
content:
<p><img src="media/33d06a7a.got-thrones7.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got-thrones7.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-141895">Yesterday, the first episode of Game of Thrones’ seventh season made its way onto the Internet. Like every year, this generated quite a bit of activity on various torrent sites.</p>
<p>People from all over the world virtually gathered around the various pirated copies of the show, with the first torrents appearing within minutes of the official broadcast and dozens of others soon after.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, more than 130,000 people are actively sharing one of the three most-popular torrents. </p>
<p>Part of this unofficial audience prefers piracy over a paid subscription. However, the fact that pirate copies are available before the official release in many countries doesn&#8217;t help either.</p>
<p>The most-shared torrent at the moment, with tens of thousands of peers, is a 772.3 MB rip from TBS uploaded by the ettv distribution group. Like every year, the total number of downloads is eventually expected to run to several million per episode. </p>
<p><center><strong>Tracker stats for Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.WEB.h264-TBS[ettv]</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6e2edabe.got7.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got7.png" alt="" width="514" height="127" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141939"></center></p>
<p>Regarding the piracy numbers, Game of Thrones still beats every other TV-show by a landslide. That said, it&#8217;s worth noting that torrent activity has leveled off somewhat. </p>
<p>The last swarm record, when <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-season-finale-breaks-piracy-record-150615/">over a quarter million</a> people were simultaneously sharing a single file, dates back two years. Based on the numbers we&#8217;ve seen thus far, it&#8217;s not likely to be broken anytime soon, if ever.</p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that the interest from pirates is waning. Not at all. Over the past two years, streaming sites and services have exploded, and Game of Thrones is topping the charts there as well. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to a source at one of the larger streaming portals who informed us that some episodes get up to a million views each. This morning, the Game of Thrones season premiere generated close to 20,000 views per hour on that site. And that&#8217;s just on a single platform. </p>
<p>This massive demand is also reflected in the &#8220;most viewed&#8221; lists on many streaming sites, where GoT often comes out on top. In fact, on Fmovies the first six seasons of the show were all among the most viewed titles this week, soon to be followed by season 7. </p>
<p><center><strong>Most-viewed on FMovies during the past week</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8f8c1bc6.fmoviesviewed.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fmoviesviewed.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="546" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141915"></center></p>
<p>Since streaming has overtaken torrents in terms of popularity, it&#8217;s safe to say that the majority of all Game of Thrones piracy is generated there as well.</p>
<p>In a way, pirate streaming sites and set-top boxes provide an even bigger threat to HBO&#8217;s hit series. They are generally easier and more convenient to use, which significantly broadens the audience.</p>
<p>Streaming aside, a lot of the mainstream attention remains directed at torrents. Over in India, for example, local broadcaster Hotstar launched a massive billboard campaign called &#8220;Torrents Morghulis,&#8221; which translated means &#8220;torrents must die.&#8221; </p>
<p>Ironically, however, Indians had access to pirated Game of Thrones copies <a href="http://gadgets.ndtv.com/entertainment/news/game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-1-torrents-download-got-s07e01-hotstar-1725707">before the official premiere</a>. When it finally became available on Hotstar the service crashed, something which also happened <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-17/foxtel-down-as-new-game-of-thrones-season-released/8717762">with Foxtel</a> in Australia and HBO in several other countries. </p>
<p>Perhaps these broadcasters should consider peer-to-peer assisted streaming next time, we&#8217;ve heard it works quite well.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TorrentsMorghulis?src=hash">#TorrentsMorghulis</a><br>Well done <a href="https://twitter.com/hotstartweets">@hotstartweets</a> <br>But torrents will never die 😀😂😁 <a href="https://t.co/MCHrSU4L35">pic.twitter.com/MCHrSU4L35</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Subham Shaw (@reelsubham) <a href="https://twitter.com/reelsubham/status/886829151470080000">July 17, 2017</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141814
title: Court: Warner Bros Needs Stronger Evidence Against Alleged BitTorrent Pirate
uri: Court-Warner-Bros-Needs-Stronger-Evidence-Against-Alleged-BitTorrent
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/E7J-iiUfLbo/
content:
<p><img src="media/dd7b97a3.warnerbrosentertainment.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warnerbrosentertainment.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="161" class="alignright size-full wp-image-141948">Over the past decade, copyright holders have gone after hundreds of thousands of alleged pirates in Germany, demanding settlements ranging from a few hundred to thousands of euros.</p>
<p>The targeted account holders are often indeed the perpetrator, but false accusations are bound to happen due to the sheer volume of these cases.</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons why local courts are paying careful attention to the provided evidence. At the District Court of Cologne, this recently resulted in a verdict, clarifying that simply linking an IP-address to a pirated download is not good enough. </p>
<p>The case in question deals with a claim from the local branch of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which accused an account holder of sharing a pirated episode of the popular TV-show &#8220;Person of Interest.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Hollywood studio claimed 500 euros in damages from the alleged copyright infringer, as well as 168.50 euros in expenses. The defendant, however, said he was innocent, refused to pay up, and contested the claim in court, with success. </p>
<p>Warner&#8217;s tracking partner Ipoque had only monitored the defendant&#8217;s IP-address twice during a period of 10 minutes. This is not good enough according to the court, since IP-address misassignments regularly take place.</p>
<p>&#8220;The causes for a misassignment don&#8217;t have to relate to the software of the tracking company, they can also come from others. For example, the transmission of acquired data, or the ISPs assignment of collected IP addresses to connection holders. In the latter case, the Court of First Instance has seen an error rate of at least 2 &#8211; 3%,&#8221; the court writes.</p>
<p>In this case, the defendant argued that his ISP failed to update the IP-address assignments and that he no longer used the infringing address at the contested time. </p>
<p>The District Court of Cologne agreed that this was a plausible argument. Ideally, Warner should have provided a more extensive tracking record, with more IP-addresses leading to the same account holder, assuming that the assignments regularly change.</p>
<p>Defense attorney <a href="https://www.wbs-law.de/">Christian Solmecke</a> tells TorrentFreak that so-called &#8220;simple tracking,&#8221; where only a single IP-address is used as evidence, is simply not good enough. </p>
<p>&#8220;In case of simple tracking, evaluation errors are always possible. For instance, mixing up the numbers of the IP-address. The tracking parameters are technically complicated so errors may occur at various stages of the process,&#8221; Solmecke notes. </p>
<p>In some cases the error rates can go up to 50%, a recent verdict has shown, which means that accused file-sharers have a solid defense when they are accused based on minimal evidence. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is important for defendants as courts usually tend to assume that it cannot be sufficiently clarified whether filesharing did indeed occur via the Internet connection of the defendant. Simple tracking can, therefore, be seen as a good chance for defendants to win against the warning letter industry,&#8221; Solmecke adds.</p>
<p>While the verdict is unlikely to stop the piracy settlement industry in Germany, it may prompt rightsholders to step up their BitTorrent monitoring practices. </p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t only apply to Warner Bros. Entertainment, but also to other major rightsholders including the local branches of Universal Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Music, EMI Music and Sony Music, which are all active on the anti-piracy front in Germany.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The full verdict of the District Court of Cologne is available <a href="http://<a href="https://www.wbs-law.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Volltext-AG-K%C3%B6ln-125-C-571-16.pdf>&#8220;>here (pdf)</a>, with help from <a href="https://tarnkappe.info/filesharing-das-feststellen-einer-ip-adresse-fuehrt-nicht-immer-zum-abmahnerfolg/">Tarnkappe</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141967
title: Steal This Show S03E05: ‘Hacking The System’
uri: Steal-This-Show-S03E05-Hacking-The-System
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DBq-HJFrGm0/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="stslogo180" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928"><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p>In this episode, we meet two Dangerous Internet Hackers from 2600 and the radio show <a href="https://www.2600.com/node/17585">Off The Hook</a>, to discuss how hacking became so important to politics &#8212; from Russians messing with elections to Volkswagen lying about emissions. </p>
<p>We also check in on Chelsea Manning and the Cablegate leaks, and look at the role hacking has as part of a future political resistance. Plus: when entities like The Pirate Bay are able to launch a meaningful assault on the centuries-old edifice of copyright, has the establishment woken up to the power of hackers to shape our culture? </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis. </p>
<p>The guests for our news discussions will vary, and we&#8217;ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds. </p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> <a href="https://twitter.com/volt4ire">Robert Barat</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/rob_t_firefly">Rob Vincent</a></p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=3&#038;lpe-episode=05" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Riley Byrne<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Siraje Amarniss</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141973
title: Several TVAddons Domains Transferred to Canadian Lawfirm
uri: Several-TVAddons-Domains-Transferred-to-Canadian-Lawfirm
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SfL0EVsEYDk/
content:
<p><a href="media/0adb6d74.tvaddons-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-1.png"><img src="media/b2863a48.tvaddons-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-1.png" alt="" width="270" height="117" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137958"></a>The last couple of months have been the most chaotic on record for the booming Kodi third-party addon scene. After years of largely interrupted service, a single lawsuit changed the entire landscape.</p>
<p>Last month, TF broke the news that third-party Kodi add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">being sued</a> in a federal court in Texas. The fallout was something to behold.</p>
<p>Within days the ‘pirate’ Kodi community found itself in turmoil. Several high-profile Kodi addons took the decision to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kodi-add-ons-quit-following-prominent-piracy-lawsuit-170607/">shut down</a> and even TVAddons itself <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-turmoil-continues-as-tvaddons-mysteriously-disappears-170613/">went dark</a> without explanation.</p>
<p>At the time, unsubstantiated rumors suggested that TVAddons&#8217; disappearance could be attributed to some coincidental site maintenance. However, with around 40 million regular users built up over a number of years, a disappearing Facebook page, and complete radio silence during alleged &#8220;routine maintenance,&#8221; something was clearly wrong.</p>
<p>It would&#8217;ve taken just a couple of minutes to put a &#8216;maintenance&#8217; notice on the site but one didn&#8217;t appear back in June, and one hasn&#8217;t appeared since. Behind the scenes,<br>
 however, things have been shifting.</p>
<p>In addition to wiping the DNS entries of TVAddons.ag, on at least another couple of occasions the domain has been quietly updated. The image below shows how it used to look.</p>
<p><center><b>TVAddons historical domain WHOIS</b><a href="media/c2441305.tvaddons-old.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-old.png"><img src="media/eb439744.tvaddons-old.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-old.png" alt="" width="638" height="559" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-141974"></a></center></p>
<p>PrivacyDotLink refers to a service offered by Cayman Islands-based registry Uniregistry. Instead of displaying the real name and address of the domain owner (in this case the person behind TVAddons.ag), the registry replaces the information with details of its own.</p>
<p>The privacy service is used for many reasons, but it&#8217;s not hard to see why it&#8217;s of particular use to sites in the &#8216;pirate&#8217; sector.</p>
<p>While some of the changes to the TVAddons domain during the past five weeks or so haven&#8217;t been obvious, this morning we observed the biggest change yet. As seen in the image below, its ownership details are no longer obscured by the privacy service.</p>
<p><center><b>TVAddons new domain WHOIS</b><a href="media/4c3297a5.tvaddons-new.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-new.png"><img src="media/16bc39e0.tvaddons-new.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-new.png" alt="" width="615" height="433" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-141975"></a></center></p>
<p>What stands out here is the name Daniel Drapeau. On closer inspection, this gentleman turns out to be a Canada-based lawyer who was admitted to the Quebec Bar in 1991.</p>
<p>&#8220;A passion for IP and a 20 year track record, servicing corporations and individuals alike in a wide variety of industries, including industrial equipment, consumer products, publishing, food &#038; beverage, fashion and arts,&#8221; Drapeau&#8217;s Linkedin page reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;His forte is the strategic use of IP rights and litigation to achieve his clients’ goals, whether they be protective, aggressive or defensive. Specialties: Expeditive remedies, including injunctions and seizure orders.&#8221;</p>
<p>The other fresh detail in the WHOIS is an address &#8211; 600, de Maisonneuve West, Montreal (Quebec) H3A 3J2. It&#8217;s a perfect match for the premises of DrapeauLex, a law firm launched by Drapeau in 2012.</p>
<p>Only adding to the intrigue is the fact that other domains operated by TVAddons both recently and historically have also been transferred to the lawfirm.</p>
<p>XMBCHUB.com, which was the domain used by TVAddons before making the switch several years ago, was transferred yesterday. The same can be said about Offshoregit.com, the domain used by TVAddons to distribute Kodi addons.</p>
<p>While there are a few explanations for a lawyer&#8217;s name appearing on the TVAddons domains, none of them are yet supported by legal documentation filed in the United States. As of this morning, the Dish Network case docket had received no additional updates. No notice of action in Canada has been made public.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, as a past president of the Intellectual Property Institute of Canada&#8217;s anti-counterfeiting committee, Drapeau is certainly an interesting character in the IP space. As noted in a 2009 <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2009/07/montreal-town-hall-summary/">article</a> by Professor of Law Michael Geist, Drapeau &#8220;urged the government to adopt a system of notice-and-takedown.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interestingly, Drapeau also worked at law firm Smart &#038; Biggar, where former colleague Jean-Sébastien Dupont recently went on to represent Canadian broadcasters in <em>Wesley (Mtlfreetv.com) v. Bell Canada</em>, the big <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-federal-court-restrains-sale-of-pirate-boxes-160610/">Kodi-addon piracy case currently underway</a> in Canada.</p>
<p>At this stage, it&#8217;s unclear who Drapeau is working for in the TVAddons case. It&#8217;s possible that he&#8217;s working for Dish and this is a step towards the domains being handed over to the broadcaster as part of a settlement deal with TVAddons. That being said, the XBMChub and Offshoregit domains weren&#8217;t mentioned in the Dish lawsuit so something else might be underway.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Drapeau for comment and clarification, but at the time of publication, we had received no response.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/49053246?color=ffffff&#038;title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="https://vimeo.com/49053246">Dan Drapeau talks Intellectual Property</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user13345610">DrapeauLex</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142020
title: IPTV Service Raided By Police & Shutdown, Operator Arrested
uri: IPTV-Service-Raided-By-Police-Shutdown-Operator-Arrested
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wm4DLQ-h5H0/
content:
<p><a href="media/2a68b569.bulky.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bulky.jpg"><img src="media/c1b59297.bulky.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bulky.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142038"></a>As torrents and regular streaming continue in the background, premium IPTV services are becoming increasingly popular.</p>
<p>Available for a few pounds, dollars or euros per month, these products offer a TV viewing service to rival and even beat those put out by the world&#8217;s leading entertainment distribution groups.</p>
<p>For an outlay of less than £8 in the UK, for example, it&#8217;s possible to receive more TV channels than Sky, Virgin and BT Sport have to offer &#8211; combined &#8211; and then much more on top.</p>
<p>The main providers (wholesalers, for want of a better term) cascade their products/channels down to smaller providers who act as retailers with direct contact with the public. These kinds of businesses are on the rise and often sell their products locally, via websites and social media, Facebook in particular.</p>
<p>Yesterday it appears that one of these &#8216;retailers&#8217; found out what it&#8217;s like to be the low-hanging fruit in the piracy chain. During the course of the day, visitors to BulkyIPTV&#8217;s forums began complaining that the system had gone down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Is the bulkyiptv server down at the minute? If so can anyone tell me how long this is likely to take?&#8221; posted one.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes mine is down too, v annoying. Also the <a href="http://bulkyiptv.net">website</a> is redirecting to partycabs!&#8221; said another.</p>
<p>Indeed, the main website for BulkyIPTV had stopped offering various IPTV and similar TV-focused products and begun redirecting to a company offering a white London taxi cab experience for partygoers.</p>
<p><center><b>How BulkyIPTV looked before its disappearance</b><a href="media/fbc69801.1484370059396_16111687_10211353834579687_1299843328_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/1484370059396_16111687_10211353834579687_1299843328_n.jpg"><img src="media/fbac52ea.1484370059396_16111687_10211353834579687_1299843328_n.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/1484370059396_16111687_10211353834579687_1299843328_n.jpg" alt="" width="720" height="405" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142056"></a></center></p>
<p>Questions on third-party forums went unanswered too. </p>
<p>&#8220;Hi guys, any one know what&#8217;s happened tonight? Facebook page gone,&#8221; a user asked.</p>
<p>A disappearing Facebook page in any &#8216;pirate&#8217; setting is rarely a good sign. Many IPTV &#8216;companies&#8217; use the social platform to interact with existing customers and generate new sales. When a page is deleted, many providers can do neither and that&#8217;s hardly compatible with good business.</p>
<p>But while the Facebook page may have been deleted, that didn&#8217;t happen before the owner of BulkyIPTV and other &#8216;Bulky&#8217; branded services (including a hosting company and sites that sold other &#8216;unofficial&#8217; TV products) had made a post detailing why there are problems. A post shared with TF by a member revealed all.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hi all. Today I was arrested. Everything has been shut down,&#8221; it read.</p>
<p>&#8220;They took everything &#8211; phone, laptop, PC and cash, as well as other stuff to gather evidence against me. I&#8217;m sorry it has come to this but i&#8217;m looking at a stretch inside.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>The Facebook post</b><a href="media/89762d3e.bulky-facebook.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bulky-facebook.png"><img src="media/5033db78.bulky-facebook.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bulky-facebook.png" alt="" width="540" height="519" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142070"></a></center></p>
<p>The person, who is a regular poster to the Bulky Facebook page, has a name and credentials that match the WHOIS details on various &#8216;Bulky&#8217; domains, plus matching photos posted elsewhere on social media, signed off with a note saying: &#8220;I&#8217;m not one to bullshit.&#8221;</p>
<p>With no announcement yet from the police, it&#8217;s unclear where the arrest took place but TF sources indicate the site owner is from the Derbyshire region of the UK. That was relatively easy to confirm using a number of publicly available sources.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, there appears to have been zero effort to stay anonymous online. The operator&#8217;s real name can be found across his business ventures &#8216;helpfully&#8217; accompanied by detailed postings not only on Facebook but also Twitter and various image storage sites.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak&#8217;s requests for comment from the operator of the service remain unanswered.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iPtYIUeDhYw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142024
title: Game of Thrones Pirates Being Monitored By HBO, Warnings On The Way
uri: Game-of-Thrones-Pirates-Being-Monitored-By-HBO-Warnings-On-The-Way
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2ssG4xHAgdQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/821a106b.got-thrones7-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got-thrones7-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142026">Earlier this week, HBO released the long-awaited seventh season of the hit series Game of Thrones. </p>
<p>The show has broken several piracy records over the years and, thus far, there has been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-premiere-ignites-annual-piracy-bonanza-170717/">plenty of interest</a> in the latest season.</p>
<p>This hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by HBO. Soon after the first episode of the new season appeared online Sunday evening, the company’s anti-piracy partner IP Echelon started sending warnings targeted at torrenting pirates.</p>
<p>The warnings in question include the IP-addresses of alleged BitTorrent users and ask the associated ISPs to alert their subscribers, in order to prevent further infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have information leading us to believe that the IP address xx.xxx.xxx.xx was used to download or share Game of Thrones without authorization,&#8221; the notification begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;HBO owns the copyright or exclusive rights to Game of Thrones, and the unauthorized download or distribution constitutes copyright infringement. Downloading unauthorized or unknown content is also a security risk for computers, devices, and networks.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under US copyright law, ISPs are not obligated to forward these emails, which are sent as a DMCA notification. However, many do as a courtesy to the affected rightsholders.</p>
<p><center><strong>Redacted infringement details from one of the notices</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5e6ce2c1.infringementdetails.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/infringementdetails.jpg" alt="" width="552" height="268" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142030"></center></p>
<p>The warnings are not targeted at a single swarm but cover a wide variety of torrents. TorrentFreak has already seen takedown notices for the following files, but it&#8217;s likely that many more are being tracked.</p>
<ul>
<li>Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.720p.WEB.h264-TBS[eztv].mkv</li>
<li>Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.HDTV.x264-SVA[rarbg]</li>
<li>Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.WEB.h264-TBS[ettv] </li>
<li>Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.HDTV.x264-SVA[eztv].mkv </li>
<li>Game.of.Thrones.S07E01.720p.HDTV.x264-AVS[eztv].mkv</li>
</ul>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that Game of Thrones pirates have received these kinds of warnings. Similar notices were sent out last year for pirated episodes of the sixth season, and it&#8217;s now clear that HBO is not backing down.</p>
<p>Although HBO stresses that copyright infringement is against the law, there are no legal strings attached for the subscribers in question. The company doesn’t know the identity of the alleged pirates, and would need to go to court to find out. This has never happened before. </p>
<p>Filing lawsuits against Game of Thrones fans is probably not high on HBO&#8217;s list, but the company hopes that affected subscribers will think twice before downloading future episodes after they are warned.</p>
<p>The DMCA notice asks ISPs to inform subscribers about the various legal alternatives that are available, to give them a push in the right direction.</p>
<p>&#8220;We also encourage you to inform the subscriber that HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally by adding HBO to the subscriber’s television package,&#8221; the notice reads. </p>
<p>While this type of message may have an effect on some, they only cover a small fraction of the piracy landscape. Millions of people are using pirate streaming tools and websites to watch Game of Thrones, and these views can&#8217;t be monitored.</p>
<p>In addition, the fact that many broadcasters worldwide suffered technical issues and outages when Game of Thrones premiered doesn&#8217;t help either. The legal options should be superior to the pirated offerings, not the other way around. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A redacted copy of one of the notices is available below.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>Dear xxx Communications,</p>
<p>This message is sent on behalf of HOME BOX OFFICE, INC. </p>
<p>We have information leading us to believe that the IP address xx.xxx.xxx.xxx was used to download or share Game of Thrones without authorization (additional details are listed below). HBO owns the copyright or exclusive rights to Game of Thrones, and the unauthorized download or distribution constitutes copyright infringement. Downloading unauthorized or unknown content is also a security risk for computers, devices, and networks.</p>
<p>As the owner of the IP address, HBO requests that xxx Communications immediately contact the subscriber who was assigned the IP address at the date and time below with the details of this notice, and take the proper steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices.</p>
<p>We also encourage you to inform the subscriber that HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally by adding HBO to the subscriber’s television package.</p>
<p>We have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted material detailed below is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law. The information in this notice is accurate and we state, under penalty of perjury, that we are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed. This letter is not a complete statement of HBO&#8217;s rights in connection with this matter, and nothing contained herein constitutes an express or implied wavier of any rights or remedies of HBO in connection with this matter, all of which are expressly reserved.</p>
<p>We appreciate your assistance and thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Your prompt response is requested. Any further enquiries can be directed to xx@copyright.ip-echelon.com. Please include this message with your enquiry to ensure a quick response.</p>
<p>Respectfully,</p>
<p>Adrian Leatherland<br>
CEO<br>
IP-Echelon</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142097
title: BREIN Wants to Speed Up Dutch Pirate Bay Blockade
uri: BREIN-Wants-to-Speed-Up-Dutch-Pirate-Bay-Blockade
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZYrcfzGt4wk/
content:
<p><img src="media/7b21649b.tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" alt="" width="256" height="219" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-142141">While website blocking has become a common occurrence in many European countries, it has proven to be a rather cumbersome and slow-moving process in the Netherlands.</p>
<p>Seven years ago, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN went to court to try and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-wants-isp-to-block-the-pirate-bay-100429/">force local ISP Ziggo</a> to block The Pirate Bay. Rival ISP XS4ALL later joined in on the action, which is still ongoing.</p>
<p>Initially, the court decided that blocking all subscribers went too far but BREIN wasn’t satisfied and took the case to a full trial, which they won. </p>
<p>Both Ziggo and XS4ALL filed subsequent appeals, arguing that the blockade was ineffective and denied subscribers’ free access to information, an argument which later <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/202770084/Tpb-Appeal">proved successful</a>. </p>
<p>The case eventually moved to the Supreme Court, which referred some questions to the European Court of Justice. The highest European court ruled that there are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">no legal obstacles</a> to have a site like The Pirate Bay blocked, and now the ball is back with the Supreme Court again. </p>
<p>BREIN, however, has grown impatient and doesn&#8217;t want to wait until the Supreme Court comes to a final decision, which isn&#8217;t expected to happen before 2018. To speed things up, the anti-piracy group wants a new preliminary injunction at a lower court. </p>
<p>A new hearing on the Pirate Bay blockade is currently scheduled to take place at a court in The Hague early September, Tweakers <a href="https://tweakers.net/nieuws/95074/europese-hof-rechters-mogen-providers-verplichten-websites-te-blokkeren.html">reports</a>.</p>
<p>BREIN director Tim Kuik informs TorrentFreak that the preliminary injunction will only be valid until the final verdict is handed down.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are requesting a preliminary injunction until the final decision in the procedural trial, now pending before the Dutch Supreme Court. After that, the final blocking decision applies,&#8221; Kuik says.</p>
<p>Kuik stresses that its action is supported by the recent EU Court of Justice ruling <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">which clarified</a> that The Pirate Bay facilitates copyright infringement, as well as an earlier <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-isps-can-be-forced-to-block-pirate-sites-140327/">ruling from 2014</a>, which confirmed that EU Internet service providers can be required to block access to such sites.</p>
<p>Based on the second ruling, pirate site blockades are warranted if they make it harder for the public to access these sites. This is certainly the case here, according to Kuik, who refers to blockades in thirteen other EU countries.</p>
<p>In addition, the EU court stressed that blocking injunctions must be proportional, so as not to unnecessarily stop subscribers from lawfully accessing information. </p>
<p>Responding to the news, a Ziggo spokesman told Tweakers that BREIN is running ahead of itself. The provider is of the opinion that they have to wait for the Supreme Court to make a final decision before taking any further action.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142100
title: Kim Dotcom Denied Access to Illegally Obtained Spy Recordings
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Denied-Access-to-Illegally-Obtained-Spy-Recordings
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qSXINHkK2cw/
content:
<p><a href="media/a3ff325e.dotcom-prez.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-prez.jpg"><img src="media/ee28886a.dotcom-prez.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-prez.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56036" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-prez.jpg 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-prez-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px"></a>In the months leading up to the infamous raid on Kim Dotcom&#8217;s New Zealand mansion and his now defunct cloud storage site Megaupload, the entrepreneur was under surveillance.</p>
<p>Not only were the MPAA and RIAA amassing information, the governments of the United States and New Zealand were neck-deep in the investigation too, using the FBI and local police to gather information. What soon became evident, however, is that the authorities in New Zealand did so while breaking the rules.</p>
<p>Between 16 December 2011 to 22 March 2012, New Zealand used the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) agency to spy on the private communications of Kim and Mona Dotcom, plus Megaupload co-defendant Bram van der Kolk. This was hugely problematic.</p>
<p>GCSB is an intelligence agency of the New Zealand government responsible for spying on external entities. It is forbidden by law from conducting surveillance on its own citizens or permanent residents in the country. His standing in the country meant that Dotcom should not have been spied on.</p>
<p>“Of course I apologize to Mr Dotcom, and I apologize to New Zealanders,&#8221; then New Zealand Prime Minister John Key later <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-zealand-prime-minister-apologizes-to-kim-dotcom-120927/">said</a>.</p>
<p>Since it was established that New Zealand illegally spied on Dotcom, the Megaupload founder has been trying to find out what information the GCSB gathered about him, then wife Mona, and former colleague Bram van der Kolk. According to Dotcom, there was a total of 87 breaches, all of which the government wants to keep secret.</p>
<p>Since then, Dotcom has been fighting to gain access to the information GCSB illegally obtained, while seeking compensation for the damages caused.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down this morning, the High Court details its findings in respect of a three-day hearing that took place early April 2017, during which GCSB said the raw, unredacted information should be withheld from Dotcom on national security grounds.</p>
<p>GCSB and the government argued that the public interest in the disclosure of the material is outweighed by the public interest in withholding it, adding that the security and defense of New Zealand would be compromised on the world stage.</p>
<p>For their part, the Dotcoms said that nondisclosure of the unredacted documents breaches their rights under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990. Given that any damages award is directly linked to the extent and nature of the illegal intrusions into their private lives, access to the documents is paramount.</p>
<p>That being the case, they argued that the public interest in disclosure outweighs any public interest in the information being withheld.</p>
<p>This morning, citing a 2013 Court of Appeal verdict that ruled the GCSB didn&#8217;t have to release the raw communications, Justice Murray Gilbert insisted that the recordings will not be released.</p>
<p>&#8220;A number of the redactions in the discovered documents are to protect the identity or contact details of personnel who were involved in or associated with the operation or copied into email communications concerning it,&#8221; Justice Gilbert <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/354218578/CIV-2013-404-2168-14-07-2017">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is hard to see how any of this information could be relevant to the relief that should be granted in this proceeding. Again, the public interest in withholding disclosure of this information far outweighs any public interest in its disclosure.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a statement, Kim Dotcom expressed his frustrations, noting that the government is doing everything it can to suppress details of the illegal surveillance.</p>
<p>&#8220;After being caught, the GCSB has fought to keep what it did, and how, a secret from me and from you, the New Zealand public. Worse, it seeks to hide behind &#8216;national security&#8217; to keep the truth from us,&#8221; Dotcom said.</p>
<p>&#8220;To keep this secret, the GCSB applied to the High Court. It filed secret evidence and secret submissions. The GCSB’s lawyers were heard in a &#8216;closed&#8217; court with the Judge, where they made secret submissions and secret witnesses gave secret evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom said neither his lawyers nor the public was allowed to be present during the hearing. And when his legal team could be heard, they were significantly hampered in their work.</p>
<p>&#8220;When my lawyers were heard, after that hearing, they had to make submissions as to why information they were not allowed to see, for reasons they were not allowed to know, should be disclosed. They were effectively shooting at a moving target, in the dark, with one hand tied behind their backs,&#8221; Dotcom said.</p>
<p>The Megaupload founder suggests there is there is a clear double-standard when he has to be tried in public for his alleged crimes, but when it comes to offenses carried out by the government, the process takes place behind closed doors.</p>
<p>&#8220;I will appeal this judgment and ask the Court of Appeal to shine some cleansing sunlight on what happened here. If there is transparency, there is accountability, and we can prevent this happening again,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141744
title: The KickassTorrents Shutdown, One Year Later
uri: The-KickassTorrents-Shutdown-One-Year-Later
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rkExoTL_de4/
content:
<p><img src="media/0e04fa00.kickasstorrents_500x5001-e1485445713871.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x5001-e1485445713871.png" alt="" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-99785">Exactly one year ago, on July 20th 2016, the torrent community was in dire straits. </p>
<p>Polish law enforcement officers had just <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">apprehended</a> Artem Vaulin, the alleged founder of KickassTorrents (KAT) at a local airport. </p>
<p>The arrest was part of a U.S. criminal case which also listed two other men as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-alleged-top-men-behind-kickasstorrents-160826/">key players</a>. At the time, KAT was the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2017-170107/">most-used torrent site</a> around, so the authorities couldn&#8217;t have hit a more prominent target.</p>
<p>The criminal case was the end of the torrent site, but also the start of a lengthy court battle for the defendants. </p>
<p>To this day, Artem remains in Poland. He&#8217;s currently out on bail awaiting the final decision on the extradition request from the United States, while the other two defendants remain at large. If he is extradited, it&#8217;s expected that an extensive court battle will follow.</p>
<p>Although the original KickassTorrents is website no longer around, the &#8216;brand&#8217; is still very much alive. Soon after the site went down several KAT copies and mirrors appeared. For many, however, the original site is still dearly missed.</p>
<p>The most prominent effort to create a replacement is the product of a group of well-known staffers from the original site. They began to rebuild the community by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-community-resurrects-without-torrents-160725/">launching a forum</a> for estranged KAT users last summer. A few months later they expanded their KATcr project to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-brought-back-to-life-by-original-staffers-161216/">full blown torrent site</a>, mimicking the looks of the original.</p>
<p>Today, one year after it all started, we reach out to the new <a href="https://katcr.co/">KATcr</a> team to hear about their memories and future plans. </p>
<p>&#8220;Looking back it was shocking and disheartening for everyone, we know it happens but didn&#8217;t expect our ship to sink like that. We&#8217;ve written history there though, made many friends, learned a hell of a lot, and achieved so much,&#8221; Mr.Gooner recalls. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s thanks to the original site and the loyal, supporting users that we were able to rebuild our ship and set sail again,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>While KATcr was able to put up a forum within days, getting fully organized was a more complex operation. Several former admins came on board, but without access to the original code or database, it took a few months to build a KAT replacement from scratch.</p>
<p><center><strong>KATcr today</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7c46ef02.katcr1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katcr1.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="311" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142082"></center></p>
<p>The site eventually relaunched as a full-blown torrent site last December. Although it doesn&#8217;t get as much traffic as the original KAT, many former users have found their way &#8216;back.&#8217; </p>
<p>&#8220;Minus a few hiccups and various other minor issues most new sites experience, traffic is increasing at a good rate. We are continuously improving and our name is well and truly out there now. The door is open and everyone is welcomed with open arms, we know all too well what it&#8217;s like to lose our home,&#8221; Mr.Gooner notes.</p>
<p>A lot of people would think twice before attempting to fill the shoes of a site that was hunted down by the US Department of Justice. However, the KATcr team believes that they are acting within the boundaries of the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;As far as we are concerned we operate to every letter of the law,&#8221; Mr.Gooner states in full confidence.</p>
<p>In the future, the site hopes to expand its userbase even further. Although it&#8217;s now been a year since the original KAT was pulled offline, the KATcr team prefers to look ahead, instead of dwelling in the past. There are some people who are still missed, but other than that, the focus is forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;I mostly miss those that are no longer with us. But rather than living in the past, the present day and the future is what matters, so we don&#8217;t tend to look back to miss anything else,&#8221; Mr.Gooner says. </p>
<p>Looking ahead is what alleged KickassTorrents operator Artem Vaulin will do as well. His concerns are different though. </p>
<p>The most pressing question that has to be answered in the near future is whether Poland will extradite him to the United States. Through his lawyers, he previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-kickasstorrents-owner-considers-voluntary-surrender-to-the-us-170616/">floated the idea</a> of surrendering to the US voluntarily to “resolve” the pending charges, but only under the right conditions. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, he remains in Poland <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-kickasstorrents-founder-released-on-bail-170523/">on bail</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142196
title: ‘Game of Thrones Season 7 Premiere Pirated 90 Million Times’
uri: Game-of-Thrones-Season-7-Premiere-Pirated-90-Million-Times
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/b7hY9b2rkwU/
content:
<p><img src="media/0f671074.thrones.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thrones.jpg" alt="" width="248" height="131" class="alignright size-full wp-image-51268">Last Sunday, the long-awaited seventh season of the hit series Game of Thrones aired in dozens of countries worldwide.</p>
<p>The show has broken several piracy records over the years and, thus far, there <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-premiere-ignites-annual-piracy-bonanza-170717/">has been plenty of interest</a> in the latest season as well.</p>
<p>Like every year, the torrent download figures quickly ran into the millions. However, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-premiere-ignites-annual-piracy-bonanza-170717/">little</a> is known about the traffic that goes to streaming portals, which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-sites-dominate-movie-and-tv-show-piracy-160727/">have outgrown</a> traditional file-sharing sites in recent years.</p>
<p>One of the main problems is that it&#8217;s impossible for outsiders to know exactly how many visitors pirate streaming services get. Traffic data for these sites are not public, which makes it difficult to put an exact figure on the number of views one particular video has. </p>
<p>Piracy monitoring firm <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> hasn&#8217;t shied away from this unexplored territory though and has now released some hard numbers. </p>
<p>According to MUSO, the premiere episode of the seventh season of Game of Thrones has been pirated more than 90 million times in only three days. A massive number, which is largely driven by streaming traffic. </p>
<p>Exactly 77,913,032 pirate views came from streaming portals, while public torrent traffic sits in second place with 8,356,382 downloads. Another 4,949,298 downloads are linked to direct download sites, while the remaining 523,109 come from private torrents. </p>
<p>Why other platforms such as Usenet are not covered remains unexplained in the press release, but without these the total is already quite substantial, to say the least.</p>
<p>MUSO reports that most pirate traffic comes from the United States, with 15.1 million unauthorized downloads and streams. The United Kingdom follows in second place with 6.2 million, before Germany, India, and Indonesia, with between 4 and 5 million each.</p>
<p>Andy Chatterley, MUSO&#8217;s CEO and Co-Founder, notes that the results may come as a surprise to some industry insiders, describing them as &#8220;huge.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no denying that these figures are huge, so they&#8217;re likely to raise more than a few eyebrows in the mainstream industry, but it&#8217;s in line with the sort of scale we see across piracy sites and should be looked at objectively. </p>
<p>&#8220;What we&#8217;re seeing here isn&#8217;t just P2P torrent downloads but unauthorized streams and every type of piracy around the premiere. This is the total audience picture, which is usually unreported,&#8221; Chatterley adds.</p>
<p>While there is no denying that the numbers are indeed huge, it would probably be better to view them as estimates. MUSO generally sources its data from SimilarWeb, which uses a sample of 200 million &#8216;devices&#8217; to estimate website traffic. Website visits are then seen as &#8220;downloads,&#8221; and the sample data is extrapolated into the totals.</p>
<p>This also explains why other types of download traffic, such as Usenet, are not included at all. These are not web-based. Similarly, the data doesn&#8217;t appear to cover all countries. Game of Thrones piracy is very substantial in China, for example, but in its previous reports, MUSO didn&#8217;t exclude Chinese traffic.</p>
<p>Taking the caveats above into account, MUSO&#8217;s data could be a good estimate of the total (web) pirate traffic for the Game of Thrones premiere. This would suggest some pretty high piracy rates in some countries, but we&#8217;ve seen stranger things.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>Note: TorrentFreak reached out to MUSO for further details on its methodology. The company confirmed that its data is based on traffic to 23,000 of the most-used piracy sites. The data is collected from over 200 million devices, located in over 200 countries. This appears to confirm that it is indeed SimilarWeb data. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Countries with the highest GoT piracy activity, according to MUSO:</p>
<p>United States of America: 15,075,951<br>
United Kingdom: 6,252,903<br>
Germany: 4,897,280<br>
India: 4,335,331<br>
Indonesia: 4,286,927<br>
Philippines: 4,189,030<br>
Canada: 3,182,851<br>
France: 2,881,467<br>
Turkey: 2,802,458<br>
Vietnam: 2,436,149<br>
Australia: 2,241,463<br>
Russian Federation: 2,196,799<br>
Netherlands: 1,881,718<br>
Brazil: 1,796,759<br>
Malaysia: 1,737,005</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142183
title: FossHub Forced to Pull Google Ads From qBitTorrent Downloads
uri: FossHub-Forced-to-Pull-Google-Ads-From-qBitTorrent-Downloads
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4on3twXT-YI/
content:
<p><a href="media/61348546.fosshub.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fosshub.jpg"><img src="media/f3049e8c.fosshub.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fosshub.jpg" alt="" width="197" height="136" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142185"></a>There are no shortage of sites on the Internet that promise free software downloads but few do so with no strings attached. Thousands bundle adware and worse with &#8216;free&#8217; software, while others bombard visitors with ads.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.fosshub.com/">FossHub</a>, on the other hand, does things very differently.</p>
<p>FossHub only offers free software, with no adware, spyware or malware attached. It doesn&#8217;t bombard users with advertising either. In fact, its download pages only have a single ad at the top. Well, that&#8217;s the plan at least but when it comes to BitTorrent software, things haven&#8217;t been so straightforward recently.</p>
<p>The problem centered around <a href="https://www.qbittorrent.org/">qBitTorrent</a>, the free and open-source torrent client developed as an alternative to µTorrent. FossHub makes the client available in its <a href="https://www.fosshub.com/File-Sharing.html">file-sharing section</a> and as the image below shows, has racked up close to 18 million downloads.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/7319ef30.fosshub-qb.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fosshub-qb.png"><img src="media/cb23232f.fosshub-qb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fosshub-qb.png" alt="" width="944" height="637" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142186"></a></center></p>
<p>Previously, when people viewed the qBitTorrent page, they were presented with a single advert, courtesy of Google. However, a couple of months ago the guys at FossHub contacted the people behind the client to say they&#8217;d had problems with AdSense persistently flagging the qBitTorrent page as &#8220;unauthorized file sharing.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;The consequence was that it stopped generating revenue for that page for FossHub,&#8221; a member of the qBitTorrent team <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/torrents/comments/6obxsa/google_bans_bittorrent/?ref=share&#038;ref_source=link">explains</a>.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with Sam at FossHub who provided more details.</p>
<p>&#8220;FossHub has hosted qBittorrent and other free projects binaries for almost a decade. For qBitorrent, we hosted its files for at least three years by now. We provide all the necessary bandwidth and other things that the project might need,&#8221; Sam said. </p>
<p>&#8220;It was not a problem for the last three years to show the single Google Adsense ad until the beginning of last month (June 2017) when we noticed a Policy violation message appearing under our account.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since we didn&#8217;t have any major issues with our account, we thought it must be a false positive. We tried to get in touch with Google AdSense team, but unfortunately, we received some (at least that what we think) standard canned responses.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sam says that FossHub wrote to Google AdSense support several times but never got to the bottom of the problem. Then, something catastrophic happened.</p>
<p>During June, presumably due to the problems with the qBitTorrent page, the entire FossHub site was banned by AdSense for seven days, thereby stopping the site from generating any revenue on any of the software offered.</p>
<p>&#8220;We wrote on a daily basis and attempted to request another review, but there was no human so that we can talk and try to obtain an answer,&#8221; Sam explained.</p>
<p>In the absence of any feedback, FossHub then took the decision to stop placing ads on any of the software available in its file-sharing section, despite none of the tools being illegal or infringing anyone&#8217;s copyrights. In a follow-up post on Reddit this week, FossHub underlined that fact.</p>
<p>&#8220;qBitorrent and other similar apps are legit software. You are responsible for what you choose to download and share,&#8221; a representative from the site <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/torrents/comments/6obxsa/google_bans_bittorrent/dkg8orx/">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many free projects and sites publish their files via .torrent files. Just an excellent example of how qBitorrent and other similar clients can help you download files and allow GIMP project to save bandwidth: <a href="https://www.gimp.org/downloads/">https://www.gimp.org/downloads/</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>The qBitTorrent team say they have made this matter public out of &#8220;frustration and protest&#8221;, not only due to the legality of file-sharing software but also in support of FossHub, who have helped qBitTorrent many times over the years.</p>
<p>&#8220;I keep wondering why the multitude of other unofficial sites, which are very popular and place ads on their qBittorrent pages too, aren&#8217;t being flagged too?&#8221; a member of the team responded.</p>
<p>&#8220;In any case, I am writing this to inform our user base about Google&#8217;s shenanigans. And if any of you works at AdSense, then please help FossHub talk to a real person or treat all sites fair by allowing or not allowing BitTorrent clients.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether Google will take the opportunity to clarify the situation remains to be seen but it&#8217;s abundantly clear that the qBitTorrent software is not only entirely legal, it&#8217;s also one of the most respected torrent clients around.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite this unpleasant incident we will support and help free projects such as qBitorrent as much as we can,&#8221; FossHub concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142222
title: BREIN Takes Down 231 Pirate Sites in Six Months, But That’s Not All
uri: BREIN-Takes-Down-231-Pirate-Sites-in-Six-Months-But-That-s-Not-All
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HLxvPLz0MEw/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>Over the years, the MPAA and RIAA have grabbed hundreds of headlines for their anti-piracy activities but recently their work has been more subtle. The same cannot be said of Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN.</p>
<p>BREIN is the most prominent outfit of its type in the Netherlands but it&#8217;s not uncommon for its work to be felt way beyond its geographical borders. The group&#8217;s report for the first six months of 2017 illustrates that in very clear terms.</p>
<p>In its ongoing efforts to reduce piracy on movies, music, TV shows, books and games, BREIN says it carried out 268 investigations during the first two quarters of 2017. That resulted in the takedown of 231 piracy-focused sites and services.</p>
<p>They included 45 cyberlocker linking sites, 30 streaming sites and 9 torrent platforms. The last eDonkey site in the Netherlands was among the haul after its operators reached a settlement with BREIN. The anti-piracy outfit reports that nearly all of the sites were operated anonymously so in many instances hosting providers were the ones to pull the plug, at BREIN&#8217;s request.</p>
<p>BREIN has also been actively tracking down people who make content available on file-sharing networks. These initial uploaders are considered to be a major part of the problem, so taking them out of the equation is another of BREIN&#8217;s goals.</p>
<p>In total, 14 major uploaders to torrent, streaming, and Usenet platforms were targeted by BREIN in the first six months of this year, with each given the opportunity to settle out of court or face legal action. Settlements typically involved a cash payment of between 250 and 7,500 euros but in several instances, uploaders were also required to take down the content they had uploaded.</p>
<p>In one interesting case, BREIN obtained an ex parte court order against a person running a &#8220;live cinema&#8221; on Facebook. He later settled with the anti-piracy group for 7,500 euros.</p>
<p>BREIN has also been active in a number of other areas. The group says it had almost 693,000 infringing results removed from Google search, pushing its total takedowns to more than 15.8 million. In addition, more than 2,170 listings for infringing content and devices were removed from online marketplaces and seven piracy-focused Facebook groups were taken down.</p>
<p>But while all of these actions have an effect locally, it is BREIN&#8217;s persistence in important legal cases that have influenced the copyright landscape across Europe.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most important case so far is BREIN v Filmspeler, which saw the anti-piracy group go all the way to the European Court of Justice for clarification on the law surrounding so-called &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; set-top boxes.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">In a ruling earlier this year</a>, the ECJ not only determined that selling such devices is a breach of copyright law, but also that people streaming content from an illicit source are committing an offense. Although the case began in the Netherlands, its effects will now be felt right across Europe, and that is almost completely down to BREIN.</p>
<p>But despite the reach of the ruling, BREIN has already been making good use of the decision locally. Not only has the operator of the Filmspeler site settled with BREIN &#8220;for a substantial amount&#8221;, but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/200-pirate-media-player-sellers-shut-down-after-eu-court-ruling-170630/">more than 200 sellers</a> of piracy-configured set-top boxes have ceased trading since the ECJ decision. Some of the providers are the subject of further legal action.</p>
<p>Finally, a notable mention must go to BREIN&#8217;s determination to have The Pirate Bay blocked in the Netherlands. The battle against ISPs Ziggo and XS4ALL has been ongoing for seven years and like the Filmspeler case, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">required the attention</a> of the European Court of Justice. While it&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-wants-to-speed-up-dutch-pirate-bay-blockade-170720/">still not over yet</a>, it seems likely that the Supreme Court will eventually rule in BREIN&#8217;s favor.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142065
title: Google Removes Torrent Sites From ‘Results Carousel’
uri: Google-Removes-Torrent-Sites-From-Results-Carousel
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JLUwuy0Pjgk/
content:
<p><img src="media/3c5b1a66.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" width="220" height="231" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128445">Two weeks ago <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/handy-google-highlights-best-torrent-sites-in-search-results-170709/">we noticed</a> a &#8216;handy&#8217; feature where Google highlighted various torrent sites in its search results. </p>
<p>People who typed &#8220;best torrent sites&#8221; into the search box would see a reel of popular sites such as The Pirate Bay and RARBG in the results, featured with their official logos and all. </p>
<p>Google employees obviously didn&#8217;t curate the list themselves. They are a Google feature called the &#8220;results carousel,&#8221; which is generated based on an algorithm. Still, considering the constant criticism the search engine faces from rightsholders, it&#8217;s a sensitive topic.</p>
<p><center><strong>The torrent site carousel</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0d78b799.besttorrentsites1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/besttorrentsites1.png" alt="" width="713" height="353" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-141410"></center></p>
<p>It appears that the search engine itself wasn&#8217;t very happy with the featured search results either. This week, the torrent sites were quietly banned from the search carousel feature. According to the company, it wasn&#8217;t working as intended. </p>
<p>&#8220;We have investigated this particular issue and determined that this results carousel wasn&#8217;t working in the intended manner, and we have now fixed the issue,&#8221; a Google spokesperson informed TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Although Google carefully avoids the words copyright and piracy in its comments, it&#8217;s quite obvious what motivated this decision. The company doesn&#8217;t want to highlight any pirate sites, to avoid yet another copyright controversy. </p>
<p>That the intervention was triggered by &#8220;piracy&#8221; concerns is backed up by another change. While various &#8220;streaming sites&#8221; are still prominently listed in a search carousel, the pirate sites were carefully stripped from there as well. </p>
<p>A few days ago it still listed sites including Putlocker, Alluc, and Movie4k.to, but only legitimate streaming portals remain on the list today. That change definitely required some human intervention.</p>
<p><center><strong>Only &#8216;legitimate&#8217; streaming postals now</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b4f57201.streamingupdated.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingupdated.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="294" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142157"></center></p>
<p>This isn’t the first time that Google’s “rich” search results have featured pirate sites. The same thing happened in the past when the search engine displayed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-promotes-pirate-movie-ratings-in-search-snippet-160531/">pirate site ratings of movies</a>, next to ratings from regular review sites such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. </p>
<p>Apparently, Google&#8217;s search engine algorithms need some anti-piracy fine-tuning, every now and then. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142147
title: Kodi Security Risk Emerges After TVAddons Shutdown
uri: Kodi-Security-Risk-Emerges-After-TVAddons-Shutdown
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h_X2pwRU7qs/
content:
<p><a href="media/0adb6d74.tvaddons-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-1.png"><img src="media/b2863a48.tvaddons-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-1.png" alt="" width="270" height="117" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137958"></a>Formerly known as XBMC, the popularity of the entirely legal Kodi media player has soared in recent years.</p>
<p>Controversial third-party addons that provide access to infringing content have thrust Kodi into the mainstream and the product is now a household name.</p>
<p>Until recently, TVAddons.ag was the leading repository for these addons. During March, the platform had <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-repository-sees-massive-surge-users-170417/">40 million unique users</a> connected to the site&#8217;s servers, together transferring an astounding petabyte of addons and updates.</p>
<p>Everything was going well until news broke last month that the people behind TVAddons were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">being sued</a> in a federal court in Texas. Shortly after <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-turmoil-continues-as-tvaddons-mysteriously-disappears-170613/">the site went dark </a> and hasn&#8217;t been back since.</p>
<p>This was initially a nuisance to the millions of Kodi devices that relied on TVAddons for their addons and updates. With the site gone, none were forthcoming. However, the scene recovered relatively quickly and for users who know what they&#8217;re doing, addons are now available from elsewhere.</p>
<p>That being said, something very unusual happened this week. Out of the blue, several key TVAddons domains were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/several-tvaddons-domains-transferred-to-canadian-lawfirm-170718/">transferred</a> to a Canadian law firm. TVAddons, who have effectively disappeared, made no comment. The lawyer involved, Daniel Drapeau, ignored requests for an explanation.</p>
<p>While that&#8217;s unusual enough, there&#8217;s a bigger issue at play here for millions of former TVAddons users who haven&#8217;t yet wiped their devices or upgraded them to work with other repositories.</p>
<p>Without going into huge technical detail, any user of an augmented Kodi device that relied on TVAddons domains (TVAddons.ag, Offshoregit.com) for updates can be reasonably confident that the domains their device is now accessing are not controlled by TVAddons anymore. That is not good news.</p>
<p>When a user installs a Kodi addon or obtains an update, the whole system is based on human trust. People are told about a trustworthy source (repository or &#8216;repo&#8217;) and they feel happy getting their addons and updates from it.</p>
<p>However, any person in control of a repo can make a Kodi addon available that can do pretty much anything. When that&#8217;s getting free movies, people tend to be happy, but when that&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kodi-addon-exodus-turned-users-into-a-ddos-botnet-170203/">making a botnet</a> out of set-top boxes, enthusiasm tends to wane a bit.</p>
<p>If the penny hasn&#8217;t yet dropped, consider this.</p>
<p>TVAddons&#8217; domains are now being run by a law firm which refuses to answer questions but has the power to do whatever it likes with them, within the law of course. Currently, the domains are lying dormant and aren&#8217;t doing anything nefarious, but if that position changes, millions of people will have absolutely no idea anything is wrong.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Kodi Project Manager Nathan Betzen who agrees that the current security situation probably isn&#8217;t what former TVAddons users had in mind.</p>
<p>&#8220;These are unsandboxed Python addons. The person [in control of] the repo could do whatever they wanted. You guys wrote about the addon that created a DDoS event,&#8221; Betzen says.</p>
<p>&#8220;If some malware author wanted, he could easily install a watcher that reports back the user&#8217;s IP address and everything they were doing in Kodi. If the law firm is actually an anti-piracy group, that seems like the likeliest thing I can think of,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>While nothing can be ruled out, it seems more likely that the law firm in question has taken control of TVAddons&#8217; domains in order to put them out of action, potentially as part of a settlement in the Dish Network lawsuit. However, since it refuses to answer any questions, everything is open to speculation.</p>
<p>Another possibility is that the domains are being held pending sale, which then raises questions over who the buyer might be and what their intentions are. The bottom line is we simply do not know and since nobody is talking, it might be prudent to consider the worst case scenario.</p>
<p>&#8220;If it&#8217;s just a holding group, then people [in control of the domain/repo] could do whatever they can think of. Want a few million incredibly inefficient bit mining boxes?&#8221; Betzen speculates.</p>
<p>While this scenario is certainly a possibility, one would at least like to think of it as unlikely. That being said, plenty of Internet security fails can be attributed to people simply hoping for the best when things go bad. That rarely works.</p>
<p>On the plus side, Betzen says that since Python code is usually pretty easy to read, any nefarious action could be spotted by vigilant members of the community fairly quickly. However, Martijn Kaijser from Team Kodi warns that it&#8217;s possible to ship precompiled Python code instead of the readable versions.</p>
<p>&#8220;You can&#8217;t even see what&#8217;s in the Python files and what they do,&#8221; he notes.</p>
<p>Finally, there&#8217;s a possibility that TVAddons may be considering some kind of comeback. Earlier this week a new domain &#8211; TVAddons.co &#8211; was freshly registered, just after the old domains shifted to the law firm. At this stage, however, nothing is known about the site&#8217;s plans.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=140913
title: TVStreamCMS Brings Pirate Streaming Site Clones to The Masses
uri: TVStreamCMS-Brings-Pirate-Streaming-Site-Clones-to-The-Masses
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xrxsiwIkHVo/
content:
<p><img src="media/d5b6200c.tvstreamcms.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvstreamcms.png" alt="" width="261" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142006">In recent years many pirates have moved from more traditional download sites and tools, to streaming portals.</p>
<p>These streaming sites come in all shapes and sizes, and there is fierce competition among site owners to grab the most traffic. More traffic means more money, after all. </p>
<p>While building a streaming from scratch is quite an operation, there are scripts on the market that allow virtually anyone to set up their own streaming index in just a few minutes.</p>
<p><a href="http://tvstreamcms.com/">TVStreamCMS</a> is one of the leading players in this area. To find out more we spoke to one of the people behind the project, who prefers to stay anonymous, but for the sake of this article, we&#8217;ll call him Rick. </p>
<p>&#8220;The idea came up when I wanted to make my own streaming site. I saw that they make a lot of money, and many people had them,&#8221; Rick tells us.  </p>
<p>After discovering that there were already a few streaming site scripts available, Rick saw an opportunity. None of the popular scripts at the time offered automatic updates with freshly pirated content, a gap that was waiting to be filled.</p>
<p>&#8220;I found out that TVStreamScript and others on ThemeForest like MTDB were available, but these were not automatized. Instead, they were kinda generic and hard to update. We wanted to make our own site, but as we made it, we also thought about reselling it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Soon after TVStreamCMS was born. In addition to using it for his own project, Rick also decided to offer it to others who wanted to run their own streaming portal, for a monthly subscription fee.</p>
<p><center><strong>TVStreamCMS website</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8280c753.tvstream2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvstream2.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="388" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142005"></center></p>
<p>According to Rick, the script&#8217;s automated content management system has been its key selling point. The buyers don&#8217;t have to update or change much themselves, as pretty much everything is automatized.</p>
<p>This has generated hundreds of sales over the years, according to the developer. And several of the sites that run on the script are successfully &#8220;stealing&#8221; traffic from the original, such as gomovies.co, which ranks well above the real GoMovies in Google&#8217;s search results.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently, a lot of the sites competing against the top level streaming sites are using our script. This includes 123movies.co, gomovies.co and putlockers.tv, keywords like yesmovies fmovies gomovies 123movies, even in different Languages like Portuguese, French and Italian,&#8221; Rick says. </p>
<p>The pirated videos that appear on these sites come from a database maintained by the TVStreamCMS team. These are hosted on their own servers, but also by third parties such as Google and Openload. </p>
<p>When we looked at one of the sites we noticed a few dead links, but according to Rick, these are regularly replaced.</p>
<p>&#8220;Dead links are maintained by our team, DMCA removals are re-uploaded, and so on. This allows users not to worry about re-uploading or adding content daily and weekly as movies and episodes release,&#8221; Rick explains.</p>
<p>While this all sounds fine and dandy for prospective pirates, there are some significant drawbacks.</p>
<p>Aside from the obvious legal risks that come with operating one of these sites, there is also a financial hurdle. The full package costs $399 plus a monthly fee of $99, and the basic option is $399 and $49 per month. </p>
<p><center><strong>TVStreamCMS subscription plans</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/53bd8058.cmsbuy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cmsbuy.png" alt="" width="600" height="456" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142016"></center></p>
<p>There are apparently plenty of site owners who don&#8217;t mind paying this kind of money. That said, not everyone is happy with the script. TorrentFreak spoke to a source at one of the larger streaming sites, who believes that these clones are misleading their users.</p>
<p>TVStreamCMS is not impressed by the criticism. They know very well what they are doing. Their users asked for these clone templates, and they are delivering them, so both sides can make more money. </p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re are in the business to make money and grow the sales,&#8221; Rick says. </p>
<p>&#8220;So we have made templates looking like 123movies, Yesmovies, Fmovies and Putlocker to accommodate the demands of the buyers. A similar design gets buyers traffic and is very, very effective for new sites, as users who come from Google they think it is the real website.&#8221; </p>
<p>The fact that 123Movies changed its name to GoMovies and recently changed to a GoStream.is URL, only makes it easier for clones to get traffic, according to the developer.</p>
<p>&#8220;This provides us with a lot of business because every time they change their name the buyers come back and want another site with the new name. GoMovies, for instance, and now Gostream,&#8221; Rick notes. </p>
<p>Of course, the infringing nature of the clone sites means that there are many copyright holders who would rather see the script and its associated sites gone. Previously, the Hollywood group FACT managed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-group-kills-hundreds-of-pirate-tv-and-movie-streaming-sites-130328/">shut down TVstreamScript</a>, taking down hundreds of sites that relied on it, and it&#8217;s likely that TVStreamCMS is being watched too. </p>
<p>For now, however, more and more clones continue to flood the web with pirated streams.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142258
title: BulkyIPTV Operator Was Arrested For Fraud, Money Laundering
uri: BulkyIPTV-Operator-Was-Arrested-For-Fraud-Money-Laundering
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n5Hg7g-szPE/
content:
<p><img src="media/a2dd236d.bulky.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bulky.jpg" width="100" height="100" class="alignright size-large">For many years, video-focused Internet piracy was all about obtaining pre-recorded content such as movies and TV shows. Now, however, the rise of streaming is enabling a massive uptake of live &#8216;pirate&#8217; programming.</p>
<p>At the forefront of this movement are web streaming portals, dedicated Kodi add-ons, and premium IPTV services. The latter, which can rival official services, tend to offer a better quality service but with a price tag attached. This has resulted in a whole new market for people seeking to generate revenue from piracy.</p>
<p>One of those outfits was UK-based BulkyIPTV, but as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-service-raided-by-police-shutdown-operator-arrested-170719/">first reported here on TF</a>, last week the entire operation was shut down after police arrested its operator.</p>
<p>“Hi all. Today I was arrested. Everything has been shut down,” its operator confirmed Wednesday.</p>
<p>“They took everything – phone, laptop, PC and cash, as well as other stuff to gather evidence against me. I’m sorry it has come to this but i’m looking at a stretch inside.”</p>
<p>Soon after the news was made public, many people on Facebook speculated that the arrest never happened and that BulkyIPTV&#8217;s operator had conjured up a story in order to &#8220;do a runner&#8221; with his customers&#8217; subscription money.</p>
<p>However, a source close to the situation insisted that an arrest had been made in the Derby area of the UK in connection with live TV piracy, a fact we reported in our article.</p>
<p>For a few days things went silent, but in a joint statement with the Federation Against Copyright Theft, Derbyshire Police have now confirmed that they executed a warrant at a Derby property last week.</p>
<p>&#8220;The warrant took place on Tuesday (18th July) as part of ongoing work to stop the use of the illegal set top boxes, which are tampered with to enable them to offer a range of premium subscription services such as Sky TV and BT Sport without paying for them,&#8221; the police statement reads.</p>
<p>While the police don&#8217;t specifically mention BulkyIPTV in their press release, everything points to the operator of the service being the person who was targeted last week.</p>
<p>BulkyGifts.co.uk, a site connected to BulkyIPTV that sold a product which enabled people to access cable and satellite programming cheaply, was initially registered to the address that police targeted on Tuesday in Grenfell Avenue, Sunny Hill. The name of the person who registered the domain is also a perfect match with Electoral Roll records and social media profiles across numerous sites.</p>
<p>Police confirmed that a 29-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of fraud, money laundering, and copyright offenses. Electronic equipment was seized along with a &#8220;large amount&#8221; of cash.</p>
<p>In a statement, Kieron Sharp, CEO of the Federation Against Copyright Theft, reminded sellers and buyers of these services that their actions are illegal.</p>
<p>“This collaboration between Derbyshire police and FACT is another step forward in disrupting the sale of illegal streaming devices,&#8221; Sharp said.</p>
<p>“People may think there is nothing wrong with having one of these devices and streaming premium pay-for channels for free, such as live sports. However, this is illegal and you would be breaking the law.&#8221;</p>
<p>As highlighted in our <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/that-horrible-sinking-feeling-when-you-see-a-pirates-dark-future-170716/">opinion piece</a> last week, some service providers appear to be playing fast and loose with their security. If that trend continues, expect FACT and the police to keep taking these services down.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142262
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 07/24/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-07-24-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/48lOrPrOE3s/
content:
<p><img src="media/bb7d2d4a.mummy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mummy.png" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140666">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Mummy is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-071717/">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://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost In the Shell</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Going In Style</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcdTN5soeQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/boss-baby-torrent-downloads/">The Boss Baby</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquIfapGVqs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">Spider-Man: Homecoming</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">Despicable Me 3</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3469046/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DBi41reeF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6014472/">S.W.A.T.: Under Siege</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6014472/">?.?</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-SFAbDu3w">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">Alien Covenant</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142256
title: Cloudflare Wants to Eliminate ‘Moot’ Pirate Site Blocking Threat
uri: Cloudflare-Wants-to-Eliminate-Moot-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Threat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/k7Mi_bK19jM/
content:
<p><img src="media/4a535cc9.cloudflare.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflare.png" alt="" width="275" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96401">Representing various major record labels, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against MP3Skull in 2015.</p>
<p>With millions of visitors per month the MP3 download site had been one of the prime sources of pirated music for a long time. </p>
<p>Last year a Florida federal court sided with the RIAA, awarding the labels more than <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-wins-22-million-piracy-lawsuit-against-mp3skull-160225/">$22 million in damages</a>. In addition, it issued a permanent injunction which allowed the RIAA to take over the site’s domain names.</p>
<p>Despite the multi-million dollar verdict, MP3Skull continued to operate using a variety of new domain names, which were subsequently targeted by the RIAA’s legal team. As the site refused to shut down, the RIAA eventually moved up the chain targeting CDN provider Cloudflare with the permanent injunction. </p>
<p>The RIAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-fights-riaas-piracy-blocking-demands-in-court-160823/">argued</a> that Cloudflare was operating &#8220;in active concert or participation&#8221; with the pirates. Cloudflare objected and argued that the DMCA shielded the company from the broad blocking requirements. However, the court ruled that the DMCA doesn&#8217;t apply in this case, opening the door to widespread anti-piracy filtering.</p>
<p>The court stressed that, before issuing an injunction against Cloudflare, it still had to be determined whether the CDN provider is “in active concert or participation” with the pirate site. However, this has yet to happen. Since MP3Skull has ceased its operations the RIAA has shown little interest in pursuing the matter any further.</p>
<p>Cloudflare now wants the dangerous anti-piracy filtering order to be thrown out. The company submitted a motion to vacate the order late last week, arguing that the issue is moot. In fact, it has been for a while for some of the contended domain names.</p>
<p>The CDN provider says it researched the domain names listed in the injunction and found that only three of the twenty domains used Cloudflare&#8217;s services at the time the RIAA asked the court to clarify its order. Some had never used CloudFlare&#8217;s services at all, they say.</p>
<p>&#8220;Indeed, six domains – including five of the so-called &#8216;Active MP3Skull Domains&#8217; in the amended injunction – had never used Cloudflare services at all. And the remaining eleven had stopped using Cloudflare before Plaintiffs brought their motion, in some cases long before Plaintiffs filed suit,&#8221; Cloudflare writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every domain Plaintiffs identified had stopped using Cloudflare by December 2016, without any independent or affirmative action by Cloudflare. Yet Plaintiffs made no effort to inform the Court of the mootness of their &#8217;emergency&#8217; motion in the three months before the Court issued its Order.&#8221; </p>
<p><center><strong>Cloudflare&#8217;s research</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/af8db743.cfblockfindings.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cfblockfindings.png" alt="" width="548" height="482" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142281"></center></p>
<p>Making the matter even worse, several of the domain names listed in the injunction were owned by the record labels, when the RIAA tried to have Cloudflare block them.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moreover, Cloudflare’s investigation revealed that that Plaintiff Sony Music Entertainment itself owned seven of the twenty domains months as of the time Plaintiffs brought their motion, and Sony acquired one more domain shortly after.&#8221; </p>
<p>The latter is due to the seizure order, which was also granted by the court. However, according to Cloudflare, the RIAA failed to inform the court about these and several other changes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs did not inform the Court of the mootness of their motion against Cloudflare,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p>Since the RIAA was not entirely upfront, and the issue is no longer relevant, Cloudflare is now asking the court to vacate the order. This will push the looming piracy blocking obligations aside, which could otherwise come back to haunt the company in the future.</p>
<p>The RIAA has yet to reply to CloudFlare&#8217;s request, but they would likely want to keep the order in place. There&#8217;s always a tiny chance that MP3Skull might arise from the ashes, and they would want to be prepared should that be the case.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Cloudflare&#8217;s full motion is available <a href="media/56e1c039.memoinsupport.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/memoinsupport.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142305
title: Facebook Buys Startup to Expand its Anti-Piracy Repertoire
uri: Facebook-Buys-Startup-to-Expand-its-Anti-Piracy-Repertoire
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W1IAj3vTWZU/
content:
<p><img src="media/5c64e7a8.facebay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebay.jpg" alt="facebay" width="220" height="58" class="alignright size-full wp-image-11458">In common with other sites dealing with user-generated content, Facebook has to battle a constant stream of unauthorized copyright material. </p>
<p>When it comes to targeting infringement, Facebook has rolled out a few anti-piracy initiatives in recent years. The company has a &#8220;Rights Manager&#8221; tool that detects infringing material automatically and allows owners to take down or monetize this content. </p>
<p>The social media network is not done yet, though. Anti-piracy strategies need constant refinement and with a new acquisition, Facebook has expanded its expertise in this area. </p>
<p>Facebook has taken over the startup Source3, which specializes in IP recognition, IP licensing and rights administration services. The company is a known player in the copyright industry and its founders previously sold another startup, RightsFlow, to Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today, we wanted to let everyone know that we&#8217;ve decided to continue our journey with Facebook,&#8221; Source3 announced in a statement <a href="http://www.source3.io/">on its website</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re excited to bring our IP, trademark and copyright expertise to the team at Facebook and serve their global community of two billion people, who consume content, music, videos and other IP every day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Commenting on the deal, a Facebook spokesperson informed <a href="https://www.recode.net/2017/7/24/16021448/facebook-acquisition-source3-video-rights-management-ip">Recode</a> that they are excited to learn from Source3&#8217;s copyright expertise. No further details were released on the terms of the deal, and it&#8217;s unclear how much was paid.</p>
<p>Neither company has shared any concrete plans for the future, but it&#8217;s likely that the acquisition will be used to expand existing anti-piracy initiatives.</p>
<p>Among other things, the startup heavily focused on automated licensing tools. This could mean that Facebook might want to offer its users the option to license content from rightsholders and minimize copyright infringement in a positive way. </p>
<p>&#8220;Source3 can monitor and manage third-party IP and proactively establish licensing relationships with brands,&#8221; the company boasted on its website, before the acquisition. </p>
<p>&#8220;We also provide a range of scalable licensing tools, supported by a team of licensing veterans, to manage the licensing process from negotiation to real-time approvals to royalty reporting,&#8221; it added.</p>
<p>Time will tell how exactly Facebook will expand its anti-piracy efforts, but it&#8217;s clear that it remains a high priority for the social network.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142322
title: Kim Dotcom Spying Fiasco Puts Prime Minister Under Pressure
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Spying-Fiasco-Puts-Prime-Minister-Under-Pressure
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/chJPLLuC5js/
content:
<p><a href="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg"><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>In the lead up to the January 2012 raid on cloud storage site Megaupload, authorities in New Zealand used the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) agency to spy on Kim and Mona Dotcom, plus Megaupload co-defendant Bram van der Kolk. That should not have happened.</p>
<p>Intelligence agency GCSB was forbidden by law from conducting surveillance on its own citizens or permanent residents in the country. Former Prime Minister John Key later apologized for the glaring error but for Dotcom, that wasn&#8217;t enough. The entrepreneur launched legal action in pursuit of the information illegally obtained by GCSB and appropriate compensation.</p>
<p>Last week the High Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-denied-access-to-illegally-obtained-spy-recordings-170720/">decided</a> that Dotcom wouldn&#8217;t get access to the information but it also revealed something of much interest. Instead of confirming that the illegal spying on Dotcom took place December 16, 2011, through to January 20, 2012, the range was extended by two months to March 22, 2012.</p>
<p>The implications of the extension are numerous, not least that GCSB continued to spy on Dotcom even after it knew it was acting illegally. The reveal also undermines an earlier affidavit from a GCSB staff member, problems which are now returning to haunt  New Zealand Prime Minister, Bill English.</p>
<p>When the spying was taking place, John Key was Prime Minister but when Key traveled overseas, English was left at the helm. As a result, when the possibility that Dotcom had been spied on was raised during court hearings in 2012, it was English who was approached by the GCSB with a request to have its involvement made a state secret.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?objectid=11895028">NZHerald</a>, English was briefed by then-GCSB director Ian Fletcher and former acting director Hugh Wolfensohn on GCSB&#8217;s assistance to the police in the Dotcom case.</p>
<p>The content of those discussion has not been made public but English appears to have been convinced of the need to keep the information private. He subsequently signed a ministerial certificate, which barred disclosure of GCSB activities, even by people asked to provide them in a court of law.</p>
<p>However, since GCSB had broken the law by illegally spying on the Dotcoms and van Der Kolk, the certificate subsequently collapsed. But, like a dog with a bone, Dotcom isn&#8217;t letting this go, claiming that acting Prime Minister English acted unlawfully by signing the certificate in an effort to suppress wrong-doing.</p>
<p>&#8220;The ministerial certificate was an attempted cover-up. Bill English must have been briefed that GCSB was facing legal troubles because of unlawful conduct,&#8221; he told NZHerald.</p>
<p>&#8220;And only after the attempted gag-order failed in the High Court did the Government admit unlawful spying with a fake narrative that it was all a big mistake, a misunderstanding of the law, an error.&#8221;</p>
<p>Following the judgment last week that revealed the extended spying period, Dotcom confirms that there will be fresh legal action to obtain information from GCSB.</p>
<p>&#8220;The new revelations completely undermine the government narrative and it raises new questions about what really happened,&#8221; Dotcom concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142303
title: Surge of Threatening Piracy Letters Concerns Finnish Authorities
uri: Surge-of-Threatening-Piracy-Letters-Concerns-Finnish-Authorities
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F5KfWCAqjNI/
content:
<p><img src="media/5451b1e2.finland1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/finland1.jpg" alt="finland" width="200" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-25779">Starting <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-copyright-trolls-invade-finland-140326/">three years ago</a>, copyright holders began sending out thousands of settlement letters to alleged pirates in Finland, a practice often described as copyright trolling.</p>
<p>In a country with a population of just over five million, copyright holders have cast their net wide. According to local reports, Internet providers handed over details of one hundred thousand customers last year alone. </p>
<p>This practice has not been without controversy. As the settlement letters were sent out, recipients &#8211; including some pensioners &#8211; started to complain. Many of the accused denied downloading any pirated material but felt threatened by the letters.</p>
<p>Thus far, complaints have been filed with the Market Court, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, the Consumer Authority, and the Ministry of Education and Culture. </p>
<p>In May, the Ministry of Education set up a working group to create a set of &#8216;best practices&#8217; for copyright enforcement. The working group includes, among others, Internet providers, and outfits that are involved in sending the influx of settlement letters.</p>
<p>Anna Vuopala, a Government&#8217;s counselor at the Ministry of Education and Culture, told <a href="https://www.kauppalehti.fi/uutiset/tekijanoikeuskirjeista-valitusryoppy-viranomaisille---yhteydenottoja-jopa-vanhuksilta/M82x4mtg">Kauppaleht</a> that rightsholders should act within the boundaries of the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;We strive to create good practices [for copyright enforcement] and eliminate practices that are contrary to law,&#8221; says Vuopala, who&#8217;s leading the working group.</p>
<p>If the parties involved can&#8217;t reach an agreement on how to proceed, the Government considers changing existing copyright law to defuse the situation. What these changes could be is unclear at this point.</p>
<p>Earlier this year the Finnish market court already dealt a blow to local copyright trolls. In a unanimous ruling, seven judges ruled that the privacy of alleged BitTorrent pirates outweighs the evidence provided by the rightsholders. </p>
<p>While it was clear that copyright infringement was taking place, the rightsholders <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-doesnt-have-to-expose-alleged-bittorrent-pirates-finnish-court-rules-170615/">failed to show</a> that it was significant enough to hand over the requested personal details.</p>
<p>Although this decision supports the rights of those who are falsely accused, the Government believes that a set of good practices is still needed to prevent future excesses and controversy.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142334
title: Google Challenges Canada’s Global Blocking Injunction in the US
uri: Google-Challenges-Canada-s-Global-Blocking-Injunction-in-the-US
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rf3Xl2BTAU8/
content:
<p><img src="media/2d238d92.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg" width="250" height="156" class="alignright size-large">Despite being what courts have described as an &#8220;innocent bystander&#8221;, Google has found itself at the heart of a potentially damaging intellectual property case. Running since 2014, Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack saw Canadian entities battle over stolen intellectual property.</p>
<p>Equustek Solutions claimed that Google’s search results helped to send visitors to Datalink websites operated by the defendants (former Equustek employees) who were selling unlawful products. Google voluntarily removed links to the sites from its Google.ca (Canada) results but Equustek wanted more, and soon got it.</p>
<p>A court in British Columbia, the Court of Appeal, and then the Supreme Court of Canada <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadas-supreme-court-orders-google-remove-search-results-worldwide-170629/">all agreed</a> that Google should remove links to the sites on a global basis, by definition beyond Canada&#8217;s borders.</p>
<p>When court rulings encroach on potentially opposing legal systems overseas, difficulties are bound to arise. Google raised concerns that the decision would conflict with U.S. law, but the Supreme Court described the issues as &#8220;theoretical&#8221; and left it up to the U.S. to solve the problem.</p>
<p>In response, Google filed for an injunction at the US District Court for Northern California this week, arguing that the Canadian decision violates important U.S. legislation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google now turns to this Court, asking it to declare that the rights established by the First Amendment and the Communications Decency Act are not merely theoretical,&#8221; Google wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Canadian order is repugnant to those rights, and the order violates principles of international comity, particularly since the Canadian plaintiffs never established any violation of their rights under U.S. law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pursuant to well-established United States law, Google seeks a declaratory judgment that the Canadian court’s order cannot be enforced in the United States and an order enjoining that enforcement.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Google, Internet search results are fully protected speech under the First Amendment, and because the Canadian decision is directed to a specific speaker (Google) and is content-specific, it must come under scrutiny.</p>
<p>Google insists that the websites to be censored are already a matter of public record and Equustek has not shown that it has no alternative remedies to hand other than to censor Google&#8217;s results outside of Canada.</p>
<p>&#8220;Equustek has not sought similar delisting injunctions against the world’s other search engines, such as Bing or Yahoo,&#8221; Google writes, noting that action hasn&#8217;t been taken against regular websites carrying links either.</p>
<p>Google also suggests that Equustek could have taken action against Datalink’s registrars and webhosts, which have the ability to delete the actual sites in question. With the websites gone the search de-indexing battle would be moot, but for reasons unknown, Equustek has chosen a different battle.</p>
<p>Describing the Canadian order as one of &#8220;convenience,&#8221; Google criticizes the effort to deal with a Canadian legal problem on a global basis, adding that &#8220;no one country should purport to control the global internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>In closing, Google asks the court to declare the Canadian Order unenforceable in the United States on the basis it violates the the First Amendment, the Communications Decency Act, and public policy surrounding enforceability of foreign judgments.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Canadian Order purports to place the Canadian court in the position of<br>
supervising the law enforcement activities of a foreign sovereign nation (the United States) against the United States’ own citizens on American soil. Because the Canadian courts ignored principles of international comity, corrective action by this Court is required,&#8221; Google concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142382
title: Premier League Wins New Stream Blocking Injunction to Fight Piracy
uri: Premier-League-Wins-New-Stream-Blocking-Injunction-to-Fight-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lE3N0DWRgkk/
content:
<p><a href="media/43cda600.premierleague.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/premierleague.jpg"><img src="media/7be95e09.premierleague.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/premierleague.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116272"></a>Earlier this year the Premier League obtained a rather special <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-intriguing-injunction-to-tackle-pirate-streams-170309/">High Court injunction</a> to assist in its fight against illegal football match streaming.</p>
<p>Similar in its aims to earlier blocking orders that targeted torrent sites including The Pirate Bay, the injunction enabled the Premier League to act quickly, forcing local ISPs such as Sky, BT, and Virgin to block football streams in real-time.</p>
<p>Although public results <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-providers-counter-premier-league-piracy-blocks-170520/">varied</a>, the English Premier League (EPL) reports that under the injunction it was able to block 5,000 server IP addresses that were streaming its content. That appears to have encouraged the organization to apply for another injunction for the upcoming 2017-18 season.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://www.premierleague.com/news/442401">statement</a> published on the EPL site, that has now been granted. </p>
<p>&#8220;This blocking order is a game-changer in our efforts to tackle the supply and use of illicit streams of our content,&#8221; said Premier League Director of Legal Services, Kevin Plumb.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will allow us to quickly and effectively block and disrupt the illegal broadcast of Premier League football via any means, including so called &#8216;pre-loaded Kodi boxes&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although the details of the new injunction are yet to be published by the High Court, the EPL indicates that the injunction is very similar to the one obtained previously, which targets overseas servers streaming Premier League matches into the UK.</p>
<p>Upon notice from the Premier League, ISPs including Sky, BT, Virgin Media, Plusnet, EE and TalkTalk are required to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-uk-kodi-piracy-blocking-injunction-is-a-pretty-scary-beast-170314/">block IP addresses quickly as matches are being streamed</a>, all without any direct intervention from the court. </p>
<p>&#8220;The protection of our copyright, and the investment made by our broadcast partners, is hugely important to the Premier League and the future health of English football,&#8221; the Premier League said.</p>
<p>The injunction itself lists the Internet service providers as defendants but it&#8217;s important to note that most have a vested interest in the injunction being put in place. Sky, BT and Virgin Media all screen Premier League matches in some way so there&#8217;s no surprise that none put up a fight when confronted by the football organization.</p>
<p>Indeed, several of the ISPs appeared to have assisted the EPL in some pretty intimate ways, even going as far as sharing a certain level of customer traffic data with the organization.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see what effect the new blocking efforts will have on stream availability when the new season begins. Saturday afternoons, when matches take place around the country but are prohibited from being screened due to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_football_on_television#3pm_.22Blackout.22">blackout</a>, should be the main focal point. As previously suggested, the EPL will probably enjoy more success than last season with experience under their belts.</p>
<p>Finally, tabloids in the UK have been giving the injunction their usual dramatic coverage but a special mention must go out to The Sun. In an article titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/4105418/premier-league-kodi-box-court-ruling-means-anyone-who-illegally-streams-football-matches-will-have-their-internet-connection-cut-off/">Closing the Net</a>&#8220;, the paper said that under the injunction, &#8220;BRITS who illegally stream Premier League football matches could  have their internet connection shut off.&#8221;</p>
<p>The way things are worded it suggests that people who watch streams could be disconnected by their ISP. That is not the case. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142403
title: Police Confirm ‘Extra’ Illegal Spying on Kim Dotcom
uri: Police-Confirm-Extra-Illegal-Spying-on-Kim-Dotcom
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Dcp7aOhYva0/
content:
<p><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556">Kim Dotcom has made headlines in the press again over the past week, but not for his own alleged misconduct. </p>
<p>Instead, there is a renewed focus on the unlawful surveillance practices of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).</p>
<p>During the months leading up to the raid, the GCSB carried out surveillance on Dotcom but failed to check his residency status. The outfit was not allowed to spy on its own residents and clearly crossed a line with its unlawful information gathering. </p>
<p>To find out what was collected, Dotcom asked the High Court for access to the surveilled information, but last week this request was denied. While this came as a disappointment, the court did reveal <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-denied-access-to-illegally-obtained-spy-recordings-170720/">something else of interest</a>. </p>
<p>As it turns out, the illegal spying on Dotcom didn&#8217;t stop on January 20, 2012, when Dotcom was arrested. Instead, it carried on for another two months, ending March 22, 2012.</p>
<p>Initially, some people thought that the High Court may have made a mistake in the timeline, but with pressure mounting, New Zealand police have now confirmed that this is not the case. The illegal spying did indeed continue for two more months.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve checked the file and can confirm that the dates you&#8217;ve highlighted were known to the Operation Grey team. They were considered as part of the investigation and decision-making about the outcome,&#8221; a police spokesman <a href="http://NZ Herald">told</a> NZ Herald. </p>
<p>While this is all news to the public, the police and others were well-aware of the additional spying. This raises a series of questions, which Megaupload&#8217;s founder would like to see answered.</p>
<p>&#8220;Does this mean that New Zealand Police knew that the GCSB affidavits were false? GCSB told the Courts under oath that the illegal spying ended two months earlier. Not in March but in January,&#8221; Dotcom says, commenting on the news.</p>
<p>The issue is more than a matter of oversight, Dotcom says, and he calls for a proper investigation where the people responsible will be held accountable. </p>
<p>&#8220;New Zealand Police investigated GCSB because of the illegal spying but nobody was ever charged with any crime. How is that possible if the Police knew that the GCSB lied to the New Zealand Courts? What else would we discover if we had a fair and open hearing instead of secret submissions in closed Court?</p>
<p>&#8220;The New Zealand Courts have been fooled by the GCSB and the Police. What&#8217;s next? What are the consequences?&#8221; Dotcom adds.</p>
<p>In recent years the Megaupload case has been a stumbling block for several politicians and the latest revelations have put Prime Minister Bill English <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-spying-fiasco-puts-prime-minister-under-pressure-170725/">under pressure</a>. It&#8217;s clear that several high ranked officials would rather see Dotcom leave, but thus far the fiasco is more likely to help him stay.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142347
title: Hackers Use Pirate Sites to Ruin Your Life, State Attorneys General Warn
uri: Hackers-Use-Pirate-Sites-to-Ruin-Your-Life-State-Attorneys-General-Wa
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AAyILq_Pgtk/
content:
<p><img src="media/5155da15.piratehackers.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratehackers.jpg" alt="" width="297" height="197" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142356">In recent years copyright holders have tried many things to dissuade the public from visiting pirate websites. </p>
<p>They often claim that piracy costs the entertainment industry thousands of jobs, for example. Another strategy to is to scare the public at large directly, by pointing out all the ills people may encounter on pirate sites. </p>
<p>The Digital Citizens Alliance (<a href="http://www.digitalcitizensalliance.org/">DCA</a>), which has deep ties to the content industries, is a proponent of the latter strategy. The group has released a variety of reports pointing out that pirate sites are a hotbed for malware, identity theft, hacking and other evils.</p>
<p>To add some political weight to this message, the DCA recently helped to launch a new series of public service announcements where a group of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLennsxwCA5VCS7UQG6oWpUIANpX97jcf_">15 State Attorneys General</a> warn the public about these threats.</p>
<p>The participating Attorneys General include Arizona&#8217;s Mark Brnovich, Kentucky&#8217;s Andy Bashear, Washington DC&#8217;s Karl Racine, and Wisconsin&#8217;s Brad Schimel, who all repeat the exact same words in their PSAs.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nowadays we all have to worry about cybersecurity. Hackers are always looking for new ways to break into our computers. Something as simple as visiting pirate websites can put your computer at risk.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AIHLnNAAnDE?list=PLennsxwCA5VCS7UQG6oWpUIANpX97jcf_&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Hackers use pirate websites to infect your computer and steal your ID and financial information, or even take over your computer&#8217;s camera without you knowing it,&#8221; the Attorneys General add. </p>
<p>Organized by the Digital Citizens Alliance, the campaign in question runs on TV and radio in several states and also appears on social media during the summer. </p>
<p>The warnings, while over dramatized, do raise a real concern. There are a lot of pirate sites that have lower-tier advertising, where malware regularly slips through. And some ads lead users to fake websites where people should probably not leave their credit card information. </p>
<p>Variety <a href="http://variety.com/2017/biz/news/attorney-generals-anti-piracy-spots-malware-1202506617/">points out</a> that the Attorneys General are tasked with the goal to keep their citizens safe, so the PSA&#8217;s message is certainly fitting. </p>
<p>Still, one has to wonder whether the main driver of these ads is online safety. Could perhaps the interests of the entertainment industry play a role too? It certainly won&#8217;t be the first time that State Attorneys General have helped out Hollywood.</p>
<p>Just a few years ago the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-mpaa-publicly-slam-each-other-over-piracy-141219/">secretly pushed</a> Mississippi State Attorney General Jim Hood to revive SOPA-like anti-piracy efforts in the United States. That was part of the MPAA&#8217;s &#8220;Project Goliath,&#8221; which was aimed at “convincing state prosecutors to take up the fight” against Google, under an anti-piracy umbrella.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142287
title: Italian ISPs Say New Copyright Amendment Infringes Human Rights
uri: Italian-ISPs-Say-New-Copyright-Amendment-Infringes-Human-Rights
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nGfUUkMm-3c/
content:
<p><a href="media/cdef4830.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg"><img src="media/bd0abf4c.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120567"></a>After being spoken of in unfavorable terms by the United States Trade Representative in its Special 301 Reports, Italy achieved a sudden breakthrough in 2014.</p>
<p>“Italy’s removal from the Special 301 List reflects the significant steps the Government of Italy has taken to address the problem of online piracy, and the continued U.S. commitment to meaningful and sustained engagement with our critical partner Italy,” the USTR said in a special announcement.</p>
<p>This praise was in part due to the way Italy promised to deal with online piracy. Instead of legislating to make a piracy crackdown easier, the government handed AGCOM, the Italian Communications Regulatory Authority, the power to deal with infringement based on complaints filed by rightsholders.</p>
<p>Without any need for legal cases or court injunctions, at the end of March 2014, AGCOM was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/off-us-blacklist-italy-begins-torrent-site-blackout-no-trials-needed-140510/">granted the power</a> to have allegedly infringing content removed from sites and to have domains blocked at the ISP level.</p>
<p>Now, just over three years later, AGCOM has been granted even more power. Passed last week, <a href="https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&#038;sl=it&#038;u=http://documenti.camera.it/apps/emendamenti/getPropostaEmendativa.aspx%3FcontenitorePortante%3Dleg.17.eme.ac.4505%26tipoSeduta%3D0%26sedeEsame%3Dnull%26urnTestoRiferimento%3Durn:leg:17:4505:null:A:ass:null:null%26dataSeduta%3Dnull%26idPropostaEmendativa%3D1.022.%26position%3D20170719&#038;prev=search">Amendment 1.022</a> effectively gives AGCOM the power to order sites to not only take allegedly infringing content down but to keep it down permanently, all without intervention from the judiciary.</p>
<p>The decision has provoked a furious response from a body representing the country&#8217;s ISPs, which describes the &#8220;unconstitutional rules&#8221; as a way to protect the economic interests of right holders behind various creative works and live sporting events.</p>
<p>&#8220;This measure abolishes procedural safeguards for citizens, imposes interception obligations to Internet providers, and damages consumers by imposing technical measures that will result in increased costs,&#8221; the Italian Association of Internet Providers (AIIP) said in a statement.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.aiip.it/aiip-contesta-indignazione-lidea-intercettare-gli-utenti-internet-proteggere-nel-modo-piu-maldestro-gli-interessi-dei-titolari-dei-diritti-proprieta-intellettu/">AIIP</a>, it is the judiciary that should have sole power over copyright infringement disputes in Italy. When other bodies such as AGCOM are given control over criminal issues, it represents a violation of both constitutional principles and EU law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any rule that would require Internet Providers to filter and carry out preventive checks &#8211; as well as to remove content generated by users without a court order &#8211; is in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, Community legislation on electronic communications services, and case law of the European Court of Justice,&#8221; AIIP says.</p>
<p>The ISP body says that AGCOM now possesses discretionary powers that even magistrates do not have, which from a technical perspective includes monitoring, interception, and blocking of user activity, a position that amounts to &#8220;gigantic state censorship.&#8221;</p>
<p>Only time will tell how the situation pans out but it&#8217;s crystal clear that ISPs feel that unlike the views of the copyright industry, their concerns have not been taken into consideration.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142434
title: Portugal’s Pirate Site-Blocking System Works “Great,” Study Shows
uri: Portugal-s-Pirate-Site-Blocking-System-Works-Great-Study-Show
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4fzjwIxdchk/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">Rather than taking site operators to court, copyright holders increasingly demand that Internet providers should block access to ‘pirate’ domains instead.</p>
<p>As a result, courts all around the world have ordered ISPs to block subscriber access to various pirate sites. But there are other ways.</p>
<p>In Portugal, a voluntary process was formalized through <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rapid-pirate-site-blocking-mechanism-introduced-by-portugal-150731/">an agreement</a> between ISPs, rightsholders, and the Ministry of Culture and the Association of Telecommunication Operators.</p>
<p>The voluntary deal was struck two years ago, shortly after local Internet Providers were ordered to block access to The Pirate Bay. The agreement conveniently allows copyright holders to add new pirate sites<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/portugal-blocks-330-pirate-sites-in-just-six-months-160430/"> without any intervention</a> or oversight from a court. </p>
<p>The MPAA is happy with the non-adversarial collaboration and praises it as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-says-portugals-pirate-site-blocking-system-is-world-leader-161007/">best international example</a> of anti-piracy practices. The Hollywood group has already presented the Portuguese model to the Spanish Senate and plans to do the same before the French Senate.</p>
<p>Aside from a smooth process, the results of the voluntary blocking deal are also important. This is why the MPA and Portuguese anti-piracy outfit FEVIP commissioned a study into its effects. </p>
<p>The results, <a href="http://www.incoproip.com/resources-news-events/case-studies-reports/?r_cat=reports-category">published by INCOPRO</a> this week, show that of the 250 most-used pirate sites in Portugal, 65 are blocked. Traffic to these blocked sites decreased 56.6 percent after the blocks were implemented, contrary to a 3.9 percent increase globally.</p>
<p>In total, usage of the top 250 pirate sites decreased 9.3 percent, while a control group showed that the same sites enjoyed a 30.8 percent increase in usage globally.</p>
<p>In summary, the research confirms that traffic to blocked sites has decreased significantly. This shouldn&#8217;t really come as a surprise, as these domains are blocked after all. Whether traffic over VPN or people visiting smaller pirate sites subsequently increased was not covered by the research. </p>
<p>Earlier research, using INCOPRO&#8217;s own methodology, has shown that while blocked domains get less traffic, many sites simply move to other domain names where they enjoy a significant and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/censoring-pirate-sites-is-counterproductive-research-finds-160708/">sustained boost in traffic</a>.</p>
<p>The current research did look at proxy site traffic but concludes that this only substitutes a small portion of the traffic that went to pirate sites before the blockades.</p>
<p>&#8220;Though usage is migrating to alternate sites in some cases, this shift of usage amounts to only minor proportions of previous pre-block usage,&#8221; the report reads. </p>
<p>Stan McCoy, President and Managing Director of the Motion Picture Association&#8217;s EMEA region, backs the study&#8217;s findings which he says confirm that piracy can be curbed.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the MPA, we take a three pronged approach: make legal content easy to access, engage consumers about the negative impact of piracy, and deter piracy through the appropriate legal avenues. All stakeholders must work together as joint stewards of the creative ecosystem,&#8221; McCoy notes. </p>
<p>The results of INCOPRO&#8217;s research will undoubtedly be used to convince lawmakers and other stakeholders to implement a similar blocking deal elsewhere. </p>
<p>Or to put it into the words of Helen Saunders, head of Intelligence and Operations at INCOPRO, they might serve as inspiration.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s fantastic to see that more countries are starting to take action against piracy, and are getting great results. We hope that this report will inspire even more geographies to take similar action in a concerted effort to safeguard the global entertainment industry,&#8221; Saunders says.</p>
<p>Ironically, while American movie studios are working hard to convince foreign ISPs and governments to jump on board, Internet subscribers in the United States can still freely access all the pirate sites they want. No website blocking plans have been sighted on Hollywood&#8217;s home turf, yet.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142474
title: Which Domain Names Are Safe From Copyright Bullies?
uri: Which-Domain-Names-Are-Safe-From-Copyright-Bullies
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/T7AKDHtp3BI/
content:
<p><img src="media/df753675.http-link-hyperlink.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/http-link-hyperlink.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120483">There are plenty options for copyright holders to frustrate the operation of pirate sites, but one of the most effective is to attack their domain names.</p>
<p>The strategy has been deployed most famously against The Pirate Bay. Over the past couple of years, the site has lost more than a handful following copyright holder complaints. </p>
<p>While less public, hundreds of smaller sites have suffered the same fate. Sometimes these sites are clear infringers, but in other cases it&#8217;s less obvious. In these instances, a simple complaint can also be enough to have a domain name suspended. </p>
<p>Electronic Frontier Foundation (<a href="https://www.eff.org/">EFF</a>) and  <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/">Public Knowledge</a> address this &#8216;copyright bullying&#8217; problem in a newly published whitepaper. According to the digital rights groups, site owners should pick their domain names carefully, and go for a registry that shields website owners from this type of abuse.  </p>
<p>&#8220;It turns out that not every top-level domain is created equal when it comes to protecting the domain holder’s rights. Depending on where you register your domain, a rival, troll, or officious regulator who doesn’t like what you’re doing with it could wrongly take it away,&#8221; the groups warn. </p>
<p>The whitepaper includes a detailed analysis of the policies of various domain name registries. For each, it lists the home country, under which conditions domain names are removed, and whether the WHOIS details of registrants are protected.</p>
<p>When it comes to  &#8220;copyright bullies,&#8221; the digital rights groups highlight the MPAA&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaas-domain-name-policing-results-in-first-suspensions-160630/">voluntary agreements</a> with the Radix and Donuts registries. The agreement allows the MPAA to report infringing sites directly to the registry. These can then be removed after a careful review but without a court order.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our whitepaper illustrates why remedies for copyright infringement on the Internet should not come from the domain name system, and in particular should not be wielded by commercial actors in an unaccountable process. Organizations such as the MPAA are not known for advancing a balanced approach to copyright enforcement,&#8221; the EFF explains.</p>
<p>While EFF and Public Knowledge don&#8217;t recommend any TLDs in particular, they do signal some that site owners may want to avoid. The Radix and Donuts domain names are obviously not the best choice, in this regard.</p>
<p>&#8220;To avoid having your website taken down by your domain registry in response to a copyright complaint, our whitepaper sets out a number of options, including registering in a domain whose registry requires a court order before it will take down a domain, or at the very least one that doesn&#8217;t have a special arrangement with the MPAA or another special interest for the streamlined takedown of domains,&#8221; the groups write.</p>
<p>Aside from the information gathered in the whitepaper, The Pirate Bay itself has also proven to be an excellent test case of which domain names are most resistant to copyright holder complaints. </p>
<p>In 2015, the notorious torrent site found out that exotic domain names are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-is-back-to-square-one-after-months-of-domain-hopping-151231/">not always the best option</a> after losing its .GS, .LA, .VG, .AM, .MN, and .GD TLDs in a matter of months. The good old .ORG is still up and running as of today, however, despite being operated by a United States-based registry. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>EFF and Public knowledge&#8217;s full whitepaper is <a href="media/1f9d190b.domain_registry_whitepaper.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.eff.org/files/2017/07/26/domain_registry_whitepaper.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142378
title: China Says It Will “Severely Strike” Websites Involved in Piracy
uri: China-Says-It-Will-Severely-Strike-Websites-Involved-in-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/N19RfbMnvW4/
content:
<p><img src="media/d31db09d.piratekay.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratekay.jpg" width="275" height="188" class="alignright size-large">When it comes to the protection of intellectual property, China is often viewed as one of the world&#8217;s leading scofflaws. Everything is copied in the country, from designer watches <a href="http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/car-news/87772/chinese-copycat-cars">to cars</a>. Not even <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/photos-of-fake-world-landmarks-in-china-2017-3">major landmarks</a> can escape the replica treatment.</p>
<p>In more recent times, however, there have been signs that China might be at least warming to the idea that IP protection should be given more priority.</p>
<p>For example, every few months authorities announce a new crackdown on Internet piracy, such as the “Jian Wang 2016” program which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-shuts-down-290-websites-in-piracy-crackdown-161224/">shuttered 290 piracy websites</a> in the final six months of last year.</p>
<p>Maintaining the same naming convention, this week China&#8217;s National Copyright Administration revealed the new “Jian Wang 2017” anti-piracy program. During a meeting in Beijing attended by other state bodies, copyright groups, rights organizations, and representatives from the news media, the administration detailed its latest plans.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy program will focus on protecting the copyrights of the film, television, and news industries in China. Infringing websites, e-commerce and cloud storage services, social networks, plus mobile Internet applications will all be put under the spotlight, with authorities investigating and prosecuting major cases.</p>
<p>The program, which will run for the next four months, has a mission to improve compliance in three key areas.</p>
<p>The first aims to assist the film and TV industries by cracking down on &#8216;pirate&#8217; websites, the unlawful use of file-sharing software, plus &#8220;forum communities and other channels that supply infringing film and television works.&#8221;</p>
<p>Also on the cards is a blitz against users of the hugely popular social media and instant messaging app, WeChat.</p>
<p>Released in 2011, WeChat now has more than 930 million users, some of which use the platform to republish news articles without permission from creators. Chinese authorities want to reduce this activity, noting that too many articles are stripped from their sources and reproduced on personal blogs and similar platforms.</p>
<p>The second area for attention is the booming market for pirate apps. Chinese authorities say that cracked app stores and the software they provide are contributing to a huge rise in the unlawful spread of films, TV shows, music, news and other literature. Set-top boxes that utilize such apps will also be targeted in the crackdown.</p>
<p>Finally, there will be a &#8220;strengthening of copyright supervision&#8221; on large-scale e-commerce platforms that supply audio and video products, eBooks, and other publications. Cloud storage platforms will also be subjected to additional scrutiny, as these are often used to share copyright works without permission.</p>
<p>What kind of effect the program will have on overall copyrighted content availability will remain to be seen, but if previous patterns are maintained, the National Copyright Administration should reveal the results of its blitz in December.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142512
title: Apple Bans VPNs From App Store in China
uri: Apple-Bans-VPNs-From-App-Store-in-China
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rLa5Ec5Bji0/
content:
<p><img src="media/747f38a6.apple-p2p.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/apple-p2p.png" alt="" width="275" height="191" class="alignright size-full wp-image-100303">Apple is known to have a rigorous app-review policy. </p>
<p>Over the past several years, dozens of apps have been rejected from the App Store because they mention <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/apple-sorry-bittorrent-apps-were-approved-by-mistake-120911/">the word BitTorrent</a>, for example.</p>
<p>The mere association with piracy is good enough to warrant a ban. This policy is now expanding to the <em>privacy</em>-sphere as well, at least in China. </p>
<p>It is no secret that the Chinese Government is preventing users from accessing certain sites and services. The so-called ‘Great Firewall’ works reasonably well, but can be circumvented through VPN services and other encryption tools. </p>
<p>These tools are a thorn in the side of Chinese authorities, which are now receiving help from Apple to limit their availability. </p>
<p>Over the past few hours, Apple has removed many of the most-used VPN applications from the Chinese app store. In a short email, VPN providers are informed that VPN applications are considered illegal in China. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are writing to notify you that your application will be removed from the China App Store because it includes content that is illegal in China, which is not in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines,&#8221; Apple informed the affected VPNs. </p>
<p><center><strong>Apple&#8217;s email to VPN providers</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7f83724c.applevpnban.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/applevpnban.png" alt="" width="600" height="384" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142515"></center></p>
<p>VPN providers and users are complaining bitterly about the rigorous action. However, it doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise. Over the past few months there have been various signals that the Chinese Government would crack down on non-authorized VPN providers.</p>
<p>In January, a notice published by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that the government had launched a 14-month campaign to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-ban-unauthorized-vpn-services-in-internet-crackdown-170123/">crack down on </a>local ‘unauthorized’ Internet platforms.</p>
<p>This essentially means that all VPN services have to be pre-approved by the Government if they want to operate there.</p>
<p>Earlier this month Bloomberg broke the news that China’s Government had ordered telecommunications carriers to block individuals’ access to VPNs. The Chinese Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/china-denies-user-vpn-crackdown-blames-false-foreign-media-reports-170713/">denied that this was the case</a>, but it&#8217;s clear that these services remain a high-profile target. </p>
<p>Thanks to Apple, China&#8217;s Government no longer has to worry about iOS users having easy access to the most popular VPN applications. Those users who search the local app store for &#8220;VPN&#8221; still see plenty of results, but, ironically, many of these applications are fake. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142298
title: Now Kodi ‘Navi-X’ Domains Get Signed Over to Law Firm
uri: Now-Kodi-Navi-X-Domains-Get-Signed-Over-to-Law-Firm
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5BfrJFEDJgU/
content:
<p><img src="media/c24de327.navi-x.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/navi-x.jpg" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-large">In the wake of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">Dish Network lawsuit</a> filed against TVAddons in Texas, the booming Kodi third-party addon scene received its first real taste of corporate power.</p>
<p>With lawyers breathing down their necks, several high-profile Kodi addons took the decision to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kodi-add-ons-quit-following-prominent-piracy-lawsuit-170607/">shut down</a> and even TVAddons itself <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-turmoil-continues-as-tvaddons-mysteriously-disappears-170613/">went offline</a> without explanation.</p>
<p>With very little news surfacing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/several-tvaddons-domains-transferred-to-canadian-lawfirm-170718/">last week we revealed</a> how three key domains previously operated by TVAddons had ended up in new hands. TVAddons.ag, the site&#8217;s main domain, plus Offshoregit.com and XBMCHUB.com, were transferred to Canadian law firm, DrapeauLex.</p>
<p>With no explanations forthcoming from company owner Daniel Drapeau or staff at TVAddons, no solid conclusions could be reached. Was this part of a settlement with Dish Networks or was something unrelated underway?</p>
<p>With everyone involved remaining tight-lipped since, further investigations by TorrentFreak this week have revealed more developments on the domain shifting front, with one in particular catching the eye.</p>
<p>Back in May, one of the oldest and most popular Kodi addons was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-navi-x-bites-the-dust-after-10-years-170513/">shut down</a> by its operators. Navi-X, which was used by hundreds of thousands of people, was discontinued after spam, pollution of its indexes, and mislabeled adult content piled on top of general legal fears.</p>
<p>Navi-X was a particularly iconic piece of software. Launched in 2007 by Netherlands-based coder ‘Rodejo,&#8217; it debuted on XBMC (Kodi’s previous name) on the original XBoX. Subsequent success aside, that longevity put the addon into the history books.</p>
<p>So why then is Navi-X&#8217;s former main domain now in the hands of the same law firm that&#8217;s taken control of TVAddons&#8217; domains?</p>
<p><center><b>Now Navi-X&#8217;s domain is in the hands of lawyers</b><a href="media/e186f6c3.navi-xtreme1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/navi-xtreme1.png"><img src="media/b1ce5f03.navi-xtreme1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/navi-xtreme1.png" alt="" width="621" height="479" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142369"></a></center></p>
<p>Navixtreme.com was first registered in November 2007 and was the key domain associated with Navi-X. For years it was prominently displayed on the addons&#8217; Twitter feed, for example. Another domain &#8211; navi-x.org &#8211; was registered more recently in February 2017. Both are now under the control of lawyer Daniel Drapeau.</p>
<p>What is unusual about this situation is that Navi-X shut down long before the Dish lawsuit was filed against TVAddons. If TVAddons did indeed shut down because of that lawsuit, why then have the domains of Navi-X been transferred in the same manner as TVAddons&#8217; domains? They certainly weren&#8217;t mentioned in the lawsuit so one has to conclude that something else is at play here.</p>
<p>Again, no one wants to talk, but the situation appears to be fluid. In addition to the TVAddons .ag domain that was transferred last week, the law firm has now acquired other TVAddons domains that were registered around the same time, including TVAddons.com, .org, and .TV.</p>
<p>Something unusual is undoubtedly going on in the addon scene but quite where this will all end up is currently anyone&#8217;s guess. All the signs point to legal action of some kind but the nature of that is still unclear. That being said, it&#8217;s unlikely to remain a secret forever.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=141977
title: Time-lapse Visualizes Game of Thrones Piracy Around The Globe
uri: Time-lapse-Visualizes-Game-of-Thrones-Piracy-Around-The-Globe
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pGN3wWXHEIs/
content:
<p><img src="media/0f671074.thrones.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thrones.jpg" alt="" width="248" height="131" class="alignright size-full wp-image-51268">Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV-show online for years, and this isn&#8217;t expected to change anytime soon. </p>
<p>While most of today&#8217;s piracy takes place through streaming services, BitTorrent traffic remains significant as well. The show&#8217;s episodes are generally downloaded millions of times each, by people from all over the world.</p>
<p>In recent years there have been several attempts to quantify this piracy bonanza. While MILLIONS of downloads make for a good headline, there are some other trends worth looking at as well. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Abigail De Kosnik, an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. Together with computer scientist and artist Benjamin De Kosnik, she runs the BitTorrent-oriented research project &#8220;<a href="https://alpha60.co/">alpha60</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>The goal of alpha60 is to quantify and map BitTorrent activity around various media titles, to make this &#8220;shadow economy&#8221; visible to media scholars and the general public. Over the past two weeks, they&#8217;ve taken a close look at Game of Thrones downloads.</p>
<p>Their tracking software collected swarm data from 72 torrents that were released shortly after the first episode premiered. Before being anonymized, the collected IP-addresses were first translated to geographical locations, to reveal various traffic patterns.</p>
<p>The results, summarized <a href="https://alpha60.co/2017/07/24/alpha60-white-paper-piracy-ratings-for-game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-1/">in a white paper</a>, reveal that during the first five days, alpha60 registered an estimated 1.77 million downloads. Of particular interest is the five-day time-lapse of the worldwide swarm activity.  </p>
<p><center><strong>Five-day Game of Thrones piracy timelapse</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ty-gQsOnjyQ?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>The time-lapse shows that download patterns vary depending on the time of the day. There is a lot of activity in Asia, but cities such as Athens, Toronto, and Sao Paulo also pop up regularly. </p>
<p>When looking at the absolute numbers, Seoul comes out on top as the Game of Thrones download capital of the world, followed by Athens, São Paulo, Guangzhou, Mumbai, and Bangalore. </p>
<p>Perhaps more interesting is the view of the number of downloads relative to the population, or the “over-pirating” cities, as alpha60 calls them. Here, Dallas comes out on top, before Brisbane, Chicago, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Seattle, and Perth.</p>
<p>Of course, VPNs may skew the results somewhat, but overall the data should give a pretty accurate impression of the download traffic around the globe. </p>
<p>Below are the complete top tens of most active cities, both in absolute numbers and relative to the population. Further insights and additional information is available in the full whitepaper, which <a href="https://alpha60.co/2017/07/24/alpha60-white-paper-piracy-ratings-for-game-of-thrones-season-7-episode-1/">can be accessed here</a>. </p>
<p><em>Note: The download totals reported by alpha60 are significantly lower than the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-pirated-90-million-times-170721/">MUSO figures</a> that came out last week. Alpha60 stresses, however, that their methods and data are accurate. MUSO, for its part, has made some <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/no-the-grand-tour-is-not-the-most-pirated-tv-show-ever-161213/">dubious claims</a> in the past.</em></p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>Most downloads (absolute)</strong></p>
<p>1	Seoul, Rep. of Korea<br>
2	Athens, Greece<br>
3	São Paulo, Brazil<br>
4	Guangzhou, China<br>
5	Mumbai, India<br>
6	Bangalore, India<br>
7	Shanghai, China<br>
8	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<br>
9	Delhi, India<br>
10	Beijing, China</p>
<p>&#8212; </p>
<p><strong>Most downloads (relative)</strong></p>
<p>1	Dallas, USA<br>
2	Brisbane, Australia<br>
3	Chicago, USA<br>
4	Riyadh, Saudi Arabia<br>
5	Seattle, USA<br>
6	Perth, Australia<br>
7	Phoenix, USA<br>
8	Toronto, Canada<br>
9	Athens, Greece<br>
10	Guangzhou, China</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142530
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 07/31/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-07-31-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vlni4kRtxjY/
content:
<p><img src="media/3abc9370.bg_spiderman-e1501443662509.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bg_spiderman-e1501443662509.png" alt="" width="300" height="169" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142532">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Spider-Man: Homecoming is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-072417/">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>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">Spider-Man: Homecoming</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2250912/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0D3AOldjMU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mummy-2017-torrent-downloads/">The Mummy 2017</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345759/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzorZUuZqEI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">King Arthur: Legend of the Sword</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1972591/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rbPTQIdjmY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Going In Style</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcdTN5soeQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost In the Shell</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/boss-baby-torrent-downloads/">The Boss Baby</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tquIfapGVqs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6014472/">S.W.A.T.: Under Siege</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6014472/">?.?</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8-SFAbDu3w">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wonder-woman-torrent-downloads/">Wonder Woman</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q8fG0TtVAY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633690/">Shot Caller</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633690/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQxjyRr9k2E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">Alien Covenant</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2316204/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svnAD0TApb8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142540
title: Russia Bans ‘Uncensored’ VPNs, Proxies and TOR
uri: Russia-Bans-Uncensored-VPNs-Proxies-and-TOR
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WZGl2xfB5xs/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">Russia has swiftly become a world leader when it comes to website blocking. Tens of thousands of websites are blocked in the country on copyright infringement and a wide range of other grounds.</p>
<p>However, as is often the case, not all citizens willingly subject themselves to these type of restrictions. On the contrary, many use proxies or anonymizing services such as VPNs and TOR to gain access.</p>
<p>In recent months, the Russian Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bill-to-ban-vpns-unmask-operators-submitted-to-russias-parliament-170609/">has worked on legislation</a> to crack down on these circumvention tools as well, and local media <a href="http://www.rbc.ru/rbcfreenews/597e00eb9a79471d43bbb3de">report</a> that President Vladimir Putin has now signed the proposed bill into law.</p>
<p>Under the new law,  local telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor will keep a list of banned domains while identifying sites, services, and software that provide access to them. Rozcomnadzor will then try to contact the operators of the services, urging them to ban the blocked websites, or face the same fate.</p>
<p>The FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be tasked with monitoring offenses, which they will then refer to the telecoms watchdog. </p>
<p>In addition to targeting the circumvention sites, services, and their hosts, the bill targets search engines as well. </p>
<p>Search engines will be required to remove links to blocked resources from their results, as these would encourage people to access prohibited material. Search engines that fail to comply with the new requirements face a $12,400 penalty per breach.</p>
<p>Local search giant Yandex previously spoke out against the far-reaching requirements, describing them as unnecessary.</p>
<p>“We believe that the laying of responsibilities on search engines is superfluous,” a Yandex spokesperson said.</p>
<p>“Even if the reference to a [banned] resource does appear in search results, it does not mean that by clicking on it the user will get access, if it was already blocked by ISPs or in any other ways,” the company added.</p>
<p>The new legislation has not been without controversy. Earlier this month many Russians protested the plans, but this had little effect on the final vote. In the Duma, the bill was approved by 373 deputies. Only two voted against the plans, and another and two abstained.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142556
title: RIAA: Hip-Hop Mixtape Site Has No DMCA Safe Harbor
uri: RIAA-Hip-Hop-Mixtape-Site-Has-No-DMCA-Safe-Harbor
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Y5Fig9OLhdc/
content:
<p><img src="media/8ebd4927.spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="234" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134771">Earlier this year, a group of well-known labels targeted Spinrilla, a popular hip-hop mixtape site and accompanying app with millions of users.  </p>
<p>The coalition of record labels including Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, and Universal Music Group, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-labels-sue-hip-hop-mixtape-download-site-spinrilla-170206/">filed a lawsuit</a> accusing the service of alleged copyright infringements.</p>
<p>“Spinrilla specializes in ripping off music creators by offering thousands of unlicensed sound recordings for free,” the RIAA commented at the time.</p>
<p>The hip-hop site countered the allegations by pointing out that it installed an RIAA-approved anti-piracy filter and actively worked with major record labels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-riaa-labels-asked-us-to-promote-their-music-spinrilla-says-170316/">to promote their tracks</a>. In addition, Spinrilla stressed that the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor protects the company.</p>
<p>The DMCA safe-harbor shields Internet services from liability for copyright infringing users. However, to apply for this protection, companies have to meet certain requirements. This is where Spinrilla failed, according to a filing just submitted by the record labels.</p>
<p>The RIAA points out that Spinrilla failed to register a designated DMCA agent with the copyright office, which is one of the requirements. In addition, they claim that the mix-tape site took no clear action against repeat infringers, another prerequisite. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants have not registered a designated DMCA agent with the Copyright Office and have not adopted, communicated, or reasonably implemented a policy that prevents repeat infringement. Either of these undisputed facts alone renders Defendants ineligible for the protections of the DMCA,&#8221; the RIAA writes.</p>
<p>On the repeat infrimnger issue, the record labels say that some of Spinrilla&#8217;s &#8220;artist&#8221; accounts were used to upload infringing material for weeks on end.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, one such &#8216;artist&#8217; uploaded a new mixtape each week for over 80 consecutive weeks, each containing sound recordings that the RIAA identified to Spinrilla as infringing, including recordings by such well-known major label artists as Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Missy Elliott, Common, and Ludacris,&#8221; RIAA notes.</p>
<p>Based on the above, RIAA argues that Spinrilla is not entitled to safe harbor protections under the DMCA. They ask the court for a summary judgment to render this defense inapplicable, which would be a severe blow to the hip-hop mixtape site.</p>
<p>&#8220;And, because Defendants have pinned their defense to liability almost entirely on the DMCA, a ruling now that Defendants are ineligible for the DMCA safe harbor will substantially streamline — if not end entirely — this litigation going forward. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court should therefore grant Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment now,&#8221; the RIAA <a href="media/f8d57477.spinrillasumm.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spinrillasumm.pdf">stresses (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>While the case doesn&#8217;t end here, without DMCA safe harbor protection it will definitely be harder for Spinrilla to come out unscathed. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142555
title: BitTorrent Users Form The World’s Largest Criminal Enterprise, Lawyer Says
uri: BitTorrent-Users-Form-The-World-s-Largest-Criminal-Enterprise-Lawye
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CIY-LOOgbPU/
content:
<p><a href="media/67ffec03.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg"><img src="media/17a592c8.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108977"></a>As the sharing of copyrighted material on the Internet continues, so do the waves of lawsuits which claim compensation for alleged damage caused.</p>
<p>Run by so-called &#8216;copyright trolls&#8217;, these legal efforts are often painted as the only way for rightsholders to send a tough message to deter infringement. In reality, however, these schemes are often the basis for a separate revenue stream, one in which file-sharers are forced to pay large cash sums to make supposed jury trials disappear.</p>
<p>Courts around the United States are becoming familiar with these &#8216;settlement factories&#8217; and sometimes choose to make life more difficult for the trolls. With this potential for friction, the language deployed in lawsuits is often amped up to paint copyright holders as fighting for their very existence. Meanwhile, alleged infringers are described as hardened criminals intent on wreaking havoc on the entertainment industries.</p>
<p>While this polarization is nothing new, a court filing spotted by the troll-fighters over at <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com">Fight Copyright Trolls</a> sees the demonization of file-sharers amped up to eleven &#8211; and then some.</p>
<p>The case, which is being heard in a district court in Nevada, features LHF Productions, the outfit behind action movie London Has Fallen. It targets five people who allegedly shared the work using BitTorrent and failed to respond to the company&#8217;s requests to settle.</p>
<p>&#8220;[N]one of the Defendants referenced herein have made any effort to answer or otherwise respond to the Plaintiff’s allegations. In light of the Defendants’ apparent failure to take any action with respect to the present lawsuit, the Plaintiff is left with no choice but to seek a default judgment,&#8221; the motion reads.</p>
<p>In the absence of any defense, LHF Productions asks the court to grant default judgments of $15,000 per defendant, which amounts to $75,000 overall, a decent sum for what amounts to five downloads. LHF Productions notes that it could&#8217;ve demanded $150,000 from each individual but feels that a more modest sum would be sufficient to &#8220;deter future infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, when reading the description of the defendants provided by LHF, one could be forgiven for thinking that they&#8217;re actually heinous criminals hell-bent on worldwide destruction.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Defendants are participants in a global piracy ring composed of one hundred fifty million members – a ring that threatens to tear down fundamental structures of intellectual property,&#8221; the lawsuit reads.</p>
<p>While there are indeed 150 million users of BitTorrent, this characterization that they&#8217;re all involved in a single &#8220;piracy ring&#8221; is both misleading and inaccurate.</p>
<p>BitTorrent swarms are separate entities, so the correct way of describing the defendants would be limited to their action for the movie London Has Fallen. Instead, they&#8217;re painted as being involved in a global conspiracy with more members than the populations of the United Kingdom, Canada, and Spain combined.</p>
<p>It seems that the introduction of more drama into these infringement lawsuits is becoming necessary as more courts become wise to the activities of trolls, not least organizations being branded criminal themselves, such as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prenda-attorney-pleads-guilty-to-operating-a-piracy-honeypot-170307/">now defunct Prenda Law</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps with this in mind, LHF Productions tries to convince the court that far from being small-time file-sharers, people downloading their movie online are actually part of something extremely big, a crime wave so huge that nothing like it has ever been witnessed.</p>
<p>&#8220;While the actions of each individual participant may seem innocuous, their collective action amounts to one of the largest criminal enterprises ever seen on earth,&#8221; LHF says of the defendants.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]f this pervasive culture of piracy is allowed to continue undeterred, it threatens to undo centuries of intellectual property law and unravel a core pillar of our economy. After all, the right to intellectual property was something so fundamental, so essential, to our nation’s founding, that our founding father’s found it necessary to include in the first article of the Constitution.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the apocalyptic scenario painted by LHF in its lawsuit <em>(<a href="media/e0ad9218.nvd-16-cv-01918-jad-njk-document-55.pdf" data-original-source="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.files.wordpress.com/2017/07/nvd-16-cv-01918-jad-njk-document-55.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> is to be believed, recouping a mere $15,000 from each defendant begins to sound like a bargain. Certainly, the movie outfit will be hoping the judge sees it that way too.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142588
title: HBO Got Hacked, Game of Thrones Spoilers Surface Online
uri: HBO-Got-Hacked-Game-of-Thrones-Spoilers-Surface-Online
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hntwXXTtEwQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/821a106b.got-thrones7-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got-thrones7-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142026">It appears that yet another large media outlet has fallen victim to a high-profile hack.</p>
<p>After <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sony-movies-leak-online-after-hack-attack-141129/">Sony</a> and, indirectly, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hackers-leak-netflixs-orange-is-the-new-black-season-5-premiere-170429/">Netflix</a>, hackers have now compromised the network of the American cable and television network HBO.</p>
<p>Sunday evening a mysterious email was sent to reporters, announcing the prominent breach. </p>
<p>“Hi to all mankind. The greatest leak of cyber space era is happening. What’s its name? Oh I forget to tell. Its HBO and Game of Thrones……!!!!!!&#8221; the email read.</p>
<p>While several reports were published, <a href="http://ew.com/tv/2017/07/31/hbo-hacked-game-of-thrones/">the first</a> by Entertainment Weekly, the actual leaked files were not widely available on the usual pirate sites. However, a few hours ago a website appeared online that claims to hold the &#8216;treasure trove.&#8217;</p>
<p>Winter-leak.com, a reference to the famous Game of Thrones &#8220;Winter is Coming&#8221; phrase, does indeed list several files that appear to come from HBO. </p>
<p>&#8220;In a complicate operation, we successfully penetrated in to the HBO Internal Network, Emails, technical platforms, and database and got precious and confidential stuff that blaze your eyes,&#8221; the hacker, or hackers write on their website.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/d8c28ec5.hbohackedscreen.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/hbohackedscreen.png"><img src="media/97091135.hbohackedscreen.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hbohackedscreen.png" alt="" width="600" height="373" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142596"></a></center></p>
<p>The hackers claim to have 1.5 terabytes of data from the company. So far, previously unreleased episodes of Ballers, Barry, Insecure and  Room 104 are featured on the site. However, there are also three separate archives listed, with over a terabyte of data.</p>
<p>Most prominent, perhaps, is a preliminary outline of the fourth episode of the current Game of Thrones season, which will air this coming Sunday. </p>
<p>At TorrentFreak, we always strive to find proof for reported leaks, and from what we&#8217;ve seen and gathered, it does indeed appear to be the real deal. The Game of Thrones information, for example, lists a preliminary outline of the fourth episode of season 7, including many spoilers.</p>
<p>As can be seen below, the outline itself is watermarked by the hackers, with the tagline &#8220;HBO is falling.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/3476a3e0.leakedgotoutline-e1501570779747.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leakedgotoutline-e1501570779747.png"><img src="media/3476a3e0.leakedgotoutline-e1501570779747.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leakedgotoutline-e1501570779747.png" alt="" width="600" height="600" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142597"></a></center></p>
<p>Perhaps even more unusual, the leak also includes <a href="media/f4d9857a.winter.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/winter.png">a video</a>, featuring Game of Thrones images, the leaders, and a textual outline of the episode. As with the outline, the videos are available for the third and fourth episode of season 7. </p>
<p>HBO&#8217;s chairman and CEO, Richard Plepler, has confirmed that the company&#8217;s infrastructure was breached, but didn&#8217;t mention what information was accessed. He sent an email to employees a few hours ago, informing them about the &#8220;cyber incident.&#8221;</p>
<p>“As most of you have probably heard by now, there has been a cyber incident directed at the company which has resulted in some stolen proprietary information, including some of our programming,” he wrote. </p>
<p>“Any intrusion of this nature is obviously disruptive, unsettling, and disturbing for all of us. I can assure you that senior leadership and our extraordinary technology team, along with outside experts, are working round the clock to protect our collective interests.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full contents of the leaks have yet to be analyzed. It&#8217;s doubtful that any Game of Thrones episodes will leak, but there&#8217;s likely to be a lot of confidential information in the copied data, which HBO would otherwise prefer to keep to itself. </p>
<p>HBO has already mentioned that it&#8217;s doing everything in its power to prevent the leaks from spreading any further. In addition, they are also working with law enforcement to track down the people responsible.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142579
title: TVAddons Returns, But in Ugly War With Canadian Telcos Over Kodi Addons
uri: TVAddons-Returns-But-in-Ugly-War-With-Canadian-Telcos-Over-Kodi-Addon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7Kb7fhhIsPY/
content:
<p><a href="media/f8623ca2.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg"><img src="media/f6eb27a1.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134548" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg 270w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px"></a>After Dish Network <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">filed a lawsuit</a> against TVAddons in Texas, several high-profile Kodi addons took the decision to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kodi-add-ons-quit-following-prominent-piracy-lawsuit-170607/">shut down</a>. Soon after, TVAddons itself <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-turmoil-continues-as-tvaddons-mysteriously-disappears-170613/">went offline</a>.</p>
<p>In the weeks that followed, several TVAddons-related domains were signed over (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/several-tvaddons-domains-transferred-to-canadian-lawfirm-170718/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/now-kodi-navi-x-domains-get-signed-over-to-law-firm-170730/">2</a>) to a Canadian law firm, a mysterious situation that didn&#8217;t dovetail well with the US-based legal action.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak can now reveal that the shutdown of TVAddons had nothing to do with the US action and everything to do with a separate lawsuit filed in Canada.</p>
<p><b>The complaint against TVAddons</b></p>
<p>Two months ago on June 2, a collection of Canadian telecoms giants including Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, filed a complaint in Federal Court against Montreal resident, Adam Lackman, the man behind TVAddons.</p>
<p>The 18-page complaint details the plaintiffs&#8217; case against Lackman, claiming that he communicated copyrighted TV shows including Game of Thrones, Prison Break, The Big Bang Theory, America&#8217;s Got Talent, Keeping Up With The Kardashians and dozens more, to the public in breach of copyright.</p>
<p>The key claim is that Lackman achieved this by developing, hosting, distributing or promoting Kodi add-ons.</p>
<p><center><b>Adam Lackman, the man behind TVAddons (@adam.lackman on Instagram)</b><a href="media/93737bd5.adam_lackman.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/adam_lackman.jpg"><img src="media/0c3da395.adam_lackman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/adam_lackman.jpg" alt="" width="540" height="675" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142651"></a></center></p>
<p>A total of 18 major add-ons are detailed in the complaint including 1Channel, Exodus, Phoenix, Stream All The Sources, SportsDevil, cCloudTV and Alluc, to name a few. Also under the spotlight is the &#8216;FreeTelly&#8217; custom Kodi build distributed by TVAddons alongside its Kodi configuration tool, Indigo.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The defendant] has made the [TV shows] available to the public by telecommunication in a way that allows members of the public to have access to them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them&#8230;consequently infringing the Plaintiffs&#8217; copyright&#8230;in contravention of sections 2.4(1.1), 3(1)(f) and 27(1) of the Copyright Act,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>The complaint alleges that Lackman &#8220;induced and/or authorized users&#8221; of the FreeTelly and Indigo tools to carry out infringement by his handling and promotion of infringing add-ons, including through TVAddons.ag and Offshoregit.com, in contravention of sections <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/page-2.html#h-4">3(1)(f)</a> and <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/c-42/page-8.html#h-21">27(1)</a> of the Copyright Act.</p>
<p>&#8220;Approximately 40 million unique users located around the world are actively using Infringing Addons hosted by TVAddons every month, and approximately 900,000 Canadian households use Infringing Add-ons to access television content. The amount of users of Infringing add-ons hosted TVAddons is constantly increasing,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>
<p>To limit the harm allegedly caused by TVAddons, the complaint asked for interim, interlocutory, and permanent injunctions restraining Lackman and associates from developing, promoting or distributing any of the allegedly infringing add-ons or software. On top, the plaintiffs requested punitive and exemplary damages, plus costs.</p>
<p><strong>The interim injunction and Anton Piller Order</strong></p>
<p>Following the filing of the complaint, on June 9 the Federal Court handed down a time-limited interim injunction against Lackman which restrained him from various activities in respect of TVAddons. The process took place <em>ex parte</em>, meaning in secret, without Lackman being able to mount a defense.</p>
<p>The Court also authorized a bailiff and computer forensics experts to take control of Internet domains including TVAddons.ag and Offshoregit.com plus social media and hosting provider accounts for a period of 14 days. These were transferred to Daniel Drapeau at DrapeauLex, an independent court-appointed supervising counsel.</p>
<p>The order also contained an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Piller_order">Anton Piller order</a>, a civil search warrant that grants plaintiffs no-notice permission to enter a defendant&#8217;s premises in order to secure and copy evidence to support their case, before it can be destroyed or tampered with.</p>
<p>The order covered not only data related to the TVAddons platform, such as operating and financial details, revenues, and banking information, but everything in Lackman&#8217;s possession.</p>
<p>The Court ordered the telecoms companies to inform Lackman that the case against him is a civil proceeding and that he could deny entry to his property if he wished. However, that option would put him in breach of the order and would place him at risk of being fined or even imprisoned. Catch 22 springs to mind.</p>
<p>The Court did, however, put limits on the number of people that could be present during the execution of the Anton Piller order (ostensibly to avoid intimidation) and ordered the plaintiffs to deposit CAD$50,000 with the Court, in case the order was improperly executed. That decision would later prove an important one.</p>
<p><strong>The search and interrogation of TVAddons&#8217; operator</strong></p>
<p>On June 12, the order was executed and Lackman&#8217;s premises were searched for more than 16 hours. For nine hours he was interrogated and effectively denied his right to remain silent since non-cooperation with an Anton Piller order amounts to contempt of court. The Court&#8217;s stated aim of not intimidating Lackman failed.</p>
<p>The TVAddons operator informs TorrentFreak that he heard a disturbance in the hallway outside and spotted several men hiding on the other side of the door. Fearing for his life, Lackman called the police and when they arrived he opened the door. At this point, the police were told by those in attendance to leave, despite Lackman&#8217;s protests.</p>
<p>Once inside, Lackman was told he had an hour to find a lawyer, but couldn&#8217;t use any electronic device to get one. Throughout the entire day, Lackman says he was reminded by the plaintiffs&#8217; lawyer that he could be held in contempt of court and jailed, even though he was always cooperating.</p>
<p>&#8220;I had to sit there and not leave their sight. I was denied access to medication,&#8221; Lackman told TorrentFreak. &#8220;I had a doctor&#8217;s appointment I was forced to miss. I wasn&#8217;t even allowed to call and cancel.&#8221;</p>
<p>In papers later filed with the court by Lackman&#8217;s team, the Anton Piller order was described as a &#8220;bombe atomique&#8221; since TVAddons had never been served with so much as a copyright takedown notice in advance of this action.</p>
<p><strong>The Anton Piller controversy</strong></p>
<p>Anton Piller orders are only valid when passing a three-step test: when there is a strong <em>prima facie</em> case against the respondent, the damage &#8211; potential or actual &#8211; is serious for the applicant, and when there is a real possibility that evidence could be destroyed.</p>
<p>For Bell Canada, Bell ExpressVu, Bell Media, Videotron, Groupe TVA, Rogers Communications and Rogers Media, serious problems emerged on at least two of these points after the execution of the order.</p>
<p>For example, TVAddons carried more than 1,500 add-ons yet only 1% of those add-ons were considered to be infringing, a tiny number in the overall picture. Then there was the not insignificant problem with the exchange that took place during the hearing to obtain the order, during which Lackman was not present.</p>
<p>Clearly, the securing of existing evidence wasn&#8217;t the number one priority.</p>
<p><center><b>Plaintiffs: We want to destroy TVAddons</b><a href="media/319c7a32.tvaddons-anton.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-anton.png"><img src="media/28f739ad.tvaddons-anton.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-anton.png" alt="" width="751" height="518" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142582"></a></center></p>
<p>And the problems continued.</p>
<p><b>No right to remain silent, no right to consult a lawyer</b></p>
<p>The Anton Piller search should have been carried out between 8am and 8pm but actually carried on until midnight. As previously mentioned, Adam Lackman was effectively denied his right to remain silent and was forbidden from getting advice from his lawyer.</p>
<p>None of this sat well with the Honourable B. Richard Bell during a subsequent Federal Court hearing to consider the execution of the Anton Piller order.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is important to note that the Defendant was not permitted to refuse to answer questions under fear of contempt proceedings, and his counsel was not permitted to clarify the answers to questions. I conclude unhesitatingly that the Defendant was subjected to an examination for discovery without any of the protections normally afforded to litigants in such circumstances,&#8221; the Judge said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here, I would add that the &#8216;questions&#8217; were not really questions at all. They took the form of orders or directions. For example, the Defendant was told to &#8216;provide to the bailiff&#8217; or &#8216;disclose to the Plaintiffs&#8217; solicitors&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Evidence preservation? More like a fishing trip</strong></p>
<p>But shockingly, the interrogation of Lackman went much, much further. TorrentFreak understands that the TVAddons operator was given a list of 30 names of people that might be operating sites or services similar to TVAddons. He was then ordered to provide all of the information he had on those individuals.</p>
<p>Of course, people tend to guard their online identities so it&#8217;s possible that the information provided by Lackman will be of limited use, but Judge Bell was not happy that the Anton Piller order was abused by the plaintiffs in this way.</p>
<p>&#8220;I conclude that those questions, posed by Plaintiffs&#8217; counsel, were solely made in furtherance of their investigation and constituted a hunt for further evidence, as opposed to the preservation of then existing evidence,&#8221; he wrote in a June 29 order.</p>
<p>But he was only just getting started.</p>
<p><b>Plaintiffs unlawfully tried to destroy TVAddons before trial</b></p>
<p>The Judge went on to note that from their own mouths, the Anton Piller order was purposely designed by the plaintiffs to completely shut down TVAddons, despite the fact that only a tiny proportion of the add-ons available on the site were allegedly used to infringe copyright.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am of the view that [the order&#8217;s] true purpose was to destroy the livelihood of the Defendant, deny him the financial resources to finance a defense to the claim made against him, and to provide an opportunity for discovery of the Defendant in circumstances where none of the procedural safeguards of our civil justice system could be engaged,&#8221; Judge Bell wrote.</p>
<p>As noted, plaintiffs must also have a &#8220;strong <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prima_facie">prima facie</a></em> case&#8221; to obtain an Anton Piller order but Judge Bell says he&#8217;s not convinced that one exists. Instead, he praised the &#8220;forthright manner&#8221; of Lackman, who successfully compared the ability of Kodi addons to find content in the same way as Google search can.</p>
<p><b>So why the big turn around?</b></p>
<p>Judge Bell said that while the <em>prima facie</em> case may have appeared strong before the judge who heard the matter <em>ex parte</em> (without Lackman being present to defend himself), the subsequent adversarial hearing undermined it, to the point that it no longer met the threshold.</p>
<p>As a result of these failings, Judge Bell declared the Anton Piller order unlawful. Things didn&#8217;t improve for the plaintiffs on the injunction front either.</p>
<p>The Judge said that he believes that Lackman has &#8220;an arguable case&#8221; that he is not violating the Copyright Act by merely providing addons and that TVAddons is his only source of income. So, if an injunction to close the site was granted, the litigation would effectively be over, since the plaintiffs already admitted that their aim was to neutralize the platform.</p>
<p>If the platform was neutralized, Lackman could no longer earn money from the site, which would harm his ability to mount a defense.</p>
<p>&#8220;In considering the balance of convenience, I also repeat that the plaintiffs admit that the vast majority of add-ons are non-infringing. Whether the remaining approximately 1% are infringing is very much up for debate. For these reasons, I find the balance of convenience favors the defendant, and no interlocutory injunction will be issued,&#8221; the Judge declared.</p>
<p>With the Anton Piller order declared unlawful and no interlocutory injunction (one effective until the final determination of the case) handed down, things were about to get worse for the telecoms companies.</p>
<p>They had paid CAD$50,000 to the court in security in case things went wrong with the Anton Piller order, so TVAddons was entitled to compensation from that amount. That would be helpful, since at this point TVAddons had already run up CAD$75,000 in legal expenses.</p>
<p>On top, the Judge told independent counsel to give everything seized during the Anton Piller search back to Lackman.</p>
<p><center><b>The order to return items previously seized</b><a href="media/7ad72386.tvaddons-seize-return.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-seize-return.png"><img src="media/31d5d86b.tvaddons-seize-return.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddons-seize-return.png" alt="" width="965" height="453" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142613"></a></center></p>
<p>But things were far from over. Within days, the telecoms companies took the decision to the Court of Appeal, asking for a stay of execution (a delay in carrying out a court order) to retain possession of items seized, including physical property, domains, and social media accounts.</p>
<p>Mid-July the appeal was granted and certain confidentiality clauses affecting independent counsel (including Daniel Drapeau, who holds the TVAddons&#8217; domains) were ordered to be continued. However, considering the problems with the execution of the Anton Piller order, Bell Canada, TVA, Videotron and Rogers et al, were ordered to submit an additional security bond of CAD$140,000, on top of the CAD$50,000 already deposited.</p>
<p><b>So the battle continues, and continue it will</b></p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, Adam Lackman says that he has no choice but to fight the telcoms companies since not doing so would result in a loss by default judgment. Interestingly, both he and one of the judges involved in the case thus far believe he has an arguable case.</p>
<p>Lackman says that his activities are protected under the Canadian Copyright Act, specifically subparagraph <a href="http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/C-42/section-2.4-20030321.html?wbdisable=true">2.4(1)(b)</a> which states as follows:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>A person whose only act in respect of the communication of a work or other subject-matter to the public consists of providing the means of telecommunication necessary for another person to so communicate the work or other subject-matter does not communicate that work or other subject-matter to the public;</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Of course, finding out whether that&#8217;s indeed the case will be a costly endeavor.</p>
<p>&#8220;It all comes down to whether we will have the financial resources necessary to mount our defense and go to trial. We won’t have ad revenue coming in, since losing our domain names means that we’ll lose the majority of our traffic for quite some time into the future,&#8221; Lackman told TF in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’re hoping that others will be as concerned as us about big companies manipulating the law in order to shut down what they see as competition. We desperately need help in financially supporting our legal defense, we cannot do it alone.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’ve run up a legal bill of over $100,000 to date. We’re David, and they are four Goliaths with practically unlimited resources. If we lose, it will mean that new case law is made, case law that could mean increased censorship of the internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the hope of getting support, TVAddons has <a href="https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/tvaddons-legal-defense-fund">launched a fundraiser campaign</a> and in the meantime, a new version of the site is back on a new domain, <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons.co</a>.</p>
<p>Given TVAddons&#8217; line of defense, the nature of both the platform and Kodi addons, and the fact that there has already been a serious abuse of process during evidence preservation, this is now one of the most interesting and potentially influential copyright cases underway anywhere today.</p>
<p>TVAddons is being represented by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/eva-richard-lawyer/">Éva Richard</a> , <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/hilal-el-ayoubi-a5b73712">Hilal Ayoubi</a> and <a href="http://www.renvath.com/en/karim-renno">Karim Renno</a> in Canada, plus <a href="http://www.russellfirmchicago.com">Erin Russell</a> and <a href="http://boothsweet.com/">Jason Sweet</a> in the United States. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142649
title: Dutch Film Distributor to Target BitTorrent Users For Cash ‘Fines’
uri: Dutch-Film-Distributor-to-Target-BitTorrent-Users-For-Cash-Fines
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5TnwTQBuAMs/
content:
<p><a href="media/5f0dfd25.spy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spy.jpg"><img src="media/3d881413.spy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spy.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-39770"></a>For many carefree years, Dutch Internet users were allowed to download copyrighted content, provided it was for their own personal use. In 2014, however, the European Court of Justice <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-netherlands-must-outlaw-downloading-eu-court-rules-140410/">ruled</a> that the country&#8217;s &#8220;piracy levy&#8221; to compensate rightsholders was unlawful. An immediate downloading ban followed.</p>
<p>That action took place more than three years ago but as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-takes-down-231-pirate-sites-in-six-months-but-thats-not-all-170722/">recently reported</a> by Dutch anti-piracy BREIN, the country still has an appetite for unauthorized content consumption. Some of that takes place with the assistance of torrent sites but for the most part, file-sharers have had little to worry about.</p>
<p>That could all be about to change with the news that local film distributor Dutch Filmworks (<a href="http://www.dfw.nl/">DFW</a>) has announced its intention to monitor torrent site users and collect data on their online activities. The news comes via the Dutch Data Protection Authority (<a href="https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl">Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens</a>), which needs to be formally advised in order for the data collection to go ahead.</p>
<p>DFW&#8217;s plans are outlined in a detailed application <em>(<a href="media/d061d678.ontwerpbesluit_dutch_filmworks.pdf" data-original-source="https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/sites/default/files/atoms/files/ontwerpbesluit_dutch_filmworks.pdf">Dutch, pdf</a>)</em> dated July 2017. It explains that DFW wishes to combat &#8220;the unlawful dissemination of copyright protected works&#8221; in order to protect their own interests, and this involves collecting data on Dutch individuals without their knowledge or permission.</p>
<p>&#8220;DFW intends to collect data from people who exchange files over the Internet through BitTorrent networks. The data processing consists of capturing proof of exchange of files via IP addresses for the purpose of researching involvement of these users in the distribution or reproduction of copyrighted works,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>DFW will employ an external German-based tracking company to monitor alleged pirates which will &#8220;automatically participate in swarms in which works from DFW are being shared.&#8221; Data collected from non-Dutch users will be stripped and discarded but information about local pirates will be retained and processed for further action.</p>
<p>However, in order for DFW to connect an IP address with an individual, the company will have to approach Internet service providers to obtain subscriber information including names and addresses. DFW says that if ISPs won&#8217;t cooperate voluntarily, it will be forced to take its case to court. Given past experience, that will probably have to happen.</p>
<p>In March 2016, anti-piracy outfit BREIN <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-threatens-pirates-with-high-fines-warns-vpn-users-160314/">obtained permission</a> from the Dutch Data Protection Authority to collect similar data on alleged BitTorrent users, aiming to change attitudes among pirates with fines and legal action.</p>
<p>Several ISPs, most prominently Ziggo, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-says-it-wont-send-breins-anti-piracy-warnings-170118/">announced</a> that they would not voluntarily cooperate with BREIN and that personal information would only be handed over if BREIN took them to court. It&#8217;s logical to presume that Dutch Filmworks will receive the same treatment.</p>
<p>Should the company be successful, however, it has had detailed a stepped plan. First, the alleged pirate will receive a warning and DFW will aim to reach &#8220;an amicable settlement&#8221; for the breach. If one cannot be reached, further legal action could be taken, up to and including prosecution and claims for damages.</p>
<p>The whole scheme certainly sounds like a classic &#8220;copyright trolling&#8221; operation in the making but only time will tell which end of the spectrum this project will fall. When asked by NU.nl whether DFW would actually be seeking cash from alleged pirates, it declined to comment.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is the first step in this process. We&#8217;re going to see what we&#8217;re going to do after 25 August,&#8221; a spokesperson <a href="http://www.nu.nl/internet/4864544/dutch-filmworks-wil-nederlandse-torrentdownloaders-opsporen.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142584
title: Font Maker Sues Universal Music Over ‘Pirated’ The Vamps Logo
uri: Font-Maker-Sues-Universal-Music-Over-Pirated-The-Vamps-Logo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tG59R8UvWL0/
content:
<p><img src="media/0a82131c.vampsfont-e1501529042310.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vampsfont-e1501529042310.png" alt="" width="300" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142585"></p>
<p>Piracy comes in all shapes and sizes. While record labels regularly see themselves as victims, they can sometimes cross the line as well.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://www.hypefortype.com/">HypeForType</a>, which designs, creates, and licenses various custom fonts, this is exactly what record label Universal Music Group did.</p>
<p>The font maker has filed a lawsuit accusing the major label of using its &#8220;Nanami Rounded&#8221; and &#8220;Ebisu Bold&#8221; fonts without permission. </p>
<p>The lawsuit centers around fonts used for the logo and merchandise of the popular British band <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vamps_(British_band)">The Vamps</a>. According to a complaint, filed in a New York federal court, Universal failed to obtain a proper license for its use, so they are essentially using <em>pirated</em> fonts.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/1b824c1a.vampsex.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vampsex.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="341" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142642"></center></p>
<p>According to the complaint, designer Stuart Hardie did purchase a basic license in 2013. However, Universal itself hasn&#8217;t bought the additional and required license upgrade to use the Nanami Rounded or Ebisu Bold Font Software on a commercial scale.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiff requires a license upgrade (&#8216;Special Font License&#8217;) for use of its typeface font software in commercial, for-profit usage including, inter alia, on goods for sale,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Upon information and belief, Defendant has used and/or caused others to use unauthorized copies of the Font Software in the creation of The Vamps goods for sale, including, inter alia, clothing, accessories, DVDs, and CDs,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>HypeForType says that unauthorized use of its font has caused the company significant damages, which it wants to recoup. In addition, the font maker claims any gains and profits Universal made using its fonts. </p>
<p>&#8220;At present, the amount of such damages, gains, profits, and advantages cannot be fully ascertained by Plaintiff but are believed to be not less than $1,251,235 together with prejudgment interest and reasonable costs and fees or Statutory Damages under Copyright Law, whichever is greater.&#8221;</p>
<p>On top of the damages, HypeForType also requests an injunction preventing Universal, and thus The Vamps, from using the fonts without a proper license. They also want all existing materials, including merchandise, to be destroyed.</p>
<p>While it seems unlikely that The Vamps will stop using their existing logo anytime soon, a substantial settlement might be warranted, if the copyright infringement claims hold up in court. But then again, that&#8217;s only fair when you&#8217;re &#8216;stealing&#8217; someone&#8217;s work. </p>
<p>&#8212;-</p>
<p><em>A copy of HypeForType&#8217;s complaint is available <a href="media/148059bb.vampscomplaint.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vampscomplaint.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142695
title: Piracy Brings a New Young Audience to Def Leppard, Guitarist Says
uri: Piracy-Brings-a-New-Young-Audience-to-Def-Leppard-Guitarist-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KENnBurm530/
content:
<p><a href="media/d9c17dd1.happy-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/happy-pirate.jpg"><img src="media/a66f7feb.happy-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/happy-pirate.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56164"></a>For decades the debate over piracy has raged, with bands and their recording industry paymasters on one side and large swathes of the public on the other. Throughout, however, there have been those prepared to recognize that things aren&#8217;t necessarily black and white.</p>
<p>Over the years, many people have argued that access to free music has helped them broaden their musical horizons, dabbling in new genres and discovering new bands. This, they argue, would have been a prohibitively expensive proposition if purchases were forced on a trial and error basis.</p>
<p>Of course, many labels and bands believe that piracy amounts to theft, but some are prepared to put their heads above the parapet with an opinion that doesn&#8217;t necessarily tow the party line.</p>
<p>Formed in 1977 in Sheffield, England, rock band <a href="http://www.defleppard.com">Def Leppard</a> have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and have two RIAA diamond certificated albums to their name. But unlike Metallica who have sold a total of 116 million records and were famous for destroying Napster, Def Leppard&#8217;s attitude to piracy is entirely more friendly.</p>
<p>In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Def Leppard guitarist Vivian Campbell has been describing why he believes piracy has its upsides, particularly for enduring bands that are still trying to broaden their horizons.</p>
<p>&#8220;The way the band works is quite extraordinary. In recent years, we’ve been really fortunate that we’ve seen this new surge in our popularity. For the most part, that’s fueled by younger people coming to the shows,&#8221; Campbell <a href="http://ultimateclassicrock.com/vivian-campbell-interview-2017/">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We’ve been seeing it for the last 10, 12 or 15 years, you’d notice younger kids in the audience, but especially in the last couple of years, it’s grown exponentially. I really do believe that this is the upside of music piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Def Leppard celebrate their 40th anniversary this year, and the fact that they&#8217;re still releasing music and attracting a new audience is a real achievement for a band whose original fans only had access to vinyl and cassette tapes. But Campbell says the band isn&#8217;t negatively affected by new technology, nor people using it to obtain their content for free.</p>
<p>&#8220;You know, people bemoan the fact that you can’t sell records anymore, but for a band like Def Leppard at least, there is a silver lining in the fact that our music is reaching a whole new audience, and that audience is excited to hear it, and they’re coming to the shows. It’s been fantastic,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>While packing out events is every band&#8217;s dream, Campbell believes that the enthusiasm these fresh fans bring to the shows is actually helping the band to improve.</p>
<p>&#8220;There’s a whole new energy around Leppard, in fact. I think we’re playing better than we ever have. Which you’d like to think anyway. They always say that musicians, unlike athletes, you’re supposed to get better. </p>
<p>&#8220;I’m not sure that anyone other than the band really notices, but I notice it and I know that the other guys do too. When I play &#8216;Rock of Ages&#8217; for the 3,000,000 time, it’s not the song that excites me, it’s the energy from the audience. That’s what really lifts our performance. When you’ve got a more youthful audience coming to your shows, it only goes in one direction,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>The thought of hundreds or even thousands of enthusiastic young pirates energizing an aging Def Leppard to the band&#8217;s delight is a real novelty. However, with so many channels for music consumption available today, are these new followers necessarily pirates?</p>
<p>One only has to visit Def Leppard&#8217;s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/DefLeppardOfficial/videos">official YouTube channel</a> to see that despite being born in the late fifties and early sixties, the band are still regularly posting new content to keep fans up to date. So, given the consumption habits of young people these days, YouTube seems a more likely driver of new fans than torrents, for example.</p>
<p>That being said, Def Leppard are still humming along nicely on The Pirate Bay. The site lists a couple of hundred torrents, some uploaded more recently, some many years ago, including full albums, videos, and even entire discographies.</p>
<p><center><b>Arrr, we be Def Leppaaaaaard</b><a href="media/11b60fbc.def-leppard.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/def-leppard.png"><img src="media/c2fb387c.def-leppard.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/def-leppard.png" alt="" width="791" height="729" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142699"></a></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, Campbell hasn&#8217;t changed his public opinion on piracy for more than a decade. Back in 2007 he was saying similar things, and in 2011 he <a href="ttp://www.blabbermouth.net/news/def-leppard-guitarist-music-piracy-is-not-a-bad-thing-for-bands-like-us/">admitted</a> that there were plenty of &#8220;kids out there&#8221; with the entire Def Leppard collection on their iPods.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am pretty sure they didn&#8217;t all pay for it. But, maybe those same kids will buy a ticket and come to a concert,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not expect to sell a lot of records, we are just thankful to have people listening to our music. That is more important than having people pay for it. It will monetize itself later down the line.&#8221;</p>
<p>With sites like YouTube perhaps driving more traffic to bands like Def Leppard than pure piracy these days (and even diverting people <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-keeps-people-from-pirate-sites-study-shows-170511/">away from piracy</a> itself), it&#8217;s interesting to note that there&#8217;s still controversy around people getting paid for music.</p>
<p>With torrent sites slowly dropping off the record labels&#8217; hitlists, one is much more likely to hear them <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ifpi-sneers-at-youtubes-1-billion-music-industry-revenue-payout-161207/">criticizing YouTube itself</a> for not giving the industry a fair deal.</p>
<p>Still, bands like Def Leppard seem happy, so it&#8217;s not all bad news.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142673
title: Former Vuze Developers Launch BiglyBT, a ‘New’ Open Source Torrent Client
uri: Former-Vuze-Developers-Launch-BiglyBT-a-New-Open-Source-Torrent
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eaHR2HfhDrI/
content:
<p><img src="media/5769208f.biglybt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/biglybt.png" alt="" width="240" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142675">Back in the summer of 2003  a group of developers debuted a new torrent client, which they called Azureus.</p>
<p>BitTorrent itself was still a relatively new technology at the time and users were eager to find new tools to transfer their files. The feature-rich Azureus client, which later rebranded to <a href="http://www.vuze.com/">Vuze</a>, delivered just that. </p>
<p>In recent years, however, things have gone relatively quiet, up to a point where Vuze development appears to have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tumbleweed-at-vuze-as-torrent-client-development-grinds-to-a-halt-170710/">stalled completely</a>. Perhaps not surprising, as two of the core developers, parg and TuxPaper, have left the project and moved on to something new.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are no longer involved in Vuze or Azureus Software, Inc. We can not speak to what their intentions are with the development of their product,&#8221; they inform us.</p>
<p>The developers, who were also part of the original Azureus team, are not saying farewell to their code though. While they are no longer working on Vuze, the pair have started a new Azureus branch, one they will actively maintain. </p>
<p>&#8220;We have invested such a large amount of our lives in the endeavor that we feel the need to keep the open source project active, for both our and our users’ enjoyment!&#8221; parg and TuxPaper tell us.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.biglybt.com/">BiglyBT</a>, as they have named their new client, will continue where Vuze development stalled. In addition to optimizing the code and releasing new features, BiglyBT is determined to keep the open source project alive, without any commercial interests. </p>
<p>&#8220;Our main goals for BiglyBT is to keep it ad-free and open source, and to continue to develop it into an even better torrent client.  We also hope that a community will form again around the product.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>BiglyBT main window</strong> (<a href="media/f4858a49.biglybtmain.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/biglybtmain.png">large</a>)<br></br></center><center><a href="media/e92befbd.biglybtmain.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/biglybtmain.png"><img src="media/f4858a49.biglybtmain.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/biglybtmain.png" alt="" width="600" height="337" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142680"></a></center></p>
<p>People who try the new client will notice that it&#8217;s indeed very similar to Vuze, but without the ads and some other &#8216;cluttering&#8217; features, such as DVD-burning.</p>
<p>While BiglyBT looks and operates in a similar manner to Vuze, in the future the developers will work on a new set of features, a new style, and various other changes that will set it apart from its older brother.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our first release is mostly a name change, but we have removed some of the things that we know users don’t particularly want or use, such as the content network, games promotions, DVD burning, the huge ad in the corner of the app, and the offers in the installer.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Vuze appears to have downsized its development efforts, BiglyBT promises to go full steam ahead. The new client will also stay true to the Open Source nature. Previously, some people complained that Vuze included proprietary code, resulting in more restrictive license terms. BiglyBT is purely GPL, and will remain so. </p>
<p>The client is currently available on all major desktop platforms, including Windows, MacOS and Linux. An open source Android app, forked from Vuze remote, will follow in a few weeks. </p>
<p>BiglyBT should appeal to a wide range of users, especially the more seasoned torrent user who wants a client they can configure to their liking.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our target users are people who love to delve into the world of torrenting. People who like to tinker and watch torrents do their thing.  Hoarders who like to seed, automate, categorize and contribute back to the torrenting community,&#8221; the developers note.</p>
<p>People who are interested in giving BiglyBT a spin can download the latest version <a href="https://www.biglybt.com/">from the official site</a>. The application is free and won&#8217;t install any other applications or adware. Instead, it&#8217;s solely supported by donations from the public.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142753
title: TV Box Seller Emails Sky TV Bosses With ‘Pirate’ Offer, Gets Sued for $1m
uri: TV-Box-Seller-Emails-Sky-TV-Bosses-With-Pirate-Offer-Gets-Sued
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/78MHGyoNRac/
content:
<p><a href="media/f8623ca2.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg"><img src="media/f6eb27a1.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134548" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg 270w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px"></a>After relatively quiet treatment in the media, last year press in New Zealand began reporting on the booming &#8216;pirate&#8217; set-top box business sweeping the world.</p>
<p>Often based around legal Kodi software boosted with third-party addons, the devices are known for providing free movies, TV shows, and sports.</p>
<p>Last November, &#8216;My Box NZ&#8217; owner Krish Reddy, who said he would take on Sky in its own backyard with his custom streaming boxes, hit the headlines. The 27-year-old told NZHerald that &#8220;it seemed like a great idea so we decided to do it ourselves.&#8221;</p>
<p>The boxes offered some local free-to-air channels but also the all-important premium offerings from Sky, including Sky Movies and Sky Sports, an expensive proposition for an official subscriber.</p>
<p>&#8220;Why pay $80 minimum per month for Sky when for one payment you can have it free for good?&#8221; Reddy&#8217;s advertising said.</p>
<p>Reddy was confident in the abilities of his product but was also confident he wasn&#8217;t breaking the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t see why [Sky] would contact me but if they do contact me and &#8230; if there&#8217;s something of theirs that they feel I&#8217;ve unlawfully taken then yeah &#8230; but as it stands I don&#8217;t [have any concerns],&#8221; he told the Herald.</p>
<p>As things moved on, Reddy&#8217;s business really took off. He admitted to having sold 8,000 of the devices and then April this year, Sky appeared to ruh out of patience. In a letter from its lawyers, the pay TV company said Reddy&#8217;s devices breached copyright law and the Fair Trading Act. Reddy responded by calling the TV giant &#8220;a playground bully&#8221; and denied again that he was breaking the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;From a legal perspective, what we do is completely within the law. We advertise Sky television channels being available through our website and social media platforms as these are available via streams which you can find through My Box,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The content is already available, I&#8217;m not going out there and bringing the content so how am I infringing the copyright&#8230; the content is already there, if someone uses the box to search for the content, that&#8217;s what it is.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/business/95450190/Sky-TV-says-Kodi-box-problem-now-too-big-to-ignore">Stuff</a> reports that the initial compensation demand from Sky against Reddy&#8217;s company My Box runs to NZD$1.4m (US$1m), an amount that could &#8220;rise by millions&#8221; by the time a judgment is reached.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have given us until September 24 to respond. We are not going to sit and take it,&#8221; Reddy told the publication. &#8220;How many people can say they went up against a multimillion dollar giant like Sky?&#8221;</p>
<p>And it seems that Reddy is absolutely determined to fight back. Earlier this year he said that his father always encouraged him as a child to seek out the big guy for a fight, something that is now playing out with one of the world&#8217;s biggest broadcasters.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Sky&#8217;s] point of view is they own copyright and I&#8217;m destroying the market by giving people content for free. To me it is business; I have got something that is new … that&#8217;s competition,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>In Europe, where these kinds of cases have already been tested at the highest level, comments like these would be extremely ill-advised and enough to give any defending lawyer a high temperature, but Reddy really doesn&#8217;t seem to care.</p>
<p>In fact, a bulk email he sent out to 50,000 people advertising his product as &#8220;being better than Sky&#8221;, actually found the inboxes of 50 Sky TV staff and directors. He believes this triggered the legal action from the company.</p>
<p>While Reddy was on Sky&#8217;s radar long before the mailshot, the blatancy of his advertising and its targets won&#8217;t have helped his case one bit. Sky, for its part, is determined to get a ruling against a large player and Reddy seems the perfect catch.</p>
<p>&#8220;Anyone selling these boxes are within our sights. You have got to go after the big fish first,&#8221; said Sky spokeswoman Kirsty Way.</p>
<p>No case like this has ever gone to court in New Zealand so it could be important for setting the ground rules on several aspects of copyright law, including the making available right.</p>
<p>In addition to prosecutions, Way told Stuff that it could also be possible to introduce site-blocking laws such as those already in place in Australia and the UK. These would aim to render Kodi-powered devices less effective at providing copyrighted content from unauthorized sources. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142779
title: Next Game of Thrones Episode Leaks Online Early
uri: Next-Game-of-Thrones-Episode-Leaks-Online-Early
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2PWva7ospJc/
content:
<p><img src="media/821a106b.got-thrones7-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got-thrones7-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142026">It&#8217;s been a pretty rough week for HBO thus far. </p>
<p>After hackers got their hands on <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hbo-got-hacked-game-of-thrones-spoilers-surface-online-170801/">over a terabyte</a> of confidential information, including Game of Thrones scripts, another major leak has just surfaced.</p>
<p>Starting a few hours ago, a copy of the upcoming Game of Thrones episode &#8220;The Spoils of War&#8221; began to circulate on various file-sharing and streaming sites, including The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p><center><strong>GoT s07e04 leak on TPB</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b0ed6456.gotleaked-e1501856243705.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotleaked-e1501856243705.png" alt="" width="600" height="376" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142784"></center></p>
<p>While most copies are pulled offline quickly, presumably by HBO itself, the unreleased fourth episode of season 7 is still widely available.</p>
<p>Although the leak comes only a few days after the prominent HBO hack, the two might not be related. The leaked episode appears to be an internal release and is tagged with &#8220;For Internal Viewing Only&#8221; as well as a prominent &#8220;Star India Pvt Ltd&#8221; watermark.</p>
<p>Star India is a large media company owned by 21st Century Fox, which broadcasts the popular HBO series locally. </p>
<p><center><strong>Screenshot from the leaked episode</strong><br></br></center><center><span class="collapseomatic h2" id="id2620"  tabindex=""     >Show/hide screenshot</span><div id="target-id2620" class="collapseomatic_content "><img src="media/aea3c52f.gotleak-2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotleak-2.png" alt="" width="775" height="440" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-142781"></div></center></p>
<p>Despite being a low-quality leak, plenty of eager Game of Thrones fans are likely to jump on the episode early. Whether the pirated copy is intact, or whether it&#8217;s unfinished is unclear. The official release will still take a few more days.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Game of Thrones episodes have leaked early. Two years ago <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-episodes-of-game-of-thrones-season-5-leak-online-150412/">the same happened</a> with the first four episodes of season 5. Still, leaks or not, that season still broke previous viewership records.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=142797
title: Court Won’t Drop Case Against Alleged KickassTorrents Owner
uri: Court-Won-t-Drop-Case-Against-Alleged-KickassTorrents-Owner
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/urBROBB-meI/
content:
<p><img src="media/75141223.kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png" alt="kickasstorrents_500x500" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-96995" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png 300w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-150x150.png 150w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px">Last summer, Polish law enforcement officers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">arrested Artem Vaulin</a>, the alleged founder of KickassTorrents. </p>
<p>Polish authorities acted on a criminal complaint from the US Government, which accused Vaulin of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering.</p>
<p>While Vaulin is still awaiting the final decision in his extradition process in Poland, his US counsel tried to have the entire case thrown out with a motion to dismiss submitted to the Illinois District Court late last year. </p>
<p>One of the fundamental flaws of the case, according to the defense, is that torrent files themselves are not copyrighted content. In addition, they argued that any secondary copyright infringement claims would fail as these are non-existent under criminal law.</p>
<p>After a series of hearings and a long wait afterwards, US District Judge John Z. Lee has now issued <a href="media/30ba1caf.show_temp.pl-35.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/show_temp.pl-35.pdf">his verdict (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>In a 28-page memorandum and order, the motion to dismiss was denied on various grounds.  </p>
<p>The court doesn&#8217;t contest that torrent files themselves are not protected content under copyright law. However, this argument ignores the fact that the files are used to download copyrighted material, the order reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;This argument, however, misunderstands the indictment. The indictment is not concerned with the mere downloading or distribution of torrent files,&#8221; Judge Lee writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Granted, the indictment describes these files and charges Vaulin with operating a website dedicated to hosting and distributing them. But the protected content alleged to have been infringed in the indictment is a number of movies and other copyright protected media that users of Vaulin’s network purportedly downloaded and distributed..,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>In addition, the defense&#8217;s argument that secondary copyright infringement claims are non-existent under criminal law doesn&#8217;t hold either, according to the Judge&#8217;s decision.</p>
<p>Vaulin&#8217;s defense noted that the Government’s theory could expose other search engines, such as Google, to criminal liability. While this is theoretically possible, the court sees distinct differences and doesn&#8217;t aim to rule on all search engines in general.</p>
<p>&#8220;For present purposes, though, the Court need not decide whether and when a search engine operator might engage in conduct sufficient to constitute aiding and abetting criminal copyright infringement. The issue here is whether 18 U.S.C. § 2 applies to 17 U.S.C. § 506. The Court is persuaded that it does,&#8221; Judge Lee writes.</p>
<p>Based on these and other conclusions, the motion to dismiss was denied. This means that the case will move forward. The next step will be to see how the Polish court rules on the extradition request.</p>
<p>Vaulin&#8217;s lead counsel Ira Rothken is disappointed with the outcome. He stresses that while courts commonly construe indictments in a light most favorable to the government, it went too far in this case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently a person merely &#8216;making available&#8217; a file on a network in California wouldn&#8217;t even be committing a civil copyright infringement under the ruling in Napster but under today&#8217;s ruling that same person doing it in Illinois could be criminally prosecuted by the United States,&#8221; Rothken informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;If federal judges disagree on the state of the federal copyright law then people shouldn&#8217;t be criminally prosecuted absent clarification by Congress,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>The defense team is still considering the best options for appeal, and whether they want to go down that road. However, Rothken hopes that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will address the issue in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope one day that the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals will undo this ruling and the chilling effect it will have on internet search engines, user generated content sites, and millions of netizens globally,&#8221; Rothken notes. </p>
<p>For now, however, Vaulin&#8217;s legal team will likely shift its focus to preventing his extradition to the United States.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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