# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137645
title: Portugal Passes Bill to Restrict Use of DRM, Grant Circumvention Right
uri: Portugal-Passes-Bill-to-Restrict-Use-of-DRM-Grant-Circumvention-Right
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jfpxAZDnkoM/
content:
<p><a href="media/2d9712c0.drm-no.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/drm-no.jpg"><img src="media/986db98e.drm-no.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/drm-no.jpg" alt="" width="175" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-8535"></a>Digital Rights Management (DRM) is viewed by copyright holders as an essential mechanisim to prevent the public from copying and distributing copyrighted content.</p>
<p>While to some extent it can achieve those aims, DRM is often viewed as preventing those who actually buy content from carrying out tasks such as format shifting or making backups. Those who obtain content from illegal sources aren&#8217;t affected by DRM, critics argue.</p>
<p>Like any other anti-piracy measure, DRM&#8217;s task is to prevent copying and many countries have laws in place which prevent citizens from circumventing it. This can be problematic, particularly when DRM stands in the way of a citizen&#8217;s right to copy, in fair use instances for example. This has been in the case in Portugal since 2004.</p>
<p>As a result, the <a href="https://drm-pt.info/">DRM-PT</a> movement in Portugal has been campaigning for a change in the law which would restrict the use of DRM and grant citizens a circumvention right when certain conditions are met. When parliament approved a draft bill last week, the country moved closer to that goal.</p>
<p>The bill, which received general approval last December, tackles the main issues head-on by granting copying permission in some circumstances and by flat-out banning the use of DRM when the public should have right of access to a copyrighted work.</p>
<p>In a boost to educators, citizens will be given the right to circumvent DRM for teaching and scientific research purposes. There will also be an exception for private copying.</p>
<p>The draft also outlaws the use of DRM on copyright works that have fallen into the public domain, works which support cultural heritage, and works that were created by public entities or funded with public money.</p>
<p>The move is being welcomed by <a href="https://ansol.org/proposta-DRM-aprovada">ANSOL</a> and the <a href="http://ensinolivre.pt/">Free Teaching Association</a>, which thanked the politicians who supported the bill, noting that their work will &#8220;ensure that citizens can finally exercise their fundamental rights in respect of DRM-protected works.&#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=137639
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 04/10/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-04-10-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZsXac5eg96I/
content:
<p><img src="media/e22c6b96.kongskull.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kongskull.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="201" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137641">This week we have four newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Kong: Skull Island 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-040317/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Split</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2072233/">Sleepless</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2072233/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzWNDXwRbLY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3095734/">Monster Trucks</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3095734/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrj2M-2Uiw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3344680/">Boyka: Undisputed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3344680/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtB3-NMfnU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/">Beauty and the Beast</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvW_L8sTu5E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</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/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">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=137632
title: Kim Dotcom Takes Fight Over Seized Millions to US Supreme Court
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Takes-Fight-Over-Seized-Millions-to-US-Supreme-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_DXiMra-sgU/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Following the 2012 raid on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, U.S. and New Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other property.</p>
<p>Claiming the assets were obtained through copyright and money laundering crimes, the U.S. government launched a separate civil action in which it asked the court to forfeit the bank accounts, cars, and other seized possessions of the Megaupload defendants.</p>
<p>The U.S. branded Dotcom and his colleagues as “fugitives” and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-wins-dozens-of-millions-from-kim-dotcom-150326/">won their case</a>. Dotcom&#8217;s legal team quickly <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-appeals-to-reclaim-mega-millions-from-u-s-150701/">appealed</a> this verdict, but lost <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-seizes-dotcoms-millions-entrepreneur-fights-back-160815/">once more</a> at the Fourth Circuit appeals court.</p>
<p>However, Dotcom is determined to regain access to his property and has now taken the case to the US Supreme Court. Together with the other defendants, he filed a petition to the Supreme Court to overturn the &#8220;fugitive disentitlement&#8221; ruling and the forfeiture of his assets.</p>
<p>The crux of the case is whether or not the District Court’s order to forfeit an estimated $67 million in assets was right. The defense argues that Dotcom and the other Megaupload defendants were wrongfully labeled as fugitives by the the Department of Justice. </p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s legal team warns that, if the current verdict stands, the US Government can seize the assets of foreign nationals based on unproven claims.</p>
<p>&#8220;If left undisturbed, the Fourth Circuit’s decision enables the Government to obtain civil forfeiture of every penny of a foreign citizen’s foreign assets based on unproven allegations of the most novel, dubious United States crimes,&#8221; the Supreme Court petition reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;And the Government can do so without affording a foreign defendant any opportunity to challenge in court whether the foreign assets are traceable to criminal conduct, whether the Government’s allegations are sufficient to establish the charged crime, or even whether the charged &#8216;crime&#8217; is a crime at all.&#8221;</p>
<p>The decision of the lower courts invites abuse according to Dotcom&#8217;s legal team, as it allows the Government to seize assets of people who have never been to the United States, seemingly with little evidence.</p>
<p>By taking on the case, the Supreme Court has the chance to clarify what the Government is permitted to do in such cases, something that isn&#8217;t entirely clear based on current case law.</p>
<p>&#8220;In sum, this case poses questions that have divided the lower courts and carry important implications for federal jurisdiction, constitutional law, statutory interpretation, civil procedure, and international relations,&#8221; Dotcom&#8217;s legal team writes.</p>
<p>If the US Supreme Court takes on the case, which has yet to be decided, Kim Dotcom has a chance to regain access to the million of dollars the authorities have taken from him.</p>
<p>The full petition is <a href="media/0c78832b.16-__PetitionForWritOfCertiorariKimDotcom.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/16-__PetitionForWritOfCertiorariKimDotcom.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137668
title: Pirate Site Operators Caught By Money Trail, Landmark Trial Hears
uri: Pirate-Site-Operators-Caught-By-Money-Trail-Landmark-Trial-Hears
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/y3m3In4I7XM/
content:
<p><img src="media/d707f101.swefilmlogo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swefilmlogo.png" width="180" height="111" class="alignright size-large">Founded half a decade ago, Swefilmer grew to become Sweden’s most popular movie and TV show streaming site. At one stage, Swefilmer and fellow streaming site Dreamfilm were said to account for 25% of all web TV viewing in Sweden.</p>
<p>In 2015, local man Ola Johansson took to the Internet to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedens-largest-streaming-site-will-close-after-raid-150729/">reveal</a> that he’d been raided by the police under suspicion of being involved in running the site. In March 2016, a Turkish national was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/operator-of-swedens-largest-streaming-site-arrested-on-secret-european-warrant-160301/">arrested</a> in Germany on a secret European arrest warrant.</p>
<p>After a couple of false starts, one <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-piracy-trial-suspended-pending-eu-ruling-160630/">last June</a> and another <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-movie-streaming-trial-gets-underway-in-sweden-170116/">this January</a>, the case finally got underway yesterday in Sweden.</p>
<p>The pair stand accused of the unlawful distribution of around 1,400 movies, owned by a dozen studios including Warner, Disney and Fox. Investigators tested 67 of the titles and ten had been made available online before their DVD release.</p>
<p>Anti-piracy group Rights Alliance claims that the site generated a lot of money from advertising without paying for the appropriate licenses. On the table are potential convictions for copyright infringement and money laundering. </p>
<p><strong>Follow the money</strong></p>
<p>In common with so many file-sharing related cases, it&#8217;s clear that the men in this case were tracked down from traces left online. Those included IP address evidence and money trails from both advertising revenues and site donations. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=128&#038;artikel=6670973">Sveriges Radio</a> who were in court yesterday, police were able to trace two IP addresses used to operate Swefilmer back to Turkey.</p>
<p>In an effort to trace the bank account used by the site to hold funds, the prosecutor then sought assistance from Turkish authorities. After obtaining the name of the 26-year-old, the prosecutor was then able to link that with advertising revenue generated by the site.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/61590a92.swefilmer.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swefilmer.png" width="600" height="515" class="alignnone size-large"></center></p>
<p>Swefilmer also had a PayPal account used to receive donations and payments for VIP memberships. That account was targeted by an investigator from Rights Alliance who donated money via the same method. That allowed the group to launch an investigation with the payment processor.</p>
<p>The PayPal inquiry appears to have been quite fruitful. The receipt from the donation revealed the account name and from there PayPal apparently gave up the email and bank account details connected to the account. These were linked to the 26-year-old by the prosecutor.</p>
<p><strong>Advertising</strong></p>
<p>The site&#8217;s connections with its advertisers also proved useful to investigators. The prosecution claimed that Swefilmer received its first payment in 2013 and its last in 2015. The money generated, some $1.5m (14m kronor), was deposited in a bank account operated by the 26-year-old by a Stockholm-based ad company.</p>
<p>The court heard that while the CEO of the advertising company had been questioned in connection with the case, he is not suspected of crimes.</p>
<p><strong>Connecting the site&#8217;s operators</strong></p>
<p>While the exact mechanism is unclear, investigators from Rights Alliance managed to find an IP address used by the 22-year-old. This IP was then traced back to his parents&#8217; home in Kungsbacka, Sweden. The same IP address was used to access the man&#8217;s Facebook page.</p>
<p>In court, the prosecution read out chat conversations between both men. They revealed that the men knew each other only through chat and that the younger man believed the older was from Russia.</p>
<p>The prosecution&#8217;s case is that the 26-year-old was the ring-leader and that his colleague was a minor player. With that in mind, the latter is required to pay back around $4,000, which is the money he earned from the site.</p>
<p>For the older man, the situation is much more serious. The prosecution is seeking all of the money the site made from advertising, a cool $1.5m.</p>
<p>The case was initially set to go ahead last year but was postponed pending a ruling from the European Court of Justice. Last September, the Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">determined</a> that it was illegal to link to copyrighted material if profit was being made.</p>
<p>Claes Kennedy, the lawyer for the 22-year-old, insists that his client did nothing wrong. His actions took place before the ECJ&#8217;s ruling so should be determined legal, he says.</p>
<p>The case continues.</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=137671
title: WWE Takes Suspected BitTorrent Pirates to Court
uri: WWE-Takes-Suspected-BitTorrent-Pirates-to-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/B90nEtAwBAg/
content:
<p><img src="media/eccefb18.eliminators.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eliminators.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="227" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137687">In recent years file-sharers around the world have been targeted with lawsuits by copyright holders seeking financial compensation.</p>
<p>These so-called “copyright trolling” efforts have become a common occurrence in the United States as well, with producers of adult content as most active participants.</p>
<p>A few days ago, however, a new name started to appear in the court dockets. In a series of complaints filed at federal courts in Connecticut, Nevada, and Pennsylvania, World Wrestling Entertainment is going after anonymous BitTorrent users.</p>
<p>The lawsuits are filed by daughter company WWE Studios Finance which is connected to the filmmaking activities of the organization. WWE has produced several movies in recent years including the recent &#8220;<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4587366/">Eliminators</a>&#8221; title featuring wrestling superstar Wade Barrett.</p>
<p>Like many other films, pirated copies are widely circulating online, and the wrestling organization is now targeting dozens suspected BitTorrent users for making it available. The number of defendants varies per lawsuit, ranging from eight to several dozens.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants willfully infringed upon WWE’s Work by participating in the unlawful and unauthorized acquisition, reproduction and distribution of copies of the Work by downloading<br>
and subsequently sharing the Work through the use of the BitTorrent Protocol,&#8221; WWE write in the Connecticut <a href="media/f83cb046.65cf90be-c5df-42a1-9109-e671bff519f9.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/65cf90be-c5df-42a1-9109-e671bff519f9.pdf">complaint (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants engaged in this sharing even though the Work contained explicit language warning viewers that unlawful reproduction and distribution without WWE’S permission is unlawful,&#8221; WWE adds.</p>
<p>The alleged copyright infringements lead to a loss of income for the producers, WWE argues, and it&#8217;s ultimately hurting local theaters, venues, and the greater state economy as well. </p>
<p>The complaints in question only list IP-addresses and no names. WWE recognizes that the account holder itself may not be the infringer and states that it will conduct additional discovery to make sure that the right persons are targeted. </p>
<p>These alleged infringers then face actual or statutory damages which, in theory, can go up to $150,000. That is unless they settle out of court, which is what usually happens in such cases. </p>
<p>It might not always go that far though, as some courts don&#8217;t want more file-sharing defendants to be joined in one lawsuit. Indeed, shortly after WWE Studios Finance submitted their complaint in Connecticut, the Court ordered the company to explain why their case shouldn&#8217;t be dismissed for lack of proper joinder.</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=137686
title: Nagra Targets Pirate Kodi Streaming Addons and IPTV
uri: Nagra-Targets-Pirate-Kodi-Streaming-Addons-and-IPTV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QPtekVhzb74/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>Since their very inception, satellite and cable TV systems have been vulnerable to those who enjoy watching content but prefer not to pay.</p>
<p>Many &#8216;solutions&#8217; have been developed to offer consumers the chance to watch premium content for free, or close to it, via the use of modified receivers, replacement or hacked smart cards, or more recently so-called &#8216;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Card_sharing">card sharing</a>&#8216; arrangements.</p>
<p>In response, so-called conditional access companies have developed advanced systems to ensure that viewers are also subscribers. One of the more successful is Nagravision (NAGRA), a system that is deployed in set-top boxes around the world.</p>
<p>But while NAGRA in this particular form can go some way towards protecting content delivered through proprietary devices, it can be bypassed by content delivered over the Internet, such as via streaming sites, augmented Kodi setups, and illegal IPTV services.</p>
<p>To that end, NAGRA and the International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP) have announced an expanded agreement &#8220;to bring a new generation of anti-piracy technology and services&#8221; to broadcasters and distributors of international and multicultural content.</p>
<p>“Developing automated, state-of-the-art tools to detect unauthorized streaming &#8211; especially on increasingly popular IPTV set-top boxes and Kodi add-ons &#8211; helps ensure we can take swift and decisive action against pirates and maintain the value of the services offered to IBCAP members,” says Frederic Guitard, Vice President Media Security Services for NAGRA.</p>
<p>IBCAP and NAGRA have been working together since 2014, and the expansion of the agreement was welcomed by Chris Kuelling, Executive Director of IBCAP.</p>
<p>“The expansion of our agreement with NAGRA will help us leverage the latest technologies and expertise in content protection and anti-piracy with the aim of putting pirates out of business and replacing them with legitimate providers,” he said.</p>
<p>NAGRA says it will establish a lab to monitor and detect unauthorized use of content via set-top boxes, websites and other streaming platforms. The company says it will target both linear feeds and VOD content, and take action to have that content removed.</p>
<p>It will also take steps to identify people selling pirate services (such as Kodi boxes augmented with infringing addons and unlicensed IPTV resellers) with an aim to either educate or gather evidence for future lawsuits.</p>
<p>The latter option could prove quite expensive. According to figures provided by IBCAP, since 2014 the group has obtained judgments or settlements against IPTV box manufacturers, providers, and retailers in excess of $100 million.</p>
<p>&#8220;ISP’s, CDN’s, and domain name providers have complied with court orders and unauthorized IPTV services have been disrupted or shut down entirely,&#8221; the group says.</p>
<p>Crackdowns on IPTV and Kodi box suppliers are becoming increasingly commonplace, particularly in Europe. Action by the Premier League and Spanish authorities <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spanish-police-shut-down-isps-iptv-piracy-business-170210/">shut down</a> a large IPTV supplier last year and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/large-iptv-piracy-ring-shut-down-by-spanish-police-and-europol-170407/">fresh action</a> against a pair of IPTV affiliated ISPs was announced just last week by Europol. </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=137750
title: It’s “National Get a VPN Day” in Australia
uri: It-s-National-Get-a-VPN-Day-in-Australia
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7Ie_U_Yeiho/
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 so many years, citizens have believed that what they do online is largely a private matter. Some continue to labor under the misconception that online events are somewhat transient but in many respects the Internet is becoming the network that never forgets.</p>
<p>In March 2015, Australia&#8217;s parliament <a href="https://www.cnet.com/au/news/mandatory-data-retention-laws-pass-parliament/">passed</a> legislation which requires all Internet service providers and telecoms companies to store their customers&#8217; metadata. Despite cries from the public, the law swept into the books largely unhindered.</p>
<p>The Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Amendment (Data Retention) Bill 2015 <em>(<a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/sitecore/content/Home/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5375">pdf</a>)</em> covers large swathes of data. When a subscriber uses the Internet, for example, telcos are required to log their account name, date, time and connection duration against the service they access.</p>
<p>Companies are also required to log location data, including where any communications begin and where they terminate. Fixed line, WiFi, and cell phone connections are all covered by the legislation, which scoops up data on everything from social networking activity to visits to file-sharing sites.</p>
<p>Considering the scale of the project, ISPs and other telcos were given a year to have systems installed to handle the huge quantities of data involved in spying on millions of Australians. That deadline ran out today, meaning that for the man in the street, online privacy is now a thing of the past. Or is it?</p>
<p>Australian privacy rights group Digital Rights Watch (DRW) think they can make a difference. A few hours ago they urged citizens to fight back against mass surveillance, declaring today, April 13, &#8220;National Get a VPN Day.&#8221;</p>
<p>“It’s important that we mark this date – and pause to remember that a detailed picture of the private lives of Australian citizens is being collected by telecommunication companies on behalf of the Government. Many interactions we have in the digital world are being collected and stored by our communications providers, all without adequate safeguards&#8221; says Digital Rights Watch Chair Tim Singleton Norton.</p>
<p>DRW notes that the growing uptake of VPN services among Australians is a sign that the public doesn&#8217;t appreciate being spied on. While that&#8217;s almost certainly the case, Aussies have a long history of VPN use for other purposes too.</p>
<p>For years, when Netflix wasn&#8217;t available locally, Australians bought the service from overseas territories, such as the United States. Then, when Netflix finally landed on local shores, people used VPNs to access the better content selections available on Netflix in other countries.</p>
<p>Then last year, following massive pressure from copyright holders, VPN services received <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australias-pirate-site-blockade-boosts-demand-for-vpns-161217/">yet another boost</a> when the Federal Court handed down instructions for ISPs to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-will-be-blocked-in-australia-161215/">block The Pirate Bay</a> and several other pirate sites.</p>
<p>So, along with fighting geo-restriction and web blockades, ISP surveillance is now giving Aussies yet another reason to pick up a VPN, if they don&#8217;t have one already.</p>
<p>“That’s why we’ve declared today as a national day of action – we’re calling upon Australian citizens to educate themselves about the scale of this surveillance and take precautions accordingly,&#8221; DRW says.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the government wants to surveil its citizens, then we’ll do everything in our power to equip people to circumvent that surveillance. If it takes every Australian having to run their digital lives through a VPN for the government to recognise that, then so be it.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to launching a Twitter campaign (#GetaVPN), DRW has an <a href="http://digitalrightswatch.org.au/2017/04/12/get-a-vpn/">advice page</a> with links to sites and resources offering information on VPNs and their use. TF&#8217;s own <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">VPN anonymity guide</a> is featured along with other good resources.</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=137741
title: Uploaded.net Terminates Accounts of Persistent Pirates
uri: Uploaded-net-Terminates-Accounts-of-Persistent-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UeOyRYNrYLU/
content:
<p><img src="media/4cf2e55b.uploadedlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uploadedlogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="89" class="alignright size-full wp-image-126196">With millions of visitors per month, <a href="http://uploaded.net">Uploaded</a> is one of the largest file-hosting services on the Internet.</p>
<p>Like many of its ‘cloud-hosting’ competitors, the service is also used to share copyright-infringing material, which is a thorn in the side of various copyright holder groups.</p>
<p>This has already led to legal trouble for Uploaded’s parent company Cyando AG, which is currently involved in a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-uploaded-net-failed-to-prevent-piracy-faces-damages-160812/">legal battle</a> with copyright holders in Germany. </p>
<p>The rightsholders believe that Uploaded is not doing enough to prevent repeat infringements and argue that the company should therefore be held liable for the infringing actions of its users. </p>
<p>While Uploaded hasn&#8217;t commented on the accusations out of court, recent developments show that something has definitely changed behind the scenes. </p>
<p>This week, Uploaded terminated the accounts of a large group of users who presumably used the site to share infringing material. The German news outlet Tarnkappe <a href="https://tarnkappe.info/uploaded-net-sperrt-massenweise-uploader/">suggests</a> that this is likely a direct response to the legal proceedings. </p>
<p>On several forums, including <a href="http://www.wjunction.com/102-file-host-affiliate-discussion/149799-2561.html">WJunction</a>, users are reporting that their accounts have been permanently suspended by the file-hosting service.</p>
<p>&#8220;Due to the high frequency of reported copyright notifications and evaluation of our compliance department, we regret to inform you that &#8211; according to our Terms and Conditions &#8211; your account with ID ***, was deactivated,&#8221; the message sent by uploaded reads.</p>
<p>Those who login to their account will see a similar notice, confirming that their account has been suspended. &#8220;This account has been permanently suspended due to violations of the Terms and Conditions,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>Suspended&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba15cbc9.uploadedsuspended.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uploadedsuspended.png" alt="" width="592" height="321" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137792"></center></p>
<p>While Uploaded has terminated accounts for similar reasons in the past, the number of complaints this week is unusual. Some even suggest that the site may not be around for much longer.</p>
<p>&#8220;So all our accounts are banned on the same day? I think very soon they will close the site!&#8221; one uploader wrote.</p>
<p>For now there is no indication that Uploaded is shutting down anytime soon. However, the recent terminations suggest that the site is getting tougher on users whose files are frequently flagged by rightholders. </p>
<p>The suspensions will mostly impact people who upload and share many pirated files on the site, often for profit. This is also the group of users copyright holders are most concerned about. </p>
<p>Uploaded&#8217;s actions are reminiscent of Rapidshare, which also took measures to ban frequent copyright infringers from its service.  The company adopted one of the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rapidshare-publishes-anti-piracy-manifesto-for-cyberlockers-120419/">most restrictive</a> sharing policies, but had to shut down after a while, as the company became <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rapidshare-fires-75-of-its-staff-after-rogue-site-revamp-bites-130519/">less profitable</a>.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Uploaded to find out more about the apparent suspension spree, but we have yet to hear back from the company. The affected users, meanwhile, are looking for alternatives to share their files.</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=137710
title: Most Millennials Regularly Stream Pirated Content, Survey Finds
uri: Most-Millennials-Regularly-Stream-Pirated-Content-Survey-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/A96spzWZKJs/
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">Despite the widespread availability of legal streaming services, piracy remains rampant among millennials in North America.</p>
<p>This is one of the main conclusions of a new survey conducted by <a href="https://launchleap.com/">Launchleap</a>. The data come from a survey among millennials between 18 and 35, and zooms in on pirate streaming preferences in this age group.</p>
<p>The results show that more than half of the respondents, a whopping 53%, admit to having used illegal services to stream movies or TV-shows over the past month. Legal streaming services remain on top with 70%, but interest in more traditional platforms such as TV, DVDs or Blu-Ray is clearly lagging behind.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/52bf4a97.whichtype.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/whichtype.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="321" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137717"></center></p>
<p>The respondents don&#8217;t appear to be particularly bothered by their habit. Only 7% of the people questioned say they feel guilty when they watch a pirated movie, the remaining 93% experience no guilt.  </p>
<p>Interestingly, streaming is seen as &#8220;less wrong&#8221; than downloading. While one-third sees both as equally wrong, 61% think that streaming is not as problematic as downloading. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/4f1fc0af.lesswrong.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lesswrong.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="249" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137718"></center></p>
<p>The survey makes it clear that millennials use legal and pirate streaming services in tandem. Nearly half of the people who pay for a legal platform like Netflix also use pirate services on occasion.</p>
<p>When they want to watch a movie, their first instinct is to go to Netflix, to see if its available there. If that&#8217;s not the case, many use an illegal offering to get their fix. </p>
<p>The dominance of Netflix appears to be an driving factor here. In many cases, titles are legally available elsewhere, but millennials don&#8217;t seem to look much further than Netflix when it comes to legal content. </p>
<p>Finally, while pirate streaming services are taking over from torrents, the latter is still most often mentioned as the platform that got millennials introduced to piracy. However, this trend is likely to change when the new generation grows up.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/7598eac4.firstpirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/firstpirate.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="298" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137721"></center></p>
<p>Regarding motivation, the study finally shows that money remains an important factor in the decision to pirate, and is even more important than availability for most. </p>
<p>All in all the findings suggest that there&#8217;s still a long way to go before piracy becomes a non-issue, even in North America where legal platforms are readily available. And with the growth of easy to use pirate streaming services, this challenge isn&#8217;t getting easier anytime soon.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>LaunchLeap&#8217;s full survey results are available <a href="media/9f79b86f.LaunchLeap_Streaming.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/LaunchLeap_Streaming.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=137833
title: Cisco Draws Attention To The Rise of Pirate IPTV
uri: Cisco-Draws-Attention-To-The-Rise-of-Pirate-IPTV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yGZ0dIFwX8U/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>It&#8217;s often said that the peer-to-peer file-sharing boom of the early 2000s was fueled by the entertainment industries&#8217; failure to offer their content in the digital domain. It took years for them to respond but content is now more widely available online than any time in history.</p>
<p>Of course, in the background there are still millions of people who prefer to get their content fix for free. The lure of BitTorrent and unauthorized online streaming platforms remains strong but there is a noticeable trend of people wanting their content delivered to a TV instead of a computer screen.</p>
<p>With that in mind, it&#8217;s no wonder that the rise of Kodi has been so dramatic. The legal media player augmented with a wide range of unauthorized third-party plugins is a pirate&#8217;s dream, providing huge volumes of premium content at zero cost. The system does have its drawbacks, however.</p>
<p>Depending on the content, at times these setups can be unreliable, particularly when it comes to offering live sports. Streams are often low quality, if they stay online at all, a frustration to anyone trying to enjoy a real-time event.</p>
<p>One solution to this problem is to buy a $100 package from an official TV provider. Another is to pay a few dollars, euros, or pounds a month to an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-mass-piracy-thats-flying-largely-under-the-radar-161127/">illegal IPTV supplier</a>, who will provide thousands of often HD quality channels and VOD, with much greater reliability and accessibility than anything available for free.</p>
<p>When monitoring various anti-piracy companies, it&#8217;s clear that IPTV is a growing concern. Companies like Premier League partners <a href="https://irdeto.com/news/premier-league-and-irdeto-collaborate-with-law-enforcement-agencies-to-shut-down-one-of-the-largest-iptv-piracy-businesses-in-europe.html">Irdeto</a> are clearly involved in tackling the issue and now networking company Cisco has shown its hand.</p>
<p>Cisco says it has spent years monitoring all kinds of piracy but its research into illicit IPTV suggests momentum in the area. Describing the Internet as a &#8220;great equalizer&#8221;, it says that some services could be &#8220;run by a teenager on a home PC&#8221; while others have companies and racks of servers behind them. Despite the apparent gray area, the big ones do stand out, however.</p>
<p>Cisco homes in on one particular supplier called RapidIPTV. According to its own data the company has 170,000 subscribers. Although market prices vary depending on package size and whether a subscription is bought through a reseller, each could be worth around $10 to $15 per month. Clearly there are significant sums of money involved, even for new entrants to the market.</p>
<p>&#8220;Servers which have only been recently launched can be expected to have hundreds of subscribers. Well-established servers might have 5,000-10,000 subscribers,&#8221; Cisco says.</p>
<p>The company says it spends time scouring online forums, the main marketplaces where IPTV packages are made available. One of the most active forums has 285 IPTV servers on offer.</p>
<p>&#8220;Conservatively, it’s fair to assess that for these 285 servers, there’s an average of 1,000 viewers per server in this highly competitive environment,&#8221; Cisco <a href="https://blogs.cisco.com/sp/illegal-streaming-of-pay-tv-is-it-now-a-flood">says</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we extrapolate from the forum described above, we can conclude that this single forum can easily reach 285,000 viewers. An average forum has offerings of hundreds of servers and each one has thousands of customers. </p>
<p>&#8220;So, with hundreds of popular forums worldwide and thousands of customers per site, the global scale of the problem is clearly visible to those of us visiting the forums and maintaining statistics.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Cisco doesn&#8217;t name the forum in question, the site has been <a href="http://forum.cstalking.com/iptv-servers/">operating openly</a> for many years, without obvious signs of legal trouble. The same cannot be said about people who actually provide the services, however.</p>
<p>As highlighted by various raids in the UK, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spanish-police-shut-down-isps-iptv-piracy-business-170210/">Spain</a>, Bulgaria and elsewhere, the authorities are certainly very aware of the problem. These raids won&#8217;t be the last either, something that may put pressure on supply.</p>
<p>&#8220;I expect our prices to go up during the next few months,&#8221; one supplier told TF on condition of anonymity. &#8220;We all know that IPTV is in the crosshairs so suppliers who can&#8217;t stand the heat will get out. That might cause capacity problems but you know, it&#8217;s a moth to a flame. Others will setup, there&#8217;s money on offer. We&#8217;ll see.&#8221; </p>
<p>The rise of IPTV is certainly interesting from a piracy perspective, since it appears to offer a stepping stone for those currently disappointed by free web streaming but can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t pay the relatively large sums demanded by broadcasters.</p>
<p>Also of interest is whether companies such as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-gets-serious-about-its-anti-piracy-efforts-170324/">newly aggressive Netflix</a> will begin to see IPTV services that come bundled with VOD packages as serious competitors. After all, for around the same price as Netflix, it&#8217;s possible to get a premium IPTV service with thousands of movies on demand. </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=137751
title: Cloudflare Doesn’t Want to Become the ‘Piracy Police’
uri: Cloudflare-Doesn-t-Want-to-Become-the-Piracy-Police
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zFHvXWNbQgE/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767">As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, Cloudflare is used by millions of websites across the globe.</p>
<p>This includes thousands of “pirate” sites, including the likes of The Pirate Bay and ExtraTorrent, which rely on the U.S.-based company to keep server loads down.</p>
<p>Copyright holders are not happy that CloudFlare services these sites. Last year, the RIAA and MPAA called the company out for aiding copyright infringers and helping pirate sites to obfuscate their actual location. </p>
<p>The rightsholders want Internet services such as Cloudflare to help them address online piracy more effectively. They are pushing for voluntary agreements to go above and beyond what the law prescribes them to do. </p>
<p>In the UK, for example, search engines have agreed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">do more to hinder piracy</a>, and advertisers, payment processors, and ISPs have also taken more active roles in combatting infringement.</p>
<p>In a <a href="media/310c20a1.cloudflare-whitepaper-intermediary-liability.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.cloudflare.com/media/pdf/cloudflare-whitepaper-intermediary-liability.pdf">whitepaper</a>, Cloudflare sees this trend as a worrying development. The company points out that the safe harbor provisions put in place by the DMCA and Europe&#8217;s eCommerce Directive have been effective in fostering innovation for many years. Voluntary &#8220;anti-piracy&#8221; agreements may change this.</p>
<p>&#8220;Slowly however, a wider net of intermediaries — from hosting providers to search engines, eCommerce platforms and other internet players — have been encouraged to help address new societal challenges, to help &#8216;clean up the web&#8217;, and effectively become internet police. Innovation continues but at the same time is threatened,&#8221; Cloudflare writes. </p>
<p>In addition, rightsholders are trying to update current legislation to increase liability for Internet services. In Europe, for example, a new copyright law proposal will make piracy filtering systems mandatory for some Internet services.</p>
<p>In its whitepaper, Cloudflare argues the such &#8220;back-door attempts to update legislation&#8221; should be closely monitored.</p>
<p>Instead of putting the blame on outsiders, copyright holders should change their views and embrace the Internet, the company argues. There are plenty of opportunities on the Internet, and the losses rightholders claim are often overblown rhetoric.</p>
<p>&#8220;Internet innovation has kept pace but many content creators and rights-holders have not adapted, and many content creators claim a loss in earning power as a result of online piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Cloudflare, content creators are often too quick to put the blame onto others, out of frustration.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many rights-holders are frustrated by their own inability to monetize the exchange of protected content and so the internet is seen not as a digital opportunity but rather a digital threat.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cloudflare argues that increased monitoring and censorship are not proper solutions. Third-party Internet services shouldn&#8217;t be pushed into the role of Internet police out of a fear of piracy. </p>
<p>Instead, the company cautions against far-reaching voluntary agreements that may come at the expense of the public.</p>
<p>&#8220;Voluntary measures have their limits and care must be taken not to have intermediaries be pushed into the area of excessive monitoring or indeed censorship. Intermediaries should not be forced to act as judge and jury, and indeed putting commercial entities in such a position is dangerous.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cloudfare stresses that it does not monitor, evaluate, judge or store content on sites operated by its clients, nor has it plans to do so. The company merely acts as a neutral ‘reverse proxy’ and operates within the boundaries of the law</p>
<p>Of course, Cloudflare isn&#8217;t completely deaf to the concerns of copyright holders. Among other things, it has a trusted notifier program that allows rightsholders to obtain the true location of pirate sites that use the service. However, they explicitly say &#8216;no&#8217; to proactive monitoring.</p>
<p>&#8220;Policy makers should not look for quick, short-term solutions to other complex problems of the moment involving the internet. A firehose approach which soaks anyone and everyone standing around an issue, is simply not the way forward,&#8221; the company writes. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The full whitepaper titled &#8220;<em>Intermediary Liability: Safeguarding Digital Innovation and the Role of Internet Intermediaries</em>&#8221; is avaialble <a href="media/8018ed56.cloudflare-whitepaper-intermediary-liability.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflare-whitepaper-intermediary-liability.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137889
title: Game Pirates Celebrate Fall of Denuvo’s Brand New Protection
uri: Game-Pirates-Celebrate-Fall-of-Denuvo-s-Brand-New-Protection
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iR7I6cznbyU/
content:
<p><a href="media/05d838b7.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg"><img src="media/fe5f698e.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="109" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116067"></a>When file-sharing was first getting off the ground, groups like the RIAA and MPAA were public enemy number one. They&#8217;re not exactly popular now but neither receive the hatred liberally poured on Denuvo.</p>
<p>The brainchild of Austria-based Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH, Denuvo is an anti-tamper technology designed to protect underlying DRM products. It&#8217;s been successfully deployed on gaming titles but just recently it&#8217;s iron skin has been showing the cracks.</p>
<p>After all previous versions were defeated, in January version three of Denuvo fell to pirates with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-piracy-crisis-as-resident-evil-7-gets-cracked-in-record-time-170130/">the release</a> of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard just five days after its street date. It was a landmark moment for a scene that had grown accustomed to Denuvo-protected games trickling down into the piracy scene months after their retail debut.</p>
<p>But while celebrations got underway, it seemed unlikely that Denuvo would simply sit back and take a beating. Indeed, within days of the crack, Denuvo marketing director Thomas Goebl told <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-02-01-denuvo-responds-to-lightning-quick-resident-evil-7-pc-crack">Eurogamer</a> that improvements to Denuvo were underway.</p>
<p>&#8220;As always, we continue working to improve our solution to create security updates for upcoming Anti-Tamper versions. We will do the same with the learning from this bypass,&#8221; Goebl said.</p>
<p>With all eyes primed for a release of a game using the new technology (the cracking scene has labeled it Denuvo v4), earlier this month Mass Effect Andromeda was cracked by CPY, the group behind most of Denuvo&#8217;s recent pain. Despite some early claims, the title was actually protected by v3, so the big test was yet to arrive.</p>
<p>Yesterday it did so, in some style.</p>
<p>With its usual fanfare, cracking group CPY announced that it had defeated Denuvo v4 protection on 2Dark, a lesser-known stealth adventure game from the creator of Alone in the Dark.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/19ff1b78.2dark1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2dark1.png"><img src="media/bc7a8b52.2dark1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2dark1.png" alt="" width="621" height="537" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137892"></a></center></p>
<p>As seen from the dates in the release notes above, the crack took a little over a month following 2Dark&#8217;s street date. Denuvo are still likely to claim that as a victory, since the first few weeks of sales were allowed to go ahead piracy-free. However, it&#8217;s worth keeping in mind that this is the new version of Denuvo which was supposed to put the anti-tamper company back out in front.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ae2bf723.2dark2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2dark2.png"><img src="media/7c814a66.2dark2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2dark2.png" alt="" width="621" height="352" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137894"></a></center></p>
<p>With celebrations now at fever pitch in game piracy land, there&#8217;s an interesting angle to the cracking of 2Dark. First of all, it&#8217;s apparent that the majority of people are more excited about Denuvo v4 being cracked than they are at the prospect of playing the game. However, the cracking of 2Dark is being seen as particularly sweet for other reasons.</p>
<p>About a month ago, a poster to Reddit&#8217;s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/CrackWatch/comments/5zbgzz/2dark_devs_promised_drm_free_version_of_the_game/">/r/crackwatch</a> highlighted that the developers of 2Dark had made some promises they later failed to keep.</p>
<p>It appears that during a 2014 crowdfunding campaign (<a href="https://fr.ulule.com/2dark/">French</a>) for 2Dark, developer Gloomywood was asked whether there would be any DRM added to the game. For many game players this would be a deal-breaker, especially if they were the ones financing the game. Here&#8217;s the assurance that contributors received back.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/637cdeec.2dark3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2dark3.png"><img src="media/8dabce30.2dark3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2dark3.png" alt="" width="650" height="106" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137898"></a></center></p>
<p>On the game&#8217;s Steam <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/435100/">page</a>, the truth later emerged with a note confirming that the title would incorporate &#8220;3rd-party DRM: Denuvo Antitamper.&#8221; According to a subsequent interview with <a href="https://techraptor.net/content/2dark-drm-despite-crowdfunding-campaign-promise">Techraptor</a>, that was a result of Gloomywood having to team up with publisher Bigben Interactive who insisted on the protection.</p>
<p>Now all eyes are turning to potential forthcoming releases from CPY, each protected by Denuvo v4. Will Nier Automata, Dead Rising 4, and Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition fall as well? It probably won&#8217;t be long before we find out.</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=137829
title: Online Piracy Moves Away From The Desktop
uri: Online-Piracy-Moves-Away-From-The-Desktop
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nICpJJg0AJc/
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">While there haven’t been any breakthroughs in file-sharing technology in recent years, the piracy ecosystem is constantly evolving.</p>
<p>Torrent sites have traditionally been very popular, but more recently direct download and streaming sites have offered serious competition.</p>
<p>According to a new report published by piracy tracking outfit <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a>, browser traffic to streaming sites now makes up 60% of all traditional pirate site visits, leaving torrent sites and regular download portals far behind. </p>
<p><center><strong>Piracy categories</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/82d9e94e.musocats1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musocats1.png" alt="" width="593" height="285" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137909"></center></p>
<p>In total there were 191 billion visits to pirate sites in 2016, roughly half a billion per day. While this is still a pretty significant number, the overall trend suggests that piracy is on the decline. </p>
<p>When we compare the first six months of 2016 with the last half, there&#8217;s a drop of roughly six percent. The graph below shows that the downward trend is continuous and driven by visits from desktop browsers. Mobile traffic remained relatively stable.</p>
<p><center><strong>Desktop vs. mobile</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6056d1d8.musographs.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musographs.png" alt="" width="585" height="321" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-137911"></center></p>
<p>Based on the above it is safe to conclude that pirates are moving away from the desktop experience which dominated historically. In part, this is because more people use mobile devices to access the Internet, but there is more. </p>
<p>While MUSO&#8217;s data suggests that piracy is down overall, this might not be the case. </p>
<p>As we have frequently covered, there has been a massive uptick in users of media streaming devices over the past year and a half. Kodi, in particular, has grown explosively and many people use these devices with &#8220;pirate&#8221; add-ons. </p>
<p>Since these devices don&#8217;t use regular browsers or pirate sites, a lot of the &#8220;visit&#8221; data probably isn&#8217;t included in MUSO&#8217;s dataset, which is provided by SimilarWeb. This is something to keep in mind. </p>
<p>Overall, MUSO&#8217;s report does document some interesting trends. With a database of web traffic on over 200 million devices to 23,000 pirate sites, it&#8217;s the most comprehensive overview we&#8217;ve seen thus far. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see if desktop piracy continues to decline in future years, and if mobile traffic stays on the increase.</p>
<p>For those wondering where all these pirates are coming from, relatively speaking Eastern Europe remains the <a href="media/055206ad.europehotbed.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/europehotbed.png">hotbed for piracy</a>. However, when looking at absolute traffic numbers, the US, Russia and India come out on top. </p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate countries</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2e71229a.musocountries.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musocountries.png" alt="" width="600" height="360" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137912"></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=137762
title: Discogs Attacked By Two Kinds of Horrible ‘Pirate’ Spam
uri: Discogs-Attacked-By-Two-Kinds-of-Horrible-Pirate-Spam
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ghMB01RXTUs/
content:
<p><a href="media/bec7698a.discogs.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discogs.jpg"><img src="media/89d33df8.discogs.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discogs.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137781"></a>It&#8217;s often claimed that pirate sites only exist to generate revenue from other people&#8217;s hard work, but there are plenty of other entities making money from the online piracy boom too.</p>
<p>For every few dozen pirate sites on the Internet, there&#8217;s an anti-piracy outfit claiming that it can claw profits back for copyright holders. Whether or not they live up to these promises is up for debate, but there can be big differences in how these companies go about their trade.</p>
<p>While some clearly strive to be accurate, others make errors that are so huge it raises questions whether there&#8217;s much oversight at all. Case in point, the recent wave of DMCA notices targeting Discogs.</p>
<p>For those out of the loop, Discogs is one of the best music databases on the Internet. From its inception in 2000, it has <a href="https://www.discogs.com/about">crowdsourced information</a> on 8,400,000 recordings and 5,000,000 artists across all genres, with a particular emphasis on electronic and dance. The site also has a massive marketplace offering more than 23 million titles for sale.</p>
<p>According to anti-piracy outfit Rivendell, however, Discogs is actually a hub of pirate activity.</p>
<p>For the past several weeks on an almost daily basis, Rivendell has been bombarding Google with requests to delist thousands of Discogs URLs, claiming that the site infringes its clients&#8217; copyrights. A small sample is shown in the image below.</p>
<p><center><b>Bogus Discogs Takedown Requests</b><a href="media/255e6d0d.discog1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discog1.png"><img src="media/f7b86a98.discog1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discog1.png" alt="" width="650" height="530" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137771"></a></center></p>
<p>What&#8217;s most annoying about these bogus reports is that in many cases they target the work of Discog contributors, who volunteer their time to build one of the most comprehensive databases available today. The site actually works as a brilliant promotional platform, but Rivendell seems intent on making content as difficult to find as possible.</p>
<p>With that in mind, it&#8217;s likely that considering their aggressive attitude towards Napster, Metallica won&#8217;t appreciate the irony of their <a href="https://www.discogs.com/Metallica-Hardwired-To-Self-Destruct/release/9370098">listings</a> being <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14095074">repeatedly targeted</a> by the anti-piracy outfit.</p>
<p><center><b>Just one of the pages targeted</b><a href="media/9b0692fc.discog2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discog2.png"><img src="media/07c35e48.discog2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discog2.png" alt="" width="648" height="405" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137773"></a></center></p>
<p>Fortunately for Discogs, Google appears to be rejecting the bogus complaints filed by Rivendell which means that its listings are safe for now. However, the music database site has another piracy related problem to deal with, again through no fault of its own. </p>
<p>As illustrated via the custom Google search below, Discogs is being used by spammers to promote &#8216;pirate&#8217; downloads. Pages and pages of results are available for a wide range of video content, from TV shows such as The Walking Dead to Hollywood movies.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ceac52be.discog3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discog3.png"><img src="media/1cb68b7e.discog3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discog3.png" alt="" width="650" height="573" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137776"></a></center></p>
<p>Site-specific searches (such as Putlocker and Vodlocker) yield plenty of results, as do more generic terms such as &#8216;free&#8217;, &#8216;download&#8217;, and &#8216;HD&#8217;. However, for those thinking this might be a good way to download a movie or TV show for free, think again.</p>
<p>In common with most online spam, these &#8216;pirate&#8217; entries on Discogs are often worse than useless, leading unsuspecting users to fake streaming sites that probably deliver malware, subscription traps, or other content best avoided.</p>
<p><center><b>Fake movie streaming anyone?</b><a href="media/cb616e7a.discog4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discog4.png"><img src="media/b2f04ebc.discog4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discog4.png" alt="" width="650" height="489" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137778" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/discog4.png 650w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/discog4-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px"></a></center></p>
<p>But of course, if they can&#8217;t tell the difference between a database entry on Discogs and a pirate music download site, anti-piracy outfits won&#8217;t be able to tell the difference between a scam and copyright infringement. To that end, they&#8217;ve been taking down fake pages too. </p>
<p><Center><b>Taking down fake entries</b><a href="media/9002ed8c.discog5.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/discog5.png"><img src="media/4a307331.discog5.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/discog5.png" alt="" width="650" height="85" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137779"></a></center></p>
<p>It must be said though, that since these pages are designed to deceive, it shouldn&#8217;t be a surprise that some get caught up in the anti-piracy dragnet. It&#8217;s actually one of the few situations where most people would welcome a wrongful takedown.</p>
<p>At the time of publication, Discogs had not responded to our request for comment.</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=137854
title: FBI Uses BitTorrent to Find and Catch Child Porn Offenders
uri: FBI-Uses-BitTorrent-to-Find-and-Catch-Child-Porn-Offenders
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PJUNG94GkrY/
content:
<p><img src="media/8bfefa43.fbistock.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fbistock.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137861">To combat the distribution of child pornography on the Internet, U.S. law enforcement is using BitTorrent to track down and catch perpetrators.</p>
<p>File-sharing networks and tools are used to transfer all sorts of files, including pornographic footage of children. </p>
<p>The Department of Justice in the U.S. sees these cases as a high priority and has successfully prosecuted many cases in recent years. Several of these, were concluded with help from P2P file-sharing software. </p>
<p>A few years ago applications with shared folders, such as Limewire, allowed the FBI to pinpoint infringers who were actively sharing illegal content. The evidence in these cases was relatively strong and led to many convictions. </p>
<p>However, now that Limewire and other popular &#8220;shared folder&#8221; applications are no longer available, law enforcement has switched to BitTorrent. </p>
<p>While there have been similar cases before, this week we first spotted an indictment where BitTorrent was used to find someone sharing these files. In the affidavit, signed by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, the process is explained in detail.</p>
<p>The agent describes BitTorrent as a &#8220;very popular&#8221; file-sharing network that users typically connect to, through torrents they download from search engines such as Isohunt or The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>These torrent sites don&#8217;t store any material themselves, the affidavit clarifies, but the perpetrators and law enforcement can use these sites to find illegal content. </p>
<p>&#8220;Law enforcement can search the BitTorrent network in order to locate individuals sharing previously identified child exploitation material in the same way a user searches this network,&#8221; the affidavit reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;By searching the network for these known torrents, law enforcement can quickly identify targets in the searcher&#8217;s jurisdiction.&#8221; </p>
<p>The FBI and other law enforcement agencies use these search engines to find torrents that are known to link to child porn. They then load the torrent files in modified torrent clients and obtain IP-addresses and other information from the associated trackers.</p>
<p>The software in question is modified to download complete files from a single source, so the investigator knows that the person on the other end has a full copy.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is law enforcement-specific BitTorrent network software which allows for single-source downloads from a computer at a single IP address, meaning that an entire file or files are downloaded only from a computer at a single IP address as opposed to obtaining the file from multiple peers/clients on the BitTorrent network.</p>
<p>&#8220;This procedure allows for the detection and investigation of those computers involved in sharing digital files of known or suspected child pornography on the BitTorrent network,&#8221; the affidavit adds.</p>
<p>In the present case a search by FBI special agent David Hand led to a Simi Valley man, who was arrested and indicted by a <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/ventura-county-man-indicted-federal-grand-jury-allegedly-producing-child-pornography">federal grand jury</a> last week. </p>
<p>In addition to distributing child pornography, a follow-up investigation unveiled more gruesome details. The indictment alleges that the man also took 83 images and three videos of a 6-year-old girl with his iPhone.</p>
<p>Based on the above, the man faces lengthy prison terms for producing, distributing and possession of child pornography.</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=137682
title: Court Sentences Movie Downloaders to 45 Days in Jail
uri: Court-Sentences-Movie-Downloaders-to-45-Days-in-Jail
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/r7NaITPYNuA/
content:
<p><a href="media/65280bc5.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg"><img src="media/4f6f21d0.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="140" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80208"></a>What&#8217;s the appropriate way to deal with online piracy? Education? Fines? Jail sentences? All of these things are possible in today&#8217;s world, depending on scale of offending and location.</p>
<p>In the United States, for example, educational warnings formed part of the Copyright Alerts program, but with that having <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-us-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-is-dead-170128/">fallen by the wayside</a>, fines (aka settlement demands) are the most common form of punishment. People can still be taken to court though, and with statutory damages of $150,000 per title on the table, things can get hairy pretty quickly.</p>
<p>On the whole, jail sentences are uncommon and are usually saved for the more serious offenders, such as site operators and release groups. On the rare occasions, a custodial is handed out, they tend to be measured in months and years, not days and weeks. Over in Nigeria, it appears things are done a little differently.</p>
<p>Following a complaint from the local Hausa Film Makers Association, 18 people were arrested under suspicion of online piracy of so-called Kannywood films, movies produced by the Hausa-language film industry based in the north of the country.</p>
<p>The Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), a paramilitary agency of the Nigerian government, took care of the prosecution. The accused appeared in court last week charged with unlawfully downloading and sharing the movies. According to a report from <a href="http://thenationonlineng.net/nscdc-secures-conviction-18-persons-accused-downloading-films/">The Nation</a>, things escalated quickly.</p>
<p>“When the one-count charge of piracy was read to them, they all pleaded guilty,&#8221; said Ibrahim Idris of the NSCDC.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Chief Magistrate, Sanusi Usman, thereafter sentenced them to 45 days imprisonment or to pay a fine of N12,000 each.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the $40 fine might be an option for some, any period in jail for sharing a movie seems particularly harsh, particularly in Nigeria, a country that places no priority on burglary offenses and chooses not to enforce its own traffic laws.</p>
<p>The United States classifies the country as having a &#8220;<a href="https://www.osac.gov/pages/ContentReportDetails.aspx?cid=17598">critical</a>&#8221; crime rate so why piracy receives any attention isn&#8217;t clear, despite the country&#8217;s reported &#8220;<a href="http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2012/03/article_0004.html">zero tolerance</a>&#8221; stance. There might, however, be a little clue in the way the Internet pirates were charged.</p>
<p>“The convicts were accused of downloading and sending of Hausa films, an act that contravenes a section of Kano State Censorship Board laws 2001,&#8221; Idris says.</p>
<p>Nigeria&#8217;s Censorship Board takes its responsibilities seriously, and while it appears to have responded to complaints of Internet piracy from an industry group, other areas of law may have come into play.</p>
<p>&#8220;The primary responsibility of the board is to filter any viewable, audible, or readable material produced by the mass media, or via the internet or performed on the stage,&#8221; the Board says in its mission statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is the duty of the board to censor such materials before they are released for public consumption; educate the stakeholders and the general public; and to prosecute the defaulters.&#8221;</p>
<p>When one begins to grasp the level of control commanded by the Board, it becomes clear that file-sharing networks are almost completely incompatible with its mission. It regularly bans songs and <a href="http://freemuse.org/archives/1459">forbids their downloading</a> so little surprise that when it suits the authorities, the big guns can be brought out to deal with the information-spreading public.</p>
<p>&#8220;The cheapest way of corrupting our cultural base is through the use of tools of mass media namely, the internet, television, adverts, movies, other cinematographs and through assorted literary works,&#8221; the Board explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;These tools of mass mind control and corruption are targeted on the youths of our developing countries on whose shoulders lie the future of this generation and yet unborn ones.&#8221;</p>
<p>The claims that pirates in the United States are merely destroying the film industry clearly pale in comparison&#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=137922
title: Reddit Rejects 81% Of All ‘Piracy’ Takedown Notices
uri: Reddit-Rejects-81-Of-All-Piracy-Takedown-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dOo03RQpXxw/
content:
<p><img src="media/35045417.redditp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png" alt="" width="250" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125451" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px">With millions of pageviews per day, Reddit is without doubt one of the most visited sites on the Internet.</p>
<p>The community-oriented platform has “subreddits” dedicated to pretty much every topic you can think of, including several dedicated to online piracy and related issues. </p>
<p>While the vast majority remain within the boundaries of the law, on occasion users post copyright-infringing material. This means that, like any user-generated site of its size, Reddit also has to process a steady stream of takedown requests from rightsholders. </p>
<p>To give the public insight into the process and volume, Reddit regularly publishes a transparency report. In the most <a href="https://www.reddit.com/wiki/transparency/2016">recent report</a>, published a few days ago, the company outlines the number of DMCA takedown notices received and how many of these were &#8220;valid.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;For a request to be valid, it must comply with the statutory requirements outlined in the DMCA,&#8221; Reddit explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Each DMCA takedown notice is reviewed carefully and, in circumstances where content is actually hosted on our servers, we assess whether the existence of the content on Reddit can fall under an exception, such as &#8216;fair use&#8217; of the copyrighted material.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the company believes that the reported content might be covered by an exemption under copyright law, they contact the copyright holder asking for additional information. If the claim turns out to be legitimate, it is then removed. </p>
<p>Unlike some other sites and services, Reddit doesn&#8217;t blindly remove a posting that links to copyrighted content hosted on an external site. The company previously stated that &#8220;links do not generally infringe copyright.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is definitely a different approach than other companies, including Google, take, and it&#8217;s likely to be reflected in the numbers as well.</p>
<p>So how much content was removed in 2016?</p>
<p>According to the transparency report, Reddit received 3,294 copyright removal requests over the entire year. Not really an impressive number compared to a service like Google, but substantial nonetheless. </p>
<p>The rejection rate is without a doubt impressive. The company says that it was required to remove content from the site in 610 instances, which is 19 percent. That means that of all DMCA requests, 81 percent was rejected. </p>
<p>That&#8217;s quite a significant percentage. At Google, for example, more than 90 percent of all reported content is removed. </p>
<p>While the number of takedown requests Reddit receives pales in comparison to other Internet services, it’s good to see that the company carefully reviews all notices to prevent unwarranted censorship. It will be interesting to see how the volume of requests and the removal rate changes over time.</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=137880
title: Russian MP Says She Loves Torrents, Hates Web Blockades
uri: Russian-MP-Says-She-Loves-Torrents-Hates-Web-Blockades
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bzGtI5AVdQQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/67f68b15.Bokova.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Bokova.jpg"><img src="media/26f04a81.Bokova.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Bokova.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137882"></a>From Canada through the United States, to the UK, Europe, and beyond, few politicians want to be seen supporting copyright infringement.</p>
<p>With the notable exception of the Pirate Party, for most politicians, piracy is something to fight against, not promote. Over in Russia, however, they like to do things a little bit differently.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the country is cracking down really hard on pirate sites, blocking them left and right while planning new legislation that will hold <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-wants-hold-social-networks-liable-internet-piracy-170402/">social networks liable</a> for the piracy of their users. On the other, we have Senator Lyudmila Bokova who didn&#8217;t get the memo.</p>
<p>Speaking at the &#8220;Internet and Law&#8221; event organized by Russian news outlet <a href="http://kommersant.ru">Kommersant</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federation_Council_(Russia)">Federation Council</a> member steered away from criticism to endorse piracy as a convenient and cost-effective method of obtaining content.</p>
<p>&#8220;I like to use torrents because they provide the ability to download information quickly and cheaply,&#8221; Bokova <a href="https://rns.online/internet/Senator-Bokova-mne-nravitsya-ispolzovat-torrenti-2017-04-05/">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;To go to the cinema today &#8211; just look at the price of tickets: 1000 rubles ($17.78). For a family of three people go to the movies it&#8217;s 3,000 rubles ($53.34) from the budget. It&#8217;s expensive. A torrent is cheap.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the Senator, who served as deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, didn&#8217;t stop there.</p>
<p>Speaking with <a href="https://rns.online/it-and-media/Senator-Bokova-vistupila-protiv-dosudebnoi-blokirovki-piratskogo-kontenta--2017-04-05/">RNS</a>, Bokova condemned Russia&#8217;s plans to block pirate sites without a trial. She criticized amendments that will force search engines such as Google and local giant Yandex to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-drafts-legislation-remove-pirate-sites-search-engines-170226/">remove links to sites</a> from search results.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think if we follow the path of pre-trial blocking [of pirate content and search engine links] it will create more problems in our society. I believe that in this case a court order, in my opinion, is the most correct approach,&#8221; she said.</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=137951
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 04/17/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-04-17-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gZwWJ4RM-io/
content:
<p><img src="media/690b399d.logan-e1492372541347.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/logan-e1492372541347.png" alt="" width="300" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137955">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Logan, which was released as a HDrip with hardcoded Korean subtitles this 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-041017/">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>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Split</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</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/tt3783958/">La La Land</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">The Fate of the Furious</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XBmsl7wbIQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(10)</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/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800/">The Great Wall</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avF6GHyyk5c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3344680/">Boyka: Undisputed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3344680/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQtB3-NMfnU">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=137878
title: Kodi Addon Repository Sees Massive Surge in Users
uri: Kodi-Addon-Repository-Sees-Massive-Surge-in-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h7yDnbgjLQw/
content:
<p><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">Streaming piracy is on the rise with popular media player Kodi at the center of attention.</p>
<p>While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, millions of people use third-party addons to turn it into the ultimate pirate machine.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tvaddons.ag/">TVAddons</a> is of the largest repositories of these plugins. The site, which is also the home of <a href="https://www.tvaddons.ag/freetelly-windows-kodi/">FreeTelly</a>, a custom pre-loaded version of Kodi for PC and Mac, is the go-to destination for those who want to upgrade their Kodi experience.</p>
<p>Over the past year-and-a-half, interest in Kodi has skyrocketed, something that&#8217;s in large part driven by &#8220;pirate&#8221; addons. As such, TVAddons has also seen its visitor numbers shoot through the roof. </p>
<p>The site&#8217;s latest numbers show how rapidly the platform is growing. Roughly a year ago the repository had about 10 million unique users per month, and last month this number was reached in a single day.</p>
<p>Most of these users aren&#8217;t visiting the website. They are people checking in from their devices to see if there&#8217;s anything new. Still, the numbers are quite impressive.</p>
<p>The graph below shows that every month more than forty million Kodi-enabled devices with their addons are online, checking for updates.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/83686b38.tvaddonunique.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddonunique.png" alt="" width="557" height="348" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137959"></center></p>
<p>In terms of actual bandwidth used, there was also a milestone reached last month. In total, TVAddons users transferred a petabyte of data from the site, or one quadrillion (short scale) bytes.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/6041f8bb.tvpeta.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tvpeta.png" alt="" width="557" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137960"></center></p>
<p>The traffic is divided over a wide array of addons. The site currently lists <a href="https://www.tvaddons.ag/kodi-addons/">1,544 different versions</a>, of which the community-maintained Genesis addon is one of the most popular. How frequently these individual addons are used, remains a mystery though. </p>
<p>TVAddons’ Eleazar informs TorrentFreak that they don&#8217;t keep any statistics on the use of individual addons. In part to avoid a competitive atmosphere, but also for privacy reasons. </p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t allow addons to keep individual stats. It would turn our open source and positive &#8216;pay-it-forward&#8217; minded community into a place of fierce competition, which is not part of our principles. It would also be a privacy issue, no one wants their piracy tracked,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>In addition, the site is also doing its best to keep profit-seekers away from its platform. This includes people who are trying to sell paid access to pirated content, including unofficial IPTV suppliers.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not support all these profit-seeking operations like paid IPTV, people selling preloaded Kodi boxes and other stuff. We do what we do for free, for the purpose of sharing and working on our own skills, not so that other people can sell it or try to advertise to our user base,&#8221; Eleazar notes.</p>
<p>Going forward, TVAddons will focus on improving its current services so that users can have access to media content in the most convenient way possible. By hosting pirate addons, the site itself isn&#8217;t particularly liked by copyright holders, but that doesn&#8217;t stop the team from moving ahead. </p>
<p>&#8220;Right now we&#8217;re just working on making things easier and more efficient,&#8221; Eleazar says. </p>
<p>Given the recent growth, the public agrees that the team is on the right path. It will be interesting to see if the repository can keep up these growth numbers. They could easily go up to 100 million unique users this time next year, or down to zero, depending on how the wind blows.</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=137977
title: MPAA Tracks ‘The Fate of the Furious’ Pirates, Two Men Arrested
uri: MPAA-Tracks-The-Fate-of-the-Furious-Pirates-Two-Men-Arrested
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h4kltsX1RY4/
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>According to the world&#8217;s major movie studios, piracy during a movie&#8217;s opening release window is the most damaging to the industry. That&#8217;s almost completely down to the way movies are marketed.</p>
<p>In the weeks and early months following a major title&#8217;s debut, the only place to see it is in a theater. When people make brand new movies available illegally in the home, it&#8217;s argued that fewer people go to the cinema and the subsequent retail window suffers with fewer sales.</p>
<p>This disruption in the market is the work of so-called movie &#8216;cammers&#8217;, people who enter movie theaters around the world, record the latest titles with a video device, and then make them available online and/or to physical bootleggers. They&#8217;re a prime target for movie studios who invest considerable resources in tracking them down, especially when it comes to the biggest titles.</p>
<p>Last Friday the MPAA was doing just that when one of their investigators shadowed two men into a Linthicum, Maryland theater from the parking lot at around 7:30 pm.</p>
<p>Troy Cornish, 38, of Baltimore, and Floyd Buchanan, 35, of Dundalk, were allegedly seen with recording equipment outside while preparing to target the US premiere of The Fate of the Furious (F8) starring Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson. </p>
<p>Like its predecessors, F8 is destined to be a guaranteed hit with the pirating masses so getting an early copy as quickly as possible is high on the list for capable cammers.</p>
<p>According to Anne Arundel County Police, when Cornish and Buchanan were approached inside the theater they were actively recording the $250m blockbuster. The pair were later found to be wearing some kind of recording harnesses under their clothing which held cell phones against their chests.</p>
<p>Both men were arrested and subsequently charged with the unauthorized recording of a movie in a theater. According to a local <a href="http://www.capitalgazette.com/news/for_the_record/ph-ac-cn-movie-piracy-0417-20170417-story.html">report</a>, they face one year in prison and/or a $2,500 fine.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth bearing in mind, however, that the Family Entertainment and Copyright Act (which usually covers such offenses) can see a first time offender imprisoned for up to three years and a repeat offender for up to six. Potentially complicating matters is that the MPAA investigator told police that Buchanan was already known to the industry group as a movie piracy suspect.</p>
<p>While the fate of the pair will remain to be seen, the fate of The Fate of the Furious is already sealed in piracy circles. After being pirated (presumably by another group) within 24 hours of its release, the movie entered TF&#8217;s weekly &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-041717/">Top Ten Most Pirated</a>&#8221; chart yesterday at number six, a position that&#8217;s guaranteed to improve next week.</p>
<p>There are several versions available online, but without a doubt the most popular is a cammed version uploaded by notorious release group Hive-CM8. It was reportedly obtained from a &#8216;latino&#8217; source and appears online with hard-coded subtitles cropped off.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/28f2edc6.furious8.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/furious8.png"><img src="media/e2933006.furious8.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/furious8.png" alt="" width="650" height="274" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137992" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/furious8.png 650w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/furious8-500x210.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px"></a></center></p>
<p>Hive-CM8 is perhaps best known for their DVD screener leaks over the past couple of years (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/more-pirated-movie-screeners-leak-online-170115/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-hateful-eight-and-the-revenant-leaked-online-151221/">2</a>) but are known to work with movie cammers too.</p>
<p>The MPAA is yet to make a statement on the arrests of Cornish and Buchanan but recently <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/press/production-of-the-fate-of-the-furious-contributed-over-65-million-to-the-georgia-economy/">noted</a> that The Fate of the Furious had contributed over $65 million to Georgia’s local economy while employing over 1,600 local workers.</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=138005
title: Mac DeMarco Tells Fans to Grab Leaked Album From The Pirate Bay, Or Kazaa…
uri: Mac-DeMarco-Tells-Fans-to-Grab-Leaked-Album-From-The-Pirate-Bay-Or-Ka
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rTyvJLd2GF8/
content:
<p><img src="media/bfbf9be2.demar-e1492514782393.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demar-e1492514782393.png" alt="" width="250" height="169" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138012">&#8220;Piracy is killing the music industry&#8221; is a phrase we&#8217;ve been hearing from industry execs for many years now. </p>
<p>So in that regard, it can be quite refreshing to hear a different perspective from someone whose livelihood depends on music. </p>
<p>This is exactly what happened at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last Friday. </p>
<p>During his set, singer-songwriter Mac DeMarco <a href="http://www.nme.com/news/music/mac-demarco-says-his-album-has-leaked-and-is-on-napster-and-limewire-2054059">told the crowd</a> that his latest album &#8220;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Old_Dog">This Old Dog</a>&#8221; had leaked online. That&#8217;s not insignificant, as it&#8217;s nearly three weeks before the official May 5 release date. </p>
<p>However, instead of begging fans to wait for the official release to come out, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_DeMarco">DeMarco</a> said that he didn&#8217;t give a shit and encouraged them to download it from pirate sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to play a song we&#8217;ve only played twice before. It&#8217;s a new song, came out a couple of days ago. But you know what? The album leaked yesterday, so I don&#8217;t give a shit anymore.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Download it. Pirate Bay, Torrents.to, Soulseek, Napster, Limewire, Kazaa. Just get it, just get it,&#8221; DeMarco added.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate Bay, Torrents.to, Soulseek, Nepster, Limewire, Kazaa&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ULdfI3tvG7c?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>The comments are noteworthy since artists don&#8217;t regularly encourage fans to get their work on The Pirate Bay, for free. However, the sites and services that the singer-songwriter mentioned are also worth highlighting. </p>
<p>It appears that Mac DeMarco hasn&#8217;t been actively participating in the piracy scene recently as the references are a bit dated, to say the least. </p>
<p>The original Napster application ceased to operate in 2001, when Demarco was 11-years-old, and Kazaa and Limewire followed a few years later. Even Torrents.to is no longer operational from its original domain name.</p>
<p>The only two options that remain are The Pirate Bay and Soulseek, which are both icons in the file-sharing world. Perhaps it&#8217;s time for this old dog to learn some new tricks?</p>
<p>Despite the active &#8220;promo,&#8221; thus far interest in the leaked album is rather modest. The torrent on The Pirate Bay has roughly 100 people sharing it at the time of writing, and that&#8217;s the most popular one we&#8217;ve seen. </p>
<p>Or could it be that some fans just gave up after they tried to get outdated and malware infested copies of Kazaa and Limewire up and running?</p>
<p><center><strong>Download&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c19bf422.olddog.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/olddog.png" alt="" width="600" height="437" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138022"></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=138039
title: Police Say “Criminal Gangs” Are Selling Pirate Media Players
uri: Police-Say-Criminal-Gangs-Are-Selling-Pirate-Media-Players
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/84rWuUnApxs/
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>For the millions of purist &#8216;pirates&#8217; out there, obtaining free content online is a puzzle to be solved at home. Discovering the best sites, services, and tools is all part of the challenge and in order to keep things tidy, these should come at no cost too.</p>
<p>But for every self-sufficient pirate, there are dozens of other individuals who prefer not to get into the nuts and bolts of the activity but still want to enjoy the content on offer. It is these people that are reportedly fueling a new crime wave sweeping the streets, from the United States, through Europe, and beyond.</p>
<p>IPTV &#8211; whether that&#8217;s a modified Kodi setup or a subscription service &#8211; is now considered by stakeholders to be a major piracy threat and when people choose to buy ready-built devices, they are increasingly enriching &#8220;criminal gangs&#8221; who have moved in to make money from the phenomenon.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the claim from Police Scotland, who yesterday held a seminar at Scottish Police College to discuss emerging threats in intellectual property crime. The event was attended by experts from across Europe, including stakeholders, Trading Standards, HM Revenue &#038; Customs, and the UK Intellectual Property Office.</p>
<p>&#8220;The illegal use of Internet protocol television has risen by 143% in the past year and is predominantly being carried out online. This involves the uploading of streams, server hosting and sales of pre-configured devices,&#8221; Scottish Police said in a statement.</p>
<p>The conference was billed as an &#8220;opportunity to share ideas, knowledge and investigative techniques&#8221; that address this booming area of intellectual property infringement, increasingly being exploited by people looking to make a quick buck. The organized sale of Android-style set-top boxes pre-configured for piracy is being seen as a prime example.</p>
<p>In addition to eBay and Amazon sales, hundreds of adverts are being placed both online and in traditional papers by people selling devices already setup with Kodi and the necessary addons. </p>
<p>“Crime groups and criminals around Scotland are diversifying into what’s seen as less risk areas,&#8221; Chief Inspector Mark Leonard <a href="http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/our-region/edinburgh/police-commit-to-crackdown-on-kodi-streaming-1-4422380">explains</a>.</p>
<p>It goes without saying that both police and copyright holders are alarmed by the rise in sales of these devices. However, even the people who help to keep the &#8216;pirate&#8217; addons maintained and circulated have a problem with it too.</p>
<p>&#8220;In my opinion, the type of people attracted to selling something like a preloaded Kodi box aren&#8217;t very educated and generally lean towards crooked or criminal activity,&#8221; Eleazar of the hugely popular <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-repository-sees-massive-surge-users-170417/">TVAddons repository</a> informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;These box sellers bring people to our community who should never have used Kodi in the first place, people who feel they are owed something, people who see Kodi only as a piracy tool, and people who don&#8217;t have the technical aptitude to maintain their Kodi device themselves.&#8221;</p>
<p>But for sellers of these devices, that&#8217;s exactly why they exist &#8211; to help out people who would otherwise struggle to get a Kodi-enabled box up and running. However, there are clear signs that these sellers are feeling the heat and slowly getting the message that their activities could attract police attention.</p>
<p>On several occasions TorrentFreak has contacted major sellers of these devices for comment but none wish to go on the record. Smaller operators, such as those selling a few boxes on eBay, are equally cautious. One individual, who is already on police radar, insists that it&#8217;s not his fault that business is booming.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sky and the Premier League charge too much. It&#8217;s that simple,&#8221; he told TF. </p>
<p>&#8220;Your average John gives you a few quid and takes [the device] and plugs it in. Job done. How is that different from getting a mate to do it for you, apart from the drink?&#8221;    </p>
<p>To some extent, Internet piracy has traditionally been viewed as a somewhat &#8216;geeky&#8217; activity, carried out by the tech-savvy individual with a little know-how. However, the shift from the bedroom to the living room &#8211; fueled by box suppliers &#8211; has introduced a whole new audience to the activity.</p>
<p>“This is now seen as being normalized,&#8221; says Chief Inspector Mark Leonard.</p>
<p>&#8220;A family will sit and watch one of these IPTV devices. There’s also a public perception that this is a commodity which is victimless. Prevention is a big part of this so we need to change attitudes and behaviours of people that this damages the creative industries in Scotland as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>As things stand, everything points to the controversy over these devices being set to continue. Despite being under attack from all sides, their convenience and bargain-basement pricing means they will remain a hit with fans. This is one piracy battle set to rage for some time.</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=137459
title: Pirate Bay Founder Launches Anonymous Domain Registration Service
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founder-Launches-Anonymous-Domain-Registration-Service
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IfncG7Kisqo/
content:
<p><img src="media/b23373ac.njallalogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/njallalogo.png" alt="" width="227" height="72" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137680">In recent years, copyright holders have taken aim at the domain name industry, calling on players to take a more active approach against piracy. </p>
<p>One of the often heard complaints is that website owners use Whois masking services to ensure their privacy. </p>
<p>There are several companies dedicated to offering privacy to domain registrants and today, rightsholders will see a well-known adversary entering the market.</p>
<p>Former Pirate Bay spokesperson and co-founder Peter Sunde has just announced his latest venture. Keeping up his fight for privacy on the Internet, he&#8217;s launching a new company called <a href="https://njal.la/#home">Njalla</a>, that helps site operators to shield their identities from prying eyes. </p>
<p>The name Njalla refers to the traditional hut that Sámi people use to keep predators at bay. It&#8217;s built on a tall stump of a tree or pole and is used to store food or other goods.</p>
<p>On the Internet, Njalla helps to keep people&#8217;s domain names private. While anonymizer services aren&#8217;t anything new, Sunde&#8217;s company takes a different approach compared to most of the competition. </p>
<p><center><strong>Njalla</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7aef1e94.njalla.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/njalla.png" alt="" width="600" height="309" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137679"></center></p>
<p>With Njalla, customers don&#8217;t buy the domain names themselves, they let the company do it for them. This adds an extra layer of protection but also requires some trust. </p>
<p>A separate agreement grants the customer full usage rights to the domain. This also means that people are free to transfer it elsewhere if they want to.</p>
<p>&#8220;Think of us as your friendly drunk (but responsibly so) straw person that takes the blame for your expressions,&#8221; Njalla notes. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Peter Sunde who says that the service is needed to ensure that people can register domain names without having to worry about being exposed. </p>
<p>&#8220;Njalla is needed because we’re going the wrong way in society regarding people&#8217;s right to be anonymous. With social media pressuring us to be less anonymous and services being centralized, we need alternatives,&#8221;  Sunde says.</p>
<p>The current domain privacy services aren&#8217;t really providing anonymity, Sunde believes, that&#8217;s why he decided to fill this gap.</p>
<p>&#8220;All key parts of the Internet need to have options for anonymity, and the domain name area is something which was never really protected. At best you can buy a domain name using &#8216;privacy by proxy&#8217; services, which are aimed more at limiting spam than actually protecting your privacy.&#8221;</p>
<p>As co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Njalla might also get some pirate sites as customers. Since Njalla owns the domain names, this could lead to some pressure from rightsholders, but Sunde isn&#8217;t really worried about this. </p>
<p>&#8220;The domain name itself is not really what they’re after. They’re after the content that the domain name points to. So we’re never helping with anything that might infringe on anything anyhow, so it’s a non-question for us,&#8221; Sunde says. </p>
<p>For those who are interested, <a href="https://njal.la/#home">Njalla just opened its website for business</a>. The company is registered with the fitting name 1337 LLC and is based in Nevis, a small island in the Caribbean Sea.</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=138109
title: Russia Plans To Ban VPNs & Proxies That Unblock Blocked Sites
uri: Russia-Plans-To-Ban-VPNs-Proxies-That-Unblock-Blocked-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ve3uJnTi_JU/
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>When it comes to blocking websites, Russia is quickly emerging as a world leader. Tens of thousands of resources are now blocked in the country on copyright infringement and a wide range of other grounds.</p>
<p>Of course, Russian citizens are not always prepared to be constrained by their government, so large numbers of people regularly find ways to circumvent ISP blockades. The tools and methods deployed are largely the same as those used in the West, including VPNs, proxies, mirror sites and dedicated services such as Tor.</p>
<p>To counter this defiance, the Russian government has been considering legislation to tackle sites, tools and services that provide Internet users with ways to circumvent blockades. According to local news outlet <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru/">Vedomosti</a>, that has now resulted in a tough new bill.</p>
<p>Russia&#8217;s plan is to issue a nationwide ban on systems and software that allow Internet users to bypass website blockades previously approved by telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor. This means that if a VPN, proxy or similar tool unblocks torrent site RuTracker, for example, it will be breaking the law. As a result, it too will find itself on Russia&#8217;s banned site list.</p>
<p>The publication says it has confirmed the bill&#8217;s existence with a federal official and several Internet service provider sources.</p>
<p>The technical aspects of the bill were reportedly formulated by lawyers working for the Media Communications Union (MCU), a trade group established by the largest media companies in the country. The MCU has a particular interest in ensuring that web users do not bypass pirate site blockades by using anonymous web-based CGI proxies.</p>
<p>The bill does give VPN and proxy providers some remove for maneuver. If they are configured to prevent access to all domains present in Russia&#8217;s banned resources list, it appears they can avoid legal issues. However, for VPN services which pride themselves on not monitoring user traffic, censoring certain sites could provoke a backlash and undermine credibility.</p>
<p>As previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-drafts-legislation-remove-pirate-sites-search-engines-170226/">reported</a>, Russia also has search engines in its sights. It wants to prevent links to banned sites appearing in search results, claiming that these encourage people to access banned material.</p>
<p>The new bill reportedly lays out a new framework which will force search engines to remove such links. Failing to do so could result in fines of up to $12,400 per breach, clearly a significant issue for companies such as Google and local search giant Yandex.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the laying of responsibilities on search engines is superfluous,&#8221; a Yandex spokesperson <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2017/04/19/686399-zapretit-obhodit-blokirovki">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;</p>
<p>This morning, the bill was discussed at the Russian Internet Forum (RIF). While it&#8217;s aim of reducing copyright infringement was understood, there were concerns that the bill could affect negatively effect the rights of Internet users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Naturally, we are against the spread of illegal content, but the law does not violate the rights and freedoms of citizens to access information,&#8221; says Sergey Grebennikov, director of the Regional Public Center of Internet Technologies.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes, there is a &#8216;gray zone&#8217; used to carry out illegal activities and the distribution of illegal content using a CGI proxies, but it does not mean that legitimate users have to suffer. It is also important to note that the laws do not violate the rights of users who choose the safe use of the Internet, for example, by using a VPN connection,&#8221; Grebennikov 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=138048
title: ISP Can’t Have Blanket Immunity From Pirating Subscribers, Court Rules
uri: ISP-Can-t-Have-Blanket-Immunity-From-Pirating-Subscribers-Court-Rul
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TbNLW3GTuIc/
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">Internet provider <a href="http://www.windstream.com/">Windstream</a> is among the companies that are gravely concerned about the verdict <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">against fellow ISP Cox</a>, which was held liable for pirating subscribers in 2015.</p>
<p>With more than a million subscribers nationwide, it is one of the larger Internet providers in the United States, and as such it regularly receives takedown notices targeting its subscribers.</p>
<p>Many of these notices come from music rights group BMG and its anti-piracy partner Rightscorp, which accused the ISP of being liable for the actions of its customers.</p>
<p>Windstream wasn&#8217;t happy with these accusations and the associated risk, filing a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/were-not-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-windstream-tells-court-160629/">request for declaratory judgment</a> at a New York District Court last year. It asked the court to rule that it’s not liable for the infringing actions of its subscribers under the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions.</p>
<p>For their part, BMG and Rightscorp protested the request and told the court that a lawsuit is premature, as the copyright holder hasn&#8217;t even officially filed an infringement complaint. Instead, they accused the ISPs of trying to get broad immunity without going into specifics, such as their repeat infringer policies.</p>
<p>In a motion to dismiss the case music rights group told the court that concrete actions and policies play a crucial role in determining liability, accusing Windstream of trying to escape this responsibility.</p>
<p>This week the court issued its final verdict in the case, which brings bad news for the Internet provider. </p>
<p>The court ruled that there is indeed no actual controversy and that it can&#8217;t issue a hypothetical and advisory opinion without concrete facts. As such, the case is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. </p>
<p>&#8220;The amended complaint does not present such a controversy. Instead, Windstream seeks a blanket approval of its business model, without reference to any specific copyright held by BMG or any specific act of direct infringement by any Windstream subscriber,&#8221; the court writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Windstream seeks the kind of hypothetical and advisory opinion, isolated from concrete facts, that cannot confer jurisdiction upon this Court,&#8221; the <a href="media/80846993.windstreamorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/windstreamorder.pdf">order adds (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>The ISP hoped to get clarity on how to respond to the copyright infringement notices BMG sends, but the court says that it can&#8217;t decide on this without concrete examples. </p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t mean that Windstream is liable, of course. The ISP may very well be protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor provisions, but this has to be decided on a case-by-case basis.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because Windstream seeks declarations untethered from any actual instances of copyright infringement or any mention of a specific copyrighted work, the complaint fails to identify an actual case or controversy and the declaratory judgment claims must be dismissed,&#8221; the court writes.</p>
<p>The order is a major disappointment for Windstream, which can still only guess whether it&#8217;s doing the right thing or not. </p>
<p>BMG and Rightscorp previously said that the ISP was liable for damages as high as $150,000 per infringed work, and with the current order this threat is still hanging over its head.</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=138167
title: Unauthorized Subtitles For Movies & TV Shows Are Illegal, Court Rules
uri: Unauthorized-Subtitles-For-Movies-TV-Shows-Are-Illegal-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ctF1WyANFYY/
content:
<p><img src="media/e9dcd3f1.free-subtitles.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/free-subtitles.jpg" width="250" height="137" class="alignright size-large">For millions of people around the world, subtitles are absolutely essential for enjoying the most popular movies and TV shows. Many consumers don&#8217;t have English as their mother tongue and the deaf have few other options.</p>
<p>As a result, subtitles are extremely popular among Internet users. These files, which are tiny when compared to the videos they accompany, are downloaded in their millions every month. Some are ripped from official media, but others are the product of fans who painstakingly create their own subtitles from scratch.</p>
<p>For many years these &#8216;fansubbers&#8217; have flown under the radar, but increasingly they&#8217;ve come under pressure from anti-piracy groups who accuse them of infringing copyright and fueling piracy. BREIN has been quite active on this front, forcing several subtitling groups into retreat, but last year faced a unique response from a tenacious group of fansubbers.</p>
<p>After raising their own funds, last year the “Free Subtitles Foundation” (Stichting Laat Ondertitels Vrij – SLOV) took the decision to make a stand for subtitling groups in the Netherlands, suing BREIN with the hope of obtaining a favorable legal ruling.</p>
<p>The group&#8217;s lawyer, Camiel Beijer, previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fansubbers-take-anti-piracy-group-brein-to-court-160203/">told TF</a> that the case revolved around two issues.</p>
<p>“The main question is whether the creation and publishing of film subtitles is an act only reserved to the maker of the film work in question,” Beijer said</p>
<p>“The second issue concerns a review of the conduct of BREIN against people who create and reproduce subtitles. The Free Subtitles Foundation anticipates that a court verdict will shed more light on these two themes.”</p>
<p>This week the Amsterdam District Court handed down its decision <em>(<a href="media/dd877c8f.2017042020SLOV20vonnis20NN.pdf" data-original-source="https://stichtingbrein.nl/public/20170420%20SLOV%20vonnis%20NN.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> and it was bad news for the fansubbers. The Court rejected all of their claims and sided with BREIN on each count.</p>
<p>The Court found that subtitles can only be created and distributed after permission has been obtained from copyright holders. Doing so outside these parameters amounts to copyright infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are several so-called release teams actively making films and TV series available from illegal sources and adding illegal subtitles for the Dutch market. This judgment makes it clear once again that this is illegal,&#8221; BREIN director Tim Kuik said in a statement.</p>
<p>BREIN maintains that whatever their intentions, the work carried out by fansubbers is not only damaging to copyright holders, but also amounts to unfair competition for emerging business models involving movies and TV shows. With that in mind, BREIN will continue its crackdown.</p>
<p>&#8220;With this decision in hand it will be easier for BREIN to maintain its work against illegal subtitlers and against sites and services that collect illegal subtitles and add movies and TV shows from an illegal source,&#8221; Kuik 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=138031
title: uTorrent Will Move to The Web Browser
uri: uTorrent-Will-Move-to-The-Web-Browser
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cFi28Um7NqM/
content:
<p><img src="media/9c3372dd.utorrentforums.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentforums.png" alt="" width="228" height="87" class="alignright size-full wp-image-123313">With around 150 million active users a month, uTorrent remains the leading torrent client, by far.</p>
<p>Despite its popularity, the introduction of new features has stalled in recent years. In fact, some of the more prominent changes date back five years, when uTorrent launched its long awaited 3.0 version.</p>
<p>However, according to BitTorrent creator and BitTorrent Inc founder <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Cohen">Bram Cohen</a>, this will change in the near future. In an interview with our Steal This Show podcast, which will be released this weekend, he promises some interesting updates, both for uTorrent and its owning company. </p>
<p>Firstly, BitTorrent Inc. is coming out of a <a href="https://backchannel.com/the-inside-story-of-bittorrents-bizarre-collapse-a0766a5442d7">rough period</a> during which outsiders took the helm and burnt through millions of dollars in cash. According to Cohen, however, things have calmed down again and the company is getting back on track.</p>
<p>There are about 50 people working at BitTorrent Inc. right now. Former CTO Ro Choy came back to the company as well and has taken the role of CEO. </p>
<p>In the future the company will <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-inc-to-refocus-on-what-made-it-rich-utorrent-170328/">refocus</a> on products that have proven to work, including uTorrent. Initially, the application generated most revenue from toolbar installs, but after web browsers started to frustrate this business, they successfully switched to in-client advertising, which is the main revenue source now.</p>
<p>&#8220;The plan is to consolidate the business and focus on revenues. We have actually a fair amount of expertise in client application advertising, which is kind of a pain to do. So leverage that and bring that to other applications as well,&#8221; Cohen says.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s clear that the advertisements will keep their prominent role in uTorrent, there is a major change coming. The future version of the client will be running directly from the browser. </p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re also taking the opportunity here to actually clean up our client experience. So, from a product standpoint, the new revision of uTorrent is going to run in the user&#8217;s default browser. That&#8217;s just a nicer experience,&#8221; Cohen notes.</p>
<p>By moving uTorrent to the browser it will be able to use modern widgets, and the developers will also integrate a greatly improved streaming experience, based on new technology.</p>
<p>The new uTorrent will allow users to stream torrents directly from their browser, much like regular streaming sites. This is also reminiscent of BitTorrent&#8217;s own browser project, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/beating-internet-censors-with-bittorrents-maelstrom-browser-150419/">Maelstrom</a>, which was quietly killed despite various positive reviews. </p>
<p>According to Cohen, Jeremy Johnson, one of the two CEOs who briefly &#8216;hijacked&#8217; the company, decided not to ship Maelstrom because he thought he could do better.</p>
<p>&#8220;What came of Maelstrom is that Jeremy just decided not to ship Maelstrom because he thought he had some genius idea that would be so much better. And he is so utterly incompetent at doing product he couldn&#8217;t even put together an actual product out of it and just killed the whole project.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Maelstrom will not return, many of its features will be present in the new uTorrent, including streaming. The main difference is that users won&#8217;t have to install a separate browser, but can use the one they already use to browse the web.</p>
<p>&#8220;The features behind it that people really want, being able to see torrents in the browser, we&#8217;re basically going to be shipping with the new uTorrent. It&#8217;s going to be your browser instead of a separate browser,&#8221; Cohen says. </p>
<p>Traditionally, end users are very conservative when it concerns major changes like this. That said, the Internet has changed quite a bit since uTorrent first came out over a decade ago. Most applications now live in the browser and BitTorrent Inc. is confident that uTorrent has its future there as well.</p>
<p>In any case, BitTorrent Inc. will be very careful not to force a new version onto users before they know that people are going to be happy with it. </p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re very, very sensitive. We know people have been using uTorrent for a very long time and love it. So we&#8217;re very, very sensitive to that and gonna be sure to make sure that people feel that it&#8217;s an upgrade that&#8217;s happening. Not that we&#8217;ve just destroyed the experience.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to roll it out and get feedback and make sure that people are happy with it before we roll it out to everybody,&#8221; Bram concludes.</p>
<p>&#8212;-</p>
<p><em>The full &#8220;<a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show</a>&#8221; interview with Bram Cohen will be available this weekend.</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=138212
title: RIAA Sues ISP Grande Communications For Failing to Disconnect Pirates
uri: RIAA-Sues-ISP-Grande-Communications-For-Failing-to-Disconnect-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JrnXKsL0d_A/
content:
<p><a href="media/8400c316.riaa.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaa.png"><img src="media/3ca10933.riaa.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa.png" alt="" width="250" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108672"></a>Despite approaching the problem from a number of directions, major copyright holders have been unable to do much to stop millions of BitTorrent-based infringements taking place every day.</p>
<p>A new lawsuit filed by the RIAA against ISP Grande Communications aims to change all that.</p>
<p>Yesterday, UMG Recordings, Capitol Records, Warner Bros, Sony Music, Arista Records, Atlantic Records and almost a dozen other music companies sued the Texas-based provider over the infringements of its subscribers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants have been notified that their internet customers have engaged in more than one million infringements of copyrighted works over BitTorrent systems, including tens of thousands of blatant infringements by repeat infringers of Plaintiffs’copyrighted works,&#8221; the lawsuit reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite their knowledge of repeat infringements, Defendants have permitted<br>
repeat infringers to use the Grande service to continue to infringe Plaintiffs’ copyrights without consequence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Right from the outset it&#8217;s clear that this case has a lot in common with the litigation <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-files-appeal-to-overturn-25-million-piracy-verdict-161110/">currently underway</a> against Cox Communications. In that case, Cox was accused by publishing company BMG of not taking significant action against thousands of its customers who persistently shared content using BitTorrent.</p>
<p>Like BMG&#8217;s case against Cox, the RIAA&#8217;s suit against Grande aims to strip away the protection the ISP normally enjoys under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. By not taking &#8220;meaningful action&#8221; against repeat infringers, the RIAA says that Grande can be held liable for the copyright infringements of its customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Neither Grande or its management company Patriot has taken any meaningful action to discourage this continuing theft, let alone suspend or terminate subscribers who repeatedly commit copyright infringement through its network, as required by law,&#8221; the RIAA writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Upon information and belief, this is so even where Defendants have specific and actual knowledge of those subscribers’ blatant, repeat infringement. Defendants’ effective acquiescence in this wholesale violation of Plaintiffs’ rights, coupled with their failure to adopt and reasonably implement a policy to stop repeat infringers, excludes Defendants from the safe harbor protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (&#8216;DMCA&#8217;).&#8221;</p>
<p>The RIAA says that since Grande failed to take action against infringers, especially those identified as repeat infringers, it protected a &#8220;significant revenue stream&#8221; it receives each month from pirating subscribers. As such it is not only liable for contributory and vicarious copyright infringement, but inducement of copyright infringement too.</p>
<p>What&#8217;s also interesting about this case is the involvement of anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp. The anti-piracy settlement company is deeply involved in the Cox case having provided the infringement data for the litigation. The same is true of the case against Grande.</p>
<p>It appears that Rightscorp&#8217;s claimed expertise in identifying repeat infringers is now central to the case, having had contact with Grande in the past. It seems likely that historical data collected by the company is now proving useful in the RIAA&#8217;s case against Grande.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rightscorp has provided Grande with notice of specific infringers using Grande’s internet service to infringe various copyrighted works. Rightscorp also requested that Grande terminate the &#8216;subscribers and account holders&#8217; who are repeat infringers of copyrighted works,&#8221; the RIAA writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite its knowledge of specific repeat infringers of copyrighted works, Grande apparently refused to do so.&#8221;</p>
<p>The RIAA says that Grande received notices that 1,840 of its customers had engaged in infringement at least 100 times, with 456 customers generating 500 infringement notices between them. More than 200 subscribers generated 1000 notices each with some generating more than 2000.</p>
<p>In closing, the RIAA seeks statutory damages, which could go up to $150,000 per infringed work, actual damages, plus profits generated by Grande as a result of infringement. The music group also asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing Grande from further infringement, plus a jury trial in due course.</p>
<p>Having backed away from the so-called &#8220;six strikes&#8221; scheme earlier this year, the RIAA was left without any effective means to tackle online infringement. It&#8217;s now clear that it intends to force Internet service providers to be its unpaid enforcers.</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=138110
title: Spammers Populate Google Maps With Pirate Links
uri: Spammers-Populate-Google-Maps-With-Pirate-Links
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UaNDf4IR6wk/
content:
<p><img src="media/1047868f.tmaps-e1492671639969.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tmaps-e1492671639969.png" alt="" width="277" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138112">Google Maps is an extremely useful service that&#8217;s made it easier for people to navigate in the real world, pointing the way to a local movie theater, for example. </p>
<p>However, for a few months, the service has also been leading people to places where pirated content is available, online. Spammers are using the &#8220;<a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/">My Maps</a>&#8221; feature to bookmark custom locations with links to a wide variety of pirated media.</p>
<p>The goal of this strategy is to have these links show up high in search results. This appears to be effective, especially since Google has started to push results from known pirate sites down.</p>
<p>These &#8220;treasure maps&#8221; have captured quite a few eyeballs, as some of the custom maps have already been viewed <a href="media/e2a23732.d285a29e69f44defa9b30b2904377313.png" data-original-source="http://image.prntscr.com/image/d285a29e69f44defa9b30b2904377313.png">hundreds of thousands</a> of times. </p>
<p><center><strong>You&#8217;re here?</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/d23c0515.brimstonemaps.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/brimstonemaps.png"><img src="media/43d9ad60.brimstonemaps.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/brimstonemaps.png" alt="" width="600" height="432" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138117"></a></center></p>
<p>In some cases, the links point to actual torrent sites or download portals, but they are also used to lure people into downloading malware or other scammy content. For example, one of the links we tried triggered an automatic download of &#8220;gone_girl_torrent.exe,&#8221; which doesn&#8217;t promise anything good.</p>
<p>And the problem appears to be widespread, with links appearing for all sorts of content. A search for &#8220;Mymaps&#8221; URLs with the keyword &#8220;MP3&#8221; returns <a href="https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8gws_rd=cr&#038;#q=site:google.com/mymaps+mp3">44,900 results</a> at the time of writing, and a search for the keywords &#8220;<a href="https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8gws_rd=cr&#038;#q=site:google.com/mymaps+torrent+download">torrent download</a>&#8221; shows 23,300 results, with a lot of popular video titles.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate maps</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/7c75b8e3.piratemaps.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratemaps.png"><img src="media/b4bee70e.piratemaps.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemaps.png" alt="" width="600" height="505" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138116"></a></center></p>
<p>Spammers&#8217; use of Google&#8217;s My Maps hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed to copyright holders either. Many of the links have been <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&#038;sort_by=date_received+desc&#038;term=google.com%2Fmymaps">reported to Google</a>, but thus far the problem remains. </p>
<p>Since Google has started to downrank pirate sites in search results, spammers are increasingly using legitimate services to promote their content. Just last week we pointed out a similar problem at <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/discogs-attacked-by-two-kinds-of-horrible-pirate-spam-170415/">Discogs</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/change-org-petitions-used-for-pirate-movie-downloads-170212/">Change.org</a> has been targeted as well. </p>
<p>One solution would be for Google to start flagging its own Maps service as a pirate site and downrank its results, but that may just be a bit too drastic.</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=138074
title: Anti-Piracy Outfit Targets ‘Troll’ Defense Sites With DMCA Takedowns
uri: Anti-Piracy-Outfit-Targets-Troll-Defense-Sites-With-DMCA-Takedow
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_CJ86BlRLE0/
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>Anti-piracy enforcement comes in all shapes and sizes and there can be little doubt that&#8217;s it&#8217;s an extremely challenging and complex arena. Little surprise then that screw-ups are pretty common.</p>
<p>This week&#8217;s facepalm moment arrives courtesy of IP Arrow, an anti-piracy outfit working on behalf of clients including California-based movie company Lionsgate.</p>
<p>For some time, IP Arrow has been sending takedown notices to Google asking it to delist thousands of &#8216;pirate&#8217; URLs for the movie <a href="https://www.lionsgate.com/movies/mechanicresurrection/">Mechanic: Resurrection</a>. In the main, the company appears to have done a good job, but like so many similar operations, at times it struggles to tell the difference between pirate copies of a movie and completely non-infringing content.</p>
<p>This week, the operator of troll defense blog <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/">Fight Copyright Trolls</a> pointed out to fellow troll defenders <a href="http://dietrolldie.com/">DieTrollDie</a> that IP Arrow had reported the site to Google for being a copyright infringer, which it most clearly is not.</p>
<p>The problem began in January when DieTrollDie (DTD) <a href="https://dietrolldie.com/2017/01/13/ga-court-servers-bt-copyright-troll-case-sua-sponte-116-cv-04055-ndga-royal-flush-odds/">published an article</a> about numerous trolling cases filed by ME2 Productions, the company that holds rights to Mechanic: Resurrection.</p>
<p>ME2 has been suing BitTorrent users all over the United States, so the cases naturally came to the attention of DTD, which offered its usual critique of the company&#8217;s actions thus far. However, in explaining certain flaws in some cases, the site referenced the hash value (B5201111ACEC1E5025DE3087B15DF84612C02579) of one of the pirate copies of Mechanic: Resurrection floating about on the Internet.</p>
<p>This was enough for IP Arrows&#8217; bots to flag DTD as a pirate site and report it to Google. While this was probably a simple error, this is an extremely sensitive area so it&#8217;s easy to see how some might view the takedown as an attempt to silence ME2&#8217;s critics.</p>
<p>Certainly, that&#8217;s the view of DTD&#8217;s operator, who informs TF that he was surprised that IP Arrow had targeted his site.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was a bit surprised that IP Arrow asked Google to remove the listing of one of my pages. I knew there was absolutely no reason to justify it,&#8221; he told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;They claim that they wanted the links removed because, &#8216;These links are facilitating piracy of my client&#8217;s work.&#8217;  What they actually wanted removed was one of the &#8216;Tags&#8217; I used to index an article concerning the BT copyright troll cases for Mechanic: Resurrection.&#8221; </p>
<p>But whatever the conclusion, the problems don&#8217;t stop there. The same takedown notice filed against DTD makes matters worse by also targeting yet another website setup to help people targeted by copyright trolls.</p>
<p>Troll-Defense.com is operated by <a href="http://www.lpjustus.com">Lybeck, Pedreira &#038; Justus</a>, a Washington law firm that&#8217;s extremely unlikely to be infringing upon Lionsgate or ME2 copyrights. Nevertheless, the site was also reported to Google for copyright infringement.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/d31bb8bb.troll-defense.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/troll-defense.png"><img src="media/62bc69b5.troll-defense.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/troll-defense.png" alt="" width="650" height="201" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138100"></a></center></p>
<p>Bizarrely, in each case the target of the infringement notices were court papers referencing ME2&#8217;s Mechanic: Resurrection cases against alleged copyright infringers. As in the reporting of DTD, it doesn&#8217;t look good that sites offering legal help to citizens are being targeted by companies with connections to the content in question.</p>
<p>&#8220;At first I thought IP Arrow was too stupid to understand what a hash file is. But after seeing that they also tried to remove search listings to publically available court documents, it looks like an effort to hide information concerning their copyright trolling operation,&#8221; DTD&#8217;s operator says.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are probably of the opinion that if you throw enough crap at a target, something is eventually going to stick.&#8221;</p>
<p>DTD also expressed concern that considering the volumes of notices being received by Google, it&#8217;s likely that innocent sites will fall victim to errors like these. It turns out that those concerns are well founded.</p>
<p>Torrent-Defense has been targeted by IP Arrow on <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=troll-defense.com">several occasions</a> (<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14206104">1</a>,<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14188672">2</a>,<a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14151483">3</a>), with Google delisting pages 100% of the time.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/4d4180da.troll-defense2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/troll-defense2.png"><img src="media/53ff2287.troll-defense2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/troll-defense2.png" alt="" width="650" height="304" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138101"></a></center></p>
<p>This hasn&#8217;t pleased lawyer Benjamin Justus, who operates the site for Lybeck, Pedreira &#038; Justus.</p>
<p>&#8220;With courts and consumers already concerned that mass copyright suits by ME2 and its affiliates are being pursued in arbitrary fashion, I think that ME2&#8217;s agents&#8217; targeting innocent parties with baseless takedown notices will only further the skepticism that these companies are not engaged in legitimate enforcement efforts,&#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=138085
title: Bram Cohen Lashes Out Against BitTorrent’s Former “Starfucker” CEOs
uri: Bram-Cohen-Lashes-Out-Against-BitTorrent-s-Former-Starfucker-C
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ID8tFJ_7yuE/
content:
<p><a href="media/2879970a.Bram_Cohen" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Cohen"><img src="media/b7e97e34.bramcohen.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bramcohen.png" alt="credit: Ijon CC BY-SA 4.0" width="218" height="217" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138056"></a>Founded by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, <a href="http://www.bittorrent.com/">BitTorrent Inc.</a> is best known for its torrent clients uTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline, from which it made millions over the years.</p>
<p>Unlike most file-sharing startups the company was well funded from the start. Accel was one of the early investors from early on, and BitTorrent was part of a fund that also included Facebook and Dropbox.</p>
<p>However, over the past decade, BitTorrent Inc. didn&#8217;t transform into a multi-billion dollar business. This prompted Accel to step away, taking a loss, while &#8220;getting rid of it.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is exactly what happened. In 2015 Accel handed over its stake in the company to a group of outside investors who promised to pay $10 million in a year, which they would take from future profits.  </p>
<p>The outsiders included Jeremy Johnson and Robert Delamar. They became BitTorrent&#8217;s new CEOs and reportedly spent a ton of cash in the months that followed. Soon after it became clear that they had burned through way more money than they&#8217;d brought in and they left their positions, a saga that <a href="https://backchannel.com/the-inside-story-of-bittorrents-bizarre-collapse-a0766a5442d7">Backchannel</a> documented in detail.</p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak&#8217;s <a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show</a>, Bram Cohen first talks about what went down in public, and his account doesn&#8217;t paint a pretty picture.</p>
<p>&#8220;You know the truth is we&#8217;ve actually been doing fine for quite a while now. We haven&#8217;t had technology problems or business problems, we&#8217;ve had investor problems. That&#8217;s been our problem,&#8221; Cohen notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Basically, Accel took their share in BitTorrent and pretty much just gave it away to these total strangers who they didn&#8217;t know. And not only gave away their stock but gave away control of the company.&#8221; </p>
<p>While the new co-CEOs of the company spent a bunch of cash, Cohen doesn&#8217;t believe they had a real plan.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Plan, why do you think they had a plan?&#8221; They were kids in a candy store. Their plan was like; Oh my god, we got money, we got power, we&#8217;re such geniuses, we can do everything here, we&#8217;ll make it great,&#8221; Cohen says.</p>
<p>The cynical rant continues for a while after that, but the bottom line is that BitTorrent&#8217;s inventor had little faith in the capabilities of the newcomers. They took BitTorrent to Hollywood and thought that aligning themselves with celebrities was the key to success, something Cohen isn&#8217;t particularly fond of.</p>
<p>&#8220;Human beings are a bunch of starfuckers, right? The United States has become this celebrity-obsessed culture, and everyone&#8217;s all about, oh, we&#8217;ll gain access. That&#8217;ll be great, and we&#8217;ll make money off of it, everybody thinks this. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s like, how can I find some biz dev people who aren&#8217;t humans, so they don&#8217;t sell their soul?&#8221; Cohen adds.</p>
<p>According to Cohen, Accel&#8217;s attempt to close their fund nearly destroyed the company. When it was time for the new CEOs and their investment company to pay up, the money wasn&#8217;t there. </p>
<p>&#8220;They were just incompetent fuckups. I mean they&#8217;re losers,&#8221; he blasts, noting that it certainly wasn&#8217;t impossible to turn a decent profit in a year. </p>
<p>While the account is a one-sided view, it&#8217;s clear that the newcomers weren&#8217;t very welcome, or liked, by BitTorrent&#8217;s inventor. He goes on to detail how thousands of dollars were spent on first class tickets, private chauffeurs, and parties.</p>
<p>Cohen himself stayed far away from the razzmatazz and continued coding, back at the dull gray office in San Francisco.  </p>
<p>&#8220;I had nothing to do with any of this. This was all just like, starfucker bullshit,&#8221; Cohen says. </p>
<p>When Steal This Show host Jamie King pushed one final time to ask if the new management really didn&#8217;t have a plan, the answer wasn&#8217;t much more flattering.</p>
<p>&#8220;Go around LA being big swinging dicks. Go to 1 Oak and spend a few thousand dollars a night on drinks. I mean, people think that there must be some like rational thought here, beyond being a talking chimpanzee,&#8221; Cohen concludes.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The full interview with Bram Cohen is <a href="/steal-this-show-s02e14-the-future-of-bittorrent-with-bram-cohen">available here</a>, or on the <a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show website</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=138186
title: Steal This Show S02E14: ‘The Future of BitTorrent, With Bram Cohen’
uri: 2017-04-23-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eW3Nr6ElIUA/
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 Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, to discuss the origins of BitTorrent in the Mojo Nation project, why BitTorrent is still relevant given our increasingly low-cost bandwidth environment, how Big Content could have competed with Free, but chose not to &#8211; and the bumpy last years at Bram&#8217;s company BitTorrent Inc, including a near-death foray into content licensing and production.</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> Bram Cohen</p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=2&#038;lpe-episode=14" 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=138054
title: BitTorrent Inventor Bram Cohen Will Start His Own Cryptocurrency
uri: BitTorrent-Inventor-Bram-Cohen-Will-Start-His-Own-Cryptocurrency
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6pQEI49ke3c/
content:
<p><a href="media/2879970a.Bram_Cohen" data-original-source="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Cohen"><img src="media/b7e97e34.bramcohen.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bramcohen.png" alt="credit: Ijon CC BY-SA 4.0" width="218" height="217" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138056"></a>BitTorrent’s inventor is known for his passion for puzzles, and more generally speaking, offering elegant solutions to complex problems through lines of code.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bram_Cohen">Bram Cohen</a> first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-turns-10-110702/">launched</a> BitTorrent he offered a solution to the bandwidth scarcity problem, by allowing anyone to distribute large files without having to invest in expensive infrastructure. </p>
<p>In recent years Cohen has closely followed the cryptocurrency boom. Not as a money hungry investor with dollar signs in his eyes, but as a programmer who sees problems that need solving.</p>
<p>In doing so, Cohen hasn&#8217;t shied away from offering his opinions and suggestions. Most recently, he presented a paper and a talk at the Stanford blockchain <a href="https://cyber.stanford.edu/blockchainconf">conference</a>, discussing proofs of space and proofs of time.</p>
<p>Without going into technical details, Cohen believes that Bitcoin is wasteful. He suggests that a cryptocurrency that pins the mining value on storage space rather than processor time will be superior. </p>
<p>In an interview with TorrentFreak&#8217;s Steal This Show, Cohen revealed that his interest in cryptocurrencies is not merely abstract. It will be his core focus in the near future.</p>
<p>&#8220;My proposal isn&#8217;t really to do something to BitCoin. It really has to be a new currency,&#8221; Cohen says. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to make a cryptocurrency company. That&#8217;s my plan.&#8221; </p>
<p>By focusing on a storage based solution, BitTorrent&#8217;s inventor also hopes to address other Bitcoin flaws, such as the 51% attack. </p>
<p>&#8220;Another benefit of storage based things is actually that there&#8217;s a lot less centralization in mining. So there&#8217;s a lot less concern about having a 51% attack,&#8221; Cohen says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sometimes people have this misapprehension that Bitcoin is a democracy. No Bitcoin is not a democracy; it&#8217;s called a 51% attack for a reason. That&#8217;s not a majority of the vote, that&#8217;s not how Bitcoin works.&#8221; </p>
<p>While the idea of a storage based cryptocurrency isn&#8217;t new, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burstcoin">Burstcoin</a> uses a similar concept, there is little doubt that Cohen believes he can do better. And with his status and contacts in the Bitcoin developer community, his project is likely to gain some eyeballs.</p>
<p>Before diving into it completely, Cohen will first finish up some other work at BitTorrent Inc. But after that, his full dedication will go into creating a superior cryptocurrency.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the next few months I&#8217;m going to devote myself full-time to the cryptocurrency stuff,&#8221; Cohen concludes.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The full interview with Bran Cohen is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/steal-this-show-s02e14-the-future-of-bittorrent-with-bram-cohen">available here</a>, or on the <a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show website</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=138198
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 04/24/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-04-24-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1FsOXQ__XxE/
content:
<p><img src="media/690b399d.logan-e1492372541347.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/logan-e1492372541347.png" alt="" width="300" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137955">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Logan, which was released as a HDrip with hardcoded Korean subtitles last week, is the most downloaded movie again.</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-041717/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">The Fate of the Furious</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XBmsl7wbIQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</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/tt5052448/">Get Out</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Split</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498381/">Rings</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498381/">4.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFB4eZSVgBE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">La La Land</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">The Boss Baby</a> (HD-TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k397HRbTtWI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost in The Shell</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">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=137192
title: The RIAA is Now Copyright Troll Rightscorp’s Biggest Customer
uri: The-RIAA-is-Now-Copyright-Troll-Rightscorp-s-Biggest-Customer
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ImBo5gf_f4k/
content:
<p><a href="media/c9f95d44.rightscorp.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.png"><img src="media/ef1215bb.rightscorp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.png" alt="" width="222" height="54" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78740"></a>Nurturing what appears to be a failing business model, anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp has been on life-support for a number of years, never making a cent while losing millions of dollars.</p>
<p>As a result, every annual report filed by the company is expected to reveal yet more miserable numbers. This year&#8217;s, filed two weeks late a few days ago, doesn&#8217;t break the trend. It is, however, a particularly interesting read.</p>
<p>For those out of the loop, Rightscorp generates revenue from monitoring BitTorrent networks, logging infringements, and sending warning notices to ISPs. It hopes those ISPs will forward notices to customers who are asked to pay $20 or $30 per offense. Once paid, Rightscorp splits this revenue with its copyright holder customers.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s headline sales figures for 2016 are somewhat similar to those of the previous year. In 2015 the company generated $832,215 in revenue but in 2016 that had dropped to $778,215. While yet another reduction in revenue won&#8217;t be welcome, the company excelled in trimming its costs.</p>
<p>In 2015, Rightscorp&#8217;s total operating costs were almost $5.47m, something which led the company to a file an eye-watering $4.63 million operational loss.</p>
<p>In 2016, the company somehow managed to reduce its costs to &#8216;just&#8217; $2.73m, a vast improvement over the previous year. But, despite the effort, Rightscorp still couldn&#8217;t make money in 2016. In its latest accounts, the company reveals an operational loss of $1.95m and little salvation on the bottom line.</p>
<p>&#8220;During the year ended December 31, 2016, the Company incurred a net loss of $1,355,747 and used cash in operations of $807,530, and at December 31, 2016, the Company had a stockholders’ deficit of $2,092,060,&#8221; the company reveals.</p>
<p>While a nose-diving Rightscorp has been a familiar story in recent years, there are some nuggets of information in 2016&#8217;s report that makes it stand out.</p>
<p>According to Rightscorp, in 2014 BMG Rights Management accounted for 76% of the company&#8217;s sales, with Warner Bros. Entertainment made up a token 13%. In 2015 it was a similar story, but during 2016, big developments took place with a brand new and extremely important customer.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the year ended December 31, 2016, our contract with Recording Industry Association of America accounted for approximately 44% of our sales, and our contract with BMG Rights Management accounted for 23% of our sales,&#8221; the company&#8217;s report reveals.</p>
<p>The fact that the RIAA is now Rightscorp&#8217;s biggest customer to the tune of $342,000 in business during 2016 is a pretty big reveal, not only for the future of the anti-piracy company but also the interests of millions of BitTorrent users around the United States.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s certainly possible that the RIAA plans to start sending settlement demands to torrent users (Warner has already done so), there are very clear signs that the RIAA sees value in Rightscorp elsewhere. As shown in the table below, between 2015 and 2016 there has been a notable shift in how Rightscorp reports its revenue.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/fa5668dc.rights-revenue.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rights-revenue.png"><img src="media/29e2b360.rights-revenue.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rights-revenue.png" alt="" width="888" height="218" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138091"></a></center></p>
<p>In 2015, all of Rightscorp&#8217;s revenue came from copyright settlements. In 2016, roughly 50% of its revenue (a little over the amount accounted for by the RIAA&#8217;s business) is listed as &#8216;consulting revenue&#8217;. It seems more than likely that the lion&#8217;s share of this revenue came from the RIAA, but why?</p>
<p>On Friday the RIAA filed a big lawsuit against Texas-based ISP Grande Communications. Detailed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">here</a>, the multi-million suit accuses the ISP of failing to disconnect subscribers accused of infringement multiple times.</p>
<p>The data being used to prosecute that case was obtained by the RIAA from Rightscorp, who in turn collected that data from BitTorrent networks. The company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-chief-patents-pay-up-or-disconnect-scheme-121217/">obtained a patent</a> under its previous Digital Rights Corp. guise which specifically covers repeat infringer identification. It has been used successfully in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-files-appeal-to-overturn-25-million-piracy-verdict-161110/">ongoing case</a> against another ISP, Cox Communications.</p>
<p>In short, the RIAA seems to be planning to do to Grande Communications what BMG and Rightscorp have already done to Cox. They will be seeking to show that Grande knew that its subscribers were multiple infringers yet failed to disconnect them from the Internet. This inaction, they will argue, means that Grande loses its protection from liability under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.</p>
<p>Winning the case against Grande Communications is extremely important for the RIAA and for reasons best understood by the parties involved, it clearly places value on the data held by Rightscorp. Whether the RIAA will pay another few hundred thousand dollars to the anti-piracy outfit in 2017 remans to be seen, but Rightscorp will be hoping so as it&#8217;s desperate for the cash.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s year-end filing raises &#8220;substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a  going concern&#8221; while noting that its management believes that the company will need at least another $500,000 to $1,000,000 to fund operations in 2017.</p>
<p>This new relationship between the RIAA and Rightscorp is an interesting one and one that&#8217;s likely to prove controversial. Grande Communications is being sued today, but the big question is which other ISPs will follow in the months and years to come.</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=138232
title: Five Million Brits Go Crazy For Illegal Streaming
uri: Five-Million-Brits-Go-Crazy-For-Illegal-Streaming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/blE5NSEwxSc/
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>With Internet access almost universal across the UK and a young, tech-savvy audience fully clued-up on the wonders of on-demand content, little wonder that new ways to consume content are being gobbled up across the country.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for content providers, those methods aren&#8217;t always official. In fact, all signs point to an uptick in illegal content consumption from a range of relatively new devices which excel when it comes to ease of access.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re talking about software such as Kodi, the legal media player that can be super-charged to provide a full-on piracy experience. Or custom Android apps like Showbox, Terrarium TV and Mobdro, each capable of delivering premium movies, TV shows and sport, without the user ever paying a penny.</p>
<p>The popularity of illegal streaming has prompted market research firm YouGov to conduct a survey on the consumption habits of Brits, with the company concluding that such services pose a &#8220;major threat&#8221; to TV subscription brands in the UK. </p>
<p>According to its &#8220;Illegal Streaming&#8221; survey, just short of five million people in the UK are using pirate TV streaming services. YouGov says that around 10% of the adult population (4.9m people) currently have access to custom Kodi boxes, modified Fire TV sticks, and illegal streaming apps running on smartphones and tablets.</p>
<p>The part that will send shudders down the spines of companies like Sky, Virgin and BT &#8211; who are not only ISPs but major content providers too &#8211; is that pirate consumers are backing away from premium services.</p>
<p>YouGov says that one out of every seven &#8216;pirate&#8217; streamers say that their use of unauthorized platforms has caused them to cancel &#8220;at least one subscription service.&#8221; The market researchers note that the actual number of subscriptions is likely to be lower due to the discrepancy between households and individuals but still, the numbers remain significant.</p>
<p>For now at least, there is a significant number of people who maintain both legal subscriptions and parallel pirate setups. However, YouGov reports that almost a third of pirates (31%) say they will cancel official subscriptions during the next 12 months.</p>
<p>There can be little doubt that the rise of so-called &#8220;living room&#8221; streaming can be attributed to word-of-mouth marketing, with people finding excitement in the range of content on offer for a negligible outlay. With that in mind, YouGov reports that six out of ten pirates say they intend to promote the availability of unauthorized services to both friends and family.</p>
<p>If the growth that promotion fuels meets YouGov&#8217;s expectations, the numbers of people getting into the piracy scene could be significant. The market research company reports that 2.6 million non-pirates say they&#8217;re preparing to start using illegal streaming platforms in the future, with 400,000 predicting involvement within the next 90 days.</p>
<p>And here&#8217;s the problem. YouGov reports that almost 90% of these non-pirates currently have a subscription to an official TV service but should they get involved, almost half are predicting that they will cancel them within 12 months of obtaining a pirate device.</p>
<p>Over in the United States, it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/millennials-regularly-stream-pirated-content-survey-finds-170412/">recently reported</a> that more than half of all millennials regularly use pirate streaming services to watch TV shows or movies. The numbers in the UK aren&#8217;t so high, but they remain significant nonetheless. According to YouGov, 18 to 34-year-olds account for 37% of pirate users, around 1.8 million people.</p>
<p>The survey also touched on people&#8217;s attitudes towards unauthorized streaming, and it comes as no surprise that many feel the high prices of genuine products justifies the use of illicit alternatives.</p>
<p>Bundled packaging means that people in the UK are often required to spend large amounts of money on channels they don&#8217;t even watch, so when cheaper options are made available, few have sympathy for what are perceived to be rich content providers.</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=138256
title: Kim Dotcom Asks Police to Urgently Interview FBI Director Jim Comey
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Asks-Police-to-Urgently-Interview-FBI-Director-Jim-Comey
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/trKmIMxEpGY/
content:
<p><a href="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg"><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>When authorities in the United States and New Zealand shut down Megaupload in 2012, large amounts of data were seized in both locations. The data in the US is currently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-megauploads-failing-drives-can-be-fixed-but-not-accessed-170330/">gathering dust</a> but over in New Zealand yet another storm is brewing.</p>
<p>In the weeks following the raid, hard drives seized from Dotcom in New Zealand were cloned and sent to the FBI in the United States. A judge later found that this should not have been allowed, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fbi-must-return-kim-dotcoms-illegally-seized-property-130531/">ruling</a> that the copies in the FBI’s possession must be destroyed.</p>
<p>Like almost every process in the Megaupload saga the ruling went to appeal and in 2014 Dotcom won again, with the Court of Appeal upholding the lower court&#8217;s decision, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-raid-warrants-legal-court-of-appeal-rules-140219/">stating</a> that the removal of the clones to the United States was &#8220;plainly not authorized.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the time Dotcom said that fighting back is &#8220;encoded in his DNA&#8221; and today he&#8217;s taking that fight to the FBI. On Sunday, FBI director James Comey touched down in Queenstown, New Zealand, for an intelligence conference. With Comey in the country, Dotcom seized the moment to file a complaint with local police.</p>
<p>In the complaint shared with TorrentFreak, lawyer Simon Cogan draws police attention to the Court of Appeal ruling determining that clones of Dotcom drives were unlawfully shipped to the FBI in the United States. Since Comey is in the country, police should take the opportunity to urgently interview him over this potential criminal matter. </p>
<p>&#8220;As director of the FBI, Mr Comey will be able to assist Police with their investigation of the matters raised in Mr Dotcom&#8217;s complaint,&#8221; the complaint reads, noting several key areas of interest as detailed below.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/0d108d65.dotcom-complaint.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-complaint.png"><img src="media/141f0547.dotcom-complaint.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-complaint.png" alt="" width="575" height="402" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138257"></a></center></p>
<p>Speaking with TF, Dotcom says that since the New Zealand High Court and Court of Appeal have both ruled that the FBI had no authority to remove his data from New Zealand, the FBI acted unlawfully.</p>
<p>&#8220;In simple terms the FBI has committed theft,&#8221; Dotcom says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The NZ courts don&#8217;t have jurisdiction in the US and could therefore not assist me in getting my data back. But FBI Director Comey has just arrived in New Zealand for a conference meaning he is in the jurisdiction of NZ courts. We have asked the NZ police to question Mr Comey about the theft and to investigate.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to seeking assistance from the police, Dotcom says that he&#8217;s also initiated a new lawsuit to have his data returned.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have also launched a separate civil court action to force Mr Comey to return my data to New Zealand and to erase any and all copies the FBI / US Govt holds. We expect an urgent hearing of the matter in the High Court tomorrow,&#8221; Dotcom concludes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s likely that this will be another Dotcom saga that will run and run, but despite the seriousness of the matter in hand, Dotcom was happy to take to Twitter this morning, delivering a video message in his own inimitable style.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en-gb">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">In your face Comey, in your face! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FVEY?src=hash">#FVEY</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Queenstown?src=hash">#Queenstown</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FBIThieves?src=hash">#FBIThieves</a> <a href="https://t.co/aJb5MrHKWe">pic.twitter.com/aJb5MrHKWe</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/856674864312139776">25 April 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=138174
title: Pirate Site Blockades Violate Free Speech, Mexico’s Supreme Court Rules
uri: Pirate-Site-Blockades-Violate-Free-Speech-Mexico-s-Supreme-Court-Ru
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0iiOgs5oFSQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/1884a835.mexico-681350_640-e1492767840165.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mexico-681350_640-e1492767840165.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138202">In many European countries it&#8217;s a mere formality to order local Internet providers to block access to pirate sites, but this is not the case in Mexico. </p>
<p>In 2015 the Government&#8217;s Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) ordered local ISP <a href="http://alestra.mx/">Alestra</a> to block access to the website mymusiic.com. </p>
<p>The website in question was targeted at a Mexican audience and offered music downloads, some of which were shared without permission. </p>
<p>The ISP was not pleased with the order and appealed it in court. Among other things, the defense argued that the order was too broad, as it also restricted access to music that might not be infringing. </p>
<p>A few days ago the case was heard by the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, which ruled that the Government&#8217;s order is indeed <a href="http://www.informador.com.mx/mexico/2017/717408/6/gobierno-no-puede-bloquear-paginas-web-por-derechos-de-autor-corte.htm">disproportional</a>. Mexican law does allow for blocking orders, but these have to be targeted at specific content instead of the website as a whole. </p>
<p><center><strong>Mymusiic.com<br></br></strong></center><center><img src="media/23504c08.mymusiic-e1492768842362.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mymusiic-e1492768842362.png" alt="" width="600" height="446" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138206"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Although such [blocking] measures are provided for by Law and pursue a legitimate purpose, the fact is that they do not meet the requirements of necessity and proportionality since the restrictions on the right of freedom of expression must refer to specific content,&#8221; Minister Alberto Perez Dayán said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hence the generic bans on the operation of certain websites and systems may violate the human right of freedom of expression,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The broad request ordered by IMPI equates to censorship and violates the constitution. Minister Perez Dayán compared the proposed blockade with the shutdown of a printing press, for publishing a single work without permission.</p>
<p>With this Supreme Court decision in hand, it will be very difficult for the authorities, or rightsholders, to demand similar blockades in the future. Instead, they will have to resort to targeting specific content, through takedown notices or via more targeted blocking efforts.</p>
<p>Mymusiic.com, the site that got the landmark case started, has quietly disappeared and is no longer operational.</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=138292
title: Selling Piracy-Configured Media Players is Illegal, EU Court Rules
uri: Selling-Piracy-Configured-Media-Players-is-Illegal-EU-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/w0B2dWpKREg/
content:
<p><img src="media/54e03740.movies1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies1.jpg" width="200" height="135" class="alignright size-large">Probably the biggest story in online piracy scene over the past 12 months has been the massive increase in popularity of piracy-configured set-top devices. </p>
<p>Mostly running Android, these devices are often supplied with software such as the neutral Kodi platform augmented with third-party addons, each designed to receive the latest films, TV shows or live sports, with minimum input from the user.</p>
<p>One of perhaps hundreds of sites involved in these sales was Netherlands-based Filmspeler.nl (Movie Player), an online store that found itself targeted by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. Filmspeler&#8217;s owners felt that its pre-configured devices were legal, arguing that their sale did not amount to a &#8220;communication to the public&#8221; as determined by the EU Copyright Directive.</p>
<p>In 2015, the Dutch District Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/is-streaming-pirated-movies-illegal-eu-court-to-decide-151012/">referred</a> the case to the EU Court of Justice. It was asked to consider whether it&#8217;s illegal to sell a product (in this case a media player) with pre-installed add-ons containing hyperlinks to websites from where copyrighted works such as movies, TV shows and live broadcasts are made available without copyright holders&#8217; permission.</p>
<p>A year later, Advocate General (AG) Campos Sánchez-Bordona issued his <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-mediaplayers-with-pirate-add-ons-is-illegal-161208/">recommendation</a> to the Court.</p>
<p>Describing how Filmspeler owner Mr. Wullems knowingly added infringing add-ons to Kodi devices, with hyperlinks to content published by known &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites, the AG added that Filmspeler advertised its media players as ways to watch content without paying. This, he said, amounted to a communication to the public and hence copyright infringement.</p>
<p>But while the AG&#8217;s opinion was important, it is the EU Court of Justice&#8217;s opinion that holds absolute legal weight. After months of deliberation it handed down its decision a few minutes ago and it&#8217;s bad news for purveyors of &#8216;pirate&#8217; devices all around the EU.</p>
<p>In a long and complex ruling, the ECJ said that a media player with pre-installed addons, accessed through structured menus, grants users &#8220;direct access to the protected works published without the permission of the copyright owners&#8221; and &#8220;must be regarded as an act of communication to the public.&#8221;</p>
<p>That large numbers of people have bought these players was taken by the Court to mean that there are an &#8220;indeterminate number of potential viewers&#8221; involving a large number of people (the public).</p>
<p>On the crucial question of whether the copyright works were transmitted to a &#8220;new public&#8221;, the Court found that the audience for these devices was not something taken into account by the copyright holders when they first gave permission for their works to be distributed.</p>
<p>Referencing the earlier <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">GS Media case</a>, the ECJ placed emphasis on whether links were offered in the knowledge they were infringing and whether the subsequent communication to the public had a profit element.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is common ground that the sale of the ‘filmerspeler’ multimedia player was made in full knowledge of the fact that the add-ons containing hyperlinks pre-installed on that player gave access to works published illegally on the internet,&#8221; the decision reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition, it cannot be disputed that the multimedia player is supplied with a view to making a profit, the price for the multimedia player being paid in particular to obtain direct access to protected works available on streaming websites without the consent of the copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore, it is necessary to hold that the sale of such a multimedia player constitutes a ‘communication to the public’, within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29.&#8221;</p>
<p>Having determined that such piracy-configured players can be considered infringing by EU member courts, the ECJ goes on to provide greater clarity on the status of copyrighted content streamed on the Internet without copyright holders&#8217; permission.</p>
<p>The ECJ states that reproduction of content may only be exempt from reproduction rights when it fulfils five conditions:</p>
<p>&#8211; When the act is temporary<br>
&#8211; When it&#8217;s transient or incidental<br>
&#8211; When it&#8217;s an integral and essential part of a technological process<br>
&#8211; When the sole purpose of that process is to enable a transmission in a network between third parties by an intermediary or a lawful use of a work or protected subject matter<br>
&#8211; The act has no independent economic significance</p>
<p>Since copyrighted works are obtained from streaming websites without obtaining permission from copyright holders, the above standards are not completely met and no copyright exceptions are available. Streaming copyrighted content from an illicit source can therefore be considered illegal.</p>
<p>The Filmspeler case will now head back to the Dutch court but this decision is likely to echo all around Europe and have a notable and immediate effect on pending cases involving &#8216;pirate&#8217; boxes and illicit streaming.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The two key points from the decision, as published by the ECJ.</p>
<p><em>1. The concept of ‘communication to the public’, within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society, must be interpreted as covering the sale of a multimedia player, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, on which there are pre-installed add-ons, available on the internet, containing hyperlinks to websites — that are freely accessible to the public — on which copyright-protected works have been made available to the public without the consent of the right holders.</em></p>
<p><em>2. Article 5(1) and (5) of Directive 2001/29 must be interpreted as meaning that acts of temporary reproduction, on a multimedia player, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, of a copyright-protected work obtained by streaming from a website belonging to a third party offering that work without the consent of the copyright holder does not satisfy the conditions set out in those provisions.</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=138252
title: Megaupload User Asks Appeals Court to Help Get His Files Back
uri: Megaupload-User-Asks-Appeals-Court-to-Help-Get-His-Files-Back
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/weFSJTQTzbo/
content:
<p><img src="media/5fd37436.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg" align="right" alt="megaupload">Soon after <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/">Megaupload&#8217;s shutdown</a> more than five years ago, many of the site’s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-please-return-my-personal-files-megaupload-120120/">users complained</a> that their personal files had been lost as collateral damage.</p>
<p>One of these users is Kyle Goodwin, who operates a sports video company in Ohio. He used Megaupload as part of his business, to safely store large videos he created himself. </p>
<p>But, after Megaupload&#8217;s servers were raided Mr. Goodwin could no longer access the files. Hoping to resolve the issue, he <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-user-asks-court-to-order-return-of-his-data-120525/">asked the court</a> to assist him and others to retrieve their personal property.</p>
<p>Helped by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Williams Mullen law firm, and Stanford&#8217;s Hoover Institution, Mr. Goodwin filed over half a dozen requests since 2012 asking the court to find a workable solution for the return of his data. Thus far, however, this has been without success.</p>
<p>This week, his legal team brought the issue before the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, pointing out that the Government&#8217;s seizure of Megaupload and its apparent disregard for the rights of former users of the service continue to affect innocent bystanders. </p>
<p>After more than five years, they hope that the court will help to break the case open, so former users will be able to retrieve their personal files.</p>
<p>“Mr. Goodwin, and many others, used Megaupload to store legal files, and we’ve been asking the court for help since 2012. It’s deeply unfair for him to still be in limbo after all this time,” EFF&#8217;s Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz says. </p>
<p>“The legal system must step in and create a pathway for law-abiding users to get their data back.”</p>
<p>Mr. Goodwin&#8217;s lawyers asked the court to issue a &#8216;<a href="media/bf89e4b8.megamandamus_petition_as_filed_.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.eff.org/files/2017/04/24/megamandamus_petition_as_filed_.pdf">writ of mandamus</a>&#8216; to the trial court, requesting it to act on their client&#8217;s behalf and create a process for Megaupload users to regain access their data.</p>
<p>The longer it takes the higher the risk is that data will be permanently lost, the legal team stresses. And at this moment it could still take many years before the criminal case reaches its conclusion.</p>
<p>&#8220;The seizure and continued denial of access also violates Mr. Goodwin’s constitutional rights. Under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, the government was obligated to execute the searches and seizures in a manner that reasonably protected the rights of third parties to access and retrieval,&#8221; the petition reads.</p>
<p>While the sports videographer is the only Megaupload user who&#8217;s fighting for his rights in court, there are many others who still hope to be reunited with their lost data. Last year a former Megaupload user contacted TorrentFreak in desperation, hoping to recover a personal photo that is very dear to him. </p>
<p>According to EFF, the Government can&#8217;t stand idly by in these cases. More and more users are hosting their personal data in the cloud and it&#8217;s important that their rights are taken into account. </p>
<p>“We’re likely to see even more cases like this as cloud computing becomes increasingly popular,” EFF&#8217;s Legal Director Corynne McSherry comments. </p>
<p>“If the government takes over your bank, it doesn’t get to keep the family jewels you stored in the vault. There’s a process for you to get your stuff back, and you have a right to the same protection for your data,” she adds.</p>
<p>In a few weeks we will know if the Appeals Court agrees, or if the waiting continues. </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=138336
title: Australia Readies New Copyright Safe Harbor Consultation
uri: Australia-Readies-New-Copyright-Safe-Harbor-Consultation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oYguR2VIms4/
content:
<p><a href="media/b997f7ba.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg"><img src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"></a>Unlike in the United States where so-called safe harbor provisions apply to Internet service providers and online platforms such as Google and Facebook, Australia&#8217;s system offers reduced protection for the latter group.</p>
<p>To put the country on a similar footing as other technologically advanced nations, amendments were proposed to Australia&#8217;s Copyright Act that would’ve seen enhanced safe harbor assurances for platforms including search engines and social networks.</p>
<p>Last month, however, the government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-shelves-copyright-safe-harbor-for-google-facebook-et-al-170323/">dropped</a> the amendments before they were due to be introduced to parliament. That came as a surprise, particularly as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had given the proposals his <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-copyright-safe-harbour-provision-backed-by-prime-minister-170313/">approval</a> just a week earlier.</p>
<p>While business startup advocates were disappointed by the move, copyright holders welcomed the decision, with Dan Rosen, chief executive of the Australian Recording Industry Association, calling for a “full, independent and evidence-based review” in advance of similar future proposals. Just a month later and that seems a likely outcome.</p>
<p>In a statement delivered by Minister for Communications Mitch Fifield, the government has now announced a further consultation on extending the safe harbor provisions of the Copyright Act.</p>
<p>&#8220;An expanded safe harbor regime would provide a useful mechanism for rights holders to have material that infringes their copyright removed from online service providers,&#8221; Fifield said.</p>
<p>&#8220;An expanded regime would also ensure that service providers are not held responsible for the infringing actions of their users, provided they take reasonable steps to take down material that infringes copyright.&#8221;</p>
<p>The minister said that the government intends to &#8220;proceed carefully&#8221; to ensure that any legislation achieves the above objectives while balancing the need to grow Australia&#8217;s digital economy and supporting the needs of creators and copyright holders.</p>
<p>The Department of Communications will now oversee a series of meetings and roundtable discussions with stakeholders, prior to delivering advice to the government by early June 2017.</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=138243
title: Kodi Counters Scaremongerers and Clarifies Its Stance on DRM
uri: Kodi-Counters-Scaremongerers-and-Clarifies-Its-Stance-on-DRM
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TxMrHNt-V6A/
content:
<p><img src="media/d7058e94.kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" alt="" width="250" height="96" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137635">The <a href="https://kodi.tv/">Kodi</a> media player software has seen a massive surge in popularity over the past two years.</p>
<p>With help from a wide range of third-party add-ons, some of which offer access to pirated content, millions of people now use Kodi as their main source of entertainment.</p>
<p>Earlier this month we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-wants-to-beat-piracy-with-legal-content-and-drm-170409/">interviewed</a> the Kodi team to talk about their plans and piracy-related challenges. They were very upfront about these issues and happy to provide some counterbalance to often misleading news reports.</p>
<p>The Kodi team itself sees no value in actively banning third-party addons. Instead, they would like more legitimate content providers to join their platform. One of the things that could make this easier is by allowing Kodi to interface with DRM.</p>
<p>DRM-compatibility would make it possible for major movie studios and the likes of Netflix to stream their content in a protected environment, which is a minimal requirement for many. </p>
<p>However, the words &#8220;Kodi&#8221; and &#8220;DRM&#8221; in one sentence proved to be a rather volatile mix. </p>
<p>Soon after we posted our article, wild theories started to emerge, and social media, YouTube, and other news outlets started to spread inaccurate claims, with some predicting the end of Kodi.</p>
<p>This week the Kodi team decided to clarify their stance. Responding to the &#8220;ill-informed idiots on YouTube&#8221; and click-bait writers, the team makes it clear that DRM poses no threat to the media player software that people have come to love. </p>
<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s try again and make this crystal clear: Kodi is a free, open-source neutral software. Kodi will never, ever require DRM to work, nor will it ever be a locked software. Ever! Read that a couple more times for good measure,&#8221; they <a href="https://kodi.tv/article/dev-journal-kodi-and-drm">write</a>. </p>
<p>Since Kodi is open source, released under a GNU General Public License, the software itself can&#8217;t ship with DRM. However, there might be ways to set it up so it is compatible with DRM software that&#8217;s already on users&#8217; systems or devices.</p>
<p>This will help to bring content providers on board and change the perception of Kodi as a piracy facilitator, the team says.</p>
<p>&#8220;From our perspective, supporting low-level DRM is a first step to changing that. Basically, what this means is providing some sort of interface to work with the DRM already present on your system. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, Android ships with software that plays back DRMed content from Netflix. Kodi could hook into this already existing software in Android to playback the same content, so you never have to leave Kodi,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>In other words, the only thing that Kodi is trying to do is help content providers to embrace the platform, not to hunt down or limit the availability of third party add-ons. </p>
<p>To the many news outlets who spread inaccuracies or falsehoods, the developers say they are always happy to answer their questions. In any case, readers are warned not to fall for wild claims, as they are often incorrect. </p>
<p>As for DRM, the Kodi team said its formal position can be summarized with the following four sentences.</p>
<p><em>&#8211; Kodi will never provide content, DRMed or not.<br>
&#8211; Kodi will never stop working with your content.<br>
&#8211; We will never prevent you from using Kodi as you so choose.<br>
&#8211; We do not condone, condemn, encourage or recommend any particular use of Kodi.</em></p>
<p>Period.</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=138251
title: Swefilmer Piracy Trial Ends, Operators Face Years in Jail
uri: Swefilmer-Piracy-Trial-Ends-Operators-Face-Years-in-Jail
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t39Gx0eOMUY/
content:
<p><img src="media/d707f101.swefilmlogo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swefilmlogo.png" width="180" height="111" class="alignright size-large">Founded more than five years ago, Swefilmer grew to become Sweden’s most popular movie and TV show streaming site. It was once said to have accounted for 25% of all web TV viewing in Sweden.</p>
<p>In 2015, a 22-year-old Swefilmer operator revealed he&#8217;d been raided and in 2016 a Turkish national was arrested in Germany on a secret European arrest warrant. The now 26-year-old was accused of receiving donations from users and setting up Swefilmer’s deals with advertisers.</p>
<p>The pair <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-movie-streaming-trial-gets-underway-in-sweden-170116/">appeared</a> at the Varberg District Court in January, accused of making more than $1.5m from their activities between November 2013 and June 2015.</p>
<p>After a few weeks&#8217; suspension, the case got back underway this month, when <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-operators-caught-by-money-trail-landmark-trial-hears-170411/">details of the investigation</a> into the site were revealed to the Court.</p>
<p>This week the trial concluded with prosecutor Anna Ginner describing the Swefilmer streaming operation as being like &#8220;organized crime&#8221;, while demanding a 4.5-year prison sentence for the 26-year-old alongside damages of more than $1.5m.</p>
<p>&#8220;I say this bears the traits of organized crime. A crime that has drawn in a lot of big money,&#8221; said Ginner via video link. </p>
<p>&#8220;The aim was to provide all visitors of the website Swefilmer an opportunity to see movies for free. The website even placed advertising to encourage more visitors,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The effect of the business has been that thousands of users have done just that, instead of paying for the Swedish film companies. This has damaged the film studios.&#8221; </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.hn.se/nyheter/varberg/%C3%A5klagaren-det-liknar-organiserad-brottslighet-1.4249327">local media</a>, the 26-year-old&#8217;s lawyer dismissed the prosecution&#8217;s claims as &#8220;fantasy&#8221;, noting that it&#8217;s not clear that his client committed any crimes at all.</p>
<p>That assertion wasn&#8217;t shared by lawyer Henrik Pontén of RightsAlliance.</p>
<p>&#8220;We must not forget that it is only a small part of the money that we have been able to find. There is a large amount of money that has been lost somewhere in the world,&#8221; Pontén said.</p>
<p>The prosecution considers the 26-year-old to be the main player behind the site, with the 22-year-old playing a much smaller role. He stands accused of receiving around $4,000 of the proceeds but according to his lawyer Claes Kennedy, no crime was committed, since at the time it had not been established by the EU court that linking to pirated content was illegal.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the prosecution wants the site&#8217;s former administrator to receive a year in jail but may settle for a suspended sentence plus community service, a point on which his lawyer agrees.</p>
<p>For his part, Henrik Pontén hopes the punishments are closer to the top of the scale as a deterrent to others.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foreign criminals are attracted to Sweden for the opportunity to earn serious money and receive low penalty rates,&#8221; he told Hallands Nyheter.</p>
<p>The district court&#8217;s decision is due mid-May.</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=137974
title: Cloudflare Ordered to Expose Gay-Torrents Operator, Or Else…
uri: Cloudflare-Ordered-to-Expose-Gay-Torrents-Operator-Or-Else
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HhpgWdYlXSg/
content:
<p><img src="media/5c8577db.gay-torrents.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gay-torrents.png" alt="" width="300" height="65" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137982">Cloudflare has taken quite a bit of heat from copyright holders in recent months. </p>
<p>As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, Cloudflare is used by millions of websites across the globe, some of which are notorious pirate sites. </p>
<p>However, instead of proactively taking down these sites, Cloudflare maintains its position as a neutral service provider. If copyright holders want them to take action, they have to follow the legal process. </p>
<p>This is the route adult company Flava Works is taking now. The company went to a clerk at the Illinois federal court and succesfully obtained a DMCA subpoena to expose the personal details connected to the account of the gay torrent community Gay-Torrents.org. </p>
<p>The order commands CloudFlare to hand over the personal details of the associated account holder within a month. This includes names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, account numbers, billing records and other identifying information.</p>
<p>Unlike regular subpoenas, DMCA subpoenas are not reviewed by a judge and only require a signature from the court clerk. However, in a letter sent to Cloudflare, Flava Works says that it&#8217;s considering further legal steps, if they&#8217;re needed.</p>
<p><center><strong>The DMCA subpoena</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/259f1c9d.cloudflaregay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflaregay.png" alt="" width="600" height="328" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137989"></center></p>
<p>The adult company explains that it sent three DMCA takedown notices to the company, but that dozens of copyright infringing files on Gay-Torrents.org are still being served through Cloudflare&#8217;s servers.</p>
<p>Flava argued that Cloudflare is required to take proper action against repeat infringers under the DMCA, and wants it to terminate the associated account in its entirety, or face lagal action.</p>
<p>&#8220;Accordingly, demand is hereby made upon you to immediately and permanently disable and remove the Infringing Site as a repeat infringer and terminate all related accounts,&#8221; Flava writes in its letter. </p>
<p>&#8220;Absent full compliance with this demand, our Client will be forced to investigate all legal remedies available to it, including, without limitation, bringing a civil cause of action against you to compel compliance.&#8221; </p>
<p>The adult entertainment company ends by saying that it would be in the best interests of all parties to avoid costly litigation, but clearly doesn&#8217;t rule out the possibility.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s doubtful, however, that Cloudflare will be sensitive to this kind of threat. The company has repeatedly said that it follows the letter of the law, and in its opinion this doesn&#8217;t cover the termination of clients solely based on third party claims.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Cloudflare for a comment on the allegations. The company informed us that they have yet to be served with the subpoena, adding that it is Cloudflare&#8217;s policy to respond to proper court process once served.</p>
<p>To be continued. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134724
title: Hackers Leak Netflix’s Orange is The New Black, Season 5 Premiere
uri: Hackers-Leak-Netflix-s-Orange-is-The-New-Black-Season-5-Premiere
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Hxxd0lvQBuQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/645b46b5.tdo-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tdo-logo.jpg"><img src="media/56f68718.tdo-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tdo-logo.jpg" alt="tdo-logo" width="270" height="270" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134741"></a>Much to the disappointment of studios everywhere, movie and TV shows leak onto the Internet every single week. </p>
<p>However, if what is unfolding today lives up to its billing, we could be looking at the start of one of the most significant piracy leaks of recent times.</p>
<p>Earlier this evening, the first episode of the brand new season of Netflix&#8217;s Orange is the New Black was uploaded to The Pirate Bay, months ahead of its official June release date.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ef858d57.oitnb-2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-2.png"><img src="media/c4f841dc.oitnb-2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-2.png" alt="" width="650" height="439" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138391"></a></center></p>
<p>So how did this unreleased content fall into the wrong hands?</p>
<p>As seen from the torrent details uploaded to Pirate Bay, the leak is the work of a hacking entity calling itself TheDarkOverlord (TDO). An extraction of the .torrent file&#8217;s meta data reveals a 1.1GB file named:</p>
<p>&#8216;Episode1/ORANGEep5001_HDSR_CTM_ProResProxy_8.15.16-H264_SD_16x9.mov&#8217;.</p>
<p>In information sent to TF, the group says that sometime during the closing months of 2016, it gained access to the systems of Larson Studios, an ADR (additional dialogue recorded) studio, based in Hollywood. The following screenshot reportedly from the leak indeed suggests a copy that was in production and possibly unfinished in some way.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c96259ce.oitnb-3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-3.png"><img src="media/70c21972.oitnb-3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-3.png" alt="" width="650" height="359" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138394"></a></center></p>
<p>After obtained its haul, TDO says it entered into &#8220;negotiations&#8221; with the video services company over the fate of the liberated content.</p>
<p>&#8220;After we had a copy of their data safely in our possession, we asked that we be paid a small fee in exchange for non-disclosure. We approached them on the Eve of their Christmas,&#8221; a member of the group previously told us over an encrypted channel.</p>
<p>So who are TDO? According to several security reports, TDO is a fairly prolific hacking group (their spokesman says they are more than one) that has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in recent months.</p>
<p>One, which targeted construction company Pre-Con Products Ltd, involved the leak of contracts and a video which purported to show a fatal accident. <a href="https://www.databreaches.net/thedarkoverlord-reveals-three-more-attacks-with-more-to-be-revealed/">Another</a>, concerning polyurethane and epoxy product company GS Polymers, Inc, resulted in a leak of data after the company reportedly showed a &#8220;disinterest&#8221; in &#8220;working&#8221; with TDO. The group has also <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/read/hackers-threaten-release-of-atlanta-professional-athletes-medical-data">targeted</a> medical organizations and leaked gigabytes of data obtained from <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/hackers-claim-theft-of-data-from-gorilla-glue">Gorilla Glue</a>.</p>
<p>As is clear from its actions, TDO takes its business seriously and when the group allegedly contacted Larson Studios before Christmas, they had extortion (their word) in mind. In a lengthy business-like &#8216;contract&#8217; shared with TorrentFreak, TDO laid out its terms for cooperation with the California-based company. </p>
<p>&#8220;This agreement of accord, assurances, and satisfaction is between Larson Studios (the &#8216;Client&#8217;) and thedarkoverlord, a subsidiary of TheDarkOverlord Solutions, a subsidiary of World Wide Web, LLC [WWW, LLC] (the &#8216;Proposer&#8217;),&#8221; the wordy contract begins.</p>
<p>In section 2 of the contract, headed &#8220;Description of Services,&#8221; TheDarkOverLord offers to &#8220;refrain from communicating in any method, design, or otherwise to any individual, corporation, computer, or other entity any knowledge, information, or otherwise,&#8221; which appears to be an offer not to leak the content obtained. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, there were a number of conditions. The subsequent section 3 reveals that the &#8220;services&#8221; come at a price &#8211; 50 bitcoins &#8211; plus potential late payment fees, at TDO&#8217;s discretion.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/142420f9.tdo-contract.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tdo-contract.png"><img src="media/7f102849.tdo-contract.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tdo-contract.png" alt="tdo-contract" width="650" height="325" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134755"></a></center></p>
<p>TDO informs TF that Larson Studios agreed to the pay the ransom and even sent back the contract.</p>
<p>&#8220;They printed, signed, and scanned the contract back to us,&#8221; the group says.</p>
<p>A copy seen by TF does have a signature, but TDO claims that Larson failed to follow through with the all-important bitcoin payment by the deadline of 31st December. That resulted in follow-up contact with the company.</p>
<p>&#8220;A late fee was levied and they still didn&#8217;t hold up their end of the agreement,&#8221; TDO says.</p>
<p>In an earlier discussion with TDO after the group reached out to us, we tried to establish what makes a group like this tick. Needless to say, they gave very little away. We got the impression from news reports that the group is mostly motivated by money, possibly power, but to remove doubt we asked the question.</p>
<p>&#8220;Are you familiar with the famous American bank robber, Willie Sutton?&#8221; a spokesperson replied.</p>
<p>&#8220;In an interview, he was once asked &#8216;Why do you rob banks?&#8217; To which replied, &#8216;Because that&#8217;s where the money is.&#8217; It&#8217;s said that this exchange led to the creation of Sutton&#8217;s law which states that when diagnosing, one should consider the obvious. We&#8217;ll leave you to interpret what we&#8217;re motivated by.&#8221;</p>
<p>Later, the group stated that its only motivation is its &#8220;greed for internet money.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak understands that the leak of this single episode could represent just the start of an even bigger drop of pre-release TV series and movies. TDO claims to be sitting on a massive trove of unreleased video material, all of it high-quality.</p>
<p>&#8220;The quality is almost publish quality. One will find small audio errors and video errors like lack of color correction, but things are mostly complete with most of the material,&#8221; TDO says.</p>
<p>TheDarkOverlord did not explain what it hopes to achieve by leaking this video content now, months after it was obtained. However, when questioned the group told us that the information shared with us thus far represents just &#8220;the tip of the iceberg.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the past few minutes the group has taken to its Twitter account, posting messages directed at Netflix who are likely to be watching events unfold.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1f673fa9.oitnb-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-1.png"><img src="media/b99e912f.oitnb-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oitnb-1.png" alt="" width="650" height="473" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138390"></a></center></p>
<p><em>This is a breaking news story, updates will follow</em></p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The group has published a <a href="https://pastebin.com/FKZAafQd">statement</a> on Pastebin.</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=138353
title: What Now For ‘Pirate’ Boxes & Streaming Following the ECJ Ruling?
uri: What-Now-For-Pirate-Boxes-Streaming-Following-the-ECJ-Ruling
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YcmzIyUsWw0/
content:
<p><img src="media/54e03740.movies1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movies1.jpg" width="200" height="135" class="alignright size-large">On Wednesday, the European Court of Justice handed down its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">decision</a> in the long-running case between Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and Filmspeler.nl.</p>
<p>Filmspeler sold Android-type devices with Kodi software installed. However, it augmented otherwise legal setups with third-party addons designed to deliver infringing content to customers.</p>
<p>Filmspeler&#8217;s owners felt that its pre-configured devices were legal, but both BREIN and ultimately the ECJ disagreed, with the latter noting that their sale amounted to a &#8220;communication to the public&#8221; in respect of infringing content.</p>
<p>So what does this decision mean for the sale of so-called &#8220;fully-loaded&#8221; devices in the EU? In the very short term, probably very little. Longer term, some changes probably lie ahead.</p>
<p><strong>Suppliers</strong></p>
<p>There can be little doubt that one of the first places people turn to for such devices are places like eBay. But despite some recent UK tabloid claims that the auction site had banned their sale, a <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=fully+loaded+fire+stick&#038;_osacat=0&#038;_from=R40&#038;_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xfully+loaded+kodi.TRS0&#038;_nkw=fully+loaded+kodi&#038;_sacat=0">cursory search</a> today reveals hundreds of listings for devices that are clearly configured for piracy.</p>
<p>Over time &#8211; whether due to eBay tightening its policies, more aggressive reporting of infringing listings by rights holders, or increased caution on the part of sellers due to prosecutions &#8211; it&#8217;s likely that these kinds of blatant &#8216;pirate&#8217; listings will become much less common. However, sellers will find subtle ways to get their message across, without attracting too much attention.</p>
<p>For instance, people hoping to watch satellite TV without paying for an expensive subscription can head over to eBay and pop the otherwise benign terms <a href="http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&#038;_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313.TR5.TRC1.A0.H0.Xsatellite+gift.TRS0&#038;_nkw=satellite+gift&#038;_sacat=0">&#8220;satellite&#8221; and &#8220;gift&#8221;</a> into the search box. Hundreds of listings appear, the majority of which offer a pirate subscription to an illegal card-sharing service. &#8216;Pirate&#8217; box sellers are likely to employ similar tactics in future.</p>
<p>While sprawling, eBay is <em>relatively</em> easy to police but the same cannot be said of the listings that appear in local classified papers. These ads are often placed by regular people who have nurtured a small cottage industry selling a few boxes per week. These people could find themselves targeted by authorities, but sheer numbers will dictate that most fly under the radar.</p>
<p>For suppliers still intent on shifting volume, safer strategies exist.</p>
<p><strong>Pirate addons? Get ready for a DIY boom</strong></p>
<p>This week&#8217;s ECJ ruling has nothing to do with the sale of basic hardware and everything to do with infringing software. In other words, if box suppliers sell devices with little other than an operating system installed, they are not breaking the law. This presents a problem, however.</p>
<p>A typical &#8216;pirate&#8217; box buyer hasn&#8217;t got the knowledge to turn an Android device into a piracy machine, that&#8217;s why he bought the thing off eBay in the first instance. This means that these kinds of people will be much less likely to buy if they have to mess around themselves. However, if they only have to click a couple of links to get going, that probably won&#8217;t be too much of a problem.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s certainly the case with native Android apps such as Showbox, Popcorn Time, Mobdro, and Terrarium TV, which are all installed to a set-top device with a couple of clicks, even by the complete novice. With this in mind, it&#8217;s likely that sellers will very gently direct customers to sites offering the software and tutorials, rather than take the risk themselves.</p>
<p>Custom installers for Kodi (such as TVAddons&#8217; Fusion) are also widely available and will no doubt gain further traction if the availability of pre-configured &#8216;pirate&#8217; boxes is restricted. Expect there to be a lot of innovation in this area, with an emphasis on making this as close to a &#8216;one-click&#8217; process as possible.</p>
<p><strong>But will users be breaking the law using these setups?</strong></p>
<p>In a word &#8211; probably.</p>
<p>Up until this week, it was widely believed that users who merely stream pirated content are not breaking the law. It was a position even <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-pirate-content-isnt-illegal-uk-trading-standards-says-170306/">held by UK Trading Standards</a>, who have an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-box-seller-enters-not-guilty-plea-landmark-trial/">important prosecution</a> pending against a box seller.</p>
<p>But the ECJ&#8217;s decision published on Wednesday appears to have removed all doubt, noting that a &#8220;copyright-protected work obtained by streaming from a website belonging to a third party offering that work without the consent of the copyright holder&#8221; does not qualify for exemption from reproduction rights.</p>
<p>In other words, streaming copyrighted content from an illicit source is now just as illegal in the EU as downloading from an illicit source. So what does this mean for the average &#8216;pirate&#8217; box user? In the short term, probably not a great deal.</p>
<p>When a user downloads or streams infringing content, whether that&#8217;s from a file-hosting site, streaming portal, or even YouTube, no third parties are legally able to get in the way to monitor what&#8217;s going on. The user&#8217;s connection is directly communicating with the source, and unlike BitTorrent, there are no easily monitored and potentially risky uploads going on.</p>
<p>So yes, streaming is now apparently confirmed illegal but will remain a hidden offense carried out by dozens of millions of people all around the EU. Even in the face of an ECJ ruling, only their consciences will stand between them and illicit content, whether a box seller installed the addons, or if they did the deed themselves. </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=137970
title: Premier League Asks Google to Take Down Facebook’s Homepage
uri: Premier-League-Asks-Google-to-Take-Down-Facebook-s-Homepage
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7NuxfJkEVYk/
content:
<p><img src="media/5c64e7a8.facebay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebay.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="58" class="alignright size-full wp-image-11458">Removing search results is nothing new for Google. The company has been cleaning up its search index for years, in response to complaints from copyright holders.</p>
<p>Every week the search engine processes millions of requests. In most cases these claims are legitimate, but every now and then innocent web pages are mistakenly targeted.</p>
<p>This week we stumbled upon a <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/14186503">takedown notice</a> that&#8217;s clearly not right. The request was sent by NetResult on behalf of the Premier League, and targets a wide variety of sports streaming related sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;The reported URLs are offering unauthored live streams of Premier League content,&#8221; it reads, listing the homepages of sites such as streamsarena.eu, letsfooty.com, tvlink.in and sportcategory.com.</p>
<p>While targeting the homepages of these sites is already quite broad, it also lists the main Facebook.com URL among the infringing domains, asking Google to remove it from the search engine entirely.</p>
<p><center><strong>Premier League Takedown Notice</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8dcaba49.premierfacebook.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/premierfacebook.png" alt="" width="600" height="185" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138000"></center></p>
<p>Google has investigated the claims, including the Facebook one, but decided not to comply with the notice in question, leaving Facebook&#8217;s homepage in search results.</p>
<p>In situations like this, we can see how easy erroneous takedown claims can easily lead to over-blocking. It&#8217;s good to know that, despite receiving millions of requests per day, the search engine is still able to spot most of these flaws.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, not all mistakes are easily caught, especially when they concern smaller sites. </p>
<p>Just a few days ago <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-outfit-targets-troll-defense-sites-with-dmca-takedowns-170923/">we noticed</a> that a page from the copyright troll blog DieTrollDie was <a href="https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&#038;q=https://dietrolldie.com/tag/b5201111acec1e5025de3087b15df84612c02579/">removed</a> from Google&#8217;s search results because it mentioned a torrent hash of a Lionsgate film, and another blog had several court filings removed from the results for the same reason.</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=138080
title: Skytorrents: A Refreshing Ad-free and Privacy Focused Torrent Site
uri: Skytorrents-A-Refreshing-Ad-free-and-Privacy-Focused-Torrent-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eNwZ2V33Oos/
content:
<p><img src="media/91a1e168.sky_mini.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky_mini.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="90" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138349">Many file-sharing fans see torrent site operators as like Robin Hood, serving free goods to the public at great risk with minimal financial incentive. </p>
<p>Copyright holders, on the other hand, portray the same people as greedy criminals who are exploiting their work for financial gain, subjecting the public to malicious ads. </p>
<p>While there is no standard torrent site owner, the truth often lies somewhere in the middle. Many site owners make money but not the millions that are sometimes claimed. And yes most sites have shady ads, but that&#8217;s often because these are pushed by the advertising networks they use.</p>
<p>A torrent site without ads is rare, but a few months ago a newcomer appeared that promised just that. </p>
<p>When <a href="https://www.skytorrents.in/?l=en-us">Skytorrents</a> first showed up, advertising an ad-free and privacy-focused service, we were skeptical. They wouldn&#8217;t be the first to start this way but change their tune when visitors started coming in.</p>
<p>However, months later the site is still around, so we decided to ask why they do what they do and how they are able to survive.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will NEVER place any ads. The site will remain ad-free or it will shut down. When our funds dry up, we will go for donations. We can also handover to someone with similar intent, interests, and the goal of a private and ad-free world,&#8221; Skytorrents&#8217; operator informed us.</p>
<p>&#8220;The main motivation is to showcase an ad-free experience to users. We are giving something good back to society.&#8221;</p>
<p>Setting up a torrent site without ads isn&#8217;t hard, but the privacy element is trickier. To achieve this Skytorrents has had to make a lot of concessions, both in design and the general functioning of the site.</p>
<p><center><strong>Skytorrents</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6f546653.skytpbafk-e1493289596589.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/skytpbafk-e1493289596589.png" alt="" width="600" height="402" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138348"></center></p>
<p>Users will not be able to create an account, for example, as that created a weak spot. The same is true for Javascript, which isn&#8217;t used at all.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, using a CDN breaches user privacy. As far as complete privacy is concerned, either there is complete privacy or zero privacy. For maintaining complete privacy, we do not use cookies, java scripts or user logins. We also do not have any moderators,&#8221; Skytorrents informed us.</p>
<p>The result is a surprisingly fast and clean search engine, that runs from a CentOS operated server with a bunch of C code, but without common tools such as PHP or MySQL.</p>
<p>As for the torrents, these are all collected from BitTorrent&#8217;s DHT network. Before they are listed all torrents have to pass through two spam detection algorithms which get better and better every day. </p>
<p>In addition, there is also a separate tool that &#8220;confirms&#8221; torrents to be genuine. While 99% of the torrents are spam-free already, for &#8220;genuine&#8221; torrents this goes up to nearly 100%.</p>
<p>&#8220;We also have another algorithm which validates and marks genuine torrents. However, note that 99% of listed torrents are spam free. A genuine marked torrent can be assured 99.99 % of the time,&#8221; Skytorrents&#8217; operator says.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, Skytorrents lists 12,645,486 torrents and the site&#8217;s operators plan to keep expanding their database, as well as the number of users while keeping their ad-free and privacy oriented values.</p>
<p>Whether they will be able to pull this off has yet to be seen, but over the past few months they&#8217;ve kept their promise.</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=138264
title: ATM-Style Kiosk Pumps Out Pirate Movies to USB Sticks
uri: ATM-Style-Kiosk-Pumps-Out-Pirate-Movies-to-USB-Sticks
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7peEVSx5obk/
content:
<p><a href="media/2911f25e.swiss-usb.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swiss-usb.jpg"><img src="media/47ce6a20.swiss-usb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swiss-usb.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-43153"></a>For more than 30 years, consumers have obtained music and movies written to polycarbonate discs. CD, DVD and now Blu-ray discs are recognizable across the world as a cheap and pretty reliable carrier for large volumes of digital data.</p>
<p>While it may take a while before Blu-ray takes its final breaths, CDs and DVDs are already on borrowed time. For the younger generation already accustomed to storing huge amounts of data on tiny MicroSD cards and USB sticks, a plastic disc carrying content is almost as outdated as a vinyl record.</p>
<p>With this in mind, millions of consumers would welcome the idea of getting their movies in convenient formats such as AVI or MP4. This would enable them to freely move content from device to device, without having to spend more money. Of course, entertainment companies don&#8217;t like that idea at all, especially when it comes to movies.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s where SwiftMedia comes in, and it&#8217;s a sight to behold.</p>
<p>Spotted by a TorrentFreak reader in a shopping mall in Ethiopia, this bright yellow kiosk looks like an ATM. However, on closer inspection it reveals itself to be a self-service media machine that does everything that RedBox can do (and more) without a plastic disc in sight.</p>
<p><center><b>A SwiftMedia terminal in situ</b> (<a href="media/c464c977.001.jpg" data-original-source="https://i0.wp.com/www.addisinsight.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/001.jpg">credit</a>)<a href="media/a01724d7.swiftmedia1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swiftmedia1.png"><img src="media/0aaf636f.swiftmedia1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swiftmedia1.png" alt="" width="539" height="960" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138266"></a> </center></p>
<p>&#8220;At the beginning of this year, All Mart (the Walmart equivalent here) brought in a new machine. It&#8217;s basically a monitor with a USB port but shaped like an ATM. It&#8217;s called SwiftMedia and there&#8217;s a guy who &#8216;maintains&#8217; it,&#8221; our source explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Basically you go to this very big store and you approach the machine and you plug in a USB drive. The screen will turn on and it will let you browse through a massive archive of movies.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><b>Screen close-up</b><a href="media/b86ca838.swift2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swift2.jpg"><img src="media/5e5db90f.swift2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swift2.jpg" alt="" width="2688" height="1520" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138268"></a></center></p>
<p>As mentioned earlier, this is a completely disc-less system, meaning that transfers of all content purchased from the machine end up on a customer-provided USB stick. Needless to say, DRM and copyright protection aren&#8217;t high on the agenda for this unusual and innovative machine.</p>
<p><center><b>All the movies &#8211; on USB</b><a href="media/7a63feff.swift3a.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swift3a.jpg"><img src="media/dc335778.swift3a.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swift3a.jpg" alt="" width="1520" height="1676" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138273"></a></center></p>
<p>Prices are cheap too, with packages available for 25, 50 and 100 birr ($1, $2 and $3). Feature movies reportedly cost between 3 and 5 birr (13 to 22 cents) depending on the movie release date, with older movies costing more. Documentaries weigh in at the top of the range with single songs and TV shows costing 13 cents.</p>
<p>&#8220;At first I assumed these movies had their rights lifted or something because well, you know, but then I later found out that the movies I had first seen were just there on release day,&#8221; our source continues.</p>
<p>&#8220;Apparently the maintenance guy torrents all day and stores the data on his drive, the drive shown by the SwiftMedia monitor. This would not have been a big deal as this is Ethiopia and the allegedly democratic government has bigger issues.&#8221; </p>
<p>Of course, something like this wouldn&#8217;t last five minutes in the West and certainly wouldn&#8217;t appear in a shopping mall, let alone Walmart. So TorrentFreak contacted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EscapeComputingPLC/">Escape Computing</a>, the company that appears to be behind the project, to find out more about their enterprise.</p>
<p>At the time of publication we had received no response, but we did manage to track down a job listing posted last year where the company sought an individual to act in a sales and technical capacity. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/9003b486.swift4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swift4.png"><img src="media/33510ad5.swift4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swift4.png" alt="" width="550" height="695" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138275"></a></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the position was filled but whoever got the job certainly has a unique role to fulfill in this unusual yet somewhat innovative project.</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=138418
title: Aussie ISPs Ordered to Block KickassTorrents ‘Spinoffs’
uri: Aussie-ISPs-Ordered-to-Block-KickassTorrents-Spinoffs
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ruRRN7examU/
content:
<p><img src="media/6df39282.kickass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickass.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21602">Last spring, members of the Australian music industry <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-next-target-for-aussie-piracy-blocklist-180416/">teamed up</a> to file their first ‘pirate’ site blocking request Down Under.</p>
<p>In an application at the Federal Court, member labels Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music and J Albert &#038; Son demanded that then leading torrent site KickassTorrents (KAT) should be blocked by the country’s ISPs.</p>
<p>The labels argued that KickassTorrents showed a “complete disrespect for music creators and the value of music,” and wanted Internet users to be prohibited from accessing the site. </p>
<p>However, before the court could decide, KAT was already &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">taken care of</a>&#8216; by the U.S. Department of Justice, which shut it down.</p>
<p>That didn&#8217;t end the blocking effort in Australia though. Instead of going after the main KickassTorrents site, which no longer exists, the labels changed their focus to the various spinoffs that appeared in its wake.</p>
<p>A few days ago the Federal Court issued its judgment, ordering 20 Australian Internet providers to block a <a href="https://www.cnet.com/au/news/tpg-telstra-optus-ordered-to-block-kickass-torrents-australia-universal-sony-warner/">variety of domain names</a>. </p>
<p>The new targets, which shifted quite a bit as the case progressed, include Katcr.co, the KAT &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-brought-back-to-life-by-original-staffers-161216/">reincarnation</a>&#8216; that was launched by a group of former staffers of the original site.</p>
<p>In addition, the order also listed some domains that have absolutely nothing to do with the original KickassTorrents. Kickass.cd, for example, which is little more than a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-kat-mirror-is-in-reality-a-dressed-up-pirate-bay-mirror-160805/">dressed up Pirate Bay</a> mirror. </p>
<p>Justice Burley is nonetheless convinced that the domain names in question deserve to be blocked, relying on the argument that KAT&#8217;s primary motive was to infringe or facilitate copyright infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;The large number of monthly visits to the KAT website indicate that the infringement facilitated by the KAT website can be described as flagrant and reflect an open disregard for copyright on the part of the operators of the KAT website,&#8221; <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/media-and-marketing/kick-ass-torrents-sites-blocked-in-australia-after-request-from-music-giants-20170430-gvvsr7.html">SMH quotes</a> Justice Burley.</p>
<p>The ISPs in question now have two weeks to implement reasonable measures to block these domains. </p>
<p>Whether this will stop people from infringing is unclear though. A similar Federal Court targeted at The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming service SolarMovie was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-aussie-pirate-bay-block-gets-defeated-in-seconds-161220/">quickly defeated</a> earlier this year.</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=138411
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 05/01/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-05-01-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/myW0IFmuW1M/
content:
<p><img src="media/690b399d.logan-e1492372541347.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/logan-e1492372541347.png" alt="" width="300" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137955">This week we have two newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Logan is the most downloaded movie for the third week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-042417/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4465564/">Fifty Shades Darker</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4465564/">4.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tXaXNCtbZ0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Split</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">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>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4680182/">Colossal</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4680182/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8hpm_BcHKE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/">Get Out</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">The Boss Baby</a> (HD-TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k397HRbTtWI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">La La Land</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost in The Shell</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">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=138419
title: 10 Years in Jail For Internet Pirates Now Reality in the UK
uri: 10-Years-in-Jail-For-Internet-Pirates-Now-Reality-in-the-UK
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4MUyw70P-E0/
content:
<p><a href="media/5d2dadcb.parliament.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/parliament.jpg"><img src="media/322b8853.parliament.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/parliament.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-82702"></a>In 2015, the UK Government announced a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-wants-10-year-prison-sentence-for-online-pirates-150718/">controversial plan</a> to increase the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement from two to ten years.</p>
<p>The proposal followed a suggestion put forward in a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/is-10-years-in-jail-the-answer-to-online-pirates-150307/">study</a> commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO). The study concluded that criminal sanctions for online copyright infringement available under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) should be harmonized with &#8216;offline&#8217; penalties, such as those available for counterfeiting.</p>
<p>“By toughening penalties for commercial-scale online offending we are offering greater protections to businesses and sending a clear message to deter criminals,” then Intellectual Property Minister Baroness Neville-Rolfe said at the time.</p>
<p>In July 2016, the government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-bill-introduces-10-year-prison-sentence-for-online-pirates-160706/">published</a> a new draft of its Digital Economy Bill which duly proposed an extension of the current prison term of two years to a maximum of ten. </p>
<p>Throughout the entire process of passing the legislation, the government has insisted that &#8216;regular&#8217; members of the public would not be subjected to harsh punishments. However, that is not how the legislation reads.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ten-years-in-jail-for-uk-internet-pirates-how-the-new-bill-reads-161204/">detailed</a> in our earlier article, anyone who makes infringing content available to the public while merely putting a copyright holder at risk of loss, is now committing a criminal offense.</p>
<p>There are a number of variables, but this is the relevant part distilled down for the average file-sharer who downloads as well as uploads, using BitTorrent, for example.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>A person&#8230;who infringes copyright in a work by communicating the work to the public commits an offense if [the person] knows or has reason to believe that [they are] infringing copyright in the work, and&#8230;knows or has reason to believe that communicating the work to the public will cause loss to the owner of the copyright, or will expose the owner of the copyright to a risk of loss.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Earlier this year, the Open Rights Group <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-govt-refuses-to-back-down-over-criminalization-of-file-sharers-170306/">launched a campaign</a> to try and make the government see sense. ORG did not dispute that there need to be penalties for online infringement but asked the government make amendments to target large-scale infringers while protecting the public.</p>
<p>“Our proposal is to set a threshold of ‘commercial scale loss’, and revising ‘risk of loss’ to ‘serious risk of commercial scale loss’. These are flexible rather than ‘specific’,&#8221; ORG said.</p>
<p>But the group&#8217;s appeals fell on deaf ears. No one in the law-making process was prepared to make this minor change to the Digital Economy Bill, even though legislation already exists for punishing even the smallest of copyright infringements through the civil courts.</p>
<p>As a result, the bill received royal assent last week which means that the country&#8217;s millions of small-time copyright infringers are now criminals in the eyes of the law.</p>
<p>Worst still, depending on the whims of copyright holders, any one could now be reported to the police for sharing even a single movie, an offense (as painted in our <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/futureshock-uk-teenager-jailed-for-5-years-for-downloading-one-movie-170312/">hypothetical piece</a> in March) that could result in years in jail.</p>
<p>The government says that won&#8217;t be allowed. We&#8217;ll see.</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=138415
title: Canada and Switzerland Remain on US ‘Pirate Watchlist’ Under President Trump
uri: Canada-and-Switzerland-Remain-on-US-Pirate-Watchlist-Under-Presi
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wxpDauP8-Ys/
content:
<p><a href="media/cf86e20d.ustr.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-44005"><img src="media/09fa6d0a.ustr.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg" alt="ustr" width="175" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-44005" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg 175w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px"></a>Every year the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) publishes its Special 301 Report highlighting countries that aren&#8217;t doing enough to protect U.S. intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>The format remains the same as in previous years and lists roughly two dozen countries that, for different reasons, threaten the intellectual property rights of US companies. </p>
<p>The latest report, which just came out, is the first under the administration of President Trump and continues where Obama left off. China, Russia, Ukraine, and India are listed among the priority threats, and Canada and Switzerland remain on the general Watch List.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the top trade priorities for the Trump Administration is to use all possible sources of leverage to encourage other countries to open their markets to U.S. exports of goods and services, and provide adequate and effective protection and enforcement of U.S. intellectual property (IP) rights,&#8221; the USTR writes.</p>
<p>One of the main problems the US has with Canada is that it doesn&#8217;t allow border protection officials to seize or destroy pirated and counterfeit goods that are passing through. </p>
<p>In addition, the US is fiercely against Canada&#8217;s fair dealing rules, which adds educational use to the list of copyright infringement exceptions. According to the US, the language used in the law is too broad, damaging the rights of educational publishers.</p>
<p>&#8220;The United States also remains deeply troubled by the broad interpretation of an ambiguous education-related exception to copyright that has significantly damaged the market for educational publishers and authors.&#8221; </p>
<p>In the past, Canada has also been called out for offering a safe haven to pirate sites, but there is no mention of this in the <a href="media/fb6bf002.2017-Special-301-Report-FINAL.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2017-Special-301-Report-FINAL.pdf">2017 report (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>That said, pirate site hosting remains a problem in many other countries including Switzerland, with the USTR noting that the country has become an &#8220;increasingly popular host country for websites offering infringing content&#8221; since 2010. </p>
<p>While the Swiss Government is taking steps to address these concerns, another enforcement problem also requires attention. One of the key issues the United States has with Switzerland originates from the so-called ‘<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-monitors-banned-from-operating-in-home-country-100909/">Logistep Decision</a>.‘ </p>
<p>In 2010 the Swiss Federal Supreme Court barred anti-piracy outfit Logistep from harvesting the IP addresses of file-sharers. The Court ruled that IP addresses amount to private data, and outlawed the tracking of file-sharers in Switzerland. </p>
<p>According to the US, this ruling prevents copyright holders from enforcing their rights, and they call on the Swiss Government to address this concern.</p>
<p>&#8220;Switzerland remains on the Watch List this year due to U.S. concerns regarding specific difficulties in Switzerland’s system of online copyright protection and enforcement,&#8221; the USTR writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Seven years have elapsed since the issuance of a decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which has been implemented to essentially deprive copyright holders in Switzerland of the means to enforce their rights against online infringers. Enforcement is a critical element of providing meaningful IP protection.&#8221;</p>
<p>The above points are merely a selection of the many complaints the United States has about a variety of countries. As is often the case, the allegations are in large part based on reports from copyright-heavy industries, in some cases demanding measures that are not even in effect in the US itself.</p>
<p>By calling out foreign governments, the USTR hopes to elicit change. However, not all countries are receptive to this kind of diplomatic pressure. Canada, for one, said it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-rejects-flawed-and-one-sided-piracy-claims-from-us-govt-170310/">does&#8217;t recognize </a>the Special 301 Report and plans to follow its own path.</p>
<p>“Canada does not recognize the validity of the Special 301 and considers the process and the Report to be flawed,” the Government wrote in a previous memo regarding last year&#8217;s report. </p>
<p>“The Report fails to employ a clear methodology and the findings tend to rely on industry allegations rather than empirical evidence and objective analysis,” it added.</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=138496
title: Hollywood Demands Net Neutrality Exceptions to Tackle Piracy
uri: Hollywood-Demands-Net-Neutrality-Exceptions-to-Tackle-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/w5FDWx_rciw/
content:
<p><img src="media/d809cb1d.throttle.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/throttle.jpg" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-large">Net neutrality is the notion that ISPs should treat all data traveling via the Internet in the same manner. Providers shouldn&#8217;t discriminate based on user, content or platform type, nor devices attached to the network.</p>
<p>While there are plenty of entities who support these principles, the free-flow of information is sometimes perceived as a threat. The concept of so-called fast and slow lanes with variable pricing, for example, has the potential to cause many anti-competitive headaches.</p>
<p>But for the content industries, particularly those involved in movies, TV shows, and other video entertainment, the concept of net neutrality has the potential to complicate plans to block and otherwise restrict access to copyright-infringing material.</p>
<p>As a result, Hollywood is making its feelings known both <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-lobbies-lawmakers-internet-tax-net-neutrality-141101/">locally</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-seeks-net-neutrality-exceptions-to-block-pirates-150413/">overseas</a>, including in India where it&#8217;s just contributed to the country&#8217;s net neutrality debate.</p>
<p>Early 2017, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked for input on its “Consultation Paper on Net Neutrality”, the fifth in the past two years aimed at introducing a legal framework for net neutrality. </p>
<p>Published by <a href="http://www.medianama.com/2017/01/223-trai-consultation-net-neutrality-2017/">MediaNama</a> in January, the 14-point questionnaire received responses from many stakeholders, including the Motion Picture Distribution Association, the local division of the MPA/MPAA representing Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, Disney and Warner.</p>
<p><strong>Exceptions to net neutrality principles for pirate content</strong></p>
<p>In response to a question which asked whether there should be exceptions to net neutrality in order for ISPs to implement traffic management practices (TMP), Hollywood is clear. Net neutrality should only ever apply when Internet traffic is lawful, and ISPs should be able to take measures to deal with infringing content.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the Motion Picture Association&#8217;s members, as representatives of an industry that creates and distributes copyrighted content, it is critical that the Internet does not serve as a haven for illegal activity and that [service providers] should be permitted to take reasonable action to prevent the transfer of stolen copyrighted content,&#8221; the Hollywood group writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is commonly accepted that the requirements of [net neutrality] apply only in respect of access to lawful content. This implies that a [service provider] to, say, block content pursuant to a direction from authorities authorised by law to do so, and after following due process – will not be considered unreasonable.&#8221;</p>
<p>The studios say they&#8217;re in agreement that the Indian government should have the right to regulate content in &#8220;emergency situations&#8221; and also whenever content is deemed illegal, so in these instances, net neutrality rules would not apply. </p>
<p>Copyright-infringing content fits the latter category, but the MPA wants the government to include specific wording in any regulation that expressly denotes pirate material as exempt from the freedoms of net neutrality.</p>
<p>&#8220;We urge that a clear statement be included in any eventual net neutrality regulation that specifies that pirated and infringing content is unlawful and therefore not subject to the normal net neutrality policy of prohibiting content-based regulations,&#8221; the studios say.</p>
<p><strong>Exemptions for blocking and throttling to counter piracy</strong></p>
<p>The idea that infringing content should be blocked, throttled, or otherwise hindered is a cornerstone of Hollywood&#8217;s fight against infringing content worldwide, despite it being unable to achieve those things in its own backyard. In India, however, the studios see blocking as a fair response to the spread of infringing content and something that should be allowed under net neutrality rules.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a remedy to address the dissemination of, or unauthorized access to, unlawful content, blocking and throttling are necessary and appropriate measures,&#8221; the studios note.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blocking access to infringing sites is not inconsistent with net neutrality. In fact, blocking illegal sites, especially when they originate from outside the country, is often the only effective remedy to prevent access to illegal content in India.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Service providers] must be able to block sites that link, stream, make available, or otherwise communicate to the public unauthorized or illegal content.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Rightsholders and ISPs should work together</strong></p>
<p>In both the United States and Europe, Hollywood is an advocate of voluntary anti-piracy measures, with content owners and ISPs collaborating to hinder the spread of infringing content. According to its submission to the telecoms regulator, Hollywood would like to see something similar in India.</p>
<p>When forming its regulations, the studios would like to see service providers &#8220;encouraged&#8221; to work with rightsholders to &#8220;employ the best available tools and technologies&#8221; to fight piracy while affirming ISPs&#8217; right to use traffic management practices (TMP) to deal with the spread of infringing content.</p>
<p>Furthermore, Hollywood would like a clear statement that the use of TMPs against infringing content &#8220;should not depend on an advance judicial or regulatory determination of &#8216;lawfulness&#8217; prior to every use.&#8221; In other words, court oversight should not generally be required.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the MPA underlines that rightsholders and rightsholders alone should have the final say in respect of when, to whom, and under what circumstances they make content available. Should the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India interfere with that right, both domestic and international breaches of law could result.</p>
<p>The full submission can be found here <em>(<a href="media/d36f752b.Motion20Picture20Dist.20Association_13_04_2017.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/Motion%20Picture%20Dist.%20Association_13_04_2017.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=138477
title: Anime Torrent Site NYAA Goes Down After Domain Name Deactivation (Updated)
uri: Anime-Torrent-Site-NYAA-Goes-Down-After-Domain-Name-Deactivation-(Upda
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/f-_3L5lnjaA/
content:
<p><img src="media/476e6f15.anime-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/anime-pirate.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-31311">NYAA is heralded as one of the top sources for anime content and has an audience of millions of regular users.  </p>
<p>The site has operated for years without any significant trouble. However, a few hours ago it suddenly became unreachable due to a worrying domain name issue.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://nyaa.se">NYAA.se</a> domain was updated with the infamous “serverhold” status <em>(see update below)</em> which suggests that the responsible registry interfered. The status has been used in the past when domain names have been flagged due to copyright issues and stripped of their DNS entries.</p>
<p>“This status code is set by your domain’s Registry Operator. Your domain is not activated in the DNS,” ICANN writes.</p>
<p>As a result of the issue, NYAA is no longer accessible from its .SE domain. TorrentFreak reached out to the responsible registry for a comment, but at the time of writing we haven’t heard back.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/08e98361.nyaa.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nyaa.png" alt="" width="450" height="319" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138479"></center></p>
<p>If the registry is indeed involved, then there must be some sort of legal authority backing the request. The .SE domain registry previously stated that it will not suspend any domain names unless there is a court order. </p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the judicial authorities should determine whether or not it is appropriate to take action against a particular domain name registrant. Unless we have been ordered to do so, there is a risk that we could call the validity of the legal process into question by taking action before a ruling is passed,&#8221; Punkt SE said.</p>
<p>Thus far it&#8217;s unclear on what grounds the domain was deactivated. A copyright complaint is one of the possibilities, but this hasn&#8217;t been confirmed. The same is true for a manual removal by the owner (see update).</p>
<p>Whatever the reason for the deactivation, there&#8217;s still hope for the site&#8217;s users. In theory, the NYAA team could return online if they setup an alternative domain. That is, if the domain name deactivation is the only issue they are facing at the moment, which remains to be seen.</p>
<p>If more information becomes available on NYAA&#8217;s domain name troubles we will update this article accordingly. </p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The NYAAtorrents.org and NYAA.eu domains are also deactivated now. </p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> There are several people suggesting that the domain names were taken down by the owner. The org domain also has a &#8220;pendingDelete,&#8221; which could back this up. When a domain is deleted before the expiry date it could trigger a &#8220;serverhold&#8221; status, which is generally set by the registry.</p>
<p>There are also some screenshots in circulation that would back this up. However, TorrentFreak hasn&#8217;t been able to verify these. </p>
<p>We can only speculate, but given that the domains were registered through different companies, manual removal by the owner would be a plausible explanation at this point. The article was updated to reflect this option.</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=138521
title: ‘First Pirated Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disk’ Appears Online. AACS 2.0 Cracked?
uri: First-Pirated-Ultra-HD-Blu-Ray-Disk-Appears-Online-AACS-2-0-Cra
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qCB81E9cqug/
content:
<p><img src="media/c84f81a8.4k.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/4k.jpg" alt="" width="290" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-115973">While there is no shortage of pirated films on the Internet, Ultra-high-definition content is often hard to find. </p>
<p>Not only are the file sizes enormous, but the protection is better than that deployed to regular content. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra_HD_Blu-ray">UHD Blu-Ray Discs</a>, for example, are protected with AACS 2.0 encryption which was long believed to unbreakable.</p>
<p>A few hours ago, however, this claim was put in doubt. Out of nowhere, a cracked copy of a UHD Blu-Ray Disc surfaced on the HD-focused BitTorrent tracker UltraHDclub. </p>
<p>The torrent in question is a copy of the Smurfs 2 film and is tagged &#8220;The Smurfs 2 (2013) 2160p UHD Blu-ray HEVC Atmos 7.1-THRONE.&#8221; This suggests that AACS 2.0 may have been &#8220;cracked&#8221; although there are no further technical details provided at this point.</p>
<p>UltraHDclub is proud of the release, though, and boasts of having the &#8220;First Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc in the NET!&#8221;</p>
<p><center><img src="media/b1a62dd3.smurftuhd.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/smurftuhd.png" alt="" width="647" height="565" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138527"></center></p>
<p>Those who want to get their hands on a copy of the file have to be patient though. Provided that they have access to the private tracker, it will take a while to download the entire 53.30 GB disk.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, there are still very few seeders available, which means that progress is slow.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to both the uploader of the torrent and an admin at the site hoping to find out more, but thus far we have yet to hear back. From the details provided, the copy appears to be the real deal although not everyone agrees.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to an expert at a well-known torrent distribution group who reviewed the media information and compared it to the retail UHD Blu-Ray Disc. </p>
<p>While the audio seems to match, the Maximum Content Light Level and Maximum Frame-Average Light Level listed in the <a href="/images/mediainfosmurfs.txt">media info</a> appear to be different, and the colors in the screenshots are off too. This means that it&#8217;s warranted to remain reserved when it comes to definitive &#8220;cracked&#8221; claims at this time.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/bf200d35.smurfspecs.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/smurfspecs.png" alt="" width="568" height="463" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138530"></center> </p>
<p>The potential &#8216;breakthrough&#8217; release hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed though, and in various discussion forums people are suggesting that AACS 2.0 must have been broken. Hundreds of downloaders have jumped on the release too, congratulating the uploader.</p>
<p>&#8220;Great job! Congratulations to the person/team who achieved this awesome milestone. I&#8217;ve got nothing but love for you!&#8221; one downloader writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is history in the making and I`m proud and glad to be able to participate and experience it first hand. This is so freakin amazing and it feels sort of unreal but yet it isn`t which is the best part,&#8221; another one notes. </p>
<p>If the encryption has indeed been broken it will be bad news for AACS, the decryption licensing outfit that controls it. The company, founded by a group of movie studios and technology partners including Warner Bros, Disney, Microsoft and Intel, has put a lot of effort into making the technology secure.</p>
<p>If more information becomes available, we will update the article accordingly. </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=138559
title: New Torrent Search Engine Abuses Wikipedia to Get Traffic
uri: New-Torrent-Search-Engine-Abuses-Wikipedia-to-Get-Traffic
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ljlHAuKJM1w/
content:
<p><a href="media/2d480163.ffffuuuu.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ffffuuuu.jpg"><img src="media/68b55b32.ffffuuuu.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ffffuuuu.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-32429"></a>In the world of file-sharing, few will argue that the environment in 2017 is very, very different from that of 2007. Running sites is far from straightforward, with all kinds of roadblocks likely to appear along the way.</p>
<p>One of the early problems is getting new sites off the ground. Ten years ago it was easy to find mainstream technology sites touting the latest additions to the pirate landscape. These days, however, reporting is mainly restricted to innovative platforms or others with some particularly newsworthy aspect.</p>
<p>With those loose advertising opportunities now largely off-limits, new sites and those on the fringes are often taking more unusual approaches. Today another raised its head revealing a particularly poorly judged promotional effort.</p>
<p>Back in April, a new torrent site hit the scene. Called RapidTorrent, it&#8217;s a meta-search engine that by definition indexes other torrent sites. Like many others, it&#8217;s doing whatever it can to get noticed, but it&#8217;s probably the first to try and do that by using Wikipedia.</p>
<p>Early today, the Wikipedia pages of a whole range of defunct and live torrent sites were edited to include links to RapidTorrent. One of the first was the page for defunct meta-search engine BTDigg.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/b513a25c.rapid-digg-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-digg-1.png"><img src="media/f71f23a7.rapid-digg-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-digg-1.png" alt="" width="892" height="463" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138560"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;In May 2017 BTDig (sic) staff launched rapidtorrent, a fast torrent search engine,&#8221; <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTDigg">the page</a> now reads, along with a link to the new torrent site.</p>
<p>Similar edits could also be found for Demonoid&#8217;s page, which was also defaced to note that &#8220;In May 2017 Demonoid launched rapidtorrent, a fast torrent search engine.&#8221;</p>
<p>In fact, links to the new torrent site were inserted in a range of other pages including The Pirate Bay, Mininova, isoHunt and ExtraTorrent.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/2ba31e46.rapid-extra-2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-extra-2.png"><img src="media/8e237e8e.rapid-extra-2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-extra-2.png" alt="" width="961" height="482" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138564"></a></center></p>
<p>While many people might like the opportunity to discover a new torrent site, there can be few who appreciate the defacing of Wikipedia to achieve that goal. Millions of people rely on the platform for information so when that is compromised by spam and what amount to lies, people are seriously misled.</p>
<p>Indeed, striking while the iron&#8217;s hot, the Wikipedia spam this morning also extended to the French language <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyaa_Torrents">Wikipedia page of NYAA</a>, a site that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anime-torrent-site-nyaa-goes-down-after-domain-name-deactivation-170502/">unexpectedly shut down</a> only this week.</p>
<p>As shown in the image below, the site&#8217;s real domain has been completely removed only to be replaced with RapidTorrent&#8217;s URL. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/1c2a7518.rapid-nyaa-3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-nyaa-3.png"><img src="media/58d94fd6.rapid-nyaa-3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-nyaa-3.png" alt="" width="980" height="477" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138567"></a></center></p>
<p>While the other edits are bad enough, this one seems particularly cruel as people looking for information on the disappeared site (which is in the top 500 sites in the world) will now be led directly to a non-affiliated domain.</p>
<p>Those that do follow the link are greeted with another message on the site itself which claims that the search engine is being run by the original NYAA team, while at the same time soliciting bitcoin donations.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/4725f421.rapid-search-4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-search-4.png"><img src="media/41a57604.rapid-search-4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapid-search-4.png" alt="" width="921" height="458" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138569"></a></center></p>
<p>For new torrent sites looking for an early boost in traffic, times are indeed hard, so it&#8217;s no surprise that some turn to unorthodox methods. However, undermining free and valuable resources like Wikipedia is certainly not the way to do it, will not produce the required results, and is only likely to annoy when the deception is unveiled.</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=138584
title: Illegal IPTV & VOD Provider Settles With BREIN
uri: Illegal-IPTV-VOD-Provider-Settles-With-BREIN
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RgJnPsVb4qo/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>While movies can be obtained from BitTorrent sites and live TV watched on unlicensed streaming portals, the combined experience generally lacks convenience when compared to official services. There is, however, a massive price difference to sweeten the deal.</p>
<p>Illicit IPTV services, on the other hand, nicely fill the middle ground. Providing decent quality streaming TV with VOD services often alongside, they offer superior convenience at bargain basement prices. As a result, these are increasingly being targeted by copyright holders.</p>
<p>IPTV services are prevalent across Europe with many anti-piracy groups trying to mitigate the threat. One such outfit is Netherlands-based BREIN who recently went to court in an effort to shut down an IPTV supplier.</p>
<p>In an ex-parte application dated April 27, 2017, BREIN asked for an immediate injunction to prevent live TV and on-demand streams being offered by the provider. BREIN described the infringement as both &#8220;large scale&#8221; and &#8220;professional&#8221;.</p>
<p>According to the anti-piracy outfit, the supplier offered subscriptions costing between 80 euros and 119.95 euros per year, which provided almost 1,800 channels of infringing content.</p>
<p>Included in the package was a VOD service, which offered around 545 HD movies organized into categories including action, comedy, sci-fi, kids and drama. These kinds of services often contain the latest movies, beyond what even Netflix is able to offer.</p>
<p>Since the content provided by the supplier was accessed via a hyperlink (in this case an .M3U file), BREIN cited the recent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">GS Media decision</a> from the European Court of Justice, which found that there is a communication to the public when illicit content is supplied via a for-profit link.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy group also noted that streams would often be accompanied by corresponding movie posters or DVD covers, which also amounts to copyright infringement according to local case law.</p>
<p>On May 1, 2017, the supplier received the ex parte order, upon which BREIN agreed to enter into a settlement agreement of 10,000 euros plus further potential multiple penalties of the same amount.</p>
<p>&#8220;The provider has the obligation to pay a penalty of 10,000 euros for each individual IPTV subscription, individual hyperlink, or day that he acts in violation of the court order and continues with the sale of IPTV subscriptions,&#8221; BREIN said in a statement.</p>
<p>While these amounts may sound large, the initial 10,000 euro settlement seems relatively reasonable given the substantial penalties that could be handed down following a successful direct infringement lawsuit.</p>
<p>Of course, if the supplier wants to avoid further penalties, his service needs to come down, something which is likely to infuriate customers that have already paid money up front. BREIN is happy to pile on the pressure in this respect and is encouraging people to be proactive.</p>
<p>&#8220;We advise consumers who bought such a media player and / or subscription to retrieve their money from the seller,&#8221; says Kuik. </p>
<p>&#8220;Once the links are no longer tracked, the boxes and subscriptions stop working. People are getting excited. It&#8217;s better to spend your money on legal offerings, so you pay for innovation and creation and you can keep enjoying new content.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the meantime, dozens of similar suppliers will move in to fill the gap. Whether once-bitten customers will risk another spend will remain to be seen but the usual advice around IPTV discussion forums is not to commit to long-term subscriptions &#8211; they can end in disappointment.</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=138622
title: Millions of North American Households Use Kodi With Pirate Add-ons
uri: Millions-of-North-American-Households-Use-Kodi-With-Pirate-Add-ons
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MBArc01ha_s/
content:
<p><img src="media/d7058e94.kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" alt="" width="250" height="96" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137635">The Kodi media player software, previously known as XBMC, has seen a massive surge in popularity in recent years.</p>
<p>More and more people have started to use <a href="http://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> as their main source of entertainment, often with help from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-repository-sees-massive-surge-users-170417/">unofficial add-ons</a> that allow them to access pirated movies and TV-shows.</p>
<p>While there has been plenty of anecdotal evidence on how prevalent its use is, there hasn&#8217;t been much research to back this up. A <a href="https://www.sandvine.com/trends/fraud.html">new report</a> published by broadband management company Sandvine today, aims to fill this gap.</p>
<p>Sandvine analyzed a dataset from multiple North America tier one fixed-line provider, which covers over 250,000 anonymized households throughout North America. Using this data, it was able to estimate how many households actively use at least one Kodi device.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Kodi application itself does not generate much data, but it is easy to detect within a household due to its ‘heartbeat’ traffic which can easily be identified,&#8221; Sandvine reports.</p>
<p>Overall Sandvine estimates that 8.8% of the households with Internet access across North America have an active Kodi device. This translates to several millions of households and many more potential users.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/a526eded.sandkodi1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sandkodi1.png" alt="" width="500" height="294" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138635" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sandkodi1.png 500w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/sandkodi1-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px"></center></p>
<p>Of course, this doesn&#8217;t mean that all these people are pirates. Kodi has plenty of legal uses, and so Sandvine also looked at the use of pirate add-ons specifically. </p>
<p>Looking at the various traffic sources for the streaming data, including file-hosts, the company determined that 68.6% of the households with Kodi devices also use unofficial, or &#8220;pirate&#8221; add-ons.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/e8a68b9e.sandkodi2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sandkodi2.png" alt="" width="500" height="306" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138636"></center></p>
<p>The report was in part triggered by an increased interest from content service providers, copyright owners, and regulators. Some of these pointed to the Kodi software as the root of the piracy problem, but Sandvine laudably rejects this claim.</p>
<p>&#8220;In some of the discussion Sandvine has had with the parties listed above, Kodi is often referred to by name as the root of the streaming of unlicensed content problem, but that is wrong,&#8221; Sandvine notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kodi simply serves as a front end; If Kodi disappeared tomorrow, then all of the content made available through the unofficial Add-ons would quickly be made be accessible via a web browser, or by another media player, and the parties that are benefitting today, would continue to profit,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>Sandvine should receive praise for making such a clear distinction, something the media often fails to do, which is cause for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-counters-scaremongerers-and-clarifies-its-stance-on-drm-170427/">great frustration</a> among the Kodi developers. </p>
<p>Finally, the company notes that there are clear geographical differences in Kodi adoption within North America. In Canada, for example, over 10% of the households have a Kodi device installed, which is a higher adoption rate than in the US.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how these trends develop during the years to come. For now, Kodi continues to draw more and more users, so it wouldn&#8217;t be a big surprise if the numbers further increase.</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=138595
title: ISP Lands Supreme Court Win Over Copyright Trolls
uri: ISP-Lands-Supreme-Court-Win-Over-Copyright-Trolls
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ktIIS8SAr9g/
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>Every day, millions of people use BitTorrent to obtain free movies, TV shows, and music but many aren&#8217;t aware that their activities can be monitored. Most monitoring is relatively benign but there are companies out there who make a living from threatening to sue file-sharers.</p>
<p>These so-called &#8216;copyright trolls&#8217; share files along with regular users, capture their IP addresses and trace them back to their ISPs. From there, ISPs are asked to hand over the alleged pirates&#8217; names and addresses so trolls can extract a cash settlement from them, but most ISPs demand a court process before doing so.</p>
<p>Over in Norway, a company called Scanbox Entertainment hired German anti-piracy outfit Excipio to track people sharing the movie &#8216;The Captive&#8217;. Between November 27 and December 1, 2015, the company reportedly found eight customers of telecoms giant Telenor doing so. While the numbers are small, initial cases are often presented this way to attract less attention in advance of bigger moves.</p>
<p>During December 2015, Scanbox sent a request to the Oslo District Court to force Telenor to hand over its subscribers&#8217; information. It also asked the Court to prevent the ISP from deleting or anonymizing logs that could identify the alleged infringers.</p>
<p>In May 2016 Scanbox won its case, and Telenor was ordered to hand over the names and postal addresses of its subscribers. However, determined to protect its customers&#8217; privacy (now and for similar cases in the future), the ISP filed an appeal.</p>
<p>At the Court of Appeal in September 2016, the tables were turned when it was decided that Telenor wouldn&#8217;t have to hand over the personal information of its customers after all. The evidence of the alleged infringements failed to show that any sharing was substantial.</p>
<p>But after coming this far and with lots of potential settlement payments at stake, Scanbox refused to give in, taking its case all the way to the Supreme Court where a panel of judges was asked to issue a definitive ruling. The decision just handed down by the Court is bad news for Scanbox. </p>
<p>In essence, the Court weighed Scanbox&#8217;s right to protect copyright versus Norwegian citizens&#8217; right to privacy. If the former is to trump the latter, then any copyright infringements must be of a serious nature. The panel of judges at the Supreme Court felt that the evidence presented against Telenor&#8217;s customers was not good enough to prove infringement beyond the threshold. The panel, therefore, upheld the earlier decision of the Court of Appeal.</p>
<p>Torgeir Waterhouse of Internet interest group ICT Norway says that online privacy should always be respected and not disregarded as the rightsholders and their law firm, Denmark-based Njord Law, would like.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is not about enforcing copyright, this is about what methods are acceptable to use within the law,&#8221; Waterhouse <a href="http://www.vg.no/nyheter/innenriks/hoeyesterett/telenor-vant-i-hoeyesterett-slipper-aa-avsloere-piratnedlastere/a/23987447/">says</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is an important decision that sends an important message to the licensees and Njord Law that the rule of law can not be set aside in their eagerness to deal with illegal file-sharing. We are very pleased that Njord&#8217;s frivolous activity has been stopped. We expect licensees to act responsibly and respect both privacy and the rule of law.&#8221;</p>
<p>ScanBox is now required to pay Telenor almost $70,000 in costs, a not insignificant amount that should give reason to pause before future trolling efforts get underway in Norway.</p>
<p>Full decision <em>(Norwegian, <a href="media/ad5c77ec.sak-2016-2216.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.domstol.no/globalassets/upload/hret/avgjorelser/2017/avgjorelser-april-2017/sak-2016-2216.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=138493
title: Netflix Focuses Piracy Takedown Efforts on “Orange is The New Black” Leak
uri: 2017-05-05-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Oqfee73TZ8c/
content:
<p><img src="media/32870ed3.netflix.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26772">Last Friday, Netflix became the key victim in one of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hackers-leak-netflixs-orange-is-the-new-black-season-5-premiere-170429/">biggest piracy leaks in history</a>. </p>
<p>A hacking group or person calling itself TheDarkOverlord (TDO) released the premiere episode of the fifth season of Netflix&#8217;s Orange is The New Black, followed by nine more episodes a few hours later. </p>
<p>Netflix hasn&#8217;t said much about the issue in public, aside from the generic response. &#8220;We are aware of the situation. A production vendor used by several major TV studios had its security compromised and the appropriate law enforcement authorities are involved.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, it appears that behind the scenes something has changed. </p>
<p>While browsing through Google&#8217;s public repository of piracy takedown requests, hosted by <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/">Lumen</a>, we noticed that the anti-piracy vendor &#8220;<a href="http://www.iparrow.com/">IP Arrow</a>&#8221; suddenly started to submit requests on Netflix&#8217;s behalf.</p>
<p>The first request from IP Arrow came in on <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/14286151">Saturday</a>, the day after the leak, and there have been at least a dozen more since. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s unusual about these notices is that they only target the leaked &#8220;Orange is The New Black&#8221; episodes, no other content. This is also clearly reflected in a statement by the anti-piracy firm, which comes with the request.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is submitted for my client Netflix These links are facilitating piracy of my client&#8217;s work. The work can be seen by visiting their site www.netflix.com. The item this is relating to is Orange Is The New Black Season 5,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>Although Netflix might not believe that the leak is a disaster for its business, which is also reflected in several <a href="https://www.wired.com/2017/05/orange-is-the-new-black-leak/">opinion pieces</a> published in recent days, the IP-Arrow notices suggest the company is focusing part of its takedown efforts specifically on containing the fallout.</p>
<p>Netflix isn&#8217;t new to anti-piracy work. With help from Vobile Inc the company started sending takedown requests to Google roughly a year ago. Unlike IP-Arrow&#8217;s requests, Vobile targets a wide variety of content.</p>
<p>A few weeks ago we also reported that Netflix has its own &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-gets-serious-about-its-anti-piracy-efforts-170324/">Global Copyright Protection Group</a>&#8221; which is tasked with fighting online piracy. Given the recent leaks, we assume that the group has plenty of work to do now.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137896
title: Microsoft Patents Technology to Block Pirated Content, Track Repeat Offenders
uri: Microsoft-Patents-Technology-to-Block-Pirated-Content-Track-Repeat-Of
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/umGeBRNXpTc/
content:
<p><img src="media/b4f20436.microsoft-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/microsoft-pirate.png" alt="" width="225" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-51663">Hundreds of millions of people upload and share files every day, and not always with permission from their rightful owners. </p>
<p>Aside from the traditional pirate sites, social networks and cloud hosting services such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and Microsoft&#8217;s OneDrive are also frequently used to share copyright-infringing content. </p>
<p>When copyright holders find out, they can report these files and ask the companies to take them offline and prevent similar files from being shared in the future, which regularly happens. However, with cloud storage services, simply deleting a file is not always an option. </p>
<p>If you buy a music album, you&#8217;re allowed to store this on your personal cloud-hosting account, for example, while sharing is prohibited. In this case, disabling that sharing option for this file while leaving it on the server seems to be the preferred option. </p>
<p>Still, it might be worth keeping an eye on frequent abusers, so they can be punished if needed, and Microsoft recently obtained a <a href="media/5d73009d.msrep.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/msrep.pdf">patent</a> to do just that. </p>
<p>Titled: &#8220;Disabling prohibited content and identifying repeat offenders in service provider storage systems,&#8221; the patent describes a system where copyright infringers, and those who publish other objectionable content, are flagged so that frequent offenders can be singled out.</p>
<p><center><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8dfe8053.MS-repeatblock.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/MS-repeatblock.png" alt="" width="600" height="502" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138139"></center></p>
<p>With an overview of the infringements, the hosting provider can choose to limit the sharing permissions of users, or terminate their accounts if warranted. </p>
<p>&#8220;Incidents that result in objects being so marked can be stored in an incident history associated with a user responsible for those objects. The incident history can be processed to identify repeat offenders and modify access privileges of those users,&#8221; the patent reads. </p>
<p>The &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; is a hot topic at the moment, after ISP Cox Communications was ordered to pay $25 million for its failure to disconnect repeat offenders. </p>
<p>According to the DMCA, online service providers must implement a reasonable policy against frequent offenders, and the system described in the patent would allow Microsoft to do that. </p>
<p>The patent describes a variety of situations, ranging from disabling a single file from being shared, to taking measures against repeat infringers. However, it doesn&#8217;t state which policy Microsoft employs.</p>
<p>As far a we know, this is the first patent that specifically deals with the repeat infringer situation in these hosting situations, but it&#8217;s not uncommon for cloud hosting services to prevent users from sharing infringing content. We previously uncovered that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-drive-uses-hash-matching-detect-pirated-content/">Google Drive uses hash matching </a>to prevent people from sharing &#8220;flagged&#8221; files in public, and Dropbox does the same. </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=138553
title: City of Abbotsford Enters WordPress’ DMCA “Hall of Shame”
uri: City-of-Abbotsford-Enters-WordPress-DMCA-Hall-of-Shame
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oEo4oLY73kU/
content:
<p><img src="media/b8ac751f.abbot.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/abbot.png" alt="" width="266" height="131" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138555">As one of the leading blog platforms, WordPress.com receives thousands of DMCA takedown requests every year, but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-gets-more-wordpress-com-takedown-requests-than-wordpress-170319/">nearly half</a> of these are rejected.</p>
<p>Parent company <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a> is known to inspect all notices carefully, and has a track record of defending its users against DMCA abuse. In addition, it occasionally highlights the worst offenders in its own “Hall of Shame.”</p>
<p>This week the company added a <a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/2017/05/02/hall-of-shame-something-stinks-in-abbotsford/">new entry</a> for the first time in several months. The dubious honor goes to the <a href="http://www.abbotsford.ca/">City of Abbotsford</a>, Canada, which tried to clean up its &#8216;image&#8217; with a recent DMCA notice.</p>
<p>The &#8220;infringement&#8221; Abbotsford reported concerns <a href="https://sqwabb.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/emails-show-abbotsford-manure-dump-on-homeless-was-team-effort/">an article</a> written by a homeless blogger, who highlighted that city officials deliberately spread chicken manure on a camp for homeless people.</p>
<p>To illustrate this unfortunate event with a fitting image, the blogger posted a parody logo of the city, replacing the pine tree with a turd.</p>
<p><center><strong>Abbotsford&#8217;s parody logo</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ce647e41.city-of-abbotsford-new-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/city-of-abbotsford-new-logo.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="235" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138563"></center></p>
<p>Pretty innocent, one would think, but apparently the city of Abbotsford thought otherwise. Through a marketing company, Abbotsford city council sent a DMCA notice to Automattic, asking it to remove the offending image. </p>
<p>However, since there is a clear fair use case here, the company behind the WordPress blogging platform was not impressed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pardon the pun. It was glaringly obvious that the addition of the hilariously large feces was for the purposes of parody, and tied directly to the criticisms laid out in the post,&#8221; Automattic writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a result, it seems hard to believe that the city council took fair use considerations into account before firing off their ill-advised notice, and trying to wipe up this mess,&#8221; the company adds. </p>
<p>Instead of taking the image offline, Automattic referred the takedown notice to the blogger in question. He decided to keep it online as well, adding a massive &#8220;parody&#8221; watermark just to avoid any further confusion. </p>
<p><center><strong>PARODY</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3575b560.city-of-abbotsford-new-logo-parody.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/city-of-abbotsford-new-logo-parody.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="235" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138571"></center></p>
<p>So, instead of wiping the “crappy” logo from the Internet, the marketing firm actually managed to magnify the issue, entering WordPress&#8217; DMCA Hall of Shame. Since the original article is nearly four years old, they would have been better off ignoring it, but some people have to learn that the hard way.</p>
<p>In its closing comments, Automattic stresses that their use of the &#8216;shitty&#8217; logo also falls under fair use protection, urging the City counsel to refrain from sending them any additional takedown requests.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our use of the Abbotsford city logo in this post is also for the purposes of commentary or criticism, and therefore falls under fair use protections. If anybody on the council happens to be reading, please don’t send us another DMCA takedown.&#8221;</p>
<p>At TorrentFreak we would like to repeat Automattic&#8217;s argument, also adding a fair use exception for the purpose of news reporting.</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=138294
title: Huge Pirate Site Owner To Be Held Under House Arrest
uri: Huge-Pirate-Site-Owner-To-Be-Held-Under-House-Arrest
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QUVe2J94Nt0/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd7f56e1.mpaa-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-1.jpg"><img src="media/1f9a16ec.mpaa-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-1.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="163" class="alignright size-full wp-image-119098"></a>Serving more than a million users every day, FS.to was one of Ukraine’s largest pirate sites. Last year it was of the country&#8217;s top 20 most popular sites overall, but its focus on video content was to attract negative attention.</p>
<p>With FS.to in its sights for some time, the MPAA eventually filed formal complaints with local authorities. What followed was one of the biggest anti-piracy raids ever seen in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Last November, the cyber crime division of Ukraine’s national police <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-pirate-site-seize-60-servers-following-mpaa-complaint-161115/">shut down</a> FS.to in what was a large and coordinated multi-location operation.</p>
<p>Authorities said that at least 19 people suspected of running the site via a network of local and offshore companies were arrested. The raids covered both residential and office locations, with swoops on datacenters where dozens of servers were seized.</p>
<p>One of those arrested was alleged FS.to owner Andrew Komlychenko. He was openly connected with the platform for a number of years, granting interviews with local media and discussing the site&#8217;s operations. In 2013 the site was reportedly <a href="http://www.kommersant.ru/doc/2274833">sold</a> to outside investors, but there are indications that the businessman remained involved.</p>
<p>Indeed, it appears that Komlychenko is now in considerable trouble. Alexander Strigunov, the prosecutor in charge of the case against FS.to, is calling for the toughest possible sentence. As a result, Komlychenko will be detained under house arrest for the next two months on a bail of almost $180,000.</p>
<p><center>Alexander Strigunov <em>(<a href="https://tsn.ua/ukrayina/vlasnika-piratskogo-saytu-fs-to-posadili-na-lavu-pidsudnih-917937.html">credit</a>)</em><a href="media/0d034c32.fsto-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fsto-1.png"><img src="media/32906769.fsto-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fsto-1.png" alt="" width="606" height="313" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138297"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;[The law] allows for up to six years in prison, but it is too early to begin talking about the sentence,&#8221; Strigunov <a href="https://tsn.ua/ukrayina/vlasnika-piratskogo-saytu-fs-to-posadili-na-lavu-pidsudnih-917937.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Also of interest is how Ukranian authorities have flip-flopped over what crimes the site and its owners have supposed to have committed. Initially it was made clear that FS.to had been shut down for being a piracy haven, but later it was suggested that non-payment of taxes and possibly money laundering was the main concern.</p>
<p>Of course, as the Megaupload case shows, these offenses aren&#8217;t mutually exclusive, but comments this week suggest that the protection of intellectual property with a distinctly political international angle is at the heart of this landmark case.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it is necessary to compensate the losses incurred to foreign companies so that each company knows that its rights are protected not only by their national legislation, but the legislation of the countries where their rights are violated or affected. It is our image at stake,&#8221; Strigunov said.</p>
<p>But despite these notable efforts by the Ukrainian authorities, the country can&#8217;t seem to catch a break with the US Government. In the USTR&#8217;s latest annual Special 301 Report, Ukraine <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-and-switzerland-remain-on-us-pirate-watchlist-under-president-trump-170501/">keeps its status</a> as a priority threat.</p>
<p>Following the USTR&#8217;s announcement, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv said that his country will continue its efforts to improve its copyright standing with the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our task is to ensure proper protection of intellectual property for all creative works,&#8221; Kubiv said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This will improve the assessment of the Office of the US Trade Representative and the position of Ukraine in the Special 301 Report. That will improve the economic development of Ukraine, encouraging inventions and innovations while attracting significant investment to Ukraine.&#8221; </p>
<p>In the meantime, efforts have been underway to resurrect FS.to. At the end of March a new site appeared under the FS.life domain, but for the past several days the site has reportedly been under a DDoS attack and is currently non-functional.</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=136387
title: Original KickassTorrents Domain Goes Up For Sale
uri: Original-KickassTorrents-Domain-Goes-Up-For-Sale
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BDkYily-ciA/
content:
<p><img src="media/6df39282.kickass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickass.jpg" alt="" width="205" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21602">Last summer a criminal investigation by the U.S. Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">brought down</a> KickassTorrents, the largest torrent site at the time.</p>
<p>Upon request from the United States, law enforcement in Poland arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of KickassTorrents, who’s been held in a local prison ever since.</p>
<p>In addition, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) also went after six domain names that were tied to the site, including KickassTorrents.com, Kat.cr, Kickass.to and Kat.ph. However, it appears that not everything went as planned.</p>
<p>While seizing U.S. linked domains including the .com was relatively easy, the Philippine .ph domain was never seized. </p>
<p><center><strong>KAT domains, listed by the DoJ</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/edf99b18.katdomains.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katdomains.png" alt="" width="600" height="330" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138599"></center></p>
<p>In the legal paperwork, the DoJ <a href="media/2c8216ac.seizureproc.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/seizureproc.png">mentions</a> that the foreign registries would be approached through a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, and asked to point the domains to servers controlled by Homeland Security Investigations.</p>
<p>&#8220;The seizure warrants for the remaining Subject Domains will be sent through Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty requests to Costa Rica, Tonga, and the Philippines to seize and redirect the name server to an HSI-owned server.&#8221;</p>
<p>This did indeed happen for Kickass.to but KAT.ph was never properly seized. On the contrary, the owners let it expire after which the registrar Dynadot auctioned it off. This allowed a third-party company to pick it up without trouble.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to the new owner of Kat.ph, who bought the domain name for a little over $9,000.</p>
<p>He explains that his company Marshall Domains LTD specializes in buying domains names that are expected to generate a decent amount of traffic. They buy all sorts of domains, which they monetize through Google advertising feeds. </p>
<p>The KAT.ph domain wasn&#8217;t a great investment though. In terms of traffic, it&#8217;s a winner. The domain had more than 700,000 unique visitors over the past month, mostly people looking for the old KickassTorrent site. However, it is banned from Google&#8217;s ad services. </p>
<p>There are other advertising options, but those are pretty scammy and not an option for the new owner.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not really happy with sending my traffic to these feeds. They get good results, but it&#8217;s all spammy, malware installing crap. I don&#8217;t want to be associated with this form of monetization,&#8221; Mr. Marshall informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Instead, he has decided to put the domain up for sale, and it&#8217;s currently availble for at least $7,000. This means taking a loss, but at the moment the domain isn&#8217;t generating any income.</p>
<p><center><strong>Kat.ph for sale</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c4752d78.katforsale-e1493884073380.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katforsale-e1493884073380.png" alt="" width="600" height="142" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138598"></center></p>
<p>Thus far there hasn&#8217;t been many offers from potential buyers. Funnily enough, most inquiries come from former KickassTorrents users who missed the shutdown and are wondering where the site went. </p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve had some interest, but mainly from people asking to download things or where KickassTorrents has gone, but I just ignore these,&#8221; Mr. Marshall says.</p>
<p>Perhaps the Department of Justice might want to buy it after the failed seizure? If only to prevent it from being used by KAT knockoffs in the future&#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=138610
title: NO, Kodi Users Are Not Risking Ten Years in Prison
uri: NO-Kodi-Users-Are-Not-Risking-Ten-Years-in-Prison
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hdC3gYUlUIs/
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>Piracy has always been a reasonably popular topic in the UK and there can barely be a person alive today who hasn&#8217;t either engaged in or been exposed to the phenomenon in some way. Just lately, however, things have really entered the mainstream.</p>
<p>The massive public interest is down to the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/five-million-brits-go-crazy-for-illegal-streaming-170425/">set-top box craze</a>, which is largely fueled by legal Kodi software augmented with infringing addons that provide free access to premium movies, TV channels and live sports.</p>
<p>While this a topic one might expect technology sites to report on, just recently UK tabloids have flooded the market with largely sensational stories about Kodi and piracy in general, which often recycle the same story time and again with SHOCKING click-bait headlines YOU JUST WON&#8217;T BELIEVE.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ve had to put up with misleading headlines and stories for months, so a while ago we made an effort to discuss the issues with tabloid reporters. Needless to say, we didn&#8217;t get very far. Most ignored our emails, but even those who responded weren&#8217;t prepared to do much.</p>
<p>One told us that his publication had decided that articles featuring Kodi were good for traffic while another promised to escalate our comments further up the chain of command. Within days additional articles with similar problems were being published regardless and this week things really boiled over.</p>
<p><center>10 Years for Kodi users? Hardly<a href="media/8e1a5f81.kodi-10-years-express.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-years-express.png"><img src="media/40a58cda.kodi-10-years-express.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-years-express.png" alt="" width="794" height="565" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138613"></a></center></p>
<p>The above report <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/799844/Kodi-Box-digital-economy-act-prison-streaming-torrents">published</a> in the Daily Express is typical of many doing the rounds at the moment. Taking Kodi as the popular search term, it shoe-horns the topic into areas of copyright law that do not apply to it, and ones certainly not covered by the Digital Economy Act cited in the headline.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/10-years-in-jail-for-internet-pirates-now-reality-in-the-uk-170501/">reported</a> this week, the Digital Economy Act raises penalties for online copyright infringement offenses from two to ten years, but only in specific circumstances. Users streaming content to their homes via Kodi is absolutely not one of them.</p>
<p>To fall foul of the new law a user would need to communicate a copyrighted work to the public. In piracy terms that means &#8216;uploading&#8217; and people streaming content via Kodi do nothing of the sort. The Digital Economy Act offers no remedy to deal with users streaming content &#8211; period &#8211; but let&#8217;s not allow the facts to get in the way of a click-inducing headline.</p>
<p><center>The Mirror has it wrong too<a href="media/af209de8.kodi-10-mirror.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-mirror.png"><img src="media/9402fc95.kodi-10-mirror.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-mirror.png" alt="" width="904" height="512" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138611"></a></center></p>
<p>The Mirror article weaves in comments from Kieron Sharp from the Federation Against Copyright Theft. He notes that the new legislation should be targeted at people making a business out of infringement, which will hopefully be the case.</p>
<p>However, the article incorrectly extrapolates Sharp&#8217;s comments to mean that the law also applies to people streaming content via Kodi. Only making things more confusing, it then states that people &#8220;who casually stream a couple of movies every once in a while are extremely unlikely to be prosecuted to such extremes.&#8221;</p>
<p>Again, the Digital Economy Act has nothing to do with people streaming movies via Kodi but if we go along with the charade and agree that people who casually stream movies aren&#8217;t going to be prosecuted, why claim &#8220;10 year jail sentences for Kodi users&#8221; in the headline?</p>
<p>The bottom line is that there is nothing in the article itself that supports the article&#8217;s headline claim that Kodi users could go to jail for ten years. In itself, this is problematic from a reporting standpoint.</p>
<p>Published by IPSO, the Editors&#8217; Code of Practice <a href="https://www.ipso.co.uk/editors-code-of-practice/">clearly states</a> that &#8220;the Press must take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information or images, including headlines not supported by the text.&#8221;</p>
<p>But singling out the Daily Express and The Mirror on this would be unfair. Dozens of other publications jumped on the same bandwagon, parroting the same misinformation, often with similar click-bait headlines.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/faba48b9.kodi-10-years.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-years.png"><img src="media/cfa85663.kodi-10-years.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-10-years.png" alt="" width="845" height="362" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138618"></a></center></p>
<p>For people dealing with these issues every day, the ins-and-outs of piracy alongside developing copyright law can be easier to grasp, so it&#8217;s perhaps a little unfair to expect general reporters to understand every detail of what can be extremely complex issues. Mistakes get made by everyone, that&#8217;s human nature.</p>
<p>But really, is there any excuse for headlines like <a href="http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/801317/Pirate-Bay-Proxy-TorrentFreak-Torrent-Download-Jail">this one</a> published by the Sunday Express this morning?</p>
<p><center><a href="media/6bd1d941.express-torrentfreak.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/express-torrentfreak.png"><img src="media/d7d75c9a.express-torrentfreak.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/express-torrentfreak.png" alt="" width="742" height="606" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-138688"></a></center></p>
<p>According to the <a href="http://archive.is/q2LST">piece</a>, readers of TorrentFreak are also at risk of spending ten years in prison. You couldn&#8217;t make this damaging nonsense up. Actually, apparently you can.</p>
<p>In addition to a lack of research, the problem here is the prevalence of click-bait headlines driving traffic and the inability of the underlying articles to live up to the hype. If we can moderate the headlines and report within them, the rest should simply fall into place. Ditch the NEEDLESS capital letters and stick to the facts.</p>
<p>Society in 2017 needs those more than ever.</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=138700
title: Foxtel Targets Pirate Streaming Sites in New ISP Blocking Case
uri: Foxtel-Targets-Pirate-Streaming-Sites-in-New-ISP-Blocking-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VnW3KWUGiFg/
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>When the Australian government introduced new legislation to allow &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites to be blocked Down Under, there was never any question that the law would go underused.</p>
<p>December last year following a lawsuit brought by Roadshow Films, Foxtel, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox, the Federal Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-will-be-blocked-in-australia-161215/">ordered</a> ISPs to block The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming service SolarMovie.</p>
<p>This February the same rightsholders were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dozens-of-pirate-sites-targeted-in-new-aussie-crackdown-170224/">back again</a>, this time with even more targets in mind including ExtraTorrent, RarBG, Demonoid, LimeTorrents, YTS and EZTV, plus streaming portals 123Movies, CouchTuner, Icefilms, Movie4K, PrimeWire, Viooz, Putlocker and many more.</p>
<p>With blocking efforts gathering momentum, the fifth case seeking injunctions against pirate sites has just hit Australia&#8217;s Federal Court. It&#8217;s the second to be filed by Foxtel and again targets streaming sites including Yes Movies, Los Movies, Watch Series and Project Free TV.</p>
<p>In common with earlier cases, ISPs named in the latest application include TPG, Telstra, Optus and Vocus/M2. Once various subsidiaries are included, blocking becomes widespread across Australia, often encompassing dozens of smaller providers.</p>
<p>Speaking with <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-08/foxtel-launches-new-round-of-piracy-site-blocking-applications/8505810">ABC</a>, a Foxtel spokesperson said the company has confidence that the Federal Court will ultimately order the sites to be blocked.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foxtel believes that the new site blocking regime is an effective measure in the fight to prevent international operators illegitimately profiting from the creative endeavours of others,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Indeed, the earlier cases brought by both the studios and record companies have pioneered a streamlined process that can be tackled relatively easily by rightsholders and presented to the court in a non-confrontational and easily understood format.</p>
<p>ISPs are not proving too much of a hindrance either, now that the issue of costs appears to be behind them. In Foxtel&#8217;s earlier case involving The Pirate Bay, the judge said that ISPs must be paid AUS$50 per domain blocked. That now appears to be the standard. </p>
<p>So what we have here is a quickly maturing process that has already developed into somewhat of a cookie-cutter site-blocking mechanism.</p>
<p>Applications are made against a particular batch of sites and after the court assesses the evidence, an injunction is handed down. If further similar and related sites (such as proxies and mirrors) need to be blocked, those are dealt with in a separate and simplified process.</p>
<p>That was highlighted <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-isps-block-kickasstorrents-spinoffs-170501/">last week</a> when an application by Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony Music and J Albert &#038; Son, resulted in a range of KickassTorrents spin-off sites being approved for blocking by the Federal Court. The ISPs in question, 20 in total, have been given two weeks to block the sites.</p>
<p>Whether this will have the desired effect will remain to be seen. Australians are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/first-aussie-pirate-bay-block-gets-defeated-in-seconds-161220/">well-versed</a> in unblocking solutions <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">such as VPNs</a>. Ironically, most learned of their existence when trying to gain access to legal services such as Netflix, that were available overseas for years before hitting Aussie shores.</p>
<p>Since that has now been remedied with a local launch, rightsholders and companies such as Foxtel are hoping that pirate services will be less attractive options.</p>
<p>&#8220;We trust that Australians recognize that there are increasing numbers of ways to access content in a timely manner and at reasonable prices. [This] ensures that revenue goes back to the people who create and invest in original ideas,&#8221; a Foxtel spokesperson said.</p>
<p>If the United Kingdom is any template (and all signs suggest that it is), expect hundreds of similar &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites to be blocked in Australia in the coming months.</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=138702
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 05/08/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-05-08-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eYP55eVJti8/
content:
<p><img src="media/8aff21aa.ghostshell.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ghostshell.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="183" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138704">This week we have two newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Ghost in The Shell, which came out as subbed HDRipo 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-050117/">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>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">Ghost in The Shell</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219827/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">xXx: Return of Xander Cage</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEuM4IUFWu8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Kong: Skull Island</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4481414/">Gifted</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4481414/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI01wBXGHUs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">Split</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3731562/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44LdLqgOpjo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4465564/">Fifty Shades Darker</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4465564/">4.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tXaXNCtbZ0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4630562/">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>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">The Boss Baby</a> (HD-TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3874544/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k397HRbTtWI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/">Get Out</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5052448/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRfnevzM9kQ">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=138684
title: US Court Orders Registries to Seize Control of ‘Pirate’ Domains
uri: US-Court-Orders-Registries-to-Seize-Control-of-Pirate-Domains
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oUD7xBiwskg/
content:
<p><img src="media/a286abc4.court1-featured-150x150.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/court1-featured-150x150.jpg" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-large">ABS-CBN is the largest media and entertainment company in the Philippines and it is extremely aggressive when it comes to protecting its intellectual property. In fact, it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?s=abs-cbn">now targets</a> way more &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites in the United States than the MPAA.</p>
<p>One of the tactics employed by ABS-CBN is targeting the domains of &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites. On several occasions, the TV outfit has found courts <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-domain-seizures-are-easy-in-the-united-states-150521/">willing to step in</a> with ex parte orders, based on allegations of copyright and trademark infringement. </p>
<p>The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida is a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/abs-cbn-sues-another-18-sites-over-tv-and-movie-piracy-141126/">popular venue</a> for ABS-CBN and in April the company approached the Court again, this time with allegations against 19 streaming platforms (list below).</p>
<p>&#8220;Through their websites operating under the Subject Domain Names, Defendants advertise and hold out to the public that they have ABS-CBN’s copyrighted content and perform ABS-CBN’s copyrighted content over the Internet, in order to illegally profit from ABS-CBN’s intellectual property, without ABS-CBN’s consent,&#8221; the company wrote in its complaint.</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.&#8221;</p>
<p>Claiming direct and contributory copyright infringement, trademark infringement and unfair competition, among other things, ABS-CBN demanded maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement, plus injunctive relief to avoid future infringement. Following an ex parte process, the Court responded favorably.</p>
<p>In an order granting a preliminary injunction, the Florida district court agreed that the sites present an ongoing threat to ABS-CBN&#8217;s business and it&#8217;s likely they&#8217;ll continue to deceive the public by illegally using the company&#8217;s trademarks and content without a license.</p>
<p>Judge Robert N.Scola Jr. restrained everyone connected to the sites from &#8220;advertising,  promoting,  copying,  broadcasting,  publicly performing, and/or distributing&#8221; any of ABS-CBN&#8217;s content and/or abusing its trademarks. </p>
<p>While this is fairly standard for this kind of process, it was also remarkably easy for ABS-CBN to deprive the sites of their domains.</p>
<p>In his order, the Judge ordered the domain registrars of the &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites to transfer the domains to a holding account operated by a new registrar of ABS-CBN&#8217;s choosing, pending the outcome of the case. If they fail to do that within a single business day, the TLD (top-level domain) registries are instructed to do it for them.</p>
<p>While the case is underway, each domain is ordered to be re-directed away from the pirate sites and towards <a href="http://servingnotice.com/B5C4GF0/index.html">a new URL</a> displaying copies of the complaint and subsequent orders.</p>
<p>&#8220;After the New Registrar has effected this change, the Subject Domain Names shall be placed on lock status, preventing the modification or deletion of the domains by the New Registrar or the Defendants,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>While 19 domains are listed, any other domains &#8220;properly brought to the Court&#8217;s attention&#8221; can be seized in the same manner, the order notes.</p>
<p>Since the &#8216;pirate&#8217; site operators are unlikely to defend the action, the domains are almost certainly out of reach already. ABS-CBN <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/05/05/17/abs-cbn-seeks-40m-in-damages-from-pirate-websites">says</a> it now wants $40m in damages, so arguing over the fate of a few domains is probably low on the operators&#8217; agenda.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will continue to shut down these pirate sites to protect the public from harm,&#8221; said ABS-CBN assistant vice president and head of global anti-piracy Elisha Lawrence.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is only one genuine ABS-CBN internet subscription service that is safe for our fans to use and that is TFC and TFC.t.” </p>
<p><strong>The affected domains</strong></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</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=138698
title: Appeals Court Won’t Help Megaupload User to Get His Files Back
uri: Appeals-Court-Won-t-Help-Megaupload-User-to-Get-His-Files-Back
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gqNAoRbh-X4/
content:
<p><img src="media/5fd37436.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg" align="right" alt="megaupload">More than five years have passed since <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/">Megaupload&#8217;s shutdown</a> early 2012. </p>
<p>The criminal investigation took out the largest file-storage site of its time, and also meant that millions of users <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-please-return-my-personal-files-megaupload-120120/">lost access</a> to their personal files as collateral damage.</p>
<p>One of the affected users is Kyle Goodwin, who operates a sports video company in Ohio. He used Megaupload as part of his business, to safely store large videos he created himself. </p>
<p>Although many assumed that the Megaupload data had been permanently lost, Mr. Goodwin wasn&#8217;t ready to throw in the towel that easily. A few months after the raid he <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-user-asks-court-to-order-return-of-his-data-120525/">asked the court</a> to assist him and others to retrieve their personal property.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for him, the District Court has yet to issue an order that allows former users of the site to retrieve their data. Assisted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Williams Mullen law firm, and Stanford’s Hoover Institution, many requests were filed but without a satisfying outcome.</p>
<p>Having exhausted nearly every option, Mr. Goodwin&#8217;s legal team urged the Appeals Court to intervene <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-user-asks-appeals-court-to-help-get-his-files-back-170426/?preview=true">last month</a>. The Government’s apparent disregard for the rights of former Megaupload users continues to hurt innocent bystanders, they argued.</p>
<p>Mr. Goodwin’s lawyers asked the court to issue a ‘writ of mandamus‘ to the trial court, requesting it to act on their client’s behalf and create a process for Megaupload users to regain access their data.</p>
<p>While the EFF hoped this would <a href="https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-asks-appeals-court-break-through-five-year-logjam-megaupload-case">break through</a> the five-year log-jam, the Appeals Court denied the request late last week.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although, as Mr. Goodwin points out, his motion for return of property has been pending for a significant period of time without decision, we do not find on this record that the district court has refused to adjudicate the matter,&#8221; <a href="media/e1298b52.goodwinappealorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/goodwinappealorder.pdf">the order reads (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Accordingly, the petition for writ of mandamus is denied without prejudice,&#8221; the Appeals Court added. </p>
<p>The Appeals Court has the power to intervene in cases where a District Court &#8220;persistently and without reason&#8221; refuses to make a decision, but found that this is not the case here. </p>
<p>This means that the stalemate continues, even after five years. Mr. Goodwin&#8217;s data remains out of reach for the time being, and the same is true for all other users who still hope to be reunited with their files.</p>
<p>His legal team is not giving up though. EFF Senior Staff Attorney Mitch Stoltz informs TorrentFreak that they will continue their efforts to return the data to the rightful owners.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re disappointed that the appeals court refused to step in to get this case moving. Kyle Goodwin and many others have been waiting five years to get their data back, and soon it might be un-recoverable. We will continue asking the district court to act on Mr. Goodwin&#8217;s request,&#8221; Stoltz says.</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=138730
title: Pirate Site “Coke and Popcorn” Shuts Down, Points Users to Netflix
uri: Pirate-Site-Coke-and-Popcorn-Shuts-Down-Points-Users-to-Netflix
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BpmYvjrrxgA/
content:
<p><img src="media/dae460d3.cnp-e1494315275754.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cnp-e1494315275754.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="125" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138736">Pirate sites come and go all the time. Often they disappear quietly, without an official word, but that&#8217;s not the case with the popular streaming site Coke and Popcorn. </p>
<p>Late last week the streaming portal suddenly posted a <a href="http://cokeandpopcorn.ch/theEND.php">surprise update</a> announcing that it had shut down its service for good. </p>
<p>While the exact reasons for the surprise decision remain unknown, the site&#8217;s operator is clear that users should hold no hope for a comeback. Instead, he points them to &#8220;better&#8221; alternatives such as Netflix.</p>
<p>&#8220;As many of you noticed the site has not been updating for quite some time. It is time to say good bye, Sorry to announce that Coke &#038; Popcorn had closed down for good,&#8221; a message posted on the site reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are now a lot of other better places to enjoy online TV, we recommend Netflix,&#8221; the site&#8217;s operator adds.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/001bba92.cpnbye-e1494315244692.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cpnbye-e1494315244692.png" alt="" width="600" height="208" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-138735"></center></p>
<p>Coke and Popcorn, which operated from a Swiss domain name, has been around for several years but remained out of the spotlight most of the time. </p>
<p>In 2014 it was listed by Netnames in a piracy advertising report, where it was classified as a medium-sized linking site, which potentially earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in yearly revenue.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s possible that there is some kind of legal pressure behind the &#8220;voluntary&#8221; shutdown, but the true reason is open to speculation. A decline in advertising revenue may have prompted it to throw in the towel, however.</p>
<p>Taking a page from the anti-piracy playbook, Coke and Popcorn closes with a warning to former users, urging them not to trust copycats as these may be ridden with malicious ads or worse. Instead, they should try Netflix.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you see other fake duplicates of CnP in the future who claim to be us, we urge you NOT to use them as they all will probably serve harmful virus &#038; malicious ads and hidden software that WILL harm your computers &#038; steal your private information,&#8221; the operator warns. </p>
<p>&#8220;Please be careful and use only safe alternative sites like Netflix.&#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=138696
title: Spotify’s Beta Used ‘Pirate’ MP3 Files, Some From Pirate Bay
uri: Spotify-s-Beta-Used-Pirate-MP3-Files-Some-From-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OlXM7DytsDM/
content:
<p><a href="media/66ba2ec2.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg"><img src="media/c3c7bb8c.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="230" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138752"></a>While some pirates will probably never be tempted away from the digital high seas, over the past decade millions have ditched or tapered down their habit with the help of Spotify.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s no coincidence that from the very beginning more than a decade ago, the streaming service had more than a few things in common with the piracy scene.</p>
<p>Spotify CEO Daniel Ek originally <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-reminded-of-utorrent-past-after-branding-grooveshark-pirates-141112/">worked</a> with uTorrent creator Ludvig ‘Ludde’ Strigeus before the pair sold to BitTorrent Inc. and began work on Spotify. Later, the company told TF that pirates were their target. </p>
<p>“Spotify is a new way of enjoying music. We believe Spotify provides a viable alternative to music piracy,&#8221; the company said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We think the way forward is to create a service better than piracy, thereby converting users into a legal, sustainable alternative which also enriches the total music experience.”</p>
<p>The technology deployed by Spotify was also familiar. Like the majority of &#8216;pirate&#8217; platforms at the time, Spotify operated a peer-to-peer (P2P) system which grew to become one of the largest on the Internet. It was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-starts-shutting-down-its-massive-p2p-network-140416/">shut down</a> in 2011.</p>
<p>But in the clearest nod to pirates, Spotify was available for free, supported by ads if the user desired. This was the platform&#8217;s greatest asset as it sought to win over a generation that had grown accustomed to gorging on free MP3s. Interestingly, however, an early Pirate Bay figure has now revealed that Spotify also had a use for the free content floating around the Internet.</p>
<p>As one of the early members of Sweden&#8217;s infamous Piratbyrån (piracy bureau), Rasmus Fleischer was also one of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founders-speak-out-on-the-sites-past-and-future-130811/">key figures</a> at The Pirate Bay. Over the years he&#8217;s been a writer, researcher, debater and musician, and in 2012 he finished his PhD thesis on “music’s political economy.&#8221;</p>
<p>As part of a five-person team, Fleischer is now writing a book about Spotify. Titled &#8216;Spotify Teardown &#8211; Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music&#8217;, the book aims to shine light on the history of the famous music service and also spills the beans on a few secrets.</p>
<p>In an interview with Sweden&#8217;s <a href="http://digital.di.se/artikel/han-skriver-en-bok-om-spotify-det-var-fran-borjan-en-pirattjanst">DI.se</a>, Fleischer reveals that when Spotify was in early beta, the company used unlicensed music to kick-start the platform.</p>
<p>&#8220;Spotify&#8217;s beta version was originally a pirate service. It was distributing MP3 files that the employees happened to have on their hard drives,&#8221; he reveals.</p>
<p>Rumors that early versions of Spotify used &#8216;pirate&#8217; MP3s have been floating around the Internet for years. People who had access to the service in the beginning later reported downloading tracks that contained &#8216;Scene&#8217; labeling, tags, and formats, which are the tell-tale signs that content hadn&#8217;t been obtained officially.</p>
<p>Solid proof has been more difficult to come by but Fleischer says he knows for certain that Spotify was using music obtained not only from pirate sites, but the most famous pirate site of all.</p>
<p>According to the writer, a few years ago he was involved with a band that decided to distribute their music on The Pirate Bay instead of the usual outlets. Soon after, the album appeared on Spotify&#8217;s beta service.</p>
<p>&#8220;I thought that was funny. So I emailed Spotify and asked how they obtained it. They said that &#8216;now, during the test period, we will use music that we find&#8217;,&#8221; Fleischer recalls.</p>
<p>For a company that has attracting pirates <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-spotify-lawyer-attracting-pirates-is-in-our-dna-161226/">built into its DNA</a>, it&#8217;s perhaps fitting that it tempted them with the same bait found on pirate sites. Certainly, the company&#8217;s history of a pragmatic attitude towards piracy means that few will be shouting &#8216;hypocrites&#8217; at the streaming platform now.</p>
<p>Indeed, according to Fleischer the successes and growth of Spotify are directly linked to the temporary downfall of The Pirate Bay following the raid on the site in 2006, and the lawsuits that followed. </p>
<p>&#8220;The entire Spotify beta period and its early launch history is in perfect sync with the Pirate Bay process,&#8221; Fleischer explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;They would not have had as much attention if they had not been able to surf that wave. The company&#8217;s early history coincides with the Pirate Party becoming a hot topic, and the trial of the Pirate Bay in the Stockholm District Court.&#8221;</p>
<p>In 2013, Fleischer told TF that The Pirate Bay had &#8220;helped catalyze so-called &#8216;new business models&#8217;,&#8221; and it now appears that Spotify is reaping the benefits and looks set to keep doing so into the future.</p>
<p>An in-depth interview with Rasmus Fleischer will be published here soon, including an interesting revelation detailing how TorrentFreak readers positively affected the launch of Spotify in the United States.</p>
<p><em>Spotify Teardown &#8211; Inside the Black Box of Streaming Music</em> will be published early 2018.</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=138787
title: Four Men Jailed For Running Pirate Movie Sites
uri: Four-Men-Jailed-For-Running-Pirate-Movie-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9Bmjv5ulBkw/
content:
<p><a href="media/339209a8.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg"><img src="media/9c39c603.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70302"></a>In the wake of December 2014 action that <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">closed down</a> The Pirate Bay for weeks, Swedish police turned their focus to one of the country’s top streaming portals, Dreamfilm.se.</p>
<p>The site had been growing in popularity for a while, and together with defunct streaming site Swefilmer, whose admins also <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swefilmer-piracy-trial-ends-operators-face-years-in-jail-170428/">went on trial</a> recently, the site accounted for up to 25% of online viewing in Sweden.</p>
<p>“After an administrator was detained and interrogated, it has been mutually agreed that dreamfilm.se will be shut down for good,” the site said in a January 2015 statement.</p>
<p>While the site later came <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-sites-deal-with-police-backfires-massively-150207/">back to life</a> under a new name, Swedish police kept up the pressure. In February 2015, several more sites <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-sites-shut-down-after-swedish-police-arrest-five-150213/">bit the dust</a> including the country&#8217;s second largest torrent site Tankefetast, torrent site PirateHub, and streaming portal Tankefetast Play (TFPlay).</p>
<p><center><b>Image previously released by Tankafetast</b><img src="media/fda1c792.tanka2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tanka2.jpg" alt="tankafetast"></center></p>
<p>It took more than two years, but recently the key people behind the sites had their day in court. According to <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.682168/dreamfilm-dom?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+idg%2Fvzzs+%28IDG.se%3A+Hetaste+IT-nyheterna+fr%C3%A5n+IDG.se%29">IDG</a>, all of the men admitted to being involved in Dreamfilm, but none accepted they had committed any crimes.</p>
<p>Yesterday the Linköping District Court handed down its decision and it&#8217;s particularly bad news for those involved. Aged between 21 and 31-years-old, the men were sentenced to between six and 10 months in jail and ordered to pay damages of around $147,000 to the film industry.</p>
<p>A 23-year-old man who founded Dreamfilm back in 2012 was handed the harshest sentence of 10 months. He was due to receive a sentence of one year in jail but due to his age at the time of some of the offenses, the Court chose to impose a slightly lower term.</p>
<p>A member of the Pirate Party who reportedly handled advertising and helped to administer the site, was sentenced to eight months in prison. Two other men who worked in technical roles were told to serve between six and 10 months.</p>
<p><center><b>Image published by Dreamfilm after the raid</b><img src="media/60b9af79.dreamfilm-polis.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dreamfilm-polis.jpg" alt="dreamfilm"></center></p>
<p>Anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance, which as usual was deeply involved in the prosecution, says that the sites were significant players in the pirate landscape. </p>
<p>&#8220;The network that included Dream Movie, Tankafetast, TF Play and Piratehub was  one of Europe&#8217;s leading players for illegal file sharing and streaming. The coordination of the network was carried out by two of the convicted,&#8221; the group said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This case is an example of how organized commercial piracy used Sweden as a base and target for its operations. They are well organized and earn a lot of money and the risks are considered small and punishments low in Sweden,&#8221; lawyer Henrik Pontén said.</p>
<p>While lenient sentences are now clearly off the agenda, the convicted men still have a chance to appeal. It is not yet clear whether they will do so. In the meantime the Dreamfilm.se domain will be seized until the District Court decision becomes final.</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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