# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154835
title: ISP Sued For Breaching User Privacy After Blocking Pirate Sites
uri: ISP-Sued-For-Breaching-User-Privacy-After-Blocking-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/x2xl6ea8GfM/
content:
<p><a href="media/c8299d44.japan.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png"><img src="media/64198147.japan.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png" alt="" width="200" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57939"></a>After hinting at moves to curb online piracy last month, on April 13 the Japanese government announced<br>
emergency measures to target websites hosting pirated manga, anime and other types of content.</p>
<p>In common with dozens of counterparts around the world, the government said it favored site-blocking as the first line of defense. However, with no specific legislation to fall back on, authorities asked local ISPs if they&#8217;d come along for the ride voluntarily. On Monday, the Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) announced that it would.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have taken short-term emergency measures until legal systems on site-blocking are implemented,&#8221; NTT in a statement.</p>
<p>NTT Communications Corp., NTT Docomo Inc. and NTT Plala Inc., said they would target three sites highlighted by the government &#8211; Mangamura, AniTube! and MioMio &#8211; which together have a huge following in Japan.</p>
<p>The service providers added that at least in the short-term, they would prevent access to the sites using DNS blocking and would restrict access to other sites if requested to do so by the government. But, just a few days on, NTT is already facing problems.</p>
<p>Lawyer Yuichi Nakazawa has now launched legal action against NTT, demanding that the corporation immediately ends its site-blocking operations.</p>
<p>The complaint, filed at the Tokyo District Court, notes that the lawyer uses an Internet connection provided by NTT. Crucially, it also states that in order to block access to the sites in question, NTT would need to spy on customers&#8217; Internet connections to find out if they&#8217;re trying to access the banned sites.</p>
<p>The lawyer informs TorrentFreak that the ISP&#8217;s decision prompted him into action.</p>
<p>&#8220;NTT&#8217;s decision was made arbitrarily on the site without any legal basis. No matter how legitimate the objective of copyright infringement is, it is very dangerous,&#8221; Nakazawa explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;I felt that &#8216;freedom,&#8217; which is an important value of the Internet, was threatened. Actually, when the interruption of communications had begun, the company thought it would be impossible to reverse the situation, so I filed a lawsuit at this stage.&#8221;</p>
<p>Breaches of privacy could present a significant problem under Japanese law. The Telecommunications Business Act guarantees privacy of communications and prevents censorship, as does Article 21 of the Constitution.</p>
<p>&#8220;The secrecy of communications being handled by a telecommunications carrier shall not be violated,&#8221; the Telecommunications Business Act states, adding that &#8220;no communications being handled by a telecommunications carrier shall be censored.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Constitution is also clear, <a href="https://japan.kantei.go.jp/constitution_and_government_of_japan/constitution_e.html">stating</a> that &#8220;no censorship shall be maintained, nor shall the secrecy of any means of communication be violated.&#8221;</p>
<p>For his part, lawyer Yuichi Nakazawa is also concerned that his contract with the ISP is being breached.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is an Internet connection agreement between me and NTT. I am a customer of NTT. There is no provision in the contract between me and NTT to allow arbitrary interruption of communications,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>Nakazawa doesn&#8217;t appear to be against site-blocking <em>per se</em>, he&#8217;s just concerned that relevant laws and agreements are being broken.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is necessary to restrict sites of pirated publications but that does not mean you can do anything,&#8221; Nakazawa said, as quoted by <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180426/p2g/00m/0dm/082000c">Mainichi</a>. &#8220;We should have sufficient discussions for an appropriate measure, including revising the law.&#8221;</p>
<p>The question of whether site-blocking does indeed represent an invasion of privacy will probably come down to how the ISP implements it and how that is interpreted by the courts. </p>
<p>A source familiar with the situation told TF that spying on user connections is clearly a problem but the deployment of an outer network firewall rule that simply prevents traffic passing through might be viewed differently.</p>
<p>Such a rule would provide no secret or private information that wasn&#8217;t already available to the ISP when the customer requested a banned site through a web browser, although it still falls foul of the &#8220;no censorship&#8221; requirements of both the Constitution and Telecommunications Business Act.</p>
<p>NTT Communications has declined to comment on the lawsuit but says it had no plans to backtrack on plans to block the sites. Earlier this week, SoftBank Corp., another ISP considering a blockade, expressed concerns that site-blocking has the potential to infringe secrecy of communications rules.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154768
title: BitTorrent Piracy Lawuit Morphs into Attack on Dragon Box and Resellers
uri: BitTorrent-Piracy-Lawuit-Morphs-into-Attack-on-Dragon-Box-and-Reseller
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/L53xnHF0BmM/
content:
<p><img src="media/8d62c520.dragonbox1-e1524745608776.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dragonbox1-e1524745608776.png" alt="" width="256" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-154859">In recent years the movie industry&#8217;s enforcement efforts have switched from torrent sites to streaming devices, which are now seen as the main culprit. </p>
<p>While not entirely intentional, this shift is also visible in a federal lawsuit filed in a federal court in Hawaii. </p>
<p>In the initial complaint, rightsholders of the films “Mechanic: Resurrection” (ME2) and “Once Upon a Time in Venice” (Venice) sued twenty unknown defendants who allegedly shared pirated copies via BitTorrent. </p>
<p>These cases are quite common in the US and are regularly referred to as &#8220;copyright trolling,&#8221; but in recent months this particular case took a drastic turn. </p>
<p>It all started when the sister of one of the defendants indicated that her brother used a streaming box to watch movies. This turned out to be a Dragon Box which was allegedly used to stream pirated films.</p>
<p>Typically these type of streaming boxes rely on external video hosting sites, but they can be configured to use torrents. It is not clear if that was the case here, but it was enough for the copyright holder to take a closer look at the device. </p>
<p>As the case progressed, all the original BitTorrent defendants were dismissed, and the filmmakers focused their efforts on Dragon Box and two local resellers instead. In fact, the latest version of the complaint doesn&#8217;t even mention BitTorrent anymore.</p>
<p>The case now targets Dragon Box and its owner Paul Christoforo, as well as the resellers Naino Bettencourt and Jason Barnhart, who run “The Dragon Box Hawaii” and &#8220;JB Dragon Box-Hawaii Kai&#8221; respectively. All are accused of contributory copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The complaint describes how the Dragon Box can be used to access copyrighted material, including the works of ME2 and Venice. The defendants were well aware of this, it&#8217;s argued, adding that the defendants promoted the box with terms hinting at infringing uses.</p>
<p>In addition, Dragon Box&#8217;s Paul Christoforo reportedly made statements such as “It is legal to stream content on the internet,” and “We can’t be held liable for the movies and TV channels online that people are watching, because all the software is doing is accessing content that is readily available online.&#8221;</p>
<p>“Particularly, the Dragon Box Defendants have brazenly marketed the Dragon Box as giving &#8216;you every movie, every tv show, every sports game and payperview all in HD with no monthly fee&#8217;, and falsely stating to the public that streaming copyright protected motion pictures such as Plaintiffs’ is legal,” the plaintiffs write.</p>
<p>With the lawsuit, the copyright holders hope to recoup some of the damages they claim to have suffered. To prevent any further harm, they have moved for a preliminary injunction this week, to halt Dragon Box sales as soon as possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;Simply put, Dragon Box is intentionally inducing infringement. Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court enter a preliminary injunction that requires the Dragon Box Defendants to halt their flagrantly illegal conduct immediately,&#8221; ME2 and Venice write.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this isn&#8217;t the first lawsuit Dragon Box has been dragged into this year. The company was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-kodi-powered-dragon-box-over-piracy-180111/">previously sued</a> by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which represents several Hollywood studios, Netflix, and Amazon. This case is still ongoing.</p>
<p>Dragon Box has yet to respond to the allegations made by ME2 and Venice. The company initially opposed the latest complaint because the original BitTorrent claims were no longer part of it, but the court denied this request.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the request for a preliminary injunction against Dragon Box is available <a href="media/6643afd7.dragon-me2venice.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dragon-me2venice.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154690
title: Former Judge Accuses IP Court of Using ‘Pirate’ Microsoft Software
uri: Former-Judge-Accuses-IP-Court-of-Using-Pirate-Microsoft-Software
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BulS6KX6mK4/
content:
<p><a href="media/a1d965a4.windowspiratemicrosoft.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/windowspiratemicrosoft.png"><img src="media/fcd804cf.windowspiratemicrosoft.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/windowspiratemicrosoft.png" alt="" width="269" height="189" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143278"></a>While piracy of movies, TV shows, and music grabs most of the headlines, software piracy is a huge issue, from both consumer and commercial perspectives.</p>
<p>For many years, software such as Photoshop has been pirated on a grand scale and around the world, millions of computers rely on cracked and unlicensed copies of Microsoft&#8217;s Windows software.</p>
<p>One of the key drivers of this kind of piracy is the relative expense of software. Open source variants are nearly always available but big brand names always seem more popular due to their market penetration and perceived ease of use.</p>
<p>While using pirated software very rarely gets individuals into trouble, the same cannot be said of unlicensed commercial operators. That appears to be the case in Russia where somewhat ironically the Court for Intellectual Property Rights stands accused of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>A complaint filed by the Paragon law firm at the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office of the Court for Intellectual Property Rights (CIP) alleges that the Court is illegally using Microsoft software, something which has the potential to affect the outcome of court cases involving the US-based software giant.</p>
<p>Paragon is representing Alexander Shmuratov, who is a former Assistant Judge at the Court for Intellectual Property Rights. Shmuratov worked at the Court for several years and claims that the computers there were being operated with expired licenses.</p>
<p>Shmuratov himself told <a href="https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3612751">Kommersant</a> that he &#8220;saw the notice of an activation failure every day when using MS Office products&#8221; in intellectual property court.</p>
<p>A representative of the Prosecutor General&#8217;s Office confirmed that a complaint had been received but said it had been forwarded to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.</p>
<p>In respect of the counterfeit software claims, CIP categorically denies the allegations.  CIP says that licenses for all Russian courts were purchased back in 2008 and remained in force until 2011. In 2013, Microsoft agreed to an extension. </p>
<p>Only adding more intrigue to the story, CIP Assistant chairman Catherine Ulyanova said that the initator of the complaint, former judge Alexander Shmuratov, was dismissed from the CIP because he provided false information about income. He later mounted a challenge against his dismissal but was unsuccessful.</p>
<p>Ulyanova said that Microsoft licensed all courts from 2006 for use of Windows and MS Office. The licenses were acquired through a third-party company and more licenses than necessary were purchased, with some licenses being redistributed for use by CIP in later years with the consent of Microsoft.</p>
<p>Kommersant was unable to confirm how licenses were paid for beyond December 2011 but apparently an &#8220;official confirmation letter from the Irish headquarters of Microsoft, which does not object to the transfer of CIP licenses&#8221; had been sent to the Court.</p>
<p>Responding to Shmuratov&#8217;s allegations that software he used hadn&#8217;t been activated, Ulyanova said that technical problems had no relationship with the existence of software licenses.</p>
<p>The question of whether the Court is properly licensed will be determined at a later date but observers are already raising questions concerning CIP&#8217;s historical dealings with Microsoft not only in terms of licensing, but in cases it handled.</p>
<p>In the period 2014-2017, the Court for Intellectual Property Rights handled around 80 cases involving Microsoft and claims of between 50 thousand ($800) and several million rubles.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154784
title: The Pirate Bay’s Rebellious History… in Doodles
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-s-Rebellious-History-in-Doodles
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/G6lCn3tFTcI/
content:
<p><img src="media/7b21649b.tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" alt="" width="256" height="219" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142141">Later this year, The Pirate Bay will celebrate its 15th anniversary. </p>
<p>That&#8217;s quite an achievement for any website, but for a pirate site in particular, considering the mounting legal pressures. </p>
<p>The Pirate Bay is not an ordinary torrent site though. It has a long and rich history that, unfortunately, appears to be fading. </p>
<p>Up until a few years ago TPB frequently replaced its iconic pirate ship logo to send a message. These &#8216;doodles&#8217; were pieces of art in their own right and have long been documented on a <a href="https://thepiratebay.org/doodles">dedicated page</a>. </p>
<p>However, when we checked this page a few days ago we noticed that the doodles only go back to 2014. This means that dozens of earlier pieces are missing, which is a crying shame. So, for the sake of history, we tracked down whatever we could and have published our findings here.</p>
<p>Below is our overview of TPB&#8217;s doodles in chronological order. Many of the titles are the ones TPB used. The list doesn&#8217;t include &#8216;ads&#8217; or artist promos, which sometimes were just videos, but otherwise, it should be relatively complete.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><center><strong>The Grand Theft Bay &#8211; 24 October, 2004</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/53f8d49d.gtb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gtb.jpg" alt="" width="333" height="313" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154785"></center></p>
<p><em>The first doodle we&#8217;re aware of, celebrating the pirated release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pear Bay &#8211; 20 August, 2005</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/606d0b93.pearbay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pearbay.png" alt="" width="274" height="301" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154786"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay renamed itself to The Pear Bay when Apple x86 OS  leaked. The logo linked to a search which led visitors directly to it.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Merry Christmas! &#8211; 24 December, 2005</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f4173257.xmas.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/xmas.png" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154788"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay wished all its visitors a Merry Christmas. As far as we know, this doodle hasn&#8217;t been reused in recent years.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Nice game got released &#8211; 24 October, 2005</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/46035a5d.q4.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/q4.gif" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154789"></center></p>
<p><em>Another pirate game release, Quake 4 this time. It&#8217;s clear what some of the TPB people were up to in their spare time.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirat eBay &#8211; 21 January, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6cc7b171.tpebay-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpebay-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154790"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay crew auctioned a night of partying to the highest bidder on eBay. &#8220;Since we have a lot of bandwidth usage and low salaries for working on our site, we’ve decided to go prostitutes on you and sell ourselves for money,&#8221; they <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hang-out-with-the-piratebay-crew/">wrote</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Police Bay &#8211; 3 June, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3c7ffcd6.hollywood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hollywood.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154793"></center></p>
<p><em>Three days after The Pirate Bay was raided for the first time, the site returned with their cannons aimed at Hollywood. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Phoenix Bay &#8211; 18 June, 2006<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba1ee554.phoenix-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/phoenix-1.jpg" alt="" width="174" height="216" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154794"></center></p>
<p><em>With The Pirate Bay raid still dominating the news and political agenda, the site&#8217;s operator added another message. &#8220;Like the phoenix bird, The Pirate Bay will always rise again.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Ladonia Invasion &#8211; 25 July, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1ae2a781.tpbladonia.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbladonia.png" alt="" width="390" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154795"></center></p>
<p><em>The Piratebay openly supported the &#8216;war&#8217; against Ladonia, a micronation located in the south of Sweden. Yet another political statement.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Steal This Film &#8211; 21 August, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d8cbba38.stf.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stf.jpg" alt="" width="238" height="325" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154796"></center></p>
<p><em>Pirate Bay promoting the release of the documentary <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1422757/">Steal This Film</a> featuring its co-founders Brokep and Anakata, directed by Jamie King.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Party Aftermath &#8211; 8 October, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/58e389f5.kjelle.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kjelle.jpg" alt="" width="320" height="240" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154797" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kjelle.jpg 320w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/kjelle-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay crew had a party but didn&#8217;t bother to clean up. Instead, they put a photo of the aftermath on the frontpage.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate Bay + WESC = <3 - 11 October, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/41546fe0.tpb_wesc.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb_wesc.png" alt="" width="444" height="195" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154798"></center></p>
<p><em>A pirate site teaming up with the street fashion company “WeSC”? While brands shun these links nowadays, it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-teams-up-with-street-fashion-company/">all possible ten years ago</a>. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Talk Like a Pirate Day &#8211; 19 September, 2006</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1d995fe8.tlapd.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tlapd.gif" alt="" width="397" height="313" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154799"></center></p>
<p><em>Good pirates talk like pirates. The Pirate Bay honored the yearly Talk Like a Pirate Day.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Pirates of Sealand &#8211; 12 January, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b5fc28f6.sealand.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sealand.gif" alt="" width="334" height="265" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154800"></center></p>
<p><em>Perhaps one of the most ambitious plans. The Pirate Bay raised money to<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-to-buy-sealand/"> buy Sealand</a> and form their own state. That never happened, the money was reportedly spent on trees instead.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>OscarTorrents &#8211; 12 February, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/06a10fd9.oscar.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oscar.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="318" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154801"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB promoting the OscarTorrents.com website where archivists were collecting pirated links to the latest Oscar-nominated movies. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>North Korea &#8211; 01 April, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/afa03ffb.nk.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nk.png" alt="" width="281" height="281" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154804"></center></p>
<p><em>Pirate Bay moves to North Korea on April 1st, causing a lot of confusion as well as some outrage.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Eurovisiontorrents.com &#8211; 08 May, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/eb31189b.esctpb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/esctpb.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="128" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154805"></center></p>
<p><em>Following the success of Oscartorrents, the Swedes from The Pirate Bay now promote a similar initiative for the Eurovision song contest.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Kopimi Klothing &#8211; 25 May, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d97aa213.kopikloth.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kopikloth.jpg" alt="" width="266" height="328" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154806"></center></p>
<p><em>Every self-respecting website has its own merchandise store. The Pirate Bay had Kopimi clothing..</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Pirates of the internets &#8211; 27 May, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/282f50fa.potc.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/potc.jpg" alt="" width="534" height="124" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154807"><br>
</center></p>
<p><em>When the Hollywood blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: At World&#8217;s End leaked online, TPB made a fitting doodle linking to pirated copies.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Torrent of Fire &#8211; 19 July, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/80fec45b.whoframedtpb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/whoframedtpb.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="302" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154808"></center></p>
<p><em>Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-leaked-to-bittorrent/">leaked online</a>, and Pirate Bay&#8217;s logo leaked as well. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Evergreen Terrace Bay &#8211; 27 July, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/447191dd.evergreenbay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/evergreenbay.png" alt="" width="284" height="315" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154809"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay celebrates the release of the first illegal CAM version of &#8220;The Simpsons Movie&#8221; with a new logo and t-shirt design.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Walk the plank &#8211; 21 September, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/cabeed73.plank2007.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/plank2007.png" alt="" width="459" height="223" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154810"></center></p>
<p><em>The internal emails of anti-piracy outfit MediaDefender <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mediadefender-one-year-after-the-email-leak-080915/">went public</a>, revealing that they were indeed behind the video site MiiVi, and more&#8230;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Global Icon Bay &#8211; 20 November, 2007</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e2488ba3.certificate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/certificate.jpg" alt="" width="272" height="289" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154811"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB praising its own achievement of becoming a global icon. &#8220;We won the &#8216;global icon&#8217; award from the copy lobby!&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>We need help! &#8211; 17 January, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7decf3f7.help.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/help.jpg" alt="" width="420" height="350" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154812"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay posted its version of a job application. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>We wouldn&#8217;t steal &#8211; 19 January, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6d1b9250.iwsnet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iwsnet.png" alt="" width="322" height="289" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154813"></center></p>
<p><em>When the European Parliament coalition Greens EFA launched a pro-filesharing campaign named &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/politicians-launch-pro-filesharing-campaign-080119/">I Wouldn&#8217;t Steal</a>,&#8221; Pirate Bay showed their support. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Jubilee &#8211; 31 January, 2008<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f3d655c1.jubil2007.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jubil2007.jpg" alt="" width="452" height="286" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154814"></center></p>
<p><em>&#8220;10 million peers. 1 million torrents. 2.5 million registered users. 100 blog entries. Jubilee!&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Valentines day &#8211; 14 February, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/67bf36f6.valentina2k8.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/valentina2k8.jpg" alt="" width="452" height="286" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154815"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay shows off its romantic side.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Manifesta7 &#8211; 22 February, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/32f8bbf5.manifesta.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/manifesta.jpg" alt="" width="482" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154816"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay and the Bureau of Piracy start <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-summer-tour-2008-080710/">their journey throughout Europe</a>, that will reach its climax at the art festival Manifesta.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Sinai &#8211; 01 April, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/64e2e0d0.sinai08.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sinai08.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="219" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154817"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay keeps its arch-nemesis IFPI updated on the site&#8217;s whereabouts.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>All your cops &#8211; 18 April, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/fda4067c.lolliwood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lolliwood.jpg" alt="" width="440" height="232" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154818"></center></p>
<p><em>Hollywood buys police officers, according to The Pirate Bay, which is embroiled in a legal battle in Sweden. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Liberty Bay &#8211; 25 April, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/028506ae.liberty-bay-2008.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/liberty-bay-2008.jpg" alt="" width="330" height="327" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154819"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay celebrates the release of Grand Theft Auto IV.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Tiamo Dirty Thirty &#8211; 27 April, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/79896877.tiamo_dirty_30.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tiamo_dirty_30.jpg" alt="" width="355" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154837"></center></p>
<p><em>Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij turned thirty. &#8220;All your NES are belong to him&#8230;&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate Independence Day &#8211; 31 May, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/61423a8d.tpb-raid.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-raid.gif" alt="" width="300" height="225" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154838" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-raid.gif 300w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-raid-200x150.gif 200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></center></p>
<p><em>Two years after the Pirate Bay raid, the notorious torrent site declares May 31 &#8220;Pirate Independence Day.&#8221; &#8220;Today we celebrate that we’re united in our efforts. Keep on seeding!”</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bat &#8211; 25 July, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b1fb41d3.piratebat-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebat-1.jpg" alt="" width="302" height="337" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154839"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay renamed the site into “The Pirate Bat“ and put up a new logo that links to a search for “The Dark Knight”.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Beijing Bay &#8211; 17 August, 2008<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b6513d67.beijingbay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/beijingbay.png" alt="" width="340" height="281" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154840"></center></p>
<p><em>The International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked the Swedish Minister of Justice for &#8220;assistance&#8221; to remove Olympic torrents from TPB. The site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ioc-wants-olympic-torrents-off-the-pirate-bay/">not impressed</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Beatrice Bay &#8211; 20 August, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/71558ab6.beat_rice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/beat_rice.jpg" alt="" width="457" height="241" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154841"></center></p>
<p><em>A few days later TPB asks its users to send their love to Beatrice Ask, the Swedish Minister of Justice at the time.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>International Anti Piracy Day &#8211; 21 October, 2008</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/963c8946.seedofsatan.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/seedofsatan.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="381" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154843"></center></p>
<p><em>When Microsoft announced Global Anti-Piracy Day, The Pirate Bay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-celebrates-microsofts-global-anti-piracy-day-081021/">blamed Bill Gates</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>25 Million Peers &#8211; 15 November, 2008<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b5fd4747.s25m.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/s25m.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154844"></center></p>
<p><em>Pirate Bay&#8217;s tracker served 25 million concurrent peers, which is more than the entire populations of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland and Denmark combined.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Our fifth birthday! &#8211; 25 November, 2008<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ed8558f8.fromswedenwithlovesince2003.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fromswedenwithlovesince2003.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="251" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154845"></center></p>
<p><em>While the TPB-crew wasn&#8217;t certain that it was the right date (the tenth anniversary was in August), they celebrated anyway.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Happy new 1984! &#8211; 31 December, 2008<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/950de262.ny2009.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ny2009.jpg" alt="" width="472" height="323" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154847"></center></p>
<p><em>Ending 2008 with a call to action. &#8220;2009 turns out to be the year of surveillance. We need to fight that!&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Wasted can&#8217;t be wrong &#8211; 09 January, 2009</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4b0fff3f.wasted09.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wasted09.jpg" alt="" width="470" height="315" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154848"></center></p>
<p><em>Leading up to the TPB-trial, the site reminds people that MPAA lawyer Monique Wadsted previously represented the Church of Scientology in a copyright case. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>King Kong downloads &#8211; 18 February, 2009<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/bdc747ee.kingkong.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kingkong.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154849"></center></p>
<p><em>The legendary <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/g-defense-090218/">King Kong defense</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Warner Brothers buys The Pirate Bay &#8211; 01 April, 2009</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3034e72a.dummasill09.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dummasill09.png" alt="" width="481" height="220" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154850"></center></p>
<p>Pirate Bay announced that they settled their differences with Warner Bros. The largest BitTorrent tracker sold out to Hollywood, on April 1st.</p>
<p><center><strong>Embassy of Piracy &#8211; 07 May, 2009</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0d791100.eop_doodle_320.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eop_doodle_320.png" alt="" width="351" height="320" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154861"></center></p>
<p><em>An important art institution is born, according to TPB. The Embassy of Piracy.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>We are all The Pirate Bay &#8211; 15 May, 2009</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/567862d5.2009mmtpb2.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2009mmtpb2.gif" alt="" width="378" height="466" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154862"></center></p>
<p><em>Swedish artist Montt Mardié thought that The Pirate Bay and its following could use an anthem, so he decided <a href="https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4897173">to write one</a>. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>EU Election &#8211; 27 May, 2009<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/70ebb72f.vote2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vote2.jpg" alt="" width="279" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154864"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB reminded its visitors to vote in the EU election. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Persian Bay &#8211; 17 June, 2009<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d98dc0c5.persianbay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/persianbay.jpg" alt="" width="284" height="350" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154865"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB transformed into The Persian Bay and asked users to help out Iran. &#8220;Get your tunnelz goin!&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Hack the system &#8211; 07 December, 2010</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7a32b50f.letshackthesystem.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/letshackthesystem.jpg" alt="" width="434" height="464" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154874"></center></p>
<p><em>Inspired by the French football legend Cantona, TPB calls in its users to ban Paypal after it kicked out Wikileaks.</em></p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0a80b5a2.kabdeaadk.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kabdeaadk.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="435" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154875"></center></p>
<p><em>Pirate Bay&#8217;s sysop decided to put his Christmas wishlist on the frontpage. &#8220;Freedom for all information!&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Blackout 4 hungary &#8211; 05 January, 2011<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/26e3638c.b4h.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/b4h.png" alt="" width="422" height="378" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154876"></center></p>
<p><em>At a time where several new laws were being drafted to restrict people&#8217;s freedoms, TPB joined the <a href="http://kristofsteiner.com/blackout-for-hungary">Blackout for Hungary</a>. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Protest time &#8211; 13 January, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/95ec49a3.2011protest.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2011protest.jpg" alt="" width="365" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154877"></center></p>
<p><em>More protest. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>TPB wins auction site &#8211; 01 April, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6cc7b171.tpebay-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpebay-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154790"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay reuses an old doodle <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-acquires-ebay-110401/">on April first</a>. &#8220;TPB will use the tools from eBay to make a better rating system for torrents. Then TPB will divide eBay up into smaller companies and sell to the highest bidders. We see no use for an auction site since most stuff is available for free.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Research Bay &#8211; 18 April, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f46e4439.oahnaaadj.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oahnaaadj.jpg" alt="" width="372" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154880"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-joins-academic-cybernorms-research-group-110418/">launched a new survey</a> in collaboration with the Cybernorms research group at Sweden&#8217;s Lund University. As part of a sociology study, they hoped to find out more about people&#8217;s motivations to share. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>You do not recieve freedom, you take it. &#8211; 09 May, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1e8105fb.iahmjaadp.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iahmjaadp.jpg" alt="" width="304" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154883"></center></p>
<p><em>In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-the-battle-of-internets-is-about-to-begin-110509/">slightly edited version</a> of Winston Churchill’s “this was their finest hour” speech, replacing Nazi-Germany with MAFIAA, The Pirate Bay team declares war on Internet censorship advocates.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Happy birthday! &#8211; 15 September, 2011<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0db44138.gakgcaadb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gakgcaadb.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="352" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154884"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay turns eight years old. This time it&#8217;s in September. &#8220;One world one love!&#8221;&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Belgian Beer, Belgian Blue, Belgian Block Belgian Bay &#8211; 04 October, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6084c69d.2011belgium1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2011belgium1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154885"></center></p>
<p><em>The Belgian Anti-Piracy Federation succeeds in their quest to force two ISPs to block the famous torrent site. The next day <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-adds-domain-to-bypass-court-order-111005/">TPB adds a new domain</a> to bypass the blockade.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>A new tool to avoid censorship! &#8211; 05 December, 2011</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/294b7ea9.ealbhaade.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ealbhaade.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="375" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154886" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ealbhaade.jpg 500w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/ealbhaade-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay promotes <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mafiaafires-slash-unblocker-revives-blocked-and-deleted-videos-110816/">Mafiaafire</a>, an unblocking too that helps users to access blocked sites.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Promo Bay! &#8211; 15 January, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b15a75ee.jalkkaado.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jalkkaado.jpg" alt="" width="538" height="450" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154887"><br>
</center></p>
<p><em>TPB <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-launches-promo-platform-for-artists-120116/">launched The Promo Bay</a>, an initiative to help artists expose their work to the world through the site&#8217;s frontpage. We won&#8217;t publish all promo&#8217;s here, just the first one below.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Promo Bay proudly presents Paulo Coelho &#8211; 28 January, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1c79cff4.2012coelho.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2012coelho.jpg" alt="" width="395" height="492" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154888"></center></p>
<p><em>The first promo is none other than best selling author Paulo Coelho, who&#8217;s a file-sharing enthusiast and a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/paulo-coelho-supports-the-pirate-bay-090415/">supporter of The Pirate Bay</a>. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Fight! &#8211; 01 February, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/376bdfc1.2012resistance.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2012resistance.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="460" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154889"></center></p>
<p><em>Sweden’s Supreme Court<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-verdict-signals-threat-of-huge-new-anti-piracy-campaign-120201/"> announced </a>that it would not grant an appeal in the Pirate Bay case. This means that the prison sentences and millions of dollars in fines previously handed out to the four defendants remained in place.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Magnet Bay! &#8211; 28 February, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ac170ec8.12magnet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/12magnet.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="281" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154890"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB removed all popular torrent files and made the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-dumps-torrents-120228/">switch to magnet links</a>. This was needed to make the site future proof, the team announced. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Suprbay! &#8211; 06 March, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5eeba883.janjgaadb-e1524754403987.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/janjgaadb-e1524754403987.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="211" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154892"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay runs a promo for its own forum, Suprbay.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Greece sells airspace to TPB &#8211; 01 April, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a57f0e93.danmmaadk.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/danmmaadk.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="320" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154893"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB memo <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-buys-greek-airspace-120401/">on April 1st</a>: “Political power in Athens, Greece, today signed an agreement with representatives for The Pirate Bay (TPB) about exclusive usage of the Greek airspace at 8000-9000ft.&#8221;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bay proudly promotes Dan Bull! &#8211; 23 April, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/de4ee0b3.caofcaadd.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/caofcaadd.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="370" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154901"></center></p>
<p><em>With the track &#8220;Sharing is Caring&#8221;, Dan Bull tried to break into the UK and international singles charts with the help of a free Internet and BitTorrent. Not without <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-boosts-sharing-is-caring-into-the-music-charts-120427/">success</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>ACT NOW! &#8211; 03 May, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6084c69d.2011belgium1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2011belgium1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154885"></center></p>
<p><em>The censorship button doodle was reused when The Pirate Bay was blocked in the UK.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Hydra Bay! &#8211; 07 May, 2012<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c74b7c61.daoemaadh.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/daoemaadh.jpg" alt="" width="459" height="449" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154903"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay renamed itself The Hydra Bay today, linking it to PirateReverse.info, an information site that was dedicated to helping &#8216;blocked people&#8217; to access TPB. The operator of this site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-court-dismisses-case-against-torrent-site-proxy-operator-170307/">later arrested</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Act against Acta! &#8211; 07 June, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/12150b3a.fapnoaada-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fapnoaada-1.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154909"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB joins the widespread <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-acta-lives-or-dies-with-the-vote-in-the-european-parliament-120603/">demonstrations</a> against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).</em></p>
<p><center><strong>ACTA IS DEAD &#8211; 04 July, 2012<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9da76294.papnaaadi.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/papnaaadi.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="301" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154911"></center></p>
<p><em> In a 478 to 39 vote, the European Parliament decided to reject ACTA. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>Sign for Peter! &#8211; 14 July, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d0c1823e.happmaado.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/happmaado.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="344" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154912"></center></p>
<p><em> Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde submitted an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-seeks-prison-delay-citing-mental-health-employment-issues-120707/">emotional pardon plea</a> to the Swedish authorities, hoping to avoid his prison sentence. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Olympic Bay &#8211; 27 July, 2012<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/cb9e2207.jaaaeaaeg.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jaaaeaaeg.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="306" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154913"></center></p>
<p><em>The TPB crew created another doodle for their friends at the International Olympic Committee, promoting their bi-annual gathering.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>9th birthday &#8211; 14 September, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2c225b22.hacgcaaec.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hacgcaaec.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154914"></center></p>
<p><em>Time flies. But at least it&#8217;s September again.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bay Party! &#8211; 09 October, 2012<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a2bc5101.jadlhaaem.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jadlhaaem.jpg" alt="" width="427" height="394" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154915"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay is already looking forward to its tenth anniversary, which they will celebrate in August&#8230;</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bay moves to the cloud &#8211; 17 October, 2012<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ecbd5918.aaecpaaed.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aaecpaaed.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="430" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154917"></center></p>
<p><em>From this day, The Pirate Bay will serve its users from several <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-moves-to-the-cloud-becomes-raid-proof-121017/">cloud hosting providers</a> scattered around the world.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Support Richard from being extradited to the US! &#8211; 25 October, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f7ade03d.2012richard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2012richard.jpg" alt="" width="460" height="460" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154918"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB backs efforts to prevent UK student Richard O&#8217;Dwyer from being extradited to the United States. Whether it helped or not, the extradition <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/k-court-121207/">was stopped</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Merry a&#8217;rr a&#8217;rr! &#8211; 24 December, 2012</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0d4be453.2828beded2a37b5d0c7bb7974efbf9dd4ca643af.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/2828beded2a37b5d0c7bb7974efbf9dd4ca643af.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="230" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154920"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB encouraged its users to sent cards, letters, and gifts to co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm, who was in prison at the time.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>TPB AFK &#8211; 08 February, 2013<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ff60e253.7cd635788560800f6ef8401226f538c6c1d09428.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/7cd635788560800f6ef8401226f538c6c1d09428.jpg" alt="" width="490" height="360" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154922"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB-AFK, the documentary about The Pirate Bay and its founders,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tpb-afk-watch-and-download-the-pirate-bay-documentary-now-130208/"> was released</a>. The film follows the lives of the three Pirate Bay founders during their trials in Sweden.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Hydra Bay &#8211; 25 February, 2013</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b312b17d.13hydra.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/13hydra.png" alt="" width="400" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154923"></center></p>
<p><center><strong>New Provider For TPB &#8211; 04 March, 2013</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/afa03ffb.nk.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nk.png" alt="" width="281" height="281" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154804"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay moves the site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-north-korea-gets-virtual-asylum-130304/">to North Korea</a>. For real. Or?</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Fuck yeah! &#8211; 01 April, 2013<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c11706d3.366c234bfa5726141a073503a598780920caf9a0.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/366c234bfa5726141a073503a598780920caf9a0.jpg" alt="" width="371" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154925"></center></p>
<p><em>After its failed experiment in North Korea, The Pirate Bay has set course to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-the-unites-states-fck-yeah-130401/">the land of the free</a>, the United States of America.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Take a look at what these guys are doing! &#8211; 08 July, 2013</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ae117143.baatar.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/baatar.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="350" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154926"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay promotes a <a href="https://twitter.com/baatarworld">charity project</a>. </em></p>
<p><center><strong>PARTY PARTY PARTY! &#8211; 18 July, 2013<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/374a2fb7.party.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/party.jpg" alt="" width="412" height="368" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154927"></center></p>
<p><em>The 10 year anniversary is coming, and TPB is hosting a massive party!</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Happy birthday! &#8211; 10 August, 2013<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/74a04d27.10.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/10.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154928"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay celebrates its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-turns-10-years-old-the-history-130810/">10th anniversary, in August.</a></em></p>
<p><center><strong>ThePirateBay.PE &#8211; 13 December, 2013<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/14478216.c8953d7cdecc10d98e52200637a7070d8275fef4.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/c8953d7cdecc10d98e52200637a7070d8275fef4.jpg" alt="" width="495" height="211" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154929"></center></p>
<p><em>Facing legal uncertainty, The Pirate Bay moves to a .PE domain name, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-ac-after-domain-name-seizure-131210/">the fifth domain is 2013</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Let him at least read some books for fucks sake! &#8211; 07 January, 2014</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/822e1ba0.books-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/books-1.jpg" alt="" width="477" height="354" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154932"></center></p>
<p>No books? More than 100,000 signatures on a petition to improve the prison circumstances of Pirate Bay founder Gottfrid Svartholm, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-gets-access-to-his-books-after-public-outcry-140113/">appear to have had an effect</a>.</p>
<p><center><strong>Free the pirates! &#8211; 10 July, 2014</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/0f514d93.freethem.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/freethem.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="426" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154934"></center></p>
<p><em>TPB encouraged its users to write to the site&#8217;s imprisoned co-founders. This doodle reappeared several times.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bay rises again &#8211; 29 January, 2015<br>
</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a156e994.phoenix-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/phoenix-1.png" alt="" width="450" height="444" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154938"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay reappears after more than a month of downtime, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">following a raid</a> on the Nacka station, a nuclear-proof datacenter built into a mountain complex.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>New domain names &#8211; 19 May, 2015</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7464a2f8.thepiratebay_hyd.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepiratebay_hyd.jpg" alt="" width="480" height="360" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154937" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/thepiratebay_hyd.jpg 960w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/thepiratebay_hyd-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px"></center></p>
<p><em>The Pirate Bay adds several new domain names. A <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-moves-to-gs-la-vg-am-mn-and-gd-domains-150519/">new and improved hydra was born</a>, although it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-is-back-to-square-one-after-months-of-domain-hopping-151231/">didn&#8217;t last very long</a>.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Raid? &#8211; 21 September, 2015</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2f2d6e70.crime-scene.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crime-scene.jpg" alt="" width="456" height="410" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-154936"></center></p>
<p><em><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-what-raid-police-never-got-our-servers-150921/">Raid? What raid? </a>The Pirate Bay denies that they were critically hit by the police raid a few months earlier.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155056
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 04/30/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-04-30-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/i-6FLHptZ_I/
content:
<p><img src="media/6ab2bfeb.aveng-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aveng-1.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="163" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155058">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Avengers: Infinity War 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-04-23-18/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">Avengers: Infinity War</a> (HDCam) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">9.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwievZ1Tx-8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">12 Strong</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Denciie5oA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">Pacific Rim: Uprising</a> (Subbed HDrip) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EhiLLOhVis">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">Maze Runner: The Death Cure </a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BTxXm8KSg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">Den of Thieves</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKd_ks0rdAM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477536/">Fifty Shades Freed</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477536/">4.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJCc5HRPxYA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">Red Sparrow</a> (Subbed HDrip) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmUL6wMpMWw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">The Greatest Showman</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOeiLhcgPo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536537/">What Happened to monday</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1536537/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F-YEbm65a8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155071
title: Reddit Repeat Infringer Policy Shuts Down Megalinks Piracy Sub
uri: Reddit-Repeat-Infringer-Policy-Shuts-Down-Megalinks-Piracy-Sub
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TSOzu8xxu0g/
content:
<p><a href="media/af6fa99d.redditp.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png"><img src="media/35045417.redditp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png" alt="" width="250" height="186" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125451" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp.png 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/redditp-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px"></a>Without doubt, Reddit is one of the most popular sites on the entire Internet. At the time of writing it&#8217;s the fourth most visited site in the US with 330 million users per month generating 14 billion screenviews.</p>
<p>The core of the site&#8217;s success is its communities. Known as &#8216;sub-Reddits&#8217; or just &#8216;subs&#8217;, there are currently 138,000 of them dedicated to every single subject you can think of and tens of thousands you&#8217;d never considered.</p>
<p>Even though they&#8217;re technically forbidden, a small but significant number are dedicated to piracy, offering links to copyright-infringing content hosted elsewhere. One of the most popular is <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/megalinks/">/r/megalinks</a>, which is dedicated to listing infringing content (mainly movies and TV shows) uploaded to file-hosting site Mega.</p>
<p>Considering its activities, Megalinks has managed to stay online longer than most people imagined but following an intervention from Reddit, the content indexing sub has stopped accepting new submissions, which will effectively shut it down.</p>
<p>In an announcement Sunday, the sub&#8217;s moderators explained that following a direct warning from Reddit&#8217;s administrators, the decision had been taken to move on.</p>
<p>&#8220;As most of you know by now, we&#8217;ve had to deal with a lot of DMCA takedowns over the last 6 months. Everyone knew this day would come, eventually, and its finally here,&#8221; they wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;We received a formal warning from Reddit&#8217;s administration 2 days ago, and have decided to restrict new submissions for the safety of the subreddit.&#8221;</p>
<p>The message from Reddit&#8217;s operators makes it absolutely clear that Reddit isn&#8217;t the platform to host what amounts to a piracy links forum.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is an official warning from Reddit that we are receiving too many copyright infringement notices about material posted to your community. We will be required to ban this community if you can&#8217;t adequately address the problem,&#8221; the warning reads.</p>
<p>Noting that Redditors aren&#8217;t allowed to post content that infringes copyrights, the administrators say they are required by law to handle DMCA notices and that in cases where infringement happens on multiple occasions, that needs to be handled in a more aggressive manner.</p>
<p>&#8220;The law also requires us to issue bans in cases of repeat infringement. Sometimes a repeat infringement problem is limited to just one user and we ban just that person. Other times the problem pervades a whole community and we ban the community,&#8221; the admins continue.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is our formal warning about repeat infringement in this community. Over the past three months we&#8217;ve had to remove material from the community in response to copyright notices 60 times. That&#8217;s an unusually high number taking into account the community&#8217;s size.</p>
<p>The <a href="media/d72a6f0a.r3cRlBI.png" data-original-source="https://i.imgur.com/r3cRlBI.png">warning</a> suggests ways to keep infringing content down but in a sub dedicated to piracy, they&#8217;re all completely irrelevant. It also suggests removing old posts to ensure that Reddit doesn&#8217;t keep getting notices, but that would mean deleting pretty much everything. Backups <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/megalinks/comments/8b6xws/archive_full_archive_of_rmegalinks_300_mb/">exist</a> but a simple file is a poor substitute for a community.</p>
<p>So, with Reddit warning that without change the sub will be banned, the moderators of /r/megalinks have decided to move on to a new home. Reportedly hosted &#8216;offshore&#8217;, their <a href="https://forum.snahp.it/">new forum</a> already has more than 9,800 members and is likely to grow quickly as the word spreads. </p>
<p>A month ago, the /r/megaporn sub-Reddit suffered a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/megaporn/comments/82ltsr/end_of_megaporn_impending_ban_our_new_forums/">similar fate</a> following a warning from Reddit&#8217;s admins. It successfully launched a new external forum which is why the Megalinks crew decided on the same model.</p>
<p>&#8220;[A]fter seeing how /r/megaporn approached the same situation, we had started working on an offshore forum a week ago in anticipation of the ban. This allows us to work however we want, without having to deal with Reddit&#8217;s policies and administration,&#8221; the team explain.</p>
<p>Ever since the BMG v Cox case went <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">bad ways</a> for the ISP in 2015, repeat infringer policies have become a very hot topic in the US. That Reddit is now drawing a line in the sand over a relatively small number of complaints (at least compared to other similar platforms) is clear notice that Reddit and blatant piracy won&#8217;t be allowed to walk hand in hand.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155077
title: US Calls Out Dozens of Countries on Yearly ‘Piracy Watchlist’
uri: US-Calls-Out-Dozens-of-Countries-on-Yearly-Piracy-Watchlist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FoMlE52gTos/
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 <a href="https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2018/april/ustr-releases-2018-special-301-report">Special 301 Report</a> highlighting countries that aren&#8217;t doing enough to protect US 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 deals with a wide range of issues including several problems linked to online piracy. One of the things which stand out, is that the USTR does a fair bit of copying itself, albeit with permission.</p>
<p>Entire sections of the report, including the recommendations and country overviews, are identical to last year. In some cases, the US Government didn&#8217;t even bother to update the year.</p>
<p>&#8220;The 2017 Notorious Markets List includes examples of online marketplaces reportedly engaging in commercial-scale online piracy, including sites hosted in or operated by parties located in Canada, China, Cyprus, India, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzerland, Ukraine, and elsewhere,&#8221; USTR writes, for example.</p>
<p>Most of the concrete piracy related problems mentioned in the report are in line with the talking points the entertainment industries have addressed in recent years. This includes stream-ripping, illicit streaming devices, and general pirate sites.</p>
<p>The USTR also mentions the increase in camcording piracy in Russia, which the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/camcording-piracy-is-dropping-but-not-in-russia-180311/">MPAA reported</a> a few months ago. In addition to a &#8220;lack of enforcement against intellectual property crimes&#8221; this one of the reasons why Russia remains on the Priority Watch List in 2018.</p>
<p>For Canada, there is bad news as well. While the country has been on USTR&#8217;s radar for many years, it has had been moved to the Priority Watch List in 2018, making it the only G7 country among the worst offenders.</p>
<p>&#8220;Canada remains the only G7 country identified in the Special 301 Report and the downgrade to the Priority Watch List this year reflects a failure to resolve key longstanding deficiencies in protection and enforcement of IP,&#8221; USTR writes.</p>
<p>Among other things, the US sees Canada&#8217;s copyright exception for educational purposes as a grave concern. </p>
<p>&#8220;The United States also remains deeply troubled by the ambiguous education-related exception to copyright that has significantly damaged the market for educational publishers and authors,&#8221; USTR writes. </p>
<p>Whether this is a major concern for the Canadian authorities remains to be seen. Canada previously said that it doesn&#8217;t trust the validity of the Special 301 Report and that the country will follow its own path, a sentiment that it shared elsewhere too.</p>
<p>“Canada does not recognize the validity of the Special 301 and considers the process and the Report to be flawed,” Canada&#8217;s Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-rejects-flawed-and-one-sided-piracy-claims-from-us-govt-170310/">wrote in a memo</a>, responding to an earlier 301 report.</p>
<p>Switzerland also remains on notice with a feature on the Watch List. Just a few months ago, the European country urged the USTR to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/switzerland-hopes-new-law-will-keep-it-off-us-pirate-watchlist-180228/">keep it off the list</a>, as its new copyright law addresses the major concerns the US highlighted in the previous year.</p>
<p>However, since the proposed law has yet to be signed into law, Switzerland will keep its spot for now. The USTR also adds that the country may want to consider consumer awareness campaigns, public education, and voluntary stakeholder initiatives to further deter piracy. </p>
<p>The USTR&#8217;s full 301 Watch List and Priority Watch List are listed below and the associated report is available <a href="media/f0655ba6.2018-Special-301.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2018-Special-301.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Priority Watch List<br>
&#8211; China<br>
&#8211; Indonesia<br>
&#8211; India<br>
&#8211; Algeria<br>
&#8211; Kuwait<br>
&#8211; Russia<br>
&#8211; Ukraine<br>
&#8211; Argentina<br>
&#8211; Canada<br>
&#8211; Chile<br>
&#8211; Colombia<br>
&#8211; Venezuela</p>
<p>Watch List<br>
&#8211; Thailand<br>
&#8211; Vietnam<br>
&#8211; Pakistan<br>
&#8211; Tajikistan<br>
&#8211; Turkmenistan<br>
&#8211; Uzbekistan<br>
&#8211; Egypt<br>
&#8211; Lebanon<br>
&#8211; Saudi Arabia<br>
&#8211; UAE<br>
&#8211; Greece<br>
&#8211; Romania<br>
&#8211; Switzerland<br>
&#8211; Turkey<br>
&#8211; Mexico<br>
&#8211; Costa Rica</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154636
title: Danish Traffic to Pirate Sites Increases 67% in Just a Year
uri: Danish-Traffic-to-Pirate-Sites-Increases-67-in-Just-a-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LZv597IuNwI/
content:
<p><a href="media/27b7aac2.goingup.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/goingup.jpg"><img src="media/08fcafae.goingup.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/goingup.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-82304"></a>For close to 20 years, rightsholders have tried to stem the tide of mainstream Internet piracy. Yet despite increasingly powerful enforcement tools, infringement continues on a grand scale.</p>
<p>While the problem is global, rightsholder groups often zoom in on their home turf, to see how the fight is progressing locally. Covering Denmark, the Rights Alliance Data Report 2017 paints a fairly pessimistic picture.</p>
<p>Published this week, the industry study &#8211; which uses SimilarWeb and MarkMonitor data &#8211; finds that Danes visited 2,000 leading pirate sites 596 million times in 2017. That represents a 67% increase over the 356 million visits to unlicensed platforms made by citizens during 2016.</p>
<p>The report notes that, at least in part, this explosive growth can be attributed to mobile-compatible sites and services, which make it easier than ever to consume illicit content on the move, as well as at home. </p>
<p>In a sea of unauthorized streaming sites, Rights Alliance highlights one platform above all the others as a particularly bad influence in 2017 &#8211; 123movies (also known as GoMovies and GoStream, among others).</p>
<p>&#8220;The popularity of this service rose sharply in 2017 from 40 million visits in 2016 to 175 million visits in 2017 &#8211; an increase of 337 percent, of which most of the traffic originates from mobile devices,&#8221; the report notes.</p>
<p>123movies recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-streaming-giant-123movies-announces-shutdown-180319/">announced its closure</a> but before that the platform was subjected to web-blocking in several jurisdictions.</p>
<p>Rights Alliance says that Denmark has one of the most effective blocking systems in the world but that still doesn&#8217;t stop huge numbers of people from consuming pirate content from sites that aren&#8217;t yet blocked.</p>
<p>&#8220;Traffic to infringing sites is overwhelming, and therefore blocking a few sites merely takes the top of the illegal activities,&#8221; Rights Alliance chief Maria Fredenslund informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blocking is effective by stopping 75% of traffic to blocked sites but certainly, an upscaled effort is necessary.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rights Alliance also views the promotion of legal services as crucial to its anti-piracy strategy so when people visit a blocked site, they&#8217;re also directed towards legitimate platforms.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is why we are working at the moment with Denmark&#8217;s Ministry of Culture and ISPs on a campaign &#8216;Share With Care 2&#8242; which promotes legal services e.g. by offering a search function for legal services which will be placed in combination with the signs that are put on blocked websites,&#8221; the anti-piracy group notes.</p>
<p>But even with such measures in place, the thirst for unlicensed content is great. In 2017 alone, 500 of the most popular films and TV shows were downloaded from P2P networks like BitTorrent more than 15 million times from Danish IP addresses, that&#8217;s up from 11.9 million in 2016.</p>
<p>Given the dramatic rise in visits to pirate sites overall, the suggestion is that plenty of consumers are still getting through. Rights Alliance says that the number of people being restricted is also hampered by people who don&#8217;t use their ISP&#8217;s DNS service, which is the method used to block sites in Denmark.</p>
<p>Additionally, interest in VPNs and similar anonymization and bypass-capable technologies is on the increase. Between 3.5% and 5% of Danish Internet users currently use a VPN, a number that&#8217;s expected to go up. Furthermore, Rights Alliance reports greater interest in &#8220;closed&#8221; pirate communities.</p>
<p>&#8220;The data is based on closed [BitTorrent] networks. We also address the challenges with private communities on Facebook and other [social media] platforms,&#8221; Fredenslund explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Due to the closed doors of these platforms it is not possible for us to say anything precisely about the amount of infringing activities there. However, we receive an increasing number of notices from our members who discover that their products are distributed illegally and also we do an increased monitoring of these platforms.&#8221; </p>
<p>But while more established technologies such as torrents and regular web-streaming continue in considerable volumes, newer IPTV-style services accessible via apps and dedicated platforms are also gaining traction.</p>
<p>&#8220;The volume of visitors to these services&#8217; websites has been sharply rising in 2017 &#8211; an increase of 84 percent from January to December,&#8221; Rights Alliance notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Even though the number of visitors does not say anything about actual consumption, as users usually only visit pages one time to download the program, the number gives an indication that the interest in IPTV is increasing.&#8221;</p>
<p>To combat this growth market, Rights Alliance says it wants to establish web-blockades against sites hosting the software applications.</p>
<p>Also on the up are visits to platforms offering live sports illegally. In 2017, Danish IP addresses made 2.96 million visits to these services, corresponding to almost 250,000 visits per month and representing an annual increase of 28%.  </p>
<p>Rights Alliance informs TF that in future a &#8216;live&#8217; blocking mechanism similar to the one used by the Premier League in the UK could be deployed in Denmark.</p>
<p>&#8220;We already have a dynamic blocking system, and we see an increasing demand for illegal TV products, so this could be a natural next step,&#8221; Fredenslund explains.</p>
<p>Another small but perhaps significant detail is how users are accessing pirate sites. According to the report, large volumes of people are now visiting platforms directly, with more than 50% doing so in preference to referrals from search engines such as Google.</p>
<p>In terms of deterrence, the Rights Alliance report sticks to the tried-and-tested approaches seen so often in the anti-piracy arena.</p>
<p>Firstly, the group notes that it&#8217;s increasingly encountering people who are paying for legal services such as Netflix and Spotify so believe that allows them to grab something extra from a pirate site. However, in common with similar organizations globally, the group counters that pirate sites can serve malware or have other nefarious business interests behind the scenes, so people should stay away.</p>
<p>Whether significant volumes will heed this advice will remain to be seen but if a 67% increase last year is any predictor of the future, piracy is here to stay &#8211; and then some. Rights Alliance says it is ready for the challenge but will need some assistance to achieve its goals.</p>
<p>&#8220;As it is evident from the traffic data, criminal activities are not something that we, private companies (right holders in cooperation with ISPs), can handle alone,&#8221; Fredenslund says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore, we are very pleased that DK Government recently announced that the IP taskforce which was set down as a trial period has now been made permanent. In that regard it is important and necessary that the police will also obtain the authority to handle blocking of massively infringing websites. Police do not have the authority to carry out blocking as it is today.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full report is available here <em>(Danish, <a href="media/9be28991.RettighedsAlliancens-datarapport-2017.pdf" data-original-source="http://rettighedsalliancen.dk/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/RettighedsAlliancens-datarapport-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="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155060
title: Cloudflare and RIAA Agree on Tailored Site Blocking Process
uri: Cloudflare-and-RIAA-Agree-on-Tailored-Site-Blocking-Process
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UQoiI_hGRq8/
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">Representing various major record labels, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against pirate site MP3Skull three years ago.</p>
<p>With millions of visitors per month, the MP3 download portal had been one of the prime sources of pirated music for a long time.</p>
<p>In 2016, the record labels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-wins-22-million-piracy-lawsuit-against-mp3skull-160225/">won their case </a>, but the site initially ignored the court order and continued to operate. This prompted the RIAA to go after third-party services including Cloudflare, demanding that they block associated domain names.</p>
<p>Cloudflare objected and argued that the DMCA shielded the company from the broad blocking requirements. However, the court ruled that the DMCA doesn&#8217;t apply in this case, opening the door to widespread anti-piracy filtering.</p>
<p>The court stressed that, before issuing an injunction against Cloudflare, it still had to be determined whether the CDN provider is “in active concert or participation” with the pirate site. This has yet to happen. Since MP3Skull has ceased its operations, the RIAA has shown little interest in pursuing the matter any further.</p>
<p>While there is no longer an immediate site blocking threat, the order opened the door to similar blocking requests in the future. Cloudflare, therefore, asked the court to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-asks-court-to-vacate-moot-pirate-site-blocking-order-170724/">throw the order out</a>, arguing that since MP3Skull is no longer available the issue is moot.</p>
<p>A month ago, US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke denied that request, urging the parties to go back to the negotiating table and find a solution both sides can live with. </p>
<p>In short, the solution that Cloudflare and the RIAA agreed on is that the record labels can file an emergency motion requiring the CDN provider to block new domain names of MP3Skull, if the site resurfaces. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs may request in such an amendment a specific direction to Cloudflare to cease providing services to websites at specified domains without needing to show that Cloudflare is in active concert or participation with the Defendants with respect to such services,&#8221; the order reads. </p>
<p>The RIAA must inform Cloudflare in advance if it plans to file such a request, which then has the option to respond. If there are no objections, the CDN provider is required to take action within 24 hours, or a full business day, whichever is longer.</p>
<p>This is essentially what the RIAA was after, but Cloudflare was sure to make it clear that the ruling does not mean that they are seen as operating “in active concert or participation” with the pirate site.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the sake of clarity, the Court&#8217;s direction to Cloudflare [&#8230;] is not a finding that Cloudflare is &#8216;in active concert or participation&#8217; with Defendants as provided in Rule 65(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>This means that the order, as with the previous injunction, leaves many options open and questions unanswered. It is specifically tailored to one site, without setting in stone how similar cases will be dealt with in the future. </p>
<p>But considering the recent pressure from rightsholders on Cloudflare, it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if this battle is renewed in a new arena in the future.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, MP3Skull, the site which got this all started, hasn&#8217;t been seen online for over a year.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke&#8217;s order is <a href="media/1b053221.cloudf.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cloudf.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155124
title: Pirate IPTV Blocking Case is No Slam Dunk Says Federal Court Judge
uri: Pirate-IPTV-Blocking-Case-is-No-Slam-Dunk-Says-Federal-Court-Judge
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/D-eTF_MVHh8/
content:
<p><a href="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg"><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034"></a>Last year, Hong Kong-based broadcaster Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) applied for a blocking injunction against several unauthorized IPTV services.</p>
<p>Under the Copyright Act, the broadcaster asked the Federal Court to order ISPs including Telstra, Optus, Vocus, and TPG plus their subsidiaries to block access to seven Android-based services named as A1, BlueTV, EVPAD, FunTV, MoonBox, Unblock, and hTV5.</p>
<p>Unlike torrent site and streaming portal blocks granted earlier, it soon became clear that this case would present unique difficulties. TVB not only wants Internet locations (URLs, domains, IP addresses) related to the technical operation of the services blocked, but also hosting services akin to Google Play and Apple’s App Store that host the app.</p>
<p>Furthermore, it is far from clear whether China-focused live programming is eligible for copyright protection in Australia. If China had been a party to the 1961 Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations, it would receive protection. As it stands, it does not.</p>
<p>That causes complications in respect of Section 115a of the Copyright Act which allows rightsholders to apply for an injunction to have &#8220;overseas online locations&#8221; blocked if they facilitate access to copyrighted content. Furthermore, the section requires that the &#8220;primary purpose&#8221; of the location is to infringe copyrights recognized in Australia. If it does not, then there&#8217;s no blocking option available.</p>
<p>“If most of what is occurring here is a reproduction of broadcasts that are not protected by copyright, then the primary purpose is not to facilitate copyright infringement,” Justice Nicholas <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tv-broadcaster-wants-app-stores-blocked-to-prevent-piracy-180416/">said</a> in April.</p>
<p>This morning TVB returned to Federal Court for a scheduled hearing. The ISPs were a no-show again, leaving the broadcaster&#8217;s legal team to battle it out with Justice Nicholas alone. According to details published by <a href="https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/640707/hong-kong-tv-broadcaster-piracy-fight-falters/">ComputerWorld</a>, he isn&#8217;t making it easy for the overseas company.</p>
<p>The Judge put it to TVB that “the purpose of this system [the set-top boxes] is to make available a broadcast that’s not copyright protected in this country, in this country,” he said.</p>
<p>“If 10 per cent of the content was infringing content, how could you say the primary purpose is infringing copyright?” the Judge asked.</p>
<p>But despite the Judge&#8217;s reservations, TVB believes that the pirate IPTV services clearly infringe its rights, since alongside live programming, the devices also reproduce TVB movies which do receive protection in Australia. However, the company is also getting creative in an effort to sidestep the &#8216;live TV&#8217; conundrum.</p>
<p>TVB counsel Julian Cooke told the Court that live TVB broadcasts are first reproduced on foreign servers from where they are communicated to set-top devices in Australia with a delay of between one and four minutes. This is a common feature of all pirate IPTV services which potentially calls into question the nature of the &#8216;live&#8217; broadcasts. The same servers also carry recorded content too, he argued.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because the way the system is set up, it compounds itself &#8230; in a number of instances, a particular domain name, which we refer to as the portal target domain name, allows a communication path not just to live TV, but it&#8217;s also the communication path to other applications such as replay and video on demand,&#8221; Cooke said, as quoted by <a href="https://www.zdnet.com/article/chinese-media-giant-cites-247-copyright-infringement-in-site-block-hearing/">ZDNet</a>.</p>
<p>Cooke told the Court that he wasn&#8217;t sure whether the threshold for &#8220;primary purpose&#8221; was set at 50% of infringing content but noted that the majority of the content available through the boxes is infringing and the nature of the servers is even more pronounced.</p>
<p>&#8220;It compounds the submission that the primary purpose of the online location which is the facilitating server is to facilitate the infringement of copyright using that communication path,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>As TF predicted in our earlier coverage, TVB today got creative by highlighting other content that it does receive copyright protection for in Australia. Previously in the UK, the Premier League successfully stated that it owns copyright in the logos presented in a live broadcast.</p>
<p>This morning, Cooke told the court that TVB &#8220;literary works&#8221; &#8211; scripts used on news shows and subtitling services &#8211; receive copyright protection in Australia so urged the Court to consider the full package.</p>
<p>&#8220;If one had concerns about live TV, one shouldn&#8217;t based on the analysis we&#8217;ve done &#8230; if one adds that live TV infringements together with video on demand together with replay, there could be no doubt that the primary purpose of the online locations is to infringe copyright,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Due to the apparent complexity of the case, Justice Nicholas reserved his decision, telling TVB that his ruling could take a couple of months after receiving his &#8220;close attention.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last week, Village Roadshow and several major Hollywood studios <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-federal-court-orders-isps-to-block-pirate-iptv-service-180427/">won a blocking injunction</a> against a different pirate IPTV service. HD Subs Plus delivers around 600 live premium channels plus hundreds of movies on demand, but the service will now be blocked by ISPs across Australia.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155135
title: Epic Settles With Copyright Infringing Fortnight Cheater, PUBG Cheaters Arrested
uri: Epic-Settles-With-Copyright-Infringing-Fortnight-Cheater-PUBG-Cheater
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xExUBFe8hWA/
content:
<p><img src="media/56a4e275.battlefortnite.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/battlefortnite.jpg" alt="" width="267" height="212" class="alignright size-full wp-image-145747">Last year, Epic Games released Fortnite’s free-to-play “Battle Royale” game mode, generating massive interest among gamers.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, not all players stick to the rules. Thousands of people are trying to gain an advantage through cheats, ruining the game for those who play fair.</p>
<p>The same is true for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG), which predates Fortnite and shares many of the same characteristics. While the games are very much alike, the same can&#8217;t be said for the way cheaters are treated. </p>
<p>Over the past month, Epic Games has filed lawsuits against several people who violated the company&#8217;s copyrights, by creating, promoting &#8211; and in some cases &#8211; selling cheats. While copyright infringement cases can easily bankrupt defendants, that&#8217;s not what Epic is after. </p>
<p>This week the company signed another &#8216;settlement.&#8217; This time with Joseph Sperry, a.k.a. “Spoezy,” in a North Carolina federal court. Sperry, who stood accused of creating and selling cheats, admitted to the copyright infringement allegations and signed a consent judgment.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant directly infringed Epic’s copyrights in Fortnite. Defendant used the cheats. His use of the cheats created unauthorized derivative works of Epic’s copyright protected Fortnite code that are substantially similar to Epic’s copyrighted work,&#8221; the judgment reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to creating and using the cheats, Defendant promoted, marketed, and sold these cheats to third parties, and actively encouraged and induced these other cheaters to purchase and use the cheats to gain an unfair advantage in Fortnite.&#8221;</p>
<p>The order includes an injunction which bars Sperry from cheating or promoting cheats in the future, but it doesn&#8217;t list any damages. Only if Sperry breaks the agreement will he be required to pay $5,000.</p>
<p>From the various Fortnite settlements we&#8217;ve seen to date, it&#8217;s clear that Epic Games is not after money. Its main goal is to stop the cheating and to hold cheaters accountable, but the company doesn&#8217;t go any further, for now.</p>
<p>This is quite a large contrast between several enforcement actions that were taken against alleged PUBG cheaters in China a few days ago. </p>
<p>Although there were no specific copyright infringement charges mentioned, Chinese authorities reported that fifteen people were arrested in connection with PUBG cheating.</p>
<p>&#8220;15 major suspects including &#8216;OMG&#8217;, &#8216;FL&#8217;, &#8216;火狐&#8217;, &#8216;须弥&#8217; and &#8216;炎黄&#8217; were arrested for developing hack programs, hosting marketplaces for hack programs, and brokering transactions. Currently the suspects have been fined approximately 30mil RNB ($5.1mil USD),&#8221; a statement reads.</p>
<p>PlayerUnknown <a href="https://steamcommunity.com/games/578080/announcements/detail/1651009712401016828">shared the developments</a> late last week and added that it will continue to crack down on those who continue to cheat.</p>
<p>&#8220;We take cheating extremely seriously. Developing, selling, promoting, or using unauthorized hacking/cheating programs isn’t just unfair for others playing PUBG—in many places, it’s also against the law,&#8221; the company said, commenting on the news.</p>
<p>Without further details, it&#8217;s hard to compare the Chinese cheating &#8216;operations&#8217; to the Fortnite cases. However, Epic&#8217;s moderate approach clearly differs from the Chinese crackdown against PUBG cheaters.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the consent judgment against Sperry is available <a href="media/566c6ea8.settlement.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/settlement.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155096
title: Sci-Hub ‘Pirate Bay For Science’ Security Certs Revoked by Comodo
uri: Sci-Hub-Pirate-Bay-For-Science-Security-Certs-Revoked-by-Comodo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gVqOLWS8MO0/
content:
<p><a href="media/a8c0f087.scilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/scilogo.jpg"><img src="media/398ad51b.scilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/scilogo.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-118526"></a>Sci-Hub is often referred to as the “Pirate Bay of Science”. Like its namesake, it offers masses of unlicensed content for free, mostly against the wishes of copyright holders.</p>
<p>While The Pirate Bay will index almost anything, Sci-Hub is dedicated to distributing tens of millions of academic papers and articles, something which has turned itself into a target for publishing giants <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/elsevier-wants-15-million-piracy-damages-from-sci-hub-and-libgen-170518/">like Elsevier</a>.</p>
<p>Sci-Hub and its Kazakhstan-born founder Alexandra Elbakyan have been under sustained attack for several years but more recently have been fending off an unprecedented barrage of legal action initiated by the American Chemical Society (ACS), a leading source of academic publications in the field of chemistry.</p>
<p>After winning a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-court-grants-isps-and-search-engine-blockade-of-sci-hub-171106/">default judgment</a> for $4.8 million in copyright infringement damages last year, ACS was further granted a broad injunction.</p>
<p>It <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-court-grants-isps-and-search-engine-blockade-of-sci-hub-171106/">required</a> various third-party services (including domain registries, hosting companies and search engines) to stop facilitating access to the site. This plunged Sci-Hub  into a game of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-battles-pirate-bay-esque-domain-name-whack-a-mole-171216/">domain whac-a-mole</a>, one that continues to this day.</p>
<p>Determined to head Sci-Hub off at the pass, ACS obtained <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/publisher-gets-carte-blanche-to-seize-new-sci-hub-domains-180410/">additional authority</a> to tackle the evasive site and any new domains it may register in the future.</p>
<p>While Sci-Hub has been hopping around domains for a while, this week a new development appeared on the horizon. Visitors to some of the site&#8217;s domains were greeted with errors indicating that the domains&#8217; security certificates had been revoked.</p>
<p>Tests conducted by TorrentFreak revealed clear revocations on Sci-Hub.hk and Sci-Hub.nz, both of which returned the error &#8216;NET::ERR_CERT_REVOKED&#8217;.</p>
<p><center><strong>Certificate revoked</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/a28db3bb.sc-hub-cert-hk-e1525180471452.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sc-hub-cert-hk-e1525180471452.png"><img src="media/a28db3bb.sc-hub-cert-hk-e1525180471452.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sc-hub-cert-hk-e1525180471452.png" alt="" width="600" height="351" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155103"></a></center></p>
<p>These certificates were first issued and then revoked by Comodo CA, the world&#8217;s largest certification authority. TF contacted the company who confirmed that it had been forced to take action against Sci-Hub.</p>
<p>&#8220;In response to a court order against Sci-Hub, Comodo CA has revoked four certificates for the site,&#8221; Jonathan Skinner, Director, Global Channel Programs at Comodo CA informed TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;By policy Comodo CA obeys court orders and the law to the full extent of its ability.&#8221;</p>
<p>Comodo refused to confirm any additional details, including whether these revocations were anything to do with the current ACS injunction. However, Susan R. Morrissey, Assistant Managing Editor at ACS, told TorrentFreak that the revocations were indeed part of ACS&#8217; legal action against Sci-Hub.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he action is related to our continuing efforts to protect ACS’ intellectual property,&#8221; Morrissey confirmed.</p>
<p>Sci-Hub operates multiple domains (an up-to-date list is usually available on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sci-Hub">Wikipedia</a>) that can be switched at any time. At the time of writing the domain sci-hub.ga currently returns &#8216;ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH&#8217; while .CN and .GS variants both have Comodo certificates that expired last year.</p>
<p>When TF first approached Comodo earlier this week, Sci-Hub&#8217;s certificates with the company hadn&#8217;t been completely wiped out. For example, the domain https://sci-hub.tw operated perfectly, with an active and non-revoked Comodo certificate.</p>
<p><center><strong>Still in the game&#8230;but not for long</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/564ee5ab.sc-hub-cert-tw-comodo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sc-hub-cert-tw-comodo.png"><img src="media/a0a4336c.sc-hub-cert-tw-comodo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sc-hub-cert-tw-comodo.png" alt="" width="464" height="616" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155104"></a></center></p>
<p>By Wednesday, however, the domain was returning the now-familiar &#8220;revoked&#8221; message.</p>
<p>These domain issues are the latest technical problems to hit Sci-Hub as a result of the ACS injunction. In February, Cloudflare <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-terminates-service-to-sci-hub-domain-names-180205/">terminated service</a> to several of the site&#8217;s domains. </p>
<p>“Cloudflare will terminate your service for the following domains sci-hub.la, sci-hub.tv, and sci-hub.tw by disabling our authoritative DNS in 24 hours,&#8221; Cloudflare told Sci-Hub.</p>
<p>While ACS has certainly caused problems for Sci-Hub, the platform is extremely resilient and remains online.</p>
<p>The domains https://sci-hub.is and https://sci-hub.nu are fully operational with certificates issued by <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let&#8217;s Encrypt</a>, a free and open certificate authority supported by the likes of Mozilla, EFF, Chrome, Private Internet Access, and other prominent tech companies.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear whether these certificates will be targeted in the future but Sci-Hub doesn&#8217;t appear to be in the mood to back down.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155129
title: MPAA-Seized Popcorn Time Domain Now Redirects to Pirate Site
uri: MPAA-Seized-Popcorn-Time-Domain-Now-Redirects-to-Pirate-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TMPAVE4nSV4/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">Four years ago Popcorn Time took the Internet by storm.</p>
<p>The software amassed millions of users by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy-to-use Netflix-style interface. </p>
<p>While the original developers shut down their project after a few months, following pressure from Hollywood, others forked the application and took over.</p>
<p>PopcornTime.io swiftly became the main Popcorn Time fork. The spin-off soon had millions of users and updates were pushed out on a regular basis. At the end of 2015, however, this fork also <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-chaos-triggers-more-downtime-151023/">disappeared from the web</a>. </p>
<p>The MPAA took credit for the fall announcing that it had <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">filed a lawsuit</a> against several people in Canada. In response to these legal threats, several key developers backed out.</p>
<p>Soon after, the MPAA also assumed control of the main domain name, ensuring that it could not fall into the wrong hands.</p>
<p>This worked well, initially, but this week we noticed that <a href="http://popcorntime.io">PopcornTime.io</a> is active again. The domain now links to the pirate streaming site Stream.cr, which welcomes its new visitors with a special message. </p>
<p><center><strong>Redirection landing page</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f4aec63a.popcornmpaa-e1525350416352.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornmpaa-e1525350416352.png" alt="" width="575" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155195"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Notice: If you&#8217;re looking for Popcorn Time(App) for it&#8217;s P2P torrent streaming, it&#8217;s over at popcorntime.sh. Otherwise, if you&#8217;re looking for streaming. Welcome to StreamCR!&#8221; a message on the site reads.</p>
<p>This is odd, considering that the PopcornTime.io domain name is still registered to the MPAA. </p>
<p><center><strong>Popcorntime.io Whois</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8292e306.popcornwhois.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornwhois.png" alt="" width="575" height="554" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155196"></center></p>
<p>Adding to the intrigue is the fact that the PopcornTime.io domain registrar is listed as MarkMonitor, which is a well-known brand protection company, often used to prevent domain troubles.</p>
<p>&#8220;Protect your critical assets by partnering with a corporate-only domain registrar who has a strong security culture and is committed to providing the most secure and reliable solution in the industry,&#8221; <a href="https://www.markmonitor.com/solutions/establish-your-brand/domain-management-registration-for-your-domain-portfolios">MarkMonitor writes</a></p>
<p>However, since PopcornTime.io now links to a pirate site, something clearly went wrong. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s hard to say with certainty what happened. A likely option is that the domain&#8217;s nameservers, which point to <a href="https://dnsmadeeasy.com/">DNS Made Easy</a>, were not configured properly and that the people behind Stream.cr used that oversight to redirect the domain to their own site.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to a source unrelated to this case who says he was previously able to redirect traffic from a domain that was seized by the MPAA, simply by adding it to his own DNS Made Easy account. That worked, until the nameservers were updated to MarkMonitor&#8217;s DNS servers.</p>
<p>Whether the fault, in this instance, lies with the MPAA, MarkMonitor, or another party is hard to say without further details.</p>
<p>In any case, the MPAA is not going to be happy with the end result, and neither is MarkMonitor. The Stream.cr operators, meanwhile, are probably celebrating and they can enjoy the free traffic while it lasts.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155175
title: Russia Blocks 50 VPNs & Anonymizers in Telegram Crackdown, Viber Next
uri: Russia-Blocks-50-VPNs-Anonymizers-in-Telegram-Crackdown-Viber-Next
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0WNbIwv3-ME/
content:
<p><a href="media/baf11094.lock-fence.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/lock-fence.jpg"><img src="media/641ec7e8.lock-fence.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lock-fence.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70226"></a>Any entity operating an encrypted messaging service in Russia needs to register with local authorities. They must also hand over their encryption keys when requested to do so, so that users can be monitored.</p>
<p>Messaging giant Telegram refused to give in to Russian pressure. Founder Pavel Durov said that he would not compromise the privacy of Telegram&#8217;s 200m monthly users, despite losing a lawsuit against the Federal Security Service which compelled him to do so. In response, telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor filed a lawsuit to degrade Telegram via web-blocking.</p>
<p>After a Moscow court gave the go-ahead for Telegram to be banned in Russia last month, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russias-encryption-war-1-8m-google-amazon-ips-blocked-to-silence-telegram-180417/">chaos broke out</a>. ISPs around the country tried to block the service, which was using Amazon and Google to provide connectivity. Millions of IP addresses belonging to both companies were blocked and countless other companies and individuals had their services blocked too.</p>
<p>But despite the Russian carpet-bombing of Telegram, the service steadfastly remained online. People had problems accessing the service at times, of course, but their determination coupled with that of Telegram and other facilitators largely kept communications flowing.</p>
<p>Part of the huge counter-offensive was mounted by various VPN and anonymizer services that allowed people to bypass ISP blocks. However, they too have found themselves in trouble, with Russian authorities blocking them for facilitating access to Telegram. In an announcement Thursday, the telecoms watchdog revealed the scale of the crackdown.</p>
<p>Deputy Head of Roskomnadzor told <a href="http://tass.com/economy/1002762">TASS</a> that dozens of VPNs and similar services had been blocked while hinting at yet more to come.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fifty for the time being,&#8221; Subbotin said.</p>
<p>With VPN providers taking a hit on behalf of Telegram, there could be yet more chaos looming on the horizon. It&#8217;s feared that other encrypted services, which have also failed to hand over their keys to the FSB, could be targeted next.</p>
<p>Ministry of Communications chief Nikolai Nikiforov told reporters this week that if Viber doesn&#8217;t fall into line, it could suffer the same fate as Telegram.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a matter for the Federal Security Service, because the authority with regard to such specific issues in the execution of the order for the provision of encryption keys is the authority of the FSB,&#8221; Nikiforov <a href="http://tass.ru/obschestvo/5173256">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;If they have problems with the provision of encryption keys, they can also apply to the court and obtain a similar court decision,&#8221; the minister said, responding to questions about the Japanese-owned, Luxembourg-based communications app.</p>
<p>With plenty of chaos apparent online, there are also reports of problems from within Roscomnadzor itself. For the past several days, rumors have been circulating in Russian media that Roskomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov has resigned, perhaps in response to the huge over-blocking that took place when Telegram was targeted.</p>
<p>When questioned by reporters this week, Ministry of Communications chief Nikolai Nikiforov refused to provide any further information, stating that such a matter would be for the prime minister to handle.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would not like to comment on this. If the chairman of the government takes this decision, I recall that the heads of services are appointed by the decision of the prime minister and personnel decisions are never commented on,&#8221; he <a href="https://ria.ru/society/20180503/1519793699.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Whether Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will make a statement is yet to be seen, but this week his office has been dealing with a blocking &#8211; or rather unblocking &#8211; controversy of its own.</p>
<p>In a public post on Facebook May 1, Duma deputy Natalya Kostenko revealed that she was having problems due to the Telegram blockades.</p>
<p>&#8220;Dear friends, do not write to me on Telegram, I’m not getting your messages. Use other channels to contact me,” Kostenko wrote.</p>
<p>In response, Dmitry Medvedev&#8217;s press secretary, Natalia Timakova, told her colleague to circumvent the blockade so that she could access Telegram once again. </p>
<p>&#8220;Use a VPN! It&#8217;s simple. And it works almost all the time,&#8221; Timakov <a href="https://www.novayagazeta.ru/news/2018/05/02/141390-press-sekretar-medvedeva-posovetovala-deputatu-ustanovit-vpn">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>Until those get blocked too, of course&#8230;..</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155251
title: Cloudflare Fails to Exclude Daily Stormer Evidence From Piracy Trial
uri: Cloudflare-Fails-to-Exclude-Daily-Stormer-Evidence-From-Piracy-Trial
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5_u4BnrgCl4/
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">Last summer Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince decided to terminate the account of controversial neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer.</p>
<p>“I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet,” <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-kicking-daily-stormer-is-bad-news-for-pirate-sites-170817/">he announced</a>.</p>
<p>The company&#8217;s lawyers later explained that the move was meant as an &#8220;intellectual exercise&#8221; to start a conversation regarding censorship and free speech on the internet. However, this discussion went much further than Prince had planned.</p>
<p>For years, Cloudflare had a policy not to remove any accounts without a court order, so when this was exceeded, eyebrows were raised. In particular, copyright holders wondered why the company could terminate this account but not those of the most notorious pirate sites.</p>
<p>This is also why The Daily Stormer removal became an issue in the piracy liability case <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-faces-lawsuit-for-assisting-pirate-sites-160823/">previously filed</a> by adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan. After Cloudflare’s CEO was questioned on the matter, it could be raised before a jury during the trial as well.</p>
<p>Cloudflare didn&#8217;t fancy this prospect. In March, the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-doesnt-want-daily-stormer-evidence-at-piracy-trial-180327/">asked the court</a> to preclude any evidence related to Daily Stormer or other hate groups from the upcoming trial, fearing that it would lead to &#8220;guilt by association.”</p>
<p>“The apparent reason that ALS seeks to offer is not for its probative value but rather for its distracting emotional impact,” Cloudflare argued.</p>
<p>“Given the strong feelings such evidence would almost certainly arouse among members of the jury, this evidence creates an unwarranted and impermissible risk of unfair prejudice to Cloudflare.”</p>
<p>However, California District Court Judge George Wu was not receptive to this argument. Following a hearing on the matter last week the Judge denied the motion, which means that ALS is allowed to use the Daily Stormer case at trial.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Cloudflare&#8217;s motion] to Exclude Evidence Relating to Provision or Termination of Services to Hate Groups is DENIED.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Motion denied</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/294792dd.denied.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denied.png" alt="" width="616" height="142" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155253"></center></p>
<p>In hindsight, Cloudflare&#8217;s decision to disconnect Daily Stormer the way it did might not have been the best option, but t&#8217;s too late now. </p>
<p>According to recent court filings AS and Cloudflare have tried to reach a settlement but thus far that hasn&#8217;t happened. This means that the case will move to the scheduled trial, unless both sides can make peace beforehand.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154625
title: UK Internet Filters Block Disney Sites, Internet Safety Tips, and More
uri: UK-Internet-Filters-Block-Disney-Sites-Internet-Safety-Tips-and-More
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/62Z_OFSjhSQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/98103ffe.blockeduk.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blockeduk.png" alt="" width="277" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155039">Over the past several years we have regularly written about court-ordered blockades of pirate sites in the UK.</p>
<p>Today, we take a closer look at another type of blocking, the Internet safety filters UK ISPs offer. These filters, which are sometimes enabled by default, help subscribers to block harmful content, especially for their children. </p>
<p>With help from the <a href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/">Open Rights Group&#8217;s</a> <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/">Blocked initiative</a>, which documents the scope of various ISP filters, we took a look at how these perform. </p>
<p>The first results are as expected. Many porn sites are blocked and so are sites that are clearly oriented at a mature audience. That&#8217;s more or less what these filters are meant for, so no issues there. </p>
<p>We also noticed that many proxies and VPNs are not accessible. While this may seem broad, as they&#8217;re not offensive, these tools could allow clever sorts to bypass parental controls, so there&#8217;s an argument to be made for their inclusion. </p>
<p>Oddly enough, the Tor browser, which can do the same, is freely accessible. But let&#8217;s not digress.</p>
<p>What really stood out to us is that some sites which are targeted at kids, or at least useful to them, are blocked too. </p>
<p>One prime example is the official UK Disney website, located at disney.co.uk, <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://disney.co.uk">which is blocked</a> by BT&#8217;s Strict filters. That seems a bit cruel. The same is true for disneymoviesanywhere.com, which is not very useful, but certainly doesn&#8217;t seem harmful to us either.</p>
<p>Apparently, BT doesn&#8217;t want children to visit these Disney sites.</p>
<p><center><strong>No Disney</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b45eb657.disneyblock.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/disneyblock.png" alt="" width="555" height="237" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155044"></center></p>
<p>The parental control filters are supposed to make the web a safer place for kids. While this is a laudable aim, the execution is not always perfect. For example, several ISPs including BT, Plusnet and Virgin Media, are blocking the <a href="http://www.internetsafetyday.org/">internetsafetyday.org</a> website.</p>
<p>Admittedly, the site is targeted at parents, but since these will often be behind the same filters, <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://www.internetsafetyday.org">they&#8217;re missing out</a> on some good tips and tricks on how to educate their children.</p>
<p><center><strong>No safety</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b665f6de.safetyblock.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/safetyblock.png" alt="" width="555" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155043"></center></p>
<p>Talking about education. It&#8217;s always good when kids start to experiment with coding at a young age. This is also one of the core messages of the non-profit organization <a href="http://www.kidsandcode.org/">Kidsandcode.org</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone should have the opportunity to learn how to code,&#8221; the site reads. </p>
<p>This makes sense, you&#8217;d think, but for kids who are <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://www.kidsandcode.org">trapped behind the BT Strict or BT Light filters</a>, this is not an option.</p>
<p>What can kids do nowadays then? Play a few simple games? Ideally educational games such as the ones <a href="http://www.playkidsgames.com/">playkidsgames.com</a> offers. As you may have guessed by now, <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://www.playkidsgames.com">that&#8217;s not an option</a> either, at least not behind BT&#8217;s Strict filter.</p>
<p>Maybe kids should stick to more boring stuff. Perhaps finish that school project on Vikings, that should be doable, right? Well, it is, as long as you don&#8217;t look up <a href="http://www.vikingsword.com/">vikingsword.com</a>, a historical and educational side dedicated to Viking swords.</p>
<p>Both <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/site/http://www.vikingsword.com/petersen/">Three and Sky have blocked the site</a>, with Sky explaining that it&#8217;s placed in the &#8220;Weapons, Violence, Gore and Hate&#8221; category. </p>
<p><center><strong>Ancient weapons</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f22384b2.weapons.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/weapons.png" alt="" width="555" height="348" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155042"></center></p>
<p>Perhaps we&#8217;re too insensitive, but I think that most children can handle grainy drawings of swords. After all, the average cartoon is more violent nowadays. </p>
<p>And yes, it&#8217;s true that decades-old Viking swords are weapons, but Three and Sky are not very consistent as the website of today&#8217;s largest weapons manufacturer <a href="http://lockheedmartin.com">Lockheed Martin</a> appears to pass through all parental filters just fine. </p>
<p>Luckily, the Open Rights Group allows us to check for these odd results, and report sites which are inaccurately blocked. Interested in checking if your favorite website is blocked? You can <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/">do so here</a>. Feel free to report any unusual findings in the comments. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Open Rights Group is currently looking for donations and other means of support to keep its Blocked project up and running. More information is <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/support">available here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155180
title: Video Deters People From Pirate Sites…Or Encourages Them to Start One?
uri: Video-Deters-People-From-Pirate-Sites-Or-Encourages-Them-to-Start-On
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JEX3oNyHXOQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/942522df.pirate-mask.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-mask.jpg"><img src="media/15240969.pirate-mask.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-mask.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155182"></a>There are almost as many anti-piracy strategies as there are techniques for downloading.</p>
<p>Litigation and education are probably the two most likely to be seen by the public, who are often directly targeted by the entertainment industries.</p>
<p>Over the years this has led to many campaigns, one of which famously stated that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZm8vNHBSU">piracy is a crime</a> while equating it to the physical theft of a car, a handbag, a television, or a regular movie DVD. It&#8217;s debatable whether these campaigns have made much difference but they have raised awareness and some of the responses <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuxO6CZptck">have been hilarious</a>.</p>
<p>While success remains hard to measure, it hasn&#8217;t stopped these PSAs from being made. The latest efforts come out of Sweden, where the country&#8217;s Patent and Registration Office (<a href="https://www.prv.se">PRV</a>) was commissioned by the government to increase public awareness of copyright and help change attitudes surrounding streaming and illegal downloading.</p>
<p>&#8220;The purpose is, among other things, to reduce the use of illegal streaming sites and make it easier and safer to find and choose legal options,&#8221; PRV says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every year, criminal networks earn millions of dollars from illegal streaming. This money comes from advertising on illegal sites and is used for other criminal activities. The purpose of our film is to inform about this.&#8221;</p>
<p>The series of videos show pirates in their supposed natural habitats of beautiful mansions, packed with luxurious items such as indoor pools, fancy staircases, and stacks of money. For some reason (perhaps to depict anonymity, perhaps to suggest something more sinister) the pirates are all dressed in animal masks, such as this one enjoying his Dodge Viper.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/260904307?title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The clear suggestion here is that people who visit pirate sites and stream unlicensed content are helping to pay for this guy&#8217;s bright green car. The same holds true for his indoor swimming pool, jet bike, and gold chains in the next clip.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/260904753?title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>While some might have a problem with pirates getting rich from their clicks, it can&#8217;t have escaped the targets of these videos that they too are benefiting from the scheme. Granted, hyena-man gets the pool and the Viper, but they get the latest movies. It seems unlikely that pirate streamers refused to watch the copy of Black Panther that leaked onto the web this week (a month before its retail release) on the basis that someone else was getting rich from it.</p>
<p>That being said, most people will probably balk at elements of the full PSA, which suggests that revenue from illegal streaming goes on to fuel other crimes, such as prescription drug offenses. </p>
<p>After reporting piracy cases for more than twelve years, no one at TF has ever seen evidence of this happening with any torrent or streaming site operators. Still, it makes good drama for the full video, embedded below.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/260903529?title=0&#038;byline=0&#038;portrait=0" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>&#8220;In the film we follow a fictional occupational criminal who gives us a tour of his beautiful villa. He proudly shows up his multi-criminal activity, which was made possible by means of advertising money from his illegal streaming services,&#8221; PRV explains.</p>
<p>The dark tone and creepy masks are bound to put some people off but one has to question the effect this kind of video could have on younger people. Do pirates really make mountains of money so huge that they can only be counted by machine? If they do, then it&#8217;s a lot less risky than almost any other crime that yields this claimed level of profit.</p>
<p>With that in mind, will this video deter the public or simply encourage people to get involved for some of that big money? We sent a link to the operator of a large pirate site for his considered opinion.</p>
<p>&#8220;WTF,&#8221; he responded.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155140
title: YouTube Won’t Put Up With Blatant Piracy Tutorials Forever
uri: YouTube-Won-t-Put-Up-With-Blatant-Piracy-Tutorials-Forever
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iMvE6OkwFX4/
content:
<p><a href="media/b9f3b5ba.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg"><img src="media/34e023fb.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196"></a>Once upon a time, Internet users&#8217; voices would be heard in limited circles, on platforms such as Usenet or other niche platforms.</p>
<p>Then, with the rise of forum platforms such as phpBB in 2000 and Invision Power Board in 2002, thriving communities could gather in public to discuss endless specialist topics, including file-sharing of course.</p>
<p>When dedicated piracy forums began to gain traction, it was pretty much a free-for-all. People discussed obtaining free content absolutely openly. Nothing was taboo and no one considered that there would be any repercussions. As such, moderation was limited to keeping troublemakers in check.</p>
<p>As the years progressed and lawsuits against both sites and services became more commonplace, most sites that weren&#8217;t actually serving illegal content began to consider their positions. Run by hobbyists, most didn&#8217;t want the hassle of a multi-million dollar lawsuit, so links to pirate content began to diminish and the more overt piracy tutorials began to disappear underground.</p>
<p>Those that remained in plain sight became much more considered. Tutorials on how to pirate specific Hollywood blockbusters were no longer needed, a plain general tutorial would suffice. And, as communities matured and took time to understand the implications of their actions, those without political motivations realized that drawing attention to potential criminality was neither required nor necessary.</p>
<p>Then YouTube and social media happened and almost overnight, no one was in charge and anyone could say whatever they liked.</p>
<p>In this new reality, there were no irritating moderator-type figures removing links to this and that, and nobody warning people against breaking rules that suddenly didn&#8217;t exist anymore. In essence, previously tight-knit and street-wise file-sharing and piracy communities not only became fragmented, but also chaotic.</p>
<p>This meant that anyone could become a leader and in some cases, this was the utopia that many had hoped for. Not only couldn&#8217;t the record labels or Hollywood tell people what to do anymore, discussion site operators couldn&#8217;t either. For those who didn&#8217;t abuse the power and for those who knew no better, this was a much-needed breath of fresh air. But, like all good things, it was unlikely to last forever.</p>
<p>Where most file-sharing of yesterday was carried out by hobbyist enthusiasts, many of today&#8217;s pirates are far more casual. They&#8217;re just as thirsty for content, but they don&#8217;t want to spend hours hunting for it. They want it all on a plate, at the flick of a switch, delivered to their TV with a minimum of hassle.</p>
<p>With online discussions increasingly seen as laborious and old-fashioned, many mainstream pirates have turned to easy-to-consume videos. In support of their Kodi media player habits, YouTube has become the educational platform of choice for millions.</p>
<p>As a result, there is now a long line of self-declared Kodi piracy specialists scooping up millions of views on YouTube. Their videos &#8211; which in many cases are thinly veiled advertisements for third party addons, Kodi &#8216;builds&#8217;, illegal IPTV services, and obscure Android APKs &#8211; are now the main way for a new generation to obtain direct advice on pirating.</p>
<p>Many of the videos are incredibly blatant, like the past 15 years of litigation never happened. All the lessons learned by the phpBB board operators of yesteryear, of how to achieve their goals of sharing information without getting shut down, have been long forgotten. In their place, a barrage of daily videos designed to generate clicks and affiliate revenue, no matter what the cost, no matter what the risk.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s pretty clear that these videos are at least partly responsible for the phenomenal uptick in Kodi and Android-based piracy over the past few years. In that respect, many lovers of free content will be eternally grateful for the service they&#8217;ve provided. But like many piracy movements over the years, people shouldn&#8217;t get too attached to them, at least in their current form.</p>
<p>Thanks to the devil-may-care approach of many influential YouTubers, it won&#8217;t be long before a whole new set of moderators begin flexing their muscles. While your average phpBB moderator could be reasoned with in order to get a second chance, a determined and largely faceless YouTube will eject offenders without so much as a clear explanation.</p>
<p>When this happens (and it&#8217;s only a question of time given the growing blatancy of many tutorials) YouTubers will not only lose their voices but their revenue streams too. While YouTube&#8217;s partner programs bring in some welcome cash, the profitable affiliate schemes touted on these channels for external products will also be under threat.</p>
<p>Perhaps the most surprising thing in this drama-waiting-to-happen is that many of the most popular YouTubers can hardly be considered young and naive. While some are of more tender years, most &#8211; with their undoubted skill, knowledge and work ethic &#8211; should know better for their 30 or 40 years on this planet. Yet not only do they make their names public, they feature their faces heavily in their videos too. </p>
<p>Still, it&#8217;s likely that it will take some big YouTube accounts to fall before YouTubers respond by shaving the sharp edges off their blatant promotion of illegal activity. And there&#8217;s little doubt that those advertising products (which is most of them) will have to do so sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Just this week, YouTube made it clear that it won&#8217;t tolerate people making money from the promotion of illegal activities.</p>
<p>&#8220;YouTube creators may include paid endorsements as part of their content only if the product or service they are endorsing complies with our advertising policies,&#8221; YouTube <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/education-43956001">told</a> the BBC.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will be working with creators going forward so they better understand that in video promotions [they] must not promote dishonest activity.&#8221;</p>
<p>That being said, like many other players in the piracy and file-sharing space over the past 18 years, YouTubers will eventually begin to learn that not only can the smart survive, they can flourish too.</p>
<p>Sure, there will be people out there who&#8217;ll protest that free speech allows citizens to express themselves in a manner of their choosing. But try PM&#8217;ing that to YouTube in response to a strike, and <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9kgpk5/youtube-is-removing-nootropics-channels">see how that fares</a>.</p>
<p>When they say you&#8217;re done, the road back is a long one.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152819
title: Do You Take Your VPN Security Seriously?
uri: Do-You-Take-Your-VPN-Security-Seriously
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-rEfJg6wD9g/
content:
<p><img src="media/9b13b8a6.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135982">In recent years there has been a massive boom in VPN usage, spurred on by security breaches and privacy leaks.</p>
<p>While prospective VPN users pay a lot of attention to the various policies VPN providers have when it comes to logging or leak protection, the user&#8217;s own responsibility is often entirely ignored. </p>
<p>When there&#8217;s a leak of sorts, such as the common WebRTC, Ipv6, DNS or torrent client leaks, people are quick to point their finger at the VPN provider, even though they could have easily prevented issues themselves. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that a good VPN provider should do everything in its power to prevent leaks. At the very minimum, they should inform users about possible risks. Better yet, they should regularly test for vulnerabilities.</p>
<p>Still, VPN users themselves can also take a more proactive approach. The problem is that many people don&#8217;t take their own VPN security very seriously.</p>
<p>After signing up at a VPN service, many assume that they are perfectly protected. Aside from checking whether their IP-address has changed, they expend very little effort to make sure that this is the case. </p>
<p>What new VPN users should do instead is a series of VPN leak tests. Not just one, but at least a couple. Also, this should be repeated on all devices and in all browsers that are used, just to make sure.</p>
<p>It would also be smart to redo these tests on a regular basis, as devices and applications change. If there are any problems, fix them, with or without help from the VPN provider.</p>
<p>Aside from testing how leak-safe the setup is, VPN users might want to read the documentation and setup guides their VPN service provides. What is the most secure protocol? Does the software have built-in leak protection? What about a kill-switch?</p>
<p>If you use a custom VPN application offered by the provider it may come in with built-in leak protection, but that&#8217;s not always the case. </p>
<p>Also, some providers offer these features but don&#8217;t have them enabled by default, as it may lead to various connectivity issues. Others leave it up to the user to secure their browsers and apps. These are all things that should be taken into account.</p>
<p>If there are any leaks, let your VPN provider know. They should fix them if they can, after all.</p>
<p>Similarly, torrent users should not forget to test if their torrent client is setup correctly, and test for leaks there as well. This is easily overlooked by many.</p>
<p>While checking for leaks is crucial, things get even complicated when it comes to anonymity.</p>
<p>Some people are extremely focused on choosing a &#8220;zero log&#8221; VPN to maintain their privacy, but then use the same VPN to log in to Google, Twitter, Facebook and other services. This links the VPN address to their personal account, creating extensive logs there. And that without mentioning the other privacy-sensitive and tracking data these services collect and store.</p>
<p>While most are not too worried about that, it shows that full privacy or anonymity is hard to accomplish, even if a VPN is secure. </p>
<p>The bottom line is, however, that both VPNs and their users should be vigilant. VPN providers should take responsibility to prevent or warn against possible leaks, but people should remember that a &#8220;zero-log&#8221; VPN really is worthless if the user hasn&#8217;t set it up correctly, or uses it the wrong way. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.doileak.com/">Do I leak</a> offers a comprehensive and independent VPN leak test, but Google should be able to find dozens more.</p>
<p></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155282
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 05/07/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-05-07-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uLenfqMbLr0/
content:
<p><img src="media/0b551ee6.blackpanther.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blackpanther.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155284">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Black Panther, which was released as BluRay rip latest 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-04-30-18/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">Avengers: Infinity War</a> (HDCam) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">9.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwievZ1Tx-8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">Game Night</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxMAdV6s4U">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">Anon</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxMAdV6s4U">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">12 Strong</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Denciie5oA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477536/">Fifty Shades Freed</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4477536/">4.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJCc5HRPxYA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">Pacific Rim: Uprising</a> (Subbed HDrip) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EhiLLOhVis">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">Den of Thieves</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKd_ks0rdAM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSolF3QBVBY">Samson</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSolF3QBVBY">4.2</a> / <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6951892/">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(back)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&#038;t=2s">Thor: Ragnarok </a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&#038;t=2s">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155290
title: Infamous ‘Kodi Box’ Case Sees Man Pay Back Just £1 to the State
uri: Infamous-Kodi-Box-Case-Sees-Man-Pay-Back-Just-1-to-the-State
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1vXR9983OLY/
content:
<p><a href="media/0f2e6b5c.pound.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pound.jpg"><img src="media/212460de.pound.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pound.jpg" alt="" width="247" height="223" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155291"></a>In 2015, Middlesbrough-based shopkeeper Brian ‘Tomo’ Thompson shot into the headlines after being raided by police and Trading Standards in the UK.</p>
<p>Thompson had been selling “fully-loaded” piracy-configured Kodi boxes from his shop but didn&#8217;t think he&#8217;d done anything wrong.</p>
<p>“All I want to know is whether I am doing anything illegal. I know it’s a gray area but I want it in black and white,” he said.</p>
<p>Thompson started out with a particularly brave tone. He insisted he&#8217;d take the case to Crown Court and even to the European Court. His mission was show what was legal and what wasn&#8217;t, he said.</p>
<p>Very quickly, Thompson&#8217;s case took on great importance, with observers everywhere reporting on a potential David versus Goliath copyright battle for the ages. But Thompson’s case wasn&#8217;t straightforward.</p>
<p>The shopkeeper wasn&#8217;t charged with basic “making available” under the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Acts that would have found him guilty under the earlier <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">BREIN v Filmspeler</a> case. Instead, he stood accused of two offenses under section 296ZB of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, which deals with devices and services designed to “circumvent technological measures”. </p>
<p>In the end it was all moot. After entering his official <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-box-seller-enters-not-guilty-plea-landmark-trial/">‘not guilty’ plea</a>, last year Thompson suddenly changed his tune. He accepted the prosecution&#8217;s version of events, throwing himself at the mercy of the court with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-pirate-kodi-box-trial-canceled-after-man-changes-plea-to-guilty-170925/">guilty plea</a>.</p>
<p>In October 2017, Teeside Crown Court heard that Thompson cost Sky around £200,000 in lost subscriptions while the shopkeeper made around £38,500 from selling the devices. But despite the fairly big numbers, Judge Peter Armstrong decided to go reasonably light on the 55-year-old, handing him an 18-month prison term, suspended for two years.</p>
<p>“I’ve come to the conclusion that in all the circumstances an immediate custodial sentence is not called for. But as a warning to others in future, they may not be so lucky,” the Judge <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-kodi-box-seller-handed-a-suspended-prison-sentence-171021/">said</a>.</p>
<p>But things wouldn&#8217;t end there for Thompson.</p>
<p>In the UK, people who make money or obtain assets from criminal activity can be forced to pay back their profits, which are then confiscated by the state under the Proceeds of Crime Act <em>(<a href="media/fecc6ca5.Proceeds20of20Crime.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.cps.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/legal_guidance/Proceeds%20of%20Crime.pdf">pdf</a>)</em>. Almost anything can be taken, from straight cash to cars, jewellery and houses.</p>
<p>However, it appears that whatever cash Thompson earned from Kodi Box activities has long since gone.</p>
<p>During a Proceeds of Crime hearing reported on by <a href="https://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/kodi-box-trader-made-38500-14623427">Gazette Live</a>, the Court heard that Thompson has no assets whatsoever so any confiscation order would have to be a small one.</p>
<p>In the end, Judge Simon Hickey decided that Thompson should forfeit a single pound, an amount that could increase if the businessman got lucky moving forward.</p>
<p>“If anything changes in the future, for instance if you win the lottery, it might come back,” the Judge said.</p>
<p>With that seeming particularly unlikely, perhaps this will be the end for Thompson. Considering the gravity and importance placed on his case, zero jail time and just a £1 to pay back will probably be acceptable to the 55-year-old and also a lesson to the authorities, who have gotten very little out of this expensive case.</p>
<p>Who knows, perhaps they might sum up the outcome using the same eight-letter word that Thompson can be seen half-covering in <a href="media/c0fae4cc.Price-TVs-on-Parliament-Road-who-is-selling-Android-TV-Boxes.jpg" data-original-source="https://i2-prod.gazettelive.co.uk/incoming/article12590623.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/Brian-Thompson-from-Tomos-Cut-Price-TVs-on-Parliament-Road-who-is-selling-Android-TV-Boxes.jpg">this photograph</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155121
title: Judges Refuse to Unmask Alleged Pirates, Citing Privacy Concerns
uri: Judges-Refuse-to-Unmask-Alleged-Pirates-Citing-Privacy-Concerns
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MLA6YlHRG_M/
content:
<p><img src="media/9b13b8a6.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135982">Since the turn of the last decade, numerous people have been sued for illegal file-sharing in US courts.</p>
<p>These cases are generally filed by a small group of rightsholders and this year &#8220;Strike 3 Holdings&#8221; has proven itself to be one of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-online-piracy-lawsuits-skyrocket-in-the-new-year-180211/">the most active litigants</a>. </p>
<p>The company, which distributes its works through various adult websites, has filed cases against hundreds of alleged defendants over the past several months. </p>
<p>As is common in these cases, the copyright holder only knows the defendant by an IP-address. It then asks the courts to grant a subpoena, allowing it to ask Internet providers for the personal details of the alleged offenders, so it can send a settlement request.</p>
<p>In most district courts this established process is usually just a matter of filing boilerplate paperwork but in Minnesota, this didn&#8217;t go as easily as Strike 3 had expected. </p>
<p>Late last month, Magistrate Judge Franklin Noel denied such a discovery motion. As a result, Strike 3 is not allowed to ask the ISP, Comcast in this case, for the personal details of the account holder associated with the IP-address. </p>
<p>According to Judge Noel, these cases present a conflict between the copyright protections of the DMCA on the one hand and the privacy rights of the public as set out in the Communications Act. Here, the scale tips in the favour of the latter.</p>
<p>&#8220;This Court concludes that the conflict between the statutes, DMCA and the Communications Act, compels it to deny Plaintiff’s instant ex parte motion,&#8221; Judge Noel wrote.</p>
<p>This order didn&#8217;t go unnoticed. Last week Magistrate Judge David Schultz cited the ruling in two similar cases, also filed by Strike 3. Again, the subpoena requests were denied to secure the privacy of the alleged BitTorrent pirates. </p>
<p>&#8220;From this Court’s perspective there are obvious tensions between DMCA, the Communications Act, and Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45,&#8221; Schultz&#8217;s orders read.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court is not unsympathetic to Plaintiff’s need to discover the actual identity of the infringer of its copyright; however, the discovery sought by Plaintiff through a Rule 45 subpoena directly collides with federal privacy protections.&#8221; </p>
<p>In the orders, which are all nearly identical, the magistrate judges note that unless there&#8217;s a binding precedent from the Eighth Circuit or further guidance from Congress, they have no other option than to deny these discovery requests.</p>
<p>While this is good news for the defendants in these cases, copyright troll watcher <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2018/04/29/magistrate-judge-finds-that-defendants-privacy-interest-trumps-copyright-trolls-need-to-unmask-an-alleged-infringer-denies-ex-parte-discovery/">&#8216;FCT&#8217; notes</a> that it&#8217;s too early to celebrate. Since issuing these subpoenas is a well-established procedure, the district judge or an appeal court may reverse the denials.</p>
<p>This lack of agreement is also apparent from another ruling that came in right before the weekend, where another Minnesota Magistrate Judge granted a similar subpoena request from Strike 3, witch the caveat that the defendant should be able to proceed anonymously. </p>
<p>That said, if the orders from Magistrate Judges Noel and Schultz stand, it&#8217;s a clear win for the defendants in these cases. While it won&#8217;t stop Strike 3 from continuing it&#8217;s business, at least a few people are spared from receiving settlement demands in the mail. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>The denials are available here (pdf <a href="media/723f01fd.noel.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/noel.pdf">1</a>,<a href="media/aa0a7fe9.schu.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/schu.pdf">2</a>,<a href="media/1b993091.schu2.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/schu2.pdf">3</a>) and the order granting the subpoena can be found <a href="media/e9187e67.thor.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/thor.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155344
title: ISPs Win Landmark Case to Protect Privacy of Alleged Pirates
uri: ISPs-Win-Landmark-Case-to-Protect-Privacy-of-Alleged-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/g-NiM61lCLw/
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>With waves of piracy settlement letters being sent out across the world, the last line of defense for many accused Internet users has been their ISPs.</p>
<p>In a number of regions, notably the United States, Europe, and the UK, most ISPs have given up the fight, handing subscriber details over to copyright trolls with a minimum of resistance. However, there are companies out there prepared to stand up for their customers&#8217; rights, if eventually.</p>
<p>Over in Denmark, Telenor grew tired of tens of thousands of requests for subscriber details filed by a local law firm on behalf of international copyright troll groups. It previously complied with demands to hand over the details of individuals behind 22,000 IP addresses, around 11% of the 200,000 total handled by ISPs in Denmark. But with no end in sight, the ISP dug in its heels.</p>
<p>“We think there is a fundamental legal problem because the courts do not really decide what is most important: the legal security of the public or the law firms’ commercial interests,” Telenor’s Legal Director Mette Eistrøm Krüger <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/danish-isps-stand-up-against-mafia-like-copyright-trolls-170530/">said</a> last year.</p>
<p>Assisted by rival ISP Telia, Telenor subsequently began preparing a case to protect the interests of their customers, refusing in the meantime to comply with disclosure requests in copyright cases. But last October, the District Court <a href="https://www.business.dk/digital/telia-og-telenor-taber-foerste-kamp-mod-trusselsbreve-men-vil-anke">ruled</a> against the telecoms companies, ordering them to provide identities to the copyright trolls.</p>
<p>Undeterred, the companies took their case to the Østre Landsret, one of Denmark&#8217;s two High Courts. Yesterday their determination paid off with a resounding victory for the ISPs and security for the individuals behind approximately 4,000 IP addresses targeted by Copyright Collection Ltd via law firm Njord Law.</p>
<p>&#8220;In its order based on telecommunications legislation, the Court has weighed subscribers&#8217; rights to confidentiality of information regarding their use of the Internet against the interests of rightsholders to obtain information for the purpose of prosecuting claims against the subscribers,&#8221; the Court said in a statement.</p>
<p>Noting that the case raised important questions of European Union law and the European Convention on Human Rights, the High Court said that after due consideration it would overrule the decision of the District Court. The rights of the copyright holders do not trump the individuals right to privacy, it said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The telecommunications companies are therefore not required to disclose the names and addresses of their subscribers,&#8221; the Court ruled.</p>
<p>Telenor welcomed the decision, noting that it had received countless requests from law firms to disclose the identities of thousands of subscribers but had declined to hand them over, a decision that has now been endorsed by the High Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is an important victory for our right to protect our customers&#8217; data,&#8221; said Telenor Denmark&#8217;s Legal Director, Mette Eistrøm Krüger.</p>
<p>&#8220;At Telenor we protect our customers&#8217; data and trust &#8211; therefore it has been our conviction that we cannot be forced into almost automatically submitting personal data on our customers simply to support some private actors who are driven by commercial interests.&#8221; </p>
<p>Noting that it&#8217;s been putting up a fight since 2016 against handing over customers&#8217; data for purposes other than investigating serious crime, Telenor said that the clarity provided by the decision is most welcome.</p>
<p>&#8220;We and other Danish telecom companies are required to log customer data for the police to fight serious crime and terrorism &#8211; but the legislation has just been insufficient in relation to the use of logged data,&#8221; Krüger said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore I am pleased that with this judgment the High Court has stated that customers&#8217; legal certainty is most important in these cases.&#8221;</p>
<p>The decision was also welcomed by Telia Denmark, with Legal Director Lasse Andersen describing the company as being &#8220;really really happy&#8221; with &#8220;a big win.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;It is a victory for our customers and for all telecom companies&#8217; customers,&#8221; Andersen <a href="https://www.business.dk/digital/oestre-landsret-teleselskaber-skal-ikke-udlevere-kundedata">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;They can now feel confident that the data that we collect about them cannot be disclosed for purposes other than the terms under which they are collected as determined by the jurisdiction.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore, anyone and everybody cannot claim our data. We are pleased that throughout the process we have determined that we will not hand over our data to anyone other than the police with a court order,&#8221; Andersen added.</p>
<p>But as the ISPs celebrate, the opposite is true for Njord Law and its copyright troll partners.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is a sad message to the Danish film and television industry that the possibilities for self-investigating illegal file sharing are complicated and that the work must be left to the police&#8217;s scarce resources,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/viden/teleselskaber-kan-ikke-tvinges-til-udlevere-kundedata">said</a> Jeppe Brogaard Clausen of Njord Law.</p>
<p>While the ISPs finally stood up for users in these cases, Telenor in particular wishes to emphasize that supporting the activities of pirates is not its aim. The company says it does not support illegal file-sharing &#8220;in any way&#8221; and is actively working with anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance to prevent unauthorized downloading of movies and other content.</p>
<p>The full decision of the Østre Landsret can be found here <em>(Danish, <a href="media/21663d0c.B2451017.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.domstol.dk/oestrelandsret/nyheder/domsresumeer/Documents/B2451017.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155326
title: RIAA: ISP Profited From Keeping Pirating Customers Aboard
uri: RIAA-ISP-Profited-From-Keeping-Pirating-Customers-Aboard
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YHa-4xk6Ozs/
content:
<p><img src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510">Last year several major record labels, represented by the RIAA, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">filed a lawsuit</a> against ISP Grande Communications accusing it of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>According to the RIAA, the Internet provider knew that some of its subscribers were frequently distributing copyrighted material, but failed to take any meaningful action in response.</p>
<p>Grande refuted the accusations and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The ISP <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-books-partial-victory-against-riaa-in-piracy-lawsuit-180405/">partially succeeded</a> as the claims against its management company Patriot were dropped. The same was true for the vicarious infringement allegations, as the court saw no evidence that the ISP had a direct financial interest in the infringing activity. </p>
<p>While the RIAA could still go after the ISP for contributory copyright infringement, it wants more. A few days ago, the music group submitted a motion for leave to file an amended complaint including new evidence obtained during discovery. </p>
<p>Among other things, the RIAA argues in more detail that Grande willingly kept pirating subscribers abroad, to generate more revenue. According to the complaint, Grande terminated accounts of pirating subscribers in the past, but stopped doing so in 2010. </p>
<p>&#8220;The evidence in this case reveals that, until 2010, Grande actually suspended and may even have terminated known repeat infringing customers,&#8221; reads the amended complaint, filed at a Texas federal court.</p>
<p>&#8220;But then, from 2011 to 2016, Defendants made the conscious decision not to terminate a single Grande subscriber for copyright infringement, regardless of how much proof they received, from any source, of those subscribers blatant, repeat infringement.&#8221; </p>
<p>After the RIAA filed its lawsuit, Grande allegedly started terminating subscribers again, According to the music group, the ISP hereby implicitly acknowledged that it acted unlawfully during the period in between.</p>
<p>The new complaint claims that Grande profited from the repeat infringers. They were also the most profitable customers by profit margin, as many had a more lucrative “a la carte” subscription. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ policy of refusing to take meaningful action against repeat infringers protects a significant revenue stream that Grande receives every month from its many infringing subscribers,&#8221; RIAA writes.</p>
<p>These allegations, including the claim that RIAA members&#8217; sound recordings acted as a draw, are backed up by evidence filed under seal. </p>
<p>According to the record labels, however, it&#8217;s clear that Grande failed to adopt and reasonably implement a policy to stop repeat infringers. As such, it should have no DMCA safe harbor defense and be held liable for both vicarious and contributory copyright infringement. </p>
<p>In addition, the RIAA stated that newly discovered evidence also shows that the ISPs&#8217; management company Patriot should not escape liability.</p>
<p>If the court accepts the amended complaint, Grande will have to respond to the new evidence and additional allegations.</p>
<p>As in the original complaint, 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 the infringement. The music group also asks for preliminary and permanent injunctions preventing Grande from further infringement.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the amended complaint is <a href="media/29435804.riaaamend.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaaamend.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155393
title: Developer Accidentally Makes Available 390,000 ‘Pirated’ eBooks
uri: Developer-Accidentally-Makes-Available-390-000-Pirated-eBooks
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t8iP2zEt8z8/
content:
<p><a href="media/dca10ee3.oops-mistake-error.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oops-mistake-error.jpg"><img src="media/e81d16e4.oops-mistake-error.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oops-mistake-error.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136532"></a>Considering the effort it takes to set one up, pirate sites are clearly always intentional. One doesn&#8217;t make available hundreds of thousands of potentially infringing works accidentally.</p>
<p>Unless you&#8217;re developer Nick Janetakis, that is.</p>
<p>&#8220;About 2 years ago I was recording a video course that dealt with setting up HTTPS on a domain name. In all of my courses, I make sure to &#8216;really&#8217; do it on video so that you can see the entire process from end to end,&#8221; Nick wrote this week.</p>
<p>&#8220;Back then I used nickjanetakis.com for all of my courses, so I didn’t have a dedicated domain name for the course I was working on.&#8221;</p>
<p>So instead, Nick set up an <a href="https://my.bluehost.com/hosting/help/whats-an-a-record">A record</a> to point ssl.nickjanetakis.com to a <a href="https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-your-first-digitalocean-droplet">DigitalOcean droplet</a> (a cloud server) so anyone accessing the sub-domain could access the droplet (and his content) via his sub-domain.</p>
<p>That was all very straightforward and all Nick needed to do was delete the A record after he was done to ensure that he wasn&#8217;t pointing to someone else&#8217;s IP address when the droplet was eventually allocated to someone else. But he forgot, with some interesting side effects that didn&#8217;t come to light until years later.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have Google Alerts set up so I get emailed when people link to my site. A few months ago I started to receive an absurd amount of notifications, but I ignored them. I chalked it up to &#8216;Google is probably on drugs&#8217;,&#8221; Nick explains.</p>
<p>However, the developer paid more attention when he received an email from a subscriber to his courses who warned that Nick&#8217;s site might have been compromised. A Google search revealed a worrying amount of apparently unauthorized eBook content being made available via Nick&#8217;s domain.</p>
<p><center><strong>350,000 items? Whoops!</strong> <em>(credit: <a href="https://nickjanetakis.com/">Nick Janetakis</a>)</em><br></br></center><center><a href="media/35f59aa3.2fde2dd428166b95a2fc252b31e0e18b24a27050f2fc7ebf355330762da6.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dns-mistake-caused-pdfs-to-be-hosted-on-a-subdomain-6d312fde2dd428166b95a2fc252b31e0e18b24a27050f2fc7ebf355330762da6.jpg"><img src="media/c2907477.2fde2dd428166b95a2fc252b31e0e18b24a27050f2fc7ebf355330762da6.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dns-mistake-caused-pdfs-to-be-hosted-on-a-subdomain-6d312fde2dd428166b95a2fc252b31e0e18b24a27050f2fc7ebf355330762da6.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="495" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155398"></a></center></p>
<p>Of course, Nick wasn&#8217;t distributing any content himself, but as far as Google was concerned, his domain was completely responsible. For confirmation, TorrentFreak looked up Nick&#8217;s domain on Google&#8217;s Transparency report and found at least nine copyright holders and two reporting organizations complaining of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;No one from Google contacted me and none of the copyright infringement people reached out to me. I wish they would have,&#8221; Nick told us.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/nickjanetakis.com">earliest complaint</a> was filed with Google on April 22, 2018, suggesting that the IP address/domain name collision causing the supposed infringement took place fairly recently. From there came a steady flow of reports, but not the tidal wave one might have expected given the volume of results.</p>
<p><center><strong>Complaints courtesy of LumenDatabase.org</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/4fa4e325.nick-lumen-e1525804356197.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nick-lumen-e1525804356197.png"><img src="media/4fa4e325.nick-lumen-e1525804356197.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nick-lumen-e1525804356197.png" alt="" width="600" height="519" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155403"></a></center></p>
<p>A little puzzled, TorrentFreak asked Nick if he&#8217;d managed to find out from DigitalOcean which pirates had been inadvertently using his domain. He said he&#8217;d asked, but the company wouldn&#8217;t assist.</p>
<p>&#8220;I asked DigitalOcean to get the email contact of the person who owned the IP address but they denied me. I just wanted to know for my own sanity,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>With results now dropping off Google very quickly, TF carried out some tests using Google&#8217;s cache. None of the tests led us to any recognizable pirate site but something was definitely amiss.</p>
<p>The &#8216;pirate&#8217; links (which can be found using a &#8216;site:ssl.nickjanetakis.com&#8217; search in Google) open documents (<a href="https://pastebin.com/ncs9LNnD">sample</a>) which contain links to the domain BookFreeNow.com, which looks very much like a pirate site but suggests it will only hand over PDF files after the user joins up, ostensibly for free.</p>
<p>However, experience with this kind of platform tells us that eventually, there would probably be some kind of cost involved, if indirect.</p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/e861106d.bookfree.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bookfree.png"><img src="media/a8e327ba.bookfree.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bookfree.png" alt="" width="600" height="379" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155434"></a></center></p>
<p>So, after clicking the registration link (or automatically, if you wait a few seconds) we weren&#8217;t entirely shocked when we were redirected briefly to an <a href="http://ValeMedia.net">affiliate site</a> that pays generously. From there we were sent to an advert server which caused a MalwareBytes alert, which was enough for us to back right out of there.</p>
<p>While something amazing might have sat behind the doors of BookFreeNow, we suspect that rather than being a regular pirate site, it&#8217;s actually set up to give the impression of being one, in order to generate business in other ways. </p>
<p>Certainly, copyright holders are suspicious of it, and have sent <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/BookFreeNow.com?request_by_org=size:10;domain:nickjanetakis.com;p:MjpuaWNramFuZXRha2lzLmNvbToxMDowOjEw&#038;lu=request_by_org">numerous complaints</a> to Google.</p>
<p>In any event, <a href="https://twitter.com/nickjanetakis">Nick Janetakis</a> should be very grateful that his domain is no longer connected to the platform since a basic pirate site, while troublesome, would be much more straightforward to explain. In the meantime, Nick has some <a href="https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/a-recycled-ip-address-caused-me-to-pirate-390000-books-by-accident">helpful tips</a> on how to avoid such a situation in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155453
title: New Mexico AG Wants uTorrent to Report ‘Child-Exploiting’ Users
uri: New-Mexico-AG-Wants-uTorrent-to-Report-Child-Exploiting-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ibf-M94kNVM/
content:
<p><img src="media/21af8fa2.bittorrent-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrent-crime.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="202" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79637">In recent years BitTorrent has been regularly linked to online piracy. </p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc., founded by the protocol&#8217;s inventor Bram Cohen, has tried to shake this image, pointing out the many legal implementations and uses of the protocol. </p>
<p>However, it&#8217;s hard to ignore that its flagship software uTorrent is regularly used as a pirate tool. </p>
<p>This has previously prompted copyright holders to demand action from BitTorrent Inc., without result, but this week more serious concerns about BitTorrent usage have been brought to the forefront.</p>
<p>New Mexico <a href="https://www.nmag.gov/">Attorney General Hector Balderas</a> has launched an investigation into the links between BitTorrent usage and child exploitation. As part of this effort he&#8217;s demanding cooperation from BitTorrent Inc., which is made clear <a href="media/d1a39b9a.ion3B_Requests_Cooperation_from_BitTorrent___Other_Companies.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.nmag.gov/uploads/PressRelease/48737699ae174b30ac51a7eb286e661f/AG_Balderas_Launches_Investigation_of_Technology_Used_to_Facilitate_Child_Exploitation%3B_Requests_Cooperation_from_BitTorrent___Other_Companies.pdf">in a letter to CEO Ro Choy</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Protecting New Mexico’s children from horrific sexual violence and exploitation is the number one priority of our Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and I am fully expecting BitTorrent’s cooperation with our investigation,&#8221; Attorney General Hector Balderas announced. </p>
<p>The AG points out that uTorrent and some of its users are associated with illegal activity, including piracy and child exploitation. The letter also includes a list of search terms, which isn&#8217;t published, so the company can track down this content and see for themselves.</p>
<p>&#8220;As you may be aware, users of your client software, uTorrent, are known to use your services and software for illegal purposes, including sharing copyright protected material and child pornography and other material that contribute to the exploitation of children and adults in New Mexico,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>In addition to singling out uTorrent, Balderas is also concerned about the CyberGhost VPN, which uTorrent sells <a href="http://www.utorrent.com/#comp-tbl">in a bundle with the Pro subscription</a>. In particular, because users with criminal intentions can use this to hide their IP-addresses.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are also concerned that the &#8216;Cyber Ghost VPN: be anonymous online&#8217; service offered by uTorrent may pose a high risk of abuse by users seeking to engage in the trade, manufacture, and distribution of child exploitation imagery,&#8221; the AG writes.</p>
<p>The letter continues by asking a list of questions through which it hopes to find out more about uTorrent&#8217;s users, giving June 8 as a deadline.</p>
<p>Among other things, the Attorney General&#8217;s Office (AGO) wants to know how many subscriptions with a VPN uTorrent has sold, what means are used to monitor misuse, and how frequently users are terminated for a violation of uTorrents Terms of Service and End User License agreement.</p>
<p><center><strong>AG&#8217;s questions</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/68eaa74a.bittorrentletter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrentletter.png" alt="" width="600" height="428" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155462"></center></p>
<p>As far as we are aware, BitTorrent Inc. does not monitor users&#8217; download activities, nor have they terminated any subscribers. However, the AG would like to see this happening. The letter specifically asks the company to report users who engage in child abuse.</p>
<p>&#8220;Further, the OAG demands that uTorrent immediately report any individuals engaging in the illegal trade of contraband images of child exploitation to the OAG and the NCMEC and provide a list of IP addresses regardless of the status of the user’s subscription status,&#8221; concludes the letter.</p>
<p>The AG further urges BitTorrent Inc. to take steps to monitor and prevent illegal use of its software. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/09/new-mexico-grills-bittorrent-on-child-exploitation/">Engadget points out</a>, the letter mentions that other online services use hash filtering tools to prevent the distribution of illegal content, suggesting that uTorrent could do the same.</p>
<p>This brings us back to the copyright complaints we mentioned earlier. Three years ago the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-asks-bittorrent-inc-to-block-infringing-content-150804/">RIAA also asked BitTorrent Inc.</a> to block infringing content using hash filtering. While that hasn&#8217;t happened, the Attorney General&#8217;s investigation makes it a hot topic once again.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155496
title: Bell/TSN Letter to University Connects Site-Blocking Support to Students’ Futures
uri: Bell-TSN-Letter-to-University-Connects-Site-Blocking-Support-to-Studen
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OCHVWRPzmcg/
content:
<p><img src="media/6e26cf2e.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-large">In January, a coalition of Canadian companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">called on</a> local telecoms regulator CRTC to implement a website-blocking regime in Canada.</p>
<p>The coalition, Fairplay Canada, is a collection of organizations and companies with ties to the entertainment industries and includes Bell, Cineplex, Directors Guild of Canada, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, Movie Theatre Association of Canada, and Rogers Media. Its stated aim is to address Canada&#8217;s online piracy problems. </p>
<p>While CTRC reviews FairPlay Canada’s plans, the coalition has been seeking to drum up support for the blocking regime, encouraging a diverse range of supporters to send submissions endorsing the project. Of course, building a united front among like-minded groups is nothing out of the ordinary but a situation just uncovered by Canadian law Professor <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/05/bellbrockpressure/">Micheal Geist</a>, one of the most vocal opponents of the proposed scheme, is bound to raise eyebrows.</p>
<p>Geist discovered a submission by Brian Hutchings, who works as Vice-President, Administration at <a href="https://brocku.ca/">Brock University</a> in Ontario. Dated March 22, 2018, it notes that one of the university&#8217;s most sought-after programs is Sports Management, which helps Brock&#8217;s students to become &#8220;the lifeblood&#8221; of Canada&#8217;s sport and entertainment industries.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our University is deeply alarmed at how piracy is eroding an industry that employs so many of our co-op students and graduates. Piracy is a serious, pervasive threat that steals creativity, undermines investment in content development and threatens the survival of an industry that is also part of our national identity,&#8221; the <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Documents.aspx?ID=272111&#038;en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=C&#038;PA=T&#038;PT=PT1&#038;PST=A">submission</a> reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Brock ardently supports the FairPlay Canada coalition of more than 25 organizations involved in every aspect of Canada’s film, TV, radio, sports entertainment and music industries. Specifically, we support the coalition’s request that the CRTC introduce rules that would disable access in Canada to the most egregious piracy sites, similar to measures that have been taken in the UK, France and Australia. We are committed to assist the members of the coalition and the CRTC in eliminating the theft of digital content.&#8221;</p>
<p>The letter leaves no doubt that Brock University as a whole stands side-by-side with Fairplay Canada but according to a subsequent submission signed by Michelle Webber, President, Brock University Faculty Association (BUFA), nothing could be further from the truth.</p>
<p>Noting that BUFA unanimously supports the position of the Canadian Association of University Teachers <em>which opposes the FairPlay proposal</em>, Webber adds that BUFA stands in opposition to the submission by Brian Hutchings on behalf of Brock University.</p>
<p>&#8220;Vice President Hutching&#8217;s intervention was undertaken without consultation with the wider Brock University community, including faculty, librarians, and Senate; therefore, his submission should not be seen as indicative of the views of Brock University as a whole.&#8221;</p>
<p>BUFA goes on to stress the importance of an open Internet to researchers and educators while raising concerns that the blocking proposals could threaten the principles of net neutrality in Canada.</p>
<p>While the undermining of Hutching&#8217;s position is embarrassing enough, via access to information laws Geist has also been able to reveal the chain of events that prompted the Vice-President to write a letter of support on behalf of the whole university.</p>
<p>It began with an email sent by former Brock professor Cheri Bradish to Mark Milliere, TSN’s Senior Vice President and General Manager, with Hutchings copied in. The idea was to connect the pair, with the suggestion that supporting the site-blocking plan would help to mitigate the threat to &#8220;future work options&#8221; for students.</p>
<p><a href="media/7f2076b7.bradishemail-1024x576-e1525936754307.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bradishemail-1024x576-e1525936754307.jpg"><img src="media/7f2076b7.bradishemail-1024x576-e1525936754307.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bradishemail-1024x576-e1525936754307.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="338" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155498"></a></p>
<p>What followed was a direct email from Mark Milliere to Brian Hutchings, in which the former laid out the contributions his company makes to the university, while again suggesting that support for site-blocking would be in the long-term interests of students seeking employment in the industry.</p>
<p><a href="media/4d83ff42.bellrequest5-1024x478-e1525937164712.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bellrequest5-1024x478-e1525937164712.jpg"><img src="media/4d83ff42.bellrequest5-1024x478-e1525937164712.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bellrequest5-1024x478-e1525937164712.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="280" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155499"></a></p>
<p>On March 23, Milliere wrote to Hutchings again, thanking him for &#8220;a terrific letter&#8221; and stating that &#8220;If you need anything from TSN, just ask.&#8221;</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that Bell has asked those beholden to the company to support its site-blocking plans.</p>
<p>Back in February it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bell-asks-employees-to-back-pirate-site-blocking-plan-180222/">revealed</a> that the company had asked its own employees to participate in the site-blocking submission process, without necessarily revealing their affiliations with the company.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155507
title: ABS-CBN Targets ‘Pirate’ Streaming Box Vendor in Canada
uri: ABS-CBN-Targets-Pirate-Streaming-Box-Vendor-in-Canada
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8o2ZizkY9gc/
content:
<p><img src="media/4cb9f3a9.manila.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/manila.png" alt="" width="244" height="163" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155533"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ABS-CBN">ABS-CBN</a>, the largest media and entertainment company in the Philippines, is continuing its legal campaign against piracy.</p>
<p>Over the past several years, the company has singled out dozens of streaming sites that offer access to ‘Pinoy’ content without permission, both in the US and abroad.</p>
<p>This week it filed a new case in Canada, that&#8217;s different from the ones we&#8217;ve seen before. Instead of going after site operators, ABS-CBN is suing a &#8216;bricks-and-mortar&#8217; store located at the <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/place/50+Kennedy+Rd+S+%2360D,+Brampton,+ON+L6W+3E7,+Canada/">Kennedy Square Mall in Brampton, Ontario</a>.</p>
<p>The company announced that it has filed a lawsuit at the Canadian Federal Court seeking CAD$2.5 million in damages for alleged copyright and infringement, and another CAD$2.5 million for trademark infringement.</p>
<p>The vendor, incorporated as Dazcon Inc, reportedly sold streaming boxes that allowed users to access movies and TV-shows. The devices in question are BuzzTV boxes pre-configured with a pirate add-on.</p>
<p>Dazcon appears to be a small vendor, also known as &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manila-Centre/1478978722331221">Manila Center</a>,&#8221; that offers a variety of products and services oriented at Philipino customers in Ontario. It&#8217;s also an agent for <a href="https://www.lbcexpress.com/">LBC Express</a>, for example, which offers money and mail services to the Philipines.</p>
<p><center><strong>Manila Center</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c0b1f0b2.manilacenter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/manilacenter.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="450" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-155534" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/manilacenter.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/manilacenter-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"></center></p>
<p>A copy of the complaint, obtained by TorrentFreak, shows that the vendor is accused of selling devices pre-loaded with copyrighted works. In addition, it also offered devices that were able to circumvent ABS-CBN&#8217;s technical protection measures.</p>
<p>&#8220;In furtherance of this scheme, the Defendants, individually and/or collectively, sold set-top boxes for the primary purpose of circumventing the Plaintiffs’ TPMS and permitting unauthorized access to the ABS-CBN Copyrighted Works,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a consequence of the actions of the Defendants, the public is enabled to receive the ABS-CBN Copyrighted Works via circumvention of the Plaintiffs’ encryption, all without the authority, license or permission of any of the Plaintiffs,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>ABS-CBN alleges that Dazcon manually installed an add-on to the set-top boxes which made the infringements possible. The name of this offending add-on is not mentioned in the complaint.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the complaint</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a82e7951.dazconduct.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dazconduct.png" alt="" width="600" height="313" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155535"></center></p>
<p>In addition to the CAD$5 million in damages, the media company also requests an injunction preventing the vendor from engaging in any copyright infringement of its works in the future, as well as an order granting it custody of the set-top boxes.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the vendor in question was outed by ABS-CBN&#8217;s own customers, the company reports while warning others to remain vigilant.</p>
<p>“Beware of these operations that are not licensed or affiliated in any way with ABS-CBN,&#8221; says Elisha Lawrence the company&#8217;s Head of Global Anti-Piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you have any suspicions of other boxes being sold that are not affiliated with ABS-CBN, please call the ABS-CBN office in the U.S. or Canada to verify.  We will continue to protect customers by shutting these operations down.”</p>
<p>While the requested amount of damages may appear quite high, history has shown that this is not unusual for the media giant. </p>
<p>In the US, the company won <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-sites-ordered-to-pay-1-million-in-damages-to-abs-cbn-170715/">$1 million judgments</a> against 19 pirate sites last years, and earlier it won a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-operator-slapped-10-million-damages-141030/">$10 million</a> judgment against the operator of another small streaming site. Whether any of these damages were actually paid is unknown.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of ABS-CBN&#8217;s complaint against Dazcon Inc is <a href="media/c8483f93.180504-170046-SOC-issued-black-white-copy.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/180504-170046-SOC-issued-black-white-copy.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155485
title: Court Orders Pirate IPTV Linker to Shut Down or Face Penalties Up to €1.25m
uri: 2018-05-11-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IrTBfTUiEzA/
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>There are few things guaranteed in life. Death, taxes, and lawsuits filed regularly by Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN.</p>
<p>One of its most recent targets was Netherlands-based company Leaper Beheer BV, which also traded under the names Flickstore, Dump Die Deal and Live TV Store. BREIN filed a complaint at the Limburg District Court in Maastricht, claiming that Leaper provides access to unlicensed live TV streams and on-demand movies.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy outfit claimed that around 4,000 live channels were on offer, including Fox Sports, movie channels, commercial and public channels. These could be accessed after the customer made a payment which granted access to a unique activation code which could be entered into a set-top box.</p>
<p>BREIN told the court that the code returned an .M3U playlist, which was effectively a hyperlink to IPTV channels and more than 1,000 movies being made available without permission from their respective copyright holders. As such, this amounted to a communication to the public in contravention of the EU Copyright Directive, BREIN argued.</p>
<p>In its defense, Leaper said that it effectively provided a convenient link-shortening service for content that could already be found online in other ways. The company argued that it is not a distributor of content itself and did not make available anything that wasn&#8217;t already public. The company added that it was completely down to the consumer whether illegal content was viewed or not.</p>
<p>The key question for the Court was whether Leaper did indeed make a new &#8220;communication to the public&#8221; under the EU Copyright Directive, a standard the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) says should be interpreted in a manner that provides a high level of protection for rightsholders.</p>
<p>The Court took a three-point approach in arriving at its decision.</p>
<li>Did Leaper act in a deliberate manner when providing access to copyright content, especially when its intervention provided access to consumers who would not ordinarily have access to that content?</li>
<li>Did Leaper communicate the works via a new method to a new audience?</li>
<li>Did Leaper have a profit motive when it communicated works to the public?</li>
<p>The Court found that Leaper did communicate works to the public and intervened &#8220;with full knowledge of the consequences of its conduct&#8221; when it gave its customers access to protected works.</p>
<p>&#8220;Access to [the content] in a different way would be difficult for those customers, if Leaper were not to provide its services in question,&#8221; the Court&#8217;s decision reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Leaper reaches an indeterminate number of potential recipients who can take cognizance of the protected works and form a new audience. The purchasers who register with Leaper are to be regarded as recipients who were not taken into account by the rightful claimants when they gave permission for the original communication of their work to the public.&#8221;</p>
<p>With that, the Court ordered Leaper to cease-and-desist facilitating access to unlicensed streams within 48 hours of the judgment, with non-compliance penalties of 5,000 euros per IPTV subscription sold, link offered, or days exceeded, to a maximum of one million euros. </p>
<p>But the Court didn&#8217;t stop there.</p>
<p>&#8220;Leaper must submit a statement audited by an accountant, supported by (clear, readable copies of) all relevant documents, within 12 days of notification of this judgment of all the relevant (contact) details of the (person or legal persons) with whom the company has had contact regarding the provision of IPTV subscriptions and/or the provision of hyperlinks to sources where films and (live) broadcasts are evidently offered without the permission of the entitled parties,&#8221; the Court <a href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:RBLIM:2018:4395">ruled</a>.</p>
<p>Failure to comply with this aspect of the ruling will lead to more penalties of 5,000 euros per day up to a maximum of 250,000 euros. Leaper was also ordered to pay BREIN&#8217;s costs of 20,700 euros.</p>
<p>Describing the people behind Leaper as &#8220;crooks&#8221; who previously sold media boxes with infringing addons (as previously determined to be illegal in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">Filmspeler case</a>), BREIN chief Tim Kuik says that a switch of strategy didn&#8217;t help them evade the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Leaper] sold a link to consumers that gave access to unauthorized content, i.e. pay-TV channels as well as video-on-demand films and series,&#8221; BREIN chief Tim Kuik informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;They did it for profit and should have checked whether the content was authorized. They did not and in fact were aware the content was unauthorized. Which means they are clearly infringing copyright. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is evident from the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">CJEU case law in GS Media</a> as well as Filmspeler and The Pirate Bay, aka the Dutch trilogy because the three cases came from the Netherlands, but these rulings are applicable throughout the EU.</p>
<p>&#8220;They just keep at it knowing they’re cheating and we’ll take them to the cleaners,&#8221; Kuik concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155418
title: Iconic Megaupload.com Domain Has a New Owner
uri: Iconic-Megaupload-com-Domain-Has-a-New-Owner
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WokqXidXL4o/
content:
<p><img src="media/bf96111a.megauploadsong.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megauploadsong.jpg" alt="" width="255" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-146015">Following the 2012 raid on Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, U.S. and New Zealand authorities seized millions of dollars in cash and other property, located around the world.</p>
<p>Claiming the assets were obtained through copyright and money laundering crimes, the U.S. government launched separate civil cases in which it asked the court to forfeit a wide variety of seized possessions of the Megaupload defendants.</p>
<p>One of these cases <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-wins-dozens-of-millions-from-kim-dotcom-150326/">was lost</a> after the U.S. branded Dotcom and his colleagues as “fugitives”.The defense team appealed the ruling, but lost again, and a subsequent petition at the Supreme Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-opposes-kim-dotcoms-supreme-court-petition-over-seized-millions-170613/">was denied</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-loses-megaupload-domain-names-gets-destroyed-gaming-chair-back-180117/">Dotcom had to leave behind</a> several bank accounts and servers, as well as all hope of getting some of his dearly treasured <a href="media/b8248943.megadomains1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/megadomains1.png">domain names</a> back. This includes the most valuable domain of all, Megaupload.com. </p>
<p>The forfeiture was made final earlier this year but since then little was known about the fate of the domain names. This week, however, it became clear that the US Government didn&#8217;t plan to hold on to it, as Megaupload.com now has a new owner. </p>
<p>According to the latest Whois information, which was updated late last week, RegistrarAds Inc is now the <a href="https://whois.domaintools.com/megaupload.com">official Megaupload.com owner</a>. This previously was Megaupload Limited, under FBI control.</p>
<p><center><strong>New owner</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/61111a3e.megauploadowner.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megauploadowner.png" alt="" width="693" height="447" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155427"></center></p>
<p>RegistrarAds is a company based in Vancouver, Washington, which specializes in buying domain names. While we could not find a corporate website, the web is littered with domain disputes and other references to domain name issues. </p>
<p>Michelin North America, for example, filed a complaint against RegistrarAds <a href="http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/1628283.htm">because it registered the michelin-group.com domain</a>, witch success. Similarly, the California Milk Processor Board, most famous for its Got Milk? ads, won a <a href="http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/text/2017/d2017-0337.html">WIPO domain dispute</a> over gotpuremilk.com.</p>
<p>How RegistrarAds obtained the Megaupload domain name isn&#8217;t entirely clear. It wasn&#8217;t dropped by the registry, but it might be possible that it was scooped up in an auction. Theoretically, the US Government could have sold it too, but we see no evidence for that. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s also unknown what the company&#8217;s plans are for Megaupload.com. However, given the company&#8217;s track record it&#8217;s unlikely that it will do anything file-sharing related. The domain hasn&#8217;t updated its nameservers yet and remains unreachable at the time of writing.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to RegistrarAds, hoping to find out more, but we have yet to hear back. </p>
<p>Megaupload.com is not the only domain that changed owners recently. The same happened to Megaclick.com, which is now registered to Buydomains.com. Several of the other seized Megaupload domain names remain in possession of US authorities, for now.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155348
title: Bing Deleted a Quarter Billion Pirate Research Results Last Year
uri: Bing-Deleted-a-Quarter-Billion-Pirate-Research-Results-Last-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7dU9Aw_-4Ng/
content:
<p><img src="media/1bf8962e.binglogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/binglogo.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="180" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-155363">While search engines are extremely helpful for the average Internet user, copyright holders also see a massive downside. </p>
<p>For years entertainment industry groups have been frustrated by the fact that “infringing sites” show up in search results. In fact, they see engines as a potential breeding ground for new pirates. </p>
<p>With Google the dominant player, a lot of reporting on the topic has focused on the company whose name has become synonymous with search. Rightfully so, perhaps, as the sheer number of takedown requests it receives surpasses that of all competitors. However, Bing is not that far behind. </p>
<p>When we first queried Microsoft on the issue five years ago, the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/is-bing-considered-lower-piracy-threat-than-google-151016/">didn&#8217;t publish</a> its numbers yet. Instead, we were informed that Bing was asked to delete hundreds of thousands of URLs per month. </p>
<p>Today, this number has increased significantly. Microsoft recently published its <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/corporate-responsibility/crrr">latest DMCA takedown figures</a> which allow us to take a look at the total number of links the company removed in 2017, adding up to nearly a quarter billion. </p>
<p>In the first half of the year, 16.2 million notices came in, asking Bing to remove over 121 million links. Nearly all of these requests were honored. </p>
<p><center><strong>Copyright Removal Requests, January-June 2017</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/9499b879.bingjan.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bingjan.png" alt="" width="599" height="126" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155371"></center></p>
<p>In the second half, the number of notices grew to 19.1 million, and the reported URLs slightly increased to 127 million. Again, more than 99 percent of all reported links were removed.</p>
<p><center><strong>Copyright Removal Requests, July-December 2017</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c0afe221.bingdec.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bingdec.png" alt="" width="599" height="126" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155372"></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, Microsoft itself actively uses DMCA takedown requests to remove links to infringing content. The company previously informed us that it sends notices <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/is-bing-considered-lower-piracy-threat-than-google-151016/">to its own search engine as well</a>. </p>
<p>In the latest transparency report, Microsoft stresses that, as a copyright holder, it respects copyrights. However, it adds that its users&#8217; freedom of expression is kept in mind as well. </p>
<p>&#8220;As an intellectual property company itself, Microsoft encourages respect for intellectual property, including copyrights. We also are committed to freedom of expression and the rights of users to engage in uses that may be permissible under applicable copyright laws.&#8221;</p>
<p>The 248 million-plus links Bing receives is significant, but Google easily tops this figure. Last year the leading search engine removed roughly a billion URLs, suggesting that it&#8217;s a higher priority for copyright holders.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155545
title: ‘Anonymous’ Hackers Deface Russian Govt. Site to Protest Web-Blocking (NSFW)
uri: Anonymous-Hackers-Deface-Russian-Govt-Site-to-Protest-Web-Block
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F_kVEeIKoig/
content:
<p><a href="media/382324da.anonymous.gif" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/anonymous.gif"><img src="media/fa918d71.anonymous.gif" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/anonymous.gif" alt="" width="200" height="216" class="alignright size-full wp-image-27985"></a>Last month, Russian authorities demonstrated that when an entity breaks local Internet rules, no stone will be left unturned to make them pay, whatever the cost.</p>
<p>The disaster waiting to happen began when encrypted messaging service Telegram refused to hand over its encryption keys to the state. In response, the Federal Security Service filed a lawsuit, which it won, compelling it Telegram do so. With no response, Roscomnadzor obtained a court order to have Telegram blocked.</p>
<p>In a massive response, Russian ISPs &#8211; at Roscomnadzor&#8217;s behest &#8211; began mass-blocking IP addresses on a massive scale. Millions of IP addresses belong to Amazon, Google and other innocent parties were rendered inaccessible in Russia, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russias-encryption-war-1-8m-google-amazon-ips-blocked-to-silence-telegram-180417/">causing chaos online</a>.</p>
<p>Even <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-blocks-50-vpns-anonymizers-in-telegram-crackdown-viber-next-180504/">VPN providers were targeted</a> for facilitating access to Telegram but while the service strained under the pressure, it never went down and continues to function today.</p>
<p>In the wake of the operation there has been some attempt at a cleanup job, with Roscomnadzor announcing this week that it had unblocked  millions of IP addresses belonging to Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;As part of a package of the measures to enforce the court&#8217;s decision on Telegram, Roskomnadzor has removed six Google subnets (more than 3.7 million IP-addresses) from the blocklist,&#8221; the telecoms watchdog said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;In this case, the IP addresses of Telegram, which are part of these subnets, are fully installed and blocked. Subnets are unblocked in order to ensure the correct operation of third-party Internet resources.&#8221;</p>
<p>But while Roscomnadzor attempts to calm the seas, those angered by Russia&#8217;s carpet-bombing of the Internet were determined to make their voices heard. Hackers attacked the <a href="http://prev.rs.gov.ru">website</a> of the Federal Agency for International Cooperation this week, defacing it with scathing criticism combined with NSFW suggestions and imagery.</p>
<p>&#8220;Greetings, Roskomnadzor,&#8221; the message began.</p>
<p>&#8220;Your recent destructive actions towards the Russian internet sector have led us to believe that you are nothing but a bunch of incompetent mindless worms. You shall not be able to continue this pointless vandalism any further.&#8221;</p>
<p>Signing off with advice to consider the defacement as a &#8220;final warning&#8221;, the hackers disappeared into the night after leaving a simple signature. </p>
<p>&#8220;Yours, Anonymous,&#8221; they wrote.</p>
<p>But the hackers weren&#8217;t done yet. In a NSFW cartoon strip that probably explains itself, &#8216;Anonymous&#8217; suggested that Roscomnadzor should perhaps consider blocking itself, with the implement depicted in the final frame.</p>
<p><center><strong>&#8220;Anus, block yourself Roscomnadzor&#8221;</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/bc9b153f.rkn-e1525980249402.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rkn-e1525980249402.png"><img src="media/bc9b153f.rkn-e1525980249402.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rkn-e1525980249402.png" alt="" width="600" height="1198" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155546"></a></center></p>
<p>But while Russia&#8217;s attack on Telegram raises eyebrows worldwide, the actions of those in authority continue to baffle. </p>
<p>Last week, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s press secretary, Natalia Timakova, publicly advised a colleague to circumvent the Telegram blockade using a VPN, effectively undermining the massive efforts of the authorities. This week the head of Roscomnadzor only added to the confusion.</p>
<p>Effectively quashing rumors that he&#8217;d resigned due to the Telegram fiasco, Alexander Zharov had a conversation with the editor-in-chief of radio station &#8216;Says Moscow&#8217;.</p>
<p>During the liason, which took place during the Victory Parade in Red Square, Zharov was asked how he could be contacted. When Telegram was presented as a potential method, Zharov <a href="https://govoritmoskva.ru/news/159735/">confirmed</a> that he could be reached via the platform.</p>
<p>Finally, in a move that&#8217;s hoped could bring an end to the attack on the platform and others like it, Telegram <a href="http://tass.com/economy/1003294">filed an appeal</a> this week challenging a decision by the Supreme Court of Russia which allows the Federal Security Service to demand access to encryption keys.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154628
title: BitTorrent Inc. Changed Its Name to Rainberry
uri: BitTorrent-Inc-Changed-Its-Name-to-Rainberry
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/owfZ5asXKeA/
content:
<p><img src="media/21af8fa2.bittorrent-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bittorrent-crime.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="202" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79637">Founded by BitTorrent inventor Bram Cohen, BitTorrent Inc. is best known for its torrent client uTorrent, from which it made millions over the years.</p>
<p>Unlike most file-sharing startups the company was well funded from the start. Venture capital firm Accel was one of the early investors, in a fund that also included Facebook and Dropbox.</p>
<p>However, over the past decade, <a href="http://www.bittorrent.com/">BitTorrent Inc.</a> didn’t transform into a multi-billion dollar business. The company tried various new products, services, and business models, but none surpassed the early success it had with uTorrent.</p>
<p>In recent years things got even worse. The company was nearly destroyed due to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bram-cohen-lashes-out-against-bittorrents-former-starfucker-ceos-170423/">questionable</a> management practices, according to Cohen. However, it appears that the waters have calmed down now under new leadership.  </p>
<p>Instead of reinventing the wheel, the company vowed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-will-move-to-the-web-browser-170421/">refocus its efforts</a> on what has proven to work, uTorrent. A new <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-utorrent-web-streams-and-downloads-torrents-in-your-browser-180223/">browser-based version</a> of the popular client was released recently, and that appears to be one of the main focuses going forward. </p>
<p>There is something fresh though &#8211; BitTorrent Inc. has a new name. While it hasn&#8217;t been published anywhere, the company formerly known as BitTorrent Inc. is now Rainberry Inc. </p>
<p>&#8220;Rainberry Inc is the official name of the company; it was changed right around the start of 2017,&#8221; Rainberry&#8217;s Chief Product Officer Jordy Berson informs TorrentFreak. He stresses that it&#8217;s purely a corporate decision and that none of the existing product brands will change.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The best way to probably think of it is that it&#8217;s not unlike how Alphabet Inc is the official name of the company most people know as Google,&#8221; Berson adds.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not uncommon for businesses to change their name, but it remains a bit of a mystery what the motivation was here. There must be a good reason why Rainberry is preferred over BitTorrent, especially since the latter is a brand that millions of people know. </p>
<p>While <strike>BitTorrent</strike> Rainberry Inc. doesn&#8217;t owe the public a full explanation, it&#8217;s notable how the name change was kept under the radar. </p>
<p>Rainberry has no corporate website and is not mentioned on the official BitTorrent.com or uTorrent.com websites, for example. In addition, all Rainberry employees still list BitTorrent Inc. as their employer while Rainberry doesn&#8217;t appear to even exist on Linkedin. </p>
<p>The Rainberry name is pretty unique as well. A quick Google search only brings up a few mentions. This includes a job listing for &#8220;Rainberry Inc f/k/a BitTorrent Inc&#8221; but also a company named &#8220;<a href="https://opencorporates.com/companies/us_ca/C4123842">Rainberry Acquisition</a>&#8221; that was formed two months ago, coincidentally in San Francisco as well&#8230; </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155411
title: Pirate IPTV Service Goes Bust After Premier League Deal, Exposing Users
uri: Pirate-IPTV-Service-Goes-Bust-After-Premier-League-Deal-Exposing-User
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RBOJHRh-anQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/d23951cb.pirate-fire-burn.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-fire-burn.jpg"><img src="media/269ab949.pirate-fire-burn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-fire-burn.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-103753"></a>For those out of the loop, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-mass-piracy-thats-flying-largely-under-the-radar-161127/">unauthorized IPTV services</a> offering many thousands of unlicensed channels have been gaining in popularity in recent years. They&#8217;re relatively cheap, fairly reliable, and offer acceptable levels of service.</p>
<p>They are, however, a huge thorn in the side of rightsholders who are desperate to bring them to their knees. One such organization is the UK&#8217;s Premier League, which has been disrupting IPTV services over the past year, hoping they&#8217;ll shut down.</p>
<p>Most have simply ridden the wave of blocks but one provider, Ace Hosting in the UK, showed signs of stress last year, revealing that it would <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-provider-stops-selling-new-subscriptions-under-pressure-from-uk-authorities-171224/">no longer sell new subscriptions</a>. There was little doubt in most people&#8217;s minds that the Premier League had gotten uncomfortably close to the IPTV provider.</p>
<p>Now, many months later, the amazing story can be told. It&#8217;s both incredible and shocking and will leave many shaking their heads in disbelief. First up, some background.</p>
<p><strong>Doing things &#8216;properly&#8217; &#8211; incorporation of a pirate service&#8230;</strong></p>
<p>Considering how most operators of questionable services like to stay in the shade, it may come as a surprise to learn that Ace Hosting Limited is a proper company. Incorporated and <a href="https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10544614/filing-history">registered</a> at Companies House on January 3, 2017, Ace has two registered directors &#8211; family team Ian and Judith Isaac.</p>
<p>In common with several other IPTV operators in the UK who are also officially registered with the authorities, Ace Hosting has never filed any meaningful accounts. There&#8217;s a theory that the corporate structure is basically one of convenience, one that allows for the handling of large volumes of cash while limiting liability. The downside, of course, is that people are often more easily identified, in part due to the comprehensive paper trail.</p>
<p>Thanks to what can only be described as a slow-motion train wreck, the Ace Hosting debacle is revealing a bewildering set of circumstances. Last December, when Ace said it would stop signing up new members due to legal pressure, a serious copyright threat had already been filed against it.</p>
<p><strong>Premier League v Ace Hosting</strong></p>
<p>Documents seen by TorrentFreak reveal that the Premier League sent legal threats to Ace Hosting on December 15, 2017, just days before the subscription closure announcement. Somewhat surprisingly, Ace apparently felt it could pay the Premier League a damages amount and keep on trading.</p>
<p>But early March 2018, with the Premier League threatening Ace with all kinds of bad things, the company made a strange announcement.</p>
<p>&#8220;The ISPs in the UK and across Europe have recently become much more aggressive in blocking our service while football games are in progress,&#8221; Ace said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;In order to get ourselves off of the ISP blacklist we are going to black out the EPL games for all users (including VPN users) starting on Monday. We believe that this will enable us to rebuild the bypass process and successfully provide you with all EPL games.&#8221;</p>
<p>It seems doubtful that Ace really intended to thumb its nose at the Premier League but it had continued to sell subscriptions since receiving threats in December, so all things seemed possible. But on March 24 that all changed, when Ace effectively announced its closure.</p>
<p><strong>Premier League 1, Ace Hosting 0</strong></p>
<p>“It is with sorrow that we announce that we are no longer accepting renewals, upgrades to existing subscriptions or the purchase of new credits. We plan to support existing subscriptions until they expire,” the team wrote.</p>
<p>“EPL games including highlights continue to be blocked and are not expected to be reinstated before the end of the season.”</p>
<p>Indeed, just days later the Premier League demanded a six-figure settlement sum from Ace Hosting, presumably to make a lawsuit disappear. It was the straw that broke the camel&#8217;s back.</p>
<p>&#8220;When the proposed damages amount was received it was clear that the Company would not be able to cover the cost and that there was a very high probability that even with a negotiated settlement that the Company was insolvent,&#8221; documents relating to Ace&#8217;s liquidation read.</p>
<p>At this point, Ace says it immediately ceased trading but while torrent sites usually shut down and disappear into the night, Ace&#8217;s demise is now a matter of record.</p>
<p><strong>Creditors &#8211; the good, the bad, and the ugly</strong></p>
<p>On April 11, 2018, Ace&#8217;s directors contacted business recovery and insolvency specialists Begbies Traynor (Central) LLP to obtain advice on the company&#8217;s financial position. Begbies Traynor was instructed by Ace on April 23 and on May 8, Ace Hosting director Ian Isaac determined that his company could not pay its debts.</p>
<p>First the good news. According to an official report, Ace Hosting has considerable cash in the bank &#8211; £255,472.00 to be exact. Now the bad news &#8211; Ace has debts of £717,278.84. &#8211; the details of which are intriguing to say the least.</p>
<p>First up, Ace has &#8216;trade creditors&#8217; to whom it owes £104,356. The vast majority of this sum is a settlement Ace agreed to pay to the Premier League.</p>
<p>&#8220;The directors entered into a settlement agreement with the Football Association Premier League Limited prior to placing the Company into liquidation as a result of a purported copyright infringement. However, there is a residual claim from the Football Association Premier League Limited which is included within trade creditors totaling £100,000,&#8221; Ace&#8217;s statement of affairs reads.</p>
<p>Bizarrely (given the nature of the business, at least) Ace also owes £260,000 to Her Majesty&#8217;s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in unpaid VAT and corporation tax, which is effectively the government&#8217;s cut of the pirate IPTV business&#8217;s labors.</p>
<p><strong>Former Ace Hosting subscriber? Your cash is as good as gone</strong></p>
<p>Finally &#8211; and this is where things get a bit sweaty for Joe Public &#8211; there are 15,768 &#8220;consumer creditors&#8221;, split between &#8216;retail&#8217; and &#8216;business&#8217; customers of the service. Together they are owed a staggering £353,000.</p>
<p>Although the documentation isn&#8217;t explicit, retail customers appear to be people who have purchased an Ace IPTV subscription that still had time to run when the service closed down. Business customers seem likely to be resellers of the service, who purchased &#8216;credits&#8217; and didn&#8217;t get time to sell them before Ace disappeared.</p>
<p>The poison chalice here is that those who are owed money by Ace can actually apply to get some of it back, but that could be extremely risky.</p>
<p>&#8220;Creditor claims have not yet been adjudicated but we estimate that the majority of customers who paid for subscription services will receive less than £3 if there is a distribution to unsecured creditors. Furthermore, customer details will be passed to the relevant authorities if there is any suggestion of unlawful conduct,&#8221; documentation reads.</p>
<p>We spoke with a former Ace customer who had this to say about the situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was generally a good service notwithstanding their half-arsed attempts to evade the EPL block. At its heart there were people who seemed to know how to operate a decent service, although the customer-facing side of things was not the greatest,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;And no, I won&#8217;t be claiming a refund. I went into it with my eyes fully open so I don&#8217;t hold anyone responsible, except myself. In any case, anyone who wants a refund has to complete a claim form and provide proof of ID (LOL).&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>The bad news for former subscribers continues&#8230;potentially</strong></p>
<p>While it&#8217;s likely that most people will forgo their £3, the bad news isn&#8217;t over for subscribers. Begbies Traynor is warning that the liquidators will decide whether to hand over subscribers&#8217; personal details to the Premier League and/or the authorities.</p>
<p>In any event, sometime in the next couple of weeks the names and addresses of all subscribers will be made &#8220;available for inspection&#8221; at an address in Wiltshire for two days, meaning that any interested parties could potentially gain access to sensitive information.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that Ace Hosting is in the red to the tune of £461,907 and will eventually disappear into the bowels of history. Whether its operators will have to answer for their conduct will remain to be seen but it seems unimaginable at this stage that things will end well.</p>
<p>Subscribers <em>probably</em> won&#8217;t get sucked in but in a story as bizarre as this one, anything could yet happen.</p>
<p><a href="media/15dfff01.ttrUfnAIyjoVJFljs_hj6A8pdeGyBPgu-b3cfzGMVfQ-e1525805819429.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ttrUfnAIyjoVJFljs_hj6A8pdeGyBPgu-b3cfzGMVfQ-e1525805819429.jpg"><img src="media/15dfff01.ttrUfnAIyjoVJFljs_hj6A8pdeGyBPgu-b3cfzGMVfQ-e1525805819429.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ttrUfnAIyjoVJFljs_hj6A8pdeGyBPgu-b3cfzGMVfQ-e1525805819429.jpg" alt="" width="577" height="768" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155412"></a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=154969
title: The Pirating Elephant in Uncle Sam’s Room
uri: The-Pirating-Elephant-in-Uncle-Sam-s-Room
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dXYov_TjsOI/
content:
<p><img src="media/cc46fc26.sam.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sam.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="209" class="alignright size-full wp-image-154973">It&#8217;s not a secret that, in sheer numbers, America is the country that harbors most online pirates. </p>
<p>Perhaps no surprise, since it has a large and well-connected population, but it&#8217;s important to note considering what we&#8217;re about to write today. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, online piracy has presented itself as a massive problem for the US and its entertainment industries. It&#8217;s a global issue that&#8217;s hard to contain, but Hollywood and the major record labels are doing what they can. </p>
<p>Two of the key strategies they&#8217;ve employed in recent years are website blocking and domain seizures. US companies have traveled to courts all over the world to have ISP blockades put in place, with quite a bit of success. </p>
<p>At the same time, US rightsholders also push foreign domain registrars and registries to suspend or seize domains. The US Government is even jumping in, applying pressure against pirate domains as well. </p>
<p>Previously, the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica threatened to have the country’s<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-embassy-threatens-to-close-domain-registry-over-pirate-bay-domain-170620/"> domain name registry shut down</a>, unless it suspended ThePirateBay.cr. This hasn’t happened, yet, but it was a clear signal. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s odd, though, is that ThePirateBay.cr is a relatively meaningless proxy site. The real Pirate Bay operates from an .org domain name, which happens to be managed by the US-based <a href="https://pir.org/">Public Interest Registry</a> (PIR).</p>
<p>So, if the US authorities threaten to shut down Costa Rica&#8217;s domain registry over a proxy, why is the US-based PIR registry still in action? After all, it&#8217;s the registry that &#8216;manages&#8217; the domain name of the largest pirate site on the entire web, and has done for nearly 15 years.</p>
<p>Also of note is that the entertainment industries previously launched an overseas lawsuit to seize <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-sx-as-prosecutor-files-motion-to-seize-domains-130430/">The Pirate Bay&#8217;s .se and .is domains</a>, but never attempted to do the same with the US-based .org domain.</p>
<p>There are more of these strange observations. Let&#8217;s move back to website blocking, for example.</p>
<p>In a detailed overview, the Motion Picture Association recently reported that ISP blocking measures, which are in place in more than two dozen countries, help to reduce piracy significantly. This is further backed up by industry-supported reports and independent academic research. </p>
<p>In an ideal world, the US entertainment industries would like ISPs in every country to block pirate sites. While this is all fine and understandable from the perspective of these companies, there&#8217;s also an elephant in the room. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, US companies have worked hard to spread their blocking message around the world, while they yet have to attempt the same on their home turf. And this happens to be the country with the most pirates of all, which could make a massive impact. </p>
<p>Sure, it was a major success when a court in Iceland ordered local ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. But with roughly 130,000 Internet subscriptions in the entire country, that&#8217;s peanuts compared to the US.</p>
<p>So why is the US, the largest &#8220;pirate nation,&#8221; ignored?</p>
<p>From what we&#8217;ve heard, the entertainment industries are not pushing for ISP blockades in US courts because <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sopa-ghosts-hinder-u-s-pirate-site-blocking-efforts-171008/">they fear a SOPA-like backlash</a>. This likely applies to domain suspensions as well, which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-domain-seizures-are-easy-in-the-united-states-150521/">aren&#8217;t all that hard</a> to accomplish in the US.</p>
<p>Instead, the major entertainment companies are focusing their efforts elsewhere.</p>
<p>While these entertainment companies are well within their rights to lobby for these measures, there&#8217;s an elephant in the room that is hard to ignore. Personally, I can&#8217;t help but cringe every time Hollywood pushes the blocking agenda to a new country or demands domain seizures abroad.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155601
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 05/14/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-05-14-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FI10wbrya4I/
content:
<p><img src="media/0b551ee6.blackpanther.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blackpanther.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155284">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Black Panther is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-05-07-18/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">Avengers: Infinity War</a> (HDCam) </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">9.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwievZ1Tx-8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">Game Night</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxMAdV6s4U">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">Ready Player One</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSp1dM2Vj48">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6951892/>Samson</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6951892/">4.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSolF3QBVBY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">12 Strong</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Denciie5oA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">Red Sparrow</a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmUL6wMpMWw&#038;t=17s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">Den of Thieves</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKd_ks0rdAM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&#038;t=2s">Thor: Ragnarok </a>  </td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&#038;t=2s">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5397194/">Anon</a> </td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5397194/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJOoYhQcQBI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155609
title: Police Launch Investigation into Huge Pirate Manga Site Mangamura
uri: Police-Launch-Investigation-into-Huge-Pirate-Manga-Site-Mangamura
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YXv7aKmqTUw/
content:
<p><a href="media/05028357.anime-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/anime-pirate.jpg"><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"></a>Back in March, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the government was considering measures to prohibit access to pirate sites.</p>
<p>While protecting all content is the overall aim, it became clear that the government was determined to protect Japan&#8217;s successful manga and anime industries.</p>
<p>It didn&#8217;t take long for a reaction. On Friday April 13, the government introduced emergency website blocking measures, seeking cooperation from the country&#8217;s ISPs.</p>
<p>NTT Communications Corp., NTT Docomo Inc. and NTT Plala Inc., quickly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japan-isp-says-it-will-voluntarily-block-pirate-sites-as-major-portal-disappears-180424/">announced</a> they would block three leading pirate sites &#8211; Mangamura, AniTube! and MioMio which have a huge following in Japan. However, after taking the country by storm during the past two years, Mangamura had already called it quits.</p>
<p>On April 17, in the wake of the government announcement, Mangamura disappeared. It&#8217;s unclear whether its vanishing act was directly connected to recent developments but a program on national public broadcasting organization NHK, which claimed to have traced the site&#8217;s administrators back to the United States, Ukraine, and other regions, can&#8217;t have helped.</p>
<p>Further details released this morning reveal the intense pressure Mangamura was under. With 100 million visits a month it was bound to attract attention and according to <a href="https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20180514/p2a/00m/0na/005000c">Mainichi</a>, several publishing giants ran out of patience last year and reported the platform to the authorities.</p>
<p>Kodansha, Japan&#8217;s largest publisher, and three other companies filed criminal complaints with Fukuoka Prefectural Police, Oita Prefectural Police, and other law enforcement departments, claiming the site violated their rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;The complaints, which were lodged against an unknown suspect or suspects, were filed on behalf of manga artists who are copyright holders to the pirated works, including Hajime Isayama and Eiichiro Oda, known for their wildly popular &#8216;Shingeki no Kyojin&#8217; (&#8216;Attack on Titan,&#8217; published by Kodansha) and &#8216;One Piece&#8217; (Shueisha Inc.), respectively,&#8221; the publication reports.</p>
<p>Mangamura launch in January 2016 and became a huge hit in Japan. Anti-piracy group Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA), which counts publishing giant Kodansha among its members, reports that between September 2017 and February 2018, the site was accessed 620 million times.</p>
<p>Based on a &#8220;one visit, one manga title read&#8221; formula, CODA estimates that the site caused damages to the manga industry of 319.2 billion yen &#8211; around US$2.91 billion.</p>
<p>As a result, police are now stepping up their efforts to identify Mangamura&#8217;s operators. Whether that will prove fruitful will remain to be seen but in the meantime, Japan&#8217;s site-blocking efforts continue to cause controversy.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-sued-for-breaching-user-privacy-after-blocking-pirate-sites-180428/">reported</a> last month, lawyer and NTT customer Yuichi Nakazawa launched legal action against NTT, demanding that the corporation immediately end its site-blocking operations.</p>
<p>&#8220;NTT’s decision was made arbitrarily on the site without any legal basis. No matter how legitimate the objective of copyright infringement is, it is very dangerous,&#8221; Nakazawa told TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;I felt that ‘freedom,’ which is an important value of the Internet, was threatened. Actually, when the interruption of communications had begun, the company thought it would be impossible to reverse the situation, so I filed a lawsuit at this stage.&#8221;</p>
<p>Japan&#8217;s Constitution and its Telecommunications Business Act both have “no censorship” clauses, meaning that site-blocking has the potential to be ruled illegal. It&#8217;s also illegal in Japan to invade the privacy of Internet users&#8217; communications, which some observers have argued is necessary if users are to be prevented from accessing pirate sites.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155597
title: Pirate Site Blocking Threatens Canada’s Net Neutrality, House of Commons Committee Says
uri: Pirate-Site-Blocking-Threatens-Canada-s-Net-Neutrality-House-of-Com
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sVHJl5Qq2EE/
content:
<p><img src="media/f6cbbbd7.deniedblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deniedblocked.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143825">Earlier this year several of the largest telcos in Canada teamed up with copyright holders to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">present their plan to tackle online piracy</a>.</p>
<p>United in the <a href="https://www.fairplaycanada.com/">Fairplay Canada</a> coalition, Bell, Rogers, and others urged telecoms regulator CRTC to institute a national website blocking program.</p>
<p>The blocklist should be maintained by a yet to be established non-profit organization called the “Independent Piracy Review Agency” (IPRA) and both IPRA and the CRTC would be overseen by the Federal Court of Appeal, the organizations propose.</p>
<p>Thus far the response to the plan has been mixed. Several large media companies are in favor of blockades, arguing that it&#8217;s one of the few options to stop piracy. However, others fear that it will lead to overblocking and other problems. </p>
<p>Last week, the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics joined the opposition. In a detailed report on the protection of net neutrality in Canada, it signaled the blocking proposal as a serious concern. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_House_of_Commons_Standing_Committee_on_Access_to_Information,_Privacy_and_Ethics">House of Commons committee</a>, which advises Parliament on a variety of matters, notes that the Fairplay coalition hasn&#8217;t sufficiently explained why the current process doesn&#8217;t work, nor has it supplied sufficient evidence to justify the new measures. </p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he Committee is of the view that the proposal could impede the application of net neutrality in Canada, and that in their testimony, the ISPs did not present sufficient explanation as to why the existing process is inadequate or sufficient justification to support to application,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>At the same time, the lack of judicial oversight is seen as a problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Committee also remains skeptical about the absence of judicial oversight in the Fair Play proposal and is of the view that maintaining such oversight is critical,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p>What is clear, however, is that the proposal could impede the application of net neutrality in Canada. As such, the House of Commons committee recommends that the Government asks the CRTC to reconsider its decision, if it decides in favor of the blocking plan. </p>
<p>&#8220;That, in the event that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission supports FairPlay Canada’s application, the federal government consider using the authority provided under section 12 of the Telecommunications Act to ask the CRTC to reconsider its decision,&#8221; the recommendation reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>Recommendation</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/fd84ca51.committeereco.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/committeereco.png" alt="" width="500" height="147" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155620"></center></p>
<p>The net neutrality angle has been brought up by several parties in the past, ranging from legal experts, through copyright holders, to the public at large. While many see it as a threat, those in favor of website blocking say it&#8217;s a non-issue. </p>
<p>Even Internet providers themselves are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/not-all-canadian-isps-are-pro-site-blocking-180406/">divided on the topic</a>. Where Shaw sees no net neutrality concerns, TekSavvy has argued the opposite. </p>
<p>The House of Commons committee report clearly sides with the opponents and with backing from all political parties, it sends a strong message. This is music to the ears of law professor Micheal Geist, one of the most vocal critics of the Fairplay proposal. </p>
<p>&#8220;With all parties joining in a recommendation against the site blocking plan, the report represents a strong signal that the FairPlay coalition plan led by Bell does not have political support given that it raises freedom of expression, due process, and net neutrality concerns,&#8221; Geist <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/05/ethionfairplay/">notes</a>. </p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the report of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics is available <a href="media/0491bc64.421_ETHI_Rpt14-e.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/421_ETHI_Rpt14-e.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155642
title: Pirate IPTV Service Gave Customer Details to Premier League, But What’s the Risk?
uri: 2018-05-15-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cOqz52wrv0c/
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>In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-service-goes-bust-after-premier-league-deal-exposing-users-180913/">report</a> last weekend, we documented what appear to be the final days of pirate IPTV provider Ace Hosting.</p>
<p>From information provided by several sources including official liquidation documents, it became clear that a previously successful and profitable Ace had succumbed to pressure from the Premier League, which accused the service of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The company had considerable funds in the bank &#8211; £255,472.00 to be exact &#8211; but it also had debts of £717,278.84, including £260,000 owed to HMRC and £100,000 to the Premier League as part of a settlement agreement. </p>
<p>Information received by TF late Sunday suggested that £100K was the tip of the iceberg as far as the Premier League was concerned and in a statement yesterday, the football outfit confirmed that was the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;A renowned pirate of Premier League content to consumers has been forced to liquidate after agreeing to pay £600,000 for breaching the League&#8217;s copyright,&#8221; the Premier League announced.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ace IPTV, run by Craig Driscoll and Ian Isaac, was selling subscriptions to illegal Premier League streams directly to consumers which allowed viewing on a range of devices, including notorious Kodi-type boxes, as well as to smaller resellers in the UK and abroad.&#8221;</p>
<p>Sources familiar with the case suggest that while Ace Hosting Limited didn&#8217;t have the funds to pay the Premier League the full £600K, Ace&#8217;s operators agreed to pay (and have already paid, to some extent at least) what were essentially their own funds to cover amounts above the final £100K, which is due to be paid next year.</p>
<p>But that&#8217;s not the only thing that&#8217;s been handed over to the Premier League. </p>
<p>&#8220;Ace voluntarily disclosed the personal details of their customers, which the League will now review in compliance with data protection legislation. Further investigations will be conducted, and action taken where appropriate,&#8221; the Premier League added.</p>
<p>So, the big question now is how exposed Ace&#8217;s former subscribers are.</p>
<p>The truth is that only the Premier League knows for sure but TF has been able to obtain information from several sources which indicate that former subscribers probably aren&#8217;t the Premier League&#8217;s key interest and even if they were, information obtained on them would be of limited use.</p>
<p>According to a source with knowledge of how a system like Ace&#8217;s works, there is a separation of data which appears to help (at least to some degree) with the subscriber&#8217;s privacy.</p>
<p>&#8220;The system used to manage accounts and take payment is actually completely separate from the software used to manage streams and the lines themselves. They are never usually even on the same server so are two very different databases,&#8221; he told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;So at best the only information that has voluntarily been provided to the [Premier League], is just your email, name and address (assuming you even used real details) and what hosting package or credits you bought.&#8221;</p>
<p>While this information is bad enough, the action against Ace is targeted, in that it focuses on the Premier League&#8217;s content and how Ace (and therefore its users) infringed on the football outfit&#8217;s copyrights. So, proving that subscribers actually watched any Premier League content would be an ideal position but it&#8217;s not straightforward, despite the potential for detailed logging.</p>
<p>&#8220;The management system contains no history of what you watched, when you watched it, when you signed in and so on. That is all contained in a different database on a different server. </p>
<p>&#8220;Because every connection is recorded [on the second server], it can create some two million entries a day and as such most providers either turn off this feature or delete the logs daily as having so many entries slows down the system down used for actual streams,&#8221; he explains. </p>
<p>Our source says that this data would likely to have been the first to be deleted and is probably &#8220;long gone&#8221; by now. However, even if the Premier League had obtained it, it&#8217;s unlikely they would be able to do much with it due to data protection laws.</p>
<p>&#8220;The information was passed to the [Premier League] voluntarily by ACE which means this information has been given from one entity to another without the end users&#8217; consent, not part of the [creditors&#8217; voluntary liquidation] and without a court order to support it. Data Protection right now is taken very seriously in the EU,&#8221; he notes.</p>
<p>At this point, it&#8217;s probably worth noting that while the word &#8220;voluntarily&#8221; has been used several times to explain the manner in which Ace handed over its subscribers&#8217; details to the Premier League, the same word can be used to describe the manner in which the £600K settlement amount will be paid.</p>
<p>No one forces someone to pay or hand something over, that&#8217;s what the courts are for, and the aim here was to avoid that eventuality.</p>
<p>Other pieces of information culled from various sources suggest that PayPal payment information, limited to amounts only, was also handed over to the Premier League. And, perhaps most importantly (and perhaps predictably) as far as former subscribers are concerned, the football group was more interested in Ace&#8217;s upwards supplier chain (the &#8216;wholesale&#8217; stream suppliers used, for example) than those buying the service.</p>
<p>Finally, while the Premier League is now seeking to send a message to customers that these services are risky to use, it&#8217;s difficult to argue with the assertion that it&#8217;s unsafe to hand over personal details to an illegal service.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ace IPTV&#8217;s collapse also highlighted the risk consumers take with their personal data when they sign up to illegal streaming services,&#8221; Premier League notes.</p>
<p>TF spoke with three IPTV providers who all confirmed that they don&#8217;t care what names and addresses people use to sign up with and that no checks are carried out to make sure they&#8217;re correct. However, one concedes that in order to run as a business, this information has to be requested and once a customer types it in, it&#8217;s possible that it could be handed over as part of a settlement.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to tell people to put in dummy details, how can I? It&#8217;s up to people to use their common sense. If they&#8217;re still worried they should give Sky their money because if our backs are against the wall, what do you think is going to happen?&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155655
title: Metallica Was Right About Suing Napster, Guitarist Says
uri: Metallica-Was-Right-About-Suing-Napster-Guitarist-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/A0FOfcMyvnA/
content:
<p><img src="media/dd65e96d.metallica_logo-e1526377333350.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/metallica_logo-e1526377333350.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155660">When Metallica sued the revolutionary file-sharing platform Napster in 2000, the band was both criticized and praised. </p>
<p>Music industry insiders and several other musicians backed the move, but the public wasn&#8217;t happy to see their new sharing tool being destroyed. </p>
<p>What followed was a heated legal battle from which Metallica emerged as the clear winner, but not without scars. The defense painted the band as greedy rock stars and Luddites who had no clue about technology, as drummer Lars Ulrich later <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/lars-ulrich-proud-of-destruction-of-napster-090718/">recalled</a>. </p>
<p>Today, nearly two decades later, the world has moved on. Napster is long dead and gone, but online piracy is still very much alive. Perhaps even more so than in the early 2000s.</p>
<p>In an interview with Swedish TV show <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN2s5ZjUdfA">Nyhetsmorgon</a> picked up by <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/metallicas-kirk-hammett-were-still-right-about-suing-napster-w520290">Rolling Stone</a>, Metallica&#8217;s lead guitarist Kirk Hammett now says that going after Napster was the right thing to do. While the lawsuit also brought in negative elements, the Napster threat was real.</p>
<p>&#8220;The whole Napster thing definitely didn&#8217;t do us any favors whatsoever,&#8221; Hammett says. &#8220;But you know what? We&#8217;re still in the right on that. We&#8217;re still right about Napster. No matter who&#8217;s out there saying, &#8216;Metallica was wrong&#8217;.</p>
<p>&#8220;All you have to do is look at the state of the music industry, and that kind of explains the whole situation right there,&#8221; Hammett adds. </p>
<p>Metallica&#8217;s guitarists appear to suggest that the music industry is still collapsing due to the burden of piracy. Interestingly, however, the music industry&#8217;s own figures are rather uplifting. </p>
<p>In 2017, the recorded music market grew by 8.1% worldwide. This was the third growth year in a row, and the highest growth rate since the music industry body IFPI started tracking these numbers in 1997.</p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t mean that piracy has no effect at all, of course. Still, there is still plenty of room to grow, despite this disappearance of the highly profitable CD format. Times have changed, but people are still willing to pay for music.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that a lot of growth is coming from streaming services, which are good for more than half of all recorded music revenues in the US today. This also happens to be the platform that Metallica has ignored for years. </p>
<p>It took until the release of the 2016 album &#8220;Hardwired&#8230; to Self-Destruct&#8221; until the band embraced streaming more broadly. </p>
<p>Metallica now wants to make sure that their work is accessible legally, even though the outlet is not ideal in their view. This, ironically, means that their work is available on Napster again, as it&#8217;s a legal streaming service now.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to be accessible, and you need to have a mixture that you&#8217;re accessible on all the modern fronts,&#8221; Hammett says in the interview. And indeed, that&#8217;s a wise strategy if you want to prevent people from pirating. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155694
title: Roku Displays FBI Anti-Piracy Warning to Legitimate YouTube & Netflix Users
uri: Roku-Displays-FBI-Anti-Piracy-Warning-to-Legitimate-YouTube-Netflix
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wsXOCYiU0FI/
content:
<p><a href="media/fb4771ff.roku-e1502784984505.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/roku-e1502784984505.png"><img src="media/2d29bd11.roku-e1502784984505.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roku-e1502784984505.png" alt="" width="277" height="241" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143176"></a>In 2018, dealing with copyright infringement claims is a daily issue for many content platforms. The law in many regions demands swift attention and in order to appease copyright holders, most platforms are happy to oblige.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not unusual for &#8216;pirate&#8217; content and services to suddenly disappear in response to a DMCA or similar notice, the same is rarely true for entire legitimate services.</p>
<p>But that&#8217;s what appeared to happen on the Roku platform during the night, when YouTube, Netflix and other channels disappeared only to be replaced with an ominous anti-piracy warning.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The FBI and <a href="https://twitter.com/RokuPlayer?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RokuPlayer</a> say that the YouTube channel on Roku is an ‘unauthorized service’ that has been pirating content. Weird. <a href="https://t.co/wi31hv3Ydi">pic.twitter.com/wi31hv3Ydi</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Peter Tsai (@supertsai) <a href="https://twitter.com/supertsai/status/996543319110021125?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>As the embedded tweet shows, the message caused confusion among Roku users who were only using their devices to access legal content. Messages replacing Netflix and YouTube seemed to have caused the greatest number of complaints but many other services were affected.</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/sandiek/status/996539319706890242">FoxSportsGo</a>, FandangoNow, and India-focused <a href="https://twitter.com/Siddik_Tharik/status/996609286582226945">YuppTV</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/ashokramkumar/status/996583162116431874">Hotstar</a> were also blacked out. As were the yoga and transformational videos specialists over at <a href="https://twitter.com/md9599/status/996584651211788288">Gaia</a>, the horror buffs at <a href="https://twitter.com/Cloud9IPTV/status/996530743009361921">ChillerFlix</a>, and UK TV service <a href="https://twitter.com/albert71292/status/996523026496868354">BritBox</a>.</p>
<p>But while users scratched their heads, with some misguidedly blaming Roku for not being diligent enough against piracy, Roku took to Twitter to reveal that rather than anti-piracy complaints against the channels in question, a technical hitch was to blame.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">We are aware of a technical glitch that is affecting the Channel Store and channel playback on your Roku device. We hope to resolve the issue shortly. You can get a status update at <a href="https://t.co/mxCNxoG36N">https://t.co/mxCNxoG36N</a>. We apologize for any inconvenience.</p>
<p>&mdash; Roku Support (@RokuSupport) <a href="https://twitter.com/RokuSupport/status/996561644535730177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>However, a subsequent statement to CNET suggested that while blacking out Netflix and YouTube might have been accidental, Roku appears to have been taking anti-piracy action against another channel or channels at the time, with the measures inadvertently spilling over to innocent parties.</p>
<p>&#8220;We use that warning when we detect content that has violated copyright,&#8221; Roku <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/roku-devices-hit-with-massive-channel-outage/">said</a> in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some channels in our Channel Store displayed that message and became inaccessible after Roku implemented a targeted anti-piracy measure on the platform.&#8221;</p>
<p>The precise nature of the action taken by Roku is unknown but it&#8217;s clear that copyright infringement is currently a hot topic for the platform.</p>
<p>Roku is currently fighting <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-sales-banned-in-mexico-over-piracy-concerns-170619/">legal action</a> in Mexico which ordered its products off the shelves following complaints that its platform is used by pirates. That led to an FBI warning being shown for what was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-shows-fbi-warning-to-pirate-channel-users-171009/">believed to be the first time</a> against the XTV and other channels last year.</p>
<p>This March, Roku <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-removes-ustvnow-service-following-3rd-party-copyright-complaint-180329/">took action</a> against the popular USTVNow channel following what was described as a &#8220;third party&#8221; copyright infringement complaint. Just a couple of weeks later, Roku followed up by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-bans-popular-social-iptv-linking-service-ccloud-tv-180409/">removing</a> the controversial cCloud channel.</p>
<p>With Roku <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/controversial-roku-piracy-ban-stays-in-place-in-mexico-180323/">currently fighting</a> to have sales reinstated in Mexico against a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/forty-percent-of-all-mexican-roku-users-are-pirates-180332/">backdrop of claims</a> that up to 40% of its users are pirates, it&#8217;s unlikely that Roku is suddenly going to go soft on piracy, so more channel outages can be expected in the future.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the scary FBI warnings of last evening are beginning to fade away (for legitimate channels at least) after the company issued advice on how to fix the problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;The recent outage which affected some channels has been resolved. Go to Settings > System > System update > Check now for a software update. Some channels may require you to log in again. Thank you for your patience,&#8221; the company <a href="https://support.roku.com/en-gb/article/360004335034">wrote in an update</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155758
title: Internet Association Blasts MPAA’s ‘Crony Politics’
uri: Internet-Association-Blasts-MPAA-s-Crony-Politics
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WXEsy_9zyfU/
content:
<p><img src="media/24b91716.ia.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ia.png" alt="" width="272" height="101" class="alignright size-full wp-image-155766">Last month, MPAA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin used the Facebook privacy debacle to voice his concern about the current state of the Internet. </p>
<p>“The Internet is no longer nascent &#8211; and people around the world are growing increasingly uncomfortable with what it&#8217;s becoming,” Rivkin wrote in <a href="media/989d1e64.180410-MPAA-FB-hearing-Senate-letter.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/180410-MPAA-FB-hearing-Senate-letter.pdf">his letter</a> to several Senators, linking Internet-related privacy breaches to regulation, immunities, and safe harbors. </p>
<p>“The moment has come for a national dialogue about restoring accountability on the internet. Whether through regulation, recalibration of safe harbors, or the exercise of greater responsibility by online platforms, something must change.”</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s good to see that the head of Hollywood&#8217;s main lobbying group is concerned about Facebook users, not everyone is convinced of his good intentions. Some suggest that the MPAA is hijacking the scandal to further its own, unrelated, interests.</p>
<p>This is exactly the position taken by the <a href="https://internetassociation.org/">Internet Association</a>, a US-based organization comprised of the country’s leading Internet-based businesses. The organization is comprised of many prominent members including Google, Twitter, Amazon, Reddit, Yahoo, and Facebook. </p>
<p>Several of these companies were the target of the MPAA&#8217;s criticism, named or not, which prompted the Internet Association to respond.</p>
<p>In an open letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden, the group&#8217;s president and CEO, Michael Beckerman, lashes out against the MPAA and similar lobbying groups. These groups hijack the regulatory debate with anti-internet lobbying efforts, he says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Look no further than the gratuitous letter Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. Chairman &#038; CEO Charles Rivkin submitted to the Energy and Commerce Committee during your recent Zuckerberg hearing,&#8221; Beckerman writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The hearing had nothing to do with the Motion Picture industry, but Mr. Rivkin demonstrated shameless rent-seeking by calling for regulation on internet companies simply in an effort to protect his clients’ business interest.&#8221;</p>
<p>These rent-seeking efforts are part of the &#8220;crony politics&#8221; used by &#8220;pre-internet&#8221; companies to protect their old business models, the Internet Association&#8217;s CEO adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;This blatant display of crony politics is not unique to the big Hollywood studios, but rather emblematic of a broader anti-consumer lobbying campaign. Many other pre-internet industries —telcos, legacy tech firms, hotels, and others — are looking to defend old business models by regulating a rising competitor to the clear detriment of consumers.&#8221;</p>
<p>These harsh words show that the rift between Silicon Valley and Hollywood is still wide open.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that the MPAA and other copyright industry groups are still hoping for stricter regulation to ensure that Internet companies are held accountable. Privacy is generally not their main focus though.</p>
<p>They mostly want companies such as Google and Facebook to prevent piracy and compensate rightsholders. Whether using the Facebook privacy scandal was a good way to bring this message to the forefront is a matter of which camp one&#8217;s in.</p>
<p>While the Internet Association bashes the MPAA&#8217;s efforts, they don&#8217;t discount the idea that more can be done to prevent and stop abuse.</p>
<p>&#8220;As technology and services evolve to better meet user needs, bad actors will find ways to take advantage. Our members are ever vigilant and work hard to stop them. The task is never done, and we pledge to work harder and do even better,&#8221; Beckerman notes.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>The Internet Association&#8217;s full letter, <a href="http://variety.com/2018/politics/news/mark-zuckerberg-internet-association-mpaa-1202812207/">spotted</a> by Variety, is available <a href="media/b94f2c75.Internet-Association-Letter-To-Chairman-Walden-051518.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Internet-Association-Letter-To-Chairman-Walden-051518.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155796
title: Police Arrest Suspected Member of TheDarkOverlord Hacking Group
uri: Police-Arrest-Suspected-Member-of-TheDarkOverlord-Hacking-Group
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eA5exNhWTnU/
content:
<p><img src="media/268303f7.tdo-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tdo-logo.jpg" width="270" height="270" class="alignright size-large">In April 2017, the first episode of the brand new season of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black was uploaded to The Pirate Bay, months ahead of its official release date.</p>
<p>The leak was the work of a hacking entity calling itself TheDarkOverlord (TDO). One of its members had contacted TorrentFreak months earlier claiming that the content was in its hands but until the public upload, nothing could be confirmed.</p>
<p>TDO <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hackers-leak-netflixs-orange-is-the-new-black-season-5-premiere-170429/">told us</a> it had obtained the episodes after hacking the systems of Hollywood-based Larson Studios, an ADR (additional dialogue recorded) studio, back in 2016. TDO had attempted to blackmail the company into paying a bitcoin ransom but when it wasn&#8217;t forthcoming, TDO pressed the nuclear button.</p>
<p>Netflix <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-focuses-piracy-takedown-efforts-on-orange-is-the-new-black-leak-170505/">responded</a> by issuing a wave of takedown notices but soon TDO moved onto a new target. In June 2017, TDO followed up on an earlier threat to leak <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/thedarkoverlord-leaks-eight-episodes-of-unreleased-abc-show-170605/">content owned by ABC</a>.</p>
<p>But while TDO was perhaps best known for its video-leaking exploits, the group&#8217;s core &#8216;business&#8217; was hacking what many perceived to be softer targets. TDO ruthlessly slurped confidential data from weakly protected computer systems at medical facilities, private practices, and businesses large and small.</p>
<p>In each case, the group demanded ransoms in exchange for silence and leaked sensitive data to the public if none were paid. With dozens of known targets, TDO found itself at the center of an international investigation, led by the FBI. That now appears to have borne some fruit, with the arrest of an individual in Serbia.</p>
<p>Serbian police say that members of its Ministry of Internal Affairs, Criminal Police Directorate (UCC), in coordination with the Special Prosecution for High-Tech Crime, have taken action against a suspected member of TheDarkOverlord group.</p>
<p>Police say they tracked down a Belgrade resident, who was arrested and taken into custody. Identified only by the initials &#8220;S.S&#8221;, police say the individual was born in 1980 but have released no further personal details. A search of his apartment and other locations led to the seizure of items of digital equipment.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to the order of the Special Prosecutor&#8217;s Office for High-Tech Crime, criminal charges will be brought against him because of the suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of unauthorized access to a protected computer, computer networks and electronic processing, and the criminal offense of extortion,&#8221; a police statement reads.</p>
<p>In earlier correspondence with TF, the TDO member always gave the impression of working as part of a team but we only had a single contact point which appeared to be the same person. However, Serbian authorities say the larger investigation is aimed at uncovering &#8220;a large number of people&#8221; who operate under the banner of &#8220;TheDarkOverlord&#8221;.</p>
<p>Since June 2016, the group is said to have targeted at least 50 victims while demanding bitcoin ransoms to avoid disclosure of their content. Serbian authorities say that on the basis of available data, TDO received payments of more than $275,000.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155686
title: ‘Blocking Pirate Sites Through Court is Uncertain, Slow and Expensive’
uri: Blocking-Pirate-Sites-Through-Court-is-Uncertain-Slow-and-Expensiv
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KyIDncmzGpg/
content:
<p><img src="media/af081baa.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" alt="" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83641">FairPlay Canada, a coalition of copyright holders and major players in the telco industry, wants to institute a national pirate site blocking scheme. </p>
<p>The group <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">submitted its plan</a> to the Canadian telecoms regulator CRTC earlier this year, which subsequently asked the public for input. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/CommentForm/Default-Defaut.aspx?lang=e&#038;EN=201800467&#038;ET=A&#038;S=O&#038;PA=T&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A&#038;FN=">consultation</a> triggered a wave of responses. Those opposed to the blocklist idea highlight the risk of over-blocking, net neutrality threats, and the lack of judicial oversight, among other things.</p>
<p>Yesterday, the Fairplay Coalition responded to these comments in a new filing. Providing additional evidence, the group countered the opposition head-on, accusing some commenters of spreading false and inaccurate information. </p>
<p>The coalition also responded to the common argument that there is no need for a separate blocking scheme. Copyright holders can already request injunctive relief from the courts, demanding that ISPs block pirate sites, as is common in many other countries. </p>
<p>In its reply, Fairplay counters that this may not be as straightforward as some claim. Section 36 of the Telecommunications Act suggests that, in addition to a court order, Commission approval is needed to block a site. This is complex and makes it uncertain if courts will be willing to grant these blockades.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is possible a court would be dissuaded from making an order against ISPs to disable to access to a piracy site given section 36 and the Commission&#8217;s view of its impact,&#8221; Fairplay&#8217;s response reads.</p>
<p>In other words, the coalition suggests that with proper judicial oversight under current law, there may not be any blockades. It&#8217;s not clear how that helps their argument, as that might be the exact point of the critics, but there is more. </p>
<p>In addition to the uncertainty of getting a blocking order through the courts, Fairplay argues that this route will also be very expensive. To make this point, the coalition hired the law firm Hayes eLaw to calculate the potential costs and time required to complete the process.</p>
<p>According to this analysis, it may take more than two years before a blocking order is final, with hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses for just one site. This is too slow and too expensive, the coalition concludes.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he process involves first completing litigation against each egregious piracy site, and could take up to 765 days and cost up to $338,000 to address a single site,&#8221; Fairplay writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;While copyright enforcement actions are a crucial and powerful tool in many cases, it is not reasonable to suggest that rightsholders should spend this much time and resources to address every case in which their content is being stolen.&#8221; </p>
<p>Finally, Fairplay notes that those commenters who suggest the judicial route are apparently not against site blocking, but only against how these blockades are administered. </p>
<p><center><strong>Arguments against the court option</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a833596a.injunoption.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/injunoption.png" alt="" width="567" height="295" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155708"></center></p>
<p>As is often the case with consultations, both sides of the argument will present issues in a light that suits them best. </p>
<p>However, Fairplay goes even further and suggests that many consultation responses are based on misleading information, which is the result of online activists. </p>
<p>Among other things, these responses suggest that the plan would allow ISPs to unilaterally decide to block websites. However, Fairplay counters that ISPs can only block sites if they&#8217;re ordered to do so by the Commission, not on their own accord.</p>
<p>&#8220;The fact that the Commission received such interventions is not surprising, as every indication is that they were driven by online campaigns that made exactly this false claim,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>&#8220;Indeed, the petitions or form letters submitted by CIPPIC/OpenMedia, SumOfUs, and LeadNow all explicitly contain this particular point of misinformation.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to the misinformation, Fairplay also notes that some interventions are false, while thousands of petitions are mere duplicates. </p>
<p>&#8220;There are a number of obviously false interventions and the identity, veracity, and location of the others can generally not be confirmed. In the case of the petitions, there are more than 14,000 identified duplicate entries, and an unknowable number of other false entries.&#8221;</p>
<p>Fairplay doesn&#8217;t ask the CRTC to ignore these submissions. It just points out that they cannot be relied upon, as they are not representative or based on faulty assumptions about the actual proposal.</p>
<p>Instead, the coalition comes up with a survey of its own. Fairplay hired Nanos Research to ask random Canadians whether their country should have less, the same, or more protection than countries that currently block piracy sites, such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and France.</p>
<p>According to the results, 77% of Canadians believed Canada should have the same or more protection than those countries, suggesting that Canadians are not anti-site-blocking at all. That said, the above mentioned foreign blockades are court sanctioned. </p>
<p>The entire response from Fairplay Canada is available <a href="media/f33f6264.fairplayresponse.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fairplayresponse.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. It totals more than 60 pages and further addresses the economic impact of piracy, the effectiveness of the plan, how blocking is consistent with net neutrality and freedom of speech, as well as a wide range of other topics.</p>
<p>While the extra context will be useful to the CRTC, it&#8217;s unlikely to sway the opposition.</p>
<p>Around the same time as the coalition submitted its response, a new controversy emerged. Documents <a href="http://frpc.net/research/accesstoinformation/">published</a> by the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications suggest that Bell discussed the site blocking plan privately with the CRTC before it was made public. While it&#8217;s <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/05/bellsiteblockpresentation/">apparent</a> that site blocking was on the agenda, Bell told <a href="">Mobile Syrup</a> that there&#8217;s &#8220;nothing procedurally unusual&#8221; in this case.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155839
title: ExtraTorrent Replacement Displays Warning On Predecessor’s Shutdown Anniversary
uri: ExtraTorrent-Replacement-Displays-Warning-On-Predecessor-s-Shutdown
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fgLTydOTNtU/
content:
<p><img src="media/d8d8d052.extratorrent-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/extratorrent-1.png" width="250" height="76" class="alignright size-large">Exactly one year ago, millions of users in the BitTorrent community went into mourning with the shock depature of one of its major players.</p>
<p>ExtraTorrent was founded in back in November 2006, at a time when classic platforms such as TorrentSpy and Mininova were dominating the torrent site landscape. But with dedication and determination, the site amassed millions of daily visitors, outperforming every other torrent site apart from the mighty Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Then, on May 17, 2017, everything came crashing down.</p>
<p>“ExtraTorrent has shut down permanently,” a note in the site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/extratorrent-shuts-down-for-good-170517/">read</a>. “ExtraTorrent with all mirrors goes offline. We permanently erase all data. Stay away from fake ExtraTorrent websites and clones. Thx to all ET supporters and torrent community. ET was a place to be….”</p>
<p>While ExtraTorrent staff couldn&#8217;t be more clear in advising people to stay away from clones, few people listened to their warnings. Within hours, new sites appeared claiming to be official replacements for the much-loved torrent site and people flocked to them in their millions.</p>
<p>One of those was ExtraTorrent.ag, a torrent site connected to the operators of EZTV.ag, which appeared as a replacement in the wake of the official EZTV&#8217;s demise. Graphically very similar to the original ExtraTorrent, the .ag &#8216;replacement&#8217; had none of its namesake&#8217;s community or unique content. But that didn&#8217;t dent its popularity.</p>
<p><center><strong>ExtraTorrent.ag</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/96525279.extra-ag-archive-e1526627918641.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-ag-archive-e1526627918641.png"><img src="media/96525279.extra-ag-archive-e1526627918641.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-ag-archive-e1526627918641.png" alt="" width="600" height="291" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155845"></a></center></p>
<p>At the start of this week, ExtraTorrent.ag was one of the most popular torrent sites on the Internet. With an Alexa rank of around 2,200, it would&#8217;ve clinched ninth position in our <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">Top 10 Torrent Sites report</a> earlier this year. However, after registering the site&#8217;s domain a year ago, something seems to have gone wrong.</p>
<p>Yesterday, on the anniversary of ExtraTorrent&#8217;s shutdown and exactly a year after the ExtraTorrent.ag domain was registered, ExtraTorrent.ag disappeared only to be replaced by a generic landing page, as shown below.</p>
<p><center><strong>ExtraTorrent.ag landing page</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/65ebfd35.extra-landing-e1526628696991.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-landing-e1526628696991.png"><img src="media/65ebfd35.extra-landing-e1526628696991.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-landing-e1526628696991.png" alt="" width="600" height="303" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155849"></a></center></p>
<p>This morning, however, there appear to be additional complications. Accessing with Firefox produces the page above but attempting to do so with Chrome produces an ominous security warning.</p>
<p><center><strong>Chrome warning</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/f56b81a8.extra-warning-e1526628565321.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-warning-e1526628565321.png"><img src="media/f56b81a8.extra-warning-e1526628565321.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/extra-warning-e1526628565321.png" alt="" width="600" height="297" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155848"></a> </center></p>
<p>Indeed, those protected by MalwareBytes won&#8217;t be able to access the page at all, since ExtraTorrent.ag redirects to the domain FindBetterResults.com, which the anti-malware app flags as malicious.</p>
<p>The change was reported to TF by the operator of domain unblocking site <a href="https://unblocked.lol">Unblocked.lol</a>, which offers torrent site proxies as well as access to live TV and sports.</p>
<p>&#8220;I noticed when I started receiving emails saying ExtraTorrent was redirecting to some parked domain. When I jumped on the PC and checked myself it was just redirecting to a blank page,&#8221; he informs us. </p>
<p>&#8220;First I thought they&#8217;d blocked our IP address so I used some different ones. But I soon discovered the domain was in fact parked.&#8221;</p>
<p>So what has happened to this previously-functioning domain?</p>
<p>Whois records show that ExtraTorrent.ag was created on May 17, 2017 and appears to have been registered for a year. Yesterday, on May 17, 2018, the domain was updated to list what could potentially be a new owner, with an expiry date of May 17, 2019.</p>
<p>Once domains have expired, they usually enter an &#8216;Auto-Renew Grace Period&#8217; for up to 45 days. This is followed by a 30-day &#8216;Redemption Grace Period&#8217;. At the end of this second period, domains cannot be renewed and are released for third-parties to register. That doesn&#8217;t appear to have been the case here.</p>
<p>So, to find out more about the sudden changes we reached out to the email address listed in the WHOIS report but received no response. Should we hear more we&#8217;ll update this report but in the meantime the Internet has lost one of its largest torrent sites and gained a rather pointless landing page with potential security risks.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155677
title: TVAddons Denies Copyright Infringement Claims in Court
uri: TVAddons-Denies-Copyright-Infringement-Claims-in-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nTFXH6u1RDQ/
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">Last year, American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network targeted two well-known players in the third-party Kodi add-on ecosystem.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed in a federal court in Texas, add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">were accused of copyright infringement</a>. As a result, both are facing up to $150,000 in damages for each offense.</p>
<p>The owner and operator of TVAddons, Adam Lackman, and ZemTV developer, Shahjahan Durrani, previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-and-zemtv-ask-court-to-dismiss-u-s-piracy-lawsuit-180108/">asked the court</a> to dismiss the case, because neither reside in the United States. </p>
<p>The request was recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-denies-tvaddons-request-to-dismiss-u-s-piracy-lawsuit-180423/">denied</a> and the case continues. This means that the defendants must respond to the allegations at the Texas District Court. Yesterday, TVAddons&#8217; lawyer Jason Sweet submitted the answers of defendant Adam Lackman, who denies many of the claims put forward by Dish.</p>
<p>TVAddons&#8217; operator denies that he had the &#8220;ability to supervise and control&#8221; the alleged infringing activity of ZemTV, as Dish stated, and also refutes the claims that he received a &#8220;direct financial benefit&#8221; and &#8220;refused to take any action&#8221; to stop the infringement.</p>
<p>Lackman does confirm that ZemTV was available for download through TVAddons and that Dish sent a takedown notice to have it removed. TVAddons received this notice and forwarded it to the developer of the addon.</p>
<p>The answers are very minimal and mostly deny the complaint&#8217;s claims. However, the filing also includes several affirmative defenses, which provide some more insight and detail.</p>
<p>In the complaint, TVAddons&#8217; operator stands accused of &#8220;contributory / inducing copyright infringement,&#8221; but his lawyer points out that these are two different claims with separate thresholds which can&#8217;t be combined.</p>
<p>One requires knowledge of and a material contribution to the infringement, for example, while the other deals with the distribution of a device or product through which the infringing use is promoted.</p>
<p>&#8220;Contributory infringement and inducing infringement are two distinct causes of action and cannot be combined when pled. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(b) requires separate counts for separate claims,&#8221; Sweet writes. </p>
<p>And there are other points of confusion highlighted by the defense. Dish has stated that the copyrighted works at issue have not been registered, as that is no longer required to file a lawsuit under the Copyright Act.</p>
<p>While that is correct, TVAddons&#8217; lawyer points out that it prevents Dish from seeking statutory damages and attorneys fees or costs, because that does require copyright registration.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiff is not entitled to statutory damages, including attorney’s fees and costs because registration is required for foreign works to gain the procedural benefits of a prima facie presumption of the validity of a copyright, statutory damages, and attorney’s fees..,&#8221; the defense writes.</p>
<p>Adding to that, TVAddons&#8217; operator denies that he engaged in or contributed to any of the alleged infringements. And if there was any wrongdoing, this was certainly not intended. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant was not aware and had no reason to believe that any of his acts constituted an infringement of copyright. Any infringement by Defendant was innocent and not willful.&#8221;</p>
<p>The response is just the start of the case and both sides are expected to conduct further discovery to back up their respective positions. ZemTV&#8217;s operator, whose alleged infringements are central to the TVAddons case, has yet to file his answers. </p>
<p>TVAddons, meanwhile, remains operational through <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons.co</a> with a reduced library of addons. After it was decimated last year, the site has started to <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/statistics-april-2018/">regain</a> its user base, in the hope that they will support the legal battle.  </p>
<p>&#8220;If you are tired of seeing big companies act like they own the law, please consider making a donation to help us pay our lawyers. This lawsuit is about more than just us, it’s about the expansion of copyright law and a big bad corporation trying to bully us into submission,&#8221; TVAddons <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/dishnet-zemtv-lawsuit/">wrote last week</a>.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of TVAddons answer to the amended complaint is available <a href="media/0dffa418.tvaddonsdishanswer.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddonsdishanswer.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155742
title: Police Forces Around Europe Hit Pirate IPTV Operation
uri: Police-Forces-Around-Europe-Hit-Pirate-IPTV-Operation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5shPvbZLKOA/
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>Once upon a time, torrent and web streaming sites were regularly in the headlines while being targeted by the authorities. With the rise of set-top box streaming, actions against pirate IPTV operations are more regularly making the news.</p>
<p>In an operation coordinated by the public prosecutor&#8217;s office in Rome, 150 officers of the Provincial Command of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF) this week targeted what appears to be a fairly large unauthorized IPTV provider.</p>
<p>Under the banner Operation Spinoff, in Italy, more than 50 searches were carried out in 20 provinces of 11 regions. Five people were arrested. Elsewhere in Europe &#8211; in Switzerland, Germany and Spain &#8211; the Polizei Basel-Landschaft, the Kriminal Polizei and the Policia Nacional coordinated to execute warrants.</p>
<p><center><strong>A small selection of the service on offer</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/819e42e5.gdf-iptv1-e1526493242629.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv1-e1526493242629.png"><img src="media/819e42e5.gdf-iptv1-e1526493242629.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv1-e1526493242629.png" alt="" width="600" height="334" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155782"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Through technical and &#8216;in-the-field&#8217; investigations and the meticulous reconstruction of financial flows, carried out mainly through prepaid credit cards or payment web platforms, investigators have reconstructed the activity of a pyramid-like criminal structure dedicated to the illegal decryption and diffusion of pay-per-view television content through the Internet,&#8221; the GdF said in a statement.</p>
<p>Italian authorities report that the core of the IPTV operation were its sources of original content and channels. These were located in a range of diverse locations such as companies, commercial premises, garages and even private homes. Inside each location was equipment to receive, decrypt and capture signals from broadcasters including Sky TV.</p>
<p><center><strong>Italian police examine hardware</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/f45edc4d.gdf-iptv2-e1526493316456.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv2-e1526493316456.png"><img src="media/f45edc4d.gdf-iptv2-e1526493316456.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv2-e1526493316456.png" alt="" width="600" height="326" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155783"></a></center></p>
<p>These signals were collected together to form a package of channels which were then transmitted via the Internet and sold to the public in the form of an IPTV subscription. Packages were reportedly priced between 15 and 20 euros per month.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s estimated that between the 49 individuals said to be involved in the operation, around one million euros was generated. All are suspected of copyright infringement and money laundering offenses. Of the five Italian citizens reported to be at the core of the operations, four were taken into custody and one placed under house arrest.</p>
<p>Reports identify the suspects as: &#8216;AS&#8217;, born 1979 and residing in Lorrach, Germany. &#8216;RM&#8217;, born 1987 and living in Sarno, Italy. &#8216;LD&#8217;, born 1996 and also living in Sarno, Italy. &#8216;GP&#8217;, born 1990, living in Pordenone, Italy. And &#8216;SM&#8217;, born 1981 and living in Zagarolo, Italy.</p>
<p><center><strong>More hardware</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/be49424e.gdf-iptv3-e1526493393386.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv3-e1526493393386.png"><img src="media/be49424e.gdf-iptv3-e1526493393386.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gdf-iptv3-e1526493393386.png" alt="" width="600" height="324" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-155784"></a></center></p>
<p>Players at all levels of the business are under investigation, from the sources who decrypted the signals to the sellers and re-sellers of the content to end users. Also under the microscope are people said to have laundered the operation&#8217;s money through credit cards and payment platforms.</p>
<p>The GdF describes the pirate IPTV operation in serious terms, noting that it aimed to set up a &#8220;parallel distribution company able to provide services that are entirely analogous to lawful companies, from checks on the feasibility of installing the service to maintaining adequate standards and technical assistance to customers.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153417
title: The Curious Takedown Notices of ‘Tongues of Glass’ Poet Shaun Shane
uri: The-Curious-Takedown-Notices-of-Tongues-of-Glass-Poet-Shaun-Shan
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XIB0jwsFX4Y/
content:
<p><img src="media/e81d16e4.oops-mistake-error.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oops-mistake-error.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136532">Over the years we have published numerous articles on dubious or inaccurate takedown notices, both from large media conglomerates and independent copyright holders. </p>
<p>One of the most curious cases is without doubt that of Shaun Shane and his poem &#8216;Tongues Made of Glass.&#8217;</p>
<p>Five years ago the case first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-shatters-insane-glass-dmca-notice-on-impact-131114/">made headlines</a> when On Press Inc. started hounding people on social media because they dared to recite the single line poem, which consists of just eighteen words. </p>
<p>At the time, Techdirt <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130211/20400521946/bizarre-attribution-troll-bullies-twitter-users-into-compliance-with-baseless-legal-threats.shtml">reported on the issue</a>, which was quickly picked up by others including BoingBoing, professor Michael Geist, and lawyer Ken White at Popehat. Needless to say, the number of poem recitals only increased.</p>
<p>On Press Inc. wasn&#8217;t happy with the coverage. Responding to the media attention, the company asked Google to remove links to the poem from its search engine.</p>
<p>This effort backfired in an even bigger way. Not only did it lead to more articles, Google also rejected most of the requests. Even worse, the poem was also <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1209365">posted in full</a> in the Lumen database, where copies of Google&#8217;s DMCA notices are published. </p>
<p>Fast forward five years and the Tongues Made of Glass poem is back on the radar. This time it appears to be author <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/reporters/192080">&#8216;Shaun Shane&#8217; himself</a> who&#8217;s sending takedown notices to Google. </p>
<p>As before, the DMCA notices are mostly targeting articles that reference the previous debacles, including our own, but the accusations now go far beyond that. </p>
<p>According to Shaun Shane, people are using <a href="https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/B/Black_Hat_SEO.html">black hat SEO</a> bots to fool Google&#8217;s search algorithm and make these articles rank high for his name. </p>
<p>&#8220;Someone is using Bots for the reported Url to artificially raise its ranking in Google search results for the search terms &#8216;Shaun Shane&#8217; beyond what Googles search algorithm would natural assign it and are engaging in Black Hat Seo [sic],&#8221; he <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/16388777">writes</a> in the takedown notices.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re not sure what these alleged black hat tactics have to do with a copyright claim. What we do know, however, is that the repeated coverage of the poem&#8217;s dubious takedowns may have something to do with the high ranking. </p>
<p>It doesn&#8217;t end at these accusations though. </p>
<p>Looking more closely at the reported URLs we see some usual suspects, including <a href="https://boingboing.net/2013/02/14/crazy-copyright-enforcement-tw.html">BoingBoing</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-shatters-insane-glass-dmca-notice-on-impact-131114/">TorrentFreak</a>, <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/blog/?tag=shaun+shane">Techdirt</a> and <a href="https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/21/pressing-on-with-on-press-inc/">Popehat</a> links. However, there are also several innocent bystanders being dragged into the drama.</p>
<p>The poet also targets the website of the company &#8220;<a href="http://s-sbricklaying.com/">Shaun Shane Bricklaying</a>,&#8221; the Linkedin profile of sales manager <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaun-shane-a05097116/">Shaun Shane</a>, a <a href="https://utahbusiness.com/shaun-alldredge-shane-perkins-forty-40/">piece</a> on Legend Solar founders Shaun Alldredge and Shane Perkins, and the <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g304138-d11817254-Reviews-Shaun_Shane_Tour_Operators-Kandy_Kandy_District_Central_Province.html">TripAdvisor profile</a> of Shaun &#038; Shane Tour Operators.</p>
<p>Needless to say, none of these links are even remotely infringing, and we seriously doubt that they are using Black Hat SEO. They just happen to use the keywords &#8220;Shaun&#8221; and &#8220;Shane&#8221;.</p>
<p>Google, luckily, denied all of the takedown requests that we referenced here. We did see one URL that was removed, which used an image with the poem, without any context.</p>
<p>This means that the end result for Shaun Shane is not very uplifting. Most of the content he reported remains online and with new news reports being published (including this one), they will only end up higher in the search results next time.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155680
title: ISP Telenor Will Block The Pirate Bay in Sweden Without a Shot Fired
uri: ISP-Telenor-Will-Block-The-Pirate-Bay-in-Sweden-Without-a-Shot-Fired
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Sfnhf2rwlCo/
content:
<p><a href="media/cf3f78e1.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg"><img src="media/932e6d7d.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122"></a>Back in 2014, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-holders-want-pirate-bay-blocked-in-sweden-141111/">filed</a> a lawsuit against Bredbandsbolaget, one of Sweden&#8217;s largest ISPs.</p>
<p>The copyright holders asked the Stockholm District Court to order the ISP to block The Pirate Bay and streaming site Swefilmer, claiming that the provider knowingly facilitated access to the pirate platforms and assisted their pirating users.</p>
<p>Soon after the ISP fought back, refusing to block the sites in a determined response to the Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bredbandsbolaget’s role is to provide its subscribers with access to the Internet, thereby contributing to the free flow of information and the ability for people to reach each other and communicate,&#8221; the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isp-refuses-to-block-the-pirate-bay-141217/">said</a> in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bredbandsbolaget does not block content or services based on individual organizations’ requests. There is no legal obligation for operators to block either The Pirate Bay or Swefilmer.&#8221;</p>
<p>In February 2015 the parties met in court, with Bredbandsbolaget arguing in favor of the &#8220;important principle&#8221; that ISPs should not be held responsible for content exchanged over the Internet, in the same way the postal service isn&#8217;t responsible for the contents of an envelope.</p>
<p>But with TV companies SVT, TV4 Group, MTG TV, SBS Discovery and C More <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-categorically-refuses-to-block-pirate-bay-trial-set-for-october-150304/">teaming up</a> with the IFPI alongside Paramount, Disney, Warner and Sony in the case, Bredbandsbolaget would need to pull out all the stops to obtain victory. The company worked hard and initially the news was good.</p>
<p>In November 2015, the Stockholm District Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/no-pirate-bay-blockade-in-sweden-court-rules-151127/">decided</a> that the copyright holders could not force Bredbandsbolaget to block the pirate sites, ruling that the ISP&#8217;s operations did not amount to participation in the copyright infringement offenses carried out by some of its &#8216;pirate&#8217; subscribers.</p>
<p>However, the case subsequently went to appeal, with the brand new Patent and Market Court of Appeal hearing arguments. In February 2017 it handed down its decision, which overruled the earlier ruling of the District Court and ordered Bredbandsbolaget to implement “technical measures” to prevent its customers accessing the ‘pirate’ sites through a number of domain names and URLs.</p>
<p>With nowhere left to go, Bredbandsbolaget and owner Telenor were left hanging onto their original statement which vehemently opposed site-blocking.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is a dangerous path to go down, which forces Internet providers to monitor and evaluate content on the Internet and block websites with illegal content in order to avoid becoming accomplices,&#8221; they said.</p>
<p>In March 2017, Bredbandsbolaget blocked The Pirate Bay but said it would not give up the fight.</p>
<p>“We are now forced to contest any future blocking demands. It is the only way for us and other Internet operators to ensure that private players should not have the last word regarding the content that should be accessible on the Internet,” Bredbandsbolaget said.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not clear whether any additional blocking demands have been filed with the ISP, this week an announcement by Bredbandsbolaget parent company Telenor revealed an unexpected knock-on effect. Seemingly without a single shot being fired, The Pirate Bay will now be blocked by Telenor too.</p>
<p>The background lies in Telenor&#8217;s acquisition of Bredbandsbolaget back in 2005. Until this week the companies operated under separate brands but will now merge into one entity.</p>
<p>&#8220;Telenor Sweden and Bredbandsbolaget today take the final step on their joint trip and become the same company with the same name. As a result, Telenor becomes a comprehensive provider of broadband, TV and mobile communications,&#8221; the company said in a statement this week.</p>
<p>&#8220;Telenor Sweden and Bredbandsbolaget have shared both logo and organization for the last 13 years. Today, we take the last step in the relationship and consolidate the companies under the same name.&#8221; </p>
<p>Up until this final merger, 600,000 Bredbandsbolaget broadband customers were denied access to The Pirate Bay. Now it appears that Telenor&#8217;s <a href="https://www.telenor.se/om-telenor/">700,000</a> fiber and broadband customers will be affected too. The new single-brand company says it has decided to block the notorious torrent site across its entire network.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have not discontinued Bredbandsbolaget, but we have merged Telenor and Bredbandsbolaget and become one,&#8221; the company <a href="https://twitter.com/TelenorSverige/status/996354190552305664">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we share the same network, The Pirate Bay is blocked by both Telenor and Bredbandsbolaget and there is nothing we plan to change in the future.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the PR departments of both Telenor and Bredbandsbolaget requesting information on why a court order aimed at only the latter&#8217;s customers would now affect those of the former too, more than doubling the blockade&#8217;s reach. Neither company responded which leaves only speculation as to its motives.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the decision to voluntarily implement an expanded blockade could perhaps be viewed as a little unusual given how much time, effort and money has been invested in fighting web-blockades in Sweden.</p>
<p>On the other, the merger of the companies may present legal difficulties as far as the court order goes and it could certainly cause friction among the customer base of Telenor if some customers could access TPB, and others could not.</p>
<p>In any event, the legal basis for web-blocking on copyright infringement grounds was firmly established last year at the EU level, which means that Telenor would lose any future legal battle, should it decide to dig in its heels. On that basis alone, the decision to block all customers probably makes perfect commercial sense.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155692
title: Fairplay Canada Discredits “Pro-Piracy” TorrentFreak News, Then Cites Us
uri: Fairplay-Canada-Discredits-Pro-Piracy-TorrentFreak-News-Then-Ci
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2M_XDWvJVoM/
content:
<p><img src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510">At TorrentFreak we do our best to keep readers updated on the latest copyright and piracy news, highlighting issues from different points of view. </p>
<p>We report on the opinions and efforts of copyright holders when it comes to online piracy and we also make room for those who oppose them. That&#8217;s how balanced reporting works in our view.</p>
<p>There is probably no site on the Internet who reports on the negative consequences of piracy as much as we do, but for some reason, the term &#8220;pro-piracy&#8221; is sometimes attached to our reporting. This also happened in the recent reply <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blocking-pirate-sites-through-court-is-uncertain-slow-and-expensive-180517/">Fairplay Canada sent</a> to the CRTC. </p>
<p>The coalition of media companies and ISPs is trying to get a pirate site blocking regime implemented in Canada. As part of this effort, it&#8217;s countering numerous responses from the public, including one from law professor Michael Geist.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2018/04/crtcblockingsubmission/">his submission</a>, Geist pointed out that the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that site blocking is disproportional, referring to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blockades-violate-free-speech-mexicos-supreme-court-rules-170425/">our article</a> on the matter. This article was entirely correct at the time it was written, but it appears that the Court later clarified its stance.</p>
<p>Instead of pointing that out to us, or perhaps Geist, Fairplay frames it in a different light. </p>
<p>&#8220;Professor Geist dismisses Mexico because, relying on a third party source (the pro-piracy news site TorrentFreak), he believes its Supreme Court has ruled that the regime is disproportionate,&#8221; it writes.</p>
<p>Fairplay does not dispute that the Supreme Court initially ruled that a site blockade should target specific content. However, it adds that the court later clarified that blockades are also allowed if a substantial majority of content on a site is infringing.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that, later developments aside, our original article was correct. What bothers us, however, is that the Fairplay coalition is branding us as a &#8220;pro-piracy&#8221; site. That&#8217;s done for a reason, most likely to discredit the accuracy of our reporting.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pro piracy news site</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/30ad47c3.propiracy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/propiracy.png" alt="" width="600" height="77" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155733"></center></p>
<p>Luckily we have pretty thick skin, so we&#8217;ll get over it. If Fairplay Canada doesn&#8217;t trust us, then so be it. </p>
<p>Amusingly, however, this was not the only TorrentFreak article the coalition referenced. In fact, our reporting is cited twice more in the same report but without the pro-piracy branding. </p>
<p>A few pages down from the Geist reference, Fairplay mentions how pirate site blockades do not violate net neutrality in India, referring to our thorough article that explains how the process works. </p>
<p><center><strong>No pro piracy?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5b279120.tfok.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tfok.png" alt="" width="600" height="44" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155737"></center></p>
<p>Similarly, we&#8217;re also pretty reliable when it comes to reporting on MUSO&#8217;s latest piracy data, as Fairplay cites us for that as well. These are the data that play a central role in the coalition&#8217;s argumentation and analysis.</p>
<p>We&#8217;re not entirely sure how it works, but apparently, we are a &#8220;pro-piracy&#8221; news site when Fairplay Canada doesn&#8217;t like our reporting, and a reliable source when it suits their message.</p>
<p>In any case, we would like to point out that this entire opinion article is written without any pro-piracy messaging. But it appears that every sentence that deviates from the agenda of certain groups, may be interpreted as such.</p>
<p>Not sure if you could call that fair play?</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155922
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 05/21/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-05-21-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QbxMKxSvWAI/
content:
<figure id="attachment_155925" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><img class="size-full wp-image-155925" src="media/78cec8e3.pacific.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pacific.png" alt="" width="300" height="203"><figcaption id="figcaption_attachment_155925" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="color: #999999;"><em>Legendary Pictures/Universal Studios</em></span></figcaption></figure>
<p>This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Pacific Rim: Uprising 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-05-14-18/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">Pacific Rim: Uprising</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557478/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BAhwgjMvnM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">Avengers: Infinity War</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154756/">9.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwievZ1Tx-8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">Deadpool 2</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5463162/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D86RtevtfrA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">Red Sparrow</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2873282/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmUL6wMpMWw&amp;t=17s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">Game Night</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2704998/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxMAdV6s4U">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">Ready Player One</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1677720/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSp1dM2Vj48">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">12 Strong</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1413492/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Denciie5oA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">Den of Thieves</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1259528/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKd_ks0rdAM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&amp;t=2s">Thor: Ragnarok </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg&amp;t=2s">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155929
title: Singapore ISPs Block 53 Pirate Sites Following MPAA Legal Action
uri: Singapore-ISPs-Block-53-Pirate-Sites-Following-MPAA-Legal-Action
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wWK24XcW1pI/
content:
<p><a href="media/9eb9cac7.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg"><img src="media/a70e19c9.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-147564" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px"></a>Under increasing pressure from copyright holders, in 2014 Singapore <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/singapore-passes-pirate-bay-blocking-anti-piracy-law-140708/">passed amendments</a> to copyright law that allow ISPs to block &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>“The prevalence of online piracy in Singapore turns customers away from legitimate content and adversely affects Singapore’s creative sector,” said then Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah.</p>
<p>“It can also undermine our reputation as a society that respects the protection of intellectual property.”</p>
<p>After the amendments took effect in December 2014, there was a considerable pause before any websites were targeted. However, in September 2016, at the request of the MPA(A), Solarmovie.ph became the first website ordered to be blocked under Singapore&#8217;s amended Copyright Act. The High Court subsequently ordering several major ISPs to disable access to the site.</p>
<p>A new wave of blocks announced this morning are the country&#8217;s most significant so far, with dozens of &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites targeted following a successful application by the MPAA earlier this year.</p>
<p>In total, 53 sites across 154 domains &#8211; including those operated by The Pirate Bay plus KickassTorrents and Solarmovie variants &#8211; have been rendered inaccessible by ISPs including Singte﻿l, StarH﻿ub, M1, MyRepublic ﻿and﻿ View﻿Qwes﻿﻿t.</p>
<p>&#8220;In Singapore, these sites are responsible for a major portion of copyright infringement of films and television shows,&#8221; an MPAA spokesman told The Straits Times <em>(<a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/53-piracy-websites-blocked-in-battle-to-curb-copyright-breach">paywall</a>)</em>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This action by rights ﻿owners is necessary to protect﻿ the creative industry, enabling creators to create and keep their jobs, protect their works, and ensure the continued provision of high-quality content to audience﻿s﻿.&#8221;</p>
<p>Before granting a blocking injunction, the High Court must satisfy itself that the proposed online locations meet the threshold of being &#8220;flagrantly infringing&#8221;. This means that a site like YouTube, which carries a lot of infringing content but is not dedicated to infringement, would not ordinarily get caught up in the dragnet.</p>
<p>Sites considered for blocking must have a primary purpose to infringe, a threshold that is tipped in copyright holders&#8217; favor when the sites&#8217; operators display a lack of respect for copyright law and have already had their domains blocked in other jurisdictions. </p>
<p>The Court also weighs a number of additional factors including whether blocking would place an unacceptable burden on the shoulders of ISPs, whether the blocking demand is technically possible, and whether it will be effective.</p>
<p>In common with other regions such as the UK and Australia, for example, sites targeted for blocking must be informed of the applications made against them, to ensure they&#8217;re given a chance to defend themselves in court. No fully-fledged &#8216;pirate&#8217; site has ever defended a blocking application in Singapore or indeed any jurisdiction in the world.</p>
<p>Finally, should any measures be taken by &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites to evade an ISP blockade, copyright holders can apply to the Singapore High Court to amend the blocking order. This is similar to the Australian model where each application must be heard on its merits, rather than the UK model where a more streamlined approach is taken.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-reveals-scale-of-worldwide-pirate-site-blocking-180410/">recent report</a> by Motion Picture Association Canada, at least 42 countries are now obligated to block infringing sites. In Europe alone, 1,800 sites and 5,300 domains have been rendered inaccessible, with Portugal, Italy, the UK, and Denmark leading the way.</p>
<p>In Canada, where copyright holders are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">lobbying hard</a> for a site-blocking regime of their own, there&#8217;s pressure to avoid the &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blocking-pirate-sites-through-court-is-uncertain-slow-and-expensive-180517/">uncertain, slow and expensive</a>&#8221; route of going through the courts.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155912
title: Kodi-Addon Developer Gives Up Piracy Defense Due to Lack of Funds
uri: Kodi-Addon-Developer-Gives-Up-Piracy-Defense-Due-to-Lack-of-Funds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bzGoMQvnrZg/
content:
<p><img src="media/60695266.zemtv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zemtv.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-147486">Last year, American satellite and broadcast provider Dish Network targeted two well-known players in the third-party Kodi add-on ecosystem.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dish-network-sues-zemtv-and-tv-addons-for-copyright-infringement-170605/">complaint</a> filed in a federal court in Texas, add-on ZemTV and the TVAddons library were accused of copyright infringement, with both facing up to $150,000 for each offense.</p>
<p>While TVAddons operator <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tvaddons-denies-copyright-infringement-claims-in-court-180518/">Adam Lackman responded</a> to the allegations last week, ZemTV&#8217;s developer &#8216;Shani&#8217; decided not to reply. </p>
<p>Shahjahan Durrani, Shani for short, never denied that he was the driving force behind the Kodi-addons ZemTV, LiveStreamsPro, and F4MProxy. While the London-based developer had never set foot in Texas, he initially planned to put up a defense. Financially, however, this was a problem.</p>
<p>ZemTV&#8217;s developer launched <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-developer-launches-fundraiser-to-fight-copyright-bullies-171120/">a fundraiser</a> last fall to crowdsource the legal battle. While he was able to raise close to £1,000, the legal costs already exceeded that the case even got fully underway. </p>
<p>Without the ability to pay the legal costs Shani is unable to put up a proper defense. But speaking with TorrentFreak, he explains that after the motion to dismiss <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-denies-tvaddons-request-to-dismiss-u-s-piracy-lawsuit-180423/">was denied</a>, he didn&#8217;t have much hope for a fair trial anyway.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was shocked and disappointed, not only by reading that the court dismissed my jurisdiction appeal, they did so with just one sentence. It seems unfair and doesn’t give any confidence to me that the court/judge would be fair,&#8221; Shani tells us.</p>
<p>This left the developer with two options. Find a way to fund the legal battle, money which may never be recovered, or give up the fight and face a default judgment. Shani chose the latter option.</p>
<p>Shani told his attorney Erin Russel to cease all activity on the case and to take no further steps on his behalf.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don’t have enough resources to fight this case completely with four kids that I am raising and anything more I do will be seem to be submitting to the US Courts which I am not going to do unless I have enough money to fight the case,&#8221; the developer wrote in an email to Russel.</p>
<p>The attorney informed the court of this decision late last week and withdrew from the case. </p>
<p>This means that the lawsuit is steering towards a default judgment, and indeed, Dish has already moved for an entry of default. </p>
<p>&#8220;To date, Durrani has not filed an answer or other responsive pleading or requested additional time to do so,&#8221; Dish&#8217;s motion reads. &#8220;Accordingly, the Clerk should enter a default against Durrani.&#8221;</p>
<p>Shani still hopes that Dish will not push through. The developer stresses that he never operated any of the servers that provided copyright-infringing streams, nor has he ever made money from his addons.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hope they would let the matter go as the addon code has been taken down for more than a year now. Plus, they already know by the return of the subpoena to the servers that none of them were handled or paid by me,&#8221; Shani says.</p>
<p>&#8220;This was an open source addon and no one would pay hundreds of pounds to host the servers/streams in the hope that people would donate. I actually never ever asked for any donation and never ever earned a single penny from Kodi addons.&#8221; </p>
<p>ZemTV, like many other addons, merely offered the interface that makes it possible to watch third-party streams on the Kodi platform. While that may be infringement or not, the developer notes that despite the lawsuit, these third-party streams are still online.</p>
<p>&#8220;The irony of all this mess is that those servers and apps are still functional and working while I am dealing with this illogical case,&#8221; Shani concludes.  </p>
<p>If the Texas District Court enters the default, Dish will demand a judgment which likely includes thousands of dollars in damages. However, since Durrani lives in the UK and has no assets in the US, these damages may be hard to recoup.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Dish&#8217;s request for an entry of default is available <a href="media/4f97c660.zemdef.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/zemdef.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155983
title: Despite US Criticism, Ukraine Cybercrime Chief Receives Few Piracy Complaints
uri: Despite-US-Criticism-Ukraine-Cybercrime-Chief-Receives-Few-Piracy-Com
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BYd-gi3yoSM/
content:
<p><a href="media/a035d672.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png"><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"></a>On a large number of occasions over the past decade, Ukraine has played host to some of the world&#8217;s largest pirate sites.</p>
<p>At various points over the years, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chased-from-sweden-pirate-bay-sails-to-ukraine-091002/">The Pirate Bay</a>, KickassTorrents, ExtraTorrent, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-tracker-moves-to-ukraine-080316/">Demonoid</a> and raft of streaming portals could be found housed in the country&#8217;s data centers, reportedly taking advantage of laws more favorable than those in the US and EU.</p>
<p>As a result, Ukraine has been regularly criticized for not doing enough to combat piracy but when placed under pressure, it does take action. In 2010, for example, the local government expressed concerns about the hosting of KickassTorrents in the country and in August the same year, the site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-taken-down-after-copyright-concerns-100812/">kicked out by its host</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kickasstorrents.com main web server was shut down by the hosting provider after it was contacted by local authorities. One way or another I’m afraid we must say goodbye to Ukraine and move the servers to other countries,&#8221; the site’s founder told TF at the time.</p>
<p>In the years since, Ukraine has launched sporadic action against pirate sites and has taken steps to tighten up copyright law. The Law on State Support of Cinematography came into force during April 2017 and gave copyright owners <a href="https://www.smartsolutions.ua/en/law-of-ukraine-on-state-support-of-cinematography">new tools</a> to combat infringement by forcing (in theory, at least) site operators and web hosts to respond to takedown requests.</p>
<p>But according to the United States and Europe, not enough is being done. After the EU Commission <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-representative-ukraine-must-tighten-noose-on-internet-pirates-170203/">warned</a> that Ukraine risked damaging relations with the EU, last September US companies followed up with another scathing attack.</p>
<p>In a recommendation to the U.S. Government, the IIPA, which counts the MPAA, RIAA, and ESA among its members, asked U.S. authorities to suspend or withdraw Ukraine&#8217;s trade benefits until the online piracy situation improves.</p>
<p>&#8220;Legislation is needed to institute proper notice and takedown provisions, including a requirement that service providers terminate access to individuals (or entities) that have repeatedly engaged in infringement, and the retention of information for law enforcement, as well as to provide clear third party liability regarding ISPs,” the IIPA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ukraine-faces-call-us-trade-sanctions-over-online-piracy-170918/">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>But amid all the criticism, Ukraine cyber police chief Sergey Demedyuk says that while his department is committed to tackling piracy, it can only do so when complaints are filed with him. </p>
<p>&#8220;Yes, we are engaged in piracy very closely. The problem is that piracy is a crime of private accusation. So here we deal with them only in cases where we are contacted,&#8221; Demedyuk said in an <a href="https://interfax.com.ua/news/interview/506643.html">Interfax</a> interview published yesterday.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, given the number of dissenting voices, it appears that complaints about these matters aren&#8217;t exactly prevalent. So are there many at all?</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, no. In the media, many companies claim that their rights are being violated by pirates. But if you count the applications that come to us, they are one,&#8221; Demedyuk reveals.</p>
<p>&#8220;In general, we are handling Ukrainian media companies, who produce their own product and are worried about its fate. Also on foreign films, the &#8216;Anti-Piracy Agency&#8217; refers to us, but not as intensively as before.&#8221;</p>
<p>Why complaints are going down, Demedyuk does not know, but when his unit is asked to take action it does so, he claims. Indeed, Demedyuk cites two particularly significant historical operations against a pair of large &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>In 2012, Ukraine <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/authorities-shut-down-ukraines-largest-file-sharing-site-120131/">shut down</a> EX.ua, a massive cyberlocker site following a six-month investigation initiated by international tech companies including Microsoft, Graphisoft and Adobe. Around 200 servers were seized, together hosting around 6,000 terabytes of data.</p>
<p>Then in November 2016, following a complaint from the MPAA, police <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-pirate-site-seize-60-servers-following-mpaa-complaint-161115/">raided</a> FS.to, one of Ukraine&#8217;s most popular pirate sites. Initial reports indicated that 60 servers were seized and 19 people were arrested.</p>
<p>&#8220;To see the effect of combating piracy, this should not be done at the level of cyberpolicy, but at the state level,&#8221; Demedyuk advises.</p>
<p>&#8220;This requires constant close interaction between law enforcement agencies and rights holders. Only by using all these tools will we be able to effectively counteract copyright infringements.&#8221;</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the Office of the United States Trade Representative has maintained Ukraine&#8217;s position on the Priority Watchlist of its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-calls-out-dozens-of-countries-on-yearly-piracy-watchlist-180430/">latest Special 301 Report</a> and there a no signs it will be leaving anytime soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=155854
title: Facebook User Pleads Guilty to Uploading Pirated Copy of Deadpool
uri: Facebook-User-Pleads-Guilty-to-Uploading-Pirated-Copy-of-Deadpool
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h2-iYbr25ic/
content:
<p><img src="media/139ebf81.facebook-pirate-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebook-pirate-1.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-139520">Every day, hundreds of millions of people use Facebook to share photos, videos and other information. </p>
<p>While most of the content posted on the site is relatively harmless, some people use it to share things they are not supposed to. A pirated copy of Deadpool, for example.</p>
<p>This is what the now 22-year-old Trevon Franklin from Fresno, California, did early 2016. Just a week after the first installment of the box-office hit Deadpool premiered in theaters, he shared a pirated copy of the movie on the social network.</p>
<p>To be clear, Franklin wasn&#8217;t the person who originally made the copy available. He simply downloaded it from the file-sharing site Putlocker.is and then proceeded to upload it to his Facebook account, using the screen name “Tre-Von M. King.”</p>
<p>This post went viral with more than six million viewers &#8216;tuning in.&#8217; While many people dream of this kind of attention, in this case, it meant that copyright holder Twentieth Century Fox and the feds were alerted as well.</p>
<p>The FBI launched a full-fledged investigation which eventually led to an <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/fresno-man-arrested-federal-copyright-violations-alleged-illegal-upload-deadpool-movi-0">indictment</a> and the arrest of Franklin <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/man-faces-prison-for-sharing-pirated-deadpool-movie-on-facebook-170614/">last summer</a>. </p>
<p>After months of relative silence, Franklin has now signed a plea agreement with the Government where he admits to sharing the pirated film on Facebook. In return, the authorities will recommend a sentence reduction.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant admits that defendant is, in fact, guilty of the offense to which defendant is agreeing to plead guilty,&#8221; the plea agreement reads.</p>
<p>The legal paperwork, signed by both sides, states that Franklin downloaded the pirated copy from Putlocker, knowing full well that he didn&#8217;t have permission to do so. He then willfully shared it on Facebook where it was accessed by millions of people.</p>
<p>&#8220;Between February 20 and 22, 2016, while Deadpool was still in theaters and had not yet been made available for purchase by the public for home viewing, the copy of Deadpool defendant posted to his Facebook page had been viewed over 6,386,456 times,&#8221; the paperwork reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the plea agreement</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2d07f1ca.deadp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deadp.png" alt="" width="600" height="237" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-155873"></center></p>
<p>While a federal case over Facebook uploads is unlikely, the risk of legal trouble was pointed out to Franklin by others. </p>
<p>According to Facebook comments from 2016, several people warned “Tre-Von M. King” that it wasn’t wise to post copyright-infringing material on the social media platform. However, Franklin said he wasn’t worried.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear why the US Government decided to pursue this case. Copyright infringement isn&#8217;t exactly rare on Facebook. However, it may be that the media attention and the high number of views may have prompted the authorities to set an example.</p>
<p>Under the terms of the plea agreement, Franklin will be sentenced for a Class A misdemeanor. This can lead to a maximum prison sentence of one year, followed by probation or a supervised release, as well as a fine of $100,000. Meanwhile, he has waived his right to a trial by jury.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the plea agreement is available <a href="media/630d93be.deadpoolplea.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/deadpoolplea.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=156010
title: BPI Wants Piracy Dealt With Under New UK Internet ‘Clean-Up’ Laws
uri: BPI-Wants-Piracy-Dealt-With-Under-New-UK-Internet-Clean-Up-Laws
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RFC40Na4bEQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec902f6c.bpi.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png"><img src="media/cb62421b.bpi.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png" alt="" width="222" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-94190" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi-220x106.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px"></a>For the past several years, the UK Government has expressed a strong desire to &#8220;clean up&#8221; the Internet.</p>
<p>Strong emphasis has been placed on making the Internet safer for children but that&#8217;s just the tip of a much larger iceberg.</p>
<p>This week, the Government published its response to the  <a href="media/50d60227.Internet_Safety_Strategy_green_paper.pdf" data-original-source="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/650949/Internet_Safety_Strategy_green_paper.pdf">Internet Safety Strategy green paper</a>, stating unequivocally that more needs to be done to tackle &#8220;online harm&#8221;.</p>
<p>Noting that six out of ten people report seeing inappropriate or harmful content online, the Government said that work already underway with social media companies to protect users had borne fruit but overall industry response has been less satisfactory.</p>
<p>As a result, the Government will now carry through with its threat to introduce new legislation, albeit with the assistance of technology companies, children&#8217;s charities and other stakeholders. </p>
<p>&#8220;Digital technology is overwhelmingly a force for good across the world and we must always champion innovation and change for the better,&#8221; said Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the same time I have been clear that we have to address the Wild West elements of the Internet through legislation, in a way that supports innovation. We strongly support technology companies to start up and grow, and we want to work with them to keep our citizens safe.&#8221;</p>
<p>While emphasis is being placed on hot-button topics such as cyberbullying and online child exploitation, the Government is clear that it wishes to tackle &#8220;the full range&#8221; of online harms. That has been greeted by UK music group BPI with a request that the Government introduces new measures to tackle Internet piracy.</p>
<p>In a statement issued this week, BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor welcomed the move towards legislative change and urged the Government to encompass the music industry and beyond.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a vital opportunity to protect consumers and boost the UK’s music and creative industries. The BPI has long pressed for internet intermediaries and online platforms to take responsibility for the content that they promote to users,&#8221; Taylor said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Government should now take the power in legislation to require online giants to take effective, proactive measures to clean illegal content from their sites and services. This will keep fans away from dodgy sites full of harmful content and prevent criminals from undermining creative businesses that create UK jobs.&#8221;</p>
<p>The BPI has published four initial requests, each of which provides food for thought.</p>
<p>The demand to &#8220;establish a new fast-track process for blocking illegal sites&#8221; is not entirely unexpected, particularly given the expense of launching applications for blocking injunctions at the High Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;The BPI has taken a large number of actions against individual websites – 63 injunctions are in place against sites that are wholly or mainly infringing and whose business is simply to profit from criminal activity,&#8221; the BPI says.</p>
<p>Those injunctions can be expanded fairly easily to include new sites operating under similar banners or facilitating access to those already covered, but it&#8217;s clear the BPI would like something more streamlined. Voluntary schemes, such as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/portugals-pirate-site-blocking-system-works-great-study-shows-170728/">one in place in Portugal</a>, could be an option but it&#8217;s unclear how troublesome that could be for ISPs. New legislation could solve that dilemma, however.</p>
<p>Another big thorn in the side for groups like the BPI are people and entities that post infringing content. The BPI is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-search-receives-fewer-takedown-notices-than-before-180414/">very good</a> at taking these listings down from sites and search engines in particular (more than 600 million requests to date) but it&#8217;s a game of whac-a-mole the group would rather not engage in.</p>
<p>With that in mind, the BPI would like the Government to impose new rules that would compel online platforms to stop content from being re-posted after it&#8217;s been taken down while removing the accounts of repeat infringers.</p>
<p>Thirdly, the BPI would like the Government to introduce penalties for &#8220;online operators&#8221; who do not provide &#8220;transparent contact and ownership information.&#8221; The music group isn&#8217;t any more specific than that, but the suggestion is that operators of some sites have a tendency to hide in the shadows, something which frustrates enforcement activity.</p>
<p>Finally, and perhaps most interestingly, the BPI is calling on the Government to legislate for a new &#8220;duty of care&#8221; for online intermediaries and platforms. Specifically, the BPI wants &#8220;effective action&#8221; taken against businesses that use the Internet to &#8220;encourage&#8221; consumers to access content illegally.</p>
<p>While this could easily encompass pirate sites and services themselves, this proposal has the breadth to include a wide range of offenders, from people posting <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-wont-put-up-with-blatant-piracy-tutorials-forever-180506/">piracy-focused tutorials</a> on monetized YouTube channels to those selling fully-loaded Kodi devices on eBay or social media.</p>
<p>Overall, the BPI clearly wants to place pressure on intermediaries to take action against piracy when they&#8217;re in a position to do so, and particularly those who may not have shown much enthusiasm towards industry collaboration in the past.</p>
<p>&#8220;Legislation in this Bill, to take powers to intervene with respect to operators that do not co-operate, would bring focus to the roundtable process and ensure that intermediaries take their responsibilities seriously,&#8221; the BPI says.</p>
<p>The Department for Digital, Culture, Media &#038; Sport and the Home Office will now work on a White Paper, to be published later this year, to set out legislation to tackle &#8220;online harms&#8221;. The BPI and similar entities will hope that the Government takes their concerns on board.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=156000
title: Phone Store Employee Sued For Promoting ‘Pirate’ App Showbox
uri: Phone-Store-Employee-Sued-For-Promoting-Pirate-App-Showbox
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qaqKIa7GX8M/
content:
<p><img src="media/77d0836e.showbox.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/showbox.png" alt="" width="290" height="247" class="alignright size-full wp-image-156005">In recent years, a group of select companies have pressured hundreds of thousands of alleged pirates to pay significant settlement fees, or face legal repercussions.</p>
<p>Traditionally, the companies go after BitTorrent users, as they are easy to track down by their IP-addresses. In Hawaii, however, a newly filed case adds a twist to this scheme. </p>
<p>The studios ME2 Productions and Headhunter, who own the rights to the movies &#8216;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3522806/">Mechanic: Resurrection</a>&#8216; and &#8216;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1718924/">A Family Man</a>&#8216; respectively, are suing an employee of a phone store who allegedly promoted and installed the &#8216;pirate&#8217; application Showbox on a customer&#8217;s device. </p>
<p><a href="http://showboxappdownload.com/">Showbox</a> is a popular movie and TV-show streaming application that&#8217;s particularly popular among mobile Android users. The app is capable of streaming torrents and works on a wide variety of devices. </p>
<p>While it can be used to stream legitimate content, many people use it to stream copyrighted works. In fact, the application itself displays this infringing use on its homepage, showing off pirated movies.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed at the US District Court of Hawaii, the studios accuse local resident Taylor Wolf of promoting Showbox and its infringing uses. </p>
<p>According to the studios, Wolf works at the Verizon-branded <a href="https://www.yelp.com/biz/victra-verizon-authorized-retailer-kahului">phone store Victra</a>, where she helped customers set up and install phones, tablets and other devices. In doing so, the employee allegedly recommended the Showbox application. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Defendant promoted the software application Show Box to said members of the general public, including Kazzandra Pokini,&#8221; the complaint reads, adding that Wolf installed the Showbox app on the customer&#8217;s tablet, so she could watch pirated content.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the complaint</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/56c224b2.showboxalleg.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/showboxalleg.png" alt="" width="600" height="261" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-156011"></center></p>
<p>The movie studios note that the defendant told the customer in question that her tablet could be used to watch free movies. The employee allegedly installed the Showbox app on the device in the store and showed the customer how to use it.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendant knew that the Show Box app would cause Kazzandra Pokini to make copies of copyrighted content in violation of copyright laws of the United States,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>
<p>The lawsuit is unique in the sense that the studios are going after someone who&#8217;s not directly accused of sharing their films. In the traditional lawsuits, they go after the people who share their work. </p>
<p>The complaint doesn&#8217;t mention why they chose this tactic. One option is that they initially went after the customer, who then pointed ME2 and Headhunter toward the phone store employee.</p>
<p>Neither studio is new to the piracy lawsuit game. ME2 is connected to <a href="http://www.millennium-media.net/">Millennium Films</a> and Headhunter is an affiliate of <a href="http://www.voltagepictures.com/">Voltage Pictures</a>, one of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-target-record-breaking-24583-bittorrent-users-110523/">the pioneers</a> of so-called copyright trolling cases in the US.</p>
<p>As in most other cases, the copyright holders demand a preliminary injunction to stop Wolf from engaging in any infringing activities, as well as statutory damages, which theoretically can go up to $150,000 per pirated film, but are usually settled for a fraction of that.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the complaint filed against Taylor Wolf at the US District Court of Hawaii is available <a href="media/25ad004d.showbox.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/showbox.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=156075
title: Fully-Loaded Kodi Box Sellers Receive Hefty Jail Sentences
uri: Fully-Loaded-Kodi-Box-Sellers-Receive-Hefty-Jail-Sentences
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/q05Su3FSbrA/
content:
<p><a href="media/6ba5f758.Android-Box.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Android-Box.png"><img src="media/b57c5448.Android-Box.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Android-Box.png" alt="" width="250" height="165" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143296"></a>While users of older peer-to-peer based file-sharing systems have to work relatively hard to obtain content, users of the Kodi media player have things an awful lot easier.</p>
<p>As standard, Kodi is perfectly legal. However, when augmented with third-party add-ons it becomes a media discovery powerhouse, providing most of the content anyone could desire. A system like this can be set up by the user but for many, buying a so-called &#8220;fully-loaded&#8221; box from a seller is the easier option.</p>
<p>As a result, hundreds &#8211; probably thousands &#8211; of cottage industries have sprung up to service this hungry market in the UK, with regular people making a business out of setting up and selling such devices. Until three years ago, that&#8217;s what Michael Jarman and Natalie Forber of Colwyn Bay, Wales, found themselves doing.</p>
<p>According to reports in local media, Jarman was arrested in January 2015 when police were called to a disturbance at Jarman and Forber&#8217;s home. A large number of devices were spotted and an investigation was launched by Trading Standards officers. The pair were later arrested and charged with fraud offenses.</p>
<p>While 37-year-old Jarman pleaded guilty, 36-year-old Forber initially denied the charges and was due to stand trial. However, she later changed her mind and like Jarman, <a href="https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/fully-loaded-kodi-scam-woman-14607292">pleaded guilty</a> to participating in a fraudulent business. Forber also pleaded guilty to transferring criminal property by shifting cash from the scheme through various bank accounts.</p>
<p>The pair attended a sentencing hearing before Judge Niclas Parry at Caernarfon Crown Court yesterday. According to local reporter <a href="https://twitter.com/DP_eryl">Eryl Crump</a>, the Court heard that the couple had run their business for about two years, selling around 1,000 fully-loaded Kodi-enabled devices for £100 each via social media.</p>
<p>According to David Birrell for the prosecution, the operation wasn&#8217;t particularly sophisticated but it involved Forber programming the devices as well as handling customer service. Forber claimed she was forced into the scheme by Jarman but that claim was rejected by the prosecution.</p>
<p>Between February 2013 and January 2015 the pair banked £105,000 from the business, money that was transferred between bank accounts in an effort to launder the takings.</p>
<p>Reporting from Court via Twitter, Crump said that Jarman&#8217;s defense lawyer accepted that a prison sentence was inevitable for his client but asked for the most lenient sentence possible.</p>
<p>Forber&#8217;s lawyer pointed out she had no previous convictions. The mother-of-two broke up with Jarman following her arrest and is now back in work and studying at college.</p>
<p>Sentencing the pair, Judge Niclas Parry described the offenses as a &#8220;relatively sophisticated fraud&#8221; carried out over a significant period. He jailed Jarman for 21 months and Forber for 16 months, suspended for two years. She must also carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.</p>
<p>The pair will also face a Proceeds of Crime investigation which could see them paying large sums to the state, should any assets be recoverable.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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