# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134264
title: Finnish Government Investigates as Tens of Thousands Face Piracy ‘Fines’
uri: Finnish-Government-Investigates-as-Tens-of-Thousands-Face-Piracy-Fi
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BYD5zF55PsQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/fe566856.finland1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/finland1.jpg" width="200" height="143" alt="" class="alignright size-large">So-called copyright trolling is a plague sweeping across the world and there seems to be very little anyone can do to stop it. Claiming that their rights have been infringed, copyright holders head to court to demand the identities of subscribers behind IP addresses and from there they begin their threats.</p>
<p>One of the more recent countries to be hit with the phenomenon is Finland, where the practice seriously got underway <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-copyright-trolls-invade-finland-140326/">in 2014</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolls-begin-taking-finnish-pirates-to-court-151026/">escalated in 2015</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s now emerged that tens of thousands of citizens are likely to be caught up in a new dragnet following their alleged sharing of movies and TV shows.</p>
<p>A copy of a letter recently sent to an Internet subscriber and obtained by <a href="http://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000005052577.html">Helsingin Sanomat</a> reveals a demand for 2,200 euros relating to the downloading of a TV show. But this single letter is just the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<p>Last year a local court dealt with around 200 cases that concluded with copyright holders being granted permission to obtain the identities of between hundreds and thousands of individuals said to have infringed their rights.</p>
<p>HS estimates that as many as 60,000 people could be in line to receive cash demands similar to the one detailed above. They come from Hedman Partners, the Helsinki law firm that&#8217;s been involved in copyright trolling cases in Finland for the past couple of years.</p>
<p>Based on a 2,200 euro settlement, the cash involved is potentially enormous. For every hundred cases settled, the law firm <a href="http://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000005052577.html">reportedly</a> pockets 130,000 euros for &#8220;monitoring costs&#8221;, with 90,000 euros going to the rightsholders.</p>
<p>Due to the scale of the problem, complaints from letter recipients are now being reported to various local authorities. After receiving dozens of complaints from bewildered Internet account holders, police were forced to issue a statement last Friday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Based on notification of data there is no reason to suspect a crime. The mere lack of clarity associated with the invoice-based letter, for example, does not prove the crime of fraud or an intention to deliberate deceive,&#8221;  said Detective Chief Inspector Taija Kostamo.</p>
<p>Kostamo also noted that since the dispute is one based in civil law, the police will not be getting involved in any investigation.</p>
<p>&#8220;The police are not the competent authority to solve this issue,&#8221; he said, adding that citizens should take steps to secure their Wi-Fi networks to avoid third-party intrusions.</p>
<p>With the police backing away from any involvement, expectations have now fallen on the government to tackle the problem. Thankfully for those involved, the Ministry of Education and Culture appears to be taking the matter seriously and has promised an investigation.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is not intended that our legislation should be used for milking [the public],&#8221; <a href="http://www.hs.fi/talous/art-2000005053537.html">said</a> ‎Government Counsellor Anna Vuopala.</p>
<p>&#8220;It seems that it is appropriate for the Ministry to convene the parties involved in order to find out whether the law is being complied with in all respects,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>Local copyright law obliges ISPs to hand over account holders&#8217; names if copyrighted content has been shared without permission to a &#8220;significant degree.&#8221; There is now some debate over whether the sharing of a movie or TV show meets that threshold.</p>
<p>With a meeting planned for February, the issue has now attracted the attention of parliament. HS reports that various Members of Parliament are looking into the matter to clarify the position and look at what can be done to deal with the problems raised.</p>
<p>The situation emerging in Finland is a prime example of what happens when large numbers of people are targeted at once. While a few hundred cases might fly somewhat under the radar and fade away relatively quickly, tens of thousands aren&#8217;t going to be brushed under the carpet. Trolling has now become a national issue, with all of the consequences that will entail.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134259
title: Demonoid Suffers Extended Downtime Due to Hosting Issue
uri: Demonoid-Suffers-Extended-Downtime-Due-to-Hosting-Issue
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FSjCM95FHPk/
content:
<p><a href="media/bfffa813.demonoid-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/demonoid-logo.jpg"><img src="media/6c7a4ac9.demonoid-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoid-logo.jpg" alt="demonoid-logo" width="200" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-94766"></a>As one of the oldest torrent communities online, the semi-private Demonoid tracker has had its fair share of troubles over the years.</p>
<p>The site has gone offline on several occasions in the past. Most notable was the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-back-140330/">20 months </a> downtime streak, which began in 2012 following a DDoS attack and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-busted-as-a-gift-to-the-united-states-government-120806/">legal troubles</a> in Ukraine. </p>
<p>Since then Demonoid has slowly but steadily rebuilt its community up to a point where it now has millions of visitors per month, bringing it back into the range of the largest torrent sites once again.</p>
<p>However, to the surprise of many, the site went dark again earlier this week. People who try to access the latest <a href="http://dnoid.me/">Dnoid.me</a> domain will see that nothing is coming up at all.</p>
<p>Initially, the downtime was little to worry about. On Tuesday the Demonoid crew announced that there was going to be a planned server change, cautioning users not to panic. </p>
<p><center><strong>Don&#8217;t panic</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8f5a1b57.servermove.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/servermove.png" alt="servermove" width="583" height="143" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134283"></center></p>
<p>Not everyone had seen the announcement though, and for those who did see it, an outage of two full days for a server move seemed a bit much. </p>
<p>To find out more, TorrentFreak reached out to the Demonoid team via the <a href="https://twitter.com/DemonoidP2P">official</a> Twitter account. They informed us that they&#8217;ve run into some unforeseen problems, but nothing that can&#8217;t be overcome. </p>
<p>The team is currently working on a fix and they hope to bring the site back online as soon as possible. But, depending now how things go, it may take a couple of extra days. The team made clear that there are no legal issues, but for now they prefer to keep the finer details in-house. </p>
<p>The above makes it clear that Demonoid users have no other option than to patiently wait until the site returns, or find an alternative for the time being. </p>
<p>This is easier said than done for some. While the active Demonoid community is a bit smaller now than it was at its height, it is still a prime location for users who are sharing more obscure content that&#8217;s hard to find on public sites. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134327
title: DailyMotion Permanently Blocked in Russia After Copyright Complaints
uri: DailyMotion-Permanently-Blocked-in-Russia-After-Copyright-Complaints
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5aV35G9gm6I/
content:
<p><a href="media/020e5d68.dailymotion.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dailymotion.jpg"><img src="media/0d06caff.dailymotion.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dailymotion.jpg" alt="dailymotion" width="250" height="123" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134333"></a>For some time, Russian rightsholders have been dealing with so-called &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites by filing complaints at the Moscow City Court. If specific material is not removed within a two-week period, the Court is authorized to take action.</p>
<p>The measures usually involve an order for local ISPs to block subscribers from accessing errant sites, using methods already deployed by providers elsewhere in Europe. However, while &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites are usually the targets, more legitimate platforms can also get sucked in.</p>
<p>Video-hosting giant DailyMotion is the latest to feel the harsh reality of Russia&#8217;s site-blocking mechanism. The platform, which is 90% owned by French media group Vivendi, was ordered to be blocked by the Moscow City Court, meaning that the site will soon be rendered inaccessible to local Internet users.</p>
<p>The issue dates back to 2016 when Gazprom Media discovered that video clips from its <a href="https://friday.ru/">Pyatnitsya!</a> (Friday!) channel were being hosted on DailyMotion without its permission. The company told Russia&#8217;s <a href="https://www.gazeta.ru/tech/2017/01/24/10490645/dailymotion-block.shtml">Gazeta</a> that&#8217;s representatives sent several complaints to Daily Motion&#8217;s head office during the course of last year, but no response was received.</p>
<p>On at least two occasions in 2016, Gazprom Media had DailyMotion URLs blocked by the Moscow City Court, but after finding even more infringing content on the platform, Gazprom ran out of patience.</p>
<p>Last December, under repeat infringer laws active since 2015, DailyMotion was given one last chance to remove the clips from its platform. It failed to comply, and in response the Moscow City Court invoked its repeat infringer policy, ordering local ISPs to block DailyMotion on a permanent basis.</p>
<p>Speaking with Russian media, a spokesperson for Russian telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor said that in line with a requirement for ISPs to block the site within seven days, it&#8217;s possible that Daily Motion could be blacked-out before the end of the week.</p>
<p>Gazprom Media said that DailyMotion’s owner Vivendi failed to appeal the ruling within the prescribed time limit. As a result, it now finds itself on a list of serious repeat infringers (which includes notorious torrent site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russias-rutracker-blockade-has-just-seriously-backfired-160126/">RuTracker</a>) that face so-called &#8220;eternal blocking&#8221; in Russia.</p>
<p>In comments to <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/russia-blocks-vivendis-dailymotion-citing-copyright-breach-968844">THR</a>, a Daily Motion spokesperson said that the company was unaware of any ongoing court procedure and would &#8220;take all necessary steps to make contact with relevant authorities in Russia to resolve the issue.&#8221;</p>
<p>The fact that DailyMotion has been labeled a repeat infringer by a competent court will be of huge embarrassment to owner Vivendi. The French-based company owns Universal Music, TV company Canal+, and has interests in game publishers Ubisoft and Gamesloft.</p>
<p>It is not clear how easily the permanent block can be lifted, but it&#8217;s likely that DailyMotion will now do everything it can to appeal the decision of the Moscow Court.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134370
title: ‘Pirate’ Kodi Box Seller Enters “Not Guilty” Plea in Landmark Trial
uri: Pirate-Kodi-Box-Seller-Enters-Not-Guilty-Plea-in-Landmark
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rLp8VMXgpB4/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac68a7ac.android-box.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/android-box.jpg" width="240" height="240" alt="" class="alignright size-large">With the advent of cheap Android devices such as <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/did-pirates-clean-out-amazon-fire-tv-stock-in-the-uk-151229/">Amazon’s Fire Stick</a> and dozens of set-top variants, anyone can install legal software such as Kodi to watch recorded media.</p>
<p>However, those very same devices can be modified <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kodi-announces-legal-action-to-smash-piracy-links-160215/">to do things</a> that at best sit in a legal gray area and at worst could be illegal. We&#8217;re talking about viewing movies, TV shows, live TV and PPV events, without paying a dime to anyone.</p>
<p>In some parts of the world the phenomenon has reached epidemic proportions, so much so that the Federation Against Copyright Theft now cite it as a major concern in the UK. But while there is not much anyone can do to clamp down on people at home doing a DIY job on their own setups, it is possible to crack down on people who supply pre-modified devices.</p>
<p>One individual that has found himself in the middle of the controversy is UK-based Brian ‘Tomo’ Thompson. The Middlesborough-based shopkeeper was previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-pirate-android-box-sellers-six-arrested-160318/">raided by police and Trading Standards</a> after selling “fully loaded” Android boxes from his small premises.</p>
<p>Unusually for such cases, Thompson is being prosecuted by his local council. He&#8217;s under the impression that he&#8217;s done nothing wrong but now wants to discover where the boundaries lie for sellers of similar devices.</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 last September.</p>
<p>This morning Thompson appeared before Teeside Crown Court for a plea hearing. As promised, BBC reports that he pleaded <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-38769045">not guilty</a>, which means his case will now go to a full trial.</p>
<p>In what will be a landmark case, Thompson stands accused of two offenses under <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/296ZB">section 296ZB</a> of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. This section deals with devices and services designed to circumvent technological measures.</p>
<p>“A person commits an offense if he — in the course of a business — sells or lets for hire, any device, product or component which is primarily designed, produced, or adapted for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of effective technological measures,” the law reads.</p>
<p>Kodi installations with third-party addons effectively &#8216;farm&#8217; content already available on various &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites on the Internet. On that basis, it could be argued that any anti-circumvention/anti-copying measures put in place by broadcasters and other copyright holders have already been bypassed by the time the addon streams the content to the user.</p>
<p>However, the Court will have to decide what part, if any, Thompson played in circumventing those measures when he sold modified Kodi devices to his customers. According to the BBC, two of those sales were test purchases made by Middlesborough Council.</p>
<p>The outcome of the trial, which is likely <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fact-lawyer-reveals-challenges-kodi-box-seller-prosecutions-170106/">to be complex one</a>, will have little effect on people who modify their own Kodi installations at home. However, it is likely to determine the boundaries when it comes to those offering &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; Kodi TV devices for sale in the UK.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134173
title: ISPs Don’t Have Blanket Immunity From Piracy, BMG Says
uri: ISPs-Don-t-Have-Blanket-Immunity-From-Piracy-BMG-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cDZtOd2x_cA/
content:
<p><img src="media/fe041db3.bmgrights.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bmgrights.png" alt="bmgrights" width="222" height="129" class="alignright size-full wp-image-126912" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bmgrights.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/bmgrights-220x129.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px">Can an Internet provider be held liable for subscribers who share pirated files? Yes, a Virginia federal jury <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">ruled late last year</a>.</p>
<p>This verdict caused great uncertainty in the ISP industry, as several companies suddenly realized that they could become the next target.</p>
<p>Internet provider RCN is among the companies that are worried about the fallout. With 400,000 subscribers nationwide, it is one of the larger Internet providers in the United States, and as such it regularly receives takedown notices for alleged copyright infringements on its network.</p>
<p>Many of these notices come from BMG and its anti-piracy partner Rightscorp, who argued that RCN can be held for the actions of its customers.</p>
<p>The Internet provider is not happy with these allegations and last year it took legal steps in response. The ISP <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isp-sues-music-group-over-piracy-allegations-160615/">filed a lawsuit</a> against music rights group BMG at a New York federal court, seeking a declaratory judgment on the matter.</p>
<p>In their request, RCN argued that they are not liable for the alleged copyright infringements of subscribers. They are merely passing on traffic, which grants the company protection under the DMCA’s safe harbor provision, they claimed. </p>
<p>BMG clearly disagrees with this point of view and this week submitted a <a href="media/c8fa5b4b.3af30c6c-8072-4c05-87c4-beee185f809f.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/3af30c6c-8072-4c05-87c4-beee185f809f.pdf">motion to dismiss (pdf)</a> the request for a declaratory judgment at the New York federal court. </p>
<p>The music group stresses that a declaratory judgment is not proper in this situation. RCN wants the court to rule that it is not liable for any past, current, or future infringements, without providing essential details on their takedown and repeat infringer policies and procedures. </p>
<p>While BMG admits that the DMCA provides a &#8220;safe harbor&#8221; for Internet providers, they stress that this right is not unconditional. It doesn&#8217;t provide &#8220;blanket immunity&#8221; from copyright infringement claims.</p>
<p>&#8220;..this [safe harbor] defense is not absolute. Rather than provide conduit ISPs with blanket immunity, Congress required that conduit ISPs adopt and reasonably implement a policy for the termination of repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances before they may claim a safe harbor defense,&#8221; BMG notes. </p>
<p>One of the main problems BMG signals is that the court can&#8217;t rule on something that has yet to happen. Without knowing how RCN will deal with repeat infringers in the future, liability may change over time, they say.</p>
<p>&#8220;Crucially, the facts on which RCN’s future liability turns cannot possibly be known in advance,&#8221; BMG writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court cannot possibly know the content of future infringement notices, whether RCN will have knowledge of future infringements, what its future practices will be, and whether it will terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.&#8221;</p>
<p>As such, the music rights group asks the court to dismiss the ISP&#8217;s request for a declaratory judgment. </p>
<p>&#8220;These sorts of contingencies render questions of infringement far too remote to justify declaratory relief. It would be extraordinarily unfair to immunize RCN against the infringement of BMG’s copyrights without regard for the facts that would be pertinent to an infringement action,&#8221; they say. </p>
<p>Even if the court disagrees and decides that it has jurisdiction to rule on the issue, BMG cites several other grounds to dismiss the complaint. This includes RCN&#8217;s alleged failure to state a claim for DMCA safe harbor protection.</p>
<p>The court will now review the arguments from both sides to decide whether the case will go ahead. </p>
<p>In addition to RCN&#8217;s request for a declaratory judgment regarding liability for pirating subscribers, fellow ISP Windstream has a similar case pending in the court. At the same time, Cox Communication is appealing the $25 million judgment in their case.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134407
title: The US ‘Six Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Scheme is Dead
uri: The-US-Six-Strikes-Anti-Piracy-Scheme-is-Dead
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BOzlpEn7cVM/
content:
<p><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717">In 2011, the MPAA and RIAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-riaa-team-up-with-isps-to-curb-piracy-110707/">teamed up</a> with several major U.S. Internet providers, announcing their plan to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-warnings-double-year-140830/">shift the norms and behavior</a> of BitTorrent pirates.</p>
<p>The parties launched the <a href="http://www.copyrightinformation.org/">Center for Copyright Information</a> and agreed on a system through which Internet account holders are warned if their connections are used to download pirated content.</p>
<p>The program allowed ISPs to take a variety of <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/">repressive measures</a>, including bandwidth throttling and temporary Internet disconnections.</p>
<p>The &#8220;voluntary&#8221; agreement was praised by the US Government and seen as an example for other countries, including the UK, where a similar system is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-piracy-warnings-coming-month-heres-works-170111/">about to start</a>. At the same time, however, the Copyright Alert System members have just ended their efforts.</p>
<p>“After four years of extensive consumer education and engagement, the Copyright Alert System will conclude its work,&#8221; the members of the Center for Copyright Information (CCI) just announced. </p>
<p>&#8220;The program demonstrated that real progress is possible when content creators, Internet innovators and consumer advocates come together in a collaborative and consensus-driven process.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s unclear what progress the members are referring to, as the system mostly excelled at its failure to share information with the public. </p>
<p>Since its inception, CCI has issued only a <a href="http://www.copyrightinformation.org/category/press-release/">few press releases</a>, and any recent data on the scope and effectiveness of the program is lacking. The only figures that were ever published cover the <a href="http://www.copyrightinformation.org/press-release/cci-provides-first-copyright-alert-system-progress-report-highlighting-initial-accomplishments/">first ten months</a>, ending December 2013. </p>
<p>Last summer we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/is-the-u-s-six-strikes-anti-piracy-system-doomed-160605/">publicly questioned</a> if the Copyright Alert System was doomed, but at the time CCI&#8217;s Executive Director Jim Kohlenberger was still hopeful. </p>
<p>“Going forward, we continue to look for opportunities to refine the system, and to advance our efforts and to elevate our consumer-focused mission in pragmatic ways,” Kohlenberger said.</p>
<p>However, it now appears that the parties couldn&#8217;t reach consensus on how to extend or update the existing agreement, to keep going for the years to come. Why they eventually chose to stop the program entirely is not clear from the announcement.</p>
<p>In their public-facing statement, copyright holders and ISPs remain positive, but it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if the mood behind the scenes is grimmer.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to thank everyone who put in the hard work to develop this program and make it a success, including past and present members of our Advisory Board. While this particular program is ending, the parties remain committed to voluntary and cooperative efforts to address these issues,” CCI concludes.</p>
<p>The decision to end the &#8220;six strikes&#8221; scheme marks the end of an era. While it means that pirates no longer have to fear temporary Internet disconnections and other mitigation measures that were part of the program, MPAA and RIAA can still send takedown notifications of their own accord. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134294
title: UK Tabloid Fooled into Publishing False ‘T2 Trainspotting’ Piracy Story
uri: UK-Tabloid-Fooled-into-Publishing-False-T2-Trainspotting-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J6_Z0FFZMzo/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd6b0b55.fail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fail.jpg"><img src="media/6261ff2d.fail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fail.jpg" alt="fail" width="250" height="169" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125863"></a>When movies leak online before their official release, both pirates and movie companies tend to get excited, for different reasons of course. This can be nicely illustrated by the buzz that &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/screener-season-is-here-but-where-are-the-piracy-leaks-161218/">screener season</a>&#8216; can create.</p>
<p>As a result, even some mainstream publications are keen to break the news that the latest blockbusters have leaked online, but unfortunately, this area of reporting can be a bit of a minefield if you don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re doing.</p>
<p>This is a lesson that the UK&#8217;s The Scottish Sun will have to learn the hard way.</p>
<p>As sister paper to the famous tabloid The Sun, this week the paper published an article revealing that the yet-to-be-released T2: Trainspotting had been leaked on torrent sites.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1dd27399.trainspotting-2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trainspotting-2.png"><img src="media/1dd27399.trainspotting-2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trainspotting-2.png" alt="trainspotting-2" width="650" height="470" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134300"></a></center></p>
<p>Going even further, the publication made an assumption over who might have &#8220;stolen&#8221; the copy and put it there.</p>
<p>&#8220;A T2 TRAINSPOTTING VIP appears to have stolen a copy of the long awaited film – and put it on the internet,&#8221; the piece <a href="https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/scottish-news/477559/t2-trainspotting-vip-steals-high-quality-copy-of-the-film-and-puts-it-online-sparking-fears-it-was-filmed-during-premiere/">reads</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;A high quality version hit the web on Sunday, the same day as the movie’s glitzy premiere in Edinburgh attended by the star studded cast including Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Ewen Bremner and Kelly Macdonald.&#8221;</p>
<p>Digging an even deeper hole for itself, the paper went on to cite download numbers and provide &#8216;evidence&#8217; why the copy available online must be the real deal.</p>
<p>&#8220;The file has now been downloaded by fans over 28,000 times and has received only positive reviews, indicating it’s a genuine copy of the movie. Normally if a file is bogus, the online community flag it up to let others know. But with the high number of downloads, it appears the copy is legit,&#8221; the publication said.</p>
<p>Shown below is the image the paper included with its story, which aims to provide all necessary details to confirm that the leak was genuine. It&#8217;s a screenshot from a torrent site, and to the untrained eye it looks pretty authentic.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/f065adcb.trainspotting-2-ss.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trainspotting-2-ss.png"><img src="media/a5dbc279.trainspotting-2-ss.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trainspotting-2-ss.png" alt="trainspotting-2-ss" width="650" height="390" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134302"></a></center></p>
<p>Sadly, however, it&#8217;s completely bogus.</p>
<p>As the above image shows, the screenshot was taken from Distorrent.com, which at its base level is a KickassTorrents clone. However, this site has a little trick up its sleeve.</p>
<p>No matter what a user types into its search box, it auto-magically &#8216;finds&#8217; that content online and generates a fake torrent page for it. It can find Trainspotting 2 in an instant, Rocky 27, and even some other more unusual titles. It&#8217;s a ploy to game search engine traffic.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/70706f73.scottish-sun.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/scottish-sun.png"><img src="media/f3d6e197.scottish-sun.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/scottish-sun.png" alt="scottish-sun" width="650" height="398" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134303"></a></center></p>
<p>With this in mind, it only got more awkward when The Scottish Sun started to make further <a href="http://archive.is/HVcNA">assumptions</a> about the apparent quality of the Trainspotting 2 leak.</p>
<p>&#8220;The file’s size of 2.7GB approx indicates it’s not an HD copy, again arousing suspicion that it could have been filmed by someone at the premiere,&#8221; the paper said.</p>
<p>To top things off, the paper then quoted &#8220;a source&#8221; who was happy to fill in some blanks.</p>
<p>“While internet providers like Sky and Virgin do their best to shut down these sites, it’s impossible to get them all, as they change servers and locations. Most movies eventually end up on the internet in this form. It’s just very suspicious that this one was uploaded the same day as the film’s premiere,” the source apparently said.</p>
<p>Trainspotting 2 was released in cinemas on Friday, so expect some terrible cam copies to appear on torrent sites in the coming days. Or, if you really can&#8217;t wait, head off to DisTorrent where you&#8217;ll find blu-ray copies of Trainspotting 2, 3, 4 and 5.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134296
title: ‘Nerd Judge’ Questions Evidence in KickassTorrents Case
uri: Nerd-Judge-Questions-Evidence-in-KickassTorrents-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uym0cVAVQ2U/
content:
<p><img src="media/2279eece.kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" alt="kickasstorrents_500x500" width="225" height="225" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-99785">Last summer, Polish law enforcement officers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">arrested</a> Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of KickassTorrents, who’s been in custory ever since.</p>
<p>While awaiting the start of extradition hearings, Vaulin’s defense team asked the Illinois federal court to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-defense-torrents-are-not-copyrighted-content-us-has-no-case-161018/">dismiss</a> the entire case.</p>
<p>Next week both parties will be allowed to argue their positions before the court during an oral argument, which District Court Judge <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Z._Lee">John Z. Lee</a> agreed to in a recent hearing. </p>
<p>During this hearing, Judge Lee, who describes himself as a &#8220;kind of a nerd judge,&#8221; asked both sides to shed light on the arguments and evidence provided in the US indictment. </p>
<p>Vaulin’s legal team stressed that the indictment fails to specify any copyrighted media that was downloaded or infringed in the United States. As such, the US Government’s claim of willful direct criminal copyright infringement for operating a torrent site fails.</p>
<p>During the hearing, Judge Lee tried to get a feeling for what kind of infringing action would be deemed criminal according to the defense, and what would not. Is it a criminal violation of the Copyright Act to offer a Rogue One torrent in exchange for $100, he asked as an example.</p>
<p><center><strong>A hypothetical Rogue One torrent&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/902067da.rogue.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogue.png" alt="rogue" width="516" height="365" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134362"></center></p>
<p>No, says Vaulin&#8217;s defense lawyer Ira Rothken, who noted that it would be a misdemeanor at best. The Judge then continued with a few more extreme examples, trying to find out what the threshold would be. </p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m kind of a nerd judge, so I kind of like to think about things like: Where is that line?&#8221; Judge Lee said. </p>
<p>While the hypothetical situations were not directly applicable to the case, the Judge made it clear that he is not entirely certain whether the case presented in the indictment is sufficient for the court to have jurisdiction over the defendant. </p>
<p>&#8220;I understand the defendant&#8217;s argument that the government hasn&#8217;t met that level yet,&#8221; the Judge added, noting that these and other issues can be discussed in the upcoming oral hearing. </p>
<p>Although the indictment offers a detailed description of KickassTorrents&#8217; operation, Judge Lee questioned whether the Department of Justice has any evidence about concrete copyright infringements that took place inside the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;So, I agree that the indictment is detailed; but it&#8217;s detailed in certain respects, and it&#8217;s not in others. I mean, it&#8217;s detailed in the way the site works, in the way Mr. Vaulin and his co-conspirators kind of &#8211; what sites they owned and how they &#8211; how they administered these sites,&#8221; Judge Lee said.</p>
<p>&#8220;But it doesn&#8217;t provide much specific detail as to &#8211; because I was looking for it, and I was ticking it off as I went along &#8211; as to what particular acts, copyright violations, took place in the United States that would bring this within the jurisdiction of the Court,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>Responding to this concern, United States Attorney William Ridgway assured the court that evidence of actual distribution of copyright infringing material would be presented at trial.</p>
<p>Defense lawyer Ira Rothken wasn&#8217;t so convinced, however. He pointed out that the copyright infringing material referenced in the indictment is limited to eleven torrents that were stored on foreign servers, which according to his standards is not enough to warrant a criminal case.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have not met that threshold in the four corners of the indictment, or more seriously, have pled themselves out of it by the way they articulated the 11 torrent files in this litigation, in this criminal case. They&#8217;ve pled themselves out of it,&#8221; Rothken noted. </p>
<p>The scheduled hearing on the motion to dismiss will take place next week. After both sides argue their position, Judge Lee must decide whether the case can go forward, or if it should be thrown out. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=133899
title: BitChute is a BitTorrent-Powered YouTube Alternative
uri: BitChute-is-a-BitTorrent-Powered-YouTube-Alternative
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FS89u8C3tyk/
content:
<p><a href="media/d928ed5c.bitchute-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bitchute-logo.jpg"><img src="media/2b2ab4dc.bitchute-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitchute-logo.jpg" alt="bitchute-logo" width="251" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134276"></a>YouTube attracts over a billion visitors every month, with many flocking to the platform to view original content uploaded by thousands of contributors. However, those contributors aren&#8217;t completely free to upload and make money from whatever they like.</p>
<p>Since it needs to please its advertisers, YouTube has <a href="https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/6162278?hl=en">rules in place</a> over what kind of content can be monetized, something which caused a <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/1/12753108/youtube-is-over-party-advertising-monetization-censorship">huge backlash</a> last year alongside claims of censorship.</p>
<p>But what if there was an alternative to YouTube, one that doesn&#8217;t impose the same kinds of restrictions on uploaders? Enter BitChute, a BitTorrent-powered video platform that seeks to hand freedom back to its users.</p>
<p>&#8220;The idea comes from seeing the increased levels of censorship by the large social media platforms in the last couple of years. Bannings, demonetization, and tweaking algorithms to send certain content into obscurity and, wanting to do something about it,&#8221; BitChute founder <a href="https://twitter.com/rayvahey">Ray Vahey</a> informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;I knew building a clone wasn&#8217;t the answer, many have tried and failed. And it would inevitably grow into an organization with the same problems anyway.&#8221;</p>
<p>As seen in the image below, the site has a familiar layout for anyone used to YouTube-like video platforms. It has similar video controls, view counts, and the ability to vote on content. It also has a fully-functioning comment section.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/e97b1af5.bitchute.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bitchute.png"><img src="media/d4a73b22.bitchute.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitchute.png" alt="bitchute" width="650" height="580" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134274"></a></center></p>
<p>Of course, one of the main obstacles for video content hosting platforms is the obscene amounts of bandwidth they consume. Any level of success is usually accompanied by big hosting bills. But along with its people-powered philosophy, BitChute does things a little differently.</p>
<p>Instead of utilizing central servers, BitChute uses <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/webtorrent-brings-bittorrent-to-the-web-impresses-netflix-151213/">WebTorrent</a>, a system which allows people to share videos directly from their browser, without having to configure or install anything. Essentially this means that the site&#8217;s users become hosts of the videos they&#8217;re watching, which slams BitChute&#8217;s hosting costs into the ground.</p>
<p>&#8220;Distributed systems and WebTorrent invert the scalability advantage the Googles and Facebooks have. The bigger our user base grows, the more efficiently it can serve while retaining the simplicity of the web browser,&#8221; Vahey says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Also by the nature of all torrent technology, we are not locking users into a single site, and they have the choice to retain and continue sharing the files they download. That puts more power back in the hands of the consumer where it should be.&#8221;</p>
<p>The only hints that BitChute is using peer-to-peer technology are the peer counts under each video and a short delay before a selected video begins to play. This is necessary for the system to find peers but thankfully it isn&#8217;t too intrusive.</p>
<p>As far as we know, BitChute is the first attempt at a YouTube-like platform that leverages peer-to-peer technology. It&#8217;s only been in operation for a short time but according to its founder, things are going well.</p>
<p>&#8220;As far as I could tell, no one had yet run with this idea as a service, so that&#8217;s what myself and few like-minded people decided. To put it out there and see what people think. So far it&#8217;s been an amazingly positive response from people who understand and agree with what we&#8217;re doing,&#8221; Vahey explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just over three weeks ago we launched with limited upload access on a first come first served basis. We are flat out busy working on the next version of the site; I have two other co-founders based out of the UK who are supporting me, watch this space,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Certainly, people will be cheering the team on. Last September, popular YouTuber Bluedrake <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-youtuber-experiments-with-webtorrent-to-beat-censorship-160930/">experimented with WebTorrent</a> to distribute his videos after becoming frustrated with YouTube&#8217;s policies.</p>
<p>“All I want is a site where people can say what they want,&#8221; he said at the time. &#8220;I want a site where people can operate their business without having somebody else step in and take away their content when they say something they don’t like.&#8221;</p>
<p>For now, BitChute is still under development, but so far it has impressed Feross Aboukhadijeh, the Stanford University graduate who invented <a href="https://webtorrent.io/">WebTorrent</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;BitChute is an exciting new product,&#8221; he told TF this week. &#8220;This is exactly the kind of &#8216;people-powered&#8217; website that WebTorrent technology was designed to enable. I&#8217;m eager to see where the team takes it.&#8221;</p>
<p>BitChute can be found <a href="https://www.bitchute.com">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134427
title: Denuvo Piracy Crisis as Resident Evil 7 Gets Cracked in Record Time
uri: Denuvo-Piracy-Crisis-as-Resident-Evil-7-Gets-Cracked-in-Record-Time
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FBBNXe3AlaQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/05d838b7.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg"><img src="media/fe5f698e.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg" alt="denuvo" width="210" height="109" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116067"></a>Death. Taxes. Immediate PC games piracy. That was pretty much the state of play before anti-piracy technology company Denuvo Software Solutions came along a few years back.</p>
<p>With its anti-tamper system of the same name, Denuvo took the inevitability of day-of-release PC games piracy and pushed back the boundaries in a way never seen before. Indeed, some older Denuvo-protected games are still piracy free to this day.</p>
<p>In recent times, however, the company has found itself under increasing pressure. In August 2016, cracking group CONSPIR4CY (CPY) dumped a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-properly-cracked-rise-of-the-tomb-raider-first-victim-160809/">Denuvo-removed version</a> of Rise of the Tomb Raider on torrent sites, some five months after its release. Despite the long delay, it was a landmark moment. Denuvo had been defeated.</p>
<p>Just days later, CPY doubled down by giving puzzle-platformer ‘Inside‘ the same treatment, but in a record time of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-weakens-after-inside-cracked-in-record-time-160824/">just six weeks</a> from launch. What followed was a cascade of cracked games, including Doom, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and Watch Dogs 2, to name just a few. Now, however, Denuvo is facing its biggest threat yet.</p>
<p>Yesterday, just five days after its January 24th retail date, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard was cracked by CPY. The self-proclaimed Italian group placed RE7 on a so-called top site, with the &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-releasers-slice-the-top-off-movie-piracy-pyramid-100727/">piracy pyramid</a>&#8216; doing the rest of the work by cascading it to torrent sites in a matter of minutes. Currently, tens of thousands of pirates are grabbing the 23GB download.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/fa816dd1.resident-evil.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/resident-evil.png"><img src="media/444dcd68.resident-evil.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/resident-evil.png" alt="resident-evil" width="643" height="605" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134430"></a></center></p>
<p>In its defense, Denuvo has never marketed its product as an uncrackable system. The plan, the company insists, is to give games producers a piracy-free window of opportunity, from the day of launch to some undefined point in the future. Protecting those lucrative early months from pirates is the aim.</p>
<p>In some respects, Denuvo is still doing its job, with AAA titles such as Just Cause 3 still protected from piracy months after launch. No one but groups like CPY know why JC3 has avoided the same fate as the other titles. It could just be that they can&#8217;t be bothered to crack it. Clearly, the same cannot be said about Resident Evil 7.</p>
<p>Denuvo is obviously a tough system to crack but less than a week&#8217;s protection is only marginally better than having no protection at all. Pirates are notoriously impatient but a sizeable majority can probably wait a handful of days for a free game, if they believe CPY can keep pulling this off. That in itself is a problem for Denuvo and the games publishers it&#8217;s attempting to protect.</p>
<p>In December, Denuvo <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-we-dont-give-refunds-when-games-get-cracked-161219/">refuted claims</a> that it gives publishers refunds if the protection it offers subsequently gets removed.</p>
<p>“We can’t comment on our deals with specific customers, but we do not have any deals in place that offer refunds if a game is cracked within a specific time frame,” Denuvo co-founder Robert Hernandez said.</p>
<p>That being said, publishers must be paying <em>something</em> to have Denuvo protect their titles so it&#8217;s reasonable to assume that a year&#8217;s protection must be worth more than a month. But when we get down to five days? That surely must involve some kind of discount to deter a debate over whether the protection is worth having at all.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134405
title: BREIN Shuts Down ‘Pirate Cinema’ on Facebook
uri: BREIN-Shuts-Down-Pirate-Cinema-on-Facebook
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UWD7HDp2eiw/
content:
<p><img src="media/c8dde129.bios.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bios.jpg" alt="bios" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-134441">In the present day and age, online piracy is perhaps more scattered than it’s ever been.</p>
<p>Torrent sites, streaming services, cyberlockers, mobile apps, linking sites and many more are all labeled as infringing sources.</p>
<p>But, the piracy problem is not restricted to ‘shady’ sites and services alone. On many ‘legal’ platforms there’s a wide availability of copyright infringing material as well, Facebook included.</p>
<p>While anyone can casually post an infringing video or song on Facebook, there are some who dedicate entire pages to it. This was also the case for the Dutch page &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/livebioscoop/">LiveBioscoop</a>&#8221; (LiveCinema) which was started by a 23-year-old man from Rotterdam. </p>
<p>As the name suggests, the page regularly streamed movies online with help from Facebook&#8217;s own live streaming service. In a relatively short period, it amassed over 25,000 followers who could regularly vote on which movies the &#8216;cinema&#8217; should stream next. </p>
<p>The site&#8217;s popularity spilled over to the Dutch press last week, with the AD <a href="http://www.ad.nl/binnenland/facebook-platform-voor-illegaal-streamen-films~ae3e2232/">reporting</a> on the unusual activity of LiveBioscoop and a similar page, Livebios. Commenting on the issue, anti-piracy group BREIN said they would investigate the issue, and not without result. </p>
<p>The operator of the Facebook page was quickly confronted by the anti-piracy group. <a href="http://stichtingbrein.nl/nieuws.php?id=439">Facing an ex-parte court order</a> from a local court, the man agreed to stop the infringing activities and sign a settlement of €7,500. While the Facebook page itself is still <a href="https://www.facebook.com/livebioscoop/">online</a>, infringements have stopped.</p>
<p>Commenting on the issue, BREIN director Tim Kuik says that they decided to go to court straight away, due to the gravity of the issue. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is just stealing revenue from cinemas and rightsholders. It has to end as soon as possible. That is why we have opted for an ex parte injunction with a penalty, instead of first issuing a summons,&#8221; Kuik says.</p>
<p>The other &#8216;pirate cinema&#8217; on Facebook wasn&#8217;t mentioned by BREIN, but is <a href="https://www.facebook.com/livebios/">no longer available</a> at the time of writing. It seems likely that the operator of this page decided to stop voluntarily to avoid further problems. </p>
<p>Instead of simply cracking down on all these pages, copyright holders could also learn from them. As it turns out, many LiveBioscoop users sincerely enjoyed and appreciated the social cinema visit, which may prove to be an interesting opportunity.</p>
<p>&#8220;LiveBioscoop has to stay. It feels better and is more fun that way. People can talk. Netflix is just like, I watch a movie and that was it. Since I found LiveBioscoop I no longer watched Netflix movies,&#8221; one follower commented.</p>
<p>While this is the first time that we have seen a settlement with a Facebook live streamer, movie piracy is relatively common on the social network. There still are dozens, if not hundreds of popular pages dedicated to pirated movies and TV-shows.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134428
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 01/30/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-01-30-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Jt54yLkE5rI/
content:
<p><img src="media/f4c35d12.doctorstrange.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/doctorstrange.jpg" alt="doctorstrange" width="300" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-130696">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Doctor Strange, of which a leaked screener was released, 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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-012317/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Doctor Strange</a> (DVDScr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/la-la-land-torrent-downloads/">La La Land</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hacksaw-ridge-torrent-downloads/">Hacksaw Ridge</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119532/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-1hz1juBI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/allied-torrent-downloads/">Allied</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3640424/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/jack-reacher-never-go-back-torrent-downloads/">Jack Reacher: Never Go Back</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393786">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwrdbcAh2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/manchester-sea-torrent-downloads/">Manchester By The Sea</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVoD0pTge0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/live-night-torrent-downloads/">Live By Night</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2361317/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtFZcAuH-qI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fantastic-beasts-find-torrent-downloads/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/girl-train-torrent-downloads/">The Girl on The Train</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3631112/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkoEE1i0CX8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134498
title: Tax Authority Grilled VLC Player Over Link From a Torrent Site
uri: Tax-Authority-Grilled-VLC-Player-Over-Link-From-a-Torrent-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hpFuNOuZ3f4/
content:
<p><img src="media/e1daccc8.vlccone.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vlccone.jpg" alt="vlccone" width="200" height="153" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134503">VideoLAN’s <a href="http://www.videolan.org/">VLC Media Player</a><sup>(*)</sup> is installed on hundreds of millions of devices around the world.</p>
<p>It’s widely regarded as the best tool to play videos and audio in just about any format. When something can’t be played, VLC Media Player almost always provides the answer.</p>
<p>The application has a wide variety of legal uses, but pirates are also pretty keen on the tool. In fact, some sites actively recommend it to their users, including the French torrent site <a href="http://www.torrent9.biz/">Torrent9</a> who list it in their help section.</p>
<p>Of course, these type of links are only a one-way endorsement. However, for some reason the National Tax Investigation Branch of the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance, was concerned that something more was up. </p>
<p>A few hours ago, <a href="https://www.nextinpact.com/news/103086-bercy-demande-explications-a-videolan-pour-lien-depuis-site-torrents.htm">Next INpact</a> reported that VideoLAN had received a letter from the tax authority, asking for detailed information on Torrent9.biz.</p>
<p>The reason for the inquiry is that the site in question, also accessible via Torrent9.me, has a <a href="http://www.torrent9.biz/aide.php">help section</a> that explains how people can download torrents. This guide ends with a link to the VLC Media Player, as can be seen below.  </p>
<p><center><strong>Torrent9&#8217;s help page</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c9d36111.helpsection.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/helpsection.jpg" alt="helpsection" width="600" height="458" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134497"></center></p>
<p>While the Internet is full of links, the National Tax Investigation Branch suspected that VideoLAN was closely involved with the torrent site, asking the organization to hand over all sorts of documentation. </p>
<p>Specifically, they requested &#8220;complete customer details,&#8221; &#8220;bank details,&#8221; &#8220;payment methods of the customer and date of last payment,&#8221; and a copy of the &#8220;referencing contract&#8221; for the Torrent9.biz and Torrent9.me domains. </p>
<p>When confronted with the usual request by a reporter, the Ministry of Economy and Finance didn&#8217;t give in. Instead, it reportedly stated that &#8220;if they have a link to your website, it&#8217;s because you pay them: SEO is not free..,&#8221; suggesting some kind of active cooperation.</p>
<p>VideoLAN received quite a bit of support after the news broke as many people had trouble wrapping their head around the absurd situation. </p>
<p>After a storm of protests, the authorities eventually decided to back down. In a response on Twitter, the ministry described the situation as an &#8216;<a href="https://twitter.com/dgfip_officiel/status/826007846768803841">error of judgment</a>,&#8217; adding that failures like this can always happen.</p>
<p>For VideoLAN this means everything will return to normal now. They initially planned to reply to the request with a blank piece of paper, but even that&#8217;s no longer needed. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><sup><em>* Disclaimer: VideoLAN did not compensate TorrentFreak for the link in this article.</em></sup></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134543
title: Swedish Govt. Mulls Tougher Punishments to Tackle Pirate Sites
uri: Swedish-Govt-Mulls-Tougher-Punishments-to-Tackle-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bz0Ojp5FXPo/
content:
<p><a href="media/f8623ca2.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg"><img src="media/f6eb27a1.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg" alt="law-hammer" width="270" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134548" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg 270w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px"></a>When most country&#8217;s copyright laws were first laid down, the Internet simply did not exist. So, when the world-changing network began to develop, the law was often left playing catch-up.</p>
<p>Through various amendments and interpretations, many developed countries have found a way to shoehorn existing legislation to apply to the Internet era. But the fit is rarely perfect and for copyright holders keen to protect their interests, not nearly tight enough to deal with the rise of pirate sites.</p>
<p>Among others, Sweden is now considering its options when it comes to its future prosecutions of large-scale copyright infringement cases. As part of a review now underway, the government is accessing the powers it needs to deal with more serious cases of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Police national coordinator for intellectual property crimes Paul Pintér hopes that any changes will enable police to operate more efficiently in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you have a felony, you can get access to a whole new toolkit. In the terms of reference for the inquiry, the government mentions almost all of the points that we have previously proposed,&#8221; he told <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.674801/regeringen-straff-piratverksamhet">IDG</a>.</p>
<p>Considering the way anti-piracy enforcement has developed over the past several years, few of the suggestions from the police come as a surprise.</p>
<p>At the top of the tree is treating pirate site operators as more than just large-scale copyright infringers. The Justice Department says that due to the manner in which sites are organized and the subsequent development of revenue, treating them as self-contained crime operations may be appropriate.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the help of well-organized sites, infringement is made fast, easy, and both openly and more or less anonymous,&#8221; says Anna Enbert, legal adviser at the Department of Justice.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not infrequently, there is a business motive for the major players, which is roughly comparable to organized crime. This has made infringement more extensive, difficult to investigate, and harmful in relation to both rights holders, consumers, and society at large.&#8221;</p>
<p>Like the UK, the current maximum sentence for online copyright infringement in Sweden is two years in prison. The UK is about to boost this to ten years via the Digital Economy Act but in recent years has seen many prosecutions carried out under fraud legislation.</p>
<p>This kind of amendment has caught the eyes of Sweden. By viewing &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites as platforms for commercial and organized crime, harsher sentences may also become available. Currently, punishments are often limited to fines and suspended sentences.</p>
<p>Also on the table for discussion are domain seizures and site-blocking. In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-want-to-block-the-pirate-bay-seize-domains-160502/">memorandum</a> submitted to the government last year, Pintér said that websites that violate copyright or trademark law should be blocked by ISPs. Furthermore, while preliminary investigations are underway, domain names should be seized by the authorities.</p>
<p>While specific provisions in law for both blockades and seizures would undoubtedly be welcomed by both police and rightsholders, current law may yet be up to the job. Attempts to seize The Pirate Bay&#8217;s domains are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-domain-dispute-appealed-to-supreme-court-160618/">still ongoing</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-blocking-the-pirate-bay-is-dangerous-censorship-161211/">ISPs are digging in</a> over demands to block the site. Nevertheless, both could still succeed.</p>
<p>In the meantime, however, the review will press ahead, although not at a speed that pleases the police. IDG notes that the investigation is to presented in February 2018, a time-scale that Paul Pintér finds unacceptable.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only thing is, is that the review will take far too long. It should be completed faster than a year,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134063
title: Ahashare ‘Disappears’ After Domain Name Suspension
uri: Ahashare-Disappears-After-Domain-Name-Suspension
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bOW-LbwbekA/
content:
<p><img src="media/953e4c03.ahasharelogo-e1485353427719.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ahasharelogo-e1485353427719.png" alt="ahasharelogo" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134255">With tens of thousands of visitors per day, torrent site Ahashare has built a decent sized community in recent years. </p>
<p>The site has an active team of uploaders and many regular visitors, or should we say had? For the past few days, the site has been unreachable on its regular <a href="http://ahashare.com/">Ahashare.com</a> domain. </p>
<p>Roughly a week ago the site vanished without a trace. After some digging, it appears that the site&#8217;s domain name has been suspended by Public Domain Registry (PDR), with a &#8220;clienthold&#8221; status.</p>
<p>We have seen this status on suspended domains before. According to ICANN the <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en">clienthold</a> tag is uncommon and &#8220;usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Clienthold&#8230;.</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/96959ee0.ahashareclinethold.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ahashareclinethold.png" alt="ahashareclinethold" width="624" height="228" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134538"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the site&#8217;s team via the publicly listed address hoping to find out more, but we have yet to hear back.</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s operators are quiet on social media as well. The Twitter account posted the <a href="https://twitter.com/AhaShare/status/75156092333727745">last site update</a> more than five years ago. Two weeks ago a new tweet was posted linking to what seems to be a counterfeit sunglasses site, suggesting that it&#8217;s compromised. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, domain name suspensions are easily countered if sites switch to a new domain. Thus far it looks like the Ahashare team hasn&#8217;t done this yet, so it&#8217;s possible that more is going on.</p>
<p><center><strong>Ahashare.com in better times</strong><br></br></center><img src="media/24b1aef6.ahashare.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ahashare.jpg" alt="ahashare" width="650" height="330" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134535"><center></center></p>
<p>Ahashare registered its domain through the Indian domain registrar PDR, which is no stranger when it comes to suspensions. </p>
<p>The company previously <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/">seized</a> the domains of ExtraTorrent and several other popular torrent sites. However, in recent years there might have been less compliance. The MPAA now <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-reports-pirate-sites-and-hosting-providers-to-u-s-government-161010/">lists PDR</a> as a non-cooperative registrar in a recent recommendation to the Government, but it&#8217;s possible this doesn&#8217;t apply universally.</p>
<p>Whether Ahashare will return in the future is unknown, but in the meantime, the site&#8217;s users will have to look elsewhere for their daily torrent fix.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134555
title: Police Seize Domains of Fifty ‘Pirate’ Newspaper and Magazine Sites
uri: Police-Seize-Domains-of-Fifty-Pirate-Newspaper-and-Magazine-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pQV1qQxmbaI/
content:
<p><a href="media/0e360685.guardia.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/guardia.jpg"><img src="media/3df2fe22.guardia.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/guardia.jpg" alt="guardia" width="225" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53989"></a>Anti-piracy operations come in all shapes and sizes but it&#8217;s movies, music and TV shows that grab the majority of the headlines. Games, software, and eBooks trail closely behind, but it&#8217;s rare that other types of digital print see enforcement action.</p>
<p>Italy, one of the most <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-landmark-mass-blocking-of-152-pirate-sites-161108/">aggressive countries</a> when it comes to sweeping anti-piracy actions, has just changed all that with one of the largest enforcement operations ever seen in the publishing niche.</p>
<p>Following an investigation carried by rightsholders and the Public Prosecutor of Rome, a total of 50 domains involved in the unlawful distribution of news and magazine content have been seized by the country&#8217;s Special Unit for Broadcasting and Publishing.</p>
<p>According to an announcement by the authorities, all of the sites have now gone dark after offering &#8220;vast quantities&#8221; of material originally published by major newspapers and periodicals including Cosmopolitan, Fashion Magazine, and Vanity Fair.</p>
<p>The operation, dubbed &#8220;Odyssey 2&#8221;, was carried out under the directives of the Special Command Units of the Guardia di Finanza, a militarized police force under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance.</p>
<p>Fulvio Sarzana, a lawyer with the Sarzana and Partners who specializes in Internet and copyright disputes, says that the sites were probably under the control of separate entities.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The variety of sites and the diversity of hosting and domain registrations leads me to think that these are different cases,&#8221; Sarzana informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;The methods vary but generally the digital kiosks work this way; someone buys the paper or digital versions of newspapers through a duly registered account and then makes them available on the website.&#8221;</p>
<p>Until now, Italy has employed the same &#8220;follow-the-money&#8221; approach used by authorities in other jurisdictions, whereby site owners are identified via payments made by advertisers and similar business partners. Now, however, it claims to have developed a &#8216;new&#8217; &#8220;follow-the-hosting&#8221; approach, which allows it to identify site operators, even when they use Cloudflare to hide the location of their servers.</p>
<p>While details on the techniques used by the authorities are thin, uncloaking server locations in this way is nothing new and can be achieved when Cloudflare <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-cloudflare-to-identify-pirate-site-operators-161028/">is ordered to do so</a> by a competent court.</p>
<p>The sites in question, which were not named by the authorities, are said to have served millions of users with pirated content. This, to a background of national media groups losing a third of their turnover over the past five years.</p>
<p>Big anti-piracy operations to protect publishers are extremely rare but with their market closing in and ad revenues falling, more could certainly follow in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134561
title: Film Industry’s Latest Search Engine Draws Traffic With “Pirate” Keywords’
uri: Film-Industry-s-Latest-Search-Engine-Draws-Traffic-With-Pirate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/stNuYvyTW6c/
content:
<p><img src="media/c0f176e3.filmnl.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/filmnl.png" alt="filmnl" width="207" height="84" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134566">An often heard excuse from pirates is that they can’t find the content they’re looking for in their home country, at least not for a decent price.</p>
<p>The movie industry has repeatedly attacked what they see as a myth, pointing out that movies and TV-shows are more widely available than ever before.</p>
<p>In addition, they are putting action behind their words. In the US, Hollywood&#8217;s MPAA launched the movie and TV search engine WhereToWatch, to help people finding legal content. An interesting service, but also hard to find in search engines, especially <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fail-mpaa-makes-legal-content-unfindable-google-141122/">when it first launched</a>.</p>
<p>Yesterday, several major players in the Dutch film industry came out with a similar initiative. They&#8217;ve apparently learned from the mistakes others made, as the legal <a href="https://www.film.nl/">Film.nl</a> search engine was built with pirates in mind. </p>
<p>Like other &#8220;legal&#8221; search engines, the site returns a number of options where people can watch the movies or TV-shows they search for. However, those who scroll down long enough will notice that each page has a targeted message for pirates as well.</p>
<p>The descriptions come in a few variations but all mention prominent keywords such as &#8220;torrents&#8221; and reference &#8220;illegal downloading&#8221; and unauthorized streaming.  </p>
<p><center><strong>The original descriptions (in Dutch)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4484ce5d.filmnlstarw.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/filmnlstarw.jpg" alt="filmnlstarw" width="600" height="475" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134583"></center></p>
<p>This includes the following (translated) message for torrent users, which <a href="https://www.film.nl/films/rogue-one-a-star-wars-story.html">appears</a> under the heading &#8220;Rogue One: A Star Wars Story torrent&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t Wrestle With Nasty Torrents. Ignore the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story torrent. Just go for the safe, fast and legal alternative. Film.nl gives you access to all providers of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Very easy. And then you can make your own choice.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another description targets unauthorized downloading in general.</p>
<p>&#8220;Do you feel like watching Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? Don&#8217;t download it illegally then. There really are other ways to watch Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>And finally, those who are interested in streaming the movie, are <em>inaccurately</em> informed that a legal &#8220;Rogue One&#8221; stream is available.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is also available for streaming, but make sure to use the offerings of real providers. They provide good streams so you Rogue One: A Star Wars Story can enjoy it legally, without any worries,&#8221; it reads, adding that nothing in life comes free.</p>
<p>There are of course no legal streams for the movie yet, but that&#8217;s the downside of these automated descriptions. The upside is that it will bring in quite a bit of traffic to the site.</p>
<p>While the piracy related messaging is unusual, it&#8217;s actually quite clever. Since a lot of people are searching for &#8220;torrent,&#8221; &#8220;streaming&#8221; and &#8220;download&#8221; related terms combined with movie and TV-show titles, it helps to keep search traffic away from pirate sites. </p>
<p>In other words, it&#8217;s a smart search engine optimization trick, helping it to directly compete with pirate sites on this front. </p>
<p>The big question is whether people who search for &#8220;Movie X torrent&#8221; will be satisfied with the results Film.nl offers. That said, from a movie industry perspective, it definitely beats doing nothing at all.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134615
title: Pirate Party’s Pirate Site Was Legal Under EU Law, Court Rules
uri: Pirate-Party-s-Pirate-Site-Was-Legal-Under-EU-Law-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ScDK5UWVWlQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/1a42013e.czech-pp.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/czech-pp.jpg" width="140" height="122" alt="" class="alignright size-large">In July 2011, the Czech division of the Pirate Party reacted angrily when a local anti-piracy outfit targeted a 16-year-old who they accused of posting links to infringing content.</p>
<p>Under the slogan “Linking is not a Crime” the party launched Tipnafilm.cz, its own pirate movie download site, quickly followed by another indexing 5,800 titles.</p>
<p>“We challenge the Anti-Piracy Union to stop bullying the under-aged and to aim its preposterous claims at the Pirate Party,” the pirates said at the time.</p>
<p>In a declaration of &#8220;open war,&#8221; the Czech Pirates went on to launch TV-focused site Sledujuserialy.cz (I Watch TV Series). That provoked a response from the Anti-Piracy Union, and in January 2016 the party became the subject of a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-party-prosecuted-for-operating-a-pirate-site-160125/">criminal prosecution</a>, which they welcomed with open arms.</p>
<p><center><b>Sledujuserialy.cz &#8211; I Watch TV Series</b><img src="media/7d7926c2.cz-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cz-1.png" alt="pirati"></center></p>
<p>“Our goal is to change the copyright monopoly law so that people are not fined millions for sharing culture with their friends. However, until we achieve that, we will fight in courts over interpretation and enforcement of the law,” the party said.</p>
<p>But now, a year later, the action against the party has fizzled out. Despite offering 1,205 videos without permission from copyright holders and standing accused of causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses, the Prague District Court has stopped the prosecution in its tracks.</p>
<p>After consulting EU case law, particularly the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">landmark GS Media ruling</a> in the Netherlands, it was found that since the Pirates <a href="https://www.pirati.cz/tiskove-zpravy/soud_zastavil_trestni_stihani_piratske_strany_kvuli_serialum">ran their site</a> without generating revenue, they weren&#8217;t in violation of the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;The sledujuserialy.cz website was non-commercial. Therefore the owner of the website does not have the obligation to check the &#8216;legality of hyperlinks&#8217; on his website, i.e. we did not have to check whether the content was online legally,&#8221; party spokesman Mikulas Ferjencik informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, if our website was commercial we would have to check it. The good thing about the current decision is that it specifies &#8216;non-commercial&#8217; pretty broadly, i.e. no financial profit for us.&#8221; </p>
<p>While the absence of revenue played its part, the problems for the Pirates&#8217; adversaries did not stop there.</p>
<p>Although the Czech Anti-Piracy Union (CPU) complained to the Pirate Party about links to copyrighted content present on their site, it failed to provide evidence that it was authorized to act on behalf of copyright holders whose content was allegedly being infringed.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court stated that a random letter from anyone is not good enough to make us obliged to take down the links even if it is from the CPU, which is notorious for enforcing harsher copyright law,&#8221; Ferjencik says.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, they provided this evidence to the court in the criminal procedure. This means we cannot put the website back online so easily, as we would have to remove hyperlinks to illegal sources first, as we now officially know these are illegal sources.&#8221;</p>
<p>Under same GS Media EU ruling, knowingly linking to infringing content, even without commercial interests, is illegal.</p>
<p>Commenting on this week&#8217;s ruling, party vice-president Jakub Michálek says that the value of hyperlinks shouldn&#8217;t be understated and anti-piracy outfits shouldn&#8217;t overreach.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we want a working digital economy, where also the artists make money, we cannot turn sharing of a hyperlink on a video a crime. This ruling is important for legal certainty of all Internet users as it states that you do not infringe copyright by linking unless you know that the content was uploaded illegally,&#8221; Michálek said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The court also confirmed that the Czech Anti-Piracy Union cannot act as the Internet Police and they cannot ask other actors to take down content, without providing evidence that they act on behalf of the copyright owners.&#8221; </p>
<p>Party chairman Ivan Bartos says that the criminal prosecution is proof that rightsholders are clinging to their old business models, which appear to be doing rather well, despite piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;We view the whole case as a fight between a modern and backward understanding of the world and digital reality. The criminal prosecution is proof that the old structures do not want to innovate. Instead, they rely on their old business models, which do not have much to do with reality,&#8221; Bartos says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Last year, 13 million people went to the Cinema in the Czech Republic, it is the highest number in the last five years. If this is the result of piracy &#8211; and I believe it is &#8211; the filmmakers should thank us instead of suing us.&#8221;</p>
<p>The decision of the Prague court <em>(<a href="media/36899d93.pirati_436871814_0_usnesenizastaveni.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.pirati.cz/_media/tiskove-zpravy/pirati_436871814_0_usnesenizastaveni.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> is not yet final and the public prosecutor could still file an appeal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=133912
title: US and KickassTorrents Go Head to Head in Court
uri: US-and-KickassTorrents-Go-Head-to-Head-in-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ixnGRS7bzag/
content:
<p><img src="media/2279eece.kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" alt="kickasstorrents_500x500" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-99785">This week KickassTorrents&#8217; alleged owner Artem Vaulin asked the Illinois District Court to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-defense-torrents-are-not-copyrighted-content-us-has-no-case-161018/">dismiss the criminal indictment</a> and set him free. </p>
<p>The fundamental flaw of the case, according to defense lawyer Ira Rothken, is that torrent files themselves are not copyrighted content. </p>
<p>In addition, he argued that the secondary copyright infringement claims would fail as these are non-existent under criminal law.</p>
<p>District Court Judge John Lee previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nerd-judge-questions-evidence-in-kickasstorrents-case-170129/">questioned</a> the evidence in the case and according to Rothken, it is certainly not enough to keep his client behind bars. This is also what he told the court during the hearing this week, stressing that torrents themselves are not copyrighted.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the indictment against Artem Vaulin in the KAT torrent files case is defective and should be dismissed. Torrent files are not content files. The reproduction and distribution of torrent files are not a crime,&#8221; Rothken tells TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;If a third party uses torrent files to infringe it is after they leave the KAT site behind and such conduct is too random, inconsistent, and attenuated to impose criminal liability on Mr. Vaulin. The government cannot use the civil judge-made law in Grokster as a theory in a criminal case.&#8221;</p>
<p>Furthermore, Rothken argued that the US indictment is flawed because it fails to allege an actual criminal copyright infringement anywhere in the world, the United States included. The defense likened KickassTorrents to general search engines such as Google instead. </p>
<p>On the other side of the aisle stood US Department of Justice prosecutor Devlin Su. He urged the court to wait for the extradition hearing in Poland before ruling on the request, noting that Vaulin should come to the US voluntarily if he wanted to speed things up.</p>
<p>According to the prosecution, KickassTorrents operated as a piracy flea market, with an advertising revenue of about $12.5 million to $22.3 million. Comparing it with Google is nonsense, Su argued. </p>
<p>“Google is not dedicated to uploading and distributing copyrighted works,” Law360 <a href="https://www.law360.com/media/articles/886990/no-copyright-crime-in-kickass-torrents-case-says-defense">quotes</a> the prosecutor.  </p>
<p>It is now up to the Illinois District Court to decide how to move forward. The defense is hoping for an outright dismissal, while the U.S. wants to move forward.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, over in Poland, Vaulin remains in custody after he was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-kickasstorrents-owner-stays-in-prison-court-rules-161002/">denied bail</a>. Facing severe health issues, the Ukrainian was transferred from Polish prison to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-kickasstorrents-owner-leaves-prison-hospital-161210/">local hospital</a> a few weeks ago, where he remains under heavy guard.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134629
title: EU Representative: Ukraine Must Tighten Noose on Internet Pirates
uri: EU-Representative-Ukraine-Must-Tighten-Noose-on-Internet-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/A-qPuzsC-RU/
content:
<p><a href="media/dad34aaa.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg"><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="download-keyboard" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383"></a>Despite its proximity to European countries with strong intellectual property laws, Ukraine tends to fall behind when it comes to online piracy.</p>
<p>As a result, the site has played host to a wide range of prominent sites over the years, not least <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/chased-from-sweden-pirate-bay-sails-to-ukraine-091002/">The Pirate Bay</a> and ExtraTorrent.</p>
<p>As a result of its lax approach, Ukraine has been criticized on many occasions by the United States, particularly by the USTR who regularly brands the country as a piracy haven. This week it was the European Commission&#8217;s time to chime in.</p>
<p>In an interview with Ukrainian news outlet <a href="https://www.unian.ua/eurobusiness/1753716-nikolas-berdj-yakscho-vlada-ne-pokazue-priklad-u-dotrimanni-zakonodavstva-z-pitan-intelektualnoji-vlasnosti-to-chogo-chekati-vid-reshti-gromadyan-i-privatnih-kompaniy.html">Unian</a>, Nicholas Burge, head of the trade section of the European Commission&#8217;s delegation to Ukraine, expressed his opinions on where the country needs to improve.</p>
<p>&#8220;There should be a law that would provide a major responsibility for the contents of pirate sites. We will only believe in Ukraine&#8217;s serious intentions to fight pirate sites when there are penalties for those involved in supporting them,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Given moves underway in both the US and EU that could affect safe harbors for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-files-appeal-to-overturn-25-million-piracy-verdict-161110/">Internet service providers</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/public-domain-project-calls-on-eu-to-abandon-piracy-filter-proposals-170110/">hosting platforms</a>, it&#8217;s no surprise that Burge wants Ukraine to take a firmer line with those present in Ukraine, especially those playing host to pirate sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;Internet service providers should also bear some legal responsibility for what they do. Otherwise, putting an end to online piracy will be impossible,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The EU representative said that this would have been possible under recent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ukraine-copyright-amendments-aim-to-please-united-states-151024/">draft legislation</a> designed to protect the film industry, but the amendments were vetoed by the President and never put into place.</p>
<p>&#8220;We urge Parliament to consider and adopt appropriate amendments to the law as soon as possible,&#8221; Burge said.</p>
<p>While Ukraine isn&#8217;t known for taking a hard line against pirate sites, it would be wrong to suggest it does nothing at all. Only recently, Ukrainian police acted on a complaint from the MPAA to close down FS.to, one of the country&#8217;s largest pirate sites. Sixty servers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-raid-pirate-site-seize-60-servers-following-mpaa-complaint-161115/">were seized</a> and 19 people arrested. However, Burge believes more needs to be done.</p>
<p>&#8220;One site was closed and another appeared. This is a battle that is constantly going on,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>According to comments made to Unian, Burge said that by neglecting intellectual property rights, Ukraine is not fulfilling its obligations under the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93European_Union_Association_Agreement">Association Agreement with the EU</a> and risks damaging relationships with the economic and political union.</p>
<p>&#8220;In case of default, the Agreement provides for appropriate mechanisms to deal with such situations within our relationships,&#8221; Burge said.</p>
<p>In addition to new criticism from the EU, Ukraine already faces annual complaints from the United States Trade Representative. In its latest Special 301 Report, the USTR kept Ukraine on its Priority List, meaning the country must make significant improvements if it is to meet US standards for IP protection.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134650
title: Popular Kodi Addon ‘Exodus’ Turned Users into a DDoS ‘Botnet’
uri: Popular-Kodi-Addon-Exodus-Turned-Users-into-a-DDoS-Botnet
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3-jV0BBa42o/
content:
<p><img src="media/b83bd568.exodus-movies.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exodus-movies.jpg" alt="exodus-movies" width="250" height="181" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134675">Millions of people use Kodi as their main source of entertainment, often with help from add-ons that allow them to access pirated movies and TV-shows. </p>
<p>One of the most popular addons is <a href="https://bambino.tvaddons.ag/kodi-addons/show/plugin.video.exodus/">Exodus</a>. The software is maintained by &#8220;Lambda,&#8221; who&#8217;s one of the most prolific developers in the community.</p>
<p>Exodus is widely praised as one of the most useful addons to access streaming video, including pirated movies and TV-shows. This prominent position also brings along quite a few adversaries, which recently led to an unusual situation. </p>
<p>Due to the controversial nature of his work, Lambda has always preferred to remain anonymous. However, he was recently confronted with some people who copied his work and/or threatened to expose his real identity. But instead of backing down, he launched an attack.</p>
<p>Roughly a week ago several lines of code were added to the Exodus plugin, which contacted external sites. While this is nothing new for Kodi addons, in this case the lines in question were targeting resources of Lambda&#8217;s adversaries.  </p>
<p>Soon after people started to notice, complaints started rolling in accusing Exodus of creating a DDoS &#8220;botnet.&#8221; The Ares Blog <a href="http://www.ares-project-blog.com/kodi-news/the-exodus-botnet/">mentioned</a> the issue and a lively <a href="https://forums.tvaddons.ag/lambda-s-xbmc-addons/41161-exodus-add-post399063.html#post399063">discussion</a> started in the TV Addons forum, where the developer himself joined in defending his actions.</p>
<p><center><strong>The offending code</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f2096171.exodusddos-e1486110692304.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exodusddos-e1486110692304.png" alt="exodusddos" width="600" height="284" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134672"></center></p>
<p>Lambda says that he added the code as a countermeasure against people who he believes are trying to do harm or get him in legal trouble. The users themselves are not harmed by the code since they are simply trying to access another web source, he adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;Like I said they try to find my identity and give me legal trouble. I have no choice but to protect myself. If this won&#8217;t help me to defend myself I will retire from all these and focus on my legal addons,&#8221; the developer notes.</p>
<p>While some people sympathized with the move, Lambda eventually decided to make the &#8220;protection&#8221; <a href="media/d5e1c044.NucYMHg.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/NucYMHg.jpg">feature optional</a>. Still, that didn&#8217;t satisfy everyone and soon after the developer decided to throw in the towel and retire. </p>
<p>&#8220;I just couldn&#8217;t deal with all this stress anymore, I made bad decisions that I shouldn&#8217;t take and I am sorry about that,&#8221; Lambda explains in a <a href="https://forums.tvaddons.ag/lambda-s-xbmc-addons/55701-explanation-apology.html">formal apology</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think this is the time for me to leave, this whole thing is changing me as a person, so it&#8217;s time for me to take care of myself and leave this scene once and for all,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to <a href="https://www.tvaddons.ag/">TV Addons</a> repository which offers the Exodus addon, and they told us that the malicious code is no longer present. They are very unhappy with the incident and say they did their best to resolve the matter as swiftly as possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;The actions taken were inexcusable,&#8221; TV Addons&#8217; Eleazar informed us. When they found out about the code, the developer&#8217;s repository was locked and they stress that &#8220;this situation is not being taken lightly.&#8221;</p>
<p>TV Addons has previously published a <a href="https://www.tvaddons.ag/malicious-code/">malicious code</a> policy and says it takes an active stance against this type of abuse. As such, the team has taken it upon themselves to continue the development of Exodus, with Lambda&#8217;s approval.</p>
<p>&#8220;Moving forward, his addons will be maintained by another member of our team. TV ADDONS stands for the end user first, integrity is of our utmost concern,&#8221; Eleazar notes.</p>
<p>As for Lambda himself, he plans to continue his work on other projects.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to thank everybody who stood by me all these years. It&#8217;s time for me to move on and I hope the team to take over my beloved addon. Take care everybody,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134728
title: Livestream ‘Piracy Fest’ on Facebook Shut Down by Foxtel
uri: Livestream-Piracy-Fest-on-Facebook-Shut-Down-by-Foxtel
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/x95RhBNKp2g/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-134732" src="media/049f26ce.boxingstream.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/boxingstream.jpg" alt="boxingstream" width="222" height="122" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/boxingstream.jpg 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/boxingstream-220x122.jpg 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px">On Friday evening millions of Australians were tuning into to the long awaited rematch between the Australian boxers Anthony Mundine and Danny Green.</p>
<p>Those who wanted to watch it live couldn&#8217;t do so cheaply, as it was streamed exclusively by the pay TV provider Foxtel for AUS$59.95.</p>
<p>However, the Internet wouldn&#8217;t be the Internet if people didn&#8217;t try to find ways around this expensive &#8216;roadblock.&#8217; And indeed, as soon as the broadcast started tens of thousands of people tuned into unauthorized live streams, including several homebrew re-broadcasts through Facebook.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not uncommon for unauthorized sports streams to appear on social media, the boxing match triggered a true piracy fest. At one point <a href="http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/boxing-fan-live-streams-mundine-v-green-fight-over-facebook-live-wins-internet/news-story/72694120291078080d9b209fac9e67c4">more than 150,000</a> fans streamed a feed that was shown from the account of Facebook user Darren Sharpe, who gained instant fame.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for him, this didn&#8217;t go unnoticed to the rightsholders. Foxtel was quick to track down Mr. Sharpe and rang him up during the match, a call the Facebook streamer recorded and later shared on YouTube.</p>
<p><center><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wvoJju4B11s?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></center><br>
<em>
<p style="padding-left: 15px;">&#8220;Sorry mate, I just had to chuck that on mute. So you want me to turn off my Foxtel because I can&#8217;t stream it?&#8221; Darren asked the Foxtel representative.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 15px;">&#8220;No. I want you to stop streaming it on Facebook. Just keep watching the fight at home, there&#8217;s no dramas with that. Just don&#8217;t stream it on Facebook,&#8221; the Foxtel rep replied.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 15px;">&#8220;Mate, I&#8217;ve got 78,000 viewers here that aren&#8217;t going to be happy with you. I just don&#8217;t see why it&#8217;s [not] legal. I&#8217;m not doing anything wrong, mate. What can you do to me?&#8221; Darren said in response.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 15px;">&#8220;It&#8217;s a criminal offence against the copyright act, mate. We&#8217;ve got technical protection methods inside the box so exactly this thing can&#8217;t happen,&#8221; the representative replied.</p>
<p></em><br>
Mr. Sharpe didn&#8217;t seem to be very impressed by the allegations, but Foxtel soon showed how serious it was. Since Facebook didn&#8217;t turn off the infringing streams right away, the pay TV provider decided to display the customer&#8217;s account numbers on the video streams, so they could disable the associated feeds.</p>
<p>According to Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh, the streamers in question will soon face legal action. This means that the &#8220;free&#8221; streaming bonanza could turn out to be quite expensive after all.</p>
<p>ABC <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-04/green-v-mundine-live-streamers-warned-to-brace-for-legal-action/8241276">reports</a> that Brett Hevers, another Facebook user whose unauthorized broadcast reached more than 150,000 people at its peak, believes he has done nothing wrong.</p>
<p>&#8220;I streamed the Mundine and Green fight mainly just so a few mates could watch it. A few people couldn&#8217;t afford the fee or didn&#8217;t have Foxtel so I just thought I&#8217;d put it up for them,&#8221; Hevers said.</p>
<p>&#8220;All of a sudden 153,000 people I think at the peak were watching it,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>Anticipating significant legal bills, fellow Facebook streamer Darren Sharpe has already decided to start a <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/9rp4a2-legal-cost">GoFundMe campaign</a> to cover the cost. At the time of writing, the campaign has already reached over a quarter of the $10,000 goal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134641
title: Sky Will Request Persistent Pirates to Remove File-Sharing Software
uri: Sky-Will-Request-Persistent-Pirates-to-Remove-File-Sharing-Software
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/p0LdfBfuI5A/
content:
<p><img src="media/049adc7a.skylogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png" alt="skylogo" width="222" height="129" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124729" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo-220x129.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px">With help from copyright holders, ISPs will send email notifications to subscribers whose connections are allegedly used to pirate content. </p>
<p>These &#8220;alerts&#8221; are meant to educate copyright infringers about legal alternatives in the hope of decreasing piracy rates over time.</p>
<p>In recent weeks the parties involved have put everything in place to get going. Following BT, <a href="https://help2.talktalk.co.uk/get-it-right-genuine-site">TalkTalk</a>, <a href="https://help.virginmedia.com/system/templates/selfservice/vm/help/customer/locale/en-GB/portal/200300000001000/article/HELP-2716/Get-it-right-from-a-genuine-site">Virgin Media</a> and <a href="https://www.sky.com/help/articles/get-it-right-faqs">Sky</a> have all now posted advisories on their respective websites.</p>
<p>A question that repeatedly returns is whether people are at risk of losing their broadband access. The answer for all parties is a clear NO. Sky, however, isn&#8217;t letting its customers continue on their merry way without any repercussions. </p>
<p>&#8220;Your broadband service won’t be affected as a result of receiving this email alert,&#8221; Sky assures its subscribers, but it doesn&#8217;t stop there. </p>
<p>&#8220;However, if you continue to share content illegally using your broadband connection, Sky will request that you take immediate steps to remove or disable any file sharing software that is being used to share copyrighted content illegally,&#8221; Sky writes.</p>
<p>In other words, repeat infringers can expect follow-up communication from the ISP, asking them to remove all BitTorrent clients that are used to share infringing material. That&#8217;s quite a strong message. </p>
<p>This promise also raises a new question. What will happen if the users in question refuse to remove the file-sharing software, or get caught again? Will that lead to more severe repercussions?</p>
<p>The FAQ section doesn&#8217;t go into detail on this hypothetical situation. That said, many ISPs reserve the rights to terminate accounts of users who are persistent copyright infringers. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak also reviewed the advisories of the other ISPs, but none of these refer to such follow-up requests. </p>
<p>TalkTalk does stress that they <a href="media/aafeaedb.talktalk-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/talktalk-1.png">won&#8217;t report customers to the police</a> though, and Virgin mentions that they won&#8217;t share any personal details with copyright holders, <a href="media/39043141.virgincourt.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/virgincourt.png">unless they receive a valid court order</a>.</p>
<p>In a way, it&#8217;s not really surprising that Sky has a more aggressive approach. The company is a major copyright holder itself and has invested &#8220;<a href="https://www.sky.com/help/articles/our-approach-to-protecting-copyright?product=broadband">billions of pounds</a>&#8221; in entertainment.</p>
<p>Whether their emails will help cut these losses has yet to be seen&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134557
title: Capcom Gets Resident Evil 7 “Link Shortener” Pirate Banned
uri: Capcom-Gets-Resident-Evil-7-Link-Shortener-Pirate-Banned
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VGvKXHAMsMg/
content:
<p><a href="media/84044501.upload.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/upload.jpg"><img src="media/ededf114.upload.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/upload.jpg" alt="upload" width="180" height="125" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70533"></a>According to copyright holders, online piracy is fueled by people&#8217;s desire to make money. The statement carries some truth but has traditionally applied to a relatively small number of people at the top of the food chain.</p>
<p>The advent of file-hosting platforms, however, has enabled the smaller guy to turn a small profit.</p>
<p>While many &#8216;cyberlockers&#8217; pay out a commission to uploaders when a file is downloaded every 1000 times, there are some other ways to make a bit of cash too.</p>
<p>At their core, link shortening services such as Google&#8217;s goo.gl convert unmanageably long URLs into compact ones for easy sharing. They also offer analytics so people can understand who is clicking on their content. </p>
<p>However, there are also other services that pay out a small commission for each click. As a result, they have become popular with anyone looking to monetize all kinds of content, including pirates hoping to make a few extra bucks.</p>
<p>One such pirate contacted TF this week following the leaking of Resident Evil 7 online. With its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-piracy-crisis-as-resident-evil-7-gets-cracked-in-record-time-170130/">Denuvo protection neutralized</a>, owner Capcom reverted to sending DMCA notices, including to Google which was asked to remove well over 1,700 URLs from its search results.</p>
<p>Those notices <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/13791667">contained requests</a> to remove &#8220;link shortener&#8221; URLs &#8211; such as those provided by Adf.ly, Shorte.st, and Linkbucks.com &#8211; all of which pay commission to users when others click their links. </p>
<p>However, in addition to taking down Resident Evil 7 links from Google search, file-hosting and torrent sites, it appears that Capcom also sent complaints directly to Adf.ly. Of course, that meant the referrer links died, which in turn killed the revenue stream.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/278d688b.adfly.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/adfly.png"><img src="media/305e9669.adfly.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/adfly.png" alt="adfly" width="650" height="224" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134570"></a></center></p>
<p>While there&#8217;s no doubt that Adf.ly links are widely used by pirates, the company informs TorrentFreak that it has a strict repeat infringer <a href="https://ay.gy/dmca">policy</a> in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;We operate a 3 strike repeat offender policy. If the Company has received three valid DMCA notices, the Company will notify [the] user they have 72 hours to issue any Counter-Notices or their account will be suspended,&#8221; the policy reads.</p>
<p>That not only cost our source his links, but also his account and all of the commission money held in it.</p>
<p>&#8220;Upon suspension, no funds will be paid to the account owner and no links will be accessible belonging to the user&#8217;s account,&#8221; Adf.ly confirmed.</p>
<p>But perhaps of most interest is the effect this type of action has on uploader morale. If those who post Adf.ly and similar commission-based links to infringing content keep losing their accounts, ALL of the links in their account become useless for generating revenue, even if just one copyright holder such as Capcom continually files complaints.</p>
<p>There are also knock-on effects if content uploaders want to recover their position, our tipster notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;[This could] possibly screw [shortener] pirates for good since all these links are hardcoded into blog posts and not dynamically generated. Meaning once you get banned you have to manually &#8216;fix&#8217; each and every link on all the previous uploads,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Capcom is very aggressive. If you reupload the thing they report it again after a few days. I got banned from Adfly thanks to Capcom. Adfly has a 3 strikes (in a 6 month period) policy. For me it worked, I stopped uploading Capcom games altogether.&#8221;</p>
<p>TF asked how easy it is to open another account with Adf.ly, in order to wipe the slate clean and start again. Apparently, it&#8217;s not straightforward since the company uses a number of techniques to spot those signing back up.</p>
<p>For example, according to our experience when simply accessing their site, Adf.ly blocks some popular VPN ranges. However, since the company keeps all of the money in closed accounts, other options are preferred.</p>
<p>&#8220;Adfly keeps all the money. No questions asked. You lose all rights immediately,&#8221; our source explains. &#8220;People usually give up and move to the next link shortener.&#8221;</p>
<p>And so, the cycle continues.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134581
title: Former Prime Minister Admits to Being a Movie Pirate
uri: Former-Prime-Minister-Admits-to-Being-a-Movie-Pirate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HU_JSbvx7Js/
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="streamingkey" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426"></a>Two to three decades ago, being a music, video or software pirate had virtually no social stigma attached at all. Pirate cassettes of all kinds were swapped in public and you&#8217;d be hard pressed to find anyone who cared.</p>
<p>These days, however, things are somewhat different. While piracy is still widespread, it&#8217;s likely that someone will be around to tut, actively complain, or even report the activity, especially if it happens online. </p>
<p>That&#8217;s the result of years of hard work by copyright holders, who have elevated the act to &#8220;serious business&#8221; status within the governments of most developed nations. As a result, most politicians now speak of piracy in negative terms, in public at least.</p>
<p>For former Croatian Prime Minister <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoran_Milanovi%C4%87">Zoran Milanovic</a>, however, talking about piracy in a presumed private situation turned out to be risky business.</p>
<p>It all went south when Milanovic was telephoned by prank-call show &#8220;U Zdrav Mozak&#8221; (&#8220;In Healthy Brain&#8221;), which is a shortened version of a local phrase meaning to screw with someone. The show takes delight in messing with famous people and last week it was the turn of Croatia&#8217;s former prime minister. </p>
<p>Milanovic is currently in between jobs and is reportedly looking to become a business advisor. As a result, show host Davor Jurkotic called Milanovic pretending to be Mark Russinovich, CTO of Microsoft Azure.</p>
<p>Around three minutes into the conversation the topic turned to movies, with &#8220;Russinovich&#8221; saying that he watches them when out of work. At this point, Milanovic revealed he likes to do the same.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a rule, I watch them through these pirate apps. I shouldn&#8217;t say that&#8230; but&#8230; Moviebox, Cinemabox&#8230;,&#8221; Milanovic said, referring to the popular pirate tablet and phone applications.</p>
<p>Continuing the conversation, the fake Mark Russinovich said that using those apps is illegal.</p>
<p>&#8220;But that is a felony, Mr Milanovic. You shouldn&#8217;t be doing that,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Switching to English, Milanovic &#8211; who trained as a lawyer &#8211; indicated that he felt otherwise, with an offhand &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s like&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, &#8220;Russinovich&#8221; was happy to keep up the charade.</p>
<p>&#8220;In England, if they found out, especially if you were the Prime Minister, they immediately come and knock on the door,&#8221; the host warned, rapping his knuckles on the table for effect.</p>
<p>But Milanovic had other ideas about how things might go down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yeah, right! And what if the app isn&#8217;t mine, if the iPad isn&#8217;t mine?&#8221; he said. &#8220;You know what I&#8217;ll tell you? I think I have maybe two parking violations. I am the man who respects the law of the land.&#8221;</p>
<p>After a conversational diversion for a couple of minutes, the discussion returned to piracy. And it turns out that the former prime minister understands his pirate politics.</p>
<p>&#8220;But this is something that is still developing, ethically and legally,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;In Sweden, you have a Pirate Party, in Sweden that is a more organized/regulated country than the USA. And they [Pirate Party] got 12% at the elections. So what is moral these days?&#8221;</p>
<p>While it would&#8217;ve been good to hear more on the piracy front, the prank eventually came to an end when the fake Russinovich said that Microsoft wanted to invest in speedboats that can travel underwater and also fly.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is U Zdrav Mozak, right?&#8221; Milanovic guessed, bursting into laughter.</p>
<p>So a good sport it seems, as well as a secret pirate admirer.</p>
<p><em>Hvala Vlaho!</em></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/otIbc2xcb4E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134743
title: Denuvo Website Leaks Secret Information, Crackers Swarm
uri: Denuvo-Website-Leaks-Secret-Information-Crackers-Swarm
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Oy0EPvDWaVQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/05d838b7.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg"><img src="media/fe5f698e.denuvo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo.jpg" alt="denuvo" width="210" height="109" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116067"></a>Anti-piracy outfit Denuvo has taken a bit of a battering lately after chinks began appearing in the company&#8217;s armor. Last weekend, cracking group CPY defeated the protection on Resident Evil 7 in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denuvo-piracy-crisis-as-resident-evil-7-gets-cracked-in-record-time-170130/">just five days</a>, a record for the anti-tamper technology.</p>
<p>Just a week on, Denuvo has more problems to deal with. For reasons best known to them, the company has left several private directories on its website open to the public, as shown in the image below.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/04fde715.denuvo-directory.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory.png"><img src="media/ef45df3a.denuvo-directory.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory.png" alt="denuvo-directory" width="646" height="493" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134744"></a></center></p>
<p>Most of the content appears relatively mundane but hidden away in the logs directory is an 11MB text file called <a href="http://www.denuvo.com/fileadmin/logs/ajax.log">Ajax.log</a>, which appears to contain customer support emails dating back to 2014. While some are from companies looking to hire Denuvo, a notable email in slightly broken English appears to have been sent by Capcom.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is Jun Matsumoto from CAPCOM Japan. I have a interested in the Denuvo Anti-Tamper solution to protect our game software. If you have a white paper about details, please send me. (ex. platform, usage, price, etc&#8230;) And, if you have a sales agent in Japan, please tell me the contact point. Thank you for your cooperations,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>Another was sent by Jan Newger of Google, who wanted to learn more about Denuvo.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m working in the security team at Google, and would like to evaluate the denuvo product to get an understanding on how it would integrate with existing solutions,&#8221; it reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m specifically interested in further strengthening existing solutions to hinder understanding/tampering with binary programs. Is it possible to obtain some kind of demo version of the product? Also, could you send a quote to me?</p>
<p>But for every business opportunity, there are dozens of emails from angry pirates, each looking to vent their anger.</p>
<p>&#8220;Why do you have to make such shit software to fuck over pc gamers with DRM bullshit. Please inform the companies you work with that if your DRM is implemented on games they are selling, they will lose thousands of customers. Thanks,&#8221; wrote someone identifying themselves as Angry Customer.</p>
<p>While any leak of confidential data is a serious event, this developing situation appears to be getting worse. Within the last few minutes, more insecure directories have been discovered, some of them containing relatively large files.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c9a68023.denuvo-directory3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory3.png"><img src="media/d1788fbf.denuvo-directory3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory3.png" alt="denuvo-directory3" width="650" height="381" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134746" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory3.png 650w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/denuvo-directory3-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px"></a></center></p>
<p>Needless to say, the contents of these files will be of great interest to Denuvo&#8217;s adversaries. With that in mind, TF headed over to a platform where crackers meet and sure enough, they are extremely excited and all over this breach. Thus far it appears that most of the files have been downloaded, including one that appears to contain access logs for Denuvo&#8217;s website and others which carry executables.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s too early to say exactly what these files do but crackers will be hoping for any piece of information or clue explaining how Denuvo works and how it can be defeated. Another bad week for Denuvo is quickly getting worse.</p>
<p>Breaking news, updates to follow.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134494
title: Hosting Provider Steadfast Denies Liability for ‘Pirate’ Site
uri: Hosting-Provider-Steadfast-Denies-Liability-for-Pirate-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/h3Iuo5evtVI/
content:
<p><img src="media/b048ffdf.steadfast.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/steadfast.png" alt="steadfast" width="250" height="115" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134700">Copyright holders are increasingly urging third-party Internet services to cut their ties with pirate sites.</p>
<p>Hosting providers, search engines, ISPs, domain name registrars, and advertisers should all do more to counter online piracy, the argument goes.</p>
<p>Last year, adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan took things up a notch by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-faces-lawsuit-for-assisting-pirate-sites-160823/">dragging</a> several third-party intermediaries to court. The company targeted CDN provider CloudFlare, advertising network JuicyAds, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hosting-companies-dragged-into-piracy-lawsuit-alongside-cloudflare-161126/">several hosting providers</a>, including Chicago-based Steadfast. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.steadfast.net/">Steadfast</a> is not happy with the allegations and has asked the court to dismiss the case. Among other things, the company argues that it&#8217;s protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor provisions. </p>
<p>&#8220;Steadfast does not operate or manage the Imagebam website. Steadfast does not in any way communicate with or interact with Imagebam’s individual users. Steadfast only provides computer storage,&#8221; the company informed the court in its motion to dismiss. </p>
<p>ALS Scan clearly disagrees with this reasoning. According to the adult company, Steadfast should have stopped the infringements on the website of their client. </p>
<p>In addition, the company says that the hosting provider can&#8217;t hide behind &#8220;safe harbor&#8221; protection as it failed to implement a repeat infringer policy, branding ImageBam a frequent offender. </p>
<p>&#8220;Steadfast could remove the infringements on imagebam.com, or the site itself, from the Internet. Steadfast financially benefited from the draw of infringement on imagebam.com,&#8221; ALS Scan wrote in its opposition <a href="media/3a0cd907.steaddismissreply.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/steaddismissreply.pdf">brief (pdf)</a> last week.</p>
<p>&#8220;Steadfast’s safe harbor defenses are intensely factual, not susceptible of resolution on demurrer. Steadfast failed to reasonably implement a policy of terminating account holders who are repeat infringers, and thus cannot claim DMCA safe harbors,&#8221; they add. </p>
<p>Earlier this week Steadfast responded to these and other claims by the adult publisher, arguing that the company is misrepresenting case-law. </p>
<p>The hosting provider maintains that the DMCA law shields it from liability. The repeat infringer argument doesn&#8217;t apply here, as they company doesn&#8217;t have the ability to control the actions of ImageBam users, among other things. </p>
<p>&#8220;In its Opposition, ALS states that in order to avoid liability for contributory infringement, a service provider must terminate services to repeat infringers. This is simply not the law. The service provider must have more power to influence the activity,&#8221; Steadfast argues in its <a href="media/edc4845a.stead.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stead.pdf">reply (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>It is now up to the California District Court to decide which side is right. In addition to Steadfast, several other defendants including CloudFlare are still trying to turn the case in their favor as well. </p>
<p>While ALS Scan is not an internationally known rightsholder, the case may prove to be vital for many Internet-based services in the United States. As we&#8217;ve seen with the case between <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">Cox Communication and BMG</a>, an entire industry is put at risk when a service provider loses its safe harbor protection.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134673
title: Music, Movie & Gaming Industries Seek Piracy Blockades in Belgium
uri: Music-Movie-Gaming-Industries-Seek-Piracy-Blockades-in-Belgium
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-X9LKAh1nB0/
content:
<p><a href="media/0702e6e5.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg"><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="blocked-censor" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850"></a>Back in 2011, Belgium was one of the first countries to implement a court-ordered Pirate Bay blockade. The action was the result of a lawsuit between the Belgian Anti-Piracy Foundation (BAF) and ISPs Belgacom and Telenet. </p>
<p>After being tested in many countries around Europe, especially the UK where thousands of domains are now inaccessible, the site-blocking train has returned to Belgium.</p>
<p>The Belgian Entertainment Association was formed nine years ago following a local merger of International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI, music industry), the Belgian Video Federation (BVF, videos), and the Belgian Luxembourg Interactive Software Association (BLISA, videogames).</p>
<p>On Wednesday, the <a href="http://www.belgianentertainment.be">organization</a> filed a lawsuit at the French commercial court in Brussels. Belgian news outlet De Tijd <a href="http://www.tijd.be/ondernemen/telecom/Film_en_muziekindustrie_dagvaardt_Telenet_en_Proximus.9858396-3128.art">reports</a> that it wants local Internet service providers to block subscriber access to several &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, BEA director Olivier Maeterlinck says that several popular streaming sites are being targeted initially.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our action aims to block nine of the most popular streaming sites which offer copyright-protected content on a massive scale and without authorisation,&#8221; Maeterlinck says.</p>
<p>&#8220;In accordance with the principles established by the CJEU (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-isps-can-be-forced-to-block-pirate-sites-140327/">UPC Telekabel</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">GS Media</a>), BEA seeks a court order confirming the infringement and imposing site blocking measures on the ISPs, who are content providers as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>In common with earlier blocking cases elsewhere in Europe, the ISPs named in the case (Brutélé, Nethys, Proximus, Telenet) first want confirmation that the sites they&#8217;re being asked to block are acting illegally. That is the stated purpose of the BEA lawsuit.</p>
<p>&#8220;Site blocking is nothing new in Belgium. The Pirate Bay and Popcorn Time &#8211; which are not involved in the current action &#8211; have been blocked for a long time,&#8221; Maeterlinck continues.</p>
<p>&#8220;Studies and figures from abroad (e.g. UK, Portugal) have shown that site blocking has a positive impact on the legal offer while the visits to the blocked sites drop massively (approximately a 90% drop in Belgium with The Pirate Bay) and the overall piracy level decreases as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;Site blocking actions are effective and if we want to support the continuing development of the legal offer and increase consumer confidence in the online economy, these enforcement initiatives need to be continued,&#8221; Maeterlinck concludes.</p>
<p>In the UK, well over a thousand domains are blocked on copyright grounds and in Portugal, where a voluntary mechanism is in place, the current tally is more than 900.</p>
<p>Next door to Belgium in the Netherlands, the blocking process has been much more drawn out. Rather than being largely compliant, ISPs have dug in their heels and objected at every turn after being asked to block The Pirate Bay. That case was referred to the European Court of Justice and it will eventually fall to the Dutch Supreme Court to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-of-justice-to-decide-on-legality-of-pirate-bay-blockades/">make a decision</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134760
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 02/06/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-02-06-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Y99ZqozZOVA/
content:
<p><img src="media/c7b022cd.arrival-torrents.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arrival-torrents.jpg" alt="arrival-torrents" width="300" height="185" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134463">This week we have four newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Arrival 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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-013017/">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>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Passengers</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Doctor Strange</a> (DVDScr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/la-la-land-torrent-downloads/">La La Land</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/jack-reacher-never-go-back-torrent-downloads/">Jack Reacher: Never Go Back</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393786">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwrdbcAh2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Resident Evil: The Final Chapter</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2592614/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbtmW3ydOkU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hacksaw-ridge-torrent-downloads/">Hacksaw Ridge</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119532/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-1hz1juBI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/manchester-sea-torrent-downloads/">Manchester By The Sea</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVoD0pTge0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">Lion</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNI9o06vqo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/">The Founder</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX2uz2XYkbo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134766
title: RIAA Labels Sue Hip-Hop Mixtape Download Site Spinrilla
uri: RIAA-Labels-Sue-Hip-Hop-Mixtape-Download-Site-Spinrilla
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MlQqjYK9Bzc/
content:
<p><img src="media/8ebd4927.spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" alt="spinrilla" width="234" height="234" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134771">For several decades, mixtapes have formed an integral part of the hip-hop culture. </p>
<p>In the eighties and early nineties this was mostly done through cassettes, later followed by CDs, and in the present day and age a mixtape often comes in the form of MP3 files.</p>
<p>One of the most popular mixtape portals on the Internet today is <a href="https://www.spinrilla.com/">Spinrilla</a>. The service, which allows users to stream and download tracks through its website or mobile apps, has hundreds of thousands of users per month.</p>
<p>Although Spinrilla <a href="https://www.spinrilla.com/dmca">notes</a> that its takes &#8220;copyright infringement very seriously,&#8221; this couldn&#8217;t prevent the service from running into legal trouble.</p>
<p>A group of well-known labels is now targeting the site over alleged copyright infringement. The coalition of record labels including Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, and Universal Music Group have filed a lawsuit against Spinrilla. </p>
<p>In the <a href="media/8f824aa1.Spinrilla-Complaint.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Spinrilla-Complaint.pdf">complaint (pdf)</a> submitted to a Federal Court in Georgia late last week, the labels describe Spinrilla as a business that facilitates copyright infringement. the site allegedly offers more than 21,000 tracks of artists such as from Kendrick Lamar and Kanye West, without permission of the owners.</p>
<p>&#8220;By offering free access to copyrighted content, Defendants drive a tremendous and growing number of visitors to their website and apps. Spinrilla.com receives nearly two million visits a month, a majority from U.S.-based visitors,&#8221; the labels write in the complaint. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Spinrilla apps have been downloaded millions of times. Users like Spinrilla’s service for obvious reasons. To quote one reviewer of the Spinrilla app: &#8216;It has all the hot music for free,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>The labels estimate that the Spinrilla Android app has been downloaded and installed between 5 and 10 million times. This means that it&#8217;s among the most popular music apps offered on the Google Play store, ranking higher than Apple&#8217;s Music app, the Amazon Music app, and the SiriusXM Radio app. </p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that the RIAA labels have gone head to head with a website that offers music for free. However, Spinrilla is not your typical &#8220;shady&#8221; MP3 download portal. </p>
<p>The service was founded by Dylan Copeland from Atlanta and is incorporated in the United States. The company earns money through advertising and recently partnered with AOL to optimize its revenue, with success. </p>
<p>&#8220;Video has proven to be the highest paying &#038; most engaging form of ad for us without ruining the user experience. Users understand that they’re getting access to free streaming music, so one video ad every 60 minutes isn’t seen as a problem,&#8221; Copeland comments in a <a href="media/31f1663d.AOL_Spinrilla_App_Monetization_Case_Study.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/AOL_Spinrilla_App_Monetization_Case_Study.pdf">case study</a> AOL published.</p>
<p>According to the RIAA, however, it is clear that Spinrilla has crossed a line by offering copyrighted music without permission. They hope the labels will be properly compensated through the lawsuit and that an injunction will pull it offline swiftly. </p>
<p>&#8220;Spinrilla specializes in ripping off music creators by offering thousands of unlicensed sound recordings for free,&#8221; the RIAA said in a public statement, which <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/music-industry-majors-sue-hip-hop-streaming-site-spinrilla-971831">HWR</a> first reported. </p>
<p>&#8220;Fans today have access to millions upon millions of songs from innovative platforms and services that pay creators — this kind of illicit activity has no place in today’s music marketplace.&#8221;</p>
<p>Spinrilla itself has yet to comment on the case. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134801
title: Movie Industry Wants Irish ISPs to Block Pirate Movie Streaming Portals
uri: Movie-Industry-Wants-Irish-ISPs-to-Block-Pirate-Movie-Streaming-Portal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mvtfjBgMofg/
content:
<p><img src="media/426d8edb.ireland.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ireland.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="101" class="alignright size-full wp-image-44866">Pirate site blocking has been a topic of ongoing discussion throughout Europe, with The Pirate Bay as one of the main targets.</p>
<p>This is also true in Ireland where the notorious torrent site was first blocked in 2009 as part of a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/eircom-agrees-to-block-pirate-bay-access-090820/">voluntary agreement</a> between copyright holders and local ISP Eircom.</p>
<p>A few years later other major Internet providers were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/high-court-gives-irish-isps-30-days-to-block-the-pirate-bay-130612/">ordered to follow suit</a>. The High Court in Ireland concluded that the Pirate Bay caused substantial harm to various rightsholders, and ordered several large ISPs to block the site on its networks. </p>
<p>Fast forward to today, and another range of blockades is looming on the horizon. The Motion Picture Association (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Association">MPA</a>) has filed a case at the Commercial Court, hoping to block access to three popular streaming sites; movie4k.to, primewire.ag and onwatchseries.to.</p>
<p>Watchseries is the most popular of the three, according to the movie group, good for nearly two million visitors from Ireland last October. Primewire had 1.26 million Irish visitors in the same month, followed by Movie4k with 200,000 visitors.</p>
<p><center><strong>Watchseries</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5628cbc8.watchseries-e1486454561980.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/watchseries-e1486454561980.png" alt="" width="600" height="439" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134819"></center></p>
<p>RTE <a href="https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0206/850521-piracy-commercial-court/">reports</a> that the MPA&#8217;s fresh blocking demands are targeting a total of eight ISPs &#8211; Eir, Sky Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Three Ireland, Digiweb, Imagine Telecommunications and Magnet Networks.</p>
<p>Based on yesterday&#8217;s hearing it appears to be only a matter of time before the three sites will be blocked. </p>
<p>None of the ISPs have raised principle objections against a court determination in this case. That said, reports suggest that there are still a few finer details that have to be worked out, which could include issues regarding costs and the technical implementation.</p>
<p>If granted, the question remains whether any new blocks will be effective to limit the availability of pirated movies in Ireland. The three targeted sites are just the tip of the iceberg, and recent history has repeatedly shown that people quite easily switch to new sources.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134815
title: Movie Cammer & Prolific Uploader Receives Community Sentence
uri: Movie-Cammer-Prolific-Uploader-Receives-Community-Sentence
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3UVJXntquVQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/a13d45bb.cammer1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cammer1.jpg" width="210" height="122" class="alignright size-large">When movies quickly become available online following their theatrical release, it&#8217;s likely that a copy has been recorded in a cinema. A wide range of cloaking techniques are used but in basic terms, someone points a camera at the screen and hits record.</p>
<p>The copies subsequently made available vary in quality, from passable to absolutely terrible. Nevertheless, so-called &#8216;cam&#8217; copies of movies maintain their popularity online, and their existence is often referenced as the most damaging form of movie piracy.</p>
<p>As a result, copyright holders work hard to crack down on so-called &#8216;cammers,&#8217; with two of the riskiest places being the United States and the United Kingdom. Cases rarely end well for defendants, with custodial sentences often the outcome. However, it doesn&#8217;t always go that way.</p>
<p>Back in September 2015, copies of American Ultra and Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials were recorded in Cineworld Cinema in Nottingham on their day of release and subsequently uploaded to the Internet.</p>
<p>Following a joint operation between EMSOU (the East Midlands Special Operations Unit), FACT (the Federation Against Copyright Theft) and the FCPA (Film Content Protection Agency), investigators found their way to then 33-year-old Shaun Patrick Forry.</p>
<p>Officers from the Government Agency Intelligence Network Disruption Team and EMSOU <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-arrest-movie-cammer-uploader-150922/">executed search warrants</a> in the Hinkley area, with laptops and other equipment taken away for examination. FACT operatives were also in attendance.</p>
<p>Forry was arrested on suspicion of recording both movies and uploading them to the Internet. He was questioned and bailed pending further inquiries. The investigation later revealed that Forry had distributed more than 670 films online since August 2013, some of them while on police bail.</p>
<p>He subsequently pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of articles for use in fraud and one count of distributing copyrighted films. Previously, an individual who uploaded Fast &#038; Furious 6 to the Internet received a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fast-furious-6-pirate-sentenced-33-months-prison-140821/">33-month jail sentence</a>, but in this case the defendant got off relatively lightly.</p>
<p>According to a report from local police, Forry was sentenced yesterday at Nottingham Crown Court. He received an 18-month community order and was told to complete 150 hours unpaid work. But despite the relative slap on the wrist, the Film Content Protection Agency insist this was a serious case.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a highly significant case concerning the illegal recording of films belonging to two UK film distributors, followed by the release of those films online,&#8221; says Simon Brown, Director of the FCPA.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over 90% of pirated films originate from a copy recorded during a public performance in cinemas worldwide, so it’s vital that offenders like Mr. Forry are identified and arrested promptly to prevent further damage to our film industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy not only costs the film industry millions of pounds but can also affect thousands of jobs, so we welcome this conviction. We thank the East Midlands GAIN for their diligent assistance in this case.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s likely that moving forward we&#8217;ll hear quite a bit more about the <a href="http://www.launchingfilms.com/filmcontentprotectionagency/landing">Film Content Protection Agency</a>. While historical camming cases were usually handled by the Federation Against Copyright Theft, a new FCPA unit <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-unit-takes-over-uk-anti-camming-operations-161012/">formed in October 2016</a> will now spearhead anti-camming activity in the UK.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134844
title: Accused File-Sharer Beats ‘Copyright Trolls’ in Finnish Court
uri: Accused-File-Sharer-Beats-Copyright-Trolls-in-Finnish-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Aho5NyjaRzQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/5451b1e2.finland1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/finland1.jpg" alt="finland" width="200" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-25779">Starting <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-copyright-trolls-invade-finland-140326/">three years ago</a>, TV-show and movie distributors in Finland began sending out thousands of settlement letters to alleged pirates, demanding payments of between 600 and 3,000 euros.</p>
<p>The letters in question are sent by the law firm Hedman Partners on behalf of known &#8220;copyright trolls,&#8221; and threaten legal action if accused pirates refuse to cooperate.</p>
<p>These are not hollow threats either, as rightsholders have taken several people to court already. A case last year resulted in victory when a man was ordered to pay more than 32,000 euros in damages to Crystalis Entertainment and Scanbox Entertainment.</p>
<p>However, in very a similar case the pendulum swung the other way this week.</p>
<p>Earlier, Crystalis and Scanbox filed a lawsuit against a person who they accused of downloading three episodes of the pirate TV-series “Black Sails” and the movie A Walk Among the Tombstones via BitTorrent.</p>
<p>The rightsholders employed the German tracking company Excipio, who linked the defendant&#8217;s IP-address to several BitTorrent swarms, concluding that the account holder must have been the infringer.</p>
<p>However, after a careful review of the evidence provided by both parties, the Finnish Market Court decided <a href="http://www.markkinaoikeus.fi/fi/index/paatokset/teollisjatekijanoikeudellisetasiat/teollisjatekijanoikeudellisetasiat/1486457257268.html">otherwise</a>. </p>
<p>According to the Court, the rightsholders failed to provide sufficient evidence to link the downloads to the subscriber in question.</p>
<p>The defendant rightfully pointed out that the Wi-Fi network was unsecured so anyone could have downloaded the files. In fact, tests revealed the network could be accessed by anyone within 300 meters of the router.</p>
<p>In addition, a forensic analysis of the defendant&#8217;s computer and network hard drives revealed no trace of the infringing files or even a BitTorrent client.</p>
<p>Taking these and other issues into account, the Market Court ordered Crystalis and Scanbox to pay the defendant&#8217;s legal fees, which total €28,135.60. The case is not completely over yet, as there is still an option to take it to the Supreme Court. But for now, it offers a glimmer of hope for many other accused pirates.</p>
<p>For the rightsholders, this is the second setback in a few weeks. Last month the Finnish Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/finnish-government-investigates-as-tens-of-thousands-face-piracy-fines-170126/">announced</a> an investigation into the recent wave of cash settlement requests for alleged piracy offenses. According to the authorities, copyright legislation is not designed for the public to be &#8220;milked.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134835
title: Search Engines & Copyright Holders Ready Voluntary Anti-Piracy Code
uri: Search-Engines-Copyright-Holders-Ready-Voluntary-Anti-Piracy-Code
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iM0kqSKX22E/
content:
<p><a href="media/ebe343ca.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png"><img src="media/3c5b1a66.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" width="267" height="257" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128445"></a>For several years the entertainment industries have blamed companies like Google for not doing enough to prevent instances of Internet piracy. At times, Google has even been accused of fueling it.</p>
<p>The problem is with search results. Whether they&#8217;re presented by Google, Bing or Yahoo, copyright holders wish that more could be done to prevent the appearance of infringing links, particularly in the first crucial pages of results. To its credit, Google has taken a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-punishing-pirate-sites-in-search-results-works-160713/">number of measures</a> over the years but in the eyes of copyright holders, it&#8217;s never been enough.</p>
<p>Instead, Google has been flooded with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-a-billion-pirate-search-results-in-a-year-161128/">billion takedown requests</a> in the last year alone, each demanding that links to infringing content be removed. When the notices are accurate, Google always complies but there have been rumblings in recent years, particularly in the UK, that search engines could find themselves on the end of legislation that forces them to do more.</p>
<p>With that eventuality a daunting prospect, companies like Google and representatives from the entertainment industries have been trying to reach some kind of voluntary agreement. Their meetings generally aren&#8217;t spoken about in public, but the UK government has played a strong role in bringing the groups together. What we now know is that a deal is extremely close to being signed.</p>
<p>This week, during a Digital Economy Bill committee, discussion again turned to the role of service providers when it comes to infringing content. For example, should they enjoy reduced safe harbors if they optimize the presentation and promotion of copyright-protected works?</p>
<p>A draft amendement to the bill would allow the government to impose a code of practice on search engines, forcing them to deal with infringement &#8211; a proposal has proven popular in parliament. However, when the matter was raised again this week it was revealed that the imposition of such a regime probably won&#8217;t be needed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since the idea was last discussed in [parliament], Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries,&#8221; <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/search/MemberContributions?house=Lords&#038;memberId=3349">Baroness Buscombe</a> said.</p>
<p>&#8220;While there are still elements of detail to be settled, the group is now agreed on the key content of the code and I expect an agreement to be reached very soon.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Buscombe, all parties involved (that&#8217;s the search engines and entertainment industry companies) have agreed that the code should come into effect within four months.</p>
<p>&#8220;All parties have also agreed that the code should take effect, and the targets in it be reached, by 1 June this year,&#8221; the Baroness said.</p>
<p>With no such meetings ever documented in public by either the companies involved or the government, TorrentFreak reached out to Google &#8211; who are definitely at the hub of the agreement &#8211; with a few questions.</p>
<p>What companies are involved in the agreement, both from the search side and entertainment industries? What are the basics of the voluntary code and how will it affect the visibility of allegedly-infringing results? How will the agreement manifest itself to Google&#8217;s users come June 1? </p>
<p>At the time of publication, Google had not responded to our request for comment. However, without mentioning them by name, Baroness Buscombe was complimentary about Google and the other search engines involved, noting that cooperation with entertainment companies is ongoing.</p>
<p>&#8220;The search engines involved in this work have been very co-operative, making changes to their algorithms and processes, but also working bilaterally with creative industry representatives to explore the options for new interventions, and how existing processes might be streamlined,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I understand that all parties are keen to finalize and sign up to the voluntary agreement, and so we believe there is no need to take a legislative power at this time.&#8221;</p>
<p>Noting that moving forward on a co-operative basis now is better than introducing legislation later, the Baroness said that other options could always be revisited in the future, should things not work out. At this stage, however, it seems unlikely that Google et al would prefer legislation over a voluntary code.</p>
<p>Due to the worldwide nature of the web, it will be extremely interesting to see how any UK-based agreement plays out overseas. It seems unlikely that Google will be able to implement strictly local measures without coming under pressure to follow suit in the United States, for example.If you can do it in the UK, you can do it everywhere, the company will be told.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134857
title: Steal This Show S02E10: In Surveillance Valley
uri: Steal-This-Show-S02E10-In-Surveillance-Valley
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SV7y5TXdppI/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="stslogo180" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928"><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p>This episode features journalist and writer <a href="https://twitter.com/yashalevine">Yasha Levine</a> discussing some of the topics covered in his forthcoming book, <a href="http://surveillancevalley.com">Surveillance Valley</a>. </p>
<p>Yasha argues that the biggest threat to our privacy comes not directly from the government, but via the ubiquitous corporate platforms we all use every day &#8211; including Google, Facebook, eBay and others &#8211; and the &#8216;data brokers&#8217; that buy and sell the most intimate information about our lives.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis. </p>
<p>The guests for our news discussions will vary, and we&#8217;ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds. </p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> Yasha Levine</p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=2&#038;lpe-episode=10" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Riley Byrne<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Siraje Amarniss</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134884
title: Blocking The Pirate Bay is Allowed Under EU Law, AG Concludes
uri: Blocking-The-Pirate-Bay-is-Allowed-Under-EU-Law-AG-Concludes
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XWO-j41hY-o/
content:
<p><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470">In 2014, The Court of The Hague handed down its decision in a long running case which had previously forced two Dutch ISPs, Ziggo and XS4ALL, to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>The Court ruled against local anti-piracy outfit BREIN, concluding that the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isps-no-longer-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-dutch-court-rules-140128/">blockade was ineffective</a> and restricted the ISPs’ entrepreneurial freedoms.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay was unblocked by all local ISPs after the decision while BREIN took the matter to the Supreme Court, which in its turn referred the case to the EU Court of Justice, seeking further clarification.</p>
<p>After a careful review of the case, EU Advocate General (AG) Maciej Szpunar submitted <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&#038;docid=187646&#038;pageIndex=0&#038;doclang=EN&#038;mode=req&#038;dir=&#038;occ=first&#038;part=1&#038;cid=634431">his opinion</a> to the top EU Court today, which brings bad new for users of the torrent site. </p>
<p>The first question that required a European review is whether The Pirate Bay is communicating illegal content to the public. A relevant issue since the torrent site doesn&#8217;t store any infringing content, only metadata. </p>
<p>The Advocate General concludes that in this case a website can still be seen as communicating works to the public if the operator is made aware that copyrighted works are being shared without permission, but fails to take action. </p>
<p>If a local court agrees on this, then they can order Internet providers to block the site in accordance with EU law, AG Szpunar concludes. </p>
<p>The second question comes into play if the EU Court of Justice counters the advice and rules that The Pirate Bay isn&#8217;t communicating infringing works to the public. Then the court must clarify whether ISPs can be ordered to block a site if the operator merely facilitates copyright infringements of third parties.</p>
<p>Again, the Advocate General believes that blocking measures are warranted under these circumstances. However, local courts must ensure that the blocks don&#8217;t unnecessarily prevent Internet users from accessing legal content.</p>
<p>The proportionality of such decisions needs to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. In the case of The Pirate Bay, a block would be appropriate according to the AG, who notes that rightsholders have determined that 90% of the available files are infringing and that the operators expressly refuse to respond to takedown requests. </p>
<p>&#8220;In such circumstances, in my view, depriving internet users of access to information, by blocking the TPB site, would be proportionate to the significance and seriousness of the copyright infringements committed on that site,&#8221; AG Szpunar concludes.</p>
<p>&#8220;My assessment is based on both the proportion of illegal content and the behavior of the operators of that site,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>The Advocate General’s advice is not binding, but the European Court of Justice often uses such input as the basis of its rulings. The final verdict is expected to be released later this year.</p>
<p>A decision at the European level is important, as it may also affect court orders in other countries, such as the UK, Italy, and Belgium, where The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites are blocked as well.</p>
<p>After the EU Court reaches a conclusion, the Dutch Supreme Court will make its final decision.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134904
title: Police Bust ‘Pirate’ Kodi Box Sellers on Behalf of Sky, Virgin, BT, Premier League
uri: Police-Bust-Pirate-Kodi-Box-Sellers-on-Behalf-of-Sky-Virgin-BT
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F57dRcrw0B8/
content:
<p><a href="media/57ab39a0.city-pipcu.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/city-pipcu.png"><img src="media/7d486e43.city-pipcu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/city-pipcu.png" alt="" width="270" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-133985"></a>After a decade of torrent sites ruling the pirate seas, streaming sites are now all the rage. These sites are not always the friendliest places to navigate though, unless users get a little help.</p>
<p>What people are discovering in ever-increasing numbers is that the popular and entirely legal Kodi media player can present content from endless streaming sites in a TV friendly interface. This is achieved via <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-kodi-add-ons-gain-massive-popularity-161007/">third-party addons</a>, often with questionable legal standing.</p>
<p>While people were previously happy to do their own software installations at home, traders are increasingly doing the work for them, bundling the whole package into set-top boxes and supplying them for a few pounds, dollars or euros. The people <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/xbmckodi-targets-piracy-promoting-ebay-sellers-141101/">behind Kodi don&#8217;t like it</a>. The addon makers don&#8217;t like it and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-cyberlockers-hate-pirate-kodi-add-ons-161126/">streaming sites</a> don&#8217;t like it.</p>
<p>Most importantly, copyright holders, broadcasters, and the police don&#8217;t like it either, and yet again today they showed that in the clearest of terms.</p>
<p>In what is being described as a &#8220;multi-agency day of action,&#8221; FACT, Greater Manchester Police (GMP), City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) and the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) joined forces to target six individuals.</p>
<p>After executing warrants in Tameside, Bolton, Bootle, Manchester, Cheadle and Rhyl, four men aged 33, 36, 46 and 60, and a 36-year-old woman were arrested at their homes by PIPCU and GMP.</p>
<p>According to FACT, so-called &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; set-top boxes were seized from the homes of all five suspects, who are said to have made £250,000 from sales across &#8220;social media, online forums, as well as their own dedicated websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, FACT confirmed that some of the seized devices are believed to have Kodi with third-party addons installed, while some will have &#8220;other software and/or infringing apps and add-ons that don’t require media player software.&#8221;</p>
<p>Software such as Popcorn Time, Showbox, CinemaBox, and Mobdro all fit that description and are used by huge numbers of people to receive movies, TV shows, and live sports without paying for them.</p>
<p>This is not only a massive thorn in the side of copyright holders, but distributors too. That could not be more evident today. Instead of the usual complaints from groups such as the MPAA, FACT reports that the operation was carried out on behalf of The Premier League, Sky, BT Sport and Virgin Media.</p>
<p>“This operation is aimed at taking out distributors of illegal set top boxes in the north west of England,&#8221; said DCI Pete Ratcliffe, Head of the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit.</p>
<p>“This industry undermines the legitimate sale of subscription television services which employ tens of thousands of people in the UK and whose contributions are key to the creative and sporting industries.&#8221; </p>
<p>Kieron Sharp, Director General of FACT, took the opportunity to warn other sellers of the consequences.</p>
<p>“Today’s day of action should send out a clear warning to anyone involved in the sale and distribution of illegal set-top boxes that law enforcement and industry take this matter very seriously,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>As the dozens of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-announces-legal-action-to-smash-piracy-links-160215/">listings on eBay and Amazon</a> show, police can&#8217;t target everyone with a raid. However, it appears that other sellers have narrowly escaped police action and given a second chance to mend their ways.</p>
<p>&#8220;Officers from Greater Manchester Police, Merseyside Police and City of London Police also joined FACT investigators the day before (7 Feb) to issue three Cease and Desist Notices to other offenders on a lower scale. Two further investigations have also been passed on to HMRC for further action,&#8221; FACT reports.</p>
<p>With many sellers carrying out their business as a cottage industry sideline, the involvement of Revenue and Customs is an interesting development. There&#8217;s only one thing worse than a police visit and that&#8217;s a visit from the taxman, and if people receive benefits too, things can get extremely messy. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134925
title: Rojadirecta Ordered to Shut Down By Spanish Court
uri: Rojadirecta-Ordered-to-Shut-Down-By-Spanish-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nYhS7jfkxlk/
content:
<p><a href="media/119c53ec.roja.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/roja.png"><img src="media/f43ec131.roja.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roja.png" alt="" width="252" height="252" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106243"></a>When it comes to sports streaming sites, Rojadirecta is one of the best known and longest standing platforms on the planet. As a result, it has gained a loyal and international following. </p>
<p>Unlike most pirate sites that essentially lurk in the shadows, Rojadirecta is owned by a known company. Puerto 80 has been through several legal challenges over the years and Rojadirecta was even declared legal after two major <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/streaming-and-bittorrent-sports-links-site-declared-legal-090724/">lawsuits</a>.</p>
<p>Now, however, Rojadirecta&#8217;s life at the top appears to be on life support after a local court ordered the platform to shut down its operations. The ruling from the Commercial Court of A Coruña follows a complaint by Telefónica-owned Movistar+ against the site and its owner Igor Seoane.</p>
<p>The company accused Rojadirecta of violating its intellectual property rights when it streamed sports content to the public without permission. </p>
<p>According to <a href="http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2017/02/07/actualidad/1486499126_667674.html">El Pais</a>, Seoane previously argued that certain allegedly-infringing soccer streams had been added to the site by its users. As such, Rojadirecta acted as a mere intermediary enjoying certain legal protections. The judge disagreed.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The] cataloging and location in the corresponding sections of an index of contents was essential for the general public to access protected content,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Adding that the content should have been reserved for subscribers only, the judge found that Rojadirecta facilitated infringement and is therefore guilty of breaching Movistar+&#8217;s intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;We did not agree on how this site was using our content and justice has been done,&#8221; a Movistar+ spokesperson <a href="http://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/2017-02-07/rojadirecta-pirateria-internet-futbol_1328239/">said</a>.</p>
<p>The order to shut down, which was issued on February 1 but was published this week, covers all of Rojadirecta&#8217;s domains. The site will also be required to pay damages, pending any appeal. The broadcasters estimate the site cost them 500 million euros in damages each year.</p>
<p>This is the second major setback for the site in recent months. Following a complaint from Mediapro and GolT, last November the Commercial Court of A Coruña <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-rojadirecta-to-stop-offering-pirated-football-streams-161124/">ruled</a> that Rojadirecta must cease linking to unauthorized streams of football events.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134853
title: Internet Backbone Provider Cogent Blocks Pirate Bay and other “Pirate” Sites
uri: Internet-Backbone-Provider-Cogent-Blocks-Pirate-Bay-and-other-Pirat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AYiiKXZIqtk/
content:
<p><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 href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_backbone">Internet backbone</a> providers are an important part of the Internet ecosystem. These commercial Internet services have datacenters all over the world and help traffic of millions of people to flow from A to B. </p>
<p>When the average Internet user types in a domain name, a request is sent through a series of networks before it finally reaches the server of the website. </p>
<p>This also applies to The Pirate Bay and other pirate sites such as Primewire, Movie4k, TorrentProject and TorrentButler. However, for more than a week now the US-based backbone provider <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogent_Communications">Cogent</a> has stopped passing on traffic to these sites. </p>
<p>The sites in question all use CloudFlare, which assigned them the public IP-address 104.31.19.30. While this can be reached just fine by most people, users attempting to pass requests through Cogent&#8217;s network are unable to access them.</p>
<p>The issue is not limited to a single ISP and affects a small portion of users all over the world, the United States and Europe included. According to Cogent&#8217;s own <a href="http://www.cogentco.com/en/network/looking-glass">backbone routing check</a>, it applies to the company&#8217;s entire global network. </p>
<p><center><strong>No route to The Pirate Bay</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/dd0b2484.cogenttrace.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cogenttrace.png" alt="" width="619" height="217" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134862"></center></p>
<p>Since routing problems can sometimes occur by mistake, TorrentFreak reached out to Cogent to ask if the block is intentional and if so, what purpose it serves. </p>
<p>A Cogent spokesperson informed us that they looked into the issue but that the company &#8220;does not discuss such decisions with third parties,&#8221; while adding that they do not control the DNS records of these sites.</p>
<p>The fact that the IP-address of The Pirate Bay and the other sites remains inaccessible suggests that it is indeed intentional. But for now, we can only speculate what the reason or target is. </p>
<p>Since so many of the sites involved are accused of facilitating copyright infringement, it seems reasonable to view that as a possible cause. However, this remains unconfirmed for now. </p>
<p>The Pirate Bay team is aware of the issue and tells us that users affected by the roadblock should contact Cogent with their complaints, hoping that will change things. </p>
<p>In the meantime, people who want to access the blocked sites have no other option than to come up with a workaround of their own. According to various users the &#8216;roadblock&#8217; can be bypassed with a VPN or Tor, and some proxy sites appear to work fine too.</p>
<p>The websites themselves can still update their DNS records and switch to a new IP-address, which some appear to have done, but if they are the target then it&#8217;s likely that their new IP-address will be blocked soon after.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The following sites are affected by the Cogent blackhole, but there may be more.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay, Primewire, Movie4k, Torrentproject, Couch-tuner, Cyro.se, Watchseriesfree, Megashare, Hdmovieswatch, Torrentbutler.eu, Afdah. Movie.to, Mp3monkey, Rnbxclusive.me, Torrentcd, Moviesub, Iptorrents, Putlocker.com and Torrentz.cd. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134999
title: Spanish Police Shut Down ISP’s IPTV Piracy Business
uri: Spanish-Police-Shut-Down-ISP-s-IPTV-Piracy-Business
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9CXjRm1ryFg/
content:
<p><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">Increasingly people are trading in expensive cable subscriptions for cheaper or free Internet TV. However, ideally they would still like to enjoy this from the comfort of their living room.</p>
<p>In recent years this has become much more convenient with help from a variety of easy-to-use media players, Kodi boxes included. </p>
<p>Following this trend, there has also been an uptick in the availability of unlicensed TV streams, with vendors offering virtually any channel imaginable, for free or in exchange for a small fee. </p>
<p>Rightholders are not happy with this development and are actively cracking down on sellers of these illicit services and devices. This is also what happened yesterday in Malaga, Spain, where local ISP <a href="http://y-internet.com/">Y-Internet</a> was raided.</p>
<p>The police action was carried out following a complaint from the UK football organization Premier League, with assistance from anti-piracy outfit <a href="https://www.irdeto.com/">Irdeto</a>. While the company&#8217;s website doesn&#8217;t list any IPTV offers, the provider allegedly offered piracy-configured IPTV devices on the side for a hefty annual fee of €450.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s not mentioned by the police, TF discovered that the ISP also has ties to a company that offers an IPTV service with UK and Irish TV &#038; radio channels. The website in question was online at the time of the raid, but is now &#8220;undergoing maintenance.&#8221;</p>
<p>Y-Internet itself is a well-known business in the Costa Del Sol region according to several <a href="http://www.listandalucia.com/sponsors/costa-del-sol-internet-connection-from-y-internet/">online sources</a>. The Spanish Government officially licensed the company&#8217;s Internet services, and the ISP is said to serve 300,000 homes and businesses, including many UK expats.</p>
<p>During the raid, five company employees were present in the store, but it&#8217;s unclear if any arrests were made. Whether the company&#8217;s regular Internet subscribers were affected by the action is also unknown.</p>
<p>While details remain scarce, police did release a video of the raid showing several pieces of hardware and network equipment.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mcHNEeTaNPI?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>The UK owners of the ISP were not present in the store at the time of the raid. They reportedly observed their employees from overseas and tried to destroy files, payment transactions, and clients’ records when the police action began. </p>
<p>However, the police reportedly stopped them before they could permanently erase any critical evidence.</p>
<p>The Premier League is happy with the result and notes that this is the second success in a short period. Just a few weeks ago a UK supplier of piracy-configured IPTV boxes <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-jails-pirate-iptv-box-supplier-for-four-years-161212/">was sentenced to four years</a> in prison.</p>
<p>“The raids conducted by the Spanish authorities, supported in this case by Irdeto’s expertise, are a positive example of law enforcement taking seriously piracy and IP infringement,&#8221; says Kevin Plumb, Premier League Director of Legal Services</p>
<p>&#8220;This approach is essential for organizations like the Premier League – and other creative industries – as our model is predicated on the ability to market and sell rights and protect intellectual property. It is because of this that clubs can invest in star players and managers, and world class stadiums – the very things fans enjoy about our competition.”</p>
<p>Or as the Spanish Police put it: One goal against Piracy&#8230;</p>
<p><center><img src="media/78dbd9cc.goalpi-e1486655135766.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/goalpi-e1486655135766.png" alt="" width="600" height="354" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135004"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134935
title: UK Piracy Alerts: The First Look Inside the Warning System
uri: UK-Piracy-Alerts-The-First-Look-Inside-the-Warning-System
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hVZj9CjUF2E/
content:
<p><a href="media/3a0aa598.getitrightlogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/getitrightlogo.png"><img src="media/28f506b0.getitrightlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/getitrightlogo.png" alt="" width="225" height="237" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134206"></a>In January it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-piracy-warnings-coming-month-heres-works-170111/">revealed</a> that UK ISPs and the movie and music industries had finally reached their years-long goal of sending infringment notices to pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>The alerts, which are claimed to be educational in nature, are part of the larger Creative Content UK (CCUK) initiative, which includes <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-anti-piracy-education-campaign-launched-quietly-151201/">PR campaigns</a> targeted at the public and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-education-enters-uk-classrooms-160104/">classroom</a>.</p>
<p>Until now, no one has published details of the actual alerts in public but thanks to a cooperative member of the UK public, TorrentFreak has the lowdown. The system we&#8217;ll show below relates to Sky, so other ISPs may or may not operate slightly differently.</p>
<p><Center><b>The initial warning email from Sky</b><a href="media/e5c09ba4.Sky2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Sky2.png"><img src="media/5059d69b.Sky2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Sky2.png" alt="" width="650" height="769" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134939"></a></center></p>
<p>The email above has been redacted to protect the identity of our tipster. The blacked-out areas contain his name, the date in DD/MM/YY format, an alleged time of infringement in the HH:MM format, and a seven-digit reference code for the shared content, which is the TV show Westworld.</p>
<p>There is also a pair of links, one to sign into the subscriber&#8217;s Sky account (presumably this ensures the person signing in is the account holder) and a link to the &#8216;Get it Right Information Portal&#8217;. The first page before hitting that site looks like this.</p>
<p><center><b>What is Creative Content UK?</b><a href="media/f2a8b35f.step1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/step1.png"><img src="media/eff86cf3.step1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/step1.png" alt="" width="650" height="425" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134946"></a></center></p>
<p>Once on the GetItRight site, the user is informed that his or her account has been used to breach copyright and that further information is available on the following pages.</p>
<p><center><b>There&#8217;s a report coming up</b><a href="media/22138e0a.step2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/step2.png"><img src="media/9df1373b.step2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/step2.png" alt="" width="650" height="379" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134947"></a></center></p>
<p>Following the links, the alleged infringer is presented with a page which provides a lot more detail. The CIR ID shown below is the same as the seven-digit code on Sky&#8217;s website. The date and time are the same, although in different formats.</p>
<p>The all-important IP address is listed alongside details of the software used to share the content. Also included are the filename and filesize of the infringing content and the copyright owner that made the complaint. </p>
<p><Center><b>The infringement data</b><a href="media/f860f80f.step3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/step3.png"><img src="media/e1874d66.step3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/step3.png" alt="" width="650" height="633" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134949"></a></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, the system&#8217;s ability to track repeat infringers is evident at the bottom of the screenshot where the &#8220;Total Instances Logged This Period&#8221; can be seen.</p>
<p>Since the purpose of the campaign is to &#8220;educate&#8221; infringers, we asked our tipster a little about his habits, his impressions of the system, and how this warning will affect his future behavior.</p>
<p>&#8220;I was expecting [a warning] sooner or later as a heavy BitTorrent user. I&#8217;m sharing everything from movies, TV shows to games, but this email was about watching a TV show on Popcorn Time,&#8221; he revealed.</p>
<p>&#8220;This surprised me because I don&#8217;t use Popcorn Time very often and yet after approximately 10 minutes of usage I got an email the very next day. Isn&#8217;t that funny?&#8221;</p>
<p>So in this case, the warning was not only accurate but was also delivered to the correct person, rather than merely the person who pays the bill. We asked our tipster if he was aware of the GetItRight campaign before receiving this warning and whether it would achieve its aims.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes, I have read articles on TorrentFreak. Only what I have read on TorrentFreak,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think [the warnings] will work, at least not on a big scale. Maybe they will educate some people who did it by mistake or did it just once but for someone like me there is no hope. But at least the campaign is not aggressive.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interestingly, the education factor in this particular case appears to have somewhat backfired. Our tipster said that thanks to news coverage of the warnings, he knew immediately that there would be no consequences for receiving one. That put his mind at rest.</p>
<p>However, he did indicate that he may change his habits after receiving the warning, particularly given Sky&#8217;s claim it will ask subscribers to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sky-will-request-persistent-pirates-to-remove-file-sharing-software-170204/">remove file-sharing software</a> if they&#8217;re caught multiple times.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The threat to remove software] upsets me as a long-term Sky customer. But I won&#8217;t comply, I will either subscribe to another ISP provider or start using VPNs,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I might stop using Popcorn Time as I wasn&#8217;t using it too often anyway, but I will keep using BitTorrent,&#8221; he added. Of course, Popcorn Time has BitTorrent under the hood, so both can trigger warnings.</p>
<p>Received a warning from a UK ISP? Contact TF in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/contact/">complete confidence</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134689
title: BitTorrent Expert Report Slams Movie Piracy Evidence
uri: BitTorrent-Expert-Report-Slams-Movie-Piracy-Evidence
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/v050jXhUiHM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-134962" src="media/6c3d07de.evidence-1-e1486632827918.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/evidence-1-e1486632827918.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="156">In recent years many people have accused so-called &#8216;copyright trolls&#8217; of using dubious tactics and shoddy evidence, to extract cash settlements from alleged movie pirates.</p>
<p>As the most active copyright litigant in the United States, adult entertainment outfit Malibu Media has been subjected to these allegations as well.</p>
<p>The company, widely known for its popular &#8220;X-Art&#8221; brand, has gone after thousands of alleged offenders in recent years earning millions of dollars in the process. While many of its targets eventually pay up, now and then the company faces fierce resistance.</p>
<p>This is also true in the case Malibu launched against the Californian Internet subscriber behind the IP-address 76.126.99.126. This defendant has put up quite a fight in recent months and invested some healthy resources into it.</p>
<p>A few days ago, the defendant&#8217;s lawyer submitted a <a href="media/a6bb3a6e.doedismiss.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/doedismiss.pdf">motion (pdf)</a> for summary judgment, pointing out several flaws in the rightsholder&#8217;s complaint. While this kind of pushback is not new, the John Doe backed them up with a very detailed expert report.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/338868924/Expert-Report?secret_password=zXIh8K7Hbh8DcmP2DKuS">74-page report</a> provides an overview of the weaknesses in Malibu&#8217;s claims and the company&#8217;s evidence. It was put together by Bradley Witteman, an outside expert who previously worked as Senior Director Product Management at BitTorrent Inc.</p>
<p>In common with other aspects, Malibu&#8217;s file-sharing evidence was also carefully inspected. Like many other rightsholders, the adult company teamed up with the German outfit Excipio which collects data through its custom monitoring technology. </p>
<p>According to Witteman&#8217;s expert analysis, the output of this torrent tracking system is unreliable. </p>
<p>One of the major complaints is that the tracking system only takes 16k blocks from the target IP addresses, not the entire file. This means that they can&#8217;t prove that the defendant actually downloaded a full copy of the infringing work. In addition, they can&#8217;t do a proper hash comparison to verify the contents of the file.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the expert report</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1d6fa780.expertrep.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expertrep.png" alt="" width="600" height="359" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134993"></center></p>
<p>That&#8217;s only part of the problem, as Mr. Witteman lists a range of possible issues in his conclusions, arguing that the reliability of the system can&#8217;t be guaranteed.</p>
<ul>
<li>Human error when IPP enters information from Malibu Media into the Excipio system.</li>
<li>Mr. Patzer stated that the Excipio system does not know if the user has a complete copy of the material.</li>
<li>The Excipio system only take 16k blocks from the target IP addresses.</li>
<li>There has not been any description of the chain of custody of the IPP verification affidavits nor that the process is valid and secure.</li>
<li>IP address false positives can occur in the system.</li>
<li>The user’s access point could have been incorrectly secured.</li>
<li>The user&#8217;s computer or network interface may have been compromised and is being used as a conduit for another user’s traffic.</li>
<li>VPN software could produce an inaccurate IP address of a swarm member.</li>
<li>The fuzzy name search of file names as described by Mr. Patzer could not have identified the file kh4k52qr.125.mp4 as the content “Romp at the Ranch.”</li>
<li>Proprietary BitTorrent Client may or may not be properly implemented.</li>
<li>Claim of “zero bugs” is suspect when one of the stated components has had 5 over 431 bugs, 65 currently unresolved.</li>
<li>Zero duration data transfer times on two different files.</li>
<li>The lack of any available academic paper on, or security audit of, the software system in question.</li>
</ul>
<p>In addition to the technical evidence, the expert report also sums up a wide range of other flaws. </p>
<p>Many files differ from the one&#8217;s deposited at the Copyright Office, for example, and the X-Art videos themselves don&#8217;t display a proper copyright notice. On top of that, Malibu also made no effort to protect its content with DRM.</p>
<p>Based on the expert review the John Doe asks the court to rule in his favor. Malibu is not a regular rightsholder, the lawyer argues, but an outfit that&#8217;s trying to generate profits through unreliable copyright infringement accusations.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only conclusion one can draw is that Malibu does not operate like a normal studio &#8211; make films and charge for them. Instead Malibu makes a large chunk of its money using unreliable bittorrent monitoring software which only collects a deminimus amount of data,&#8221; the Doe&#8217;s lawyer writes.</p>
<p>Stepping it up a notch, the lawyer likens Malibu&#8217;s operation to Prenda Law, whose principals were recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prenda-copyright-trolls-arrested-and-charged-with-fraud-and-extortion-161216/">indicted</a> and charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and perjury by the US Government. </p>
<p>&#8220;Malibu is no different than &#8216;Prenda Law&#8217; in form and function. They cleverly exploit the fact that most people will settle for 5-10K when sued despite the fact that the system used to &#8216;capture&#8217; their IP address is neither robust nor valid,&#8221; the motion reads. </p>
<p>Whether the court will agree has yet to be seen, but it&#8217;s clear that the expert report can be used as a new weapon to combat these and other copyright infringement claims. </p>
<p>Of course, one has to keep in mind that there are always two sides to a story. </p>
<p>At the same time the John Doe submitted his motion, Malibu moved ahead with a <a href="media/5ebff124.gov.uscourts.cand.291516.141.0.pdf" data-original-source="http://ia801305.us.archive.org/15/items/gov.uscourts.cand.291516/gov.uscourts.cand.291516.141.0.pdf">motion (pdf)</a> for sanctions and a default judgment. The adult entertainment outfit argues that the defendant destroyed evidence on hard drives, concealed information, and committed perjury on several occasions. </p>
<p>To be continued&#8230; </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134867
title: Russia Orders Public Tracker to Block Itself, Site Refuses
uri: Russia-Orders-Public-Tracker-to-Block-Itself-Site-Refuses
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ieCS0a-IOeU/
content:
<p><img src="media/5978f459.zeroday.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/zeroday.jpg" width="240" height="157" class="alignright size-large">While torrents will work without them, trackers are valuable tools for finding other BitTorrent peers with the same content. They’re vital for those who have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrents-future-dht-pex-and-magnet-links-explained-091120/">DHT and PEX</a> disabled in their clients.</p>
<p>Trackers are fairly thin on the ground so to help to fill that gap, in early 2016, zer0day was born. The tracker can be used by anyone, but it had a spurt of growth when ETRG (ExtraTorrent’s release group) began using it.</p>
<p>As previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/running-a-torrent-tracker-for-fun-can-be-a-headache-160828/">reported</a>, the site had a bit of a bumpy ride in its early days but since August last year has been operating smoothly and without complaint. However, that all changed recently when the tracker was contacted by Russian telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor.</p>
<p>&#8220;We send you a notification on violation of exclusive rights to objects of copyright and (or) related rights (except photographic works and works obtained by processes analogous to photography), published on the website in the information and telecommunication network Internet tracker.zer0day.to,&#8221; Rozcomnadzor&#8217;s email reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to the article 15.2 of the Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 &#8216;On Information, Information Technologies and on Protection of Information&#8217;, the access to the illegal published content is to be restricted within three (3) working days on receipt of this notice.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rozcomnadzor follows up by stating clearly that if the site doesn&#8217;t remove the &#8220;illegal published content&#8221;, it will have the tracker blocked by Russian ISPs.</p>
<p>Of course, stand-alone trackers do not carry any content, illicit or otherwise. They do not even have direct links to content. Trackers carry a hash value which can be matched to an IP address which in turn may be sharing that content. Even if a tracker ceases to exist, the content will continue to be shared, so targeting a tracker is useless.</p>
<p>It seems, however, that Rozcomnadzor either doesn&#8217;t a) understand or b) particularly care. In an attachment, the watchdog references a decision of the Moscow City Court dated November 28, 2016.</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/a7a466dd.zer0day-complaint.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/zer0day-complaint.png"><img src="media/f5d18aec.zer0day-complaint.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zer0day-complaint.png" alt="" width="650" height="498" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134869"></a></center></p>
<p>The movie &#8216;Viking&#8217; listed in the complaint has been at the center of several other blocking actions in Russia, so it&#8217;s no surprise to see it listed here. However, zer0day isn&#8217;t hosting the movie and the URL cited by the watchdog is part of the tracker&#8217;s main announce URL and doesn&#8217;t link to the content either.</p>
<p>Furthermore, zer0day&#8217;s admin informs TorrentFreak that he can&#8217;t comply since the tracker doesn&#8217;t even have the feature to kill a hash.</p>
<p>&#8220;I won&#8217;t be removing anything. The tracker is compiled so that it doesn&#8217;t have a hash blacklist,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>The only solution would be to block the whole site. Zer0day won&#8217;t be doing that but the Moscow City Court could if it processes multiple unresolved complaints about the tracker. But, as mentioned earlier, that won&#8217;t do a thing to stop people sharing Viking, as anyone with DHT and PEX enabled in their torrent client will carry on as usual.</p>
<p>Since the last time we spoke with zer0day, things have continued much as before with the tracker, albeit with some developments in the pipeline.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is tracking a modest 1 million torrents with around 3 to 4 million peers,&#8221; its admin says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Also, I started working on a simple online torrent editor which will be available on the tracker&#8217;s website. The script is quite simple but I&#8217;m so busy that I don&#8217;t know when it will be finished.&#8221;</p>
<p>Zer0day can be found <a href="http://zer0day.to/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134882
title: Google Drive Uses Hash Matching to Detect Pirated Content
uri: Google-Drive-Uses-Hash-Matching-to-Detect-Pirated-Content
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pIaqGpqU4ZM/
content:
<p><img src="media/7f51b80c.drive-e1486567676544.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/drive-e1486567676544.png" alt="" width="200" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134908">There a thousands of options for people who want to store files online and Google Drive is one of them. The cloud hosting service allows users to store all content imaginable, videos included. </p>
<p>Whether it&#8217;s wise or not, some people even use Drive to store pirated files. This usually doesn&#8217;t cause any problems but when they&#8217;re shared in public, alarm bells may start to go off. </p>
<p>This week we received a tip from a reader who was unable to share a link to a screener copy of a Hollywood blockbuster. Instead of a public link, Google drive warned that sharing the file in question could violate its terms of service. </p>
<p>Through a follow-up test, we were able to replicate the result. Google Drive didn&#8217;t specify what the violation was but instead linked to information about the DMCA takedown procedure as additional information.</p>
<p><center><strong>Error</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e585d531.drivetost.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/drivetost.png" alt="" width="533" height="167" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134906"></center>  </p>
<p>So what&#8217;s going on here? We contacted Google directly to find out more about the process involved, and how files are flagged as copyright-infringing. Unfortunately, the company wasn&#8217;t very forthcoming. </p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t comment on the details of our anti-abuse mechanisms on Drive,&#8221; a Google spokesperson replied.</p>
<p>Luckily, we were able to find some more information in a transcript from a Copyright Office Roundtable that took place in San Francisco last year. Here, Google was asked about its anti-piracy policies. </p>
<p>During the discussion, Fox Entertainment Group&#8217;s Elizabeth Valentina pointed out that several prominent piracy platforms use Google as a video host, as we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-video-streaming-sites-exploit-googles-servers-140417/">previously highlighted</a> as well. She then added that hash filtering could make a huge difference here. </p>
<p>Google&#8217;s legal director for copyright Fred Von Lohman did not refute this claim but mentioned that Google drive already uses hash matching to detect infringing material. </p>
<p>&#8220;I just want to note that, contrary to Ms. Valentina’s statement or suggestion, Google Drive does hash matching. So we do that, another voluntary measure,&#8221; Von Lohman said at the time.</p>
<p>No concrete details were provided, but it&#8217;s likely that Google Drive records the hashes of content for which they receive valid <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&#038;sort_by=date_received+desc&#038;term=drive.google.com">takedown requests</a>. These hashes are unique to the file in question, which makes it possible to identify copies accurately.</p>
<p>If other Google Drive users then attempt to share a copy of the same file, they are blocked from doing so. However, merely storing the file in a private Drive account doesn&#8217;t raise any red flags.</p>
<p>Hash filtering is not something new for cloud-hosting services or even Google. Dropbox, for example, has had a similar system in place for several years, and YouTube&#8217;s Content-ID system also relies on hash filtering. </p>
<p>That said, the Google Drive equivalent isn&#8217;t well known to the public, or even rightsholders, it seems. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134890
title: Change.org Petitions Used For Pirate Movie Downloads
uri: Change-org-Petitions-Used-For-Pirate-Movie-Downloads
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dkuF-7j74os/
content:
<p><a href="media/dad34aaa.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg"><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383"></a>In years gone by, people trying to draw attention to a cause would do so in the streets, asking people to sign a paper petition in the hope that change could be brought about. These days, the Internet has more straightforward solutions.</p>
<p>People who spend a lot of time online have no doubt been asked to visit Change.org, a US-based petition site with more than 100 million users. This past December, for example, an unprecedented 4.6 million people <a href="https://www.cnet.com/news/hillary-clinton-president-change-org-donald-trump-electoral-college/">signed a Change.org petition</a> to make Hillary Clinton president.</p>
<p>The majority of petitions are focused on more niche campaigns, many with a local interest. However, for the past few years, the platform has been used for something else entirely &#8211; piracy.</p>
<p>Way back in 2012, UFC-owner Zuffa <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/1802544">complained to Google</a> that someone had posted links to its PPV event, UFC 153, on Change.org. For the next several years, the complaints continued to come in, from giants including <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/10299557">Columbia Pictures (The Interview)</a>, <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/10302950">Lionsgate (The Expendables)</a>, publisher <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/13463882">Simon &#038; Schuster</a>, and dozens of others.</p>
<p>For the most part, complaints have been fairly well spread out. However, during recent months the frequency has increased to a few complaints a week. It&#8217;s rare for Google to remove search links since it appears that Change.org acts quickly to remove content.</p>
<p>However, a scan through the site itself reveals hundreds of &#8216;petitions&#8217; containing numerous <a href="https://www.change.org/search?q=dvdrip">&#8216;pirate&#8217; terms</a>.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/78d864c2.change1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change1.png"><img src="media/130e4eb0.change1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change1.png" alt="" width="650" height="608" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134971"></a></center></p>
<p>One such &#8216;petition&#8217; <a href="https://www.change.org/p/straight-outta-compton-english-online-free-movie-hd?source_location=minibar">features</a> Straight Outta Compton along with links to an external site where the movie can be viewed. The petition has a target of 500 signatures and for no clear reason it achieved 230 before running its course.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/0cc3c1f2.change2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change2.png"><img src="media/b018c66c.change2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change2.png" alt="" width="650" height="554" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134987"></a></center></p>
<p>Also provoking vigorous head-scratches are the reasons voters give for participating in Change.org petitions featuring pirate movies.</p>
<p>Links are accessible to anyone, but people actually sign in and comment with gems like &#8220;I wanna <a href="https://www.change.org/p/straight-outta-compton-english-online-free-movie-hd/c/483369995">watch</a> straight outta compton&#8221; and &#8220;I&#8217;m signing because i&#8217;m very anxious to watch this movie and I love rap music.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another, which is perhaps more insightful, suggests an educational benefit. &#8220;People should know of what it was like living back in the streets,&#8221; the voter wrote.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ec77dbe6.change3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change3.png"><img src="media/283b9264.change3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change3.png" alt="" width="650" height="425" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134972"></a></center></p>
<p>Sadly and perhaps predictably, some of the &#8216;movie&#8217; links posted to Change.org lead to external sites with questionable motives. We&#8217;re not keen to expose readers to them, so we&#8217;ll omit the links from here to save any unwanted trouble.</p>
<p>However, it seems likely from the comments left by some Change.org members that their decision to vote for a free movie download turned into a rather unpleasant experience. This user expected &#8220;[BluRay-1080p] &#8216;Warcraft&#8217; On-line Movie [2016] F.ull F.r.e.e&#8221; but got something else.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/30596dab.change4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change4.png"><img src="media/3f6b508e.change4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change4.png" alt="" width="650" height="239" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134977"></a></center></p>
<p>But despite the misuse of Change.org for these &#8216;pirate&#8217; links and probable malware, some people actually sign these &#8216;petitions&#8217; for reasons that are perhaps worthy of a real call for change.</p>
<p>A pair of users from Australia and New Zealand, who signed a petition for &#8220;The Hunger Games: Mockingjay &#8211; Part 2&#8221;, give their reasons for supporting the cause as follows.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/8f902dc8.change5.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change5.png"><img src="media/5ddf2bc3.change5.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change5.png" alt="" width="650" height="136" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134979"></a></center></p>
<p><center><a href="media/c77495bd.change6.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/change6.png"><img src="media/6ca9f39a.change6.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/change6.png" alt="" width="650" height="155" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-134982"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134612
title: Google Has Received Takedown Notices For a Million Websites
uri: Google-Has-Received-Takedown-Notices-For-a-Million-Websites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/M6NSC1-KRmk/
content:
<p><img src="media/367885e7.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="83" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135049">Removing search results is nothing new for Google. The company has been cleaning up its search index for years, in response to complaints from copyright holders.</p>
<p>Every week the search engine processes millions of requests targeting a wide range of websites that allegedly offer infringing content. </p>
<p>The process is fairly transparent as Google publishes all notices in a daily <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/?hl=en">report</a>. This allows us to keep track of the often staggering numbers, and today there&#8217;s a new milestone to report. </p>
<p>Since Google started counting, the company has now received takedown notices for a staggering one million websites. We&#8217;re not talking about the number of URLs that were reported in total, as these run in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-a-billion-pirate-search-results-in-a-year-161128/">billions</a>, but the separate domain names that were called out.</p>
<p><center><strong>A million&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1bf7a0b6.1m.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/1m.png" alt="" width="519" height="126" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135104"></center> </p>
<p>Looking more closely at the statistics, we see that a large proportion of the targeted sites have only been flagged a few dozen times or less. Many of these were called out by mistake, including some high profile ones. </p>
<p>The White House, <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=whitehouse.gov">for example</a>, is not your typical pirate site and neither is the <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=justice.gov">U.S. Department of Justice</a>. Still, both sites have been repeatedly reported to Google. The same is true for other big names such as <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=nasa.gov">NASA</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=netflix.com">Netflix</a>, the <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=bbc.co.uk">BBC</a>, and the <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=nytimes.com">New York Times</a>. </p>
<p><center><strong>The White House</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6c9e0c17.whitehouse-e1486724279654.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/whitehouse-e1486724279654.png" alt="" width="550" height="308" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135064"></center> </p>
<p>The movie database IMDb is one of the sites that&#8217;s most frequently reported in error. In recent years Google was asked to remove more than <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=imdb.com">1,000 URLs</a>, which the search engine wisely refused to do. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s easy to highlight individual mistakes among a million entries, the majority of the requests are indeed targeted at pirates. </p>
<p>Many pirate sites regularly switch to new domains or have alternative URLs so users can circumvent blockades. The Pirate Bay alone has well over a hundred proxies, which adds up quickly over time. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135125
title: The Pirate Bay Must Be Blocked in Sweden, Court of Appeal Rules
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Must-Be-Blocked-in-Sweden-Court-of-Appeal-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QvL4xRdRtz4/
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>In 2014, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry teamed up in a lawsuit designed to force Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) to block The Pirate Bay and streaming portal Swefilmer.</p>
<p>In a move that was to irk the ISP, the rightsholders argued that Bredbandsbolaget should be held liable for the infringements of the &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites, if it refused to block them. </p>
<p>In response, Bredbandsbolaget dug in its heels while insisting that its only role is to provide subscribers with unfettered access to the Internet. The upholding (or otherwise) of this concept would be a landmark moment for all Swedish ISPs.</p>
<p>The case went to trial at the Stockholm District Court during October 2015. Considering the outcomes of similar cases against ISPs elsewhere in Europe, Bredbandsbolaget was expected to lose. Instead, however, the ISP <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/no-pirate-bay-blockade-in-sweden-court-rules-151127/">won its case</a>, with the District Court ruling that when Bredbandsbolaget facilitated access to The Pirate Bay, that did not amount to participation in a crime under Swedish law.</p>
<p>Soon after, the defeated rightsholders <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-pirate-bay-blocking-decision-will-go-to-appeal-151130/">filed an appeal</a>. The case was heard again last September, running for several days at the brand new Patent and Market Court of Appeal. Today the Court made its decision and it&#8217;s bad news for the ISP and by extension other ISPs and their collective customers.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down minutes ago, the Court overruled the earlier ruling of the District Court and ordered Bredbandsbolaget to implement &#8220;technical measures&#8221; to prevent its customers accessing the &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites through a number of domain names and URLs.</p>
<p>The Court found that under EU law it is possible for copyright holders to obtain an injunction against ISPs whose services are used to commit copyright infringement, even if the ISP only provides its customers with Intenet access. It found that the Swedish Copyright Act should be interpreted &#8220;in the light of EU law.&#8221; </p>
<p>The Court also considered whether such a blocking injunction would be proportional. In this respect, it found that since the content being made available via The Pirate Bay and Swefilmer is primarily copyright protected and distributed illegally, then an injunction would be an appropriate response.</p>
<p>&#8220;In today&#8217;s judgment, the Patent and Market Court held that right holders such as film and music companies can obtain a court order in Sweden against an ISP, which forces the ISP to take measures to prevent copyright infringement committed by others on the Internet,&#8221; Court of Appeals Judge Christine Lager said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decision is based in EU law and Swedish Law should be interpreted in the light of EU law. Similar injunctions have already been announced, such as in Denmark, Finland, France and the UK, but the verdict today is the first of its kind in Sweden.&#8221;</p>
<p>The injunction has a time limit of three and years and has a penalty of $56,000 if the ISP fails to comply. The verdict can not be appealed.</p>
<p>“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,” Bredbandsbolaget and fellow ISP Telenor <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-blocking-the-pirate-bay-is-dangerous-censorship-161211/">warned</a> in an earlier statement.</p>
<p>“We don’t think that tougher legislation and blocking requirements are an effective way to stop the illegal distribution of copyrighted works on the Internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the current injunction covers just two sites, the ruling opens the floodgates to rightsholders looking to block potentially hundreds of sites. That, and potentially more far-reaching consequences worries former Pirate Bay spokesman, Peter Sunde.</p>
<p>&#8220;The fight is not about TPB &#8211; the users of TPB can just bypass this blockade easily. It’s about the slippery slope it brings; next time it will be another uncomfortable site, maybe politically uncomfortable, then it starts to become purely a business model to stifle your competition,&#8221; Sunde informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;In today&#8217;s society with an insane ruler of the world&#8217;s most powerful country, his country having all of our data and information, we shouldn’t help with centralizing or controlling the information flow on the Internet, but the opposite. It’s quite clear for everyone, but the Swedish court doesn’t understand what they’ve done.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135108
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 02/13/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-02-13-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CHx3n_K0IOQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/c7b022cd.arrival-torrents.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/arrival-torrents.jpg" alt="arrival-torrents" width="300" height="185" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134463">This week we have two newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Arrival 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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-020617/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hacksaw-ridge-torrent-downloads/">Hacksaw Ridge</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119532/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-1hz1juBI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Doctor Strange</a> (DVDScr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="">Passengers</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/jack-reacher-never-go-back-torrent-downloads/">Jack Reacher: Never Go Back</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393786">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwrdbcAh2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/la-la-land-torrent-downloads/">La La Land</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Underworld: Blood Wars</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3717252/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKHL5PyAPzs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Nocturnal Animals</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4550098/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H1Ii1LjyFU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/manchester-sea-torrent-downloads/">Manchester By The Sea</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4034228/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsVoD0pTge0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">Lion</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNI9o06vqo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135114
title: Facebook and Foxtel Team Up to Crack Down on Live Streaming Piracy
uri: Facebook-and-Foxtel-Team-Up-to-Crack-Down-on-Live-Streaming-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/D_DoK_rYMF4/
content:
<p><img src="media/4b4608b3.facebooklive.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facebooklive.png" alt="" width="234" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135121">A week ago <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/livestream-piracy-fest-on-facebook-shut-down-by-foxtel-lawsuits-are-coming-170204/">hundreds of thousands</a> of people watched unauthorized Facebook live streams of a highly anticipated rematch between two Aussie boxers. </p>
<p>Pay TV channel <a href="https://www.foxtel.com.au/index.html">Foxtel</a>, which secured the broadcasting rights for the event, was outraged by the blatant display of piracy and vowed to take the main offenders to court.</p>
<p>This weekend, however, things had calmed down a bit. Foxtel did indeed reach out to the culprits, some of whom had more than 100,000 people watching their unauthorized Facebook streams. The company decided to let them off the hook if they published a formal apology. </p>
<p>Soon after, the two major streaming pirates in this case both admitted their wrongdoing in <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-11/mundine-green-facebook-streamers-apologise-after-foxtel-warning/8262150">similarly worded messages</a>.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Last Friday I streamed Foxtel&#8217;s broadcast of the Mundine v Green 2 fight via my Facebook page to thousands of people. I know that this was illegal and the wrong thing to do,&#8221; streamer Brett Hevers <a href="https://www.facebook.com/brett.hevers/posts/10154427915626491?pnref=story">wrote</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;I unreservedly apologize to Anthony Mundine and Danny Green, to the boxing community, to Foxtel, to the event promoters and to everyone out there who did the right thing and paid to view the fight. It was piracy, and I&#8217;m sorry.&#8221;</p>
<p>But that doesn&#8217;t mean that the streaming piracy problem is no longer an issue. Quite the contrary. Instead of investing time and money in legal cases, Foxtel is putting its efforts in stopping future infringements. </p>
<p>In an op-ed for the <a href="http://www.heraldsun.com.au/">Herald Sun</a>, Foxtel CEO Peter Tonagh likens piracy to stealing, a problem that&#8217;s particularly common Down Under.</p>
<p>“It is no less of a crime than stealing a loaf of bread from a supermarket or sneaking into a movie theater or a concert without paying. Yet, as a nation, Australians are among the worst offenders in the world,” Tonagh writes. </p>
<p>Foxtel&#8217;s CEO sees illegal live streaming as the third wave of piracy, following earlier trends of smart card cracking and file-sharing. The Facebook piracy fest acted as a wake-up call and Tonagh says the company will do everything it can to stop it from becoming as common as the other two.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rest assured we will work even harder to address this piracy before it gets out of control. The illegal streaming of the Mundine v Green fight nine days ago was a wake-up call. It was the first time that Foxtel had experienced piracy of a live event on a mass scale,” he notes.</p>
<p>Over the past several days, Foxtel and Facebook have been working on a new technology which should be able to recognize pirated streams automatically and pull them offline soon after they are started. This sounds a lot like YouTube&#8217;s Content-ID system, but for live broadcasts.</p>
<p>“We are working on a new tool with Facebook that will allow us to upload a large stream of our events to Facebook headquarters where it can be tracked,&#8221; Tonagh tells <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/fight-forces-facebook-to-address-live-ripoffs/news-story/abb71e39e81a1d4223bddf41264a4633">The Australian</a> behind a paywall.</p>
<p>&#8220;If that content is matched on users’ accounts where it’s being streamed without our authorisation then Facebook will alert us and pull it down,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>The initiative will be welcomed by other rightsholders, who face the same problem. Having an option to have Facebook recognize infringing content on the fly, is likely to make it much easier to stop these streams from becoming viral.</p>
<p>That said, live streaming piracy itself is much broader and not particularly new. There are dozens of niche pirate site that have been offering unauthorized streams for many years already, and they&#8217;re not going anywhere anytime soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135147
title: Pirate Bay Blockade Signals Copyright Industry’s Death Throes, ISP Boss Says
uri: Pirate-Bay-Blockade-Signals-Copyright-Industry-s-Death-Throes-ISP-B
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oXIvUxIQJUk/
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>While in practical terms the impact may not be as pronounced as it would&#8217;ve been half a decade ago, yesterday a Court of Appeal in Sweden made a landmark decision.</p>
<p>After years of litigation by Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry, local Swedish ISP Bredbandsbolaget (Broadband Company) was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-must-be-blocked-in-sweden-court-of-appeal-rules-170213/">ordered to block The Pirate Bay</a> and streaming portal Swefilmer.</p>
<p>The case went to trial at the Stockholm District Court during October 2015, ending in victory for the ISP at the District Court, but the Court of Appeal&#8217;s decision unraveled all of that, ordering Bredbandsbolaget to implement “technical measures” to prevent its customers accessing the ‘pirate’ sites through a number of domain names and URLs.</p>
<p>Considering the importance of having The Pirate Bay blocked on home turf, the official response from the industry was somewhat muted. Per Strömbäck, spokesman for the copyright holders, said that it&#8217;s good that the legal situation is becoming more clear. Representatives from the ISPs were much more animated.</p>
<p>Bredbandsbolaget itself said it was surprised at the decision, noting that not only does Swedish law does not support it, but it will also fail to achieve its aims.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Patent and Market Court of Appeal has not taken into account the intention of the legislator with Swedish law,&#8221; the company said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our belief is that this type of blockage is not effective to prevent unlawful distribution of copyrighted work on the internet. Nor is it a good guarantee that creator will get paid for their works.</p>
<p>&#8220;Services must evolve and become more customer orientated. The film and television services that grow the most today are those who, instead of seeing the internet as a threat, see opportunities in digitalisation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reaction of Jon Karlung, boss of ISP Bahnhof, was much more scathing. Karlung has positioned himself and his company as defenders of Internet freedom and this decision has him all kinds of fired up.</p>
<p>&#8220;The entire industry is in shock. It is disastrous in so many ways, the judgment is a deathblow to a free and open Internet,&#8221; Karlung <a href="http://www.hd.se/2017-02-13/ilska-och-forvaning-efter-pirate-bay-dom">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are the postman and the postman does not read people&#8217;s mail, or take control over the content. [This ruling signals] the death throes of the copyright industry,&#8221; he <a href="http://digital.di.se/artikel/det-har-ar-dodsryckningar-fran-industrin">added</a>. </p>
<p>While the current action involves just a single ISP, it is crystal clear that the copyright holders didn&#8217;t come all this way to have just a couple of sites blocked by one provider. They will be back, probably sooner rather than later, to obtain more injunctions against more providers against a broad range of sites.</p>
<p>At this stage, it seems that any site with a large proportion of infringing content could become a target and Karlung is concerned just how far things could go.</p>
<p>&#8220;One can almost think of what the consequences are going to be. There&#8217;s copyrighted content on YouTube. And should we block Google, how will that work?&#8221;</p>
<p>According to Bredbandsbolaget&#8217;s interpretation of the Court ruling, it must block specific URLs to stop customers getting access to The Pirate Bay. However, there are fines attached if the ISP fails to do so and as everyone knows, blocking the site can be extremely difficult. As a result, the ISP says it needs time to work things out.</p>
<p>&#8220;Exactly what is it to be blocked? This is very technically complicated. It is extremely difficult to block access to sites. What this actually means to us, we need to analyze in detail,&#8221; the ISP said.</p>
<p>But for Bahnhof&#8217;s Jon Karlung, the approach seems more adversarial. At some point, it is almost certain his company will be subjected to a similar injunction that will force it to block The Pirate Bay, something the ISP chief vehemently opposes. However, speaking with HD.se, the Swede hinted at another possibility.</p>
<p>Co-opting the Court of Appeal&#8217;s instructions for Bredbandsbolaget to use &#8220;technical measures&#8221; to block The Pirate Bay, Karlung told the publication he may yet introduce &#8220;technical countermeasures&#8221; for the convenience of his customers.</p>
<p>Quite what that means is unclear, but offering VPN-like services is something that the company is already familiar with. Way back in 2014, Bahnhof provided its customers with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-provides-free-vpn-to-protect-customer-privacy-141117/">no-logging VPN service</a> to protect their privacy.</p>
<p>That being said, if it chose to offer something along similar lines to unblock The Pirate Bay, the situation could get very interesting indeed.</p>
<p>In the UK, where a similar injunction forbids the country&#8217;s leading ISPs from providing customer access to The Pirate Bay, dozens of smaller ISPs still legally allow their customers to access the site. However, back in 2014 when a proxy provider decided to do the same, he was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-operator-torrent-site-proxies-140806/">arrested by police</a>. He&#8217;s still awaiting trial.</p>
<p>Either way, one gets the impression that the war for the so-called &#8220;free and open Internet&#8221; is far from over in Sweden &#8211; and there are still some people left that are prepared to fight for it.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135151
title: Canada Remains a “Safe Haven” for Online Piracy, Rightsholders Claim
uri: Canada-Remains-a-Safe-Haven-for-Online-Piracy-Rightsholders-Cla
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ke-4m4GNpys/
content:
<p><a href="media/6792aa7c.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png"><img src="media/af081baa.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" alt="canada-pirate" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83641"></a>The International Intellectual Property Alliance (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Intellectual_Property_Alliance">IIPA</a>) has released its latest  301 ‘watch list’ submission to the U.S. Government.</p>
<p>The IIPA, which includes a wide range of copyright groups including the MPAA, RIAA, and ESA, has listed its complaints against a whole host of countries. As in previous years, Canada is discussed in detail with the recommendation to put it on the 2017 Special 301 ‘watch list.&#8217;</p>
<p>One of the main criticisms is that, despite having been called out <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-is-a-hotbed-for-online-piracy-rightsholders-claim-160209/">repeatedly</a> in the past, the country still offers a home to many pirate sites. </p>
<p>&#8220;For a number of years, extending well into the current decade, Canada had a well-deserved reputation as a safe haven for some of the most massive and flagrant Internet sites dedicated to the online theft of copyright material,&#8221; IIPA writes.</p>
<p>The group notes that some progress has been made. For example, last year the Canadian authorities actively helped to shut down the popular torrent site KickassTorrents, which was partly hosted there. However, the rightsholders say that there&#8217;s more work to be done. </p>
<p>&#8220;Nonetheless, major online piracy operations still find a home in Canada. These include leading BitTorrent sites such as Sumotorrent.sx and Seedpeer.eu, and hybrid cloud storage services utilizing BitTorrents, such as cloudload.com.&#8221; </p>
<p>Another disturbing development, according to IIPA, is the emergence of stand-alone BitTorrent applications that allow users to stream content directly through an attractive and user-friendly interface, hinting at Popcorn Time. </p>
<p>In addition to the traditional pirate sites that remain in Canada, IIPA reports that several websites offering modified game console gear have also moved there in an attempt to escape liability under U.S. law. </p>
<p>&#8220;In a growing and problematic trend, sites selling circumvention devices that have been subject to DMCA takedown notices from right holders in the U.S. are moving to Canadian ISPs for hosting, to evade enforcement action under U.S. law. Canadian hosting services such as Hawk Host and Crocweb are particularly popular with such sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>The group specifically highlights R4cardmontreal.com, gamersection.ca and r4dscanada.com among the offenders, and notes that &#8220;This trend breathes new life into Canada’s problematic &#8216;safe haven&#8217; reputation.&#8221; </p>
<p>The recommendation continues by stressing that Canada&#8217;s legal regime fails to deal with online piracy in a proper manner. This is also true for the &#8220;notice and notice&#8221; legislation that was adopted two years ago, which requires ISPs to forward copyright infringement notices to pirating subscribers. </p>
<p>IIPA notes that there is no evidence that this initiative has resulted in a significant change in consumer behavior, in part because there are no punishments involved for frequent offenders.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230;simply notifying ISP subscribers that their infringing activity has been detected is ineffective in deterring illegal activity, because receiving the notices lacks any meaningful consequences under the Canadian system,&#8221; IIPA writes.</p>
<p>This is even worse for hosting providers and other Internet services, who currently have no legal incentive to take infringing material down, IIPA argues. </p>
<p>&#8220;The &#8216;notice-and-takedown&#8217; remedy that most other modern copyright laws provide is far from a panacea for online piracy, but it does, at a minimum, provide some incentives for cooperation, incentives that Canada’s laws simply lack.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, IIPA notes that a broad range of third-party services such as advertisers, payment processors, and domain name registrars are all too often abused to facilitate piracy. They believe that this is in part because Canadian law doesn&#8217;t offer enough &#8220;motivation&#8221; for these companies to cooperate.</p>
<p>The rightsholders hope that the U.S. Government can help to steer Canada in another direction and encourage more and better anti-piracy regulation. If not, they fear that Canada will remain a safe haven for pirates during the years to come.</p>
<p>IIPA&#8217;s full submission, which highlights a variety of countries which deserve a spot on the 301 Watch Lists per IIPA&#8217;s standards, is available <a href="media/7db1fb46.IIPA_2017_Special_301_Review_Comment.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/IIPA_2017_Special_301_Review_Comment.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135197
title: UK Could Force Google to Tackle Piracy, By Law if Necessary
uri: UK-Could-Force-Google-to-Tackle-Piracy-By-Law-if-Necessary
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t8AyitUORUM/
content:
<p><img src="media/8f6c3950.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" width="267" height="257" class="alignright size-large">Copyright holders and search engines such as Google are not on the best of terms when it comes to links to infringing content appearing in search results.</p>
<p>The former wants the latter to do more, despite the considerable measures already in place. Google, until now at least, has insisted it&#8217;s doing enough.</p>
<p>In the UK, there have been on/off murmurings of the government stepping in to intervene, but to date, it&#8217;s been hoped that the parties will sit down and reach a voluntary agreement.</p>
<p>Some meetings have taken place, with the government reportedly playing a role in bringing the groups together. Then, last week, to not inconsiderable surprise, a breakthrough <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-copyright-holders-ready-voluntary-anti-piracy-code-170208/">was reported</a>.</p>
<p>During a Digital Economy Bill committee, Baroness Buscombe revealed some interesting news. Rightsholders and search engines are nearing a deal.</p>
<p>“Since the idea was last discussed in [parliament], Intellectual Property Office officials have chaired a further round-table meeting between search engines and representatives of the creative industries,” Buscombe said.</p>
<p>“While there are still elements of detail to be settled, the group is now agreed on the key content of the code and I expect an agreement to be reached very soon.”</p>
<p>The Baroness even gave a date &#8211; June 1, 2017 &#8211; by which the code would be in effect. However, it appears that the government is still preparing for a scenario in which the parties don&#8217;t reach a voluntary agreement.</p>
<p>Titled “Code of practice on search engines and copyright infringement&#8221;, a Digital Economy Bill amendment to be moved on report foresees the Secretary of State stepping in to force companies like Google into compliance.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Secretary of State may impose by order a code of practice (&#8216;the code&#8217;) for search engine providers with the purpose of minimizing the availability and promotion of copyright infringing services, including those which facilitate copyright infringement by their users,&#8221; the amendment reads.</p>
<p>The amendment indicates that any order made in respect of the above &#8220;must include appropriate provisions to ensure compliance with the code by the providers.&#8221;</p>
<p>That sounds a lot like a stick being raised in the event the carrots at the negotiating table aren&#8217;t proving tasty enough. However, there appears to be some room for maneuver, even if voluntary discussions break down.</p>
<p>Before imposing any anti-piracy code, the Secretary of State will publish a draft code and consider submissions made by search engine providers, rightsholders and their representatives, plus any other interested parties.</p>
<p>At this point, however, some level of control will have already slipped away from the search engines, so it seems likely that reaching a voluntary arrangement would be preferable to all, if things are to avoid becoming messy.</p>
<p>Currently, there is no public record of what Google and its counterparts have agreed with the copyright holders, and the search engine is ignoring requests for comment on the topic. Furthermore, there is no clear idea of what the government might seek to impose, should negotiations fail.</p>
<p>In any event, legislation to force search engines to take broad action against allegedly infringing content would be unprecedented, especially when it includes the rather vague notion of taking action against &#8220;[sites that] facilitate copyright infringement by their users.&#8221;</p>
<p>That could include YouTube for instance, or even Google itself.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135195
title: Cox Must Pay $8 Million to Cover BMG’s Legal Fees in Piracy Case
uri: Cox-Must-Pay-8-Million-to-Cover-BMG-s-Legal-Fees-in-Piracy-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iefBfM44KVU/
content:
<p><img src="media/472c3690.coxcomms.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/coxcomms.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128587">December 2015 a Virginia federal <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">jury ruled</a> that Internet provider Cox Communications was responsible for the copyright infringements of its subscribers.</p>
<p>The ISP was found guilty of willful contributory copyright infringement and ordered to pay music publisher BMG Rights Management $25 million in damages. </p>
<p>This week Cox received more bad news. While the case is currently under appeal, the District Court ordered the ISP to compensate the music group for the attorney’s fees and costs they incurred during the first round. </p>
<p>In its motion, BMG asked for more than $10 million in compensation and after applying a discount, Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady decided to award a total of $8,383,468 in fees and an additional $146,790 to cover the bill of costs.</p>
<p>In a detailed memorandum, Judge O&#8217;Grady notes that the objective reasonableness of a party’s position is a major factor in determining the fees question. In the current case, the Internet provider clearly crossed a line.</p>
<p>Among other things, evidence revealed that Cox appeared to be complying with the DMCA in public, while privately disparaging and intentionally circumventing the law&#8217;s requirements.</p>
<p>&#8220;In a hard-fought litigation battle such as this one, discovery disputes and fierce briefing are to be expected, and they should not be held too harshly against either party,&#8221; the Judge writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Nonetheless, there are a few instances in which Cox’s advocacy crossed the line of objective reasonableness. In particular, both Cox’s attempts to obscure its practice of reinstating infringing customers, and its subsequent assertions of a deeply flawed DMCA defense evince a meritless litigation position that Cox vigorously defended.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, the court also awards the legal fees as a deterrent. The high legal costs should motivate the Internet provider to change its policies and appropriately respond to reported copyright infringements. </p>
<p>In practical terms, this could include a new and improved DMCA program as well as a more responsive approach to infringement notices from companies like Rightscorp, which were previously ignored.</p>
<p>&#8220;However Cox decides to address its users’ repeat infringement, it is clear that the company should be given a proper financial incentive to change its policies and procedures,&#8221; Judge O&#8217;Grady notes. </p>
<p>Another factor that weighs heavy in the decision to award legal fees, is the assuring message it sends to other copyright holders. Picking a legal battle against a company with billions in revenue is quite a risk when attorney&#8217;s fees are not compensated.</p>
<p>&#8220;In order to continue to promote the vindication of individuals’ copyrights, therefore, BMG (and others like it) should be rewarded for facing up against willful infringers with deep pockets,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>
<p>Combining these and several other relevant factors, Judge O&#8217;Grady concludes that the $8.3 million in attorney&#8217;s fees is appropriate in this case. This brings Cox&#8217;s total costs to well over $33 million. </p>
<p>Adding insult to injury, the Judge also denied <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-wants-music-group-to-pay-for-false-copyright-claims-161003/">Cox&#8217;s request for legal fees</a> against Round Hill Music, arguing that there can only be one prevailing party in a lawsuit. The full memorandum is available <a href="media/c17e57ba.cox-bmg-fees.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cox-bmg-fees.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135225
title: CloudFlare Puts Pirate Sites on New IP Addresses, Avoids Cogent Blockade
uri: CloudFlare-Puts-Pirate-Sites-on-New-IP-Addresses-Avoids-Cogent-Blocka
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0p9tkqc4OKE/
content:
<p><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">Last week the news broke that Cogent, which operates one of the largest Internet backbone networks, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/internet-backbone-provider-cogent-blocks-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-170209/">blackholed</a> IP-addresses that were linked to several notorious sites including The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>As a result of this action, people from all over the world were unable to get to their favorite download or streaming portals. </p>
<p>The blocking intervention is quite controversial, not least because the IP-addresses in question don&#8217;t belong to the sites themselves, but to the popular CDN provider CloudFlare. </p>
<p>While CloudFlare hasn&#8217;t publicly commented on the issue yet, it now appears to have taken countermeasures. A little while ago the company moved The Pirate Bay and many other sites such as Primewire, Popcorn-Time.se, and Torrentz.cd to a new set of IP-addresses. </p>
<p>As of yesterday, the sites in question have been assigned the IP-addresses 104.31.16.3 and 104.31.17.3, still grouped together. Most, if not all of the sites, are blocked by court order in the UK so this is presumably done to prevent ISP overblocking of &#8216;regular&#8217; CloudFlare subscribers. </p>
<p><center><strong>TPB accessible on the new CloudFlare IP-address</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/230f54e6.cogentnew.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cogentnew.png" alt="" width="656" height="190" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135234"></center></p>
<p>Since Cogent hasn&#8217;t blackholed the new addresses, yet, the sites are freely accessible on their network once again. At the same time, the old CloudFlare IP-addresses remain blocked.</p>
<p><center><strong>Old CloudFlare IP-addresses remains blocked</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/2efd8915.cogenolder.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cogenolder.png" alt="" width="656" height="190" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135233"></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to the operator of one of the sites involved who said that he made no changes on his end. CloudFlare didn&#8217;t alert the site owner about the issue either.</p>
<p>We contacted CloudFlare yesterday asking for a comment of the situation, but a company could not give an official response at the time. </p>
<p>It seems likely that the change of IP-addresses is an intentional response from CloudFlare to bypass the blocking. The company has a reputation of fighting overreach and keeping its subscribers online so that it would be fitting. </p>
<p>The next question that comes to mind is will Cogent respond, and if so, how? Or has the underlying issue perhaps been resolved in another way? </p>
<p>If their original blockade was meant to block one or more of the sites involved, will they then also block the new IP-addresses? Only time will tell. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135273
title: MPAA: Dealing With Kodi is the $64,000 Question
uri: MPAA-Dealing-With-Kodi-is-the-64-000-Question
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/daXVn2gE4nw/
content:
<p><a href="media/9ab3c2a7.kodilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodilogo.jpg"><img src="media/3f5b59a8.kodilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodilogo.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="100" class="alignright size-full wp-image-107000"></a>Since around 2003, torrent sites have plagued the MPAA. Hydra-like in their ability to withstand all kinds of attacks, from legal onslaughts to domain blocking, torrent platforms are still going strong today.</p>
<p>However, what BitTorrent lacks in its standard form is a living-room friendly interface. Regular torrent clients are functional at best, uninviting at worst, and lack the colorful Netflix-style interface demanded by today&#8217;s sophisticated media consumer.</p>
<p>At least to some extent, the advent of Popcorn Time solved that particular problem for pirates, but the software still performs better in the desktop environment, despite its ability to run on portable devices. Kodi, on the other hand, is a different beast altogether.</p>
<p>This entirely legal piece of media-playing software is equally at home running on a PC, tablet, mobile phone, or crucially, an Android-powered set-top box or stick. As a result and thanks to its colorful interface, Kodi is now a central entertainment component of millions of homes.</p>
<p>Kodi has always had an enthusiastic following, but its ability to run third-party addons has turned this media player into a piracy goliath. Users are understandably delighted by its ability to bring all kinds of video media directly into their homes, at zero cost. Those that make the media are less enthusiastic.</p>
<p>Legal battles over the misuse of the platform are ongoing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fact-lawyer-reveals-challenges-kodi-box-seller-prosecutions-170106/">mainly in the UK</a> and the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/has-the-eu-just-outlawed-fully-loaded-kodi-boxes-160918/">Netherlands</a>, where test cases have the ability to clarify the legal position, at least for sellers of so-called &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; devices.</p>
<p>Interestingly, up until now, the MPAA has stayed almost completely quiet, despite a dramatic rise in the use of Kodi for illicit streaming. Yesterday, however, the silence was broken.</p>
<p>In an interview with <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/christopher-dodd-mpaa-e-u-digital-plans-1201989074/">Variety</a> during the Berlin Film Festival, MPAA chief Chris Dodd described the Kodi-with-addons situation as &#8220;new-generation piracy&#8221;.</p>
<p>“The $64,000 question is what can be done about such illegal use of the Kodi platform,” Dodd said.</p>
<p>While $64,000 is a tempting offer, responding to that particular question with a working solution will take much more than that. Indeed, one might argue that dealing with it in any meaningful way will be almost impossible.</p>
<p>First of all, Kodi is open source and has been since its inception in 2002. As a result, trying to target the software itself would be like stuffing toothpaste back in a tube. It&#8217;s out there, it isn&#8217;t coming back, and pissing off countless developers is extremely ill-advised.</p>
<p>Secondly, the people behind Kodi have done absolutely nothing wrong. Their software is entirely legal and if their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-announces-legal-action-to-smash-piracy-links-160215/">public statements</a> are to be believed, they&#8217;re as sick of piracy as the entertainment companies are. </p>
<p>The third problem is how Kodi itself works. While to the uninitiated it looks like one platform, a fully-modded &#8216;pirate&#8217; Kodi setup can contain many third-party addons, each capable of aggregating content from dozens or even hundreds of sites. Not even the mighty MPAA can shut them all down, and even if it could, more would reappear later. It&#8217;s the ultimate game of whac-a-mole.</p>
<p>To give an example, Chris Dodd mentioned that the movie &#8220;Bridge of Spies&#8221; had 160 sources on a Kodi setup and to anyone familiar with how these things work, that is not an unusual position for the most popular content. For hosts based in the US and Europe, a takedown/staydown <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bpi-hits-200-million-google-takedowns-calls-for-notice-and-stay-down-160324/">regime</a> might help a little, but there is plenty of opposition (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/takedown-staydown-would-be-a-disaster-internet-archive-warns-160607/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-counsel-sees-problems-with-take-down-stay-down-151121/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eff-warns-against-broad-stay-down-anti-piracy-filters-160122/">3</a>) and a long time to go before anything like that could be put in place.</p>
<p>That being said, indirectly the problem is already being addressed. Due to the way content is pulled from the web, tackling Kodi piracy is in many ways the same as tackling any infringing web-based content. As a result, many regimes already in place (site-blocking, DMCA notices, etc) are already part of the solution, at least if the studios&#8217; claims on effectiveness are to be believed.</p>
<p>On the consumer front, things are even more complex and indeed bleak. Despite a flood of mainstream UK news sites falsely claiming the opposite in recent weeks, people using Kodi setups to stream content won&#8217;t be the subject of warning notices from their ISPs. Only peer-to-peer systems like BitTorrent can be tackled this way, so contacting pirating users directly to &#8220;educate&#8221; them will be almost impossible.</p>
<p>Overall then, the present Kodi situation is more like a $64,000,000 question, and one that won&#8217;t be answered quickly, despite the price.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135357
title: Cogent’s Broad Pirate Site Block Was ‘Collateral Damage’ of a Court Order
uri: Cogent-s-Broad-Pirate-Site-Block-Was-Collateral-Damage-of-a-Co
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7eylk3LeKMg/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">It is safe to say that The Pirate Bay is one of the most blocked websites on the Internet. </p>
<p>When Internet backbone provider Cogent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/internet-backbone-provider-cogent-blocks-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-170209/">blackholed</a> the site two weeks ago many people, therefore, assumed that it had something to do with the notorious torrent site. </p>
<p>Ironically, however, it turns out that The Pirate Bay and dozens of other &#8220;pirate&#8221; sites linked to the same IP-addresses, were actually collateral damage following a separate action.</p>
<p>Cogent&#8217;s actions were a direct response to a court order which required the company to block access to one or more websites, which remain unknown. The real target was accessible through the IP-addresses 104.31.18.30 and 104.31.19.30. </p>
<p>These addresses belong to CDN provider Cloudflare and are also used by many other sites including The Pirate Bay. So, when Cogent complied with the court order and blackholed the IP-addresses, dozens of other sites became inaccessible as well. </p>
<p>Yesterday we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-puts-pirate-sites-on-new-ip-addresses-avoids-cogent-blockade-170215/">reported</a> that Cloudflare moved most of the affected sites a new location, so they are now available again. The real target probably remains on the original IP-addresses, to comply with the court order.</p>
<p>Cloudflare&#8217;s General Counsel Doug Kramer informed us that they worked together with Cogent to resolve the issue and to limit the impact on other sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have taken technical steps on our end to permit Cogent to comply with a court order issued to them without additional impacts,&#8221; Kramer informed TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The whole blocking episode reveals the danger of broad blocking orders that are issued by judges who don&#8217;t fully understand the effects. The threat of over-blocking is real, and when it involves smaller sites it will be much harder to notice.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s important for courts to understand how Internet systems work so they can write orders that don&#8217;t end up having unintended consequences,&#8221; Kramer stresses.  </p>
<p>In the future, the two companies will now be able to deal with similar issues more efficiently. In any case, Cloudflare says that it remains dedicated to preserving open access to the Internet, within the legal boundaries. </p>
<p>&#8220;As a company, Cloudflare believes strongly in an open, free, and secure Internet. And it is also our policy to fully comply with legitimate court process,&#8221; Cloudflare&#8217;s General Counsel says. </p>
<p>&#8220;This can be challenging at times, especially when courts target backbone providers and don&#8217;t understand fully how they work. Cloudflare takes steps to make sure those court orders don&#8217;t lead to unintended impacts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cogent hasn&#8217;t released any further details on the target of the block, but <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/02/a-court-order-blocked-pirate-sites-that-werent-supposed-to-be-blocked/">Ars Technica</a> reports that it was issued in Spain.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not the first time that innocent Cloudflare customers have been affected by a court order. Previously, UK ISPs <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-blockade-censors-cloudflare-customers-150424/">blocked several websites</a> because they were sharing an IP-address with The Pirate Bay. This would also explain why the CDN provider now groups known blocked sites on the same addresses.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135248
title: Study: 70% of Young Swedish Men Are Video Pirates
uri: Study-70-of-Young-Swedish-Men-Are-Video-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lyZos54lf2g/
content:
<p><a href="media/4f1c3776.policedownload.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload.jpg"><img src="media/d9df9e10.policedownload-300x172.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload-300x172.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="172" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-67910" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload-300x172.jpg 300w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/policedownload.jpg 490w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></a>As illustrated by the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-must-be-blocked-in-sweden-court-of-appeal-rules-170213/">ruling</a> handed down against ISP Bredbandsbolaget by the country&#8217;s Patent and Market Court of Appeal this week, piracy is still considered a big problem in Sweden.</p>
<p>Despite better access to legal services such as Spotify and Netflix, some citizens still prefer to get their fix from pirate sites. Whether that&#8217;s via The Pirate Bay and torrents or newer streaming-based portals, piracy is still a popular route for obtaining media.</p>
<p>According to figures just released by media industry consultants <a href="http://www.mediavision.se/about-us/">Mediavision</a>, in January 2017 almost a quarter of all Swedes aged between 15 and 74 admitted either streaming or downloading movies from &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites during the past month.</p>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tendency to do so is greater among the young. More than half of 15 to 24-year-olds said they&#8217;d used a torrent or streaming site during December. When concentrating that down to only young men in the same age group, the figure leaps to 70%</p>
<p>Mediavision has been tracking the piracy habits of Scandinavians since 2010 and actually reports an overall increase in piracy over the past seven years. However, piracy levels have remained relatively static during the past three years, with roughly 25% of citizens admitting to engaging in the practice.</p>
<p>The company, which previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-blamed-for-movie-streaming-piracy-explosion-150703/">reported</a> on the activities of Popcorn Time users, says that illegal consumption of media is far more prevalent in Sweden than in the neighboring Nordic countries of Norway, Denmark and Finland.</p>
<p>&#8220;The ruling against Bredbandsbolaget is a big thing in this context,&#8221; says Natalia Borelius, Project Manager at Mediavision.</p>
<p>&#8220;The measures taken to date, with, for example, shutting down illegal websites, has been shown to have limited effect on illegal consumption. In Finland and Denmark, where site blocking has been in place for years, piracy is less than half as prevalent as in Sweden.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a result of this week&#8217;s decision, rightsholders now have the opportunity to obtain injunctions against all Swedish Internet service providers, barring them from providing customer access to not only The Pirate Bay, but other allegedly infringing sites worldwide.</p>
<p>While this may have some effect on the habits of casual pirates, it remains to be seen how the masses respond. Blocking a couple of sites via one ISP certainly won&#8217;t have the desired effect, a conclusion supported by various studies (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/censoring-the-pirate-bay-is-futile-research-shows-130822/">1</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/censoring-pirate-sites-is-counterproductive-research-finds-160708/">2</a>). Expect more blocking then, sooner rather than later.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135291
title: Judge Splits $750 Piracy Penalty Between BitTorrent Peers
uri: Judge-Splits-750-Piracy-Penalty-Between-BitTorrent-Peers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/T6xBO8IAuXg/
content:
<p><img src="media/2efdb268.dollar-money.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dollar-money.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-38877">Many Hollywood insiders see online piracy as a major threat, but only very few are willing to target alleged file-sharers with lawsuits.</p>
<p>LHF Productions, one of the companies behind the blockbuster “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3300542/">London Has Fallen</a>,” has no problem crossing this line. Since the first pirated copies of the film appeared online last year, the company has been suing alleged downloaders in multiple courts.</p>
<p>As is usual in these cases, defendants get the option to sign a quick settlement to resolve the matter or defend their case in court. Those who ignore the lawsuits completely face a default judgment, which can turn out to be quite expensive depending on the Judge. </p>
<p>This week, Judge Ricardo Martinez ruled over a series of LHF cases at the Seattle District Court. The movie company requested default judgments against 28 defendants in five cases, demanding $2,500 from each defendant. </p>
<p>When the accused downloaders don&#8217;t defend themselves, judges nearly always rule in the plaintiff&#8217;s favor, which is also true for these cases. However, Judge Martinez decided not to award the requested penalties in full. </p>
<p>The filmmaker had argued that $2,500, and even more in attorney&#8217;s fees and costs, is a rather modest request. However, in his order this week the Judge sees things differently. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court also acknowledges that the amount at stake is not, as LHF contends, modest – LHF seeks enhanced statutory damages in the amount of $2,500 along with $2,605.50 in attorneys’ fees, and amounts ranging between $90 and $150 in costs, for each named Defendant in this matter,&#8221; he <a href="media/823da32b.LHF-split.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/LHF-split.pdf">writes (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, the Judge places the damages amount at the statutory minimum, which is $750. </p>
<p>Even more interesting, and the first time we&#8217;ve seen this happening, is that the penalty will be split among the swarm members in each case. The filmmakers alleged that the defendants were part of the same swarm, so they are all liable for the same infringement, Judge Martinez argues. </p>
<p>&#8220;Because the named Defendants in this action were alleged to have conspired with one another to infringe the same digital copy of LHF’s motion picture, the Court will award the sum of $750 for Defendants’ infringement of the same digital copy of London Has Fallen.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;Each of the Defendants is jointly and severally liable for this amount,&#8221; Judge Martinez adds in his order.</p>
<p>This means that in one of the cases, where there are eight defaulted defendants, each has to pay just over $93 in damages.</p>
<p>As for the lowered damages amount itself, the Judge clarifies that these type of cases are not intended to result in large profits. Especially not, when the rightsholders have made little effort to prove actual damage or to track down the original sharer.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court is not persuaded. Statutory damages are not intended to serve as a windfall to plaintiffs, and enhanced statutory damages are not warranted where plaintiffs do not even try to demonstrate actual damages.&#8221; </p>
<p>In addition to limiting the penalty, the Judge also reduced the requested attorney&#8217;s fees. Since the case was mostly based on identical complaints and motions, the court had trouble believing that the law firm spent hundreds of hours in preparation. </p>
<p>Instead, the court granted only $550 in attorney&#8217;s fees per defendant. This means that the default defendants will have to pay a few hundred dollars each, instead of the $5,000 plus the filmmakers wanted. </p>
<p>According to the Fight Copyright Trolls blog, which <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2017/02/15/seattle-judge-splits-min-statutory-award-among-defaulted-defendants/">first published</a> details of the unusual order, splitting the awards between the defendants in the same swarm could turn out to be a &#8220;fatal blow&#8221; to these type of lawsuits. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135294
title: Kids Shouldn’t Use the Internet, Russia’s Site-Blocking Chief Says
uri: Kids-Shouldn-t-Use-the-Internet-Russia-s-Site-Blocking-Chief-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nKiLesNsw8g/
content:
<p><a href="media/729747e2.facepalm.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/facepalm.jpg"><img src="media/50fb18c6.facepalm.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facepalm.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-127813"></a>Whether we like it or not, there are entities out there that like to try and control what we can and cannot see.</p>
<p>From the MPAA ratings system in the United States to the British Board of Film <strike>Censors</strike> Classification in the UK, various bodies like to remind us that there are filters in place, ostensibly for our own protection.</p>
<p>Of course, if run properly these kinds of systems can sometimes provide us with useful guidance, which is often welcome. At least they&#8217;re relatively subtle when compared to the flat-out Internet censorship provided by the Great Firewall of China, we assure ourselves. </p>
<p>But behind all of this censorship are claims that it&#8217;s all done for the greater good, to prevent the undermining of the state, to protect children, or to prevent damage to media companies, for example. Russia takes all of these things fairly seriously, and now blocks thousands of platforms on all kinds of grounds, from extremism to online piracy.</p>
<p>In certain quarters there&#8217;s an assumption that those behind such blocking know what they&#8217;re doing and can be trusted to do the right thing. This week, however, a few sentences from the boss of Russian telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor (which oversees site-blocking) revealed just how far away these people can drift.</p>
<p>In a Q&#038;A session with <a href="http://www.aif.ru/society/web/glava_roskomnadzora_logichno_kontrolirovat_tochki_vhoda_interneta_v_stranu">AIF.ru</a>, Alexander Zharov spoke on a number of issues, including online safety, especially for children. Naturally, kids need to be protected but the Rozcomnadzor chief has some quite radical ideas when it comes to them using the Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;I believe that a child under 10-years-old should not go online. To use [the Internet] actively they need to start even later than that,&#8221; Zharov said.</p>
<p>As that begins to sink in, with parents around the globe destroying their kids&#8217; smartphones, tablets, and games consoles in agreement, Zharov hasn&#8217;t finished.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some parents are proud of the fact that their three-year-old kid can deftly control a tablet and use it to watch cartoons. It is nothing good, in my opinion. A small child will begin to consider the virtual world part of the real world, and it changes their perception of reality.&#8221;</p>
<p>To put these &#8216;banning kids from the Internet&#8217; statements into some kind of perspective, the image below shows figures compiled by UK telecoms regulator OFCOM for its Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2016 <em>(<a href="media/3c453578.Children-Parents-Media-Use-Attitudes-Report-2016.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/93976/Children-Parents-Media-Use-Attitudes-Report-2016.pdf">pdf</a>)</em>.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/735ad263.kidsmedia2016.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kidsmedia2016.png"><img src="media/bbc1738f.kidsmedia2016.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kidsmedia2016.png" alt="" width="650" height="367" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135301"></a></center></p>
<p>As we can see, around 80% of kids up to the age of 11 use tablets to consume media, which in many cases is delivered via the Internet. Throw the online capabilities of smartphones and games consoles into the mix and we have a massively connected group of 3 to 10-year-olds, all of them becoming conversant with the vital online world.</p>
<p>That the head of the body overseeing web-blocking in Russia believes that none of them should have access to the Internet is truly mind-boggling, especially when one considers the value children bring to the table.</p>
<p>According to a study just published by eMarketeer, 88.6% of internet users under four-years-old will watch digital video online in 2017, something which in turn will positively affect consumption volumes overall.</p>
<p>&#8220;Buoyed by the growth in younger age categories, overall video numbers are up, in 2017 eMarketer estimates that 43.2 million people, equating to 79.4 per cent of Internet users will be watching online videos,&#8221; <a href="http://advanced-television.com/2017/02/09/emarketer-88-of-uk-under-4s-watch-online-video/">Advanced Television</a> reports.</p>
<p>But credit where it&#8217;s due. Zharov does have some good advice for parents, such as limiting the time kids spend online and keeping an eye out for behavior that might indicate cyber-bullying.</p>
<p>&#8220;With older children in my family, we have agreed as follows: when on the web, any unusual situation, you need to discuss it with your parents,&#8221; he wisely says. </p>
<p>Fortunately for Zharov, the embarrassing &#8220;Daddy, what&#8217;s a VPN?&#8221; question won&#8217;t raise its ugly head for at least another half a decade, if he can keep his youngest child (whose coming five) off the Internet for that long.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135187
title: Is Megaupload’s ‘Crime’ a Common Cloud Hosting Practice?
uri: Is-Megaupload-s-Crime-a-Common-Cloud-Hosting-Practice
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SX5m3C3ume4/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Last week we reported that Google Drive <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-drive-uses-hash-matching-detect-pirated-content/">uses hash filtering</a> to prevent users from sharing alleged copyright infringing content, while leaving the actual files on its servers.</p>
<p>This practice is similar to what its competitor Dropbox does, and probably many other cloud hosting providers as well. </p>
<p>However, it also reminded us of a more controversial hosting service, Megaupload. When the US Department of Justice announced its allegations against the company five years ago, a similar issue was at the center. </p>
<p>One of the main arguments in the indictment is that Megaupload would only disable a URL when it received a takedown notice, not the underlying file. As a result of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_deduplication">deduplication technology</a> it employed, this meant that the file could still be accessed under different URLs.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230;the Conspiracy has, at best, only deleted the particular URL of which the copyright holder complained, and purposefully left the actual infringing copy of the copyrighted work on the Mega Conspiracy-controlled server and any other access links completely intact,&#8221; the indictment reads.</p>
<p>The RIAA and MPAA later highlighted the similar takedown related issues in their civil complaints, with the latter stating:</p>
<p>&#8220;And although Megaupload had implemented a technology called &#8216;MDS hash&#8217; filtering to identify and block uploads of various types of illicit content, Megaupload chose not to deploy that technology to identify and block infringing uploads of copyrighted works that had already been subject to takedown notices by plaintiffs and other copyright holders.&#8221;</p>
<p>Admittingly, the Megaupload cases are much broader than this single issue, but it does raise questions.</p>
<p>The apparent &#8216;failure&#8217; to block infringing content from being uploaded by other users isn&#8217;t illegal by definition. In fact, neither Google Drive nor Dropbox does this today. So how is the Megaupload situation different?</p>
<p>The main difference appears to be that Megaupload only removed the links that were reported as infringing, while Dropbox and Drive also prevent others from publicly sharing links to the same file. All three services keep or kept the original files on their servers though. </p>
<p>There are good arguments for keeping the files, as others may have the legal right to store them. If someone downloads an MP3, he or she can&#8217;t share it in public without permission. However, making a private backup on Dropbox would be acceptable in many countries.</p>
<p>Since Dropbox and Drive don&#8217;t face criminal indictments, the question should therefore be whether Megaupload was legally required to delete all public links to the underlying file, even those that were not directly reported. </p>
<p>This is something legal experts have their doubts over, including Professor Lawrence Lessig. </p>
<p>“It is possible for one uploader to have a right to fair use of a copy of a file, e.g., a purchaser uploading a backup or an educational organization offering critical commentary, while other uploaders might have no such fair use right,” he explained earlier in an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/presidential-candidate-lawrence-lessig-steps-up-to-assist-kim-dotcom-150916/">expert report</a>.</p>
<p>In other words, while one person might not have the legal right to store a file, another person might. The same argument also applies to publishing such links. This is something we also see on YouTube, where rightsholders pull down videos which they themselves have openly published on the same site.</p>
<p>This week, Megaupload counsel Ira Rothken clarified that the service tried to strike a balance between the rights of copyright holders and its users. If one link is infringing, that doesn&#8217;t mean that all of the others on the service are as well.</p>
<p>&#8220;While Megaupload made efforts to curb abuse of its service, it recognized a competing obligation to its users who legitimately use[d] the service to store their own copies of copyrighted material,&#8221; Rothken tells TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, a music file that was purchased or covered by fair use and uploaded by a user for the purpose of &#8216;space shifting&#8217; would look the same to Megaupload&#8217;s automated processes as a music file to which the user had no legal right.&#8221;</p>
<p>This was also brought up in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenz_v._Universal_Music_Corp.">Dancing Baby</a>” case recently, where it was held that copyright holders should consider fair use before requesting a takedown. This means that removing an underlying file may be too broad, as fair use isn’t considered for all URLs.</p>
<p>Megaupload saw it as an obligation to its users, who had a legal right to the files, to ensure that there&#8217;s a proper and legitimate basis to disable links or remove files.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a result, where a user was subject to a proper and specific take down notice for their unique link or URL, that user’s link to the file in question was taken down or broken.&#8221;</p>
<p>In sum, we can say that Megaupload operated slightly differently from Dropbox and Google Drive today. However, the difference is subtle. Not taking down the actual copyright infringing file from the servers is still common practice, for example.</p>
<p>When it comes to proactively preventing public sharing of links that are not reported yet, the service operated differently. Here Megaupload put the interests of its users first. Of course, the Megaupload case is much broader, but the above should illustrate that when it comes alleged hash filtering and file removal &#8216;crimes&#8217;, there is still an open debate.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135330
title: Pirate Site With No Traffic Attracts 49m Mainly Bogus DMCA Notices
uri: Pirate-Site-With-No-Traffic-Attracts-49m-Mainly-Bogus-DMCA-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BpTywGrs-sQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/0aaaa4fb.face-palm.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/face-palm.jpg"><img src="media/0bf08826.face-palm.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/face-palm.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-61200"></a>As reported in these pages on many occasions, Google&#8217;s Transparency Report is a goldmine for anyone prepared to invest time trawling its archives.</p>
<p>The report is a complete record of every DMCA notice Google receives for its &#8216;search&#8217; function and currently lists more than two billion URL takedowns spread over <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-has-received-takedown-notices-for-a-million-websites/">a million websites</a>. Of course, most of those websites will remain faceless since there&#8217;s far too many to research. That said, the really big &#8216;offenders&#8217; are conveniently placed at the top of the list by Google.</p>
<p><center><b>The most-reported sites, according to Google</b><a href="media/8720f7ba.mp3xyz1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz1.png"><img src="media/8e8fd800.mp3xyz1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz1.png" alt="" width="650" height="479" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135331"></a></center></p>
<p>As we can see, the 4shared file-hosting site is at the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-50-million-4shared-links-161104/">top of the list</a>. That isn&#8217;t a big surprise since the site has been going for years, attracts massive traffic, and stores countless million files.</p>
<p>There are a number of other familiar names too, but what is the site in second place? MP3Toys.xyz has a seriously impressive 49.5m takedown requests logged against it. We&#8217;ve never even heard of it.</p>
<p>Checking the site out, MP3Toys is clearly a pirate platform that allows users to download and stream unlicensed MP3s from thousands of artists. There are hundreds of these kinds of sites around, probably pulling content from YouTube and other web sources.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/eac69a6d.mp3xyz2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz2.png"><img src="media/78a96eb8.mp3xyz2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz2.png" alt="" width="650" height="305" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135333"></a></center></p>
<p>But here&#8217;s the problem. According to Google, MP3Toys.xyz (which also uses a .tech extension) has only been appearing in its databases since Jun 30, 2016. During this short time, Google has received requests to remove 49.5 million URLs from its indexes. That&#8217;s about 1.6 million URLs for each of the 31 weeks MP3Toys has been online. </p>
<p>No site in history has ever achieved these numbers, it&#8217;s completely unprecedented. So MP3Toys must be huge, right? Not exactly.</p>
<p>According to Alexa, the site&#8217;s .xyz domain is ranked the 25 millionth most popular online, while its .tech domain is currently ranked 321,614 after being introduced in January 2017.</p>
<p>In loose terms, this site has no significant traffic yet will soon be the most-infringing site on the whole Internet. How can this be? Well, it&#8217;s all down to an anti-piracy company making things up and MP3Toys going along with the charade.</p>
<p>As seen in the image below, along with outfits such as the BPI and BREIN, anti-piracy outfit APDIF do Brasil has an <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/owners/?id=153060">unusual fascination</a> with MP3Toys. In fact, it&#8217;s sent the vast majority of the notices received by Google. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/12d7f3ed.mp3xyz3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz3.png"><img src="media/fd267d18.mp3xyz3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz3.png" alt="" width="650" height="340" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135334"></a></center></p>
<p>However, while some of the notices are undoubtedly correct, it appears a huge number are absolutely bogus. Instead of scanning the site and sending an accurate takedown notice to Google, APDIF tries to guess the URLs where MP3Toys stores its content. A sample list is shown below.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c43750ff.mp3xyz4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz4.png"><img src="media/bf76d376.mp3xyz4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz4.png" alt="" width="650" height="412" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135335"></a></center></p>
<p>The problem here is that in real terms, none of these URLs exist until they&#8217;re requested. However, APDIF&#8217;s guesses are entertained by the site, which creates a random page of music for every search. The content on these auto-generated pages cycles, but it never relates to the searches being put in. As shown below, even TorrentFreak&#8217;s Greatest Hits Volume 77 is a winner (Test it yourself <a href="http://mp3toys.tech/r/what-a-stupid-set-of-results">here</a>)</p>
<p><center><a href="media/7a662716.mp3xyz5.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz5.png"><img src="media/3d046746.mp3xyz5.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz5.png" alt="" width="650" height="410" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135336"></a></center></p>
<p>So in summary, APDIF makes up its own URLs, MP3Toys randomly generates a page of music that has nothing to do with the URL input, APDIF logs it as an infringement of its clients&#8217; rights, and sends a complaint to Google.</p>
<p>Then, putting the icing on an already confused cake, Google &#8216;removes&#8217; every URL from its search results, even though it appears they were never in them in the first place. And that&#8217;s how a site with virtually no traffic received more DMCA complaints than The Pirate Bay. Unbelievable.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/325e6d9a.mp3xyz6.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz6.png"><img src="media/fb6ac9cf.mp3xyz6.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3xyz6.png" alt="" width="650" height="390" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-135338"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134123
title: Brave: A Privacy Focused Browser With Built-in Torrent Streaming
uri: Brave-A-Privacy-Focused-Browser-With-Built-in-Torrent-Streaming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SbCud2vIml4/
content:
<p><img src="media/198c0ae3.brave.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/brave.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135295">After a reign of roughly a decade, basic old-fashioned BitTorrent clients have lost most of their appeal today. </p>
<p>While they&#8217;re still one of the quickest tools to transfer data over the Internet, the software became somewhat outdated with the rise of video streaming sites and services.</p>
<p>But what if you can have the best of both worlds without having to install any separate applications?</p>
<p>This is where the <a href="https://brave.com/">Brave web browser</a> comes in. First launched two months ago, the new browser is designed for privacy conscious people who want to browse the web securely without any unnecessary clutter.</p>
<p>On top of that, it also supports torrent downloads out of the box, and even instant torrent streaming. To find out more, we reached out to lead developer Brian Bondy, who co-founded the project with his colleague Brendan Eich.</p>
<p>&#8220;Brave is a new, open source browser designed for both speed and security. It has a built-in adblocker that&#8217;s on by default to provide an ad-free and seamless browsing experience,&#8221; Bondy tells us.</p>
<p>Bondy says that Brave significantly improves browsing speeds while shielding users again malicious ads. It also offers a wide range of privacy and security features such as HTTPS Everywhere, script blocking, and third-party cookie blocking. </p>
<p>What caught our eye, however, was the built-in support for BitTorrent transfers that came out a short while ago. Powered by the novel <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/webtorrent-brings-bittorrent-to-the-web-impresses-netflix-151213/">WebTorrent</a> technology, Brave can download torrents, through magnet links, directly from the browser. </p>
<p>While torrent downloading in a browser isn&#8217;t completely new (Opera has a similar feature, for example) Brave also supports torrent streaming. This means that users can view videos instantly as they would do on a streaming site.</p>
<p>&#8220;WebTorrent support lets Brave users stream torrents from their favorite sites right from the browser. There&#8217;s no need to use a separate program. This makes using torrents a breeze for beginners, a group that has sometimes found the technology a challenge to work with,&#8221; Bondy says. </p>
<p><center><strong>Brave downloading</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/74daecef.bravetorr-e1487235600295.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bravetorr-e1487235600295.png" alt="" width="600" height="355" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-135296"></center></p>
<p>The image above shows the basic download page where users can also click on any video file to start streaming instantly. We tested the feature on a variety of magnet links, and it works very well. </p>
<p>On the implementation side, Brave received support from WebTorrent founder Feross Aboukhadijeh, who continues to lend a hand. Right now it is compatible with all traditional torrent clients and support for web peers will be added later. </p>
<p>&#8220;WebTorrent in Brave is compatible with all torrent apps. It uses TCP connections, the oldest and most widely supported way for BitTorrent clients to connect. We&#8217;re working on adding WebRTC support so that Brave users can connect to &#8216;web peers&#8217;,&#8221; Bondy says.</p>
<p>While the downloading and streaming process works well, there is also room for improvement. The user interface is fairly limited, for example, and basic features such as canceling or pausing a torrent are not available yet.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently, we treat magnet links just like any other piece of web content, like a PDF file. To cancel a download, just close the tab,&#8221; Bondy notes. </p>
<p>What people should keep in mind though, considering Brave&#8217;s focus on privacy, is that torrent transfers are far from anonymous. Without a VPN or other anonymizer, third party tracking outfits are bound to track the downloads or streams.  </p>
<p>In addition to torrent streaming, the browser also comes with a Bitcoin-based micropayments system called Brave Payments. This enables users to automatically and privately pay their favorite websites, without being tracked.</p>
<p>Those who are interested in giving the browser a spin can head over to the <a href="https://brave.com/">official website</a>. Brave is currently available a variety of platforms including Windows, Linux, OS X, Android, and iOS.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135401
title: Search Engines and Rightsholders Sign Landmark Anti-Piracy Deal
uri: Search-Engines-and-Rightsholders-Sign-Landmark-Anti-Piracy-Deal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1nxiU3vhuR0/
content:
<p><img src="media/e92721d2.searchman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/searchman.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="156" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135409">Following a Digital Economy Bill committee two weeks ago, we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-copyright-holders-ready-voluntary-anti-piracy-code-170208/">first learned</a> that copyright holders and search engines were close to finalizing a voluntary anti-piracy code. </p>
<p>Following roundtable discussions chaired by the UK&#8217;s Intellectual Property Office, the parties worked hard to reach a deal that everyone could live with. </p>
<p>These kinds of discussions are not new. Similar talks have been ongoing for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-asks-government-to-facilitate-private-anti-piracy-deals-151020/">more than half a decade</a>, but without success. However, this time the Government turned up the pressure to the maximum, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-could-force-google-to-tackle-piracy-by-law-if-necessary-170215/">threatening to force</a> search engines into cooperation by law if consensus could not be reached.</p>
<p>This approach appears to have reached its goals, with the world&#8217;s first anti-piracy agreement between search engines and rightsholders being officially announced today. The deal is a partnership between Google, Microsoft&#8217;s Bing, and several organizations in the creative industry. </p>
<p>Under this new anti-piracy code, search engines will further optimize their algorithms and processes to demote pirated content in their search results. The aim is to make infringing content less visible and at a faster rate. At the same time, legal alternatives should be easier to find.</p>
<p>&#8220;This should start to trigger faster and more effective demotion – and delisting. That should also mean that legal content sources are better promoted and artists and creators better rewarded,&#8221; Eddy Leviten, Director General of the Alliance for Intellectual Property informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The changes should take effect by June 1st and are targeted at the UK public. This means that search results may not be impacted to the same degree elsewhere. </p>
<p>The parties have also agreed to cooperate more closely and share data to optimize future anti-piracy strategies. This includes efforts to make sure that pirate search terms do not show up in autocomplete suggestions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Autocomplete is an area where it has been agreed we need to work – and it will need cooperation to look at what terms are delivering consumers to pirate content,&#8221; Leviten clarifies.</p>
<p>The news was made public by several creative industry players, but it&#8217;s expected the UK Government, which played an important role in facilitating the talks, will follow with an announcement later today. </p>
<p>The rightsholder groups are happy that an agreement was finally reached and hope that it will help to steer search engine users toward legal alternatives.</p>
<p>“Pirate websites are currently much too easy to find via search, so we appreciate the parties’ willingness to try to improve that situation,&#8221; says Stan McCoy, President &#038; Managing Director of the Motion Picture Association EMEA.</p>
<p>While the agreement is a milestone, it&#8217;s also clearly a compromise. The measures announced today are not substantially new. </p>
<p>Google, for one, has been demoting pirate sites in search results for several years already and it previously banned various pirate terms from autocomplete. Under the anti-piracy code, these measures will be intensified.</p>
<p>More far-reaching demands from rightsholders, such as removing pirate sites from search results entirely or a takedown-staydown policy, are not part of the deal.</p>
<p>Geoff Taylor, Chief Executive of UK music group BPI, recognizes that the new partnership isn&#8217;t going to stop piracy entirely but hopes that it will help to improve the current situation.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is much work still to do to achieve this. The Code will not be a silver bullet fix, but it will mean that illegal sites are demoted more quickly from search results and that fans searching for music are more likely to find a fair site.</p>
<p>&#8220;We look forward to working with Google, Microsoft and our partners across the creative industries to build a safer, better online environment for creators and fans.”</p>
<p>TorrentFreak also reached out to Google to hear their vision on the landmark agreement, but at the time of publication, the company hadn&#8217;t replied. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135429
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 02/20/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-02-20-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wBg8HJEi_u0/
content:
<p><img src="media/f4c35d12.doctorstrange.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/doctorstrange.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-130696">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Doctor Strange, which was released as Blu-Ray rip a few days ago, 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="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-022017/">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>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Doctor Strange</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Moana</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAbx5kgCJo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hacksaw-ridge-torrent-downloads/">Hacksaw Ridge</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2119532/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2-1hz1juBI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Assassin&#8217;s Creed</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="">Passengers</a> (Subbed HDrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="">Allied</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3640424/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlp94-C31cY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/la-la-land-torrent-downloads/">La La Land</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3783958/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pdqf4P9MB8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">Lion</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741834/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RNI9o06vqo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/jack-reacher-never-go-back-torrent-downloads/">Jack Reacher: Never Go Back</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3393786">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRwrdbcAh2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135406
title: Kim Dotcom Extradition to Go Ahead, But Not on Copyright Grounds
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Extradition-to-Go-Ahead-But-Not-on-Copyright-Grounds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Z9EvUe4Npu4/
content:
<p><img src="media/66633aca.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-large">Following an extradition hearing lasting 10 weeks back in 2015, a New Zealand District Court judge ruled that Kim Dotcom and his former Megaupload colleagues could be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.</p>
<p>Dotcom immediately announced an appeal to the High Court, which took place over four weeks <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcoms-extradition-appeal-concludes-160928/">last September</a>. Justice Murray Gilbert handed down his decision today, one that&#8217;s both thought-provoking and controversial.</p>
<p>At the very center of the US Government&#8217;s case against Dotcom and former colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk, is the notion that the quartet engaged in criminal copyright infringement. Indeed, it was stated on numerous occasions that their case is the biggest copyright infringement case of all time.</p>
<p>However, in his 363-page ruling <em>(<a href="http://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/cases/ortmann-v-the-united-states-of-america/@@images/fileMediaNotes">pdf</a>)</em>, Justice Gilbert found that there is no equivalent copyright crime in New Zealand that would allow Dotcom and his co-defendants to be transferred to the United States under the extradition treaty.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the central issues in the case is whether copyright infringement by digital online communication of copyright protected works to members of the public is a criminal offense in New Zealand under the Copyright Act,&#8221; an announcement from the Court reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The High Court has held that it is not, contrary to the conclusion reached in the District Court. The appellants have therefore succeeded with one of the main planks of their case.&#8221;</p>
<p>While this might initially sound like the best possible news for Dotcom and his colleagues (and it may yet prove useful), that&#8217;s not the full picture. The US Government wants to extradite the quartet to face trial on a total 13 counts, which include allegations of conspiracy to commit racketeering as well as money laundering and wire fraud.</p>
<p>So, while the copyright infringement charges have now been ruled out as grounds for extradition, the other charges remain.</p>
<p>In today&#8217;s ruling, the High Court found that while the District Court&#8217;s decision of December 2015 was flawed in detail, its conclusion that the extradition of Dotcom and his colleagues can go ahead still stands, &#8220;because there are available pathways for extradition&#8221; on each count.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he High Court has confirmed that Mathias Ortmann, Bram van der Kolk, Kim Dotcom, Finn Batato (the appellants) are eligible for extradition under section 24 of the Extradition Act 1999,&#8221; the Court&#8217;s summary reads.</p>
<p>According to Justice Gilbert, the core of the case deals with a conspiracy to defraud &#8211; an extraditable offense &#8211; but in comments this morning, Dotcom said that even that shouldn&#8217;t be applicable.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m no longer getting extradited for Copyright. We won on that. I&#8217;m now getting extradited for a law that doesn&#8217;t even apply,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/833510769362825216">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that copyright charges can&#8217;t be fraud charges. Let&#8217;s just ignore that minor detail over here in New Zealand.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a statement, Dotcom&#8217;s barrister Ron Mansfield said that having won the copyright infringement argument, it is &#8220;extremely disappointing&#8221; to have a negative outcome overall, but all is not lost.</p>
<p>Supporting Dotcom in his assertion that the US Supreme Court has ruled that copyright infringement is not fraud, he explained that the situation in New Zealand doesn&#8217;t support it either. </p>
<p>&#8220;The High Court has accepted that Parliament made a clear and deliberate decision not to criminalize this type of alleged conduct by internet service providers, making them not responsible for the acts of their users,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the Court to then permit the same conduct to be categorized as a type of fraud in our view disrupts Parliament’s clear intent. The High Court decision means that Parliament’s intended protection for internet service providers is now illusory. That will be a concern for internet service providers and impact on everyone’s access to the internet.&#8221; </p>
<p>It will be of little surprise to learn that despite this ruling, the battle isn&#8217;t over yet. Mansfield confirms that this &#8220;politically charged and misunderstood case&#8221; will now head off to the Court of Appeal.</p>
<p>&#8220;We remain confident that this last point, which would prevent extradition in this complex and unprecedented legal case, will be resolved in Kim&#8217;s favor in a manner consistent with Parliament’s intent, international law and, importantly one might think, the United States&#8217; own law,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>So what next for this epic case?</p>
<p>In the short term,  it&#8217;s expected that both sides will challenge aspects of Justice Gilbert&#8217;s ruling at the Court of Appeal. Depending on the outcome there, the case could conceivably move to the Supreme Court and from there into the hands of the Minister of Justice. All of that could take another two years &#8211; or more.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=134151
title: Online Piracy Can Boost Comic Book Sales, Research Finds
uri: Online-Piracy-Can-Boost-Comic-Book-Sales-Research-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1A7XjRlSdzk/
content:
<p><img src="media/90ace64c.yen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/yen.jpg" alt="yen" width="222" height="146" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134344">Research into online piracy comes in all shapes and sizes, with equally mixed results. Often the main question is whether piracy hurts legitimate revenue streams.</p>
<p>In recent years we have seen a plethora of studies and most are focused on the effects on movies, TV-shows and music revenues. But what about comic books?</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga">Manga</a> in particular has traditionally been very popular on file-sharing networks and sites. These are dozens of large sites dedicated to the comics, which are downloaded in their millions. </p>
<p>According to the anti-piracy group CODA, which represents Japanese comic publishers, piracy losses overseas are estimated to be double the size of overseas legal revenue.</p>
<p>With this in mind, Professor Tatsuo Tanaka of the Faculty of Economics at Keio University decided to look more closely at how piracy interacts with legal sales. In a natural experiment, he examined how the availability of pirated comic books affected revenue. </p>
<p>The research uses a massive takedown campaign conducted by CODA in 2015, which directly impacted the availability of many pirated comics on various download sites, to see how this affected sales of 3,360 comic book volumes.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the results show that decreased availability of pirated comics doesn&#8217;t always help sales. In fact, for comics that no longer release new volumes, the effect is reversed. </p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy decreases sales of ongoing comics, but it increases sales of completed comics,&#8221; Professor Tanaka writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;To put this another way, displacement effect is dominant for ongoing comics, and advertisement effect is dominant for completed comics,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>For these finished comic seasons, the promotional element weighs heavier. According to the Professor, this suggests that piracy can effectively be seen as a form of advertising.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since completed comics series have already ended, and publishers no longer do any promotion for them, consumers almost forget completed comics. We can interpret that piracy reminds consumers of past comics and stimulates sales.&#8221;</p>
<p>The question that remains is whether the overall effect on the industry is positive or negative. The current study provided no answer to this effect, as it&#8217;s unknown how big the sales share is for ongoing versus completed comics, but future research could look into this. </p>
<p>Professor Tanaka stresses that there is an important policy implication of his findings. Since piracy doesn&#8217;t affect all sales the same (it&#8217;s heterogeneous), anti-piracy strategies may have to be adapted. </p>
<p>&#8220;If the effect of piracy is heterogeneous, it is not the best solution to shut down the piracy sites but to delete harmful piracy files selectively if possible,&#8221; Professor Tanaka adds </p>
<p>&#8220;In this case, deleting piracy files of ongoing comics only is the first best strategy for publishers regardless of whether the total effect is positive or negative, because the availability of piracy files of completed comics is beneficial to both publishers and consumers,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>The research shows once again that piracy is a complex phenomenon that can have a positive or negative impact depending on the context. This isn&#8217;t limited to comics of course, as previous studies have shown similar effects in the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shutdown-hurt-smaller-films-helped-blockbusters-130823/">movie</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-can-boost-digital-music-sales-research-shows-160121/">music</a> industries.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The full <a href="https://ideas.repec.org/p/keo/dpaper/2016-027.html">paper</a> titled The Effects of Internet Book Piracy: The Case of Japanese Comics is available <a href="media/6f1de00c.DP2016-027.pdf" data-original-source="https://ies.keio.ac.jp/upload/pdf/en/DP2016-027.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135452
title: “We Won’t Block Pirate Bay,” Swedish Telecoms Giant Says
uri: We-Won-t-Block-Pirate-Bay-Swedish-Telecoms-Giant-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mHrJW_wcVUQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/bfddc9cc.tpb3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb3.png"><img src="media/7e02aab6.tpb3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb3.png" alt="" width="230" height="243" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106334"></a>Last week after almost three years of legal wrangling, Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry finally achieved their dream of blocking a &#8216;pirate&#8217; site</p>
<p>After losing an October 2015 trial at the Stockholm District Court, the rightsholders went to appeal last September, a hearing that ran for several days at the brand new Patent and Market Court.</p>
<p>Last Monday <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-must-be-blocked-in-sweden-court-of-appeal-rules-170213/">the court ruled</a> that Bredbandsbolaget, the ISP at the center of the action, must block The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>For the rest of Europe, where blocking is becoming more and more commonplace, it was just another day at the office. Back in Sweden, however, the reaction was more animated. It appears that Internet service providers don&#8217;t like the idea of becoming copyright policemen and as a result, none voiced support for the decision.</p>
<p>In other EU countries where blocking injunctions have been achieved, ISPs have often resigned themselves to the same fate and smoothed the process moving forward. The rightsholders are still holding on to the idea that might be a possibility in Sweden, as spokesman Per Strömbäck told <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.676328/pirate-bay-filmbranschen">IDG</a> this morning.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the legal situation is now clear and that ISPs should act in loyalty with Bredbandsbolaget and apply the same rules,&#8221; Strömbäck said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe and hope that we will get to a solution as we have in Norway, Denmark and the UK, where telecom operators cooperate and all block the pirate sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the signs are not good.</p>
<p>Last week ISP Bahnhof absolutely <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-blockade-signals-copyright-industrys-death-throes-isp-boss-says-170214/">slammed the decision</a> to block The Pirate Bay, describing the effort as signaling the &#8220;death throes&#8221; of the copyright industry. It even hinted that it may offer some kind of technical solution to customers who are prevented from accessing the site.</p>
<p>For those familiar with Bahnhof&#8217;s stance over the years, this response didn&#8217;t come as a surprise. The ISP is traditionally pro-freedom and has gone out of its way to make life difficult for copyright enforcers of all kinds. </p>
<p>However, as one of the leading telecoms companies in Sweden and neighboring Norway, ISP Telia is more moderate. Nevertheless, it too says it has no intention of blocking The Pirate Bay, unless it is forced to do so by law. </p>
<p>&#8220;No, we will not block if we are not forced to do so by a court,&#8221; a company press officer said this morning.</p>
<p>Telia says that the decision last week from the Patent and Market Court affects only Bredbandsbolaget, indicating that a fresh legal process will be required to get it to respond. That eventuality appears to be understood by the rightsholders but they&#8217;re keeping their options open.</p>
<p>&#8220;It depends on how [the ISPs] choose to act,&#8221; Strömbäck told IDG. &#8220;One can have lot of hypothetical scenarios in which some follow, but others do not. Or where some protest loudly and generate debate.&#8221;</p>
<p>Thus far, no ISPs have publicly indicated they&#8217;re a &#8220;follower&#8221;. Telia will not be &#8220;following&#8221;, while one can safely put Bahnhof into the &#8220;protest loudly&#8221; category. There are plenty of others, however, so it will take more time to see how this plays out.</p>
<p>Interestingly, way back in 2008 after the IFPI forced Danish ISP ‘Tele2’ to block access to The Pirate Bay, Telia <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isp-refuses-to-block-pirate-bay-080327/">received a letter</a> warning that legal measures would follow if it didn&#8217;t follow suit. The ISP refused, noting that blocking would be illegal in Sweden.</p>
<p>While subsequent decisions from the EU and indeed Sweden&#8217;s courts have now indicated otherwise, it&#8217;s been nine long years since that initial threat to the ISP. But in all that time Telia hasn&#8217;t changed its position.</p>
<p>Almost a decade ago it advised copyright holders to move away from the idea of blocking and concentrate on providing better legal alternatives instead. Entertainment companies have indeed made significant progress on that front, but today Telia is standing by its long-standing advice, that blocking will not provide the solution.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135440
title: Court: Hosting A Pirate Site Doesn’t Equal Copyright Infringement
uri: Court-Hosting-A-Pirate-Site-Doesn-t-Equal-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yKXB63GuUOs/
content:
<p><img src="media/b048ffdf.steadfast.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/steadfast.png" alt="" width="250" height="115" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134700">Last year, adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan took things up a notch by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-faces-lawsuit-for-assisting-pirate-sites-160823/">dragging</a> several third-party intermediaries to court. </p>
<p>The company targeted CDN provider CloudFlare, advertising network JuicyAds, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hosting-companies-dragged-into-piracy-lawsuit-alongside-cloudflare-161126/">several hosting providers</a>, including Chicago-based Steadfast. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.steadfast.net/">Steadfast</a> was not happy with the allegations and has recently asked the court to dismiss the case. Among other things, the company argued that it&#8217;s protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor provisions. </p>
<p>&#8220;Steadfast does not operate or manage the Imagebam website. Steadfast does not in any way communicate with or interact with Imagebam’s individual users. Steadfast only provides computer storage,&#8221; the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hosting-provider-steadfast-denies-liability-for-pirate-site-170205/">wrote</a> in its motion to dismiss. </p>
<p>In a tentative ruling issued this week, the California District Court agrees that the allegations in the second amended complaint (SAC) are not sufficient to hold the hosting company liable.</p>
<p>Merely hosting a pirate website is not enough to argue that the host contributes to the alleged copyright infringement on the image sharing site, Judge George Wu <a href="media/0a135ba0.tentative-dismiss.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tentative-dismiss.pdf">argues (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;In short, the Court is unaware of any authority holding that merely alleging that a defendant provides some form of &#8216;hosting&#8217; service to an infringing website is sufficient to establish contributory copyright infringement. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court would therefore find that the SAC fails to allege facts establishing that Steadfast materially contributed to the infringement,&#8221; Wu adds. </p>
<p>Among other things, the Court notes that ALS Scan fails to allege that Steadfast provides its hosting services with the goal to promote copyright infringement, or that it directly encouraged Imagebam to show pirated content on its website. </p>
<p>In addition, the vicarious liability allegation is insufficient too. This requires the copyright holder to show that the host has control over the infringing actions and that it financially benefits from them, which is not the case here.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here, the SAC contains no allegations that Steadfast has a direct financial interest in the infringing activity or has the right and ability to stop the infringing conduct,&#8221; Judge Wu writes.</p>
<p>As a result of the lacking evidence and allegations to support a secondary liability claim, the Court tentatively granted Steadfast&#8217;s motion to dismiss. </p>
<p>The ruling does keep the door open for ALS Scan to file an improved complaint, but for now, the victory goes to the hosting provider.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135476
title: Italy Blocks 290 ‘Pirate’ Movie & TV Show Domains in 4 Months
uri: Italy-Blocks-290-Pirate-Movie-TV-Show-Domains-in-4-Months
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IQRfJ1HywPw/
content:
<p><img src="media/03f1f72d.guardia.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/guardia.jpg" width="225" height="150" class="alignright size-large">For so many years, Italy developed a reputation for doing little to stop the spread of infringing content online. As a result, pirate sites flourished and millions of citizens decided that paying for content was a thing of the past.</p>
<p>In recent times, things have changed. Italy now has one of the toughest anti-piracy regimes in Europe and regularly launches new actions, often targeting multiple sites in coordinated operations.</p>
<p>This week marks the start of another, with the Special Command Units of the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a militarized police force under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance, acting on the orders of the Public Prosecutor of Rome.</p>
<p>Following the signing of a special decree issued by the Court of Rome, the GdF targeted the domains of 41 websites alleged to be involved in the distribution of first-run movies such as The Magnificent 7, Suicide Squad, and Legend of Tarzan.</p>
<p>Within the batch were many sites streaming live sporting events, such as soccer matches broadcasted by The Premier League, La Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga and Champions League. Those who transmitted motor racing events were also in the frame, after drawing fire from Formula 1 and Moto GP broadcasters.</p>
<p>All domain names will be blocked by local ISPs or potentially seized, if within reach of local authorities.</p>
<p>Authorities report that in common with an operation carried out earlier this month, two anti-piracy strategies were employed, the so-called  “follow-the-money” approach (whereby site owners are identified via payments made by advertisers and similar business partners) and the reportedly newer “follow-the-hosting” angle.</p>
<p>Investigating site hosts has been a core anti-piracy strategy for many years so precisely what&#8217;s new about this recent effort isn&#8217;t clear. However, much is being made of the ability to discover the true location of sites that attempt to hide behind various anonymization techniques available via the cloud.</p>
<p>Whether a true breakthrough has been made is hard to decipher since local authorities have a tendency to be a little dramatic. Nevertheless, there can be no doubts over their commitment.</p>
<p>According to Fulvia Sarzana, a lawyer with the <a href="http://www.lidis.it/">Sarzana and Partners</a> law firm which specializes in Internet and copyright disputes, a total of 290 sites have been targeted by court injunctions in the past four months alone.</p>
<p>Back in November, a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-landmark-mass-blocking-of-152-pirate-sites-161108/">landmark action</a> to block more than 150 sites involved in the unauthorized streaming of movies and sports took place following the signing of a mass injunction by a judge in Rome. It was the biggest single blocking action in Italy since measures began in 2008.</p>
<p>Then, in early February, authorities widened their net further still, with a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-seize-domains-fifty-pirate-newspaper-magazine-sites-170201/">somewhat unusual campaign</a> targeting sites that offered unauthorized digital versions of dozens of national newspapers and magazines including Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair.</p>
<p>With the latest blockades, Italy is now a true front-runner among European site-blocking nations. With many hundreds of domains now the subject of an injunction, the country is now firmly among the top three blocking countries, alongside the UK and Portugal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135528
title: Google: 99.95% of Recent ‘Trusted’ DMCA Notices Were Bogus
uri: Google-99-95-of-Recent-Trusted-DMCA-Notices-Were-Bogus
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_szBCXUWHL0/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec295b70.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png"><img src="media/367885e7.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="83" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135049"></a>Under current legislation, US-based Internet service providers are not expected to proactively police infringing user content. They are, however, expected to remove it, if a copyright holder complains.</p>
<p>The so-called &#8216;safe harbor&#8217; that providers enjoy as a result of such cooperation is currently under the microscope, following rightsholder complaints that the Digital Millenium Copyright Act is failing them. </p>
<p>To address these concerns, the U.S. Copyright Office has been running an extended public consultation. As noted earlier, the RIAA and other music groups <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-industry-wants-piracy-filters-no-takedown-whack-a-mole-170222/">just submitted their comments</a> and Google have now added theirs. </p>
<p>In contrast to the music groups who believe that the DMCA is &#8220;failing&#8221;, Google believes otherwise. Noting that rogue sites have been driven out of the United States by an effective DMCA, the search giant suggests leaving the law intact while encouraging voluntary mechanisms between content owners and providers.</p>
<p>&#8220;In short, the DMCA has proven successful at fostering ongoing collaboration between rightsholders and online service providers, a collaboration that continues to pay dividends both in the U.S. and in international contexts,&#8221; Google writes.</p>
<p>The company highlights its YouTube-based Content ID as one such collaboration, with the system helping creators take down or monetize infringing content, as they see fit. Google also cites the benefits afforded by the takedown tools it provides to rightsholders in respect of Google search.</p>
<p>&#8220;First, in recent years, Google has streamlined its submission process, enabling rightsholders to send more notices more easily (while still continuing to reduce the average time to resolution to under six hours),&#8221; the company notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Second, Google has provided new incentives to make heavy use of the DMCA takedown system. We now use the number of valid DMCA requests a domain has received as one of the inputs in making ranking determinations in search results, so rightsholders seeking to take advantage of this signal have further incentive to file notices.&#8221;</p>
<p>But while Google supports the current takedown provisions, there are problems. The company says that a significant portion of the recent increases in DMCA submission volumes stem from notices that are either duplicate, unnecessary, or bogus.</p>
<p>&#8220;A substantial number of takedown requests submitted to Google are for URLs<br>
that have never been in our search index, and therefore could never have appeared in our search results,&#8221; Google states.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, in January 2017, the most prolific submitter submitted notices that Google honored for 16,457,433 URLs. But on further inspection, 16,450,129 (99.97%) of those URLs were not in our search index in the first place.&#8221;</p>
<p>This kind of rampant abuse was highlighted in our <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-with-no-traffic-attracts-49m-mainly-bogus-dmca-notices-170219/">recent report</a> which revealed that one small site had millions of bogus notices filed against it. But, according to Google, that&#8217;s just the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<p>&#8220;In total, 99.95% of all URLs processed from our Trusted Copyright Removal Program in January 2017 were not in our index,&#8221; the company reveals.</p>
<p>But despite the abuse, Google is apparently giving these &#8216;trusted&#8217; submitters some wiggle room to be creative. In a rather unexpected move, the search giant says that it now accepts takedown notices for URLs that don&#8217;t exist, to ensure that they never appear in future search results.</p>
<p>While copyright holders will presumably enjoy that feature, it is a fairly curious move. A proactive takedown of a non-existent URL necessarily happens in advance of any determination of whether that URL is infringing, which goes way beyond any legislation currently being demanded.</p>
<p>That being said, some of these non-existent (and essentially fabricated) URLs do eventually turn up in Google search, albeit at a tiny rate.</p>
<p>&#8220;Of the 35,000,000 URLs we processed in the latter half of September 2016 that were not in our index, fewer than 2% of those would have made it into our index in the intervening four months; notices for the other 98% therefore were at best unnecessary,&#8221; Google says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many of these submissions appear to be generated by merely scrambling the words in a search query and appending that to a URL, so that each query makes a different URL that nonetheless leads to the same page of results,&#8221; it adds, referencing an earlier <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/4shared-copyright-holders-abuse-googles-dmca-takedown-system-161123/">TF report</a>.</p>
<p>Overall, however, Google seems comfortable with the current notice-and-takedown framework, noting that a &#8220;robust ecosystem&#8221; of companies with expertise in sending takedown requests is being bolstered by voluntary service provider measures that already go beyond the requirements of Section 512 of the DMCA. </p>
<p>&#8220;While stakeholders can be expected to disagree about the details of these voluntary efforts, it cannot be said that the DMCA safe harbors are failing in the face of this overwhelming evidence that these voluntary measures continue to grow both in number and diversity,&#8221; Google concludes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s crystal clear from Google&#8217;s submission that it sees the DMCA as a law it can work with, since it enables service providers to innovate without fear while simultaneously addressing the concerns of copyright holders. The latter see things quite differently though, so expect the battles to continue.</p>
<p>Google&#8217;s submission can be found <a href="media/a927b708.Google-Additional-Comments-USCO-Section-512-Study.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Google-Additional-Comments-USCO-Section-512-Study.pdf">here</a>, via <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2017/02/bogus-claims-google-submission-points-to-massive-fraud-in-search-index-takedown-notices/">Michael Geist</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135494
title: Music Industry Wants Piracy Filters, No Takedown Whack-a-Mole
uri: Music-Industry-Wants-Piracy-Filters-No-Takedown-Whack-a-Mole
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oAvZtb6Utxg/
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">Signed into law nearly twenty years ago, the DMCA is one of the best known pieces of Internet related legislation.</p>
<p>The law provides a safe harbor for Internet services, shielding them from copyright infringement liability as long as they process takedown notices and deal with repeat infringers.</p>
<p>In recent years, however, various parties have complained about shortcomings and abuse of the system. On the one hand, rightsholders believe that the law doesn’t do enough to protect creators, while the opposing side warns of increased censorship and abuse.</p>
<p>To address these concerns, the U.S. Copyright Office is currently running an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-copyright-office-undecided-about-future-of-dmca-takedowns-161114/">extended</a> <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-reviews-impact-and-efficacy-of-dmca-safe-harbor-160105/">public consultation</a>. </p>
<p>This week a new round of comments was submitted, including a detailed response from a coalition of music industry groups such as the RIAA, National Music Publishers’ Association, and SoundExchange. When it comes to their views of the DMCA the music groups are very clear: <a href="https://www.riaa.com/major-music-organizations-decry-broken-dmca-outline-possible-solutions-new-government-filing/">It&#8217;s failing</a>.</p>
<p>The music groups note that they are currently required to police the entire Internet in search of infringing links and files, which they then have to take down one at a time. This doesn&#8217;t work, they argue.</p>
<p>They say that the present situation forces rightsholders to participate in a never-ending whack-a-mole game which doesn&#8217;t fix the underlying problem. Instead, it results in a &#8220;frustrating, burdensome and ultimately ineffective takedown process.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;…as numerous copyright owners point out in their comments, the notice and takedown system as currently configured results in an endless game of whack-a-mole, with infringing content that is removed from a site one moment reposted to the same site and other sites moments later, to be repeated ad infinitem.&#8221;</p>
<p>Instead of leaving all the work up to copyright holders, the music groups want Internet services to filter out and block infringing content proactively. With the use of automated hash filtering tools, for example. </p>
<p>&#8220;One possible solution to this problem would be to require that, once a service provider receives a takedown notice with respect to a given work, the service provider use automated content identification technology to prevent the same work from being uploaded in the future,&#8221; the groups write.</p>
<p>&#8220;Automated content identification technologies are one important type of standard technical measure that should be adopted across the industry, and at a minimum by service providers who give the public access to large amounts of works uploaded by users.&#8221; </p>
<p>These anti-piracy filters are already in use by some companies and are relatively cheap to implement, even for relatively smaller services, the music groups note. </p>
<p>The whack-a-mole problem doesn’t only apply to hosting providers but also to search engines, the music groups complain.</p>
<p>While companies such as Google remove links to infringing material upon request, these links often reappear under a different URL. At the same time, pirate sites often appear before legitimate services in search results. A fix for this problem would be to stop indexing known pirate sites completely.</p>
<p>&#8220;One possible solution would be to require search engines to de-index structurally infringing sites that are the subject of a large number of takedown notices,&#8221; the groups recommend.</p>
<p>Ideally, they want copyright holders and Internet services to reach a voluntary agreement on how to filter pirated content. This could be similar to YouTube&#8217;s Content-ID system, or the hash filtering mechanisms Dropbox and Google Drive employ, for example.</p>
<p>If service providers are not interested in helping out, however, the music industry says new legislation might be needed to give them a push.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Music Community stands ready to work with service providers and other copyright owners on the development and implementation of standard technical measures and voluntary measures. However, to the extent such measures are not forthcoming, legislative solutions will be necessary to restore the balance Congress intended,&#8221; the recommendation reads.</p>
<p>Interestingly, this collaborative stance doesn&#8217;t appear to apply to all parties. File-hosting service 4Shared previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/4shareds-piracy-fingerprint-tool-helps-to-reduce-takedown-notices-161205/">informed TorrentFreak</a> that several prominent music groups have shown little interest in their voluntary piracy fingerprint tool.</p>
<p>The notion of piracy filters isn&#8217;t new. A few months ago the European Commission <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-proposes-mandatory-piracy-filters-for-online-services-160914/">released its proposal</a> to modernize the EU&#8217;s copyright law, under which online services will also be required to install mandatory piracy filters.</p>
<p>Whether the U.S. Government will follow suit has yet to be seen. In any case, rightsholders are likely to keep lobbying for change until they see significant improvements.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The full submission of the music groups is available <a href="media/e8a4c600.512-Music-Industry-Supp-Comments-As-Filed.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/512-Music-Industry-Supp-Comments-As-Filed.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135548
title: Google: With No Fair Use, It’s More Difficult to Innovate
uri: Google-With-No-Fair-Use-It-s-More-Difficult-to-Innovate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GCQaNKaKFlk/
content:
<p><a href="media/b997f7ba.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg"><img src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"></a>With <a href="http://fairuseweek.org">Fair Use Week</a> now in full swing, people around the world are celebrating the freedom to use copyrighted content in certain contexts without fear of prosecution, thereby enabling creativity and inspiring innovation.</p>
<p>The legal freedom offered by fair use is a cornerstone of criticism, research, teaching and news reporting, one that enables the activities of thousands of good causes and enriches the minds of millions. However, not all countries fully embrace the concept.</p>
<p>Perhaps surprisingly, Australia is currently behind the times on this front, a point not lost on Google&#8217;s Senior Copyright Counsel, William Patry.</p>
<p>Speaking with The Australian (<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/copyright-laws-a-hindrance-to-innovation-google/news-story/48c7051c89f11a2a519cd3f067454c74">paywall</a>), Patry describes local copyright law as both arcane and not fit for purpose, while acting as a hindrance to innovation and productivity.</p>
<p>“We think Australians are just as innovative as Americans, but the laws are different. And those laws dictate that commercially we act in a different way,” Patry told the publication.</p>
<p>“Our search function, which is the basis of the entire company, is authorized in the US by fair use. You don’t have anything like that here.”</p>
<p>Australia currently employs a more restrictive &#8220;fair dealing&#8221; approach, but it&#8217;s certainly possible that fair use could be introduced in the near future. </p>
<p>Last year, Australia’s Productivity Commission released a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-gov-agency-endorses-vpn-use-to-reduce-piracy-160429/">draft report</a> covering various aspects of the country’s intellectual property system. One of its key recommendations was to adopt fair use legislation.</p>
<p>“The Australian Government should amend the Copyright Act 1968 to replace the current fair dealing exceptions with a broad exception for fair use,&#8221; the Commission wrote in its report.</p>
<p>&#8220;The new exception should contain a clause outlining that the objective of the exception is to ensure Australia’s copyright system targets only those circumstances where infringement would undermine the ordinary exploitation of a work at the time of the infringement.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the concept of fair use is not universally welcomed. Local anti-piracy and royalty organizations are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-celebrities-join-campaign-to-oppose-fair-use-161205/">opposing its introduction</a>, claiming that it will undermine their ability to make money.</p>
<p>Interestingly, broadcaster Foxtel says that the deployment of fair use would introduce “significant and unnecessary uncertainty into Australian law.&#8221; This is the exact opposite of Google&#8217;s position.</p>
<p>The search giant says that Australia&#8217;s current exceptions fail to offer legal certainty and that a US-style fair use system would be much more predictable.</p>
<p>“If you are a company like Google who wants to store information in the cloud, or internet searches or text and data mining, we can do that safely in the US. We can’t do it here,” Patry concludes.</p>
<p>In its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australian-govt-agency-digs-in-over-fair-use-geo-unblocking-161222/">final inquiry paper</a>, Australia&#8217;s Productivity Commission renewed its calls for the introduction of fair use, noting that in the US, where fair use is long established, &#8220;creative industries thrive.”</p>
<p>Whether fair use will ever hit Aussie shores remains to be seen, but yet again there is a division between how technology companies and entertainment groups would like copyright law to develop. It&#8217;s a battle that&#8217;s set to continue well into the future. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135555
title: Warner Bros. Settles With Company That Leaked Oscar Screeners
uri: Warner-Bros-Settles-With-Company-That-Leaked-Oscar-Screeners
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EV6Xwq8jRr8/
content:
<p><a href="media/6fa5d6d2.oscartorrents.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/oscartorrents.png"><img src="media/7cffd0f4.oscartorrents.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oscartorrents.png" alt="" width="185" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-22131"></a>Perfect copies of movies still in theaters are relatively hard to come by, unless you know someone with access to DVD screeners, that is.</p>
<p>These discs are often given out to awards voters &#8220;for their consideration&#8221; and are supposed to be handled extremely securely so that they don&#8217;t fall into the wrong hands.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, every year screeners end up on torrent sites, much to the disappointment of movie companies.</p>
<p>Two titles that leaked back in 2015 were Creed and In the Heart of the Sea but their route to the Internet was a particularly unusual one. After obtaining the discs legally on behalf of its clients, talent agency Innovative Artists used ripping software to copy the movies to its own digital distribution platform. </p>
<p>Quite clearly its security was lacking, as notorious pirate group Hive-CM8 obtained copies of the movies and dumped them online. Both were watermarked, however, which allowed content security company Deluxe Entertainment Services to trace the copies back to Innovative Artists.</p>
<p>In response, Warner Bros. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/warner-bros-claims-agency-ran-its-own-pirate-movie-site-161025/">filed a lawsuit</a> against the company last October. Warner pulled no punches, accusing Innovative Artists of using illegal software to circumvent the protection on the discs before placing them on an illegal distribution platform.</p>
<p>The agency publicly apologized for its actions but added that it was surprised by the lawsuit. It had cooperated with Warner right from the beginning in an effort to put things right, so the legal action came out of the blue.</p>
<p>Now, however, the dispute appears to be have been sorted out. According to information received by <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/warner-bros-settles-lawsuit-talent-agency-distributing-oscar-screeners-978494">THR</a>, Warner Bros. and Innovative Artists have come to some kind of settlement agreement.</p>
<p>No court documents have yet been filed to indicate that a settlement has been reached. That being said, it&#8217;s rare for such agreements to be made fully public so any terms could remain confidential, even when the notice of dismissal appears. THR says it contacted both parties for comment but neither side provided any information.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Hive-CM8 have continued releasing copies of leaked DVD screeners over the past several weeks, showing that when one route of supply closes, another one opens.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=135602
title: Lawmakers Won’t Force Google to Police Piracy but Doubt Voluntary Code
uri: Lawmakers-Won-t-Force-Google-to-Police-Piracy-but-Doubt-Voluntary-Co
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8pdePtOEqes/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec295b70.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png"><img src="media/367885e7.googlelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlelogo.png" alt="" width="250" height="83" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135049"></a>Following a Digital Economy Bill committee earlier this month, it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-copyright-holders-ready-voluntary-anti-piracy-code-170208/">revealed</a> that copyright holders and search engines were close to finalizing a voluntary anti-piracy code. This Monday, it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">became reality</a>. </p>
<p>Under this agreement, search engines will optimize their algorithms to demote pirated content in search results, with the aim of making infringing content less visible and legal content more so. The system is due to begin in earnest during early summer but what if it doesn&#8217;t do its job?</p>
<p>That eventuality has been discussed as part of the negotiations surrounding the Digital Economy Bill, with some lawmakers supporting an amendment which would give the Secretary of State the power to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-could-force-google-to-tackle-piracy-by-law-if-necessary-170215/">force Google</a> and other search engines to tackle piracy, if the voluntary route fails.</p>
<p>To the relief of Google and the disappointment of rightsholders, this week the amendment was withdrawn but those in favor of the legislation didn&#8217;t go quietly. Lord Stevenson of Balmacara was particularly vocal after reading out a portion of the code (shown below) relating to the demoting of sites that receive large numbers of DMCA-style notices.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>[T]o more effectively use such notices to demote domains demonstrated to be dedicated to infringement, and to work collaboratively with rights holders to consider other technically reasonable, scalable avenues empirically demonstrated to help materially reduce the appearance of illegitimate sites in the top search rankings</em></p></blockquote>
<p>&#8220;I could read that again, because you would probably need to hear it again to have the faintest idea what we are talking about,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I fear that it smacks of either a lowest common denominator approach or some hard arm-wrestling in the corridors where the discussion took place to get something that looks reasonable on paper.</p>
<p>&#8220;It does not smack of a real commitment to scourge out the terrible way in which search engines have referred people who should have known better to material that was not cleared for copyright and should not have been made available to them through that route.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Lord Stevenson clearly wasn&#8217;t happy, he did reveal some more information on how the code will be managed.</p>
<p>The Minister of State for Intellectual Property will oversee its implementation, supported by quarterly meetings of all parties involved. The Minister will also &#8220;set requirements for reporting by search engines and rights holders on any matter herein, including in particular those matters where the Code of Practice calls for ongoing discussion.&#8221;</p>
<p>Then, after a year of operation, the effectiveness of the code will be reviewed to ensure &#8220;continuing progress towards achieving the Shared Objectives.&#8221;</p>
<p>What those objectives are will remain a mystery, however. In response to Lord Stevenson&#8217;s request to see a copy of the code, Baroness Buscombe said that wouldn&#8217;t be possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do not plan to publish the code in full because details about the number of copyright infringement reports a site can receive before it is demoted might allow pirates to game the system. We are, however, very happy to share the commitments in the code in more general terms,&#8221; she said.</p>
<p>Baroness Buscombe went on to ask for the amendment to be dropped and that was followed by a spirited response from Lord Stevenson.</p>
<p>&#8220;I cannot see this agreement lasting and believe that there will have to be a backstop power at some stage,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the moment, it is a &#8216;large copyright holders against large search engines&#8217; agreement, and on that level it might operate. I do not think it will be effective. I do not think it is sustainable because there will be new people coming in and business models and practices will change — we cannot foresee that.&#8221;</p>
<p>And with that the amendment was withdrawn and with it any chance of forcing search engines into compliance by law for the foreseeable future. Only time will tell how things will play out but as the wording of the paragraph cited by Lord Stevenson shows, there is plenty of room for manoever.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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