# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89378
title: News Corp Wants Google to Implement Anti-Piracy Algorithms
uri: News-Corp-Wants-Google-to-Implement-Anti-Piracy-Algorithms
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VP6foIXAfKo/
content:
<p><a href="media/7c6b9504.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg"><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" alt="google-bay" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21875"></a>Slowly but steadily various entertainment industry groups are applying increasing pressure on Google. Previously the movie industry and record labels have <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-demands-google-deal-with-piracy-140114/">highlighted</a> that Google has a significant stake in pointing the public to pirate sites, and they are now joined by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_Corp">News Corp</a>. </p>
<p>Rupert Murdoch&#8217;s News Corporation spin-off owns various major newspapers and also has a significant stake in Foxtel, the Australian pay television network which airs the heavily pirated Game of Thrones series. </p>
<p>News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson says its a thorn in the side of the company that hundreds of thousands of Australians pirate the popular TV-show, instead of buying a Foxtel subscription. With the piracy numbers increasing year-after-year it&#8217;s now time for action, and Thomson believes that Google should step up its efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;For a company to have a sophisticated algorithm that knows ­exactly where you are and what you’re doing and maintains ignorance on piracy is an untenable contradiction,” Thomson said in an interview with <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/media/google-could-stop-record-piracy/">The Australian</a>.</p>
<p>Thomson notes that Google could easily demote links to pirate sites in their search results, and eventually remove these sites altogether. Implementing these anti-piracy algorithms would be a significant step to address the ongoing piracy problems.</p>
<p>“There’s no doubt that search giants need to be held to account. It’s obvious that it is illegal content or content accessed illegally,&#8221; Thomson says.</p>
<p>Thomson is backed by Foxtel chief executive Richard Freudenstein, who sees no excuses for the rising piracy rates now that they&#8217;ve made the show available in a timely manner.</p>
<p>“We made Game of Thrones available at a good price on Foxtel Play and yet it was still heavily illegally downloaded. The longer this goes on the more people don’t seem to think of it as theft which is what it is,” Freudenstein says.</p>
<p>The good price Foxtel&#8217;s boss is referring to is roughly <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/why-people-pirate-game-of-thrones-a-global-cost-breakdown-140413/">$500 USD</a> to access the fourth season of Game of Thrones, or $50 USD per episode. Needless to say, this is still rather expensive for the average teenager. </p>
<p>Thus far Google has taken <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-google-helps-copyright-holders-to-fight-piracy-130911/">some steps</a> to address the piracy issue, but the search giant refuses to remove entire domains from its search results without proper takedown notices. </p>
<p>Contrary to Foxtel and News Corp, Google previously <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/google-piracy-availability-pricing-problem-140310/">advised the Australian Government</a> not to implement draconian ant-piracy legislation. According to Google piracy is mostly an availability and pricing problem, which is best tackled with innovation instead of legislation.</p>
<p>“We believe there is significant, credible evidence emerging that online piracy is primarily an availability and pricing problem. We would encourage the Government to promote new business models and a free marketplace for legal purchasing of content,” Google noted.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89445
title: Movie Chain Bans Google Glass Over Piracy Fears
uri: Movie-Chain-Bans-Google-Glass-Over-Piracy-Fears
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J_HDfz5Qh50/
content:
<p><img src="media/a57fc25a.glass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/glass.jpg" width="180" height="128" class="alignright">Ever since the concept became public there have been fears over potential misuse of Google Glass. The advent of the wearable computer has sparked privacy fears and perhaps unsurprisingly, concerns that it could be used for piracy.</p>
<p>Just this January the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fbi-drags-google-glass-man-from-theater-on-piracy-fears-140121/">FBI dragged a man</a> from a movie theater in Columbus, Ohio, after theater staff presumed his wearing of Google Glass was a sign that he was engaged in camcorder piracy.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s possible the device could be put to that use, it&#8217;s now less likely that patrons of the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain will be able to do so without being noticed. Speaking with <a href="http://www.deadline.com/2014/06/alamo-drafthouse-bans-google-glass-in-movie-theaters/">Deadline</a>, company CEO and founder Tim League says the time is now right to exclude the active use of Glass completely.</p>
<p>“We’ve been talking about this potential ban for over a year,” League said.</p>
<p>“Google Glass did some early demos here in Austin and I tried them out personally. At that time, I recognized the potential piracy problem that they present for cinemas. I decided to put off a decision until we started seeing them in the theater, and that started happening this month.”</p>
<p>According to League, people won&#8217;t be forbidden from bringing Google Glass onto the company&#8217;s premises, nor will they be banned from wearing the devices. Only when the devices are switched on will there be a problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google Glass is officially banned from drafthouse auditoriums once lights dim for trailers,&#8221; League <a href="https://twitter.com/timalamo/status/476057757796564992">explained</a> yesterday.</p>
<p>Asked whether people could use them with corrective lenses, League said that discretion would be used.</p>
<p>&#8220;It will be case by case, but if it is clear when they are on, clear when they are off, will likely be OK,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>But despite the theater chain&#8217;s apparent flexibility towards the non-active use of the device, the ban does seem to go further than the official stance <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-google-glass-is-no-threat-but-mobile-phones-are-140125/">taken by the MPAA</a> following the earlier Ohio incident.</p>
<p>“Google Glass is an incredible innovation in the mobile sphere, and we have seen no proof that it is currently a significant threat that could result in content theft,” the MPAA said in a statement. </p>
<p>However, recording a movie in a theater remains a criminal offense in the United States, so the decision as to whether a crime has been committed will be the decision of law enforcement officers called to any &#8216;camming&#8217; incident. Given then the MPAA&#8217;s statement, it will be interesting to see if the studios will encourage the police to pursue cases against future Google Glass users.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89420
title: Rise Up Against Govt Anti-Piracy Plans, ISP Urges
uri: Rise-Up-Against-Govt-Anti-Piracy-Plans-ISP-Urges
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0HN02IhCFEw/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>Last month Australia’s Attorney-General George Brandis labeled his citizens the worst pirates on the planet and vowed to help content holders turn that position around. But Brandis&#8217; industry-leaning position soon became clear as he <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/aussie-attorney-general-pressured-on-three-strikes-secrecy-140529/">repeatedly refused</a> to answer questions as to whether he&#8217;d properly consulted with consumer groups.</p>
<p>Brandis has, however, consulted deeply with the entertainment industries. <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/australian-government-signals-online-piracy-crackdown-140214/">His proposals</a> for solving the piracy issue are straight out of the MPAA and RIAA cookbook &#8211; three strikes and account terminations for errant Internet users plus ISP blockades of torrent and similar sites. </p>
<p>The reason why the debate over these measures has dragged on so long is down to the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/iinet-fights-off-hollywood-isp-not-responsible-for-online-piracy-110224/">defeat of the studios</a> in their legal battle against ISP iiNet. That case failed to render the ISP responsible for the actions of its subscribers and ever since iiNet has provided the most vocal opposition to tough anti-piracy proposals. Today, iiNet Chief Regulatory Officer Steve Dalby underlined that stance with a call for consumers to fight back against &#8220;foreign interests.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;The Hollywood Studios have been relentlessly lobbying the Australian Government on a range of heavy-handed solutions, from a ‘three strikes’ proposal, through to website filtering – none of which take consumers’ interests into account,&#8221; Dalby explains.</p>
<p>On three strikes, Dalby notes that even though customers will be expected to pick up the bill for its introduction, there&#8217;s no evidence that these schemes have curtailed piracy or increased sales in any other country.</p>
<p>&#8220;This leaves us asking why Hollywood might think this approach would work in Australia when it doesn’t even work in their own patch,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>While Dalby believes that the studios&#8217; imposition of &#8216;three-strikes&#8217; will do little to solve the problem, his opposition to overseas interference is perhaps most visible in his attitudes towards site blocking.</p>
<p>“Why would the Australian government let a foreign company dictate which websites our citizens can access? Are our legislators captured by foreign interests? Should we allow American commercial interest to dictate Australian national policy?” he questions.</p>
<p>Perhaps inevitably, Dalby says that piracy has only blossomed in Australia due to a failure to serve the market, and the studios must address that first.</p>
<p>&#8220;Copyright holders have shown us that they’re not interested in new models for Australians, despite the success of services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in the USA,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;The pattern of US traffic Internet now depends on what content is made available via legitimate distribution channels like Netflix, rather than on the Pirate Bay. Giving your competitor a ten-year head start distributing a ‘free’ alternative is pretty stupid.  No wonder the content industry is uncompetitive, with that attitude.&#8221;</p>
<p>Demand for legal content exists, Dalby says, but only if consumers aren&#8217;t subjected to release delays and uncompetitive pricing.</p>
<p>&#8220;And that’s the fundamental difference between iiNet and the rights holders. They want to tackle how customers are pirating content. We want them to look at why, and then move forward, addressing the cause, not the symptom,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>Alongside <a href="https://blog.iinet.net.au/issue-piracy-australia/">calls</a> for Australians to lobby their MPs, Dalby says he hopes that Hollywood and the government decide to take a more positive approach to solving the problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;Until that time, we’ll continue to push for a better future for Australian content users, one removed from the constraints being discussed in Canberra,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Dalby&#8217;s attack on the proposals currently on the table shows that a voluntary agreement between iiNet and rightsholders is as far away as ever, an indication that the years-long battle is far from over.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89423
title: RIAA Revenue Drops to Record Low
uri: RIAA-Revenue-Drops-to-Record-Low
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/X05GK5BPNIc/
content:
<p><a href="media/d33ff34a.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg"><img src="media/971b8479.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg" alt="riaa-logo" width="170" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-15326"></a>The <a href="http://www.riaa.com/">RIAA</a> has submitted its latest tax filing to the IRS, covering the fiscal year ending March 31, 2013, which provides some background on how the organization is faring.</p>
<p>Continuing the trend from recent years the total revenue of the anti-piracy group dropped once again, to $24.2 million. This is a record low in recent history, and down more than 50% compared to <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/228947127/13-1669037-990O-200903">four years ago</a>. </p>
<p>The drop is a direct result of the decrease in membership dues the RIAA receives from the record labels, which makes up almost its entire budget. Apparently the labels have decided to put less money into anti-piracy efforts, or stop the payments altogether.</p>
<p>On the plus side there is a small amount of income from anti-piracy settlements, including that obtained through the Limewire lawsuit. In 2012/2013 the &#8220;anti-piracy restitution&#8221; proceeds were $170,880, which is relatively low considering that the Limewire case alone was settled for $105 million.  </p>
<p>Thanks to continuing employee cutbacks and lower legal fees the RIAA is still financially healthy. The reported loss over the reported year was $170,000, but this is easily covered by the $14 million in total assets.  </p>
<p>The organization employed 58 people in 2012 and the total salary costs amounted to $11.6 million. Previously, the music industry group had well over 100 employees. </p>
<p><center><strong><a href="media/4505dd0e.RIAADC2306.jpg" data-original-source="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_w3d1XUpQ-iQ/TAXH4jF9oZI/AAAAAAAAAEM/d0aZKn81DVw/s1600/RIAA+DC+%2306.jpg">The RIAA&#8217;s Washington Office</a></strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/8839b3a9.riaa-office1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-office1.jpg"><img src="media/8839b3a9.riaa-office1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-office1.jpg" alt="riaa-office1" width="700" height="508" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89437"></a></center></p>
<p>The RIAA&#8217;s chief executive Cary Sherman is the highest paid employee with a salary of just over a million dollars. In addition, the RIAA boss received several bonuses which totaled $498,000.  </p>
<p>Also high up the payment roster are Senior Executive Vice President Mitch Glazier, General Counsel Steve Marks and Executive Vice President International Neil Turkewitz, making over half a million dollars each.</p>
<p>Looking at other costs we see that the money spent on lobbying efforts remains static at roughly $2 million. Legal fees are just under $1 million, which is about the same as last year. However, four years ago legal fees were a massive $16 million, making the cutback in legal efforts one of the main cost savers.</p>
<p>While the RIAA&#8217;s revenue continues to drop, the overall decline is relatively modest when compared to last year. This suggests that the group has more or less finished its financial reorganization, and that the RIAA will now go forward with fewer lawsuits and employees. </p>
<p>The anti-piracy group may have halved in size over the last four years, which is significant, but there are no signs that it will disband entirely.</p>
<p>The full 2012/2013 filing, obtained by TorrentFreak, is <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/228946947/RIAA-990-2012-2013">available here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89469
title: Megaupload Cases Put on Hold, But Asset Freezing Still an Option
uri: Megaupload-Cases-Put-on-Hold-But-Asset-Freezing-Still-an-Option
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VGygo8D1-v8/
content:
<p><a href="media/818b6dbe.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg"><img src="media/5fd37436.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg" alt="megaupload" width="180" height="154" class="alignright size-full wp-image-30407"></a>Back in April, the MPAA&#8217;s Twentieth Century Fox, Disney, Paramount Pictures, Universal, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros. <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/">filed</a> a brand new lawsuit in a Virginia District Court.</p>
<p>Targeting Kim Dotcom and his associates Mathias Ortmann and Bram Van Der Kolk, the civil case aimed to recover millions in damages said to have been caused by the now-defunct Megaupload file-storage site.</p>
<p>The case filed by the MPAA was quickly followed by another initiated <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/now-the-riaa-sues-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-theft-140411/">by the RIAA</a>, with both following the pattern set by a U.S. Government criminal case already underway against Dotcom and colleagues in the United States.</p>
<p>To avoid their clients incriminating themselves ahead of the criminal case, Megaupload&#8217;s legal team later asked a U.S. court to freeze the civil cases filed by the MPAA and RIAA. Yesterday, United States District Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady granted that Motion to Stay.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/fb50d954.Mega-onhold.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Mega-onhold.png" alt="Mega-OnHold"></center></p>
<p>However, the plaintiffs were successful in their request to have a number of conditions attached to the decision, each designed to give them freedom to embark on further legal action should they feel that&#8217;s appropriate. </p>
<p>Firstly, Judge O&#8217;Grady&#8217;s order does not disallow the plaintiffs from effecting service on any other defendant who has not already been served. They are also free to amend their complaint as they see fit.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the thorny issue of Kim Dotcom&#8217;s assets, currently frozen by the New Zealand government <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-faces-appeal-in-seized-property-battle-140430/">pending an appeal</a>, was also addressed.</p>
<p>“If the New Zealand Government loses the appeal, the assets will be unfrozen, and there is a significant risk that they will then be immediately dissipated,” the studios explained in a filing last month.</p>
<p>That concern was dealt with by Judge O&#8217;Grady in yesterday&#8217;s order by granting the studios freedom to go after Dotcom&#8217;s assets wherever they see fit.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs may institute and pursue any action in the United States or a foreign jurisdiction to preserve Defendants&#8217; assets in the event that such action becomes necessary,&#8221; the Judge wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court finds that each of Plaintiffs&#8217; proposed conditions are reasonable under the circumstances of this case because of the possibility that Defendants&#8217; assets abroad may become unfrozen.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a result the case is now frozen until August 1, 2014, seven weeks from today. The same decision was made in respect of the civil case filed against Megaupload by the RIAA.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89503
title: World’s ‘Most-Infringing’ Music Site Faces Legal Action
uri: World-s-Most-Infringing-Music-Site-Faces-Legal-Action
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hX_n0GNyL-k/
content:
<p><a href="media/ee125639.dilandau-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dilandau-logo.jpg"><img src="media/ee125639.dilandau-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dilandau-logo.jpg" alt="dilandau-logo" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89515"></a>Perhaps surprisingly, Google&#8217;s Transparency Report reveals that there are a few dozen sites that receive more infringement notices than The Pirate Bay. The top five most-reported sites have received in excess of six million notices each in the last year alone, pushing Sweden&#8217;s pirate haven way down the list.</p>
<p>In fact, when it comes to crowning the past year&#8217;s &#8216;King of the Notices&#8217; one site comes out head and shoulders above all the rest, which is particularly interesting since most in the mainstream will have never heard of it.</p>
<p>Called Dilandau, this music search engine has been providing easy access to MP3s and full albums for some time and as a result has amassed a staggering 9,698,946 notices with Google in the past 12 months alone. The site beats file-hosting service RapidGator into second place with a measly 7,120,128 notices and ZippyShare into third with 6,971,163.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/9fd02d13.dilandau1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dilandau1.png" alt="Dilandau"></center></p>
<p>In the last four weeks Google received 571,942 notices related to Dilandau but that pattern is set to change following what appears to be a forced major modification to Dilandau&#8217;s business model.</p>
<p>Guillaume Champeau of French news outlet <a href="http://www.numerama.com/magazine/29642-le-site-de-mp3-dilandau-poursuivi-en-france.html">Numerama</a> informs TorrentFreak that authorities recently launched legal proceedings against Dilandau following a complaint from <a href="http://www.sacem.fr/cms/site/en/home?pop=1">SACEM</a>, a music rights organization behind many previous local anti-piracy operations.</p>
<p>Dilandau&#8217;s operator is reportedly Spanish but it&#8217;s believed that French cybercrime police seized his France-based servers three or four weeks ago. Dilandau is currently up and hosted in Germany, but there have been some telling changes to the site.</p>
<p>Navigation to the site&#8217;s main domain, Dilandau.eu now results in a diversion to another domain, Dilandau.la. A check into Dilandau&#8217;s .EU domain reveals that the domain has been put &#8220;ON HOLD&#8221;. EURiD, the registry for .EU domain names, reports that while the domain is currently active it &#8220;may not be transferred pending the outcome of legal activity.&#8221;</p>
<p>Once on Dilandau.la, however, the biggest changes yet become apparent. Gone are the tools and indexes which allowed visitors to download unlimited quantities of free MP3 files of the biggest artists around. In their place is a brand new interface which allows the visitor to view only the artists&#8217; YouTube videos.</p>
<p>Only adding to the intrigue is the fact that a Google search for Dilandau fails to turn up the site in the first results. Instead searchers are presented with a fake site that appears to have nothing to do with the original. Only by searching for a precise URL (dilandau.eu or dilandau.la) does Google return the correct site.</p>
<p>Dilandau&#8217;s operators declined to comment on any possible legal action, telling TorrentFreak, &#8220;We just want to stay away from downloads.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89476
title: Leaseweb Settles Piracy Hosting Lawsuit with Perfect 10
uri: Leaseweb-Settles-Piracy-Hosting-Lawsuit-with-Perfect-10
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fC8_7txitiA/
content:
<p><a href="media/ddab0d6b.leaseweb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leaseweb.png"><img src="media/ddab0d6b.leaseweb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leaseweb.png" alt="leaseweb" width="250" height="72" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83961"></a>Adult magazine publisher <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_10_(magazine)">Perfect 10</a> has made a business out of suing online services for allegedly facilitating copyright infringement. </p>
<p>Over the past several years the company has targeted a dozen high-profile companies including Google, Amazon, Yandex, Mastercard, Visa, RapidShare, Giganews and Depositfiles.</p>
<p>Earlier this year Perfect 10 continued its legal crusade by filing a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/leaseweb-sued-for-hosting-megaupload-140217/">lawsuit against Leaseweb</a>, one of the largest webhosting companies on the Internet. According to the publisher, LeaseWeb provided services to several pirate sites, including the now defunct Megaupload.</p>
<p>In the complaint Perfect 10 argued that LeaseWeb is directly responsible for the copyright infringements of its customers, and that the hosting provider failed to take thousands of infringing URLs offline after they were notified via several DMCA notices. </p>
<p>LeaseWeb refuted many of the allegations that were put forward by the magazine publisher. Among other things, the hosting company stated that none of the notices that were sent by Perfect 10 conformed with the DMCA’s requirements. In addition, LeaseWeb denied that it knew about the claimed widespread infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;LeaseWeb USA denies that it has actual knowledge of allegedly &#8216;rampant infringement&#8217; by any of its customers and that it has committed copyright infringement. LeaseWeb USA denies it has knowingly aided and abetted massive alleged infringers, including megaupload.com,&#8221; the hosting company stated in a response. </p>
<p>While the legal battle in court continued, behind closed doors both parties were also discussing the option to end the case without bloodshed. This has now resulted in a settlement agreement and in a joint submission at a federal court in California they asked to <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/229140942/Leaseweb-Settle">dismiss the case</a>. </p>
<p>This is not the first time that Perfect 10 has settled a case early, the same happened in its disputes against Amazon and Depositfiles. It can be assumed that LeaseWeb has paid the magazine publisher some form of compensation, but none of the parties is willing to comment on the terms of the settlement.</p>
<p>LeaseWeb informed TorrentFreak that it has nothing to say on the matter. The magazine publisher couldn&#8217;t comment on the case either, noting that the settlement agreement is confidential. </p>
<p>However, Perfect 10&#8242;s multi-millionaire founder Norm Zada stresses that piracy remains a massive problem. Talking to TorrentFreak, Zada calls for stricter enforcement against copyright infringers so these type of lawsuits aren&#8217;t needed. </p>
<p>&#8220;Widespread copyright infringement is hurting millions of people in the creative industries. The world desperately needs some form of Internet police that can deal with the hundreds of billions of dollars of intellectual property that is stolen each year,&#8221; Zada says.  </p>
<p>&#8220;If your car gets stolen, you can call the police. When a person&#8217;s livelihood is destroyed by a theft of their intellectual property, there is no one to call. Most victims of intellectual property theft do not have the resources to file lawsuits and should not be required to do so,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>While the &#8220;hundreds of billions&#8221; figure is most likely a bit high, Perfect 10 is determined to deal with the problem with all means at its disposal. Since there is no Internet police just yet this most likely means filing another lawsuit, and another.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89541
title: Police & FACT Claim Big Successes in UK Anti-Piracy Drive
uri: Police-FACT-Claim-Big-Successes-in-UK-Anti-Piracy-Drive
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yU_nQcolOzU/
content:
<p>In recent times the UK has become one of the most unfriendly countries in the world when it comes to operating a file-sharing site. Efforts by the movie industry and their local proxies have restricted opportunities, and the addition of government assistance since the summer of 2013 has only made things more claustrophobic.</p>
<p>The two main players on this front are FACT, the Hollywood-affiliated Federation Against Copyright Theft and PIPCU, the City of London&#8217;s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit. Both have been very active recently, with the latter doing most of its work in the past 10 months or so.</p>
<p>While there are few big announcements from either group, a new UK government report now provides updated statistics from both. The numbers in the just-published IP Crime Highlight Report 2013/2014 show considerable activity, for FACT over the past 12 months and for PIPCU since September last year.</p>
<p><strong>PIPCU</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/bc6e239e.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg"><img src="media/31176dbb.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg" alt="cityoflondonpolice" width="200" height="82" class="alignright size-full wp-image-71397"></a>The headline figure from PIPCU indicates that the unit is currently investigating &#8216;IP Crime&#8217; to the value of £28,869,991, which in the overall scheme of things doesn&#8217;t seem big by industry standards. Music sales alone were worth more than £1 billion in the UK during 2013 and it&#8217;s not unusual for the industry to claim piracy rates in excess of 90%.</p>
<p>Still, the police unit is not only about investigation, but also about disruption, and their aim to have the domains of infringing sites suspended has reportedly enjoyed some success. According to the new stats, since September 2013 PIPCU have had a hand in the suspension of 2,359 .co.uk domain names. It&#8217;s a significant number, no doubt, but the disruption one might expect from such broad action has certainly not been reflected in the press.</p>
<p>Other figures presented by the government relate to the execution of 15 search warrants. No further details have been provided <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/police-arrest-streaming-site-admin-several-domains-suspended-140409/">but the action</a> against a local streaming link site accounted for at least one of them.</p>
<p>The final piece of information from PIPCU relates to the current &#8220;follow the money&#8221; approach employed by anti-piracy groups worldwide. The unit claims to have suspended the ability of 19 websites to process payments, although no detail is given on the nature of the sites from where the processors backed out. PIPCU do work with PayPal, MasterCard and VISA, so it&#8217;s likely they&#8217;ll be somewhere in the chain.</p>
<p><strong>FACT</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/9b46c1db.fact.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fact.jpg"><img src="media/f002015f.fact.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fact.jpg" alt="fact" width="180" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-74060"></a>Without doubt, FACT are the busiest &#8216;boots on the ground&#8217; anti-piracy group in the UK and the most likely to trouble UK-based file-sharing site operators.</p>
<p>According to the report, in the past 12 months alone FACT has managed to close down 117 &#8216;pirate&#8217; websites. No further details are provided but the group works on a number of levels, from scaring operators via email to physically arriving at their home addresses. When site operators have been brave enough to talk we have reported on a few instances here at TF, but in nothing like the numbers suggested in the report.</p>
<p>FACT also claim to have targeted people higher up the food chain in the past 12 months, after having a hand in the arrest of seven &#8220;alleged&#8221; release group members. The inclusion of the word &#8216;alleged&#8217; suggests ongoing cases, but it&#8217;s certainly possible that FACT are referring to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fact-raids-hit-release-groups-and-torrent-site-admin-130721/">individuals arrested</a> in the West Midlands last year.</p>
<p>In addition to having another 10 websites blocked by UK ISPs following action in the High Court, FACT secured the first ever UK conviction of an individual streaming live football matches over the Internet. The case involved the operators of a website called FreeLiveFooty, both of which were arrested in 2010 following complaints from the Premier League.</p>
<p>&#8220;FACT&#8217;s successes in the past year show the benefits of intelligence led, targeted actions against criminal websites and the people behind them,&#8221; FACT&#8217;s Eddy Leviten told TorrentFreak. &#8220;We also help to guide consumers to legitimate entertainment sources online, in cinemas and on TV.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>News-shy</strong></p>
<p>While both PIPCU and FACT do make the occasional announcement on achievements, there is a tendency for them to work under the radar.</p>
<p>For example, while FACT has on occasion pressed the big publicity button, such as when they took the BBC along <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fact-releases-video-of-file-sharing-site-home-visit-and-domain-grab-131014/">to the home</a> of a file-sharing site operator, often the only reports to surface are the ones published here on TF with the assistance of FACT targets (for example <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/five-undercover-police-cars-sent-to-arrest-single-alleged-movie-pirate-130525/">1</a>,<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/torrent-damage-shuts-down-following-fact-threats-130729/">2</a>,<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fact-closes-more-torrent-and-usenet-sites-and-makes-it-look-easy-140301/">3</a>,<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/shut-down-by-fact-private-torrent-tracker-raps-goodbye-131001/">4</a>,<a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fact-turn-up-at-torrent-site-owners-house-demanding-domain-names-130402/">5</a>)</p>
<p>PIPCU also tend not to shout too loudly or too often about their achievements, action against <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-suspends-2500-counterfeit-domain-names-140428/">counterfeit domain names</a> and other sundries aside. Again, word often reaches TF of attempted domain seizures or threatening letters way before the police make any announcement, if they ever do. Why they take this approach isn&#8217;t clear, but the fact that some <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/registrars-cant-hold-pirate-domains-hostage-without-court-order-140110/">attempts fail</a>, such as <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/torrentz-eu-domain-unsuspended-back-action-140527/">recently</a> with torrent index Torrentz, is certainly a motivator to keep things low-key.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89531
title: FIFA Threatens ‘Pirate Sites’ Over Illegal World Cup Streams
uri: FIFA-Threatens-Pirate-Sites-Over-Illegal-World-Cup-Streams
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nlv7jVC9yMc/
content:
<p><a href="media/ccf085d0.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png"><img src="media/ccf085d0.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" alt="Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo" width="200" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89534"></a>In a few hours the <a href="http://www.fifa.com/">2014 World Cup</a> kicks off in Brazil, an event that will be seen by hundreds of millions of people from all over the world. </p>
<p>While most people watch the matches through licensed broadcasters, there is also a large group of people who resort to unauthorized sources. These so-called &#8220;pirate&#8221; streams are available through dozens of sites, including <a href="http://gofirstrow.eu/">Firstrow</a> and <a href="http://www.rojadirecta.me/">Rojadirecta</a>, which generate millions of views during popular sporting events. </p>
<p>These broadcasts are a thorn in the side of world football association FIFA who have contacted several owners of streaming-related sites over the past few days. TorrentFreak obtained a copy of the letter from a site owner who asked to remain anonymous. </p>
<p>In the letter, signed by Director of Legal Affairs Marco Villiger and his colleague Jörg Vollmüller, FIFA asks the site operators to do all they can to take these streams offline. Those who refuse to do so could face criminal liability. </p>
<p>&#8220;Due to the nature of your service, we anticipate that a large number of users will continually use your website to create, distribute and/or link to live streams via the Internet of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil<sup>TM</sup>. We want to ensure that all infringing streams can be promptly identified and removed, regardless of whether they can be viewed openly or through private areas of your site,&#8221; FIFA writes. </p>
<p>The letter then goes on to emphasize that the site owners bear full responsibility for all unauthorized live streams, or links to live streams. </p>
<p>FIFA strongly recommends that site operators immediately block access to unauthorized broadcasts when these are pointed out to them. To facilitate this process the football association has included a link to the tournament schedule, further demanding that the websites in question have people available during the matches, to ensure rapid takedowns. </p>
<p>&#8220;As you have been provided with the specific dates and times of all matches, we thereby expect a member of your website team to be present and available to promptly perform this duty during and throughout ALL matches of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil<sup>TM</sup>,&#8221; FIFA writes.</p>
<p>In addition, FIFA requests a special takedown tool so their monitoring and enforcement company <a href="http://www.nr-online.com/">NetResult</a> can remove streams whenever needed. </p>
<p>&#8220;Provide a service or tool whereby NetResult, FIFA&#8217;s service provider for online monitoring, will have the ability to immediately take down and remove ANY and ALL unauthorized streams of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil<sup>TM</sup> found on your website,&#8221; FIFA demands. </p>
<p>While the site owner we spoke with only received the letter two days ago, the deadline to comply with the demands ends today. Toward the end of the letter FIFA points out that those who fail to comply will face civil and criminal liability. </p>
<p>&#8220;Should you fail to implement either of the above by the beginning of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil<sup>TM</sup> on June 12, your failure to comply will expose you to civil and criminal liability,&#8221; the letter states. </p>
<p>The FIFA letter is unique in its kind, as copyright holders generally don&#8217;t take these types of proactive measures. As far as we know this is the first time that FIFA has sent an advance warning to site owners. </p>
<p>While most site operators are happy to comply with takedown notices, FIFA&#8217;s demands go above and beyond the common takedown procedure. Whether this will have the desired effect has yet to be seen.</p>
<p><center><strong>FIFA letter obtained by TorrentFreak</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/7396d6c3.fifa-letter-torrentfreak.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-letter-torrentfreak.jpg"><img src="media/7396d6c3.fifa-letter-torrentfreak.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-letter-torrentfreak.jpg" alt="fifa-letter-torrentfreak" width="679" height="730" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89539"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89566
title: Italy Orders Blockade of Three More Torrent Sites
uri: Italy-Orders-Blockade-of-Three-More-Torrent-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ies7JAiv2hA/
content:
<p><img src="media/f05b8357.censored.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/censored.jpg" width="199" height="173" class="alignright">After coming under intense criticism, this year Italy was removed from the Watch List in the USTR’s Special 301 Report. Part of the formula for that achievement was to be found in telecoms regulator AGCOM.</p>
<p>Instead of legislating against piracy, the Italian government gave the watchdog the power to deal with infringement, up to and including the removal of infringing content and even the blocking of allegedly copyright-infringing domains.</p>
<p>In May and following complaints from the entertainment industry, AGCOM <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/off-us-blacklist-italy-begins-torrent-site-blackout-no-trials-needed-140510/">ordered the blocking</a> of four torrent sites &#8211; LimeTorrents, TorrentDownload.ws, Torrentz.pro and TorrentDownloads.me. Just over a month later and yet more sites have fallen victim to its blocking regime.</p>
<p>This time around it&#8217;s the turn of Torrent.cd, Torrentvia and TorrentRoom to land on the AGCOM blacklist. None of the sites are large, quite the opposite in fact, but a dig down into their traffic stats reveals why Italy is interested in them.</p>
<p>The largest of the trio, Torrent.cd, has the greatest proportion of its visitors arrive from India, closely followed by the United States. Just a fraction of a percent behind are Italian visitors, making Torrent.cd fairly popular with locals.</p>
<p>In mid 2012, TorrentRoom.com was among the top 5000 sites in the world, but traffic to the site diminished to a near all time low in mid 2013. A recovery in the early part of 2014 reversed the trend for a while, but traffic is currently the worst it has ever been. However, stats from Alexa show that Italian visitors to the site are only outnumbered by those from the United States, again making the site relatively popular with locals.</p>
<p>TorrentVia.com is a very small site indeed with a global Alexa rank of 178,400. Traffic is so low in fact that it&#8217;s difficult to obtain stats. That said, Google.it is the site&#8217;s second most-popular referrer, something which again reflects local interest.</p>
<p>For now it seems that AGCOM are going after sites that are enjoyed more locally, but that could very well change once the regulator runs out of targets.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89577
title: Copyright Troll Accuses Critic of Leading “Psychopathic” Hate Group
uri: Copyright-Troll-Accuses-Critic-of-Leading-Psychopathic-Hate-Grou
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oEevEHSsZ-c/
content:
<p><a href="media/b083db33.troll.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/troll.jpg"><img src="media/43622170.troll.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/troll.jpg" alt="troll" width="175" height="131" class="alignright size-full wp-image-48009"></a>So-called Copyright trolls attempt to turn piracy into profit by setting their expensive lawyers loose on the man (or woman) in the street claimed to have downloaded or shared their works without permission. In many cases the strategies employed amount to classic bullying, with the victims either unable or too scared to defend themselves.</p>
<p>As a result, small groups of individuals have sprung up around the globe to assist the targets of trolls by keeping them informed and offering forums to share experiences. One of the most famous operations is <a href="http://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/">FightCopyrightTrolls.com</a> (FCT), a husband and wife team that have worked extremely hard to counter troll-like companies in the United States. One such company is now fighting back. </p>
<p>Due to its relentless pursuing of alleged BitTorrent users, Malibu Media is the most prolific filer of copyright lawsuits in the whole of the United States. The video company has already filed a couple of thousands lawsuits in the hope of extracting a few thousand dollars in settlements from each of its targets. This week came yet more evidence that FCT gets under the skin of this litigious company.</p>
<p>In an 18-page motion revealed this week in a case against another alleged file-sharer, Malibu Media described FCT&#8217;s &#8216;Sophisticated Jane Doe&#8221; as not only a &#8220;self-admitted BitTorrent copyright infringer&#8221;,  but one at the center of a campaign against the adult video company.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Malibu Media] is the target of a fanatical Internet hate group. The hate group is comprised of BitTorrent users, anti-copyright extremists, former BitTorrent copyright defendants and a few attorneys,&#8221; Malibu wrote in their motion.</p>
<p>&#8220;By administering and using the defamatory blog www.fightcopyrighttrolls.com,<br>
&#8216;Sophisticated Jane Doe&#8217; (&#8216;SJD&#8217;) leads the hate group.&#8221;</p>
<p>One of the key problems, the porn company explains, is that Jonathan Phillips, the lawyer for the defendant in the case, is part of that group.</p>
<p>&#8220;Opposing counsel communicates regularly with the hate group’s leader. Members of the hate group physically threaten, defame and cyber-stalk Plaintiff as well everyone associated with Plaintiff. Their psychopathy is criminal and scary,&#8221; Malibu explain.</p>
<p>So what is Phillips&#8217; alleged contribution? Apparently he shares information about ongoing cases with FCT and its members and makes life difficult for Malibu &#8211; on Twitter.</p>
<p>&#8220;Opposing counsel regularly Tweets with the other members of the hate group. Further, his Tweets are often part of a series of Tweets intended to harass<br>
Plaintiff and its counsel,&#8221; Malibu writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Opposing counsel also Tweets about on-going litigation including this case and disparages Plaintiff. He even called Plaintiff a liar.&#8221;</p>
<p>The motion, which was originally filed under seal in February, calls on the court to gag both Phillips and the defendant in the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;To prevent the spoliation of evidence, Plaintiff respectfully requests that<br>
the Court enter a sealed order preventing opposing counsel and Defendant from talking about the contents of this Motion or [REDACTED] with anyone. If Plaintiff’s intentions are revealed, there is a high probability of spoliation of evidence,&#8221; the motion reads.</p>
<p>While some information will remain under wraps, as far as the motion was concerned attempts at secrecy clearly failed.</p>
<p>&#8220;This filing was a result of an order from the Northern District of Illinois, which refused to allow Malibu Media to litigate this particular case in the shadows,&#8221; Philips <a href="http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/porn-studio-attacks-blogger-for-leading-a-fanatical-internet-hate-group/">told</a> Ars.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am happy to practice in United States District Courts where the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has made it clear that litigation is to be open, accessible, and able to be reviewed and commented by the news media, the blogosphere, and the public at large.&#8221;</p>
<p>The big issue for Malibu going forward is that they appear to have learned little from the demise of other outfits conducting similar litigation in both the United States and Europe. Once opponents get motivated they can have extremely long memories and no amount of threats will make them stop. Hunting trolls effectively becomes a sport, and it rarely ends well.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89591
title: MPAA’s Chris Dodd Praises Pirate Site Blockades
uri: MPAA-s-Chris-Dodd-Praises-Pirate-Site-Blockades
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/USNqcWYeafQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/61e90490.dodd-laughing.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dodd-laughing.jpg"><img src="media/72da5504.dodd-laughing.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dodd-laughing.jpg" alt="dodd-laughing" width="200" height="214" class="alignright size-full wp-image-45463"></a>This week many key figures in the copyright protection and enforcement industries gathered for the International <a href="http://www.internationalipenforcementsummit.org/">IP Enforcement Summit</a>, organized by the UK Government.  </p>
<p>One of the main topics of discussion was Internet piracy, and how to prevent people from accessing and sharing copyrighted works without permission. </p>
<p>Website blocking is one of the anti-piracy tools that was mentioned frequently . In recent years the UK has become a leader on this front, with the High Court ordering local ISPs to block access to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megashare-viooz-watch32-zmovie-blocked-140311/">dozens of popular file-sharing sites</a>, including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents. </p>
<p>MPAA chief <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Dodd">Chris Dodd</a>, who delivered a speech at the Summit, applauded the UK approach. The former U.S. Senator believes that these restrictions are helping to decrease the piracy problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;Here in the United Kingdom, the balanced and proportionate use of civil procedures has made tremendous progress in tackling infringing websites. To date, access to over 40 pirate sites focused on infringing copyright for commercial gain, have been blocked,&#8221; Dodd said. </p>
<p>According to Dodd these blockades have proven to be one of the most effective anti-piracy measures in the world, made possible by a provision in local copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;In particular, Section 97A of the Copyright Act allowing courts to issue injunctions against service providers who know their services are being utilized for infringing purposes, has been one of the most effective tools anywhere in the world,&#8221; Dodd says.</p>
<p>Despite the MPAA&#8217;s faith in website blockades, which is not shared by everyone, the movie group has never attempted to ask a U.S. court for a similar injunction. This is surprising since nearly all the sites that are blocked in the UK have far more users from the United States.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak asked the MPAA to explain this lack of action, but we have yet to hear back from them. </p>
<p>Previously we spoke to an insider who admitted that these type of ISP blockades are harder to get in place under United States law, which is one of the reasons why the copyright holders haven&#8217;t tried this yet.  </p>
<p>The issue became even more complicated after the copyright holders&#8217; push for SOPA failed early 2012. In part, SOPA was designed to give copyright holders a shortcut to request injunctions against pirate sites.</p>
<p>Putting the law aside, the MPAA has made it clear that it&#8217;s keen on maintaining good relationships with the Internet providers. ISPs and copyright holders are taking part in a voluntary agreement to &#8220;alert&#8221; pirates, which will undoubtedly be harmed if additional blocking demands appear on the table.</p>
<p>For now, it seems that the MPAA and other industry groups will continue to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-tighten-the-law-to-force-voluntary-anti-piracy-cooperation-130822/">press for more voluntary deals</a> in the U.S. Interestingly, Dodd specifically calls for a cooperation with search engines to indirectly block pirate sites, instead of asking for a more direct blockade from ISPs. </p>
<p>&#8220;If we convince these search engines to join our efforts to shut down illegal sites, it would be a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to protect creators,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Thus far Google and other search engines have refused to remove pirate sites from their search indexes. Also, one has to wonder how effective that would be. Thus far Google has removed more than <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-censor-two-million-pirate-bay-urls-140420/">two million pages</a> from The Pirate Bay, but the site&#8217;s traffic continues to expand regardless.</p>
<p>But then again, even an ISP blockade is easy to circumvent, and perhaps <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/censorship-cure-piracy-research-140206/">not as effective</a> as the MPAA claims. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89648
title: Registrar Suspends Torrent Domain For DMCA Non-Compliance
uri: Registrar-Suspends-Torrent-Domain-For-DMCA-Non-Compliance
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BsJp9oOUzzw/
content:
<p><a href="media/6d84baf2.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg"><img src="media/a48beb7d.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg" alt="stopstop" width="180" height="120" class="alignright size-full wp-image-81719"></a>The seizing or suspension of file-sharing domains is a big issue at the moment. It&#8217;s a strategy being employed by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in the UK (with varying results) after being trialled on thousands of domains in the United States.</p>
<p>Today we take a look at an interesting case that developed this week involving a movie anti-piracy company, a domain registrar and a torrent site.</p>
<p>Bittorrent.pm is a torrent index that doesn&#8217;t host any torrents itself but links to those to be found elsewhere. The site registered its domain with well-known registrar Internet.bs last year. The third player in the mix is a company called Rico Management, apparently acting in an anti-piracy capacity for the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179031/">Cold in July</a>.</p>
<p>During the past few days it became clear that Rico Management were trying to have some  torrents removed from Bittorrent.pm. However, Bittorrent.pm only became aware of the complaint after being contacted by its registrar, Internet.bs. Since Bittorrent.pm hadn&#8217;t provided a formal tool or contact mechanism for facilitating removals, Rico complained directly to the registrar.</p>
<p>In emails seen by TorrentFreak, Internet BS responded to Rico assuring them that action of some type would definitely be taken.</p>
<p>&#8220;I added our customers in BCC of this email and they will get back to you shortly regarding this. If you do not get any answers within 48 hour please get back to us and we will investigate and suspend the domains,&#8221; the registrar told Rico.</p>
<p>When the operator of Bittorrent.pm questioned the potential suspension of his domain, Internet BS told him he needed to take action, since the registrar did not want to become liable for any infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;We did not say we will suspend the domain but we will suspend it if you do not reply to the complainant,&#8221; Bittorrent.pm&#8217;s owner was told. &#8220;The difference is in the fact that, by answering to the complainant, you assume responsibility for the content on your website and we can also understand better what you are doing.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If you do not answer to the complainant we can be found liable for being informed<br>
about illegal things and not taking any action. If we do not see any answer we have no choice but to assume the complaint is legitimate and then we have to suspend the domain.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the meantime, Bittorrent.pm protested that he had no torrents on his site to be removed, a comment that solicited the following response from a Jeffrey Moreira at Rico Management.</p>
<p>&#8220;You do not have any clear contact on your page to deal with any issues that a copyright holder has with you. I have had to jump through hoops to finally get a response directly from you about bittorent.pm,&#8221; Moreira wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;You have multiple torrent files available for torrent download on your site.<br>
You may simply claim that you do not have copyrighted material on your site but that is far from the truth.&#8221;</p>
<p>Eventually Internet.bs carried through with its threat to suspend the domain. It also received more complaints about Bittorrent.pm, something which further tested relations.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the complainant said you have absolutely no contact details on your website. We received about 15 new complaints regarding your website today. You need to have some contact details as we cannot act as your abuse department especially with the very low margin that we have on domain names,&#8221; the registrar wrote.</p>
<p>The operator of Internet BS argued back that there is nothing in his domain terms and conditions that obligates him to have such an abuse mechanism, but apparently that didn&#8217;t have the desired effect. His domain remains suspended and he&#8217;s currently working to transfer it to a new registrar.</p>
<p>The approach taken by Internet BS in response to the Bittorent.pm issue raises a number of questions, including whether a registrar should get involved in this kind of dispute and whether they are in the best position to play judge and jury. Obviously Internet BS wants to abide by the DMCA in this case, but as Bittorrent.pm points out, as a Barbados-based company it doesn&#8217;t necessarily have to. Bittorrent.pm is not based in the US either, although Rico Management appears to be.</p>
<p>Also, while it could be argued that Bittorrent.pm should have a contact form, it&#8217;s ironic that RicoManagement.com has no outward web presence at all to help show who they are or indicate that what they are doing is legitimate. At the moment all they have is a GoDaddy holding page, and Internet BS were apparently happy to act on that.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak requested comment from both Internet BS and Rico Management but we are yet to receive a response.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89633
title: Vuze Torrent Client Condemns Piracy, Says It’s Stealing
uri: Vuze-Torrent-Client-Condemns-Piracy-Says-It-s-Stealing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QnG_EyRgFjo/
content:
<p><a href="media/65280bc5.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg"><img src="media/4f6f21d0.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg" alt="piracy-crime" width="222" height="140" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80208"></a>Following <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-makers-distance-themselves-from-piracy-121219/">in the footsteps</a> of the makers of uTorrent, the <a href="http://www.vuze.com/">Vuze team</a> is now taking a stand against piracy. </p>
<p>The California-based company says it will focus more on <a href="http://blog.vuze.com/2014/06/13/free-music-friday-featuring-reggae-artist-desmond/">highlighting legal content</a> through social media and other outlets. Vuze emphasizes that its technology is completely legal, but wants its users to understand that sharing files without permission of copyright holders isn&#8217;t.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although torrents themselves are a legitimate way to share files, understanding the rights of copyright holders and what content they have or have not authorized for free distribution is the core to understanding the difference between it being legal or illegal to share or distribute content using Vuze,&#8221; the company <a href="http://blog.vuze.com/2014/06/12/legal-torrent-files-what-is-vuze-doing-how-you-can-help/?utm_source=feedburner&#038;utm_medium=feed&#038;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+vuze+%28Vuze+Blog%29">notes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Remember, if you use Vuze torrent client software for P2P  file sharing then use it responsibly. Be aware of illegal torrents and avoid downloading them. Don’t infringe copyright,&#8221; Vuze adds.</p>
<p>This position is sensible for a technology company to take. Also, Vuze does highlight that copyright is a complex issue, and that there are ongoing discussions with varying positions. The bottom-line according to Vuze, however, is that downloading something without the permission of the owners is stealing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now we can get into all sorts of political, social and even religious discussions on this topic, but right now as the laws exist in most places downloading and sharing content without the authorization of the rights-holder is stealing, and even if one copy was purchased, passing digital copies around via P2P is still illegal, sometimes criminally so.&#8221;  </p>
<p><a href="media/669c529d.piracy-is-not-theft.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-is-not-theft.png"><img src="media/0edd30e4.piracy-is-not-theft-300x126.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-is-not-theft-300x126.png" alt="piracy-is-not-theft" width="360" height="151" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-42075"></a>&#8220;Sharing and downloading infringing MP3s and MPEGs is virtually the same as swiping from a brick-and-mortar,&#8221; Vuze adds.</p>
<p>The &#8220;stealing&#8221; mention is a touchy subject. Many people, including scholars and a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-banned-from-using-piracy-and-theft-terms-in-hotfile-trial-131129/">U.S. federal court</a>, believe that this term should be avoided when talking about piracy. </p>
<p>Even the MPAA&#8217;s Chris Dodd agreed on this. “We’re on the wrong track if we describe this as thievery,” Dodd <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-piracy-is-not-theft-after-all-120520/">said two years ago</a>, although the MPAA still uses the term today.  </p>
<p>Vuze, however, doesn&#8217;t avoid this type of strong language. The company wants to make it clear that piracy is not allowed. In fact, the company encourages its users to follow suit, and &#8220;consider reporting illegal content infractions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Aside from the promise to highlight legal content on its blog, they also provide some tips for users to spot infringing content. Vuze hopes that with these guidelines, users will be able to steer away from any illegal behavior.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to again stress that we respect the rights of copyright holders, and hope and expect that you do too,&#8221; Vuze concludes. </p>
<p>Whether that&#8217;s going to happen remains to be seen. Several studies have shown that more than 90% of all public transfers via BitTorrent are copyright infringing, and it will be hard to flip these numbers around.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89601
title: UK Police: Enforcement Won’t Work Against Piracy
uri: UK-Police-Enforcement-Won-t-Work-Against-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pBcSLwHpI3k/
content:
<p><a href="media/bc6e239e.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg"><img src="media/31176dbb.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg" alt="cityoflondonpolice" width="200" height="82" class="alignright size-full wp-image-71397"></a>This week&#8217;s IP Enforcement Summit in London brought together experts and stakeholders from all over the world to discuss intellectual property issues. In attendance were representatives from Hollywood, the music industry, and a whole swathe of companies reliant on the exploitation of IP rights.</p>
<p>One of the speakers at the event was Commissioner Adrian Leppard of City of London Police, who spoke about police are contributing to the ongoing fight against piracy. Losses to counterfeiting and pirated goods will amount to a trillion next year, Leppard began. &#8220;It&#8217;s high yield, low risk,&#8221; he noted.</p>
<p>&#8220;We need to focus on [the problem] in the UK. We know that UK ISP addresses are visiting websites that are downloading illegal content, up to 7 million of those hits on a monthly basis,&#8221; Leppard said.</p>
<p><strong>Technology problems</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;The Internet pushes through every border control legislation we have and it is carrying a huge amount of harm to our society, as well as offering creative opportunity for business. At some point there has to be a debate and a challenge about the harm the Internet brings,&#8221; the Commissioner told the audience.</p>
<p>While Leppard undoubtedly has a very good grasp of his core topics and has well-deserved reputation as a professional crime fighter, elements of the next section of his speech raise a concern or two. Speaking of the need to consider how pirated content is shifted around online when making new laws, the police chief only sowed confusion.</p>
<p><strong>New legislation required</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;The new legislation that&#8217;s necessary is not just about prosecuting people and protecting people, we&#8217;ve got to think about some of the enabling functions that allow this to happen that we just take for granted,&#8221; he began.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whether it&#8217;s Bitnet, The Tor &#8211; which is 90% of the Internet &#8211; peer-to-peer sharing, or the streaming capability worldwide. At what point does civil society say that as well as the benefits that brings, this enables huge risk and threat to our society that we need to take action against?&#8221;</p>
<p>Perhaps technology isn&#8217;t Leppard&#8217;s strong point.</p>
<p><strong>Enforcement won&#8217;t work against a piracy tsunami</strong></p>
<p>Noting how difficult it is for law enforcement to work across borders, Leppard went on to admit something with which most people agree.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think enforcement is ever going to find a way out of this problem. When you&#8217;re in a tsunami you can&#8217;t push back the water and you have to start thinking very differently about how we protect society,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The only way is to work with industry to prevent and to think about the enabling functions of this crime. Enforcement will only ever be a limited capability in this space.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit</strong></p>
<p>Speaking of the unit set up last year to deal with the piracy issue, Leppard said that the inspiration had arrived from across the Atlantic. PIPCU tries to mirror the Department of Homeland Security&#8217;s ICE unit, by working as a single point of communication between all interested parties.</p>
<p><strong>Operation Creative</strong></p>
<p>Operation Creative, PIPCU&#8217;s ongoing anti-piracy initiative, is designed to find a way around the ineffectiveness of enforcement, Leppard said.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll never enforce our way out of this problem so we have to think differently about how we tackle it and target it. Organized crime is motivated purely by money and the way to start dealing with this is to target the money flows and how people make money out of this crime,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Working with the entertainment industries, advertisers and credit card companies, PIPCU is provided with &#8220;a court-ready and very bespoke evidentiary package&#8221; against pirate sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once we&#8217;ve got that court package we know we can defend ourselves in a civil court or a criminal court and we take action,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>What happens next is a phenomenon we&#8217;ve been documenting on TorrentFreak for nearly a year now &#8211; the official <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-launch-campaign-to-shut-down-torrent-sites-130604/">police letters</a> to piracy sites that effectively ask them to close down. However, as Leppard reveals, the technique is not particularly effective.</p>
<p>&#8220;The first thing we do is make an overt approach to the owners of the websites and between 4% and 10% of those websites will close down just by having overt engagement. These are global websites, of course they may move to another ISP address, we know that, and we&#8217;ll target them there as well.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unresponsive sites then see their advertising hit, closely followed by the hindering of their payment processing options. When all else fails PIPCU will move onto the final step&#8230;.</p>
<p><strong>Disruption and enforcement</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re new into this although we&#8217;ve been piloting it for the best part of two years and we know it works. We&#8217;re in the first phases of that and it will be interesting to see as we move through the next year or so how successful that approach is and how much we get challenged. I expect us to get challenged as well but we have a lot of legal advice behind us,&#8221; Leppard said.</p>
<p>&#8220;But my point is whether this is successful or not it is this area that we all need to start thinking about if we&#8217;re going to combat this problem, not simply &#8216;how do we enforce, how do we prosecute, how do we target these organized crime groups&#8217;, but actually how do we start to disable the very factor that the crime exists &#8211; how people make money.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>The future</strong></p>
<p>Looking forward, Leppard admitted that on their own the police can&#8217;t don&#8217;t much to solve the problem so collaborating with the private sector is the only way. The music and movie industries presumably won&#8217;t have much of a problem with that, but whether the approach will prove effective overall is another matter.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89658
title: WordPress Demands $10,000 For DMCA Takedown Censorship
uri: WordPress-Demands-10-000-For-DMCA-Takedown-Censorship
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FtvjuI8pMHU/
content:
<p><a href="media/d1ce434a.wordpress.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wordpress.png"><img src="media/d1ce434a.wordpress.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wordpress.png" alt="wordpress" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89669"></a>Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress blogging platform, has seen a rapid increase in DMCA takedown notices in recent years.</p>
<p>Most requests are legitimate, aimed at disabling access to copyright-infringing material. However, there are also many overbroad and abusive takedown notices which take up a lot of the company&#8217;s time and resources.</p>
<p>Last November, WordPress decided to take a stand against these fraudulent practices. The company teamed up with student journalist Oliver Hotham who had <a href="http://oliverhotham.wordpress.com/2013/08/11/the-sordid-tale-of-how-i-was-censored-by-straight-pride-uk/">one of his articles censored</a> by a false takedown notice. </p>
<p>Hotham wrote an article about &#8220;Straight Pride UK&#8221; which included a comment he received from the organization&#8217;s press officer Nick Steiner. The latter didn&#8217;t like the article Hotham wrote, and after publication Steiner sent WordPress a takedown notice claiming it was infringing on his copyrights.</p>
<p>Through a lawsuit filed in a California federal court, WordPress and Hotham now hope to be compensated for the damage this abuse caused them.</p>
<p>&#8220;The information in the press release that Hotham published on his blog did not infringe any copyright because Hotham had permission to publish it. It was a press release, which by its very nature conveys the intent to &#8216;release&#8217; information to the &#8216;press&#8217;,&#8221; WordPress&#8217; attorney <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/229638760/WordPress">explains</a> to the court.</p>
<p>The company says that as an online service provider it faces overwhelming and crippling copyright liability if it fails to take down content. People such as Steiner abuse this weakness to censor critics or competitors, and they have to be stopped.</p>
<p>&#8220;Steiner’s fraudulent takedown notice forced WordPress to take down Hotham’s post under threat of losing the protection of the DMCA safe harbor,&#8221; WordPress argues.</p>
<p>&#8220;Steiner did not do this to protect any legitimate intellectual property interest, but in an attempt to censor Hotham’s lawful expression critical of Straight Pride UK. He forced WordPress to delete perfectly lawful content from its website.As a result, WordPress has suffered damage to its reputation,&#8221; the company adds.</p>
<p>Since Steiner failed to respond in court WordPress and Hotham have requested a default judgment. In a recent filing they demand a total of  $10,000 in damages as well as $14,520 in attorneys’ fees.</p>
<p>If the court agrees with the request it will be mostly a symbolic win, and hopefully a signal to other copyright holders that false DMCA takedown requests are not without consequence.  </p>
<p>During a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on the DMCA takedown system earlier this year, Automattic General Counsel Paul Sieminski also <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/time-to-punish-dmca-takedown-abusers-wordpress-owners-say-140313/">stressed the importance</a> of this issue to lawmakers,</p>
<p>“The system works so long as copyright owners use this power in good faith. But too often they don’t, and there should be clear legal consequences for those who choose to abuse the system,&#8221; Sieminski said.</p>
<p>In a few weeks we&#8217;ll know if the court agrees.   </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89684
title: Movie Piracy Combated by Narrowing Theatrical Release Window
uri: Movie-Piracy-Combated-by-Narrowing-Theatrical-Release-Window
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ozHRTvR_MDE/
content:
<p><a href="media/3f34000a.cammer1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cammer1.jpg"><img src="media/bfbc3855.cammer1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cammer1.jpg" alt="cammer1" width="210" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-65828"></a>While its popularity has waned in recent years, the issue of camcorder piracy is often spoken about in crisis terms by the major movie studios.</p>
<p>Part of the reason camming occurs, however, is down to the exclusivity enjoyed by the world&#8217;s theater chains, meaning that while a mainstream movie is being shown in a cinema, it is not available anywhere else. It will not be available on Netflix nor will it be available for purchase on Blu-ray or DVD. This creates a convenient opening for the black market.</p>
<p>Of course, pretty much the whole time a movie is showing in theaters it will be available both online and on DVD, because someone, somewhere, will have recorded it illegally. True exclusivity only exists in the minds of the theaters and distributors.</p>
<p>Just lately it&#8217;s been extremely popular for Australians to be criticized for their piracy habits, an activity sometimes justified by films not being made available quickly enough Down Under. This morning it&#8217;s been revealed that the group representing the Australian film and TV home entertainment industry intend to do something about that.</p>
<p>Speaking with Fairfax Media, Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association chief executive officer Simon Bush said that the current theatrical window will be narrowed in an effort to reduce piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;This 120 days is not the hard and fast rule anymore and there will be some studios this year that will be coming in around the 90 days,&#8221; Bush said. &#8220;[The studios] don&#8217;t like the fact that they are losing out a lot of money to piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s hoped that the shortening of the delay will go someway towards reducing illegal movie downloads in Australia by providing content in alternative formats in a more timely fashion. That being said, <a href="http://www.aheda.com.au/">AHEDA</a> still wish to preserve the big screen&#8217;s exclusivity in the market and its position as the premier location for early viewing.</p>
<p>&#8220;It continues to ensure that the theatrical window retains its rightful prominence in the market as the premium movie experience, but also allows the consumer to increasingly access the film earlier digitally and on DVD and Blu-ray and thus reduce what some refer to as the &#8216;piracy window&#8217;,&#8221; Bush <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/piracy-window-for-movie-downloads-reduced-20140616-zs93v.html">said</a> of the narrowing window.</p>
<p>While improved availability is key to reducing piracy, theaters will undoubtedly balk at the further erosion of their exclusive window of opportunity. However, according to comments made by DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, release windows could collapse almost entirely in the next ten years.</p>
<p>“I think the model will change and you won’t pay for the window of availability. A movie will come out and you will have 17 days, that’s exactly three weekends, which is 95% of the revenue for 98% of movies,&#8221; Katzenberg <a href="http://variety.com/2014/film/news/jeffrey-katzenberg-predicts-3-week-theatrical-window-in-future-1201166052/">told</a> the Milken Global Conference in Beverly Hills earlier this year.</p>
<p>&#8220;On the 18th day, these movies will be available everywhere ubiquitously and you will pay for the size. A movie screen will be $15. A 75” TV will be $4.00. A smartphone will be $1.99. That enterprise that will exist throughout the world, when that happens, and it will happen, it will reinvent the enterprise of movies,” he said.</p>
<p>In the meantime, the Australian government will try to legislate its way out of the piracy problem, by imposing <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/australian-government-signals-online-piracy-crackdown-140214/">&#8220;three strikes&#8221; style schemes</a> on its citizens and pressuring ISPs to take responsibility for the actions of their subscribers.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89680
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 06/16/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-06-16-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1u7vVpij92Y/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec94c45e.300rise.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/300rise.jpg"><img src="media/ec94c45e.300rise.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/300rise.jpg" alt="300rise" width="300" height="223" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89369"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>300: Rise Of An Empire 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 BD/DVDrips 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>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140609/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/300_rise_of_an_empire/">300: Rise Of An Empire</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqy21Z29ps">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/non_stop_2013/">The Grand Budapest Hotel</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmXdU8Nglk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3069212/">Street Fighter: Assassin&#8217;s Fist</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3069212/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99XiMYKsHl8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/edge_of_tomorrow/">Edge of Tomorrow</a> (TS/Cam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631867/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUmSVcttXnI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west/">A Million Ways to Die in the West</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGkcOoTlkQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lego_movie/">The Lego Movie</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/non_stop_2013/">Non-Stop</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024469/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiHDJ19A3dk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3343136/">Sleeping Beauty</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3343136/">3.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tvCF3hZCOo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89690
title: Tesla Cars, Space Technology, and BitTorrent: Why Monopolies Suck
uri: Tesla-Cars-Space-Technology-and-BitTorrent-Why-Monopolies-Suck
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nKnduA4MPkA/
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="copyright-branded" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"></a>When Bram Cohen created the BitTorrent protocol, he had the legal option of filing for a patent monopoly on any computer program that used this protocol. (The mere existence of such an option is a very bad thing, but we&#8217;ll be returning to that.) Mr. Cohen chose to not monopolize the BitTorrent protocol in that way. Let&#8217;s examine what implications that would have had for the technology.</p>
<p>If the BitTorrent technology would have been protected by patent monopolies, it would have been effectively limited to Mr. Cohen&#8217;s original BitTorrent client. Have you used that client? Do you know anybody who has used it? Didn&#8217;t think so, and neither do I. Instead, there is an enormous plethora of clients and servers that use the protocol today, and Mr. Cohen&#8217;s BitTorrent Inc. is valued at eight-digit dollars. Not to mention the fact that BitTorrent Inc. was subsequently able to buy one of the most prolific BitTorrent clients out there, µTorrent, which would not have existed had the technology been monopolized in the first place. I think most of us have used µTorrent &#8211; I know I have.</p>
<p>This shows exactly why it makes so much sense for Tesla Cars to release all of their patent monopolies into the wild, and why the patent monopoly system as such is enormously harmful (the only industry to make a net profit from it is the pharma industry, and that&#8217;s because they&#8217;re heavily subsidized with taxpayer money). Tesla Cars relinquishing their monopolies means they see this mechanism, and that they realize they need an ecosystem to flourish around their technology &#8211; the electric car technology &#8211; in order to remain viable themselves. Put another way, it&#8217;s not about the size of the pie slice: monopolies are preventing the pie itself from growing exponentially, as they do with any new technology poised to disrupt the old ways.</p>
<p><strong>Just like BitTorrent.</strong></p>
<p>Patent monopolies are far worse than the copyright monopolies we deal with (and all break) on a daily basis. Imagine for a moment if copyright monopoly vultures didn&#8217;t care if you had made an actual copy, that you would be just as guilty of infringement even if you had never seen or heard of the original? That&#8217;s how patent monopolies work, and that&#8217;s the key difference between patent monopolies and copyright monopolies: the latter protect a specific expression against copying, the former protect an idea or a form from being utilized anywhere, even independently. It&#8217;s also why patent monopolies are much, much more harmful than copyright monopolies (and that&#8217;s saying a lot).</p>
<p><strong>But as the Tesla example shows, patent monopolies don&#8217;t stop at not making sense as a whole. They also don&#8217;t make sense to a single company in isolation, as they prevent an ecosystem taking shape. It&#8217;s one of the worst cancers in the economy, as investors describe them today.</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to argue that patent monopolies don&#8217;t hit ordinary families in the same way that copyright monopolies, that patent monopolies have not sued families out of their homes merely for taking part in society&#8217;s culture. But that&#8217;s about to change with 3D printing, where rapid fabrication becomes available to the masses. It is &#8211; unfortunately &#8211; a safe prediction that people will soon be sued out of their homes merely for manufacturing their own pair of slippers, because it violated a design patent monopoly somewhere. Such a notion may seem ridiculous today. Then again, so did everything else we&#8217;ve seen with the copyright monopoly so far, and patent monopolies are guarded far more harshly.</p>
<p>The BitTorrent legacy doesn&#8217;t just show us how to break the copyright monopoly in a specific case. It gives us a blueprint for how to disrupt old ways in general by ditching legal monopolies, a blueprint that Tesla Cars is now choosing to follow.</p>
<p><strong>The patent monopoly wars are coming, right on the heels of the copyright monopoly wars, as were they merely a logical extension. That&#8217;s why it&#8217;s so encouraging to see our tip-of-the-spear entrepreneurs denouncing and releasing their own monopolies right ahead of these battles with corporate lawyers.</strong></p>
<p>As a final note, it&#8217;s noteworthy that Tesla Cars isn&#8217;t the only company that Elon Musk is running. He&#8217;s also at the helm of SpaceX. Space technology has been ridiculously proprietary up until now, nothing cooperating with anything else and everything being custom-built single-use. That&#8217;s why it makes me enormously excited to see an entrepreneur who understands the damages of monopolies at the forefront of space technology today.</p>
<p>It holds a promise of standardized, interoperable space technology. As in, &#8220;for all of us&#8221;. Like BitTorrent.</p>
<p><center>
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<h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<div style="float:right;height:130px;width:39px;margin-left:20px;margin-right:10px"><img src="media/98818a80.Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" data-original-source="http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/themes/WpNewspaper/images/falkvinge/Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" style="border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none" class="quimby_search_image"></div>
<p><span style="color:#3F3F3F;font-size:125%">About The</span> <span style="color:#FF3C78;font-size:125%">Author</span></p>
</h3>
<p style="font-family:PTSansRegular,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-weight:400;line-height:150%;margin-bottom:14px"><small>Rick Falkvinge is a regular columnist on TorrentFreak, sharing his thoughts every other week. He is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, a whisky aficionado, and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. His blog at <a href="http://falkvinge.net">falkvinge.net</a> focuses on information policy.</small></p>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89708
title: Game of Thrones Season Finale Sets New Piracy Record
uri: Game-of-Thrones-Season-Finale-Sets-New-Piracy-Record
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FSyYsYMhNqw/
content:
<p><a href="media/1fc97bda.thrones.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/thrones.jpg"><img src="media/0f671074.thrones.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thrones.jpg" alt="thrones" width="248" height="131" class="alignright size-full wp-image-51268"></a>The fourth season of Game of Thrones has been the most-viewed so far, both through official channels and among pirates. </p>
<p>The season finale was therefore expected to break all previous records. The official U.S. ratings that just came in show that “The Children&#8221; was the most viewed season finale thus far, with 7.1 million people tuning in. </p>
<p>In the black market the same episode did well too, setting a mind-boggling piracy record. The latest episode resulted in the largest BitTorrent swarm ever. That is, never before have so many people gathered to share a single file on the Internet. </p>
<p>A few hours after the first torrent of the show appeared on torrent sites, the Demonii tracker reported that 254,114 people were sharing one single torrent at the same time. 190,701 were sharing a complete copy of that particular torrent while 63,413 were still downloading.</p>
<p>The previous record was also held by Game of Thrones, with a little over <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/game-thrones-makes-history-200000-strong-torrent-swarm-140506/">200,000 people sharing</a> a single file.</p>
<p>There was also quite bit of interest in higher definition releases. The most popular 720p copy was shared by 108,539 BitTorrent users simultaneously, and the most shared 1080p release had 23,922 people connected to it.</p>
<p><center><strong>Game of Thrones&#8217; new &#8220;simultaneous&#8221; file-sharing record</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/84eec5d5.gotrecord.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotrecord.png"><img src="media/84eec5d5.gotrecord.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotrecord.png" alt="gotrecord" width="583" height="161" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89746"></a></center></p>
<p>Data gathered by TorrentFreak further shows that, in 12 hours, the season finale has been downloaded an estimated 1.5 million times. Translated into actual data, that&#8217;s close to 2,000 terabytes transferred in half a day. </p>
<p>The download total is expected to increase to more than 7.5 million during the weeks to come and means that unless a miracle happens, Game of Thrones will be crowned the most-pirated TV-show of the year once again.</p>
<p>A brief inspection of the download locations shows that Game of Thrones pirates come from all over the world, as we&#8217;ve seen <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-premiere-triggers-piracy-craze-140407/">previously</a>. The show is particularly popular in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.</p>
<p>Interestingly, Game of Thrones is available through legal channels in all countries listed above, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/why-people-pirate-game-of-thrones-a-global-cost-breakdown-140413/">albeit not cheaply</a>.</p>
<p>Despite the massive piracy numbers, we haven&#8217;t heard too many piracy complaints thus far, quite the contrary. </p>
<p>Jeff Bewkes, CEO of HBO’s parent company Time Warner previously that piracy resulted in more subscriptions for his company, and that receiving the title of “most-pirated” was “better than an Emmy.”</p>
<p>In any case, despite, or perhaps thanks to the massive piracy, Game of Thrones is doing better than ever.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89698
title: Flixtor Finds Anti-Piracy Investigator on Its Doorstep, Shuts Down
uri: Flixtor-Finds-Anti-Piracy-Investigator-on-Its-Doorstep-Shuts-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WTkgbWjV0lM/
content:
<p>This weekend the website of the movie torrent streaming application <a href="http://flixtor.com/">Flixtor</a> suddenly went offline, and the same happened to search engine TorrentLookup.com.</p>
<p>Both projects were run by the same team, which is based in Canada, and were slowly but steadily expanding their user bases. This suddenly changed a few days ago when a message posted on both sites announced that the streaming app and search engine were being discontinued.</p>
<p>&#8220;We voluntarily decided to close all services of torrentlookup.com. Thanks to everybody that used Flixtor and bought the mobile version. We have reached the finish line,&#8221; a message now displays on both sites.  </p>
<p>The decision came as a total surprise to users of the site and app. Flixtor, a custom-built Popcorn Time alternative based on the same Peerflix engine, was just a few weeks old. </p>
<p>The Flixtor app had a user interface similar to Popcorn Time, but was not a fork. Instead, it used its own code and the movies/series API from TorrentLookup.com, which claimed to have the latest releases faster.</p>
<p><center><strong>Flixtor</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/e35489c0.flixtor.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/flixtor.jpg"><img src="media/09aa60a0.flixtor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flixtor.jpg" alt="flixtor" width="700" height="394" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89706"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak got in touch with one of the developers, who informed us that the decision to close was the result of movie industry pressure. The developer in question had an investigator from the MPAA-funded <a href="http://www.mpa-canada.org/en/">Motion Picture Association Canada</a> come by his house, and it didn&#8217;t stop there.</p>
<p>&#8220;They were annoying me with phone calls repeatedly, and I talked to them quite a few times,&#8221; the developer explained.</p>
<p>The movie industry group only had one goal, and that was to shut down the streaming application and the torrent site. The investigator threatened the developer with legal action if he refused to comply. </p>
<p>&#8220;They wanted me to close Flixtor/Torrentlookup and then they would drop the charges against me, which are $20,000 per copyrighted file,&#8221; the developer told us. </p>
<p>With the threat of a massive lawsuit on their shoulders, the people behind the two projects decided to pull the plug this weekend. Even if they wanted to, they lack the funds to properly defend themselves in court. </p>
<p>The above shows that, behind the scenes, a lot of pressure is being put on the people who operate torrent sites and related services. It may also explain why some sites simply disappear, or why some of the &#8220;Popcorn Time&#8221; developers ceased their activities.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the Motion Picture Association Canada for a comment yesterday, but at the time of publication we were yet to receive a response.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89785
title: “No Piracy” Symbol Added to New Unicode Standard
uri: No-Piracy-Symbol-Added-to-New-Unicode-Standard
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mxBNpJmKG1s/
content:
<p><a href="media/9b1b215b.nopiracy1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy1.png"><img src="media/9b1b215b.nopiracy1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy1.png" alt="nopiracy" width="140" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89794"></a>Unicode is used by billions of people every day, yet most are completely unaware of its existence. This character encoding standard makes it easier to exchange text files and is supported by some of the biggest tech companies around including Google, Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Adobe.</p>
<p>Yesterday the <a href="http://www.unicode.org/consortium/memblogo.html">Unicode Consortium</a> released Unicode 7.0, an updated set including 250 new emoji characters.</p>
<p>In addition to dozens of already-familiar emoji, this time around users can look forward to many fresh characters, including brand new mice and webcams, plus various emoji suitable for communicating networking concepts such as linking. A small sample of the new additions is illustrated below.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/8944bb81.emoji.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/emoji.png" alt="Emoji"></center></p>
<p>Also included are several old-style storage mediums, from the antique compact cassette and 5.25 inch floppy disk, to the comparatively modern 3.5 inch floppy and CD. But just in case people were considering putting those mediums to an illegal use, they can now be encouraged by their peers to think again.</p>
<p>Labeled 1F572 in Unicode 7.0 (shown above), a new emoji depicts an eyepatch-wearing individual. While its presence could be construed in any number of ways, it&#8217;s called &#8220;No Piracy&#8221; so it&#8217;s fairly clear what the consortium had in mind for it.</p>
<p>Perhaps hoping to provide a little balance, another new character (#1F571) depicts the familiar skull and crossbones. It is labeled &#8220;skull and crossbones&#8221; too &#8211; no &#8220;Yes to Piracy&#8221; here.</p>
<p>Those interested in viewing the entire set should <a href="media/4774120f.U70-1F300.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/Unicode-7.0/U70-1F300.pdf">click here</a> (pdf).</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89749
title: EZTV Users Help to Fund Horror Movie, and Open Source Another
uri: EZTV-Users-Help-to-Fund-Horror-Movie-and-Open-Source-Another
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-FiQoQjxBss/
content:
<p><a href="media/5be1d953.eztv-horror.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eztv-horror.png"><img src="media/5be1d953.eztv-horror.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eztv-horror.png" alt="eztv-horror" width="215" height="125" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89751"></a>Many people assume that &#8220;pirates&#8221; structurally refuse to pay for any type of entertainment. In reality, however, we often see the opposite happening. </p>
<p>About a week ago, <a href="http://eztv.it">EZTV</a> owner Novaking stumbled upon an <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nong-hak-dearest-sister-a-lao-horror-film#home">Indiegogo campaign</a> launched by a female director from Laos aiming to raise money for her next horror film &#8220;Nong Hak.&#8221; </p>
<p>EZTV is known as the most visited TV-torrent site, but in this case NovaKing figured that some of its TV-fanatics may also be interested in this independent film project.</p>
<p>To promote the crowdfunding campaign NovaKing added a banner to the top right corner of the site. Since the site has millions of visitors per week, this didn&#8217;t go unnoticed by the filmmakers. </p>
<p>Chris Larsen, the writer of the &#8220;Nong Hak&#8221; screenplay and husband of director <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattie_Do">Mattie Do</a>, tells TorrentFreak that they noticed an immediate boost in both visitors and donations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since the EZTV promotion went up, users from the site now account for about 25% of the total donations, about 80% of the traffic to the campaign, and about 80% of the Vimeo views of our campaign video.&#8221;</p>
<p>While crowdfunding projects aren&#8217;t really new, not even among BitTorrent users, the makers of the first Lao horror flick have a special surprise in store for the EZTV community. As a token of their appreciation they are now promising to make their first film open source if they reach their $30,000 goal. </p>
<p>The filmmakers reached out to EZTV&#8217;s NovaKing to discuss the plans, and all agreed that it would be a great idea to enter their previous film &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanthaly">Chanthaly</a>&#8221; into the public domain. This weekend Do announced this community challenge in a special video message to EZTV users.  </p>
<p><center><iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/98125423?title=0&amp;byline=0&amp;portrait=0&amp;color=ff0179" width="600" height="337" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>So in addition to some other perks, EZTV users and everyone else who donates to the production of &#8220;Nong Hak&#8221; have the option to make the first Lao horror film open source. </p>
<p>&#8220;If we reach our goal then we&#8217;ll release the copyright on her first film and we&#8217;ll put the film into the public domain. Nobody will own the film anymore, everybody will own it,&#8221; said Larsen confirming the plan.</p>
<p>For the filmmakers this is an exciting proposal, and something they had not previously considered. However, since they own all the rights and because the film has been paid for entirely, it&#8217;s an offer that makes sense.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re in a unique position with Chanthaly. We own the film outright, everybody that worked on the film has been paid. The film has a bit of festival prestige, and honestly some historic value, since it is the first Lao horror film, and the first film directed by a Lao female director,&#8221; Larsen explains. </p>
<p>&#8220;And honestly, I&#8217;m sick of it sitting on my hard drive here collecting dust,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>NovaKing is happy with the offer. Releasing all raw film material will spur creativity, as anyone can then make their own edits, or turn it into something completely different. </p>
<p>&#8220;The beauty of releasing the first film to be Public Domain is the fact that hobbyist film makers can get everything from the project files and raw video stream of an existing movie and see how it all works, and tinker and even possibly re-edit and make a different version of the movie,&#8221; NovaKing tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;The possibilities are quite endless!&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>If you are interested in helping to fund &#8220;Nong Hak&#8221; and the open-sourcing Chanthaly, then head over to <a href="https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/nong-hak-dearest-sister-a-lao-horror-film#home">the Indiegogo campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89756
title: Torrent Domain Suspensions Damage Credibility, Registry Says
uri: Torrent-Domain-Suspensions-Damage-Credibility-Registrar-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-XbSCQ-7xK4/
content:
<p><a href="media/becbddb9.isnic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/isnic.jpg"><img src="media/becbddb9.isnic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/isnic.jpg" alt="isnic" width="202" height="107" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89777"></a>Over the past four years Homeland Security&#8217;s ICE division has seized thousands of domains as part of Operation in Our Sites, an initiative set to celebrate its fourth birthday in a couple of weeks&#8217; time. More recently, however, the momentum has shifted to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=pipcu">PIPCU</a>, the City of London&#8217;s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.</p>
<p>The unit&#8217;s most recent and high-profile action was taken against Torrentz.eu, the world&#8217;s largest torrent meta-search engine. Despite the site complying with takedowns (clear evidence of which can be seen on the site where dozens of results are marked as deleted by rightsholders), PIPCU approached Torrentz&#8217;s registrar requesting a domain suspension.</p>
<p>The company complied, but the effect was only temporary. Confronted with legal argument that the suspension was unlawful, the Torrentz domain <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/torrentz-eu-domain-unsuspended-back-action-140527/">was soon operational again</a>.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s easy to see how this kind of result undermines the credibility of the police, there are other considerations too. According to the registry responsible for Iceland&#8217;s top-level .IS domain, suspensions of this kind target the wrong area.</p>
<p>&#8220;Domains can hardly be considered illegal any more than a street address. A street address is not illegal even if there is illegal activity in one apartment at the address,&#8221; <a href="http://www.isnic.is/en/about/isnic">ISNIC</a> says.</p>
<p>&#8220;When a domain is suspended the website or the content itself is not, as became apparent when torrentz.eu was suspended. A suspension of a domain does not lead to a total blocking of the website it points to.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, while content may indeed remain available (or in the case of Torrentz, links to other sites, that carry links, that link to content), suspensions still have the ability to disrupt other services associated with a website that are outside the realms of the initial dispute.</p>
<p>&#8220;Disruption of email communication and service, unrelated to the website that is meant to be closed, is utterly unnecessary and unacceptable in these instances,&#8221; ISNIC explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;A suspension of a domain is in a way comparable to banning the use of an address of an apartment building depriving everyone at that particular address of their postal service. Additionally, the suspension of individual domains can affect other domains, specially in the situation when domain service is a registered subdomain.&#8221;</p>
<p>Furthermore, according to the registry the counter-productive effects of domain seizures aren&#8217;t limited simply to the technical realm. Perceptions that seizures are unjust persist not only among visitors to the affected domains but also the wider Internet, damaging the reputations of targeted TLDs in the process. </p>
<p>&#8220;It should be noted that when registries and registrars are made to suspend domains it can create negative publicity within the internet community, harming the top-level domain and reducing its credibility,&#8221; ISNIC says.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is difficult to rectify that sort of damage that easily could be avoided with increased awareness and proficiency of the technical workings of the internet.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that to date, all attempts at seizing or suspending .IS domains have failed.</p>
<p>&#8220;ISNIC has never shut down a domain in response to external requests,&#8221; ISNIC&#8217;s Björn Róbertsson informs TorrentFreak. &#8220;ISNIC however does place domains on hold and automatically re-delegates to parking in case of technical issues &#8211; but ISNIC has strict technical requirements for DNS server setup.&#8221;</p>
<p>Perhaps finding comfort in this kind security, earlier this month Putlocker.bz <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/putlocker-bz-loses-domain-name-moves-safe-haven-iceland-140604/">moved to an Icelandic domain</a> following pressure from City of London Police. While a court order could potentially force ISNIC to take action against a domain such as this, to date the registry hasn&#8217;t been included in any disputes.</p>
<p>&#8220;In case of a court order, the court order would have to be addressed directly to Internet á Íslandi hf. [ISNIC] not to the Registrant. That has never happened,&#8221; Róbertsson says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Icelandic court orders [regarding domain disputes] have always been addressed to the registrant, and ordered him to stop using or/and to delete the domain.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to its stance on seizures, Iceland also has a great reputation in respect of privacy, something which prompted Kim Dotcom <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-will-move-mega-privacy-services-to-iceland-to-avoid-spying-130809/">to announce</a> that the Mega file-storing service could relocate there if local legislation compromises the company&#8217;s users.</p>
<p>Whether there will be mass Icelandic domain migrations in the future remains to be seen, but the signs are that the ISNIC registry will put up a fight at the very least, something registrars elsewhere have failed to do.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89808
title: Dallas Buyers Club Demands Thousands of Dollars from BitTorrent Pirates
uri: Dallas-Buyers-Club-Demands-Thousands-of-Dollars-from-BitTorrent-Pirate
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/49ywSpArKPI/
content:
<p></a><a href="media/4270b5a2.dallas.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dallas.jpg"><img src="media/d45c68ed.dallas.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dallas.jpg" alt="dallas" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83513"></a>Over the past several years <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/200000-bittorrent-users-sued-in-the-united-states-110808/">hundreds of thousands</a> of Internet subscribers have been sued in the United States for allegedly sharing copyrighted material, mostly films, online.  </p>
<p>This year the people behind the Oscar-winning movie Dallas Buyers Club <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/downloaded-dallas-buyers-club-the-piracy-lawsuits-are-coming-140207/">joined the game</a>. Thus far the filmmakers have filed 66 lawsuits across the United States, targeting more than a thousand alleged downloaders.</p>
<p>In common with all other mass-BitTorrent lawsuits the end game is not a full trial, but the revelation of the alleged downloaders&#8217; identities so they can be encouraged to settle. To accomplish this the movie studio asks courts to grant subpoenas ordering associated ISPs to give up their customers’ details.</p>
<p>Several courts have complied and recently the <a href="http://dietrolldie.com/2014/06/16/dallas-buyers-club-llc-settlement-letters-waiver-of-service-414-cv-00248tx-214-cv-00384oh/">first settlement letters</a> arrived in the mailboxes of account holders whose Internet connections were used to share the film. </p>
<p>Interestingly, not all alleged downloaders are treated the same. A <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/230228154/Dbc-Settleltr-00248tx">settlement letter</a> sent to a Texan Internet subscriber offers a complete settlement for $3,500, while an Ohioan in the same position was asked to pay $5,000. </p>
<p>The second offer was also presented in a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/230228190/Dbc-Settleltr-00384oh">more intimidating form</a>, with a threat to raise the amount to $7,000 if the recipient doesn&#8217;t pay in time. </p>
<p><center><strong>Pay or else&#8230;<br></br></strong></center><center><a href="media/8802c80f.dbc-letter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dbc-letter.jpg"><img src="media/8802c80f.dbc-letter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dbc-letter.jpg" alt="dbc-letter" width="683" height="182" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89826"></a></center></p>
<p>While $5,000 may sound high for sharing a single movie, the letter says that this is a reasonable request and that various courts have issued much higher damages awards in the past.</p>
<p>&#8220;Considering the large expense it incurs to enforce its rights, and further that some cases have awarded as much as $22,500 per infringed work, Dallas Buyers Club, LLC feels that asking for Five Thousand Dollars ($5000.00) to settle is very reasonable,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>One of the most often heard comments is that the person who pays for Internet access is not necessarily the infringer in these cases. The movie studio realizes this, but adds that this person is indeed responsible, an argument various courts <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ip-address-not-person-140324/">have refuted</a> in the past. </p>
<p>&#8220;Dallas Buyers Club, LLC has absolutely no interest or desire in making an innocent person pay; but it does have clear evidence to establish that your internet account was used to copy and distribute the file. Therefore, if it was not you, then it was someone that (sic) you gave the right to use your account,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>Dallas Buyers Club, LLC does offer letter recipients a chance to move out of the firing line if they reveal in a sworn affidavit who the real pirate is, but it&#8217;s unlikely that many subscribers will take up this offer.</p>
<p>Finally, the filmmakers address the &#8220;copyright troll&#8221; label handed to them by some news outlets. The company states that this label doesn&#8217;t apply, as they haven&#8217;t bought the copyrights just to sue alleged downloaders.  </p>
<p>&#8220;No. We are not what many refer to as &#8216;copyright trolls&#8217;,&#8221; the letter explains, adding that their right to protect their copyrights are ignored and belittled by some Internet critics.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Many internet blogs commenting on this and related cases ignore the rights of copyright owners to sue for infringement, and inappropriately belittle efforts of copyright owners to seek injunctions and damages,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>These efforts to distance themselves from the troll label and critics seems a bit misplaced. Based on a very narrow definition of copyright troll they may have a point. But as <a href="http://dietrolldie.com/2014/06/16/dallas-buyers-club-llc-settlement-letters-waiver-of-service-414-cv-00248tx-214-cv-00384oh/">DTD points out</a>, by addressing the issue in their letter they only direct people to look into the phenomenon, which in settlement terms may result in the opposite of what they want to achieve.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, a large percentage of the people who receive a settlement letter are expected to pay up. With over a thousand defendants thus far the potential income from these lawsuits runs into the millions of dollars. </p>
<p>And as the dollars continue to roll in, it will be rinse and repeat for as long as the copyright protection efforts are profitable.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89811
title: Court Hands Google a Worldwide Site Blocking Injunction
uri: Court-Hands-Google-a-Worldwide-Site-Blocking-Injunction
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YshlYhDbW48/
content:
<p><a href="media/4d2ce87e.canada.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg"><img src="media/c89c2205.canada.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg" alt="canada" width="222" height="165" class="alignright size-full wp-image-60888"></a>Google&#8217;s dominance of the Internet, particularly in search, has seen the company become embroiled in the disputes of countless other companies.</p>
<p>Day after day, Google is expected to take action in third parties&#8217; intellectual property complaints to avoid becoming liable itself. Prime examples can be found in the millions of DMCA-style notices the company processes each week. Google must remove those entries or face being accused of facilitating infringement.</p>
<p>Another case that Google has become involved in, Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack, sees two Canadian entities face off (the latter previous employees of the former) over stolen intellectual property used to manufacture competing products.</p>
<p>While Google has no direct links to the case, the plaintiffs claim that the company&#8217;s search engine is helping to direct people to a network of websites operated by the defendants which are selling the unlawful products. Google already removed links from its Google.ca results voluntarily, but that wasn&#8217;t enough for Equustek who wanted broader action.</p>
<p>In a ruling handed down in British Columbia, Justice L.A. Fenlon agreed, ordering Google to remove the infringing websites&#8217; listings from its search results. Despite protestations from Google that any injunction should be limited to Canada and Google.ca, the Judge targeted Google&#8217;s central database in the United States, meaning that the ruling has worldwide implications.</p>
<p>&#8220;I note again that on the record before me, the injunction would compel Google to take steps in California or the state in which its search engine is controlled, and would not therefore direct that steps be taken around the world,&#8221; the Judge wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;That the effect of the injunction could reach beyond one state is a separate issue. Even an order mandating or enjoining conduct entirely within British Columbia may have such extraterritorial, or even worldwide effect.&#8221;</p>
<p>Noting that Google did not complain that an order requiring it block the websites would &#8220;offend&#8221; the law in California where it is based, or any other country from where a search could be carried out, the Judge said that the search giant acknowledged that most countries would recognize that dealing in pirated products was &#8220;a legal wrong.&#8221;</p>
<p>Further detailing her decision, Judge Fenlon compared Google to an innocent warehouse that had been forbidden from shipping out goods for a company subjected to an injunction. That local order not to ship could also have broader geographical implications.</p>
<p>&#8220;Could it sensibly be argued that the Court could not grant the injunction because it would have effects worldwide? The impact of an injunction on strangers to the suit or the order itself is a valid consideration in deciding whether to exercise the Court’s jurisdiction to grant an injunction. It does not, however, affect the Court’s authority to make such an order,&#8221; she wrote.</p>
<p>The Judge also touched on the futility of ordering a blockade of results only on Google.ca, when users can simply switch to another variant.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, even if the defendants’ websites were blocked from searches conducted through www.google.ca, Canadian users can go to www.google.co.uk or www.google.fr and obtain results including the defendants’ websites. On the record before me it appears that to be effective, even within Canada, Google must block search results on all of its websites,&#8221; she explained.</p>
<p>The nature of the ruling has raised concerns with lawyer Michael Geist, who notes that despite being issued by a local court, the ruling has attempted to match Google&#8217;s global reach.</p>
<p>&#8220;The issues raised by the decision date back to the very beginning of the globalization of the Internet and the World Wide Web as many worried about jurisdictional over-reach with courts applying local laws to a global audience,&#8221; Geist <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/7159/125/">explains</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;While there is much to be said for asserting jurisdiction over Google &#8211; if it does business in the jurisdiction, the law should apply &#8211; attempts to extend blocking orders to a global audience has very troubling implications that could lead to a run on court orders that target the company&#8217;s global search results.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Google has a little under two weeks to comply with the injunction, its representatives <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/the-law-page/bc-court-seeking-global-reach-orders-google-to-block-sites/article19212708/">told</a> The Globe and Mail that the decision will be appealed.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89846
title: “Ignorant” Movie Boss & “Lying” ISP Fight Publicly Over Piracy
uri: Ignorant-Movie-Boss-Lying-ISP-Fight-Publicly-Over-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jX7MAP5XEjE/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>It&#8217;s definitely not breaking news that the Australian piracy debate has reached unprecedented levels of activity. While the government proposes tough <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/australian-government-signals-online-piracy-crackdown-140214/">new measures</a> such as &#8220;three strikes&#8221;, Game of Thrones download records are <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/game-thrones-season-finale-sets-piracy-record-140616/">throwing fuel</a> on an already raging fire.</p>
<p>If the government is to be believed, many of the issues could be solved if copyright holders and Internet service providers would only shake hands, sit down for lunch, and agree on the best way to punish their errant subscribers. Trouble is, they&#8217;ve tried that, it didn&#8217;t work, and Hollywood &#8211; via local movie company Village Roadshow &#8211; ended up suing ISP iiNet.</p>
<p>The record showed that iiNet won that battle in a big way, leaving Hollywood licking its wounds and banking on a return to voluntary discussions. Sadly, as recently confirmed in the senate, those talks <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/aussie-attorney-general-pressured-on-three-strikes-secrecy-140529/">are dead</a>, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped both iiNet and Village Roadshow making their feelings known.</p>
<p>Last week iiNet Chief Regulatory Officer Steve Dalby urged his customers to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rise-up-against-govt-anti-piracy-plans-isp-urges-140610/">fight back</a> against attempts to introduce fresh legislation, something which prompted Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke to make his own voice heard. In an <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2014/06/village-roadshow-ceo-iinet-are-lying-about-piracy/">interview</a> with Gizmodo yesterday, on more than one occasion Burke accused iiNet of lying over piracy.</p>
<p><strong>Outrageous liars &#8211; the gloves are off</strong></p>
<p>“It’s sad that to forward their case, [iiNet] use what they must know is a fabric of lies,&#8221; Burke said.</p>
<p>&#8220;They’re saying that there’s no proof that graduated response works. They’re instancing a number of countries where graduated response was frustrated by lobbying and the power of Google, which pays little to no tax in Australia and creates nothing,” he said, going on to attack Dalby directly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some of the stuff Steve Dalby has said is just outrageous, and he’s got to know its outrageous too,” Burke said.</p>
<p>Not content with letting Burke have the last word, after the publication of the Gizmodo piece Dalby fired back, accusing the CEO of calling Australians &#8220;content thieves&#8221; without revealing their huge contribution to the industry.</p>
<p><strong>The fightback &#8211; outrageous!</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Perhaps we&#8217;ve touched a nerve,&#8221; Dalby began. &#8220;Mr Burke is obviously concerned about the increasing threat to his &#8216;middle-man&#8217; status by the changes in technology and has failed to mention his colleague Simon Bush&#8217;s comments that the (Aust Home Entertainment Distributor&#8217;s Assoc) figures showed that &#8216;on a per capita basis Australia is second only to the United States in digital consumer revenues&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;So Australians are not only the worst pirates, but one of their best performing markets. Outrageous!&#8221; Dalby said.</p>
<p>Clearly riled at being described as &#8220;outrageous&#8221;, Dalby suggested that Burke should look in the mirror.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mr Burke suggests that my comments are outrageous. I&#8217;m sure he doesn&#8217;t like us pointing out some of the outrageous suggestions from his own industry. You know &#8230; stuff like &#8216;You wouldn&#8217;t steal a car, you wouldn&#8217;t steal a handbag&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not our job to catch car thieves. It&#8217;s not our job to catch bag-snatchers. It&#8217;s not our job to stop on-line infringers. Whoa ! Outrageous!&#8221; Dalby fired back.</p>
<p>Responding to Burke&#8217;s earlier claim that iiNet makes the most money from pirating customers so has a clear incentive to let them continue, Dalby said that Burke doesn&#8217;t know what he&#8217;s talking about.</p>
<p><strong>Movie boss is ignorant</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Mr Burke also shows his ignorance of the ISP revenue model. Not only is he totally wrong, but I think he fails to be outrageous. The ISP subscription model, commonly in place in Australia, does not charge by the download, as he suggests, it is a fixed fee per month. In that model ( a bit like gym membership) the less data a customer uses, the more profitable they are,&#8221; Dalby explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;This was an argument that failed the logic test in the High Court, but don&#8217;t let that get in the way of your outrage Mr Burke.&#8221;</p>
<p>And then, the inevitable. Local companies and anti-piracy outfits in piracy disputes often claim to be protecting local artists, yet as we saw in New Zealand, when subscribers got their first strike notices they were for artists like Rihanna and Lady GaGa. This type of scenario has not escaped the iiNet man.</p>
<p><strong>Doing Hollywood&#8217;s bidding</strong></p>
<p>&#8220;Finally, if this is all about protecting 906,000 Aussie jobs why is it that not one single example of Aussie content ever gets a mention. It&#8217;s always about American movies, music and TV,&#8221; Dalby said.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to protect Aussie jobs, Mr Burke, how about you turn up to the industry talks and put something on the table? Where is the quid-pro-quo for Australian ISPs to do the bidding of your American masters?&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;No. I thought not,&#8221; Dalby concludes.</p>
<p><strong>The final bell &#8211; for now</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s pretty rare these days to see this kind of public dueling, but after the legal trauma Hollywood and Village Roadshow put iiNet through, it&#8217;s not really a surprise that diplomacy is in tatters. Voluntary agreement still possible this year? Let&#8217;s get them on Jerry Springer to find out.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89851
title: MPAA Offers $20,000 Grants For “Unbiased” Piracy Research
uri: MPAA-Offers-20-000-Grants-For-Unbiased-Piracy-Research
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lTgPmiiftBI/
content:
<p><a href="media/fdb36aee.mpaa-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo.png"><img src="media/fdb36aee.mpaa-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo.png" alt="mpaa-logo" width="259" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89856"></a>Late last year a study from European researchers revealed that the Megaupload shutdown had a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shutdown-hurt-smaller-films-helped-blockbusters-130823/">negative effect</a> on the box office revenues of smaller films.</p>
<p>The researchers suggested that the decrease in sales may be the result of a drop in word-of-mouth promotion from pirates, which affects smaller movies more since they have less advertising budget.</p>
<p>The MPAA wasn&#8217;t happy with the media coverage the study generated and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-criticizes-piracy-study-because-it-doesnt-like-the-results-130901/">went on the defensive</a> citing two Carnegie Mellon University studies to show that piracy harms sales. </p>
<p>Interestingly, it failed to disclose that those findings came from research that was supported by a $100,000 <a href="http://www.cmu.edu/homepage/society/2012/fall/entertainment-analytics.shtml">grant from the MPAA</a>. </p>
<p>While we trust that the research is solid, the above shows that academic research plays an important role in the MPAA&#8217;s lobbying efforts. For this reason, the Hollywood group has recently started a grants program, hoping to enlist more academics to conduct copyright-related research.</p>
<p>The MPAA is now accepting research proposals on a series of predefined topics. They include the impact of copyright law on innovation and the effectiveness of DMCA takedown notices. The best applications will be awarded <a href="http://www.mpaaresearchgrants.org/">a $20,000 grant</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to enlist the help of academics from around the world to provide new insight on a range of issues facing the content industry in the digital age,&#8221; says MPAA CEO and former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd.</p>
<p>According to the MPAA boss, academic researchers can contribute to understanding the changes the industry faces by providing unbiased insights.  </p>
<p>&#8220;We need more and better research regarding the evolving role of copyright in society. The academic community can provide unbiased observations, data analysis, historical context and important revelations about how these changes are impacting the film industry and other IP-reliant sectors,&#8221; Dodd notes. </p>
<p>The MPAA clearly sees academic research as an important tool in their efforts to ensure that copyright protections remain in place, or are strengthened if needed. </p>
<p>This outreach to academics may in part be fueled by what their &#8216;opponents&#8217; are doing. Google, for example, is heavily supporting academic research on copyright-related projects in part to further their own interests. </p>
<p>Both sides clearly steer researchers by giving them precise directions on the grounds they want covered. It&#8217;s now up to the academics to make sure that they don&#8217;t become pawns in a much bigger fight, and that their research is conducted and results presented in an objective manner. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89897
title: Digital Content Online Should Be Free, Children Say
uri: Digital-Content-Online-Should-Be-Free-Children-Say
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pGqYh0jdw_k/
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>The results of a new survey commissioned by YouGov SixthSense on the file-sharing and content consumption habits of citizens in the UK have just been published.</p>
<p>Among broader issues, the study, which draws on a sample of 1,907 adults over 16 years old and 614 children aged between 8 and 15, looked at reasons why people use file-sharing sites, plus attitudes towards piracy and paying for content.</p>
<p><strong>Online content should be free</strong></p>
<p>The headline finding presented YouGov suggests that half of the up-and-coming generation believes that the Internet should be a content free-for-all. A total of 49% of the 8 to 15-year-olds questioned said that they believe that people should be able to download the content they want from the Internet for nothing.</p>
<p>Drilling down specifically into attitudes towards file-sharing sites, 6% of children said that using them is easy, with 7% agreeing that it had become the normal thing to do.</p>
<p>Interestingly, YouGov found that when questioning the 16-year-old and above group, the attitudes towards free content were the same, with an identical 49% stating that online content should be free to download.</p>
<p><strong>Motivations to share files</strong></p>
<p>The survey found that the major driver for use of file-sharing sites is cost. While adults tend to have the most disposable income, 51% said that they use file-sharing sites to save money.</p>
<p>Among the children, whose resources are often more limited, 44% said their motivation was financial, with a quarter of 16-24 year olds reporting that file-sharing is the only way they can afford to access content online.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the issue of accessibility came in at a close second place for both groups. The speed and convenience of file-sharing was cited as a key motivator for use by 41% of adults and 38% of the children.</p>
<p><strong>Attitudes towards piracy and sanctions</strong></p>
<p>The mainstream entertainment companies invariably insist that downloading movies and music without permission is tantamount to stealing. However, when it comes to the UK&#8217;s children the survey suggests that Big Entertainment has a mountain to climb to have that notion widely adopted. While 16% of children accept that it&#8217;s wrong to obtain content for free without the creator&#8217;s permission, just 7% believe that file-sharing is a form of stealing.</p>
<p>When it comes to punishing someone, somewhere, for the piracy problem, it comes as little surprise that most of the adults feel that the blame should be placed elsewhere. Rather than being punished for illegal downloading themselves, 60% of the 16-24 year-olds said that the companies and websites providing the content should be punished instead.</p>
<p><strong>The future</strong></p>
<p>Despite the favorable cost and convenience of using unauthorized sources, YouGov notes that opportunities exist for content providers to address those issues. Legal alternatives, such as the free ad-supported model offered by Spotify, are being utilized more, and there are signs that people are happy to pay for exclusive content. Among the children, for example, 13% said they would spend their money if that meant supporting an up-and-coming artist.</p>
<p>&#8220;Children in this generation have grown up with digital material and are used to having access to what they want, when they want it and for some of the time not paying for it,&#8221; says YouGov Research Director James McCoy.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whilst they appreciate the issues surrounding piracy and illegal downloads, if they can get away with it, then they will. Why change the habit of a lifetime?&#8221;</p>
<p>McCoy says that the challenge for industry moving forward is to find ways to engage and educate this group &#8220;in a relevant and non-condescending way.&#8221; That can probably be done, it just might take a little while yet.</p>
<p>The Future of Digital Consumption 2014 can be purchased from <a href="http://yougov.com">YouGov</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89847
title: RIAA Reported 50 Million Pirate Links to Google
uri: RIAA-Reported-50-Million-Pirate-Links-to-Google
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YRf7oN-Efc8/
content:
<p><a href="media/d33ff34a.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg"><img src="media/971b8479.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg" alt="riaa-logo" width="170" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-15326"></a>Despite the growing availability of legal music services in many countries, record labels are facing a constant stream of pirated music.</p>
<p>In an attempt to prevent stop these infringements, the RIAA and other music industry groups send millions of takedown notices to Internet services every month. Most of these requests are directed at Google.  </p>
<p>This week the RIAA reached a new milestone after notifying Google of the <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/reporters/1594/Recording-Industry-Association-of-America-Inc/">50 millionth</a> allegedly infringing URL, up from 25 million less than a year ago. The latest figures show that the 50 million links were spread out over 14,907 separate DMCA takedown notices. </p>
<p>Most of the requests, nearly 2 million, were for URLs belonging to the cyberlocker search engine filestube.com, which now operates under a new domain name. The MP3 download portals pisamba.com, downloads.nl, mp3skull.com and beemp3.com complete the top five with between 1.3 and 1.6 allegedly infringing links each.</p>
<p><center><strong>RIAA&#8217;s takedown stats</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/28823d4e.roaa-google-50.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roaa-google-50.png"><img src="media/28823d4e.roaa-google-50.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roaa-google-50.png" alt="roaa-google-50" width="686" height="217" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89892"></a></center></p>
<p>While Google swiftly removes infringing links from its search index, the RIAA remains unhappy with how the takedown process in general is working. One of the main issues is that several foreign websites simply ignore takedown notices, or put the links back under a slightly modified URL.</p>
<p>“All those links to infringing music files that were automatically repopulated by each pirate site after today’s takedown will be re-indexed and appear in search results tomorrow,&#8221;  RIAA CEO Cary Sherman said previously.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every day we have to send new notices to take down the very same links to illegal content we took down the day before. It’s like ‘Groundhog Day’ for takedowns.&#8221;</p>
<p>For the RIAA and other copyright holders there are few options to deal with these &#8216;rogue&#8217; sites. However, the music industry group believes that Google and other search engines <a href="media/b24578e1.Uh7uxjt.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/Uh7uxjt.png">can do more</a> to prevent people from accessing pirate sites through their services.</p>
<p>The RIAA believes that search engines should strike a deal with copyright holders to make sure that pirated files stay down through advanced filtering techniques.</p>
<p>In addition the RIAA wants Google to lift all takedown limits, push down pirate sites in search results, promote legal sites and services, remove pirate terms from Autocomplete and completely remove “repeat infringers” from their search index.</p>
<p>Google sees things differently and believes that <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-google-helps-copyright-holders-to-fight-piracy-130911/">it&#8217;s already doing enough</a>. The company’s Senior Copyright Policy Counsel Katherine Oyama previously noted that copyright holders should consider better SEO, and focus on offering consumers what they want; decent legal alternatives.</p>
<p>“The best way to battle piracy is with better, more convenient, legitimate alternatives to piracy, as services ranging from Netflix to Spotify to iTunes have demonstrated. The right combination of price, convenience, and inventory will do far more to reduce piracy than enforcement can,” she said.</p>
<p>Over the past few months numerous copyright holders and lawmakers have increased their pressure on Google, but the search engine shows no intention of changing its policies. The longer the current standoff continues, the more likely it is that this issue will eventually be fought out in court.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89953
title: EU Commission Set to Unveil New Anti-Piracy Action Plans
uri: EU-Commission-Set-to-Unveil-New-Anti-Piracy-Action-Plans
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W53DiUvFdKA/
content:
<p><a href="media/298c27c8.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png"><img src="media/23e20654.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png" alt="europe-flag" width="222" height="146" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79290"></a>While much of the last decade-and-a-half&#8217;s fight against piracy has taken place on the national level, the attempted introduction of ACTA and similar legislation showed that broader approaches are increasingly under consideration.</p>
<p>In an announcement timetabled for July 1, the EU Commission will reveal the adoption of two sets of measures designed to promote &#8220;greater respect&#8221; for intellectual property rights in the European Union and beyond.</p>
<p>Firstly, the EU will announce the adoption of an action plan to fight infringement of intellectual property rights across Europe. The second will see the adoption of a strategy for the protection and enforcement of the same in third countries.</p>
<p>The EU action plan will comprise ten specific mechanisms which will provide new &#8220;policy enforcement tools&#8221; to counter intellectual property infringement being carried out on a commercial scale. This suggests a targeting of sites and services, rather than their users.</p>
<p>According to the Commission, commercial activities represent a major challenge for the EU due to the harm they cause, including the undermining of both investment in innovation and the creation of jobs.</p>
<p>Rather than going down the complex and expensive legal route to tighter enforcement, the EU says its new tools will be &#8220;non-legislative&#8221; in nature and will seek to &#8220;follow the money&#8221; in order to deprive commercial offenders of income.</p>
<p>The announcement in respect of third countries will outline plans to strengthen cooperation between the authorities, including customs authorities in the EU and those elsewhere. Common objectives will include preventing the spread of infringing content and the stimulation of investment, growth and employment through debate and awareness.</p>
<p>The &#8220;follow the money&#8221; approach is definitely the anti-piracy strategy that has been met with the least opposition over the last couple of years. The work with brands and their advertisers plus payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard to stop doing business with pirate sites has been well received by industry and appears to be gaining traction. Progress is being reported in the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/tech-giants-sign-deal-to-ban-advertising-on-pirate-websites-130715/">United States</a> and more recently the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=pipcu">detailed</a> its own successes.</p>
<p>The full details of the new action plans will be made available by the EU in a little over a week&#8217;s time.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89977
title: Dotcom’s Disruptive Music Service First to Support FLAC Streaming
uri: Dotcom-s-Disruptive-Music-Service-First-to-Support-FLAC-Streaming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/aRBh7voCaCU/
content:
<p><a href="media/e62c6cf5.baboom.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/baboom.png"><img src="media/e62c6cf5.baboom.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/baboom.png" alt="baboom" width="207" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89980"></a>Last summer Kim Dotcom <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-resigns-as-mega-director-to-focus-on-music-venture-130904/">resigned</a> as Mega director to focus on other projects, including his Internet Party and upcoming music service Baboom. </p>
<p>The latter had its ‘soft launch’ in January featuring only one album, that of Kim Dotcom himself. A few months have passed since and Baboom is now gearing up for a full release.</p>
<p>Dotcom has been clear about his goal for the music service ever since it was first <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/from-rogue-to-vogue-megaupload-and-kim-dotcom-111218/">teased in 2011</a>. By providing free music and compensating artists through advertising revenue, Dotcom believes he can decrease music piracy while giving artists proper compensation for their work.</p>
<p>But is that really doable? This week two of Baboom&#8217;s top executives spoke out on Baboom&#8217;s mission and some of the unrivaled features through which it hopes to disrupt the music industry. </p>
<p>Chief Technology Officer Marco Oliveira stresses that closing the gap between artists and fans is one of the main goals. One way to do this is by providing the best quality music possible, through lossless streaming of FLAC music files. </p>
<p>&#8220;Baboom is the first music streaming platform to support FLAC streaming, which delivers lossless audio. What this means, is that fans get to listen to music exactly how the artist intended. No degraded audio experience, you get an exact replica of what the artist recorded,&#8221; <a href="http://baboom.com/articles/5/aspirations-and-goals">Oliveira says</a>.</p>
<p>Streaming FLAC files will require a decent Internet connection, as a full music album can easily take up more than half a gigabyte. In addition to lossless streams, users will also be able to download tracks in FLAC format to listen to offline.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/06pSy94XfT8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>But the music quality is only part of the offer. For artists, Baboom wants to make it as simple as possible to share their work with the public and make a decent living while doing so. No strings attached. </p>
<p>&#8220;Artists should be in charge of their careers, instead of being locked in unfair agreements. Neither artists or fans care for this. All they care about is the music, and that&#8217;s what should matter,&#8221; Oliveira.</p>
<p>This vision is shared by Mikee Tucker, Baboom&#8217;s Head of Content and Platform, who has worked with independent artists for over a decade. </p>
<p>Tucker believes that Baboom can give artists full control over their music, and earn more than they would do through any of the major labels.</p>
<p>&#8220;For me there are two driving factors behind Baboom&#8217;s vision. Firstly, the spirit of true independence and artist freedom which inspires our vision to empower the artist and give control back to the creator. Secondly, the need for a solution to tackle declining revenues and outdated business models which inspires our vision innovate and disrupt,&#8221; Tucker says.</p>
<p>It may sound too good to be true, but Baboom believes it can generate enough revenue through its advertisement tool. This application works like an ad blocker, but instead of blocking ads it <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-label-artists-a-list-stars-endorse-megaupload-in-new-song-111209/">replaces a small percentage</a> with Baboom’s own ads. Those who prefer not to install the app have the option to buy the music instead.</p>
<p>Most of the revenue will then flow directly to the artists with Baboom keeping a small share, 10 percent. This fraction pales in comparison to the amounts held back by the major labels.</p>
<p>While this may work in theory, in the end Baboom&#8217;s success will greatly depend on the content. Dotcom previously said that there are several “top artists” lined up for the launch, but who they are remains a mystery for now. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s no secret that Dotcom has several prominent connections in the music industry and it will be interesting to see which artists join him. In any case, there will definitely be plenty of attention for Baboom’s launch later this year.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/96f30436.BaboomHintHQ-large.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/BaboomHintHQ-large.jpg"><img src="media/4e0080f3.BaboomHintHQ-large.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/BaboomHintHQ-large.jpg" alt="BaboomHintHQ-large" width="1162" height="736" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-76581"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89930
title: Foul!!! Sony Orders Google to Censor The World Cup
uri: Foul-Sony-Orders-Google-to-Censor-The-World-Cup
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Wip8hXHHeX8/
content:
<p><img src="media/ccf085d0.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" width="200" height="250" class="alignright">Soccer fever has been spreading across the globe this week, with dozens of millions tuning in to watch the World Cup via regular TV and an abundance of online services.</p>
<p>While England basked in its somewhat traditional World Cup disappointment Thursday, viewing records were <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jun/16/world-cup-2014-england-italy-tv-ratings">being broken</a>, but amazingly while Brazil sizzles, some want to pour cold water on the excitement.</p>
<p>Allow us to introduce <a href="http://www.markscan.co.in/">MarkScan</a>, a self-described &#8220;consulting boutique dedicated to your IP requirements&#8221;. The anti-piracy company is based in India and boasts a wide range of clients including the BBC, HBO, Nokia, and other prestigious brands.</p>
<p>Just recently MarkScan has been doing some work for Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd, a Sony Entertainment Television subsidiary in India. In June, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi_Screen_Media">Multi Screen Media</a> launched LIV Sports, a digital sports entertainment site that was <a href="http://www.livsports.in/football/2014fifaworldcupbrazil">chosen by FIFA</a> to be the official mobile and Internet broadcaster for the 2014 World Cup.</p>
<p>This week, MarkScan set off on an inevitable DMCA takedown spree to protect its clients&#8217; and FIFA&#8217;s rights. What a disaster it&#8217;s been.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fifa-threatens-pirate-sites-over-illegal-world-cup-streams-140612/">Much like FIFA</a>, MarkScan began by sending its first batch of copyright complaints to Google several days before a ball had even been kicked. The notice, which covered 46 domains allegedly streaming the World Cup, was <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/requests/1239619/">100% rejected</a> by Google.</p>
<p>One of the complaints targeted a <a href="http://gigaom.com/2014/06/09/world-cup-live-stream/">great article</a> by GigaOM which helpfully offered &#8220;Where to watch the 2014 FIFA World Cup live online, and how to stream it without cable.&#8221; The article listed all legal sources, including ESPN, across several countries.</p>
<p>Several subsequent takedown notices targeting more than 700 other URLs saw between 90% and 100% of URLs rejected by Google. One of them was nothing short of a disaster.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/dce79772.markscan1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/markscan1.png" alt="Markscan1"></center></p>
<p><a href="media/2c8e94c7.livsports.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/livsports.png"><img src="media/2c8e94c7.livsports.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/livsports.png" alt="livsports" width="234" height="98" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89938"></a>The notice, sent on behalf of Sony&#8217;s Liv Sports via Multi Screen Media, targeted 610 URLs, all of which were rejected by Google. All were claimed to be infringing on Liv Sports&#8217; and FIFA&#8217;s rights, yet what the notice actually did was target some of the web&#8217;s most respectable news sites and resources.</p>
<p>In the article titled &#8220;World Cup 2014: How to watch across BBC TV, radio and online&#8221;, the BBC <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27780739">attempted</a> to inform its millions of readers how to legitimately access the World Cup. However, as can be seen from the image below, MarkScan had other ideas.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/e3ff9d05.markscan2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/markscan2.png" alt="markscan2"></center></p>
<p>Sadly, this attempted takedown of a purely informational and entirely legal article wasn&#8217;t the only casualty of this notice.</p>
<p>An article published by Variety informing its readership that ESPN would be <a href="http://variety.com/2014/digital/news/espn-will-live-stream-all-64-matches-of">streaming all 64 matches</a> was deemed to be copyright-infringing too, as was a <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/fifa-world-cup-where-to-watch-it-on-tv-online-1">similar attempt</a> by Canada&#8217;s CBC.ca.</p>
<p>Other catastrophes would be amusing if they weren&#8217;t so awful, such as the attempt to censor <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/418222-uruguay-vs-germany-2010-fifa-world">this article</a> on Bleacher Report which advised how to watch Uruguay versus Germany &#8211; a match from FIFA World Cup 2010 four years ago.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/28ff89b0.bleacher.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bleacher.png" alt="bleacher"></center></p>
<p>Also targeted was this <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/fifa-confederations-cup-testing-4k-565612">2013 article</a> from Hollywood Reporter which detailed plans by Sony (ironically) and FIFA to broadcast the World Cup 2014 in Ultra HD. FoxSports&#8217; interactive World Cup Schedule was also <a href="http://www.foxsports.com.au/football/world-cup/interactive-draw">marked</a> as infringing. Both are shown below.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/77620ab8.markscan3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/markscan3.png" alt="Markscan3"></center></p>
<p>Even legitimate traditional broadcasters couldn&#8217;t get the word out unhindered. Communications company Cox wanted to <a href="http://www.cox.com/residential/special-offers/world-cup.cox?campcode=home_tv">let its residential customers know</a> they could &#8220;Watch the World&#8217;s Biggest Soccer Games. Any Way You Want&#8221; but MarkScan <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/requests/1245678/">told Google</a> the page was illegal.</p>
<p>The whole notice, which can be read <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1775261">here</a>, has many more examples than those listed above, including the attempted censorship of EA Sports&#8217; Twitter account and FIFA&#8217;s <a href="http://www.fifa.com/futsalworldcup/video/live/">very own site</a> &#8211; for FIFA Futsal World Cup Thailand 2012. Brilliant.</p>
<p>But, in its own unique way, one takedown is more disappointing than most.</p>
<p>In a post dated June 9, before the World Cup had even begun, Symantec tried to <a href="http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/use-your-head-do-not-fall-fifa-world-cup-scams">inform its readers</a> on how to avoid various World Cup related scams. We don&#8217;t need to tell you what happened to it.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted MarkScan whose Internet Enforcement Team told us they take care to avoid mistakes.</p>
<p>&#8220;We want to assure you that we deploy technology, in addition to best efforts of our teams, to ensure that we do not impact legal content on yours, or any other website,&#8221; they explained.</p>
<p>We suspect someone could be seeing at least a yellow card, possibly worse, in the days to come.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89806
title: And The Movie File-Sharing Capital of The World Is….
uri: And-The-Movie-File-Sharing-Capital-of-The-World-Is
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AcrGVlPKtE0/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>It&#8217;s no secret that P2P file-sharing services are widely used to distribute pirated movies. However, less is known about the volume of these unauthorized transfers in various countries. </p>
<p>New data published in a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/230696705/Omdat-Het-Gratis-is-Consid-CentERdat-IViR-Small">Dutch report</a> detailing the impact of unauthorized P2P file-sharing on the movie industry reveals that in the Netherlands alone an estimated 78 million euros are lost due to movie piracy.</p>
<p>The same report also provides some interesting statistics that shed some light o geographical file-sharing differences. </p>
<p>During the first half of the year MarkMonitor, which is also the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-and-tracking-company-ready-to-start-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-120928/">technology partner for the U.S. six strikes program</a>, tracked 16 popular English language blockbuster movies. The list includes titles such as Frozen, The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug, and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.</p>
<p>The movies were monitored via both eDonkey and BitTorrent, with the latter having the largest audience. In total MarkMonitor found that these movies were shared 150,186,156 times without permission.</p>
<p>Despite the focus on English language films, most pirated copies &#8211; more than 20 million &#8211; were shared from Russia. The bar chart below shows the full top 10 based on the absolute number of infringements that were detected, with the United States, Italy, Brazil and Spain completing the top five.</p>
<p><center></center><center><a href="media/6ba838d9.file-sharing-cap.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/file-sharing-cap.jpg"><img src="media/6ba838d9.file-sharing-cap.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/file-sharing-cap.jpg" alt="file-sharing-cap" width="746" height="306" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89911"></a></center></p>
<p>It is of course no surprise to see these large countries on top. It gets more interesting when we look at the number of file-sharers per capita. </p>
<p>In the United States for example, 12.5 million pirated copies were shared in a population of more than 310 million, which is roughly 4%. In Russia this percentage is much higher at 15% and in Australia it&#8217;s more than 16%. </p>
<p>Not surprisingly, the list of countries that share the most pirated movies per capita is quite different. </p>
<p>According to the report, the movies in the sample were relatively most shared in the United Arab Emirates, followed by Israel, Estonia, Greece and Italy. Australia, Qatar, Sweden, Singapore and the Netherlands complete the top 10.</p>
<p>It has to be noted that the findings above are based on a sample that is biased towards Western content. This explains the absence of Chinese downloaders, who tend to share files through other channels. Similarly, the data doesn&#8217;t cover direct downloads and streaming sites which may be relatively more popular in other regions. </p>
<p>That said, the numbers do give some more insight into the popularity of P2P movie piracy, or lack thereof, across various countries.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90014
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 06/23/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-06-23-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/aYnZKiP8ADA/
content:
<p><a href="media/a342a881.millio-ways.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/millio-ways.jpg"><img src="media/a342a881.millio-ways.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/millio-ways.jpg" alt="millio-ways" width="300" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90017"></a>This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>A Million Ways to Die in the West is the most downloaded movie this week.</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 BD/DVDrips 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>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140616/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west/">A Million Ways to Die in the West</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGkcOoTlkQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/300_rise_of_an_empire/">300: Rise Of An Empire</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqy21Z29ps">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/godzilla_2014/">Godzilla</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831387/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/non_stop_2013/">The Grand Budapest Hotel</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmXdU8Nglk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maleficent_2014/">Maleficent</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pgmFAOgm5E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_lego_movie/">The Lego Movie</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1490017/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/edge_of_tomorrow/">Edge of Tomorrow</a> (TS/Cam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1631867/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUmSVcttXnI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3069212/">Street Fighter: Assassin&#8217;s Fist</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3069212/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99XiMYKsHl8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89893
title: Large-Scale TV Show Piracy Blocking Request Heads to Court
uri: Large-Scale-TV-Show-Piracy-Blocking-Request-Heads-to-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hjOf48ZGfnA/
content:
<p><a href="media/d4431fcc.game-of-thrones-2013.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/game-of-thrones-2013.jpg"><img src="media/ea0177d3.game-of-thrones-2013.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/game-of-thrones-2013.jpg" alt="game-of-thrones-2013" width="250" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80746"></a>Since August 2013, rightsholders in Russia have enjoyed greater powers to help them deal with websites carrying or linking to pirated movies and TV shows.</p>
<p>The pre-trial mechanism allows for the imposition of so-called &#8220;preliminary interim measures&#8221; should the sites in question fail to remove or block infringing content in a timely fashion. These can include a court ordered service provider blockade of specific URLs.</p>
<p>The process has been used dozens of times during the past ten months or so. Earlier this month the Moscow City Court took action to restrict the availability of 15 TV shows illegally posted online including Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, True Blood and American Horror Story. Several torrent site URLs were ordered to be blocked by ISPs, including those on the popular RuTor.org.</p>
<p>Now, just a week later, the local exclusive rightsholder of the above shows plus others including Boardwalk Empire, True Detective, Homeland, Girls and True Blood, wants to have its content completely blocked on a wide range of sites.</p>
<p>The case is being brought by &#8220;A Series&#8221; and will begin in the Moscow City Court next month. According to <a href="http://rapsinews.ru">Rapsinews</a>, July 10 has been set aside for pre-trial preparations and to clarify the requirements of the parties, including a call for evidence and addressing other issues relevant to the forthcoming trial.</p>
<p>The lawsuit will target more than a dozen sites and BitTorrent trackers including rutor.org, lostfilm.tv, bigcinema.tv and gamethrones.ru, most of which have been targeted in previous actions.</p>
<p>News of the lawsuit arrives following the announcement of an agreement between the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Culture to beef up the law introduced last year. A source inside the government told Izvestia that the text of a new anti-piracy bill has been finalized and will be submitted to the Duma in the near future.</p>
<p>While the law&#8217;s new stricter provisions will be welcomed by rightsholders, the music industry will again be disappointed. Movies and TV shows are covered by current law, but music is not, and the package of amendments about to be presented will not see the introduction of music protection until 2016.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90055
title: BREIN Takes Pirate Bay Blocking Case to the Supreme Court
uri: BREIN-Takes-Pirate-Bay-Blocking-Case-to-the-Supreme-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/o9DTmoNlKc8/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd06f581.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><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"></a>Four years is a long time to fight over a website, but that&#8217;s exactly what Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and pair of local ISPs have been doing since 2010.</p>
<p>The action began when BREIN targeted Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest ISP, in an attempt to force it to block The Pirate Bay. Ziggo were later joined in the case by rival ISP XS4ALL, with the pair teaming up against the prospect of a bad precedent and an avalanche of additional blocking demands.</p>
<p>The case has taken numerous twists and turns, with a court first deciding that blocking all subscribers was a step too far. BREIN responded to this defeat by taking the case to a full trial, which it won. The ISPs refused to give in, filing subsequent appeals on the basis that any blockade would be ineffective and would deny subscribers free access to information. </p>
<p>In January the Court of The Hague <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isps-no-longer-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-dutch-court-rules-140128/">sided</a> with Ziggo and XS4ALL, leaving the ISPs to unblock The Pirate Bay, an action they took immediately.</p>
<p>BREIN limped away with no blockade and close to half a million dollars in legal fees, but one last legal avenue remained &#8211; taking the case to the Supreme Court. According to XS4ALL, on April 25 this year it was summoned by BREIN to defend itself in the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>A statement issued by the ISP explains that the appeal will not see the dispute resubmitted in its entirety and judged on its merits as is often the case. Instead, the Supreme Court will only overturn the decision from January if it finds that the Court of the Hague &#8220;erred in law&#8221; or failed to comply with procedural rules.</p>
<p>&#8220;The facts as determined by the Court are fixed, the case will not be materially redone and the Supreme Court itself will not perform an investigation. The claimant [BREIN] cannot bring more new facts, nor contest the facts. Only the legal criteria which the Court has applied will be questioned,&#8221; the ISP <a href="https://blog.xs4all.nl/2014/06/21/cassatie/">explains</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the appeal is successful and the judgement of the lower court is set aside, it may be sufficient to conclude the case. If a new examination of the facts is necessary, the Supreme Court will probably refer back the case to the Court for a full retrial,&#8221; XS4ALL adds.</p>
<p>XS4ALL now has until September 5 to submit a statement for its defense.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90021
title: UK ISPs Quietly Block More Torrent Site Proxies
uri: UK-ISPs-Quietly-Block-More-Torrent-Site-Proxies
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fJqcWmeD97c/
content:
<p><a href="media/5ceed422.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg"><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076"></a>Following a series of High Court orders, six UK ISPs are required to block subscriber access to several of the world’s largest torrent sites.</p>
<p>The blocks are somewhat effective, at least in preventing subscribers from accessing the domains directly. However, that doesn&#8217;t mean that the sites are completely inaccessible.</p>
<p>With every site that is added to the blocklist several reverse proxies are launched. These proxy sites give people access to the blocked sites and effectively bypass the restrictions put in place by the court.</p>
<p>The copyright holders who demanded the blockades are well aware of these workarounds and continue to ask ISPs to expand their blocking efforts.</p>
<p>This weekend the ISPs quietly added several torrent site proxies to their blocklists. TorrentFreak was able to confirm that Virgin Media and Sky are now blocking access to YTS proxy <a href="http://ytsre.come.in/">ytsre.come.in</a> as well as the <a href="http://Eztv.come.in">EZTV equivalent</a> on come.in. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the other torrent site proxies, including ones for the Pirate Bay and Kickass, are still accessible. </p>
<p><center><strong>YTS proxy blocked</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/dd061823.sky-new-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky-new-block.png"><img src="media/dd061823.sky-new-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky-new-block.png" alt="sky-new-block" width="547" height="319" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90025"></a></center></p>
<p>Whether these measures will be effective has yet to be seen. The <a href="http://come.in">Come.in</a> homepage is still accessible and the team behind the site has already replaced the blocked domains with new ones.</p>
<p>&#8220;We just set up new proxies and will be watching for any upcoming measures from ISPs,&#8221; Come.in&#8217;s Nick tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;We monitor such issues on a regular basis. Most of the time we can create new proxies only after current ones are blocked. Come.in visitors should know that we always publish fresh proxy addresses on our homepage,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>And so the whack-a-mole continues, with copyright holders adding new domains to the blocklists, and site owners hopping from domain to domain.</p>
<p>As with previous additions the newly blocked domains are covered by the High Court order, which provides the movie studios with the option to continually update the list of infringing domains. A Virgin Media spokesperson clarified that no additions are made by the ISP itself. </p>
<p>“We are only blocking those sites we are required to block by the court order,” we were told. “As a responsible ISP, Virgin Media supports the clear, legal framework put in place to protect against copyright infringement and we continue to comply with court orders specifically addressed to the company.”</p>
<p>While the recent additions are permitted under the High Court order, these changes are being made in secret without any form of public oversight, which means that we don&#8217;t know precisely how many proxies were added. The full list of blocked domains also remains unknown.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to both copyright holders and ISPs, but thus far they have refused to make the full scope of their blocking efforts public. It&#8217;s unlikely that this will change in the near future.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The full list of domains (that we know of) currently blocked in the UK is as follows:</p>
<p><strong>Main sites:</strong> Megashare, Viooz, Watch32, Zmovie, Solarmovie, Tubeplus, Primewire, Vodly, Watchfreemovies, Project-Free TV, Yify-Torrents, 1337x, Bitsnoop, Extratorrent, Monova, Torrentcrazy, Torrentdownloads, Torrentreactor, Torrentz, Ambp3, Beemp3, Bomb-mp3, Eemp3world, Filecrop, Filestube, Mp3juices, Mp3lemon, Mp3raid, Mp3skull, Newalbumreleases, Rapidlibrary, EZTV, FirstRowSports, Download4all, Movie2K, KickAssTorrents, Fenopy, H33T and The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p><strong>Proxies:</strong> Ytsre.come.in, Eztv.come.in, Fp.kleisauke.nl, Fenopy.5gg.biz, H33tunblock.info, H33t.uk.to, H33tproxy.co, H33tmirror.co, Katunblock.com, Katproxy.com, Kat.dashitz.com, Kat.kleisauke.nl, Katmirror.com, Kat.5gg.biz, Kickassunblock.info, Kickassproxy.info, Pirateproxy.net, Proxybay.net, Malaysiabay.org, Piratereverse.info, Pirateproxy.net, Campeche.zapto.org, Tpb.rubenstadman.com, Piratebay.interflective.com, Dashitz.com, Tpb.evrl.com</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90069
title: YouTube Terminates Top Indian News Network For Infringement
uri: YouTube-Terminates-Top-Indian-News-Network-For-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3Pno14C2l-E/
content:
<p><a href="media/f805d856.youtubesadsmall1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/youtubesadsmall1.png"><img src="media/d9d620b7.youtubesadsmall1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtubesadsmall1.png" alt="youtubesadsmall" width="200" height="145" class="alignright size-full wp-image-84333"></a>While many people get away with uploading infringing content to YouTube, the site&#8217;s ContentID system ensures that content belonging to many of the world&#8217;s leading entertainment companies gets spotted when it&#8217;s uploaded by an unauthorized third-party.</p>
<p>Unofficial uploads can also be subjected to a DMCA-style complaint, whereby rightsholders inform YouTube that content is illicit and should be removed. Mistakes do get made, so content uploaders get a chance to issue a counter-notice in dispute. The mechanism is far from perfect though, with the system weighted in favor of rightsholders with the &#8220;little guy&#8221; struggling to make his voice heard.</p>
<p>While those uploading pirated TV shows and movies have little to complain about when a &#8220;strike&#8221; is placed against their YouTube account, legitimate companies can also be subjected to the same kinds of complaints.</p>
<p>This morning a leading Indian news network is waking up to that reality and a pretty big headache after multiple strikes were lodged against its YouTube account. Multiple strikes are very bad, as the message from YouTube below illustrates.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/5a20d7c5.zeenewsyoutube.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zeenewsyoutube.png" alt="ZeeNews"></center></p>
<p>ZeeNews appears to be a decent sized player in the Indian market, operating via <a href="http://zeenews.india.com/">zeenews.india.com</a>, a sub-domain of the prestigious India.com. Its Twitter account has 457,000 followers and its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ZeeNews">Facebook page</a> 2.6 million likes. Overall, ZeeNews claims 140 million viewers across ten channels and the title of &#8220;India’s Largest News Network&#8221;. It&#8217;s <a href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=ZEEN:IN">owned by</a> Zee Media Corporation Ltd.</p>
<p>The precise nature of the complaints against the channel aren&#8217;t clear. The notice published by YouTube cites multiple complaints including those from &#8220;TF1&#8243; and &#8220;Wizcraft&#8221;. TF1 could be the French national TV channel of the same name and Wizcraft might possibly relate to an <a href="http://www.wizcraftworld.com/">Indian branding company</a> &#8211; TorrentFreak is awaiting responses from both.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, ZeeNews&#8217; YouTube account remains not merely suspended, but terminated. In most circumstances that means there is no chance of the account being put back online, but given ZeeNews&#8217; prominence it may be able to deal with YouTube, especially if there has been some kind of error.</p>
<p>Emails to the contact addresses listed by ZeeNews are currently bouncing, but we&#8217;ll persevere.</p>
<p><strong>Update June 25:</strong> The YouTube channel is back. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90070
title: MPAA Targets Reddit Community Over Movie Piracy
uri: MPAA-Targets-Reddit-Community-Over-Movie-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lBqe8ZMFQHM/
content:
<p><a href="media/ae240bd1.flf.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flf.jpg"><img src="media/ae240bd1.flf.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flf.jpg" alt="flf" width="250" height="104" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90073"></a>Every week copyright holders send millions of DMCA takedown notices to Google, hoping to make pirated movies and music harder to find.</p>
<p>Not all copyright holders take the same approach. Where the RIAA <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-50-million-140620/">targets millions</a> of infringing URLs per month, the MPAA only sends out a handful of notices. </p>
<p>Instead of using dragnet scripts to take down everything that links to infringing copies, the movie industry group specifically targets homepages of &#8216;rogue&#8217; sites and other high impact targets. In the latest DMCA notice, sent last week, Reddit ended up on the list.</p>
<p>Like many other user-generated content sites, Reddit has plenty of links to copyright infringing material. In fact, there are several sub-communities that are dedicated to finding and publishing lists to pirated material. </p>
<p>The subreddit <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/FullLengthFilms">r/fulllengthfilms</a> is a good example. Here, users are encouraged to post links to their favorite movies, preferably from legal sources. However, pretty much all links point to streams of pirated films including &#8220;Gravity&#8221; and &#8220;The Wolf of Wall Street.&#8221;</p>
<p>The MPAA is not happy with this growing list of movies. In their most recent takedown notice they ask Google to <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1781921">remove the entire subreddit</a> from its search engine, because it contains a link to a camcorded copy of &#8220;Edge of Tomorrow.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>MPAA&#8217;s takedown request</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/df5dfba2.flf-takedown-google.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flf-takedown-google.png"><img src="media/df5dfba2.flf-takedown-google.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flf-takedown-google.png" alt="flf-takedown-google" width="626" height="243" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90074"></a></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, Google has declined to action the MPAA&#8217;s takedown request. It&#8217;s not clear why the search giant refused to take it down, but one of the reasons may be that the MPAA did not limit their request to the &#8220;Edge of Tomorrow&#8221; posting. Instead, the movie industry group targeted the entire subreddit. </p>
<p>These broad takedown requests are not uncommon as most of the MPAA’s takedown notices contain homepages of download portals or streaming sites. In some cases the infringing work listed in the takedown request no longer appears on these homepages, and the MPAA often fails to list the internal page it’s supposed to link to.</p>
<p>With this strategy the MPAA has managed to remove the homepages of several popular sites from Google&#8217;s search results, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-kicks-kickasstorrents-off-google-with-precision-takedown-130623/">including</a> KickassTorrents. But Google doesn&#8217;t always comply. For the most recent DMCA notice it <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/requests/1250270/">refused to take down</a> most links, including the Reddit one. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s still unclear whether the MPAA also sent a takedown notice to Reddit. TorrentFreak asked Reddit for a comment on the news but we have yet to receive a response. </p>
<p>At the time of writing the FullLengthFilms subreddit and the &#8220;Edge of Tomorrow&#8221; posting remain online.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90104
title: Respect for File-Sharers’ Privacy Keeps Swiss on US Watch List
uri: Respect-for-File-Sharers-Privacy-Keeps-Swiss-on-US-Watch-List
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/H0h7r9NA3w4/
content:
<p><a href="media/d6746dd7.congress.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/congress.jpg"><img src="media/d6746dd7.congress.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/congress.jpg" alt="congress" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90108"></a>Over the past 12 years the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus has worked to highlight enforcement practices in need of improvement and to place countries perceived to be falling short of United States standards under the spotlight.</p>
<p>Yesterday the caucus became the International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus, a change of name shunning the term &#8216;piracy&#8217; in favor of an artist-focused theme that furthers the notion that infringement is the same as stealing.</p>
<p><strong>The Watch List</strong></p>
<p>As usual there are international winners and losers in the caucus report. On the up are Italy and the Philippines, with the former taking especially drastic steps to combat online file-sharing, including the blocking of &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites by an administrative body, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/off-us-blacklist-italy-begins-torrent-site-blackout-no-trials-needed-140510/">no court process required</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;In light of the reforms undertaken and a greater commitment to enforcing the law, both nations were removed from the Special 301 Report for the first time in its 25 year history. The caucus applauds Italy and the Philippines for undertaking reforms that recognize the importance of fostering creativity,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>But in terms of improvements, the praise stopped there. In the file-sharing space, Switzerland came under attack after a momentous court decision four years ago</p>
<p><strong>The Swiss file-sharing privacy safe haven</strong></p>
<p>The controversy surrounds the so-called &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-monitors-banned-from-operating-in-home-country-100909/">Logistep Decision</a>&#8216;. The Logistep anti-piracy outfit became infamous in the latter half of the last decade for their work providing tracking services for copyright trolls in Europe and the UK.</p>
<p>In 2010 following several years of legal wrangling and controversy, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered the anti-piracy outfit to stop harvesting the IP addresses of file-sharers. Underlining the notion that IP addresses are private data, the court&#8217;s decision effectively outlawed the tracking of file-sharers in Switzerland with the aim of later filing a lawsuit.</p>
<p>In its report the caucus says that Switzerland&#8217;s timeline (18 months minimum) for bringing the country &#8220;back up to international standards for protection of copyright&#8221; is unacceptable so the country will remain on the Watch List. That position is unlikely to change anytime soon considering the long Swiss tradition of respecting privacy.</p>
<p><strong>Russia</strong></p>
<p>Unsurprisingly the main site mentioned in respect of Russia is local Facebook variant vKontakte. The site has come under <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=vkontakte">sustained attacks</a> from both the RIAA and MPAA and the caucus is happy to keep up the pressure in 2014, despite Russia&#8217;s efforts to really <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/sites-to-be-blocked-in-russia-even-if-they-remove-pirate-content-140521/">tighten up</a> local copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Caucus urges the Russian Government to take prompt action against websites that actively facilitate the theft of copyrighted materials, in particular vKontakte which was again named as a  Notorious Market while remaining one of the most highly trafficked websites in Russia. Given the scale of online piracy emanating from Russia, it is crucial the Russia take serious and large scale action to enforce the law against rogue actors and end their status as a haven for digital  piracy,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p><strong>China and India</strong></p>
<p>As expected, China is yet again subjected to criticism, despite clear signs that the country is changing its attitudes towards IP enforcement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Though the climate for intellectual property has improved, driven in part by a growing domestic creative sector within China, the scale of piracy remains massive, inflicting substantial harm to American and Chinese creators,&#8221; the caucus says.</p>
<p>And despite playing host to a large local creative industry, the caucus says that India is not doing enough to protect IP either, with high rates of camcorder movie piracy and a lack of effective notice-and-takedown procedures both aggravating factors.</p>
<p><strong>Follow-the-money</strong></p>
<p>Given the current collaborations between governments and the private sector with their &#8220;follow-the-money&#8221; approach to dealing with infringement, it&#8217;s no surprise that the caucus has focused a section of its report on this initiative.</p>
<p>Current momentum sees strong international efforts to eliminate the appearance of major brands&#8217; advertising on &#8216;rogue&#8217; sites and the caucus reports further progress on that front. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), and Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have all reported taking &#8220;concrete steps&#8221; towards evaluating  “digital ad assurance” technologies to keep revenue away from pirate sites.</p>
<p>In a response, RIAA Executive Vice President Neil Turkewitz praised the caucus for its efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;Their work on advertising has already led to various improvements, and we hope that soon the lure of generating money from advertising will no longer be viable for sites serving as distribution hubs for infringing content,&#8221; Turkewitz said.</p>
<p>Echoing the words of Italian Ambassador Claudio Bisogniero, who had been invited to the report&#8217;s unveiling in recognition of his country&#8217;s anti-piracy achievements, the MPAA reiterated that the protection of copyright on the Internet is essential to the development of business.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the MPAA, we couldn’t agree more, and deeply appreciate the steps being taken by the caucus to help protect the creative industries and the millions of workers they employ – both here in the United States and abroad,&#8221; the MPAA conclude. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90113
title: Dotcom’s Internet Party Wants to Abolish “Geo Blocking” Restrictions
uri: Dotcom-s-Internet-Party-Wants-to-Abolish-Geo-Blocking-Restrict
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/U1nq5qol_rw/
content:
<p><a href="media/8ac2132a.internetparty.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/internetparty.png"><img src="media/8ac2132a.internetparty.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/internetparty.png" alt="internetparty" width="243" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90114"></a>Last January, exactly two years after the Megaupload raid, Kim Dotcom entered New Zealand&#8217;s political arena with <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-internet-party-aims-to-shake-up-politics-140115/">the launch</a> of his <a href="https://internet.org.nz/">Internet Party</a>. </p>
<p>The party is currently preparing for the general election in September. While Dotcom will not be on the voting ballot himself, he remains one of the main influencers of the party&#8217;s policy.</p>
<p>As the name suggests, many of the party&#8217;s core issues revolve around the Internet, copyright included. Today the Internet Party <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Le3rY0wlh9tJaBzpxK5xrpeWID-j5FmeE4dqONdQATE/edit?pli=1">released a draft</a> of its copyright policy with several suggestions for an overhaul of current legislation.</p>
<p>One of the key issues the Internet Party wants to change is the liability New Zealanders face for using <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">VPN services</a> and other circumvention tools to access legal content. At the moment, it is illegal for them to stream content from U.S-based Hulu and Netflix via proxies or VPNs. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with Kim Dotcom who notes that consumers shouldn&#8217;t be punished for the inability of Hollywood to release its content globally. Dotcom hopes that these changes will eventually put a stop to the unnecessary release delays.</p>
<p>&#8220;The primary goal of this policy is to force copyright holders to release their content globally, without geographical restrictions. If a TV-show is not available in New Zealand for three months after the U.S. release, there should be no enforcement during this period,&#8221; Dotcom tells us.</p>
<p>&#8220;Content owners should be held responsible, not the public. The &#8216;geo blocking&#8217; proposal forces Hollywood to change its business model and release its content worldwide without delays,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>Dotcom hopes that the Internet Party proposal will serve as model for future copyright law that will eventually be adopted around the world.</p>
<p><center><strong>Hulu&#8217;s Geo Blocking</strong></center><center><a href="media/fdd0b292.hului-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hului-block.png"><img src="media/fdd0b292.hului-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hului-block.png" alt="hului-block" width="964" height="460" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90116"></a></center></p>
<p>Internet Party leader Laila Harré notes that the current situation is unmanageable. The Internet has made it possible to release content worldwide without any delays, but content owners refuse to give consumers what they want. </p>
<p>“A Kiwi who wants to watch the latest season of first run TV shows like Games of Thrones, for example, shouldn&#8217;t be forced to jump through hoops to access what should be legally and easily available online. It’s a ridiculous situation in this day and age,&#8221; Harré notes. </p>
<p>Thus far most progress has subsequently been drawn in the opposite direction. In an attempt to crack down on people who bypass geo restrictions, Hulu recently started to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/hulu-blocks-vpn-users-over-piracy-concerns-140425/">ban all visitors</a> who use a VPN connection. </p>
<p>Instead of fighting circumvention, the Internet Party believes that copyright holders should address the root of the problem themselves. Making sure that the latest TV-shows can be watched legally is a must, and although some progress has been made over the years, the legal options are still lacking.</p>
<p>“Some excellent work has been done by some copyright owners and content providers to make good legal options available to New Zealanders. But there’s still a long way to go, especially for some types of content such as globally popular first run television shows broadcast overseas but not available in New Zealand for weeks or months, if at all,&#8221; Harré says.</p>
<p>Aside from geo blocking issues, the Internet Party also wants to abolish the Internet disconnection sanction available under New Zealand&#8217;s &#8220;three-strikes&#8221; law, and strengthen the &#8220;safe harbor&#8221; provisions for Internet services to prevent abuse by copyright holders.</p>
<p>The full draft of the Internet Party&#8217;s copyright and open research policy is <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Le3rY0wlh9tJaBzpxK5xrpeWID-j5FmeE4dqONdQATE/edit?pli=1">available here</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90142
title: ‘Failed’ Piracy Letters Should Escalate to Fines & Jail, MP Says
uri: Failed-Piracy-Letters-Should-Escalate-to-Fines-Jail-MP-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VdK-e3NwW5I/
content:
<p>Proponents of the Digital Economy Act 2010 believed it had the solutions to deter consumer file-sharing, but four years on and the relevant measures remain dormant. This inactivity led to a new and recently announced solution, the so-called <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">Voluntary Copyright Alerts Program</a>.</p>
<p>VCAP is an agreement between the music and movie industries and several of the UK&#8217;s leading ISPs. The idea is that the entertainment companies monitor P2P networks (such as BitTorrent) and identify IP addresses connected to the illegal sharing of infringing content. That data is passed to the ISPs, the IP addresses are linked to customer accounts, and errant subscribers are sent a warning.</p>
<p>The idea behind VCAP is to educate the casual file-sharer about legal alternatives in the hope he will change his ways, but the softly-softly approach has its limitations. A reliable source close to the program told TorrentFreak that the focus of VCAP is the repeat infringer. However, after a customer receives four warnings he will receive no more.</p>
<p>On some level there appears to be some kind of acceptance that little can be done about hardcore file-sharers, an approach mirrored in the U.S. with its Copyright Alerts Scheme. But while there are suggestions that the worst-of-the-worst can simply do whatever they like under the UK program, consideration is already being given to what happens should VCAP fail following its 2015 introduction.</p>
<p>Aside from the Digital Economy Act sitting in the wings, Prime Minister David Cameron&#8217;s IP advisor believes that the carrot needs to be backed up by a stick. In a report published yesterday largely detailing the &#8220;Follow the Money&#8221; approach to dealing with pirate sites, Mike Weatherley MP says now is the time to think about VCAP&#8217;s potential failure.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) is welcomed and will be a good step forward once it is hopefully in operation in 2015, although it is primarily an education tool,&#8221; Weatherley says.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, we need to start thinking now what to do if these notices are ignored by infringers – will VCAP be followed by something more enforceable?&#8221;</p>
<p>Weatherley says that while the IP enforcement &#8220;stick&#8221; is a &#8220;last resort option&#8221;, being able to show &#8220;teeth&#8221; is important. Unsurprisingly, those measures involve hitting persistent pirates harder and harder each time they show defiance.</p>
<p>&#8220;It should be a graduated enforcement response,&#8221; Weatherley explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Warnings and fines are obvious first steps, with internet access blocking and custodial sentencing for persistent and damaging infringers not to be ruled out in my<br>
opinion.&#8221;</p>
<p>These suggestions aren&#8217;t new, but this is the second time in a matter of months that the Prime Minister&#8217;s closest advisor on IP matters has spoken publicly about the possibility of putting persistent file-sharers in jail.</p>
<p>Earlier this year <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-considers-throwing-persistent-internet-pirates-in-jail-140123/">we reported</a> on comments Weatherley made in the House of Commons on the prison option. Although he never denied using those words, the MP did attempt to dismiss the tone of the ensuing debate as containing &#8220;misinformation&#8221;.</p>
<p>Not to say though, that jail will be immediately on the cards for pirates. Weatherley says that education has to come first, with an emphasis placed on informing consumers that &#8220;piracy and similar illegal activities are not in their best long-term interests and are not socially acceptable.&#8221; The second phase will see the onus placed on industry &#8220;to get their product right and attractive&#8221; to consumers. </p>
<p>&#8220;[The third stage] once we have won the ‘hearts and minds’ of consumers and provided suitable content, keeps the option of enforcement of copyright law on the table when all else has been exhausted,&#8221; the MP says.</p>
<p>Given Weatherley&#8217;s suggested plan for preparing now for VCAP&#8217;s failure, the ISPs involved in the scheme (BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media) must be considering the kind of road they&#8217;re being led down. While sending out warnings with no mitigation measures sounds reasonable enough today, if that transforms into a cash fine, disconnections and jail sentence model in future, the whole thing could turn into a PR disaster.</p>
<p>Update: Prime Minister David Cameron says he will &#8220;<a href="http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/prime-minister-to-closely-consider-weatherley-s-anti-piracy-report/058837">closely consider</a>&#8221; Weatherley&#8217;s report.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90166
title: Movie Boss Loses the Plot Over ISP Piracy Liability
uri: Movie-Boss-Loses-the-Plot-Over-ISP-Piracy-Liability
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/U131SGdb5sI/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>It&#8217;s probably fair to say that Village Roadshow and iiNet don&#8217;t get on. The pair are so far apart on how to deal with the piracy issue they ended up in court together, a battle that iiNet won when the court found that the ISP <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/iinet-isp-not-liable-for-bittorrent-piracy-high-court-rules-120420/">could not be held liable</a> for the infringements of its users.</p>
<p>The decision did nothing to change the positions of either company and in recent weeks a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/ignorant-movie-boss-lying-isp-fight-publicly-over-piracy-140619/">very public dispute</a> broke out between iiNet Chief Regulatory Officer Steve Dalby and Village Roadshow co-CEO Graham Burke. The topic? The former&#8217;s continued but now legally supported refusal to take responsibility the activities of its customers.</p>
<p>While some may have a level of sympathy with Burke&#8217;s predicament, retreading old ground over ISP liability can hardly be the solution. Today even more inflammables were thrown onto the fire.</p>
<p>Should a knife manufacturer be held responsible for what happened in the Psycho shower scene? Should Ford be held liable for a drunk driver piloting one of their vehicles? These rhetorical questions have well-trodden answers, but Burke hasn&#8217;t been paying attention.</p>
<p>In a new interview with <a href="http://www.cnet.com/au/news/village-roadshow-says-iinet-is-complicit-in-piracy/">CNET</a>, Burke again attacked Dalby, accusing him of &#8220;distorting the picture&#8221; in the face of the Village Roadshow chief&#8217;s self-claimed fairness.</p>
<p>&#8220;For him to be continuing to distort the picture when he clearly knows otherwise is very depressing,&#8221; Burke said. &#8220;I&#8217;m dealing with it in a transparent and open and honest way and I wished we could get that from iiNet.&#8221;</p>
<p>And then the bombshell.</p>
<p>&#8220;iiNet are selling a car which happens to kill people on the roads, so they should be paying towards that. It&#8217;s the car that&#8217;s faulty. In this instance it&#8217;s the fault of the car, not the driver. They&#8217;re providing a service which enables people to steal other people&#8217;s property, so&#8230;some of the costs should be theirs,&#8221; Burke said.</p>
<p>&#8220;All Mr Dalby wants is to continue to have this extraordinary smorgasbord of product that&#8217;s made by creative people, with the sweat of their passion and labors, and that he can have a mechanism where he can be the conduit that provides that free and he clips the ticket. He&#8217;s complicit.&#8221;</p>
<p>Clearly there is nothing inherently faulty with iiNet&#8217;s service. It&#8217;s essentially an empty pipe that the customer can fill in the manner of his choosing, and one that&#8217;s no more broken than the postal or telephone systems that preceded it. Nevertheless, Burke still wants to shoot the messenger and Dalby is having none of it.</p>
<p>There can be no doubt that Village Roadshow and its Hollywood affiliates feel they have a big problem to solve, but with arguments like these it&#8217;s easy to see how the dispute with iiNet has gone on for so long. Indeed, there appears to have been no progress made in half a decade.</p>
<p>Of course, there&#8217;s always the possibility that the government will step in with the three strikes system that Burke is pushing hard for. If that happens, Burke will have &#8220;won&#8221;, but when that victory will arrive is another matter entirely, raising the specter of yet more out-of-date legislation before it even arrives.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90144
title: Hundreds of Paid Informants Help to Rat Out Software Pirates
uri: Hundreds-of-Paid-Informants-Help-to-Rat-Out-Software-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xmQfJpi0ygo/
content:
<p><a href="media/84ed2f9e.nopiracy.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy.png"><img src="media/76fd4240.nopiracy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy.png" alt="nopiracy" width="183" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83919"></a>Earlier this year we <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/bsa-offers-facebook-users-cash-rat-pirates-140215/">reported</a> on a controversial anti-piracy campaign operated by the Business Software Alliance (BSA).</p>
<p>Representing major software companies, the BSA uses Facebook ads which encourage people to report businesses that use unlicensed software. If one of these reports results in a successful court case, the pirate snitch can look forward to a cash reward.</p>
<p>Below is one of the promoted <a href="https://www.facebook.com/reportsoftwarepiracy">Facebook posts</a> that has appeared in the timelines of thousands of people, encouraging them to expose software piracy in return for hard cash.</p>
<p><center><strong>BSA&#8217;s Facebook ad</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/5e65eb9c.report-piracy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/report-piracy.jpg"><img src="media/5e65eb9c.report-piracy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/report-piracy.jpg" alt="report-piracy" width="792" height="414" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90146"></a></center></p>
<p>While most responses on Facebook are negative, it appears that the campaign is not without results. In an interview with <a href="http://www.radio.cz/">Radio Prague</a>, the spokesman for the Czech branch of the BSA notes that the informant program has been a great success thus far. </p>
<p>&#8220;[The campaign is] very successful. We did it because we wanted to catch big fish. In the past, many informants did not want to disclose who they were, and it was difficult to set up serious communication with them.&#8221; the BSA&#8217;s Jan Hlaváč says.</p>
<p>“The only way out of this was to offer them something that would motivate them to fully cooperate. That’s why we decided to launch this programme, to reward information that leads not only to identifying illegal software but to bringing the whole case to the end,” he adds.</p>
<p>The cash reward has increased the number of serious tips and in the Czech Republic alone the BSA receives about 30 leads per month. Similar campaigns also run in the United States, Canada, the UK and Australia, where hundreds of tips come in every week.</p>
<p>Some of these tips lead to a follow up investigation where BSA offers the alleged infringer a settlement offer. In the Czech Republic alone there are currently several cases pending, worth roughly $500,000. If a settlement is reached, the informant will get a share, ranging from <a href="https://reporting.bsa.org/r/report/canada/rewardsconditions.aspx">$5,000 to $200,000</a>. </p>
<p><center><strong>Another BSA Facebook ad</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/ee8daf3e.getpaid.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/getpaid.jpg"><img src="media/ee8daf3e.getpaid.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/getpaid.jpg" alt="getpaid" width="792" height="414" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90147"></a></center></p>
<p>Earlier this week the BSA released new data (<a href="media/93e35bf0.2013GlobalSurvey_Study_en.pdf" data-original-source="http://globalstudy.bsa.org/2013/downloads/studies/2013GlobalSurvey_Study_en.pdf">pdf</a>) on piracy levels worldwide, with the rate of unlicensed software decreasing in most western countries.</p>
<p>Between 2011 and 2013 the percentage of unlicensed software installed on computers dropped from 19% to 18% in the United States, and similar downward trends were observed in the UK and elsewhere. </p>
<p>In the Czech Republic piracy rates decreased from 37% to 34%, and according to the BSA this is in part due to the snitch campaign.</p>
<p>&#8220;Definitely. The programme has helped a great deal convince companies that the legal risks are not worth it,&#8221; Hlaváč says.</p>
<p>Despite this success there is still plenty of work to be done. Globally the percentage of pirate software increased slightly, representing a total value of $62.7 billion, so there&#8217;s plenty of bounty left.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90198
title: Spotify Wants to Convert More Music Pirates
uri: Spotify-Wants-to-Convert-More-Music-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3giQNITpNt0/
content:
<p><a href="media/15e2b1a1.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg"><img src="media/7abb2d22.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg" alt="cassette" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-84245"></a>When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008 it started a small revolution.</p>
<p>With the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small subscription fee, Spotify offered something that&#8217;s more convenient than piracy. </p>
<p>In the years that followed Spotify rolled out its music service in more than 60 countries, amassing dozens of millions of users. This has led to a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/music-piracy-continues-to-decline-thanks-to-spotify-110928/">decline in music piracy rates</a> in a few countries, but the problem is far from gone yet.</p>
<p>Spotify Australia&#8217;s managing director Kate Vale told <a href="http://www.cnet.com/au/news/spotify-australia-our-major-competitor-is-piracy/">Cnet</a>  that one of the company&#8217;s key goals is to convert those who still get their music via unauthorized channels. </p>
<p>&#8220;People that are pirating music and not paying for it, they are the ones we want on our platform. It&#8217;s important for us to be reaching these individuals that have never paid for music before in their life, and get them onto a service that&#8217;s legal and gives money back to the rights holders,&#8221; Vale says.</p>
<p>According to Vale, the music industry was in part to blame for the surge in piracy during the last decade, as the legal alternatives were lacking. </p>
<p>&#8220;Until there&#8217;s free, legal and timely ways for people to download content, then they&#8217;re going to turn to illegal ways of doing it,&#8221; she says.</p>
<p>Today the legal options are there in most countries, but getting people to give up their old habits requires time. According to Vale there are still 2.8 million Australians who pirate music on a monthly basis, sharing a total 1 billion songs a year.</p>
<p>In the years ahead Spotify hopes to convert these people with a product that&#8217;s superior to piracy. This would mean more revenue for the music industry, and thus a win-win for all.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we can get even half of these people onto Spotify or legal services, it means there&#8217;s going to be money back in the industry which is good for artists, streaming services like ourselves,&#8221; Vale says.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90230
title: “Rogue” Video Site Refuses to Pay Record $42m Piracy Fine
uri: Rogue-Video-Site-Refuses-to-Pay-Record-42m-Piracy-Fine
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3-xE8t32hNw/
content:
<p><a href="media/c740729f.qvod.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/qvod.png"><img src="media/c533dc41.qvod-150x150.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/qvod-150x150.png" alt="qvod" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-86998"></a>Each year the United States Trade Representative publishes a &#8220;notorious markets&#8221; report detailing international sites whose services operate below U.S. standards of copyright protection. China regularly has at least one company in the list, sometimes several.</p>
<p>Most recently the USTR indirectly called out the Shenzhen QVOD Technology Co., creator of QVOD, a technology designed to enable businesses to distribute their content online using BitTorrent, P2P, and streaming technology.</p>
<p>Earlier this year the company indicated it was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/notorious-market-blocks-piracy-in-its-p2p-streaming-player-140419/">taking steps</a> to stop its service being used for the transfer of protected content after the National Copyright Administration said it was infringing. Just just days later, however, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rogue-video-site-goes-straight-immediately-gets-raided-by-police-140423/">QVOD was raided</a> by the police. Adding to its woes, in May the company was found guilty of allowing the distribution of pornographic content via its service.</p>
<p>But despite its overtures towards licensed content, QVOD now has a sizable copyright-related headache to contend with. Following a hearing earlier this month, an authority in Shenzhen hit QVOD  with a record-breaking fine equivalent to $42m after finding the company guilty of distributing local movie and TV show content online without rightsholder permission.  </p>
<p>&#8220;According to our investigation [QVOD] earned 86.7 million yuan ($13.83m) from illegal practices. The fine levied amounts to three times the illegal gains, an amount the law allows,&#8221; a spokesman for the Shenzhen Market Supervision Administration said.</p>
<p>After being formally served on QVOD yesterday, the company was given 15 days to pay the fine. Any delays doing so will prove costly, with the authorities adding an additional 3% ($1.26m) to the fine for each day beyond the deadline.</p>
<p>The company does have the right to appeal the decision, either via administrative review or directly to the court within 90 days, but in the meantime QVOD has been ordered to pay the $42m fine. However, local media <a href="http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-06/27/c_126678287.htm">reports</a> that the company is intending to mount a legal fight back to avoid paying up as required.</p>
<p>QVOD says it will appeal on three points &#8211; that the penalties are &#8220;unreasonable&#8221;, that the company &#8220;caused no great harm to society&#8221;, and that the company&#8217;s video player had no ads or subscription fees to generate profit from users.</p>
<p>A company insider, who spoke with local media on condition of anonymity, said that accepting the fine would mean not being able to pay 400 to 500 employees.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90232
title: Comcast Must Share Six-Strikes Warnings with Copyright Troll, Court Rules
uri: Comcast-Must-Share-Six-Strikes-Warnings-with-Copyright-Troll-Court-Ru
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/C_OAzpvKUFk/
content:
<p><a href="media/70261aaa.comcast.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/comcast.jpg"><img src="media/759cf2e9.comcast.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/comcast.jpg" alt="comcast" width="170" height="60" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53356"></a>Last year the RIAA and MPAA teamed up with five of the largest Internet providers in the U.S. to begin issuing warnings to alleged copyright infringers. </p>
<p>As part of this partnership the ISPs have to store all warnings their customers receive. Opponents feared that this data could be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-scheme-may-lead-to-lawsuits-against-pirates-121212/">used against these individuals</a> in court, which is specifically permitted under the agreement. </p>
<p>“The Content Owner Representatives [MPAA / RIAA] or any other member of the Participating Content Owners Group may use such reports or data as the basis for seeking a Subscriber’s identity through a subpoena or order or other lawful process,” the agreement reads.</p>
<p>However, as it turns out, the first legal consequences aren&#8217;t a result of action taken by Hollywood or the major record labels. They come from the adult video publisher Malibu Media, a so-called copyright troll that has filed over 750 lawsuits against alleged infringers this year alone. </p>
<p>In their case against Kelley Tashiro, a middle-aged female nurse from Indianapolis, the company had trouble proving that an infringement actually took place. But instead of backing down, they put their money on the six-strikes warnings databases.</p>
<p>Malibu <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/copyright-troll-demands-comcasts-six-strikes-data-for-lawsuit-140425/">asked the court</a> to order Comcast to release all data being held as part of the Copyright Alert System. While Malibu is not part of the program, this data may show that the Internet connection was used to share pirated content on more occasions.</p>
<p>“DMCA notices and six strike notices are relevant because these notices may prove a pattern of infringement or notice that infringement is occurring or both,” Malibu noted in its motion.</p>
<p>A copy of the recorded copyright infringements wasn&#8217;t enough for Malibu though, the company also asked for details of Tashiro’s bandwidth consumption, suggesting that this could indicate whether she is an infringer or not.</p>
<p>“Bandwidth usage is relevant because people who are heavy BitTorrent users use significantly more bandwidth than normal internet users,” the company’s sweeping generalization reads.</p>
<p>This week Indiana District Court Judge Mark Dinsmore granted Malibu&#8217;s motion, which means that Comcast will be ordered to share the requested evidence. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiff’s Motion is GRANTED. Plaintiff may serve a third party subpoena on Comcast and Comcast should comply with Plaintiff’s Subpoena Duces Tecum<br>
for deposition as outlined in Plaintiff’s Motion,&#8221; the Judge writes. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/e913867a.order-comcast.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/order-comcast.png"><img src="media/e913867a.order-comcast.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/order-comcast.png" alt="order-comcast" width="668" height="293" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90234"></a></center></p>
<p>Comcast has not yet responded to the order, but considering the sensitivity of the subject the Internet provider is expected to file an appeal. </p>
<p>Currently it’s not known whether Tashiro has ever received a copyright alert, but the RIAA, MPAA and other participants in the Copyright Alerts System will not be pleased with these latest developments.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.copyrightinformation.org/">Center for Copyright Information</a>, which oversees the program, has always emphasized that the program respects the privacy of Internet subscribers. Having it used against alleged downloaders by copyright holders that are not even part of the scheme is bad PR for them, to say the least. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90137
title: Parents of Pirate Site Admin Sentenced For Money Laundering
uri: Parents-of-Pirate-Site-Admin-Sentenced-For-Money-Laundering
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nU0WxYhIbxA/
content:
<p><a href="media/0a5db01e.flag-italy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/flag-italy.jpg"><img src="media/ec156e39.flag-italy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flag-italy.jpg" alt="flag-italy" width="200" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-40399"></a>Back in February 2012, Italian media began reporting on the sudden closure of two popular file-sharing sites said to have 270,000 users.</p>
<p>Acting on a court order, the Guardia di Finanza (financial police) seized the domains of Scaricolibero.com and Filmgratis.tv and ordered ISPs to block the IP addresses of the sites&#8217; servers in the Netherlands. The order also authorized seizure of bank accounts connected to the site.</p>
<p>The order was granted based on allegations of copyright infringement from local entertainment companies and claims of receiving stolen goods/money laundering. At the time the sites were said to be making around $300 a day from advertising.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/81d5919e.it-seized.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/it-seized.jpg" alt="IT-seized"></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s taken more than two years but this week the Italian legal system finally wrapped up the case against the sites&#8217; former operator and his family accomplices, finding all three guilty as charged.</p>
<p>Fortunately the now 23-year-old will not spend any time behind bars, having been handed a 22 month suspended sentence after generating around 137,000 euros from the sites. Interestingly, his parents also became involved in the case after allowing their bank account to be used to collect advertising revenue.</p>
<p>&#8220;The parents, who owned the bank account where the money from ads were allocated, were sentenced for money laundering,&#8221; Enzo Mazzo of music industry group Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The couple received a 10 month suspended sentence after <a href="http://www.key4biz.it/News/2014/06/25/Policy/Ddaonline_pirata_italiano_pena_ricettazione_225690.html">benefitting</a> to the tune of 48,000 euros.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a very good decision,&#8221; Mazza adds. &#8220;Our anti-piracy team FPM assisted during the case and we are really satisfied with the decision which has shown clear evidence of the link between piracy and the collection of money through advertisements.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the future FIMI and its local associates will be looking to take a more proactive approach by stopping revenue reaching pirate sites in the first place. Earlier this month a new Italian coalition <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/google-joins-new-coalition-to-stop-ad-revenue-to-pirate-sites-140609/">announced its plans</a> to continue the &#8220;follow-the-money&#8221; theme being played out around Europe and the United States.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90209
title: Pirate Bay Founders’ File-Hosting Site Wiped From Google
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founders-File-Hosting-Site-Wiped-From-Google
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TAInKRH9wGE/
content:
<p><a href="media/a6263690.bayfiles-logo1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bayfiles-logo1.png"><img src="media/a6263690.bayfiles-logo1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bayfiles-logo1.png" alt="bayfiles-logo" width="250" height="189" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90211"></a>Nearly three years ago Pirate Bay founders Fredrik Neij and Peter Sunde launched <a href="http://bayfiles.net">Bayfiles</a>, a new file-sharing venture. </p>
<p>The site has been growing ever since and has accumulated a steady user base. Instead of using P2P transfers, Bayfiles users can upload and download large files directly from the site.</p>
<p>Besides some issues with their payment provider, Bayfiles hasn&#8217;t run into any significant problems to date. However, very recently the site suffered a setback after it became impossible to reach through Google. </p>
<p>Without explanation, Google wiped all of the tens of thousands of Bayfiles links from its search index. The search results below show that the file-hosting service is no longer featured as the top result and a more specific search reveals that <a href="https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ncr#q=site:bayfiles.net">all of the site&#8217;s URLs</a> have been wiped. </p>
<p><center><strong>No Bayfiles in Google</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/4223d409.bayfiles-goner.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bayfiles-goner.png"><img src="media/4223d409.bayfiles-goner.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bayfiles-goner.png" alt="bayfiles-goner" width="616" height="620" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90213"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with the Bayfiles team who have no clue what&#8217;s going on. Their robots.txt allows the site to be indexed and other search engines <a href="http://www.bing.com/search?q=bayfiles">such as Bing</a> do so just fine. </p>
<p>&#8220;Perhaps they don&#8217;t like filehosting services that can&#8217;t be cut off from their payment provider, as we no longer have paid accounts,&#8221; the Bayfiles team suggests. </p>
<p>Bayfiles never had a lot of traffic from search engines so there is no major impact on visitor numbers. Still, it&#8217;s never good to have your entire service removed by Google.</p>
<p>The most likely explanation is that Google found Bayfiles guilty of some sort of violation for which the site has been removed from Google as a penalty. What type of violation that might be remains a mystery to the site&#8217;s operators.</p>
<p>Penalty or not, Bayfiles will continue to serve files all around the world, free of charge.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=89971
title: uTorrent Makes Advertisement Optional Again
uri: uTorrent-Makes-Advertisement-Optional-Again
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6wFOF5xxTp8/
content:
<p><a href="media/3b80c447.utorrent-logo-new.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/utorrent-logo-new.jpg"><img src="media/f1b12f99.utorrent-logo-new.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrent-logo-new.jpg" alt="utorrent-logo-new" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55606"></a>With roughly 150 million monthly users uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client around. </p>
<p>This dazzling number is a dream for most advertising agencies, but not all uTorrent users appreciate an ad-filled application. </p>
<p>When the makers of uTorrent made the client ad-supported two years ago there was a small <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-makes-ads-optional-following-user-revolt-120815/">user revolt</a>. As a result, parent company BitTorrent Inc. chose to make the ads optional. </p>
<p>However, earlier this month the company appeared to have changed this position. Without public notice the banner position in the lower left corner was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-makes-advertisement-unremovable-in-latest-release-140602/">made permanent</a>. </p>
<p><center><strong>The bottom left ad(s)<br></br></strong></center><center><a href="media/0192b819.utorrentads.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentads.jpg"><img src="media/0192b819.utorrentads.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrentads.jpg" alt="utorrentads" width="891" height="536" class="alignright size-full wp-image-88927"></a></center></p>
<p>Previously, users had the option to turn the ad off through the options dropdown menu but this option was removed. The advanced setting that allowed users to disable the banner ad disappeared as well.</p>
<p>Fast forward a couple of weeks and the uTorrent team now appears to have reconsidered its position. The latest stable release, which came out just before the weekend, reinstated the advanced setting.</p>
<p>&#8220;Added back: Feature gui_plus_upsell in advanced settings,&#8221; the <a href="http://releasenotes.utorrent.com/customer/portal/articles/1584967-current-stable-release">changelog reads</a>.</p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc. hasn&#8217;t commented publicly on the forced advertisement issue, but it seems plausible that the company reconsidered its earlier decision after users voiced their complaints. However, since the ad can only be disabled through the advanced settings, it&#8217;s expected that most users will never turn it off anyway.</p>
<p>In addition to the toolbars and other software bundled with uTorrent, ads are an important source of revenue for BitTorrent Inc. Last year the company said that uTorrent is good for five billion ad impressions a month. </p>
<p>Judging from these numbers the revenue potential is enormous, as long as you don&#8217;t alienate the users.</p>
<p><center><strong>Banner can be disabled now<br></br></strong></center><center><a href="media/96f99320.upsell.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/upsell.png"><img src="media/96f99320.upsell.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/upsell.png" alt="upsell" width="753" height="593" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90333"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90299
title: Bing TV Show Search Flies Under the Pirate-Hunter Radar
uri: Bing-TV-Show-Search-Flies-Under-the-Pirate-Hunter-Radar
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZlRT0ZrZkFg/
content:
<p><a href="media/63942d0e.bing-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bing-logo.jpg"><img src="media/63942d0e.bing-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bing-logo.jpg" alt="bing-logo" width="180" height="132" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90308"></a>Google is only too aware of its currently unpopularity with rightsholders. While the search giant provides superb and often vital Internet services, the music and movie industries are desperate for infringing results to disappear from Google&#8217;s indexes.</p>
<p>Every week the search engine receives millions of DMCA takedown notices requiring it to take case-by-case action, but the company&#8217;s reluctance to do something more permanent has made it search-engine-enemy-#1 with copyright holders who never miss an opportunity to lay on the criticism.</p>
<p>In the background, however, Microsoft&#8217;s Bing flies comparatively under the radar. Sure it processes plenty of takedown notices too, but it receives little of the corporate pressure piled onto Google. This can only be a result of Google&#8217;s place in the market, since Mr Don&#8217;t Be Evil has done more than its rival to combat piracy.</p>
<p>Case in point, Bing&#8217;s powerful and somewhat under-used streaming video search engine which offers to find TV shows from the get-go.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0734f549.bing-tvshows.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bing-tvshows.jpg" alt="bing-tv"></center></p>
<p>While Google gets heavily criticized for its AutoComplete feature (which is already partially censored following copyright holder requests), Bing has no problem in first offering TV shows and then completing suggestions of what to watch. Tap in &#8220;BRE&#8221; and at the top of the list appears BREAKING BAD. We clicked the option &#8211; Bing delivered.</p>
<p>The first few results are shown below but those are just the tip of the iceberg and more specific show searches hardly ever come up short either. The auto-suggestions at the top of the screen are there in case ideas run out too, helpfully pushing the user towards varies series and specific episodes.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/ca11785e.bing-breaking.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bing-breaking.png" alt="Bing-breaking"></center></p>
<p>As can be seen from the image above, those who are fussy over the quality of the content being presented can filter by resolution too, right up to 1080p. Also, restricting searches to videos over 20 mins rejects many trailers and other samplers in favor of episodes and full length movies.</p>
<p>Aside from being a pretty good search engine (it came up with some long-forgotten TV show pilots from the 1970s), Bing also has a rather nice trick up its sleeve. Hover a mouse over any video thumbnail shown in the results and its size will instantly increase to display a proper video preview of the content in question. As far as we&#8217;re aware, no other search engine online today does that.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/07ef3db4.bing-tpb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bing-tpb.png" alt="bing-tpb"></center></p>
<p>Of course, someone at Bing isn&#8217;t deliberately programming its engine to present infringing results, those are determined by intelligence gleaned from user search requests. That being said, if Google debuted a new &#8220;TV Show&#8221; search engine tomorrow and began auto-completing and auto-suggesting infringing TV content, weeks-long industry hysteria would ensue.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s also worth pointing out that Google also has a decent video search which is almost certainly used by many, many more millions than Bing&#8217;s. It&#8217;s nowhere near as glossy and definitely not as &#8216;risky&#8217; in how it presents content, but that won&#8217;t stop the search company from continuing to take most of the rightsholder flak due to its colossal userbase and its uncontested position in the market.</p>
<p>Make no mistake, Google will remain in the firing line for the foreseeable future, even while other companies get away with much, much more. But their time will come, it&#8217;s almost inevitable, an event that could be triggered by Google caving in to increasing rightsholder demands.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/2327732957">Image credit</a></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90347
title: The File-Sharing Wars Are Anything But Over
uri: The-File-Sharing-Wars-Are-Anything-But-Over
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4v4pHJCUo-0/
content:
<p><a href="media/15e2b1a1.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg"><img src="media/7abb2d22.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg" alt="cassette" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-84245"></a>The two sides in the conflict over sharing culture and knowledge have rarely been further from each other in their view of the world.</p>
<p>On one hand, you have the copyright industry, now content thinking it won the war against the net generation &#8211; or net generations by now (plural). File-sharing has stopped growing, the copyright industry observes, and controlled streaming is growing exponentially. New technology has produced a better offering that outcompeted the inferior pirate alternatives, and in the end, people wanted to do the legal thing, the copyright industry argues.</p>
<p>But this is very far from the truth. The only true part of it is that the number of people sharing culture and knowledge is no longer growing exponentially, but that&#8217;s because the habit is saturated. One-third of young people in the US and Europe today share culture &#8211; in violation of the copyright monopoly &#8211; daily or almost-daily. A phenomenon can&#8217;t keep growing exponentially forever in a finite population: eventually, everybody&#8217;s doing it, and that&#8217;s the point we have arrived at now.</p>
<p>Apart from that, it is true that the copyright industry has produced better offerings: Pandora, Netflix, and HBO streaming. But so have the people who manufacture their copies without a license. The Pirate Bay is ten years old; almost as old as Microsoft&#8217;s Windows XP, to put it in context. (Anybody remember Microsoft?) Yet, despite HBO&#8217;s successful and profitable subscription model, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/game-thrones-season-finale-sets-piracy-record-140616/">record numbers</a> of us get our latest fix of Game of Thrones delivered automatically directly to our desktop the instant it is available, courtesy of RSS torrenting and EZTV, or your own favorite supplier.</p>
<p>And if we don&#8217;t like torrenting, but actually like streaming? Turns out that the pirate equivalents of the commercial offerings far surpass the simplicity, accessibility, and ease of use of the copyright industry&#8217;s technology &#8211; and that&#8217;s not even going into selection and absence of laughingly stupid &#8220;not available in your country&#8221; messages. From <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-gives-users-anonymity-with-a-free-built-in-vpn-140607/">Popcorn Time</a> to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/zona-is-a-popcorn-time-beater-and-a-pirates-dream-140425/">Zona</a>, the happy amateur sharers are miles and leagues ahead of the copyright industry. The technology that the copyright industry claims &#8220;already has won the war&#8221; for that obsolete industry? Well, it turns out that the net generation could use the same technology to build a lot better services still. Teens today make absolutely no distinction whether services are &#8220;legal&#8221; or not; they just grab stuff from where it&#8217;s easiest.</p>
<p>In this environment, people on the other side &#8211; the people manufacturing unlicensed copies of knowledge and culture, and sharing those copies in turn &#8211; have also taken a victory for granted. We&#8217;re getting our Game of Thrones, we&#8217;re getting our movies and porn as we always have, what&#8217;s the big deal? The Pirate Bay team was sentenced in a mock trial five years ago to largely no effect whatsoever (except for those poor individuals), the site itself is still up, and new great services for manufacturing our own copies of knowledge and culture are appearing by the month. Why bother fighting? This is long over, right?</p>
<p>Not so fast. SOPA and ACTA was just two years ago, in 2012. They were struck back, but their obfuscated spawn are already appearing. We&#8217;ve seen and heard the acronyms TPP, TTIP, CISP, CETA, and others. The copyright industry keeps working, it just does so out of the sunlight.</p>
<p><strong>In the end, this is about the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-net-vs-the-power-of-narratives-120429/">power of narratives</a>, the greatest power anybody has ever had. And the copyright industry isn&#8217;t giving it up without a fight.</strong></p>
<p>The file-sharing wars are far from over. There may be a bit of silence on the fronts at the moment. Enjoy it, and prepare for what&#8217;s coming.</p>
<p><center>
<div class="alignfull" style="border:2px solid #3F3F3F;width:100%;padding:15px;padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:4px;margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:10px;border-radius:10px">
<h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<div style="float:right;height:130px;width:39px;margin-left:20px;margin-right:10px"><img src="media/98818a80.Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" data-original-source="http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/themes/WpNewspaper/images/falkvinge/Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" style="border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none" class="quimby_search_image"></div>
<p><span style="color:#3F3F3F;font-size:125%">About The</span> <span style="color:#FF3C78;font-size:125%">Author</span></p>
</h3>
<p style="font-family:PTSansRegular,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-weight:400;line-height:150%;margin-bottom:14px"><small>Rick Falkvinge is a regular columnist on TorrentFreak, sharing his thoughts every other week. He is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, a whisky aficionado, and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. His blog at <a href="http://falkvinge.net">falkvinge.net</a> focuses on information policy.</small></p>
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<p><small>Book Falkvinge <a href="http://falkvinge.net/keynotes/">as speaker</a>?</small></p>
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<p><a href="http://twitter.com/Falkvinge" class="twitter-follow-button">Follow @Falkvinge</a></p>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90350
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 06/30/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-06-30-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bqEPuw_5rkI/
content:
<p><a href="media/f2868cc9.rio2-.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rio2-.jpg"><img src="media/f2868cc9.rio2-.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rio2-.jpg" alt="rio2-" width="300" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90352"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Rio 2 is the most downloaded movie this week.</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 BD/DVDrips 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>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140623/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west/">A Million Ways to Die in the West</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGkcOoTlkQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_the_winter_soldier_2014/">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/300_rise_of_an_empire/">300: Rise Of An Empire</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqy21Z29ps">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/neighbors_2014/">Neighbors</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2004420/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL5c2szf3E4">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/godzilla_2014/">Godzilla</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0831387/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIu85WQTPRc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maleficent_2014/">Maleficent</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1587310/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pgmFAOgm5E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/non_stop_2013/">The Grand Budapest Hotel</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmXdU8Nglk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bad_words/">Bad Words</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2170299/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erM_EksoVPc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90357
title: UK Cinemas Ban Google Glass Over Piracy Fears
uri: UK-Cinemas-Ban-Google-Glass-Over-Piracy-Fears
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6Yo2i7swa_8/
content:
<p><a href="media/5639cd25.google-glass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-glass.jpg"><img src="media/5639cd25.google-glass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-glass.jpg" alt="google-glass" width="300" height="182" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90361"></a>The movie industry sees the illegal recording of movies as one of the biggest piracy threats and for years has gone to extremes to stop it. </p>
<p>It started well over a decade ago when visitors began sneaking handheld camcorders into theaters. These big clunkers were relatively easy to spot, but as time passed the recording devices grew smaller and easier to obfuscate.</p>
<p>Google Glass is one of the newest threats on the block.  Earlier this year the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fbi-drags-google-glass-man-from-theater-on-piracy-fears-140121/">FBI dragged a man</a> from a movie theater in Columbus, Ohio, after theater staff presumed he was using Google Glass to illegally record a film. While the man wasn&#8217;t recording anything at all, the response from the cinema employees was telling. </p>
<p>This month Google Glass went on sale in the UK, and unlike their American counterparts, British cinemas have been quick to announce a blanket ban on the new gadget.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not,&#8221; Phil Clapp, chief executive of the Cinema Exhibitors&#8217; Association <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/uk-cinemas-ban-google-glasses-over-piracy-risk-9570686.html">told</a> the Independent. </p>
<p>The first Glass wearer at a Leicester Square cinema has already been instructed to stow his device, and more are expected to follow. Google Glass wearers with prescription lenses would be wise to take a pair of traditional glasses along if they want to enjoy a movie on the big screen.</p>
<p>Movie industry group FACT sees Google Glass and other new recording devices as significant threats and works in tandem with local cinemas to prevent film from being recorded. </p>
<p>&#8220;Developments in technology have led to smaller, more compact devices which have the capability to record sound and vision, including most mobile phones. FACT works closely with cinema operators and distributors to ensure that best practice is carried out to prevent and detect illegal recordings taking place,&#8221; the group says.</p>
<p>In recent years the UK movie industry has intensified its efforts to stop camcording and not without success. In 2012 none of the illegally recorded movies that appeared online originated from a UK cinema while several attempts were successfully thwarted.</p>
<p>Last year, cinema staff helped UK police to arrest five people and another nine were sent home with cautions. As a thank you for these vigilant actions, the Film Distributors’ Association awarded 13 cinema employees with cash rewards of up to £500.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90385
title: Swiss Won’t Ban Downloading But Will Block Sites
uri: Swiss-Won-t-Ban-Downloading-But-Will-Block-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SHRp0X3FKwI/
content:
<p><a href="media/2911f25e.swiss-usb.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/swiss-usb.jpg"><img src="media/47ce6a20.swiss-usb.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/swiss-usb.jpg" alt="swiss-usb" width="200" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-43153"></a>The MPAA, RIAA and associated groups such as the International Intellectual Property Alliance, rarely have positive things to say about Switzerland.</p>
<p>“The country has become an attractive haven for services heavily engaged in infringing activity,” the IIPA said in its 2013 USTR submission, while referring to the land-locked nation as &#8220;a major exporter of pirated content.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to legislation tipped in favor of service providers, the Swiss also present a fairly unique problem. Thanks to the so-called &#8216;Logistep Decision&#8217;, which was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/respect-for-file-sharers-privacy-keeps-swiss-on-us-watch-list-140625/">bemoaned</a> in a recent International Creativity and Theft-Prevention Caucus report, the monitoring of file-sharers is effectively outlawed. As a result it&#8217;s estimated that more than a third of Swiss Internet users access unlicensed services each month.</p>
<p>With international pressure building the Swiss promised to address the situation and have been doing so via AGUR12, a working group responsible for identifying opportunities to adapt copyright law. In parallel, another working group has been looking at service provider liability.</p>
<p>This month the Federal Council took the groups&#8217; recommendations and mandated the Federal Department of Justice and Police to prepare a draft bill for public consultation by the end of 2015.</p>
<p><strong>What&#8217;s on the table</strong></p>
<p>The Federal Council says its aim is to improve the situation for creators without impairing the position of consumers, so there is an element of give-and-take in the proposals for file-sharing, with a focus on balance and &#8220;careful consideration&#8221; given to data protection issues.</p>
<p><strong>Personal file-sharing</strong></p>
<p>Current download-and-share-with-impunity will be replaced with an acceptance of downloading for personal use, but with uploading specifically outlawed. This means that while downloading a pirated album from a cyberlocker would be legal, doing so using BitTorrent would be illegal due to inherent uploading.</p>
<p><strong>Warnings and notifications</strong></p>
<p>While commercial level infringers can already be dealt with under Swiss law, the proposals seek to lower the bar so that those who flout an upload ban on a smaller but persistent scale can be dealt with. AGUR12 has recommended that this should be achieved by sending warning notices to infringers via their ISPs.</p>
<p>Only when a user fails to get the message should his or her details be handed over to rightsholders for use in civil proceedings. The Federal Council says it likes the idea, but first wants to investigate how the notification process will work, where the thresholds on persistent infringement lie, and under what process identities can be revealed to rightsholders.</p>
<p><strong>Provider liability</strong></p>
<p>Under AGUR12&#8242;s recommendations, Internet providers will not only be required to remove infringing content from their platforms, but also prevent that same content from reappearing, a standard that U.S. rightsholders are currently pressuring Google to adopt.</p>
<p>Additionally, in serious cases authorities should be able to order the blocking of &#8220;obviously illegal content or sources&#8221;. Any new obligations on service providers would be balanced by granting them with exemption from liability. </p>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>While Switzerland does not wish to render mere downloading illegal, its effective outlawing of BitTorrent for unlicensed content transfers will put it on a par with most Western countries.</p>
<p>Furthermore, if service providers are forced to take copyrighted content down and keep it down, Switzerland could become the model that the United States has to live up to.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90408
title: The Pirate Bay Now Blocked in Argentina
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Now-Blocked-in-Argentina
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/r7Ja5TwVOnM/
content:
<p><a href="media/850a0ead.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg"><img src="media/4e243e8b.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg" alt="tpb-logo" width="222" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-67837"></a>It&#8217;s very common to hear of a country in Europe opting to block The Pirate Bay. Court orders across the region compel dozens of ISPs to block the infamous torrent site following action by the world&#8217;s largest recording labels and movie studios.</p>
<p>On the heels of those multiple actions spanning several years comes news today that Argentina has become the first Latin American country to block The Pirate Bay on copyright grounds.</p>
<p>The action against the site was initiated by Cámara Argentina de Productores de Fonogramas (<a href="http://www.capif.org.ar/">CAPIF</a>), an Argentinian music industry group. A local member of the IFPI, CAPIF represents both leading and independent labels. In its application to the court the group said it wanted to do something about the rampant copyright infringement being enabled by The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>The 67th District Federal Court looked favorably upon the labels&#8217; plight and last month issued an order to have local ISPs block The Pirate Bay. Details of the case and court order, obtained by <a href="http://acceso-directo.com">Acceso-Directo</a>, only leaked out a few hours ago. Here are the key points.</p>
<p>In a directive stamped May 28 and June 26, the National Communications Commission, an organization that regulates and supervises telecommunications and the post office in Argentina, ordered ISPs to take action against a range of domain names and IP addresses associated with the site.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/e4a4cad6.tpb-arg-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-arg-block.png" alt="TPB-block-arg"></center></p>
<p>As can be seen from the image below, the ISPs &#8211; Arnet, Speedy, Fibertel, Claro, Personal, Movistar, Prima, Telecentro, Iplan, Metrotel and Sion &#8211; are now required to block 12 Pirate Bay domains and a total of 256 IP address.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/06fc134c.tpb-arg-block2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-arg-block2.png" alt="TPB Arg Block"></center></p>
<p>According to local sources, the ISPs Arnet, Fibertel, Telecentro, Iplan and Metrotel are already blocking the site.</p>
<p>An interesting side-effect of the Argentinian blockade was reported to TorrentFreak by a reader in Paraguay. Internet services in the landlocked country are supplied jointly by Argentina and Brazil. This means that anytime now much of Paraguay will also be blocked from accessing The Pirate Bay, even though no court order was issued in that country.</p>
<p>The blocking injunction in Argentina is preliminary, so will take effect pending the outcome of a full trial.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/hackers-turn-music-industry-site-into-the-pirate-bay-140701/">Hackers started a Pirate Bay proxy on a CAPIF&#8217;s subdomain</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90433
title: Hackers Turn Music Industry Site into The Pirate Bay
uri: Hackers-Turn-Music-Industry-Site-into-The-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/of8Ua2OSmkQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/286840ee.anon-hack.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/anon-hack.jpg"><img src="media/6f1bec90.anon-hack.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/anon-hack.jpg" alt="anon-hack" width="200" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53723"></a>There was a time when music and movie industry aggression against The Pirate Bay was met with aggression right back, with sites belonging to the MPAA, RIAA, IFPI and others targeted in retaliatory moves.</p>
<p>In recent times, however, that kind of reaction has largely been on the wane. It&#8217;s not immediately clear why, but it&#8217;s certainly possible that supporters have become used to the world&#8217;s largest torrent site being under assault.</p>
<p>And under assault it has definitely been, with web blockades now in place all over Europe. Yesterday the phenomenon spread to Argentina, where local music industry group CAPIF obtained a preliminary blocking injunction against the famous torrent site, the first of its type in Latin America.</p>
<p>The order issued by the 67th District Federal Court compels <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-now-blocked-in-argentina-140701/">eleven ISPs to block 256 Pirate Bay IP addresses and 12 domains</a>, which will soon render The Pirate Bay pretty much inaccessible across Argentina.</p>
<p>However, unlike their European counterparts, the Argentinians didn&#8217;t get the memo about not retaliating against music industry aggression. With the blockade now in place across several ISPs, it appears that local hackers have already turned the ban on its head in the most dramatic way possible.</p>
<p>Right at this moment, CAPIF&#8217;s very own website is operating as a fully functioning Pirate Bay proxy site. Visitors to <a href="http://adminlic.capif.org.ar/">adminlic.capif.org.ar</a> are greeted with the familiar TPB homepage and are granted full access to the site.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0e491de5.tpb-arg-proxy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-arg-proxy.png" alt="TPB-proxy"></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s very likely that CAPIF will soon move to shut down access to the proxy, but already the damage will have been done. This act of rebellion has the potential to generate more headlines than the blockade itself, meaning that over the next couple of days all blocked Argentinian TPB users will know what a reverse proxy is and what they are capable of.</p>
<p>Activism in support of torrent and file-sharing sites might be an art on the decline, but its ability to send powerful messages remains, especially when it turns the resources of &#8216;enemies&#8217; right back against themselves.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> After serving torrents for at least 10 hours the proxy has now been pulled offline.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90223
title: Millions Watch World Cup Through Pirated Live Streams
uri: Millions-Watch-World-Cup-Through-Pirated-Live-Streams
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pqDjjoiyUsk/
content:
<p><a href="media/4f1df159.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png"><img src="media/ccf085d0.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" alt="Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo" width="200" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89534"></a>While most people watch World Cup matches through licensed broadcasters, there is also a large group of people who resort to unauthorized sources. </p>
<p>These so-called “pirate” streams are available through dozens of sites, including Firstrow and Rojadirecta, which generate a lot of traffic during popular sporting events.</p>
<p>Before the World Cup started <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fifa-threatens-pirate-sites-over-illegal-world-cup-streams-140612/">FIFA reached out</a> to several of these sites, asking their operators to make sure that content is removed as soon as possible. Despite these requests, there are still plenty of illegal streams available for each game. </p>
<p>Content protection firm <a href="http://www.viaccess-orca.com/">Viaccess-Orca</a>, one of the companies that monitors these unauthorized broadcasts, is also tasked with sending takedown notices for some of the matches. The company informs TorrentFreak that up to last Friday they have sent 2,000 takedown notices to various sites.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/a50a4ce8.wctakedown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wctakedown.png"><img src="media/a50a4ce8.wctakedown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wctakedown.png" alt="wctakedown" width="909" height="476" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90224"></a></center></p>
<p>One of the problems with live events is that takedown requests only have an effect when they are processed before the match ends. According to David Leporini, Viaccess-Orca Executive Vice President of Marketing, Products and Security, the linking sites have been rather cooperative on this front.</p>
<p>&#8220;The success rate varies per content platform but overall we manage to get 35 percent of the streaming links disabled before the game ends. I think this is a great success rate, especially compared to direct download sites,&#8221; Leporini informs us.</p>
<p>A success rate of 35% is pretty decent indeed, considering that the notices have to be sent and processed in a very small time frame. Also, the process is further complicated because many sites don&#8217;t publish the links to the streams until a few minutes before the game starts.</p>
<p>The content protection company also targets traditional social media sites where links to live streams are posted. Here, the success rate was the best at Facebook where half of all infringing links were taken down before the game ended. </p>
<p>&#8220;For the first ten days we have sent around 150 takedown notices to Facebook and Twitter pages. Among all content platforms notified, we measured a success rate of about 51% for link removals from Facebook pages.&#8221; </p>
<p>While Viaccess-Orca&#8217;s efforts may limit the availability of pirated live streams, there are still hundreds of thousands of people getting through. The company estimates that between 100,000 and 500,000 people tune in to an average game. Up until last week, Belgium versus Russia was the most-watched match with 471,541 unauthorized viewers. </p>
<p><center><br>Belgium vs. Russia streaming locations</br></center><center><a href="media/cfdc81d6.belrusgeo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/belrusgeo.jpg"><img src="media/cfdc81d6.belrusgeo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/belrusgeo.jpg" alt="belrusgeo" width="954" height="531" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90226"></a></center></p>
<p>Viaccess-Orca can measure part of the audience directly though P2P streaming services such as Sopcast and Acestream. This also allows the company to see from what location people are watching. As the overview above shows, Belgium vs. Russia was particularly popular in Europe and Asia. </p>
<p>The remainder of the streams go through centralized streaming services, with Hdcast and Iguide being the most frequently used. Rojadirecta and Wiziwig are the sites where Viaccess-Orca found the most infringing links. </p>
<p>Looking ahead, the content protection firm expects that the number of viewers per match will continue to increase, as will the enforcement actions. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90449
title: Dotcom Encryption Keys Can’t Be Given to FBI, Court Rules
uri: Dotcom-Encryption-Keys-Can-t-Be-Given-to-FBI-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yYMiLMhmSnU/
content:
<p><a href="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg"><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="dotcom-laptop" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>During the raid more than two years ago on his now-famous mansion, police in New Zealand seized 135 computers and drives belonging to Kim Dotcom.</p>
<p>In May 2012 during a hearing at Auckland&#8217;s High Court, lawyer Paul Davison QC demanded access to the data stored on the confiscated equipment, arguing that without it Dotcom could not mount a proper defense.</p>
<p>The FBI objected to the request due to some of the data being encrypted. However, Dotcom refused to hand over the decryption passwords unless the court guaranteed him access to the data. At this point it was revealed that despite assurances from the court to the contrary, New Zealand police had already sent copies of the data to U.S. authorities.</p>
<p>In May 2014, Davison was back in court arguing that New Zealand police should release copies of the data from the seized computers and drives, reiterating the claim that without the information Dotcom could not get a fair trial. The High Court previously ruled that the Megaupload founder could have copies, on the condition he handed over the encryption keys.</p>
<p>But while Dotcom subsequently agreed to hand over the passwords, that was on the condition that New Zealand police would not hand them over to U.S. authorities. Dotcom also said he couldn&#8217;t remember the passwords after all but may be able to do so if he gained access to prompt files contained on the drives.</p>
<p>The police agreed to give Dotcom access to the prompts but with the quid pro quo that the revealed passwords could be passed onto the United States, contrary to Dotcom&#8217;s wishes.</p>
<p>Today Justice Winkelmann ruled that if the police do indeed obtain the codes, <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/248764/police-can%27t-pass-on-encryption-codes">they must not hand them over</a> to the FBI. Reason being, the copies of the computers and drives should never have been sent to the United States in the first place.</p>
<p>While the ruling is a plus for Dotcom, the entrepreneur today expressed suspicion over whether the FBI even need the encryption codes.</p>
<p>&#8220;NZ Police is not allowed to provide my encryption password to the FBI,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/484213572445024257">wrote</a> on Twitter, adding, &#8220;As if they don&#8217;t have it already.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90451
title: UK “Porn Filter” Triggers Widespread Internet Censorship
uri: UK-Porn-Filter-Triggers-Widespread-Internet-Censorship
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-aUXB_NE9nQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/5ceed422.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg"><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076"></a>Internet filters are now on the political agenda in many countries around the world. While China and Iran are frontrunners for political censorship, the UK is leading the way when it comes to porn and other content deemed unsuitable for children.</p>
<p>In addition to the mobile restrictions that have been in place for years already, last summer Prime Minister David Cameron announced a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-porn-filter-will-censor-other-content-too-isps-reveal-130726/">default filter for all Internet connections</a>. This means that UK Internet subscribers are now required to opt-in if they want to view &#8216;adult&#8217; content online.</p>
<p>These default filters have led to many instances in which perfectly legitimate sites can no longer be accessed. This very website, for example, was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-porn-filter-blocks-legitimate-file-sharing-services-and-torrentfreak-140103/">inaccessible</a> on Sky Broadband after it was categorized as a &#8220;file-sharing&#8221; site. The false positive was eventually corrected after the <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-25638872">BBC started asking questions</a>, but that didn&#8217;t solve the underlying problem. </p>
<p>In an attempt to make it easier to spot overblocking the Open Rights Group (<a href="https://www.openrightsgroup.org/">ORG</a>) has today launched <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/">a new site</a>. The embedded tool runs probes on all the major broadband and mobile filters of UK ISPs, and allows people to check which sites are blocked and where. </p>
<p>The first results are quite scary. A review of the 100,000 most-popular sites on the Internet reveals that 20% are blocked by at least one of the filtering systems. </p>
<p>&#8220;We’ve been surprised to find the default filtering settings are blocking around a fifth of the Alexa top 100k websites. That’s a lot more than porn, which accounts for around 4% of that list,&#8221; ORG&#8217;s Executive Director Jim Killock informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The list of blocked domains includes many legitimate sites that aren&#8217;t necessarily harmful to children. TalkTalk file-sharing filter, for example, blocks websites including <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbittorrent.com">bittorrent.com</a> and <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http://utorrent.com">utorrent.com</a>. TorrentFreak also appears to be listed in this category and is <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftorrentfreak.com">blocked as well</a>.</p>
<p>Linuxtracker, which offers free downloads of perfectly legitimate software, is <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http://linuxtracker.org/">blocked</a> by Sky, TalkTalk and Three&#8217;s filters, while the blocked.org.uk tool itself is off-limits on <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=blocked.org.uk/">BT, EE and Virgin Media</a>.</p>
<p>Perhaps even worse, the BT and TalkTalk filters also categorize social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com">potentially dangerous</a> to children, and <a href="https://www.blocked.org.uk/results?url=http%3A%2F%2Freddit.com">the same</a> applies to Reddit. All these sites are inaccessible if the social networking category of the Kids Safe filter is on.</p>
<p><center><strong>Reddit is blocked as well</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/8492ab69.blocked-filter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-filter.png"><img src="media/8492ab69.blocked-filter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-filter.png" alt="blocked-filter" width="562" height="501" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90465"></a></center></p>
<p>With the new tool ORG hopes to provide more insight into what these filters do and how many sites they block. The ISPs themselves have thus far failed to reveal the scope of their filters.</p>
<p>&#8220;People need to know what filters are, and what they block. They need to know they are inaccurate, and also disrupt people’s businesses and speech,&#8221; Killock tells TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;If people feel they need them, that is their right, but they should at least know they’re very flawed technology that won’t protect them very much, but will also be likely to cause them problems. In short, they are a bit rubbish,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>The current results of the tool are based on various filtering levels. This means that the list of blocked sites will be even longer when the strongest settings are used. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that all ISPs allow account holders to turn filters off or allow certain sites to be unblocked. However, many people may not even be aware that this option exists, or won&#8217;t want to unblock porn just to get access to file-sharing software if these are lumped together.</p>
<p>The results of ORG&#8217;s new tool show that what started as a &#8220;porn filter&#8221; has turned into something much bigger. Under the guise of &#8220;protecting the children&#8221; tens of thousands of sites are now caught up in overbroad filters, which is a worrying development to say the least.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> TalkTalk clarified that the file-sharing (with TorrentFreak included) and social networking filters are not enabled by default on their system. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90482
title: Losing Weight, Pirate Bay Founder Requests Security Downgrade
uri: Losing-Weight-Pirate-Bay-Founder-Requests-Security-Downgrade
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QMM7AnoNULc/
content:
<p><img src="media/1ceafd41.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg" width="225" height="225" class="alignright">In February 2012, Sweden&#8217;s Supreme Court <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founders-prison-sentences-final-supreme-court-appeal-rejected-120201/">determined</a> that the sentences handed out to The Pirate Bay&#8217;s Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström would stand.</p>
<p>Carl Lundström&#8217;s sentence was quickly served but there was a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-arrested-in-cambodia-120901/">months-long delay</a> before Gottfrid Svartholm could be removed from Cambodia and placed in Swedish detention. It took even longer to trace and detain Peter Sunde.</p>
<p>More than two years had passed when the former Pirate Bay spokesman was eventually captured on May 31, 2014, the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-celebrates-independence-day-8-year-raid-anniversary-140531/">eight year anniversary</a> of the 2006 raid on the infamous site. A special police unit dedicated to tracking down fugitives <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-peter-sunde-arrested-sweden-140531/">found Sunde</a> on a farm in Skåne, Sweden.</p>
<p>Sunde is now detained in Västervik Norra, the prison originally allocated to him in 2012. Converted from a hospital over the past nine years, in 2012 the facility had 262 inmates and 250 staff. Sunde feels that the establishment is an inappropriate venue for his incarceration.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/def18baf.VC3A4stervikNorra.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/V%C3%A4stervikNorra.jpg" alt="norra"></center></p>
<p>In a letter recently <a href="http://www.vt.se/nyheter/?articleid=7710080">sent</a> to the probation board, Sunde asks to be removed to a location more in keeping with his offenses.</p>
<p>&#8220;I hereby appeal the placement decision regarding the institution I am in. I believe that the safety class is too high for the crime I have been convicted of,&#8221; Sunde writes.</p>
<p>Sweden prisons are split into three security categories. Category One is reserved for the most dangerous of prisoners. Category Two covers the majority of the country&#8217;s closed prisons, while Category Three contains trusted prisoners who are believed to pose the lowest risk.</p>
<p>Sunde was found guilty of non-violent copyright-related offenses which means he should pose little to no risk to the public. On this basis Sunde believes he should be transferred to a Category Three prison, specifically Tygelsjö, which is close to his family. He says there is no risk of him trying to escape.</p>
<p>Health issues also feature prominently in Sunde&#8217;s plea to the authorities.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m suffering tremendously &#8211; socially, physically as well as psychologically &#8211; by the shortcomings of Västervik,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>Those shortcomings include problems with food. While Sunde has described himself as a vegetarian, on occasions he has expressed a clear preference for vegan food. It&#8217;s not clear where the diet in Västervik falls short, but Sunde says he&#8217;s suffering to the point of going hungry. The 35-year-old reports that in the last four weeks he&#8217;s lost 11 pounds (5kgs).</p>
<p>While Sunde evaded capture for two years, that time didn&#8217;t go to waste. Before running for the European Parliament with the Finnish Pirate Party this year, Sunde invested in several tech-focused startups including the micro-donation service Flattr and the NSA-proof messenger app Heml.is.</p>
<p>While those operations are likely to continue in his absence, Sunde&#8217;s incarceration has already led to issues with a historic domain. Piratbyrån (The Bureau of Piracy) was the group behind the founding of The Pirate Bay and although it <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-founding-group-piratbyran-disbands-100623/">disbanded in 2010</a>, Sunde remained the person responsible for administering Piratbyran.org. That domain now has issues which Sunde clearly can&#8217;t solve, although others are currently trying.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Fredrik Neij &#8211; who is also required to serve a Pirate Bay-related 10 month prison sentence &#8211; remains a fugitive and currently resides in Asia.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90528
title: UK PM’s IP Advisor Won’t Stand For Re-Election
uri: UK-PM-s-IP-Advisor-Won-t-Stand-For-Re-Election
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hGkMVkoH8UU/
content:
<p><img src="media/b4135d59.weatherley.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/weatherley.jpg" width="190" height="192" class="alignright">In September 2013, UK Prime Minister David Cameron announced the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-prime-minister-appoints-new-anti-piracy-enforcement-advisor-130913/">appointment</a> of Mike Weatherley MP as his brand new advisor on intellectual property matters.</p>
<p>As the founder of Parliament’s Rock the House competition and member of the All-Party Parliamentary Intellectual Property Group launched in 2003 to raise awareness and rally against copyright and related infringement, Weatherley seemed like the ideal candidate.</p>
<p>The then 56-year-old quickly offered his support to the recently formed Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and promised to assist the government to focus on anti-piracy enforcement issues aimed at protecting the creative industries.</p>
<p>By December of 2013, Weatherley was making it clear that ISPs should be <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/ip-advisor-hold-isps-responsible-for-facilitating-piracy-131226/">held responsible</a> for their customers&#8217; infringing downloads and just weeks later <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-considers-throwing-persistent-internet-pirates-in-jail-140123/">suggested jail sentences</a> for persistent file-sharers. <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-government-plans-to-ensure-that-google-hinders-online-piracy-140202/">Greater accountability</a> for companies such as Google became a recurring theme in the MP&#8217;s work.</p>
<p>But while Weatherley has made quite an impact in his unpaid position, his role as a Conservative Member of Parliament will come to an end in the first quarter of 2015. In an announcement today Weatherley confirmed that he will not be standing at next year&#8217;s General Election.</p>
<p>Noting the enjoyment he&#8217;s had serving the people of his constituency in the south of England, Weatherley also touched on his <a href="http://www.mikeweatherleymp.com/2014/07/03/mike-not-to-re-stand-in-2015-general-election/">role</a> as Cameron&#8217;s IP advisor. </p>
<p>&#8220;Over the past year, I have taken immense pride in serving as your Intellectual Property Adviser. I am sure that you will agree that we have made huge steps towards really getting politicians and industry talking – which is key to making the most of our country’s wealth of creative talent,&#8221; the MP told the Prime Minister.</p>
<p>If Weatherley keeps to his own predictions then he will step down as an MP before May 2015 but he also hints that he would like to remain involved in government IP matters.</p>
<p>&#8220;It would be a privilege to continue offering my assistance in this regard,&#8221; he told David Cameron.</p>
<p>Interestingly, local media is reporting that Weatherley is believed to be returning to the creative industries. The 57-year-old was formerly the European vice-president of the Motion Picture Licensing Company and also worked as the finance director of record producer Pete Waterman&#8217;s empire.</p>
<p>A revolving door situation, where Weatherley heads out of government into a position with a large entertainment group, hardly seems out of the question given his history, but for solid information the world will have to wait. In the meantime his work in government <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/failed-piracy-letters-should-escalate-to-fines-jail-mp-says-140626/">will continue</a>, with some of his time devoted to the industry he&#8217;ll soon be re-joining.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90486
title: Universal Music Can Delete Any SoundCloud Track Without Oversight
uri: Universal-Music-Can-Delete-Any-SoundCloud-Track-Without-Oversight
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/K3JmlEa0VrU/
content:
<p><a href="media/15e2b1a1.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg"><img src="media/7abb2d22.cassette.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cassette.jpg" alt="cassette" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-84245"></a>The major record labels still see online piracy as one of the main threats to their industry. To counter this problem they are constantly monitoring the Internet for copies of their work being shared without permission. </p>
<p>This also happens at <a href="https://soundcloud.com/">SoundCloud</a>, which in recent years became one of the most popular services for people to share music.</p>
<p>As a legitimate service, SoundCloud helps copyright holders by accepting takedown requests. However, in some cases SoundCloud goes a step further. </p>
<p>This is what DJ <a href="http://brainfartz.co.uk/">Mr Brainz</a> discovered after his paid account was terminated due to repeated copyright infringements. Mr Brainz used SoundCloud to post copies of his radio show, which he believes drives more sales, but Universal Music disagreed and took down his files. </p>
<p>To find out more about the alleged infringements the DJ asked SoundCloud for additional details, as Do Androids Dance <a href=" http://doandroidsdance.com/features/soundcloud-boldly-releases-new-app-allows-universal-flag-account-quietly-announces-data-mining-one-month/">reports</a>. Quite surprisingly, however, SoundCloud couldn&#8217;t provide more information as the removals were carried out by Universal music directly. </p>
<p>&#8220;Your uploads were removed directly by Universal. This means that SoundCloud had no control over it, and they don&#8217;t tell us which part of your upload was infringing. If you look at your tracklist it may help you find the Universal content they wanted blocked,&#8221; SoundCloud&#8217;s copyright team explained.  </p>
<p>&#8220;The control of removing content is completely with Universal. This means I can&#8217;t tell you why they removed your uploads and not others, and you would really need to ask them that question,&#8221; the SoundCloud representative adds. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/9522ecb7.soundcloud-takedown.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/soundcloud-takedown.jpg"><img src="media/9522ecb7.soundcloud-takedown.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/soundcloud-takedown.jpg" alt="soundcloud-takedown" width="581" height="409" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90506"></a></center></p>
<p>In other words, SoundCloud grants Universal Music the power to delete any and all content they deem to be infringing. This apparently happens without oversight or any record of what&#8217;s being taken down. </p>
<p>This blanket removal power is especially problematic since the affected users don&#8217;t know what they have done wrong. Without any details on the allegedly infringed track, it&#8217;s pretty much impossible to file a counter notice. </p>
<p>These type of broad takedown powers are not unique to SoundCloud. Previously YouTube has come under fire because the company allowed record labels to remove &#8220;<a href="http://metronews.ca/news/37641/youtube-reposts-version-of-arrested-alberta-mans-bohemian-rhapsody/?utm_source=twitterfeed&#038;utm_medium=twitter">disrespectful</a>&#8221; videos or other non-infringing files the labels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-video-reinstated-universal-says-you-cant-touch-us-111216/">deemed inappropriate</a>.</p>
<p>The recent issues at SoundCloud are not an isolated incident either. Over the past several months many users have complained about an avalanche of takedown notices. After America&#8217;s <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaskade">DJ Kaskade</a> had 70 percent of his SoundCloud tracks removed due to alleged copyright infringements, he said he would start his own music sharing site instead.</p>
<p>&#8220;I will move forward with constructing my own portal where I can share what I like when I like,&#8221; Kaskade <a href="https://twitter.com/kaskade/statuses/474230686778290177">said</a>. </p>
<p>Despite the critique SoundCloud sees <a href="http://www.mixmag.net/words/news/soundcloud-statement-on-copyright">no wrongdoing</a>. The company points out that users are free to dispute any inaccurate takedowns. Unfortunately that&#8217;s easier said than done. </p>
<p>It is clear that SoundCloud is putting its users at a significant disadvantage here.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90539
title: Hollywood Fails to Add Torrent Sites to Child Abuse Filter
uri: Hollywood-Fails-to-Add-Torrent-Sites-to-Child-Abuse-Filter
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4Gp3iER_0yg/
content:
<p><a href="media/5ceed422.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg"><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076"></a>Website blocking has become one of the music and movie industries&#8217; favored weapons in their seemingly endless fight against online piracy. Blocks of torrent and other sharing sites are in place in many countries around Europe, mainly due to court injunctions forcing ISPs to take action against copyright infringement.</p>
<p>While legal action is one way of introducing a blockade, other methods require much less time, effort and money. This week the spotlight was placed on the UK, where the government has pressured ISPs to introduce default-on filtering for their subscribers, ostensibly for the protection of children. The result is <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-porn-filter-triggers-widespread-internet-censorship-140702/">huge overblocking</a> and conveniently for the entertainment industries, hundreds &#8211; possibly thousands &#8211; of file-sharing sites wiped out with the correct settings.</p>
<p>With the right level of knowledge these filters can be turned off, but other more serious national anti-child abuse mechanisms cannot.</p>
<p>The UK&#8217;s Internet Watch Foundation (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Watch_Foundation">IWF</a>) maintains a blocklist of URLs that point to sexual child abuse content. Over in New Zealand the Department of Internal Affairs maintains DCEFS, the Digital Child Exploitation Filtering System. Both are run in cooperation with the countries&#8217; ISPs with the sole aim of keeping the most objectionable material away from public eyes.</p>
<p>Today, however, it&#8217;s been revealed that Hollywood attempted to broaden the remit of New Zealand&#8217;s DCEFS in order to protect their own interests.</p>
<p>The Motion Pictures Distributors Association (<a href="http://www.mpda.org.nz/about/studios">MPDA</a>) has a familiar sounding name and unsurprisingly has some well-known backers. Fox, Sony, Paramount, Disney, Universal and Roadshow are all members of the group which coordinates the distribution of movies in New Zealand.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://www.radiolive.co.nz/">RadioLIVE</a> <a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/Hollywood-piracy-screening-rejected-by-Govt/tabid/423/articleID/351329/Default.aspx">report</a>, in order to prevent copyright infringement the studios requested access to the DCEFS child abuse filtering system.</p>
<p>After obtaining government permission, Hollywood hoped to add their own list of sites to DCEFS so that by default subscribers to New Zealand&#8217;s <a href="http://www.dia.govt.nz/Censorship-DCEFS-Internet-Service-Providers">main ISPs</a> would be prohibited from accessing torrent and other file-sharing type sites.</p>
<p>But in the face of objections from both the ISPs and the Kiwi government, Hollywood was forced to scrap its plans.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The ISPs] were not prepared to agree to that extension and in any case it would have shifted the mandate somewhat from [the Department of Internal Affairs'] primary focus on preventing sexual abuse of young children,&#8221; Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne told the show.</p>
<p>There can be little doubt that Hollywood believes web filtering is an effective mechanism to reduce infringement &#8211; MPAA chief Chris Dodd <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pirate-site-blockades-140613/">explicitly said so</a> during his speech at the International IP Enforcement Summit last month. But the notion that governments should treat the filtering of copyrighted content and child abuse in the same way is <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/the-copyright-lobby-absolutely-loves-child-pornography-110709/">not only controversial</a> but unlikely to win sympathy with the public.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90545
title: Twitter Removes Users “Pirated” World Cup Avatars
uri: Twitter-Removes-Users-Pirated-World-Cup-Avatars
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LWskGKMtmWc/
content:
<p><a href="media/9a840f03.fifa-takedown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-takedown.png"><img src="media/9a840f03.fifa-takedown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-takedown.png" alt="fifa-takedown" width="275" height="174" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90551"></a>While over a billion people are enjoying the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, organizer FIFA is working around the clock to make sure that their rights are protected. </p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/millions-watch-world-cup-through-pirated-live-streams-140701/">Stopping pirated live streams</a> is one of the main priorities, but there is another concern. In all the excitement many social media users have added World Cup related logos and other pictures as their avatars, something that&#8217;s strictly forbidden by FIFA. </p>
<p>The football organization fears that use of their logos and emblems by others may cause serious damage. FIFA believes that this endangers the entire worldwide football community. </p>
<p>&#8220;Any unauthorized use of the Official Marks not only undermines the integrity of the FIFA World Cup™ and its marketing programme, but also puts the interests of the worldwide football community at stake,&#8221; FIFA says in an official statement.</p>
<p>Social media is particularly worrisome because the official logos may lead followers to believe that the user is somehow related to FIFA.</p>
<p>&#8220;FIFA’s official logos, symbols and other graphic trade marks may not be used on any social media platform. FIFA’s Protected Terms may not be used to create the impression that a page is officially related to the 2014 FIFA World Cup,&#8221; FIFA notes. </p>
<p>Considering the above FIFA sees no other option than to crackdown on Twitter users with official FIFA logos and images as avatars. In recent weeks Twitter has been <a href="http://chillingeffects.org/N/1811549">asked to take action</a> against several of its users, by removing their infringing profile pictures. </p>
<p><center><strong>FIFA takedown notice</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/6568a357.fifa-dmca.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-dmca.png"><img src="media/6568a357.fifa-dmca.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fifa-dmca.png" alt="fifa-dmca" width="649" height="311" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90562"></a></center></p>
<p>The requests were made for a wide variety of images including the World Cup emblem, logo and even the trophy. Twitter appears to have honored the requests and has replaced the infringing avatars <a href="https://twitter.com/Brazil2014HD">with the default egg</a>.</p>
<p>Most of the targeted accounts seem to be specifically related to football. However FIFA has also asked Twitter to remove the profile picture of <a href="https://twitter.com/afobajee">@afobajee</a>, a relatively random user.</p>
<p>Most of the affected users have changed their profile pictures to <a href="https://twitter.com/JustFutball">something non-infringing</a>. However, others appear to have simply switched back to using <a href="https://twitter.com/Worldcup_com">official FIFA material</a>. </p>
<p>We expect that FIFA still has their eye on the ball, so these infringing profile pictures probably won&#8217;t stay online for very long.</p>
<p><center><strong>Infringing profile picture</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/ad3977d2.wc-twitter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wc-twitter.jpg"><img src="media/ad3977d2.wc-twitter.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wc-twitter.jpg" alt="wc-twitter" width="650" height="514" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90558"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90568
title: Cyberlocker Blocked After Police Discover “Criminal Network”
uri: Cyberlocker-Blocked-After-Police-Discover-Criminal-Network
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MckYPs-owoI/
content:
<p><img src="media/3df2fe22.guardia.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/guardia.jpg" width="225" height="150" class="alignright">In the file-hosting and file-linking worlds there are laws in place to protect site operators from liability for their users&#8217; actions.</p>
<p>When a site operator is informed via a valid notice that content being hosted or linked to is infringing copyright, removing or disabling access to that content ensures protection under relevant U.S. and EU legislation. That said, there are some gray areas which turn the tables on liability.</p>
<p>Some sites, often forum-style indexes that link to copyright movies, music and software hosted elsewhere, have more than just casual links with the external sites where the content is actually hosted. In fact, some anti-piracy outfits claim that many are operated by the same owners, or so close as to make little difference.</p>
<p>The idea is that one site provides the content while the other supplies links and valuable eyeballs. Acting together the pair collect all the revenue from advertising, affiliate schemes, and subscription payments, while maintaining in public that they still qualify for safe harbor.</p>
<p>Being able to prove that this is the reality behind the scenes is another matter, but this week Italian police say they managed to do just that. Reportedly exposing the connections between a linking site and an associated cyberlocker, police presented evidence to the authorities and obtained a domain blocking injunction from a local court.</p>
<p>As a result DDLStorage, a file-hosting site that has grown substantially in the past 15 months serving 460 million files while allegedly pocketing  1.3 million euros, is now inaccessible by direct means in Italy.</p>
<p>“This is a really important case for the anti-piracy battle,&#8221; says Luca Vespignani, General Secretary of anti-piracy group FPM.</p>
<p>&#8220;For the first time in Italy we can unequivocally reveal the presence of a direct and illegal connection between a pirate website and its cyberlocker. It is essential to investigate the organization of these structures to seriously disrupt digital piracy.”</p>
<p>The investigation into DDLStorage found that the site started in Italy and had 120 servers located first in France and then the Netherlands.</p>
<p>&#8220;Just 3 per cent of users on the platform uploaded files and only 0.2 per cent were receiving revenues for the content they uploaded,&#8221; FPM said in a statement. &#8220;Uploaders were paid the more their content was downloaded by other users, with individual payments running up to €40,000 per year.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted DDLStorage and asked them for a response to the allegations that they&#8217;re involved in a criminal enterprise.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not in Italy, we are not an Italian company,&#8221; the site told us. &#8220;We are online without any problems. We are working to resolve this problem with the Italian users.&#8221;</p>
<p>DDLStorage is indeed online, as the injunction only relates to Italian ISPs. However, the site&#8217;s comments suggest that it could be attempting to find a workaround to continue serving not only the world market, but the Italian market again too.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90594
title: 140 U.S. Internet Providers Disconnect Persistent File-Sharers
uri: 140-U-S-Internet-Providers-Disconnect-Persistent-File-Sharers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uzkdD6VdyOo/
content:
<p><a href="media/2028e9f1.dont-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dont-pirate.jpg"><img src="media/c498bef4.dont-pirate-300x126.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dont-pirate-300x126.jpg" alt="dont-pirate" width="300" height="126" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-70793"></a>For more than a decade copyright holders have been sending ISPs takedown notices to alert account holders that their connections are being used to share copyrighted material.</p>
<p>These notices are traditionally nothing more than a warning, hoping to scare file-sharers into giving up their habit. However, anti-piracy outfit <a href="http://www.rightscorp.com/">Rightscorp</a> has been very active in trying to make the consequences more serious. </p>
<p>The company monitors BitTorrent networks for people who download titles owned by the copyright holders they work for, and then approaches these alleged pirates via their Internet providers. The ISPs are asked to forward Rightscorp&#8217;s settlement demands to the alleged infringer, which is <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/warner-bros-were-fining-file-sharers-who-use-non-six-strike-isps-130607/">usually around $20</a> per shared file.</p>
<p>The settlement approach is a bigger stick than the standard warnings and according to Rightscorp it&#8217;s <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-monitoring-and-settlement-firm-goes-public-131028/">superior</a> to the six-strikes scheme. And there&#8217;s more. The company also wants Internet providers to disconnect subscribers whose accounts are repeatedly found sharing copyrighted works.</p>
<p>Christopher Sabec, CEO of Rightscorp, says that they have been in talks with various Internet providers urging them to step up their game. Thus far a total of 140 ISPs are indeed following this disconnection principle. </p>
<p>&#8220;We push ISPs to suspend accounts of repeat copyright infringers and we currently have over 140 ISPs that are participating in our program, including suspending the accounts of repeat infringers,&#8221; Sabec says. </p>
<p>During a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/232597663/Investor-Presentation-at-the-Anti-Piracy-Content-Protection-Summit">presentation</a> at the Anti-Piracy Summit in Los Angeles Rightscorp recently pitched this disconnection angle to several interested parties.  </p>
<p><center><strong>Rightscorp presentation slide</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/041b0707.solution.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/solution.jpg"><img src="media/c4ec8e41.solution.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/solution.jpg" alt="solution" width="650" height="514" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90596"></a></center></p>
<p>By introducing disconnections Rightcorp hopes to claim more settlements to increase the company&#8217;s revenue stream. They offer participating ISPs a tool to keep track of the number of warnings each customer receives, and the providers are encouraged to reconnect the subscribers if the outstanding bills have been paid. </p>
<p>&#8220;All US ISPs have a free Rightscorp website dashboard that identifies these repeat infringers and notifies the ISPs when they have settled their cases with our clients. We encourage the ISPs to restore service once the matter has been settled and there is no longer an outstanding legal liability,&#8221; Sabec told TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Cutting off repeat infringers is also in the best interests of ISPs according to Rightscorp, who note that it is a requirement for all providers if they are to maintain their DMCA safe harbor. </p>
<p>Rightscorp is indeed correct in stating that Internet providers have to act against repeat infringers. The DMCA <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512">requires</a> ISPs to <em>&#8220;&#8230; adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for the termination in appropriate circumstances of subscribers and account holders of the service provider’s system or network who are repeat infringers.&#8221;</em></p>
<p>However, <a href="http://www.mediainstitute.org/IPI/2011/071211.php">legal experts</a> and Internet providers interpret the term &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; differently. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10208747-93.html">AT&#038;T previously said</a> that it would never terminate accounts of customers without a court order, arguing that only a court can decide what constitutes a repeat infringement. Comcast on the other hand, previously told us that they are <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-terminates-accounts-of-persistent-pirates-131002/">disconnecting repeat infringers</a>, although it&#8217;s not clear after how many warnings that is. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, Rightscorp claims that their approach has been a great success and proudly reports that 140 ISPs are actively disconnecting subscribers. So does this mean that all U.S. Internet subscribers are at risk of receiving a settlement request or losing their Internet access?</p>
<p>Well, not really.</p>
<p>Most of the larger Internet providers appear to ignore Rightscorp&#8217;s settlement notices. Comcast, for example, does forward the notice but <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-kills-business-model-of-piracy-monitoring-and-settlement-firm-131206/">takes out the settlement offer</a>. Verizon, AT&#038;T and other major ISPs appear to do the same. Thus far, Charter seems to be the only major provider that forwards Rightscorp&#8217;s requests in full. </p>
<p>The 140 ISPs Rightscorp is referring to are mostly smaller, often local ISPs, who together hold a tiny market share. Not insignificant perhaps, but it&#8217;s a nuance worth adding.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90537
title: Tough New Piracy Law Sees No Takers in More Than a Year
uri: Tough-New-Piracy-Law-Sees-No-Takers-in-More-Than-a-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pY2yEpaJR0E/
content:
<p>For many years regular file-sharers in Norway have been largely free to go about their business with little concern for the consequences. A 2011 decision disallowed the only entity licensed to collect information on P2P networks from doing so, meaning that tracking pirates without permission would breach privacy laws.</p>
<p>In 2011 under significant rightsholder pressure, the Ministry of Culture announced amendments to the country&#8217;s Copyright Act alongside promises to give the entertainment industries the tools to go after pirates. Two years later in July 2013 the new law went into effect and as promised it gave the pirate hunters a sporting chance.</p>
<p>Out went the days of restrictions on P2P user monitoring and in came a system whereby groups seeking to spy on pirates only needed to get permission from the country&#8217;s Data Inspectorate. The big MPAA affiliates obtained permission within the first few months and promised to target uploaders, but what followed next?</p>
<p>Since it&#8217;s been a full 12 months since the start of the new law and seven months since the MPA obtained clearance to monitor, <a href="http://www.hardware.no/artikler/i-ett-ar-har-det-vaert-lov-a-jage-nettpirater-dette-har-skjedd/161416">Hardware.no</a> filed some questions with the Ministry of Culture to find out the state of play. It also contacted the Post and Telecommunications Authority to find out if any personal details of file-sharers had been handed over to copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;The short answer is no,&#8221; said Deputy Director Elisabeth Aarsæther.</p>
<p>&#8220;From our point of view it looks like the word &#8216;share&#8217; means go ahead and &#8216;steal&#8217; among users. I cannot say for certain that nothing will happen going forward, but we have not received any requests so far.&#8221;</p>
<p>Aarsæther said that the lack of requests might have something to do with the greater number of legal services now available online. However, there also appears to be a lack of interest from copyright holders who only need to register with the authorities in order to collect IP addresses.</p>
<p>&#8220;We took stock moments ago, and we have not received any new messages in a long time,&#8221; senior Data Inspectorate adviser Guro Skåltveit told Hardware. &#8220;There are currently twelve entities who have advised us and can now collect data.&#8221;</p>
<p>Eleven of that dozen registered back in the fall of 2013, and they include a successful application from the Norwegian Pirate Party. Thus far in 2014 there has only been one new application. None have sought personal details.</p>
<p>Finally the new law allows for the blocking of sites confirmed to breach copyright law, but again there has been little visible movement on that front. The industries&#8217; main target, the infamous Pirate Bay, remains accessible in the country despite threats to have it blocked in court. However, this process was expected to take some time, particularly since local ISPs <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/new-pirate-bay-blocking-battle-set-for-the-summer-140609/">are refusing</a> to do anything voluntarily.</p>
<p>After lobbying hard for new laws over many years one might have expected rightsholders to use every tool available to them as quickly as possible, but for some reason they&#8217;re gathering dust 12 months on. It may well be that chasing down individuals has become unpalatable, especially alongside efforts to woo consumers with better legal offerings.</p>
<p>Time will tell what the strategy is going forward, but for now Norwegian file-sharers can rest easy. Their next challenge probably won&#8217;t be a letter in the post, but the puzzle of how to unblock The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90526
title: CashU Payment Method Starts Banning VPN Services
uri: CashU-Payment-Method-Starts-Banning-VPN-Services
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xLwGMFyhFPQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/228efb60.cashu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cashu.png"><img src="media/228efb60.cashu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cashu.png" alt="cashu" width="242" height="79" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90583"></a>Payment services are increasingly taking action against VPN providers, and as of today <a href="https://www.cashu.com/">CashU</a> can be added to the list.</p>
<p>CashU is a popular payment service in the Middle East and North Africa, where it&#8217;s the leading alternative to credit cards. Thousands of merchants accept CashU payments including many VPN providers who are quite popular in the region. </p>
<p>As of recently, however, CashU has stopped connecting new VPN providers to its payment service. The company sees it as a problem that VPN services allow users to browse the Internet anonymously and uncensored, as this could potentially be abused. </p>
<p>VPN provider <a href="https://torguard.net/">TorGuard</a> was informed about the new policy after their application was turned down. </p>
<p>&#8220;Please note that since VPN Services can support anonymity when being misused, CASHU, as a financial institution, is prohibited from supporting such services as is it going through a transitional stage. Therefore, kindly note that we cannot accept your merchant account registration,&#8221; A CashU representative wrote.</p>
<p>The response from CashU suggests that an external party is prohibiting the company from accepting VPN services. It&#8217;s unclear who is behind this but TorGuard CEO Ben Van Pelt believes it may be the result of censorship forces in the region. </p>
<p>&#8220;Privacy online is a basic human right and fundamental building block of any free, democratic society. Unfortunately, CashU&#8217;s Middle Eastern underwriting banks are not located in such a place. Censorship laws enforced by the United Arab Emirate&#8217;s Telecom Regulatory Authority borderline on draconian as they decide what content is or is not acceptable,&#8221; Van Pelt tells TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>&#8220;It seems that this new anti VPN &#8216;transitional stage&#8217; for CashU is part of a larger issue of increased government censorship and regulation in the region,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth nothing that CashU still accepts payments for VPN providers who have signed up previously. It will be interesting to see whether these merchants can keep their accounts or if they will be disconnected in the future.</p>
<p>For TorGuard this isn&#8217;t the only payment method they&#8217;re having problems with. The company was also rejected by Alipay, a Chinese based payment solution that is popular among VPN users in Asia. TorGuard is still waiting for an official reply as to why this application was turned down.</p>
<p>In recent years it has become harder and harder for VPN services to get a wide range of payment options. Previously <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/paysafecard-begins-banning-vpn-providers-130825/">Paysafecard</a> stopped accepting anonymity services and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mastercard-and-visa-start-banning-vpn-providers-130703/">Visa, MasterCard</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/paypal-cuts-off-pirate-bay-vpn-ipredator-freezes-assets-130724/">Paypal</a> have also caused trouble for some anonymity providers. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90631
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 07/07/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-07-07-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9mfJn62dBOk/
content:
<p><a href="media/ffe0a7d3.noah11.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noah11.jpg"><img src="media/ffe0a7d3.noah11.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noah11.jpg" alt="noah11" width="300" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90635"></a>This week we have five newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Noah is the most downloaded movie this week.</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 BD/DVDrips 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>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140630/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/noah_2014/">Noah</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transcendence_2014/">Transcendence</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/?">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTen3-B8GU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west/">A Million Ways to Die in the West</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGkcOoTlkQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_woman_2014/">The Other Woman</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203939/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_the_winter_soldier_2014/">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heaven_is_for_real/">Heaven Is For Real</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1929263/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-ewaCVARtM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/300_rise_of_an_empire/">300: Rise Of An Empire</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253863/">6.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zqy21Z29ps">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/non_stop_2013/">The Grand Budapest Hotel</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DmXdU8Nglk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90666
title: Kim Dotcom Extradition Hearing Delayed Until 2015
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Extradition-Hearing-Delayed-Until-2015
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sDCZdp-mHiA/
content:
<p><img src="media/2fa640c6.liberation.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/liberation.jpg" width="200" height="283" class="alignright">The United States Government is keen to get its hands on Kim Dotcom. He stands accused of committing the biggest copyright-related crime ever seen through his now-defunct cloud storage site Megaupload.</p>
<p>But their access to the entrepreneur will have to wait.</p>
<p>According to Dotcom, his extradition hearing has now been delayed until February 16, 2015.</p>
<p>Delays and postponements have become recurring features of the criminal case being built against Dotcom in the United States.</p>
<p>A March 2013 date came and went without a promised hearing, as did another in November the same year, a delay which Dotcom said would &#8220;save Prime Minister John Key embarrassment during an election campaign.&#8221;</p>
<p>Another hearing date for April 2014 also failed to materialize and now the date penciled in for the coming weeks has also been struck down.</p>
<p>Dotcom also <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/486032272844283904">reports</a> that he still hasn&#8217;t <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dotcom-encryption-keys-cant-be-given-to-fbi-court-rules-140702/">received a copy</a> of the data that was unlawfully sent to the FBI by New Zealand authorities. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90637
title: Google Services Among 472 Sites Blocked For World Cup ‘Piracy’
uri: Google-Services-Among-472-Sites-Blocked-For-World-Cup-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sfeGT-UUc-A/
content:
<p><img src="media/ccf085d0.Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Brazil-World-Cup-2014-Official-Logo.png" width="200" height="250" class="alignright">With the World Cup now heading to its semi-final stages, FIFA and its distribution partners are pushing hard to stem the tide of unauthorized content.</p>
<p>While FIFA has even gone as far as taking <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/twitter-removes-pirated-world-cup-avatars-fifa-pressure-140704/">action</a> against Twitter avatars, news today shows that its affiliates are also prepared to disrupt the activities of hundreds of sites and countless millions of Internet users if that means protecting their copyrights.</p>
<p>The development follows legal action initiated by Multi Screen Media PVT Ltd, a Sony Entertainment Television subsidiary in India. Earlier this year the company obtained a license from FIFA to broadcast the 2014 World Cup to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Of course, content is now being made available elsewhere without permission, so the company has decided to do something about that. </p>
<p>In a statement to the High Court in Delhi, counsel for Multi Screen Media explained that &#8220;various websites are indulging in hosting, streaming, providing access to&#8221; infringing content causing substantial loss of revenue not just for the company, but also to the government due to lost tax on TV subscription fees.</p>
<p>The list of &#8216;infringing&#8217; sites supplied to the High Court is huge &#8211; 479 sites in all &#8211; and contains well known sharing sites including The Pirate Bay, torrent storage site Torrage, 1337x, Demonoid, and dozens of file-hosting sites.</p>
<p>Quite amazingly, however, the list also contains entirely legitimate sites including Google Docs, Google Video, Google URL shortener Goo.gl, and Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Mega.co.nz. None escape the criticism of Sony or the High Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;Learned counsel for the plaintiff submits that many of the websites [in the list] are anonymous in nature and it is virtually impossible to locate the owners of such websites or contact details of such owners. It is further submitted that many of these Rogue Websites also hide behind domain privacy services offered by various domain name Registrars,&#8221; the judge wrote in his decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Websites] listed below, or any other website identified by the Plaintiff are restrained, from in any manner hosting, streaming, broadcasting, rebroadcasting, retransmitting, exhibiting, making available for viewing and downloading, providing access to and / or communicating to the public, displaying, uploading, modifying, publishing, updating and/or sharing (including to its subscribers and users), through the internet, in any manner whatsoever,&#8221; he continued.</p>
<p>With that Judge V. Kameswar Rao issued an order for the country&#8217;s ISPs to block the 479 sites in question &#8211; Google&#8217;s included &#8211; plus &#8220;such other websites that may subsequently be notified by the Plaintiff to be infringing of its exclusive rights.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the Judge granting a blocking order against Google is bad enough, one has to question how the company&#8217;s services ended up on the High Court application in the first place. That is the responsibility of local anti-piracy company Markscan, who compiled the list for Multi Screen Media. Markscan were featured in a TorrentFreak article <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/foul-sony-orders-google-to-censor-the-world-cup-140622/">last month</a> when they sent dozens of erroneous takedown notices to Google, again on behalf of a Sony company.</p>
<p>“We want to assure you that we deploy technology, in addition to best efforts of our teams, to ensure that we do not impact legal content on yours, or any other website,” they told us at the time. Users of Google Docs, Goo.gl and Google Video may beg to differ.</p>
<p>While some local ISPs have already initiated blockades, Google told Indian news outlet <a href="http://www.medianama.com">Medianama</a> that there had been &#8220;no interruption of our services mentioned in the order.&#8221;</p>
<p>The High Court order was issued June 23, alongside an instruction to distribute the  summons to the defendant sites by July 22, 2014.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> MediaNama is <a href="http://www.medianama.com/2014/07/223-world-cup-2014-472-websites-including-google-docs-blocked-in-india-following-sony-complaint/">reporting</a> that it has obtained a copy of an updated court order that isn&#8217;t yet available on the Delhi High Court website. The update reveals blocking requests for 219 sites, down from the 472 in the original order. No Google websites are in the updated list but many torrent and other file-sharing sites remain.</p>
<p><strong>Original List of 472 Sites to Be Blocked</strong></p>
<p>  1. cdn.playwire.com</p>
<p>  2. embedupload.com</p>
<p>  3. 1fichier.com</p>
<p>  4. crocko.com</p>
<p>  5. multiupload.nl</p>
<p>  6. uppit.com</p>
<p>  7. solidfiles.com</p>
<p>  8. bayfiles.net</p>
<p>  9. tusfiles.net</p>
<p>  10. bitshare.com</p>
<p>  11. muchshare.net</p>
<p>  12. mega.co.nz</p>
<p>  13. share-online.biz</p>
<p>  14. sendspace.com</p>
<p>  15. real4download.com</p>
<p>  16. telugump3.biz</p>
<p>  17. wapkafiles.com</p>
<p>  18. telugumasthi.wapka.me</p>
<p>  19. telugustar.net</p>
<p>  20. myteluguwap.net</p>
<p>  21. s1.myteluguwap.net</p>
<p>  22. s2.myteluguwap.net</p>
<p>  23. filestube.to</p>
<p>  24. ul.to</p>
<p>  25. mightyupload.com</p>
<p>  26. uploaded.net</p>
<p>  27. freakshare.com</p>
<p>  28. putlocker.com</p>
<p>  29. uploadable.ch</p>
<p>  30. safelinking.net</p>
<p>  31. ultramegabit.com</p>
<p>  32. terafile.co</p>
<p>  33. fileom.com</p>
<p>  34. d01.megashares.com</p>
<p>  35. dizzcloud.com</p>
<p>  36. lumfile.com</p>
<p>  37. fileparadox.in</p>
<p>  38. nitrobits.com</p>
<p>  39. filemonkey.in</p>
<p>  40. fastshare.cz</p>
<p>  41. keep2share.cc</p>
<p>  42. k2s.cc</p>
<p>  43. sharerepo.com</p>
<p>  44. depositfiles.com</p>
<p>  45. rapidshare.com</p>
<p>  46. filerio.com</p>
<p>  47. goo.gl</p>
<p>  48. fcore.eu</p>
<p>  49. anonfiles.com</p>
<p>  50. adf.ly</p>
<p>  51. megafiles.se</p>
<p>  52. exashare.com</p>
<p>  53. primeshare.tv</p>
<p>  54. uploadc.com</p>
<p>  55. epicshare.net</p>
<p>  56. dwn.so</p>
<p>  57. uploadhero.com</p>
<p>  58. dfiles.eu</p>
<p>  59. thefile.me</p>
<p>  60. nosupload.com</p>
<p>  61. uploadsat.com</p>
<p>  62. shareflare.net</p>
<p>  63. letitbit.net</p>
<p>  64. filesfrog.net</p>
<p>  65. unlimitzone.com</p>
<p>  66. uploadrocket.net</p>
<p>  67. secureupload.eu</p>
<p>  68. hulkfile.eu</p>
<p>  69. tusfiles.co.nz</p>
<p>  70. filehoot.com</p>
<p>  71. jumbofiles.com</p>
<p>  72. usefile.com</p>
<p>  73. clicktoview.org</p>
<p>  74. 180upload.nl</p>
<p>  75. hitfile.net</p>
<p>  76. easybytez.com</p>
<p>  77. crisshare.com</p>
<p>  78. vip-file.com</p>
<p>  79. ufile.eu</p>
<p>  80. jheberg.net</p>
<p>  81. dl.free.fr</p>
<p>  82. 2shared.com</p>
<p>  83. sharebeast.com</p>
<p>  84. cramit.in</p>
<p>  85. ryushare.com</p>
<p>   86. teluguworld.asia</p>
<p>  87. twap.in</p>
<p>  88. vshare.eu</p>
<p>  89. 108.59.3.225:182</p>
<p>  90. megafilesfactory.com</p>
<p>  91. 199.91.152.94</p>
<p>  92. 205.196.121.39</p>
<p>  93. 199.91.152.86</p>
<p>  94. 199.91.154.157</p>
<p>  95. 205.196.123.194</p>
<p>  96. 205.196.123.8</p>
<p>  97. 205.196.123.182</p>
<p>  98. mhnwap.wapka.me</p>
<p>   99. mhnwap.wapka.mobi</p>
<p>  100. realitytelevisionportal.eu</p>
<p>  101. dorabuzz.in</p>
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<p>  105. wap.dorabuzz.in</p>
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<p>  113. lemuploads.com</p>
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<p>  116. filedap.com</p>
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<p>  119. v-vids.com</p>
<p>  120. quickyshare.net</p>
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<p>  128. docs.google.com</p>
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<p>  145. vidplay.net</p>
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<p>  148. modovideo.com</p>
<p>  149. youwatch.org</p>
<p>  150. magnovideo.com</p>
<p>  151. videobam.com</p>
<p>  152. sharexvid.com</p>
<p>  153. videoslasher.com</p>
<p>  154. nowvideo.ch</p>
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<p>  156. videozed.net</p>
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<p>  158. vidzi.tv</p>
<p>  159. streamin.to</p>
<p>  160. thevideo.me</p>
<p>  161. vidzbeez.com</p>
<p>  162. divxpress.com</p>
<p>  163. nubestream.com</p>
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<p>  168. divxstage.net</p>
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<p>  174. slickvid.com</p>
<p>  175. videofun.me</p>
<p>  176. video44.net</p>
<p>  177. yucache.net</p>
<p>  178. moevideos.net</p>
<p>  179. videomega.tv</p>
<p>  180. vidpaid.com</p>
<p>  181. sharevid.org</p>
<p>  182. zuzvideo.com</p>
<p>  183. video.vidcrazy.net</p>
<p>  184. videovalley.net</p>
<p>  185. videoboxone.com</p>
<p>  186. vidcrazy.net</p>
<p>  187. vodu.ch</p>
<p>  188. watchfreeinhd.com</p>
<p>  189. veehd.com</p>
<p>  190. movdivx.com</p>
<p>  191. blip.tv</p>
<p>  192. animeuploads.com</p>
<p>  193. videohub.ws</p>
<p>  194. hdwide.co</p>
<p>  195. stormvid.co</p>
<p>  196. neovid.me</p>
<p>  197. hawkhd.me</p>
<p>  198. streamland.cc</p>
<p>  199. vidshark.ws</p>
<p>  200. vidspace.cc</p>
<p>  201. vids.bz</p>
<p>  202. play.flashx.tv</p>
<p>  203. videoweed.es</p>
<p>  204. torrenthound.com</p>
<p>  205. nowvideo.sx</p>
<p>  206. limetorrents.com</p>
<p>  207. novamov.com</p>
<p>  208. torrentfunk.com</p>
<p>  209. torrents.net</p>
<p>  210. wapkafile.com</p>
<p>  211. thepiratebay.org</p>
<p>  212. torlock.com</p>
<p>  213. movshare.net</p>
<p>  214. unblockedpiratebay-proxy.com</p>
<p>  215. thetorrent.org</p>
<p>  216. torrentz.sx</p>
<p>  217. thepiratebay.se.unblock.to</p>
<p>  218. nowdownload.ch</p>
<p>  219. sockshare.com</p>
<p>  220. bittorrent.pm</p>
<p>  221. uptobox.com</p>
<p>  222. torrage.com</p>
<p>  223. vidbux.com</p>
<p>  224. muchshare.net</p>
<p>  225. sumotorrent.sx</p>
<p>  226. torrentdownload.ws</p>
<p>  227. vidup.me</p>
<p>  228. btmon.com</p>
<p>  229. ryushare.com</p>
<p>  230. uploadable.ch</p>
<p>  231. thepiratebay.se</p>
<p>  232. 1337x.to</p>
<p>  233. video.tt</p>
<p>  234. bthunter.org</p>
<p>  235. tusfiles.net</p>
<p>  236. 1337x.org</p>
<p>  237. swankshare.com</p>
<p>  238. 1337xproxy.in</p>
<p>  239. torrentz.dj</p>
<p>  240. torrentcrazy.ee</p>
<p>  241. filesbomb.in</p>
<p>  242. torrentz.is</p>
<p>  243. torrentz.am</p>
<p>  244. kickassunblock.net</p>
<p>  245. torrent.tm</p>
<p>  246. uploadboy.com</p>
<p>  247. oc.o2.vc</p>
<p>  248. ineedtorrent.net</p>
<p>  249. torrenthoundproxy.com</p>
<p>  250. torcache.kickassunblock.net</p>
<p>  251. kickasstor.net</p>
<p>  252. streamupload.org</p>
<p>  253. arabloads.net</p>
<p>  254. torrentsnet.come.in</p>
<p>  255. torrentz.to</p>
<p>  256. filesfrog.net</p>
<p>  257. 3gparena.in</p>
<p>  258. dl.free.fr</p>
<p>  259. divxstage.eu</p>
<p>  260. play.flashx.tv</p>
<p>  261. download-abc.com</p>
<p>  262. filmsmaza.com</p>
<p>  263. glotorrents.com</p>
<p>  264. coolmoviez.com</p>
<p>  265. 62.210.201.55:81</p>
<p>  266. fuckyourcrew.org</p>
<p>  267. mimti1.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  268. sandy1.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  269. sandy3.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  270. sandy4.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  271. thepiratebay.mk</p>
<p>  272. dev.torrentz.pro</p>
<p>  273. uploaded.net</p>
<p>  274. torrentmoviemafia.com</p>
<p>  275. 1337x.pw</p>
<p>  276. share1.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  277. share2.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  278. share3.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  279. share4.moviesmobile.net</p>
<p>  280. bayproxy.me</p>
<p>  281. sarthaktv.in</p>
<p>  282. p2p4ever.com</p>
<p>  283. tny.cz</p>
<p>  284. torrent-loco.com.ar</p>
<p>  285. piraattilahti.org</p>
<p>  286. punjabwap.com</p>
<p>  287. torrent.ee</p>
<p>  288. torrentz.asia</p>
<p>  289. fromplay.org</p>
<p>  290. proxybay.pw</p>
<p>  291. vertor.com</p>
<p>  292. katshore.org</p>
<p>  293. nl.malaysiabay.org</p>
<p>  294. demonoid.ph</p>
<p>  295. kickasstorrents.come.in</p>
<p>  296. putlocker.cz</p>
<p>  297. proxybay.eu</p>
<p>  298. vertor.eu</p>
<p>  299. 3gparina.in</p>
<p>  300. 89.248.162.148</p>
<p>  301. fromplay.com</p>
<p>  302. etorrent.co.kr</p>
<p>  303. fun4buddy.com</p>
<p>  304. livetvindian.com</p>
<p>  305. ontohinbd.com</p>
<p>  306. pc.rdxhd.com</p>
<p>  307. seedpeer.me</p>
<p>  308. ukcast.tv</p>
<p>  309. ezcast.tv</p>
<p>  310. xuscacamusca.se</p>
<p>  311. crichd.in</p>
<p>  312. 122.155.203.9</p>
<p>  313. http://www.0dian8.com/</p>
<p>  314. http://www.114nba.com/</p>
<p>  315. http://360bo.com/</p>
<p>  316. http://51live.com/</p>
<p>  317. http://www.52waha.com/</p>
<p>  318. http://bf.5xzb.com/</p>
<p>  319. http://allsport-live.net/</p>
<p>  320. http://www.antibookers.ru/</p>
<p>  321. http://www.assistirtvonlineaovivo.tv/</p>
<p>  322. http://atdhe.eu/</p>
<p>  323. http://atdhe.so/</p>
<p>  324. http://atdhe.xxx/</p>
<p>  325. http://www.atdhe24.net/</p>
<p>  326. http://www.azhibo.com/</p>
<p>  327. http://barcelonastream.com/</p>
<p>  328. http://www.coolsport.tv/schedule-coolsport-tv.html</p>
<p>  329. http://www.tvole.com/</p>
<p>  330. http://www.drakulastream.eu/</p>
<p>  331. http://esportesaovivo.com/</p>
<p>  332. http://www.feed2all.eu/type/football.html</p>
<p>  333. http://gofirstrowuk.eu/</p>
<p>  334. http://www.footballstreaming.info/</p>
<p>  335. http://www.frombar.com/</p>
<p>  336. http://www.futebolaovivo.net/inicio.php</p>
<p>  337. http://www.online.futebolaovivogratis.org/</p>
<p>  338. http://gooool.org/</p>
<p>  339. http://www.rajangan.me/</p>
<p>  340. http://www.hahasport.com/</p>
<p>  341. http://hdzhibo.com/</p>
<p>  342. http://neolive.net/</p>
<p>  343. http://www.kanqiu.tv/</p>
<p>  344. http://livesport4u.com/</p>
<p>  345. http://livetv.sx/</p>
<p>  346. http://meczelive.tv/</p>
<p>  347. http://www.megatvonline.co/</p>
<p>  348. http://tvonline.megavertvonline.net/live/</p>
<p>  349. http://myp2p.pw/</p>
<p>  350. http://nogomya.ch/</p>
<p>  351. http://www.p2p-hd.com/</p>
<p>  352. http://qmzhibo.com/</p>
<p>  353. http://rntplayer.com/</p>
<p>  354. http://www.rojadirecta.me/</p>
<p>  355. http://www.seezb.net/</p>
<p>  356. http://www.sport.net/</p>
<p>  357. http://sport5online.com/</p>
<p>  358. http://sportlemon.ge/</p>
<p>  359. http://sportlemontv.eu/</p>
<p>  360. http://sportlive.lt/</p>
<p>  361. http://www.sportlv.info/</p>
<p>  362. http://www.sportp2p.com/</p>
<p>  363. http://www.stopstream.tv/</p>
<p>  364. http://thefirstrow.biz/</p>
<p>  365. http://www.feed4u.net/</p>
<p>  366. http://www.time4tv.com/</p>
<p>  367. http://torrent-tv.ru/</p>
<p>  368. http://tvaovivogratis.net/</p>
<p>  369. http://tvonlinexat.com/</p>
<p>  370. http://www.usagoals.tv/</p>
<p>  371. http://vipbox.net/</p>
<p>  372. http://www.vipboxuk.co/</p>
<p>  373. http://www.wasu.cn/</p>
<p>  374. http://www.wiziwig.tv/</p>
<p>  375. http://wszhibo.com/</p>
<p>  376. http://www.look-tvs.com/</p>
<p>  377. http://www.yaomtv.com.cn/</p>
<p>  378. http://www.zhiboche.com/</p>
<p>  379. http://zqnow.com/</p>
<p>  380. http://www.24livestreamtv.com/brazil-2014-fifa-world-cup-football-<br>
  live-streaming-online-tv/</p>
<p>  381. http://acefootball.eu/</p>
<p>  382. http://al3ablive.info/</p>
<p>  383. http://atdhe.ru/</p>
<p>  384. http://atdhe.ge/</p>
<p>  385. http://atdhe.sx/</p>
<p>  386. http://atdhe.ws/</p>
<p>  387. http://bongdatructuyen.info/</p>
<p>  388. http://www.bongdatructuyen.vn/</p>
<p>  389. http://bongdatv.net/</p>
<p>  390. http://bongdaup.com/</p>
<p>  391. http://www.majika.biz/</p>
<p>  392. http://btvsports.com/</p>
<p>  393. http://canalesdetv.com/</p>
<p>  394. http://capodeportes.net/</p>
<p>  395. http://www.catedralhd.tk/</p>
<p>  396. http://www.cv55.eu/</p>
<p>  397. http://desistreams.tv/</p>
<p>  398. http://desportogratis.com/</p>
<p>  399. http://dinozap.com/</p>
<p>  400. http://drhtv.com.pl/</p>
<p>  401. http://epctv.com/</p>
<p>  402. http://zonasports.to/</p>
<p>  403. http://fancylive.com/</p>
<p>  404. http://feed2all.eu/</p>
<p>  405. http://www.firstrows.eu/</p>
<p>  406. http://firstrows.biz/</p>
<p>  407. http://firstrowsports.ge/</p>
<p>  408. http://footballhd.ru/</p>
<p>  409. http://footdirect24.com/</p>
<p>  410. http://freefootball.ws/</p>
<p>  411. http://freehdspor.com/</p>
<p>  412. http://freelivefussball.de/</p>
<p>  413. http://freelivesport.eu/</p>
<p>  414. http://fsicrew.info/</p>
<p>  415. http://fussball-live-streams.com/</p>
<p>  416. http://futbolarg.tv/</p>
<p>  417. http://www.futbol-envivo.com/</p>
<p>  418. http://futbolsinlimites.pw/</p>
<p>  419. http://futebolaovivogratis.org/</p>
<p>  420. http://goatd.net/</p>
<p>  421. http://hdembed.com/</p>
<p>  422. http://funkeysports.com/</p>
<p>  423. http://hdsports.me/</p>
<p>  424. http://www.hdstreams.tv/index.php</p>
<p>  425. http://iraqgoals.in/</p>
<p>  426. http://jokerplanete.com/</p>
<p>  427. http://lesoleildelanuit.wf/</p>
<p>  428. http://life-sport.org/</p>
<p>  429. http://livesportv.com/</p>
<p>  430. http://max-deportv.com/</p>
<p>  431. http://megaviptv.net/</p>
<p>  432. http://milloxtv.me/</p>
<p>  433. http://myp2p.cm/</p>
<p>  434. http://myp2p.ec/</p>
<p>  435. http://newsoccertv.com/</p>
<p>  436. http://nowwatchtvlive.com/</p>
<p>  437. http://onlinemoviesportsandtv.com/</p>
<p>  438. http://online&#8211;soccer.eu/</p>
<p>  439. http://portugaldesportivo.com/</p>
<p>  440. http://premier-league-live.net/</p>
<p>  441. http://qxzhibo.com/</p>
<p>  442. http://realtvsport.com/</p>
<p>  443. http://real-tv-sport.com/</p>
<p>  444. http://www.redzer.tv/</p>
<p>  445. http://s247.tv/</p>
<p>  446. http://sambasoccer.pw/</p>
<p>  447. http://skysport.tv/</p>
<p>  448. http://soccerembed.com/</p>
<p>  449. http://soccertoall.net/</p>
<p>  450. http://softsportstv.eu/</p>
<p>  451. http://www.sportsbeech.tv/</p>
<p>  452. http://sports-x.net/</p>
<p>  453. http://sportz-hd.eu/</p>
<p>  454. http://stadium-live.com/</p>
<p>  455. http://stream-foot.tv/</p>
<p>  456. http://streamhd.eu/</p>
<p>  457. http://streamking.org/</p>
<p>  458. http://todaytv.me/</p>
<p>  459. http://www.tvonlinepc.eu/</p>
<p>  460. http://totbet.net/</p>
<p>  461. http://tructiepbongda.com/</p>
<p>  462. http://tvembed.com/</p>
<p>  463. http://tvembed.eu/</p>
<p>  464. http://tv-link.in/</p>
<p>  465. http://tv-porinternet.com/</p>
<p>  466. http://tvsport24.info/</p>
<p>  467. http://u-peak.me/</p>
<p>  468. http://vipbox.co/</p>
<p>  469. http://vipracing.co.in/</p>
<p>  470. http://vtv4u.eu/</p>
<p>  471. http://whoopwhoop.tv/</p>
<p>  472. http://wiziwigfootball.com/</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90644
title: Uptobox Bans Americans After Visa and MasterCard Pressure
uri: Uptobox-Bans-Americans-After-Visa-and-MasterCard-Pressure
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qe7iTIRVFC0/
content:
<p><a href="media/78376983.uptobox1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uptobox1.png"><img src="media/78376983.uptobox1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uptobox1.png" alt="uptobox" width="200" height="67" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90645"></a>After failed attempts to introduce tougher anti-piracy legislation in the United States, Hollywood and the major record labels focused their efforts on strangling revenue of so-called rogue sites.</p>
<p>Payment services are among the key intermediaries and the entertainment industries previously helped negotiate an anti-piracy agreement between VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, PaySafeCard and several other key players. </p>
<p>As a result several major file-hosting services have had trouble accepting payments from their users. The popular cyberlocker <a href="http://uptobox.com/">Uptobox</a> is among the latest casualties of this effort, TorrentFreak has learned. </p>
<p>&#8220;Our payment processors have received a notification from Visa and MasterCard telling them to stop accepting credit card payments for our service, subject to penalties,&#8221; Uptobox operator Guillaume informs us. </p>
<p>&#8220;These measures are the result of pressure from movie studios on Visa and Mastercard,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>Uptobox is currently still able to accept credit card payments through a reseller, but decided to cut all ties with the United States to prevent the situation from deteriorating further. </p>
<p>This means that U.S. visitors are no longer allowed to access the site. Instead they receive the following notice. &#8220;Sorry, Uptobox.com is not available in your country.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Uptobox block</strong></center><br></br><center><a href="media/0146b165.uptobox-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uptobox-block.png"><img src="media/0146b165.uptobox-block.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uptobox-block.png" alt="uptobox-block" width="582" height="197" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90646"></a></center></p>
<p>Uptobox will consider lifting the ban if a European payment provider is willing to directly accept credit card payments for them. However, considering Visa and MasterCard&#8217;s tight grip on the situation this may prove to be difficult. </p>
<p>According to Guillaume, MasterCard previously complained to payment processors Hipay and Allopass as well, following a request from Disney. In addition, PayPal has rejected Uptobox&#8217;s requests to become an authorized file-hosting service.  </p>
<p>According to statistics released last year more than 1,500 &#8220;pirate&#8221; merchants were cut off from payment providers between 2011 and 2013, and this list continues to expand week after week.</p>
<p>Despite the setbacks Uptobox is determined to keep its business going. The cyberlocker is currently exploring several alternative payment methods including Bitcoin. </p>
<p>&#8220;Processing payments for our users is hard right now, but we are sure we will find a suitable payment processor. We&#8217;re also considering to support Bitcoin and other payment methods such as SMS,&#8221; Guillaume tells us.</p>
<p>&#8220;For now, the service is not in danger, we still have a bright future ahead of us,&#8221; the Uptobox operator concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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