# articles

feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176259
title: Omniverse Fears Criminal Investigation Into Alleged IPTV Piracy
uri: Omniverse-Fears-Criminal-Investigation-Into-Alleged-IPTV-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/N1S8TBxD43k/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/9be78c50.omniverse1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/omniverse1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-168567"/></figure></div>



<p>In February, several major Hollywood studios filed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ace-sues-cord-cutting-service-omniverse-for-copyright-infringement/">a&nbsp;lawsuit</a>&nbsp;against&nbsp;Omniverse One World Television.</p>



<p>Under the flag of anti-piracy group&nbsp;<a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a>, the companies accused Omniverse and its owner Jason DeMeo of supplying of pirate streaming channels to various IPTV services.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.omniversetv.com/">Omniverse</a> sold live-streaming services to third-party distributors, such as Dragon Box and HDHomerun, which in turn offered live TV streaming packages to customers. According to ACE, the company was a pirate streaming TV supplier, offering these channels without permission from its members. </p>



<p>Omniverse disagreed with this characterization and countered that it did everything by the book. It relied on a deal from the licensed cable company Hovsat, which has a long-standing agreement with DirecTV to distribute a broad range of TV-channels with few restrictions. </p>



<p>As time went on, however, it transpired that the streaming provider was clearly worried about the legal threat. After several of its distributors distanced themselves from the service, Omniverse decided to wind down its business.</p>



<p>An earlier statement that the service was &#8220;fully licensed&#8221; was replaced by more reserved language. In a court filing in June, Omniverse said that if any infringement took place, it was without the company&#8217;s explicit knowledge.</p>



<p>&#8220;To the extent there was any infringement, such infringement was, on information and belief, without malice or bad intent by Omniverse or its management and was caused or contributed to by third-parties such as HovSat,&#8221; the company <a href="media/83b6cc80.gov.uscourts.cacd.737096.39.0.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.737096/gov.uscourts.cacd.737096.39.0.pdf">stated</a>.</p>



<p>Fast forward a few weeks and the case remains unresolved. According to recent court records, Omniverse would like to settle the matter. It has made several offers to do so, but the Hollywood studios were not interested. Instead, ACE would like to know all the ins and outs of the alleged infringements.</p>



<p>To break this impasse, Omniverse asked the court to compel the Hollywood studios to engage in a mediation process yesterday. At the same time, the company would like to bring the ongoing discovery efforts to a halt. </p>



<p>According to the court filing, the ACE members were willing to agree to a stipulated judgment where the streaming provider would admit certain wrongdoings. However, this goes too far according to Omniverse, which fears that the rightsholders could use this to fuel a criminal investigation.</p>



<p>&#8220;The parties have exchanged drafts of a stipulated judgment, but the parties reached an impasse when Plaintiffs demanded that Defendants admit to what amounts to egregious conduct in exchange for settlement,&#8221; Omniverse writes. </p>



<p>&#8220;Defendants fear Plaintiffs intend to use such a stipulated judgment as part of a criminal investigation against Defendants. To resolve the impasse, Defendants proposed a mediation, which Plaintiffs have flatly refused,&#8221; the company adds.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="media/5145299f.criminal.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/criminal.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176276"/></figure></div>



<p>The mention of a potential criminal investigation is new. While it&#8217;s not a secret that Hollywood studios have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-wants-u-s-govt-to-prosecute-streaming-piracy-operations-190706/">referred several streaming piracy cases</a> to the Department of Justice, Omniverse was never mentioned in this regard. Whether the streaming provider has any concrete indication that it&#8217;s a criminal target is unknown.</p>



<p>The request to compel mediation was submitted &#8220;ex parte,&#8221; meaning that ACE&#8217;s members weren&#8217;t made aware of it beforehand. However, the rightsholders were quick to respond. </p>



<p>In a filing submitted a few hours ago they object to the request. Instead, the Hollywood studios want to complete the discovery process, so they can find out more about the infringing activity. When that&#8217;s done, they are open to mediation.</p>



<p>The rightsholders further point out that, while the Omniverse brand may have ceased operating, the company&#8217;s CEO appears to be involved in another potentially troublesome IPTV service, <a href="https://www.ostvnow.com">OSTV Now</a>, which is set to launch next month. </p>



<p>&#8220;While Defendants represented to the Court that they have ceased operations, it appears that Defendant DeMeo is merely shifting from one infringing operation (Omniverse) to another (OSTV Now), advertised as a new &#8216;One-Stop For TV Entertainment&#8217; to launch on September 1. </p>



<p>&#8220;Whatever the branding, Defendants appear to be continuing their infringing practices. These and other important facts are exactly why discovery needs to move forward,&#8221; the studios add.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="media/36215f2a.ostv.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ostv.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176277"/></figure></div>



<p>The new &#8220;OSTV Now&#8221; service doesn&#8217;t mention Omniverse CEO Jason DeMeo by name. However, as Lightreading <a href="https://www.lightreading.com/video/video-services/ostv-now-omniverse-exec-offers-one-stop-shop-for-tv/a/d-id/753420">pointed out</a> previously, the service is promoted on DeMeo&#8217;s <a href="https://www.jasondemeo.com/">personal website</a>.</p>



<p>Given the potential threat and several outstanding questions the studios have, they ask the court to deny Omniverse&#8217;s request to compel mediation at this stage of the case. </p>



<p>&#8220;Only when the facts are known to both sides (not just Defendants) can the parties meaningfully engage in a mediation. Defendants’ ex parte is a transparent attempt to avoid the very discovery that would reveal those facts, seemingly so they can continue infringing in the meantime,&#8221; they write.  </p>



<p>Unlike Omniverse, the rightsholders make no mention of a potential criminal case. Whether that threat is indeed warranted, has yet to be seen. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of Omniverse&#8217;s ex parte request to compel mediation is available <a href="media/4f0e3fd3.omniexparte.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/omniexparte.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and a copy of the Hollywood studios&#8217; response can be found <a href="media/5924bc04.omniexparteresp.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/omniexparteresp.pdf">here (pdf</a>).</em><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176187
title: Can YouTube Be Liable For Copyright Infringing Videos? EU Court to Decide
uri: Can-YouTube-Be-Liable-For-Copyright-Infringing-Videos-EU-Court-to-Dec
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/C5jVkZMmV4I/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/72389cbc.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-117196"/></figure></div>



<p>Week in and week out YouTube&#8217;s users upload millions of hours of videos. As with any user-generated content site, this also includes copyright-infringing content.</p>



<p>YouTube tackles this by processing takedown notices and using its Content-ID system to automatically remove allegedly infringing content. However, according to some prominent copyright holders, this is not good enough.</p>



<p>In Austria, this complaint is at the center of a lawsuit between the local television channel&nbsp;<a href="https://www.puls4.com/">Puls 4</a>&nbsp;and YouTube.&nbsp;In an initial order last summer, the court ruled that the video platform can be held directly liable for users’ copyright infringements. YouTube was not seen as a neutral intermediary and&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-can-be-liable-for-copyright-infringing-videos-court-rules-180607/">should do more</a>&nbsp;to prevent infringing uploads.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-can-be-liable-for-copyright-infringing-videos-court-rules-180607/">court noted</a> that YouTube takes several motivated actions to actively organize and optimize how videos are displayed. By doing so, it becomes more than a neutral hosting provider. Therefore, it can’t rely on a safe harbor defense.</p>



<p>This ruling was overturned by the Higher Regional Court of Vienna earlier this year. According to the appeal court,  YouTube doesn&#8217;t have an &#8220;active role&#8221; as its search, categorization, and advertising service are seen as part of the normal business models of hosting platforms, which do not make the company liable. </p>



<p>Puls4 was disappointed with this ruling and immediately decided to take the case to the Supreme Court. This case is still pending but before it rules on the matter, the highest Austrian court is seeking input from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) on several crucial questions.</p>



<p>The questions <a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/liste.jsf?language=de&amp;num=c-500/19&amp;td=ALL">haven&#8217;t been published</a> publicly on CJEU&#8217;s website yet, but TorrentFreak obtained a copy of the <a href="/images/portcjeu.txt">Portuguese</a> versions and <a href="http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2019/08/guest-post-cheaper-by-dozen-two-further.html">IP KAT</a> did the same with the German questions. These questions reveal, as expected, that the EU&#8217;s highest court will have to decide the boundaries of Europe&#8217;s safe harbors. </p>



<p>The first question, for example, asks if a video host, under Article 14 of the EU&#8217;s Electronic Commerce Directive 2000, takes on an &#8220;active role&#8221; that can make it liable for copyright infringements when it categorizes videos, makes suggestions by topic, and uses targeted advertising, among other things.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The EU Court is further asked to clarify whether  Articles 12 to 14  of the EU&#8217;s Electronic Commerce Directive mean that providers are shielded from liability, even when their activity is seen as a communication to the public. </p>



<p>In addition, the Austrian Supreme Court wants to know if a court-ordered injunction only applicable if a service provider has actual knowledge of infringements which have been confirmed by a court?</p>



<p>The latter appears to deal with the question of whether sites such as YouTube have to remove content merely based on metadata (to prevent repeated uploads), as opposed to pointing out specific infringing content. That&#8217;s important because, in the Puls4 case, YouTube was not aware of any the contested infringements.</p>



<p>The CJEU&#8217;s decision will be a crucial one in the ongoing legal debate about the potential liability of third-party intermediaries such as video hosting providers. </p>



<p>Puls4 previously stressed that it believes that EU law is on its side. Among other things, the company pointed out other relevant CJEU decisions, including the case regarding the infringing nature of The Pirate Bay. In addition, it believes that recent developments regarding liability under the proposed Article 17&nbsp;of the new EU copyright directive will help its cause.</p>



<p>Interestingly, this isn&#8217;t the only YouTube-related case on CJEU&#8217;s agenda. A German court also referred various&nbsp;copyright infringement-<a href="http://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&amp;docid=211267&amp;pageIndex=0&amp;doclang=EN&amp;mode=req&amp;dir=&amp;occ=first&amp;part=1&amp;cid=2717644">related questions</a>&nbsp;last year. The Austrian Supreme Court was aware of this referral but believes that its questions deserve to be handled separately.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176301
title: IPGuys ‘Pirate’ IPTV Service Sued by DISH Networks
uri: IPGuys-Pirate-IPTV-Service-Sued-by-DISH-Networks
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yiMp9Ln95GM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="media/c6d79219.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-135034" width="258" height="171"/></figure></div>



<p>Those involved in the sale of unlicensed IPTV services appear to be coming under attack from an increasing number of angles.</p>



<p>Just this week, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vader-streams-was-shut-down-by-ace-must-pay-10m-damages-190821/">confirmed</a> that it was behind the closure of previously popular IPTV service Vader Streams.</p>



<p>Just days earlier, the UK&#8217;s Federation Against Copyright Theft <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fact-confirms-premier-league-anti-piracy-action-against-iptv-suppliers-190820/">said</a> it had served cease-and-desist notices in 16 locations to individuals involved in the supply of infringing sports streams, with at least some acting as resellers of &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV services.</p>



<p>Today, another well-known provider is added to the growing list.</p>



<p>IPGuys is a recognized brand in the IPTV space. It has no website of its own, with subscribers to the service gaining access through a network of resellers. For how much longer that will be the case will remain to be seen, as the service is now being sued in the United States.</p>



<p>In a lawsuit filed by DISH Networks and NagraStar yesterday, the broadcaster names Ontario, Canada-based Tomasz Kaczmarek as the operator of IPGuys.</p>



<p>&#8220;Kaczmarek operates an illicit streaming service called IPGuys, where he acquires DISH&#8217;s satellite broadcasts of television programming and retransmits that programming without authorization to customers of his IPGuys service,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>According to DISH, Brooklyn, New York-based husband and wife team John and Julia Defoe participate in the &#8220;rebroadcasting scheme&#8221; by creating and maintaining DISH subscription accounts that are used to supply the IPGuy&#8217;s service with DISH&#8217;s programming.</p>



<p>The additional Does 1-10 are described as &#8220;one or more persons&#8221; responsible for DISH subscription accounts that were created with false information and used to supply DISH content to the scheme.</p>



<p>DISH says the accounts were created through a former retailer in Brooklyn named Ratiann Enterprise Inc. and registered to addresses in the same area.  The company hopes that the discovery process will enable it to identify the people behind those accounts.</p>



<p>The suit states that DISH used technical means to determine that the content being offered by IPGuys originated from its satellite broadcasts.</p>



<p>&#8220;During testing of the IPGuys service, encoded messages delivered as part of DISH&#8217;s satellite communications were detected on the DISH Programming retransmitted on the IPGuys service, confirming the DISH Programming provided by Kaczmarek is originating from DISH&#8217;s satellite communications and DISH subscriber accounts,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>Seven of the so-called &#8220;seeder accounts&#8221; (the accounts that allegedly provided the content to IPGuys) shared one or more credit cards as the source of payment and all had either the same passwords or password hints, DISH adds.</p>



<p>Furthermore, the same credit cards were also used to pay for &#8220;at least twenty&#8221; additional subscriber accounts established with false information. One of the twenty accounts was held in the name of John Defoe, DISH claims, adding that Kaczmarek sent Julia Defoe &#8220;tens of thousands of dollars&#8221;, while specifically mentioning DISH.</p>



<p>From here, DISH begins to tackle some of the resellers of the IPGuys service, which offered the roughly $15 per month packages to the public. The primary sellers are named in the suit as Romie IPTV World, IPTV Bazaar, GetIPTVOnline and IPGuys-Live. Two secondary sellers are named as The Napster and Miracle Media Box Media.</p>



<p>DISH states that Kaczmarek and the Defoes were given notice by the company that their activities violated various aspects of the Federal Communications Act back in April 2019, but the IPGuys service continued to operate.</p>



<p>As a result, DISH is now demanding a broad permanent injunction against all defendants, plus actual or statutory damages of between $10,000 and $100,000 per violation, plus costs.</p>



<p><em>DISH&#8217;s complaint against the IPGuys operation can be found <a href="media/a6f51fa2.1-19-cv-04803-DISH-v-IPGUYS-complaint-190821.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/1-19-cv-04803-DISH-v-IPGUYS-complaint-190821.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176258
title: Bill Aims to Deter Piracy by Teaching Copyright in Philippine Schools
uri: Bill-Aims-to-Deter-Piracy-by-Teaching-Copyright-in-Philippine-Schools
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZlDIrGT0Fpo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="media/6271c176.phillip.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/phillip.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176337" width="271" height="200"/></figure></div>



<p>Like many other countries in the world, the Philippines are struggling with a relatively high piracy rate. </p>



<p>To counter this threat, lawmakers have started to propose new legislation. </p>



<p>For example, earlier this year we reported that a new bill proposes to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/major-isp-backs-plan-to-strip-isp-of-licenses-for-piracy-failures-190112/">strip the licenses</a> of ISPs which fail to bar &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites. While that goes quite far, it doesn&#8217;t address the root of the problem. </p>



<p>According to local Congressman Rufus Rodriguez, the law already makes it clear that piracy is illegal. However, many people simply ignore this position. Among other things, this has previously resulted in the United States adding the country to its annual &#8216;piracy&#8217; watch list.  </p>



<p>&#8220;In spite and despite of various laws and regulations in the Philippines on Intellectual Property, intellectual infringement and piracy of intellectual rights are rampant in the country,&#8221; Rodriguez writes.</p>



<p>&#8220;Due to these situations, the Philippines is under the watch list as one of the countries where intellectual property rights are ignored and piracy of intellectual creations is widespread,&#8221; he adds.</p>



<p>Interestingly, the Philippines were removed from the US watch list in 2014, but Rodriguez nonetheless believes that more has to be done.  He&#8217;s therefore proposing to add &#8216;intellectual property&#8217; to the country&#8217;s mandatory school curriculum. Not just for the older children, but starting at primary&nbsp;school.  </p>



<p>According to the representative, it is crucial that the importance of copyright is taught at an early age as well as later in life. By doing so, the Philippine people may gain more respect for rightsholders as well as the law.</p>



<p>&#8220;With proper education, it is hoped that piracy will be curtailed and our laws will be strictly implemented,&#8221; Rodriguez writes.</p>



<p>The bill, which also proposes several other changes to the national curriculum, was adopted after the first reading in the House of Representatives and is now with the Committee on Basic Education and Culture. </p>



<p>The relevant copyright part of the proposal, which is included in House Bill 3749, reads as follows:</p>



<p><em>&#8220;The teaching of intellectual property ownership, particularly copyright law, is hereby required to be a part of the curriculum of all primary, secondary and tertiary schools in the country.&#8221;</em></p>



<p>While the bill is progressing through the legislative process, it still has a long way to go before being adopted. Rodriguez previously proposed similar copyright-related changes to the curriculum, but these didn&#8217;t pass, despite support form the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). </p>



<p>While copyright classes are not something most people associate with a mandatory curriculum, this type of education is not new. A few years ago several California schools voluntarily added copyright lessons to the curriculum, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-and-riaa-to-teach-copyright-at-kindergartens-130918/">starting at kindergarten</a>.</p>



<p>This effort, which was backed by major copyright holder groups, was initially criticized for being one-sided and was later upgraded to include more examples of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-and-riaa-teach-copyright-in-elementary-schools-now-with-fair-use-140906/">fair use</a>.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the bill and the associated exemplary note, received by the House of Representatives on August 8, is <a href="media/e800f2ef.HB03749.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/HB03749.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176324
title: Internet Archive Faces Permanent ISP Blocking Following Audiobook Lawsuits
uri: Internet-Archive-Faces-Permanent-ISP-Blocking-Following-Audiobook-Laws
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MIhzoZM8hGw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/16a360f4.internet-archive.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/internet-archive.png" alt="" class="wp-image-55299"/></figure></div>



<p>The Internet Archive (<a href="https://archive.org/">archive.org</a>) is a nonprofit library of millions of free books, movies, software and music.</p>



<p>Founded back in 1996, it&#8217;s considered one of the most important sites on the entire Internet, not least for its Wayback Machine which provides an unrivaled history of pages published on the web.</p>



<p>Like all platforms of its type, the Internet Archive contains copyrighted material, some of it present without rightsholders&#8217; permission. While the platform previously stated it has some reservations concerning the DMCA, it acknowledges that &#8216;safe harbor&#8217; provisions are vital to the existence of libraries such as the one it offers via Archive.org.</p>



<p>Internet Archive is required to respond to properly presented DMCA takedown notices but over in Russia, where the site provides millions of visitors with an invaluable service, things are on the brink of going seriously wrong.</p>



<p>The issues stem from the Internet Copyright Protection Association (AZAPI), an anti-piracy group which in part represents the rights of authors. </p>



<p>According to AZAPI, Archive.org has been making available a pair of audiobooks &#8211; Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky and Third Eye Diamond by Daria Dontsova &#8211; without obtaining permission from rightsholders. It&#8217;s unclear whether AZAPI filed simple takedown notices with the Internet Archive to have the titles taken down but the matter eventually went to court.</p>



<p>Digital rights group <a href="https://roskomsvoboda.org/49067/">Roskomsvoboda</a> reports that on May 13, 2019, the Moscow City Court examined the case involving Metro 2033 and decided in AZAPI&#8217;s favor. It subsequently issued an order preventing the Internet Archive (Archive.org) from &#8220;creating technical conditions&#8221; that result in the audiobook detailed by the plaintiff being made available to the public.</p>



<p>According to Roskomsvoboda, whose lawyers are now representing Internet Archive, the digital library was not involved in the initial hearing and was not advised of the outcome. An appeal against that decision is now underway.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, AZAPI, still returned for another bite of the cherry, complaining that another audiobook, Third Eye Diamond by Daria Dontsova, was also being made available via Archive.org.</p>



<p>A hearing in that case took place August 16, with AZAPI stepping up its demands to have Internet Archive (Archive.org) permanently blocked by all ISPs in Russia. However, the case has hit a roadblock due to AZAPI failing to provide evidence that the company behind the audiobook actually has the rights to the work.</p>



<p>As a result, another hearing in the matter is set to take place mid-September. Whether or not the Moscow court will then order Internet Archive to be permanently blocked in Russia remains to be seen but it certainly hasn&#8217;t shied away from blocking other huge platforms in the past, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-pirate-bay-of-science-blocked-in-russia-over-medical-studies-181130/">Sci-Hub as a prime example</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=175788
title: EBook.Bike Copyright Case Heading Towards Trial, Default Set Aside
uri: EBook-Bike-Copyright-Case-Heading-Towards-Trial-Default-Set-Aside
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TRkKuUIZI1U/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/24879ea8.3geINt6a_400x400.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/3geINt6a_400x400.jpg" alt="" width="261" height="261"/></figure></div>



<p>During March, US-based author John Van Stry filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Travis McCrea, the operator of controversial eBook download platform eBook.bike.</p>



<p>McCrea initially opted not to become involved in the US lawsuit and in June, Van Stry’s lawyers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-questions-whether-ebook-pirate-site-operator-can-be-sued-in-texas-190715/">filed</a> for a default judgment in a Texas court.</p>



<p>In common with most copyright cases, this one isn&#8217;t straightforward and seems to have been complicated by McCrea&#8217;s early non-participation. However, the former Pirate Party of Canada leader eventually had a change of heart. He recently asked the Court to consider accepting late motions to vacate the default, dismiss the case, and/or change the venue.</p>



<p>Following a recent telephone conference, Judge William Bryson issued an order in response to those requests.</p>



<p>In respect of Van Stry&#8217;s motion for default (which had the potential to put McCrea on the hook for around $150,000 in statutory damages), that has now been vacated, meaning that McCrea will be able to fight his corner.</p>



<p>On the question of venue and personal jurisdiction (McCrea resides in Canada), the eBook.bike operator wasn&#8217;t so lucky. In his order, the Judge concluded that in a copyright infringement case like this, Van Stry&#8217;s location is the deciding factor, since that&#8217;s where the alleged injury was caused.</p>



<p>&#8220;Based on the evidence before the Court, the location of the copyright holder is his current residence within the Eastern District of Texas. Therefore, with respect to personal jurisdiction and venue, the Court has personal jurisdiction over the defendant, and venue is proper in the Eastern District of Texas,&#8221; the order reads.</p>



<p>As reported previously, McCrea asked the Court to dismiss the entire case, based on his assertion that the DMCA takedown notices filed with eBook.bike by Van Stry were deficient. Among other things, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ebook-bike-owner-says-deficient-dmca-notices-means-no-case-to-answer-190727/">McCrea argued</a>, precise URLs for the allegedly-infringing content were not provided.</p>



<p>In another setback, the Judge denied McCrea&#8217;s motion to dismiss, &#8220;holding that the complaint, which alleges proper notification of claimed infringement under 17 U.S.C. 512(c)(3) and other facts challenging the applicability of the DMCA safe harbor, is sufficient to state a claim for copyright infringement at the pleading stage.&#8221;</p>



<p>A control order is now on the docket, indicating &#8211; among other things &#8211; that jury selection for the trial will take place during June 2020. Whether the parties will agree to settle in the meantime is open to question but as costs continue to mount (both McCrea and Van Stry have complained about cash shortages recently), that might be the sensible outcome.</p>



<p>Not least since eBook.bike has been down for weeks and is showing no signs of returning.</p>



<p><em>The related court orders can be found <a href="media/8a41f141.Stry-v-McCrea-et-al-2-19-cv-00104-minute-order.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Stry-v-McCrea-et-al-2-19-cv-00104-minute-order.pdf">here</a> and <a href="media/dbd302d9.Stry-v-McCrea-et-al-2-19-cv-00104-DOCKET-CONTROL-ORDER.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Stry-v-McCrea-et-al-2-19-cv-00104-DOCKET-CONTROL-ORDER.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176189
title: Pirate Site Blocking Boosts Netflix Subscriptions, Research Suggests
uri: Pirate-Site-Blocking-Boosts-Netflix-Subscriptions-Research-Suggests
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YBt7K2kTTxM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/b1b33e9f.pageblocked.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-147564" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked.jpg 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/pageblocked-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px"></figure></div>



<p>In recent years website blocking has become one of the most widely-used anti-piracy enforcement mechanisms in the world.</p>



<p>ISPs in several dozen countries are now required to prevent subscribers from accessing a variety of &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites. While new blocks are added every month, research on their effectiveness has been rather scarce. </p>



<p>Most &#8216;studies&#8217; promoted by copyright holders conclude that blocking a site does indeed reduce traffic to the affected domains. While this is hardly surprising, less is known about where &#8216;blocked&#8217; subscribers go instead. </p>



<p>Do they simply give up and stop pirating? Are they finding ways to circumvent blockades? Do they decide to sign up for a paid streaming service such as Netflix? As it turns out, all of the above can be answered positively, according to one of the most details studies on site blocking. </p>



<p>In a paper titled <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2612063">The Effect of Piracy Website Blocking on Consumer Behavior</a>, researchers connected to the Carnegie Mellon University&#8217;s IDEA program thoroughly researched the effect of various blocking orders in the UK.  </p>



<p>The latest version of the peer-reviewed paper, which will soon be published in the Management Information Systems Quarterly, builds on earlier findings that we&#8217;ve reported on in the past. </p>



<p>For example, the researchers found that when ISPs only blocked The Pirate Bay in the UK in 2012, not much happened. Pirates were still pirating but simply switched to alternative sites or Pirate Bay mirrors. Others circumvented the blockades by using VPNs.</p>



<p>Follow-up research, looking at the effect of 19 additional sites that were blocked by UK ISPs in 2013, revealed a different trend. Blocking more sites decreased the numbers of visits to pirate sites, but only cyberlockers. </p>



<p>This was later confirmed with data from an even larger blocking wave from 2014, which also found that visits to other unblocked pirate sites decreased. These data also revealed another interesting trend. The broader blocking effort also increased the number of visits to paid streaming services such as Amazon and Netflix.</p>



<div class="wp-block-group"><div class="wp-block-group__inner-container">
<center><h5>2014 block effects</h5></center>
</div></div>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="media/b8c88b00.2014blockeffects.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2014blockeffects.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176371"/></figure></div>



<p>The latest article expands on the last finding by estimating whether the blockades actually increased the number of subscriptions. This, opposed to the possibility that pirates were already subscribed and simply used the legal services more after the blocks.</p>



<p>To do this, the researchers looked at &#8216;pirates&#8217; who repeatedly visited legal services after the blockades, but didn&#8217;t before, and compared this to people who were not pirating. This shows that the blocks increased the number of paid subscriptions to streaming services.</p>



<p>&#8220;We show that blocking 53 sites in 2014 caused treated users to decrease piracy and to increase their usage of legal subscription sites by 7-12%. It also caused an increase in new paid subscriptions,&#8221; the researchers write in their paper.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Together, these results imply that supply-side antipiracy enforcement can be effective in turning users of illegal piracy channels toward paid legal<br>consumption,&#8221; the paper adds.</p>



<p>It has to be noted that the estimated increase in subscriptions is relatively small. It&#8217;s just 1.1 percentage points higher than in the control group of people who were not affected by the blocks. That said, this translates to around 50,000 new subscribers in the UK, which is pretty significant.</p>



<p>Overall the research finds that there are varying responses to pirate site blockades. Some may circumvent them by using alternative pirate sites or signing up for a VPN, while others increasingly turn to legal alternatives.</p>



<p>In addition to this, one of the main messages is that blocking multiple sites at once is more effective than blocking just a single site. Broader blocks are likely to make it harder for people to find pirated content and, as a result, some people appear to give up.</p>



<p>The researchers illustrate this by pointing at the &#8216;Hydra&#8217; comparison, which has been used by The Pirate Bay as well in the past. In Greek mythology, the Hydra is a beast that&#8217;s particularly hard to kill, as it has multiple heads that can grow back.</p>



<p>&#8220;Blocking a single site is akin to decapitating only one of the Hydra’s heads. The result will only be a more diffuse network of piracy sites, with no curb on pirating activity,&#8221; the researchers write. </p>



<p>Stabbing the Hydra in the hard is the only way to kill it effectively. While that may be impossible in the pirate ecosystem, cutting off as many heads as possible comes close. Especially if these heads are important sources for other sites. </p>



<p>&#8220;Blocking multiple sites at once is akin to decapitating several of the Hydra’s heads. With the network of sites significantly disrupted, this could possibly be a mortal wounding. We have shown that users’ behavior is sufficiently disrupted and that some increase the use of legal channels, and reduce illegal ones,&#8221; the paper concludes.</p>



<p>The website blocking research was carried out as part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics (IDEA), which received a generous donation from the MPAA. However, the researchers stress that their work is carried out independently. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176374
title: Copyright Alliance Warns U.S. About Pirate Streaming Apps and Devices
uri: Copyright-Alliance-Warns-U-S-About-Pirate-Streaming-Apps-and-Devices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jFxcIqE7iyo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/b155e2d8.riskwarndanger.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riskwarndanger.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-168363"/></figure></div>



<p>This week the US Customs and Border Protection Bureau hosted <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=USCBP-2019-0021-0001">a meeting</a> discussing various copyright enforcement efforts. </p>



<p>During the meeting, various stakeholders were invited to submit input for the Presidential Memorandum on Combating Trafficking in Counterfeit and Pirated Goods, set to be released later this year.</p>



<p>A similar request was previously made by the US Department of Commerce. While we already covered <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/industry-groups-share-anti-piracy-wish-list-with-us-government-190805/">some of these responses</a>, the views of the Copyright Alliance, which were sent in response to the latest meeting, haven&#8217;t been mentioned yet. </p>



<p>In a detailed submission the <a href="https://copyrightalliance.org/">Copyright Alliance</a>, which says it represents 1.8 million creators and 13,000 pro-copyright organizations in the United States, mainly focuses on online piracy. Specifically, the non-profit group urges the Trump administration to prioritize enforcement against online piracy. </p>



<p>&#8220;Online digital piracy has been and continues to be a plague on the creative community that harms both large and small copyright owners. Established channels of digital piracy, such as peer-to-peer file sharing and cyberlockers, remain popular, while emerging threats such as stream ripping services gain ground,&#8221; the group writes. </p>



<p>Another &#8217;emerging&#8217; piracy problem, one that involved physical products, is the growing threat of piracy devices and apps, which the Copyright Alliance abbreviated to PDAs. Kodi-based devices are most prevalent among this category, the group notes, but it adds that the Kodi software itself is legal.</p>



<p>Problems arise when people configure Kodi-devices with add-ons that give people easy and direct access to pirated movies, TV-shows, and other video content.</p>



<p>&#8220;Distributors of PDAs make it easy to stream and download pirated content at the push of a button. Their devices essentially allow purchasers to watch for free what legitimate streaming services charge you to access, and they advertise it as such,&#8221; the Copyright Alliance writes. </p>



<p>The group points at various examples including advertisements for the now-defunct Dragon Box, which encouraged potential customers to “Get rid of your Premium Channels” and to “Stop paying for Netflix and Hulu”. </p>



<p>These devices and services threaten the revenue of copyright holders, the group states. Not just those who produce the content, but also various legitimate distribution platforms.</p>



<p>&#8220;The widespread use of PDAs not only infringes upon the copyrights of creators of films and TV shows, but also harms competition by harming legitimate streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu, that are licensed to provide content and increasingly produce their own works,&#8221; the Alliance writes. </p>



<p>The Copyright Alliance encourages the US Government to address these problems where possible. In addition, it also would like to see the criminal penalties for streaming piracy to be increased from a misdemeanor to a felony. This would bring it on par with the criminal penalties for downloading.</p>



<p>This argument has been made by several parties in recent months, and the Copyright Alliance backs it as well. </p>



<p>&#8220;We agree that copyright criminal penalties should reflect the realities of how infringing conduct is occurring and believe the presence of meaningful criminal penalties plays a significant role in deterring willful and egregious infringement. </p>



<p>&#8220;We urge the Administration to continue working on harmonizing criminal penalties for the most common types of infringement,&#8221; the Alliance adds. </p>



<p>A full overview of the recommendations sent to the Customs and Border Protection Bureau, which also supports the pending CASE ACT and calls for measures against textbook counterfeiting, <a href="media/4a83e9f4.Copyright_Alliance.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Copyright_Alliance.pdf">is available here</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176222
title: IPTV Providers Reject Claims of Links to Drugs, Weapons, People Trafficking
uri: IPTV-Providers-Reject-Claims-of-Links-to-Drugs-Weapons-People-Traffi
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F_Z-vzasIPY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-135034"/></figure></div>



<p>For as long as piracy and counterfeiting have existed, there have been claims that groups engaged in the practices have links to other, more serious crimes.</p>



<p>Over the past couple of decades the claims have persisted but even the most serious legal cases  (ones for which people have been jailed for many years) have failed to turn up evidence that people running pirate sites, services, and similar platforms are connected to even more serious crimes.</p>



<p>This week, however, following news from FACT that it had targeted numerous IPTV sellers and providers in the UK, Lesley Donovan &#8211; the National Coordinator for the multi-agency Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN) &#8211; repeated similar claims.</p>



<p>Referencing even the smaller players &#8211; those who re-sell access to larger IPTV providers &#8211; Donovan said that they are contributing to what many people consider to be some of the most serious crimes.</p>



<p>&#8220;This type of activity is also often a cog in a larger criminal machine, often ultimately funding drugs, weapons and people trafficking,&#8221; Donovan said.</p>



<p>Clearly, most members of the general public wouldn&#8217;t want to feel that they&#8217;re funding drug supply, helping to encourage the flow of weapons, or contributing to the suffering of those trafficked illegally across or even within borders. </p>



<p>However, these claims are rarely (if ever) backed up with references to cases where people can see evidence of that happening for themselves in Internet cases. And with the word &#8220;often&#8221; being used twice in the GAIN statement, one might be forgiven for thinking it&#8217;s commonplace.</p>



<p>Several weeks ago, while in discussion with the operator of an IPTV service based in Europe, this very topic raised its head. Our contact, while acknowledging that what goes on the IPTV space isn&#8217;t exactly legal, bemoaned claims that links to wider crime are rampant.</p>



<p>&#8220;The truth is that most IPTV services that I know of only do IPTV. The other half have normal jobs that they do day in, day out,&#8221; he explained.</p>



<p>Indeed, TF is informed from several sources that IT professionals, both former and current (and particularly those in the networking space), have close interests in supplying IPTV services to the public. &#8220;A natural progression and salary supplement,&#8221; is how one described it recently.</p>



<p>Interestingly, one provider spoke of how supplying IPTV to the public has actually become an alternative option for those who may have become involved in other types of crime. Nevertheless, gun-running and people trafficking aren&#8217;t part of the equation.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not saying they are whiter than white but they certainly aren&#8217;t some mobster gangsters involved in human trafficking,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>Another thing that seems to have irritated IPTV suppliers is the claim by anti-piracy groups that members of the public open themselves up to being stolen from when they deal with &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV providers.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s often claimed that handing over personal information along with payment details can result in people being deprived of their cash through ancillary fraudulent transactions. But again, this is something rarely reported in public by any alleged victims, or backed up by evidence from law enforcement.</p>



<p>&#8220;Nobody is forced to give real details when signing up [to an IPTV service]. In fact we don&#8217;t care what name or address you put as we aren&#8217;t going verify the information,&#8221; one source told TF.</p>



<p>&#8220;We use third-party gateways for payment such as PayPal or Stripe and so on, so none of us ever see card details [enabling us to] commit fraud.&#8221;</p>



<p>Of course, it could also be argued that in common with the thus-far unsubstantiated claims that IPTV providers are involved in more serious crime, the claims of these providers are also without supporting evidence. </p>



<p>Nevertheless, they seem keen to distance themselves from the claims and in the main, approached us first to dispel the narrative they&#8217;re involved in anything other than the supply of illegal streams.</p>



<p>In the interim, it will be for the public to decide who to believe and a court case showing otherwise to run its course and reveal if such connections are both real and substantiated. Until then, the business will remain in the shadows, with both claims and counterclaims up for debate. </p>



<p>Finally, we spoke to one lower-tier reseller and asked him about the recent involvement of organized crime units and whether &#8220;organized crime&#8221; was an accurate description of his reseller sideline.</p>



<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got about 250 customers,&#8221; he told TF. &#8220;It&#8217;s too many for me really and if it is crime it&#8217;s VERY disorganized. So no.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176424
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 08/26/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-08-26-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SIl26EVwLz8/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-176428" src="media/21c49a33.mib.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mib.png" alt="" width="300" height="187">This week we have one newcomer in our chart.</p>
<p>Men in Black: International is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-08-12-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Men in Black: International</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">5.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-WEb2oxLk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">John Wick: Chapter 3 &#8211; Parabellum</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8-7BX9uxs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Aladdin</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMtWwiyzpU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxN2oDKk0E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">The Secret Life of Pets 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZpVWepAQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/">Rocketman</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbeRrQhH4OI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7958736/">Ma</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7958736/">5.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvpKRSHIkzM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1298644/">The Hustle</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1298644/">5.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of52MNnXoxU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(back)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176430
title: Alliance For Creativity Now Effectively Controls Vader’s IPTV Domains
uri: Alliance-For-Creativity-Now-Effectively-Controls-Vader-s-IPTV-Domain
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iJb1KATh-P4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/0dbf5677.vader.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vader.png" alt="" class="wp-image-171963"/></figure></div>



<p>This May, the popular Vader Streams &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV service was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vader-large-pirate-iptv-service-shuts-down-promises-to-protect-customers-190503/">suddenly shut down</a>.</p>



<p>From the very beginning of the disruption, it was fairly clear that the service was in special difficulties, probably related to legal action.</p>



<p>For months there has been speculation but last week it was finally confirmed that the global anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment was behind the shutdown. According to the MPAA, a leading force in the group, Vader Streams is now liable to pay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vader-streams-was-shut-down-by-ace-must-pay-10m-damages-190821/">$10 million in damages</a>.</p>



<p>According to ACE, as part of the surrender package, Vader must also &#8220;cede administrative control&#8221; over its entire &#8220;piracy infrastructure&#8221;. The full list of assets that Vader can hand over to ACE members isn&#8217;t clear but for months now TF has been monitoring two domains that we know were directly connected to Vader.</p>



<p>At the time of the shutdown, Minihosts.org &#8211; a site where users could directly signup to the Vader service &#8211;  was pointing to a server in the Netherlands. It has been stubbornly pointing to the same Netherlands-based IP address ever since. The same can also be said about the more obviously-named Vaders.tv, pictured below.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/8f175964.vaders_matchcenter.jpg" data-original-source="https://www.iptvinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/vaders_matchcenter.jpg" alt="vaders iptv matchcenter" width="650"/></figure></div>



<p>In advance to the announcement last week, any changes to these domains could&#8217;ve given an early indication of confirmed legal action, including who was behind it. This time around, however, the Alliance for Creativity waited for their official announcement before making any changes.</p>



<p>Now, however, both domains are now displaying the familiar ACE anti-piracy message shown below, before diverting to the Alliance&#8217;s official web portal, which details some, but not all, of its actions against other &#8216;pirate&#8217; video services.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="media/8e03546b.image-109.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-109.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176439" width="588" height="357"/></figure></div>



<p>When compared to previous domain &#8216;seizures&#8217;, however, this one looks slightly different. In other cases, several of which we&#8217;ve <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-now-controls-at-least-3-pirate-iptv-domains-190707/">detailed before</a>, the MPAA itself has taken over the domains, a fact that has been made clear via WHOIS lookups that show that the Hollywood group is the new owner.</p>



<p>This time, however, both domains currently have their ownership details hidden by privacy-protection service Privacy Protect LLC. The reason for this is currently unclear but given that domains now redirect to ACE and are also using the MPAA&#8217;s nameservers, it seems fairly obvious the handover of former Vader assets is well underway.</p>



<p>The service previously promised that it would protect user data with the statement, &#8220;We’re going to make sure, no Email, IP, account + reseller name goes to the wrong hands. Everything will be wiped clean and that’s all.&#8221;</p>



<p>While that may very well have happened as promised, we also know that ACE used a secret court process and effectively ambushed one or more Vader operators/staff armed with an Anton Piller order, a civil search warrant that granted them no-notice permission to enter premises to secure and copy evidence before it could be destroyed or tampered with. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176422
title: Movie Company Sues Hawaiian ISP Over ‘Repeatedly Pirating’ Hotel
uri: Movie-Company-Sues-Hawaiian-ISP-Over-Repeatedly-Pirating-Hotel
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iETomKFRfyw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="media/78d4ef5f.pacifdirect.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pacifdirect.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176436" width="288" height="191"/></figure></div>



<p>The “repeat infringer” issue is a hot topic in US Courts that has resulted in several lawsuits already.</p>



<p>Under the DMCA, companies are required to implement a reasonable policy to deal with frequent offenders. Those who don&#8217;t, risk being held liable. </p>



<p>Thus far we have seen lawsuits targeting ISPs including Cox Communications, Charter, and Grande Communications. These companies were all sued by music industry companies and most cases remain ongoing. </p>



<p>In Hawaii, a new ISP was targeted a few days ago, this time by a movie outfit. In a complaint filed at a Hawaiian federal court, Bodyguard Productions accuses Internet provider <a href="http://pdchawaii.com">Pacific DirectConnect</a> of failing to terminate a repeat infringer. </p>



<p>The movie outfit, which is the copyright holder of &#8220;The Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard,&#8221; is a familiar player in US courts. The company has previously sued many individual BitTorrent pirates. With the latest lawsuit, it breaks from this trend by going after the Internet provider itself. </p>



<p>Pacific DirectConnect is not a typical consumer ISP. It mainly targets hotels and resorts in Hawaii, offering integrated network solutions including Internet access. According to the complaint, one of these clients is <a href="https://www.aquaaston.com/hotels/aston-waikiki-sunset">Aston Waikiki Sunset</a>, a large hotel in Honolulu.</p>



<p>According to the movie company, one of the hotel&#8217;s IP-addresses was repeatedly caught pirating. The ISP was made aware of this, both directly and through notices that were sent to its own bandwidth supplier, but apparently failed to take any meaningful action in response.</p>



<p>&#8220;Despite multiple notifications of infringements from Plaintiff, Hawaiian Telcom and third parties, Defendant has failed and steadfastly refused to terminate the account of subscriber Aston,&#8221; the complaint reads.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Said infringements would have been stopped if Defendant merely terminated subscriber Aston’s service,&#8221; the movie company adds.</p>



<p>Bodyguard Productions argues that the ISP purposely failed to terminate the account of the Hawaiian hotel, despite knowing that it was a repeat<br>infringer.  As such, the company is liable for the copyright infringements of its &#8216;subscriber.&#8217; </p>



<p>Through the lawsuit, the movie company requests an injunction requiring the ISP to terminate the account of the hotel. It accuses the company of both contributory and direct copyright infringement, asking the court to grant &#8220;any and all other relief&#8221; that&#8217;s appropriate in this case.</p>



<p>According to the complaint, Pacific DirectConnect is not protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor because it willingly failed to terminate the alleged repeat infringer. In addition, the ISP doesn&#8217;t have a registered DMCA agent, which is a requirement to enjoy safe harbor protection.</p>



<p>As far as we know, this is the first time that an ISP has been sued for providing Internet services to a hotel. This sets the case apart from the other repeat infringer cases that mostly deal with ordinary consumer providers. </p>



<p>Needless to say, the lawsuit has the potential to create another shockwave in the industry. If an Internet provider can indeed be liable for servicing hotels, resorts, or other large companies that have hundreds of users themselves, it will have to be much more careful.</p>



<p>The complaint doesn&#8217;t mention whether Bodyguard Productions reached out to the resort directly to address the repeat infringer issue. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the complaint filed by Bodyguard Productions against Pacific DirectConnect<a href="media/cf98df1d.directconne.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/directconne.pdf"> is available here (pdf)</a>. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176482
title: Foxtel Obtains First ‘Dynamic’ Injunction Against Torrent, Streaming & Proxy Sites
uri: Foxtel-Obtains-First-Dynamic-Injunction-Against-Torrent-Streami
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CwsqQLkxpZY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/c5e87d4f.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-96798"/></figure></div>



<p>Section 115a of Australia&#8217;s Copyright Act, which provides a mechanism for rightsholders to have &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites blocked by ISPs, was long campaigned for as an essential tool to fight online infringement.</p>



<p>Since it came into force it has been used on a number of occasions, with the Federal Court handing down orders to restrict access to hundreds of sites said to provide access to entertainment content without permission from the rightsholders.</p>



<p>Back in June, media giant Foxtel filed a new statement of claim, the details of which were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-foxtel-blocking-application-targets-streaming-torrent-proxy-sites-190701/">obtained</a> by TorrentFreak from a third-party source. It revealed that the company was targeting 35 torrent, streaming and related proxy site domains for blocking by dozens of ISPs <em>(full site list below)</em>.</p>



<p>This was the first time that a rightsholder had targeted proxy sites in Australia. A change in the law during 2018 allowed sites that have a &#8220;primary effect&#8221; of facilitating access to infringing content to be blocked, along with more direct sources such as regular pirate sites.</p>



<p>Following a case management hearing that took place in July, a hearing this morning resulted in Justice Nicholas handing down an injunction ordering 52 ISPs including TPG, Telstra, Optus, Vocus, Vodafone, plus their subsidiaries, to take &#8220;reasonable steps&#8221; to block the &#8220;online locations&#8221;.</p>



<p>A unique aspect of this application was that Foxtel had asked permission to add new domains and URLs to its orders, ones that in future might facilitate access to already-blocked sites, without having to return to court to detail them specifically.</p>



<p>Under legislative <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:%22legislation/ems/r6209_ems_b5e338b6-e85c-4cf7-8037-35f13166ebd4%22">amendments</a> put in place last year (Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Bill 2018)), these kinds of &#8220;dynamic orders&#8221; are permissible, but only when the Internet service providers listed in the application don&#8217;t file an objection.</p>



<p>According to <a href="https://www.computerworld.com.au/article/665704/foxtel-obtains-rolling-injunction-block-pirate-sites/?fp=16&amp;fpid=1">ComputerWorld</a>, the hearing this morning had Foxtel counsel stating that it wasn&#8217;t seeking to block fresh additional &#8220;online locations&#8221;, but only proxy and mirror-type sites those that spring up to facilitate access to already blocked sites.</p>



<p>However, Foxtel acknowledged that getting all of the respondent ISPs to agree to such supplementary blocking raised issues since TPG tends not to respond to any of the blocking injunctions it&#8217;s named in. That meant that formal agreement between all ISPs might be difficult to obtain.</p>



<p>With Justice Nicholas&#8217; permission, Foxtel said it would amend its proposed orders to include a provision allowing an ISP to positively deny that a proxy, mirror, or similar facilitating site, provides access to a blocked site. This would likely overcome that particular stumbling block, the Judge agreed.</p>



<p><em>The associated court documents can be found <a href="media/377ac85b.Foxtel-June18-Application-P_NSD981_2019_1426327.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Foxtel-June18-Application-P_NSD981_2019_1426327.pdf">here</a> and <a href="media/775c879b.Foxtel-Order-P_NSD981_2019_1455054.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Foxtel-Order-P_NSD981_2019_1455054.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>



<p><em>The list of domains to be blocked by ISPs in 15 days are as follows:</em></p>



<p><em>Sharemovies.net, seriesonline8.co, seriesonline8.com, movie4u.live, movie4u.cc, movie4u.co, seehd.uno, seehd.biz, streamdreams.org, streamdreams.me, streamdreams.co, streamdreams.online, streamdreams.video, stream-dreams.com, moviesonline.mx, wsmmirror.info, watchsomuch.info, watchsomuch.com, seventorrentsmirror.info, seventorrentsproxy.com, 7tmirror.info, torrentken.site, skytorrents.lol, unblocked.lol, unblocked.is, unblocked.ms, unblocked.win, unblocked.gdn, unblocked.vet, unblocked,sh, unblocked.mx, unblockall.org, unblocker.cc, unblock.win, myunblock.com</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176488
title: RIAA Refuses to Share Results of ‘Six Strikes’ Anti-Piracy Scheme
uri: RIAA-Refuses-to-Share-Results-of-Six-Strikes-Anti-Piracy-Scheme
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GJNFhNd2bo0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/3d5a45b0.pirateflag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateflag.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-175547"/></figure></div>



<p>The so-called &#8216;Six-Strikes&#8217; Copyright Alert System was once praised as an excellent tool to address online piracy. </p>



<p>Under <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/">the agreement</a>, which involved the MPAA and RIAA, several large Internet providers in the US sent copyright infringement warnings to pirating customers. </p>



<p>After repeated alerts, these subscribers would face a variety of &#8216;mitigation&#8217; measures but their accounts would not be terminated. Although rightsholders and ISPs appeared happy with the deal, it was shut down two years ago.  </p>



<p>Instead of cooperating with ISPs, several RIAA labels then took another approach. They filed lawsuits against Internet providers for not doing enough to curb piracy. Specifically, companies such as Charter and Cox were sued for failing to disconnect repeat infringers. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-file-billion-dollar-piracy-lawsuit-against-isp-cox-180802/">lawsuit </a>between several music companies and Cox is ongoing and currently scheduled to go to trial later this year. Both parties are conducting discovery and the ISP has shown a keen interest in the aforementioned Copyright Alert System (CAS). </p>



<p>Cox itself didn&#8217;t take part in the voluntary anti-piracy scheme, but it believes that its existence can help the company&#8217;s defense. As such, it obtained a subpoena and repeatedly requested the RIAA to hand over relevant documents that show how effective it was. </p>



<p>However, the RIAA is not eager to cooperate. Thus far it has denied all of the requests, which prompted Cox to take the matter to court this week. The ISP asks the District of Columbia federal court to order the music industry group to comply with the subpoena and hand over the requested data.</p>



<p>&#8220;This motion to compel concerns the production of the reports and data generated by ISPs and sent to the RIAA regarding the number of copyright infringement notices forwarded to unique subscribers on a monthly basis that were intended to allow the RIAA to assess the effectiveness of CAS over time,&#8221; Cox writes.</p>



<p>Thus far the RIAA has refused to produce any documents concerning the Copyright Alert System, stating that these are irrelevant. However, Cox clearly disagrees and, in its motion, the company suggests that the data are crucial.</p>



<p>The ISP believes that its own measures could have been more effective than the CAS. Cox had, at least on paper, a twelve-strike policy which it said could lead to actual account terminations.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Cox has taken the position that its graduated response was a more effective method for combating alleged copyright infringement than the CAS because, among other things, it provided for the termination of certain<br>&#8216;repeat infringers&#8217;,” the ISP writes. </p>



<p>This would be at odds with the music labels claims in the lawsuit which state that Cox’s policy was insufficient, especially since the RIAA and other music industry insiders praised the CAS as  ‘a model for success.’</p>



<p>With the requested documents, Cox likely wants to compare the effectiveness of the CAS with its own measures. If the company can show that its own policy was more effective than the music industry-backed scheme, it has an interesting point to make.</p>



<p>&#8220;The effectiveness of the measures detailed in the CAS and that the ISPs implemented for responding to the copyright infringement notices endorsed by the RIAA and the Sony plaintiffs—is therefore highly relevant to the Sony litigation,&#8221; Cox writes. </p>



<p>The ISP stresses that it&#8217;s crucial to get all the relevant information, not least because there&#8217;s $1.5 billion in possible copyright infringement damages hanging over its head. As such, it urges the Court to grant the motion. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>Cox Communications&#8217;s motion to compel the RIAA to comply with the subpoena is <a href="media/90f40a30.riaacompel.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaacompel.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176538
title: Eight Men Behind Two Pirate Streaming Services Charged by Grand Jury
uri: Eight-Men-Behind-Two-Pirate-Streaming-Services-Charged-by-Grand-Jury
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/31WmUzb6iPc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="media/dc7e9c56.usdoj.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-91397" width="249" height="249" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg 190w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px"></figure></div>



<p>Movie and TV show content is widely available on the Internet for no cost but it seems that many thousands of individuals are prepared to pay for the privilege.</p>



<p>That has resulted in countless unlicensed subscription-based services appearing, some as part of live broadcast IPTV packages and others as standalone services.</p>



<p>Earlier this year it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/industry-groups-share-anti-piracy-wish-list-with-us-government-190805/">revealed</a> that the MPAA had made several referrals to the Department of Justice (DoJ), calling for some pirate streaming services to be criminally prosecuted. It now transpires that at least one of those referrals has come to fruition.</p>



<p>According to an announcement by the Department of Justice, eight individuals were indicted by a grand jury Tuesday for conspiring to violate criminal copyright law by running &#8220;two of the largest unauthorized streaming services in the United States.&#8221;</p>



<p>The indictment lists the following men as the defendants in the case;</p>



<p>Kristopher Lee Dallmann, 36; Darryl Julius Polo, aka djppimp, 36; Douglas M. Courson, 59; Felipe Garcia, 37; Jared Edward Jaurequi, aka Jared Edwards, 38; Peter H. Huber, 61; Yoany Vaillant, aka Yoany Vaillant Fajardo, 38; and Luis Angel Villarino, 40.</p>



<p>All are charged with running Jetflicks, a subscription-based TV show streaming service running out of Las Vegas, Nevada.</p>



<p>&#8220;The defendants reproduced tens of thousands of copyrighted television episodes without authorization, and distributed the infringing programs to tens of thousands of paid subscribers located throughout the U.S.  At one point, Jetflicks claimed to have more than 183,200 different television episodes,&#8221; the DoJ states.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s further claimed that one of the defendants, Darryl Julius Polo, who was allegedly part of the Jetflicks programming team, left Jetflicks in order to create his own service, known online as iStreamItAll. According to the DoJ, the service claimed to have 115,849 television episodes and 10,511 movies available for streaming. </p>



<p>&#8220;Polo allegedly used many of the same automated tools that Jetflicks employed to locate, download, process and store illegal content, and then quickly make those television programs and movies available on servers in Canada to ISIA subscribers for streaming and/or downloading,&#8221; the DoJ adds.</p>



<p>In addition to the conspiracy charges, Dallman was charged with two counts of criminal copyright infringement by reproduction or distribution, two counts of criminal copyright by public performance and four counts of money laundering.</p>



<p>Polo was also charged with two counts of criminal copyright infringement by distributing a copyrighted work being prepared for commercial distribution, which usually refers to either then-unreleased movies or TV shows, or those that were yet to leave their theatrical window.</p>



<p>The alleged iStreamItAll operator was further charged with two counts of criminal copyright infringement by reproduction or distribution, two counts of criminal copyright infringement by public performance and four counts of money laundering.</p>



<p>Unsurprisingly, both services are alleged to have obtained their content from other &#8216;pirate&#8217; sources, including The Pirate Bay and RARBG. The indictment also claims that Usenet and Torrentz were used as sources. The inclusion of the latter is somewhat unusual given that the site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrentz-shuts-down-largest-torrent-meta-search-engine-says-farewell-160805/">closed down</a> in 2016 and even then was only a meta-search engine that offered no direct links to infringing content.</p>



<p>Both services were available after paying a subscription, with iStreamItAll claiming it had a greater range of content than Netflix, Hulu, Vudu and Amazon Prime, accessible on a range of devices from desktop machines through to phones, tablets, smart TVs, games consoles, and set-top boxes.</p>



<p>However, neither platform appears to have learned lessons from the still ongoing Megaupload case, where servers containing allegedly infringing content were mainly hosted in the United States. The DoJ claims that content culled from torrent sites and Usenet was made available to Jetflicks and iStreamItAll subscribers via servers hosted in both the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176568
title: Steal This Show: ‘How To Hack A Democracy’
uri: Steal-This-Show-How-To-Hack-A-Democracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MELJDVhb7mQ/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928" src="media/3f816ea2.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="" width="180" height="180">Here are part one and two of our chat with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang">Audrey Tang</a>, Digital Minister of Taiwan.</p>
<p>Tang taught herself programming at an early age of 8 and she says that she&#8217;s a &#8216;civic hacker&#8217; who uses her specialized skills to help rather than harm.</p>
<p>Part one includes Taiwan’s 2014 Sunflower Student Movement, which marked the first time the country’s legislature has been occupied by citizens, and which led to a radical new phase for Taiwanese democracy.</p>
<p>In part two we discuss, among other things,&nbsp;how the Taiwanese government is using Free Software such as Discourse and Polis to enable its ongoing real-time experiment in direct democracy</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing crypto, privacy, copyright and file-sharing developments. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary, and analysis.</p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Tang">Audrey Tang</a></strong></p>
<p><center><iframe src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&amp;lpe-season=4&amp;lpe-episode=22" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><center><iframe src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&amp;lpe-season=4&amp;lpe-episode=24" width="100%" height="180px" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &amp; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Lucas Marston<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Barch</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176580
title: Music Companies Sue Internet Provider RCN For Enabling ‘Massive’ Piracy
uri: Music-Companies-Sue-Internet-Provider-RCN-For-Enabling-Massive-P
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dTTzr8Xk9R0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/841a9105.rcnlogo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rcnlogo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176585"/></figure></div>



<p>For roughly two decades, copyright holders have been sending takedown notices to ISPs to alert them that their subscribers are sharing copyrighted material.</p>



<p>Under US law, providers must terminate the accounts of repeat infringers “in appropriate circumstances” and increasingly they are being held to this standard.</p>



<p>Several major music industry companies have filed lawsuits against a variety of Internet providers. With help from the RIAA, the companies targeted&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-file-billion-dollar-piracy-lawsuit-against-isp-cox-180802/">Cox Communications</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">Grande Communications</a>, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-companies-sue-charter-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-piracy-190326/">Charter</a>, hoping to recoup damages for their role in the pirating activities of their subscribers.</p>



<p>The overall theme of these lawsuits is the same. The music companies accuse the ISPs of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers. This is also made clear in a new complaint that was just filed against several ISPs that operate under the <a href="https://www.rcn.com/">RCN brand</a>.</p>



<p>The lawsuit is again filed by music companies, including Arista Music, Bad Boy Records, Capitol Records, Laface Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music, UMG Recordings, and Warner Records. Some of these are also involved in the aforementioned cases.</p>



<p>&#8220;This is a case about a leading internet service provider knowingly enabling its customers’ massive online copyright infringement of sound recordings,&#8221; the music companies allege in a complaint filed at a federal court in New Jersey.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Defendants operated RCN as a haven for infringement. Defendants promoted RCN’s high internet speeds to customers, knowing that the ability to download copyrighted material illegally using high-speed internet, without repercussions, was a substantial draw for infringers,&#8221; they add. </p>



<p>The music companies state that RCN, including several local branches, willingly profited from keeping pirates on board. The ISP advertised high-speed internet which would be particularly appealing to BitTorrent pirates, it&#8217;s claimed. </p>



<p>&#8220;RCN provides its subscribers with a fully functioning system that allows them to engage in copyright infringement on a massive scale using BitTorrent networks,&#8221; the complaint reads. </p>



<p>&#8220;And for those subscribers who want to pirate more and larger files at faster speeds, RCN obliges them in return for higher fees. The greater the bandwidth its subscribers require for pirating content, the more money RCN receives.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/259cf98b.rcnspeed.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rcnspeed.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176586"/><figcaption>Current &#8216;speed&#8217; mention on RCN.com</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>We have seen similar claims in related &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; lawsuits. Previously it was pointed out that, while it is certainly true that high-speed Internet access is beneficial for pirates, legal users of streaming platforms such as Netflix would benefit as well. </p>



<p>The music companies, however, are convinced that the high speeds lure pirates to RCN. On top of that, they accuse the Internet provider of ignoring repeat infringers, so it can continue to profit from this piracy activity. </p>



<p>The music companies back up their claims with data from anti-piracy tracking company Rightscorp, which previously sent RCN more than five million infringement notices. These notices identified tens of thousands of alleged pirates. </p>



<p>Despite being aware of this copyright-infringing activity, RCN did nothing to stop it, the complaint notes. According to the Rightscorp data, 36,773 subscribers repeatedly engaged in piracy, with hundreds of these being flagged more than 1,000 times.</p>



<p>Since Rightscorp doesn&#8217;t monitor all activity,  this is likely a small fraction of all the infringing activity occurring over RCN’s network, the music companies add.  And despite the high number of repeat infringers, RCN did little to stop it. </p>



<p>&#8220;Defendants failed to take any meaningful action to discourage this<br>wrongful conduct. Instead of terminating repeat infringers—and losing subscription revenue— RCN for years simply looked the other way and chose to allow the unlawful conduct to continue unabated.</p>



<p>&#8220;By ignoring the repeat infringement notifications and refusing to take action against repeat infringers, and instead providing those customers with ongoing internet service, Defendants made a deliberate decision to contribute to known copyright infringement,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>



<p>In cases like this, Internet providers can generally rely on the DMCA safe harbor defense, which shields them from liability. However, the music companies argue that RCN lost this right by not having a properly functioning repeat infringer policy.</p>



<p>&#8220;Although RCN purported to adopt a policy to address repeat infringers, RCN in reality never adopted or reasonably implemented a policy that provided for the termination of repeat infringers—despite receiving over five million infringement notices. Its purported policy was a sham,&#8221; the complaint reads.  </p>



<p>The allegations are very similar to the other “repeat infringer” lawsuits we have seen in the past. As in the other cases, the ISP is accused of both contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.&nbsp;The same also applies to RCN&#8217;s management company Patriot.</p>



<p>The music companies claim substantial losses for which they want to be compensated. They request actual damages or statutory damages of $150,000 per work. With an illustrative list of more than 1,000 tracks as evidence, a list that may grow even longer, the potential damages are already over $150 million.&nbsp;</p>



<p><em>—</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the complaint, filed at the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, is&nbsp;<a href="media/53f7ee90.RCNsuit.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/RCNsuit.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176466
title: ISPs Block BitTorrent Traffic Despite EU Net Neutrality Regulation
uri: ISPs-Block-BitTorrent-Traffic-Despite-EU-Net-Neutrality-Regulation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UhQed4W5yDI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><figure><img src="media/76c8a197.throttle-net-neutrality.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/throttle-net-neutrality.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-148565"></figure></figure></div>



<p>When the European Parliament <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-adopts-net-neutrality-rules-keeps-loopholes-open-151027/">adopted</a> Europe’s first net neutrality rules in 2015, some people believed that this would put an end to BitTorrent blocking</p>



<p>The rules, which were included in the Telecoms Single Market (TSM) regulation, prevent ISPs from outright discrimination between different types of traffic.</p>



<p>While there has been little research on the topic thus far, a new paper published by Italian researchers shows that several ISPs continue to interfere with BitTorrent transfers. </p>



<p>For the study,  Valerio Luconi and his colleagues used a specialized tool called NeutMon to measure traffic flows on several mobile ISP networks. Specifically, they checked whether BitTorrent traffic is treated differently than traffic that appears the same, but isn&#8217;t using the BitTorrent protocol. </p>



<p>These traffic measurements were taken throughout the day and in a follow-up measurement, were compared to regular traffic as well. The results show that despite the EU&#8217;s net neutrality rules, BitTorrent throttling is still ongoing.</p>



<p>The research started with a broad measurement targeting all of the nine ISPs that were available through the NeutMon tool, some in multiple countries. They then measured the throughput of BitTorrent traffic versus the control group, to see if there are any changes. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/e274e596.interfer.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/interfer.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176476"/></figure></div>



<p>The results show that three of the nine ISPs interfered with BitTorrent traffic flowing through the standard port 6881. </p>



<p>This wasn&#8217;t the case on all tests, so the researchers selected these providers for a more thorough follow-up run.</p>



<p>This &#8220;focused&#8221; test looked at the average download speeds for the following traffic types, which were (except HTTP) all similar in respect of types of packets and size.</p>



<p><em>&#8211;<strong>BT</strong>: BitTorrent traffic on port 6881, or a random high number if that fails<br>&#8211;<strong>CT1</strong>: Control traffic on port 6881<br>&#8211;<strong>CT2</strong>: Control traffic on a random port higher than 50000<br>&#8211;<strong>HT</strong>: HTTP request of a large file</em></p>



<p>After testing the three possibly non-neutral ISPs the researchers found that the earlier interference that was found at the Swedish ISP Telenor could not be replicated. However, on Vodafone (Spain/Italy) and Yoigo (Spain), something was amiss, as the figure below also shows.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="media/3a1fe58a.focused.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/focused.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176475"/></figure></div>



<p>The researchers found that Vodafone always blocked BitTorrent traffic on port 6881, except between 1 AM to 5 AM. However, BitTorrent traffic was blocked on higher ports as well. This led to the suspicion that it takes place through deep packet inspection.</p>



<p>&#8220;We can in general confirm that classification is done via deep packet inspection, as only BT is always throttled with a very low throughput, both when using port 6881 and when using a random high port,&#8221; the researchers write. </p>



<p>The control traffic performs much better, although there is occasional interference there as well. According to the researchers, this might be because this traffic is sporadically misidentified as BitTorrent traffic since it shares the same characteristics. HTTP traffic was, as expected, allowed to flow freely.</p>



<p>On Yoigo there&#8217;s also non-neutral activity, according to the findings. Interestingly, much of the control traffic was throttled as well. According to the researchers, this could be due to port blocking. </p>



<p>&#8220;From the obtained results we can confirm Yoigo’s non-neutral behavior too, but with quite different modalities,&#8221; they write.</p>



<p>&#8220;BT, CT1, and CT2 are capped to a very low throughput, whereas HT obtains good performance. These results seem also to confirm that traffic is shaped on a per-port basis.&#8221; </p>



<p>BitTorrent was certainly treated differently from the two control conditions though. The researchers report that Yoigo always shut down BitTorrent traffic after a short time, which meant that none of the tests completed. This suggests that the ISP uses multiple blocking measures.</p>



<p>The article concludes that while there&#8217;s no blocking on most mobile ISPs, some clearly interfere with traffic in a non-neutral way. They argue that it may be time to introduce real-world monitoring systems, to check whether ISPs play by the rules or not. </p>



<p>That brings us to another issue, which is not mentioned in the article. While the EU has indeed adopted net neutrality rules, it&#8217;s up for debate whether BitTorrent blocking is actually prohibited. </p>



<p>ISPs are arguably&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-adopts-net-neutrality-rules-keeps-loopholes-open-151027/">still allowed</a>&nbsp;to throttle specific categories for “reasonable” network management purposes, as long at it improves the overall “<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/europes-net-neutrality-doesnt-ban-bittorrent-and-vpn-throttling-160830/">transmission quality</a>.” That would not be a far-fetched argument since torrent traffic can be quite demanding on a network. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>The paper titled &#8220;<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/itl2.128">Net Neutrality in Mobile Broadband: a European Study Based on a Large Scale Testbed</a>&#8221; is accepted for publication in the Internet Technology Letters.</em></p>



<p><br></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176605
title: YouTube Sued For $720K Over Alleged Copyright Strike “Retaliation”
uri: YouTube-Sued-For-720K-Over-Alleged-Copyright-Strike-Retaliation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/z6nMQbxBVw4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/72389cbc.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-117196"/></figure></div>



<p>While most YouTube users are simply visitors to the site, a minority produce their own content and upload it to the platform for others to enjoy.</p>



<p>Some can make a decent living when they enter a revenue-sharing agreement with YouTube but when things go wrong, those earnings can stop in an instant. According to popular YouTuber <a href="https://djshorte.com/">DJ Short-E</a> (real name Erik Mishiyev), this happened to him &#8211; and he&#8217;s blaming the whole thing on YouTube using copyright-strikes as &#8220;retaliation&#8221; to his threats of a lawsuit.</p>



<p>In a complaint filed in a California federal court Wednesday, Mishiyev describes himself as a &#8220;well-known Journalist and DJ, known as ‘Short-E’, who publishes original music, DJ mixes, and celebrity interviews in videos on YouTube.&#8221;</p>



<p>Since 2007, Mishiyev says he&#8217;s run two YouTube channels &#8211; &#8216;djshortehot4eva&#8217; and &#8216;theshorteshow&#8217;. These channels were monetized following an agreement with YouTube and after developing a subscriber base of 250,000 users, his channels generated more than 110 million views. For this,  YouTube paid him $310,000 over a five-year period.</p>



<p>In March 2016, Mishiyev claims he began receiving copyright claims on his &#8220;highest advertisement revenue videos&#8221;. He says he responded with counter-claims to avoid YouTube&#8217;s &#8220;three strikes&#8221; process which would&#8217;ve disabled his channel. However, he reports that all claims were won and his channel was re-instated for monetization.</p>



<p>A year later, Mishiyev says YouTube recognized him as a successful contributor by handing him a &#8220;Silver Creator Award&#8221; for reaching 100,000 subscribers. However, despite growing his audience at a rate of around 4,000 subscribers per month, views remained low when compared to similar channels.</p>



<p>&#8220;Plaintiff was concerned about this suspicious activity and sought confirmation numerous times from YOUTUBE that they were truly distributing his new videos to his fans and subscribers, but YOUTUBE failed to provide such confirmation, stating &#8216;They could not share this information&#8217; with him,&#8221; the complaint notes.</p>



<p>Mishiyev includes an email from one of his subscribers to back up his claims that YouTube failed to promote his content as per his agreement with the company.</p>



<p>&#8220;I subscribed to both of your channels and turned my notifications on for you so I would know when you uploaded new videos,&#8221; it reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;I subscribed about 2 weeks ago and haven&#8217;t got a single notification from youtube but I noticed you have uploaded many new videos since I subscribed [to your channels]. Please fix this problem, i&#8217;m sure there are many other people who haven&#8217;t been notified either and that&#8217;s why I noticed your views are very low compared to other similar channels.&#8221;</p>



<p>According to Mishiyev, YouTube&#8217;s failure to promote his content would cause him to lose $125,000 in revenue over a three-year period but after losing faith in YouTube&#8217;s support team, he told the company he would be filing a lawsuit if its conduct persisted.</p>



<p>In response, on December 18, 2018, YouTube reportedly sent a notice saying that they would be terminating Mishiyev&#8217;s accounts and removing his content. The very next day, serious copyright problems began.</p>



<p>&#8220;On December 15, 2018 through January 15, 2019, Plaintiff was abruptly bombarded with copyright claims like he never had been before the entire time he had been managing and growing his channels,&#8221; the complaint notes.</p>



<p> </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/9bb6506e.image-112.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-112.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176615"/><figcaption><em>A sample of the copyright notices received</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>On January 22, 2018, YouTube reportedly blocked access to all of Mishiyev&#8217;s videos, replacing them with a notice that they had been removed due &#8220;to a copyright claim.&#8221; YouTube then placed &#8220;strikes&#8221; on his account but Mishiyev says that YouTube&#8217;s actions were actually in response to his threat of a lawsuit.</p>



<p>&#8220;Although YOUTUBE stated they removed his channels and videos for copyright claims, the removals appeared to Plaintiff to be in retaliation for his placing them on notice that he would be filing a lawsuit,&#8221; Mishiyev&#8217;s lawyers write.</p>



<p>According to the YouTuber, he followed the company&#8217;s rules by submitting counter-notices as required by the DMCA, noting that every time he had done that in the past he had prevailed since no one ever filed a lawsuit against him.</p>



<p>Generally, when a counter-notification is filed and there is no lawsuit notification from a complainant, content goes back up. But YouTube apparently wrote back saying that at least some of Mishiyev&#8217;s counter-notices were &#8220;ineligible.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/912ba3cf.image-113.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-113.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176616"/></figure></div>



<p>The complaint adds that YouTube later retracted its statement that the videos were ineligible for counter-notification and promised to process them. It&#8217;s not clear what happened next but it didn&#8217;t help Mishiyev&#8217;s predicament.</p>



<p>&#8220;To date, Plaintiff’s strikes have not been removed, his counter claims have<br> not been processed, and his videos and channels have been permanently removed, though no claimants presented evidence that they filed any lawsuits. Thus, evidencing that YOUTUBE did not simply remove his content because of copyright claims, but instead in retaliation for placing them on notice that he was filing a lawsuit against them,&#8221; the complaint asserts.</p>



<p>As a result, the now-former YouTuber says he lost $90,000 in revenue between January 2019 and July 2019, adding that when lost subscribers, views, future views, performance bookings, and lost advertising and sponsorship deals are taken into account, YouTube&#8217;s actions have caused him damages of $720,000, for which he demands compensation in full.</p>



<p>Mishiyev is suing YouTube for breach of contract, interference with contractual relations, interference and negligent interference with economic advantage, and negligence. He also demands an injunction preventing YouTube from &#8220;banning Plaintiff from the full use of the internet and YOUTUBE’s services.&#8221; </p>



<p><em>The complaint plus supporting documents can be found here </em><a href="media/aaab7460.DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-complaint-190828.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-complaint-190828.pdf"><em>1</em></a><em>,</em><a href="media/cd3cd732.J-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-email-from-youtuber-190828.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-email-from-youtuber-190828.pdf"><em>2</em></a><em>,</em><a href="media/83ba0d52.ort-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-youtube-denying-counter-190828.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-youtube-denying-counter-190828.pdf"><em>3</em></a><em>,</em><a href="media/f59971c7.t-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-youtube-accepting-counter-190828.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-youtube-accepting-counter-190828.pdf"><em>4</em></a><em>,</em><a href="media/fb4f0111.DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-sudden-complaints-190828.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DJ-Short-E-v-YouTube-5-19-cv-05422-sudden-complaints-190828.pdf"><em>5</em></a><em> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176219
title: UFC Knocks Out First Pirate Site Following Debut Blocking Action
uri: UFC-Knocks-Out-First-Pirate-Site-Following-Debut-Blocking-Action
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rpm9fDdQ1Gg/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/9a548176.NewBelt2-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/NewBelt2-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-176248" width="272" height="179"/></figure></div>



<p>There are numerous mixed martial arts organizations around the world but none are prestigious as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).</p>



<p>The UFC&#8217;s broadcasting model is complex, from offering free-to-air events in some countries, relatively cheap subscription access in others, to particularly expensive pay-per-views in the United States, for example.</p>



<p>But whatever the model, UFC events are pirated on a large scale, both during the events themselves via web-based streaming portals and IPTV, to live streaming torrents and those available after the event, so to speak. The UFC would like to bring all of this piracy to a halt, but so would lots of other media companies.</p>



<p>With mixed martial arts&#8217; popularity growing in places like Russia, the UFC has sought to curtail piracy. Last December the organization &#8211; which is home to superstars such as Conor McGregor and unbeaten Russian arch-rival Khabib Nurmagomedov &#8211; met with the local telecoms watchdog to discuss progress.</p>



<p>Roscomnadzor deputy Vadim Subbotin held a meeting with UFC Russia vice president Andrei Gromkovsky. The telecoms watchdog reportedly advised the UFC on procedures available to tackle sites that distribute UFC content without permission, including contacting those sites with requests to remove content.</p>



<p>&#8220;If the owner does not take measures to delete this information, [the UFC] has the right to contact the Moscow City Court and demand protection of its copyright, namely, to ensure that the Internet resource is blocked for the duration of the determination of the Moscow City Court,&#8221; Roscomnadzor reported.</p>



<p>According to official sources, the meeting went well, with agreements reached between the parties on how to move forward against errant sites, within existing legislation. That now appears to have claimed its first scalp, with the UFC successfully obtaining a blocking injunction &#8211; thought to be its first anywhere in the world &#8211; to have an infringing site blocked at the ISP level.</p>



<p>According to a report from Roscomnadzor, UFC Russia has been successful in obtaining a preliminary blocking order from the Moscow City Court. It compels local Internet service providers to block access to Ripple.is, a site focused on mixed martial arts that reportedly streamed live UFC events without appropriate licensing.</p>



<p>The site appears to carry MMA news stories culled from other sites. However, on closer inspection, it also offers a &#8216;VIP&#8217; section which directs users to an IPTV service which enables visitors to watch all kinds of sporting events &#8211; UFC bouts included &#8211; for a relatively small payment.</p>



<p>Whether this was the basis of the complaint remains unclear but at least for now, UFC fans in Russia won&#8217;t be able to directly access the Ripple.is domain without using circumvention techniques such as VPNs or Tor.</p>



<p>Should Ripple.is continue infringing the UFC&#8217;s rights, the company will be able to return to the Moscow City Court to obtain a permanent injunction, one that will place the domain on Russia&#8217;s national blacklist.</p>



<p>The blocking injunction arrives at a peculiar time for UFC fans in Russia. </p>



<p>For many local citizens, the fighter they most want to see in action is  Khabib Nurmagomedov, the man who submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 229 to retain his lightweight belt. However, few if any will have to turn to pirate sources to watch Nurmagomedov defend his title at UFC 242 against interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier on September 7, 2019.</p>



<p>While US UFC fans will be paying around $80 to watch the PPV event, the entire thing will be broadcast on Russia&#8217;s main state TV channel <a href="https://twitter.com/DenisGeykoRT/status/1162614027736027136">for free</a>, making site-blocking completely irrelevant.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176549
title: Showbox Site Owner Settles Piracy Case For $150,000
uri: Showbox-Site-Owner-Settles-Piracy-Case-For-150-000
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8uhlHxKY1Gw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large"><img src="media/d1e001e7.showbox-logo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/showbox-logo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-117504"/></figure></div>



<p>In April, a group of movie companies filed a lawsuit against the operators of various websites that promoted and distributed the Showbox app.</p>



<p>Showbox and similarly named clones are used by millions of people. These apps enable users to stream movies via torrents and direct sources, using a Netflix-style interface.</p>



<p>The tools are a thorn in the side of movie companies, including those behind “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “London Has Fallen,” and “Hunter Killer.” In a lawsuit filed at a U.S. District Court in Hawaii, the companies pointed out that Showbox facilitates massive piracy.</p>



<p>“Plaintiffs bring this action to stop the massive piracy of their motion pictures brought on by the software application Show Box,” the 58-page complaint read.</p>



<p>“The Defendants misleadingly promote the Show Box app as a legitimate means for viewing content to the public, who eagerly install the Show Box app to watch copyright protected content, thereby leading to profit for the Defendants,” the companies added.</p>



<p>The movie outfits went after several defendants suspected of having ties to one or more Showbox-related sites. This includes a Pakistani man named Qazi Muhammad Zarlish, who allegedly operated ‘latestshowboxapp.com.’</p>



<p>While it can be tricky to get a judgment against an operator of a foreign pirate site, the movie companies can claim a win this week. They negotiated a consent judgment in which Zarlish agrees to stop any infringing activities. In addition, a money judgment is awarded in the amount of $150,000, to cover the costs, fees and damages.</p>



<p>Whether the Pakistani man has this kind of money at his disposal remains to be seen. However, his website that offered Showbox is no longer online. And in addition to the money, the judgment also includes a permanent injunction that prevents him from promoting or distributing other infringing apps.</p>



<p>These include, but are not limited to the &#8220;Show Box app, Popcorn Time, CotoMovies (Bobby Movie Box), MediaBox HD (The Movie DB), Cinemabox, Moviebox, Terrarrium, Mobdro and software applications affiliated with following piracy sources: YIFY; YTS; RARBG; TORRENTZ2; NYAA.SI; LIMETORRENTS; ZOOQLE; EZTV; and TORRENTDOWNLOADS.&#8221;   </p>



<p>The paperwork shows that Qazi Muhammad Zarlish represented himself. He explained that the Showbox APK file that was made available on the site came from the third-party site showbox.fun. Interestingly, he assumed that it was perfectly legal.</p>



<p>&#8220;[The defendant] believed the Show Box app was a legitimate application similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video based upon the descriptions of Show Box app at the websites showbox.fun and show-box.pro,&#8221; the consent judgment reads.  </p>



<p>Since this matter was resolved in a consent judgment, the Court didn&#8217;t review the case on its merits. However, it&#8217;s clear that the defendant made a rather expensive mistake, as the settlement shows.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the stipulated consent order between Qazi Muhammad Zarlish and Hunter Killer Productions, Inc., TBV Productions, LLC, Venice PI, LLC, Bodyguard Productions, Inc., and LHF Productions, Inc. is <a href="media/93c45bcd.showboxconsent.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/showboxconsent.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>. </em><br><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176536
title: DISH Sues ‘Pirate’ IPTV Suppliers One Box TV & Miracle Box
uri: DISH-Sues-Pirate-IPTV-Suppliers-One-Box-TV-Miracle-Box
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OXYRS37I7-g/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/32ed18c0.image-110.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-110.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176563"/></figure></div>



<p>Unlicensed IPTV services are now billed as one of the biggest threats faced by producers of movies and television shows.</p>



<p>There are numerous cases pending against alleged operators of &#8216;pirate&#8217; services actioned under copyright law.</p>



<p>However, in the United States, DISH Networks and NagraStar are increasingly using the Federal Communications Act to target companies and individuals who it claims are involved in the capture and subsequent rebroadcasting of its satellite signals via &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV services.</p>



<p>The latest targets are One Box TV, LLC and alleged sole manager Donna Fogle, both of Florida. It&#8217;s alleged that One Box TV sold $19 per month IPTV subscriptions containing unlicensed DISH programming and Android-style boxes configured with the same features for around $275.</p>



<p>In common with another <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ipguys-pirate-iptv-service-sued-by-dish-networks-190822/">recent DISH case</a> filed against unlicensed IPTV provider IPGuys, the broadcaster claims that it was able to use technical means determine that at least some of the content offered by One Box TV was illegally sourced from its satellite broadcasts.</p>



<p>&#8220;The DISH Programming distributed on the OneBox service was received from DISH’s satellite communications without authorization from DISH,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;During testing of the OneBox service, encoded messages incorporated into DISH’s satellite communications of the Willow Cricket channel, for example, were detected on the Willow Cricket channel retransmitted to customers of the OneBox service, thereby confirming this content originated from DISH’s satellite communications.&#8221;</p>



<p>While One Box TV is an LLC, the company doesn&#8217;t appear to have particularly grand premises. According to DISH, the company operates from a booth at a flea market and websites including OneBoxLive.com and OneBoxTV.com.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/f52fd326.image-111.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-111.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176564" width="650"/><figcaption><em>OneBoxTV.com..before it disappeared</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>A note in the complaint indicates that DISH had a &#8220;pre-suit discussion&#8221; with One Box TV during which the company said that it had the ability to &#8220;remove channels&#8221; from its service. It&#8217;s not clear when that communication took place but if customer complaints posted to the Better Business Bureau website are any indicator, One Box TV went down during May.</p>



<p>&#8220;When we purchased our TV streaming box, we were promised lifetime updates. Our box needs updated [sic], and we can&#8217;t find this seller. E-mails returned. We paid $175 cash for the OneBox about 2-3 years ago. Model No. OneBoxTVPlus. We were promied lifetme updates [sic], but we cannot find the seller,&#8221; one reads.</p>



<p>Another complainant indicated that they went to the company&#8217;s place of business, but left disappointed.</p>



<p>&#8220;We received notice of them stopping their business. We went to see what&#8217;s up and the booth they were at is empty. We are out over $350 on our equipment. Sales rep was Donna F. She sold us 2 boxes and a monthly service and now we get an email saying they are discontinuing their business. We are out $350 for equipment,&#8221; a complaint posted May 13 reads.</p>



<p>Yet another complaint says that the company took back a previously-sold box to update it, but then closed down without returning the device. Subsequent phone calls went unanswered and the company&#8217;s voicemail was reportedly full.</p>



<p>DISH is now demanding a broad permanent injunction against One Box TV and its alleged operator, plus actual or statutory damages of between $10,000 and $100,000 per violation, plus costs. </p>



<p>Finally, the DISH case against IPGuys <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ipguys-pirate-iptv-service-sued-by-dish-networks-190822/">reported</a> last week listed Miracle Box Media as a reseller of that service. Court records indicate that Virginia-based Miracle Box Media LLC and alleged operator Melvin Crawley Jr. are also being sued by DISH along broadly similar lines.</p>



<p><em>The One Box TV and Miracle Box complaints can be found </em><a href="media/0faa7709.DISH-v-OneBox-8-19-cv-02147-complaint-190827.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/DISH-v-OneBox-8-19-cv-02147-complaint-190827.pdf"><em>here</em></a><em> and </em><a href="media/a65dba75.3-19-cv-00605-DISH-v-Miracle-Box-Complaint-190820.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/3-19-cv-00605-DISH-v-Miracle-Box-Complaint-190820.pdf"><em>here</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176242
title: “Legal Options Are a Better Way to Beat Piracy Than Enforcement”
uri: Legal-Options-Are-a-Better-Way-to-Beat-Piracy-Than-Enforcement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5IYiRsNXhZk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/3d5a45b0.pirateflag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateflag.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-175547"/></figure></div>



<p>Piracy is an intriguing phenomenon. On the one hand, it is seen as an existential threat by the entertainment industries. However, pirates are often heavy consumers of legal content as well.</p>



<p>Over the past several years, a vast array of studies have tried to determine&nbsp;to what extent piracy hurts legitimate revenue streams and, equally importantly, how it can be stopped. </p>



<p>There are no definitive answers but each study adds a small piece of the puzzle. One recent article, published by University of Amsterdam researchers João Pedro Quintais and Joost Poort, suggests that affordability and availability are key drivers.</p>



<p>The researchers analyzed a wealth of data and conducted surveys among 35,000 respondents, in thirteen countries. What they found was that, between 2014 and 2017, self-reported piracy rates have dropped in all the European countries that were surveyed, except Germany.</p>



<p>In a 70-page paper, published in American University International Law Review, the researchers try to pinpoint the most likely explanation for this decline, starting with enforcement.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/315e80a1.piracydrop.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piracydrop.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176644"/><figcaption>% Pirates on Internet population 2014 / 2017</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>In a detailed literature overview, the paper begins by discussing various enforcement activities, ranging from pirate site blockades, criminal enforcement, to civil suits against individual file-sharers. While some of these studies suggest that enforcement works, others reveal a limited effect or nothing at all. </p>



<p>This article doesn&#8217;t have space for a full review of all the literature, but the conclusion from the report&#8217;s authors is clear. Enforcement is not the silver bullet that will stop piracy.</p>



<p>&#8220;Despite the abundance of enforcement measures, their perceived effectiveness is uncertain. Therefore, it is questionable whether the answer to successfully tackling online copyright infringement lies in additional rights or enforcement measures,&#8221; the report notes.  </p>



<p>Instead, the researchers believe that other factors are likely responsible for the decline in piracy rates. Specifically, they point to affordability and availability of legal content. </p>



<p>Through the extensive surveys, conducted in France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, and Thailand, they find several clues that this may indeed be the case. </p>



<p>Many of the data presented by the researchers have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-boosts-concert-ticket-sales-hurts-box-office-revenue-180731/">published before</a>. For example, they show that piracy rates are higher when the gross national income of a country is lower. This effect is particularly visible for lower incomes, as shown below.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="media/9fc78168.piracyperuser.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piracyperuser.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176643"/><figcaption>Pirates per legal user / GNI in 2014 and 2017</figcaption></figure>



<p>The authors further observe a clear increase in spending on legal content where piracy rates dropped. In addition, they point to an earlier study that shows how music piracy declined in the Netherlands between 2008 and 2012, while piracy rates were still increasing for films and series. By 2012, Spotify had been introduced in the Netherlands (early 2010) but Nexflix not yet and HBO only just.</p>



<p>Based on their analysis, the researchers conclude that affordability and availability are indeed key drivers for declining piracy rates. In particular, they found no conclusive evidence that anti-piracy enforcement is effective.  </p>



<p>&#8220;The main takeaway from our research is that online piracy is declining. The key driver for this decline is the increasing availability of affordable legal content, rather than enforcement measures,&#8221; their paper concludes. </p>



<p>When the conditions are right, people will eventually consume more content legally, it&#8217;s argued. This is also backed by the finding that 95% of the self-proclaimed pirates in their survey were legal consumers as well. Many of these turn to piracy due to lacking availability or high costs.</p>



<p>&#8220;Where the legal supply of content is affordable, convenient and diverse, there is increasing consumer demand for it. Under the right conditions, consumers are willing to pay for copyright-protected content and to<br>abandon piracy,&#8221; the paper reads.</p>



<p>This means that policymakers and copyright holders should direct their efforts more to the supply side, instead of enforcement activities. </p>



<p>&#8220;The crucial policy implication here is that policy makers should focus their resources and legislative efforts on improving those conditions. In particular, they ought to shift their focus from repressive approaches to tackle online infringement towards policies and measures that foster lawful remunerated access to copyright-protected content,&#8221; the researchers conclude.  </p>



<p>This isn&#8217;t a new thought. Over the past several years, many people have hammered on the importance of appealing legal options. The new research confirms this. However, it is worth noting that the paper itself doesn&#8217;t provide any data showing that the recent drop in piracy is in fact caused by improved legal availability. </p>



<p>In other words, the empirical evidence doesn&#8217;t back either anti-piracy strategy conclusively. </p>



<p>For example, when we look at a graph of the piracy rates among legal users and the gross national income in different countries between 2014 and 2017 (shown above), we see that Sweden experienced the most pronounced piracy drop. However, there&#8217;s no clear change in legal availability compared to other countries, as far as we know. </p>



<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Joost Poort, one of the authors of the paper, who agreed that the lack of direct evidence is indeed a weak point. While there are several hints that the recent drop in piracy is mostly caused by better legal options, there is no hard data to back it up in this specific case.</p>



<p>Analyzing the effects of piracy is complicated, and there are signs that enforcement might also work in some cases. For example, just last week we reported on a study that showed how website blocking can motivate some pirates <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blocking-boosts-netflix-subscriptions-research-suggests-190824/">to sign up for a paid streaming service</a>.</p>



<p>For many, however, it&#8217;s tempting to conclude that focusing on the carrot rather than the stick is the way forward. </p>



<p>That said, it&#8217;s also possible that the solution to piracy includes a little bit of both. While one may be more effective than the other, it&#8217;s safe to conclude that the puzzle isn&#8217;t solved yet.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em>&#8211;</p>



<p><em>The full paper by João Pedro Quintais and Joost Poort titled: &#8220;The Decline of Online Piracy: How Markets – Not Enforcement – Drive Down Copyright Infringement&#8221;, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3437239">is available here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176416
title: Microsoft Puts Blocks On In-Browser Minecraft Clone
uri: Microsoft-Puts-Blocks-On-In-Browser-Minecraft-Clone
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6wlPI7OarpQ/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright size-large is-resized"><img src="media/d85deae2.minecraft.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/minecraft.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-32308" width="247" height="164"/></figure></div>



<p>Minecraft is one of the most recognizable and popular videogames of the last decade.</p>



<p>Created by Swedish developer Markus Persson (Notch) and released by developer Mojang in 2011, Minecraft was subsequently acquired in 2014 by Microsoft as part of a $2.5 billion deal.</p>



<p>Over the years, Minecraft has been made available on many platforms and along the way has gathered millions of fans. Minecraft Classic is even available to play in a web browser by simply visiting <a href="https://classic.minecraft.net/">Classic.Minecraft.net</a>. However, a developer who had a similar idea recently received some unwanted correspondence from Microsoft.</p>



<p>Taiwan-based student and self-taught programmer Ian Huang has been working on MC.JS, a project which he also hoped would bring Minecraft to the web using Javascript.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img src="media/d0e1d7ad.minecraft3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/minecraft3.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176516"/></figure></div>



<p>&#8220;MC.JS brings the best-selling PC game Minecraft into the web with the power of Javascript,&#8221; Huang wrote in a now-deleted Github page.</p>



<p>&#8220;Having to open an additional app to play a game is sometimes too tiring. Therefore, I thought it&#8217;d be interesting to somehow implement Minecraft with Javascript, essentially bringing the whole Minecraft game onto the web,&#8221; he continued.</p>



<p>&#8220;This not only takes away the tedious process of installing the game, it also brings the entire game to players within a couple [of] clicks.&#8221;</p>



<p>While there many people out there who might appreciate such a project, the folks at Microsoft are not among them. Despite MC.JS being &#8220;a work in progress&#8221; with &#8220;still a lot of features waiting to be implemented&#8221;, the company took action to have it taken down.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large is-resized"><img src="media/1faffe30.minecraft1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/minecraft1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176517" width="650"/></figure></div>



<p>In a DMCA notice sent to Github, where the project was hosted, brand protection and anti-piracy outfit AppDetex advised the development platform that MC.JS infringes several aspects of Microsoft&#8217;s intellectual property rights.</p>



<p>&#8220;The software being distributed on the reported site..[..]..violates these rights by providing users with an application that purports to act as a copy of Minecraft using javascript, encouraging users to provide their official Microsoft logins and circumvent Minecraft’s servers and logins for official gameplay,&#8221; the notice reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;On top of that, the download is being advertised with copyrighted Minecraft imagery and textures, acting as the backdrop to the site, without Microsoft’s consent or authorization. This is not an action protected by any fair use doctrine,&#8221; it continues.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/c4b01c27949f96dc8d4f25b910abcac2d7084a19">notice</a> of infringement was sent under the DMCA (17 U.S.C. § 512) but also notes that Minecraft trademarks have been infringed. As a result, Github took down the project, which may or may not bring the effort to an end.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak contacted the developer of MC.JS for additional comment but at the time of publication, we were yet to receive a response.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176547
title: ‘Cheating’ Fortnite Kid Keeps on Cheating, Epic Games Tells Court
uri: Cheating-Fortnite-Kid-Keeps-on-Cheating-Epic-Games-Tells-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/b8FnAGewi4s/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/845c0548.battlefortnite.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/battlefortnite.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-145747"/></figure></div>



<p>Game publisher Epic Games has taken a tough stance against Fortnite cheaters. </p>



<p>Aside from banning people from the game, it has also filed lawsuits against several people who promoted or sold cheats online. </p>



<p>One of the most recent lawsuits targets a popular YouTuber called CBV, who was sued by Epic Games in June. The games company is pursuing the minor (referred to as C.B. in the complaint) with several claims, including copyright infringement and breaches of the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision.</p>



<p>While plenty of kids would be terrified facing a lawsuit like this, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYhPTtfyt2VQOCsvqe5y2MA">CBV</a> didn’t appear to be impressed. In a YouTube video where he explained the situation last month, the 14-year-old said that he wouldn&#8217;t make Fortnite videos anymore. However, he was far from apologetic.</p>



<p>“Fuck epic games. I mean, at least they can’t come after my channel anymore. I’m never gonna make another video. But if they really want to come at my neck for 100 Mil then they can just fuck their brand on their own,” CBV&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRYKh19QPdc">said</a>.</p>



<p>The alleged cheater lawyered up and responded by filing a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cheating-fortnite-kid-wants-copyright-lawsuit-dismissed-190807/">motion to dismiss</a> at a North Carolina federal court  Among other things, his attorneys pointed out that the Court doesn’t have jurisdiction over this client and that requiring a minor to defend himself in another state would be unreasonable. </p>



<p>This week Epic responded to this motion, arguing that the case should continue.</p>



<p>Among other things, the game publisher points out that CBV didn&#8217;t halt his cheating activities after the lawsuit was filed. On the contrary, Epic claims that the defendant made another cheating video on a separate channel and registered a new domain to sell cheats.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendant continues to develop and sell cheat software specifically targeted at Epic and Fortnite. Indeed, Defendant has created a new website located at &lt;NexusCheats.us&gt;, a domain name Defendant registered on August 1, 2019,&#8221; Epic writes. </p>



<p>Epic, which doesn&#8217;t mention the name of the new channel, tells the Court that the defendant used it to promote his cheats. He published a video titled  “Fortnite AIMBOT/WALLHACKS/**LIVE**(nexuscheats),&#8221; while taking questions and mentioning that he has a very good lawyer.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendant did not stop his infringing behavior after being served with Epic’s Complaint and retaining legal counsel,&#8221; Epic writes. &#8220;In this 87-minute long video, Defendant announced it was his &#8216;first time streaming since I’ve been sued . . . .&#8217;  He then live-streamed himself logging into Fortnite and demonstrating his hacks as he played the game.&#8221;   </p>



<p>The video has now been removed after Epic sent a DMCA notice. However, according to the game publisher, this shows that the teaching activities are not over.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/d982ed75.wallhack.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/wallhack.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176659"/><figcaption>Epic&#8217;s response</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>While Epic&#8217;s reply focuses on the continued cheating, the main issue is whether there is a reason to dismiss the case. The defense argued that the EULA and the TOS, which prohibit cheating activities, are not enforceable because CBV is a minor. But Epic disagrees.</p>



<p>&#8220;His arguments that he is immune from those consequences, including his claim that this Court does not have jurisdiction over him because &#8216;he’s a kid,&#8217;  are without merit,&#8221; Epic tells the Court.</p>



<p>According to Epic, not all contracts with minors are automatically void. There are exceptions, which it believes apply here. In addition, this &#8220;infancy defense&#8221; doesn&#8217;t apply, because the alleged cheater also reaped the benefits of these agreements.</p>



<p>According to Epic&#8217;s response brief, the defendant was well aware of the potentially illegal nature of his activities &#8211; after being sued, banned and targeted with repeated DMCA notices &#8211; but he continued nonetheless.</p>



<p>&#8220;Not only did he continue to use his access to Fortnite to cheat at the game after being served with the Complaint, he continued to publish videos promoting and supporting his cheat software in violation of both Epic’s rights under the Copyright Act—which are the subject of this lawsuit—and the terms of the agreements that give Defendant access to Fortnite in the first place.&#8221;  </p>



<p>Based on these and other arguments Epic says the motion to dismiss should be denied. The company also believes that specific jurisdiction exists to continue the case in Noth Carolina, even though the defendant is from Illinois. </p>



<p>If the Court decides that there is not enough ground to establish jurisdiction, Epic asks for limited discovery, so it can find more evidence. In the alternative, the game publisher asks to transfer the case to the Central<br>District of Illinois, where the alleged cheater resides. </p>



<p>&#8212;</p>



<p><em>A copy of Epic Games&#8217; response to the defendant&#8217;s <a href="media/7ad04ff0.epiccheatcontinues.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/epiccheatcontinues.pdf">motion to dismiss is available here (pdf).</a> </em></p>



<p><br></p>



<p><br></p>



<p><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176603
title: Streaming Piracy Remains Constant in Sweden, Despite Boost in Legal Consumption
uri: Streaming-Piracy-Remains-Constant-in-Sweden-Despite-Boost-in-Legal-Co
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ryeT0Lr2Tzs/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/fdb4ba62.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-125426"/></figure></div>



<p>When there were few, if any, legal services available to stream movies and TV shows via the Internet, pirate sites had a virtual stranglehold on the entire market.</p>



<p>The obvious theory was that when entertainment industry groups came together to actually make their content both accessible and at a reasonable price (build it and they will come), visits to pirate sites would naturally decrease.</p>



<p>In Sweden, where The Pirate Bay and similar platforms have stamped their mark on the pirate landscape for at least 15 years, the market was crying out for legal options. Now there are a few to choose from, including Netflix and HBO Nordic, for example.</p>



<p>However, according to anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, the availability of legal services and indeed increased uptake of them among the public hasn&#8217;t had a negative effect on the numbers of people using &#8216;pirate&#8217; services.</p>



<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, we do not see a reduction in illegal use,&#8221; Rights Alliance lawyer Sara Lindbäck informs <a href="https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=478&amp;artikel=7288958">Sveriges Radio</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;[Piracy rates] in Sweden are much higher than they are in the neighboring Nordic countries. We are at about 20%, so every fifth Swede uses an illegal service.&#8221;</p>



<p>The claim that the volume of people using piracy sites isn&#8217;t reducing in line with increased uptake of legal services will be a disappointment to the movies and TV industries. However, the big question is why this is the case. Lindbäck notes that pirate streaming sites are essentially free to use, which is a big attraction but there are other issues too.</p>



<p>Particularly in the case of movies, pirate sites are able to exploit weaknesses in the legal market. Theatrical and other windowing (such as the often extended wait for titles to appear on streaming services) means that pirate sites are the only option for early viewing of the latest content, something that keeps them relevant, even while people also subscribe to services like Netflix.</p>



<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/legal-options-are-a-better-way-to-beat-piracy-than-enforcement/">reported</a> last week, a very high percentage of pirates in Europe are also consumers of legal content, which means that improved legal options should mean that people turn to piracy less. In Sweden, there also appears to be a situation where people are happy to buy and pirate at the same time, with piracy supplementing legal consumption. </p>



<p>This inevitably leads Rights Alliance back down the enforcement route, calling for stricter penalties against pirate site operators and greater help from those supplying Internet connections to the public.</p>



<p>&#8220;[T]here is a proposal that awaits the government to [make piracy a] serious crime so that the sanctions will be greater and the police will have better tools to work against it,&#8221;  Lindbäck explains, adding that improved collaboration with ISPs might help to reduce piracy rates too.</p>



<p>Finally, education about piracy issues is often touted as a means to keep people away from pirate sites.  Lindbäck believes that progress is being made in this area, with people noting that the money being made by pirate site operators via advertising, for example, is associated with crime and money laundering.</p>



<p>&#8220;I think there is a maturity that continues, surprisingly, about the use of the Internet,&#8221; Lindbäck concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176683
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/02/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-02-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jd2OokZ2L8M/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-176693" src="media/166b1cc3.pnoenixdark.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pnoenixdark.png" alt="" width="300" height="221">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Dark Phoenix is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-08-26-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">Dark Phoenix</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvR__GRQic">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">John Wick: Chapter 3 &#8211; Parabellum</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8-7BX9uxs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Men in Black: International</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">5.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-WEb2oxLk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Aladdin</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMtWwiyzpU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxN2oDKk0E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/">The Dead Don&#8217;t Die</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ORLoKl7VQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">The Secret Life of Pets 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZpVWepAQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/">Rocketman</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066051/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbeRrQhH4OI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176695
title: Pirate Bay Registrations Remain Closed After Three Months
uri: Pirate-Bay-Registrations-Remain-Closed-After-Three-Months
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6W4ouBQxRU8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/d4dd039c.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-116122"/></figure></div>



<p>When The Pirate Bay launched in the second half of 2003,&nbsp;it set out to be the bastion of uncensored information.</p>



<p>The site categorically rejects takedown requests from copyright holders and allows anyone to upload <em><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-crew-removes-thousands-of-torrents-just-not-those-160508/">almost</a></em> anything.</p>



<p>During its sixteen years of operation, The Pirate Bay has always been free to use and open to the public at large. Those who wanted to share files only had to register an account, which was easy enough. </p>



<p>The last sentence is in the past tense, as user registrations have become a problem this year. For more than three months The Pirate Bay&#8217;s user registrations have been closed.  The last &#8216;new&#8217; user was added to the torrent site on May 22 and there is no sign that this will change anytime soon.</p>



<p>As we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-closes-registrations-due-to-spam-flood-190606/">reported</a> previously, the TPB team said that registrations were closed to stop floods of malware torrents. This was done in by the site&#8217;s operator, &#8216;Winston,&#8217; in response to a request from a moderator. </p>



<p>The plan was to address the problem by putting a limit on the number of torrents users could upload in a short timeframe. That would prevent hundreds of spam torrents being uploaded at once. After this fix, TPB could accept new users again and continue business as usual. </p>



<p>However, after pretty much an entire summer with closed registrations, there doesn&#8217;t appear to be any progress. TorrentFreak spoke to a TPB moderator who notes that there is still no word on the issue from &#8216;Winston,&#8217; who&#8217;s in charge of the backend.</p>



<p>&#8220;I have no idea if and when he&#8217;ll reopen them,&#8221; TPB staffer Spud17 tells us, adding that the temporary measure does limit the spam problem.</p>



<p>At the time of writing, the &#8220;register&#8221; button remains present in the site. However, following the required steps persistently returns the following error message: <em>“Wrong code x. The username and/or e-mail address is already in use.“</em></p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/65a475e0.wrongcode5-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/wrongcode5-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-173250"/></figure></div>



<p>Interestingly, closed registrations don&#8217;t appear to affect the site&#8217;s popularity, perhaps because only a fraction of the users upload content. However, every now and then a complaint pops up in the official TPB forums.</p>



<p>Questioning or complaining users are usually told that there is no news on the registration issue yet. In other words, prospective users have to be patient. </p>



<p>All of the major uploaders, who are responsible for the vast majority of the popular content on TPB, remain active, of course. This means that there is no significant decrease in the volume of new torrents, apart from those containing spam and malware.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176601
title: Search Engines Given “Six Hours” to Delete Pirate Links Under New Law
uri: Search-Engines-Given-Six-Hours-to-Delete-Pirate-Links-Under-New
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cBgNsRrgwBA/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/fb5bd049.deletemini.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/deletemini.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-150938"/></figure></div>



<p>Copyright holders who want unlicensed copies of their material removed from online platforms are able to file requests under various laws in the United States and EU, for example.</p>



<p>Search engines such as Google also comply with such requests to remove links from their indexes, often doing so quickly, in many cases just a matter of hours. In Russia, however, removing links from search engines has proven problematic until a war of words in 2018 boiled over into an agreement between major entertainment companies and rights holders.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-anti-piracy-database-agreement-signed-in-moscow-181101/">memorandum</a> saw companies like Yandex and other search providers agree to interface with a centralized database of allegedly-infringing content to take down links to content quickly. The voluntary agreement wasn&#8217;t part of Russian law but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-holds-talks-to-enshrine-landmark-anti-piracy-agreement-into-law-190308/">work has been going on</a> to formalize its terms.</p>



<p>Local news outlet <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru/technology/articles/2019/08/28/809896-poiskovie-sistemi-v-rossii-ne-smogut-vidavat-ssilki">Vedomosti</a> reports that is has been able to review the text of proposed amendments to copyright law, which the publication says are the result of negotiations between the largest TV companies, streaming providers (generically &#8216;online cinemas&#8217;), as well as Yandex and Mail.ru Group. </p>



<p>Overseen by telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, the amendments are an attempt to plug perceived holes in existing legislation. It&#8217;s currently possible to have &#8216;pirate&#8217; web pages blocked quickly using the Moscow Court but the only deletions of specific URLs from search engines thus far have been voluntary ones, carried out under the memorandum.</p>



<p>The amendments will allow copyright holders to force search engines to delete allegedly-infringing links from their indexes without going to court, and within an extremely tight timeframe of six hours from notification.</p>



<p>According to local sources, copyright holders will be able to hire Roscomnadzor-approved companies to maintain databases of allegedly-infringing content on their behalf. There will not be any limit placed on the number of registries in use, as long as the authorities approve them.</p>



<p>Once these registries have been established, search engines will be required to interface with them within 10 days to obtain the details of allegedly infringing content. From the moment new content is registered, search companies will have to delete the corresponding entries from their indexes within six hours. Registries will have to be queried every five minutes.</p>



<p>It appears that after months of struggling with the details, the amendments to the law have now been completed are being sent to the presidential administration. From there they will be transferred to the State Duma&#8217;s Information Policy Committee for additional work before being submitted to parliament.</p>



<p>The chairman of the committee, Leonid Levin, confirmed he would receive the texts of the amendments in the coming days but added no further detail. It remains unclear whether a rightsholders&#8217; request to have entire domains delisted from search results is still being entertained.</p>



<p>In common with many similar initiatives, this one has taken longer than expected. The draft anti-piracy amendments should&#8217;ve been submitted to the State Duma before the end of August because the clock was ticking on the terms of the voluntary memorandum, which according to the official timetable ran out September 1, 2019.</p>



<p>However, it was previously agreed that the parties involved would extend the memorandum beyond that date while the amendments are pushed through into law.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176677
title: TweakBox Removes ‘Pirate’ Movie Apps Following Legal Pressure
uri: TweakBox-Removes-Pirate-Movie-Apps-Following-Legal-Pressure
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_Cf5Gmj3BsU/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/7bc7b056.tweakbox.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tweakbox.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176736"/></figure></div>



<p>Apple always carefully curates what type of apps people can download through the official iOS App Store. </p>



<p>Certain adult apps are actively banned, for example, and those that potentially infringe copyrights are not welcome either. </p>



<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that you can&#8217;t get these apps on an iOS device at all. Whether Apple likes it or not, deviant developers have come up with various workarounds. Initially, those required a so-called Jailbreak, but today users have other options as well.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.tweakboxapp.com/">TweakBox</a> is one of these alternatives. After some initial configurations, the third-party &#8216;app store&#8217; allows anyone to put &#8216;unofficial&#8217; apps on an iOS device. These include, tweaked versions of Whatsapp and Twitter, for example, but also emulators, a torrent client, and various movie streaming apps. </p>



<p>Apple and some official app developers are against this. They have taken some countermeasures in the past, which worked temporarily, but TweakBox remains functional. However, the same can&#8217;t be said about some of the most popular apps that were hosted in its sideload library.</p>



<p>A few days ago, TweakBox <a href="https://twitter.com/TweakBoxApp/status/1167557968323338240">announced on Twitter </a>that some movies apps &#8220;had to be removed,&#8221; from their site, later adding that this was not their choice.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/fcaf582e.tweakremoved.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tweakremoved.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176749" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tweakremoved.png 528w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/tweakremoved-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px"></figure></div>



<p>The platform didn&#8217;t elaborate which apps were removed and who&#8217;s choice it was to delete them, but after some digging, we have a pretty clear picture of what went down. </p>



<p>Federal court documents reveal that the company behind the action movie &#8220;<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2274648/">Hellboy</a>&#8221; obtained a subpoena, indirectly targeting the app store. This court order requires hosting providers Digital Ocean and Hivelocity to share the personal details of the account holder connected to TweakBox.  </p>



<p>The requested information includes all documents that show the name, address, telephone number, and email address, as well as payment records from the past three years.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/54b2fa39.tweaksubpoena.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tweaksubpoena.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176750"/></figure></div>



<p>TorrentFreak obtained copies of the letters Hellboy&#8217;s attorney sent to  Digital Ocean and Hivelocity. The movie company argues that TweakBox induces copyright infringement by offering the &#8220;Popcorn Time,&#8221; &#8220;CotoMovies,&#8221; and &#8220;Mediabox HD&#8221; apps.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether the hosting providers have handed over any information, but TweakBox certainly was alerted. Shortly after the subpoena was issued, the three movie piracy apps were removed from the site. </p>



<p>A closer inspection of TweakBox&#8217;s current video app listings shows that another potentially problematic app,  MediaBox, was removed as well. </p>



<p>The legal pressure would explain why it was not TweakBox&#8217;s &#8220;choice&#8221; to remove the video apps, as mentioned previously in its (now removed) tweet. TorrentFreak reached out to the platform for further comments, but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back. </p>



<p>Although TweakBox managed to bypass Apple&#8217;s restrictions for a long time, these recent actions show that a relatively basic DMCA subpoena can be quite effective for copyright holders. </p>



<p>Needless to say, many of the platform&#8217;s users are not happy. Soon after the announcement on Twitter, there was a stream of replies from people who mourned the &#8216;loss,&#8217; with some demanding an immediate reinstatement. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/cc4d65e9.responsetweak.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/responsetweak.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176748"/></figure></div>



<p>And since TweakBox previously confessed to being a <a href="https://twitter.com/TweakBoxApp/status/1009568388274966528">Popcorn Time &#8216;aficionado&#8217;</a> as well, the people behind the platform may not be too happy either.</p>



<p>While the apps may be gone from the TweakBox site, they have not been wiped from the Internet completely. As always, there are still other sources where the same can be found.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>Here&#8217;s a copy of <a href="media/d5a877a4.tweaksubpoena.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tweaksubpoena.pdf">the subpoena (pdf) </a>and the letters to <a href="media/1b03f677.doletter.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/doletter.pdf">Digital Ocean (pdf)</a> and <a href="media/6944e351.hiletter.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/hiletter.pdf">Hivelocity (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176783
title: Court Postpones “Complex” Ruling That Could Expose Dutch Movie Pirates
uri: Court-Postpones-Complex-Ruling-That-Could-Expose-Dutch-Movie-Pir
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LbjQG8gTxnE/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/89108fbc.hitmansbo-e1549650274271.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hitmansbo-e1549650274271.jpg" alt=""/></figure></div>



<p>For many years, Dutch Internet users were allowed to download copyrighted content with impunity, as long as it was for their own use.</p>



<p>In 2014, the European Court of Justice <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-netherlands-must-outlaw-downloading-eu-court-rules-140410/">decided</a> that the country&#8217;s &#8220;piracy levy&#8221; through which rightsholders could be compensated, was actually unlawful.</p>



<p>It took another three years for entertainment industry groups to realize the untapped potential of settlement lawsuits but in 2017 it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-film-distributor-to-target-bittorrent-users-for-cash-fines-170802/">revealed</a> that distribution company Dutch Filmworks (DFW) wanted to begin monitoring pirates. It didn&#8217;t immediately mention it would be seeking any compensation but that always seemed likely.</p>



<p>Later that year it became clear the company would indeed try to do just that, using an initial letter to alleged infringers to request payment.</p>



<p>&#8220;[The lettter] will propose a fee,&#8221; <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-fines-for-dutch-pirates-starting-this-autumn-170828/">said </a>DFW CEO Willem Pruijsserts. &#8220;If someone does not agree [to pay], the organization can start a lawsuit.&#8221;</p>



<p>However, before DFW can begin sending letters, it needs to match the IP addresses of alleged infringers with real identities and for that, it needs cooperation from ISPs. Immediately, ISPs including Ziggo refused to comply without being taken to court.</p>



<p>DFW went ahead wth legal action anyway and targeted 377 of Ziggo&#8217;s customers, all alleged to have downloaded the movie &#8220;The Hitman&#8217;s Bodyguard&#8221;. However, the effort <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-isp-does-not-have-to-expose-alleged-pirates-court-rules-190208/">failed</a> when in February 2019 the Central Netherlands Court denied the company&#8217;s request for data.</p>



<p>The Court didn&#8217;t deny that those sharing copyrighted movies without permission were breaking the law. However, it also pointed out that an IP-address alone doesn&#8217;t identify an infringer. The Court also had issues with the settlement amount that DFW proposed to extract from alleged infringers, describing the &#8216;fine&#8217; as &#8220;in no way substantiated&#8221; in respect of actual damages.</p>



<p>In response, DFW filed an appeal, stating that the judge in the case &#8220;agreed with DFW on almost all points&#8221; so felt that the ruling should have gone the distributor&#8217;s way.</p>



<p>&#8220;DFW is of the opinion that this decision should have been in favor of the rightsholder and it is convinced that the claim should be awarded on appeal,&#8221; the company said.</p>



<p>Accordingly, the Court of Appeal looked at the case and was due to deliver its verdict yesterday, September 3, 2019. However, a report from <a href="https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2019/09/03/uitspraak-in-piraterijzaak-tussen-dutch-filmworks-en-ziggo-uitgesteld-a3972009">NRC</a> now reveals that the decision will be postponed &#8220;partly due to the complexity of the case.&#8221;</p>



<p>A spokesperson for the Court told the publication that &#8220;we&#8217;re working hard on it&#8221; and a ruling should be handed down no later than November 5, 2019, but hopefully sooner.</p>



<p>While in other regions of Europe, notably countries like Germany and Sweden, the discovery process can be a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolling-in-sweden-grows-massively-putting-us-efforts-in-the-shade-190127/">fairly simple one</a>, it seems clear that the Dutch court wants to take a much closer look at the details.</p>



<p>What those reservations are isn&#8217;t yet clear but the earlier insistence from DFW, that subscribers should be responsible for what happens on their connections whether they&#8217;re the infringer or not, might be playing a part in the Court&#8217;s hesitancy.</p>



<p>On top, of course, any decision in favor of DFW could open the floodgates to other companies seeking to obtain settlements from Internet users, something which would be music to the ears of various copyright trolls, many based in the United States and working on an industrial scale.</p>



<p></p>



<p> </p>



<p></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176731
title: Facebook Blocks Sharing of Links to Prominent Pirate Sites
uri: Facebook-Blocks-Sharing-of-Links-to-Prominent-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cOWophCUj4Y/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/b11f3383.facethumb-e1567519375759.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/facethumb-e1567519375759.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176769"/></figure></div>



<p>Similar to other sites that deal with user-generated content, Facebook has to battle against a constant stream of copyright-infringing material.</p>



<p>To address this, Facebook has rolled out several anti-piracy initiatives in recent years. The company has a “Rights Manager” tool, for example, that automatically detects infringing material on the platform.</p>



<p>In addition, it seems the company is also taking proactive measures. This week we were contacted by the operator of <a href="https://www.limetorrents.info/">LimeTorrents.info</a>, one of the most used torrent sites, who noticed that sharing links to his site is no longer permitted on the social media network. </p>



<p>People who want to use Facebook to post a link to the torrent site will see the following error message instead; &#8220;You can&#8217;t share this link. Your post couldn&#8217;t be shared, because this link goes against our Community Standards.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/427d269a.nolimes.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nolimes.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176764"/></figure></div>



<p>As it turns out, LimeTorrents is not the only site that&#8217;s affected by this policy. We checked several others and found out that Facebook also blocks links that point to YTS.lt, Torrentdownloads.me and Zooqle.com. This measure applies to all URLs from these sites, including their homepages.</p>



<p>Facebook&#8217;s blocking notification doesn&#8217;t provide a specific reason for the blockage.  We&#8217;ve reached out to the company for a comment on the blocking measures, but the company has yet to reply. </p>



<p>When we read through the company&#8217;s &#8216;community standards,&#8217; however, we see that copyright infringement is a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/respecting_intellectual_property">potential trigger</a>. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/9eae1526.ip.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ip.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176803"/></figure></div>



<p>The four sites that are blocked may just be the tip of the iceberg. At the same time, it&#8217;s also worth noting that other major pirate sites don&#8217;t get the same treatment. Whatever Facebook&#8217;s policy is, there&#8217;s no site-wide ban on all piracy sites, yet.</p>



<p>While the current blocking efforts are new to us, as well as the site operator we&#8217;ve spoken to, it&#8217;s not clear when they were implemented. A search for the error message that pops up suggests that it only started to appear recently. </p>



<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that Facebook has never blocked pirate sites in the past. Ten years ago the company already prevented users from posting links to The Pirate Bay, after the torrent site refused to disable its &#8216;share&#8217; function voluntarily. </p>



<p>&#8220;Given the controversy surrounding The Pirate Bay and the pending lawsuit against them, we’ve reached out to The Pirate Bay and asked them to remove the ‘Share on Facebook’ links from their site. The Pirate Bay has not responded and so we have blocked their torrents from being shared on Facebook,” the company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/facebook-blocks-all-pirate-bay-links-090408/">told us</a> at the time. </p>



<p>Interestingly, in the years that followed, The Pirate Bay was unbanned again and Facebook users can freely share links to the site today. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176766
title: France Plans to Merge Anti-Piracy Agency With Media Regulator
uri: France-Plans-to-Merge-Anti-Piracy-Agency-With-Media-Regulator
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZWv8UqjbO00/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/8474cc37.hadopilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/hadopilogo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-41298" width="268" height="119"/></figure></div>



<p>France has been working hard to disrupt online piracy for more than a decade, largely through the efforts of local anti-piracy agency Hadopi.</p>



<p>After many years of planning, in 2010 France <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/france-starts-reporting-millions-of-file-sharers-100921/">became a pioneer</a> of the so-called &#8220;graduated response&#8221; system, whereby persistent copyright infringers could eventually find themselves disconnected from the Internet.</p>



<p>The entire project was overseen by <a href="https://www.hadopi.fr/en">Hadopi</a> (High Authority for the Distribution and Protection of Intellectual Property on the Internet), the government agency responsible created to ensure citizens comply with relevant anti-piracy laws.</p>



<p>Hadopi has made the headline numerous times over the past 10 years, largely reporting on progress in its field. However, Hadopi&#8217;s main goal was to reduce illicit sharing on peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent, which has in many instances given way to streaming equivalents in the interim.</p>



<p>In an announcement this week by the Ministry of Culture, it transpires that a new bill foresees Hadopi merging with another powerful government agency in the near future </p>



<p>The <a href="https://www.csa.fr/">CSA</a> (Conseil Supérieur de L&#8217;audiovisuel / Higher Audiovisual Council) &#8211; is the local authority for the regulation of electronic media in France, including television. It&#8217;s envisioned that a merger between Hadopi and CSA will create a brand new organization with even greater powers for regulating all things digital.</p>



<p>According to a Reuters <a href="https://fr.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idFRKCN1VO1HB-OFRIN">report</a>, the merger project will be presented to the Council of Minister in November before arriving at parliament early next year.</p>



<p>&#8220;The idea is to create a new authority based on this merger that regulates both audiovisual communications and digital communications,&#8221; said Franck Riester, France&#8217;s Minister of Culture.</p>



<p>Earlier this year, Riester noted that the convergence between the Internet, television, and radio needed to be addressed. This planned merger seems a clear attempt to bridge the gaps although what it will mean for anti-piracy enforcement will remain to be seen.</p>



<p>A <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirates-are-increasingly-going-legal-in-france-180707/">July 2018 report</a> indicated that not only were French pirates on the wane (down from 11.6 million in 2016 to 10.6 million in 2017), many were increasingly turning to legal sources such as Netflix.</p>



<p>Those that were still determined to pirate were also downloading and streaming less unlicensed content, with consumption down by 4% and the number of pirates without access to a legal subscription dropping by 30%.</p>



<p>A more recent <a href="https://hadopi.fr/actualites/lhadopi-presente-son-rapport-dactivite-2018">report</a>, published this June, indicated that in 2018 the agency had dealt with 50,000 to 70,000 instances of Internet users unlawfully and repeatedly making content available on peer-to-peer networks. </p>



<p>&#8220;[D]uring the three phases of warnings sent to Internet users, 60% of them were no longer accused of new illegal acts,&#8221; Hadopi said, citing the scheme&#8217;s effectiveness.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, calls remain for enforcement to be stepped up, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/french-minister-of-culture-calls-for-pirate-streaming-blacklist-180423/">including via the use of blacklists</a> that would help to restrict access to unlicensed streaming sites via ISPs and search engines, while encouraging advertisers to boycott the platforms.</p>



<p></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176874
title: ‘Pirate’ Site Manga Rock Starts Shutdown, Will Go Legal
uri: Pirate-Site-Manga-Rock-Starts-Shutdown-Will-Go-Legal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ukbykF2jfe0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/56b58852.mangarock.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mangarock.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176876"/></figure></div>



<p>Manga comics and novels are huge. Not just in Japan but all over the world.</p>



<p>People used to read them on paper, but digital is the standard today. While that makes these comics more accessible, they&#8217;re also easier to pirate. </p>



<p>For years there has been an active &#8216;scanlation&#8217; community. These are fan-made translations that are shared online. Sharing can begin innocently, by posting a copy on a message board, but sometimes things get out of hand. </p>



<p><a href="https://mangarock.com/">Enter MangaRock</a>. Most people who are not into manga have probably never heard of the site, but it easily dwarfs the most well-established pirate sites. According to data from <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a>, it&#8217;s more popular that The Pirate Bay, or any Hollywood-blockbuster streaming site.</p>



<p>In addition, SimilarWeb lists it as the 2nd most popular site in the &#8216;<a href="https://www.similarweb.com/top-websites/category/arts-and-entertainment/books-and-literature">books and literature</a>&#8216; category, just behind Wattpad. That&#8217;s rather impressive, especially when you consider that many users don&#8217;t use the site, but its dedicated Android and iOS apps instead.</p>



<p>Up until a few days ago, the site had been running smoothly, but apparently the operators had a change of heart. In an interview with <a href="https://www.j-cast.com/">J-Cast News</a>, picked up by <a href="https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/">Animenewsnetwork</a>, Manga Rock owner &#8220;Not a Basement Studio&#8221; recently said the site and apps would shut down. </p>



<p>Initially, it appeared that nothing much had changed, but today people started to notice that the Manga Rock app had disappeared from the Play store. The iOS version will reportedly follow soon. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/b654e90c.mangagone.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mangagone.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176880"/></figure></div>



<p>And if there was any confusion left, a <a href="https://mrcomics.com/">new statement</a> confirms that MangaRock.com will shut down as well. &#8220;It’s official: We’re taking Manga Rock down,&#8221; Not A Basement Studio writes.<br> </p>



<p>Not utilizing this type of traffic from dedicated manga fans would be a shame, a point not lost on &#8216;Not A Basement Studio&#8217;. Behind the scenes, they&#8217;ve been working hard putting together a legal alternative while negotiating deals with several publishers. </p>



<p>The original plan was to remove all unauthorized content from the site at once and present the new and legal alternative to its users. This appeared to be the best option for all, and could even work well for the rightsholders, as it would be an excellent setup to convert &#8216;pirates&#8217; into customers. </p>



<p>However, this plan was scrapped recently, and Manga Rock has decided to shut down now and launch its legal platform named &#8220;<a href="https://mrcomics.com/">MR Comics</a>&#8221; later.</p>



<p>&#8220;As we made contact with more publishers and creators, we realized that by keeping Manga Rock around while developing the new platform, we are still inadvertently hosting and supporting the practices of piracy,&#8221; Manga Rock explains. </p>



<p>&#8220;Until we can fully make the switch to become a 100% official comics platform and convert all the free readers into supporters of legitimate content, creators and publishers are being hurt by our practices &amp; all the other scanlations sites,&#8221; they add. </p>



<p>While &#8216;Not A Basement Studio&#8217; doesn&#8217;t mention anything specific, it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if the shutdown request is motivated, at least in part, by requests from rightsholders. After operating the site for years, a few more weeks can&#8217;t make that much of a difference. </p>



<p>Whatever the motivations are, one of the largest &#8216;pirate&#8217; operations online today is now folding. According to a timeline published by Manga Rock, the apps were to be taken down during the first week of September. The site will follow next week and this will redirect to the new but unfinished &#8220;<a href="https://mrcomics.com/">MR Comics</a>&#8221; platform. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/c8943db9.timeline.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/timeline.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176878"/></figure></div>



<p>The aforementioned site has a detailed overview of how the Manga Rock team began and how it grew to the point where it is now. It is rather apologetic to the publishers, as its closing words make pretty clear.</p>



<p>&#8220;Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the years. Once again, we’re deeply sorry for everything,&#8221; they write. </p>



<p>The site&#8217;s users, on the other hand, are mostly <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=mangarock&amp;src=typed_query&amp;f=live">shocked and disappointed</a>. They will have to do without their favorite scanlation site. While some will be interested in trying out the new legal platform, when it arrives, others are already scouring the web for the next best thing. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/22966bce.sorryrock.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sorryrock.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176879"/></figure></div>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176793
title: 1XBET Ads Appeared on 1,200 ‘Pirate’ Sites in Past Six Months
uri: 1XBET-Ads-Appeared-on-1-200-Pirate-Sites-in-Past-Six-Months
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GdATZ-GOTRI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/3d5a45b0.pirateflag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateflag.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-175547"/></figure></div>



<p>Visitors to &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites are no strangers to the Russia-based gambling company 1XBET.</p>



<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/1xbet-the-bizarre-cam-brand-that-movie-pirates-love-to-hate-190526/">reported</a> back in May, the company&#8217;s branding appears on hundreds of so-called &#8216;cam&#8217; releases, much to the annoyance of people hoping to enjoy a movie without unnecessary interruptions.</p>



<p>The mechanism through which these ads appear in &#8216;pirate&#8217; releases isn&#8217;t clear. As we&#8217;ve previously pointed out, there&#8217;s no public information that 1XBET directly sponsors &#8216;pirate&#8217; releases or whether over-enthusiastic affiliates are to blame. Nevertheless, things were bound to boil over at some point.</p>



<p>In August, we pointed out a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/serie-a-launches-anti-piracy-campaign-but-shares-sponsor-with-pirate-movies-190811/">bizarre situation</a> in Italy, where top tier football league Serie A launched an anti-piracy campaign, decrying piracy of all kinds &#8211; of movies too &#8211; with 1XBET advertising directly underneath. In fact, 1XBET is an official presenting partner for Serie A which has its ads all over its site.</p>



<p>While Serie A currently seems untroubled by these developments, Premier League clubs in the UK &#8211; who are also quick to criticize pirates &#8211; have a bigger and more immediate problem.</p>



<p>Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur &#8211; which all previously struck sponsorship deals with 1XBET &#8211; recently received communication from the UK&#8217;s Gambling Commission noting that after having its license revoked (in part due to its advertising on &#8216;illegal&#8217; sites), the clubs cannot continue doing business with 1XBET.</p>



<p>&#8220;We recently wrote to Liverpool FC, Chelsea FC and Tottenham Hotspur FC to remind them that organizations engaging in sponsorship, and associated advertising arrangements, with an unlicensed operator, may be liable to prosecution . . . for the offense of advertising unlawful gambling,&#8221; the Commission reportedly <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/liverpool-chelsea-and-tottenham-face-huge-fines-over-1xbet-deal-27k723z9q">told</a> the clubs.</p>



<p>A few days ago, Tottenham announced that it had terminated its multi-million-pound sponsorship deal with the company. At the time of writing, Chelsea and Liverpool are yet to make an official announcement.</p>



<p>In response to the allegations, a 1XBET spokesperson said that is taking the matter seriously and, as such has, decided to stop operating in the UK, at least for the moment.</p>



<p>&#8220;We take very seriously the allegation that 1xBet’s brand has been promoted on prohibited sites, which is strictly against our policies, and we have launched an investigation. Pending the outcome…we believe it is responsible to temporarily suspend our advertising activity in the UK,&#8221; the company <a href="https://www.90min.com/posts/6445651-spurs-cut-ties-with-sponsor-1xbet-as-liverpool-chelsea-warned-over-links-with-gambling-company">said</a>.</p>



<p>With Matt Zarb-Cousin of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling describing the clubs&#8217; lack of due diligence as &#8220;shocking&#8221; and an &#8220;absolute debacle&#8221;, TorrentFreak spoke with brand protection company <a href="https://www.white-bullet.com/">White Bullet</a> to find out if it had some additional data on the scale of 1XBET&#8217;s alleged advertising on &#8216;pirate&#8217; platforms.</p>



<p>The company, which works with brands to identify websites and applications that damage brand reputation (including by funding online piracy), told us that it tracks around 10,000 &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites, with that number depending on how many are online and have ad impressions to be counted.</p>



<p>&#8220;1,200 of those sites had 1XBET ads found on a regular basis over the last 6 months,&#8221; the company noted, adding that 25% were or still are on the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit&#8217;s IWL Infringing Website List (IWL).</p>



<p>Somewhat embarrassingly for Serie A and the above-named Premier League teams, 13% of the sites carrying 1XBET ads were &#8216;pirate&#8217; sports streaming platforms and categorized as &#8220;high risk&#8221; by White Bullet.</p>



<p>All in all, this is an interesting completion of the funding circle as far as the clubs go, not to mention the Premier League&#8217;s constant complaints about piracy.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176821
title: Members of Congress Question Google CEO about YouTube’s Content-ID System
uri: Members-of-Congress-Question-Google-CEO-about-YouTube-s-Content-ID-S
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fCvj_Uozjo8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/72389cbc.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-117196"/></figure></div>



<p>To protect copyright holders, YouTube uses an advanced piracy recognition system that flags and disables videos that are used without permission.</p>



<p>This system, known as Content ID, works well most of the time, but it&#8217;s not perfect. In recent years it&#8217;s been heavily criticized by YouTube users and rightsholders alike.</p>



<p>YouTubers, for example, have repeatedly complained that their content has been inaccurately claimed. On the other side, there are tens of thousands of copyright holders who would love to join the Content ID program but are not allowed to. </p>



<p>For now, YouTube&#8217;s Content ID system is limited to a few thousand participants. These are claimants which own the exclusive rights to a &#8220;substantial body of material&#8221; that is &#8220;frequently uploaded&#8221; by YouTube users. In other words, not the average indie creator. </p>



<p>This exclusivity is a thorn in the side of smaller artists, who instead have to manually go through YouTube to find infringing content. While that&#8217;s no different from any other site on the Internet, they feel left out and disadvantaged by the video streaming site.</p>



<p>This issue hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by US lawmakers. This week, a group of eight members of Congress, including Sen. Marcha Blackburn, Sen. Christopher Coons, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, and Rep. Adam Schiff, invited Google CEO Sundar Pichai to a roundtable discussion specifically about Content ID.</p>



<p>The members explain that they are quite content with Google&#8217;s copyright enforcement efforts, but they are also concerned that smaller content creators are being left out.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are concerned that copyright holders with smaller catalogs of works cannot utilize Content ID, making it more difficult or impossible for them to effectively protect their copyrighted works from infringement and, ultimately, impacting their livelihoods,&#8221; they write. </p>



<p>The lawmakers stress that many copyright holders have been denied access to Content ID. While they are still able to take infringing content down manually, they have to do more work than some larger competitors and with fewer resources.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have heard from copyright holders who have been denied access to Content ID tools, and as a result, are at a significant disadvantage to prevent the repeated uploading of content that they have previously identified as infringing,&#8221; the letter explains.  </p>



<p>&#8220;They are left with the choice of spending hours each week seeking out and sending notices about the same copyrighted works, or allowing their intellectual property to be misappropriated,&#8221; they add.</p>



<p>The Congress members hope to obtain more insight into the matter during a roundtable, where representatives of the creative community will also be present. They&#8217;ve prepared a set of questions for Google&#8217;s CEO, which they hope to have answered. </p>



<p>Among other things, the members want to know how the Content ID system works, what type of rightsholders are able to join now, whether Google plans to open it up to more rightsholders, and if it will be expanded to other Google services, such as Blogger. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/e69d2a10.conyouq.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/conyouq.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176849"/></figure></div>



<p>The entire roundtable appears to be limited to the perspective of external rightsholders. There is no mention of the many inaccurate claiming requests YouTubers (who are also content creators) complain about, nor is Content ID abuse on the agenda. </p>



<p>The goal of the roundtable is clear. The Congress members want YouTube&#8217;s Content ID system to be available to a wider range of rightsholders, as clearly indicated in their closing words.</p>



<p>&#8220;Again, we appreciate the efforts that you have made to combat distribution of infringing content on YouTube. Given its apparent benefits to rights holders, we hope that you will consider making Content ID and the benefits it provides available to a larger category of content creators.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the letter the Members of Congress sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai is available <a href="media/81205880.congress-content-id.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/congress-content-id.pdf">here (pdf)</a>, via </em><a href="https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2019/09/04/congress-members-grill-google-roundtable-content-id-tool/id=112908/"><em>IPWatchdog</em></a><em>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176921
title: ISPs: Pirate Site Blocking Threatens Freedom of Expression
uri: ISPs-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Threatens-Freedom-of-Expression
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/u_kN5__KiHM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/1da50efe.stopblock.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/stopblock.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-176924"/></figure></div>



<p>Online piracy is an international problem for the content industries, one that&#8217;s particularly hard to curb. </p>



<p>Pirate site blocking appears to be the preferred countermeasure, which has been rolled out in dozens of countries over the years.</p>



<p>While industry reports and academic research have shown signs that this <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blocking-boosts-netflix-subscriptions-research-suggests-190824/">can indeed be effective</a>, it&#8217;s certainly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/legal-options-are-a-better-way-to-beat-piracy-than-enforcement/">no a silver bullet</a>. </p>



<p>With few other options to hand, rightsholders do see it as one of their best bets for now. As such, they frequently push lawmakers to lay the groundwork for ISP blocking, if that&#8217;s not available. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s also a topic of interest in South Africa at the moment, where the Government has been working on a new &#8216;Cybercrimes Bill. The proposed legislation doesn&#8217;t have any blocking requirements, but there have been calls from industry groups to require ISPs to block blatantly-infringing pirate sites. </p>



<p>While this doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise considering the global trend,  local Internet providers are fiercely against any type of piracy enforcement. Speaking with <a href="https://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/318257-blocking-piracy-websites-in-south-africa-is-a-bad-idea.html">MyBroadband</a>, the Internet Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (<a href="https://ispa.org.za/">ISPA</a>) describes site blocking as ineffective and concerning.</p>



<p>“Blocking is technically complicated and subject to false positives, yet it is relatively trivial for consumers and content providers to bypass the blocks, bringing its effectiveness into question,” ISPA said.</p>



<p>“There are also complex freedom of expression concerns which are not for ISPs or copyright associations to resolve and which need to be properly ventilated through the courts,” the group added.</p>



<p>The ISP association points out that new technologies such as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/encrypted-dns-and-sni-make-pirate-site-blocking-much-harder-190702/">Encrypted DNS</a> could render website blocking pretty much useless, without the need to use proxies or a VPN. </p>



<p>The group doesn&#8217;t deny that blocking may have a marginal anti-piracy effect but says that it&#8217;s unsure whether the positive impact of such as “blunt and limited” measure will outweigh the potential negative consequences. </p>



<p>“It is not clear that there will be any significant benefit to copyright holder associations and their members from this approach and certainly no indication that any positive impact will outweigh the risks to freedom of expression and access to information outlined above, as well as the cost of implementation,” ISPA noted. </p>



<p>There is currently no indication that the Government is seriously considering implementing any blocking-related obligations. However, it&#8217;s always possible that rightsholders will try to have such measures put in place through the judicial route. </p>



<p>ISPA didn&#8217;t comment on this option specifically, but going through the court will at least mean that the interests of the public at large will be carefully weighed. </p>



<p>Finally, ISPA also commented on some scaremongering which suggested that, under the new Cybercrimes Bill, ISPs will have to report all pirates to the authorities. </p>



<p>According to ISPA, this is an incorrect interpretation of the bill. The group stressed that current law makes it clear that ISPs don&#8217;t have to monitor their customers. In fact, doing so may be illegal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176810
title: Adult Site Calls For Google Action Against DMCA Notice ‘Carpet Bombing’
uri: Adult-Site-Calls-For-Google-Action-Against-DMCA-Notice-Carpet-Bombi
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UJQ3h_NxLps/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/206e821a.censored-china.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/censored-china.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-153780"/></figure></div>



<p>Back in June we reported on massive waves of what appeared to be bogus DMCA notices targeting various adult-focused sites.</p>



<p>Some of the sites hit hard in these earlier waves were so-called &#8216;hentai&#8217; sites which focus on adult-orientated comics and cartoons.</p>



<p>They <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dmca-takedowns-try-to-delist-dozens-of-adult-homepages-from-google-190608/">complained</a> that a &#8216;company&#8217; called Copyright Legal Services Inc. (there&#8217;s no obvious record of such an entity online) was the author of many notices which attempted to delist thousands of URLs and in some cases homepages and even entire sites from Google. It claimed to be working on behalf of DLSite.com, a platform operated by Japan’s EYSIS, Inc.</p>



<p>Since the initial reports, the same kind of activity has continued, with force. However, notices similar to the ones originally sent by Copyright Legal Services are now being sent by a new entity, Right Protection Corporation, which not only target the main domain pages of various sites but also their entire web structures.</p>



<p>In common with Copyright Legal Services before them, Right Protection Corporation (RPC) doesn&#8217;t appear to exist on the web, even though their notices claim they have bases in at least three countries &#8211; <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/18975208?access_token=Q2KcQLyUEXG2SpJJMw8tVg">United States</a>, <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/19090659?access_token=U6zfARokRWXvGRgi2Vqtfw">Japan</a> and <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/18927544?access_token=ceXXfAg8YgPq3gh01l1udg">China</a>. They are sending <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&amp;sort_by=created_at+desc&amp;sender_name=Right+Protect+Corporation&amp;sender_name-require-all=true">volume requests</a> to delete countless thousands of URLs from Google, even though they appear to have no right to do so.</p>



<p>One <a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/19077796?access_token=PksklH-b2NgSkfiJVhmrEQ">takedown notice</a> pointed out to TF reveals a notice that has been sent in the form of a PDF, meaning that it can&#8217;t easily be searched for using the tools offered by DMCA transparency portal Lumen Database.</p>



<p>However, looking inside proved useful as it reveals that the &#8216;RPC&#8217; is attempting to have thousands of URLs delisted from a single site &#8211; <a href="http://rule34.paheal.net/">rule34.paheal.net</a> &#8211; including its main page which displays nothing but a warning that it carries adult material and a note about cookies. There are many other examples, such as <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/19141033">this one</a>, which attempt to do the same thing.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak is informed that some operators of the affected sites, including the operator of <a href="http://konachan.com/">Konachan.com</a>, have filed counter-notices with Google and have achieved some success in having their URLs reinstated. </p>



<p>However, the operator of <a href="https://gelbooru.com/">Gelbooru.com</a>, which was hit hard in the first wave, says he&#8217;s had huge difficulties in getting touch with Google&#8217;s legal team for them to take restorative action, as required when a proper DMCA counter-notice is filed.</p>



<p>&#8220;Their [Standard Operating Procedure] is ignore until sued, so we are moving forward with trying to get anyone who runs a website that was affected by this whole situation to contact us directly if they&#8217;d be interested in joining a class action that will be filed,&#8221; he informs TF.</p>



<p>&#8220;We require at least three others to be a class action, and Google must have ignored or denied any counter DMCA notices sent to them to be able to join. Message me, &#8216;lozertuser&#8217;, directly on our <a href="https://discordapp.com/invite/Zxs9tPE">Discord</a>.&#8221;   </p>



<p>The overall aim appears to have Google either respond to the counter-notices or preferably get in touch with Gelbooru&#8217;s lawyers, in order to sort out the issue without either company having to waste any more time on the problem. Hopefully, no class action will be required but it remains a possibility.</p>



<p>In the meantime, it&#8217;s worth highlighting that DLSite.com, the platform which the notices claim to protect, has categorically denied it is behind the mass notices sent in its name.</p>



<p>A statement sent to the <a href="https://www.oneangrygamer.net/2019/06/e-hentai-gelbooru-hanime-homepages-get-dmcad-removed-from-google/86060/">OneAngryGamer site</a>, which covered our earlier report, has the company stating that it had reviewed our article and noted that &#8220;EISYS, Inc. / DLsite is not involved in this matter. When we send a DMCA request it will be via: Eisys, Inc. We do not know anything about the company: &#8216;Copyright Legal Services INC&#8217;.&#8221;</p>



<p>Them and everyone else, then&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176299
title: The Solution to Music Piracy in Nigeria is No Joke – Or is It?
uri: The-Solution-to-Music-Piracy-in-Nigeria-is-No-Joke-Or-is-It
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/eiUMr6L7ofg/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/2f9e6cf4.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-86520"/></figure></div>



<p>Even when one has visited many countries around the world, subtleties of cultural differences can be difficult to grasp.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s funny or makes sense in one country may draw a blank expression in another, which is why a recent set of stories from Nigeria catch the eye.</p>



<p>Music industry group IFPI <a href="https://www.ifpi.org/africa.php">describes</a> Africa as a whole as an emerging opportunity for business, with digital music services sometimes available alongside mobile phone services. Nevertheless, the physical music market, while dwindling, is still going strong &#8211; even if piracy remains a big problem.</p>



<p>Enter stage left popular musician and comedian Koffi Idowu, who in <a href="http://www.cosonng.com/koffi-joins-the-coson-board/">sits</a> on the board of the Copyright Society of Nigeria. <a href="http://www.cosonng.com/">COSON</a>, as it&#8217;s known locally, describes itself as Africa’s fastest-growing copyright collective management organization.</p>



<p>While &#8216;Koffi&#8217; is known locally for his comedy, one might think that joking about piracy would be off-limits, considering his position. However, it&#8217;s almost impossible for outsiders to determine whether his recent comments are serious or not. </p>



<p>Content leaks from manufacturing and distribution processes can sometimes be tackled using watermarking, for example. However, Koffi is publicly advocating the use of a &#8220;modern technology&#8221; that actually debuted in the 1970s.</p>



<p>&#8220;Modern trends need to be applied by the right commissions to successfully combat piracy. People in the creative industry need to start barcoding their works,&#8221; he said, according to several local sources.</p>



<p>&#8220;We also need to start tracing these works from the sources where they were being stolen. We cannot monitor them physically but with technology, we can go a long way,&#8221; he added.</p>



<p>Without being disrespectful to Nigeria&#8217;s position as an emerging nation (and, of course, presuming this isn&#8217;t a joke that doesn&#8217;t translate across borders), it seems bizarre to think that a barcode could prevent music piracy in any way. One CD out, and it gets copied, barcode or not.</p>



<p>But then Koffi advocates getting the military involved to deal with the problem.</p>



<p>&#8220;When we discover warehouses where piracy is being carried out, arrests and sanctions can only be done by the appropriate officials,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>It all sounds real enough, but it&#8217;s only when one takes a look at articles on Nigeria&#8217;s market published in the West that one gets a grip on just how different things are in the African nation. Not just different, but also bizarre.</p>



<p>An article in Billboard <a href="https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8507497/nigeria-music-streaming-bank-groove-platforms-udux">published</a> in April describes how local digital music streaming service uduX is making progress in Nigeria. We&#8217;re all used to installing apps for music and banking, for example, but what if they were the same thing?</p>



<p>&#8220;Through GTBank’s Habari app, a platform for shopping and lifestyle content, uduX, whose name derives from a musical instrument played in Nigeria called udu, will gain access to a community of 16.8 million users,&#8221; the Billboard piece reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;Since consumers have already entered their banking information, they can subscribe to the streaming platform in a few clicks.&#8221;</p>



<p>Now while this makes sense on a basic level, the privacy-conscious among us might be thinking &#8220;what could possibly go wrong?&#8221; As it turns out, those fears appear to be not only well-founded but considered a feature in Nigeria.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s according to Chidi Okeke, the CEO of Groove Platforms, the company behind uduX.</p>



<p>&#8220;I want to get people to pay for my service and for that, I just needed to be close to where the money is,&#8221; Okeke said.</p>



<p>And thanks to the partnership with the bank, the streaming service can get information on the bank&#8217;s customers, including their ages and location, and perhaps a whole lot more.</p>



<p>&#8220;We know how they spend their money, so it’s easier for us to target people,&#8221; said Okeke.</p>



<p>That doesn&#8217;t sound like a joke. But the barcodes and military are up for debate, potentially. Or maybe not.          </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176679
title: Google Search Apparently Indexes Over 80 Million Torrent Hashes
uri: Google-Search-Apparently-Indexes-Over-80-Million-Torrent-Hashes
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/N_DWNfcStWw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/8f6c3950.googlepiratebay.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratebay.png" alt="" class="wp-image-128445"/></figure></div>



<p>Like every general search engine on the web, Google indexes every page it can find. That&#8217;s what it&#8217;s for, after all. </p>



<p>Torrent meta-search engines do things quite differently. These sites are only interested in torrent links found on external sites.  </p>



<p>This includes<a href="https://torrentz2.eu/"> Torrentz2</a>, which is without a doubt the most popular torrent meta-search engine on the Internet. The site took over from the original Torrentz site, which after it surprisingly closed its doors during the summer of 2016. </p>



<p>Over the past three years, the site has rolled out some updates, most of which have gone unnoticed. However, recently our interest was piqued by a rather unusual addition to the Torrent2&#8217;s indexed sites. </p>



<p>Starting a few weeks ago, Torrentz3 began listing &#8220;Google&#8221; as a &#8216;source&#8217; in its search results. Not somewhere down the bottom, but as the top result for every piece of content. Here&#8217;s what shows up on the &#8220;<a href="https://torrentz2.eu/d540fc48eb12f2833163eed6421d449dd8f1ce1f">Ubuntu desktop 19.04</a>&#8221; page. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/c1e33ca4.ubungoog.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ubungoog.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176858"/></figure></div>



<p>The Google link on top leads to a <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=d540fc48eb12f2833163eed6421d449dd8f1ce1f">Google search for the associated torrent hash</a>, which finds dozens of pages where the Ubuntu torrent is available as well. This works the same for all other results. Usually, Google returns plenty of options, including several sites that Torrentz2 doesn&#8217;t search. </p>



<p>What&#8217;s also interesting to note is the number of hashes Google has listed in its search engine. According to Torrentz2, Google is currently able to find 82,085,976 unique torrent hashes. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/69d2e47c.lotsoftorrents.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lotsoftorrents.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176861"/></figure></div>



<p>While that&#8217;s already an impressive amount, the number of torrent pages indexed by Google is actually much higher, as it often has dozens of pages for each torrent hash. After all, the same torrents generally appear on several torrent sites.  </p>



<p>Google, like any other search engine, has always indexed torrent sites. In fact, it even has a dedicated <a href="https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;source=hp&amp;q=filetype%3Atorrent+ubuntu">filetype:torrent command</a>. This allows users to search for .torrent files directly on Google, but it isn&#8217;t as effective as the hash-based method. </p>



<p>Also, in recent years the site took several measures to make copyright-infringing content harder to find. Nowadays it can be quite a challenge to find something in Google by simply assing &#8220;torrent&#8221; to a search query. </p>



<p>With Torrentz2 + Google, however, that doesn&#8217;t appear to be an issue. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176918
title: Premier League Claims Victories with Multi-Faceted Anti-Piracy Approach
uri: Premier-League-Claims-Victories-with-Multi-Faceted-Anti-Piracy-Approac
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Iw_wpCjO7Ms/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/413852f6.oldball.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/oldball.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-150389"/></figure></div>



<p>In many parts of the world, football &#8211; or soccer as some prefer to call it &#8211; is the number one spectator sport.</p>



<p>The English Premier League, widely regarded as one of the top competitions, draws hundreds of millions of viewers per year. Many of these pay for access to the matches, but there’s also a massive circuit of unauthorized streams.</p>



<p>In recent years the League has worked hard to decrease the availability of these live streams, which isn&#8217;t an easy feat. It has been a driving force behind criminal prosecutions, pursued dynamic blocking orders in court, and issued many takedown notices. </p>



<p>In the latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-ip-crime-and-enforcement-report-2018-to-2019">IP Crime and Enforcement Report</a>, published by the UK Government&#8217;s Intellectual Property Office, the Premier League provides an overview of some of its key achievements over the past 12 months. These are the results of what the organization describes as a &#8220;multi-faceted&#8221; anti-piracy approach.</p>



<p>One of the key pillars of the anti-piracy drive is to reduce the availability of online streams and clips. This worked quite well, apparently, with the League reporting hundreds of thousands of removed or blocked live streams and other video content.</p>



<p>&#8220;In Season 2018/19 the Premier League removed or blocked over 210,000 live streams and over 360,000 clips of its matches that would otherwise have been available to view in the UK,&#8221; the report reads.  </p>



<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-uefa-obtain-court-orders-to-block-piracy-in-2019-20-190729/">dynamic blocking injunctions</a> issued against UK ISPs are also listed as successes. With these, the Premier League can provide Internet providers with continuously updated lists of live streaming sources that need to be blocked during Premier League matches.</p>



<p>Another major achievement, which thus far hasn&#8217;t been publicized, is the Premier League&#8217;s involvement in the demise of the popular live stream subreddit &#8216;Soccerstreams&#8217;, which had over 420,000 subscribers. This subreddit was effectively <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/reddit-soccerstreams-effectively-shuts-down-following-piracy-complaints-190121/">shut down by its operators</a> in January due to an increasing number of complaints.</p>



<p>Initially, the operators banned all user submissions, planning to use the subreddit for news announcements. However, not much later Reddit pulled it offline permanently for violating its repeat infringer policy.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/6e476ab0.soccerstreambanned.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/soccerstreambanned.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176970"/></figure></div>



<p>Apparently, the Premier League was one of the main complainants, as the Soccerstreams  &#8216;shutdown&#8217; is listed among the organization&#8217;s largest successes of the past year. According to the report, the football league worked &#8220;with Reddit to close its ‘soccerstreams’ thread&#8221;</p>



<p>A similar victory was booked against another popular streaming site, Ronaldo7.net. While the site is still up and running, the Premier League notes that it previously secured the removal of all its content. </p>



<p>Offline there was progress made as well. According to the League, it conducted over 6,000 investigative visits to pubs, clubs, and other commercial venues where its content was displayed. This helped to prevent an unspecified number of illegal broadcasts. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/6c3f0caf.keystats.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/keystats.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176958"/></figure></div>



<p>The biggest success in court this year came from a criminal prosecution. Together with FACT, the Premier League went after three men who sold pirate IPTV subscriptions to more than 1,000 pubs, clubs&nbsp;and&nbsp;homes throughout England and Wales.</p>



<p>Following a four-week trial against the &#8220;Dreambox&#8221; defendants, the private prosecution <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/three-pirate-tv-device-sellers-jailed-for-a-total-of-17-years-190321/">resulted in prison sentences</a> ranging from three years and three months to seven years and four months.</p>



<p>The same prosecution is also highlighted in a FACT case study in the same &#8216;IP Crime and Enforcement Report&#8217;. This overview ends with a strong focus on press coverage and the associated &#8220;advertising&#8221; value of the prosecutions. </p>



<p>&#8220;This result gathered worldwide media interest. It was mentioned in a total of 51 articles in no less than 16 countries worldwide, reaching a potential worldwide audience of over 165 million people. A BBC News article (pictured) had the largest reach, with a potential 35 million readers. </p>



<p>&#8220;The advertising value equivalent for the press received is estimated at over £1.5 million,&#8221; the FACT case study adds. </p>



<p>The comparison with advertising value may seem odd in this context, but it makes sense. The goal of prosecutions of this nature is not just to stop the infringing activities. FACT and the Premier League also want to send a clear message to other people participating in similar businesses, hoping they will stop. </p>



<p>While there are still plenty of pirate streaming operations online, the Premier League&#8217;s overview shows that the organization is taking the issue rather seriously. As such, it will likely continue in the same steps in the new season.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176981
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/09/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-09-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OQhiVbJ7mw0/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-176693" src="media/166b1cc3.pnoenixdark.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pnoenixdark.png" alt="" width="300" height="221">This week we have one newcomer in our chart.</p>
<p>Dark Phoenix is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a>&nbsp;for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-09-02-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">Dark Phoenix</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvR__GRQic">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">John Wick: Chapter 3 &#8211; Parabellum</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8-7BX9uxs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Aladdin</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMtWwiyzpU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Men in Black: International</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">5.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-WEb2oxLk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxN2oDKk0E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">The Secret Life of Pets 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZpVWepAQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/">The Dead Don&#8217;t Die</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8695030/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4ORLoKl7VQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3861390/">Dumbo </a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3861390/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NiYVoqBt-8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5215088">A.I. Rising</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5215088">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLpLkJ5Mh3M">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177008
title: Mangamura Uploader Pleads Guilty, Another Denies Charges
uri: Mangamura-Uploader-Pleads-Guilty-Another-Denies-Charges
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JOvixJ5iZAc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/05028357.anime-pirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/anime-pirate.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-31311"/></figure></div>



<p>After being founded in 2016, &#8216;pirate&#8217; manga-focused site Mangamura was blamed for facilitating huge volumes of pirate downloads. </p>



<p>Previously, local anti-piracy group CODA estimated damages to the manga industry of around $2.91 billion. That all came to an end last year, however, after the site mysteriously shut down.</p>



<p>For those who contributed to the platform, the past is proving more difficult to leave behind. In July, alleded site mastermind Romi Hoshino, 28, was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-mastermind-of-giant-pirate-manga-site-arrested-in-manilla-190710/">arrested</a> in the Philippines when attempting to board a plane to Hong Kong. This morning, two alleged upoaders appeared in a Japan court facing charges of copyright infringement.</p>



<p>The first, a 26-year-old man called Kota Fujisaki, pleaded guilty at Fukuoka District Court to uploading copyrighted images to Mangamura in violation of Japan&#8217;s copyright law.</p>



<p>However, 24-year-old woman Shiho Ito pleaded not guilty to the same charges, <a href="https://jen.jiji.com/jc/eng?g=eco&amp;k=2019090900494">Jiji</a> reports.</p>



<p>According to the prosecution, Fjisaki and Ito uploaded images from the 866th episode of blockbuster manga series One Piece to Mangamura. The infringement was reportedly actioned from Fujisaki&#8217;s home in May 2017, an address where Ito also lived at the time.</p>



<p>The prosecution alleges the pair conspired with former site operator Hoshino to upload content to the site for the public to view without permission. It&#8217;s further alleged that Ito received payment for the uploads, cash that was used to cover the living expenses of the pair.</p>



<p>The manga series &#8216;One Piece&#8217; is proving somewhat of a magnet for police and prosecutors in the Mangamura case. Last month, police in Fukuoka arrested a 37-year-old man under suspicion of uploading images of the hit series to the same site, again in May 2017.</p>



<p>Anime New Network <a href="https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2019-08-11/man-arrested-on-suspicion-of-uploading-one-piece-manga-to-mangamura-piracy-site/.149937">reports</a> that a man believed to be Adachi previously contacted the police trying to turn himself in for questioning. He was arrested at Fukuoka airport, after he arrived there from the Philippines via Taiwan.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176157
title: Influencing Younger Pirates is a Key Aim of ‘Get it Right’ Campaign
uri: Influencing-Younger-Pirates-is-a-Key-Aim-of-Get-it-Right-Campaig
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UzotOwmCOJY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/95ee2218.getitright.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/getitright.png" alt="" class="wp-image-134194"/></figure></div>



<p>Last month Creative Content UK (CCUK) switched up a gear with its Get it Right (From a Genuine Site) anti-piracy campaign.</p>



<p>After declaring that copyright-infringement notices sent to mainly BitTorrent users via ISPs had &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-isps-stop-sending-copyright-infringement-notices-190719/">served their purpose</a>&#8220;, the BPI and MPA-led initiative turned to &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/get-it-right-hopes-high-profile-social-influencers-can-deter-piracy-190815/">social influencers</a>&#8216; to send the message that content should be consumed via official channels, in order to support creators.</p>



<p>Popular YouTuber Caspar Lee featured in the first video, a move that was clearly aimed at younger consumers. That led us to consider whether future videos in the series, which are yet to be planned, would target a broader range of pirates &#8211; particularly older ones with whom Lee may not immediately resonate.</p>



<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, CCUK confirms that its own research has looked at pirates aged between 16 and 50 years old. However, those who fall into the lower age bracket appear to be a prime target, since they are the most prolific consumers of content, on both sides of the legality fence.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our own research continues to show that 16 to 24-year-olds both consume and enjoy the most content of all types (film,  TV, music, games, books, sport etc) – and that they also use unauthorized sources more than any other group &#8211; i.e. they use both genuine and dodgy sources,&#8221; the spokesperson notes.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s not to say older consumers aren&#8217;t a problem, however.</p>



<p>Those in the 25 to 34-year-old bracket still do their fair of pirating, as do those between 35 and 44. Even those crumbling away in the twilight years of 45+ pose infringement issues. However, these groups present sequentially diminishing patterns of infringing behavior, an indicator of why CCUK are looking to target those at the younger end of the scale.</p>



<p>&#8220;Looking across all of the data, in addition to the key 16-24-year-olds, we think that it is particularly important to address young males (16-35 years of age), ABC1’s and parents/other influencers of children (especially in the 25-34 year old group) as all are more likely to use unauthorised sources and services than other groups,&#8221; CCUK adds.</p>



<p>Targeting these age groups makes perfect sense for CCUK. Not only do they reach the most prolific infringers and consumers of legal content at the same time, those in the 25 to 34-year-old bracket &#8211; according to the latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics &#8211; are the most likely to have children, meaning any educational effect can be passed down. </p>



<p>&#8220;Other industry research shows that the problematic behavior often begins when children are between 11 and 15 years of age,&#8221; CCUK notes.</p>



<p>Given the scope of the campaign, the likes of Paul McCartney and Robert De Niro probably won&#8217;t feature in future videos, because despite being superstars in their own right, they are much less likely to resonate with younger people. Instead, CCUK seem likely to encourage more popular YouTubers and Instagram stars to take part, people to whom those of less advanced years can relate.</p>



<p>&#8220;So, as we continue this phase of the Get it Right initiative, we will be working hard to use voices and messages around the content that they love &#8211; that will reach and speak directly to those groups,&#8221; CCUK adds.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our work so far has shown clearly that this approach can get people’s attention and drive both behavior change and changes in attitude towards infringement. This is why we have such strong support from Government and industry to continue the work.&#8221;</p>



<p>While CCUK and its backers BPI and MPA will have their own thoughts about using more aggressive tactics to deter piracy, campaigns like these tend to be much less offensive to the general public than &#8220;You Wouldn&#8217;t Download&#8230;&#8221; type messages.</p>



<p>Time will tell if this one will prove any more effective in terms of legitimate content consumption but there doesn&#8217;t currently seem to be many voices in opposition, which on the Internet today is a great start.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176819
title: Cox Attacks ‘Proof’ in Piracy Liability Case, Requests Summary Judgment
uri: Cox-Attacks-Proof-in-Piracy-Liability-Case-Requests-Summary-Jud
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2h7VG2-iYtI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/f71707b4.coxcomms.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/coxcomms.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-128587"/></figure></div>



<p>Last year Cox settled its piracy liability lawsuit with music rights company BMG.</p>



<p>The ink on this agreement was barely dry when the ISP faced a similar and additional complaint. This time, it was up against 53 music companies, including  Capitol Records, Warner Bros, and Sony Music.</p>



<p>The rightsholders <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">complained</a> that Cox categorically failed to terminate repeat copyright infringers and that it substantially profited from this ongoing ‘piracy’ activity. All at the expense of the record labels and other rightsholders. </p>



<p>A year later, thousands of pages of legal paperwork have been processed and the case is gearing up to a trial. However, if it&#8217;s up to Cox, there is little left to discuss there because the music companies&#8217; evidence is fatally flawed. </p>



<p>A few days ago, the ISP submitted a motion for summary judgment, requesting summary judgment on several key elements. Among other things, Cox argues that it&#8217;s not vicariously liable or directly liable for any copyright-infringing activity carried out by its users.</p>



<p>Cox&#8217;s arguments are in large part directed at the proof the music companies have. Or to be more specific, the lack thereof. The company points out that the infringement notices, which were sent on behalf of the RIAA, are far from solid. In addition, the ISP says it never received any proper notices for more of the allegedly-infringed works.</p>



<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs’ claims suffer from a fundamental and fatal flaw: a distinct paucity of proof. They simply cannot prove their case,&#8221; Cox writes.  </p>



<p>&#8220;In short, Plaintiffs seek damages for works they cannot prove were infringed, based on notices that did not identify fully 80% of those works. Moreover, they have no evidence that Cox knew about the infringement, obtained any direct financial benefit from it, or had the practical ability to prevent it, such that it could be secondarily liable.&#8221;  </p>



<p>Cox&#8217;s arguments can be quite technical at times, and some pages are completely redacted, but there are some interesting observations. </p>



<p>For example, the company argues that the file-sharing evidence from BitTorrent users can&#8217;t prove that any subscriber actually <em>distributed</em> the infringing files. The evidence, provided by BitTorrent tracking outfit MarkMonitor, only &#8216;shows&#8217; the metadata of a file in possession of a subscriber, matches that of a copyrighted track.</p>



<p> &#8220;Here, Plaintiffs cannot prove &#8216;actual dissemination&#8217; of any work to anyone—including their agent, MarkMonitor,&#8221; Cox notes.  </p>



<p>Another issue Cox raises is that for many of the claimed infringements in the suit, Cox never received a single notice.</p>



<p>&#8220;Although Plaintiffs seek damages for alleged direct infringements of 7,057 sound recordings and 3,421 compositions, the RIAA Notices for recordings sent during the Claims Period contain only 1,998 unique Title and Artist combinations.&#8221;</p>



<p>Based on these and a variety of other arguments, the ISP requests summary judgment. This means that, if granted, these will no longer be contested at trial. </p>



<p>However, the pendulum, in this case, can swing the other way as well. The 53 music companies also filed a request for summary judgment. They ask the court to rule that Cox is contributory and vicariously liable for its pirating subscribers.</p>



<p>The companies wave away any concerns and say that Cox willingly kept pirates on board to increase its profits.</p>



<p>&#8220;[T]he record is clear that Cox had knowledge of its subscribers’ blatant infringement of Plaintiffs’ works and nonetheless assisted them with it. By consciously continuing to provide Internet service to known infringers, while ignoring its own copyright policies as written, Cox materially contributed to that infringing activity, and reaped substantial financial benefits as a result,&#8221; their request reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;Accordingly, summary judgment should be granted holding Cox liable for contributory infringement and vicarious infringement, and the Court should reject its frivolous defenses.&#8221;</p>



<p>Both sides&#8217; arguments directly oppose each other and it will be up to the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to determine if it grants any of the motions. If the Court grants neither motion, it will be up to a jury to decide during trial.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of Cox&#8217;s motion for summary judgment is available <a href="media/7d8e2f7e.coxsummary.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/coxsummary.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and the music companies&#8217; motion can be found <a href="media/d9612919.labelssummary.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/labelssummary.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>



<p><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177063
title: Nintendo Wins Blocking Injunction Against Four Piracy-Enabling Sites
uri: Nintendo-Wins-Blocking-Injunction-Against-Four-Piracy-Enabling-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lDxebHe-UTk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/64d4fc91.nintendo-switch.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/nintendo-switch.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-149537" width="249" height="201"/></figure></div>



<p>Every manufacturer of mass-market video gaming consoles has faced the possibility of piracy on their platforms.</p>



<p>The tools to prevent piracy usually come as a two-man team of hardware and software trickery (technological protection measures) but these are often defeated, later if not sooner.</p>



<p>Nintendo, in particular, has been struggling with piracy on its Switch console, facilitated by circumvention tools (particularly SX Pro and SX OS) promoted and made available to users via various websites. </p>



<p>In an effort to tame the threat, Nintendo went to the High Court of England and Wales, requesting an injunction that would prevent subscribers of several major ISPs from gaining access to the sites in question.</p>



<p>As is common in such cases, the ISPs themselves &#8211; Sky, BT, EE, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media &#8211; were the named defendants in the case. Nintendo (NCL) asked the Court to compel them to block team-xecutor.com, sx-xecutor.com (both operated by Team Xecutor) plus sxflashcart.com and xecuteros.com (previously stargate3ds.org).</p>



<p>Most ISP blocking in the UK is the result of copyright infringement proceedings but Nintendo’s opening drive against the above sites is that they use the company’s trademarks without permission.</p>



<p>Justice Arnold said that in his opinion it is “beyond dispute” that the sites use Nintendo’s marks in order to promote circumvention devices. He also agreed that the devices were made available to the public on the basis they would be used to provide access to infringing content, since they all mention piracy in promotional material.</p>



<p>“The injunction sought is necessary to prevent, or at least reduce, substantial damage to NCL. It appears that substantial sales of the circumvention devices have been made in the UK, that substantial quantities of pirated games have been downloaded in the UK and installed on&nbsp;Switches using the circumvention devices and that NCL has sustained significant losses as a result,” Justice Arnold writes.</p>



<p>“No alternative measures are realistically available to NCL since NCL has been unable to identity the operators of the Target Websites, who may well be abroad.”</p>



<p>The Judge further notes that cease and desist notices sent by Nintendo’s lawyers were ignored by the target sites while hosting providers, “to the extent they could be identified”, also took no action.</p>



<p>While noting that blocking can be easily circumvented, the Judge said that blocking can be effective in reducing traffic to the sites in question, acts as a deterrent, won’t be detrimental to the ISPs’ business, and is therefore a proportionate response to infringement.</p>



<p><em>The order handed down by Justice Arnold on Tuesday can be obtained </em><a href="https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2019/2376.html&amp;query=(nintendo)"><em>here</em></a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177053
title: Popular Torrent Site MKVCage Faces Lawsuit and Goes Offline
uri: Popular-Torrent-Site-MKVCage-Faces-Lawsuit-and-Goes-Offline
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5WihU1kF5hY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/eecd56d7.mkv.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mkv.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177110"/></figure></div>



<p>A group of movie companies has been very active in the US District Court for the District of Hawaii over the past several months. </p>



<p>Various copyright infringement lawsuits and DMCA subpoenas were filed against prominent players in the piracy ecosystem, ranging from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-companies-sue-popcorn-time-operator-in-us-court-190102/">Popcorn Time</a> through <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-mogul-yts-is-being-sued-by-yet-another-movie-company-190808/">YTS</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/showbox-site-owner-settles-piracy-case-for-150000-180930/">Showbox</a>. </p>



<p>Today, we can add another target to the growing list, the popular torrent uploader/group <a href="http://mkvcage.com/">MKVCage</a>.</p>



<p>MKVCage uploads its encodes across various torrent sites and has gathered a dedicated following over the past few years. The group also operates its own site at MKVCage.com, where the latest releases are also shared. However. over the past few days, this site has become unresponsive.</p>



<p>The downtime started soon after the makers of the movie &#8220;Hellboy&#8221; filed a complaint at a Hawaii federal court. The movie company believes that the site is run by a person named Muhammad Faizan, who stands accused of promoting and distributing pirated copies of their movie.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendant Faizan operates an interactive website mkvcage.com and<br>previously mkvcage.fun which includes a library of torrent files for copyright protected motion pictures, including Plaintiff’s. The torrent files can be used by a BitTorrent client application to download and reproduce motion pictures for free and without license,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>The filmmakers add that the defendant creates the torrent files that are made available on the website, including &#8220;Hellboy.2019.720p.HC.HDRip.x264-MkvCage.Com.mkv,&#8221; which are then distributed to the site&#8217;s users. The name of the site is often included in the title, to boost the site&#8217;s profile.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendant Faizan sometimes includes words such as&#8217;MkvCage.com&#8217; in the titles of the torrent files he creates in order to enhance his reputation for the quality of his torrent files and attract users to his interactive MKVCAGE website,&#8221; the complaint notes. </p>



<p>The movie company obtained the name of the site&#8217;s alleged operator from Namecheap, in response to a DMCA notice. The same person is also listed as the registrant for the domains mkvcage.com, mkvcage.ws, mkvcage.cc and mkvcage.me, and used PayPal to pay for at least one of those.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/94406830.mkvcage.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mkvcage.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177111"/><figcaption>MKVcage in better times</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>At this point, it is unclear whether the current downtime is a direct result of the complaint that was filed.  MKVCage&#8217;s latest upload at external websites, such as <a href="https://1337x.to/">1337x</a>, was two days ago. We will update this article if more information becomes available.</p>



<p>In addition to MKVCage, the same lawsuit also targets the smaller torrent site iBit.uno and its unnamed operator. TorrentFreak reached out to iBit, but a representative of the site didn&#8217;t want to comment on the allegations.</p>



<p>The people behind both sites stand accused of contributory copyright infringement among other things, and Faizan also faces a count of direct copyright infringement. </p>



<p>The movie company requests compensation for the damage it suffered. It also request an injunction, so it can request third-party services such as hosting providers, ISPs, search engines, and domain registrars, to stop facilitating access to the sites.</p>



<p>The injunction request is quite broad and could affect a wide range of companies. At this point, however, it hasn&#8217;t been granted yet, so that can&#8217;t explain the current downtime. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the complaint from HB Productions (Hellboy) is <a href="media/c5ce0dcb.ibitmkv.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ibitmkv.pdf">available here (pdf)</a></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177119
title: Nintendo Sues RomUniverse for Mass Copyright Infringement
uri: Nintendo-Sues-RomUniverse-for-Mass-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Hq1m1kk5eOA/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/bc033a87.romuniverselogo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/romuniverselogo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177133"/></figure></div>



<p>Last year Nintendo made headlines worldwide when it filed a lawsuit against the popular ROM sites <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-console-rom-sites-for-mass-copyright-infringement-180720/">LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co</a>.</p>



<p>The legal action effectively shut the sites down with many other platorms voluntarily following suit. </p>



<p>Not all game pirate sites were shaken up by the legal action though. <a href="https://www.romuniverse.com/">RomUniverse</a>, a site that&#8217;s been around for a decade, saw its visitor numbers rise and announced that it would continue to offer Nintendo ROMs. </p>



<p>Fast forward a year and Nintendo is now taking RomUniverse to court. In a complaint filed at a federal court in California, the Japanese gaming giant accuses the site&#8217;s alleged operator, Matthew Storman, of &#8220;brazen&#8221; and &#8220;mass-scale&#8221; copyright and trademark infringement. </p>



<p>&#8220;The Website is among the most visited and notorious online hubs for pirated Nintendo video games. Through the Website, Defendants reproduce, distribute, monetize, and offer for download thousands of unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>Nintendo states that the site, which has 375,000 members, offers downloads for nearly every video game system it has ever produced. </p>



<p>The complaint specifically notes that &#8220;hundreds of thousands of copies&#8221; have been illegally downloaded through RomUniverse, including nearly 300,000 copies of pirated Nintendo Switch games and more than 500,000 copies of pirated Nintendo 3DS games.</p>



<p>Users of the site can download one file per week for free. Those who want more have to sign up for a paid membership. After an &#8220;upgrade&#8221; of $30, members are allowed to download as many files as they want. This includes games, but also ebooks and the latest Hollywood movies. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/a62530db.romuniverse.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/romuniverse.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177124"/></figure></div>



<p>As said before, RomUniverse wasn&#8217;t impressed by the legal threats Nintendo issued against other sites last year. This didn&#8217;t go unnoticed to the game publisher, which specifically mentions the operator&#8217;s defiance in its complaint.</p>



<p>&#8220;In 2018, around the time that Nintendo successfully enforced its intellectual property rights against other infringing ROM websites, defendant Storman bragged that his Website would continue to offer Nintendo ROMs,&#8221; Nintendo writes.</p>



<p>Through the lawsuit, which also lists a count of unfair competition, Nintendo hopes to shut RomUniverse down. The company also requests statutory damages of $150,000 per infringing Nintendo game and up to $2,000,000 for each trademark infringement.</p>



<p>This means that, with dozens of copyrighted titles and trademarks on the record, theoretical damages are well over $100 million.</p>



<p>Finally, Nintendo further asks for a permanent injunction ordering the site and its operator(s) to stop their infringing activities while handing over their domain names to the game publisher. </p>



<p><strong>Update:</strong> RomAdmin from RomUniverse informed us that he hasn&#8217;t received anything from Nintendo, no recent takedown notices either. The site does respond to takedown notices. </p>



<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve always immediately taken down questionable material, per their take down notices,&#8221; RomAdmin told TorrentFreak.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of Nintendo&#8217;s complaint against Matthew Storman and any &#8220;John Doe&#8221; accomplices, is <a href="media/9280f7a8.romuniverse.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/romuniverse.pdf">available here (pdf</a>).</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176668
title: Major US ISPs Refuse to Discuss Repeat Infringer Policies
uri: Major-US-ISPs-Refuse-to-Discuss-Repeat-Infringer-Policies
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2YoFOZi0t_8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/cf654c6a.piratekay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratekay.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-108106"/></figure></div>



<p>Every single week, Internet users in the United States take to Reddit and other discussion forums seeking advice about copyright infringement notices.</p>



<p>Whether the claims against them are true is often hard to assess, but many speak of receiving notices from their ISP which state that a third-party has caught them torrenting something they shouldn&#8217;t &#8211; usually movies, TV shows, or music.</p>



<p>While any and all of them are able to speak directly to their ISP to find out what the notices are all about and what the consequences might be, many seem confused. Are they going to be sued, for example, or perhaps their Internet might get suspended or cut off completely?</p>



<p>Most advice dished out by fellow internet users is (and I&#8217;m paraphrasing), &#8220;Dumbass &#8211; use a VPN&#8221;, but while that comprehensively solves the problem, it doesn&#8217;t answer the big questions.</p>



<p>A common topic is how many notices a customer can receive from their ISP before things get serious. One might think this basic information would be easy to find but despite most major ISPs in the US stating that they don&#8217;t allow infringement and there could be consequences for receiving multiple complaints, more often than not their information pages aren&#8217;t specific.</p>



<p>So, in an effort to cut through all the jargon and put all the relevant information into one article, on August 27 we approached several of the major ISPs in the United States &#8211; Comcast, AT&amp;T, Charter/Spectrum, Verizon, and CenturyLink &#8211; with a list of questions, detailed below;</p>



<ul><li><em>Your company forwards copyright complaints from rightsholders, based on their claims. How many complaints can a subscriber have made against their account before some action is taken by you, beyond simply forwarding the notice to the subscriber?</em></li><li><em>What is the nature of that action, i.e requiring to confirm receipt of the notice, taking a copyright lesson, promising not to infringe again, etc?</em></li><li><em>Once this stage has been completed, how many more complaints against an account will trigger any subsequent action, i.e a more serious warning, warning that an account could be suspended etc?</em></li><li><em>At what point would a customer with multiple complaints against their account be considered a &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217;?</em></li><li><em>At what point could an account holder expect a temporary account suspension? At this point, how would that suspension be lifted?</em></li><li><em>At what point could an account holder expect a complete termination of his or her service?</em></li><li><em>In respect of points 5 and 6, is the number of complaints a deciding factor or does a subscriber&#8217;s negative or positive responses and actions in respect of your efforts to prevent infringement also play a part?</em></li><li><em>Are you able to confirm that accounts have been temporarily suspended for repeat infringement and if so, how many?</em></li><li><em>Are you able to confirm that accounts have been permanently shut down for repeat infringement and if so, how many?</em></li></ul>



<p>We told the ISPs exactly why we were asking these questions and indicated that a response within seven days would guarantee their inclusion in this article. We extended the deadline to two weeks and beyond but not a single company listed above responded to any of our questions.</p>



<p>In fact, none even acknowledged receipt of our initial email, despite one ISP requiring us to send emails to at least three people involved in their media communications team. It seems fairly clear this potato is simply too hot to pick up.</p>



<p>That being said, we thought we should press on with at least trying to help subscribers.</p>



<p>There are usually very few valid excuses for receiving multiple copyright infringement complaints. Some do exist, of course, but not knowing the precise mechanism for being dealt with under various ISPs&#8217; &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; rulesets only makes matters worse.</p>



<p>What we can do here is give relevant snippets/quotes from each ISP&#8217;s website and link to the page(s) in question, with a comment here and there. In no particular order:</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.att.com/legal/terms.aup.html">AT&amp;T</a></strong>: <em>In accordance with the DMCA and other applicable laws, AT&amp;T maintains a policy that provides for the termination of IP Services, under appropriate circumstances, if Customers are found to be a repeat infringer and/or if Customers&#8217; IP Services are used repeatedly for infringement (the &#8216;Repeat Infringer Policy&#8217;). AT&amp;T may terminate IP Services at any time with or without notice to Customers.</em></p>



<p><em>AT&amp;T has no obligation to investigate possible copyright infringements with respect to materials transmitted by Customer or any other users of the IP Services. However, AT&amp;T will process valid notifications of claimed infringement under the DMCA, and continued receipt of infringement notifications for Customer&#8217;s account will be used as a factor in determining whether Customer is a repeat infringer.</em></p>



<p>TF note on AT&amp;T: We can find no &#8220;Repeat Infringer Policy&#8221;</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.centurylink.com/aboutus/legal/copyright-notices/copyright-trademark-and-disclaimer-notices.html">CenturyLink</a>:</strong> <em>Company respects the intellectual property rights of others and is committed to complying with U.S. copyright laws, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (&#8216;DMCA&#8217;). Company reserves the right to suspend or terminate, in appropriate circumstances, the service of users whose accounts are repeatedly implicated in allegations of copyright infringement involving the use of Company&#8217;s network.</em></p>



<p>TF note: We have no idea what constitutes &#8220;appropriate circumstances.&#8221;</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/comcast-dmca-compliance-policy">Comcast/Xfinity</a>:</strong> <em>Any infringement of third party copyright rights violates the law. We reserve the right to treat any customer account for whom we receive multiple DMCA notifications from content owners as a repeat infringer.</em></p>



<p><em>We reserve the right to move a customer account to the next step of the policy upon receiving any number of DMCA notifications from content owners in a given month, or upon learning that the account holder is a repeat infringer.</em></p>



<p><em>You may receive an email alert to the preferred email address on your account or a letter to your home address. You may also receive an in-browser notification, a recorded message to your telephone number on file, a text message to your mobile telephone number on file, or another form of communication. </em></p>



<p><em>Triggering steps under this policy may result in the following: a persistent in-browser notification or other form of communication that requires you to log in to your account or call us; a temporary suspension of, or other interim measures applied to, your service; or the termination of your Xfinity Internet service as well as your other Xfinity services (other than Xfinity Mobile). </em></p>



<p>TF note on Comcast: The &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; policy is <a href="https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/comcast-dmca-compliance-policy">quite detailed</a> and worth the long read.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.cox.com/residential/support/copyright-violation-notifications-in-my-account.html">Cox Communications</a>:</strong> <em>Cox encourages responsible internet use. Our internet use policy is consistent with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and allows us to take steps when we receive notifications of claimed infringement.</em></p>



<p><em>Repeated notifications of claimed violations on your account could lead to Internet service suspension or termination.</em></p>



<p><em>If you continue to receive copyright infringement notifications on your account, Cox suspends your Internet service. In the Customer Portal, you may reactivate your Internet service up to two times.</em></p>



<p><em>If your account continues to receive copyright infringement notifications, your Internet service is terminated.</em></p>



<p>TF note on Cox: The repeat infringer policy is <a href="https://www.cox.com/residential/support/copyright-violation-notifications-in-my-account.html">worth a read</a> and is quite specific in parts, less so in others.</p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.spectrum.net/support/general/copyright-infringement-topics">Spectrum/Charter</a>:</strong> TF initial note: The company doesn&#8217;t appear to have a dedicated &#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; policy outside of its published <a href="https://www.spectrum.net/support/general/copyright-infringement-topics">&#8220;copyright violation&#8221; advice</a>. While this is both detailed and helpful in many respects, it doesn&#8217;t give specifics on alleged &#8216;repeat infringers&#8217;.</p>



<p>After noting that &#8220;<em>Charter may suspend or disconnect your service as a result of repeat copyright violations</em>,&#8221; users are sent to its <a href="https://www.spectrum.com/policies/residential-terms.html">Acceptable Use Policy</a> page, which reads in part as follows:</p>



<p><em>Spectrum reserves the right to investigate violations of this AUP, including the gathering of information from the Subscriber or other Users involved and the complaining party, if any, and the examination of material on Spectrum&#8217;s servers and network.</em> </p>



<p><em>Spectrum prefers to advise Users of AUP violations and any necessary corrective action but, if Spectrum, in its sole discretion, determines that a User has violated the AUP, Spectrum will take any responsive action that is deemed appropriate without prior notification. Such action includes but is not limited to: temporary suspension of service, reduction of service resources, and termination of service. </em></p>



<p><strong><a href="https://www.verizon.com/about/terms-conditions/terms-of-use">Verizon</a></strong>: <em>Pursuant to Section 512 of the DMCA, it is Verizon’s policy to terminate the account of repeat copyright infringers in appropriate circumstances.</em></p>



<p>TF note: This appears to be the shortest <a href="https://www.verizon.com/about/terms-conditions/terms-of-use">&#8216;repeat infringer&#8217; policy</a> of all the ISPs and is a good example of why we decided to ask all of the companies for their precise steps, so we could offer a little more detail to their customers. </p>



<p>Sorry, we failed, but there&#8217;s probably a good reason for that.</p>



<p><strong>Summary:</strong> With several ISPs up to their necks in lawsuits filed by the RIAA alleging that they haven&#8217;t done enough to deal with &#8220;repeat infringers&#8221;, it&#8217;s perhaps no surprise that the companies ignored our requests for information. </p>



<p>That being said, it&#8217;s of interest that several appear to be acting in a particularly vague manner &#8211; perhaps they&#8217;re already worrying that they&#8217;ll be next on the music industry&#8217;s list.</p>



<p>In the meantime and in most cases, users will remain largely in the dark unless they do a lot of reading and research. And even that might not be enough.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177093
title: Piracy App ‘CotoMovies’ Shuts Down, Apologizes, and Exposes Users
uri: Piracy-App-CotoMovies-Shuts-Down-Apologizes-and-Exposes-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7nIiMp1WaEI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/e03a1a73.cotomovieslo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cotomovieslo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177098"/></figure></div>



<p>Last week we reported that the third-party <em>iOS</em> app store TweakBox had <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tweakbox-removes-pirate-movie-apps-following-legal-pressure-190903/">removed several movie piracy apps</a> following legal pressure.</p>



<p>One of the targeted apps was CotoMovies, a piece of software that provides unlimited access to pirated copies of movies and TV-shows, free of charge. </p>



<p>The legal pressure came from the makers of the&nbsp;action movie “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2274648/">Hellboy</a>” and clearly had Tweakbox worried. However, they were not the only ones under the spotlight. Soon after our article was published CotoMovies announced that it would shut down. </p>



<p>Initially not much was known about the reason for this abrupt decision, although legal trouble seemed likely. Now, a few days later, we can indeed confirm that CotoMovies was urged to shut down by the makers of the films  &#8220;Hellboy&#8221; and &#8220;Angel Has Fallen&#8221;.</p>



<p>A source close to the fire informs TorrentFreak that both parties negotiated a possible &#8216;settlement&#8217;. While we can&#8217;t confirm that any damages were paid, CotoMovies is now offering a public apology to the filmmakers on its homepage.</p>



<p>&#8220;I want to express my sincere regret to the owners of the motion pictures Hellboy and Angel Has Fallen as well as all rights holders for inducing and contributing to copyright infringements by my operation of the app CotoMovies,&#8221; the operator <a href="https://www.cotomovies.com/">writes</a>.</p>



<p>The CotoMovies operator notes that he or she learned from the &#8220;stressful legal experience&#8221; and now understands what damage movie piracy apps can cause. Going forward, the app&#8217;s creator promises not to infringe on any copyrights while urging the app&#8217;s users to do the same. </p>



<p>Needless to say, many users are disappointed to see their favorite app going offline. However, CotoMovies makes another statement that may be even more concerning. Apparently, the app&#8217;s creator agreed to transfer user data to the filmmakers.</p>



<p>&#8220;I now plan to fully respect intellectual property laws and strongly urge those who used my app to use legal apps to watch movies. To this end, I have agreed to transfer to counsel for the rights holders user data and communications under my possession and control so that they can enforce their valuable intellectual property,&#8221; CotoMovies writes. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2e46fb71.cotoapology.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cotoapology.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177100"/><figcaption>The public apology and more</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>It&#8217;s not immediately clear what type of user data the app retained but the filmmakers plan to target some. The makers of &#8220;Hellboy&#8221; and &#8220;Angel Has Fallen&#8221; have previously targeted individual pirates in court, but they want to set an example with streamers as well.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Kerry S. Culpepper, the attorney of the two movie companies to, find out more about their plans. </p>



<p>“I am happy that the app operator was willing to take responsibility for her/his actions, apologize and take this app down.  This is something you don’t see too much of lately – people taking responsibility for their actions,” Culpepper said.</p>



<p>While the lawyer confirmed that they &#8220;more than likely&#8221; intend to go after CotoMovies users, Culpepper declined to comment on what type of data they have in their possession.</p>



<p>What&#8217;s crystal clear, however, is that the movie companies&#8217; legal pressure tactic is paying off. </p>



<p>Jonathan Yunger, co-president of Millennium Media, which is the parent company of the movie companies that went after CotoMovies, is pleased with the progress they&#8217;ve made.</p>



<p>“Millennium greatly values their and other’s intellectual property.&nbsp; Millennium cannot keep making new movies if people steal Millennium’s movies through apps like these,” Yunger informed TorrentFreak. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/26c2850d.cotomovies.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cotomovies.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177099"/></figure></div>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177051
title: Rojadirecta Puts Up Defense But Can’t Escape ISP Blockade
uri: Rojadirecta-Puts-Up-Defense-But-Can-t-Escape-ISP-Blockade
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MCpA3mLhjyI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/119c53ec.roja.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/roja.png" alt="" class="wp-image-106243"/></figure></div>



<p>As one of the oldest and most prominent sports live-streaming portals, <a href="http://www.rojadirecta.me/">Rojadirecta</a> is a thorn in the side of many international sports organizations.</p>



<p>The linking site is operated by a Spanish company and initially had a good track record when it came to legal battles. </p>



<p>Rojadirecta famously had its domain name returned after it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-returns-seized-domains-to-streaming-links-site-after-18-months-120830/">seized by the US Government</a> years ago, and it has successfully <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-and-bittorrent-sports-links-site-declared-legal-090724/">fought off copyright holders in court</a>. </p>



<p>More recently, however, the tide began to turn. This year alone, Internet providers in several countries, including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blocking-efforts-expand-to-ecuador-190611/">Ecuador</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fox-sports-obtains-new-order-to-block-pirate-sport-site-rojadirecta-180914/">Peru</a>, have been ordered to block the site.  Last Friday, a court in Denmark did the same. </p>



<p>The Danish case was handled by the local anti-piracy group <a href="https://rettighedsalliancen.dk/">RettighedsAlliancen</a>, which worked in tandem with the Spanish Football League &#8216;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Liga">La Liga</a>&#8216;. Earlier this year, they already managed to get blocking orders against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/la-liga-rights-alliance-win-dynamic-sports-piracy-blocking-order-190426/">nine other websites</a>, but the court postponed a ruling on Rojadirecta. </p>



<p>The reason for the delay was unusual. Contrary to pretty much every other website, Rojadirecta put up a defense. Among other things, the site argued that it&#8217;s not actively involved in selecting streaming links, as this happens automatically, and that many links actually point to authorized content.</p>



<p>La Liga, however, countered that some of its content was definitely linked without permission, adding that Rojadirecta profits from facilitating copyright infringement. As such, it requested an injunction ordering local ISP Telenor to block the site. </p>



<p>Telenor, which is the actual defendant, in this case, didn&#8217;t present any arguments. </p>



<p>After reviewing the positions of La Liga and Rojadirecta, the court sided with the former. In its ruling late last week,  the Court of Frederiksberg ordered Telenor to block the site. As is common in Denmark, this means that other ISPs will voluntarily follow suit. </p>



<p>RettighedsAlliancen CEO Maria Fredenslund is happy with the outcome. It confirms that the blocking process is effective, she says, even when a targeted site puts up a defense. </p>



<p>“Rojadirecta appeared in court and presented a defense but was convicted and blocked nonetheless – just like other illegal services. It stands to confirm that the blocking system works even if it is challenged, and of course we are very pleased with this,” Fredenslund says.</p>



<p>Rojadirecta, on the other hand, is disappointed. A spokesperson informs TorrentFreak that it respects the outcome of the court proceeding. However, it is not happy with how RettighedsAlliancen and La Liga are selling it to the public. </p>



<p>The site stresses that there is no &#8216;conviction&#8217; of Rojadirecta. The case was a matter between the rightsholders and an ISP. The burden of proof in these cases is relatively low as the claimant only has to show that it&#8217;s likely that an infringement occurred, the site&#8217;s spokesperson notes. </p>



<p>&#8220;The court has thus in the case merely made the assessment that RettighedsAlliancen has proven it likely that there have been illegal links at Rojadirecta and that the formal requirements for issuing a blocking injunction against the ISP were considered fulfilled,&#8221; Rojadirecta tells us.</p>



<p>Rojadirecta further notes that it didn&#8217;t get much advance notice &#8211; Rettighedsalliancen informed the site little over a week before the hearing was scheduled. </p>



<p>While the streaming link site managed to have a postponement put in place, it never had the chance to participate in an oral hearing. Instead, Rojadirecta was directed to submit its defense on paper. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s clear that Rojadirecta is not pleased with the blockade and the site is still deliberating whether it will file an appeal. </p>



<p>Aside from facing yet another ISP blockade, the damage for Rojadirecta as a business is minimal. The site has a relatively small userbase in Denmark, and since it wasn&#8217;t a defendant in the lawsuit, there are no damages that have to be paid. </p>



<p>That could change if RettighedsAlliancen and La Liga file a case against the site directly, to decide whether it&#8217;s indeed operating illegally or not. We asked RettighedsAlliancen whether this was an option, but the group informed us that it has no comment on that for now.</p>



<p>Rojadirecta is clear though. If  RettighedsAlliancen and La Liga want the conviction they already claim they have, they need to fight the case on its merits.</p>



<p>For now, however, the court found that there is enough ground to have Rojadirecta blocked in Denmark. According to local regulations the preliminary ruling will have to be followed up by a case of the merits. However, the targeted ISP may waive this, after which the order becomes permanent.</p>



<p>&#8212;</p>



<p><em>A copy of the order from the  Court of Frederiksberg, obtained by TorrentFreak, is <a href="media/94e95167.Rojadirecta_Verdict_Redacted.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Rojadirecta_Verdict_Redacted.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176991
title: Brazzers Wants Cloudflare to Identify YesPornPlease Uploaders
uri: Brazzers-Wants-Cloudflare-to-Identify-YesPornPlease-Uploaders
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Wb-Jh3Dq-fs/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/91d65779.courtorderjustice.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/courtorderjustice.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-147326"/></figure></div>



<p>Mindgeek owns some of the most recognizable porn brands on the Internet, including Montreal-based production company Brazzers. </p>



<p>In common with most content companies, piracy is a problem for Mindgeek and its subsidiary MG Premium Ltd. In August we <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mindgeek-asks-cloudflare-to-unmask-tube-site-uploaders-190803/">reported</a> how the company had used DMCA subpoenas in an effort to identify uploaders on many &#8216;tube&#8217; sites. This month, MG Premium has returned for another bite at the cherry.</p>



<p>In a DMCA subpoena application filed in Washington, MG Premium complains that &#8220;Cloudflare&#8217;s websites&#8221; YesPornPlease.com, Share.io, and a related domain are carrying infringing content to which the company owns the copyrights.</p>



<p>&#8220;MG is the owner of numerous copyrighted audiovisual works. In the course of protecting its works, MG has determined that infringing copies of these works, posted at the direction of individual users and without authorization from MG, appear on Cloudflare, Inc.’s websites YesPornPlease.com, share.io, and ezcgwym5xp7ty.com,&#8221; the application reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;Such infringements have been ongoing and MG has issued DMCA notifications to Cloudflare, Inc.’s DMCA Agent. All notifications have met the requirements of 17 U.S.C. § 512(c)(3)(A) by setting forth, inter alia, a representative list of the copyrighted works that have been infringed and the identification and location on Cloudflare’s website of the infringing material. </p>



<p>&#8220;MG now seeks to obtain a DMCA Subpoena to learn the identity of the individuals who are posting the infringing content,&#8221; MG Premium adds.</p>



<p>The suggestion that the sites listed above are Cloudflare&#8217;s is obviously contentious. However, there also appears to be a subtle but important error in the application for a subpoena. </p>



<p>While MG Premium is clear in requesting information relating to uploaders on sites including &#8216;share.io&#8217;, that domain appears to have been submitted in error. According to supporting documents, the company should probably be referring to vShare.io instead.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, the application to unmask the uploaders of thousands of pieces of Brazzers content to the sites in question is pretty comprehensive and dates back more than three years.</p>



<p>&#8220;For the period January 1, 2016 through the present, produce all documents and account records that identify the person(s) or entities that caused the infringement of the material described in the attached Exhibit B DMCA notifications to the DMCA Agent for Cloudflare, Inc. and/or who unlawfully uploaded MG Premium Ltd&#8217;s copyrighted works at the URLS listed in the notifications..,&#8221; the application reads.</p>



<p>The information requested includes but is not limited to, names, email addresses, IP addresses, user histories, posting histories, physical addresses and telephone numbers.</p>



<p>As pointed out when a similar application was filed by MG Premium in August, it remains unclear how much information Cloudflare holds on third party sites&#8217; users and whether it&#8217;s in a position to hand much over.</p>



<p><em>The key related documents are available <a href="media/9d7494f3.MG-Premium-DMCA-Subpoena-to-Cloudflare-YesPornPlease.com_.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/MG-Premium-DMCA-Subpoena-to-Cloudflare-YesPornPlease.com_.pdf">here</a> and <a href="media/2518b7e1.ium-Proposede-DMCA-Subpoena-to-Cloudflare-YesPornPlease.com_.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com//images/MG-Premium-Proposede-DMCA-Subpoena-to-Cloudflare-YesPornPlease.com_.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176952
title: Manga Publishers Sue Pirate Site “Hoshinoromi” in New York Court
uri: Manga-Publishers-Sue-Pirate-Site-Hoshinoromi-in-New-York-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zKZi_D5XBzM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/85fa7737.hoshilo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/hoshilo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177023" width="256" height="90"/></figure></div>



<p>The popularity of pirated comics represents a thorn in the side to many publishers. Manga publishers, in particular, are faced with a constant stream of infringing copies. </p>



<p>Over the past year, we have seen some enforcement actions on this front. </p>



<p>For example, the Japanese Government jumped in and created a special task force to investigate the pirate site Mangamura, which shut down last year.  Since then, several operators and uploaders have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mangamura-uploader-pleads-guilty-another-denies-charges-190909/">prosecuted</a>. </p>



<p>However, when Mangamura went offline, many other sites were more than happy to take its place. This includes Hoshinoromi.org, which is particularly popular in Japan but does well outside its borders too. </p>



<p>Hoshinoromi positioned itself as a successor to Mangamura and managed to build a rather impressive library of content in just a few months. According to its own stats from late July, it has 93,000 volumes or books in its archive, good for millions of pages.  </p>



<p>Faced with the rapid rise of the site, a group of some of Japan&#8217;s largest manga publishers is now taking legal action.  In a complaint filed at a federal court in New York, Shueisha, Kadowaka, Kodansha, and Shogakukan, accuse the site of blatant copyright infringement.   <br><br>&#8220;This case is about willful and massive infringement of the Publishers’ manga,&#8221; they write. &#8220;Hoshinoromi is a pirate website operating at www.hoshinoromi.org, which organizes, promotes, and distributes unauthorized copies of the Publishers’ manga on a massive scale.&#8221;</p>



<p>New York seems an odd choice as publishers are all from Japan and the website is also in Japanese. However, the companies note that Hoshinoromi uses a variety of US-based companies to conduct its business and hide the operators&#8217; identities. </p>



<p>&#8220;Cloudflare caches infringing content from both Hoshinoromi.org and the backend server, zakayloader.org (previously, worldjobproject.org). Cloudflare provides a reverse proxy to mask the server locations and operators,&#8221; the publishers write. </p>



<p>Other US-based outfits used by the site are Twitter and Gab, the publishers explain, adding that the site itself is freely available to American visitors as well.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/7f3b1e0a.hoshi.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hoshi.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177038"/><figcaption>Hoshinoromi.org</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Hoshinoromi allegedly used Twitter to advertise the site, making it clear that it was aware of the potential negative impact it has on legitimate sales.</p>



<p>&#8220;When the old Manga Village closed, sales of manga went up, so the new Manga Village was revived, and profits will lower again!!!! What countermeasures are you going to take this time??,&#8221;  the site previously wrote (translated) on its now-suspended Twitter account.</p>



<p>The publishers add that, while the site is open about its pirating activities, it apparently doesn&#8217;t want other people to &#8216;steal&#8217; from them. According to the complaint, it is actively blocking outsiders from &#8216;exploiting&#8217; the site&#8217;s collection of pirated files.</p>



<p>&#8220;Hoshinoromi has gone to great lengths to block competitor pirates and investigators from copying images in bulk. The operators of the site have no problem stealing and profiting from the Publishers’ manga, but they implement countermeasures to ensure that others do not do the same to them,&#8221; the publishers complain.  </p>



<p>With the lawsuit, the publishers hope to unveil the site&#8217;s operators and be compensated for the damages they have suffered. They list a total of 41 works, which means that the theoretical statutory damages amount runs in the millions. </p>



<p>While it&#8217;s not specifically mentioned, another goal of the lawsuit may be to urge or compel third-party intermediaries to take action. Cloudflare is specifically mentioned as a caching service, and the publishers make it clear that they would like to see all copies of their works removed from the company&#8217;s servers.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the complaint filed by Shueisha, Kadowaka, Kodansha, and Shogakukan is available <a href="media/1ca89030.mangasuit.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mangasuit.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>



<p><br></p>



<p><br></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=175341
title: Plex is a Pirate’s Dream But Could Also Build Bridges to Legal Content
uri: Plex-is-a-Pirate-s-Dream-But-Could-Also-Build-Bridges-to-Legal-Conte
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/febnrUWXe8E/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/ef5109bf.plexs.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/plexs.png" alt="" class="wp-image-171610"/></figure></div>



<p>A little while back, Bijan Stephen over at The Verge published a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/23/20697751/piracy-plex-netflix-hulu-streaming-wars">well-received piece</a> on the topic of Plex, the popular media server software. It&#8217;s well worth a read for those who aren&#8217;t already familiar with this incredibly sleek tool. </p>



<p>For those in need of a quick summary, Plex comes in two parts. A server component that does all the hard work behind the scenes on the host computer and a client, which can be typically run on a smart TV, Firestick-like device, tablet, phone or indeed another computer. The latter is used to access the former.</p>



<p>In brief (and from a video consumption perspective) people can dump all of their properly named movies and TV shows into a folder, adjust a few settings, wait a minute or three and have this uninspiring bleak landscape&#8230;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/999924b2.image-98.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-98.png" alt="" class="wp-image-175342" width="650"/><figcaption>Before&#8230;</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>&#8230;.transformed into something like this:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2c147fff.plex-shot1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/plex-shot1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-175344"/><figcaption>After&#8230;</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Users of software like Popcorn Time or Showbox will probably wonder what all the fuss is about &#8211; but that&#8217;s only if they haven&#8217;t used Plex.</p>



<p>When properly configured (and it isn&#8217;t hard) its search and curation features blow Netflix&#8217;s out of the water. Search by genre, actor, director, running time &#8211; almost anything is possible. As a bonus, Plex has one of the most beautiful interfaces ever made for media consumption.</p>



<p>What Plex doesn&#8217;t have, when people first install it, is any movie or TV show content in its library &#8211; especially of the kind shown above. The company behind Plex is completely above board, providing a tool that&#8217;s no more responsible for piracy than Windows or Android. Nevertheless, plenty of users build their own self-hosted Netflix-beaters with Plex, sometimes with the help of others.</p>



<p>The article in The Verge explains how some Plex users solve this problem by teaming up with other Plex users to share their own libraries. It a system that operates in a manner not dissimilar to the way smaller BBS admins of yesteryear traded and obtained content for their own platforms.</p>



<p>As The Verge put it, &#8220;as streaming offerings become more expensive and convoluted, people are setting up their own smaller, more intimate platforms.&#8221; And indeed they are, but there&#8217;s more to this rodeo.</p>



<p>There is a side to Plex use (copyright holders and indeed Plex itself will argue &#8216;abuse&#8217;) that isn&#8217;t small at all. It doesn&#8217;t involve sharing any of your own content either, it&#8217;s a simple case of handing over a few dollars, euros, or pounds and suddenly everything is a click away.</p>



<p>If one knows where to look, so-called P4S (Plex For Share) services are available that make Netflix&#8217;s multi-billion dollar offering look like a second-class citizen. And after handing over the cash or requesting a free trial, users can be accessing huge &#8211; <em>HUGE</em> &#8211; libraries of content in a matter of minutes.</p>



<p>The smaller and cheaper shares (a few hundred movies and TV shows, a handful of simultaneous users) are probably being run on home connections. The bigger and more expensive ones are entirely more professional, offering thousands of video files to many concurrent users.</p>



<p>Just as an example, one particular service (for less than $10) per month, lists more than 11,000 movies in HD and above (including 4K) plus 2,000 TV shows. Others prefer to list content in terabytes, with more than 200TB not being particularly uncommon. These big boys utilize CDNs to ensure content is delivered seamlessly to subscribers, wherever they may be.</p>



<p>The big deal here isn&#8217;t just the volume of content available, it&#8217;s the nature and breadth. Given that professional P4S offers don&#8217;t have politics to deal with or business models to protect, the movies on offer range from old classics to the very latest blockbusters. And Friends will not be removed because somebody offered a better deal.</p>



<p>The world of Plex shares is nothing new and for those thinking that their existence should be kept under the radar, it&#8217;s already too late. Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN, which is affiliated with Hollywood studios, has already <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-goes-after-pirate-plex-share-with-thousands-of-movies-and-tv-shows-190425/">taken action</a> against people offering these services to the public. The cat is well and truly out of the bag, it&#8217;s just a question of how far it will run.</p>



<p>But while Plex might be a pirate&#8217;s dream, the company is doing some very <a href="https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/plex-avod-service-warner-bros-deal-inside-story-1203317271/">interesting things</a> to ensure that rightsholders get in on the act. Late last month, Plex announced it had struck a deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution to supply free, ad-supported movies and TV shows to Plex users.</p>



<p>The company reportedly has plans for its software to become a &#8220;one-stop-shop&#8221; for content and has grand plans to begin reselling subscription content in 2020 along with video on demand products. This opens up the possibility of introducing pirates to premium products in an interface they are already very familiar with.</p>



<p>While some will naturally object, this could be clever bridge-building in action. Big content companies would never try to tempt pirates by putting movies or TV shows on The Pirate Bay, for example, but Plex and the company behind it are so neutral, politics can be kept to a minimum. Let&#8217;s see how it plays out, things could get very interesting.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176808
title: Judge Recommends to Deny Summary Judgment Against Tor Exit Node Operator in Piracy Case
uri: Judge-Recommends-to-Deny-Summary-Judgment-Against-Tor-Exit-Node-Operat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/24X9IQanixI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/3a7c2879.torexit.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/torexit.png" alt="" class="wp-image-176830" width="257" height="141"/></figure></div>



<p>Tor is an anonymity tool used by millions of people. Dubbed the &#8220;Onion Router&#8221;, it operates by sending traffic through various nodes, after which it enters the public Internet again.</p>



<p>This setup makes the source of the traffic pretty much impossible to trace. However, it also means that people who operate a Tor exit node have their IP-address associated with a lot of traffic they&#8217;re not the source of. </p>



<p>When pirates use Tor, for example, it will appear as if the copyright-infringing activity comes from the exit node address. While the operators are generally aware of this, recent history has shown that his can lead to serious liability issues.</p>



<p>This is what Oregon resident John Huszar found out the hard way. </p>



<p>Back in 2015, the company behind the movie Dallas Buyers Club filed a federal lawsuit&nbsp;against the IP-address 173.11.1.241. A few months later, this complaint&nbsp;<a href="media/34187904.gov.uscourts.ord.122025.10.0.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.122025.10.0.pdf">was amended</a>&nbsp;to list “Integrity Computer Services” as the defendant, and in 2016, it was eventually replaced with the company&#8217;s owner, John Huszar.</p>



<p>While Huszar denied that he personally downloaded the film, there was a problem. Early on in the case, the filmmakers served a request for admissions, asking the defendant to respond to several statements. This request remained unanswered, which was a mistake, as it typically means that the court can then assume the statements are true. </p>



<p>Dallas Buyers Club used this to its advantage. Among other things, the admissions stated that Huszar unlawfully distributed a copy of the Dallas Buyers Club movie, which seemed to open the door to a substantial financial claim. </p>



<p>That would be true in most cases, but Huszar is not the only one who made a crucial error &#8211; Dallas Buyers Club did the same. As noted by US District Judge Michael Simon, earlier this year, Huszar wasn&#8217;t yet a named defendant when the filmmakers issued their request for admissions. </p>



<p>Following this conclusion, Judge Simon sent the case back to Magistrate Judge John Acosta, who this week issued his report and recommendations on the motions for summary judgment from both the plaintiff and the defendant. </p>



<p>First up is the film company, which requested a summary judgment finding that Huszar is guilty of copyright infringement. This request relied pretty much exclusively on the admissions which are no longer valid. As such, the motion was denied.</p>



<p>&#8220;It is evident Dallas’s motion was reliant on Huszar’s admissions. Judge Simon’s withdrawal of the deemed admissions based on Huszar’s failure to respond to Dallas’s requests for admissions was fatal to Dallas’s motion,&#8221; Magistrate Judge Acosta writes in his recommendation.   <br><br>While this is great news for the defendant, there was a disappointment as well. Huszar also requested summary judgment, ruling that he is not liable. After a careful review, Judge Acosta denied this too. </p>



<p>Among other things, Huszar claimed that he was shielded by the DMCA because he was acting as an ISP. However, Judge Acosta notes that to benefit from such protections, he has to show that he&#8217;s eligible for such immunity. This includes having a repeat infringer policy, of which the court found no evidence.</p>



<p>Huszar further argued that the monitoring software used by the filmmakers<br>was unreliable. While the defense provided an expert report to back this up, Dallas Buyers Club submitted an opposing report, which leads Judge Acosta to the conclusion that summary judgment based on the reliability of the evidence is not appropriate.</p>



<p>This means that after a battle of almost five years in court, the case can still go either way. Judge Acosta&#8217;s recommendations are not the final judgments. They will be referred to a District Judge who has the final say. </p>



<p>After that, the case will likely move to trial. If that the case, it will be up to a Jury to decide whether the Tor exit node operator is guilty or not. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of Magistrate Judge John Acosta&#8217;s findings and recommendations is available <a href="media/cd1bd350.dallashuszar.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dallashuszar.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=175498
title: UK ‘Pirate’ IPTV Users’ Favorite Channels “Are Free-to-Air”
uri: UK-Pirate-IPTV-Users-Favorite-Channels-Are-Free-to-Air
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Z5jbzW9hj80/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-135034" width="263" height="174"/></figure></div>



<p>While the TV licensing system in the UK is viewed as an unpopular tax by many citizens, millions hand over money every year in order to receive broadcasts into their homes.</p>



<p>For the sum of £154.50 for a color TV license and £52 for a black and white equivalent, residents can potentially obtain access to dozens of channels via satellite (Freesat) or antenna (Freeview), none of which come with a subscription charge. In fact, those who don&#8217;t pay the license fee can still receive them, just not entirely legally.</p>



<p>Of course, those subscribing to a &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV provider gain access to thousands of channels, including all the premium channels that would otherwise add hundreds of pounds of costs to the average bill.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s no doubt that gaining access to Sky&#8217;s premium offerings for next to nothing is an attractive proposition for customers. However, a UK-based IPTV provider informs TorrentFreak that these aren&#8217;t always the most popular channels with his subscribers.</p>



<p>Perhaps surprisingly, when looking at the Top 10 most-watched channels on the service, BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all get a prominent position. Every single one is not only available for free (license permitting) via satellite or antenna but also available via the Internet for UK residents.</p>



<p>TF was able to review data from the IPTV provider&#8217;s panel which listed the service&#8217;s most popular streams from a few weeks ago. It showed that the most-viewed channel was ITV HD with just over 16%, with BBC1 HD in second place with close to 13%. National Geographic, a non-free to air channel, sat in third with just under 10%, closely followed by free to air Channel 4 HD.</p>



<p>Of the top 12 most popular channels listed in a provided chart, six are already free to air &#8211; ITV, BBC1 One, Channel 4, BBC Two, 4seven, Channel 5, ITV2, E4, Quest Red, and Quest. So why the inflated interest in channels already covered by a TV license and free-to-air?</p>



<p>The IPTV provider said it polled some customers, with a number of interesting reasons reportedly coming up, most of which appear to center around service-related issues. Firstly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, users of Freeview complained about not being able to get a good enough signal.</p>



<p>The digital Freeview service is supposedly available to 98% of the population but anecdotal evidence suggests that many are left with a poor signal, a reduced channel offering, picture break up, or not being able to receive the service at all.</p>



<p>Freesat (satellite) users can usually overcome most of these issues but many televisions don&#8217;t come with an appropriate tuner and in all cases, an external satellite dish must be installed, which presents another barrier to entry.</p>



<p>IPTV services, on the other hand, require a broadband connection and a cheap subscription, no external equipment (satellite dishes, antenna, or tuners) required.</p>



<p>It could be countered that several of the main BBC channels can be acquired via the Internet using the BBC iPlayer, which unquestionably provides a first-class service. However, online offerings from ITV (ITV Hub), Channel 4 (All 4), and Channel 5 (My5) only come in SD quality and in some cases, that&#8217;s a best-case scenario.</p>



<p>Most of the rest of the channels in the &#8216;free&#8217; range (outside the regular TV license fee) have no online offer at all but an IPTV service can provide them all, in most cases in HD quality.</p>



<p>Only adding to the hassle of going legal is the fact that most if not all of the above channels&#8217; online offerings now require registration, meaning that users have to have accounts with them all to receive them on a TV. On the other side, a subscription with an IPTV provider requires a single sign-up.</p>



<p>According to the provider, users don&#8217;t like to have accounts with all of these different official suppliers and they don&#8217;t enjoy the low-quality images on offer from their online portals, even if they are free to access. They also prefer the flexibility of being able to watch channels on any device they like, rather than being restricted to the platforms supported by various providers.</p>



<p>A UK user with experience of all of the systems above confirmed that while having Freeview or Freesat is a nice option, switching from app to app to receive other channels on various devices is a sub-standard experience when compared to that offered by unlicensed providers. He also questioned whether &#8220;any harm was being done&#8221; to the legitimate providers by accessing their channels from an IPTV provider.</p>



<p>&#8220;I pay my license for the BBC and I don&#8217;t use up any of their Internet [bandwidth]. I watch all the adverts on everything else same as everyone. Where&#8217;s the negative, I don&#8217;t see any?&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>In common with the provider we spoke with, the TV viewer pointed out that having everything in one place (a single IPTV subscription) is much more convenient than having to switch around various sources, even if that means paying a few pounds per month.</p>



<p>So while some people clearly latch on to unlicensed IPTV subscriptions for premium content usually offered by companies such as Sky, it seems that at least, in this case, convenience is also playing a big factor.</p>



<p> </p>



<p> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=176917
title: Platform Exclusives Could Boost Piracy, UK Govt Report Notes
uri: Platform-Exclusives-Could-Boost-Piracy-UK-Govt-Report-Notes
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/flEjC0xufa4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a01f3154.iporeport-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iporeport-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177162"/></figure></div>



<p>Last week the UK Government’s Intellectual Property Office published its annual&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-ip-crime-and-enforcement-report-2018-to-2019">IP Crime and Enforcement Report</a>.</p>



<p>The report provides an overview of the latest anti-piracy achievements of copyright holders and also signals some emerging threats. It seems to be written mostly based on input from large rightsholders, which can make it a bit one-sided. </p>



<p>The overall theme is that piracy and counterfeiting remain a major problem and that, as a &#8220;world class IP enforcement regime,&#8221; the UK takes a leading role in the world to tackle it going forward. </p>



<p>A few days ago we reported on an exemplary section from the report where the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-claims-victories-with-multi-faceted-anti-piracy-approach-190909/">Premier League</a> highlighted its key successes. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-ip-crime-and-enforcement-report-2018-to-2019">full document</a> is filled with similar examples and is worth a read, but there is one issue that stood out which we would like to highlight separately. </p>



<p>In the section where the results of <a href="https://www.prsformusic.com/">PRS for Music</a>, the UK’s leading collection society, are summarized there is a hint of self-reflection. As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-traffic-is-not-dead-its-making-a-comeback-180926/">reported in the past</a>, there were signs that BitTorrent piracy is increasing again, and according to the UK Government&#8217;s report, the industry may be to blame.</p>



<p>Apparently, piracy traffic may be rising again because the content that&#8217;s being offered on legal platforms is becoming more and more fragmented. </p>



<p>In other words, as more legal services have exclusive releases, it&#8217;s harder for people to get everything they want in one place. Instead of signing up for paid subscriptions at a handful of services, these people could then turn back to piracy. </p>



<p>Or as the Annual IP crime and enforcement report puts it:</p>



<p><em>&#8220;There also appears to be a resurgence in torrent traffic, notwithstanding the apparent demise of peer-to-peer file sharing a few years ago. A likely reason for this is the fact that more legitimate platforms are hosting exclusive content and subscribers may not necessarily have access to all the content they want to consume.&#8221;</em></p>



<p>The paragraph above is listed in the PRS section of the report which leads us to believe that it comes directly from the music group. We reached out to PRS to find out more but the organization said that it couldn&#8217;t comment on it. A subsequent request to clarify whether this is PRS&#8217;s position returned a &#8220;no comment&#8221; as well.    </p>



<p>Again, we should stress that the fragmentation comment is just a tiny quote from a 132-page report. It doesn&#8217;t reflect the general theme that piracy needs to be addressed through comprehensive and multi-faceted enforcement strategies. However, at least there appears to be some room for self-reflection. </p>



<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that increased fragmentation has been mentioned as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/disney-ditching-netflix-keeps-piracy-relevant-170809/">a potential problem</a>, but these type of comments generally don&#8217;t originate from governments or rightsholders.</p>



<p>Exclusive releases are particularly prevalent in the video industry today, where there&#8217;s a myriad of exclusive streaming services. How this will affect overall piracy rates in the years to come remains to be seen, but it&#8217;s certainly not something that can be easily ignored. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177189
title: Lawsuit Targets Best Buy & Staples For Selling “Pirate Devices” & Giving “Piracy Advice”
uri: Lawsuit-Targets-Best-Buy-Staples-For-Selling-Pirate-Devices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ll6kglIqJZU/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/fdb4ba62.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-125426"/></figure></div>



<p>Thousands of retailers around the world sell Android-based set-top devices that are able to stream Netflix and other services to customers&#8217; homes.</p>



<p>However, an intriguing lawsuit filed in Canada last week alleges that employees at some companies went too far with their sales promotion pitches by pushing the products for infringing purposes while advising potential buyers on how to pirate content with them.</p>



<p>The lawsuit, filed in Federal Court September 11 by Super Channel owner Allarco Entertainment, targets Staples Canada, Best Buy Canada, London Drugs, Canada Computers, several related companies and up to 50,000 &#8216;John Doe&#8217; customers. </p>



<p>Allarco Entertainment alleges that one or more of the retailers and their staff (collectively described as &#8220;4Stores&#8221;) promoted, encouraged, or instructed prospective buyers of Internet streaming devices on how to use and/or modify them to obtain copyright-infringing content. As a result, the devices are described as &#8220;Pirate Devices&#8221; throughout the lawsuit. </p>



<p>On a website promoting the case, Allarco has <a href="http://www.changetheculture.ca/preview4stores.html">published a video</a> as part of its 19-month-long &#8220;4 Stores Investigation&#8221; which claims to show employees at the defendant companies selling &#8220;pirate devices&#8221; in a way that contravenes several aspects of local law.</p>



<p>The company says it has 100 hours of undercover recordings to back up its claims. The short video currently available has recordings of alleged staff members advising users to install Kodi, use Google to find Kodi &#8220;setup videos&#8221;, or even visit other sellers operating elsewhere that will configure the devices for piracy.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/05cb5aa0.image-117.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-117.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177199" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Still from the video (Credit: Allarco)</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Super Channel&nbsp;CEO&nbsp;Don McDonald <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/best-buy-staples-canada-computers-london-drugs-piracy-android-boxes-1.5283504">told CBC</a> that his company showed the video to the four retailers in the spring but that didn&#8217;t bring the alleged behavior to an end.</p>



<p>&#8220;I wanted them to be step up and be a champion in changing the culture. They didn&#8217;t see the light,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We want the stores to stop. We want the stores to say, &#8216;Hey this is wrong&#8217;.&#8221;</p>



<p>While the lawsuit continually describes the set-top boxes as &#8220;Piracy Devices&#8221; &#8211; some of which had Kodi pre-installed &#8211; there&#8217;s no information in the lawsuit or accompanying video that specifically states that any had dedicated piracy software or services embedded at the point of sale.</p>



<p>That important point will probably become evident as the lawsuit progresses but the complaint does note that &#8220;one or more&#8221; defendants breached the Copyright Act by &#8220;showing pirated programming to customers in their stores.&#8221;</p>



<p>The lawsuit itself goes straight for the jugular, reading not dissimilar to many others that have previously targeted sellers of unambiguous dedicated &#8216;pirate&#8217; devices or services.</p>



<p>&#8220;The devices which are the subject of this action have been programmed to steal programming i.e. view the Plaintiffs Programming without authorization and without paying for it,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;The 4Stores Defendants or one or more of them have offered for sale, sold, leased and continue to sell or lease Pirate Devices to John Doe Customers and advised, educated, counseled, encouraged, directed, induced, enabled and authorized John Doe Customers to achieve, download, install and operate services that result in the operation of the Pirate Devices and/or that enable and allow the John Doe Customers to access the Infringing Content.&#8221;</p>



<p>The complaint, which also references up to 50,000 &#8216;John Doe&#8217; customers as defendants, states that the 4Stores know their identities and as such, they will &#8220;be identified and added as identified parties following disclosure.&#8221; Allarco is seeking an order to have these customers served by mail.</p>



<p>The TV company states that the alleged actions of 4Stores detailed above were designed to &#8220;encourage and increase&#8221; the sale of &#8216;Pirate Devices&#8217;, which would not have been sold had it not been for the &#8220;education&#8221; provided by the 4Stores staff. When combined, this created or contributed to a culture of &#8220;widespread copyright infringement&#8221; causing damage to the plaintiff.</p>



<p>The complaint states that the customers of 4Stores who bought such devices and accessed infringing content breached the Copyright Act. At this stage, however, there&#8217;s no information that any evidence has been gathered to prove that happened. Nevertheless, the complaint alleges Contributory Infringement by 4Stores as a result of the companies inducing customers to infringe.</p>



<p>Allarco further claims that the 4Stores defendants sold devices that are &#8220;designed or produced primarily for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure&#8221;, and/or &#8220;the uses or purposes of which are not commercially significant other than when used for the purposes of circumventing a technological protection measure.&#8221;</p>



<p>Finally, there are additional claims that the defendants breached the Radiocommunication Act, Trademark Act (also with damage to goodwill), engaged in intentional interference with business, unjust enrichment, and counseling to commit an offense.</p>



<p>In summary, Allarco is demanding interim, interlocutory, and permanent injunctions including, but not limited to, preventing the defendants from &#8220;communicating or facilitating the communication&#8221; of its works without permission, including by &#8220;configuring, advertising, offering for sale or selling Pirate Devices.&#8221;</p>



<p>It also wants the Court to issue a ban on the 4Stores from &#8220;teaching, inducing, coaching or demonstrating to others including their own staff, friends and families how to steal or pirate the Plaintiff&#8217;s Works.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>The Allarco Entertainment / Super Channel complaint can be found <a href="media/606f3c9e.Allarco-Super-Channel-v-Best-Buy-Staples-190911-complaint.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Allarco-Super-Channel-v-Best-Buy-Staples-190911-complaint.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177201
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 09/16/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-09-16-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nqJoUw-1kjM/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-176693" src="media/166b1cc3.pnoenixdark.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pnoenixdark.png" alt="" width="300" height="221">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Dark Phoenix is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a>&nbsp;for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-on-bittorrent-09-09-19/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">Dark Phoenix</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6565702/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azvR__GRQic">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">John Wick: Chapter 3 &#8211; Parabellum</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6146586/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU8-7BX9uxs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Aladdin</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">7.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcMtWwiyzpU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">Avengers: Endgame</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4154796/">8.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcMBFSGVi1c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">Men in Black: International</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6139732/">5.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BV-WEb2oxLk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8707922/">Can You Keep a Secret</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8707922/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEYh5-L20hU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">Godzilla: King of the Monsters</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3741700/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFxN2oDKk0E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979376/">Toy Story 4</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979376/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmiIUN-7qhE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">The Secret Life of Pets 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5113040/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUZpVWepAQw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177191
title: TekSavvy Protests Push for Pirate Site Blocking in Court
uri: TekSavvy-Protests-Push-for-Pirate-Site-Blocking-in-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Nm8T01GXoqY/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a2cf27d4.canada.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/canada.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-60888"/></figure></div>



<p>Pirate site blockades are gradually spreading across the globe. Thus far, Canada hasn&#8217;t joined the movement but that&#8217;s something Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA hope to change. </p>



<p>In June,&nbsp;the three companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/groupe-tva-bell-rogers-team-up-to-sue-pirate-iptv-service-190724/">filed a lawsuit</a> against the operators of a ‘pirate’ IPTV service operating from the domain names GoldTV.ca and GoldTV.biz. The companies argued that the service provides access to their TV content without licenses or authorization.</p>



<p>Among other things, the rightsholders requested an interim injunction to stop the operators, who remain unidentified, from continuing to offer the allegedly-infringing IPTV service. This was granted last month, but despite the order, some of the infrastructures remained available.</p>



<p>This resulted in a new request from the media giants, which could potentially lead to the first-ever pirate site blocking order in Canada. Specifically, the companies are calling for an interlocutory injunction order that would require several Canadian ISPs to block GoldTV domain names and IP-addresses.</p>



<p>The request was discussed in Federal Court last Thursday and Friday. Since Rogers and Bell are also ISPs, the companies are also listed as respondents. Obviously, they didn&#8217;t object to their own demands. Similarly, there are no objections from Shaw, Eastlink, Fido, SaskTel, Telus, and Videotron either.</p>



<p>With input from some of the Internet providers, the rightsholders drafted a blocking order that they hope to have approved by the Federal Court. It lists several domain names and IP-addresses of the pirate IPTV service and allows for more to be added.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/ddf501c7.blockedgold.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/blockedgold.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177210"/><figcaption>Domains and IP-addresses to be blocked</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>The blocking technology that&#8217;s described in the order is fairly straightforward. Domain names would have to be targeted through DNS blocking or re-routing, and non-shared IP-addresses would have to be blocked or re-routed as well. All ISPs would be permitted to establish their preferred methods, as long as they are effective.</p>



<p>Thus far there hasn&#8217;t been much opposition from ISPs. The only company that substantially objects to the proposed site-blocking scheme is TekSavvy.  </p>



<p>In written comments to the Court, the ISP points out that the request comes at a curious time as Canadian lawmakers are reviewing the appropriateness of such measures, as part of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review. Issuing a precedential injunction before this review is complete would be inappropriate, TekSavvy argues. </p>



<p>Aside from leap-frogging the ongoing legislative process, the ISP also points out that the site-blocking measures violate net neutrality.</p>



<p>&#8220;The plaintiffs seek this Court’s assistance to implement a draconian remedy that runs directly counter to the legislatively established principle of net neutrality,&#8221; TekSavvy notes in its written comments. </p>



<p>The ISP doesn&#8217;t believe that the blocking measures will be very effective either. There are plenty of workarounds available, for example. The company further notes that it&#8217;s unclear whether GoldTV causes any harm and adds that the rightsholders have plenty of other options to go after the service.</p>



<p>For example, they could target the sites through less invasive measures. By contacting its payment provider or hosting company, for example, or going after the Canadian domain name registry. </p>



<p>&#8220;[The plaintiffs] ask this Court to deputize TekSavvy and other ISPs to protect the plaintiffs’ profits against some hypothetical (and unknowable) erosion from GoldTV’s services, yet they have not taken some of the most basic self-help steps open to them,&#8221; TekSavvy notes. </p>



<p>Overall, the ISP sees website blocking as a draconian measure. While it seems fairly small and directed at a small service that&#8217;s no longer widely available, Teksavvy fears that granting the order will open the floodgates to much broader blocking requests.</p>



<p>&#8220;If the plaintiffs were successful in obtaining a site-blocking order in this case, there is no question that they would use it as a precedent to obtain other site-blocking orders, whether in respect of copyright infringement or otherwise.&#8221; </p>



<p>&#8220;TekSavvy could be faced with hundreds and even thousands of websites to block and monitor, exponentially increasing the costs of operating and maintaining a site-blocking system and overwhelming TekSavvy’s capacity,&#8221; the company adds.</p>



<p>As such, Teksavvy asks the Federal Court to dismiss the motion. It&#8217;s the only third-party company that has done so. Fellow ISP Distributel also objected to the proposed language in the motion, but its complaint only deals with how ISPs are compensated for their efforts.</p>



<p>The <a href="https://thewirereport.ca/">Wire Report</a> notes that the Federal Court gave all parties until Wednesday to come to an agreement on the language of the proposed order. It&#8217;s clear, however, that TekSavvy is not coming aboard. </p>



<p>After the hearings, the Federal Court will eventually have to decide whether to grant the blocking order or not. That&#8217;s expected to take a few more weeks. </p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the proposed blocking order, which may be changed going forward, is available <a href="media/229b69ff.proposedorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/proposedorder.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em> TekSavvy&#8217;s written responses are available <a href="media/8351f0eb.writtenrep.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/writtenrep.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and a copy of the affidavit of Paul Stewart, TekSavvy&#8217;s VP of Technology, can be found <a href="media/4406f6cf.Stewart.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Stewart.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177227
title: Swiss Copyright Law: Downloading Stays Legal, No Site Blocking
uri: Swiss-Copyright-Law-Downloading-Stays-Legal-No-Site-Blocking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/my8eNIE_fNc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/fdb97802.swissknife.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swissknife.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-163731"/></figure></div>



<p>Sitting in the heart of Europe geographically but outside the European Union politically, Switzerland is largely free to make its own legislation.</p>



<p>On the copyright front, this has brought the country out of line with standards adopted by its neighbors, something that has drawn criticism from entertainment industry companies, particularly those in the United States.</p>



<p>In 2017, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-copyright-law-proposals-good-news-for-pirates-bad-for-pirate-sites-171124/">proposals</a> to amend the country&#8217;s <a href="https://www.admin.ch/opc/en/classified-compilation/19920251/index.html#a19">copyright laws</a> were drafted but they failed to fully address key <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-switzerland-remains-extremely-attractive-for-pirate-sites-181111/">complaints</a> from the United States Trade Representative (USTR) made on behalf of rightsholders.</p>



<p>A major complaint is that the country&#8217;s private copying exception shouldn&#8217;t apply to content obtained from illegal sources, i.e pirate copies of movies circulating on peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent. The USTR also had issues with the current liability framework for sites and hosting services that facilitate and profit from piracy.</p>



<p>After a long trip through the corridors of power, Switzerland&#8217;s National Council <a href="https://www.parlament.ch/fr/ratsbetrieb/amtliches-bulletin/amtliches-bulletin-die-verhandlungen?SubjectId=47066#votum1">adopted</a> amendments to copyright law Monday but at first view, there seems little to please the United States.</p>



<p>First up, regular citizens who download copyrighted content from illegal sources will not be criminalized. This means that those who obtain copies of the latest movies from the Internet, for example, will be able to continue doing so without fear of reprisals. Uploading has always been outlawed and that aspect has not changed.</p>



<p>Second, the drive to have pirate site-blocking introduced into Swiss law has been rejected. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, where the practice is widespread and supported by EU law, ISPs will not be required to block &#8216;pirate&#8217; platforms as some copyright holders had demanded. </p>



<p>On the hosting and liability front, there will be changes, but at this early stage, it&#8217;s unclear how that will play out on the ground.</p>



<p>SwissInfo <a href="http://swissinfo.ch/eng/intellectual-property-rights_parliament-gives-green-light-for-anti-piracy-legislation/45232098">reports</a> that the reforms will force local hosting providers to remove illegal content from their servers but adds that parliament rejected rules that would compel online platforms to check whether uploaded content is copyrighted.</p>



<p>A &#8220;take-down-stay-down&#8221; system had been championed (which would presumably require content to be checked against previous takedowns) but elsewhere it&#8217;s <a href="https://www.24heures.ch/suisse/droit-auteur-sadapte-internet/story/13185602">claimed</a> that the new legal framework &#8220;favors self-regulation&#8221; to fight piracy at the hosting level. </p>



<p>While an extension from 50 to 70 years copyright protection for musical and photographic works will be welcomed by copyright holders, the failure to outlaw downloading of pirated content for personal use will be absolutely unacceptable to the United States and the MPAA in particular.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177236
title: EasyDNS Threatened With Criminal Complaint over ‘Pirating’ Customer
uri: EasyDNS-Threatened-With-Criminal-Complaint-over-Pirating-Custome
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8WK1xCXpDSs/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/75edbd8a.easydns-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/easydns-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177252"/></figure></div>



<p>Over the past several years, the Canadian company <a href="https://easydns.com/">easyDNS</a> has come up in several piracy-related news articles.</p>



<p>The company&#8217;s domain registrar activities, in particular, have been a topic of discussion. Not least because it serves high-profile customers, including The Pirate Bay. </p>



<p>EasyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic has always made it very clear that he doesn&#8217;t want his company to be a refuge for pirate sites. However, at the same time he is committed to protecting due process.&nbsp;</p>



<p>This became clear a few years ago when the company refused to suspend domain names based on allegations <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/">from the City of London Police</a>. This stance was repeated later when the RIAA asked easyDNS <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-fails-take-pirate-bay-domain-now-160606/">to suspend The Pirate Bay&#8217;s domain</a>, which it refused to do without a court order.&nbsp;</p>



<p>These examples show that easyDNS is no stranger to legal pressure, but a recent&nbsp;request from a German law firm was a bit over the top, even by easyDNS&#8217; standards. </p>



<p>The company recently received a copyright notice from the German law firm <a href="https://www.fechner-legal.de/en/">Fechner Legal</a>, ordering easyDNS to take down a URL of one of its clients who allegedly posted a copyright-infringing image. In addition, the notice came with a settlement offer, urging the registrar to pay €1,481 in damages and fees. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/417c5c82.threatletter.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/threatletter.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177250"/></figure></div>



<p>The letter, which was initially sent to the wrong email address years ago, came through the postal mail. EasyDNS has no plans to pay up or expose its customer, as the law firm requested. However, it did send a reply asking for a digital copy so it could be forwarded to its customer, as is standard practice.</p>



<p>Instead of sending over the requested digital copy, the law firm replied with a threat. Citing German jurisprudence, attorney Robert Fechner urged easyDNS to hand over the name and email address of the allegedly-infringing customer, or else. </p>



<p>The&#8221; or else,&#8221; in this case, would come in the form of a criminal complaint. </p>



<p><em>&#8220;If you fail to comply with the law, further proceedings will be to file a criminal complaint against you in order to acquire this information on the basis of § 14 II TMG. In this case, additional damages due to your uncooperative and unlawful behavior will be claimed.&#8221;</em> Fechner wrote.</p>



<p>Despite the threat of a criminal complaint, easyDNS still doesn&#8217;t plan to hand over the name and email address of its customer. The company&#8217;s CEO stresses that it only complies with the law of the country where it&#8217;s incorporated, which is Canada.</p>



<p>Simply handing over personal information might violate Canadian privacy law, easyDNS stresses. This means that, if Fechner Legal wants the personal information of the customer in question, it has to obtain a valid court order, subpoena or warrant in the Province of Ontario. </p>



<p>&#8220;It’s almost as if Herr Fechner doesn’t understand that Canada is a completely different country than Germany, and thus businesses operating here are subject to <em>Canadian</em>, not German law,&#8221; <a href="https://easydns.com/blog/2019/09/16/fechner-law-of-germany-threatens-to-bring-criminal-complaint-for-shielding-client-privacy/">Jeftovic notes</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;We have further advised Herr Fechner that both easyDNS and our lawyers take a dim view of being threatened with a criminal complaint over something like this and we wonder out loud if the German bar association would have anything to say about one of their own abusing their position and misrepresenting the law in this manner,&#8221; he adds.</p>



<p>In any case, it&#8217;s clear that as a third-party registrar, easyDNS isn&#8217;t going to take any action without a proper court order. This means that the allegedly infringing URL remains online for now, just like The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177286
title: Xtream Codes IPTV System Targeted in Massive Police Operation
uri: Xtream-Codes-IPTV-System-Targeted-in-Massive-Police-Operation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TwAmhGANsLM/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-135034"/></figure></div>



<p>Reports of legal action and law enforcement activities against IPTV services and providers are a regular occurrence but news coming out of Italy this morning is particularly interesting.</p>



<p>According to the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance, a huge operation is underway to target and dismantle the software service known as Xtream Codes.</p>



<p>What makes the case unusual is that Xtream Codes isn&#8217;t an IPTV provider as such. Usually operating from <a href="https://xtream-codes.com/">Xtream-codes.com</a>, the company behind the software/system offers a comprehensive package that allows people to manage their own IPTV reselling service and its customers. </p>



<p>The system is subscription-based, starting at around 15 euros per month and running to 59 euros per month for the powerful &#8220;all-in-one&#8221; solution.  </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/eaba77f5.image-118.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/image-118.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177293" width="650"/></figure>



<p>The Guardia di Finanza say that 100 officers from its Special Unit for the Protection of Privacy and Technological Fraud (NSPFT) are taking part in the operation to take Xtream Codes down.</p>



<p>Early reports suggest that the system has been &#8220;seized&#8221;, allegedly preventing 700,000 users from accessing the platform. Xtream Codes itself recently reported having more than 5,000 clients servicing in excess of 50,000,000 end clients.</p>



<p>The Italian police unit is describing Xtream Codes as an international criminal group that&#8217;s being targeted not only in Italy but with simultaneous searches in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Bulgaria.</p>



<p>Xtream Codes is registered as a company in Bulgaria, has a local VAT number, and lists an address in Petrich for its offices. According to its now-disappeared website, it was founded by two students. Police say that 25 &#8220;managers&#8221; have been identified but there&#8217;s no specific mention of any arrests.</p>



<p>Disruption is already being reported by some IPTV sellers utilizing the Xtream Codes system. Authorities in Italy are set to provide more information on the operation this morning so we&#8217;ll update this article as more news comes in.</p>



<p><strong>Update:</strong> A video made available by the GdF in respect of the above-detailed operation is embedded below. It is likely to cause confusion due to the depiction of what appears to be a &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV provider being taken down.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<iframe title="Chiusa la Iptv pirata Xtream Codes -1-(18.09.19)" width="694" height="390" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/spMgUIFl9cM?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
</div></figure>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177277
title: Millennium Films Goes After Verystream, Streamango, and Others
uri: Millennium-Films-Goes-After-Verystream-Streamango-and-Others
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jHGi3TZPdKc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/b20f4c54.verystream.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/verystream.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177291"/></figure></div>



<p>Millennium Films and its daughter companies have been rather active with their anti-piracy efforts in recent months. </p>



<p>The movie companies have targeted some of the largest piracy apps and websites in court with the ultimate goal of shutting them down. </p>



<p>Last week this resulted in a major success when the popular app <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-app-cotomovies-shuts-down-apologizes-and-exposes-users-190911/">CotoMovies decided to shut down</a>. This was a direct result of legal pressure from Millennium Films which, in the process, brokered an unusual deal. </p>



<p>In addition to shutting down and issuing a public apology, CotoMovies confirmed that it will share user data with the movie companies. According to the movie company&#8217;s attorney, Kerry S. Culpepper, this data can “more than likely” be used to go after users of the streaming piracy app. </p>



<p>While no further details have emerged since, the CotoMovies aftermath continues. A few days ago Millennium Films obtained a subpoena which requires Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of people connected to several file-hosting and streaming sites. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/65172e01.cfstreamsub.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cfstreamsub.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177289"/></figure></div>



<p>These targets include Verystream and Streamango, two very popular hosting services with millions of users each, which were reportedly used by CotoMovies to serve videos. The other sites, Fembed, VShare, Vidlox, Flix555, Streamplay, and 0123movies, all have a CotoMovies connection as well. </p>



<p>&#8220;The above web domains have been identified as streaming copies of Owner’s motion picture(s) and supplying said streams to the piracy app &#8216;CotoMovies&#8217;,&#8221; Culpepper informed the Hawaii Federal Court. </p>



<p>Culpepper requests the name, address, telephone, email, payment records, and IP address log history for each associated customer. This will likely be used to conduct follow-up investigations. </p>



<p>The services and sites are informally accused of making Millennium&#8217;s copyrighted content available without permission. That said, it&#8217;s not clear whether the operators of these domains can be held directly liable. After all, most sites rely on user-uploaded content.</p>



<p>Millennium, however, seems determined to keep digging for more information, perhaps hoping that more apps and services will fold. </p>



<p>“Millennium greatly values their and other’s intellectual property.&nbsp; Millennium cannot keep making new movies if people steal Millennium’s movies through apps like these,” Millennium Media co-president Jonathan  Yunger informed TorrentFreak last week, following the CotoMovies shutdown.</p>



<p><em>&#8212;</em></p>



<p><em>A copy of the subpoena directed at Cloudflare is available<a href="media/ab988224.cfstreamdmca.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cfstreamdmca.pdf"> here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=177334
title: The Xtream Codes IPTV Takedown is Complex and Confused
uri: The-Xtream-Codes-IPTV-Takedown-is-Complex-and-Confused
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fAdFwQlQ1GU/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/a7c0897c.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-135034"/></figure></div>



<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/xtream-codes-iptv-system-targeted-in-massive-police-operation/">reported</a> Wednesday, police in Italy and several other European countries coordinated to take down Xtream Codes, at least one IPTV provider, and more than twenty individuals and related equipment linked to the services.</p>



<p>The precise roles of all these people remain unclear. However, there can be little doubt that emphasis is being placed on the importance of the Xtream Codes management system which, according to law enforcement officials, lay at the very heart of the targeted criminal operation even though the software didn&#8217;t supply any content.</p>



<p>This very large operation involved police forces in Italy, the Netherlands, France and Bulgaria. It was coordinated across borders with the assistance of Eurojust, an EU agency that helps agencies from member states to co-operate in criminal matters. </p>



<p>Yesterday afternoon, a press conference took place to explain how the operation panned out, who it had targeted, and to detail various additional pieces of information. It began with Filippo Spiezia, National Member for Italy at Eurojust, explaining that hundreds of officers had been involved in the operation to dismantle the technological infrastructure of a &#8220;criminal IPTV network.&#8221;</p>



<p>Spiezia confirmed that 181 servers had been taken down and seized and more than 800,000 users (police reported 700,000 earlier yesterday) had been disconnected from the Xtream Codes service when it was taken down.</p>



<p>In what became a common theme throughout the conference with several participants, Spieza sometimes appeared to speak generally about the entire operation, which included the takedown of at least one actual IPTV provider, then sometimes in relation to Xtream Codes alone.</p>



<p>This ambiguity and lack of clarity appear to be causing confusion. For example, Reuters reported the following yesterday:</p>



<p>&#8220;The biggest illegal platform shut down on Wednesday, dubbed Xtream Codes, had around 50 millions users worldwide,&#8221; Reuters <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-piracy-raids/police-raid-pay-tv-pirates-in-europe-wide-swoop-idUKKBN1W3180">reported</a>, citing Gianluca Berruti of the Italian tax police.</p>



<p>&#8220;It sold a bundled pay-TV service that included premium content from Comcast’s Sky Italia, Netflix, Mediaset, Dazn, for a monthly subscription of 12 euros,&#8221; it claimed Berruti added.</p>



<p>Again, &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV sellers utilizing the Xtream Codes platform may have been doing just that but, at this stage, the second claim above doesn&#8217;t make sense or indeed add up. Fifty million users multiplied by 12 euros a month is a staggering amount of money that wasn&#8217;t supported by financial information provided later in the conference.</p>



<p>In common with all of those present at yesterday&#8217;s gathering, Filippo Spiezia expressed satisfaction at the success of the international operation, noting that cross-border cooperation had proved invaluable since the investigation began.</p>



<p>&#8220;During these months of work at Eurojust, we have adapted to the judicial needs of the Italian authorities&#8230;.to the specific legal requirements of our new partners. This is the first example of an action conducted with these modalities,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>&#8220;Thanks to this action we have sent out a very clear signal to criminals that even in this specific domain, even in this specific area which represents the most advanced form of criminality, we will [respond] to them.&#8221;</p>



<p>Vincenzo Piscitelli, Deputy Prosecutor in Naples, painted a picture of small offenses by end-users (pirate IPTV subscribers) fueling &#8220;huge illegal activities&#8221; behind the scenes.</p>



<p>&#8220;So this is why we really tried to hit these organizational structures at the heart and that was done through the investigation that was carried out by the public prosecutor&#8217;s office of Naples,&#8221; he said. </p>



<p>Next up was Valeria Sico, Public Prosecutor in Naples. Sico spoke quickly and through a translator, so that may account for what at times felt like confusing output. While clearly an expert in law, those looking for clear and specific technical details from the Prosecutor failed to receive them.</p>



<p>Some of what Sico said made sense but the fact that Xtream Codes isn&#8217;t normally understood to be an actual provider of illegal streams (although it is undoubtedly used by outsiders to manage them), it&#8217;s worth reproducing some of her words in full, to see how muddied this has become.</p>



<p>&#8220;There was software created by two citizens of Greek nationality. They have a company which had a legal seat in Bulgaria,&#8221; Sico said, confirming the information <a href="media/a9877c36.xtreme-chart-zougla.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/xtreme-chart-zougla.png">previously supplied</a> by the Italian authorities. </p>



<p>&#8220;So this software enables the disclosure and the transmission of [pirate] TV signals through digital ways to different servers which were constructed by the organizations, by the host providers in the Netherlands and in France. </p>



<p>&#8220;Through these servers, the signal &#8211; the digital signal &#8211; was therefore sent to different IP addresses of final users and these people would then receive the [illegal] television signal in their homes.&#8221;</p>



<p>Again, it&#8217;s worth reiterating that Sico was speaking through a translator so some context and detail may have been lost but from there, the explanation didn&#8217;t really become any more clear.</p>



<p>&#8220;For the first time, having identified the company that was producing the software, we went directly to the company that was producing the software so they were enabling people to decrypt the signal,&#8221; she said.</p>



<p>&#8220;So this is why we also went right to the physical place where the disclosure [broadcast] of the signal would take place within these hosting provider companies in Holland and in France&#8230;.the signal was broadcast to the company that had created the illegal signal &#8211; the software company &#8211; and then that was sent to the end-users.&#8221;</p>



<p>Again, this isn&#8217;t the broadly accepted function of the Xtream Codes system, unless the company itself was also involved in the provision of illicit streams. That claim has been the subject of speculation in the past 24 hours, perhaps based on the Reuters report. </p>



<p>Thankfully, Cybercrime Prosecutor Lodewijk Van Zwieten from the Netherlands kept things fairly simple in his prepared speech.</p>



<p>He began by noting that 93 servers had been taken down in one location in the Netherlands, all of which had targeted the Italian market. This seems to be a reference to equipment operated by the actual IPTV provider shown in the video published yesterday.</p>



<p>According to a chart published by the authorities and reproduced below, it was using the Xtream Codes management software, something which seems to have led the company&#8217;s software becoming embroiled in the investigation.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/0181e682.xtreme-chart-zougla.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/xtreme-chart-zougla.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177316" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Credit: Zougla.gr</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>Van Zwieten said that no offenses had been committed by Dutch citizens but confirmed that local Internet infrastructure had been abused by the &#8216;criminal&#8217; network.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the Netherlands, we are proud of the fact that we have a big affordable hosting industry which is very important for our economy but we don&#8217;t want these services to be used on a large scale for criminal activities,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>&#8220;That is why we find it so important, together with the Dutch hosting industry, to act very diligently against abuse. So it was our pleasure to comply with a request from our Italian colleagues.&#8221;</p>



<p>Riccardo Croce, Head of Financial Cybercrime Investigation with the State Police in Italy, said that the &#8220;criminal group&#8221; (again, no precise explanation of which entities that phrase encompasses) had five million users in Italy alone, contributing to the 2,180,000 euros generated every month in illicit funds.</p>



<p>As highlighted earlier, the figures offered by various parties don&#8217;t add up, lack clarity, and as a result, appear to contradict each other.</p>



<p>In common with Sico&#8217;s speech, Creco&#8217;s was also presented through a translator. However, Creco was absolutely clear that the plan was to get to the &#8220;complex mapping of international technological infrastructure and to really hit them at the heart of the infrastructure.&#8221;</p>



<p>He spoke briefly about the complex technological network being used to transfer the actual streams but then appeared to touch on the importance of Xtream Codes once again, noting that entities in the chain were able to use a particular service to sell the product to the public.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our investigation was based on this, to go to the source level of this illegal signal, to disarticulate completely all servers in various European countries in which the infrastructure existed to replicate these signals,&#8221; Creco said.</p>



<p>&#8220;And, to hit for the first time, the company that was offering this very interesting support to the criminal infrastructure which put at its disposal these panels, network panels, the computer system through which the multitude of pay channels were able to be sold and resold through a chain of people called resellers throughout Europe so it could end up at the end-users.&#8221;</p>



<p>The paragraph above is possibly the clearest description of Xtream Codes&#8217; function from someone in authority since yesterday&#8217;s raids. Creco&#8217;s statement not only separates the system from the actual provision of illegal streams but describes its function as most people understand it.</p>



<p>While many will argue that Xtream Codes was content-agnostic and capable of being put to plenty of legitimate uses, it&#8217;s clear that the authorities do not believe that was the intent at all. Through their statements, as confusing as they were at times, the message seems to be that Xtream Codes was perhaps the most important cog in the wheel.</p>



<p>There are many huge questions now being asked in the unlicensed IPTV community but perhaps the biggest is what information was held on the servers of Xtream Codes at the moment they were seized. They are a potential goldmine of information, not only relating to the many IPTV providers and sellers that used the service but also their customers. The worldwide fallout could be immense.</p>



<p>Importantly, however, Xtream Codes (as popular as it was) is not the only product out there capable of doing this kind of management job. So while the company&#8217;s days may already be over, others are already gearing up to fill in the gaps. Whether anyone will want to centralize their data with a vulnerable third-party again will be up for debate, however.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymous-in-2019/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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