# articles

feed_id: https://torrentfreak.com/?p=178311
title: Mailchimp Kicks Out TorrentFreak Because We’re ‘Too Risky’
uri: Mailchimp-Kicks-Out-TorrentFreak-Because-We-re-Too-Risky
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IKyf_DUjfW8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/9111d761.mailc.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mailc.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178347"/></figure></div>



<p>At TorrentFreak, we have covered the latest news surrounding piracy, file-sharing, and copyright, for almost fourteen years. </p>



<p>As a news site, we strive to write as any other professional journalists would. We highlight the latest copyright enforcement efforts and press releases, but also the counteractions that pirates take, as balanced reporting prescribes. </p>



<p>While we understand that some of the topics we cover are controversial, as is often the case with news, we never expected it to be risky. Apparently, however, some companies believe otherwise. </p>



<p>A few months ago we moved our newsletter to <a href="https://mailchimp.com/">Mailchimp</a>, which is widely regarded as one of the best services of its kind. And indeed, setting up the account and configuring our daily mailing was a breeze. As such, we were more than happy to pay the monthly fee.</p>



<p>Although we were pleased with Mailchimp, Mailchimp wasn&#8217;t too happy with us. Out of the blue, the company decided to stop sending out the daily email campaign a few days ago. As it turned out, our account had been suspended as the result of an &#8220;acceptable use&#8221; violation.</p>



<p>Apparently, one of our recent articles triggered MailChimp&#8217;s abuse prevention system, Omnivore. Since we&#8217;re a legitimate news site we asked for clarification, but we were swiftly informed that it wasn&#8217;t a false positive.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our automated abuse-prevention system, Omnivore, detected account content that violates our Acceptable Use Policy,&#8221; a MailChimp employee replied. </p>



<p>&#8220;We have nothing personal against you or your business, but in order to protect all of our users and ensure the deliverability of everyone’s campaigns, we have to ask that you seek a new vendor for your email marketing needs.&#8221;   </p>



<p>This explanation still didn&#8217;t say much about the reason for the suspension, so we asked for further clarification and the possibility of a human review. Specifically, we wanted to know what part of the acceptable use policy was violated and why.</p>



<p>Although MailChimp replied, our questions remained unanswered. What we did learn, however, is that our articles are too risky for a company like MailChimp.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the risk associated with your account is too great for us to continue to support,&#8221; MailChimp replied.</p>



<p>&#8220;To give you some background, internet service providers (ISPs) and spam filters strictly monitor the content and keywords used in bulk email, and can block all mail sent through our servers if they detect a problem,&#8221; the email added.  </p>



<p>Unsatisfied with this answer, we decided to try again and asked whether the topics we write about are a problem, but that request remained unanswered. </p>



<p>While we are baffled by the entire experience and MailChimp&#8217;s lack of specificity, we have some sympathy for their actions. They obviously don&#8217;t want to kick out a paying subscriber, unless it indeed poses some kind of threat. </p>



<p>What&#8217;s really to blame here are the automated filters from ISPs and anti-spam outfits that wrongly tag certain content as problematic. Too many piracy-related keywords, which is what you would find on a piracy-related news site like ours, can apparently get entire servers blocked. </p>



<p>This is the same reason why many automated filters have our site blocked under the &#8216;piracy&#8217; category, or <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrentfreak-is-blocked-as-a-pirate-site-and-hacking-resource-180825/">even hacking and criminal skills</a>. </p>



<p>Unfortunately, this means that we&#8217;re now looking for a good newsletter service, ideally, one that works with RSS feeds. If anybody has a suggestion, feel free to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/contact/">drop us a line</a>. Meanwhile, MailChimp subscribers can use our <a href="https://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Torrentfreak&amp;loc=en_US">Feedburner</a> newsletter for now, which is still operational. </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=178454
title: RapidVideo Shuts Down Following Legal Pressure from Warner Bros and Netflix
uri: RapidVideo-Shuts-Down-Following-Legal-Pressure-from-Warner-Bros-and-Ne
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LX0VMbe5D4Q/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/480ecaa6.rapidvideo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rapidvideo.png" alt="" class="wp-image-162983"/></figure></div>



<p><a href="https://www.rapidvideo.com/">RapidVideo</a> is a popular file-hosting service that specializes in hosting videos.</p>



<p>Similar to other file-hosting services, it can be used for good and bad. The bad, in this case, is people uploading pirated videos.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Whether the site&#8217;s operators want it or not, that&#8217;s what many of RapidVideo&#8217;s users are indeed doing. Two weeks ago this resulted in yet another <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-adds-1xbet-and-baidu-to-latest-piracy-threat-report/">scathing report</a> from movie industry group MPA, which branded the site as a &#8220;notorious&#8221; piracy haven.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Behind the scenes, the website&#8217;s operator faces mounting pressure as well. RapidVideo has been targeted by lawyers from the MPA and ACE, two of the most powerful anti-piracy forces, which are demanding far-reaching copyright enforcement measures from the site.</p>



<p>To back up their pressure, two MPA/ACE members, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Netflix, filed a lawsuit in Germany to stop the alleged copyright infringements the site enables. While this case remains ongoing, the site&#8217;s operator decided not to await the verdict and has shut the site down effective immediately.</p>



<p>The millions of users who regularly visit the site currently see nothing more than a 404 error. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/49885d95.404notfound.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/404notfound.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178455"/><figcaption>RapidVideo not accessible</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>TorrentFreak spoke to &#8220;Alex Bytes,&#8221; the operator of RapidVideo, who informed us that the shutdown is permanent. The site&#8217;s operator already considered throwing the towel after the adoption of the new EU Copyright Directive earlier this year, which may make upload filters semi-mandatory for some sites.</p>



<p>&#8220;It was high time to quit, because of the upcoming law changes within the EU, due to Article 13/17, where it is a more challenging situation for service providers,&#8221; RapidVideo&#8217;s Alex tells us. </p>



<p>By shutting the service down, RapidVideo also hopes to get the lawsuit from Warner Bros. and Netflix off its back. In addition, Alex points out that advertising revenues were dropping significantly, so it was hardly worth continuing anyway.</p>



<p>According to RapidVideo&#8217;s operator, ACE and the MPA previously demanded far-reaching measures to prevent piracy. The rightsholders requested a thorough &#8220;take down, stay down&#8221; policy, that would go further than hash or filename filtering.</p>



<p>Instead, rightsholders wanted the site to implement a system similar to YouTube&#8217;s Content-ID where more advanced fingerprinting techniques are used to match file uploads to potentially infringing content. </p>



<p>This wasn&#8217;t an option for RapidVideo, likely because it would require substantial investments. The other option, shutting the entire site down, became more and more attractive instead, especially in light of the pending lawsuit. </p>



<p>&#8220;By shutting down, the lawyers have no more reason to fight in the court against me,&#8221; Alex tells us. </p>



<p>For now, however, the court case remains ongoing. TorrentFreak reached out to the lawyer of Warner Bros. and Netflix for a comment on RapidVideo&#8217;s decision and the future of their legal claims, but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back.</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=178428
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 10/21/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-10-21-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EFqxbq7gKlg/
content:
<p><img class="alignright wp-image-178235" src="media/4fc0e3fb.lionk.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk.png" alt="" width="300" height="227" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk.png 449w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />This week we have one newcomer in our chart.</p>
<p>The Lion King 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-10-14-19/">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/tt6105098/">The Lion King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf9bVk75s8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7PAyCDwEg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243946/">El Camino</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243946/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLUn2DFW4w&amp;t=2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</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>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</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>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979376/">Joker</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1979376/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/">It: Chapter Two</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MLJG0RdDE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8364368/">Crawl</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8364368/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MLJG0RdDE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7734218/">Stuber</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7734218/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5l6a5RiR1E&amp;t=23s">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=178435
title: BREIN, MPA, and ACE Shut Down Massive ‘Pirate CDN’
uri: BREIN-MPA-and-ACE-Shut-Down-Massive-Pirate-CDN
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YT_GAZ-u2iw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/5d11ad34.pirate-cloud.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-cloud.jpg" alt="" width="252" height="271"/></figure></div>



<p>Earlier this year, cyber-security company Group-IB shared an interesting report with TorrentFreak.</p>



<p>The company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-powered-cdns-operate-innovative-illicit-streaming-model-190203/">told us</a> that &#8220;large monopolists&#8221; were supplying huge amounts of content to thousands of websites via dedicated &#8216;pirate&#8217; Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).</p>



<p>Group-IB provided specific details on a CDN called &#8216;Moonwalk&#8217; which reportedly began operating in 2013. According to the company, at the time the system carried 33,490 movies and TV shows, paying out $0.60 per 1000 views.</p>



<p>Group-IB complained that since most of Moonwalk&#8217;s servers were outside Russia, the Netherlands in particular, enforcement by local rightsholders was proving difficult. Several months later, it now transpires that Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has stepped up in an effort to deal with the problem.</p>



<p>BREIN chief Tim Kuik informs TorrentFreak that on Friday, bailiffs acting on its behalf served <em>ex parte</em> court orders on five hosting providers requiring them to disconnect streaming servers and preserve evidence in relation to Moonwalk.</p>



<p>Three court orders targeted Dutch companies and two &#8220;ostensibly foreign companies&#8221; whose servers are located in the Netherlands. While the action is being headed up by BREIN, the anti-piracy group is working with both the Motion Picture Association and the global Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment.</p>



<p>BREIN describes Moonwalk as a &#8220;video load balancer&#8221; which provides both the back-end and also huge volumes of pirated content to around 80% of known Russian streaming sites.</p>



<p>&#8220;The top 50 of these websites entertain 395 million visits from 89.9 million unique visitors per month causing hundreds of millions of&nbsp;euros/dollars in losses,&#8221; BREIN says.</p>



<p>BREIN&#8217;s estimates of the amount of content being provided by Moonwalk exceed the figures provided by Group-IB earlier this year. Overall, the Dutch anti-piracy outfit says that the system was recently providing more than 26,000 movies and 10,000 TV shows. That&#8217;s around 2,500 additional pieces of video entertainment which suggests growth over recent months.</p>



<p>The <em>ex parte</em> court orders were obtained by BREIN following a joint investigation with ACE, which counts almost three dozen of the world&#8217;s leading content and broadcasting companies as members. It&#8217;s clear the orders were intended to cause the shutdown of Moonwalk while providing evidence on its operations and presumably, its operators.</p>



<p>&#8220;The fight against piracy is global and we are going after operators of these services and their hosting infrastructure as well as other intermediaries supporting these illegal services”, says BREIN chief Tim Kuik. </p>



<p>Jan Van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association, stressed that cooperating internationally is crucial to dealing with today&#8217;s piracy issues. </p>



<p>“Effectively fighting piracy today requires strong partnerships at global and local level,” he says.</p>



<p>“This action coordinated between BREIN, ACE and the MPA is a significant win and another step towards preserving a healthy and vibrant ecosystem in which the creative community can produce, distribute and protect their content so that audiences can enjoy them.&#8221;</p>



<p>What happens next in the investigation isn&#8217;t clear but a website associated with Moonwalk currently states that due to this action, the service is not only  down, but down for good.</p>



<p> </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/af1e648e.image-141.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-141.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178446" width="650"/><figcaption>Gone forever?</figcaption></figure></div>



<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=178485
title: NordVPN Had Private Keys Stolen after Server Breach
uri: NordVPN-Had-Private-Keys-Stolen-after-Server-Breach
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TbCODIAQ2KI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/04fd5a89.nordvpn-2.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nordvpn-2.png" alt="" class="wp-image-164660"/></figure></div>



<p>VPN service provider <a href="https://nordvpn.com/">NordVPN</a> was the victim of a server breach early last year, the provider has confirmed. </p>



<p>The news was made public following a series of tweets from hacker / web developer &#8216;<a href="https://twitter.com/hexdefined/status/1186106695073726466?s=21">undefined</a>.&#8217; These were picked up by <a href="https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/hackers-steal-secret-crypto-keys-for-nordvpn-heres-what-we-know-so-far/">Ars Technica</a> and <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/21/nordvpn-confirms-it-was-hacked/">TechCrunch</a>, among others.</p>



<p>The hack in question targeted a single server at a third-party datacenter. The attacker reportedly compromised the server by exploiting an insecure remote management system, which NordVPN wasn&#8217;t aware existed at the time.</p>



<p>By compromising the server the attacker gained access to three TLS keys that would allow this person to operate a fake NordVPN.com site or VPN server, using a man-in-the-middle attack. NordVPN stresses that it doesn&#8217;t keep user logs and that it wasn&#8217;t possible to use the keys to decrypt regular VPN traffic or previously recorded VPN sessions.</p>



<p>The server in question was compromised early 2018 but NordVPN didn&#8217;t disclose it at the time. The company now says that it chose not to do so because it had to make sure that none of its other infrastructure was prone to similar issues. </p>



<p>Following the news reports, NordVPN published <a href="https://nordvpn.com/blog/official-response-datacenter-breach/">its own account</a> of what happened and how this affected its users. The company stresses that the breached keys have since expired (they were initially active) and could never be used to decrypt VPN traffic of users. </p>



<p>While the compromised TLS keys couldn&#8217;t decrypt VPN traffic, a server breach is of course always a big event of course. Especially in the VPN industry, where trust in a company is extremely important. That the effect appears to be limited here is a good thing, but that doesn&#8217; change the fact that the server was hacked.</p>



<p>While NordVPN stresses that the hack only had a minimal impact, it recognizes that security is a vital issue, and that it should do better going forward. </p>



<p>&#8220;Even though only 1 of more than 3000 servers we had at the time was affected, we are not trying to undermine the severity of the issue. We failed by contracting an unreliable server provider and should have done better to ensure the security of our customers,&#8221; NordVPN says. </p>



<p>&#8220;We are taking all the necessary means to enhance our security,&#8221; the company adds. </p>



<p>NordVPN further informs TorrentFreak that it always treats VPN servers as the least secure part of their infrastructure, since breaches are always possible. This means that VPN endpoints do not contain any &#8220;vulnerable information,&#8221; nor do they provide access to the rest of the infrastructure or a user database. </p>



<p>If anything, this episode shows that 100% security is nearly impossible. In addition to the NordVPN hack, competing services TorGuard and VikingVPN also suffered breaches, according to reports. TorGuard previously confirmed this <a href="https://torguard.net/blog/when-bug-bounties-border-on-blackmail/">a few months ago</a>.</p>



<p>&#8212;</p>



<p><em>Disclaimer: NordVPN is one of our sponsors. This article was written independently, as all of our articles are. </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=178475
title: Fox & Charter/Spectrum Agree to Clamp Down on Piracy
uri: Fox-Charter-Spectrum-Agree-to-Clamp-Down-on-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uMmRzB_HQls/
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>Once upon a time, telecoms companies, Internet service providers, and content creation companies trod their own path. </p>



<p>Increasingly, however, they are becoming more reliant on each other, with the latter using the formers&#8217; distribution capabilities to present and deliver content to the public. As a result, they are forging mutually beneficial business relationships, ones that will hopefully prove profitable for all.</p>



<p>On Monday, Fox Corporation and Charter Communications announced what they describe as a long-term renewal of a distribution agreement. It will see Charter maintaining access to Fox&#8217;s &#8220;full portfolio&#8221; of news, entertainment, and sports networks. Interestingly, Fox will also get a couple of things in return.</p>



<p>Password sharing has appeared in the news on several occasions in the past couple of years, with some content organizations framing the activity as a type of piracy. The new deal will see Charter, which operates under the Spectrum brand, collaborate with Fox to reduce it.</p>



<p>Additionally, Charter has also signed up to cooperate with Fox to mitigate piracy in general. The information released thus far is lacking in detail but the companies have reportedly agreed to implement &#8220;business rules&#8221; to address unauthorized access to content.</p>



<p>&#8220;This agreement allows continued access to all of the FOX programming for our customers and FOX viewers, but it will also amplify our mutual efforts to address piracy and abusive password sharing issues,&#8221; says Tom Montemagno, Executive Vice President, Programming Acquisition for Charter.</p>



<p>&#8220;We appreciate FOX&#8217;s desire to further collaborate as the video landscape continues to evolve.&#8221;</p>



<p>In August, Charter <a href="https://ir.charter.com/news-releases/news-release-details/walt-disney-company-and-charter-communications-announce-0">announced</a> a similar-sounding deal with another entertainment industry giant.</p>



<p>&#8220;Disney and Charter have also agreed to work together on piracy mitigation,&#8221; the statement read. &#8220;The two companies will work together to implement business rules and techniques to address such issues as unauthorized access and password sharing.&#8221;</p>



<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/comcast-becomes-first-isp-to-join-ace-global-anti-piracy-coalition-191016/">Just last week</a>, Comcast became the first Internet service provider to join ACE, the global anti-piracy alliance comprising dozens of the world&#8217;s largest entertainment and distribution companies. The way things are moving, it probably won&#8217;t be the last.</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=178452
title: ‘Pirate’ App TeaTV Gets Featured on CNBC, Disappears, But Will Be Back
uri: Pirate-App-TeaTV-Gets-Featured-on-CNBC-Disappears-But-Will-Be
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TIxY5SO5oFQ/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/5c8f774d.teattv.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/teattv.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178489"/></figure></div>



<p>While &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites still exist as regular web-based streaming or torrent portals accessible through a browser, recent years have seen a shift.</p>



<p>Software applications, or apps as they&#8217;re more commonly known, are now seen as a more convenient option. </p>



<p>Installable on phones, tablets, and a multitude of set-top devices, they often provide access to huge libraries of instantly-streamable movie and TV shows, presented in a Netflix-style interface.</p>



<p>While Popcorn Time was the first to hit the mainstream, plenty of alternatives now exist. One of those is TeaTV, a popular app for Android, Windows and macOS. According to SimilarWeb stats, its download portal has been pulling in around 1.5 million visits per month a few days ago a considerable irritant presented itself.</p>



<p>News outlet CNBC &#8211; which is owned by media giant NBCUniversal &#8211; <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/20/netflix-and-hbo-shows-are-getting-pirated-on-teatv-and-other-sites.html">ran a piece</a> claiming that TeaTV was being &#8220;bankrolled&#8221; by advertising, some of it being placed by Pandora, TikTok, Hulu, Yahoo Mail, and Amazon, among others.</p>



<p>There was no suggestion in the CNBC piece that any of the companies placed ads directly with Teat-TV. Instead, a network of hard-to-control resellers was handed the blame, some of which are no longer doing business with TeaTV due to the CNBC investigation. Other advertising companies approached declined to comment.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/09a44716.hahaha.png" data-original-source="https://web.archive.org/web/20191020232727im_/https://teatv.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/hahaha.png" alt=""/><figcaption><em>TeaTV for Android</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Interestingly, the publication also revealed that during a &#8220;recent meeting of major industry players in New York&#8221; on the topic of ad-supported piracy, TeaTV came up as a discussion point.</p>



<p>Who those players are is open to debate but ad-supported piracy is a hot topic and there can be little doubt that familiar names, including those involved in the ACE anti-piracy coalition (CNBC owner NBCUniversal is an ACE member), would&#8217;ve been privy to the conversations.</p>



<p>Perhaps coincidentally but more likely not, in the hours following the publication of the CNBC piece, TeaTV began to purge itself from the web. Its main webpage, previously located at TeaTV.net, no longer exists, meaning that downloads of the app from that portal have come to a halt.</p>



<p>Furthermore, TeaTV&#8217;s social media has been blacked out too. Both its Twitter and Facebook pages have been removed or deleted, leading some to speculate that the popular software has been consigned to history following the investigation.</p>



<p>After receiving unconfirmed information that TeaTV won&#8217;t ever be coming back, TorrentFreak spoke directly with a source very close to the app. That person declined to comment on the CNBC investigation specifically or whether TeaTV&#8217;s disappearance is directly connected to it.</p>



<p>However, we were assured that TeaTV will be returning sometime in the future. No timescale was given for the full resurrection but at least some changes are planned, including a potential rebranding of the app.</p>



<p>&#8220;Just a matter of time. We will get back to you when there is an update,&#8221; we were told.</p>



<p>With a full return (in some shape or form) penciled in for a future date, it appears that TeaTV as an application is still working for many of its users. Numerous reports online suggest that despite the app&#8217;s homepage and social media going dark, the software is still providing access to content.</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=178497
title: U.S. House Passes Copyright “Small Claims” Bill with Overwhelming Majority
uri: U-S-House-Passes-Copyright-Small-Claims-Bill-with-Overwhelming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DNBHrD-Pz6s/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/bba34cbf.smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/smallclaimsfinepenaltycourt.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-148048"/></figure></div>



<p>In May, new legislation was tabled in the U.S. House and Senate that introduces the creation of a “small claims” process for copyright disputes.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/2426">The CASE Act</a>, short for “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement,” proposes to establish a copyright claim tribunal within the United States Copyright Office.</p>



<p>If adopted, the new board will provide an option to resolve copyright disputes outside the federal courts, which significantly reduces the associated costs. As such, it aims to make it easier for smaller creators, such as photographers, to address copyright infringements.</p>



<p>The bill is widely supported by copyright-heavy industry groups as well as many individual creators. However, as is often the case with new copyright legislation, there&#8217;s also plenty of opposition from digital rights groups and Internet users who fear that the bill will do more harm than good. </p>



<p>Supporters of the CASE Act point out that the new bill is the &#8216;missing piece&#8217; in the present copyright enforcement toolbox.  They believe that many creators are not taking action against copyright infringers at the moment, because filing federal lawsuits is too expensive. The new small claims tribunal will fix that, they claim.</p>



<p>Opponents, for their part, fear that the new tribunal will trigger an avalanche of claims against ordinary Internet users, with potential damages of up to $30,000 per case. While targeted people have the choice to opt-out, many simply have no clue what to do, they argue. </p>



<p>Thus far legislators have shown massive support for the new plan. Yesterday the bill was up for a vote at the U.S. House of Representatives where it was passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. With a <a href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2019/roll578.xml">410-6 vote</a>, the passage of the CASE Act went smoothly.</p>



<p>The news was welcomed by proponents of the bill, including the <a href="https://www.grammy.com/advocacy/news/win-creators-case-act-advances-preps-full-vote-congress">Recording Academy</a>. In recent weeks the group actively rallied support from nearly 2,000 creators, who helped to lobby legislators. </p>



<p>The <a href="https://copyrightalliance.org/">Copyright Alliance</a> was equally delighted with the favorable vote. CEO Keith Kupferschmid notes that it further attests to the tremendous support the bill has gained so far. At the same time, it shows that legislators were not swayed by the CASE Act&#8217;s opponents. </p>



<p>“Today’s vote by the House demonstrates not only the tremendous support for the bill but also the fact that members of Congress could not be bamboozled into believing the numerous falsehoods about the CASE Act,&#8221;  Kupferschmid comments.</p>



<p>According to the Copyright Alliance CEO, these alleged falsehoods are shared by people who &#8220;philosophically oppose any copyright legislation that will help the creative community and who will use any means to achieve their illicit goals.&#8221; </p>



<p>These comments illustrate that the tensions between supporters and opponents of the CASE Act are high. In recent months, both sides have accused each other of misrepresenting the bill. </p>



<p>Meredith Rose, Policy Counsel at <a href="https://www.publicknowledge.org/">Public Knowledge</a>, is in the opposing camp. She&#8217;s not happy with the vote at all and hopes that the Senate will slam on the brakes to prevent it from progressing in its current form.</p>



<p>&#8220;The CASE Act was rammed through on suspension with no hearings, no opportunity for amendment, and no opportunity for meaningful comment from public interest and consumer groups. We urge the Senate not to take up this bill as written, but to instead open the dialogue to&nbsp;all affected parties to craft meaningful, functional solutions,”&nbsp;Rose says.</p>



<p>Public Knowledge and other groups, such as <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/house-votes-favor-disastrous-copyright-bill">EFF</a> and  <a href="https://www.recreatecoalition.org/">Re:Create</a>, fear that the bill will lead to more copyright complaints against regular Internet users. Re:Create&#8217;s Executive Director Joshua Lamel hopes that the Senate will properly address these concerns. </p>



<p>“The CASE Act will expose ordinary Americans to tens of thousands of dollars in damages for things most of us do everyday. We are extremely disappointed that Congress passed the CASE Act as currently written, and we hope that the Senate will do its due diligence to make much-needed amendments to this bill to protect American consumers and remove any constitutional concerns,&#8221; Lamel notes. </p>



<p>The 410-6 House vote shows that, thus far, there is not much interest from lawmakers to change the proposal. However, with several weeks of lobbying ahead from both supporters and opponents of the CASE Act, the battle is not over yet.</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=178558
title: Masked Cheat Maker Who “Appeared on BBC” Gets Sued By Ubisoft
uri: Masked-Cheat-Maker-Who-Appeared-on-BBC-Gets-Sued-By-Ubisoft
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VgRgosSrfhI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/6dfea961.ubisoft.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ubisoft.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178567" width="247" height="231"/></figure></div>



<p>Cheating in videogames is a popular pastime for those who don&#8217;t want to play by the rules but there are two distinct groups who detest the activity.</p>



<p>While genuine players are routinely disadvantaged by those running cheat software, developers not only see their finely-tuned gaming environments disrupted but in some cases their business models too.</p>



<p>In September, the BBC ran a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/technology-49740155/the-cheat-hackers-ruining-gaming-for-others">video piece</a> on the topic of game cheating. An alleged 17-year-old appeared on the show in disguise, speaking of the hacks he created for Rainbow Six Seige, and noting that if Ubisoft &#8220;decides to come after you for copyright infringement then you&#8217;re in for a tough time.&#8221;</p>



<p>A month later, those tough times have arrived. In a lawsuit filed by Ubisoft in a California federal court, the videogame company is suing &#8216;J.V.L&#8217;, a teenager who lives in the Netherlands, allegedly developed a sophisticated Rainbow Six Seige (R6S) cheat, and reportedly appeared in the BBC interview under the alias &#8216;Lucas&#8217;.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/6d243b24.image-142.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-142.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178565" width="650"/><figcaption><em>&#8230;&#8221;then you&#8217;re in for a tough time.&#8221;</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Formerly known as &#8220;CheapBoost&#8221; but now known as &#8220;Budget Edition Rainbow Six: Siege Cheat&#8221;, it&#8217;s claimed the cheat allowed people to manipulate R6S to their advantage by &#8220;increasing the damage inflicted by the player, changing the player’s perspective, and allowing the player to see areas of the battlefield that otherwise would be obscured.&#8221;</p>



<p>The lawsuit targets several people, including J.V.L&#8217;s mother, Sandra Rijken, and numerous alleged support staff and resellers of the cheat. Most are only known by their online aliases but Ubisoft says it will amend its complaint when their identities are known.</p>



<p>The lawsuit also lists business entities Mizusoft (which was allegedly founded by J.V.L and sold the cheat) plus Rijken&#8217;s company Simply san Webdesign, which reportedly collected, processed and transmitted payments from Mizusoft customers to one or more of the defendants.</p>



<p>Ubisoft claims that Mizusoft was created for the &#8220;express purpose&#8221; of shielding J.V.L and his mother from the legal consequences of creating and distributing the R6S cheat software.</p>



<p>&#8220;Ubisoft is informed and believes, and on that basis alleges, that Defendants’ entire business is dedicated to creating, producing, marketing, distributing, and supporting the Cheating Software – which can be used only to cheat in R6S. Thus, Defendants’ business is wholly parasitic in nature and is entirely dependent upon causing harm to Ubisoft and its multiplayer community,&#8221; the complaint notes.</p>



<p>For those unfamiliar with this kind of cheating software, its cost will come as a surprise. According to the complaint, the cheat in question was sold on a recurring subscription fee basis of 11.99 euros per day, 29.99 euros per week, or 69.99 euros per month. Those payments, Ubisoft claims, were made to Simply San Webdesign via Stripe.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendants know that trafficking in circumvention products such as the Cheating Software is unlawful and violates Section 1201 of the DMCA. As J.V.L. admitted on a BBC news segment: &#8216;if Ubisoft decides to come after you because of copyright infringement then you’re in for a tough time&#8217;,” Ubisoft adds.</p>



<p>The company says that the defendants&#8217; actions have caused serious harm to its games and its online community, ruining the gaming experience for players and causing them to lose interest and stop playing R6S. On top, the company says it has spent &#8220;enormous sums of money&#8221; attempting to mitigate the cheat, including hiring people to police games for cheaters.</p>



<p>Ubisoft says that by creating and distributing the cheat software, the defendants trafficked in circumvention devices that are solely designed to defeat technological measures put in place to control access to a copyrighted work.</p>



<p>&#8220;As a result of the foregoing, Defendants are offering to the public, providing, importing, or otherwise trafficking in technology that violates 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2). Defendants’ acts constituting DMCA violations have been and continue to be performed without the permission, authorization, or consent of Ubisoft,&#8221; the complaint adds.</p>



<p>In terms of damages under the DMCA, at the very least Ubisoft is demanding the profits generated by the defendants, which according to them could run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.</p>



<p>Alternatively, Ubisoft says it is entitled to maximum statutory damages of $25,000 for every breach of the DMCA, which run into their thousands. In any event, the company wants all of its legal fees and costs repaid.</p>



<p>But the complaint doesn&#8217;t stop at claims under the DMCA. A second count claims &#8216;intentional interference with contractual relations&#8217;, with the defendants standing accused of encouraging and inducing their customers to breach their Terms of Use agreement with Ubisoft, which bans cheating. The company also claims unfair competition.</p>



<p>&#8220;Defendants are guilty of oppression, fraud, or malice, and Ubisoft, in addition to its actual damages, by reason thereof, is entitled to recover exemplary and punitive damages against Defendants,&#8221; the company adds.</p>



<p>Initially, however, Ubisoft wants the entire operation shut down and more. </p>



<p>In addition to an injunction preventing the activities detailed in the complaint, Ubisoft wants the defendants to hand over everything that infringes their rights along with accounts that show all sales of cheat products and services in the United States. Ubisoft also wants to seize all domain names connected to the cheating business.</p>



<p><em>Ubisoft&#8217;s complaint, obtained by TorrentFreak, can be found <a href="media/a868fba2.2-19-cv-09132-Ubisoft-v-Cheapboost-MizuSoft-complaint-191023.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2-19-cv-09132-Ubisoft-v-Cheapboost-MizuSoft-complaint-191023.pdf">here</a> (pdf)</em></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=178466
title: The Pirate Bay Suffers Extended Downtime, Tor Access is Buggy Too
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Suffers-Extended-Downtime-Tor-Access-is-Buggy-Too
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/a24UvF4nCD0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/9dd69e0d.tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-piratebay-thepiratebay-logo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-142141"/></figure></div>



<p>The Pirate Bay has been hard to reach for more than a week. </p>



<p>For most people, the site currently displays a Cloudflare error across the entire site, with the CDN provider mentioning that a “bad gateway” is causing problems.</p>



<p>Others see the dreaded &#8220;database maintenance&#8221; message, with a prompt to check back in 10 minutes. If they do, the exact same notification usually pops up.</p>



<p>As is often the case with TPB, no further details are available to us and there is no known ETA for the site’s full return. However, judging from past experience, it’s likely some type of technical issue that needs fixing.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/bdfe6c54.tpbscreencloub.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbscreencloub.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178468"/><figcaption>Error 522</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>TorrentFreak reached out to a Pirate Bay staffer who informed us that the downtime is a mystery to most staffers as well. The technical part of the site is managed by &#8220;Winston,&#8221; who hasn&#8217;t yet provided an explanation. </p>



<p>We also contacted another person who managed the site in the distant past, but he had no further information on the present issues either. </p>



<p>The Pirate Bay has had prolonged downtime in the past and always returned thus far. There is no indication that things are different now, but the duration of the current problems certainly is longer and more widespread than usual.</p>



<p>TPB is still occasionally available via&nbsp;<a href="http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/recent">its .onion address</a>&nbsp;on the Tor network, which is accessible using the popular Tor Browser, for example. However, as the <a href="https://pirates-forum.org/misc.php?page=tpbstatus">official status page</a> reveals, the Tor version is also experiencing some issues. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/c256a973.tpbstatsus.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbstatsus.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178571"/><figcaption>TPB&#8217;s status page</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>This isn&#8217;t the first setback for Pirate Bay visitors this year. As reported previously, new registrations to the site were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-closes-registrations-due-to-spam-flood-190606/">disabled a few months ago</a> to prevent spam floods. This remains the case today. </p>



<p>The trouble has motivated some Pirate Bay users to move elsewhere for the time being. Some have switched to unofficial proxy sites, which may still be somewhat operational, while others are utilizing other torrent sites. </p>



<p>For the rest, it&#8217;s just the usual waiting game. If we look at the past, the site will likely reappear eventually, and then continue as if nothing ever happened.</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=178502
title: More ‘Pirate’ CDNs Shut Down Following BREIN, MPA, ACE Legal Action
uri: More-Pirate-CDNs-Shut-Down-Following-BREIN-MPA-ACE-Legal-Actio
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/rea38qAnH1M/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/5d11ad34.pirate-cloud.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-cloud.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-58771" width="247" height="266"/></figure></div>



<p>Last Friday, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN teamed up with the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment to take action against a massive supplier of pirate movies and TV shows.</p>



<p>Moonwalk, as the Content Delivery Network was known, supplied an estimated 80% of known Russian streaming portals. These sites were able to embed a video player which presented not only movies and TV shows from Moonwalk, but advertising too. For this service, Moonwalk reportedly paid the sites $0.60 per 1000 views.</p>



<p>After bailiffs acting on BREIN&#8217;s behalf served <em>ex parte</em> court orders on five Netherlands-based hosting providers, which required them to disconnect and preserve evidence on Moonwalk&#8217;s operations, the CDN shut down, stating it would &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-mpa-and-ace-shut-down-massive-pirate-cdn-191021/">NEVER be up again</a>&#8220;.</p>



<p>This week TorrentFreak spoke with cybersecurity company <a href="https://www.group-ib.com/">Group-IB</a>. The Singapore-based firm, which is a partner of both INTERPOL and Europol, had previously supplied us with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-powered-cdns-operate-innovative-illicit-streaming-model-190203/">information</a> detailing the activities of Moonwalk. It has now provided an interesting update on the fallout from last week&#8217;s legal action.</p>



<p>Group-IB says that at the time of its shutdown, Moonwalk was even bigger than the conservative figures published by BREIN last week suggest. While BREIN claimed more than 26,000 movies and 10,000 TV shows were stored, Group-IB says that 28,258 movies were being distributed alongside 14,549 TV shows at the time of the shutdown.</p>



<p>However, it&#8217;s the knock-on effect and the state of the market after the takedown that raises the most interest. </p>



<p>Group-IB informs us that another big &#8220;pirate-powered&#8221; CDN known as HDGO has also shut down following the action by BREIN and its partners. The cybersecurity firm believes that the closures are connected because HDGO used some of the same infrastructure as Moonwalk.</p>



<p>&#8220;Compared with other CDNs HDGO provided new content faster and guaranteed a higher income for pirate websites’ owners,&#8221; says Dmitry Tyunkin, Deputy Director of Anti-Piracy and Brand Protection at Group-IB. </p>



<p>A second &#8220;pirate-powered&#8221; CDN, known online as Kodik, has also shut down as a result of the Moonwalk action. Again, Kodik is believed to have used the same infrastructure as Moonwalk and HDGO, suggesting that the BREIN court orders may have had an even wider effect.</p>



<p>&#8220;The Kodik CDN used some of Moonwalk’s servers, especially the ones where TV show content was stored. According to our estimates, Kodik could have lost 8,000 out of 17,000 TV shows. It’s known that there was a pirated content &#8216;exchange agreement&#8217; between Moonwalk and Kodik,&#8221; Tyunkin adds.</p>



<p>It&#8217;s estimated that Moonwalk’s CDN player could have been built-in into thousands of websites so the removal of the players could have an even more profound effect.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the short-term perspective, the shutdown of Moonwalk, HDGO and Kodik could mean a big blow to online piracy in Russia and can potentially contain pirated video content distribution for some time.&#8221;</p>



<p>But Moonwalk, HDGO, and Kodik weren&#8217;t the only players in the &#8216;pirate CDN&#8217; market. Group-IB says that despite the magnitude of the recent efforts and initial fallout, in the long-term the &#8220;many competitors&#8221; of Moonwalk are likely to step in to facilitate supply.</p>



<p>The company believes there are 10 &#8220;pirate-powered&#8221; CDNs still supplying the market, including major players HDVB, VideoCDN, and Collaps.</p>



<p>&#8220;According to Group-IB’s data, 80% of pirated movies in Russia are now streamed, a figure that increases to 90% for TV shows,&#8221; the company says.</p>



<p>&#8220;The majority of Russian online pirates use CDNs because they store hundreds of thousands of files containing films and TV series, and offer a technical service that allows to automatically place this content on pirate websites.</p>



<p>&#8220;Some of these technical CDN providers also offer web modules that autofill sites with film posters and descriptions, and in some cases even supply unique reviews.&#8221;</p>



<p>Finally, in terms of impact on the global market, Group-IB believes the shutdowns have the potential to affect between 5 and 10 percent of worldwide supply but cautions that this is &#8220;definitely a temporary change.&#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=178589
title: Police Drop Criminal Investigation into Pirate Bay Co-Founder
uri: Police-Drop-Criminal-Investigation-into-Pirate-Bay-Co-Founder
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MKgIWfK99Ww/
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>On December 9, 2014, The Pirate Bay went dark after Swedish police <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">raided</a> a nuclear-proof datacenter built into a mountain complex near Stockholm.</p>



<p>The hosting facility reportedly offered services to The Pirate Bay, EZTV and several other torrent related sites, which were pulled offline as a result.</p>



<p>The authorities later announced that 50 servers were seized during the raid. And not without success, it seemed. The raid resulted in the longest ever period of continuous downtime for The Pirate Bay, nearly two months.</p>



<p>The raid also triggered a new criminal investigation into the notorious torrent site and its alleged operators. One person with alleged ties to TPB was arrested, but the police eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-drop-investigation-into-pirate-bay-suspect-160112/">dropped this investigation</a>, citing a lack of resources to properly investigate the matter.</p>



<p>Meanwhile, Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij remained a suspect. He had officially cut his ties with the site years earlier, but apparently the authorities were not convinced.</p>



<p>To some, the new investigation into the TPB co-founder came as a surprise, especially since Neij was in prison for his earlier Pirate Bay activities at the time of the raid. However, the enforcement authorities seemed determined and decided to dig in. </p>



<p>Today, nearly five years have passed without any significant progress in the investigation. At least, none that the public is aware of.  On the contrary, the entire case appears to have fallen apart.</p>



<p>This week Fredrik Neij, aka TiAMO, informed TorrentFreak that the investigation into his involvement was dropped on October 18, 2019. The prosecutor and police informed Neij through his attorney, who forwarded the good news. After all these years, Neij is happy that he can finally put the issue to rest. </p>



<p>&#8220;It took them long enough to realize that I&#8217;m not running The Pirate Bay anymore,&#8221; Neij tells us. </p>



<p>Pirate Bay&#8217;s co-founder now hopes that he will be properly compensated for the seizure of his possessions, which resulted in no tangible claims.</p>



<p>&#8220;Now that the investigation is closed, I&#8217;m looking forward to being compensated for them unnecessarily holding all my computer equipment for four years and ten months,&#8221; Neij adds.</p>



<p>At this point, it is unclear if there are any remaining suspects in the 2014 raid investigation, or if the case is closed. We reached out to the police and the prosecutor&#8217;s office, but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back.</p>



<p>The information that has been made public thus far suggests that the 2014 raid has yielded no substantial results. For the TPB team, this might not come as a surprise, as someone connected to the site previously&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-what-raid-police-never-got-our-servers-150921/">said</a>&nbsp;that the police didn’t have much on them.</p>



<p>According to the TPB team, only one of their servers was confiscated in 2014. That server was operated by the moderators and used as a communication channel for TPB matters. The team said the site was pulled offline as a precaution and took longer than expected to return as migrating to a new home proved to be a challenge. </p>



<p>Regardless of the progress in the case, Fredrik Neij is no longer being investigated. He is still listed as the official registrant for the official thepiratebay.org domain, but that is obviously not enough to build a case.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/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=178509
title: IPTV Smarters App Back on Google Play After Winning Copyright Dispute
uri: IPTV-Smarters-App-Back-on-Google-Play-After-Winning-Copyright-Dispute
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PbOy4KSb4Hk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/7aa9d498.image-132.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-132.png" alt="" width="230" height="232"/></figure></div>



<p>Right up until early this month, IPTV Smarters, one of the most popular and impressive IPTV players, was available from Google&#8217;s Play Store.</p>



<p>The software, which is available for Android and iOS, allows people to watch IPTV streams but, at the time of delivery, carries no content. If users want to view anything, they have to add login details for their service of choice.</p>



<p>While the software can be used for legitimate means in the same manner as a torrent client, for example, some IPTV Smarters users utilize the software to access infringing content. As a result, on October 7, 2019, the developer of the software received a copyright complaint which led to Google <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/popular-iptv-smarters-app-removed-from-google-play-following-complaint/">removing it from Google Play</a>.</p>



<p>At the time, the company behind the software, New Spark Technology, told TorrentFreak that this was the third time it had received a complaint about its player and that its legal team would sort out the issue. That has now resulted in the software being reinstated by Google.</p>



<p>Speaking with TF, Amanpreet Singh declined to mention the name of the company behind the complaint but did reveal that it was based on copyright law and alleged breaches of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).</p>



<p>&#8220;Our lawyer has handled this case with Google and the company that claimed. We have clarified to them that we are not offering content and not infringing&nbsp;copyright. As all know, we are not offering any kind of media content &#8211; streams, subscriptions, channels, etc. The user must have their own content,&#8221; Singh said.</p>



<p>The outcome of the claim, according to Singh, is that this should never happen again, at least when it comes to any future complaints from the unnamed company.</p>



<p>&#8220;I have discussed with my lawyer, they will work on it to prevent it from happening again. But the same group/company can&#8217;t complain anymore I assure you,&#8221; he added.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the end, we have got our application back as we promised.  There was no evidence so it was a false complaint.&#8221; </p>



<p>While many app developers are small teams without the resources to fight back against dubious claims, that&#8217;s not the case with the company behind IPTV Smarters. Singh says it&#8217;s a pretty big development operation with 67 staff members.</p>



<p>Meanwhile, an apparently similar complaint, against the IPTV player Perfect Player, is still ongoing. That tool was removed from Google Play <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-play-removes-perfect-player-after-bogus-copyright-complaint-191019/">just a few days ago</a> and remains unavailable via the platform.</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=178617
title: RomUniverse Admin Asks Court to Dismiss Nintendo’s Piracy Lawsuit
uri: RomUniverse-Admin-Asks-Court-to-Dismiss-Nintendo-s-Piracy-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CNnlw-dKfk0/
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 month, Nintendo&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-romuniverse-for-mass-copyright-infringement/">filed a lawsuit</a>&nbsp;against the game download portal RomUniverse.</p>



<p>The website, which also allows users to download movies and books, stands accused of massive copyright infringement, including that relating to many Nintendo titles.</p>



<p>“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,” the Japanese gaming giant wrote.</p>



<p>According to the game company, “hundreds of thousands of copies” have been illegally downloaded through RomUniverse. The site, meanwhile, profits from this by offering premium memberships that allow users to download as many games as they want.</p>



<p>This week, the operator of RomUniverse, California resident Matthew Storman, responded to Nintendo&#8217;s claims. Instead of hiring an attorney, he is defending himself in court, starting with a detailed motion to dismiss the complaint. </p>



<p>Storman doesn&#8217;t deny that he is involved in the operation of RomUniverse. However, he sees himself as a Service Provider, who is not part of the &#8216;forum&#8217; itself. On the contrary, the admin argues that he&#8217;s protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor provisions. </p>



<p>&#8220;Since DMCA protects SP from any liability, and only limits Plaintiff to only injunctive relief, the Plaintiff complaints are without basis and potentially an abuse of process,&#8221; the motion to dismiss reads.</p>



<p>The motion doesn&#8217;t clearly name who is responsible for the files that are uploaded to the site, but it suggests that they are copies of games from people who obtained them legally. </p>



<p>Taking matters a step further, RomUniverse&#8217;s operator argues that Nintendo is not the owner of the files and therefore has no standing in this case. Citing the First Sale Doctrine, Storman argues that those who buy games have the right to sell, destroy, or give them away.</p>



<p>&#8220;The First Sale Doctrine permits non-copyright or trademark owner to dispose of their copies as they see fit. The Plaintiff does not own copies on websites,&#8221; the motion reads.</p>



<p>As mentioned before, Storman further argues that he is protected by the DMCA&#8217;s safe harbor. In the motion, he explains that takedown requests that were sent on behalf of Nintendo were honored in the past. </p>



<p>Some of the takedown notices that were sent suggested that this was enough to prevent any legal action. This includes the following passage from a Nintendo DMCA notice.</p>



<p><em>“Therefore I request you to take immediate action to remove or disable access to unauthorised copies of the Nintendo Game listed at the URLs below and in order to prevent further legal actions against your company.”</em> </p>



<p>According to Storman, this is an implied contract suggesting that any potentially infringing copies that were removed will not result in further legal action. </p>



<p>Based on these and many other arguments, the RomUniverse operator (/service provider) asks the US District Court for the Central District of California to dismiss the complaint. </p>



<p>While Storman makes several interesting arguments, the question is whether any of these will hold up in court. On top of that, waging a legal battle against a billion-dollar gaming empire is already a challenge with a good lawyer. Doing so without any legal representation will be even harder. </p>



<p>Nintendo will likely file its response during the coming weeks, and after that, it will be up to the court to make a decision. In the meantime, <a href="https://romuniverse.com">RomUniverse</a> remains online.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of the memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss, filed pro se by Matthew Storman, is <a href="media/c385d4a8.romdismiss.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/romdismiss.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=178420
title: MPA’s Piracy Claims Caused Financial Damage, VOD Site Says
uri: MPA-s-Piracy-Claims-Caused-Financial-Damage-VOD-Site-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/apus38Yf0Tc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177349"/></figure></div>



<p>Every year the US Trade Representative (<a href="https://ustr.gov/">USTR</a>) asks interested stakeholders to identify &#8216;notorious&#8217; foreign piracy markets.</p>



<p>The responses that come in list the Pirate Bay&#8217;s of this world, but also sites and services that don&#8217;t see themselves as pirate markets. </p>



<p>The Polish video-on-demand (VOD) platform <a href="https://www.cda.pl/">CDA.pl</a> falls in the latter category. Last year the video service was already branded a pirate site by MPA America (formerly the MPAA), and this year the movie industry group submitted pretty much the same remarks.</p>



<p>&#8220;Cda.pl is Poland’s most popular piracy website, eclipsing several legitimate VOD services in the country,&#8221; <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-adds-1xbet-and-baidu-to-latest-piracy-threat-report/">MPA wrote</a> in its submission.  </p>



<p>The movie and video industry group further informed the USTR that the &#8220;notorious&#8221; site is operated by &#8220;Comedian S.A.&#8221; and uses the services of Cloudflare to mask its IP-address, making it harder for copyright holders to identify the hosting location. </p>



<p>This is all nonsense, according to CDA.pl. The company that owns the VOD service makes this clear in a rebuttal sent to the USTR late last week. For starters, it points out that the site is not managed by Comedian S.A., which may not even exist, but by another Polish company aptly named CDA S.A.</p>



<p>This is not some shady website that&#8217;s run from someone&#8217;s basement, but a tax-paying joint-stock company. </p>



<p>&#8220;CDA S.A. is a public joint-stock company, with its business seat in Wroclaw (Poland), operating in full transparency, fulfilling all of its legal obligations and publishing all relevant information in the way determined by the law and internal stock exchange regulations,&#8221; the rebuttal reads.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/f99f250d.nopirate.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/nopirate.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178425"/></figure></div>



<p>The company accuses MPA of spreading false information. It assures the US government that it is not a piracy website, adding that it operates in full accordance with the Polish and European legal regulations.</p>



<p>CDA.pl says that it shares its profits directly with rightsholders. They pay commissions that are based on subscription revenues, which make up over 90% of the site&#8217;s income. </p>



<p>The site also has a subscription-free section where users can upload files. This part is monetized through advertisements. MPA&#8217;s complaints are likely related to the latter, but CDA.pl stresses that ads are only displayed on content uploaded by verified users and partners. </p>



<p>The rebuttal also stresses that the VOD platform has a fully functional notice and takedown system that allows rightsholders to remove infringing content. Some companies, including Warner Bros. and Fox, are even permitted to remove content directly, without CDA getting in the way.</p>



<p>According to CDA, the pirate label is grossly inaccurate. The company is a fully-functional legal entity that&#8217;s even listed on the NewConnect stock exchange. This means that, in addition to tax reporting obligations, it&#8217;s also subject to various EU stock exchanges and financial regulations.</p>



<p>That the MPA persists in branding the site as a notorious market, hurts the company&#8217;s image and causes financial damage, CDA notes. Among other things, CDA&#8217;s listing on the New Connect stock exchange was delayed earlier this year. </p>



<p>This year&#8217;s renewed allegations are bound to cause trouble as well, the company predicts.</p>



<p>&#8220;The MPAA&#8217;s letter which indicates CDA.pl website as a pirate site and unfairly lists it along with other websites widely known for their notoriety in copyright violations [&#8230;] negatively affect the image of the Company and thus negatively influence the interest of potential investors which may lead to occurring significant financial losses by my Client,&#8221; the rebuttal reads.   </p>



<p>According to CDA, it was never approached directly by the MPA(A), nor did the industry group respond to a letter the company sent in response to last year&#8217;s allegations. </p>



<p>The Polish VOD service makes it clear that it wants the false accusations to stop. It believes that this may not even be about piracy per se, but more an attempt to quash the competition. Several MPA members have their own VOD platforms, CDA mentions. </p>



<p>&#8220;lt is also worth noting that some of the members of the MPAA can be considered as competitors of the Company and its services, who develop their own VOD services on the Polish market, where CDA.pl currently has the biggest share (sVOD section). Therefore, MPAA&#8217;s opinion re. CDA.pl presented to this Office cannot be treated as objective but rather as a means of pressure on competition.&#8221;  </p>



<p>The full rebuttal sent by CDA is available <a href="media/cbadcf95.CDA_S_A_2019_Notorious_Markets_OCR-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/CDA_S_A_2019_Notorious_Markets_OCR-1.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. Last year the USTR decided not to include the service in its final overview of notorious markets and the company hopes to achieve the same result again.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/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=178507
title: TVAddons Removes Kodi Add-On Tutorial After BT Sport Complaint
uri: TVAddons-Removes-Kodi-Add-On-Tutorial-After-BT-Sport-Complaint
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xH4PCbDpNec/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/0f952272.tvaddonsnew.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tvaddonsnew.png" alt="" class="wp-image-145066"/></figure></div>



<p>After beginning with the obligatory statement that Kodi is an entirely legal platform until people augment it with third-party &#8216;pirate&#8217; add-ons, not every complaint in this area is straightforward.</p>



<p>This week, Kodi add-on resource <a href="https://www.tvaddons.co/">TVAddons</a> received a relatively unusual complaint about a page on its site that detailed a BT Sport-related add-on called BT Sport Video. According to a cache copy of the page <em>(<a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Wc7Jexujs3gJ:https://www.tvaddons.co/kodi-addons/show/plugin.video.btsportvideo/">Google cache</a>)</em> TVAddons didn&#8217;t host the software or even link to it but did detail how to find and install it.</p>



<p>At first view, this could&#8217;ve been any other &#8216;pirate&#8217; tool offering illegal streams but the &#8216;BT Sport Video&#8217; add-on simply gave viewers a way to access officially-supplied and/or paid-for BT Sport content inside Kodi, without any piracy involved.</p>



<p>The complaint from BT Sport, however, wasn&#8217;t just about the add-on. The TVAddons installation guide included a BT Sport logo and referenced the add-on as BT Sport Video, the name given to the add-on by its <a href="http://addons.leopold.me.uk/">developer</a>. This appears to have prompted the broadcaster&#8217;s agent to issue a takedown notice covering both copyright and trademark law.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our client has recently become aware that on the web site, published in correspondence of the domain name https://www.tvaddons.co/kodi-addons/show/plugin.video.btsportvideo/, an Internet user is publishing,  absent any authorization of the legitimate IP Rights owner, contents taken from our client&#8217;s official sites and protected by copyrights. See, for instance, at the URL http://sport.bt.com,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;This website is breaching IP Rights by offering illegal preloaded apps that enable unauthorized viewing of the BT Sport content. Please either remove all BT Sport content or suspend this website.&#8221; </p>



<p>In addition, the BT Sport complaint included copies of its trademark registration certificate, which was effective from September 2016 and details, among other things, rights in respect of computer software and computer services.</p>



<p>A response email sent by TVAddons to BT Sport&#8217;s representatives indicates that the site responded quickly to the complaint by taking down the entire installation guide. However, the add-on itself appears to be long-abandoned after being discontinued by its developer last year.</p>



<p>According to a <a href="https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=325188">thread</a> on the official Kodi forums, the BT Sport Video add-on was initially available via the official Kodi repository, another sign that the add-on was initially viewed as non-problematic. However, it was subsequently hit with a DMCA notice and as of last summer, is no longer available.</p>



<p>It seems that even with a legitimate BT Sports subscription or content made freely available via its site, the broadcaster doesn&#8217;t want its content seen inside the Kodi application. Some will consider this an opportunity lost but BT Sport has its own business model and has probably had its fill of people using Kodi to access its streams illegally via the software.</p>



<p>Driving more users to the Kodi platform probably isn&#8217;t high on BT Sport&#8217;s list of priorities and when people use the BT Sport name to promote third-party software, it has the potential to imply an official endorsement, obviously a step too far for the company&#8217;s brand protection team.</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=178666
title: Backing Up Doomed Radio Station Online Archives Was “Furiously Illegal”
uri: Backing-Up-Doomed-Radio-Station-Online-Archives-Was-Furiously-Illeg
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/K6gKFWiGM94/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/a3637ca1.broken-radio.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/broken-radio.png" alt="" class="wp-image-53881" width="268" height="224"/></figure></div>



<p>First launched in November 2011, <a href="https://www.24syv.dk/forside">Radio24syv</a> (Radio 24 seven) is a talk radio station funded through mandatory license fees paid by the Danish public.</p>



<p>On October 31, however, the station will come to an end. Earlier this year Radio24syv said it wouldn&#8217;t be applying for a fresh broadcasting license after the government insisted that 70% of its employees must live in a certain geographic location of the country.</p>



<p>In May a lifeline appeared when the government said that the station might be able to switch to DAB rather than FM broadcasting. Ultimately, however, that fell through after another station won the slot. So with an October 31 shutdown looming, what will happen to eight years&#8217; worth of online publicly-funded show archives and podcasts?</p>



<p>Station CEO Jørgen Ramskov announced last week that he was in negotiations to preserve the archive but for some, that was an assurance that could go either way. A website, created by three IT expects called &#8216;Archives24syv.dk&#8217; appeared, urging members of the public to use its systems to grab every piece of content and upload it to their servers.</p>



<p>&#8220;So far, no one has been able to give a clear answer as to what will happen with the eight-year-long radio archive,&#8221; the website read.</p>



<p>&#8220;For safety&#8217;s sake, we will get it all. It is a big task, but we help each other out. Give us your connection and use the page here to copy the files from the archive to our server.&#8221;</p>



<p>In total, <a href="https://www.recordere.dk/2019/10/nogen-har-downloaded-alle-udsendelser-fra-radio24syv/">2,000 people</a> joined the call for action and between them downloaded and then help store the entire station&#8217;s archives in just three days.</p>



<p>This conservation project was unapproved by the radio station, to put it mildly. Station chief  Jørgen Ramskov declared the effort &#8220;furiously illegal&#8221;, effectively branding the entire operation as mass piracy.</p>



<p>&#8220;It is totally and completely pirated,&#8221; Ramskov told Mediawatch. <em>(<a href="https://mediawatch.dk/secure/Medienyt/Radio/article11711030.ece">paywall</a>)</em></p>



<p>&#8220;If we had been asked, we would have said no &#8211; it is a complete infringement of copyright in relation to Radio24syv, Koda [collecting society for songwriters, composers and music publishers], Gramex [organization for recording rights of record companies] and others with rights in the material.&#8221;</p>



<p>But for those seeking to ensure that the publicly-funded content wasn&#8217;t consigned to history if a deal didn&#8217;t appear, that was an unfair characterization.</p>



<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want to compete with anything Radio24syv does,&#8221; Jens Christian Hillerup, one of the project&#8217;s founders, told <a href="https://www.dr.dk/nyheder/indland/lyttere-vil-have-downloadet-radio24syvs-arkiv-den-kopiering-er-rasende-ulovlig">DR.dk</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;If we were to redistribute in the extreme, then it would have to be cleared with Radio24syv and possibly other rights holders, so I am a little shocked at what Jørgen Ramskov says.&#8221;</p>



<p>The website created for backup purposes is now down, having fulfilled its initial goal. However, with a clear announcement on what will happen to the archive yet to be heard, its &#8216;booty&#8217; may still prove important for preservation.</p>



<p>A copy of Radio24syv&#8217;s archives already exists in The Royal Library in Denmark, but access is restricted to computers that are on the library&#8217;s network, as well as those at the Danish Film Institute. But that&#8217;s not broad enough access, the backup project believes.</p>



<p>&#8220;Of course, it&#8217;s good to have it in the library if you research media. But that&#8217;s not the way podcast media is intended to be consumed,&#8221; Hillerup <a href="https://www.recordere.dk/2019/10/nogen-har-downloaded-alle-udsendelser-fra-radio24syv/">said</a>. &#8220;It is, after all, a utility art that everyone should be able to access without stepping up to the library.&#8221;</p>



<p>In closing, Hillerup hopes that Radio24syv will be able to reach a deal to preserve the archives so everyone can move on.</p>



<p>&#8220;In that case, our archive will be irrelevant, and then we will probably just delete it,&#8221; he says.</p>



<p>This morning, <a href="https://www.avisen.dk/feberedning-til-radio24syv_572043.aspx">Danish media</a> is widely covering outrage at the termination of the channel and its archive, with words like &#8220;scandal&#8221;, &#8220;incomprehensible&#8221; and &#8220;murder&#8221; being used by politicians and observers to describe its pending demise.</p>



<p>Maybe an 11th-hour reprieve can save it. If not, the backup will prove more relevant than ever &#8211; if anyone is brave enough to do anything with it.</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=178684
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 10/28/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-10-28-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7jGnsqBpI_s/
content:
<p><img class="alignright wp-image-178235" src="media/4fc0e3fb.lionk.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk.png" alt="" width="300" height="227" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk.png 449w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/lionk-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Lion King 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-10-21-19/">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/tt6105098/">The Lion King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf9bVk75s8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7PAyCDwEg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6095472">The Angry Birds Movie 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6095472">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDj8Y2K0ODA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(4)</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>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</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>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4068576/">The Nightingale</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4068576/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuP8g_GQIgI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243946/">El Camino</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9243946/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JLUn2DFW4w&amp;t=2s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/">It: Chapter Two</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/">6.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6MLJG0RdDE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8526872/">Dolemite Is My Name</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8526872/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws1YIKsuTjQ">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=178668
title: US Court Shields Internet Subscribers From Futile Piracy Complaints
uri: US-Court-Shields-Internet-Subscribers-From-Futile-Piracy-Complaints
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Sw7Z8o_wQ0E/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/efd05bc4.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-108977"/></figure></div>



<p>For more than a decade, alleged file-sharers around the world have been pressured to pay significant settlement fees.</p>



<p>These so-called ‘copyright-trolling’ efforts are pretty straightforward. Copyright holders obtain a list of ‘pirating’ IP-addresses and then request a subpoena from the court, compelling ISPs to hand over the associated customer data.</p>



<p>This scheme can be rather lucrative. With minimal effort, rightsholders can rake in hundreds or thousands of dollars per defendant. That is, if a court grants expedited discovery, allowing the companies to request the personal details of alleged infringers from ISPs. </p>



<p>In the past, it has been relatively easy to pursue these cases, but the tide is slowly turning. Most prominent was a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from last year in the&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ip-address-is-not-enough-to-identify-pirate-us-court-of-appeals-rules-180828/">Cobbler Nevada v. Gonzales</a> case. Here, the court ruled that identifying the registered subscriber of an IP-address is by itself not enough to argue that this person is also the infringer.</p>



<p>While the Cobbler case wasn&#8217;t about a subpoena request, it certainly said something about the strength of the underlying complaints. </p>



<p>As the most <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-online-piracy-lawsuits-hit-a-record-high-last-year-190104/">prolific filer</a> of piracy lawsuits in the US, Strike 3 Holdings has come under fire as well. For example, last November Columbia District Judge Lamberth&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-judge-slams-copyright-troll-for-using-his-court-like-an-atm-181123/">accused the company </a>of being a “copyright troll,” that uses “famously flawed” technology to prey on “low-hanging fruit,” flooding the<br>courthouse “with lawsuits smacking of extortion.”  </p>



<p>That didn&#8217;t stop Strike 3, which produces adult content, from continuing its legal campaign. The company filed has more than 1,150 lawsuits already this year, many of which are believed to have resulted in profitable settlements. However, there have been setbacks as well. </p>



<p>Last week, New Jersey District Court Magistrate Judge Joel Schneider denied Strike 3 expedited discovery in four cases. This means that it&#8217;s not allowed to subpoena ISPs for the personal details of account holders whose IP-addresses were used to share pirated videos via BitTorrent. </p>



<p>In a very detailed 47-page opinion, the Judge takes apart various aspects of Strike 3&#8217;s enforcement efforts. He makes it clear that these cases should not be allowed to go forward, as the complaints are futile.</p>



<p>&#8220;The most fundamental basis of the Court’s decision is its conclusion that, as pleaded, Strike 3’s complaints are futile. The Court denies Strike 3 the right to bootstrap discovery based on a complaint that does not pass muster,&#8221;  Judge Schneider writes.</p>



<p>The futility lies in the fact that the complaints themselves include very few facts. The only thing that the company really knows is that an IP address is associated with downloading copyrighted works. Strike 3 doesn&#8217;t know whether the subscriber is involved in the actual infringements. </p>



<p>Courts have previously ruled both in favor and against allowing discovery to expose the account holders in these situations, but the New Jersey Court clearly sides with the latter. </p>



<p>&#8220;The Court sided with the cases that hold it is not sufficient to merely allege in a pleading that the defendant is a subscriber of an IP address traced to infringing activity. Consequently, the Court will not authorize Strike 3 to take discovery premised on a futile John Doe complaint.&#8221;</p>



<p>The decision is partly based on the aforementioned &#8220;Cobbler&#8221; ruling of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. However, the Court makes it clear that even if there was a properly pleaded infringement claim, the requests for expedited discovery would still be denied.<br><br>In the opinion,  Judge Schneider sums up the other issues as follows:</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><em>(1) Strike 3 bases its complaints on unequivocal affirmative representations of alleged facts that it does not know to be true.<br>(2) Strike 3’s subpoenas are misleading and create too great of an opportunity for misidentification. <br>(3) The linchpin of Strike 3’s good cause argument, that expedited discovery is the only way to stop infringement of its works, is wrong.<br>(4) Strike 3 has other available means to stop infringement besides suing<br>individual subscribers in thousands of John Doe complaints.<br>(5) The deterrent effect of Strike 3’s lawsuits is questionable. <br>(6) Substantial prejudice may inure to subscribers who are misidentified. <br>(7) Strike 3 underestimates the substantial interest subscribers have in the constitutionally protected privacy of their subscription information.  </em>  </p></blockquote>



<p>For example, Strike 3 has argued that these cases do not really raise any substantial privacy concerns, but the Court clearly disagrees. Being named in a lawsuit is an invasion of people&#8217;s constitutional privacy rights, which should not be underestimated. </p>



<p>&#8220;[G]iven the expansive view of individual privacy under New Jersey law, there should be a good reason before subscriber information is turned over. This is especially true in a situation where questionable averments are relied upon to obtain discovery,&#8221; Judge Schneider writes.</p>



<p>Another point the Judge brings up is Strike 3&#8217;s claim that it has no other available means to stop copyright infringements. According to the Court, this is not true. The DMCA allows the company to send takedown notices to ISPs, but Strike 3 doesn&#8217;t use this option. </p>



<p>While the company is by no means required to issue takedown notices, the Court finds it unreasonable for Strike 3 to argue that it has no other options when it ignores the DMCA. </p>



<p>&#8220;One would think that Strike 3 would be eager to notify ISPs that its subscribers are infringing their copyrights, so that an infringer’s internet service would be interrupted, suspended or terminated and infringement would stop. However, Strike 3 does not take this simple step but instead files thousands of lawsuits arguing that it has no other recourse to stop infringement,&#8221; Judge Schneider writes.</p>



<p>Even if Strike 3 believes that these notices don&#8217;t have any direct effect, it could at least try. If an ISP willfully ignores DMCA notices or fails to follow its repeat infringer policy, it could even consider suing the Internet provider, as other rightsholders have done, the Court adds. <br><br>Adding to that, Judge Schneider points out that the current legal campaigns against individual file-sharers are not very effective. There doesn&#8217;t seem to be a substantial deterrent effect, as Strike 3 admits that the infringements of its works have only increased. </p>



<p>All in all the Court sees no other option than to deny the request for expedited discovery. This is good news for the people who were targeted by these lawsuits, as they won&#8217;t be identified. At the same time, it means that Strike 3 can&#8217;t continue these cases, as it can&#8217;t name a defendant. </p>



<p>The Court realizes that this makes it nearly impossible to track down the alleged infringers, but sometimes that&#8217;s how the law works.</p>



<p>&#8220;The Court is not unmindful that its ruling may make it more difficult for Strike 3 to identify copyright infringers. To the extent this is the price to pay to assure compliance with the applicable law, so be it,&#8221; Judge Schneider writes. </p>



<p>&#8220;A legal remedy does not exist for every wrong, and it is unfortunately the case that sometimes the law has not yet caught up with advanced technology. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last, where a party who believes it was wronged was denied discovery,&#8221; he adds.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of the full opinion issued by US Magistrate Judge  Joel Schneider is <a href="media/8a07e8ea.strikedeny.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/strikedeny.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=178713
title: Pirate Bay Downtime ‘Caused by Malicious Attack, Proxies May be to Blame’
uri: Pirate-Bay-Downtime-Caused-by-Malicious-Attack-Proxies-May-be-to-B
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/B97NBhaf1e8/
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>Over the past several weeks, The Pirate Bay has suffered <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-suffers-extended-downtime-tor-access-is-buggy-too-191024/">prolonged downtime</a>. For many people, the popular torrent site was completely unreachable. </p>



<p>The reason for the persistent issues has not been revealed directly by the site&#8217;s operators. Users and staffers, including the moderators, had no idea what was wrong.</p>



<p>This lack of communication is nothing new. Usually, the site returns to normal after a while, to continue as if nothing ever happened. And indeed, starting a few hours ago some people were able to access the site again. </p>



<p>TorrentFreak spoke to someone who directly communicated with the operators. According to this reputable source, the recent Pirate Bay problems were likely caused by malicious actors who DDoSed the site&#8217;s search engine with specially crafted search queries. </p>



<p>This person, or persons, overwhelmed The Pirate Bay with searches that break the Sphinx search daemon, effectively crashing the site. Sphinx is an open-source search server and  The Pirate Bay reportedly used an older version of the software.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/1d0a80b0.searchda.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/searchda.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178719"/><figcaption>Data corruption&#8230;</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Due to the high volume of malicious search queries, it wasn&#8217;t possible to log the errors and send a bug report, which complicated matters. However, our contact informed us that the Pirate Bay updated Sphinx to a newer version yesterday, which resolved the crashes.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak was unable to independently confirm the above,  but our source is generally well informed.</p>



<p>When we tried accessing The Pirate Bay this morning, it was still returning a Cloudflare 522 error in some regions. However, elsewhere the site was coming through fine with plenty of new uploads being listed. It&#8217;s unclear why it doesn&#8217;t work everywhere, but the site appears to be recovering.</p>



<p>The question that remains is who targeted The Pirate Bay with these harmful search queries and why? </p>



<p>We didn&#8217;t speak to The Pirate Bay&#8217;s operators directly, but our source believes that this isn&#8217;t the work of anti-piracy outfits. Instead, he suspects that a malicious proxy site (or sites) is likely to blame. </p>



<p>Taking The Pirate Bay out drives more traffic to proxy sites. And by holding off the attacks for a while every now and then, there would be enough time for new scripted uploads to be added to the site, so the proxy site could still scrape fresh content. </p>



<p>For now, this remains speculation, but all the signs suggest that someone was purposefully targeting 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=178737
title: Millions of UK Football Fans Seem Confused About Piracy
uri: Millions-of-UK-Football-Fans-Seem-Confused-About-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jDTMJNvECVg/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/413852f6.oldball.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/oldball.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-150389" width="282" height="193"/></figure></div>



<p>Football, or soccer as it&#8217;s more commonly known in the US, is the most popular spectator sport in the UK. As a result, millions watch matches every week, both legally and illegally.</p>



<p>The latter method of consumption is a big thorn in the side of organizations such as the Premier League, which has been working hard to stamp out piracy in all its forms, often via aggressive enforcement. However, a new survey published today suggests more education is also needed.</p>



<p>Commissioned by betting tips service <a href="https://www.olbg.com/insights/fans-of-the-epl/how-do-fans-watch/">OLBG</a> and carried out by market research company OnePoll in September, the survey looks at some of the habits of 1,000 football fan respondents.</p>



<p>The survey begins by noting that 16.6% of respondents usually attend live games, closely followed by 14.3% who &#8220;usually&#8221; watch in the pub. However, the largest audience (46.9%) are those who regularly watch matches live at home.</p>



<p>This, of course, opens up the opportunity for piracy. The report states that 22.4% of football fans surveyed admitted to knowingly using &#8220;unofficial streams&#8221; at some time in the past, a figure that is extrapolated in the report to &#8220;over five million UK football fans&#8221; admitting to illegal streaming. </p>



<p>Asking whether fans had watched a pirated stream in the past 12 months (or even &#8220;usually&#8221;) would have arguably been a little more useful, in order not to inflate the figures beyond current consumption habits. There will be fans in those millions who, in varying combinations, attend matches, watch legally in the pub, and on occasion, illegally at home too.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, the report provides some interesting data on the knowledge of those surveyed when it comes to illegal and legal consumption.</p>



<p>For example, just over 61% of respondents acknowledged that accessing streams from unofficial providers is illegal, meaning that almost 40% believe that watching matches from third-party sources is absolutely fine. That&#8217;s a pretty big problem for the Premier League and other broadcasters when four out of ten fans can&#8217;t tell the difference between a legal and illegal provider.</p>



<p>Strangely, the figure drops slightly when respondents were asked about &#8220;Kodi-style&#8221; devices. Just 49% said that these boxes provide content illegally, meaning around half believe they offer football matches legally. Given the drive to stamp out the illegal use of these devices globally, this is also an eye-opener.</p>



<p>Moving to other methods of access, the figures are a little bit more predictable. Just under 29% felt that social media streams (Facebook Live etc) are illegal, so that may raise the possibility that respondents associated the perceived legitimacy of the platform with legality.</p>



<p>Password sharing is also tackled in the survey, with 32.5% of respondents stating that they believe that using someone else&#8217;s login to access football matches is illegal. If that happens outside the subscriber&#8217;s household it might constitute a terms-of-service breach but actual illegality is open to question, account stealing aside.</p>



<p>All that being said, according to the survey, just 11% have actually used a family member&#8217;s login to watch football during the past 12 months, a figure that drops to 9.8% when borrowing from a friend.</p>



<p>In common with the debate around password sharing on Netflix and other platforms, this issue is likely to receive greater attention in the future but how it will be tackled by providers is far from clear. At least at the moment, the problem seems limited.</p>



<p>Finally, and just returning to the headline &#8220;five million football pirates in the UK&#8221;, it&#8217;s worth noting that this refers to people who have &#8220;EVER&#8221; used an unofficial stream to watch football, so it&#8217;s not necessarily five million fans who don&#8217;t ever part with a penny.</p>



<p>As far as we could see, no question in the report tried to determine what percentage of fans currently freeload all of the time, which is undoubtedly the biggest problem for the Premier League.</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=178694
title: Criminal Pirate Bay Investigation Closed After Statute of Limitations Expired
uri: Criminal-Pirate-Bay-Investigation-Closed-After-Statute-of-Limitations
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dcH36HJ8biM/
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>On December 9, 2014, the file-sharing world was in turmoil. </p>



<p>Swedish police <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">raided the Nacka station</a>, a nuclear-proof datacenter in Stockholm, and confiscated dozens of servers.</p>



<p>The raid caused downtime at many popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay. While a TPB insider <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-what-raid-police-never-got-our-servers-150921/">later denied</a> that its servers were taken, it remained offline for nearly two months.</p>



<p>After the raid, it became clear that The Pirate Bay was indeed the main reason for the enforcement effort. Similar to the earlier raid in 2005, a criminal investigation was launched to hold the operators responsible and keep the site offline. </p>



<p>However, where the first enforcement action resulted in several criminal convictions, the most recent investigation had limited success. </p>



<p>Last week we reported that the police <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-drop-criminal-investigation-into-pirate-bay-co-founder-191025/">ended the investigation</a> into Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij, who was seen as a prime suspect. Today, we can report that the entire criminal investigation is now closed. </p>



<p>While the prosecution gathered a substantial amount of evidence, the case can&#8217;t continue, simply because time ran out.</p>



<p>&#8220;The investigation was closed because the statute of limitations expired,&#8221;   Anna Ginner, Prosecutor at the National Intellectual Property Crime Unit tells us.</p>



<p>There was enough evidence to pursue a case against a suspect, which we believe is Fredrik Neij. However, the prosecution was unable to reach this person for &#8220;<a href="https://www.aklagare.se/en/the-legal-process/the-role-of-the-prosecutor/preliminary-investigation/final-serving/">final serving</a>,&#8221; a process where defendants can review the evidence, which is mandatory in Sweden. </p>



<p>&#8220;The investigation was finished. However, we did not manage to contact the suspect to give him the possibility to review the investigation on final serving,&#8221; Ginner notes. </p>



<p>Although there are no criminal convictions, the police and prosecution did book some results, Ginner says. The investigation led to a legal battle over the thepiratebay.se domain name, which was registered to Neij. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which forfeited the domain <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-set-to-take-over-pirate-bay-domains-171222/">to the Swedish state last year</a>. </p>



<p>The prosecution may have hoped for more but the lack of a conviction doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise. In 2017,  the then leading prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-prosecution-trouble-time-runs-investigators-170227/">already warned</a> that time was running out and that oral evidence was weakening.</p>



<p>Due to secrecy provisions, the prosecution can&#8217;t comment on whether The Pirate Bay remains a topic of interest, but it&#8217;s clear that the investigation following the 2014 raid is now closed. </p>



<p>Last week Neij told us that he is pleased that the case was dropped.</p>



<p>“Now that the investigation is closed, I’m looking forward to being compensated for them unnecessarily holding all my computer equipment for four years and ten months,” he<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-drop-criminal-investigation-into-pirate-bay-co-founder-191025/"> said</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=178780
title: EU: 51% of Young People Pirated Nothing During the Last Year
uri: EU-51-of-Young-People-Pirated-Nothing-During-the-Last-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Or3wtax4wg0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/8eded133.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-136985" width="272" height="182"/></figure></div>



<p>The EU Intellectual Property Office has published its latest Intellectual Property and Youth Scoreboard Study. </p>



<p>Its stated aim is to better understand which drivers and barriers are the strongest among 15 to 24-year-olds when obtaining digital content online or purchasing physical goods, both legally and illegally.</p>



<p>In line with the previous study published in 2016, music remains the most popular content among young people. An impressive 97% stream or download music, 94% download or stream movies and series, with games following behind with 92%. Roughly eight out of ten access educational content (82%) with a similar number accessing other TV shows or sport (79%).</p>



<p>Of course, not all of these consumers access content legally. The study found that around a third use unlicensed sources but that&#8217;s down five percentage points on the findings from a similar study in 2016.</p>



<p>However, that 33% is split &#8211; 21% said they intentionally pirated while 12% said their illicit consumption was unintentional.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/699e508c.image-144.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-144.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178787" width="650"/></figure></div>



<p>&#8220;Young people who use illegal sources intentionally to access digital content do so primarily to access films and series,&#8221; the study reveals.</p>



<p>&#8220;There has been a notable decrease in those using illegal sources to access music —whereas almost all young people download or stream music online, only 39% of those intentionally using illegal sources do so to access music — a decline of 17 percentage points since 2016.&#8221;</p>



<p>The motivations for deliberately using illegal sources aren&#8217;t new. More than half (56%) cite price as a factor (10 points down from 2016) but just under a third (30%) say they frequent illicit platforms due to content not being available legally or based on the perception that pirate sites offer a larger choice (26%). But at least some users of these platforms can be deterred.</p>



<p>&#8220;There are almost always reasons that would stop young people from using illegal sources to access digital content. Primarily these relate to having a more affordable offer (55%), followed by a risk of punishment (35 %), and a bad personal experience (29%),&#8221; the report adds. </p>



<p>The EU study also highlights that in respect of illegal content consumed intentionally, there is a &#8220;limited correlation&#8221; with more general consumption of digital products. While a majority of all respondents consume films, TV shows, sport, games, eBooks and similar content, intentional pirates tend to focus on streaming or downloading movies and series.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/02a01767.image-145.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-145.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178789" width="650"/></figure>



<p>&#8220;More generally, it is rare for young people to rely exclusively on illegal sources — 80 % of the sample use legal sources to access digital content,&#8221; the report notes, adding that 51% have not &#8220;used, played, downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources in the last 12 months.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>The full report can be downloaded <a href="media/b511e4ff.IP_youth_scoreboard_study_2019_en.pdf" data-original-source="https://euipo.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/observatory/documents/IP_youth_scoreboard_study_2019/IP_youth_scoreboard_study_2019_en.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=178802
title: Global Anti-Piracy Coalition Takes On Password Sharing
uri: Global-Anti-Piracy-Coalition-Takes-On-Password-Sharing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WOCMRVVbnZo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/e6f6f6de.passshare.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/passshare.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178808" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/passshare.png 300w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/passshare-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></figure></div>



<p>The online piracy ecosystem is constantly evolving. </p>



<p>Ten years ago the entertainment industries were mostly concerned with torrent sites. Today, different types of unauthorized online streaming are the main challenge.</p>



<p>To tackle this threat, some of the largest companies in the world bundled their powers. In 2017 they formed the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (<a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/">ACE</a>), which lists prominent members including major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and other entertainment giants. </p>



<p>More recently, Internet providers started to join the alliance. Earlier this month <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/comcast-becomes-first-isp-to-join-ace-global-anti-piracy-coalition-191016/">Comcast was presented</a> as the first ISP to join, but the Canadian company Bell is also a member. Yesterday, Charter was added to the growing group.</p>



<p>The addition of these names isn&#8217;t a complete surprise as most telecom companies are content companies as well nowadays. As such, they have a vested interest in limiting online piracy. Thus far, ACE has done so by focusing on bringing down unauthorized streaming services, including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/iptv-service-set-tv-must-pay-7-6-million-in-piracy-damages-190801/">Set TV</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dragon-box-has-to-pay-ace-14-5-million-in-piracy-damages-190129/">Dragon Box</a>.</p>



<p>However, there&#8217;s another threat on the horizon that needs to be addressed: password sharing. While it is is far removed from the typical piracy scenario where someone shares a file without permission, sharing a password is also seen as facilitating unauthorized access. </p>



<p>Most media platforms haven&#8217;t strictly enforced this type of unauthorized use but, according to ACE, the issue is now on the agenda.</p>



<p>A working group will focus on reducing unauthorized access to content. While this is a rather broad description, ACE adds that it will offer opportunities to share &#8220;best practices&#8221; on issues including &#8220;improper password sharing&#8221; and &#8220;inadequate encryption.&#8221; </p>



<p>Tom Rutledge, CEO of ACE&#8217;s newest member, Charter, immediately embraced the password sharing topic, which the company is looking forward to addressing. </p>



<p>“We are very pleased that ACE and its coalition of members have committed through this initiative to take on unauthorized password sharing and other content security practices, and we look forward to working together on this important issue,” Rutledge said.</p>



<p>According to Charter, both creators, distributors, and consumers will benefit from a unified strategy to tackle this and other &#8216;piracy&#8217; threats.</p>



<p>“Consumer, creators, and distributors alike will benefit from collaborative solutions that make content more secure and curtail unauthorized copyright use and distribution, while preserving the customer’s ability to enjoy the content rights they’ve purchased on the network, platform, device, and locations to which they subscribe,” Rutledge adds.</p>



<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time Charter has mentioned password sharing as a problem. Last week, the company also highlighted this as part of a new content distribution <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fox-charter-spectrum-agree-to-clamp-down-on-piracy-191022/">deal with Fox</a>.  </p>



<p>Also, ACE&#8217;s focus on password sharing comes roughly two weeks after its member Netflix addressed the issue in its latest <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHK51RgeqdY">quarterly earnings call</a>. There, Netflix&nbsp;chief product&nbsp;officer Greg Peters said that the company will continue to monitor the situation, adding that no concrete actions are planned yet. </p>



<p>“So we&#8217;re looking at the situation and, you know, we&#8217;ll see, getting those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that, but I think we&#8217;ve got no big plans to announce at this point in time in terms of doing something differently there,” Peters said.</p>



<p>According to research published by <a href="https://magid.com/mentions/the-netflix-sharing-problem/">Magid last year</a>, Netflix alone could miss out on roughly $135 million in subscriptions alone due to password sharing, which is a rather substantial amount. </p>



<p>However, as is often the case with &#8220;unauthorized&#8221; access, these one-on-one calculations are not very reliable. It&#8217;s unrealistic to think and all the people who share passwords now will suddenly pay for a subscription if they can&#8217;t. In fact, some people may simply cancel theirs, if they can&#8217;t share a password. </p>



<p>This may be where ACE comes in. With all the major streaming players combined in a single anti-piracy coalition, they have the opportunity to streamline their strategies in &#8220;best practices&#8221;, so consumers don&#8217;t simply walk over to the next competitor. </p>



<p>With ACE&#8217;s focus on password sharing, it&#8217;s clear that the problem is being taken seriously, and that countermeasures are being considered. </p>



<p>TorrentFreak reached out to ACE for further details on password sharing and how it compares to traditional piracy, but the organization has yet to provide a comment. </p>



<p>We also asked the group about Charter&#8217;s involvement in a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/charter-profited-from-ignoring-piracy-music-companies-tell-court-190703/">rather prominent piracy lawsuit</a>, where several major music labels accuse the ISP of not doing enough to curb piracy. We have yet to hear back on that as well.<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=178841
title: Openload and Others ‘Taken Over’ by Anti-Piracy Alliance ACE
uri: Openload-and-Others-Taken-Over-by-Anti-Piracy-Alliance-ACE
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5zjlbcFRxPU/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/329514a7.openload.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/openload.png" alt="" class="wp-image-162114"/></figure></div>



<p>With millions of regular visitors, file-hosting site&nbsp;<a href="https://openload.co/">Openload</a>&nbsp;generates&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-openload-generates-more-traffic-than-hulu-or-hbo-go-181002/">more traffic</a>&nbsp;than popular streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go.</p>



<p>While the site has plenty of legal uses it is also a thorn in the side of many copyright holders, due to the frequent appearance&nbsp;of pirated content.</p>



<p>This pirate stigma most recently resulted in a mention on the US Government’s list of “<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-identifies-top-pirate-sites-and-other-notorious-markets-190426/">Notorious Markets</a>”.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Today the site&#8217;s regular users are welcomed with a rather unpleasant surprise. Instead of the usual interface, allowing them to access the latest videos, they see a message from the global anti-piracy alliance ACE. </p>



<p>&#8220;The website is no longer available due to copyright infringement. You will be redirected to alliance4creativity.com,&#8221; it reads. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/d3c834ea.openloadace.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/openloadace.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178843"/><figcaption>The notice</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>A closer look at the DNS information shows that the domain name now points to the ns3.films.org and&nbsp;ns4.films.org nameservers, which have been used in the past for similar seizures.</p>



<p>Whether the &#8216;takeover&#8217; is limited to just the domains or whether any additional property has also been seized is unknown at the moment. TorrentFreak reached out to ACE to confirm or deny their involvement along with a request for additional detail, but the Alliance didn&#8217;t immediately reply. </p>



<p>It appears, however, that Openload.co, and many related Openload domains such as oload.cc, oload.club and oload.download, openload.pw and oloadcdn.net are not the only affected domains. </p>



<p><a href="http://streamango.com/">Streamango.com</a> and <a href="http://Streamcherry.com">Streamcherry.com</a>, which are believed to be connected to Openload, both show the same ACE copyright notice. </p>



<p>With millions of daily visitors, the redirects are causing trouble for the <a href="https://www.alliance4creativity.com/">ACE website</a> too, which is slowing down and returning errors regularly. This is no surprise, as Openload.co alone has an estimated 65 million visits per month, according to <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/openload.co#overview">SimilarWeb</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/b1c13347.aceeror.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/aceeror.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178844"/></figure></div>



<p>Without official confirmation, there is always a possibility that the domain redirects are the result of a hostile takeover or elaborate prank, but thus far all signs point towards ACE being behind the development.</p>



<p>This is a breaking story, we will add or update the article if and when new information becomes available.</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=178807
title: Pirate Site Revenues in Russia Set to Plummet, First Fall in Five Years
uri: Pirate-Site-Revenues-in-Russia-Set-to-Plummet-First-Fall-in-Five-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WlszrEGVdS8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/65c4566f.piracydown.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piracydown.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-73866" width="255" height="229"/></figure></div>



<p>In what is becoming an increasingly competitive market, generating revenue by any means is a must for most significant sites, platforms, and services operating in the piracy space.</p>



<p>In Russia, pirate platforms have been experiencing an upward revenue trend for many years but according to a forecast just published by cybersecurity firm <a href="https://www.group-ib.ru/">Group-IB</a>, 2019 is set to be much less lucrative.</p>



<p>For background, in 2015 revenues were estimated to be $32m but a year later the picture had changed significantly with the market <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/despite-massive-site-blocking-russian-pirate-video-market-doubles-171029/">almost doubling</a> in size to $62m. In 2017 there was a further 21% uplift to $85m but in 2018 things began to slow down, with a small 2.3% growth delivering estimated revenues of $87m. </p>



<p>In its latest analysis, the company states that for the first time in half a decade, revenues are set to collapse. Group-IB predicts a figure of around $63.5m for 2019, a drop of 27% compared to estimates for 2018 published last year.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/f66bf673.Frame-9-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Frame-9-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178828" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Source: Group-IB</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>The reasons cited for the dramatic downward shift are numerous. Russia has been tightening its anti-piracy laws almost every year, including site-blocking and in particular, the ability to block repeat-infringer sites and their mirrors/proxies on a permanent basis.</p>



<p>However, the &#8220;tectonic shift&#8221;, as the company describes it, came as a result of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-anti-piracy-database-agreement-signed-in-moscow-181101/">voluntary anti-piracy memorandum</a> signed in 2018.</p>



<p>Internet platforms including Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler and Gazprom Media, in conjunction with major content companies, agreed to the creation of an infringing content database which signals which URLs to remove from search results. Around 600,000 links to pirated copies of movies and TV shows are currently included.</p>



<p>The arrangement officially <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russia-anti-piracy-agreement-expires-now-relies-on-goodwill-of-search-engines-191002/">expired</a> early October but an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/landmark-russian-anti-piracy-agreement-extended-until-end-october-191007/">extension</a> was subsequently agreed, with an option to continue until the end of the year if a bill to enshrine its terms in law is submitted to the State Duma by the end of this month. In the meantime, the effects of the agreement haven&#8217;t gone unnoticed.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the previous years, even if pirated content was removed from a web page, a user still could open the web page, finding it in the search engine, and see the advertisement placed on it, bringing money to online-pirates,&#8221; says Andrey Busargin, Director of Brand Protection and Anti-Piracy at Group-IB.</p>



<p>&#8220;In 2019, on the contrary, a user was not always able to open a resource with pirated video content, even intentionally.&#8221;</p>



<p>Pirate site operators have other advertising issues too. Group-IB estimates that the average earnings for a pirate site via advertising are around $10,000 per month, with online casinos and gaming platforms providing most of the income. </p>



<p>&#8220;The active work of the Russian Federal Tax Service against bookmakers and gambling led to the pushing out of advertisers of pirated websites,&#8221; Busargin notes.</p>



<p>&#8220;For example, Azino777, a highly affiliated provider of advertising services for pirate CDNs, has already lost its leading position.&#8221;</p>



<p>Many streaming portals in the region utilize these <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-powered-cdns-operate-innovative-illicit-streaming-model-190203/">&#8216;pirate&#8217; CDNs</a> which bundle video and advertising into a single package. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-mpa-and-ace-shut-down-massive-pirate-cdn-191021/">As recently reported</a>, however, several major players were either taken down after legal action by BREIN, the MPA, and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, or <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/more-pirate-cdns-shut-down-following-brein-mpa-ace-legal-action-191025/">shut down as a direct result</a>. At least temporarily, this could be affecting up to 80% of the pirate streaming market.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, there remains a thirst among Russian consumers for pirated content, so solutions are likely to be found. Group-IB says that the volume of search requests seeking pirated movies and TV shows increased by 0.06% in 2019, to 10.4 billion.</p>



<p>But there is also a cultural problem faced by content companies. A survey <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eset-91-of-russians-prefer-pirated-content-190924/">published</a> in September by security company ESET suggested that just 9% of respondents prefer legal content over pirated, with 75% citing high prices as their motivation.</p>



<p>That being said, their supply will only continue if pirate sites can make money at their end, so it will be interesting to see whether their 2020 revenues continue on a downward trend.</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=178894
title: TuneIn Radio Infringed Sony & Warner’s Copyrights, High Court Rules
uri: TuneIn-Radio-Infringed-Sony-Warner-s-Copyrights-High-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pOUP9kpjqUw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/2662b101.tunein.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tunein.jpg" alt="" width="279" height="157"/></figure></div>



<p>TuneIn is one of the most prominent and recognizable providers of radio content in the world.</p>



<p>Available for free or on a premium basis, the service offers access to well over 100,000 radio stations and millions of podcasts. It doesn&#8217;t provide this content itself but acts as an indexer (&#8220;audio guide service&#8221;, according to <a href="https://tunein.com/">TuneIn</a>) for those looking to access third-party streams. </p>



<p>In 2017 it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sony-warner-sue-tunein-for-copyright-infringement-in-uk-high-court-171109/">emerged</a> that Sony Music UK and Warner Music UK had sued the US-based company in the UK, claiming that since many of the TuneIn-indexed stations are unlicensed to play music in the region, linking to them amounts to infringement of the labels&#8217; copyrights. </p>



<p>Today, the High Court of England Wales handed down its decision and it doesn&#8217;t look good for TuneIn. The judgment begins by stating the opposing positions of the labels and TuneIn, which are particularly familiar in these types of disputes concerning hyperlinking.</p>



<p>&#8220;The claimants say that a finding for the defendant will fatally undermine copyright. The defendant says that a finding for the claimants will break the internet,&#8221; Justice Birss writes.</p>



<p>The labels argued that TuneIn needs a license, an assertion &#8220;strongly disputed&#8221; by TuneIn. The company argued that it does not &#8220;store any music, and merely provides users of TuneIn Radio with hyperlinks to works which have already been made freely available on the internet without any geographic or other restriction.&#8221;</p>



<p>In other words, TuneIn presents itself as not unlike Google search but instead of indexing websites, it indexes and links to radio streams. However, Justice Birss declared the service to be &#8220;much more than that&#8221;, in part due to its curation and search features.</p>



<p>&#8220;I find therefore that the activity of TuneIn does amount to an act of communication of the relevant works; and also that that act of communication is to a &#8216;public&#8217;, in the sense of being to an indeterminate and fairly large number of persons,&#8221; he writes.</p>



<p>The ruling, which was first published by a <a href="https://mediawrites.law/when-does-hyperlinking-infringe-copyright-uk-high-court-addresses-linking-to-internet-radio-stations/">blog</a> connected to Bird and Bird, the law firm that represented TuneIn, runs to 47 pages and is both extremely detailed and complex. However, the conclusion to Judge Birss&#8217; judgment can be summarized in a straightforward manner.</p>



<p>When TuneIn supplied UK users with links to radio stations that are already licensed in the UK, the company <em>did not</em> infringe Sony or Warner&#8217;s copyrights.</p>



<p>However, when TuneIn supplied UK users with links to radio stations that <em>are not</em> licensed for the UK or are not licensed at all, the company <em>did</em> infringe the labels&#8217; rights.</p>



<p>Noting that TuneIn cannot rely on the safe harbor defenses under the E-Commerce Directive, Judge Birss declared TuneIn, &#8220;liable for infringement by authorization and as a joint tortfeasor.&#8221;</p>



<p>The full judgment can be found here <em>(<a href="media/d027d70f.judgment.pdf" data-original-source="https://mediawrites.law/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/judgment.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/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=178880
title: Twitter Copyright Notices Have Doubled in Half a Year
uri: Twitter-Copyright-Notices-Have-Doubled-in-Half-a-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7rX75ZH27Kk/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/ce45d93c.pirate-twitter.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-twitter.png" alt="" class="wp-image-98627"/></figure></div>



<p>In common with many other online services, copyright holders regularly ask Twitter to remove tweets that link to pirated material. </p>



<p>Whether it&#8217;s a tweet from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dmca-notice-confirms-trump-tweet-was-taken-down-by-warner-music/">the U.S. President</a> or some random pirate site, the social media platform investigates the claims and takes action, if needed. </p>



<p>A few hours ago Twitter published a new update to its transparency report, highlighting the latest takedown trends. This reveals that the number of copyright notices received during the first half of the year skyrocketed compared to the previous six months.</p>



<p>&#8220;We received a 101%&nbsp;increase in DMCA takedown notices&nbsp;since our last report,&#8221; Twitter <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2019/twitter-transparency-report-2019.html">reports</a>, noting that this includes a high volume of fraudulent DMCA notices from Turkey and Japan.</p>



<p>From January to June of this year a total of 106,951 DMCA notices were received, compared to 53,094 during the last half of 2018. This is a notable increase. However, it doesn&#8217;t directly translate to an equal change in removed tweets or withheld content. </p>



<p>The number of tweets that were removed increased by 46% to 113,015. At the same time, there was a 4% decrease in withheld media in the same period, 266,699 files in total.</p>



<p>This suggests that the average notice today includes fewer tweets and media files. </p>



<p>The percentage of notices for which Twitter took action also dropped significantly. On average, less than half of the notices (45%) resulted in material being removed, down from 62% last period. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/241e7e31.twitdm.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/twitdm.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178886"/></figure></div>



<p>The above applies to notices that were sent to Twitter, but the company also owns and operates Periscope. The number of copyright notices received by the streaming platform increased by roughly ten percent to 26,331 over the past six months. </p>



<p>Taken together, more than a third of the Twitter and Periscope copyright notices were sent in by a handful of reporters. Music industry group IFPI is the most prolific sender, followed by Netresult, LeakID, Athletia Sports and LaLiga. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/7a4295b8.report-1.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/report-1.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178891"/></figure></div>



<p>The most spectacular increase we see in the report is the number of counternotices that were submitted by people who disputed a copyright claim. This number jumped 285% to 3,966. </p>



<p>This uptick is in part linked to an increase in fraudulent DMCA notices, which Twitter also highlights in its report. The company says that it will continue to keep a close eye on this trend and has put safeguards in place to help protect people on Twitter and Periscope.  </p>



<p>Earlier this year TorrentFreak was also hit by inaccurate DMCA takedown complaints, targeting our news coverage. American entertainment giant <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/starz-goes-on-twitter-meta-censorship-spree-to-cover-up-tv-show-leaks-190415/">Starz removed</a> ours and several other tweets, pointing to an article about leaked TV-shows.</p>



<p>While Twitter accepted these takedowns, the reporting organization lifted the claim after we and many others complained.</p>



<p>Twitter&#8217;s complete transparency report, which also addresses trademark notices, information requests, rules enforcement, and other removal requests, is <a href="https://transparency.twitter.com/en.html">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=178708
title: ‘Pirate’ IPTV Reseller Boom Media Sued in the United States
uri: Pirate-IPTV-Reseller-Boom-Media-Sued-in-the-United-States
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6V78GYa0kMY/
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="273" height="180"/></figure></div>



<p>Selling &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV packages and subscriptions to the public is a growing market, with the obvious potential to end badly for anyone involved.</p>



<p>With that in mind, there&#8217;s a growing trend for so-called IPTV resellers to be extremely open about their activities, utilizing highly active social media accounts and particularly YouTube channels, where they promote their services, describe them as illegal, and then have their own faces front and center.</p>



<p>For Boom Media, a prominent reseller of various &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV services, this business model has attracted the wrong type of attention. The company, which trades as Boom Media LLC in North Carolina, is now being sued by DISH Network and NagraStar for illegally offering their content to the public.</p>



<p>Alongside the LLC, John Henderson of New York and Debra Henderson of North Carolina are also named as defendants.</p>



<p>The lawsuit, filed in a New York district court, states that Boom Media is run from John&#8217;s home and he is the sole member of the company. Together with his mother, Debra, it&#8217;s alleged they sell &#8220;access codes&#8221; (a common term used in DISH lawsuits to reference IPTV subscriptions) which are designed to enable subscribers to illegally receive DISH programming via the Internet.</p>



<p>&#8220;The codes are designed and produced to enable a set-top box or other Internet-enabled device to access servers used to transmit DISH programming to customers of the MFG TV, Beast TV, Nitro TV, Murica Streams, Epic IPTV, Vader Streams and OK2 services,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>



<p>Noting that Vader Streams and OK2 are no longer on offer from Boom Media (likely due to the former being <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vader-streams-was-shut-down-by-ace-must-pay-10m-damages-190821/">shut down by ACE</a> earlier this year), the lawsuit notes that the defendants also promote their service to access channels such as HBO and Showtime, plus PPV events associated with UFC, WWE, and various boxing promotions.</p>



<p>In common with similar suits filed recently, DISH says it was able to determine that the channels were sourced from its service due to watermarks embedded in its broadcasts. These were then resold from the above-listed IPTV suppliers by Boom Media, which charged customers between $10 and $20 per month with an option to buy a &#8220;pre-loaded&#8221; set-top box for $150.</p>



<p>While DISH points the finger firmly at John Henderson for the running of Boom Media, the broadcaster claims that it is his mother, Debra, who receives payment from Boom&#8217;s customers.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/9520184f.image-143.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-143.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178728" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Image from the complaint</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>As previously mentioned, Boom Media has a YouTube channel which it uses to promote the various packages it sells. This hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by DISH, which highlights some of the language used by Boom Media in its videos.</p>



<p>&#8220;In a video posted to the Boom Media YouTube channel, Defendant John Henderson informed customers that &#8220;[y]ou guys are buying pirated streams, this shit is not Hulu, it&#8217;s not Netflix, it&#8217;s pirated f**cking streams. It&#8217;s no different than buying f**king knockoff shoes. It&#8217;s black market shit,&#8221; DISH writes in its complaint.</p>



<p>In common with other similar lawsuits, DISH hasn&#8217;t gone down the copyright infringement route with this action, instead opting for willful violations of the Federal Communications Act.</p>



<p>The company demands a permanent injunction to prevent the ongoing behavior and seizure of all devices and equipment used to facilitate the violations. It also wants to seize the Boommedia.org domain name (and any others involved in the scheme) plus &#8220;all hard copy and electronic records&#8221; regarding persons involved in the entire &#8220;Rebroadcasting Scheme&#8221;.</p>



<p>At this stage it&#8217;s difficult to put a figure on the final amount DISH will demand in damages but even hundreds of thousands of dollars could be a conservative estimate.</p>



<p><em>The full complaint can be found <a href="media/24f1ca09.5-19-cv-01310-Dish-v-Henderson-Boom-Media-complaint-191024.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/5-19-cv-01310-Dish-v-Henderson-Boom-Media-complaint-191024.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=178784
title: ‘Demonoid’ Moves Away From .to Domain to Distance Itself From Scam Site
uri: Demonoid-Moves-Away-From-to-Domain-to-Distance-Itself-From-Scam
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bG56AzOSSF0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/8a973527.demonoid-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoid-logo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-94766"/></figure></div>



<p>For many old-school torrent users, Demonoid is a familiar name. The site was founded sixteen years ago, which made it one of the oldest BitTorrent sites around. </p>



<p>However, last year things changed when Deimos, the site’s founder, went missing. After months of uncertainty and downtime, it became clear that the site wasn’t coming back this time. Deimos is believed to have passed away in a tragic accident, marking the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-founder-deimos-is-believed-to-have-passed-away-190416/">end of an era</a>.</p>



<p>As time went on it became obvious that Demonoid would not return in its original state. However, many of the site&#8217;s staffers and users were eager to build a new home. Not so much to replace the old Demonoid, but more as a tribute, and to keep the name alive.</p>



<p>This vision came to fruition a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-staffers-launch-new-site-to-keep-the-legacy-alive-190724/">few months</a> ago when Dnoid.to, a Demonoid successor, was launched. The new site has the same look and feel as the old site, but started over with a completely new user database. </p>



<p>The new site doesn&#8217;t operate a tracker either. Instead, the most important goal of the site was to bring the old community back together.</p>



<p>“Demonoid always had a special spot in people’s hearts. Keeping a memento of it without letting others ruin it by making copycats and phishing sites from it is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to him and keeping his legacy alive,”  Demonoid staffer ‘phaze1G’&nbsp; told us at the time. </p>



<p>In the weeks that followed the site&#8217;s new userbase slowly started to grow but it also became apparent that the domain name choice was far from ideal.</p>



<p>The .to domain is also used by another site, Demonoid.to, which is a well-known scam site. Instead of offering torrents, Demonoid.to urges people to download a binary client. The client download URL redirects to an affiliate link for a paid Usenet service.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/e09e1f89.demonscam.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/demonscam.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178795" width="606" height="218"/><figcaption>Demonoid scam</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Because of the dnoid.to / demonoid.to confusion, many users ended up at the wrong site. According to phaze1G, more than 800 emails with complaints about this issue were received in recent weeks. </p>



<p>This volume wasn&#8217;t something the staff could ignore. As such, the team registered a new domain name, <a href="https://www.demonoid.is/">Demonoid.is</a>, which is the new home from now on. For the time being, visitors to the old domain will be automatically redirected. </p>



<p>&#8220;The Tonic registry is not as reliable as it used to be with their redacted whois. They are handing over owner details, even following DMCA complaints, as we were told by some people from other sites,&#8221; phaze1G says.</p>



<p>Indeed, as we have covered previously, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/to-registry-must-identify-owner-of-fmovies-and-other-pirate-domains-190925/">Tonic registry does comply</a> with DMCA subpoenas from US Courts, but that&#8217;s something it has always done. The change here may be that DMCA subpoenas are more often used as an enforcement tool nowadays.</p>



<p>With the fresh domain name, the &#8216;new&#8217; Demonoid hopes to avoid any confusion and other domain troubles. Meanwhile, it will continue to keep the site going, something that went relatively well over the past weeks. </p>



<p>&#8220;The site itself is doing fine. It&#8217;s not oversaturated, which is our goal. Many former users returned and lots of newcomers are stopping by too,&#8221;  phaze1G notes.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are trying to keep a moderated size of visitors, so the infrastructure doesn&#8217;t include more cost as the revenue from ads is not enough to cover the costs itself,&#8221; he adds.</p>



<p>While Demonoid remains a big name that for many is surrounded by nostalgia, it&#8217;s a small player in the larger ecosystem today. With roughly half a million monthly visits, according to SimilarWeb, it pales in comparison to the larger torrent sites.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/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=178591
title: RIAA Targets Music Hosting Service Wi.to, But Leaves Pirated Files Untouched
uri: RIAA-Targets-Music-Hosting-Service-Wi-to-But-Leaves-Pirated-Files-Unt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nRl8MoyOiq4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/6098d35b.riaalogo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaalogo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-178829"/></figure></div>



<p>This year the RIAA has discovered DMCA subpoenas as a useful enforcement tool against alleged pirate sites. </p>



<p>The music industry group has repeatedly obtained these subpoenas against Cloudflare, ordering the CDN provider to hand over the personal details of its customers. </p>



<p>The latest target is <a href="https://wi.to/">Wi.to</a>, a file-hosting site that specializes in music. In fact, that&#8217;s the only content that can be shared on the platform. However, like any user-generated content platform, people abuse it by sharing pirated files as well. </p>



<p>This didn&#8217;t sit well with the RIAA which, armed with three URLs of infringing music as evidence, sent a subpoena to Cloudflare. The music group specifically asked for the physical address, IP address, e-mail address, payment information, account updates, and other info of the customer connected to Wi.to. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/bc3b6977.riaasub.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaasub.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178875"/></figure></div>



<p>This is the same boilerplate language we&#8217;ve seen in similar requests that were made in the past, which Cloudflare generally complies with. While the RIAA doesn&#8217;t specify what it intends to do with the information, it will generally be used to enforce the copyrights of its members. </p>



<p>To hear the other side of the story we reached out to the operator of Wi.to, Sergey, who resides in Estonia. He was informed about the RIAA&#8217;s subpoena last week but doesn&#8217;t feel directly threatened. </p>



<p>&#8220;We are not criminals,&#8221; Sergey says.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Wi.to is a service that makes it easy to publish music files DJs have created themselves. It&#8217;s true that the service is sometimes abused. But that&#8217;s something the users do. Also, services like Soundcloud or Dropbox are abused as well.&#8221; </p>



<p>Sergey says that, as an Estonian, the DMCA doesn&#8217;t apply to him, however, the site does process <a href="https://wi.to/report_file.html">abuse complaints</a>. In response to these notices, infringing files are regularly removed. </p>



<p>This is where things get interesting. The RIAA subpoena identifies three of these infringing music tracks. However, when we checked these URLs we found out that all three files are still online, including this Harleys in Hawaii track by Katy Perry. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/13cb0809.harleys-e1572535251220.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/harleys-e1572535251220.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178835"/></figure></div>



<p>According to Sergey, the RIAA never asked for these files to be removed. </p>



<p>&#8220;The RIAA hasn&#8217;t even contacted me and it looks to me like they&#8217;re acting arbitrarily. They deliberately want to get everything out of the way they can&#8217;t make money from,&#8221; Sergey tells us.</p>



<p>Wi.to&#8217;s operator believes that the RIAA is overreacting. If they see any infringing files they should file an abuse complaint instead of going to court to request personal details through a third party company, while keeping the infringing files unaddressed. </p>



<p>To Cloudflare, the RIAA wrote that any disclosed information will only be used to protect the copyrights of its members. However, sending an abuse complaint seems to be a more direct and effective way to do so. </p>



<p>Intriguingly, the RIAA has asked Google to remove these three URLs from its search engine. However, these requests were pointless, for now, as the tracks were not indexed by the search engine. </p>



<p>TorrentFreak reached out to the RIAA to find out what the purpose of the DMCA subpoenas is, but the organization prefers not to comment. Thus far, these efforts have had <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/as-riaa-targets-yet-more-youtube-ripping-sites-heres-the-state-of-play-191005/">mixed results</a>, but Wi.to isn&#8217;t planning to change its course.</p>



<p>As outsiders, we can&#8217;t judge how Wi.to processes its abuse complaints. We did notice, however, that the site has a &#8220;pendejo&#8221; link in the footer, pointing to the Narcos theme song by Rodrigo Amarante, without permission. </p>



<p>According to Sergey, this was a birthday present for one of his colleagues, which will be removed in due course or sooner, if an abuse notice comes in.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of RIAA&#8217;s subpoena to Cloudflare is available <a href="media/9433b624.wito-riaa.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/wito-riaa.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=178852
title: Have Pirate IPTV Sellers on YouTube Lost Their Minds?
uri: Have-Pirate-IPTV-Sellers-on-YouTube-Lost-Their-Minds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LlfMD7YsvZs/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/b8a96610.ripper.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ripper.png" alt="" class="wp-image-170902" width="259" height="234"/></figure></div>



<p>Anyone who has followed piracy and copyright infringement issues for years or even decades, few developments fall into the &#8216;WOW&#8217; category anymore.</p>



<p>That torrent and streaming services are still getting sued or raided is frankly daily fodder and after the military-style raid on Kim Dotcom hit the headlines, pretty much anything is possible. </p>



<p>Over the past couple of years, however, something so bizarre &#8211; so ridiculous &#8211; has been developing on sites like YouTube to make even the most outspoken of pirates raise an eyebrow or two. We&#8217;re talking about the rise of the IPTV seller and reseller &#8216;celebrities&#8217; who are openly promoting their businesses like a regular company might. </p>



<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-iptv-reseller-boom-media-sued-in-the-united-states-191102">reported this week</a>, IPTV reseller company Boom Media LLC is getting sued by DISH Networks and NagraStar in the United States. That another one of these outfits is being targeted isn&#8217;t a shock. However, when promotional YouTube videos are produced in court evidence, with the alleged owner of the company personally appearing in them stating that &#8220;it’s pirated f**cking streams. It’s no different than buying f**king knockoff shoes. It’s black market shit,&#8221; one has to wonder what the hell is going on.</p>



<p>So, just one person has allegedly done something reckless or ill-considered, right? Wrong. This type of behavior is neither isolated or rare.</p>



<p>Over the past couple of weeks, I&#8217;ve been sitting through hours of YouTube videos produced by people selling or reselling &#8216;pirate&#8217; IPTV packages. In a worrying number, particularly given the popularity of their services, owners, founders, or &#8217;employees&#8217; of these outfits appear in person.</p>



<p>Their names are publicly known and in some cases, even their addresses. These are not small players, not by any stretch. In some cases, we&#8217;re talking huge numbers of followers and many hundreds of thousands of views, selling well-recognized services.</p>



<p>While in some cases hyperbole is clearly part of the pitch, it&#8217;s child&#8217;s play to find operators of these companies bragging about how much money they&#8217;ve made or are making, and how many customers they have. They speak to their subscribers, in person via live-streams, conduct detailed Q&amp;A sessions, while &#8216;confirming&#8217; the supposed legality of what they&#8217;re doing.</p>



<p>In a surprising number of cases, negative comments by users concerning legality are passed off as ridiculous, with sellers describing the sale of pirate IPTV subscriptions as residing in a gray area with the law powerless to do anything about it. While we could have a detailed argument here about the intricacies of any number of laws, both criminal and civil, and any potential defenses to them, these people appear to be missing the point.</p>



<p>Just this week, Openload &#8211; a true Internet giant with considerable resources &#8211; was pummeled into submission by dozens of the world&#8217;s largest content companies after agreeing to pay substantial damages. This was a file-hosting goliath being beaten up dozens of bigger goliaths. No face on YouTube required.</p>



<p>Another example can be found in Kim Dotcom, who says he has spent upwards of $40m in legal fees, even though, on the surface, many argue he has a solid legal basis for mounting a successful defense in the United States. But that&#8217;s $40,000,0000 already, <em>before trial</em>, an amount that will no doubt skyrocket in the event he ever gets sent there.</p>



<p>But here&#8217;s the thing. The majority of these IPTV &#8216;celebrities&#8217;, for want of a better term, are actually living in the United States already. It&#8217;s not necessary to name any of them, they do enough of that themselves. But in addition to their self-declared IPTV empires, some have significant and legitimate additional business interests too, which could all be put in jeopardy, one way or another, should the proverbial hit the fan.</p>



<p>In a piracy world where many are discussing anonymity, encryption, proxies, cryptocurrency payments, to name just a few, these people are deliberately making their identities known. They are not hiding away and as a result, they are known by anti-piracy groups who probably can&#8217;t believe their luck.</p>



<p>They not only have their real names and their own faces splashed across their own IPTV-based YouTube channels, but also channels that cover other aspects of their sometimes flamboyant lives. Anti-piracy groups don&#8217;t need investigators to find out who they are anymore, it&#8217;s common knowledge. An alias? Not parading yourself on the modern equivalent of TV? That&#8217;s <em>soooo</em> 1999, apparently.</p>



<p>The big question is whether these people really have lost their minds, or do they actually know something that most other people don&#8217;t? When did putting your own face in multiple videos, selling access to an admittedly pirated product via a company in your own name, become part of a solid business plan? It&#8217;s truly bizarre and cannot end well.</p>



<p>Welcome to 2019, it&#8217;s a truly strange place to be.  </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=178928
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 11/04/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-11-04-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/KafQCXqKOOs/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-177696" src="media/ece8e3e8.fastfu.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/fastfu.png" alt="" width="298" height="159" />This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw 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-10-28-19/">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>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7PAyCDwEg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">The Lion King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf9bVk75s8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7984766/">The King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7984766/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svVykTznk9Q">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</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>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7343762/">Good Boys</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7343762/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPXqwAGmX04">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6095472">The Angry Birds Movie 2</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6095472">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDj8Y2K0ODA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4364194/">The Peanut Butter Falcon</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4364194/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNl9RqjLCwc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(6)</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>10</strong></td>
<td>(back)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">Joker</a> (Cam)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuP8g_GQIgI">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=178923
title: Huge Anti-Piracy Operation in Brazil Targets Hundreds of Websites & Apps
uri: Huge-Anti-Piracy-Operation-in-Brazil-Targets-Hundreds-of-Websites-Ap
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4353dTEr8Wc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/70326b63.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108110" width="262" height="185"/></figure></div>



<p>Authorities in Brazil have periodically attempted to disrupt piracy in the region, including actions such as &#8216;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-shutdown-private-torrent-site-in-operation-copyright-190117/">Operation Copyright</a>&#8216; that targeted a large private torrent site in January.</p>



<p>Last Friday, however, it became clear that a much more ambitious operation had begun. Codenamed &#8216;Operation 404&#8217; after the HTTP error of the same name, the action was announced by Brazil&#8217;s Ministry of Justice and Public Security.</p>



<p>During an early press conference detailing progress thus far, the Secretariat of Integrated Operations (Seopi) revealed that &#8220;136 websites and 100 applications&#8221; had already been suspended alongside the execution of 30 search and seizure warrants.</p>



<p>&#8220;After four months of investigation, it can be said that the action is a milestone for piracy in the country, which causes various damages to society,&#8221; said Alesandro Barreto, coordinator of Seopi&#8217;s Cyber ​​Operations Laboratory.</p>



<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know of another operation that has blocked so many apps and websites in one day. This is a very clear message and that the judicial police, through the integrated operation with Seopi, will act against this crime that cannot be tolerated.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/ac646f2e.image-146.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-146.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178936" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Operation 404</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>The authorities did not release the names of any websites or applications targeted nor specifically detail what &#8220;suspension&#8221; means in the context of any specific case. Suspensions can take many forms, from serious ones (raids and equipment confiscations, for example) through to ones that have a more limited long-term impact, such as blocking or domain seizures.</p>



<p>Details are fairly scarce but TF learned that a site known locally as Megacine <a href="https://twitter.com/MegacineFilmes/status/1191221074945564673">announced</a> that it had decided to close down following the operation. A notice now displayed on the football-focused site <a href="https://futemax.fm/categoria/futebol-ao-vivo-hd/">Futemax</a> indicates that it is being blocked but is still online.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/cd97fa9b.image-147.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-147.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178937" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Blocked in Brazil</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>The Ministry of Justice states that at least in some instances it had worked with authorities in France, the United States and Canada to suspend domains, arrange &#8220;de-indexing from search engines&#8221; while suspending profile pages on social networks.</p>



<p>The operation is said to be receiving support from local anti-piracy groups including ANCINE (National Film Agency) and the National Council for the Fight Against Piracy (CNCP). Additionally, the US Embassy in Brazil, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the US Department of Justice have reportedly played roles.</p>



<p>While the early figures presented (136 websites and 100 applications suspended) were already significant, local media reports suggest that the number is increasing fairly rapidly.</p>



<p>Globo <a href="https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2019/11/01/policia-civil-deflagra-operacao-contra-pirataria-digital-em-sp.ghtml">reports</a> that 210 sites involved in the unlawful distribution of movies, TV shows and live TV have been targeted, in addition to the initial 100 apps that provide access to &#8220;illegal content streaming&#8221;.</p>



<p>Raids have been carried out in 12 states in Brazil and in six states, at least <a href="https://g1.globo.com/df/distrito-federal/noticia/2019/11/01/policia-prende-quatro-suspeitos-em-operacao-de-combate-a-pirataria-digital.ghtml">eight people</a> have been arrested. Details <a href="https://g1.globo.com/sp/bauru-marilia/noticia/2019/11/01/operacao-contra-pirataria-digital-apreende-computadores-de-suspeitos-em-marilia-e-botucatu.ghtml">include</a>:</p>



<ul><li>Warrant executed against a 33-year-old for the unlicensed distribution of TV signals (no arrest)</li><li>Warrant executed against an individual suspected of &#8220;stealing&#8221; a TV operator&#8217;s signals. Computer seized but no arrest</li><li>A 63-year-old man was arrested in São Paulo under suspicion of operating a website that broadcast TV channels in return for a US$7.50 per month subscription fee</li></ul>



<p>Penalties for operating piracy sites or services in Brazil can reach four years in prison, more if other criminal aspects such as money laundering are involved.</p>



<p>According to the Ministry of Justice, up to 20 million households in Brazil access pirated content via the Internet but many citizens are said to have a poor understanding of which services are legitimate and which ones are 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=178943
title: MPA Wants Pirated Content Removed Proactively, Just Like Hate Speech
uri: MPA-Wants-Pirated-Content-Removed-Proactively-Just-Like-Hate-Speech
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LUE0d1B20pc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/68dde2a6.mpaamerica.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaamerica.png" alt="" class="wp-image-177349"/></figure></div>



<p>The entertainment industries are becoming increasingly frustrated by major Internet platforms that are, in their view, not doing enough to tackle online piracy.</p>



<p>While legitimate user-generated content platforms respond to takedown requests, which they are legally required to, most don&#8217;t go any further. This, despite repeated calls from industry groups for help. </p>



<p>Over the past several years, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) has made some progress, partnering with several intermediaries, including payment providers and advertising companies. However, it has struggled to persuade major user-generated platforms and social media sites to be more proactive. </p>



<p>This frustration is fueled by more recent developments which have seen these same platforms take voluntary action against hate speech, fake news, violence, and other offensive content that populates social media timelines. </p>



<p>Twitter, for example, took action against more than <a href="https://transparency.twitter.com/en/twitter-rules-enforcement.html">half a million accounts</a> over &#8220;hateful content&#8221; during the first half of the year, helped by &#8216;artificial intelligence&#8217;. YouTube and Facebook also report that they are doing more to&nbsp;proactively detect hate speech, while other online services are taking voluntary action as well. </p>



<p>The MPA has followed this trend. The group recently brought the topic up during a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on “Fostering a Healthier Internet to Protect Consumers.” The hearing dealt with an ongoing examination of Section 230 of the Communications Act.   </p>



<p>Section 230 shields online services from liability. However, Congress also intended it to encourage these platforms to take reasonable steps to deter undesirable behavior. While Section 230 doesn&#8217;t apply to copyright, the MPA&#8217;s SVP and Senior Counsel, Neil Fried, chimed in with a written testimony for the record.</p>



<p>Fried notes that the liability protections are similar to those of the DMCA, where copyright <em>is</em> at the center. Also, the complaint that Internet services are not doing enough to prevent harmful content from spreading, is similar to the MPA&#8217;s complaint that they do too little to prevent copyright infringement.</p>



<p>The MPA&#8217;s General Senior Vice President highlights these hate-speech enforcement efforts and acknowledges there are complex issues to address &#8211; especially with subjects that are not by definition illegal in law, since free speech is a great good. </p>



<p>&#8220;A few companies have recently developed systems to proactively identify posts promoting hate and violence, and have invoked their terms of service to terminate accounts of those engaged in such activity, although not before wrestling with concerns over the impact on expression,&#8221; Fried writes.</p>



<p>However, that&#8217;s not much of a problem when it comes to copyright, the MPA believes.</p>



<p>&#8220;If online intermediaries and user-generated content platforms can proactively identify such content and terminate service in these cases, surely they can terminate service and take other effective action in cases of clearly illegal conduct, which present brighter lines and don’t raise the same speech concerns,&#8221; Fried adds.</p>



<p>Fried suggests that online services should use the same tools they employ to detect hate speech and other harmful content to proactively remove pirated content too. Copyright infringement is prohibited in the terms of services of these companies, so they would have room to do so. </p>



<p>While Fried is right that copyright infringement is more clearly defined than harmful content, dealing with it proactively is not without challenges. Unlike harmful content, some people may have the right to post some copyrighted content, while others do not. And fair use is hard to capture by an algorithm as well. </p>



<p>The MPA nonetheless hopes that online platforms will cooperate. In addition, it wants to see if current liability exemptions can be overhauled, using legislation to motivate Internet companies to do more. </p>



<p>This was also made clear to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. And while possible legal fixes are being considered, the US should not include such liability provisions into new trade agreements, the MPA&#8217;s SVP notes. </p>



<p>&#8220;In the meantime, as Congress reexamines online liability limitations, the United States should refrain from including such limitations in future trade agreements, which runs the risk of freezing the current framework in place,&#8221; Fried writes. </p>



<p>This follows an earlier recommendation from the House Judiciary Committee. Last month the Committee urged lawmakers <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/house-judiciary-committee-doesnt-want-dmca-style-safe-harbor-in-trade-agreements-190921/">not to include DMCA-style safe harbors</a> in trade agreements while alternatives are being discussed.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of Neil Fried&#8217;s statement before the House Committee on Energy &amp; Commerce is available <a href="media/d81c124a.MPA-submission-HCC-Sec-230-hearing.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/MPA-submission-HCC-Sec-230-hearing.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=178975
title: Dutch ISP Does Not Have to Identify Alleged Pirates, Appeals Court Rules
uri: Dutch-ISP-Does-Not-Have-to-Identify-Alleged-Pirates-Appeals-Court-Rul
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/f1C7tORU5nQ/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/23b447e2.hitmans-bodyguard.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/hitmans-bodyguard.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-145460"/></figure></div>



<p>Piracy settlement letters have become a serious threat in several countries.</p>



<p>Dutch Internet users have been spared from this practice, but local movie distributor Dutch Filmworks (DFW), planned to change that.</p>



<p>Two years ago the movie company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-film-distributor-wins-right-to-chase-pirates-store-data-for-5-years-171208/">received permission</a> from the Dutch Data Protection Authority to track the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who shared pirated movies.</p>



<p>However, that was only the first hurdle, as Dutch Internet provider Ziggo refused to share any customer data without a court order.</p>



<p>The case went to court, where the movie company requested the personal details of 377 account holders whose addresses were allegedly used to share a copy of the movie “The Hitman’s Bodyguard”.</p>



<p>Dutch Filmworks lost this case but swiftly announced an appeal. This ruling was initially expected during this summer, but the Court of Appeal <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-postpones-complex-ruling-that-could-expose-dutch-movie-pirates-190904/">postponed</a> it due to the complexity of the case. After additional deliberation, the Court announced its <a href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:GHARL:2019:9352">verdict today</a>. </p>



<p>The Court of Appeal in Arnhem sided with the lower court, rejecting the request for subscriber details. In its ruling, the Court explains that it must find a balance between the privacy rights of subscribers and Dutch Filmworks&#8217; intellectual property rights. </p>



<p>In this specific case, copyright doesn&#8217;t outweigh the privacy rights of Internet subscribers. This is, in part, because it remains uncertain what the movie company plans to do with the personal data it obtains. Dutch Filmworks explained that it could either warn subscribers or request damages, but that it would decide this on a case-by-case basis. </p>



<p>&#8220;By not being transparent about the criteria it applies when carrying out its intended actions, the interests of the involved Ziggo customer are harmed,&#8221; the Court notes.  </p>



<p>&#8220;In the opinion of the Court of Appeal, this leads to a disturbance of the [rights] balance, in particular in the situation that it is uncertain whether the Ziggo customer involved is actually the infringer,&#8221; the Court adds, noting that the subscriber in question may be a third-party. </p>



<p>In addition, it remains unclear how large the proposed settlements will be.  An initial figure of €150 per infringement has been mentioned in the past, but this number could also be significantly higher. Transparency is lacking here as well, which means more uncertainty for the potential targets. </p>



<p>After weighing all evidence, the Court of Appeal concludes that the lower court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dutch-isp-does-not-have-to-expose-alleged-pirates-court-rules-190208/">made the right decision</a>. Based on the presented information, the Court can&#8217;t grant the request to hand over the personal details of alleged infringers.</p>



<p>&#8220;There are no clear and comprehensible criteria based on which an estimate can be made of the consequences for the relevant Ziggo customers, if their personal data is disclosed. It cannot be checked whether the intended measures are in reasonable proportion to the importance that it serves DFW and the privacy interest of the Ziggo customer whose privacy is violated.&#8221;</p>



<p>In addition, the Court ordered the movie company to pay €4,000 in costs. Whether Dutch Filmworks will continue to appeal the case is unknown at the time of publication. For now, however, Ziggo customers don&#8217;t have to worry about a settlement letter from Dutch Filmworks.</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=178996
title: Popcorn Time Domain Registrar Orders DNS Deactivation
uri: Popcorn-Time-Domain-Registrar-Orders-DNS-Deactivation
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TMaU0iwDWEI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/ac12bf8c.popcornt.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="" class="wp-image-101106" width="254" height="113"/></figure></div>



<p>In 2014, the application known as Popcorn Time burst onto the scene to transform the BitTorrent landscape.</p>



<p>Instead of accessing torrent files from indexing platforms such as The Pirate Bay to download them in a comparatively boring regular client, users were given a beautiful, Netflix-style, all-in-one solution.</p>



<p>Very quickly, Popcorn Time became a smash-hit sensation but it also attracted movie and TV show companies determined to shut it down. While some success was booked on this front, Popcorn Time&#8217;s open-source nature meant that it could be replicated by enthusiasts, such as those who ultimately ended up operating from PopcornTime.sh.</p>



<p>While there are other variants, Reddit&#8217;s <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/PopCornTime/">/r/popcorntime</a> considers the .sh domain as offering the &#8216;official&#8217; version of PopcornTime and the site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-hunted-popcorn-time-makes-surprise-comeback-160217/">previously linked</a> from the official Github repository. As the image below shows, the website and associated services attached to the app via the .sh domain were working just fine on November 3, 2019.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/05a3d975.image-149.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-149.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178998" width="650"/><figcaption><em>All systems were functioning Nov 3, 2019</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>The situation today, however, is very much different. PopcornTime.sh and all the sub-domains which allow its app to work as intended have been rendered inaccessible.</p>



<p>According to WHOIS data, late on Monday the domain was updated. It isn&#8217;t due to expire for another year but its domain status is currently listed as &#8220;clientHold&#8221;, which can signal bad news.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/3f983cbb.image-150.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-150.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179004"/><figcaption><em>PopcornTime.sh &#8211; clientHold</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>&#8216;ClientHold&#8217; status is set by the domain registrar, 101domain.com in this case, and informs the registry not to activate the DNS for PopcornTime.sh. As a result, the website in question has been rendered inaccessible.</p>



<p>&#8220;This status code tells your domain&#8217;s registry to not activate your domain in the DNS and as a consequence, it will not resolve,&#8221; ICANN&#8217;s official advice <a href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/epp-status-codes-2014-06-16-en#clientHold">reads</a>. &#8220;It is an uncommon status that is usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.&#8221;</p>



<p>We have been unable to officially confirm why PopcornTime.sh has been given this treatment but in the past, clientHold status has proven problematic for domains and has sometimes signaled legal issues. Information received earlier today adds at least some weight to that theory.</p>



<p>This afternoon we received an email from the folks at <a href="https://internetprotocol.co/hype-news/2019/11/05/rumors-about-the-arrest-of-the-popcorntime-sh-operator-are-appearing/">InternetProtocol.co</a> who, citing anonymous police sources, claim that the site&#8217;s operator <em>may</em> (and that&#8217;s a pretty big &#8216;may&#8217;) have been arrested in Tunisia.</p>



<p>The publication also posted an image that supposedly shows items confiscated as evidence as part of a &#8220;raid&#8221; carried out in &#8220;cooperation with some international copyright organization.&#8221;</p>



<p>Unable to confirm the allegations from any other source and given its worldwide position on anti-piracy enforcement, TorrentFreak contacted the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment seeking confirmation or indeed denial that it was involved in this alleged and as-yet unconfirmed action. </p>



<p>We were told by their spokesperson that at this point in time, he wasn&#8217;t able to provide us with any information.</p>



<p>Although the moderators of the official PopcornTime sub on Reddit claim to have no direct connection with the software distributed and maintained from the .sh domain, TorrentFreak requested comments from all of them. At the time of publication, however, we were yet to hear back.</p>



<p>Whether the domain issue will be solved in time is unclear but that seems largely reliant on whether the information about a supposed arrest in North Africa holds up as credible.</p>



<p>Similar action in that region is extremely rare, perhaps unheard of as far as popular applications go, so there will be a waiting game for the full picture to emerge, if it ever does. Last year, PopcornTime.sh was targeted by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-ordered-to-expose-yts-showbox-and-popcorn-time-site-operators-180919/">movie companies</a> seeking the identity of its operator but what ultimately became of that remains unclear.</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=178984
title: Court Orders ‘Ethical’ Torrent Giant TNTVillage to Stop Piracy Activity
uri: Court-Orders-Ethical-Torrent-Giant-TNTVillage-to-Stop-Piracy-Act
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zXr0OvCIqO4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/d42cf257.tntvillage-logo-e1536047230942.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tntvillage-logo-e1536047230942.png" alt="" width="286" height="221"/></figure></div>



<p>By their very nature, it is rare for torrent sites to stay online for more than a few years.</p>



<p>While there are a few notable exceptions that have bucked the trend, most come and go, having wilted under significant legal or financial pressures. </p>



<p>After being founded in 2005, TNTVillage, which for years was Italy&#8217;s most popular torrent site, was one of the unusual ones. Hated by local anti-piracy groups but loved by fans, the site aimed to draw attention to restrictive copyright law but also attempted to act ethically by not releasing new content quickly after release.</p>



<p>In September 2018, the site was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tntvillage-italys-famous-ethical-torrent-site-under-intense-legal-pressure-180904/">targeted by a lawsuit</a> with site owner Luigi Di Liberto revealing that his home had been searched by authorities. Now, according to the Italian Publishers Association and anti-piracy group FAPAV, the Court of Milan has &#8220;ordered the cessation of TNT Village&#8217;s file sharing activities, fully endorsing the rights holders&#8217; requests.&#8221;</p>



<p>According to the groups, TNTVillage made available more than 134,000 titles available to the public, including movies, TV shows, anime, software, and books.</p>



<p>&#8220;It is a great result,&#8221; says Ricardo Franco Levi, President of the Italian Publishers Association (AIE)</p>



<p>&#8220;The court fully accepts our position. One million users, through the activity and structure of TNT Village, have illegally and massively shared contents of publishers protected by Copyright: there is nothing ethical about behavior contrary to the law and damaging the rights as these.</p>



<p>&#8220;Was this the most famous pirate house on the Italian web? We will do everything to counter not only this but all alternative forms of piracy.&#8221;</p>



<p>While the ruling is a considerable win for the groups after all these years campaigning against TNTVillage, there will be no simultaneous shutdown of Italy&#8217;s largest torrent site. In fact, the site itself stole the groups&#8217; thunder in September, when an announcement revealed it would shut itself down.</p>



<p>&#8220;Unfortunately due to [owner] Di Liberto&#8217;s decision, <em>not attributable to our will</em> and with extreme regret, we inform you that the site and the forum are closed,&#8221; the announcement read.</p>



<p>However, given the anti-copyright stance of the site&#8217;s now-former operator, the site&#8217;s parting shot is of particular interest. Instead of deleting everything and disappearing into the shadows, the <a href="http://tntvillage.scambioetico.org/">announcement</a> added a file for download, noting that &#8220;if you are a geek, you may be interested in downloading THIS.&#8221;</p>



<p>The file bears the hallmarks of a site dump, which interested parties may be able to use to resurrect the infamous but now-defunct torrent platform. This hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed to FAPAV, which is promising action if problems arise.</p>



<p>While celebrating the legal victory and noting the importance of continuing the fight against piracy, FAPAV General Secretary Federico Bagnoli Rossi warns that anti-piracy groups will be on the lookout for anyone seeking to clone the platform.</p>



<p>&#8220;In the meantime, our Federation together with AIE is continuing to verify that the portal database is not repurposed on other sites. Otherwise we will evaluate whether to proceed by legal means also against new possible platforms,&#8221; Rossi says.</p>



<p>&#8220;We are pleased with how this activity is progressing and we will certainly not lower our guard.&#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=178615
title: Court Denies Entry of Default Motion Against Torrent Site YTS, Cautions Attorney
uri: Court-Denies-Entry-of-Default-Motion-Against-Torrent-Site-YTS-Caution
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tAou--hO4vo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/5f6a61f6.ytslt.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ytslt.png" alt="" class="wp-image-174026" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ytslt.png 223w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/ytslt-220x81.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px" /></figure></div>



<p>Popular torrent site YTS has become the target of three different copyright infringement <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-companies-sue-yts-and-yify-site-operators-in-us-court-190527/">lawsuits</a> in the U.S. this year.</p>



<p>The most recent one was filed by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hellboy-sues-torrent-site-yts-and-several-users-190731/">HB Productions</a>, the makers of the movie Hellboy, owned by parent company Millennium Funding.</p>



<p>The complaint in question lists a &#8220;John Doe&#8221; as the defendant who supposedly operates YTS. However, HB Productions believes that a person named Senthil Vijay Segaran and the company Techmodo Limited are involved. </p>



<p>The latter two were recently &#8216;summoned&#8217; to respond to the complaint but neither did. This prompted the Hellboy makers to request an &#8216;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_judgment#Entry_of_default">entry of default</a>&#8216; against YTS. </p>



<p>If granted, this would open the door to default judgment where the movie company can request damages, without any defense from the opposing party. In this case, however, it didn&#8217;t get that far. </p>



<p>In a recently issued order, Magistrate Judge Kenneth J.&nbsp;Mansfield denied the motion. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require the defendants to be officially named, which didn&#8217;t happen in this case, the Judge points out.&nbsp; </p>



<p>&#8220;As a practical matter, it is impossible to serve a summons and complaint on an anonymous defendant. The Ninth Circuit therefore disfavors the use of doe defendants, and Plaintiff&#8217;s tactics highlight the problems in proceeding with doe defendants,&#8221; Judge Mansfield writes.</p>



<p>This means that the movie company can&#8217;t submit a motion for default judgment yet. As such, it can&#8217;t demand damages or request a permanent injunction to target the site&#8217;s domain registrar. And that wasn&#8217;t all.</p>



<p>A few days after the denial, Judge Mansfield cautioned HB Production&#8217;s attorney, Kerry Culpepper, noting that the court doesn&#8217;t permit him to summon persons or entities who are not named defendants. </p>



<p>&#8220;It is improper for Plaintiff to attempt to effect service on a person or entity Plaintiff believes to be a doe defendant without properly amending its complaint to identify the doe defendant by name. It is equally improper for Mr. Culpepper to direct summonses to persons and/or entities who are not named defendants in an action,&#8221; the Judge notes. </p>



<p>As a result,  the proofs of service for these summonses were stricken from the record. The same is true in two other related cases, which center around YTS as well.</p>



<p>In one of these cases, filed by Millennium Funding and several related movie outfits, Culpepper filed an amended complaint last week, naming three defendants, including Senthil Vijay Segaran and the company Techmodo Limited. In the two other cases, no amended complaint has been filed thus far. </p>



<p>With three separate and similar cases, the movie companies will likely push for some kind of compensation. Whether that&#8217;s through a default judgment, a trial, or a private settlement has yet to be seen. In any case, YTS is under pressure.</p>



<p>Anticipating possible domain issues, YTS previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/torrent-site-yts-quietly-relocates-to-lt-domain-name/">moved from YTS.am to YTS.lt</a>, where it is still operating from today. For now, it will likely continue to do so.</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=179028
title: USPTO Questions if Artificial Intelligence Can Create or Infringe Copyrighted Works
uri: USPTO-Questions-if-Artificial-Intelligence-Can-Create-or-Infringe-Copy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TelG_VHzOaI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/0d2e2169.binary.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/binary.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179036" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/binary.jpg 268w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/binary-220x130.jpg 220w" sizes="(max-width: 268px) 100vw, 268px" /></figure></div>



<p>Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a buzzword that&#8217;s frequently used by startups and established businesses in the tech industry. </p>



<p>In some cases, it refers to little more than advanced algorithms, but complex self-learning computer systems with human-like traits are actively being developed as well. </p>



<p>As these AI technologies become increasingly advanced, they raise more ethical and legal questions. This was recognized by the US Patent and Trademark Office (<a href="https://www.uspto.gov/">USPTO</a>) recently, which launched a public consultation on the matter. </p>



<p>&#8220;Artificial Intelligence technologies are increasingly becoming important across a diverse spectrum of technologies and businesses. AI poses unique challenges in the sphere of intellectual property law,&#8221; USPTO writes. </p>



<p>The USPTO is part of the US Department of Commerce and deals with various intellectual property rights issues. It previously raised questions on how AI technology impacts patent law and is now expanding this to copyright matters. </p>



<p>The consultation starts off by asking whether anything created by an AI, without human involvement, can be copyrighted. This can refer to any type of content, including music, images, and texts. </p>



<p>&#8220;Should a work produced by an AI algorithm or process, without the involvement of a natural person contributing expression to the resulting work, qualify as a work of authorship protectable under U.S. copyright law? Why or why not?&#8221; the Office asks. </p>



<p>The technology and code that makes any AI work obviously relies on human interaction, but USPTO&#8217;s question is destined to raise a lively debate. Since it&#8217;s expected that more and more creations will rely heavily on AI in the future, the US Government requests guidance on these issues. </p>



<center><style>.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 90%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }</style><div class="embed-container"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6I3aKYyKl68?controls=0" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div>AI composed music?</div></center>



<p>In a follow-up question, the Office zooms in further still by asking what kind of human involvement is required to make something copyrightable. Yet another question deals with possible copyright infringements by an AI. Or in other words, can an AI pirate?</p>



<p>This is a relevant question since these technologies can rely on input from other copyrighted works. A simple example would be where an AI &#8216;decides&#8217; to use hundreds of music tracks to create a new one. </p>



<p>If that&#8217;s the case, should this simply be allowed under fair use, or should the original authors have the right to be compensated?</p>



<p>&#8220;To the extent an AI algorithm or process learns its function(s) by ingesting large volumes of copyrighted material, does the existing statutory language (e.g.,&nbsp;the fair use doctrine) and related case law adequately address the legality of making such use? Should authors be recognized for this type of use of their works? If so, how?&#8221; USPTO questions. </p>



<p>The Office notes that further guidance is needed on these and other topics so it&#8217;s asking the public for input. USPTO says that it&#8217;s not predisposed to any particular views and also welcomes additional AI feedback, beyond the questions it asked.</p>



<p>The full set of questions is available in the <a href="media/07be8481.2019-23638.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2019-10-30/pdf/2019-23638.pdf">Federal Register notice</a>, which includes additional background information. For those who want to chime in, the comment period closes December 16.  </p>



<p>&#8212;</p>



<p>Update: IPKAT <a href="http://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2019/11/conference-report-artificial.html">published</a> an article today showing that similar issues are being discussed in Europe as well. </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=179065
title: USDOJ Highlights Threat of Increasingly Sophisticated Pirate Services
uri: USDOJ-Highlights-Threat-of-Increasingly-Sophisticated-Pirate-Services
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/p827dPW9Ed0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/b48c012a.usdoj.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-91397" width="232" height="232" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg 190w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj-150x150.jpg 150w" sizes="(max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px" /></figure></div>



<p>From its relatively basic and humble roots back in the 1990s, Internet-based distribution of copyright-infringing content underwent a renaissance at the turn of the century.</p>



<p>Peer-to-peer technologies, including the now omnipresent BitTorrent protocol, brought file-sharing to the masses and with it a huge problem for the content industries.</p>



<p>Twenty years on &#8211; a lifetime in technology &#8211; BitTorrent still attracts hundreds of millions of users but the immediacy of streaming, including movies, TV series, live TV and sports, is now considered one of the greatest threats facing copyright holders and distribution platforms.</p>



<p>This week, in remarks made at the Thirteenth Law Enforcement and Industry Meeting on Intellectual Property Enforcement in Washington, DC, the Department of Justice weighed in on these dramatic changes in the piracy landscape over the past decade.</p>



<p>&#8220;Copyright pirates have moved from peddling individual copies of movies, music, and software on street corners or offering individual downloads online, to operating technologically advanced, multi-national streaming services that generate millions of dollars in illicit profits,&#8221; said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski.</p>



<p>While online streaming of pirated content is nothing new, in more recent years there has been a noticeable shift in the professionalism of those providing and distributing content, with highly organized unlicensed IPTV providers and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-mpa-and-ace-shut-down-massive-pirate-cdn-191021/">&#8216;pirate&#8217; CDN operations</a> presenting new challenges to entertainment companies and law enforcement alike.</p>



<p>Piracy-enabled set-top boxes, which in many cases draw their content from the type of services referenced by Benczkowski, remain high on the agenda. The Assistant Attorney General also referenced the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eight-men-behind-two-us-pirate-streaming-services-charged-by-grand-jury-190828/">recent charges</a> against eight Las Vegas residents who allegedly ran two of the largest platforms in the country.</p>



<p>&#8220;One of the services – known as Jetflicks – allegedly obtained infringing television programs by using sophisticated computer scripts to scour pirate websites around the world and collect the television shows,&#8221;&nbsp;Benczkowski said.</p>



<p>&#8220;It then made the programming available for paying Jetflicks subscribers to stream and download, often just one day after the original episodes aired. The scheme, as charged, resulted in the loss of millions of dollars by television program and motion picture copyright owners.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>This leveraging of technology to provide content quickly and at scale is a concern for the USDOJ, which indicates it will continue to pursue &#8220;high-impact cases&#8221; to deter IP crime. However, Benczkowski noted that changes to the law or creative legal strategies may be required to reel in the more elusive offenders.</p>



<p>&#8220;Existing laws do not always address the conduct that IP criminals are engaging in today. Or, put differently, smart criminals may seek to avoid serious repercussions by developing new technologies or security measures to skirt legal authorities,&#8221; he said.</p>



<p>&#8220;We need to be creative and cooperative in thinking about possible solutions, whether through looking at additional charging strategies, or considering legislative amendments.&#8221;</p>



<p>What those strategies might be is open to question but Benczkowski believes law enforcement will &#8220;never&#8221; be in a position to solve the IP crime problem through prosecution alone.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, through cooperation and the enhancement of relationships with overseas law enforcement entities to target the &#8220;worst actors&#8221;, he believes that it&#8217;s possible to significantly reduce the profits available to those engaged in criminal copyright infringement.</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=178981
title: Japan Pirate Site Traffic Collapsed 50% in Four Months, With a Little Help From Cloudflare
uri: Japan-Pirate-Site-Traffic-Collapsed-50-in-Four-Months-With-a-Little
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Jjf8zTFXYsE/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/65c4566f.piracydown.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/piracydown.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-73866" width="246" height="221"/></figure></div>



<p>During April 2018, the government in Japan introduced emergency websites blocking measures, seeking assistance from ISPs to block three pirate sites &#8211; Mangamura, AniTube! and MioMio.</p>



<p>Just four days later, one of the sites &#8211; giant manga platform Mangamura &#8211; suddenly called it quits, shutting itself down and creating a massive gap in the piracy market.</p>



<p>It transpired that a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-launch-investigation-into-huge-pirate-manga-site-mangamura-180514/">criminal investigation</a> was underway into the activities of Mangamura, which eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-mastermind-of-giant-pirate-manga-site-arrested-in-manilla-190710/">led to the arrest</a> of the site&#8217;s alleged operator in Manilla, his deportation to Japan, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alleged-mangamura-admin-arrested-by-japan-during-deportation-flight-190925/">subsequent arrest</a> by authorities there.</p>



<p>The gigantic scale of Mangamura has never been in question. However, a report published by the Motion Picture Association now reveals its importance not only on the pirate manga market, but also on the pirate market overall in Japan.</p>



<p>Starting with a list of 2,600 sites, the report &#8211; covering the period July 2017 to July 2019 &#8211; homes in on the most frequently accessed piracy sites/apps targeting Japan that offer movies, TV shows, anime, and manga content. Sites focusing exclusively on music, games, and porn were ruled out, leaving a balance of 1,447 &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.  </p>



<p>The top 10 most highly-visited sites accounted for around 50% of visits to the 1,447, with the top 100 accounting for more than 90%. All sites with more than 100,000 visits per month (624 in total) were the main focus of the report.</p>



<p>In respect of Mangamura, the report classifies that now-defunct platform as an &#8216;online reading&#8217; site, meaning that people viewed its content using a browser. The chart below shows the dramatic rise and fall of the niche the platform operated in, plotted against other forms of &#8216;pirate&#8217; consumption.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/cebd550f.image-151.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-151.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179025" width="650"/><figcaption><em>The rise and fall of Mangamura</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>As the image shows, in addition to &#8216;online reading&#8217; sites, all other types of &#8216;pirate&#8217; consumption took a big hit around the same time that Mangamura shut down.</p>



<p>The report notes that the government&#8217;s urging of ISP blockades against Mangamura, Anitube, and MioMio &#8220;greatly affected the number of visits to other piracy sites&#8221;, resulting in an overall decrease in traffic. However, it appears that all three shut down before they could be blocked. </p>



<p>Nevertheless, the overall effect on the pirate markets detailed in the study appears to be significant, due to the shutdown of those major manga platforms and the government&#8217;s anti-piracy stance.</p>



<p>According to the report, in March 2018 the total number of monthly visits to the sample 624 sites was measured at 640 million. A month later, monthly visits had collapsed to just over 400 million. By June 2018, traffic had reduced further still, to a low of 320 million visits per month.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/b3f92601.image-152.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-152.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179027" width="650"/></figure></div>



<p>Since June 2018, there has only been a modest increase in traffic to the sample sites. Noting that overall levels of infringement are &#8220;still large&#8221;, the report states that current visits have increased by just 20 million, to an estimated 340 million per month.</p>



<p>Finally, no piracy report seems complete these days without Cloudflare getting a mention, and this one is no different.</p>



<p>While those who carried out the study were able to identify the ultimate hosting locations of 39% of the 624 pirate sites (top three hosting countries were the United States 9%, Japan 6%, and Netherlands 5%), 61% couldn&#8217;t be geolocated. Of these, 86% were &#8216;hidden&#8217; behind Cloudflare&#8217;s services.</p>



<p>The interesting twist, however, is that in response to a request from Japanese publishers, it was Cloudflare that handed over information which allowed investigators to identify the operator of Mangamura, which ultimately led to his arrest and previously, the shutdown of the site.</p>



<p><em>The full report, &#8216;Study Benchmarking and Tracking Online Film &amp; TV Piracy in Japan&#8217;, is available here (<a href="media/0c900951.PSS_Report_20191025_US_final_public.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.mpa-apac.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/PSS_Report_20191025_US_final_public.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/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=178918
title: Police Shut Down Thailand’s Most Popular Pirate Site Following Hollywood Request
uri: Police-Shut-Down-Thailand-s-Most-Popular-Pirate-Site-Following-Holly
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MgeqLZP0Wn8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/67e172db.2free.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/2free.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179145"/></figure></div>



<p>With millions of views per day, Movie2Free.com was one of the largest pirate sites on the Internet, particularly popular in south-east Asia. </p>



<p>In the west, the site doesn&#8217;t ring a bell with most people. In Thailand, however, it was listed among the top 15 <a href="https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/TH">most visited websites</a> in the country, only beaten by Google, YouTube, and a few others. </p>



<p>The site&#8217;s popularity didn&#8217;t go unnoticed by Hollywood. Earlier this year the MPA listed the site in its yearly overview of notorious pirate sites, which it submitted to the US Trade Representative.</p>



<p>&#8220;The site provides access to an array of movie and TV content and comes replete with high-risk ads with malware,&#8221; the group wrote.</p>



<p>The MPA also informed local authorities about the site&#8217;s activities. This triggered a high-profile investigation by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Special_Investigation">Department of Special Investigation</a> (DSI) which led to the site&#8217;s shutdown this week, the Bangkok Post <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/easy/1789379/top-pirated-movies-website-shut-down">reports</a>. </p>



<p>Movie2Free.com, which was founded in 2014, is reportedly owned by a 30-year-old Thai man who lives abroad. He hired an operator, a 22-year-old man from the north of Thailand, who was arrested at his house a few days ago.</p>



<p>“The DSI has found that the Thai man who was running the pirated movie website… was living abroad,” DSI director-general Paisit Wongmuang <a href="https://www.chiangraitimes.com/crime-chiang-rai-thailand/thailands-dsi-police-police-shut-down-pirated-movies-website/">said</a>, commenting on the news.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/91229eab.4free.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/4free.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179143"/></figure></div>



<p>According to the DSI director “the site had used sophisticated equipment that made it hard for authorities to track it down, and had set up a server abroad.” </p>



<p>Interestingly, the site&#8217;s domain name is <a href="https://www.movie2free.com/">still active</a>, now linking to what appears to a page promoting local charities.</p>



<p>A few days ago, however, the site was still offering access to thousands of movies. The owner generated revenue from various advertisements and reportedly earned more than $160,000 (5 million baht) per month. Whether that&#8217;s an estimate or a confirmed figure is unknown. </p>



<p>While no charges have been announced yet, authorities plan to hold the operator liable for copyright infringement. Potential tax violations are being investigated too, as well as a violation of the local gambling ban since the site had several gambling-related ads. </p>



<p>The Thai examiner further <a href="https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2019/11/08/movie-website-shut-down-thai-police-dsi-online-pirate-site-movie2free-copyright/">notes </a>that Movie2fFree.com  was used extensively by retailers who sell pirated DVDs. Whether the shutdown will have any effect on these sales has yet to be seen, as there are plenty of alternatives still online. </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=179099
title: Tech Companies Warn U.S. Against Harmful Copyright Laws Worldwide
uri: Tech-Companies-Warn-U-S-Against-Harmful-Copyright-Laws-Worldwide
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DXq0fa443Qc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/eae84aa1.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-56211"/></figure></div>



<p>In recent years many countries around the world have tightened their copyright laws to curb the threat of online piracy. </p>



<p>These new regulations aim to help copyright holders, often by creating new obligations and restrictions for Internet service providers that host, link to, or just pass on infringing material. </p>



<p>Rightsholders are happy with these developments, but many Silicon Valley giants and other tech companies see the new laws as threats. This was made clear again this week by the Computer &amp; Communications Industry Association (<a href="https://www.ccianet.org/about/members/">CCIA</a>) and the <a href="https://internetassociation.org/">Internet Association</a>. </p>



<p>The two groups both submitted stark warnings to the&nbsp;US Trade Representative (<a href="https://ustr.gov/">USTR</a>). The submissions were sent in response to a request for comments in preparation for the Government&#8217;s yearly report on foreign trade barriers.</p>



<p>The CCIA, which includes prominent members such as Amazon, Cloudflare, Facebook, and Google, lists a wide variety of threats, several of which are copyright-related.  </p>



<p>One of the main problems is the increased copyright liability for online intermediaries. In the US, online services have strong safe harbor protections that prevent them from being held liable for users&#8217; infringements, but in other countries, this is no longer the case, CCIA warns.</p>



<p>&#8220;Countries are increasingly using outdated Internet service liability laws that impose substantial penalties on intermediaries that have had no role in the development of objectionable content. These practices deter investment and market entry, impeding legitimate online services,&#8221; CCIA writes.  </p>



<p>These countries include France, Germany, India, Italy, and Vietnam. In Australia, for example, several US platforms are excluded from liability protections, which goes against the U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement, CCIA notes.  <br><br>Another major point of concern is the new EU Copyright Directive, which passed earlier this year. While individual member states have yet to implement it, it&#8217;s seen as a looming threat for US companies and users alike.</p>



<p>&#8220;[T]he recent EU Copyright Directive poses an immediate threat to Internet services and the obligations set out in the final text depart significantly from global norms. Laws made pursuant to the Directive will deter Internet service exports into the EU market due to significant costs of compliance,&#8221; CCIA writes.  </p>



<p>&#8220;Despite claims from EU officials, lawful user activities will be severely restricted. EU officials are claiming that the new requirements would not affect lawful user activity such as sharing memes, alluding to the exceptions and limitations on quotation, criticism, review, and parody outlined in the text.&#8221; </p>



<p>The Internet Association also warns against the EU Copyright Directive in its submission. According to the group, which represents tech companies including Google, Reddit, Twitter, as well as Microsoft and Spotify,  Europe&#8217;s plans are out of sync with US copyright law.</p>



<p>&#8220;The EU’s Copyright Directive directly conflicts with U.S. law and requires a broad range of U.S. consumer and enterprise firms to install filtering technologies, pay European organizations for activities that are entirely lawful under the U.S. copyright framework, and face direct liability for third-party content,&#8221; the Internet Association writes.</p>



<p>Aside from the EU plans, other countries such as  Australia, Brazil, Colombia, India, and Ukraine are also proposing new &#8220;onerous&#8221; copyright liability proposals for Internet services. In many cases, these plans conflict with promises that were made under U.S. free trade agreements, the Internet Association writes.  </p>



<p>&#8220;If the U.S. does not stand up for the U.S. copyright framework abroad, then U.S. innovators and exporters will suffer, and other countries will increasingly misuse copyright to limit market entry,&#8221; the group warns. </p>



<p>Both the CCIA and the Internet Archive urge the US Government to push back against these developments. They advise promoting strong and balanced copyright legislation, which doesn&#8217;t put US companies at risk when following US law.</p>



<p>While it makes sense that the US would back its owns laws and policies abroad, the comments made by both groups come at a time where changes to intermediary liability are on the agenda of local lawmakers as well. </p>



<p>Copyright holders see these foreign developments as inspiration, as they want increased liability for intermediaries. As such, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpa-wants-pirated-content-removed-proactively-just-like-hate-speech-191104/">MPAA recently asked lawmakers</a> not to include current safe harbor language in future trade agreements. </p>



<p>This is also the advice of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/house-judiciary-committee-doesnt-want-dmca-style-safe-harbor-in-trade-agreements-190921/">House Judiciary Committee</a>. While the committee isn&#8217;t taking a position on a future direction just yet, it wants to await current developments before porting current US liability exceptions into international deals.</p>



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



<p><em>The CCIA&#8217;s submission to the USTR is available <a href="media/e0a7886e.USTR-2019-0012_Comments_of_CCIA_for_NTE.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/USTR-2019-0012_Comments_of_CCIA_for_NTE.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and the Internet Association&#8217;s submission can be found <a href="media/b39966cc.Internet_Association_-_National_Trade_Estimate_2020.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Internet_Association_-_National_Trade_Estimate_2020.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. <br></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=179089
title: RIAA Delists YouTube Rippers From Google Using Rare Anti-Circumvention Notices
uri: RIAA-Delists-YouTube-Rippers-From-Google-Using-Rare-Anti-Circumvention
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XDaTwFBvVR8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/412867c7.riaa.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa.png" alt="" class="wp-image-108672" width="270" height="145"/></figure></div>



<p>While music piracy has reduced in recent years due to the popularity of platforms such as Spotify, the major labels remain highly concerned over so-called steam-ripping services.</p>



<p>These sites allow users to enter a YouTube URL, for example, and then download audio from the corresponding video, mostly in MP3 format. This means that users can download music and store it on their own machines, negating the need to revisit YouTube for the same content. This, the major labels say, deprives content creators of streaming revenue.</p>



<p>Tackling this issue has become one of the industry&#8217;s highest anti-piracy priorities. Previously, YouTube-MP3 &#8211; the largest ripping site at the time &#8211; <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-mp3-settles-with-riaa-site-will-shut-down-170904/">was shut down</a> following legal action by the major labels. Since then, lawsuits have been filed against other platforms but the battle is far from over and recently a new strategy appears to have been deployed.</p>



<p>A pair of DMCA notices appeared on the Lumen Database late October, having been filed there by Google. The sender of both notices is listed as the RIAA, acting on behalf of its members including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group.</p>



<p>They are worded slightly differently but each target the homepages of five major YouTube-ripping sites &#8211; 2conv.com, flvto.biz, y2mate.com, yout.com, and youtubeconverter.io. Both contain the following key claim:</p>



<p>&#8220;To our knowledge, the URLs provide access to a service (and/or software) that circumvents YouTube’s rolling cipher, a technical protection measure, that protects our members’ works on YouTube from unauthorized copying/downloading,&#8221; the notices read.</p>



<p>Unlike regular DMCA takedown notices filed with Google, these notices do not appear in Google&#8217;s Transparency report. However, Google has acted on them by delisting the homepages of all five platforms from its search results. Other URLs for the platforms still appear, but their homepages are all gone.</p>



<p>The notices are listed on the Lumen Database in the anti-circumvention section, meaning that the RIAA-labeled complaints demand action from Google under the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA, rather than demanding the takedown of URLs based on the claim they carry infringing music titles.</p>



<p>The &#8216;technical measures&#8217; allegedly being circumvented (such as the &#8220;rolling cypher&#8221; referenced in the complaints) are those put in place by YouTube, which in turn protect the copyrighted content of the labels.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak contacted the RIAA yesterday, requesting comment and seeking additional information on the basis for the notices. Unfortunately, the industry group declined to make any further comment on any aspect of the complaints.</p>



<p>Nevertheless, the RIAA and its members are no strangers to the claim that by circumventing YouTube&#8217;s &#8216;technological measures&#8217;, so-called &#8216;ripping&#8217; sites infringe their rights too. Two of the sites targeted in the recent notices &#8211;  2conv.com and flvto.biz &#8211; were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/major-labels-sue-more-youtube-ripper-sites-180806/">sued by the labels in 2018</a>. The original complaint contains the following text:</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/e41b6c87.image-155.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-155.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179125" width="650"/><figcaption><em>From the complaint</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>That circumvention (at least in respect of the labels&#8217; works when users select them for download) may also amount to an infringement of the labels&#8217; rights seems to be supported by comments made in the Disney vs VidAngel case.</p>



<p>An <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4421468/disney-enterprises-inc-v-vidangel-inc/">opinion</a> from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stated that “[n]o person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a [copyrighted] work. Circumvention means &#8216;to decrypt an encrypted work.. without the authority of the copyright owner&#8217;.&#8221;</p>



<p>Nevertheless, it was previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mp3-stream-rippers-are-not-illegal-sites-eff-tells-us-government-171021/">argued by the EFF</a> that stream-ripping sites are not by definition illegal since on top of the usual fair use exemptions, some creators who upload their content to online platforms grant permission for people to freely download and modify their work.</p>



<p>&#8220;There exists a vast and growing volume of online video that is licensed for free downloading and modification, or contains audio tracks that are not subject to copyright,” the EFF stresses.</p>



<p>&#8220;Moreover, many audio extractions qualify as non-infringing fair uses under copyright. Providing a service that is capable of extracting audio tracks for these lawful purposes is itself lawful, even if some users infringe.&#8221;</p>



<p>The anti-circumvention notices detailed above are not only relatively rare but also have an additional interesting property &#8211; they are harder to dispute than regular DMCA takedown notices.</p>



<p>As detailed <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-hit-pirate-game-sites-with-irreversible-google-takedowns-181130/">here</a> last year, Google told the target of a similar complaint requesting URL delisting that &#8220;There is no formal counter notification process available under US law for circumvention, so we have not reinstated these URLs.&#8221;</p>



<p><em>The pair of DMCA anti-circumvention notices can be found here </em><a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/19448855?access_token=ArQVjVl6doOqOf76Oburfw"><em>1</em></a><em>,</em><a href="https://lumendatabase.org/notices/19443535?access_token=tv5wHLGt847IBViGlG9uJw"><em>2</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=178941
title: Cox and Music Companies Battle Over Piracy Evidence Ahead of Trial
uri: Cox-and-Music-Companies-Battle-Over-Piracy-Evidence-Ahead-of-Trial
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fyGf9NKPa_8/
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>Regular Internet providers are being put under increasing pressure for not doing enough to curb copyright infringement.</p>



<p>Music rights company BMG got the ball rolling a few years ago when it won its piracy liability lawsuit against Cox Communications.</p>



<p>The ISP was ordered to pay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">$25 million in damages</a> and another $8 million in legal fees. Hoping to escape this judgment, the company filed an appeal, but the case was eventually settled with Cox agreeing to&nbsp;pay an undisclosed but substantial <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-pays-substantial-settlement-to-end-repeat-infringer-piracy-lawsuit-180827/">settlement amount</a>. </p>



<p>The landmark case signaled the start of many similar lawsuits against a variety of ISPs, several of which are still ongoing. In fact, just days after the settlement was announced, Cox was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-file-billion-dollar-piracy-lawsuit-against-isp-cox-180802/">sued again</a>, this time by a group of RIAA-affiliated music companies. </p>



<p>In simple terms, the crux of the case is whether Cox did enough stop pirating subscribers. While the ISP did have the policy to disconnect repeat infringers, the music companies argue that this wasn&#8217;t sufficient.   </p>



<p>Over the past several months, both parties have conducted discovery and they are currently gearing up for a jury trial which is scheduled for December.</p>



<p>Most recently, both parties have presented their <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_in_limine">motions in limine</a>, requesting the court to exclude certain testimony from being presented to the jury. This is typically material they see as irrelevant, misleading, or confusing.    </p>



<p>One of the music companies&#8217; motions focuses on a document (DX 74) Cox wants to present which indicates that the ISP&#8217;s own graduated response system worked pretty well. </p>



<p>Apparently, internal Cox research showed that 96% of subscribers stop receiving notices after the 5th warning. This was concluded in 2010 and resulted in the ISP&#8217;s belief that its &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-targets-pirates-with-10-strikes-program-130408/">graduated response</a>&#8221; system was effective.</p>



<p>The number was also brought up to the plaintiffs, as it was mentioned during the Copyright Alert System negotiations. Cox says that it chose not to join this voluntary piracy notice agreement because it already had a functional anti-piracy system in place.</p>



<p>The music companies don&#8217;t want this evidence to be shown to the jury. In a reply to Cox&#8217;s objections, they argue that the facts and figures in the document are a confusing mess of misleading calculations that lack data to support them.</p>



<p>The reply, which also rebuts other issues, is aggressively worded and redacts the 96% figure at the center of the dispute.</p>



<p>&#8220;The mere utterance of the so-called &#8216;study&#8217; and its misleading and unsupported conclusion will lend it an air of credibility in the jury’s mind. The proverbial bell cannot be un-rung. The only adequate solution is exclusion,&#8221; the music companies write.  </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2f007624.riaaredac.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaaredac.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179120" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaaredac.jpg 569w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/riaaredac-500x210.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 569px) 100vw, 569px" /></figure></div>



<p>Cox has also submitted a variety of motions in limine. Among other things, the ISP doesn&#8217;t want the plaintiffs to present the millions of infringement notices tracking company MarkMonitor sent to Cox on behalf of other rightsholders. </p>



<p>The music companies disagree, however, arguing that the jury is allowed to know that potential copyright infringements are not limited to their own complaints. The other notices are also relevant to determine crucial issues such as liability, willfulness, and statutory damages, they add.  </p>



<p>According to Cox, however, these third-party infringements notices are irrelevant to the present case and don&#8217;t prove anything. </p>



<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs’ attempt to litigate this case with evidence from an unrelated case concerning acts of infringement that are not at issue is inappropriate, improper, and prejudicial. Plaintiffs’ evidence of third-party infringement allegations should be excluded from trial.&#8221; </p>



<p>The docket <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/7586228/sony-music-entertainment-v-cox-communications-inc/">is littered with back and forths</a> on issues one party wants to exclude while being considered vital evidence by the other. This process is generally the last major clash before the trial starts. </p>



<p>The court has yet to rule on the various motions. When that is done the case will move forward. If all goes according to the current schedule, the verdict will be announced in a few weeks. <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=178953
title: ACE Hits Two More Pirate Streaming Sites, Seizes More Openload Domains
uri: ACE-Hits-Two-More-Pirate-Streaming-Sites-Seizes-More-Openload-Domains
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/woKbXRswgco/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/b447d2ef.ace-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ace-logo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-140379"/></figure></div>



<p>After a standing start just over two years ago, the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment quickly became the most feared anti-piracy group on the planet.</p>



<p>Compromised of around three dozen entertainment companies, including the major Hollywood studios, Netflix and Amazon, the group now targets piracy on a global scale, sharing resources and costs to tackle infringement wherever it might be.</p>



<p>Last week the group took down <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/openload-and-others-taken-down-by-anti-piracy-alliance-ace-191031/">Openload and Streamango</a>, a dramatic and significant action by any standard. However, as documented here on several occasions (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-ace-shut-down-pirate-iptv-service-seize-domain-190517/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-now-controls-at-least-3-pirate-iptv-domains-190707/">2</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/battle-against-iptv-mpa-ace-take-over-four-more-domains-191013/">3</a>), the anti-piracy group also shuts down smaller players with little to no fanfare. Today we can report that another two sites have joined the club.</p>



<p>The first, <a href="https://iptvbox.plus">IPTVBox.plus</a>, appears to have been a seller/reseller of IPTV services targeted at the Brazilian market. Its packages started off pretty cheaply, less than US$4.50 for around 1000 standard definition channels. </p>



<p>The &#8216;master&#8217; package, however, offered an impressive 13,000 mixed SD, HD and &#8216;FullHD&#8217; channels for around US$9.70 per month, almost double the price but still cheap by most standards.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2cbc4d7f.image-153.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-153.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179093"/><figcaption>IPTVBox.plus&#8230;..gone</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Thanks to the intervention of ACE, however, the site&#8217;s domain is now in the hands of the MPA. A notice on the site informs visitors that the platform bit the dust for infringing copyright. The familiar timer then runs down to zero and diverts disappointed users to the ACE homepage for a lesson in copyright.</p>



<p>Finally, a dedicated streaming portal has also handed over its domain to ACE. PlanetaTVonlineHD.com first appeared online in 2015, streaming popular TV shows such as Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, and Prison Break to a fairly sizeable audience.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><img src="media/4a6497bb.image-148.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-148.png" alt="" class="wp-image-178956" width="650"/></figure>



<p>But now, without any official announcement from ACE, the show is clearly over for the TV show streaming platform.</p>



<p>Like so many other similar sites and services, its domain now redirects to the ACE anti-piracy portal. What happened between the parties may never be known but it seems fairly obvious that the group&#8217;s influence convinced the site&#8217;s operator that continuing just wasn&#8217;t worth the trouble.</p>



<p>Finally, over the past week ACE has been taking control of more Openload, Streamango, and StreamCherry domains. We previously reported that Openload.co, oload.cc, oload.club, oload.download, openload.pw and oloadcdn.net had been seized, but more can be added to the list. They are:</p>



<p>StreamCherry.com, Oload.stream, fruithosted.net, oload.win, oload.life, oload.services, oload.xyz, oload.space, oload.biz, oload.vip, oload.tv, oload.monster, oload.best, oload.press, oload.live, oload.site, oload.network, oload.website, oload.online, olpair.com, and openload.status. </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=178541
title: Spammers Abuse Medium.com to Spread ‘Pirate’ Scams
uri: Spammers-Abuse-Medium-com-to-Spread-Pirate-Scams
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oBHbyPCuQuE/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/af77dcca.mediumlogo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mediumlogo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179018" width="188" height="188"/></figure></div>



<p>Founded in 2012 by former Twitter CEO Evan Williams, online publishing platform <a href="https://medium.com/">Medium.com</a> swiftly became the go-to place for many authors. </p>



<p>The site has featured works of renowned writers, politicians, high profile activists, major companies, as well as average Joes. </p>



<p>Today, Medium has millions of daily visitors, making it one of the 100 most visited websites in the world.  The majority of these are drawn to the compelling and informative writings, but the site has proven a draw to scammy &#8216;pirates&#8217; as well.</p>



<p>Every week, hundreds, if not thousands of articles appear that promise people the latest pirated movies and TV-shows. Whether it&#8217;s a high-definition copy of Joker, Terminator: Dark Fate, or Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, it&#8217;s available. Supposedly. </p>



<p>Here&#8217;s an example of a Joker movie that was promoted this week, but there are <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amedium.com+joker+stream&amp;oq=site%3Amedium.com+joker+stream">many more</a>.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/094be3a9.joker.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/joker.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179113" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/joker.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/joker-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></figure></div>



<p>People who click on the links are often disappointed though. They typically point to a page where people can start a stream instantly, but after a generic intro, they are required to sign up for a &#8220;free account,&#8221; that requires a credit card for &#8216;validation&#8217; purposes.</p>



<p>Needless to say, this isn&#8217;t a good idea. Aside from the obvious copyright issues, these services don&#8217;t promise what they offer. After all, many of the pirated films they advertise are not available in high-quality formats yet. </p>



<p>The goal of this strategy is to have these links show up high in search results. A site like Medium has a good reputation in search engines, and as a result, the articles promoting these scams are more visible in search results than the average pirate site.</p>



<p>This appears to be an effective strategy, especially since Google has started to push down results from known pirate platforms.</p>



<p>This practice is not new either. Many other reputable sites, including <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-use-facebook-and-google-to-spread-fake-pirate-downloads-181209/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spammers-populate-google-maps-with-pirate-links-170422/">Google Maps</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/change-org-petitions-used-for-pirate-movie-downloads-170212/">Change.org</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/scammers-abuse-steam-to-trap-would-be-movie-pirates-190623/">Steam</a>, and others, have been abused in a similar fashion in the past.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Medium and the company informed us that it&#8217;s a free and open platform that allows anyone to share stories and ideas. However, it takes swift action after any alleged infringements are reported. </p>



<p>&#8220;We fully comply with the DMCA and all other relevant copyright laws,&#8221; a Medium spokesperson said, pointing to its <a href="http://We fully comply with the DMCA and all other relevant copyright laws,">DMCA policy</a>.  </p>



<p>&#8220;When we discover bad actors, both through manual and automatic detection, they are assessed in terms of our policies and rules against those behaviors, and removed from Medium.&#8221;</p>



<p>These types of scams aren&#8217;t a major problem for copyright holders, as it will mostly result in disappointed and frustrated pirates. However, prospective pirates who fall for them may eventually be charged for something they didn&#8217;t sign up for. </p>



<p>For Medium this scam practice could lead to unexpected problems as well. Google received hundreds of takedown notices for <a href="https://transparencyreport.google.com/copyright/domains/medium.com">Medium.com links</a> over the past several weeks which, in theory, makes it a candidate for a downranking penalty. Unless Google reviews sites manually before applying a penalty, of course.</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=179157
title: Sci-Hub & Libgen Blocked By Austrian ISPs Following Elsevier Complaint
uri: Sci-Hub-Libgen-Blocked-By-Austrian-ISPs-Following-Elsevier-Complaint
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/F7VMr0tuHlA/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/ef5260ae.elsevierlogo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/elsevierlogo.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-163885" width="259" height="259"/></figure></div>



<p>For well over a decade, entertainment industry groups have been developing legal processes to have allegedly-infringing websites blocked at the ISP level.</p>



<p>The majority of these complaints have been initiated by movie and music companies but in recent years, other content distributors have sought similar blockades in order to protect their interests.</p>



<p>Publishing giant Elsevier has emerged as a major player with arch-rivals Sci-Hub (&#8216;The Pirate Bay of Science&#8217;) and Libgen (Library Genesis) as its key targets. Late last week, Austrian ISP T-Mobile revealed that it had begun blocking several Sci-Hub and Libgen related domains following a supervisory procedure carried out by local telecoms regulator TKK.</p>



<p>The original complaint against more than two dozen domains was filed in the summer by Elsevier Ltd, Elsevier BV and Elsevier Inc. against rival ISP A1. The ISP took the decision to block the domains in July but due to concerns that blocking has the potential to breach net neutrality rules, it reported the case to TKK (Telekom-Control-Commission).</p>



<p>Early August, TKK launched a supervisory process and both A1 and Elsevier were asked to participate. In September, TKK informed the parties of the results of its investigation which determined that 24 of the 27 domains listed in the original blocking request (listed below) were &#8220;structurally infringing&#8221;.</p>



<p>In summary, the 24 domains either provided direct access to Sci-Hub or Libgen or provided proxy/mirror access to essentially the same content.</p>



<p>Three domains &#8211; libgen.io, lgmag.org and bookdescr.org &#8211; were determined to be either inaccessible during the process or didn&#8217;t carry content owned by Elsevier at the time. After notification from TKK, A1 confirmed that it had lifted its blocks against the three domains in question.</p>



<p>Following A1&#8217;s blocking of the listed domains, TKK says no end-users complained to the ISP that the blocks had been put in place or filed any official complaints with the telecoms regulator.</p>



<p>So, after analysis of the nature of the sites and their conduct, TKK therefore ruled <em>(<a href="media/2e55aceb._A1_Elsevier_Gesamteinstellung_Bescheid_nach_TKK_ohne_ZV_sig.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.rtr.at/de/tk/R8_19_Bescheid_21102019/R_8_19_A1_Elsevier_Gesamteinstellung_Bescheid_nach_TKK_ohne_ZV_sig.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> that blocking them at the ISP level would be the correct balance between the rights of Internet users and Elsevier&#8217;s rights to protect its intellectual property.</p>



<p>Over the border, Elsevier previously obtained a 2018 Sci-Hub-blocking <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vodafone-blocks-libgen-following-elsevier-springer-macmillan-injunction-180808/">order in Germany</a>. In March 2019, several French ISPs were told to do the same <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-french-isps-to-block-sci-hub-and-libgen-190331/">after similar action</a>. In September, a Danish court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/denmark-blocks-sci-hub-plus-streaming-torrent-youtube-ripping-sites-190926/">handed down</a> a similar ruling.</p>



<p>The question remains, however, whether anti-piracy enforcement action alone will <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-efforts-are-unlikely-to-beat-sci-hub/">ever keep Sci-Hub down</a>, particularly when universities are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/as-more-universities-ditch-elsevier-sci-hub-blossoms/">reconsidering</a> their business dealings with Elsevier and making the platform more relevant than ever.</p>



<p><em>The full list of 24 domains blocked in Austria reads as follows:</em></p>



<p><em>gen.lib.rus.ec, sci-hub.tw, sci-hub.se, sci-hub.ren, sci-hub.be, sci-hub.shop, libgen.unblocked.win, libgen.unblocked.lc, libgen.unblocked.vet, libgen.unblocked.la, libgen.unblocked.li, libgen.unblocked.red, libgen.unblocked.tv, libgen.unblocked.cat, libgen.unblocked.uno, libgen.unblocked.ink, libgen.unblocked.at, libgen.unblocked.pro, libgen.unblocked.mx, libgen.unblocked.sh, libgen.unblocked.gdn, libgen.unblocked.pet, scihub.unblocked.lc, scihub.unblocked.vet</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=179161
title: Hollywood Praises Australia’s Anti-Piracy Laws, But More Can Be Done
uri: Hollywood-Praises-Australia-s-Anti-Piracy-Laws-But-More-Can-Be-Done
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ByJblC6ZYy4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/53490471.aus.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-96798"/></figure></div>



<p>For years on end, entertainment industry insiders have regularly portrayed Australia as a piracy-ridden country. </p>



<p>However, after several legislative updates, the tide appears to have turned. This is the conclusion reached by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) in a recent report. </p>



<p>The industry group, which is largely made up of Hollywood studios, along with the recently added Netflix, continuously monitors Australia&#8217;s anti-piracy efforts. In recent years, things have been going in the right direction.</p>



<p>A short summary of its findings was recently reported to the US Government as part of the annual trade barriers consultation. </p>



<p>The MPA&#8217;s overview is generally a summary of copyright challenges and shortcomings around the world. However, Australia is one of the few exceptions when it comes to anti-piracy enforcement. In fact, the industry group is rather positive about the progress the country has made.</p>



<p>&#8220;Australia has developed excellent tools to fight online piracy, including eﬀective laws allowing for no-fault injunctive relief against ISPs and &#8216;search engine service providers&#8217;,&#8221; the MPA writes in its report.   </p>



<p>The report points out that in recent years piracy rates have declined significantly Down Under. Pirate site blocking and other measures have helped to boost interest in legal subscription services, including Netflix, it suggests. </p>



<p>The MPA is also positive about recent developments regarding takedown notices. The Australian Competition and Consumer&nbsp;Commission is currently considering the introduction of a mandatory takedown notice scheme, one that would be stricter than the DMCA-style standard which is common today. </p>



<p>&#8220;This would include procedures for urgent take downs (extending to pre-release or new-release films and TV shows as well as live entertainment content), as well as &#8216;stay down&#8217; obligations to ensure that content already identified as infringing does not quickly re-appear,&#8221; the MPA notes. </p>



<p>The Hollywood-backed group supports this initiative and adds that companies who breach the new takedown standard should face &#8220;meaningful&#8221; penalties.</p>



<p>Aside from the positive remarks in Australia, the MPA informs the US Government that there is room for improvement as well. For example, the police could offer more help with piracy-related investigations, something that&#8217;s lacking today. </p>



<p>In addition, the MPA is worried about an ongoing Copyright Modernization consultation where further exceptions to copyright are being considered.  This includes new definitions of fair dealing or fair use, which are seen as a threat by the industry group. </p>



<p>&#8220;This consultation risks undermining the current balance of IP protection in Australia that has fueled the country’s creative industries, and could create significant market uncertainty and effectively weaken Australia’s infrastructure for intellectual property protection,&#8221; the MPA states.  </p>



<p>Closing out the list is a recommendation to propose tough anti-camcording piracy laws. While fewer illegal recordings are sourced from Australia today, the current penalties for this activity are simply not enough to act as a proper deterrent, the group says.</p>



<p>The last request is far from new. The same demands have appeared in previous reports, as is the case with many of the recommendations throughout the MPA&#8217;s report, which are often copied verbatim year after year. </p>



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



<p><em>The full overview of the MPA&#8217;s trade barrier comments to the US Trade Representative is available <a href="media/3fad8dbe.MPA_2019_Trade_Barriers_Filing.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/MPA_2019_Trade_Barriers_Filing.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=179207
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 11/11/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-11-11-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nLg5_dnc4vs/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-179210" src="media/34d6f2f7.dora.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dora.jpg" alt="" width="317" height="192" />This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Dora and the Lost City of Gold 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-11-04-19/">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/tt7547410/">Dora and the Lost City of Gold</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7547410/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUTtJjV852c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">Joker</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7PAyCDwEg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7394816/">Primal</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7394816/">4.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXRqTrojCbI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">The Lion King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf9bVk75s8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7984766/">The King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7984766/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svVykTznk9Q">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</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>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4364194/">The Peanut Butter Falcon</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4364194/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNl9RqjLCwc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441881/">Danger Close</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0441881/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIUk4bA9tjM">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=179217
title: ‘Copyright’ Sting Targeting 15-Year-Old Backfires With Arrest Warrants & Record Sales
uri: Copyright-Sting-Targeting-15-Year-Old-Backfires-With-Arrest-Warr
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Bcni9eSgYoo/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/85dfddbb.krathongs.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/krathongs.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179220" width="272" height="203" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/krathongs.jpg 639w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/krathongs-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 272px) 100vw, 272px" /><figcaption><em>Krathong float (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cm_john/8511571189/">credit</a>)</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Loi Krathong is an annual festival celebrated in Thailand and some neighboring countries during which &#8216;krathong&#8217; (decorated baskets) are floated on a river.</p>



<p>These beautiful items are often made by locals looking to generate relatively small sums to help support their families and in some cases fund their education. Sadly, there are others who see the creations as an opportunity to generate cash for themselves in an entirely more sinister fashion.</p>



<p>According to local media <a href="https://www.one31.net/news/detail/15822">reports</a>, earlier this month a 15-year-old girl known as &#8216;Orm&#8217; or &#8216;Orn&#8217; (we&#8217;ll settle on the former) was contacted on Facebook by a stranger who placed an order for 136 krathong floats. The order carried specific instructions for them to be adorned with faces of <a href="media/07b5f08f.E0B881E0B8A3E0B8B0E0B897E0B8873.jpg" data-original-source="https://www.one31.net/uploads/media/Onenews/NOV62/%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B0%E0%B8%97%E0%B8%873.jpg">cartoon characters </a>owned by Japanese company <a href="http://www.san-x.jp/">San-X</a>.</p>



<p>When Orm took 30 completed floats to a local mall, at the request of a supposed &#8220;copyright agent&#8221; she was reportedly arrested by police for &#8216;copyright infringement&#8217;. She was told to pay a fine of 50,000 baht, around US$1,650, a figure that was later negotiated down to 5,000 baht, US$1,650, by her grandfather, a former policeman.</p>



<p>&#8220;After receiving the order, I made krathong baskets from 8am to 1.30am the next day so that I could fill the order, only to be arrested,&#8221; Orm <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1787699/girl-tricked-into-making-pirate-krathong-floats-then-arrested">said</a>.</p>



<p>&#8220;Normally I do not make any basket with a copyrighted character. This customer stressed they wanted copyrighted characters. After being arrested I cried all night because I have never faced such legal action before.&#8221;</p>



<p>The action against the teenager provoked outcry in the community after the chief of a local police station said it had worked with the &#8216;copyright agent&#8217; on the sting operation, Bangkok Post <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1787699/girl-tricked-into-making-pirate-krathong-floats-then-arrested">reported</a>.</p>



<p>However, all was not what it seemed. TAC Consumer PLC, which represents San-X, <a href="http://www.tacconsumer.com/">issued a statement</a> stating that it had not participated in the operation against the teenager and had assigned one of its lawyers to the case. But worse was to come.</p>



<p>After news of the scandal spread, other victims of the scam came forward, <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1789009/copyright-agent-victims-file-reports">saying they too</a> had been arrested and settled for even larger amounts having borrowed the money from family members. They identified the &#8216;copyright agent&#8217; as the same man who targeted the teenager.</p>



<p>When news reached local TV, a reporter helped to track down the &#8216;copyright agent&#8217;, who was discovered to be a local motorcycle taxi driver called &#8216;Nan&#8217; whose wife sells meatballs in the area.</p>



<p>Yesterday, as pressure mounted against local police, a commander announced that after 40 similar complaints were filed against the &#8216;copyright agent&#8217;, they would be <a href="https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1791974/copyright-agents-face-arrest-warrants-for-krathong-floats-sting">seeking</a> arrest warrants by the end of the week. While that news will be celebrated in its own right, the knock-on effect of all the publicity is doing wonders for Orm&#8217;s work.</p>



<p>After making 360 floats to sell during the Loy Krathong festival, people queued up to buy them. They sold out in an hour, making herself around 8,110 baht in profit, around US$267.00. She told local media she was &#8220;delighted&#8221; by the response having sold just 30 in previous years.</p>



<p>Half of the money will go towards her school fees and the rest will go to her family to help with household expenses.</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=179212
title: Copyright Professors Back ISP Charter to Avoid Dangerous Piracy Liability Precedent
uri: Copyright-Professors-Back-ISP-Charter-to-Avoid-Dangerous-Piracy-Liabil
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9AjxEB9i_lI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/74ccf2fd.charter.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/charter.png" alt="" class="wp-image-170114"/></figure></div>



<p>In March several major music companies&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-companies-sue-charter-for-turning-a-blind-eye-to-piracy-190326/">sued Charter Communications</a>, one of the largest Internet providers in the US with&nbsp;22 million subscribers.</p>



<p>Helped by the RIAA, Capitol Records, Warner Bros, Sony Music, and others accused Charter of deliberately turning a blind eye to its pirating subscribers.</p>



<p>Among other things, they argued that the ISP failed to terminate or otherwise take meaningful action against the accounts of repeat infringers, even though it was well aware of them. As such, it is liable for both contributory infringement and vicarious liability, the music companies claim.&nbsp; </p>



<p>The ISP disagreed and filed a motion at a Colorado federal court, asking it to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/terminating-subscribers-doesnt-stop-pirates-charter-argues-190605/">dismiss the vicarious liability claims</a>. Charter argues that it doesn&#8217;t directly profit from copyright-infringing subscribers, nor does it have the ability to control them.</p>



<p>Previously, other Internet providers have been successful in getting vicarious infringement claims dropped, but Charter&#8217;s case appears to go in the other direction. Last month Magistrate Judge Michael Hegarty recommended the court <a href="media/5e4fc8c9.gov.uscourts.cod.187729.71.0.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cod.187729/gov.uscourts.cod.187729.71.0.pdf">to deny the motion to dismiss</a>.</p>



<p>According to the Judge, Charter&#8217;s &#8220;failure to stop or take other action in response to notices of infringement is a draw to current and prospective subscribers to purchase and use Defendant’s internet service to &#8216;pirate&#8217; Plaintiffs’ copyrighted works.&#8221; </p>



<p>Charter objected to this recommendation and hopes that the court will not accept it. The company fears that this will subject the company, and pretty much all other ISPs, to a wide range of piracy liability claims. </p>



<p>They are not alone in this assessment. Yesterday, a group of 23 copyright law professors submitted an amicus curiae brief in support of the company. According to the legal scholars from prominent institutions including Harvard and Stanford, the recommendation would set a dangerous precedent. </p>



<p>The copyright professors point out that, based on the complaint, it can&#8217;t be concluded that Charter enjoyed direct financial benefits from the alleged infringements, as vicarious liability prescribes. </p>



<p>Vicarious liability requires ISPs&#8217; actions to serve as a &#8220;draw&#8221; to potential infringers. However, the professors argue that this isn&#8217;t the case here. Instead, the potential to use Charter to pirate should be seen as an &#8220;added benefit.&#8221;</p>



<p>The draw, in this case, is access to the entire Internet, with the potential to pirate being an added benefit. </p>



<p>&#8220;Access to this universe of content and services is the draw for subscribers, and the use by some subscribers of some portion of that service to download infringing material can only plausibly be seen as an added benefit of the service. </p>



<p>&#8220;This is especially true with ISPs, like Charter, because subscribers pay the same flat monthly rate for a particular level of service irrespective of whether, or how often, they infringe,&#8221; the professors add. </p>



<p>The Judge&#8217;s recommendation fails to properly make this distinction according to the professors. Neither does it show the necessary causal link between infringements and the financial benefit. As a result, it would expose Charter and other ISPs to &#8220;unprecedented risks of liability.&#8221;  </p>



<p>The fact that Charter advertises “blazing-fast” speeds that allow users to download “just about anything” efficiently is not relevant either. According to the professors, these features are valued by all Internet users whether they engage in infringement or not.  </p>



<p>&#8220;The Recommendation’s misapplication of the direct financial benefit analysis would cause considerable harm to other ISPs, consumers, and the public,&#8221; they write.  </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/7437c0f0.Charter-Spectrum.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Charter-Spectrum.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179224"/><figcaption>Blazing-fast</figcaption></figure></div>



<p>The immediate threat to ISPs is more lawsuits where dozens of millions of dollars in damages are at stake. If the recommendation stands, providers would have a hard time defending them. In addition, many would have to change their piracy policies, which could hurt consumer privacy.</p>



<p>In order to avoid vicarious liability claims, Charter and others would have to be more active against potential repeat infringers. This could lead to more Internet terminations and possible monitoring of legitimate users, the professors warn.</p>



<p>&#8220;Consumers, whether they personally engage in infringing conduct or not, could be subject to wholesale termination of their Internet access based on unproven allegations of infringement occurring at the IP address through which they connect to the Internet. </p>



<p>&#8220;Moreover, ISPs could be forced to engage in privacy-invasive monitoring of their subscribers’ Internet activity,&#8221; they add.  </p>



<p>The brief explains that ISPs that don&#8217;t host any content should pass all Internet traffic along in a neutral manner. These companies should not be forced to become copyright enforcers based on mere allegations.</p>



<p>Based on the above, the copyright law professors urge the court not to adopt the Magistrate Judge&#8217;s recommendations. First, however, the court must decide whether it will accept the brief and add it to the record. </p>



<p>Given what&#8217;s at stake, it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise to see submissions from more third-parties on this matter in the coming days.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of the professors&#8217; amicus curiae brief, which has yet to be accepted, is available <a href="media/027d409c.profscharter.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/profscharter.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=179245
title: IPTV Supplier Omniverse Agrees to Pay $50 Million in Piracy Damages
uri: IPTV-Supplier-Omniverse-Agrees-to-Pay-50-Million-in-Piracy-Damages
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/a_jYBLiwO9A/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/5d4ddb24.omniverse.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/omniverse.png" alt="" class="wp-image-168431"/></figure></div>



<p>In February, several major Hollywood studios filed&nbsp;<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>&nbsp;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>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/1e67d43f.omniversefuller.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/omniversefuller.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-168430"/><figcaption>Omniverse</figcaption></figure></div>



<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>The streaming provider also filed a third-party complaint (<a href="media/44a46b0d.gov.uscourts.cacd.737096.48.0_1_1.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.cacd.737096/gov.uscourts.cacd.737096.48.0_1_1.pdf">pdf</a>) against  Hovsat for indemnification and breach of contract, among other things. Omniverse believed that it was properly licensed and wants Hovsat to pay the damages for any alleged infringements if that was not the case.</p>



<p>That there are damages became crystal clear yesterday, when ACE announced that it had obtained a consent judgment against Omniverse. Both parties have agreed to settle the matter with the streaming provider committing to pay a $50 million settlement.</p>



<p>&#8220;Damages are awarded in favor of Plaintiffs and against Defendants,<br> jointly and severally, in the total amount of fifty million dollars,&#8221; the proposed judgment reads.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/48b9c003.propace.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/propace.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179247"/></figure></div>



<p>The agreement also includes a permanent injunction that prevents Omniverse and its owner Jason DeMeo from operating the service and being involved in supplying or offering pirate streaming channels in any other way.</p>



<p>The damages amount of $50 million is a substantial figure. In the past, however, we have seen that the public figure can be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-secretly-settled-hotfile-4-million-80-million-141224/">substantially higher than what&#8217;s agreed in private</a>. In any case, Omniverse may hold Hovsat accountable, as previously suggested.</p>



<p>Karen Thorland, Senior Vice President at the Motion Picture Association, which has a leading role in the ACE coalition, is pleased with the outcome.   </p>



<p>“This judgment and injunction are a major win for creators, audiences, and the legitimate streaming market, which has been undermined by Omniverse and its ‘back office’ piracy infrastructure for years,”  Thorland, says</p>



<p>Over the past years, ACE has built a steady track record of successful cases against IPTV providers and services. In addition to Omniverse, it also helped to shut down SetTV, Dragon Box, TickBox, Vader Streams, and many third-party Kodi addons. </p>



<p>The consent judgment and permanent injunction (<a href="media/f3173068.propomniverse.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/propomniverse.pdf">pdf</a>) have yet to be signed off by the court but since both parties are in agreement, that&#8217;s mostly a formality.</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=179243
title: EU Academics Publish Recommendations to Limit Negative Impact of Article 17 on Users
uri: EU-Academics-Publish-Recommendations-to-Limit-Negative-Impact-of-Artic
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NTSqOObOThE/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/8eded133.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-136985" width="271" height="181"/></figure></div>



<p>Despite some of the most intense opposition seen in recent years, on March 26, 2019, the EU Parliament <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-parliament-adopts-copyright-directive-including-article-13-190326/">adopted</a> the Copyright Directive.</p>



<p>The main controversy surrounded Article 17 (previously known as Article 13), which places greater restrictions on user-generated content platforms like YouTube.</p>



<p>Rightsholders, from the music industry in particular, welcomed the new reality. Without official licensing arrangements in place or strong efforts to obtain licensing alongside best efforts to take down infringing content and keep it down, sites like YouTube (Online Content Sharing Service Providers &#8211; OCSSP) can potentially be held liable for infringing content.</p>



<p>This uncertainty led many to fear for the future of fair use, with the specter of content upload platforms deploying strict automated filters that err on the side of caution in order to avoid negative legal consequences under the new law. </p>



<p>While the legislation has been passed at the EU level, it still has to be written into Member States&#8217; local law. With that in mind, more than 50 EU Academics have published a set of recommendations that they believe have the potential to limit restrictions on user freedoms as a result of the new legislation.</p>



<p>A key recommendation is that national implementations should &#8220;fully explore&#8221; legal mechanisms for broad licensing of copyrighted content. The academics are calling for this to ensure that the preventative obligations of OCSSPs are limited in application wherever possible.</p>



<p>The academics hope that broad licensing can avoid situations where to avoid liability, OCSSPs would otherwise have to prove they have made &#8220;best efforts&#8221; to ensure works specified by rightsholders are rendered inaccessible or show that they have &#8220;acted expeditiously&#8221; to remove content and prevent its reupload following a request from a rightsholder.</p>



<p>&#8220;Otherwise, the freedom of EU citizens to participate in democratic online content creation and distribution will be encroached upon and freedom of expression and information in the online environment would be curtailed,&#8221; the academics warn.</p>



<p>The academics&#8217; recommendations are focused on ensuring that non-infringing works don&#8217;t become collateral damage as OCSSPs scramble to cover their own backs and avoid liability.</p>



<p>For example, the preventative obligations listed above should generally not come into play when content is used for quotation, criticism, or review, or for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche. If content is removed or filtered incorrectly, however, Member States must ensure that online content-sharing service providers put in place an &#8220;effective and expeditious&#8221; complaint and redress system.</p>



<p>The prospect of automatic filtering at the point of upload was a hugely controversial matter before Article 17 passed but the academics believe they have identified ways to ensure that freedom of expression and access to information can be better protected.</p>



<p>&#8220;[W]e recommend that where preventive measures [as detailed above] are applied, especially where they lead to the filtering and blocking of uploaded content before it is made available to the public, Member States should, to the extent possible, limit their application to cases of prima facie [upon first impression] copyright infringement,&#8221; the academics write.</p>



<p>&#8220;In this context, a prima facie copyright infringement means the upload of protected material that is&nbsp;<em>identical&nbsp;</em>or&nbsp;<em>equivalent</em>&nbsp;to the &#8216;relevant and necessary information&#8217; previously provided by the rightholders to OCSSPs, including information previously considered infringing. The concept of&nbsp;<em>equivalent</em>&nbsp;information should be interpreted strictly.&#8221;</p>



<p>The academics say that if content is removed on the basis of prima facie infringement, users are entitled to activate the complaint and redress procedure. If there is no prima facie infringement, content should not be removed until its legal status is determined.</p>



<p>In cases where user-uploaded content does not meet the prima facie standard but matches &#8220;relevant and necessary information&#8221; (fingerprints etc) supplied by rightsholders, OCSSPs must grant users the ability to declare that content is not infringing due to fair use-type exceptions.</p>



<p>&#8220;The means to provide such declaration should be concise, transparent, intelligible, and be presented to the user in an easily accessible form, using clear and plain language (e.g. a standard statement clarifying the status of the uploaded content, such as &#8216;This is a permissible quotation&#8217; or &#8216;This is a permissible parody&#8217;),&#8221; the recommendations read.</p>



<p>If users don&#8217;t provide a declaration within a &#8220;reasonable&#8221; time following upload, the OCSSP (YouTube etc) should be &#8220;allowed&#8221; to remove the content, with users granted permission to activate the complaint and redress procedure.</p>



<p>Rightsholders who still maintain that content was removed correctly must then justify the deletion, detailing why it is a prima facie case of infringement and not covered by a fair use-type exemption, particularly the one cited by the user.</p>



<p>A human review should then be conducted at the OCSSP, which should not be held liable for infringement under Article 17 until the process is complete and legality determined.</p>



<p>Given that Article 17 has passed, there appears to be limited room to maneuver and there is a long way to go before all Member States write its terms into local law.</p>



<p>However, even if the above safeguarding recommendations are implemented, it&#8217;s clear that substantial resources will have to be expended to ensure that everyone&#8217;s rights are protected. As a result, platforms lacking YouTube-sized budgets will undoubtedly feel the pinch.</p>



<p><em>Safeguarding User Freedoms in Implementing Article 17 of the Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive: Recommendations from European Academics is available <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3484968">here</a></em>.</p>



<p> </p>



<p>&nbsp; </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=179233
title: Disney+ Launched and Pirates Love It, Especially Mandalorian
uri: Disney-Launched-and-Pirates-Love-It-Especially-Mandalorian
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hWJfaU1Z28M/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/32f25e7c.disneyplus.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/disneyplus.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179238"/></figure></div>



<p>Two years ago, when Disney announced that it would launch its own streaming service, we mused that this would&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/disney-ditching-netflix-keeps-piracy-relevant-170809/">keep piracy relevant</a>.</p>



<p>Yes, another paid streaming service would further fragment the legitimate market. This could motivate some to keep pirating, at least part-time. </p>



<p>More recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fragmented-streaming-landscape-keeps-piracy-relevant-research-suggests-190613/">research</a> has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-will-surge-if-more-legal-streaming-services-launch-research-shows-190927/">confirmed</a> that this is indeed a warranted concern as people have limited budgets, but money isn&#8217;t the only problem.</p>



<p>When Disney confirmed that the initial rollout would be limited to the United States, Canada and the Netherlands, the piracy lure only became stronger. Star Wars fans in most parts of the world currently can&#8217;t watch the highly anticipated Mandalorian series, unless they pirate.</p>



<p>With this in mind, we kept a close eye on the official <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+</a> launch this week. There was an enormous amount of media coverage which, undoubtedly, led to a lot of legitimate subscriptions. But, at the same time, pirate sites were buzzing too. </p>



<p>Shortly after Disney+ opened shop the first pirated releases started to spread. First through private communities and then over at public torrent sites, cyberlockers, and not-so-legal streaming platforms. After a few hours, pirated copies of the Mandalorian were everywhere. </p>



<p>This doesn&#8217;t really come as a surprise. Disney+ currently uses Widevine encryption, which is similar to what other streaming services use. Downloading or &#8216;ripping&#8217; these videos doesn&#8217;t appear to be too hard.</p>



<p>And indeed, a quick glance at various pirate sites reveals that the first Mandalorian episode, which is exclusive to Disney+, is widely available in various formats.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/1585ffb8.mandapirate.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mandapirate.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179269" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mandapirate.jpg 600w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/mandapirate-500x210.jpg 500w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" /></figure></div>



<p>Over the past two days, Mandalorian has already become the most pirated TV-show, with hundreds of thousands of downloads and streams, if not more. While it is far from becoming the next &#8220;Game of Thrones,&#8221; the potential is certainly there.</p>



<p>The fact that Disney+ isn&#8217;t available in many countries is similar to HBO&#8217;s situation when Game of Thrones first came out. This serves as a piracy incentive. After all, people who want to watch Mandalorian in the UK, Australia, and elsewhere, have few other options than to pirate. </p>



<p>The limited release of Disney+ may actually breed some new pirates. Even worse, there is a chance that many of these pirates may not go legal when the streaming service officially launches in their country. </p>



<p>For now, Disney&#8217;s anti-piracy efforts appear to be focused elsewhere though. The company has sent takedown requests for thousands of URLs that host or link to unauthorized copies of Mandalorian. This includes notices that were sent to Google, with requests to delist these pages.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/8ea8ea52.mandatakedown.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mandatakedown.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179267"/></figure></div>



<p>As one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, these piracy concerns shouldn&#8217;t come as a surprise to Disney. The company probably weighed the pros and cons of its actions, including the limited geographical release, as well as entering an already fragmented streaming landscape.</p>



<p>In today&#8217;s online streaming business, piracy is a given. Disney probably believes that running its own streaming platform will ultimately bring in more money. Piracy or not.</p>



<p>They may very well be right, but it will happen at the expense of others. That may include some of Disney&#8217;s competitors, but also consumers who are not willing to pirate, and those who can&#8217;t afford another subscription. </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=179295
title: Kodi Addon & Build Repositories Shut Down Citing Legal Pressure
uri: Kodi-Addon-Build-Repositories-Shut-Down-Citing-Legal-Pressure
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gwZ7JNDzPk4/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/1d7565ee.kodi-tablet.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-tablet.png" alt="" class="wp-image-143298" width="274" height="153"/></figure></div>



<p>Being involved in the development of third-party Kodi addons and &#8216;builds&#8217; (Kodi installations pre-customized with addons and tweaks) is a somewhat risky activity.</p>



<p>Providing simple access to otherwise restricted movies and TV shows attracts copyright holders, and that always has the potential to end badly. And it does, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/confirmed-supremacy-kodi-repo-was-indeed-targeted-by-police-190626/">pretty regularly.</a></p>



<p>On November 1, 2019, UK-focused Kodi platform KodiUK.tv made an announcement on Twitter, stating briefly that &#8220;Something has happened this morning. Sorry!&#8221; While that could mean anything, an ominous follow-up message indicated that a statement would be released in due course &#8220;detailing the future&#8221;.</p>



<p>Several hours later, KodiUK.tv confirmed what fans already knew, that it had taken down its site. Why that happened remained open to question but a few hours ago the group confirmed that legal action was to blame.</p>



<p>&#8220;We took our website offline 10 days ago closed our repo and the builds due to legal demands against us,&#8221; KodiUK.tv <a href="https://twitter.com/kodiuktv/status/1194692070293876736">announced</a> on Twitter.</p>



<p>&#8220;We will say more when we can bring the site back up safely. But the builds &amp; repo will not be back nor will we host any add-ons anymore for anyone.&#8221;</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="http://kodiaddonstv.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/dad-life-kodi-build-300x188.jpeg?x77812" alt="dad life kodi build" width="224" height="141"/></figure></div>



<p>The closure is particularly bad news for anyone who used the popular DadLife Kodi build that was previously installable via the group&#8217;s repository. Whether it will find a new official home somewhere else is open to question.</p>



<p>But there is more bad news too. In an announcement posted a few hours ago to its Facebook page, Kodi builds and addon repository OneNation revealed that it too had shut down, again as a result of legal pressure.</p>



<p>&#8220;Unfortunately due to outside Legal pressures this group will close with immediate effect along with our Repository etc. We would just like to thank each and every one of you for all your support over the years,&#8221; OneNation wrote.</p>



<p>Noting they&#8217;d had an &#8220;absolute blast&#8221;, OneNation added they were going out with their &#8220;heads held high&#8221; having done things their way, without &#8220;robbing links from others&#8221; or accepting payment in any &#8220;shape or form&#8221;. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/4063ae9a.image-157.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-157.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179306" width="650"/><figcaption><em>OneNation: another one bites the dust</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>OneNation went down with strict instructions for no-one to contact the team for any further information and to treat any additional information published online as &#8220;hearsay.&#8221; That means that confirming who applied the legal pressure will be reliant on word from the anti-piracy groups most likely to be have been involved.</p>



<p>TorrentFreak has contacted the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment and the Federation Against Copyright Theft for comment. We&#8217;ll post an update here if any confirmation or denials are received from either group.</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=179330
title: Canadian Court Rejects Reverse Class Action Against BitTorrent Pirates
uri: Canadian-Court-Rejects-Reverse-Class-Action-Against-BitTorrent-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-aWgmFrHV_c/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/81227f55.flash-voltage.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/flash-voltage.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179336"/></figure></div>



<p>Movie studio Voltage Pictures is&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/downloaded-dallas-buyers-club-the-piracy-lawsuits-are-coming-140207/">no stranger</a>&nbsp;to suing BitTorrent users.</p>



<p>The company and its subsidiaries have filed numerous lawsuits against alleged pirates in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, and likely made a lot of money doing so.</p>



<p>Voltage and other copyright holders who initiate these cases generally rely on IP addresses as evidence. With this information in hand, they ask the courts to order Internet providers to hand over the personal details of the associated account holders, so the alleged pirates can be pursued for settlements.</p>



<p>In Canada, Voltage tried to get these personal details from a large group of copyright infringers by filing a reverse class-action lawsuit, which is relatively rare. The movie company argued that this is a cheaper way to target large numbers of infringers at once.</p>



<p>The lawsuit in question was initially <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-movie-pirates-targeted-in-reverse-class-action-160429/">filed in 2016</a> and dragged on for years. The case revolves around a representative defendant, Robert Salna, who provides WiFi services to tenants. Through Salna, Voltage hoped to catch a group of infringers.</p>



<p>As the case went on the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic (<a href="https://cippic.ca/">CIPPIC</a>)&nbsp;took interest in the case. The group, which is connected to the  University of Ottawa, eventually intervened to represent anonymous defendants. </p>



<p>Among other things, CIPPIC argued that the movie company failed to identify an actual infringer. It targets multiple &#8216;infringing&#8217; IP-addresses, which are not unique and can be used by multiple persons at once. In addition, unprotected WiFi networks may be open to the public at large. </p>



<p>Since the IP-addresses are not necessarily the infringers, Voltage has no reasonable cause to file the reverse class action, CIPPIC&#8217;s submission <a href="https://cippic.ca/en/Voltage_v_Salna_Decision">argued</a>. </p>



<p>This week the  Federal Court of Canada ruled on the matter and Justice Boswell agreed with CIPPIC. </p>



<p>&#8220;I agree with CIPPIC’s submissions that Voltage’s pleadings do not disclose a reasonable cause of action with respect to primary infringement. &nbsp;While Voltage alleges that its forensic software identified a direct infringement in [sic] Voltage’s films, Voltage has failed to identify a Direct Infringer in its amended notice of application,&#8221; he writes. </p>



<p>Judge Boswell also agreed with CIPPIC&#8217;s critique of the class action procedure. These piracy cases deal with multiple infringers which will all have different circumstances. Reverse class action lawsuits are less suited to this scenario.</p>



<p>&#8220;A class proceeding is not a preferable procedure&nbsp;for the just and efficient resolution of any common issues which may exist.&nbsp; The proposed proceeding would require multiple individual fact-findings for each class member on almost every issue.&#8221;&nbsp;</p>



<p>The Judge further notes that there are other preferable means for Voltage to pursue its claims. These include joinder and consolidation of individual claims.  </p>



<p>Based on these and other conclusions, Judge Boswell dismissed Voltage&#8217;s motion to certify the case as a reverse class action. In addition, the movie company was ordered to pay the costs of the proceeding, which could run to tens of thousands of dollars. </p>



<p>This is an important ruling as it takes a clear stand against the reverse class action strategy for this type of piracy case. And it may even go further than that. According to law professor <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2019/11/federal-court-short-circuits-voltage-pictures-canadian-file-sharing-class-action-copyright-lawsuit-strategy/">Michael Geist</a>, it can impact future file-sharing cases as well.&nbsp; </p>



<p>&#8220;I think the decision does have implications that extend beyond this specific class action strategy as it calls into doubt the direct link between IP address and infringement and raises questions about whether merely using BitTorrent rises to the level of secondary infringement,&#8221; Geist tells TorrentFreak.</p>



<p>CIPPIC&#8217;s director David Fewer is also happy with the outcome. He tells the <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-federal-judge-rejects-reverse-class-action-against-canadians/">Globe and Mail</a> that if the motion was accepted, it could have “seriously expanded the threat of copyright liability to anyone allowing others to use an internet connection.”</p>



<p>While the ruling is a clear dismissal of the reverse class action approach, there are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-are-suing-canadian-bittorrent-users-but-thats-nothing-new-190418/">similar file-sharing cases in Canada</a> that have proven to be more effective. As long as this practice remains profitable, it will probably not go away.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of Judge Boswell&#8217;s order is available <a href="media/4f2711f2.boswellorder.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/boswellorder.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=179305
title: Court Punishes Copyright ‘Troll’ Lawyer for Repeatedly Lying to The Court
uri: Court-Punishes-Copyright-Troll-Lawyer-for-Repeatedly-Lying-to-Th
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NjcvnCivfbI/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/8d246226.lies-1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lies-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179365"/></figure></div>



<p>Over the past several years, independent photographers have filed more than a thousand lawsuits against companies that allegedly use their work without permission. </p>



<p>As many targets are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirating-mainstream-media-outlets-haunted-by-photographers-in-court-171028/">mainstream media outlets</a>, these can be seen as David vs. Goliath battles. However, the nature of these cases is described as classic copyright-trolling by many.</p>



<p>The driving force behind this copyright crusade is New York lawyer <a href="https://liebowitzlawfirm.com/">Richard Liebowitz</a>, a former photographer, who explained his motives to TorrentFreak when he just got his firm started more than three years ago.  </p>



<p>“Companies are using other people’s hard work and profiting off of it. It is important for photographers and the creative community to unite and stand up for their rights and protect their work,” Liebowitz said.</p>



<p>In the years that followed Liebowitz filed hundreds of new cases a year, trying to obtain settlements. While many of the photographers have a legitimate claim, the lawyer&#8217;s antics were increasingly criticized <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190927/15020843084/copyright-troll-attorney-again-hit-with-sanctions-being-shitty-lawyer.shtml">both in and outside of court</a>.</p>



<p>In recent weeks, things only got worse. </p>



<p>In a case that was filed on behalf of photographer Jason Berger, targeting Imagina Consulting, Liebowitz failed to show up at a discovery hearing last April, without informing the court. </p>



<p>The lawyer later explained that this was due to a death in his family. However, since there were other issues that put the lawyer&#8217;s credibility in doubt, Judge Cathy Siebel decided to request evidence or documentation regarding who died, when, and how he was notified.</p>



<p>In the following months, Liebowitz explained that his grandfather had passed away on April 12, but he didn&#8217;t provide any documentation to back this up. Even after the court imposed sanctions of $100 for each business day he didn&#8217;t comply, nothing came in.</p>



<p>Instead of providing proof, the lawyer appeared to keep stalling, while stating that a death certificate is a personal matter.</p>



<p>This led some people to wonder whether Liebowitz&#8217; grandfather had indeed passed away. Frustrated with the refusal to comply with her demands, Judge Siebel raised the sanctions to $500 per day earlier this month, criticising the lawyer for his behavior. </p>



<p>The <a href="media/a9e9a94f.liebowitzshowcause-1.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/liebowitzshowcause-1.pdf">order (pdf)</a>, picked up by <a href="http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyer-who-blamed-missed-hearing-on-grandfathers-death-is-ordered-to-supply-proof">Law360</a>, instructed the New York lawyer to show up in court this week, to explain &#8220;why he should not be incarcerated&#8221; until he provides documented proof.   </p>



<p>&#8220;Failure to appear as directed will subject Mr. Liebowitz to arrest by the United States Marshals Service without further notice,&#8221; Judge Siebel wrote. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/f615d675.incercerated.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/incercerated.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179362"/></figure></div>



<p>It turns out that an arrest wasn&#8217;t needed as Liebowitz did show up at the hearing this week. Realizing that there may be trouble ahead, he entered the courtroom with two criminal defense lawyers at his side, for what would become a turbulent hearing.</p>



<p>After six months, the lawyer finally presented the death certificate the court had requested. This proved that he didn&#8217;t lie about the death of his grandfather, but he hadn&#8217;t been truthful either as this occurred three days earlier than Liebowitz said, on April 9. </p>



<p>Judge Siebel wasn&#8217;t happy about this, to say the least. According to <a href="http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/cathy-seibel/richard-liebowitz-folo-128543">The Smoking Gun</a>, which covered the case in detail, she said that Liebowitz&nbsp;“chose to repeat that lie six, eight, ten times” as part of a “long-term campaign of deception.” </p>



<p>“I question Mr. Liebowitz’s fitness to practice,” Seibel added at one point during the hearing.</p>



<p>Liebowitz&#8217;s lawyer, Richard Greenberg, who has known the lawyer and his family for years, explained that his client&#8217;s misrepresentations were not &#8220;intentional&#8221; and that he “was in a daze” following the death of his grandfather.</p>



<p>However, Judge Seibel didn&#8217;t fall for this and countered that it would be  “completely implausible” that this &#8220;haze&#8221; would have continued for months. According to her, Liebowitz intentionally lied to the court, noting that it was clearly not an honest mistake.</p>



<p>Greenberg also tried to get the sanctions lowered, which he said had risen to $3,700 over the past weeks. According to a letter sent to the court earlier this week, the attorney noted that Liebowitz had already paid a high price for his wrongdoing, including bad publicity. </p>



<p>&#8220;Richard has suffered horrible publicity as a result of being held in contempt and threatened with incarceration by this Court. And of course Richard, a young and inexperienced lawyer, is scared of the damage to his professional career as a result of his conduct and these proceedings,&#8221; Greenberg wrote.</p>



<p>&#8220;At the risk of appearing to minimize the seriousness of this matter, which counsel would not dare to do, counsel urges this Court to find that Richard has suffered or been penalized enough for his lapse or misconduct,&#8221; the letter (<a href="media/14fcb9c2.lieb.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/lieb.pdf">pdf</a>) adds.</p>



<p>Judge Seibel didn&#8217;t seem convinced by these arguments though, and Liebowitz had to cough up for sanctions. According to<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWVVB0ikHMA"> Leonard French&#8217;s coverage</a>, he paid $3,700 in court. That was $100 short according to the Judge, but she accepted it nonetheless.</p>



<p>The earlier contempt rulings also bring more bad news for the lawyer. He now has to disclose these to other courts as well as prospective clients, which likely doesn&#8217;t help his business. </p>



<p>In addition, Judge Seibel has referred the matter to the Grievance Committee, which will decide if further sanctions are appropriate, which could lead to trouble at the New York bar. </p>



<p>Needless to say, this is yet more bad news for the attorney. He can continue to practice law, at least for now, but everyone seems to agree that the attorney needs help and not just on the legal front. </p>



<p>Liebowitz&#8217;s own lawyer and family friend, Greenberg, recommended him to enroll in a CLE course to learn how to manage a small law firm. In addition, he was advised to seek psychotherapy to deal with several other issues.</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=179190
title: Company That Acquired ‘Copyright Troll’ Warns ISPs & VPN Providers
uri: Company-That-Acquired-Copyright-Troll-Warns-ISPs-VPN-Providers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qQ1P_4MH0Fc/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/efd05bc4.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-108977"/></figure></div>



<p>While movie and music companies have regularly filed copyright lawsuits against alleged BitTorrent pirates over the past decade and beyond, the companies operating the machinery behind the scenes are less well known.</p>



<p>One exception was to be found in GuardaLey, an entity that provided tracking data and business structure for numerous lawsuits, notably the massive action targeting alleged pirates of the movies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hurt-locker-makers-sue-5000-bittorrent-users-100529/">The Hurt Locker</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/23322-expendables-downloaders-accused-in-bittorrents-biggest-lawsuit-110510/">The Expendables</a>.</p>



<p>While these lawsuits and others like them attracted plenty of headlines, GuardaLey itself rarely experienced much scrutiny, at least not to the extent where its complex business dealings were made available to the public. </p>



<p>Earlier this year the waters appeared to be muddied again when 100% of its alleged US-operations were &#8216;acquired&#8217; by American Films Inc. which promised to target peer-to-peer networks in order to target &#8220;repeat infringers.&#8221;</p>



<p>Since then, nothing has been heard of American Films Inc, which at the time of the GuardaLey acquisition was described as a &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/notorious-copyright-troll-outfit-hands-over-its-us-operations-to-new-joint-venture-190304/">shell company</a>.&#8221; Now, however, the company appears to have even grander plans after another acquisition, this time of &#8220;strategic data company&#8221; Maker Data Services LLC.</p>



<p>&#8220;This acquisition is important because it adds to the evidence of BitTorrent related copyright infringement that American Films can provide to its clients,” says John Carty, American Films’ CEO.</p>



<p>&#8220;This type of forensic evidence is only available from a few sources, most of which only supply the largest industry associations.&#8221;</p>



<p>However, it&#8217;s the next set of claims that are likely to raise the most eyebrows, including a veiled threat to not only take powerful Internet service providers to court, but also VPN companies.</p>



<p>&#8220;American Films has positioned itself as the go-to data provider for independent filmmakers that want to take action against the direct infringers, Internet Service Providers, VPN Providers, and others that allow, encourage, and profit from BitTorrent copyright infringement,&#8221; a company statement reads.</p>



<p>According to various sources, at the time of writing American Films stock is currently changing hands at around $0.04, has one employee, but decides not to supply any financial information by way of accounts.</p>



<p>More information is available on <a href="https://makerdataservices.com/">Maker Data Services LLC</a> if one visits its website, but it&#8217;s not a particularly confidence-inspiring experience, even for a one-year-old company.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our company has created a tool that will search the internet. Our tool is able to find any relevant data that could affect the operations of our clients, that is, the businesses we serve,&#8221; the Maker Data site reads.</p>



<p>&#8220;We deal mostly with real estate data and people data to ensure that Real Estate businesses have all the vital information to make sound decisions and drive their businesses forward.</p>



<p>&#8220;Our real estate data and analytics services will always give you the actual value of a home before buying for better decision making.&#8221;</p>



<p>While there might potentially be some synergies between the above and &#8220;forensic&#8221; anti-piracy activity, the claim elsewhere on the site that the company has &#8220;state-the-art software&#8221; does not extend to the bug-ridden WordPress installation powering the site.</p>



<p>Every page displays database errors and much of the site consists of &#8216;articles&#8217; carrying little more than placeholder posts, graphics and text, presumably put there by the creators of the website. </p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter is-resized"><img src="media/387c7d33.image-156.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/image-156.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179193" width="650"/><figcaption><em>Google &#8220;site:makerdataservices.com&#8221; for <a href="https://makerdataservices.com/tag/news/">many more</a>..</em></figcaption></figure></div>



<p>Along with the acquisition of Maker Data Services comes the appointment of a new CTO for American Films, Craig Campbell, formerly of Fidelity Investments.</p>



<p>His &#8220;main focus&#8221; will be &#8220;managing the build-out of BitTorrent products for copyright enforcement utilizing the combined data resources now available at American Films.&#8221;</p>



<p style="text-align:left">How the business model of American Films will develop is for the future to reveal but the acquisitions announced by the company thus far only raise more questions, not provide more answers. To be brutal, it&#8217;s only the inclusion of GuardaLey&#8217;s reputation as a &#8216;copyright troll&#8217; within the equation that provokes curiosity.</p>



<p>Litigating successful lawsuits against powerful ISPs or even VPN providers seems not only an incredibly lofty goal, but also an extremely costly and risky proposition. Part of the solution to the latter pair of roadblocks, perhaps, lies in the company&#8217;s stated aim.</p>



<p>&#8220;American Films seeks to create alternative investment participation vehicles that provide necessary funding to appropriate projects while offering reasonable return on investment and mitigation of business risks traditionally encountered in the film industry,&#8221; the company states.</p>



<p>A for-hire firewall for &#8216;copyright trolling&#8217; or the next Rightscorp? Only time will tell but ISPs and VPN providers probably aren&#8217;t worried too much just yet.</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=179289
title: EU Court to Decide on BitTorrent Questions in Copyright Trolling Case
uri: EU-Court-to-Decide-on-BitTorrent-Questions-in-Copyright-Trolling-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TEdVLG9Zi90/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><img src="media/efd05bc4.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-108977"/></figure></div>



<p>During the summer we reported on the renewed efforts of Golden Eye (International) and Mircom, companies with a track record of targeting alleged BitTorrent pirates with demands for cash settlements to make supposed lawsuits disappear.</p>



<p>After filing no complaints in the UK for years, the pair teamed up in an effort to squeeze the personal details of thousands of Internet users from the hands of ISP Virgin Media. Somewhat unusually given previous compliance in alleged anti-piracy matters, Virgin put up a pretty big fight.</p>



<p>In the end, the cases brought by Golden Eye and Mircom were proven to be so lacking in evidence that a judge in the High Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/high-court-slams-brakes-on-new-uk-copyright-trolling-effort-190718/">threw out</a> the companies&#8217; claims. Nevertheless, there are more countries than just the UK to target.</p>



<p>Cyprus-based Mircom (full name Mircom International Content Management &amp; Consulting) has another case on the boil, this time against Telenet, the largest provider of cable broadband in Belgium. In common with previous cases, this one is also about the unlicensed sharing of pornographic movies using BitTorrent.</p>



<p>Mircom says it has thousands of IP addresses on file which can identify Telenet subscribers from which it wants to extract cash payments. However, it needs the ISP&#8217;s cooperation to match the IP addresses to those customers and the case isn&#8217;t progressing in a straightforward manner.</p>



<p>As a result, the Antwerp Business Court (Ondernemingsrechtbank Antwerpen) has referred several questions in the matter to the European Court of Justice. As usual, there are several controversial as well as technical points under consideration.</p>



<p>The first complication concerns how BitTorrent itself works. When a regular user participates in a BitTorrent swarm, small downloaded parts of a movie are then made available for upload. In this manner, everyone in a swarm can gain access to all of the necessary parts of the movie.</p>



<p>Anyone who obtains all of the parts (and therefore the whole movie) becomes a &#8216;seeder&#8217; if he or she continues to upload to the swarm.</p>



<p>However, a question with three parts sent to the EU Court appears to seek clarity on whether uploading small pieces of a file, which are unusable in their own right, constitutes an infringement and if so, where the limit lies. It also deals with potential ignorance on the user&#8217;s part when it comes to seeding.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>1. (a) Can the downloading of a file via a peer-to-peer network and the simultaneous provision for uploading of parts (‘pieces’) thereof (which may be very fragmentary as compared to the whole) (‘seeding’) be regarded as a communication to the public within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29, (1) even if the individual pieces as such are unusable? If so,</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>1. (b) is there a <em>de minimis</em> threshold above which the seeding of those pieces would constitute a communication to the public?</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>1. (c) is the fact that seeding can take place automatically (as a result of the torrent client’s settings), and thus without the user’s knowledge, relevant?</p></blockquote>



<p>While the above matters are interesting in their own right, it&#8217;s Mircom&#8217;s position that perhaps provokes the most interest and has resulted in the next pair of questions to the European Court of Justice.</p>



<p>To be clear &#8211; Mircom is not a content creator. It is not a content distributor. Its entire purpose is to track down alleged infringers in order to claim cash settlements from them on the basis that <em>its rights </em>have been infringed. So what rights does it have?</p>



<p>Mircom claims to have obtained the rights to distribute, via peer-to-peer networks including BitTorrent, a large number of pornographic films produced by eight American and Canadian companies. However, despite having the right to do so, Mircom says it does not distribute any movies in this fashion.</p>



<p>Instead, it aims to collect money from alleged infringers, returning a proportion of this to the actual copyright holders, to whom it paid <em>absolutely nothing</em> for the rights to &#8216;distribute&#8217; their movies via BitTorrent. </p>



<p>Interesting to say the least, a situation that has resulted in a second question with two parts being referred to the EUCJ;</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>2. (a) Can a person who is the contractual holder of the copyright (or related rights), but does not himself exploit those rights and merely claims damages from alleged infringers — and whose economic business model thus depends on the existence of piracy, not on combating it — enjoy the same rights as those conferred by Chapter II of Directive 2004/48 (2) on authors or licence holders who do exploit copyright in the normal way?</p></blockquote>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>2. (b) How can the license holder in that case have suffered ‘prejudice’ (within the meaning of Article 13 of Directive 2004/48) as a result of the infringement?</p></blockquote>



<p>A third question asks whether the specific circumstances laid out in questions 1 and 2 are relevant when assessing the correct balance between the enforcement of intellectual property rights and the right to a private life and protection of personal data.</p>



<p>Finally, question four deals with a particularly interesting aspect of BitTorrent swarm data monitoring and subsequent data processing in respect of the GDPR.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p>4. Is, in all those circumstances, the systematic registration and general further processing of the IP-addresses of a ‘swarm’ of ‘seeders’ (by the licence holder himself, and by a third party on his behalf) legitimate under the General Data Protection Regulation and specifically under Article 6(1)(f) thereof?</p></blockquote>



<p>There are already considerable concerns that the tracking data collected and processed as part of the case in hand may not have been handled as required under the GDPR. That, on top of the conclusion that Mircom fits the &#8216;copyright troll&#8217; label almost perfectly, makes this a very <a href="https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62019CN0597&amp;from=EN">interesting case</a> to follow.</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=179282
title: Disney Wants to Reinforce Its ‘Piracy Intelligence’ Team
uri: Disney-Wants-to-Reinforce-Its-Piracy-Intelligence-Team
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/fxM3c2jIOW8/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/cd2e6f9c.sparrow1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sparrow1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179373" width="276" height="158"/></figure></div>



<p>This week Disney <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/disney-launched-and-pirates-love-it-especially-mandalorian-191113/">launched its new streaming platform</a> which immediately gained millions of subscribers. </p>



<p>At the same time, there was plenty of interest in &#8216;unauthorized&#8217; <a href="https://www.disneyplus.com/">Disney+</a> releases on pirate sites, particularly in the exclusive Mandalorian series. </p>



<p>As one of the largest entertainment companies in the world, Disney is not new to piracy. It has dealt with this issue for decades. However, now that it operates its own exclusive platform there are other factors to take into account. </p>



<p>How do exclusive releases impact piracy rates, for example? And what is the effect on subscriber rates? How the interplay between legal and illegal supply affects revenues can be a complex and dynamic puzzle to solve. </p>



<p>What is clear is that Disney has the goal to minimize piracy. While it&#8217;s not publicized much, the company has a dedicated &#8220;piracy intelligence&#8221; team that continually keeps an eye on the piracy landscape. </p>



<p>Just recently, a new <a href="https://careercenter.informs.org/jobs/13047167">vacancy </a>opened up, perhaps tied to the launch of Disney+. While there are few details available, Disney describes the team as follows:</p>



<p><em>&#8220;The Piracy Intelligence team at The Walt Disney Studios is based in Burbank and provides meaningful piracy insights to inform strategies that maximize revenue for the film and TV business and minimize the piracy impact.&#8221;</em></p>



<p>Disney is currently looking for a market research and data analyst, who will be responsible for supporting a variety of &#8220;piracy intelligence initiatives&#8221; and to &#8220;measure movie and TV viewing trends across digital media platforms.&#8221;  </p>



<p>Unfortunately, there is not much information online about the goals and accomplishments of Disney&#8217;s anti-piracy team. TorrentFreak reached out to multiple contacts at the company, but thus far we have yet to receive a response. </p>



<p>It&#8217;s no secret, however, that major entertainment companies keep a close eye on the pirate landscape. </p>



<p>The enforcement side of this is often quite visible. This is also true for Disney. The company is a member of the global anti-piracy coalition ACE, which has filed several lawsuits and chases site owners and developers as well. </p>



<p>However, piracy &#8220;intelligence&#8221; can also be used as a valuable market signal. That aspect would be more in line with the &#8220;market research&#8221; and &#8220;data analyst&#8221; Disney is currently looking for. </p>



<p>This type of piracy use wouldn&#8217;t be unique. Previously we reported how Netflix uses piracy to figure out&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-sets-pricing-based-on-local-piracy-rates-150416/">how much they can charge</a>&nbsp;in a country, as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-uses-pirate-sites-to-determine-what-shows-to-buy-130914/">what content they license</a>. Similarly, Hulu uses piracy data to see what is popular among potential viewers.</p>



<p>Disney may use similar signals to determine how to best position Disney+ and what content it should offer to minimize piracy, and perhaps more importantly, maximize revenue.</p>



<p>While I have no intention of applying for the job, one free bit of advice is to make sure that Disney+ is available everywhere in the world. Right now, many people feel left out which makes pirated Disney+ exclusives quite tempting. </p>



<p>But I guess the intelligence team will notice that soon 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=179380
title: KodiUKTV Considers its Future Following FACT Cease & Desist
uri: KodiUKTV-Considers-its-Future-Following-FACT-Cease-Desist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vGGnlVrzcGw/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright is-resized"><img src="media/b28b074b.kodiuktvchristmas.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/kodiuktvchristmas.png" alt="" class="wp-image-179396" width="283" height="172"/></figure></div>



<p>This week, news began to filter through that the shutdown of a pair of Kodi add-on related resources had taken place under serious legal pressure.</p>



<p>KodiUKTV and OneNation weren&#8217;t specific in their announcements but TorrentFreak was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-addon-build-repositories-shut-down-citing-legal-pressure-191114/">able to confirm</a> that the Federation Against Copyright Theft was behind both actions.  Indeed, the anti-piracy group told us that other groups were targeted too but at this stage, we haven&#8217;t been able to identify them.</p>



<p>What we do know is at the end of October, FACT sent out cease and desist notices titled &#8216;Unauthorized Distribution of Film, Television and Sport Subject to Copyright&#8217;.</p>



<p>The letters stated that FACT investigators had established that the platforms were &#8220;providing or facilitating access without authorization, to broadcasts or premium pay channels&#8221; containing content belonging to Sky, BT Sport, and The Premier League.</p>



<p>Demanding an immediate end to &#8220;unlawful activity&#8221;, the notices added that &#8220;all infringing links, listings and information from webpages, social media and any other medium&#8221; should be permanently removed. If not, a criminal investigation might get underway.</p>



<p>A recipient of one of the cease-and-desist letters, Matt &#8211; founder of KodiUKTV &#8211; told us that if he&#8217;d have received a simple takedown notice at any point in the past, he would&#8217;ve been happy to investigate and take action if any add-on breached copyright.  Instead, it appears that FACT went for straight for the jugular.</p>



<p>Part of the problem for Matt, at least from our discussions, is that he doesn&#8217;t believe he was doing anything wrong. His platform didn&#8217;t develop or host any add-ons but offered a tool so that Kodi users could download and install them from elsewhere. </p>



<p>&#8220;Ultimately it was at the risk of the add-on designers and end-users, should such add-ons contain possibly infringing content that we had absolutely no control over,&#8221; he explains.</p>



<p>Matt says that he contacted FACT within an hour of receiving their cease-and-desist notice with a request for more information. He also gave FACT a commitment that the site will not deal with add-ons or builds in the future. At the time of writing, he is yet to receive a response. </p>



<p>As a result and at least for now, his entire site remains down, which Matt feels is both disproportionate and frustrating since much of the content the site offered (guides etc) had nothing to do with any of the companies mentioned by FACT.</p>



<p>&#8220;We didn’t actually host anything for the add-on guys and we don’t make any add-ons ourselves. We just offered a place for people to put their add-ons to be installed by the end-user, which is very common for many repos,&#8221; Matt explains. </p>



<p>&#8220;This means we were just a hub for the community for help and guides. This was always my key focus for KODIUKTV &#8211; creating guides &amp; voicing our opinion on issues within the community to help others.</p>



<p>&#8220;We do not want to kiss goodbye to the website and the community we have been so involved in over the past five years. We are hoping we can continue the website on a publication standpoint and move forward.&#8221;</p>



<p>The site was founded by Matt in 2014 after he found himself &#8220;tinkering&#8221; with XBMC (as Kodi was formerly known) on a Raspberry Pi, installing add-ons, and eventually coming up with a &#8216;build&#8217;</p>



<p>&#8220;I’ve always been interested in publications &amp; running a media site. So once the community started to rise we needed a home for our guides and tutorials, our news, and even the odd giveaway over the years,&#8221; he explains.</p>



<p>&#8220;We grew at a rapid rate which gave me and the team a huge learning curve of what it took to manage and maintain a website/project of this size. We became the go-to for people looking for help.&#8221; </p>



<p>At KodiUKTV&#8217;s peak last year, Matt says it was receiving around eight million users per month, a figure that&#8217;s dropped a little this year to a still-impressive six million.</p>



<p>But with this growth has come problems, not only in respect of  FACT and its clients, but with various claims against the site&#8217;s social media accounts, and even strikes against Matt&#8217;s personal pages that had nothing to do with the project. Now, however, he is hopeful that things can move forward.</p>



<p>Matt says he&#8217;s just a hobbyist doing what he loves, one that also cares about freedom on the Internet. He has no desire to get into a fight with big media companies and hopes this dispute with FACT can be dealt with quickly while keeping the community intact.</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=179419
title: Steal This Show S05E02: ‘‘On The Frontline Of The Code War’’
uri: Steal-This-Show-S05E02-On-The-Frontline-Of-The-Code-War
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Nc0YnPHQmDE/
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">In this episode Jamie meets up with <a href="https://www.mofo.com/people/john-carlin.html">John P. Carlin</a>, author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dawn-Code-War-Americas-Against-ebook/dp/B079M8813N">Dawn of the Code War</a> and former Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division to discuss the ongoing network war with China &#8212; one that&#8217;s about to ratchet up, as 5G connects billions of devices via a technology heavily dependent on China&#8217;s Huawei.</p>
<p>What does it mean to wage war in the era of distributed networks? How do networks change the very idea of ‘Command and Control’ towards leaderless, non-hierarchical memetic structures? We dig into crowdsourced terrorism’ of Al Qaeda and look at some similarities with Anonymous and the QAnon phenomenon.</p>
<p>Finally, we discuss the widespread idea that there’s a kind of break with authority going on in the online era—what could be described as an ‘epistemological crisis’ created by our hyper-informational environment—one that’s being exploited and amplified by various lords of chaos to create new and unpredictable political realities.<br />
&#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://www.mofo.com/people/john-carlin.html">John P. Carlin</a></strong></p>
<p><center><iframe src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&amp;lpe-season=5&amp;lpe-episode=02" 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=179159
title: Judge Recommends Denial of $150,000 Piracy Judgment Against APK Download Site
uri: Judge-Recommends-Denial-of-150-000-Piracy-Judgment-Against-APK-Downlo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/o_-w04aXO38/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><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 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-companies-target-showbox-pirate-sites-in-us-court-190414/">filed a lawsuit</a> 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 complaint filed at a U.S. District Court in Hawaii, the companies pointed out that Showbox facilitates massive piracy.</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 58-page complaint read.</p>



<p>The movie outfits went after several defendants suspected of having ties to one or more piracy-related sites. This includes a Vietnamese man named Nghi Phan Nhat, who allegedly operates the APK download portal ‘<a href="https://www.apkmirrordownload.com/">apkmirrordownload.com</a>.’ </p>



<p>The site stood accused of offering the ShowBox and Popcorn Time apps, which have since been removed, but the defendant never responded to the allegations in court. This prompted the movie companies to file a motion for a default judgment. </p>



<p>In September, they requested $150,000 in statutory damages, as well as thousands of dollars in attorney fees and costs. In addition, they asked for an injunction ordering third party services such as hosting companies and domain registrars to stop doing business with the site.</p>



<p>While the defendant remained silent, the Court referred that matter to a magistrate judge for a recommendation. Although default judgments are often easily granted, in this case, Hawaii&#8217;s Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield advises denial of the request.</p>



<p>In their motion, the filmmakers argued that the Court has personal jurisdiction over the operator of the site. This requires a relationship between the foreign defendant and the US. To establish this, it has to pass the three-part minimum contacts test. </p>



<p>The first part of this test is to show that the defendant purposefully directed activities to the United States or purposefully availed himself of the privileges of conducting activities there.</p>



<p>According to the movie companies, this is certainly the case, since the site is quite popular in the US and also presented entirely in English. However, that&#8217;s not enough to establish personal jurisdiction, according to the Judge. </p>



<p>&#8220;That the APK Site is in English does not show purposeful direction, as the United States is not the only country with English as an official language. Nor is Plaintiffs’ allegation that the United States is the country with the second most traffic to the APK site evidence of purposeful direction,&#8221; Judge Mansfield writes. </p>



<p>The filmmakers further argued that the defendant purposefully availed himself to the State of Hawaii by conducting business with US-based companies, domain registrar Namesilo and CDN provider Cloudflare. However, the Magistrate Judge disagrees again.</p>



<p>&#8220;While Defendant Nhat may have contacts with California and Arizona pursuant to his registration with United States companies, such contacts are not extensive enough to invoke nationwide jurisdiction such that it is reasonable to subject Defendant Nhat to litigation in any United States federal forum,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>



<p>The fact that the APK download site references the US DMCA law on its site is not good enough either. According to the Judge that merely means that the site is in compliance with the DMCA, not that the defendant subjects himself to the jurisdiction of US courts.</p>



<p>Based on these and other arguments, Judge Mansfield concludes that the Court doesn&#8217;t have personal jurisdiction over the alleged site operator. Without even considering the other two elements of the minimum contacts test, he recommends denying the motion for a default judgment.</p>



<p>The recommendation is a setback for the movie companies. If the Court adopts it, they will not get their $150,000 damages through a default judgment. Neither will they get an injunction to take the site offline. </p>



<p>The filmmakers had more success a few weeks ago when they reached an agreement with the Pakistani operator of  ‘latestshowboxapp.com,’ who agreed to pay a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/showbox-site-owner-settles-piracy-case-for-150000-180930/">$150,000 settlement</a>. Whether that will be paid in full is another question.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield&#8217;s findings and recommendations is <a href="media/8e4ea441.showboxfind.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/showboxfind.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=179445
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 11/18/19
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-11-18-19
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/spStu2FcMbk/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-179452" src="media/3776de0a.angelfall.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/angelfall.jpg" alt="" width="301" height="175" />This week we have four newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Angel Has Fallen 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-11-11-19/">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/tt6189022/">Angel Has Fallen</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6189022/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isVtXH7n9lI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">Joker</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7286456/">8.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGVQLHvwOY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1025100/">Gemini Man</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1025100/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbyJignbSj0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7547410/">Dora and the Lost City of Gold</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7547410/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUTtJjV852c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">The Lion King</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6105098/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Raf9bVk75s8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4729430/">Klaus</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4729430/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taE3PwurhYM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">Fast &amp; Furious Presents: Hobbs &amp; Shaw</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6806448/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7PAyCDwEg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</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>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8096832/">Lady and the Tramp</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8096832/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ZDDU34gYw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">Spider-Man: Far from Home</a></td>
<td><a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6320628/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzKkTC0ZiXs">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=179425
title: Federal Court Approves First ‘Pirate’ Site Blockade in Canada
uri: Federal-Court-Approves-First-Pirate-Site-Blockade-in-Canada
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/I1rSfg9jKV0/
content:
<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignright"><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>Last year, a coalition of copyright holders and major players in the telco industry asked the Canadian Government to institute a national pirate site blocking scheme.</p>



<p>The Fairplay coalition argued that such measures would be required to effectively curb online piracy. Canada’s telco regulator CRTC reviewed the request but eventually&nbsp;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/telecoms-regulator-denies-canadian-pirate-site-blocking-application-181002/">denied the application</a>, noting that it lacks jurisdiction.</p>



<p>The driving forces behind the request, Bell, Rogers, and Groupe TVA, were not prepared to let the blocking idea slip away, however. A few months ago the 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 GoldTV.ca. 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, but despite the order, some of the infrastructures remained available.</p>



<p>This resulted in a follow-up request from the media giants, which became the setup for the first-ever pirate site blocking order in Canada. Specifically, the companies requested an interlocutory injunction order that would require several Canadian ISPs to block GoldTV domain names and IP-addresses.</p>



<p>Late last week this request was granted by a Federal Court in Ontario. An order, issued by Judge Patrick Gleeson, requires most of Canada&#8217;s largest ISPs, including Cogeco, Rogers, Bell, Eastlink and, TekSavvy,  to start blocking their customers&#8217; access to GoldTV within 15 days.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2e720cde.canadablock.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/canadablock.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179430"/></figure></div>



<p>The order is unique in North America and relies heavily on UK jurisprudence, can be extended with new IP-addresses and domain names, if those provide access to the same IPTV service.  The court doesn&#8217;t prescribe a specific <a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2017/internet-content-blocking/">blocking method</a> but mentions DNS and IP-address blocking as options.</p>



<p>Since Rogers and Bell are also ISPs, these companies didn’t object to their own demands. Several other Internet providers didn&#8217;t protest either. However, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/teksavvy-protests-push-for-pirate-site-blocking-in-court-190916/">TekSavvy did, listing a broad range of objections</a>. </p>



<p>TekSavvy, for example, argued that blocking websites isn&#8217;t very effective, as subscribers have plenty of workarounds they can try, including VPNs. In addition, the company pointed out that many smaller ISPs are not affected by the order, which means that they don&#8217;t have to block the service. </p>



<p>Judge Gleeson recognized that blocking measures are not foolproof. However, based on the evidence provided, he concluded that it&#8217;s effective enough to make a difference.</p>



<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s clear from the evidence that site-blocking will not eliminate user access to infringing services. However, the evidence does establish that in those jurisdictions where site-blocking measures have been implemented there has been a significant reduction in visits to infringing websites. </p>



<p>&#8220;I am satisfied that a site-blocking order is an effective means of limiting access to GoldTV Services,&#8221; Judge Gleeson added.</p>



<p>TekSavvy further argued that it could become very costly to implement a site-blocking system, which would put a significant financial strain on the company. In addition, the order would set a precedent that could lead to  hundreds or even thousands of site-blocking orders </p>



<p>Judge Gleeson didn&#8217;t agree with this assessment. TekSaffy can rely on DNS and IP-address blocking, which it&#8217;s already technically capable of. That wouldn&#8217;t require any new hardware investments. In addition, ISPs don&#8217;t have to pay the costs of the implementation, as that will be covered by the rightsholders.</p>



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="media/2a262ab5.blockcan.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/blockcan.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-179431"/></figure></div>



<p>TekSavvy also pointed out that site-blocking measures violate net neutrality and freedom of expression. But again, the Court was not convinced that this weighs stronger than the interests of the rightsholders. </p>



<p>&#8220;I am satisfied, in the face of a strong prima facie case of ongoing infringement and a draft order that seeks to limit blocking to unlawful sites and incorporates processes to address inadvertent over-blocking, that neither net neutrality nor freedom of expression concerns tip the balance against granting the relief sought,&#8221; Judge Gleeson writes. </p>



<p>All in all, the Federal Court sided with the copyright holders. This means that the first-ever pirate site blockade in Canada will soon be in effect. Whether TekSavvy or any of the other ISPs plan to appeal the decision is not known at this point.</p>



<p>The site-blocking question has been a point of debate in Canada over the past several months. While local authorities and lawmakers have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-copyright-review-rejects-site-blocking-regime-keeps-safe-harbors-190603/">spoken out </a>against a non-judicial site-blocking regime, Judge Gleeson&#8217;s ruling shows that site-blocking injunctions certainly are an option. </p>



<p>Interestingly, this approach was previously raised by opponents of Fairplay Coalition&#8217;s site blocking push. At the time, the rightsholders countered that the legal process could take <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blocking-pirate-sites-through-court-is-uncertain-slow-and-expensive-180517/">up to 765 days</a>, but in this case, it went a lot quicker.</p>



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



<p><em>A copy of Judge Gleeson&#8217;s order is <a href="media/9c73b203.T-1169-19-Reasons.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/T-1169-19-Reasons.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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