# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90682
title: Singapore Passes Pirate Bay-Blocking Anti-Piracy Law
uri: Singapore-Passes-Pirate-Bay-Blocking-Anti-Piracy-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J_-IsksqzuU/
content:
<p><a href="media/850a0ead.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg"><img src="media/4e243e8b.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg" alt="tpb-logo" width="222" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-67837"></a>The battle to stop Internet users from downloading copyrighted material is one that can never be won, but that hasn&#8217;t stopped a growing list of countries from having a go.</p>
<p>Domain blocking is now one of the preferred methods of reducing copyright infringement around Europe <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pirate-site-blockades-140613/">and is endorsed</a> by none other than MPAA chief Chris Dodd.</p>
<p>Today, Singapore can be added to the list of site-blocking countries after passing freshing amendments to its Copyright Act. The news, unpopular with many Internet users, caused the term &#8216;piracy&#8217; to trend on Twitter.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f1b6f9cf.singaporetrend.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/singaporetrend.jpg" alt="SingaporeTrend"></center></p>
<p>The Bill was put before Parliament yesterday but was pushed over to today after time ran out. The newly-passed legislation will allow copyright holders to obtain High Court orders to force local service providers to block access to websites that &#8220;flagrantly infringe&#8221; copyright. How that will be determined is not yet clear.</p>
<p>The new tool will be a useful one for music and movie companies. Previously content was taken down or blocked by ISPs on a case-by-case basis but now wholesale site blocking will become the favored weapon. Local media suggests that the new mechanism could allow sites to be blocked within eight weeks of a successful application.</p>
<p>In a statement, Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah said the new amendments will help reduce piracy and boost legal alternatives.</p>
<p>&#8220;The prevalence of online piracy in Singapore turns customers away from legitimate content and adversely affects Singapore&#8217;s creative sector,&#8221; Rajah <a href="http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/amended-copyright-act/1245230.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;It can also undermine our reputation as a society that respects the protection of intellectual property.&#8221;</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly The Pirate Bay is first on the list of sites set to be targeted by copyright holders, with KickassTorrents reportedly a close second. The law could come into force by the end of August so it&#8217;s possible that both sites &#8211; and most probably more &#8211; will be blocked before the end of the year.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90701
title: 30,000 ‘Pirates’ Receive Fake ‘Fines’ With Trojans Attached
uri: 30-000-Pirates-Receive-Fake-Fines-With-Trojans-Attached
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oX1gDV0PycA/
content:
<p><a href="media/2b4df99e.warning.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/warning.jpg"><img src="media/b10c22f8.warning.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warning.jpg" alt="warning" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-8335"></a>It used to be the case that when a copyright holder tracked down an alleged file-sharer they would have to make contact via regular snail mail. Legal threats in the post nearly always mean business and have to be dealt with in an appropriate manner.</p>
<p>With the advent of companies such as <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=rightscorp">Rightscorp</a>, however, demands for cash settlement now regularly arrive via email. While some recipients treat these emails as spam, they are sent by a legitimate company acting on behalf of genuine rightsholders. Whether people should pay up on presentation of a mere email is a personal matter, but there are some instances in which no payment should ever be considered.</p>
<p>During the past several days there have been increasing reports of Internet users in Germany receiving cash demands for alleged copyright infringement. The emails detail alleged piracy offenses on tracks from Jay-Z, R Kelly, James Blunt, Bullet for My Valentine, and metal bands Sepultura and Children of Bodom, to name just a few.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a very big operation indeed. According to lawyer Christian Solmecke, a lawyer who regularly defends in piracy cases, up to 30,000 individuals are affected, with many calling his offices for legal advice.</p>
<p>But while the emails say they are being sent on behalf of a range of rightsholders from EMI, Sony, and Warner Bros. to DreamWorks and Paramount Pictures, drilling down into the details reveals the whole operation as a huge scam.</p>
<p>The &#8216;settlement&#8217; mails demand between 200 and 500 euros within 48 hours to make potential lawsuits go away. One reads:</p>
<p><em>This is a warning because of your violation of § 19a of the Copyright Act on 07.06.2014. The music album &#8216;Bullet For My Valentine &#8211; Temper Temper&#8217; was downloaded from your IP address 8.149.94.13 at 3:40:24.</p>
<p>This violates § 19a of the Copyright Act and must be reported to the responsible District Court. Only the fastest possible payment of a fine of 400.88 euros can prevent this. We expect payment within the next 48 hours.</p>
<p>For details see the attached document XXXXXXXXX.zip</em></p>
<p>As can be predicted from the final line, the real plan is to trick recipients into opening a file apparently containing details about their case, but which in fact carries a suspected trojan.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is very likely that the zip file contains a virus, designed to spy on credit card and account information. The floodgates would then be opened to online banking fraud and identity theft,&#8221; Solmecke <a href="http://www.wbs-law.de/abmahnung-filesharing/die-fake-abmahnwelle-bilanz-morgen-danach-54148/">warns</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;For this reason, all users that have opened the ZIP file attachment should check their PC immediately with a virus scanner and install the security updates for their anti-virus software,&#8221; the lawyer concludes.</p>
<p>Finally, by including legitimate law firms&#8217; contact details in the emails, specifically companies that are involved in the settlement business already, the scammers are using a particularly crafty technique to come across as genuine. One lawfirm, Sasse &#038; Partner, was forced to issue a statement denying involvement in the scheme.</p>
<p>&#8220;The &#8216;warnings&#8217; are sent under the name of our lawyer Jan Spieldenner. The perpetrator or perpetrators are apparently making use of the fact that our firm regularly sends warnings on behalf of various clients and has thereby acquired a certain reputation. We point out that the warnings provided by us are never sent as a zip file,&#8221; the company explains.</p>
<p>Quite how many people will actually pay up on receipt of such an email is unknown, but by sending out tens of thousands it seems likely that a few will. At the full 500 euro rate, just a couple of dozen &#8216;settlements&#8217; will net a sizable amount of cash &#8211; as &#8216;genuine&#8217; copyright trolls know only too well.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90686
title: Hollywood Director Slams “Pathetic” Anti-Piracy Crusade
uri: Hollywood-Director-Slams-Pathetic-Anti-Piracy-Crusade
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ki_3FrGpJyI/
content:
<p><a href="media/13fe27ce.lexi2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lexi2.jpg"><img src="media/13fe27ce.lexi2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lexi2.jpg" alt="lexi2" width="275" height="350" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90688"></a>It&#8217;s not every day that you see a Hollywood director holding up a &#8220;Free Peter Sunde&#8221; sign, but <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0591994/">Lexi Alexander</a> is on a mission. </p>
<p>With her support for the Pirate Bay founder who&#8217;s currently <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/losing-weight-pirate-bay-founder-requests-security-downgrade-140703/">locked up</a> in a Swedish prison, Alexander hopes to reach out to the &#8220;other side&#8221; with whom she shares a common goal.</p>
<p>Alexander is not a fan of the anti-piracy crusade the MPAA and other groups are waging against file-sharers. The massive losses that are claimed due to piracy are &#8220;bullshit&#8221; according to her. In fact, she believes that piracy may do more good than harm.</p>
<p>&#8220;I get a little upset when I hear how hard my industry jumps into action, sparing neither time, manpower or resources, as soon as someone even hints at potential loss to the crown estate,&#8221; Alexander <a href="http://www.lexi-alexander.com/blog/2014/6/1/will-the-real-pirates-please-stand-up">notes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy has NOT been proven to hurt box-office numbers, on the contrary, several studies say it may have boosted the bottom line,&#8221; she adds.</p>
<p>In recent years the movie industry has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into expensive anti-piracy measures, nearly all of which are counterproductive according to Alexander. </p>
<p>For example, as a German living in Hollywood she can&#8217;t watch German news online due to geographical restrictions and the same is true for U.S. shows when she&#8217;s visiting Germany. But thanks to the pirates, Hollywood director can easily bypass these restrictions.</p>
<p>&#8220;But guess what, for every IP block, DRM and who-knows-what security feature Hollywood spends thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours on, some piracy kid will undo it for free and within a couple of minutes.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;And this is my favorite part: I am 100% certain that the hacking of entertainment industry&#8217;s security features provides better entertainment for these kids than the entertainment we&#8217;re trying to prevent them from stealing. Let that sink in for a second, then try not to bust up laughing.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/8d0b4537.hulu-sorry.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hulu-sorry.jpg"><img src="media/8d0b4537.hulu-sorry.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hulu-sorry.jpg" alt="hulu-sorry" width="624" height="208" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90703"></a></center></p>
<p>In a recent interview with <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/film-piracy-debate-director-lexi-3824097">Daily Record</a>, Alexander describes criminalization of file sharing as &#8220;pathetic.&#8221; It is mostly an issue that keeps Hollywood&#8217;s &#8220;Fat Cats&#8221; busy, but not so much independent filmmakers.</p>
<p>&#8220;The people who complain most about piracy in Hollywood are Fat Cats who did little to deserve their wealth or position. I doubt you’ll find many people on the anti-piracy train amongst film crews or indie filmmakers, unless they’re being paid a retainer,&#8221; she says.</p>
<p>Contrary to what the MPAA and others may lead the public to believe, Alexander says that piracy is rather common among filmmakers. She herself admits to downloading films when there are no legal options available. </p>
<p>&#8220;I download stuff myself, so do many of my colleagues here in Hollywood.  Usually we do it only when we can’t find something on mainstream streaming services,&#8221; Alexander says.  </p>
<p><center><a href="media/9a767dc9.gsh.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gsh.png"><img src="media/9a767dc9.gsh.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gsh.png" alt="gsh" width="658" height="162" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90716"></a></center></p>
<p>The movie director uses pirate sites to grab movies that are relevant for an upcoming meeting for example, something which has saved her on a few occasions. </p>
<p>&#8220;I cannot tell you how often my ass was saved by some torrent site in those situations. And I assume that 99% of my Hollywood filmmaker colleagues or their poor assistants have found themselves on a piracy site for just that reason (if they deny it, they’re lying. The end.)&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite her own piracy habits, Alexander doesn&#8217;t endorse the existing piracy status quo. In a blog post on her own site she notes that many of the people running pirate sites are just as motivated by greed as the people in Hollywood. </p>
<p>The movie director considered reaching out to Kim Dotcom but concluded that his luxurious lifestyle makes him just like the Hollywood elite. The Pirate Bay team was second on the list, but this was scrapped after learning about historical connections with right-winger Carl Lundström.</p>
<p>The movie director is nonetheless reaching out to all pirates with good intentions who put art and talent before the dollar signs. An &#8220;Occupy Hollywood movement,&#8221; as she describes it, and calling for Peter Sunde&#8217;s release, is her way to reach out to those who support this cause. </p>
<p>So will the real pirates <a href="http://www.lexi-alexander.com/blog/2014/6/1/will-the-real-pirates-please-stand-up">please stand up</a>?</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90732
title: Copyright Education Needed in Every School, Parliament Hears
uri: Copyright-Education-Needed-in-Every-School-Parliament-Hears
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pH4xh5mHEdE/
content:
<p><img src="media/c3333f88.share.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/share.png" width="200" height="186" class="alignright">The idea that the copyright wars can be won through education is nothing new, but it&#8217;s a notion that&#8217;s likely to gain more traction in the coming years.</p>
<p>Suing the hell out of file-sharers might currently be popular with trolls, but the mainstream entertainment companies are increasingly opting to &#8220;educate&#8221; consumers <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">via emailed warnings</a> instead.</p>
<p>However, getting into the hearts and minds of young people <em>before</em> they become budding adult pirates is also an option, some believe.</p>
<p>The likes of the RIAA and MPAA have been dabbling in this area for many years and just last year it was revealed that the group behind the U.S. &#8220;six-strikes&#8221; program had <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-and-riaa-to-teach-copyright-at-kindergartens-130918/">developed a curriculum</a> targeted at kids from kindergarten through sixth grade.</p>
<p>Yesterday ideas along the same lines were put forward by UK authors during a debate in the House of Commons. Bemoaning the state of renumeration for writers and authors in the UK, Joanne Harris MBE, the author of the Oscar-winning movie Chocolat starring Johnny Depp, said that downloading literature from the Internet was not &#8220;sticking it to the man”.</p>
<p>If children could understand that not everyone is as lucky or rich as J.K. Rowling, and that &#8220;real&#8221; people are behind these works, progress might be made, Harris said.</p>
<p>“Authors and creators should go into schools. Let children see what an author is like, let them go out into the community and talk to people, let them understand that we have children, we have mortgages; we do not simply get showered with Hollywood money because we happened to write a little story about wizards one day,&#8221; Harris <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/10954699/Author-attacks-JK-Rowlings-huge-wealth-for-a-little-story-about-wizards.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Award-winning poet Wendy Cope OBE was in agreement, noting that a general failure to do anything effective against illegal downloading meant that educating children about copyright is the only solution left.</p>
<p>“There is a need of education, because so many people are so completely ignorant of the basic fact of copyright. It seems to me it would take five minutes to explain, once a year in assembly, that there is such a thing as the law of copyright,&#8221; Cope said.</p>
<p>“Assemblies in every school in the country that such a thing of copyright exists – so these people who tell me I have photocopied your poem and sent it to all my friends know that they are breaking the law.”</p>
<p>And herein lies a problem.</p>
<p>While Cope undoubtedly works very hard to produce her poetry, one might think that the sharing culture facilitated by today&#8217;s social media phenomenon would be a useful ally, not a foe, when it comes to getting her noticed by young people. But Cope was born in the 1940s and clearly still views photocopying (Xeroxing) as something to be concerned about, so there&#8217;s a bit of a disconnect here.</p>
<p>Also, when one compares Cope&#8217;s views with those of Paulo Coelho, one of the most widely read authors in the world, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/best-selling-author-turns-piracy-into-profit-080512/">who loves BitTorrent</a> and people pirating his books, it becomes clear that the failure of an author to gain an audience won&#8217;t be overcome by talking about copyright in a classroom once a year.</p>
<p>Finally, Cope&#8217;s idea of informing children that illegal downloading is the same as stealing sweets or candy presumes that children can not only tell the difference between a legal and illegal copy of her poems, but also between a purchased Paulo Coehlo book and a &#8216;pirated&#8217; one &#8211; and all the shades of fair-use gray in between.</p>
<p>Whether copyright proponents and anti-piracy outfits will care about those subtle shades once they&#8217;re allowed inside a classroom is another matter entirely &#8211; especially if they only get five minutes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90733
title: ‘Popcorn Time’ Remains Popular With Millions of Users
uri: Popcorn-Time-Remains-Popular-With-Millions-of-Users
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tKfK80jhekQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/373f7cd8.popcorn.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn.png"><img src="media/b134dbd9.popcorn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn.png" alt="popcorn" width="203" height="102" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89282"></a>The Popcorn Time phenomenon took the Internet by storm earlier this year. The software became the subject of hundreds of news articles by offering P2P streaming in an easy to use <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/open-source-torrent-streaming-a-netflix-for-pirates-140308/">Netflix-style interface</a>.</p>
<p>Overwhelmed by the response and the legal pressure that came with it the original team <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-devs-drop-like-flies-but-no-one-will-talk-140420/">quickly retired</a>. However, since the code is open source, many competing forks quickly adopted the project, each taking it in a different direction.</p>
<p>The storm calmed down somewhat after a few months, but it appears that the &#8220;Netflix for pirates&#8221; idea is here to stay. TorrentFreak reached out to one of the most popular <a href="http://www.time4popcorn.eu/">Popcorn Time</a> forks at time4popcorn.eu to find out how they are faring.</p>
<p>While the developers are hesitant to reveal any hard data about their software&#8217;s popularity, they note that they have acquired millions of users over the past several months. On an average day tens of thousands of people download the application, with Sunday being the most popular day by far.</p>
<p>The developers further reveal that roughly half of all Popcorn Time downloads are for the Windows platform. The Mac version is in second place with 25%, followed by Android and Linux with 20% and 5% respectively. </p>
<p>For the developers this popularity is one of the main reasons to continue innovating through new features. For example, last month they <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-gives-users-anonymity-with-a-free-built-in-vpn-140607/">integrated</a> a free VPN so users can hide their IP-address from the rest of the world.</p>
<p>&#8220;The million of users are the wind in our sails. We tell this to them all the time &#8211; they are the reason we&#8217;re putting in all the hard we&#8217;ve been putting in for the past 3.5 months,&#8221; the Time4Popcorn team tells TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>&#8220;In none of our previous projects did we experience this kind of &#8216;madness&#8217;. This is really what keeps us working around the clock on this project,&#8221; they add.  </p>
<p>This week the Popcorn Time variant released another highly anticipated feature in their <a href="http://time4popcorn.eu/alpha.html">latest Alpha release</a>, support for Chromecast. This means that users can now stream films directly to Chromecast with just a simple click.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/b8f8154a.popcornchrome.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornchrome.jpg"><img src="media/b8f8154a.popcornchrome.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornchrome.jpg" alt="popcornchrome" width="712" height="516" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90738"></a></center></p>
<p>Chromecast support was one of the most requested Popcorn Time features, the developers told us. It&#8217;s also directly in line with one of the main goals of the software, which is creating an optimal viewing experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;The first goal for Popcorn Time is to make the best viewing experience for all our users, and the other is to make the safest watching experience so all our users can fulfill the first goal without getting in trouble,&#8221; the Time4Popcorn team says.</p>
<p>While Chromecast support is a milestone, the developers mention that there is more exiting news ahead in the not too distant future. </p>
<p>&#8220;This week&#8217;s Alpha release with Chromecast support is nothing compared to what we have coming,&#8221; we were told.</p>
<p>Stay tuned&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90775
title: UK Lawmakers Favor Legalization of MP3 and DVD Copying
uri: UK-Lawmakers-Favor-Legalization-of-MP3-and-DVD-Copying
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JqxeFUpax-4/
content:
<p><a href="media/5d378082.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg"><img src="media/4d28e669.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" alt="uk-flag" width="200" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86005"></a>To most consumers it&#8217;s common sense that they can make a backup copy of media they own, but in the UK this is currently illegal.</p>
<p>Earlier this year the UK Intellectual Property Office <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-dvd-cd-ripping-will-legalized-summer-140328/">proudly announced</a> that these restrictions would be lifted this summer. After consulting various stakeholders the Government decided that it would be in the best interests of consumers to legalize copying for personal use.</p>
<p>“Copyright law is being changed to allow you to make personal copies of media you have bought, for private purposes such as format shifting or backup,” the UK’s Intellectual Property Office writes.</p>
<p>“The changes will mean that you will be able to copy a book or film you have purchased for one device onto another without infringing copyright.”</p>
<p>To communicate the changes to the public the Government released a <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/215022716/Copyright-Guidance-Consumers">consumer guide</a> which stated the change would go into effect in June. However, when June came the most crucial changes were still <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/copying-mp3s-dvds-cds-now-legal-uk-140602/">pending Parliamentary approval</a>.</p>
<p>What exactly delayed the process remains a mystery. Copyright lobbyists are likely to have become involved and late last month lawmakers were casting doubt over the entire plan.</p>
<p>According to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI) it is <a href="http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2014/july/doubt-cast-over-proposed-uk-laws-on-private-copying/">not clear</a> whether the private copying exceptions are allowed under EU law if there&#8217;s no &#8220;fair compensation&#8221; for copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;Only a court, and ultimately the CJEU, can give an authoritative ruling on whether the [EU Copyright] Directive precludes the private copying exception provided for in [the copying for personal use draft legislation] without the inclusion of a compensation scheme for rightholders adversely affected by the exception,&#8221; JCSI <a href="media/420bb286.13.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt201415/jtselect/jtstatin/13/13.pdf">notes</a>.</p>
<p>The Government previously concluded that compensation wasn&#8217;t needed since the changes would not result in any significant harm to copyright holders. However, the JCSI mentions that there are several stakeholders who disagree with this assessment. </p>
<p>Yesterday the new copying exceptions were discussed during a general committee debate. The overall consensus was that the current copyright regulations are too restrictive as they run counter to what millions of people are already doing.   </p>
<p>&#8220;By criminalizing format shifting, we are potentially criminalizing 20 million people around the country who probably think they can do that already,&#8221; said Mike Weatherley MP, who&#8217;s also the Prime Minister&#8217;s Intellectual Property Advisor.</p>
<p>This opinion was shared by John Whittingdale MP who told the debate about his personal experiences with the issue. </p>
<p>&#8220;A long time ago I started transferring music that I purchased on one antiquated format — vinyl records — on to another antiquated format — cassette tapes — which I then played in my car. I was technically in breach of copyright law. Subsequently, I moved into the new age and transferred CDs that I had bought on to my iPod. I was still in breach of copyright law,&#8221; Whittingdale said. </p>
<p>This admission of criminality was met with laughter from the other lawmakers, which was telling for the issue at hand. None of the lawmakers appeared to view the criminal wrongdoing as a problem, yet it is under current law. </p>
<p>This mismatch between what&#8217;s morally accepted and what the law prescribes should be fixed according to Whittingdale.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is not good for the respect of law to give a message to consumers that it is fine to break some laws and not others. If the law is outdated and being widely ignored then it needs to change. That is why I welcome the private copying exception,&#8221; he said. </p>
<p>Minister David Willetts also responded to the doubts raised by JCSI. He confirmed that the European Court of Justice is the relevant legal authority in this case, but according to the legal experts that were consulted copyright holders don&#8217;t have to be compensated under the current regulations.</p>
<p>Willetts also waved away concerns about the potential losses the new regulations could cause to copyright holders. According to the Minister these concerns are unwarranted as the new rules clearly state that copies can only be made for personal use, so sharing with third parties remains illegal.</p>
<p>At the end of the hearing the current draft of the Copyright and Rights in Performances Regulations were passed, meaning that they are a step closer to becoming law. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90789
title: Adobe Says Piracy is Down, But Photoshop Still Rules Pirate Bay
uri: Adobe-Says-Piracy-is-Down-But-Photoshop-Still-Rules-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/whJjQoc3B7g/
content:
<p><img src="media/37d0a4f2.adobe-piracy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/adobe-piracy.png" width="177" height="160" class="alignright">There can be little doubt that Adobe products are a crowd pleaser among digital creatives. Designers love them, photographers and videographers do too, and Adobe&#8217;s Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat brands are recognized worldwide.</p>
<p>But while millions of people use Adobe&#8217;s premium products, not everyone pays for that privilege. Unauthorized Photoshop releases have been appearing on computers worldwide for 25 years and other Adobe products are regularly pirated close to their launch. Over time this has led Adobe to invest substantial sums of money on anti-piracy measures including DRM and even legal action. But there are other ways to deal with the problem.</p>
<p>In May last year and much to the disappoint of Adobe&#8217;s millions of pirate &#8216;customers&#8217;, the company announcemend that it would be changing the way it does business. Boxed products, a hangover from the last decade and earlier, would be phased out and replaced with a cloud-based subscription model.</p>
<p>On the one hand, many pirates heard the word &#8220;cloud&#8221; and associated that with a lack of local machine control, something that can cause issues when trying to run unlicensed software. Adobe, on the other hand, appeared to be looking at product development and the piracy problem from a different angle.</p>
<p>While attempts at hacking its cloud service would present another technical barrier to piracy, with its new offering the tech giant also looked towards making its product more affordable. A few dollars a month rather than $700 in one go was aimed at providing an economic reason for even the most budget-restricted not to pirate. But has the strategy worked?</p>
<p>According to new comments from Fabio Sambugaro, VP of Enterprise Latin America at Adobe, unauthorized use of the company&#8217;s products is definitely down since the cloud switch.</p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy has fallen,&#8221; Sambugaro <a href="http://www.bnamericas.com/news/technology/adobe-creative-cloud-business-model-helping-reduce-piracy-in-latam">says</a>. &#8220;It&#8217;s hard to measure, but we&#8217;ve seen many companies seeking partnerships that in the past wouldn&#8217;t have done so.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to information released to investors last month, Adobe exited quarter two this year with 2,308,000 subscribers of its Creative Cloud service, an increase of 464,000 over the first quarter of 2014. The company attributed 53% of the company&#8217;s quarter two revenue to &#8220;recurring sources&#8221; such as its Creative and Marketing Cloud services.</p>
<p>So have the pirates given up on Adobe? In a word, no.</p>
<p>One only has to scour the indexes of the world&#8217;s most popular torrent sites to see that Photoshop, Photoshop Lightroom, Illustrator, Premiere, Indesign, After Effects and Acrobat Pro all take prominent places in the charts of most-popular torrents. No surprise then that on The Pirate Bay, Photoshop CS6 &#8211; the last version of Photoshop before the cloud switch &#8211; is king of the software downloads by a long way.</p>
<p>Also, and contrary to fears aired by pirates alongside Adobe&#8217;s original strategy change announcement, the cloud has not made it impossible to run unauthorized versions of Photoshop CC 2014, for example. Expected functional restrictions aside, torrent sites have plenty of working copies of Creative Cloud releases, but is this necessarily a bad thing?</p>
<p>There are those who believe that some level of piracy is useful as a try-before-you-buy option on a traditionally expensive product such as Photoshop. But what makes this notion even more interesting today is that Adobe&#8217;s switch to the cloud &#8211; and its much lower price point for entry &#8211; may see people investing a few dollars a month for increased functionality and a simple life, instead of one spent jumping through hoops with an inferior and oftentimes awkward product.</p>
<p>And Adobe knows it.</p>
<p>“I do not think people who pirate our software do it because they are bad people, or because they like to steal things. I just think that they decided that they can not afford it,” <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/adobe-photoshop-pirates-arent-bad-people-who-like-to-steal-things-130509/">said</a> Adobe’s David Wadhwani previously.</p>
<p>“And now, with the switch to subscriptions and with the ability to offer software at a cheaper price, we see that the situation is beginning to change and we’re excited.”</p>
<p>Richard Atkinson, Corporate Director of Worldwide Anti-Piracy, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tired-of-the-war-on-piracy-adobe-hopes-to-turn-pirates-into-customers-130625/">admitted</a> last year that the company would move away from &#8220;enforcement-led anti piracy&#8221; to a &#8220;business-focused pirate-to-pay conversion program.&#8221;</p>
<p>If the company is to be believed, that is now paying off.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90818
title: Soundcloud Doing a Deal With Record Labels Not to Get Sued
uri: Soundcloud-Doing-a-Deal-With-Record-Labels-Not-to-Get-Sued
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xt6sDHxiTK0/
content:
<p><a href="media/e64b059c.soundcloud.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/soundcloud.jpg"><img src="media/5feb95f1.soundcloud-150x150.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/soundcloud-150x150.jpg" alt="soundcloud" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-90490"></a>Anyone running a user-generated content site needs to seriously consider the implications of its users uploading infringing material, because it&#8217;s pretty much guaranteed to happen on a very large scale indeed.</p>
<p>Once the world&#8217;s largest recording labels and movie studios see this happening, things can go bad quickly, unless certain preventative steps are taken. Bringing the business into line with the DMCA is a necessary first step, one which will see the hosting site respond to takedown notices in a timely fashion.</p>
<p>Other sites have gone a step further. As underlined by the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/universal-censors-megaupload-song-gets-branded-a-rogue-label-111210/">MegaSong debacle</a>, YouTube gives some big record labels the right to take down content they don&#8217;t like, even if there are no apparent copyright infringement issues. YouTube doesn&#8217;t appear to get involved much in the process either, leaving the labels to decide what goes and what does not.</p>
<p>Another company that headed down that route recently was SoundCloud. The audio upload site has been coming on in leaps and bounds over the past five years, in part due to the popular and sometimes illegal content uploaded by its users. Recently, however, it was revealed that not only had the company given Universal Music the ability to take down infringing content, but to do so <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-can-remove-soundcoud-tracks-without-oversight-140703/">without oversight</a>.</p>
<p>YouTube allows the labels to do that because it struck a distribution deal with them, but why would Soundcloud follow suit? News today suggests that this particular question answers itself.</p>
<p>According to a Bloomberg, Universal Music, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group are &#8220;closing in&#8221; on a deal with Soundcloud which will see the service obtain licenses to host and distribute content from these major labels.</p>
<p>An anonymous source familiar with the negotiations said that the deal will not only see the labels getting a share of future Soundcloud revenue, but Universal, Sony and Warner each picking up a 3% to 5% stake in the business.</p>
<p>On top of that and most importantly, Berlin-based Soundcloud will receive assurances that it won&#8217;t get sued, a valuable stability that US-rival <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-accuses-grooveshark-of-making-piracy-a-job-requirement-140220/">Grooveshark</a> is unlikely to enjoy anytime soon.</p>
<p>No one involved in the talks is speaking on the record, but sources suggest that the agreement would value Soundcloud between $500 million and $600 million, not bad for company that was nibbling at the heels of MySpace just five years ago.</p>
<p>The 200 employee company is definitely on the up. One year ago Soundcloud reported having <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/07/17/whos-listening-to-soundcloud-200-million/2521363/">200 million unique users</a>, but by November 2013 that had increased to <a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/229755">250 million</a>.</p>
<p>A target of one billion users leaves Soundcloud with plenty to do, but with the threat of large-scale litigation off the table, the process will be much, much easier.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90846
title: Warner Bros. Censorship of Greenpeace LEGO Video Backfires (Updated)
uri: Warner-Bros-Censorship-of-Greenpeace-LEGO-Video-Backfires
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3k-I7t529Q4/
content:
<p><a href="media/b03a2ebe.lego-sad.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lego-sad.jpg"><img src="media/b03a2ebe.lego-sad.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lego-sad.jpg" alt="lego-sad" width="225" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90849"></a>Earlier this month Greenpeace released a <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/awesomevideo">new campaign</a> in which it targets LEGO for promoting Shell on its toys. </p>
<p>The campaign video titled &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhbliUq0_r4">Everything is NOT Awesome</a>&#8221; is inspired by the popular &#8220;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ2l-Y">Everything is Awesome</a>&#8221; song, a callback to the LEGO movie. The video shows LEGO figures drowning in oil with a cover of the song playing in the background. </p>
<p>Over the past several days more than three million people have watched the video on YouTube. However, a few hours ago the video suddenly became unavailable due to a copyright claim by Warner Bros. </p>
<p><center><strong>Censored</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/3cd08a1a.greenpeace-lego.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/greenpeace-lego.png"><img src="media/3cd08a1a.greenpeace-lego.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/greenpeace-lego.png" alt="greenpeace-lego" width="623" height="315" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90850"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted Greenpeace who informed us that <a href="media/33253891.youtubemail.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtubemail.png">the email</a> YouTube sent doesn&#8217;t clarify on what grounds the video was taken down. The group assumes that the use of the song is the culprit, but says it won&#8217;t let this case go without a fight. </p>
<p>“Our film was designed as a creative way of letting people know about the threat to the Arctic from Shell and the role LEGO has in the story. It seems to have struck a nerve with some important corporate bigwigs, but this crude attempt to silence dissent won’t work,&#8221; Greenpeace&#8217;s Ian Duff says.</p>
<p>Greenpeace will appeal the takedown request, a process that can take up to 10 days to complete. In the meantime the group has uploaded the video to Vimeo, along with a call to its millions of social media followers and mailing list subscribers to re-upload it elsewhere.</p>
<p>&#8220;We fully intend to challenge this claim, and we’re asking supporters to upload the video wherever they can,&#8221; Duff says.  </p>
<p>In the appeal Greenpeace will argue that the video uses satire and parody and that it is in the public interest. The video should therefore be protected under the right to free speech.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Greenpeace has had one of its campaign videos removed from YouTube. Previously a video featuring several Star Wars characters was taken down. The video was later reinstated after Greenpeace successfully appealed the takedown request.</p>
<p>Warner Bros&#8217; motivation for the takedown remains unclear. It seems unlikely that it is an automated request since there are still more than 700 video on YouTube that use the same ‘Everything is Awesome’ song.</p>
<p>Whatever the reason may be, the takedown attempt will clearly backfire. </p>
<p>During the days to come the rift between Greenpeace and Warner Bros. will be widely covered by the media while hundreds of copies of the video will be uploaded and shared.</p>
<p><center><strong>The <strike>censored</strike> campaign video</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/qhbliUq0_r4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The video is back online.</p>
<p>&#8220;18 hours later we&#8217;ve seen that the video has been re-instated. WB have withdrawn their complaint. It seems who ever wanted it censored has spotted the error in their ways,&#8221; Duff informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p><strong>Update 2: </strong>Warner Bros. now <a href="http://vimeo.com/100195272">removed the video from Vimeo</a>&#8230;.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90939
title: MPAA Pulls “Popcorn Time” Repositories Off GitHub
uri: MPAA-Pulls-Popcorn-Time-Repositories-Off-GitHub
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wN9AGe_Uvk4/
content:
<p><a href="media/0e57238e.popcorncensor.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/popcorncensor.jpg"><img src="media/efc3d7b7.popcorncensor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorncensor.jpg" alt="popcorncensor" width="228" height="99" class="alignright size-full wp-image-87053"></a>The Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. </p>
<p>The software became an instant hit by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy to use Netflix-style interface. Needless to say this has been a thorn in the side for Hollywood. </p>
<p>Today the MPAA decided to deploy countermeasures by filing requests with development platform GitHub to take down several Popcorn Time related repositories. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are writing to notify you of, and request your assistance in addressing the extensive copyright infringement of motion pictures and television shows that is occurring by virtue of the operation and further development of the GitHub projects Popcorn Time, and Time4Popcorn,&#8221; the MPAA writes in its takedown notice.</p>
<p>GitHub swiftly complied and starting a few hours ago the repositories <a href="https://github.com/popcorn-official/popcorn-app">were absent</a> from the website, leaving the following note.</p>
<p><center><strong>Popcorn Time removed</strong><br></br><a href="media/a53fae31.dmcagit.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dmcagit.png"><img src="media/a53fae31.dmcagit.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dmcagit.png" alt="dmcagit" width="677" height="261" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90944"></a></center></p>
<p>In its takedown notice the MPAA specifically targets the &#8220;popcorn-official&#8221; and the &#8220;time4popcorn&#8221; projects, but it also urges GitHub to remove all related forks. </p>
<p>&#8220;By this notification, we are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping your users’ unauthorized activity. Specifically, we request that you remove or disable access to the infringing Projects’ repositories and all related forks,&#8221; MPAA writes.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the MPAA doesn&#8217;t mention <a href="https://github.com/popcorn-time">the original</a> Popcorn Time repository, which remains intact. </p>
<p>To prove the infringing nature of Popcorn Time the takedown notice was accompanied by several screenshots of the user interface, as well as several pirated copies of Hollywood movies playing. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/8d53aa66.ptdmca.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ptdmca.jpg"><img src="media/8d53aa66.ptdmca.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ptdmca.jpg" alt="ptdmca" width="577" height="792" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90940"></a></center></p>
<p>While the takedown notices may hinder the development of the software, at least temporarily, the websites of the forks remain online. This means that the applications themselves are still available for download.</p>
<p>Earlier this week the team behind the Time4Popcorn fork informed us that they have <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-has-millions-of-users-140709/">gathered millions of users</a> over the past several months, and that the application is being downloaded tens of thousands of times per day.</p>
<p>Whether the MPAA also has plans to target the Popcorn Time fork websites remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90830
title: News Corp Wants to Hold ISPs Responsible For Piracy
uri: News-Corp-Wants-to-Hold-ISPs-Responsible-For-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/28OyKjOVgPU/
content:
<p><a href="media/0ba91d62.throttle.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/throttle.jpg"><img src="media/269797aa.throttle.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/throttle.jpg" alt="throttle" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-8967"></a>Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation spin-off not only owns several major newspapers, but also has a stake in Foxtel, the Australian pay TV network that airs Game of Thrones. </p>
<p>The hit TV show has become a pivotal talking point in the copyright debate, so it comes as little surprise that News Corp is now regularly throwing its own anti-piracy opinions into the mix.</p>
<p>Last month, News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/news-corp-wants-google-implement-anti-piracy-algorithms-140609/">fired shots</a> at Google for operating sophisticated algorithms that &#8220;know ­exactly where you are and what you’re doing&#8221; yet at the same time &#8220;pleading ignorance&#8221; on piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;[It's an] untenable contradiction,” Thomson said.</p>
<p>Now the media outfit is making its feelings known again in a submission to the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade, regarding the Free Trade Agreement between the governments of Australia and South Korea.</p>
<p>Specifically, News Corp doesn&#8217;t like the fact that following the failed Hollywood legal onslaught against iiNet, Aussie ISPs are able to distance themselves from the pirating habits of their subscribers.</p>
<p>&#8220;As News Corp Australia has expressed previously, we are concerned that the amendments made to the Copyright Act 1968 in 2004 regarding secondary liability of ISPs do not operate as intended,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Specifically, the provisions of the Act – although intended to do so – do not provide rights holders with means to protect rights online as the provisions are technology specific and ineffective in dealing with online copyright infringement as it manifests today, nor as it may manifest in the future.&#8221;</p>
<p>The law as it stands, News Corps adds, is not &#8220;readily suited to enforcing the rights of copyright owners in respect of widespread infringements occasioned by peer-to-peer file sharing, as occurs with the BitTorrent system.&#8221;</p>
<p>Looking towards a solution, News Corp supports the position taken by Attorney-General George Brandis back in February when the Senator noted that Section 101 of the Copyright Act should be reformed so that an ISP which authorizes the copyright infringements of others can more effectively be held liable for those infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;News Corp Australia supports the Attorney-General’s approach to the issue of online copyright infringement, and looks forward to contributing to ensuring domestic copyright protection provisions function as intended, and the balance between obligation (secondary liability) and benefit (safe harbour) is re-established,&#8221; the company concludes.</p>
<p>Whether ISPs will relish taking on more responsibility is up for debate, but it&#8217;s safe to say that one &#8211; Hollywood nemesis iiNet &#8211; definitely won&#8217;t. The company&#8217;s Chief Regulatory Officer Steve Dalby has been in the press on numerous occasions in the past few weeks taking a particularly <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/ignorant-movie-boss-lying-isp-fight-publicly-over-piracy-140619/">aggressive stance</a> against most <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/rise-up-against-govt-anti-piracy-plans-isp-urges-140610/">government</a> and entertainment industry proposals.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90876
title: Pirate Bay Requests Support For Its Imprisoned Founders
uri: Pirate-Bay-Asks-Support-For-Its-Imprisoned-Founders
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YYyBNvjmBbI/
content:
<p><a href="media/850a0ead.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg"><img src="media/4e243e8b.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg" alt="tpb-logo" width="222" height="198" class="alignright size-full wp-image-67837"></a>Pretty much every weekend The Pirate Bay replaces its logo to plug a band, game developer or filmmaker. This is part of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/promo-bay/">Promo Bay</a> initiative through which TPB supports independent artists.</p>
<p>At the start of this weekend the torrent site decided to feature something a little more personal. The site currently displays a banner asking visitors to send their support to two of the site&#8217;s original founders. </p>
<p>Gottfrid Svartholm and Peter Sunde are both in prison at the moment and could use an uplifting note or two, the message suggests. </p>
<p>&#8220;Show your support by sending them some encouraging mail! Gottfrid is only allowed to receive letters while Peter gladly received books, letter and vegan candy,&#8221; the TPB team writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate Bay homepage</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/3007c23a.tpbhome.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbhome.jpg"><img src="media/3007c23a.tpbhome.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbhome.jpg" alt="tpbhome" width="682" height="615" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-90923"></a></center></p>
<p>Peter Sunde is serving the sentence he received for his involvement with The Pirate Bay. He&#8217;s being held in a high security prison in Västervik and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/losing-weight-pirate-bay-founder-requests-security-downgrade-140703/">recently requested</a> a transfer to a lower safety class unit. </p>
<p>Gottfrid Svartholm has already served his Pirate Bay sentence but currently stands accused in Denmark of hacking into the mainframe computers of IT company CSC. He faces up to five years in prison and his trial will start in two months. </p>
<p>When Gottfrid served his Pirate Bay sentence in Sweden he also received numerous letters and cards. He later sent <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/video-pirate-bay-founder-thanks-supporters-from-inside-prison-130302/">a video</a> out to thank everyone for the support he received.</p>
<p>“I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in any way, very much, it has meant a lot to me,&#8221; Gottfrid said at the time. </p>
<p>“I don’t have the time or the possibility to answer many of the letters but you should know that I read each and every one of them and it has really helped me a lot.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>For those who can&#8217;t read the image above, the addresses for Gottfrid and Peter are as follows.</p>
<p><em>Gottfrid Svartholm Warg<br>
c/o Jens H. Jorgensen<br>
Politigarden, 1567, Copenhagen<br>
Denmark</em></p>
<p><em>Peter Sunde<br>
Box 248<br>
593 23 Västervik<br>
Sweden</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90835
title: When Guided by Google, Legal Music is Quicker Than Piracy
uri: When-Guided-by-Google-Legal-Music-is-Quicker-Than-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Z0IeFZrG6d8/
content:
<p><a href="media/7c6b9504.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg"><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" alt="google-bay" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21875"></a>For the past several years Google has been under the hammer for supposedly providing easy access to pirated content online. Criticism has flooded in on both sides of the Atlantic, with record labels and their Hollywood counterparts blaming the search giant for infringement they have little do with.</p>
<p>The argument is that Google should take responsibility for what the wider Internet is doing by doctoring its search results and AutoSuggest/AutoComplete features in order to promote legal content while relegating pirate sources to the poor leagues.</p>
<p>The record labels claim that little has happened on this front so we decided to carry out some tests of our own. How quickly could we find both legal and illegal popular music using only Google&#8217;s search and suggestions?</p>
<p><strong>The rules</strong></p>
<p>Searching for the current Billboard Top 10, we carried out two searches for each track. One would aim to find infringing content and the other only legal options. We entered no more letters of a song than needed and stopped when Google began guiding us with its AutoSuggest options which we accepted. Any more than ten keypresses or clicks overall would be classed as an abort.</p>
<p><strong>Track #1 &#8211; Fancy &#8211; Iggy Azalea Featuring Charli XCX</strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search Entry &#8211; &#8220;fancy_&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;fancy mp3&#8243;<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 9</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search Entry &#8211; &#8220;fan&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;fancy&#8221;<br>
Best Offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#2 Rude &#8211; MAGIC!</strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;rud&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;rude mp3&#8243;<br>
Best Offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 6</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;rud&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;rude magic&#8221;<br>
Best Offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#3 Problem &#8211; Ariana Grande Featuring Iggy Azalea </strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search Entry &#8211; &#8220;probl&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;problem ariana grande mp3&#8243;<br>
Best Offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 7</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search Entry &#8211; &#8220;prob&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;problem ariana grande&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#4 &#8211; Am I Wrong &#8211; Nico &#038; Vinz</strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;am_&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;am i wrong mp3&#8243;<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 6</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;am i w&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;am i wrong nico and vinz&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 8</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Pirate option (MP3Skull)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#5 Stay With Me &#8211; Sam Smith</strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;stay_w&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;stay with me sam smith mp3&#8243;<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 9</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;stay&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;stay with me&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#6 Wiggle &#8211; Jason Derulo Featuring Snoop Dogg </strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;wigg&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;wiggle jason derulo mp3&#8243;<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 7</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;wig&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;wiggle jason derulo&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#7 &#8211; Summer &#8211; Calvin Harris </strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;summer_&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;summer calvin harris mp3&#8243;<br>
Several &#8216;pirate&#8217; results failed.</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = Aborted (more than 10)</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;sum&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;summer&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 5</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#8 All Of Me &#8211; John Legend</strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;all_o&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;all of me john legend mp3&#8243;<br>
Best Offer: MP3Fon (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 8</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;all_of_me_j&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;all of me john legend&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 13</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Pirate option (MP3Fon)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#9 &#8211; Maps &#8211; Maroon 5 </strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;maps_maro&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;maps maroon 5 mp3&#8243;<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (second result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 12</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;maps_m&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;maps maroon 5&#8243;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 8</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong></p>
<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>#10 &#8211; Turn Down For What &#8211; DJ Snake &#038; Lil Jon </strong></p>
<p><em>Search for unauthorized download</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;turn_d&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; (turn down for what mp3)<br>
Best offer: MP3Skull (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 9</p>
<p><em>Search for authorized track</em></p>
<p>Google Search entry &#8211; &#8220;turn&#8221;<br>
AutoSuggest offered &#8211; &#8220;turn down for what&#8221;<br>
Best offer: Vevo (top result)</p>
<p>Total keypresses and clicks before listening = 6</p>
<p><strong>Winner: Legal option (VEVO/YouTube)</strong><br>
&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;</p>
<p><strong>Conclusions</strong></p>
<p>From the above results we can see that when using only a song title and then taking Google&#8217;s suggestions, most of the time those searching for pirate content will take longer to access it than those looking to go legal.</p>
<p>However, what we&#8217;re talking about here is a difference of a handful of clicks, which is hardly the accessibility chasm the RIAA and BPI were aiming for. Pressuring Google and sending millions of DMCA takedown notices every month appears to have had little effect on pirate availability.</p>
<p>Also, it&#8217;s also worth noting that if the YouTube/Vevo results were ignored in our tests or removed from Google results altogether, finding legal alternatives would become much harder since iTunes and similar sites are rarely, if ever, on the first page of Google results following either a &#8216;pirate&#8217; or &#8216;legal&#8217; search for music.</p>
<p>Google has told the record labels that they need to do something about that themselves, by making their sites more crawlable, but it appears that security concerns have hindered progress on that front to the point that sites like MP3Skull with relatively tiny budgets can beat them at every turn.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s difficult to blame anyone but the labels and their partners for that problem.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90816
title: Suing File-Sharers Doesn’t Work, Lawyers Warn
uri: Suing-File-Sharers-Doesn-t-Work-Lawyers-Warn
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/E2UnqJ4KwYU/
content:
<p><a href="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg"><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717"></a>For more than a decade copyright holders and the U.S. Government have been trying to find the silver bullet to beat piracy. </p>
<p>This week the American Bar Association joined the discussion with a <a href="media/3719abf6.ASectionWhitePaperACallForActionCompositetosize.authcheckdam.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/intellectual_property_law/advocacy/ABASectionWhitePaperACallForActionCompositetosize.authcheckdam.pdf">113-page white paper</a>. With their &#8220;call for action&#8221; the lawyers encourage Congress to draft new anti-piracy legislation and promote voluntary agreements between stakeholders. </p>
<p>Among the options on the table is the filing of lawsuits against individual file-sharers, something the RIAA did extensively in the past. Interestingly, the lawyers advise against this option as it&#8217;s unlikely to have an impact on current piracy rates.</p>
<p>According to the lawyers these type of lawsuits are also financially ineffective, oftentimes costing more than they bring in. In addition, they can create bad PR for the copyright holders involved.</p>
<p>&#8220;While it is technically possible for trademark and copyright owners to proceed with civil litigation against the consuming public who [...] engage in illegal file sharing, campaigns like this have been expensive, do not yield significant financial returns, and can cause a public relations problem for the plaintiff in addressing its consuming public,&#8221; the lawyers write.</p>
<p>&#8220;The [American Bar Association] does not believe that legislative action directly targeting consumers would prove effective in reducing piracy or counterfeiting at this time,&#8221; the white paper adds.</p>
<p>While the above may be true for any of the cases that go to trial, various copyright trolls might tend to disagree as they have shown that targeting file-sharers can be quite lucrative. </p>
<p>Pirates shouldn&#8217;t be too quick to cheer on the lawyers though, as the white paper also contains some pretty draconian suggestions.</p>
<p>The American Bar Association says that future legislation should target infringing websites, and it names The Pirate Bay as an example. Since site owners are often unknown and therefore hard to prosecute in America, they advise a series of more indirect tactics. </p>
<p>The lawyers are in favor of a &#8220;follow the money&#8221; principle where anti-piracy measures are targeted at strangling the finances of pirate sites. They call for legislation that makes it easier to cut off advertising, and to seize funds through banks or payment processors.  </p>
<p>In addition, the white paper calls for new legislation that would allow copyright holders to obtain injunctions against the hosting companies of pirate sites. The American Bar Association also considered similar injunctions against domain registrars and search engines, but it couldn&#8217;t reach agreement on these issues. </p>
<p>Overall copyright holders will be pleased to see the recommendations put forward in the white paper, but it&#8217;s doubtful whether lawmakers will be quick pick them up.</p>
<p>Several of the suggestions were previously listed in the SOPA and PIPA bills, so if these are ever drafted into legislation Congress can expect a lot of public backlash. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90982
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 07/14/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-07-14-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wUfUaqlroE8/
content:
<p><a href="media/a0c8c92a.transcen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/transcen.jpg"><img src="media/a0c8c92a.transcen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/transcen.jpg" alt="transcen" width="300" height="182" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90986"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Transcendence is the most downloaded movie this week.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140707/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transcendence_2014/">Transcendence</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/?">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTen3-B8GU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/noah_2014/">Noah</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/need_for_speed/">Need For Speed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369135/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrJWUVoXeM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sabotage_2012/">Sabotage</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742334/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDArXZgrsE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_woman_2014/">The Other Woman</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203939/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/muppets_most_wanted/">Muppets Most Wanted</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2281587/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQiGyBiNjLI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_million_ways_to_die_in_the_west/">A Million Ways to Die in the West</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2557490/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhGkcOoTlkQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_the_winter_soldier_2014/">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90998
title: Dotcom’s Baboom “Overwhelmed” By Indie Music Support
uri: Dotcom-s-Baboom-Overwhelmed-By-Indie-Music-Support
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/EwDTESpWyx4/
content:
<p><img src="media/e62c6cf5.baboom.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/baboom.png" width="207" height="157" class="alignright">It&#8217;s been under development for more than two years and in just a few months Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Baboom should be ready to launch. In the meantime the company has been outlining its vision for a listing on the Australian stock market.</p>
<p>Baboom&#8217;s 41-page prospectus invites investors to take a share in a company aiming to provide a special service to both artists and users. While allowing the former to pick up an industry-beating 90% of the spoils, the latter will have the opportunity to listen to music for free, a combination that Baboom hopes will prove a tempting mix to potential investors.</p>
<p>The company is issuing 11,250,000 shares at AUS $0.40 each, with the aim of securing &#8220;sophisticated or professional investors&#8221; able to pump in a minimum of $20,000 each.</p>
<p>The target is AUS $4.5 million and according to Ben Yeo, senior adviser at Melbourne-based Novus Capital, the company is well on the way. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Yeo says there has been a large amount of interest from not only within Australia and New Zealand, but also from Europe and Asia. </p>
<p>&#8220;While the offer has only been marketed to a select number of sophisticated investors, the offer is tracking incredibly well and we have extended the offering for an additional week so as [Baboom CEO] Grant Edmundson can present to a number of potential cornerstone investors in Australia who have requested an in-person meeting with the Baboom Ltd CEO,&#8221; Yeo explains.</p>
<p>The prospectus describes Baboom as a &#8220;cloud streaming and download service&#8221;, with users able to store their music library for retrieval anywhere in the world on both desktop and mobile devices. It&#8217;s estimated that users will get between 10 and 15 albums for free each year in the ad-supported model while their &#8220;locker&#8221; will max out at 50 gigabytes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s probably no coincidence that this limit is the same as that offered by Dotcom&#8217;s Mega.co.nz, with the prospectus citing links between Baboom and Mega as a &#8220;competitive advantage&#8221;. Not everything will be centralized, however. Baboom says it will also offer &#8220;unique user &#8216;peer2peer&#8217; content streaming&#8221; features, with a &#8220;jukebox&#8221; listed as an example use.</p>
<p>As previously reported, Baboom will also offer industry-leading audio quality via its <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/baboom-dotcoms-disruptive-music-streaming-140621/">FLAC streaming service</a> and will integrate a worldwide ticketing and merchandising solution.</p>
<p>Also of interest to investors is Baboom&#8217;s target markets. The company says it will focus on under-serviced regions with high growth potential to include South East Asia, Australasia, Southern and East Africa and Europe.</p>
<p>Like Spotify before it, one of Baboom&#8217;s key aims is target markets with piracy problems. The company says it will deploy &#8220;robust marketing&#8221; in order to provide a legitimate music streaming and downloading platform in these regions.</p>
<p>But while Spotify has achieved its success with the full support of the major labels, it&#8217;s impossible to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/now-the-riaa-sues-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-theft-140411/">see a situation</a> in which Warner, Universal and Sony warm to the idea of dealing with a company affiliated with Kim Dotcom. That reality is certainly not lost on the management of Baboom, who detail the company&#8217;s market strategy as focusing on &#8220;independent labels, producer archives and unpublished material.&#8221;</p>
<p>And according to Novus Capital&#8217;s Ben Yeo, things couldn&#8217;t be going any better on that front.</p>
<p>&#8220;What Grant and I have been overwhelmed with is the level of support we have been receiving from the global independent music industry who have thrown their support behind Baboom and are eager to show their support by uploading content onto the platform,&#8221; Yeo told TF.</p>
<p>On any platform of this type, content is definitely king, so potential investors will be encouraged that Baboom is receiving good support as it prepares for takeoff. The prospectus envisions a fourth quarter release for the service, but according to Yeo there is much work to be done.</p>
<p>&#8220;By the time the offer closes I envisage the company to be in a strong position to develop its backend systems, mobile platform and content acquisition prior to the platform&#8217;s hard launch either late December 2014 or January 2015,&#8221; Yeo concludes.</p>
<p>The early signs suggest that at least in its early days Baboom is unlikely to prompt a mass migration away from services such as Spotify. However, its unique way of remunerating artists could prove very tempting, particularly when played out against a backdrop of traditional middle-men struggling to remain both profitable and relevant in a changing market.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91029
title: Leaked Doctor Who Episode Appears on The Pirate Bay
uri: Leaked-Doctor-Who-Episode-Appears-on-The-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HWuF95m6Jh0/
content:
<p><a href="media/33907075.tardis-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tardis-1.jpg"><img src="media/33907075.tardis-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tardis-1.jpg" alt="tardis-1" width="187" height="216" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91041"></a>Leaks of material not yet available to the public are always a curiosity online. Anything pre-release can generate excitement, particularly so if the item offers a unique window into the usually hidden production process.</p>
<p>Back in 2009 the movie Wolverine appeared on the Internet in advance of its official release. The copy <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/unfinished-x-men-movie-a-hit-on-bittorrent-090401/">was unfinished</a> and provided a version of the film to downloaders that would have otherwise remained hidden forever. Now that same dubious status has fallen to Doctor Who.</p>
<p>After appearing online over the weekend, what claims to be episode one of the new series of the hit show was uploaded to The Pirate Bay today. The 1.49Gb file is marked as a &#8220;pre air screeneer&#8221; with a claimed running time of one hour and 16 mins.</p>
<p>While leaks of TV shows are much more rare than movie leaks, this copy is particularly unusual. Clearly unfinished, the video is both heavily watermarked and monochrome.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/8fead371.dr-who.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dr-who.jpg" alt="DR-Who"></center></p>
<p>As can be seen from the image above, the copy carries the text &#8220;Prepared for Marcelo Camargo at Drei Marc.&#8221;</p>
<p>Marcelo Camargo is the owner of Marc Drei Productions, a Brazil-based production company known for its subtitling work. There is no suggestion that Camargo or his company is responsible for the leak.</p>
<p>This is the second serious breach in a matter of days to hit Doctor Who and the BBC. Just last week scripts from the new series <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-28201577">leaked online</a> after inadvertently being made available to the public by a BBC Worldwide office in the U.S. It seems likely that this video comes from the same source.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=90992
title: BitTorrent to Crowdfund TV-Show Through New Paywall
uri: BitTorrent-to-Crowdfund-TV-Show-Through-New-Paywall
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sNt9dSvFFKE/
content:
<p><a href="media/f7c4646c.bundle.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bundle.png"><img src="media/f7c4646c.bundle.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bundle.png" alt="bundle" width="317" height="121" class="alignright size-full wp-image-90995"></a>Following in the footsteps of FrostWire and <a href="http://vodo.net/">VODO</a>, BitTorrent Inc. launched an artist promotion program a few years ago.</p>
<p>The idea was to let artists share their work for free, exposing it to millions of BitTorrent users all around the world.</p>
<p>Helped by a massive user base of more than 170 million the program has been very successful. But, aside from promotion some artists would also like to see some hard cash in return. This is now an option thanks to the &#8220;paygate&#8221; uTorrent&#8217;s parent company will launch this September. </p>
<p>The walled content can only be accessed and shared after a user pays a fixed fee to the creator. To prevent users from sharing it without permission there will be some restrictions in place.</p>
<p>The paywall idea was initially announced last year and film producer Marco Weber will be one of the first to try it in the wild. Through BitTorrent, Weber will release a pilot of the new TV-series &#8220;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ChildrenOfTheMachine">Children of the Machine</a>&#8221; and those who like it can pay <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/14/business/media/bittorrent-to-try-a-paywall-and-crowdfunding.html?_r=0">$9.95</a> to buy the entire series. </p>
<p>&#8220;If viewers fall in love with the show, they can purchase the entire series in advance via Bundle paygates. Once the funding threshold is reached — 250K subscribers — the first season will be produced, and delivered back to the fans who kicked in to support the project,&#8221; BitTorrent <a href="http://blog.bittorrent.com/2014/07/13/the-bittorrent-interview-marco-weber-on-children-of-the-machine/">announces</a>. </p>
<p>The filmmaker chose the crowdfunding format, which means that if the project is not funded the series will never see the light of day. This is a serious possibility as no artists have ever raised more than a few thousand dollars, even though many have tried. </p>
<p>The film producer is nevertheless confident that the the project will turn into a success. </p>
<p>&#8220;With over 170 million users, BitTorrent is a powerhouse. Add in paygates, and you have a fantastic tool to distribute content to a growing, influential youth audience,&#8221; Weber says. </p>
<p>The good news is that many of these millions of BitTorrent users are already familiar with downloading TV-shows, be it without permission. However, an often heard excuse for this deviant behavior is that it takes too long before an episode becomes available through legal channels, so whether these people will be patient enough to prepay a series months in advance will remain to be seen.</p>
<p>Both Weber and BitTorrent Inc. have to be applauded for giving it a try and it will be interesting to see the results.</p>
<p>BitTorrent isn&#8217;t the first to experiment with these new models though. The VODO platform has used a similar paywall system for quite some time, and together with The Pirate Bay and several other torrent sites they helped to crowdfund the TV-series <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/tag/pioneer-one/">Pioneer One</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91051
title: File-Sharing Doesn’t Hurt Box Office Revenue, Research Finds
uri: File-Sharing-Doesn-t-Hurt-Box-Office-Revenue-Research-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GyfpneTfN94/
content:
<p><a href="media/18079c53.piracy-progress.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-progress.jpg"><img src="media/4beea672.piracy-progress-300x196.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-progress-300x196.jpg" alt="piracy-progress" width="300" height="196" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-67328"></a>Research into online piracy comes in all shapes and sizes, often with equally mixed results. Often the main question is whether piracy is hurting sales.</p>
<p>A new study conducted by economist Koleman Strumpf is one of the most comprehensive on the subject so far. </p>
<p>Drawing on data from a popular BitTorrent tracker and revenue projections from the Hollywood Stock Exchange he researches how the release of a pirated movie affects expected box office income.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/233935885/Using-Markets-to-Measure-the-Impact-of-File-Sharing-on-Movie-Revenues-Koleman-Strumpf">research</a> covers 150 of the most popular films that were released over a period of seven years, and the findings reveal that the release of pirated films on file-sharing sites doesn&#8217;t directly hurt box office revenue.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no evidence in my empirical results of file-sharing having a significant impact on theatrical revenue,&#8221; Strumpf tells TorrentFreak in a comment. </p>
<p>&#8220;My best guess estimate is that file sharing reduced the first month box office by $200 million over 2003-2009, which is only three tenths of a percent of what movies actually earned. I am unable to reject the hypothesis that there is no impact at all of file-sharing on revenues.&#8221;</p>
<p>So while there is a small negative effect, this is limited to three tenth of a percent and not statistically significant. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the data also reveals that movie leaks shortly before the premiere have a small positive impact on expected revenues. This suggests that file-sharing may serve as a form of promotion.</p>
<p>&#8220;One consistent result is that file-sharing arrivals shortly before the theatrical opening have a modest positive effect on box office revenue. One explanation is that such releases create greater awareness of the film. This is also the period of heaviest advertising,&#8221; Strumpf notes.</p>
<p>One of the advantages of this study compared to previous research is that it measures the direct effect of a movie leak on projected box office revenues. Previous studies mostly compared early versus late leaks, which is less accurate and may be influenced by other factors. </p>
<p>&#8220;For example, suppose studios added extra security to big budget movies which then have a delayed arrival to file-sharing networks. Then even if file-sharing has no impact at all, one would find that delayed arrival on file-sharing leads to higher revenues,&#8221; Strumpf tells us.</p>
<p>Another upside of the research lies in the statistical precision. The data includes thousands of daily observations and relatively precise estimates, something lacking in most previous studies. </p>
<p>The downside, on the other hand, is that the expected box office impact is estimated from the Hollywood Stock Exchange. While this has shown to be a good predictor for actual revenues, it&#8217;s not a direct measurement. </p>
<p>In any case, the paper suggests that file-sharing might not be the biggest threat the movie industry is facing. </p>
<p>Even if the negative effects were twice as big as the data suggests, it would still be less than the $500 million Hollywood spent on the MPAA&#8217;s anti-piracy efforts during the same period.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91071
title: Google Processes Millions of Useless DMCA Notices
uri: Google-Processes-Millions-of-Useless-DMCA-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-GRKnPog3vs/
content:
<p><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" width="200" height="177" class="alignright">A major Internet anti-piracy strategy is to trawl the Internet for infringing content in order to send sites a DMCA-style notice. This, if all goes to plan, results in the content, or at the least a link to it, being removed from availability.</p>
<p>The world&#8217;s largest recipient of these notices is Google and in the interests of transparency the company publishes a report detailing the requests it receives. But while the majority of the requests are processed without further issue, increasing numbers serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever.</p>
<p>Last year alone, Google <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-discarded-21000000-takedown-requests-in-2013-131227/">discarded 21 million</a> takedown requests, either because the claims were invalid or were duplicates of previously sent notices.</p>
<p>In 2014 the duplication problem appears to be getting worse, with even the BPI (who in all fairness are more accurate than most with their takedowns) sending large volumes of notices that contain high percentages of links that have already been taken down.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/7abc5531.bpi-dup.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi-dup.jpg" alt="BPI-dup"></center></p>
<p>Across the Atlantic, Fox &#8211; which is the fifth all-time greatest sender of notices (28 million) &#8211; is also having difficulty remembering which URLs it has already asked to be erased. How Google can remember what takedowns Fox has already sent and why the studio cannot isn&#8217;t clear, but the high percentages in the refusal column suggests the numbers are significant.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/ebefadce.fox-dup.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fox-dup.jpg" alt="Fox-dup"></center></p>
<p>That being said, these numbers should be put into perspective. The BPI has asked Google to take down more than 86 million URLs and Fox 28 million, so even many tens of thousands of duplicates are a relatively low percentage of the total. However, there is a far more depressing trend that suggests that some anti-piracy companies don&#8217;t check to see if the links they&#8217;re complaining about are actually infringing copyright at all.</p>
<p>The image below shows a selection of notices sent to Google this month by NBC, with a percentage of each rejected by Google. The reason for that is that they&#8217;re directed at isoHunt.com, a site that was shut down by NBC&#8217;s Hollywood allies last year. The links and the site itself simply do not exist.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/ede9f163.iso-notice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iso-notice.jpg" alt="Iso-notice"></center></p>
<p>Another instance, shown below, lists several TV and movie companies plus software companies Adobe and Lynda looking to take down URLs from another allegedly infringing site. Except this one, Hotfile.com, is not only dead, but was actually taken down by the studios themselves. For reference, these notices were sent four days ago and Hotfile <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/hotfile-shuts-down-and-takes-user-files-with-it-131204/">closed down</a> last December.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/bd0a0436.hot-notice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hot-notice.jpg" alt="hot-notice"></center></p>
<p>To see how prevalent this problem is we dug through the TorrentFreak archives to find sites that have been closed by copyright holders or the police in the last couple of years, to see if anti-piracy companies have updated their records.</p>
<p>Despite huge publicity, even now plenty of companies are <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/megaupload.com/">wasting Google&#8217;s time</a> with notices for content hosted on Megaupload, even though it has been closed for two and a half years. Just last month on the Usenet front, publisher Lynda <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1019336">targeted</a> <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywoods-fact-forces-shutdown-of-nzbsrus-130627/">dead-since-last-year</a> NZBsRus.</p>
<p>Also living in the past are the people at Viacom, who this month sent a flurry of notices asking for content to be removed from BTjunkie, a site that <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/btjunkie-shuts-down-for-good-120206/">shut down</a> 30 months ago in the wake of the Megaupload fiasco. Viacom are definitely not on their own though, as <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/btjunkie.org/">this link shows</a>.</p>
<p>Finishing up, Warner Bros., whose UK-based anti-piracy group FACT shut down streaming site SurftheChannel in 2012 and helped to get its owner jailed, <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=249604">sent a notice</a> to Google in March asking for it to remove links to The Big Bang Theory.</p>
<p>And Fox (shown earlier to be sending lots of duplicates), plus HBO, Evil Angel, NBC and Viacom are apparently <a href="http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/filecrop.com/">still unaware</a> that the UK Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-shutdown-file-host-search-engine-filecrop-140524/">shut down Filecrop</a> back in May.</p>
<p>Why this activity continues is anyone&#8217;s guess, but these takedowns either aren&#8217;t subjected to scrutiny or are deliberately passed with the knowledge that they&#8217;re invalid. Both options are causing unnecessary workloads for those employed to process them and putting money in the pockets of anti-piracy companies in return for zero effectiveness.</p>
<p>Some might argue that&#8217;s nothing new.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91099
title: RIAA Copyright Pressure Silences Historical Radio Archive
uri: RIAA-Copyright-Pressure-Silences-Historical-Radio-Archive
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JfidN_JrT7g/
content:
<p>When sites like The Pirate Bay come under copyright holder pressure, there is often a big backlash from users who see such action as unfair. That being said, it&#8217;s generally accepted by both sides that The Pirate Bay courts trouble by, rightly or wrongly, laughing in the face of copyright law.</p>
<p>The situation now faced by <a href="http://reelradio.com/">ReelRadio</a>, a site dedicated to the streaming of archived historical radio, sits at the other end of the spectrum, but nevertheless the site is still facing potential dismantling by the RIAA.</p>
<p>In existence since 1996, ReelRadio still looks and feels like a site made in, well, 1996. Its classic feel is further outdated by the content it hosts, decades-old &#8216;aircheck&#8217; demo recordings which were often used to showcase radio announcers before being placed in the archives.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f004df31.reelradio.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/reelradio.jpg" alt="reelradio"></center></p>
<p>Aircheck recordings appear to be popular among nostalgia hunters who can pick a memorable year from their life or another historical moment  and become transported back in time. It&#8217;s a million miles away from what most people see as damaging piracy yet the RIAA is now applying the copyright thumbscrews to tax-exempt ReelRadio.</p>
<p>The problem is this. Airchecks are broadly split into two categories. &#8216;Unscoped&#8217; airchecks contain not only the DJ or announcer&#8217;s voice, but also the music played in between. Airchecks recorded for troops fighting in Vietnam, for example, contain music being played during that era. &#8216;Scoped&#8217; airchecks have the announcer&#8217;s voice intact but the music removed, leaving edited recordings that fail to flow.</p>
<p>ReelRadio streams both kind of recordings, or rather it did until the RIAA came knocking just over a week ago. Let&#8217;s be clear, ReelRadio does in fact have a license to play the music contained in its &#8216;unscoped&#8217; airchecks. However, after years of operating trouble-free, the RIAA now wants the site to operate strictly within the parameters of its statutory license.</p>
<p>&#8220;The RIAA has determined that our service fails to meet the requirements for &#8216;archived programs&#8217;, which must be at least five hours in duration and may not be made available for more than two weeks. The service must also display the Title, Artist and Album of each featured song, but only while the recording is being performed,&#8221; ReelRadio President Richard Irwin explains.</p>
<p>The problems faced by the site are immediate. Irwin says he carries no airchecks with a duration of five hours and obviously the site makes them available for more than two weeks. Also, their streaming method does not cater to the display of meta-data. Worse still, it appears the RIAA also wants ReelRadio to do the impossible.</p>
<p><a href="media/d33ff34a.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg"><img src="media/971b8479.riaa-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/riaa-logo.jpg" alt="riaa-logo" width="170" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-15326"></a>&#8220;The RIAA insists that we obtain permission from the copyright owners of these old radio broadcasts. Many broadcasters understand the difficulty of this requirement, since nearly all radio stations have changed ownership, format, and call letters, many times over,&#8221; Irwin explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Nevertheless, we are expected to provide the RIAA with an explanation of how we have permission from radio stations that no longer exist and copyright owners who have no interest in historic recordings of their property.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a result of the RIAA complaint, ReelRadio has been forced to remove more than 1,100 &#8216;unscoped&#8217; airchecks. Its &#8216;scoped&#8217; airchecks, which are not part of its license, remain available under &#8216;fair use&#8217; provisions.</p>
<p>The RIAA has given ReelRadio until August 8 to provide its response and holds the ability to close the site entirely by suspending its license. Whether it will choose to do so remains to be seen, but it&#8217;s clear that if it does there will be no gain whatsoever to the RIAA, but a really big loss to history.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would like to see the RIAA recognize the unique character of our historical archive,&#8221; Irwin told TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;The statutory law was written for online radio stations and automated playout systems.   It didn&#8217;t consider historical radio recordings.  The law is outdated and inadequate.   They don&#8217;t have to go any further, and they shouldn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
<p>Legally the RIAA appears to be on solid ground, but the court of public opinion on preserving nostalgia is likely to see things quite differently.</p>
<p>Those wanting to check out some unscoped airchecks <a href="http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=unscoped+radio+airchecks">can do so on YouTube</a>. They won&#8217;t be going anywhere soon, there&#8217;s little doubt about that, so check out the gem below featuring the world&#8217;s easiest phone-in competition followed by a piece of unbelievable advertising for Winston cigarettes (1m 30s). </p>
<p><center><iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/FxPtV2wCdIc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91120
title: Chrome Blocks uTorrent as Malicious and Harmful Software
uri: Chrome-Blocks-uTorrent-as-Malicious-and-Harmful-Software
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_d4W6yhWaVc/
content:
<p><a href="media/431e8dc6.maliciousutorr.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/maliciousutorr.png"><img src="media/2d045ce4.maliciousutorr.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/maliciousutorr.png" alt="maliciousutorr" width="306" height="49" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91122"></a>With millions of new downloads per month uTorrent is without a doubt the most used BitTorrent client around.</p>
<p>However, since this weekend the number of installs must have dropped quite a bit after Google Chrome began warning users away from the software. According to Chrome the BitTorrent client poses a serious risk.</p>
<p>&#8220;uTorrent.exe is malicious and Chrome has blocked it,&#8221; the browser informs those who attempt to download the latest stable release. </p>
<p>Chrome does give users the option to restore the file but not without another warning. The browser is convinced that the file is harmful and suggests that the uTorrent website may have been hacked.</p>
<p>&#8220;This file will harm your computer. Even if you have downloaded files from this website before, the website may have been hacked. Instead of recovering this file you can retry the download later.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Blocked</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/00a4c3e9.malic-blocked.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/malic-blocked.png"><img src="media/d8ab7358.malic-blocked.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/malic-blocked.png" alt="malic-blocked" width="848" height="341" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91121"></a></center></p>
<p>The first reports of Chrome&#8217;s block came in three days ago and at the time of writing the problems persist. The warnings appear for the <a href="http://www.utorrent.com/downloads/win">latest stable release</a> (3.4.2.32354) and no other releases appear to be affected.</p>
<p>Currently there is no indication why the software has been flagged, but a scan by more than 50 of the most popular anti-virus services reveals <a href="https://www.virustotal.com/en/file/f2dacd9ac118102a03cca67cff29a8e978b32222671b6143727cec4b98f9188f/analysis/1405504268/">no active threats</a>.  </p>
<p>Google&#8217;s safe browsing <a href="http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=utorrent.com">diagnostic page</a> claims that the uTorrent website was involved in malware distribution in recent months, but no further details on the nature of the supposed malware are provided. </p>
<p>&#8220;This site has hosted malicious software over the past 90 days. It infected 4 domain(s), including kioskea.net/, ziggi.uol.com.br/, majorgeeks.com/,&#8221; the diagnostics page reads. </p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t the first time that uTorrent has reported problems with Chrome. The same happened late last year when the malware blocking feature was still in beta. At the time uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. managed to resolve the issues after several days.</p>
<p>Thus far, none of the developers have responded to user <a href="http://forum.utorrent.com/topic/88607-34x-stable/page-26">complaints</a> in the uTorrent forums.</p>
<p><strong>Update</strong> We discovered that uTorrent occasionally serves other versions as well, these are not blocked. The vast majority of the downloads are still blocked though.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91150
title: Solarmovie Domain Gets Stolen by Mysterious Hacker
uri: Solarmovie-Domain-Gets-Stolen-by-Mysterious-Hacker
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oKo7IAZrspk/
content:
<p><img src="media/43cbfef5.solarmovie1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/solarmovie1.jpg" alt="solarmovie" width="208" height="89" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91151">With millions of visitors per week <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Official.Solarmovie.Fanclub">Solarmovie</a> is a thorn in the side of the major movie studios. The site indexes links to pirated copies of movies and TV-shows, which can be streamed directly through third party sites.  </p>
<p>Apart from the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-win-isp-blockade-against-solarmovie-and-tubeplus-131113/">ISP blockade in the UK</a>, Solarmovie hasn&#8217;t run into any significant trouble. However, that changed yesterday when the site&#8217;s owner found out that someone had stolen the Solarmovie.tl domain name. </p>
<p>An unknown &#8216;hacker&#8217; gained access to the name.com registrar where the domain was held and quickly transferred it to another registrar. How this could have happened is a mystery to Solarmovie admin Chris, who notes that they used a secure password.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have no idea how the registrar was accessed. The account had a 10 character long randomly generated password,&#8221; Chris informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;I wonder why the name.com registrar didn&#8217;t send a confirmation link to the account&#8217;s primary email when it was changed. Registrars shouldn&#8217;t allow changes to login details in such an easy way without triple checking against swindlers,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>The Solarmovie.tl domain was transferred to EuroDNS and the registrant name changed to Gabriel Vasilica of HAVARD THABO LLP. The stolen domain now redirects to Solarmovie.ag, which initially displayed a &#8220;coming soon&#8221; landing page, but is now hosting a copy of the Solarmovie website. </p>
<p>The &#8216;fake&#8217; Solarmovie has put up a notification informing visitors that the .AG domain is the site&#8217;s new home.</p>
<p><center><strong>The &#8220;fake&#8221; Solarmovie.ag</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/493c85ad.solarhijack.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/solarhijack.jpg" alt="solarhijack" width="749" height="402" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91153"></center></p>
<p>The &#8216;real&#8217; Solarmovie, meanwhile, has reverted back to its old <a href="http://solarmovie.so">Solarmovie.so</a> domain where it remains accessible as usual. They hope that the registrar can help them get the old domain back. Time will tell whether that&#8217;s possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;Currently we are talking to our registrar about possible measures we can take to have the domain returned. As for now, we revert back to solarmovie.so domain,&#8221; Chris says. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s unclear who&#8217;s behind the domain hijack there are several signs that it&#8217;s the same person who <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vodly-to-primewire-ag-letmewatchthis-1channel-is-a-streaming-fiasco-130815/">stole the 1Channel.ch domain</a>, which later became Vodly.to. For example, both vodly.to and solarmovie.ag use the same IDs for the Newrelic stats service.</p>
<p>Whoever&#8217;s behind the stolen domains and however they pulled it off, other streaming sites should be warned. </p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Solarmovie&#8217;s Twitter account was hijacked briefly as well, but has been restored an hour ago. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91142
title: ‘Pirate’ Site ISP Blockades Reversed By Court
uri: Pirate-Site-ISP-Blockades-Reversed-By-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/d1hiOBLZV_0/
content:
<p><img src="media/31a0f46d.spain-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spain-flag.jpg" width="200" height="133" class="alignright">In the eyes of the United States, Spain still needs to do more in the battle against unlawful file-sharing. The country has been making progress though, and in some instances has actually gone much further than any U.S. court would dare.</p>
<p>Following action by the MPAA-affiliated Anti-Piracy Federation (<a href="http://www.fap.org.es/">FAP</a>), in May 2014 a court in the city of Zaragoza ordered local ISPs including Vodafone, Movistar and Orange, to block several sites allegedly engaged in copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Within days, SpanishTracker, PCTorrent.com, NewPCT.com, PCTestrenos.com, Descargaya.es and TumejorTV.com were rendered inaccessible. The injunctions were not permanent, however, and could be appealed by the sites&#8217; operators.</p>
<p>As can be seen in the Alexa statistics shown below, direct traffic to NewPCT took a huge hit following the court order. However, the site quickly set up alternative domains and there were several reports in local media indicating that proxies and VPNs had quickly become popular with those looking to regain access to the site.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f126c137.newpct22.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/newpct22.png" alt="NewPCT"></center></p>
<p>But while the court order was cheered by rightsholders keen to see Spain dispel ideas that the country is a safe-haven for file-sharing sites, the celebrations were to be short-lived.</p>
<p>The site blocks, championed by both FAP and the police Computer Security Brigade, were this week lifted by a court in Zaragoza.</p>
<p>A judge sitting in Court of Instruction No.10 found that there “insufficient grounds&#8221; for maintaining the domain blockades to protect property rights, &#8220;especially when it is not absolutely necessary for the continuation of the investigation.&#8221;</p>
<p>El Mundo <a href="http://www.elmundo.es/tecnologia/2014/07/16/53c65dceca474155548b4588.html">reports</a> that when the case was being processed back in 2013, a court already found that &#8220;the facts alleged did not constitute a crime.&#8221; </p>
<p>The ISP blockades against the domains are expected to be lifted in the coming days, leaving local and international rightsholders to ponder whether changes in Spanish legislation due this year will help solve the piracy conundrum.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91044
title: Pirate Bay Traffic Doubles Despite ISP Blockades
uri: Pirate-Bay-Traffic-Doubles-Despite-ISP-Blockades
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/C3uKBT-BtZ8/
content:
<p><a href="media/850a0ead.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-67837" src="media/4e243e8b.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg" alt="tpb-logo" width="222" height="198"></a>The Pirate Bay is without doubt one of the most censored websites on the Internet. </p>
<p>Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers to block subscriber access to the torrent site and this list continues to expand.</p>
<p>Denmark was one of the first countries to block The Pirate Bay, but the biggest impact came in 2012 when major ISPs in the UK and the Netherlands were ordered to deny their users access to the site. </p>
<p>The entertainment industries have characterized these blockades as a major victory and claim they&#8217;re an efficient tool to deter piracy. The question that has thus far remained unanswered, however, is how Pirate Bay&#8217;s traffic numbers are being affected. Is the site on the verge of collapsing?</p>
<p>As it turns out, The Pirate Bay hasn&#8217;t stopped growing at all. On the contrary, The Pirate Bay informs TorrentFreak that visitor numbers have doubled since 2011. </p>
<p>The graph below shows the growth in unique visitors and pageviews over the past three years. The Pirate Bay chose not to share actual visitor numbers, but monthly pageviews are believed to run into the hundreds of millions.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pirate Bay traffic</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/7fae1560.tpbblockedtraffic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbblockedtraffic.jpg"><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-91045" src="media/7fae1560.tpbblockedtraffic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbblockedtraffic.jpg" alt="tpbblockedtraffic" width="881" height="155"></a></center></p>
<p>These numbers reveal that the torrent site is still doing quite well, but that doesn&#8217;t mean that the blockades are not working. After all, the additional traffic could simply come from other countries. </p>
<p>A better indication for the effectiveness of the blockades are the number of visitors that access the site through proxies. The Pirate Bay told TorrentFreak that roughly 9% of all visitors use proxies. This percentage doesn&#8217;t include sites that cache pages. </p>
<p>In other words, a significant percentage of users who don&#8217;t have direct access to the site are bypassing court-ordered blockades though proxies. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the United States is by far the biggest traffic source for the notorious torrent site. This is somewhat ironic, as American record labels and movie studios are the driving force behind the blockades in other countries. </p>
<p>All in all it is safe to conclude that censorship is not the silver bullet to stop The Pirate Bay. While it certainly has some impact, there are still millions of people who simply route around the blockades and continue downloading as usual.</p>
<p style="text-align: right;"><a href="media/f5457042.FileWikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_23.jpg" data-original-source="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Servers-8055_23.jpg"><sup>Photo</sup></a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91186
title: 9% of French Internet Subscribers Accused of Piracy
uri: 9-of-French-Internet-Subscribers-Accused-of-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hXKiU3gCKVs/
content:
<p><a href="media/2b4df99e.warning.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/warning.jpg"><img src="media/b10c22f8.warning.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/warning.jpg" alt="warning" width="150" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-8335"></a>France was one of the first countries in the world to consider implementing a &#8220;three strikes&#8221; style regime for dealing with online piracy. The system was implemented four years ago and ever since has been under scrutiny as both rightsholders and critics assess its efficacy.</p>
<p>Hadopi, the authority responsible for administering the scheme, has just published its latest report presenting its key figures to July 1 this year and they make interesting reading.</p>
<p>The cornerstone of the scheme is the warning system, with great importance attached to the first notices sent to subscribers. If the anti-infringement message can be successfully delivered at this stage, fewer follow-ups will be required.</p>
<p>Hadopi reveals that since it sent the very first warning notice in 2009, the agency has gone on to send 3,249,481 first warnings to Internet subscribers. It&#8217;s a sizable amount that represents almost 9% of all Internet users in France.</p>
<p>The big question, however, is how many took action to avoid receiving a second warning. According to Hadopi, during the same period it sent 333,723 second phase warnings by regular mail, a re-offending rate of just over 10%.</p>
<p>Those who receive first and second warnings but still don&#8217;t get the message go on to receive a third notice. Hadopi says that a total of 1,502 Internet subscribers received three warnings, just 0.45% of those who were sent a second.</p>
<p>The agency&#8217;s figures state that a large proportion of this group, 1,289 overall, had their cases examined by Hadopi&#8217;s committee. Of these, 116 cases went before a judge. Most received yet another warning.</p>
<p>Also of interest are the reactions of 31,379 subscribers who telephoned Hadopi after receiving an infringement notice.</p>
<p>According to the agency, 35% &#8220;spontaneously agreed&#8221; the accuracy of the facts set out in their warnings, with around 25% engaging or offering to take measures to avoid content being made available from their connections in the future. Reportedly less than 1% challenged the facts as laid out.</p>
<p>On the education front, over the past six months around 72,000 users have accessed an information video on the Hadopi website, while 49,000 sought information on what to do after receiving a warning.</p>
<p>The figures presented by Hadopi <em><a href="media/10c40805.20140716_Point_presse_CPD_Vdef3_0.pdf" data-original-source="http://hadopi.fr/sites/default/files/page/pdf/20140716_Point_presse_CPD_Vdef3_0.pdf">French, (pdf)</a></em> clearly show a low re-offending rate, with an impressive gap between those receiving first and second warnings. Hadopi sees this as an indicator of the system&#8217;s success, although there is always the possibility that subscribers wised-up on security and safer methods of downloading after getting the first notice.</p>
<p>That being said, the agency counters this notion by citing figures from a small poll carried out among letter recipients which found that 73% of those who received a warning did not subsequently shift to another method of illegal downloading. However, that doesn&#8217;t mean they all jumped on the iTunes bandwagon either.</p>
<p>&#8220;Receiving a warning does not result in a massive shift towards legal offers,&#8221; Hadopi explains.</p>
<p>Overall, 23% of respondents who received a warning said they went on to use a legal service. That suggests that three quarters simply dropped off the media consumption radar altogether, which doesn&#8217;t sound like a realistic proposition.</p>
<p>Next year will see half a decade of graduated response in France. Will media sales have gone through the roof as a result? Time will tell, but it seems highly unlikely.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91180
title: Anti-Piracy Firm Wants to Fine Aussie and Canadian File-Sharers
uri: Anti-Piracy-Firm-Wants-to-Fine-Aussie-and-Canadian-File-Sharers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lVoxRTOa1PM/
content:
<p><a href="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg"><img src="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717"></a>For more than a decade copyright holders have been monitoring pirated downloads of their work on various file-sharing networks. </p>
<p>Traditionally these efforts have focused on the United States where ISPs are required to forward takedown notices to their account holders.</p>
<p>A recent trend has seen these notices become more than mere warnings. Companies such as <a href="http://www.cegtek.com/">CEG TEK</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/rightscorp/">Rightscorp</a> also tag on settlement requests, hoping to recoup some of the damages allegedly caused by file-sharers. </p>
<p>Since these requests are sent as DMCA notices, copyright holders do not have to involve the courts. Nonetheless, the &#8216;fines&#8217; can be as high as several hundred dollars per shared file. Thus far these &#8220;automated fines&#8221; have been limited to the United States, but soon they will expand to Japan, with Australia and Canada next on the list.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with CEG TEK&#8217;s Kyle Reed who confirmed that they will soon start their piracy monetization service in Japan. At the same time the company will run various tests to see how Aussie and Canadian Internet providers respond to their notices. </p>
<p>&#8220;Increased coverage for our monetization clients in additional countries has always been top of mind. We have a base of international clients, some of which call these countries home,&#8221; Reed tells TorrentFreak </p>
<p>&#8220;Canada and Australia are both hot topics with rights owners and the market conditions afford us the opportunity to initiate ISP compliance testing,&#8221; Reed adds. </p>
<p>If the notice forwarding goes well with the ISPs, and there are decent response rates, the company will also begin sending out settlement requests in Australia and Canada. </p>
<p>Internet providers have to be tested in advance, because the settlement scheme fails if ISPs ignore or modify the notices. For example, in the U.S. many of the larger ISPs forward the notice <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/comcast-kills-business-model-of-piracy-monitoring-and-settlement-firm-131206/">without the actual settlement offer</a>.</p>
<p>CEG TEK is not the only piracy monetization service to consider international expansion. Previously Rightscorp <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-movie-music-pirates-to-be-fined-without-court-orders-140311/">announced</a> that it was interested in offering its services in Canada. </p>
<p>Whether Internet providers in Australia and Canada are willing to cooperate has yet to be seen. In Canada there is currently no legal obligation for ISPs to cooperate, although this will <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-movie-music-pirates-to-be-fined-without-court-orders-140311/">change soon</a>. Australia has a notice and takedown policy but this doesn&#8217;t require ISPs to forward the settlement requests.</p>
<p>According to CEG TEK their settlement services are superior to traditional anti-piracy warnings since they stop more unauthorized transfers while making money in the process.</p>
<p>“In the United States and around the world, traditional peer-to-peer anti-piracy methods have proved to be largely ineffective. We have the only peer-to-peer solution shown to decrease infringements and repeat offenders, as well as return monetary settlements to rightful copyright owners,” Reed says.</p>
<p>The irony is of course that these companies will render themselves obsolete if they become too effective, but for now there are still plenty of pirates around. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91244
title: Dotcom’s MEGA Blocked in Italy Over Piracy Concerns
uri: Dotcom-s-MEGA-Blocked-in-Italy-Over-Piracy-Concerns
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S03V6mggjrg/
content:
<p><a href="media/d25b3e9b.mega4.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mega4.png"><img src="media/859efa71.mega4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mega4.png" alt="mega" width="240" height="85" class="alignright size-full wp-image-87644"></a> Italian authorities and the local entertainment industry are continuing their war on piracy with yet another round of broad website blockades.</p>
<p>This week Court of Rome Judge Constantino De Robbio ordered all local Internet providers to restrict access to 24 websites including Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Mega.co.nz. The list further includes several other cloud storage sites such as Firedrive (formerly known as Putlocker) and even Russia&#8217;s largest email provider Mail.ru.</p>
<p>The broad anti-piracy measures were requested by a small independent Italian movie distributor Eyemoon Pictures. The company complained that the sites in question distributed two films, &#8220;The Congress&#8221; and &#8220;Fruitvale Station,&#8221; before they were released in Italian cinemas.  </p>
<p>It appears that the injunction was issued without a very careful investigation of the true nature of the sites. Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Mega.co.nz is known to be very responsive to takedown notices, and the targeting of Russia&#8217;s largest email providers is even more baffling. </p>
<p>In a comment Mega CEO Stephen Hall tells TorrentFreak that Mega views the blockade as disproportionate and illegal. The company operates an EU and  DMCA compliant takedown process which allows copyright holder to remove infringing files swiftly.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that the blockade adopted by the Italian Prosecutor is illegal. The blocking order was placed on the basis of a complaint by a small distributor for two films and the effect of the total block is obviously disproportionate,&#8221; Hall says.</p>
<p>Hall further points out that the measures are easily circumvented by using Google DNS or any other non-ISP DNS provider. However, the company hopes that it can have the blockade reversed via soon-to-be-filed appeal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega is taking steps to ensure that our Italian customers regain access to their files without first having to fiddle with their nameserver settings by filing an appeal next week,&#8221; Hall adds.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted <a href="http://www.fulviosarzana.it/en/fulvio-sarzana/">Fulvio Sarzana</a>, a lawyer specialized in Internet and copyright disputes, who told us that the scope of the preliminary injunction is rather broad. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is the second-largest website blocking order in Italy, but certainly the most important one considering the names involved,&#8221; Sarzana says. </p>
<p>The lawyer is opposed to the measures and welcomes site owners who want to appeal the blockades.</p>
<p>&#8220;I see website blocking through DNS and IP-address as a form of censorship. The block can not distinguish between licit and illicit files. It&#8217;s like using a bomb broad-spectrum to hit only one person, the collateral damage is very obvious,&#8221; Sarzana notes.</p>
<p>The sites affected in today&#8217;s actions have an option to appeal the Court&#8217;s decision, which has been done before <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-isps-to-unblock-pirate-site-140403/">with success</a>. </p>
<p>Earlier this year Rome&#8217;s Court of Appeals recalled a blocking order against the video streaming site Filmakerz.org, arguing that it was too broad. In its order the Court specified that partial blocking of a specific URL is preferred over site-wide bans, and that copyright-infringing sites must have a for-profit angle.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>The <a href="http://censura.bofh.it/elenchi.html">full list</a> of blocked domain names is as follows:</p>
<p><em>cineblog01.net, cineblog01.tv, ddlstorage.com, divxstage.eu, easybytez.com, filminstreaming.eu, filmstream.info, firedrive.com, mail.ru, mega.co.nz, movshare.sx, nowdownload.ag, nowdownload.sx, nowvideo.sx, piratestreaming.net, primeshare.tv, putlocker.com, rapidvideo.tv, sockshare.com, uploadable.ch, uploadinc.com, video.tt	, videopremium.me and youwatch.org</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91265
title: UK ISPs and Copyright Holders Praise New Piracy Warning System
uri: UK-ISPs-and-Copyright-Holders-Praise-New-Piracy-Warning-System
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JGU-mVJrIeg/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>In an effort to curb online piracy, earlier this year the movie and music industries <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/uk-isps-agree-to-send-out-music-movie-piracy-warnings-140509/">reached agreement</a> with the UK&#8217;s leading ISPs to send warnings to alleged copyright infringers.</p>
<p>As we previously revealed, the Voluntary Copyright Alert Programme (VCAP) will <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">only apply to P2P file-sharing</a> and will mainly focus on repeat infringers.  </p>
<p>The monitoring will be carried out by a third-party company and unlike other warning systems there <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">won&#8217;t be any punishments</a>. The main purpose of the warnings is to alert and educate copyright infringers, in the hope they will move over to legal alternatives.</p>
<p>The program was <a href="http://www.bpi.co.uk/home/uk-creative-industries-and-isps-partner-in-major-new-initiative-to-promote-legal-online-entertainment.aspx">officially announced</a> today and received support from all parties involved, including the UK Government which is financially backing the measures. Without exception they all praise the warning system and the accompanying educational campaign.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is fantastic that the UK creative community and ISPs have come together in partnership to address online copyright infringement and raise awareness about the multitude of legitimate online services available to consumers. We are also grateful to the UK Government for backing this important new initiative,&#8221; the MPA&#8217;s Chris Marcich comments.</p>
<p>Thus far BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media have agreed to send warnings to customers whose connections are being used for unauthorized file-sharing. Commenting on the collaboration, all four ISPs praised the educational nature of the VCAP program. </p>
<p>&#8220;BT is committed to supporting the creative industries by helping to tackle the problem of online piracy while ensuring the best possible experience for its customers. That’s why we’ve worked very hard with rights-holders and other leading ISPs to develop a voluntary programme based on consumer education and awareness which promotes the use of legal online content.” BT Consumer CEO John Petter says.</p>
<p>Lyssa McGowan, Director of Sky Broadband, is equally delighted by the anti-piracy agreement. </p>
<p> “As both a content creator and ISP, we understand how vital it is to tackle online copyright infringement in order to protect future investment in content. As a result, we’re pleased [...] to help make consumers aware of illegal downloading and point them towards the wide range of legitimate sites where they can enjoy great content,&#8221; she notes.  </p>
<p>The comments from the other ISPs, copyright holder groups, and the Government, are all variations on the same theme. The parties praise the new awareness campaign and note that the main goal is to convert consumers to legal alternatives through education.</p>
<p>The question that remains, however, is how genuine all this positivity really is. </p>
<p>While the scheme is being overwhelmed with praise, the parties also announced that the first warning emails will not be sent out before next summer, possibly even later. These delays are a thorn in the side of both copyright holders and the Government, suggesting that negotiations behind the scenes are less uplifting.  </p>
<p>This also shows in earlier comments from the Prime Minister&#8217;s IP advisor Mike Weatherly who said that it&#8217;s already time to think about VCAP’s potential failure. He suggested that the program needs to be followed by something more enforceable, including <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/failed-piracy-letters-should-escalate-to-fines-jail-mp-says-140626/">disconnections, fines and jail sentences</a>.</p>
<p>More background and details on the planned piracy warning are available in our previous <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">VCAP overview</a> article. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91234
title: RIAA Now Bullying Fully Licensed, Zero Revenue Music Site
uri: RIAA-Now-Bullying-Fully-Licensed-Zero-Revenue-Music-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-_McnHWXnR8/
content:
<p><a href="media/32094211.tapes.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tapes.jpg"><img src="media/32094211.tapes.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tapes.jpg" alt="tapes" width="222" height="178" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91262"></a>Last Wednesday we reported a particularly miserable situation between the RIAA and a near 20-year-old radio fansite.</p>
<p>Around since 1996, ReelRadio is a service dedicated to streaming historical radio shows, specifically decades-old ‘aircheck’ demo recordings which were often used to showcase radio announcers before being placed in the archives.</p>
<p>ReelRadio isn&#8217;t some &#8216;rogue&#8217; site determined to avoid paying artists. The site does its bit by paying a proper license, but last week the RIAA decided that it needed to more strictly enforce its terms. Trouble is, those terms <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/riaa-copyright-pressure-silences-historical-radio-archive-140716/">are so restrictive</a> that not only will the site have to drastically reduce its user experience in order to comply, in some instances it may actually prove impossible to meet the terms.</p>
<p>Sadly, TorrentFreak has discovered that ReelRadio isn&#8217;t on its own. The RIAA has also been contacting other sites with demands for compliance. On July 11, PatesTapes.com, a site dedicated to vinyl-to-tape-to-digital mixtape archives <a href="http://www.friendswithbotharms.com/2011/03/14/fwba-interviews-charles-pates-of-patestapes/">created by Charles Pates</a>, also received a letter from the industry group.</p>
<p>&#8220;The demands are almost exactly the same as what ReelRadio is reporting &#8211; remove &#8216;archived recordings&#8217; after two weeks and &#8216;archive recordings&#8217; must be longer than five hours. In our case, saying what is in the recording before it plays is a no-no,&#8221; PatesTapes&#8217; Dennis Wallace informs TF.</p>
<p>What makes the RIAA&#8217;s pressure even more unpalatable is the entirely not-for-profit nature of PatesTapes. In fact, the site deliberately generates absolutely no revenue whatsoever yet chooses to pay ASCAP, BMI and SoundExchange a total of $5,000 in licensing fees to keep things above board.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a total labor of love,&#8221; Wallace told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;[The site] has a small but passionate following (a steady 200 listeners per day over several years), and the typical listener would put on a tape and let it auto-play from tape to tape within the same category over the course of the next several hours,&#8221; Wallace explains.</p>
<p>Now, however, the future of the site is in the balance. Earlier this week it seemed almost certain that PatesTapes would be closing down but now the team is taking time out to assess their position.</p>
<p>&#8220;We had a meeting and we&#8217;ll be trying to revive the site rather than shutting down.  We&#8217;re moving from a &#8216;pick your tape&#8217; model to more of a &#8216;pick you stream&#8217; model, based on a longer set list.  We are going to be running this past legal minds so we can be more sure about any subsequent challenge,&#8221; Wallace adds.</p>
<p>Characteristically for the RIAA, the letter sent to both PatesTapes and ReelRadio concludes with a threat.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we do not hear from you by August 22, 2014, we will assume that you do not intend to remedy the violations and will take whatever measures we feel are necessary,&#8221; the RIAA warns.</p>
<p>At this point it&#8217;s worth noting the contrast between the RIAA&#8217;s dealings with the world&#8217;s biggest file-sharing sites and the hobbyist services highlighted above. The former pay not a cent in licensing fees and yet carry on unhindered, business as usual, millions of copyrighted items available. The latter, who are paying thousands of dollars in licenses, for little to nothing in return, just to have fun, are having their existences threatened.</p>
<p>It appears that being small and being honest is not only interpreted as a weakness, but also as an opportunity to pull in even more revenue. The question is, however, how many sites like these will simply close down and take their money with them.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91204
title: BPI Rejects Use of Spotify-Owned “Stay Down” Pirate Tool
uri: BPI-Rejects-Use-of-Spotify-Owned-Stay-Down-Pirate-Tool
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BMO5pBsnSB4/
content:
<p><img src="media/36b6222f.4shared_logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/4shared_logo.jpg" width="206" height="69" class="alignright">There are hundreds of millions of pirate files inhabiting the Internet and it&#8217;s fair to say that many of those are music tracks. As a result, the world&#8217;s leading record labels, who together claim 90%+ of the market, spend significant sums making those files more awkward to find.</p>
<p>For sites like The Pirate Bay, which point-blank refuses to remove any torrents whatsoever, the labels have little option than to head off to Google. There the search giant will remove Pirate Bay links from its indexes so that users won&#8217;t immediately find them.</p>
<p>However, rather than engaging a link whack-a-mole, the best solution by far is to remove the content itself. Perhaps surprisingly, many of the world&#8217;s leading file-lockers (even ones labeled &#8216;rogue&#8217; by the United States), allow copyright holders direct back-end access to their systems so they can remove content themselves. It doesn&#8217;t really get any fairer than that, and here&#8217;s the issue.</p>
<p>This week, while looking at Google&#8217;s Transparency Report, TF noticed that during the past month massive file-hosting site 4shared became the record labels&#8217; public enemy number one. In just four weeks, Google received 953,065 requests for 4shared links to be taken down, the majority of them from record labels. In fact, according to Google the BPI has complained about 4shared a mind-boggling 6.75 million times overall.</p>
<p>So, is 4shared refusing to cooperate with the BPI, hence the group&#8217;s endless complaints to Google? That conclusion might make sense but apparently it&#8217;s not the case. In fact, it appears that 4shared operates a removal system that is particularly friendly to music companies, one that not only allows them to take content down, but also keep it down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Throughout the years 4shared developed several tools for copyright owners to protect their content and established a special team that reacts to copyright claims in timely manner,&#8221; 4shared informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t completely understand BPI&#8217;s reasons for sending claims to Google instead of using our tools. From our point of view the best and most effective way for copyright holders to find and remove links to the content they own is to use our music identification system.&#8221;</p>
<p>To find out more, TF spoke with the BPI. We asked them to comment on 4shared&#8217;s takedown tools and in the light of their existence why they choose to target Google instead. After a few friendly back-and-forth emails, the group declined to comment on the specific case.</p>
<p>&#8220;We prefer to comment on our overall approach on search rather than on individual sites, which is to focus on known sources of wide scale piracy and to use a number of tools to tackle this problem,&#8221; a BPI spokesman explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;Notice-sending represents just one part of the measures available to us, along with site blocking and working with the Police to reducing advertising on copyright infringing sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>We asked 4shared to reveal other copyright holders using their system, but the site declined on privacy grounds. However, it&#8217;s clear that the BPI isn&#8217;t a user and 4shared have their own ideas why that might be.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s possible that BPI goes for quantity not quality,&#8221; TF was told.</p>
<p>&#8220;If they are trying to increase the number of links in reports or for PR reasons, they probably use a bot to harvest and send links to Google despite the fact that such an approach may also result in false claims.&#8221;</p>
<p>The &#8220;PR&#8221; angle is an interesting one. Ever since Google began publishing its Transparency Report rightsholders have used it to demonstrate how bad the piracy problem is. Boosting those numbers certainly helps the cause.</p>
<p>But is it possible, perhaps, that the BPI doesn&#8217;t trust the 4shared system. They didn&#8217;t answer our questions on that front either but it seems unlikely since <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/4shared-uses-unique-fingerprinting-tech-to-scan-for-pirated-files-130816/">4shared uses EchoPrint</a>, a solution <a href="http://press.spotify.com/us/2014/03/06/spotify-acquires-the-echo-nest/">purchased by Spotify </a>earlier this year.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our music identification system which is based on Echoprint technology will not only find all matching content but will also restrict sharing of all potential future uploads of such content,&#8221; 4shared concludes.</p>
<p>Take-down-and-stay-down is the Holy Grail for anti-piracy companies. It&#8217;s a solution being pushed for in the United States in the face of what rightsholders say is a broken DMCA. On that basis there must be a good reason for the BPI not wanting to work with 4shared and it has to be said that the company&#8217;s &#8220;PR&#8221; theory proves more attractive than most.</p>
<p>The volume of notices in Google&#8217;s Transparency Report provide believable evidence of large-scale infringement and it&#8217;s certainly possible that the BPI would prefer to have 4shared blocked in the UK than work with the site&#8217;s takedown tools.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll find out the truth in the months to come.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91286
title: Another Argument Against The “Artist Must Get Paid” Nonsense
uri: Another-Argument-Against-The-Artist-Must-Get-Paid-Nonsense
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GOc_lm-VxK8/
content:
<p><a href="media/b997f7ba.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg"><img src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="copyright-branded" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"></a>When I was travelling recently, an interesting point came up. A colleague of mine didn&#8217;t mind buying copies of culture (games, movies, etc.), but always bought them second-hand &#8211; specifically so the copyright industry shouldn&#8217;t get any money.</p>
<p>I realized immediately that this point torpedoes the most common fallacy against culture-sharing completely: that of the artist having some sort of &#8220;right to money&#8221; when you enjoy work that they once created. There are many ways to show that as a complete fallacy, some more convoluted than others (planned economy, libraries, market value, street musicians&#8230;) but I realized this is one of the most straightforward yet.</p>
<p>Nobody, especially not technophobic dinosaurs, object to second-hand book and record shops. And yet, when somebody buys there, the author or musician doesn&#8217;t get a cent &#8211; and we think that&#8217;s completely in order, just as completely without question.</p>
<p>When this sinks in, you realize that it was never about the money at all in the first place. It was merely about what the self-appointed cultural elite saw as their territory and their habits, where they can allow others to tread or deny them the privilege. Second-hand shops have always been a central part of a cultural rich life. The Internet is something completely new (well, perhaps not anymore) that denies the old elite the privilege of having their established ways remain the norm.</p>
<p>And yet, there it is in black and white. There is no connection at all between &#8220;you enjoying a fine work&#8221; and &#8220;the artist getting paid&#8221;. None whatsoever. When you&#8217;re buying something at a second-hand store and enjoying it, the original writer doesn&#8217;t get a cent, and everybody thinks that&#8217;s okay. (Even if a few people in the copyright industry are trying to outlaw second-hand sales, they&#8217;re not being very successful at it.)</p>
<p>So try this conversation the next time a self-appointed Guardian Of The Ways criticizes the good art of sharing culture and knowledge:</p>
<p>- You shouldn&#8217;t enjoy somebody&#8217;s work without paying them for it.</p>
<p>- That&#8217;s nonsense. Second-hand bookstores and record stores are the backbone of a rich culture, and people are enjoying fine works there without the artist getting a cent.</p>
<p>- But, but, the artist got money when somebody originally bought it!</p>
<p>- Yes, maybe so, but that&#8217;s not what you said. You said that somebody must pay the artist to have a right to enjoy their work. That&#8217;s clearly not true.</p>
<p>At that point, the argument is derailed, and they will probably talk about how the Interwebs should be outlawed instead. Try it, it&#8217;s fun!</p>
<p><center>
<div class="alignfull" style="border:2px solid #3F3F3F;width:100%;padding:15px;padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:4px;margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:10px;border-radius:10px">
<h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<div style="float:right;height:130px;width:39px;margin-left:20px;margin-right:10px"><img src="media/98818a80.Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" data-original-source="http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/themes/WpNewspaper/images/falkvinge/Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" style="border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none" class="quimby_search_image"></div>
<p><span style="color:#3F3F3F;font-size:125%">About The</span> <span style="color:#FF3C78;font-size:125%">Author</span></p>
</h3>
<p style="font-family:PTSansRegular,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-weight:400;line-height:150%;margin-bottom:14px"><small>Rick Falkvinge is a regular columnist on TorrentFreak, sharing his thoughts every other week. He is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, a whisky aficionado, and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. His blog at <a href="http://falkvinge.net">falkvinge.net</a> focuses on information policy.</small></p>
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<p><small>Book Falkvinge <a href="http://falkvinge.net/keynotes/">as speaker</a>?</small></p>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91291
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 07/21/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-07-21-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OmsGFeGxVWg/
content:
<p><a href="media/009ee391.Need-for-Speed.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Need-for-Speed.jpg"><img src="media/009ee391.Need-for-Speed.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Need-for-Speed.jpg" alt="Need-for-Speed" width="300" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91295"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Need For Speed is the most downloaded movie this week.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140714/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/need_for_speed/">Need For Speed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369135/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrJWUVoXeM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_woman_2014/">The Other Woman</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203939/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transcendence_2014/">Transcendence</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/?">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTen3-B8GU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/noah_2014/">Noah</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_age_of_extinction/">Transformers: Age of Extinction</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2109248/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkIPIkPPbdo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brick_mansions/">Brick Mansions</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430612/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CzcsN4k9FM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sabotage_2012/">Sabotage</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1742334/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDArXZgrsE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_amazing_spider_man_2/">The Amazing Spider-Man 2</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872181/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbp3Ra3Yp74">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rio_2/">Rio 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2357291/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkZM1Zc0mBU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/x_men_days_of_future_past/">X-Men: Days of Future Past</a> (HDCAM)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1877832/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsjtg7m1MMM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91307
title: Mail.ru Blasts Italy For Site Blocking Without Transparency
uri: Mail-ru-Blasts-Italy-For-Site-Blocking-Without-Transparency
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/t5aGhvZ4eAY/
content:
<p><a href="media/5ceed422.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg"><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076"></a>Every few weeks fresh sites are blocked in Italy on copyright grounds, following either court proceedings or hearings as part of the new <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=agcom">AGCOM mechanism</a>.</p>
<p>Many of the big &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites &#8211; The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, for example &#8211; have been blocked for years but now the country seems intent on blacking out sites that are definitely not in the piracy business.</p>
<p>As <a href=" http://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-mega-blocked-italy-piracy-concerns-140719/">reported</a> here on Saturday, last week a judge sitting in the Court of Rome ordered local ISPs to block a total of 24 websites including Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Mega.co.nz and Russia&#8217;s largest email provider, Mail.ru.</p>
<p>The size and importance of Mail.ru in its home country and further afield is noteworthy. It&#8217;s the fifth most-visited domain in Russia behind only Yandex, Google and social networking giant vKontakte, of which it <a href="http://corp.mail.ru/en/press/releases/9069/">owns 51.99%</a>. It&#8217;s the 39th busiest site worldwide according to Alexa, servicing in excess of 27 million users per day.</p>
<p>In a statement this morning Mail.ru said it has still not been able to establish the specifics that lead to it being blocked in Italy. Eyemoon Pictures, the complainant in the case, made no attempt to discuss any issues with Mail.ru before heading off to court, the email giant said.</p>
<p>&#8220;[Eyemoon Pictures] made no attempt to resolve the situation pretrial,&#8221; the company said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;No notification of illegal content or requirements to remove copies of [Eyemoon's] films has been addressed to Mail.Ru Group from law enforcement agencies and Italy.&#8221;</p>
<p>The company only realized there was a problem when users began complaining of accessibility issues on July 17.</p>
<p>&#8220;We learned of the court&#8217;s decision from our users, as well as publications in the public domain,&#8221; Mail.ru added.</p>
<p>Criticizing the effects of the blockade on its userbase, this morning Mail.ru hit out at Italy for taking action without due consideration.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that this situation is detrimental to the interests of our users, and clearly illustrates the fact that some national laws in this area does not consider the specifics of the Internet companies and do not provide a clear, transparent process for resolving such conflicts,&#8221; the company said.</p>
<p>&#8220;There needs to be an active dialogue on the development of international pre-trial procedures for resolving disputes between copyright holders and Internet service providers. Their introduction will improve the position of all parties, including users worldwide,&#8221; Mail.ru concludes.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, Mail.ru is still inaccessible in Italy with the company having made no progress towards having the censorship lifted.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91301
title: Google Targets ‘Pirate’ Searches to Promote Legal Content
uri: Google-Targets-Pirate-Searches-to-Promote-Legal-Content
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8I2D2aV9zuc/
content:
<p><a href="media/10864206.googlepiratead1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratead1.jpg"><img src="media/10864206.googlepiratead1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/googlepiratead1.jpg" alt="googlepiratead" width="300" height="237" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91304"></a>Over the past few years the entertainment industries have repeatedly asked Google to step up its anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>One of the most often heard complaints is that pirated content sometimes ranks better than legal alternatives. Copyright holders want Google to remedy this situation by promoting legal content through higher placement in search results.</p>
<p>&#8220;Search engines should address the distortive search practices that result in listings and rankings that favor substantially infringing sites,&#8221; the MPAA complained earlier. </p>
<p>While it seemed that Google had rejected the boosting of legal offerings in results, it appears that the company is now taking measures to address copyright holder concerns.</p>
<p>Google has quietly rolled out an update that places banner ads for Google Play and other content platforms above the regular search results if people search for piracy related terms. The banners in question show up on searches for a title of a movie or TV-show in combination with keywords such as &#8220;torrent,&#8221; &#8220;BitTorrent,&#8221; or &#8220;DVDrip.&#8221;</p>
<p>As shown below, the first organic result is still a &#8220;pirate&#8221; site, but the legal options are now clearly visible through the inserted banner.</p>
<p><center><strong>&#8220;Breaking Bad Torrent&#8221;</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/62d1083a.breakingtorrent.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/breakingtorrent.png"><img src="media/62d1083a.breakingtorrent.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/breakingtorrent.png" alt="breakingtorrent" width="655" height="407" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91327"></a></center></p>
<p>Initially these new ads were displayed in most of the US and UK. The availability was limited after TorrentFreak reached out to Google before the weekend, but they are still visible to us from a California IP-address. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s unknown how Google picks the keywords but the banner is also shown when searching for the video format &#8220;avi&#8221; and even &#8220;putlocker,&#8221; a popular file-hosting service.</p>
<p>The ads do not appear when searching for the movie or TV-show titles alone. They are specifically triggered by the extra &#8216;piracy&#8217; keyword. For example, the banner shows up when searching for &#8220;Noah DVDrip&#8221; but not for &#8220;Noah DVD,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="media/428a24f8.noahrent.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noahrent.png">Noah rent</a>&#8220;, &#8220;Noah buy&#8221; or Noah paired with a random word.</p>
<p><center><strong>Noah DVDrip</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/f015baf6.noahdvdrip1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noahdvdrip1.png"><img src="media/f015baf6.noahdvdrip1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noahdvdrip1.png" alt="noahdvdrip1" width="655" height="407" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91328"></a></center></p>
<p>In addition to piracy related keywords the ads also appear for more generic searches where pirate sites traditionally rank very high. These include words such as &#8220;download,&#8221; &#8220;watch,&#8221; &#8220;online&#8221; and &#8220;view&#8221; which often have unauthorized sites in the top results. </p>
<p>The &#8220;Noah watch&#8221; search below is a good example where a banner is placed above the first result, which in this case links to infringing material.</p>
<p><center><strong>Noah Watch</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c0636915.noahwatch.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noahwatch.png"><img src="media/c0636915.noahwatch.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/noahwatch.png" alt="noahwatch" width="655" height="384" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91323"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted Google but the company couldn&#8217;t say why the ads are displayed for these piracy related keywords. A spokesman did confirm that the ads appear for &#8220;various searches&#8221; and that they are the same format as the <a href="http://searchengineland.com/google-testing-ads-knowledge-graph-panels-184584">Knowledge Graph ads</a> that were rolled out late last year. </p>
<p>&#8220;These ads will appear after various searches that include specific movie, TV, and music titles,&#8221; a Google spokesman told us. </p>
<p>Since the availability of the banners was limited overnight the company may still be experimenting with the setup. Unfortunately, Google couldn&#8217;t comment further on our findings. </p>
<p>Promoting legal content through ads would make sense for Google, as that would satisfy some of the copyright holders&#8217; demands without changing the actual search results. On top of that, it can be quite useful to users as well.</p>
<p>Whether the banners will be able to steer people away from pirate sites has yet to be seen though.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91374
title: Six Android Piracy Group Members Charged, Two Arrested
uri: Six-Android-Piracy-Group-Members-Charged-Two-Arrested
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/02yCm-W0CG4/
content:
<p><a href="media/66fcfffc.usdoj.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg"><img src="media/66fcfffc.usdoj.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg" alt="usdoj" width="190" height="190" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91397"></a>Assisted by police in France and the Netherlands, in the summer of 2012 the FBI took down three unauthorized Android app stores. Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket all had their <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fbi-seizes-pirate-android-app-domains-120822/">domains seized</a>, the first action of its type in the Android scene.</p>
<p>For two years the United States Department of Justice has released information on the case and last evening came news of more charges and more arrests.</p>
<p>Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division announced the unsealing of three federal indictments in the Northern District of Georgia charging six members of Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket for their roles in the unauthorized distribution of Android apps.</p>
<p><strong>SnappzMarket</strong></p>
<p><img src="media/21abd508.snappz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/snappz.jpg" width="180" height="158" class="alignright">Joshua Ryan Taylor, 24, of Kentwood, Michigan, and Scott Walton, 28, of Cleveland, Ohio, two alleged members of SnappzMarket, were both arrested yesterday. They are due to appear before magistrates in Michigan and Ohio respectively.</p>
<p>An indictment returned on June 17 charges Gary Edwin Sharp II, 26, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, along with Taylor and Walton, with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. Sharp is also charged with two counts of criminal copyright infringement.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s alleged that the three men were members of SnappzMarket between May 2011 through August 2012 along with Kody Jon Peterson, 22, of Clermont, Florida. In April, Peterson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. As part of his <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/android-pirate-agrees-to-work-undercover-for-the-feds-140416/">guilty plea</a> he agreed to work undercover for the government.</p>
<p><strong>Appbucket</strong></p>
<p><img src="media/7b177fbd.appbucket.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/appbucket.jpg" width="200" height="167" class="alignright">Another indictment returned June 17 in Georgia charges James Blocker, 36, of Rowlett, Texas, with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.</p>
<p>A former member of Appbucket, Blocker is alleged to have conspired with Thomas Allen Dye, 21, of Jacksonville, Florida; Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, of Orlando, Florida, and Thomas Pace, 38, of Oregon City, Oregon to distribute Android apps with a value of $700,000.</p>
<p>During March and April 2014, Dye, Narbone and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/android-pirate-agrees-to-work-undercover-for-the-feds-140416/">Pace</a> all <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/android-app-pirates-plead-guilty-criminal-copyright-infringement-140325/">pleaded guilty</a> to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.</p>
<p><strong>Applanet</strong></p>
<p><a href="media/3debff7e.applanet.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/applanet.jpg"><img src="media/8baeb686.applanet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/applanet.jpg" alt="applanet" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55966"></a>A further indictment June 17 in Georgia charges Aaron Blake Buckley, 20, of Moss Point, Mississippi; David Lee, 29, of Chino Hills, California; and Gary Edwin Sharp II (also of Appbucket) with one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Lee is additionally charged with one count of aiding and abetting criminal copyright infringement and Buckley with one count of criminal copyright infringement. </p>
<p>All three identified themselves as former members of Applanet. The USDOJ claims that along with other members they are responsible for the illegal distribution of four million Android apps with a value of $17m. Buckley previously <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/busted-android-store-founder-to-crowdfund-battle-against-u-s-govt-140209/">launched a fund-raiser</a> in an effort to fight off the United States government.</p>
<p>“As a result of their criminal efforts to make money by ripping off the hard work and creativity of high-tech innovators, the defendants are charged with illegally distributing copyrighted apps,” said Assistant Attorney General Caldwell.</p>
<p>“The Criminal Division is determined to protect the labor and ingenuity of copyright owners and to keep pace with criminals in the modern, technological marketplace.”</p>
<p>A statement from the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office indicates that the FBI will pursue more piracy groups in future.</p>
<p>&#8220;The FBI will continue to provide significant investigative resources toward such groups engaged in such wholesale pirating or copyright violations as seen here,&#8221; Special Agent in Charge J. Britt Johnson said.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91405
title: Torrent Sites Stay Blocked Long After World Cup Ends
uri: Torrent-Sites-Stay-Blocked-Long-After-World-Cup-Ends
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0e5CrAdJid8/
content:
<p><a href="media/6d84baf2.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg"><img src="media/a48beb7d.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg" alt="stopstop" width="180" height="120" class="alignright size-full wp-image-81719"></a>While news of site blockades breaks every month (oftentimes more frequently) reports that sites have been unblocked are far less regular events.</p>
<p>In fact, it&#8217;s becoming apparent that aside from isolated instances, once websites get put on national blocklists in the UK or Italy, for example, it is unlikely that they will become readily available again.</p>
<p>Since no one in power is lobbying for blocked sites to be removed from censorship filters, sites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents will probably remain blocked indefinitely. There are no immediately obvious time-out events attached to these injunctions and there&#8217;s certainly no one prepared to go to court to argue over the details.</p>
<p>Such sunset clauses are important though, as India is finding out.</p>
<p>Back in July a TV network owned by Sony <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/google-services-among-472-sites-blocked-for-world-cup-piracy-140707/">went to court</a> in India to have hundreds of sites blocked at the ISP level after they allegedly made World Cup matches available online without permission.</p>
<p>The 472 sites requested was reduced to 219 after an appeal by ISPs, but the injunction was still one of the broadest to date anywhere in the world. Whether it reduced piracy or placed money in Sony&#8217;s back pocket is anyone&#8217;s guess, but now &#8211; long after the World Cup ended &#8211; the blockades are still in place.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.medianama.com/2014/07/223-filesharing-piratebay-block-india/">Medianama</a> says it has carried out tests and discovered that The Pirate Bay, Mega.co.nz, TorrentHound, LimeTorrents and TorrentFunk among dozens of others are still inaccessible through local ISPs.</p>
<p>The news outlet also contacted Multi Screen Media, the Sony company behind the blocks, asking whether the company had asked for the blocks to be removed and why Dotcom&#8217;s Mega was targeted. The company did not respond.</p>
<p>While some will argue that having sites blocked is a legitimate response to online piracy, it is difficult to maintain that stance long after any infringements cited in court cases have ended. That said, ex parte hearings are by their nature one-side, so it&#8217;s unlikely anyone will be looking out for the rights of their rivals anytime soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91336
title: Megaupload Wants to Freeze MPAA and RIAA Lawsuits Until 2015
uri: Megaupload-Wants-to-Freeze-MPAA-and-RIAA-Lawsuits-Until-2015
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J2KZ-bDfQy4/
content:
<p><a href="media/818b6dbe.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg"><img src="media/5fd37436.megaupload.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload.jpg" alt="megaupload" width="180" height="154" class="alignright size-full wp-image-30407"></a>Well over two years have passed since Megaupload was shutdown, but there is still little progress in the criminal proceedings against its founders. </p>
<p>The United States want New Zealand to extradite Kim Dotcom and his colleagues but this process has been delayed several times already. Earlier this month the extradition hearing was postponed again until February next year.</p>
<p>In addition to the U.S. Government, Megaupload and Kim Dotcom were also sued by the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/now-the-riaa-sues-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-theft-140411/">major record labels</a> and Hollywood’s <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/">top movie studios</a> a few months ago. </p>
<p>Fearing that these cases might influence the criminal case, Megaupload&#8217;s legal team <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-cases-put-on-hold-but-asset-freezing-still-an-option-140611/">successfully obtained</a> a freeze on them until this summer, when the extradition hearing was originally scheduled for. Now that this has been delayed until next year, Megaupload wants to place the MPAA and RIAA cases on hold until April 2015. </p>
<p>In a <a href="media/eb7bbf21.stayagain.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stayagain.pdf">new motion for a stay</a>, the lawyers ask the court to freeze both civil cases because the accused may otherwise be forced to implicate themselves, which would violate their rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;The individual Defendants still face extradition, and therefore still have an interest in preserving the Fifth Amendment rights that arise from the prosecution of the Criminal Action,&#8221; the motion reads.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s also a more practical concern. Since the U.S. Government <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/1103-megaupload-servers-still-gather-dust-virginia-warehouse-140404/">refuses to provide access</a> to the raided servers, it may be difficult to access evidence that&#8217;s crucial to build a proper defense. </p>
<p>&#8220;Relevant evidence that is electronically stored on servers, which would be needed to defend the civil cases, is not reasonably accessible. As a result of the Criminal Action, the Megaupload cloud-storage servers have been taken offline and are housed in a locked third-party warehouse in Virginia,&#8221; Megaupload&#8217;s lawyers write. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Department of Justice has opposed Megaupload’s efforts to gain access to those servers and data. Standard civil e-discovery protocols would typically include  accessing and “mirroring” the original servers so that the resultant copies may used to analyze the data contained therein. At present, that cannot be done,&#8221; they add. </p>
<p>If the court grants the request then it will take another year before there&#8217;s any progress in the civil cases against Megaupload. The movie and music studios didn&#8217;t object to the previous freezing request, but they may be running out of patience soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91379
title: Vuze Releases Leap, a Simple and Lightweight Torrent Client
uri: Vuze-Releases-Leap-a-Simple-and-Lightweight-Torrent-Client
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S_DNhjZq274/
content:
<p><a href="media/8f7035ef.Vuze_bw_logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Vuze_bw_logo.png"><img src="media/8f7035ef.Vuze_bw_logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Vuze_bw_logo.png" alt="Vuze_bw_logo" width="222" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91380"></a>Vuze is one of the most recognized BitTorrent brands. Their client is used by millions of people each day and has a steadily growing user-base.</p>
<p>In recent years Vuze’s <a href="http://www.vuze.com/">core BitTorrent client</a> has evolved into an advanced download solution with every complex feature heavy BitTorrent users could wish for. </p>
<p>The downside of being so complete is that the application can be quite overwhelming to newcomers. In addition the application is somewhat of a resource hog. The Vuze team has taken these complaints to heart and coded &#8220;Vuze Leap,&#8221; a brand new client that is both simple and lightweight.</p>
<p>&#8220;We sought to deliver a simpler experience as a counterpart to the powerful, full-featured core Vuze BitTorrent Client that has pleased millions of users for years.  Even with file-sharing being a part of internet usage for years, we continued to hear, from some users a desire to have a simpler experience that was less resource intensive,&#8221; Vuze&#8217;s Claude Tolbert tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Today the first Vuze Leap beta is unveiled to the public. The torrent client works out of the box. Users are presented with a big search box which they can use to search for torrents without having to leave the application. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/71aeaa06.leap_beta_home_screen-s.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leap_beta_home_screen-s.png"><img src="media/71aeaa06.leap_beta_home_screen-s.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leap_beta_home_screen-s.png" alt="leap_beta_home_screen-s" width="650" height="406" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91381"></a></center></p>
<p>When a search term is entered, Vuze Leap will automatically search for matching content on Google, the Internet Archive and elsewhere. This can then be downloaded with a single click. </p>
<p>After a download is completed users can play media files directly from the client, or navigate to the download folder as they would do with other torrent clients. Vuze Leap automatically categorizes files into various categories to keep the library organized.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ed07b11b.leap_beta_find_screen-s.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leap_beta_find_screen-s.png"><img src="media/ed07b11b.leap_beta_find_screen-s.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/leap_beta_find_screen-s.png" alt="leap_beta_find_screen-s" width="650" height="406" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91382"></a></center></p>
<p>Vuze&#8217;s new BitTorrent client is best suited to less tech-savvy users who don&#8217;t necessarily need all the advanced features the core Vuze client has to offer. Through its simpler interface Vuze Leap should make BitTorrent more accessible to people who are new to torrents.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that Vuze Leap extends usability to users who may be new to filesharing or don&#8217;t require the power and functionality that the core Vuze BitTorrent Client provides.  However, both provide an outstanding experience to users,&#8221; Tolbert says.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak tested the application and it works as advertised. It certainly feels much lighter and faster than the core Vuze client. The built-in search is handy as well, although users may have to scroll down to get the best search results, which often come from Google.</p>
<p>The application is currently only available for Windows but support for other operating systems is expected to follow in the future. </p>
<p>Those who are interested in taking Vuze Leap for a spin can download the <a href="http://www.vuze.com/vuze-leap-beta-tester/">latest beta release</a> after signing up for the beta test. The <a href="http://www.vuze.com/leap-beta/download/VuzeLeapSetup.exe">download link</a> comes with the confirmation email. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91428
title: The UK Did *NOT* Just Decriminalize File-Sharing
uri: The-UK-Did-NOT-Just-Decriminalize-File-Sharing
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/85TzUcu3DCo/
content:
<p><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" width="250" height="210" class="alignright">From next year people in the UK can download and share whatever they like. Movies, music and video games. You name it &#8211; it&#8217;s a free-for-all download bonanza with zero consequences other than four friendly letters asking people to try Netflix and Spotify.</p>
<p>In fact, the UK government has even gone as far as decriminalizing online copyright infringement entirely, despite risking the wrath of every intellectual property owner in the land.</p>
<p>That was the message doing the rounds yesterday in the media, starting on <a href="http://www.vg247.com/2014/07/22/britain-just-decriminalised-online-game-piracy/">VG247</a> and going on to overload Reddit and dozens of other sites. Even Russia&#8217;s RT.com <a href="http://rt.com/uk/174744-uk-internet-fileshare-piracy/">got in on the fun</a>.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/6b54eed3.vg247.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vg247.png" alt="VG247"></center></p>
<p>Except it&#8217;s not fun at all. It&#8217;s completely untrue on countless levels and to suggest otherwise puts people at risk. Let&#8217;s be absolutely clear here. Copyright infringement, whether that&#8217;s on file-sharing networks or elsewhere, is ILLEGAL in the UK. Nothing, repeat NOTHING, has changed.</p>
<p>As detailed in our <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-uk-piracy-warnings-work-140517/">previous article</a>, VCAP is a voluntary (that&#8217;s the &#8216;V&#8217; part) agreement between some rightsholders and a few ISPs to send some informational letters to people observed infringing copyright.</p>
<p>This means that the mainstream music labels and the major Hollywood studios will soon have an extra option to reach out to UK Internet users. However, whenever they want to &#8211; today, tomorrow or next year &#8211; any of the copyright holders involved in VCAP can still file a lawsuit or seek police action against ANYONE engaged in illegal file-sharing &#8211; FACT.</p>
<p>What makes the original VG247 report even more inaccurate is its headline: &#8220;Britain just decriminalised online game piracy.&#8221; If we&#8217;re still laboring under the illusion that VCAP is somehow the reason behind the government&#8217;s &#8220;decriminalization&#8221; of piracy, understand this &#8211; video game companies are not even part of the VCAP program.</p>
<p>Worst still, the biggest financial punishment ever ordered by a UK court was a default judgment in 2008 issued to &#8211; wait for it &#8211; a person who illegally file-shared a single video game. The case <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/high-profile-high-damages-file-sharing-conviction-was-a-farce-100926/">was a farce</a>, but the judgment stands and the law on which it was based has not changed. There is nothing stopping any video game company from doing this again once VCAP starts, properly this time.</p>
<p>But why stop at video games? Porn companies/trolls aren&#8217;t involved in the VCAP scheme either and any of those could head off to court to obtain the identities of people they want to sue. <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-troll-admits-its-all-about-making-even-more-money-120417/">It&#8217;s happening in the UK</a>. There&#8217;s a VCAP-style scheme in the United States too, often referred to as &#8220;six strikes&#8221;, and that has done nothing to stop companies like Malibu Media filing lawsuits almost every day.</p>
<p>Voluntary agreements avoid the complication of changing the law, that&#8217;s their entire point. They offer helpful mechanisms that the law does not already provide. For example, UK ISPs are not expressly required to forward infringement notices to users under current law, yet VCAP means that some rightsholders, not all, will get that &#8216;right&#8217;.</p>
<p>So which other sectors are not involved in VCAP so therefore cannot rely on the assistance it provides? Well, thousands of smaller record labels and film companies for a start. They tend to be outside the walls of the BPI and MPA so do not enjoy the fruits of their lobbying. While these smaller outfits tend to stay away from litigation, they could soon have fresh options.</p>
<p>Piracy monetization firm Rightscorp works with many smaller companies and has recently indicated an interest in the UK. &#8220;We are getting a great reception from everyone we have spoken to [in the UK],&#8221; the company&#8217;s Robert Steele <a href="http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/rightscorp-wants-bring-copyright-protection-methods-uk-144925">said</a> in May. Whether Rightscorp will be able to pull this off is an entirely different matter, but since file-sharing of copyrighted material remains illegal in the UK, the company has a chance.</p>
<p>The other issue is how the VCAP warnings will be presented to alleged infringers. While they have a focus on education, it would be incredible if they contained the text &#8220;The UK has just decriminalized file-sharing, that&#8217;s why we have sent you this letter.&#8221; It would be even more amazing if the ISPs agreed to pass them on if file-sharing was no longer an offense.</p>
<p>While no laws have been changed, in some instances it&#8217;s probably fair to say that VCAP will make it less likely that people will be pursued by the major record labels and movie studios in the UK. It doesn&#8217;t eliminate the threat, however.</p>
<p>Try this. Head off to your local Odeon, Showcase or UCI this coming weekend, set up a camcorder, and see if you can get a really sweet copy of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Begin uploading this to The Pirate Bay and while it&#8217;s seeding send an email to the Federation Against Copyright Theft containing your personal details.</p>
<p>VCAP friendly letter incoming or a police raid? Yeah, thought so.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91368
title: Online Store Can Sell ‘Used’ Ebooks, Court Rules
uri: Online-Store-Can-Sell-Used-Ebooks-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AY2x3e8J0s4/
content:
<p><a href="media/76c60e00.tomskabinet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tomskabinet.png"><img src="media/76c60e00.tomskabinet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tomskabinet.png" alt="tomskabinet" width="218" height="88" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91371"></a>People who buy an MP3, digital movie or an eBook assume that they have the right to do whatever they want with it, but copyright holders see things differently. </p>
<p>Platforms that allow people to resell digital goods are meeting fierce resistance from the entertainment industries, who view them as a threat to their online business models.</p>
<p>For example, the major record labels previously pointed out that MP3s are simply <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/record-labels-used-mp3s-too-good-and-convenient-to-resell-140422/">too good to resell</a>, as they don’t deteriorate in quality. Similarly, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-consumer-right-resell-online-videos-kill-innovation-140608/">movie studios</a> complained that the ability to sell &#8220;used&#8221; videos would kill innovation.</p>
<p>The book industry is also concerned and in an attempt to counter this threat several publishers launched a lawsuit against <a href="http://www.tomkabinet.nl/">Tom Kabinet</a>, an online marketplace for used eBooks based in the Netherlands. </p>
<p>The publishers fear that the site will negatively impact their business, and that it can&#8217;t prevent people from reselling pirated copies. The companies asked the Amsterdam Court for a preliminary injunction against Tom Kabinet, but the request was <a href="http://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:RBAMS:2014:4360">denied</a> this week.   </p>
<p>The Amsterdam Court concluded that selling used eBooks is a legal grey area and not by definition illegal in Europe. </p>
<p>Previously the EU Court of Justice <a href="media/6eda9a8f.cp120094en.pdf" data-original-source="http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf">previously ruled</a> that consumers are free to resell games and software, even when there’s no physical copy. That case applied to licensed content, which is different from the Tom Kabinet case, so further investigation is needed to arrive at a final verdict.</p>
<p>The court therefore dismissed the publishers&#8217; claims and ordered them to pay €23.469,56 in legal fees. Tom Kabinet, meanwhile, is still allowed to facilitate the sale of used eBooks. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that the publishers didn&#8217;t get the result they hoped for. In fact, things have gotten worse, as Tom Kabinet&#8217;s visitor numbers have exploded. Shortly after the verdict was announced the site went offline because it couldn&#8217;t handle the surge in traffic. </p>
<p>These connectivity issues have been fixed now, and the site&#8217;s owner is happy with the outcome thus far. </p>
<p>&#8220;There is still a long way to go before legislation is clear on eBooks, but we&#8217;ve made a pretty good start,&#8221; Tom Kabinet informed TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The publishers on the other hand are considering further steps, and it&#8217;s likely that the case will head to a full trial in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91458
title: Director Wants His Film on The Pirate Bay, Pirates Deliver…
uri: Director-Wants-His-Film-on-The-Pirate-Bay-Pirates-Deliver
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Lua2q8jNByA/
content:
<p><a href="media/d86f99b7.suzy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/suzy.jpg"><img src="media/d86f99b7.suzy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/suzy.jpg" alt="suzy" width="214" height="317" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91466"></a>Dutch movie director Martin Koolhoven sent out an unusual request on Twitter a few days ago. </p>
<p>While many filmmakers fear The Pirate Bay, Koolhoven asked his followers to upload a copy of his 1999 film &#8220;<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158256/">Suzy Q</a>&#8221; to the site.</p>
<p>&#8220;Can someone just upload Suzy Q to The Pirate Bay?&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/MartinKoolhoven/status/489454665885843456">Koolhoven asked</a>.</p>
<p>The director doesn&#8217;t own all copyrights to the movie himself, but grew frustrated by the fact that his film is not available through legal channels. </p>
<p>The TV-film, which also features the film debut of Game of Thrones actress <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0396924/">Carice Van Houten</a>, was paid for with public money but after the music rights expired nobody was able to see it anymore.</p>
<p>The main problem is with the film&#8217;s music, which includes tracks from popular artists such as The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. This prevented the film from being released in movie theaters and on DVD, and the TV-network also chose not to extend the licenses for the TV rights.</p>
<p>Since the music was no longer licensed it couldn&#8217;t be shown anymore, not even on the websites of the public broadcasters.</p>
<p>&#8220;To me, it felt like the movie had died,&#8221; Koolhoven tells TorrentFreak.  </p>
<p>Hoping to bring it back to life, Koolhoven tweeted his upload request, and it didn&#8217;t take long before <a href="http://thepiratebay.se/search/suzy%20q/0/99/0">the pirates delivered</a>. Within a few hours the first copy of the film was uploaded, and several more were added in the days that followed. </p>
<p>&#8220;I had no idea the media would pick it up the way they did. That generated more media attention. At first I hesitated because I didn&#8217;t want to become the poster boy for the download-movement. All I wanted was for people to be able to see my film,&#8221; Koolhoven says.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the first upload of the movie that appeared on The Pirate Bay was in very bad quality. So the director decided to go all the way and upload <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVZJ6R4Yj38">a better version to YouTube</a> himself. </p>
<p>&#8220;I figured it would probably be thrown off after a few days, due to the music rights issue, but at least people could see a half decent version instead of watching the horrible copy that was available on The Pirate Bay,&#8221; Koolhoven tells us.</p>
<p>Interestingly, YouTube didn&#8217;t remove the film but asked the director whether he had the right to use the songs. Since this is not the case the money made through the advertisements on YouTube will go to the proper rightsholders.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re a few days later now and the movie is still on YouTube. And people have started to put higher quality torrents of Suzy Q on Pirate Bay. Even 720p can be found, I&#8217;ve heard,&#8221; Koolhoven notes.</p>
<p>While the director is not the exclusive rightsholder, he does see himself as the moral owner of the title. Also, he isn&#8217;t shying away from encouraging others to download and share the film.</p>
<p>In essence, he believes that all movies should be available online, as long as it&#8217;s commercially viable. It shouldn&#8217;t hurt movie theater attendance either, as that remains the main source of income for most films and the best viewing experience.</p>
<p>&#8220;I know not everybody cares about that, but I do. The cinema is the best place to see movies. If you haven&#8217;t seen &#8216;Once Upon a Time in the West&#8217; on the big screen, you just haven&#8217;t seen it,&#8221; Koolhoven says.</p>
<p>In the case of Suzy Q, however, people are free to grab a pirated copy. </p>
<p>“Everyone can go to The Pirate Bay and grab a copy. People are actually not supposed to, but they have my permission to download Susy Q,” Koolhoven said in an <a href="http://www.geenstijl.nl/mt/archieven/2014/07/gstv_regisseur_wil_eigen_debuu.html">interview</a> with Geenstijl.</p>
<p>“If other people download the movie and help with seeding then the download time will be even more reasonable,” Koolhoven adds.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91477
title: Pirate Bay Launches Mobile Site, Teases More Expansions
uri: Pirate-Bay-Launches-Mobile-Site-Teases-More-Expansions
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/THUGuenTT9U/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd06f581.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470"></a>One of The Pirate Bay&#8217;s strengths has been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-celebrates-independence-day-8-year-raid-anniversary-140531/">its resilience</a>. No matter how hard the movie and music industries try, the site remains operational. </p>
<p>Over the years the Pirate Bay site has undergone many changes to make it harder to shut down. The tracker was put into retirement, torrents were traded in for magnet links, and the site moved its servers to the cloud.</p>
<p>What remained the same, however, was the site&#8217;s general appearance and its lack of support for mobile devices. That changes today. </p>
<p>The Pirate Bay has just debuted a new site for mobile devices. <a href="http://themobilebay.org/">The Mobile Bay</a> offers a much more usable interface to browse the torrent site on mobile devices.  </p>
<p>Previously mobile users were simply presented with a smaller version of the regular Pirate Bay site, which was coded long before smartphones and tablets became popular. With banners on both sides it was rather hard to navigate on smaller devices.</p>
<p>The mobile version doesn&#8217;t change the overall appearance much, but it&#8217;s definitely more readable and easier to navigate.</p>
<p><center><strong>The new vs. old mobile look</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/1a34fb3c.tpb-mob-oldnew.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-mob-oldnew.jpg"><img src="media/1a34fb3c.tpb-mob-oldnew.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-mob-oldnew.jpg" alt="tpb-mob-oldnew" width="641" height="525" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91490"></a></center></p>
<p>Users on mobile devices are now redirected to the new Mobile Bay domain, which will exist next to the regular site. People have the option to continue using the old layout if they prefer, but The Pirate Bay team doesn&#8217;t see any reason why people would.</p>
<p>&#8220;The normal version of the site renders like crap on mobile devices,&#8221; the TPB team told us.</p>
<p>The Mobile Bay is one of the largest visible updates to the site in years, but according to The Pirate Bay it&#8217;s only the beginning. Behind the scenes the TPB team is working on a series of new niche sites that will provide extra features and make it easier to find content.</p>
<p>The TV, movie and music sections on The Pirate Bay will each get their own dedicated sites. The TV site, for example, will allow users to see a complete overview of all episodes per show, download season packs, and more. </p>
<p>Another new project in the pipeline is the RSSbay which will support personalized RSS feeds enabling people to launch torrents remotely. </p>
<p>&#8220;We will add more features later on, such as personal RSS feeds so users can browse torrents at work or school, and start the downloads at home,&#8221; the TPB team tells us.</p>
<p>Aside from improving the user experience, the other advantage of these separate domain names is that TPB can&#8217;t be taken out as easily. </p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to separate the site into different domain names to make it more resilient. In the event one domain get taken down, there will be plenty others left,&#8221; the TPB team says.</p>
<p>As always with the Pirate Bay, it will be hard to predict how long it will take before these new sites will see the light of day, but the mobile edition is live now. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91500
title: University Sets Fines & Worse For Pirating Students
uri: University-Sets-Fines-Worse-For-Pirating-Students
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HLiAl0mupeI/
content:
<p><a href="media/a0e7e7d3.lsu.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lsu.jpg"><img src="media/a0e7e7d3.lsu.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/lsu.jpg" alt="lsu" width="200" height="144" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91520"></a>Anyone providing an Internet-access infrastructure to third parties needs to be aware of the online piracy issue. For service providers, whether that&#8217;s a regular ISP, web host, or the operator of a free open WiFi in a local coffee shop, knowledge of how other people&#8217;s actions can affect them is a useful asset.</p>
<p>For universities in the United States, awareness of how Internet piracy can affect their establishment is especially crucial. On top of the requirements of the DMCA, in July 2010, exactly four years ago, the U.S. put in place a new requirement for colleges and universities to curtail illegal file-sharing on their networks. Failure to do so can result in the loss of federal funding so needless to say, campuses view the issue seriously.</p>
<p>Yesterday the <a href="lsureveille.com">The Daily Reveille</a>, the official news resource of the Louisiana State University, revealed that LSU&#8217;s IT Services receive between 15 and 20 complaints a month from copyright holders, an excellent result for around 30,000 students.</p>
<p>At the start of the last decade it was music companies doing most of the complaining, but Security and policy officer Craig Callender <a href="http://www.lsureveille.com/news/piracy-not-treated-lightly/article_503cbdc6-12ec-11e4-a6fc-001a4bcf6878.html">says</a> that with the advent of services such as Spotify being made available, reports from TV companies are more common.</p>
<p>But no matter where they originate, <a href="http://lsu.edu/">LSU</a> acts on these allegations of infringement. A first complaint sees a student kicked offline, with Internet access only restored after the completion of an educational course covering illegal file-sharing.</p>
<p>Those who breach the rules again have worse to look forward to, starting with a fine.</p>
<p>&#8220;LSU is effectively combating unauthorized distribution of copyrighted material by fining students implicated in a verified DMCA copyright violation,&#8221; the university&#8217;s official policy document reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The $50 fine provides a mechanism for recovering costs incurred in reviewing and processing DMCA notifications, and funding programs for awareness (e.g., education and ad campaign costs).&#8221;  </p>
<p>Educational campaigns include the promotion of legal services, such as those outlined on the university&#8217;s chosen official resource <a href="http://www.educause.edu/focus-areas-and-initiatives/policy-and-security/educause-policy/issues-and-positions/intellectual-property/legal-sources-onli">list</a>. Interestingly, while the links for music and books work, the MPAA page for legal TV shows and movies (for which the university receives the most notices) no longer exists.</p>
<p>But while the $50 fine might be harsh enough for a student on a limited budget, LSU warns of even tougher sanctions. Allegations of illegal file-sharing are noted on the student&#8217;s academic record which can have implications for his or her career prospects.</p>
<p>In addition, complaints can result in a referral to the Dean of Students’ office for violation of the LSU Code of Student Conduct. According to official documentation, the Student Conduct Office keeps Student Conduct files for seven years after the date of the incident, or longer if deemed necessary.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that the work of the RIAA and MPAA in the last decade seriously unnerved universities who have been forced to implement strict measures to curtail unauthorized sharing. LSU says it employs filtering technology to eliminate most P2P traffic but it&#8217;s clear that some users are getting through.</p>
<p>Almost certainly others will be using <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">VPN-like solutions</a> to evade not only the P2P ban, but also potential complaints. Still, universities will probably care much less about these users, since they don&#8217;t generate DMCA notices and have no impact on their ability to receive federal funding.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91539
title: Expendables 3 Leaks Online, 100K+ Copies Down in Hours
uri: Expendables-3-Leaks-Online-100K-Copies-Down-in-Hours
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wSLeC9OZABs/
content:
<p><a href="media/a23fe245.expendables3.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables3.jpg"><img src="media/a23fe245.expendables3.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables3.jpg" alt="expendables3" width="180" height="241" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91541"></a>You&#8217;d have to be enjoying a Mars residency not to know that all big (and most small) movies get leaked online. If it&#8217;s available in a cinema, someone, somewhere will have a copy in a matter of days and it&#8217;s just a question of when, not if, it appears on the Internet.</p>
<p>As such, these events aren&#8217;t particularly big news but every now and again one comes along to make people sit up and listen. Several hours ago, July 24, 2014, marked one such notable leaking event.</p>
<p>Featuring every action hero known to man, from Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham and Jet Li, to UFC stars Randy Couture and Ronda Rousey, Expendables 3 was always going to be a hit. However, the plan was to have it become a hit on the big screen <em>before</em> breaking into the home market.</p>
<p>That is not going to happen. Around twelve hours ago, a near perfect copy of The Expendables 3 appeared online and it&#8217;s already a smash hit with home audiences.</p>
<p><center><br>
<h6>Screenshot from the leak</h6>
<p><img src="media/e64917e5.exp1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exp1.png" alt="exp1"></center></p>
<p>Figures gathered by TorrentFreak reveal that more than <strike>100,000</strike> 200,000 (update) people have downloaded the presumed &#8216;DVD screener&#8217; copy using BitTorrent alone, and at one point in excess of 65,000 users were engaged in transfers on a single torrent.</p>
<p>These stats push the leak well ahead of the initial pre-release popularity of the infamous <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/unfinished-x-men-movie-a-hit-on-bittorrent-090401/">X-Men Origins: Wolverine leak</a> back in 2009 and once the news begins to spread today, things are only going to get worse.</p>
<p>Needless to say, the folks at distributor Lionsgate are going to be absolutely furious. While &#8216;cams&#8217; are an annoyance, most movie-goers won&#8217;t want to destroy the movie experience by watching them. High-quality copies like this one are a different matter altogether and the soaring download numbers are a testament to that.</p>
<p><center><br>
<h6>No blurry cams here, high-quality all the way</h6>
<p><img src="media/37ddbb16.exp2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exp2.png" alt="exp2"></center></p>
<p>So who is behind the leak? At this stage it&#8217;s impossible to point the finger at the person who obtained the DVD copy. However, we can take a look at who brought the copy to the wider public Internet.</p>
<p>When leaks come from a so-called &#8216;Scene&#8217; source it&#8217;s possible to track the copy at least as far back as the group that placed it online but with so-called P2P releases, as is the case with Expendables 3, that&#8217;s not quite so easy. However, <strike>the initial</strike> and most popular public copy appears to be attributable to an entity known as Drarbg. (see update below)</p>
<p>Drarbg has accounts on several major torrent sites, including The Pirate Bay, and is one of the most prolific BitTorrent releasers online today. Many presume that this is a single person, but Drarbg has previously indicated that it&#8217;s a group of individuals working together as a team. Drarbg, as the name suggests, has affiliations with RARBG, a popular public torrent site. </p>
<p>It seems likely that this high-profile, high-quality leak will become a talking point in the hours, weeks and months to come and will probably be seized upon as a prime example of why piracy crackdowns are needed. However, there is also another angle to be aware of.</p>
<p>Nu Image, the production company behind all three Expendables titles, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-expendables-makers-dismiss-massive-bittorrent-lawsuit-110825/">sued</a> previous downloaders of <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/conan-the-barbarian-chases-2165-bittorrent-downloaders-in-court-120227/">its titles</a>. Will history repeat itself? Time will tell&#8230;.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Downloads climbing well over 200K copies now&#8230;</p>
<p><strong>Update 2:</strong> While the Drarbg torrent gained the most traction initially, it appears another torrent was uploaded by another releaser around 20 mins before.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91565
title: Leaked Paper Reveals Aussie Anti-Piracy Crackdown Musings
uri: Leaked-Paper-Reveals-Aussie-Anti-Piracy-Crackdown-Musings
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-mAQur2CSRE/
content:
<p><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" width="222" height="204" class="alignright">In common with all countries heavily involved with the distribution of U.S.-sourced entertainment products, Australia us under continuous pressure to do something about the online piracy phenomenon.</p>
<p>Much of the negotiations have Attorney-General George Brandis <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/australian-government-signals-online-piracy-crackdown-140214/">at their core</a>, with the Senator regularly being <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/aussie-attorney-general-pressured-on-three-strikes-secrecy-140529/">accused</a> of lacking transparency.</p>
<p>This week Aussie news outlet Crikey <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/07/25/government-flags-copyright-crackdown-to-overturn-iinet-decision/">obtained (subscription)</a> a leaked copy of a discussion paper in which Brandis and Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull seek industry feedback on new anti-piracy proposals.</p>
<p><strong>The discussion paper</strong></p>
<p>Dated July 2014, the paper begins by outlining the Government&#8217;s perception of the piracy threat, noting that all players &#8211; from content creators to ISPs and consumers &#8211; have a role to play in reducing the illegal consumption of content.</p>
<p>It continues with details of schemes operating in the United States (Six-Strikes), UK (VCAP) and New Zealand which aim to develop consumer attitudes through education and mitigation. Inevitably, however, the paper turns to legislation, specifically what can be tweaked in order to give movie studios and record labels the tools they need to reduce infringement</p>
<p><strong>ISP liability</strong></p>
<p>The 2012 High Court ruling in the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/iinet-isp-not-liable-for-bittorrent-piracy-high-court-rules-120420/">iiNet case</a> signaled the end of movie and TV studio litigation against service providers. With their dream of holding ISPs responsible for the actions of their pirating users in tatters, copyright holders would need new tools to pursue their aims. It&#8217;s clear that Brandis now wants to provide those via a change in the law.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Government believes that even when an ISP does not have a direct power to prevent a person from doing a particular infringing act, there still may be reasonable steps that can be taken by the ISP to discourage or reduce online copyright infringement,&#8221; the paper reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;Extending authorization liability is essential to ensuring the existence of an effective legal framework that encourages industry cooperation and functions as originally intended, and is consistent with Australia&#8217;s international obligations.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><br>
<h6>Proposal 1 &#8211; Extending liability</h5>
<p><img src="media/f1057e89.aus-disc1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus-disc1.png" alt="Aus-disc1"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;The Government is looking to industry to reach agreement on appropriate industry schemes or commercial arrangements on what would constitute &#8216;reasonable steps&#8217; to be taken by ISPs,&#8221; the paper notes.</p>
<p><strong>Website blocking</strong></p>
<p>Given several signals on the topic earlier this year, it comes as no surprise that website blocking is under serious consideration. The paper outlines blocking mechanisms in Europe, particularly the UK and Ireland, which allow for court injunctions to be issued against ISPs.</p>
<p><center><br>
<h6>Proposal 2 &#8211; Website blocking</h5>
<p><img src="media/e354dcb7.aus-disc2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus-disc2.png" alt="aus-disc2"></center></p>
<p>The Irish model, which has already blocked sites including The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents, is of special interest to the Australian Government, since proving that an ISP had knowledge of infringing conduct is not required to obtain an injunction.</p>
<p>&#8220;A similar provision in Australian law could enable rights holders to take action to block access to a website offering infringing material, without the need to establish that a particular ISP authorized an infringement,&#8221; the paper notes, adding that such provisions would only apply to websites outside Aussie jurisdiction.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s likely that most copyright holders will be largely in favor of the Government&#8217;s proposals on the points detailed above, but whether ISPs will share their enthusiasm remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Stakeholders are expected to return their submissions by Monday 25th August. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91559
title: US Wants to Criminalize Movie and Music Streaming
uri: US-Wants-to-Criminalize-Movie-and-Music-Streaming
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DhDhN-eBmZY/
content:
<p><a href="media/7e191730.streaming1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streaming1.jpg"><img src="media/7e191730.streaming1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streaming1.jpg" alt="streaming" width="250" height="259" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91564"></a>Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee held a <a href="http://judiciary.house.gov/index.cfm/2014/7/hearing-copyright-remedies">hearing</a> on punishments for and remedies against online copyright infringement. One of the speakers was David Bitkower, Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General, who laid out the wishes of the Obama administration. </p>
<p>After praising previous successes, such as the shutdown of Megaupload and the prosecution of several <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/busting-worlds-biggest-movie-pirates-made-piracy-worse-130506/">IMAGiNE members</a>, Bitkower explained the evolving challenges copyright holders are dealing with. </p>
<p>From illegal piano rolls in the early 1900s to floppy disks a century later, new technologies have presented new threats, he argued. With the rise of broadband access this process has worsened and the most recent challenge is combating illegal streaming services.</p>
<p>&#8220;One new challenge confronting copyright owners and law enforcement authorities is the rise of Internet &#8216;streaming&#8217; as the dominant means of disseminating many types of copyrighted content online. This activity also derives from advances in technology: in this case, the growth in availability of high-speed Internet to the average consumer,&#8221; Bitkower said.</p>
<p>The problem for the Department of Justice and copyright holders is that these services are harder to prosecute. Technically, streaming doesn&#8217;t count as distribution but as a public performance, which can only be charged as a misdemeanor.</p>
<p>The administration tried to remedy this in 2012, by implementing the SOPA and PIPA bills, but these were shelved <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/historic-the-internet-protests-anti-piracy-bills-120118/">after public outrage</a>.  Many people feared that uploading copyrighted YouTube videos could possibly land them in jail and took their concerns to the streets.</p>
<p>However, fast forward a few years and the same plan is back on the table. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Administration recommends that Congress amend the law to create a felony penalty for unauthorized Internet streaming. Specifically, we recommend the creation of legislation to establish a felony charge for infringement through unauthorized public performances conducted for commercial advantage or private financial gain,&#8221; Bitkower explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;It would emphasize the seriousness of the threat that unauthorized streaming poses to legitimate copyright holders, clarify the scope of conduct deemed to be illegal in order to deter potential infringers, and provide the Department with an important tool to prosecute and deter illicit Internet streaming.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to criminalizing illicit streaming, Bitkower also called for persistent funds to support its international operations. In recent years the DoJ has educated police forces abroad to deal with copyright infringement. This apparently includes training on very basic skills, such as how to connect to the Internet in the first place.</p>
<p>&#8220;The program has realized numerous successes, including a Ukrainian police officer who, after receiving training, was able to use a dial-up Internet connection from his home computer to bring down the largest illegal file sharing service in his country,&#8221; Bitkower said.</p>
<p>The international program helped to shut down Megaupload, but could also target The Pirate Bay through tools such as &#8220;diplomatic and trade-based pressure.&#8221; Worryingly, the United States has trouble getting the facts rights, as it believes that the political Pirate Party is connected to The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>&#8220;In addition to the Mega Conspiracy described above, we have seen The Pirate Bay start as a file sharing site for unauthorized copies of works in Sweden, expand to other countries, and even develop its own political party in Europe,&#8221; Bitkower noted.</p>
<p>Mistakes aside, it&#8217;s clear that the Obama administration hasn&#8217;t lost its focus on copyright infringement. </p>
<p>All recommendations are aimed at more prosecutions, more international pressure and tougher punishments for pirates. Time will tell whether they can get Congress to agree this time around. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91587
title: Pirate Bay Founder’s Religious Rights Spark New Complaint
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founder-s-Religious-Rights-Spark-New-Complaint
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AHW7fFIfCNQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/1ceafd41.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg" width="225" height="225" class="alignright">It&#8217;s been almost two months since former Pirate Bay spokesman Peter Sunde was located on a farm in Sweden and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-peter-sunde-arrested-sweden-140531/">spirited away</a> by a specialist police unit.</p>
<p>Sunde&#8217;s destination was Västervik Norra, the prison allocated to him following the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founders-prison-sentences-final-supreme-court-appeal-rejected-120201/">finalizing</a> of his jail sentence in 2012.</p>
<p>The first few days and weeks of Sunde&#8217;s imprisonment went silently under the media radar, but by the end of June the former Pirate Bay spokesman was making his voice heard on his prison conditions.</p>
<p>Sunde has been both vegetarian and vegan, a dietary choice that has proven difficult during his incarceration. In a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/losing-weight-pirate-bay-founder-requests-security-downgrade-140703/">letter to authorities</a> he complained that due to his needs not being met, his weight had plummeted 11 pounds (5kgs) in just four weeks.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether that complaint resulted in any positive action, but just a month later Sunde is making his displeasure known once more, this time over his religious rights.</p>
<p>Four years ago a group of self-confessed pirates began a mission to have their beliefs recognized as a religion in Sweden. The Church of Kopimism &#8211; which holds CTRL+C and CTRL+V as sacred symbols &#8211; eventually prevailed and in 2012 was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-recognized-as-official-religion-in-sweden-120104/">officially approved</a> by the authorities.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/1f1aa757.kopimichurch.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kopimichurch.jpg" alt="Kopimi"></center></p>
<p>Just recently Sunde tried to exercise his right to meet with a representative of his chosen religion, but was met with prison red tape in response.</p>
<p>&#8220;The board of spiritual care (NAV) doesn&#8217;t have any representative for the Kopimist faith with whom they cooperate and therefore the Prison and Probation Service should provide permission for electronic contact with representatives from the Kopimist faith to believers,&#8221; <a href="http://www.thelocal.se/20140725/pirate-bay-founder-claims-religious-persecution">Sunde</a> wrote in his letter to authorities.</p>
<p>Whether this complaint will result in physical or even virtual access to a Kopimist priest is not yet clear. However, since Kopimism is an official religion, the authorities may have little choice but to comply. This throws up an interesting privacy-related question that Sunde himself mused over some two-and-a-half years ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;In some religions&#8230;there’s a Seal of Confession – which means that when you talk to a priest in the congregation, the priest has to keep what you say confidential. This is respected in some countries as law, where the courts can not make the priest testify against the individual,&#8221; Sunde <a href="http://blog.brokep.com/2012/01/06/kopimi-as-a-religion/">said</a> in 2012.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is probably the thing that I love the most with Kopimism as a religion – we can have yet another form of P2P communication – Priest2Priest. With no legal right for anyone to listen in to the conversation perhaps.&#8221;</p>
<p>It seems highly unlikely that Sunde will be allowed an online &#8220;encrypted confession&#8221; with a Kopimism &#8220;priest&#8221; anytime soon, but The Church of Kopimism&#8217;s legal status could throw up some headaches and dilemmas for the authorities as they try to process Peter&#8217;s complaint.</p>
<p>Not that he intended that, of course.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91531
title: American ISPs Receive 1.1 Million Piracy Settlements per Week
uri: American-ISPs-Receive-1-1-Million-Piracy-Settlements-per-Week
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jIt6MNWD9_E/
content:
<p><a href="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg"><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717"></a>February last year, five U.S. Internet providers <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/">started</a> sending copyright alerts to customers who allegedly pirate movies, TV-shows and music.</p>
<p>During the first year they sent out <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-results-show-high-number-of-persistent-pirates-140528/">1.3 million</a> educational notices, warning account holders that their connection was used to share pirated content. However, its scope pales in comparison to what others are doing. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with anti-piracy outfit <a href="http://www.cegtek.com/">CEG TEK</a>, who also send out warning letters on behalf of copyright holders. However, their version comes with a sting.</p>
<p>In addition to the traditional slap on the wrist their notices also include a settlement proposal, which can reach hundreds of dollars. These emails are sent as regular DMCA notices which the ISPs then forward to their customers.  </p>
<p>Little has been revealed about the scope of this program, but CEG TEK’s Kyle Reed now informs us that in 2013 they sent out 26 million notices to U.S. based Internet providers. The volume is expected to double this year as the company currently sends out 1.1 million notices per week.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an impressive number, but since not all ISPs are happy with the process only a small fraction of their customers receive the settlement offer to the respective account holder. </p>
<p>CEG TEK currently sends out requests to 3,493 Internet providers and 342 of these forward the settlement offer, which is roughly 10%. This includes many small ISPs as well as companies and universities.</p>
<p>Some providers forward the notice but without the request for a settlement. Comcast, for example, is known to do this. While CEG TEK prefers it if providers forward the entire notice, the stripped ones are also of value to their clients.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are various levels of cooperation. Success doesn&#8217;t always mean getting a settlement from an account holder. Rightsholders are also happy when they can get their anti-piracy message out there,&#8221; CEG TEK&#8217;s Kyle Reed tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Interestingly, there are also various ISPs who don&#8217;t forward anything. According to their interpretation of the DMCA they are not obliged to send the notices to their customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Several Internet providers don&#8217;t comply at all. They simply ignore our notices,&#8221; Reed says. </p>
<p>CEG TEK is not the only company to send these settlement requests as a DMCA takedown notice, Rightscorp does the same. Both companies have increased their output in recent years and major rightsholders such as Warner Bros. are in on the scheme.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s an interesting trend, one that goes above and beyond the official Copyright Alert System. According to CEG TEK the approach is effective. The company has gathered data on how their notices influence piracy rates, which it plans to publish in the future. </p>
<p>Whether that will be enough to make a dent in piracy rates remains to be seen though. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91225
title: TorrenTV Instantly Streams Movie Torrents to Apple TV
uri: TorrenTV-Instantly-Streams-Movie-Torrents-to-Apple-TV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/at4SDPFfBuU/
content:
<p><a href="media/bacbdece.appletv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/appletv.jpg"><img src="media/bacbdece.appletv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/appletv.jpg" alt="appletv" width="233" height="161" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91233"></a>Earlier this year <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/open-source-torrent-streaming-a-netflix-for-pirates-140308/">Popcorn Time</a> made headlines all over the Internet as one of the first apps to combine a simple and stylish user interface with an effective way to stream torrents.</p>
<p>The application also inspired dozens of developers to start their own spinoffs. While most of these apps mimicked the looks and functionality of the original application, <a href="http://torrentv.github.io/">TorrenTV</a> offers something completely different. </p>
<p>Instead of providing a Netflix-style index of movies, TorrenTV allows people to add their own torrents and stream these directly to an Apple TV. </p>
<p>&#8220;Popcorn Time is beautiful in code and in looks but I wanted to do two things that PopcornTime didn&#8217;t allow me, watch movies directly on my TV and add new torrents which Popcorn Time doesn&#8217;t have yet,&#8221; TorrenTV developer Carlos tells TorrentFreak. </p>
<p>Carlos started coding and a few weeks later TorrenTV was born. The application works by simply dropping a torrent or magnet link into it. The video file starts downloading and via Airplay it can be streamed directly to an Apple TV.</p>
<p><center><strong>TorrenTV for Linux, Mac and Windows</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c8674e41.torrentv-apps.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentv-apps.png"><img src="media/c8674e41.torrentv-apps.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentv-apps.png" alt="torrentv-apps" width="619" height="265" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91232"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrenTV uses Popcorn Time code and is built on the same Peerflix and torrent-stream libraries. There are plans to extend its functionality by adding Chromecast and Roku support in the future, but its simplicity will remain. </p>
<p>One of the main differences compared to Popcorn time is that TorrenTV doesn&#8217;t offer an index of movies. This may be a downside for some, but according to Carlos this is an advantage. </p>
<p>With no index of pirated content it can&#8217;t be taken down by the MPAA, which happened to Popcorn Time a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pulls-popcorn-time-off-github-140711/">few weeks ago</a>.</p>
<p>For those who are interested in taking it for a spin, TorrenTV is available for Mac, Windows and Linux and can be downloaded from the <a href="http://torrentv.github.io/">official site</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91601
title: Google Protects Chilling Effects From Takedown Notices
uri: Google-Protects-Chilling-Effects-From-Takedown-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n6Lx-dkoFkY/
content:
<p><a href="media/7c6b9504.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg"><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" alt="google-bay" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21875"></a>Each week many millions of DMCA-style copyright notices are sent to sites and services around the planet. Initially the process flew almost entirely under the radar, with senders and recipients dealing with complaints privately.</p>
<p>In 2001, that began to change with the advent of Chilling Effects, an archive created by activists who had become concerned that increasing volumes of cease-and-desist letters were having a &#8220;chilling effect&#8221; on speech.</p>
<p>In the decade-and-a-third that followed the archive grew to unprecedented levels, with giants such as Google and Twitter routinely sending received notices to the site for public retrieval.</p>
<p>However, while Chilling Effects strives to maintain free speech, several times a month rightsholders from around the world (probably unintentionally) try to silence the archive in specific ways by asking Google to de-index pages from the site.</p>
<p>As can be seen from the tables below, Home Box Office has tried to de-index Chilling Effects pages 240 times, with Microsoft and NBC Universal making 99 and 65 attempts respectively.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/a138b9e7.chilling1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chilling1.png" alt="Chilling1"></center></p>
<p>The &#8216;problem&#8217; for these copyright holders is two-fold. Firstly, Chilling Effects does indeed list millions of URLs that potentially link to infringing content. That does not sit well with copyright holders.</p>
<p>&#8220;Because the site does not redact information about the infringing URLs identified in the notices, it has effectively become the largest repository of URLs hosting infringing content on the internet,&#8221; the Copyright Alliance&#8217;s Sandra Aistars <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/chillingeffects-dmca-archive-is-repugnant-copyright-group-says-140316/">complained</a> earlier this year.</p>
<p><img src="media/67e48438.chilling.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chilling.jpg" width="180" height="110" class="alignright">However, what Aistars omits to mention is that Chilling Effects has a huge team of lawyers under the hood who know only too well that their archive receives protection under the law. Chilling Effects isn&#8217;t a pirate index, it&#8217;s an educational, informational, research resource.</p>
<p>Thanks to Google, which routinely throws out all attempts at removing Chilling Effects URLs from its indexes, we are able to see copyright holder attempts at de-indexing.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, for example, Wild Side Video and their anti-piracy partners LeakID sent <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1825380">this notice</a> to Google aiming to protect their title &#8220;Young Detective Dee.&#8221; As shown below, the notice contained several Chilling Effects URLs.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/fead8a6a.chilling2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chilling2.png" alt="chill2"></center></p>
<p>Each URL links to other DMCA notices on Chilling Effects, each sent by rival anti-piracy outfit Remove Your Media on behalf of Well Go USA Entertainment. They also target &#8220;Young Detective Dee&#8221;. This is an interesting situation that offers the potential for an endless loop, with the anti-piracy companies reporting each others&#8217; &#8220;infringing&#8221; links on Chilling Effects in fresh notices, each time failing to get them removed.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/3dc659cb.chilling3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chilling3.png" alt="chilling3"></center></p>
<p>The seeds of the &#8220;endless loop&#8221; phenomenon were also experienced by HBO for a while, with the anti-piracy company sending notices (such as <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1599781">this one</a>) targeting dozens of Chilling Effects pages listing notices previously sent by the company.</p>
<p>While publishing notices is entirely legal, the potential for these loops really angers some notice senders.</p>
<p>On April 10 this year a Peter Walley <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1625581">sent a notice</a> to Google complaining that his book was being made available on a &#8220;pirate site&#8221; without permission. Google removed the link in its indexes but, as is standard practice, linked to the notice on Chilling Effects. This enraged Walley.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/bfc83ebd.chilling4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chilling4.png" alt="chilling4"></center></p>
<p>None of these rantings had any effect, except to place <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1768222">yet another notice</a> on Chilling Effects highlighting where the infringing material could be found.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a lesson <a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=1804935">others</a> should learn from too.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91652
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 07/28/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-07-28-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jB9F0irie3c/
content:
<p><a href="media/d8c73069.expendables2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables2.jpg"><img src="media/d8c73069.expendables2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables2.jpg" alt="expendables" width="300" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91653"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Expendables 3, which <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/expendables-3-leaks-online-100k-copies-down-in-hours-140725/">leaked several weeks before the official premiere</a>, is the most downloaded movie this week.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140721/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_expendables_3/">The Expendables 3</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2333784/">?.?</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xD0junWlFc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/divergent/">Divergent</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1840309/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutgWjz10sM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_woman_2014/">The Other Woman</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203939/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/need_for_speed/">Need For Speed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369135/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrJWUVoXeM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_amazing_spider_man_2/">The Amazing Spider-Man 2</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872181/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbp3Ra3Yp74">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transformers_age_of_extinction/">Transformers: Age of Extinction</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2109248/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkIPIkPPbdo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/noah_2014/">Noah</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dawn_of_the_planet_of_the_apes/">Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sHMCRaS3ao">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/transcendence_2014/">Transcendence</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/?">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCTen3-B8GU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hercules_reborn/">Hercules Reborn</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3499424/">3.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WRVzjIjYGQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91655
title: Japan to Crack Down on Anime and Manga Piracy
uri: Japan-to-Crack-Down-on-Anime-and-Manga-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OJOepK1JJi4/
content:
<p><a href="media/c8299d44.japan.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png"><img src="media/64198147.japan.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/japan.png" alt="japan" width="200" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57939"></a>In an effort to crackdown on Internet piracy, during October 2012 the Japanese government introduced new legislation <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/anti-downloading-law-hits-japan-up-to-2-years-in-prison-from-today-121001/">targeted</a> at file-sharers.</p>
<p>To support existing punishments of up to 10 years in prison for uploaders, knowingly downloading copyright-infringing material became an offense carrying a potential two years in jail. While it was hoped that these measures would encourage consumers to do the right thing, today the problems persist.</p>
<p>As a result, this week the Japanese government will act in order to preserve what it sees as one of its greatest cultural exports.</p>
<p>Anime and manga are now consumed in countries right around the world and Japan sees this interest in Japanese culture as useful to its relationships abroad. However, with that popularity comes piracy, much of it facilitated by unlicensed overseas sites.</p>
<p>In the hope of remedying the situation overseas, this Friday will see the launch of a massive anti-piracy campaign aimed at making a huge dent in anime and manga piracy.</p>
<p>The government and 15 leading producers and distributors <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20140728/t10013332551000.html">will begin</a> contacting an estimated 580 &#8220;overseas pirate sites&#8221; with demands that they mass-delete infringing content. The sites are located in various regions, but there will be a particular focus on China.</p>
<p>Whether those sites will comply will remain to be seen, but should pirate content become harder to find the campaign wants to be able to capitalize on that opportunity. According to <a href="http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20140728/t10013332551000.html">NHK</a>, a new site will direct fans to legal copies of the 250 affected works at a flat price of a few hundred yen.</p>
<p>“We want to create a project so that anime fans overseas can enjoy Japanese content legally and without infringement worries while the profits are paid to anime production companies and publishers,” a Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry spokesman said.</p>
<p>It seems highly unlikely that overseas sites will comply fully with the requests of the Japanese. However, by attempting to serve the overseas markets with legal content it will at least make it easier for foreigners to open their wallets, should they feel inclined to do so.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91672
title: “Scared” Pirates Delayed Release of Expendables 3
uri: Scared-Pirates-Delayed-Release-of-Expendables-3
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WpqesVCv32w/
content:
<p><img src="media/a23fe245.expendables3.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables3.jpg" width="180" height="241" class="alignright">Last week saw the leak online of the brand new Expendables movie.</p>
<p>Earmarked for an August 15 U.S. release, Expendables 3 <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/expendables-3-leaks-online-100k-copies-down-in-hours-140725/">leaked</a> in near DVD quality a full two weeks ahead. The timing and quality combined to make the leak one of the most prominent in recent years.</p>
<p>While the original sources of these leaks are nearly always shrouded in mystery, once made publicly available on sites like The Pirate Bay they are anyone&#8217;s for download.</p>
<p>Originally it was believed that Pirate Bay releaser Drarbg uploaded the first public torrent, but that was not the case. Flying under the radar a hugely less popular torrent (still only with a handful of seeds) actually preceded it by almost 20 minutes.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/0e788a52.exp-charles.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/exp-charles.png" alt="exp-charles"></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s certainly feasible that another release preceded even this one, but with torrents on sites other than Pirate Bay regularly deleted due to copyright complaints, it&#8217;s now too late for any certainty.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s also impossible to say how many people were in the chain after the leak and before the first public torrent upload, but numerous public sources (including RARBG themselves) are now pointing to postings on 4chan as indicating the start of events.</p>
<p>The thread <a href="http://archive.foolz.us/tv/thread/46597289/">is right here</a> and obviously everything happened in public. The postings don&#8217;t specifically mention the title of the movie but a source close to the situation assures TF that the chat does indeed refer to The Expendables 3.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/53aad57c.4chan-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/4chan-1.png" alt="4chan-1"></center></p>
<p>Less than two hours after his initial posting on July 15, &#8216;Anonymous&#8217; was back on 4chan with an update.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am in contact with a release group that works with private trackers. They asked me for proof of what I had and I took pictures with a written timestamp of the disc in and out of the box,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;I dumped them into some special submission link they had and they will get back to me. I&#8217;m just waiting in a secured IRC room for them to get back to me once the staff takes a look.&#8221;</p>
<p>Precisely what happened after then is a mystery (as is the leaker&#8217;s apparent disregard for security by posting in public) but a source informs TF that whoever obtained the copy knew they had something hot &#8211; perhaps too hot.</p>
<p>&#8220;We know that the leak was back then, around July 15, but everyone was scared to leak it. Most private groups had it for more than 10 days, but again they were scared to leak it,&#8221; TF was told.</p>
<p>After the leaked copy was allegedly handed over July 15, the comments of &#8216;Anonymous&#8217; as he returned to 4chan predicted the events of last Thursday.</p>
<p>&#8220;Keep an eye out for the leak. No telling how long this will take, but I&#8217;m sure it will make its way to public trackers due to the demand for it,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>Interestingly, although initial demand for The Expendables 3 was brisk, downloads now sit at an estimated 500,000, and it&#8217;s currently less popular on file-sharing networks than &#8220;Divergent&#8221; which was released on the same day.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91708
title: Ford and General Motors Sued Over ‘CD Ripping Cars’
uri: Ford-and-General-Motors-Sued-Over-CD-Ripping-Cars
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RSUOyCZOG1s/
content:
<p><a href="media/1c54a67f.ford-juke.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ford-juke.jpg"><img src="media/1c54a67f.ford-juke.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ford-juke.jpg" alt="ford-juke" width="300" height="205" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91716"></a>A quarter century ago the music industry was confronted with a new threat &#8211; cassette tape recorders. </p>
<p>These devices were able to make &#8220;near perfect&#8221; copies of any audio recording and the RIAA and others feared this would be the end of the recorded music industry.</p>
<p>The record labels took their fears to Congress, which eventually resulted in the Audio Home Recording Act (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_Home_Recording_Act">AHRA</a>) of 1992. Under this law importers and manufacturers have to pay royalties on &#8220;digital audio recording devices,&#8221; among other things.</p>
<p>The legislation also applies to some newer recording devices common today, which is now causing trouble for Ford and General Motors. Both companies ship cars with the ability to rip CDs onto internal hard drives and according to a coalition of artists and record companies this violates copyright law.</p>
<p>The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_Artists_and_Recording_Companies">AARC</a>), which lists major record labels and 300,000 artists among its members, filed a class action lawsuit on Friday in which they demand millions of dollars in compensation.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak obtained a copy of the complaint (<a href="media/5a56ac66.ford-gmclass.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ford-gmclass.pdf">pdf</a>) which states that Ford&#8217;s &#8220;Jukebox&#8221; device and General Motor&#8217;s &#8220;Hard Drive Device&#8221; allow consumers to rip CDs onto an internal hard drive. According to the music group these devices fall under the Audio Home Recording Act and the car companies are therefore required to pay royalties. </p>
<p>Thus far, neither Ford nor General Motors has complied with any requirements of the Act. Both companies have sold cars with these devices for several years on a variety of models including the Lincoln MKS, Ford Taurus, Ford Explorer, Buick LaCrosse, Cadillac SRX, Chevrolet Volt, and GMC Terrain.</p>
<p>In addition to the two car companies, the lawsuit also targets their technology partners Denso and Clarion. Commenting on the dispute the AARC notes that a class action lawsuit was unavoidable. </p>
<p>“Twenty-two years ago, cooperation between music creators and device manufacturers resulted in legislation that led to a digital electronics revolution. But having reaped the benefits of this bargain, Ford, GM, Denso, and Clarion have now decided to ignore their obligations to music creators and declare themselves above the law,” AARC Executive Director Linda Bocchi comments</p>
<p>“While no one likes litigation, Ford, GM, Denso, and Clarion have stonewalled long enough, and we are determined to collect the royalties our members – and all artists and music creators with rights under the AHRA – are owed,” Bocchi adds.</p>
<p>The artists and record labels are looking for both actual and statutory damages, which could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars. In addition, they want to prevent the manufacturers from selling these unauthorized devices in their cars.</p>
<p>The case will prove to be an interesting test of the legality of &#8220;recording&#8221; devices in car entertainment systems. As is usually true, the law is not as black and white as AARC&#8217;s complaint states. </p>
<p>For example, the lawsuit doesn&#8217;t mention that the Audio Home Recording Act includes various exemptions for personal use and for recording equipment that&#8217;s part of a larger device, such as CD-burners in computers.  </p>
<p>It&#8217;s now up to the court to decide how cars fit into this picture. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91732
title: Police Begin Placing Warning Adverts on ‘Pirate’ Sites
uri: Police-Begin-Placing-Warning-Adverts-on-Pirate-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Mc8hMgiIF1k/
content:
<p><a href="media/bc6e239e.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg"><img src="media/31176dbb.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg" alt="cityoflondonpolice" width="200" height="82" class="alignright size-full wp-image-71397"></a>For a year, City of London Police have been working with the music and movie industries on initiatives to cut down on the consumption of pirated content online. </p>
<p>Operation Creative employs a multi-pronged approach, seeking to educate consumers while making life difficult for sites that operate unlicensed services.</p>
<p>Many unauthorized sites generate revenue from advertising, so the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) informs potential advertisers on how to keep their promotions away, thus depriving sites of cash. Another key aim is to stop users from getting the impression that pirate sites have &#8220;big brand&#8221; support when household names are seen advertising.</p>
<p>Today, PIPCU officially announced the launch of another angle to their ad strategy. As <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/police-prepare-to-place-banner-ads-on-pirate-sites-140402/">reported by TF</a> in April, police are now placing their own ads on pirate sites to warn users that the site they&#8217;re using has been reported.</p>
<p>“This new initiative is another step forward for the unit in tackling IP crime and disrupting criminal profits,&#8221; said Head of PIPCU, DCI Andy Fyfe.</p>
<p>&#8220;Copyright infringing websites are making huge sums of money though advert placement, therefore disrupting advertising on these sites is crucial and this is why it is an integral part of Operation Creative.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Sample police ad</strong></p>
<p>As shown below, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28523738">BBC</a> has published a PIPCU-supplied screenshot of how the ads look on an unauthorized MP3 site known as Full-Albums.net.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/5f7f4219.pipcu-ad-mp3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pipcu-ad-mp3.png" alt="PIPCU-ad-mp3"></center></p>
<p>In our tests we couldn&#8217;t replicate the banners, despite dozens of refreshes, so it&#8217;s possible the site took action to remove them. Needless to say, we did see other advertising, and very interesting it was too.</p>
<p>Ironically, by clicking album links on Full-Albums we were presented with ads from BearShare, a music service that struck deals with the RIAA in the last decade. As can be seen from the screenshot below, the service places the major labels&#8217; logos prominently to attract customers, even when accessed from a UK IP address. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/d9b0c70f.bear-adsss.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bear-adsss.png" alt="Bear-ads"></center></p>
<p>TF checked with the BPI on the licensing status of the service in the UK and will update this article when their statement arrives, but as can be seen from <a href="http://support.bearshare.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/2/2/faqs---frequently-asked-questions">this quote</a> from the BearShare site, they claim to be legal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using BearShare is 100% legal. The service employs state of the art filtering technology, and is approved by the major record labels and RIAA. Downloading from BearShare is entirely legal, and will not get you in any kind of trouble whatsoever,&#8221; the service says.</p>
<p>If Bearshare is licensed, this raises the possibility that the labels are indirectly financing ads on pirate sites themselves, something they&#8217;ll want to quickly remedy.</p>
<p><strong>Ads on other sites</strong></p>
<p>PIPCU, who have partnered with content verification technology provider &#8216;Project Sunblock&#8217; to place the warning ads, say their banners are &#8220;now replacing a wide range of legitimate brand adverts on infringing websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, determined to find examples of the police advertising, we began moving through sites with the most copyright complaints as per Google&#8217;s Transparency Report.</p>
<p>Unfortunately we were unable to view a single PIPCU banner. However, as shown in the screenshot below, we did get some interesting results on MP3Juices, a site for which the BPI has sent 1,206,000+ takedowns to Google.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/d55f4483.juicebet.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/juicebet.png" alt="Juicebet"></center></p>
<p>Skybet is not only a subsidiary of broadcasting giant BSkyB, but the company is also <a href="http://www.fact-uk.org.uk/about/members/">a leading member</a> of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. In turn, FACT is a key Operation Creative partner. While Sky Bet wasn&#8217;t the only gambling advertiser on the site, this ad placement means that BSkyB are currently helping to finance the very sites that PIPCU are trying to close down.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s absolutely no suggestion that Sky or the major labels via Bearshare are deliberately trying to finance pirate sites, but the above examples show just how difficult it&#8217;s going to be to keep major brand&#8217;s advertising off these sites, even when they are acutely aware of the problems.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91769
title: Block The Pirate Bay Within 3 Days, Austrian ISPs Told
uri: Block-The-Pirate-Bay-Within-3-Days-Austrian-ISPs-Told
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NKcHPc1Z0eI/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd06f581.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470"></a>Kino.to, one of Germany&#8217;s largest illegal streaming portals, was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kino-to-raided-in-massive-police-operation-admins-arrested-110608/">shut down</a> during  2011 following the largest law enforcement action against of its type in Europe. But even with the site long gone the disruption it caused is about to affect The Pirate Bay and two other major sites.</p>
<p>Just a month before Kino.to was dismantled in June 2011, Austrian ISP &#8216;UPC&#8217; was served with a preliminary injunction ordering it to block subscriber access to the site. Verein für Anti-Piraterie der österreichischen Film und Videobranche (VAP) – the anti-piracy association of the Austrian film and video industry &#8211; had been on the warpath <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-seeks-isp-level-block-of-movie-streaming-portal-101105/">since 2010</a> and had finally got their way after UPC refused to comply voluntarily.</p>
<p>But would blocking the site be legal? UPC insisted that it couldn&#8217;t be held responsible for a site it had nothing to do with. The ISP also maintained that there had been no court ruling determining that UPC customers who accessed Kino.to were breaking the law.</p>
<p>To settle the matter once and for all the Austrian Supreme Court asked the European Court of Justice to clarify whether a company that provides Internet access to people using an illegal website could be required to block that site. On March 27, 2014, the ECJ handed down its decision.</p>
<p>On UPC&#8217;s first point the Court said that EU law does not require a specific relationship between the person infringing copyright and the intermediary against whom any injunction had been issued. On the second point the Court said that proof of illegality was not necessary as the law exists not only to bring an end to infringement, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-isps-can-be-forced-to-block-pirate-sites-140327/">but also to prevent it</a>.</p>
<p>The key point of the ruling was that ISPs can indeed be required to block access to infringing sites provided that injunctions are both balanced and proportional. As a result, earlier this month Austria&#8217;s Supreme Court found that the blockade against Kino.to, even though the site is long dead, was correctly applied.</p>
<p>On the back of this ruling, this week VAP wrote to several local ISPs, UPC included, demanding a new blockade of three domains – ThePirateBay.se, Movie4K.to and Kinox.to, a site that took over from Kino.to.</p>
<p>&#8220;Letters dated yesterday have been sent to four large ISPs containing a request to block a small number of websites,&#8221; VAP Managing Director Werner Müller <a href="http://futurezone.at/netzpolitik/heimische-provider-muessen-the-pirate-bay-sperren/77.377.461">told</a> Future Zone.</p>
<p>On behalf of three local movie companies (Allegro Film, Wega Film and Epo Film) VAP has requested IP address and DNS blocks of the three sites but has given the ISPs very little time in which to carry them out, by this Friday August 1, to be exact.</p>
<p>The Association of Internet Service Providers Austria (ISPA) feels the deadline is far too restrictive.</p>
<p>&#8220;The period given to the providers to act is ludicrously short. We see this as very problematic. Extreme pressure is being exerted,&#8221; Secretary General Maximilian Schubert said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Two working days during the holiday season is just too little. To implement this by Friday we deem too difficult.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interestingly, Schubert also sees differences between The Pirate Bay and the pair of streaming portals listed in VAP&#8217;s blocking request.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is also legal content on The Pirate Bay,&#8221; Schubert said.</p>
<p>Discussions between VAP and the ISPs are scheduled for later in the week, so whether the anti-piracy group will get its way immediately will remain to be seen. They&#8217;ve waited years already, another few days shouldn&#8217;t make much difference.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The ISPs were given <a href="http://futurezone.at/netzpolitik/galgenfrist-fuer-netzsperren-in-oesterreich/77.815.521">two more weeks</a> to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91676
title: “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Scheme Costs 3 Million Per Year
uri: Six-Strikes-Anti-Piracy-Scheme-Costs-3-Million-Per-Year
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YiCr8YG2wE4/
content:
<p><a href="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg"><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717"></a>February last year, the MPAA, RIAA and five major U.S. Internet providers started sending copyright alerts to customers who pirate movies, TV-shows and music. </p>
<p>Through a series of warnings suspected pirates are informed that their connections are being used to share copyrighted material without permission, and told where they can find legal alternatives.</p>
<p>These efforts are part of the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-starts-130225/">Copyright Alert System</a> which is headed by the Center for Copyright Information (<a href="http://www.copyrightinformation.org/">CCI</a>). The goal of this voluntary partnership is to educate the public and point alleged pirates to legal alternatives. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s known that the costs of the program are split between the copyright holders and Internet providers, CCI has been reluctant to share any financial details. Luckily the IRS provides some insight on this front.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak obtained the most recent <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/235365163/cci-990">tax filing</a> of the six-strikes outfit which covers the company’s operations between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013. The document reveals that the program cost nearly $3 million during that period.</p>
<p>To put this figure in perspective, the CCI previously reported that <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-results-show-high-number-of-persistent-pirates-140528/">1.3 million notices</a> were sent out during the first 10 months. This means that the cost per notice translates to roughly $2, which is rather high. </p>
<p><center><strong>Center for Copyright Information&#8217;s Form 990</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c2ed2b69.cci.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cci.jpg"><img src="media/c2ed2b69.cci.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cci.jpg" alt="cci" width="658" height="556" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91771"></a></center></p>
<p>Looking at how the money is spent we see that the only paid employee, CCI Executive Director Jill Lesser, received $320,000 in compensation. Another $350,000 went to Lesser&#8217;s consulting firm, JAL Consulting, which was hired as an independent contractor.</p>
<p>The RIAA&#8217;s former lobbying firm Stroz Friedberg received $420,000 for the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-independent-expert-is-riaas-former-lobbying-firm-121022/">independent expert analysis</a> of the evidence gathering technology behind the project. After we uncovered the RIAA ties CCI later hired a second independent expert, but the results of this do-over have yet to be published. </p>
<p>The largest independent contractor is the Glover Park Group, who handle CCI&#8217;s communication. They received more than $680,000 over the reported period. American Arbitration, who handle the appeals of people who claim to be wrongly accused, was paid $245,000 for its services.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that the costs for the Internet providers are higher than the amount they pay to the CCI. The ISPs also spend money on the technical setup that&#8217;s required to handle the Copyright Alerts as well as extra customer support. </p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how these costs develop over the years. CCI previously announced that more Copyright Alerts would be sent out this year, so it&#8217;s expected that the average of $2 per warning will eventually reduce.</p>
<p>Whether the copyright holders will ever be able to recoup their investments remains to be seen.   </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91802
title: Popcorn Time Adds Apple TV Support, iOS App Coming Soon
uri: Popcorn-Time-Adds-Apple-TV-Support-iOS-App-Coming-Soon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hu3GpPAmDNo/
content:
<p><a href="media/373f7cd8.popcorn.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn.png"><img src="media/b134dbd9.popcorn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn.png" alt="popcorn" width="203" height="102" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89282"></a>The Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. </p>
<p>The software became an instant hit by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy-to-use Netflix-style interface.</p>
<p>While the original app was <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-devs-drop-like-flies-but-no-one-will-talk-140420/">shut down</a> by the developers after a few weeks, the project was quickly picked up by others. This resulted in several popular forks that have gained <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/popcorn-time-has-millions-of-users-140709/">millions of users</a> in recent months.  </p>
<p>Today one of the most popular <a href="http://time4popcorn.eu ">Popcorn Time</a> forks releases a highly anticipated feature. The developers inform TorrentFreak that the latest version now has Airplay support, making it possible to stream movies directly to Apple TVs and other supported devices.</p>
<p>Ironically, Airplay support is currently limited to the Windows release, but a Mac version is due early next week and the Linux release will follow shortly after.</p>
<p>The latest feature follows the addition of Chromecast support a few weeks ago, but this is by no means the last planned development.</p>
<p><center><strong>Popcorn Time adds Airplay support</strong></center><br></br><center><a href="media/45259cc7.popcorn_time_appletv_airplay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn_time_appletv_airplay.jpg"><img src="media/45259cc7.popcorn_time_appletv_airplay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcorn_time_appletv_airplay.jpg" alt="popcorn_time_appletv_airplay" width="700" height="510" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91804"></a></center></p>
<p>Looking ahead the developers hope to bring the Popcorn Time experience to as many operating systems and devices as possible.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our ultimate goal is to bring Popcorn Time to every platform, operating system and device that can play videos, so Airplay is one particle of a huge revolution we&#8217;re making to the torrents and movies world online,&#8221; the time4popcorn.eu team told us. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is only the beginning&#8230; You know us, we have many more surprises coming your way,&#8221; they add. </p>
<p>One of the &#8220;surprises&#8221; is a native iOS app. Although it probably won&#8217;t be featured in Apple&#8217;s App Store anytime soon, Popcorn Time will be available on jailbroken iPhones and iPads in the near future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Support for iOS devices will be ready in August. It&#8217;s already working in our development environment and it&#8217;s looking beautiful,&#8221; the team notes.</p>
<p>Popcorn Time&#8217;s popularity hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by Hollywood. A few weeks ago the MPAA pushed back and managed to get two popular forks <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pulls-popcorn-time-off-github-140711/">removed from Github</a> claiming that the apps are hurting the major movie studios. </p>
<p>While this was a setback, it doesn&#8217;t seem to have hindered development much. Both Popcorn Time forks are still around and new features are being rolled out faster than ever. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91800
title: Kim Dotcom’s Assets Attacked From Multiple Directions
uri: Kim-Dotcom-s-Assets-Attacked-From-Multiple-Directions
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/wxE8TmjVTIA/
content:
<p><a href="media/57d13949.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg"><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="dotcom-laptop" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>While there are plenty of people who would like to portray Kim Dotcom as the biggest copyright offender the world has ever seen, there are many who look beyond that towards his larger than life persona and playboy-style riches.</p>
<p>His lifestyle, one in which he inhabits a huge and luxurious mansion while traveling the country in helicopters, is made all the more interesting by the fact that authorities in the United States, New Zealand and Hong Kong attempted to seize all of Dotcom&#8217;s assets back in 2012.</p>
<p>While they succeeded in locking up millions, it&#8217;s evident that Dotcom has assets elsewhere and is currently disposing of them.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the argument being put forth by Dotcom foes 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal, Columbia Pictures and Warner Bros who have not only initiated legal action in the United States, but have also done so in New Zealand. They&#8217;re keeping an eye on Dotcom&#8217;s spending to ensure there&#8217;s something left for them should they <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/">prevail in their legal action</a>.</p>
<p>In a new judgment out today, Justice Patricia Courtney said there is indeed evidence to suggest that Dotcom had been giving &#8220;very substantial payments&#8221; to<br>
his fledgling &#8220;Internet Party&#8221; political party. His offer to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/how-kim-dotcoms-5m-whistleblower-bounty-will-work-140607/">pay a $5m bounty</a> to a whistle-blower was also noted.</p>
<p>As a result, Judge Courtney <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&#038;objectid=11301558">concluded</a> that there is &#8220;a danger that any judgment obtained by the applicants will go unsatisfied, partly or wholly, as a result of Mr Dotcom disposing of assets.&#8221;</p>
<p>In an effort to put the brakes on that possibility, the Judge gave Dotcom until August 20 to reveal all of his assets &#8220;wherever they are located&#8221; and to identify &#8220;the nature of his interest in them.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, speaking with <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/250987/dotcom-ordered-to-disclose-assets">RadioNZ</a>, Dotcom said any money he&#8217;s spending now has been made since the mansion raids of 2012.</p>
<p>&#8220;The assets that they are talking about now are new assets that were created because of my entrepreneurial skill after the raid. So they&#8217;re trying to attack assets that have nothing to do with MegaUpload or anything that I have run previously as business operations,&#8221; Dotcom said.</p>
<p>However, the $11.8 million in assets already subjected to a criminal restraining order following the raid in New Zealand are also under attack. In April the High Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/high-court-kim-dotcom-can-have-his-cars-millions-in-cash-returned-140416/">said</a> Dotcom could have his assets returned. That decision was quickly <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-faces-appeal-in-seized-property-battle-140430/">appealed</a> by the Crown and the case was heard at the Court of Appeal today.</p>
<p>A lawyer for the police <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/digital-living/60390305/police-want-dotcom-assets-forfeited.html">told</a> the Court that although the assets are being held under a criminal restraining order in New Zealand, the Court did not need to take into account whether the cases being pursued in the United States against Dotcom were criminal or civil in nature.</p>
<p>The judges reserved their decision on whether the freeze on Dotcom&#8217;s assets should continue for another year in addition to the two years plus that have already passed.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, over in the United States, Dotcom lawyer Ira Rothken <a href="https://twitter.com/rothken/status/494247595980517376">announced</a> that the US Federal Court had granted <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-wants-freeze-mpaa-riaa-lawsuits-140722/">a motion to stay</a> all civil copyright litigation against his client until April 1, 2015.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91847
title: Bleep… BitTorrent Unveils Serverless & Encrypted Chat Client
uri: Bleep-BitTorrent-Unveils-Serverless-Encrypted-Chat-Client
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/it8Us2LG-gk/
content:
<p><a href="media/13af43eb.bleep.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bleep.jpg"><img src="media/13af43eb.bleep.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bleep.jpg" alt="bleep" width="250" height="111" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91848"></a>Encrypted Internet traffic <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/encrypted-internet-traffic-surges-140514/">surged</a> worldwide after the Snowden revelations, with several developers releasing new tools to enable people to better protect their privacy. </p>
<p>Today BitTorrent Inc. contributes with the release of BitTorrent Bleep, a communication tool that allows people to exchange information without the need for any central servers. Combined with state of the art end-to-end encryption, the company sees Bleep as the ideal tool to evade government snooping.</p>
<p>Bleep&#8217;s main advantage over some other encrypted messaging applications is the absence of central servers. This means that there are no logs stored, all metadata goes through other peers in the network.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many messaging apps are advertising privacy and security by offering end-to-end encryption for messages. But when it comes to handling metadata, they are still leaving their users exposed,&#8221; BitTorrent&#8217;s Farid Fadaie explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;We reimagined how modern messaging should work. Our platform enables us to offer features in Bleep that are unique and meaningfully different from what is currently available.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Bleep Bleep</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/fdccdd24.BleepScreen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/BleepScreen.jpg"><img src="media/fdccdd24.BleepScreen.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/BleepScreen.jpg" alt="BleepScreen" width="1000" height="759" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91866"></a></center></p>
<p>The application&#8217;s development is still in the early stages and the current release only works on Windows 7 and 8. Support for other operating systems including popular mobile platforms will follow in the future. </p>
<p>Aspiring Bleep users can create an account via an email or mobile phone number, but an incognito mode without the need to provide any personal details is also supported.</p>
<p>The new messaging app is not the only ‘breach safe’ tool the company is currently working on. Last year BitTorrent launched its Sync application which provides a secure alternative to centralized cloud backup solutions such as Dropbox and Google Drive.</p>
<p>BitTorrent Inc. is inviting people to test the new Bleep application, but warns there are still some bugs. </p>
<p>Those who want to give BitTorrent Bleep a try can head over to BitTorrent&#8217;s <a href="http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/bleep/">experiments section</a> to sign up for the pre-Alpha release.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91870
title: Piracy Fight Needs Content Available at a Fair Price, Minister Says
uri: Piracy-Fight-Needs-Content-Available-at-a-Fair-Price-Minister-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uo-mtNcozPc/
content:
<p><a href="media/bf524f61.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg"><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717"></a>For close to a decade Australia has been struggling with what the content industries see as a serious online piracy problem but today the country seems closer than ever to a legislative tipping point.</p>
<p>A paper <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/leaked-paper-reveals-aussie-anti-piracy-crackdown-musings-140725/">leaked last week</a> revealed that the government is looking towards a range of piracy mitigation measures, from holding ISPs more responsible for their users&#8217; actions to the ISP-level blocking of so-called &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites.</p>
<p>To coincide with the paper&#8217;s official release yesterday, the Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA), the trade body representing subscription<br>
television platforms, published <a href="http://www.astra.org.au/ArticleDocuments/116/Media%20release%20-%20Most%20Australians%20support%20piracy%20crackdown%20%20.pdf.aspx?Embed=Y">(PDF)</a> the results of a survey in which 60% of respondents agreed that people who facilitate piracy should face prosecution.</p>
<p>Whether the respondents understood that those &#8220;facilitators&#8221; include those who download TV shows and movies using BitTorrent isn&#8217;t clear, but the reality on the ground is that a large section of the Australian public has grown weary of being treated as second class consumers. Content not only arrives months adrift on a slow boat from the United States, but also at vastly elevated rates that defy reasonable explanation. This has led many to download TV shows instead, something which has led into today&#8217;s debate.</p>
<p>But while some of the Government&#8217;s proposals are causing unease due to a perceived reliance on a Big Media &#8220;wishlist&#8221;, there are signs that ministers understand that the piracy problem doesn&#8217;t exist in a vacuum.</p>
<p>In an interview with ABC&#8217;s Chris Uhlmann, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnball was put on the spot over what some view as the exploitation of Australian consumers by international entertainment companies. So why do Aussies pay 40% more than those in the US to download movies from iTunes?</p>
<p>&#8220;That is, that is a very powerful argument,&#8221; Turnball <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2014/s4057661.htm">conceded</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;If I can just say so, there is an obligation on the content owners, if their concerns are to be taken seriously and they are by government, and if governments are to take action to help them prevent piracy, then they&#8217;ve got to play their part which is to make their content available universally and affordably.&#8221;</p>
<p>The argument that content has to be made widely available at a fair price before progress can be made cannot be understated and it will be extremely interesting to see whether the Minister&#8217;s acknowledgment of the problem will become a sticking point in negotiations as potential legislation draws closer.</p>
<p>But in the meantime, why are content producers &#8220;ripping off&#8221; Aussies with inflated prices? Profit, apparently.</p>
<p>&#8220;Well, I assume it&#8217;s because they feel they can make money out of it,&#8221; Turnball said.</p>
<p>Of course, commercial decisions like this get made every day, but as Uhlmann pointed out to the Minister, for Internet content the justification isn&#8217;t strong &#8211; from a technical standpoint it doesn&#8217;t cost any more to make content available for download in Australia than in the United States.</p>
<p>The entertainment companies&#8217; &#8220;right&#8221; to charge whatever they like is their business, Turnball reiterated, but that approach may come at a price. </p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to discourage piracy, the best thing you can do, and the music industry is a very good example of this, the way they&#8217;ve responded, the best thing you can do is to make your content available globally, universally and affordably. In other words, you just keep on reducing and reducing and reducing the incentive for people to do the wrong thing,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>Turnball also noted that following the publication of the discussion paper, content owners are going to have to justify why they are charging Australians more than overseas counterparts. That might prove a very interesting discussion.</p>
<p>Finally, the government is now inviting <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/Consultations/Pages/Onlinecopyrightinfringement-publicconsultationform.aspx">submissions from the public</a> on the issue of online copyright infringement. There is no specific mention of offering content widely at a fair price, however, something which has drawn the ire of the Pirate Party.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead of addressing the reality that Australians are paying more money for less content than other countries, the Discussion Paper is biased towards turning Internet service providers into &#8216;Internet police&#8217; and censorship in the form of website blocking, neither of which have proven effective overseas,&#8221; Pirate Party President-elect Brendan Molloy said in a statement.</p>
<p>Those interested have until September 1 to make their opinions heard &#8211; question 9 might prove an opportunity to talk about a fair deal for Australians.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91745
title: Microsoft Gets GitHub to Remove “Infringing” Xbox Music App
uri: Microsoft-Gets-GitHub-to-Remove-Infringing-Xbox-Music-App
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9cS20Gqq6HY/
content:
<p><a href="media/4694de00.audiotica.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/audiotica.jpg"><img src="media/4694de00.audiotica.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/audiotica.jpg" alt="audiotica" width="222" height="304" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91897"></a>A few weeks ago Microsoft <a href="http://www.wpcentral.com/microsoft-opens-xbox-music-api-all-developers">extended</a> its Xbox Music API, allowing third-party developers to link their apps to the music service. </p>
<p>This resulted in a range of new apps that provide access to Xbox Music tracks, but Microsoft is not happy with all of them. </p>
<p>Earlier this week the company contacted developer platform GitHub, asking the company to remove all code related to the <a href="https://github.com/Zumicts/Audiotica">Audiotica download tool</a>, which they did. </p>
<p>In its <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2014-07-28-Microsoft.md">takedown notice</a> Microsoft explains that the app in question provides users with DRM-free music, something it is not allowed to do. Specifically, the app is said to violate the circumvention clause of the DMCA.</p>
<p>&#8220;This code violates [...] the DMCA in that it allows users to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to copyrighted works by facilitating the unauthorized conversion of songs streamed via Xbox Music into DRM-free MP3s that can be easily shared online,&#8221; Microsoft writes.</p>
<p>Microsoft explains that the application puts its licensing agreements with the major music labels in jeopardy. Under these agreements the company has to protect music tracks from being shared online without restrictions. </p>
<p>&#8220;As part of Microsoft’s agreements with the copyright owners of the songs included in the service, Microsoft has both authorization from and an obligation to those copyright owners to control access to their works by employing an effective DRM system,&#8221; Microsoft notes. </p>
<p>An interesting argument, since the tracks provided by Xbox&#8217;s Music service appear to be free of DRM.</p>
<p><center><strong>Xbox Music API</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/9425a367.music_api.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/music_api.png"><img src="media/9425a367.music_api.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/music_api.png" alt="music_api" width="800" height="382" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91884"></a></center></p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted Audiotica developer Harry who was unpleasantly surprised by Microsoft&#8217;s takedown notice. He notes that Microsoft itself is the one making it easy to access DRM-free music through the Xbox Music API. </p>
<p>&#8220;Audiotica is programmed so users with an Xbox Subscription can download directly from Xbox Music. This is what surprised me about the takedown. Microsoft claims we can&#8217;t allow users to obtain DRM free music from their service, while they&#8217;re the one providing it,&#8221; Harry says. </p>
<p>Microsoft most likely took offense to the fact that the application allowed users to download and store tracks. Although this might not technically be a form of &#8220;circumvention,&#8221; it does violate the API&#8217;s terms of service. </p>
<p>The Audiotica developer says he will ask GitHub to reinstate his project, without the Xbox Music feature. The application will still be able to access music from other sources including YouTube, VK and Soundcloud.</p>
<p>&#8220;Right now I will be filling a counter notice to bring it back. To avoid further problems with Microsoft I will be removing Xbox Music from the MP3 crawler engine and the downloader.&#8221;</p>
<p>Microsoft&#8217;s takedown request follows a new trend in which copyright holders are targeting GitHub projects. Previously the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-pulls-popcorn-time-off-github-140711/">MPAA successfully requested</a> the takedown of two popular Popcorn Time forks. While both the MPAA and Microsoft don&#8217;t own any of the code, the alleged indirect infringements were sufficient to take the code down.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91894
title: Punish Music Pirates With Finger Amputations, Artist Says
uri: Punish-Music-Pirates-With-Finger-Amputations-Artist-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/D2REMoXmRWg/
content:
<p><a href="media/cc0d82c6.carrot.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/carrot.png"><img src="media/cc0d82c6.carrot.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/carrot.png" alt="carrot" width="200" height="145" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91904"></a>If there was a guaranteed and cost-effective way for the creative industries to clamp down on piracy, rest assured they would take it. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet in today&#8217;s arsenal.</p>
<p>Ordering ISPs to block &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites is one approach, but at least in the first instance the process is both expensive and drawn out, often taking a number of years to come to fruition.</p>
<p>Another method is to hit Internet users who dare to download and share copyrighted material. Some frameworks, such as those in the United States and United Kingdom, envision a situation where people can be persuaded to do the right thing after receiving warning letters. More aggressive schemes, such as those in South Korea and New Zealand, foresee potential disconnections for persistent pirates.</p>
<p>But one musician in Nigeria believes she has a quick and easy solution to stop people illegally pirating her work. Her version of the so-called &#8220;graduated response&#8221; is controversial, but might just work.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cutting their fingers off will stop them, by the time you cut off two people&#8217;s fingers others will stop,&#8221; popular singer <a href="http://www.nigeriafilms.com/image.aspx?img=Y29udGVudC9jb250ZW50L1N0ZWxsYU1vbnllbmZjLmpwZ3w2MDA=">Stella Monye</a> told the News agency of Nigeria.</p>
<p>Amputations, the singer says, are doubly effective. Not only do they act as a deterrent, but already-punished pirates will not be able to re-offend either.</p>
<p>&#8220;If their fingers are cut, they won&#8217;t [be able to use the hands] in pirating the works,&#8221; Monye <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201407310651.html">said</a>. &#8220;They will learn and it will be faster in stopping them; without a drastic measure they won&#8217;t stop.&#8221;</p>
<p>Web blockades have been previously described as a potential abuse of human rights, but Monye&#8217;s anti-piracy solution pushes new boundaries.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/andriuxuk/4381188335/in/photostream/"><em>Image credit</em></a></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91948
title: Minister: Sue Mums, Dads, Students To Send Anti-Piracy Message
uri: Minister-Sue-Mums-Dads-Students-To-Send-Anti-Piracy-Message
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UVfTOQiUN5U/
content:
<p><a href="media/84ed2f9e.nopiracy.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy.png"><img src="media/76fd4240.nopiracy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/nopiracy.png" alt="nopiracy" width="183" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83919"></a>When countries and major rightsholders have announced their new anti-piracy strategies in recent times, several approaches have become apparent.</p>
<p>Instead of pure head-on attacks against websites, their finances are being undermined through deals with advertisers and their sites blocked online. Rather than attempting to batter ISPs into submission through the courts, partnerships are sought instead. And when it comes to the end user, it&#8217;s largely education and more education.</p>
<p>In Australia the debate is familiar. On top of a legal framework to have websites blocked at network level, rightsholders are now seeking friendly cooperation from ISPs in order to deliver a message to subscribers that content should be purchased, not pirated.</p>
<p>The debate is <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/piracy-fight-needs-content-available-at-a-fair-price-minister-says-140731/">well underway</a> with the government seeking input from interested parties. Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has been putting pressure on rightsholders to ramp up their game in respect of pricing and availability too, which is definitely a step in the right direction.</p>
<p>But yesterday, during a televised interview with Rupert Murdoch&#8217;s Sky News, Turnbull made comments that transport the debate back many years, raising the specter of tough punitive action to send an anti-piracy message.</p>
<p>At first things started as expected, with the Minister telling Sky that people need to be educated. He raised the usual shoplifting and stealing analogies, noting that taking content from supermarkets is no different from downloading content online.</p>
<p>Then, after outlining New Zealand&#8217;s &#8220;three strikes&#8221; system, he noted that if content owners are suffering losses, then it should be them who foot the bill for any introduced anti-piracy measures. Content owners aside, few would disagree there.</p>
<p>Turnbull also noted that disconnections for persistently pirating Internet users would be met with a lot of resistance so were probably off the table, but then the bombshell.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rightsholders are not keen on taking people to court, because it doesn&#8217;t look good, because it&#8217;s bad publicity. What happens if the person you sue is a single mother, what happens if it&#8217;s a teenager, what happens if it&#8217;s a retiree on a low income?&#8221; Turnbull said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The bottom line is though, rightsholders are going to have to be tactical about who they take to court, who they want to sue.&#8221;</p>
<p>Education, it seems, only goes so far in Turnbull&#8217;s eyes. In addition there will need to be punishments for those who don&#8217;t get the message and that in turn will help to solve the problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;What you do is that when you raise awareness of this, and as people recognize that there is a risk that they will be sued, and have to pay for what they have stolen, then the level of infringement and theft will decline,&#8221; the Minister said.</p>
<p>So who should the rightsholders &#8220;strategically&#8221; target?</p>
<p>&#8220;It is absolutely critical that rightsholders&#8230;are prepared to actually roll their sleeves up and take on individuals. They have got to be prepared to sue people. Sue moms and dads and students who are stealing their content. They can&#8217;t expect everybody else to do that for them,&#8221; Turnbull said.</p>
<p>This kind of aggression from a key Minister in this debate is bound to raise alarm bells. As rightholders head down the cooperation and education route, here is a clear sign that the government thinks that yet more legal action against the public will solve the problem.</p>
<p>It won&#8217;t, and ISPs such as iiNet almost certainly won&#8217;t like the sound of this either. Whether this will hurt cooperation moving forward remains to be seen, but it&#8217;s likely to paint a picture of a government and an industry holding up new carrots, but keeping the same old tired stick in reserve, just in case.</p>
<p>The whole interview can be seen <a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/video/program_agenda/2014/07/31/agenda-govt-turns-attention-to-online-piracy-.html#ooid=JqY25jbzqS5BKJBCx70gXT_oBN7sgmw4">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91916
title: Feds Receive Requests to Shut Down The Pirate Bay
uri: Feds-Receive-Requests-to-Shut-Down-The-Pirate-Bay
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hqcxPnwvBwE/
content:
<p><a href="media/fd06f581.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg"><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470"></a>There is no doubt that copyright holders repeatedly press the authorities to take action against The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>So, when a Pirate Bay-related Freedom of Information request was sent to <a href="http://www.iprcenter.gov/">Homeland Security&#8217;s</a> National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center, we expected to see letters from the major music labels and Hollywood studios. Interestingly that was not the case. </p>
<p>Late June <a href="http://politynews.tumblr.com/">Polity News</a> asked Homeland Security to reveal all information the center holds on the notorious torrent site. Earlier this week the responses were received, mostly consisting of requests from individuals to shut down The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>In total the center received <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/235600636/235380122-Pirate-Bay-Emails-From-National-Intellectual-Property-Rights-Coordination-Center-NIPRCC">15 emails</a>, and all appear to have been forwarded by the FBI, where they were apparently first sent. Some of the emails only list a few pirate site domains but others are more specific in calling for strong action against The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you seize all THE PIRATE BAY domains? Starting with thepiratebay.se. You have no idea how much good that would do to writers, artists, musicians, designers, inventors, software developers, movie people and our global economy in general,&#8221; one email reads.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/08810ead.crimesyn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crimesyn.jpg"><img src="media/08810ead.crimesyn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crimesyn.jpg" alt="crimesyn" width="727" height="466" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91950"></a></center></p>
<p>The emails are all redacted but the content of the requests sometimes reveals who the sender might be. The example below comes from the author of &#8220;The Crystal Warrior,&#8221; which is probably the New Zealand author <a href="http://www.mareeanderson.com/">Maree Anderson</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Pirate Bay states that it can&#8217;t be held responsible for copyright infringement as it is a torrent site and doesn&#8217;t store the files on its servers. However the epub file of my published novel The Crystal Warrior has been illegally uploaded there,&#8221; the email reads.</p>
<p>The author adds that she takes a strong stand against piracy, but that her takedown notices are ignored by The Pirate Bay. She hopes that the authorities can take more effective action. </p>
<p>&#8220;Perhaps you would have more luck in putting pressure on them than one individual like myself. And if you are unable to take further action, I hope this notification will put The Pirate Bay in your sights so you can keep an eye on them,&#8221; the author adds.</p>
<p><center><br></br></center><center><a href="media/779cd75d.pirateauthor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateauthor.jpg"><img src="media/779cd75d.pirateauthor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirateauthor.jpg" alt="pirateauthor" width="735" height="728" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91934"></a></center></p>
<p>Most of the other requests include similar calls to action and appear to come from individual copyright holders. However, there is also a slightly more unusual request. </p>
<p>The email in question comes from the mother of a 14-year-old boy whose father is said to frequently pirate movies and music. The mother says she already visited an FBI office to report the man and is now seeking further advice. Apparently she previously reached out to the MPAA, but they weren&#8217;t particularly helpful.</p>
<p>&#8220;MPAA only wanted to know where he was downloading and could not help. I ask you what can I do, as a parent, to prevent a 14-year-old from witnessing such a law breaking citizen in his own home?&#8221; the mother writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;It is not setting a good example for him and I don’t think that it is right to subject him to this cyber crime. Devices on websites used: www.piratebay.com for downloads and www.LittleSnitch.com so he won’t be detected. This is not right. Any help would be appreciated,” she adds. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/008c547d.piratemom.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemom.jpg"><img src="media/008c547d.piratemom.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemom.jpg" alt="piratemom" width="736" height="508" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91932"></a></center></p>
<p>All of the revealed requests were sent between 2012 and 2014. Thus far, however, the Department of Homeland Security nor the FBI have taken any action against the Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>Whether the pirating dad is still on the loose remains unknown for now, but chances are he&#8217;s still sharing music and movies despite the FBI referral.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92028
title: Lionsgate Sues File-Sharing Sites Over Expendables 3 Leak
uri: Lionsgate-Sues-File-Sharing-Sites-Over-Expendables-3-Leak
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/slSMSgv2mVs/
content:
<p><a href="media/70e609bb.expendables2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/expendables2.jpg"><img src="media/d8c73069.expendables2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables2.jpg" alt="expendables" width="300" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91653"></a>Last week saw the leak online of the brand new Expendables movie.</p>
<p>Scheduled for an August 15 U.S. release, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/expendables-3-leaks-online-100k-copies-down-in-hours-140725/">Expendables 3 leaked in near DVD quality</a> a full two weeks ahead. The timing and quality combined to make the leak one of the most prominent in recent years.</p>
<p>The movie studios behind the film have been rather quiet, but behind the scenes they have been trying hard to limit the damage. Lionsgate in particular sent takedown requests to numerous file-sharing sites. While most sites complied by taking down infringing links or copies, some failed to respond. </p>
<p>In response to this apparent lack of cooperation, Lionsgate has now sued the operators of six file-sharing sites &#8211; Limetorrents.com, Billionuploads.com, Hulkfile.eu, Played.to, Swankshare.com and Dotsemper.com. The complaint (copy below) filed at a federal court in California accuses the sites&#8217; owners of direct, contributory and vicarious copyright infringement.</p>
<p><a href="http://limetorrents.com">Limetorrents</a> is the only torrent site in the lawsuit, and Lionsgate notes that the Expendables leak was still prominently available on the site when the complaint was drafted.</p>
<p>&#8220;To date, the operator(s) of the site have not responded to Lions Gate’s demands. Rather, as of the date of this filing links to the torrents allow users to access &#8216;swarms&#8217; where the Stolen Film is being shared remain on the site, including in the fifth-ranked position for &#8216;Movie torrents&#8217; on the site’s home page,&#8221; the lawyers write.</p>
<p>In the complaint, first reported <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/lionsgate-sues-expendables-3-leak-722806">by THR</a>, the movie studio demands a wide range of measures. Lionsgate asks the court for a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction and a permanent injunction to stop the sites from further distributing the film.</p>
<p>This includes a request to suspend the sites&#8217; domain names, or transfer them to Lionsgate. In addition, the movie studio also wants all financial institutions who do business with the sites to freeze their assets. If granted, Lionsgate could severely damage the sites in question even if the operators remain silent. </p>
<p>Finally, the movie company demands actual or statutory damages for the financial loss it has suffered. Since there is only one film at stake, the statutory damages are limited to $150,000 per site.</p>
<p>At this point it is unknown whether Lionsgate is also investigating the source of the leak, which isn&#8217;t related to any of the sites listed in the complaint. A third option would be to go after individual filesharers, which Nu Image did when they sued <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/23322-expendables-downloaders-accused-in-bittorrents-biggest-lawsuit-110510/">23,322 alleged pirates</a> who shared the first Expendables movies. </p>
<p>Thus far well over two  million copies of The Expendables 3 have been shared via BitTorrent, so there are plenty of targets for sure.</p>
<p><strong>Update August 2:</strong> It appears that the feds are also <a href="http://www.deadline.com/2014/08/the-expendables-3-trailer-video-ronda-rouseysylvester-stallone-mel-gibson/">investigating</a> the source of the leak, we&#8217;ll cover this in a seperate article if more information comes in.</p>
<p><center><strong>The complaint</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/235645606/content?start_page=1&#038;view_mode=scroll&#038;access_key=key-QF6nGrY1ybjBoUh39muw&#038;show_recommendations=false" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="0.7729220222793488" scrolling="no" id="doc_82742" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92012
title: Russia’s Anti-Piracy Law One Year On: 12 Sites Blocked
uri: Russia-s-Anti-Piracy-Law-One-Year-On-12-Sites-Blocked
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zin0EmnWy48/
content:
<p><a href="media/db3bd45e.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg"><img src="media/c579e316.pirate-card.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-card.jpg" alt="pirate-card" width="250" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86520"></a>Following intense pressure from local and international rightsholders, on August 1, 2013, Russia introduced a brand new anti-piracy law.</p>
<p>The key strength of the legislation is that provides a mechanism for sites to be blocked should they not comply with rightsholder takedown requests within 72 hours.</p>
<p>This element of the framework caused widespread fear and speculation. Would thousands of sites, some carrying legitimate content, find themselves censored at the hands of over-broad legislation tipped heavily in favor of &#8220;corporate interests&#8221;?</p>
<p>Frankly, no.</p>
<p>Concern that rightsholders would stampede to court to quickly wipe out as many sites as possible proved unfounded. Out of 19 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russias-sopa-sees-42-of-all-anti-piracy-blocking-requests-rejected-130820/">complaints</a> filed in the first three weeks of the law, just 11 were correctly presented and processed. Torrent site Rutor.org was one of the earliest casualties.</p>
<p>After five months in action, rightsholders had filed around 75 official complaints. In 30 cases the targeted sites complied with official removal orders and in 19 others a decision was taken by the authorities to block offending URLs.</p>
<p>Then, just six months later, Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov announced that the law was having the required effect.</p>
<p>“The law has actually brought us serious results,” he <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-law-led-to-30-jump-in-legal-content-buyers-govt-claims-140116/">said</a>.</p>
<p>“We found that [the law's introduction] resulted in an increase of 30% in the number of people who pay for legal content. This is a major achievement. Our country plans to increase the number of consumers of legal content on the Internet to 30 million people by 2018.”</p>
<p>Critics remain doubtful of the dramatic turnaround and throughout the year there has been little downturn in the number of rightsholders complaining about piracy. Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of the new law&#8217;s introduction and it&#8217;s fair to say there were no festivities.</p>
<p>According to figures obtained by <a href="http://izvestia.ru/news/574699">Izvestia</a> from telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, during the past year the Moscow City Court imposed preliminary interim measures against 175 sites following copyright complaints.</p>
<p>The Court went on to block a total of 12 file-sharing related domains, most of them BitTorrent trackers. This number is far below the numbers predicted one year ago.</p>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly a far greater number of IP addresses were eventually blocked, 99 in total.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is due to the fact that the sites tried to avoid blocking by migrating to other IP-addresses that Roscomnadzor also monitors and places on the registry,&#8221; a spokesman said.</p>
<p>But despite all the complaints and blocking, pirated content is still easy to find, a key issue that doesn&#8217;t appear to be going away anytime soon. Nevertheless, the watchdog says that things are improving.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to find illegal content on the web, you still can today. But rightsholders now have the opportunity to make an impact on legal grounds, which is most critical for them in terms of the spread of pirated content. They are also beginning to unite to close pirated resources for longer,&#8221; the spokesman said.</p>
<p>Furthermore, fears expressed by search engines that the law would negatively impact the web have not come to pass.</p>
<p>&#8220;As for the dissatisfaction shown by Internet companies following the entry into force of the law, neither Google, Mail.ru, or Yandex has suffered from it. Many areas, where earlier there was illegal content, are now beginning to build into legitimate businesses.&#8221;</p>
<p>But despite positivity from the watchdog, critics remain.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you want to download any movie and can spend five minutes and still download it, then the law has brought no benefits,&#8221; Wikimedia executive director Stanislav Kozlovsky told Izvestia.</p>
<p>&#8220;Also remaining are the problems caused by the very principle of blocking IP-addresses. If a pirate site is suddenly blocked, it costs nothing to move to a different address. This problem is solved in just a day.&#8221;</p>
<p>Only time will tell if Russia&#8217;s legislative moves will pay off in the end, but if the first 12 months are anything to go by, they will have to wait considerably longer yet.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92084
title: The Copyright Monopoly Should Be Dead And Buried Already
uri: The-Copyright-Monopoly-Should-Be-Dead-And-Buried-Already
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2WsBeM299fQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/b997f7ba.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg"><img src="media/db7b975c.copyright-branded.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-branded.jpg" alt="copyright-branded" width="250" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-56211"></a>Every time somebody questions the copyright monopoly, and in particular, whether it&#8217;s reasonable to dismantle freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom of information, and the privacy of correspondence just to maintain a distribution monopoly for an entertainment industry, the same question pops up out of nowhere:</p>
<p>&#8220;How will the artists get paid?&#8221;.</p>
<p>The copyright industry has been absolutely phenomenal in misleading the public in this very simple matter, suggesting that artists&#8217; income somehow depend on a distribution monopoly of publishers. If the facts were out, this debate would have been over 20 years ago and the distribution monopoly already abolished quite unceremoniously.</p>
<p>There are three facts that need to be established and hammered in whenever somebody asks this question.</p>
<p>First: <strong>Less than one percent of artists&#8217; income comes from the copyright monopoly.</strong> Read that sentence again. The overwhelming majority of artists get their income today from student loans, day jobs, unemployment benefits, and so on and so forth. One of the most recent studies (&#8220;Copyright as Incentive&#8221;, in Swedish as &#8220;Upphovsrätten som incitament&#8221;, 2006) quotes a number of 0.9 per cent as the average income share of artists that can be directly attributed to the existence of the copyright monopoly. The report calls the direct share of artists&#8217; income &#8220;negligible&#8221;, &#8220;insignificant&#8221;. However, close to one hundred per cent of <strong>publishers&#8217;</strong> income &#8211; the income of unnecessary, parasitic middlemen &#8211; is directly attributable to the copyright monopoly today. Guess who&#8217;s adamant about defending it? Hint: not artists.</p>
<p>Second: <strong>99.99% of artists never see a cent in copyright monopoly royalties.</strong> Apart from the copyright industry&#8217;s creative accounting and bookkeeping &#8211; arguably the only reason they ever had to call themselves the &#8220;creative industry&#8221; &#8211; which usually robs artists blind, only one in ten thousand artists ever see a cent in copyright-monopoly-related royalties. Yes, this is a real number: 99% of artists are never signed with a label, and of those who are, 99% of those never see royalties. It comes across as patently absurd to defend a monopolistic, parasitic system where only one in ten thousand artists make any money with the argument &#8220;how will the artists make money any other way?&#8221;.</p>
<p>Third: <strong>Artists&#8217; income has more than doubled because of culture-sharing.</strong> Since the advent of hobby-scale unlicensed manufacturing &#8211; which is what culture-sharing is legally, since it breaks a manufacturing monopoly on copies &#8211; the average income for musicians has risen 114%, according to a Norwegian study. Numbers from Sweden and the UK show the same thing. This shift in income has a direct correlation to hobby-based unlicensed manufacturing, as the sales of copies is down the drain &#8211; which is the best news imaginable for artists, since households are spending as much money on culture before (or more, according to some studies), but are buying in sales channels where artists get a much larger piece of the pie. Hobby-based unlicensed manufacturing has meant the greatest wealth transfer from parasitic middlemen to artists in the history of recorded music.</p>
<p>As a final note, it should be told that even if artists went bankrupt because of sustained civil liberties, that would still be the way to go. Any artist that goes from plinking their guitar in the kitchen to wanting to sell an offering is no longer an artist, but an <strong>entrepreneur</strong>; the same rules apply to them as to every other entrepreneur on the planet. Specifically, they do not get to dismantle civil liberties because such liberties are bad for business. But as we see, we don&#8217;t even need to take that into consideration, for the entire initial premise is false.</p>
<p>Kill copyright, already. Get rid of it. It hurts innovation, creativity, our next-generation industries, and our hard-won civil liberties. It&#8217;s not even economically defensible.</p>
<p><center>
<div class="alignfull" style="border:2px solid #3F3F3F;width:100%;padding:15px;padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:4px;margin-top:20px;margin-bottom:10px;border-radius:10px">
<h3 style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:10px">
<div style="float:right;height:130px;width:39px;margin-left:20px;margin-right:10px"><img src="media/98818a80.Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" data-original-source="http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/themes/WpNewspaper/images/falkvinge/Rick_Falkvinge_39x130.jpg" style="border:none;-moz-box-shadow:none;-webkit-box-shadow:none" class="quimby_search_image"></div>
<p><span style="color:#3F3F3F;font-size:125%">About The</span> <span style="color:#FF3C78;font-size:125%">Author</span></p>
</h3>
<p style="font-family:PTSansRegular,Arial,Sans-Serif;font-weight:400;line-height:150%;margin-bottom:14px"><small>Rick Falkvinge is a regular columnist on TorrentFreak, sharing his thoughts every other week. He is the founder of the Swedish and first Pirate Party, a whisky aficionado, and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. His blog at <a href="http://falkvinge.net">falkvinge.net</a> focuses on information policy.</small></p>
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<p><small>Book Falkvinge <a href="http://falkvinge.net/keynotes/">as speaker</a>?</small></p>
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<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91928
title: Can We Publicly Confess to Online Piracy Crimes?
uri: Can-We-Publicly-Confess-to-Online-Piracy-Crimes
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DqmAndvmn2k/
content:
<p><a href="media/65280bc5.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg"><img src="media/4f6f21d0.piracy-crime.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracy-crime.jpg" alt="piracy-crime" width="222" height="140" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80208"></a>Last week&#8217;s <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/expendables-3-leaks-online-100k-copies-down-in-hours-140725/">leak</a> of The Expendables 3 was a pretty big event in the piracy calendar and as TF explained to inquiring reporters, that is only achieved by getting the right mix of ingredients.</p>
<p>First and foremost, the movie was completely unreleased meaning that private screenings aside, it had never hit a theater anywhere in the world. Getting a copy of a movie at this stage is very rare indeed. Secondly, the quality of the leaked DVD was very good indeed.</p>
<p>Third, and we touched on this earlier, are <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/scared-pirates-delayed-release-of-expendables-3-140728/">the risks involved</a> in becoming part of the online distribution mechanism for something like this. Potentially unfinished copies of yet-to-be-released flicks can be a very serious matter indeed, with custodial sentences available to the authorities.</p>
<p>And yet this week, David Pierce, Assistant Managing Editor at The Verge, wrote an article in which <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/28/5942939/i-torrented-the-expendables-3">he admitted</a> torrenting The Expendables 3 via The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p><center><br>
<h6>Pirate confessions &#8211; uncut</h6>
<p><img src="media/e00787cd.verge1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/verge1.png" alt="Verge1"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;The Expendables 3 comes out August 15th in thousands of theaters across America. I watched it Friday afternoon on my MacBook Air on a packed train from New York City to middle-of-nowhere Connecticut. I watched it again on the ride back. And I&#8217;m already counting down the days until I can see it in IMAX,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>Pierce&#8217;s article, and it&#8217;s a decent read, talks about how the movie really needs to be seen on the big screen. It&#8217;s a journey into why piracy can act as promotion and how the small screen experience rarely compensates for seeing this kind of movie in the &#8220;big show&#8221; setting.</p>
<p>Pierce is a great salesman and makes a good case but that doesn&#8217;t alter the fact that he just admitted to committing what the authorities see as a pretty serious crime.</p>
<p>The Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 <a href="http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/pl109-9.html">refers to</a> it as &#8220;the distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.&#8221;</p>
<p>The term &#8220;making it available&#8221; refers to uploading and although one would like to think that punishments would be reserved only for initial leakers (if anyone), the legislation fails to specify. It seems that merely downloading and sharing the movie using BitTorrent could be enough to render a user criminally liable, as this <a href="http://news.cnet.com/New-law-cracks-down-on-P2P-pirates/2100-1028_3-5687495.html">CNET article</a> from 2005 explains.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f990fd2b.feca.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/feca.png" alt="FECA"></center></p>
<p>So with the risks as they are, why would Pierce put his neck on the line? </p>
<p>Obviously, he wanted to draw attention to the &#8220;big screen&#8221; points mentioned above and also appreciates plenty of readers. It&#8217;s also possible he just wasn&#8217;t aware of the significance of the offense. Sadly, our email to Pierce earlier in the week went unanswered so we can&#8217;t say for sure.</p>
<p>But here&#8217;s the thing.</p>
<p>There can be few people in the public eye, journalists included, who would admit to stealing clothes from a Paris fashion show in order to promote Versace&#8217;s consumer lines when they come out next season.</p>
<p><a href="media/6cbe9588.steal-car.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/steal-car.jpg"><img src="media/6cbe9588.steal-car.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/steal-car.jpg" alt="steal-car" width="200" height="136" class="alignright size-full wp-image-92053"></a>And if we wrote a piece about how we liberated a <a href="http://www.motorauthority.com/news/1090289_2015-honda-civic-type-r-concept-revealed-in-geneva-live-photos-and-video">Honda Type R prototype</a> from the Geneva Motor Show in order to boost sales ahead of its consumer release next year, we&#8217;d be decried as Grand Theft Auto&#8217;ists in need of discipline.</p>
<p>What this seems to show is that in spite of a decade-and-a-half&#8217;s worth of &#8220;piracy is theft&#8221; propaganda, educated and eloquent people such as David Pierce still believe that it is not, to the point where pretty serious IP crimes can be confessed to in public.</p>
<p>At the very least, the general perception is that torrenting The Expendables 3 is morally detached from picking up someone&#8217;s real-life property and heading for the hills. And none of us would admit to the latter, would we?</p>
<p>Hollywood and the record labels will be furious that this mentality persists after years of promoting the term &#8220;intellectual property&#8221; and while Lionsgate appear to have picked their <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/lionsgate-sues-filesharing-sites-expendables-3-leak-140801/">initial targets</a> (and the FBI will go after the initial leakers), the reality is that despite the potential for years in jail, it&#8217;s extremely unlikely the feds will be turning up at the offices of The Verge to collar Pierce. Nor will they knock on the doors of an estimated two million other Expendables pirates either.</p>
<p>And everyone knows it.</p>
<p>As a result, what we have here is a <strike>crazy confession</strike> brave article from Pierce which underlines that good movies are meant to be seen properly and that people who pirate do go on to become customers if the product is right. And, furthermore, those customers promote that content to their peers, such as the guy on the train who looked over Pierce&#8217;s shoulder when he was viewing his pirate booty.</p>
<p>&#8220;He won&#8217;t be the last person I tell to go see The Expendables 3 when it hits theaters in August,&#8221; Pierce wrote. &#8220;And I&#8217;ll be there with them, opening night. I know the setlist now, I know all the songs by heart, but I still want to see the show.&#8221;</p>
<p>Pierce&#8217;s initial piracy was illegal, no doubt, but when all is said and done (especially considering his intent to promote and invest in the movie) it hardly feels worthy of a stay in the slammer. I venture that the majority would agree &#8211; and so the cycle continues.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=91937
title: Chrome Extension Turns Amazon Into a Pirate eBook Site
uri: Chrome-Extension-Turns-Amazon-Into-a-Pirate-eBook-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/DXiX4AwM-rc/
content:
<p><a href="media/3915ca97.amazon-pirate-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images//usr/home/ernesto99/torrentfreak/images/amazon-pirate-logo.jpg"><img src="media/9d185dd8.amazon-pirate-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazon-pirate-logo.jpg" alt="amazon-pirate-logo" width="150" height="195" class="alignright size-full wp-image-7200"></a>As one of the largest online retailers, Amazon is the go-to store for many people.</p>
<p>Amazon became big by selling books and in recent years eBooks have become some of the fastest selling items. However, pirates are now directly targeting the company&#8217;s successful business model.</p>
<p>With a new Chrome extension pirates are entering Amazon, effectively transforming it into a pirate &#8216;store.&#8217; </p>
<p>When the <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/libgen/apahpikhjdigjfpdgcolpgglldkljbhf">LibGen extension</a> is installed, it adds a new row on top of the Amazon product page of books that are also available through unauthorized sources. </p>
<p>The plugin uses data from the Libgen.org search engine which lists over a million books. Below is a screenshot of an Amazon book page, with a new row on the top linking to pirated downloads of the same title.</p>
<p><center><br></br></center><center><a href="media/0c99a108.pirate-ebook.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-ebook.jpg"><img src="media/0c99a108.pirate-ebook.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-ebook.jpg" alt="pirate-ebook" width="700" height="382" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91940"></a></center></p>
<p>LibGen, short for Library Genesis, lists a wide variety of pirate sources for most books, including direct downloads, torrents and magnet links. It appears to work well, although there are occasional mismatches where links to books with similar titles are listed.</p>
<p>Needless to say book publishers are not going to be pleased with Amazon&#8217;s unofficial feature. Whether Amazon plans to take any action to stop the extension has yet to be seen.</p>
<p>The idea to transform Amazon into a pirate site is not entirely new. A few years ago a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/firefox-pirates-take-over-amazon-081203/">Firefox plugin</a> integrated Pirate Bay download links into the site, which also worked for music and movies. This plugin was quickly taken offline quickly after the news was picked up by the mainstream media. </p>
<p>There are still other extensions floating around with the same functionality. <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/torrent-this/kinggkcgmbnbahgohccdpifhhhhbnllp">Torrent This</a>, for example, enhances Amazon with links to Pirate Bay download pages for all sorts of media, much like the &#8220;Pirates of the Amazon&#8221; plugin did.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92089
title: Federation Against Copyright Theft Takes Down TorrentShack
uri: Federation-Against-Copyright-Theft-Takes-Down-TorrentShack
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YjKtg35fLKk/
content:
<p><a href="media/42ae43d7.tshlogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tshlogo.jpg"><img src="media/42ae43d7.tshlogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tshlogo.jpg" alt="tshlogo" width="190" height="139" class="alignright size-full wp-image-92092"></a>When it comes to closing down torrent sites, two anti-piracy groups stand out as achieving that in numbers.</p>
<p>Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN has closed dozens of smaller sites located in the Netherlands and the Federation Against Copyright Theft has been carrying out similar work in the UK.</p>
<p>FACT&#8217;s tactics of hunting down, identifying and then threatening torrent site operators have proven very successful <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/?s=federation">in the past</a>. The impact of having FACT&#8217;s representatives at the front door has resulted in the closure of many sites, while emailed threats have only added to the tally.</p>
<p>Yesterday came news of another closure, this time of TorrentShack, a long-standing and loved-by-many private tracker. The exact mechanism of FACT&#8217;s contacts with the site&#8217;s operator haven&#8217;t been made public, but it&#8217;s clear that the anti-piracy group has placed the site under a lot of pressure.</p>
<p>&#8220;It seems once again that FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) have gone after the small site rather than those that make thousands each and every month in profit,&#8221; the site&#8217;s operator announced over the weekend.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have been under investigation by FACT for some time it seems and to avoid being dragged through the courts and having huge legal fee&#8217;s I have to adhere to their demands.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="media/9b46c1db.fact.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fact.jpg"><img src="media/f002015f.fact.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fact.jpg" alt="fact" width="180" height="133" class="alignright size-full wp-image-74060"></a>FACT&#8217;s usual demands involve closing the site and handing over the site&#8217;s domain, and in TorrentShack&#8217;s (TSH) case they have kept to their usual format.</p>
<p>&#8220;They have said that I need to hand them over the domain to this site and to cease my involvement with running such a site. If I comply then any and all charges against me will be dropped,&#8221; TSH&#8217;s admin explained.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s predicted that the TorrentShack.net domain will be handed over to FACT during the next few days. It&#8217;s possible a FACT &#8216;warning&#8217; page will replace the site but many &#8216;seized&#8217; domains simply lie dormant.</p>
<p>While the site&#8217;s users will no doubt be disappointed by the site&#8217;s closure, those concerned about FACT getting their hands on the site&#8217;s database can rest easy &#8211; the TSH admin has assured users that no such request has been made.</p>
<p>&#8220;In simple terms, the Domain is simply the URL you type in to visit the site. It has no connection with your accounts, your security. There is no reason fro anyone to worry,&#8221; TSH assures site users.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a great run and I have really enjoyed what we have done here over the last few years. I want to thank everyone that has made it possible. I guess I proved that what they said &#8216;Couldn&#8217;t&#8217; be done&#8230;. Actually &#8216;Could&#8217; be done.&#8221;</p>
<p>OpenTrackers has further information on the site <a href="https://opentrackers.org/torrentshack/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92067
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 08/04/14
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-08-04-14
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j6goOuu3wP4/
content:
<p><a href="media/d5c8ff7b.divergent.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/divergent.jpg"><img src="media/d5c8ff7b.divergent.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/divergent.jpg" alt="divergent" width="249" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-92073"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Divergent is the most downloaded movie this week.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-pirated-movies-of-the-week-140728/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/divergent/">Divergent</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1840309/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sutgWjz10sM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/captain_america_the_winter_soldier_2014/">Captain America: The Winter Soldier</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843866/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SlILk2WMTI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_expendables_3/">The Expendables 3</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2333784/">?.?</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xD0junWlFc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dawn_of_the_planet_of_the_apes/">Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sHMCRaS3ao">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_amazing_spider_man_2/">The Amazing Spider-Man 2</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1872181/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbp3Ra3Yp74">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_other_woman_2014/">The Other Woman</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2203939/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDcaZ3StTfI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/22_jump_street/">22 Jump Street</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294449/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9S_dYuq0vE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/need_for_speed/">Need For Speed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2369135/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsrJWUVoXeM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_assault_on_arkham/">Batman: Assault on Arkham</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3139086/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6abltUcric">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/noah_2014/">Noah</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1959490/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qmj5mhDwJQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92155
title: OVH Slapped with $188m Lawsuit for Passing on “Pirate” Traffic
uri: OVH-Slapped-with-188m-Lawsuit-for-Passing-on-Pirate-Traffic
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JIw_fqMtMSU/
content:
<p><a href="media/6041aaa3.ovh-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ovh-logo.jpg"><img src="media/6041aaa3.ovh-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ovh-logo.jpg" alt="ovh-logo" width="233" height="233" class="alignright size-full wp-image-92156"></a></a>Perfect 10 are no strangers to lawsuits. From 2005 to the present day they have sued several huge companies for either allegedly using their images without permission or somehow being connected to infringements.</p>
<p>Notable among them are Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Giganews, Megaupload, Depositfiles Mastercard, Visa and Leaseweb. While Perfect 10 lacks a clear victory, it has achieved several settlements which has motivated the company to continue its legal crusade. </p>
<p>Late last week the publisher moved on to its next target, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OVH">hosting company OVH</a>. In their complaint Perfect 10 accuses the French company of providing hosting services to several websites that store pirated copies of their images.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants host and provide Internet connectivity and other essential services to websites, including infringing websites operated in California that have infringed tens of thousands of Perfect 10 Copyrighted Works,&#8221; the <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/235935249/ovh-bb62-421b-a677-61cdacf06c66">complaint states</a>. </p>
<p>According to Perfect 10, OVH currently hosts over a dozen websites which store their work without permission, including celeb.to, celebforum.to, daily-ladies.com, gallery-dump.com, erooups.com, gophoto.us, hatuncenter.net, imagechunk.com, sualize.us, imgmaster.net, imagerise.com, ohfree.net, pixhost.eu and redblow.com.</p>
<p>The magazine publisher argues that OVH is directly responsible for these copyright infringements committed by its customers. The company says it sent 17 DMCA notices to OVH since 2011, identifying more than 12,000 infringing images, and believes the hosting provider should have taken the URLs in question offline.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants could have and should have ended the infringement by processing Perfect 10’s DMCA notices and removing the infringing images or by refusing to host the identified allegedly infringing websites, among other things,&#8221; the complaint explains. </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants have failed to take such action and have failed to remove the infringing material that Perfect 10 has identified in its DMCA notices. Defendants’ conduct has caused, and continues to cause, severe and irreparable harm to Perfect 10,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>The allegation doesn&#8217;t come as a surprise as hosting providers generally don&#8217;t take action based on DMCA takedown notices. Instead, they forward them to their clients, who are then responsible for resolving the issue. However, it appears that Perfect 10 wants to challenge this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA_safe_harbor">safe harbor principle</a>. </p>
<p>Interestingly, OVH&#8217;s hosting services are not the only problem. In addition to the pirate sites, the company is also accused of passing on copyright-infringing Internet traffic of Google and other third-party sites through its <a href="http://www.ovh.com/ca/en/blog/a974.ovh_in_north_america_an_xxl_network_for_bhs">American backbone</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;Third-party websites located in the United States, including Google.com, msn.com, yahoo.com, and blekko.com, among many others, have copied, distributed, and/or displayed thousands of infringing Perfect 10 Copyrighted Works hosted by Defendants. Defendants host and provide Internet connectivity and other essential services for these websites,&#8221; the complaint reads.</p>
<p>In an accusation that pretty much targets the core of the Internet, Perfect 10 believes that OVH should have taken action against the infringing files that pass through or are hosted in its network. Because OVH failed to do so, the publisher claims that it suffered significant losses and is now demanding the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 per infringement. </p>
<p>In theory this could get quite expensive. With a total of 1256 listed infringements OVH is facing up to $188 million in damages. However, considering Perfect 10&#8242;s track record in court the magazine publisher will probably be happy to settle for a tiny fraction of that. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=92161
title: Stallone “Sad” at Expendables 3 Leak But Kellan Lutz Upbeat
uri: Stallone-Sad-at-Expendables-3-Leak-But-Kellan-Lutz-Upbeat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YAKQ8-Jf6cQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/18f89078.expendables3.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/expendables3.jpg"><img src="media/a23fe245.expendables3.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/expendables3.jpg" alt="expendables3" width="180" height="241" class="alignright size-full wp-image-91541"></a>The worldwide roller-coaster for The Expendables 3 continues to grab headlines and the movie hasn&#8217;t even been released yet. Normally that kind of situation would be coveted by movie makers, but the leak of the movie last month has put a different complexion on matters.</p>
<p>Last evening stars of the show were treading the red carpet in advance of the movie&#8217;s world premiere at the Odeon in Leceister Square, London, and of course questions turned to the inevitable topic.</p>
<p>Sylvester Stallone, who plays Expendables leader Barney Ross, was the first to be questioned. The 68-year-old said that while piracy leaves him sad, for some it had become a habit.</p>
<p>&#8220;That makes me feel really sad, but you know I understand that a lot of people have accepted that&#8217;s kind of a way of life,&#8221; Stallone said.</p>
<p>But while Stallone expressed disappointment, he also suggested that as a big star he probably wouldn&#8217;t be so affected. Others would, however.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s unfortunate because it isn&#8217;t about me, i&#8217;m ok, but there&#8217;s thousands of people that won&#8217;t make movies. They won&#8217;t get a chance because they&#8217;ve lost a lot of money, that&#8217;s the trouble,&#8221; the star said.</p>
<p>Interestingly, another star of the movie viewed the leak in a more positive light. Kellan Lutz, who plays former Navy Seal John Smilee, said that while people are downloading illegally, that try-before-you-buy would lead them to still purchase theater tickets.</p>
<p>&#8220;So for the people who downloaded it, I actually think they&#8217;re gonna wanna watch it in the theaters because it&#8217;s a good movie,&#8221; Lutz <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cktb22lZ3Nk&#038;feature=youtube_gdata">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re gonna watch it online, then they&#8217;ll be like &#8216;I gotta watch this in theaters now&#8217;, because all the one-liners that kind of go under-layered throughout the action, you just can&#8217;t hear that on a little iPad or computer,&#8221; the 29-year-old noted.</p>
<p>But while Lutz was looking on the bright side, Lionsgate continued to work flat-out behind the scenes in what they see as a damage limitation exercise.</p>
<p>As reported yesterday, the company has been issuing <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/lionsgate-fights-expendables-3-piracy-with-thousands-of-takedowns-140804/">thousands of takedowns</a> to remove unauthorized links to the movie online. This is in addition to <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/lionsgate-sues-filesharing-sites-expendables-3-leak-140801/">legal action</a> being taken against several torrent and other file-sharing sites.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com">TorrentFreak</a>, for the latest info on <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/copyright-issues/">copyright</a>, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/category/pirate-talk/">file-sharing</a> and <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-take-your-anonymity-seriously-2014-edition-140315/">anonymous VPN services</a>.</p>
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