# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152217
title: Spotify Emails Warning to ‘Pirates’ Using Hacked Apps
uri: Spotify-Emails-Warning-to-Pirates-Using-Hacked-Apps
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Ana9Jax2mok/
content:
<p><a href="media/66ba2ec2.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg"><img src="media/c3c7bb8c.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="230" class="alignright size-full wp-image-138752"></a>Spotify is a fantastic music streaming service used by more than 159 million users around the world. Around 71m of those are premium subscibers according to figures released by the company last December.</p>
<p>Given the above, 88 million Spotify members are using the free tier, meaning that they&#8217;re subjected to advertising and other limitations such as shuffle-only play and track skip restrictions.</p>
<p>The idea is that the free user gets a decent level of service but is held back just enough with small irritations to make the jump to a premium subscription a logical step at some point.</p>
<p>What millions of free users don&#8217;t know, however, is that there are modified Spotify apps out there that can remove many of these restrictions. All the user has to do is sign up to free Spotify account, download one of the many &#8216;hacked&#8217; Spotify installation files out there, put in their username and password, and enjoy.</p>
<p>How many people use these hacked versions of Spotify isn&#8217;t clear and up to now, it&#8217;s been somewhat of a mystery as to why Spotify itself hasn&#8217;t done something about them. During the past few days, however, there have been signs that a crackdown could be on the way.</p>
<p>In an email sent to an unknown but significant number of people, Spotify informs users of modified apps that they&#8217;re on the company&#8217;s radar and there could be consequences for trying to subvert the system.</p>
<p>&#8220;We detected abnormal activity on the app you are using so we have disabled it. Don’t worry &#8211; your Spotify account is safe,&#8221; the email from Spotify reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;To access your Spotify account, simply uninstall any unauthorized or modified version of Spotify and download and install the Spotify app from the official Google Play Store. If you need more help, please see our support article on Reinstalling Spotify.&#8221;</p>
<p>Users have been <a href="https://community.spotify.com/t5/Accounts/Abnormal-activity-in-my-account-what-is-it/td-p/4406021">popping up</a> on Spotify&#8217;s forums asking why they&#8217;ve received this email. Some seem to think they&#8217;ve done nothing wrong but most signs point to people using modified software.</p>
<p><center><strong>The warning email from Spotify</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/8e2db108.spotify-pirates.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-pirates.png"><img src="media/f6e4268c.spotify-pirates.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-pirates.png" alt="" width="600" height="619" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152219"></a></center></p>
<p>While the email signs off with a note thanking the recipient for being a Spotify user, there is also a warning.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we detect repeated use of unauthorized apps in violation of our terms, we reserve all rights, including suspending or terminating your account,&#8221; Spotify writes.</p>
<p>For people who used their real accounts along with modified apps this could be a problem but many people using hacked versions go in prepared with a secondary or temporary email address and false details.</p>
<p>Quite how far Spotify will go to rid its service of this kind of a user remains unknown but at least for now, the actual effects of this early crackdown seemed mixed. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak has spoken with users who have modified versions and have received the email, yet their installation still works just fine. Others report that they can no longer log in with their modified version.</p>
<p>What is clear, however, is that Spotify has both modified apps and their creators on its radar. On March 1, 2018 the company wrote to Github demanding that a popular Spotify mod known as &#8216;Dogfood&#8217; be taken down from the repository.</p>
<p><center><strong>Dogfood is done on Github</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/94f87263.spotify-dogfood.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-dogfood.png"><img src="media/2bb057d5.spotify-dogfood.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-dogfood.png" alt="" width="600" height="343" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152220"></a></center></p>
<p>The full takedown notice can be found <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-03-01-Spotify.md">here</a>. It lists Dogfood itself plus a whole bunch of &#8216;forks&#8217; which have also been taken down by Github.</p>
<p>There were signs in January that the developer of Dogfood might have been under pressure to limit the effectiveness of his app. On January 18 he <a href="https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=75214194&#038;postcount=807">announced</a> on XDA that some functionality would be removed moving forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;In order to comply with XDA&#8217;s Rules and CoC, Spotify Dogfood has taken a new direction, and now offers *exclusively* Ad-free music playback,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any other features won&#8217;t be included anymore in this mod. But, that doesn&#8217;t mean anything if you&#8217;re a true, a core user of this app, because there will still be regular updates to it, as there has been up until now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Where that development will take place now isn&#8217;t clear but it clearly won&#8217;t be on Github. Indeed, even XDA has been targeted by Spotify, with the site receiving a DMCA notice from the company which required the removal of links and an apparent closure of the whole discussion.</p>
<p><center><strong>XDA DMCA takedown</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/42461dcd.spotify-xda.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-xda.png"><img src="media/9162f4ef.spotify-xda.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-xda.png" alt="" width="600" height="232" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152221"></a></center></p>
<p>For now it seems that Spotify is playing nice, at least with users of modified apps. Whether it will continue with the same relaxed attitude is unclear but it&#8217;s hard not to connect the move with its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/28/business/media/spotify-ipo.html">intention to go public</a> and its $23bn valuation.</p>
<p>Still, the company should be more in tune with pirates than most <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-spotify-lawyer-attracting-pirates-is-in-our-dna-161226/">given its history</a>, so may yet have a decent plan up its sleeve.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152241
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/05/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-05-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/MatgYd5Rl-w/
content:
<p><img src="media/7eefef6f.shapeofwater.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/shapeofwater.png" alt="" width="300" height="201" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152243">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Shape of Water, which just won the Oscar for best film and came out as Blu-Ray rip last week, is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-021918/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">Ferdinand</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBXVM7oUPVk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">Justice League</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">Thor Ragnarok</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580036/">I Tonya</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580036/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXZQ5DfSAAc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521126/">The Disaster Artist</a></td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521126/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMKX2tE5Luk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5027774/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpIU1STH8ac">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">Coco</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2380307/">8.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga6RYejo6Hk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(back)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle</a> (Subbed HDRip) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152250
title: Spotify Owned uTorrent Before BitTorrent Inc. Acquired It
uri: Spotify-Owned-uTorrent-Before-BitTorrent-Inc-Acquired-It
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kjXitftaV78/
content:
<p><img src="media/9b444aef.utorrspot.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrspot.png" alt="" width="300" height="124" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-152260">When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008, we described it as “<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-an-alternative-to-music-piracy-090102/">an alternative to music piracy.</a>”</p>
<p>From the start, the Swedish company set out to compete with pirate services by offering a better user experience. Now, a decade later, it has come a long way. </p>
<p>The company successfully transformed into a billion-dollar enterprise and is planning to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-43240886">go public</a> with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. While it hasn&#8217;t completely evaporated music piracy, it has converted dozens of millions of people into paying customers. </p>
<p>While Spotify sees itself as a piracy remedy, backed by the major labels, its piracy roots are undeniable. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.breakit.se/artikel/11963/den-osannolika-miljardaren-ludvig-strigeus-fildelarkodaren-som-byggde-spotify">detailed feature</a>, Swedish newspaper Breakit put a spotlight on one of Spotify&#8217;s earliest employees, developer Ludvig Strigeus. </p>
<p>With a significant stake in the company, he is about to become a multi-millionaire, one with a noteworthy file-sharing past. It&#8217;s unclear what is current stake in Spotify is, but according to Swedish media it&#8217;s worth more than a billion Kroner, which is over $100 million.</p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludvig_Strigeus">Strigeus</a> was the one who launched uTorrent in September 2005, when the BitTorrent protocol was still fairly new. Where most BitTorrent clients at the time were bloatware, uTorrent chose a minimalist approach, but with all essential features. </p>
<p>This didn&#8217;t go unnoticed. In just a few months, millions of torrent users downloaded the application which quickly became the dominant file-sharing tool. </p>
<p>Little more than a year after its launch the application was acquired by BitTorrent Inc., which still owns it today. While that part of history is commonly known, there&#8217;s a step missing. </p>
<p>Strigeus&#8217; coding talent also piqued the interest of Spotify, which reportedly beat BitTorrent Inc. by a few months. Multiple sources confirm that the streaming startup, which had yet to release its service at the time, bought uTorrent in 2006. </p>
<p>While some thought that Spotify was mainly interested in the technology, others see Strigeus as the target.</p>
<p>&#8220;Spotify bought μTorrent, but what we really wanted was Ludvig Strigeus,&#8221; former Spotify CEO Andreas Ehn told Breakit. </p>
<p>This indeed sounds plausible as Spotify sold uTorrent to BitTorrent Inc. after a few months, keeping the developer on board. Not a bad decision for the latter, as his Spotify stake makes him a billionaire. At the same time, it was an important move for Spotify too. </p>
<p><center><strong>Ludvig (Ludde) is still credited in recent uTorrent releases</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8a6818bf.ludde.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ludde.png" alt="" width="544" height="224" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152264"></center></p>
<p>In addition to having a very talented developer on board, who helped to implement the much needed P2P technology into Spotify, the deal with BitTorrent Inc. brought in cash that funded the development of the tiny, but ambitious, streaming service. </p>
<p>It might be too much to argue that Spotify wouldn&#8217;t be where it is without uTorrent and its creator, but their impact on the young company was significant.</p>
<p>The file-sharing angle was also very prominent in the early releases of Spotify. At the time, of all the tracks that were streamed over the Internet by Spotify users, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-a-massive-p2p-network-blessed-by-record-labels-110617/">the majority</a> were streamed via P2P connections.</p>
<p>And we haven&#8217;t even mentioned that Spotify reportedly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-beta-used-pirate-mp3-files-some-from-pirate-bay-170509/">used pirate MP3s</a> for its Beta release, including some tracks that were only available on The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Spotify&#8217;s brief ownership of uTorrent isn&#8217;t commonly known, to make an understatement. When BitTorrent Inc. announced that it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-inc-buys-%C2%B5torrent/">acquired &#8220;uTorrent AB&#8221;</a> there was no mention of Spotify, which was still an unknown company at the time.</p>
<p>Times change.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152295
title: ACE Warns Kodi Addon Developer to Sign Settlement Agreement, Or Else
uri: ACE-Warns-Kodi-Addon-Developer-to-Sign-Settlement-Agreement-Or-Else
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SvEbX1n6-H8/
content:
<p><img src="media/51f4f7b3.ace-members.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/ace-members.png" width="260" height="341" class="alignright size-large">The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) is a coalition of 30 companies that reads like a who’s who of the global entertainment market.</p>
<p>All of the major Hollywood studios are members, plus Amazon, Netflix, BBC, Hulu, and Village Roadshow, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/inside-the-mpaa-netflix-amazon-global-anti-piracy-alliance-170918/">to name a few</a>.</p>
<p>ACE was launched last year to present a united front against online infringement and since then has been involved in various anti-piracy actions.</p>
<p>ACE has made the third-party Kodi addon scene one of its early priorities, targeting developers with home visits and lengthy letters demanding that they cease and desist their activities. This has led to several pulling back from the scene but in some instances, this doesn&#8217;t appear to have been enough for ACE.</p>
<p>The letters received by the developers also include a requirement for them to sign a settlement agreement which binds them to a particular course of future behavior set out by ACE. It&#8217;s unclear how many developers have signed but TorrentFreak is aware that several have not.</p>
<p>One of those is JSergio123 who last November announced he would be discontinuing development of several Kodi addons after being targeted by ACE.</p>
<p>“Sorry to say but I am stopping all development of the urlresolver, metahandler, and my other addons,” he <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-developers-quit-following-threats-from-mpa-netflix-amazon-171116/">said</a>.</p>
<p>JSergio123&#8217;s reluctance to sign an agreement with ACE hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed by the anti-piracy group. In a letter dated March 5, 2018 and signed by <a href="https://www.mto.com/lawyers/Kelly-M-Klaus">Kelly Klaus</a> of US-based lawfirm Munger, Tolles &#038; Olson, the developer is reminded of what transpired last year and what is expected of him moving forward.</p>
<p>&#8220;I understand that ACE counsel have discussed with you various of your &#8220;Addon&#8221; software applications and related software and services, including URLResolver (collectively, the &#8220;[redacted] Addons&#8221;) and other actions you have undertaken to induce and contribute to the mass infringement of the ACE members&#8217; copyrighted works,&#8221; Klaus writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;I also understand that ACE counsel have provided you with a proposed settlement agreement, pursuant to which you would end your infringing activities and provide cooperation and other consideration in exchange for ACE agreeing not to pursue legal action against you arising out of your infringing activities. To date, you have not signed the settlement agreement.&#8221;</p>
<p>JSergio123&#8217;s precise reasons for not signing the settlement agreement aren&#8217;t being made public. However, TorrentFreak understands that some of the terms presented to addon developers last year have caused considerable concern. In some cases they are difficult to meet, not to mention unpalatable to the people involved.</p>
<p>They include promises to ensure that specified addons and indeed any developed in the future can no longer infringe copyright. For those that scrape third-party sources, this could prove impossible to absolutely guarantee. This could effectively put developers out of the addon game &#8211; legitimate or otherwise &#8211; for good.</p>
<p>TF is also informed that ACE demanded a high-level of cooperation, including that the developers should supply what amounts to a full confession, detailing all the projects they&#8217;ve been involved in, past and present.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the ACE agreement reportedly requires developers to inform on their colleagues by providing personal information such as identities and contact details. There&#8217;s also a requirement to indicate whether and how developers been making money from their activities.</p>
<p>The new letter from ACE, which is shown below after being published by JSergio, refers to a &#8220;most recent draft of the settlement agreement that ACE members would be willing to sign.&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether this contains any amendments from the settlement agreements sent out last year isn&#8217;t clear but Mr Klaus, who is a veteran of several large infringement lawsuits in the US, says that JSergio should take the offer seriously.</p>
<p>&#8220;I strongly urge you to consider the gravity of this situation and sign the agreement,&#8221; the lawyer concludes.</p>
<p><center><strong>ACE Letter</strong> <em>(credit: <a href="https://twitter.com/jsergio123/status/970832691582160897">JSergio123</a>)</em><br></br></center><center><a href="media/91bb4068.jsergio-ace2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jsergio-ace2.png"><img src="media/f92b2fbb.jsergio-ace2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jsergio-ace2.png" alt="" width="600" height="350" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152305"></a></p>
<p></br></center><center><a href="media/dab2d7ab.jsergio-ace1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jsergio-ace1.png"><img src="media/a3291ba6.jsergio-ace1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jsergio-ace1.png" alt="" width="600" height="378" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152306"></a></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152288
title: Judge Issues Mixed Order in RIAA’s Piracy Case Against ISP Grande
uri: Judge-Issues-Mixed-Order-in-RIAA-s-Piracy-Case-Against-ISP-Grande
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/U6jVVtDIbD4/
content:
<p><img src="media/ec1448ed.grandecomm.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/grandecomm.png" alt="" width="234" height="116" class="alignright size-full wp-image-140705">Regular Internet providers are being put under increasing pressure for not doing enough to curb copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Last year several major record labels, represented by the RIAA, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-sues-isp-grande-communications-for-failing-to-disconnect-pirates-170422/">filed a lawsuit</a> in a Texas District Court, accusing ISP Grande Communications of turning a blind eye on its pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>According to the RIAA, the Internet provider knew that some of its subscribers were frequently distributing copyrighted material, and accused the company of failing to take any meaningful action in response.</p>
<p>Grande disagreed with this assertion and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The ISP argued that it doesn’t encourage any of its customers to download copyrighted works, and that it has no control over the content subscribers access.</p>
<p>The Internet provider admitted that it received millions of takedown notices through the piracy tracking company Rightscorp. However, it believes that these notices are flawed and not worthy of acting upon. It was not keeping subscribers on board with a profit motive, as the RIAA suggested.</p>
<p>A few days ago US Magistrate Judge Andrew Austin issued his &#8220;report and recommendation&#8221; on the motions to dismiss, which brings some good and bad news for both sides. </p>
<p>First of all, Judge Austin recommends granting the motion to dismiss the piracy claims against Grande&#8217;s management company Patriot Media Consulting, which is also listed as a defendant. </p>
<p>According to the order, the RIAA failed to show that Patriot employees were involved in the decisions or actions that led to the infringements, only that they may have been involved in formulating Grande’s infringement related policies.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a far cry from showing that Patriot as an entity was an active participant in the alleged secondary infringement,&#8221; Judge Austin writes. </p>
<p>Moving to Grande Communications itself, Judge Austin recommends dropping the vicarious infringement claim, as Grande requested. To show vicarious infringement, the RIAA would have to prove that the ISP has a direct financial interest in the infringing activity. That is not the case here. </p>
<p>The record labels argued that the availability of copyrighted music lures customers, but the Judge found this allegation too vague, as it would apply to all ISPs.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are no allegations that Grande’s actions in failing to adequately police their infringing subscribers is a draw to subscribers to purchase its services, so that they can then use those services to infringe on UMG’s (and others’) copyrights,&#8221; Judge Austin argues.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead UMG only alleges that the existence of music and the BitTorrent protocol is the draw. But that would impose liability on every ISP, as the music at issue is available on the Internet generally, as is the BitTorrent protocol, and is not something exclusively available through Grande’s services.&#8221; </p>
<p>While the above is good news for the Internet provider, the report and recommendation opt to keep the contributory infringement claim alive. Contributory copyright infringement happens where a defendant intentionally induces or encourages direct infringement.</p>
<p>Grande argued that Rightcorp&#8217;s notices were not sufficient to show that copyrighted material was ever downloaded, but Judge Austin disagrees. The RIAA has made a &#8220;plausible claim&#8221; that the ISP&#8217;s subscribers are infringing the labels&#8217; copyrights. </p>
<p>&#8220;It would be inappropriate to dismiss the case based on factual allegations Grande makes about the Rightscorp notices and system, without any evidence to back those up,&#8221; Judge Austin&#8217;s recommendation reads.</p>
<p>In addition, Grande also argued that it&#8217;s protected from a secondary copyright infringement claim under the “staple article of commerce” doctrine, as &#8220;it is beyond dispute” that ISPs have numerous non-infringing uses.</p>
<p>Referring to the legal case between BMG and Cox Communications, Judge Austin says that this isn&#8217;t as clear as Grande suggests.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court acknowledges that this is not yet a well-defined area of the law, and that there are good arguments on both sides of this issue,&#8221; the recommendation reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;However, at this point in the case, the Court is persuaded that UMG has pled a plausible claim of secondary infringement based on Grande’s alleged failure to act when presented with evidence of ongoing, pervasive infringement by its subscribers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The recommendation, therefore, is to deny the motion to dismiss the contributory infringement claim against Grande. If the U.S. District Court Judge adopts this position, it would mean that the case is heading to trial based on this claim.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Judge Austin&#8217;s full report and recommendations filing is available <a href="media/d2be1d90.grandeumg.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/grandeumg.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152359
title: Fstoppers Uploaded a Brilliant Hoax ‘Anti-Piracy’ Tutorial to The Pirate Bay
uri: Fstoppers-Uploaded-a-Brilliant-Hoax-Anti-Piracy-Tutorial-to-The
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/st1uKRoaR7w/
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="" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470"></a><a href="https://fstoppers.com/">Fstoppers</a> is an online community that produces extremely high-quality photographic tutorials. One of its most popular series is called Photographing the World which sees photographer Elia Locardi travel to exotic locations to demonstrate landscape and cityscape photography.</p>
<p>These tutorials <a href="https://fstoppers.com/product/photographing-the-world-3-with-Elia-Locardi">sell for almost $300</a>, with two or three versions in a pack selling for up $700. Of course, like any other media they get pirated so when Fstoppers were ready to release Photographing the World 3, they released it themselves on torrent sites a few days before retail.</p>
<p>Well, that&#8217;s what they wanted the world to believe.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s fair to say that we&#8217;ve all downloaded &#8216;something&#8217; illegally in the past. Whether it&#8217;s an MP3 years ago or a movie or a TV show, and occasionally you download something and it turns out it was kinda like a Rick Roll,&#8221; says Locardi.</p>
<p>&#8220;So we kept talking and we thought it would be a good idea to create this dummy lesson or shadow tutorial that was actually a fake and then seed it on BitTorrent.&#8221;</p>
<p>Where Fstoppers normally go to beautiful and exotic international locations, for their fake they decided to go to an Olive Garden in Charleston, South Carolina. Yet despite the clear change of location, they wanted people to believe the tutorial was legitimate.</p>
<p>&#8220;We wanted to ride this constant line of &#8216;Is this for real? Could this possibly be real? Is Elia [Locardi] joking right now? I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s joking, he&#8217;s being totally serious&#8217;,&#8221; says Lee Morris, one of the co-owners of Fstoppers.</p>
<p>People really have to watch the tutorial to see what a fantastic job Fstoppers did in achieving that goal. For anyone unfamiliar with their work, the tutorial is initially hard to spot as a fake and even for veterans the level of ambiguity is really impressive.</p>
<p>However, when the tutorial heads back to the studio, where the post-processing lesson gets underway, there can be no doubt that something is amiss.</p>
<p>Things start off normally with serious teaching, then over time, the tutorial gets more and more ridiculous. Then, when the camera cuts away to show Locardi forming a &#8216;mask&#8217; on an Olive Garden image, there can be no confusion.</p>
<p><center><strong>That&#8217;s a cool mask&#8230;.wait..</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/25ee7999.olive1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/olive1.png"><img src="media/bf27abe7.olive1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/olive1.png" alt="" width="600" height="328" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152368"></a></center></p>
<p>In order to get the tutorial out to the world, the site created its own torrent. They had never done anything like it before so got some associates to upload the huge 25GB+ package to The Pirate Bay and have their friends seed it. Then, in order to get past more savvy users on the site, they had other people come in and give the torrent good (but fake) reviews.</p>
<p><center><strong>The fake torrent on The Pirate Bay (as of yesterday)</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/58d21402.olive3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/olive3.png"><img src="media/2431ba9d.olive3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/olive3.png" alt="" width="600" height="348" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152369"></a></center></p>
<p>Screenshots provided by Fstoppers taken months ago reveal hundreds of downloaders. And, according to Morris, the fake became the most-downloaded Photographing the World 3 torrent online, meaning that the &#8220;majority of downloaders&#8221; got the comedy version.</p>
<p>Also of interest is the feedback Fstoppers got following their special release. Emails flooded in from pirates, some of whom were confused while others were upset at the &#8216;quality&#8217; of the tutorial.</p>
<p>&#8220;The whole time we were thinking: &#8216;This isn&#8217;t even on the market yet! You guys are totally stealing this and emailing us and complaining about it,&#8221; says Fstoppers co-owner Patrick Hall.</p>
<p>While the tutorial itself is brilliant, Fstoppers <a href="https://fstoppers.com/architecture/we-pirated-our-own-video-and-what-happened-228756">points</a> to a certain hypocrisy within its target audience of photographers, who themselves have to put up with a lot of online piracy of their work. Yet, clearly, many are happy to pirate the work of other photographers in order to make their own art better.</p>
<p>All that being said, the exercise is certainly an interesting one and the creativity behind the hoax puts it head and shoulders above more aggressive anti-piracy campaigns. However, when TF <a href="https://thepiratebay.org/torrent/18450493/Photographing_the_World_3_Full_Download_Real_Elia_Locardi">tracked down the torrent</a> on The Pirate Bay last evening, it&#8217;s popularity had nosedived.</p>
<p>While it was initially downloaded by a lot of eager photographers, probably encouraged by the fake comments placed on the site by Fstoppers, the torrent is now only being shared by less than 10 people. As usual, the Pirate Bay users appear to have caught on, flagging the torrent as a fake. The moderators, it seems, have also deleted the fake comments.</p>
<p>While most people won&#8217;t want to download a 25GB torrent to see what Fstoppers came up with, the site has <a href="https://youtu.be/KZXk1-c90-w">uploaded the fake tutorial</a> to YouTube. It&#8217;s best viewed alongside their other work, which is sensational, but people should get a good idea by watching the explanation below.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KuQdN_KYnqw" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152365
title: Torrent Tracking Evidence is Flawed and Unreliable, Alleged Pirate Argues
uri: Torrent-Tracking-Evidence-is-Flawed-and-Unreliable-Alleged-Pirate-Arg
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BmqajXP2ZVQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/2381f8ad.dallas1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dallas1.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96710">Besides winning several prestigious awards, the people behind the movie Dallas Buyers Club are also known for their vigorous pursuit of online pirates. </p>
<p>The film&#8217;s copyright holders have sued thousands of people in recent years, resulting in numerous out-of-court settlements. </p>
<p>In Oregon, however, one defendant has proven to be a tough adversary. In a lawsuit that&#8217;s been ongoing for three years, defendant John Huszar was sued for an alleged copyright infringement that occurred via his Tor exit node.</p>
<p>Tor is an anonymity tool and operating a relay or exit node basically means that the traffic of hundreds or thousands of users hit the Internet from your IP-address. When pirates use Tor, it will then appear as if the traffic comes from this connection.</p>
<p>During the course of the legal proceedings, Huszar repeatedly denied that he personally downloaded a pirated copy of the film. However, he faces substantial damages because he failed to respond to a request for admissions, which stated that he distributed the film. This generally means that it&#8217;s seen by the court as true. </p>
<p>With this admission, Dallas Buyers Club (DBC) requested a ruling in its favor. A few months ago, the film company argued that the Tor exit node operator admitted willful infringement, which could cost him up to $150,000 in damages.</p>
<p>The Tor exit node operator then <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tor-exit-node-operator-denies-piracy-allegations-and-hits-back-180127/">fought back</a> pointing out several disputed claims and asked for a ruling in its favor. However, according to the filmmakers, this simply <a href="media/780588de.gov.uscourts.ord.122025.134.0.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ord.122025/gov.uscourts.ord.122025.134.0.pdf">came too late</a>, more than a year after the Court ordered the admissions.</p>
<p>Huszar is not letting DBC off easy though. Before the court ruled on the filmmakers&#8217; request, the defendant submitted a request for summary judgment of non-infringement a few days ago.</p>
<p>Among other things, the defense argues that DBC misled the court about the quality and integrity of the evidence gathering software &#8216;MaverickMonitor,&#8217; which was created by the German company MaverickEye.</p>
<p>The defendant asked Dr. Kal Toth, a qualified software verification expert, to take a look at the system to see if it&#8217;s as reliable as claimed. According to his findings, it is not possible to &#8220;conclude that MaverickMonitor detects the IP addresses of infringing BitTorrent users correctly, consistently and reliably.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>From the declaration</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4846af7a.tothep.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tothep.png" alt="" width="600" height="367" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152402"></center></p>
<p>In addition, the defense points out that DBC&#8217;s own expert never ran the software, suggesting that the filmmakers have no idea how it works.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bizarrely, DBC’s fact and expert witness, Robert Young, testified that he never installed and ran the MaverickMonitor software on any server despite being designated by DBC as its designee on software. </p>
<p>&#8220;DBC, a company that used software to sue thousands of people, has no idea how this software works,&#8221; the defense argues in its motion.</p>
<p>Huszar&#8217;s legal team argues that the BitTorrent monitoring system that was used to sue thousands of people is &#8220;flawed and unreliable.&#8221; While it may produce accurate findings, there could be many false positives as well, their motion explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Perhaps Maverickmonitor worked 50% of the time. The problem is that we have no idea for this case which side of the coin was up for Huszar, nor does DBC, or MaverickMonitor. </p>
<p>&#8220;It is, technically speaking, simply the equivalent of a random number generator, and as such any data generated from the MaverickMonitor system should be excluded,&#8221; the motion adds.</p>
<p>While the filmmakers have the admission as their main ammunition, the Tor exit node operator points the finger at the evidence gathering software, hoping to find the court on his side.</p>
<p>&#8220;[H]ere Huszar demonstrated with an inspection of the code that MaverickMonitor’s claim of &#8216;100% accuracy&#8217; is a complete fraud. Huszar respectfully requests this Court grant his motion for summary judgment and deem him the prevailing party,&#8221; the motion concludes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s now up to the court to decide which side prevails.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the motion for summary judgment is available <a href="media/5b9fcce5.Huszar.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Huszar.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152408
title: Trump Promises Copyright Crackdown as DoJ Takes Aim at Streaming Pirates
uri: Trump-Promises-Copyright-Crackdown-as-DoJ-Takes-Aim-at-Streaming-Pirat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OwQ5eetCbTA/
content:
<p><a href="media/ad2d3321.trumpd.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/trumpd.png"><img src="media/295ce35c.trumpd.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trumpd.png" alt="" width="275" height="193" class="alignright size-full wp-image-127311"></a>For the past several years most of the world has been waking up to the streaming piracy phenomenon, with pre-configured set-top boxes making inroads into millions of homes.</p>
<p>While other countries, notably the UK, arrested many individuals while warning of a grave and looming danger, complaints from the United States remained relatively low-key. It was almost as if the stampede towards convenient yet illegal streaming had caught the MPAA and friends by surprise.</p>
<p>In October 2017, things quickly began to change. The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywood-giants-sue-kodi-powered-tickbox-tv-over-piracy-171014/">sued</a> Georgia-based Tickbox TV, a company selling &#8220;fully-loaded&#8221; Kodi boxes. In January 2018, the same anti-piracy group <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-amazon-and-hollywood-sue-kodi-powered-dragon-box-over-piracy-180111/">targeted Dragon Media</a>, a company in the same line of business.</p>
<p>With this growing type of piracy now firmly on the radar, momentum seems to be building. Yesterday, a panel discussion on the challenges associated with piracy from streaming media boxes took place on Capitol Hill.</p>
<p>Hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), &#8216;Unboxing the Piracy Threat of Streaming Media Boxes&#8217; went ahead with some big name speakers in attendance, not least Neil Fried, Senior Vice President, Federal Advocacy and Regulatory Affairs at the MPAA.</p>
<p>ITIF and various industry groups tweeted many interesting comments throughout the event. Kevin Madigan from Center for the Protection of Intellectual Property <a href="https://twitter.com/ITIFdc/status/971397592482484224">told</a> the panel that torrent-based content &#8220;is becoming obsolete&#8221; in an on-demand digital environment that&#8217;s switching to streaming-based piracy.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s certainly a transition taking place, 150 million worldwide torrent users would probably argue against the term &#8220;obsolete&#8221;. Nevertheless, the same terms used to describe torrent sites are now being used to describe players in the streaming field.</p>
<p>&#8220;There’s a criminal enterprise going on here that’s stealing content and making a profit,&#8221; Fried <a href="https://twitter.com/NCTAitv/status/971401419239587840">told</a> those in attendance.</p>
<p>&#8220;The piracy activity out there is bad, it’s hurting a lot of economic activity &#038; creators aren’t being compensated for their work,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/NCTAitv/status/971397087937081344">added</a>.</p>
<p>Tom Galvin, Executive Director at the Digital Citizens Alliance, was also on the panel. Unsurprisingly, given the organization&#8217;s focus on the supposed dangers of piracy, Galvin took the opportunity to underline that position.</p>
<p>&#8220;If you go down the piracy road, those boxes aren’t following proper security protocols, there are many malware risks,&#8221; <a href="https://twitter.com/NCTAitv/status/971399780810280960">he</a> said. It&#8217;s a position shared by Fried, who <a href="https://twitter.com/ITIFdc/status/971394861550178304">told</a> the panel that &#8220;video piracy is the leading source of malware.&#8221;</p>
<p>Similar claims were made recently on Safer Internet Day but <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-video-scares-kids-with-fake-malware-info-180206/">the facts</a> don&#8217;t seem to back up the scare stories. Still, with the &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-narrative-isnt-about-ethics-anymore-its-about-danger-170812/">Piracy is Dangerous</a>&#8221; strategy already out in the open, the claims aren&#8217;t really unexpected.</p>
<p>What might also not come as a surprise is that ACE&#8217;s lawsuits against Tickbox and Dragon Media could be just a warm-up for bigger things to come. In the tweet embedded below, Fried can be seen holding a hexagonal-shaped streaming box, warning that the Department of Justice is now looking for candidates for criminal action.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Neil Fried of <a href="https://twitter.com/MPAA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MPAA</a> with one of the streaming Kodi boxes leading to big piracy problems during Capitol Hill panel talk. Says DOJ looking at ‘variety of candidates’ for criminal action. <a href="https://twitter.com/Comm_Daily?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Comm_Daily</a> <a href="https://t.co/aYIRA4wgTC">pic.twitter.com/aYIRA4wgTC</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Matt Daneman (@mdaneman) <a href="https://twitter.com/mdaneman/status/971404852650758144?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>What form this action will take when it arrives isn&#8217;t clear but when the DoJ hits targets on home soil, it tends to cherry-pick the most blatant of infringers in order to set an example with reasonably cut-and-dried cases.</p>
<p>Of course, every case can be argued but with hundreds of so-called &#8220;Kodi box&#8221; sellers active all over the United States, many of them clearly breaking the law as they, in turn, invite their customers to break the law, picking a sitting duck shouldn&#8217;t be too difficult.</p>
<p>And then, of course, we come to President Trump. Not usually that vocal on matters of intellectual property and piracy, yesterday &#8211; perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not &#8211; he suddenly delivered one of his &#8220;something is coming&#8221; tweets.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The U.S. is acting swiftly on Intellectual Property theft. We cannot allow this to happen as it has for many years!</p>
<p>&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/971409845453762560?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Given Trump&#8217;s tendency to focus on problems overseas causing issues for companies back home, a comment by Kevin Madigan during the panel yesterday immediately comes to mind.</p>
<p>&#8220;To combat piracy abroad, USTR needs to work with the creative industries to improve enforcement and target the source of pirated material,&#8221; Madigan <a href="https://twitter.com/ITIFdc/status/971402339054702592">said</a>.</p>
<p>Interesting times and much turmoil in the streaming world ahead, it seems.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152417
title: ISP Wants EU Court Ruling on Identifying ‘Pirating’ Subscribers
uri: ISP-Wants-EU-Court-Ruling-on-Identifying-Pirating-Subscribers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2uqjgxB-ICg/
content:
<p><img src="media/0439e552.bahnhof.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bahnhof.png" alt="" width="222" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-128056">In recent years Internet provider <a href="https://www.bahnhof.se/">Bahnhof</a> has fought hard to protect the privacy of its subscribers.</p>
<p>The company has been a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isps-obstruct-new-anti-piracy-legislation-090427/">major opponent</a> of extensive data retention requirements, has launched a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isp-provides-free-vpn-to-protect-customer-privacy-141117/">free VPN</a> to its users, and vowed to protect subscribers from a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/isp-vows-to-prevent-users-from-a-piracy-witch-hunt-160422/">looming</a> copyright troll invasion.</p>
<p>The privacy-oriented ISP is doing everything in its power to prevent its Swedish customers from being exposed. It has even refused to hand over customer details in piracy cases when these requests are made by the police.</p>
<p>This stance resulted in a lawsuit in which Bahnhof argued that piracy isn&#8217;t a serious enough offense to warrant invading the privacy of its customers. The ISP said that this is in line with European privacy regulations.</p>
<p>Last month, the Administrative Court in Stockholm <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/despite-protests-isp-ordered-to-hand-over-pirates-details-to-police-180201/">disagreed with this argument</a>, ordering the ISP to hand over the requested information.</p>
<p>The Court ruled that disclosure of subscriber data to law enforcement agencies does not contravene EU law. It, therefore, ordered the ISP to comply, as the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) had previously recommended.</p>
<p>While the order is a serious setback for Bahnhof, the ISP isn&#8217;t letting the case go just yet. It has filed an appeal where it maintains that disclosing details of alleged pirates goes against EU regulations. </p>
<p><center><strong>Bahnhof says NO</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b508b61f.bahnhofno.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bahnhofno.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="316" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152434"></center></p>
<p>To settle the matter once and for all, Bahnhof has asked the Swedish Appeals Court to refer the case to the EU Court of Justice, to have an EU ruling on the data disclosure issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;Bahnhof, therefore, requires the Court of Appeal to obtain a preliminary ruling from EU law so that the European Court of Justice itself can rule on the matter before the Court of First Instance reaches a final position,&#8221; Bahnhof <a href="https://www.bahnhof.se/press/press-releases/2018/03/07/bahnhof-overklagar-dom-om-utlamning-av-uppgifter">writes</a>.  </p>
<p>Law enforcement requests for piracy-related data are quite common in Sweden. Bahnhof previously showed that more than a quarter of all police request for subscriber data were for cases related to online file-sharing, trumping crimes such as grooming minors, forgery and fraud.</p>
<p>The ISP is vowing to fight this case to the bitter end. While it has no problem with law enforcement efforts in general, the company doesn&#8217;t want to hand over customer data without proper judicial review of a suspected crime.</p>
<p>&#8220;This legal process has already been going on for two years and Bahnhof is ready to continue for as long as necessary to achieve justice. Bahnhof will never agree to hand over delicate sensitive customer data without judicial review,&#8221; the company concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152433
title: “Large Scale” Music Pirate Settles With BREIN For 10,000 Euros
uri: Large-Scale-Music-Pirate-Settles-With-BREIN-For-10-000-Euros
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/c92_62KMhs8/
content:
<p><a href="media/3bdfeafa.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png"><img src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510"></a>In 2018, music piracy is a very different beast than it was back in the early P2P days of Kazaa and LimeWire.</p>
<p>Where once it ran rampant, vastly improved official offerings have ensured that millions of former pirates are now enjoying music legally via convenient streaming services such as Spotify. However, there is no shortage of people who prefer to have personal archives of illicit MP3s stored safely on their own machines.</p>
<p>This content can be easily obtained from web-based pirate sites, torrent platforms, and the aging Usenet system. The latter is often (and incorrectly) considered to be a safer option for distribution but for one uploader, things haven&#8217;t played out that way.</p>
<p>According to news from Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, a &#8220;large-scale&#8221; Usenet uploader has recently agreed to pay the not inconsiderable sum of 10,000 euros ($12,374) to make a potential lawsuit disappear.</p>
<p>BREIN says the person was responsible for uploading unlicensed music releases to Usenet in breach of copyright, including recent albums by Ed Sheeran and Justin Timberlake. However, BREIN also criticizes the Usenet providers who facilitate this kind of sharing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Although such uploaders usually do this free of charge for the status they receive from illegal downloaders, it is the Usenet providers that make money by selling subscriptions for access to their servers,&#8221; says BREIN director Tim Kuik.</p>
<p>&#8220;Such providers like to close their eyes and claim that they do not know what is happening on their servers and only take action when they receive a notification.&#8221;</p>
<p>Alongside BREIN&#8217;s suggestion of willful blindness to infringement, there&#8217;s also the issue of compliance when Usenet operators are presented with an official complaint. Dutch case law requires that when a &#8220;reasonable&#8221; case of infringement is presented, they must give up the identity of the alleged infringer. In this case, that&#8217;s exactly what happened.</p>
<p>&#8220;BREIN has, in order to obtain the details the uploader, requested the Usenet provider of this uploader to provide the data. This request was answered,&#8221; the anti-piracy outfit reveals.</p>
<p>Unlike other jurisdictions where a specific court order is needed for disclosure, in the Netherlands no such process is required. BREIN has taken advantage of this position in many previous cases, insisting that providers who don&#8217;t disclose when there are reasonable grounds are acting unlawfully.</p>
<p>Following BREIN&#8217;s approach and the 10,000 euro settlement, the anti-piracy outfit says that the uploader took to <a href="http://www.spot-net.nl">Spotnet</a>, a piece of software that allows downloading from newsgroups, to announce his demise.</p>
<p>&#8220;As you may have noticed, I have not been actively uploading for a while, because BREIN finally found my details and I have been asked to stop acting as an uploader of copyrighted music content to Usenet,&#8221; the uploader wrote.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have made a settlement with BREIN. A part of this settlement consists of the payment of a considerable sum of 10,000 euros, so I stop with uploading and advise other uploaders to think carefully about whether they want to continue. BREIN doesn&#8217;t stand idly by either. They are willing to take the necessary steps to get your details.&#8221;</p>
<p>BREIN says that the circumstances of the uploader were taken into consideration when reaching the 10,000 euro figure but whether the full amount will ever get paid will never be publicly known. That being said, the publicity attached to the settlement agreement will be worth more to BREIN than the cash alone.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152472
title: Streaming Link Search Engine Alluc Shuts Down
uri: Streaming-Link-Search-Engine-Alluc-Shuts-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iAHDfQ04yMk/
content:
<p><img src="media/0a33b68b.alluclogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/alluclogo.png" alt="" width="277" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152483">With 80 million streaming links to more than 700 video services, Alluc sold itself as the premier streaming link site.</p>
<p>It offered a wide variety of content and over the past thirteen years it grew out to become one of the largest sites of its kind. This week, however, <a href="http://www.alluc.ee/">Alluc</a> surprised friend and foe by shutting down.</p>
<p>&#8220;The alluc search engine has been discontinued. After 13 years of alluc, we decided to take a break and focus on other projects,&#8221; a message posted on the site&#8217;s homepage reads.</p>
<p>That the site was popular is not a secret. People used it to find streaming links to nearly everything, from old movies to the latest hit series. The operators mention that they served a billion unique visitors over the past decade, which is an incredible achievement. </p>
<p><center><strong>Alluc says farewell</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d0df3d06.allucgone.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/allucgone.png" alt="" width="543" height="206" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152496"></center></p>
<p>What&#8217;s less clear, however, is why the site decided to stop now. In the past, we&#8217;ve reported on similar sites that threw in the towel because revenue was dwindling, but Alluc told us that is not the case here.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decision was not driven by monetary reasons. We started alluc when we were still in high-school and it became into something bigger and better than we could have ever imagined when we started it,&#8221; Alluc&#8217;s Sebastian tells us.</p>
<p>&#8220;But now it&#8217;s time for us to move on. We hope to have contributed a lot to the video space and to have helped out a lot of people during these 13 years of running alluc full time.&#8221;</p>
<p>While Alluc could be used to find both authorized and unauthorized content, the movie industry saw it as a blatant pirate site. This resulted in a site blocking request <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dozens-of-pirate-sites-targeted-in-new-aussie-crackdown-170224/">in Australia</a>, among other things.</p>
<p>Alluc, however, always rejected the &#8216;pirate&#8217; label and saw itself as an &#8220;uncensored&#8221; search engine. While they are shutting down now, they still see a future for similar services.</p>
<p>&#8220;There will always be a future for uncensored search and I hope us shutting down alluc can help to create the vacuum needed to incentivize new sites of similar quality and scope or even a decentralized solution to be created by others,&#8221; Sebastian tells us.</p>
<p>Time will tell whether another site will indeed jump in to fill the gap.</p>
<p>Alluc&#8217;s API, which is used by third-party apps and services to find streaming links, will remain available until the end of the month when it will shut down. Meanwhile, Alluc&#8217;s search engine framework lives on at <a href="http://pron.tv/">pron.tv</a>, an adult-themed site.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152362
title: U.S. Border Seizures of DMCA Circumvention Devices Surges
uri: U-S-Border-Seizures-of-DMCA-Circumvention-Devices-Surges
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PNbb6pP96Qs/
content:
<p><img src="media/818771ee.cbp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cbp.png" alt="" width="277" height="105" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152520">In the United States, citizens are generally prohibited from tampering with DRM and other technological protection measures. </p>
<p>This means that Blu-ray rippers are not allowed, nor are mod chips for gaming consoles, and some pirate streaming boxes could fall into this category as well. </p>
<p>Despite possible sanctions, there are plenty of manufacturers who ship these devices to the US, often to individual consumers. To arrive at their destination, however, they first have to pass the border control. </p>
<p>Not all make it to their final destination. A new report released by Homeland Security shows that the number of &#8220;intellectual property&#8221; related seizures increased by 8%, from 31,560 in 2016 to 34,143 a year later. </p>
<p>The vast majority of these seized items are traditional counterfeit goods. This includes fake brand clothing, shoes, replica watches, toys, as well as consumer electronics.  </p>
<p>What caught our eye, however, is a sharp increase in &#8220;circumvention devices&#8221; that were found to violate the DMCA. Last year, the number of these seized items U.S. Customs and Border Protection increased by 324%.</p>
<p>&#8220;CBP seized 297 shipments of circumvention devices for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a 324 percent increase from 70 such seizures in FY 2016,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>While the relative increase is quite dramatic, the absolute numbers are perhaps not as impressive, with less than one seized device per day. The report gives no explanation for the surge, nor is there an estimate of how many devices slip through.</p>
<p>What we did notice is that the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) recently framed streaming boxes as possible circumvention tools. The strong enforcement focus of rightsholders on these devices may have been communicated to border patrols as well.</p>
<p>When we previously reached out to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to find out more about what type of circumvention devices are seized under the DMCA, a spokesperson provided us with the following definition.</p>
<p>&#8220;[P]roducts, devices, components, or parts thereof that are primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner, and have only limited commercially significant purposes or uses other than to circumvent such protection measures.&#8221;</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to CBP again this week to ask if streaming boxes are seen as circumvention devices, but at the time of writing, we have yet to receive a response.</p>
<p>In a press release commenting on the news, CBP Acting Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said that his organization is happy with last year&#8217;s results.</p>
<p>“The theft of intellectual property and trade in counterfeit and pirated goods causes harm to an innovation-based economy by threatening the competitiveness of businesses and the livelihoods of workers,” McAleenan said. </p>
<p>“Another record-breaking year of IPR seizures highlights the vigilance of CBP and ICE personnel in preventing counterfeit goods from entering our stream of commerce and their dedication to protecting the American people,” he added.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152321
title: Spanish Netflix Competitor Filmin Partnered With Leading Pirate Site
uri: Spanish-Netflix-Competitor-Filmin-Partnered-With-Leading-Pirate-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zekj6UgxWiI/
content:
<p><img src="media/6755aae4.seriesyonkis.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/seriesyonkis.png" alt="" width="250" height="205" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152325">In 2011 Hollywood&#8217;s <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-lists-notorious-pirate-sites-to-u-s-government-111028/">MPAA highlighted SeriesYonkis</a> as one of the most prolific pirate sites on the Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;With a worldwide Alexa rank of 855, Seriesyonkis.com is one the most visited websites in the world for locating and streaming unauthorized copies of motion picture and television content,&#8221; Hollywood&#8217;s industry group informed the US Government.  </p>
<p>While the MPAA was calling for tough enforcement actions, film industry partners in Spain came up with a different plan. They signed an unprecedented deal with the pirate site in 2011, hoping to convert its users into paying customers. </p>
<p>The main figures in this unusual episode are Juan Carlos Tous, the founder of the legal streaming platform <a href="https://www.filmin.es/">Filmin</a>, and SeriesYonkis owner Alexis Hoepfner, who operated the pirate site under his company Burn Media. </p>
<p>With help from lawyer Andy Ramos they negotiated a unique deal that would &#8216;merge&#8217; both businesses. According to local newspaper <a href="https://www.elconfidencial.com/tecnologia/2018-03-02/ley-sinde-pirateria-seriesyonkis-filmin-descargas_1528966/">El Confidencial</a>, which has seen a copy of the agreement, SeriesYonkis company would get a 23% stake in Filmin, on the condition that pirate links were replaced with legal ones within a set period.</p>
<p>The entire agreement was kept secret by a confidentiality clause, which worked well until a few days ago.</p>
<p>SeriesYonkis also made two loans of 250,000 euros available, which were convertible into shares. In addition to the above, Filmin also offered compensation for every pirate it converted, up to 10 euros per user that signed up for an annual subscription. </p>
<p>The agreement further stipulated that SeriesYonkis had to apologize for its pirate ways. Point five stressed that SeriesYonkis and other Burn Media sites had to &#8220;carry out communication and awareness actions so that the users of the websites understand the need to legally access audiovisual content.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interestingly, SeriesYonkis wasn&#8217;t planning to go down and let other pirate sites take its traffic. The agreement included a clause that obligated Filmin to spend 25,000 euros to shut down or reduce traffic to other pirate sites.</p>
<p>The episode took place when Spain was about to implement its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/website-blocking-law-implemented-by-new-spanish-government-120102/">Sinde law</a>, which would make it hard for local pirate sites in a country that was considered a &#8220;safe haven&#8221; at the time. However, not everything went according to plan. </p>
<p>The Sinde law didn&#8217;t destroy all Spanish pirate sites and six months after signing the agreement, SeriesYonkis stopped deleting pirate links. Even worse, its owner launched several new pirate sites, such as SeriesCoco and SeriesKiwi.</p>
<p>Filmin&#8217;s founder was outraged and sent an email demanding answers.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would like to hear your opinion on the progress and explanation of your plan with SeriesCoco! I do not understand anything! I thought you were going to decrease, and I see that you are opening portals!! WTF!&#8221; Tous wrote. </p>
<p>The deal eventually fell apart. Filmin kept its shares and stopped paying for new referrals. SeriesYonkis&#8217; company Burn Media filed a lawsuit to get back its money, but thus far that hasn&#8217;t happened.</p>
<p>According to an insider close to the deal, the idea was brilliant. SeriesYonkis reportedly earned millions of euros at the time, more than Filmin, and used this money to go legal and destroy the competition ahead of a tough new anti-piracy law.</p>
<p>&#8220;The pirate not only abandons its weapons, but is integrated into the industry, and uses capital earned from piracy to fight against it,” a source told El Confidencial. </p>
<p>&#8220;It was a winning deal for everyone,&#8221; another source added, regretting that it didn&#8217;t work out. &#8220;It was a very bold agreement, something unusual in this sector, that would have changed the scenario if it had worked.&#8221;  </p>
<p>Today, roughly seven years after the agreement was set into motion, Filmin is one of the larger streaming platforms in Spain. SeriesYonkis is also still around, but was sold by Hoefner in 2016 and no longer links to pirated content.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152331
title: UK Govt. Met With Copyright Holders Dozens of Times in Just Three Months
uri: UK-Govt-Met-With-Copyright-Holders-Dozens-of-Times-in-Just-Three-Mont
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AdYTdJPYzzA/
content:
<p><a href="media/d75d1cf7.ipo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ipo.jpg"><img src="media/080e0238.ipo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ipo.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-28024"></a>While doing business with clients and suppliers is the usual day-to-day routine for most businesses, companies in the entertainment sector seem keener than most to spend time with those in power.</p>
<p>Whether there&#8217;s pressure to be applied in respect of upcoming changes in policy or long-term plans for modifying legislation, at least a few times a year news breaks of rightsholders having private meetings with officials. Most of the time, however, the head-to-heads fly under the radar.</p>
<p>This week, however, the UK government published a response to a Freedom of Information Request which asked for details of meetings between the government and copyright owner organizations, enforcement organizations, and collection societies (think BPI, MPA, FACT, Publishers Association, PRS, etc) including times, dates and topics discussed.</p>
<p>The request asked for details of meetings held between May 2016 and April 2017 but the government declined to provide all of this information since the effort required to extract the information &#8220;would exceed the cost limit.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given the amount of data published, this isn&#8217;t a surprise. Even though the government chose to limit the response to events held between January 16, 2017 and April 17, 2017, the meetings between the government and the above groups number in their dozens.</p>
<p>January 2017 got off to a pretty slow start but week three and beyond saw a flurry of meetings with groups and companies such as ITV, BBC, PRS for Music, Copyright Licensing Agency and several other organizations to discuss the EU&#8217;s Digital Single Market proposals.</p>
<p>On January 18, 2017 Time Warner had a meeting to discuss content protection and analytics, followed a day later by the Premier League who were booked in to discuss &#8220;illicit streaming devices&#8221; (a topic mirrored in March during a meeting with the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance).</p>
<p>Just a few days later the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit held a &#8220;Partnership Working Group Meeting involving industry&#8221; and two days after that the police, Trading Standards, and the EU Police Agency convened to discuss enforcement activity.</p>
<p>January 26, 2017 saw an IP Outreach Workshop involving members of the IP Crime Group. This was potentially a big meeting. The IPCG consists of several regional police forces, PIPCU, National Crime Agency, Crown Prosecution Service, Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Trading Standards, HMRC, IFPI, BPI, FACT, Sky TV, PRS, FAST and the Publishers Association, to name just a few.</p>
<p>As the first month of the year was drawing to a close, Amazon met with the government to discuss &#8220;current procedures for removing copyright, design and trademark infringing material from their platform.&#8221; A similar meeting was held with eBay on February 1 and on February 20, Facebook had its turn on the same topic.</p>
<p>All three companies had come in for criticism from copyright holders for not doing enough to stem the tide of infringing content available on their platforms, particularly so-called Kodi boxes that provide access to movies, shows, and live TV. </p>
<p>However, in the months that followed they each responded positively, with eBay, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/amazon-bans-sales-of-pirate-media-players-will-destroy-them-170331/">Amazon</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/facebook-bans-sale-of-piracy-enabling-products-devices-170525/">Facebook</a> announcing restrictions on devices sold. While all three platforms <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/three-months-on-ebays-total-kodi-ban-doesnt-exist-170711/">still have a problem</a> with infringing device sales, the situation appears to have improved since last year. </p>
<p>On the final day of January 2017, the MPAA attended a meeting to discuss the looming Digital Economy Bill and digital TV piracy. A couple of days later they were back again for a &#8220;business awareness seminar&#8221; with other big shots including the Alliance for IP, the Anti-Counterfeiting Group, Trading Standards and the Premier League. </p>
<p>However, given the dozens that took place, perhaps one of the more interesting meetings in terms of the mix of those in attendance took place February 7.</p>
<p>Titled &#8220;Organized Crime Task Force Meeting &#8211; Belfast&#8221; it was attended by the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the National Crime Agency, Trading Standards, HM Revenue and Customs, the Border Force, and (spot the odd one out) the Federation Against Copyright Theft.</p>
<p>This seems to suggest that FACT (a private company) is effectively embedded at the highest level of law enforcement, something that has made people very uncomfortable in the past.</p>
<p>Later in February, there was a roundtable meeting with the Alliance for IP, MPAA, Publishers&#8217; Association, BPI, Premier League and Federation Against Copyright Theft (again) to discuss Brexit, the Digital Single Market, IP enforcement and industrial strategy. A similar meeting was held in March which was attended by UK Music, BPI, PRS, Featured Artists Coalition, and many more.</p>
<p>The full list of meetings, which number in their dozens for just a three-month period, can be found here <a href="media/7e1dfd60.meeting-copyright-organisations.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/685663/meeting-copyright-organisations.pdf"><em>pdf</em></a>. Whether the volume is representative of other three-month periods isn&#8217;t clear but it seems reasonable to conclude that copyright organizations have the ears of government officials in the UK on an almost continual basis.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152329
title: McAfee Security Experts Weigh-in Weirdly With “Fresh Kodi Warning”
uri: McAfee-Security-Experts-Weigh-in-Weirdly-With-Fresh-Kodi-Warning
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/yZhERI9tOAw/
content:
<p><a href="media/13c1e1a2.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png"><img src="media/8aa05985.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png" alt="" width="256" height="256" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144339"></a>Over the past several years, the last couple in particular, piracy has stormed millions of homes around the world.</p>
<p>From being a widespread but still fairly geeky occupation among torrenters, movie and TV show piracy can now be achieved by anyone with the ability to click a mouse or push a button on a remote control. Much of this mainstream interest can be placed at the feet of the Kodi media player.</p>
<p>An entirely legal platform in its own right, Kodi can be augmented with third-party add-ons that enable users to access an endless supply of streaming media. As such, piracy-configured Kodi installations are operated by an estimated 26 million people, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-almost-70-of-38-million-kodi-users-are-pirates-171104/">according to the MPAA</a>.</p>
<p>This popularity has led to much interest from tabloid newspapers in the UK which, for reasons best known to them, choose to both promote and demonize Kodi almost every week. While writing about news events is clearly par for the course, when one considers some of the reports, their content, and what inspired them, something doesn&#8217;t seem right.</p>
<p>This week The Express, which has published many overly sensational stories about Kodi in recent times, published <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/926869/Kodi-malware-warning-Mcafee-alert-UK-illegal-streaming">another</a>. The title &#8211; as always &#8211; promised something special.</p>
<p><center><strong>Sounds like big news&#8230;.</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/902fd5cc.express-kodi.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/express-kodi.png"><img src="media/fd51f141.express-kodi.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/express-kodi.png" alt="" width="600" height="376" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152387"></a></center></p>
<p>Reading the text, however, reveals nothing new whatsoever. The piece simply rehashes some of the historic claims that have been leveled at Kodi that can easily apply to any Internet-enabled software or system. But beyond that, some of its content is pretty weird.</p>
<p>The piece is centered on comments from two McAfee security experts &#8211; Chief Scientist Raj Samani and Chief Consumer Security Evangelist Gary Davis. It&#8217;s unclear whether The Express approached them for comment (if they did, there is no actual story for McAfee to comment on) or whether McAfee offered the comments and The Express built a story around them. Either way, here&#8217;s a taster.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kodi has been pretty open about the fact that it’s a streaming site but my view has always been if I use Netflix I know that I’m not going to get any issues, if I use Amazon I&#8217;m not going to get any issues,&#8221; Samani told the publication.</p>
<p>Ok, stop right there. Kodi admits that it&#8217;s a streaming site? Really? Kodi is a piece of software. It&#8217;s a media player. It can do many things but Kodi is not a streaming site and no one at Kodi has ever labeled it otherwise. To think that neither McAfee nor the publication caught that one is a bit embarrassing.</p>
<p>The argument that Samani was trying to make is that services like Netflix and Amazon are generally more reliable than third-party sources and there are few people out there who would argue with that.</p>
<p>“Look, ultimately you’ve got to do the research and you’ve got to decide if it’s right for you but personally I don’t use [Kodi] and I know full well that by not using [Kodi] I’m not going to get any issues. If I pay for the service I know exactly what I’m going to get,” he said.</p>
<p>But unlike his colleague who doesn&#8217;t use Kodi, Gary Davis has more experience. </p>
<p>McAfee&#8217;s Chief Consumer Security Evangelist admits to having used Kodi in the past but more recently decided not to use it when the security issues apparently got too much for him.</p>
<p>&#8220;I did use [Kodi] but turned it off as I started getting worried about some of the risks,&#8221; he told The Express.</p>
<p>“You may search for something and you may get what you are looking for but you may get something that you are not looking for and that’s where the problem lies with Kodi.&#8221;</p>
<p>This idea, that people search for a movie or TV show yet get something else, is bewildering to most experienced Kodi users. If this was indeed the case, on any large scale, people wouldn&#8217;t want to use it anymore. That&#8217;s clearly not the case.</p>
<p>Also, incorrect content appearing is not the kind of security threat that the likes of McAfee tend to be worried about. However, Davis suggests things can get worse.</p>
<p>“I’m not saying they’ve done anything wrong but if somebody is able to embed code to turn on a microphone or other things or start sending data to a place it shouldn’t go,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>The sentence appears to have some words missing and struggles to make sense but the suggestion is that someone&#8217;s Kodi installation could be corrupted to the point that someone people could hijack the user&#8217;s microphone.</p>
<p>We are not aware of anything like that happening, ever, via Kodi. There are instances where that has happened <a href="https://cyberx-labs.com/en/blog/operation-bugdrop-cyberx-discovers-large-scale-cyber-reconnaissance-operation/">completely without it</a> in a completely different context, but that seems here nor there. By the same count, everyone should stop using Windows perhaps?</p>
<p>The big question is why these &#8216;scary&#8217; Kodi non-stories keep getting published and why experts are prepared to weigh-in on them?</p>
<p>It would be too easy to quickly put it down to some anti-piracy agenda, even though there are plenty of signs that anti-piracy groups have been habitually feeding UK tabloids with information on that front. Indeed, a source at a UK news outlet (that no longer publishes such stories) told TF that they were often prompted to write stories about Kodi and streaming in general, none with a positive spin.</p>
<p>But if it was as simple as that, how does that explain another story run in The Express this week <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/science-technology/927769/Kodi-v18-Leia-Update-Alpha-Download-UK">heralding the launch</a> of Kodi&#8217;s <a href="https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-v18-leia-alpha-1">&#8216;Leia&#8217; alpha release</a>?</p>
<p>If Kodi is so bad as to warrant an article telling people to avoid it FOREVER on one day, why is it good enough to be promoted on another? It can only come down to the number of clicks &#8211; but the clickbait headline should&#8217;ve given that away at the start.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152452
title: Camcording Piracy is Dropping, But Not In Russia
uri: Camcording-Piracy-is-Dropping-But-Not-In-Russia
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n0vgcm5V3lk/
content:
<p><img src="media/86342ead.theater-movie-cinema.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema.png" alt="" width="275" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142135" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema.png 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px">The movie industry sees movies that are illegally recorded in theaters as one of the biggest piracy threats worldwide.</p>
<p>To combat this, audio and video watermarking tools are used to detect pirates and their favorite locations. In addition, night-vision goggles and other spy tech are employed to monitor moviegoers during high profile film premieres.</p>
<p>Despite these efforts, so-called &#8216;cam&#8217; releases of hundreds of films still end up on pirate sites. </p>
<p>In fact, the majority of all new pirated movies that appear online can be traced to a digital recording in a movie theater. This can be the movie itself, the audio, or both. The good news for the movie industry is that the total number seems to be dropping somewhat.</p>
<p>According to statistics gathered by the MPAA, 447 illegal recording of its members&#8217; movies were detected in 2017. This is down 11% compared to the year before when 503 titles were recorded. This suggests that enforcement actions and preventive measures are paying off. However, this is not visible everywhere. </p>
<p>This week Kevin Rosenbaum of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Intellectual_Property_Alliance">IIPA</a>), which represents various industry groups including the MPAA, informed the US International Trade Commission that camcording piracy is on the rise in Russia.</p>
<p>In his oral testimony, Rosenbaum signaled three key copyright issues in Russia that deserve attention from the US Government.</p>
<p>&#8220;First is to dramatically improve enforcement against online piracy, particularly piracy sites and services directed to users outside of Russia,&#8221; Rosenbaum said.</p>
<p>In addition, the country also has to address the problem with the Russian collecting societies, to effectively handle music licensing. These currently lack transparency or good governance, IIPA noted.  </p>
<p>The third issue that needs attention is camcording piracy. According to IIPA&#8217;s statement, there has been a dramatic increase in illegally recorded movies over the past several years.</p>
<p>&#8220;Russia must address the problem of camcording motion pictures, which has risen dramatically over the past three years (200% since 2015) and fuels online piracy,&#8221; Rosenbaum noted.</p>
<p>In 2015 the movie industry traced 26 camcorded copies to Russia and by last year this number had increased to 78. These releases are linked to movie theaters around the country, from Moscow, Kazan, Tatarstan, St. Petersburg, all the way up to Siberia.</p>
<p>The Russian camcording piracy problem was also highlighted in IIPA&#8217;s recent Special 301 submission to the US Trade Representative.</p>
<p>&#8220;Russia remains the home to some of the world’s most prolific criminal release groups of motion pictures.&#8221; IIPA wrote last month. &#8220;The illicit camcords that are sourced from Russia are only of fair quality, but they remain in high demand by international criminal syndicates.&#8221;</p>
<p>With help from the Russian-Anti Piracy Organization over a dozen cammers were caught last year. In addition, four criminal cases were launched.</p>
<p>IIPA hopes that these will result in convictions, to create a deterrent effect. In addition, the group highlights that Russia could strengthen its laws, perhaps with a little push from the US.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Kevin Rosenbaum&#8217;s statement before the United States International Trade Commission is available <a href="media/ca937c45.iiparosen.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/iiparosen.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. In addition to Russia, it also highlights issues in other countries.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152557
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/12/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-12-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jKDG5EZx_lw/
content:
<p><img src="media/6b150696.juman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/juman.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152560">This week we have four newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-030518/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CbN8sfihY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389072/">Downsizing</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1389072/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCrBICYM0yM&#038;t=16s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">Thor Ragnarok</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">Ferdinand</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBXVM7oUPVk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">The Greatest Showman</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOeiLhcgPo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">Justice League</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">Pitch Perfect 3</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4765284/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVsOXRgjeeU&#038;t=71s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152548
title: Voksi ‘Pirates’ New Serious Sam Game With Permission From Developers
uri: Voksi-Pirates-New-Serious-Sam-Game-With-Permission-From-Develope
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IEzHB1t-0GI/
content:
<p><a href="media/1cfd0a90.ss-voksi.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ss-voksi.jpg"><img src="media/979cfb42.ss-voksi.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ss-voksi.jpg" alt="" width="240" height="210" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152574"></a>Bulgarian cracker Voksi is unlike many others in his line of work. He makes himself relatively available online, interacting with fans and revealing surprising things about his past.</p>
<p>Only last month <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/voksi-releases-detailed-denuvo-cracking-video-tutorial-180210/">he told TF</a> that he is entirely self-taught and had been cracking games since he was 15-years-old, just six years ago.</p>
<p>Voksi is probably best known for his hatred of anti-piracy technology Denuvo and to this day is still one of just four groups/people who have managed to crack v4 of the anti-tamper technology. As such, he and his kind are often painted as enemies of the gaming industry but that doesn&#8217;t represent the full picture.</p>
<p>In discussion with TF over the weekend, Voksi told us that he&#8217;s a huge fan of the Serious Sam franchise so when he found out about the latest title &#8211; <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/272620/agecheck">Serious Sam&#8217;s Bogus Detour</a> (SSBD) &#8211; he wanted to play it &#8211; badly. That led to a remarkable series of events.</p>
<p>&#8220;One month before the game&#8217;s official release I got into the closed beta, thanks to a friend of mine, who invited me in. I introduced myself to the developers [<a href="http://www.crackshell.dk/">Crackshell</a>]. I told them what I do for a living, but also assured them that I didn&#8217;t have any malicious intents towards the game. They were very cool about it, even surprisingly cool,&#8221; Voksi informs TF.</p>
<p>The game eventually hit the market (without Voksi targeting it, of course) with some interesting additions. As shown in the screenshot taken from the game and embedded below, Voksi was listed as a tester for the game.</p>
<p><center><strong>An unusual addition to the game credits&#8230;.</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/799a87f5.OOi2grzrROibgIENmur16w-e1520845255784.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/OOi2grzrROibgIENmur16w-e1520845255784.png"><img src="media/799a87f5.OOi2grzrROibgIENmur16w-e1520845255784.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/OOi2grzrROibgIENmur16w-e1520845255784.png" alt="" width="600" height="352" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152567"></a></center></p>
<p>Perhaps even more impressively, official Stream screenshots <a href="http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/272620/ss_d8cf25201038057aad088e8a47a943f145aeb0f4.1920x1080.jpg?t=1513033175">here</a> show Voksi as a player in the game. It&#8217;s not exactly what one might expect for someone in his position but from there, the excitement began to fade. Despite a 9/10 rating on Steam, the books didn&#8217;t balance.</p>
<p>&#8220;The game was released officially on 20 of June, 2017. Months passed. We all hoped it&#8217;d be a success, but sadly that was not the case,&#8221; Voksi explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Even with all the official marketing done by Devolver Digital, no one batted an eye and really gave it a chance. In December 2017, I found out how bad the sales really were, which even didn&#8217;t cover the expenses for the making game, let alone profit.&#8221;</p>
<p>Voksi was really disappointed that things hadn&#8217;t gone to plan so he contacted the developers with an idea &#8211; why didn&#8217;t he get involved to try and drum up some support from an entirely unconventional angle? How about giving a special edition of the game away for free while calling on &#8216;pirates&#8217; to chip in with whatever they could afford?</p>
<p>&#8220;Last week I contacted the main dev of SSBD over Steam and proposed what I can do to help boost the game. He immediately agreed,&#8221; Voksi says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The plan was to release a build of the game that was playable from start to finish, playable in co-op with up to 4 players, not to miss anything important gameplay wise and add a little message in the bottom corner, which is visible at all times, telling you: &#8220;We are small indie studio. If you liked the game, please consider buying it. Thank you and enjoy the game!&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Message at the bottom of the screen</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/7e337a43.uXVbuqSsQAu8dfmuppu9UQ-e1520845772908.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uXVbuqSsQAu8dfmuppu9UQ-e1520845772908.png"><img src="media/7e337a43.uXVbuqSsQAu8dfmuppu9UQ-e1520845772908.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uXVbuqSsQAu8dfmuppu9UQ-e1520845772908.png" alt="" width="600" height="465" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152568"></a></center></p>
<p>But Voksi&#8217;s marketing plan didn&#8217;t stop there. This special build of the game is also tied to a unique giveaway challenge with several prizes. It&#8217;s underway on Voksi&#8217;s <a href="https://revolt.group/index.php?/topic/7743-serious-sams-bogus-detour-and-heroes-of-the-hammerwatch-giveaway-challenge/">REVOLT forum</a> and is intended to encourage more people to play the game and share the word among family, friends and whoever else can support the developers.</p>
<p>Importantly, Voski isn&#8217;t getting paid to do any of this, he just wants to help the developers and support a game he feels deserves a lot more attention. For those interested in taking it for a spin, the download links are available <a href="https://cs.rin.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1651612#p1651612">here</a> in the official thread.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DM7MDG1cTE-TybHnvAoaPjBwAkj6OUd3">&#8216;pirate&#8217; build</a> &#8211; Serious.Sam.Bogus.Detour.B126.RIP-Voksi &#8211; is slightly less polished than those available officially but it&#8217;s hoped that people will offer their support on <a href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/272620/agecheck">Steam</a> and <a href="https://www.gog.com/game/serious_sams_bogus_detour">GOG</a> if they like the game.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9Ix6nZimYJ0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152215
title: U.S. Navy Under Fire in Mass Software Piracy Lawsuit
uri: U-S-Navy-Under-Fire-in-Mass-Software-Piracy-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NbJBopJsGRY/
content:
<p><img src="media/cd2185f3.usnavy.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/usnavy.jpg" width="250" height="169" alt="" class="alignright size-large">In 2011 and 2012, the US Navy began using BS Contact Geo, a 3D virtual reality application developed by German company <a href="http://www.bitmanagement.com/">Bitmanagement</a>. </p>
<p>The Navy reportedly agreed to purchase licenses for use on 38 computers, but things began to escalate.</p>
<p>While Bitmanagement was hopeful that it could sell additional licenses to the Navy, the software vendor soon discovered the US Government had already installed it on 100,000 computers without extra compensation.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-sued-for-software-piracy-maker-claims-600m-160720/">Federal Claims Court complaint</a> filed by Bitmanagement two years ago, that figure later increased to hundreds of thousands of computers. Because of the alleged infringement, Bitmanagement demanded damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.</p>
<p>In the months that followed both parties conducted discovery and a few days ago the software company filed a motion for partial summary judgment, asking the court to rule that the US Government is liable for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>According to the software company, it&#8217;s clear that the US Government crossed a line.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Navy admits that it began installing the software onto hundreds of thousands of machines in the summer of 2013, and that it ultimately installed the software onto at least 429,604 computers. When it learned of this mass installation, Bitmanagement was surprised, but confident that it would be compensated for the numerous copies the Government had made,&#8221; the motion reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Over time, however, it became clear that the Navy had no intention to pay Bitmanagement for the software it had copied without authorization, as it declined to execute any license on a scale commensurate with what it took,&#8221; Bitmanagement adds.</p>
<p>In its defense, the US Government had argued that it bought concurrent-use licenses, which permitted the software to be installed across the Navy network. However, Bitmanagement argues that it is impossible as the reseller that sold the software was only authorized to sell PC licenses.</p>
<p>In addition, the software company points out that the word &#8220;concurrent&#8221; doesn&#8217;t appear in the contracts, nor was there any mention of mass installations. </p>
<p>The Government also argued that Bitmanagement impliedly authorized it to install the software on hundreds of thousands of computers. This defense also makes little sense, the software company counters.</p>
<p>The Navy licensed an earlier version of the software for $30,000, which could be used on 100 computers, so it would seem odd that it could use the later version on hundreds of thousands of computers for only $5,490, the company argues.</p>
<p>&#8220;To establish that it had an implied license, the Government must show that Bitmanagement — despite having licensed a less advanced copy of its software to the Government in 2008 on a PC basis that allowed for installation on a total of 100 computers in exchange for $30,000 — later authorized the Government to make an unlimited number of installations of its advanced software product for $5,490.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full motion brings up a wide range of other arguments as well which, according to Bitmanagement, make it clear that the US Government is liable for copyright infringement. It, therefore, asks the court for a partial summary judgment. </p>
<p>&#8220;Bitmanagement respectfully requests that this Court grant summary judgment as to the Government’s liability for copyright infringement and hold that the Government copied BS Contact Geo beyond the limits of its license, on a scale equal to the hundreds of thousands of unauthorized copies of BS Contact Geo that the Government either installed or made available for installation,&#8221; the company concludes. </p>
<p>If the Government is indeed liable the scale of the damages will be decided at a later stage. The software company previously noted that this could be as high as $600 million.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that the U.S. military has been &#8216;caught&#8217; pirating software. A few years ago it was accused of operating unlicensed logistics software, a case the Obama administration <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-caught-pirating-military-software-pays-50-million-to-settle-131127/">eventually settled</a> for $50 million.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the motion for partial summary judgment is available <a href="media/60fed9c6.bitmanagement.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bitmanagement.pdf">here (pdf)</a>. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152612
title: Pirate Site Admins Receive Suspended Sentences, Still Face €60m Damages Claim
uri: Pirate-Site-Admins-Receive-Suspended-Sentences-Still-Face-60m-Dama
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WpcdfsMMxCg/
content:
<p><a href="media/f8623ca2.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg"><img src="media/f6eb27a1.law-hammer.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg" alt="" width="270" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134548" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer.jpg 270w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/law-hammer-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px"></a>After being founded in 2009, French site Liberty Land (LL) made its home in Canada. At the time listed among France’s top 200 sites, Liberty Land carried an estimated 30,000 links to a broad range of unlicensed content.</p>
<p>Like many other indexes of its type, LL carried no content itself but hosted links to content hosted elsewhere, on sites like Megaupload and Rapidshare, for example. This didn&#8217;t save the operation from an investigation carried out by rightsholder groups SACEM and ALPA, which filed a complaint against Liberty Land with the French authorities in 2010.</p>
<p><center><strong>Liberty Land</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5da40378.libertyland.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/libertyland.jpg" width="475" height="335" class="aligncenter size-large"></center></p>
<p>In May 2011 and alongside complaints from police that the people behind Liberty Land had taken extreme measures to hide themselves away, authorities <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrested-file-sharing-admins-face-jail-700000-fines-100530/">arrested</a> several men linked to the site in Marseille, near Le Havre, and in the Paris suburb of Montreuil.</p>
<p>Despite the men facing a possible five years in jail and fines of up to $700,000, the inquiry dragged on for nearly seven years. The trial of its alleged operators, now aged between 29 and 36-years-old, finally went ahead January 30 in Rennes.</p>
<p>The men faced charges that they unlawfully helped to distribute movies, TV series, games, software, music albums and e-books without permission from rightsholders. In court, one defended the site as being just like Google.</p>
<p>&#8220;For me, we had the same role as Google,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.ouest-france.fr/bretagne/rennes-35000/telechargement-illegal-les-patrons-de-liberty-land-juges-rennes-5533673">said</a>. &#8220;We were an SEO site. There is a difference between what we were doing and the distribution of pirated copies on the street.&#8221;</p>
<p>According to the prosecution, the site made considerable revenues from advertising, estimated at more than 300,000 euros between January 2009 and May 2011. The site&#8217;s two main administrators reportedly established an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands and a bank account in Latvia where they deposited between 100,000 and 150,000 euros each.</p>
<p>The prosecutor demanded fines for the former site admins and sentences of between six and 12 months in prison. Last week the Rennes Criminal Court rendered its decision, sentencing the four men to suspended sentences of between two and three months. More than 176,000 euros generated by the site was also confiscated by the Court.</p>
<p>While the men will no doubt be relieved that this extremely long case has reached a conclusion of sorts, it&#8217;s not over yet. 20minutes <a href="https://www.20minutes.fr/justice/2234419-20180308-rennes-quatre-administrateurs-site-telechargement-liberty-land-condamnes">reports</a> that the claims for damages filed by copyright groups including SACEM won&#8217;t be decided until September and they are significant, totaling 60 million euros.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152618
title: Playboy Wants to Know Who Downloaded Their Playmate Images From Imgur
uri: Playboy-Wants-to-Know-Who-Downloaded-Their-Playmate-Images-From-Imgur
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/04vlENGsbjM/
content:
<p><img src="media/dc5bbc21.playlo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/playlo.png" alt="" width="244" height="244" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152629">Late last year Playboy filed a copyright lawsuit against the popular blog Boing Boing.</p>
<p>The site had previously published an article linking to an archive of Playboy centerfold images, which the adult magazine saw as problematic.</p>
<p>Boing Boing’s parent company Happy Mutants <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/linking-is-not-copyright-infringement-boing-boing-tells-court-180119/">was accused</a> of various counts of copyright infringement, with Playboy claiming that it exploited their playmates’ images for commercial purposes.</p>
<p>The California district court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-dismisses-playboys-copyright-claims-against-boing-boing-180215/">was not convinced</a>, however. In an order last month, Judge Fernando Olguin noted that it is not sufficient to argue that Boing Boing merely ‘provided the means’ to carry out copyright-infringing activity. There also has to be a personal action that ‘assists’ the infringing activity.</p>
<p>“For example, the court is skeptical that plaintiff has sufficiently alleged facts to support either its inducement or material contribution theories of copyright infringement,” Judge Olguin wrote.</p>
<p>Playboy was given the option to file a new complaint before the end of February, or else the case would be dismissed. The magazine publisher decided to let the matter go, for now, and didn&#8217;t file a new complaint.</p>
<p>That doesn&#8217;t mean that they&#8217;ll completely pass on the issue though. Instead of only going after Boing Boing, Playboy is now digging up information on the people who posted the infringing content on Imgur and YouTube. </p>
<p>Last week the California Court asked why PlayBoy hadn&#8217;t responded after the latest order. The company replied that it thought no response was needed and that the case would be dismissed automatically, but it included another interesting note.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiff has elected to pursue third party subpoenas under, inter alia, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act Section 512(h) in order to obtain further facts before determining how to proceed on its claims against Happy Mutants,&#8221; Playboy writes.</p>
<p>Looking through the court dockets, we observed that Playboy requested DMCA subpoenas against both Imgur and YouTube. In both cases, the company demands information that can identify the uploaders, including email addresses, phone numbers, and other documents or information.</p>
<p>With Imgur, it goes even further. Here, Playboy also requests information on people &#8220;who downloaded any photos&#8221; from the Imgur gallery in question. That could be quite a long list as anyone would have to download the images in order to see them. This could include millions of people.</p>
<p><center><strong>Playboy subpoena against Imgur</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/bb116fd9.playimg.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/playimg.png" alt="" width="523" height="312" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152624" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/playimg.png 523w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/playimg-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 523px) 100vw, 523px"></center></p>
<p>A broad request like this goes further than we&#8217;ve ever seen. However, soon after the requests came in, the clerk granted both subpoenas.</p>
<p>At this point, it&#8217;s unclear whether Playboy also intends to go after the uploaders directly. It informed the California District Court that these &#8220;further facts&#8221; will help to determine whether it will pursue its claims against Boing Boing, which means that it must file a new complaint. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth mentioning, however, that the subpoenas were obtained early last month before the case was dismissed. </p>
<p>Alternatively, Playboy can pursue the Imgur and YouTube uploaders directly, which is more likely to succeed than the infringement claims against Boing Boing. That&#8217;s only an option if Imgur and YouTube have sufficient information to identify the infringers in question, of course.</p>
<p>The allegedly infringing <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrzltZUGlOc">centerfold video</a> is no longer listed on YouTube. The Imgur gallery, which was viewed <a href="https://imgur.com/a/Uxug4">more than two million times</a>, is no longer available either.<br>
<em><br>
&#8212;-</p>
<p>Playboy&#8217;s latest filing mentioning the DMCA subpoenas can be found here (<a href="media/cbe37221.playboyshowc.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/playboyshowc.pdf">pdf</a>). We also obtained copies of the Youtube (<a href="media/5e8d74c1.youplay.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/youplay.pdf">pdf</a> + <a href="media/726aac88.youattach.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/youattach.pdf">attachment</a>) and Imgur (<a href="media/eff7fa3c.imgplay.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/imgplay.pdf">pdf</a> + <a href="media/efa1a032.imgurattach.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/imgurattach.pdf">attachment</a>) subpoenas themselves.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152680
title: Dolby Labs Sues Adobe For Copyright Infringement
uri: Dolby-Labs-Sues-Adobe-For-Copyright-Infringement
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_qE-j0hNXaE/
content:
<p><a href="media/ff2c09b3.adobe-piracy.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/adobe-piracy.png"><img src="media/37d0a4f2.adobe-piracy.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/adobe-piracy.png" alt="" width="177" height="160" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72700"></a>Adobe has some of the most recognized software products on the market today, including Photoshop which has become a household name.</p>
<p>While the company has been subjected to more than its fair share of piracy over the years, a new lawsuit accuses the software giant itself of infringement.</p>
<p>Dolby Laboratories is best known as a company specializing in noise reduction and audio encoding and compression technologies. Its reversed double &#8216;D&#8217; logo is widely recognized after appearing on millions of home hi-fi systems and film end credits.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed this week at a federal court in California, Dolby Labs alleges that after supplying its products to Adobe for 15 years, the latter has failed to live up to its licensing obligations and is guilty of copyright infringement and breach of contract.</p>
<p>&#8220;Between 2002 and 2017, Adobe designed and sold its audio-video content creation and editing software with Dolby’s industry-leading audio processing technologies,&#8221; Dolby&#8217;s complaint reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;The basic terms of Adobe’s licenses for products containing Dolby technologies are clear; when Adobe granted its customer a license to any Adobe product that contained Dolby technology, Adobe was contractually obligated to report the sale to Dolby and pay the agreed-upon royalty.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dolby says that Adobe promised it wouldn&#8217;t sell its any of its products (such as Audition, After Effects, Encore, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro) outside the scope of its licenses with Dolby. Those licenses included clauses which grant Dolby the right to inspect Adobe’s records through a third-party audit, in order to verify the accuracy of Adobe’s sales reporting and associated payment of royalties.</p>
<p>Over the past several years, however, things didn&#8217;t go to plan. The lawsuit claims that when Dolby tried to audit Adobe&#8217;s books, Adobe refused to &#8220;engage in even basic auditing and information sharing practices,&#8221; a rather ironic situation given the demands that Adobe places on its own licensees.</p>
<p>Dolby&#8217;s assessment is that Adobe spent years withholding this information in an effort to hide the full scale of its non-compliance.</p>
<p>&#8220;The limited information that Dolby has reviewed to-date demonstrates that Adobe included Dolby technologies in numerous Adobe software products and collections of products, but refused to report each sale or pay the agreed-upon royalties owed to Dolby,&#8221; the lawsuit claims.</p>
<p>Due to the lack of information in Dolby&#8217;s possession, the company says it cannot determine the full scope of Adobe&#8217;s infringement. However, Dolby accuses Adobe of multiple breaches including bundling licensed products together but only reporting one sale, selling multiple products to one customer but only paying a single license, failing to pay licenses on product upgrades, and even selling products containing Dolby technology without paying a license at all.</p>
<p>Dolby entered into licensing agreements with Adobe in 2003, 2012 and 2013, with each agreement detailing payment of royalties by Adobe to Dolby for each product licensed to Adobe&#8217;s customers containing Dolby technology. In the early days when the relationship between the companies first began, Adobe sold either a physical product in &#8220;shrink-wrap&#8221; form or downloads from its website, a position which made reporting very easy.</p>
<p>In late 2011, however, Adobe began its transition to offering its Creative Cloud (SaaS model) under which customers purchase a subscription to access Adobe software, some of which contains Dolby technology. Depending on how much the customer pays, users can select up to thirty Adobe products. At this point, things appear to have become much more complex.</p>
<p>On January 15, 2015, Dolby tried to inspect Adobe&#8217;s books for the period 2012-2014 via a third-party auditing firm. But, according to Dolby, over the next three years &#8220;Adobe employed various tactics to frustrate Dolby’s right to audit Adobe’s inclusion of Dolby Technologies in Adobe’s products.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dolby points out that under Adobe&#8217;s own licensing conditions, businesses must allow Adobe&#8217;s auditors to allow the company to inspect their records on seven days&#8217; notice to confirm they are not in breach of Adobe licensing terms. Any discovered shortfalls in licensing must then be paid for, at a rate higher than the original license. This, Dolby says, shows that Adobe is clearly aware of why and how auditing takes place. </p>
<p>&#8220;After more than three years of attempting to audit Adobe’s Sales of products containing Dolby Technologies, Dolby still has not received the information required to complete an audit for the full time period,&#8221; Dolby explains.</p>
<p>But during this period, Adobe didn&#8217;t stand still. According to Dolby, Adobe tried to obtain new licensing from Dolby at a lower price. Dolby stood its ground and insisted on an audit first but despite an official demand, Adobe didn&#8217;t provide the complete set of books and records requested.</p>
<p>Eventually, Adobe concluded that Adobe had &#8220;no intention to fully comply with its audit obligations&#8221; so called in its lawyers to deal with the matter.</p>
<p>&#8220;Adobe’s direct and induced infringements of Dolby Licensing’s copyrights in the Asserted Dolby Works are and have been knowing, deliberate, and willful. By its unauthorized copying, use, and distribution of the Asserted Dolby Works and the Adobe Infringing Products, Adobe has violated Dolby Licensing’s exclusive rights..,&#8221; the lawsuit reads.</p>
<p>Noting that Adobe has profited and gained a commercial advantage as a result of its alleged infringement, Dolby demands injunctive relief restraining the company from any further breaches in violation of US copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Dolby now brings this action to protect its intellectual property, maintain fairness across its licensing partnerships, and to fund the next generations of technology that empower the creative community which Dolby serves,&#8221; the company concludes.</p>
<p>Dolby&#8217;s full complaint can be found <a href="media/bb06f5bc.dolbyvsadobe.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dolbyvsadobe.pdf">here <em>(pdf)</em></a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152682
title: Cloudflare’s Cache Can ‘Substantially Assist’ Copyright Infringers, Court Rules
uri: Cloudflare-s-Cache-Can-Substantially-Assist-Copyright-Infringe
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OuBj3bfXQsI/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767">As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, Cloudflare is used by millions of websites across the globe.</p>
<p>This includes thousands of “pirate” sites, including the likes of The Pirate Bay, which rely on the U.S.-based company to keep server loads down.</p>
<p>Many rightsholders have complained about Cloudflare&#8217;s involvement with these sites and in 2016 adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan took it a step further by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-faces-lawsuit-for-assisting-pirate-sites-160823/">dragging the company to court</a>.</p>
<p>ALS accused the CDN service of various types of copyright infringement, noting that several customers used Cloudflare&#8217;s servers to distribute pirated content. While Cloudflare managed to have several counts dismissed, the accusation of contributory copyright infringement remains.</p>
<p>With the case heading to trial, both sides have submitted motions for partial summary judgment on this contributory infringement claim. This week California District Court Judge George Wu ruled on the matter, denying the CDN provider&#8217;s motion in its entirety.</p>
<p>One of Cloudflare&#8217;s arguments was that it did not substantially assist copyright infringements because the sites would remain online even if they were terminated from the service. It can&#8217;t end the infringements entirely on its own, the company argued. </p>
<p>The Court disagreed with this assessment, noting that Cloudflare&#8217;s cache can be seen as a substantial infringement by itself, which is something the company has control over.</p>
<p>&#8220;First of all, as to the infringements that are the cache copies, Cloudflare does appear to have the master switch,&#8221; Judge Wu writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Second of all, just because the infringing images will remain online, does not mean the assistance is insubstantial. If that were true, then liability based on server space would rely on whether or not an infringing site had, or could acquire a backup server.&#8221;</p>
<p>Cloudflare also stressed that there are no simple measures it could take in response to alleged copyright infringements. Removing a cached copy based on a takedown notice is not an option, the company argued, as that leaves sites and their users vulnerable to malicious attacks.</p>
<p>Judge Wu didn&#8217;t deny that terminating service to sites such as &#8216;bestofsexpics.com and cumonmy.com&#8217; could cause security issues but added that this doesn&#8217;t mean that it&#8217;s okay for Cloudflare to support illegal activity.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]f Cloudflare’s logic were accepted, there would be no web content too illegal, or dangerous, to justify termination of its services. While Cloudflare may do amazing things for internet security, the Court would have a hard time accepting that Cloudflare’s security features give it license to assist in any online activity,&#8221; Judge Wu writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>From the order</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6b0ec161.bestofsexpics.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bestofsexpics.png" alt="" width="600" height="152" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152697"></center></p>
<p>Moving on to ALS&#8217; motion, which was also denied in part, the Court brings more bad news for Cloudflare. While the CDN provider keeps its safe harbor defense at trial, the Court ruled that the existence of cache copies can be sufficient to prove that Cloudflare assisted in the alleged copyright infringements. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Court would find that, as a legal matter, Cloudflare’s CDN Network, to the extent it is shown to have created, stored, and delivered cache copies of infringing images, substantially assisted in infringement,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The reason is straightforward: without Cloudflare’s services those cache copies would not have been created and served to end users,&#8217; a footnote clarifies.</p>
<p>The order doesn&#8217;t draw any conclusions about actual infringements. However, if ALS can prove to the jury that specific images were in Cloudflare&#8217;s cache, without permission, the “substantial assistance” element required for contributory liability is established. </p>
<p>If that happens, the only remaining element at trial is whether Cloudflare was aware of these infringements, which is where the takedown notices would come in.</p>
<p>The case will soon be in the hands of the jury and can still go in either direction. However, the order puts Cloudflare at a disadvantage as it can no longer argue that cached copies of infringing content by themselves are non-infringing. This will obviously be a concerns to other CDN providers as well, which makes this a landmark case.</p>
<p><em><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of Judge Wu&#8217;s ruling, obtained by TorrentFreak, is available <a href="media/d9853d32.als-could-order.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/als-could-order.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">VPN discounts, offers and coupons</a></p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152759
title: Microsoft: Poisoned Torrent Client Triggered Coin Miner Outbreak
uri: Microsoft-Poisoned-Torrent-Client-Triggered-Coin-Miner-Outbreak
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zvJgGcKX8Fw/
content:
<p><img src="media/52c6c129.mediaget.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mediaget.png" alt="" width="188" height="81" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152761">First released in 2010, <a href="http://mediaget.com/">MediaGet</a> has been around for a while. Initially, the torrent client was available in Russian only, but the team later expanded its reach across the world. </p>
<p>While it&#8217;s a relatively small player, it has been installed on millions of computers in recent years. It still has a significant reach, which is what Microsoft also found out recently.</p>
<p>This week the Windows Defender Research team <a href="https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/03/13/poisoned-peer-to-peer-app-kicked-off-dofoil-coin-miner-outbreak/">reported</a> that a poisoned version of the BitTorrent client was used to start the Dofoil campaign, which attempted to offload hundreds of thousands of malicious cryptocurrency miners.</p>
<p>Although Windows Defender caught and blocked the culprit within milliseconds, the team further researched the issue to find out how this could have happened.</p>
<p>It turns out that the update process for the application was poisoned. This then enabled a signed version of MediaGet to drop off a compromised version, as can be seen in the diagram below. </p>
<p>&#8220;A signed mediaget.exe downloads an update.exe program and runs it on the machine to install a new mediaget.exe. The new mediaget.exe program has the same functionality as the original but with additional backdoor capability,&#8221; Microsoft&#8217;s team explains.</p>
<p><center><strong>The update poisoning</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba91575e.mediagetdiagram.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mediagetdiagram.png" alt="" width="600" height="469" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152762"></center> </p>
<p>The malicious MediaGet version eventually triggered the mass coin miner outbreak. Windows Defender Research stresses that the poisoned version was signed by a third-party software company, not MediaGet itself.</p>
<p>Once the malware was launched the client built a list of command-and-control servers, using embedded NameCoin DNS servers and domains with the non-ICANN-sanctioned .bit TLD, making it harder to shut down.</p>
<p>More detailed information on the attack and how <a href="https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/03/07/behavior-monitoring-combined-with-machine-learning-spoils-a-massive-dofoil-coin-mining-campaign/">Dofoil</a> was used to infect computers can be found in Microsoft&#8217;s <a href="https://cloudblogs.microsoft.com/microsoftsecure/2018/03/13/poisoned-peer-to-peer-app-kicked-off-dofoil-coin-miner-outbreak/">full analysis</a>. </p>
<p>MediaGet informs TorrentFreak that hackers compromised the update server to carry out their attack.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hackers got access to our update server, using an exploit in the Zabbix service and deeply integrated into our update mechanics. They modified the original version of Mediaget to add their functionality,&#8221; MediaGet reveals. </p>
<p>The company says that roughly five percent of all users were affected by the compromised update servers. All affected users were alerted and urged to update their software.</p>
<p>The issue is believed to be fully resolved at MediaGet&#8217;s end and they&#8217;re working with Microsoft to take care of any copies that may still be floating around in the wild.</p>
<p>&#8220;We patched everything and improved our verification system. To all the poisoned users we sent the message about an urgent update. Also, we are in contact with Microsoft, they will clean up all the poisoned versions,&#8221; MediaGet concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152725
title: Tamilrockers Arrests: Police Parade Alleged Movie Pirates on TV
uri: Tamilrockers-Arrests-Police-Parade-Alleged-Movie-Pirates-on-TV
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UiNHzNIGLr0/
content:
<p><a href="media/339209a8.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg"><img src="media/9c39c603.jail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/jail.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-70302"></a>Just two years ago around 277 million people used the Internet in India. Today there are estimates as high as 355 million and with a population of more than 1.3 billion, India has plenty of growth yet to come.</p>
<p>Also evident is that in addition to a thirst for hard work, many Internet-enabled Indians have developed a taste for Internet piracy. While the US and Europe were the most likely bases for pirate site operators between 2000 and 2015, India now appears in a growing number of cases, from torrent and streaming platforms to movie release groups.</p>
<p>One site that is clearly Indian-focused is the ever-popular Tamilrockers. The movie has laughed in the face of the authorities for a number of years, skipping from domain to domain as efforts to block the site descend into a chaotic game of whack-a-mole. Like The Pirate Bay, Tamilrockers has burned through plenty of domains including tamilrockers.in, tamilrockers.ac, tamilrockers.me, tamilrockers.co, tamilrockers.is, tamilrockers.us and tamilrockers.ro.</p>
<p>Now, however, the authorities are claiming a significant victory against the so-far elusive operators of the site. The anti-piracy cell of the Kerala police announced last evening that they&#8217;ve arrested five men said to be behind both Tamilrockers and alleged sister site, DVDRockers.</p>
<p>They&#8217;re named as alleged Tamilrockers owner &#8216;Prabhu&#8217;, plus &#8216;Karthi&#8217; and &#8216;Suresh&#8217; (all aged 24), plus alleged DVD Rockers owner &#8216;Johnson&#8217; and &#8216;Jagan&#8217; (elsewhere reported as &#8216;Maria John&#8217;). The men were said to be generating between US$1,500 and US$3,000 each per month. The average salary in India is around $600 per annum.</p>
<p>While details of how the suspects were caught tend to come later in US and European cases, the Indian authorities are more forthright. According to Anti-Piracy Cell Superintendent B.K. Prasanthan, who headed the team that apprehended the men, it was a trail of advertising revenue crumbs that led them to the suspects.</p>
<p>Prasanthan revealed that it was an email, sent by a Haryana-based ad company to an individual who was arrested in 2016 in a similar case, that helped in tracking the members of Tamilrockers. </p>
<p>&#8220;This ad company had sent a mail to [the individual], offering to publish ads on the website he was running. In that email, the company happened to mention that they have ties with Tamilrockers. We got the information about Tamilrockers through this ad company,&#8221; Prasanthan said.</p>
<p>That information included the bank account details of the suspects.</p>
<p>Given the technical nature of the sites, it&#8217;s perhaps no surprise that the suspects are qualified in the IT field. Prasanthan <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/kerala-police-arrest-5-piracy-3-tamilrockers-and-2-dvd-rockers-78008">revealed</a> that all had done well.</p>
<p>“All the gang members were technically qualified. It even included MSc and BSc holders in computer science. They used to record movies in pieces from various parts of the world and join [them together]. We are trying to trace more members of the gang including Karthi’s brothers,” Prasanathan <a href="https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/crime/150318/kerala-police-arrests-members-of-piracy-website.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>All five men were remanded in custody but not before they were paraded in front of the media, footage which later appeared on TV.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Jnel8IgozKE" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152711
title: Deezer Piles Pressure on Pirates, Deezloader Reborn Throws in the Towel
uri: Deezer-Piles-Pressure-on-Pirates-Deezloader-Reborn-Throws-in-the-Towe
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/P-XXcG_bQUs/
content:
<p><a href="media/74330bf5.deezerlogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/deezerlogo.png"><img src="media/c554c9fe.deezerlogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deezerlogo.png" alt="" width="277" height="181" class="alignright size-full wp-image-149074"></a>Spotify might grab most of the headlines in the world of music streaming but French firm Deezer is also growing in popularity.</p>
<p>Focused more on non-English speaking regions, the music service still has a massive selection of tens of millions of tracks. More importantly for pirates, it also has a loophole or two that allows users to permanently download songs from the service, a huge &#8216;selling&#8217; point for the compulsive archiver.</p>
<p>One of the most popular third-party tools for achieving this was Deezloader but last year Deezer put pressure on its operators to cease-and-desist.</p>
<p>&#8220;On April 27, 2017 we received takedowns and threatened legal action from Deezer if we don&#8217;t shut down by April 29. So we decided to shut down Deezloader permanently,&#8221; the team announced.</p>
<p>Rather than kill the scene, the attack on Deezloader only seemed to spur things on. Many other apps underwent development in the months that followed but last December it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/deezer-tries-to-shut-down-hacked-pirate-versions-171223/">became evident</a> that Deezer (and probably the record labels supplying its content) were growing increasingly tired of these kinds of applications.</p>
<p>The company sent a wave of DMCA notices to developer platform GitHub, targeting several tools, claiming that they are &#8220;in total violation of our rights and of the rights of our music licensors.&#8221;</p>
<p>GitHub responded quickly by removing access to repositories referencing Deezloader, DeezerDownload, Deeze, Deezerio, Deezit, Deedown, and their associated forks. Deezer also reportedly modified its API, in order to stop or hinder apps already in existence.</p>
<p>However, pirates are a determined bunch and behind the scenes many sought to breathe new life into their projects, to maintain the flow of free music from Deezer. One of those that gained traction was the obviously-titled &#8216;Deezloader Reborn&#8217; which enjoyed a new lease of life on both Github and Reddit after taking over from DeezLoader V2.3.1.</p>
<p>But in January 2018, Deezer turned up the pressure again, hitting Github with a wave (<a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-01-10-Deezer.md">1</a>,<a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-01-12-Deezer.md">2</a>) of takedown notices targeting various projects. On January 23, Deezer <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-01-23-Deezer.md">hit</a> Deezloader Reborn itself with the notice detailed below.</p>
<blockquote><p><em>The following project, identified in the paragraph below, makes available a hacked version of our Deezer application by describing methods to bypass Deezer&#8217;s security measures to unlawfully download its music catalogue, in total violation of our rights and of the rights of our music licensors (phonographic producers, performing artists, songwriters and composers):</p>
<p>https://github.com/ExtendLord/DeezLoader-Reborn</p>
<p>I therefore ask that you immediately take down the project corresponding to the URL above and all of the related forks by others members who have had access or even contributed to such projects.</em></p></blockquote>
<p>Not only did Github comply with Deezer&#8217;s request, Reddit did too. According to a thread still listed on the site, Reddit <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/7ss5k1/psa_deezloaderreborn_github_hit_with_dmca/">removed a post</a> about Deezloader Reborn following a copyright complaint from Deezer.</p>
<p>Two days later Deezer <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/blob/master/2018/2018-02-20-Deezer.md">targeted</a> similar projects on Github but by this time, Deezloader Reborn already had new plans. Speaking with TF, project developer ExtendLord said that he wouldn&#8217;t be shutting down but would continue on code repository Gitlab instead. Now, however, those plans have also come to an abrupt end after <a href="https://gitlab.com/ExtendLord/DeezLoader-Reborn">Gitlab took the page down</em></a>.</p>
<p><center><strong>Deezloader Reborn &#8211; gone from Gitlab</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/2e58937a.dzl-gone.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dzl-gone.png"><img src="media/fc5e6c5d.dzl-gone.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dzl-gone.png" alt="" width="600" height="410" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152719"></a></center></p>
<p>A <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180311010432/https://gitlab.com/ExtendLord/DeezLoader-Reborn">copy</a> of the page available on Archive.org shows Deezloader Reborn at version 3.0.5 with the ability to download music ready-tagged and in FLAC quality. Links to newer versions are being shared on Reddit but it appears there is no longer a central trusted source for the application.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no official confirmation yet but it seems likely that Deezer was behind the Gitlab takedown. TorrentFreak has contacted ExtendLord who linked us to <a href="https://pastebin.com/vJmgv78v">this page</a> which states that &#8220;DeezLoader Reborn is no longer maintained due to DMCA. [Version] 3.1.0 is the last update, no more updates will be made.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, at least for now, it appears that Deezloader Reborn will go the way of various other Deezer-reliant applications. That won&#8217;t be the end of the story though, that&#8217;s a certainty.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152824
title: Local Governments in Mexico Might ‘Pirate’ Dragon Ball
uri: Local-Governments-in-Mexico-Might-Pirate-Dragon-Ball
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iP0K0mRs1VA/
content:
<p><a href="media/560a407a.dbs.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dbs.jpg"><img src="media/ecfa9b15.dbs.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dbs.jpg" alt="" width="230" height="325" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152828"></a>When one thinks of large-scale piracy, sites like The Pirate Bay and perhaps 123Movies spring to mind.</p>
<p>Offering millions of viewers the chance to watch the latest movies and TV shows for free the day they&#8217;re released or earlier, they&#8217;re very much hated by the entertainment industries.</p>
<p>Tomorrow, however, there&#8217;s the very real possibility of a huge copyright infringement controversy hitting large parts of Mexico, all centered around the hugely popular anime series Dragon Ball Super.</p>
<p>This Saturday episode 130, titled <a href="http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/The_Greatest_Showdown_of_All_Time!_The_Ultimate_Survival_Battle!!">&#8220;The Greatest Showdown of All Time! The Ultimate Survival Battle!!&#8221;</a>, will hit the streets. It&#8217;s the penultimate episode of the series and will see the climax of Goku and Jiren&#8217;s battle &#8211; apparently.</p>
<p>The key point is that fans everywhere are going nuts in anticipation, so much so that various local governments in Mexico have agreed to hold public screenings for free, including in football stadiums and public squares.</p>
<p>&#8220;Fans of the series are crazy to see the new episode of Dragon Ball Super and have already organized events around the country as if it were a boxing match,&#8221; local media <a href="https://codigoespagueti.com/noticias/cultura/ciudades-mexico-proyectaran-episodio-130-dragon-ball-super/">reports</a>.</p>
<p>For example, Remberto Estrada, the municipal president of Benito Juárez, Quintana Roo, confirmed that the episode will be aired at the Cultural Center of the Arts in Cancun. The mayor of Ciudad Juarez says that a viewing will go ahead at the Plaza de la Mexicanidad with giant screens and cosplay contests on the sidelines. </p>
<p>Many local government Twitter accounts sent out official invitations, like the one shown below.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="es" dir="ltr">AYUNTAMIENTO CAPITALINO TRANSMITIRÁ FINAL DE DRAGÓN BALL EN PLAZA DEL CARMEN &#8211; El próximo sábado 17 de marzo, el evento dirigido a los fans de las series animadas japonesas y de los cómics&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/NhMn42toqj">https://t.co/NhMn42toqj</a> <a href="https://t.co/meJiojPk65">pic.twitter.com/meJiojPk65</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Ayuntamiento de SLP (@AytoSLP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AytoSLP/status/972594265216884736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>But despite all the preparations, there is a big problem. According to reports, no group or organization has the rights to show Dragon Ball Super in public in Mexico, a fact confirmed by Toei Animation, the company behind the show.</p>
<p>&#8220;To the viewers and fans of Dragon Ball. We have become aware of the plans to exhibit episode # 130 of our Dragon Ball Super series in stadiums, plazas, and public places throughout Latin America,&#8221; the company <a href="https://www.facebook.com/toeianimation/posts/10155584096723049">said</a> in an official announcement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Toei Animation has not authorized these public shows and does not support or sponsor any of these events nor do we or any of our titles endorse any institution exhibiting the unauthorized episode.</p>
<p>&#8220;In an effort to support copyright laws, to protect the work of thousands of persons and many labor sectors, we request that you please enjoy our titles at the official platforms and broadcasters and not support illegal screenings that incite piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Armando Cabada, mayor of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, was one of the first municipal officials to offer support to the episode 130 movement. He believes that since the events are non-profit, they can go ahead but <a href="http://www.criteriohidalgo.com/noticias/ya-tramitan-alcaldias-permisos-para-transmitir-dragon-ball-super">others</a> have indicated their screenings will only go ahead if they can get the necessary permission.</p>
<p>Crunchyroll, the US video-streaming company that holds some Dragon Ball Super rights, is reportedly trying to communicate with the establishments and organizations planning to host the events to ensure that everything remains legal and above board. At this stage, however, there&#8217;s no indication that any agreements have been reached or whether they&#8217;re simply getting in touch to deliver a warning.</p>
<p>One region that has already <a href="http://www.tvnotas.com.mx/noticias-mexico/lograra-miguel-angel-mancera-transmitir-el-final-de-dragon-ball-super-en-el-zocalo">confirmed</a> its event won&#8217;t go ahead is Mexico City. The head of the local government there told disappointed fans that since they can&#8217;t get permission from Toei, the whole thing has been canceled.</p>
<p>What will happen in the other locations Saturday night if licenses haven&#8217;t been obtained is anyone&#8217;s guess but thousands of disappointed fans in multiple locations raises the potential for the kind of battle the Mexican authorities can well do without, even if Dragon Ball Super thrives on them.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152884
title: ‘Dutch Pirate Bay Blocking Case Should Get a Do-Over’
uri: Dutch-Pirate-Bay-Blocking-Case-Should-Get-a-Do-Over
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LxNRaeuuFFo/
content:
<p><img src="media/932e6d7d.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122">The Pirate Bay is arguably the most widely blocked website on the Internet. ISPs from all over the world have been ordered by courts to prevent users from accessing the torrent site. </p>
<p>In most countries courts have decided relatively quickly, but not in the Netherlands, where there&#8217;s still no final decision after eight years.</p>
<p>A Dutch court first issued an order to block The Pirate Bay in 2012, but this decision was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-no-longer-have-to-block-the-pirate-bay-dutch-court-rules-140128/">overturned</a> two years later. Anti-piracy group BREIN then took the matter to the Supreme Court, which subsequently referred the case to the EU Court of Justice, seeking further clarification.</p>
<p>After a careful review of the case, the EU Court of Justice <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-facilitates-piracy-and-can-be-blocked-top-eu-court-rules-170614/">decided last year</a> that The Pirate Bay can indeed be blocked. </p>
<p>The top EU court ruled that although The Pirate Bay&#8217;s operators don’t share anything themselves, they knowingly provide users with a platform to share copyright-infringing links. This can be seen as “an act of communication” under the EU Copyright Directive.</p>
<p>This put the case back with the Dutch Supreme court, which now has to decide on the matter.</p>
<p>Today, Advocate General Van Peursem <a href="https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/inziendocument?id=ECLI:NL:PHR:2018:202&#038;pk_campaign=rss&#038;pk_medium=rss&#038;pk_keyword=uitspraken">advised</a> the court to throw out the previous court order, and do the case over in a new court.</p>
<p>In his recommendation, Van Peursem cites similar blocking orders from other European countries. He stresses that the rights of copyright holders should be carefully weighed against those of the ISPs and the public in general. </p>
<p>In blocking cases, this usually comes down to copyright protection versus Internet providers’ freedom to carry on business and the right to freedom of information. The Advocate General specifically highlights a recent Premier League case in the UK, where the court ruled that copyright prevails over the other rights. </p>
<p>The ultimate decision, however, depends on the context of the case, Van Peursem notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;At most, one can say that if a copyright is infringed, it normally won&#8217;t be possible to justify the infringement by invoking the freedom to conduct business or the freedom of information. After all, these freedoms find their limit in what is legally permissible. </p>
<p>&#8220;This does not mean that a blockade aimed at protecting the right to property always &#8216;wins&#8217; over the freedoms of entrepreneurship and information,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>Previously, the Supreme Court already ruled that it was incorrect of the lower court to rule that the Pirate Bay blockade was ineffective. Together, this means that it will be tough for the ISPs to win this case. </p>
<p>If the Supreme Court throws out the previous court order the case will start over from scratch, but with this new context and the EU court orders as further clarification. It is unclear whether ISPs can and will suspend the current Pirate Bay blockade, if that happens.</p>
<p>The Advocate General’s advice is not binding, so it’s not yet certain whether there will be a do-over. However, in most cases, the recommendations are followed by the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court is expected to release its final verdict later this year. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152757
title: MPAA Brands 123Movies as the World’s Most Popular Illegal Site
uri: MPAA-Brands-123Movies-as-the-World-s-Most-Popular-Illegal-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GABrsl6Zwxg/
content:
<p><img src="media/aaec4e10.123movieshub.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123movieshub.png" alt="" width="275" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151159">With millions of visitors per day, pirate streaming site <a href="https://123movieshub.to/">123movies</a>, also known as GoMovies, is a force to be reckoned with.</p>
<p>The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is fully aware of this and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-reports-pirate-sites-hosts-and-ad-networks-to-us-government-171004/">previously alerted</a> the US Trade Representative about this &#8220;notorious market.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, since the site is not operating from the US, Hollywood&#8217;s industry group is also reaching out to 123movies&#8217; alleged home turf, Vietnam. Following <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-ambassador-asks-vietnam-to-target-123movies-putlocker-and-kisscartoon-170323/">in the footsteps</a> of the US ambassador, the MPAA seeks assistance from local authorities. </p>
<p>The MPAA is currently in Vietnam where it&#8217;s working with the Office of the Police Investigation Agency to combat pirate sites. According to the MPAA&#8217;s Executive Vice President &#038; Chief of Global Content Protection, Jan van Voorn, 123movies is one of the prime targets. </p>
<p>&#8220;Right now, the most popular illegal site in the world, 123movies.to (at this point), is operated from Vietnam, and has 98 million visitors a month,&#8221; Van Voorn said, <a href="https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/world-s-most-popular-pirated-movie-site-being-run-from-vietnam-us-trade-association-3722948.html">quoted</a> by VNExpress.</p>
<p>“There are more services like this &#8211; sites that are not helpful for local legitimate businesses,” he adds.</p>
<p>The MPAA hopes that the Vietnamese authorities will step in to take these pirate sites offline, so that legal alternatives can grow. In addition, it stresses that the public should be properly educated, to change their views on movie piracy.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s clear that 123movies is a threat to Hollywood, there are bigger fish out there.</p>
<p>The 98 million number MPAA mentions appears to come from SimilarWeb&#8217;s <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/website/123movieshub.to#overview">January estimate</a>. While this is a lot of traffic indeed, it&#8217;s not the largest pirate site. The Pirate Bay, for example, had an estimated 282 million visitors during the same period. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak asked the MPAA to confirm the claim but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back. Perhaps Van Voorn was referring to streaming sites specifically, which would make more sense.</p>
<p>In any case, it&#8217;s clear that Hollywood is concerned about 123movies and similar sites and will do everything in its power to get them offline.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152742
title: Vodafone Appeals Decision Forcing it to Block Pirate Streaming Site Kinox
uri: Vodafone-Appeals-Decision-Forcing-it-to-Block-Pirate-Streaming-Site-Ki
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/G930uqhMFtA/
content:
<p><a href="media/e701f613.kinox.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kinox.png"><img src="media/faee910c.kinox.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kinox.png" alt="" width="271" height="89" class="alignright size-full wp-image-115141"></a>Streaming site Kinox has proven hugely problematic for German authorities and international rightsholders for many years.</p>
<p>Last year, following a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kinox-movie4k-admin-detained-in-kosovo-after-three-year-manhunt-170912/">three-year manhunt</a>, one of the site&#8217;s alleged operators was detained in Kosovo. Despite this and other actions, the site remains online.</p>
<p>Given the profile of the platform and its popularity in Germany, it came as no surprise when Kinox became the guinea pig for site-blocking in the country. Last month following a complaint from local film production and distribution company Constantin Film, a district court in Munich handed down a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blockades-enter-germany-with-kinox-to-as-first-target-180213/">provisional injunction</a> against Internet provider Vodafone.</p>
<p>In common with many similar cases across the EU, the Court cited a 2017 ruling from the European Court of Justice which found that local authorities can indeed order blockades of copyright-infringing sites. The Court ordered Vodafone to prevent its subscribers from accessing the site and shortly after the provider complied, but not willingly it seems.</p>
<p>According to local news outlet <a href="https://www.golem.de/news/constantin-film-vodafone-wehrt-sich-gegen-sperrung-von-kinox-to-1803-133334.html">Golem</a>, last week Vodafone filed an appeal arguing that there is no legal basis in Germany for ordering the blockade.</p>
<p>&#8220;As an access provider, Vodafone provides only neutral access to the Internet, and we believe that under current law, Vodafone cannot be required to curb copyright infringement on the Internet,&#8221; a Vodafone spokesperson told the publication.</p>
<p>The ISP says that not only does the blocking injunction impact its business operations and network infrastructure, it also violates the rights of its customers. Vodafone believes that blocking measures can only be put in place with an explicit legal basis and argues that no such basis exists under German law.</p>
<p>Noting that blockades are easily bypassed by determined users, the ISP says that such measures can also block lots of legal content, making the whole process ineffective.</p>
<p>&#8220;[I]nternet blocking generally runs the risk of blocking non-infringing content, so we do not see it as an effective way to make accessing illegal offers more difficult,&#8221; Vodafone&#8217;s spokesperson said.</p>
<p>Indeed, it appears that the Kinox blockade is a simple DNS-only effort, which means that people can bypass it by simply changing to an alternative DNS provider such as <a href="https://developers.google.com/speed/public-dns/">Google DNS</a> or <a href="https://www.oisndns.com/">OpenDNS</a>.</p>
<p>Given all of the above, Vodafone is demanding clarification of the earlier decision from a higher court. Whether or not the final decision will go in the ISP&#8217;s favor isn&#8217;t clear but there is plenty of case law at the European level that suggests the balance of probabilities lies with Constantin Film.</p>
<p>When asked to balance consumer rights versus copyrights, courts have tended to side with the latter in recent years.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152445
title: SXSW 2018 on BitTorrent: 8.24 GB of ‘Free’ Music?
uri: SXSW-2018-on-BitTorrent-8-24-GB-of-Free-Music
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RsQgY6JZTRA/
content:
<p><img src="media/dbae12fb.sxswmusic2018.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sxswmusic2018.png" alt="" width="277" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152448">The <a href="https://www.sxsw.com/festivals/music/">SXSW music festival</a> was one of the first major events to embrace BitTorrent. </p>
<p>In 2005, it used the then relatively new technology to share hundreds of DRM-free tracks from participating artists. It was a practical, fast, and cheap solution that worked well. </p>
<p>The official torrent releases continued for three years but since 2008 this task has been unofficially taken over by the public. SXSW still showcases music on their site, for sampling purposes, but no longer via torrents.</p>
<p>However, once it&#8217;s out on the Internet it only takes one person to make a torrent archive. For many years, the operator of SXSW Torrent has taken on this task and <a href="http://www.sxswtorrent.com/2018">2018 is no exception</a>. </p>
<p>This year&#8217;s archive is released in two torrents, which consists of 1,276 tracks totaling 8.24 gigabytes of free music.</p>
<p>All the tracks released for the previous editions are also still available and most of these torrents remain well-seeded. The 2005 – 2018 archives now total more than 15,000 tracks and 85 gigabytes of data.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to the operator of <a href="http://www.sxswtorrent.com/">SXSW Torrent</a> who told us that it&#8217;s the tenth year in a row that the site has compiled the archive. His motivation is partly selfish, serving as preparation for his yearly SXSW Music trip, but also because many others are relying on it.</p>
<p>“Many people come back every year, so I can’t leave them hanging,” the SXSW Torrent operator previously told us.</p>
<p>Apparently, these people prefer to download everything in one go, as opposed to browsing through the SWSX site to sample the music.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that these efforts are appreciated by the public. With tens of thousands of downloaders each year, the SXSW torrents attract quite a bit of traffic. For some, it almost makes up for not being able to attend the festival in person.</p>
<p>However, the term &#8216;free&#8217; music has changed over time. While SXSW Torrent was never asked to take any files down, the torrents are not officially authorized. This means that some artists or rightsholders, may not like the idea of their music being shared this way  </p>
<p>When SWSX released the torrent we happily encouraged people to download the tracks, but now that&#8217;s no longer the case. </p>
<p>The good news is that there are plenty other options out there. Aside from the showcases on the official website, SXSW has published official <a href="https://open.spotify.com/user/1270297457">Spotify</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXs_3rGeYdInOkxbL6JYUc70oSJ5pXb8H">YouTube</a> playlists where people can enjoy the the music, without any concerns.</p>
<p>This year’s SXSW music festival is currently underway in Austin, Texas and ends on Sunday. The torrents, however, are expected to live on for as long as there are people sharing.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152586
title: Canadian Pirate Site Blocking Plan Triggers Thousands of Responses
uri: Canadian-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Plan-Triggers-Thousands-of-Responses
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QIsHRTxltUg/
content:
<p><img src="media/af081baa.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" alt="" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83641">In January, a coalition of Canadian companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">called on</a> the local telecom regulator CRTC to establish a local pirate site blocking program, which would be the first of its kind in North America.</p>
<p>The Canadian deal is supported by Fairplay Canada, a coalition of both copyright holders and major players in the telco industry, such as Bell and Rogers, which also have media companies of their own. </p>
<p>Before making a decision on the proposal, the CTRC has launched a <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/CommentForm/Default-Defaut.aspx?lang=e&#038;EN=201800467&#038;ET=A&#038;S=O&#038;PA=T&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A&#038;FN=">public consultation</a> asking Canadians for their opinion on the matter. In recent weeks this has resulted in thousands of submissions, with the majority coming from ordinary citizens. </p>
<p>The responses themselves range from an <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Documents.aspx?ID=265038&#038;en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=O&#038;PA=A&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A">unequivocal</a> &#8220;another push by Bell to control all forms of communication,&#8221; to very elaborate and rather well-documented arguments.  </p>
<p>From the responses we&#8217;ve seen it&#8217;s clear that many individuals are worried that their Internet access will be censored. The term &#8220;slippery slope&#8221; is regularly mentioned, as well as the corporate interests that back the plan. </p>
<p>&#8220;I strongly oppose any attempt for internet censorship, especially any attempt brought forth by a commercial entity. The internet is and should remain a free flowing source of information that is not controlled by any individuals or groups political or corporate interests,&#8221; Shanon Durst writes in her comment.</p>
<p>&#8220;If there is concern for illegal activities taking place on the internet then those activities can be addressed in a court of law and the appropriate actions taken there,&#8221; she adds. </p>
<p>The same type of arguments also come back in the Electronic Frontier Foundation&#8217;s (EFF) submission.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is unsurprising that the entertainment industry would rather construct its own private body to bypass the court system in making decisions about website blocking,&#8221; the EFF <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Documents.aspx?ID=270189&#038;en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=O&#038;PA=A&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A">writes</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;But if it is allowed to do this, will the newspaper industry be next to propose and fund a private body to make determinations about defamation? Will the adult entertainment industry propose establishing its own private court to determine the boundaries of the law of obscenity?&#8221;</p>
<p>While they appear to be in the minority, there are several commenters who back the proposal. Where most individual responses oppose the plans, it appears that many submissions from organizations are in favor.</p>
<p>A lot of these responses come from outfits that are concerned that piracy is negatively impacting their livelihoods, including  Canada Basketball, The Association of Canadian Publishers, and Pier 21 Films.</p>
<p>&#8220;Canada’s current tools to combat piracy are not working. The FairPlay proposal is a proportionate response that reflects the modern realities of piracy,&#8221; Laszlo Barna, president of Pier 21 Films <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Documents.aspx?ID=270309&#038;en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=O&#038;PA=A&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A">writes</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;As participants in the legal sports and entertainment market in Canada, this proposal will reduce the theft of content and support the ability to invest in, produce, and distribute the great content that our fans crave,&#8221; Canada Basketball <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Documents.aspx?ID=270299&#038;en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=O&#038;PA=A&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A">concurs</a>.</p>
<p>Drawing conclusions based on this limited sample of comments is hard, aside from the finding that it will be impossible to please everyone. Thankfully, <a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2018/why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites/">research</a> conducted by Reza Rajabiun and Fenwick McKelvey, with support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, provides additional insight.</p>
<p>The visualization below gives an overview of the most statistically significant concepts emphasized by respondents in their submissions, as well as the relationship among these concepts.</p>
<p><center><strong>A visualization of significant comment concepts (<a href="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/march-2018/why-canadians-oppose-blacklisting-pirate-websites/">image credit</a>)</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/b8752a66.PolicyOptions.png" data-original-source="http://policyoptions.irpp.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2018/03/PolicyOptions.png"><img src="media/fd9ba5a0.PolicyOptions.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/PolicyOptions.png" alt="" width="600" height="557" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152727"></a></center></p>
<p>The quantitative content analysis is based on 4,000 submissions. While it requires some interpretation from the reader, many of the themes appear to be closely aligned with the opposition, the researchers write.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to their CRTC submissions, Canadians believe that the proposal is a &#8216;bad&#8217; &#8216;idea&#8217; because it enables &#8216;corporations&#8217; and the &#8216;government&#8217; to restrict &#8216;freedom&#8217; of &#8216;speech&#8217; and &#8216;flow&#8217; of &#8216;information&#8217; among &#8216;citizens.&#8217; The fear of setting a bad &#8216;precedent&#8217; is closely associated with the potential for &#8216;censorship&#8217; in the future.&#8221; </p>
<p>Many of the same words can also be in a different context, of course, but the researchers see the themes as evidence that many members of the public are concerned about the negative consequences.</p>
<p>&#8220;Overall, it is easy to see that Canadians tend to view the proposed blocking regime not just in terms of its benefits for fighting &#8216;piracy&#8217;; they also perceive that setting up a national blocking regime may be a threat to their economic interests as &#8216;consumers&#8217; of &#8216;legitimate&#8217; &#8216;media&#8217; and of their political &#8216;rights&#8217; as &#8216;citizens&#8217;,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>At the time of writing nearly <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/ListeInterventionList/Default-Defaut.aspx?en=2018-0046-7&#038;dt=i&#038;lang=e&#038;S=O&#038;PA=A&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A">8,000 responses</a> have been submitted. There is no easy way to determine what percentage is for or against the proposal. When the deadline passes on March 29, CRTC will review them manually.</p>
<p>When that&#8217;s done, it is up to the telecoms regulator to factor the different opinions into its final decision, which won&#8217;t be an easy feat.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152652
title: Founder of Fan-Made Subtitle Site Lose Copyright Infringement Appeal
uri: Founder-of-Fan-Made-Subtitle-Site-Lose-Copyright-Infringement-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uyovELo23hQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/9103b592.undertexter.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/undertexter.jpg" width="180" height="90" class="alignright size-large">For millions of people around the world, subtitles are the only way to enjoy media in languages other than that in the original production. For the deaf and hard of hearing, they are absolutely essential.</p>
<p>Movie and TV show companies tend to be quiet good at providing subtitles <em>eventually</em> but in line with other restrictive practices associated with their industry, it can often mean a long wait for the consumer, particularly in overseas territories.</p>
<p>For this reason, fan-made subtitles have become somewhat of a cottage industry in recent years. Where companies fail to provide subtitles quickly enough, fans step in and create them by hand. This has led to the rise of a number of subtitling platforms, including the now widely recognized Undertexter.se in Sweden.</p>
<p>The platform had its roots back in 2003 but first hit the headlines in 2013 when Swedish police caused an uproar by raiding the site and seizing its servers.</p>
<p>“The people who work on the site don’t consider their own interpretation of dialog to be something illegal, especially when we’re handing out these interpretations for free,” site founder Eugen Archy said at the time.</p>
<p>Vowing to never give up in the face of pressure from the authorities, anti-piracy outfit Rättighetsalliansen (Rights Alliance), and companies including Nordisk Film, Paramount, Universal, Sony and Warner, Archy said that the battle over what began as a high school project would continue.</p>
<p>“No Hollywood, you played the wrong card here. We will never give up, we live in a free country and Swedish people have every right to publish their own interpretations of a movie or TV show,” he <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fan-created-subtitle-site-raided-by-swedish-police-130710/">said</a>.</p>
<p>It took four more years but in 2017 the Undertexter founder was prosecuted for distributing copyright-infringing subtitles while facing a potential prison sentence. </p>
<p>Things didn&#8217;t go well and last September the Attunda District Court found him guilty and sentenced the then 32-year-old operator to probation. In addition, he was told to pay 217,000 Swedish krona ($26,400) to be taken from advertising and donation revenues collected through the site.</p>
<p>Eugen Archy took the case to appeal, arguing that the Svea Hovrätt (Svea Court of Appeal) should acquit him of all the charges and dismiss or at least reduce the amount he was ordered to pay by the lower court. Needless to say, this was challenged by the prosecution.</p>
<p>On appeal, Archy agreed that he was the person behind Undertexter but disputed that the subtitle files uploaded to his site infringed on the plaintiffs&#8217; copyrights, arguing they were creative works in their own right.</p>
<p>While to an extent that may have been the case, the Court found that the translations themselves depended on the rights connected to the original work, which were entirely held by the relevant copyright holders. While paraphrasing and parody might be allowed, pure translations are completely covered by the rights in the original and cannot be seen as new and independent works, the Court found.</p>
<p>The Svea Hovrätt also found that Archy acted intentionally, noting that in addition to administering the site and doing some translating work himself, it was &#8220;inconceivable&#8221; that he did not know that the subtitles made available related to copyrighted dialog found in movies.</p>
<p>In conclusion, the Court of Appeal upheld Archy&#8217;s copyright infringement conviction <em>(<a href="media/c7f8c855.Svea_HR_B_8991-17_Dom_2018-02-23.pdf" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Svea_HR_B_8991-17_Dom_2018-02-23.pdf">pdf</a>, Swedish)</em> and sentenced him to probation, as previously determined by the Attunda District Court.</p>
<p>Last year, the legal status of user-created subtitles was also tested in the Netherlands. In response to local anti-piracy outfit BREIN forcing several subtitling groups into retreat, a group of fansubbers decided to fight back.</p>
<p>After raising their own funds, in 2016 the “Free Subtitles Foundation” (Stichting Laat Ondertitels Vrij – SLOV) took the decision to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fansubbers-take-anti-piracy-group-brein-to-court-160203/">sue BREIN</a> with the hope of obtaining a favorable legal ruling.</p>
<p>In 2017 it all fell apart when the Amsterdam District Court handed down its decision and sided with BREIN on each count.</p>
<p>The Court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/unauthorized-subtitles-for-movies-tv-shows-are-illegal-court-rules-170421/">found</a> that subtitles can only be created and distributed after permission has been obtained from copyright holders. Doing so outside these parameters amounts to copyright infringement.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152846
title: Pirate Site Visits Lead to More Malware, Research Finds
uri: Pirate-Site-Visits-Lead-to-More-Malware-Research-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SfcMY64qHkY/
content:
<p><img src="media/aa559623.malwaremeet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/malwaremeet.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="195" class="alignright size-full wp-image-150970">In recent years copyright holders have been rather concerned with the health of pirates&#8217; computers. </p>
<p>They regularly highlight reports which show that pirate sites are rife with malware and even alert potential pirates-to-be about the dangers of these sites. </p>
<p>The recent &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-video-scares-kids-with-fake-malware-info-180206/">Meet The Malwares</a>&#8221; campaign, targeted at small children, went as far as claiming that pirate sites are the number one way through which this malicious software is spread. We debunked this claim, but it&#8217;s hard to deny that pirate sites have their downsides. </p>
<p>While the operators of pirate sites are usually unaware, advertisers and malicious uploaders sometimes use their sites to distribute adware or malware. But does that put people at significant risk? Research from Carnegie Mellon University Professor Rahul Telang provides some further insight. </p>
<p>For a year, Telang observed the browsing and other computer habits of 253 people who took part in the Security Behavior Observatory. The results, published in <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3139240">a paper</a> titled &#8220;Does Online Piracy make Computers Insecure?&#8221; show that there is a link between pirate site visits and malware.</p>
<p>&#8220;We find that more visits to infringing sites does lead to more number of malware files being downloaded on user machines. In particular doubling the amount of time spent on infringing sites cause a 20 percent increase in malware count,&#8221; Telang writes. </p>
<p>This effect was only visible for pirate sites, and not for other categories such as banking, gambling, gaming, shopping, social networking, and even adult websites. </p>
<p>Through the Security Behavior Observatory, all files on the respondents&#8217; computers were scanned and checked against reports from Virustotal.com. This also includes adware, but even without this category, the results remain intact.</p>
<p>&#8220;Even after we classify malware files into adware and remove them from analysis, our results still suggest that there is a 20 percent increase in malware count due to visits to infringing sites. These results are robust to various controls and specifications.&#8221;</p>
<p>Interestingly, one would expect that people who frequently visit pirate sites are more likely to have anti-virus software installed. However, this was not the case. </p>
<p>&#8220;We also find that users who visit infringing sites do not take any more precautions than other users. In particular, we find no evidence that such users are more likely to install anti-virus software. If anything, we find that infringing users are more risk taking,&#8221; the paper reads.</p>
<p>A 20 percent increase in malware sounds dramatic, and while we don&#8217;t want to downplay these results or the risks involved, it&#8217;s worth highlighting the absolute numbers. </p>
<p>The research estimates that, when someone doubles the amount of traffic spent on a pirate site, this person adds an extra 0.05 of a piece of malware per month, with the average being 0.24. So, most people encounter no malware in a typical month. This means that pirate sites are an increased a risk, but it&#8217;s not as extreme as sometimes portrayed. </p>
<p>There is also no evidence that malware is <em>predominantly</em> spread through pirate sites. Looking at the total sample, the average number of malware files found on a pirate&#8217;s machine is 1.5, compared to 1.4 for those who never visit any pirate sites at all.</p>
<p>While there&#8217;s certainly some risk involved, it&#8217;s doubtful that the results will deter many people. Previous research revealed that the majority of all pirates are fully aware of the malware risks, but that they <a href="http://This risk is recognized by 74% of the active pirates, but they continue nonetheless.">continue nonetheless</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152964
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/19/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-19-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kClUB0R4n6M/
content:
<p><img src="media/fbac932a.starwa.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/starwa.png" alt="" width="300" height="156" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152967">This week we have two newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>Star Wars: The Last Jedi is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-031218/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CbN8sfihY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/">Annihilation</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OP78l9oF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">Maze Runner: The Death Cure </a> (HDTC) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BTxXm8KSg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">The Greatest Showman</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOeiLhcgPo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">Thor Ragnarok</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3501632/">8.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue80QwXMRHg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">Ferdinand</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3411444/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBXVM7oUPVk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">Justice League</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-DM9uBtVI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152949
title: Japanese Govt Intervention Fails to Stop Mass Dragon Ball Super Piracy
uri: Japanese-Govt-Intervention-Fails-to-Stop-Mass-Dragon-Ball-Super-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/6uVzWXbZoe8/
content:
<p><img src="media/6034775a.dbs.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dbs.jpg" width="230" height="325" class="alignright size-large">Earlier this month, fans of Dragon Ball Super in Mexico started a movement on social media which suggested that everyone should be able to watch episode 130 (titled “The Greatest Showdown of All Time! The Ultimate Survival Battle!!”) together in public.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, this movement started receiving support from various local governments, many of which agreed to erect large screens in public places, from town and city squares to football stadiums.</p>
<p>Official government Twitter accounts lit up with announcements from the authorities, with posters like the one below issued for many of the events.</p>
<p><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="es" dir="ltr">AYUNTAMIENTO CAPITALINO TRANSMITIRÁ FINAL DE DRAGÓN BALL EN PLAZA DEL CARMEN &#8211; El próximo sábado 17 de marzo, el evento dirigido a los fans de las series animadas japonesas y de los cómics&#8230; <a href="https://t.co/NhMn42toqj">https://t.co/NhMn42toqj</a> <a href="https://t.co/meJiojPk65">pic.twitter.com/meJiojPk65</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Ayuntamiento de SLP (@AytoSLP) <a href="https://twitter.com/AytoSLP/status/972594265216884736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 10, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>While this all sounded wonderful in practice, there was a huge problem. According to Toei Animation, the Japanese company behind the hit anime show, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/local-governments-mexico-might-pirate-dragon-ball-180316/">no one had the licensing rights</a> to show Dragon Ball Super in public.</p>
<p>The company issued a statement condemning the plans, branding the proposed performances as &#8220;illegal screenings that incite piracy&#8221; while urging people to support the creators by only watching on officially licensed platforms.</p>
<p>As Saturday drew near, some regions announced that without permission from Toei, their screenings would not go ahead. Others, however, offered no cooperation whatsoever, effectively informing Toei that it was powerless to do anything to stop what would amount to government-approved mass piracy.</p>
<p>Whether Toei had anything to do with it or not isn&#8217;t clear, but on Friday the ambassador of Japan took the highly unusual step of writing to various local governments with a demand for them to cancel the events. <a href="https://omicrono.elespanol.com/2018/03/final-de-dragon-ball-super/">El Espanol</a> obtained a copy of the letter, as shown below. </p>
<p><center><strong>The letter from the Ambassador of Japan</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/c70a3249.dragon-ball-super-3.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dragon-ball-super-3.jpg"><img src="media/f3be2d91.dragon-ball-super-3.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dragon-ball-super-3.jpg" alt="" width="638" height="700" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-152950"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;The Government of Japan is aware that episode 130 and 131 of the Dragon Ball Super series, whose copyright belongs to Japanese company Toei Animation, will be shown in public places and places without the author&#8217;s due authorization,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the event the exhibition is illegal, the Government of Japan wishes that it be suspended.&#8221;</p>
<p>It seems that as a result of the letter, some of the screenings were canceled, causing much disappointment for the fans of the series. However, in some areas of Mexico the events went ahead anyway, with tens of thousands of massively enthusiastic people in attendance.</p>
<p>But it didn&#8217;t stop there. The DBS fever also spread to Chile, Peru, El Salvador and Ecuador, with outdoor events attracting huge cheering crowds.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zDq53PP7wA8" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Whether there will be any diplomatic fallout from these shows of defiance isn&#8217;t yet clear but if anyone needed a visualization of what torrent sharing might look like if it took place in the physical realm, there are no better examples than these videos. In Ecuador, where more than ten thousand people gathered in just one location, fun was had by all.</p>
<p><center><strong></strong><br></br></center><center></p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">BREAKING NEWS: over 10,000 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DragonBallSuper?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DragonBallSuper</a> fans gather in Machala, Ecuador to see <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DragonBallSuper130?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DragonBallSuper130</a> (episode 130) public live-stream hosted by local government! Im so proud of mi gente across Latin America for showing <a href="https://twitter.com/ToeiAnimation?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ToeiAnimation</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/FUNimation?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@FUNimation</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/Crunchyroll?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Crunchyroll</a> the power of fandom <a href="https://t.co/XgtktAVVeG">pic.twitter.com/XgtktAVVeG</a></p>
<p>&mdash; 🔥Oppai Senpai🔥 (@MrOppaiSenpai) <a href="https://twitter.com/MrOppaiSenpai/status/975213139708010496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 18, 2018</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></center></p>
<p>Why Toei didn&#8217;t make the most of this opportunity is anyone&#8217;s guess but it looks like the company could have made a killing selling official t-shirts alone. Nevermind, maybe next time.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152551
title: How The Pirate Bay Helped Spotify Become a Success
uri: How-The-Pirate-Bay-Helped-Spotify-Become-a-Success
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Zypb-8Lx3fY/
content:
<p><img src="media/7e8d8362.spotify-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-152972">When Spotify launched its first beta in the fall of 2008, many people were blown away by its ease of use.</p>
<p>With the option to stream millions of tracks supported by an occasional ad, or free of ads for a small subscription fee, Spotify offered something that was more convenient than piracy.</p>
<p>In the years that followed, Spotify rolled out its music service in more than 60 countries, amassing over 160 million users. While the service is often billed as a piracy killer, ironically, it also owes its success to piracy.</p>
<p>As a teenager, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek was fascinated by Napster, which triggered a piracy revolution in the late nineties. Napster made all the music in the world accessible in a few clicks, something Spotify also set out to do a few years later, legally. </p>
<p>“I want to replicate my first experience with piracy,” Ek told Businessweek <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2011-07-13/daniel-ek-s-spotify-music-s-last-best-hope">years ago</a>. “What eventually killed it was that it didn’t work for the people participating with the content. The challenge here is about solving both of those things.”</p>
<p>While the technical capabilities were certainly there, the main stumbling block was getting the required licenses. The music industry hadn&#8217;t had a lot of good experiences with the Internet a decade ago so there was plenty of hesitation. </p>
<p>The same was true of Sweden, where The Pirate Bay had just gained a lot of traction. There was a pro-sharing culture being cultivated by Piratbyrån, Swedish for the Piracy Bureau, which was the driving force behind the torrent site in the early days.   </p>
<p>After the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-piratebay-is-down-raided-by-the-swedish-police/">first Pirate Bay raid</a> in 2006, thousands of people <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-demonstration-in-sweden/">gathered in the streets</a> of Stockholm to declare their support for the site and their right to share.</p>
<p><center><strong>Pro-piracy protest in Stockholm </strong> <sup>(<a href="media/f6be372e.Demonstration_by_the_Piratpartiet_in_Stockholm_3_June_2006" data-original-source="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Demonstration_by_the_Piratpartiet_in_Stockholm_(3_June_2006)">Jon Åslund, CC BY 2.5</a>)</sup> <br></br></center><center><img src="media/ec921985.propiracy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/propiracy.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="379" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-152976"></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, however, this pro-piracy climate turned out to be in Spotify&#8217;s favor. In a detailed feature in the Swedish newspaper <a href="https://www.breakit.se/artikel/12160/han-fangslades-de-blev-miljardarer-borde-fa-10-procent-som-tack">Breakit</a> Per Sundin, CEO of Sony BMG at the time, suggests that The Pirate Bay helped Spotify. </p>
<p>&#8220;If Pirate Bay had not existed or made such a mess in the market, I don&#8217;t think Spotify would have seen the light of the day. You wouldn&#8217;t get the licenses you wanted,&#8221; Sundin said.</p>
<p>With music industry revenues dropping, record labels had to fire hundreds of people. They were becoming desperate and were looking for change, something Spotify was promising.</p>
<p>At the time, the idea of having millions of songs readily and legally available was totally new. Many immediately saw it as an &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-an-alternative-to-music-piracy-090102/">alternative to music piracy</a>&#8221; and even Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde was impressed. </p>
<p>&#8220;It was great. It was always what was missing in the pirate services, that intuitive interface,&#8221; Sunde told Breakit.</p>
<p>Sunde also believed that The Pirate Bay and all the buzz around piracy in Sweden was a great boon to Spotify. But while the latter turned into a billion-dollar business that&#8217;s about to go public, Sunde and the other TPB founders still owe the labels millions in damages.</p>
<p>&#8220;Without file-sharing, The Pirate Bay and the political work done by Piratbyrån, it was not possible to get the licensing agreements Spotify received,&#8221; Sunde said. &#8220;Sometimes I think I should have received 10, 20 or 30 percent of Spotify, as a thank you for the help.&#8221; </p>
<p>In addition to creating the right climate for the major record labels to get on board, The Pirate Bay also appears to have been of more <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotifys-beta-used-pirate-mp3-files-some-from-pirate-bay-170509/">practical assistance</a>. </p>
<p>When Spotify first launched several people noticed that some tracks still had tags from pirate groups such as FairLight in the title. Those are not the files you expect the labels to offer, but files that were on The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Also, Spotify mysteriously offered music from a band that decided to share their music on The Pirate Bay, instead of the usual outlets. There&#8217;s only one place that could have originated from. </p>
<p>The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153029
title: Pirate Streaming Giant 123Movies Announces Shutdown
uri: Pirate-Streaming-Giant-123Movies-Announces-Shutdown
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/P2F4PCPzo1s/
content:
<p><img src="media/aaec4e10.123movieshub.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123movieshub.png" alt="" width="275" height="130" class="alignright size-full wp-image-151159">With millions of visitors per day, 123movies(hub), also known as Gomovies, is one of the largest pirate streaming sites on the web.</p>
<p>However, according to a new <a href="https://123movieshub.to/123movies">message posted on the site</a>, this will soon end. The site&#8217;s operators say that they will shut down at the end of the week.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve been providing links to movies and shows for years. Now it&#8217;s time to say goodbye. Thank you for being our friends and thanks for staying with us that long,&#8221; the 123movies team writes.</p>
<p>In addition, 123movies encourages its users to &#8220;respect&#8221; filmmakers by paying for movies and TV-shows instead of pirating them.</p>
<p>&#8220;PS: Please pay for the movies/shows, that&#8217;s what we should do to show our respect to people behind the movies/shows,&#8221; the team adds.</p>
<p><center><strong>123movies shutdown notice</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba9e5041.123down.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123down.png" alt="" width="562" height="405" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153031"></center></p>
<p>The shutdown announcement, which is currently only visible on the classic <a href="https://123movieshub.to/123movies">homepage</a>, comes a few days after the MPAA branded the site as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-brands-123movies-as-the-worlds-most-popular-illegal-site-180316/">the most popular illegal site in the world.</a></p>
<p>“Right now, the most popular illegal site in the world, 123movies.to (at this point), is operated from Vietnam, and has 98 million visitors a month,” MPAA’s Executive Vice President &#038; Chief of Global Content Protection, Jan van Voorn said.</p>
<p>That wasn&#8217;t the first time the site had been called out. Last year the US Ambassador to Vietnam <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-ambassador-asks-vietnam-to-target-123movies-putlocker-and-kisscartoon-170323/">called on the local Government</a> to criminally prosecute the site&#8217;s operators on their alleged home turf. In addition, the site was also on the radar of the office of the US Trade Representative, which featured 123movies in its latest <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-brands-torrent-streaming-cyberlocker-sites-as-notorious-markets-180115/">Notorious Markets report</a>.</p>
<p>While 123movies has changed names several times over the course of the last few months, it was still a relative newcomer. It first emerged less than three years ago, but quickly became a dominant player.</p>
<p>According to the announcement, however, it will be all over in a few days. With millions of potential estranged users, that will leave a huge gap to fill. </p>
<p>The reason for the planned closure decision is unknown. Speculation would suggest legal pressure being high on the list, but the 123movies team hasn&#8217;t commented on its motivation.  </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153033
title: Dotcom Affidavit Calls For Obama to Give Evidence in Megaupload Case
uri: Dotcom-Affidavit-Calls-For-Obama-to-Give-Evidence-in-Megaupload-Case
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2M04xx0zCkI/
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="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>For more than six years since the raid on Megaupload, founder Kim Dotcom has insisted that the case against him, his co-defendants, and his company, was politically motivated.</p>
<p>The serial entrepreneur states unequivocally that former president Barack Obama&#8217;s close ties to Hollywood were the driving force.</p>
<p>Later today, Obama will touch down for a visit to New Zealand. In what appears to be a tightly managed affair, with <a href="http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/extensive-media-ban-for-barack-obama-s-nz-visit.html">heavy restrictions</a> placed on the media and publicity, it seems clear that Obama wants to maintain control over his social and business engagements in the country.</p>
<p>But of course, New Zealand is home to Kim Dotcom and as someone who feels wronged by the actions of the former administration, he is determined to use this opportunity to shine more light on Obama&#8217;s role in the downfall of his company.</p>
<p>In a statement this morning, Dotcom reiterated his claims that attempts to have him extradited to the United States have no basis in law, chiefly due to the fact that the online dissemination of copyright-protected works by Megaupload’s users is not an extradition offense in New Zealand.</p>
<p>But Dotcom also attacks the politics behind his case, arguing that the Obama administration was under pressure from Hollywood to do something about copyright enforcement or risk losing financial support.</p>
<p>In connection with his case, Dotcom is currently suing the New Zealand government for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-sues-government-for-billions-over-erroneous-arrest-180121/">billions of dollars</a> so while Obama is in town, Dotcom is demanding that the former president gives evidence. </p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s case is laid out in a highly-detailed sworn affidavit dated March 19, 2018. The Megaupload founder explains that Hollywood has historically been a major benefactor of the Democrats so when seeking re-election for a further term, the Democrats were under pressure from the movie companies to make an example of Megaupload and Dotcom.</p>
<p>Dotcom notes that while he was based in Hong Kong, extradition to the US would be challenging. So, with Dotcom seeking residence in New Zealand, a plot was hatched to allow him into the country, despite the New Zealand government knowing that a criminal prosecution lay in wait for him. Dotcom says that by doing a favor for Hollywood, it could mean that New Zealand became a favored destination for US filmmakers.</p>
<p>&#8220;The interests of the United States and New Zealand were therefore perfectly aligned. I provided the perfect opportunity for New Zealand to facilitate the United States’ show of force on copyright enforcement,&#8221; Dotcom writes.</p>
<p>Citing documents obtained from Open Secrets, Dotcom shows how the Democrats took an 81% share of more than $46m donated to political parties in the US during the 2008 election cycle. In the 2010 cycle, 76% of more than $24m went to the Democrats and in 2012, they scooped up 78% of more than $56m.</p>
<p>Dotcom then recalls the attempts at passing the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would have shifted the enforcement of copyright onto ISPs, assisting Hollywood greatly. Ultimately, Congressional support for the proposed legislation was withdrawn and Dotcom recalls this was followed by a public threat from the MPAA to withdraw campaign contributions on which the Democrats were especially reliant.</p>
<p>&#8220;The message to the White House was plain: do not expect funding if you do not advance the MPAA’s legislative agenda. On 20 January 2012, the day after this statement, I was arrested,&#8221; Dotcom notes.</p>
<p>Describing Megaupload as a highly profitable and innovative platform that highlighted copyright owners&#8217; failure to keep up with the way in which content is now consumed, Dotcom says it made the perfect target for the Democrats.</p>
<p>Convinced the party was at the root of his prosecution, he utilized his connections in Hong Kong to contact Thomas Hart, a lawyer and lobbyist in Washington, D.C. with strong connections to the Democrats and the White House. </p>
<p>Dotcom said a telephone call between him and Mr Hart revealed that then Vice President Joe Biden was at the center of Dotcom&#8217;s prosecution but that Obama was dissatisfied with the way things had been handled.</p>
<p>&#8220;Biden did admit to have… you know, kind of started it, you know, along with support from others but it was Biden’s decision…,&#8221; Hart allegedly said.</p>
<p>&#8220;What he [President Obama] expressed to me was a growing concern about the matter. He indicated an awareness of that it had not gone well, that it was more complicated than he thought, that he will turn his attention to it more prominently after November.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom says that Obama was &#8220;questioning the whole thing,&#8221; a suggestion that he may not have been fully committed to the continuing prosecution.</p>
<p>The affidavit then lists a whole series of meetings in 2011, documented in the White House visitor logs. They include meetings with then United States Attorney Neil McBride, various representatives from Hollywood, MPAA chief Chris Dodd, Mike Ellis of the MPA (who was based in Hong Kong and had met with New Zealand’s then Minister of Justice, Simon Power) and the Obama administration.</p>
<p>In summary, Dotcom suggests there was a highly organized scheme against him, hatched between Hollywood and the Obama administration, that had the provision of funds to win re-election at its heart.</p>
<p>From there, an intertwined agreement was reached at the highest levels of both the US and New Zealand governments where the former would benefit through tax concessions to Hollywood (and a sweetening of relations between the countries) and the latter would benefit financially through investment.</p>
<p>All New Zealand had to do was let Dotcom in for a while and then hand him over to the United States for prosecution. And New Zealand definitely knew that Dotcom was wanted by the US. Emails obtained by Dotcom concerning his residency application show that clearly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Kim DOTCOM is not of security concern but is likely to soon become the subject of a joint FBI / NZ Police criminal investigation. We have passed this over to NZ Police,&#8221; one of the emails reads. Another, well over a year before the raid, also shows the level of knowledge.</p>
<p><center><strong>Bad but wealthy, so we have plans for him&#8230;</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/2756008c.dotcom-pr-e1521540249508.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-pr-e1521540249508.png"><img src="media/2756008c.dotcom-pr-e1521540249508.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-pr-e1521540249508.png" alt="" width="600" height="505" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153069"></a></center></p>
<p>With &#8220;political pressure&#8221; to grant Dotcom&#8217;s application in place, Immigration New Zealand finally gave the Megaupload founder the thumbs-up on November 1, 2010. Dotcom believes that New Zealand was concerned he may have walked away from his application.</p>
<p>&#8220;This would have been of grave concern to the Government, which, at that time, was in negotiations with Hollywood lobby,&#8221; his affidavit reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The last thing they would have needed at that delicate stage of the negotiations was for me to walk away from New Zealand and return to Hong Kong, where extradition would be more difficult. I believe that this concern is what prompted the &#8216;political pressure&#8217; that led to my application finally being granted despite the presence of factors that would have caused anyone else’s application to have been rejected.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom says that after being granted residency, there were signs things weren&#8217;t going to plan for him. The entrepreneur applied to buy his now-famous former mansion for NZ$37m, an application that was initially approved. However, after being passed to Simon Power, the application was denied.</p>
<p>&#8220;It would appear that, although my character was apparently good enough for me to be granted residence in November 2010, in July 2011 it was not considered good enough for me to buy property in New Zealand,&#8221; Dotcom notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Honourable Mr Power clearly did not want me purchasing $37 million of real estate, presumably because he knew that the United States was going to seek forfeiture of my assets and he did not want what was then the most expensive property in New Zealand being forfeited to the United States government.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, Dotcom concludes by highlighting the unlawful spying by New Zealand&#8217;s GCSB spy agency and the disproportionate use of force displayed by the police when they raided him in 2010 using dozens of armed officers. This, combined with all of the above, means that questions about his case must now be answered at the highest levels. With Obama in town, there&#8217;s no time like the present.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the evidence above demonstrates, this improper purpose which was then embraced by the New Zealand authorities, originated in the White House under the Obama administration. It is therefore necessary to examine Mr Obama in this proceeding,&#8221; Dotcom concludes.</p>
<p>Press blackouts aside, it appears that Obama has rather a lot of golf lined up for the coming days. Whether he&#8217;ll have any time to answer Dotcom&#8217;s questions is one thing but whether he&#8217;ll even be asked to is perhaps the most important point of all.</p>
<p>The full affidavit and masses of supporting evidence can be found <a href="https://www.scribd.com/document/374313640/Affidavit-of-Kim-Dotcom-Sworn-19-March-2018">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153000
title: KeepVid Site No Longer Allows Users to ‘Keep’ Videos
uri: KeepVid-Site-No-Longer-Allows-Users-to-Keep-Videos
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/K1hNJ8RrRLM/
content:
<p><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383">For many years, <a href="https://keepvid.com/">KeepVid</a> has been a prime destination for people who wanted to download videos from YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Vimeo, and dozens of other sites.</p>
<p>The web application was free and worked without any hassle. This was still the case earlier this month when the site advertised itself as follows: </p>
<p>&#8220;KeepVid Video Downloader is a free web application that allows you to download videos from sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitch.Tv, Vimeo, Dailymotion and many more.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, a few days ago the site radically changed its course. While the motivation is unknown at the time, KeepVid took its popular video download service offline without prior notice.</p>
<p><center><strong>The old KeepVid</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b4ce791d.keepvid.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/keepvid.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="268" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153006"></center></p>
<p>Today, people can no longer use the KeepVid site to download videos. On the contrary, the site warns that using video download and conversion tools might get people in trouble.</p>
<p>&#8220;Video downloading from the Internet will become more and more difficult, and KeepVid encourages people to download videos via the correct and legal ways,&#8221; the new KeepVid reads. </p>
<p>While the site already made some changes over the years, such as restricting YouTube downloads to only &#8220;shared&#8221; videos, turning the download service into a cautioning educational page is rather unexpected.</p>
<p><center><strong>The new KeepVid</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/284de637.correctandlegal.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/correctandlegal.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="166" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153027"></center></p>
<p>The site now lists several alternative options to enjoy videos and music, including Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, and Pandora. </p>
<p>The KeepVid team isn&#8217;t commenting on the overhaul. When we asked the site about the reason for the turnaround, it confirmed that the downloading feature won&#8217;t return, but that&#8217;s about it.</p>
<p>&#8220;KeepVid won&#8217;t provide video/audio downloading feature from now on,&#8221; a KeepVid representative informed TorrentFreak, adding that they will focus on developing other audio and video tools going forward.</p>
<p>Our follow-up question asking whether the move was motivated by legal pressure remains unanswered. </p>
<p>As a tiny glimmer of hope, the site mentions downloading videos could become possible again if video download tools and video sharing platforms &#8220;reach an agreement&#8221; in the future.</p>
<p>For now, however, it&#8217;s clear that, as a download service, the site is done. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the paid <a href="https://pro.keepvid.com/">KeepVid pro</a> software is still available. The same is true for the video conversion software and several other tools KeepVid offers elsewhere. The KeepVid pro &#8216;buy&#8217; link is no longer working though, and the team informs us that this application will also &#8220;come to its destination.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153093
title: Online Piracy Is More Popular Than Ever, Research Suggests
uri: Online-Piracy-Is-More-Popular-Than-Ever-Research-Suggests
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xb5DfoqpbyM/
content:
<p><img src="media/a585da8e.piratemusiccasset.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratemusiccasset.png" alt="" width="234" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135510">Despite the growing availability of legal options, online piracy remains rampant. Every day pirate sites are visited hundreds of millions of times.</p>
<p>Piracy tracking outfit <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-sites-dominate-movie-and-tv-show-piracy-160727/">documented the piracy landscape</a> with data from tens of thousands of the largest global piracy sites.</p>
<p>In its latest <a href="https://www.muso.com/annual-piracy-reports/">report</a>, the company recorded more than 300 billion visits to pirate sites last year alone. This is an increase of 1.6 percent compared to 2016.</p>
<p>More than half of all these visits (53%) are going to streaming sites, making that the most popular piracy tool. Torrent sites and direct download portals still have a significant user base, but follow at a respectable distance.</p>
<p>Most of the pirate visits came from the United States, followed by India and Brazil. Despite the various pirate site blockades, the UK also secured a spot in the top ten, ranked at the bottom with nine billion visits. </p>
<p>The top ten list favors large countries and with this in mind, there is a large player missing. China, which is often portrayed as a country where piracy is rampant, ended up in 18th place with &#8216;only&#8217; 4.6 billion visits. </p>
<p><center><strong>Visits per country</strong></center><center></p>
<table class="css hover" summary="pirate visits">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="30%"><strong>#</strong></th>
<th width="40%"><strong>Country</strong></th>
<th width="30%"><strong>Billion visits</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="3">Data from Muso</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>United States</td>
<td>27.9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>Russia</td>
<td>20.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>India</td>
<td>17.0</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>Brazil</td>
<td>12.7</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>Turkey</td>
<td>11.1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>Japan</td>
<td>10.6</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>France</td>
<td>10.5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>Indonesia</td>
<td>10.4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>Germany</td>
<td>10.2</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>United kingdom</td>
<td>9.0</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p></center></p>
<p>Muso tracks piracy trends across various media categories and has spotted some interesting trends. TV-shows remain the most popular among pirates with 106.9 billion visits last year, followed by music (73.9 billion) and film (53.2 billion).</p>
<p>Mobile piracy is on the rise as well. For the first time, more people were accessing pirated TV content via mobile devices (52%) where desktops used to be the favorite device. In the music category, this difference is even more pronounced, with 87% using mobile devices. </p>
<p>Last year desktops were still preferred among movie pirates, but MUSO expects this will change in 2018.</p>
<p>According to MUSO co-founder and CEO Andy Chatterley, these data show that piracy remains a sizable threat, something we also <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/no-netflix-hasnt-won-the-war-on-piracy-170604/">hinted at</a> in the recent past.</p>
<p>“There is a belief that the rise in popularity of on-demand services &#8211; such as Netflix and Spotify  &#8211; have solved piracy, but that theory simply doesn’t stack up. Our data suggest that piracy is more popular than ever,” Chatterley says.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s hard to make historical comparisons without good data, it&#8217;s clear that piracy is still rampant. And with more people coming online year after year, the potential audience keeps growing. </p>
<p>Also, it is worth noting that the total piracy landscape is even larger than MUSO shows. In recent years many people have switched to pirate streaming boxes. These are not included in MUSO’s dataset, which relies on data provided by SimilarWeb, among other sources. </p>
<p>That said, the overall conclusion that the piracy audience is massive, and not to be ignored, remains the same.</p>
<p>“The piracy audience is huge and yet for the most part, it’s an opportunity that’s completely ignored,&#8221; Chatterley says.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s important that the content industries embrace the trends emerging from this data, not only in strategic content protection, but also in understanding the profile of the piracy ‘consumer’ for better business insight and monetizing these audiences,“ MUSO&#8217;s CEO adds.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153101
title: Dotcom’s Bid to Compel Obama to Give Evidence Rejected By High Court
uri: Dotcom-s-Bid-to-Compel-Obama-to-Give-Evidence-Rejected-By-High-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/50-dH91dNdc/
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="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556"></a>With former US president Barack Obama in New Zealand until Friday, the visit provided a golden opportunity for Kim Dotcom to pile on yet more pressure over the strained prosecution of both him and his defunct cloud storage site, Megaupload.</p>
<p>In a statement issued yesterday, Dotcom reiterated his claims that attempts to have him extradited to the United States have no basis in law, chiefly due to the fact that the online dissemination of copyright-protected works by Megaupload’s users is not an extradition offense in New Zealand.</p>
<p>Mainly, however, Dotcom shone yet more light on what he perceives to be the dark politics behind the case, arguing that the Obama administration was under pressure from Hollywood to do something about copyright enforcement or risk losing funding. He says they pulled out all the stops and trampled his rights to prevent that from happening.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dotcom-affidavit-calls-for-obama-to-give-evidence-in-megaupload-case-180320/">lengthy affidavit</a>, filed this week to coincide with Obama&#8217;s visit, Dotcom called on the High Court to compel the former president to give evidence in the entrepreneur&#8217;s retaliatory <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-sues-government-for-billions-over-erroneous-arrest-180121/">multi-billion dollar damages claim</a> against the Kiwi government.</p>
<p>This morning, however, Chief High Court Judge, Justice Geoffrey Venning, quickly shut that effort down.</p>
<p>With Obama enjoying a round of golf alongside former Prime Minister and Dotcom nemesis John Key, Justice Venning declined the request to compel Obama to give evidence, whether in New Zealand during the current visit or via letter of request to judicial authorities in the United States. </p>
<p>In his decision, Justice Venning notes that Dotcom&#8217;s applications were filed late on March 19 and the matter was only handed to him yesterday. As a result, he convened a telephone conference this morning to &#8220;deal with the application as a matter of urgency.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom&#8217;s legal team argued that in the absence of a Court order it&#8217;s unlikely that Obama would give evidence. Equally, given that no date has yet been set for Dotcom&#8217;s damages hearing, it will &#8220;not be practicable&#8221; to serve Obama at a later point in the United States.</p>
<p>Furthermore, absent an order compelling his attendance, Obama would be unlikely to be called as a witness, despite him being the most competent potential witness currently present in New Zealand.</p>
<p>Dotcom counsel Ron Mansfield accepted that there would be practical limitations on what could be achieved between March 21 and March 23 while Obama is in New Zealand. However, he asked that an order be granted so that it could be served while Obama is in the country, even if the examination took place at a later date.</p>
<p>The Judge wasn&#8217;t convinced.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite Mr Mansfield’s concession, I consider the application is still premature. The current civil proceedings were only filed on 22 December 2017. The defendants have applied for an order deferring the filing of a statement of defense pending the determination of the hearing of two appeals currently before the Court of Appeal. That application is yet to be determined,&#8221; Justice Venning&#8217;s decision reads.</p>
<p>The Judge also questions whether evidence Obama could give would be relevant.</p>
<p>He notes that Dotcom&#8217;s evidence is based on the fact that Hollywood was a major benefactor of the Democratic Party in the United States and that, in his opinion, the action against Megaupload and him &#8220;met the United States’ need to appease the Hollywood lobby&#8221; and &#8220;that the United States and New Zealand’s interests were perfectly aligned.&#8221;</p>
<p>However, Dotcom&#8217;s transcripts of his <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dotcom-affidavit-calls-for-obama-to-give-evidence-in-megaupload-case-180320/">conversations with a lobbyist</a>, which appeared to indicate Obama&#8217;s dissatisfaction with the Megaupload prosecution, are dismissed as &#8220;hearsay evidence&#8221;. Documentation of a private lunch with Obama and the head of the MPAA is also played down.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mr Dotcom’s opinion that Mr Obama’s evidence will be relevant to the present claims appears at best speculative,&#8221; the Judge notes.</p>
<p>But even if the evidence had been stronger, Justice Venning says that Obama would need to be given time to prepare for an examination, given that it would relate to matters that occurred several years ago.</p>
<p>&#8220;He would need to review relevant documents and materials from the time in preparation for any examination. That confirms the current application is premature,&#8221; the Judge writes.</p>
<p>In support, it is noted that Dotcom knew as early as February 21 that Obama&#8217;s visit would be taking place this week, yet his application was filed just days ago.</p>
<p>With that, the Judge dismissed the application, allowing Obama to play golf in peace. Well, relative peace at least. Dotcom isn&#8217;t done yet.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am disappointed of course because I believe my affidavit contains compelling evidence of the link between the Obama administration, Hollywood, and my extradition proceeding. However, after seven years of this, I am used to fighting to get to the truth and will keep fighting. Next round!&#8221; Dotcom <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/976285509373734912">said</a> in response.</p>
<p>&#8220;The judgment is no surprise and we’ll get the opportunity to question Obama sooner or later,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>As a further indication of the international nature of Dotcom&#8217;s case, the Megaupload founder also reminded people of his former connections to Hong Kong, noting that people in power there are keeping an eye on his case.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Chinese Government is watching my case with interest. Expect some bold action in the Hong Kong Courts soon. Never again shall an accusation from the US DOJ be enough to destroy a Hong Kong business. That lesson will soon be learned,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/976249217181130752">said</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153159
title: Google Should Begin Delisting Pirate Sites, Aussie Rightsholders Say
uri: Google-Should-Begin-Delisting-Pirate-Sites-Aussie-Rightsholders-Say
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/orQQWLXHCME/
content:
<p><a href="media/c5e87d4f.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg"><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798"></a>After being passed almost three years ago, in February the Australian government announced a review of its pirate site-blocking laws.</p>
<p>The Department of Communications asked for feedback on the effectiveness of the mechanism, from initial injunction application through to website blocking and, crucially, whether further amendments are required.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Department welcomes single, consolidated submissions from organizations or parties, capturing all views on the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2015 (Online Infringement Amendment) <a href="http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/r5446_third-reps/toc_pdf/15056b01.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">[pdf]</a>,” the consultation paper began.</p>
<p>Several responses from interested groups have been <a href="https://www.communications.gov.au/have-your-say/review-copyright-online-infringement-amendment">filed</a> with the government and unsurprisingly, most come from entertainment industry groups seeking to expand on what has been achieved so far.</p>
<p>The most aggressive submissions come from the two companies that have made the most use of the blocking scheme so far &#8211; movie group Village Roadshow and TV provider Foxtel. Together the companies have had dozens of sites blocked in Australia by local ISPs but now they want the blocking regime expanded to online service platforms too.</p>
<p>Indeed, in the Roadshow and Foxtel submissions combined, Google is mentioned no less than 29 times as being part of the piracy problem Down Under.</p>
<p>&#8220;Village Roadshow strongly supported the original site blocking legislation and now we strongly support strengthening it,&#8221; Village Roadshow co-chief Graham Burke writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;With all major pirate sites blocked in Australia, the front door of the department store is shut. However, pirates, facilitated by Google and other search engines, are circumventing Australian Laws and Courts and opening a huge back door. Australia needs the power to require Google and other search engines to take reasonable steps to stop facilitating searches which lead to pirate sites.&#8221;</p>
<p>Burke goes on to criticize Google&#8217;s business model, which pushes tens of millions of people &#8220;searching for stolen goods&#8221; to pirate sites that hit them with &#8220;rogue advertising including illegal gambling, drugs, sex aids and prostitution.&#8221;</p>
<p>In a nutshell, the Village Roadshow co-chief suggests that Google&#8217;s business model involves profiting from knowingly leading consumers to illegal locations where they are ultimately ripped off.</p>
<p>&#8220;The analogy for Google is a Westfield Shopping Centre knowing they are getting big traffic to the center from a store that is using stolen goods to lure people and then robbing them!&#8221; he writes.</p>
<p>This anti-Google rant heads in a predictable direction. At the moment, Australia&#8217;s site-blocking regime only applies to &#8216;carriage service providers&#8217;, the home ISPs we all use. Village Roadshow wants that provision expanded to include &#8216;intermediary service providers&#8217;, which covers search engines, social media, and other types of internet intermediaries. </p>
<p>&#8220;Apart from ISP’s, many intermediaries are able to meaningfully impact traffic to infringing sites, and in fact, can and are currently used by pirates to find new locations and proxies to circumvent the ISP blocks,&#8221; Burke adds.</p>
<p>In other words, when served with an injunction, companies like Google and Facebook should delist results that lead people to pirate sites. This position is also championed by Foxtel, which points to a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">voluntary arrangement</a> in the UK between search engines and the entertainment industries.</p>
<p>Under this anti-piracy code introduced last year, search engines agreed to further optimize their algorithms and processes to demote pirated content in search results. The aim is to make infringing content less visible and at a faster rate. At the same time, legal alternatives should be easier to find.</p>
<p>But like Village Roadshow, Foxtel doesn&#8217;t appear to be content with demotion &#8211; blocking and delisting is the aim.</p>
<p>&#8220;Foxtel strongly believes that extending the site blocking powers to search engines so that they must remove copyright infringing sites from search results would have a substantial impact on reducing piracy in Australia,&#8221; the company says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Search engines already remove URLs from site indexes to comply with local laws and product community standards and therefore, technologically Foxtel understands it would be a relatively simple exercise for search engines to comply with Australian blocking orders.&#8221;</p>
<p>Both Foxtel and Roadshow agree in other areas too. Currently, Australia&#8217;s site-blocking provisions apply to &#8220;online locations&#8221; situated outside Australia&#8217;s borders but both companies see a need for that restriction to be removed.</p>
<p>Neither company can understand why local pirate sites can&#8217;t be handled in the same way as those based overseas, with Foxtel arguing that proving an overseas element can be a costly process.</p>
<p>&#8220;Applicants must review individual domain locations and IP addresses and put on evidence relating to these matters to ensure that the location of the sites is established. This evidence, which we consider to be unnecessary, is produced at significant time and cost, all of which is borne by the rights holders,&#8221; Foxtel says.</p>
<p>While none of the above is particularly new in the global scheme of things, it&#8217;s interesting to note that even when agreements are reached and new legislation is formed, rightsholders always keep pushing for more.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s clearly highlighted in the Foxtel submission when the company says that the threshold for determining a pirate site should be lowered. Currently, a site must have a &#8220;primary purpose&#8221; to &#8220;infringe, or to facilitate the infringement&#8221; of copyright. Foxtel sees this as being too high.</p>
<p>In order to encompass general hosting sites that may also carry large quantities of infringing content, it would like to remove the term &#8220;primary purpose&#8221; and replace it with &#8220;substantial purpose or effect.&#8221; Given the recent criticisms leveled at Google and particularly YouTube for the infringing content it hosts, that request could prove difficult to push through.</p>
<p>Foxtel also sees a need to better tackle live streaming. In the UK, injunctions obtained by the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-intriguing-injunction-to-tackle-pirate-streams-170309/">Premier League</a> and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uefa-obtains-high-court-injunction-to-block-live-soccer-streaming-171226/">UEFA</a> last year allow pirated live sports streams to be blocked in real-time. Although the injunctions are overseen by the courts, on a practical level the process is carried out between rightsholders and compliant ISPs.</p>
<p>Foxtel believes that Australia needs something similar.</p>
<p>&#8220;For site blocking to be effective in Australia in respect of live sport streaming sites which frequently change location, Foxtel anticipates that a similar process will ultimately be required to be implemented,&#8221; the company notes.</p>
<p>With the consultation process now over, dissenting submissions are in the minority. The most notable come from the Pirate Party (<a href="media/fc4427fb.pirate_party_australia_0.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/g/files/net301/f/submissions/pirate_party_australia_0.pdf">pdf</a>) and Digital Rights Watch (<a href="media/ae2d1d2e.digital_rights_watch.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.communications.gov.au/sites/g/files/net301/f/submissions/digital_rights_watch.pdf">pdf</a>) although both are likely to be drowned out by the voices of rightsholders.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152943
title: Release Windows of Digital Movie Downloads Are Shrinking
uri: Release-Windows-of-Digital-Movie-Downloads-Are-Shrinking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/42IoMaOan7A/
content:
<p><img src="media/86342ead.theater-movie-cinema.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema.png" alt="" width="275" height="164" class="alignright size-full wp-image-142135" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema.png 275w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/theater-movie-cinema-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 275px) 100vw, 275px">After a film first shows up in theaters, movie fans usually have to wait a few months before they can get a DVD or digital download, depending on the local release strategy.</p>
<p>This delay tactic, known as a release window, helps movie theaters to maximize their revenues. However, for many pirates, this is also a reason to turn to unauthorized sites and services.</p>
<p>Many of the most pirated movie titles are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/hollywoods-release-delays-breed-pirates-150202/">not yet available</a> to buy or rent online, but they are on The Pirate Bay, Fmovies, and elsewhere. Perhaps only a fraction of these pirates would pay, if they could, but release windows are not helping. </p>
<p>This critique isn&#8217;t new and, according to a working paper published by Pepperdine University researchers, the tide is turning. Movie release windows are shrinking rapidly, for digital downloads at least.</p>
<p>In their paper titled: <em>Popcorn or Snack? Empirical Analysis of Movie Release Windows</em>, the researchers compared the release windows of DVDs to those of electronic sell-through movies (EST) on iTunes, Amazon, and YouTube. EST movies are also called &#8220;download to own&#8221; and have a comparable release date to rentals, in most cases.</p>
<p>The results show that between 2012 and 2017, the release windows for DVDs remained relatively stable at three to four months. However, for digital downloads there was a sharp decrease over the same period.</p>
<p>&#8220;Based on our results, the EST release date has been approaching the DVD release date at a steady and significant average rate of about 23 days per year,&#8221; the researchers write. </p>
<p>&#8220;Within only two years, we have seen the average EST release window shrink by more than half, from 255 days in the 2nd quarter of 2012 to 114 days in the 2nd quarter of 2014. The EST window has pretty much reached the average 113 day DVD window in our sample.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Shrinking window</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/edc9798d.windowsshrink1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/windowsshrink1.png" alt="" width="500" height="325" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153226"></center></p>
<p>Since 2015, digital downloads actually have a slightly smaller release window than DVDs on average, making it the first release channel after movie theaters.</p>
<p>While this is good news for movie fans, it&#8217;s uncertain if this trend will continue. The current release windows appear to be carefully chosen to ensure that they don&#8217;t cannibalize box office revenues. </p>
<p>This is nicely illustrated in the figure below, which shows that 95% of all box office revenues are generated in the first two months, and 99% after four months. The optimal release window falls somewhere in the middle.</p>
<p>That would also explain why the DVD release window isn&#8217;t shrinking any further.</p>
<p><center><strong>Cumulative box office revenue</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e7124a33.boxrevenue1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/boxrevenue1.png" alt="" width="500" height="272" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153227"></center></p>
<p>The researchers see room for further improvement, however. Decreasing the video on demand release window can cost a few percents of box office revenue, at most, but it might result in a significant boost in online sales.</p>
<p>And with the piracy rates not showing any decline, movie studios might feel the need to experiment a little.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given that most of the theater revenues are captured within the first two months and given that movie piracy shows no signs of slowing down, there will be increasing pressure for studios to release movies earlier in secondary channels to increase revenues coming from these channels,&#8221; the researchers write.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>The full paper, written by Dr. Nelson Granados and Dr. John Mooney, is <a href="https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&#038;context=graziadiowps">available here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153244
title: Owner of ShareBeast and AlbumJams Sentenced To Five Years in Prison
uri: Owner-of-ShareBeast-and-AlbumJams-Sentenced-To-Five-Years-in-Prison
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/uPJPAwD92qQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/2d418779.sharebeast.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/sharebeast.jpg" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-large">According to the RIAA, ShareBeast.com and AlbumJams.com were responsible for the illegal distribution of “a massive library” of popular albums and tracks.</p>
<p>With a nod to the sensitivity of pre-release piracy, the sites were blamed for offering “thousands of songs” that hadn’t yet reached their official release dates. In September 2015, U.S. authorities <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/fbi-seizes-domains-of-two-pre-release-music-sites-150914/">shut them down</a>, placing seizure notices on both domains.</p>
<p>The RIAA claimed that ShareBeast was the largest illegal file-sharing site operating in the United States, noting that the site’s IP addresses at the time indicated that at least some hosting had taken place in Illinois.</p>
<p>“Millions of users accessed songs from ShareBeast each month without one penny of compensation going to countless artists, songwriters, labels and others who created the music,” RIAA Chairman &#038; CEO Cary Sherman commented at the time.</p>
<p>Two years later in September 2017, then 29-year-old former ShareBeast operator Artur Sargsyan pleaded guilty to one felony count of criminal copyright infringement, admitting to the unauthorized distribution and reproduction of over one billion copies of copyrighted works.</p>
<p>“Through Sharebeast and other related sites, this defendant profited by illegally distributing copyrighted music and albums on a massive scale,” said U. S. Attorney John Horn.</p>
<p>“The collective work of the FBI and our international law enforcement partners have shut down the Sharebeast websites and prevented further economic losses by scores of musicians and artists.”</p>
<p>The Department of Justice reported that from 2012 to 2015, Sargsyan used ShareBeast as a pirate music repository, illegally hosting music by Ariana Grande, Katy Perry, Beyonce, Kanye West, and Justin Bieber, among others. Sargsyan linked to that content from Newjams.net and Albumjams.com, and granted access to the public.</p>
<p>If Sargsyan had responded to takedown notices more positively, it&#8217;s possible that things may have progressed in a different direction. The RIAA sent the site more than 100 copyright-infringement emails over a three-year period but to no effect.</p>
<p>This led the music industry group to get out its calculator and inform the DoJ that the total monetary loss to its member companies was &#8220;a conservative&#8221; $6.3 billion &#8220;gut-punch&#8221; to music creators who were paid nothing by the service.</p>
<p>Given the huge numbers involved, it&#8217;s likely that Sargsyan hoped his 2017 guilty plea would result in a more forgiving sentence. Yesterday, however, the full weight of the law came crashing down.</p>
<p>California resident Artur Sargsyan was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten, Sr., to five years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The now 30-year-old was also ordered to pay $458,200 restitution and ordered to forfeit $184,768.87.</p>
<p>“Sargsyan operated one of the most successful illegal music sharing websites on the Internet,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak.</p>
<p>“His reproduction of copyrighted musical works were made available only to generate undeserved profits for himself.  The incredible work done by our law enforcement partners and prosecutors in light of the complexity of Sargsyan’s operation demonstrates that we will employ all of our resources to stop this kind of theft.”</p>
<p>David J. LaValley, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta, said that Sargsyan was warned several times that he was violating the law by illegally sharing copyrighted works, but chose to ignore the warnings.</p>
<p>&#8220;His sentence sends a message that no matter how complex the operation, the FBI, its federal partners and law enforcement partners around the globe will go to every length to protect the property of hard working artists and the companies that produce their art,&#8221; LaValley said.</p>
<p>Given the music group&#8217;s lengthy statements on the Sharebeast topic in the past, thus far the RIAA has been relatively brief. Welcoming news of the sentencing via Twitter, the major labels&#8217; figurehead congratulated the law enforcement bodies behind the successful prosecution.</p>
<p>&#8220;Congrats to U.S. Attorney BJay Pak + his team along with @TheJusticeDept CCIPS Division and @FBIAtlanta for their leadership on this important case,&#8221; the RIAA <a href="https://twitter.com/RIAA/status/976954342065524736">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153144
title: Controversial Roku ‘Piracy’ Ban Stays in Place in Mexico
uri: Controversial-Roku-Piracy-Ban-Stays-in-Place-in-Mexico
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9T6OzmT8QYM/
content:
<p><img src="media/5bd3959d.mexico-681350_640-e1492767840165.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mexico-681350_640-e1492767840165.jpg" width="275" height="206" class="alignright size-large">&#8216;Set-top&#8217; devices such as Amazon&#8217;s Fire TV have sold in their millions in recent years as the stream-to-your-living room craze continues.</p>
<p>Many commercial devices are intended to receive official programming in a legal manner but most can be reprogrammed to do illegal things.</p>
<p>Of course, this behavior has nothing to do with the manufacturers of such devices but a case launched in Mexico last year really took things to the next level.</p>
<p>Following a complaint filed by cable TV provider Cablevision, the Superior Court of Justice of the City of Mexico handed down an order in June preventing the importation of Roku devices and prohibiting stores such as Amazon, Liverpool, El Palacio de Hierro, and Sears from putting them on sale.</p>
<p>The ban was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/roku-sales-banned-in-mexico-over-piracy-concerns-170619/">handed down</a> in an effort to tackle the amount of pirated content being viewed through the devices. News circulating at the time suggested that sellers on social media were providing more than 300 channels of unauthorized content for around US$8 per month.</p>
<p>Of course, the same illegal content consumption also takes place via regular PCs, tablet computers, and even mobile phones. No one would consider banning them but the court in Mexico clearly didn&#8217;t see the parallels when it dropped the hammer on Roku.</p>
<p>Later that month, however, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. A federal judge decided to temporarily suspend the import and sales ban, which also instructed banks to stop processing payments from accounts linked to third-party pirate services.</p>
<p>“Roku is pleased with today’s court decision, which paves the way for sales of Roku devices to resume in Mexico,” Roku’s General Counsel Steve Kay <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-suspends-ban-on-roku-sales-in-mexico-170623/">informed</a> TorrentFreak at the time.</p>
<p>“Piracy is a problem the industry at large is facing. We prohibit copyright infringement of any kind on the Roku platform. We actively work to prevent third-parties from using our platform to distribute copyright infringing content. Moreover, we have been actively working with other industry stakeholders on a wide range of anti-piracy initiatives.”</p>
<p>But just as the sales began to flow once more, the celebrations were almost immediately cut short. </p>
<p>On June 28, 2017, a Mexico City tribunal upheld the previous decision which banned importation and distribution of Roku devices, much to the disappointment of Roku&#8217;s General Counsel.</p>
<p>“Today’s decision is not the final word in this complex legal matter,&#8221; Steve Kay said.</p>
<p>Indeed, since that date, Roku and retailers including Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, Office Depot, Radio Shack and Sears have been fighting to have Roku devices put back on sale again, with several courts ruling against the appeals. Then last week there was another blow when federal judges in Mexico City and Torreón decided to keep the original suspension in place.</p>
<p>Forbidding the &#8220;importation, commercialization and distribution&#8221; of Roku devices, the judges maintained that Roku devices could be used as an instrument for &#8220;dishonest commerce&#8221; in violation of Mexico&#8217;s copyright law.</p>
<p>The main argument in support of the ban is that Roku devices can still be used by people to gain access to infringing content. As a result, Cablevision believes that Roku should modify its devices to ensure that piracy isn&#8217;t possible in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is necessary for Roku to make adjustments to its software, as other online content distribution platforms do, so that violations of copyrighted content do not take place,&#8221; a Cablevision spokesperson <a href="https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/empresas/Mantienen-prohibicion-para-venta-de-dispositivos-Roku-20180319-0147.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>The decision to ban Roku devices can still be appealed. The company informs TorrentFreak that further legal action is on the cards.</p>
<p>&#8220;There have been several recent court rulings related to the ban on the sale of Roku devices in Mexico. In fact, a Federal court in Mexico City has already determined that the ban was improper; however, the ban remains in place,&#8221; says Roku spokesperson Tricia Misfud.</p>
<p>&#8220;While Roku&#8217;s devices have always been and remain legal to use in Mexico, the current ban harms consumers, the retail sector and the industry. We will vigorously pursue further legal actions with the aim of restoring sales of Roku devices in Mexico.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite a nationwide sales ban, people who already have a Roku in their possession remain unaffected by recent developments. Since the use of Roku devices in Mexico and elsewhere is completely legal, current users will still receive regular software updates.</p>
<p>In associated news, Mexico&#8217;s Telecommunications Law Institute (IDET) <a href="http://www.idet.org.mx/idet/poder-judicial-federal-mantiene-prohibicion-de-venta-de-roku-y-sienta-precedente-en-el-combate-a-la-pirateria-digital/">reports</a> that the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) has been blocking URLs used to distribute unauthorized content and apps. </p>
<p>While that will undoubtedly prove unpopular with pirates, one hopes that its execution is somewhat more precise than the wholesale banning of the entire Roku platform.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153235
title: Key Internet Players Excoriate Canadian Pirate Site Blocking Plan
uri: Key-Internet-Players-Excoriate-Canadian-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Plan
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lYdbolI9GgE/
content:
<p><img src="media/af081baa.canada-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/canada-pirate.png" alt="" width="225" height="113" class="alignright size-full wp-image-83641">In January, a coalition of Canadian companies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-coalition-calls-for-canadian-website-blocking-180130/">called on</a>  the country&#8217;s telecom regulator CRTC to establish a local pirate site blocking program, which would be the first of its kind in North America.</p>
<p>The Canadian deal is supported by FairPlay Canada, a coalition of both copyright holders and major players in the telco industry, such as Bell and Rogers, which also have media companies of their own. </p>
<p>Before making any decisions, the CRTC has asked the <a href="https://services.crtc.gc.ca/pub/CommentForm/Default-Defaut.aspx?lang=e&#038;EN=201800467&#038;ET=A&#038;S=O&#038;PA=T&#038;PT=A&#038;PST=A&#038;FN=">public for comments</a>. Last week we highlighted a few from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-pirate-site-blocking-plan-triggers-thousands-of-responses-180317/">both sides</a>, but in recent days two Internet heavyweights have chimed in.  </p>
<p>The first submission comes from the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (<a href="https://www.i2coalition.com/">i2Coalition</a>), which counts Google, Amazon, Cogeco PEER1, and Tucows among its members. These are all key players in the Internet ecosystem, with a rather strong opinion. </p>
<p>In a strongly-worded letter, the coalition urges the CRTC to reject the proposed &#8220;government-backed internet censorship committee&#8221; which they say will hurt the public as well as various companies that rely on a free and open Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;The not-for-profit organization envisioned by the FairPlay Canada proposal lacks accountability and oversight, and is certain to cause tremendous collateral damage to innocent Internet business owners,&#8221; they write. </p>
<p>&#8220;There is shockingly little judicial review or due process in establishing and approving the list of websites being blocked &#8212; and no specifics of how this blocking is actually to be implemented.&#8221; </p>
<p>According to the coalition, the proposal would stifle innovation, shutter legitimate businesses through overblocking, and harm Canada&#8217;s Internet economy. </p>
<p>In addition, they fear that it may lead to broad blockades of specific technologies. This includes VPNs, which Bell condemned in the past, as well as BitTorrent traffic. </p>
<p>&#8220;VPN usage itself could be targeted by this proposal, as could the use of torrents, another technology with wide legitimate usage, including digital security on public wifi, along with myriad other business requirements,&#8221; the coalition writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;We caution that this proposal could be used to attempt to restrict technology innovation. There are no provisions within the FairPlay proposal to avoid vilification of specific technologies. Technologies themselves cannot be bad actors.&#8221; </p>
<p>According to the i2Coalition, Canada&#8217;s Copyright Modernization Act is already one of the toughest anti-piracy laws in the world and they see no need to go any further. As such, they urge the authorities to reject the plan. </p>
<p>&#8220;The government and the CRTC should not hesitate to firmly reject the website blocking plan as a disproportionate, unconstitutional proposal sorely lacking in due process that is inconsistent with the current communications law framework,&#8221; the letter concludes.</p>
<p>The second submission we want to highlight comes from the <a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/">Internet Society</a>. In addition to many individual members, it is supported by dozens of major companies. This includes Google and Facebook, but also ISPs such as Verizon and Comcast, and even copyright holders such as 21st Century Fox and Disney.</p>
<p>While the Internet Society&#8217;s Hollywood members have argued in favor of pirate site blockades in the past, even in court, the organization&#8217;s submission argues fiercely against this measure. </p>
<p>Pointing to an <a href="https://www.internetsociety.org/resources/doc/2017/internetcontent-blocking/">extensive report</a> Internet Society published last Spring, they inform the CRTC that website blocking techniques &#8220;do not solve the problem&#8221; and &#8220;inflict collateral damage.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Internet Society calls on the CRTC to carefully examine the proposal&#8217;s potential negative effects on the security of the Internet, the privacy of Canadians, and how it may inadvertently block legitimate websites. </p>
<p>&#8220;In our opinion, the negative impacts of disabling access greatly outweigh any benefits,&#8221; the Internet Society writes.</p>
<p>Thus far, nearly 10,000 responses have been submitted to the CRTC. The official deadline passes on March 29, after which it is up to the telecoms regulator to factor the different opinions into its final decision.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>The i2Coalition submission is available <a href="media/2f1850db.I2c.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/I2c.pdf">here (pdf)</a> and the Internet Society&#8217;s comments can be found <a href="media/20ccc2fd.internetsoc.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/internetsoc.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153072
title: Japan Becomes Latest Country to Consider Pirate Site Blocking
uri: Japan-Becomes-Latest-Country-to-Consider-Pirate-Site-Blocking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7AW4FjJWB0c/
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="" width="200" height="134" class="alignright size-full wp-image-57939"></a>When attempting to deal with the flood of pirate content on the Internet, companies have many options at their disposal.</p>
<p>One of the most controversial is site-blocking, but despite its unpopularity with consumers, dozens of countries around the world are now involved in the practice. Quite regularly new countries consider getting involved, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-pirate-site-blocking-plan-triggers-thousands-of-responses-180317/">Canada for example</a>. The latest new addition is Japan.</p>
<p>Speaking at a news conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga <a href="http://www.sankei.com/economy/news/180319/ecn1803190030-n1.html">said</a> that the Japanese government is considering taking measures to prohibit access to pirate sites, largely to protect the country&#8217;s manga and anime industries.</p>
<p>&#8220;The damage is getting worse. We are considering the possibilities of all measures including site blocking,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Manga and anime are important types of content that represent the &#8216;Cool Japan&#8217; initiative. I would like to take countermeasures as soon as possible under the cooperation of the relevant ministries and agencies.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://www.meti.go.jp/english/policy/mono_info_service/creative_industries/creative_industries.html">Cool Japan</a> is a campaign to promote Japan, its culture, products and businesses both at home and overseas, in order to generate interest in the country while boosting investment and tourism.</p>
<p><center><strong>Outline of the Cool Japan initiative</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/e2e2d3e2.cool-japan.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cool-japan.png"><img src="media/3f370c7c.cool-japan.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cool-japan.png" alt="" width="600" height="264" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153088"></a></center></p>
<p>According to a lawyer <a href="http://www.sankei.com/premium/news/180318/prm1803180014-n1.html">cited</a> by the Sankei news outlet, piracy in Japan is largely facilitated by roughly two kinds of sites &#8211; hosting and linking.</p>
<p>While the former can be anywhere but can be dealt with locally, Japan has an estimated 200 sites that link to pirated content. Their legal status doesn&#8217;t appear to be as clear as many would like.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the conventional theory the link itself is not illegal,&#8221; the lawyer notes. &#8220;There is no legal basis to declare the act of facilitating piracy of other sites as &#8216;illegal&#8217;. Without a [linking] site, many users can not reach pirated versions, [so the government] needs to define malicious [linking] sites properly and regulate them.&#8221;</p>
<p>It appears that like many nations, Japan doesn&#8217;t view piracy as a predominantly domestic issue, at least on the supply front. In common with the UK, Australia and many other &#8216;blocking&#8217; nations, it sees the problem as being fueled by overseas actors over which it has limited control. Site-blocking locally, therefore, could stop the problem at the borders.</p>
<p>Whether any plan will be any more effective than the programs elsewhere will remain to be seen but since the Japanese hold both anime and manga close to their hearts, the debate is bound to get emotional.</p>
<p>&#8220;As long as the normal business model of content is undermined, the number of people trying to become new professional creators will decrease, and if you are an animator, know-how such as drawing, editing and reviewing may be lost. There is a danger that you will be unable to read interesting cartoons in future, as the biggest victim of piracy is actually the reader himself,&#8221; the lawyer concludes. </p>
<p>This past week saw perhaps the single wildest display of copyright infringement ever directed at Japanese culture by those in authority. Local governments across South America <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/japanese-govt-intervention-fails-to-stop-mass-dragon-ball-super-piracy-180319/">defied the Japanese government</a> by airing the latest episode of Dragon Ball Super in public places to tens of thousands of people, all without obtaining the necessary licensing.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153264
title: Repeat Infringer Policy Doesn’t Have to Be Spelled Out, Appeals Court Rules
uri: Repeat-Infringer-Policy-Doesn-t-Have-to-Be-Spelled-Out-Appeals-Cour
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zVURKbwZrPc/
content:
<p><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717">The &#8220;repeat infringer&#8221; issue is a hot topic in US Courts, leading to much uncertainty among various Internet services.</p>
<p>Under the DMCA, companies are required to implement a reasonable policy to deal with frequent offenders. </p>
<p>This not only applies to commercial Internet providers, as Cox found out the hard way, but also to websites that host user-uploaded content, such as video and image hosting services. </p>
<p>Last week the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180317/02151939441/9th-circuit-appeals-court-recognizes-that-dmca-repeat-infringer-policies-must-be-flexible.shtml">issued an order</a> that provides some further clarification on how a repeat infringer policy should be documented. </p>
<p>The case in question was filed by adult content producer Ventura Content, which accused the adult-themed site Motherless of copyright infringement. While Motherless relies on user-uploaded content, the adult producer argued that it is liable for pirated content on its site.</p>
<p>In a majority ruling, the Court found that Motherless did not know about the alleged infringements before the lawsuit was filed and removed them within a day of being properly alerted. </p>
<p>This means that the site is entitled to safe harbor protection if it implemented a reasonable repeat infringer policy, which brings us to the crux of the case. </p>
<p>The operator of the site, Joshua Lange, is the sole employee who single-handedly deals with all takedown requests. The site also has a page informing users that there is a repeat infringer policy, without providing specific details.</p>
<p>The adult content producer argued that the site had failed to reasonably implement such a policy, but the Court disagreed, noting that the DMCA doesn&#8217;t prescribe a written policy. </p>
<p>&#8220;The details of the termination policy are not written down. However, the statute does not say that the policy details must be written, just that the site must inform subscribers of &#8216;a policy&#8217; of terminating repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances,&#8221; the Court states.</p>
<p>In this case, the details of the policy were in the mind of the operator, who made his decisions based on a case-by-case evaluation. </p>
<p>&#8220;Lange uses his judgment, not a mechanical test, to terminate infringers based on the volume, history, severity, and intentions behind a user’s infringing content uploads.&#8221;</p>
<p>The fact that the details of the policy were not spelled out doesn&#8217;t mean that Motherless has no safe harbor protection, although this may be different for large companies. </p>
<p>&#8220;A company might need a written policy to tell its employees or independent contractors what to do if there were a significant number of them, but Motherless is not such a firm.</p>
<p>&#8220;So the lack of a detailed written policy is not by itself fatal to safe harbor eligibility. Neither is the fact that Motherless did not publicize its internal criteria,&#8221; the Court adds.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, the site&#8217;s operator didn&#8217;t keep any written logs of repeat infringers either. He simply kept track of them in his head and terminated more than a thousand accounts this way. This didn&#8217;t work flawlessly, as a few repeat infringers slipped through, but the Court believes it was good enough.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is tempting, perhaps, to say that a policy is not &#8216;reasonably&#8217; implemented if it does not include both a database of users whose uploads have generated DMCA notices and some automated means of catching them if they do it again. But the statute does not require that,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>Overall, the Court sides with Motherless and its operator and affirmed the summary judgment in its favor.</p>
<p>This case is unique in many ways. Among other things, it shows that written details or logs are not always required for a &#8220;reasonable&#8221; repeat infringer policy. While this could be different for large companies, it is likely to be referenced frequently in related cases. </p>
<p>This week, hosting provider Steadfast was quick to <a href="media/c315f433.steadaddit.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/steadaddit.pdf">use the ruling</a> to argue that it sufficiently adopted and informed users of its repeat infringer policy.</p>
<p>&#8212;-</p>
<p>A copy of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is <a href="media/51fdee7b.ventura-mother.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ventura-mother.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153011
title: Demonoid Surpasses 10 Million User Registrations
uri: Demonoid-Surpasses-10-Million-User-Registrations
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PKSR7HnRCL8/
content:
<p><img src="media/a6e16bbf.demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoidlargnew-e1504614957760.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="222" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144142">As one of the oldest torrent communities online, the <a href="https://www.demonoid.pw">Demonoid</a> tracker has gone though many ups and downs. </p>
<p>The site has disappeared for months, more than once, but always reappeared. That by itself is already quite an accomplishment, but this month the semi-private tracker also reached a numerical milestone. </p>
<p>After 14 years, the 10 millionth user signed up a few days ago. To put this into perspective; That&#8217;s the entire population of Sweden, and then some. </p>
<p>Of course, the majority of these users are not active anymore. Some have moved on to other torrent sites, stopped using torrents completely, or kicked the piracy habit for good.  </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Demonoid founder Deimos, who mentioned another caveat. While 10 million people have indeed signed up over the years, roughly two million have been banned or disabled since. </p>
<p>Still, it remains a fascinating statistic.</p>
<p>The main goal of Demonoid was never to get 10 million registered users. Instead, the site would have preferred a smaller but more active community, which is how it all started. </p>
<p>But a lot has changed since 2004. There have been some <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-returns-two-months-downtime-170320/">internal struggles</a> in recent years and aside from a few oldies who stuck around, the site is made up of different people now. </p>
<p>&#8220;The main difference is the people, the group is completely different from what it was,&#8221; Deimos tells us.</p>
<p>The old forum is no longer active either. Instead, the link on the site now directs users to the official <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/DemonoidP2P/">Demonoid community on Reddit</a>. Another sign of the times.</p>
<p>Going forward, Demonoid is hoping to regain the community and vibe it had over a decade ago. Not an easy task with much more pressure and tension surrounding torrent sites, but that&#8217;s the ultimate goal.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think we are getting back to basics, what the Demon community was at the beginning, which was the coolest aspect of the site IMHO. We might not be there yet but we are closer now,&#8221; Deimos concludes.</p>
<p>At the time of writing, Demonoid&#8217;s registration is open to the public, but that changes frequently.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152973
title: Russia Blocked 8,000 Pirate Sites in 2017, “Visits to Cinemas Up 11%”
uri: Russia-Blocked-8-000-Pirate-Sites-in-2017-Visits-to-Cinemas-Up-11
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/evfUA5qRQfk/
content:
<p><a href="media/1e966c9f.piracydown.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piracydown.jpg"><img src="media/198e8dc2.piracydown.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piracydown.jpg" alt="" width="180" height="162" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73866"></a>Blocking sites is one of the most popular anti-piracy mechanisms of recent times. The practice is now commonplace in the UK, Europe, and Australia and, if entertainment industry groups get their way, it&#8217;ll soon be installed in Canada too.</p>
<p>While most regions with blocking legislation carry out their work with enthusiasm, perhaps surprisingly it&#8217;s Russia setting the standards. With almost constant amendments to copyright law, the country is able to block pirate sites, mirrors, and proxies in a very short timeframe indeed. And it has been doing so, in huge numbers.</p>
<p>According to data shared with <a href="https://iz.ru/716951/daniil-kuzin/piratskie-saity-stali-blokirovat-v-chetyre-raza-chashche">Izvestia</a> by local telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor, in 2017 Russia blocked a staggering 8,000 pirate sites, more than any other country on the planet. In a clear sign of the way things are going, that figure represents a four-fold increase over the 2,000 sites that were blocked on copyright grounds in 2016.</p>
<p>While blocks can be authorized for infringement of copyright on everything from music to software and from books to TV shows, it is the movie industry leading the way in volume terms. In 65% of cases of site-blocking in 2017, the requests came from companies involved in the production and distribution of films. </p>
<p>Sheer volume aside, there&#8217;s nothing really surprising about the site-blocking movement in Russia. However, it differs from most other regions when it comes to assessing its usefulness.</p>
<p>Groups in many other countries have claimed that site-blocking is effective in reducing visits to pirate sites and even reducing piracy itself, but the majority steer clear of claiming that it actually does anything to increase sales. Not so Russia.</p>
<p>According to data from Russia&#8217;s Cinema Foundation cited by Rozcomnadzor alongside site-blocking statistics, last year &#8220;the aggregate box office of the national film distribution&#8221; grew by 10.9% amounting to 53.6 billion rubles [US$927.3m], up from 48.4 billion rubles [US$837.3m] in 2016.</p>
<p>In addition, the telecoms regulator said that cinema attendance across the country had increased by 11.4% over the previous year.</p>
<p>A court process is required to block infringing sites that fail to cooperate when rightsholders ask for content to be taken down. Those that push the boundaries by refusing to remove content on multiple occasions can find themselves blocked on a permanent basis.</p>
<p>In 2017, a total of 530 sites were added to Russia&#8217;s permanent blacklist, up from &#8216;just&#8217; 107 sites in 2017. In addition, 459 pirate site &#8220;mirrors&#8221; were blocked by ISPs with no hope of reprieve. Following changes to the law last October, permanently blocked sites are also removed from search engine results.</p>
<p>But while the current system presents no significant obstacles to having many thousands of sites blocked during the course of a year, Russian authorities want more anti-piracy tools in their arsenal. New proposals would see pirate sites blocked without the need for any court process at all.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s already possible to have mirror sites blocked without a separate process but if the Ministry of Culture has its way, copyright complaints issued to hosting services and sites that go completely unanswered without deletion of content could suffer the same fate.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=152544
title: Rapidgator Plans to Launch Blockchain Powered File-Storage Platform
uri: Rapidgator-Plans-to-Launch-Blockchain-Powered-File-Storage-Platform
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iJPTy0HsRk8/
content:
<p><img src="media/583ceda2.m-space.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/m-space.jpg" alt="" width="264" height="127" class="alignright size-full wp-image-153063">For several years, <a href="https://rapidgator.net/site/index">Rapidgator</a> has been one of the leading file-sharing sites on the Internet. </p>
<p>While Rapidgator&#8217;s functionality hasn&#8217;t drastically changed in recent years, the site&#8217;s CEO has been working on an ambitious new project. This month, he&#8217;s introducing their blockchain powered file-sharing and distribution platform <a href="https://market.space/en/">Market.space</a> to the world. </p>
<p>Generally speaking, we&#8217;re not too eager to cover ICOs and new cryptocurrencies but with a major file-sharing player getting involved, we decided to take a closer look. </p>
<p>Simply speaking, the new platform will act as a hosting aggregator. Professional hosting services can offer their unused capacity, creating a market where consumers can pick the option that&#8217;s best for them, with bulletproof anonymity.</p>
<p>Decentralized file-storage services are not new by any means. Platforms such as Filecoin and Storj.io have been around for a while, so how does Market.space differentiate itself?</p>
<p>According to Rapidgator&#8217;s operator and CEO, Alex Rakhmanov, Market.space will focus on partnerships with large professional hosting companies. This as opposed to storing content on computers of the public.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Market.space will be booking.com for storage where the customer can select the best location for his storage and the lowest price,&#8221; Rakhmanov says.</p>
<p>On the demand side, the audience can be quite diverse, ranging from companies who need a file-storage solution to artists or scientists who want to share their data. </p>
<p>The technical details and fine print of the plan are spelled out in the <a href="media/59626235.Market.space_White_Paper_v1.1_en.pdf" data-original-source="https://market.space/doc/Market.space_White_Paper_v1.1_en.pdf">whitepaper</a>, although it&#8217;s hard to judge a project without being able to try a working version. The most interesting part to us, at this point, is the link to Rapidgator, which is publicly promoted.</p>
<p>The Market.space website <a href="https://market.space/en/#our-team">highlights the CEO</a> and mentions Rapidgator as an established file-sharing platform with a storage capacity of more than 20 Petabytes and 40 million visitors per month.</p>
<p>Although that&#8217;s a testament to its file-sharing expertise, critics are likely to point out the piracy label copyright holders have applied to the site over the years. </p>
<p><center><strong>Market.space&#8217;s Background</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3fae2780.rapidmark.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rapidmark.png" alt="" width="600" height="490" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153080">  </center></p>
<p>While the site can be used to share any type of file, it has often been criticized as a piracy haven. Earlier this year, the site was also featured on the US Trade Representative&#8217;s list of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-govt-brands-torrent-streaming-cyberlocker-sites-as-notorious-markets-180115/">notorious markets</a>.</p>
<p>These characterizations are not new, but Rapidgator&#8217;s CEO categorically refutes the claims. </p>
<p>&#8220;Rapidgator is a highly acclaimed file-sharing website, with an established technology behind it. We comply with the DMCA and remove files when they are reported,&#8221; Rakhmanov tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>He stresses that Rapidgator currently works with major industry players such as IFPI, who have direct access to their takedown tools. Market.space will also comply with DMCA takedown notices, although this isn&#8217;t expected to be a major issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;As for market.space it is more a business to business model. I don&#8217;t think there will be any copyright issues,&#8221; Rakhmanov says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Still, we&#8217;ll have to register the new project for DMCA purposes and remove files if they are reported. If a report is false, the user can send a counternotice and restore it,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>Market.space&#8217;s token sale, which will various tokens including SIA and Storj, starts on April 16. The ICO has a hard cap of $50 million, and a minimum of $15 million is required to get the project off the ground.</p>
<p><center><strong>Market.space</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HbLtqFcUwns?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153328
title: Dotcom Wins Privacy Breach Case Against New Zealand Government
uri: Dotcom-Wins-Privacy-Breach-Case-Against-New-Zealand-Government
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cNR6wzJ2cUM/
content:
<p><img src="media/5b2669f1.dotcom-laptop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-laptop.jpg" alt="" width="233" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-76556">Following the Megaupload <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shut-down-120119/">shutdown and the raid</a> on Kim Dotcom&#8217;s mansion, many hours have been spent on the case in courts around the world. </p>
<p>While Dotcom and several of his former colleagues were targeted for alleged copyright crimes, thus far the major battles have been focused on other legal aspects of the case.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed at the Human Rights Tribunal, Dotcom accused the New Zealand Government of improperly withholding information. In 2015 Dotcom asked 28 ministers and several government departments to disclose information they held on him, without result. </p>
<p>The requests were labeled as &#8220;urgent&#8221; due to Dotcom&#8217;s pending legal case, but then-Attorney General Chris Finlayson denied them as being vexatious and without sufficient grounds.  </p>
<p>Today the Human Rights Tribunal ruled that, by denying the requests, “&#8230;the Crown to be in clear breach of its obligations under the Privacy Act,&#8221; awarding the Megaupload founder $90,000 in damages for &#8220;loss of dignity or injury to feelings.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the financial windfall must be welcome, Dotcom also sees this ruling as a big victory in the grander scheme of things. According to the New Zealand entrepreneur, it means that the U.S. extradition bid is dead in the water.</p>
<p>&#8220;What does the Human Rights Tribunal Judgement mean for my Extradition case? It is OVER!&#8221; Dotcom just <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/978105443699458049">tweeted</a></p>
<p>&#8220;By unlawfully withholding information that could have helped my case the former Attorney General of New Zealand has perverted the course of Justice,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p><center><strong>It&#8217;s over&#8230;?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/424b567c.dotcomover.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcomover.png" alt="" width="576" height="160" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153335"></center></p>
<p>In addition to awarding damages, the ruling also requires the ministers and Government to comply with the original requests, as <a href="http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/03/kim-dotcom-wins-human-rights-tribunal-case-declares-extradition-bid-over.html">Newshub</a> writes.  </p>
<p>The Tribunal&#8217;s decision is a clear win for Dotcom. While it doesn&#8217;t automatically end the extradition case, going forward it certainly doesn&#8217;t hurt the position of Megaupload&#8217;s founder. </p>
<p>Who it could hurt, according to Dotcom, is New Zealand&#8217;s Privacy Commissioner John Edwards.</p>
<p>&#8220;I call for the immediate resignation of the Privacy Commissioner of New Zealand for his complicity with the former Attorney General and Crown Law in unlawfully withholding information that New Zealanders were legally entitled to,&#8221; Dotcom tweets.</p>
<p>The Privacy Commissioner retweeted Dotcom&#8217;s request without commenting on it, which elicited another blow from Dotcom.</p>
<p>&#8220;I appreciate the acknowledgment. The Human Rights Tribunal judgment makes you look utterly incompetent at best or co-conspiratorial at worst. Which is it? Either way, you’re done,&#8221; Dotcom added.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the Human Rights Tribunal ruling is available <a href="media/6ada2f47.2018-nzhrrt-7-dotcom-v-crown-law-others.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.justice.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Decisions/2018-nzhrrt-7-dotcom-v-crown-law-others.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153346
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/26/18
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-26-18
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qtXbYMTgQ2c/
content:
<p><img src="media/6a3d87b6.showman.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/showman.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-153351">This week we have three newcomers in our chart.</p>
<p>The Greatest Showman is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-03-19-18/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">The Greatest Showman</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1485796/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zOeiLhcgPo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">Star Wars: The Last Jedi</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2527336/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0CbN8sfihY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547194/">I Kill Giants</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547194/">6.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ0QKOR5Kgc">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/">Annihilation</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2798920/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89OP78l9oF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4925292/">7.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNi_HC839Wo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">7.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjDjIWPwcPU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726086/">Insidious: The Last Key</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5726086/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acQyrwQyCOk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">The Shape of Water</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580390/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lFbcsmrWTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">Maze Runner: The Death Cure </a> (HDTC) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4500922/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-BTxXm8KSg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294550/">All The Money in The World</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5294550/">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXHrCBkIxQQ">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153315
title: Spotify’s Two Million Unauthorized Users Hammered Google For Alternatives
uri: Spotify-s-Two-Million-Unauthorized-Users-Hammered-Google-For-Alterna
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GfgvTlLMbkM/
content:
<p><img src="media/c0d2aa8a.spotify2.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify2.jpg" width="229" height="230" class="alignright size-large">It is now common knowledge that Spotify launched its service more than a decade ago with the aim of attracting pirates.</p>
<p>With the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/how-the-pirate-bay-helped-spotify-become-a-success-180319/">disruption of The Pirate Bay</a> ringing in the music industry&#8217;s ears, Spotify set out to capture the hearts and minds of music fans, particularly those with an aversion to paying.</p>
<p>Although it is yet to turn a profit, there can be little doubt that Spotify is a rampant success, at least as far as user numbers go. With premium and ad-supported free tiers available, the service is superbly accessible, no matter the depth of one&#8217;s pockets.</p>
<p>Naturally, those who pay get a better and smoother service so it&#8217;s no surprise that many free tier users aspire to that level of access. But while some pay the extra, others prefer to hack their way to music utopia.</p>
<p>How many people were accessing Spotify&#8217;s service using mainly hacked Android APK files has remained a mystery, but late last week, as part of the company&#8217;s IPO, Spotify dropped the bombshell.</p>
<p>&#8220;On March 21, 2018, we detected instances of approximately two million users as of December 31, 2017, who have been suppressing advertisements without payment,&#8221; Spotify <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1639920/000119312518092759/d494294df1a.htm">wrote</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;We previously included such users in calculations for certain of our key performance indicators, including MAUs [Monthly Active Users], Ad-Supported Users, Content Hours, and Content Hours per MAU.&#8221;</p>
<p>Two million users is hardly an insignificant number and it appears Spotify felt the need to disclose them since up to January 1, 2017, the company had been including these users in its accounting. A couple of million users on the free tier is great, but not if they&#8217;re riding ad-free and therefore less likely to upgrade to premium, the suggestion goes.</p>
<p>Earlier this month, with its IPO process underway, Spotify clearly had these freeloading users on its mind. As previously reported, the company started to send out emails to people using hacked installation files, largely on Android, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spotify-emails-warning-to-pirates-using-hacked-apps-180305/">putting them on notice</a> that their activities were not going unnoticed.</p>
<p>“We detected abnormal activity on the app you are using so we have disabled it. Don’t worry – your Spotify account is safe,” the email from Spotify said.</p>
<p>“To access your Spotify account, simply uninstall any unauthorized or modified version of Spotify and download and install the Spotify app from the official Google Play Store. If you need more help, please see our support article on Reinstalling Spotify.”</p>
<p>At the time it became apparent that this email had gone out to a large number of people, with significant volumes of users reporting problems with their accounts. It also seemed to target users fairly methodically, in that some countries&#8217; users retained access while others suffered, only to be hit later on as more and more waves were sent out.</p>
<p>As the chart below from Google Trends shows, it appears that Spotify began taking action on March 1, which drove people to start searching for Spotify APK files that were still working.</p>
<p>By March 3, search volumes had doubled on the index and on March 7, Google searches for &#8216;Spotify APK&#8217; reached a dramatic peak never before witnessed in the history of the search term. That&#8217;s quite an achievement given how many people use these pieces of software.</p>
<p><center><strong>No prizes for guessing when Spotify got tough&#8230;.</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/a7a77fb6.spotify-apk-google.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-apk-google.png"><img src="media/cd542d60.spotify-apk-google.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spotify-apk-google.png" alt="" width="600" height="412" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153317"></a> </center></p>
<p>But after a flurry of activity, on March 22 search volumes were back down to March 3 levels, which is quite interesting in itself.</p>
<p>Although various modified APKs are still managing to evade Spotify&#8217;s ban, there doesn&#8217;t seem to be a dominant modified client proving popular enough to stop hundreds of thousands of people from continuing to search for an APK solution. So, presuming these &#8216;banned&#8217; people still want the music offered by Spotify, where have they gone?</p>
<p>Aside from those using the APKs that have slipped through the net, reports suggest others have migrated to Deezer downloading solutions, which are also being <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/deezer-piles-pressure-on-pirates-deezloader-reborn-throws-in-the-towel-180315/">targeted by Deezer</a>. Others are using tools to <a href="https://soundiiz.com/">convert their Spotify playlists</a> to use with other pirate services or <a href="http://www.playlistbuddy.com/">even YouTube</a>.</p>
<p>The big question then is whether hitting the ban button to potentially eject up to two million users has resulted in a net positive for Spotify?</p>
<p>There&#8217;s no doubt it lowered the bandwidth bill for the growing company but how many former freeloaders traded the pirate high seas for an ad-supported account or even the premium service? Only Spotify has the numbers, and it won&#8217;t be sharing those yet &#8211; if ever. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153326
title: Cloudflare Doesn’t Want Daily Stormer Evidence at Piracy Trial
uri: Cloudflare-Doesn-t-Want-Daily-Stormer-Evidence-at-Piracy-Trial
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n6fkqnXuMn4/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767">Last summer Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince decided to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-kicking-daily-stormer-is-bad-news-for-pirate-sites-170817/">terminate the account</a> of controversial neo-Nazi site Daily Stormer.</p>
<p>“I woke up this morning in a bad mood and decided to kick them off the Internet,” he announced.</p>
<p>It was later explained that the move was meant as an &#8216;intellectual exercise&#8217; to start a conversation regarding censorship and free speech on the internet. In this respect, it was a success, but the discussion went much further than Prince had intended.</p>
<p>Cloudflare always had a policy not to remove any accounts without a court order, so when this was exceeded, eyebrows were raised. In particular, copyright holders wondered why the company could terminate this account but not those of the most notorious pirate sites.</p>
<p>The Daily Stormer removal also became an issue in the piracy liability case adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan had filed previously. After Cloudflare&#8217;s CEO was questioned on the matter, it could now be brought up before a jury during the trial as well. </p>
<p>This is something Cloudflare would like to avoid, it appears. A few days ago the company asked the court to exclude any hate group related evidence or arguments from the trial. </p>
<p>&#8220;Cloudflare respectfully asks this Court to exclude any evidence or arguments that ALS intends to offer relating to Cloudflare’s services, including termination or non-termination of services, to hate groups,&#8221; the company writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;This includes but is not limited to services that Cloudflare historically provided to the Daily Stormer website, and Cloudflare’s decision to terminate services to that website following the tragic events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>No hate groups</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/adcd0ca9.cfmemo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cfmemo.png" alt="" width="576" height="208" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153365"></center></p>
<p>ALS previously harped on the fact that the CEO arbitrarily decided to remove one site from the service, while requiring court orders in other instances. </p>
<p>The adult publisher could use the information to argue that Cloudflare can take action against certain websites and that this has a significant impact on their operation.</p>
<p>Cloudflare disagrees. It doesn&#8217;t deny that it can terminate accounts but maintains that it can&#8217;t &#8220;remove&#8221; them from the Internet as they are merely hosting a cached version. According to the company, ALS wants to use the issue to cloud the jury&#8217;s opinion.</p>
<p>&#8220;The apparent reason that ALS seeks to offer is not for its probative value but rather for its distracting emotional impact,&#8221; Cloudflare argues.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given the strong feelings such evidence would almost certainly arouse among members of the jury, this evidence creates an unwarranted and impermissible risk of unfair prejudice to Cloudflare.&#8221;</p>
<p>The CDN provider adds that the Daily Stormer removal had nothing to do with copyright and is therefore irrelevant. The main reason the company decided to terminate the Daily Stormer account was that the site suggested that Cloudflare supported its views. </p>
<p>To prevent any guilt by association or distracting emotional impact, the CDN provider urges the court to prohibit the issue from being raised at trial.</p>
<p>&#8220;Cloudflare respectfully requests that the Court grant this motion and enter an order barring ALS from presenting to the jury any evidence regarding Cloudflare’s provision or non-provision of Internet services to “hate” websites such as the Daily Stormer,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>Cloudflare&#8217;s motion to exclude evidence relating to provision or termination of services to hate groups can be found <a href="media/bb14e7db.dailystormer.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/dailystormer.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153376
title: GoDaddy Ordered to Suspend Four Music Piracy Domains
uri: GoDaddy-Ordered-to-Suspend-Four-Music-Piracy-Domains
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VCsZmLtqFcI/
content:
<p><a href="media/2e41c70e.godaddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/godaddy.jpg"><img src="media/4a3f5427.godaddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/godaddy.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="192" class="alignright size-full wp-image-44073"></a>There are many methods used by copyright holders and the authorities in their quest to disable access to pirate sites.</p>
<p>Site blocking is one of the most popular but pressure can also be placed on web hosts to prevent them from doing business with questionable resources. A skip from one host to another usually solves the problem, however.</p>
<p>Another option is to target sites&#8217; domains directly, by putting pressure on their registrars. It&#8217;s a practice that has famously seen The Pirate Bay burn through numerous domains in recent years, only for it to end up <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-domain-shuffle-come-full-circle-160520/">back on its original domain</a>, apparently unscathed. Other sites, it appears, aren&#8217;t always so lucky.</p>
<p>As a full member of IFPI, the Peruvian Union of Phonographic Producers (<a href="http://www.unimpro.org">UNIMPRO</a>) protects the rights of record labels and musicians. Like its counterparts all over the world, UNIMPRO has a piracy problem and a  complaint filed against four &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites will now force the world&#8217;s largest domain registrar into action.</p>
<p>Mp3Juices-Download-Free.com, Melodiavip.net, Foxmusica.site and Fulltono.me were all music sites offering MP3 content without the copyright holders&#8217; permission. None are currently available but the screenshot below shows how the first platform appeared before it was taken offline.</p>
<p><center><strong>MP3 Juices Downnload Free</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/f967ef48.mp3-juices-download-free.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mp3-juices-download-free.png"><img src="media/3f722f03.mp3-juices-download-free.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mp3-juices-download-free.png" alt="" width="600" height="282" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153389"></a></center></p>
<p>Following a complaint against the sites by UNIMPRO, the Copyright Commission (Comisión de Derecho de Autor) conducted an investigation into the platforms&#8217; activities. The Commission found that the works they facilitated access to infringed copyright. It was also determined that each site generated revenue from advertising.</p>
<p>Given the illegal nature of the sites and the high volume of visitors they attract, the Commission determined that they were causing &#8220;irreparable damage&#8221; to legitimate copyright holders. Something, therefore, needed to be done.</p>
<p>The action against the sites involved the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi), an autonomous public body of the Peruvian state tasked with handling anti-competitive behavior, unfair competition, and intellectual property matters.</p>
<p><center><strong>Indecopi HQ</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/92b5d9ef.article-e1522140720162.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/article-e1522140720162.jpg"><img src="media/92b5d9ef.article-e1522140720162.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/article-e1522140720162.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153394"></a></center></p>
<p>After assessing the evidence, Indecopi, through the Copyright Commission, issued precautionary (interim) measures compelling US-based GoDaddy, the world&#8217;s largest domain registrar which handles the domains for all four sites, to suspend them with immediate effect.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Copyright Commission of INDECOPI issued four precautionary measures in order that the US company  Godaddy.com, LLC (in its capacity as registrar of domain names) suspend the domains of four websites, through which it would have infringed the legislation on Copyright and Related Rights, by making available a large number of musical phonograms without the corresponding authorization, to the detriment of its legitimate owners,&#8221; Indecopi said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;The suspension was based on the great evidence that was provided by the Commission, on the four websites that infringe copyright, and in the framework of the policy of support for the protection of intellectual property.&#8221;</p>
<p>Indecopi says that GoDaddy can file an appeal against the decision. At the time of writing, none of the four domains currently returns a working website.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak has requested a comment from GoDaddy but at the time of publication, we were yet to receive a response.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153415
title: EU Content Rules to Improve Access & Reduce Piracy Start April 1
uri: EU-Content-Rules-to-Improve-Access-Reduce-Piracy-Start-April-1
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gJUrAVGArI8/
content:
<p><img src="media/3737aed5.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png" width="222" height="146" class="alignright size-large">Any subscriber of a service like Netflix will tell you that where you live can have a big impact on the content made available. Customers in the US enjoy large libraries while less populous countries are treated less well.</p>
<p>For many years and before Netflix <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-vpn-crackdown-a-year-of-frustrations-170120/">largely closed the loophole</a>, customers would bypass these restrictions, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">using VPNs</a> to trick Netflix into thinking they were elsewhere. Some wouldn&#8217;t bother with the complication, choosing to pirate content instead.</p>
<p>But for citizens of the EU, things were even more complex. While the EU mandates free movement of people, the same can&#8217;t be said about licensing deals. While a viewer in the Netherlands could begin watching a movie at home, he could travel to France for a weekend break only to find that the content he paid for is not available, or only in French.</p>
<p>Last May, this problem was addressed by the European Parliament with an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-votes-today-on-content-portability-to-reduce-piracy-170518/">agreement</a> to introduce new ‘Cross-border portability’ rules that will give citizens the freedom to enjoy their media wherever they are in the EU, without having to resort to piracy or VPNs &#8211; if they can find one that still works for any length of time with the service.</p>
<p>Now, almost 11 months on, the rules are about to come into force. From Sunday, content portability in the EU will become a reality.</p>
<p>&#8220;Citizens are at the core of all our digital initiatives. As of 1 April, wherever you are traveling to in the EU, you will no longer miss out on your favorite films, TV series, sports broadcasts, games or e-books, that you have digitally subscribed to at home,&#8221; European Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Removing the boundaries that prevented Europeans from traveling with digital media and content subscriptions is yet another success of the Digital Single Market for our citizens, following the effective abolition of roaming charges that consumers all over Europe have enjoyed since June 2017.&#8221;</p>
<p>This is how it will work. Consumers in the EU who buy or subscribe to films, sports broadcasts, music, e-books or games in their home Member States will now be able to access this content when they reside temporarily in another EU country.</p>
<p>So, if a person in the UK purchases Netflix to gain access to a TV show to watch in their home country, Netflix will have to add this content to the customer&#8217;s library so they can still access it wherever they travel in the EU, regardless of its general availability elsewhere.</p>
<p>&#8220;[P]roviders of paid-for online content services (such as online movie, TV or music streaming services) have to provide their subscribers with the same service wherever the subscriber is in the EU,&#8221; the Commission explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;The service needs to be provided in the same way in other Member States, as in the Member State of residence. So for Netflix for example, you will have access to the same selection (or catalog) anywhere in the EU, if you are temporarily abroad, just as if you were at home.&#8221;</p>
<p>The same should hold true for all other digital content. If it&#8217;s available at home, it must be made available elsewhere in Europe in order to comply with the regulations. In doing so, providers are allowed some freedom, provided it&#8217;s in the customer&#8217;s favor. If they want to give customers additional access to full home and overseas catalogs when they&#8217;re traveling, for example, that is fine.</p>
<p>There&#8217;s also a plus in there for content providers. While a company like Netflix will sometimes acquire rights on a per country basis, when a citizen travels abroad within the EU they will not be required to obtain licenses for those other territories where their subscribers stay temporarily.</p>
<p>There is, however, a question of what &#8220;temporarily&#8221; means since it&#8217;s not tightly defined in the regulations. The term will cover business trips and holidays, for example, but providers will be required to clearly inform their customers of their precise terms and conditions.</p>
<p>Providers will also need to determine a customer&#8217;s home country, something that will be established when a customer signs up or renews his contract. This can be achieved in a number of ways, including via payment details, a contract for an Internet or telephone connection, verifying a home address, or using a simple IP address check.</p>
<p>For providers of free online services, which are allowed to choose whether they want to be included in the new rules or not, there are special conditions in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;Once they opt-in and allow portability under the Regulation, all rules will apply to them in the same manner as for the paid services. This means that the subscribers will have to log-in to be able to access and use content when temporarily abroad, and service providers will have to verify the Member State of residence of the subscriber,&#8221; the Commission explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;If providers of free of charge online content services decide to make use of the new portability rules, they are required to inform their subscribers about this decision prior to providing the service. Such information could, for example, be announced on the providers&#8217; websites.&#8221;</p>
<p>The good news for consumers is that providers will not be able to charge for offering content portability and if they don&#8217;t provide it as required, they&#8217;ll be in breach of EU rules. The EU believes that all providers are ready to meet the standard &#8211; the public will find out on Sunday.</p>
<p>The new rules can be found here <em>(<a href="http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/document.cfm?doc_id=42443">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153372
title: Google Adds ‘Kodi’ to Autocomplete Piracy Filter
uri: Google-Adds-Kodi-to-Autocomplete-Piracy-Filter
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hNzx100Hlx4/
content:
<p><img src="media/8aa05985.kodi-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-1.png" alt="" width="233" height="233" class="alignright size-full wp-image-144339">In recent years entertainment industry groups have repeatedly urged Google to ramp up its anti-piracy efforts.</p>
<p>These remarks haven’t fallen on deaf ears and Google has made several changes to its search algorithms to make copyright-infringing material less visible.</p>
<p>The company <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-will-downrank-pirate-sites-starting-next-week-141018/">demotes results</a> from domain names for which it receives many DMCA takedown notices, for example, and it has also removed several piracy-related terms <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-starts-censoring-bittorrent-rapidshare-and-more-110126/">from its autocomplete feature</a>. </p>
<p>The latter means that when one types &#8220;pirate ba&#8221; it won&#8217;t suggest pirate bay. Instead, people see &#8220;pirate bays&#8221; or &#8220;pirate books&#8221; as suggestions. Whether that&#8217;s very effective is up for debate, but it&#8217;s intentional.</p>
<p>&#8220;Google has taken steps to prevent terms closely associated with piracy from appearing in Autocomplete and Related Search,&#8221; the company previously explained.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is similar to the approach we have taken for a narrow class of terms related to pornography, violence, and hate speech.&#8221;</p>
<p>When the piracy filter was first implemented, several seemingly neutral terms such as BitTorrent and uTorrent were also targeted. While these were later reinstated, we recently noticed another autocomplete ban that&#8217;s rather broad. </p>
<p>It turns out that Google has recently removed the term &#8220;<a href="https://kodi.tv/">Kodi</a>&#8221; from its autocomplete results. While Kodi can be abused through pirate add-ons, the media player software itself is perfectly legal, which makes it an odd decision. </p>
<p>Users who type in &#8220;Kod&#8221; get a list of suggestions including &#8220;Kodak&#8221; and &#8220;Kodiak,&#8221; but not the much more popular search term Kodi. </p>
<p><center><strong>Kodiak?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/d430d718.kodiak.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodiak.png" alt="" width="600" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153402"></center></p>
<p>Similarly, when typing &#8220;addons for k&#8221; Google suggests addons for Kokotime and Krypton 17.6. While the latter is a Kodi version, the name of the media player itself doesn&#8217;t come up as a suggestion.</p>
<p>Once users type the full Kodi term and add a space, <a href="media/76c92c1d.kodifull.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodifull.png">plenty of suggestions</a> suddenly appear, which is similar to other banned terms. </p>
<p><center><strong>Kokotime</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/98fcf032.kodikoko.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodikoko.png" alt="" width="600" height="126" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153403"></center></p>
<p>Ironically enough, the Kokotime app is frequently used by pirates as well. Also, the names of all of the pirate Kodi addons we checked still show up fine in the autosuggest feature.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, Google doesn&#8217;t document its autocomplete removal decisions, nor does it publish the full list of banned words. However, the search engine confirms that Kodi&#8217;s piracy stigma is to blame here.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since 2011, we have been filtering certain terms closely associated with copyright infringement from Google Autocomplete. This action is consistent with that long-standing strategy,&#8221; a spokesperson told us.</p>
<p>The Kodi team, operated by the XBMC Foundation, is disappointed with the decision and points out that their software does not cross any lines.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are surprised and disappointed to discover Kodi has been removed from autocomplete, as Kodi is perfectly legal open source software,&#8221; XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen told us.</p>
<p>The Kodi team has been actively trying to distance itself from pirate elements. They <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-announces-legal-action-to-smash-piracy-links-160215/">enforce their trademark</a> against sellers of pirate boxes and are in good contact with Hollywood&#8217;s industry group, the MPAA. </p>
<p>&#8220;We have a professional relationship with the MPAA, who have specifically made clear in the past their own position that Kodi is legal software,&#8221; Betzen notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope Google will reconsider this decision in the future, or at a minimum limit their removal to search terms where the legality is actually in dispute.&#8221; </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153501
title: Roku Removes USTVnow Service Following “3rd Party” Copyright Complaint
uri: Roku-Removes-USTVnow-Service-Following-3rd-Party-Copyright-Compl
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Qg9Mo4zZO2A/
content:
<p><a href="media/fb4771ff.roku-e1502784984505.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/roku-e1502784984505.png"><img src="media/2d29bd11.roku-e1502784984505.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/roku-e1502784984505.png" alt="" width="277" height="241" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143176"></a>Earlier this week, customers of the popular Roku streaming media player began complaining about a problem with the product, specifically in connection with <a href="https://watch.ustvnow.com">USTVnow</a>.</p>
<p>USTVnow promotes itself as a service targeted at American expats and the military, offering &#8220;a wide range of live American channels to watch on their computer, mobile device or television.&#8221;</p>
<p>Indeed, USTVnow offers a fairly comprehensive service, with eight channels (including ABC and FOX) on its free tier and 24 channels on its premium $29.00 per month package.</p>
<p><center><strong>USTVnow&#8217;s top package</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/427acdcc.ustvnow-top.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ustvnow-top.png"><img src="media/03f09176.ustvnow-top.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustvnow-top.png" alt="" width="480" height="678" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-153511"></a></center></p>
<p>Having USTVnow available via Roku helps to spread the free tier and drive business to the paid tier but, as of this week, that&#8217;s stopped happening. USTVnow has been completely removed from the Roku platform, much to the disappointment of customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;I spoke to Roku support and [they told me] that USTVNOW is no longer available for Roku at this time,&#8221; a user in Roku&#8217;s forums <a href="https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&#038;t=113152">complained</a>.</p>
<p>In response, a Roku engineer said that &#8220;Roku has been asked to remove this channel by the content rights owner&#8221;, which was as confusing as it was informative. </p>
<p>USTVnow endorses the Roku product, actively promotes it on the front page of its site, and provides helpful <a href="https://support.ustvnow.com/hc/en-us/articles/214145863-Set-top-installation-Roku">setup guides</a>.</p>
<p>So, in an effort to get to the bottom of the problem, TorrentFreak contacted Roku, asking for details. The company responded quickly.</p>
<p>&#8220;Yes, that is correct, the channel was removed from our platform,&#8221; Roku spokesperson Tricia Misfud confirmed.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we receive a notice regarding copyright infringement we are swift to review which in this case resulted in us removing the channel.&#8221;</p>
<p>Roku pointed us to its copyright infringement <a href="https://docs.roku.com/doc/dmca/en-us">page</a> which details its policies and actions when a complaint is received. However, that didn&#8217;t really help to answer why it would remove USTVnow when USTVnow promotes the Roku service.</p>
<p>So we asked Roku again to elaborate on who filed the notice and on what grounds.</p>
<p>&#8220;The notice was in regards to the copyright of the content,&#8221; came the response.</p>
<p>While not exactly clear, this suggested that USTVnow wasn&#8217;t the problem but someone else. Was it a third-party perhaps? If so, who, and what was the content being complained about?</p>
<p>&#8220;It was from a third party,&#8221; came the vague response.</p>
<p>With USTVnow completely unavailable via Roku, there are some pretty annoyed customers out there. However, it seems clear that at least for now, the company either can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t reveal the precise details of the complaint.</p>
<p>It could conceivably be from one of the major channels offered in the USTVnow package but equally, it could be a DMCA notice from a movie or TV show copyright holder who objects to their content being distributed on the device, or even USTVnow itself.</p>
<p>USTVnow has a <a href="http://www.lewistownsentinel.com/news/business/2017/02/nittany-medias-hain-receives-industry-honor/">deal with Nittany Media</a> to provide streaming services based on Nittany&#8217;s product but there is always a potential for a licensing problem somewhere, potentially big ones too.</p>
<p>We&#8217;ll update this article if and when more information becomes available.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153450
title: UK Urges Online Intermediaries to Tackle Piracy, Or Else
uri: UK-Urges-Online-Intermediaries-to-Tackle-Piracy-Or-Else
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9HYODx_qGXI/
content:
<p><img src="media/4d28e669.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86005">In recent years the UK Government has been very proactive when it comes to intellectual property enforcement, supporting a broad range of anti-piracy initiatives.  </p>
<p>The authorities have also pushed for cooperation between copyright holders and online intermediaries. Last year, this resulted in a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/search-engines-and-rightsholders-sign-landmark-anti-piracy-deal-170220/">&#8216;landmark&#8217; agreement</a> between the creative industries and search engines, to tackle online piracy. </p>
<p>In a new Industrial Strategy White Paper released this week the Government highlights this deal as a great success. However, it was only the start. More is needed to properly address the piracy problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;Online piracy continues to be a serious inhibitor to growth in the creative industries. Technologies like stream ripping and illicit streaming devices enable illegitimate access to content without rewarding its creators.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many rights holders are also concerned about how their works are exploited online, especially where they are used without generating substantial returns for content creators,&#8221; the Government adds.</p>
<p>The report outlines a broad strategy on how the Government and the creative industries can work together. This includes financial support but also concrete interventions regarding online intermediaries. </p>
<p>As with the search engines before, the Government plans to host a series of roundtables with copyright holders, social media companies, user upload platforms, digital advertising outfits, and online marketplaces. The goal of these meetings is to broker voluntary anti-piracy agreements.</p>
<p>The roundtables will be used to identify any significant piracy problems and develop &#8216;voluntary&#8217; codes of practice to address these, including upload filters.</p>
<p>&#8220;These measures could include proactive steps to detect and remove illegal content, improving the effectiveness of notice and takedown arrangements, reducing incentives for illegal sites to engage in infringement online and reducing the burdens on rights holders in relation to protecting their content,&#8221; the Government writes.</p>
<p>While the envisioned codes of conduct are voluntary, the Government notes that if these roundtables fail to produce the desired outcome, new legislation may be put in place.</p>
<p>&#8220;[If this] fails to result in the agreement of an effective code by 31 December 2018, government will consider further legislative action to strengthen the UK copyright framework to ensure that the identified problems are addressed.&#8221;</p>
<p>This type of warning is not new. The UK Government used <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-could-force-google-to-tackle-piracy-by-law-if-necessary-170215/">similar language</a> when it tried to convince search engines to reach a voluntary anti-piracy agreement with copyright holders. This eventually paid off. </p>
<p>In addition to brokering voluntary codes, the UK Government says it will also continue to address the so-called &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-govt-will-address-music-value-gap-as-part-of-brexit-161103/">value gap</a>&#8221; in both the UK and Europe.</p>
<p>At the same time, the Government also renewed its support for the ‘Get it Right’ campaign. It will make an additional £2 million available which, among other things, will be used to educate consumers on the dangers of copyright infringement and warn pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>The UK Government hopes that these and other incentives will eventually help the creative industry to flourish, so it created new jobs and benefit the UK economy as a whole.</p>
<p>&#8220;Together we can build on the UK’s position as a global leader and strengthen its advantage as a creative nation by increasing the number of opportunities and jobs in the creative industries across the country, improving their productivity, and enabling us to greatly expand our trading ambitions abroad.&#8221;</p>
<p><em>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the white paper &#8220;Industrial Strategy: building a Britain fit for the future&#8221; is available <a href="media/80eec623.creative-industries-sector-deal-print.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/creative-industries-sector-deal-print.pdf">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153546
title: Streaming Joshua v Parker is Illegal But Re-Streaming is the Real Danger
uri: Streaming-Joshua-v-Parker-is-Illegal-But-Re-Streaming-is-the-Real-Dang
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JG0Eer-FC8c/
content:
<p><a href="media/2dae909e.skylogo.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png"><img src="media/049adc7a.skylogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png" alt="" width="222" height="129" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124729" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/skylogo-220x129.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px"></a>This Saturday evening, Anthony Joshua and Joseph Parker will string up their gloves and do battle in one of the most important heavyweight bouts of recent times.</p>
<p>Joshua will put an unbeaten professional record and his WBA, IBF and IBO world titles on the line. Parker &#8211; also unbeaten professionally &#8211; will put his WBO belt up for grabs. It&#8217;s a mouthwatering proposition for fight fans everywhere.</p>
<p>While the collision will take place at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff in front of a staggering 80,000 people, millions more will watch the fight in front of the TV at home, having paid Sky Sports Box Office up to £24.95 for the privilege.</p>
<p>Of course, hundreds of thousands won&#8217;t pay a penny, instead relying on streams delivered via illicit Kodi addons, Android apps, and IPTV services. While these options are often free, quality and availability on the night is far from guaranteed. Even those paying for premium &#8216;pirate&#8217; access have been let down at the last minute but in the scheme of things, that&#8217;s generally unlikely.</p>
<p>Despite the uncertainty, this morning the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and Federation Against Copyright Theft took the unusual step of issuing a joint warning to people thinking of streaming the fight to their homes illegally.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers need to be aware that streaming without the right permissions or subscriptions is no longer a grey area,&#8221; PIPCU and FACT said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;In April last year the EU Court of Justice ruled that not only was selling devices allowing access to copyrighted content illegal, but using one to stream TV, sports or films without an official subscription is also breaking the law.&#8221;</p>
<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/selling-piracy-configured-media-players-is-illegal-eu-court-rules-170426/">decision</a>, which came as part of the BREIN v Filmspeler case, found that obtaining a copyright-protected work &#8220;from a website belonging to a third party offering that work without the consent of the copyright holder&#8221; was an illegal act.</p>
<p>While watching the fight via illicit streams is undoubtedly illegal, tracking people who simply view content is extremely difficult and there hasn&#8217;t been a single prosecution in the UK (or indeed anywhere else that we&#8217;re aware of) against anyone doing so.</p>
<p>That being said, those who make content available for others to watch illegally are putting themselves at considerable risk. While professional pirate re-streamers tend to have better security, Joe Public who points his phone at his TV Saturday night to stream the fight on Facebook should take time out to consider his actions.</p>
<p>In January, Sky <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sky-hits-man-with-5k-fine-for-pirating-boxing-on-facebook-180108/">revealed</a> that 34-year-old Craig Foster had been caught by the company after someone re-streamed the previous year&#8217;s Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko fight on Facebook Live using Foster&#8217;s Sky account.</p>
<p>Foster had paid Sky for the fight but he claims that a friend used his iPad to record the screen and re-stream the fight to Facebook. Sky, almost certainly using tracking watermarks (example below), traced the &#8216;pirate&#8217; stream back to Foster&#8217;s set-top box.</p>
<p><center><strong>Watermarks during the Mayweather v McGregor fight</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/9a71160a.Fight2a.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Fight2a.jpg"><img src="media/b8025865.Fight2a.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Fight2a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="600" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143691" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/Fight2a.jpg 800w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/Fight2a-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px"></a></center></p>
<p>The end result was a technical knockout for Sky who suspended Foster&#8217;s Sky subscription and then agreed not to launch a lawsuit providing he paid the broadcaster £5,000.</p>
<p>&#8220;The public should be aware that misusing their TV subscriptions has serious repercussions,&#8221; said PIPCU and FACT referring to the case this morning.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, customers found to be illegally sharing paid-for content can have their subscription account terminated immediately and can expect to be prosecuted and fined.&#8221;</p>
<p>While we know for certain this has happened at least once, TorrentFreak contacted FACT this morning for details on how many Sky subscribers have been caught, warned, and/or prosecuted by Sky in this manner. FACT told us they don&#8217;t have any figures but offered the following statement from CEO Kieron Sharp.</p>
<p>&#8220;Not only is FACT working closely with broadcasters and rights owners to identify the original source of illegally re-streamed content, but with support from law enforcement, government and social media platforms, we are tightening the net on digital piracy,&#8221; Sharp said. </p>
<p>Finally, it&#8217;s also worth keeping in mind that even when people live-stream an illegal yet non-watermarked stream to Facebook, they can still be traced by Sky.</p>
<p>As revelations this week have shown only too clearly, Facebook knows a staggering amount about its users so tracking an illegal stream back to a person would be child&#8217;s play for a determined rightsholder with a court order.</p>
<p>While someone attracting a couple of dozen viewers might not be at a major risk of repercussions, a viral stream might require the use of a calculator to assess the damages claimed by Sky. Like boxing, this kind of piracy is best left to the professionals to avoid painful and unnecessary trauma.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153464
title: Major Pirate Site Operators’ Sentences Increased on Appeal
uri: Major-Pirate-Site-Operators-Sentences-Increased-on-Appeal
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/u5cOqg6REQ4/
content:
<p><img src="media/d707f101.swefilmlogo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/swefilmlogo.png" width="180" height="111" class="alignright size-large">With The Pirate Bay the most famous pirate site in Swedish history still in full swing, a lesser known streaming platform started to gain traction more than half a decade ago.</p>
<p>From humble beginnings, Swefilmer eventually grew to become Sweden’s most popular movie and TV show streaming site. At one stage it was credited alongside another streaming portal for serving up to 25% of all online video streaming in Sweden.</p>
<p>But in 2015, everything came crashing down. An operator of the site in his early twenties was raided by local police and arrested. An older Turkish man, who was accused of receiving donations from users and setting up Swefilmer’s deals with advertisers, was later arrested in Germany.</p>
<p>Their activities between November 2013 and June 2015 landed them an appearance before the Varberg District Court last January, where they were accused of making more than $1.5m in advertising revenue from copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The prosecutor described the site as being like “organized crime”. The then 26-year-old was described as the main player behind the site, with the then 23-year-old playing a much smaller role. The latter received an estimated $4,000 of the proceeds, the former was said to have pocketed more than $1.5m.</p>
<p>As expected, things didn&#8217;t go well. The older man, who was described as leading a luxury lifestyle, was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-site-operator-jailed-for-three-years-after-landmark-trial-170516/">convicted</a> of 1,044 breaches of copyright law and serious money laundering offenses. He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to forfeit 14,000,000 SEK (US$1.68m).</p>
<p>Due to his minimal role, the younger man was given probation and ordered to complete 120 hours of community service. Speaking with TorrentFreak at the time, the 23-year-old said he was relieved at the relatively light sentence but noted it may not be over yet.</p>
<p>Indeed, as is often the case with these complex copyright prosecutions, the matter found itself at the Court of Appeal of Western Sweden. On Wednesday its <a href="http://www.vastrahovratten.domstol.se/Om-hovratten-/Nyheter-och-pressmeddelanden/Hovratten-domer-for-brott-mot-upphovsrattslagen-i-Swefilmer/">decision</a> was handed down and it&#8217;s bad news for both men.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court of Appeal, like the District Court, judges the men for breach of copyright law,&#8221; the Court said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are judged to have made more than 1,400 copyrighted films available through the Swefilmer streaming service, without obtaining permission from copyright holders. One of the men is also convicted of gross money laundering because he received revenues from the criminal activity.&#8221;</p>
<p>In respect of the now 27-year-old, the Court decided to hand down a much more severe sentence, extending the term of imprisonment from three to four years.</p>
<p>There was some better news in respect of the amount he has to forfeit to the state, however. The District Court set this amount at 14,000,000 SEK (US$1.68m) but the Court of Appeal reduced it to &#8216;just&#8217; 4,000,000 SEK (US$482,280).</p>
<p>The younger man&#8217;s conditional sentence was upheld but community service was replaced with a fine of 10,000 SEK (US$1,200). Also, along with his accomplice, he must now pay significant damages to a Norwegian plaintiff in the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;Both men will jointly pay damages of NOK 2.2 million (US$283,000) together with interest to Nordisk Film A / S for copyright infringement in one of the films posted on the website,&#8221; the Court writes in its decision.</p>
<p>But even now, the matter may not be closed. Ansgar Firsching, the older man&#8217;s lawyer, told SVT that the case could go all the way to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have informed my client about the content of the judgment and it is highly likely that he will turn to the Supreme Court,&#8221; Firsching said.</p>
<p>It appears that the 27-year-old will argue that at the time of the alleged offenses, merely linking to copyrighted content was not a criminal offense but whether this approach will succeed is seriously up for debate.</p>
<p>While linking was previously considered by some to sit in a legal gray area, the District Court drew heavily on the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-not-for-profit-hyperlinking-usually-not-infringement-160908/">GS Media ruling</a> handed down by the European Court of Justice in September 2016.</p>
<p>In that case, the EU Court found that those who post links to content they do not know is infringing in a non-commercial environment usually don&#8217;t commit infringement. The Swefilmer case doesn&#8217;t immediately appear to fit either of those parameters.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153520
title: Iflix Sees Piracy as Main Competitor, Not Netflix
uri: Iflix-Sees-Piracy-as-Main-Competitor-Not-Netflix
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lECAMY3OzF0/
content:
<p><img src="media/cc161284.iflix.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iflix.jpg" alt="" width="277" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-143359">While Netflix is without a doubt the most used paid video streaming service worldwide, there are dozens of smaller players fighting for a piece of the pie. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.iflix.com/">Iflix</a> is one of these companies. The service is available in 25 countries across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, streaming movies and TV-shows to 6.5 million subscribers. </p>
<p>In the coming years, the streaming service hopes to expand its reach by offering a better product than its competition. This includes the likes of Netflix and Amazon, but iflix sees piracy as its main adversary.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is really the big player,&#8221; Sherwin dela Cruz, iflix&#8217;s country manager, says in an interview with <a href="http://news.abs-cbn.com/business/03/29/18/piracy-is-the-real-competition-says-iflix-boss
">ANC&#8217;s The Boss</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The sooner we get people to pay for our service and watch content in one of the real services, I think that&#8217;s when we can say that the market is really growing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dela Cruz sees the music industry as a good example, where services such as Spotify offer a relatively complete alternative to piracy. As a result, illegal downloading has decreased in countries where it became available. </p>
<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s sort of like the aspiration for us &#8211; to get more people to have just one, two or three services and just watch what they want to watch on their mobile phones without really looking at pirated content,&#8221; dela Cruz says.</p>
<p>Interestingly, iflix doesn&#8217;t only see piracy as a problem that needs to be quashed. At the moment, they also use it as market intelligence to find out what content local audiences are interested in.</p>
<p>Iflix uses the German company TECXIPIO, which is known to actively monitor BitTorrent traffic, to track local piracy trends. In addition, they also buy pirated DVDs from street vendors to find out what people want.</p>
<p>This information is used to license the content people are most interested in, so it can offer the best possible alternative to piracy. </p>
<p>The company previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/streaming-service-iflix-buys-shows-based-on-piracy-data-170819/">informed us</a> that they believe that piracy is a signal from the public that they can get what they want through legal options. Going forward, Iflix hopes to grow its user base by directly competing with piracy.</p>
<p>“We believe that people in emerging markets do not actively want to steal content, they do so because there is no better alternative,” iflix concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153599
title: Cloudflare Fails to Eliminate ‘Moot’ Pirate Site Blocking Threat
uri: Cloudflare-Fails-to-Eliminate-Moot-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Threat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/RQHuCNU165A/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac6a767e.cloudflarelogo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflarelogo.png" alt="" width="260" height="135" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137767">Representing various major record labels, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against pirate site MP3Skull three years ago.</p>
<p>With millions of visitors per month the MP3 download site had been one of the prime sources of pirated music for a long time.</p>
<p>In 2016, the record labels <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-wins-22-million-piracy-lawsuit-against-mp3skull-160225/">won their case </a>against the MP3 download portal but the site initially ignored the court order and continued to operate. This prompted the RIAA to go after third-party services including Cloudflare, demanding that they block associated domain names.</p>
<p>Cloudflare objected and argued that the DMCA shielded the company from the broad blocking requirements. However, the court ruled that the DMCA doesn&#8217;t apply in this case, opening the door to widespread anti-piracy filtering.</p>
<p>The court stressed that, before issuing an injunction against Cloudflare, it still had to be determined whether the CDN provider is “in active concert or participation” with the pirate site. However, this has yet to happen. Since MP3Skull has ceased its operations the RIAA has shown little interest in pursuing the matter any further.</p>
<p>While there is no longer an immediate site blocking threat, it makes it easier for rightsholders to request similar blocking requests in the future. Cloudflare, therefore, asked the court to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-asks-court-to-vacate-moot-pirate-site-blocking-order-170724/">throw the order out</a>, arguing that since MP3Skull is no longer available the issue is moot.</p>
<p>This week, US District Court Judge Marcia Cooke denied that request. </p>
<p><center><strong>Denied</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f3a84d7b.clouddenied.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/clouddenied.png" alt="" width="563" height="196" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-153605"></center></p>
<p>This is, of course, music to the ears of the RIAA and its members.</p>
<p>The RIAA wants to keep the door open for similar blocking requests in the future. This potential liability for pirates sites is the main reason why the CDN provider asked the court to vacate the order, the RIAA said previously.</p>
<p>While the order remains in place, Judge Cooke suggests that both parties are working on some kind of compromise or clarification and gave two weeks to draft this into a new proposal. </p>
<p>&#8220;The parties may draft and submit a joint proposed order addressing the issues raised at the hearing on or before April 10, 2018,&#8221; Judge Cooke writes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=153498
title: Russia Asked ISPs to Block 13.5 Million Amazon IP Addresses to Silence One App
uri: Russia-Asked-ISPs-to-Block-13-5-Million-Amazon-IP-Addresses-to-Silence
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1CwoRXyz9fs/
content:
<p><a href="media/b084eae9.amazon.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/amazon.png"><img src="media/f1f322a3.amazon.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazon.png" alt="" width="234" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137244"></a>Russia is developing a track record of being one of the most aggressive countries on the site-blocking front. Already many thousands of sites are rendered inaccessible to the general public but just how far will the government go to achieve its aims?</p>
<p>If reports coming out this week hold true, extremely far indeed.</p>
<p>The controversy centers around an app called <a href="https://zello.com/">Zello</a>, which acts as a kind of &#8216;walkie-talkie&#8217;, assisting communication between close friends or in groups of up to a thousand people.</p>
<p>The app gained a lot of press in 2017 when it was revealed it was being used as an unofficial rescue co-ordination tool while Hurricane Harvey was battering the United States. It quickly shot to the top of the download charts after being downloaded <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-41224942">a million times in a day</a>. </p>
<p>But while the app clearly has some fantastic uses, Zello seems to represent a challenge to the authority of the Russian government.</p>
<p>Under the so-called &#8216;<a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarovaya_law">Yarovaya law</a>&#8216;, services like Zello, ISPs, and other telecoms companies, are required to register with Russian telecoms watchdog Rozcomnadzor. Amendments to come into force this year also require them to store the actual content of user communications for six months and metadata (such as who communicated with who, when, and for how long) for three years.</p>
<p>Encrypted services are also required to share keys which allow law enforcement bodies so that they can decrypt messages sent and received by users, something which has communications and VPN companies extremely concerned.</p>
<p>Until now, Zello has reportedly failed to register itself so as a result, the service has become a blocking target for Russian authorities. Zello uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) and last summer it was reported that dozens of Amazon&#8217;s IP addresses ended up on Russia&#8217;s official blacklist. This week, however, a much more worrying proposition raised its head.</p>
<p>Operators of at least four Internet service providers confirmed to Russia&#8217;s <a href="https://www.vedomosti.ru">Vedomosti</a> that Rozcomnadzor had issued recommendations that they block access to Zello. Copies of letters to the ISPs were published on Telegram and according to reports, most if not all of the country&#8217;s ISPs were targeted.</p>
<p>While blocking Zello would be bad enough, the suggestion of how that should take place is nothing short of astounding. The letter speaks of &#8220;an experiment&#8221; in which ISPs take action to block 36 Internet subnets &#8211; representing a staggering 15 million IP addresses &#8211; in order to take Zello down.</p>
<p>A total of 26 of those subnets have been identified as belonging to Amazon, accounting for 13.5 million IP addresses in total. Some are reportedly operated by Comcast, others by Softlayer, with the remainder connected to companies in China.</p>
<p>&#8220;The subnets selected by Roskomnadzor are not all Amazon&#8217;s IP addresses, but they account for a significant portion of the addresses from two large regions of the United States where the company&#8217;s data centers are located,&#8221; Vedomosti said, quoting a source familiar with Amazon&#8217;s infrastructure.</p>
<p>Zello founder and technical director Alexei Gavrilov said that he wasn&#8217;t surprised by the news and noted that he&#8217;d learned about the list of addresses from Telegram channels. However, it&#8217;s claimed that Zello doesn&#8217;t completely depend on the listed subnets, meaning that hundreds or thousands of other services unrelated to the app would end up as collateral damage, should they be blocked.</p>
<p>Neither Rozkomnadzor nor Amazon have commented publicly on the news and Russia&#8217;s Ministry of Communications has refused to comment. Fortunately, at the time of writing there have been no reports of ISPs mass-blocking IP addresses connected to Zello.</p>
<p>Whether Russia would really flex its muscles so broadly and aggressively just to prove a point is unknown but with the growing war on privacy the way it is, almost anything seems possible.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2018-180107/">torrent sites</a> and more. We also have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-keep-anonymous-2018/">VPN reviews, </a><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-discount-coupon-offer-torguard-nordvpn-expressvpn-pia/">discounts, offers and coupons</a>.</p>
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