# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120592
title: KickassTorrents Ups Privacy With 2-Factor Authentication
uri: KickassTorrents-Ups-Privacy-With-2-Factor-Authentication
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3K_ruiahnKI/
content:
<p><img src="media/6df39282.kickass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickass.jpg" alt="kickass" width="205" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21602">Most torrent sites are not known for their advanced security features, but KickassTorrents recently made a change in this direction.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">most used torrent site</a> on the Internet has millions of visitors per day, and the site now offers registered users the option to secure their accounts with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-factor_authentication">two-factor authentication</a>.</p>
<p>Simply put, this offers people an extra later of security, similar to what most other large services including Google, Facebook and Twitter offer.</p>
<p>&#8220;Using a username and password together with a piece of information that only the user knows makes it harder for potential intruders to gain access and steal that person&#8217;s personal data or identity,&#8221; KAT&#8217;s Mr.Gooner <a href="https://kat.cr/community/show/two-factor-authentication-2fa-kat/">explains</a>. </p>
<p>The feature can be enabled in the profile settings, after which a second screen pops up detailing the authentication procedure.</p>
<p><center><strong>KAT&#8217;s &#8220;2FA&#8221;</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/69fa9e30.katauth.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katauth.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120594"><img src="media/69fa9e30.katauth.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katauth.png" alt="katauth" width="650" height="334" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120594" srcset="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katauth-768x394.png 768w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/katauth.png 1031w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px"></a></center></p>
<p>KAT&#8217;s two-factor authentication requires users to use a third party authentication app of their choosing, which is then required to login to the account. This means that even if one&#8217;s password is compromised, outsiders can&#8217;t get into the account. </p>
<p>While there&#8217;s very little valuable information to &#8220;steal&#8221; from a KickassTorrents account, quite a few people can appreciate the extra layer of security. After all, some download and upload habits are better left private. </p>
<p>Sloppy users should keep in mind that if one loses access to the app, he or she can no longer get into their account. As a precaution, it&#8217;s wise to write down the code and store it somewhere safe.</p>
<p>The new two-factor authentication feature is entirely optional. So, torrenters who feel pretty confident about their security already can just continue to use the &#8216;plain&#8217; old password.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120451
title: Bitsoup Torrent Site Farce is Worse Than DRM
uri: Bitsoup-Torrent-Site-Farce-is-Worse-Than-DRM
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xKRLXtfGCxs/
content:
<p><a href="media/94860e7e.abortretryfail.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/abortretryfail.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-29802"><img src="media/957809ba.abortretryfail.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/abortretryfail.jpg" alt="abortretryfail" width="200" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-29802"></a>Here at TF we generally believe that private torrent site politics are something best kept out of.</p>
<p>Not only do most private trackers have their own community dramas that few outsiders are interested in, but it&#8217;s also almost impossible to get to the truth when even important events are underway.</p>
<p>Every now and again, however, something ridiculous raises its head. Something so absurd that it pisses off everyone who believes in the spirit of sharing, inside and outside the gated community. Ladies and gentlemen &#8211; welcome to the bizarre world of Bitsoup.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bitsoup.me/">Bitsoup</a> is a long-standing private torrent site that operates a ratio system like most others in its niche. After downloading, Bitsoup users are expected to upload content to other users of the site or face their accounts being closed.</p>
<p>Those who struggle to maintain their ratio can fix the problem by<br>
making a cash donation. In private tracker circles this is pretty common fare and this delicate issue (sometimes called &#8220;pay to leech&#8221;) is handled better by some sites than others. Bitsoup does not handle it well, not by a long shot.</p>
<p>For some time now there has been a feeling among Bitsoup&#8217;s members that they are being used as cash cows. Without going into too many details there have been accusations, for example, that competitions which effectively cost money to enter have had winners that don&#8217;t even exist &#8211; and that&#8217;s just the tip of the iceberg.</p>
<p>But that fades into insignificance when one looks at the latest ploy by the site to extract cash &#8216;donations&#8217; from its users. It&#8217;s called &#8216;Lights Out&#8217; and it makes most DRM seem pleasurable in comparison.</p>
<p>The way it works is pretty simple. Whenever the site likes, users are arbitrarily stopped from accessing the tracker for an unspecified amount of time unless they &#8216;donate&#8217; money. The system is marketed as a great solution for keeping the site online but in reality it&#8217;s really grinding gears.</p>
<p>&#8220;Welcome to Lights-Out! A new dynamic program to ensure site funding by the masses for the ability to stay online for all,&#8221; non-paying users of the site were recently informed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lights-Out will only run when needed, in the place of having to beg our members for donations. All restrictive periods will be different and expected to last just as dynamically as the need to use the program itself.&#8221;</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/53da53e3.bitsoup-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsoup-1.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120526"><img src="media/53da53e3.bitsoup-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsoup-1.png" alt="bitsoup-1" width="600" height="141" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120526"></a></center></p>
<p>While some shareware/demo programs might introduce a 30 second wait for non-paying users to encourage a contribution, the use of the word &#8220;dynamic&#8221; in this instance could easily be replaced with unpredictable, random or simply annoying.</p>
<p>&#8220;While we can not say for sure just how long each downtime period will be or when they will happen, we can however support the means for you to get instantly back into the action without the wait!&#8221; the site notes.</p>
<p>No prizes (even imaginary ones) for guessing how.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/643cb937.bitsoup-pay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsoup-pay.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120518"><img src="media/643cb937.bitsoup-pay.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsoup-pay.png" alt="bitsoup-pay" width="600" height="192" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120518"></a></center></p>
<p>It&#8217;s not as if this scheme is only applicable to bad users or those just stepping through the door either. One member who contacted TorrentFreak earlier this week has been a member of the site for eight years and had uploaded more than 10TB of data while downloading less than 3TB.</p>
<p>Quite bizarrely, in a recent announcement Bitsoup said that so-called &#8216;Power Users&#8217; (those who contribute most to the site in terms of bandwidth) are not considered valuable to the community unless they hand over hard cash too.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is one thing to support the site by seeding over the years, but a member that has enjoyed access to Bitsoup for 12yrs and never, even in the face of major financial failures, have said &#8216;OK, they need help I will pitch in a donation&#8217; does not belong here,&#8221; the site said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is one thing to share back, but to abuse the site is something we have made very clear that in 2016 will not be accepted. Without a site, you have nothing to share.&#8221;</p>
<p>For those who understand torrents, this is keyboard-smashing stuff. Without users contributing their upload bandwidth, sites like Bitsoup simply cannot exist. Equally, if users are deemed to be unworthy of being on a site due to them not sharing enough, the site must also acknowledge that those who share the most are of great value. Calling them site abusers is ridiculous.</p>
<p>While sites like Bitsoup are free to make whatever rules they like, it is crystal clear that there is growing discontent over how things are being handled. In fact, things have gotten so bad that the site now has its <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/bitsoup">own sub-Reddit</a>, filled with <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/bitsoup/comments/4b6pg5/lets_create_a_list_of_woes/">little but complaints</a>.</p>
<p>People can spend their money where they like but at this point giving it to Spotify and Netflix each month would be infinitely more rewarding than contributing to this farce. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120343
title: Netflix Disappears From MPAA’s ‘Legal’ Movie Search Engine
uri: Netflix-Disappears-From-MPAA-s-Legal-Movie-Search-Engine
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UzJ4ivU0s7s/
content:
<p><img src="media/c11bcb31.netflixq.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/netflixq.png" alt="netflixq" width="236" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120521">During the fall of 2014 Hollywood launched <a href="http://www.wheretowatch.com/">WhereToWatch</a>, its very own search engine for movies and TV-shows. </p>
<p>The site enables people to check if and where the latest entertainment is available, hoping to steer U.S. visitors away from pirate sites.  </p>
<p>The launch received a ton of favorable press. It was soon followed up by another press release highlighting some of the positive responses, including the following comment from The Institute for Policy Innovation.</p>
<p>&#8220;Instead of scrolling first through Netflix and then through your cable video on demand offerings, WheretoWatch.com is a one-stop shop to see what options are available to you to get to the specific movie or TV show you’re looking for.&#8221; </p>
<p>However, fast forward a few months and Netflix has suddenly disappeared from the WhereToWatch results. Quite embarrassingly, this means that the search engine doesn&#8217;t index the most widely used TV and movie streaming platform. </p>
<p>Searching for the Tarantino classic &#8220;<a href="http://www.wheretowatch.com/movies/12236">Pulp Fiction</a>,&#8221; for example, shows a wide variety of streaming options but not Netflix. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/67270bc2.wtw-pulp.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wtw-pulp.jpg" alt="wtw-pulp" width="600" height="563" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120532"></center></p>
<p>The problem gets even worse for content that&#8217;s exclusively available on Netflix, such as the popular TV-shows House of Cards and Better Call Saul. Or the recent movie &#8220;<a href="http://www.wheretowatch.com/movies/12236">Pee-wee’s Big Holiday</a>.&#8221; </p>
<p>The film, which ironically was promoted <a href="http://www.wheretowatch.com/2016/03/pee-wee-back-new-trailer-his-netflix-original-film">in an article</a> on WhereToWatch, is not available online according to the WhereToWatch results. </p>
<p><center><img src="media/f4922943.wtw-pee.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wtw-pee.jpg" alt="wtw-pee" width="600" height="416" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120533"></center></p>
<p>Over the past week TorrentFreak asked the MPAA, WhereToWatch and Netflix for a comment on the issue, but none of the parties have responded. </p>
<p>What makes the disappearance even more intriguing is the fact that <a href="http://gowatchit.com/">GoWatchIt</a>, the site that WhereToWatch uses for its search results, <a href="media/8c7d14b0.8utmAMN.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/8utmAMN.png">does list Netflix</a> as a viewing <a href="http://gowatchit.com/movies/pee-wee-s-big-holiday-299589">option</a> for the example above. </p>
<p>Could it be that, for some reason, the MPAA has decided to turn off the Netflix option? Or perhaps Netflix objected to being included in the results?</p>
<p>The latter may seem unlikely, but there are other search engines that have Netflix issues as well. <a href="http://www.findanyfilm.com/">FindanyFilm</a>, the British version of WhereToWatch, doesn&#8217;t list any Netflix content either. </p>
<p>&#8220;We get all our data directly from our retail partners and unfortunately Netflix don&#8217;t currently work with us,&#8221; the company told us when we asked about the peculiar absence. </p>
<p>Whatever the reason, the MPAA might want to make Netflix results a priority for WhereToWatch. After all, a legal movie and TV search engine without the most popular paid video streaming service in the world is not going to be very useful.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120629
title: MPA: We’ve Reached a Turning Point on Piracy
uri: MPA-We-ve-Reached-a-Turning-Point-on-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8GNVhbvQArs/
content:
<p><a href="media/38f7671b.mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpa.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-77324"><img src="media/32cbee81.mpa.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpa.jpg" alt="mpa" width="180" height="117" class="alignright size-full wp-image-77324"></a>After many years of litigation aimed at forcing the world&#8217;s largest pirate sites to their knees, the situation on the ground hasn&#8217;t changed very much for Hollywood. </p>
<p>Despite having many important legal wins under their belts, almost every single movie is available for immediate download within a few mouse clicks. In fact in some respects the position today is much worse than it was five or even ten years ago.</p>
<p>But while the sites themselves continue largely as before, progress is being made with other players in the Internet ecosystem, a fact recognized by MPA Europe president Stan McCoy as he addressed colleagues in France last week.</p>
<p>&#8220;Protecting creativity takes commitment from a whole ecosystem of people and organizations, from theater owners and operators, to technology companies and online service providers, to retailers both large and small, to Internet intermediaries, to law enforcement authorities,&#8221; he <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/piracy-didnt-they-see-it-coming/">said</a>.</p>
<p>While relationships with Hollywood are <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-first-amendment-doesnt-protect-mpaas-secrets-160325/">somewhat fragile</a>, Google has indeed made many gestures towards the entertainment industries by helping to make copyright-infringing content <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-will-downrank-pirate-sites-starting-next-week-141018/">harder to find</a>. Payment processors are also doing their part, with Visa, MasterCard and PayPal all trying to stop pirate operations from <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/paypal-visa-and-mastercard-discuss-pirate-site-blacklist-150911/">using their services</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the overarching message is that Google can always do more and indeed isn&#8217;t doing enough. One only has to look at the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-group-likens-massive-dmca-abuse-protests-to-zombie-apocalypse-160409/">war of words</a> taking place over the recent Copyright Office DMCA submission process to see that the battle is far from over and more blood is yet to be spilled. </p>
<p>But McCoy appears optimistic and notes that those engaged indirectly in the piracy ecosystem are beginning to come round to Hollywood&#8217;s way of thinking that they must together share responsibility to solve the problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;I put it to the audience that we may have come to a turning point in our fight against piracy, a point where intermediaries begin to understand that the creative industry does not seek to shy away from its duties and responsibilities – and it really has not – but that instead all players in the ecosystem, which of course includes not only access providers, but also search engines and payment processors amongst others – have a role to play,&#8221; said.</p>
<p>If that is the case then Hollywood has probably come a long way. It certainly isn&#8217;t going to solve this problem on its own and having powerful allies on board will certainly help its cause. The emphasis these days is indeed on voluntary cooperation such as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isps-and-rightsholders-extend-six-strikes-anti-piracy-scheme-150903/">warning notices schemes</a> but it&#8217;s unclear how much further ISPs are prepared to go and whether the notices even have much effect.</p>
<p>But of course one shouldn&#8217;t forget the consumers so it&#8217;s no surprise that McCoy had something to say about the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) study <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/38-of-young-eu-internet-pirates-see-nothing-wrong-in-piracy-160407/">published last week</a> which found that 38% of young people see nothing morally wrong in piracy.</p>
<p>&#8220;What is more staggering is that nearly one in four believed that they were doing nothing wrong in accessing digital content from illegal sources for personal use,&#8221; McCoy said.</p>
<p>&#8220;Clearly it is important that young people understand that making a film, writing a book or recording a song, the amount of time, effort and investment is more than a passion – it is also someone’s livelihood.  Let’s remember that 7 million people work in the creative industry in Europe.&#8221;</p>
<p>But what that very same survey also found is that the number one reason (58%) for young people to stop using illegal sources would be the availability of affordable content from legal sources. The MPAA is campaigning heavily at the moment claiming it is doing just that, but there are also clear signs that the EU&#8217;s plans to outlaw geo-blocking and open up content EU-wide aren&#8217;t sitting well with the studios.</p>
<p>In a posting to his LinkedIn page, McCoy likens Europeans&#8217; distrust of genetically modified food to the EU&#8217;s plan to tweak copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many Europeans are skeptical of genetic modification when it comes to foods.  Should they also be skeptical of genetic modification of … copyright laws?&#8221; he asks.</p>
<p>&#8220;With its efforts to institute the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/europe-will-abolish-geo-blocking-and-other-copyright-restrictions-150506/">Digital Single Market</a> and the recent Proposal for a Regulation on Portability, the European Commission seems intent on tinkering with the DNA of the current copyright law. This could have uncertain results for the 7 million people in Europe’s core creative industries, whose livelihoods depend on the copyright system.&#8221;</p>
<p><a href="http://creativityworks.eu/facts-figures/key-findings-of-the-european-commissions-eurobarometer-2015-on-cross-border-access-to-online-content/">Pointing</a> to a study financed by the EU Commission itself, McCoy suggests there is no need to outlaw geo-blocking, since all but 10% of people are available to find everything they want online.</p>
<p>&#8220;The European Commission should rigorously apply its own better regulation guidelines to all copyright proposals, including ensuring that they are backed by strong evidence,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>&#8220;In cases where the evidence isn’t there, then maybe we should stay away from genetically modified rights … and stick with organic.&#8221;</p>
<p>Needless to say, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/geo-blocking-madness-highlighted-by-hidden-camera-stunt-160406/">not everyone</a> agrees with his stance.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120611
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/11/16
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-04-11-16
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hxNfebCLa78/
content:
<p><a href="media/866d85c5.revenant.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/revenant.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-120612"><img src="media/866d85c5.revenant.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/revenant.jpg" alt="revenant" width="300" height="171" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120612"></a>This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>The Revenant, which was releases as Blu-Ray rip a few days ago, 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 BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-040416/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_revenant_2015/">The Revenant</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoebZZ8K5N0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_vii_the_force_awakens/">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hail_caesar_2016/">Hail Caesar!</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUUKtF_BF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/deadpool/">Deadpool</a> (HDrip subbed) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIM1HydF9UA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/">Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice</a> (Cam/TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_iASz1Si8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kung_fu_panda_3/">Kung Fu Panda 3</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267968/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGPPfZIvtCw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_finest_hours/">The Finest Hours</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2025690">7.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-XsppzuH-k">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_right_2016/">Mr. Right</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt2091935/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TatqilQ8rI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_jungle_book_2016/">The Jungle Book</a> (Hindi Cam) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR9tqPa48s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_hateful_eight/">The Hateful Eight</a>  </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3460252">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnRbXn4-Yis">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120621
title: U.S. ISPs Refuse to Disconnect Persistent Pirates
uri: U-S-ISPs-Refuse-to-Disconnect-Persistent-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZjPUyvaPDGU/
content:
<p><a href="media/bc7ba651.usteleco.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usteleco.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-120627"><img src="media/bc7ba651.usteleco.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usteleco.jpg" alt="usteleco" width="295" height="84" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120627"></a>Signed into law nearly two decades ago, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) aimed to ready copyright law for the digital age.</p>
<p>The law introduced a safe harbor for Internet providers, meaning that they can’t be held liable for their pirating users as long as they &#8216;deal&#8217; with repeat infringers.</p>
<p>Generally speaking, ISPs are not very eager to disconnect accounts of frequent copyright infringers. While the law allows for account terminations, it stipulates that this should happen under &#8220;appropriate&#8221; circumstances.</p>
<p>Some copyright holders have argued that three infringement notices are enough to warrant a disconnection, but most Internet providers don&#8217;t want to go this far. </p>
<p>In a recent recommendation to the Copyright Office the U.S. broadband association <a href="http://www.ustelecom.org/">USTelecom</a> points out that DMCA’s safe harbor provisions are generally working as intended, shielding Internet intermediaries from liability for copyright infringements carried out by their users. </p>
<p>However, the group stresses that in most cases ISPs act as mere conduits who pass on digital information. These type of services are not subject to takedown notices as they fall under section <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/512">512(a)</a> of the DMCA, so all takedown notices are by definition invalid.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is inappropriate and contrary to the DMCA to suggest that ISPs should somehow be responsible for policing copyright rights when those service providers are acting as mere conduits for digital communications,&#8221; USTelecom writes. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, every month ISPs are bombarded with millions of takedown notices, triggered by allegedly pirating customers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite this well-established precedent, ISPs are receiving millions of invalid notices relating to conduit services. These notices frequently include improper &#8216;settlement&#8217; demands that rights holders pressure ISPs to forward to unrepresented consumers.&#8221;</p>
<p>USTelecom stresses that ISPs have no obligation to process takedown notices under the DMCA, as they merely pass on traffic. While most forward this information as a courtesy, they are not required to do so. </p>
<p>Not all copyright holders agree with this stance. In fact, USTelecom points out that in recent years they have been pushing for tougher actions against Internet subscribers who receive multiple notices. </p>
<p>&#8220;In some cases, the senders of these notices even want the ISPs to terminate Internet access based on these allegations – which, again, the ISPs as mere conduits could not evaluate even if they were obligated to do so under the DMCA.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;These actions constitute an abuse of the DMCA notice process, and should be acknowledged as such by the Copyright Office,&#8221; USTelecom adds.</p>
<p>Even if ISPs were required to forward DMCA notices, they believe that terminating Internet connections goes too far. The group points out that the notices are not always sent to the right person, for example, and add that the senders do not always represent the copyright holder. </p>
<p>It should be up to a court to decide if a person loses his or her Internet access, not the Internet provider acting solely on claims of alleged copyright infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;Any allegations intended to justify the termination or long-term suspension of Internet access connections should be subject to some form of judicial review before depriving subscribers of all access to the Internet,&#8221;  USTelecom writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Internet access is essential to modern life, including economic life and exercise of other fundamental rights. It is simply unthinkable, that a consumer should be able to lose access to such a fundamental and crucial tool absent some form of formal adjudication.&#8221; </p>
<p>USTelecom&#8217;s response to the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-reviews-impact-and-efficacy-of-dmca-safe-harbor-160105/">DMCA consultation</a> of the Copyright Office comes at an interesting time. Just a few months ago, Cox Communication was ordered to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">pay $25 million</a> because it failed to disconnect subscribers whose connections were repeatedly used to pirate content.</p>
<p>The telecom group clearly disagrees with this verdict, which is currently under appeal, and hopes to have the U.S. Government on its side.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120668
title: Chrome and Firefox Block KickassTorrents as “Phishing” Site
uri: Chrome-and-Firefox-Block-KickassTorrents-as-Phishing-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iFkiK1ay2Qw/
content:
<p><img src="media/75141223.kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png" alt="kickasstorrents_500x500" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-96995" srcset="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-150x150.png 150w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500-300x300.png 300w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x500.png 500w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px">There’s a slight panic breaking out among KickassTorrents users, who are having a hard time accessing the site. </p>
<p>Over the past few hours Chrome and Firefox have both started to block access to Kat.cr due to reported security issues.</p>
<p>Instead of a page filled with the latest torrents, visitors are presented with an ominous red warning banner.</p>
<p>&#8220;Deceptive site ahead: Attackers on kat.cr may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information,&#8221; the Chrome warning reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>Chrome warns against using Kat.cr</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a909e39d.chromekatdecept.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chromekatdecept.png" alt="chromekatdecept" width="615" height="349" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120671"></center></p>
<p>Firefox users encounter a similar banner, branding Kat.cr as a &#8220;web forgery&#8221; which may trick users into sharing personal information. This may lead to identity theft or other fraud.</p>
<p>&#8220;Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud,&#8221; the browser warns.</p>
<p><center><strong>Firefox&#8217;s alert</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/915a22f9.katffforg.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katffforg.png" alt="katffforg" width="615" height="292" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120670"></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, Google&#8217;s <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html?hl=en-US#url=http://kat.cr/">safebrowsing page for Kat.cr</a> currently lists <a href="media/c4ee1975.GPz0Vz6.png" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/GPz0Vz6.png">no issues</a> with the site.</p>
<p>The KAT team informs TorrentFreak that they are looking into the issue and hope to have the blocks removed soon. </p>
<p>This is not the first time the two browsers have flagged KickassTorrents. Last year site was flagged on <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-blocked-again-over-harmful-programs-151021/">several occasions</a> after it was linked to a malicious advertiser. </p>
<p>At the time the KAT team said they addressed the issue in a matter of hours, but it nonetheless took more than two days before the site was unblocked on both Firefox and Chrome.</p>
<p>Impatient or adventurous users who want to bypass the warning can do so by disabling their browser’s security warnings altogether in the settings, at their own risk of course.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120699
title: MovieSwap Cancels DVD Cloud Streaming Service
uri: MovieSwap-Cancels-DVD-Cloud-Streaming-Service
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/81iI5kv6fho/
content:
<p><img src="media/949969b9.movie-swap-small.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-swap-small.jpg" width="220" height="220" class="alignright">“What if you had an unlimited access to the LARGEST ONLINE MOVIE LIBRARY EVER? A community based library, where you could watch any movie online. A library where you could swap films with contributors all over the world and discover an infinite number of stories. </p>
<p>This is the revolutionary idea behind MovieSwap,” the service&#8217;s Kickstarter <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movieswap-aims-to-be-a-huge-crowd-powered-streaming-service-160311/">teased</a> last month. The proposition did indeed sound attractive and how it would be achieved somewhat intriguing.</p>
<p>The team behind MovieSwap said they would take the idea of swapping a physical DVD with friends to its Internet-powered conclusion. After collecting millions of genuine DVDs from all over the world, ripping them and storing them in the cloud, the service would allow members to play them on any device, anywhere.</p>
<p><center><strong>MovieSwap?</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/38517674.movie-swap-ware.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/movie-swap-ware.jpg" width="650" height="434" class="aligncenter"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Then, just like you can legally lend, swap, or offer a DVD to a friend, MovieSwap works in the same way, but on a much larger scale thanks to its remote playback technology,” the team said.</p>
<p>MovieSwap&#8217;s Kickstarter began with a modest target of just 37,000 euros, a target that was easily surpassed with more than 87,000 euros in the pot by the time the fundraiser ended. Now, however, the dream is over.</p>
<p>&#8220;The MovieSwap campaign almost reached its end. However, despite its incredible success, we, unfortunately, need to announce that we have made the difficult decision to cancel it,&#8221; backers were told this afternoon.</p>
<p>According to the MovieSwap team the project netted almost 5,000 supporters, which places it in the top 400 of almost 100,000 Kickstarter campaigns. But despite raising more than enough money, 4,829 backers simply wasn&#8217;t enough. Behind the scenes it appears there was an undisclosed 10,000 backer threshold, under which other investors would decline to finance the project.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our investors were expecting more, and we cannot launch MovieSwap without their full support, despite your mobilization. To start this crazy adventure and launch MovieSwap globally, we need to invest a few millions,&#8221; the team say.</p>
<p>&#8220;Under the symbolic 10,000 backers barrier, our investors consider it would be too risky to bet on our project. Without funding, we cannot guarantee MovieSwap will be available in the expected time. That&#8217;s why we prefer canceling our project and have your money refunded.&#8221;</p>
<p>The news has enjoyed a mixed reception among those who backed the Kickstarter.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m upset. I would have tried to garner more support if you had a magic number. Hiding that information from your Kickstarter supporters is just bad form,&#8221; one <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1151191861/movieswap-join-us-to-freethemovies/posts/1545281?cursor=13000910#comment-13000909">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;A huge disappointment,&#8221; <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1151191861/movieswap-join-us-to-freethemovies/posts/1545281?cursor=13001085#comment-13001084">said</a> another. &#8220;I imagine that this decision was carefully considered and not made with a light heart. Know that we will be there to support you and provide investors the necessary proof of our passion!&#8221;</p>
<p>What is slightly surprising is that just a week ago TorrentFreak was discussing the future of the project with the MovieSwap team after it had reached its funding target. There was no mention whatsoever of any 10,000 backer limit. We did, however, discuss the legality of the service.</p>
<p>In our original article I referred to the project as brilliantly innovative, but I doubted that Hollywood would allow MovieSwap to thrive. Hollywood has a history of hostility towards third-parties wading into &#8216;their&#8217; market without licensing discussions and I wondered how MovieSwap would fare.</p>
<p>To that end I asked some pretty probing questions, all of which centered on how MovieSwap would be able to operate legally in several key market areas. A response to that wasn&#8217;t forthcoming and then came today&#8217;s news.</p>
<p>&#8220;Honestly, we&#8217;re pretty disappointed, as the campaign began very well, and all our team was deeply involved in the project,&#8221; MovieSwap CEO Cyril Barthet informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;But as everyone knows, such projects need a substantial investment to get off the ground and deploy worldwide. The level we reached did not convince our current round enough &#8211; very ambitious and risky model indeed.&#8221;</p>
<p>But despite the setbacks and risks, the team remains optimistic.</p>
<p>&#8220;As Bruce Wayne&#8217;s father said: &#8216;Why do we fall ? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up&#8217;,&#8221; Barthet says.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s quite the same for lean start-ups. So, as we already run a disc-to-digital and streaming platform in France (&#8216;<a href="http://www.vodkaster.com/">Vodkaster</a>&#8216;), we will focus on it with a step-by-step approach to make it grow locally then globally,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>So at least for now it appears that MovieSwap won&#8217;t see the light of day, nor will we see Hollywood&#8217;s response to it. That&#8217;s a shame, but not even millions of dollars would be enough to pacify the studios if the service had truly delivered on its promises. And they were pretty exciting.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120676
title: RIAA Says YouTube is Running a DMCA Protection Racket
uri: RIAA-Says-YouTube-is-Running-a-DMCA-Protection-Racket
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bdKDM8q7uys/
content:
<p><a href="media/c0ea239b.youtubeface.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/youtubeface.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-107705"><img src="media/a5365da2.youtubeface.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/youtubeface.jpg" alt="youtubeface" width="222" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-107705"></a>YouTube has grown into the world&#8217;s leading video and music service and has partnerships with thousands of artists and other publishers around the globe. While many are happy with the revenue they&#8217;re generating from the Google-owned platform, others are not.</p>
<p>According to various sources, Universal&#8217;s deal with YouTube has already expired and deals in place with the likes of Sony and Warner will time out later this year. As a result the major recording labels are in negotiations with YouTube and are demanding better rates than the ones they currently describe in disparaging terms.</p>
<p>So if the RIAA can negotiate decent deals with the likes of Apple Music and TIDAL, why does it continue to have problems with Google&#8217;s YouTube? To put it bluntly the labels believe that YouTube is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-games-copyright-law-to-avoid-license-fees-ifpi-says-150801/">gaming the system</a> and unsurprisingly it all comes down to the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA.</p>
<p>While YouTube quickly responds to takedown notices sent by the labels, the RIAA says the platform is laden with unlicensed music uploaded users and as the law currently stands all it can do is keep taking it down. That&#8217;s something they do through <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-industry-u-s-copyright-law-is-obsolete-and-harmful-160401/">gritted teeth</a>.</p>
<p>In an interview with <a href="http://recode.net/2016/04/11/youtube-google-dmca-riaa-cary-sherman/">Recode</a>, RIAA chief Cary Sherman was asked why following the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viacom_International_Inc._v._YouTube,_Inc.">Viacom case</a> the labels don&#8217;t accept the current legal position. He pulls no punches.</p>
<p>&#8220;We accept the inevitability of death. It doesn’t mean we have to like it,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>Describing the DMCA as &#8220;dysfunctional&#8221;, Sherman says that the Copyright Office&#8217;s consultation on the effectiveness of the DMCA is allowing stakeholders to have their say but in the meantime YouTube is bullying negotiations by utilizing the shield of safe harbor.</p>
<p>&#8220;When you compare what we get when we get to freely negotiate, with a company like Spotify, vs. what we get when we are under the burden of an expansively interpreted &#8216;safe harbor,&#8217; when you’re negotiating with somebody like YouTube, you can see that you’re not getting the value across the platforms that you should,&#8221; Sherman says.</p>
<p>According to the RIAA chief the solution is for the current notice-and-takedown system to become notice-and-staydown, so that when one unlicensed copy of a song is removed from YouTube all other uploads of the same content are permanently barred from the system.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we had a system where once a song was taken down, you had a filtering system that prevented it from going back up, we wouldn’t have to be sending hundreds of millions of notices on the same content over and over again,&#8221; Sherman notes.</p>
<p>So the RIAA says its stuck between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand they want their properly licensed music on YouTube but in return they want all unlicensed copies of the same removed from YouTube on a permanent basis. Sherman says without that kind of agreement the one-sided negotiation process with the company goes something like this.</p>
<p><em>Look. This is all we [YouTube] can afford to pay you. We hope that you’ll find that reasonable. But that’s the best we can do. And if you don’t want to give us a license, okay. You know that your music is still going to be up on the service anyway. So send us notices, and we’ll take ’em down as fast we can, and we know they’ll keep coming back up.</em></p>
<p>&#8220;That’s not a real negotiation. That’s like saying, &#8216;That’s a real nice song you got there. Be a shame if anything happened to it&#8217;,&#8221; Sherman says.</p>
<p>In effect, Sherman accuses Google-owned YouTube of running a DMCA-protected protection racket, with music possibly being offered freely to the masses in the same manner that bars might get inexplicably fire-bombed in Chicago during the night. While Google hasn&#8217;t responded to Sherman&#8217;s comments directly, a submission it has made to the Copyright Office pours cold water on the flames.</p>
<p>&#8220;Some in the recording industry have suggested that the safe harbors somehow diminish the value of sound recordings, pointing to YouTube and blaming the DMCA for creating a so-called &#8216;value grab.&#8217; This claim is not supported by the facts,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p>Noting that YouTube has had licensing agreements in place with the record labels for many years, Google says it is simply incorrect that it relies on the DMCA instead of licensing content. Furthermore, Google says that those who claim that royalty rates are too low because of the DMCA notice-and-takedown process are forgetting the tools already provided by YouTube.</p>
<p>&#8220;This claim&#8230;ignores Content ID, which has been in existence since 2008 and which record labels (and many other copyright owners) use every day to monetize their works on YouTube. Thanks to Content ID, record labels do not have to rely<br>
solely on the DMCA’s notice-and-takedown process on YouTube — they can remove any or all user uploads of their works from the platform on an automated and ongoing basis,&#8221; Google writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Indeed, since January 2014, over 98% of all YouTube copyright removal claims have come through Content ID. Although business partners can be expected to disagree from time to time about the price of a license, any claim that the DMCA safe harbors are responsible for a &#8216;value gap&#8217; for music on YouTube is simply false.&#8221;</p>
<p>With this war of words set to rage on, RIAA chief Cary Sherman says that he hopes for a future in which the DMCA has been fixed and the balance of power shifts back to the labels.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think the record companies would like to be partners with YouTube. But it’s a little hard to call it a partnership when it’s so one-sided in terms of the negotiating leverage,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>Notice-and-staydown certainly has the potential to push the point of leverage back into the labels&#8217; favor, but there&#8217;s a long way to go yet. Content ID aside, it doesn&#8217;t look like Google <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-counsel-sees-problems-with-take-down-stay-down-151121/">wants to play ball</a> either.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120718
title: Piracy Fails to Prevent Another Box Office Record
uri: Piracy-Fails-to-Prevent-Another-Box-Office-Record
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YYnMhRVozf8/
content:
<p><a href="media/1b5440c0.mpaa-logo1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo1.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-36694"><img src="media/394b6768.mpaa-logo1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaa-logo1.jpg" alt="mpaa-logo" width="200" height="112" class="alignright size-full wp-image-36694"></a>MPAA chairman and CEO Chris Dodd made his fifth keynote speech at CinemaCon yesterday, pouring buckets of cold water on the idea that piracy is somehow threatening the very existence of the movie industry.</p>
<p>“I’m proud to say that the state of our industry has never been stronger,” the former U.S. senator <a href="http://deadline.com/2016/04/mpaa-ceo-chairman-senator-chris-dodds-cinemacon-address-the-state-of-our-industry-has-never-been-stronger-1201736032/">said</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed. Yesterday the MPAA released its latest Theatrical Market Statistics Report which revealed that global box office revenues reached $38.3 billion in 2015, up 5% on 2014&#8217;s total. The United States and Canada turned in $11.1 billion with international box office revenues hitting $27.2 billion.</p>
<p>&#8220;To paraphrase Mark Twain, the death of the movies has been greatly exaggerated,” Dodd said.</p>
<p>Exaggeration was the name of the game four years ago during the SOPA debate, when one might have been forgiven for believing that Hollywood&#8217;s very existence was hanging by a thread. But now, according to the MPAA itself, things could hardly be better, with 708 films released in 2015 and those released by MPAA members up 8% on the previous year.</p>
<p>Almost 70% of the U.S./Canada population (235.3 million people) went to the cinema at least once in 2015, a 2% increase over 2014. Frequent movie goers who attended at least once a month accounted for 49% of all tickets sold in the same region. Indeed, the number of tickets purchased by everyone from hardcore fans to the very casual viewer increased last year.</p>
<p>But despite the impressive numbers (<em>full report &#8211; <a href="media/9cea5657.MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2015_Final.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.mpaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/MPAA-Theatrical-Market-Statistics-2015_Final.pdf">pdf</a>)</em>, the MPAA insists that piracy is still a problem. According to Dodd the box office would be more healthy to the tune of $1.5 billion if piracy could be brought under control.</p>
<p>There are plenty of theories on how that can be achieved, including making content more readily available to the consumer. The plan currently making the most noise along those lines is being touted by Napster co-founder Sean Parker, whose Screening Room project hopes to bring first-run movies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/napster-founder-offer-new-movies-at-home-for-50-per-shot-160310/">into the home</a> via a set-top box.</p>
<p>While at first this might sound like a recipe for spoiling record box office revenues, Screening Room has a trick up its sleeve. Customers prepared to pay the required $50 to watch at home would get two tickets to watch the movie in the cinema, which could either boost or at least maintain box office attendance.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, those in the movie screening business are less optimistic. Last month The Art House Convergence (AHC), a cinema group representing 600 theaters, said it &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/napster-founders-movie-plan-will-fuel-torrent-sites-theaters-say-160316/">strongly opposes</a>&#8221; the plan and warned that it would only fuel torrent sites and piracy.</p>
<p>Interestingly, however, Chris Dodd told reporters yesterday that the MPAA would meet with the people behind Screening Room.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want to hear what they have to say,” Dodd <a href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-cinemacon-2016-screening-room-20160412-story.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Reading between the lines though, it seems unlikely that the MPAA is seriously thinking of signing on the dotted line. In his speech yesterday Dodd repeatedly underlined the unique experience offered by a theatrical screening.</p>
<p>“Despite the noisy suggestions otherwise, the cinema provides a unique and powerful experience that just cannot be re-created,” he said. One of his colleagues made things even more clear.</p>
<p>“I assure you, we are not going to let a third party or middleman come between [the studio and the cinema owners],” Warner Bros. Entertainment Chief Executive Kevin Tsujihara said during his presentation.</p>
<p>And those cinema owners have been vocal too. As reported by the LA Times, National Assn. of Theatre Owners chief John Fithian yesterday described Screening Room as a &#8220;big distraction&#8221; from the great results published by the MPAA, noting that &#8220;it&#8217;s up to the exhibitors and the distributors to decide the future of [release] windows.”</p>
<p>Interestingly, however, Fithian acknowledged that there may be some room for change.</p>
<p>&#8220;More sophisticated window modeling may be needed for the growing success of a modern movie industry,” he said.</p>
<p>Parker, standing by.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120661
title: Anti-Piracy Firm Wants ISPs to Pay for Pirating Subscribers
uri: Anti-Piracy-Firm-Wants-ISPs-to-Pay-for-Pirating-Subscribers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/D5Cqj3kpd2c/
content:
<p><img src="media/574ebb44.cegtekint.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cegtekint.png" alt="cegtekint" width="215" height="91" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120749">Over the past weeks dozens of companies and organizations have shared their concerns regarding the current state of the DMCA copyright law. </p>
<p>The responses are part of a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-reviews-impact-and-efficacy-of-dmca-safe-harbor-160105/">consultation</a> launched by the U.S. Copyright Office. Most focus on the effectiveness of the notice and takedown model, and the response of anti-piracy firm CEG TEK International zooms in on how ISPs handle these notices. </p>
<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEG_TEK_International">The company</a> is well-known for its collaboration with adult video companies, for which it targets individual Internet subscribers with settlement requests. These requests are sent through DMCA notifications, commonly demanding a few hundred dollars. </p>
<p>Some ISPs forward these requests but most large providers have chosen not to do so. This is problematic for CEG TEK as it hurts their business model. </p>
<p>&#8220;The problem is the roadblocks to enforcement of copyrights that are put up by online service providers to protect their relationships with their infringing customers,&#8221; CEG TEK&#8217;s attorney <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/308346764/TorrentFreak-Copyright-Enforcement-Group-Inc-d-b-a-CEG-TEK-International-First-Round-Comments">writes</a>.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy outfit points out that they, and others, can easily track the IP-addresses of pirates. But, without cooperation from ISPs this information isn&#8217;t very helpful.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, the ISPs, who rake in millions, and probably billions, of dollars from their infringing customers, do not voluntarily disclose the infringer&#8217;s identities,&#8221; CEG TEK notes. </p>
<p>Under the DMCA, Internet providers are not required to forward all notices of claimed copyright infringement. CEG TEK recommends changing towards <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-piracy-notices-from-benign-to-ridiculous-150109/">Canada&#8217;s model</a> instead, where subscribers must be notified.</p>
<p>&#8220;Canada&#8217;s ISPs forward such notices at no charge to copyright owners. Setting up forwarding systems is relatively easy and inexpensive, and is similar to ISPs normal bill-forwarding systems,&#8221; the company notes .</p>
<p>In this case, CEG TEK would like U.S. ISPs to forward their &#8220;bills,&#8221; but there is more. </p>
<p>In addition to a forwarding requirement the anti-piracy firm also suggests the introduction of statutory damages for Internet providers, requiring them to pay $30 each time a subscriber doesn&#8217;t stop sharing pirated content. </p>
<p>&#8220;By statute require ISPs to pay copyright owners $30 for each notice of claimed infringement sent with respect to an Internet account having repeat infringements,&#8221; the suggestion reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Do this, and ISPs would actually enforce their own Terms of Use that currently give lip service to the concept that customers are forbidden from engaging in copyright infringement,&#8221; CEG TEK adds between brackets.</p>
<p>The submission is written by CEG TEK attorney Ira Siegel, who also represented several rightsholders in various lawsuits against &#8220;John Doe&#8221; BitTorrent users, as copyright troll watcher FCT <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2016/04/11/copyright-troll-to-copyright-office-remove-privacy-protections-make-shakedown-easier/">points out</a>. </p>
<p>Siegel&#8217;s &#8220;trolling&#8221; connection is relevant as he also proposes several changes to the DMCA in order to make it easier to identify pirates through courts. Among other things, CEG TEK suggests allowing mass-BitTorrent lawsuits, in which tens of thousands of IP-addresses can be grouped (joined) in one complaint. </p>
<p>Such a change would make it cheaper to uncover the identity of alleged infringers, as rightsholders would only have to pay a single filing fee.</p>
<p>The proposals put forward by CEG TEK are among the most far-reaching we&#8217;ve seen thus far. They also directly oppose comments made by the U.S. broadband association USTelecom, which asked the copyright office to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isps-refuse-to-disconnect-persistent-pirates-160411/">stop &#8220;abusive&#8221; notices</a> that include settlement demands. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120696
title: Paramount: We Own The Klingon Language
uri: Paramount-We-Own-The-Klingon-Language
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qCBPD6K59ws/
content:
<p><img src="media/19ce6742.klingon.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingon.jpg" alt="klingon" width="250" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120085">Earlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of the Star Trek inspired fan film, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-sue-fan-funded-star-trek-spin-off-151231/">accusing</a> them of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The dispute centers around the well-received short film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_Axanar">Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar</a> and the planned follow-up feature film Anaxar.</p>
<p>Among other things, the Star Trek rightsholders claim ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.</p>
<p>Axanar productions and Alec Peters, the makers of the fan-spinoff, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-does-not-protect-the-klingon-language-court-hears-160330/">responded</a> to several of the allegations last month arguing that several of the allegedly “infringing elements” are not protected by copyright at all.</p>
<p>They argued that the Klingon language is not copyrightable because it&#8217;s not more than an idea or a system. They therefore asked the court to  dismiss or strike the copyright claims in question.</p>
<p>However, Paramount and CBS disagree (bIlughbe’*). In their reply the rightsholders call the argument absurd and among other things, they point out that the language system is not very useful if there are no real Klingons to communicate with.</p>
<p>&#8220;This argument is absurd, since a language is only useful if it can be used to communicate with people, and there are no Klingons with whom to communicate,&#8221; they write (<em>full filing: <a href="media/b18991f5.klingrep.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingrep.pdf">pdf</a></em>). </p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ use of the Klingon language in their works is simply further evidence of their infringement of Plaintiffs’ characters, since speaking this fictitious language is an aspect of their characters.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>Klingon alphabet</strong> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_alphabets">image: wiki</a>)<br></br></center><center><img src="media/28a25d1f.klingonalpha.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingonalpha.png" alt="klingonalpha" width="484" height="340" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120764"></center></p>
<p>In any case, the court should not rule on the matter prematurely, the rightsholders note. The question to what degree various elements are copyright infringing should be decided in future hearings where the issues can be properly addressed.</p>
<p>The same applies to other elements, including spaceships. Axanar productions argues that these general concepts can&#8217;t be copyrighted, but Paramount and CBS point out that their specific expression of Klingon warships is.</p>
<p><center><strong>Klingon ships</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/c4528e76.klingonships.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingonships.jpg" alt="klingonships" width="572" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120765"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have not merely alleged that the general concepts of a &#8216;spaceship&#8217; or a &#8216;spacedock&#8217; have been appropriated – the Complaint’s allegations show that Defendants have misappropriated the expression of these concepts,&#8221; the movie studios inform the court. </p>
<p>Citing relevant case law, they argue that Star Trek starships deserve the same protection as the Batmobile. </p>
<p>&#8220;Even assuming that Defendants are properly dissecting the elements of the Star Trek Copyrighted Works (and they are not), courts have held that vehicles like the Batmobile are copyrightable as characters, and therefore, specific Star Trek starships are also copyrightable.&#8221; </p>
<p>Summing up, Paramount and CBS argue that the infringing status of the various elements should be considered in substantial similarity analysis during the lawsuit. They therefore ask the court to deny Axanar&#8217;s motion to dismiss or strike their claims.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>*bIlughbe’ means <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_language#Example_sentences">you are wrong</a>, in Klingon<br>
</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120755
title: Harry Potter Publisher Goes on a Bizarre Anti-Piracy Rampage
uri: Harry-Potter-Publisher-Goes-on-a-Bizarre-Anti-Piracy-Rampage
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ar8NPvYgkYg/
content:
<p><img src="media/d44fd9fc.harry.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/harry.jpg" alt="harry" width="222" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120817">The issue of removing infringing content and links from the Internet is perhaps the hottest topic in copyright today, with a U.S. Copyright Office consultation generating opinions from stakeholders of all kinds.</p>
<p>The aim of the consultation is to measure whether the DMCA is fit for purpose or whether it needs to be tweaked to handle an Internet that has developed massively in the past twenty years. Generally speaking, copyright holders want the DMCA tightened up dramatically, with many calling for regime that would see pirate content being taken down and remaining down forever.</p>
<p>While in some respects its easy to have sympathy with that stance, copyright holders can&#8217;t be trusted to get it right all of the time. In fact, sometimes mistakes are made that are so absurd that they deserve highlighting in public.</p>
<p>HarperCollins, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Reed Elsevier, Scholastic and J.K.Rowling&#8217;s Pottermore are some of the most recognizable publishers in the world and like many in their position, all have a bit of a piracy problem. Every year through their anti-piracy partners they send millions of takedown notices directly to &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites and to Google, who are expected to take down content on demand.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s fortunate that Google does not do so without due consideration. It&#8217;s also fortunate that there&#8217;s no takedown-and-staydown system in place.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.pottermore.com/">Pottermore</a> is a digital publishing and e-commerce platform from J.K. Rowling, the author of the world famous Harry Potter series. Through anti-piracy company Digimarc the company has sent more than 260,000 takedown notices to Google with the majority raising few alarm bells. Recently, however, something appears to have gone terribly wrong.</p>
<p>On March 8, Pottermore sent a <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11931332">notice to Google</a> complaining that several sites were infringing on the rights of, among other things, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Inexplicably, one of those complaints was leveled at J.K. Rowling&#8217;s own page on Wikipedia. The same mistake was <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/12022568">made again</a> on April 1.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/a31ece97.potter1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/potter1.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120795"><img src="media/a31ece97.potter1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/potter1.png" alt="potter1" width="600" height="225" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120795"></a></center></p>
<p>Fortunately Google refused to remove the page but Pottermore were undeterred and later that day sent an even worse notice that targeted a <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11932249">further 20 Wikipedia pages</a>. </p>
<p>In addition to targeting several pages dedicated to Harry Potter movies, soundtracks and videos games, the <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11932249#">notice casts its net far and wide</a> with demands to remove pages detailing ancient Egyptian literature, ethnic groups in Central America, the attacks of 9-11, IEC standards, U.S. soldier Joshua Casteel and the NATO phonetic alphabet.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c36ba899.potter2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/potter2.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120796"><img src="media/c36ba899.potter2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/potter2.png" alt="potter2" width="600" height="255" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120796"></a></center></p>
<p>But Pottermore aren&#8217;t the only ones contributing to this Wikipedia mess. In early March, HarperCollins sent notices to Google, again through Digimarc, aiming to protect its own content. Instead, however, the company put its name to a whole bunch of bogus takedowns.</p>
<p>Instead of protecting the book &#8216;The Longest Trip Home&#8217;, the publisher <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11919974">tried to takedown</a> the Wikipedia pages for Beverley Hills 90210 and Silver Spring, Maryland. Shortly after <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11919951">another notice</a> targeted Wikipedia pages on the topics of BitTorrent, Carson in California, and the identity of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano">Mexican Americans</a>.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/1a936140.harper1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/harper1.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120798"><img src="media/1a936140.harper1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/harper1.png" alt="harper1" width="600" height="394" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120798"></a></center></p>
<p>We won&#8217;t detail every single request here but there are dozen of bogus claims against Wikipedia, all of which Google (fortunately) denied. Those interested can find them in Google&#8217;s report where <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/owners/28989/HarperCollins/">dozens are listed</a> as rejected..</p>
<p>Simon and Schuster don&#8217;t have much to brag about either. In an effort to protect a handful of books they also targeted Wikipedia on <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/12038879">dozens</a> of occasions. With no apparent checking mechanism in place we can see the kinds of abuses shown below.</p>
<p>Poor Janice Galloway is actually a <a href="http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Janice-Galloway/1867871">Simon and Schuster author</a>, yet they want her Wikipedia page removed. Heaven knows what copyright crimes the speed limits in Romania have committed.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/94bc0fad.sas1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sas1.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120800"><img src="media/94bc0fad.sas1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sas1.png" alt="sas1" width="600" height="392" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120800"></a></center></p>
<p>Finally, a couple of choice takedowns, the first from Reed Elsevier. In an effort to protect Mandell, Douglas, and Bennett&#8217;s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, the publisher <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11930670">attempted</a> to takedown the Wikipedia page detailing Mega, the file-hosting site previously associated with Kim Dotcom.</p>
<p>And Random House must have a real grudge against deceased U.S. writer Gore Vidal. On several occasions the company ordered Google to <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11927737">remove his Wikipedia page</a> and links <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_%28Vidal_novel%29">to his books</a>, despite them being his publisher.</p>
<p>Takedown and staydown? Perhaps copyright holders want to think this through&#8230;..</p>
<p><em>The full catalog of Wikipedia takedown abuses can be found <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/domains/wikipedia.org/?p=4">here</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120821
title: Sky Subscribers Hit With New Wave of Piracy Notices
uri: Sky-Subscribers-Hit-With-New-Wave-of-Piracy-Notices
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mO-pF1PuZWc/
content:
<p><a href="media/019289cb.sky.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sky.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-80878"><img src="media/9d18746b.sky.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sky.jpg" alt="sky" width="180" height="108" class="alignright size-full wp-image-80878"></a>GoldenEye International are one of the small handful of companies engaged in so-called &#8220;copyright troll&#8221; activities in the UK.</p>
<p>Unlike thousands of other companies who try to have infringing content removed from the Internet, Golden Eye simply leaves it there while monitoring those who dare to download and share it.</p>
<p>For several years the company has been targeting subscribers in the UK and has recently sent out a new wave of threat letters. TorrentFreak has been in touch with many letter recipients, all of them customers of UK Internet service provider Sky.</p>
<p>The demands all relate to the alleged downloading and sharing of various pornographic movie titles owned by Ben Dover Productions, Immoral Productions, Third World Media, Echo Alpha and Harmony Films. </p>
<p>The High Court order through which GoldenEye (GEIL) obtained the users&#8217; personal details is dated August 2015 but in some cases the alleged offenses date back to 2014 which in many cases makes it difficult to identify who might have been responsible.</p>
<p>Indeed, this is a problem faced by several letter recipients interviewed by TorrentFreak. While a minority accept that GEIL&#8217;s allegations are true, others are vigorously denying them.</p>
<p>Several insist that due to the number of people who have free access to their home connections it&#8217;s all but impossible to know who the infringer was back in 2014/2015, if there even was one.</p>
<p>But perhaps more worrying is what happens when people choose to engage Golden Eye themselves.</p>
<p>&#8220;In order to elicit a speedy response we recommend email as the most efficient communication,&#8221; GoldenEye says in its threat letter. </p>
<p>While email is indeed efficient, convenient and cheap for GoldenEye (a company obviously keen to keep its costs down), exchanges seen by TorrentFreak indicate a complete unwillingness for them to accept what they are being told.</p>
<p>In some instances letter recipients tell GoldenEye that not only did they not download or share anything illegally, but they haven&#8217;t allowed anyone else to do so either. The company effectively ignores these protestations and insists that its evidence was assessed by independent experts.</p>
<p>Interestingly, however, the reportedly independent experts are <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140603/18021127448/international-men-mystery-how-discredited-german-anti-piracy-company-may-secretly-be-behind-malibu-medias-copyright-trollery.shtml">Tobias Fieser</a> and <a href="http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2011-03-09/news/fl-pbso-drug-detective-20110309_1_hydrocodone-pills-detective-sheriff-s-office">Patrick Paige</a>, men that are up to their necks in similar trolling activities in other parts of the world, with the latter previously being described in <a href="https://fightcopyrighttrolls.com/2014/03/30/defendant-malibu-medias-expert-patrick-paiges-declaration-is-incompetent/">less than favorable terms</a>.</p>
<p>Of course, no evidence has been actually tested by the court but most people corresponding with GEIL don&#8217;t know that. It&#8217;s worth noting that even if the evidence had been tested and it was guaranteed accurate, GEIL only have the bill payer&#8217;s name and if he or she didn&#8217;t do it, GEIL have a problem.</p>
<p>“It’s important to understand that the copyright owner can only take action against the person who actually committed the infringement. This may not be you,&#8221; the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-govt-issues-advice-on-dealing-with-copyright-trolls-160408/">UK government told</a> letter recipients in advice last week.</p>
<p>Worryingly, TorrentFreak has seen other correspondence that indicates that once letter recipients engage in discussion with GoldenEye via email, the porn outfit uses the opportunity to obtain more information, information that it did not have in the first instance. This is often known as a &#8216;fishing expedition&#8217; and copyright trolls love them.</p>
<p>For example, some people have informed GEIL that they have left their router insecured so that friends and family can easily access the Internet when they visit. GEIL then want to know the names and addresses of these people so they can be pursued. Recipients are under no obligation to help with these inquiries but because of the legal threats, some feel obliged to comply.</p>
<p>Furthermore, others who have mentioned having an unsecured WiFi have been met with questions about the make and model of their router. Quite why GoldenEye need this information is uncertain but it&#8217;s almost certain that any information provided will somehow be used against the recipient.</p>
<p>The common theme throughout, however, is that whatever people tell GoldenEye in an email, the company either ignores or has a canned response for. The company sends PDF files back to people who email them with a defense and these are all template responses going over the same things time and again. It is clear that people aren&#8217;t being treated as individuals and that the process is being automated wherever possible.</p>
<p>With all this in mind people should consider whether email really is the best way to handle a claim from GoldenEye International. Granted, responses from the company are often quite quick, but this encourages people to respond quickly too, often without adequate consideration before doing so.</p>
<p><em>Resources:</em> <em><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/115443516/The-Speculative-Invoicing-Handbook-Second-Edition">Speculative Invoicing Handbook</a>, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/o2-be-customers-all-you-need-to-handle-a-ben-dover-file-sharing-letter-121204/">How to Deal with a File-Sharing Threat</a>, <a href="http://www.lawdit.co.uk/contact-us">hire a lawyer</a>.</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120689
title: MPAA Wants ISPs to Disconnect Persistent Pirates
uri: MPAA-Wants-ISPs-to-Disconnect-Persistent-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZvrpZ8AmGD0/
content:
<p><img src="media/f2bfe741.pirate-running.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-running.jpg" alt="pirate-running" width="222" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78717">In recent weeks, many groups and individuals have voiced their opinions about the future of the DMCA, responding to a U.S. Copyright Office consultation. </p>
<p>This includes the MPAA, which acts on behalf of the major Hollywood studios. In a 71-page submission the group outlines many problems with the current law, asking for drastic reforms.</p>
<p>Ideally, the group would like search engines to enforce a &#8220;stay down&#8221; policy ensuring that content can&#8217;t reappear under different URLs. In addition, it would like registrars to suspend domain names of pirate sites, such as The Pirate Bay. </p>
<p>Another point of concern for the movie industry group is that of &#8220;repeat infringers,&#8221; people who frequently share pirated content. This applies to users of web services such as Facebook and YouTube, but also ISPs. </p>
<p>&#8220;The requirement that service providers terminate repeat infringers is critical,&#8221; MPAA writes in its <a href="https://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=COLC-2015-0013-90285">submission</a>.</p>
<p>The MPAA points out that the percentage of persistent pirates is relatively low compared to all Internet users who ever have committed copyright infringement online, but that they do pose a significant threat. </p>
<p>&#8220;The serial infringers, however, account for a disproportionate share of the overall prevalence of infringing content: They upload and download infringing copies much more heavily than those who do so once or twice; and they keep infringing content online and available for others to stream or download illegally for much longer than do other users.&#8221;</p>
<p>In the U.S. it is currently rare for ISPs to disconnect persistent pirates, with many arguing that only a court can decide if someone can be stripped from such an essential service as Internet access.</p>
<p>However, citing several recent legal cases, including the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-is-liable-for-pirating-subscribers-ordered-to-pay-25-million-151217/">Cox lawsuit</a>, the movie studios argue that ISPs should terminate the accounts of persistent pirates even if there&#8217;s no court order requiring them to do so.</p>
<p>According to the MPAA Internet providers &#8220;must terminate users who repeatedly and blatantly infringe copyright, regardless of whether there has been a judicial determination that the user is liable for copyright infringement.&#8221;  </p>
<p>To accomplish this goal service providers should keep track of DMCA notices so they can identify repeat infringers and take appropriate action in response. </p>
<p>&#8220;The challenge now will be to have courts consistently enforce these rules against noncompliant services. Courts should also make it clear that an effective and compliant policy must not allow terminated users simply to create new accounts on the same service,&#8221; they write.</p>
<p>The Hollywood group&#8217;s calls are quite different from the voluntary agreement it currently has with ISPs. Under the Copyright Alert System ISPs are required to forward up to six notices per user account, but permanent Internet connections are not part of the deal. </p>
<p>Needless to say, ISPs are not going to be happy with the demands. In <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isps-refuse-to-disconnect-persistent-pirates-160411/">their submission</a> to the Copyright Office they stressed that their subscribers shouldn&#8217;t lose Internet access based solely on copyright holder complaints. </p>
<p>With the many conflicting positions we reported on in recent weeks, it&#8217;s going to be very hard for the Copyright Office to come up with a plan that will suit everyone. In any case, we can look forward to some heated debates.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120771
title: Judge Allows Popcorn Time “Pirate” to Keep on Torrenting
uri: Judge-Allows-Popcorn-Time-Pirate-to-Keep-on-Torrenting
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/n-JIzk_DYts/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="popcornt" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">Lawsuits against alleged file-sharers are a common occurrence in United States federal courts. </p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of people have been accused in recent years, most after using standard BitTorrent clients.</p>
<p>More recently there&#8217;s been a specific focus on Popcorn Time users. They were targeted in a series of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studio-sues-popcorn-time-users-in-the-u-s-150819/">lawsuits</a> this summer. </p>
<p>One of the cases was filed by the makers of The Cobbler, who listed the IP-addresses of several Popcorn Time users in their complaint. The goal of the filmmakers is to identify the account holders and settle the dispute out of court, which many have done already.</p>
<p>Recently, another Popcorn Time user settled with the movie studio. While the scale of the agreement was not disclosed they usually range between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars. </p>
<p>The defendant in question was allowed to remain anonymous but admitted that her IP-address was indeed used to download and distribute the movie in question. To end the lawsuit, both parties agreed to a &#8216;consent judgment&#8217; which was signed off by a District Court judge. </p>
<p>While this is a common procedure, Magistrate Judge Stacie Beckerman decided to make several crucial changes to the proposed permanent injunction, even though both parties already agreed on it. </p>
<p>Among the stricken parts is a line that would order the defendant to remove all BitTorrent clients from her computer and observe a ban on P2P software in the future (<em>order: <a href="media/715a44a1.popnotremove.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popnotremove.pdf"rel="">pdf</a></em>). </p>
<p>&#8220;DOE-73.180.17.189 is hereby directed to immediately delete all unlicensed content in which Voltage has any rights or interest including plaintiffs motion picture, together with any and all BitTorrent clients on any computer(s) she owns or controls together with all other software used to obtain media through the Internet by peer-to-peer exchange,&#8221; it read. </p>
<p>In recent cases many other judges left this language intact, but for Judge Beckerman it appears to have gone too far.</p>
<p>In addition, the Judge also removed the line preventing the defendant from engaging in any infringing BitTorrent transfers in the future, limiting the scope of the permanent injunction only to titles to which Voltage Pictures holds the copyrights.</p>
<p>While the defendant still has to pay, the changes are important as it allows her to keep using BitTorrent and P2P software in general, which of course have many legitimate purposes as well. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s also good to see that judges are not blindly signing off on any order they see before them.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120805
title: vKontakte Appears to Be Cracking Down on eBook Piracy
uri: vKontakte-Appears-to-Be-Cracking-Down-on-eBook-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/SiMsoh1BzCU/
content:
<p><a href="media/6a85b8fe.e-books.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/e-books.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-26365"><img src="media/31ccbd18.e-books.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/e-books.jpg" alt="e-books" width="220" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26365"></a>While movies, music and TV show downloading grabs most of the headlines, a growing subset of Internet pirates like to obtain eBooks online for free.</p>
<p>With the growth of dedicated readers such as Kindle and eBook-capable hardware such as iPads, tablets and smartphones, eBooks are easily downloaded from torrent and file-hosting sites in a few seconds and consumed on the go.</p>
<p>One site where eBooks are particularly easy to find is Russian social networking platform vKontakte. The site often appears in searches for popular book titles and downloads are mostly direct and speedy. For this reason vKontakte has found itself embroiled in various copyright-related disputes.</p>
<p>Now, however, there are signs that the platform is taking steps to do something about the phenomenon.</p>
<p>According to a report coming out of Russia, vKontakte has introduced a system that not only takes content down following rightsholder complaints, but also stops that same content becoming available for download in the future. Users are reportedly able to upload previously-flagged content but it is not made available for download.</p>
<p>At the moment vKontakte is refusing to comment on the reports but according to <a href="http://izvestia.ru/">Izvestia</a> the existence of the system has been confirmed by both rightsholders and operators of social network-based eBook communities.</p>
<p>Any user of vKontakte is allowed to upload eBooks in a range of formats and embed these in their pages. These can then be downloaded directly from vKontakte&#8217;s servers. However, according to the report there are increasing problems with content disappearing, with VK reporting that files have been deleted following requests from copyright holders.</p>
<p>Interestingly the development is having an impact externally too, with a prominent anti-piracy outfit reporting a shift in availability.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have noticed that our monitoring service is sending fewer claims [to VK] and we are now analyzing the cause to discover the reason,&#8221; says Maxim Ryabyko, Director General of the Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet (AZAPO).</p>
<p>Back in February, AZAPO <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-holders-move-to-block-vkontakte-russias-facebook-160222/">reported</a> vKontakte to the Moscow City Court after the platform allegedly failed to take solid measures to protect copyright. AZAPO&#8217;s aim was to force the social network into negotiations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our goal is to urge vKontakte to adequately interact with the book industry,” Ryabyko said at the time.</p>
<p>What has prompted the disappearance of books from the platform remains unclear but Ryabyko says that he doesn&#8217;t rule out a link between recent developments and AZAPO&#8217;s legal action against vKontakte. Another possibility is that some kind of deal has been reached with book owners.</p>
<p>Last year publishers offered several opportunities for VK to monetize content on its platform, including via an all-you-can-eat subscription model. Other offers included an ad-supported mechanism and a partner program, which would see samples of books diverting to publisher platforms.</p>
<p>It is not clear whether these offers were attractive to VK but if pirate content is disappearing from the site, publishers will be happy.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120934
title: The Pirate Bay Offline For 24 Hours
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-Offline-For-24-Hours
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VJRXfU6CRic/
content:
<p><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470">The Pirate Bay has been unreachable for more than a day now.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to the TPB team and we were informed that there appears to be a technical issue with the servers which should be resolved soon.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay currently displays a CloudFlare error message across <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-moves-to-gs-la-vg-am-mn-and-gd-domains-150519/">all domain names</a>, confirming that TPB&#8217;s servers are unresponsive.</p>
<p>In addition to the main thepiratebay.se domain name, various proxy sites are also offline.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/cc57453c.tpb-cf.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-cf.png" alt="tpb-cf" width="600" height="376" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120936"></center></p>
<p>The Pirate Bay has had quite a few stints of downtime in recent weeks. The popular torrent site usually returns after several hours, but this time it&#8217;s taking a bit longer. </p>
<p>With <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-police-raid-the-pirate-bay-site-offline-141209/">the raid</a> of 2014 still fresh in people&#8217;s minds, some are quick to spread panic, but these concerns are unwarranted.</p>
<p>In fact, the site is still accessible via the Tor network (through <a href="http://uj3wazyk5u4hnvtk.onion/">their .oinio address</a>), including the popular Pirate Browser. The Tor traffic goes through a separate server and works just fine.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120914
title: Google Won’t Take Down Links to Censored Celebrity Sex Story
uri: Google-Won-t-Take-Down-Links-to-Censored-Celebrity-Sex-Story
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/cs6zIVP1Fvo/
content:
<p><a href="media/7dabb3f0.censored.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/censored.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-35000"><img src="media/f05b8357.censored.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/censored.jpg" alt="censored" width="199" height="173" class="alignright size-full wp-image-35000"></a>Last month it was revealed that an individual in the &#8220;entertainment business&#8221; had prevented a UK tabloid newspaper from printing details of his extramarital affairs.</p>
<p>Referred to in court papers by the initials PJS (not his real initials), the reportedly &#8220;well known&#8221; individual is said to had some kind of &#8220;three-way sexual encounter&#8221; with another couple more than four years ago. This, while being married to his partner, YMA, also in the entertainment business.</p>
<p>The third-party couple (referred to as AB and CD) approached the UK&#8217;s Sun on Sunday newspaper in January this year and revealed details of their encounter with PJS. The paper then contacted PJS&#8217;s lawyer, at which point a legal battle ensued.</p>
<p>On January 18, lawyers for PJS and YMA applied for an order against Sun on Sunday preventing it from printing the story. The High Court rejected the demand but did hand down an interim order blocking publication while the pair filed an appeal <em>(<a href="http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2016/100.html">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>The Court of Appeal subsequently ruled that the Sun on Sunday cannot publish the story because the entertainer had an expectation that his sexual encounters should remain a private matter. Inevitably, however, there are plenty of people who believe it should not.</p>
<p>The Sun on Sunday is determined to publish the story whenever it can but in the meantime the celebrity couple have been named countless times on social media and in dozens of press articles, including in Scotland, Europe, the United States and Canada.</p>
<p>So what, if anything, can be done about that? According to a BBC report citing Desmond Browne QC, the lawyer for PJS, &#8220;<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36056697">remarkable efforts</a>&#8221; are taking place to remove the story from Twitter and Google. That can now be confirmed, at least in respect of the latter.</p>
<p>Usually dealing with the business of having copyright-infringing content taken down from the Internet, UK-based copyright takedown outfit Web Sheriff is well known in file-sharing circles. However, the company has also branched out to offer a number of <a href="http://www.websheriff.com/services/">additional services</a>, including &#8220;Privacy Protection – reputation management.&#8221;</p>
<p>These activities rarely come into the public eye but it appears that Web Sheriff has recently been negotiating with Google to have sensitive content removed from its indexes. The matter in question can be found in the search giant&#8217;s Transparency Report where it&#8217;s <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/owners/168535/APPELLANT-COMPLAINANT%E2%80%99S-IDENTITY-PROTECTED-BY-COURT-OF-APPEAL-R/">listed</a> under a fairly obvious heading.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/f9e4008f.web-sheriff-take.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/web-sheriff-take.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120917"><img src="media/f9e4008f.web-sheriff-take.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/web-sheriff-take.png" alt="web-sheriff-take" width="600" height="481" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120917"></a></center></p>
<p>As can be seen from the image above, Web Sheriff targeted 174 URLs in two batches, one on April 4 and the other on April 11. In total the anti-piracy outfit sent seven notices to Google but interestingly the search giant has taken no action on the overwhelming majority.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ca6cb656.web-sheriff-take2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/web-sheriff-take2.png" rel="attachment wp-att-120920"><img src="media/ca6cb656.web-sheriff-take2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/web-sheriff-take2.png" alt="web-sheriff-take2" width="600" height="244" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-120920"></a></center></p>
<p>Why Google has taken no action is unclear but it&#8217;s possible that as an overseas company Google may not feel bound to remove the links. It&#8217;s also possible that the complaint was filed with Google as a copyright request and therefore does not meet the criteria for removal.</p>
<p>In any event, most links are now reaching &#8220;content not found&#8221; pages on various news resources, so there&#8217;s probably very little for Google to remove. This raises another topical point.</p>
<p>While Google is often portrayed as being able to do a lot to stop infringing (or in this case sensitive) content being made available via its search engine, it&#8217;s a lot more effective to have content taken down at the source. It seems likely that Web Sheriff has being doing just that and on the whole appears to have done a pretty good job.</p>
<p>But of course the big question is whether it was all worth it.</p>
<p>While news outlets are now waiting for a judgment set to be handed down Monday which could allow them to name the couple, their names are already all over the Internet. What started off as a story that would probably have been forgotten in a few days, has now transformed into a battle of international interest that has already failed in its key aim.</p>
<p>In the meantime, those who have ignored the injunction have been feeling the heat. A blogger who named the pair online says <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/apr/13/celebrity-injunction-blogger-threesome">he&#8217;s been threatened</a> by the entertainer&#8217;s legal team but doesn&#8217;t really care.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s a massive Streisand effect. Now I am fielding calls from European tabloids,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;I told [PJS&#8217;s legal team] to take it where the sun doesn’t shine. There’s no bricks and mortar in the UK, there’s no printing press in the UK, there’s no server in the UK.”</p>
<p>The all-important hearing will be heard in open court on Monday after Lord Justice Jackson ruled that the case addresses matters of public interest.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120753
title: After 4 Years… Copyright Holders Still Think Megaupload is Alive
uri: After-4-Years-Copyright-Holders-Still-Think-Megaupload-is-Alive
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BpA_vamZRog/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Well over four years have passed since Megaupload was shutdown, and as time passes people&#8217;s memories of the former Internet giant are fading away. </p>
<p>Interestingly, several copyright holders are keeping Megaupload&#8217;s spirit alive. Even though the site hasn&#8217;t been online for nearly half a decade, many continue to send out takedown requests targeting the former file-hosting service. </p>
<p>Take Paramount Pictures for example. Earlier this year the Hollywood movie studio <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11667309">asked Google</a> to remove a Megaupload URL claiming that it hosted a copy of the The Big Short, a film that was released in 2015. </p>
<p>Impossible of course, since the movie didn&#8217;t even exist when the site was online, but apparently Paramount&#8217;s anti-piracy partner IP-Echelon thinks otherwise.</p>
<p><center><strong>Paramount&#8217;s takedown notice</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5df0a8e4.paramega.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/paramega.png" alt="paramega" width="619" height="160" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120825"></center></p>
<p>Ironically, the screenshot above also lists a Hotfile URL, another site that hasn&#8217;t been online for years. Just as bad, several of the other links point to content that&#8217;s unrelated to The Big Short including Nokia N97 firmware and a porn video.</p>
<p>Another <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11703590">takedown request</a> targeting Megaupload comes from HBO. With help from its anti-piracy partner MarkMonitor, the company asked Google to remove a Megaupload link because it allegedly hosts a nude scene from Marisa Vitali in Bored To Death.</p>
<p>This video did indeed exist five years ago, but the URL hasn&#8217;t been active since the Megaupload raid, nor did Google index it recently.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not just Hollywood outfits that make these mistakes. The prominent publisher Taylor &#038; Francis is also frequently targeting the defunct file-hosting service. Most recently, its anti-piracy partner Link-Busters <a href="https://www.lumendatabase.org/notices/11912133">claimed</a> that the site was carrying a copy of the book &#8220;Principles and Practice of Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology.&#8221;</p>
<p>So, while Megaupload has been offline for more than four years, copyright holders continue to target it. In fact, Google received more takedown notices targeting Megaupload after it was shut down than while it was still up and running. </p>
<p>This is strange, also since Google is no longer indexing any Megaupload URLs. At the time of writing <a href="https://www.google.com/search?ie=UTF-8&#038;q=site:megaupload.com">a search for the site</a> only returns four results. </p>
<p>Yes, rightholders are asking Google to remove links that were not even in Google&#8217;s index to begin with&#8230;</p>
<p>These mistakes are made by automated keyword filters that scour link sites and forums for links to hosting services. These bots don&#8217;t bother to check whether Google actually indexes the content, nor do they remove dead sites from their system. </p>
<p>This is not the first time this sloppiness has been brought to the forefront. A few weeks ago researchers from Columbia University’s American Assembly and Berkeley <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/28-of-piracy-takedown-requests-are-questionable-160331/">revealed</a> that more than 28% of the takedown requests received by Google are &#8220;questionable.&#8221; </p>
<p>While the mistakes detailed above haven&#8217;t resulted in any serious harm, it&#8217;s easy to see how the same broad filtering techniques can also target content or sites that are perfectly legitimate and have a lot more to lose. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120946
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/18/16
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-04-18-16
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NNFTQJI7bGM/
content:
<p><img src="media/c90c8293.deadpool.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deadpool.jpg" alt="deadpool" width="300" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-118234">This week we have two newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Deadpool is the most downloaded movie again.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-041116/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/deadpool/">Deadpool</a> (HDrip subbed) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIM1HydF9UA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ride_along_2/">Ride Along 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2869728/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWfmmwdCHTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_revenant_2015/">The Revenant</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoebZZ8K5N0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_vii_the_force_awakens/">Star Wars: The Force Awakens</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_witch_2016/">The Witch</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXmlf3Sefg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mr_right_2016/">Mr. Right</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt2091935/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TatqilQ8rI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/">Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice</a> (Cam/TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_iASz1Si8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_jungle_book_2016/">The Jungle Book</a> (Hindi Cam) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR9tqPa48s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hail_caesar_2016/">Hail Caesar!</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUUKtF_BF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kung_fu_panda_3/">Kung Fu Panda 3</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2267968/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGPPfZIvtCw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120950
title: Norwegian Authorities Sued Over Popcorn-Time Domain Seizure
uri: Norwegian-Authorities-Sued-Over-Popcorn-Time-Domain-Seizure
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nlgOZe3TMaY/
content:
<p><img src="media/3b9dbdf1.popcornt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/popcornt.png" alt="popcornt" width="237" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-101106">In recent years the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn_Time">Popcorn Time</a> application has gained popularity worldwide, mostly thanks to its ability to stream torrent files in a Netflix-style interface. </p>
<p>This development raised concern among many movie industry companies, who have been working hard to contain the threat by going after several forks and their developers.</p>
<p>Most recently, Norwegian rightholders reported a local Popcorn Time site to the local economic crime police. Responding to this referral, the authorities <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/norwegian-police-seize-popcorn-time-information-site-160308/">seized</a> the Popcorn-Time.no domain name.</p>
<p>Unlike the name suggests, the site didn’t host the application itself but instead posted news articles, as well as links to sites that offered the application.</p>
<p>Many were surprised by the action and legal experts including Professor <a href="http://blogg.torvund.net/2016/03/09/okokrims-beslag-i-domenet-popcorn-time-no/">Olav Torvund</a> of the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law openly voiced their concerns. </p>
<p>Not only is the legality of the site debated, but also the use of a far-reaching measure without a proper judicial review.</p>
<p>Responding to these concerns, two digital rights groups have now filed a lawsuit against the authorities. Electronic Frontier Norway (<a href="https://efn.no/">EFN</a>) and the Norwegian Unix User Group (<a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>) want the court to decide whether the domain seizure was appropriate. </p>
<p>&#8220;We feel that this is an important case that addresses the limits of free speech,&#8221; EFN&#8217;s managing director Tom Fredrik Blenning tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;If this procedure is found to be legal, domain name seizures will make it possible for the police to shut down a forum based on mere suspicion that a site discusses potential illegal actions.&#8221; </p>
<p>As far as the digital rights groups are concerned the Popcorn-Time information site was operating legally. </p>
<p>But even if there are legitimate legal concerns, they believe that domain name seizures should only be applied in extreme cases where lives are at stake. This was certainly not the case here.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decision to seize the domain name was made by a low-ranking lawyer employed by the police,&#8221; Blenning says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our position is that this decision may very well be wrong, but even if it is a correct decision, it is one that should be made by a judge in a court of law.&#8221;</p>
<p>Through the lawsuit the groups hope to answer two main questions. Firstly, was Popcorn-Time.no violating the law even though it only offered links to and information about the application.</p>
<p>Secondly, is a domain name seizure proportionate when it&#8217;s not obvious whether a website is actually breaking the law? </p>
<p>According to the two digital rights groups, the authorities clearly went too far. They hope that the court will agree and that similar broad enforcement measures can be prevented in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120932
title: Obama’s a Coward For Not Hitting Google Over Piracy, Filmmaker Says
uri: Obama-s-a-Coward-For-Not-Hitting-Google-Over-Piracy-Filmmaker-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0vBWkoog2zQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/7c6b9504.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-21875"><img src="media/3a6fa524.google-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-bay.jpg" alt="google-bay" width="200" height="177" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21875"></a>With the recent Copyright Office <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/50000-people-protest-dmca-abuse-crash-government-server-160401/">consultation</a> on the efficacy of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ringing in the ears of many significant stakeholders, we&#8217;re informed that much is at stake in the online marketplace.</p>
<p>What began with opinions from a wide range of interested parties has now morphed into a battle of opposing forces, with annoyed copyright holders leading the charge on one side and Google and its supporters on the other.</p>
<p>Despite engaging in no infringement itself and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-100000-pirate-links-every-hour-160306/">doing everything</a> the law requires, on a daily basis Google is now being described as the world&#8217;s greatest piracy facilitator. It&#8217;s getting pretty ugly.</p>
<p>The latest to weigh-in with a controversial opinion is veteran film producer Avi Lerner. Perhaps best known for bringing The Expendables trilogy to the silver screen, Lerner is pulling no punches when it comes to the blame game. In fact, he&#8217;s taken it right to the very top.</p>
<p>&#8220;The government, the president, is such a coward. He&#8217;s scared of Google so we are losing millions,&#8221; he told <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/hollywood-mogul-blasts-obama-google-over-piracy-075802678.html">AFP</a>.</p>
<p>As the founder of production companies Nu Image and Millennium Films, Lerner is of course no stranger to piracy. In 2014, a pristine copy of The Expendables 3 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/expendables-3-leaks-online-100k-copies-down-in-hours-140725/">was leaked</a> onto the Internet, much to the company&#8217;s dismay.</p>
<p>While police in the UK <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-police-arrest-two-for-the-expendables-3-movie-leak-141125/">arrested two men</a> in connection with the leak later that year, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/stallone-thanks-police-for-new-expendables-3-arrest-150410/">followed by a third</a> in 2015, thus far no culprits have surfaced in the United States. So, in the absence of a direct bogeyman, Google &#8211; and the President &#8211; will have to do.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a major problem and it&#8217;s something that I don&#8217;t know if anyone can stop, because the government, the president, Congress are all scared of Google,&#8221; Lerner said.</p>
<p>The film producer says he feels that Google has no incentive to stop piracy because it generates revenue from it, but this kind of blame game is nothing new and largely misses the point. All piracy takes place outside Google&#8217;s ecosystem and would continue even if Google disappeared into thin air. Still, Lerner thinks he has the solution.</p>
<p>&#8220;They should tell Google to stop piracy. They should make a law that anyone helping piracy &#8212; and not helping to stop piracy &#8212; should go to jail or get penalized or whatever,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not clear whether Lerner was just angry when he made these comments or whether he really doesn&#8217;t understand how the whole piracy thing works, but the notion of throwing people in jail for simply not helping to stop piracy is certainly food for thought.</p>
<p>Only time will tell if that kind of punishment should also extend to the President himself but he&#8217;ll be long out of office before anything (if anything) is done to tune-up the DMCA. Jailing Google executives is presumably much more distant on the horizon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120993
title: KickassTorrents Next Target For Aussie Piracy Blocklist
uri: KickassTorrents-Next-Target-For-Aussie-Piracy-Blocklist
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Lw5OOL0h7_A/
content:
<p><a href="media/ce5293c1.kat.JPG" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kat.JPG" rel="attachment wp-att-19182"><img src="media/5a6ca898.kat.JPG" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kat.JPG" alt="kat" width="215" height="144" class="alignright size-full wp-image-19182"></a>After years of attempting to clamp down on piracy in 2015 entertainment industry companies in Australia finally had progress to report.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-passes-pirate-site-blocking-law-150622/">New legislation</a> passed in the summer allowed copyright holders to apply to the Federal Court to have infringing sites blocked at the ISP level.</p>
<p>While previous applications have been made on behalf of the movie and TV industries, until now the music sector has remained quiet. That changed today when members of the Australian Recording Industry Association (<a href="http://www.aria.com.au">ARIA</a>) and Australasian collecting society <a href="http://apraamcos.com.au">APRA AMCOS</a> teamed up to file their first application.</p>
<p>Filed at the Federal Court under section 115A of the Copyright Act 1968, member labels Universal Music Australia Pty Limited, Warner Music Australia Pty. Limited, Sony Music Entertainment Australia Pty Ltd and J Albert &#038; Son Pty Ltd, demanded that leading torrent site KickassTorrents (KAT) be blocked by the country&#8217;s ISPs.</p>
<p>Citing a government comment that KAT and others like it are the “worst of the worst” who exploit the &#8220;creativity of others&#8221; without giving anything back, the industry groups claim that millions of dollars are being made in illegal advertising revenues.</p>
<p>“Online infringement continues to be a major threat to the sustainability of the Australian music industry. Illegal offshore sites like Kickass Torrents show a complete disrespect for music creators and the value of music,&#8221; said Jenny Morris OAM, Chair of the APRA Board.</p>
<p>&#8220;Australian music fans already have access – for free if they choose – to the world’s repertoire of music via more than 20 legitimate licensed online music services. Blocking access to sites like Kickass Torrents is all about supporting those services and allowing the writers whose songs are available on them to be paid for their work.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to blocking KickassTorrents the labels have also applied to have related proxy sites blocked. This means that quick workarounds will be more tricky for the casual pirate. It&#8217;s a strategy already employed in the UK and one which has become a feature of two other cases previously filed by the audio-visual industries in Australia.</p>
<p>Those cases feature the movie division of Village Roadshow, Roadshow Films, taking on streaming portal <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-targeted-by-aussie-blockade-refutes-studio-claims-160219/">Solarmovie</a>. TV giant Foxtel is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-pirate-bay-blocking-process-begins-in-federal-court-160315/">targeting</a> The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, isoHunt and TorrentHound.</p>
<p>Due to the sheer number of proxies, mirrors and clones that are facilitating access to those sites, the studios had to contact 61 third-party sites to inform them of the action. None responded. No numbers have yet been published but there are dozens of KickassTorrents variants so a similar process will have to be undertaken in this case too.</p>
<p>Also potentially muddying the waters is KickassTorrents&#8217; claim that they take down copyright-infringing content following complaints from rightsholders.</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s users will be familiar with thousands of torrents disappearing from the platform but whether that will be enough to differentiate it under section 115a from a site whose &#8220;primary purpose to infringe&#8221; is unlikely in a non-adversarial process.</p>
<p>&#8220;Last year ARIA welcomed the Federal Government’s passing of section 115A as a critical element in supporting the legitimate digital content market in Australia,&#8221; said ARIA CEO Dan Rosen.</p>
<p>&#8220;ARIA and its members believe that this case will be an important step to ensure Australians are accessing their music from sites which contribute to our local industry, so that we can continue investing in talent to make the music we all love.”</p>
<p>The video cases are due back in court during early May following discussions with ISPs over the technicalities of blocking. While those negotiations appear to have been somewhat drawn out, future cases should prove much smoother to handle.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120961
title: Netflix: VPN Blockade Backlash Doesn’t Hurt Us
uri: Netflix-VPN-Blockade-Backlash-Doesn-t-Hurt-Us
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1LCIIVeYjLU/
content:
<p><img src="media/b310fc7c.netflix-logo.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix-logo.png" alt="netflix-logo" width="200" height="121" class="alignright size-full wp-image-69714">Earlier this year Netflix announced that it would increase its efforts to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-announces-crackdown-on-vpn-and-proxy-pirates-160114/">block customers</a> who circumvent geo-blockades. </p>
<p>As a result it has become harder to use VPN services and proxies to access Netflix content from other countries, something various movie studios have <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/why-netflix-vpn-pirates-shouldnt-terrify-hollywood-160116/">repeatedly called for</a>.</p>
<p>With the application of commercial blacklist data, Netflix already blocks IP-addresses that are linked to such services, something which also affects well-intentioned customers who merely use a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228/">VPN to protect their privacy</a>. </p>
<p>This has resulted in a lot of complaints from users with over 40,000 people signing <a href="https://act.openmedia.org/netflix">a petition</a> to lift the VPN ban. In addition, several people claim to have <a href="https://twitter.com/sihuimoos/status/702039381377314816">ended their Netflix</a> subscriptions due to the restrictive policies, while others have suggested a <a href="https://twitter.com/ConArtCritic/status/702292958792568832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">return</a> to their old pirate ways. </p>
<p>Some analysts predicted that the outrage might have an effect on the company&#8217;s results, but this doesn&#8217;t appear to be the case. During the presentation on the first quarter results yesterday, the VPN issue was just a small footnote.</p>
<p>When asked about the impact of the VPN changes on the results, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings brushed the issue aside as a minor detail that doesn&#8217;t impact the bigger picture in any way. </p>
<p>&#8220;It’s a very small but quite vocal minority. So it’s really inconsequential to us, as you could see in the Q1 results,&#8221;  Hastings said during the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wAlIVtgBz0">earnings call</a>.</p>
<p>Jumping in, Netflix CFO David Wells stressed that Netflix enjoyed very strong growth in the United States, as well as a successful global expansion. So, overall there is no sign that VPN users are abandoning ship en masse. </p>
<p>While the impact on the company&#8217;s revenue turns out to be insignificant, there is of course also a user satisfaction angle which could create a possible PR backlash in the longer term.</p>
<p>Netflix&#8217;s management doesn&#8217;t address these issues directly. However, it&#8217;s clear that hundreds of thousands of people are affected and Netflix can&#8217;t be happy with the outpouring of complaints that continues day after day.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Netflix continues to address the VPN piracy issue. TorrentFreak has spoken to several VPN service providers who have seen an increase in blocking efforts over the past several weeks. </p>
<p>Initially Netflix used static addresses for the geo-blocking checks. As a result, proxy and VPN operators could easily bypass these checks by forwarding this traffic to a &#8216;clean&#8217; IP-address. However, Netflix recently updated its detection methods and now uses hundreds of regularly changing domains.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are now coming from a few hundred different possible subdomains&#8221; one VPN operator told us.  </p>
<p>&#8220;This makes it much more expensive for us to circumvent because we would basically need to forward all Netflix traffic through our servers instead of just the packets that do the geolocation.&#8221;</p>
<p>Netflix previously said that, ultimately, it wants to make VPN banning obsolete by licensing all content globally. However, as long as the company still has to block access to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-cant-stream-house-of-cards-globally-blames-licensing-deals-160312/">some of its own content</a> including House of Cards, there&#8217;s still a long way to go</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121004
title: Microsoft’s Azure Awarded FACT Anti-Piracy Seal of Approval
uri: Microsoft-s-Azure-Awarded-FACT-Anti-Piracy-Seal-of-Approval
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/J1wotUPYmwo/
content:
<p><a href="media/d4825a36.microsoft-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/microsoft-pirate.png" rel="attachment wp-att-51663"><img src="media/b4f20436.microsoft-pirate.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/microsoft-pirate.png" alt="microsoft-pirate" width="225" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-51663"></a>The UK&#8217;s Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) is probably best known for activities aimed at tracking down the operators of pirate sites and the release groups who frequent them.</p>
<p>Financed by the film industry, over the years FACT has forged partnerships with law enforcement agencies, including the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU). But while in many instances FACT&#8217;s work is reactive, the group also works in precautionary roles.</p>
<p>In addition to preventing individuals from recording movies in theaters, for example, FACT also runs an accreditation system that aims to hold businesses providing services to the movie and TV sector to a set of high standards. The overall aim is to protect the intellectual property owned by FACT&#8217;s members.</p>
<p>The latest company to achieve FACT certification is Microsoft with its cloud computing platform <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/">Azure</a>. Launched in 2010, Azure provides PaaS (Platform as a service) and along with Amazon Web Services is considered a market leader in Iaas (Infrastructure as a service).</p>
<p>&#8220;Microsoft is quite familiar with global anti-piracy efforts, and we believe that extending this attention to our customers’ environments is just as important as safeguarding our own intellectual property,&#8221; says Alice Rison, Senior Director, Microsoft Azure. </p>
<p>&#8220;That’s why I’m excited to announce Azure’s certification by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT), making Azure the first public cloud to gain this accreditation.&#8221;</p>
<p>To get a flavor of what FACT is trying to achieve with its certification system one only has to look at the <a href="http://www.factcertification.com/?page_id=11">list of companies</a> that have already gone through the process.</p>
<p>There are currently 110 businesses with FACT accreditation, such as those offering subtitling services. These might not immediately sound like piracy hotspots but TV shows have been leaked at this point in the chain before, such as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/third-unreleased-doctor-episode-leaks-online-140818/">high-profile pre-release</a> of several Doctor Who episodes in 2014.</p>
<p>Others, such as companies and hotels involved in pre-release screenings of movies present more obvious security holes, as do those providing courier, logistics, transport and storage services. All of these processes have been exploited in the past to get pre-release content onto the Internet and now FACT is determined to regulate them all.</p>
<p>A handful are a little more obscure. Alchemy Metals Ltd <a href="http://www.alchemymetals.com/secure-destruction">proudly display</a> its FACT accreditation online, noting that the company utilizes &#8220;a variety of methods to ensure your sensitive product has been damaged beyond repair and re-use.&#8221; Precisely what Alchemy Metals destroys for the industry is unclear, but operations similar to theirs have been previously been used for the &#8220;granulation&#8221; of seized computer and video games hardware.</p>
<p>The inclusion of registered charity <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16058275">His Church</a> on the accredited list is also of interest. That organization take counterfeit clothing, DVDs, CDs and other items and removes the illegal branding. These items are then <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/seized-fake-designer-clothes-kit-out-africans-1-1254313#ixzz46Fv8u4uh">shipped abroad</a> for re-use, thus avoiding landfill.</p>
<p>For Microsoft, however, it is all about keeping those involved in the movie making and distribution process safe from hackers, pirates and other ne&#8217;er do wells. Accreditation means an independent security survey and both physical and digital tests, to include security of buildings, alarms systems and CCTV, access control systems, digital security, audit trails plus staff vetting.</p>
<p>All of this combined establishes whether an organization meets the high standards set by FACT partners such as Universal, Disney, Sony, The Premier League and TV giant BSkyB.</p>
<p>&#8220;The FACT certification is yet another demonstration of the investments we’re making in not only ensuring the security of your data, but in gaining your trust as a business partner,&#8221; says Microsoft&#8217;s Alice Rison.</p>
<p>Of course, all of this comes at a cost. The FACT Certification Fee for each UK site is £2,100 per year. For those outside the UK the fee is the same, plus travel and accommodation expenses.</p>
<p>Earlier this year Microsoft met the standards required by the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/content-security-program/">cloud security guidelines</a>. More details of the MPAA&#8217;s Content Security Model can be found <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-demands-extraordinary-measures-to-prevent-piracy-150830/">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121066
title: Pirate Site Blocking Boosts Interest in VPNs, Research Shows
uri: Pirate-Site-Blocking-Boosts-Interest-in-VPNs-Research-Shows
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Xs7xcJt4JuY/
content:
<p><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076">Following a series of High Court orders, six of the UK’s major ISPs are required to block access to dozens of the world’s most popular ‘pirate’ sites.</p>
<p>The measures were supposed to make it harder for UK Internet subscribers to access these sites, but the effects on actual behavior are widely debated. </p>
<p>A new <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2766795">study</a> published by Carnegie Mellon University and Wellesley College researchers aims to provide some empirical evidence on this issue.</p>
<p>The researchers investigated the effects of a 2014 court order that required ISPs to block an additional 53 pirate sites. Using data from a panel of 58,809 UK Internet users, they then reviewed the changes in browsing patterns among these users.</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, visits to the blocked sites dropped dramatically, 90% in this case. However, the researchers didn&#8217;t observe an increase in visitors to pirate sites that remained unblocked.  </p>
<p>&#8220;We found that these blocks caused  a 90% drop in visits to the blocked sites while causing no increase in usage of unblocked sites. This led to a 22% decrease in total piracy for all users affected by the blocks&#8221;</p>
<p>This suggests that the pirate site blockades are indeed effective to a certain degree. However, as anecdotal evidence has shown in the past, they also boost the interest in circumvention tools such as VPNs.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Some users of the blocked sites, however, did seem to employ technical workarounds to continue usage of the blocked sites,&#8221; the researchers reveal. </p>
<p>The data show a marginally significant effect which indicates that &#8220;for every 10 additional visits to blocked sites before the blocks, a consumer increased their visits to VPN sites after the blocks by an additional 30%.&#8221;</p>
<p>In other words, while some pirates may drop out, there are also those who actively try to circumvent the blockades. </p>
<p>Overall, however, the researchers conclude that there&#8217;s a decrease in piracy and an increase in use of legal services. This effect is most pronounced for ad supported streaming services, and to a lesser degree (and only a 75% confidence level) for paid services. </p>
<p>&#8220;We also found that these blocks caused a 6% increase in visits to paid legal streaming sites like Netflix and a 10% increase in videos viewed on legal ad supported streaming sites like BBC and Channel 5.&#8221; </p>
<p>One should take into account that the results are based on data from 2014, after several large pirate sites were blocked already. This means that other pirates may have already dropped out after earlier blocks, while the more persistent pirates remain.  </p>
<p>This may also explain why there was a stronger effect on visits to legal services <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-block-doesnt-boost-sales-research-shows-150604/">in a previous study</a>. That said, the additional blocking measures still change people&#8217;s behavior.</p>
<p>&#8220;The evidence suggests that blocking large numbers of sites can still &#8216;move the dial&#8217; in terms of consumer behavior, but that there may be diminishing returns as remaining pirates may be more dispersed or else have lower willingness to pay for legal content.  </p>
<p>&#8220;Nonetheless, such blocks can serve to mitigate the possibility of a long-term return to the prior status quo,&#8221; the researchers add. </p>
<p>The research was carried out as part of Carnegie Mellon University’s Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics, which received a generous donation from the MPAA. However, the researchers suggest that their work is carried out independently.</p>
<p>That said, the results are likely to be used by the entertainment industries to justify additional blocks around the world. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121068
title: Pirate Bay Founder: Streaming Model Could Ignite New Piracy War
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founder-Streaming-Model-Could-Ignite-New-Piracy-War
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_QUyONZS_7A/
content:
<p><a href="media/faf17427.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-85601"><img src="media/1ceafd41.peter-sunde2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg" alt="peter-sunde" width="225" height="225" class="alignright size-full wp-image-85601" srcset="http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2-150x150.jpg 150w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/peter-sunde2.jpg 225w" sizes="(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px"></a>After signing up to Spotify several years ago one of my first tasks was to begin hand-crafting playlists of the thousands of 1980s and 1990s dance tracks I had previously bought on vinyl.</p>
<p>Once lovingly stacked and indexed in a spare room, these much-loved relics of a bygone era are now gathering dust in the attic, probably never to be played again. Or at least that&#8217;s what I thought.</p>
<p>Slowly but surely, tracks have been disappearing from my Spotify playlists with no explanation, including a rare Prodigy remix of a Praga Khan <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6ivFnbgbY">track</a> that finally triggered me to sign up to Spotify in the first place. If Spotify had that they must have <em>everything</em>, I assured myself at the time.</p>
<p>While the disappearance of some music from the service is to be expected, it doesn&#8217;t make it any less of a disappointment when it happens. It also undermines confidence in the product. After all, if one had bought the track instead of streaming it, it would still be here today. It&#8217;s a situation that&#8217;s familiar to The Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde who in a new interview with Germany&#8217;s <a href="http://futurezone.at/netzpolitik/pirate-bay-gruender-facebook-gehoert-aus-europa-verbannt/193.947.977">FutureZone</a> recalls similar experiences.</p>
<p>&#8220;I stopped using Spotify when suddenly overnight several titles disappeared from my playlist because the licenses for them were revoked. Someone else had decided which music I could listen to and which I could not. I had no backup, so I lost the music. I do not want that,&#8221; Sunde says.</p>
<p>To hear that Peter Sunde (by all accounts one of the world&#8217;s most infamous pirates) had placed his trust and his money with a legitimate content provider indicates that at its core Spotify had something good to offer. After all, it&#8217;s hardly an argument that Sunde was unable to obtain the music from elsewhere.</p>
<p>But what is perhaps most remarkable is that Sunde actually patronized a service which at its very core is the complete opposite of what The Pirate Bay stood for. Forget for a moment the notion of paying or not paying for media, that&#8217;s a distraction.</p>
<p>What the Pirate Bay did was empower its users to participate in a somewhat decentralized communications infrastructure which allowed them to build archives of music, movies, TV shows and software in their own homes. Not only did they &#8216;own&#8217; that content but much more importantly they exercised complete, physical control over it. Licenses getting revoked? Not a chance.</p>
<p>For all their great qualities (and they have them by the bucket load), Spotify and other streaming services such as Netflix offer something quite different &#8211; total centralization and a complete lack of user control over the content they&#8217;re <strike>buying</Strike> renting.</p>
<p>&#8220;When we look at the development of Netflix it is exactly the same as a Spotify for movies,&#8221; Sunde says. &#8220;What streaming has done is centralize the ownership of culture.&#8221;</p>
<p>And of course Sunde is absolutely right. At any point Spotify, Netflix and any other streaming service has the power to remove content, modify it, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tens-of-thousands-protest-netflixs-vpn-blockade-160226/">restrict access</a> to it geographically or &#8211; heaven forbid &#8211; go bankrupt, shut down, and deny access to it altogether.</p>
<p>However unlikely, it is possible that people invested in these services could be blasted back to a world without music and movies in an instant, should economic (or Internet disaster) circumstances dictate it. Unless people have physical access to that content they are done. Sunde wonders whether people will continue to put up with this scenario in the future.</p>
<p>&#8220;Maybe in five years time we&#8217;ll have a new file-sharing fight because anyone who uses these services will consider that while having access to the content is good, it is not so great having no control and actually owning none of it,&#8221; Sunde says.</p>
<p>So the big question remains: what can be done about it?</p>
<p>In keeping with Sunde&#8217;s previous assertion that he believes that torrent technology has stagnated, the Pirate Bay co-founder doesn&#8217;t really offer much hope for those inclined to obtain their content from unofficial sources.</p>
<p>&#8220;I have more interesting things to do. One can not eat indefinitely a cake. It may be the best cake in the world, but at some point you have to throw up,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>&#8220;I do not know how to fight it. Perhaps with better streaming piracy.&#8221;</p>
<p>With that an unlikely prospect, at least in music, legitimate streaming consumption will continue to grow, and with it the pitfalls of borrowing rather than buying music.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121118
title: Kim Dotcom Warns Mega Users to Backup Their Files
uri: Kim-Dotcom-Warns-Mega-Users-to-Backup-Their-Files
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/X3Fpj-PkE74/
content:
<p><img src="media/d0961783.mega_logo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mega_logo.png" width="200" height="109" class="alignright">In 2012, a combined effort by the United States and New Zealand governments brought Kim Dotcom&#8217;s Megaupload empire to its knees. Coordinated raids in multiple locations carried out by heavily armed officers ensured that a clear message was sent to copyright infringers.</p>
<p>But despite the overwhelming show of force, Dotcom refused to lie down and just a year later he launched a brand new file-hosting service. Known simply as &#8216;Mega&#8217;, the platform <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dotcoms-mega-launches-to-unprecedented-demand-130120/">launched to great fanfare</a> in 2013.</p>
<p>Mega quickly became a force to be reckoned with in the hosting market, with Dotcom promoting the platform at every turn. Nevertheless, controversy was never far away. </p>
<p>In September 2014, Mega was branded a &#8220;piracy haven&#8221; in a Digital Citizens Alliance report into the activities of &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/report-brands-dotcoms-mega-a-piracy-haven-140918/">shadowy cyberlockers</a>.&#8221;</p>
<p>As a direct consequence and under pressure from the U.S. government, in early 2015 PayPal stopped <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/under-u-s-pressure-paypal-nukes-mega-for-encrypting-files-150227/">processing payments</a> for Mega. There can be little doubt that hurt the site.</p>
<p>But behind the scenes other matters were becoming a distraction. In May 2015, Mega&#8217;s bid for a stock listing <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megas-bid-for-stock-exchange-listing-falls-through-150506/">fell through</a> and just two months later Dotcom&#8217;s earlier praise for the company turned sour.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega has experienced a hostile takeover and is no longer in the control of people who care about Internet Freedom. The New Zealand Government and Hollywood have seized a significant share of the company,” Dotcom told TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>“The combined shares seized by the NZ government and Hollywood were significant enough to stop our listing on the New Zealand stock exchange.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dotcom had already <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-resigns-as-mega-director-to-focus-on-music-venture-130904/">resigned</a> as a director of Mega in September 2013 but now he was publicly warning people against using the site.</p>
<p>Today Dotcom repeated those calls, warning users of Mega over what he sees as the precarious position of the company.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega had to survive without a credit card payment processor for almost 2 years now. The air is getting thin. Backup your Mega files,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/722942842193055745">told</a> users via Twitter.</p>
<p>But while a lack of payment processing options certainly won&#8217;t be helping Mega, Dotcom sees more danger in the reported controller of Mega, Chinese national and New Zealand citizen Bill Liu.</p>
<p>Back in 2009, Liu made headlines when it was revealed that despite being wanted for fraud in China, he was <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&#038;objectid=10554388">granted citizenship</a> in New Zealand. Now it&#8217;s been revealed by kiwi Prime Minister John Key that Liu is ranked number five on China&#8217;s &#8220;Top 100&#8221; extradition list.</p>
<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t seen the list, but there is a list,&#8221; Key <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&#038;objectid=11626012">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve also put out a list worldwide of the Top 100. Bill Liu is number five on it,&#8221; he said of the Chinese government.</p>
<p>New Zealand police have already seized millions of dollars of assets that are believed to belong to Liu, including some held in Mega, although Liu denies all wrong doing. Dotcom, however, remains unconvinced.</p>
<p>&#8220;The 5th most wanted criminal in China is in control of Mega and he wants to float the business in HK? Good luck,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/722941208444547073">said</a> this morning.</p>
<p>As these situations go, the short history of Mega is utterly unique. Never before has a platform in the file-sharing space had two entrepreneurs each worth millions of dollars being pursued for extradition by two of the world&#8217;s most powerful governments for entirely different reasons.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s currently very late evening in New Zealand so we&#8217;re not expecting an immediate response from Mega to our requests for comment. We&#8217;ll add them here as soon as they arrive.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Statement from Mega chairman Stephen Hall</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega has significant funding and strong support from shareholders so its financial position is certainly not precarious. Dotcom&#8217;s comment is factually incorrect and the motive is unknown,&#8221; Hall informs TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega continues to experience strong growth which illustrates the global appreciation of the quality of its services. Mr Liu has a shareholding interest but has no management or board position so he certainly doesn’t control Mega.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121136
title: UK Govt Pushes 10 Years Jail For Online Pirates
uri: UK-Govt-Pushes-10-Years-Jail-For-Online-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vOFzp_g2q7g/
content:
<p><img src="media/e928f84b.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" width="200" height="179" class="alignright">In early 2015 a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/is-10-years-in-jail-the-answer-to-online-pirates-150307/">study</a> commissioned by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) concluded that criminal sanctions for copyright infringement under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1988) should be amended to bring them into line with offenses such as counterfeiting.</p>
<p>The report triggered a proposal from the UK government that the maximum prison sentence for online copyright infringement should be increased to ten years. The current maximum of two years is not enough of a deterrent, it was argued.</p>
<p>In July 2015 the government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-wants-10-year-prison-sentence-for-online-pirates-150718/">launched a consultation</a> aiming to gauge opinion on boosting penalties to ensure that online piracy is considered as “no less serious” than offline infringements.</p>
<p>This morning the government released its conclusions while confirming it will indeed be asking Parliament for a ten year maximum sentence.</p>
<p>In a published statement, Minister for Intellectual Property Baroness Neville-Rolfe says that more than a thousand responses (<a href="media/d283acf5.summary_responses_on_online_copyright_infringement.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/517797/summary_responses_on_online_copyright_infringement.pdf">pdf</a>) helped to shape the government&#8217;s decision to stand by its earlier calls for increased penalties. Demands for additional clarity will also be addressed.</p>
<p>&#8220;As a result we are now proposing changes that include increasing the maximum sentence, but at the same time addressing concerns about the scope of the offense,&#8221; Neville-Rolfe says.</p>
<p>&#8220;The revised provisions will help protect rights holders, while making the boundaries of the offense clearer, so that everyone can understand how the rules should be applied.&#8221;</p>
<p>The minister says that a number of safeguards are already in place to &#8220;limit the risk&#8221; that a &#8220;very low level&#8221; infringer could be subjected to a high penalty, including that infringement must be proven to the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt.</p>
<p>Addressing concerns raised by the consultation that unwitting infringers might find themselves subjected to draconian sentences when they had no intent to cause any harm, the government references a system that has been in place for some time at the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU).</p>
<p>Without mentioning them by name, the report notes that &#8220;enforcement agencies and private prosecutors have a staged response system, encompassing education, &#8216;cease and desist&#8217; notices, and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-piracy-police-asked-domain-registrars-to-shut-down-317-sites-150821/">domain suspension</a>.&#8221; </p>
<p>In other words, those likely to be targeted by the ten year sentence are given <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-launch-campaign-to-shut-down-torrent-sites-130604/">advance warning</a> by the likes of PIPCU, FACT and the BPI, that they&#8217;re treading on thin ice.</p>
<p>The government also addresses concerns that the term “affect prejudicially” is too vague when used to describe the extent to which a copyright holder needs to be affected  before an offense is committed.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was argued that a single infringing file could fulfil this requirement in some circumstances (if widely shared subsequent to the infringement for example) therefore setting an unacceptably low threshold for committing the offense,&#8221; the government explains.</p>
<p>The government&#8217;s position is that minor infringement does not lead to a criminal prosecution but it does concede that the term &#8220;affect prejudicially&#8221; has the potential to &#8220;give rise to an element of ambiguity.&#8221;</p>
<p>Perhaps predictably the consultation raised concerns that a maximum sentence of ten years would place infringement alongside serious offenses such as rape, firearms offenses and child cruelty.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the government feels the sentence is warranted and uses the case brought against <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/how-hollywood-caught-the-uks-most-prolific-movie-pirates-151227/">several release group members</a> last year as an indicator that while ten years is a maximum, it would only be utilized in the rarest of cases.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Government believes that a maximum sentence of 10 years allows the courts to apply an appropriate sentence to reflect the scale of the offending. An example where copyright infringement was deemed to warrant longer than a 2 year sentence is where five defendants received sentences <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-movie-pirates-sentenced-to-a-total-of-17-years-151218/">totaling 17 years</a> for releasing more than 2,500 of the latest films onto the internet,&#8221; the government writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;They were prosecuted under the Fraud Act, where the highest sentence was four and a half years. Capping the maximum available sentence at a lower level would unnecessarily limit the ability of the courts to apply appropriate sentences in the more serious cases of copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>The government <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/changes-to-penalties-for-online-copyright-infringement">says</a> it will now introduce its re-drafted offense provisions to Parliament at the &#8220;earliest available legislative opportunity.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121191
title: Opera Browser Adds Free and Unlimited VPN
uri: Opera-Browser-Adds-Free-and-Unlimited-VPN
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IemBItu6G-c/
content:
<p><img src="media/14c186bc.vpnon.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpnon.png" alt="vpnon" width="250" height="181" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121195">Back in 2006 Opera was the first major browser to include BitTorrent support, and today it releases another feature that will appeal to millions of users.</p>
<p>The company has added a free and unlimited VPN to the <a href="http://www.opera.com/developer">developer version</a> of its browser. This means that users can browse the web securely at the <a href="media/e610bfc3.operavpn.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/operavpn.jpg">flick of a switch</a>.</p>
<p>Privacy aside, the built-in VPN is also an ideal tool to circumvent website blockades. This may come in handy for the aforementioned BitTorrent users as well, as sites such as The Pirate Bay are blocked in many countries.</p>
<p>The VPN connection is provided by the Canadian VPN service SurfEasy, which like many other <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/">VPNs</a> keeps no logs. SurfEasy was acquired by Opera last year and VP of Marketing Steve Kelly tells TorrentFreak that privacy and censorship were the main reasons to add the free VPN to Opera.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everyone deserves to surf privately online if they want to. Today, it is too difficult to maintain privacy when using the web, and way too many people experience roadblocks online, like blocked content,&#8221; Kelly says.</p>
<p>&#8220;By releasing an integrated, free and unlimited VPN in the browser, we make it simple for people to enhance their privacy and access the content they want,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>It is worth highlighting that the VPN connection is limited to the web browser. This means that any content shared outside the browser, through traditional torrent clients for example, is not private. </p>
<p>Opera&#8217;s in-browser VPN uses AES-256 encryption and SurfEasy says that the initial response has been very strong. The network is prepared to handle hundreds of thousands of simultaneous connections without any problems.</p>
<p>With the addition of a VPN feature Opera hopes to set a new standard for modern browsers. Earlier, it was already the first major browser to include an ad-blocker.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is the first VPN option integrated into a major browser. Also, it’s delivered from a company you can trust, with an extensive history of providing reliable and trustworthy internet products,&#8221; Kelly told us. </p>
<p>More details about the built-in VPN are available at the <a href="https://www.opera.com/blogs/desktop/2016/04/free-vpn-integrated-opera-for-windows-mac/">Opera blog</a>. People who want to give it a spin should download the latest developer release, as the feature is not available in the regular version yet.</p>
<p><center><strong>Opera&#8217;s VPN feature</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/OgOsu2PipmE?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121142
title: ISP Vows to Prevent Users From a Piracy Witch Hunt
uri: ISP-Vows-to-Prevent-Users-From-a-Piracy-Witch-Hunt
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W92Ynf3SyIo/
content:
<p><img src="media/17a592c8.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" alt="trollsign" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108977">In recent years file-sharers all across Europe have been threatened with lawsuits, if they don&#8217;t pay a significant settlement fee. </p>
<p>The process was pioneered in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/lawyers-sent-109000-piracy-threats-in-germany-during-2013-140304/">Germany</a> where it turned into an industry by itself, but copyright holders have also targeted alleged pirates in the UK, Finland and elsewhere.</p>
<p>Sweden is one of the latest countries where these so-called &#8220;copyright trolls&#8221; have landed. At the birth ground of The Pirate Bay, media outfit <a href="http://www.crystalis-entertainment.com/">Crystalis Entertainment</a> received permission from the court to identify several BitTorrent users, based on their IP-addresses.</p>
<p>The case, which could be the first of many, was filed against the local ISP TeliaSonera who handed over the requested information without putting up much of a fight.</p>
<p>This prompted the competing Internet provider <a href="https://www.bahnhof.se/">Bahnhof</a> to issue a warning. The company notes that the copyright holder in question doesn&#8217;t have a very strong case, and it criticizes Telia for caving in too easily.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Stockholm district court did not even see any evidence showing that these IP addresses were actually used for file sharing. It could basically be one of these Nigerian mail scams,&#8221; Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung says.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think that Telia folded caved in too easily. Although Crystal Entertainment properly represents certain copyright holders, at Bahnhof we would choose to appeal,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>The ISP says that they will not hand over any data without urging for a proper review of the evidence. </p>
<p>This is no surprise for a company that&#8217;s heavily focused on user privacy. Bahnhof&#8217;s tagline is &#8220;Internet with privacy&#8221; and two years ago the ISP was one of the first to launch a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-provides-free-vpn-to-protect-customer-privacy-141117/">free VPN</a>, responding to a legal requirement that required it to log subscriber activities.</p>
<p>In a press release Bahnhof explains how these extortion-like demands from copyright holders have become commonplace in Germany. It&#8217;s exactly this type of witch hunt is something they hope to prevent in Sweden. </p>
<p>This means that if copyright holders demand the same info from Bahnhof, they will fight this in court.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have to follow the law and no one can predict the future, but one thing I can guarantee, we&#8217;re on the side if our users. We will do everything in our power to prevent the German situation from spreading,&#8221; Karlung says.</p>
<p>Bahnhof&#8217;s CEO also has some advice for the media companies that are affected by piracy. They should invest their time and money in offering great content, instead of taking their customers to court.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is better for copyright holders to put their money into developing services that people want to pay for, like Netflix and Spotify, instead of becoming entrenched in the 1900s,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121216
title: Prince Gave a File-Hosting Site a Personal 30 Min Piracy Lecture
uri: Prince-Gave-a-File-Hosting-Site-a-Personal-30-Min-Piracy-Lecture
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/CnasRLrCYJM/
content:
<p><a href="media/d195d098.purple.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/purple.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-121225"><img src="media/d195d098.purple.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/purple.jpg" alt="purple" width="220" height="220" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121225"></a>Yesterday the world had to come to terms with the fact that one of the greatest musicians of the modern age was no longer with us. As first <a href="http://www.tmz.com/2016/04/21/prince-dead-at-57/">reported</a> by TMZ, Prince passed away at Paisley Park, aged just 57.</p>
<p>While undoubtedly a musical genius, Prince&#8217;s relationship with the Internet was often a difficult one, with the entertainer even <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/02/prince-pulls-music-from-all-streaming-services-except-tidal">withdrawing</a> all of his music from the major streaming services last year, leaving it only on Tidal.</p>
<p>But in file-sharing circles Prince was probably best known for his efforts to bring Internet piracy to an end. Almost nine years ago as part of an initiative to &#8220;reclaim the Internet&#8221;, Prince <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prince-hires-web-sheriff-t0-take-on-the-pirate-bay-070914/">hired</a> controversial anti-piracy outfit Web Sheriff to hit sites including YouTube, eBay, and of course, The Pirate Bay. The letter the site received on his behalf <a href="media/d3e2cc14.sheriffletter.gif" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com//images/sheriffletter.gif">was &#8216;unique&#8217;</a> to say the least.</p>
<p>“Well, ‘way to go on losing all your fans&#8217;,” Pirate Bay&#8217;s Peter Sunde told TF at the time. “I truly respect the son of a king’s work as a musician but he seems like he has some kind of problem in getting to deal with his fans.”</p>
<p>In the end that particular threat of legal action came to nothing but Prince&#8217;s fight against piracy never ended and sometimes pushed the boundaries of sensible. In 2014 Prince shocked almost everyone by threatening to sue 22 fans who posted links to videos of his concerts on Facebook.</p>
<p>&#8220;Prince has suffered and is continuing to suffer damages in an amount according to proof, but no less than $1 million per Defendant,” the lawsuit <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prince-hits-music-pirates-with-22m-lawsuit-140127/">read</a>.</p>
<p>Just a day later the lawsuit was withdrawn, adding yet another mystery to Prince&#8217;s life.</p>
<p>But whatever one might think of the man&#8217;s attitude towards the Internet and indeed piracy, one had to admire his commitment. While obviously keen to protect his own interests, Prince seemed to truly care about artists&#8217; welfare. Interestingly, an extraordinary story that surfaced last night underlines just that.</p>
<p>When unauthorized content appears online, most artists and their labels rely on a chain of middle men to do the work for them, including taking content down and/or issuing legal threats. Indeed, Prince has relied on this mechanism himself many times in the past.</p>
<p>However, according to the operator of music hosting site <a href="http://yourlisten.com/">YourListen</a>, Prince wasn&#8217;t averse to dealing with things personally. After allowing only Tidal to stream his music, Prince discovered unauthorized music on YourListen &#8211; and decided to do something about it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I never thought in my life I would get a call on my cell phone from Prince,&#8221; Scott Goodman <a href="http://www.scpr.org/programs/the-frame/2016/04/21/48190/prince-s-music-movies-mentorship-and-fight-against/">told</a> The Frame.</p>
<p>&#8220;We never had the artist decide to physically call us and ask us to take that music down,&#8221; he said, noting that function was mostly carried out by automated bots.</p>
<p>Amazingly, Goodman says that Prince stayed on the line for almost 30 minutes to explain why he was determined to protect his music.</p>
<p>&#8220;His big picture and his goal and battle he&#8217;s been fighting for decades is stopping piracy. He truly believed that piracy could come to an end with people like him, who obviously had power and money. He told me, &#8216;Scott, we need to fight piracy. We cannot have musicians having their music stolen&#8217;,&#8221; Goodman says.</p>
<p>Having someone like Prince make a personal call to any kind of file-sharing site is absolutely unprecedented and it certainly appears to have had an impact on Goodman. Of course, one phone call is unlikely to change the world, but the thought that someone as reclusive as Prince believed in a cause enough to make that call himself is quite something.</p>
<p>&#8220;Prince fought the music industry, but also the internet (sued me at least once),&#8221; Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde <a href="https://twitter.com/brokep/status/723222302276489217">said</a> last night.</p>
<p>&#8220;He was a creative genius, deserves so much respect. RIP.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121232
title: Prince’s Death Prompts ‘Awkward’ Piracy Surge
uri: Prince-s-Death-Prompts-Awkward-Piracy-Surge
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/GMpbWV8Cx7c/
content:
<p><img src="media/eba4c6a8.piratkeyb.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb.png" alt="piratkeyb" width="275" height="194" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108110">As a shock to the world Prince was found dead at his home, Paisley Park, yesterday morning. </p>
<p>His death is being mourned all around the world in a way seldom seen before, a sign of the massive impact he had on several generations. </p>
<p>The days to come will be filled with anecdotes, retrospects, documentaries and specials about his life, and most importantly about his music. Rightfully so. </p>
<p>Similarly, many people want to play their favorite Prince tracks in honor of a great artists. However, those who know Prince realize that this is more easily said than done. </p>
<p>Prince was known for protecting his work. Not just from pirates, but also from greedy music labels and other &#8216;profiteers.&#8217; This is one of the reasons why it&#8217;s hard to find his tracks on YouTube or Spotify.</p>
<p>As we <a href="/prince-gave-a-file-hosting-site-a-personal-30-min-piracy-lecture-160422">noted earlier today</a>, Prince&#8217;s piracy aversion was particularly strong. He was one of the first to threaten The Pirate Bay with a lawsuit almost <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prince-to-take-on-the-pirate-bay-071111/">ten years ago</a>, as co-founder Peter Sunde <a href="https://twitter.com/brokep/status/723222302276489217">recalled</a> yesterday.</p>
<p>With the help of Web Sheriff he also made sure that pirated copies were regularly removed from various pirate sites. At least, from those sites that honor takedown requests. </p>
<p>Despite this strong anti-piracy stance, Prince fans have not shied away from torrent sites over the past 24-hours. On the contrary, just several hours after his death full discographies and compilation albums were uploaded all over the Internet.</p>
<p>Before his death only a few dozen people were actively sharing Prince albums online, but this number jumped to several thousand soon after his passing. </p>
<p><center><strong>Prince torrents</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/db5be3ee.katprince.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/katprince.jpg" alt="katprince" width="600" height="310" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121247"></center></p>
<p>Over the past day an estimated 100,000 people have downloaded a Prince torrent. And on KickassTorrents, the most visited torrent site, Prince currently fills the top five most-shared music file slots.  </p>
<p>Most users probably see nothing wrong in downloading the tracks. Some might even do it as some sort of tribute, as the various comment sections are littered with RIPs and positive words.</p>
<p>However, the piracy craze feels a little awkward to say the least. </p>
<p>Perhaps the best way to honor Prince is to buy some of his music. Not because the money will do him any good, but because that&#8217;s what he would have wanted. Yeah, awkward&#8230;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121102
title: RuTracker and Sci-Hub Nominated for Free Knowledge Award
uri: RuTracker-and-Sci-Hub-Nominated-for-Free-Knowledge-Award
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/LSiWbZuVdgg/
content:
<p><img src="media/87228a63.wikiru.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wikiru.png" alt="wikiru" width="177" height="160" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121106">For the third year in a row the official <a href="https://ru.wikimedia.org/wiki/%D0%97%D0%B0%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%BD%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B0">Russian Wikimedia chapter</a> is awarding a prize to a person or organization that made ​​a notable contribution in line with the goals of the Wikimedia movement.</p>
<p>Earlier this month Wikimedia announced the <a href="http://rublacklist.net/16257/">nominations</a> for the Wiki <a href="https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&#038;hl=en&#038;ie=UTF8&#038;langpair=auto%7Cen&#038;rurl=translate.google.com&#038;tbb=1&#038;u=https://ru.wikinews.org/wiki/%25D0%259A%25D0%25B0%25D1%2582%25D0%25B5%25D0%25B3%25D0%25BE%25D1%2580%25D0%25B8%25D1%258F:%25D0%2592%25D0%25B8%25D0%25BA%25D0%25B8-%25D0%25BF%25D1%2580%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BC%25D0%25B8%25D1%258F&#038;usg=ALkJrhhnwwY6GgZkYZhP4oR-CCEuvHff6g">&#8220;Free Knowledge&#8221; award</a>, which includes Russia&#8217;s largest torrent tracker RuTracker as well as  Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan.</p>
<p>Elbakyan made headlines around the world after she was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/elsevier-cracks-down-on-pirated-scientific-articles-150609/">sued by Elsevier</a>, one of the largest academic publishers. Through Sci-Hub she offer millions of academic articles, which are usually behind a paywall, free of charge. </p>
<p>“Everyone should have access to knowledge regardless of their income or affiliation. And that’s absolutely legal. The idea that knowledge can be a private property of some commercial company sounds absolutely weird to me,” she <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/">told us</a> last year. </p>
<p><center><strong>Sci-Hub</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ba95fbdf.sci-hub.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub.jpg" alt="sci-hub" width="600" height="358" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121105"></center></p>
<p>This deviant stance is supported by many scientists who are calling for more open access to research findings, and this also got her a nomination for Wikimedia Russia&#8217;s Free Knowledge award.</p>
<p>&#8220;For many Russian scientists this project is in fact the only opportunity to quickly familiarize themselves with scientific articles, especially given the economic events of the last couple of years,&#8221; one commenter noted during the nomination process. </p>
<p>In total there are nine nominees, including a Russian State Library project, the Russian Ministry of Defense and the hugely popular torrent site RuTracker.</p>
<p>In recent months RuTracker has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rutracker-to-bypass-web-blockade-with-im-delivered-torrents-160328/">pushed back</a> hard against legal pressure from various sides and various censorship efforts. According to some Wikimedia members, the site deserves to be awarded for its role in freely spreading Russian culture. </p>
<p>&#8220;I know hundreds of writers who through RuTracker distribute their own works: musicians, directors, writers, scientists, teachers, photographers and others,&#8221; a commenter noted during the nomination process, applauding the site&#8217;s free knowledge approach.</p>
<p>Not everyone agrees with the nomination of RuTracker though. Another member highlighted the numerous copyright violations which run contrary to the ideas of the Wikimedia Foundation, calling the nomination &#8220;unacceptable and absurd.&#8221;</p>
<p>The members of the Russian Wikimedia chapter will now weigh the pros and cons for each of the nominees. The winner will be announced next month during the award ceremony. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121115
title: Free Textra SMS App Threatens To Report Android Pirates
uri: Free-Textra-SMS-App-Threatens-To-Report-Android-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/APUYsBC67bw/
content:
<p><a href="media/362909e6.textra-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/textra-1.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121187"><img src="media/362909e6.textra-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/textra-1.png" alt="textra" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121187"></a>Millions of Android apps are downloaded from the Play Store everyday which is hardly a surprise given the huge choice and massive userbase of the Google platform.</p>
<p>Many Android users happily go through life without spending a penny on software, mainly because there are adequate free or ad-supported versions available for many top titles.</p>
<p>Of course, millions of users prefer to bypass Google Play altogether by installing raw .APK files from third party sources. With this option they lose the convenience of Google Play but gain the ability to install premium software without paying for it, potentially at the risk of malware.</p>
<p>Strangely, not only do people pirate premium titles but they also pirate free software too. Case in point, <a href="http://www.textra.me/">Textra SMS</a> from Delicious Inc. Self-described as a &#8220;seriously beautiful, feature rich SMS and MMS app&#8221;, Textra SMS is a smash hit having been downloaded between five and ten million times <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textra">according to Google</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, plenty of people are installing Textra from third-party sources, largely to remove the ads that allow the software to be offered for free. However, those that have done so are being greeted with a surprise. Postings in dozens of locations around the web from what appear to be Textra pirates indicate that their activities haven&#8217;t gone unnoticed.</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/94069349.textra.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/textra.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121180"><img src="media/94069349.textra.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/textra.png" alt="textra" width="540" height="754" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121180"></a></center></p>
<p>While anti-piracy notices in software are nothing new, the warning and ticking clock from Textra has a few people worried. One Reddit <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Piracy/comments/4fqt71/got_a_message_from_textra_about_having_a_pirates/">thread</a> has a warning that pirating online apps is extremely dangerous.</p>
<p>&#8220;Pirating something that requires you to being online is a suicide mission. They will probs send a fine of $250 or something,&#8221; one commenter said, somewhat pessimistically.</p>
<p>This assessment is amusingly over-bleak but it doesn&#8217;t sit in isolation. In other discussions people question whether it is possible for Textra to track down pirates down through the app, whether they could be reported to their ISP, Google, and in one case even whether they could get in trouble with the police.</p>
<p>While finding the prospect of someone being reported to law enforcement for pirating a free app somewhat amusing, TF contacted Delicious Inc. for comment. Firstly, was the message their doing?</p>
<p>&#8220;Sure there are a bunch of &#8216;cracked&#8217; versions of Textra available on the web. If you search on Google for cracked or pirated or ad-free you&#8217;ll find them,&#8221; Textra&#8217;s Max told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;They are hacked in respect the APK has been modified and code injected to bypass the licensing checks. Periodically we check for these and send out a notification to users. Some of which may not even be aware of the fact, for example a friend downloaded it for them.&#8221;</p>
<p>So having established that the messages aren&#8217;t fake, we again pushed Max on the threats. The notice says that the company considers piracy a serious matter and has a policy to &#8220;report repeated violations.&#8221; It also suggests that users can avoid issues by downloading the official version of Textra from Google Play within three days.</p>
<p>TF asked what happens if users don&#8217;t comply with the deadline and the response we received suggests that Delicious would simply prefer that users install the official, free product.</p>
<p>&#8220;Legally there are a whole raft of options all the way from DMCA takedown requests to civil proceedings. It&#8217;s not a big issue for us, but on occasions we try our best to encourage users to &#8216;do the right thing&#8217; that&#8217;s all,&#8221; Max said.</p>
<p>Of course, making absolutely sure of no action is literally just a click away (an install link is provided in the notice) and since Textra SMS is free, users have nothing to lose.</p>
<p>While there are probably better ways to get customers on board than threatening them, in this case it&#8217;s likely that the warning had plenty of pirates quickly installing the official version.</p>
<p>Textra wouldn&#8217;t be drawn on stats but it&#8217;s hard not to see pirating this excellent free app as unfair to the devs. We tested the official version and didn&#8217;t see any ads at all but apparently when they do appear they&#8217;re pretty unobtrusive.</p>
<p>&#8220;The app is free, so you&#8217;d wonder why a user would risk installing an APK that&#8217;s been modified (and the risks of injected code like key recorders, password sniffers etc). Why would you do that!?&#8221; Max asks.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a pretty good point.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121060
title: Does ‘Piracy’ Make Copyright Infringers Sound Cool?
uri: Does-Piracy-Make-Copyright-Infringers-Sound-Cool
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ABRC7kw_ROg/
content:
<p><a href="media/b5de2ebe.piratewipes.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/piratewipes.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-75881"><img src="media/1490f587.piratewipes.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratewipes.jpg" alt="piratewipes" width="200" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-75881"></a>When Steven Spielberg&#8217;s timeless classic E.T was released in 1981, those of us who were kids at the time wanted only one thing &#8211; to watch it on the silver screen. That, however, was easier said than done.</p>
<p>As alien a concept to today&#8217;s youngsters as E.T was to us back then, queues to watch the movie snaked hundreds of yards beyond our local cinema. The infrastructure simply couldn&#8217;t cope with the popularity of this cute extra terrestrial and after not making it to the doors after queuing for hours, some moms were reluctant to try again.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s when we learned about pirates. Us kids never saw one in the flesh but we knew they existed. Rumor had it that a friend of a friend of a friend knew someone who knew a pirate &#8220;who got stuff from America&#8221;. And he had a copy of E.T on both VHS and Betamax videotape. Like&#8230;.wow.</p>
<p>After emerging from legend, slowly but surely the mythical tapes got passed around and although the quality was almost unwatchable, everyone agreed that this pirate guy must be someone special. Even then we knew that he was probably doing something at least a little wrong. None of the kids cared though. Pirates were mysterious &#8211; and fun.</p>
<p>Of course, pirates existed long before then. Pirate radio stations had been around for decades and in the eighties they gave us teenagers the only chance to listen to the imported house music that the big stations couldn&#8217;t be bothered with. To us that was very cool indeed and not for a second was it ever equated with theft.</p>
<p>Pirates operated outside the law, we knew that, so when the DJs suddenly went silent we understood that an 80s version of a Pirate Bay raid might have just taken place. Would they ever come back? We never knew. But whether it was E.T or community radio, piracy and pirates were undoubtedly exciting.</p>
<p>So with that in mind, have the entertainment industries picked entirely the wrong term to describe the analog and now digital buccaneers who take their products and give them away for free? Graeme Grant, head of anti-piracy operations at IFPI, appears to think so.</p>
<p>Speaking this week at the <a href="https://www.markmonitor.com">MarkMonitor</a> Annual Spring Symposium in London, Grant <a href="http://www.trademarksandbrandsonline.com/news/markmonitor-annual-spring-symposium-piracy-has-been-made-cool-says-ifpi-4685">said</a> that referring to today&#8217;s illegal downloading as &#8216;piracy&#8217; had &#8220;made it cool.&#8221;</p>
<p>“People think of piracy and think of action films about pirates,&#8221; Grant said. &#8220;In a sense calling it that has been a hindrance because people think they are doing something cool.&#8221;</p>
<p>While some might argue that much of the romance has ebbed away alongside piracy&#8217;s mainstream exposure, piracy probably remains reasonably &#8216;cool&#8217; for millions of people. Thirty years on it still provides a way for people to access movies playing in cinemas and it still provides outlets for niche content that mainstream platforms can&#8217;t be bothered with.</p>
<p>But does the term &#8220;piracy&#8221; in itself help to sustain the magic? TorrentFreak contacted people who are all considered pirates by the entertainment industries to find out if the term helps, hinders or even annoys them. Spud17 of The Pirate Bay definitely doesn&#8217;t have a problem with it.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t mind people calling us a pirate site, we are The Pirate Bay and have a pirate ship as our logo after all,&#8221; Spud17 says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Everything is down to perception, and I personally don&#8217;t have time to argue with people who think piracy is bad, wrong etc, because they have no clue what we&#8217;re about in the first place.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the other end of the scale casual torrent site user &#8216;Paul&#8217; told us that he doesn&#8217;t consider what he&#8217;s doing as being piracy and that the term should be reserved for more serious infringers.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think of myself as a downloader. I download music and films for my own personal use. I don&#8217;t see it as romantic or anything. I think people who run the sites are pirates and giving me the same name isn&#8217;t really fair,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>On the other hand, two seasoned music releasers told us that they have no problem with the term piracy. Both are happy to be called pirates with one conceding that there is a certain kudos attached to the label.</p>
<p>&#8220;We get accused of wearing the pirate label as a badge of honor and I&#8217;m guilty as charged. It makes it easy to call yourself a pirate [since the Pirate Bay do it] and it&#8217;s also more fun than being a &#8216;music thief&#8217; or whatever,&#8221; one said.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the operator of another of the world&#8217;s largest torrent sites was a little less happy over the use of the term.</p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care what anyone calls a site like mine. If they think I&#8217;m a pirate site, sure, I don&#8217;t really care,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a bad thing being branded as a pirate in front of the law without due process by a major conglomerate/any big company. Pirates steal. Sites don&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
<p>It was a little unexpected to hear the releasers and the site operator both viewing each other as the pirates. However, the idea that &#8216;pirate&#8217; sounds more appealing than &#8220;content thief&#8221; was definitely more predictable.</p>
<p>That latter phrase has been gaining popularity among copyright holders in recent years but &#8216;copiers&#8217; being branded thieves is rarely well received, not least at The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>&#8220;The media portray users of our site as &#8216;broke teens,&#8217; &#8216;digital thieves,&#8217; and a range of other ignorant and uneducated terms,&#8221; Spud17 says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Theft is the permanent removal of something without consent; piracy, or filesharing/copying, is about copying something and sharing it with others, something that humans have done since we were invented. We have always shared culture with each other, our peers.&#8221;</p>
<p>To those who have grown up being serviced by helpful pirates in a massively under-served market, it&#8217;s no surprise that there&#8217;s still a little romance in the air. It&#8217;s certainly something that the folks at The Pirate Bay can relate to.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sure, you can find all the latest games, TV shows and movies on TPB, but you can also find shows and movies from around the world that would never be broadcast in your own country, or that have been censored/banned by your particular government. This is about free access to everything, for everyone,&#8221; Spud17 says.</p>
<p>&#8220;They can call us what they like, we&#8217;ve been doing it since before the digital age and we&#8217;ll continue. Pirate or file-sharer/copier, the terms aren&#8217;t important, what we do, is.&#8221;</p>
<p>That is something that people on all sides of the piracy debate will agree on.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121292
title: YIFY Speaks: Confessions Of A Movie Piracy Icon
uri: YIFY-Speaks-Confessions-Of-A-Movie-Piracy-Icon
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lEukx0OBDMc/
content:
<p><img src="media/1453e870.yify.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/yify.png" class="alignright" alt="yify">In 2010 a fresh movie piracy &#8216;group&#8217; started to gain traction. Borrowing work from the so-called ‘Scene’, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-hollywood-nemesis-becomes-iconic-piracy-brand-131005/">YIFY</a> started to publish dozens of popular movies to popular torrent sites.</p>
<p>Not much later the group launched its own torrent website under their <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yify-torrents-announces-retirement-of-yify-but-show-goes-on-140124/">new brand YTS</a>, featuring high quality releases of the latest movies. Hundreds of them, and later thousands.</p>
<p>As the years went by the group amassed a huge following and a year ago its website was generating millions of pageviews per day. A true success story, but one that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">ended abruptly last October</a>.</p>
<p>Hollywood sources tracked down the founder of YIFY and filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit in New Zealand. This case was quickly settled out of court, but it effectively meant the end of YIFY and YTS. </p>
<p>Today, YIFY speaks in public for the first time after the shutdown. He was kind enough to discuss a variety of topics with TorrentFreak, ranging from the early beginnings to YIFY&#8217;s demise and beyond.</p>
<h4>The beginning</h4>
<p>YIFY tells us that he started uploading torrents for the first time while he was in his late teens, when he was still in school. It started very small, as a hobby, and at the time he couldn&#8217;t imagine that it would quickly grow out of proportion.</p>
<p>&#8220;Back in early 2010 I was at university doing the first year of my four year computer science degree,&#8221; YIFY says.</p>
<p>&#8220;It wasn’t really a big deal at the time, just regular uploads on TPB, Demonoid, ET, and 1337x. My friends always knew what I was doing and who I was. At the time it was nothing worth bragging about.&#8221; </p>
<p>However, a year later the YIFY tag started to become noticed. New movie releases came out at a regular frequency and were downloaded by hundreds of thousands of people. </p>
<p>&#8220;A year in is when friends started to see it as something more, and YIFY started becoming a well-known name on the internet. At no point in time did I try to hide this, if anything I was proud and happy to even brag about it,&#8221; he says. </p>
<p>The bragging part is not something that&#8217;s common with torrent uploaders, due to the risks involved. However, YIFY was not too concerned about the consequences and made little effort to hide his real identity. He didn&#8217;t even bother to use a VPN or other privacy tools. </p>
<p>As time went by more people got involved and in 2014 the group had a dozen &#8220;staff&#8221; members, including moderators, developers and encoders. </p>
<p><center><strong>The old staff page (2014)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/49224252.yify-staff.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/yify-staff.jpg" alt="yify-staff" width="606" height="320" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121316"></center></p>
<p>Over the years many people came and went but YIFY always remained in charge.</p>
<p>&#8220;There was always only a single person &#8216;leading&#8217; the project and who ultimately called the shots. After all, it was my baby,&#8221; he tells us.  </p>
<h4>Stealing From The Scene</h4>
<p>With the popularity also came controversy. Some people praised YIFY for its video quality and others hated the group for it. Another often heard complaint is that YIFY was &#8220;stealing&#8221; from the Scene. </p>
<p>Looking back, YIFY doesn&#8217;t necessarily disagree with the critique. The quality wasn&#8217;t all that good and the group never denied that it used Scene movies for its own releases. YIFY admits that he downloaded movies from groups such as SPARKS, AMIABLE, GEKOS, and used these for his own work.</p>
<p>While YIFY appreciates and respects the work of these Scene groups, he never wanted to be a part of them. He found his own &#8216;niche&#8217; instead, with an audience of millions of users.</p>
<p>&#8220;Technically we were &#8216;stealing&#8217; from the Scene. I respect what they did and would thank them a bunch in person if I could. However, we never followed any Scene rules and we did not really care to be part of their elitist club either,&#8221; he says. </p>
<p>&#8220;Ultimately, the way I saw it, the YIFY brand was simply filling another niche. It was no secret that most of our sources were from normal Scene uploaders,&#8221; YIFY adds.</p>
<p>YIFY did collaborate with the P2P group PublicHD in the past, and on some occasions they had their own sources, releasing content before the Scene got their hands on it.</p>
<p>&#8220;There were occasions, back when PublicHD were active, that we would partner up. PublicHD were not Scene either, but there were multiple occasions that they were able to get disks even sooner than the Scene would, and would upload them to public torrent sites,&#8221; YIFY says. </p>
<p>&#8220;When this was a thing, I was able to get access to the rips, and the PublicHD guys always waited for me to finish encoding and uploading before they fully seeded their large high quality version. When PublicHD went away so did my source.&#8221; </p>
<h4>The lawsuit, the end</h4>
<p>October last year YIFY and its YTS website disappeared without warning or explanation. The mystery was eventually solved after a few days, when it became apparent that the MPAA was the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-we-shut-down-ytsyify-and-popcorn-time-151103/">driving force</a> behind the shutdown. </p>
<p>Not much later we were able to confirm that the group&#8217;s founder had signed a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/yts-yify-signs-unprecedented-settlement-with-mpaa-151105/">private settlement</a> with the movie studios, effectively ending the case. However, details of the deal were never disclosed.</p>
<p>Today YIFY is not going to comment on the settlement or the exact circumstances either, most likely because he is not allowed to do so. The only thing he was able to say on the final days is the following. </p>
<p>&#8220;I always in my mind and to my peers said &#8216;As soon as someone properly asks you to stop, you stop and walk away from it&#8217;. This is essentially how it all played out.&#8221;</p>
<h4>YIFY Fakes and YTS Impostors</h4>
<p>Soon after YIFY closed its doors many others jumped in to hijack the brand. Several sites mimicked the look of the defunct YTS site and started to release movies of their own. This includes YTS.ag, a site that remains popular today. </p>
<p>YIFY was not pleased to see these impostors emerge, and initially thought he might have been hacked. </p>
<p>&#8220;My initial thoughts was &#8216;Oh shit, how did they even get this?! was I hacked??&#8217; I was very impressed initially. After a while, and realizing they simply cloned this from the internet-archive Wayback Machine, that magic feeling went away,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p><center><strong>The official YTS site in 2015</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/777d93f7.ytshome.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ytshome.jpg" alt="ytshome" width="600" height="409" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121317"></center></p>
<p>The initial fear later turned into anger, but there was of course little he could do. Still, speaking on the issue today he would advise people to stay away from any of these sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;When the fakes started to claim they were the real YIFY rather than saying they were there and wanted to continue as a different entity, I was a little angry. But at the end of the day it was inevitable, and in their defense they did a really good job of what they attempted at, even fooling me at the start.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;That said, if someone comes up to me and asks about the fakes I tell them to stay away,&#8221; YIFY adds.</p>
<h4>Hollywood and Piracy</h4>
<p>In five years YIFY grew out to become one of Hollywood&#8217;s main arch rivals. Today the group doesn&#8217;t pose a threat anymore, but its demise didn&#8217;t make piracy go away, and according to YIFY it never will.</p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy is not going away. Ever. I think that instead of trying the impossible, shutting down torrent sites and the like in an attempt to &#8216;kill&#8217; piracy, the movie industry should focus on making their offerings irresistible to users and giving them zero excuses for piracy.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;This will never have a 100% success rate, but its the only way to win the war.&#8221;</p>
<p>Making movies widely available in a timely manner and for a decent price is the ultimate solution according to YIFY, who notes that the music industry is far ahead in this respect.</p>
<p>&#8220;Look at Spotify for example. Can you imagine yourself (in 2016) at work, wanting to listen to your favorite jam and going to a torrent site and getting it that way? No way. You open Spotify or YouTube and listen; sure you will get ads, but it’s totally worth avoiding going to a torrent site for songs.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;For the most part, torrenting is inconvenient. It’s a multiple step process and nobody wants to see those crappy Pirate Bay ads while they’re at work. So you use Spotify,&#8221; YIFY says. </p>
<p>Movie fans should also have a place where most movies are available for a few dollars per month, but thus far progress has been slow on this front. Netflix in the US, for example, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/this-millenniums-best-picture-oscar-winners-are-not-on-netflix-160402/">lacks all</a> Oscar best picture winners of this millennium in their library. In addition, they don&#8217;t make movies available globally. </p>
<p>&#8220;Now, Netflix is definitely getting there, but there are still the geoblock limitations, which make a lot of content inaccessible for a lot of people. That’s not something that most media consumers stand for nowadays, and why would they when the content is freely available elsewhere?</p>
<p>&#8220;I understand this is a really tricky situation, but it just needs patience. Netflix and other streaming platforms will eventually have the same victory Spotify did for the music industry, but it will take time and require the full commitment of the industry bodies and decision makers at the forefront of the debate.&#8221; </p>
<h4>Proud Accomplishments</h4>
<p>Looking back, YIFY is proud of what he achieved, also from a technical perspective. Towards the end the YTS website had 7 to 8 million pageviews per day, on a pretty tidy setup. </p>
<p>&#8220;I am most proud of the technical infrastructure I created. I was able to host a massively busy website on a single back-end server,&#8221; YIFY says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Experimenting with things like the Cloudflare bypass and having the ability to set up something that was resilient to attacks from the outer internet &#8211; that stuff was awesome.&#8221;</p>
<p>YIFY was kind enough to give some more information about the infrastructure stack, which was made up of the following:</p>
<p><em>&#8211; Linux (Debian) for all the servers<br>
&#8211; Nginx as reverse proxy for the all the front ends<br>
&#8211; Mysql (percona fork) for the back-end data-store<br>
&#8211; Elasticsearch for search and indexing<br>
&#8211; Memcached for caching<br>
&#8211; Varnish for full page cache (life saver for API when popcorn time got big)</em></p>
<p>Aside from the tech part, there was also a social aspect. YIFY made many friends along the way and is sorry that he had to cut his ties so suddenly. After the shutdown, he immediately distanced himself from all YIFY players and legacy users. </p>
<p>However, when he participated in a <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4g6ri2/iama_yify_a_former_movie_uploader_and_torrent/">Reddit AMA today</a> he suddenly realized that there was another social aspect to YIFY, one that he is certainly proud of. </p>
<p>Aside from a barrage of questions, which are well worth reading, there were also numerous comments from people who thanked him for his work. Some of these saw YIFY as one of the few options to access Hollywood films. </p>
<p>&#8220;I never really knew that the movies that I uploaded were helping people in need,&#8221; YIFY says.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, a person <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4g6ri2/iama_yify_a_former_movie_uploader_and_torrent/d2f84so">in Iran</a> who otherwise wouldn’t be able to watch movies because of sanctions, or a war veteran in a wheel chair that kept busy by watching the movies, or someone who <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/4g6ri2/iama_yify_a_former_movie_uploader_and_torrent/d2f75mc">was dying</a> and was able to find some escape in the movies we uploaded.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;Seeing that something I have done, moral or not, had such an effect on people is an amazing feeling that I will forever remember,&#8221; YIFY concludes. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121290
title: Kim Dotcom and MEGA Ratchet Up War of Words
uri: Kim-Dotcom-and-MEGA-Ratchet-Up-War-of-Words
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Dfbbuhc-SQg/
content:
<p><img src="media/d0961783.mega_logo.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mega_logo.png" width="200" height="109" class="alignright">Last week we reported on what appears to be serious animosity between Kim Dotcom and the company he founded, MEGA.</p>
<p>Just three years ago the MEGA file-hosting platform was the apple of the Megaupload founder&#8217;s eye, but for reasons best known to the warring parties, that warmth has turned to aggression.</p>
<p>Dotcom has previously made derogatory statements about MEGA, a company he no longer has a stake in, but last week&#8217;s outburst was unprecedented.</p>
<p>Referencing comments made by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key that key MEGA shareholder Bill Liu is close to the top of China&#8217;s extradition list, Dotcom described the businessman as the &#8220;5th most wanted criminal in China&#8221;.</p>
<p>Adding that MEGA has diminishing ways to process payments from customers, Dotcom hinted towards impending doom and warned users to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-warns-mega-users-to-backup-their-files-160421/">back up their files</a>.</p>
<p>MEGA chairman Stephen Hall responded quickly, informing TF that his company has &#8220;significant funding&#8221; and that Dotcom&#8217;s comments are &#8220;factually incorrect.&#8221;</p>
<p>“Mr Liu has a shareholding interest but has no management or board position so he certainly doesn’t control Mega,” Hall said.</p>
<p>&#8220;This year, MEGA has already committed 24 PB additional storage capacity to service our 40 million registered users, and we will continue that expansion,&#8221; the company later <a href="https://mega.nz/#blog_40">added</a>. &#8220;MEGA users are able to pay subscriptions through a variety of methods, depending on their country of residence.&#8221;</p>
<p>Over the weekend, however, things got much more personal. First MEGA attacked Dotcom&#8217;s political ambitions with the Internet Party, noting that the endeavor had &#8220;badly damaged his credibility with the New Zealand public.&#8221; Now, in a surprise twist, MEGA is claiming that Dotcom tried to reinvest money in MEGA as late as last year.</p>
<p>&#8220;In 2015 the [Dotcom] family trust twice subscribed for new shares in MEGA. In December 2015 Mr Dotcom applied to the New Zealand Court for approval to personally borrow $0.7 million for his family trust to subscribe for further shares in MEGA. The Court declined approval. Since then he has made negative comments about MEGA that have no factual basis,&#8221; MEGA says.</p>
<p>Finally, in a clear attempt to discredit Dotcom&#8217;s predictions that it&#8217;s only a matter of time before MEGA folds, MEGA&#8217;s operators published many of Dotcom&#8217;s earlier tweets in which he heralded the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcoms-meganet-preps-jan-2016-crowdfunding-campaign-150610/">arrival of MegaNet</a>, a non-IP address based network utilizing blockchain technology.</p>
<p>Just two are shown below, with each already crossed out in red by MEGA.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/c09d1208.meganet-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/meganet-1.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-121330"><img src="media/c09d1208.meganet-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/meganet-1.jpg" alt="meganet-1" width="637" height="319" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121330"></a></center></p>
<p><center><a href="media/71db4540.meganet-2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/meganet-2.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-121331"><img src="media/71db4540.meganet-2.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/meganet-2.jpg" alt="meganet-2" width="638" height="284" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121331"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;It is good practice to have a backup of your files but we strongly disagree with Dotcom&#8217;s scaremongering. If you follow his tweets about ‘MegaNet’ you may have less confidence in his predictions,&#8221; MEGA says.</p>
<p>But not even that was to be the end of the matter. Responding in a serious of tweets over the weekend, Dotcom stuck by his guns &#8211; and turned up the pressure.</p>
<p>&#8220;What I&#8217;ve shared with you about Mega is true. Mega is losing $1 million per month. No credit card processing = no business. #BackupYourFiles,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/723799605226303489">said</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Mega CEO in December admitted to me that Bill Liu controls Mega. The 5th most wanted criminal in China controls board &#038; puppet shareholders.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a somewhat unprecedented situation to have two men, Dotcom and Liu, connected to a single company while both being wanted for extradition by powerful foreign governments. Still, Dotcom says he&#8217;s clear why he&#8217;s attacking MEGA in public.</p>
<p>&#8220;Why do I care? I founded Mega,&#8221; he <a href="https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/723802911013130241">continued</a>. &#8220;On-the-fly file encryption was my idea. I asked you to join Mega. It&#8217;s my obligation to warn you now.&#8221;</p>
<p>Only time will tell if Dotcom&#8217;s predictions will come true but in the meantime his advice (and that of MEGA) is clear. Keeping backups of files wherever they are is extremely important &#8211; the Megaupload fiasco should have underlined that.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121320
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/25/16
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-04-25-16
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/U10rLkYVXKI/
content:
<p><img src="media/c90c8293.deadpool.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deadpool.jpg" alt="deadpool" width="300" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-118234">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Deadpool is the most downloaded movie again.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-041816/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/deadpool/">Deadpool</a> (HDrip subbed) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIM1HydF9UA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zootopia/">Zootopia</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2948356/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWM0ct-OLsM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_jungle_book_2016/">The Jungle Book</a> (TS) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR9tqPa48s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ride_along_2/">Ride Along 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2869728/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWfmmwdCHTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_boss_2016/">The Boss</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2702724/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8GAMZqJqjs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_witch_2016/">The Witch</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4263482/">7.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXmlf3Sefg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/triple_9/">Triple 9</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1712261/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzUtr5sjRvU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_revenant_2015/">The Revenant</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1663202/">8.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoebZZ8K5N0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/">Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_iASz1Si8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hail_caesar_2016/">Hail Caesar!</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUUKtF_BF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121214
title: Game Of Thrones Season 6 Premiere Triggers Piracy Craze
uri: Game-Of-Thrones-Season-6-Premiere-Triggers-Piracy-Craze
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nHkjLz7uG4w/
content:
<p><img src="media/9fc504d2.got6.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got6.jpg" alt="got6" width="250" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121258">Yesterday the sixth season of Game of Thrones premiered, generating a massive demand on both legal and less-authorized channels.</p>
<p>For several years in a row Game of Thrones has been the most pirated TV-show, and this year the interest is once again overwhelming. </p>
<p>After many people failed to find a copy of a <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/game-thrones-leaks-online-season-7826581">rumored leak</a>, the first pirated copies of the episode appeared online shortly after the official broadcast. A few hours later, hundreds of thousands of people already grabbed a copy.</p>
<p>Data gathered by TorrentFreak estimates that after half a day, over a million people have downloaded the episode via BitTorrent. At the time of writing, more than 200,000 people are actively sharing one of the three most-popular torrents.</p>
<p>An interesting trend among pirates is a move from standard definition (480p) to high-definition (720p and 1080p) video. A few years ago roughly 10% downloaded HD copies, which are larger in size, but today this is getting close to 50%. </p>
<p>A brief inspection of the download locations of the most popular torrent shows that Game of Thrones pirates come from all over the world, as we’ve seen previously. The show is particularly popular in Australia (12.5%), India (9.7%), United States (8.5%) and the United Kingdom (6.9%).</p>
<p>The top 10 is completed by the Philippines, Canada, the Netherlands, Greece, South Africa and Saudi Arabia. It has to be noted, however, that this data is skewed due to time differences, as our sample of 10,000 downloaders was taken throughout a 12 hour period.</p>
<p>While the download numbers are significant and higher than we&#8217;ve seen for any recent TV-shows, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/game-of-thrones-season-finale-breaks-piracy-record-150615/">last year&#8217;s &#8220;swarm&#8221; record</a> has not been broken.</p>
<p>The statistics reported above only account for BitTorrent downloads, so it&#8217;s possible that other pirate sources such as streaming and direct download sites did see an increase. Also, in the U.S. HBO was <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11469052/hbo-free-preview-weekend-game-of-thrones-beyonce">available for free </a>over the past weekend, which may have had an effect too.</p>
<p>Record or no record, judging from the recent numbers there&#8217;s little doubt that Game of Thrones is once again the main contender for the title of most pirated show of the year.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121272
title: Pirates Switch From Torrents to Streaming and Download Sites
uri: Pirates-Switch-From-Torrents-to-Streaming-and-Download-Sites
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8p822Zt8TWA/
content:
<p><img src="media/59d6682b.download-keyboard.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/download-keyboard.jpg" alt="download-keyboard" width="200" height="138" class="alignright size-full wp-image-73383">While there haven&#8217;t been any breakthroughs in file-sharing technology in recent years, the piracy ecosystem is constantly evolving.</p>
<p>Torrent sites have traditionally been very popular, but according to a new report published by piracy tracking outfit <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a>, direct download and streaming sites have taken over.</p>
<p>Using data sampled from over 200 million devices by a leading data provider, the company compiled a detailed snapshot of the traffic that flowed to various websites last year. </p>
<p>In total MUSO monitored traffic to 14,000 of the largest global piracy websites, which were visited a dazzling 141 billion times over a 12-month period. </p>
<p>While overall visits remained relatively stable, there was a major shift away from torrent sites to more centralized streaming and direct download sites.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our data shows a rapid change in piracy behavior, with a large movement away from torrent usage, and growth in web based piracy,&#8221; MUSO informs TF.</p>
<p>The tracking company exclusively shared several interesting data points from the report with TorrentFreak. Zooming in on torrent sites it shows a clear downward trend in number of visits. </p>
<p>From  January 2015 to December 2015 these sites saw a 24% reduction in monthly visits. There was still plenty of traffic left though, as the average monthly visits hovered around 3 billion, totaling 34.8 billion for the entire year.</p>
<p><center><strong>All Torrent Site Visits</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7dbf9908.musopublic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musopublic.jpg" alt="musopublic" width="600" height="422" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121277"></center></p>
<p>The traffic drop applies globally, with some notable exceptions and variation. In France, for example, visits to torrent sites actually went up.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our data can split the above traffic by country, and shows that most countries follow this downward trend. There are however some notable exceptions, such as France, where torrent usage increased throughout the year,&#8221; MUSO informs us. </p>
<p>The United States remains the country with the most visits to torrent sites, 3.6 billion per year, followed by India and Russia with 3.3 and 2.7 billion visits respectively. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the downward trend mostly applies to public torrent sites. Private trackers, which make up roughly 4% of all torrent site visits, are affected less.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unlike public torrent site usage, private torrent site visits started to increase again during the second half of the year, and ended the year with 8% fewer visits per month,&#8221; MUSO explains.</p>
<p><center><strong>Private Tracker Visits</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/7dd64766.musoprivate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/musoprivate.jpg" alt="musoprivate" width="600" height="422" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121276"></center></p>
<p>The data is part of a large study into the piracy ecosystem. MUSO publishes two commercial reports today, with the first focusing on music piracy, and the second on film &#038; TV.</p>
<p>Overall, MUSO concludes that the piracy ecosystem is rapidly changing. Over the past year torrent sites lost a big chunk of traffic,  but piracy remains relatively flat as the decrease in torrent traffic is offset by an increased interest in other web-based pirate sources. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121341
title: Pirate Bay’s Image Hosting Site ‘Bayimg’ Returns, For a Bit
uri: Pirate-Bay-s-Image-Hosting-Site-Bayimg-Returns-For-a-Bit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/zBjnSO0XcLw/
content:
<p><img src="media/2a43984f.pirate-bay.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-bay.jpg" alt="pirate bay" width="200" height="207" class="alignright size-full wp-image-53470">When a Pirate Bay server <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-what-raid-police-never-got-our-servers-150921/">was raided late 2014</a> several related projects were pulled offline as well, including the site&#8217;s image hosting service Bayimg and Pastebay.</p>
<p>While the torrent site itself eventually returned after two months, the other sites remained offline. However, a few days ago something changed. </p>
<p>Without an official announcement <a href="http://bayimg.com/">Bayimg</a> resurfaced as if nothing ever happened. Suddenly, former users could access their images again and upload new files, although the latter may not be wise. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to the TPB team to find out what the plans are, and we were informed that the comeback is only temporary. </p>
<p>The site will remain online for a week or so. This allows people to secure their files, if needed, but in a few days the site will close its doors again. Apparently, the TPB team prefers to focus exclusively on the torrent site.</p>
<p><center><strong>Bayimg</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5523dcdc.bayimg600.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bayimg600.png" alt="bayimg600" width="600" height="280" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121349"></center></p>
<p>This means that the image hosting service won&#8217;t celebrate its tenth anniversary next year. </p>
<p>Bayimg was founded <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-launches-uncensored-image-hosting/">in 2007</a> as one of many TPB side-projects and promoted as a censorship free hosting platform. It was particularly popular among torrent uploaders, who used it to host screenshots.</p>
<p>However, history has shown that not all Pirate Bay projects are finished, and they certainly don&#8217;t always survive. Responding to this criticism the Imgbay team listed a response in its FAQ, which still applies today. </p>
<p>&#8220;We do whatever we want, whenever we want. If it doesn&#8217;t suit you, you can start your own empire,&#8221; the team said back in 2007. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121406
title: MPAA Says Pirate Sites Will Take Advantage of Set-Top Box Proposals
uri: MPAA-Says-Pirate-Sites-Will-Take-Advantage-of-Set-Top-Box-Proposals
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/7cz3PrjbthI/
content:
<p><a href="media/65eaeace.tv.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tv.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-67639"><img src="media/3005d75d.tv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tv.jpg" alt="tv" width="190" height="140" class="alignright size-full wp-image-67639"></a>For millions of cable TV viewers around the world, the only way to access the content provided by broadcasters is through a set-top box. In many cases these boxes are provided exclusively by broadcasters, forcing out competition.</p>
<p>This consumer-unfriendly situation has attracted the attention of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States who report that 99% of pay-TV subscribers are chained to set-top boxes provided by suppliers at inflated rates.</p>
<p>&#8220;Lack of competition has meant few choices and high prices for consumers – on average, $231 in rental fees annually for the average American household. Altogether, U.S. consumers spend $20 billion a year to lease these devices,&#8221; the FCC announced in January.</p>
<p>According to the FCC, since 1994 the cost of computers, TVs and mobile phones has dropped by 90%. However, due to a lack of competition in the same period cable set-top box costs have risen by 185%. </p>
<p>&#8220;Congress recognized the importance of a competitive marketplace and directed the Commission to adopt rules that will ensure consumers will be able to use the device they prefer for accessing programming they’ve paid for,&#8221; the FCC said.</p>
<p>In February the FCC approved <a href="https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-proposal-unlock-set-top-box">a proposal</a> that would allow consumers to swap expensive cable boxes for other devices and apps, a change set to boost competition but deliver a blow to companies such as Comcast who would suddenly be open to competition from companies such as Alphabet/Google.</p>
<p>The proposal triggered a 60-day period in which cable providers and other stakeholders were invited to provide input and comment. Earlier this month President Barack Obama <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/04/15/ending-rotary-rental-phones-thinking-outside-cable-box" target="_blank">came out in favor</a> of the plan but now the MPAA has weighed in with an unsurprisingly hostile opinion.</p>
<p>In a piece titled &#8220;It&#8217;s About Creators&#8221;, Neil Fried, MPAA Senior Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs, accuses FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and even the President of &#8220;gloss[ing] over the harm the proposal will cause the creative community.&#8221;</p>
<p>Noting that the MPAA&#8217;s members are not in the set-top box market, Fried says that they&#8217;re in the vital content creation business, content which gets licensed to cable, satellite and other platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon and AppleTV.</p>
<p>&#8220;These distributors then profit from the content through equipment sales, subscription fees, advertising, and the monetization of viewers’ online profiles,&#8221; the MPAA <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/its-about-creators/#.Vx8spUdRKG9">says</a>.</p>
<p>According to the MPAA, the FCC proposals will &#8216;take&#8217; the intellectual property of its members and &#8220;give&#8221; it to the technology industry, effectively ignoring copyright law.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he FCC proposal requires pay-TV providers to transmit to third-party device manufacturers and internet application developers all the content that pay-TV providers license from programmers, without requiring those third parties to seek consent from the programmers or to compensate them,&#8221; the MPAA writes.</p>
<p>Interestingly, not only is the MPAA concerned about competition from third-parties such as Google, but is also suggesting that pirate sites could take advantage of the situation to begin offering new unauthorized services.</p>
<p>&#8220;No matter what you think about the pay-TV set-top box market, the FCC may not promote alternatives by taking the intellectual property of the content industry and giving it to some members of the technology industry, or by making it easier for pirate site operators to build a black market business by stealing that content. Unfortunately, that’s what the proposal would do,&#8221; the MPAA warns.</p>
<p>Indeed, as one delves deeper into the MPAA&#8217;s statement, the scale of their concerns really becomes apparent.</p>
<p>The currently locked-down set-top box environment ensures that via strict licensing arrangements, entertainment industry companies have complete control over which content is offered to the subscriber. However, third-party set-top boxes are expected to provide content from both Pay-TV providers and also content being offered on the Internet. And according to the MPAA that can mean only one thing.</p>
<p>&#8220;We anticipate that video navigation device and application providers will rely on the proposed rules to offer &#8216;cross-platform searches&#8217; and &#8216;recommendation engines&#8217; that mingle pay-TV content with internet content,&#8221; the MPAA says.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not contesting cross-platform searches of authorized content — but we must oppose any regulation that would import the piracy problem from the internet search world into the pay-TV world by mixing pirated content with authorized content, causing further harm to content creators and the creative economy.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, even if not referenced by name, no MPAA piece of late would be complete without a negative reference to Google. Hollywood blames Google for falling to curtail Internet piracy, a situation that could bleed into the living room with the FCC&#8217;s set-top box proposals.</p>
<p>&#8220;[O]n the Internet, search engines frequently prioritize search results for sites offering stolen content over those offering authorized content, and searches for film and TV programming almost always yield results that mingle the two types of sites,&#8221; the movie industry group complains.</p>
<p>Noting that some have suggested that if the content providers don&#8217;t like the situation they&#8217;ll just have to litigate under existing copyright law, the MPAA says that is &#8220;cold comfort&#8221; to content creators.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he regulation would fundamentally undermine copyright law, create a piracy problem that does not exist today, and place new burdens on content owners to police the app and device market for stolen copies of their works, forcing them to undertake time-consuming, costly litigation, and sustain additional lost revenue to piracy,&#8221; the MPAA concludes.</p>
<p>The FCC&#8217;s proposals certainly have the potential to open up a huge can of worms. That being said, it&#8217;s inevitable that the Internet will eventually dominate the living room, it&#8217;s only a question of how controlled &#8211; if at all &#8211; its pipe will be.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121438
title: Getty Files Google Image Piracy Complaint With EU
uri: Getty-Files-Google-Image-Piracy-Complaint-With-EU
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pdIF52mEBpg/
content:
<p><a href="media/36fef17d.google-water.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/google-water.png" rel="attachment wp-att-89037"><img src="media/2ca46867.google-water.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/google-water.png" alt="google-water" width="250" height="153" class="alignright size-full wp-image-89037"></a>Search giant Google is facing massive copyright-related pressure in the United States on several fronts, not least the recent consultation on the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-says-youtube-is-running-a-dmca-protection-racket-160412/">efficacy of the DMCA</a> and the FCC&#8217;s proposals to open up the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-says-pirate-sites-will-take-advantage-of-set-top-box-proposals-160426/">set-top box market</a>.</p>
<p>Over in Europe, Google faces other issues, including charges that it abused its web search dominance to push its own shopping products and its control of Android to corral users <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-1492_en.htm">into using Google software</a>. Piling on the pressure, Google is now set to face another European Commission grilling over alleged copyright infringement in Google Images.</p>
<p>This morning Washington-based Getty Images says it will file a complaint with the European Union’s antitrust commission over what it describes as Google&#8217;s piracy of its copyright content.</p>
<p>According to an <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2ab82e3c-0ba6-11e6-b0f1-61f222853ff3.html">FT</a> report, Getty will accuse Google of undermining its business by harvesting Getty stock images in a manner that &#8220;siphons traffic&#8221; away from the company&#8217;s premium website.</p>
<p>The complaint says that pre-January 2013, Google displayed only low-resolution thumbnails of third party images in Google Image search. However, soon after the company switched to a large, high-resolution slideshow format. This, Getty says, was Google abusing its dominance of Internet image searches.</p>
<p>Getty general counsel Yoko Miyashita says Google&#8217;s reproduction of high-res images means that people searching for Getty content via Google have less reason to leave the search giant&#8217;s Images services, thus depriving Getty of legitimate traffic.</p>
<p>Google “promoted piracy,&#8221; Miyashita says, &#8220;resulting in widespread copyright infringement, turning users into accidental pirates.&#8221;</p>
<p>As evidence that it was Google&#8217;s decision, not outside factors, that caused the drop in traffic to Getty&#8217;s site, Miyashita says that traffic collapsed in 2013 immediately after Google made changes on its .com and .co.uk domains. However, Google did not immediately implement the features on its .FR and .DE variants from where traffic remained healthy.</p>
<p>Getty says that it reported its complaints to Google in 2013 but rather than make changes, Google told the company it could either live with the situation or completely opt out of its image search feature.</p>
<p>While offering a solution this is somewhat of a catch-22 situation. On the one hand Getty can accept Google&#8217;s use of its content in order to boost visibility on the web, or opt out altogether and face disappearing from search altogether.</p>
<p>In this instance Getty chose to stay on board with Google, describing a complete exit as not being &#8220;viable&#8221;. Today&#8217;s complaint envisions the EU leveling the playing field on Getty&#8217;s behalf.</p>
<p>“By standing in the way of a fair market place for images, Google is threatening innovation and jeopardizing artists’ ability to fund the creation of important future works,” Miyashita says.</p>
<p>In due course the European Commission will have to decide whether Google has broken competition rules. Google declined to comment on the case but denies any wrong-doing.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120968
title: Judge: RIAA and MPAA Can’t Copy Megaupload’s Servers, Yet
uri: Judge-RIAA-and-MPAA-Can-t-Copy-Megaupload-s-Servers-Yet
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5KnZg0v_VJU/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="megaupload-logo" width="225" height="187" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">Well over four years have passed since Megaupload was shutdown, but all this time there has been no real progress on the legal front. </p>
<p>Last December a New Zealand District Court judge ruled that Kim Dotcom and his colleagues <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-can-be-extradited-to-the-united-states-judge-rules-151223/">can be extradited</a> to the United States to face criminal charges, a decision that&#8217;s currently under appeal. </p>
<p>With the criminal case pending, the civil lawsuits against the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/now-the-riaa-sues-megaupload-for-massive-copyright-theft-140411/">major record labels</a> and Hollywood’s <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-demand-millions-megaupload-new-lawsuit-140408/">top movie studios</a> have been halted as well. </p>
<p>Fearing that they might influence criminal proceedings, Megaupload&#8217;s legal team have had these cases put on hold since 2014, with permission from the copyright holders. However, when Megaupload&#8217;s counsel recently opted for another stay, the RIAA and MPAA objected.</p>
<p>Instead of simply signing off on another extension, the movie and music industry groups asked for permission to subpoena Megaupload&#8217;s former hosting provider Cogent Communications. Suggesting that the data might not be safe, they asked to make a backup of some crucial evidence the provider has in storage. </p>
<p>&#8220;To avoid the risk of substantial prejudice to Plaintiffs from the potential loss of the relevant data in Cogent’s possession, the Court should carve out of any further stay of this case the permission for Plaintiffs to subpoena Cogent for a forensic copy of that data,&#8221; both groups informed the court. </p>
<p>The MPAA and RIAA even offered to pay the costs of such a backup, which they estimate to be in the range of $20,000 or less. </p>
<p>Megaupload&#8217;s legal team, however, rejected the proposal. Among other things, they argued that privacy sensitive data on their former customers should not be freely shared, and asked the court not to issue a subpoena. </p>
<p>Last Friday both parties presented their case during a hearing and after careful deliberation District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady has now decided (<a href="media/5274f545.megaserverdec.pdf" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaserverdec.pdf">pdf</a>) not to issue a subpoena.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/f2fa41c6.ordermegaex.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ordermegaex.jpg" alt="ordermegaex" width="536" height="434" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121429"></center> </p>
<p>Instead, he decided that things should stay as they are, meaning that Cogent will be the only party that has a copy of the Megaupload data in question. RIAA, MPAA or Megaupload should, however, inform the court if they have concrete evidence that this data is at risk.</p>
<p>&#8220;&#8230;if any party gains knowledge that any potential evidence in this case, including digital evidence currently being held by Cogent Communications, Inc., is being or might be destroyed, it should notify the Court immediately.&#8221;</p>
<p>This decision can be seen as win for Megaupload and Kim Dotcom, as they have successfully averted an attempt from the movie and music companies to gain access to crucial evidence in the case before the official discovery process begins.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are pleased that the Federal Court granted the Megaupload defendants&#8217; request for a stay of the civil copyright cases and denied the MPAA and RIAA plaintiffs&#8217; request for early discovery,&#8221; Ira Rothken, Megaupload’s Lead Global Counsel, informs TorrentFreak </p>
<p>&#8220;The stay will assist the orderly conduct of parallel criminal related proceedings,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>As requested by Megaupload, Judge O&#8217;Grady agreed to put the civil cases on hold for another six months, after the appeal of the New Zealand extradition decision is heard. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121483
title: Steal This Show S01E09: Fairtade For Music – Can The Blockchain Fix Copyright?
uri: Steal-This-Show-S01E09-Fairtade-For-Music-Can-The-Blockchain-Fix
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/OndYfotze40/
content:
<p><img src="media/585776e5.steal240.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/steal240.png" alt="steal240" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113930"></a>This special episode of STEAL THIS SHOW features&nbsp;<a href="http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/5297830/40-under-40-benji-rogers">Benji Rogers</a> of the direct-to-fan music platform, <a href="http://pledgemusic.com">PledgeMusic</a>. </p>
<p>As we find out, Benji&#8217;s an independent musician who founded his platform to offer artists a unique way to engage their fans and super fans, resulting in chart topping albums worldwide. </p>
<p>In 2013, Benji was recognized on Billboard’s <em>40 Under 40 Power Players</em> list and in 2014 at the MUSEXPO International Music Awards, he won <em>Digital Executive of the Year</em>.</p>
<p>We discuss how Benji&#8217;s early days with his band produced the idea for PledgeMusic; just how broken the traditional copyright system is for musicians; and Benji&#8217;s <a href="https://medium.com/cuepoint/bc-a-fair-trade-music-format-virtual-reality-the-blockchain-76fc47699733#.e64qcv89j">big idea</a>: to push music rights into the blockchain, creating a &#8220;Fair Trade&#8221; for musicians!</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><a href="https://stealthisshow.com">Steal This Show</a> aims to release bi-weekly episodes featuring insiders discussing copyright and file-sharing news. It complements our regular reporting by adding more room for opinion, commentary and analysis. </p>
<p>The guests for our news discussions will vary and we&#8217;ll aim to introduce voices from different backgrounds and persuasions. In addition to news, STS will also produce features interviewing some of the great innovators and minds. </p>
<p><strong>Host:</strong> Jamie King</p>
<p><strong>Guest:</strong> <a href="http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/5297830/40-under-40-benji-rogers">Benji Rogers</a>.</p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=1&#038;lpe-episode=9" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Eric Bouthiller<br>
<strong>Original Music</strong> <em>by</em> David Triana<br>
<strong>Web Production</strong> <em>by</em> Siraje Amarniss</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121475
title: U.S. Labels Switzerland an Internet Piracy Haven
uri: U-S-Labels-Switzerland-an-Internet-Piracy-Haven
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/44a-pPiYKOM/
content:
<p><a href="media/cf86e20d.ustr.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-44005"><img src="media/09fa6d0a.ustr.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg" alt="ustr" width="175" height="175" class="alignright size-full wp-image-44005" srcset="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr-150x150.jpg 150w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/ustr.jpg 175w" sizes="(max-width: 175px) 100vw, 175px"></a>Every year the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) publishes its Special 301 Report highlighting countries that aren&#8217;t doing enough to protect U.S. intellectual property rights.</p>
<p>In 2016 the report sticks to a tried and tested format, with countries such as China, Russia, India and Ukraine all making the Priority List once again. However, just as the USTR wasn&#8217;t afraid to place Canada on the Watch List several years ago, this year it has added another ally.</p>
<p>Situated in the heart of Europe (although not part of the Union), Switzerland has long-standing ties with the United States and has acted as the protecting power between the U.S. and former foes Iran and Cuba. Nevertheless, when it comes to protecting copyright the USTR didn&#8217;t hesitate to add Switzerland to the Watch List in 2016.</p>
<p>&#8220;Generally speaking, Switzerland broadly provides high-levels of IPR protection and enforcement in its territory. Switzerland makes important contributions to promoting such protection and enforcement internationally, including in bilateral and multilateral contexts, which are welcomed by the United States,&#8221; the USTR writes in its assessment.</p>
<p>&#8220;However, the decision to place Switzerland on the Watch List this year is premised on U.S. concerns regarding specific difficulties in Switzerland’s system of online copyright protection and enforcement.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although the USTR doesn&#8217;t go into much detail, the key problem that the United States has with Switzerland surrounds the so-called ‘Logistep Decision‘. Anti-piracy outfit Logistep built a reputation in the latter half of the last decade for providing tracking services for copyright trolls operating in Europe and the UK. However, things didn&#8217;t go entirely to plan.</p>
<p>In 2010 following several years of legal action, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ordered Logistep to stop harvesting the IP addresses of file-sharers. The Court ruled that IP addresses amount to private data, a decision that effectively outlawed the tracking of file-sharers in privacy-conscious Switzerland.</p>
<p>This apparent lack of protection for rightsholders is unacceptable, the USTR says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Six years have elapsed since the issuance of a decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court, which has been implemented to essentially deprive copyright holders in Switzerland of the means to enforce their rights against online infringers; enforcement is a critical element of providing meaningful IPR protection,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>According to the USTR, since 2010 Switzerland has also become an increasingly popular host country for many pirate sites, a position <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-lists-top-torrent-sites-as-piracy-havens-150306/">highlighted</a> in the 2015 Notorious Markets review.</p>
<p>While the USTR says that it welcomes the steps being taken by Switzerland to address its concerns, the tone of the United States suggests there is somewhat of a mountain to climb before the country gets a clean bill of health.</p>
<p>&#8220;[M]ore remains to be done and the United States continues to encourage the Swiss government to move forward expeditiously with concrete and effective measures that address copyright piracy in an appropriate and effective manner, including through legislation, administrative action, consumer awareness, public education, and voluntary stakeholder initiatives,&#8221; the USTR writes.</p>
<p><strong>Canada</strong></p>
<p>After being on the Watch List for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-labels-canada-a-piracy-haven-120430/">some time</a> now, Canada did not do enough in 2015 to get back into favor with the U.S.</p>
<p>While welcoming Canada&#8217;s amendment to its Copyright Act which extended sound recording protection to 70 years from date of recording, the U.S. has little other praise for its northern neighbor.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he United States continues to urge Canada to fully implement its commitments pursuant to the WIPO Internet Treaties and to continue to address the challenges of copyright piracy in the digital age,&#8221; the USTR writes.</p>
<p>Going on to condemn Canada on everything from counterfeit goods to pharmaceuticals and patents, there was not even a passing reference in the report to the long called for notice-and-notice anti-filesharing regime <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canadian-piracy-notices-boost-demand-anonymous-vpns-150113/">implemented by Canada</a> in 2015.</p>
<p><strong>Other countries with Internet piracy issues</strong></p>
<p>India is criticized on a number of fronts, with the USTR calling for the implementation of notice-and-takedown procedures, statutory damages for infringement and the introduction of effective anti-camcording legislation.</p>
<p>Despite noting that anti-piracy legislation is evolving in Russia, the USTR saw no reason to take the country off the Priority List in 2016. Interestingly the USTR&#8217;s report praises the fact that &#8220;a Russian court shut down Rutracker.org&#8221;, when in fact the site was only blocked and remains fully operational today. Nevertheless, it appears that court orders are not enough for the United States.</p>
<p>&#8220;Issuing injunctions against infringing websites does not address the root of the problem; Russia should be investigating and prosecuting the operators of such sites. The overall number of raids, criminal charges, and convictions have declined in recent years,&#8221; the report reads.</p>
<p>Finally, Ukraine remains on the Priority List in 2016.</p>
<p>&#8220;With respect to improving the government’s response to online infringement, several attempts at legislative reform appear to have stalled,&#8221; the USTR notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;As highlighted in the 2015 Notorious Markets List, Ukraine continues to host some of the largest pirate sites in the world serving IP infringing content to a global audience.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full 2016 Special 301 Report can be downloaded here <em>(<a href="media/d98adad0.USTR-2016-Special-301-Report.pdf" data-original-source="https://ustr.gov/sites/default/files/USTR-2016-Special-301-Report.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121496
title: Language Creation Society Backs Star Trek Spin-off in Klingon Copyright Battle
uri: Language-Creation-Society-Backs-Star-Trek-Spin-off-in-Klingon-Copyrigh
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BuHjRHexF5g/
content:
<p><img src="media/19ce6742.klingon.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingon.jpg" alt="klingon" width="250" height="137" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120085">Earlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-studios-sue-fan-funded-star-trek-spin-off-151231/">accusing</a> them of copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The dispute centers around the well-received short film <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prelude_to_Axanar">Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar</a> and the planned follow-up feature film Anaxar.</p>
<p>Among other things, the Star Trek rightsholders claim ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.</p>
<p>The makers of the fan-spinoff <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-does-not-protect-the-klingon-language-court-hears-160330/">responded</a> to several of the allegations last month. Among other things, they argued that the Klingon language is not copyrightable because it&#8217;s not more than an idea or a system. They therefore asked the court to  dismiss or strike the copyright claims in question.</p>
<p>Paramount and CBS <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/paramount-we-do-own-the-klingon-language-and-warships-160414">disagreed</a>. In their reply the rightsholders called the argument absurd and among other things, they pointed out that the language system is not very useful if there are no real Klingons to communicate with.</p>
<p>Considering the stakes, the lawsuit has drawn the attention of the Language Creation Society (<a href="http://conlang.org/">LCS</a>), a non-profit that aims to promote the art and craft of language creation. The group submitted their opinion to the court yesterday, siding with the makers of the fan-film.</p>
<p>In their <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/310744493/035-1-Brief-of-Amicus-Curiae-1?secret_password=I5JAsrdYbwE8oTIe5zPx">amicus brief</a>, which actually uses Klingon language, the LCS points out that it&#8217;s understandable that Paramount Pictures feels that they own the language. After all, they commissioned Linguistics professor Marc Okrand to create some of the language thirty years ago.</p>
<p>However, this doesn&#8217;t mean that the copyright claims hold ground.</p>
<p>&#8220;Feeling ownership and having ownership are not the same thing. The language has taken on a life of its own. Thousands of people began studying it, building upon it, and using it to communicate among themselves,&#8221; the LCS notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the Klingon proverb says, we succeed together in a greater whole,&#8221; the brief adds, with pro-bono attorney Marc Randazza writing in Klingon.  </p>
<p><center><strong>The brief, partially in Klingon</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/de7d39c6.klingamic.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingamic.jpg" alt="klingamic" width="600" height="109" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121498"></center></p>
<p>The Language Creation Society lists many examples of how Klingon has evolved, and it specifically disputes Paramount&#8217;s earlier claims that there are no human beings who communicate using the Klingon language. </p>
<p> &#8220;In fact, there are groups of people for whom Klingon is their only common language. There are friends who only speak Klingon to each other. In fact, at least one child was initially raised as a native speaker of Klingon,&#8221; LCS writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Now that Klingon has become an actual living language, Paramount seeks to reach out and stake its ownership by using copyright law. But, as &#8216;Klingons do not surrender&#8217;, neither do those who speak Klingon,&#8221; they add.</p>
<p>As such, Paramount should not be allowed to claim copyright over the entire Klingon language, both in written and spoken form. The language is a tool for people to communicate and express ideas, something people should be allowed to do freely under U.S. law, LCS argues. </p>
<p><center><strong>Klingon alphabet</strong> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klingon_alphabets">image: wiki</a>)<br></br></center><center><img src="media/28a25d1f.klingonalpha.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/klingonalpha.png" alt="klingonalpha" width="484" height="340" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-120764"></center></p>
<p>If Paramount is allowed to claim copyright over the language, they would be able to silence the free expression of thousands of people, many of which helped it to evolve in recent years. </p>
<p>&#8220;Klingon gave Star Trek characters convincing dialogue. But, it broke its chains and took on a life of its own –  a life that the Copyright Act has no power to control. Klingon, like any other spoken language, provides tools and a system for expressing ideas,&#8221; LCS writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;No one has a monopoly over these things, effectively prohibiting anyone from communicating in a language without the creator’s permission. This is not permitted by the law, and it is not why the  Constitution allows Congress to provide copyright protection,&#8221; they add.  </p>
<p>Summing up, the Language Creation Society sides with the makers of the Star Trek spin-off, asking the court to dismiss the copyright claims over the Klingon language, so it can be used freely and continue to evolve.</p>
<p>It is not up to the California federal court to decide whether the &#8216;Klingons&#8217; can prevail or not.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121328
title: UK Pirate Site Blocking Whack-A-Mole Continues
uri: UK-Pirate-Site-Blocking-Whack-A-Mole-Continues
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ff1bGHXIWqo/
content:
<p><img src="media/4d28e669.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" alt="uk-flag" width="200" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86005">Following a series of High Court orders handed down in recent years, six of the UK’s major ISPs are required to block access to dozens of the world’s most popular ‘pirate’ sites.</p>
<p>Over time the number of blocked URLs has expanded to well over 1,000, with popular torrent, streaming and direct download sites being the main targets.</p>
<p>While research has shown that this approach is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-blocking-boosts-interest-in-vpns-research-shows-200416/">somewhat effective</a>, there are plenty of options through which people can circumvent the blockades, including many reverse proxies. Similarly, pirate sites can simply switch to a new domain name to evade the court orders.</p>
<p>To remedy the situation the High Court permits copyright holders to expand the blocklists with new domains, provided that they are alternative ways to reach already blocked websites.</p>
<p>This week more than 140 pirate (sub)domains were added, including several proxies and new domain names that allow access to popular pirate sites including Popcorn Time, RARBG, EZTV, Isohunt, Primewire, TubePlus and Vodly.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak obtained the full list from one of the ISPs which includes mostly reverse proxies. In some cases both the www and the regular URL are listed as not all Internet providers block both by default. </p>
<p>One of the prime targets in this new round is the proxy site unblocked.red. This site was previously operating under the unblocked.li domain name, but switched earlier this year after this was added to the blocklist. </p>
<p>In an attempt to bar access to these new URLs, the Motion Picture Association&#8217;s court order now lists 16 new unblocked.red subdomains.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to the team behind the Unblocked proxy sites, who inform us that they already moved to a new home at <a href="https://unblocked.tv/">Unblocked.tv</a>. This switch took just a few minutes, and the proxy operators believe that the block expansions are much more expensive.</p>
<p>&#8220;The cat and mouse game will keep on going on our end, since it&#8217;s just a matter of registering a new domain name. However, I believe it is more costly and involves more paperwork on their end to block sites,&#8221; the Unblocked team says.</p>
<p>Despite earlier blocks, Unblocked remains very popular in the UK. In that regard the restrictions are not very effective.</p>
<p>&#8220;Considering the popularity of Unblocked in the UK, I don&#8217;t think their strategy is an effective way to deal with piracy. Our traffic data doesn&#8217;t show any major changes after our many domain changes. The same can be seen with our Alexa score in the UK,&#8221; the team notes. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, copyright holder will continue with their expansions and blocklist updates.</p>
<p>In addition to various proxy sites, the updated list also includes the IP-address of the private torrent tracker TorrentDay, and several new domains for sites that were previously blocked, including iwannawatch.eu, movie25.ph, popcorn-time.to and torrentcd.net.</p>
<p>And so the whack-a-mole continues, with copyright holders adding new domains to the blocklists, and site owners hopping from domain to domain.</p>
<p><em>&#8211; 149.202.57.94<br>
&#8211; 7torrents.one<br>
&#8211; ads.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; axxomovies.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; axxomovies.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; axxomovies.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; batmanstream.com<br>
&#8211; dl4all.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; dl4all.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; eztv.torrentlist.biz<br>
&#8211; eztv.torrentlist.org<br>
&#8211; eztv.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; eztv.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; eztv.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; eztv.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; eztv.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; icefilms.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; icefilms.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; icefilms.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; icefilms.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; icefilms.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; img.isoplex.isohunt.to<br>
&#8211; img.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; interface.time-popcorn.info<br>
&#8211; isohunt.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; isohunt.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; isohunt.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; isohunt.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; isohunt.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; iwannawatch.eu<br>
&#8211; iwannawatch.net<br>
&#8211; iwatchonline.ph<br>
&#8211; iwatchonline.se<br>
&#8211; iwatchonline.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; iwatchonline.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; iwatchonline.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; livetvcdn.net<br>
&#8211; losmovies.es.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; m.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; movie25.ph<br>
&#8211; movie25.ph.prx.proxyunblocker.org<br>
&#8211; movie25.ph.prx.proxywebsite.co.uk<br>
&#8211; movie25.ph.prx.torrentunblock.com<br>
&#8211; movie25.ph.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; movie25.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; movie25.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; movie25.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; movie4k.to.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; movie4k.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; movie4k.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; movie4k.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; movie4k.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; movie4k.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; openbay.isohunt.to<br>
&#8211; popcorn-time.to<br>
&#8211; popcorn-time.to.prx.torrentunblock.com<br>
&#8211; popcorn-time.to.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; popcorn-time.xyz<br>
&#8211; primewire.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; primewire.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; primewire.unblockme.in<br>
&#8211; primewire.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; rarbg.com.torrentprox.com<br>
&#8211; rarbg.torrentlist.org<br>
&#8211; rarbg.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; rarbg.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; rarbg.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; rarbg.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; s-s.isohunt.to.prx.torrentunblock.com<br>
&#8211; s-s.yts.ag.prx.proxyunblocker.org<br>
&#8211; s-s.yts.ag.prx.proxywebsite.co.uk<br>
&#8211; saint-hosting.nl<br>
&#8211; scenesource.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; scenesource.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; scenesource.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; scenesource.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; scenesource.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; seventorrents.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; solarmovie.hs.vc<br>
&#8211; solarmovie.torrentlist.org<br>
&#8211; solarmovie.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; solarmovie.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.eu.wwwunblocker.com<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; torrentbutler.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; torrentcd.net<br>
&#8211; torrentcd.net.prx.proxywebsite.co.uk<br>
&#8211; torrentcd.net.prx.torrentunblock.com<br>
&#8211; torrentcd.net.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; torrentcd.pro<br>
&#8211; torrentz-pro.com<br>
&#8211; torrentz-pro.net<br>
&#8211; torrentz-pro.net.prx.proxywebsite.co.uk<br>
&#8211; torrentz-pro.net.prx.torrentunblock.com<br>
&#8211; torrentz-pro.net.prx2.unblocksit.es<br>
&#8211; tubeplus.com<br>
&#8211; tubeplus.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; tubeplus.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; tubeplus.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; tubeplus.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; ua.torrentz.sx<br>
&#8211; ua.torrentz.to<br>
&#8211; vodly.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; vodly.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; vodly.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; vodly.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; vodly.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; watchfreemovies.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; watchfreemovies.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; watchfreemovies.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; watchfreemovies.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; watchseries.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; watchtvseries.unblocked.red<br>
&#8211; watchtvseries.unblockme.al<br>
&#8211; watchtvseries.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; watchtvseries.unblockmy.link<br>
&#8211; watchtvseries.unblockmy.site<br>
&#8211; www.batmanstream.com<br>
&#8211; www.img.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; www.iwannawatch.eu<br>
&#8211; www.iwannawatch.net<br>
&#8211; www.iwatchonline.ph<br>
&#8211; www.iwatchonline.se<br>
&#8211; www.movie25.ph<br>
&#8211; www.popcorn-time.to<br>
&#8211; www.popcorn-time.xyz<br>
&#8211; www.saint-hosting.nl<br>
&#8211; www.torrentcd.net<br>
&#8211; www.torrentcd.pro<br>
&#8211; www.torrentz-pro.com<br>
&#8211; www.torrentz-pro.net<br>
&#8211; www.tubeplus.com<br>
&#8211; www3.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; www5.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; www8.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; ximg.livetv.ru<br>
&#8211; yify.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; yify.worldproxy.eu<br>
&#8211; yourbittorrent.unblockme.eu<br>
&#8211; yts.torrentlist.org	</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121530
title: Canadian Movie Pirates Targeted in Reverse Class Action
uri: Canadian-Movie-Pirates-Targeted-in-Reverse-Class-Action
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/jr90rDKoMz0/
content:
<p>When it comes to the business model of turning piracy into profit, the name Voltage Pictures is never far from the action.</p>
<p>The Los Angeles-based movie outfit has tested the legal waters in several jurisdictions in an effort to extract cash settlements from alleged pirates, most recently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/dallas-buyers-club-gives-up-chasing-pirates-in-australia-160210/">in Australia</a> with its movie Dallas Buyers Club.</p>
<p>In 2012, Voltage targeted Canadian ISP Teksavvy in a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-teksavvy-appeals-in-hurt-locker-piracy-case-150406/">long drawn out battle</a> to identify 2000 allegedly pirating users in order to force them to settle. Now, four years later, Voltage are back again with a new strategy.</p>
<p>This week the company filed an application in Federal Court, requesting certification of a reverse class action against an unquantified number of BitTorrent users who alleged shared five movies including The Cobbler, Pay the Ghost, Good Kill, Fathers and Daughters, and American Heist. </p>
<p>According to law professor Michael Geist, reverse class actions are very rare in Canada with only a few having been reported. The application of a reverse class action in a copyright case appears to be unprecedented.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/ec4d7911.voltage-class.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/voltage-class.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121531"><img src="media/ec4d7911.voltage-class.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/voltage-class.png" alt="voltage-class" width="600" height="344" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121531"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;Class actions typically involve a representative plaintiff who represents many others who have suffered the same harms from the actions of the defendant. Reverse class actions feature a single plaintiff (Voltage) and multiple defendants (the alleged file sharers),&#8221; Geist <a href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/04/voltage-pictures-launches-canadian-file-sharing-lawsuit-with-reverse-class-action-strategy/">explains</a>.</p>
<p>According to the case documents <em>(<a href="media/de025060.720-20T-662-1620-20Voltage20Notice20of20Application202800329.pdf" data-original-source="https://www.dropbox.com/s/sxfi31g8hi3rb8c/2016-04-27%20-%20T-662-16%20-%20Voltage%20Notice%20of%20Application%20%28003%29.pdf">pdf</a>)</em> Voltage intends to build its case around a single and as-yet-unidentified customer of ISP Rogers. He or she is referred to as John Doe #1 and by the IP address allocated when the alleged offense took place.</p>
<p>&#8220;Through custom-designed software designed to track copyright infringements, and the online identities of those who commit such infringements (by way of IP address and time of infringement), the Voltage Parties have identified many thousand instances of their films (including the Works) being illegally offered for download from Individuals using the Internet,&#8221; the Voltage application reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The proposed Representative Respondent, John Doe #1, as well as each member of the proposed Respondent Class&#8230;.are persons whose names and identities are currently unknown to the Voltage Parties, but who have unlawfully, and without the Voltage Parties&#8217; authorization or consent, infringed copyright in the Works, including by illegally uploading and distributing the Works for free, in full or in part, over the internet.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/f2cd715e.rogers-doe.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogers-doe.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121532"><img src="media/f2cd715e.rogers-doe.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogers-doe.png" alt="rogers-doe" width="584" height="250" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121532"></a></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, Voltage is open about the reasons behind this new strategy, noting that widespread piracy and the high cost of litigation means it has sought a cheaper way to target large numbers of infringers at once.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Voltage Parties seek to certify this Application as a class proceeding as a way to address these issues and obtain reasonable compensation for the significant damages that each proposed Class Member has caused, in a cost-effective and fair manner for both the Voltage Parties and the proposed Class Members,&#8221; the application reads.</p>
<p>Voltage accuses the Class Members of three &#8220;Unlawful Acts&#8221; including making movies available for download via BitTorrent, advertising by way of the BitTorrent protocol that a work is available for download by each member, and failing to take &#8220;reasonable steps&#8221; to ensure that downloaders were authorized by law to do so.</p>
<p>But the big question remains &#8211; could such a strategy work? Professor Geist has his doubts.</p>
<p>&#8220;One of the biggest concerns involves questions of representation for the defendant class. Before certification [of the reverse class action], the court will want assurance that the interests of the defendants will be fairly represented. But who will represent those interests? Who will pay for the legal counsel?&#8221; Geist asks.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unlike a plaintiff-led class action, where lawyers are often willing to invest in the case, there is no payoff at the end of this case and finding someone to represent the class will be a challenge when the only named representative is John Doe #1.&#8221;</p>
<p>But the problems don&#8217;t stop there. Geist says that in a certified reverse class action defendants actually have the option to opt out of the class.</p>
<p>&#8220;In other words, after going through the process of trying to meet the requirements for class proceedings, all the defendants will be permitted to simply walk away,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>If they do, however, other questions are raised, including whether those who opt-out will be allowed to keep their anonymity. If they are not, this could play right into Voltage&#8217;s hands.</p>
<p>Copyright cases are complex in their own right but this strategy from Voltage will set in motion a vigorous scratching of heads. Definitely one to watch.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121552
title: Aussie Gov Agency Endorses VPN Use to Reduce Piracy
uri: Aussie-Gov-Agency-Endorses-VPN-Use-to-Reduce-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9Jvd1R41BZE/
content:
<p><a href="media/c5e87d4f.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-96798"><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="aus" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798"></a>When a government agency produces a report urging major changes to intellectual property laws, one often expects something heavily weighted in favor of rightsholders</p>
<p>Documents published today by the Australian Government&#8217;s Productivity Commission contain a more balanced set of recommendations, several of which are likely to provoke an adverse reaction from both local and international rightsholders.</p>
<p>The Intellectual Property Arrangements draft report is a 600 page epic covering everything from copyright and patent issues through to pharmaceuticals and plant breeders&#8217; rights. Of most interest to readers will be the agency&#8217;s comments on infringement, fair use and copyright terms.</p>
<p><strong>Bring on the VPNs</strong></p>
<p>For years Australians have felt that when it comes to entertainment content they&#8217;re treated as second class citizens. Aussies believe that not only do they pay over the top for content, but they also have to wait longer for it to arrive.</p>
<p>As a result many access overseas services by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/">using a VPN</a>, something which is frowned upon by rightsholders and <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-announces-crackdown-on-vpn-and-proxy-pirates-160114/">actively blocked</a> by companies such as Netflix. Nevertheless, the Productivity Commission wants to do everything it can to open up options for consumers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Geoblocking results in Australians paying higher prices (often for a lesser or later service) than consumers overseas,&#8221; the report reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Australian Government should implement the recommendation made in the House of Representatives Committee report <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=ic/itpricing/report.htm">At What Cost?</a> to make clear that it is not an infringement for consumers to circumvent geoblocking technology.&#8221;</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/f47172c4.aussie-vpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aussie-vpn.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121558"><img src="media/f47172c4.aussie-vpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aussie-vpn.png" alt="aussie-vpn" width="447" height="629" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121558"></a></center></p>
<p>But the Commission doesn&#8217;t stop there. In case any foreign country wants to pressure Australia into acting otherwise, the agency advises the following. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Australian Government should seek to avoid any international agreements that would prevent or ban consumers from circumventing geoblocking technology,&#8221; it adds.</p>
<p><strong>Dealing with piracy</strong></p>
<p>The Productivity Commission notes that enforcement is a key factor in the efficiency and effectiveness of the Australian IP system. It also acknowledges that copyright infringement is an ongoing issue. That being said, rightsholders probably aren&#8217;t going to like the draft&#8217;s conclusions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Online copyright infringement remains problematic for rights holders. Evidence suggests many people infringe copyright because of the ongoing difficulty and cost in accessing content,&#8221; the report notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Evidence suggests infringement declines with better content availability and most consumers prefer paid, legal consumption. As such, an effective approach to reducing infringement is the timely release of content to Australian consumers. This requires action by rights holders and their intermediaries.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not difficult to see how these statements dovetail with the recommendation on VPN use and the pressure could eventually see Aussies getting a better deal. But for rightsholders hoping for more enforcement options in the meantime, only disappointment awaits.</p>
<p>&#8220;Changes to the law to encourage Internet service providers to cooperate with rights holders, as well as litigation, have only had a modest impact in reducing infringement. Further legislative change is unlikely to improve compliance with the law,&#8221; the report states.</p>
<p><strong>Fair Use and Copyright Terms</strong></p>
<p>In keeping with the positive response to increased consumer choice, proponents of expanded fair use provisions and diminished copyright terms also have something to celebrate.</p>
<p>&#8220;Australia’s copyright system has expanded over time, often with no transparent, evidence-based policy analysis demonstrating the need for, or quantum of, new rights. A new system of user rights, including the introduction of a broad, principles-based fair use exception, is needed to help address this imbalance,&#8221; the report notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Australian Government should amend the Copyright Act 1968 to replace the current fair dealing exceptions with a broad exception for fair use. The new exception should contain a clause outlining that the objective of the exception is to ensure Australia’s copyright system targets only those circumstances where infringement would undermine the ordinary exploitation of a work at the time of the infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/e98df847.aussie-fair-use.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aussie-fair-use.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121560"><img src="media/e98df847.aussie-fair-use.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aussie-fair-use.png" alt="aussie-fair-use" width="443" height="503" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121560"></a></center></p>
<p>And on copyright terms, yet more consumer-friendly advice.</p>
<p>&#8220;The term of protection for most works is now more than 70 years and considerably longer than necessary to incentivize creation of most works (with a commercial life less than 5 years). The current duration of copyright imposes costs on the community and access to works is restricted, particularly for works not commercially available but still subject to copyright protection,&#8221; the draft reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;While hard to pinpoint an optimal copyright term, a more reasonable estimate would be closer to 15 to 25 years after creation; considerably less than 70 years after death. Perpetual copyright protection of unpublished works should also be removed.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Consultation period</strong></p>
<p>The report is currently in draft and written submissions are invited up until Friday 3 June 2016. The final report will be handed to the government in August and published shortly after. </p>
<p>The full 603-page report can be found here <em>(<a href="media/8a0e336a.intellectual-property-draft.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/current/intellectual-property/draft/intellectual-property-draft.pdf">pdf</a>)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121541
title: Portugal Blocks 330 Pirate Sites in Just Six Months
uri: Portugal-Blocks-330-Pirate-Sites-in-Just-Six-Months
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/WJxjRUuhFmY/
content:
<p><img src="media/114a07a1.stopstop.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/stopstop.jpg" width="180" height="120" class="alignright">One of copyright holders&#8217; most-favored anti-piracy mechanisms in place today involves site-blocking. Censoring sites at the ISP level is effective, rightsholders insist, not to mention cheaper than direct legal action against pirate sites.</p>
<p>In most countries where site-blocking is already in place, authorities have previously determined that the legal system must be involved. In the UK, for example, existing legislation was deemed to offer rightsholders the tools they need. Australia, on the other hand, decided to introduce legal amendments to keep things on the straight and narrow.</p>
<p>Portugal decided to take a different approach, one that simply involved an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rapid-pirate-site-blocking-mechanism-introduced-by-portugal-150731/">agreement</a> between rightsholders, ISPs and the government. Now, if a site is considered to be illegal by these parties, it can be blocked without stepping into a courtroom.</p>
<p>For copyright holders it&#8217;s the Holy Grail and they&#8217;re taking full advantage of the new system. This week during a conference in the capital, Lisbon, the Portuguese Association for the Protection of Audiovisual Works revealed the extent of the program and it&#8217;s as critics feared.</p>
<p>Executive Director Antonio Paulo Santos reported that Portugal is now blocking a vast range of file-sharing and related sites, offering movies, TV, shows and music to streaming sports and books. In total more than <a href="http://www.elconfidencial.com/ultima-hora-en-vivo/2016-04-28/portugal-bloquea-mas-de-300-paginas-web-de-descargas-y-de-streaming_895122/">330 sites</a> are now being blocked by local Internet service providers.</p>
<p>The rate of blocking is unprecedented. In October 2015 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/portugal-blocks-popular-torrent-and-streaming-sites-151026/">more than 50 sites</a> were blocked by ISPs, including KickassTorrents, ExtraTorrent, Isohunt and RARBG. The following month <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/portugal-rapidly-voluntarily-blocks-dozens-more-pirate-sites-151107/">another 40</a> were added, including  BitSnoop, YourBitorrent, SeedPeer, Torlock and Torrentfunk.</p>
<p>Since then another 240 sites have been quietly added to the list. This rapid growth means that along with the United Kingdom and Italy, Portugal is already a world leader in pirate site blockades. All this has been achieved without ever going near a court room.</p>
<p>It is this kind of voluntary agreement that Hollywood and the major record labels are pushing for internationally, whether they&#8217;re with Internet service providers, domain registries or companies such as PayPal, Visa and Mastercard. The process in Portugal ticks all the right boxes for the entertainment companies so expect it to be championed elsewhere.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121219
title: Hulu Tracks Pirates to Decide What to Buy
uri: Hulu-Tracks-Pirates-to-Decide-What-to-Buy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2yXiPyM8978/
content:
<p><img src="media/40484417.hulu.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hulu.png" alt="hulu" width="225" height="189" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113996">When major movie and TV companies discuss piracy they often mention the massive losses incurred as a result of unauthorized downloads and streams.</p>
<p>However, this unofficial market also offers a valuable pool of publicly available data on the media consumption habits of a relatively young generation.</p>
<p>Many believe that piracy is in part a market signal showing rightsholders what consumers want. This makes piracy statistics key business intelligence, which many large companies already actively use.</p>
<p>Netflix, for example, uses piracy to figure out <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-sets-pricing-based-on-local-piracy-rates-150416/">how much they can charge</a> in a country, as well as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-uses-pirate-sites-to-determine-what-shows-to-buy-130914/">what content they license</a>. They are not alone.</p>
<p>A few days ago we learned that <a href="http://www.hulu.com/">Hulu</a> does the same.  Hulu’s head of content acquisitions Lisa Holme told <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-hulu-tracks-piracy-2016-4?r=US&#038;IR=T">Business Insider</a> that piracy data is an important factor in deciding what content the company licenses.</p>
<p>Pirates can show what TV-shows or movies people are interested in and if they go through the &#8216;trouble&#8217; of downloading something illegally, it is bound to do well on legitimate platforms as well. </p>
<p>According to Holme, piracy effectively tells Hulu how committed people are to a show. “They are passionate enough about it to break the law,” she says, adding that many would pay to stream content if there’s an easy way.</p>
<p>Piracy tracking and intelligence firm <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> is one of the players that offers this type of data to copyright holders. While they don&#8217;t work with Hulu, the company says that it&#8217;s more common nowadays to use piracy as input. </p>
<p>&#8220;Piracy data analytics really are a window into the size of global piracy audiences, as well as their behavior around piracy. If you put that data together with regional focus, piracy suddenly isn’t black and white, but has multiple shades,” MUSO&#8217;s Chief Commercial Officer Christopher Elkins says.</p>
<p>This type of data can often reveal important geographical trends. And aside from using in for anti-piracy means, the same analytics can be used to make content acquisition decisions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Rights owners are starting to use piracy insights effectively to help support their digital strategy, and we’re seeing huge benefit now across the TV and live broadcast industry in particular, which has such geographic-specific rights.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ultimately, this should be a win-win for all parties involved. Media companies and copyright holders have a better grip on their audience, and pirates get more legal options of their liking.</p>
<p>&#8220;For us, it&#8217;s incredibly encouraging to see the creative ways the content industry are using data to ultimately serve a better experience for audiences,&#8221; Elkins</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Hulu for some additional insights about their use of piracy data, but unfortunately the company did not reply. Piracy can come in handy at times, but talking about it apparently still isn&#8217;t always convenient.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121433
title: Pirate Bay Gets a ‘Massive’ $9 in Donations, Per Day
uri: Pirate-Bay-Gets-a-Massive-9-in-Donations-Per-Day
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0soixpo8pQk/
content:
<p><img src="media/760ee13a.thepirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate.jpg" alt="thepirate" width="275" height="258" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122">Three years ago many popular torrent sites added an option to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-bitcoin-donations-130423/">donate via Bitcoin</a>. The Pirate Bay was one of the first to jump on board, a development which caused concern among copyright holders.</p>
<p>The RIAA even <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-bitcoin-makes-it-hard-to-track-or-seize-pirate-bay-donations-131030/">informed</a> the U.S. trade representative about this looming threat. The music industry group warned that Bitcoin could make it harder to crack down on pirate sites.</p>
<p>“In April 2013, the site started accepting donations from the public by Bitcoin, a digital currency, which operates using peer-to-peer technology,” the RIAA wrote.</p>
<p>“There are no central authority or banks involved which makes it very difficult to seize or trace Bitcoin funds,” the music industry group added.</p>
<p>Bitcoin does indeed make it harder to seize funds, as law enforcement would need access to the computer where the wallet is kept. </p>
<p>However, Bitcoin also makes it easy to see how much donations are coming in. All transactions are public and traceable which allows anyone to see how much money Pirate Bay is making through donations.</p>
<p>This is exactly what we decided to do. Using the publicly listed <a href="https://blockchain.info/address/129TQVAroeehD9fZpzK51NdZGQT4TqifbG?sort=0">Bitcoin wallet address</a>, which is shown on every Pirate Bay page we found that 376 donations, roughly one donation per day, were sent over the past year. </p>
<p>The total amount of Bitcoin received during this period adds up to 8.21 BTC. At the current exchange rate this equals $3,500 in donations over the past twelve months, or $9.34 per day. </p>
<p>Needless to say, Pirate Bay&#8217;s operators are not getting rich off user donations.</p>
<p><center><strong>TPB featuring the Bitcoin address</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/ec972bd9.piratebtc.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratebtc.png" alt="piratebtc" width="589" height="303" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121099"></center></p>
<p>It appears that the interest in donating has tapered off over the years. Last year <a href="http://custostech.com/">Custos Media Technologies</a> reported that the site had received 126.64 Bitcoin in its various wallets between 2013 and 2015, which is significantly more. </p>
<p><center><strong>TPB Bitcoin earnings from 2013 till 2015</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5530ab13.tpb-bitcoin.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-bitcoin.jpg" alt="tpb-bitcoin" width="599" height="389" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121553"></center></p>
<p>That being said, even the 8.21 it received last year is a fortune when compared to other prominent torrent sites. </p>
<p>ExtraTorrent also lists a Bitcoin address on its site, as well as in the uploads of their ETTV and ETRG release groups. This wallet amassed a total of <a href="https://blockchain.info/address/1XeH1kKXWYbzZcFHokGiZ4d3MWW5WyXzU">4.31 in donations</a> since 2013 which is roughly $1 per day.</p>
<p>Again, that&#8217;s quite a treasure trove when we look at the donations that are coming in at KickassTorrents, which is currently the most-visited torrent site. </p>
<p>Since 2013 KAT has raked in a measly <a href="https://bitcoinchain.com/block_explorer/address/19CWNopXCHSwWtWQ89NHC471LMn2Gy5j5G">0.96 BTC</a>, which is roughly $250, or two dozen cents per day. Admittedly, KAT doesn&#8217;t promote donations and the address is only listed in the <a href="https://kat.cr/faq/show/is-it-possible-to-make-a-donation-to-the-site/">site&#8217;s FAQ</a>. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s pretty safe to say that if the RIAA and other copyright holders are concerned about the revenue going to pirate sites and groups, there&#8217;s little to worry about in respect of Bitcoin or user donations in general. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121470
title: Prince Fights Piracy From Beyond the Grave
uri: Prince-Fights-Piracy-From-Beyond-the-Grave
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/QhFgDTtwF14/
content:
<p><img src="media/c5cd303b.purple.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/purple.jpg" width="220" height="220" class="alignright">On April 21 the world lost one of its greatest musical icons. Aged just 57, Prince <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/prince-gave-a-file-hosting-site-a-personal-30-min-piracy-lecture-160422/">passed away</a> at his Paisley Park home.</p>
<p>Having shifted just 1,400 albums in the 72 hours prior to his passing, the days that followed saw Prince dominate both the news and the hearts of millions of fans.</p>
<p>In the four days after his death Prince <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2016/04/24/prince-posthumous-music-sales/83485146/">sold</a> 650,000 albums plus 2.8 million songs, led by classics Purple Rain (330,000) and When Doves Cry (245,000).</p>
<p>Of course, not everyone was keen (or had the means) to put their hands in their pockets and as a result unauthorized downloading of Prince tracks was also brisk. The day after his death saw an estimated <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/princes-death-prompts-awkward-piracy-surge-160422/">100,000 people</a> download a Prince torrent, with Prince music dominating the top five most-shared music file slots on KickassTorrents.</p>
<p>But while Prince may be gone his musical machine lives on. His tracks and albums remain available to buy and the anti-piracy protection they&#8217;ve enjoyed for years continues.</p>
<p>Famous for working with anti-piracy outfit Web Sheriff while he was alive, Prince&#8217;s instructions to protect his music from Internet pirates continue after his death. As part of a long-running campaign to make Prince music harder to find, Web Sheriff has been hitting Google with requests to remove thousands of URLs linking to unauthorized copies since 2014.</p>
<p>During the past year most Web Sheriff notices have included anything from a handful to a few hundred links per notice but in the days directly after Prince&#8217;s passing, Web Sheriff reporting to Google surged to a thousand in a single notice. One has to track back to 2014 to find similar levels.</p>
<p><Center><a href="media/4d1ec875.prince-notice.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-notice.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121506"><img src="media/4d1ec875.prince-notice.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-notice.png" alt="prince-notice" width="600" height="185" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121506"></a></center></p>
<p>As ever, the most popular targets are URLs on the hundreds of torrent sites in operation today. The content targeted includes anything from singles and albums, right up to entire discographies and full video collections listed on The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>For keen Prince fans there are also some oddities that can&#8217;t be found anywhere else, legally at least. In addition to rare bootlegs, remixes and 12&#8243; collections, there are torrents which provide access to live recordings, TV shows, rehearsals, outtakes and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unreleased_Prince_projects">unreleased tracks</a>.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/bed57d66.prince-down.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-down.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121504"><img src="media/bed57d66.prince-down.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-down.png" alt="prince-down" width="600" height="318" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121504"></a></center></p>
<p>Finally, in February and March, Google received four Web Sheriff notices containing around 450 requests for URL takedowns. These are listed under the name of the Web Sheriff but with a warning sign next to each. For reasons that aren&#8217;t yet clear, Google believes that these notices were either sent by an imposter or amounted to some other abuse of the takedown system.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/b7e0ad17.prince-imposter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-imposter.png" rel="attachment wp-att-121510"><img src="media/b7e0ad17.prince-imposter.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/prince-imposter.png" alt="prince-imposter" width="600" height="210" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121510"></a></center></p>
<p>We pointed out these anomalies to the Web Sheriff on Thursday but by the time of publication we were yet to receive an explanation.</p>
<p><strong>Update</strong>: Comment from Web Sheriff</p>
<p>&#8220;It seems to have been an error as to which Web Sheriff accounts [Google] have ‘accepted’ as being bona fide for complaints etc and which is being rectified,&#8221; the company said.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121598
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 05/02/16
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-05-02-16
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mTvRuoUfrx8/
content:
<p><img src="media/c90c8293.deadpool.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/deadpool.jpg" alt="deadpool" width="300" height="203" class="alignright size-full wp-image-118234">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Deadpool, which was released as a Blu-ray rip a few days ago, is the most downloaded movie again.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Ranking</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>(<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-042516/">last week</a>)</strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">torrentfreak.com</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/deadpool/">Deadpool</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1431045/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIM1HydF9UA">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/zootopia/">Zootopia</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2948356/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWM0ct-OLsM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/">Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2975590/">7.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eX_iASz1Si8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_jungle_book_2016/">The Jungle Book</a> (TS) </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3040964/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtR9tqPa48s">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_boss_2016/">The Boss</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2702724/">5.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8GAMZqJqjs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/triple_9/">Triple 9</a> (Webrip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1712261/">6.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzUtr5sjRvU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_huntsman_winters_war/">The Huntsman: Winter&#8217;s War</a> (TS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381991/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAvCgVR0gIM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ride_along_2/">Ride Along 2</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2869728/">5.9</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWfmmwdCHTg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(10)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hail_caesar_2016/">Hail Caesar!</a> (Web-DL)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475290/">6.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMUUKtF_BF0">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(9)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/baaghi_2016/">Baaghi: A Rebel For Love</a> (DVDscr)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4864932/">6.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HQIKJBUsQk">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121595
title: Swedish Police Want to Block The Pirate Bay & Seize Domains
uri: Swedish-Police-Want-to-Block-The-Pirate-Bay-Seize-Domains
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/K5f__nD9WQI/
content:
<p><img src="media/9484b25e.tpb-logo.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-logo.jpg" width="222" height="198" class="alignright">With infrastructure often spread around the world and multiple domains in backup, shutting down access to torrent and streaming sites can be a complex affair. Even when national legal systems provide the necessary tools, the process can be extremely drawn out, not to mention ineffective.</p>
<p>The case of The Pirate Bay provides a perfect example. Deemed illegal just about everywhere, the site has remained online despite the efforts of law enforcement, countless legal professionals, and courts around the globe. The world&#8217;s most notorious torrent site doesn&#8217;t play by the rules, a point certainly not lost on Paul Pintér, Sweden&#8217;s national coordinator for IP enforcement.</p>
<p>Pintér, previously a computer crime and forensics investigator with the Stockholm County Police, has headed up a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-anti-piracy-task-force-set-to-pressure-file-sharers-100213/">specialist anti-piracy unit since 2010</a>. He feels that the police need more powers to shut down sites such as The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>In a memorandum submitted to the Government, Pintér says that websites that violate copyright or trademark law should be blocked by Internet service providers. Furthermore, while preliminary investigations are underway, domain names should be seized by the authorities.</p>
<p>&#8220;They commit crimes, they should be removed from the Internet. I see it as an additional tool to combat piracy,&#8221; Pintér told <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.657089/polisen-blockera-pirate-bay">IDG</a>.</p>
<p>Pintér understands the problems only too well. The process to seize The Pirate Bay&#8217;s .SE domain has dragged on since 2013 and now sits with the court of appeal. A decision was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-domains-clash-set-for-court-of-appeal-151006/">due this week</a> but Punkt SE (IIS), the organization responsible for Sweden’s top level .SE domain, informs TorrentFreak that the decision has been delayed again.</p>
<p>&#8220;If we have a site selling counterfeit clothing or an illegal streaming site, and you can seize its domain during the investigation, it is gone during that time. It is a good preventive measure if nothing else,&#8221; Pintér says.</p>
<p>Being able to quickly seize a &#8216;pirate&#8217; domain would certainly be an asset to the police but there are those who will question whether that would trample due process. Pintér suggests that wouldn&#8217;t be the case.</p>
<p>&#8220;I want the law to be technology neutral. We carry out seizures in many, many other cases, everything from computers to money,&#8221; Pintér says.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, adjustments would have to be made. In his memorandum to the government Pintér calls for changes in the law that would allow police to seize not only tangible items such as physical property, but also intangible items such as domain names.</p>
<p>Furthermore, rather than relying on entertainment industry companies to take their own legal action, Pintér would like amendments to the law that would allow copyright or trademark infringing sites to be blocked by ISPs.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not talking about blocking everything. I&#8217;m talking about sites that contain criminal material. I don&#8217;t see a difference between child pornography, copyright infringement or trademark infringement &#8211; for me it is a crime,&#8221; Pintér concludes.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121579
title: National Assembly ‘Kills’ French Three-Strikes Anti Piracy Law
uri: National-Assembly-Kills-French-Three-Strikes-Anti-Piracy-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S0e3sreDLC8/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac0922f3.hadopilogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hadopilogo.jpg" alt="hadopilogo" width="180" height="80" class="alignright size-full wp-image-41298">In recent years many anti-piracy initiatives have emerged and in several countries so-called “graduated response” schemes have been implemented.</p>
<p>France is seen as the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tag/hadopi/">pioneer</a> of so-called &#8220;three strikes&#8221; anti-piracy legislation, in which repeated file-sharing offenders face fines of up to 1,500 euros. </p>
<p>Since 2010 the French Hadopi agency has handed out <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/french-anti-piracy-regime-breaks-5-million-warning-barrier-150720/">millions of warning notices</a>. A few thousand account holders received more than three notices, of which a few hundred of the worst cases were referred for prosecution.</p>
<p>Copyright holders around the world have cited Hadopi as one of the success stories, hoping to establish similar legislation elsewhere. However, in France the law hasn&#8217;t been without controversy and in a total surprise the lower house of the French Parliament has now voted in favor of killing it.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the vote late last week went down under quite unusual circumstances.</p>
<p>In a nearly empty chamber, the French National Assembly voted to end the Hadopi institution and law in 2022, Next Inpact <a href="http://www.nextinpact.com/news/99663-a-assemblee-nationale-quatre-deputes-votent-mort-hadopi-en-2022.htm">reports</a>. What&#8217;s noteworthy is that only 7 of the 577 Members of Parliament were present at the vote, and the amendment passed with four in favor and three against.</p>
<p>The decision goes against the will of the sitting Government, which failed to have enough members present at the vote. While it&#8217;s being seen as quite an embarrassment, the amendment still has to pass the senate, which seems unlikely without Government support.</p>
<p>The &#8216;coup,&#8217; orchestrated by the Green party has caused quite a media stir, not least because French President François Hollande called for the end of Hadopi before his election, a position he later retracted.</p>
<p>&#8220;Related Greens&#8221; MP Isabelle Attard says that it&#8217;s time to end the &#8220;schizophrenic&#8221; behavior of the Government on the matter. &#8220;A choice has to be made at some point. We can&#8217;t call out Hadopi as useless and, years later, still let it linger on,&#8221; she says.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s doubtful that the amendment means the definite end of Hadopi, it certainly puts it back on the political agenda. Whether this will lead to actual change will become apparent in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121632
title: KickassTorrents Must Be Blocked in Finland, Court Rules
uri: KickassTorrents-Must-Be-Blocked-in-Finland-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/kNrcdzcTaJ4/
content:
<p><a href="media/d82e0bf5.kickass.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kickass.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-21602"><img src="media/6df39282.kickass.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickass.jpg" alt="kickass" width="205" height="143" class="alignright size-full wp-image-21602"></a>With The Pirate Bay no longer the world&#8217;s most popular torrent site, attentions are increasingly turning to KickassTorrents (KAT).</p>
<p>Currently the most visited torrent index on the planet, KAT is also one of the most-blocked sites on the Internet and the focus of legal action in increasing numbers of countries. With cases pending as far away <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-next-target-for-aussie-piracy-blocklist-180416/">as Australia</a>, the latest European addition to the list is Finland.</p>
<p>A decision just handed down by the Market Court, a specialist venue hearing IP, competition and market law disputes, compels a total of seven Internet service providers to begin blocking KAT. They include the three largest providers DNA, Elisa and TeliaSonera Finland plus Anvia, Kaisanet, Lounea and MPY Palvelut.</p>
<p>The decision follows June 2015 amendments to copyright law that allow sites which are run by people who conceal their identities and are &#8220;clearly&#8221; set up to infringe copyright to be blocked at the ISP level.</p>
<p>But despite the important ruling, rightsholders are disappointed that the mechanism of blocking requested in the original application has been diluted by the Court. Although ISPs will be expected to block KickassTorrents&#8217; URLs there will be no obligation to block the site&#8217;s IP addresses.</p>
<p>&#8220;Unfortunately the Market Court granted the rightsholders behind the initial application a considerably more limited blocking order, which in the rightsholders&#8217; view will make the blocking partially ineffective,&#8221; says Jaana Pihkala, Executive Director at the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center (CIAPC).</p>
<p>CIAPC says it will take time to consider the decision and may in time seek an opinion from the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>Once the KAT blockade is put in place it&#8217;s expected that users of the site will either try to circumvent the ban <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-anonymous-review-160220/">with VPNs</a> and/or proxies or will simply migrate to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">other sites</a>. That will likely trigger more applications to the court in which rightsholders will seek to block even more domains. As the UK example shows, that is likely to descend into a seemingly never-ending game of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-pirate-site-blocking-whack-a-mole-continues-160429/">whac-a-mole</a>.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-blockades-upheld-by-court-of-appeal-120212/">already blocked</a> in Finland following a process that dates back to May 2011 when the Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Center (CIAPC) and music industry group IFPI filed a lawsuit at the District Court. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121655
title: Android Piracy Group Leaders Plead Guilty to Criminal Copyright Infringement
uri: Android-Piracy-Group-Leaders-Plead-Guilty-to-Criminal-Copyright-Infrin
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_KunW0BNIYc/
content:
<p><img src="media/b48c012a.usdoj.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/usdoj.jpg" width="190" height="190" class="alignright">Assisted by police in France and the Netherlands, in the summer of 2012 the FBI took down three unauthorized Android app stores.</p>
<p>Appbucket, Applanet and SnappzMarket all had their <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fbi-seizes-pirate-android-app-domains-120822/">domains seized</a> in a first of its kind operation. Several men were arrested and over the past four years have been slowly pleading guilty to various copyright infringement charges.</p>
<p>According to the Department of Justice, two more can now be added to the list.</p>
<p>Before his 16th birthday Aaron Blake Buckley launched Applanet, a service dedicated to the sharing of Android software. After being raided in 2012, Buckley attempted to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/busted-android-store-founder-to-crowdfund-battle-against-u-s-govt-140209/">crowdfund a defense</a> against the U.S. government in 2014.</p>
<p>Now a 22-year-old, Buckley has just pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement and to one count of criminal copyright infringement before U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. of the Northern District of Georgia. </p>
<p>Co-conspirator Gary Edwin Sharp II, 29, of Uxbridge, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement in January.</p>
<p><a href="media/3debff7e.applanet.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/applanet.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-55966"><img src="media/8baeb686.applanet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/applanet.jpg" alt="applanet" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55966" srcset="http://torrentfreak.com/images/applanet-150x150.jpg 150w, http://torrentfreak.com/images/applanet.jpg 250w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px"></a>&#8220;According to statements made in court, the conspirators identified themselves as members of the Applanet Group,&#8221; the DoJ said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;From May 2010 through August 2012, they conspired to reproduce and distribute more than four million copies of copyrighted Android apps through the Applanet alternative online market without permission from the victim copyright owners, who would otherwise sell copies of the apps on legitimate online markets for a fee.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition to his role within Applanet, Sharp also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement as the leader of SnappzMarket. Sharp admitted that along with two other members the group conspired to distribute more than a million pirate Android apps worth $1.7m.</p>
<p>Overall, the groups are said to have distributed Android apps with a retail value in excess of $17 million.</p>
<p>The guilty pleas come on the heels of several others (<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/android-pirate-pleads-guilty-to-criminal-copyright-infringement-141104/">1</a>,<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/android-pirate-agrees-to-work-undercover-for-the-feds-140416/">2</a>) since the raids in 2012. Buckley and Sharp will be sentenced in August.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121663
title: Pirate Bay Founder Aims to Disrupt Online Advertising Industry
uri: Pirate-Bay-Founder-Aims-to-Disrupt-Online-Advertising-Industry
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/bqrv2E3nafc/
content:
<p><img src="media/56ee9069.flatabp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flatabp.png" alt="flatabp" width="222" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121667">When the Pirate Bay launched over a decade ago the entertainment industry was blown away by the pirates&#8217; utter disrespect for copyright.</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s founders argued that people have the right to watch what they want whenever they please, and in a way this attitude acted as a catalyst for many of the legal services we have today.</p>
<p>Fast forward a few years and another industry is facing massive pushback from the Internet. </p>
<p>Growing tired with a constant stream of invasive and annoying ads on many websites, millions of people are now using ad-blockers to clean up their web-browsing experience. </p>
<p>This has led to frustration among publishers and advertising companies who somehow feel that they are entitled to dictate what people get to see. Some even go as far as equating it to &#8220;piracy,&#8221; as ad blockers take away ad-views and thus income for publishers and ad-vendors. </p>
<p>However, like the entertainment industry before them, advertisers and publishers can&#8217;t complain their way back to the pre-adblock era. They should interpret the rise of adblocking as an important signal and adapt their businesses accordingly. </p>
<p>And this is where a familiar name comes in. </p>
<p>Today, Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde announces that his micropayment service <a href="https://flattr.com">Flattr</a> is teaming up with <a href="https://adblockplus.org/">Adblock Plus</a>. Their new service, <a href="https://flattrplus.com/">Flattr Plus</a>, allows publishers to generate revenue directly from readers instead of forcing ads upon them. </p>
<p>Flattr Plus is built on the existing micropayment platform that was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-peter-sunde-starts-money-sharing-site-100212/">launched</a> in 2010. Through a new browser add-on it allows users to automatically share money with website owners when an ad is blocked. </p>
<p>&#8220;For us it’s super important to show that we’re not generation free, but generation sustainability. I think Flattr has been that way all the time and it’s obvious that Adblock Plus has kind of also been thinking about a good open web,&#8221; Sunde informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Those who equate ad blocking to piracy should move on, and try to come up with better monetization models themselves. Advertising on the Internet is not sustainable in its current form, at least not for everyone.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think it’s funny how people compare that to piracy &#8211; especially since I have been part of that discussion for forever,&#8221; Sunde says. </p>
<p>&#8220;The media industry seems to think everything is piracy. Then again, it’s hard for them to complain about Flattr Plus, because it contains a solution for exactly the thing they’re complaining about and haven&#8217;t fixed themselves,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>That said, Sunde sees some parallels between Flattr Plus and The Pirate Bay. Both are about sharing information, but this time the creators are compensated.</p>
<p>&#8220;Flattr is for me just an extension to the same thinking that I’ve had with The Pirate Bay &#8211; information needs to be spread, we need to share information but we also need to fix that missing link of supporting people. And now, finally, we’ll have the user base size to fix that!&#8221;</p>
<p>Whether the partnership between Flattr and Adblock Plus will be as disruptive as The Pirate Bay has yet to be seen, but it will certainly cause some waves.</p>
<p><center><strong>Announcing Flattr Plus</strong><br></br><center><center><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/7S3aQSOYUbk?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121691
title: Popcorn Time Could End Up on New Set-Top Boxes, Lawmakers Warn
uri: Popcorn-Time-Could-End-Up-on-New-Set-Top-Boxes-Lawmakers-Warn
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qtJcYIKWmhI/
content:
<p><img src="media/f05d8290.tv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tv.jpg" width="190" height="140" class="alignright">Back in January the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) drew attention to a consumer-unfriendly situation in the United States which forces millions of cable TV viewers to access content through devices offered by their providers.</p>
<p>According to the FCC, 99% of pay-TV subscribers are chained to set-top boxes that are supplied at inflated rates. On average, the average American household pays $231 in rental fees &#8211; a cool $20 billion a year for all U.S. consumers.</p>
<p>To reduce the effects of this problem the FCC approved a proposal that would allow consumers to swap expensive cable boxes for other devices and apps, a change that would boost competition and deliver a blow to companies such as Comcast who would suddenly be open to competition from companies such as Alphabet/Google.</p>
<p>Last month President Barack Obama came out <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/04/15/ending-rotary-rental-phones-thinking-outside-cable-box">in favor</a> of the plan but that was soon followed by an opinion from the MPAA who warned that opening up the set-top box market to third party vendors would cause a piracy problem.</p>
<p>“No matter what you think about the pay-TV set-top box market, the FCC may not promote alternatives by taking the intellectual property of the content industry and giving it to some members of the technology industry, or by making it easier for pirate site operators to build a black market business by stealing that content,&#8221; the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-says-pirate-sites-will-take-advantage-of-set-top-box-proposals-160426/">warned</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the MPAA&#8217;s concerns center around the likelihood that new boxes will offer ‘cross-platform searches’, i.e mixing regular pay-TV content with that offered via the Internet. In other words, authorized premium content might potentially appear alongside pirate content in set-top box menus.</p>
<p>Those warnings appear to have resonated with two influential lawmakers who have written to FCC chief Tom Wheeler with their concerns. </p>
<p><img src="media/f05d8290.tv.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tv.jpg" width="190" height="140" class="alignright">Interestingly, the letter penned by House Judiciary Committee Chairman <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Goodlatte">Bob Goodlatte</a> and Congress&#8217;s longest-serving current member <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Conyers">John Conyers</a> doesn&#8217;t merely reference piracy in general &#8211; they have a specific concern in mind.</p>
<p>&#8220;As Members of the House Judiciary Committee, which oversees our nation&#8217;s copyright laws, we recognize the harm to the American economy caused by the theft of copyrighted works,&#8221; the Congressmen begin.</p>
<p>&#8220;Creators have shared concerns that under the FCC&#8217;s proposed rule, future set-top boxes or their replacements could purposely designed to distribute pirated content obtained from sources that primarily offer stolen content.&#8221;</p>
<p>And the number one concern?</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, apps such as Popcorn Time that focus on providing access to piratical content have tried to match the format and ease of use of legitimate apps to mask the theft of copyrighted content,&#8221; they <a href="media/87ae666b.04.29.16-FCC-Set-Top-Box-Letter.pdf" data-original-source="https://morningconsult.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/04.29.16-FCC-Set-Top-Box-Letter.pdf">warn</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Creators are legitimately worried about the prospect that future set top boxes, or their functional equivalents, could incorporate apps such as Popcorn Time or its functionality, or otherwise lead to the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted works.&#8221;</p>
<p>At this point it&#8217;s far from clear what future set-top boxes and their software equivalents will look like but it is certainly conceivable that opening up such platforms to third-party vendors could potentially provide easier access to unauthorized content.</p>
<p>That being said, piracy-enabled set-top devices costing just a few dollars are already installed globally in millions of homes, a situation that is only likely to worsen in the months and years to come. Indeed, anyone with an Android phone or tablet already has their own nascent &#8216;piracy-enabled set-top box&#8221; complete with Popcorn Time functionality if they want it.</p>
<p>Public comment on the FCC&#8217;s proposals are open until May 23, so expect more pushback from copyright holders and their allies in the meantime.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121587
title: Elsevier Complaint Shuts Down Sci-Hub Domain Name
uri: Elsevier-Complaint-Shuts-Down-Sci-Hub-Domain-Name
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/O0UzqDxvhjg/
content:
<p><img src="media/ad61641e.200px-Elsevier.svg_.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/200px-Elsevier.svg_.png" alt="200px-Elsevier.svg" width="200" height="220" class="alignright size-full wp-image-110783">Hoping to stop the unauthorized distribution of millions of academic papers, academic publisher Elsevier filed a complaint against Sci-Hub and several related sites last year. </p>
<p>While Sci-Hub is nothing like the average pirate site, it is just as illegal according to Elsevier&#8217;s legal team, which obtained a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-orders-shutdown-of-libgen-bookfi-and-sci-hub-151102/">preliminary injunction</a> from a  New York District Court last fall.</p>
<p>The injunction ordered Sci-Hub&#8217;s operator to quit offering access to any Elsevier content, but this didn&#8217;t happen. Instead of taking Sci-Hub down, the lawsuit and the associated media attention only helped the site grow. </p>
<p>However, as part of the injunction Elsevier is able to request domain name registrars to suspend Sci-Hub&#8217;s domain names. This happened to the original .org domain earlier, and a few days ago the Chinese registrar Now.cn appears to have done the same for Sci-hub.io.</p>
<p>The domain name has stopped resolving and is now listed as &#8220;reserved&#8221; according to the latest WHOIS info. TorrentFreak reached out to Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan, who informed us that the registrar sent her a notice referring to a complaint from Elsevier.</p>
<p><center><strong>Message from the registrar</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f8ad68ea.chinese.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/chinese.png" alt="chinese" width="555" height="78" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121640"></center></p>
<p>Elbakyan was also quick to add that several &#8216;backup&#8217; domain names are still in play, including Sci-Hub.bz and Sci-Hub.cc. This means that the site remains accessible to those who update their bookmarks.</p>
<p>In addition to the alternative domain names users can access the site directly through the IP-address 31.184.194.81, or its <a href="http://scihub22266oqcxt.onion">domain</a> on the Tor-network, which is pretty much immune to any takedown efforts.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/ba95fbdf.sci-hub.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sci-hub.jpg" alt="sci-hub" width="600" height="358" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121105"></center></p>
<p>The Ukraine-born Elbakyan has no intention of throwing in the towel and believes that what she does is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/sci-hub-tears-down-academias-illegal-copyright-paywalls-150627/">helping millions of less privileged researchers</a> to do their work properly by providing free access to research results. </p>
<p>Authorized or not, there is definitely plenty of interest in Sci-Hub&#8217;s service. The site currently hosts more than 51 million academic papers and receives millions of visitors per month. </p>
<p>Many visits come from countries where access to academic journals is limited, such as Iran, Russia or China. But even in countries where access is more common, many researchers visit the site, an analysis from Science magazine <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/04/whos-downloading-pirated-papers-everyone">revealed</a> last week.</p>
<p>Elsevier says it is still deliberating what steps to take next. The publisher recently informed the New York District Court that it&#8217;s researching what &#8220;potential additional remedies&#8221; it can take against Sci-Hub and its operator.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, academic pirates continue to flood to Sci-Hub, domain seizure or not.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121707
title: Pirate Bay & KickassTorrents Uploader Stung For €7,500
uri: Pirate-Bay-KickassTorrents-Uploader-Stung-For-7-500
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/k1JwMF1yvlU/
content:
<p><img src="media/58bed133.upload.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/upload.jpg" width="180" height="125" class="alignright">After many years of targeting the operators of pirate sites, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN is now turning up the pressure on some of the more prolific online file-sharers.</p>
<p>Naturally those individuals frequent some of the largest torrent sites and BREIN hopes that by tracking them down and holding them to account, others engaged in similar activities will reconsider their options, thus removing pirate content from the Internet.</p>
<p>As part of this project BREIN previously targeted 2Lions-Team, a release group that reportedly uploaded thousands of files to popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents and ExtraTorrent.</p>
<p>The group was involved in the spread of a wide range of content including popular TV show The Walking Dead and recent hit movie The Revenant. According to BREIN, 2Lions-Team were responsible for almost half a million pirate downloads.</p>
<p>Back in March BREIN <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-shuts-down-torrent-release-group-2lions-team-160322/">announced</a> that it had obtained ex-parte injunctions against three members of the torrent release group. As a result they faced fines of €2,000 per day fine if they infringed BREIN members&#8217; copyrights in the future.</p>
<p>BREIN also reached out-of-court settlements of around €15,000 with five members of 2Lions-Team members, to a total of €67,500. But BREIN still wasn&#8217;t done. According to a new announcement from the anti-piracy group it has just caught up with a uploader and moderator for the group.</p>
<p>&#8220;The uploader posted frequent torrents for illegal English subtitled movies and TV series on illegal websites such as The Pirate Bay and KickassTorrents,&#8221; BREIN announced. </p>
<p>&#8220;[After the other members were identified] the uploader in question stopped uploading and hoped in vain that he would be spared. He was still identified by BREIN.&#8221;</p>
<p>Just like his former colleagues in 2Lions-Team, the unnamed individual is now required to settle with the anti-piracy group. That amount has apparently been set at €7500 which is an uncomfortable amount for most people and could be devastating to others.</p>
<p>Furthermore, the individual will also have to remove all the torrents he uploaded to various sites, something other team members were also required to do. In some cases that will be possible but torrents tend to have a life of their own and can&#8217;t be stopped simply by the removal of a file.</p>
<p>BREIN says that in total it will now receive €75,000 in settlements from 2Lions-Team members, a not insignificant amount for people engaged in what was probably an oversized hobby project. And for those wondering about the future, these kinds of actions look set to increase.</p>
<p>Back in March the anti-piracy group was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/brein-threatens-pirates-with-high-fines-warns-vpn-users-160314/">granted</a> special permission from the national data protection authority to monitor torrent users on a large scale.</p>
<p>&#8220;I advise notorious uploaders to think twice, after all, forewarned is forearmed,” said BREIN chief Tim Kuik, who noted that VPN users might get even tougher treatment.</p>
<p>“VPN services can see what you do, you run a security risk and it is possible that you can still be identified, which will result in a higher ‘fine’,” Kuik said. </p>
<p>This week the anti-piracy group is reiterating its threats that important uploaders run the risk of significant punishments.</p>
<p>&#8220;BREIN again warns that the monitoring of initial and/or large-scale illegal uploaders is extensive and that settlement amounts could reach thousands of euros per case,&#8221; the outfit concludes</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=120988
title: Flood of Abusive Piracy Notices Crashed Verizon’s Mail Server
uri: Flood-of-Abusive-Piracy-Notices-Crashed-Verizon-s-Mail-Server
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/oNHVIlF3a60/
content:
<p><img src="media/0e41b479.verizon-progress.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/verizon-progress.jpg" alt="verizon-progress" width="200" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-50841">Internet provider Verizon recently submitted a response to the U.S. Copyright Office, which is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-govt-reviews-impact-and-efficacy-of-dmca-safe-harbor-160105/">reviewing</a> the effectiveness of the DMCA takedown process.</p>
<p>In line <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isps-refuse-to-disconnect-persistent-pirates-160411/">with other ISPs</a>, the group stresses that the DMCA doesn&#8217;t require Internet providers to forward notices to their subscribers. This requirement only applies to services which actually host content, they point out. </p>
<p>Despite this crucial difference ISPs receive countless copyright infringement warnings which target subscribers who allegedly pirate movies and music. This is a growing problem, according to Verizon, who describe the notices as invalid. </p>
<p>&#8220;The biggest problem faced by Verizon is the deluge of invalid notices that it now receives in its role as a provider of conduit services – typically relating to peer-to-peer file sharing. These are notices that are not provided for or contemplated by the DMCA,&#8221; the ISP notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Ten years ago, Verizon received as little as 6,000 invalid P2P notices each month. As a result of automated notice factories such as Rightscorp, that number has increased to millions each month,&#8221; Verizon adds. </p>
<p>The massive increase in volume also directly affects Verizon&#8217;s ability to process legitimate notices. In fact, two-and-a-half years ago a batch of over two million notices in one day crashed one of Verizon&#8217;s mail servers.</p>
<p>&#8220;In November 2013, Rightscorp, Inc., one of the principal abusers of the section 512 framework, inundated Verizon with over 2 million invalid notices in a single day, causing the server for inbound DMCA notices to crash.&#8221; </p>
<p>&#8220;The deluge of these improper notices jams the system and slows Verizon’s ability to respond to the valid notices that it receives,&#8221; Verizon explains.</p>
<p>The ISP is only required to respond to takedown notices for its hosting services and CDN, which are only a few dozen per month. So, finding these in a pile of millions of incorrect notices can indeed be quite a challenge.</p>
<p>Congress never intended ISPs who merely pass on traffic to receive these kind of notices, Verizon says. They condemn outfits such as Rightscorp who regularly issue demands for ISPs to terminate the accounts of pirating subscribers.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is an abuse of the DMCA notice process,&#8221; the ISP writes. &#8220;In Verizon’s view, it is important that sanctions be available for this kind of abusive conduct.&#8221; </p>
<p>In addition to sanctions for improper takedown notices, Verizon directly attacks Rightscorp&#8217;s settlement business model, equating it to a &#8220;shakedown.&#8221;</p>
<p>All in all, the ISP hopes Congress will help Internet providers to keep the current safe harbor protections for ISPs in place, while making sure that abusive anti-piracy outfits are properly sanctioned.</p>
<p>Verizon&#8217;s submission to the U.S. Copyright Office can be <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/?p=120968&#038;preview=true">read in full here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121776
title: Australian ISPs Refuse to Pay For Pirate Site Blocking
uri: Australian-ISPs-Refuse-to-Pay-For-Pirate-Site-Blocking
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lMM-2Ffku18/
content:
<p><a href="media/5ceed422.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-72076"><img src="media/07db73b3.stop-blocked.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stop-blocked.jpg" alt="stop-blocked" width="200" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-72076"></a>Website blocking applications are active in many countries around the world and they are often complex beasts, with negotiations drawn out over months and in some cases years.</p>
<p>Legislation passed last year in Australia aimed to formalize the process but that doesn&#8217;t appear to have detracted from the complexity of getting sites blocked under <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2015A00080">Section 115A</a> of the Copyright Amendment (Online Infringement) Act 2015.</p>
<p><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-pirate-bay-blocking-process-begins-in-federal-court-160315/">Two cases</a> are currently testing the legal machine at the Federal Court. Roadshow Films (the movie division of Village Roadshow) and TV giant Foxtel are both seeking to have several pirate sites blocked at the ISP level. The latter wants to render The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, isoHunt and TorrentHound inaccessible while the former is targeting streaming portal Solarmovie.</p>
<p>The Internet service providers involved &#8211; TPG (including subsidiary iiNet), Optus, Telstra and M2 &#8211; have today confirmed that while they don&#8217;t intend to accept the blocking applications made by Roadshow and Foxtel they don&#8217;t intend to oppose them either, a move which leaves the matter in the hands of the Court.</p>
<p>But even with opposition out of the way, things aren&#8217;t necessarily progressing smoothly. Just as the issue of costs made a mess of Australia&#8217;s three-strikes regime and eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/aussie-site-blocking-imminent-but-three-strikes-abandoned-160218/">shelved it</a>, the ISPs are now insisting that they shouldn&#8217;t be forced to pay for the entertainment industries&#8217; blocking efforts either.</p>
<p>While talks have been underway between the parties since last year, the ISPs feel that as innocent parties they shouldn&#8217;t be the ones picking up the bills. Quite how much those costs will rise to is also a matter for debate.</p>
<p>In Court today TPB/iiNet <a href="http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/599321/foxtel-village-isps-yet-agree-cost-blocking-pirate-sites/">said</a> it could carry out DNS blocking relatively cheaply at just AUS$50 (US37) per domain. M2, on the other hand, said its costs would be AUS$400 (US$295) per domain in the best case scenario and could climb to AUS$800 (US$590) in the worst.</p>
<p>While other ISPs have yet to put in their estimates (they will do so in the coming weeks), the sheer amount of blocking that will eventually take place in Australia must be a point of concern. After several years there are now around a 1,000 domains on the UK&#8217;s unofficial blocklist and that number is increasing every month. Deciding who pays at this early stage is definitely an important exercise.</p>
<p>As a result all parties will return to Court for an additional hearing on the blocking application on June 23. In the meantime, however, further discussion on site-blocking will continue in a parallel case brought by the music industry.</p>
<p>Last month members of the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and Australasian collecting society APRA AMCOS teamed up to file their first site-blocking application at the Federal Court. Record labels Universal, Warner, Sony, and Albert &#038; Son <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-next-target-for-aussie-piracy-blocklist-180416/">targeted</a> KickassTorrents.</p>
<p>After describing KickassTorrents as the “worst of the worst”, they too demanded<br>
a close to nationwide ISP blockade of the famous torrent site and its associated proxy sites. A case management hearing in that case will take place on June 6.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121644
title: 4K Content Protection “Stripper” Beats Warner Bros in Court
uri: 4K-Content-Protection-Stripper-Beats-Warner-Bros-in-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nvAUrca55SI/
content:
<p><img src="media/b93e3114.hdfuryl.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hdfuryl.jpg" alt="hdfuryl" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120010">Late last year the first pirated copies of 4K videos leaked from both Netflix and Amazon. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirates-can-now-rip-4k-content-from-netflix-and-amazon-151127/">These leaks</a> were unusual as online 4k streams were always well protected against pirates.</p>
<p>Initially it was unclear how the HDCP content protection had been circumvented, but several sources suggested that one of LegendSky&#8217;s <a href="https://www.hdfury.com/shop/splitters/integral-4k60-444-600mhz/">latest HDFury devices</a> may have been involved.</p>
<p>This suspicion was later corroborated by a well-known Scene group, which <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-group-thanks-hdfury-as-sponsor-for-netflix-leak-160329/">openly thanked HDFury</a> in their release notes.</p>
<p>However, not everyone was pleased with the new &#8220;pirate tool.&#8221; In fact, Warner Bros. and Intel daughter company Digital Content Protection (DCP) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/warner-bros-and-intel-sue-4k-content-protection-ripper-160104/">sued the HDFury manufacturer</a> over its ability to &#8220;strip&#8221; the latest HDCP encryption.</p>
<p>The Chinese hardware manufacturer fiercely rejected these piracy claims and countersued Warner and Intel subsidiary for defamation.  </p>
<p>In its reply, LegendSky explained that their devices do not “strip” any HDCP copy protection. Instead, the contested HDFury device merely downgrades the higher HDCP protection to a lower version, which is permitted as an exception under the DMCA.</p>
<p>The company further added that several HDCP licensees including Netflix, Disney, NBC and CBS have bought their devices for legitimate purposes.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s possible that DCP also appreciated the strength of this argument as this week the company dropped its copyright infringement claims against LegendSky. This means that the 4K integral remains for sale, despite the earlier piracy claims.</p>
<p>Court documents reveal nothing other than a statement signed by both parties, stating that the claims and counterclaims have been dismissed. However, LegendSky did inform its customers a few days ago referring to a settlement being reached.</p>
<p>&#8220;We just have been informed by our legal counsel that we must pull all of the below products immediately due to a pending confidential settlement we are reaching,&#8221; the email in question reads.</p>
<p><center><strong>LegendSky&#8217;s email</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/e1bdcdf8.hdfury-pull.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/hdfury-pull.png" alt="hdfury-pull" width="595" height="369" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121738"></center></p>
<p>Interestingly, the products that were pulled have nothing to do with the 4K splitter that started the lawsuit. Instead, they are digital to analog converters.</p>
<p>In the U.S. these type of products have previously been classed as &#8220;infringing&#8221; and DCP informed the court about several of these so-called &#8220;analog hole&#8221; verdicts in an earlier filing. It therefore makes sense that puling these older products is part of the settlement.</p>
<p>This allows Warner Bros. and the Intel daughter company to save face, but it&#8217;s only a minor conciliation. With the 4K integral still up for sale, the Chinese hardware manufacturer has without doubt booked a moral victory in this lawsuit. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121833
title: Chrome, Firefox and Safari Block Pirate Bay as “Phishing” Site
uri: Chrome-Firefox-and-Safari-Block-Pirate-Bay-as-Phishing-Site
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/sCtqwzah1Kg/
content:
<p><img class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122" src="media/760ee13a.thepirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate.jpg" alt="thepirate" width="275" height="258">There’s a slight panic breaking out among Pirate Bay users, who are having a hard time accessing the site.</p>
<p>Over the past few hours Chrome and Firefox and Safari have started to block access to Thepiratebay.se due to reported security issues.</p>
<p>Instead of a page displaying the iconic pirate ship, visitors are presented with an ominous red warning banner.</p>
<p>&#8220;Deceptive site ahead: Attackers on Thepiratebay.se may trick you into doing something dangerous like installing software or revealing your personal information,&#8221; the Chrome warning reads.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121846" src="media/4b7c341c.tpbchrome-block-May2016.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpbchrome-block-May2016.png" alt="tpbchrome block May2016" width="663" height="519"></p>
<p>Firefox users may encounter a similar banner, branding The Pirate Bay as a &#8220;web forgery&#8221; which may trick users into sharing personal information. This may lead to identity theft or other fraud.</p>
<p>&#8220;Web forgeries are designed to trick you into revealing personal or financial information by imitating sources you may trust. Entering any information on this web page may result in identity theft or other fraud,&#8221; the browser warns.</p>
<p><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-121849" src="media/1f2c5ed4.tpb-firefox-block-May2016.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-firefox-block-May2016.png" alt="tpb firefox block May2016" width="705" height="329"></p>
<p>Google&#8217;s <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/safebrowsing/diagnostic/index.html?hl=en-US#url=http://thepiratebay.se/">safebrowsing page for TPB</a> currently lists the site as dangerous. It is likely that the current problems are related to issues caused by third-party advertisers. Just last week Malwarebytes <a href="https://blog.malwarebytes.org/threat-analysis/exploits-threat-analysis/2016/04/malvertising-on-the-pirate-bay-drops-ransomware/">reported</a> that some ads were dropping ransomware through the site.</p>
<p>The issue appears to be limited to the desktop versions of most browsers, and not everyone is seeing the error pages yet.</p>
<p>This is not the first time browsers have flagged The Pirate Bay. The same issue has come up before <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-user-pages-blocked-by-google-090315/">supposedly due to</a> malicious advertisers.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay team is aware of the issues and will probably resolve it sooner than later. Impatient or adventurous users who want to bypass the warning can do so by disabling their browser’s security warnings altogether in the settings, at their own risk of course.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121718
title: ISP Boss Criticizes Calls to Criminalize File-Sharers
uri: ISP-Boss-Criticizes-Calls-to-Criminalize-File-Sharers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1qErbNKWNLA/
content:
<p><a href="media/392dd613.karlung.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/karlung.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-121773"><img src="media/392dd613.karlung.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/karlung.jpg" alt="karlung" width="220" height="256" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121773"></a>There are very few Internet service providers around the world who could be described as file-sharer friendly. Most will steadfastly do their bare minimum when aggressive copyright holders come calling, with the majority happy to throw their customers to the wolves, guilty or not.</p>
<p>The same cannot be said about <a href="https://www.bahnhof.se">Swedish ISP Bahnhof</a>. CEO Jon Karlung has been at the forefront of several arguments over file-sharers for many years, particularly when their activities intersect with a right to privacy.</p>
<p>In 2009, Karlung threw a wrench in the works of the Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Directive (IPRED) by <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isps-obstruct-new-anti-piracy-legislation-090427/">refusing to log the IP addresses</a> of his customers. This meant that if a court came calling for the data, none would be available.</p>
<p>In 2011, Karlung was pleasing the masses again, this time by hosting Wikileaks and promising to route all customer traffic through an <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/wikileaks-isp-anonymizes-all-customer-traffic-to-beat-spying-110127/">encrypted VPN service</a>. And in April this year the Bahnhof CEO vowed to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/isp-vows-to-prevent-users-from-a-piracy-witch-hunt-160422/">protect his customers</a> from copyright trolls.</p>
<p>Now Karlung has turned his attentions to the Swedish government following an open hearing at the end of last month on the subject of piracy in the digital marketplace.</p>
<p>The published purpose of the hearing was to &#8220;share knowledge and gain a greater insight into how piracy and other infringements of intellectual property affects both businesses and consumers and society in general&#8221; but it appears Karlung was not impressed.</p>
<p><Center><br>
<h5>Servers at Bahnhof</h5>
<p><a href="media/c0363112.bahnoff-servers.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bahnoff-servers.jpg" rel="attachment wp-att-31045"><img src="media/8676e6bb.bahnoff-servers.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bahnoff-servers.jpg" alt="bahnoff servers" width="475" height="317" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-31045"></a></center></p>
<p>Writing in Sweden&#8217;s <a href="http://www.svt.se/opinion/jon-karlung-vd-bahnhof">SVT</a>, Karlung said that the meeting was attended by representatives from the film and music industries who sat alongside police and politicians. He says that the atmosphere was good, with everyone in agreement.</p>
<p>&#8220;For several hours they repeated, with rising fighting spirit, the same message again and again: &#8216;We need to block illegal sites! We must strengthen penalties!&#8217;,&#8221; the Bahnhof CEO reports.</p>
<p>Eventually Sweden&#8217;s Minister for Justice took the floor and told those assembled that &#8220;theft is theft!&#8221; while championing tougher penalties for infringers. He also noted that his first meetings after he took over as attorney general had been with the film industry. This appears to have riled Karlung.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is symptomatic that no Internet service provider was invited to the meeting &#8211; or anyone else with a broader understanding of digital conditions,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>The Bahnhof CEO says the exchange reminded him of 2008 when he attended a meeting in Sweden&#8217;s Parliament on the topic of file-sharing. Back then too, a politician stood up, declared that &#8220;theft is theft&#8221;, and left without discussing the issue with the ISP. For Karlung, history is repeating itself.</p>
<p>&#8220;In 2016, Sweden wants to criminalize hundreds of thousands of citizens for file-sharing. Now?! When large parts of the film and music industry have already adapted to the digital landscape with services such as Spotify and Netflix?&#8221; he questions.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consumers are apparently willing to pay. How about adding resources to develop the right services instead of taking a large sledgehammer to the free Internet?&#8221;</p>
<p>Karlung says that Sweden used to be at the forefront in that respect, but things have changed.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now we are internationally renowned as a place where courts prohibit public art from being shared online,&#8221; he explains.</p>
<p>Whether Karlung&#8217;s words will have any effect on government policy will remain to be seen but in any event it is extremely rare for the CEO of an ISP to make his voice heard in the way Karlung has for the past several years. Certainly, privacy conscious customers could do worse than check out this ISP.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=121620
title: HBO Warns Game of Thrones Pirates, Removes Torrents
uri: HBO-Warns-Game-of-Thrones-Pirates-Removes-Torrents
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/nAaw7Wq1j_w/
content:
<p><img src="media/9fc504d2.got6.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/got6.jpg" alt="got6" width="250" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121258">Tomorrow night the third episode of the latest Game of Thrones season will appear online, both through official and unauthorized channels. </p>
<p>With millions of people all around the world eager to see how Jon Snow is doing, the interest on various pirate sites will be massive once again.</p>
<p>While HBO generally seems quite cavalier when the piracy topic comes up, the company is actively trying to contain the fallout behind the scenes.</p>
<p>Since the start of the new season the company&#8217;s anti-piracy partner IP Echelon has sent thousands of warnings to ISPs, urging them to take action against alleged pirates.</p>
<p>The warning mails in question include the IP-addresses of BitTorrent users who were caught sharing recent episodes of Game of Thrones, and the notifications HBO asks the ISPs to alert the associated subscribers to prevent further infringements.</p>
<p>&#8220;As the owner of the IP address, HBO requests that [ISP] immediately contact the subscriber who was assigned the IP address at the date and time below with the details of this notice, and take the proper steps to prevent further downloading or sharing of unauthorized content and additional infringement notices.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>HBO warning</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/3322fa4a.gotmaildmca.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotmaildmca.jpg" alt="gotmaildmca" width="548" height="217" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121753"></center></p>
<p>While these notices are pretty common, HBO now also encourages ISPs to point subscribers toward legal options, something we haven&#8217;t seen in the past.</p>
<p>&#8220;We also encourage you to inform the subscriber that HBO programming can easily be watched and streamed on many devices legally by adding HBO to the subscriber&#8217;s television package,&#8221; the notification adds.</p>
<p>Legally, ISPs are not obligated to forward these emails, which are sent as a DMCA notification, but many do. In any case, HBO doesn’t know the identity of the alleged pirates, so there are no legal strings attached for the subscribers in question.</p>
<p>Aside from targeting alleged pirates, HBO has another strategy to deter people from pirating Game of Thrones. </p>
<p>Since the start of the sixth season the company has aggressively targeted torrent sites with takedown requests. While some sites simply ignore these, popular indexes and search engines such as KickassTorrents and Torrentz have removed links to hundreds of torrents.</p>
<p><center><strong>Torrent removed</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b9fe256d.gotkatgone.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gotkatgone.jpg" alt="gotkatgone" width="600" height="265" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-121752"></center></p>
<p>In some cases, the most popular torrents are removed a few minutes after they appear online. This is much quicker than average, suggesting that HBO&#8217;s anti-piracy partners are monitoring the situation in real time and on a broad scale. </p>
<p>A search on KickassTorrents shows that the most popular torrent releases for the first two episodes have been removed. Similarly, a search for Game of Thrones on Torrentz notes that links to the 100 torrents with the most peers are <a href="media/de17aac9.torrentzthrones.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/torrentzthrones.png">all gone</a>.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s clear that HBO is doing all it can to limit the distribution of pirated Game of Thrones episodes. However, the question remains as to whether it will be enough to really deter a significant number of downloaders from finding copies on other sites, where they are still readily available.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-provider-anonymous-review-160220/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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