# articles

feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136175
title: KickassTorrents Team Fights on and Prepares for “Happy Torrents Day”
uri: 2017-03-13-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pjVIxzzm_gY/
content:
<p><img src="media/2279eece.kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kickasstorrents_500x5001-300x300.png" alt="" width="212" height="212" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-99785">After KickassTorrents was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-kickasstorrents-domains-charge-owner-160720/">shut down</a> July last year, several KAT-crew members regrouped in an effort to get the community part of the site back up. </p>
<p>They launched the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-community-resurrects-without-torrents-160725/">Katcr.co forum</a> as their new home and hinted that torrents could come back too, in the future. </p>
<p>And indeed, by December a new version of <a href="https://katcr.co/">the site</a> was launched, complete with the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kickasstorrents-brought-back-to-life-by-original-staffers-161216/">KAT look and feel</a>.</p>
<p>Now, several months have passed, and the new site is still up, gaining traffic month after month. While things will never be entirely the same, the community doesn&#8217;t intend to give up its traditions including &#8220;Happy Torrents Day&#8221; which is penned in the agenda for March 30th.</p>
<p>In a message on the site the KAT-team has <a href="https://katcr.co/show/community/index.php/topic,4756.0.html">announced the sixth celebration</a> of this festive day where people are encouraged to share as much as possible. Marking this milestone, we got in touch with one of the staffers, Mr. Gooner, to ask what all the fuss is about.</p>
<p>&#8220;Happy Torrents Day is to honor and celebrate the freedom and ability to share, to encourage users to share as much as possible on the day, whilst participating in various events within the community. We&#8217;ve known users to book time off work for the day and organize themselves well in advance,&#8221; Mr. Gooner says. </p>
<p>While the tradition is being kept alive, things will be a bit different this year. Although the new site has millions of visitors a month, the traffic is nowhere near what it was. According to the team, however, the most important part is that people can share again, freely.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our milestones for Happy Torrents Day are simply to share as many torrents as possible, more every year and celebrate our freedom to do so,&#8221; Mr. Gooner notes.</p>
<p><center><strong>Happy Torrents Day 2017</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/b942b31e.HTD2017-e1489133188264.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/HTD2017-e1489133188264.png" alt="" width="600" height="201" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136323"></center></p>
<p>While KATcr looks a lot like the old site, there is still more work to be done behind the scenes to get it where the team wants it to be. The development of the original site took years and the current staff are working hard to get it at that level again. </p>
<p>The past months haven&#8217;t been without issues though. When the site first launched its torrent section it was unreachable for days, due to the massive attention, and even today there are some additional hiccups. However, things are progressing.</p>
<p>&#8220;At the present moment, the site design and code is not where we want it, system timeouts and overloads are present at some stages but as we mentioned it&#8217;s a huge challenge to start from scratch again. We are working hard on it,&#8221; Mr. Gooner says. </p>
<p>KATcr doesn&#8217;t consider itself a KAT successor. They are KAT. While the technical part of the site was previously managed by a separate team, the same group of staffers, uploaders, and users is still on board.</p>
<p>At the old site, the community was managed by much of the same team that handles things today. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are not the KAT successor &#8211; we are KAT and always have been. Kickass Torrents was never run by the founder, it was always run by Team Kickass, our Super Users, Translators, uploaders and community members. </p>
<p>&#8220;Every thread, team member promotion and site feature was decided by the team. The site was and is still running under the same command of administration, moderation team, and rules,&#8221; Mr. Gooner adds. </p>
<p>Bringing back a website whose alleged former owner and operators are caught up in a US criminal investigation isn&#8217;t without risk. Thus far, however, the new site hasn&#8217;t been targeted by law enforcement. </p>
<p>There are the occasional legal takedown requests, of course. The KAT team says it will fully comply with these, as long as they&#8217;re lawful.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ve had some interesting demands such as supplying access to our database so that a particular agency can access and remove content directly from our site on their say-so. Obviously unreasonable requests won&#8217;t be entertained, however, genuine copyright requests are voluntarily actioned without delay,&#8221; Mr. Gooner says.</p>
<p>As for the future? </p>
<p>The KAT team intends to keep building the site and community, improving it bit by bit. If the original founder returns they are happy to hand over the reigns but for now, they plan to stay on their current course.</p>
<p>&#8220;Right now we are focusing on getting back to where we were. We fully support our founder and expect him to be released. If that happens quickly, we will go back to full site immediately.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;If that takes time, we will continue to work hard, re-build the code and get KAT back to where we were. After that, we will just keep growing, sharing and fighting internet censorship. And the more they push us, the harder we&#8217;ll fight,&#8221; Mr. Gooner concludes. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136394
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/13/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-13-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_i26OSf1wM8/
content:
<p><img src="media/7296c745.xan-e1489346940348.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/xan-e1489346940348.png" alt="" width="300" height="204" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136396">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>xXx: Return of Xander Cage is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-030617/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">xXx: Return of Xander Cage</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEFmHsseaU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">Assassin&#8217;s Creed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">Office Christmas Party</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">6.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4PHjxRiT2I">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">Passengers</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3470600/">Sing</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3470600/">8.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6BVyk7hty8">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/doctor-strange-torrent-downloads/">Doctor Strange</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1211837">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzx-zryEgM">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521164/">Moana</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3521164/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPAbx5kgCJo">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136392
title: Australia Copyright Safe Harbour Provision Backed By Prime Minister
uri: Australia-Copyright-Safe-Harbour-Provision-Backed-By-Prime-Minister
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/YXJHHe1lEKQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/c5e87d4f.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg"><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798"></a>The notion that online service providers should not generally be held liable for the infringing acts of their users is something that has broadly been taken for granted across the United States and Europe.</p>
<p>To keep their immunity, all platforms are expected to respond relatively swiftly to copyright claims, removing content if applicable and dealing with repeat infringers in an appropriate manner, a lesson currently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-files-appeal-to-overturn-25-million-piracy-verdict-161110/">causing problems</a> for ISP Cox in the US.</p>
<p>In Australia, however, the situation is less certain. Due to what some believe amounts to a drafting error in Australia&#8217;s implementation of the Australia &#8211; US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), so-called safe harbor provisions only apply to commercial Internet service providers.</p>
<p>This means that while local ISPs such as Telstra receive protection from copyright infringement complaints, places like schools, universities, museums, libraries and archives do not. Platforms such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube also face the same potential copyright minefield. </p>
<p>To solve this problem and put Australia on a similar footing to technology companies operating in the United States, proposed amendments to the Copyright Act will see all of the above receiving enhanced safe harbor protections while bringing the country into compliance with AUSFTA.</p>
<p>While technology companies are welcoming the changes, there is significant dissent among artists and other creators. Last October, a coalition of 200 artists including Delta Goodrem and INXS, said that the changes would undermine their work while empowering platforms like Facebook that effectively monetize other people&#8217;s content.</p>
<p>But for now, momentum appears to be shifting in favor of the technology platforms. A report in The Australian (<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/piracy-waiver-for-google-facebook/news-story/">paywall</a>) indicates that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has given the safe harbor amendments his support. It won&#8217;t be all plain sailing from here, however.</p>
<p>The government is to set up a Senate committee into the copyright amendments to determine whether the amendments will promote piracy as the entertainment industries are warning. The inquiry will launch after the government introduces the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill into Parliament after March 20.</p>
<p>The Australian suggests that under Schedule 2 of the bill, online platforms would receive immunity for infringing user-uploaded content. However, totally immunity is an unrealistic eventuality that would almost certainly have to be tempered by rules concerning takedowns.</p>
<p>Those details will be examined in-depth as part of the committee inquiry, which will run its course in advance of parliamentary debate and voting. </p>
<p>“The Government has conducted extensive consultation on this proposal including through an exposure draft and is considering the feedback that has been received,” <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/senate-probes-copyright-piracy-crisis/news-story/">said</a> Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.</p>
<p>“There are highly regarded stakeholders on both sides of the debate. When legislation is introduced, we expect that it would be subject to further scrutiny and industry consultation in the form of a Senate committee inquiry.”</p>
<p>The move towards expanded safe harbor provisions in Australia takes place to a backdrop of a tightening of opinions in both the United States and Europe. The so-called content &#8220;value gap&#8221; on sites such as YouTube is said to be a product of generous safe harbor, which has led to calls for the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/tech-companies-urge-trump-to-protect-dmca-safe-harbors-161118/">DMCA to be tightened</a> and legislative amendments such as <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/save-the-meme-campaign-protests-eus-proposed-piracy-filters-170308/">Article 13</a> in Europe.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136402
title: ‘Secret’ MPAA Lawsuit Targeted Domains of Pubfilm’s “Piracy Ring”
uri: Secret-MPAA-Lawsuit-Targeted-Domains-of-Pubfilm-s-Piracy-Ri
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/tguWdTqNZHs/
content:
<p><img src="media/846b9e72.pubfilmlarger.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pubfilmlarger.png" alt="" width="249" height="119" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136412">A week ago we reported about the mysterious domain name issues pirate streaming site Pubfilm was facing.</p>
<p>The popular site lost control over several of its domains, including pubfilm.com, pubfilm.net, pubfilmhd.com, top100film.com, pidtv.com and pubfilm.cc.</p>
<p>Similar to other sites in this position, Pubfilm <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-streaming-site-loses-domain-advertises-new-one-on-adsense-170305/">swiftly moved its operation</a> to a new home; pubfilm.ac. Hoping to keep their visitors on board, the operators also took the unusual step of advertising this change through Google Adsense.</p>
<p>Now that a week has passed, more info has become available on Pubfilm&#8217;s domain troubles. As it turns out, the site is subject to a lawsuit filed by the MPAA, on behalf of several major Hollywood studios including Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, and Disney.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was filed in a New York federal court early last month and accuses Pubfilm and several associated sites of operating a large-scale piracy operation causing significant harm to the movie industry.</p>
<p>The sites allegedly have eight million monthly visitors, of which roughly 40 percent are linked to US IP-addresses, <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/mpaa-studios-taking-large-scale-piracy-ring-new-york-court-985259">THR reports</a>. The operators are believed to be from Vietnam, and one of the defendants is named as Phat Bui.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants’ entire business amounts to nothing more than a blatant, large-scale copyright infringement operation, undertaken to maximize ill-gotten profits while evading the enforcement efforts of copyright owners,&#8221; the complaint reads. </p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs bring this action to put an end to Defendants’ ongoing, massive violation of Plaintiffs’ rights and to recover damages therefrom.&#8221; the movie studios add.</p>
<p>The lawsuit was initially kept out of public view. However, after our report last week, the MPAA agreed that it could be unsealed. The court signed the unseal order last Friday, but at the time of writing the original complaint is still unavailable in the court docket.</p>
<p><center><strong>MPAA agrees to unseal</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/1ca047ac.mpaasealstuff.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaasealstuff.png" alt="" width="595" height="449" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136405" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaasealstuff.png 595w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/mpaasealstuff-200x150.png 200w" sizes="(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px"></center></p>
<p>What&#8217;s most significant about the lawsuit, aside from the initial secrecy, is the fact that the court swiftly granted a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against several domain registrars and registries. </p>
<p>The restraining order from early February required GoDaddy, VeriSign, and Enom to make six domain names unavailable without warning or informing their customers in advance. </p>
<p>While this is an isolated case for now, the MPAA could use this tactic to target other alleged pirate sites in future. </p>
<p>It is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/leak-exposes-hollywoods-global-anti-piracy-strategy-141212/">no secret</a> that domain names are prime target for the Hollywood studios. Last month they targeted several domains in Europe <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/putlocker-loses-domain-name-following-court-order-170228/">through</a> the domain name registrar EuroDNS, and it wouldn&#8217;t be a surprise if similar actions follow in the near future.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> The complaint is available to the public<a href="media/e87dd0a3.gov.uscourts.nysd.468435.16.0.pdf" data-original-source="http://ia601508.us.archive.org/18/items/gov.uscourts.nysd.468435/gov.uscourts.nysd.468435.16.0.pdf"> now (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136443
title: New UK ‘Kodi’ Piracy Blocking Injunction is a Pretty Scary Beast
uri: New-UK-Kodi-Piracy-Blocking-Injunction-is-a-Pretty-Scary-Beast
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HTJlx1xdNQg/
content:
<p><img src="media/b13e6c72.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-large">Last week, The Premier League <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-intriguing-injunction-to-tackle-pirate-streams-170309/">obtained</a> a new High Court injunction that will enable it to block streams delivered to the public via Kodi and similar devices. </p>
<p>The details made available at the time suggested this injunction was something new, beyond the scope of earlier site-blocking orders.</p>
<p>After obtaining and digesting a copy of the injunction yesterday, we can now report that this is something very special indeed. Not least, it provides a unique view into a future where ISPs are not only Internet gateways but also content providers with a vested interest in what their subscribers can view online.</p>
<p>In broad terms, The Premier League wants to stop the public from watching unauthorized live streams of their matches online, many of them through Kodi and similar tools. However, since these are by definition live, they need to be able to react quickly to shut them down. It&#8217;s a unique problem that has found a unique solution.</p>
<p>The &#8216;defendants&#8217; in the case (and we use the term extremely loosely) are the UK&#8217;s leading ISPs &#8211; Sky, BT, Virgin Media, Plusnet, EE and TalkTalk &#8211; all of which are suppliers of Premier League content to the public. It is crystal clear that the ISPs had a vested interest in this injunction being granted.</p>
<p>&#8220;All of the Defendants have been involved in negotiations over the terms of the Order, with the result that the wording of the Order was agreed,&#8221; the <a href="http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2017/480.html">injunction</a> reads.</p>
<p>As detailed in our <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/premier-league-obtains-intriguing-injunction-to-tackle-pirate-streams-170309/">earlier report</a>, rather than targeting websites, this injunction targets the servers streaming the content. As a result, this case involves the blocking of IP addresses of streaming servers, most of which are located overseas.</p>
<p>&#8220;A timely response is important in the case of Premier League matches because, to be effective, any intervention must occur during the course of a match. The operators of streaming servers regularly change the IP addresses from which the servers operate,&#8221; the High Court notes.</p>
<p>Before presenting its evidence to the High Court, the Premier League (FAPL) hired an unnamed anti-piracy company to monitor infringing streams for a number of weeks. During this process, it identified &#8220;a large number&#8221; of IP addresses from where infringing content was made available.</p>
<p>From here, the FAPL identified a subset of streaming servers it now wants to be blocked. It used three criteria to select them but the Court has chosen to keep those details a secret, &#8220;because if they were made public it would make it easier for the Order to be circumvented.&#8221;</p>
<p>What we do know is these servers can only be selected by FAPL if it &#8220;reasonably believes&#8221; they have the &#8220;sole or predominant purpose of enabling or facilitating access to infringing streams of Premier League match footage.&#8221; Secondly, the FAPL must not know or have reason to believe &#8220;that the server is being used for any other substantial purpose.&#8221;</p>
<p>This caution is needed because this injunction will be carried out live, as soon as matches begin to hit the Internet. FAPL and its anti-piracy contractor will monitor the Internet, grab IP addresses, and ask the ISPs to block them in real-time. No court will be involved in that process, it will be carried out at the discretion of the FAPL and the ISPs.</p>
<p>And of course, this is where things get a little bit unusual. While ISPs like BT, Sky, and Virgin Media are defendants in the case, it&#8217;s notable in the injunction that the Court speaks about their rights as broadcasters being infringed. That they have a vested interest and have been working with FAPL is even more evident when one reads about some of the information they appear to have been sharing.</p>
<p>In discussing the merits of the case, the High Court asks whether copyrighted content has been distributed to the public in the UK, raising several points of fact in support. One in particular raises eyebrows.</p>
<p>&#8220;A very substantial volume of traffic from BT, Sky and Virgin, who are the three largest UK ISPs, has been recorded from these [infringing servers] during Premier League match times,&#8221; the injunction reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;The extent of these spikes in traffic, the closeness of their correlation with each scheduled match, and the absolute volume in terms of raw bandwidth consumed, are only consistent with large numbers of consumers obtaining Premier League content from these servers.&#8221;</p>
<p>The above is framed as if the ISPs have only monitored incoming server traffic, but someone has to request that data and the ISPs clearly know which customers are doing that. After all, they&#8217;re making the connections. Given the text, it seems reasonable to conclude that the ISPs, one way or another, are monitoring which servers their customers are accessing. </p>
<p>&#8220;The traffic spikes are sustained throughout the period of each Premier League match. By and large, the bandwidth (and therefore interest) lasts for precisely the same period as the match, with an immediate drop-off thereafter,&#8221; the High Court notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Deliberate <em>consumer activity of this kind</em> [emphasis ours] is strongly indicative of the fact that a substantial proportion of the relevant UK public regards the Premier League content on these servers as directed to and meant for them.&#8221;</p>
<p>The Court further underlines with the following:</p>
<p>&#8220;The [ISPs] have actual knowledge of the infringing use of their services as a result of detailed pre-application correspondence, monitoring some of the Defendants have themselves carried out, notices sent by the Premier League, and more recently service of the application and accompanying evidence.&#8221;</p>
<p>In granting the injunction, the High Court considered whether doing so would negatively affect the ISPs&#8217; ability to do business. It needn&#8217;t have worried.</p>
<p>&#8220;Five of the Defendants [TalkTalk only agreed not to oppose] positively support the making of the Order. [This] is strong evidence that it will not impair their freedom to carry on business,&#8221; the injunction notes, adding that no ISP made an application for costs.</p>
<p>Of note is the short duration of the injunction. It comes into force on March 18, 2017 and lasts until May 22, 2017, when the football season ends. This short term is intended as a trial period of sorts. If all works out, the FAPL will apply for a new injunction that will cover the 2017/2018 season.</p>
<p>Overall, this injunction provides a clear indication of what can happen when ISPs stop being &#8220;mere conduits&#8221; of information and start becoming distributors of entertainment content. In the case of Sky and BT, who pay billions for content, it would be perhaps naive to think that they would&#8217;ve behaved in any other way.</p>
<p>Indeed, this case has all the hallmarks of companies agreeing to take action together and then going through the formalities of an injunction application to get the necessary rubber stamp and avoid criticism. Whether the latter will still be achieved is open to debate. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136460
title: Blizzard Wants $8.5 Million Copyright Damages From “Cheat” Maker
uri: Blizzard-Wants-8-5-Million-Copyright-Damages-From-Cheat-Maker
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Y2Hcu_q2Tcw/
content:
<p><img src="media/50295694.blizz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="147" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113379" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz-220x130.jpg 220w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px">Over the years video game developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment has released many popular game titles including Overwatch and World of Warcraft.</p>
<p>While most gamers stick to the rules, there’s also a small group that tries to game the system. By using cheats, they play with an advantage over regular users.</p>
<p>The German outfit <a href="https://www.bossland-gmbh.com/">Bossland</a> is behind several popular cheats including &#8220;Honorbuddy&#8221;, Demonbuddy, and the currently unavailable &#8220;Watchover Tyrant&#8221;. Blizzard has been fighting the company on its home turf for several years already and filed a complaint at a federal court in California as well last year.</p>
<p>In the complaint, Blizzard <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blizzard-sues-overwatch-cheat-maker-for-copyright-infringement-160704/">accused</a> the cheat maker of various forms of copyright infringement, unfair competition, and violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision. According to Blizzard the bots and cheats also caused millions of dollars in lost sales, as they ruin the games for many legitimate players.</p>
<p>After Bossland had failed to have the case dismissed over a lack of jurisdiction, things went quiet earlier this year. Bossland stopped responding, and when the Court gave the German company a 24-hour ultimatum to reply, it remained silent.</p>
<p><center><strong>The WoW Honorbot</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8e694820.honotbuddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/honotbuddy.jpg" alt="honotbuddy" width="600" height="332" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-113378"></center> </p>
<p>In response, Blizzard has now submitted a motion for default judgment. According to the game developer, it is clear that Bossland violated the DMCA by selling its &#8220;circumvention&#8221; tools and it demands to be compensated in return.</p>
<p>Blizzard says it prefers a conservative estimate of the damages. Bossland previously testified that it sold 118,939 products to users in the United States since July of 2013, and Blizzard projects that at a minimum, 36% of these sales were cheats for their games.</p>
<p>This translates to 42,818 infringements for a total of well over $8 million is statutory damages.</p>
<p>&#8220;In this case, Blizzard is only seeking the minimum statutory damages of $200 per infringement, for a total of $8,563,600.00. While Blizzard would surely be entitled to seek a larger amount, Blizzard seeks only minimum statutory damages. </p>
<p>&#8220;Blizzard does not seek such damages as a “punitive” measure against Bossland or to obtain an unjustified windfall,&#8221; the game developer <a href="media/61e1a765.blizzdefaulymotion.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/blizzdefaulymotion.pdf">adds (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>According to Blizzard, it is a &#8220;calculated and bad-faith tactic&#8221; of the German cheat manufacturer to go for a default judgment. In doing so, the company tries to shield its alleged unlawful conduct from the reach of United States.</p>
<p>Adding to that, the game developer believes that Bossland&#8217;s revenue from the cheats may have been even higher than the damages they are asking for.</p>
<p>&#8220;Notably, $200 approximates the cost of a one-year license for the Bossland Hacks. So, it is very likely that Bossland actually received far more than $8 million in connection with its sale of the Bossland Hacks.&#8221;  </p>
<p>Since Bossland failed to defend itself, it is likely that Blizzard will get a substantial damages award. However, whether they will ever see a penny from the cheat maker is less certain.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136491
title: Court Orders ISP to Hand Identities Behind 5,300 IP Addresses to Copyright Trolls
uri: Court-Orders-ISP-to-Hand-Identities-Behind-5-300-IP-Addresses-to-Copyr
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/2D39P_R8-MI/
content:
<p><img src="media/efd05bc4.trollsign.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/trollsign.jpg" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-large">In 2016, copyright trolling made a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/attention-swedish-pirate-bay-users-copyright-trolls-have-arrived-160902/">brief appearance</a> in Sweden but after a huge backlash, the perpertrators disappeared with their tails <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/copyright-trolls-abandon-sweden-in-blaze-of-bad-publicity-161101/">between their legs</a>.</p>
<p>Last month, however, it became evident that Sweden is still a target for those seeking cash settlement demands from alleged pirates.</p>
<p>An initiative, fronted by Danish law firm Njord and backed by known international copyright trolls Guardaley, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-internet-users-face-new-wave-of-piracy-cash-demands-170225/">made headlines</a> when it began targeting the customers of several ISPs, including Telia, Tele2 and Bredbandsbolaget, the provider that was previously ordered to block The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>At the time it was unclear how many people the lawfirm had in its sights but the situation has become more clear following a recent legal development.</p>
<p>Sweden&#8217;s new Patent and Market Court, that was formed last year to handle specialist copyright complaints, handed down a ruling on Friday. It grants Njord and its partners the right to force ISP Telia to hand over the personal details of subscribers behind thousands of IP addresses, despite the ISP&#8217;s objections.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is probable cause of infringement of copyright in the films in that they were made unlawfully made available to the public via file sharing networks,&#8221; the Court <a href="http://www.breakit.se/artikel/6876/telia-tvingas-lamna-ut-kundernas-namn-till-danska-piratjagarna">wrote</a> in its judgment.</p>
<p>&#8220;The applicants&#8217; interest in having access to the information outweighs any opposing interests, including the interest of the individual [subscribers] to remain anonymous.&#8221;</p>
<p>Telia says that although it places great value on its subscribers&#8217; right to privacy, complying with a court order is a legal requirement.</p>
<p>&#8220;We believe that our customers&#8217; privacy is incredibly important, but now we must comply with this court decision,&#8221; a Telia press spokesperson <a href="http://www.svt.se/kultur/medier/domen-telia-ska-lamna-ut-personuppgifter-pa-fildelare">told</a> SVT.</p>
<p>In all, subscribers behind 5,300 Telia IP addresses will be affected, with claims that each unlawfully downloaded and shared a range of movie titles including CELL, IT, London Has Fallen, Mechanic: Resurrection, Criminal and September of Shiraz. All have featured in previous Guardaley trolling cases in the United States.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s not known how many of the 5,300 IP addresses Telia will be able to match to subscribers, or whether each IP address will identify a unique subscriber, but it&#8217;s safe to say that thousands of households will be affected.</p>
<p>While it appears that Telia will be the first ISP to hand over subscriber names and addresses to the rightsholder groups, the ISP will not be the last. Tele2 and Bredbandsbolaget are also being targeted and will need to comply with any court orders handed down, just as Telia has.</p>
<p>At this stage, the total numbers of Swedish subscribers affected by these cases still remains a little unclear, but it&#8217;s believed that around 20,000 might be eventually hit with some kind of settlement demand.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136509
title: BREIN Takes Usenet Provider to Supreme Court Over “Piracy Liability”
uri: 2017-03-15-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/0AsNLKyUVUE/
content:
<p><img src="media/18851468.usenet.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/usenet.jpg" alt="usenet" width="250" height="168" class="alignright size-full wp-image-119213">In 2009, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, representing the movie and music industries, took <a href="http://www.news-service.com/">News-Service Europe</a> (NSE) &#8211; one of Europe&#8217;s largest Usenet providers at the time &#8211; to court.</p>
<p>BREIN argued that NSE must delete all infringing content from its servers, and in 2011 the Court of Amsterdam <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/major-usenet-provider-ordered-to-remove-all-infringing-content-110929/">sided</a> with the group.</p>
<p>In its initial verdict, the Court concluded that NSE willingly facilitated online piracy through its services. As a result, the company was ordered to remove all copyrighted content and filter future posts for possible copyright infringements. </p>
<p>According to the Usenet provider, this filtering requirement would be too costly to achieve. It shut down its service but appealed the case. </p>
<p>After several years of litigation, the Amsterdam appeals court last year ruled that NSE <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-usenet-provider-is-not-liable-for-piracy-161207/">wasn&#8217;t liable for pirating users</a> after all, but that it is required to offer a fast and effective notice and takedown procedure, possibly with additional measures.</p>
<p>NSE welcomed the court order, and BREIN initially characterized it as a victory too. However, this week the rightsholder-backed anti-piracy group announced that it will take the case to the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>According to BREIN, Usenet as a technology isn&#8217;t a problem. However, providers that willingly &#8220;abuse&#8221; it to facilitate copyright infringement for commercial gain should be punished. </p>
<p>&#8220;We found that the Court failed to recognize that NSE is indeed liable for its business, which came down to appropriating user-uploaded files and generating income by keeping copies of these files available for a long time, so paying subscribers could download these,&#8221; BREIN director Tim Kuik <a href="https://stichtingbrein.nl/nieuws.php?id=446">says</a>. </p>
<p>&#8220;Our concern is not over Usenet as such, which in itself is a good protocol, but how commercial providers like NSE use, or better put, abuse it to monetize massive infringement. It is not about technology but about how you use it,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>NSE, on the other hand, is confident that it operated in accordance with the law, as a neutral service provider. As such, the company looks forward to the Supreme Court case with great confidence.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is not surprising to us that BREIN, who first applauded the verdict and called the ruling an important victory, isn’t able to face reality,&#8221; NSE CEO Patrick Schreurs informs TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>&#8220;The harsh reality is that NSE acted as an ordinary neutral Usenet provider and therefore can’t be held liable for the content on their platform uploaded by others. We are confident that the Supreme Court will affirm the Court of Appeal’s ruling.&#8221;</p>
<p>And so, after eight years, the case is still not over yet. Whatever the outcome at the Supreme Court will be NSE will remain out of business. The company previously stated that it’s not relaunching its Usenet service.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136438
title: MPAA and RIAA Present Plan to Recover Megaupload’s Failing Hard Drives
uri: MPAA-and-RIAA-Present-Plan-to-Recover-Megaupload-s-Failing-Hard-Driv
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ExK9ReFL3r4/
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">Megaupload was shutdown more than five years ago, but data from hundreds of the site’s servers are still in storage. </p>
<p>This is also true for the servers that were placed at the Internet service provider Cogent. </p>
<p>While the original machines are no longer intact, the company has backed up all data which it will keep in storage pending the various lawsuits against Megaupload and its former employees.</p>
<p>However, as time has dragged on, the condition of the hard drives has significantly deteriorated. Last year, Cogent first <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-hard-drives-are-unreadable-hosting-company-warns-160518/">warned</a> that sixteen of them have actually become unreadable. </p>
<p>This is a serious concern for several of the parties involved, since these drives contain important evidence. The data are vital for Megaupload as well as the MPAA and the RIAA, which filed civil lawsuits against the company.</p>
<p>To move things along the MPAA and RIAA presented a joint preservation plan to the Virginia Federal Court this week. According to two similar motions submitted by the rightsholder groups, they have reached agreement on &#8220;nearly all&#8221; terms of the data preservation process. </p>
<p>In practical terms, the motions propose to ship the sixteen failing hard drives to the independent forensics company <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DriveSavers">DriveSavers</a>. The company will then try to recover the damaged data in a secure location, without any active connection to the Internet.</p>
<p>When the recovery is complete, the original and copied data will be shipped back to Cogent in separate transports. Cogent will store these two versions in different locations, and DriveSavers will not retain any copies after the process is complete.</p>
<p>In their request to the court, the rightsholders want to act swiftly now, fearing that crucial evidence will otherwise be lost.</p>
<p>&#8220;As Plaintiffs have repeatedly maintained, the only pressing issue for the Court now is the recovery and preservation of the evidence on the Cogent drives; questions of who may subsequently access that data, and under what circumstances, remain contested and can be addressed at a later date. </p>
<p>&#8220;Otherwise, potentially critical data will remain at risk of disappearance while the parties continue to argue over an issue as to which no negotiated resolution is possible,&#8221; MPAA tells the court. </p>
<p>With time running out, the money issue has also been resolved. Previously the parties disagreed about who should pay for the recovery process, but the MPAA and RIAA now state that they will pick up the full tab.  </p>
<p>The parties could not reach agreement on a separate issue; whether Megaupload should be able to access the data. According to the MPAA and RIAA, this &#8220;collateral&#8221; issue could be dealt with at a later stage. In their proposed order they therefore stress that Megaupload, or any other party, shouldn&#8217;t have access.  </p>
<p>Megaupload counsel Ira Rothken informs TorrentFreak that his client also wants the aging drives to be preserved. However, Megaupload is not happy with the current wording of the proposed preservation order as it specifically prevents the company from accessing its own data.</p>
<p>This language goes against the Stored Communications Act (SCA), he argues, noting that the whole issue would have been moot if Megaupload was allowed to take proper care of its data years ago. </p>
<p>&#8220;The proposal by the studios, under the guise of preservation, attempts to enjoin Megaupload from accessing its own ISP data. Megaupload believes that the Stored Communications Act mandates that Megaupload is the only entity that can access such ISP data,&#8221; Rothken tells TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;If the DOJ and studios wouldn&#8217;t have objected to Megaupload accessing its own data years ago then Megaupload&#8217;s legal team would have preserved the data in a forensically sound manner and there would be no need for the current motion to restore corrupted hard drives,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>Megaupload plans to respond to the MPAA and RIAA with their own proposal, which doesn&#8217;t limit the file-hosting company&#8217;s rights.</p>
<p>Then, it will be up to the court to decide if and how the deteriorating data should be preserved. Whether it is still in time to recover all data is uncertain at this point, but the condition of the evidence certainly isn&#8217;t improving. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136553
title: eBook Pirates Are Relatively Old and Wealthy, Study Finds
uri: eBook-Pirates-Are-Relatively-Old-and-Wealthy-Study-Finds
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3rT_tE5kDp8/
content:
<p><a href="media/6a85b8fe.e-books.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/e-books.jpg"><img src="media/31ccbd18.e-books.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/e-books.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26365"></a>In 2017, people can download any digital content they like from the Internet, but that&#8217;s still most likely to be movies, TV shows and music. Bubbling underneath, however, is a steady demand for pirated eBooks.</p>
<p>Ebooks are relatively cheap when compared to other digital content, but their handy file size and ubiquity ensures that millions of titles are just a few convenient clicks away.</p>
<p>A new study, commissioned by anti-piracy company Digimarc and conducted by Nielsen, aims to shine light on eBook piracy. It was presented yesterday at The London Book Fair and aims to better understand how eBook piracy affects revenue and how publishers can prevent it.</p>
<p>In previous studies, it has been younger downloaders that have grabbed much of the attention, and this one is no different. Digimarc reveals that 41% of all adult pirates are aged between 18 and 29 but perhaps surprisingly, 47% fall into the 30 to 44-year-old bracket. At this point, things tail off very quickly, as the remaining ~13% are aged 45 or up.</p>
<p>There are also some surprises when it comes to pirates&#8217; income. Cost is often cited as a factor when justifying downloading for free, and this study has similar findings. In this case, however, richer persons are generally more likely they are to download.</p>
<p>Around 13% of pirates have an annual household income of under $30k, with those earning between $30k and $59k making up 19% of the total. At this point there is a sizeable leap, with 36% of pirates claiming to earn between $60k and $99k per annum. Around 29% make more than $100k a year.</p>
<p>Overall, the majority of illegal downloaders are relatively well-educated, with more than 70% having either graduated from college or in possession of a post graduate degree. </p>
<p>Taken together, this means that e-book pirates are often older wealthy people with a good education, which is probably close to the profile of the average ebook reader.  </p>
<p><center><a href="media/51badf8f.ebook1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ebook1.png"><img src="media/584b8925.ebook1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ebook1.png" alt="" width="650" height="369" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136556"></a></center></p>
<p>Also of interest are the methods used by pirates to obtain their eBook fix. Sharing joint top position with 31% are public torrent sites (such as The Pirate Bay) and cyberlocker sources such as 4shared or Uploaded.</p>
<p>These relatively high-tech solutions are closely followed by 30% who swap eBooks with friends using instant messaging, email or even flash drives. Just over a quarter acquire eBooks from places such as eBay, with an equal 27% obtaining from friends using services such as Dropbox.</p>
<p>Given the majority of pirates&#8217; ability to pay, it comes as no surprise that convenience is the number one driver for people obtaining content from torrent sites. Cost still takes the number two position but a not inconsiderable four out of ten still believe that online retailers are lacking when it comes to content availability.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/6102a5da.ebook2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ebook2.png"><img src="media/61e4ab5a.ebook2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ebook2.png" alt="" width="650" height="368" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136557"></a></center></p>
<p>Nevertheless, plenty of pirates still frequent legal resources.</p>
<p>42% said that they buy eBooks from online platforms including Amazon and iTunes, with 32% going directly to the publishers&#8217; own websites. Just shy of 30% access eBooks using a monthly subscription account such as Amazon Unlimited, while around a quarter frequent out-of-copyright resources including Gutenberg.org.</p>
<p>Part of Digimarc&#8217;s job is to help clients reduce the prevalence of illegal downloading and the study provides some pointers in that area too. The main takeaway is that if pirates can be convinced that their equipment is at risk from piracy (a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/digital-citizens-slam-cloudflare-for-enabling-piracy-malware-160722/">common strategy</a> lately), then a majority would reconsider to some degree.</p>
<p>A total of 49% said they would be &#8216;much less&#8217; likely to download if that was the case, with 34% indicating they would be &#8216;somewhat&#8217; less likely to do so. 18% indicated they wouldn&#8217;t change their habits at all. Similar numbers said the same about the risk of being caught, figures that drop only slightly when pirates are confronted with potential harm done to authors. </p>
<p>Finally, Digimarc has a stab at some market estimates. The company concludes that around 22% of eBook consumers pirate, taking away around 33% of the market at a cost of $315m.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/d73ffe7f.ebook3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/ebook3.png"><img src="media/ae1779dd.ebook3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/ebook3.png" alt="" width="650" height="369" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136558"></a></center></p>
<p>&#8220;When it comes to book piracy, you can&#8217;t prevent what you can&#8217;t predict. This is the challenge for publishers as they grapple with preventing illegal piracy,&#8221; says Devon Weston, director, market development, Digimarc Guardian.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our new Nielsen data makes it clear these pirates don&#8217;t fit a typical criminal profile. They access digital content from a vast universe of web pages, social platforms and file sharing portals. Our aim is to break down the problem for publishers and help them develop an effective prevention strategy.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full study can be downloaded <a href="http://www.digimarc.com/resources/ebook-piracy-study">here</a> or here (<a href="media/6450bb95.341946110-Inside-the-Mind-of-a-Book-Pirate.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/341946110-Inside-the-Mind-of-a-Book-Pirate.pdf">pdf</a>)</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136567
title: Piracy? RIAA Labels Asked Us to Promote Their Music, Spinrilla Says
uri: Piracy-RIAA-Labels-Asked-Us-to-Promote-Their-Music-Spinrilla-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/xNMFHDTZDLs/
content:
<p><img src="media/8ebd4927.spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/spinrilla-e1486368999286.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="234" class="alignright size-full wp-image-134771">Last month a group of well-known labels targeted Spinrilla, a popular hip-hop mixtape site and accompanying app with millions of users.  </p>
<p>The coalition of record labels including Sony Music, Warner Bros. Records, and Universal Music Group, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-labels-sue-hip-hop-mixtape-download-site-spinrilla-170206/">filed a lawsuit</a> against Spinrilla accusing it of alleged copyright infringements.</p>
<p>“Spinrilla specializes in ripping off music creators by offering thousands of unlicensed sound recordings for free,” the RIAA commented at the time.</p>
<p>While the allegations in the complaint are serious, Spinrilla disagrees that they&#8217;ve done anything wrong. In its answer filed in a Georgia federal court this week, the company explains that it goes to great lengths to prevent copyright infringements on its service.</p>
<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs and Defendants have been cooperating for years in a variety of ways to successfully prevent and remove unauthorized music from Spinrilla.com,&#8221; the response reads. </p>
<p>Among other things, Spinrilla says it used filtering technology provided by Audible Magic. The audio fingerprinting tool is one of the preferred anti-piracy tools of the music industry. </p>
<p>According to the defendant, the use of Audible Magic was actually suggested to Spinrilla founder Dylan Copeland by the same record labels that have now taken him to court.</p>
<p>The anti-piracy technology also appears to be working correctly, as Spinrilla states that it has prevented thousands of user-uploaded files from being published.</p>
<p>&#8220;To Defendants’ knowledge, Audible Magic detected Plaintiffs’ music in tens of thousands of uploaded (but unpublished) songs, which allowed Defendants to block publication of those songs.&#8221;</p>
<p>In addition, the hip-hop mixtape service notes that the labels, that are now suing, repeatedly reached out to them for promotions. This even happened after the lawsuit was filed last month.</p>
<p>&#8220;In fact, both before and after Plaintiffs filed this lawsuit, Plaintiffs’ have requested that Spinrilla host, distribute, and promote Plaintiffs’ music on Spinrilla’s properties,&#8221; the answer reads. </p>
<p>The company later adds that much, if not all, of the music the labels pointed out as infringing was promoted at the request of one or more of labels in the lawsuit. In other words, there&#8217;s a suggestion that the labels asked for it to be shared.  </p>
<p>In conclusion, the hip-hop mixtape service asks the court to dismiss the complaint and to compensate it for the legal costs incurred so far.</p>
<p>Instead of focusing their efforts on a legal battle, Spinrilla invites the labels to keep their longstanding cooperation intact. To benefit them, but also the many artists and fans who rely on it. </p>
<p>&#8220;This cooperation can and should continue as it benefits not only the parties to this lawsuit, but more importantly, it benefits independent artists and their millions of fans,&#8221; the answer reads.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Spinrilla&#8217;s full answer to the complaint is available here (<a href="media/49de777d.answer.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/answer.pdf">pdf</a>).</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136485
title: Police Investigate Former BPI Anti-Piracy Chief & PIPCU Board Member
uri: Police-Investigate-Former-BPI-Anti-Piracy-Chief-PIPCU-Board-Member
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mM6OSRiPYnU/
content:
<p><a href="media/ec902f6c.bpi.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png"><img src="media/cb62421b.bpi.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png" alt="" width="222" height="106" class="alignright size-full wp-image-94190" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/bpi-220x106.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px"></a>In December 2015, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bpi-removes-anti-piracy-bosses-and-reorganizes-151222/">it was reported</a> that the BPI’s Content Protection and Internet Investigations unit leaders would be leaving.</p>
<p>The music group said that the restructuring would enable it to better focus on the task ahead but with long-standing employees David Wood and John Hodge both departing the BPI, it certainly felt like there may have been more to the story.</p>
<p>To be absolutely clear, Hodge&#8217;s voluntary departure appears to have been both unconnected to Wood&#8217;s and completely benign, with no suggestion of impropriety. However, it now transpires that the story with Wood was much more complex.</p>
<p>After serving 15 years in the police force where he reached the rank of detective, David Wood left West Yorkshire Police in May 2002. Soon after, he began work at the BPI where he remained for the next 13 years, reaching the lofty position of Director of Copyright Protection at his peak.</p>
<p>Wood&#8217;s role saw him speaking to the media on many occasions, often <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/online-music-pirates-hit-with-lengthy-jail-sentences-141111/">decrying</a> the dishonesty of Internet pirates and welcoming lengthy jail sentences as a suitable deterrent. This position eventually led him to the corridors of power at City of London Police.</p>
<p>According to his <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-wood-a8a951b/">Linkedin profile</a>, Wood became a senior figure within the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) after it was set up in May 2013. He states that he held a stakeholder position on PIPCU’s Management Board and was instrumental in the development of Operation Creative, the UK&#8217;s groundbreaking anti-piracy initiative. At some point, however, it all went wrong.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak has learned that while John Hodge&#8217;s departure from his role as Head of Internet Investigations at the BPI was his own choice (he served out an orderly notice at a later point and appears to have left on amicable terms), Wood&#8217;s earlier and entirely unrelated exit was not a voluntary affair.</p>
<p>According to our sources, Wood and the BPI had &#8211; and continue to have &#8211; a major dispute over the alleged misappropriation of the latter&#8217;s funds. This led to Wood&#8217;s dismissal from the company. </p>
<p>In fact, the allegations were so serious that the BPI decided to report the matter to the police, a claim that was confirmed this week when we spoke to the music group.</p>
<p>“BPI can confirm that a former employee, David Wood, was dismissed for gross misconduct in December 2015,&#8221; a BPI spokesperson told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;BPI has referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police who are investigating. As investigations are ongoing, it would not be appropriate to comment in any more detail at this stage.”</p>
<p>TorrentFreak sources indicate that very large sums of money are involved in the dispute, running well into six figures. Precise details have proven impossible to verify (the BPI declined to comment) but we understand the numbers involved are &#8220;significant&#8221;. What we do know for sure, however, is that the BPI felt it necessary to pursue Woods into bankruptcy.</p>
<p>In a bankruptcy petition filed against Woods on November 7, 2016, the BPI is listed as the petitioner. The bankruptcy order itself was granted on January 4, 2017 and was <a href="https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/2678118">listed</a> in the London Gazette.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/89696b80.wood-bankrupt.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/wood-bankrupt.png"><img src="media/dcf33eef.wood-bankrupt.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wood-bankrupt.png" alt="" width="650" height="534" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136547"></a></center></p>
<p>According to his Linkedin profile, Wood left the BPI in December 2015 and joined a new company, OCAP Ltd, during the same month. Records at the UK&#8217;s Companies House reveal that Wood and another individual set the company up as directors during August 2015, months before Wood was dismissed from the BPI.</p>
<p><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170215221454/http://www.ocap.co/">Archival copies</a> of OCAP&#8217;s website reveal that the company was involved in the IP enforcement market, a logical move for Wood considering his history.</p>
<p>&#8220;Online Copyright Auditing and Protection (OCAP) is a unique company which specializes in bespoke intellectual property (IP) protection,&#8221; a notice on the now-defunct site read.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our services help not only brands but law enforcement agencies to investigate and disrupt those intent on unlawfully exploiting other&#8217;s IP Rights. OCAP Ltd also has access to specialist trainers in online investigations and in the field of Anti Money laundering for which we can arrange bespoke training sessions.&#8221;</p>
<p>Given the police investigation confirmed by the BPI, the OCAP site surprisingly listed City of London Police &#8211; whose PIPCU unit Wood was heavily involved in &#8211; as &#8220;just one example of a client that trusts us to deliver solutions to their big data problems.&#8221;</p>
<p>Now, however, OCAP Ltd is drawing its final breaths. During January and following his bankruptcy, Wood filed an application to strike the company off the register. If there are no further interventions, the company will cease to exist in April 2017 having never filed any accounts.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak attempted to contact Wood for comment, but emails to his listed addresses ultimately bounced.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136505
title: MPAA’s Anti-Piracy Injunction Targets Wrong IP-Address Due to a Typo….
uri: MPAA-s-Anti-Piracy-Injunction-Targets-Wrong-IP-Address-Due-to-a-Typo
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-YE1r_XR-9Q/
content:
<p><img src="media/e81d16e4.oops-mistake-error.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/oops-mistake-error.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="172" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136532">A few days ago news broke that the MPAA <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/secret-mpaa-lawsuit-targeted-domains-of-pubfilms-piracy-ring-170313/">was granted</a> a broad injunction, allowing them to shut down the domain names of Pubfilm&#8217;s alleged pirate site ring.</p>
<p>In addition to targeting domain registrars, the <a href="media/845ac4ea.pubfolminjun.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/pubfolminjun.pdf">injunction</a> also references third-party service providers that host or link to Pubfilm, preventing companies from doing business with these sites.</p>
<p>With the legal paperwork in hand the MPAA successfully shut down several domains. In addition, the Hollywood group also reached out to the associated hosting companies, DigitalOcean and Vultr, requesting them to take appropriate action. </p>
<p>Initially, the case was kept from public view, but this week the court lifted the veil. This allowed us to take a closer look at the injunction, and how it came to be. What caught our eye immediately, is that the court&#8217;s preliminary injunction lists an incorrect IP-address. </p>
<p>As it turns out, the MPAA&#8217;s private investigator Bob Brasich made a typo in his testimony, and it took several weeks before he spotted the mistake.  </p>
<p>&#8220;I discovered yesterday, March 5, 2017, that the IP address for the Vultr/Choopa server as stated in paragraph 8 of the Second Supplemental Brasich Declaration contained a typographical error,&#8221; Brasich <a href="media/c5214ed0.whoopsf.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/whoopsf.pdf">informed (pdf)</a> the court last week. </p>
<p>&#8220;The Second Supplemental Brasich Declaration stated that the IP address for the Vultr/Choopa server was 108.61.191.ll4. However, the correct IP address for the Vultr/Choopa server in question is in fact 108.61.191.141, a transposition of the final two digits.&#8221;</p>
<p>As far as we can see, the preliminary injunction hasn&#8217;t been updated through a corrected order yet, but that&#8217;s besides the point really. What&#8217;s most concerning is that a simple typo can lead to the wrong server being disconnected. </p>
<p>In this example, the hosting companies also have a domain name as additional proof, but it&#8217;s not hard to see how small mistakes can potentially lead to large consequences, especially when these orders become broader and more common. </p>
<p>After the private investigator discovered the error, the MPAA immediately asked the court for a new order correcting the mistake. Ironically, however, that request ends with an apology that also contains a rather embarrassing error.</p>
<p>&#8220;Counsel apologies for any inconvenience,&#8221; the correction <a href="media/c5214ed0.whoopsf.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/whoopsf.pdf">letter states (pdf)</a>, complete with glaring mistake.</p>
<p><center><strong>Anothre Tyop</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5ef8f4d7.apologies-e1489588969212.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/apologies-e1489588969212.png" alt="" width="600" height="258" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136541"></center></p>
<p>The typo mistake should act as a warning to illustrate how important oversight is in these cases. And there are more issues regarding the preliminary injunction that are worth keeping a close eye on too.</p>
<p>To a certain degree, it is reminiscent of the blocking provisions that were listed in the controversial SOPA bill, which aimed to increase liability for third party service providers. The application was also filed under seal and without alerting the defendant beforehand, which means that there was minimal oversight. </p>
<p>While it has only been used against registrars and hosting companies thus far, the language in the injunction is quite broad and the MPAA could try to apply it more broadly in the future. </p>
<p>This wouldn&#8217;t be a total surprise either. The testimony of the MPAA&#8217;s private investigator submitted against the Pubfilm sites is already rife with mentions of third-parties that provide services to the pirate sites. </p>
<p>Google Drive, for example, is named as a video host of the streaming sites. Doubleclick and Propeller Ads are mentioned as advertising partners, and other services such as Imgur, Facebook and Sucuri are listed as well.</p>
<p>If these type of injunctions indeed become more common, it will be interesting to see how other stakeholders will respond. As for the MPAA, they might want to double check their filings in the future, just to be sure. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136653
title: Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde Doesn’t Plan to Pay Hollywood ‘Back’… Ever
uri: 2017-03-18-
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/1kw8dZPDB0w/
content:
<p><img src="media/63e83df5.sunde-1-e1489786417533.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sunde-1-e1489786417533.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136726">Former Pirate Bay spokesperson Peter Sunde paid the <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-peter-sunde-released-prison-141011/">ultimate price</a> for his involvement with the notorious pirate site, sacrificing his freedom.</p>
<p>Since his release from prison over two years ago he has been busy with several old and new projects, ranging from <a href="https://flattr.com/">Flattr</a> to his <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-builds-the-ultimate-piracy-machine-151219/">art projects</a>, and even a TV-show in Finland. </p>
<p>However, even though he hasn&#8217;t been involved with TPB for nearly a decade, his past association still haunts him. Just last year a District Court in Finland <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-co-founder-must-pay-record-labels-395000-160616/">ordered</a> him to pay €350,000 ($375,000) for music shared illegally by the site&#8217;s users.</p>
<p>Speaking on TorrentFreak&#8217;s <a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show</a> podcast this week, Peter says that he wasn&#8217;t even aware that the case was ongoing until he heard the verdict. </p>
<p>Peter explains that the court wants him to prove that he&#8217;s no longer operating The Pirate Bay. An impossible task, according to the former TPB spokesman, who used the court&#8217;s own logic in a snarky reply.</p>
<p>&#8220;I sent the message to the court saying: you have to prove that you&#8217;re not trying to poison me. I didn&#8217;t get a reply, so I guess they are trying to poison me. I&#8217;m using their own logic now,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>Where most people would be devastated when told to pay hundreds of thousands of euros, Peter is no longer impressed. The Finnish case is still under appeal, but even if the damages amount stands, it&#8217;s not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>As the result of various court cases, the former TPB spokesman already owes millions to Hollywood. In Sweden alone, the damages are already well in the range of €15 million and increase every year with a fourteen percent interest rate, he says.</p>
<p>With these numbers the damages will be more than half a billion before he retires. In fact, it already is pretty much impossible for Peter to pay even the interest alone. It&#8217;s likely he&#8217;ll be in debt for the rest of his life. But even if he could pay, he wouldn&#8217;t. </p>
<p>&#8220;Out of principle I would never pay them anything,&#8221; Peter says, as he doesn&#8217;t feel that he took anything from the Hollywood studios or record labels to begin with.</p>
<p>&#8220;People ask me so many times: how are you going to pay the money back, and I&#8217;m like, what do you mean <em>back</em>? You have to have the money first in order to give it back. There was never any money handed over to me. I didn&#8217;t take any money.&#8221;</p>
<p>During the Pirate Bay trial, Peter and his co-defendants presented evidence showing that piracy doesn&#8217;t cause rightsholders any significant harm, if any at all. However, The Pirate Bay defendants had to pay nonetheless, as the rightsholders argued that a proper license would have cost them too.</p>
<p>While debts can be a real burden, Peter is relaxed. Many of his friends are struggling to pay their mortgages or student loans, but he has stopped worrying.</p>
<p>&#8220;When you get to ten million euros, it is not like those two hundred and fifty euros per month are actually going to get you into that debt-free zone when you&#8217;re sixty. So you don&#8217;t care about it, you stop caring about it,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>The massive debt, in a way, provided him a sense of freedom. No matter what financial trouble he runs into, it will still be impossible to pay. And since Peter opted not to pay at all, there&#8217;s less of a burden.</p>
<p>&#8220;So the only thing that actually happens is that you pay less. You just change the way of life. You&#8217;re actually protected. I can owe quite a lot of money. It means that I will never have to pay anything because I won&#8217;t be in a position where that&#8217;s gonna happen.</p>
<p>&#8220;Maybe I should start a torrent site in Sweden,&#8221; Peter jokes.  </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>More details on the full episode with Peter Sunde is available at the <a href="https://stealthisshow.com/">Steal This Show website</a>. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136723
title: Steal This Show S02E12: ‘How The Internet Broke Politics’
uri: Steal-This-Show-S02E12-How-The-Internet-Broke-Politics
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IiHLW_05co0/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="stslogo180" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928"><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p>In this episode, we meet Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay. We discuss how he survives under the huge (and growing) fines placed on him after The Pirate Bay trials in Sweden, and find out that all may not be what it seems in the world of pirate fines</p>
<p>We also hear why Peter got into an argument with Creative Commons founder Larry Lessig &#8211; and whether Trump could be a good thing for world politics. How 4Chan, Anonymous and Wikileaks became players on the political stage, and how to survive in a world hitting &#8216;peak information.&#8217;</p>
<p>Finally, we return to the thorny issue of how to get creators paid in the emerging media landscape. Will we need a Universal Basic Income? Or does this just equate to a return to class society?</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> Peter Sunde</p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=2&#038;lpe-episode=12" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Riley Byrne<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="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136654
title: Huge Scandal Engulfs Greek Anti-Piracy & Royalties Group
uri: Huge-Scandal-Engulfs-Greek-Anti-Piracy-Royalties-Group
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/S_kjbTjl-bw/
content:
<p><a href="media/3ba5a462.fraudalert.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/fraudalert.jpg"><img src="media/e4713c16.fraudalert.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fraudalert.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="176" class="alignright size-full wp-image-127814"></a>AEPI, the Greek Society for the Protection of Intellectual Property, has often called for pirate sites <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-group-demands-blocks-of-kickass-isohunt-1337x-and-h33t-130502/">to be shut down</a> for abusing the rights of artists. Now, somewhat ironically, there are calls for AEPI to be shut down for exactly the same thing.</p>
<p>Following an audit conducted on behalf of Greece&#8217;s Ministry of Culture by auditors Ernst &#038; Young, serious financial irregularities have been discovered at AEPI. The audit was commissioned in 2015 but up until last September, AEPI refused to provide the necessary documentation. Only after the organization was fined did it comply.</p>
<p>Auditing restarted in September 2016 and was concluded on February 6th. The final report, obtained by Greek publication <a href="http://tvxs.gr/news/ellada/skandalo-52000-eyro-mina-epairne-o-dieythyntis-tis-aepi-olo-porisma">TVXS</a>, reveals a capital deficit of around 20 million euros, which according to the publication means AEPI cannot meet its obligations.</p>
<p>Precisely how the group got into this mess still isn&#8217;t clear, but AEPI&#8217;s operating expenses certainly outstretched its income, creating an 11.3 million euro deficit for the period 2011 to 2014. During the same period, the company&#8217;s shareholders (CEO, General Manager, PR and Secretariat Manager) pocketed almost five million euros between them.</p>
<p>AEPI&#8217;s CEO alone received an annual salary of 625,565 euros in 2011, more than 52,000 euros per month. This figure has prompted outrage in local media.</p>
<p>But while they enriched themselves, the same could not be said about the artists AEPI claims to represent. According to the audit, AEPI&#8217;s IT system tasked with handling royalty payments was incapable of producing a report to compare royalties collected with royalties being paid out. But artists were certainly being short-changed on a grand scale.  </p>
<p>&#8220;By Dec. 31st 2014, the undistributed royalties to members and rightsholders amounted to 42.5 million euros, and have still not been awarded to members,&#8221; the Greek newspaper EfSyn notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;The nature of a significant portion of this collected revenue of approximately 36.8 million euros has not been possible to assess, because collection invoices weren&#8217;t correlated to specific revenues in AEPI&#8217;s IT system.&#8221;</p>
<p>The scandal prompted the president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (EBEA) to call on the Culture Minister to pull the plug on AEPI.</p>
<p>“The AEPI abscess needs to be burst,” Constantine Michalos <a href="http://www.tornosnews.gr/en/greek-news/23100-chamber-head-calls-for-disbanding-intellectual-property-royalties-entity.html">said</a>.</p>
<p>Earlier this month police <a href="https://www.iq-mag.net/2017/03/police-raid-greek-pro-aepi/">raided</a> AEPI&#8217;s offices after the public prosecutor launched an investigation. AEPI, which is now said to be around 19m euros in debt, faces a mountain of allegations, not least that it provided illegal loans to board members.</p>
<p>Last week, AEPI faced more problems when corporate and personal bank accounts operated by its board members were <a href="http://www.documentonews.gr/article/desmeythkan-oi-trapezikoi-logariasmoi-twn-ypeythynwn-ths-aepi">frozen</a> by the authorities. But its miseries won&#8217;t be ending there.</p>
<p>This week the Court of Appeals <a href="http://tvxs.gr/news/ellada/apofasi-kolafos-gia-aepi-kaleitai-na-plirosei-30-ekat-se-dimioyrgoys">upheld an earlier ruling</a> in a separate case dating back to 1997 which compels AEPI to pay up to 35 million euros to a Greek composers&#8217; association.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136549
title: SXSW 2017 on BitTorrent: 7.86 GB of Free Music
uri: SXSW-2017-on-BitTorrent-7-86-GB-of-Free-Music
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Rvr018jb4g4/
content:
<p><img src="media/f201bd8d.SXSW-2017-e1489593951556.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/SXSW-2017-e1489593951556.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="234" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136551">Starting in 2005, the <a href="http://www.sxsw.com/music">SXSW music festival</a> has published thousands of free tracks from participating artists. </p>
<p>The festival was, in fact, one of the first mainstream outlets to embrace torrents. </p>
<p>During the early years the festival organizers created the torrents for the artist showcases themselves, but since 2008 this task has been taken over by the public.</p>
<p>While torrents are no longer the standard, SXSW&#8217;s showcase MP3s are still freely available on the festival’s site for sampling purposes.</p>
<p>For the past several years Ben Stolt has taken the time and effort to put all of the MP3s on BitTorrent. Last week he published the latest 2017 torrent, which consists of <a href="http://www.sxswtorrent.com/2017">1,201 tracks</a> totaling 7.86 gigabytes of free music.</p>
<p>All the tracks released for the previous editions are also still <a href="http://www.sxswtorrent.com/">available</a> and most of these torrents remain well-seeded. The 2005 &#8211; 2017 archives now total more than 77 gigabytes.</p>
<p>Stolt previously told TorrentFreak that he spends several hours preparing the releases each year, in part for his personal pleasure.</p>
<p>&#8220;My motivation is in part selfish, because, like many others, my friends and I all use the contents of the torrent to prepare for our week at SXSW Music. But without fail the emails start coming in January and February asking if there will be a torrent,&#8221; Stolt said. </p>
<p>&#8220;Many people come back every year, so I can&#8217;t leave them hanging,&#8221; he adds. </p>
<p>The effort pays off, though. Many people love the SXSW torrents, which attract tens of thousands of downloaders each year. The SXSW torrents site also gets quite a bit of traffic, over a million visits thus far.</p>
<p>For some, the showcase torrent is a good consolation for not being able to attend the festival in person. Others see it as a yearly tradition that allows them to fill up their hard drive and check out recent music from new and established artists for free.</p>
<p>This year’s SXSW music festival is currently underway in Austin, Texas and ends on Sunday. The torrent, however, is expected to live on for many years, as long as people are sharing. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136514
title: Streaming ‘Pirate’ Video is Illegal, High Court Judge Says
uri: Streaming-Pirate-Video-is-Illegal-High-Court-Judge-Says
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/O6PbMitY7Wo/
content:
<p><a href="media/096bd33d.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg"><img src="media/468f0769.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426"></a>Copyright education has come a long way in recent years, with a much greater proportion of Internet users now aware when their activities might fall foul of the law.</p>
<p>There is no doubt that many still have a problem with the level of freedoms available when it comes to sharing content online without copyright holders&#8217; permission, but an understanding of how that is viewed by the authorities is certainly helpful.</p>
<p>In most areas certainty is available. In many jurisdictions, downloading and then sharing content online using BitTorrent, for example, is considered unlawful distribution, an act punishable by law. But what about those who only consume unauthorized content via online streaming and are not involved in dissemination?</p>
<p>What looks like a straightforward question does not have a straightforward answer. That&#8217;s somewhat unfortunate since streaming video is now an extremely popular activity engaged in by millions of Internet users.</p>
<p>Legal experts have gone back and forth on the issue of streaming for years. The idea that people who stream do not make any more than a transient copy of content on their own machine has led some to conclude the activity is either legal or sits in a gray area. That opinion is not shared by rightsholders.</p>
<p>One such example can be found in the case between Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN and Filmspeler.nl, a store which sold “piracy configured” Kodi-type devices. The case was referred to the EU Court of Justice, where several questions were discussed during a hearing late September. One question tackled streaming directly.</p>
<p>“Is it lawful under EU law to temporarily reproduce content through streaming if the content originates from a third-party website where it’s made available without permission?” it <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/watching-pirate-streams-isnt-illegal-eu-commission-argues-161001/">asked</a>.</p>
<p>Interestingly, in this case, the European Commission equated streaming to watching, which in its opinion is legal from a viewer perspective. Based on this conclusion the Advocate General is to offer a recommendation, to be followed by a final verdict from the EU Court of Justice sometime in 2017.</p>
<p>With that moment still to arrive and anti-piracy groups still insisting that streaming illegal content is, well, illegal, earlier this month Derbyshire Council Trading Standards in the UK offered its opinion, which essentially supports the position of the EC.</p>
<p>“Accessing premium paid-for content without a subscription is considered by the industry as unlawful access, although streaming something online, rather than downloading a file, is likely to be exempt from copyright laws,” a spokesperson said.</p>
<p>But before streaming pirates begin celebrating too much, a rather influential individual has just thrown his hat, or indeed wig, into the arena.</p>
<p>Mr Justice Arnold has presided over a number of important copyright cases in the UK, including those involving The Pirate Bay and Newzbin2. He hasn&#8217;t been asked to rule directly whether users who stream content break the law, but he gave an opinion on the topic as part of the recent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-uk-kodi-piracy-blocking-injunction-is-a-pretty-scary-beast-170314/">injunction application</a> by The Premier League.</p>
<p>Before handing down an order to block pirate streams of Premier League matches, Justice Arnold had to consider whether &#8220;the operators and users&#8221; of pirate servers infringed the League&#8217;s copyrights.</p>
<p>In respect of operators, the decision was straightforward. They have a copy of Premier League content which they distribute unlawfully to the public. It&#8217;s an open and shut case dealt with under existing case law, something that cannot be said about user streaming specifically.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, Justice Arnold appears to have reached his decision with ease. The Judge decided that although they do not distribute, users do make unlawful copies of Premier League content, even if they only stream it to a device.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the course of streaming the Works, users who access a stream cause their computer, mobile device or set-top box to create copies of the Works in the memory of those devices. In some cases, a substantial part of a Work may be copied in a single frame (for example, a Logo),&#8221; the Judge said.</p>
<p>In an earlier case, it was determined that no copyright exists in a live match but The Premier League (FAPL) has now closed that loophole. It now records a copy of a match momentarily before transmission to the public, so it holds a copyright in the same way as a movie or TV show company would over their products.</p>
<p>&#8220;[T]he Clean Live Feed for each match is now recorded prior to onward transmission and so the FAPL now claims copyright in those films. In addition, FAPL now claims copyright in new logos and graphics,&#8221; the injunction reads.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s worth noting that to breach the Copyright Designs and Patents Act, a person needs to copy a &#8220;substantial&#8221; part of a work, whether that&#8217;s a movie, TV show, or indeed a football match. However, despite the transient nature of streaming video to the memory of a viewer&#8217;s device, the Judge said that a substantial part of the work would be copied if users stream content in any meaningful way.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the case of films of matches, copying of a substantial part is very likely to occur if users stream footage of any appreciable segment of the match,&#8221; he wrote.</p>
<p>So what we have here is a conflict of opinion. On the one hand, the European Commission doesn&#8217;t have a problem with users streaming under EU law, and on the other, a prominent High Court Judge believes that streaming amounts to illegally copying a substantial part of a copyrighted work into a computer&#8217;s memory.</p>
<p>What happens from here isn&#8217;t clear, but an opinion from the European Court of Justice is awaited, which should provide greater clarity. In the meantime, consumers of unauthorized streaming content will have to wait, unsure whether they&#8217;re breaking the law or not, which is far from ideal.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136572
title: Google Gets More WordPress.com Takedown Requests Than WordPress Itself
uri: Google-Gets-More-WordPress-com-Takedown-Requests-Than-WordPress-Itself
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Pb0BDZ-F7RA/
content:
<p><img src="media/0edc2364.wpwordpress1-e1489656793433.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wpwordpress1-e1489656793433.png" alt="" width="270" height="199" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136592">Automattic, the company behind the popular WordPress.com blogging platform, receives thousands of takedown requests from rightsholders.</p>
<p>A few days ago the company published its latest <a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/">transparency report</a>, showing that they processed 5,006 requests during the second half of last year. </p>
<p>While this is a significant amount, it pales in comparison to many other user-generated services. Google, for example, receives the same number in <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/google-asked-to-remove-1500-pirate-links-per-minute-151122/">less than four minutes</a>. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s also different is the high rejection rate WordPress has. More than 40% of all DMCA takedown notices are rejected due to inaccuracies or abuse, more than many other service providers. </p>
<p>Overall, however, both the number of takedown requests and the removal rate are <a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/2017/03/08/transparency-report-update-july-december-2016-consistency-is-key/">relatively stable</a>. As can be seen below, Automattic generally removes content for just over half of the notices it receives; the rest are rejected.  </p>
<p><center><img src="media/7790a4b9.wpabuse-e1489657126337.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/wpabuse-e1489657126337.png" alt="" width="600" height="299" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136597"></center></p>
<p>When we took a closer look at the takedown numbers, comparing them to Google&#8217;s data, something else stood out. It appears that Google receives more takedown requests for WordPress.com than Automattic, the company that operates the blogging platform. </p>
<p>Over the past 12 months, copyright holders asked Google to remove over 13,100 WordPress.com URLs, while Automattic received less than 10,000 last year. In other words, copyright holders are more keen to remove the search engine results than the actual content, which is not very logical.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted Steve from Automattic, who says that the numbers suggest that rightsholders prefer to go through Google because this is the easier path.</p>
<p>&#8220;Those numbers aren’t entirely surprising for a few reasons. When looking to limit access to material online, complainants will naturally look for the path of least resistance,&#8221; Steve says. </p>
<p>&#8220;Since we manually scrutinize every single DMCA takedown notice that we receive for formal validity and fair use considerations, removal is not guaranteed, and we reject about 40% of all notices for being deficient in some way,&#8221; he adds.</p>
<p>The Google takedown process is highly automated which makes it relatively easy for copyright holders to target a high volume of URLs, including those of Wordpess.com.</p>
<p>&#8220;Removing sites from top search engines is often much easier due to the automatic nature of the review process&#8230; something that is made even easier still by the various trusted partnership programs, and use of bulk electronic takedown notices,&#8221; Steve notes.</p>
<p>Still, it&#8217;s a strange situation. If a copyright holder is really concerned about infringing content on WordPress.com, it should be at least worth a shot to ask the company to remove it. </p>
<p>But no, of the <a href="https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/removals/copyright/searchdata/domains/?id=wordpress.com">top ten reporting organizations</a> that asked Google to remove WordPress URLs, none appears in Automattic&#8217;s <a href="https://transparency.automattic.com/intellectual-property/2016-h2/">most recent top ten</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, it appears that the thousands of notices that are sent to the search engine are pretty much useless anyway. It may be easier than reaching out to Automattic, but not very effective since Google appears to have whitelisted the blogging platform. </p>
<p>Of the 13,100 takedown requests Google processed over the past 12 months, only 0.3% were ultimately removed.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136734
title: Demonoid Returns After Two Months Downtime
uri: Demonoid-Returns-After-Two-Months-Downtime
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hxK8pCWvVi0/
content:
<p><a href="media/bfffa813.demonoid-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/demonoid-logo.jpg"><img src="media/6c7a4ac9.demonoid-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demonoid-logo.jpg" alt="demonoid-logo" width="200" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-94766"></a>We&#8217;ve written the phrase &#8220;Demonoid is Back&#8221; quite a few times already on TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The site has established a reputation as the &#8220;<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-back-140330/">comeback kid</a>&#8221; due to its &#8216;habit&#8217; of going offline for weeks or even months, and then reappearing in its full glory as if nothing ever happened. </p>
<p>Over the past several weeks, the site has been offline once again. Late January the site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/demonoid-suffers-extended-downtime-due-hosting-issue-170126/">went down</a> due to hosting and some internal problems and was forced to remain offline longer than expected.</p>
<p>According to Deimos, the site&#8217;s founder, there was some disagreement with the person who handled most of the technical aspects of the tracker. After both sides failed to reach an agreement, he saw no other option than to take control again.</p>
<p>“I gave control to the wrong guys while the problems started, but it’s time to control stuff again,” Deimos told us earlier.</p>
<p>This weekend the site came back online and it&#8217;s currently accessible through <a href="http://demonoid.pw/">Demonoid.pw</a> as well as the <a href="http://dnoid.me">Dnoid.me</a> domain name. The site is running on new hardware, and there may still be a few bugs, but otherwise it&#8217;s fully operational. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Deimos this weekend, who informed us that the site was restored from a recent database backup. So, everyone should be able to access his or her old account as usual. </p>
<p>In an update posted on the site, Demonoid&#8217;s operator is also surprisingly open about what happened, mentioning the aforementioned internal problems and personal issues as a reason for the prolonged downtime. </p>
<p>&#8220;After some long downtime caused mainly due to some problems with some of the people we made the mistake of trusting, and some personal problems regarding the health of a family member that drained the time and money destined to move the site elsewhere, we are finally back with you,&#8221; the update reads.</p>
<p>Now that the site is back, it&#8217;s clear that one of the oldest BitTorrent communities will live on. But who would have expected anything different from the comeback kid?</p>
<p><center><strong>Demonoid is back</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/af13c735.demoback.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/demoback.png" alt="" width="635" height="260" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136739"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136750
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/20/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-20-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/chsqfs4-Oj0/
content:
<p><img src="media/003c6247.rogueone-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogueone-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136752">This week we have four newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Rogue One is the most downloaded movie.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-031317/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">xXx: Return of Xander Cage</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEFmHsseaU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">Assassin&#8217;s Creed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/">Patriots Day</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXqh2rDehg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">The Great Wall</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SKI9rgqFck">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">Passengers</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4501244/">Why Him</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4501244/">6.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CO6qLC4cL8E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="https://torrentfreak.com/arrival-torrent-downloads/">Arrival</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2543164/">8.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFMo3UJ4B4g">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136747
title: Getty Images Slams Google For Seeking Copyright Safe Harbor
uri: Getty-Images-Slams-Google-For-Seeking-Copyright-Safe-Harbor
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/9DMYfX-l0yI/
content:
<p><a href="media/c5e87d4f.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg"><img src="media/dbb74c88.aus.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/aus.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96798"></a>The notion that online platforms should not be held responsible for the infringing acts of their users is something entrenched in law in many regions, including the United States and Europe.</p>
<p>In Australia, however, a perceived drafting error in the implementation of the Australia – US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) means that safe harbor provisions only apply to commercial Internet service providers.</p>
<p>As a result, Google, Facebook, YouTube and similar platforms face copyright uncertainty, a tenuous position also suffered by schools, universities, museums, libraries and archives.</p>
<p>If proposed amendments to the Copyright Act are adopted, all of the above will receive enhanced safe harbor protections and the country into be brought into compliance with AUSFTA. Instead, however, battle lines are being drawn, with technology companies on one side and heavily copyright-reliant entities on the other.</p>
<p>Today it&#8217;s the turn of Getty Images to throw its hat into the ring. Getty has been embroiled in dozens of copyright lawsuits in its history so is well aware of the difficulties its business can encounter. It&#8217;s also strongly against safe harbors that would allow companies like Google to use its images in search results, for example, without having to shoulder any liability.</p>
<p>Speaking with The Australian (<a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media">paywall</a>), Getty Images’ general counsel Yoko Miyashita says that safe harbors have been ruthlessly exploited by online platforms and actually make it harder for copyright holders to protect their rights.</p>
<p>“Here in the US the safe harbors were intended to provide strong incentives for online ­service providers and copyright holders to co-operate to detect and deal with copyright infringements &#8230; but that has never materialized,” Miyashita says.</p>
<p>“There is no incentive for co-operation. The safe harbors are instead used by service providers as a shield and an excuse for doing nothing to detect or prevent copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>When service providers become aware that their platforms are being used for infringement in a specific case, it&#8217;s argued that they are required to take remedial action to bring them into compliance and maintain their safe harbor protections.</p>
<p>But for the Getty general counsel, all this does is force technology platforms to look even further in the opposite direction to avoid knowledge, rather than getting sucked into a copyright minefield. Becoming involved in steps to prevent piracy can even mean they become further exposed.</p>
<p>&#8220;In fact, we have seen that ­service providers risk greater ­liability if they take steps to detect and prevent infringements, so they are encouraged to stick their head in the sand,” Miyashita said.</p>
<p>While the music, movie and TV show companies have their specific complaints against Google, Getty Images feels it is particularly exposed by the search giant&#8217;s actions. While movies and TV shows are largely streamed or downloaded from third-party sites to which Google merely links, Getty&#8217;s images appear in results themselves, ready to be shared with others with a couple of clicks.</p>
<p>Results can be taken down of course, but the onus lies with copyright holders to take action in each and every case, something which sees Google process millions of takedown notices every week.</p>
<p>“Each of those reports represents an instance where copyright holders were not com­pensated for use of their works,&#8221; Miyashita notes.</p>
<p>&#8220;This shows not only the burden on copyright holders to identify infringements and prepare and send notices&#8230;but also the lack of respect for copyright which has been fuelled in large part by the safe harbors.”</p>
<p>That Getty Images should single out Google in the safe harbor debate comes as no surprise, as the companies rarely see eye to eye when it comes to the use of Getty&#8217;s images.</p>
<p>Last year the stock photograph outfit <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/getty-files-google-image-piracy-complaint-with-eu-160427/">filed a complaint</a> with the European Union’s antitrust commission, claiming that Google is engaged in piracy of its content. Getty told the EU that Google undermines its business by utilizing Getty stock images in a manner that “siphons traffic” away from the Getty&#8217;s own website.</p>
<p>Considering that safe harbor provisions are standard across Europe and the United States, the battle underway in Australia is something of an anomaly. </p>
<p>That being said, the fact that Australia-based technology companies are now being forced to fight entertainment and heavily copyright-dependent industries to achieve their goals is nothing new and is only likely to drive the parties apart &#8211; or investment away.</p>
<p>At the moment the momentum is in favor of <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-copyright-safe-harbour-provision-backed-by-prime-minister-170313/">safe harbor introduction</a>, but things are only just getting heated up and are far from over.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136775
title: Kim Dotcom’s Historical Speeding Conviction Still a Deportation Danger
uri: Kim-Dotcom-s-Historical-Speeding-Conviction-Still-a-Deportation-Dang
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/FDr49iWYuh4/
content:
<p><a href="media/32d676b8.kim-car.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kim-car.png"><img src="media/c225e211.kim-car.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-car.png" alt="" width="300" height="163" class="alignright size-full wp-image-119877"></a>Anyone who knows Kim Dotcom knows that he loves his family, he loves money, he loves the Internet, and he loves cars.</p>
<p>Many of the Megaupload founder&#8217;s online videos feature a combination of these things but the latter could yet prove a serious problem for the entrepreneur.</p>
<p>It began on September 10, 2009 when a police radar gun logged Dotcom doing 149km/h (92mph) in a 50km/h (30mph) zone in New Zealand. Dotcom, who was reportedly driving a 3.6-liter AMG Mercedes, was chased by police who eventually caught him about a mile later near to the Coatesville mansion he used to call home.</p>
<p>Dotcom described his driving as a “stupid mistake” and pleaded guilty four days later by letter. He said that he had been testing a new car and had got a bit carried away.</p>
<p>“When spoken to by police the defendant stated he had seen an 80km/h sign. He further stated that he stepped on the gas for 3-4 seconds and then braked and reduced his speed to the speed limit. He also stated he wanted to test the acceleration of the vehicle,” police records state.</p>
<p>Dotcom was fined $500 plus $130 costs and banned from driving for six months but there were to be greater complications. Dotcom failed to declare the motoring conviction on his New Zealand residency application, which he completed eight months after the offense.</p>
<p>In the blurred image below previously released under the Official Information Act, item three shows a ‘No’ response to the question “Have you or any of your family members included in your application, ever been: Convicted of an offense including traffic offenses committed within the last five years, involving dangerous driving [or] driving having consumed excessive alcohol.&#8221;</p>
<p><Center><img src="media/0fda4142.dotcom-declaration.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/dotcom-declaration.png" width="569" height="255" class="alignnone size-large"></center></p>
<p>Back in 2015, it was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-speeding-offense-could-lead-to-deportation-150416/">reported</a> that the Immigration Minister would decide within a month whether Dotcom would be allowed to remain in New Zealand or be kicked out of the country &#8211; with his family &#8211; for failing to make the declaration.</p>
<p>Somewhat bizarrely, however, more than two years later and the case is still ongoing. According to the <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&#038;objectid=11821364">NZHerald</a>, the case is now in its 29th month and is set to be the &#8220;longest, most drawn out investigation of its type.&#8221;</p>
<p>As always in matters involving Dotcom, the entrepreneur believes there is a conspiracy bubbling away in the background. He&#8217;s describing the inquiry into his non-disclosure as &#8220;Plan B&#8221; to get him out of the country, a simple deportation if the attempted extradition to the United States (Plan A) fails.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is a back and forth with [Immigration New Zealand]. They ask questions, we answer. We asked them what their determination is and they came back with more questions,&#8221; Dotcom says.</p>
<p>&#8220;I guess they are slow playing this so that they can time their decision according to the final appeal decision in the extradition matter.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, Dotcom says he&#8217;s preparing for a fight if things get out of hand. He&#8217;s promising &#8220;years of court battles&#8221; if a decision is taken to deport him, adding that his team is &#8220;confident&#8221; it will prevail. At this stage, no one would expect anything less.</p>
<p>The drama over this speeding conviction represents another episode in an amazing few years for Dotcom, a wild story that isn&#8217;t over yet. His life to date will soon be available on the silver screen in the movie <a href="http://kimdotcom.film/">Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web</a>, but it&#8217;s clear that this will have to be a two-parter, if it&#8217;s to recount the full tale.</p>
<p><Center><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/M8iTRn8GUWc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136173
title: UK’s Piracy Blocklist Now Exceeds 3,800 URLs
uri: UK-s-Piracy-Blocklist-Now-Exceeds-3-800-URLs
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/C99UQDuKyTk/
content:
<p><img src="media/4d28e669.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86005">Website blocking has become one of the favorite anti-piracy tools of the entertainment industries in recent years.</p>
<p>The UK is a leader <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megashare-viooz-watch32-zmovie-blocked-140311/">in the area</a>, with the High Court ordering local ISPs to block access to many popular file-sharing sites.</p>
<p>These blocks have some effect, at least in preventing subscribers from accessing the domains directly. However, there are plenty of alternative routes pirates can use instead.</p>
<p>Blocked sites and people who support them often create so-called reverse proxies. These allow users to access blocked pages through a new domain name, bypassing the restrictions put in place by the court. At least, for as long as it lasts.</p>
<p>The nature of the UK blocking orders allows copyright holders to expand the blocklists without having to file a new case. This means that if The Pirate Bay has a new proxy, rightsholders can instruct Internet providers to add this domain to their anti-piracy filter and block it.</p>
<p>As a result of this extension power, the list of blocked UK domains has grown substantially over the years. While there is generally little transparency, information provided to us by one of the ISPs involved shows that thousands of domain names have been added to it already. </p>
<p>In total, the ISP is required to block a massive 3,814 URLs, most of which are proxies. Some of these have a duplicate entry, listing both the www and non-www version of the domain.</p>
<p>For The Pirate Bay alone, several hundred domains appear on this list, which will undoubtedly expand in the future.</p>
<p>A key player in the &#8216;proxy blocking war&#8217; is <a href="https://unblocked.bet/">Unblocked</a>, which provides a range of proxies through which many blocked sites are readily accessible. The site and its proxies are often added to the blocklist as well, but these blocks are quickly evaded.</p>
<p>“Anytime we receive multiple reports of the site being blocked, we redirect to a new domain that same day. It’s become quite a simple routine now, and we don’t expect to give up anytime soon,” Unblocked’s owner previously told us.</p>
<p>“Considering the popularity of Unblocked in the UK, I don’t think their strategy is an effective way to deal with piracy. Our traffic data doesn’t show any major changes after our many domain changes.”</p>
<p>Not all site operators are as persistent as Unblocked&#8217;s but it&#8217;s clear that with more than 3,800 URLs, the whac-a-mole game is far from over. Copyright holders will keep adding new entries to the blocklists, while site owners continue to hop from domain to domain. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the pirate blocklist keeps growing, with the number of URLs moving closer to five digits.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136782
title: ‘Pirate’ Kodi Box Sellers Fail to Overturn Sales Ban in Canada
uri: Pirate-Kodi-Box-Sellers-Fail-to-Overturn-Sales-Ban-in-Canada
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3X9TBNtl-O4/
content:
<p><img src="media/ac68a7ac.android-box.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/android-box.jpg" width="240" height="240" class="alignright size-large">From a niche hobbyist affair under its former name XBMC, Kodi is now grabbing international headlines on a daily basis. The media player is both benign and entirely legal in standard form, but boost it with special addons and it becomes a piracy powerhouse.</p>
<p>One of the main problems for the content industries arises from the software&#8217;s ability to run on cheap Android and similar hardware. Whether that&#8217;s a phone, tablet, set-top box or a device such as Amazon&#8217;s Fire Stick, these setups are now in millions of homes, delivering free content to the masses.</p>
<p>Authorities everywhere are now scrambling to deal with the problem and Canada is one of the areas where content producers and cable providers have resorted to legal action. Last year, Rogers Communications, Bell, Videotron and others targeted several retailers who supplied so-called &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; Android and Apple set-top boxes to the public.</p>
<p>The original defendants, including ITVBOX.NET, My Electronics, Android Bros Inc., WatchNSaveNow Inc and MTLFreeTV, all sold devices that came pre-configured to receive content that customers would otherwise have had to pay for.</p>
<p>Inquiries into the sales began in April 2015 and in the months that followed test purchases were made. The plaintiffs found that the devices not only provided access to their content for free but that the sellers advertised their products as a way to avoid paying bills.</p>
<p>In response, the TV and content companies went to the Federal Court with claims under the Copyright Act and Radiocommunication Act. Last June they were successful in obtaining an interlocutory injunction to stop the devices being made available for sale.</p>
<p>“The devices marketed, sold and programmed by the Defendants enable consumers to obtain unauthorized access to content for which the Plaintiffs own the copyright,” Judge Daniele Tremblay-Lamer wrote in her order.</p>
<p>“For the time being, I am satisfied that the Plaintiffs have established a strong prima facie case of copyright infringement and that an injunction would prevent irreparable harm without unduly inconveniencing the Defendants.”</p>
<p>While the majority of the defendants in the case have been silent (the list has <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/free-tv-android-box-cable-companies-challenge-1.3660656">now grown</a> to more than 50 sellers), WatchNSaveNow and MTLFreeTV took the decision to appeal the injunction, arguing that it was never established in court that sales of the devices would hurt the plaintiffs&#8217; business in advance of a trial.</p>
<p>According to <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/business/android-box-free-tv-bell-rogers-1.4033741">CBC</a>, that argument failed to convince the Appeal Court, which yesterday upheld the Federal Court&#8217;s decision to hand down an injunction. Turning the box-sellers&#8217; marketing material against them, the Court noted that they&#8217;d advertised their devices as providing a way to access free content and avoid paying cable bills.</p>
<p>One of the sellers to appeal, Vincent Wesley of MTLFreeTV, was the only box-seller to turn up at the original Federal Court hearing last year. Back then he said he had nothing to do with the development or maintenance of the software installed on the devices he sold. That didn&#8217;t appear to help back then and now the Appeal Court has failed to see the case in the defendants&#8217; favor.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m actually very disappointed. We weren&#8217;t even given a fair shot,&#8221; Wesley said.</p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the plaintiffs were rather pleased with the outcome, with both Bell and Rogers welcoming the decision to uphold the injunction.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today&#8217;s swift dismissal of the appeal of the Federal Court&#8217;s injunction speaks to what this case is all about — an obvious case of piracy,&#8221; Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt told CBC.</p>
<p>A Bell spokesperson said the decision provided more confirmation that the devices are illegal and that those that sell them face &#8220;significant consequences.&#8221;</p>
<p>For Wesley, those consequences are already being felt in the shape of a $5,000 court costs bill, something which he says has left him &#8220;at the end of his finances.&#8221;</p>
<p>With no money left to fight, any trial will almost certainly go the way of the cable and TV companies. Certainly, the public hasn&#8217;t signaled any intention to come to the sellers&#8217; rescue. A <a href="https://www.gofundme.com/2ap6ptmk">GoFundMe campaign</a> set up by Wesley in June last year has seen just 10 people deposit $350 of a $30,000 target.</p>
<p>The legal assaults on Kodi, Showbox, and Popcorn-Time enabled devices seems set to continue for some time but one has to wonder what effect the endless flood of news articles is doing to promote the availability of free content through the platforms. Legal action is perhaps inevitable but every case only serves to raise the profile of this new piracy phenomenon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136822
title: Internet Backbone Cogent Blocks Cloudflare’s New ‘Pirate Site’ IP-addresses
uri: Internet-Backbone-Cogent-Blocks-Cloudflare-s-New-Pirate-Site-I
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/_-xXtVTvNfc/
content:
<p><img src="media/2759597c.blocked-censor.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blocked-censor.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-124850">Last month, news broke that Cogent, which operates one of the largest Internet backbone networks, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/internet-backbone-provider-cogent-blocks-pirate-bay-and-other-pirate-sites-170209/">blackholed IP-addresses</a> that were linked to several &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites including The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>As a result of this action, people from all over the world were unable to access their favorite download or streaming portals.</p>
<p>The blocking intervention was quite controversial, not least because the IP-addresses in question don’t belong to the sites themselves, but to the popular CDN provider Cloudflare.</p>
<p>After the mysterious blocking efforts were first reported, we found out that Cogent acted in response to a Spanish court order. This compelled the company to block the IP-addresses in question. </p>
<p>Ironically, many of the popular pirate sites were not the direct target, but collateral damage simply because they shared the same IP.</p>
<p>In response, Cloudflare moved The Pirate Bay and other &#8216;innocent&#8217; sites to a new set of IP-addresses, so they became accessible once more. Cloudflare’s General Counsel Doug Kramer further <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cogents-broad-pirate-site-block-was-collateral-damage-of-a-court-order-170217/">informed us</a> that they worked together with Cogent to prevent similar over-blocking issues in the future. </p>
<p>“We have taken technical steps on our end to permit Cogent to comply with a court order issued to them without additional impacts,” Kramer informed TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>Despite this promising collaboration, however, Cogent has now blocked Cloudflare&#8217;s new IP-addresses as well. This effectively renders The Pirate Bay and other sites such as TorrentProject, Icefilms, Torlock, Popcorn-Time, Movie4k and 1Channel inaccessible on its network.</p>
<p><center><strong>The Pirate Bay blocked by cogent again</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/536455b7.cogentnewtrace.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cogentnewtrace.png" alt="" width="627" height="212" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136827"></center></p>
<p>Cogent has blackholed the IP-addresses 104.31.16.3 and 104.31.17.3 which are all shared by these sites. This is likely another case of over-blocking, unless there is a new court order listing all the sites on these IP-addresses. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Cloudflare to find out more about the situation, but at the time of writing we have yet to hear back. </p>
<p>The Cogent episode is not the first time that innocent Cloudflare customers have been affected by a court order. Previously, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-blockade-censors-cloudflare-customers-150424/">UK ISPs blocked</a> several websites because they shared an IP-address with The Pirate Bay.</p>
<p>Last month, Cloudflare’s General Counsel cautioned against broad blocking orders. If they are issued by judges who don’t fully understand the effects, these could affect a wide range of sites which they are not intended for.</p>
<p>“It’s important for courts to understand how Internet systems work so they can write orders that don’t end up having unintended consequences,” Kramer stressed at the time.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136818
title: Studios Mull New Movies at Home, 30 Days After Release For $30
uri: Studios-Mull-New-Movies-at-Home-30-Days-After-Release-For-30
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/W3pOW2P735Y/
content:
<p><img src="media/23fa9005.film.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/film.png" width="180" height="127" class="alignright size-large">Aside from the thorny issue of price, content availability is often cited as one of the major drivers of Internet piracy. If consumers can access content easily without being made to wait, it&#8217;s believed that significant numbers will choose legal options.</p>
<p>With its global Friday release strategy and largely instantaneous availability on streaming platforms, the music industry has taken massive strides in dealing with this gaping hole in supply and demand. But for the movie industry, with its complex structure and multi-platform delivery system, things are not so straightforward.</p>
<p>Giving customers access to new movies on multiple formats on the day they&#8217;re released might seem to be the logical move to combat piracy, but Hollywood is fiercely protective of its windowing system since it offers multiple opportunities to sell and re-sell the same content to the same people.</p>
<p>Now, however, there are signs that the studios could be softening their stance towards consumers being able to rent new movies in the home shortly after their theatrical release.</p>
<p>According to a <a href="http://variety.com/2017/film/news/studios-premium-vod-early-1202013205/">Variety</a> report, six of the seven biggest Hollywood studios are considering plans to allow new movies to be delivered via VOD into the living room between 30 and 45 days after launch for around $30.</p>
<p>Fox and Warner are said to favor this structure but other plans are also floating around. Universal are reported to be pushing for a VOD release less than three weeks after launch, with Warner Bros. suggesting a shorter 17-day delay but with a larger $50 rental price.</p>
<p>Of course, any move to bring content to the home more quickly could have a profound effect on the many theater chains around the United States and present a serious stumbling block in negotiations. However, a proposal from Warner would see exhibitors receiving a cut of VOD revenues, if they agree to a narrowing of the theatrical release window.</p>
<p>While the rest of the major studios are keen to move forward, Disney is reported to be against the proposal. For a company that came up with the artificial restrictions embodied in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disney_Vault">Disney Vault</a>, for example, that probably won&#8217;t come as too much of a surprise.</p>
<p>But for those hoping for a smooth transition to quick releases in the home, breath holding is not advised, at least for now. Variety reports that negotiations have been underway for more than a year already and due to a number of considerations, they are pretty complex.</p>
<p>While Universal wants to go early across the board, others are considering longer or shorter release windows depending on the number of screens a movie is still showing on. In other words, the sooner people get bored of the theatrical release, the quicker it might appear in homes. That probably doesn&#8217;t bode well for fans of the more successful movies that enjoy longer theatrical runs and are more prone to piracy.</p>
<p>But while innovation is being sought, it&#8217;s also worth noting that exhibitors are seeking to reel it back in other areas. Lower priced movie rentals can currently appear 90 days after release and exhibitors are reported as seeking assurances that this will remain the case for up to 10 more years.</p>
<p>The news that the studios are considering their own model for early distribution will come as a blow to Napster founder Sean Parker. A year ago this month, news broke that the disrupter <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/napster-founder-offer-new-movies-at-home-for-50-per-shot-160310/">had a plan</a> to bring first-run movies to the home on the same day they&#8217;re released in theaters.</p>
<p>While that may have been a little optimistic, Parker&#8217;s overall framework sounds very much like the plan Warner is now in favor of &#8211; a $50 rental price tag with a $20 cut going to exhibitors. Also included in Parker&#8217;s price would have been two free movie tickets, something that doesn&#8217;t appear to be on the table now.</p>
<p>Also in doubt is whether the currently proposed two to four-week window will be long enough to quash fears that early VOD delivery would contribute heavily to online piracy.</p>
<p>Last year, Art House Convergence, a cinema organization representing 600 theaters and allied cinema exhibition businesses, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/napster-founders-movie-plan-will-fuel-torrent-sites-theaters-say-160316/">said</a> that Parker&#8217;s day-and-date model would encourage the &#8220;wildfire spread of pirated content&#8221; and herald a &#8220;decline in overall film profitability through the cannibalization of theatrical revenue.&#8221;</p>
<p>It&#8217;s safe to say that nobody in the movie business wants that. Stay tuned.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136861
title: Australia Shelves Copyright Safe Harbor For Google, Facebook, et al
uri: Australia-Shelves-Copyright-Safe-Harbor-For-Google-Facebook-et-al
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BnYmsqSFF8w/
content:
<p><a href="media/cdef4830.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg"><img src="media/bd0abf4c.copyright-blood.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/copyright-blood.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="151" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120567"></a>Due to what some have described as a drafting error in Australia’s implementation of the Australia – US Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA), so-called safe harbor provisions currently only apply to commercial Internet service providers Down Under.</p>
<p>This means that while local ISPs such as Telstra receive protection from copyright infringement complaints, platforms such as Google, Facebook and YouTube face legal uncertainty.</p>
<p>In order to put Australia on a similar footing to technology companies operating in the United States, <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5832">proposed amendments</a> to the Copyright Act would&#8217;ve seen enhanced safe harbor protections for technology platforms such as search engines and social networks.</p>
<p>But that dream has now received a considerable setback after the amendments were withdrawn at the eleventh hour.</p>
<p>In a blow to Google, Facebook and others, the government dropped the amendments before they were due to be introduced to parliament yesterday. That came as a big surprise, particularly as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had given the proposals his <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/australia-copyright-safe-harbour-provision-backed-by-prime-minister-170313/">seal of approval</a> just last week.</p>
<p>“Provisions relating to safe harbor were removed from the bill before its introduction to enable the government to further consider feedback received on this proposal whilst not delaying the passage of other important reforms,” Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said in a statement.</p>
<p>There can be little doubt that intense lobbying from entertainment industry groups played their part, with a series of articles published in ‎News Corp-owned <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/google-and-facebook-lobbying-on-copyright-hits-setback-on-government-uturn/">The Australian</a> piling on the pressure in favor of rightsholders.</p>
<p>This week the publication accused Google and others of &#8220;ruthlessly exploiting&#8221; safe harbor protections in the US and Europe, forcing copyright holders into an expensive and time-consuming battle to have infringing content taken down.</p>
<p>While large takedown efforts are indeed underway in both of those regions, companies like Google argue that doing business in countries without safe harbor provisions presents a risk to business development and innovation. Being held responsible for millions of other people&#8217;s infringements could prove massively costly and certainly not worth the risk.</p>
<p>Startup advocacy group <a href="https://startupaus.org/">StartupAUS</a> criticized the withdrawal of the amendments, describing the move as &#8220;a blow to Australian entrepreneurs.&#8221;</p>
<p>“Australia’s copyright laws have still not caught up with the realities of the internet. As a result, the laws still struggle to provide clarity and protection for organizations doing business online,” <a href="http://www.cio.com.au/article/616502/startupaus-hits-revised-copyright-bill/">said</a> CEO Alex McCauley.</p>
<p>“Copyright safe harbor is international best practice and without it Australian startups will be held back from participating in the rich global market for content and ideas. We strongly urge the government to reconsider the need for safe harbor provisions.”</p>
<p>But for players in the entertainment industry, safe harbor protections are not something to be quickly revisited without significant preparation.</p>
<p>Welcoming their withdrawal, Dan Rosen, chief executive of the Australian Recording Industry Association, called for a &#8220;full, independent and evidence-based review&#8221; in advance of similar proposals being raised in the future.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136816
title: US Ambassador Asks Vietnam to Target 123movies, Putlocker and Kisscartoon
uri: US-Ambassador-Asks-Vietnam-to-Target-123movies-Putlocker-and-Kisscart
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/PcYmKDQmZX4/
content:
<p><img src="media/88b1109c.Ted_Osius_2014.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/Ted_Osius_2014.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136854">Pirate video streaming sites are booming. Their relative ease of use through on-demand viewing makes them a viable alternative to P2P file-sharing, which traditionally dominated the piracy arena.</p>
<p>Copyright holders are not happy with this development and are doing everything in their power to stop this trend, both through legal action and lobbying. </p>
<p>This week they received support on a diplomatic level. On Tuesday, Ted Osius, US Ambassador to Vietnam, <a href="http://kinhdoanh.vnexpress.net/tin-tuc/doanh-nghiep/viet-my-hop-tac-chan-noi-dung-xau-tren-youtube-facebook-3559244.html">held a meeting</a> with the local Minister of Information and Communications, Truong Minh Tuan.</p>
<p>One of the topics high on the agenda was an increased cooperation between the Vietnamese Government and US Internet companies such as YouTube and Facebook. The Government wants these services to remove or block offensive content that violates local laws. </p>
<p>The minister said he is happy to provide access to these American sites as long as they prevent the distribution of malicious information &#8220;that adversely affects the morals, customs, and habits&#8221; of Vietnam. Obviously, the perception of what&#8217;s appropriate may be somewhat different from US standards.</p>
<p>Ideally, Vietnam would like the American companies to open up local offices so these issues can be better regulated, local news sites <a href="http://vfpress.vn/kinh-doanh/bo-truong-bo-tttt-va-dai-su-my-cung-go-van-de-nong-ve-quan-ly-internet-479080.html">report</a>. </p>
<p>Responding to this proposal, the US ambassador affirmed that he would continue to encourage the companies to do so, while actively working with the Ministry of Information and Communications to solve these difficult issues. However, at the same time, he also presented a request of his own. </p>
<p>Ambassador Ted Osius highlighted his interest in protecting intellectual property on the Internet. He specifically mentioned three websites in Vietnam that should be criminally prosecuted for copyright infringement &#8211; Putlocker, 123movies and Kisscartoon.</p>
<p>These three sites are believed to operate from Vietnam, and the ambassador urged the local authorities to look into their operations and take appropriate action when possible.</p>
<p><center><strong>123Movies (currently down)</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/f386a832.123movies.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123movies.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="434" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-129548"></center></p>
<p>Information and Communications Minister Truong Minh Tuan assured the ambassador that this is also a matter that Vietnam is very interested in, adding that the Ministry Inspector will soon decide how to handle the three &#8216;pirate&#8217; streaming sites. </p>
<p>However, the minister also noted that even on YouTube there are many video clips that infringe the copyrights of Vietnamese organizations. He therefore requested that Google should take immediate measures to deal with copyright infringement on YouTube, while the authorities look at businesses and users who infringe copyright in Vietnam.</p>
<p>Whether the requests from both sides will ultimately be addressed remains to be seen. To our knowledge, it&#8217;s unprecedented for a US Ambassador to ask a foreign Government to prosecute alleged pirate sites, in public at least. </p>
<p>How Ambassador Osius came up with the three sites in question is unknown. The office of the US trade representative highlighted Putlocker&#8217;s ties to Vietnam in its recent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-government-targets-pirate-bay-and-other-piracy-havens-161221/">overview of notorious markets</a>, but 123movies and Kisscartoon were absent from this list. </p>
<p>A likely explanation is that copyright holders directly or indirectly lobbied for enforcement action against the sites in question, something that happens regularly behind the scenes. </p>
<p>Interestingly, both 123movies and Kisscartoon ran into significant downtime this week. 123movies is still down at the time of writing and <a href="https://twitter.com/123MoviesUK/status/844937027321708550">says it will post an update</a> in the near future. Kisscartoon is also inaccessible on its official domain name, which was stripped from its nameservers. </p>
<p>That said, there&#8217;s no indication that these issues are tied to the ambassador&#8217;s request or any specific enforcement actions.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136930
title: 20th Century Fox & Dreamworks Blackmailed Over The Boss Baby Leak
uri: 20th-Century-Fox-Dreamworks-Blackmailed-Over-The-Boss-Baby-Leak
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qhYrq-e87fc/
content:
<p><a href="media/37856441.bossbaby.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bossbaby.jpg"><img src="media/468bf709.bossbaby.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bossbaby.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="141" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136931"></a>When copies of movies leak onto the Internet, there is usually very little studios and distributors can do about it. Once a copy gets out there, it&#8217;s invariably too late, with thousands of people downloading in the opening hours.</p>
<p>Recently, however, a potential leak took on a different complexion. Sometime in February, a then unknown individual managed to get his hands on a pre-release copy of the upcoming Dreamworks movie The Boss Baby. </p>
<p>According to a local media <a href="http://www.telegraf.rs/vesti/2671655-ovo-je-beogradjanin-koji-je-ucenio-americke-filmadzije-momcilo-je-odranije-bio-poznat-kao-prevarant-foto">report</a>, the movie was due to be distributed in Serbia by local company MEGAKOM during April. But first, it needed to be localized with a Serbian language soundtrack.</p>
<p>Somewhat bizarrely given the security that usually surrounds high-profile releases, the movie ended up on a translator&#8217;s PC. The movie was copied, apparently without her knowledge, to the laptop of a man who lives with her.</p>
<p>Instead of immediately leaking it online, the man &#8211; subsequently identified as 26-year-old Momcilo Đinović &#8211; reportedly decided to make some cash. He contacted DreamWorks and 20th Century Fox with blackmail demands &#8211; pay a large bitcoin ransom or have your global release day ruined.</p>
<p>With help from local police, distributor MEGAKOM launched an investigation to find out how a third-party had obtained the movie. That involved tracing back the IP addresses of the person carrying out the extortion.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, local media reports indicate that 20th Century Fox paid Belgrade-resident Đinović  &#8211; the son of a retired policeman &#8211; first four and then five bitcoin. Apparently, that was not enough to satisfy the 26-year-old, but in any event, things didn&#8217;t end well.</p>
<p>After being arrested by local police, Đinović appeared at the High Prosecutor&#8217;s Office charged with extorting both 20th Century Fox and Dreamworks. The judge ordered him to be held in pre-trial detention for 30 days. Sources close to the investigation inform local news outlet <a href="http://www.novosti.rs/vesti/naslovna/hronika/aktuelno.291.html:655508-Kradljivca-filma-otkucala-devojka">Novosti</a> that he faces up to 10 years in prison.</p>
<p>Serbia has certainly been busy on the piracy front in recent days. According to an <a href="http://mondo.rs/a993217/Info/Crna-Hronika/Serije.rs-Krivicne-prijave-zbog-omogucavanja-on-lajn-gledanja-serija.html">announcement</a> from the Ministry of the Interior, two suspects have just been arrested following an investigation by the country&#8217;s organized crime unit into popular local TV streaming site, Serije.rs.</p>
<p>Police reportedly carried out searches of flats and other premises used by the site&#8217;s administrators while seizing equipment. The pair stand accused of committing criminal copyright infringement offenses.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136803
title: Netflix Gets Serious About Its Anti-Piracy Efforts
uri: Netflix-Gets-Serious-About-Its-Anti-Piracy-Efforts
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/XWsJE97cpNo/
content:
<p><img src="media/32870ed3.netflix.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/netflix.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="150" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26772">A few years ago Netflix had a pretty casual stance when it came to online piracy.</p>
<p>At the time, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that they were keeping an eye on the phenomenon, stressing that it&#8217;s not exclusively a bad thing. It also creates demand, he argued.</p>
<p>“Certainly there’s some torrenting that goes on, and that’s true around the world, but some of that just creates the demand,” <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-says-its-killing-bittorrent-traffic-130504/">Hastings said</a>.</p>
<p>Netflix openly admitted to using torrent download data as a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-uses-pirate-sites-to-determine-what-shows-to-buy-130914/">market signal</a>, buying shows that are popular among pirates in a certain region. The best way to beat piracy is to provide good options, the mantra was.</p>
<p>While it&#8217;s still an important issue, Netflix as a company has a different role now. With an increasing number of original shows, it&#8217;s becoming a significant content producer, instead of &#8216;just&#8217; a distribution platform. </p>
<p>Interestingly, this also shows in Netflix&#8217;s approach to piracy. The casual stance has long gone, and today Netflix is operating on par with the major Hollywood studios when it comes to copyright enforcement efforts. </p>
<p>Last year we reported that the company had begun sending DMCA takedown notices on a large scale, but its actions don&#8217;t stop there. While Netflix doesn&#8217;t boast about its anti-piracy efforts in public, a recent <a href="https://jobs.netflix.com/jobs/861381">job listing</a> for a Global Copyright Protection Counsel is quite a revelation.</p>
<p>The counsel in question will support Netflix&#8217;s &#8220;Global Copyright Protection Group,&#8221; a department the streaming service hasn&#8217;t mentioned in public thus far. One of the key focuses of the job is to minimize online piracy, through an advanced strategy.</p>
<p>&#8220;He or she will be tasked with supporting the Netflix Global Copyright Protection Group in its industry-wide anti-piracy strategic initiatives and tactical take down efforts with the goal of reducing online piracy to a socially unacceptable fringe activity.&#8221;</p>
<p>The responsibilities that come with the job are very broad, touching on pretty much every piracy angle utilized by Hollywood studios in recent years. Ranging from leak-prevention to automated takedown efforts, Netflix has it covered.</p>
<p><center><strong>Counsel, Global Copyright Protection</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6c3fc850.keyrespon.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/keyrespon.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="531" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136808"></center></p>
<p>The prospective employee will assist in &#8220;enforcement activities&#8221; and conduct &#8220;piracy trends analysis&#8221; while keeping an eye on the overall piracy ecosystem, including third-party platforms such as search engines, social media, advertisers, payment processors, domain name registrars.</p>
<p>In addition to traditional pirate sites, the anti-piracy efforts also focus on streaming devices, including fully-loaded Kodi boxes, and anonymizer tools such as VPNs and proxies.</p>
<p>&#8220;Consider solutions to deal with new piracy models and ways to consume pirate content online, such as illicit streaming devices and the use of TV add on apps. Monitor use of circumvention and anonymizer tools in the online pirate world,&#8221; the job application reads.</p>
<p>The application further mentions a review of &#8220;piracy demand&#8221; and &#8220;piracy messaging projects,&#8221; suggesting a concrete outreach to consumers. In addition, Netflix will directly reach out to pirate sites and other intermediaries. </p>
<p>&#8220;Assist in the management of Netflix correspondence with and outreach to both the administrators of pirate sites and the facilitators of piracy, including hosting platforms and providers, social media platforms and UGC sites in response to our tactical and industry copyright protection efforts.&#8221;</p>
<p>Overall the job application paints a picture of a rather mature and complete anti-piracy program and strategy. Now that copyrights are becoming a more vital asset for Netflix, it&#8217;s likely to become even more advanced as time progresses. </p>
<p>That&#8217;s quite a leap from the casual stance a few years ago. Apparently, Netflix now believes that solving piracy isn&#8217;t just as simple as making content available. They also want a &#8216;stick&#8217; with <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/netflix-wants-to-be-a-great-carrot-for-real-pirates-160120/">their carrot</a>. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136900
title: Lawyers & Academics Warn UK Against Criminalizing File-Sharers
uri: Lawyers-Academics-Warn-UK-Against-Criminalizing-File-Sharers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/UEq8h11vQZo/
content:
<p><img src="media/4d28e669.uk-flag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/uk-flag.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="179" class="alignright size-full wp-image-86005">Last year the UK Government introduced the Digital Economy Bill, which is set to revamp current copyright legislation.</p>
<p>One of the most <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-bill-introduces-10-year-prison-sentence-for-online-pirates-160706/">controversial proposals</a> is to lengthen the maximum sentence for online copyright infringement, without a clear criminal threshold.</p>
<p>If the bill passes, it will increase the maximum prison term for copyright infringement five-fold, from two to ten years. According to the Government, this change is needed to deter notorious copyright infringers. However, opponents warn that its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ten-years-in-jail-for-uk-internet-pirates-how-the-new-bill-reads-161204/">broad definitions</a> also put casual file-sharers at risk.</p>
<p>This week a group of campaigners, copyright scholars and lawyers teamed up to share their concerns with the  Government and its Intellectual Property Office (IPO). In their letter, they urge the lawmakers to narrow the definition of ‘criminal online copyright infringement’ to prevent abuse and keep it proportionate.</p>
<p>Under the current draft of the bill, anyone who makes pirated content available will open themselves up to criminal liability, if they expose a copyright owner to the “risk of loss”. That definition is too broad, opponents warn, as it allows rightsholders to frame average file-sharers as criminals.</p>
<p>In the letter, the experts suggest two minor changes to the current text. </p>
<p>As it stands, the bill criminalizes people who make infringing files available in the knowledge that this &#8220;will cause <em>loss</em> to the owner of the copyright, or will expose the owner of the copyright to a <em>risk of loss</em>.&#8221;</p>
<p>The proposed change would swap the general mention of &#8220;loss&#8221; and &#8220;risk of loss&#8221; with &#8220;commercial scale loss&#8221; and &#8220;serious risk of causing commercial scale loss&#8221; respectively.</p>
<p><center><strong>The proposed changes</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/4078b2ef.debchange.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/debchange.png" alt="" width="583" height="123" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136951"></center></p>
<p>&#8220;It is important to stress that this amendment would introduce thresholds for criminal liability to avoid prosecution of minor, small-scale, non-commercial copyright infringers such as file sharers,&#8221; the letter reads.</p>
<p>The Open Rights Group has been campaigning for this change for a while, but thus far the Government <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-govt-refuses-to-back-down-over-criminalization-of-file-sharers-170306/">has seen no reason</a> to alter the proposed text. With backing from many prominent experts, including scholars and lawyers, they hope lawmakers will consider it once more. </p>
<p>The Digital Economy Bill will go to a third reading in the House of Lords on Wednesday next week, which would provide an opportunity to make the suggested adjustments.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke with Dr Felipe Romero-Moreno, Lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire, and one of the signees of the letter. He stresses that the changes are required to ensure that casual file-sharers are dealt with through civil courts, not through criminal prosecutions.</p>
<p>&#8220;This amendment would give the courts, lawyers, and the public a clear indication that minor, non-commercial infringement such as file-sharing or unlicensed online publication would be unlikely to meet the thresholds of ‘serious risk’ or ‘commercial scale’ losses,&#8221; Romero-Moreno says.  </p>
<p>The proposed changes will also ensure that the bill is not in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law in general, which may not be the case right now. At the same time, it will shield the public against aggressive &#8220;copyright trolls,&#8221; which could use the current version to back up their practices.</p>
<p>&#8220;Crucially, in addition to being compatible with both the European Convention on Human Rights and EU law, our proposal would protect innocent individuals who received threatening letters from speculative invoicing copyright trolls. The latter is something which, unless the UK Government takes our suggested amendment on board, appears to be alarmingly supporting,&#8221; Romero-Moreno notes. </p>
<p>A full copy of the letter is <a href="media/3ee9666f.Letter-Digital-Economy-Bill.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Letter-Digital-Economy-Bill.pdf">available here (pdf)</a>. In a few days, we will know whether it has had the desired effect.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136847
title: Rightscorp Boss Signs Deal That Could Be Bad News For Pirates
uri: Rightscorp-Boss-Signs-Deal-That-Could-Be-Bad-News-For-Pirates
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/TL7T5uPy7cc/
content:
<p><a href="media/c9f95d44.rightscorp.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.png"><img src="media/ef1215bb.rightscorp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rightscorp.png" alt="" width="222" height="54" class="alignright size-full wp-image-78740"></a>Anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp is famous for tracking pirates on BitTorrent networks and sending them bills attached to ISP DMCA notices. They ask for a relatively small amount, around $20 to $30, in the hope that people settle quickly.</p>
<p>Unfortunately for them, the company is a miserable performer and has lost millions over the past few years. On a good day its stock is worth around $0.04. On a bad one, barely half of that.</p>
<p>Last June, Rightscorp <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rightscorp-hires-new-cfo-former-ceo-of-publically-traded-save-the-world-air-inc-300091371.html">announced</a> that it had hired a new chief financial officer. Cecil Bond Kyte, a former CEO and Chairman of Save the World Air, Inc. (STWA), was said by the company to possess unique and valuable skills, particularly in the fields of company management experience and capital raising.</p>
<p>&#8220;Under his stewardship, STWA grew from roughly $10 million in market capitalization in 2007 to an in excess of $350 million by 2013,&#8221; Rightscorp said.</p>
<p>At the time, the CEO of Rightscorp was Christopher Sabec. However, on February 14, 2017, Sabec resigned to take up the position of company president. Immediately, Cecil Kyte <a href="http://www.crossroadstoday.com/story/34553743/rightscorp-announces-transition-into-new-executive-team-with-appointment-of-cecil-bond-kyte-as-ceo">took over</a> as CEO. </p>
<p>One month later and Rightscorp&#8217;s new CEO has signed a rather interesting deal with the company. In a March 18 filing, Rightscorp reveals it has entered into a three-year deal with Kyte, which on completion will renew every year. However, it&#8217;s the financial aspects that are perhaps most interesting.</p>
<p>Kyte will initially receive an annual base salary of $150,000. However, that will increase to $250,000 if the company can generate $100,000 in gross monthly revenue for three consecutive months.</p>
<p>Rightscorp is due to publish its latest set of financial results, which may reveal some improvement. However, during the three months ended September 30, Rightscorp struggled to generate just $139,834 in total, around $46K per month. On that basis, Kyte needs to double turnover to get his $250,000 salary.</p>
<p>The incentives do not stop there, though. If the company&#8217;s new CEO can guide Rightscorp beyond $2,500,000 in gross revenue in any one year period, he can take home a salary of $350,000. That will increase to $500,000 &#8220;upon the Company’s receipt of an aggregate of $10,000,000 in cumulative gross revenue.&#8221;</p>
<p>Although his $50k signing bonus will have been welcomed by Kyte (not to mention the five million shares of common stock he&#8217;ll receive &#8220;upon execution of the employment agreement&#8221;), achieving these kinds of figures seems like a big ask.</p>
<p>In the year ended 2014, Rightscorp had revenues of $930,729 but made a loss of $2,852,705. In the year ended 2015, Rightscorp generated lower revenues of  $832,215 but somehow managed to lose even more &#8211; $3,434,567. Interestingly, however, Kyte&#8217;s deal doesn&#8217;t appear to be linked to Rightscorp turning a profit in any way, since it&#8217;s a turnover-focused arrangement.</p>
<p>That being said, with so many shares involved it&#8217;s clearly in Kyte&#8217;s interest to see Rightscorp develop into a successful company, but can that be achieved? A few clues exist.</p>
<p>Last March, when the anti-piracy outfit was <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/rightscorp-revenues-collapse-pirates-too-hard-to-track-160517/">explaining away</a> another set of terrible results, it made several observations.</p>
<p>First, that there had been &#8220;changes in the filesharing software intended to defeat detection of copyrights being illegally distributed.&#8221; That was interpreted as a reference to increased uptake of anonymity services, such as VPNs. If Rightscorp is looking for an improvement in this area, it probably needs to reassess.</p>
<p>Second, the company said that the &#8220;shutting down of some filesharing network infrastructure&#8221; had made it more difficult to track pirates. Rightscorp didn&#8217;t elaborate, but it&#8217;s possible that the demise of several large torrent trackers during the previous year made Rightscorp’s job of harvesting IP addresses a lot more difficult.</p>
<p>Third, the company said that fewer ISPs were passing on its notices, but this is an area that might potentially offer Rightscorp a ray of hope. Although the battle is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-denies-liability-for-pirating-subscribers-appeals-25-million-verdict-160822/">still ongoing</a>, Rightscorp customer BMG has booked some significant legal wins against Cox Communications in the United States, something which might persuade other ISPs to play ball with Rightscorp in the future.</p>
<p>The other big unknown is whether Rightscorp will change its business model or, more specifically, the pricing structure for its fines.</p>
<p>As the company notes, the pool of torrent users it can track for payment is currently diminishing. While there are still plenty to go at, trying to extract $40, $50 or $60 from each pirate (instead of $20 or $30) would do wonders for turnover with little to no extra costs involved.</p>
<p>And, with other companies getting involved in the space demanding around <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/new-automated-dmca-notices-hit-movie-pirates-300-fines-170311/">$300 per shot</a>, an inflated Rightscorp &#8216;fine&#8217; might start being perceived as a bit of a bargain, if pirates begin to take them seriously.</p>
<p>Only time will tell how Kyte&#8217;s influence will play out in public, but with Rightscorp&#8217;s annual results due very soon, it&#8217;s expected that the company could be very close to reaching its do-or-die moment. In avoiding the latter, it could be pirates that suffer.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136801
title: Pirate Bay’s Oldest Torrents Are ‘Teenagers’ Now
uri: Pirate-Bay-s-Oldest-Torrents-Are-Teenagers-Now
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8HLSRUkE0kQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/932e6d7d.thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/thepirate-e1470829181981.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="206" class="alignright size-full wp-image-116122">The Pirate Bay is one of the most established brands on the Internet, but this certainly wasn’t the case 13 years ago.</p>
<p>The notorious torrent site was originally founded by Swedish pro-culture organization Piratbyrån, during the summer of 2003. </p>
<p>It was first hosted in Mexico, where Gottfrid Svartholm operated the site on a server owned by the company he was working for at the time. After a few months, it moved to Sweden, where Fredrik Neij ran the site and tracker from a <a href="media/9039fd82.tpb-laptop1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-laptop1.jpg">Pentium III 1GHz laptop</a> with 256MB of RAM.</p>
<p>While some of the site&#8217;s current users weren&#8217;t even born at the time, several of the torrents that were uploaded back then are still available today. This week the site&#8217;s longest surviving torrents turn thirteen years old. In other words, they&#8217;re teenagers now.</p>
<p>Below are the oldest listed torrents as of this week. An episode of &#8220;The High Chaparral&#8221; has the honor of being the oldest torrent. The file was originally uploaded on March 25, 2004, and although it lists zero seeders in the search results, there are still several people sharing it.</p>
<p><center>Pirate Bay&#8217;s oldest torrents listed<br></br></center><center><img src="media/332bbf2e.tpb13old.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb13old.png" alt="" width="600" height="397" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-136844"></center></p>
<p>The &#8216;unofficial&#8217; record hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed to Pirate Bay users. Several commenters refer to the torrent&#8217;s achievement as the oldest surviving torrent on the site. </p>
<p>&#8220;Well, I guess since this is a part of TPB history i&#8217;ll add it to my Raspberry Pi torrent server to seed forever. Hopefully others will do the same,&#8221; one person writes in the comment section.</p>
<p>Other torrents that will soon reach teenager status are a copy of the first season of &#8220;Oz,&#8221; a book with &#8220;Top Secret Recipes,&#8221; and the &#8220;Revolution OS&#8221; documentary, which covers the history of Linux, GNU and the free software movement. </p>
<p>What&#8217;s most remarkable is that people are still sharing these files after all this time. A torrent only remains available if there&#8217;s at least one person sharing it. Over the years millions of torrents have stopped working, but these have weathered all the storms.</p>
<p>To give an idea of how many older torrents are still listed on The Pirate Bay, we looked at one of the site&#8217;s most recent <a href="https://thepiratebay.org/static/dump/html/">database dumps</a>.</p>
<p>Of the 60,000 torrents that were initially available on TPB at the end of 2004, roughly 3,000 are still online today. This number goes up to 10,000 for the 2006 torrents, and 300,000 of all torrents that were uploaded last year are still around.</p>
<p>Given the iconic status of the &#8220;High Chaparral&#8221; torrent, it&#8217;s not unthinkable that this one will live on to become an adult. That is, if The Pirate Bay itself is still operational in 2022.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136878
title: Are You Sure You Want That DMCA Takedown to Be Permanent?
uri: Are-You-Sure-You-Want-That-DMCA-Takedown-to-Be-Permanent
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dg_q4DxyXAY/
content:
<p><a href="media/729747e2.facepalm.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/facepalm.jpg"><img src="media/50fb18c6.facepalm.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/facepalm.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="158" class="alignright size-full wp-image-127813"></a>With millions of pieces of infringing content hitting the Internet every day, copyright holders certainly have their work cut out when it comes to eradicating piracy.</p>
<p>At the moment this is largely achieved via DMCA and similar notices that require online platforms to remove content, direct links to content, or related search engine results. However, content has a habit of reappearing after deletion so it&#8217;s perfectly possible that the same piece could be subjected to multiple complaints on the same platform.</p>
<p>To solve this problem, rightsholders (the music industry in particular) are pushing for a so-called <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/takedown-staydown-would-be-a-disaster-internet-archive-warns-160607/">takedown/staydown</a> regime. They argue that once a piece of content has been flagged as infringing, then it should be entered into some kind of database, to ensure that it is blocked from ever being uploaded again.</p>
<p>This kind of system, should one ever be introduced, would require platforms to monitor every user-uploaded file to ensure that their fingerprints don&#8217;t already exist in filtering databases. If they did, the uploads would be rejected, regardless of whether the material would otherwise be allowed under Fair Use exceptions, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eff-warns-against-broad-stay-down-anti-piracy-filters-160122/">critics say</a>.</p>
<p>While such a regime is far away on the horizon, some anti-piracy outfits like to pretend that it&#8217;s already in place today. After issuing a takedown notice, some have a tendency to imply that there&#8217;s a need for a platform to act proactively. That happened this week in a notice to Github, but things didn&#8217;t go to plan.</p>
<p><a href="http://piracysolution.com/our-clients/">Piracy Solution</a> is an anti-piracy company that claims to offer &#8220;relentless&#8221; 24/7 monitoring for which there is &#8220;no alternative.&#8221; This week the outfit wrote to Github on behalf of its client <a href="https://frontendmasters.com">Frontend Masters</a>, a company offering training in various web design skills.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am the authorized agent for Frontendmasters.com and MJG International, LLC. It has come to our knowledge that https://github.com is linking, external linking or distributing our content illegally,&#8221; Piracy Solution&#8217;s agent confidently wrote.</p>
<p>Demanding that Github removes one of its repositories, Piracy Solution went on to suggest that Github is required to proactively filter the same content from its platform in future, to ensure it is never made available again.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are requesting that your website not put up or link this copyrighted content in the future. It must not continue to go back up on your site. Please remove it as soon as possible and cease allowing our copyrighted content to be released or linked on your site,&#8221; the notice <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/86e1f2074c4e15fc1514a9886d9510826631931e">reads</a>.</p>
<p>Continuing, Piracy Solutions declared that the content to be taken down is infringing, not authorized by Frontend Masters, and that its takedown notice is accurate. Sadly, none of these claims were true.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://github.com/sdras/frontendmasters-svganimation">repository</a> affected by Piracy Solution&#8217;s takedown-and-staydown demands is titled &#8216;Frontend Masters &#8211; Advanced SVG Animation Course&#8217; and there is a very good reason for that.</p>
<p>It is operated by <a href="https://sarahdrasnerdesign.com/">Sarah Drasner</a>, who lists her contact email and personal address just in case anyone needs to contact her. If anyone from Piracy Solutions had done so, they would&#8217;ve learned that she is the author of SVG Animations from O’Reilly and has given a Frontend Masters workshop on Advanced SVG Animations.</p>
<p>To confirm beyond any doubt, Frontend Masters themselves <a href="https://frontendmasters.com/courses/svg-animation/">list Drasner</a> on their very own website while charging access to her SVG Animations course.</p>
<p>After having her repository disabled by Github for copyright infringement, Drasner probably had a few choice words with Frontend Masters. That appears to have prompted Piracy Solutions to completely change their minds about having the content taken down on a permanent basis.</p>
<p>&#8220;Thank you for the prompt action in removing this content,&#8221; the company <a href="https://github.com/github/dmca/commit/1b12c1c7ace27c5cdd8b456734f4ec7b502b86fa">told</a> Github.</p>
<p>&#8220;However our client Frontend Master was unaware that one of their authors was using github.com and has requested that we issue a retraction of [the takedown notice]. Please let us know if you require anything other than this email for the retraction of the DMCA notice.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the Github repository is now in full working order, it&#8217;s not difficult to see how a takedown-and-staydown regime could prove problematic when scaled up to potentially hundreds of millions of notices. If companies are able to take down even their own content and request that it never appears again, those set on abuse will be able to cause even greater problems.</p>
<p>That being said, it is crystal clear that copyright holders are tired of the endless game of whac-a-mole and are desperate to reduce their takedown workloads. Whether that can be realistically achieved through the suggested regime will remain to be seen, but for now and aside from the status quo, there are no other serious options on the table.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136994
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 03/27/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-03-27-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/q3eGMqV3f0M/
content:
<p><img src="media/003c6247.rogueone-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogueone-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136752">This week we have two newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Rogue One is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-032017/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">The Great Wall</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SKI9rgqFck">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(3)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">Assassin&#8217;s Creed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/">Split</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84TouqfIsiI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">xXx: Return of Xander Cage</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEFmHsseaU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">Passengers</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355644/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BWWWQzTpNU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2592614/">Resident Evil: The Final Chapter</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2592614/">5.7</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79Sd4GtOXuI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/">Patriots Day</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4572514/">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJXqh2rDehg">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137018
title: ‘Pirate’ Movie Streaming Sites Declared Legal By Italian Court
uri: Pirate-Movie-Streaming-Sites-Declared-Legal-By-Italian-Court
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/69wOEcxs-ac/
content:
<p><img src="media/468f0769.streamingkey.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/streamingkey.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-125426">When it comes to passing judgment on so-called &#8216;pirate&#8217; sites, Italy has more experience than most around Europe. Courts have passed down many decisions against unlicensed sites which have seen hundreds blocked by ISPs.</p>
<p>Today, however, news coming out of the country suggests that the parameters of what defines a pirate site may not be so loosely interpreted in future.</p>
<p>It began in 2015 when the operator of four sites that linked to pirated movies was found guilty of <a href="http://www.interlex.it/testi/l41_633.htm">copyright infringement</a> by a local court and ordered to pay more almost 600,000 in fines and costs. As a result, filmakers.biz, filmaker.me, filmakerz.org, and cineteka.org all shutdown but in the background, an appeal was filed.</p>
<p>The appeal was heard by the Rome Court of Appeal in February and now, through lawyer Fulvio Sarzana who defended the sites&#8217; operator, we hear of a particularly interesting ruling.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Court ruled that the indication of links does not qualify as making direct disposal of files protected by copyright law,&#8221; Sarzana told TF in an email.</p>
<p>Often in these kinds of cases, the presence of a financial motivation by a site operator can play a crucial role. In this matter, however, even revenue generation via advertising failed to tip the scales in the prosecution&#8217;s favor.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Judge has recognized as lawful the portals&#8217; activities, and this despite the presence of advertising banners,&#8221; Sarzana <a href="http://www.lidis.it/film-and-music-streaming-sites-are-lawful-first-judgment-italy">says</a>.</p>
<p><center><img src="media/bb788d8b.filmakers.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/filmakers.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="471" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137033"></center></p>
<p>According to the lawyer, it is not enough to simply show that the &#8216;pirate&#8217; site generates income. The prosecution must also show that profit activity is connected to an individual. If it does not, the sharing aspect could be considered as merely avoiding an expense rather than a for-profit activity designed to generate &#8220;significant gain&#8221;. In the event, that&#8217;s exactly what happened.</p>
<p>&#8220;In fact, the Judge ruled that file sharing, i.e the sharing of files protected by copyright, is a saving of expense and not a for-profit business.  Therefore, in these cases you cannot apply the penal provisions of copyright law and the resulting administrative sanctions,&#8221; Sarzana notes.</p>
<p>The decision to clear the sites of all charges and overturn the financial penalties against their operator is bound to prove a controversial one, not just locally but across the EU as a whole. Only time will tell how the decision will affect the bigger picture. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the complexities of the case have not been lost on Federico Bagnoli Rossi, Secretary General of the Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content (FAPAV). He <a href="http://www.repubblica.it/economia/2017/03/27/news/_leciti_i_siti_con_streaming_di_film_prima_sentenza_in_italia-161302364/">believes</a> that traditional legal avenues are not the only way to tackle the piracy problem.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are aware of the difficulties encountered in investigative activities and for this reason we are convinced that intermediaries should assume their responsibilities and work more closely with all parties involved in protecting culture,&#8221; Rossi says.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136976
title: Third of EU Citizens OK With Piracy When There Are No Legal Options
uri: Third-of-EU-Citizens-OK-With-Piracy-When-There-Are-No-Legal-Options
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Pe9OczHMBZQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/6542fb40.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg"><img src="media/19bd259d.eu-copyright.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/eu-copyright.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="167" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136985"></a>The European Union Intellectual Property Office has published the findings of a new study commissioned from Deloitte which aims to better understand how EU citizens perceive intellectual property issues.</p>
<p>The report is the product of 26,500 interviews with citizens aged 15 and over and paints a fairly positive picture for rightsholders and other businesses that rely on the exploitation of intellectual property.</p>
<p>The striking headline figure is that 97% of respondents believe that content creators should be able to protect their rights in order to get paid for their work. Alongside almost total support for IP rights, an impressive 83% indicate they would prefer to access digital content through legal services when there is an affordable option available.</p>
<p>Across the EU, just 10% of respondents said they&#8217;d deliberately obtained content from illegal sources during the past 12 months, a figure that jumps to 27% among 15 to 24-year-olds. A similar survey carried out in 2013 produced close to the same results.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/6f4af3bd.euipostudy1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy1.png"><img src="media/3e0164a0.euipostudy1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy1.png" alt="" width="650" height="267" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136978"></a></center></p>
<p>But while 10% is the average percentage of pirates across all EU countries, several major EU members buck the trends in interesting ways.</p>
<p>France, for example, has many years&#8217; experience of the state-sponsored Hadopi &#8220;three strikes&#8221; anti-piracy program. With millions of notices sent to ISP subscribers, the program was supposed to educate citizens away from piracy. However, 15% of French citizens admit to downloading or streaming from illegal sources, five percentage points higher than the EU average.</p>
<p>In Germany, where copyright trolls have been running rampant for many years and claiming a deterrent effect, just 7% say they download or stream from illegal sources. While this figure lower than the EU average might seem the logical conclusion, the same percentage is shared with Italy where there is no trolling or state-sponsored anti-piracy scheme.</p>
<p>In Spain, a country that is trying to shake off a reputation of being a piracy haven, 16% of citizens admit to online piracy. That&#8217;s double the 8% of UK citizens who admit to consuming unauthorized content online.</p>
<p>As usual, however, there are significant gray areas when it comes to content consumption and whether or not people can be labeled as hardcore pirates.</p>
<p>Just under a third (32%) of the those surveyed said they access content online, whether that&#8217;s from a legal or illegal source. Under a quarter (22%) say they use only authorized services. Just 5% use illegal sources alone and 5% said they use a mix of paid lawful and illegal sources.</p>
<p>&#8220;This suggests that respondents are willing to switch between legal and illegal sources in order to gain access to content,&#8221; the study found. </p>
<p><center><a href="media/60cd875c.euipostudy2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy2.png"><img src="media/928f9785.euipostudy2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy2.png" alt="" width="650" height="208" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136979"></a></center></p>
<p>Also of interest are the significant numbers of citizens who feel that piracy is acceptable under particular sets of circumstances.</p>
<p>A not insignificant 35% of respondents said that it&#8217;s acceptable to obtain content illegally as long as it&#8217;s only for personal use. Since millions of citizens are already taxed via a private copying levy, the notion that copying for yourself is acceptable shouldn&#8217;t come as too much of a surprise, although the charge itself applies to blank media, not illegal downloads.</p>
<p>Interestingly, close to a third (31%) believe that it&#8217;s acceptable to obtain content illegally if there are no immediately available legal alternatives. So, if a distributor chooses to bring content late to a region or makes content otherwise difficult to obtain, millions believe it&#8217;s ok for citizens to help themselves. While that&#8217;s probably a concern for rightsholders, it&#8217;s a problem that can be fixed.</p>
<p>Overall, an encouraging 71% of pirate respondents said they would stop obtaining content from illegal sources if there was an accessible and affordable legal alternative. Around 20% said they would not necessarily go legal, even if there was an available and affordable option.</p>
<p>&#8220;The availability of affordable content from legal offers as the top reason for stopping the behavior is most strongly cited by respondents in the following categories: respondents aged 25 to 39 (74 %), employed (76 %), living in large urbanized cities (75 %), and the most educated (72 %), which is in line with the profile of a typical online user,&#8221; the survey notes.</p>
<p>Close to 30% believe that being better informed could help them back away from illegal sources while just 5% said they could never be stopped, no matter what.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/32c3765e.euipostudy3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy3.png"><img src="media/4012369f.euipostudy3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/euipostudy3.png" alt="" width="650" height="377" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-136980"></a></center></p>
<p>But while many consumers want to &#8220;do the right thing&#8221;, there appears to be confusion when it comes to assessing whether an online service is legal or not. Almost a quarter (24%) of Europeans surveyed said they&#8217;d questioned whether an online source was legal, a five-point increase over the earlier 2013 study.</p>
<p>That being said, there&#8217;s a perception that legal services can provide a better product. When comparing the quality of content offered on legal and illegal platforms, 69% said that licensed services come out on top, an opinion shared by illegal downloaders and legal consumers alike.</p>
<p>However, when it comes to diversity of content, just over half of respondents (56%) said that legal services do a better job, a figure that drops to 45% among those who illegally download some content. Making a broader range of content available online could address this particularly lukewarm response.</p>
<p>António Campinos, Executive Director of EUIPO, said that the results of the survey show that EU citizens generally have respect for intellectual property but there is still room for improvement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Overall, we see that support for IP rights is high among EU citizens,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>&#8220;But we also see that more needs to be done to help young people in particular understand the importance of IP to our economy and society, especially now, when encouraging innovation and creativity is increasingly the focus of economic policy across our European Union.&#8221;</p>
<p>The full report can be downloaded here (<a href="media/af262f90.european_public_opinion_study_web.pdf" data-original-source="https://euipo.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/observatory/documents/IPContributionStudy/2017/european_public_opinion_study_web.pdf">pdf</a>)</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136981
title: Megaupload Wants to Recover Failing Hard Drives, But Won’t Sign Away Its Rights
uri: Megaupload-Wants-to-Recover-Failing-Hard-Drives-But-Won-t-Sign-Away
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IR_d4oKEMe0/
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">Megaupload was shutdown nearly half a decade ago, but it remains undecided whether Kim Dotcom and several of his former colleagues will stand trial in the US.</p>
<p>With the extradition process still ongoing, the criminal prosecution and the civil lawsuits filed by the MPAA and RIAA have been put on hold.</p>
<p>Aside from the many legal challenges in the pending cases, there are also technical concerns. Since the defunct file-hosting service conducted its business online, a lot of the evidence is digital and has to be carefully preserved, which doesn&#8217;t get easier over time.</p>
<p>Last year, hosting provider Cogent first <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-hard-drives-are-unreadable-hosting-company-warns-160518/">warned</a> that sixteen of Megaupload&#8217;s evidence hard drives had become unreadable. While the data could potentially be restored, this would require swift action from the parties involved.</p>
<p>The data are vital for Megaupload as well as the MPAA and the RIAA as they contain crucial evidence. After discussions failed earlier, Megaupload and the rightsholders have now reached an agreement. </p>
<p>Earlier this month the MPAA and RIAA presented a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-and-riaa-present-plan-to-recover-megauploads-failing-hard-drives-170315/">joint preservation plan</a> to the Virginia Federal Court. The rightsholder groups informed the court that they had reached an agreement with Megaupload on &#8220;nearly all&#8221; terms of the data preservation process to be carried out by the independent forensics company DriveSavers. </p>
<p>A few days ago Megaupload responded to the copyright holder&#8217;s request. While it indeed agrees to the practical terms of recovering and preserving the sixteen failing hard drives, Megaupload disagrees on the part where it&#8217;s prohibited from accessing the data.</p>
<p>&#8220;Megaupload agrees that there is a &#8216;significant risk that relevant evidence will be lost or destroyed,&#8217; and that ample grounds for a preservation order exist; however, Megaupload disputes certain terms of the preservation order proposed by Plaintiff,&#8221; the company&#8217;s counsel <a href="media/64d40d0e.megaupload-preservation-reply.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-preservation-reply.pdf">writes (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>The order proposed by the MPAA and RIAA would prevent Megaupload from accessing its own data without the court&#8217;s permission. This violates the company&#8217;s constitutional rights, Megaupload argues.</p>
<p>Instead, Megaupload has submitted a <a href="media/e82531b9.propmegaorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/propmegaorder.pdf">revised version</a> of the preservation order specifying that it can access the data, but for litigation purposes only. If the MPAA or RIAA disagree, they can then share their concerns with the court on a case by case basis.</p>
<p>&#8220;Only with these edits will Megaupload be able to access this critical data, as needed, in the defense of these cases. Otherwise, Megaupload is enjoined from obtaining access to the data without the Court’s permission, which is contrary to law,&#8221; Megaupload writes. </p>
<p>The Government is less concerned with preserving the data, it seems. The authorities have already made copies of the data they intend to use and have stated that they have no interest in the remaining hard drives. </p>
<p>However, the US Department of Justice previously objected to Megaupload&#8217;s efforts to free the Megaupload data, arguing that it contains “contraband,” so it&#8217;s not going to be pleased with the proposed preservation order.</p>
<p>Considering the recent history, it seems unlikely that all parties will fully agree on how to solve the current standoff. This means that the Court may have to make the final decision, before it&#8217;s too late.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137047
title: BitTorrent Inc. to Refocus on What Made it Rich – uTorrent
uri: BitTorrent-Inc-to-Refocus-on-What-Made-it-Rich-uTorrent
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/qXp9r6g-hrY/
content:
<p><a href="media/3b80c447.utorrent-logo-new.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/utorrent-logo-new.jpg"><img src="media/f1b12f99.utorrent-logo-new.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/utorrent-logo-new.jpg" alt="" width="222" height="148" class="alignright size-full wp-image-55606"></a>While torrent clients such as qBitTorrent and Deluge have a passionate following among enthusiasts, there can only be one winner when it comes the true king of BitTorrent transfers.</p>
<p>Owned by San-Francisco based BitTorrent Inc., uTorrent is the leading torrent client in the West. It has more than 150 million active users a month, a staggering achievement for a piece of software that started out as a one-man project in Sweden back in 2004.</p>
<p>Now on version 3.4.9, uTorrent has undergone more than 12 years of development, 11 years under the guidance of BitTorrent Inc., who took control of the client (and its creator Ludvig Strigeus) back in 2006. The client&#8217;s massive success since has had a significant effect on BitTorrent Inc., generating tens of millions of dollars in advertising and affiliate revenue.</p>
<p>Indeed, this revenue has been the major contributor to BitTorrent Inc.&#8217;s very existence, financing a basket of other products the company has brought to the table in recent years, such as the popular Dropbox competitor <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-sync-1-4-140826/">BitTorrent Sync</a>.</p>
<p>But despite the huge contribution uTorrent has made to the company and its various forays into other areas, in recent years the software has descended into something of an unsung hero.</p>
<p>Caught between the bad publicity generated by millions of pirates using the software for less than legal activities, a reliance on its huge revenue, plus its role in distributing content from signed-up artists, BitTorrent Inc. has at times been required to delicately maneuver around the client&#8217;s very existence.</p>
<p>Now, however, that might be about to change. According to a <a href="http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/bittorrent-ceo-change-live-spinoff-1202016995/">report</a> from Variety, changes are underway at BitTorrent Inc that could see uTorrent and its Mainline sister client come back into the limelight.</p>
<p>First up, the company has yet another new CEO. Rogelio Choy joins the company after spending two years at parking service Luxe Valet. However, Choy is also a former BitTorrent employee, serving as its Chief Operating Officer between 2012 and 2015.</p>
<p>The hiring of Choy reportedly coincides with a shake-up of BitTorrent Inc.&#8217;s product line. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-new-live-streaming-platform-130312/">BitTorrent Live</a>, the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-s-bram-cohen-patents-revolutionary-live-streaming-protocol-130326/">patented</a> live video streaming project developed by BitTorrent creator Bram Cohen, will be set loose as a separate, venture-funded company, Variety reports. </p>
<p>That company will be headed up by Cohen himself, who will reportedly step back from his day-to-day involvement with BitTorrent Inc. but remain on the company&#8217;s board. He also has a little something up his sleeve.</p>
<p>Cohen, a serial inventor and self-confessed puzzle enthusiast, is said to be focusing on a new crypto-currency project. Given <a href="https://medium.com/@bramcohen/double-billing-is-not-healthy-competition-b698c345b11e#.359njwauq">how active</a> Cohen has been in <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/41vyoo/bram_cohen_my_new_invention_bitcoin_a_hard_fork/">related</a> and often <a href="https://twitter.com/bramcohen/status/697705876337995776">heated discussion</a> online in recent years, that doesn&#8217;t come as a surprise.</p>
<p>But with all these changes underway, perhaps the most important news for torrent fans is that BitTorrent Inc. will refocus on its flagship products, the uTorrent and Mainline clients. Quite how this will manifest itself is open to debate, however.</p>
<p>Most of the really important additions such as magnet links, PEX, and the network-friendly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-2-0-to-elimininate-the-need-for-isp-throttling-091031/">uTP protocol enhancement</a> happened before 2010, some seven years ago. There have been a few minor additions in recent times, such as  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/utorrent-altruistic-mode-ensures-you-give-more-than-you-take-160928/">altruistic mode</a> in 2016, but other than that development has been flat. </p>
<p>Pulling something exciting out of the hat at this late stage in a product&#8217;s life could be a big ask but considering BitTorrent&#8217;s success and longevity (nothing else has come along to beat it from a technical perspective in 15 years), the company could yet deliver a surprise.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s certainly possible, however, that BitTorrent Inc. will choose to continue its policy of focusing on what positive things the software can do, rather than the software itself. For years the company has been trying to attract artists to its distribution platform, even going as far as offering to finance them through its discovery fund.</p>
<p>But with that now <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/70145-bittorrent-quietly-and-abruptly-stops-giving-out-cash-grants-to-artists/">scrapped</a>, it will need to rely on artists who understand the benefits of BitTorrent Bundles. They will join the likes of <a href="http://bribery.fr/">Bribery Corporation</a>, who recently struck a deal with BitTorrent to provide the exclusive platform <a href="https://now.bt.co/bundles/1f129d652a7027f7f1d3fbd750897f931f6e5483c8621e1096b0497f27cc78ec">for all their releases</a>.</p>
<p>Whatever happens, uTorrent remains an exciting part of the P2P landscape and doesn&#8217;t look like it will disappear anytime soon. Whether it can receive an unexpected technological boost will remain to be seen, but in the meantime it will remain the client of choice for tens of millions of fans, many of whom are happy with it, just the way it is.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=136990
title: DMCA Doesn’t Shield Cloudflare From Anti-Piracy Injunctions, Court Rules
uri: DMCA-Doesn-t-Shield-Cloudflare-From-Anti-Piracy-Injunctions-Court-R
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ue3eN7pRgcU/
content:
<p><img src="media/4a535cc9.cloudflare.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/cloudflare.png" alt="" width="275" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-96401">Representing various major record labels, the RIAA filed a lawsuit against MP3Skull in 2015.</p>
<p>With millions of visitors per month the MP3 download site had been one of the prime sources of pirated music for a long time. This frustrated many music industry insiders who claimed millions in losses.</p>
<p>Last year a Florida federal court sided with the RIAA, awarding the labels more than <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-wins-22-million-piracy-lawsuit-against-mp3skull-160225/">$22 million in damages</a>. In addition, it issued a permanent injunction which allowed the RIAA to take over the site’s domain names.</p>
<p>Despite the million dollar verdict, MP3Skull continued to operate for several months using a variety of new domain names, which were subsequently targeted by the RIAA’s legal team.</p>
<p>As the site refused to shut down, the RIAA moved up the chain targeting CDN provider Cloudflare with the permanent injunction. According to the RIAA, Cloudflare should stop offering its services to all MP3Skull websites, arguing that the CDN provider was &#8220;in active concert or participation&#8221; with the pirates. </p>
<p>Cloudflare disagreed and countered that the DMCA protects it from liability for the copyright infringements of its customers, limiting the scope of anti-piracy injunctions. In an effort to resolve this difference of opinion, the RIAA has asked the Florida federal court for a “<a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cloudflare-fights-riaas-piracy-blocking-demands-in-court-160823/">clarification</a>” of the existing injunction. </p>
<p>After hearing the arguments from both sides, the court has now ruled against Cloudflare&#8217;s DMCA defense, opening the door for an injunction against the CDN provider itself.</p>
<p>In her order, District Court Judge Marcia Cooke notes that Section 512 of the DMCA protects service providers from copyright infringement liability for the actions of others of which they are not aware.</p>
<p>However, this is different from the current case where Cloudflare is not being held liable by the RIAA but is well aware of the copyright infringements, the Judge clarifies. </p>
<p>&#8220;Here, Plaintiffs do not allege Cloudflare is directly liable for copyright infringement. Further, CloudFlare has been aware of Defendants’ infringing behavior since at least May 2015 when it first assisted Plaintiffs in identifying relevant online information involving Defendants. </p>
<p>&#8220;Simply put, Section 512’s limits to online service provider liability are inapplicable here,&#8221; Judge Cooke <a href="media/3be459aa.cforder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/cforder.pdf">adds (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>In the present case, the scope of the permanent injunction is guided by Rule 65 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure which may apply to any third-party that&#8217;s “in active concert or participation” with the offender. </p>
<p>With the ruling, the court has opened the door to broad injunctions which could force Cloudflare to implement a variety of anti-piracy measures. These aren&#8217;t limited to terminating existing accounts, as the RIAA also wanted Cloudflare to monitor new clients that use the keyword &#8220;MP3Skull&#8221; in their domain name.</p>
<p>However, before issuing an injunction against Cloudflare, it still has to be determined whether the CDN provider is “in active concert or participation” with the pirate site. </p>
<p>&#8220;Though I have determined Section 512 does not effect the scope of Rule 65 and the Permanent Injunction here, I do not believe I can make a formal ruling on whether Cloudflare was in &#8216;in active concert or participation&#8217; with Defendants until CloudFlare has had a reasonable opportunity to be heard,&#8221; Judge Cooke notes. </p>
<p>The order is a victory for the RIAA and other rightsholders who have repeatedly <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-cloudflare-shields-pirates-and-frustrates-blocking-efforts-161013/">called out Cloudflare</a> for the services it provides to pirate sites. As such, it is likely to be referenced in similar cases in the future. </p>
<p>While the legal precedent may be important, the case itself will have very little effect. MP3Skull appears to have given up a few months ago. It was last active on the MP3Skull.vg domain but disappeared last October, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-seize-domain-name-wrong-mp3skull-website-161012/">forwarding</a> the leftover traffic to an unrelated site.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137089
title: VPN Searches Soar as Congress Votes to Repeal Broadband Privacy Rules
uri: VPN-Searches-Soar-as-Congress-Votes-to-Repeal-Broadband-Privacy-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/8_Tvj1mwTnI/
content:
<p><a href="media/bdffc04f.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg"><img src="media/9b13b8a6.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135982"></a>In a blow to privacy advocates across the United States, the House of Representatives voted Tuesday to grant Internet service providers permission to sell subscribers&#8217; browsing histories to third parties.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-joint-resolution/34">bill</a> repeals broadband privacy rules adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission under the Obama administration, which required ISPs to obtain consumer consent before using their data for advertising or marketing purposes.</p>
<p>The House of Representatives voted 215-205 in favor of overturning the regulations after the Senate voted to revoke the rules last week. President Donald Trump’s signature is needed before it can go into law but with the White House giving its full support, that&#8217;s a given.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Administration strongly supports House passage of S.J.Res. 34, which would nullify the Federal Communications Commission’s final rule titled &#8216;Protecting the Privacy of Customers of Broadband and Other Telecommunication Services&#8217;,&#8221; the White House <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/28/statement-administration-policy-sjres-34-%E2%80%93-disapproving-federal">said</a> in a statement yesterday.</p>
<p>&#8220;If S.J.Res. 34 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.&#8221;</p>
<p>If that happens, the US will free up the country&#8217;s Internet service providers to compete in the online advertising market with platform giants such as Google and Facebook. Of course, that will come at the expense of subscribers&#8217; privacy, whose every browsing move online can be subjected to some level of scrutiny.</p>
<p>While supporters say that scrapping the regulations will mean that all Internet companies will operate on a level playing field when it comes to privacy protection, critics say that ISPs should be held to a higher level of accountability.</p>
<p>Whereas consumers have a choice over which information can be shared with websites, browsing history via an ISP is total, potentially exposing sensitive issues concerning health, finances, or even sexual preferences.</p>
<p>With this in mind, it&#8217;s no surprise that US Internet users are beginning to realize that everything they do online could soon be exposed to third-parties intent on invading their privacy in the interests of commerce. Predictably, questions are being raised over what can be done to mitigate the threat.</p>
<p>Aside from cutting the cord entirely, there&#8217;s only one practical way to hinder ISPs, and that&#8217;s through the use of some form of encryption. Importantly, visitors to basic HTTP websites will have no browsing protection whatsoever. Those using HTTPS can assume that although ISPs will still know which URLs they&#8217;ve visited, content exchanged will be cloaked.</p>
<p>Of course, for those looking for a more workable solution, VPNs &#8211; Virtual Private Networks &#8211; can provide a much greater level of encrypted protection, especially among providers who <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">promise to keep no logs</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, various providers, including blackVPN, ExpressVPN, LiquidVPN, StrongVPN and Torguard, have weighed in on the debate via social media. NordVPN have also spoken out against the bill in the press, and Private Internet Access even took out a <a href="media/4244f582.GJYYNle.jpg" data-original-source="http://i.imgur.com/GJYYNle.jpg">full page ad</a> in the New York Times this week. </p>
<p>It&#8217;s now becoming clear that while it was once a somewhat niche activity, VPN use could now be about to hit the mainstream.</p>
<p>Taking a look at Google Trends results for the search term &#8216;VPN&#8217;, we can see that interest across the United States is now double what it was back in 2012. The significant surge to the right of the chart is likely attributable to the past few weeks of debate surrounding the repeal of broadband privacy rules.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/2b6dbff8.vpntrend.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/vpntrend.png"><img src="media/5fafbfbf.vpntrend.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/vpntrend.png" alt="" width="650" height="316" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137102"></a></center></p>
<p>While most VPN providers have been campaigning against the changes, there can be no doubt that the signing of the bill into law will be extremely good for business. As seen from the above, record numbers of people are learning about VPNs and there&#8217;s even encouragement coming in from people at the very top of Internet commerce.</p>
<p>Following the vote yesterday, Twitter general counsel Vijaya Gadde took to her company&#8217;s platform to‏ suggest that citizens should take steps to protect their privacy.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/f58d9d0a.twitter-vpn.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/twitter-vpn.png"><img src="media/5cb49fcf.twitter-vpn.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/twitter-vpn.png" alt="" width="585" height="194" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137104"></a></center></p>
<p>Her tweet, which was later attributed to her own opinion and not company policy, was retweeted by Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey.</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how the new rules will affect VPN uptake longer term when the fuss around the debate this month has died down. Nevertheless, there seems little doubt that VPN use will rise to some extent and that could be bad news for copyright holders seeking to enforce their rights online.</p>
<p>In addition to stopping ISPs from spying on users&#8217; browsing histories, a good VPN also prevents users being monitored online when using BitTorrent. A further handy side-effect is that they also render site-blocking efforts useless.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137055
title: Pirate Streaming Site 123Movies Rebrands as GoMovies
uri: Pirate-Streaming-Site-123Movies-Rebrands-as-GoMovies
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/48QdIP65fn0/
content:
<p><img src="media/9da5ec2b.gomovies.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/gomovies.png" alt="" width="250" height="98" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137115">Pirate movie streaming sites and services continue to gain popularity, with 123movies at the forefront of this trend.</p>
<p>However, growth doesn&#8217;t always come easy. Over the past week the site has been suffering significant downtime, for unknown reasons. The site eventually returned during the weekend on the domain 123movieshd.to, but that wasn&#8217;t the end of the upheaval. </p>
<p>Yesterday the site switched to a new home, first renaming itself to Memovies, only to switch to Gomovies a few hours later. </p>
<p>While the site&#8217;s operators are staying quiet on the exact reason for the downtime, a site representative told TorrentFreak that <a href="http://Gomovies.to">GoMovies.to</a> will be the site&#8217;s official domain, at least for the time being.</p>
<p>When asked about the reason for the name change, the representative said that it is in part to set itself apart from the many fake sites and proxies that appeared online recently.</p>
<p>The operators grew tired of the many fake sites that ranked very high in search engines with the 123movies brand. With the change, GoMovies will try to regain momentum.</p>
<p>The old 123movies.is and 123movies.to domain names are now linking to the new GoMovies one, and the site also confirmed the surprising brand change on its official Twitter account.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re back at GoMovies.to &#8211; This is our Official Domain &#8211; new Home for 123Movies users. Old data remains the same. Please spread.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><strong>123movies / Gomovies on Twitter</strong><br></br><center></center><img src="media/aab7777d.123moviesgomovies.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/123moviesgomovies.png" alt="" width="629" height="165" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137093"></center></p>
<p>While GoMovies has a new domain name and logo, the rest of the site is pretty much intact. In fact, most of the references to 123movies are still present on the site, even in the site title and the FAQ section.</p>
<p>Although the turbulent week with several days of downtime remains largely unexplained, the site representative hopes that they will remain on the new domain for a while. However, we were told that it&#8217;s possible that they will have to change again in the future. </p>
<p>In addition to the site&#8217;s millions of users, 123movies / GoMovies developments are also being closely watched by copyright holders, who see the site as one of their main targets.</p>
<p>Hollywood previously reported the site to the U.S. Government’s Trade Representative, labeling it one of the most “notorious” pirate markets, and the site is blocked by UK ISPs as well. Last week, the US Ambassador to Vietnam <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-ambassador-asks-vietnam-to-target-123movies-putlocker-and-kisscartoon-170323/">turned up the pressure</a> by urging a local minister to prosecute the site&#8217;s operators, who allegedly reside there.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Perhaps unsurprisingly, at least one of the fake sites has switched to Gomovies already&#8230; Beating fake sites might not be as easy as expected.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137028
title: ‘Piracy Filters Are Expensive and Far From Perfect’
uri: Piracy-Filters-Are-Expensive-and-Far-From-Perfect
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZyYARNjdpe4/
content:
<p><img src="media/0a6858fb.piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/piratkeyb-e1476968827887.png" alt="" width="222" height="157" class="alignright size-full wp-image-108110">Signed into law nearly twenty years ago, the DMCA is one of the best known pieces of Internet related legislation.</p>
<p>The law introduced a safe harbor for Internet services, meaning that they can’t be held liable for their pirating users as long as they properly process takedown notices and deal with repeat infringers.</p>
<p>In recent years, however, various parties have complained about shortcomings and abuse of the system. On the one hand, rightsholders believe that the law doesn’t do enough to protect creators, while the opposing side warns of increased censorship and abuse.</p>
<p>To address these concerns, the U.S. Copyright Office hosted a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-copyright-office-undecided-about-future-of-dmca-takedowns-161114/">public consultation</a> asking stakeholders to submit comments as well as research. One of the organizations participating is <a href="http://www.engine.is/">Engine</a>, a non-profit organization representing the interests of the startup and tech communities.</p>
<p>Previously, several copyright industry representatives suggested that <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/music-industry-wants-piracy-filters-no-takedown-whack-a-mole-170222/">piracy filters</a> are an efficient and effective way to deal with piracy. This would save rightsholders a lot of work, and in part shift the &#8216;policing&#8217; burden to Internet services. However, not everyone in the tech community agrees.</p>
<p>Balancing the scale, Engine teamed up with Professor Nick Feamster of Princeton University to show that automated filters are far from perfect. In their research report titled &#8220;<a href="media/f4e82c24.Engine_-_Empirical_Study.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/Engine_-_Empirical_Study.pdf">The limits of Filtering</a>,&#8221; they list a wide variety of drawbacks. </p>
<p>&#8220;Before considering dangerous mandatory content filtering rules, policymakers should understand the inherent limitations of filtering technologies,&#8221; they write in their report. </p>
<p>&#8220;Reversing two decades of sensible copyright policy to require OSPs to deploy tools that are costly, easily circumvented, and limited in scope would deeply harm startups, users, and content creators alike.&#8221;</p>
<p>The researchers point out that filtering has a limited scope. File-formats continuously change or can be masked, for example, and even in the ideal case where a site only hosts straightforward audio files, it&#8217;s not perfect either. </p>
<p>The report cites a recent case study which found that the music fingerprinting system Echoprint misidentifies between 1 and 2 percent of all files. This might not sound like a lot, but when a site hosts millions of files, it adds up quickly.</p>
<p>With these numbers, tens of thousands of files would be taken down in error, which is far from ideal.</p>
<p>&#8220;Given the reported error rates, one could thus expect the state of the art fingerprinting algorithm to misidentify about one or two in every 100 pieces of audio content,&#8221; the researchers write.</p>
<p>&#8220;Accordingly, a 1–2 percent false positive rate for an automated filtering procedure is problematic for the same reasons, as such a technique would result in filtering legitimate content at rates that would frequently obstruct speech.&#8221;</p>
<p>That&#8217;s in an ideal situation. The reality is more complicated. An automated filtering tool can&#8217;t effectively decide fair use cases, for example. And for some types of content there are no good filtering options available to begin with. </p>
<p>On a broader scale, Engine&#8217;s research also predicts an overall negative impact on Internet services. The costs involved could prove to be problematic for smaller startups, for example. Medium-sized file-sharing services would have to pay between $10,000 and $25,000 in licensing fees alone.</p>
<p>A filtering requirement will also create uncertainty among startups. Are they required to filter, to what degree, and is their fingerprinting technology sufficient?</p>
<p>Finally, there&#8217;s an elephant in the room. Even if filtering magically works 100%, there will always be plenty of rogue pirate sites in foreign jurisdictions that still offer infringing content. </p>
<p>Speaking with TorrentFreak, Engine&#8217;s Executive Director Evan Engstrom, who co-authored the report, hopes that lawmakers will seriously consider the concerns. Not just the US Copyright Office, but also the European Commission (EC) which has <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-proposes-mandatory-piracy-filters-for-online-services-160914/">concrete plans</a> to make piracy filters mandatory.</p>
<p>&#8220;All filtering technologies are limited in significant ways: they are only able to process a relatively narrow range of content files and all can be circumvented through encryption or basic file manipulation. And contrary to the EC&#8217;s belief, fingerprinting technologies can be quite expensive, particularly for startups,&#8221; Engstrom says.</p>
<p>&#8220;We hope this paper provides policymakers considering such mandatory filtering proposals with the technical and economic evidence necessary to fully understand their implications.&#8221;</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137159
title: DMCA Helps YouTube Avoid Up to $1bn in Royalties Per Year, Study Claims
uri: DMCA-Helps-YouTube-Avoid-Up-to-1bn-in-Royalties-Per-Year-Study-Claim
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/iPScwQbZ3Rk/
content:
<p><a href="media/b9f3b5ba.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg"><img src="media/34e023fb.sadyoutube.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/sadyoutube.jpg" alt="" width="275" height="196" class="alignright size-full wp-image-117196"></a>With much at stake, one gets the impression that the debate over the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA is likely to boil over before it goes away.</p>
<p>In a nutshell, rightsholders believe that some Internet platforms that allow users to upload audio-visual content <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/riaa-says-youtube-is-running-a-dmca-protection-racket-160412/">abuse their immunity</a> in order to make money from copyrighted content for which they hold no licenses.</p>
<p>Given the recent hostility shown by Hollywood and the music industry towards Google, it&#8217;s no surprise that YouTube has become the focal point in this war of words.</p>
<p>In particular, the world&#8217;s leading record labels argue that YouTube draws a massive commercial benefit from infringing songs uploaded by its users since it avoids paying for the kinds of licenses &#8216;fairly&#8217; negotiated with the likes of Spotify and Apple.</p>
<p>In its defense, YouTube says it does all it can to combat infringement, quickly taking down unlawful content when asked to and spending small fortunes on systems like Content ID, which allows creators to monetize otherwise infringing content, should they choose to do so. It also pays <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/ifpi-sneers-at-youtubes-1-billion-music-industry-revenue-payout-161207/">huge sums</a> to the labels.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a problem that may eventually be settled by a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-copyright-office-undecided-about-future-of-dmca-takedowns-161114/">change in the law</a> but in the meantime the entertainment industries are working hard to paint Google and YouTube as freeloaders making a fortune from other people&#8217;s hard work.</p>
<p>Exactly how much money is at stake is rarely quantified but a new study from the Phoenix Center in Washington claims to do just that. The numbers cited in &#8216;Safe Harbors and the Evolution of Music Retailing&#8217; by authors T. Randolph Beard, PhD, George S. Ford, PhD, and Michael Stern, PhD, are frankly enormous.</p>
<p>&#8220;Music is vital to YouTube’s platform and advertising revenues, accounting for 40% of its views. Yet, YouTube pays the recording industry well-below market rates for this heavy and on-demand use of music by relying on those &#8216;safe harbor&#8217; provisions,&#8221; the paper begins.</p>
<p>Citing figures from 2016 provided by IFPI, the study notes that 68 million global subscriptions to music services (priced as a result of regular licensing negotiations) generated $2 billion in revenues for artists and labels at around $0.008 per track play.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the 900 million users of ad-based services (like YouTube) are said to generate just $634 million in revenues, paying the recording industry just $0.001 per play.</p>
<p>&#8220;It’s plainly a huge price difference for close substitutes,&#8221; the paper notes.</p>
<p>What follows in the 20-page study is an economist-pleasing barrage of figures and theories that peak into what can only be described as an RIAA-friendly conclusion. As an on-demand music service, YouTube should be paying nearer the same kinds of royalties per spin as its subscription-based rivals do, the paper suggests.</p>
<p>&#8220;More rational royalty policies would significantly and positively affect the recording industry, helping it recover from the devastating consequences of the Digital Age and outdated public policies affecting the industry,&#8221; the paper notes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Simulating royalty rate changes for YouTube, one of the nation’s largest purveyors of digital music, we estimate, using 2015 data, that a plausible royalty rate increase could produce increased royalty revenues in the U.S. of $650 million to over one billion dollars a year.</p>
<p>&#8220;This is a sizeable effect, and lends credence to the recording industry’s complaints about YouTube’s use of the safe harbor,&#8221; it concludes.</p>
<p>Given the timely nature of this report from an industry perspective, TF asked co-author George S. Ford what motivated the study and if any music industry entity had commissioned or been involved in its financing.</p>
<p>&#8220;We do a lot of work in copyright and I&#8217;ve run into this type of problem in numerous settings, including the recent <a href="https://www.loc.gov/crb/proceedings/16-crb-0001/">SDARS III</a> case before the CRB.  I&#8217;ve wanted to write on this topic for ages and finally got around to it,&#8221; Ford told TF.</p>
<p>&#8220;The Phoenix Center does not take money to do specific projects, except for instances where a government asks us to do something, and then we indicate funding was received for that project. As noted in the paper, we relied on the RIAA for data.&#8221;</p>
<p>Since that did not specifically answer our question we tried again, asking whether the RIAA, IFPI, or any of their member labels are donors to and/or supporters of The Phoenix Center. We received no reponse.</p>
<p>The Phoenix Center has produced a number of pro-industry reports in recent years, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/phoenix-center-criticizes-poorly-designed-megaupload-study-130917/">including a study</a> applauded <a href="http://www.mpaa.org/phoenix-center-paper-debunks-university-of-munich-and-copenhagen-business-school-findings/">by the MPAA</a> which attacked <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-shutdown-hurt-smaller-films-helped-blockbusters-130823/">earlier research</a> concerning Megaupload.</p>
<p>The full paper can be downloaded here (<a href="media/5c717a19.PCPB41Final.pdf" data-original-source="http://www.phoenix-center.org/PolicyBulletin/PCPB41Final.pdf">pdf</a>)</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137122
title: Court: Megaupload’s Failing Drives Can Be Fixed, But Not Accessed
uri: Court-Megaupload-s-Failing-Drives-Can-Be-Fixed-But-Not-Accessed
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/vVYA8xYel8g/
content:
<p><img src="media/9a9629f5.megaupload-logo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/megaupload-logo.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="208" class="alignright size-full wp-image-95191">After Megaupload was shut down more than five years ago, data from hundreds of the site’s servers were put in storage by several hosting facilities, Cogent included.</p>
<p>While the original machines are no longer intact, the company has backed up all data which it will keep in storage pending the various lawsuits against Megaupload and its former employees.</p>
<p>However, as time has dragged on, the condition of the hard drives has significantly deteriorated. Last year, Cogent first <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-hard-drives-are-unreadable-hosting-company-warns-160518/">warned that sixteen of them</a> have actually become unreadable.</p>
<p>Over the past months the MPAA, RIAA and Megaupload have worked on a <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-and-riaa-present-plan-to-recover-megauploads-failing-hard-drives-170315/">mutual agreement</a> to secure the data. This is important because of the pending civil and criminal lawsuits, where the information could be used as vital evidence. </p>
<p>Earlier this month the MPAA and RIAA submitted nearly identical filings, asking the court for a preservation order. The rightsholder groups informed the court that they had reached an agreement with Megaupload on “nearly all” terms of the restoration and backup process, to be carried out by the independent forensics company DriveSavers.</p>
<p>A few days ago Megaupload replied that they indeed agree to the backup and preservation procedure. However, the order proposed by the rightsholders would also prevent Megaupload from accessing its data afterward, which they see as a violation of their constitutional rights.</p>
<p>Megaupload, therefore, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-wants-to-recover-failing-hard-drives-but-wont-sign-away-its-rights-170327/">submitted a revised version</a> of the preservation order specifying that it can access the data, but for litigation purposes only. If the MPAA or RIAA disagree, they can then share their concerns with the court on a case by case basis.</p>
<p>After hearing both arguments, District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;grady chose to side with the rightsholders, siging their version of the <a href="media/0bd7466e.megasigned.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/megasigned.pdf">preservation order (pdf)</a>. </p>
<p>This means that after months of negotiating the failing drives can finally be repaired and preserved. However, when that process is complete no party will be able to access the files, Megaupload included. </p>
<p>&#8220;Once the drives and devices have been returned to Cogent’s custody and stored in Cogent’s facility, no person [&#8230;] shall have access to those drives and devices, or to the data contained on those drives and devices, absent further order from this Court,&#8221; the order reads.</p>
<p>The data, and thus the evidence, can only be accessed with permission from the court. While the MPAA and RIAA will be pleased with the ruling, Megaupload is not.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are disappointed that the court is still preventing Megaupload from accessing its own server data to independently preserve and use in its own defense,&#8221; Megaupload&#8217;s counsel Ira Rothken tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The good news, for Megaupload, is that they don&#8217;t have to pay for the data preservation. The MPAA and RIAA both agreed to share the cost associated with it and will pick up the full tab. </p>
<p>&#8220;We are pleased that the parties that contributed to the Megaupload data loss, by objecting in 2012 to Megaupload&#8217;s efforts to access and preserve its own data, are now paying for its recovery,&#8221; Megaupload&#8217;s counsel says.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are also pleased that the Court approved DriveSavers, a world class data recovery firm, as the vendor to handle data restoration,&#8221; Rothken adds.</p>
<p>As things stand now it could take years before a trial gets underway, so this is likely not the last time we hear about the data issue. In this regard, Megaupload is also disappointed in the US Government. </p>
<p>The authorities previously prevented the file-hosting service from accessing the files that are hosted at Carpathia. The US Government made backups of the data it wants to use as evidence, but repeatedly prevented Megaupload from doing the same.</p>
<p>&#8220;The US after bringing the largest criminal copyright in history is dead set on making sure that Megaupload and the other defendants cannot have access to the evidence they need to defend themselves,&#8221; Rothken tells us.</p>
<p>All in all, Megaupload&#8217;s counsel is still concerned that Kim Dotcom and the other defendants will not get a fair trial in the United States. </p>
<p>Rothken worries that other data, including the files stored at Carpathia, could become unreadable as well in the future, noting that this could have been prevented if they were allowed preserve it themselves in 2012. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137207
title: ISP RCN and BMG Agree to Settle Internet Piracy Lawsuit
uri: ISP-RCN-and-BMG-Agree-to-Settle-Internet-Piracy-Lawsuit
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/pa_wloqwGGw/
content:
<p><img src="media/9c7483b1.RCN_Corporation.png" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/RCN_Corporation.png" width="220" height="74" class="alignright size-large">In common with many other Internet service providers in the United States, RCN receives its fair share of copyright infringement notices, including sizeable numbers from anti-piracy outfit Rightscorp.</p>
<p>These notices, sent on behalf of music rights group BMG, are paired with settlement demands which Rightscorp expects RCN customers to pay at around $30 per shot. On top, the anti-piracy outfit and its client previously warned the ISP that if it did not take appropriate action against its allegedly infringing subscribers, it could be held liable.</p>
<p>That claim lit a fire under RCN who responded <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/u-s-isp-sues-music-group-over-piracy-allegations-160615/">with a lawsuit</a> filed against BMG at a New York federal court last summer.</p>
<p>“The central question for this Court’s determination is whether an Internet service provider should be held liable for copyright infringement simply because it provides Internet connectivity to its customers,” RCN wrote.</p>
<p>“BMG’s repeated assertions that RCN is liable for copyright infringement lack merit. RCN therefore seeks a judgment from this Court declaring that it is not liable to BMG for copyright infringement.&#8221;</p>
<p>Last September, RCN submitted an amended complaint which revealed how BMG put it under pressure take action against subscribers while demanding compensation. The rights group said that RCN had failed to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers, despite receiving millions of notices.</p>
<p>“We are hopeful that a resolution of this ongoing and damaging infringement can be reached. To that end, we suggest the parties meet to discuss a settlement that would include a means of preventing or limiting future infringement and appropriate compensation to BMG,” the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bmg-pressed-internet-provider-to-pay-piracy-compensation-160922/">letter</a> from BMG read.</p>
<p>Since then the case has continued with filings back and forth. However, two weeks ago it was revealed that progress had been made, with lawyers for both RCN and BMG informing the court that an agreement had been reached in principle to settle the matter peacefully.</p>
<p>&#8220;We write to inform Your Honor that the parties have reached an agreement in principle to settle this matter without Court intervention and are in the process of executing the same. We expect a dismissal with prejudice of this matter to be filed shortly,&#8221; the letter dated March 16 reads.</p>
<p>Then, on Wednesday this week, the previously warring factions informed the court it was all over.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/61bad37d.rcn-bmg1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/rcn-bmg1.png"><img src="media/7da03a20.rcn-bmg1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rcn-bmg1.png" alt="" width="564" height="585" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137223"></a></center></p>
<p>Neither party has indicated what the settlement entails but since the case has been dismissed with prejudice, it cannot be revived again in the future.</p>
<p>With the parties paying their own legal bills there&#8217;s a suggestion that things might stop there financially, but it remains unclear whether RCN has agreed to deal with its pirating subscribers in a more aggressive manner, as originally requested by BMG.</p>
<p>In any event, it seems likely that the BMG v Cox Communications case has hung heavy on this dispute, at least from RCN&#8217;s perspective. That case is currently <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-files-appeal-to-overturn-25-million-piracy-verdict-161110/">going to appeal</a> but with a $25m ruling in BMG&#8217;s favor (not to mention <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/cox-must-pay-8-million-to-cover-bmgs-legal-fees-in-piracy-case-170215/">$8m bill in legal costs</a> for Cox), taking big risks along similar lines was probably not high on the agenda for RCN.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137264
title: Parents Must Identify Pirate Kids Or Pay Their Fines, Court Rules
uri: Parents-Must-Identify-Pirate-Kids-Or-Pay-Their-Fines-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/gz3avYQ0FbA/
content:
<p><a href="media/13426ea2.crypirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/crypirate.jpg"><img src="media/b9037aa7.crypirate.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/crypirate.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="274" class="alignright size-full wp-image-120440"></a>Copyright trolling continues around the world in 2017, with file-sharers the prime targets. From the United States to Europe and beyond, people are still receiving letters in the mail which demand a cash settlement to make a supposed court case disappear.</p>
<p>No country has been harder hit than Germany. Hundreds of thousands of citizens, probably more, have received these so-called pay-up-or-else demands. And, due to strict interpretations of copyright liability, many people find themselves digging deep.</p>
<p>One such case dating back six years has been more complicated than most. In 2011, a family received a letter from Universal Music, demanding cash alongside claims that Rihanna&#8217;s album &#8216;Loud&#8217; had been illegally shared via their Internet connection.</p>
<p>The parents, to whom the letter was addressed, indicated that they had no interest whatsoever in the R&#038;B star. However, one of their three children apparently did, and the parents knew which one had committed the infringement. </p>
<p>Perhaps understandably, however, the parents didn&#8217;t want to throw their child to the lions. It&#8217;s a position that&#8217;s supported by a local law which protects family members from having to testify against each other.</p>
<p>The case ended up at the Munich Court of First Instance and the parents were held liable for copyright infringement and ordered to pay almost 3,900 euros. From there the case progressed to the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof – BGH), which handed down its <a href="http://juris.bundesgerichtshof.de/cgi-bin/rechtsprechung/document.py?Gericht=bgh&#038;Art=pm&#038;Datum=2017&#038;Sort=3&#038;nr=77862&#038;pos=0&#038;anz=47">ruling</a> Thursday.</p>
<p>In a big win for Universal, the BGH upheld the decision of the lower court, holding the parents liable for copyright infringement.</p>
<p>According to the Federal Court, if a person knows which other people in his or her residence (typically family members) shared files illegally, they should reveal the name of that person to the Court. If they do not wish to do so, they must accept liability and pay the fine themselves, no matter whether the offender is a child or an adult.</p>
<p>The Court did throw potential future defendants a lifeline, however. If the Internet account holder does not know the name of the infringer, he or she is not obliged to monitor the Internet usage of other family members or to examine computers for the existence of file-sharing software.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137233
title: Amazon Bans Sales of “Pirate” Media Players, Will Destroy Them
uri: Amazon-Bans-Sales-of-Pirate-Media-Players-Will-Destroy-Them
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IrAphOOI40I/
content:
<p><img src="media/f1f322a3.amazon.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazon.png" alt="" width="234" height="159" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137244">Streaming piracy is on the rise with popular media player Kodi at the center of attention.</p>
<p>While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, millions of people use third-party add-ons to turn it into the ultimate pirate machine. </p>
<p>In some cases, the pirate add-ons are put onto the devices by vendors, who sell these &#8220;fully-loaded&#8221; boxes through their own stores or marketplaces such as Amazon. While Amazon has never explicitly allowed the sale of copyright-infringing devices, they are not hard to find in its store. </p>
<p>This is a thorn in the side of major copyright holders, who have repeatedly complained about fully-loaded boxes. </p>
<p>Amazon appears to be well aware of the controversy, as it recently <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?&#038;nodeId=200277240">published</a> an updated policy clarifying that pirate media players are not permitted on the platform. Merely &#8216;suggesting&#8217; that devices can be used for infringing purposes is enough to have them delisted.</p>
<p>&#8220;Products offered for sale on Amazon should not promote, suggest the facilitation of, or actively enable the infringement of or unauthorized access to digital media or other protected content. Any streaming media player or other device that violates this policy is prohibited from sale on Amazon,&#8221; the company writes.</p>
<p>Amazon states that it is up to the vendor to determine whether their products meet these standards. Those who still cross the line are in for an unpleasant and costly surprise. Amazon states that it will destroy the devices without reimbursement. </p>
<p>&#8220;If you sell these products, we may immediately suspend or terminate your selling privileges and destroy inventory in our fulfillment centers without reimbursement,&#8221; Amazon writes.</p>
<p>In addition, if there&#8217;s proof that the vendors were engaging in illegal activity, any pending payments may be withheld or forfeited under the policy. </p>
<p><center><strong>Amazon</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/73855726.amazonstreaming.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazonstreaming.png" alt="" width="583" height="215" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137243"></center></p>
<p>While the announcement was published without fanfare, it hasn&#8217;t gone unnoticed. Anti-piracy company <a href="http://irdeto.com">Irdeto</a>, which works with several major copyright holders on pirate streaming box cases, sees the new policy as a breakthrough. </p>
<p>&#8220;This first of its kind preventative measure aims to minimize the pirates&#8217; promotional reach.  It’s a policy I hope the other e-Commerce sites will emulate,&#8221;‎ Mark Mulready, Senior Director Cyber Services and Investigations at Irdeto, notes.</p>
<p>Despite Amazon&#8217;s strong language the site still features many devices marketed as fully-loaded streaming media players. Some, including the one below, even use pirate sources such as <a href="media/1163f2da.f8310294099b4f1e884c44b48ecd4917.png" data-original-source="http://image.prntscr.com/image/f8310294099b4f1e884c44b48ecd4917.png">Icefilms, Primewire and the Genesis Kodi add-on</a> to market their products.</p>
<p><center><strong>Amazon</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/43a6d784.amazonkodilisting-1.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/amazonkodilisting-1.png"><img src="media/14a947a2.amazonkodilisting-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/amazonkodilisting-1.png" alt="" width="600" height="419" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137254"></a></center></p>
<p>According to Irdeto, the media player software itself is not at fault. In a way, they are a victim of the pirates too, much like copyright holders. The pirate sources and the rogue vendors are the ones that create and maintain the problem.</p>
<p>This is also reflected in the legal cases that have been launched thus far over the misuse of Kodi players. Both in the UK and the Netherlands, test cases against sellers of “fully-loaded” devices are aiming to stop the phenomenon.</p>
<p>In the United States, the problem is also on the radar now. MPAA boss Chris Dodd <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-dealing-with-kodi-is-the-64000-question-170216/">recently said</a> that finding a solution to the illegal use of Kodi is one of the main piracy questions the industry currently faces, so it&#8217;s likely that more enforcement actions will follow.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137281
title: Torrent Site Bitsnoop Shuts Down
uri: Torrent-Site-Bitsnoop-Shuts-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Nmmw6n1wERg/
content:
<p><img src="media/82b2d48e.bitsnoop.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsnoop.jpg" alt="" width="220" height="87" class="alignright size-full wp-image-26277">Founded in 2008, torrent search engine Bitsnoop was one of the fastest growing torrent sites at the beginning of the decade. </p>
<p>When the site first came online it indexed roughly a million torrents, and it continued to expand in the years that followed. </p>
<p>Earlier this week the site still served a healthy 23,862,834 torrents, but a few hours ago it stopped. According to a message posted on the site&#8217;s <a href="http://bitsnoop.com">homepage</a>, Bitsnoop decided to shut down. </p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a nice ride, but all things eventually come to an end,&#8221; the message reads. </p>
<p>TorrentFreak contacted the operator of the site to find out more, but he preferred not to comment. On the site we read, however, that not all of the site&#8217;s content has been lost for good. </p>
<p>Bitsnoop has shared its data with their friends at fellow torrent search engine <a href="https://zooqle.com/">Zooqle</a>, who may add it to their database later on. </p>
<p>&#8220;For now check out Zooqle &#8211; these guys seem to know their stuff. They took our data and said they will index it eventually,&#8221; Bitsnoop&#8217;s operator writes.</p>
<p><center><strong>Bitsnoop&#8217;s farewell</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/576b30e4.bitsnoopshutdown.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/bitsnoopshutdown.png" alt="" width="600" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137283"></center></p>
<p>With Bitsnoop&#8217;s shutdown the torrent community loses another familiar name. Over the years the site has been featured in our top ten of most-visited torrent sites a few times, but in recent years traffic dropped. </p>
<p>Like many other sites, BitSnoop is blocked by ISPs in several countries including the UK and Italy, and it was close to being blocked in Australia as well. </p>
<p>As for Zooqle, this site is a relative newcomer. It first appeared online last year and had been steadily expanding since, thanks to traffic from other sites including meta-search engine Torrentz2. </p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Note: The &#8220;farewell&#8221; message was first posted on March 31, which is close to April 1st, but we couldn&#8217;t see any hints suggesting that it&#8217;s a prank.</em></p>
<p><center><strong>Zooqle</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6ac022eb.zooqle-e1490959955310.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/zooqle-e1490959955310.png" alt="" width="600" height="472" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137284"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137194
title: Clever ‘Piracy’ App Keeps Celebrity Embarrassments Off YouTube
uri: Clever-Piracy-App-Keeps-Celebrity-Embarrassments-Off-YouTube
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/4bnu6e_HA3A/
content:
<p><a href="media/54f94d5e.kim-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kim-1.jpg"><img src="media/b93a1bb1.kim-1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kim-1.jpg" alt="" width="204" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137205"></a>While regular members of the public are free to grab a McDonalds in old sportswear or visit a store without full makeup, the mere suggestion of such sloppy behavior has the potential to make an A-List celebrity sweat like a PwC accountant at the Oscars.</p>
<p>Indeed, for people like Kanye West or Kim Kardashian, getting mistaken in public for a drunken bum could have catastrophic financial consequences. If annoying members of the public record and then upload such footage to the Internet, sponsors could back away, horrified at how regular they look without Photoshop.</p>
<p>But for those needing to maintain a perfect public image at all times, both in public and on YouTube, all is not lost. A new app being trialed in the US aims to stop interfering &#8216;citizen journalists&#8217; in their tracks, rendering embarrassing celebrity footage all but useless.</p>
<p>Under development for iOS and Android, the app is made up of two modules. The first is a tool that downloads the most popular pop track of the week (currently Ed Sheeran&#8217;s &#8216;Shape of You&#8217;) from one of many pirate sites.</p>
<p>The second is a clever piece of coding that allows the track to be played extremely loudly through the phone&#8217;s own speaker, but with a novel twist. </p>
<p>Whenever Kim needs to go out without her hair done, all she needs to do is pop her phone in her pocket and activate the app. The software then transposes the pirate audio to surpass 15 kHz, beyond the normal range of human hearing but within reach of recording equipment utilized by the public.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s at this stage the app comes into its own. As soon as the potentially embarrassing footage is recorded and uploaded to YouTube, the site&#8217;s recently upgraded Content ID system swings into action.</p>
<p>Completely unfazed by the massive shift in pitch, YouTube&#8217;s filtering system spots the pirate song playing in the background and flags the video as a copyright infringement. Thanks to a less tolerant approach to infringers, it&#8217;s immediately taken off the site, keeping the celebrity&#8217;s image intact.</p>
<p>At the moment the app is being trialed by a few hand-picked public figures who are said to be particularly image-conscious. Their feedback has been largely positive, with a number asking for specific enhancements.</p>
<p>One nameless politician, who has been caught on camera a number of times saying inappropriate things about women, inquired whether the app could be upgraded to play a quickly medley of three or four songs instead of just one. This would ensure that people lose their YouTube account under the site&#8217;s tightened three-strike rule. Take that.</p>
<p>Looking towards the possibility of a future takedown/staydown regime, another tester suggested that rather than culling pirate tracks from the Internet, the app could play a unique sequence of notes previously copyrighted by the celebrity.</p>
<p>Once that &#8216;tune&#8217; has been registered with YouTube&#8217;s Content ID, it would be trivial for the public figure to have the app rolling on his or her phone all the time. This would enable them to be excluded from YouTube on a permanent basis, perfect for the politician who likes to act with impunity.</p>
<p>A video of the app in action can be found <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ">here</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137124
title: ABS-CBN Wants $210,000 Piracy Damages From FMovies
uri: ABS-CBN-Wants-210-000-Piracy-Damages-From-FMovies
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j8sAnr4y6qo/
content:
<p><img src="media/8b40866b.fmovieslogo.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fmovieslogo.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="162" class="alignright size-full wp-image-129787">Last year, media conglomerate ABS-CBN took the popular pirate streaming site FMovies <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/major-pirate-movie-streaming-site-fmovies-sued-in-us-court-161026/">to court</a> in the United States.</p>
<p>FMovies is one of several streaming sites that has grown explosively over the past year. It offers tens of thousands of mainstream movies and TV-shows to an audience of millions of people.</p>
<p>In a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, the media company branded FMovies as a classic pirate site, offering unauthorized streams of content they own.</p>
<p>“Defendant’s website is a classic example of a pirate operation, having no regard whatsoever for the rights of ABS-CBN and willfully infringing ABS-CBN’s intellectual property,” the company’s lawyers wrote.</p>
<p>Despite the strong allegations, several months have passed without any response from FMovies in court. As a result, the copyright holder decided to move ahead and file for a default judgment.</p>
<p>In its motion, the company repeats many of the allegations, accusing FMovies of trademark infringement, unfair competition, plus direct and contributory trademark infringement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Defendants provide links on their website to instant streams which perform ABS-CBN’s Copyrighted Works. CBN’s copyrighted movies, Defendants’ website then streams and performs the full-length version of the video,&#8221; they explain to the court (<a href="media/b70c4e1b.argume.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/argume.pdf">pdf</a>).</p>
<p>According to the Philippine media conglomerate, FMovies&#8217; operators used its trademarks and copyrighted works to draw in more visitors, generating profit through a boost in advertising impressions.</p>
<p><center><strong>Fmovies.to/se</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/076ecd1b.fmoviesl-e1490949343706.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/fmoviesl-e1490949343706.png" alt="" width="600" height="517" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137265"></center></p>
<p>In its request ABS-CBN lists seven copyrighted works, asking for the maximum amount of damages for non-willful copyright infringement. No damages were requested for patent infringement or any other offenses.</p>
<p>&#8220;ABS-CBN requests the Court award it $30,000 per infringed work, for a total award amount of $210,000 against Defendants. The requested amount is the highest for non-willful infringement, despite Defendants’ default on allegations of willfulness,&#8221; they write. </p>
<p>The media company further asks for a permanent injunction to stop FMovies&#8217; operators from distributing their work and use their trademarks. Additionally, they request an order to sign the FMovies.to domain over to ABS, or for the domain registry to make it inaccessible.</p>
<p>While the proposed damages are not insignificant, they are lower than we&#8217;ve seen in similar cases, which raises questions. </p>
<p>Three years ago ABS-CBN itself launched a case against a much smaller streaming site operated by a man from Oregan, who created it for his Filipino wife. While his site only had a fraction of the users FMovies has, the damages amounted <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-site-operator-slapped-10-million-damages-141030/">to $10 million</a> at the time.</p>
<p>So why request &#8216;only&#8217; $210,000 here where it could easily be several million? Especially considering the fact that it&#8217;s a default judgment where the burden of proof is low.</p>
<p>Finally, it&#8217;s worth noting that ABS-CBN titles that were previously available on FMovies are now gone. Many titles that are absent in the lawsuit are also not available on the site either. Perhaps there&#8217;s more to this than meets the eye, but without hard evidence it&#8217;s best not to speculate too much.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137234
title: Russia Wants To Hold Social Networks Liable For Internet Piracy
uri: Russia-Wants-To-Hold-Social-Networks-Liable-For-Internet-Piracy
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/A_626FozzEQ/
content:
<p><a href="media/bc003361.network-round.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/network-round.jpg"><img src="media/a79e141a.network-round.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/network-round.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-126170"></a>When file-sharing was in its infancy, most infringement took place via P2P software such as Kazaa or LimeWire. With their built-in search and download features they were an all-in-one solution, ripe for a full on legal attack.</p>
<p>In more recent times the web has played a much more important role in the distribution of copyright-infringing material, via torrent or streaming sites, for example. However, the rise of social media presents a new threat, with huge numbers of people now accessing copyrighted content via Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms.</p>
<p>The social media problem is considered to be particularly problematic in Russia, with users sharing full movies, TV shows and music, via platforms such as vKontakte, Russia&#8217;s Facebook. Such sites claim to be fully compliant with copyright law and do make efforts to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vkontakt-universal-sign-anti-piracy-licensing-deal-160718/">reduce infringement</a> with licensing deals and content recognition software. Nevertheless, if the Russian government has its way, the noose could tighten significantly in the future.</p>
<p>Social networking platforms currently enjoy the status of &#8216;information intermediary&#8217; in Russia, a standing that puts them on a par with Internet service providers who can not generally be held liable for the infringing acts of their subscribers.</p>
<p>However, the Ministry of Culture believes that since much of the copyright infringement in Russia is now carried out via social networks, it will soon be necessary to strip them of their intermediary status. That would have the effect of rendering them jointly liable for infringement alongside their errant subscribers.</p>
<p>According to news outlet <a href="http://izvestia.ru/news/674889">Izvestia</a>, the relevant bill has already been drafted and, after gaining approval from the Ministry of Culture board, will be presented for public comment.</p>
<p>The basic premise is that when imposing liability on a social platform, courts must consider several factors. They include whether a platform should have been aware that content is infringing, whether any preventative measures were taken to mitigate infringement (filtering), whether timely steps to stop infringement were taken once the platform was made aware (takedowns), and whether or not profit was generated from illegal use (advertising).</p>
<p>&#8220;Despite the excuses, the technical ability to [prevent infringement] exists. Of course, this will require a lot of money, but if you want to use content you have to pay for it,&#8221; a content producer told Izvestia.</p>
<p>&#8220;Today, virtually all Internet traffic is comprised of audiovisual content, all supplied by content creators and often not paid for. Measures should be taken &#8211; such as those in the Ministry of Culture bill, and many others &#8211; to drive illegal content into the &#8216;ghetto&#8217;. Piracy is theft, and it must be fought.&#8221;</p>
<p>But while content producers and distributors believe there are simple solutions, others view the situation as more complex.</p>
<p>In common with complaints voiced by critics in the US and Europe, there are concerns that huge burdens will be placed on platform providers if they are required to conduct a full legal analysis of every file uploaded by their users. There are also worries that non-infringing content (such as public domain material) could get caught up in filtering systems.</p>
<p>Quite how these plans will play out is unclear, but it seems likely that social networks will put up a fight to ensure that whatever responsibilities are imposed on them allow room for development and innovation.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137200
title: Torrents Are Particularly Popular in Europe, Research Shows
uri: Torrents-Are-Particularly-Popular-in-Europe-Research-Shows
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/dFiYHowL3qA/
content:
<p><img src="media/23e20654.europe-flag.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/europe-flag.png" alt="" width="222" height="146" class="alignright size-full wp-image-79290">Nowadays, online pirates have many options to download movies, TV-shows or other infringing content. </p>
<p>Streaming sites have become more popular in recent years; there are dedicated set-top boxes, direct download portals, or good old torrent sites. </p>
<p>The latter category dominated the piracy scene since the mid-2000s, up until a few years ago. But even today, sites such as The Pirate Bay and ExtraTorrent continue to draw millions of users per day.</p>
<p>But where are these pirates coming from?</p>
<p>In absolute numbers, the United States, Russia and India clearly come out on top. All three are good for roughly three billion torrent site visits per year, mostly due to their large Internet populations. However, when we look at the average number of visits per Internet user a different pattern emerges.</p>
<p>Data exclusively shared with TorrentFreak by market analytics company <a href="https://www.muso.com/">MUSO</a> shows that in this relative comparison, the United States, Russia and India move to the 69th, 26th and 88th place respectively, while European countries make up most of the top ten.</p>
<p>Latvia, Bulgaria, and Estonia make up the top three, each with more than 50 torrent site visits per Internet user throughout 2016. </p>
<p>Israel is the first non-European country in tenth place. Interestingly, Italy and the United Kingdom are relatively far down, in 46th and 45th place, which may in part be due to widespread site-blocking by ISPs in these countries.</p>
<p>To clarify, a &#8220;visit&#8221; in this case, means that someone accessed a website and viewed one or more pages. After 30 minutes of inactivity, additional pageviews on the same site are counted as an additional visit. </p>
<p>The data MUSO used to compile the &#8220;torrent piracy demand rank&#8221; covers over 4,500 of the highest traffic torrent sites in 2016. This includes both international and regionally popular piracy sites.</p>
<p>That torrent sites are relatively popular in Europe doesn&#8217;t come as a complete surprise. MUSO previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/europe-has-the-highest-online-piracy-rates-by-far-160801/">released data</a> revealing that overall piracy rates are very high there as well. The United States, United Kingdom, and Italy were ranked higher than in the torrent list below, suggesting that other forms of piracy are more popular in these countries.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>Below is the top 100. China, Japan, and Korea were excluded from the analysis as the domain coverage wasn&#8217;t optimal and countries with an Internet population of fewer than one million people were left out as well.</em></p>
<p><center><img src="media/43de2e73.muso1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso1.png" alt="" width="520" height="329" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137209"><br>
<img src="media/0f8b0081.muso2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso2.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137210" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso2.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso2-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/edbadc29.muso3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso3.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137211" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso3.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso3-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/7f139852.muso4.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso4.png" alt="" width="520" height="300" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137213"><br>
<img src="media/d3e28d03.muso6.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso6.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137214" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso6.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso6-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/4d3ce22b.mso6.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/mso6.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137215" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/mso6.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/mso6-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/7c6726c3.muso7.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso7.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137216" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso7.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso7-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/49d9bcfa.muso8.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso8.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137217" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso8.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso8-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/f1970e92.muso9.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso9.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137218" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso9.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso9-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"><br>
<img src="media/aa1295c1.muso10.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/muso10.png" alt="" width="520" height="305" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137219" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso10.png 520w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/muso10-220x130.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 520px) 100vw, 520px"></center></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137329
title: Blocking Pirate Sites Without a Trial is Allowed, Italian Court Rules
uri: Blocking-Pirate-Sites-Without-a-Trial-is-Allowed-Italian-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/V9TI1Qw6w4w/
content:
<p><img src="media/ec156e39.flag-italy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flag-italy.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="188" class="alignright size-full wp-image-40399">Website blockades are becoming more common throughout Europe, with Italy taking a particularly active approach.</p>
<p>In recent months <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/italys-pirate-site-blocklist-expands-with-flashx-rarbg-and-others-170306/">hundreds of domain names</a> have been added to the nation’s pirate blocklist, based on complaints from a wide range of copyright holders.</p>
<p>It is not just the numbers that set Italy apart, the blocking mechanism itself is unique as well. To have a website blocked, rightsholders can ask the local telecoms watchdog AGCOM to issue an order, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/off-us-blacklist-italy-begins-torrent-site-blackout-no-trials-needed-140510/">without need for a trial</a>. </p>
<p>Instead of dealing with blockades in court, AGCOM has the power to grant injunctions without judicial overview, which it does on a regular basis. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/italys-sopa-ranked-most-important-ip-legislation-of-2013-131230/">regulation</a> hasn&#8217;t been without controversy. Soon after it was introduced several consumer rights groups and other organizations challenged it in court, arguing that it&#8217;s unconstitutional.</p>
<p>The case was initially rejected by the Constitutional Court in 2015, which referred it back to the administrative court of Lazio. Last week this court decided that the site blocking procedure is in line with both European and Italian law.</p>
<p>According to the court, the site-blocking regulation is compatible with the European Union&#8217;s E-Commerce Directive as well as the Italian Copyright Act. In addition, the procedure doesn&#8217;t violate the Italian constitution or fundamental rights in general, as opponents had argued.</p>
<p>Overall the case is seen as a significant victory for copyright holders. Not only can they continue with their site-blocking requests, but the court also clarified that all the blocking costs must be paid by Internet providers. </p>
<p>&#8220;This is a big win for rightsholders,&#8221; says Enzo Mazza, chief of the Italian music group FIMI, who says that they have plans to expand the current scope of the blocking efforts.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our future goal is now to increase the enforcement of AGCOM to also cover new forms of piracy such as live streaming, stream ripping and similar issues. In addition, we hope AGCOM will extend the blockades to the IP-address level as the Criminal Courts are using now,&#8221; Mazza tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p>The consumer groups are disappointed, but lawyer Fulvio Sarzana tells TorrentFreak that this outcome was expected considering the previous stance of the judges. However, he also notes that the battle has only just begun and that the case will be appealed. </p>
<p>&#8220;It is important to know that there will be an appeal represented by the State Council and that, should it be confirmed in that case, there is always the possibility of acting in front of the greatest judicial order in Italy, the Court of Cassation,&#8221; Sarzana says.</p>
<p>For his part, FIMI&#8217;s boss is positive that the current verdict will be upheld in future cases. Meanwhile, Mazza and his organization will continue to push for more and broader blockades.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p>A copy of the verdict, in Italian, is available <a href="media/fe0a8cf7.TAR-regolamento-agcom-marzo-2017.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/TAR-regolamento-agcom-marzo-2017.pdf">here (pdf)</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137345
title: FBI Cannot Examine Megaupload Servers, Canada Appeal Court Rules
uri: FBI-Cannot-Examine-Megaupload-Servers-Canada-Appeal-Court-Rules
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/AuQauKG_9bw/
content:
<p><img src="media/188c56d9.megacan.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/megacan.jpg" width="180" height="154" class="alignright size-large">It&#8217;s incredible to think that more than five years after the raids on Megaupload, in some respects the case has made virtually no progress. This is particularly true of the defunct company&#8217;s servers in Canada.</p>
<p>Canada became quietly involved in the Megaupload investigation in December 2011, around a month before the raids in New Zealand, United States, and elsewhere. The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Minister of Justice to grant to obtain a search warrant authorizing the seizure of 32 leased computer servers located in Toronto.</p>
<p>On January 18, 2012, a Superior Court judge in Ontario issued the warrant which targeted the servers located in an Equinix datacenter. As the case continued to build against Megaupload, Kim Dotcom and his associates, the U.S. government asked Canadian authorities to hand the hardware over, claiming that an internal Megaupload email revealed them to be “database / number crunching machines.”</p>
<p>With the servers in the possession of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, during January 2013 the Minister of Justice applied for an order for the servers to be sent to the United States. Megaupload protested on the basis that the servers contain a lot of information irrelevant to the case, but agreed that an independent forensic examiner could examine them before any handover. </p>
<p>An Ontario court <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/canada-refuses-to-hand-over-megaupload-servers-to-the-us-130117/">sided with Megaupload</a> and refused to send the servers&#8217; data to the United States. In 2015, both sides were ordered to find a way to filter out irrelevant content, perhaps with the aid of a &#8220;clean team&#8221; of FBI investigators who had no connection with the case.</p>
<p>While this path was approved by a judge, both Megaupload and Equinix <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-canada-servers-battle-reignites-150414/">objected</a> to the proposal, complaining that the FBI shouldn&#8217;t be involved at all and any examination should be carried out independently. In common with almost every decision in various Megaupload cases, this one also went to appeal.</p>
<p>The Ontario Court of Appeal handed down its decision on Friday, this time in favor of Megaupload.</p>
<p>&#8220;The judge had to decide what material, if any, should be ordered sent to the United States.  The appellant and the American investigators, the FBI, stood in a strongly adversarial position with respect to the order that should be made,&#8221; the Court of Appeal wrote in its decision.</p>
<p>&#8220;The judge, because of the nature of the seized material, needed help in determining what order should be made. The judge needed someone who could prepare a report outlining the nature of the material so that the judge could decide what part of the material, if any, should be sent to the United States.&#8221;</p>
<p>Noting that the report would &#8220;significantly influence&#8221; the nature and scope of any order made by the judge, the appeal court said that while the FBI may indeed carry out their task as asked, having them involved at all would be entirely inappropriate. </p>
<p>&#8220;In my view, it is offensive to the appearance of fairness, and specifically the appearance of judicial impartiality, to have an entity closely associated with one of the adversaries provide the judge with the necessary report,&#8221; the decision reads.</p>
<p>&#8220;In coming to that conclusion, I make no assumption that the FBI &#8216;clean team&#8217; would not comply with whatever conditions the court imposed.  My concern is with the appearance of fairness and impartiality.&#8221;</p>
<p>The appeal court said that when a judge is asked to appoint an investigator, the starting point should always be with people unconnected with the case. Consideration should also be given to the issue of costs (the FBI option in the Megaupload case was cheaper) but they would have to be prohibitively excessive to chose an affiliated entity over an independent party.</p>
<p>With the earlier decision now overruled, the servers will continue to gather dust in the hands of the RCMP, where they have been since their seizure in 2012. No doubt the legal wrangling will continue, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/court-megauploads-failing-drives-can-be-fixed-but-not-accessed-170330/">as it has done</a> in the United States concerning the servers there.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137340
title: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week on BitTorrent – 04/03/17
uri: Top-10-Most-Pirated-Movies-of-The-Week-on-BitTorrent-04-03-17
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/ZIiLUyOFHks/
content:
<p><img src="media/003c6247.rogueone-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/rogueone-1.png" alt="" width="300" height="152" class="alignright size-full wp-image-136752">This week we have three newcomers in our chart. </p>
<p>Rogue One is the most downloaded movie for the third week in a row.</p>
<p>The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise.</p>
<p><a href="http://TorrentFreak.com/category/dvdrip/feed/"><strong>RSS feed</strong></a> for the weekly movie download chart.</p>
<h5>This week&#8217;s most downloaded movies are:</h5>
<table class="css hover">
<thead>
<tr>
<th width="12%"><strong>Movie Rank</strong></th>
<th width="15%"><strong>Rank <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-pirated-movies-week-bittorrent-032717/">last week</a></strong></th>
<th><strong>Movie name</strong></th>
<th width="18%"><strong>IMDb Rating / Trailer</strong></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tfoot>
<tr>
<td colspan="4">Most downloaded movies via torrents</td>
</tr>
</tfoot>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td><strong>1</strong></td>
<td>(1)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">Rogue One</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3748528/">8.0</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sC9abcLLQpI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>2</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3095734/">Monster Trucks</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3095734/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrj2M-2Uiw">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>3</strong></td>
<td>(8)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">Logan</a> (HDCam)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/">8.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DekuSxJgpbY">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>4</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/">Beauty and the Beast</a> (HDTS)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771200/">7.8</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvW_L8sTu5E">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>5</strong></td>
<td>(2)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">The Great Wall</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034800">6.2</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SKI9rgqFck">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>6</strong></td>
<td>(7)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3183660/">7.6</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vso5o11LuGU">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>7</strong></td>
<td>(&#8230;)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895315/">Brimstone</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895315/">7.1</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFk32lA8eqs">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>8</strong></td>
<td>(4)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">Assassin&#8217;s Creed</a> </td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2094766/">6.3</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4haJD6W136c">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>9</strong></td>
<td>(5)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/">Split</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4972582/">7.4</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84TouqfIsiI">trailer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><strong>10</strong></td>
<td>(6)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">xXx: Return of Xander Cage</a> (Subbed HDRip)</td>
<td><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1293847/">5.5</a> / <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQEFmHsseaU">trailer</a></td>
</tbody>
</table>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137351
title: Blizzard Beats “Cheat” Maker, Wins $8.5 Million Copyright Damages
uri: Blizzard-Beats-Cheat-Maker-Wins-8-5-Million-Copyright-Damages
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/hJaOFnqY3a4/
content:
<p><img src="media/50295694.blizz.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="147" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113379" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz.jpg 250w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/blizz-220x130.jpg 220w" sizes="(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px">While most gamers do their best to win fair and square, there are always those who try to cheat themselves to victory. </p>
<p>With the growth of the gaming industry, the market for &#8220;cheats,&#8221; &#8220;hacks&#8221; and bots has also grown spectacularly. The German company <a href="https://www.bossland-gmbh.com/">Bossland</a> is one of the frontrunners in this area.</p>
<p>Bossland <a href="https://www.thebuddyforum.com/forums/watchover-tyrant-esp-for-overwatch.489/">created cheats</a> and bots for several Blizzard games including World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and Overwatch, handing its users an unfair advantage over the competition. Blizzard is not happy with these and the two companies have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/blizzard-sues-overwatch-cheat-maker-for-copyright-infringement-160704/">battling</a> in court for quite some time, both in the US and Germany.</p>
<p>Last week a prominent US case came to a conclusion in the California District Court. Because Bossland decided not to represent itself, it was a relatively easy for Blizzard, which was awarded several million in copyright damages. </p>
<p>The court agreed that hacks developed by Bossland effectively bypassed Blizzard&#8217;s cheat protection technology &#8220;Warden,&#8221; violating the DMCA. By reverse engineering the games and allowing users to play modified versions, Bossland infringed Blizzard&#8217;s copyrights and allowed its users to do the same. </p>
<p>&#8220;Bossland materially contributes to infringement by creating the Bossland Hacks, making the Bossland Hacks available to the public, instructing users how to install and operate the Bossland Hacks, and enabling users to use the software to create derivative works,&#8221; the court&#8217;s order reads (<a href="media/7d02acb7.bossorder.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/bossorder.pdf">pdf</a>).  </p>
<p><center><strong>The WoW Honorbuddy</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/dc826cad.honorbuddy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/honorbuddy.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="310" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137358"></center> </p>
<p>The infringing actions are damaging to the game maker as they render its anti-cheat protection ineffective. The cheaters, subsequently, ruin the gaming experience for other players who may lose interest, causing additional damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;Blizzard has established a showing of resulting damage or harm because Blizzard expends a substantial amount of money combating the use of the Bossland Hacks to ensure fair game play,&#8221; the court writes.</p>
<p>&#8220;Additionally, players of the Blizzard Games lodge complaints against cheating players, which has caused users to grow dissatisfied with the Blizzard Games and cease playing. Accordingly, the in-game cheating also harms Blizzard’s goodwill and reputation.&#8221; </p>
<p>As a result, the court grants the statutory copyright damages Blizzard requested for 42,818 violations within the United States, totaling $8,563,600. In addition, the game developer is entitled to $174,872 in attorneys&#8217; fees.</p>
<p>To prevent further damage, Bossland is also prohibited from marketing or sellings its cheats in the United States. This applies to hacks including “Honorbuddy,” “Demonbuddy,”<br>
“Stormbuddy,” “Hearthbuddy,” and “Watchover Tyrant,” as well as any other software designed to exploit Blizzard games.</p>
<p>While its a hefty judgment, the order doesn&#8217;t really come as a surprise given that the German cheat maker failed to defend itself.  </p>
<p>Bossland CEO Zwetan Letschew previously informed TorrentFreak that his company would continue the legal battle after the issue of a default judgment. Whatever the outcome, the cheats will remain widely available outside of the US for now. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137396
title: Hollywood Obtains Order to Block Pirate Streaming Sites in Ireland
uri: Hollywood-Obtains-Order-to-Block-Pirate-Streaming-Sites-in-Ireland
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/mrtpi1dgInw/
content:
<p><img src="media/52c7134a.irelandflag.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/irelandflag.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="153" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137406">Like many other countries throughout Europe, Ireland is no stranger to pirate site blocking.</p>
<p>The Pirate Bay was blocked back in 2009, as part of a <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/eircom-agrees-to-block-pirate-bay-access-090820/">voluntary agreement</a> between copyright holders and local ISP Eircom. A few years later the High Court ordered other major Internet providers to follow suit. </p>
<p>However, The Pirate Bay is not the only &#8216;infringing&#8217; site out there, and this year the Motion Picture Association (MPA) went to the Commercial Court, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/movie-industry-wants-irish-isps-to-block-pirate-movie-streaming-portals-170207/?preview=true">hoping to expand</a> the blockades. </p>
<p>On behalf of several major Hollywood studios, the group requested Irish Internet providers to block access to three popular streaming sites; movie4k.to, primewire.ag, and onwatchseries.to. </p>
<p>In their complaint, the movie studios, including Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, and Warner Bros, described the sites as massive copyright infringement hubs, with each offering thousands of infringing movies.</p>
<p>Monday evening the court approved the request. This means that the three websites will soon be rendered unavailable by Eircom, Sky Ireland, Vodafone Ireland, Virgin Media Ireland, Three Ireland, Digiweb, Imagine Telecommunications, and Magnet Networks.</p>
<p>According to Justice Brian Cregan it was &#8220;clear&#8221; that copyright infringement &#8220;manifestly occurred&#8221; on the three streaming portals. In addition, he ruled that the ISP blockades will not interfere with lawful Internet use, nor can they be characterized as disproportionate.</p>
<p><center><strong>Watchseries</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/5628cbc8.watchseries-e1486454561980.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/watchseries-e1486454561980.png" alt="" width="600" height="439" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-134819"></center></p>
<p>Irish Times <a href="http://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/high-court/broadband-providers-ordered-to-block-illegal-streaming-sites-1.3035425">reports</a> that none of the ISPs opposed the blocking request. However, Eir said that the costs involved could become an issue if the number of blocked websites increases drastically in the future. </p>
<p>The ISP asked the court to put a cap on the number of notifications, limiting it to 50 per month. However, the movie studios objected to a blocking cap, and the judge decided not to add any limitations for now.</p>
<p>How the Internet providers will restrict access to the sites in question is unclear for now, but it&#8217;s likely to be through DNS, IP-addresses, or a combination of both. If Ireland follows the UK, the number of blocked domains may soon rise to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uks-piracy-blocklist-exceeds-3800-urls-170321/">several thousand</a>.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137401
title: President Trump Signs Internet Privacy Repeal Into Law
uri: President-Trump-Signs-Internet-Privacy-Repeal-Into-Law
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/NW4K5eXB-fw/
content:
<p><a href="media/bdffc04f.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg"><img src="media/9b13b8a6.privacy.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/privacy.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="170" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135982"></a>In a major setback to those who value their online privacy in the United States, last week the House of Representatives voted to grant Internet service providers permission to sell subscribers’ browsing histories to third parties.</p>
<p>The bill repeals broadband privacy rules adopted last year by the Federal Communications Commission, which required ISPs to obtain subscribers&#8217; consent before using their browsing records for advertising or marketing purposes.</p>
<p>Soon after, the Trump Administration officially announced its support for the bill, noting that the President&#8217;s advisors would advise him to sign it, should it be presented. Yesterday, that&#8217;s exactly what happened.</p>
<p>To howls of disapproval from Internet users and privacy advocates alike, President Trump signed into law a resolution that seriously undermines the privacy of all citizens using ISPs to get online in the US. The bill removes protections that were approved by the FCC in the final days of the Obama administration but had not yet gone into effect. </p>
<p>The dawning reality is that telecoms giants including Comcast, AT&#038;T, and Verizon, are now free to collect and leverage the browsing histories of subscribers &#8211; no matter how sensitive &#8211; in order to better target them with advertising and other marketing.</p>
<p>The White House says that the changes will simply create an &#8220;equal playing field&#8221; between ISPs and Internet platforms such as Google and Facebook, who are already able to collect data for advertising purposes.</p>
<p>The repeal has drawn criticism from all sides, with Mozilla’s Executive Director Mark Surman openly <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/04/03/worried_about_your_digital_privacy_mozilla_s_executive_director_has_tips.html">urging</a> the public to fight back.</p>
<p>&#8220;The repeal should be a call to action. And not just to badger our lawmakers,&#8221; Surman said.</p>
<p>&#8220;It should be an impetus to take online privacy into our own hands.&#8221;</p>
<p>With the bill now signed into law, that&#8217;s the only real solution if people want to claw back their privacy. Surman has a few suggestions, including the use of Tor and encrypted messaging apps like Signal. But like so many others recently, he leads with the use of VPN technology.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-searches-soar-as-congress-votes-to-repeal-broadband-privacy-rules-170329/">reported</a> last week, Google searches for the term VPN reached unprecedented levels when the public realized that their data would soon be up for grabs.</p>
<p>That trend continued through the weekend, with many major <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">VPN providers</a> reporting increased interest in their products. </p>
<p>Only time will tell if interest from the mainstream will continue at similar levels. However, in broad terms, the recent public outcry over privacy is only likely to accelerate the uptake of security products and the use of encryption as a whole. It could even prove to be the <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/04/heres-how-protect-your-privacy-your-internet-service-provider">wake-up call</a> the Internet needed.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137441
title: WWW Inventor Prefers Public Protest Over VPN Uptake
uri: WWW-Inventor-Prefers-Public-Protest-Over-VPN-Uptake
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/5GXcaP8AL90/
content:
<p><a href="media/8e782d8d.berners-lee.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/berners-lee.jpg"><img src="media/781444ef.berners-lee.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/berners-lee.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137445"></a>From being viewed as a somewhat niche interest product, VPNs were thrust into the mainstream in recent weeks. Long the go-to tools of privacy advocates and file-sharing enthusiasts alike, VPNs are now on the lips of countless non-tech savvy individuals.</p>
<p>That boost in awareness is largely down to recent moves by the Trump administration to repeal rules that forbid Internet service providers from selling the browsing histories of regular Internet users. After a not particularly long process, the amendments were <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/president-trump-signs-internet-privacy-repeal-into-law-170404/">written into law</a> this week.</p>
<p>While the development possibly won&#8217;t have the massive short-term impact some are expecting, the changes have focused the minds of millions who are now aware that what they do online is far from secret. They see VPN use as a massive step forward in reclaiming their privacy online generally, and they&#8217;d be right.</p>
<p>Of interest, however, is the approach of Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the world wide web. After being honored with the prestigious 2016 Turing Award this week for his “major contributions of lasting importance to computing&#8221;, Berners-Lee took time out to discuss a number of topics, with privacy high on the agenda.</p>
<p>“That bill was a disgusting bill, because when we use the web, we are so vulnerable,” he told <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/04/tim-berners-lee-online-privacy-interview-turing-award">The Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;There are things that people do on the web that reveal absolutely everything, more about them than they know themselves sometimes. Because so much of what we do in our lives that actually goes through those left-clicks, it can be ridiculously revealing. You have the right to go to a doctor in privacy where it’s just between you and the doctor. And similarly, you have to be able to go to the web.&#8221;</p>
<p>Describing privacy as a &#8220;core American value&#8221;, Berners-Lee says that if things start going bad with their current supplier, people will switch to more privacy-conscious ISPs. Others will seek out more radical technical measures, such as Tor and VPNs.</p>
<p>&#8220;People would start using Tor. They&#8217;d start going through proxies so that instead of your Internet traffic going straight to your house it goes to a VPN,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/04/04/the-inventor-of-the-web-explains-why-you-shouldnt-use-a-vpn/">says</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;Normal people in America will basically go into defense cybersecurity lockdown against their ISPs. Everything will get encrypted. People who care about it will find ways to deprive their ISPs of data. There&#8217;ll be a great market for people who provide that technology.&#8221;</p>
<p>Indeed, a number of VPN and security product providers have contacted TF indicating that searches for their products increased dramatically as news of the browser history repeal hits the mainstream. But for Berners-Lee, a man with technology in his bones, doing something in the physical world is preferable to electronic counter-measures.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got [VPNs] available to me here, but I ought not to do that. Actually, you shouldn&#8217;t,&#8221; he says.</p>
<p>&#8220;[You should be] going to protest so the world outside becomes one where you don&#8217;t need to cheat to get around this problem, so that you don&#8217;t have to use skills as an expert to get around this problem.&#8221;</p>
<p>Of course, there have been protests from both citizens and companies (Private Internet Access spent a rumored $600,000 on a newspaper advert challenging the repeal last week) but it doesn&#8217;t appear that those in power are listening &#8211; or particularly care.</p>
<p>Whether we like it or not, the web is now largely financially sustained by the farming of our online activities and it seems likely that no amount of protest is going to be able to stop that juggernaut anytime soon.</p>
<p>File-sharers and other privacy advocates have known this for a much longer time than most and already realize that if people don&#8217;t <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">look after their own privacy</a>, someone else will do it for them. Protest is certainly good, but it doesn&#8217;t hurt to have some solid backup in the meantime.</p>
<p><em>Image: <a href="http://paulclarke.com/photography/">Paul Clarke</a> (CC-BY-SA)</em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137466
title: Adblock Plus Acquires Pirate Bay Founder’s Micropayment Service Flattr
uri: Adblock-Plus-Acquires-Pirate-Bay-Founder-s-Micropayment-Service-Flat
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/s7v6gK9e_tI/
content:
<p><img src="media/56ee9069.flatabp.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/flatabp.png" alt="" width="222" height="122" class="alignright size-full wp-image-121667" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/flatabp.png 222w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/flatabp-220x122.png 220w" sizes="(max-width: 222px) 100vw, 222px">After Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde cut his ties with the notorious torrent site he moved on to several new projects. </p>
<p>The micropayment system Flattr is one of his best-known ventures. With Flattr, people can easily send money to the websites and services they like, without having to enter their payment details time and time again.</p>
<p>Last year Flattr <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-founder-aims-to-disrupt-online-advertisement-industry-160503/">partnered</a> with Adblock Plus to launch a new service Flattr Plus, allowing 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 launched 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>Today, the cooperation between the two companies is strengthened even further after eyeo, the parent company of Adblock Plus, <a href="https://twitter.com/Flattr/status/849598785928003585">aquired Flattr</a>.</p>
<p>“Over the past ten months, we collaborated closely and in fact, became one team with a joint vision. So it was just natural to remove the remaining structural barriers and make it official,&#8221; Sunde says, commenting on the announcement. </p>
<p>&#8220;We’re excited to continue our work on the Flattr project to give back control to the users of the internet. They should decide how they want to use the internet and how they want to support the content they enjoy.&#8221; </p>
<p>Talking to TorrentFreak, Sunde says that he&#8217;ll stay on as an unpaid advisor. He has no official stake in Flattr so Hollywood <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-peter-sunde-doesnt-plan-to-pay-hollywood-back-ever-170318/">shouldn&#8217;t expect</a> to see any of the proceeds of the deal. </p>
<p>That said, he&#8217;s put a lot of work in the company over the past eight years, building it from the ground up, so it&#8217;s a big step to let someone else take over. </p>
<p>&#8220;It’s just that Flattr is my baby and she got married to someone who will take care of her from now,&#8221; says Sunde, summarizing his feelings. </p>
<p>Flattr co-founder Linus Olsson will stay on to lead the Flattr operation, and other staff members will keep their jobs as well. Sunde will have an advisory role in the company, and continues to work on various side-projects, including a new privacy service he&#8217;ll launch soon.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137439
title: Court Orders Pornhub to Expose Copyright Infringers
uri: Court-Orders-Pornhub-to-Expose-Copyright-Infringers
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/BeQWxLcFFdA/
content:
<p><img src="media/fe56b2c8.pornhub-press.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pornhub-press.png" alt="" width="250" height="114" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137452">As one of the largest websites on the Internet to largely rely on user uploaded content, Pornhub is no stranger to copyright infringement allegations. </p>
<p>Similar to other video streaming services, the company maintains a DMCA takedown policy which allows rightsholders to remove content posted without permission. </p>
<p>&#8220;We take claims of copyright infringement seriously,&#8221; the company states, adding that it reserves the right to terminate the accounts of repeat infringers.</p>
<p>&#8220;Responses may include removing, blocking or disabling access to material claimed to be the subject of infringing activity, terminating the user’s access to www.pornhub.com, or all of the foregoing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Most porn production companies restrict their enforcement efforts to sending takedown requests, but for some that is not enough. The Seychelles-based company Foshan Ltd, known for the &#8220;Wankz&#8221; brand, has gone a step further and wants to know who uploaded its videos to the site. </p>
<p>Last week the company obtained a DMCA subpoena from a federal court in California, which orders the adult video portal to identify and expose the uploaders of more than 1,000 copies of its videos. </p>
<p>The request for a DMCA subpoena was granted by a court clerk a day after it was filed. As a result, Pornhub now has until May 1st to hand over the requested information unless it decides to appeal.</p>
<p><center><strong><strong>The subpoena</strong></strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/a524cf13.pornhubsub.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/pornhubsub.png" alt="" width="600" height="230" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137454"></center></p>
<p>The subpoena is rather broad and compels Pornhub to hand over all the information it has available on the uploaders. This includes names, email addresses, IP addresses, user and posting histories, physical addresses, telephone numbers, and any other identifying or account information.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak reached out to Pornhub to find out how the company plans to respond and what personal information it has available on users. However, at the time of publication we were yet to hear back.</p>
<p>It is unclear what Foshan is planning to do if they obtain the personal information of the uploaders. It is likely, however, that they&#8217;re considering legal action against one or more persons, if the evidence is sufficient.</p>
<p>As far as we&#8217;re aware, this is the first time that a rightsholder has used a DMCA subpoena to obtain information about Pornhub uploaders. And since its a relatively cheap and easy way to expose infringers, this might not be the last.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137497
title: EFF Criticizes PIPCU’s New Domain Name Policing Effort
uri: EFF-Criticizes-PIPCU-s-New-Domain-Name-Policing-Effort
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/3Pl-tyiZ1DI/
content:
<p><img src="media/357ad110.cityoflondonpolice.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/cityoflondonpolice.jpg" width="200" height="82" class="alignright size-large">The City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) is a specialist unit dedicated to the reduction of all IP-related crime, including actions against pirate sites and their operators, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/police-bust-pirate-kodi-box-sellers-on-behalf-of-sky-virgin-bt-premier-league-170208/">sellers of Kodi-type devices</a>, and those who counterfeit luxury goods.</p>
<p>While at times the unit is able to take down infrastructure, it appears to have a broader strategy of disruption, making life difficult for those committing infringement in the hope that they give up or move on.</p>
<p>In recent years, PIPCU has been putting a lot of effort into having domains taken down or suspended. Sometimes it achieves this after applying pressure to pirate site operators, for example, but the majority of takedowns are actioned via voluntary agreements with industry players.</p>
<p>This week, PIPCU announced that it will begin collaborating with the International Anti Counterfeiting Coalition (IACC) to take down websites in association with the IACC&#8217;s &#8216;<a href="http://www.iacc.org/online-initiatives/rogueblock">RogueBlock</a>&#8216; program.</p>
<p>RogueBlock was launched in January 2012 following rights-holder negotiations with the payment industry to develop a strategy for dealing with so-called &#8216;rogue&#8217; websites. It began by focusing on sites selling counterfeits but in 2015 was expanded to deal with cyberlocker-type sites.</p>
<p>With MasterCard, Visa, PayPal, MoneyGram, American Express, Discover, PULSE, Diners Club and Western Union as members, the program focuses on disrupting revenue streams, such as payments for fake items or subscriptions to file-hosting sites that fail to comply with the requirements of the DMCA.</p>
<p>Since the program began, it claims to have terminated more than 5,300 accounts connected to a claimed 200,000 websites. Now it has a new ally in PIPCU, which will augment the program with its own Operation Ashiko, an initiative aimed at seizing allegedly infringing website domains.</p>
<p>&#8220;Since its inception Operation Ashiko has suspended in excess of 20,000 websites by working with our industry partners,&#8221; PIPCU says.</p>
<p>&#8220;This creates a safer environment for consumers to purchase genuine goods and disrupts the funding of criminals committing intellectual property crime.&#8221;</p>
<p>This partnership is an extension of similar industry and voluntary agreements currently gathering momentum in both Europe and the United States. Freed from the shackles of expensive and formal legal action, industry players and police now work together in order to disrupt piracy in all its forms, hitting website infrastructure and revenue collection mechanisms.</p>
<p>While supporters in the creative industries see such programs as nimble and effective in the fight against IP crime, critics such as the EFF are concerned by the lack of transparency and accountability. </p>
<p>&#8220;If a website is wrongly listed by the IACC in its RogueBlock program, thereby becoming a target for blocking by the City of London Police and the payment processors, there is no readily accessible pathway to have its inclusion reviewed and, if necessary, reversed,&#8221; the EFF <a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2017/04/london-police-ink-shadowy-deal-industry-website-takedowns">says</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;This opens up much scope for websites to be wrongly listed for anti-competitive or political reasons, or simply by mistake.&#8221;</p>
<p>The EFF says that it would prefer that action against sites was backed up by enforcement through legal channels. However, as the group points out, that could prove complex due to the multi-jurisdictional nature of the Internet.</p>
<p>&#8220;The latest expansion of the program to facilitate the takedown of domains threatens to compound these problems, particularly if the City of London Police apply it against websites that are not globally infringing, or if private domain registries or registrars join the program and begin to act on claims of infringement directly,&#8221; it concludes.</p>
<p>While PIPCU will certainly bring something to the table, domain suspensions in the UK don&#8217;t always go smoothly. Registrars have previously <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-orders-registrars-to-suspend-domains-of-major-torrent-sites-131009/">declined</a> to work with the unit to suspend torrent site domains and in 2014 it was revealed that out of 70 similar requests, <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/domain-registrars-deny-police-requests-suspend-pirate-sites-140808/">just five</a> were granted.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137541
title: Steal This Show S02E13: ‘How P2P Will Save The World’
uri: Steal-This-Show-S02E13-How-P2P-Will-Save-The-World
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j3YdAM03WAY/
content:
<p><img src="media/d01749d9.stslogo180.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/stslogo180.png" alt="stslogo180" width="180" height="180" class="alignright size-full wp-image-113928"><strong><sup><em>If you enjoy this episode, consider becoming a patron and getting involved with the show. <a href="https://patreon.com/user?u=4275705">Check out Steal This Show&#8217;s Patreon campaign</a>: support us and get all kinds of&nbsp;fantastic benefits!</em></sup></strong></p>
<p>In this episode we meet Samer Hassan, researcher in decentralized collaboration, activist and Berkman Center fellow. We discuss why the swarm is safer than the cloud, the new decentralized tools powering resistance movements, and how and why the centralization of online services is a threat to our freedom. </p>
<p><em>With a background in Social Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Samer is passionate about how to build free/open source privacy-aware decentralized systems (e.g. blockchain) to facilitate collaborative communities and social movements. </p>
<p>He led the technical team that built the backend-as-a-service for collaborative apps <a href="http://swellrt.org/">SwellRT</a>; the app for collaborative communities <a href="https://teem.works/">Teem</a>, used by a diversity of social collectives; and the real-time collaborative editor <a href="https://jetpad.net/">JetPad</a>, which aims to provide a fully-fledged free/open source alternative to Google Docs.</em></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> Samer Hassan</p>
<p><center><iframe width="100%" height="180px" src="//stealthisshow.com/?lpe-frame=1&#038;lpe-season=2&#038;lpe-episode=13" frameborder="0"></iframe></center></p>
<p><strong>Produced </strong> <em>by </em>Jamie King<br>
<strong>Edited &#038; Mixed</strong> <em>by</em> Riley Byrne<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="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137461
title: Is Putlocker Dead? Streaming Site Directs Users to ‘Scammy’ Videos
uri: Is-Putlocker-Dead-Streaming-Site-Directs-Users-to-Scammy-Videos
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/j-W8g5d7GvY/
content:
<p><img src="media/e9fc9c01.putlockeris-1.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/putlockeris-1.png" alt="" width="275" height="101" class="alignright size-full wp-image-129241">With dozens of millions of monthly views, Putlocker is the go-to video streaming site for many people. Or was, we should say.</p>
<p>The site has had its fair share of trouble over the past year. It had to switch domain names on a few occasions, in part due to <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/putlocker-loses-domain-name-following-court-order-170228/">legal pressure</a>. </p>
<p>Most recently, the Putlocker.is domain name started redirecting to putlockertv.is and with this switch came another crucial change. For more than a week now, the site has become unusable. </p>
<p>Regular visitors have noticed the absence of new content and are no longer able to leave comments. </p>
<p>Even worse, perhaps, the movies and TV-shows that are still listed don&#8217;t link to actual content. Instead, they are advertising a suspicious third-party service that asks for people&#8217;s credit card details, and is unlikely to offer what they&#8217;re looking for.</p>
<p>While Putlocker has had some technical issues before, the current situation appears to be different. We can only speculate, but it might very well be that the site won&#8217;t return to its former glory and that the operator has decided to throw in the towel. </p>
<p>In fact, with all the recent domain changes it&#8217;s unknown whether the site is still in the hands of the original operator at the moment. </p>
<p><center><strong>Video ad on Putlocker</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/8d845923.putlockerad.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/putlockerad.png" alt="" width="600" height="387" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137502"></center></p>
<p>What we do know is that the site has faced quite a bit of legal pressure over the past few months. Late last year the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-government-targets-pirate-bay-and-other-piracy-havens-161221/">marked the site</a> as a notorious market that should be dealt with. </p>
<p>&#8220;The operator of Putlocker is believed to be based in Vietnam and appears to be taking actions to evade enforcement measures,&#8221; USTR wrote in its annual overview.</p>
<p>&#8220;For example, in 2016 Putlocker hopped domains from the country code top-level domain of Iceland (.is) to Switzerland (.ch) and started using reverse proxy services to obscure the location of its hosting provider,&#8221; the report added. </p>
<p>And that wasn&#8217;t all. Two weeks ago, right before the current trouble started, the US Ambassador to Vietnam <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/us-ambassador-asks-vietnam-to-target-123movies-putlocker-and-kisscartoon-170323/">urged the local Government</a> to criminally prosecute the operator of Putlocker. </p>
<p>Whether or not Putlocker will return is uncertain, but considering the pressure it might not be a surprise if the operator has decided to step aside, at least for the time being. </p>
<p>This doesn&#8217;t mean that the Putlocker brand will disappear, however. As usual, there are several copycats waiting in line to take over the site&#8217;s traffic, taking advantage of the confusing situation.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Putlockertv.is now redirects to Putlockers.cc, but otherwise nothing has changed.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137568
title: Large IPTV Piracy Ring Shut Down by Spanish Police and Europol
uri: Large-IPTV-Piracy-Ring-Shut-Down-by-Spanish-Police-and-Europol
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/Pkx1LHZBDI0/
content:
<p><img src="media/8a86db31.iptv.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/iptv.jpg" alt="" width="234" height="155" class="alignright size-full wp-image-135034">Increasingly, people are trading in their expensive cable subscriptions, to use cheaper or free Internet TV instead. </p>
<p>In recent years this has become much more convenient with help from a variety of easy-to-use media players, Kodi boxes included.</p>
<p>Following this trend, there has also been an uptick in the availability of unlicensed TV streams, with vendors offering virtually any channel imaginable, for free or in exchange for a small fee.</p>
<p>Rightsholders are not happy with this development and are actively cracking down on sellers of these illicit services and devices.</p>
<p>This week one of the largest IPTV piracy groups was dismantled in Europe.  The operation was <a href="https://www.policia.es/prensa/20170406_1.html">headed by</a> the Spanish National Police, with help from Bulgarian authorities, Europol and Eurojust. </p>
<p>The investigation was triggered by a complaint from the UK-based Premier League. In total, 12 searches were carried out in both Spain and Bulgaria, leading to the arrest of eight people that are allegedly connected to the dismantled piracy group.</p>
<p><center><strong>Spanish police carrying out the raid</strong><br></br></center><center><iframe width="600" height="338" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MBeJn6dMSqM?rel=0&amp;controls=0&amp;showinfo=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center></p>
<p>The enforcement effort, dubbed &#8220;Operation Casper,&#8221; found that the piracy ring was operating through several shell companies. Two legitimate ISPs were setup in Spain and Bulgaria, through which the group offered their IPTV services.</p>
<p>&#8220;Operation Casper began when a representative from a broadcast rights holder filed a complaint against the owner of an Internet Service Provider located in Málaga (Spain), for illicitly distributing pay-TV channels to thousands of clients in different EU countries,&#8221; Europol writes. </p>
<p>&#8220;Investigators also unveiled the existence of a second ISP in Silistra (Bulgaria) owned by the network, which was permanently connected to the ISP in Spain and provided coverage to other European countries.&#8221; </p>
<p>The owner of the two ISPs is a Danish citizen, the investigation revealed. This man is being seen as the mastermind behind the IPTV piracy ring which offered its services throughout Europe.</p>
<p>This is not the first time that Spanish police have raided a company that provides unauthorized IPTV services. A similar operation took place <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/spanish-police-shut-down-isps-iptv-piracy-business-170210/">last year</a>. That case was also based on a Premier League complaint and involved a local Internet provider as well. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137524
title: Germany Approves Draft Law to Protect WiFi Operators From Piracy Liability
uri: Germany-Approves-Draft-Law-to-Protect-WiFi-Operators-From-Piracy-Liabi
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/veAs3a8bJnE/
content:
<p><img src="media/4d91a498.pirate-wifi.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/pirate-wifi.jpg" width="150" height="136" class="alignright size-large">In most jurisdictions it&#8217;s standard practice for those who commit online copyright infringement to be held responsible for their own actions. In Germany, however, the situation is more complex.</p>
<p>Due to a legal concept known as &#8216;Störerhaftung&#8217; (‘interferer liability’), a third party who played no intentional part in someone else’s infringements can be held responsible for them. This type of liability has raised its head in a number of file-sharing cases where WiFi owners have been considered liable for other people’s piracy.</p>
<p>As a direct result of this precarious legal position, Germany has found itself trailing behind its European neighbors when it comes to providing public Internet hotspots. Some have described the situation as an embarrassment for one of the most advanced countries in the world.</p>
<p>Under pressure and in response to a European Court of Justice opinion on the matter last March, the government eventually <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/germany-to-rescind-piracy-liability-for-open-wifi-operators-160511/">decided to rescind</a> liability for open WiFi operators. In September, a full <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/eu-court-open-wifi-operator-not-liable-for-pirate-users-160916/">decision</a> from the EU Court of Justice further underlined the position.</p>
<p>Since then the government has been working on changes to local law to bring it into line with EU standards. This Wednesday a third draft presented by Brigitte Zypries, Minister for Economics and Energy, was adopted by the cabinet.</p>
<p>Should the amendments receive parliamentary approval, businesses will be free to offer open WiFi to their customers, without fear of being held liable for their actions. They will also be able to offer truly open WiFi, with no requirement to verify the identities of users or have them log in with a password.</p>
<p>While copyright holders won&#8217;t be pleased by the changes, they will still have opportunities to clamp down on infringement. If a certain WiFi location is connected with online piracy, a properly filed complaint will require the operator to bar access to websites connected with the infringement. </p>
<p>How this will work in respect of P2P transfers like BitTorrent will remain to be seen but WiFi operators are likely to be more relaxed blocking domains in their routers than appearing in court charged with copyright infringement. </p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137526
title: The Pirate Bay’s Swedish Domain is Listed For Sale
uri: The-Pirate-Bay-s-Swedish-Domain-is-Listed-For-Sale
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/HoHUaJESUJ8/
content:
<p><a href="media/bfddc9cc.tpb3.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb3.png"><img src="media/7e02aab6.tpb3.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb3.png" alt="" width="230" height="243" class="alignright size-full wp-image-106334"></a>In 2003, when The Pirate Bay was in its infancy, its main domain was ThePirateBay.org. The site still uses that domain today but it has burned through many others <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-domain-shuffle-come-full-circle-160520/">over the years</a>.</p>
<p>One that has stood the test of the time is the site&#8217;s iconic ThePirateBay.se domain. It&#8217;s been in use for many years, often relied upon as a fall-back measure when other domains have been <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bays-domain-shuffle-come-full-circle-160520/">seized or suspended</a>.</p>
<p>Notably, in 2012 the site switched from its <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-moves-to-se-domain-prevent-domain-seizure-120201/">.org domain to .se</a>, a move which triggered a domain-hopping exercise which lasted until 2015 when the site moved back again.</p>
<p>While several other Pirate Bay domains have been consigned to Davy Jones&#8217;s Locker, ThePirateBay.se has always weathered the storms of the high seas. Now, however, all that might be coming to an end.</p>
<p>During Thursday, ThePirateBay.se temporarily stopped redirecting to ThePirateBay.org, at least for some users. Intrigued as to why this might be the case, TF carried out some routine checks and was confronted with what appears to be an unconnected surprise. According to its WHOIS entry, the domain has been put up for sale.</p>
<p><center><a href="media/562cf5f6.tpb-sale.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-sale.jpg"><img src="media/fa686c2d.tpb-sale.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-sale.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="492" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137528" srcset="https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-sale.jpg 650w, https://torrentfreak.com/images/tpb-sale-200x150.jpg 200w" sizes="(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px"></a></center></p>
<p>Clicking through reveals a sale underway on domain auction site Sedo. Probably due to the short time it&#8217;s been on offer, there has been little to no interest thus far. At the time of writing, bidders are able to offer as little as $90 (plus VAT) to the seller of the domain, who according to Sedo is located in Barbados. </p>
<p>Of course, it&#8217;s unlikely the domain will sell for such a low amount but perhaps more importantly, it&#8217;s debatable whether it&#8217;s worth anything at all.</p>
<p>In 2013, anti-piracy prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad filed a motion targeting ThePirateBay.se and lesser-used alternative PirateBay.se. He argued that Punkt SE (IIS), the organization responsible for Sweden’s top-level .SE domain, should be held liable for Pirate Bay&#8217;s copyright infringements unless it suspended the domain.</p>
<p>The case was heard in <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/fate-of-pirate-bay-domains-hang-in-the-balance-150421/">April 2015</a> and a month later the Stockholm District Court <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/key-pirate-bay-domains-must-be-seized-court-rules-150519/">ruled</a> that The Pirate Bay should forfeit both ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se to the Swedish state. The case later went to the Svea Court of Appeal, which upheld the decision of the District Court, but things weren&#8217;t over yet.</p>
<p>While the Court agreed that Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij had transferred the domains to a third party in 2012, it determined the transaction to be mere ‘paperwork’ and held that Neij had effectively retained control of the domains.</p>
<p>What followed was a June 2016 <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/pirate-bay-domain-dispute-appealed-to-supreme-court-160618/">appeal by Neij</a> to the Supreme Court, which challenged the Court of Appeal&#8217;s opinion that a domain name is a type of intellectual property that can be seized under copyright law.</p>
<p>Whether the Supreme Court will take the case remains to be seen. It&#8217;s clear, however, that whatever happens ThePirateBay.se is up to its neck in legal disputes and is already prone to seizure, something that casts doubt over its future potential.</p>
<p>TorrentFreak spoke to Sweden&#8217;s IIS to find out how any potential sale might affect the ongoing Pirate Bay domain legal dispute but the organization declined to comment. The operators of The Pirate Bay have not confirmed the sale, which appears to have been running for a few weeks.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137549
title: Court Orders PayPal to Identify Pirate Site Owner
uri: Court-Orders-PayPal-to-Identify-Pirate-Site-Owner
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/IMd1v6czMwA/
content:
<p><img src="media/56247e42.paypal1.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/paypal1.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="69" class="alignright size-full wp-image-37933">For several years PayPal has been trying to limit how much business it does with sites and services linked to copyright infringement.</p>
<p>The payment provider previously banned several BitTorrent sites, Usenet providers and file-hosting services to avoid any associations with piracy. </p>
<p>The disconnections are often the result of complaints from copyright holders who want to limit the financial resources of these platforms. In addition, the same companies are also interested in finding out who the operators are. </p>
<p>This puts PayPal in a more tricky position. Handing over personal details of clients is not something most financial companies would do voluntarily. In Germany, this <a href="http://www.mediabiz.de/musik/news/sony-music-geht-gegen-urheberrechtspiraten-bei-paypal-vor/417195">prompted Sony Music</a> to take the matter to court. </p>
<p>This week, the Hamburg District Court ruled that PayPal must hand over the information they have on the operator of an unnamed pirate site. In this case, Luxemburg&#8217;s banking secrecy provisions do not shield the website operator. </p>
<p>Internet and copyright lawyer Clemens Rasch, whose law firm handled the case, is happy with the outcome. He says that the ruling allows music producers, film companies and other copyright holders to identify pirates more easily, something they can use to enforce their rights.</p>
<p>&#8220;The decision makes it easier to identify offenders and make them liable,&#8221; the lawyer <a href="http://www.raschlegal.de/aktuelles/paypal-darf-piraten-nicht-schuetzen/">comments</a>. The present ruling sets a precedent that could also be applied to other pirates and payment providers. </p>
<p>&#8220;According to the &#8216;follow-the-money&#8217; approach, PayPal and any other payment service, including credit card providers, are obliged to provide information in the event of an infringement. This is the case, for example, if the web server on which the infringements occur is financed through the payment service,&#8221; Rasch adds.</p>
<p>In recent years copyright holders have started to rely more heavily on this &#8220;follow-the-money&#8221; approach. One of the goals is to dry up the resources of alleged copyright infringers. With the German ruling, they now have an ulterior motive to go after sites&#8217; payment providers, at least in Germany.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137367
title: RuTracker Clocks a Million Downloads a Day, Despite Being Completely Blocked
uri: RuTracker-Clocks-a-Million-Downloads-a-Day-Despite-Being-Completely-B
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/VOE6LsFUg3M/
content:
<p><img src="media/b0692145.rutracker1.jpg" data-original-source="https://torrentfreak.com/images/rutracker1.jpg" width="250" height="95" class="alignright size-large">While the site doesn&#8217;t get a lot of press in the West, Russia&#8217;s RuTracker is one of the biggest torrent sites on the planet.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s easily one of the <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2017-170107/">top ten most popular torrent sites</a> online and indexes a massive range of local and international content. Those with Google translate and a modicum of patience report a treasure trove of material.</p>
<p>The situation with RuTracker is somewhat curious. While it is regularly visited by users from a range of countries, the majority of its user base comes from the Russian Federation. However, after drawing the ire of copyright holders, the site is blocked by all local ISPs, a situation that will persist forever.</p>
<p>This so-called &#8220;eternal&#8221; block was put in place <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/russias-rutracker-blockade-has-just-seriously-backfired-160126/">last year</a> and was expected to do the site serious damage. But according to the site&#8217;s operators, they&#8217;re doing just fine. In fact, not a great deal has changed.</p>
<p>Speaking with local news outlet <a href="http://apparat.cc">Apparat</a>, a RuTracker representative confirmed that while attendances have dropped a little, there has been no change at all in the numbers of files being downloaded.</p>
<p>&#8220;According to our statistics the number of downloaded torrents has not changed. Every day more than a million torrents are downloaded from Rutracker. We had the same number before the block,&#8221; the source reveals.</p>
<p>&#8220;The load on our trackers has fallen by no more than 10%. In this case, when we say tracker, we mean the service address [announce URL], where the BitTorrent client recalls the list of peers.&#8221;</p>
<p>While the blockades have failed to impact levels of infringement, they have managed to reduce the volumes of traffic reaching the site. Interestingly, RuTracker believes that the kind of device used to access the platform has played a role in whether a user has been able to easily bypass the blocks.</p>
<p>&#8220;Most of all, blocking has affected the users of mobile devices. With these it is slightly more difficult to configure a bypass than on a desktop computer,&#8221; the rep says.</p>
<p>&#8220;Therefore, those users who came to the forum from mobile devices just to talk &#8211; and there are so many of them &#8211; are faced with problems. For those who used the forum from ordinary computers, the block delivered a minimum of inconveniences: there, a bypass is configured in just two clicks.&#8221;</p>
<p>As previously reported, the court-ordered blocking of RuTracker prompted the site to break off cooperation with all copyright holders. The way the site viewed it, why take content down when the punishment for not doing so has already been issued by the court?</p>
<p>&#8220;For more than seven years, we had not a single problem with any major vendor, but we were blocked because of the songs of one local rapper, who at the same time put out his songs for public access on social networks. The reason was purely formal, and the decision was political,&#8221; the rep explains.</p>
<p>Freed from having to remove content every day, the site is now far more happy doing nothing. In fact, it says that life is now much easier, since all the time and resources spent on taking things down can now be deployed elsewhere. Not to say that the site has a small staff though.</p>
<p>Currently the site has five employees, including programmers and systems administrators, who reportedly earn a salary for their work. On top the site has several volunteer forum administrators and a massive team of moderators, numbering 200 in all.</p>
<p>But as they have done for many years, the site&#8217;s operators say they will continue to remain anonymous while earning enough from advertising to balance the books. There are no big profits to report and there will be no Pirate Bay-style posturing.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are not a political organization, we do not put forward any demands, we do not call or agitate anything. Deanonymization will not bring any advantages, instead we will receive increased attention from the marginalized, from scammers, and state groups too.&#8221;</p>
<p>The site&#8217;s operators say they are not against cooperation as long as its based on mutual understanding and a constructive approach. But they weren&#8217;t getting that in Russia, it seems, so they&#8217;ve skipped out of reach instead.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are both physically and legally outside the borders of this wonderful country,&#8221; they conclude.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137530
title: Court Extends Hold on Megaupload’s MPAA and RIAA Lawsuits
uri: Court-Extends-Hold-on-Megaupload-s-MPAA-and-RIAA-Lawsuits
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/lDznmAigJ_8/
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 five years have passed since Megaupload was shutdown and it&#8217;s still unclear how the criminal proceedings will unfold. </p>
<p>A few weeks ago the New Zealand High Court ruled that Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues can be extradited to the US. Not on copyright grounds, but for <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kim-dotcom-extradition-to-go-ahead-but-not-on-copyright-grounds-170220/">conspiracy to defraud</a>.</p>
<p>Following the ruling Dotcom quickly announced that he would take the matter to the Court of Appeal, which will prolong the case for several months at least. </p>
<p>While all parties await the outcome of this appeal, the criminal case in the United States remains pending. The same goes for the civil cases launched by the MPAA and RIAA in 2014. </p>
<p>Since the civil cases may influence the criminal proceedings, Megaupload’s legal team previously managed to put these cases on hold, and this week another extension was granted. </p>
<p>Previously there were concerns that the long delays could result in the destruction of evidence, as some of Megaupload&#8217;s hard drives were starting to fail. However, after the parties agreed on a solution to back-up and restore the files, this is no longer an issue.</p>
<p>&#8220;With the preservation order now in place, Defendant Megaupload hereby moves the Court to enter the attached proposed order, continuing the stay in this case for an additional six months, subject to the terms and conditions stated in the proposed order,&#8221; the company wrote in the motion to stay. </p>
<p>On Thursday U.S. District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady granted Megaupload&#8217;s request to stay both lawsuits until October this year, barring any new developments. The music and movie companies didn&#8217;t oppose the motion.</p>
<p>&#8212;</p>
<p><em>The order of U.S. District Court Judge Liam O&#8217;Grady is available <a href="media/49d46582.2017stay.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/2017stay.pdf">here (pdf</a>). A copy of Megaupload&#8217;s request can be found <a href="media/01c70db4.stay.pdf" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/stay.pdf">here (pdf</a>)</a>. </em></p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137347
title: Magnetico: A Personal Torrent Search Engine That Can’t Be Shut Down
uri: Magnetico-A-Personal-Torrent-Search-Engine-That-Can-t-Be-Shut-Down
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/JQzL1QsxsYU/
content:
<p><a href="media/bc003361.network-round.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/network-round.jpg"><img src="media/a79e141a.network-round.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/network-round.jpg" alt="" width="250" height="250" class="alignright size-full wp-image-126170"></a>With BitTorrent more than a decade and a half old, it&#8217;s one of the most enduring P2P protocols around. It hasn&#8217;t been developed much in recent years but there are people out there hoping to take it to the next level.</p>
<p>Much effort has been expended trying to completely decentralize the system. <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/bittorrents-future-dht-pex-and-magnet-links-explained-091120/">DHT and PEX</a>, for example, were great contributions but the reliance on centralized websites (such as The Pirate Bay) persists.</p>
<p>That particular problem intrigues <a href="http://boramalper.org/">Bora</a>, a programmer from Istanbul, Turkey, who informs TF that having a less centralized system would be beneficial to the ecosystem as a whole.</p>
<p>&#8220;All the legal action taken against the community has always targeted the points of centralization, as they were the weakest points in the whole mesh,&#8221; Bora says.</p>
<p>&#8220;In the beginning, trackers were required to facilitate the traffic between peers, but then we ditched them once more and more clients supported the distributed hash table (DHT). We eventually got rid of .torrent files as well [in favor of magnet links], which in turn allowed people to download the whole sum of The Pirate Bay in a hundred megabytes.&#8221;</p>
<p>In an effort to try and edge closer to the goal of complete decentralization, Bora has been working on a project called magnetico (small &#8216;m&#8217;), which aims to &#8220;unplug&#8221; conventional torrent sites altogether. Like the recently defunct torrent site <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/btdigg-shut-down-due-to-torrent-spam-for-now-160711/">BTDigg</a> and the more recent <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/alphareign-dht-search-engine-takes-public-torrents-private-161204/">AlphaReign</a>, Bora&#8217;s software uses BitTorrent&#8217;s DHT to find content and those all-important peers.</p>
<p>However, where magentico differs from the two examples above is that the indexes it creates can be completely private. It effectively acts as a personal torrent search engine that a user can install on a machine under his or her control.</p>
<p>&#8220;magnetico is a collection of programs called magneticod (magnetico daemon) and magneticow (magnetico web),&#8221; Bora explains.</p>
<p>&#8220;magneticod runs in the background and &#8216;trawls&#8217; the DHT network to discover info hashes and then fetches torrent metadata from the peers (most importantly, the title and the file list). magneticow is a lightweight web interface for users to search and view the discovered torrents.&#8221;</p>
<p><center><a href="media/52bd42d4.magscreen2.png" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/magscreen2.png"><img src="media/3d92100f.magscreen2.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/magscreen2.png" alt="" width="1546" height="676" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-137491"></a></center></p>
<p>For those interested in some brief technical details, here&#8217;s how it works.</p>
<p>&#8220;The magneticod module [accesses the DHT] and creates a dummy BitTorrent peer to fetch the metadata from the announced peer, and saves it in a database which you can later search and view,&#8221; Bora says.</p>
<p>&#8220;As info hashes are the SHA-1 hashes of the torrent metadata, we can be sure of the validity of the metadata we got.&#8221;</p>
<p>While operation is simple (Bora says that both modules work without user intervention), the software is in its early stages of development so could be affected by bugs. One known issue is that at times, magneticod can be a bit of a resource hog so may need be restarted.</p>
<p>&#8220;I am hoping to address all these issues in the next releases, after collecting useful feedback from the community,&#8221; Bora says.</p>
<p>In the meantime, Bora hopes that <a href="http://www.bittorrent.org/beps/bep_0051.html">BEP 51</a> (a BitTorrent Enhancement Proposal concerning DHT) will come to fruition.</p>
<p>&#8220;I would consider myself as having succeeded if major client developers decided to push for BEP 51 and if we together make BitTorrent truly decentralised right in the protocol, rather than resorting back to the brute force solutions,&#8221; he concludes.</p>
<p>While magnetico is not for the absolute novice, Bora believes that since its strictly written in Python 3, it&#8217;s relatively easy to get going with his <a href="https://github.com/boramalper/magnetico">detailed instructions</a>.</p>
<p>The magnetico project page can be found here (<a href="https://github.com/boramalper/magnetico">Github</a>)</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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feed_id: http://torrentfreak.com/?p=137334
title: Kodi Wants to Beat Piracy With Legal Content and DRM
uri: Kodi-Wants-to-Beat-Piracy-With-Legal-Content-and-DRM
url: http://feed.torrentfreak.com/~r/Torrentfreak/~3/-yu6UGB5WFQ/
content:
<p><img src="media/d7058e94.kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodi-dark-transparent-e1491734093170.png" alt="" width="250" height="96" class="alignright size-full wp-image-137635">Millions of people use <a href="http://kodi.tv">Kodi</a> as their main source of entertainment, often with help from add-ons that allow them to access pirated movies and TV-shows.</p>
<p>As Kodi&#8217;s popularity has increased drastically over the past two years, so have complaints from copyright holders. </p>
<p>While Kodi itself is a neutral platform, unauthorized add-ons give it a bad name. This is one of the reasons why the Kodi team is <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/kodi-announces-legal-action-to-smash-piracy-links-160215/">actively going after</a> vendors who sell &#8220;fully loaded&#8221; pirate boxes and YouTubers who misuse their name to promote copyright infringement.  </p>
<p>Interestingly, the Kodi team itself didn&#8217;t help its case by putting up an FBI seizure notice last week, as an April Fools gag. </p>
<p>The banner suggested that the site had been taken down by the US Department of Justice for copyright infringement. Downloads of the latest builds of the software were also blocked. </p>
<p><center><strong>Kodi&#8217;s April Fools gag</strong><br></br></center><center><img src="media/6f690cb9.kodifools.png" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodifools.png" alt="" width="600" height="350" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137551"></center></p>
<p>This week TorrentFreak spoke with several members of the Kodi team, operating under the XBMC Foundation, who made it clear that they want to cooperate with rightsholders instead of being accused of facilitating piracy.</p>
<p>The team told us that copyright holders regularly approach them. Some are well informed and know that Kodi itself isn&#8217;t actively involved in anything piracy related. However, according to XBMC Foundation President Nathan Betzen, there are also those who are fooled by misleading media reports or YouTube videos.  </p>
<p>&#8220;There are rightsholders that know who we are and realize we are distinct from the 3rd party add-on crowd,&#8221; Betzen says.</p>
<p>&#8220;And then there are the rights holders who have been successfully taken in by the propaganda, who write us very legal sounding letters because some random YouTuber or &#8216;news&#8217; website described the author of a piracy add-on as a &#8216;Kodi developer&#8217;.&#8221; </p>
<p>The Kodi team doesn&#8217;t mind being approached by people who are misinformed, as it gives them an opportunity to set the record straight. It has proven to be more challenging to find a way forward with movie studios and other content creators that are aware of Kodi&#8217;s position. </p>
<p>These movie industry representatives sometimes ask Kodi to remove third-party repo installs and block certain pirate add-ons. However, according to XBMC Foundation&#8217;s Project lead Martijn Kaijser, this isn&#8217;t the direction Kodi wants to go in.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our view on this is that [removing code] would not help a bit, because the code is open-source and others can easily revert it. Blocking add-ons won&#8217;t help since they would instantly change the addon and the block would be in vain,&#8221; Kaijser tells us.</p>
<p>The Kodi team feels that pirates are <a href="https://kodi.tv/article/andwere-baaaaack">leeching </a>off their infrastructure and put the entire community at risk. But, instead of taking a repressive approach they would like to see more legal content providers join their platform. With an audience of millions of users, there is a lot of untapped potential on a platform that&#8217;s rapidly growing. </p>
<p>To facilitate this process, the media player is currently considering whether to add support for DRM so that content providers can offer their videos in a protected environment. While some users may cringe at the thought, Kodi believes it&#8217;ll help to get rightsholders on board.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our platform has a lot of potential and we are looking into attracting more legal and official content providers. Additionally, we&#8217;re looking into adding low-level DRM that would at least make it more feasible to gain trust from certain providers,&#8221; Kaijser tells TorrentFreak.</p>
<p><center><strong>Kodi addons</strong><br></br></center><center><a href="media/67dfd75d.kodiaddons.jpg" data-original-source="http://feed.torrentfreak.com/images/kodiaddons.jpg"><img src="media/b0a52df3.kodiaddons.jpg" data-original-source="http://torrentfreak.com/images/kodiaddons.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="343" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-137538"></a></center></p>
<p>Although Kodi does go after sellers of pirate boxes, Betzen personally doesn&#8217;t believe that this is the answer. The best way to deal with the piracy issue is to offer more legal content through official add-ons.</p>
<p>&#8220;We&#8217;d like to actually work with content providers to have official add-ons in our network. That&#8217;s much easier to do when we are proactively attempting to help them to fight copyright infringement,&#8221; Betzen says.</p>
<p>There are already plenty of legal uses for Kodi, including the DVR system, support for legal sports streaming, and a variety of add-ons such as Crunchyroll, HDHomeRun, Plex and Twitch. However, getting some major content providers on board has proven to be quite a challenge thus far. </p>
<p>Kaijser notes that rightsholders have been very reserved thus far. He tried to convince content providers to offer official add-ons, or even turn some community made ones into official ones, but hasn’t had much success.</p>
<p>In a way, the repeated piracy discussions and news items are both a blessing and a curse for Kodi. They help to grow the platform at a rate most competitors could only dream of, while at the same time keeping rightsholders at bay. Time will tell if Kodi can turn this around.</p>
<p>Source: <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/">TF</a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href="http://torrentfreak.com/top-10-most-popular-torrent-sites-of-2016-160102/">torrent sites</a> and  <a href="https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/">ANONYMOUS VPN services</a>.</p>
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