Month: December 2018

TorrentFreak recently reported on the plight of developer Matt Huisman, the creator of what he believed to be a completely legitimate Kodi add-on.

Huisman created the ‘Showmax Add-on’ which provided access to content provided by Showmax, an online video subscription service launched in South African back in 2015. As a competitor to Netflix and Amazon Video, Showmax requires a paid subscription.

Despite suggesting that it wasn’t opposed to introducing a Kodi add-on of its own, Showmax never came up with the goods. So, after appeals from the company’s customers, Huisman took it upon himself to create an add-on so that Showmax users could conveniently view content inside Kodi.

The important thing to note is that the ‘Showmax Add-On’ was designed from the ground up to be non-infringing, in that it required all users to have a valid, paid-for subscription with Showmax. Nevertheless, Showmax recently asked anti-piracy company Irdeto (Denuvo’s owner) to take action against the add-on, filing complaints with both Huisman and Github, where the add-on had its official repository.

With the Showmax Add-On taken down from both Huisman’s site and Github, the matter was considered to be over. However, that clearly wasn’t the case. In a move that makes little sense, Irdeto has now filed an infringement complaint against Huisman with PayPal.

“We are contacting you as we have received a report that your website www.matthuisman.nz is currently infringing upon the intellectual property of Irdeto BV. Such infringement also violates PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy,” an email sent to Huisman by PayPal reads.

“If you feel your sales do not infringe upon the intellectual property rights of Irdeto BV, please complete the attached Objection to Infringement form.”

Huisman, who is the developer behind several similar projects, has a “Show me Love” page on his site, in which he invites fans to donate in appreciation of his work. He informs TorrentFreak that he never sold the Showmax Add-On and he’s shocked that Irdeto has taken such action.

“Irdeto have just had my PayPal (for donations) shut down. Wow! I wasn’t even selling [the Showmax] add-on,” he says.

Huisman is now required to file a counter-notice with PayPal in the hope of regaining full access to his account. However, PayPal has already warned him that if action isn’t taken soon, the company will “escalate” the matter.

“Failure to respond by the following date will result in the further escalation of this issue: December 01, 2018,” PayPal’s Brand Risk Management center advises.

On face value, this action by Showmax and Irdeto (who are both owned by corporate giant Naspers) is somewhat confusing.

It is perhaps understandable that they don’t want a third-party Kodi add-on being used to access their content (even though an account is still required), but going after a developer’s means to take donations for all of his projects is a measure usually reserved for fully-fledged ‘pirate’ sites.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Die smarten Lautsprecher Echo von Amazon unterstützen bereits eine Vielzahl von Musikdiensten, darunter Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio und TuneIn. Ab dem 17. Dezember wird Apple Music per Skill auch über die Echos nutzbar sein. (Echo, Sound-Hardware)

Als Tafel, als Tisch, als Littfasssäule: E Inks Justwrite Film ist ein flexibles und dünnes Panel, auf dem Nutzer schreiben und zeichnen können. Nach Angaben des Herstellers ist sie preiswert und dünn. Daher könnte sie schnell Einzug in Klassenzimmer halten. (E-Ink, Display)

In den USA wurde eine Sammelklage gegen Apple eingereicht, weil das Unternehmen bewusst keine Staubfilter in Macbooks und iMacs eingebaut haben soll. So soll es absichtlich eine kürzere Lebensdauer und teure Reparaturen provoziert haben. (Apple, Notebook)

Die früher weltgrößte Technikmesse Cebit wird eingestellt - und das ist so schade wie selbstverschuldet. Am Wendelstein 7-X hingegen folgt ein Erfolg auf den nächsten. Und die Nasa will nichts als Sand. (Golem-Wochenrückblick, Mac Mini)

Scammers may have found a way to use Google's anti-piracy measures to promote malicious sites.

As first reported by TorrentFreak, several piracy download sites have been targeted with potentially "bogus" take-down notices, and site operators suspect that it may be an attempt to promote malicious sites.

While the take-down notices do target pirated downloads, the notices themselves appear to be fake, adorned with spelling mistakes and apparently coming from IP addresses that are unlikely to be associated with the rights-holders in question.

Many of the take-down notices have also been sent from suspicious Gmail email addresses with Ukrainian IP-addresses. 

Worst of all, these clearly suspicious take-down notices cannot be countered using the normal means provided by Google, as these are "DRM" based take-down notices, not merely "copyright abuse" notices. Google do not provide a way to appeal DRM based take-down notices as it is not required by law, and so, the affected sites have no way to fight back against the bogus take-down attempts.

Many of the removed URLs, while containing pirated copies of games, may not actually contain any DRM tools.

There is no clear indication as to why scammers are using this to remove piracy related URLs, but the removals of some of these URLs in Google's search engine has coincided with the rise in rankings of "fake" piracy sites designed to infect users with malicious software. This may be the main intention behind the scammer's campaign, which has already lasted several months.

And it appears Google may be wising up to the scam. Some of the take-down notices have already been flagged by Google as, with a warning that these notices may have been sent by "impostors".

[via TorrentFreak]

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