Month: June 2019

Für die Elektromobilität solle der deutsche Staat mehr tun, damit sich die Fahrzeuge schneller durchsetzten, fordert BMW-Chef Harald Krüger. Die Kommunen sollten Vorteile schaffen und der Staat solle den Strom zum Laden vergünstigen. (Elektromobilität, Technologie)

In recent weeks the RIAA has really stepped on the gas in an effort to tackle sites offering allegedly-infringing content.

The music industry group’s current weapon-of-choice is the DMCA subpoena. These orders, which are easy to obtain and do not need to be scrutinized by a judge, give the RIAA significant discovery powers that help to identify the operators of online platforms.

The latest site to be targeted by the RIAA is Mixstep.co, an upload platform designed for audio works. Last week the powerful industry group told a Columbia federal court that the site was hosting content at a single URL which infringes one or more of its members’ copyrights.

The RIAA says the URL linked to the Ed Sheeran/Justin Bieber track “I Don’t Care” but the location was already inaccessible the morning after the subpoena was obtained. Nevertheless, the RIAA now wants to identify the operator of the site.

The subpoena orders domain registry Namecheap to hand over the personal details of the platform’s domain owner, including name, physical address, IP address, telephone, email address, payment, account history, and other information.

TorrentFreak spoke with the operator of Mixstep who told us he wasn’t previously aware why the RIAA is targeting him. The site was never intended to host infringing content and was actually set up for the use of creators.

“We made this project for DJs and producers,” he told TF.

In common with many upload platforms – YouTube included – Mixstep has users who uploaded infringing content. However, the site has been working hard to take content down and has dealt severely with those who have abused the service.

“We already banned a lot of users who uploaded illegal files,” the operator added.

It’s not completely clear why the RIAA wants to identify the operator of the site but if its aim was to neutralize the platform, the music group has achieved that goal. With the service operated on a zero profit basis, its owner says it has run its course.

“I think it’s enough to fight with all these [users uploading infringing files] so we’re going to shut down our project very soon. Anyway, Mixstep was a no-profit project,” he said.

Visitors to the site now see the following message, so it may be ‘mission accomplished’ for the RIAA.

The RIAA’s letter to Cloudflare can be downloaded here (pdf)

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

Read 11 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Nofile.io is a popular no-nonsense file-hosting service that’s been around for roughly two years.

Similar to other hosting services, people can use it to upload and share files. However, this week the site has been unreachable. 

Upon closer inspection, we found out that the downtime is the result of a domain name issue. It appears that the site’s registrar, Namecheap, has put the Nofile.io domain on “serverHold.”

According to ICANN, the serverHold domain status is uncommon and “usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.”

This status is set by the domain registrar, Namecheap in this case, and informs the registry not to activate the DNS. As a result, the website in question will become inaccessible.

It’s unclear why Namecheap took this action. We reached out to the company earlier this week, but haven’t heard back.

The suspension may be related to an earlier issue. As reported last month, the RIAA obtained a DMCA subpoena ordering Namecheap to hand over the personal details of the owner of the domain name.

“The website associated with this domain name offers files containing sound recordings which are owned by one or more of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use, ” RIAA wrote at the time.

RIAA highlighted that a leaked track by rapper ‘Tyler, the Creator,’ titled ‘Earfquake,’ was shared on the site and requested the personal details of the domain owner from Namecheap.

While the registrar is not known to suspend domains based on these type of allegations, it could be that this inquiry that raised some red flags. For example, it may have revealed that the WHOIS information was false. That can be reason for a suspension.

Last week we reported on a similar issue, where a torrent site lost its domain name due to inaccurate WHOIS data.

Whether something similar happened here remains unconfirmed. However, unless the operator of Nofile.io resolves the matter with Namecheap, the site’s domain name will remain suspended.

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

Nofile.io is a popular no-nonsense file-hosting service that’s been around for roughly two years.

Similar to other hosting services, people can use it to upload and share files. However, this week the site has been unreachable. 

Upon closer inspection, we found out that the downtime is the result of a domain name issue. It appears that the site’s registrar, Namecheap, has put the Nofile.io domain on “serverHold.”

According to ICANN, the serverHold domain status is uncommon and “usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.”

This status is set by the domain registrar, Namecheap in this case, and informs the registry not to activate the DNS. As a result, the website in question will become inaccessible.

It’s unclear why Namecheap took this action. We reached out to the company earlier this week, but haven’t heard back.

The suspension may be related to an earlier issue. As reported last month, the RIAA obtained a DMCA subpoena ordering Namecheap to hand over the personal details of the owner of the domain name.

“The website associated with this domain name offers files containing sound recordings which are owned by one or more of our member companies and have not been authorized for this kind of use, ” RIAA wrote at the time.

RIAA highlighted that a leaked track by rapper ‘Tyler, the Creator,’ titled ‘Earfquake,’ was shared on the site and requested the personal details of the domain owner from Namecheap.

While the registrar is not known to suspend domains based on these type of allegations, it could be that this inquiry that raised some red flags. For example, it may have revealed that the WHOIS information was false. That can be reason for a suspension.

Last week we reported on a similar issue, where a torrent site lost its domain name due to inaccurate WHOIS data.

Whether something similar happened here remains unconfirmed. However, unless the operator of Nofile.io resolves the matter with Namecheap, the site’s domain name will remain suspended.

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

Der Videostreamingmarkt in Deutschland wächst weiter. Vor allem Netflix und Amazon Prime Video profitieren vom Zuwachs in diesem Bereich. (Streaming, Studie)

Besitzer von Huawei-Smartphones sollten keine Werbung mehr auf dem Sperrbildschirm sehen. Der chinesische Hersteller hatte kürzlich Werbebotschaften auf seinen Smartphones ausgeliefert - ungeplant. (Huawei, Smartphone)

Der Pay-TV-Sender Sky hat die Serie Chernobyl in der Schweiz mit Untertiteln ausgestrahlt, die von einer Fan-Community erstellt wurden. Wie die inoffiziellen Untertitelspur in die Serie gelangt ist, ist unklar. (Sky, HBO)

Bankkunden von N26 und Fidor müssen sich auf Einschränkungen bei der Nutzung ihrer Konten einstellen. Die Volksbanken haben Abwehrmaßnahmen ergriffen, um betrügerische Überweisungen auf Konten von Direktbanken wie N26 oder Fidor abzufangen. (N26, Bitcoin)