PrimeWire: We’ll Ban ‘Pirate’ Streaming Sources, Introduce Upload Filters

One of the best-known pirate streaming sites says it will go to extreme lengths to prevent its latest new domain from being seized. In a response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of major Hollywood studios and Netflix, PrimeWire claims it will ban all links to movies and TV shows hosted on cyberlocker-type sites, preemptively filter uploads, and promote legal content.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

primewire logoIn December 2021, Paramount, Universal, Warner, Columbia, Disney and Netflix sued PrimeWire, one of the most recognizable pirate streaming sites around today.

The lawsuit claims that PrimeWire encouraged users to upload links to pirated movies and TV shows hosted on third-party sites, then facilitated access to these via its own curated portal. The plaintiffs quickly obtained a preliminary injunction that required PrimeWire to stop infringing their copyrights.

At least in the short term, PrimeWire failed to acknowledge the injunction but when one of its domains was seized, the site began preparing for others to fall too. However, to comply with the terms of the preliminary and forthcoming permanent injunction, PrimeWire was required to do much more.

Drastic Action By PrimeWire – And Then Some

Around March 8, 2022, after PrimeWire had announced a new domain (primewire.tf), its operators took a step that would’ve been unthinkable before the lawsuit was filed. In what appears to be an effort to isolate the .tf domain from seizure, PrimeWire removed all links to pirated movies and TV shows hosted on cyberlocker sites, effectively decimating the site’s usefulness to its core audience.

In response, the studios told the court that this was a ploy to prevent the new domain from being seized. PrimeWire, which has circumvented blocking orders in the past with new domains, would probably reverse its decision later on and get back into the piracy game, the plaintiffs said.

Whether that will happen is unclear for now but PrimeWire is doubling down on its claim that it won’t be a useful piracy source in the future. Indeed, the streaming portal now says it will implement drastic changes to stay on the right side of the law.

Ban on Cyberlocker Links

PrimeWire doesn’t host movies or TV shows itself but does allow users to upload links to them. Essentially, users submit the URLs of videos hosted on cyberlocker-type sites and these are later embedded in PrimeWire, providing the site’s visitors with a central source of curated content.

PrimeWire now claims that moving forward, links to these sites (the primary sources of unlicensed streaming content online today) will be completely banned from the platform.

“All links to external video services other than youtube.com, archive.org, dailymotion.com and vimeo.com will be permanently removed. Only new links from these services can be submitted,” PrimeWire’s announcement reads.

While there is pirated content available on sites like YouTube, the chances of building a competitor to Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, and Hulu (as PrimeWire was) is vanishingly small. Unlike third-party cyberlockers, movies and TV shows are quickly deleted from official sites along with their uploaders, meaning that offering end-users anything but a frustrating experience seems impossible.

That being said, PrimeWire says it will go further still.

Preemptive Upload Filtering, Honoring DMCA Notices

While it sounds like PrimeWire will continue to allow users to submit links to video content hosted on the limited platforms listed above, these will be moderated to prevent copyright-infringing material ending up on the site. PrimeWire says it will also implement an upload filter to preemptively target certain material.

“To protect against the submission of links from these services that may contain copyrighted content, we will delete links and disable submission of new links preemptively for certain titles, as well as at the request of copyright holders,” the site says.

The content to be preemptively filtered isn’t named but logic suggests that removing any content produced by the plaintiffs would be enough to ensure compliance with any injunction the court might hand down. Allowing content produced by other companies wouldn’t breach the injunction but it’s beyond clear that removing all movies and TV shows owned by the plaintiffs would push PrimeWire into a no-man’s land in piracy terms.

Promoting Legal Content From Legal Sources

PrimeWire insists that it is not shutting down. All user accounts will remain, as will the ability for users to comment and chat. TV episode tracking will also continue, along with search and personal TV schedules.

However, in an apparent effort to demonstrate change, PrimeWire has introduced features that allow its users to find legal content on licensed platforms. The listing for The Walking Dead, for example, now includes links to Netflix, AppleTV, Amazon and Google Play, among others.

primewire-licensed

Whether the plaintiffs will accept these changes as a genuine effort to stop infringement remains a question but after spending years chasing PrimeWire around the world with blocking orders, trust is probably in short supply right now.

Add that to the fact that PrimeWire hasn’t appeared in court to defend the lawsuit and all the pieces are in place to give the studios a relatively easy win, including the seizure of new domains, if they eventually prove to be infringing.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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We’re Turning Off The Comments…

When we started this site more than sixteen years ago, we never expected it to last this long. The fact that TorrentFreak is still around today is in large part thanks to our loyal readers. The commenters have played their part as well but, eventually, most things come to an end.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

thanks for the fishToday, we will stop offering the option to comment on articles. This is a tough decision that has been discussed internally for some time.

We are thankful for all the insightful and helpful responses that many readers have provided over the years, they often gave us inspiration and encouragement to press ahead. Sadly, however, increasing ‘noise’ in more recent times ran counter to community spirit and productive discussion, not to mention our core mission and beliefs.

Our goal is to report news, navigating through various perspectives on copyright battles, deflecting the bias on both sides. While we strongly feel that everybody has the right to voice their opinion, we are not immune to the disproportionate effects of a minority on otherwise productive discourse.

Almost everywhere on the internet, this isn’t a new phenomenon. However, we work as a tiny team and have reached a point where dealing with unnecessary diversions has become too much of a distraction. And with a plethora of other public fora available today, pulling the plug is regrettably the best option.

The comment threads on older articles will remain visible on the Disqus platform for now, but that might also change in the future.

We understand that this will come as a disappointment to the many people who have made considered contributions but we can assure everyone that the decision wasn’t taken lightly. For those who feel the need to vent, our email inboxes are still open, and there are no plans to shut these down anytime soon.

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From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

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