Author: Andy

In September 2014, TorrentFreak became aware of a UK court case between TCYK LLP and Internet service provider Sky.

TCYK stands for The Company You Keep and is the title of a film of the same name directed and starring Robert Redford who appears alongside Susan Sarandon and Shia LeBeouf.

After presenting evidence to the court, TCYK LLP were granted an order which forced Sky to hand over the names and addresses of subscribers alleged to have downloaded the movie without permission.

In March 2015, Sky began warning its customers they were being targeted.

By last summer Sky customers were receiving accusations of Internet piracy through the post followed by letters demanding hundreds of pounds in compensation.

Having targeted the bill payer (the only person they have the name of) TCYK indicated in their letter that they had no proof that a specific person had committed the offense. If the bill payer didn’t do anything wrong, they should say who did, TCYK indicated somewhat optimistically.

But just like all of these companies employing a carpet-bombing approach to copyright enforcement, things were bound to go wrong for TCYK at some point. Thanks to the BBC we can how see how embarrassing things can get.

Sheila Drew lives in the Black Country, a previously industrial area in the heart of the West Midlands. She’s an 82-year-old pensioner and TCYK are currently pressuring her to pay a £600 fine after claiming her Internet connection was used to download The Company You Keep.

According to an initial letter sent to Sheila by TCYK in November 2015, the alleged infringement took place on April 25, 2013, some two years and six months earlier. Of course, remembering that far back for anyone would be a considerable feat of memory but for an octogenarian one might expect even more difficulty.

Nevertheless, TCYK have persisted with their allegations and have just sent Sheila a second letter. She still denies their claims.

“I’m upset to have been accused of something I didn’t do… how many other people has this happened to?” she told the BBC.

It’s unclear whether TCYK will have both the decency and common sense to nip this PR disaster in the bud. But for Michael Coyle, a solicitor advocate at Lawdit Solicitors in Southampton, these kinds of allegations are nothing new.

Speaking with TF last evening Coyle said that these kinds of allegations are “typical of the scam” and as a result he’s being inundated with requests from people like Sheila seeking to defend themselves.

A few months ago Coyle began defending people in return for a charitable donation but now charges less than £100 to deal with a case from start to finish.

“I’ve raised some £20k for charity and have some 350-400 clients, having also spoken to twice that many,” Coyle informs TorrentFreak.

“We’ve started to charge £75 plus vat just to cover costs but it still makes the whole aspect ridiculous.”

But while criticizing the companies engaged in so-called “speculative invoicing”, Coyle also says that court orders which enable thousands of Internet subscribers to be targeted in this fashion are also part of the problem.

“It’s probably too late to complain but it does highlight the harm and wide scale abuses caused by large volume IP address disclosures,” Coyle concludes.

But for now there is absolutely no sign that courts are prepared to reign in the activities of copyright trolls in the UK. The best people can hope for is that the “speculative invoicing” business model collapses under the strain of people refusing to pay, but that will take strength from those being targeted and trolls can be very threatening.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of video games players around the world obtain their fix from pirate sources. It’s been that way for more than 30 years, only the numbers have grown over time.

However, in the ‘old days’ people could do most of their copying at home, with a couple of cassette decks or software to shift data between 5.25″ floppy disks. But times have changed and although piracy still exists, people now largely rely on a tiny number of so-called ‘cracking’ experts to break copy protection for them.

One of those groups is Chinese outfit 3DM who in recent years have delighted pirate gamers with free copies of some of the world’s greatest titles. Technology companies have always done their best to thwart groups like 3DM and earlier this year came the most promising news to date.

Out of the blue, 3DM announced that the latest iteration of the infamous Denuvo anti-tamper technology had proven so resistant that in a couple of years PC games piracy might become non-existent.

Then, just a couple of weeks later, 3DM put the icing on the cake when they announced that in order to let the official games market breathe, they would be taking a year off from cracking games.

With games producers everywhere super excited at the prospect of a market free from the nuisance of 3DM, optimism of a boosted-revenue future was high. However, while it seems 3DM can deliver surprise gifts with one hand, apparently they can just as easily take them away with the other.

According to a new announcement by the group’s almost rock-star-famous leader, 3DM have decided they are not quite done. Apparently, growing speculation that the group aren’t up to the job of cracking Denuvo has provided them with new inspiration to prove the masses wrong.

“3DM will soon announce that we have a solution to the latest Denuvo encryption used on games including ‘FIFA 16’, ‘Just Cause 3’, and ‘Tomb Raider: The Rise’,” 3DM leader Bird Sister just announced.

Bird Sister

“We [made this announcement] because a lot of players believe we have abandoned cracking due to technical problems, but we will prove it is not the case,” Bird Sister continues.

“We have not yet been stumped [by protection measures].”

Although this announcement flies in the face of some of 3DM’s earlier comments, the news will be received with disappointment by games developers and publishers, not to mention the team at Denuvo. 3DM had been leading the charge on Denuvo-protected titles so a break could’ve given valuable breathing space.

But that said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating and until pirates have tasted the joys of a fully cracked Just Cause 3, their appetites will remain in full force. In other words they’ll believe this game has been cracked when they actually play it at home – thus far there is no sign of a release.

Interestingly, should cracked copies eventually arrive at the hands of 3DM, the group won’t be taking the credit. A somewhat counter-productive comment by Bird Sister indicates that 3DM will not take the usual path on release since they don’t want to attract too much attention.

“Of course, this will not be a high-profile or official 3DM release,” she concludes.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Domain name registry Donuts describes itself as “the largest operator of new domain name extensions” and it certainly has some interesting ones under its belt.

In addition to future classics such as .EMAIL, .COMPANY and .GURU, Donuts also has more light-hearted options available including .FAIL and .WTF.

However, with a current registration volume that has just surpassed 900 domains, the gTLD of most interest to Hollywood (except .TAX, perhaps) is .MOVIE.

With this in mind it will come as no surprise that the MPAA has been building bridges with Donuts in order to keep .MOVIE clean while avoiding the nightmare scenario of ThePirateBay.MOVIE gaining traction with millions of Internet pirates.

Still available……at a price

To that end, the MPAA and Donuts have just announced a voluntary agreement to ensure that domains under the control of the registry aren’t engaged in Internet piracy.

Under the agreement the MPAA will be granted “Trusted Notifier” status, i.e. it will become the definitive authority on what is considered a large-scale piracy website. Sites that are subsequently found to be breaching Donuts’ terms and conditions will either have their domains suspended or put on hold.

“This is a groundbreaking partnership and one we’re proud to undertake,” says Donuts Co-Founder and Executive Vice President Jon Nevett.

“Donuts, as the operator of .MOVIE, .THEATER, .COMPANY and almost 200 other domain extensions, is committed to a healthy domain name environment and this is another step toward a safe and secure namespace.”

While praising Donuts for its cooperation, MPAA chief Chris Dodd took the opportunity to show that it’s indeed possible for Hollywood and technology companies to reach voluntary agreement on piracy-related matters, without intervention from the law.

“This agreement demonstrates that the tech community and content creators can work together on voluntary initiatives to help ensure vibrant, legal digital marketplaces that benefit all members of the online ecosystem,” Dodd said.

So how will the deal work in practice? TF obtained a copy of the plan which begins with the assumption that the MPAA will act with integrity.

The agreement

“Donuts will treat referrals from the MPAA expeditiously and with a presumption of credibility,” it begins.

From there the MPAA is required to fulfill several criteria, including that any complaint filed with Donuts is authorized by its members. The movie industry group is then expected to provide evidence of “clear and pervasive copyright infringement” on the domain in question while indicating which laws have been violated.

However, before contacting Donuts the MPAA will have to do additional preparatory work, including alerting both the site’s registrar and hosting provider to the alleged problems. While providing Donuts with the details of the discussions, the MPAA will be required to indicate why these failed to stop the alleged infringement.

Human-only complaints

Perhaps wary of the carpet-bombing approach employed by many DMCA complaint companies around the world today, Donuts is insisting that any reports of infringement filed by the MPAA are not based on machine-generated complaints.

“[The MPAA’s referral will contain] confirmation that the referral was subject to careful human review and not submitted solely based on automated Internet scanning or scraping services,” the plan reads.

WHOIS

It is extremely common for ‘pirate’ sites to operate with falsified WHOIS information – after all, who wants to guide a lawyer to their front door? To that end Donuts will accept complaints from the MPAA when the group feels a domain’s records contain “false or misleading information”.

Checks

In addition to dealing with the MPAA’s complaints “on an expedited basis” (while determining a course of action within 10 business days), Donuts says it will coordinate with applicable registrars and/or registrants and set deadlines for them to respond to the allegations.

However, if Donuts has any “concerns or questions” regarding the scope or nature of the alleged infringement (or has received alternative instructions from law enforcement), the registry will give the MPAA the opportunity to “supplement or amend” its referral.

Suspension

Once Donuts is happy that the MPAA has a valid complaint, it will move onto the next and final stage.

“If Donuts is satisfied that the domain clearly is devoted to clear and pervasive copyright infringement, Donuts may, in its discretion and as permitted under its Acceptable Use and Anti-Abuse Policy, suspend, terminate, or place the domain on registry lock, hold, or similar status as it determines necessary to mitigate the infringement,” the company notes.

The future

In his statement the MPAA’s Chris Dodd praised Donuts for “their leadership” and his timing could hardly be better.

The Domain Name Association will hold its first Healthy Domains Initiative summit in Seattle today and the MPAA will be hoping that other registries will see the Donuts agreement as something to aspire to. It certainly ticks all the right boxes and could prove a potent weapon in the fight against piracy.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

The company behind the movie Dallas Buyers Club (DBC) is known not only for making movies, but also by its ancillary business of chasing down alleged Internet pirates in order to force a cash settlement from them.

In several countries the company has been collecting hundreds to thousands of dollars from each of their ‘Joe Public’ targets but its efforts to do so in Australia have been beset with problems.

Through its legal representatives Dallas Buyers Club have now admitted that their battle to obtain the identities of more than 4,700 Aussie Internet subscribers is over.

Michael Bradley, the managing partner of DBC LLC law firm Marque Lawyers, told iTNews that tomorrow’s deadline for DBC to make a further application to the court would pass without a submission.

“It’s certainly a disappointing outcome for [Dallas Buyers Club]. It doesn’t do anything to mitigate the infringement that’s going on – it’s not a particularly satisfactory outcome from that point of view,” Bradley said.

But for those familiar with these cases, mitigating infringement is not the primary aim of DBC.

The company wanted to extract settlements from 4,726 Internet account holders but due to its activities elsewhere, Justice Perram was suspicious that the movie outfit would engage in so-called “speculative invoicing”.

To stop that from happening the Judge ordered the payment of a huge AUS$600,000 bond but the company decided not to pay. Ultimately, Dallas Buyers Club failed to convince the court that it would restrain its activities and keep promises not to demand high settlements from Internet account holders.

While the development is a huge blow to DBC and a significant win for Internet subscribers in Australia, it doesn’t necessarily restrain other companies from attempting to sue alleged pirates in the future.

“That might happen. But if the circumstances and the context of that are close to this one, then you’d expect the same outcome,” Bradley said.

Another element that significantly hampered DBC was the fact that it was based overseas, hence the large bond requirement set by the court. Bradley told iTNews that Australia-based rightsholders might face fewer obstacles.

“I suppose if a distributor who was local wanted to have a try, then they presumably wouldn’t face the same difficulty with security. You might get a different outcome,” he added.

Bradley also suggests that if rightsholders went after individual infringers one at a time then there probably wouldn’t be so much scrutiny by the courts. But of course, DBC is in the business of getting large settlements from large numbers of people, so that approach probably wouldn’t make much sense from a commercial standpoint.

And make no mistake. This was a purely commercial exercise and when the sums didn’t add up, DBC decided to throw in the towel. Whether they will continue their efforts elsewhere will remain to be seen but new territories have the potential to cause new problems, so sticking to what they know could be the most likely course of action.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Last week saw the launch of Torrents-Time, software for Windows and Mac that allows people to view torrents embedded in a webpage and without need for an external torrent client.

Initially the technology was employed by Popcorntime-Online.io, a browser-based edition of Popcorn Time that for the first time used peer-to-peer transfers rather than resource hungry HTTP.

Then, just a couple of days later, The Pirate Bay became the first general torrent index to utilize the Torrents-Time software, meaning that users are now able to watch videos embedded in The Pirate Bay. Torrents-Time is appealing to torrent site operators because it enables them to generate extra revenue through an embedded VPN advertisement.

Today we can report that KickassTorrents has implemented the same feature, making it not only the world’s largest torrent site, but also the largest streaming portal too. However, while the process is pretty straightforward on Pirate Bay (users simply have to press a button marked ‘stream it’), things are a bit more confusing on KAT.

First of all, members of KAT who are actively logged into the site cannot see the feature. It’s only visible to non-members, something that usually only takes place with ads. And indeed, the KAT team confirmed to TorrentFreak that they are categorizing this as an advert.

Also, two sets of ‘streaming’ buttons exist on KAT. One relates to the Torrents-Time feature, the other does not.

The obvious ‘Stream Torrent’ button (next to the ‘Download Torrent’ button) is not the Torrents-Time feature and actually links to another service we have no official information on. It’s a big download in comparison and is almost certainly ad-related as well. For those interested in reading more, discussion here.

The Torrents-Time feature is actually the big black ‘play’ button situated under the ‘Main’ tab for each torrent. It functions in the same way as The Pirate Bay’s implementation, via a popup window carrying the same video controls.

“Kickass Torrents (Kat.cr), the biggest torrent site on Earth have embedded Torrents Time as of NOW,” the Torrents-Time (TT) team told TF in a statement.

“We launched last week and in a few days changed forever the way people use the treasures found through torrents sites, directly from their browser. It means that from today on, any user who is able to use Facebook can enjoy almost any movie or TV show that was created in this world.”

However, while the TT are optimistic, they also caution that problems lie on the horizon for this disruptive technology.

“Torrents Time is revolutionizing the world of torrents, here and now. Because it’s a revolution, you can expect a bloodshed, like the fate of all revolutions. We already managed to get a cease and desist letter from BREIN,” the team explain.

TF reported on the BREIN complaint earlier today.

“Because it’s the people’s revolution, a network of hundreds of millions of people who wish to consume Free Content, the people will prevail and the illegal harassment by the film and TV producers industry who claim that P2P ruins their business model will be defeated, by the people,” TT continue.

“It’s a false claim driven only by their sheer greed. P2P does not come instead of going to the cinema, watching cable or satellite, paying for VOD, buying a disk or a piece of merchandise. With P2P we make the world smaller, a people’s village where all the neighbors can watch together the staff they like.

“Torrents Time is not a pirate’s tool. It’s cool and it’s legal. We are certain it will improve the world,” they conclude.

Torrents-Time say that several other large torrent sites are also considering coming on board but some who asked not to be named have informed TF that for now they’ll be sitting on the fence to see how things go. Not all are excited by the prospect of ‘bloodshed’, at least for now.

Update: 1337x.to informs TorrentFreak that they have added Torrents-Time as well.

“We always try to keep our users happy, streaming is another way to use torrents. At this moment we do show a VPN message that Torrents-Time has, however with or without revenue we would have implemented this since it is a great solution.”

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Following an extradition hearing lasting several weeks, in December a New Zealand District Court judge ruled that Kim Dotcom and his colleagues can be extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.

As the former operators of now-defunct file-sharing site Megaupload, Dotcom and colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk are accused of crimes including copyright infringement, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering

Following Judge Dawson’s decision, Dotcom immediately announced an appeal.

While it probably suits Dotcom for the process to be as drawn out as possible, United States authorities would like to get their hands on the Megaupload founder sooner rather than later. To that end they appeared in the High Court in Auckland today asking for the appeal to be pushed through as a matter of urgency.

Justice Asher denied the request and scheduled the hearing for August 29. The appeal itself is expected to last several weeks, extending well into October 2016.

This, according to Asher, should allow him to render his decision before Christmas, but even that won’t mark the end of the road. In comments to TF in December, Dotcom explained the stages of the process.

“The appeal route is High Court, Court of Appeal, Supreme Court. If I lose, it goes to a decision by Minister of Justice, then to a High Court judicial review of the Minister’s decision. Then it’s the end of the road,” he told TF.

The legal system moves slowly so it’s likely that Dotcom – whatever the outcome – will still be enjoying the beauty of New Zealand well into 2017.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Just one week ago a new piece of software hit the file-sharing scene. Utilizing BitTorrent under the hood, Torrents-Time aims to bring embedded streaming functionality to any torrent index.

The first project to utilize the software was Popcorn-Time.io, a browser-based version of Popcorn Time employing peer-to-peer transfers.

Just days later and The Pirate Bay had jumped on board, placing links to Torrents-Time on all of its video torrents and effectively transforming the notorious site into the world’s largest streaming portal overnight.

The development attracted a lot of attention so it will come as no surprise that Torrents-Time is already on Hollywood’s radar. That manifested itself in direct attention from Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, who have now issued Torrents-Time with its first legal threat.

“BREIN issued a cease and desist letter to us on the grounds that it’s a known fact that Torrents Time is facilitating the distribution of infringing content,” the Torrents-Time team informs TorrentFreak.

In its letter to the group behind TT, BREIN is certainly forceful in its assertion that the software is illegal.

“By offering Torrents Time, which is primarily engaged in the facilitating, enabling and participating in the making available of infringing files, according to the law and jurisprudence of The Netherlands you are acting unlawful and infringe the copyrights and neighboring rights of others, including the rights holders whose interests are represented by BREIN,” lawyer Pieter Haringsma writes.

“This causes extensive damage to rights holders for which you – and all others involved with the management of the site – are liable. In the interest of and on behalf of the rights holders represented by BREIN, we request that you cease and desist the distribution of Torrents Time immediately.”

BREIN’s involvement indicates that Torrents-Time (TT) has connections to the Netherlands, a situation confirmed by its developers.

“The Dutch connection is due to our website being hosted on a server residing in the Netherlands,” TT informs TF.

Indeed, Torrents-Time is currently hosted at LeaseWeb, a major Dutch-based service provider that has been embroiled in many file-sharing related legal battles in the past. And, according to BREIN, if TT refuse to comply LeaseWeb will be sucked into this complaint too.

“If you do not comply in full with our demands set out in the above, we will contact your Hosting Internet Service Provider and request again for the immediate removal of the website from the Internet and for your name and address details. Under the law of The Netherlands your provider is obliged to comply with these demands,” Haringsma continues.

“We will of course hold you liable for all (further) incurred costs including legal fees. These costs can be substantial. Given the circumstances at hand, the courts of The Netherlands have jurisdiction over this matter.”

This style of approach to Torrents-Time is pretty standard for BREIN which routinely issues threats to local service providers who generally comply by shutting torrent sites down. However, this situation is perhaps not as straightforward as it first appears.

While there is an argument to be had over the way Torrents-Time is being promoted on sites like The Pirate Bay, at its core it is simply a software client and it is for the software’s users to decide whether they use it for legal or illegal purposes. None of this is lost on the Torrents-Time legal team who have responded extremely aggressively to BREIN’s claims and even question the anti-piracy group’s validity.

“From the outset, please be informed that my clients deny all the suppositions and assumptions in your letter, including the fact that BREIN represents right holders and that you are qualified to take action on behalf of an un-named un-identified entities,” TT begins.

“In your letter, you take the liberty of accusing my Clients of distributing an ‘illegal application’. We deny that allegation, as being un-substantiated, false and illegal in itself, under the laws of the Netherlands.

“No court has ever ruled that Torrents Time breaches any right of any sort, including copyrights and neighboring rights, for two main reasons: One: It was published less than 3 days ago, and two: It was carefully crafted not to do anything whatsoever so as to breach copyright or neighboring rights.

“In accordance with the technical details referred to me by my Clients’ engineers and software specialist, I am confident that the outcome of a court proceeding against my Clients’ Torrent Time will end with a ruling against anyone who challenges the legality of Torrents Time,” TT’s legal team adds.

And then the tone of the response to BREIN changes, from stating facts to Torrents-Time making threats of their own.

“You are therefore advised to seriously re-think you cease and desist demand and advise my Clients that you withdraw your demands. You are also hereby warned not to attempt to take action against any third party who utilizes Torrents Time or hosts it or co-operates therewith in any other manner,” the response warns.

“Failing to comply with my demands herein will prove itself as enormously costly to your organization and its members and could lead to criminal proceedings against yourself, on the grounds of illegal threats and extortion, the consequences of which I’m sure you are very well aware of.”

It is extremely unlikely that BREIN will heed the advice offered by Torrents-Time so an approach to LeaseWeb to take their site down will happen soon, if it hasn’t already. TorrentFreak asked BREIN how Torrents-Time differs from any other torrent client but we are yet to receive a response. Maybe that will be an argument they’ll continue with LeaseWeb during the days to come.

“As we believe that the complaint is an illegal act of blackmail, we will resist and fight back. We have taken legal advice and will take whatever steps are best for us,” the Torrents-Time team concludes.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

In a ‘pirate’ world consumed by web-streaming, BitTorrent and software such as Popcorn Time, there’s no doubt that desktop users are spoiled for choice.

However, for users of the Android system there is a seriously powerful beast that’s been gaining traction for some time now, one that not only downloads from both BitTorrent networks and direct sources but also presents the results in a tidy Netflix-style interface.

Showbox – tablet edition

While Showbox hasn’t been endlessly reported in the media in the way that Popcorn Time has, the software is already in use on hundreds of thousands – probably millions – of tablet and cellphone devices. And, since it also runs on Windows emulators such as Bluestacks, it’s likely that thousands of desktop installations exist too.

But more recently Showbox has become a much-installed package on countless set-top devices, including but not limited to Amazon’s Fire Stick, bringing all the latest movies and TV shows into the home with a minimum of fuss. Since Showbox can stream from non-P2P sources too (it defaults to that, in fact), it offers a decent level of anonymity too. All that has led to a boost in popularity on a similar curve to that enjoyed by Popcorn Time.

With all the latest movies and TV shows at hand to either stream or download (with a choice of qualities and subtitles thrown in for good measure) Showbox is definitely on the radars of the Hollywood studios. But for reasons that aren’t entirely clear, little appears to have been done about the software. Certainly, there has been no Popcorn Time legal response to speak of.

Whether that has played a part in the software’s latest development is unclear but during the past few days Showbox added a controversial new feature that’s likely to infuriate not only Hollywood but also the world’s major record labels. The latest version (v4.51) now has the ability to stream and download music.

Present for now only when run on a cellphone device, Showbox’s music menu is illustrated on the left of the image below. A small sample of its popular music section appears on the right.

Without a detailed network analysis (we’ll leave that to others) it’s unclear where Showbox is pulling content from. However, it’s certainly possible that Russian social network vKontakte is playing a part as it has previously with movies and TV shows.

Either way, the catalog of content appears to be pretty deep, featuring both fresh content and plenty of classics from the archives. Its built-in media player is an obvious inclusion and users will be pleased by the addition of a playlist creator and a means to share content with friends.

While Showbox is certainly not available from Google Play or Amazon (it must be sideloaded by the user) the eagle-eyed will have noticed the advert for Amazon in one of the images above. In fact, advertising for mainstream products and services appears regularly when viewing Showbox, often as pre-run videos when running the tablet version, for example.

In fact this morning when carrying out tests it appears that the South African government was dropping a few coins in the collection box, with adverts for tourists to come and enjoy a holiday in the country. Shortly after the British government was contributing too, with a 30 second video slot recruiting for the armed services.

Showbox is certainly a powerhouse when it comes to streaming video content and now that it’s entered the music field too, there are few (if any) applications that can compete with it. The music section is lacking the finesse of Spotify though, but the developers reiterate the service is only in beta so there could be more to come.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

After years of problems with local and international rightsholders, leading Russian torrent site RuTracker received a serious blow last month. Following a ruling from the Moscow Court, the site was blocked by local Internet service providers.

Almost immediately the situation became more complex. In response to this aggressive action, RuTracker broke off cooperation with copyright holders who had previously been allowed to remove infringing content from the site.

“Today we put an end to these agreements, as users of the Russian Federation are now blocked from accessing our tracker. Therefore rights holders did not want to continue their cooperation, which allows us to do more and not adhere to it,” the site said in a statement.

Of course, the site still had the blocking to contend with. RuTracker had been coaching its users for months on how any blockade could be bypassed so the eventual lockout was not unexpected. However, while local copyright holders hoped their efforts would fatally damage the site’s visitor numbers, the blockade has been less effective than planned.

Stats obtained by Vedomosti reveal that two days after the blockade was put in place, visitors to RuTracker from Russia were down 33%. However, the numbers of visitors to the site from countries outside the Russian Federation increased significantly, a change consistent with people using proxies and VPNs to access the site. Overall, total visitors to the site fell by just 13%.

While the blockade certainly won’t help the site long-term, copyright holders believe it is actually proving more effective, with their claims centering around a traffic drop of around 30%. Nevertheless, they’re already standing by to deliver another blow.

According to Izvestia, record labels including Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music will now investigate ways to neutralize RuTracker’s domain. Leonid Agronov, Director General of the National Federation of Music Industry (NFMI), said his group is consulting with lawyers to decide the best course of action.

“Our lawyers will choose a way to do it that is most convenient. For example, through the courts. We’ll choose where it’s cheaper and faster,” he said.

For their part, RuTracker don’t see an attack on their domain as being successful.

“We see no reason for problems with the RuTracker.org domain, it is registered in accordance with the rules of the registrar and the domain owner information is verified and confirmed,” the site said.

But despite this confidence, efforts to attack site domains are gathering pace. An announcement on the website of the Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet (AZAPO) proposes amendments to Russian copyright law which would allow for the pre-trial suspension of domain names.

“AZAPO proposes…that if a site does not show its owner information, or it is not supported by its WHOIS information, rights holders should have the right to require the pre-trial blocking of the whole site, not just the pages on which there are disputed works,” the group said.

While for many Russia might seem far away, it’s certainly a battleground to watch. Initially slow out of the blocks, Russia is now increasingly quick to introduce new and aggressive anti-piracy measures. However, this enthusiasm is matched by site operators and their users who are prepared to do whatever is necessary to retain access to free content.

This battle is far from over.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

This week anti-piracy outfit MUSO announced the launch of a new component to its portfolio of content protection solutions. Titled ‘Retune’ the package aims to enable rights holders to directly market and sell their content to piracy-engaged audiences.

In a world dominated by companies specializing in simply taking down content, shutting down sites and even suing end users, the possibility of a more creative approach to piracy issues piqued our interest. TorrentFreak caught up with MUSO to find out more.

“Retune is an automated direct-to-fan platform delivering a positive on-brand message directly from the rights owner to audience. It’s about giving fans a better, more compelling offer, right at the moment they’re engaged to seek it out via piracy networks,” Chief Commercial Officer Christopher Elkins informs TF.

But of course, getting the attention of pirates and potential pirates on their home turf can be notoriously tricky and certainly more easily said than done. So how does MUSO aim to connect with these potential customers?

“However that audience is behaving within the piracy system, via search engine results, streaming or direct download piracy websites, social media or P2P, Retune aims to engage them – using piracy as the delivery system to re-direct attention to pre-sale, previews, streaming, local listings or live events,” Elkins explains.

The company isn’t revealing everything at this stage but there are certainly opportunities to capture ‘pirate’ eyes in search results via Google ads, for example. Equally, it’s also possible to inject ads into streaming and direct download sites. Some might even be persuaded to replace links to pirate content with those pointing to official sites, a technique that has been tried before.

In any event, it appears MUSO is happy to seek attention wherever it can.

“Retune is designed to interact anywhere in that journey, from the initial specific keyword searches, and directly on piracy-focused websites, rights owner-controlled Retune pages, blogs and within message board forums directly,” Elkins says.

By treating pirates as fans more than foes, MUSO says it hopes to direct these potential customers to licensed channels such as Spotify and iTunes. Equally, its Retune platform will help rightsholders update users about new content, promotional material, and the availability of additional products such as concert tickets. Ultimately, however, rightsholders will have the choice of which direction to go.

“An incredibly exciting challenge for rights holders is in exploring how best to serve this audience at that moment of engagement, to give them a better and more compelling experience for the long-term,” the company says.

Once MUSO has the interest of these new customers it appears to want to engage them more deeply over time through what it describes as an ‘optional remarketing advertisement system’.

“The [Retune] platform allows rights owners to integrate their own 3rd party remarketing services to collect and retain cookies anonymously for future marketing possibilities,” Elkins explains.

Finally, it will come as no surprise that regular DMCA-style takedowns are part of the Retune package. MUSO not only sees these as a mechanism enabling customers to compete with piracy but also one crucial for increasing visibility of the various components within its Retune package.

“Anti-piracy has become an essential first step for any rights owner or creative individual in ensuring their content is seen and appreciated by the widest possible audience in the right way, so that they’re able to build and foster a direct relationship with that audience,” Elkins says.

“Takedowns enable rights owners to compete with and devalue the piracy market, so removing infringing content and search results is hugely important for Retune content to gain maximum exposure in supporting and complementing the rights owner’s existing websites and portals.”

More information on Retune can be found here and if readers encounter the platform in the wild, please feel free to relay your experiences.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.