Author: Andy

One of the hottest topics in the game piracy scene in late 2015 surrounded the Avalanche Studios/Square Enix title Just Cause 3.

Released on December 1, 2015, pirates were eager to get their hands on the game for free. However, JC3 is protected by the latest iteration of Denuvo, an anti-tamper technology developed by Denuvo Software Solutions GmbH. Denuvo is not DRM per se, but acts as a secondary encryption system protecting underlying DRM products.

All eyes had been on notorious Chinese game cracking group/forum 3DM to come up with the goods but last month the group delivered a killer blow to its fans.

According to the leader of the group, the very public ‘Bird Sister’ (also known as Phoenix), the game was proving extremely difficult to crack. In fact, Bird Sister said that current anti-piracy technology is becoming so good that in two years there might not be pirated games anymore.

One month on from those words and Just Cause 3 still hasn’t been cracked and today brings even more bad news for those hoping to obtain the best gaming titles for free. Taking to her personal blog once more, Bird Sister has just announced an immediate end to the cracking activities of 3DM.

“We just had an internal meeting. Starting at the Chinese New Year, 3DM will not crack any single-player games,” Bird Sister says.

For those wondering, the Chinese New Year is next Monday, February 8.

“Cracks by overseas warez groups will still get posted on the [3DM] forum, and we will actively deal with these,” the group’s leader adds.

It is not entirely clear what “actively deal with” means, but the suggestion is that these cracks will not be allowed on the 3DM BBS/forum.

Bird Sister

What is perhaps most interesting, however, is the group’s apparent reasoning for ceasing their cracking activities. Denuvo was previously cited as a headache for the group but this time around that technology isn’t mentioned.

Instead, 3DM essentially indicates they’re taking part in an experiment to see how the lack of cracks affects the legitimate market.

“We’ll take a look at the situation in a year’s time to see if genuine sales have grown,” Bird Sister says.

There can be little doubt that the effective withdrawal of 3DM from the piracy market will be received as a huge blow to the group’s fans internationally who have come to rely on it for their pirate fix. There is a modicum of good news for the Chinese though, since 3DM will still work on translating and localizing games for its internal market.

The announcement comes on the heels of yesterday’s earnings report from Square Enix, the company behind Just Cause 3 and fellow Denuvo-protected (and also yet to be cracked) title Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Square Enix of America and Europe CEO Phil Rogers said both games had enjoyed “solid starts” but stopped short of revealing sales stats.

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

Earlier this week a new piece of software debuted alongside promises to revolutionize how people use torrents.

Covered in our earlier article, Torrents-Time is a browser plug-in for Windows and Mac that allows people to view torrents embedded in a webpage and without need for an external torrent client.

The Torrents-Time team promised that their technology could transform any website into a simple to use streaming portal. Indeed, the first public application was 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.

But just days later and a new and even more powerful partner has emerged.

Last evening The Pirate Bay became the first general torrent index to utilize Torrents-Time technology. The site has now placed Torrents-Time links next to all of its video torrents, meaning that users with the plug-in can watch videos on The Pirate Bay without using a stand-alone torrent client or even leaving the page.

As illustrated in the image above the Torrents-Time links are labeled ‘Stream It! (BETA)’. Once clicked the user is given the chance (if he hasn’t done so already) to install the software. From there a popup window appears containing a video player. Clicking the ‘play’ button delivers an advert to buy a VPN which warns that IP addresses are exposed.

At this point users have the option to subscribe to a VPN for a period ranging from a day to a year or, if they prefer, they can click the ‘close’ button in the right hand corner of the advert to skip. At this point the software uses trackers, DHT and PEX in order to find other peers with the required content.

Once a number of peers have been found and enough content has been buffered, playback can begin. The player is a basic but functional affair, with the addition of subtitling and casting features for those with Chromecast, Airplay and DNLA devices to hand.

With The Pirate Bay jumping on board, Torrents-Time has received a huge shot in the arm and will probably enjoy some decent revenues too. For its part, TPB has transformed from the world’s second largest torrent site (KAT has that crown for now) into the world’s largest streaming portal.

The question now is when and if other torrent sites will find the Torrents-Time package attractive enough to jump on board.

Update: Torrentproject.se, Videomax.is and Online.porntime.ws will soon feature Torrents-Time functionality. And according to the team, KickassTorrents will also join the club this Sunday or Monday.

“We are certain that in no time we’ll be embedded in all torrent sites who care to move-on with this evolution,” the Torrents-Time team informs TF.

“We will allow everybody to watch any movie they wish from torrent sites who embed us, when they want, without having to store someone’s file on their hard disk. It’s ‘watching together’ or ‘Co-Watch’ technology, made possible by Torrents Time.”

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

The aim on most file-sharing and streaming sites is for users to either download or play content, whether that’s the former to their hard drive or the latter in a YouTube-style window.

It should be straightforward but all too often users are presented with an array of buttons, all of which claim to either ‘download’ or ‘play’ when in reality only one actually does anything useful. In conjunction with suspect advertisers, it appears that some site operators are happy to send users down a rabbit hole of frustration.

Users pressing the wrong buttons (and there are millions of them) often end up on dodgy sites pushing unwanted software or offering get rich quick schemes, subscription traps, or worse. But now, thanks to Google, their prevalence might be somewhat curtailed on file-sharing sites and other popular locations such as Facebook.

According to a new announcement from the company titled ‘No More Deceptive Download Buttons’, Google says it will expand its eight-year-old Safe Browsing initiative to target some of the problems highlighted above.

“You may have encountered social engineering in a deceptive download button, or an image ad that falsely claims your system is out of date. Today, we’re expanding Safe Browsing protection to protect you from such deceptive embedded content, like social engineering ads,” the company says.

Those receiving protection from Google and its Chrome browser will be presented with a message similar to the one below.

In order to qualify as part of a social engineering attack, content embedded in webpages must demonstrate a key feature – an attempt to lure the user into a false sense of security by masquerading as something they would ordinarily trust.

For example, content falling foul of Google’s rules would be that which acts or feels like a user’s own device or web browser, or even pretends to be part of the website the user is on. Content that tries to trick the user into doing something it would only normally do for a trusted third-party (such as sharing a password or calling tech support) will also be targeted.

In our recent article detailing sites that employ some of these practices, we highlighted those that mislead the user into thinking they need to update software (such as Flash or a media player) to play a video.

Google says that these kinds of techniques will also become a target for its systems.

“Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning,” Google explains. “We’ll continue to improve Google’s Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safe online.”

In 2015 Google took action against major torrent sites on at least two key occasions, once in July and again in October. The warning messages were triggered by Google’s “Unwanted Software” scanner which flags websites that pose a potential danger to visitors. The issues were remedied when the sites weeded out some bad advertisers.

Google’s campaign will not just affect file-sharing sites though. The same kinds of techniques are being used all over the web and the tech giant hopes to get involved no matter where they appear.

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

With billions in entertainment industry revenues reportedly at stake, it’s unsurprising that the piracy debate has become so polarized over the years. With millions of illegal downloads happening on a daily basis, emotions rarely run anything but high.

As a result lobbyists have placed the public into two distinct camps – those who pay for all of the media they consume and those who frequent pirate sites and contribute nothing to the artist-supporting economy. It’s a convenient demarcation that has allowed for the celebration of one subset and the demonization of the other.

However, for a long time it’s been increasingly obvious that the battle lines are a lot less black and white. In fact, with the advent of services like Netflix now being delivered on an almost global basis, there are even greater opportunities for pirates to be simultaneous legitimate consumers. Over in Australia there are yet more signs that this is the case.

Billed as “Australia’s respected and reliable national omnibus poll”, the Essential Report is published by Essential Research. The report tracks voting intention while asking questions about pressing social issues of the day. The sample is around 1000 citizens.

Among other things the latest edition touches on media consumption, both from official and unofficial sources. Australia is often painted as a country of pirates but the survey finds that the majority prefers to keep things on the straight and narrow.

Downloading for free

When respondents were asked if in anyone in their household downloads movies, music or television shows for free, 64% said that to their knowledge no one does. That percentage was steady across male and female respondents, with 63% and 64% respectively.

There was some variation across age groups though, with 65% of the 35-54 year-olds and just 49% of the 18-34 year old group saying no one downloads content for free.

Interestingly the headline 64% figure has remained relatively unchanged for the past several years. In October 2013 an identical percentage said that there were downloaders in their households, a figure that was marginally up on the 61% reported in May 2012.

When questioned, just over a quarter – 26% – said that people do indeed download content for free in their homes. There was a perhaps expected variation across the sexes – 28% for men, 25% for women.

The age groups also provide few surprises, with the likelihood of people downloading falling as age increases. Around 39% of 18-34 year-olds said that there are downloaders in their homes, dropping to just 13% in the 55-year-old plus category.

The 26% of homes with free downloaders present is well down on the 32% reported in May 2012. However, there has been little change from the 27% reported in October 2013.

Subscription services, Netflix etc

Those surveyed were asked if anyone in their household subscribes to content streaming services such as Netflix or the more localized Foxtel. Overall an impressive 51% of respondents said someone in their house is a customer, with Foxtel coming out on top with 30% and Netflix in second place with 25%.

In respect of Netflix there is a considerable variation across the age groups, with 47% of 18-34 year-olds and just 8% of 55+ year-olds subscribing to the service. But perhaps the most interesting figures are those which demonstrate how many subscribers to legitimate services are also downloading content for free.

According to the survey, 36% of households with Netflix subscriptions also partake in content which they don’t pay for. However, when all streaming subscriptions are factored in a significant 66% of households who pay for their media are also obtaining content online for free.

These figures are another indication of how dangerous it is to demonize downloaders when they’re also some of the industry’s best customers. They also show the current popularity of Netflix but whether growth will persist in the wake of the recent VPN crackdown will remain to be seen.

The report can be downloaded here (pdf).

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

There can be little doubt that in recent months the Popcorn Time phenomenon has been turned on its head, with legal action by the MPAA just one of the concept’s problems.

Since the breakup of the PopcornTime.io team there has been much jockeying behind the scenes, with various groups trying to variously revitalize and take control of new forks and development. Very little of this activity has led to innovation.

However, while all of this has been underway the most popular remaining fork – Popcorn-Time.se – hasn’t been sitting on its laurels. While keeping out of the various squabbles, this fork has been quietly innovating in the background. Today we bring news of a development that has the potential to inject a whole new wave of enthusiasm into the format.

Popcorn Time enters the browser

Several times in the past year developers have launched sites which appear to allow Popcorn Time to run in a browser. However, instead of utilizing the BitTorrent architecture that powers the Popcorn Time app, these simply grabbed content from swarms and delivered them to users via HTTP. With many thousands of users, bandwidth quickly ran out and most of these websites bit the dust.

A new third-party system already being utilized by the folks behind Popcorn-Time.se aims to do things differently and they have a demo site up to demonstrate their vision for the future.

As can be seen from the image above, Popcorntime-Online.io looks very much like other browser-based versions of Popcorn Time. However, instead of delivering content to users via expensive HTTP, the site relies on a special plug-in called Torrents-Time which effectively embeds a torrent client into the browser.

Torrents-Time

Available for now on Windows 7 and above, the Torrents-Time plug-in allows Popcorntime-Online.io to embed Popcorn Time content in every major browser, although in fact any torrent video can be displayed.

“The Torrents Time plugin contains 2 parts: A torrent-client engine, based on the Libtorrent library and a video player which is completely 100% written by us, which utilizes FFmpeg. It encodes most of the known video formats,” the team informs TF.

“Regularly, you need to run a BitTorrent client to begin downloading a torrent. A torrent client built-in to the browser enables the downloading of the file referred to by the torrent with one click, with the torrent appearing on the HTML page. The user does not need to run a separate BitTorrent client.”

For those wondering how Torrents-Time obtains peers, the client can function with regular trackers and also utilizes PEX and DHT when necessary. The other key features of the Torrents-Time system are shown below.

The claims of ‘instant’ streaming couldn’t be matched in our early tests with videos taking up to a minute or two to buffer sufficiently to allow playback. However, once the initial wait was over the video appeared as promised with smooth delivery and decent audio. Multi-language subtitles complete the basic viewing package.

VPN and casting

The Torrents-Time service currently utilizes Anonymous VPN as its privacy provider. They claim to have a no logging policy. However, Torrents-Time say they are open to working with other suppliers too.

“We invite every VPN provider to contact us, as we appreciate that anonymity is one of the most important features for users’ privacy,” they add.

There was a bug in the casting feature which meant we could not test it, but the team says an update will be launched in a few hours which will fix the issue. In the meantime, some tech specs for the geeks.

“The casting option integrates features including Chromecast, Airplay and DLNA. To implement these features we are using open source features like airplay-js’ castv2-client, mdns-js, node-captions, node-ssdp, upnp-mediarenderer-client and chromecast-js,” the team explain.

Torrents in the browser have been expected

With the impressive WebTorrent waiting in the wings, browser-based BitTorrent streaming is a highly anticipated development and a much needed solution to resource-hungry HTTP transfers. With this in mind the debut of the Torrents-Time-powered site Popcorntime-Online.io is an important event.

Interestingly, however, another site appeared late 2015 offering similar functionality. PopcornTorrents.com also embeds video in the browser but instead uses technology provided by Hola, details of which can be found here. Readers will remember Hola being in the news last year due to controversy over the way the service operates.

There’s no suggestion whatsoever that Torrents-Time is involved in similar practices, but the service does aim to branch out commercially in different ways, as its notes to publishers explain.

A torrent-streaming website hydra?

“By harnessing the incredible abilities of torrents, you can transform your website, in a matter of seconds to an amazing, simple to use streaming website! And by doing so, you will expose your website to new user segments, while massively increasing time on site and the number of user interactions on your website,” the company explains.

“We’re starting a revolution in a field that has never been revolutionized before – the way download, streaming and torrents websites monetize their traffic! With Torrents Time you’ll be able to generate more revenue than with any PPI company or ad network, while maintaining a great, worthy relationship with your awesome users.”

If Torrents-Time lives up to its claims and gains traction as promised there could be a massive wave of easy-to-setup websites utilizing its technology in no time at all. Taking them all down could prove impossible. Time to get the popcorn out.

PopcornTime-Online can be viewed here (Github). Torrents-Time can be found here (Github)

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

In addition to providing shelter, places to cook, plus rudimentary electrical and sanitation facilities for homeless people, Dignity Village in Florida also provided its residents with free WiFi. This resource was invaluable for staying in touch with the outside world, attempting to find work and participate in training.

However, according to Jonathan DeCarmine, operations director of GRACE Marketplace, a non-profit which coordinates homeless services in North Central Florida, residents and visitors no longer have access to the service.

“We were notified by our Internet service provider that there were people downloading things illegally, and if we didn’t put an end to that, they would turn off Internet to the entire property, which would keep us from being able to do business and provide services,” DeCarmine says.

Apparently the illegal downloading continued, as did the complaints. This resulted in the Village feeling under pressure to safeguard its Internet connection.

“We had a couple complaints from our provider and notified everyone, ‘please don’t do this, we’ll end up losing the service,’ and it happened again, so our decision was to disable the Wi-Fi because we would be charged,” Theresa Lowe, executive director of the North Central Florida Coalition for the Homeless and Hungry, told WUFT.

TorrentFreak contacted Dignity Village for additional details but we are yet to receive a response. However it seems clear that their Internet service provider has received complaints from copyright holders about peer-to-peer file-sharing taking place in the Village.

These notices often contain scary language which suggest that people can be on the hook for $150,000 in statutory damages if file-sharing continues. It’s a terrifying prospect for a homeless shelter trying to make ends meet so one can sympathize with their decision to withdraw WiFi.

That being said, the actions of a minority may have spoiled it for everyone in Dignity Village and there can be no doubt that strongly worded threats from copyright holders have also played their part.

Furthermore, while they are complying with the law, the Village’s ISP should certainly be more sympathetic. While copyright infringement laws apply to all, the ISP should understand that like itself, Dignity Village is effectively a service provider too, albeit one that doesn’t have the resources to effectively police its users.

TF asked Dignity Village which content providers had been sending infringement notices and when we receive a response we’ll update this article accordingly. But in the meantime, here’s some food for thought. There are largely three groups of companies sending notices to Internet service providers in the United States.

The first are the major studios and record labels involved in the so-called “six strikes” scheme. These companies send out large volumes of notices to connections which they claim are entirely residential. However, it’s unclear whether Dignity Village has a business or residential account with its Internet provider.

The second group involves rightsholders that aren’t part of the scheme. These target both residential and business users but do not ask for cash settlements or push aggressively for disconnections. However, these groups are known to pressure ISPs to take action against infringing accounts.

The third group are the copyright trolls, including companies like Rightscorp which not only demands cash but also aggressively seeks Internet account disconnections. Their emails to ISPs are designed to scare and with a recent victory over Cox under their belt, the company is more emboldened than ever.

Either way, all three groups are having a chilling effect on the notion of providing free and open WiFi, with the residents of Dignity Village now feeling the effects most acutely. Let’s not forget too, at this stage these are mere allegations of copyright infringement, no one has been convicted of anything.

Finally, while Dignity Village has to protect itself, the Internet service provider that dares to disconnect its service on a copyright infringement allegation would be a very brave one indeed. Furthermore, the entertainment industry companies making the copyright infringement claims Dignity Village’s ISP would be committing commercial suicide if it pursued any claim against a Village resident.

With that in mind it might well be safe to turn the WiFi back on, but that’s the Village’s decision alone.

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

Any site offering a facility for users to upload content has to be aware that some of that material is likely to infringe on someone’s copyrights. For sites aiming to please the United States of America, that means having a registered DMCA agent, at the very least.

For sites further afield, Russia for example, the DMCA is of little concern, but that doesn’t absolve them from copyright responsibilities. This week and after years of friction, the Russian state finally ordered the blocking of RuTracker, the country’s most popular torrent site.

The decision prompted an interesting response from the site. Instead of honoring takedown notices from copyright holders, RuTracker downgraded all of the special accounts it had given to anti-piracy outfits, effectively revoking their ability to take any content down. The message was essentially this: We cooperated and you still blocked us – *&$% you!

Of course, this attitude to copyright law is nothing new. The Pirate Bay has refused to take anything down on copyright grounds from day one and yet it remains up today. However, The Pirate Bay is a giant site with huge resources at its disposal, meaning that keeping the site going in spite of the law is a completely achievable task.

While it’s common knowledge that TPB’s attitude has placed it on law enforcement radars, the same goes for dozens of other less aggressive sites too. All major torrent and streaming sites have been warned by the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit that they consider their operations to be criminal, and the High Court has been happy to order local ISPs to block them all.

So given that the police would arrest the operators of most sites given the right resources, what is actually the point of taking down any content at all? Why aren’t sites simply giving copyright holders the middle finger as RuTracker did this week?

Getting site admins to talk on this topic isn’t easy, but this week and on condition of anonymity, TF spoke with the operators of several sites who agreed to share their thoughts on DMCA-style compliance. It appears that while sites have a precarious position, keeping on the right side of civil law is an important part of staying online.

“We had an email from [PIPCU] but we also had letters from other anti-piracy agencies for years now. We’re too far in to close and if we did our record [with the copyright holders / authorities] won’t be cleaned anyway,” one site operator informs TF.

“Our main problem is to stay hosted so we obey [takedown notices] to keep our host out of trouble. We do that we stay online. That’s all he asks. It works for us but every few months we have to move. Hosts get tired of complaints.”

Another site operator told us that while takedown notices still come in, dealing with them is a futile exercise that does nothing to take pressure off the site.

“There’s no point in taking down anything anymore,” he says.

“They now go after your server provider, domain registrar, domain reseller, domain NIC, mail hosting, DNS hosting and SSL provider, toilet paper supplier and even cocaine supplier. They go after whoever you can think of, even if you are compliant.”

But while there may be no point in expecting that dealing with DMCA notices will make life easier, one admin confirms that taking steps like those taken by RuTracker this week will eventually lead to problems.

“RuTracker will eventually run into issues with their server providers because A) They will be pushed hard from ‘someone’, B) The upstreams of their server providers will be pushed hard,” he explains.

“They will be pushed hard because they stated ‘fuck you’ to all MPAA/RIAA/etc.”

Generally, it seems that complying with the DMCA and its European equivalents is all about staying online. While some hosts appear to be less sensitive to the issue, most do not want to be dealing with endless complaints about copyright content not being taken down. After all, human patience has limits, whether the complaints received are justified or not.

The big question then is just how compliant sites are choosing to be. It’s common knowledge that sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz comply with DMCA notices as a matter of course, the gaps in their search results and reports that torrents have been removed are a testament to that. Others (and it’s hard to say how many) now find it as important to be seen to be compliant to please their hosts.

Overall, it seems unlikely that many sites will publicly extend a middle finger to the DMCA, even though they know that complying with it does little to stop attacks on their infrastructure. It does keep them friendly with their hosts though, and while hosts may not like the hassle, they remain tolerant as long the balance between profit and time spent stays in the black.

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

Over the years many people have put their necks on the line to defend what they believe to be right. Sadly, when things get out of control, some have even paid with their lives.

While copyright struggles are important, they are rarely a matter of life and death. Nevertheless, there are those who are prepared to make big sacrifices to defend citizens’ rights to communicate freely online. Activists come in all shapes and sizes but within the file-sharing landscape few have been more daring than the world’s various Pirate parties.

Both the Swedish and UK Pirate parties have stepped up to defend and support The Pirate Bay in recent years and both have lived to tell the tale. However, members of the Czech Pirate Party are now staring down the barrel of a gun with their future at stake.

As reported earlier this week, the party is being prosecuted by the police for running TV piracy site Sledujuserialy.cz (translated: I Watch TV Series). However, while most site operators try to avoid trouble, the chief of the party’s International Department says this conflict with the law was intentional.

“The original idea to create the web page came from outside. However, the former owners were threatened by ČPU (Czech Anti-Piracy Union) so they agreed to transfer control to us, since our party was ready to face the fight with ČPU,” Mikuláš Ferjenčík informs TF.

“We took patronage over the website in January 2013 in order to achieve a precedent similar to the Svensson case, so our original intention was to initiate such a reaction.”

And a reaction is what the party got.

On Thursday 21st January the Czech pirates were officially notified that their party will be prosecuted in criminal court for running the site. They’re keen to point out that the site carried no copyrighted content on its servers but instead linked to TV series via embedded links.

“Our intention is to create a precedent clearly confirming that a link is not a crime. No one shall be persecuted for referring to other’s web sites,” Ferjenčík says.

“Until now, mainly physical persons were criminalized by the Anti-Piracy Union. Their [targets’] positions were unfair since they often had no money to pay lawyers, so they often had to accept unfair extrajudicial settlements.

“We are capable of covering the necessary costs and we would like to publicly show that the Anti-Piracy Union’s legal position is not strong enough for such behavior.”

Ferjenčík informs TF that while the site’s domain was registered to the party, the identity of its administrators is being protected. So, in this case no individual is being targeted by the Anti-Piracy Union and no-one is going to jail. However, the party’s actions could have serious consequences if it all goes wrong.

“We might have to ‘refund the losses’ (estimated to 5.5 millions CZK, around 200 thousand EUR). It is also possible that the Pirate Party could be dissolved as a legal entity. Fortunately, no physical person is in danger of being punished in any way,” Ferjenčík explains.

Despite the risks the party feels entirely justified in the position it has taken and stands by its decision to defend the hyperlink.

“Linking cannot be criminalized otherwise one would have to criminalize services like Google or Facebook and many others. It would break the Internet as we know it and it would result in huge damage to the whole economy,” Ferjenčík says.

Of course, the Pirate Party is a political entity and the current case will also have the effect of thrusting it into the spotlight. The timing couldn’t be better.

“The timing is very advantageous for us, since there will be regional elections during October 2016,” Ferjenčík concludes.

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

Blocking websites is in vogue for copyright holders all around Europe. They normally need to go to court to have allegedly-infringing sites blocked at the ISP level but in Portugal no such formality is required.

In recent months local Internet providers have already blocked hundreds of websites for allegedly linking to copyright infringing content. The action is the result of a voluntary arrangement between the Ministry of Culture, the Association of Telecommunication Operators, and copyright holders including anti-piracy group MAPiNET.

The lack of judicial oversight has been a concern for activists ever since the introduction of the agreement. Now it appears their fears were not unfounded.

Ultimate Music is a site operated by journalist and blogger Josep Vinaixa. He reports on entertainment industry news, such as track and album releases, and also embeds YouTube videos. In the image below one can see a typical piece which announces the launch of an album by Sigma and embeds an official Sigma video from YouTube.

Vinaixa works with international record labels who send him information about releases and even request that he embeds their videos in his site. However, local anti-piracy group MAPiNET believes that embedding YouTube videos is illegal unless Vinaixa’s website is licensed.

In an email from MAPiNET dated Dec 18 and shared with TorrentFreak, the anti-piracy outfit warns Vinaixa that he needs to “change his conduct” or face the consequences. (broken English email quoted verbatim)

“On the past 30 of July we have celebrated a MoU with the Portuguese association of ISPs APRITEL, Portuguese Cultural inspection entity IGAC, and others,” the email states.

“On this MoU websites that have more than 500 copyright protected works or if 2/3 of his content is copyrighted material presented there with no authorization from the legal rights owner are eligible to be blocked by DNS in Portugal.

“If this website do not change its conduct within the next 24 hours we will make all the diligences to proceed with the DNS blocking request.”

Less than an hour later a bemused Vinaixa responded, asking MAPiNET what could possibly be wrong with writing about artists and embedding their official videos in his news articles.

“I really want to fix this because I don’t want any problem. I’m just promoting the new music releases,” he explained.

After receiving no response, Vinaixa’s site was blocked by ISPs in Portugal on Christmas Day. The message now seen by visitors is shown below.

Credit: Revolucaodosbytes.pt

(Translated: The site you want to access is blocked in the wake of compliance of a Entitdade Regulatory notification)

On December 29, Vinaixa wrote to MAPiNET again.

“You blocked my site in Portugal and you didn’t answer my message. I want to fix this and make my site available in Portugal again. Can you please tell me what I have to do?” he begged.

On January 5, 2016, Vinaixa received a reply but it was not what he’d been hoping for.

“According to the information we have gathered from the Portuguese Music Licensing Company (PassMusica) and all music related Collective Management Entities, you have not submitted any licensing request for your site to operate in the Portuguese Territory,” MAPiNET explained.

“Having said that, we recommend you, as a first step, to obtain the correct licensing for your site to work properly and according to the Portuguese Legislation, and therefore we urge you to address the above mentioned entities.”

So, after being blocked by MAPiNET, Vinaixa turned to PassMusica for help.

“My website is a music site about new releases and future artists from all parts of the world. All the music / videos are from official channels like Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud or Vevo,” Vinaixa told the licensing outfit.

“I do not understand what I could do wrong, for you to block my access throughout your country. I simply want to return to be operational in Portugal and fix something if there is something to fix. Thank you so much.”

Again, the response was disappointing.

“Further to your email, we can confirm that we have not received any licensing request from you in order to operate in Portugal. Furthermore, we also have information that you have not requested authorization [from] the Record Company to make the music videos and tracks available through your website, as all the platforms you’ve mentioned have requested,” PassMusica told Vinaixa.

“We appreciate that the music and all the videos are from official channels, but those channels have negotiated directly with the record companies in order to be able to make such usage of music, as we are sure you have not. Also, those channels, in their disclaimers do not authorize such utilization.”

But according to Vinaixa, that is nonsense.

“Excuse me but that’s not true,” he told PassMusica earlier this month.

“All the labels from UK, Australia, USA and Spain send me the information about the releases from their artists and they want me to put all of the videos and audios (official link) on the site.”

Vinaixa told the licensing outfit he’s been working with the labels for three years and no one has ever complained. In fact, all he gets is thanks for his cooperation in promoting the labels’ artists.

“I don’t understand why Portugal blocked me when all the other countries are working with me, the labels and the artists’ advertising agencies. I just want to work properly as I have been doing around the world for 3 years. So you do not tell me I have no license, because I work closely with almost all the record labels.”

So for now Vinaixa and his site is in limbo while being treated like the dozens of hardcore pirate sites on MAPiNET’s register. They are no longer responding to his questions and Portuguese users are still unable to view his site.

According to a 2014 decision by the EU’s Court of Justice, if content is already freely available after being legally published and isn’t already subject to restrictions such as a subscription or pay wall, embedding is not a breach of EU law.

TorrentFreak contacted MAPiNET on two occasions to hear its reasons for blocking Ultimate Music but the anti-piracy group did respond to requests for comment.

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

Every year dozens of file-sharing websites are raided, blocked or otherwise attacked by authorities seeking to clamp down on the unauthorized distribution of copyrighted content. With the entertainment industries the main driving force, protection of their content always gets the most attention.

However, developments now being reported by the Italian government shows that authorities are prepared to get tough with people aiming to make money off the back of other web-based content.

According to an announcement by the Guardia di Finanza (GdF), a law enforcement agency under the authority of the Minister of Economy and Finance, coordinated national action has now been taken to prevent the unauthorized distribution of subscription editorial content.

Following an investigation carried out by the Special Unit for Broadcasting and Publishing, a number of individuals were identified as being responsible for the unauthorized publication of national and international newspapers and periodicals to the web without permission from rightsholders. In other words, news pirates.

The GdF says that following authorization from Rome Prosecutor’s office, ‘Operation Phoenix’ targeted locations in Naples, Carbonia-Iglesias, Brescia, Rome, Frosinone and Turin. Five Italian nationals were arrested on suspicion of being behind a total of 15 websites offering pirated news content including digital copies of subscription newspapers.

Ten local websites were raided and shutdown while five websites based overseas were blocked by interfering with their DNS records. Various items of computer equipment were also seized.

According to the GdF the operation was made possible following the introduction of a new system developed by the leading national media groups which enables the tracking of digital copies online. It said that the same principles applied in file-sharing cases were utilized in the current investigation.

“The enforcement efforts put in place by the Guardia di Finanza were made even more effective thanks to the innovative method of investigation based on the principle of ‘Follow the Money’,” the GdF said.

The authorities say they were led to the suspects after tracking the financial resources that connect the operators of the pirate sites to the suppliers of the adverts that appeared on their platforms.

According to the GdF a recent study on what it terms “the Italian publishing crisis” revealed that piracy of editorial content resulted in lost sales amounting to 400,000 copies of news articles each day during 2014. It claims that a five-year decline in sales has led to 4,800 jobs being lost in the sector.

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