Author: Andy

Without doubt the biggest piracy story of December was the drama surrounding the relentless stream of movies hitting the Internet from release group Hive-CM8. All more-or-less perfect copies of awards screeners, the leaks attracted attention from studios and even the FBI.

As law enforcement presumably continues to track the release group, leaks from Hive-CM8 have faltered somewhat, with sources pointing to a potential security breach as the reason.

However, after maintaining almost total silence, the people behind Hive-CM8 have not only released a couple more movies but have also broken their silence.

Their statement, aimed at close colleagues in private channels, is surprising to say the least. It accompanies the release of the Christian Bale movie The Big Short and begins with an admission that errors have been made. (some typos/grammar corrected by TF)

“We held back this title till 1 week after [theatrical release] to give the movie a fighting chance to play in the budget, we learned from our mistake,” Hive’s statement begins.

“We didn’t plan to comment at all on recent events, but we feel now that we should.”

First off, the group attempts to dispel rumors that the leaked screener copies had been sourced after some kind of hack.

“We got the copies sold from a guy on the street, no decryption was needed. We were definitely not the only ones [to have obtained copies]. A couple of other movies had been on the net days before, not done by us,” they note.

While the group has certainly released content in the past for notoriety, this time around Hive said it wanted to help those too poor to get the movies through official channels.

“So we wanted to share [these] movies with the people who are not rich enough or not able to watch all nominated movies in the cinema. Of course [these files] are not representing the movies how they can be enjoyed in the cinema.”

It’s not uncommon for release groups to request that those viewing ‘their’ movies should support the producers by enjoying content through official channels and in the cinema where possible. Hive is no different, noting that creators “need the money from ticket sales to get back [their] production costs.”

However, what then follows is a clear apology to Quentin Tarantino and those behind his movie The Hateful Eight. Hive leaked this title before it had even opened in cinemas, something which they now regret.

“We feel sorry for the trouble we caused by releasing that great movie before [it’s release date] had even begun. We never intended to hurt anyone by doing that, we didn’t know it would get that popular that quickly,” Hive explains.

“The Hateful Eight is an excellent, thrilling and entertaining Western that combines terrific direction, a fantastic cast, a wonderful script, beautiful photography and a memorable score. All of those elements make The Hateful Eight an unforgettable film that is Quentin Tarantino at his best.”

But while acknowledging that tickets sales fund production costs and apologizing for their actions, Hive say they believe the leak of The Hateful Eight won’t do long-term damage to the title and has probably even helped it.

“Since everyone is now talking about this movie we don’t think the producers will [lose] any money [upon theatrical release]. We actually think this has created a new type of media hype that is more present in the news, radio and in the papers than Star Wars, and the promotional costs for this were free,” Hive says.

And here’s the math…..

“If let’s say 5% of the people planned to watch this movie at cinema date, due to this media push we unintentionally created, we believe that now 40% of the people will watch this movie in the cinema [because] everyone is talking about it and everyone wants to see the movie that created so much noise. This will push the cinema ticket sales for sure.

“We really hope this helped out the producers in the long-run, so that the production costs are covered and more.”

After thanking Quentin Tarantino for a “wonderful movie”, Hive notes that The Hateful Eight should be the top awards candidate and will “win by a mile” over its rivals. However, it’s pre-release will mark the last time that Hive leaks content before it appears in cinemas and for those waiting for the 40 leaks the group promised earlier, disappointment lies in wait.

“We won’t do another movie before its [theatrical release], and we definitely won’t go up to 40 as planned, we think we have done enough already,” Hive concludes.

That being said, two further screener releases have appeared in private channels during the past couple of days – The Big Short as previously noted and Golden Globe nominee Anomalisa. Both are now available publicly too, but without being attributed to Hive. Instead, both carry a generic ‘P2P’ tag.

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

Amazon’s Fire TV stick is a great little device. Plugging nicely into an available HDMI port on most TVs, the device ‘smartens up’ the dumbest of devices and makes available the growing world of IPTV services.

The one currently plugged into my TV in the bedroom has mainly been used for the ‘free’ video streaming services bundled with Amazon Prime but the stick is equally at home streaming video from Netflix or any of the many services available from Amazon’s store.

However, Amazon’s little device has a trick up its sleeve. Being Android based, Fire TV Stick can run a much wider array of apps and services than Amazon offers through its regular on-screen interface. Of particular interest is Kodi, which together with a vast array of plugins offers access to all the latest movies, TV shows and live sports most people could ever need.

And news of just how special the Fire TV Stick/Kodi combo can be has been traveling fast in the past few weeks, particularly in the UK.

The first signs that something might be going on came very early December when even for Prime customers Amazon started advising that delivery for Fire TV Sticks was not the usual ‘next day’, but was actually nearer two weeks. For someone looking to buy two units as gifts, that was unacceptable. Other stores weren’t much help either.

After checking stock at nearly two dozen Argos and Currys retailers (both huge operations in the UK), just two units were found at the former 12 miles away. But the bizarre thing was that when I collected the items the lady behind the counter asked smilingly: “Are these for Kodi?”

Of course, I know about Kodi. We all know about Kodi. But for it to be mentioned without any prompting at the point of sale in a retailer was quite a surprise to say the least. And for a worker at a non-specialist retailer to know so much about it hints at the scale of the issue.

In case you missed it, Amazon banned Kodi from its store in the summer over piracy concerns but with the official APK plus adbFire and a loader like FireStarter, the software runs like a dream on Amazon Fire TV Stick.

“Everybody is buying these for Kodi, you can get everything on it. But that’s it now, we’re out of stock,” I was told while handing over the cash. Interesting…..

Intrigued, in the weeks that followed I monitored stock at Argos, Currys/PC World, Amazon themselves and several other big retailers including John Lewis and the nation’s biggest supermarket, Tesco. After an initial delay Amazon appeared to do the best in having stock available but all the rest really struggled.

Now, just days after Christmas, Currys/PC World have zero stock for home delivery and its the same situation at Tesco, John Lewis and Argos. Checking for local stock at the latter in the London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow regions reveals not a single unit available. Only Amazon themselves can offer anything (correct, 28 Dec).

Granted, it’s more than likely that Fire TV Stick has proven popular with consumers due to it working with Netflix and iPlayer, but Chromecast does that too and anyone can buy one of those devices at any of the above retailers anywhere in the next hour.

Admittedly, it’s a possibility that Amazon screwed up and didn’t make enough Fire TV Sticks. But if that’s the case, why is eBay awash with (ahem) ‘fully loaded’ Amazon Fire TV Sticks for immediate delivery?

Also, Google Trends can sometimes offer an insight into what people are interested in during a given period. So, we locked into December, did searches for both Kodi and Fire TV, and restricted results to the UK.

As can be seen from the image below, not only is Kodi even more popular than Amazon’s device, but the interest in both the software and the hardware follows similar waves.

There can be little doubt that interest in both Kodi and Fire TV are now at a high, not only in the UK, but also elsewhere. It’s also a further sign that piracy has really migrated out of the bedroom and onto the living room TV, something that Hollywood and other interested parties really wanted to avoid.

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

Site blocking has been one of the big anti-piracy themes of 2015, with hundreds of sites blocked by ISPs all around the world.

Given its generally poor record for cracking down on piracy, it’s perhaps somewhat of a surprise that Russia is now one of the front-runners when it comes to piracy blocking.

In September it was revealed that in some form or another, Russia had restricted access to around 280 ‘pirate’ sites since the introduction of a new law in 2013.

However, in an effort to move away from the cat and mouse game often played by unauthorized sites, Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor has now thrown its weight behind a scheme to permanently block sites that persistently make available copyrighted content without permission.

RUTracker found itself sucked into that mechanism a couple of months ago, despite offering to take drastic action to avoid it. Now it appears that other leading sites are likely to fall foul of the legislation in the months to come.

According to predictions just made by Roscomnadzor, during 2016 rights holders will succeed in having the top 15 torrent sites permanently blocked. Of course, this kind of talk usually triggers talk of VPNs, proxies and other workarounds, but the watchdog says that the overwhelming majority of users won’t try to access the blocked sites.

“[The blocked sites’] traffic will be significantly reduced, because according to statistics 95% of people do not use tools to bypass locks,” the watchdog said in a statement on Twitter.

While the percentage of block evaders cited by Roscomnadzor is up for debate, the watchdog has just carried out a public survey which aims to provide a clearer picture on why Internet users turn to torrents. After conducting the survey via Twitter, Roscomnadzor published the results.

Marginally ahead with 37% of the votes were users who said they used torrents because “I do not want to pay”.

In second place with 36% were users who say they use torrents for “other reasons”, with many respondents noting that the content they are looking for is unavailable through regular channels.

In third with 17% of the vote were people who use torrents since they don’t know where to buy the content they’re looking for legally. The remaining 10% reported not using torrents.

In a statement issued after the poll closed, Roscomnadzor said that content providers need to find the right mix of pricing and availability. However, even that may not do the trick.

“In the current economic climate it is necessary to find a balance in which the content will be available, and the price will match the quality,” the watchdog said. “However, many simply do not want to pay.”

That’s where site-blocking comes in but only time will tell whether Roscomnadzor’s prediction of 95% efficiency will play out in the long term.

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

Following a three year investigation by Hollywood-backed anti-piracy group the Federation Against Copyright Theft, last week five of the UK’s most prolific movie pirates were sentenced in the West Midlands.

Graeme Reid, 40, from Chesterfield, Scott Hemming, 25, and Reece Baker, 22, both from Birmingham, Sahil Rafiq, 24, of Wolverhampton and Ben Cooper, 33, of Willenhall, received sentences totaling 17 years.

The men were behind several interrelated movie release groups including RemixHD, 26K, UNiQUE, DTRG and HOPE/RESISTANCE.

“Over a number of years the groups illegally released online more than 2,500 films including Argo, the Avengers and Skyfall,” FACT said in a statement.

“The outreach of their criminality was vast. On just one website where the group shared their films there had been millions of downloads.”

Speaking at Wolverhampton Crown Court, FACT prosecutor David Groome said that the men had gone to great lengths to avoid being detected. But was that really the case and just how easy was it to track them down?

TF has obtained papers detailing the FACT investigation and they reveal that unmasking the men was surprisingly easy. In descending sentence length:

Sahil Rafiq – Jailed for 4 years and 6 months

In July 2012 a FACT investigator began monitoring Rafiq’s release group, 26K. He found that many of the torrents had been uploaded by a user known as ‘memory100′.

It was discovered that ‘memory100′ had a profile on torrent site Torlock and it was determined that the same user also went under other names including ‘sohail20′, ‘hail_alpha’ and ‘froggie100′, with the former laying down the golden crumb.

In 2012, Sohail20 had posted on a forum belonging to online retailer PC Specialist. In that post he complained about issues he was having with a laptop.

“Could you help me out?” he asked. “Kind Regards, Sahil Rafiq.”

Further searches on the name Sohail20 revealed an account on PhotoBucket and a Memory100 logo file named memory100.jpg (now removed).

Suspecting they were closing in, FACT’s investigator turned to Facebook and found Rafiq’s profile. From there they found his place of work, a science school in Wolvehampton in central UK. FACT then turned to credit reference agency Equifax which revealed Rafiq’s home address. These details were handed to the police.

Reece Baker – Jailed for 4 years and 2 months

In 2012 the same FACT investigator began monitoring Baker’s release group ‘HOPE’. In the ‘NFO’ (information) files attached to a HOPE release, it was revealed that the encoder was called ‘Baker92′ while detailing a Hushmail email address where he could be contacted.

In another NFO file Baker would make a fatal mistake with the comment “My First Encode Comment & Tell Me What You Think – Plus I Love My Baby Momzie Ria”

After finding a post on torrent site Myris.me which indicated that Baker92 had been a member of another release group DTRG, FACT again turned to Equifax. Presuming the ’92’ in his nickname related to his birth year, FACT searched for any person named Baker born in 1992 with an association to anyone called Ria. This led FACT – and the police – to Reece Baker’s front door.

Graeme Reid – jailed for 3 years and 6 months

During the same month in which FACT investigated 26K, the anti-piracy group discovered from the group’s NFO files that they were affiliated with Reid’s group, RemixHD.

An NFO file for the movie 21 Jump Street revealed that the encoder was a person known as ‘Reidy’ who could be contacted at Hushmail email address. Hushmail is known for its security but that has limits – Reid used the same email address on his Facebook page where he described himself as an “encoder” who lived in Chesterfield.

FACT then turned to the Electoral Register and subsequently discovered Reid’s home address which was passed to the police.

Ben Cooper – jailed for 3 years and 6 months

During July 2012, when FACT were investigating HOPE, they discovered an associated user called ‘Cooperman666′ who also used a Hushmail email account. Again, an NFO file for a movie helped to make links, indicating that the encoding had been done by ‘Cooperman’.

Subsequent searches revealed that Cooperman666 was also an encoder for release group ANALOG and in their NFO files a Live.com email address was listed for contact. However, that same email address was also used for a Facebook account held in the name of Ben Cooper. That page revealed he lived in Wolverhampton and was born in 1981.

FACT turned to Equifax and the credit agency provided Cooper’s personal details.

Scott Hemming – 2 year suspended sentence

In July 2012, when FACT were investigating 26K, the anti-piracy group identified people who were formerly members of another release group known as DTRG. NFO files examined by FACT listed the encoder as ‘Kareemzos’ who could be contacted on the email address “iencodefordtrg@live.co.uk”

After linking Kareemzos to other groups including MARGIN, UNiQUE and INSANE, FACT then struck lucky. Posts made on Virgin Media’s support forum listed the same email address as above and it appears that the ISP later revealed that the associated account belonged to Hemming’s mother.

Again, Equifax provided the missing link by confirming that Hemming lived at the same house.

Conclusion

The above confirms that no amount of encryption is a replacement for basic Internet ‘hygiene’. Using the same aliases and email addresses across multiple sites while including birth dates and nicknames that point to real identities is clearly a recipe for disaster.

While FACT clearly did their homework and worked extremely hard to get convictions, the actions taken by these men to hide their identities aren’t shining examples of the art.

Coming next

After FACT and police tracked the men down to their homes, what happened next, what did they hope to find and how could this evidence be connected to their crimes? That article is coming up soon….

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

Call me old-fashioned or just plain old, but when people blatantly break the law in a public place I find that somewhat bemusing – especially if there is absolutely no gain in doing so.

For instance, while the tell-tale smell of marijuana is hardly worth a second sniff at a music festival, inhaling the same in a shopping mall is an altogether different affair. Stupid, confident or just couldn’t give a damn? Who knows, but it would be non-issue in private, that’s almost certain.

But could it be that smoking weed and other petty ‘crimes’ have become so commonplace that people have forgotten that they should consider hiding their habit? That thought struck me this week when reading a thread on Reddit, oddly enough focused on router manufacturer Netgear.

Netgear’s Genie is software designed to “Manage, Monitor, and Repair your Home Network”. In addition to diagnostic and repair features, users can use Genie to network map and manage wireless connections. Sounds great.

However, in addition to the above, Genie also has a feature called “Turbo Transfer” which allows users to quickly shift files between computers on the same network.

Like all good manufacturers, Netgear provides instructions on how to use this feature but it appears that the author of the tutorial either a) decided to carry on smoking pot at his workstation or b) forgot that Internet piracy is illegal.

Things start off innocently enough with the following diagram.

….but then descend into madness when Netgear’s employee either forgets he’s at work or simply doesn’t care anymore.

For those who haven’t spotted the faux pas, what we’re looking at in the above image is Netgear explaining how its users can send a pirate rip of the Michael Bay movie ‘Pain and Gain‘ across a network.

Possibly making matters worse is the fact that the movie appears to have been acquired from RARBG, one of the world’s most popular torrent sites. Presuming that the file was on a Netgear computer when the tutorial was made, one doesn’t have to be particularly imaginative to work out how it got there.

The tutorial in some form or another appears to have been on Netgear’s site for two years but depending on date format it could’ve been edited as recently as this month – “Updated 12/07/2015 12:13 PM,” Netgear’s site reads.

While unusual, this isn’t the first time a corporation has forgotten to hide its illegal file-sharing habits from the public.

In 2008, John Lewis used aXXo rips to sell iMacs and a year later Saturn, Europe’s largest retailer of consumer electronics, showed pirated films to sell Macbooks.

Then in 2010, electronics giant LG happily showed its customers how to play pirate movies on its TVs.

An archive copy of Netgear’s tutorial, should they take it down before getting the munchies and wondering off, can be found here.

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

With the majority of all commercially available software slushing round on the Internet in pirate form, companies have always sought secure anti-piracy mechanisms to protect their products.

One such solution is iLok from security company PACE. Now on its second generation, iLok2 is a relatively cheap proprietary USB dongle that acts as a license storage device for software protected by PACE Anti-Piracy. While iLok1 allows customers to carry up to 118 licenses, iLok2 can carry up to 500.

“Once a license is delivered to an iLok account, your user simply downloads the license to their iLok. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping,” the company explains.

“The license is stored safely and securely inside the solid-state iLok smart key and can then be used to provide the authorization for protected software to run on any computer where that software is installed.”

Over time, iLok appears to have gained a lot of traction within the pro-audio community, those individuals using sophisticated and often very expensive software such as Avid’s Pro Tools to create music. Licenses are managed from within the iLok License Manager, as illustrated in the image below.

However, after remaining somewhat secure iLok2 – and by extension all of the software development companies that use PACE’s system – appear to have a problem on their hands. During the past several days dozens of pieces of software that use the iLok system have started to appear online.

The releases come courtesy of cracking group AudioUTOPIA who explain with their Pro Tools release how their technique completely negates the need for the iLok system to be in place.

“Pro Tools setup will install the iLok driver however it’s not necessary for the release to work, you can disable it by pressing Windows key+R then typing services.msc, find “PACE License Services” right click and choose stop,” the group explains.

“Additionally you can removed the entire thing by going to Windows programs and features and uninstalling “PACE License Support Win64.”

Whether AudioUTOPIA’s crack represents a permanent defeat of the iLok system remains to be seen but currently pirates are celebrating a flood of software just in time for the festive season.

“Oh boy! Awesome fuckin release!” declared one. “I stopped believing in Santa a long time ago but I may just have to re-evaluate that assessment.”

The reverse could very well be the case in the PACE household this Christmas.

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

After expending hundreds of hours of legal resources since the momentous raid on Megaupload in 2012, the U.S. authorities left no stone unturned in their efforts to have Kim Dotcom and colleagues Mathias Ortmann, Finn Batato and Bram van der Kolk extradited from New Zealand to face justice in the United States.

Those efforts culminated in an extradition hearing that began in September and was scheduled to last just four weeks. In the event the process lasted more than two and half months and was punctuated by several moments of drama.

At the end of the hearing in November, Judge Nevin Dawson retired to consider his decision and a few moments ago released his much anticipated ruling.

In a blow to the Megaupload founder and his former colleagues, Judge Dawson ruled that the quartet can indeed be sent to the United States to face charges of copyright infringement, conspiracy, money laundering and racketeering.

Judge Dawson did not determine guilt or otherwise but found that the US Department of Justice (DOJ) had presented enough evidence for New Zealand to grant a request from the the United States to extradite. Dawson said that Dotcom and his colleagues had not done enough to undermine the case.

However, while Judge Dawson has rendered his decision, that does not mark the end of the battle. Speaking with TorrentFreak earlier today, Kim Dotcom confirmed that whatever the outcome, win or lose, appeals are likely.

“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 said.

Ira Rothkin, head of Dotcom’s legal team reiterated this on Twitter moments after the verdict was announced

The @KimDotcom team looks forward to having the US request for extradition reviewed in the High Court. We have no other comments at this time

— Ira Rothken (@rothken) December 23, 2015

We believe the dist ct was wrong. Today’s decision rendered the NZ ISP criminal copyright safe harbor illusory. Justice was not served today

— Ira Rothken (@rothken) December 23, 2015

In any event, the decision by Judge Dawson does not mean that Dotcom and his former colleagues will be forced to leave the country. That decision is left to Justice Minister Amy Adams who under New Zealand’s Extradition Act decides whether extraditions can go ahead.

In the meantime Dotcom and his former associates will continue to get bail, despite Judge Dawson noting that there was now a heightened flight risk. They must report twice a week to a police station.

Breaking news, updates to follow

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

When it comes to music-focused anti-piracy activity in the UK, the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) is the absolute market leader. Acting on behalf of many hundreds of recording industry members, there’s little doubt that the BPI has its finger on the pulse of local infringement.

While the effects of its work can at times be very public, the group’s anti-piracy activities are mostly carried out behind closed doors, from the removing of hundreds millions of links from Google’s search results to the wholesale blocking of hundreds of ‘pirate’ websites.

But despite these powerful moves, the BPI feels that it can do better. Previously the group operated its Copyright Protection Unit (CPU) and Internet Investigations unit as separate entities but will now restructure so that the former effectively absorbs the latter.

Speaking with Music Week the BPI confirmed that there will be at least two high-profile casualties following the reshuffle.

David Wood, Director of the Copyright Protection Unit, was responsible for tackling copyright infringement both on and offline. He was also responsible for managing the BPI’s Regional Investigators and its in-house Internet Investigations Team. He will now move on.

Also stepping aside is John Hodge, the BPI’s Head of Internet Investigations. A former police officer working in Internet Child Protection, Hodge had maintained his role at the BPI since July 2011 while liaising with Europol and Interpol, among others.

The BPI said that while it values the contributions of Wood and Hodge, the restructuring will allow its Copyright Protection Unit to focus on removing illegal content and blocking websites. It will also continue its “Follow the Money” approach by targeting advertisers, payment processors and web hosting services.

An as-yet-unnamed individual will become the new head of the BPI’s reshuffled Copyright Protection Unit (CPU) and will continue the organization’s work with the police and Trading Standards while investigating piracy both on and offline.

“The way people discover and consume music has changed beyond recognition since the early days of our anti-piracy work,” said BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor.

“Copyright infringement remains a challenge but we have made substantial progress against it in the UK, removing hundreds of millions of links to illegal copies and blocking access to the most damaging illegal sites, while continuing to remove physical counterfeit discs and hard drives from sale and prosecute those who seek to make money from distributing music illegally.”

But while the BPI has often focused on the stick, Taylor says that the BPI will also seek to encourage consumers “to value music and understand why they should choose to source it legally.”

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

All year round unauthorized copies of movies appear online following a recording in a cinema or after being ‘ripped’ from a DVD or Blu-ray disc. However, when the ‘Oscar season’ begins in November, greater treasures are on the horizon.

Every year so-called ‘screener’ copies of the most critically acclaimed films are ‘securely’ sent out for review but with few exceptions these movies leak to the Internet. This grants pirates the ability to watch big titles in a quality rarely experienced for such early releases.

This year is no exception, with movies such as Straight Outta Compton, Brooklyn, Room, The Peanuts Movie and Carol all leaking during recent days. However, this past weekend delivered the most controversial leaks so far.

While Sylvester Stallone is likely to be angry that his movie ‘Creed’ is now doing the rounds on torrent sites (TorrentFreak estimates at least 100,000 downloads thus far), that will pale into insignificance compared with the wrath likely to be consuming the Tarantino household right now.

Creed

After being scheduled for a December 25 cinema debut, Quentin’s latest work ‘The Hateful Eight’ is now being guzzled up by excited Internet users around the globe. Before Sunday had even drawn to a close the movie had been downloaded more than 100,000 times but at the time of writing those numbers have swelled to more like 220,000.

While not in the quality Tarantino envisioned for his Ultra Panavision 70mm masterpiece, the copy is extremely clean and free from timestamps and ‘property of’ watermarks. Whether it has other secret markings will remain to be seen but there’s certainly nothing that spoils the viewing experience.

The Hateful Eight

But when it comes to mass appeal the leak of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s ‘The Revenant’ is likely to take some beating.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and also slated for a Christmas day release, by Sunday this tale of vengeance had clocked up in excess of 180,000 downloads. Today those totals have reached an ‘impressive’ 300,000.

The Revenant

Again, the quality is extremely good for such an early release and there are no obtrusive markers to spoil the experience. Although as ever some purists are likely to prefer an even better copy, this is perfectly good enough to be shown on most TVs and likely to be the best to appear before an official DVD release.

Considering the noise made last year when The Expendables 3 leaked before its official release, the leaking of AAA titles like those detailed above are likely to stir up anti-piracy sentiment in Hollywood like never before. That being said, it appears that we’re only just getting started.

Hive-CM8, one of the groups behind the leaks, says it has obtained copies of dozens of screeners and is preparing to leak them out one by one during the days to come.

“DVDScreener 1 of 40,” the group announced. “Will do them all one after each other, started with the hottest title of this year, the rest will follow.”

Yesterday that batch continued with the leak of the Tom Hardy Krays movie ‘Legend’ and continued with ‘In the Heart of the Sea’. Only time will tell which movies will appear next but this is a huge provocation from CM8 and may yet illicit a law enforcement response.

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

When it comes to obtaining and placing unauthorized content online, so-called ‘release groups’ are what makes the world of piracy tick.

Most closely associated with the ‘Scene’ during the 2000s, release groups now come in all shapes and sizes, from elite groups at the top of the piracy pyramid through to one-man bands seeking kudos from the masses.

Another area closely associated with release groups are those affiliated with both private and public torrent sites. These can take many forms. Some are created by site members keen to gain recognition while furthering their chosen site’s brand, while others are operated by sites themselves.

While The Pirate Bay has never had an overt release group, other sites in the public space certainly have. RARBG, for example, has a release group operating in its name and ETRG (ExtraTorrent Release Group) provides a similar function for that site.

The latest site to jump on the release group bandwagon is KickassTorrents (KAT). Currently the largest torrent site on the Internet, KAT is certainly not short of visitors but it appears that the site believes it can better serve the public with the provision of a site-branded release group.

At the time of writing the group, which appeared around a week ago and operates from the three-year-old username KATRG, currently has 21 releases. In addition to Blu-ray and web rips, KATRG is also offering the latest Oscar DVD screeners to leak online including Room, Brooklyn and The Peanuts Movie.

KAT administrator Mr. Black informs TF that KATRG is being operated by a well-known encoder, whose identity will not be made public.

“Having a famous encoder with us that has such massive experience in knowing what the users want helps to gain attention and can only bring some good things to KickassTorrents,” Mr. Black says.

It’s worth noting that KATRG is not the original source of any of the titles uploaded so far. Instead, the group re-encodes Scene releases. That being said, lack of originality never hurt the image of YIFY, for example, who mostly re-encoded and then re-branded Scene releases.

But of course, just like any other torrent, KATRG releases are vulnerable to takedown by copyright holders. The image below shows that a blu-ray rip of The Bad Education Movie only clocked 98 downloads before being removed.

Nevertheless, KickassTorrents is offering a solution to this problem. It’s been in operation for some time, but essentially it remains possible to download releases even after they have been taken down from the site.

In respect of KATRG this is achieved by a forum thread which lists all of the group’s releases along with their hashcodes. Should any be taken down, users are invited to enter hashes into another search engine which then provides the download in question.

At the moment KATRG releases aren’t particularly popular with downloaders which is not that unusual for a relatively unknown group. However, just like releases from YIFY (and aXXo before him), KATRG’s efforts will eventually become trusted and with that will come popularity.

Also, since the release group name is also being spread around other sites, it effectively becomes free and effective advertising for KickassTorrents – not that the site really needs any more exposure.

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