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YouTube Fights Off Lawsuit Over 'Retaliatory' Copyright StrikesErnesto, 15 Apr 05:01 PM For many content creators of YouTube, copyright strikes are

YouTube Fights Off Lawsuit Over 'Retaliatory' Copyright Strikes Ernesto, 15 Apr 05:01 PM For many content creators of YouTube, copyright strikes are a major problem. When users receive three 'strikes', YouTube can remove all videos, take down the channel permanently, and prevent the creator from making any new ones. This is a significant threat for those who make a decent living off the video platform including Erik Mishiyev, aka DJ Short-E, who ran two popular YouTube channels totaling over 250,000 subscribers. This achievement earned him a "Silver Creator Award" and generated $310,000 in revenue over a period of five years. However, Mishiyev's relationship with the video platform was far from rosy. Despite having over a quarter million subscribers, the DJ felt that the views of his videos were low when compared to similar channels. When some subscribers informed him that they received no alerts for new uploads, Mishiyev contacted YouTube support. This inquiry didn't go well and ultimately resulted in the creator supposedly threatening to take legal action against the video giant. Soon after that happened, he reported being bombarded by copyright takedowns and strikes, which effectively shut down his channels. Mishiyev believes that these takedowns were retaliation for his legal threats. And when YouTube chose not to accept his DMCA counter-notices – which he sent in an attempt to get rid of the strikes – he took YouTube to court. In a complaint filed at a federal court in California last summer, the YouTuber demanded $720,000 in compensation for lost income, among other things. In addition, he wanted to prevent YouTube from ever banning him again. At the center of the lawsuit is a breach of contract claim. Mishiyev argued that YouTube failed to live up to its duties as it failed to process his DMCA counter-notices, a point contested by the video giant. In a response filed a few weeks ago, YouTube noted that its Terms of Service allows the company to remove any content "without prior notice" and "in its sole discretion." This agreement allows the company not to restore a video following a copyright claim, even when it is challenged. "YouTube has no obligation to ever restore that material to its service, even when a user protests, and the agreement expressly highlights its discretion not to do so," YouTube informed the court. In other words, YouTube doesn't have to restore content after it receives a counter-notice. It can simply ignore it, based on the agreed terms of service. This is also the conclusion reached by the court. In an order released last month, US District Court Judge William Alsup notes that users are given the opportunity to submit counter-notifications but Google is not required to act on them. "[O]nce a user submitted a counter-notice, the agreement reserved to YouTube's sole discretion the decision to take any further action, including whether to restore the videos or even to send the counternotice to the purported copyright owner," Judge Alsup wrote. "Thus, YouTube did not agree to act as a neutral processor of notices and counter-notices. YouTube retained control to evaluate counter-notices and infringement on its own." Mishiyev didn't go into detail on what grounds the notices were inaccurate. The main claim was that the videos were 'struck' by YouTube as retaliation. However, even if that's true, YouTube is still not in the wrong for terminating the account. "Even taking the retaliation allegations as true, however, the complaint fails to overcome YouTube's express right to terminate plaintiff's account for repeat copyright infringement," Judge Alsup notes. Based on these and several other arguments, the Judge granted YouTube's request to dismiss the complaint. While that's good news for the video service, the legal battle isn't completely over yet. As highlighted by Reclaim The Net, Mishiyev, aka DJ Short-E, has appealed the decision at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — Here is a copy of US District Court Judge William Alsup's order to dismiss Mishiyev's complaint against YouTube.. Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. Huge Games Piracy Forum CS.RIN.RU Says Cash is Needed to Stay Online Andy, 15 Apr 11:38 AM People who regularly download movies and TV shows can do so with relative ease. Content is ripped at source by release groups and placed online with all protections removed. For video games pirates, things are more complex. Setting aside the often massive downloads and hours of unpacking, games then need to be 'cracked' which for the absolute novice user can be daunting, even when the necessary tools are provided. As a result, communities of video games pirates have thrived over the years, helping people to gain the knowledge required and, of course, share the latest games. Probably the largest in existence anywhere is Russia-based CS.RIN.RU, otherwise known as the Steam Underground Community. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the site isn't really underground and can be viewed by anyone with a web browser. However, to gain access to the juicy stuff (links to many thousands of pirated games and the necessary cracks), users need to sign up. Huge numbers have. How many sign-in on a regular basis is unclear but the forum has in excess of 560,000 registered users and is the go-to platform for the latest releases. The site is hard moderated with staff mostly intolerant of anyone not sticking to the rules. As a result, however, it's a valued source of titles sporting some of the most knowledgable video game pirates around. According to an announcement this morning, however, CS.RIN.RU is now entering unchartered waters. An administrator has revealed that after being sponsored for the last 17 years by the owner of Russian Information Network (RIN), a site dedicated to news and events in Russia, he can no longer afford to financially support the world's largest games piracy forum. "Around this time last year, we moved to a new server so that the RIN owner could continue to afford hosting us and for various technical improvements. I have recently learned that he can no longer afford to renew our server's subscription. Unfortunately, this was bound to happen sooner or later," the announcement reads. "Due to our performance and security requirements, it is not possible to host this forum at just any provider or on anything less than a full dedicated server. In fact, our current dedicated server that was rented on a tight budget is already at its limits and significant efforts were put in to make it work. We will be moving to a new server at the beginning of May." While the move to new hardware appears certain, things will have to change moving forward. CS.RIN.RU's operators say that if the users want to keep the site online, they will have to cough up the money. "We, the staff, have put great thought into figuring out how to keep this forum online. Sadly, we have determined that we will not be able to finance the kind of hosting this forum requires by ourselves, even with the crappiest, bare-minimum server we could find. This means that come June, we have to rely on donations from you, the community," the statement continues. "This is a significant announcement and we know that some of you will not agree with this step and truth be told, we don't want to have ask this either, but we see no other way." The operators of CS.RIN.RU aren't asking for much. In fact, they estimate the overall costs to be around 1,200 euros per year to keep the community intact. However, like many piracy-focused sites that rely on donations, the big issue is how to receive that money from members without compromising the security of the people accepting the funds. As a result, cryptocurrency is the only available option. It's doubtful that this will cause too many problems for the site but it will almost certainly reduce the number of donations from willing parties. Despite being able to successfully download games and cracks, some users seem reluctant to learn about cryptocurrency, even though they have the money to donate. However, world-famous repacker FitGirl thinks that it shouldn't be a problem and is preparing to contribute. "People who still relies [sic] on fiat seem very strange to me. I'm using crypto for all my warez needs for YEARS. Not a single cent from my banks ever touched my hoster, my seedbox, my VPN. All is paid in crypto," the piracy star wrote this morning. "It's just as complex as PayPal in 2020. Once you setup it, it's sooooooo easy to make payments and accept donations (in my case). Hope we will gather needed amount, will chip my part later today." Drom: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also have an annual VPN review. ©2020 TorrentFreak | Office 21338 PO Box 4336 Manchester, North West M61 0BW United Kingdom Web Version   Preferences   Forward   Unsubscribe     Powered by Mad Mimi®A GoDaddy® company