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Watch Tower Sues Journalists For Millions in Copyright Infringement DamagesAndy, 01 May 06:52 PM The Jehovah's Witness religious group is perhaps be

Watch Tower Sues Journalists For Millions in Copyright Infringement Damages Andy, 01 May 06:52 PM The Jehovah's Witness religious group is perhaps best known for knocking on doors to recruit new followers to the faith. When it comes to their promotional videos and documents, however, the organization takes a very different approach. As reported recently, people who post their videos to YouTube, for example, can find themselves on the wrong end of a copyright lawsuit. On Thursday, that's what happened to journalists Ryan McKnight and Ethan Gregory Dodge, who together founded Truth & Transparency (TTF), a site with a mission to provide "religious accountability through impact journalism". According to a lawsuit filed in a New York district court by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, the supervising body and publisher for the Jehovah's Witness religious group, the pair committed massive copyright infringement for illegally distributing Watch Tower's "motion picture" works. The complaint alleges that in mid-2018, Watch Tower discovered that 487 of its "copyrighted literary works" had been posted by the defendants on FaithLeaks.org, a site presented in a Wikileaks-style format. Late December 2018, Watch Tower demanded that the works be taken down, alleging breaches of copyright. The defendants reportedly refused to remove the content, claiming fair use under the Copyright Act. Then, in May 2019, Watch Tower learned that "74 motion pictures" to which it holds the copyrights had been uploaded to RuTube.ru, a Russia-based YouTube-like platform. Watch Tower sent takedown notices to RuTube which resulted in the videos being removed. Shortly after, however, it's alleged that McKnight and Dodge re-uploaded the videos to FaithLeaks where they remain available today. Watch Tower points to a May 2019 article published on TruthandTransparency.org in which the defendants "boasted not only about their past infringements and refusals to comply with Watch Tower's efforts to enforce its copyrights, but also about these new infringements, leaving no doubt as to Defendants' willfulness." The article in question suggests that the videos, apparently recordings of conventions to which the public was invited, were indeed uploaded by the defendants, to elicit commentary and critique from observers. The article further notes that Watch Tower was approached for comment on the event but failed to respond. Albeit several months later, it has now. In a complaint that details every video and alleged infringements one by one, there are repeated allegations that the defendants "unlawfully copied, reproduced, publicly displayed, publicly performed and distributed" Watch Tower's videos, in their entirety and without alteration. Dozens of pages of evidence later, the religious group reaches its conclusion. "Defendants McKnight and Dodge personally participated in, and supervised and directed, the infringing acts described above. Indeed, they personally conceived of, and directed and approved all key aspects of, TTF's infringing activities. They were the moving force behind those infringing acts," it reads. "The acts of Defendants described above were committed without the permission, license or consent of Watch Tower. Upon information and belief, the acts of Defendants described above were committed with knowledge or in reckless disregard of Watch Tower's exclusive rights in the Watch Tower videos. "Plaintiff, accordingly, seeks injunctive relief and statutory damages for willful copyright infringement." Given that damages for willful copyright infringement can reach $150,000 per infringed work, McKnight and Dodge are facing a potentially massive damages claim running to millions of dollars. Additionally, Watch Tower is demanding the removal of the videos and an injunction which prevents infringement of its copyrights moving forward. TorrentFreak approached both McKnight and Dodge for comment on but at this time, the journalists declined. The complaint, filed in a New York district court, can be found here (pdf) Image credit: Pixabay From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. We also help you to find the best anonymous VPN. Pirated 'DVD Screeners' Will be History After Next Year's Oscars Ernesto, 01 May 11:28 AM The Oscars is the most watched awards show of the year. It's widely covered in the press and highly anticipated by movie fans. In the weeks leading up to the awards ceremony, movie pirates also have something to be excited about: screener leaks. Many Oscar screeners, which are sent to Academy members as part of the voting process, end up in the hands of pirates. When that happens, the leaked screeners are typically shared by millions of people. The leaks are often tagged "DVDscr," referring to the DVD screener source format which is still in use. While streaming screeners have become more and more common, tens of thousands of physical screener copies are still sent out via mail. This year, plenty of discs will be shipped too but, after the upcoming Oscars ceremony, that will be a thing of the past. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this week that physical screeners will no longer be allowed in 2021. "[T]he 93rd Awards season will be the final year DVD screeners will be allowed to be distributed; these mailings will be discontinued starting in 2021 for the 94th Academy Awards," the Academy writes. The Oscars follow the same path as the Emmys, which already made the switch this year. According to the Academy, the transition is part of its sustainability efforts. This also includes a ban on physical music CDs, hard copies of screenplays, paper invites, and other things that possibly hurt the environment. Banning physical screeners will indeed be much more sustainable. Manufacturing tens of thousands of discs and shipping these all over the country takes up more resources than sharing a link to an online screener. As an added benefit, it also saves the studios a lot of money. Piracy is not mentioned by the Academy but the transition does mean that the infamous 'DVDscr' tag will eventually be obsolete for Oscar screeners. That marks the end of an era. Whether piracy was considered as a factor at all remains a guess. Some insiders believe that digital screeners are easier to protect and therefore more secure, but that is up for debate. There may be fewer leak opportunities in the distribution process, but it's common knowledge that streaming platforms can be easily compromised. In fact, we have already seen several screeners being leaked from online sources. This was corroborated by pirate release group EVO last year. "We had access to digital screeners and they are indeed easy to leak. The DRM on it is a joke. We had an account last year with three screeners on it and they were pretty much MP4 ready to encode," the EVO team informed us at the time. Whether streaming or physical screeners are more secure ultimately depends on the type of protection measures that are implemented for each. The safest conclusion, for now, is that piracy will likely remain a problem no matter what the distribution platform is. Two years from now, we'll likely know more. During the upcoming season, however, there will likely several 'DVDscr' leaks again. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, torrent sites and more. 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