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Movie Companies Identify Pirating YTS User as US Army VeteranErnesto Van der Sar, 20 Jul 09:53 PM In recent years, YTS.mx has become one of the most

Movie Companies Identify Pirating YTS User as US Army Veteran Ernesto Van der Sar, 20 Jul 09:53 PM In recent years, YTS.mx has become one of the most-used torrent sites, serving millions of visitors every day. The site can be used without registering an account. However, those who sign up get some extra features, such as an option to bookmark titles. These added benefits can be handy but a few months ago we learned that they also come with risks. Movie Companies Target YTS Users At the start of the year, a group of movie companies filed lawsuits against alleged YTS users. In doing so, they relied on information that appeared to come directly from the YTS user database. The timing of these lawsuits was interesting. They were filed around the same time the alleged operator of YTS signed a settlement deal with the same movie companies, agreeing to pay a substantial settlement fee. This remarkable settlement allowed YTS to remain online. The movie companies, including the makers of films such as "Hellboy" and "Rambo: Last Blood," demanded that the site removed their films, which is indeed what happened. By targeting YTS users directly the filmmakers were looking for more settlements. Instead of merely targeting an IP-address they had more information too, such as an email address and a download history list, which presumably comes from the YTS database. Army Veteran Named as Defendant In one of these lawsuits, the defendant was recently identified as Mr. Mesot, a Hawaiian army veteran, who's currently pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Hawaii. "Upon information and belief, Defendant worked for over 20 years in the United States Army performing technical inspections and maintenance," the movie companies state, providing more background information. While the rightsholders already had the man's email address months ago, they still needed a subpoena to compel Internet provider Charter to give up a name. The ISP shared this information recently which allowed the movie companies to officially name Mr. Mesot as the defendant this month. YTS Database Information In addition to tracking the defendant's IP-address through public torrent swarms, the amended complaint also shows a copy of user database information, which appears to come from YTS. "As shown in Exhibit '4', Defendant used the YTS account to download a torrent file associated with the Work Rambo V Last Blood from one or more computing devices under his control on Nov. 30, 2019 at 01:29:50 UTC," the complaint reads. YTS has never officially confirmed that it shared user information with the movie companies but based on the provided evidence, it certainly appears that way. YTS Shares Privacy Suggestions When we reached out to the site last week the operator didn't have any further details on the alleged handover of data. However, YTS indirectly confirmed it by pointing out that users can wipe their download history and take other privacy precautions. "As for the user's privacy, they do not have to confirm their e-mail address," YTS informed us, noting that the address is only needed to recover a lost password. "Also, from their profile settings, they have the option to disable their own downloads history, if they wish," YTS added. We can confirm it's entirely possible to sign up for a YTS account with a non-existent email address. Also, there is an option to disable the download history in the profile settings. "It is very important for any user to use a commercial VPN to download torrents. It is a must. Otherwise, they have a lot of problems," YTS noted. While a VPN can indeed help, it can still lead to trouble when movie companies have access to private data. As we reported earlier this year, movie companies also sued a YTS user who was using a VPN. In any case, signing up with YTS using an easily traceable email address doesn't sound like a smart move. — A copy of the amended complaint naming Mr. Mesot as the YTS user who downloaded pirated content is available here (pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Police Target Pirate IPTV With 72 Searches Against Operators & Financial System Andy Maxwell, 20 Jul 11:33 AM While authorities all around Europe are cracking down on the supply of pirate IPTV, a disproportionate number of large-scale actions center on providers operating in Italy and Spain. Police in the former have just announced yet another large operation against a pirate IPTV network which reportedly offered illegal access to subscription content usually offered by Sky, DAZN, Mediaset and Infinity at a premium price. No further details have yet been made available but somewhat unusually, Spotify is also mentioned among the list of companies whose rights have been infringed. Authorities Carry Out Raids in 72 Locations The investigation was launched by the Economic and Financial Police Unit of Venice in early 2019. Then, late last week, the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, a law enforcement agency connected to the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance, executed a preventative order. Issued by the Public Prosecutor of Teramo, the order allowed for the blocking of an as-yet-unnamed website and the seizure of Postepay pre-payment cards used to collect subscriptions and finance the IPTV operation. Overall, the GdF reports carrying out 72 searches across 32 Italian provinces, targeting 71 people involved in the IPTV operation. The service's customers were reportedly required to top-up pre-payment cards with 10 euros per month so in response, two offices where these payments were processed were also targeted. 65,000 Customers Paying One Million Euros Per Year The investigation claims to have uncovered a large network of individuals involved in the IPTV platform, including 22 people who decrypted the signals of pay-TV operators in order to distribute it on the Internet. The GdF has not revealed the fate of these individuals. A further 48 people, described as "resellers" of that service by the GdF, are claimed to have retransmitted the streams to customers over the Internet. In all, the authorities say that more than 65,000 people received content illegally after paying subscriptions via the pre-payment cards. It is unclear whether the authorities will take any action against any of the service's customers. Earlier this year, Italian police reported 223 customers of pirate IPTV services to the judicial authorities, warning of fines and potential prison sentences. According to the information released thus far, pre-payment cards appear to have played an important role in financing the service targeted last week. Customers Paid One Million Euros Per Year in Subscriptions Replaced at least once every month to make it less easy to identify the holders, the cards were managed by 11 people. In total, the sum credited to these cards was found to be in excess of one million euros per year, which was transferred to accounts in Lithuania and Italy. "[These] interventions, carried out in collaboration with numerous departments of the Guardia di Finanza and with the technical collaboration of SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) and FAPAV (Federation for the Protection of Audiovisual and Multimedia Content), have made it possible to obscure the website, allocated to a provider in Milan, preventing further use," GdF says. The action was welcomed by FAPAV Secretary-General, Federico Bagnoli Rossi. "The activity conducted by the Guardia di Finanza of Venice, to which our most heartfelt thanks go, is of particular importance since it goes against one of the main and most harmful forms of audiovisual piracy, that is, illegal IPTV," Rossi says. "In the FAPAV / Ipsos study, which we recently published, it was highlighted that audiovisual piracy is a phenomenon far from underestimated, with an incidence of 37% among the adult population. "Illegal IPTVs, in particular, represent one of the fastest-growing forms of illicit use: its incidence at the end of 2019 is 10%, about a quarter of the total number of pirates." Earlier this month, following a complaint by football league Serie A, an Italian court ordered 'preventative measures' that require the country's ISPs to block 56 servers connected to pirate IPTV services. A similar order was previously handed down in January. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Top 10 Most Torrented Movies of The Week – 07/20/20 Ernesto Van der Sar, 20 Jul 09:14 AM The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. These torrent download statistics are meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have two new entries in the list. The American war movie Greyhound is the most downloaded title this week. The film, starring Tom Hanks, was released on Apple TV+ July 10th. The most torrented movies for the week ending on July 20 are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrent sites 1 (1) Greyhound 7.1 / trailer 2 (2) The Old Guard 6.7 / trailer 3 (6) Palm Springs 7.6 / trailer 4 (3) Hamilton 9.1 / trailer 5 (…) The Silencing 6.2 / trailer 6 (8) Relic 6.1 / trailer 7 (4) The Outpost 6.6 / trailer 8 (5) Scoob! 5.7 / trailer 9 (…) Ghosts of War 5.3 / trailer 10 (7) Irresistible 6.2 / trailer Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©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