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'Pirate' Releases Recover From Historic Drop Caused By Scene BustsErnesto Van der Sar, 28 Jan 08:36 PM Last year, the US Department of Justice booke

'Pirate' Releases Recover From Historic Drop Caused By Scene Busts Ernesto Van der Sar, 28 Jan 08:36 PM Last year, the US Department of Justice booked one of its biggest successes in its battle against online piracy. In August 2020, law enforcement upset the international piracy ecosystem by targeting several high-profile Scene members, which were the source for many pirated movies and TV-shows. The criminal investigation focused on the SPARKS release group of which three alleged members were indicted. However, the crackdown, which resulted in raids in various countries, had a much broader impact. Following the raids, several topsites went offline. Some of these had their infrastructure caught up in the enforcement, but many others decided to lay low as a precaution. Meanwhile, the rumor mill was in full swing, with some fearing that the action was just the start. Historic Scene Release Drop After a few days, it became apparent how broad the impact was. Not just in The Scene but also further down the piracy pyramid, where torrent and streaming sites noticed a lack of fresh content. In a report published in early September, we showed that there were 1,944 new scene releases the Wednesday before the enforcement actions. A week later, a day after the first raids, this number had shrunk to 168 releases. During the weeks that followed things slowly but steadily started to recover. With help from Predb.org we decided to take another look at the release volume at the start of the new year. Based on recent figures, we can conclude that the release volume ultimately recovered. We compared the release numbers starting the week before the raids (Monday-Sunday), followed by the two weeks after, and finally data from last week. For a clean comparison this analysis doesn't cover the week the raid took place, which included the largest dip. Release Volume Recovers The bar chart below shows the releases across all categories. This started at 12,776 before the raid, then dipped to 3,680 and 4,463 in the two weeks after. From there it gradually climbed back to 11,759 last week, which is pretty much back to normal. Total new releases before and after the raids Looking at individual categories, there are similar recoveries. The TV-X264 category initially dropped 90% from 5,254 to 572, but is now back at 4,913. And Anime, Movies-X264, and XXX releases all bounced back too, as shown below. New releases before and after the raids (selected categories) Based on these data we can conclude that the US Government's enforcement actions had a major impact, but not one that's lasting. This doesn't mean that all groups continued business as usual, but there are certainly plenty left. Prosecutions Continue While the dust appears to have settled a bit in the Scene, the legal troubles for the three indicted SPARKS members are far from over. Thus far Jonatan Correa (aka 'Raid') is the only defendant to have appeared in court. He pleaded guilty earlier this month and will be sentenced this spring. Due to his cooperative stance, the prosecution agreed to a sentencing guideline of 12 to 18 months imprisonment, instead of the maximum of five years. The two other defendants, George Bridi from Great Britain and Norway resident Umar Ahmad (aka 'Artist'), have yet to appear in US court. According to the information we have available, Bridi has yet to be extradited from Cyprus where he was previously detained while Ahmad is still at large. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Russia Anti-Piracy Agreement Renews, Moves Towards Expansion Andy Maxwell, 28 Jan 11:21 AM Pirated content appearing online has been a thorn in the side of copyright holders for more than two decades and there are regular cries for Internet platforms to do more to help. Companies like Google and Bing say they do what they can by removing infringing links from their search indexes on request, with actual content deleted from video platforms including YouTube on the same basis under the DMCA. In Russia, there is a different legal framework so entertainment companies worked with search giant Yandex and a number of other major players to arrive at a voluntary agreement to remove content. Signed in 2018, the Memorandum of Cooperation represented a big shift in the way infringing content was handled. Following the creation of a centralized database of pirated content, the Internet companies agreed to query it every few minutes in order to remove corresponding content from their platforms. Agreement Results in Millions of Takedowns Local telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor played a key role in bringing the parties together and has been keeping a close eye on progress since. This week the government agency declared the mechanism "an effect tool for copyright protection", revealing that Yandex alone has removed at least 11.7 million links to pirated content from its search results as part of the program. Given the reported success of the scheme, rightsholders are keen for the good work to continue. However, after receiving an extension in October 2019 and again since, the memorandum was due to expire at the end of this month. Parties Agree To Another Six-Month Extension With the January 31 deadline looming, yesterday Roscomnadzor confirmed that the parties have agreed to a six-month extension. "Representatives of copyright holders, video hosting owners and search engine operators have extended the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of exclusive rights protection until August 1, 2021," the agency reported. "According to the Memorandum, a register of links to pirated content has been created, which is maintained by the Media Communications Union. Search engines are required to check the registry every five minutes and remove links that appear in it within six hours. The registrar verifies the validity of the links sent by the copyright holders," Roscomnadzor added, confirming no change to the current system. Memorandum Signatories Set To Expand Ever since the memorandum came into force, rightsholders that were not party to the agreement have complained that they should be able to access the same anti-piracy tools as their counterparts. Publishers and their anti-piracy partners have been particularly vocal, complaining that the memorandum favors players in the video industry. During a meeting in December, Maksut Shadayev of the Ministry of Digital Development received a request for publishers to be included in the memorandum and indeed the draft legislation based on it, when it is eventually passed into law. This week, the proposed expansion of the takedown program appeared to move a step closer when Roscomnadzor confirmed that when the bill is passed, it will enable copyright holders who were previously excluded to take part. "Alongside the development of the Memorandum, a draft law has been developed at the site of the Media Communication Union, which is currently being discussed with the participation of representatives of the industry community," the telecoms watchdog said. "With the adoption of the bill, the mechanisms of combating pirated content worked out during the Memorandum's validity will be extended to companies that have not signed this document." Internet Companies Welcome Expansion In comments to Vedomosti this week, memorandum signatories Yandex and Rambler Group said they have no opposition to additional rightsholders becoming involved. Yandex said the best solution would be to quickly develop and pass a law based on the agreement, which would benefit the company since it too is a copyright holder. Mail.ru, another major player in the current agreement, declined to comment. The current memorandum participants are as follows: JSC "Channel One" FSUE "VGTRK" STS Media JSC Gazprom-Media Holding JSC National Media Group Association of Film and Television Producers Association "Internet Video" Yandex LLC Mail.ru Group Rambler Group LLC GPM Partner LLC "Roform" LLC "Kinopoisk" Animated Film Association From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2021 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