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TorrentFreak's 12 Most Read Articles of 2021Ernesto Van der Sar, 31 Dec 10:35 AM Every year we write hundreds of articles here at TorrentFreak, and

TorrentFreak's 12 Most Read Articles of 2021 Ernesto Van der Sar, 31 Dec 10:35 AM Every year we write hundreds of articles here at TorrentFreak, and some are more popular than others. On the brink of the new year, we look back at 2021 by going over the twelve most read news items of the last 12 months. All in all, it was quite a controversial year once again. Pirate IPTV services were targeted around the globe, Yout.com managed to temporarily get itself unblocked in Brazil, and Netflix intensified its VPN ban. Of course, no list is complete with at least a few Pirate Bay mentions. But what will 2022 bring? 1. ISPs Must Unblock Stream-Ripping Sites After Yout.com Intervenes in Brazil (May) Popular stream-ripping site Yout.com is fighting legal disputes around the world, including a lawsuit against the RIAA in the US. In Brazil Yout's operator, Johnathan Nader, scored a victory earlier this year after he successfully appealed a website blockade. However, this blockade was later reinstated after the Brazilian authorities launched a criminal prosecution. 2. Netflix Intensifies 'VPN Ban' and Targets Residential IP-addresses Too (August) Netflix stepped up its efforts to ban VPN and proxy users from bypassing geographical roadblocks. The streaming service started blocking residential IP addresses since some unblocking tools use these to bypass restrictions. This decision was not without collateral damage as many regular Internet users without a VPN reported "missing content" on Netflix. 3. UK Police Shut Down Pirate IPTV Network With "Hundreds of Thousands" of Customers (September) In September, the Federation Against Copyright Theft and West Midlands Police announced that they shut down a major illegal streaming operation in the UK. Two men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of copyright infringement and fraud-related charges. The service reportedly had hundreds of thousands of customers who were greeted by a police message instead of the expected TV content. 4. Operation 'IPTV Special': 49 Pirate IPTV Resellers Fined €10,000 Each (December) In Italy, the authorities reported a follow-up to a 2020 raid that shut down a pirate IPTV provider. More than 70 people face complaints, and 49 resellers of the service are required to pay more than 500,000 euros in fines. Police may go after IPTV customers next as they reportedly have a database of 65,000 users. 5. Denuvo Cracker EMPRESS "Arrested", Blames Repacker FitGirl & Reddit For Witch-Hunt (February) In February of last year, the high-profile Denuvo cracker EMPRESS was reportedly targeted by the police. In an interview, the cracker pointed a finger at the popular repacker Fitgirl, while blaming Reddit users for reporting her to the authorities. 6. uTorrent Continues to be Flagged as 'Severe Threat' and It's Not alone (March) Popular BitTorrent client uTorrent was once again flagged as problematic by anti-virus vendors. Microsoft's Windows Defender took drastic action by simply removing the application from the operating system. The software was categorized as 'riskware,' 'malware,' and 'potentially unwanted software.' In addition to uTorrent, rival client qBitTorrent faced similar problems. 7. Bond's "No Time to Die" Leaks on Pirate Sites Before U.S. Premiere (October) There were dozens of movie leaks in 2021 but James Bond's "No Time to Die" garnered the most interest among readers. Despite the broad attention, the download numbers were relatively low for this low-quality leak that took place before the US theatrical premiere. The download numbers picked up later in the year when a high-quality copy appeared online. 8. The Pirate Bay is Pretty Broken Right Now But Can Be Coaxed Back to Life (January) The Pirate Bay suffered a few stints of downtime last year. One quite unique issue appeared in January when the site became nearly impossible to use. These confusing technical problems had many users scratching their heads but, with a bit of creativity, it was still possible to make it work. 9. GTA Modders to Court: Our Game Fixes & Enhancements Are Fair Use, Not Piracy (November) After a GitHub takedown battle, Take-Two Interactive sued several programmers linked to the popular re3 and reVC Grand Theft Auto fan projects. Responding in court, the programmers said that their game fixes and enhancements are fair use. 10. "The Pirate Bay Can't Be Stopped ," Co-Founder Says (November) The Pirate Bay quietly turned 18 this year. The site survived several shutdown attempts and remains online. According to Pirate Bay co-founder Peter Sunde, the torrent site simply can't be stopped by rightsholders. "The only way for it to die is if people running it grow tired and try to kill it off. There's no power from the movie or tech companies that can affect that," Sunde told us. 11. Hollywood, Netflix, Amazon & Apple Sue Two Pirate IPTV Providers in the US (December) A coalition of Hollywood studios plus Amazon, Netflix and Apple sued two IPTV providers in the US. The companies targeted AllAccessTV and Quality Restreams, which are allegedly operated by the same person. The complaint claims that sales take place through a fake VPN website and a large network of resellers who funnel customers and revenue to the platforms. 12. The World's Oldest Active Torrent Turns 18 Soon (September) In September, the world's oldest active torrent file turned 18 years old. "The Fanimatrix" torrent was published in 2003 when BitTorrent was still a relatively new protocol. At the time, the torrent's creator saw it as the only affordable option to share the Matrix fan film with the world. Fast forward to the start of 2022 and the torrent is still going strong. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. India Expands Piracy Blocklist to Tackle 'Hydra Headed Rogue Websites' Ernesto Van der Sar, 30 Dec 08:37 PM The closing weeks of 2021 have been packed with new pirate site-blocking orders around the globe. From Australia through the UK to Spain, several courts granted new blocking orders to make it harder for the public at large to access pirate sites. In India, the local piracy blocklist is expanding as well. This week we reviewed a decision from the High Court in Delhi, which targets the popular torrent site RARBG. The underlying case was originally filed by several major Hollywood studios including Disney, Paramount, and Warner Bros. The court granted the blocking order in 2019 but, since new domains continue to appear, it was updated this month to add "Rarbggo.org" and two IP-addresses. Hollywood's Hydra Headed Threat This follow-up order isn't particularly newsworthy as these types of expansions are quite common. However, the language used by the Indian court is quite unique and colorful, which is worth pointing out. Instead of simply mentioning that RARBG is accessible through a new domain and IP-address, the court talks about "Hydra Headed Rogue websites" that mythically multiply and resurface elsewhere. Emphasis added below. "It is submitted that, this Hon'ble Court was pleased to record that these websites are Hydra Headed Rogue websites who on being blocked, actually multiply and resurface as redirect or mirror or alphanumeric websites." The language is quoted from an earlier ruling which also adds some more background to the mythological hydra, which by itself has nothing to do with piracy. "It is pertinent to mention that in Greek mythology the Hydra also called Lernaean Hydra is a serpent-like monster. The Hydra is a nine-headed serpent like snake. It was said that if you cut off one hydra head, two more would grow back" At this point, the average reader of the order, who is not really up to date on the piracy lingo, might be quite confused. What does this snake with nine heads have to do with piracy? And what are those alphanumeric websites? The second question is easy to answer. The term "alphanumeric websites" is the Indian court's way of referring to an alternative URL or IP address. And indeed, these are generally made up of alphanumeric characters. The Hydra's Piracy Roots The "hydra" reference also deserves some more context. In the piracy scene, this term was first made popular by The Pirate Bay in 2007. Peter Sunde, the site's spokesman at the time, encouraged people to start their own torrent sites to make the file-sharing ecosystem more resilient. "Start up your own torrent sites, make the internet the hydra it is and needs to be. If there's hundreds of sites, they can't all be shut down," Sunde said at the time. Later on, when more and more domain names were seized and blocked, the hydra was also used to explain the phenomenon where piracy sites would continue to add new hosting locations or domain names. These proxies and mirrors became the new hydra heads. Again, it was The Pirate Bay who explicitly made this connection in 2013 and 2015, weaving it in to the site's temporary new logo. Apparently, this term is now in common usage at the High Court in Delhi within official blocking orders. We have to admit that it sounds pretty scary and the colorful language certainly makes a fairly boring blocking expansion sound more special than it really is. 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

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LaLiga Wins Dynamic Court Injunction to Block 40 Pirate IPTV PlatformsAndy Maxwell, 30 Dec 08:52 AM Following a legal process that began in 2019, Sp

LaLiga Wins Dynamic Court Injunction to Block 40 Pirate IPTV Platforms Andy Maxwell, 30 Dec 08:52 AM Following a legal process that began in 2019, Spanish broadcaster Telefónica Audiovisual Digital obtained a court injunction in February 2020 that required local ISPs to block pirate sites and services. Targeting Vodafone, Orange, MásMóvil, Euskaltel, Lycamobile, and also Telefónica Audiovisual Digital's own ISP, Telefónica, the order required the service providers to block 44 identified platforms to help prevent live matches from being streamed illegally to the public. The injunction allowed for so-called "dynamic" blocking, meaning that when the broadcaster observed the pirate services taking evasive action, updated blocking instructions could be issued to the ISPs. Telefónica and LaLiga Apply For New Injunction In a recent application for additional site-blocking measures, Telefónica teamed up with subscription platform Movistar+ and local football league LaLiga. They requested ISP blocking measures against 41 pirate IPTV and card sharing services through which matches can be viewed in breach of the companies' rights. According to court documents reviewed by CincoDías, the piracy services are "endowed with great technical resources", meaning that simple blocking would not be sufficient to curtail their activities. As such, a dynamic injunction was requested, one that would allow the broadcasters to regularly update their blocking instructions in response to pirate countermeasures. Court Grants Injunction In a joint statement, Telefónica and LaLiga now confirm that Commercial Court number 6 of Barcelona has approved their request to immediately block the piracy platforms. Local internet service providers including Vodafone, Orange, MásMóvil (R, Telecable, Euskaltel) Digimóbil and Telefónica Spain must make best efforts to render the services inaccessible. In common with last year's order, the Barcelona court also authorized a "dynamic" injunction. This will allow the rightsholders to advise the ISPs of any new domains or IP addresses used by the pirate sites on a weekly basis, thereby reducing their ability to circumvent restrictions. According to recent LaLiga estimates, football matches were viewed illegally 71 million times in 2020. While that represents a decrease versus the total viewed illegally in 2019 (87 million), the number of consumers who accessed football through unlicensed portals remained the same. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. U.S. Court Denies Access to Defendant's Hard Drive in Online Piracy Case Ernesto Van der Sar, 29 Dec 09:01 PM Strike 3 Holdings is a familiar name in U.S. federal courts. This year alone the adult entertainment company has filed hundreds of lawsuits against alleged BitTorrent pirates. While many of these lawsuits have resulted in private settlements, Strike 3 also encountered pushback from some of the people it sued. In the Central District of California, for example, a "John Doe" defendant denies any wrongdoing. According to Strike 3 the man pirated 54 movies and through discovery it requested permission to inspect a copy of his hard drive and cloud hosting accounts for evidence. The defendant objected to this request, as handing over a hard drive copy would also reveal privacy-sensitive information such as family photos and content protected by attorney-client privilege. Judge Agrees With Privacy Concerns After hearing both sides, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym ruled on the request this week, siding with the John Doe defendant. While the hard drive and cloud hosting accounts may offer important evidence, they could also expose sensitive personal information. "There is no question that an examination of these images would reveal information relevant to either proving or disproving plaintiff's case," Judge Pym writes. "But producing a complete forensic imaging of defendant's hard drives and accounts will also disclose information that has no relevance to plaintiff's copyright infringement claim, including family photos and personal financial information." To resolve the dispute both parties previously suggested alternative options. The defendant offered to use simple search queries in front of a Strike 3 expert, but that wasn't enough for the company, which noted that the original filenames could have changed. Strike 3, meanwhile, proposed a protocol that would task their expert with filtering out potentially privileged information, so that this won't be shared as evidence. However, the defendant objected to this option because it shouldn't be up to Strike 3's expert to evaluate potential privacy concerns. Judge Pym also reviewed Strike 3's offer but concluded that this isn't sufficient to protect the defendant's privacy and confidentiality rights. "Because plaintiff's protocol does not adequately address defendant's privacy, confidentiality, and privilege concerns, a forensic examination of defendant's devices threatens the disclosure of irrelevant and privileged information," Judge Pym writes. Not Proportional All in all, the court concludes that, in this case, it is not appropriate or proportional to give Strike 3 access to a copy of the hard drive and data stored on cloud hosting services. "Undoubtedly, a complete forensic examination would be a more reliable and thorough way for plaintiff to ensure it has obtained all relevant information. But given what is at issue in this case – the alleged infringement of 54 movies – requiring defendant to turn over images of his hard drives and cloud accounts to plaintiff is not justified," Judge Pym concludes. In essence, the court prioritizes the privacy and confidentiality rights of the defendant over Strike 3's piracy concerns. This means that Strike 3 will have to find other types of evidence to back up its copyright infringement claims. — A copy of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sheri Pym's order on Strike 3's request to compel discovery responses is available here (pdf). 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

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MPA/ACE: Dozens More Pirate IPTV & Streaming Domains In The CrosshairsAndy Maxwell, 29 Dec 11:07 AM There are lots of pieces of information that can

MPA/ACE: Dozens More Pirate IPTV & Streaming Domains In The Crosshairs Andy Maxwell, 29 Dec 11:07 AM There are lots of pieces of information that can help anti-piracy groups form a strategy to deal with an infringing site or service. Things like IP addresses, domain details, hosting companies and payment processor accounts all play important roles but of them all, real-life names and physical addresses are considered investigation gold. With these details in hand, a targeted and strongly-worded cease-and-desist notice may be all it takes to remove a service from the internet. Of course, these pieces of information aren't usually left lying around. With some luck, they may be available from companies providing services to pirate sites. Domain companies, Cloudflare and similar entities can be forced to supply this information in response to a DMCA subpoena filed by copyright holders. As a result, the studios of the Motion Picture Association and anti-piracy partners ACE regularly go to court in the US to obtain intelligence for use in investigations and legal action. New DMCA Subpoena – Pirate IPTV Filed just before Christmas by the MPA and ACE, the first application seeks cooperation from Cloudflare to hand over all information held by the company relating to five domains linked to pirate IPTV operations. "[Y]ou are required to disclose to the Motion Picture Association, Inc. (on behalf of the ACE Members) information sufficient to identify the infringers. This would include the individuals' names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account history," the subpoena reads. The targeted domains include hypersonic-tv.com which at the time of writing appears to be offline. Whether this is related to an MPA/ACE investigation is currently unknown. What is clear from documentation filed with the court is that the movie companies have accessed Hypersonic's VOD library and confirmed that two movies (2 Fast 2 Furious and Joker) are being offered illegally. Another target, apollogroup.tv is the domain for provider Apollo Group TV, a rather expensive service that starts at $24.99 per month and claims to offer a "VOD library over 5000 commercial-free movies and tv shows on demand." Once again, MPA/ACE have access to the service and have confirmed that the movies Soul and Fast & Furious 9 are being offered illegally. Beastiptv.us is the domain for Beast TV, which claims to offer over 9000 channels and a library of 3000 channels on its VOD service. Again, the studios have access to the platform and have informed the court that the Netflix movie Extraction is being made available without permission. Topdhosting.com is the domain used by IPTV provider Topdog TV and fitiptv.com is operated by FitIPTV. The latter not only sells subscriptions to end-users but also offers reseller accounts in addition to a restream service that can be used to supply streams to an app, for example. Time will tell whether Cloudflare does indeed have any useful information to hand over but the subpoena is further evidence that VOD services are a magnet for legal action and certainly help the studios prosecute cases more effectively, particularly in the United States. Supporting document can be found here (1,2,3, pdf) New DMCA Subpoena – Illegal Streaming Sites The final DMCA subpoena filed against Cloudflare in the week before Christmas targets more than two dozen domains related to more traditional web-based pirate streaming portals. Accusing the platforms of breaching copyright law by facilitating access to movies including Godzilla vs Kong, The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It, Tenet, Joker, and The Flash, MPA/ACE again seek the CDN company's assistance to unmask those behind the domains. Whether any of the sites will be subjected to direct legal action is currently unknown but there is a pattern forming. In certain regions where website blocking injunctions are available, the applicants (the studios) have to show they have made good faith efforts to contact site operators in advance. Obtaining contact information from Cloudflare could enable them to do that and what we have seen is a trend of site domain names appearing in DMCA subpoenas before they are blocked by ISPs in places such as the UK Australia. Of course, the information can be used for other purposes too, including full-blown lawsuits, such as the one recently filed against PrimeWire. The full list of domains is as follows: tvhai.org, motchill.net, watchsomuch.org, flixtor.to, noonoo1.tv, afdah.video, ilgeniodellostreaming.re, ilgeniodellostreaming.si, ilgeniodellostreaming.cat, ilgeniodellostreaming.moe, ilgeniodellostreaming.mba, igds.se, seriesonlineweb.com, pobreflix.online, superflix.plus, torrentdosfilmeshd2.net, seriesflix2.com, cooz.co, assistironline.net, comoeubaixo.com, megaseriesonline.org, amazflixhd.com, temseries.online, filmesonlinehd1.org, pianku.li Supporting documents available here (1,2 pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Court Orders WhatsApp To Block Groups Sharing Pirated Newspapers Andy Maxwell, 28 Dec 08:16 PM Sharing copyrighted content online is certainly nothing new but over the years the sharing mechanisms have expanded to incorporate new methods of distribution. Where once peer-to-peer services were the obvious choice, these days people also utilize platforms such as WhatsApp, Discord and Facebook, which add social elements to the sharing experience by bringing like-minded people together, often around a central topic. This is proving to be a problem at DB Corp Ltd, India's largest newspaper publishing group. The company publishes five newspapers with 61 editions but when people illegally share its digital content online, its ability to generate revenue comes under threat, the publisher says. Legal Action Targeting WhatsApp and Pirates According to DB Corp, part of the problem can be found on WhatsApp where dedicated groups are sharing their newspapers and magazines without permission. As a result, the company has filed for an injunction that would restrain WhatsApp and more than 80 other defendants from infringing its rights via the platform. DB Corp offers its content via its official websites where a subscription model is deployed to generate income. The subscription allows users to browse publications in a browser but there is no option to permanently download the newspapers and magazines for offline reading. WhatsApp is the main defendant in the application while defendants 3 to 88 are people who have formed groups on WhatsApp for the purposes of sharing DB Corp's copyrighted works. The company says it has managed to track down the administrators of these groups using their phone numbers but concedes that there might be "many other groups" engaged in the same illegal sharing. At this point they remain unknown, however. On August 30, 2021, DB Corp informed WhatsApp about the 'infringing groups' and asked for them to be removed. WhatsApp declined the request and informed DB Corp that it would only act in response to a court order. Court Satisfied That Evidence Warrants an Injunction After supplying the Delhi High Court with screenshots of messages being exchanged within the groups, the Court found that these indicate the illegal sharing of DB Corp's copyrighted content. "Thus, Plaintiff has made out a prima facie case and the balance of convenience also lies in favor of the Plaintiff. Further, an irreparable loss would be caused, in case an ex-parte order of injunction is not granted – restraining the infringing Defendants from illegally circulating and distributing the Plaintiff's e-newspaper," Justice Sanjeev Narula's order reads. With that, the Judge handed down an order requiring WhatsApp to take down or block the WhatsApp groups identified by DB Corp to prevent them from illegally distributing the company's copyrighted works. WhatsApp was given seven days to comply. The defendants' written statements are due in 30 days and the injunction will remain in place until the case is heard. It is currently listed for May 2, 2022. The order can be found here (pdf) 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