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Major Manga Publishers Try to Identify Operators of Massive Pirate SitesAndy Maxwell, 11 Dec 12:20 PM As we have reported on many occasions in recen

Major Manga Publishers Try to Identify Operators of Massive Pirate Sites Andy Maxwell, 11 Dec 12:20 PM As we have reported on many occasions in recent years, the lowly DMCA subpoena can be a powerful tool to discover the identities of those running pirate sites. Cheap to file in court and rarely given much scrutiny, DMCA subpoenas are regularly served on third-party service providers such as Cloudflare and domain registries, requiring them to hand over customer data. Perhaps the most intriguing aspect, however, is how these pieces of paper often act as an early warning signal of much bigger things down the line. A prime example can be found in a DMCA subpoena application that targeted the now-shuttered pirate manga site Mangabank. It provided an early heads-up on a later proceeding used to support a criminal investigation in Japan. It now appears that manga publishers have yet more pirate sites in their crosshairs, some of which are huge and could face a similar fate. Manga1000 and Manga1001 The first DMCA subpoena application was filed by Shogakukan, Shueisha, Kadokawa and Kodansha in a California district court last month. It noted that under the DMCA it is seeking information sufficient to identify people infringing its copyright works. In support of their application, the companies supplied DMCA takedown notices previously filed with Cloudflare requesting the takedown of URLs linking to pirated copies of works including One Piece, Kujo No Taizai, and Attack on Titan. All of the URLs were present on the domains manga1000.com and manga1001.com. At the time of writing the sites appear to be up but show Cloudflare "Access Denied" errors in some regions. Nevertheless, the significance of these domains cannot be understated. According to SimilarWeb stats, manga1000.com pulls in around 110 million visits per month, making it the 160th most popular domain in the world. In Japan, from where the site attracts 94% of its visitors, it is the 17th most popular site, period. But even this giant is dwarfed by manga1001.com which attracts 180 million visits per month, 92% from Japan. Whether this new request will yield any useful information on the operators of the domains is unknown but it appears to represent a second bite at the cherry. Last year Shogakukan obtained a similar DMCA subpoena targeting both domains, again against Cloudflare. Perhaps they will get lucky this time around. DMCA subpoena documents here (1,2, pdf) Shueisha Targets Eight More 'Pirate' Domains In a DMCA subpoena application filed this week, Shueisha is again trying to obtain the assistance of Cloudflare to identify the operators of several piracy-linked domains. The first to catch the eye is manga1002.com, which follows on in sequence from the domains listed in the earlier application. Whether it is connected to them is unclear but traffic is currently more modest at around 600K visits per month, with just over half coming from Japan. With 2.9m visitors per month, the domain i9i9.to is the most popular in the batch but again, Cloudflare "Access Denied" messages stopped us from accessing the site at the time of writing. In any case, 94% of its visitors hail from Japan, making it very significant locally. Cc-comic.com is another domain in the subpoena application that does well in Japan, pulling in 92% of its 1.4 million visits per month from the country. A similar situation can be found in hakaraw.com with 1 million visits, 89% from Japan. Four other domains – upanh.org, rawbis.com, uk.leoi.info, freemangaraw.com – complete the list. In all cases the publisher wants Cloudflare to hand over pretty much everything it holds on the sites' operators including names, addresses, telephone numbers, billing information, payment methods (including card numbers and bank account details), plus all logged IP addresses. Where the investigations will go from here is unclear but criminal and civil prosecutions are certainly possible, particularly against the larger operators. The DMCA subpoena documents can be found here (1,2,3 pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Tarantino: Pulp Fiction NFT Sale Lawsuit is "Offensively Meritless", Won't Succeed Andy Maxwell, 10 Dec 05:22 PM With the rise of NFTs in recent times, it was always a question of if, not when, controversies surrounding them would eventually descend into lawsuits. Following his first foray into the arena, Quentin Tarantino didn't have to wait long. In an early November announcement, the world-famous director said he would begin selling Pulp Fiction-themed NFTs, tempting buyers with handwritten scripts and exclusive custom commentary. Two weeks later he was being sued by Miramax. In a lawsuit filed at a federal court in California, Miramax said that Tarantino was cashing in on the non-fungible token boom but by doing so, he was trampling their rights and ignoring agreements. "In short, Defendants seek to capitalize, unilaterally, on Miramax's rights to Pulp Fiction," Miramax wrote, demanding damages for breach of contract, copyright infringement and trademark infringement. Taratino Fires Back As expected, Tarantino isn't backing down. In his answer to the complaint filed with the court Thursday, the film legend's lawyers begin by emphasizing not only his contribution to cinema, but also to the success of Miramax. "Twenty-eight years ago, Quentin Tarantino wrote a screenplay that would change the future of the entertainment business. He subsequently directed a film based on that screenplay, a critical darling and financial success that would, more than any other motion picture, define Miramax's role atop the independent film pyramid. That movie, of course, was Pulp Fiction," they write. "Now a shell of its former self and flailing under a new ownership consortium, Miramax has decided to bite the hand that fed it for so many years by bringing this offensively meritless lawsuit." Addressing the Allegations Tarantino's answer follows a familiar format of dedicating pages to variously denying allegations, admitting basic facts, or expressing insufficient knowledge to definitively respond. In broad terms, however, it is clear that Tarantino believes he is completely in the right, hasn't breached any agreements, and is able to continue with his business venture without interference from Miramax. "As Miramax knows well, Tarantino has every right to publish portions of his original handwritten screenplay for Pulp Fiction, a personal creative treasure that he has kept private for decades," the answer continues. "Tarantino's contracts clearly and unambiguously grant him the opportunity to do so – those rights were carefully identified, bargained for and memorialized – and Miramax in its prior incarnation freely agreed. "But now, the new Miramax implausibly attempts to use the concept of NFTs to confuse the public and mislead this Court in an effort to deny artists such as Tarantino their hard earned and long-standing rights." Miramax's "ill-conceived lawsuit" will not succeed in preventing Tarantino from exercising his contractual rights, his lawyers add, since the director's contracts – and the law – are clear. Affirmative Defenses and Relief Presenting a list of nine affirmative defenses, Tarantino's lawyers cover everything from a lack of standing to sue through to copyright fair use, the doctrine of unclean hands, and Tarantino's rights under the First Amendment. They also want the case dismissed with prejudice, a judgment entered in favor of Tarantino, plus attorneys' fees and costs. The answer to complaint 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