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ACE Seize Pirate IPTV Domains, Press Cloudflare to Hand Over IdentititiesAndy Maxwell, 13 Feb 12:46 PM The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and thei

ACE Seize Pirate IPTV Domains, Press Cloudflare to Hand Over Identitities Andy Maxwell, 13 Feb 12:46 PM The Motion Picture Association (MPA) and their partners in the Alliance of Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are on a mission to slash the online availability of pirated movies and TV shows. The activities of the groups are rarely made public until services are actually taken down, following legal action in US courts, for example. However, OSINT sources can be utilized to find out which sites are already on the anti-piracy groups' radar, including some that may have already fallen but yet to be announced. Today we can report a selection of both. MPA & ACE Seize 'Pirate' IPTV Domains One of the main priorities of ACE, of which the MPA is a key member, is to tackle illegal streaming. The groups tackle traditional web-based platforms such as video-hosting services and indexing sites (like PrimeWire) but also IPTV suppliers, distributors and resellers. Actions against these types of players are often announced by ACE when they come to a successful conclusion, which can include site operators handing over domains and signing agreements. Sometimes, however, the signs are already in public view. During the past few days a number of pirate IPTV-related domains began redirecting to the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment website, a pretty clear indication that for the people behind them, all is not well. The first seized domain – techstudiony.com – used to be the website for Brooklyn-based electronics store TechStudio Electronics. Quite why the domain has been seized by ACE/MPA isn't immediately clear but the company's phone number is also used to sell various set-top boxes to the public. If any of those also came with an IPTV subscription, that could've proven problematic. Other domains that began redirecting to the ACE anti-piracy portal recently include a number with similar formatting. Israelitvcompany.com, for example, appears to have sold IPTV subscriptions relevant to Israeli customers. "Israeli TV is the innovative TV service from the Israeli TV Company, a pioneer in digital television. For the first time we present to you over 30 of the most popular Israeli channels in digital quality anywhere around the world on your TV!" the site used to read. Similar domains that also began redirecting to ACE in the past few days include the following: turkishtvcompany.com, polishtvcompany.com, russiantvcompany.com, germantvcompany.com, frenchtvcompany.com and ukraniantvcompany.com. Given their formatting and former site layouts, they appear to be connected. ACE/MPA Investigate Dozens More Domains Late December 2021 it became evident that the anti-piracy groups were investigating dozens more domains linked to web-based illegal streaming operations and pirate IPTV services. In the new year, they aren't letting up. Three DMCA subpoena applications filed in US courts this month show that with the help of Cloudflare and domain registry Tonic, MPA and ACE are hoping to identify the operators of at least two dozen additional sites operating in the web-streaming, IPTV and torrent sectors. Vumoo.to, for example, is a very popular streaming portal offering movies and TV shows. With help from Cloudflare (which provides services to the site) and Tonic (which operates its domain), the anti-piracy groups are hoping to identify Vumoo's owners, presumably with the intention of shutting the site down and depriving around 11 million visitors per month of their piracy fix. 1337x.to, which is a giant in the BitTorrent space, is also of interest to ACE/MPA. The indexing platform, which offers access to torrents covering many content categories, currently has around 75 million visitors per month but whether the request to Cloudflare will prove helpful is open to question. Over the past couple of years ACE, MPA and even the RIAA (1,2,3) have demanded identifying information from Cloudflare and/or Tonic on 1337x yet the site continues nonetheless. The 10 million visitors per month YTS.rs domain is also on the MPA/ACE radar. The site, which offers magnets and torrent streaming, uses the YTS branding but like the more popular YTS.mx, it isn't the official YTS site since that was shut down more than six years ago. The full list of sites, for which ACE/MPA are demanding the full personal details of their operators, reads as follows: 1337x.to, 9jarocks.com, 9jarocks.net, assistirfilmesonline.pro, baixartorrents.org, dizibox.pro, filmeseries.top, hdfilmcehennemi.tv, la123movies.com, loveflix.online, maxseries.top, my9jarocks.net, my9jarocks.org, pobre.tv, pobreflix.org, putlockernew.site, rfilmesonline.com, Series9.me, Strumyk.tv, superflix.mobi, tudohd.top (redirect to tudohd.cc), uwatchfree.ph (redirects to uwatchfree.fo), Vumoo.to, yabancidizi.pro, yts.rs The big question, of course, is whether any of these customers of Cloudflare have provided their real information to the CDN company. A lawsuit filed in Japan against Cloudflare by manga publishers Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Kadokawa this month alleges that the US company fails to conduct due diligence, meaning that it's possible for site operators to access Cloudflare's free service without "sufficient verification of identity". Details of the DMCA subpoenas can be found here (1,2,3 pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Pirated Oscar Screeners Have Become a Rare Breed Ernesto Van der Sar, 12 Feb 04:39 PM The Oscars are the most anticipated movie awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world. It's also a special event for movie pirates. Traditionally, the Oscar winners see a surge in unauthorized downloads. And in anticipation of the big day, pirated copies of award-screeners would often leak early. From 100% to 9% In the early 2000s, it was pretty common to see screeners of all Oscar contenders leak online before the winners were announced. This has changed dramatically over the years. In the past decade roughly half of all nominated movies leaked as a screener and, last year, this percentage dropped below 10% for the first time. New data released by Oscar piracy watcher Andy Baio suggests that the downward trend continues. For all Oscar-nominated films of this year, only three screeners leaked, which is on par with last year's all-time low. Granted, there are still a few weeks to go before the awards ceremony. However, typically all screeners have come out already in February, so it is safe to say that the downward trend is intact. The same graph also includes another key statistic. The number of "high-quality" leaks remains very high. These are ripped HD streams or Blu-Rays that are not screeners. Last year, a high-quality copy of all Oscar contenders was available before the awards, and this year 88% leaked already. Screeners are Rate, Leaks Aren't This means that, while screeners rarely leak nowadays, leaks are still quite common. This can in part be explained by a drastically changing movie industry and the rise of streaming services. Of all films that were nominated for the 94th Academy Awards, more than half premiered on a streaming service. Netflix has a dominant position, but HBO Max and Disney+ contributed to this change as well. When a film premieres on a streaming service it's generally available on pirate sites on the same day. These non-existing release windows are different from the months people have to wait for some theatrical-only releases. As a result, pirates can get their hands on unauthorized copies of the movies much quicker. This effect is nicely illustrated by the median number of days between a movie's official release and a pirated leak. That number tanked after 2020. This doesn't mean that screeners no longer exist in the streaming era. Depending on the release date, voters still need early access to a Netflix or Disney+ film if it's not on the platform yet. 'The Power of the Dog' Screener This was also the case for "The Power of the Dog," which leads the Oscars field this year with 12 nominations. The film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, was released on December 1st but a screener copy already leaked last September. Several other Netflix titles also leaked early but none of them were nominated. These leaks are not necessarily awards screeners. Information we received from the leaker suggests that they are linked to film festival screeners. The other Oscar-nominated films that had leaked screeners are "Cyrano" and "Drive My Car." These are not streaming releases but the latter has an interesting angle, as it was leaked by a group that used the "OSCAR" tag. This was prophetic, as the Japanese film received four Oscar nominations. We expect that the screener heydays will never return. Pirates will still publish them if there's no high-quality copy online yet but with shorter or non-existing release windows, there are simply fewer opportunities. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2022 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