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"CODA" Piracy Skyrockets After Best Picture Oscar WinErnesto Van der Sar, 01 Apr 09:40 AM The Oscars are the most anticipated movie awards show of t

"CODA" Piracy Skyrockets After Best Picture Oscar Win Ernesto Van der Sar, 01 Apr 09:40 AM The Oscars are the most anticipated movie awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world. This year's awards ceremony received plenty of attention as well, with most of the media focusing on the Will Smith incident. Luckily, the winners didn't get unnoticed by the public at large. There are two films that clearly stand out. The first one is "Dune", which received the most awards, winning in six categories. The other one is "CODA", which picked up three awards including the most prestigious of "Best Picture". Historic Win CODA's win goes in the history books as the first film from a streaming platform to win the top Oscar. This honor goes to Apple, which beat Netflix, which was also in the run for the best picture award with "Don't Look Up". In the past we have seen that Oscar wins are not just about prestige, they also increase sales. With a streaming release that's harder to measure but it's logical to assume that more people watched the film on Apple's platform after the awards show. The Oscars also have a direct impact on the interest among pirates. This is something we can measure and the results leave little room for doubt. Based on a sample of torrent downloads tracked by IKnow, we can report that the estimated number of pirated CODA downloads skyrocketed on Monday. Piracy Surge The graph below shows that during the first months of the year CODA had a median of roughly 5,000 downloads per day. When the nominations were announced in early February this number doubled momentarily. Leading up to the awards ceremony there was a gradual increase again, with a surge over more than 60,000 estimated downloads on Monday. CODA Piracy The number of post-Oscar downloads of "CODA" is higher than the pirated downloads per day last August when the film first leaked online. It's worth keeping in mind that this sample only tracks pirated downloads through torrent sites. Most piracy takes place through unauthorized streaming sites nowadays. These views can't be tracked publicly, but it means that the total piracy count will be much higher. The data clearly show that the Best Picture award boosted CODA's piracy numbers; but what about the other major Oscar winner Dune? Will Smith Impact Interestingly, the data show that Dune also got a piracy boost, but nowhere near the levels seen for CODA. We assume that this is in part because Dune was a blockbuster release that many people had watched already. The numbers we've seen only include one other film that comes close to the relative piracy boost CODA got and that's "King Richard". While the film wasn't nominated in the Best Picture category, Will Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor for his role as Richard Williams. Apparently, Smith's controversial behavior on stage at the Oscars also raised people's interest in the film itself. Oscar Piracy Effects All in all, we see that the 'Oscar effect' is clearly visible for CODA, Dune, and King Richard. Winning an award definitely impacts the piracy numbers. That is also clear when we contrast the download estimates for the aforementioned films with Netflix's "Don't Look Up" which didn't win anything. More Oscar Piracy Trends There are some other Oscar-related piracy trends that are worth pointing out as well. As we previously observed, screener leaks have become a relatively rare occurrence in recent times. This makes sense, as release windows are dropping or completely disappearing as the result of the online streaming boom. Only three screeners for Oscar-nominated films leaked online this year. This was confirmed by screener-watcher Andy Baio last weekend, who has kept track of these leaks for two decades. The drop in leaks isn't so much the result of better anti-piracy protection or the Academy banning physical screeners. No, there are simply fewer incentives for release groups to leak screeners, since better quality, pirated copies are often available already. Take CODA, for example. A high-quality copy of the film was shared on pirate sites on the same day it premiered on the Apple TV+ platform. This was long before the first screeners are usually sent out. So, even if a release group has access to a screener, there would be no point in leaking it. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Dutch Pirate Site Blocklist Expands with RARBG, YTS, EZTV and Others Ernesto Van der Sar, 31 Mar 08:42 PM Pirate site blocking is a common practice in dozens of countries around the world. In most cases, ISPs are ordered to take action after a relatively short court proceeding. In the Netherlands, it took more than a decade for the first order to be approved. It took detours through the Supreme Court and the EU Court of Justice before the final order was issued in 2020, targeting The Pirate Bay. With all the legal paperwork in order, the doors were opened to more blocking requests. We expected these to follow sooner but anti-piracy group BREIN remained quiet on the blocking front. This was for good reason as rightsholders and ISPs were working on an agreement behind the scenes. Last November, BREIN signed a deal with all large Dutch Internet providers to streamline the blocking process. Through this "Website Blocking Covenant" Ziggo, KPN, DFN, T-Mobile, Canal+, and members of the industry organization NLConnect, promise to block pirate sites when rightsholders obtain a blocking order against one of the other ISPs. LimeTorrents, YTS, RARBG, Kickasstorrents and EZTV This week, the government-supported agreement is being put to work for the first time. As part of a yet-to-be-published ruling, BREIN obtained a blocking order requiring Internet provider Delta to restrict access to 1337x, LimeTorrents, YTS, RARBG, Kickasstorrents, EZTV, as well as several proxies and mirrors. Delta confirmed that it had lost the blocking battle earlier this month. The provider informed Tweakers that there was a hearing on March 14, where the matter was decided. The new blocking effort was first reported by users of the ISP KPN and later confirmed by the provider's support staff. While KPN isn't named in the order, the covenant requires it to block the sites as well. Other Dutch ISPs are expected to follow suit in a matter of days. These blocklist additions don't come as a surprise. In November 2021, BREIN informed TorrentFreak that it had started a new proceeding to block six sites, without mentioning any names. Google to Follow Suit? The Internet providers are not the only intermediaries to become more cooperative. Google is also working with rightsholders to remove domain names from its search results if there's a valid ISP blocking order in the country. Thus far, Google has only removed Pirate Bay domains from its search results but we expect that the new additions will follow in due course. According to BREIN director Tim Kuik, Google's stance is similar to that of the ISPs. "In essence, this is the same situation as recently agreed in the Dutch government-supported covenant between right holders and internet access providers," Kuik previously informed TorrentFreak. With the six new additions, there are seven domain names blocked in the Netherlands. However, if BREIN follows the path of other rightsholder representatives, many more will follow in the future. 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