TorrentFreak's Latest News

YouTube and Facebook Are the Top 'Pirate Sites' in DenmarkErnesto Van der Sar, 14 Jun 10:58 AM Over the past two years, Danish law enforcement autho

YouTube and Facebook Are the Top 'Pirate Sites' in Denmark Ernesto Van der Sar, 14 Jun 10:58 AM Over the past two years, Danish law enforcement authorities have effectively dismantled the once-thriving local torrent tracker scene. These enforcement actions were combined with various court orders that compel Internet providers to block pirate sites. In theory, these efforts should be the perfect environment for piracy to decrease. On the ground, the opposite is happening. Piracy Rises in Denmark Danish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance reports that illegal consumption of movie and TV content has reached the highest level in nine years. This number comes from an annual survey among more than a thousand respondents, carried out by Mediavision. "As many as 580,000 Danes watch films and series illegally, which is an increase of 80,000 Danish pirates since the spring of 2021," Rights Alliance notes. According to the latest data, 13 percent of the Danish population between the ages of 15 and 74 regularly pirate film and TV content. Compared to previous years, people are increasingly downloading and streaming locally produced content. YouTube and Facebook Pirates Interestingly, when respondents were asked about the sites they use to access content illegally, YouTube and Facebook were mentioned most often. Nearly half of all Danish pirates (48%) use YouTube to access content illegally with 42% using Facebook. These two "big tech" sites are far more popular than traditional pirate sources such as Popcorn Time and Solarmovie. The survey further reveals that almost 30% of pirates use YouTube and Facebook exclusively. The remainder have scattered over more than a dozen alternative pirate sources, of which streaming sites FirstRow Sports and Mr. Swe are growing most rapidly. Deeply Disturbing Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund is concerned about this "deeply disturbing" trend that's clearly going in the wrong direction. "We are seeing an alarming increase in the volume of illegal consumption, which is mainly due to more and more people streaming content illegally via Facebook and YouTube," Fredenslund says. "Although these platforms now are required to provide effective tools to ensure that illegal content cannot be uploaded, Mediavision's investigation shows that we have not yet seen the effect of this." Fredenslund hopes that both YouTube and Facebook, partly motivated by new legislation such as the EU Copyright Directive, will do more to prevent copyright-infringing content from appearing on their platforms. Blockades & Workarounds In Denmark, Rights Alliance has been the driving force behind many enforcement actions. The group helped to obtain several site-blocking orders and following negotiations, all major ISPs will adhere to these. These blockades obviously don't apply to YouTube and Facebook. And for traditional pirate sites, people can find workarounds. Mediavision's survey found that more than a third of all Danish pirates use VPNs (38%) or alternate DNS servers (36%) to get access to blocked sites. Password Sharing Aside from piracy, rightsholders also face another challenge. The number of people who share passwords to subscription services such as Netflix and Disney+ is growing as well. Last year, 31% of all Danes shared passwords to streaming services with people outside of their household. In 2022, this percentage has grown to 37%, even though most people know that it's against streaming platforms' terms of service. While password sharing is not counted as piracy, it likely results in a loss in revenue. Nearly half of all respondents indicated that they would sign up for a subscription if sharing was no longer possible. "Sharing passwords may seem harmless to the individual user, but it is not allowed, and it affects the entire food chain when content is not paid for," Fredenslund says, calling for more strict enforcement. All in all these data reveal that unauthorized media consumption is hard to curb. While extra enforcement efforts may help, rightsholders may also want to look into affordable legal options, as opposed to requiring people to take out a handful of subscriptions. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. The U.S. 'Small' Copyright Claims Board Goes Live this Week Ernesto Van der Sar, 13 Jun 10:25 PM At the end of 2020, US Congress passed new legislation that officially introduced a "small claims" process for copyright disputes. The CASE Act, short for "Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement," established a copyright claims board within the United States Copyright Office. This three-member tribunal provides an option to resolve copyright disputes outside the federal courts, which significantly reduces the associated costs. As such, it aims to make it easier for smaller creators, such as photographers, to address copyright infringements. First Claims This Week Over the past year-and-a-half, the groundwork was laid for this new process and this Thursday the Copyright Claims Board (CCB) will start accepting the first claims. The CCB is open to anyone and an attorney is not required to file or defend a claim. The filing fee is set at $100 and the maximum amount of monetary damages that can be awarded in a claim is $15,000 per work and $30,000 in total. The cases are resolved online and there are no in-person hearings. The entire process is voluntary. Defendants can choose to opt-out if they don't wish to participate. If that's the case, the claiming party can still take their dispute to the federal court. Defendants who fail to opt out must defend themselves or risk a default judgment being entered against them. Piracy Cases? When the plan was first introduced there was quite a lot of pushback. Several opponents feared that "copyright trolls" would abuse the system to launch a wave of claims against alleged online pirates. How the CCB will be used will become clear in the months to come but it doesn't appear to be a great venue for file-sharing cases. There is a limit on the number of cases a claiming party can file in a year, for example. These limits are 30 cases per year per party and 80 cases per law firm. In addition, the board is not meant to issue third-party subpoenas, meaning that rightsholders can't file a case against a John Doe who's only known by an IP address. In theory, however, rightsholders could try to use a DMCA subpoena to obtain personal details and then go to the CCB. One of the unique characteristics of the board is that people can start a claim if a copyright registration is still in process. This is different from the federal court, where a completed registration is required to start a case. Many Unknowns At this point, it's unclear how many claims will be filed and what these will be about. There could be hundreds of filings per month or just a handful. The types of cases can also vary greatly. In addition to traditional copyright infringement claims, the CCB can also be used by people who believe that they are being wrongly accused. For example, to request a declaration of non-infringement, or to accuse a rightsholder of sending false DMCA takedown notices. TorrentFreak will keep a close eye on cases submitted to the CCB during the weeks to come. If there are any notable trends or concerns, we will highlight these in a follow-up report. 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