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Yout.com Site Blocking 'Whack-a-Mole' Continues in PeruErnesto Van der Sar, 25 Aug 11:00 AM When 'pirate' sites are blocked by ISPs, the operators o

Yout.com Site Blocking 'Whack-a-Mole' Continues in Peru Ernesto Van der Sar, 25 Aug 11:00 AM When 'pirate' sites are blocked by ISPs, the operators often get creative and find ways to bypass these restrictions. In Peru, the opposite appears to happen. After the stream-ripping portal Yout.com challenged a local blockade, the authorities simply blocked it again. For the full context, we have to go back more than a year. Last spring local ISPs were ordered to block Yout.com and other stream-ripping sites as a precautionary measure, while the authorities conducted their investigations for potential legal action against the sites. Not So Temporary Blocking Injunction The temporary blocking injunction came at the request of the government agency INDECOPI, which works closely with rightsholder groups such as IFPI. In the application, it argued that the stream-ripping site allows users to download content from YouTube without permission. While the blockade was granted, it was only supposed to be temporary. According to the injunction, the blockade was valid for 30 days. The authorities could use this time to start a formal prosecution, after which the measures could potentially be extended. However, nearly a year passed without an official follow-up from INDECOPI. Meanwhile, ISPs continued to block Yout.com. To resolve the situation Yout hired a local lawyer to appeal the injunction at Peru's Competition and Intellectual Property Court. The court confirmed that there is no legal obligation for the ISPs to block Yout. Despite this conclusion, the court couldn't order ISPs to unblock the site either. Unblock and Reblock To resolve the status quo, Yout had to reach out to INDECOPI and the ISPs, urging them to lift the expired measures. This is exactly what Yout's attorney did a few months ago, but soon after the authorities responded with a surprise move. On May 31st this year, INDECOPI obtained a new preliminary injunction. This time, Yout is listed together with dozens of other targets. They include pirate sites such as Anineflv, Cuevana and Cinetux, as well as NoTube and other stream-ripping services. This injunction was again temporary in nature, but just like last time, ISPs continued to block the sites after it expired. Expired Again, but Still Blocked Yout's Peruvian attorney informs TorrentFreak that they reached out to INDECOPI with a request to lift the precautionary measures, as the injunction is no longer valid. "In this instance, the defense requested that it is appropriate to declare the expiration of the precautionary measure issued by [the injunction] since Indecopi, AGAIN, failed to initiate a sanctioning procedure within 30 days. We are currently waiting for Indecopi's response." If the blocking measures are eventually lifted, in theory there's nothing to prevent the authorities from requesting another preliminary injunction. This means that this reverse "whack-a-mole" can keep going for a while. For now, all copyright infringement allegations against Yout in Peru remain untested in court. No formal procedure has been launched, nor has the site been declared illegal. "There is no sanction by the Peruvian government against Yout.com, nor has the Peruvian government ever initiated a sanctioning procedure against the site," Yout's lawyer tells us. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Denuvo Promises to Kill Nintendo Switch Emulator Piracy With New Protection Andy Maxwell, 24 Aug 05:51 PM Most video gamers will be familiar with the concept of an end-of-level or end-of-game 'boss'. They take many forms but tend to present as an escalated challenge designed to prevent gamers from progressing any further. Anti-piracy company Denuvo embraces the 'boss' concept and drops it on its head. Anyone wanting to play a Denuvo-protected videogame without paying for it will have to defeat Denuvo's protection right at the very beginning, before the game even starts. Worst still, only a handful of people in the whole world are up to the Denuvo boss challenge, so until they emerge victorious, nobody gets to play the game, unless they're prepared to pay for it. This makes Denuvo very unpopular in video game piracy circles but very popular with its clients, some of whom have a new product to consider. Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection Providing there's no obvious reuse of copyrighted code or trademark abuse, emulation software is mostly immune to legal attack. Emulators that mimic gaming hardware are mostly legal to develop, legal to distribute, legal to own, and even legal to use. In reality, most emulator gamers like to gloss over that last bit. In the time it takes the minority to shout "HOMEBREW", the rest will have downloaded several hundred MAME ROMs, a few Nintendo Switch games, and will be playing them on a PC. Nintendo is concerned about all piracy, but emulator piracy is special in that gamers don't need to buy games, and they don't need to buy a console either. Denuvo announced today that it has a new product to bring this to an end. It's called Nintendo Switch Emulator Protection and Denuvo wants game developers to start using it right away. Emulation Good / Piracy Bad Reinhard Blaukovitsch is the founder and Managing Director of Denuvo, a business owned by cybersecurity giant Irdeto. In an announcement on Irdeto's blog today, Blaukovitsch acknowledges that PC emulators can bring old games back to life with a wave of nostalgia but warns of the piracy risks. The claim that hundreds of free emulators can play Switch games sounds a bit enthusiastic, but that's not really important. Yuzu and Ryujinx are the most popular and between them cover Windows, Linux and macOS users. All three can be used with entirely legal software but Denuvo would like them to be less useful to pirates moving forward. Games Need Protection From Emulation "Your Nintendo Switch games need a protective solution. Emulating games may be harmless in some cases, but at the end of the day, it is still a major means of piracy," Denuvo's message to Nintendo developers reads. "Our brand new Denuvo Nintendo Switch Protection helps prevent emulation from the get-go and stops pirates from getting hold of your game via the PC." Denuvo says its solution integrates "seamlessly and automatically" and works by detecting differences in the way a game behaves compared to what it was designed for. "In this way, our software can tell that your game has been tampered with – and will make it unplayable." Denuvo says its solution will stop Switch games from being pirated and help to secure income for developers. As for gamers, they will "simply have to pay" if they want in on the action. The Switch hacking/piracy scene is likely to perceive that as a challenge. 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