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YouTubers Must Pay $3.5m Damages For Uploading 10-Minute Movie EditsAndy Maxwell, 18 Nov 11:14 AM Setting aside two hours to watch a movie can be a

YouTubers Must Pay $3.5m Damages For Uploading 10-Minute Movie Edits Andy Maxwell, 18 Nov 11:14 AM Setting aside two hours to watch a movie can be a luxury these days, especially when the busiest among us claim they can guzzle 200 TikTok videos in much less than that. So-called 'Fast Movie' channels appear to offer some middle ground. Popular mainstream movies lasting a couple of hours are edited down to around 10 minutes and then uploaded to YouTube. The aim is to keep the storyline more or less intact yet despite obvious drawbacks, millions of people enjoy watching them. Fast Movie Crackdown Signs that movie companies were about to send a message trickled through last year. Japan does not recognize fair use and even if it did, experts predicted that 'Fast Movies' would still cross red lines. People generating advertising revenue from 'Fast Movies' certainly wouldn't improve things either. In June 2021, three 'Fast Movie' YouTubers were arrested in Japan following criminal complaints from several media companies. All three faced potential prison sentences plus fines for crimes allegedly committed in 2020. In the face of overwhelming evidence, the defendants entered guilty pleas and received prison sentences of between 18 and 24 months, suspended for up to four years, plus total fines of around $25,000, payable to the state. But it didn't end there. 13 Media Companies Seek Damages in Civil Lawsuit In May 2022, 13 member companies of the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and Japan Video Software Association (JVA) followed up their win in the criminal matter by filing a civil lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court. Listing 54 copyrighted works including 'I Am a Hero' and 'Shin Godzilla', Asmik Ace, Kadokawa, Gaga, Shochiku, TBS Television, Toei, Toei Video, Toho, Nikkatsu, Nippon Television Network, Happinet Phantom Studio, Fuji Television, and WOWOW, said that the defendants' 'Fast Movies' had been viewed 10 million times on YouTube, causing two billion yen ($14.2 million) in overall damages. For the purposes of their civil damages lawsuit, however, the plaintiffs entered a partial claim of 'just' 500 million yen ($3.56 million) against the defendants collectively. Tokyo District Court Decision In a decision handed down yesterday at the Tokyo District Court, Judge Masaki Sugiura acknowledged that the two defendants responsible for uploading the 'Fast Movie' edits without permission should compensate the rightsholders for the damages caused. In line with the media companies' reduced claim, the defendants were ordered to pay 500 million yen, roughly $3.56 million. Having sent the clearest possible message, the plaintiffs followed up with a joint statement delivered by their partner anti-piracy groups. "This is a ruling that fully upholds our allegations, and we believe that it should be a great deterrent against copyright infringement in the future," a joint CODA and JVA statement reads. "Compared to other copyright infringement cases in recent years, the amount of compensation awarded in this case is large. The 13 plaintiffs acted in unity so as not to allow the criminals to get away with impunity whilst profiting from copyright infringement, and the significance of this judgment is immeasurable." More Work To Be Done Another key goal of media companies worldwide is to prevent pirate sites from generating revenue from advertising. After receiving a request from Shueisha, one of Japan's largest manga publishers, anti-piracy group CODA sought action from an advertising company in Spain. "CODA confirmed placement of advertisements on 27 pirated manga sites in Japan and Hiroyuki NAKAJIMA, Legal Director of CBEP 'Cross-Border Enforcement Project') run by CODA in association with Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, requested in writing, thorough a Spanish law firm, to stop placing ads on these sites on 17th October 2022," CODA says. "The Ad Agency responded on 30th October pointing out that although it is impossible to grasp the contents of all the websites that it renders services, it had canceled the contracts with the sites in question and had stopped providing services to all the 27 sites, and promised to ensure that it would not provide services, nor would it enter into contracts with those who infringe intellectual property rights in the future." CODA says that it has continued to monitor the 27 sites and can now confirm that 26 carry no ads provided by the unnamed agency. The remaining site is under investigation. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Google and Amazon Helped the FBI Identify Z-Library's Operators Ernesto Van der Sar, 17 Nov 10:45 PM A few hours ago, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed the indictment and complaint against two alleged operators of Z-Library. Following an FBI investigation, the authorities pinpointed Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova as prime suspects. The two were arrested in Argentina and now await potential extradition to the United States. There's little doubt that Z-Library helped to distribute millions of copyrighted books but tracking down and then identifying people behind pirate sites can be a challenge. In this case, however, the FBI didn't have to look very far. Details laid out in the complaint show that it was fairly straightforward to connect the dots, largely thanks to data provided by Google and Amazon, which led directly to the suspects. The complaint includes various statements provided by FBI special agent Brett Dohnal, who links various personal email addresses, phone numbers, and other records of Napolsky and Ermakova to the Z-Library operation. Anton N. For the investigation, the FBI used search warrants directed at various companies such as Amazon and Google. This showed that the personal information of Anton Napolsky could be linked to Z-Library email addresses and domains in several instances. For example, Napolsky's personal mail.ru address was used to register zlibdoms@gmail.com, Napolsky7@gmail.com, and feedback.bookos@gmail.com. His personal phone number was also linked to Z-Library email addresses. "Google records reflect that a Russian-based telephone number ending in – 2458 ('Napolsky Phone-1') was used to register the email Napolsky7@gmail.com as well as the emails donation.zlib@gmail.com, zlibdoms@gmail.com and feedback.bookos@gmail.com," the complaint reads. Amazon data corroborate these findings. According to the FBI, Napolsky had two Amazon accounts in his name, using his personal phone number and overlapping street addresses, mostly located in Saint Petersburg, Russia. With this account, several orders were placed and paid with Amazon gift cards, allegedly donated by Z-Library users. "One of the accounts is registered with the email address 'amazon@bookmail.org,' and the other account, which is registered with Napolsky Personal Email-1, has a lengthy Amazon order history that includes at least 21 orders that were paid for using Amazon.com gift cards that originated as 'donations' by users to Z-Library." Amazon's cloud hosting service AWS also linked Napolsky to Z-Library. According to the complaint, his name and email account is connected to the email service that was used by @bookmail.org. This bookmail service was used by Z-Library to send ebooks to users over email. That was independently confirmed by undercover FBI agents. "According to records obtained by law enforcement from Amazon, the Simple Email Service for @bookmail.org is connected to an AWS Account ending in 4421, which is registered to the customer 'Anton Napolsky' at the email address Napolsky Personal Email-1," it reads. Valeriia E. The complaint also links Valeriia Ermakova to Z-Library, relying on data provided by Google and Amazon. Again, gift card donations from Z-Library users play an important role. Special agent Dohnal specifically mentions a card that was donated around January 2021. Not much later, the person who made the donation received a message that the card had been received. That message was sent from Z-Library's official email address zlibsupp@gmail.com. With help from Amazon, the recipient of the donation was linked to Valeriia Ermakova, her email address, as well as her credit card records. "According to records obtained by law enforcement from Amazon, the Donation was claimed by an Amazon customer account ending in -1502, registered to customer 'Valeriia' at email address kawaiihito22@gmail.com." "The account was registered on November 30, 2018, and has payment methods on file, including a Visa and a Mastercard in the name of Ermakova Valeriya with the billing address for each of Fontanka River Embankment 24 18, St. Petersburg, Russia." The donations weren't all used to reinvest in the site, it seems. According to the complaint, Ermakova mostly used her Amazon account to buy clothes and beauty products. "Since March 20, 2019, the 1502 Account has placed more than 110 orders totaling over $13,628.32, most of them for beauty and apparel products," the complaint reads, without mentioning how much of this amount can be linked to donations. In addition to the Amazon data, information provided by Google reveals that Ermakova's personal email was accessed by an IP-address that also accessed Z-Library Gmail accounts. "Based on subscription records obtained by law enforcement from Google, the Google account associated with Ermakova Personal Email-1 logged on numerous times from IP addresses that were also used to log into the accounts associated with the email addresses zlibsupp@gmail.com and feedback.bookos@gmail.com, indicating that a single internet access point was used to log in to all three accounts." Collaborating on and Controlling Z-Library The complaint ends with an overview of evidence that aims to show that Napolsky and Ermakova controlled the Z-Library website and collaborated on this criminal endeavor. Information obtained through search warrants link Napolsky to the Google Adwords account of Bookos.org and he also received an invoice for the domain registration of Booksc.org, among other things. Z-Library used project management software Atlassian to manage tasks and projects. Atlassian's software sent updates and tasks the team assigned, which purportedly shows that the defendants were collaborating on the Z-Library software. All-in-all, the information suggests that Napolsky and Ermakova didn't spend much effort concealing their alleged involvement with Z-Library. That said, all of these allegations have yet to be proven in court. What we can say is that people with the same names as the defendants are surprisingly easy to find online, on social media, and elsewhere. The criminal investigation of Z-Library also sheds new light on a Sci-Hub issue we reported earlier. At the time, Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan said that the FBI obtained access to her Google account, suggesting that she may have been investigated too, perhaps in a separate case. — A copy of the complaint, which includes much more information than what we summarized in this article, is available here (pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Major Pirate IPTV Service Raided, Four Arrests, 95 Resellers Face Investigation Andy Maxwell, 17 Nov 04:33 PM In the wake of Italian police shutting down a 900,000 user pirate IPTV service last week, police in Spain have followed up with an operation of their own. Information provided by Policía Nacional and EUROPOL does not include the service's name but according to the numbers, the operation appears significant. The IPTV service had more than 500,000 subscribers all over Europe, serviced by a network of resellers. Police say they disabled 10 administration panels connected to 32 servers located in France, the Netherlands and Spain. Those locations are reported as playing host to "illegal television content" and related computer equipment. Packages bought by subscribers gave them access to 2,600 live TV channels plus a library of 23,000 movies and TV shows. An interesting factor is the reported age of the service – at least a decade of operations according to Spanish police. Investigation Launched in 2020 The investigation began in 2020 following a complaint from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. Police say that they uncovered a network, operating through various companies, that had been fraudulently commercializing video content since 2012. Websites were used to advertise and sell the illegal subscription packages and like many similar IPTV platforms working at scale, a network of resellers helped to cascade sales from the top-level service into the consumer market below. Police say that than 95 resellers represented the service in Spain, UK, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, and Greece. Big Service, Big Money Numbers provided today by Policía Nacional will almost certainly change, if and when a case goes to trial, but by most standards they remain significant. Annual profit – not revenue – is currently estimated at 3,000,000 million euros. Investigators say the money was laundered in Spain and elsewhere. Through bank accounts held by companies in Spain, the suspects allegedly transferred money to bank accounts held by other companies under their control, located in unnamed paraísos fiscales, aka tax havens. Profits also funded luxury homes in the Malaga region of Spain and the formation of new companies to support criminal activity. Arrests and Seizures Police say they seized two high-end vehicles with an estimated value of 180,000 euros along with 2,800 euros in cash, IT-related materials, and other documentation. Eight bank accounts were frozen and four people were placed under arrest. "The operation ended with four detainees in the Málaga municipalities of Benahavís (2), Mijas (one person arrested and another under investigation) and Benalmádena (1)," a police statement reads. Efforts to identify more people involved in the organization continue in other countries. Update:The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment played a key role in this investigation and has just provided new information regarding the IPTV service targeted. The service worked under various brands including TV Choice Spain, Great TV Choice, and Best TV Choice. ACE reports that the services were promoted via real estate agencies, mainly in the coastal areas of Spain, and were actually shut down on October 19, 2022. Authorities raided the main suspects' residences in Marbella, shut down nine IPTV servers, and froze bank accounts containing 3 million euros. "ACE is proud to support the effective actions taken by the Spanish National Police and Europol against this illegal IPTV piracy ring," said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. "We are honored to continue our work with law enforcement agencies and other partners around the world in our crucial fight to combat large-scale piracy operations and protect the creative marketplace." 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