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TeaTV, BeeTV & CyberFlix Make Movie Piracy Easy; The Hard Bit Comes NextAndy Maxwell, 25 Nov 10:30 PM In the early days of file-sharing, many of tho

TeaTV, BeeTV & CyberFlix Make Movie Piracy Easy; The Hard Bit Comes Next Andy Maxwell, 25 Nov 10:30 PM In the early days of file-sharing, many of those involved couldn't believe that music could be downloaded for free. Today, many pirates not only expect more, they demand more, and get it too. As a result, and when everything goes to plan, many of today's piracy apps are indistinguishable from their legal counterparts. They are as easy to install and feature similar graphical interfaces, with all the latest movies and TV shows a couple of taps away. Such is their prevalence, apps offering less are easily ignored. The most successful pirate apps offer access to superior content libraries than those available on legal services, without charging a penny. Hollywood, Netflix, and almost every other player in the streaming market would love to shut them all down, but that's more easily said than done. ACE/MPA Take Closer Interest With finite resources, anti-piracy groups usually concentrate on higher-profile apps with larger audiences. This suggests a direct link between the success of an app and the chances of it being shut down. Piracy apps TeaTV, BeeTV and CyberFlix are clearly popular enough to warrant some extra attention. Jan van Voorn is the Executive Vice President & Chief of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association. He's also head of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the anti-piracy coalition that has shut down more pirate services in five years than most people knew existed. Documents filed at a California court earlier this month are the first public sign that TeaTV and BeeTV are on the ACE radar. Signed by van Voorne, the DMCA subpoena application targets Cloudflare and requires the company to hand over whatever information it holds on the alleged infringers identified by ACE. The subpoena requires Cloudflare to hand over the following: Information sufficient to identify the alleged infringers of the motion pictures described in the attached notification letter. This would include the individuals' names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account history. The deadline to hand over that information is today, November 25, 2022, so it's likely that Cloudflare has already complied. Whether Cloudflare had anything useful to hand over is unknown, but from the last five years of ACE operations, we know that DMCA subpoenas are only the start and the group never gives up. MPA/ACE Target Github Repos Exactly a week after the DMCA subpoena application, the Motion Picture Association sent a pair of takedown notices to Github – one targeting TeaTV and the other CyberFlix TV, a popular piracy app with similar functionality. Representing Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal City Studios, Warner Bros., Disney and Netflix Studios, LLC, the MPA described both apps as engaged in "massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows" with infringement their "predominant use and purpose." The MPA also provided a document (Exhibit A) containing a "representative list of infringements" occurring via both apps. Those aren't published by Github but it appears that the MPA wanted to present a clear case of infringement so that Github could see for itself that the apps needed to be taken down. TeaTV is no stranger to publicity having hit the headlines following a high-profile article published by CNBC in Canada. The situation for CyberFlix is also precarious. The app is reported to be a clone of Terrarium TV, which shut down in 2018 under legal pressure, widely attributed to ACE. In 2021, the domain Cyberflix.app ended up in the hands of the MPA. No official announcement followed but seeing the CyberFlix app grow in popularity was always likely to result in a follow up from ACE. Whether ACE was responsible for another recent shutdown is unclear. The developer of Cinema HD reportedly stopped pushing updates to the popular streaming app after facing "legal issues", a not-uncommon event since ACE appeared on the scene. Whether the same fate awaits TeaTV, BeeTV, and CyberFlix, remains to be seen but life in the spotlight has never been easy for piracy services. The only solution is to remain unsuccessful but that's never been much of an attraction. Court documents & DMCA notices can be found here (1,2,3,4,5) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Court Orders U.S. Navy to Pay $154,400 in Software Piracy Damages Ernesto Van der Sar, 25 Nov 01:21 PM Six years ago, the US Navy was sued for mass copyright infringement and accused of causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The lawsuit was filed by German company Bitmanagement. It wasn't a typical piracy case where software was downloaded from shady sources, but the end result was the same. It all started in 2011 when the US Navy began testing Bitmanagement's 3D virtual reality application 'BS Contact Geo'. The Navy subsequently installed the software across its network, assuming that it had permission to do so. This turned out to be a crucial misunderstanding. Bitmanagement said it never authorized this type of use and when it discovered that the Navy had installed the software on hundreds of thousands of computers, the company took legal action. Bitmanagement Wins Appeal In a complaint filed at the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2016, the German company accused the US Navy of mass copyright infringement and demanded damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The Court initially dismissed the complaint so Bitmanagement appealed. Last year, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with the German software company, concluding that the US Government was indeed liable. The matter was reverted back to the Federal Claims court, to determine the appropriate damages amount through a 'hypothetical negotiation' process at a behind-closed-doors trial. Millions or Thousands in Damages? Over the past several months, the court heard both sides and a crucial expert witness. The goal was to establish what the Navy would have paid for the software licenses if an agreement had been reached. The court also had to decide how many copies the Navy should pay compensation for. Bitmanagement claimed that over 600,000 copies were installed but the Court of Appeals specified that damages should be based on "actual usage" of the software. To reach its final verdict the Federal Claims Court relied in part on testimony from the Navy's expert witness, David Kennedy, who has vast experience with establishing damages claims. After reviewing various log files, Mr. Kennedy concluded that the software was used by a few hundred unique users at most. In addition, he believes that it's reasonable that Bitmanagement would have agreed to a price of up to $200 per license. This figure is lower than the $370 per install that was negotiated earlier. However, the expert witness believes that this is warranted due to the large volume of the deal and the fact that the software company's cash position was rather low at the time. Court Awards $154,400 Federal Claims Court Judge Edward J. Damich largely agrees with this expert opinion. In his order, he awards $154,400 in total damages. The damages figure is based on 635 unique users and a license fee of $200. The court also awards an additional $350 for each of the 100 simultaneous-use licenses the Navy would have agreed to. Judge Damich notes that these conclusions are supported by "objective considerations", adding that the damages amount is "fair and reasonable". Whether Bitmanagement agrees with this conclusion has yet to be seen. The company requested $155 million in damages, arguing that the Navy has installed 600,000 copies of its software, for which it should have paid ~$259 a piece. The $154,400 in compensation represents a tiny fraction of the claim, even if we add an award for delayed compensation, which will be established later. — A copy of the Federal Claims Court's order, granting Bitmanagement $154,400 in copyright infringement damages is available here (pdf) 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