TorrentFreak's Latest News

U.S. Confirms Seizure of 55 World Cup Piracy Streaming Domain NamesErnesto Van der Sar, 13 Dec 10:40 AM Last Friday we reported that a new round of

U.S. Confirms Seizure of 55 World Cup Piracy Streaming Domain Names Ernesto Van der Sar, 13 Dec 10:40 AM Last Friday we reported that a new round of piracy-related domain name seizures was likely being carried out by U.S. law enforcement. Dozens of popular sports streaming sites became inaccessible, replaced by a seizure banner featuring seals of prominent law enforcement outfits. T action was officially confirmed a few hours ago by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland. The Office explains that 55 separate websites were targeted for allegedly live-streaming games of the ongoing FIFA World Cup. Illicit FIFA World Cup Streams The authorities don't mention specific domain names, but we can confirm that several popular streaming sites with millions of visitors are affected, including hesgoal.com, 9goaltv.to, freestreams-live1.com, weakstreams.com, istream2watch.com and yalla-shoots.com. These domain names have been taken over by the U.S. Government and visitors see a warning banner when they try to access them. "This domain name has been seized by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) pursuant to a warrant issued by the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the banner reads, warning that offenders risk criminal prosecution. The Seizure Banner A FIFA representative referred the infringing domain names to the authorities in September. Homeland Security Agents in Maryland subsequently picked up the case and confirmed that the sites were indeed linked to infringing World Cup streams. An affidavit, filed in support of the domain name seizures, explains that the sites exploit copyright-protected content to draw traffic. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the traffic is monetized through ads. "Based on the pervasive use of advertising on each site, the affidavit alleges that the purpose for distributing the infringing content is the private financial gain to these websites' operators," Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office notes. "By seizing the subject domain names the government prevents third parties from acquiring the name and using it to commit additional crimes, or from continuing to access the websites in their present forms." Comebacks The domain seizures undoubtedly have a major impact and some site operators may be deterred by the enforcement action. In recent days, however, we observed several of the targeted sports streaming services simply switching to new domains. Weakstreams, for example, has moved to a new domain name at weakstream.net and remains accessible. The same is true for Streamtowatch, Freestreams-live1, and Hesgoal. Interestingly, the new Hesgoal.me domain name put up a message that it will no longer stream UEFA matches because it respects the rights of copyright holders. Whether that also applies to FIFA is unclear. Freestreams-live1, meanwhile, mentions that the site "had some issues" without referring to the domain seizure at all. Seizures Will Continue Whether these new domains will be around for long remains a question. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) says that it will continue to target pirate sites going forward. "HSI will continue to focus on removing websites that facilitate digital piracy, and other intellectual property violations, from the internet," said Special Agent in Charge James C. Harris III of HSI Baltimore. "While many may believe that such websites do not constitute serious threats, the infringement upon rights holders of any intellectual property is a growing threat to our economic viability." The HSI agent adds that these pirate sites can be conduits for other criminal activity, but arrests or forthcoming indictments have not been mentioned. Rojadirecta This isn't the first US crackdown on sports streaming sites. Since 2010, US authorities have seized several of these portals under the flag of "Operation In Our Sites." These early seizures also targeted Rojadirecta, which eventually managed to get its domain name back after a legal protest. Interestingly, the most recent round of domain seizures also includes several Rojadiracta-branded domain names such as rojadirectatvlive.com. It's not clear whether these are linked to the original Rojadirecta. In any case, getting them back now may not be easy. — A list of all affected domain names that we're aware of is posted below. This may be updated in the future. – tvrojadirectaonline.net – toplivematch.net – live-sports-stream.net – 88zhibo.net – 247football.net – crichd.pro – rojadirecta-futbol.live – mythethao.live – ghiban1.live – bongtron1.live – polysportstv.info – eplsite.football – yalla-shoots.com – weakstreams.com – tructiep99.com – toplivematch.com – tarjetarojaonlinetv.com – soccer24hd.com – score808.com – rojadirectatvlive.com – rojadirectaliga.com – mythethao.com – koragol.com – juventus-live-stream.com – istream2watch.com – ijube.com – hesgoal.com – guduballs.com – ghiban2.com – freestreams-live1.com – cado89.com – beeduball.com – amzfootball.com – acrackstreams.com – 222live.com – 9goal.tv – 9goaltv.to From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Yout Seeks Clarification on the Legality of Youtube-DL Based Software Ernesto Van der Sar, 12 Dec 09:55 PM Two years ago, the RIAA caused outrage by taking down the open source YouTube-ripping tool youtube-dl from GitHub. The RIAA cited the DMCA's anti-circumvention provisions, arguing that the tool could be used to download their artists' musical works from YouTube, in breach of copyright. With little supporting case law in the United States, the RIAA referenced a German court ruling instead. This court concluded that YouTube's "rolling cipher" should be considered an effective technological protection measure. Therefore any attempt to circumvent it can be classified as copyright infringement. Not everyone agreed with this conclusion, however. After discussing the issue with legal experts and advisors, GitHub restored the project and placed $1m in a takedown defense fund. "We are taking a stand for developers and have reinstated the youtube-dl repo. Section 1201 of the DMCA is broken and needs to be fixed. Developers should have the freedom to tinker. That's how you get great tools like youtube-dl," GitHub former CEO Nat Friedman said at the time. Yout Sued the RIAA and Lost GitHub's support was a morale boost for operators of YouTube-ripping sites. Among them was Yout.com owner Jonathan Nader, who launched a pre-emptive lawsuit against the RIAA around the same time. At the Connecticut district court, Yout wanted to confirm that the site does not violate the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision. That battle was lost a few weeks ago when the court declared a victory for the RIAA. The music group soon followed up with a request for $250,000 in attorneys fees. This added to Yout's troubles and could potentially hinder the appeal, which has yet to get started. Stay Pending Appeal Ideally, Yout would like to put the attorneys' fees issue on hold pending the appeal. This was also proposed to the RIAA directly, but the music group refused to play along, leaving the YouTube ripper no other option than to turn to the court again. In a filing submitted a few days ago, Yout's attorney asks the court to stay the fees request while the appeal is pending. The court can grant such requests under certain conditions. Among other things, the decision to delay the fees determination should weigh in favor of the public interest. According to Yout, that's clearly the case here. Legality of Youtube-dl Based Software? Yout explains that its service is based on a modified version of the open source youtube-dl software. The legal status of this software hasn't been fully litigated and warrants a proper review by an appeal court. "[I]t is in the public interest that the appellate court determines if services such as Yout, and others that are also based upon the open-source software project youtube-dl (whether commercially exploited or coded and deployed by individual users) constitute circumvention pursuant to the DMCA as held by this Court." This issue isn't limited to Yout; many other projects and developers also rely on the youtube-dl software. "Given that the reach of this Court's holding in this matter goes far beyond just this one small business software provider, it is in the public interest that the Second Circuit reviews the merits on appeal. "This important and necessary review will be crippled if the instant matter concerning attorneys' fees is not stayed. This factor weighs strongly in favor of granting a stay," Yout adds. These arguments clearly suggest that the open source youtube-dl software might play a key role in the appeal and could impact other stream-rippers and the software's developers too. Irreperable Harm Yout goes on to argue that, if he has to pay the RIAA, there will be fewer funds available to finance its appeal. This could irreparably harm Yout by limiting its legal firepower. The music industry group, meanwhile, is backed by a billion-dollar industry and wouldn't be financially crippled if the attorneys' fees question is delayed. "[I]t would be quite difficult for Yout to satisfy Defendant RIAA's Motion for Attorneys' Fees while at the same time pursuing this very important appeal which, as noted above, would advance the public interest. "On the other hand, Defendant RIAA is in a much better financial position to withstand such a stay during the pendency of the appeal," Yout adds. Based on these and other arguments, Yout hopes that the district court will grant the temporary stay. The RIAA has yet to respond to the motion, but given its earlier refusal will likely oppose the request. — A copy of the motion to stay RIAA's motion for attorneys' fees 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