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Russia Claims Ukraine & Allies Use Pirate Sites to Spread PropagandaAndy Maxwell, 23 Feb 09:56 AM From February 28, 2023, availability of Western co

Russia Claims Ukraine & Allies Use Pirate Sites to Spread Propaganda Andy Maxwell, 23 Feb 09:56 AM From February 28, 2023, availability of Western content on Russia's legal streaming portals is set to nosedive. Following the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, new video content produced by major Western companies mostly disappeared from Russian cinemas and online platforms. Older content covered by existing licensing agreements remained in place, but in a matter of days, many of those deals will run out. Local reports suggest that at least 200 films owned by Disney, Sony, and other Hollywood studios, will disappear from licensed streaming platforms, including market leader Kinopoisk. Against that background, experts suggest that Kinopoisk's customers will migrate to illegal sites offering everything for free. Local cybersecurity companies believe that preparations are already underway to meet the demand. Domain Name Registrations Surge According to Russian cybersecurity firm Angara Security, registrations of domain names with a movie or TV show theme began to surge at the start of the month. The company says that between February 1 and February 10 alone, registrations were up 64% on similar registrations for the whole of January. "According to our data, the vast majority of newly created sites belong to pirates. Such activity is due to the fact that attackers closely follow the content agenda and use it for their own purposes," Angara Security's Victoria Varlamova informed IZ this week. Less Legal Content, More Pirates, Even More Pirate Sites Asked to comment on the reported surge, Cybersecurity firm R-Vision was more specific. The company linked increasing numbers of pirate sites directly to sanctions and reduced access to licensed content. "Indeed, against the backdrop of sanctions restrictions, there has recently been an increase in the number of pirated sites with films and series, as more and more popular foreign content is removed from legal online cinemas," said R-Vision's Petr Kutsenko. None of the opinions expressed thus far are particularly unusual. While we were unable to confirm excess 'pirate' domain registrations in early February, domains registered over the past 48 hours alone include large numbers of instantly recognizable 'pirate' brands on a wide range of TLDs. Due to search engine demotions, site-blocking and other anti-piracy measures, that in itself is not particularly unusual. Pirates are burning through domains at an unprecedented rate and it's entirely feasible that some have spotted an opportunity and intend to exploit it. The Russian government says it's all part of a Western conspiracy. Roskomnadzor Blames Ukraine & Other 'Unfriendly Countries' Those who initially reported the domain registration surge placed the blame on generic pirates but went no further than that. Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor had much more to say. "The creation and popularization of such pirated video services among the Russian audience is carried out from the territory of Ukraine with the support of a number of unfriendly countries, from which claims have ceased to be received regarding violation of their copyrights when distributing content," the department told Izvestia. The claim that some people in Ukraine are involved in pirate sites hardly comes as a huge shock; it's been common knowledge for at least 20 years. But the suggestion that Ukraine is colluding with Western allies to push pirated content to Russian audiences via pirate sites, because rightsholders have stopped sending copyright complaints for violations in Russia? Less plausible. Pirate Propaganda Since Russian pirates are perfectly capable of serving local audiences without foreign assistance, it's unclear what unfriendly pirates could achieve in Russia. But Roskomnadzor has its own theory, one that goes far beyond streaming illicit movies and TV shows. According to the telecoms watchdog, Western-supported pirate sites, run from the territory of Ukraine, play a role in the war. As reported by Izvestia, Roskomnadzor claims that these pirate sites are "purposefully used for anti-Russian propaganda and dissemination of fake materials" relating to the situation in Ukraine. Roskomnadzor says that since February 2022, more than 4,000 of these "pirate internet resources" have been blocked by ISPs for "distributing advertising banners with fake materials about a special military operation." For rightsholders running short of ideas on the anti-piracy front, site-blocking opportunities don't come any easier than that. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. The European Union's Official Site Has a Persistent 'Piracy' Problem Ernesto Van der Sar, 22 Feb 10:08 PM The European Union recognizes that online piracy poses a serious threat to copyright holders and the public at large. Last December, the EU published an updated version of its biannual piracy and counterfeiting watchlist, calling out some of the worst offenders. "Infringements of intellectual property rights, in particular commercial-scale counterfeiting and piracy, pose a serious problem for the European Union," the EU Commission wrote. The report explained that the unauthorized activity leads to "high financial losses" for copyright holders. Members of the public face risks too, such as piracy-related malware and scammers determined to obtain their credit card details. Europa.eu Pirate Scammers As the EU published these cautionary words, its flagship domain name Europa.eu was already being exploited by piracy-related scams, including the worst type – credit card phishing spam. When we alerted the European Commission to our findings, a spokesperson informed us that the origin of the incident has been identified and that proper action had been taken to resolve the matter. "Concerned platform stakeholders have already taken the necessary measures such as removal of suspicious files and blocking further attempts for uploading them. We are closely monitoring the situation and continue scanning websites for suspicious files," the spokesperson said. The Piracy Problem Persists Despite these reassuring words and the passing of three months, the problem is yet to be solved. Basic searches reveal that Europa.eu portals have been plagued by thousands of piracy-related adverts, with new ones being added daily. The EU hosts a broad variety of projects on its official domain and several allow outsiders to contribute content. It appears that this weakness is easily exploited, yet hard to patch. Below is just one of the many piracy-related adverts, promoting a 123movies website where people can supposedly stream free movies. These and other variants appear on europa.eu and subdomains including school-education.ec.europa.eu, atlantic-maritime-strategy.ec.europa.eu, esdac.jrc.ec.europa.eu and more. Like many others, the advert shown above arrives as a PDF file containing a link to the target site. In this case, the link goes to a dodgy movie platform that has absolutely nothing to do with 123movies. Phishing Prospective pirates who click the link see a dummy streaming site, which may show short movie intros. Interestingly, the scammy streaming site appears to block certain countries but by using an American IP address, we managed to get in. After a brief intro, users are prompted to register. We attempted to sign up but decided to abort the mission when our anti-virus software confirmed a phishing scam. "Phishing websites persuade you to reveal personal data such as login or credit card details, usually by pretending to be a legitimate source. It uses social engineering to trick you," the warning read. The same scammy ads also promote specific movies, such as "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania", The same is true for popular TV-series such as HBO's "The Last of Us". TorrentFreak reached out to the Commission again, to get an update on how it sees the problem, but we haven't heard back. When we last inquired about the issue a few weeks ago, a spokesperson informed us that the EU "won't comment any further on this matter." IPTV, UFC, and the Super Bowl The EU must have its reasons for the lack of communication, but the spamming only appears to be getting worse. In addition to classic pirate streaming sites, shady IPTV services are advertised too. Several ads on the Europa.eu site are linked to tv.elaalam.com, which promises access to virtually all content imaginable, including live sports. You have to pay first, of course. Whether this is a total scam or not is irrelevant at this point. The EU previously called out pirate IPTV services and is in talks with rightsholders to better protect themselves against live streaming piracy. Inadvertently running ads for these services at the same time is not ideal. The spam doesn't stop at pirate IPTV services either. We've seen ads for scammy UFC broadcasts, Premier League matches, NBA games, NASCAR races, and even the mighty Super Bowl has a dedicated promo in Europa.eu. Male Enhancement Gummies By now it should be clear that there's a spam problem, but the deeper we dig, the more dirt we encounter. Want to hack Instagram? Need a hacked Onlyfans account? Or a free cash app money generator? There's an ad for that. Gift cards also appear to be quite popular; Google Play, Xbox, Amazon, or Playstation, you name it. Even physical needs can be satisfied if you believe in magic. The "CBD Male Enhancement Gummies" for "longer staying power" stood out to us in this regard; literally. Upload Filter? The above shows that the problem is rampant. However, it doesn't mean that the EU is completely ignoring it. Several of the scammy ads have been removed and takedowns are ongoing. That said, the spam avalanche is ongoing and has been for at least three months. While we were working on this article, dozens of new PDF files were uploaded. In recent years the EU has passed legislation to ensure that large online platforms use technical tools such as upload filters to tackle online piracy. Perhaps that could be an option for Europa.eu too? From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. MPA: Pluto TV .m3u Playlists Facilitate Piracy on a Massive Scale Andy Maxwell, 22 Feb 02:01 PM For people who enjoy movies and TV shows but prefer not to hand over a monthly subscription, Pluto TV is one of the most popular legal services around. Depending on the region, Pluto TV offers up to 250 'channels' covering TV shows, movies, general entertainment, documentaries, sports, and news. For those who prefer audio-only, Pluto TV throws in a selection of music channels too. Pluto TV is available on mobile Android and iOS devices, media streaming devices such as Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast and Roku, and via apps on the Xbox and PlayStation gaming platforms. However, a condition of using Pluto TV is that it must only be consumed using through approved software. Watch For Free, Pay in Other Ways Official Pluto TV apps deliver video content and Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) to users who, incidentally, don't even need to sign up. These apps play a key role in the advertising mechanisms that generate revenue for the Pluto TV service and support the free-to-watch model. Viewed from a different angle, some users don't like to be tied down to official apps and would rather use their own software. Users may also prefer less advertising or find the amount of user data scooped up by official apps a privacy risk. Pluto TV uses systems that monitor and track user behavior (GitHub repo here), so when viewers completely do away with official apps, it undermines Pluto TV's business model, and that has an impact on revenue. In a strongly-worded copyright complaint sent this week, rightsholders say that will not be tolerated. M3U Playlists and Pluto TV Playlists using the .m3u format have been around for years. Often used to instruct a media player to play a bunch of locally stored songs in a particular order, .m3u playlist files can also point to online locations where media streams can be found. While these playlists can be used to access pirate IPTV services, some are configured to access Pluto TV streams from their official sources. Downloading a Pluto TV .m3u playlist takes a second and they can be used in anything from VLC Media Player to systems like TVHeadEnd, which enables streaming to locations in a network, no official apps required. While this offers new opportunities for users, supplying .m3u playlists isn't without risk. The GitHub repo shown below used to offer Pluto TV playlists for download before suddenly experiencing issues last week. These issues were caused by a DMCA notice sent by the Motion Picture Association to GitHub. The complaint is dated February 14 but wasn't officially published until this week. Massive Copyright Infringement The language used in the complaint makes it extremely clear that the MPA views playlists as a threat and illegal under copyright law. "We are writing to notify you of, and request your assistance in addressing, the extensive copyright infringement of motion pictures and television shows that is occurring by virtue of the operation of the playlist file, PlutoTV_mr.m3u, which is hosted on and available for download from your repository GitHub Inc. at [former repo location]," the notice reads (minor edits for clarity). "Specifically, at the URL, the Repository hosts and offers for download the Playlist, which in turn is used to engage in massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows." The MPA references an attachment (not published on GitHub) that provides "a representative list of infringements" occurring via the playlist, along with screenshots to show MPA member studios' content "being streamed without authorization through the playlist." GitHub responded by taking the playlist down and the associated repo no longer exists. While that solves the immediate problem, Pluto TV playlists and playlists for many other similar platforms aren't going to disappear overnight. Due to their nature, Pluto TV and similar playlist aren't viewed in the same light as pirate IPTV service playlists, so taking a look at the MPA's claims may prove informative. Suppliers and Users Infringe Copyright The MPA's complaint basically accuses the entire chain of copyright infringement offenses, GitHub included. "By offering this Playlist for download, your Repository enables the Playlists blatant infringement of the MPA Member Studios copyrights and countless other copyrights. Indeed, copyright infringement is so prevalent on the Playlist that infringement plainly is its predominant use and purpose," the notice to GitHub reads. Importantly, GitHub acted appropriately, so enjoys safe harbor protection. The same does not apply to the people involved in creating and then offering the playlist for download. The MPA cites several major copyright lawsuits where defendants were ultimately found liable for infringement, but Columbia Pictures vs. Fung seems to offer the clearest picture. Contributory Copyright Infringement Columbia Pictures sued Gary Fung, former owner of torrent index isoHunt, for operating a website that facilitated access to their copyrighted content. Fung was found liable for contributory copyright infringement on the basis that he induced third parties (isoHunt's users) to download infringing copies of the studios' copyrighted works. Fung later settled with the MPA. The terms of Pluto TV's license (section 5.2) forbid users from accessing the service in ways that are not expressly authorized by the platform. Use of an unauthorized playlist breaches those terms, and for any user who claims not to have accepted or even read those terms of service, they may find themselves without any viewing license at all. In any event, claims of inducement (playlist suppliers/distributors) rely on the acts of primary infringers (users/viewers). By citing MPA member studios' content as being infringed, issues involving Pluto TV itself become less important, at least for the purposes of the DMCA takedown notice. That being said, we probably haven't heard the last of 'playlist piracy' as featured here. The MPA's DMCA notice to Github can be found here From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. ©2023 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