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Pirate IPTV Data Center Raid Took Down Several Innocent WebsitesErnesto Van der Sar, 25 May 12:02 PM The Internet is littered with shady IPTV servic

Pirate IPTV Data Center Raid Took Down Several Innocent Websites Ernesto Van der Sar, 25 May 12:02 PM The Internet is littered with shady IPTV services that offer a lot, for very little money. These deals often seem too good to be true and in most cases they are; at least for those who prefer to stay on the right side of the law. Pirate IPTV Raid This week, Dutch fiscal police (FIOD) landed a major success in the battle against this type of piracy by shutting down one of Europe's largest IPTV operations. This wasn't just a random target either. The operation presumably offered its services to countless smaller IPTV sellers, which served over a million subscribers. Little detail was released about the main defendants but authorities report that four people were arrested. The available information also suggests that GLOBE Datacenter was a key target. This makes sense as its website and network have been offline for two days now, downtime matched by the company's Twitter feed. Speaking with TorrentFreak, FIOD confirmed that it won't release any names of suspects at this point. However, police say that 1,200 servers were intentionally taken offline at a data center, which was allegedly operated by one of the main suspects. New Servers for GLOBE (via) While IPTV raids are not rare, we seldom see an entire commercial data center taken offline in the process. This would suggest that police had information that the hardware and network were almost exclusively used to facilitate the alleged criminal activity. Legitimate Businesses go Offline Looking at the sites that were hosted on GLOBE's autonomous system number (AS212708), we indeed see many IPTV-related domains and IP-addresses. These include nextiptv.org, iptvextrema.com, mercuryiptv.com and many others. There are some clear outliers too, including local businesses such as a vacation rental park, painters, a dentist, a pedicure salon, a crane company, and a typically Dutch flower bulbs seller. These and many other sites became unreachable and are still offline today. Unrelated flower bulbs company goes offline Needless to say, these businesses are not suspects in any way. The sites were hosted on a shared IP-address – assigned to a smaller 'local' hosting company – that happened to use GLOBE's infrastructure. Unfortunately, the damage is real. Real Companies, Real Trouble TorrentFreak spoke to a representative of one of the companies involved, who confirmed that its website was taken down in the raid. This understandably caused a lot of issues, as customers and clients often visit a company's website to get in touch or make a booking. From what we can see, the fallout is relatively contained to a few dozen domains. That said, those who are affected still have to deal with the fallout. When confronted with this collateral damage, a FIOD spokesperson initially told us that unrelated sites were not supposed to be hit. We were asked us to compile a list of affected websites which we sent via email yesterday. This list actually wasn't hard to find using public information. One of the affected companies informed us today that they were approached by FIOD after the raid, but it's unclear if and how the situation will be resolved. We approached FIOD for comment and received a response shortly before publication. Fiscal Police Responds FIOD and the prosecution service (OM) confirmed that the data center was in large part used for illegal purposes. It appears that one of the employees, a suspect in this case, also operated a hosting company for small and mid-sized companies (SMEs). "The decision to shut down the data center in question was prompted by the fact that our investigation showed that the majority of the data center consisted of illegal (video streaming) services. On-site investigations confirmed this," FIOD's spokesperson says. "One of the employees of the data center, also a suspect in the investigation, apparently had the additional function of providing IT services to SMEs. These companies are the victims of the aforementioned illegal main function of the data center, on which FIOD and OM had to act." The data of the innocent companies has not been seized and FIOD encourages the GLOBE employee who operated their hosting company to assist in the recovery of the affected websites. "FIOD and OM do their best to ensure that the relevant SMEs have access to their data. The servers on which this data is stored are not seized. FIOD and OM also encourage the aforementioned employee from the data center to represent the interests of these companies," the FIOD spokesperson said. When hundreds of servers are taken offline it is hard to completely rule out collateral damage. The same happened when The Pirate Bay and Megaupload were raided. In this case, however, it seems that more research could have potentially prevented some of the fallout. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Sharp Rise in Piracy Rates Across Sweden, Denmark, Finland & Norway Andy Maxwell, 24 May 10:26 PM Mediavision has been tracking citizens' piracy habits across the Nordic countries since 2010. The company's annual report for Spring 2023, based on a survey conducted in March, has just been released. With Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway under the spotlight once again, Mediavision's pan-Nordic consumer survey aims to measure unlicensed content consumption among 15 to 74-year-old respondents, across categories including movies and TV shows, and access to both via pirate IPTV services. Overall Piracy Rates Increase With no obviously positive news to distract, poor figures across all four countries take center stage. Denmark, a country with an overall movie and TV show piracy rate of 11% in 2014, now has an overall rate of 20%, up from the 13% reported in Mediavision's survey in 2022. With an overall rate of just 8% in 2014, increases over the years led to a 13% overall rate for Finland in 2022. A four point rise over the past 12 months pushes Finland's overall movie and TV show piracy rate to 17%. Since 2014, overall unlicensed consumption of movies and TV shows, in both Norway and Sweden, adopted a broadly U-shaped curve. With reducing piracy rates indicating signs of progress in the middle, high rates of piracy seen in 2014 are back on display in 2022, and then some. Image: Mediavision Nordic Piracy Report (Spring 2023) Overall movie and TV show piracy rates for Norway now stand at 22% versus 18% last year, with Sweden at 25% and 20% respectively. Mediavision reports that in all four countries, the usual suspects are driving the increases. Young People Push Up Piracy Technologically adept and hungry for content, young people often make a disproportionate contribution to piracy rates. Through various programs, rightsholders have reached out to kids of all ages, hoping to encourage negative attitudes towards piracy from an early stage. From kindergarten copyright classes in the United States, to a current project in Denmark that will pay teens to assist with piracy research, most things have been tried. Mediavision's latest study reveals that piracy increases are being driven by young people in the 15 to 24-year-old group, across all four countries. The concern for rightsholders lies in piracy's monthly reach, which was unacceptably high last year and is now considerably worse. According to last year's report, 29% of young Danes engaged in movie and/or TV show piracy. The latest figures show a leap to 46%, a figure that puts Denmark on equal footing with Finland, where rates rose to 46% from the 27% reported last year. Norway's increase, from 38% last year to 51% this year, is slightly less steep, leaving Sweden with the surprise upper hand. Image: Mediavision Nordic Piracy Report (Spring 2023) The eight percentage point increase attributed to young Swedes in this year's survey is less than any of its regional neighbours. Unfortunately, Sweden's last set of results in 2022 indicated that 45% of its young people engaged with piracy, a figure that has now risen to 53%. That suggests that every second young person in Sweden today is a pirate Access to Pirate IPTV Services Mediavision's Spring 2022 survey found that across Sweden, Denmark, Finland & Norway, just under 0.9 million households subscribed to an illegal IPTV service. With the largest population, Sweden accounted for more than 40% (380,000) of IPTV-equipped households across the region. With 230,000 subscribed homes, Norway was runner-up, with Finland (155,000) and Denmark (125,000) taking the remaining spots. Taking population into account, Norway's 10% share beat Sweden's 9% into second place. Following the release of these figures last year, entertainment companies warned that use of pirate IPTV services was on the increase in the Nordic region. According to the latest survey, the prediction was spot on. Image: Mediavision Nordic Piracy Report (Spring 2023) The latest figure of 1,150,000 households represents a 29% increase over the 890,000 households reported in 2022. With 490,000 and 255,000 households respectively, Sweden and Norway are the leading consumers of IPTV by volume, pushing Denmark (220,000) and Finland (190,000) into third and fourth place. By share, Sweden and Norway tie with 11% each, leaving Denmark (9%) and Finland (7%) to complete the set. And Now The Good News In contrast to the gloomy picture painted by the latest survey, other recent reports published by Mediavision signal positive trends in legal content consumption. "Online video in Finland is on the rise. During this spring, subscribing SVOD households have passed 1.5 million, corresponding to a penetration of 61 percent. This equals an annual growth of 8 percent in subscribing households," the company notes. In Sweden, where piracy habits are on the rise, legal consumption is going in the same direction. "Today, over 90 percent of households in Sweden pay for some form of media subscription," another Mediavision report begins. Despite rising interest rates, inflation and increased financial anxiety, there is no sign of a slowdown in paid media. "On the contrary, Mediavision's latest analysis measures a new record level for households' total media expenditure. Households pay the most for TV and streaming subscriptions," Mediavision reports. Denmark's situation also appears less gloomy than its piracy rates suggest. After adding half a million in 2022, there are now over four million paid VOD subscriptions in Denmark, from a total population of less than six million. Mediavision also notes that around three million subscriptions in the Nordics are shared accounts, paid for by the subscriber but enjoyed for free by others. With further sharing crackdowns looming on the horizon, the question is whether legal platforms or pirate sites stand to reap the most benefits. Mediavision's Nordic Piracy Report 2023 is available from TTVK (pdf) From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. European Commission Calls for Pirate Site Blocking Around the Globe Ernesto Van der Sar, 24 May 01:49 PM In recent years, website blocking has become one of the most widely-used anti-piracy enforcement mechanisms in the world. ISPs in several dozen countries prevent subscribers from accessing a variety of 'pirate' sites, either through court processes or as part of government-backed administrative blocking regimes. Europe has been at the forefront of this blocking wave. The first case was launched in Denmark and dates back to 2006. In the years since, similar measures were taken in other EU countries, with the ultimate approval of the European Union's highest court. Research on the effectiveness of site-blocking interventions is scarce but the overall indication is that while the measures are far from perfect, they're effective nonetheless. They are particularly effective at stopping casual pirates when multiple sites are blocked simultaneously. European Commission Flags Foreign Countries The European Commission is also convinced that this enforcement tool can make a difference. A few days ago, the EU governing body released its biennial report on the protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights in third countries, in which site blocking is repeatedly mentioned. The report is the EU's equivalent of the US Trade Representative's "Special 301" review. Its main aim is to identify 'priority' countries with lacking copyright and trademark protections, hoping to elicit improvements in the years to come. In addition to counterfeiting, piracy remains one of the key problems in the targeted countries. While some progress has been made in recent years, more can be done. "Copyright piracy […] remains a major issue for European creative sectors. The problem remains widespread and rampant in countries such as China, Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as Brazil despite the positive developments set out in this report," the report reads. The report lists thirteen countries in total, with China singled out as the highest priority concern. Priority 1: China Priority 2: India, Indonesia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine Priority 3: Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Malaysia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Thailand Perhaps unsurprisingly, China doesn't appear to have any trouble blocking citizens' access to websites but in statements about several other countries, blocking measures are regularly mentioned. 'Site Blocking Would be Useful' In Vietnam, a country called out by the U.S. recently for its lacking piracy response, online copyright infringement remains a major concern. To combat this problem, site blocking would be useful, the EU suggests. "Enforcement, both as regards online and physical marketplaces, remains of the highest concern. EU stakeholders raise ineffective copyright enforcement as one of the main concerns, in particular in the online environment, including as regards site-blocking," the report reads. Argentina continues to struggle with piracy as well. Piracy has increased in recent times, the EU explains, in part due to a lack of awareness of the negative impact piracy has on the economy and society. The country does allow blocking injunctions, including dynamic ones, but rightsholders say that more can be done. "Some stakeholders refer to the lack of effective measures at administrative or criminal level to block infringing sites and report that injunctions against intermediaries are not easily available," the EU Commission report reads. There are also countries that have made significant progress on the blocking front in recent years. The Indonesian Government, for example, has ordered local Internet providers to block more than 3,500 problematic domain names. 'Please Address Domain Hopping' Increased blocking in Indonesia is viewed as a positive development but the EU believes that the country should be wary of sites that continue to offer pirated content by simply 'hopping' to new domain names. In many EU countries this problem is tackled with regular updates to existing blocking orders. "Effective remedies and closing existing gaps in protection are needed to combat online infringements [in Indonesia]. This in particular concerns site-blocking injunctions and measures to prevent 'domainhopping'," the report reads. India is one of the countries with a long and extensive site blocking record. Local courts have blocked tens of thousands of sites, tackled domain hopping, and even issued preemptive blocking orders. These anti-piracy achievements haven't gone unnoticed by rightsholders and the EU Commission. While many copyright related challenges remain, India passes the blocking requirements with flying colors. "IPR enforcement remains a source of serious concern. EU stakeholders report improvements on judicial enforcement in the last two years, particularly blocking piracy sites," the report reads. No U.S. Mention Overall, the European Commission report gives the impression that pirate site blocking is a globally accepted standard. Countries that fail to facilitate this type of enforcement are urged to make progress, a view also shared by many major rightsholders. Interestingly, however, the EU report doesn't mention the United States in this regard. While U.S. rightsholders obtain site blocking orders throughout the world, these types of no-fault blocking measures are unavailable on home turf, where online piracy volumes are largest globally. The omission isn't problematic enough to warrant a 'priority' listing in the EU report. That's not entirely unexpected, as the U.S. generally has excellent copyright enforcement and policies, but it stands out nonetheless. In recent years there have been calls to make site blocking measures available in the U.S. but, thus far, this hasn't resulted in concrete action. All in all, the European Commission's report has a lot of overlap with the U.S. equivalent, which was published a few weeks ago. That said, one notable difference is that the latter doesn't include a single mention of site blocking. — A copy of the European Commission's Report on the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in third countries is available here (pdf) 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