TorrentFreak's Latest News

Court Orders File-Sharing Service to Pay $46,000 Piracy Damages For User UploadErnesto Van der Sar, 17 Jul 12:58 PM To the global audience Ulož.to m

Court Orders File-Sharing Service to Pay $46,000 Piracy Damages For User Upload Ernesto Van der Sar, 17 Jul 12:58 PM To the global audience Ulož.to may not be well-known internationally but in the Czech Republic, it is huge. The file-sharing and hosting service has millions of users and is listed as the 51st most-visited website in the country. In addition, its mobile apps are frequently used as well. Like many other file storage platforms, Ulož can be used to share a wide variety of files. Copyright holders complain that many people abuse the platform to share pirated music, movies, and TV shows. Piracy Battles in Court Like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, Uloz removes infringing content when it receives takedown notices. However, Czech rightsholders are not happy with the status quo and have sued the company on several occasions, demanding damages and tougher anti-piracy measures. In 2020, the Municipal Court in Prague ruled that Ulož must filter and block files that reference the word "Šarlatán" ('Charlatan') which corresponds to the name of a Czech movie. The order, requested by movie distributor CineMart, was set to remain in place until August 2030, but the file-sharing site immediately appealed. According to Ulož, the filtering obligation was too broad and could impact files that have nothing to do with the film, violating freedom of speech. The appeal was successful and the High Court in Prague sided with Uloz and overturned the preliminary filtering requirement. This was welcomed as a big win by the site but it did not mark the end of its legal troubles. $46,000 in Damages CineMart went on to accuse Uloz of sharing unlicensed copies of its movie without permission and demanded compensation. Last week, Prague's Municipal Court ruled on the dispute, ordering the operator of the file-sharing service to pay 976,000 Czech Koruna ($46,000) in damages. "It was proven that it's possible to download the work, to which the plaintiff has the rights, on the Uloz.to website from at least December 9, 2020 to February 2023," Judge Jana Přibylová concluded. The Court further clarified that the operator of the site, the company Petacloud, has to pay the damages within three days, HN reports. This money won't go to the copyright holder directly but will be held in escrow until the case is finalized. Uloz has already announced that it will appeal the preliminary verdict, which it characterizes as 'absurd'. "Due to the numerous defects in the judgment, we expect their return of the funds of course," Uloz states, commenting on the verdict. "The judgment shows a number of errors and misunderstandings of the issue, which we unfortunately regularly encounter in courts of first instance." Safe Harbor? The file-sharing service notes that it previously enjoyed success when appealing lower court decisions and it firmly believes this judgment won't hold up either. The company warns that when online platforms that rely on user-generated content are held liable for user uploads, services such as Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Wikipedia won't be able to function. "It would be a completely absurd conclusion that the operator must pay for unjustified enrichment if user-generated content that infringes on someone's copyright appears on its commercial platform. "This would, of course, completely negate the safe harbor principles and effectively make it impossible to operate any platform that's built on user content," Uloz adds. Uloz has no problem with removing infringing content when it's flagged by rightsholders, but categorically refuses to implement filtering technologies that are prone to overblocking. These filtering tools are also quite costly. Hellspy, another Czech file-sharing service, shut down earlier this year when it turned out that implementing filtering technology was too burdensome. CineMart is Happy Film distributor CineMart is understandably pleased with the verdict. The company's legal representative Rudolf Leška notes that this is the first time that a platform has been ordered to pay damages for copyright infringement in Czechia. "It is the first lawsuit for monetary compensation against the repository operator that was successful," Leška says. Leška also pointed out that the authorities launched an investigation into the operators of the file-sharing platform. Uloz doesn't deny this but notes that this 'speculation' is related to financial statements, which has nothing to do with CineMart or copyright. Meanwhile, other rightsholders are keeping an eye on the legal battle, as they consider similar 'unjust enrichment' claims against the file-sharing platform. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 07/17/2023 Ernesto Van der Sar, 17 Jul 01:09 AM The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources. This week we have three newcomers on the list. "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts", which came out as a high-quality pirate release, is the most downloaded title. The most torrented movies for the week ending on July 17 are: Movie Rank Rank last week Movie name IMDb Rating / Trailer Most downloaded movies via torrent sites 1 (…) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts 6.3 / trailer 2 (1) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 8.2 / trailer 3 (2) John Wick: Chapter 4 8.0 / trailer 4 (…) Asteroid City 6.9 / trailer 5 (4) Fast X 6.1 / trailer 6 (5) The Super Mario Bros. Movie 7.3 / trailer 7 (7) Avatar: The Way of Water 7.8 / trailer 8 (10) Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 7.4 / trailer 9 (3) The Out-Laws 5.5 / trailer 10 (6) Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny 6.9 / trailer Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Over 50% of Young Danes Have Streamed or Downloaded Content Illegally Ernesto Van der Sar, 16 Jul 07:15 PM Three years ago, Danish law enforcement carried out a series of raids and arrests, effectively dismantling several popular torrent trackers. These actions were supported by the local anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, which eventually declared victory, noting that all notable pirate sites with Danish roots had reportedly shut down. Such statements can be dangerous since pirates can be quite resilient, but there is no doubt that the law enforcement actions and subsequence convictions left a mark. So does that mean online piracy lost its appeal too? According to a recent survey, that isn't the case. Study: Pirates are Stubborn The Danish Chamber of Commerce conducts a bi-annual study to track the piracy habits of locals. The most recent results for 2022 were just released and show that illegal streaming and downloading remain prevalent. Roughly a third of the respondents (33%) admit to having downloaded or streamed something in the past and 15% did so over the past year. The last figure is up from 12% during the previous survey in 2020, and in 2018 it was only 10%. These figures suggest that, if anything, the number of people who download or stream pirated content is increasing. It should be noted, however, that in the most recent version, people between the ages of 15 and 17 were included too, while earlier samples started at 18 years. Age certainly matters when it comes to online piracy. Younger people typically pirate more and that's also reflected in the Danish survey. 56% of Respondents Have Piracy Experience More than half (56%) of the 15-29 year-olds admit they have downloaded or streamed pirated content in the past. For the 30-39 year-olds, this figure is still relatively high at 52%, but in the higher 50-74 year category, it drops to just 14%. Younger Danes don't just pirate more than their older counterparts, piracy prevalence also grows within the group. In 2020, fewer young Danes said they had downloaded or streamed pirated content. There are also substantial differences between men and women. Men are twice as likely to have pirated something over the past year than women. For some categories, the difference is even more pronounced. For example, men are five times more likely to pirate music. Social Media In recent years, the authorities have managed to crack down on local file-sharing communities but that 'distribution' role now seems to have shifted to social media platforms. "In the last two years, police have handed out more [file-sharing] sanctions and investigated more in the area. However, the consequence has been that Danish pirates have moved their illegal behavior on the internet to a new platform, social media," the survey notes. Of the 15% who admit to having pirated something over the past year, more than half used social media. YouTube is the most cited piracy gateway, followed by Facebook, TikTok, messenger services, Instagram, and Snapchat. As expected, the use of social media is most prevalent in the youngest age cohort. Commenting on these findings, Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund calls on social media platforms to take more responsibility, or else. "Now that the police's [Special Crime Unit] has stopped the dedicated Danish file-sharing services, it is a real shame that illegal consumption is moving to legal social media," Fredenslund says. "This calls for increased efforts from these platforms both in terms of informing users and stopping the distribution of illegal content. It requires the platforms to take an active role, and if there are platforms that do not live up to that responsibility, it may be necessary to involve the authorities." You Wouldn't Steal… Casper Klynge, Deputy Director of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, notes that streaming piracy presents a huge problem. He believes that it deserves more attention from the authorities, as the unbridled 'stealing' threatens the production of future content. "Streaming digital content without paying for it is basically the same as walking past a store and grabbing items to take home without paying for them," Klynge says. This isn't the first time that piracy is compared to stealing. Interestingly, however, the Chamber of Commerce study shows that many people do see a difference between piracy and shoplifting. Of all people who participated in the survey, 89% believe that it's unacceptable to steal candy from a store, while 'only' 63% see sharing digital content without permission from rightsholders as unacceptable. From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more. Are you looking for a VPN service? TorrentFreak sponsor NordVPN has some excellent offers. ©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