Movie ‘Pirates’ Let Down by Lack of Screener Releases Around Christmas


At the end of the year, movie industry insiders traditionally receive their screener copies, which they use to vote on the Oscars and other awards.

As is tradition, quite a few of these advance screeners copies will leak onto various pirate sites.

In recent years release group Hive-CM8 has drawn quite a bit of attention, due to both the timing and volume of their releases.

Movie pirates were particularly well-served three years ago. On and before Christmas, high-quality copies of some of the hottest Hollywood productions appeared online, with some titles even beating their official theatrical release.

Following massive outrage from Hollywood, release group Hive-CM8 offered an apology, promising not to release any movies too early in the future. And indeed, in the two years that followed the bulk of the screener copies leaked after the new year.

This season, no screeners have been sighted at all. That’s not a record yet, which goes to 2016/2017 when it took until January 3rd, but it’s clear that pirates are growing impatient.

A quick scan through various pirate sites, and even on social media, shows that the hopes of some were dashed this Christmas. As always, the anticipation already started days before the festivities kicked off.

Where’s Hive-CM8

Apparently, some people associate Christmas with screener leaks, or the other way around.

Not Christmas…

Then there are those who push their luck even further by putting several titles of screener leaks on their wishlist for Santa. In this case, it includes The Favourite and Suspiria.

The Wishlist

Some more words of encouragement followed on Christmas day, but it soon became clear that neither strategy paid off.

No word has come from Hive-CM8 or any other release group this year. The question that remains is whether they are holding back, or if there’s simply nothing to release, yet.

Sorry

At TorrentFreak we have no further details on the matter. However, what we can say is that for well over a decade multiple screener copies have ended up online. So a season without screener leaks would be truly unprecedented.

The most likely scenario is that the groups aren’t ready yet, or they’re delaying releases intentionally, something Hive-CM8 hinted at in the past.

Whatever the reason is, after Christmas the disappointment slowly started to turn into more impatience and anger on social media.

Where?

Others are handing this round to Hollywood…

Who will be the ‘winner’ at the end of the screener season has yet to be determined though.

Hollywood won..

After the 2016/2017 season, this has been the longest screener draught in recent history. However, in that year well over a dozen screener copies eventually leaked online.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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Bryan Adams: Longer Copyright Term Enriches Intermediaries, Not Creators


After long negotiations, the Canadian Government agreed earlier this year that the country’s current copyright term will be extended by 20 years.

This change was part of the trade deal negotiations with the US and Mexico. By extending copyright protection to life plus 70 years, ‘rightsholders’ will be able to generate more profit, the argument goes.

While that may work in theory, Canadian singer Bryan Adams believes that large intermediaries such as the major record labels will benefit the most. Creators often sign away their rights early on, which means that they don’t benefit from any extensions.

In a brief to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Adams notes that copyright law is out of balance. As such, large companies stand to benefit more from a copyright extension than individual creators.

One of the problems, according to Adams, is the fact that intermediaries hold the bigger bargaining chip. Creators who want to earn a living may sign away their rights in their first deal, something they may regret later on.

“Creators deal with one or few intermediaries; they sign up creators all the time. Creators striking a first deal sign anything that is presented to them; an intermediary rarely needs to sign up this creator,” Adams writes.

“Copyright law is about balance, a balance which was and remains at risk between creators and intermediaries. Copyright law works not so much for creators as for intermediaries; extending the duration of copyright will benefit them, not creators.”

The imbalance can be easily addressed, according to Adams. While it may be too late to revert the agreed copyright extension, there’s a change that will put more power in the hands of creators. And it only requires changing one word in the Copyright Act.

Right now, Canadian copyright reverts to a creator’s heirs 25 years after “death.” By changing the word “death” to “assignment”, creators terminate a copyright assignment while they’re still alive.

This means that the starting artists who signed away their rights to an album to a major label at 20 years of age, can get those rights back at 45. It’s a major change, but not unprecedented, as the US has a similar copyright-termination policy after 35 years.

Adams’ recommendation

Adams already discussed the proposal earlier this year when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, but the brief he submitted discusses the advantages in great detail.

Among other things, he stresses that the change in termination policy would empower creators, which will also be good in light of the planned copyright extension.

“Including a termination right in Canadian copyright law would help to ensure that real world copyright law works more in favor of creators. It would also help reduce some of the unintended effects of the upcoming extension of copyright.

“Canada is now more or less duty-bound to increase copyright protection by 20 years, to ‘life + 70’. Extending the duration of copyright essentially enriches large firms of intermediaries. It does not put money in the pockets of most creators,” Adams notes.

By granting a copyright termination right the expected benefits of an extension don’t go to the intermediaries. At the same time, creators will be able to profit more from their work. It’s a giant step forward and only requires changing a single word in the Copyright Act.

—

A full copy of Adams’ brief, first highlighted by professor Michael Geist, is available here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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Doxxing Pirates or Even Anti-Pirates is No Way to Solve Disputes


On December 22, famous cracking group CPY released a ‘cracked’ copy of City Patrol: Police online. While there doesn’t seem to be much to be excited about gaming-wise, the controversy around the release itself is quite extraordinary.

When release groups ‘crack’ a game, they release the title with an NFO (info) file. These text offerings contain information about the game itself and further details about the ‘pirate’ release, such as the protection defeated – Denuvo, for example.

The NFO released with City Patrol: Police is extremely special. Written by CPY, it contains a wall of text the group appears to have found embedded in the game’s files. CPY suggests the message was put there by anti-piracy outfit Valeroa.

The previously-hidden message

There is plenty of speculation as to what the above means but it seems likely that the partially-redacted names in the message allegedly placed there by Valeroa identify people in The Scene. That being said, CPY seemed fairly happy to re-publish the details, knowing full well that the information would be made public.

If we begin on the basis that the information and the assumptions about who put what where are even remotely accurate, it raises the question where the information was obtained from. If one adds two and two, the most likely explanation is that Valeroa either has connections with current Scene members or might even be active themselves, if only in an observational capacity.

Again, working on the basis that the speculation has some truth, absolutely no-one should be surprised that an anti-piracy company has pirate connections.

Nobody on this planet knows pirates better than pirates so it should be flat-out expected that some Scene members, past or present, will have crossed to ‘the other side’ to make some proper money from what are undoubtedly great skills.

And, one has to remember, this shift of personnel can have a big effect. Not only does a coder get to legitimize his or her skills while earning a decent living for their family, the process also drains some of the brains from the competition, a valuable tool in the overall war.

Indeed, TF is informed that prominent Scene members involved in software cracking were coaxed away to develop an anti-piracy technology for physical media in the 2000s. Even after changes in company identities and the passing of many years, they still appear to be working in similar business areas. Surprising? Not at all.

But it’s not just former pirates that are targeted by these kinds of companies. Just this week, the topic of discussion on the site Tuts4You was the ‘revelation‘ that a respected reverse-engineer had gone to work for Denuvo. While some people might find that objectionable, who better to recruit than someone who has the perfect skills for the job?

With all that said, the kind of behavior and posturing suggested in the CPY NFO is not conducive to peaceful co-existence. People’s identities in The Scene are (or perhaps should be) closely guarded secrets but even Sceners are human. Many have let their guards down because they’re super-comfortable with other members, have a close connection with them outside of The Scene, or have made a mistake or two along the way.

By suggesting identities are known in this fashion, it’s a bit like saying: “We know who you are – your move.” Trouble is, that’s what often happens. Someone makes a move, which prompts another one, which invariably leads to disaster. One only has to look at the GOD / IGG-Games fiasco for a recent example.

Even partially ‘doxxing’ people can have catastrophic results, particularly when it’s done in a malicious way. The scope for retaliation is very high indeed and as such nobody truly wins. Mutual destruction is not a successful outcome in any war, no matter how bitter.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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‘The Walking Dead’ Most Torrented TV-Show of 2018


At the end of every year we take a look at the most-downloaded TV-episodes among torrenting pirates.

The list was headed by Game of Thrones for six years in a row, but this reign has now come to an end.

With no new GoT episodes in 2018, the title was up for grabs and The Walking Dead has seized this opportunity.

This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, as the AMC series was already the runner-up since 2014.

Episodes of The Walking Dead are downloaded millions of times. The show has a steady following and is currently in its ninth season. The series may continue for a few more years as the producers previously said that they have enough material to keep it alive for several more seasons.

Apart from the change at the top, there are a few small changes. Most of the entries in the top ten have been featured in the list at least once before in previous years. Titans is the best-ranked newcomer in fifth place.

It’s worth noting that BitTorrent traffic only makes up a small portion of the piracy landscape. A lot of people use streaming sites and services nowadays, which generally do not report viewing stats.

Finally, while Game of Thrones is excluded this year it doesn’t mean that the show isn’t being pirated. GoT torrents remain the most sought-after season bundles on torrent sites.

In fact, if all downloads from previous episodes and seasons would count, GoT would likely still be on top. This is also what IKnowWhatYouDownload suggests. We, therefore, have no doubt that it will return for a grand finale next year when the final season airs.

—

Below we have compiled a list of the most torrented TV-shows worldwide (most shared single episode). The ranking is compiled by TorrentFreak based on several sources, including statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers and the DHT network. Full season downloads are not included.

Most downloaded TV-shows on BitTorrent, 2018
rank last year show
torrentfreak.com
1 (2) The Walking Dead
2 (3) The Flash
3 (4) The Big Bang Theory
4 (8) Vikings
5 (…) Titans
6 (10) Arrow
7 (…) Supernatural
8 (…) Westworld
9 (…) DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
10 (9) Suits

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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Top 3 Copyright ‘Owners’ Sent Google a Billion Takedown Requests


Day in and day out copyright holders are flooding Google with DMCA takedown notices, pointing out links to pirated content.

While the volume has started to decrease over the past year or two, the numbers are still dazzling.

In 2018, copyright holders have reported around 700 million allegedly infringing links to the search engine. Most of these are processed swiftly, making the URLs unfindable in search results.

Since Google started counting in 2011, more than 160,000 copyright owners have used Google’s takedown tool. Together, they submitted more than 3.8 billion URLs. However, on closer inspection, it becomes clear that a small number of rightsholders are responsible for a lot of the action.

The UK music industry group BPI tops the list of most prolific ‘copyright owners’. It reported 425 million URLs over the years, which is more than 10% of all the reported pages.

The music groups APDIF Mexico and APDIF Brazil are listed in second and third place, with 252 million and 247 million reported links respectively. This means that the top three copyright owners are good for more than a billion reported links.

Top 3 “copyright owners.”

It’s clear that the high number of reported URLs is mostly driven by a small group of rightsholders.

To illustrate that, we found that the top 0.0001% of the most active copyright owners, which are 16 organizations, have reported more than 50% of all URLs.

It’s important to note that many of the reported links are not even in Google’s search results. Google processes non-indexed links and puts them on a blacklist, so they won’t be added in the future.

According to Google, the three reporting organizations (not copyright owners) that submitted the most URLs in 2017, all had non-index rates of more than 98%. As such, the billions of reported URLs don’t necessarily say something about the number of infringing links in Google’s index.

“While we will continue to act on these notices, they suggest that the volume of URLs we block is not a good proxy for the number of allegedly infringing links we serve,” Google previously noted.

It will be interesting to see how the takedown request volume evolves over time. Will the downward trend continue, or could the number of reported URLs start to grow again?

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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Bahnhof: The ISP That Fights For Privacy and a Free Internet


Back in 1991, when the World Wide Web (WWW) first became publicly available, few people knew what an impact it would have on the planet. Today, more than 27 years later, a world without the Internet is a prospect that even fewer people are prepared to consider.

There can be little doubt that the Internet is becoming greater by the day. Billions now rely on the network to fulfill what have become our most basic needs, with the free-flow of information enabling some of our greatest achievements in discovery, research, and education.

In 1994, when the Internet became publicly available in Sweden, it’s unlikely that even the people behind fledgling ISP Bahnhof could have envisioned what the web has become today. However, as one of Sweden’s first service providers, the company has since weathered many storms, particularly as the freedom of the Internet clashed with those who favor more restrictions, especially in respect of copyright enforcement.

For example, back in 2005 – when the war against file-sharing had really taken hold in Sweden – Bahnhof was effectively shut down as part of an anti-piracy raid. As a result, the company had harsh words for those involved, accusing the infamous Antipiratbyrån anti-piracy group of indirectly planting copyright-infringing content on servers connected to the company.

“How can Antipiratbyrån, which in the form of a lobby organization that works to curb the file-sharing culture, actively pay a person to upload tens of thousands of copyrighted files to a server that is then seized by the authorities?” CEO Jon Karlung asked at the time.

“It’s like distributing matches and petrol to a famous pyromaniac, then reporting him for a fiery fire when he’s heating a house.”

From this event, a pattern began to emerge. Bahnhof became an opponent of file-sharing crackdowns and a supporter of privacy, in 2009 famously refusing to store the IP addresses of customers so they could be pursued by the authorities.

A year later, Bahnhof became the proud host of Wikileaks, a controversial move given the organization’s efforts to expose secrets connected to the war raging in Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks. But it would be the company’s efforts to protect the privacy of its own subscribers that would grab most of the headlines.

In 2014, a landmark ruling from the European Court of Justice declared Europe’s Data Retention Directive a violation of Internet users’ privacy and therefore invalid.

The Directive had required ISPs to store data on the activities of their subscribers, including who they communicate with and at what times, plus other identifying information such as IP addresses. Bahnhof announced that it would stop capturing data with immediate effect.

Soon after, however, Swedish telecoms regulator PTS ordered Bahnhof to start storing communications data again under local data retention laws, warning the ISP that non-compliance would result in hefty fines. Bahnhof responded by offering its customers a free, no-logging VPN.

Ever since, Bahnhof has made headlines with its efforts to protect the privacy of its subscribers. The company also became an outspoken enemy of copyright trolls (1,2), labeling those who engage in the practice as greedy extortionists.

With the fight set to continue, Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung says the company’s stance has its roots in being one of the longest-standing ISPs and a desire to keep the Internet open.

“I assume that our long-time fight comes from that we, once upon the time, were one of the first ISP’s existing. That era somehow represented a positive and genuine delight over what the big internet could be,” he tells TorrentFreak.

“I still remember those days. It’s not that everything was better before (I don’t think it was) but unfortunately many dark forces have taken over – or we are close to them doing so.”

It’s clear from Karlung’s comments that he sees his company as playing a role in defending the organic nature of the Internet against what he sees as a movement to sterilize the experience, often at the expense of privacy.

“One could reflect on this: What would happen if the Internet turned out to become a big cable-TV landscape controlled by Big Media, or if various and more and more commercial interests could ‘log in’ to your privacy?

“Or, if everything develops into a big totalitarian Truman Show where global cloud companies and states join forces in a nightmarish hunt against freedom of speech with Sauron like surveillance while investing in controlling the most profitable thoughts through social media, even if these thoughts enhance hate?”

As these and similar thoughts resonate with millions of freedom-loving individuals worldwide, Karlung clearly understands that he is in business too. The stance he’s taken means his company is not only seen as somewhat unique in the marketplace, it also earns plenty of merit points with current and future customers.

“As strange as it may sound, there is also a business idea in defending customers and their privacy. In the old days this could be described as the job of the mailman,” he concludes.

Somewhat ironically, Bahnhof itself is now the subject of a net-neutrality investigation in Sweden. After a court ordered the ISP to block websites related to Sci-Hub following a complaint from Elsevier, Bahnhof retaliated by partially blocking the academic publisher’s website.

Like many of Bahnhof’s moves in recent years, the aim is to defend the free Internet with the side-effect of provoking debate. Karlung says he’s looking forward to the discussions and has sent thanks to Sweden’s telecoms regulator for the opportunity.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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New UK ‘Live’ Sports Injunction Will Target Pirate Streams Until 2020


A decade ago the vast majority of ‘pirate’ content was consumed after the fact but there has been a significant shift towards live TV programming in recent years, largely through IPTV and similar unlicensed services.

This phenomenon has proven a real thorn in the side of sports broadcasters who are desperate to preserve their live programming revenues. The Premier League, for example, has been hit by easy availability of unlicensed live streams, offered either for free or at a fraction of the official rates.

To counter this problem, in March 2017 the League obtained a blocking injunction from the High Court which compelled ISPs including BT, Sky, TalkTalk and Virgin Media to block unauthorized streams under Section 97a of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act.

A second order was handed down by the High Court in July 2017, which ran from August 12, 2017 to May 13, 2018. An extension was granted by the Court in July 2018.

This didn’t go unnoticed by other organizations in the same position. As reported here in September, sports promoter Matchroom Sport also obtained a similar High Court injunction enabling it to block illegal streams of fights for the next two years.

It now transpires that Queensbury Promotions, the home of Tyson Fury and legendary promoter Frank Warren, have followed Matchroom Sport by obtaining a similar order.

Granted on November 28, 2018, by Mr Justice Arnold with zero fanfare, the order requires BT, EE, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk, and Virgin Media to block live streams of forthcoming Queensbury promotions events in a similar manner to that outlined in the Matchroom Sport and Premier League cases.

While ISPs initially opposed blocking orders when they were first touted years ago, it’s notable that the first defendant in this case, BT, actually supported the blocking application. The other ISPs simply didn’t oppose, which made the order a relatively simple one to grant, albeit with a technical matter or two to address.

According to Justice Arnold, Showtime Networks entered into agreements with Queensberry and other third parties which saw Showtime as the broadcaster and copyright owner of the feed. Under the arrangement, however, he did not consider Queensbury to have an exclusive license. Ultimately this was overcome when Queensbury took an assignment of the right to bring proceedings from Showtime.

The order came into force ready for the Deontay Wilder v Tyson Fury fight which took place on December 1, 2018 and ended in a controversial split draw. Interestingly, however, widespread reports of blocking didn’t make an appearance, on the contrary in fact.

According to piracy-tracking firm MUSO, unauthorized streams of the fight were viewed ten million times – 1.1 million in the UK alone – with YouTube coming out on top as the leading provider. It is not clear whether those doing the blocking made any effort to target the Google-owned company but it seems likely that if they had, severe collateral damage would have ensued.

Moving forward, it appears that the ability of Queensbury to tackle piracy of events in this manner will continue until December 1, 2020, meaning that illegal Wilder v Fury rematch streams might….might….find themselves affected.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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LibreELEC (Leia) v8.95.1 BETA



LibreELEC 9.0 (Leia) Beta 1 has finally arrived after a long gestation period. Based upon Kodi v18 RC3, the 9.0 Beta 1 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon.

Compared to 8.2, major changes are:

Settings Add-on:

  • Changeable SSH passwords!
  • Default firewall (iptables) with simple configurations for Home/Public networks
  • Updates are moved to their own menu, other options are cleaned up a little
  • Safe Mode boot when Kodi experiences startup problems

Changeable SSH passwords and a default firewall configuration have been added to combat the increasing number of HTPC installs that can be found on the public internet. The increase is partly due to simple maths; our userbase has grown so the number of users inappropriately exposing their HTPC to the internet has also grown. The static password for libreelec is present on most/all password dictionary lists so it’s important we start encouraging users to change it (the first-run wizard will prompt when SSH is enabled).

More people are using VPN services for privacy without realising this exposes SSH/SMB/Web services. To combat this problem we have added simple firewall configurations for Home/Public networks; the Home configuration blocks inbound connections from non-private networks, e.g. traffic from the Internet to the public IP address used with the VPN connection.

As the Kodi piracy scene continues to decline we have seen an increase in users with outdated add-ons that cause problems during upgrades so “Safe Mode” counts Kodi startup crashes. After five startup failures it intervenes with a default (clean) configuration and prominent warning so users know there is a problem – but still have a working GUI to troubleshoot from.

 

Retroplayer:

Kodi v18 brings initial support for retro gaming and the ability to play hundreds of retro games directly from within Kodi. We provide a large number of emulator cores from our add-on repo, but no games (bring your own) although there are a couple of open source test game add-ons (2048 etc.) in our repo. In this first iteration of Kodi retro gaming support the user interface can be a little confusing and we still need to write-up some HOWTO guides for the wiki. Kodi developers are working on a game database (for Kodi v19) which will make the process of managing and using game ROMs easier in the future.

DVB Drivers:

We now offer a larger range of DVB drivers (depending on your platform) to choose from. The “DVB drivers from the latest kernel” option also includes the majority of Hauppage drivers which have been recently upstreamed into the kernel, which is great to see!

Rockchip:

Despite the 8.95.1 release number our Rockchip releases remain in an Alpha state with limited support. The Kodi version is updated but there are no significant video/audio improvements to the Rockchip 4.4 kernel codebase – and none planned. Our work on Rockchip support has refocussed onto the Linux 4.20 kernel to use the modern kernel frameworks needed for the next-generation Kodi video pipeline. This work is progressing nicely, but it means the 4.4 codebase “is what it is” until a future kernel bump.

New Devices:

Amlogic

  • Khadas VIM(1) – requires a clean install if using current community images
  • Libre Computer Le Potato

Rockchip

  • 96rocks ROCK960
  • ASUS Tinker Board
  • Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC
  • Khadas Edge
  • PINE64 ROCK64
  • PINE64 RockPro64
  • Popcorn Hour RockBox
  • Popcorn Hour Transformer
  • Rockchip Sapphire Board
  • Mqmaker MiQi

If you experience problems, please open an thread at our forum. You can also open an ticket at our issue tracker.

Downloads:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

Warning: Update at WP1 is broken if you use img.gz – please use .tar to update:

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.tar (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.95.001.img.gz (info)


Rockchip RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.010-box-z28.img.gz (info)

Rockchip RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.010-sapphire.img.gz (info)


Rockchip RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.010-rk3288.img.gz (info)

 



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Pirate IPTV Subscriptions Remain Rampant in North America


Increasingly, people are cancelling their expensive cable subscriptions, opting to use cheaper or niche-based Internet TV instead.

While there are plenty of legal options available, there’s also a broad offer of easy-to-use set-top boxes which are specifically configured to receive pirated content.

These pirate IPTV boxes are often sold bundled with a monthly or yearly subscription. This created an industry worth more than a billion dollars worldwide, perhaps even more.

Canadian broadband management company Sandvine recently put a spotlight on this activity, revealing how popular these boxes are. The company gathered data in 16 states and provinces in the US and Canada, monitoring traffic across multiple fixed access tier-1 networks.

Following an analysis of the data, the company was able to pinpoint how many households were accessing pirate IPTV networks. It’s a revisit of a similar study last year which found that 6.5% of the households used illegitimate subscription-based services.

The new results are somewhat lower. Sandvine reports that 5.5% of households could be linked to pirate IPTV subscriptions but this doesn’t mean that interest is waning.

The most recent study looked at a broader and more diverse population than before. Last year’s sample was concentrated in urban areas with a population over a million, which skewed the findings.

The recent study shows that 7.3% of the households in high-density urban areas have pirate IPTV subscriptions, compared to 4.3% in lower populated areas. This means that the overall reach may have actually grown.

US/Canada households accessing pirated live television services

The findings clearly show that pirate TV subscriptions are more popular in big cities, which is an interesting fact in itself.

“There is a huge variability in the demographics of those using pirated video services from region to region,” Sandvine’s Veroljub Mihajlovic notes.

The scope of the activity also remains intriguing. As previously revealed, pirate IPTV traffic generated more bandwidth than many other piracy tools and services, such as BitTorrent.

Also, it doesn’t even factor in other types of set-top box piracy, such as pirate boxes that access OTT streaming sites to play movies and TV-series “on demand.” This means that the overall piracy box landscape is even larger.

All in all it is safe to conclude that IPTV piracy makes up a large part of the pirate ecosystem. This hasn’t gone unnoticed to copyright holders of course. Over the past year, we have seen enforcement actions against several providers and if this trend continues, more are likely to follow.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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YouTube’s Copyright Protection System is a Total Mess, Can it Be Fixed?


YouTube’s copyright enforcement is a growing source of frustration, with many creators complaining about overbroad takedown efforts.

The protests have become more vocal in recent months, even though the issues themselves are far from new.

We first signaled problems with YouTube’s Content-ID system more than seven years ago. Since then, many examples have followed.

Most of these are the result of overbroad flagging, where YouTube finds a copyright match where it shouldn’t. The filters have previously flagged randomly generated audio, for example, or bird chatter.

This week we stumbled upon a video with 50 hours of rain sounds which has been flagged by no less than five separate rightsholders. Admittedly, the rain in the video sounds very familiar, as does most rain, but it clearly is unique.

While some mistakes are expected to happen, things only seem to be getting worse. Over the past several days alone, dozens of new examples of YouTube copyright problems have appeared. Many of these were brought to the forefront by creators themselves.

Last week the popular musician TheFatRat found out that ‘someone’ had claimed his own song as theirs, effectively diverting the ad-revenue to someone else. For a song with millions of views, that’s not a trivial issue.

Kidding?

YouTube does allow users to file a “dispute,” which TheFatRat did. However, the claimant rejected it. The musician could appeal the claim but YouTube warned that he would then risk a strike. If that fails, there’s another appeal option at which point it enters DMCA territory.

If a Content-ID claim is appealed the claimant will have to file a regular takedown request. This will result in a strike. The YouTube account holder can then file a counter-notice and if the claimant doesn’t file a lawsuit within two weeks, the video is eventually restored.

That’s quite a hassle, to say the least.

What doesn’t help is that YouTube keeps referring to false claimants as the “copyright owners”. This also happened to Dan Bull, who was hit with a similar false claim last week.

I’m right.

It’s not always clear where the problem lies. In TheFatrat’s case, his song was reportedly infringing a track from Andres Galvis, who apparently doesn’t know Power Records LLC or Ramjets, which YouTube lists as the claimant.

This may sound bizarre, but things can get even worse. In November YouTuber Drew Gooden was hit by a copyright claim from… Drew Gooden.

?

It doesn’t seem unimaginable that some people are abusing YouTube’s copyright policy to generate revenue by claiming videos of others. At the very minimum, these examples show that YouTube’s claiming process is a mess, which can seriously hurt legitimate users.

This frustration was nicely illustrated by YouTuber Gus Johnson, who provides even more examples.

Johnson shows that not all false claims are made through automatic recognition, there are plenty of inaccurate ‘manual’ claims as well. It appears that just mentioning the title of an artist or song can result in a claim, even though the audio itself isn’t used in the video.

Out of control..

.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }

As Techdirt points out, this mess doesn’t bode well for the EU’s Article 13, which may result in even more filters. That said, at YouTube things are already spiraling out of control.

We can easily continue to point out mistakes and false claims day after day after, but perhaps it’s time for a change?

During a hearing on Canada’s copyright reform plans, Liberal MP David Graham rightfully noted that YouTube currently operates a “guilty until proven innocent” system. YouTube’s representative didn’t dispute this assertion but gave no indication that this could be reversed.

While “innocent until proven guilty” sounds better for creators, copyright holders are not going to like that one bit.

TorrentFreak spoke to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) who have been critical of YouTube’s system for years. According to EFF’s Legal Director Corynne McSherry, the copyright strikes are particularly problematic.

Through these “strikes”, channel owners risk losing their livelihoods after three complaints. These strikes are only applied after direct copyright takedown requests, not through Content-ID flags, but it’s a major concern.

What might help is if copyright holders who repeatedly abuse the Content-ID system are penalized as well.

“YouTube could improve its handling of copyright complaints by actively identifying and excluding from Content ID rightsholders that abuse it,” McSherry says.

In addition, YouTube could also protect channels which are known to be good actors.

For search takedown requests Google already appears to work with a whitelist of non-infringing domain names. YouTube could do the same with its channels, protecting these from broad takedown requests.

It’s clear that YouTube is in a difficult spot with major rightsholders asking for tougher measures and YouTubers complaining about the same. At the very least, the company could take a good look at its policies and systems to see if clear abuse can be addressed and prevented.

Earlier this month, Team YouTube said that it was looking into the issues, but thus far not much has changed.

For TheFatRat the recent trouble was the final straw. Yesterday he launched a petition urging YouTube to fix the copyright protection system which 22,000 people have signed already,

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.





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