Vodlocker Hammers Streaming Sites with JavaScript-based DDoS


Last year we highlighted a rather interesting service which makes it easy for anyone to embed a pirated movie.

Requiring only an IMDb number, Vodlocker.to allows anyone to embed videos, many of which are pirated.

This turned out to be a welcome feature for many smaller site operators, who use basic scripts to set up a streaming portal with minimal investment. In exchange, Vodlocker can serve some extra ads on these sites, which makes it a win-win for both parties.

More recently, however, it appears that ‘someone’ has added some extra code to the Vodlocker site that does more than streaming video or placing ads. As a result, the embedded videos are also being used to DDoS certain video streaming portals.

Looking at the source of the embed pages, we see a piece of JavaScript that attempts to load content from external sites. This is triggered by unwitting visitors; not once, but dozens of times per second. The smaller sites in question, understandably, collapse under this load.

The script

When we checked the site on Monday, Rainierland.com and Movie2k.st were being targeted, resulting in downtime. Today, the code has been updated and it’s now pointing movie4k.is, which is mostly unreachable as a result.

Movie4k.is attack in action

It’s not clear what the motivation for this attack is, or if Vodlocker is perhaps compromised, but it appears to be an intentional effort to take these streaming sites down.

Before the weekend the German news site Tarnkappe reported that another site, Filmpalast.to, was suffering from a similar DDoS attack.

Many of the sites that rely on these Vodlocker.to embed codes probably have no idea that they are participating in the attacks. The same is true for their visitors, who are unwittingly transformed into an army of stream-watching DDoS bots.

We contacted several of the affected sites for a comment but haven’t heard back. Vodlocker.to has no contact address listed, so we haven’t been able to reach out to the site itself.

The JavaScript-based attack itself isn’t new. Cloudflare previously highlighted the problem, describing it as a growing issue on the Internet.

“If an attacker sets up a site with this JavaScript embedded in the page, site visitors become DDoS participants. The higher-traffic the site, the bigger the DDoS,” Cloudflare explained in a blog post some years ago.

“Since purpose-built attack sites typically don’t have many visitors, the attack volume is typically low. Performing a truly massive DDoS attack with this technique requires some more creativity.”

In this case, there appears to be enough volume to take smaller sites offline. Not only are there a lot of sites who rely on the Vodlocker.to embeds, the visitors generally keep their tabs open for a more than an hour, while they’re watching, continuously hammering away.

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

GTA ‘Cheat’ Developers Have Homes Searched and Assets Frozen


Over the past year there has been a wave of copyright infringement lawsuits against alleged cheaters or cheat makers.

More than a handful have been filed in the US, but there’s also been some action in Australia recently.

In one case, filed last month, GTA V developer Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive are going after several people believed to be linked to the popular “Infamous” cheat.

This lawsuit is notable because the Federal Court of Australia has signed off on several broad enforcement actions. Not only are the defendants restrained from any cheating related activity, they are also the subject of a search and assets freezing order.

The orders are issued against the person or persons known as Christopher Anderson, Cycus Lesser, Sfinktah, Koroush Anderson, and Koroush Jeddian. Per the court’s order, all are prohibited from cheating and can be imprisoned if they refuse to comply.

Restrained

The associated search order identifies two Melbourne premises. It allows a search party to enter the buildings and search, copy, or remove relevant evidence including any computer, electronic storage device, or documents related to “Infamous.” Any cars that are located at these locations can also be searched.

In addition to the search order, the Federal Court also issued a freezing order preventing the defendants from taking out more money than needed for regular expenses.

“You must not remove from Australia or in any way dispose of, deal with or diminish the value of any of your assets in Australia (Australian assets) up to the unencumbered value of AU$286,609.80 (the Relevant Amount),” the order states.

This freezing order also applies to any cryptocurrency and other digital currency, including the money stored in the PayPal account that’s assigned to “Christopher Anderson.”

It is likely that Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive will try to obtain copyright infringement related damages, and with the freezing order they can make sure that the money isn’t spent beforehand.

The orders in question were initially not disclosed, but that restriction has now been lifted. From the information we have available the searches were carried out late last month. In a follow-up order, the federal court ruled that the freezing and other orders should remain in place for now.

The defendant(s) have yet to file a defense, which is expected later this month. Whatever the outcome, these orders and actions reveal that GTA V’s developer and its parent company are taking cheating rather seriously.

—

An overview of the various orders 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.





Source link

/0 Comments/by

VOD Site Branded “Notorious Market” Hits Back at the MPAA


Every year, trade groups representing movie, TV show, music, video game, and a broad range of other content companies make submissions to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

These documents outline sites, services, platforms and other locations that rightsholders believe should be branded “notorious markets” in the USTR’s annual overview of overseas infringing businesses.

The USTR’s final report carries significant weight and often guides the U.S. Government’s attitudes toward foreign governments when it comes to enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The latest submission by the MPAA highlights many of the usual suspects, including The Pirate Bay, RARBG, 1337x, Rutracker, and Torrentz2. However, it also includes a lesser-known Poland-based video site that on closer inspection seems a little out of place.

“Cda.pl is Poland’s most popular piracy website where users from around the world find and view copyright infringing content,” the MPAA wrote.

“It is so big that it is now more popular than several legitimate VOD services in the country. Cda.pl had 68.13 million worldwide visitors with nearly 13 million unique visitors in July 2018 according to SimilarWeb data and currently enjoys a global Alexa rank of 1,477 and a local rank of just 15 in Poland.”

Continuing to paint a picture of blatant piracy, the MPAA highlights that the owner of CDA.pl – CWMedia S.A. – attempts to hide where their site is hosted, using Cloudflare to mask server IP addresses and reverse proxies located at OVH in Poland to “curb rights holders’ ability to identify its precise host.”

While these kinds of claims are common in MPAA filings against ‘pirate’ sites, according to the company the MPAA is well off the mark with its ‘notorious market’ branding. As a result, it will now “intervene in the case” using official channels.

“CDA.pl is a very large and very popular service, often more popular than other VOD services in Poland. Yes it’s true. We’re big and we’re popular,” the site said in a statement.

“On CDA.pl, you can find videos that users have uploaded that breach copyright law. Yes, such cases happen, just like everyone else – we emphasize everyone, including social video websites where users add content. The same problem applies to CDA.pl, as well as YouTube, Dailymotion, Vimeo and others.”

The site says that in common with similar upload platforms, it takes positive steps to deal with infringing content when it becomes aware of it. In accordance with Polish and EU law, CDA.pl says it utilizes a notice-and-takedown system which removes infringing content without delay.

Furthermore, in common with services like YouTube, CDA.pl also provides rightsholders and other interested parties with direct access to tools that allow content to be removed from the platform.

“The law does not require us to do this, but it is a solution that significantly increases the effectiveness of combating illegal content. It is also worth remembering that the content in question can only appear on a specific part of CDA.pl, which is created by users (i.e the so-called user-generated content),” it adds.

The site points out that other areas of its site are dedicated to hosting content provided by verified submitters, partners and copyright holders, including its CDA Premium service which offers paid access to films supplied under licensing agreements made with distributors.

“CDA Premium is one of the most popular services of this type in Poland, and due to licenses, the Company paid PLN 5.4m ($1.45m) to distributors in the first half of this year alone!” the company notes.

On the claim that the CDA.pl uses Cloudflare to hide its location, the company appears to be even more irritated by the MPAA’s report to the USTR, noting that they’re either ignorant of the uses for the technology or are simply acting maliciously.

To clarify, CDA.pl says it uses Cloudflare for two reasons – to protect against DDoS attacks and to speed up the website for end users – and the service is not used to “hide” from anyone. Complaints can easily be made to the company so knowing where a server is located isn’t helpful, it adds.

“The entities whose rights are violated does not need to know the server IP address, he must be able to contact the website administrator for this (all contact details are available on the website). We remind you that you can report problems by e-mail or using the ‘report violation’ button, which is found next to every video on CDA.pl,” the company concludes.

It is relatively rare for a company reported as a ‘notorious market’ to fight back publicly so it will be interesting to see how this develops. Whether the USTR will choose to omit CDA.pl from its final report remains to be seen. Thus far, however, the MPAA isn’t well known for making publication retractions.

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Explicit Music Piracy Warnings are Seen As Most Effective


Over the past decades, the entertainment industries have tried out numerous anti-piracy campaigns.

From “don’t copy that floppy,” “copyright alerts,” to “get it right,” and everything in between, it has been tried.

The problem with these campaigns is that it’s hard to measure the direct effect. This prompted psychology researchers Joanne Ullman and Clayton Silver from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to conduct a controlled experiment.

The results, published in an article titled “Perceived Effectiveness of Potential Music Piracy Warnings” show that some warnings are more effective than others.

The researchers conducted a study where students would see a series of piracy warning labels. These came with one of four icons, depicted below, as well as one of the signal words; NOTICE, IMPORTANT, and STOP. For each of these, five different warning categories were created.

1. Icon + Signal word – No warning
2. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal”
3. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be fined.
4. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored.”
5. Icon + Signal word – “This is illegal. You may be monitored and you may be fined.”

4 icons were tested with varying signal words and warnings

The students then had to rate each of these 60 warning messages for perceived effectiveness. These ratings were then analyzed to see if some are believed to work better than others, which was indeed the case.

The computer icon with a download arrow and a slash through it received the highest rating. The one of the right, with the cross and without the computer, was seen as least effective.

“The highest perceived warning effectiveness icon was the computer with the download paired with a slash; whereas, the no computer with the download followed by the cross, had the lowest perceived warning effectiveness,” the researchers write.

As for the signal words, both IMPORTANT and STOP were seen as more effective than NOTICE. This is something senders of infringement ‘notices’ might want to keep in mind.

When it comes to warnings, the combination of “this is illegal” with “you may be monitored and fined” received the highest perceived effectiveness rating. The control group where no warning was shown was the least effective.

These findings suggest that the more explicit warnings work better. Indeed, that’s also the case when the researchers pinpointed the most effective combinations of all, with an example pictured on the right.

The most effective warning includes a computer for context, a download symbol, a slash symbol, the signal words STOP or IMPORTANT, and a message with all consequences (fined and monitored).

It is worth noting that these results are about ‘perceived’ effectiveness. While that’s a decent indicator, it doesn’t say anything about how these warnings would change the behavior of an actual audience of pirates.

This experiment is limited to a small set of warnings, but the researchers believe that developing an effective warning label can help to deter piracy and inform consumers.

The research suggests that explicit warnings are better than vague ones. In addition, we would caution that some campaigns can also go too far. Over the past decade, the “Piracy. It’s a crime” PSA has been mocked and ridiculed for being overly dramatic, without much substance.

Joanne Ullman, lead author of the article, tells us that the “Piracy. It’s a Crime” campaign isn’t particularly informative and therefore not very explicit. Providing explicit information about the risks appears to be most effective.

“This may be of value to some consumers given that we all have varying levels of risk aversion due to personality and/or situational factors,” Ullman says.

“For others, perhaps being reminded of these restrictions would embolden them to take legal and proactive measures to change current policies. The overall aim of this research is to maximize the capacity of people to make sound decisions for themselves.”

Piracy. It’s a Crime

.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%; }

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Kodi 19 M***** – Code name suggestion


Since the dawn of time, or at least since 2008 each released version has received a code name next to the version number. Giving each development iteration a code name in a certain category is kind of a tradition that is not only applicable for software but also for hardware. Google does so for Android and Intel also names their chips. Who are we to break this tradition and as such we follow in their steps with a theme that started out with mythical places or  names.

With Kodi v18 Leia heading towards final release (currently in Beta stage) we’ll need a new code name that will be added to v19 which our developers will be working on in due time. Don’t worry we’ll still look after any bug that might pop up in Leia and try to fix it first.

History

Below are the code names we have used in the past to give you an idea.

Atlantis
8.10  (15 November 2008)

Babylon
9.04 Babylon (6 May 2009)

Camelot
9.11 Camelot (24 December 2009)

Dharma
10.0 (18 December 2010)
10.1 (10 March 2011)

Eden
11.0 Eden (24 March 2012)

Frodo
12.0 (9 January 2013)
12.1 (18 March 2013)
12.2 (3 May 2013)
12.3 (24 December 2013)

Gotham
13.0 (4 May 2014)
13.1 (5 June 2014)
13.2 (17 August 2014)

Helix
14.0 (23 December 2014)
14.1 (1 February 2015)
14.2 (28 March 2015)

Isengard
15.0 (21 July 2015)
15.1 (16 August 2015)
15.2 (19 October 2015)

Jarvis
16.0 (21 February 2016)
16.1 (24 April 2016)

Krypton
17.0 (4 February 2017)
17.1 (23 March 2017)
17.2 (21 May 2017)
17.3 (24 May 2017)
17.4 (22 August 2017)
17.5 (24 October 2017)
17.6 (15 November 2017)

Leia
18.0 (Soon)

M******
19.0 (In a far distant future….)
As you can see we now arrived at the next version that will start with the letter M. We thought it might be a good idea to ask the users to send in suggestions on what the next code name should be. You can post your suggestions on our forum: Kodi v19 Name Suggestion. So up to you to suggest a great code name that will be added to Kodi v19. The team will take all suggestions in consideration and picks the most appropriate.





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Court Rejects Yandex’s Piracy Blocking Appeal as Talks With Rightsholders Falter


Following persistent complaints from copyright holders that Russian Internet giant Yandex has failed to keep ‘pirate’ links to TV shows out of its search results, several major broadcasters filed a lawsuit with the Moscow City Court.

Gazprom-Media outlets including TNT, TV-3, 2×2, and Super asked the Court to have ISPs block Yandex’s video indexing platform. The Court complied and gave Yandex until August 30 to remove all of the offending content.

Yandex responded with a refusal to comply, insisting that the law had been misinterpreted and that search engines are not covered by existing legislation. Content should be removed by the sites hosting it, Yandex claimed.

Soon after, however, Yandex changed direction. Fearing that its entire site would be blocked for non-compliance, Yandex removed links to the content and filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court. The search giant wanted the interim order rejected in respect of the TV shows owned by TV3 but the appeal failed.

A second appeal by Yandex concerning links to the TNT TV show ‘House Arrest’ also failed this week. According to a TASS report, the Court dismissed the company’s request to have the preliminary measures protecting the show lifted.

Late August, Yandex found itself responding to further legal action initiated by the TV channels. The lawsuits required the company to “stop creating technical conditions that ensure the placement of works on the Yandex.ru website” or face fines of 10,000 rubles ($150) for each instance of infringement of House Arrest and several other TV shows.

The Moscow City Court says it will begin hearing these cases next week.

“According to the results of the preliminary hearings, consideration of the claim of TNT-TV Network versus Yandex LLC is scheduled for October 15 at 11:00 Moscow time,” the Court said in a statement.

On the same date, the Court will also hear arguments in the lawsuit filed against Yandex by the TV channels Super, TV3 and 2×2. Each seeks to prevent Yandex from linking to infringing copies of their shows in search results or face fines.

The cases against Yandex have caused an element of confusion in Russia over the limits of current copyright law. In September, Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov said that the country’s anti-piracy legislation needs to be “improved” following the Yandex/Gazprom dispute.

Meanwhile, rightsholders and tech companies have been attempting to thrash out the terms of a memorandum to deal with piracy moving forward. TASS reported Friday that Yandex is prepared to sign first but only if companies including Google, YouTube, and Mail.ru group members vKontakte and others follow.

“We are in favor of an early resolution of the issue and are ready to be the first to sign the memorandum on the condition that the document will enter into force only after it has been signed by other participants,” Yandex said.

The comments follow a meeting this week attended by telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor, Yandex, Mail.ru Group, plus rightsholder representatives Gazprom-Media and the Association of Film and Television Producers. With the parties still a distance apart on the issue of piracy, Mail.ru suggested the adoption of DMCA-like system to counter infringing content.

“The best mechanism for interaction between Internet sites and copyright holders, in our opinion, is the international DMCA format, which regulates copyright with the development of new technologies,” the company said, adding that removing content within 24 hours of a copyright complaint is an accepted standard.

Mail.ru told TASS that while it already adheres to a strict policy when removing pirate content and believes further measures aren’t needed, it remains open to further discussion with rightsholders. Yandex reiterated that all parties need to be on board for an agreement to be reached.

“We oppose piracy and consider it necessary to develop a solution that will be transparent and equally applicable to all key Internet services on the market,” Yandex added in a statement.

“Such an approach should be fixed at the legislative level. Before the relevant law enters into force, the decision can be formalized as an industry memorandum.”

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Epic Games Sues YouTuber ‘Golden Modz’ Over ‘Magical’ Fortnite Powers


Last year Epic Games started to sue several Fortnite cheaters, accusing them of copyright infringement.

With these lawsuits the company hopes to stop the cheaters and send a clear message to others who do the same. However, Fortnite cheating remains rampant.

This week Epic Games continued its efforts by suing a rather prominent target, Golden Modz, who they’ve identified as Brandon Lucas. With more than 1.7 million subscribers on YouTube, he is the most high profile target we’ve seen thus far.

The complaint, filed at a North Carolina Federal Court, accuses ‘Golden Modz’ of copyright infringement and also names Colton Conter, a.k.a. ‘Exentric,’ as a second defendant.

“This is a copyright infringement, breach of contract, and tortious interference case in which the Defendants are infringing Epic’s copyrights by injecting unauthorized cheat software (‘cheats’ or ‘hacks’) into the copyright protected code of Epic’s popular video game Fortnite®,” Epic Games writes.

Both defendants have displayed their use of cheats in various YouTube videos. By using these cheats, they inject code into the game which modifies the original, which is a clear violation of copyright law, according to Epic Games.

Even worse, Golden Modz also stands accused of selling cheats online through the websites goldengodz.com and gtagods.com, which are often advertised in his gameplay videos.

“Lucas is operating these websites and selling these cheats and accounts for his own personal enrichment. He posts videos of people using the cheats for the same reason. His ill-gotten gains come at the expense of Epic and members of the Fortnite community.”

Cheats for sale

Golden Modz and Exentric team up on occasion, which appears to be the case in this video. They refer to their cheats as magical powers, informing viewers where to buy these, while hosting giveaways as well.

“At the end of the stream, I’m gonna do a three month of Fortnite magical powers giveaway. Definitely not cheats – wink wink – its magical powers okay,” Golden Modz notes.

According to Epic Games and the video’s title, there is little magical about these powers.

“In some of their YouTube videos, Defendants play (sometimes together) in duos and squads, and joke that the cheat software gives its users ‘magical’ powers, allowing them to ‘troll’ Fortnite by killing dozens of other players and ‘win’ the game,” the complaint reads.

Teaming up

.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%; }

The complaint points out several videos where the defendants showcase their hacks and cheats. Epic has asked YouTube to remove several of these, which hasn’t gone unnoticed.

In fact, last month Golden Modz uploaded a video titled “I am getting sued by fortnite…” which, as it turns out, was rather prophetical. In the video, he notes that many other YouTubers are creating these videos, and he doesn’t really see his actions as problematic.

“I’m almost kind of feeling I’m being discriminated against by Epic Games you know I’m just a kid that’s making YouTube videos and a lot of people were enjoying this,” Golden Modz said.

Epic Games clearly disagrees and the company wants to be compensated for its losses. They’re suing both defendants for copyright infringement and breach of contract, adding several other claims including contributory copyright infringement against Golden Modz specifically.

“Defendants should be permanently enjoined from continuing to engage in the conduct complained of herein, their profits should be disgorged, and they should be ordered to pay Epic’s damages, attorneys’ fees, and costs related to this action,” Epic writes.

—

A copy of the complaint, obtained by TorrentFreak, 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.





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Private Torrent Site Operators Ordered to Pay $440k Damages


While sites like The Pirate Bay have become household names due to their resilience and high-profile among users, copyright holders, and law enforcement bodies, there’s a vibrant underbelly of lesser-known torrent platforms.

Often working on an invitation-only basis, these ‘private’ trackers, as they’re known, fly comparatively under the mainstream radar. Nevertheless, few escape the negative attention of copyright holders who are keen to bring them to their knees.

One such platform was Rarat.org, which achieved local fame in Sweden after it grew to become one of the country’s top private torrent sites. During November 2016, however, it became clear that the show was over.

In a message posted to the site’s homepage, it was revealed that the platform’s operators were in trouble and the site had been shut down.

“This week Rarat was subject to a search, seizure, and arrest. This follows a 2013 complaint from a film company that tracked down our PayPal payments. Damages in the millions of krona are feared. The site will now be closed,” the notice read.

Around a month later, Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Pontén, who represents several copyright holders, said that Nordisk Film, SF, and Disney had filed a criminal complaint against Rarat back in 2013.

As mentioned in the Rarat announcement, PayPal – following requests from Rights Alliance – assisted in the case. This allowed the authorities to identify the person who had been receiving Rarat’s donations. A special unit of Sweden’s Department of National Police Operations then managed to track down one of the site’s operators.

He was arrested and taken in for questioning on suspicion of copyright infringement. Several computers were also seized as evidence during a house search. Stockholm’s Public Prosecution Office later confirmed that the investigation was at an early stage and may turn up more suspects.

During the almost two years that followed, little was heard about the case. This week, however, it was revealed that two men in their thirties have been handed conditional sentences for their roles in running the site.

The pair, from the city of Jönköping in southern Sweden, were sentenced by Sweden’s Patent and Market Court for distributing at least 113 pirated films via Rarat. They were ordered to pay a total of SEK 4 million (US$440k) in damages to rightsholders.

Anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance, which was involved in the case from the beginning, said in a statement this week that Rarat specialized in distributing Swedish films very early, often before they had been officially released. This, Rights Alliance said, resulted in “extraordinary damage” to “cultural heritage”.

Anders Nilsson, a writer on the movie Lockdown that was pre-released on Rarat, condemned the Court for handing down what he perceives to be an overly lenient sentence.

“It’s a scandal that the punishment is so low for stealing the movies we create and putting them out before they premiere,” Nilsson said.

“The effect is just the same as stealing the salary for our work, and it is also done by commercial organized crime,” he added.

Condemnation also came from Henrik Pontén of Rights Alliance.

“The problems with film piracy are far greater in Sweden than in other countries. The low punishment has no effect and new illegal film services appear all the time,” Pontén said.

“Sweden’s very high acceptance for infringing the rights of film creators has led to huge and permanent damage to the sensitive Swedish film industry.”

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Eleven Sports Ignores UK “Football Blackout” to Beat Streaming Piracy


Fans in the UK looking for a top-tier football fix on a Saturday afternoon have a simple choice. Go to a football ground and buy a ticket, stream the game online illegally, or don’t watch matches at all.

This unusual situation is the product of an agreement back in the 1960s, which saw football bosses take protective action to preserve attendances at live matches. Agreeing that airing matches on TV would negatively affect the size of crowds at games, a blanket broadcasting ban was put in place.

Even today, the various leagues in the UK do not permit matches to be aired live between 2:45pm and 5:15pm on Saturdays, with a few exceptions over the years to accommodate the FA Cup Final. The ban prevents foreign matches from being aired in the UK too, despite most leagues in other EU countries not observing the same restrictions as the UK.

Now, however, a new situation has upset the status quo, with UK-based streaming sports provider Eleven Sports ignoring the decades-old ban by broadcasting games from Spain’s La Liga into the UK during the blackout period.

On September 29, Eleven Sports ignored the blackout and streamed the game between Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao, which kicked off at 3:15pm. Last Saturday, the broadcaster breached the rules once more and according to the company, it will do so again. The aim, it says, is to generate revenue from football fans who would otherwise turn to illegal streams.

“We disagree with the ban and will continue to challenge it with the best interest of our customers at heart,” the company wrote on Facebook.

The move is supported by Spain’s top-tier league, La Liga, which says that Eleven’s actions are pushing the boundaries to challenge illegal services which currently have a monopoly on broadcasts in the UK.

“We support Eleven Sports in pushing the envelope in making matches available on Saturday afternoons,” said Joris Evers, La Liga’s chief communications officer, as cited by Bloomberg.

“People are watching football either through piracy or on betting websites anyway,” Evers added. “Upholding the ban does not make much sense.”

The broadcasting ban in the UK is seen by many as both old-fashioned and protectionist. Many fans have zero intention of attending grounds so the convenience of watching games from home is certainly attractive. It’s a market opportunity that’s exclusively exploited by illicit IPTV providers and pirate sites, which has caused the Premier League to obtain blocking injunctions in an effort to prevent viewing.

According to corporate sports law expert Satish Khandke, this revolutionary move by Eleven Sports has the potential to completely undermine the UK’s “blackout” period.

“[E]leven might argue that the blackout is unnecessary and anti-competitive, particularly as it is only operated in one EU member state, and so is unenforceable. If the blackout is not enforced or is successfully challenged, it is likely that companies having rights to show overseas games in the UK would all start to show them on Saturday afternoons,” Khandke notes.

“Once that happens, then the UK blackout would probably end as it could not be enforced selectively against some broadcasters but not others. That would mean that domestic matches could also be broadcast in the UK on Saturday afternoons – ending the status of Saturday afternoons as a ‘haven’ from televised football.”

If the “blackout” was abandoned, it would raise issues for the dozens of pirate IPTV providers currently supplying into the UK. They currently enjoy a somewhat lucrative monopoly, with many subscribers buying pirate packages to enjoy 3:00pm games.

Having official competition would certainly make life more difficult, with price becoming the only obstacle to prevent consumers from going legal.

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by

Cryptocurrency Startup Creates a Decentralized ‘Pirate Bay’ Alternative


There’s no shortage of blockchain related file-sharing projects. We have covered quite a few in recent years, ideally those with an actual working product.

While most offer novel solutions for marginal problems, a new project that recently crossed our path stood out.

The goal of Quality Magnet Coin, QMC for short, is to build a large torrent magnet index that’s impossible to take offline, censor, or block.

The core idea is fairly straightforward. The application uses the blockchain to create a decentralized database of torrent magnet links which doesn’t rely on a hosting service or domain name, making it virtually impossible to take down.

“While other existing services and plans are focusing on Pay-to-Seed, that is, paying for uploading the actual data of the files to people who are downloading, we are focused on the creation of a decentralized and searchable database of files to download. Think of it as a decentralized Pirate Bay,” the QMC team tells us.

In addition to keeping a record of all transactions on the blockchain, every user also stores the database of magnet files. This is constantly synced with the network to update it with new magnet links, and to remove those that are frequently voted as ‘bad.’

Searching the QMT tool…

QMC relies on its users to build the magnet database. Everyone is welcome to submit a magnet link to the database, but it comes with a catch. Submitting a link costs the user 1 QMC but in return, if the magnet is voted as good, they can get 5 QMC back after a month.

This ‘investment’ concept acts as a double-edged sword. The costs prevent spammers from taking over the system, while the returns encourage people to share. At least, that’s the theory.

QMC only just got started but they have a working project available. There are also more than 25 masternodes at the time of writing, which help to keep everything running smoothly. At the moment, 10% of the masternode holders have to vote a torrent as ‘good’ before a payment is made.

When we tried the QMT application, which works, the program froze on a few occasions while searching. The team is aware that there may be some issues initially, but they plan to continue improving on it. The magnet search from the wallet itself seems to work smoothly.

QMC

.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%; }

Search results are presented in a basic list. This includes a download link to load magnets into any regular torrent client, plus a link to Instant.io, where they can be downloaded or streamed through WebTorrent.

As for the magnet database, there are just over 5,000 magnet links at the moment, which is very limited. However, the QMC team is currently exploring partnerships with torrent sites to expand it more swiftly.

That also brings up the inevitable legal issues.

A lot of the magnet links point to copyrighted content, which is illegal to download or share. This may be a concern to rightsholders, but the QMC team stresses that the software and network itself is content neutral.

“We have no intention of copyright infringement, just like TRON doesn’t for that matter – even though they want to pay users for seeding torrents,” they say, pointing to the BitTorrent/Tron partnership.

“We simply would like information to be free and available to everyone. Information is always silenced based on political views or other means of pressure and we want to change that. What our users choose to post is up to them.”

On the anonymity side, the wallet has built-in support for access over the Tor network, which users can enable in the configuration file.

The QMC team itself hasn’t revealed any of its members to the public either, but notes that this may change in the future. A full whitepaper speccing out the project objectives and details is in the works as well.

The QMC wallet and the QMT search tool are available on Windows, Mac, and Linux, with iOS and Android versions being planned for next year. The roadmap also includes other plans, such as an API to link torrent sites to the QMC database, and the option for private torrent trackers to accept payments in QMC.

The roadmap

It’s hard to tell where a project like this will go, and whether it can deliver on its promises. That said, if it manages to get widespread adoption, copyright holders are not going to be pleased.

The QMC team, meanwhile, is moving full steam ahead. More information and background on the project is available in the Bitcoin Talk forums, or through the website that was put up this week.

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





Source link

/0 Comments/by