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.”

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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

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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).

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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.”

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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.

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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

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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.

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Globally, Almost Four Out of Ten Music Consumers Are Pirates


IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, presents itself as the “voice of the recording industry worldwide.” The organization represents 1,300 record companies globally including the biggest labels in the industry.

IFPI’s annual Music Consumer Insight Report delves into the way music is consumed by 16 to 64-year-olds, particularly in the ever-expanding digital marketplace. Carried out by AudienceNet between April and May 2018 and covering twenty territories accounting for 91.3% of global revenues, the research aims to understand how consumers engage with both licensed and unlicensed content.

The report kicks off with the headline figure that 86% of consumers are now listening to music through on-demand streaming, with a solid 50% of 16 to 24-year-olds indicating a preference for streaming if there were only one way to listen to music. According to the research, 75% of consumers now use smartphones to access music.

But while millions of global consumers are now choosing licensed services for their musical fix, large numbers are still obtaining content from unlicensed sources. The report finds that almost four out of ten consumers (38%) still obtain their content using methods that infringe copyright.

In the early 2000s, the unchallenged kings of illegal music supply were the P2P networks dominated by the likes of Kazaa and LimeWire, with BitTorrent and file-hosting sites entering the party later but grabbing a huge slice of the cake. Now, however, it is largely legal services that are providing the source material for the ‘pirate’ market.

IFPI is clear: so-called ‘stream-ripping’ is now the most-used form of obtaining music online illegally, with 32% of all consumers downloading music this way. While users can head off to legal services and stream ad-supported content at will, stream-rippers use various tools to download the music instead, meaning that they don’t have to revisit to listen to the same content.

“Stream-ripping users are more likely to say that they rip music so they have music to listen to offline. This means they can avoid paying for a premium streaming subscription,” IFPI notes.

With a nod to successful action against sites including YouTube-MP3 and others, IFPI notes that the stream-ripping issue isn’t going away.

“Record companies are taking action globally against stream ripping sites that undermine legitimate services and pay no money to those investing in and creating the music. Despite some successes, the problem persists,” its report reads.

In its latest submission to the USTR, the RIAA highlighted a number of key overseas stream-ripping offenders, including Flvto.biz and 2conv.com (which are currently being sued), plus Mp3juices.cc, Convert2mp3.net, Ytmp3.cc, plus several others.

Given that YouTube is now a major source of both licensed and unlicensed music (and is an unwitting key supplier of source material to the ‘pirate’ market), it’s no surprise that the so-called ‘Value Gap’ and related issues are highlighted in IFPI’s research.

“[U]ser upload services are not returning fair value to the music community,” IFPI notes, adding that 35% of consumers say that a main reason for them not subscribing to a paid music service is because everything they need is already available for free on YouTube.

While the music industry is determined to change legislation in order to find a way out of the ‘Value Gap’ conundrum (particularly via the now infamous Article 13 in the EU), it has other copyright-related problems to deal with too.

According to the study, almost a quarter (23%) of global consumers obtain unlicensed music through either cyberlocker sites or P2P systems such as BitTorrent.

Sites specializing in both delivery systems were recently reported to the USTR including Russian giant Rapidgator, Zippyshare, and Turbobit, plus torrent indexes ThePirate Bay, Torrentz2, RARBG, and 1337x.

Piracy: still going strong

Finally, IFPI’s report notes that 17% of all consumers use search engines to find infringing content. Given that billions of takedown notices have been sent to Google to remove links to pirate music from search results, this seems like a pretty high figure. Anecdotal evidence online suggests that Google, in particular, is no longer the trove of unlicensed content links it once was.

However, with initiatives like site downranking now in place at Google, it seems likely that key sources of unlicensed content will continue their trip to the outlying pages of search engine indexes, which could encourage users to test out alternatives such as DuckDuckGo. IFPI, of course, will hope the trend switches towards licensed services instead.

The full Music Consumer Insight Report 2018 can be downloaded here (pdf)

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LibreELEC (Leia) v8.90.006 ALPHA



The LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha cycle has continued and releases for Amlogic and Slice hardware have been added additionally to the test cycle. We official support now Khadas VIM (AML S905X) and the LePotato (AML S905X) too. Since the 8.90.006 release we support a wide range of Rockchip devices. There are no plans to release LibreELEC 9.0 images for NXP/iMX6 hardware as support was removed from Kodi some months ago. Support will be reinstated in a future LibreELEC, we wrote an dedicated article about the future of LibreELEC.

Alpha releases are important to the team because we cannot test every scenario and sometimes sidestep issues without realising. The project needs a body of regular testers to go find the problems we miss. Testing will be particularly important for LibreELEC 9.0 as Kodi v18 includes substantial internal changes to VideoPlayer and introduces new retro-gaming capabilities.

** ROCKCHIP **

We added several Rockchip devices at this release. Please consider it as alpha quality and not yet as perfect. All kind of flavors of HDR, 4k and audio are supported already. These images are rather new and it is likely that you hit an problem sooner or later. Please report them at our issue tracker or at the dedicated Rockchip forum that they could get fixed. Within the LE9 release cycle we are likely not able to finish the Rockchip devices to reach an perfect stable state – they stay in alpha status as long it is needed.

TEST NOTES

Our current focus is the OS core and we are more interested in hardware and driver bugs than Kodi problems. Please report the issues you find by starting a thread in the forums or use our bug tracker. Raspberry Pi users are reminded that dtoverlay=lirc-rpi has now been deprecated. Please read the infrared remotes wiki page  before updating.

** CAUTION **

Alpha builds exist for hands-on testing not a hands-off experience. If you run Alpha builds you must be willing to report issues and engage the LibreELEC and Kodi developers in hunting bugs. If you have no idea what a debug log is or “wife acceptance factor” is critical, these builds are not for you. If you want to run Alpha builds please make a backup and store it somewhere off-box first. Your failure to make a backup is not our problem.

Updates since v8.90.005 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 3
– Kernel updated to 4.18.11 for Generic, RPi and Slice
– added Rockchip RK3328, RK3399 and RK3288 Devices
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 006 (Kodi 18 Beta 3)

To update an existing installation from within the Kodi GUI select manual update in the LibreELEC settings add-on and then check for updates; select the LibreELEC 9.0 channel and then the 8.90.006 release. To create new install media please use our simple USB/SD Creator App. The following .img.gz files can also be used to create install media or update the old fashioned way:

RPi 2/3 LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.006.img.gz (info)


RK3328

Firefly ROC-RK3328-CC LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-roc-cc.img.gz (info)

Generic Rockchip Box LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box.img.gz (info)

PINE64 ROCK64 / Popcorn Hour Transformer LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-rock64.img.gz (info)

Popcorn Hour RockBox LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-rockbox.img.gz (info)

MVR9 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box-trn9.img.gz (info)

Z28 LibreELEC-RK3328.arm-8.90.006-box-z28.img.gz (info)

RK3399

96rocks ROCK960 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-rock960.img.gz (info)

PINE64 RockPro64 LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-rockpro64.img.gz (info)

Rockchip Sapphire Board LibreELEC-RK3399.arm-8.90.006-sapphire.img.gz (info)


RK3288

ASUS Tinker Board LibreELEC-TinkerBoard.arm-8.90.006-rk3288.img.gz (info)

mqmaker MiQi LibreELEC-MiQi.arm-8.90.006-rk3288.img.gz (info)



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Ongoing SickRage Dispute Descends into Trademark War


With file-sharers manually acquiring increasingly large libraries of content, several years ago it became clear that software to automate the process would prove popular with the masses.

One such tool was Sick Beard, a PVR-like piece of software that was able to utilize Usenet providers, indexers, and TheTVDB to identify airing dates for TV shows and automatically download whenever they became available online. It would then add the content to a user’s library ready for viewing.

Like many successful open projects, Sick Beard later found itself ‘forked’, with developers breathing life into SickRage, a GNU General Public Licensed tool that took Sick Beard’s dreams and ran with them. With improved Usenet and torrent support plus a whole raft of new features, SickRage gained an impressive following.

SickRage in action

Unfortunately, however, SickRage began to suffer problems common to many projects where not every developer is an agreement on every point of action. This led to fragmentation, with devs moving to work on other similar projects. One of those who departed was a dev known as Echel0n, who started up his own SickRage variant operating from SickRage.ca.

In July 2017, things appeared to boil over when Echel0n (later self-identified as ‘Justin Tabish’) filed a DMCA complaint with Github, claiming copyright over the SickRage code.

“SiCKRAGE and the original code has not been provided or its use authorized, this is a violation of my copyright. I have a good faith belief the distribution of SiCKRAGE includes content of which the distribution is not authorized by the copyright owner, it’s [sic] agent, or the law,” the complaint reads.

Just days later, SickRage fought back, filing a counter-notice with Github. Perhaps unsurprisingly given the various contributors to long-standing open projects, the counter-notice points out a number of issues with the original DMCA notice.

Disputing all of its claims, the counter-notice states that the original SickRage copyright holder (@midgetspy) endorsed adding his name to the license and adding the counter-notice filer’s name “underneath his as credit for later contributions as per convention.” It also states that ‘Echel0n’ has no standing to make a complaint.

“As such, all other claims are disputed for this DMCA. We are in compliance with all applicable law to the best of our knowledge. Very little if any code is shared among these forks, however if complainant would like a prior credit added that would be amenable,” the notice adds.

With that, Gihub reinstated the project and for some time it appeared that an uneasy peace had broken out. It now transpires, however, that Echel0n (Tabish) was just getting warmed up.

As the image below shows, in September the developer registered the trademark ‘SickRage’ in the US with the United States Trademark and Patents Office (USPTO).

SickRage trademark filing

Armed with this piece of paper, Justin Tabish fired off a complaint to developer Dustyn Gibson (aka ‘miigotu‘) of the SickRage project, warning him to cease and desist using the SickRage trademark, even though it doesn’t appear to have been awarded yet.

Cease and Desist

Tabish also wrote to Github, demanding that the site transfer ownership of the SickRage repository to him.

“I’d like to report a case of trademark infringement and am requesting transfer of ownership for the following organization to my control so that I can remedy the situation, the organization is https://github.com/sickrage and is owned/controlled by username Miigotu, user’s profile is located at https://github.com/miigotu,” he told the company.

“This repo also has a website located at https://sickrage.github.io. This user/repo is a ex-team member of mine that I let go awhile back, they and others decided to open a repo on you’re servers under the exact same name of my company and project causing confusion and misleading members, as you can see in the title of the repo they have placed ‘The new home of the SickRage community’ which leads others to think there was some sort of change of ownership.”

Describing the effort as a “hostile takeover” attempt, ‘miigotu’ posted a note to the official Github account promising to fight every inch of the way.

“I will have to fight this again, he is claiming his ‘company’ owns a trademark to the name SickRage. This is a joke and I will fight it tooth and nail,” miigotu writes.

“Just another attempt by the drug addict to try and claim he owns the work that we all did on this project. He abandoned the project and we made it what it is. Then he popped up 2 years later and removed the entire team. If I have to take him to court, that will happen.”

There’s now a pretty huge argument taking place on Github as to who is right and wrong, and who is infringing on various rights. It’s a minefield of opinions that’s best read directly to be understood. Needless to say, it’s very messy indeed.

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Sony Sues ‘Jailbroken’ PS4 Seller for Copyright Infringement


Since its official launch in 2013, the PlayStation 4 (PS4) remained piracy-free for a long time, but last year things started to shift.

Following the release of a new jailbreak version a few months ago, things took a turn for the worse for Sony. This allowed the masses to tinker with their PS4 consoles which only increased the piracy troubles.

While it will be hard for Sony to put the genie back in the bottle, the Japanese company has decided to take a stand. In a new case filed at a federal court in California, Sony details its complaint against a local resident who allegedly offered for sale jailbroken PS4s filled with pirated games.

According to Sony, defendant Eric Scales was using the handle “Blackcloak13” to sell the jailbroken PS4s preloaded with over 60 pirated games on eBay.

“Defendant is an individual who has marketed, sold, and distributed ‘jailbroken’ PS4 consoles that: (a) contain ‘pirated’ (unauthorized) copies of PS4-compatible video games, and (b) were produced and designed for purposes of, and/or were marketed by Defendant for use in, circumventing technological protection measures,” the complaint reads.

One eBay listing

Sony ordered two devices online and found that they were indeed ‘as advertised.’ The PS4s were modified to run an unnamed exploit which effectively circumvents the technological protection measures that normally prevent people from playing pirated games.

“The exploit enables the PS4 console sold by Defendant to play the 60+ unauthorized copies of video games that are contained on its hard drive,” Sony writes.

In addition to the eBay shop, the man is also accused of running a separate website (now offline) where he advertised his services and products. The website stated that he’s been jailbreaking and modding consoles since 2006, and encouraged people to “stop buying games.”

“On Defendant’s website, where he uses the traditional ‘pirate’ symbol of a skull and crossbones shown below, Defendant states that purchasing his services or products will enable the purchaser to ‘be able to Download and copy any game’ and to ‘STOP BUYING GAMES’,” Sony notes.

STOP BUYING GAMES

With its lawsuit, Sony hopes to obtain an injunction ordering the defendant to stop any infringing activity and to destroy all jailbroken or “modded” PS4 consoles, hard drives, and games.

In addition, the game company requests damages for copyright infringement and for violating the DMCA by circumventing the PS4’s technological protection measures.

To our knowledge, this is the first jailbroken PS4 lawsuit, and it’s likely that Sony wants to set a clear example. With several first-party PS4 games being mentioned in the lawsuit, the potential damages run to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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A copy of the full complaint, obtained by TorrentFreak, is available here (pdf).

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MPAA and RIAA’s Megaupload Lawsuits Remain on Hold


Well over six years have passed since Megaupload was shut down and it’s still unclear how the criminal proceedings will unfold.

Aside from Andrus Nomm’s plea deal, progress in the criminal proceedings has been slow.

Kim Dotcom and his former colleagues are currently fighting a legal battle in New Zealand to prevent their extradition to the US, for which the final decision has yet to be issued.

While all parties await the outcome, the criminal case in the United States remains pending. The same goes for the civil cases launched by the MPAA and RIAA in 2014, more than four years ago.

Since the civil cases may influence the criminal proceedings, Megaupload’s legal team previously managed to put these cases on hold, and last week they requested another extension.

This is not the first time that such a request had been made. There have been several extensions already, which caused some issues.

There were previously concerns that the long delays could result in the destruction of evidence, as some of Megaupload’s hard drives were starting to fail. However, after the parties agreed on a solution to back-up and restore the files, this is no longer an issue.

“With the preservation order in place, and there being no other objection, Defendant Megaupload hereby moves the Court to enter the attached proposed order, continuing the stay in this case for an additional six months,” Megaupload’s legal team informed the court this week.

Without any objections from the MPAA and RIAA, U.S. District Court Judge Liam O’Grady swiftly granted Megaupload’s request to stay both lawsuits until April next year.

And so that wait continues…

Order to stay

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