‘Dragon Box’ Changes Business Model Following Hollywood Lawsuit


Earlier this year, several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix filed a lawsuit against Dragon Media Inc, branding it a supplier of pirate streaming devices.

Under the flag of the newly formed anti-piracy group ACE, the companies accused Dragon of using the Kodi media player in combination with pirate addons. As such, the company facilitates mass copyright infringement, it was argued.

While the lawsuit remains ongoing, the legal pressure prompted Dragon Box to take a good look at its business. With ACE filing lawsuits against several ‘streaming boxes,’ the problem was not going away anytime soon.

“It’s been a tough 9 months for the company and the industry,” the company writes in a Facebook message picked up by Cord Cutters News.

However, Dragon Box is not throwing in the towel. The company will change its business model and promises to continue serving the latest entertainment, albeit at a cost.

“Instead of closing our doors and shutting down all boxes and riding off into the sunset we decided that it was in the best interest of you the customers and the company to change our business model..,” Dragon Box writes.

The company adds that it will continue to try and bring customers “the best legal content we can and add in as many services we can to make Dragon Box the box that beats any competitors out there.”

While the announcement isn’t very concrete, a company representative informs TorrentFreak that they plan to officially announce their “Blend TV” subscription service next week.

This service, which has a similar website design as the box seller, is operated by uMedialink LLC and works on various platforms and devices. However, it does come with a subscription, starting at $39.95 per month for access to 65+ US Channels, including live sports streaming.

Blend TV’s channels

While Blend TV is not exactly a household name, its FAQ section notes that it is perfectly legal.

“Absolutely! BlendTV has the required rights and permission’s for the distribution of all our channels and movies on demand,” Blend TV’s website reads.

Dragon Box has also put up their boxes up for sale again. However, these are completely different to the ones that were offered last year. They are configured for easy access to Blend TV, and no longer come with Kodi and infringing add-ons pre-installed.

TorrentFreak spoke to someone familiar with the situation, who explained that this move was inevitable. The company believes that this change is in their own best interests and the interests of their customers.

Dragon Box still believes that online streaming is the future. And they hope that, by partnering with Blend TV, they can continue doing business without legal trouble.

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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Canada’s Supreme Court Offers Hope to Falsely Accused File-Sharers


Last week the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that ISPs are entitled to compensation for looking up the details of alleged copyright infringers.

This verdict, a result of a dispute between Rogers and movie company Voltage Pictures, can have far-reaching consequences as it makes so-called “copyright trolling” more expensive.

However, there is another nugget in the Supreme Court’s unanimous opinion that may be helpful to people who are wrongfully accused. In his comments, Justice Russell Brown notes that the owner of an IP-address isn’t automatically guilty.

“It must be borne in mind that being associated with an IP address that is the subject of a notice under s. 41.26(1)(a) is not conclusive of guilt,” he writes.

While this comment doesn’t change the outcome of this case, it certainly carries some weight. And Justice Brown is even more specific, explaining why the person connected to the IP-address isn’t automatically guilty.

“As I have explained, the person to whom an IP address belonged at the time of an alleged infringement may not be the same person who has shared copyrighted content online.

“It is also possible that an error on the part of a copyright owner would result in the incorrect identification of an IP address as having been the source of online copyright infringement,” Justice Brown notes.

From the Court’s ruling

The comments were highlighted by Law Professor Michael Geist earlier this week, who notes that this is good news for accused file-sharers. The Supreme Court comments clearly suggest that an IP-address alone may not be good enough to build a case.

In other words, future defendants have a powerful reference to highlight in their defense.

“While some may feel that they have little alternative but to settle, the Supreme Court’s language sends a reminder that IP address alone may be insufficient evidence to support a claim of copyright infringement,” Geist says.

“Those that fight back against overly aggressive notices may find the claims dropped. Alternatively, contesting a claim would require copyright owners to tender more evidence than just an allegation supported by an identifiable IP address.”

For an on-the-ground analysis, TorrentFreak reached out to James Plotkin of law firm CazaSaikaley, who represented two defendants in file-sharing cases recently.

He also sees Justice Brown’s statement as favorable to defendants who have not shared any infringing works themselves.

“When one reads the first two sentences of paragraph 41 together, it appears Brown J. is intimating, though not outright saying, that only the person who shares the work might be liable for infringement,” Plotkin tells us.

While it’s good news for defendants, the attorney also notes that the Court’s comment is made “obiter dictum.” This means that it’s part of the non-precedential part of the opinion, which is open to debate.

“That said, it still holds persuasive value, especially since it was stated on behalf of eight members of the Supreme Court,” Plotkin adds.

For now, file-sharing cases in Canada will continue, but perhaps the Court’s comments will inspire defendants and their attorneys to push back a bit more, when appropriate.

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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TV Box Sales From GeekBuying

No matter where you live you can get some of the best TV Boxes in the market right now for a super-low price! GeekBuying is offering a lot of TV Box, Mini PC, Home Theater Devices and more Gadgets for low prices and if you are from Europe you can also buy directly from the EU Warehouses as well so you will avoid any taxes and you will get your gears fast. With 4 European Warehouses and of course the Chinese Warehouse as well, you can find the perfect device with the lowest price with the TV Box Mania promotion of GeekBuying.

The sales are keep updating since there is a lot of demand so make sure to be fast enough and also keep visiting the pages for new products. Right now some of the best sales are the budget Tanix TX3 with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage, the MX10 which is an Android 8.1 TV Box with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of internal storage, the Mecool M8S PRO L 3GB/32GB version and the surprisingly good H96 MAX+ with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. Great prices for some great devices.

Regarding the European Warehouse we find 4 different of them: German, Polish, Italian and Spanish Warehouses but of course you can order from different European countries as well, just make sure to check the detailed table regarding your country and which warehouse is best for you. And each warehouse offers special sales each single day so check it out daily until you get the product of you desire.

Also from GeekBuying some other interesting products that you can get for the lowest price thanks to some special coupons like the Xiaomi Mi TV Box with the coupon DEMIBOX for a final price of $61.99 instead of $64.99 and from the German Warehouse. From the Italian Warehouse we find the X88 Android TV Box with the coupon YTAXOWOP for a final price of $66.99 instead of $73.99.

For more information and for even more products on sales, visit the TV Box Mania webpage of GeekBuying here.

 

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FAB IPTV Says it Has Shut Down Following Europol-led Raid


Last week it became evident that a new crackdown against IPTV providers based in the UK and Southern Ireland was underway.

In the first wave of action, a 41-year-old man and a 30-year-old woman were arrested in Bursledon, Hampshire, and detained under suspicion of offenses under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and money laundering. The pair were accused of illegally offering content from companies including Sky and BT Sport.

Soon after, four more arrests were announced in Southern Ireland. Two men, aged 42 and 45, and two women, aged 37 and 40, were detained following house searches in Crumlin, Dublin and Ashbourne, Co Dublin. All were arrested and questioned under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000 and the Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010.

Shortly after, a Europol statement said the arrests had taken place after a complex year-long investigation involving the Garda National Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Police Scotland, Trading Standards, the UK Intellectual Property Office, the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA) and Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).

The law enforcement agency also noted that a warrant had been executed in Scotland but provided no additional detail. A statement just published on the official website of FAB IPTV, an IPTV provider known to operate from addresses in Scotland, appears to fill in the blanks.

“On the morning of Tuesday September 11th a co-operation raid took place on one of the administrators homes whilst on holiday led by EUROPOL/Police Scotland and members from SKY/BT/Virgin/Possibly HBO and other Film/TV organizations. A number of devices were seized,” the statement reads.

“It is on that note we will no longer be operational and will come to a COMPLETE close. Unfortunately nothing else is known right now as no information will be given on the case and that this will take many months.”

FAB IPTV was incorporated in Scotland under the name FAB Hosting Ltd on February 22, 2017. A notice for compulsory strike-off was published on May 15, 2018. On July 30, 2018, the company was dissolved after filing no accounts.

The service continued to operate but during August its operators advised customers that it would eventually shut down.

“Unfortunately we are no longer accepting new subscriptions or renewals of current subscriptions due to closure. Any active subs will be honored until expiry,” the announcement noted.

“We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused and we wish you luck with your future viewing.”

The statement

With some of FAB’s customers having purchased subscriptions that are yet to expire, many are going to be out of pocket following the closure announcement. Equally, resellers of FAB’s service, who will have invested much greater sums, will also find themselves in the red. However, FAB indicates that funds could be reclaimed.

“I/We would advise that anyone whom would like a refund and are within 180 days as per PayPal limitations you should raise a dispute as we have zero access to any financial accounts associated with FAB,” the statement reads.

Whether former subscribers and resellers will choose to elevate their heads above the parapet will remain to be seen, but given what FAB has to say next, the option to cut their losses might be easiest for most.

“Please note this is an active investigation and doing so [asking for a refund] may bring action towards you so proceed with caution,” FAB warns.

“I/We highly suggest taking precautions if you have used your REAL information with us or any IPTV service as this is only the beginning of what is a huge fight against illicit services. More information will come in due course no doubt on EUROPOL’s website and other IPTV related media sites. Thank you for being loyal to FAB and stay safe,” the announcement concludes.

While it’s simplicity itself to fill in fake details when signing up to a service like FAB, many people use their real identities. However, the operator of a similar service previously told TF that they never check if names and addresses are real, meaning that people can fill anything in with no consequences.

Finally, it’s worth noting that at least as far as TF’s previous investigations revealed, FAB IPTV and its administrators were extremely easy to track down and identify. Quite why such services operate with such a low level of security and privacy isn’t immediately clear but now the perhaps inevitable costs will have to be counted.

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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Cloudflare Ordered to Expose YTS, Showbox, and Popcorn Time Site ‘Operators’


As one of the leading CDN and DDoS protection services, Cloudflare is used by millions of websites across the globe, some of which are notorious pirate sites.

The company has taken a lot of heat from copyright holders over the past few years, who want it to expose the operators of these platforms.

However, instead of taking a proactive stance, Cloudflare maintains its position as a neutral service provider. If copyright holders want it to take action, they have to follow the legal process.

This usually means obtaining a subpoena, ordering the company to share the personal details of its customers.

This is exactly what a group of movies companies, including Bodyguard Productions, Cobbler Nevada, Criminal Productions, Dallas Buyers Club, and Venice PI, recently did through a federal court in Hawaii.

These companies are involved in a series of piracy lawsuits. Best known are the so-called “copyright trolling” cases against alleged BitTorrent pirates, but more recently they began expanding their horizons to the people behind piracy services, such as the popular streaming app Showbox.

The subpoena was issued in the latter case after being filed last May.

The documents were not posted publicly but TorrentFreak managed to obtain a copy, which shows that the movie companies want details of the operators behind Showboxbuzz.com, Showbox.software, Rawapk.com, Popcorn-time.to, Popcorntime.sh, YTS.ag, and YTS.gg.

From the DMCA subpoena

Some additional digging revealed that no motion to quash was filed by Cloudflare, so it is likely that the requested information will be handed over.

The subpoena itself doesn’t reveal anything about the intentions of the movie companies, however.

The targeted sites are not listed in the original lawsuit, but it’s possible the owners are suspected of being linked to the defendants. In any case, it is clear that the movie outfits see the information as potentially valuable evidence in their legal battle.

The question remains, of course, whether the information Cloudflare has on record will be of use. Many operators of pirate sites and services do their best to shield the true operators from being exposed.

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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Music Group Celebrates Millions of ‘Pointless’ Piracy Takedown Notices


The Association of Independent Music (AIM) represents the interests of more than 800 independent music companies in the UK.

With online copyright infringement as one of the major threats, the organization also offers assistance on the anti-piracy front.

Earlier this year, AIM teamed up with anti-piracy tracking outfit MUSO to help its members remove pirated links from the web. With MUSO’s automatic takedown service, the labels can remove infringing URLs with minimal effort.

This week AIM sent out a press release showing how much has been achieved over the past four months. The results, shared by AIM’s Head of Legal & Business Affairs Gee Davy are impressive indeed.

“AIM’s partnership with MUSO began in May this year, and to see 5 million takedowns achieved already reflects the speed and efficiency with which MUSO has covered the catalogs across the independent music community,” Davy notes.

“Our members report that they are delighted with the service, which not only protects their releases from online piracy, but creates a visual dashboard to track piracy and protection activity in real time.”

While the comments suggest that pirated content was pulled offline, the reality appears to be quite different.

The press release doesn’t mention it, but, from what we can see, the five million takedown requests were (nearly) all targeted at Google. This means that no infringing content was taken down there, only search results.

Looking more closely at all the takedown requests MUSO sent to Google, on behalf of AIM, an even more disturbing picture emerges.

Google’s Transparency Report confirms that AIM sent close to five million ‘pirate’ URLs to the search engine. However, as it turns out, the vast majority of all reported URLs were not removed. And for a good reason.

Most of the links that were reported are simply not in Google’s search index. So, logically, there is nothing to remove.

Not removed

This also means that MUSO and AIM shouldn’t refer to these as removed links, or even takedown notices. These are reports of “non-existent” search results.

While Google previously noted that it accepts takedown notices for these types of URLs in some cases, which could end up on some sort of preemptive blacklist, there is more reason for concern.

Not only are most of the reported links missing from Google’s search results, they don’t always link to anything infringing on the pirate sites either.

Here’s a random sample that was taken from one of the recent takedown requests. This shows search results on a Zooqle proxy in various languages, which appears to be automated.

Takedown request

As mentioned before, these links were never indexed by Google. However, even the torrent site in question doesn’t return any infringing content, as the searches in question return no results.

No results

The above suggests that most of these takedown efforts are rather pointless. The URLs are not in Google’s index and even if they were, many would not point to infringing content.

To us, it appears that many of these notices are automatically generated by using variations of search strings on pirate sites, whether these point to actual pirated content or not. This is something we have spotted before.

This makes it easy to get to 5 million ‘takedowns’ in four months, of course, but it is rather futile.

TorrentFreak asked both AIM and MUSO for a comment yesterday. Both confirmed receipt of our inquiry, but at the time of publication, we have yet to receive a response to our questions.

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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International Day Against DRM Celebrates its 12th Anniversary


For creators of intellectual property, from movies, TV shows and software, through to the devices that allow them to be played, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is essential to control access to those products.

Proponents argue that without the digital locks of DRM, rampant copying of their content and designs would ensue, reducing revenues and threatening the very business models that bring these products to market.

On the flip side, DRM is seen as a huge hindrance by many consumers, particularly when its existence restricts, as it always does, what legitimate buyers of content and devices are able to do with their purchases.

From copying a DVD or game disc for backup purposes through to a myriad of legitimate fair-use scenarios, DRM is an ever-present mesh of digital barbed wire laid down for the sole purpose of restricting freedom.

While DRM aims to be its own protection (which can also backfire), it is also supported by legislation. Circumvention is criminalized under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the EU Copyright Directive, meaning those that choose to undermine it can face the wrath of the legal system.

For these reasons and many others, the Free Software Foundation’s (FSF) Defective by Design (DbD) campaign has sought to draw attention to the anti-consumer effects of DRM. From its roots back in 2006, today the FSF celebrates its 12th annual International Day Against DRM, inviting supporters to protest against digital locks while envisioning a world without DRM.

“DRM is a major problem for computer user freedom, artistic expression, free speech, and media,” says John Sullivan, executive director of the FSF.

“International Day Against DRM has allowed us to, year after year, empower people to rise up together and in one voice declare that DRM is harmful to everyone.”

The FSF and those who share their concerns over DRM believe that the addition of digital locks actually causes damage to a product. While offering no benefits to the consumer, DRM can fail catastrophically when those behind such systems are no longer able to maintain them, resulting in “massive digital book-burnings” when content is rendered inaccessible.

DRM also gives companies a reason and a route to spy on consumers and the use of their products. ‘Phoning home’ is commonplace, allowing media companies to conduct “large-scale surveillance” over people’s viewing habits.

For these reasons and many others, FSF has been fighting against DRM for more than a decade and today they’re calling on like-minded groups and individuals to support their mission to rid the world of DRM and return freedom to consumers. With that in mind, they have set a challenge for the day.

“This year’s theme is A Day Without DRM – the FSF invites people around the world to avoid DRM for the day,” FSF writes.

“DRM is lurking in many electronic devices we use, both online and offline, and you’ll find it everywhere from media files to vehicles. Its impact is echoed in the fight for the Right to Repair and the fight for the right to investigate the software in medical devices.”

Key Day Against DRM supporters

For online dwellers, going even a few hours without DRM today is likely to prove problematic, if not impossible. Users of Windows or any Apple device, for example, will find DRM baked into the system, meaning that the only option is to use DRM-free alternatives.

And if you’re thinking of enjoying your Kindle, Netflix or Spotify, DRM is part of the deal too. Even the now-infamous Kodi has joined the party, albeit in a limited way.

The main aim of the FSF however, is to raise awareness of DRM and how it negatively affects consumers.

Content with DRM is restricted by default yet by its very nature only affects legitimate purchases. Those who pirate their software, for example, are unaffected since piracy groups remove the DRM from content before release. Bizarrely, however, some pirates have even protected their work with DRM, signalling that no one is immune. There are great alternatives, however.

The International Day Against DRM campaign site can be found here. Those looking to support FSF can do so by purchasing an anti-DRM t-shirt. It was designed by Mark Lindhout, a winner in TorrentFreak’s anti-DRM competition way back in 2007.

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) v8.90.005 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. 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 release and we will update you on progress with the next-generation Kodi video pipeline (which makes that possible) soon.

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.

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 v8.90.004 ALPHA:

– updated to Kodi 18 Beta 2
– improved IR remotes at all Amlogic devices
– a lot more updates and fixes, have a look at the full changelog

LibreELEC 9.0 Alpha 005 (Kodi 18 Beta 2)

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 8.90.005 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-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

RPi 0/1 LibreELEC-RPi.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Generic LibreELEC-Generic.x86_64-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Odroid_C2 LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

KVIM LibreELEC-KVIM.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

LePotato LibreELEC-LePotato.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Slice LibreELEC-Slice.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

Slice3 LibreELEC-Slice3.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Core LibreELEC-WeTek_Core.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Hub LibreELEC-WeTek_Hub.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play LibreELEC-WeTek_Play.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)

WeTek_Play_2 LibreELEC-WeTek_Play_2.arm-8.90.005.img.gz (info)



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Terrarium TV Dev Says He Could Hand User Info to Authorities


Terrarium TV was one of the most impressive ‘pirate’ apps in recent years. Utilizing video content hosted on file-hosting platforms, it grew to become a serious competitor to apps like Showbox and Popcorn Time.

Last week, however, developer NitroXenon announced that the project would be shutting down

“It has always been a great pleasure to work on this project. However, it is time to say goodbye. I am going to shut down Terrarium TV, forever,” he wrote.

“I know this day will come eventually. I know it would be hard to let go. But it is really time for me to move on to other projects.”

As always, people wanted to know why the project was really being shut down. TorrentFreak spoke with NitroXenon who told us….very little. When questioned he refused to speak about his motivation, which of course led to speculation, some of it reasonable, some of it less so.

The big possibility, of course, is legal threats. Given that NitroXenon refused to answer, we might deduce that he’s under pressure not to speak. However, no substantial facts were available to definitively back that up so we had to take his statement at face value.

And then this weekend, out of the blue, NitroXenon scared thousands of Terrarium TV fans with a surprise announcement.

Former users of Terrarium TV, who didn’t immediately uninstall the app as NitroXenon had previously advised, suddenly started receiving notifications on their devices.

“Uninstall immediately!” one warned. “Your IP address and location are being tracked!”

“We can’t guarantee that details won’t be shared upon request,” advised another.

These kinds of notifications are not what the average user expects and of course, panic ensued. Was this some kind of scare tactic to ensure the last few people uninstalled the app or were the notifications sent out of genuine concern for users?

On Sunday, TorrentFreak was able to reach NitroXenon and ask him what on earth is going on. He had nothing reassuring to say.

“I’m just telling the truth,” he told TF. “Almost every app tracks user’s IP [addresses]. And if I must [hand] the info to authorities then I’ll do it.”

Other than this statement, NitroXenon had nothing to add. However, on behalf of people getting the scary notifications, we asked the obvious question. Why would NitroXenon retain logs after the application had been shut down and why, if he hasn’t been asked to retain them already, didn’t he simply purge them?

We received no response but if we have to analyze this situation, we’d say that something doesn’t feel right here.

Presuming for a moment that NitroXenon has come under pressure to a) shut down the app and b) not speak about the fact that he’s been threatened, that would fit the current pattern of developers who have found themselves in a similar situation over the past few months.

That being said, if IP address and location details are indeed being logged (the app had permissions for location), then why publicly warn users that is the case? The data has already been logged and deleting Terrarium now probably isn’t going to make much difference. Also, if the aim is to collect details of pirates, why sabotage that by giving out a warning while, potentially, undermining a non-disclosure agreement?

That leads us to the possibility that these are scare tactics but, put very simply, we have no proof either way. There might be a threat and there might not but we’ve never heard of a case where people who have simply streamed content (rather than uploaded) have been pursued by content companies.

There are several other possibilities too, including that NitroXenon got sick of the whole project and decided to burn the thing to the ground (unlikely, given how friendly he was in the past) or maybe he’s having his strings pulled by parties keen to send a message to movie and TV show pirates.

To our knowledge, this is an unprecedented development for ‘pirate’ applications, no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Whether users choose to uninstall the app moving forward is their prerogative but it seems unlikely that IP address evidence would prove of much use in this case, given that Terrarium never hosted the infringing content itself.

There are no guarantees, of course, so the rumors and speculation will continue, including that a hostile third-party, not content companies, have taken over both the app and NitroXenon’s Reddit account…..

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 Catch-22 Situation Faced By ‘Pirate’ App Developers


With software development and associated skills now accessible to millions of regular citizens, applications are released and updated every few minutes of every day.

While undoubtedly useful, the vast majority are completely benign, helpfully solving problems experienced by computer users with little fanfare.

On the other hand, applications that seek to provide simplified access to copyrighted movies, TV shows and another content face an inherently uncertain future, largely due to opposition from entertainment industry groups.

In itself, this precarious position can deter many developers but for others with an interest in file-sharing (and often the freedom from worry that comes with relative youth), the challenge can prove irresistible. As a result, dozens of applications are available today, providing mainly Android and Windows users with a free alternative to Netflix and similar products.

However, being the creator of such software presents a catch-22 situation that’s almost impossible to beat and even harder to extricate oneself from.

There is a theory that none of us ever does anything completely altruistically. Donating to charity, supporting a friend in need, or providing free access to content, are all driven by the reward we get from the experience, whether that’s pride, warm satisfaction, or the inevitable recognition.

Few app developers think that their hobby project is going to make worldwide headlines but when they are really, really good, word spreads – quickly.

Software like Popcorn Time, Showbox, or more recently Terrarium TV, all started under the radar but as their popularity grew, their developers received the confirmation that most had longed for – that their skills and hard work had resulted in something great.

This reward (and the adulation that comes with it) is an intoxicating mix that few can resist. As a result, these apps and others like them go from strength to strength, with the download numbers further encouraging their creators to continue. Meanwhile, however, we know that many would prefer not to be in the limelight.

Recently there has been some controversy in the Kodi community when popular YouTubers reviewed addons that their creators would rather have kept low-key. This publicity boosts interest but at the same time increases pressure on developers who really don’t want copyright holders knocking on their door.

The only answer, of course, is not to produce these tools in the first place. Any addon or APK that does something great WILL get traction, it’s as simple as that. There is no way to stop people talking about these tools and with that comes even more publicity. And downloads. And reward, even if grudgingly received.

Before developers know it, they have a monster on their hands, and then what? Shut it down, throwing thousands of hours of work away and losing all that recognition and feelings of reward? Or carry on, knowing that the better they do, the more likely it is that copyright holders will come calling?

In most instances, developers appear to ride the wave. With great popularity comes great responsibility, and with hundreds of thousands of users now relying on them, shutting down is difficult. And for those who generate revenue from their work via advertising or affiliate schemes, the problem is even more complicated – or straightforward – depending on perspective.

In the end, there are three basic types of developers who ‘survive’ to tell the tale.

Those who back away voluntarily with perfect timing (it’s otherwise convenient for them not to develop anymore), those who are threatened or sued into doing so, and those that somehow – against all the odds – manage to keep their identities a secret from start to finish.

Achieving the latter is not impossible but it is extremely difficult, requiring much forward planning and caution. This, it appears, is the only way to have a really successful project or application that doesn’t prove to be a huge liability when the masses really get on board.

Trouble is, few people expect this level of success at the beginning, meaning they’re ill-prepared for the fallout when things get big. Erasing online history is virtually impossible so the crumbs often lead to their demise.

An unknown pirate hero, an unsuccessful or fringe project, or legal worries. Pick one.

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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