Strike 3 Holdings, one of the most active copyright trolls in the United States, has filed cases against thousands of alleged BitTorrent pirates in recent years.

While many of the defendants may indeed be guilty, quite a few of the accused Internet subscribers have done nothing wrong.

This is also what a John Doe, known by the IP-address 73.225.38.130, has repeatedly argued before a federal court in Seattle, Washington.

The defendant in question was sued by Strike 3 Holdings late 2017. In common with other defendants, the man was offered a settlement to let the case go, but instead, he went on the offensive.

As it turns out, the adult company picked a fight with a 70+-year-old retired police officer, who lawyered up to fight back.

Following some initial pushback in court, Strike 3 Holdings was ready to let the case go. The company filed a motion to voluntarily dismiss all claims in August, but the former policeman wasn’t willing to let them. At least, not without getting paid.

The defendant moved for a declaratory judgment of non-infringement, submitting a counterclaim accusing Strike 3 of abuse of process and “extortion through sham litigation.” Strike 3, for its part, moved for summary judgment asking the court to dismiss that counterclaim.

Over the past months, both parties have conducted discovery, hoping to bolster their positions ahead of a trial that’s scheduled for later this year.

The retired police officer, for example, has asked for a copy of the source code of Strike 3’s BitTorrent tracking software IPP. The court granted this request in part and allowed the defendant to issue a subpoena requesting a copy of the software’s source code. Thus far, however, that hasn’t happened.

This week the defendant, therefore, submitted a second motion, requesting a copy of the code. Or if that’s not an option, the court should exclude any evidence that’s based on it.

“It is not Doe’s burden to prove the software is forensically sound. That is Strike 3’s burden. At this point, Strike 3 is playing ‘hide the ball’. If Strike 3 does not comply with the Subpoena, then the IPP Code and any data relying upon it should be excluded as unreliable,” the motion to compel (pdf) reads.

In addition, the retired police officer also submitted a supplemental response to Strike 3’s motion for summary judgment. Among other things, his attorney points out that, instead of naming the defendant, Strike 3 went on a “fishing expedition” to find out who else could be the infringer.

The ‘initially’ accused alleged pirate points out that, based on the IPP software, Strike 3 can never prove that he downloaded a full copy of its works, accusing the company of abuse of process by going after third parties instead.

The defendant’s argument is that the complaint was unjustified and that Strike 3 knew this.

“Despite blatant and unequivocal allegations in their motion for early discovery that Doe is the infringer, and that full copies of Strike 3’s works were downloaded, Strike 3 knew that their investigator could never prove that Doe had downloaded entire films, and that they might not have the right defendant.

“Both of these facts are material to whether a court might find good cause for early discovery. Yet Strike 3 disclosed neither. Nor did Strike 3 disclose, contrary to their motion, that they intended to investigate third parties other than Doe. Strike 3’s conduct constitutes abuse of process,” the Doe defendant adds (pdf).

However, the adult content producer disagrees.

The third party, in this case, is the son of the retired police officer. According to Strike 3, this may be the person who downloaded its adult movie. At least, according to information it obtained during discovery, including a deposition of the son.

“Through the litigation process, Plaintiff has uncovered a substantial amount of evidence confirming the validity of its original Complaint and IPP’s system – evidence which Defendant has improperly sought to withhold from discovery,” Strike 3 argues (pdf).

The aforementioned passage comes from Strike 3’s motion to compel the defendant to allow one of his hard drives to be images and inspected. The hard drive in question was used by the son and taken out of a computer that was previously sold.

During the deposition, the son admitted that he used the computer, which had uTorrent installed on it, to access The Pirate Bay through which he downloaded adult content. This also happened during the time of the alleged copyright infringement.

According to Strike 3, this could be the “smoking gun” which shows that its original complaint, based on IPP’s evidence, was justified.

“The Son’s deposition testimony clearly makes this Hard Drive relevant and may, indeed, be the literal ‘smoking gun’ demonstrating that Plaintiff’s initial suit was entirely justified, and Defendant’ counterclaims are nothing less than a fraud upon the Court,” Strike 3 writes.

The various court filings and additional arguments make it clear that both sides are working hard to make this case go in their favor.

The court has yet to review the arguments and rule on the motions. After discovery is completed, the case is expected to go to trial. Both parties have indicated they prefer a bench trial, instead of a trial by jury.

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With millions of dedicated fans around the world, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) events are extremely popular.

They are also relatively expensive and as a result, unauthorized broadcasts are thriving.

For most popular fight cards, dozens of dedicated pirate streams are queued up via unauthorized IPTV services, streaming torrents, and streaming sites, in the latter case often masked with an overlay of ads. At the same time, unauthorized rebroadcasts also appear on more traditional Internet platforms, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

This is a thorn in the size of rightsholders, including the UFC, which dominates the MMA fighting scene. To tackle the problem the UFC has employed various anti-piracy strategies. Most recently, it contracted Stream Enforcement, a company that specializes in taking down pirated broadcasts.

In addition, the MMA promoter also involves itself in the lawmaking process. Just a few weeks ago, UFC General Counsel Riché McKnight, shared his anti-piracy vision with the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.

One of the main goals for the UFC is to criminalize unauthorized streaming. Unlike downloading, streaming is currently categorized as a public performance instead of distribution, which is punishable as a misdemeanor, instead of a felony.

The Senators made note of this call, which was shared by another major sports outfit, the NBA. They also had some additional questions, however, which McKnight could answer on paper later, so it could be added to the record.

These answers, which were just published, show that the UFC is not satisfied with how some social media companies and other online services address the pirate streaming issue.

McKnight explains that the UFC has takedown tool arrangements with several social media companies, but adds that online platforms have neglected its requests to combat illegal streaming more effectively.

“We believe communication, coordination, and cooperation could be greatly improved. Our general experience is that those subject to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) use it as a floor and do the minimum required to be in compliance,” McKnight notes.

The UFC notes that Facebook recently bettered its communication and ‘slightly’ improved its takedown response but overall, more could be done. However, most online services appear to be reluctant to voluntarily do more than the law requires, which means that in order to trigger change, the law should change.

“Private, voluntary partnerships [with online platforms] are not sufficient to combat online piracy. Addressing this problem requires a new approach that includes a strong legal framework, a combination of private and public enforcement, and enhanced cooperation with our international partners,” McKnight writes.

Criminalizing streaming is a step forward, according to the UFC. However, that doesn’t affect the platforms that host these streams, as these are protected by the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions.

According to the UFC’s General Counsel, Congress should consider other options as well. In particular, changes to the legal framework that will motivate social media companies and other online platforms to proactively prevent piracy.

“Congress should examine how best to properly incentivize platform providers to protect copyrighted online streaming content,” McKnight writes.

“Transitioning from a reactive ‘take down’ regime to a proactive ‘prevention’ regime would better protect and enhance a vibrant online ecosystem,” he adds.

McKnight specifically mentions policies to effectively ban repeat infringers, which is already part of the DMCA, but not always properly implemented.

While not specifically mentioned, the words “proactive” and “prevention” are reminiscent of the EU’s Article 17, which could potentially lead to upload filters.  The UFC doesn’t reference filters here, but other rightsholders have in the past.

Later this year, the US Copyright Office is expected to issue a report on the effectiveness of the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions. This will be based on input from a variety of stakeholders, some of which discussed filtering requirements.

The UFC hopes that the Copyright Office report will further help Congress to shape a more effective legal framework to tackle online streaming.

—

A copy of the written responses to the questions from the Senate Committee on the Judiciary is available here (pdf).

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Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN is well known for numerous actions against various players in the piracy ecosystem.

The company’s targets have included big sites – The Pirate Bay, for example – through to various individuals and groups that facilitate access to infringing content online. In 2016, that included Netherlands-based torrent release team, 2Lions.

2Lions uploaded thousands of torrents to several popular sites including The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents, 1337x, ExtraTorrent, and Demonoid. This attracted the attention of BREIN which targeted several members of the group.

In a 2016 legal process in which the individuals had no input, BREIN obtained ex parte injunctions which prohibited three members of the 2Lions team from infringing the copyrights of BREIN’s members on pain of a 2,000 euros per day fine. That led to negotiations with the team.

In addition to removing as many of their uploaded torrents as possible, the three individuals (and two other team members) agreed to pay BREIN 15,000 euros each as part of a settlement agreement. It’s now been more than three years since that deal was made but according to BREIN, one team member hasn’t met their obligations.

In a session before the Court of The Hague last week, BREIN sought to force the former uploader to pay up via a collection process, one that is likely to prove even more expensive for the person in question.

According to the anti-piracy group, not only will the individual have to pay the originally agreed amount, he or she will also have to pay for these proceedings and subsequent collection costs. That effectively doubles the amount to be paid to BREIN, a payment it can now enforce following the court process.

Rather than immediately pursue most of its targets through the courts, BREIN has regularly announced that groups, platforms and companies have shut down after reaching settlement agreements. IPTV providers, music pirates, torrent sites, and Usenet indexers have all promised to pay up over the past couple of years.

Given the volume of settlements, BREIN is clearly keen to see them honored. During 2018 alone, the Dutch anti-piracy group reached deals with 31 entities which included promises to settle via payments totaling hundreds of thousands of euros. The action last week suggests BREIN is prepared to enforce such payment, should people fail to meet their obligations.

“BREIN has been working with bailiffs and a debt collection office for some time now to keep track of non-paying infringers,” BREIN chief Tim Kuik said in a statement.

“This can concern payments that have been agreed in settlements or court orders. The results are satisfactory. Those who do not meet their payment obligations will be presented with an extra bill for this.”

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4B is not a typo! For the last six months a small group of LibreELEC developers have been collaborating with Pi Foundation staff and fellow ‘Alpha team’ members on initial software support for the new board. The 4B has faster memory, faster CPUs, faster Ethernet, faster USB, and more native codecs than previous generations. It’s a comprehensive hardware refresh that will please many users seeking a 4K capable device for LibreELEC and Kodi – here’s the new specification:

• 1.5GHz Quad A72 (BCM2711) with 1MB L2 cache, 32KB L1
• 3200-LPDDR4 (1GB, 2GB or 4GB)
• HEVC decode to 4K@60 (with HDR)
• H.264 decode to 1080p@60
• 2x 4K micro-HDMI (LE/Kodi outputs to 1x screen)
• HBR audio (TrueHD/DTS-HD)
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• 2x USB 2.0 ports
• Analogue 2.0 audio and Composite video port
• Gigabit Ethernet (not over USB!)
• 2.4GHz/5.0GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ac WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
• 5V/3A USB-C power input
• Micro-SD card slot

Initial demand for the Raspberry Pi 4 is going to be massive and it will be a couple of days before the first users get their hands on boards. To answer some of your questions we posted a short video review to our YouTube channel that explains some of the new capabilities and shows the new LibreELEC 9.2 ALPHA release running on the board:

HARDWARE

The 0.1Hz CPU bump to 1.5GHz appears modest (3B+ is 1.4GHz) but switching from quad A53 to an A72 chip results in a large gain in overall processing power and multimedia performance. Gigabit Ethernet that runs at full speed and USB 3.0 ports boosts bandwidth and playback from a NAS or USB 3.0 storage device is noticeably quicker. WiFi and Bluetooth performance is essentially the same as the previous model – only a minor change from Bluetooth 4.2 to 5.0.

The 4B continues to boot from a micro SD card to save $$ and maintain the famous $35 price-point for the 1GB RAM board, and new 2GB ($45) and 4GB ($55) board options have been added. Extra RAM boosts the number of use-cases for the 4B and makes Raspbian a usable Desktop OS. That’s not particularly relevant to our use-case with Kodi, but we can see the 4B playing a wider role in schools and beyond in the future, which will be great for the Pi Foundation.

SOFTWARE

It would be nice to have the 4B running the latest mainline kernel as other devices in LibreELEC 9.2, but adding support for an all-newSoC chipset is a huge effort and the Pi Foundation needed to align initial 4B software with the current Raspbian release to maximise compatibility with existing softwar and to keep the workload sensible. Generic x86/64 devices are running Linux 5.1, while Raspberry Pi devices (0/1/2/3/4) are using Linux 4.19 with some new/extra code. LibreELEC 9.2 also bumps Kodi to v18.3 which was timed for release ahead of the launch (thanks @spiff). In the next 24-hours all the sources for our new “RPi4” image will be made available via our GitHub repository.

In this initial release 1080p playback behaviour and performance on the 4B are broadly on-par with the previous 3B/3B+ model, except for HEVC media which is now hardware decoded and massively improved. New 4K video capabilities still have plenty of rough edges to be smoothed out, but the Pi Foundation developers have been pushing fixes to the Alpha test team at a phenomenal rate over the last month and that will continue as the userbase expands.

The 4B now uses SPI flash for the bootloader. Current firmware supports SD card boot only – Network and USB booting are still on the Pi Foundation to-do list. Also on the list is HBR audio (current audio capabilities are the same as the 3B) and 3D video. The 4B hardware is HDR capable, but software support has a dependency on the new Linux kernel frameworks merged by Intel developers (with help from Team LibreELEC/Kodi) in Linux 5.2 and a kernel bump will be needed to use them. Once the initial excitement and activity from the 4B launch calms down, serious work on HDR and transitioning Raspberry Pi over to the new GBM/V4L2 video pipeline can start.

ACCESSORIES

Raspberry Pi 4B needs a 5V/3A power supply with a USB-C connector. If you are using USB devices with more than 500mA power draw the 5V/3A spec is a firm requirement. If you are using simple peripherals you should be able to reuse an existing 5V/2.5A PSU with a small micro-USB to USB-C adaptor. Users with 5V/2A or lower spec PSU’s should invest in a higher rated 5V/3A PSU.

Everyone will need a new case – the board layout is different to previous models. The 4B has two micro-HDMI sockets instead of one full-size HDMI socket, and the USB ports and Ethernet swap positions. On launch day the official Pi Foundation case is available, but Kodi fans might prefer an updated version of the Flirc “Kodi Edition” case which is available for pre-order at USD $11.20 (normal price $15.95) until the cases come into stock, making it an absolute steal. The Kodi Foundation receives a royalty on each case sold to help fund the project, and percentage goes towards the USC Norris Cancer Research Centre. The updated cases will ship in late July.

ROCKCHIP

LibreELEC 9.2 is not all about Rasberry Pi. Rockchip releases will continue in long-term ‘Alpha’ state with some minor nip/tuck changes to the kernel and to add more support for HDR infoframe data. We are still using the Linux 4.4 kernel in these images. In the near future we will make a longer ‘development update’ blog post to outline the plan to move Rockchip images to mainline kernels.

ALLWINNER / AMLOGIC

Our original goal was to announce Allwinner and Amlogic images alongside Rockchip and the 4B as part of the LibreELEC 9.2 release, but while overall readiness has greatly improved in recent months – each has specific technical challenges to overcome before they meet our basic critera for a public release. On the human side of the project several maintainers also have reduced availability for support due to work and family commitments, and the summer vacation season is about to start. Combining these factors together, the team felt it was better to be patient and not rush releases.

So instead of releasing LibreELEC 9.2 alpha images we are announcing the start of official nightly images from our master development branch. At the moment the master branch uses Linux 5.1 and Kodi v18 so nightlies mirror LibreELEC 9.2, but in the near future we will start moving master towards Linux 5.3 and Kodi v19. NB: Users of the new Amlogic A311D based Khadas VIM3 board (which also lauches today) will be able to use the master-branch nightly images – we have a device-tree prepared.

BETA NOTES

LibreELEC 9.2 for Generic x86/64 and Raspberry Pi 0/1/2/3 devices is a solid beta quality release. Raspberry Pi 4B images are more “late stage Alpha” and are not feature complete or perfect. Normal LibreELEC testing rules apply; if you do not want to experiment on your family’s primary entertainment system – please stick with your current version and wait for the final/stable release. If you do want to experiment – please be prepared to submit log files and work with developers to hunt down problems and test solutions.

Enjoy

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ISP blocking has become a prime measure for the entertainment industries to limit the availability of pirate sites on the Internet.

In recent years more than 4,000 sites have been blocked throughout Europe, Asia, Latin America, and even Down Under.

Spain hasn’t been spared from these blocking efforts. Historically, the country has a high piracy rate. Local pirate sites, in particular, tend to be relatively popular.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by Hollywood’s anti-piracy outfit, the Motion Picture Association. Representing major movie studios, the group has been active in courts around the world and a few days ago it welcomed a new blocking victory in Spain.

Following a complaint from Disney, Columbia, Universal, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros, and Universal Cable, a Barcelona court ordered four major Internet providers to expand their pirate site blocklists, El Pais reports.

The order directs Telefonica, Vodafone, Ono and Orange to prevent users from accessing the Spanish-language sites Exvagos1.com, Seriesdanko.to, Seriespapaya.com, Cinecalidad.to , Repelis.live, Pelispedia.tv, Cliver.tv, Descagasdd.com and Pepecine.me.

Stan McCoy, president of the Motion Picture Association’s EMEA division, believes that the blockades are necessary to lower the piracy rate. However, he also stresses that ISPs themselves are not accused of any wrongdoing.

“The companies are not accused of anything bad in and of themselves, but they are notified because they access unauthorized content through their service,” McCoy says.

The ISPs are not fiercely protesting the orders but they are not willing to cooperate voluntarily either. They believe that website blockades require judicial oversight.

“Our position has not changed at all. It simply does not depend on us, but in order to block access [to a site] it is necessary for a judge to rule on the matter”, Telefónica explains.

“Any action by an Internet provider must be executed based on a court order,” a representative from ISP Orange adds.

This isn’t the first Spanish blocking order this year. In March, ISPs were already ordered to prevent subscribers from accessing Elitetorrenz.biz, Mejortorrent1.com, Gnula.nu, Mejortorrent.org and Gnula.se

A few weeks earlier, 1337x.to, Limetorrents.cc Torlock.com and Torrentfunk.com ExtraTorrent.cd  Masquetorrent.com, and Isohunt.to were blocked.

According to Genbeta, it’s becoming harder to circumvent such pirate site blockades. Previously people could simply change to a third-party DNS provider, such as Google of Cloudflare, but this isn’t good enough anymore. That said, a VPN service, proxy, or the Tor browser still do the trick.

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