‘Rival Studios Leak Each Other’s Movies to Hurt Box Office Revenue’


With Bollywood, India has a thriving movie industry that’s worth billions of dollars and is known all around the world.

At the same time, the country also has one of the highest piracy rates, which is seen as a major threat to the industry.

Pirated copies of films swiftly make their way onto the Internet and are sold on physical media around the country. In many cases, these leaks occur just hours after a movie premieres in theaters.

In an effort to curb this activity, India’s Government recently amended the Cinematograph Act, making it illegal to record or transmit movies and movie audio without permission. Those who do, face a three-year prison sentence.

As with any law, the effectiveness depends on implementation and enforcement. This is something that has yet to be fleshed out and various prominent voices from the local movie industry are calling on the Government to take strict action.

“Everything boils down to implementation. Police feel piracy is not a priority. If the government can ensure plastic ban overnight, why not show the same vigor in this issue,” movie producer G. Dhananjayan told the Times of India.

The local newspaper ran an article last week on the new anti-piracy measures. Aside from the calls for stricter enforcement, the publication also delivered a bombshell. Apparently, movie piracy is frequently facilitated by the industry itself.

According to a Tamil cinema DVD seller, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, piracy is mostly an inside job. The source explains that movie companies are leaking each other’s films, as a competitive move.

“People from rival production companies or those from the creative department secretly release the movie online or circulate it as DVDs to hit the collection at the box office,” the source said.

This sounds like a Wild West story, but the allegations don’t stop there. Another source said that the local censor board and distribution houses are also on the piracy bandwagon.

“Another industry source said insiders in the censor board and distribution houses sell these copies for up to `5 lakh. The copies are uploaded on private portals that have dedicated passkeys,” the Times of India reports.

“For a few lakhs of rupees, these copies can be downloaded and replicated on DVD,” the newspaper adds.

When it comes to recording video and audio at movie theaters, it is believed that some movie industry insiders work in tandem with theater owners to leak high profile films. As a result, some films appear online just hours after their official premiere.

At TorrentFreak, we can’t verify any of these claims independently, but it does put the various arrests of Indian movie theater owners in a different perspective.

Indian police have apprehended several theater owners in the past. Late last year the Indian Film Exhibitors Association called on the Madras High Court to put a halt to these overbroad crackdowns, stressing that the arrestees were innocent.

However, based on the sources referenced by the Times of India, there are some rogue cinema owners out there.

All in all, it is clear that Bollywood’s piracy problem is rather complex, and that shutting down a few websites is certainly not going to cut it. The new anti-camming law may help, but if the industry itself is corrupted, there’s still a long way to go.

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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“Internet Atrophy” Fears Put Japan’s Downloading Bill On Hold


Downloading movies and music is currently prohibited under Japan’s Copyright Act, meaning that anyone who does so is liable to criminal prosecution or civil suits.

Over the past several months, rightsholders and authorities have been seeking to make the downloading of any copyrighted content a crime, something that has raised alarm bells in the country of 127 million citizens.

While many can see the benefits of preventing people from unlawfully duplicating or sharing full copyright works (if that deprives creators of their income), the proposals currently on the table go way beyond what many citizens see as reasonable.

As the wording currently stands, even those making screenshots of copyrighted content would be criminalized, as would those reproducing song lyrics or snapshots of manga publications, for example. With penalties of two years in prison and fines of two million yen (US$18,000) on the table, it’s no wonder that people are concerned.

Last month more than 80 academics, researchers, lawyers, and other experts issued an ‘emergency statement‘ urging the government to reconsider the scope of new proposals. It’s not clear whether this alone prompted a review but it seems that the rush to criminalize large numbers of Internet users is causing those in power to pause for thought.

The planned copyright amendments were set to be submitted to the Diet on March 8, 2019 but according to local sources, Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP or Jimintō) put the brakes on the proposals the day before they were due to be submitted.

Reports suggest that the party had such serious concerns over the scope of the law that its implementation might mean that “use of the Internet would be atrophied.”

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reportedly held a telephone call with Keisya Furuya, the former National Public Safety Commissioner and chairman of the bipartisan MANGA (Manga-Animation-Game) parliamentary group on March 6, 2019. According to AnimeNewsNetwork, this led to the decision to remove the proposals from the agenda.

The bill will now be presented for further discussion during the Diet’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s next meeting. However, there are no clear indications whether there will be any amendments, ones that might calm the fears of those who feel these overzealous proposals are not only several steps too far but potentially unenforceable.

Scholars and other experts are suggesting that the best route is to only criminalize actions that cause real financial damage to content owners.

The general consensus among the academics is that making infringement criminally punishable may be acceptable, but only when full copyright works – such as movies, music, manga publications, and books – are exploited in their entirety.

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Label Apologizes For All The Cracked Software Visible in Rapper’s YouTube Video


Once upon a time, people with an interest in music production could get into the game cheaply.

Back in the 80s, Amiga users (like myself) could mess around with tools like SoundTracker or OctaMED for hours, producing music at home that could be potentially fit for human consumption, if it wasn’t for a lack of talent.

Later, software like Cubase began to gain traction, since it was often bundled (in cut down form) with PC sound cards. But, of course, times moved on and in the short years that followed an avalanche of amazing tools became available; Fruity Loops and Reason, to name just two.

These days users are spoiled for choice but great production software in the 2010s often has great prices attached too, meaning that many turn to torrent and similar sites for their fix. Anyone who’s visited a back street studio will also let you know – they are often rammed with pirate software.

While controversial, pirate software gets many people into the music production business and, in common with those familiar with Windows or Adobe products, also trains people to stick with products when they can afford to pay. Some, however, forget to clean up the mess after.

Earlier this month, K-pop star Jeon So-yeon (Soyeon) learned that lesson the hard way. The rapper, singer, songwriter and general all-round star is signed to Cube Entertainment, which had put out a video on the label’s official YouTube channel (now deleted) which included a snapshot of her desktop. That turned out to be a big mistake.

Not only is Soyeon’s workspace the most cluttered in human history, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the star had some interesting additions that should’ve been kept away from the public eye.

Pirate software galore – Full size (Credit: Asian Junkie)

The revelations in the video left the star having to explain why she had cracked copies of Native Instruments’ Komplete, Kontakt, and several other pieces of pirated production software on her desktop.

Like many before her, Soyeon’s excuse was that she made mistakes with pirated software before she became famous a few years ago, and forgot to clean up the free stuff she’d trained herself with.

“First of all, I would like to sincerely apologize for causing any worry due to such disgraceful news,” she said, as translated by Asian Junkie.

“I remember using many different programs back when I first started learning how to compose music. For reasons that I neither deleted nor organized these files in the past, and for not even having consciously thought about it, I sincerely reflect back on it with remorse.”

While it’s certainly not unusual for starting musicians to learn their trade using pirated software, it becomes a bigger issue when they use that software to sell records. Soyeon, however, insists that wasn’t the case with her.

“Ever since I began in earnest to produce music, up to the recent songs that I have made, I have only used official programs, but I apologize once again for worrying you with an ignorance of copyright issues as a creator, no matter what the circumstances. From now on, I will study and act more carefully, never to use or own any kind of illegal file in the future.”

In an apology, Cube Entertainment sang the same tune.

“The program in question were downloaded when Soyeon was a trainee and was just beginning to learn about composing music in the process of her using various programs and learning about them. The program was never used again after Soyeon began seriously committing to musical composition,” the company said.

“We have confirmed that all of Soyeon’s compositions that have been released till now were created with a licensed Logic program, instruments we own, as well as Splice, which requires a monthly subscription fee.”

Fans don’t seem to be too concerned about Soyeon’s use of pirated software but of course the news will be an embarrassment to her label which will have piracy issues of its own. That said, she certainly isn’t the first artist to get caught using pirated production tools.

Stars including Kanye West, Avicii (rip) and Martin Garrix have all been caught using less-than-licensed software in the past. They certainly won’t be the last.

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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Kodi Users at Risk From Github Repo ‘Hijack’ But Solution is Already Available


While many pirates appear to get along with each other just fine, parts of the Kodi addon community regularly descend into chaos.

This so-called ‘drama’ happens on a regular basis and gets covered on various blogs that cover the scene far more closely than we do here on TF.

However, every now and again an issue raises its head that’s worthy of additional coverage, particularly when it has the potential to affect a broad range of users of popular Kodi addons.

Developers of Kodi add-ons, of all types and intent, regularly host their tools on coding platform Github. The US-based service is ideal for development and when users sign up, they’re allocated a unique URL, which can be referenced (just like a regular URL), all over the Internet.

These URLs can also be used to pull updates to add-ons that are installed on users’ machines. However, there is a loophole that can allow add-ons to pull updates that weren’t supplied by the original developer.

The problem was highlighted at least a couple of years ago when famous Kodi add-on developer MetalKettle deleted his Github repo. Shortly after, a third-party signed up to the platform with the same username (something which Github expressly allows) to obtain the same URL.

This meant that this third-party was allowed to push updates to people using MetalKettle add-ons in their Kodi setup. It’s not difficult to see the problem when a previously-trusted URL is suddenly placed in the hands of a potentially malicious third-party.

This ‘hijacking’ of accounts has happened several times since but things boiled over again recently when the popular ’13Clowns’ repo was deleted by its developer, only to be quickly re-registered on Github with the same name and, indeed, the same URL.

As the pair of images below show, the original repo (first) and imposter repo (second) are quite different, despite having the same username and appearing on the same URL.

The original 13Clowns repo (previously at https://github.com/13Clowns)
The imposter 13Clowns repo, using the exact same Github URL

The software hosted in the new repo began sending updates to former users of ’13Clowns’, which included a fork of the Exodus add-on and, controversially, tools that originate from TVAddons, the under-fire Canada-based Kodi add-on indexing site.

Those familiar with the add-on scene see TVAddons as what the Brits might describe a ‘marmite’ resource – people either love it, or hate it – and there is no shortage of Kodi users expressing both opinions.

Those that hate the site immediately claimed that the existence of TVAddons tools in the update means that the site was logically involved in the ‘hijack’, with KodiTips going as far as publishing a guide on how to remove the software pushed by the update. The software doesn’t seem malicious as such, but it does help TVAddons.

In response, those in support of TVAddons claimed that anyone could’ve ‘hijacked’ the repo (which is true, of course), with TVAddons itself going to great lengths to deny the allegations.

They state they have nothing to do with it, while suggesting that a TVAddons supporter could be responsible. Or, alternatively, it might be a “copyright holder trying to destroy the Kodi community through the most effective method to date: in-fighting.”

The truth is that only the people behind this somewhat underhand tactic know exactly what has happened here, so we’ll leave the speculation to other publications. However, perhaps of more interest is the manner in which this situation came to pass via Github allowing people to re-register accounts with not only the same username as a former user, but also granting access to the same URL.

As a law-abiding company, Github is known for quickly responding to takedown requests, fully in line with the requirements of the DMCA. That being said, this loophole can also be exploited by developers of completely legitimate add-ons too, should they decide to delete their accounts.

TorrentFreak contacted Github with an outline of the problem and asked whether it would be possible to implement measures that might reduce the risk, such as disallowing the re-use of usernames and identical URLs for a period of six months following deletion.

While the company didn’t respond directly to this suggestion, TorrentFreak was informed that systems are already in place to deal with this type of abuse.

The company’s repository namespace retirement policy supports mitigating this issue while its Acceptable Use Policy prohibits any kind of exploit. We can confirm that reusing a previously registered repo name to deliver add-ons to Kodi in the manner highlighted above is considered an exploit.

Therefore, this problem – which has caused so much conflict recently – can be dealt with under Github’s existing systems. Anyone sending a detailed complaint to Github via this form can have it investigated by the company, with offending repos being taken down.

In the meantime, it appears that those holding much of the power here are the developers themselves. By not deleting their Github accounts they constantly remain in charge of their own repos, meaning that no imposters can come in to masquerade as them.

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Google Opposes Mandatory Standard for Australian Takedown Notices


Last December the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released a preliminary report on its Digital Platform Inquiry.

One of the main recommendations it made was to create a mandatory standard for takedown notices to enable timely and effective removal of infringing content.

To make sure that digital platforms indeed implement this standard, the Commission said that these companies could be subjected to a $250,000 fine for each contravention.

“Making this mandatory code would ensure breaches could attract penalties under the Telecommunications Act,” ACCC wrote in its report.

Following the release of the report, various stakeholders were asked for their input. Over the past several weeks, dozens of responses were filed and it’s clear that a mandatory standard is not widely embraced.

Google, which operates a range of services that are subject to takedown notices, including its search engine and YouTube, warns that a new standard would be at odds with the well-established procedures in place around the world today.

“A Mandatory Standard would represent a significant departure from the globally accepted standard for issuing take-down notices that is relied upon by digital platforms, online service providers and content creators around the world,” Google writes.

The takedown procedures which are currently used in the UK, the EU, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and South Korea already require digital platforms to respond “expeditiously” to disable access to infringing content, according to Google.

Creating more strict requirements with the added threat of possible ‘fines’ could lead to censorship and may stifle innovation, the company adds.

“A more rigid standard with high fines for errors could incentivize automated censorship on an unacceptable scale and a curtailment of innovation and investment in alternative rights management approaches,” Google notes. 

The company further stresses that the comments from various copyright holder groups about the ineffectiveness of the current process are inaccurate. Google says that it presently takes a wide variety of measures to counter piracy, including automated removal of pirated content.

Many of these points were also highlighted in Google’s most recent overview of how it fights piracy. For example, the company stresses that it prevents certain piracy-associated keywords from appearing as autocomplete suggestions.

This is indeed true. Just last year Google added “Kodi” to its lists of banned words, which was quite a controversial move. However, according to some rightsholders, these autocomplete removals are far from perfect.

Village Roadshow CEO Graham Burke, who’s one of the most vocal Google critics, highlights this in his company’s submission to the ACCC. Roadshow believes that companies such as Google should go much further in their anti-piracy efforts.

“For example, Google’s search results could easily remove links to websites blocked by Australian courts as well as clean up autocomplete which is a fast track, easy way to piracy,” Burke writes. 

Village Roadshow’s submission comes with various screenshots showing how autocomplete suggestions still link to problematic content. For example, while “Pirate Bay” is banned, Google now suggests “Pirate Bays” related searches as an alternative which can be used to bypass ISP blockades.

Village Roadshow’s example

Village Roadshow’s CEO hopes that the ACCC will come up with additional measures to ensure that infringing content is swiftly removed and to ensure that Google and other platforms take responsibility for keeping illegal content off their services.

“The only winners in the current climate are pirates who are criminals because their business model is totally dependent on scamming and robbing people,” Burke writes. 

“They attract people with the promise of free first run movies only then through a multitude of paths to scam and rob them. Whether it by misrepresentation obtaining their contact details or ransomware,” he adds

Google clearly disagrees and it’s not alone in its criticism of the automated takedown standard. Twitter also objects to the proposal and AFR reports that StartupAUS also signals various problems. 

“If adopted, [the mandatory standard] would result in a scheme that implemented a take-down mechanism without the accompanying safe harbour that provides the incentive with which to cooperate – essentially, it is all stick and no carrot,” the startups warn. 

Interestingly, various copyright holder groups are not happy with it either, albeit for other reasons. Music Rights Australia, for example, recommends removing the proposal for a mandatory takedown standard, noting that a DMCA-style system won’t work

“A one size fits all solution like a US style Notice and Takedown regime will not be effective or efficient. For example, a US style notice and takedown regime would be ineffective to stop an illegal stream of a live concert on a social digital platform.”

Similarly, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) believes that the proposal doesn’t go far enough either.

“MEAA believes that much greater effort is required by digital platforms to act promptly in response to copyright owners’ requests to remove unauthorised content from their sites,” the group writes.

Based on the wide variety of responses it’s clear that there isn’t unanimous support for the proposal from either side. A full overview of the responses is available on the ACCC’s website. 

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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Russia Holds Talks to Enshrine Landmark Anti-Piracy Agreement into Law


Dealing with the flood of infringing content placed on the Internet for public consumption is a key aim of rightsholders around the world.

In both the United States and Europe, this is largely tackled via a notice-and-takedown regime, whereby copyright holders file complaints and hosts, search engines, and other platforms respond by removing content.

Under huge pressure from rightsholders, last year a ground-breaking agreement was reached in Moscow, one that would see much tougher measures to deal with the problem in Russia.

The voluntary agreement – signed by major rightsholders, Internet platforms, and search providers – aims to create an ever-growing centralized database of infringing content to enable web companies to take down media and links both quickly and efficiently.

Signatories who host and index content are expected to query the database regularly for designated content and links while deleting the same from their sites within hours.

It isn’t yet clear how complete the database is, or which companies are already interfacing with it, but it’s understood that the participants are now conducting takedowns broadly in line with the agreement.

The memorandum is valid until September 1, 2019 but the plan from the beginning was to make the arrangement a legal obligation by writing its terms into law. Plans for that are now underway.

Russian telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor reports that an “extended meeting” was held on March 6 with rights holders, search engines, and video hosting site operators in attendance. Also present was Roscomnadzor deputy head, Vadim Subbotin.

“The meeting discussed the most optimal version of the concept for the bill. Thus, the basis for the new legislation will be the provisions of the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of protection of exclusive rights in the era of the development of digital technologies,” Roscomnadzor’s press office confirmed.

The plan is for the terms of the currently voluntary memorandum to be written into law before it expires on September 1, 2019. However, if an agreement cannot be reached before the anniversary of its signing, it’s suggested that the memorandum could be extended beyond its initial one-year term.

Channel One, the National Media Group, Gazprom-Media, the Internet Video Association, the Association of Film and Television Producers, Yandex, Rambler Group, Mail.Ru Group, vKontakte, and RuTube, are all signatories of the current memorandum.

“The memorandum lays the foundations for sectoral self-regulation within the framework of the execution of the ‘anti-piracy’ law. The document introduces a pre-trial procedure for resolving disputes between copyright holders and search engines regarding the illegal placement of links to pirated content,” Roscomnadzor re-emphasized this week.

Google did not sign up last year and there has been no clear indication that it intends to participate moving forward. However, there have been multiple suggestions that other companies and groups may be allowed to join the voluntary agreement, such as publishers, for example.

Should the memorandum be written into law as planned, it’s likely to be the toughest – if not the toughest – anti-piracy regime seen anywhere in the world. Add Russia’s site-blocking regime into the mix, and the country is on course to become a world leader in online infringement mitigation.

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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Omniverse Counters ACE’s “Reckless” Piracy Lawsuit, Says It’s Fully Licensed


Last month, several major Hollywood studios, Amazon, and Netflix filed a lawsuit against Omniverse One World Television.

Under the flag of anti-piracy group ACE, the companies accused Omniverse and its owner Jason DeMeo of supplying of pirate streaming channels to various IPTV services.

Omniverse doesn’t offer any streaming boxes but sells live-streaming services to third-party distributors, such as Dragon Box, HDHomerun, Flixon TV, and SkyStream TV, which in turn offer live TV streaming packages to customers.

According to ACE, Omniverse offered these channels without permission from its members. As such, the company was branded a pirate streaming TV supplier.

Omniverse swiftly refuted this claim in a statement to TorrentFreak. The company said that it supports anti-piracy efforts in general but didn’t go into detail about ACE’s allegations or the licenses it has.

That changed this week. After being repeatedly branded as a pirate service, Omniverse CEO Jason DeMeo provided further details to Lightreading. The company is completely legal, he said, backed by an unprecedented licensing deal that was signed decades ago.

“Everyone is framing me as some sort of pirate… when I’m 100% compliant with what I’m supposed to do,” DeMeo said.

The licensing deal in question was obtained by a company called Hovsat, which is linked to the US-based real-estate company Hovnanian Enterprises. According to DeMeo, the agreement was signed by Hovsat in the early 90s for the duration of 100 years. Such a long term was required to allow home-builders to serve communities for decades to come.

Aside from the long duration, there apparently are no geographical restrictions either. And with IPTV still being a pipe dream in the early 90s, that wasn’t excluded either. The only requirements in the agreement are linked to copyright protection in general.

The existence of such a deal was already hinted at by DeMeo months ago when he was questioned by Cord Cutters News. Although Hovsat was not named then, Omniverse already used it as a tag on Twitter more than a year ago.

While it’s clear that Omniverse believes that it’s doing everything by the book, a coalition of ACE rightsholders clearly disagree, as their lawsuit shows. Also, DirectTV, whose logos appear on some Onmiverse broadcasts, clearly states that its content can’t be licensed in this manner.

So, it appears that the lawsuit between ACE and Omniverse may be different from traditional ‘pirate’ lawsuits. Based on DeMeo’s comments, the validity of the 100-year licensing deal will likely be at the center of it.

“I’m literally doing everything by the book,” DeMeo told Lightreading, describing ACE’s lawsuit as “reckless.” He further noted that his company makes sure that all its licenses are in order and that its distribution partners stick to the rules as well.

Omniverse and its legal counsel believe that the licensing agreement allows it to operate in this manner. This feeling was strengthened when it defeated cease and desist orders from companies such as Discovery Communications and Viacom.

“Fifty percent of the channels that I provide have already sent cease and desists, and we’ve won,” DeMeo commented. “They never went to court. We proved our agreements, and we passed.”

Until now, the joint venture between Hovsat and Omniverse was not made public but DeMeo said that his company pays all the required fees. Whether the licensing deal will indeed hold up will likely become apparent in the upcoming court battle.

While Omniverse has commented in public, it has yet to file a response to ACE’s complaint at the California District Court.

The lawsuit was initially assigned to Judge Dale S. Fischer, who recused himself due to a conflict of interest. It was reassigned to Judge Christina A. Schnyder, who also recused herself stating that she has a financial interest in one of the parties, before being handed over to Judge Dolly M. Gee.

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Canada’s New Anti-Abuse Copyright Notice Rules Are Being Ignored


When Internet users download or share copyrighted content online, particularly using BitTorrent, they should presume that copyright holders are watching.

Transfers that take place without the protection of a VPN, for example, are easily traced back to ISPs, who have the ability to link that activity to a specific account, when asked to do so.

In many cases this results in an ISP forwarding an infringement notice to a customer on behalf of a rightsholder, to warn that an account may have been used to breach copyright. However, over the years some rightsholders (often referred to as ‘copyright trolls’) have taken things a step further by including demands for cash in their notices.

In Canada, where a so-called ‘notice-and-notice‘ system is in place, this wasn’t well received by the government. So much so that during December 2018, the law was amended to prohibit companies from sending notices containing the following:

(a) an offer to settle the claimed infringement;
(b) a request or demand, made in relation to the claimed infringement, for payment or for personal information;
(c) a reference, including by way of hyperlink, to such an offer, request or demand;

“Such notices are deemed to be invalid under the regime,” government advice reads.

Unfortunately, however, copyright holders are ignoring the new law.

A notice sent by Eastlink, an ISP headquartered in Halifax, Canada, to one of its customers and reviewed by TorrentFreak, reveals a copyright holder breaching every single rule detailed above.

Filed by anti-piracy outfit Digital Millennium Forensics, on behalf of Elevation Pictures, the notice claims infringement of the 2015 movie ‘Into The Forest’. It lists the time and date of the alleged infringement (in January 2019) along with the alleged infringer’s IP address.

What follows is a wall of text, citing various laws and “recent amendments to the Copyright Act, which came into force on November 7, 2012” outlining the rights of Elevation Pictures and warning that the company could seek to unmask the subscriber through the courts, “should this matter remain unresolved.”

Of course, like all such companies, Elevation Pictures doesn’t want to take the matter to court. What it really wants is money.

“In order to help avoid legal action, we have been authorized by Elevation Pictures to offer you a settlement opportunity that we believe is reasonable for everyone,” Digital Millennium Forensics writes.

That offer, of course, clearly breaches rules (a) and (b) detailed above but the notice soon creeps ever closer to a full house by breaching rule (c) too.

“To access the settlement offer for this claim, you have until [a date three weeks after the notice was issued (redacted for privacy reasons)] to visit the provided URL and complete the settlement instructions,” it reads.

TorrentFreak obtained written permission from the Eastlink customer to access the provided URL. Below is a redacted version of the offer to settle, which is clearly in breach of the new government guidelines. (Note: TF has redacted the dollar amount too since it is very specific indeed and may identify the subscriber. However, we can confirm it is between CAD$250 and CAD$300)

A clear demand for cash, contrary the government’s wishes

It’s no surprise that both copyright holders and anti-piracy companies are failing to respect the terms of the new regime. There are no penalties for sending non-compliant notices, so there’s no incentive for copyright holders and their agents to follow the rules.

Furthermore, while there is no obligation on ISPs to forward non-compliant notices, that is clearly happening at Eastlink. The ISP does inform its customers that any notices falling foul of the rules (a), (b), or (c) are invalid, but sends them anyway.

This is problematic. Not only will some people feel pressured to pay up whether they’re the infringer or not, the notice seen by TF contains references to the “Copyright Act, R.SC, 1985″, and “(i) the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, (ii) the Universal Copyright Convention, (iii) bilateral treaties with other countries including Canada, and/or those copyright laws and regulations as cited herein.”

Legal jargon such as that highlighted above is not easily understood by the layman and can be difficult to comprehend without professional legal advice. It’s not unexpected, therefore, to find recipients who are overwhelmed by notice that simply shouldn’t have been sent.

TorrentFreak wrote to Eastlink asking why clearly abusive notices are being forwarded to its customers. Jill Laing, Head of Public Relations & Media, informed us that the volume of notices being received presents a problem for Internet service providers.

“The federally regulated Notice and Notice regime has resulted in ISPs receiving millions of such notices a year, which presents significant challenges for operators to filter,” Laing said.

“While we are compliant with the federal government’s legislation, we have and continue to provide clear communication to our customers that these specific types of notices are not valid. We fully support and encourage government and industry initiatives that would prevent copyright holders from sending invalid notices such as these.”

While it can indeed be reasonably argued that the government’s recent amendments go some way to dealing with the issue, the loopholes are clear to see and, as predicted, are now being abused by rightsholders.

Late last year, a coalition including Canada’s major ISPs called on the Government to create a standard for copyright infringement notices. This would make it easier to handle the massive volume of notices. In addition, the companies asked for a meaningful deterrent to stop those who breach the rules.

TF asked Eastlink if it had ever told complainants that sending abusive notices is unacceptable. We also asked whether the company would consider not sending abusive notices to customers in the future. We received no response to either question.

With the loopholes in the new rules clearly being exploited, notice recipients should be aware that the government offers the following advice:

“The Notice and Notice regime does not impose any obligations on a subscriber who receives a notice, and it does not require the subscriber to contact the copyright owner or the intermediary.”

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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Pirate “Aquaman” Release Suggests iTunes 4K May Be Breached


Pirated copies of movies appear online every day in a variety of formats, such as CAM, DVDRip, WEBRip, and Web-DL.

The latter, which usually come from streaming and download services such as Netflix, Amazon, or iTunes, have proven to be a reliable source for pirates over the years.

While most releases are nothing unusual, a 4K Aquaman release that came out this week was received with cheers and surprise among pirate film fanatics. 

The title, “Aquaman.2018.2160p.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.HDR.HEVC-MOMA,” suggests that this is a 4K release that was decrypted directly from iTunes. This is something that has never happened before with a 4K WEB-DL. 

The pirate release appeared online shortly after it was listed for sale on iTunes, so the timing would fit. Also, there are no 4K releases of the film on either Netflix or Amazon at the moment, meaning that it didn’t come from those services. 

The release immediately sparked rumors that iTunes’ 4K protection may have somehow been cracked or breached. If that’s the case, then many more high-quality releases could follow in the future. 

“Looks like MOMA managed to somehow decrypt 2160p iTunes,” one commenter noted on a popular torrent site, with another adding that it’s “amazing news because there’s a lot of 4k iTunes-only content out there.”

TorrentFreak reached out to Apple for a comment and more background information but at the time of publication, we have yet to hear back. 

From the release…

While this would be the first ever 4K WEB-DL from iTunes, it’s too soon to jump to conclusions. Some have suggested that the release could somehow be mislabeled.

We can’t rule anything out but since the 4K digital version is not widely available, there are few other possible sources. In addition, the release has been posted by reputable sources who are certainly not known for making stuff up.

There is currently a 4K release available on Vudu but the pirate version was uploaded before it went on sale there. A source who has experience with the matter believes that it most likely comes from iTunes, as advertised. How, exactly, remains a mystery, but there may be a vulnerability in Apple’s tvOS. 

“Apple has 4k only on Apple TV running tvOS. I assume they skipped checks, if the device is jailbroken, and someone just dumped the encrypted stream and decrypted it via what’s in memory as keys,” says our source, who prefers to remain anonymous.

If iTunes is indeed breached then Apple will likely do everything in its power to patch the hole as quickly as possible.

“I’m pretty sure Apple will react fast and block it via updates because they don’t have to keep compatibility with any devices like the iTunes desktop version,” our source adds.

Whether that’s the case or not, the release has already created plenty of buzz, and pirates are dreaming of many more 4K iTunes releases like this one.

“Maybe we will be able to get the 007 catalogue off iTunes? In any way, exciting times!” a commenter on Reddit notes. 

While we were writing this article two other 4K Web-DL releases appeared online; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

These are internal releases from the group DEFLATE and could trace back to iTunes as well.  The bitrate and channel layout for the Spider-Man release certainly seems to suggest so, our source says.

To be continued.

More…

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Former Pirate Party Leader “Trolls” Authors to Push Traffic to eBook Site


Activists associated and allied with the many variants of the Pirate Party worldwide are regularly painted as hardcore Internet pirates.

It’s not hard to see why given the Party’s history, but that’s certainly not the full picture.

Today’s Pirates, of which there are many flavors around the world, are just as likely to lobby in favor of transparency, privacy, free speech and anti-corruption, as they copyright reform and free sharing of information.

But while the former topics are now the focus for many, others are still very much interested in the latter. Take Travis McCrea, the former leader of the Pirate Party of Canada, for example.

Back in 2011, when McCrea was just 21-years-old, he launched Tormovies, a now-defunct torrent site designed for the sharing of movies. Speaking with TorrentFreak at the time, McCrea said he had zero intentions of backing down in the face of opposition. It now transpires that eight years later, he has similar things on his mind.

One of McCrea’s latest ventures (he describes himself as an entrepreneur) is the eBook site, Ebook.bike. Unlike most official eBook platforms offering premium content, everything is without cost to the user. Simply by navigating to the site, choosing a title, and selecting a convenient format, books are downloaded for free with zero DRM.

However, it seems pretty clear that McCrea doesn’t have licenses for the content being offered. Perhaps that’s why the site, according to SimilarWeb stats, is currently receiving more than a million visits per month. While this is great news for McCrea (who previously told us he has both American and Canadian passports), authors and publishers everywhere are extremely unhappy.

Opposition to the site (and its predecessor TUEBL) has been sizzling away for some time now but during the past few days, more and more authors have been attacking McCrea on Twitter over what they see as blatant copyright infringement.

Their position is that the site has no authority to publish their work. McCrea’s position is that his site is an upload platform – much like YouTube – which is protected under the terms of the DMCA. If they want content taken down, they should file a DMCA takedown notice, he says.

At the same time, however, McCrea – in his own inimitable style – admits he has been deliberately provocative on Twitter in response to complaints, something that hasn’t gone down well with authors who’ve found their work uploaded to his site.

McCrea isn’t shy to admit why he’s been behaving the way he has on social media. In what appears to be an honest post, he says that it’s been all about driving traffic to his site.

“Lot’s [sic] of anger, and I’ll admit I am responsible for fanning the flames. The honest truth is trolling you gets you to post links of my website to your fans and we have hit 10K additional unique visitors this week… however, I am realizing I should be more compassionate,” he wrote.

If attention is what McCrea wanted, he’s been successful. An article published on The Bookseller has Joanne Harris (MBE), the author of the award-winning novel Chocolat, calling for publishers to relegate McCrea’s site to history.

“We need to get the site taken down and publishers need to do something about it. It’s certainly possible to do,” Harris said.

“The music industry has done this successfully for many years. But big publishers are sometimes not very quick to pick up on new developments. They need to learn from the film industry and the music industry and be very muscular.

“People say pirate sites are like mushrooms, you take one down then one pops up somewhere else. I can’t help thinking there actually needs to be a court case and a precedent set.”

The author’s stance is receiving plenty of support. The piece indicates that the Society of Authors has filed a copyright infringement complaint with McCrea’s webhost, with publisher Hachette UK refusing to comment on “specific legal actions” but promising to continue its fight against book piracy.

But despite McCrea’s previous connections with the Pirate Party of Canada, he claims his site is in place to help – not hinder – authors.

“Imagine a world where authors can make money by giving digital versions of their books away to their readers, and readers could explore all sorts of books that they may have never even considered reading before. In a nutshell, this is Ebook Bike, the Ultimate Ebook Library,” the site’s promo page reads.

McCrea says his platform is based on the idea that when people are favorably exposed to authors’ work, they go on to become good customers, buying physical copies of books while promoting the same content to friends and family. He also says that his platform has more to offer.

“We want to give authors even more though, so we provide analytics to authors who want them so they can learn where their users are coming from and other useful information which they can then use to target book sales, advertise, and market themselves more effectively. We also have user feedback, so authors can learn what people like and don’t like in their writing,” he adds.

McCrea claims that his site has “1,500+ confirmed partner authors” who are “excited about bringing change to the way people consume their books.”

While that may very well be the case, those authors are not currently making themselves known on social media, or perhaps they’re simply being drowned out by the opposition. McCrea did not immediately respond to our request for comment.

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