Noise

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Following a hacking-related trial in Sweden last month, Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm is now expected to go through the same process in Denmark.

The Nacka District Court has decided that Gottfrid can be extradited to the neighboring country where he is accused of hacking into the mainframes of CSC, a Danish IT company working with the Government.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Gottfrid’s mother Kristina Svartholm confirmed that her son will indeed be extradited. When this will take place is yet to be announced as the 28-year-old must first await the verdict in his Swedish trial which is expected to be handed down later this week.

The accusations of the Danish authorities are very similar to those leveled in Sweden. Both cases involve security breaches of IT companies that work for the government.

In Denmark the alleged hacks of CSC took place between April and August 2012. Among other things, Gottfrid and a 20-year old Danish co-defendant are accused of downloading a large number of files from CSC’s mainframe systems.

According to the authorities the accessed files include information on wanted persons in the Schengen registers. The motivation for the hacks remains unknown, but the police say it can’t be ruled out that changes were made to the records. There are, however, no indications that any of the downloaded files have been exploited.

Commenting on the case, Danish National Police Commissioner Jens Henrik Hojbjerg said the security breach was unacceptable and that an investigation is still ongoing.

“The police take this matter very seriously. It is of course totally unacceptable that it has been possible to gain access to police records, despite the very high safety standards that we demand and expect from our IT supplier,” Hojbjerg said.

If Gottfrid is found guilty in Sweden the extradition to Denmark is expected to be postponed, depending on the length of his sentence. There is also an option for him to appeal the extradition decision but it hasn’t been announced whether this will be used.

For the time being the Pirate Bay founder remains in custody. He is considered a flight risk and is being kept in solitary confinement upon request of the Danish authorities.

Source: Pirate Bay Founder Will be Extradited to Denmark

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

After years of negotiating and planning the long-awaited U.S. “six strikes” system finally went live in February.

Thus far the number of alerts being sent out under the program appears to be minimal. We previously received a copy of a warning email sent out by Comcast, but today we can add time Time Warner Cable to the list.

The Copyright Alert System’s main goal is to educate the public. People should be informed that their connection is being used to share copyrighted material without permission, and told where they can find legal alternatives. Interestingly, Time Warner Cable is focusing on a different form of education in their copyright alert email.

Before even mentioning legal alternatives, the Internet provider confronts the recipient with the supposed dangers of P2P. Their answer to the question of whether P2P software imposes risks is an unequivocal ‘yes’.

“Yes, P2P programs can pose dangers to your computer and our network,” the email starts.

“A computer can become accessible to a P2P network for an unlimited period of time after a P2P program is downloaded. You may not even be aware that such a program is on your computer as a child or visitor to your home could have downloaded it. Therefore, it is important that you inspect your computer for P2P programs and ensure that you are not either intentionally or inadvertently making copyrighted works available for uploading by others.”

The first part above is not that problematic. File-sharing software can indeed run automatically with each start-up and people may want to disable that functionality when they’re not aware of it. But after this intro (we’ll ignore the fact that “uploading by others” should actually be “downloading by others”) the apparent dangers of P2P get a lot worse.

“These programs allow any anonymous person on the Internet to look at your computer files and copy them for themselves. This could lead to unwelcome activity, such as identity theft. Also, the programs, which use large amounts of memory, can interfere with the functioning of your computer by destabilizing your operating system, leading to general sluggishness at boot up and during operation. Also, P2P programs can contain spyware, adware, malware, viruses and pornography.”

In just three sentences the email dumps a pile of doom and gloom on the recipient that’s misleading to say the least. The Copyright Alert System pretty much exclusively targets BitTorrent transfers, while the above applied to applications that use shared folders such as the now defunct LimeWire.

BitTorrent clients only share files that people have downloaded or added themselves, so there is no possibility for anonymous persons to copy other files on people’s computers. We’re also not aware of any mainstream BitTorrent software that destabilizes the operating system, or contains spyware, viruses and pornography.

While we have to assume that Time Warner Cable included the note with the best intentions, most of the language that’s used clearly doesn’t apply to BitTorrent. But perhaps one of the goals is to make file-sharing look more dangerous than it is in reality? That talking point certainly is trending at various anti-piracy groups.

Further down in the “copyright alert” Time Warner Cable lists the name of the file that was allegedly shared without permission, together with other data including an IP-address. The email also lists places where people can download movies and music legally, and informs them that after several of these notices their Internet browsing may be temporarily restricted.

The full email is shown below. If you have received one yourself from Time Warner Cable or any other Internet provider, please let us know at the usual address.

Update: The Center for Copyright Information accidentally made the legal alternatives unfindable.

—–

From:DonotReply@twcable.com

Dear XXXXX (Primary Account Holder),

We have been notified that copyrighted content may have been shared using your internet connection without permission of the copyright owner.

What does that mean?

Content owners (artists, moviemakers, authors) and their representatives routinely monitor peer-2-peer networks to see if their content (like music, movies, and TV shows) is shared without their permission (without it being paid for). If they notice somebody sharing their content without their permission through a Time Warner Cable account they let us know.

As the primary account holder, you are responsible for making sure your account is not used for copyright infringement. Please note that we don’t know which computer or device may be the one to have triggered the notification; it could be any device using your account.

Are there dangers associated with using peer-to-peer (“P2P”) networks?

Yes, P2P program can pose dangers to your computer and our network. A computer can become accessible to a P2P network for an unlimited period of time after a P2P program is downloaded. You may not even be aware that such a program is on your computer as a child or visitor to your home could have downloaded it. Therefore, it is important that you inspect your computer for P2P programs and ensure that you are not either intentionally or inadvertently making copyrighted works available for uploading by others. These programs allow any anonymous person on the Internet to look at your computer files and copy them for themselves. This could lead to unwelcome activity, such as identity theft. Also, the programs, which use large amounts of memory, can interfere with the functioning of your computer by destabilizing your operating system, leading to general sluggishness at boot up and during operation. Also, P2P programs can contain spyware, adware, malware, viruses and pornography. Click here for more information about the various risks: http://onguardonline.gov/p2p

What was shared and when?

File Name: Justin Bieber – As Long As You Love Me (Feat. Big Sean) [Single] [2012]- Sebastian[Ub3r]
Content Type:
Content URL:
Shared: Jun 12 2013 4:51PM
IP Address: xx.xx.xxx.xx

Did you give them my personal information?

We have not shared any of your personal information with the content owner to help them find the files. The content owner simply provides us with an IP address and we contact you directly on their behalf.

Alright, so what do I need to do?

·If you have been downloading or sharing content illegally please stop doing so immediately.

·Make sure that everyone who uses your internet connection knows that you received this alert and advise them to use only legal sources for music, television and movie content (here are some examples of legal sources). http://www.copyrightinformation.org/a-better-way-to-find-movies-tv-music/, http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/tv/premiums.html

·Secure your home wireless network so that nobody who is unauthorized to use it is able to do so.(learn more here). http://onguardonline.gov/articles/0013-securing-your-wireless-network

Hopefully this is the last time we contact you. If a content owner does not identify further instances of alleged copyright infringement then this will be your last notice.

And what if this continues to happen?

Sharing content without the owner’s permission is a violation of U.S. copyright laws, and our acceptable use policy. Under the Copyright Alert System (for more on CAS click here: http://www.copyrightinformation.org/alerts, further instances of infringement using your account may result in our undertaking measures that will temporarily affect your internet experience. The range of actions may include redirection to a landing page for a period or until you contact Time Warner Cable.

We will, of course, provide you with advance notice prior to taking any such steps. We will also offer you the ability to challenge the content owner’s notices through an independent party prior to any service alterations. You may wish to preserve records or information that could be used to demonstrate that the activity in question was non-infringing.

I still have questions about this notice, where can I go?

For additional information about this notice, learn how you can prevent further notices, and understand more about the Copyright Alert System, please visit the Center for Copyright Information – Copyright Alert System website at http://www.copyrightinformation.org/alerts.

Thank you for subscribing to Time Warner Cable’s high speed data service. We look forward to having you as a customer for years to come.

Sincerely,

Customer Service

Source: Six Strikes “Copyright Alert” Warns Subscribers For Dangerous P2P Software

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

The Hangover Part 3 is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Source: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

With e-readers becoming more popular year after year, book piracy is seen as a growing problem for the publishing industry.

To counter this threat, publishers are constantly looking for new forms of DRM. With financial support from the Government and backing from the publishing industry, researchers at the Darmstadt Technical University in Germany launched SiDiM, a project to find DRM innovations.

One of the solutions being worked on at the moment aims to make individual ebooks unique through so-called “text watermarks.” The researchers have developed a technology that will make small changes to book texts so each buyer gets a unique copy. If the book is later uploaded to the Internet it can be easily traced back to the source.

“The goal of the SiDiM project is to develop new protection measures for eBooks and electronic documents. Texts in digital format are particularly threatened by unauthorized copying, for example via the Internet,” SiDiM’s Dr. Martin Steinebach explains.

“A solution to this problem is to alter documents with visible and invisible marks that make a single copy distinguishable. Users are encouraged to take responsibility their their copy and it will deter illegal file-sharing, as copies can be traced using these marks,” the researcher adds.

While the general story-line will remain intact, the DRM shuffles some words around, inserts synonyms, changes the paragraph format or the punctuation. For example, the word “unsympathetic” could be changed to “not sympathetic,” and so forth.

The researchers see this as a ‘consumer-friendly’ form of DRM as it doesn’t lock the book to an account or prevent copying between devices.

Whether readers will be equally enthusiastic remains to be seen. Since the process is completely automated there is a risk that errors will occur. For example, sentences may no longer carry the nuances intended by the author.

To see what kind of reception the text alterations might receive, publishers and authors have been sent a list of 15 “text watermark” examples along with a request to assess the changes.

The researchers don’t explain how they intend to deal with creative pirates, who might add in their own alterations, so it’s unsure whether the system is foolproof.

While the “text watermarks” are not particularly intrusive for readers, the assumption that all consumers are potential criminals may not sit well with everyone. Additionally, most book fanatics will probably want to read the book the way the author intended.

Source: New DRM Changes Text of eBooks to Catch Pirates

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Over the past years numerous studies have shown that on average file-sharers spend more money on legal purchases, whether it’s music or box office tickets.

The most logical explanation for this finding is that “pirates” are more engaged than those who don’t share, and that they complement their legal purchases with unauthorized downloads.

However, new research from Australia suggests that there’s another factor that should be taken into account. Pirates simply have more money to spend.

An extensive survey commissioned by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and several other copyright groups shows that those who download illegally earn more money than those who don’t. The study asked 1,000 adults about their downloading habits, and 21 percent admitted to being a pirate.

Looking at the demographic trends the research found that 30 percent of the people who live in households that earn more than 100,000 Australian dollars per year are self-confessed pirates. This is well above the country average, and also a much higher percentage than lower incomes.

Only 14 percent of people earning $40,000 are classified as pirates, and this increases to 27 percent for the $60,000-$100,000 bracket.

In general, the higher a person’s income the more likely it is that he or she engages in unauthorized file-sharing.

Related to the income trends, the survey also found that file-sharers are better educated. People who enjoyed higher education are over-represented and 25 percent of all pirates had a university education, again, well above the country average.

The survey further showed that pirates tend to live in metropolitan rather than rural areas, and that they are relatively young. Of all adult file-sharers 44 percent are under 30, while only 11 percent fall into the 50-69 age group.

Unexpectedly, TV-shows and series are among the content most downloaded down under. This confirms what we’ve shown before, that Australia can be considered the piracy capital of the world, especially for TV content.

While the results are interesting, especially with regard to income distribution, people can draw different conclusions from the data.

The entertainment industry will probably make the case that pirates are so rich because they’re not paying for a lot of their media. The pirates on the other hand, might argue that pirating makes people smarter. Whatever the case, there will be no consensus between the two camps.

Source: File-Sharers Are Well Educated and Earn More Money

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

With millions of visitors every day KickassTorrents (KAT) is one of the largest torrent sites on the Internet, trailing only behind The Pirate Bay.

This status has put the site on the radar of the U.S. Government and a wide variety of entertainment industry groups around the world.

Yesterday the torrent site ran into trouble with its KAT.ph domain, and there were signs suggesting the domain was no longer in control of the original owners. Over the past few hours more details have emerged, and the Government of the Philippines has now confirmed that the domain name has been seized on copyright grounds.

The seizure is the result of a complaint filed by the Philippine Association of the Recording Industry and several individual music labels. The complaint stated that KickassTorrents was causing “irreparable damages” to the music industry, and a local court agreed to suspend the site’s domain.

“The complaint alleges that the registrant of KAT.ph is violating intellectual property rights by making copyrighted music available for download to its users,” the dotPH registry informed TorrentFreak.

Early this week the Philippine Intellectual Property Office issued a temporary restraining Order directing the dotPH registry to suspend the KAT.ph domain for 72 hours. The order, signed by the IPO Bureau of Legal Affairs, will become final if the domain owners don’t appeal.

According to dotPH, the company that maintains the database of PH domain names, the music industry first complained about KickassTorrents in 2011. However, the company said at the time that it would only take action following a court order.

“dotPH was initially contacted by the complainants’ lawyers in December of 2011 with a demand to take down the domain, and dotPH agreed to cooperate if provided with an order from a court or appropriate authority,” TorrentFreak was informed.

“dotPH received the restraining order earlier this week and subsequently suspended kat.ph in compliance with IPO’s directive,” the registry adds.

While the case is presented as a local action aimed at preventing piracy of original Filipino music, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if U.S. forces have also been applying pressure. In its latest Special 301 Report the U.S. Government listed the Philippines on its copyright “watch list,” demanding further action against so-called rogue sites.

“The United States looks to the Philippines to take important steps to address piracy over the Internet, in particular with respect to notorious online markets,” the Office of the United States Trade Representative wrote in its report.

TorrentFreak reached out to the KickassTorrents team for a comment on the domain seizure, but we have yet to hear back.

Whether the seizure will have much of an effect has yet to be seen. After the domain name was taken away KickassTorrents quickly moved to a new one, and the site continues to operate under the new Kickass.to domain.

Source: KickassTorrents Domain Seized After Music Industry Complaint

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

After three years and millions of warning letters, the French three-strikes anti-piracy law ‘Hadopi’ has resulted in the first Internet disconnection.

The customer in question will be without Internet access for two weeks and must also pay a 600 euro fine. Quoting officials, PC Inpact reports that the file-sharer was caught sharing one or two files and failed to respond to earlier warnings.

If no appeal is filed within 10 days the file-sharer’s Internet provider will move forward with the disconnection. For 15 days the customer will be denied access to the Internet, but the ISP must ensure that e-mail, instant messaging and other VOIP services continue to work.

The sentencing comes at a peculiar time. Last month a nine-member panel recommended that the Government scraps the Hadopi agency, the body that currently oversees the graduated response system.

In a detailed report the panel concluded that although there was a reduction in file-sharing on P2P networks such as BitTorrent, there had also been an increase in use of other services such as streaming sites and cyberlockers which are not covered by Hadopi. In addition the panel concluded that the three-strikes scheme had failed to benefit legal services.

The ineffectiveness of the three-strikes policy was confirmed two weeks ago by a music industry group. In a separate report the group concluded that the anti-piracy law had failed to halt the decline in music sales.

But while Hadopi might be dead soon, file-sharing penalties are not going away.

Based on a recommendation from the panel, the Government now plans to replace the current system of Internet disconnections with automated fines. Under Hadopi, fines extended to a theoretical maximum of around 1,500 euros, but these are now expected to be reduced to around 60 euros each, but with increases applied to repeat offenders.

The Government presented the new automated warning system as a better deal, since no one would be at risk of losing access to the Internet. However, at the time of the announcement this statement made little sense.

“They pretended it would be a better deal for internet users, but it wasn’t. No one had been convicted to a suspension of Internet access, and we all believed no one ever would. With the recent conviction they can now claim they are right, and defend their new legislation,” Guillaume Champeau of French news site Numerama told TorrentFreak in a comment.

“The timing is really the best one possible for the Government. But was the sentencing totally independent, or did it follow instructions that suited a political agenda?”

Despite having the first conviction in the bag, the Hadopi law will go down in history as a failed experiment. However, the announced changes are certainly no win for file-sharers as the automated system takes away judicial oversight, opening up the possibility of thousands of people being issued with fines every week.

Time will tell whether that’s going to happen.

Source: France Disconnects First File-Sharer From the Internet

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Lawsuits against individual file-sharers are nothing new in the United States. In recent years hundreds of thousands have been accused of sharing copyrighted material.

Thus far, these lawsuits have almost exclusively focused on BitTorrent users, but new legal action by several major book publishers suggests that Usenet uploaders are also being eyed.

Cengage Learning, John Wiley and Sons, Elsevier and McGraw-Hill recently obtained subpoenas from the U.S. District Court of Columbia, requiring Usenet providers to hand over the personal details of two very active uploaders.

The publishers state that they caught the uploaders “Hockwards” and “Rockhound” sharing hundreds of books. The pair are allegedly connected to Usenet services provided by Usenetserver and XS News, and both companies are now being held responsible for the infringing uploads.

“This information is being provided to you as the Usenet provider responsible for providing Rockhound with the accounts through which the infringement is occurring,” the publishers write in one of their letters.

“Based on the information at our disposal, we have good faith belief that the material uploaded to Usenet by Rockhound is infringing the book publishers’ copyrights. Over the past four months alone, Rockhound has uploaded hundreds of infringing books.”

The book publishers are asking the Usenet providers to hand over all information they have on the two uploaders, including billing records, phone numbers and addresses. In addition, the publishers list hundreds of infringing books that they want the providers to remove from their servers.

TorrentFreak talked to a representative of the book publishers who informed us that they have to protect their rights online, to guarantee that high quality books will continue to be published in the future. Targeting Usenet providers and their users is part of this strategy.

“The publishers are actively monitoring and enforcing their rights on the internet, including on Usenet. Any individual or company that uploads large quantities of digital copies of the publishers’ books for others to download without authorization is a potential target for enforcement,” the representative told us.

“Those individuals and companies are violating the law, no matter where they live and no matter why they are doing it,” the publishers add.

Whether the information obtained through the subpoenas will help the book publishers to identify both users has yet to be seen. It is not uncommon for uploaders to take measures to obfuscate their identities by using prepaid credit cards, VPN services and false contact information.

That said, the action against these Usenet uploaders is significant and in line with developments over the past year. Gradually, we’ve seen anti-piracy efforts begin to include Usenet providers and related services.

Copyright holders, for example, have rapidly increased the number of DMCA takedown notices they send to indexing and hosting services, leading to the shutdown of NZBMatrix. In addition, payment providers such as PayPal are banning Usenet related sites over piracy concerns, causing sites such as Newzbin2 to fold.

Although very rare at the moment, these recent legal actions by book publishers show that Usenet users aren’t immune to legal troubles either.

Update: This article has been updated to make clear that one of the users was a Usenetserver customer. Highwinds is not providing Usenet services.

Source: Major Book Publishers Demand Identities of Usenet Uploaders

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Following High Court orders, six UK ISPs are required to block subscriber access to several of the world’s largest torrent sites.

The blocking orders are intended to deter online piracy and were requested by the music industry group BPI on behalf of a variety of major labels. Thus far they’ve managed to block access to The Pirate Bay, Kat.ph, H33T and Fenopy, and preparations are being made to add many others.

The effectiveness of these initial measures has been called into doubt, as they are relatively easy to bypass. For example, in response to the blockades hundreds of proxy sites popped up, allowing subscribers to reach the prohibited sites via a detour.

However, as of this week these proxies are also covered by the same blocklist they aim to circumvent, without a new court ruling.

The High Court orders give music industry group BPI the authority to add sites to the blocklist without oversight. Until now some small changes have been made, mostly in response to The Pirate Bay’s domain hopping endeavors, but with the latest blocklist update a whole new range of websites is being targeted.

Last week we reported that Sky had started blocking access to several torrent site proxies, and yesterday it became apparent that this was not an isolated incident. TorrentFreak has received numerous emails form Virgin and BT subscribers who are now unable to access many popular proxies, an indication that these are now covered under the BPI’s list of prohibited sites.

Although the results may not be the same for all providers, the following sites appear to be blocked (in part) now. All sites in this list provide access to at least one of the torrent sites previously blocked by court order.

- Fp.kleisauke.nl
- Fenopy.5gg.biz
- H33tunblock.info
- H33t.uk.to
- H33tproxy.co
- H33tmirror.co
- Katunblock.com
- Katproxy.com
- Kat.dashitz.com
- Kat.kleisauke.nl
- Katmirror.com
- Kat.5gg.biz
- Kickassunblock.info
- Kickassproxy.info
- Pirateproxy.net
- Proxybay.net
- Malaysiabay.org
- Piratereverse.info
- Pirateproxy.net
- Campeche.zapto.org
- Tpb.rubenstadman.com
- Piratebay.interflective.com
- Dashitz.com
- Tpb.evrl.com

TorrentFreak talked to Drastik, the operator of the most visited Pirate Bay proxy Pirateproxy.net, who says he’s determined to find a good workaround to make his site accessible again in the UK.

“I never thought the BPI would go this far. I have already started setting up new servers for the blocks. However, I think educating people about alternate methods will be better. I have compiled a list of some good methods on a dedicated page,” Drastik says.

“I will continue to move the site to new servers to keep it accessible,” he adds.

Since the High Court order clearly states that ISPs have to disable access to the torrent sites in question (and the proxies provide this), the recent addition of the proxy sites to the list is not necessarily the main concern.

The problem lies with the fact that these changes are being made in secret without any form of oversight. There appears to be no valid reason to keep the list of prohibited sites away from the public eye, but yet the ISPs nor the BPI are prepared to be open about it.

TorrentFreak reached out to the BPI and some of the ISPs for a comment but we have yet to receive a response.

Update: BPI responded after publication and noted that proxies do indeed fall under the court order. The group does not intent to make the list of blocked website public.

“The court orders obtained in relation to The Pirate Bay cover not only the site itself, but also sites which have the sole or predominant purpose of providing access to The Pirate Bay. It would not be right to allow proxy sites flagrantly to circumvent blocks ordered by the High Court. We do not publish the names of proxies and it would not be appropriate for us to do so,” a BPI spokesperson said.

Source: UK ISPs Secretly Start Blocking Torrent Site Proxies

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Yesterday evening the season finale of Game of Thrones aired on HBO and shortly thereafter the first unauthorized copies were uploaded online.

In recent weeks the hit show has been shared millions of times online, but never before have we seen this many people sharing the same file.

Within a few hours after it was released hundreds of thousands grabbed a copy of the show via The Pirate Bay and other torrent sites, breaking the old record Game of Thrones set just a few weeks ago during the premiere of the third season.

At its height the Istole tracker reported that 171,572 people where active on a single torrent, 128,686 sharing a complete copy while 42,886 were still downloading.

Data gathered by TorrentFreak shows that, within 24 hours, the season finale has been downloaded a million times. This could increase to more than five million during the weeks to come and means that unless a miracle happens, Game of Thrones will be crowned the most pirated TV-show of the year once again.

As previously revealed, Game of Thrones downloaders come from all over the world. Most downloaders come from Australia, followed by the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Australia stands out in this list as it also has the smallest population, and this hasn’t gone unnoticed.

The Ambassador of the United States of America to Australia recently complained about this “plain theft” by Australians. However, since the local cable provider has chosen to decrease instead of increase availability next year, things are not going to change anytime soon.

In the U.S. the situation is not much better, and to a certain degree one could claim that HBO is to blame for Game of Thrones’ BitTorrent record. They want to keep access to the show “exclusive” and even Netflix wasn’t able to buy the rights no matter what they offered.

It’s clear that HBO prefers more exclusiveness over less piracy, a stance that is reflected in recent comments from HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. He sees piracy as a compliment and doesn’t believe it negatively impacts DVD sales.

The huge numbers of unauthorized downloads don’t bother the show’s makers all that much either, quite the contrary.

David Petrarca, the show’s director, noted that these unauthorized downloads actually do more good than harm. According to the director, pirates are partly responsible for the “cultural buzz” the show needs to thrive and survive.

Game of Thrones will be back next year, and if most torrent sites are still unblocked in in most parts of the world, we can expect another record to be set.

Source: Games of Thrones Season Finale Sets New Piracy Record

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Over the past days the PRISM scandal has dominated the news. The Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald pushed out leak after leak, revealing how millions of people around the world are being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The revelations turned online privacy into a worldwide mainstream discussion. Privacy activists shouted “we told you so,” Orwell quotes were rife, Kim Dotcom warmed up the public for his PRISM-proof email serviceand these was even some discussion over the stolen PRISM logo

Following the leaks the NSA and the US Government have been heavily criticized for their disregard of people’s privacy, and perhaps not totally unexpectedly this weekend the first legal action was filed.

TorrentFreak just obtained a copy of a complaint submitted at a federal court in Columbia, targeting President Obama, the NSA, Eric Holder and Verizon who all played a role in the mass surveillance scheme.

The class action lawsuit was filed by Larry Klayman, a former US prosecutor under the Reagan administration, together with the parents of the killed Navy SEAL Team VI member Michael Strange.

The plaintiffs accuse the PRISM participants of violating their constitutional rights, reasonable expectation of privacy, free speech and association, right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, among other illegal and criminal acts. Both Klayman and the Navy Seal parents demand compensation for the damage they suffered.

“This case challenges the legality of Defendants’ participation and conduct in a secret and illegal government scheme to intercept and analyze vast quantities of domestic telephonic communications,” the complaint reads.

While there are plenty of angles to pick, the class action centers around the classified order from the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordering Verizon to hand over all call details and metadata between the United States and abroad, without any oversight.

“This would give the NSA over one hundred millions phone records on a daily basis. The information would also include a list of all the people that Verizon customers call and who called them; how long they spoke; and perhaps, where they were on a given day.”

“Further, there is nothing in the order requiring the government to destroy the records after a certain amount of time nor is there any provisions limiting who can see and hear the data,” the complaint states.

The complaint goes on to state that those responsible for the PRISM scandal have done very little to explain what it entails. Instead, there are now calls to go after the whistleblower, Edward Snowden, to stop further leaks.

“To date, Defendants have not issued substantive and meaningful explanations to the American people describing what has occurred. To the contrary, criminal charges are reportedly being pursued by Defendants Obama, Holder, the DOJ, and the NSA against the leakers of this plot against American citizens in a further effort suppress, obstruct justice, and to keep Defendants’ illegal actions as secret as possible.”

Former US prosecutor Larry Klayman is a known critic of the Obama administration and believes that his private communications were tapped under the PRISM program. Charles and Mary Ann Strange, the parents of the killed Navy Seal Team VI member Michael Strange, allege the same as they have also challenged the Obama administration.

“[...] particularly since these Plaintiffs have been vocal about their criticism of President Obama as commander-in-chief, his administration, and the U.S. military regarding the circumstances surrounding the shoot down of their son’s helicopter in Afghanistan, which resulted in the death of their son and other Navy Seal Team VI members and special operation forces.”

The complaint demands relief for violations of the defendants’ rights under the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. In addition it lists violations of privacy, including intrusion upon seclusion, freedom of expression and association, due process, and other illegal acts.

Thus far, authorities and the technology companies involved in the surveillance scandal have refuted most accusations, claiming that they are operating within the boundaries of the law. Time will tell whether the present lawsuit will arrive at another conclusion.

Source: Former U.S. Prosecutor Sues Obama and NSA over PRISM Scandal

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

The Hangover Part 3 is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Source: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

It’s been a turbulent week in the UK with regard to anti-piracy initiatives.

It began with Internet provider Sky blocking access to Pirate Bay proxies, then the UK police sent out letters to torrent site owners threatening them with a 10 year prison sentence. This was followed by a backroom discussion between the Government, rightsholders and Google who explored options to de-list infringing sites.

On a smaller scale police and rightsholders carried out actions as well. Cooperating with the anti-piracy group FACT, local police visited the home of a local Pirate Bay proxy operator. While we’ve reported on similar actions against torrent site owners in the past, to our knowledge this is the first time that a proxy has been targeted.

After The Pirate Bay was blocked in the UK last year hundreds of proxies were launched, which are nothing more than a front for the regular Pirate Bay site. Running a proxy requires relatively few resources and one can be put online in a matter of minutes. But despite the easy setup they can also have serious consequences.

TorrentFreak talked to Tom, the operator of the PirateSniper proxy, who says he was visited by the police and anti-piracy group FACT for the second time recently, strengthening a message they delivered earlier.

“Two weeks ago I received a second knock on the door with the police standing on my doorstep. They had another letter and a further warning, ‘demanding’ that I shutdown PirateSniper.net before they take ‘criminal’ action against me,” Tom told TorrentFreak.

Tom was baffled by the surprise visit, to say the least. His proxy site has been active for a few months but has never been advertised and receives virtually no traffic. In addition, the site is not listed in Google’s search results.

“I cannot understand why I am a target. Yes, PirateSniper was recently removed from Google’s indexing list, but I can’t conceive the idea of police at my doorstep. Why?” Tom says.

In a pattern that fits with previous door knockings, the police were mainly there to assist FACT, who did most of the talking. According to Tom, FACT handed over some paperwork along with a warning that he could end up in jail if he continued operating the proxy.

“The police didn’t say much at all, they only asked me to confirm my identity then handed the conversation to a representative of the Federation Against Copyright Theft. It all happened quite suddenly and this time they were a little more aggressive than the first time they came.”

“They threatened me by saying things like ‘You could be sentenced to jail for a minimum of 4 years for the distribution of copyrighted material’. This time they were on a very personal level, not bothering with minor manners and such and just shoving information down my throat without any explanation whatsoever.”

Without receiving an ultimatum, Tom says he was asked to shut down the proxy, or else. The PirateSniper operator has contacted a solicitor and is prepared for the worst. However, the site will remain online for the time being.

“No, this is my stand, we have to show companies that we will not get bullied into doing their bidding. Censorship is like a cancer, we must kill it before it spreads,” Tom says.

Source: Police Visit Pirate Bay Proxy Owner’s Home Demanding a Shutdown

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Like most other software packages the popular Malwarebytes application is heavily pirated. Instead of paying for an upgrade some people choose to download a keygen or crack to activate the program.

To confront unauthorized users the makers of Malwarebytes decided to add these circumvention tools to their standard malware scan. This means that pirates, in addition to any spy- or malware, will also see keygens and cracks listed in the scan results.

The company lists the circumvention tools under the vendor name dont.steal.our.software, hoping to send a gentle but clear message to those who chose to pirate instead of pay. Curious about this anti-piracy approach, TorrentFreak reached out to the San Jose company to learn more.

Malwarebytes’ Bruce Harrison told TorrentFreak that the detection works through heuristic and direct means. The program’s functionality is not affected in any way but in some cases Malwarebytes also displays a prompt reminding users that they are running a pirated version. This second notification can be cancelled by the user.

The software vendor says it prefers this softer approach over the more aggressive option of locking Malwarebytes down completely.

“Long ago we figured that being super aggressive against piracy is one of the quickest ways to alienate your fans as it so often backfires and makes legitimate usage a problem,” Harrison says.

Don’t steal

Malwarebytes is aware of the fact that there are a lot of pirates out there who don’t want to pay. However, rather than cracking down on them they chose to view these as people who can promote their product to others.

“Piracy is not really a huge problem for us in my opinion. There are a lot of people who simply won’t pay for our software and being aggressive against them won’t change that,” Harrison told us.

While Malwarebytes doesn’t have a huge problem with people pirating their software, the company does believe that there are security risks attached to online piracy. In particular Harrison warns people who use pirated operating systems as these often can’t be updated, leaving users more vulnerable to malware and viruses.

As for the Malwarebytes pirates, they can expect more gentle reminders in the future. However, despite their deviant behavior the company recognizes that even the pirates have contributed to the rapid growth of the software.

“Taken together we had one hell of a word of mouth push that really got our business going. Our fans have been an integral part of putting us on the map and yes, this does include the pirates.”

Source: Malwarebytes Detects Pirates, Asks Them Not to Steal Software

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Founded early 2010, GazelleGames quickly grew out to become one of the larger private BitTorrent trackers dedicated to games.

Before the end of its first year the site amassed thousands of members, and this number continued to increase until a surprise message was posted by the site’s owners yesterday.

After three years it’s Game Over for GazelleGames. The decision to close the site comes a few days after the closure of Underground Gamer, another popular gaming tracker. While the exact details of the closures remain unknown to the outside world, both trackers have mentioned legal threats as motivation.

In a goodbye notice posted on the site’s frontage, GazelleGames says it wants to protect staff and users from running into trouble with the law. The site also assures its members that all personal information will be wiped.

“GazelleGames will be closing its doors. This came as a surprise to all the staff team, but it’s a move not unexpected. In light of UG’s closing five months after BG, it seemed like a prudent move to keep any legal actions from being taken upon anyone.

“So yes, it’s a precautionary measure taken in reaction to the recent movements in the torrent world. All of your contact data such as IP addresses and emails will be wiped along with the server itself.”

Unlike Underground Gamer, the shutdown of GazelleGames is said to be permanent. Underground Gamer is leaving the door open for a comeback but notes that all non-essential data was wiped out to protect staff and members, a fact relayed to TorrentFreak when we spoke with a tech admin at the site.

Counting in bitGAMER, this is the third large gaming tracker to shut down in a matter of months. While it’s unclear which industry group is behind the legal pressure, there have been some rumors that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is involved.

In an IRC chat Underground Gamer’s Lenk mentioned that there were complaints regarding games from major publishers, including FIFA 98. However, the threats came from a “watchdog,” not EA or any of the other game makers themselves.

“That’s what you get when you have organizations whose sole purpose is scoring points by taking down sites. They don’t care about what they take down. They just do what they are paid for,” Lenk wrote.

“Companies don’t care about UG. Copyright watchdogs make it their job though,” he added.

Whoever is behind the pressure, it appears to be serious enough for the two trackers to cease their operations. The question remains whether the shutdowns will stop people from sharing games.

There are already talks to re-spawn the fallen communities at new BitTorrent trackers, as is often the case when large sites die. Other members will simply resume their sharing habits at one of the trackers that are still in the game.

Source: Gaming Torrent Trackers Shut Down Citing Legal Threats

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Following a lengthy investigation the trial of Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm kicked off in the Stockholm District late last month.

The charges relate to the hacking of Logica, a Swedish IT company working with local tax authorities. Much of the prosecution’s evidence was obtained from a computer seized from Gottfrid when he was detained last year in Cambodia.

Gottfrid denied the charges and when confronted with evidence found on his computer he said that someone else must have gained access while he was in Asia. Prosecutor Henrik Olin described this explanation as “not credible” and asked the court to hand down a tough sentence.

After nearly three weeks the trial has now concluded. However, as the case was winding up the authorities revealed that Sweden is not the only country that wants to prosecute Gottfrid. According to new information, Denmark has put in a request to extradite the Swede for “similar” hacking related offenses.

At this point it is unclear what the Danish hacking charges entail or when the alleged crimes took place. Negotiations between Sweden and Denmark have been going on behind closed doors and the investigation is shrouded in secrecy.

However, the Danish police issued a press release today regarding a police investigation into the hacking of CSC, a Danish IT company that works for the Government. The hacks were carried out between April and August 2012 and among other things the hackers accessed police records. One of the suspected hackers is referred to as a Swedish citizen who is currently in custody.

TorrentFreak talked to Kristina Svartholm, Gottfrid’s mother, who told us that her son is being kept in solitary confinement until Danish investigators come over to question him. She doesn’t know the exact nature of the new allegations, but believes they are unrelated to the Logica case.

Kristina further points out that the timing of the announcement is suspicious, and that it wouldn’t surprise her if it was made public at this specific time to influence the court’s opinion of Gottfrid.

Talking about the Swedish trial Gottfrid’s mother says that it wasn’t a fair process, as Gottfrid had very limited resources to prepare his defense.

“There is a striking unbalance between the enormous resources that the authorities and private companies involved have had available for their investigations, and the resources Gottfrid had. It’s undemocratic and shows how unequal the justice system is.”

One of the problems was that Gottfrid had very limited options to communicate while being in detention, which made it hard to prepare for his defense. All communication went through his lawyer and mother, and the latter was not able to make any notes of what was said during their conversations.

“Gottfrid could only contact people indirectly through me or his lawyer. Since I was denied to bring paper and pencil into custody to make notes while visiting him, I often felt rather helpless during this process,” Kristina told TorrentFreak.

“I can’t memorize all technicalities and his lawyer lacks these technical skills as well. Gottfrid had no opportunities whatsoever to discuss the technical matters with anyone else,” she adds.

In addition to limited resources, Kristina points out that it was extremely difficult to find an expert who would agree to testify on the technical details, as many excused themselves for having ties to the authorities or companies involved. One was eventually found, but Kristina doubts whether the court can make an accurate assessment of the presented evidence because of its technical nature.

“I am absolutely sure that there is no judge and no jury in Sweden that has the technical skills to handle a case like this, and correctly weigh and assess the evidence that was presented. You can’t expect any lawyer to have these skills either.”

Next week the court is expected to deliver its verdict in Gottfrid’s Swedish trial, and around the same time the authorities will announce their response to the extradition request.

Gottfrid, meanwhile, remains in custody as he’s still considered a flight risk. He is kept in solitary confinement upon request from the Danish authorities.

Source: Pirate Bay Founder Now Wanted by Denmark

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

The introduction of Mega has been one of the most successful tech launches this year.

In a matter of days the site’s membership went from zero to more than a million and in the weeks that followed the site continued to expand its user base.

Thus far Kim Dotcom and his colleagues have kept most of their statistics under wraps. However, earlier today Mega’s founder said that “the privacy company” now pushes more bandwidth than the entire country of New Zealand.

“Only 5 months after the #Mega launch we are now pushing more bandwidth than the entire country of New Zealand,” Dotcom tweets.

Mega’s founder doesn’t specify any numbers but Mega’s bandwidth should be well over 100 million petabytes at this point.

While the site’s traffic still pales in comparison to the defunct Megaupload and several other file-hosting services, it’s still a force to be reckoned with. The company certainly doesn’t lack any ambition and hopes to go public on the New Zealand or Australian stock markets in the near future.

Those not sharing in the Mega excitement thus far are Hollywood and the major music labels. The RIAA has devoted part of its website to tell the(ir) “real story” about Megaupload and would prefer it if Dotcom disappeared from the limelight.

Interestingly, however, copyright holders haven’t had much to complain about during Mega’s first few months of business. Although Hollywood studios have tried to get Mega de-listed from Google on copyright grounds, not many complaints have been sent to the cloud hosting company itself.

Dotcom informed TorrentFreak that the number of DMCA notices per day doesn’t exceed double digits, yet more than a million files are uploaded per day.

“We currently receive between 80 – 100 notices per day. That’s tiny considering the 1.6 million uploads we receive daily and compared to the takedown volume of sites like Dropbox & YouTube,” Dotcom informs TorrentFreak.

“We are reacting swiftly to these takedown notices, just like we did at Megaupload,” Dotcom adds.

Indeed, Mega’s numbers are nothing compared to the tens of thousands of notices other service providers receive. In part this difference can be explained by the fact that unlike Dropbox and YouTube, Mega doesn’t allow Google to index its files.

One thing is clear though, U.S. authorities and copyright holders will have a hard time portraying Mega as a criminal operation setup to infringe on content owners’ copyrights.

It will be interesting to see whether Mega can keep up current growth in the future and “take over” a few other countries in the process.

Source: Dotcom’s Mega Pushes More Bandwidth Than New Zealand

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Last month copyright troll law firm Prenda suffered losses on several fronts, including a $81,319.72 court sanction. However, Prenda’s troubles are far from over.

A new filing submitted by defense lawyer Graham Syfert opens up a new can of worms, accusing the copyright trolls of seeding the very files they claim to protect.

In the filing Prenda and its boss John Steele are accused of running a “honeypot” based on an expert report authored by Delvan Neville, whose company specializes in monitoring BitTorrent users.

Neville gave Prenda a taste of their own medicine by conducting a thorough analysis of the IP-addresses sharing the files the copyright trolls are suing for.

Many of the torrents detailed in Prenda lawsuits originate from a user on The Pirate Bay called ‘Sharkmp4′. Could it be that this user is somehow linked to Prenda and distributing the files to increase their list of potential targets?

The expert report found that some interesting patterns emerge from the list of IP-addresses observed sharing these files. Several IP-addresses were present in the majority of the swarms, all using a rather rare version of the BitTorrent client Vuze which is often used for BitTorrent tracking.

The IP-addresses in question resolve to the VPN provider Mullvad, and Neville suggests in his report that these IPs were used by Prenda’s BitTorrent tracking company 6881 Forensics. The same addresses were also found commenting on Prenda topics published on the anti-copyright troll blogs FightCopyrightTrolls and DieTrollDie.

The report goes on to describe many connections between Sharkmp4, the tracking company, and Prenda. Among other things it ties the Comcast IP-address 75.72.88.156 to John Steele’s GoDaddy account. The same IP-address is also associated with porn studio Ingenuity 13 whose work was shared by Sharkmp4 before it was commercially available.

Steele’s GoDaddy account

“It appears from all the evidence that John Steele (or someone under his control or with access to his GoDaddy account records with authorization to make changes to domain names) is the most probable candidate for the identity of Pirate Bay user sharkmp4. Sharkmp4 was the originator of the only found public releases of Ingenuity 13 works prior to the creation of naughty­hotties.com,” Neville writes.

“Some works were shared by sharkmp4 prior to the registered copyright date with indications of access to a higher resolution copy more related to the direct source,” he adds.

While the above makes it likely that Prenda were indeed sharing the files they were supposed to protect, there is one final piece of evidence to conclusively link “Sharkmp4″ to the copyright trolls.

It’s no secret that The Pirate Bay stores users’ IP-addresses, so after hearing about the new filing they handed TorrentFreak the log files for Sharkmp4. They link the user to John Steele and Prenda Law.

Below is an overview of some of the uploaded files which are all still online.

Sharkmp4 IP-addresses

The Pirate Bay logs not only link Prenda to the sharing of their own files on BitTorrent, but also tie them directly to the Sharkmp4 user and the uploads of the actual torrent files.

The IP-address 75.72.88.156 was previously used by someone with access to John Steele’s GoDaddy account and was also used by Sharkmp4 to upload various torrents. Several of the other IP-addresses in the log resolve to the Mullvad VPN and are associated with Prenda-related comments on the previously mentioned anti-copyright troll blogs.

The logs provided by The Pirate Bay can be seen as the missing link in the evidence chain, undoubtedly linking Sharkmp4 to Prenda and John Steele. Needless to say, considering the stack of evidence above it’s not outrageous to conclude that the honeypot theory is viable.

While this is certainly not the first time that a copyright troll has been accused of operating a honeypot, the evidence compiled against Prenda and Steel is some of the most damning we’ve seen thus far.

It’s now up to the judge to decide what to do with it.

Update: The logs caused some confusion among TPB users but Pirate Bay’s Winston ensures TorrentFreak that IPs in the database are wiped after 48-hours.

“the IPs I dug up are from the daily database backups. I had to decrypt the backups one by one after checking the upload times and fetching the correct backup file for that day,” Winston tells us.

“The backups are stored on a separate cloud provider, pgp encrypted so the decryption key is not the same as the encryption key, and the decryption key is safely stored offline and is itself encrypted with a passphrase. So there’s no risk of users IPs getting compromised in a raid!”

“As for us sharing the IPs, we would obvious only do this to out the bad guys, after we linked them to the addresses.”

Source: The Pirate Bay Helps to Expose Copyright Troll Honeypot

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

If you have a smartphone then there’s a good chance that it comes with an ARM chip inside. The British company ARM Holdings is the market leader in smartphone processors.

Today the company announced a series of new products at Computex, with one standing out in particular. Not because it includes ground breaking features that will improve the consumer experience, but through its embedded hardware DRM.

Developed on Hollywood’s demand, the Mali-V500 video processor is the first mobile chip optimized to prevent high-definition video from being pirated.

Until now the major movie studios have been hesitant to move some of their videos to mobile platforms since these are harder to secure. However, this will change in the future if ARM’s new processor is implemented.

“In order to protect their multi-billion dollar investments, studios and content owners are demanding hardware-backed security across all devices that play their premium content,” ARM’s director of market development Cris Porthouse notes in a blog post.

“This means that in order to support premium content mobile and other consumer embedded devices must support hardware-backed protection of content from download to display.”

ARM’s Mali-V500 is the first chip of its kind to offer this kind of protection, sometimes dubbed hardware DRM. According to Porthouse the video processor offers state of the art security with support for a wide variety of DRM solutions.

“In order to meet the stringent security requirements of movie content owners, Mali-V500 has been architected to efficiently support ARM TrustZone and associated media playback use cases efficiently,” he writes.

Speaking with the Financial Times, Porthouse said that Hollywood and Netflix demand hardware protection as traditional DRM solutions are no longer sufficient.

“Hollywood movie studios and major content distributors like Netflix and others are demanding for premium or early window content – their highest-value content – to be protected not just by digital rights management but by the hardware, all the way from download through to display.”

So if it’s up to ARM your smartphone will soon be shipped with built-in DRM to keep pirates at bay.

The question is, however, whether all this expensive technology will be effective in preventing movies from leaking out. Or will it mostly cause trouble for legitimate consumers, as is often the case with other forms of DRM.

Source: ARM Launches Hollywood Approved Anti-Piracy Processor

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Following a High Court ruling in March, six UK ISPs were required to block subscriber access to three of the world’s largest torrent sites, Kat.ph, H33T and Fenopy.

The legal action was initiated by the music industry group BPI on behalf of a variety of major labels who previously won a similar case regarding The Pirate Bay. The movie studios also successfully targeted other infringing sites, as illustrated by the recent blockade of Movie2K.

While the court rulings in these cases are public, the actual blocklists are not. We do know that one list of prohibited domains is maintained by the music industry group BPI, who have the freedom to add new entries when sites move to new domains or IP-addresses.

As of last week, however, Sky Broadband appears to have updated its blocking measures with several new domains that go beyond the specific sites detailed in the initial court action. Before the weekend Sky subscribers started to notice that several proxy sites, which are meant to bypass the blockades, are not longer accessible.

The new Sky blockade restricts access to a wide variety of proxies including pirateproxy.net, fenopyreverse.info, h33tunblock.info, h33t.uk.to, kickassunblock.info, katproxy.com, movie2kproxy.com. In addition, torrentproxies.com, a site that offers a list of available proxy sites, is also rendered inaccessible.

Thus far it is unknown whether Sky is acting on its own or whether the new sites are part of a blocklist update sent out by BPI. The latter would mean that other ISPs will also start blocking these proxies in the near future.

Both Sky and the BPI were asked for a comment on the recent changes, but we have yet to receive a response.

TorrentFreak talked to the operator of pirateproxy.net, the most visited proxy site in the UK, who is convinced that the new blockades are not an accident.

“I believe the blocks are intentional based on the specific list of sites they are blocking,” PirateProxy’s Drastik tells us.

Drastik says that the new blockades took him by surprise, but that they won’t work for long. PirateProxy is already working on a bypass and other proxy site owners are doing the same.

“I find the blocks to be a bold move since there are so many proxy sites and workarounds out there. If they do continue blocking proxy sites, it will be a cat and mouse game on a large scale,” he says.

The Pirate Reverse team, who operate a series of proxies and the proxy list torrentproxies.com have also begun taking countermeasures. Among other things, they have released a tool which allows subscribers to check which sites are being blocked by their ISP.

“We created the proxy block checker tool because it is difficult from our perspective to see what ISPs have blocked what sites, so the data that it provides is crucial if we are to implement workarounds and continue fighting censorship,” Pirate Reverse told us.

The user submitted results will help the Pirate Reverse team to roll out effective countermeasures.

“The end result is to analyse the data and use it to come up with better solutions, at the moment even though there are only a few results gathered we can see a pattern emerging in how the recent Sky blocks are implemented.”

Ironically, the block checker tool may not be all that effective as Sky has begun blocking that website too.

From the reports we received it appears that Sky’s new blocking mechanism is highly adaptive. Several proxies moved to new IP-addresses, only to find out that these were also added to the list in a matter of hours. Pirate Reverse is now trying to figure out a way to game this system.

“The system they are using is automated and queries our DNS to get our current IPs, then blocks them, however it removes previously blocked IPs that we are no longer using. We are testing an automated method of cycling through our IP addresses,” they say.

Perhaps we will soon see the first proxy sites that allow users to access proxy sites? In any case, the game of whack-a-mole continues.

Source: Sky Broadband Starts Blocking Pirate Bay Proxies

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

Jack The Giant Slayer is the most downloaded movie.

The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Source: Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Every week copyright holders send millions of DMCA takedown notices to Google, hoping to make pirated movies and music harder to find.

As a result more that 100 million links to copyright-infringing content are no longer available through Google’s search results. One of the latest additions to this growing list is the homepage of H33t, one of the top 10 most visited torrent sites.

Those who type “h33t” into the Google search box will see that the homepage listing for the site has disappeared. At the bottom of the page Google explains that the listing was removed following a DMCA notice, which came from the cable network HBO.

In the notice HBO asks Google to remove thousands of links pointing (in)directly to their shows. The H33t homepage is listed under “Band of Brothers,” which was probably listed there at one point, but has since been replaced by other links.

TorrentFreak caught up with H33t’s owner, who is not happy with the de-listing by Google. However, he also tells us that H33t is not being harmed too much by the homepage removal, as only a tiny fraction of his visitors use Google to access his site.

“Considering possible damage to the site, historically H33t has not been driven by search traffic. About 1 out of 10 people use Google in a search that ultimately brings them to H33t. These are not random searches, people are searching for specific content and clicking a link that brings them directly to the details page of that content,” H33t’s owner says.

“These people are not interested in the homepage. If you know the name H33t then you already know the site, you don’t just accidentally type “h33t” then discover the site’s homepage. You also cannot discover H33t by searching for “torrents downloads whatever” because we were never high ranked for those terms,” he adds.

That doesn’t mean that H33t is going to let this pass. The site’s owner plans to take a stand, if only to defend his principles and to voice his growing concerns over how the DMCA notification system operates.

“I cannot ignore this latest censorship just because it doesn’t particularly make much of a difference to me and my site. The inversion of the burden of proof, H33t is guilty before trial, is a serious issue, and it is so easily done as Daniel Nazer of EFF said this year: ‘The takedown procedure of the DMCA provides a quick, cheap, extra-judicial way to get speech removed from the internet’,” he tells TorrentFreak.

In addition to freedom of speech issues the takedown procedures have also become quite costly for site owners, who have to employ personnel to go over them. Therefore H33t charges $50 per takedown on its own site.

“Freedom of information, free speech, human rights are wonderful concepts but have little meaning until they are no longer there. Money is like that, money doesn’t matter until you don’t have any. For the anti-sharing lobby it is all about the money,” H33t’s owner explains.

“The matter of costs is central, with the DMCA the costs are all ours, we pay the ultimate price as a society, we pay for their broken business model that needs propping up by censorship and our loss of rights.”

For the HBO notice H33t will send a counter-notification, but whether that will be successful has yet to be seen. There are still other infringing links present on the homepage and Google has previously refused to reinstate sites in a similar position.

Whatever Google decides, H33t’s owner doesn’t seem particularly worried.

“We shall see what happens but I am not going to get upset if the homepage isn’t reinstated. As John Gilmore said way back in 1993, ‘The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it’.”

“H33t is not in the race to be the biggest baddest torrent site, it is just me and a bunch of like-minded friends with attitude. Millions and millions of friends. You know what? Getting knocked off Google might just be our passing grade in relevance.”

“We are relevant! Fukin Awesome,” H33t’s owner concludes.

Source: HBO Gets Google to Remove H33T Homepage

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

The Pirate Bay has undergone some drastic changes over the years, moving from a fully-fledged BitTorrent tracker to a trimmed down torrent index.

First the tracker was removed, then the torrents followed and a few months ago the infamous torrent site canceled nearly all central servers as it moved to the cloud. In addition, the site switched domain names on multiple occasions.

All these changes were carried out to make the site more resilient and less likely to be shut down by the authorities. This determination to escape the long arm of justice was first brought to the forefront seven years ago.

Most of the site’s current users are probably unaware that without a few essential keystrokes in the site’s early years, The Pirate Bay may have not been here today.

May 31, 2006, less than three years after The Pirate Bay was founded, 65 Swedish police officers entered a datacenter in Stockholm. The policemen had instructions to shut down the largest threat to the entertainment industry at the time – The Pirate Bay’s servers.

While the police were about to raid the datacenter, Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid and Fredrik got wind that something was up. In the months before the raid they were already being watched by private investigators day and night, but this time something was about to happen to their trackers.

At around 10am in the morning Gottfrid told Fredrik that there were police officers at their office, and asked him to get down to the co-location facility and get rid of the ‘incriminating evidence’, although none of it, whatever it was, was related to The Pirate Bay.

As Fredrik was leaving, he suddenly realized that the problems might be linked to their tracker. He therefore decided to make a full backup of the site, just in case.

When he later arrived at the co-location facility the concerns turned out to be justified. There were dozens of policemen floating around taking away dozens of servers, most of which belonged to clients unrelated to The Pirate Bay.

In the days that followed it became clear that Fredrik’s decision to start a backup of the site was probably the most pivotal moment in the site’s history. Because of this backup Fredrik and the rest of the Pirate Bay team managed to resurrect the site within three days.

The site’s operators were not impressed and renamed the site “The Police Bay” complete with a new logo shooting cannon balls at Hollywood. A few days later this logo was replaced by a Phoenix, a reference to the site rising from its digital ashes.

Instead of shutting it down the raid brought the site into the mainstream press, not least due to its amazing three-day resurrection. All this publicity resulted in a huge traffic spike for TPB, exactly the opposite effect Hollywood had hoped for.

Despite a criminal investigation leading to convictions for the site’s founders, The Pirate Bay kept growing and growing in the years that followed. The site’s assets, meanwhile, had been transferred to the Seychelles-based company Reservella.

Under new ownership two major technical changes occurred. In the fall of 2009 the infamous BitTorrent tracker was taken offline, turning The Pirate Bay into a torrent indexing site.

Early 2012 The Pirate Bay went even further when it decided to cease offering torrent files for well-seeded content. The site’s operators moved to magnet links instead, allowing them to save resources while making it easier for third-party sites to run proxies.

These proxies turned out to be much-needed, as The Pirate Bay is now the most broadly censored website on the Internet. In recent years ISPs in Denmark, Italy, UK, the Netherlands and elsewhere have been ordered by courts to block subscriber access to the BitTorrent site.

Late last year The Pirate Bay made another important change to its infrastructure by switching their entire operation to the cloud. Serving its users from several cloud hosting providers scattered around the world saves costs, guarantees better uptime, and makes the site more portable and thus harder to take down.

Finally, fearing a domain seizure by the Swedish authorities, TPB took action again last month. After hearing the rumors The Pirate Bay quickly switched to a Greenland-based domain, later hopping to Iceland, and eventually landing .SX domains as other problems became apparent.

And so The Pirate Bay lives on, closing on its tenth anniversary later this year and celebrating the raid anniversary which it previously declared as “Independence Day.”

“Our message is as it’s always been: We decide if the site dies or not, no one else. So today, 7 years after the raid, we celebrate our independence once again. Thank you for being a part of all this!,” Pirate Bay’s Winston writes today.

If there hadn’t been a recent backup, things may have turned out quite differently.

Source: Pirate Bay Celebrates “Independence Day” 7-Year Raid Anniversary

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

Last year the search warrants used by police to raid the New Zealand home of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom were ruled to be overbroad and illegal.

In addition, cloned copies of Dotcom’s hard drives sent to the FBI were deemed to have been unlawfully obtained.

After the ruling Dotcom’s legal team asked the court to order the return of Dotcom’s personal belongings, and in a ruling today Judge Helen Winkelmann did just that.

New Zealand police are now required to go through all illegally seized evidence to determine what is relevant to the ongoing prosecution, and to return the rest.

In her ruling Judge Winkelmann rejected the argument that the police made only a minor mistake resulting from a technical error in the FBI-requested seizure.

“The deficiencies in the warrants and, as a consequence, the searches, were more than merely technical,” she said. “The defects in the warrants were such that the warrants were nullities.”

“The warrants could not authorize the permanent seizure of hard drives and digital materials against the possibility that they might contain relevant material, with no obligation to check them for relevance,” Winkelmann added.

In addition the Judge notes that the warrants did not permit the police to ship the 150 terabytes of data to the FBI.

“They could not authorize the shipping offshore of those hard drives with no check to see if they contained relevant material. Nor could they authorize keeping the plaintiffs out of their own information, including information irrelevant to the offenses.”

The cloned drives holding personal information must therefore be returned and any copies in the FBI’s possession must be destroyed.

Today’s High Court decision is yet another blow to the prosecution, while the Dotcom team can chalk up another win.

Source: FBI Must Return Kim Dotcom’s Illegally Seized Property

This post was syndicated from: TorrentFreak and was written by: Ernesto. Original post: at TorrentFreak

In April the Public Prosecutor of Rome targeted a total of 27 file-sharing related sites, including the popular cyberlockers Rapidgator, Uploaded and BitShare.

The sites all had their domains blocked at the ISP level and were rendered inaccessible in Italy. In addition, the prosecutor indicated that he wants to progress the case internationally in pursuit of full-blown domain seizures.

Of the affected sites, Rapidgator was the only one to fight back.

As one of the most visited file-sharing sites on the Internet, Rapidgator has been branded a rogue site before, not least by the U.S. Government. However, the site’s owner believes that he is not breaking any laws.

This week at the Court of Appeal, Rapidgator’s lawyer Fulvio Sarzana contested the prosecutor’s argument that the cyberlocker is responsible for the material its users upload, and the Court agreed.

The Court decided that Rapidgator should be unblocked as the operator(s) can’t be held accountable for files that he doesn’t know exist. Rapidgator’s notice and takedown procedure give the site’s management safe harbor protection.

“The Court gave the example of the lockers in a swimming pool, where the manager of the pool is responsible for what is stored inside the lockers,” Rapidgator lawyer Fulvio Sarzana told TorrentFreak.

The lawyer believes that the decision could have a major impact on the future of website blockades in Italy. “I think it’s an important precedent,” Sarzana says.

“The Court ruled that before ordering a website blockade by Internet providers, the prosecution first has to check whether the rightsholder has done everything possible to removal content from the site.”

The above means that many of the other sites that are currently blocked, including the popular KickassTorrents site, could also take their case to the Court of Appeal. Until then these sites will remain unavailable in Italy.

Rapidgator definitely has something to celebrate, but the legal trouble isn’t over just yet. While the cyberlocker may soon be accessible in Italy, the criminal investigation into the operator(s) of the site continues.

Source: Rapidgator Not Responsible for Pirating Users, Court Lifts ISP Blockade