Pirate Bay ‘Hydra’ Loses Another Domain Name

hydra2Last May the Stockholm District Court ordered the Pirate Bay’s .SE domains to be handed over to the Swedish state, arguing that they were linked to copyright crimes.

The Pirate Bay was fully prepared for the negative outcome and quickly redirected its visitors to a ‘Hydra’ of six new domain names.

The notorious torrent site decided to use more than one domain name, anticipating that not all would survive pressure from copyright holders.

This was no unnecessary precaution as the first domain name was suspended after just a few days. The site’s .GS domain went offline after an intervention from the associated registry, chopping off one head.

Today, another domain has gone overboard.

A few hours ago the Armenian registry put ThePirateBay.AM om hold, rendering it inaccessible. The URL may still work for some if the DNS entries are cached, but it will soon be unavailable everywhere.

The ISOC-AM registry hasn’t commented publicly on the domain name suspension yet. However, it seems likely that the organization took action following a copyright holder complaint.

thepiratebay.am on hold

tpbamwhois

Not all domain registries are equally responsive to copyright complaints. Some suspend a domain name after a single complaint, while others require a local court order before taking action.

The Mongolian registry, which is behind TPB’s .MN domain name, previously informed TF that they will process potential complaints through ICANN’s Dispute Resolution Policy, suggesting that they will not take any voluntary action.

Despite losing another domain name, The Pirate Bay team isn’t too worried. They still have plenty of alternative domains to pick from and four of the current domain names still work just fine.

“We have more domain names behind, if needed. We are stronger than ever and will defend the site to the end,” the TPB team informs us.

The Pirate Bay is currently accessible via the LA, VG, MN and GD domain names. The original .SE domain is still operational as well, pending an appeal, and redirects users to one of the new domain names.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

Mega Threatens Legal Action Against Search Engine

mega_logoFile-hosting site Mega.co.nz has made the headlines dozens of times in recent years, largely due to its connections to Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom and its subsequent rise to fame.

During that time and through little fault of its own, the site has been intermittently connected to copyright infringement disputes, with allegations from some that the site doesn’t take its responsibilities seriously enough. While those claims were recently debunked, the site is today making infringement allegations of its own.

The complaint involves MegaSearch.co.nz, a New Zealand based search engine and index with the sole purpose of enabling users to find files on MEGA, a site that is designed to be unsearchable.

“Megasearch.co.nz spiders the Internet for Mega links and extracts the titles. It is also crowdsourced so users can also submit their links. It has 900,000 files so far,” MegaSearch’s operator informs TF.

However, the site hasn’t gone unnoticed by MEGA, who are now threatening legal action over the way MegaSearch is presented to the public.

mega-search

“We write to you because the website http://megasearch.co.nz has come to our attention due to use of our registered trademark and copyright,” the company writes in a letter to MegaSearch dated today.

“Our company’s historical association with the well-known figure Kim Dotcom has led to the trademark ‘MEGA’ being globally recognizable. Our use of this brand is so extensive that it is likely to be considered unregistered trademarks in the IT sector. Furthermore we are awaiting confirmation of registration of the trademark ‘MEGA’ with the New Zealand Intellectual Property Office and anticipate acceptance will soon be granted.”

With that in mind, MEGA informs MegaSearch’s operator that all references to MEGA on his website are in breach of the file-hosting company’s rights under New Zealand and international law.

mega-logo-copyright

In addition to trademark and copyright breaches, MEGA claims that MegaSearch is guilty of “passing off”, a civil law issue which prevents goods or services being presented as having a connection with another entity in order to trade on previously established goodwill.

“Your website appears to be clearly trading on the goodwill of well-known MEGA Limited and passing itself off as having an association with MEGA Limited, without consent,” the company writes.

“You have not been authorized or licensed to use any of the material and are implying an association with and endorsement by MEGA Limited that you do not have.”

MEGA’s demands are not lightweight either. The company wants an end to all infringement and a complete shutdown of the site.

mega-demand

MegaSearch’s operator says this is the first contact that he’s had with MEGA. He says he’s surprised that a company with Kim Dotcom connections has taken this line with him.

“I thought this was massively ironic that KimDotCom is threatening to sue someone for copyright after everything he went through. He always claims that the ‘big bad government’ came after the little guy. This time he is the big bad guy,” he informs TF.

“I think it’s a little strong they don’t want to work with us. They just want the site gone in 7 days.”

What happens next probably lies on MegaSearch’s response. The site wouldn’t be drawn on how it will respond to the threats but if the operator’s claims of living in his mom’s basement are true, a fight with MEGA is probably best avoided.

MEGA was approached for comment but it’s currently the middle of the night local time.

Update: “The reason why Mega needed to take action was very simple, Mega is a highly successful global brand and Mega will always take steps to protect it’s brand,” Mega’s Graham Gaylard told TF.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

FBI Assists Overseas Pirate Movie Site Raids

fbi-logoThere are many thousands of so-called ‘pirate’ sites online today, each specializing in a particular area. Some choose to target movies or music, for example, while others take a more general approach.

What most sites have in common, however, is their appetite for content created in the United States. This means that wherever they are in the world, it’s likely that these sites will attract the attention of some of the world’s largest entertainment companies and their law enforcement partners. That scenario now appears to have played out in Romania.

According to a report from the prosecutor’s office at Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice, an investigation dating back to 2011 against a trio of movie and TV show streaming sites has just resulted in raids police and officers from organized crime units carrying out raids.

Although not detailed by officials, one of the country’s most popular streaming portals is now offline. Visitors to Serialepenet.ro are now being transparently redirected to a server operated by the Romanian Ministry of Justice carrying the message below.

rom-seized

Fisierulmeu.ro, one of the most popular file-hosting sites in Romania, is also down.

According to the prosecutor, authorities carried out searches at four locations including the homes of several suspects and companies believed to be offering services to the sites.

Local TV outlet StirileProTV says that after searching in the U.S. and Europe, the FBI and local police managed to track down the operation to an office block in the capital Bucharest.

xservers

The building contains Romanian web-hosting company Xservers which was featured in local media in connection with the case. Media allegations suggest that the company is somehow implicated in laundering money from the piracy operation but no official statement has yet been issued.

Several men were arrested on suspicion of intellectual property offenses, tax evasion and money laundering. Documents and computer hardware were also seized.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak

UK Piracy Blocklist Quietly Expands With Proxy Sites

uk-flagOver the past several years more than 100 websites have been blocked in the UK for facilitating copyright infringement, and this list is getting longer and longer.

The blocks are somewhat effective, at least in preventing subscribers from accessing the domains directly. However, there are plenty of alternative routes people can use instead.

So called reverse proxies are among the most used workarounds. These websites give people access to the blocked domains and effectively bypass the restrictions put in place by the court.

The media companies who demanded the blockades are not happy with these proxies and they instruct ISPs to add these to the blocklist as well.

Over the past few days several proxies were added, including torrentz-proxy.com, torrentsmirror.com, etproxy.com, extratorrentlive.com and extratorrentonline.com.

As with previous additions the newly blocked domains are covered by the High Court order, which provides copyright holders with the option to continually update the list of infringing domains.

The main domains of both Torrentz and Extratorrent were already blocked in 2013, after the BPI obtained a High Court order. The music group confirmed to TF that the latest blocks were added as an update.

“The High Court has declared that ExtraTorrent and Torrentz are operating unlawfully and infringing copyright. The Court Order which requires ISPs to block the sites also requires BPI to notify the ISPs of changes to the sites,” a BPI spokesperson says.

The BPI could not provide us with more details on which domains were included in this latest update, but it appears that all major proxy and mirror sites are covered.

As expected, the new blocks are only partially effective. ExtraTorrent informs us that they’ve become quite experienced at coming up with new ‘proxies’ and mirrors.

This is not limited to the UK, but also happens in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, China and elsewhere. After the UK blocked the proxies a few days ago traffic dropped, but not for long. A new alternative, etmirror.com, quickly took up the slack.

“The connectivity issues were totally solved after we launched a new mirror. It appears that all UK visitors are able to visit the website now as the traffic is back and still growing,” the ExtraTorrent teams tells TF.

And so the whack-a-mole continues, with copyright holders adding new domains to the blocklists, and site owners hopping from domain to domain.

The full list of sites to be blocked in the UK is now as follows (not including proxies and mirrors):

Rojadirecta, LiveTV, Drakulastream, Ebookee, LibGen, Freshwap, AvaxHome, Bookfi, Bookre, Freebookspot, popcorntime.io, flixtor.me, popcorn-time.se, isoplex.isohunt.to, watchonlineseries.eu, axxomovies.org, afdah.com, g2g.fm, Bursalagu, Fullsongs, Mega-Search, Mp3 Monkey, Mp3.li, Mp3Bear, MP3Boo, Mp3Clan, Mp3Olimp, MP3s.pl, Mp3soup, Mp3Truck, Musicaddict, My Free MP3, Plixid, RnBXclusive, STAFA Band, watchseries.lt, Stream TV, Watchseries-online, Cucirca, Movie25, watchseries.to, Iwannawatch, Warez BB, Ice Films, Tehparadox, Heroturko, Scene Source,, Rapid Moviez, Iwatchonline, Los Movies, Isohunt, Torrentz.pro, Torrentbutler, IP Torrents, Sumotorrent, Torrent Day, Torrenting, BitSoup, TorrentBytes, Seventorrents, Torrents.fm, Yourbittorrent, Tor Movies , Demonoid, torrent.cd, Vertor, Rar BG, bittorrent.am, btdigg.org, btloft.com, bts.to, limetorrents.com, nowtorrents.com, picktorrent.com, seedpeer.me, torlock.com, torrentbit.net, torrentdb.li, torrentdownload.ws, torrentexpress.net, torrentfunk.com, torrentproject.com, torrentroom.com, torrents.net, torrentus.eu, torrentz.cd, torrentzap.com, vitorrent.org.Megashare, Viooz, Watch32, Zmovie, Solarmovie, Tubeplus, Primewire, Vodly, Watchfreemovies, Project-Free TV, Yify-Torrents, 1337x, Bitsnoop, Extratorrent, Monova, Torrentcrazy, Torrentdownloads, Torrentreactor, Torrentz, Ambp3, Beemp3, Bomb-mp3, Eemp3world, Filecrop, Filestube, Mp3juices, Mp3lemon, Mp3raid, Mp3skull, Newalbumreleases, Rapidlibrary, EZTV, FirstRowSports, Download4all, Movie2K, KickAssTorrents, Fenopy, H33T and The Pirate Bay.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and the best VPN services.


Source: TorrentFreak