Month: January 2016

UK Gov Opens Consultation on Netflix-Style Geo-Blocking

During the past several days the issue of content geo-blocking has become a global hot potato after Netflix announced renewed efforts to thwart users who attempt to bypass its content-locking mechanisms.

Starting immediately, subscribers who attempt to access the Netflix service with a VPN or proxy in order to gain access to libraries in other regions will face additional roadblocks. The measures have been widely criticized by both VPN companies and consumers.

But while this kind of effort to protect copyright holders and licensing agreements is probably legal now, over in Europe a conflicting scenario is playing out via the European Commission.

Following the adoption last March of a new Digital Single Market Strategy which aims to improve consumer access to digital services and goods, the Commission presented plans to abolish geo-blocking and filtering restrictions across EU member states.

Describing geo-blocking as a “discriminatory practice used for commercial reasons” the Commission said that users should be allowed to access digital content services like Netflix all across Europe, no matter where they are.

In response to the Commission’s proposals the UK government has just launched a public consultation, aiming to gauge the public’s response to the idea of a geo-blocking ban in advance of any final decision by the EU.

“The European Commission has recently published draft legislation that is intended to ensure that all digital services are portable within the European Union,” the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) announced.

“This would mean that a person who lives in the UK, and who subscribes to a digital content service there, would be able to be confident they can continue to access that service when they are elsewhere in the EU, provided they have the right level of internet connection.”

The UK government itself is strongly in favor of the EU’s proposals and believes that both consumers and content providers will benefit from legislative change.

“The Government supports cross-border portability, and the Prime Minister welcomed these proposals on the day of their launch. We will now be working with other European partners to negotiate the detail of the Regulations so that they deliver the best outcome for businesses and consumers,” the IPO writes.

The proposals suggest changes to copyright law aimed at smoothing the way for providers such as Netflix to make subscriptions available in other EU countries by allowing them to apply the laws of the subscriber’s home territory.

“It is currently difficult to provide portability for some types of content because of territorial copyright agreements which govern where services can be accessed,” the IPO notes.

The government says that in advance of negotiations on the text between EU Members States it is seeking views from both businesses and consumers on the costs and benefits of the proposals, alongside suggestions of how the language of the legislation could be improved.

“In particular, we are seeking views from service providers, rights holder organizations, and consumers, in order to better understand how the proposals will affect them,” the IPO says.

The aim is to introduce content portability sometime in 2017 but those interested in contributing to the process need to be quick. The government’s consultation is effective immediately and will end on February 12, 2016.

Those interested in getting their voices heard can find further details here.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Netflix Wants to Be a Great Carrot For ‘Real’ Pirates

netflix-logoLast week Netflix announced that it would increase its crackdown against VPN and proxy users who circumvent the company’s geographical restrictions.

In an earnings interview Netflix CEO reed Hastings commented on this decision, admitting that it was made at the behest of copyright holders.

While VPN providers and users have criticized the tougher restrictions, Netflix itself doesn’t expect that it will cause an exodus of paying subscribers.

“I don’t think we will see any impact,” Hastings said.

“We’ve always enforced proxy blocking with a blacklist. Now we’ve got an expanded and enhanced blacklist, so I don’t think we’re going to see any huge change,” he adds.

According to Hastings it’s perfectly reasonable for copyright holders to demand tougher action against VPN and proxy users. However, this use is only a small fraction of the ‘real’ piracy problem.

“It’s not a big contributor to overall global piracy,” Hastings notes.

The real challenge is to convert those who use pirate sites and applications such as Popcorn Time. Netflix wants to be a carrot for these users which means that offering good content is high on the anti-piracy agenda.

“Overall global piracy is a big problem and we’re working with all the content owners, partially to be a great carrot, and also to have the other services like HBO and Amazon be great carrots,” Hastings said.

In a letter to the company’s shareholders Netflix notes that quite a bit of progress has been made in recent years.

Drawing on data from the broadband management company Sandvine, it shows that Netflix and other over‐the‐top services continue to grow their share of Internet peak traffic at the expense of BitTorrent.

netflixpirates

“A closer look at the Sandvine data shows that the entire Over‐the‐Top category is growing as consumers increasingly embrace Internet TV and on demand viewing and, even better, this growth is coming at the expense of piracy,” the letter reads.

While blocking VPN users may not reverse this trend right away, it certainly doesn’t make Netflix a more appealing carrot. In fact, it looks more like a stick to scare paying subscribers.

In the long-term the company hopes to make the entire geo-blocking discussion obsolete by offering movies and TV-shows worldwide. Netflix is already doing this for its own originals, but whether Hollywood will come along for the ride remains to be seen.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Pirate Site Trial in Norway Ends in Record Sentence

Of all piracy related news, a January 2015 report out of Norway gave the strongest indication yet that the key to eliminating piracy is a strong legal offering.

Following a survey carried out by music group IFPI it was revealed that just 4% of under 30-year-olds were still using illegal file-sharing platforms to obtain music, with 80% using legal streaming platforms instead.

Still hamstrung by inconvenient release windowing, the movie industry could only look on while wondering how to solve its own piracy problems. In March 2015 its response arrived, with the raiding of popular local unauthorized movie site Norskfilm.

The site first appeared on the radar of anti-piracy group Rights Alliance (Rettighetsalliansen) during 2014 and soon became the subject of a criminal investigation. During a subsequent raid carried out by Vestfold Police a 20-year-old man was arrested. He was charged with copyright infringement offenses including making available more than a thousand movies and TV shows and downloading hundreds of titles from The Pirate Bay.

“This is the first time we have succeeded in halting a page operated from Norway,” revealed Rights Alliance chief Willy Johansen.

The importance of the subsequent prosecution by companies including Warner Bros, Fox Paramount, Universal, Sony and Disney couldn’t be understated since the outcome would draw a line in the sand for other would-be pirates.

Together the studios went tough by demanding six months in jail plus more than $93,000 in damages.

But despite agreeing that the main had illegally made available at least 1,200 films and TV shows, downloaded around 700 from The Pirate Bay and then made them available to the public, the ruling from Tønsberg District Court falls far short of those demands.

According to information distributed to its members yesterday, Rights Alliance said that the Court handed the now 21-year-old a six month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay around $28,000.

“The illegal proliferation of films via the Internet has gradually degenerated to become a significant problem for the industry,” the ruling reads.

“The business is helping to undermine both the production of films and the profitability of licensees and others that are related to the legal market.”

While falling short of the studios’ demands, the sentence is still being described as the toughest ever handed out for intellectual property infringement in Norway.

“Although we only got a fraction of what we asked for, I doubt that we will appeal the ruling,” Secretary General Willy Johansen told Aftenposten.

“Had he been ordered to pay compensation for our losses for anyone who had downloaded those films illegally it would’ve amounted to several tens of millions. Nevertheless, [$28,000] is the highest amount someone has been sentenced to.”

The record (but comparatively light) sentence was welcomed by the former pirate site admin’s lawyer.

“[My client] had been very concerned that he could go to prison, it has probably been the biggest source of strain because he is so young,” explained Nikolai Riise. “In addition, the claim for damages had been of considerable size, so it’s a relief for him that requirement is so significantly reduced.”

While the studios didn’t get everything they asked for the man now has a criminal record, meaning that the way has been paved for others considering embarking on the same kind of activity. For Rights Alliance the fight continues and the next target is already lined up.

“Now we are working towards stopping the Popcorn Time service, which automatically shares a movie you download on PC or mobile with all your contacts,” Johansen concludes.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Portugal’s Piracy Blocklist Censors U.S. Game Developer (Updated)

carbongamesIn recent months Portuguese Internet providers have started to block hundreds of websites that allegedly link to copyright infringing content.

The voluntary blocking regime was formalized last summer through an agreement between several parties including the Ministry of Culture and the Association of Telecommunication Operators.

The agreement allows copyright holders to add new pirate sites without any intervention or oversight from a court, something which has now led to some rather unusual collateral damage.

This week several people noticed that the website of indie game developer Carbon Games was blocked as well. Instead of access to the company’s website, visitors in Portugal see the following message.

“The site that you’re trying to reach was blocked due to an order from the Regulator Agency”.

The blocking message

ptblock

The issue was first reported by Revolução dos Bytes, which confirmed that the blockade is active across several large ISPs including NOS, MEO and Vodafone.

Generally speaking sites are added following complaints from copyright holders. The reported sites are then investigated by local anti-piracy group MAPINET and will end up on the blocklist if there’s enough evidence of systematic infringing activity.

Sites that fall into this category should contain at least 500 links to infringing material or have one-third of the site dedicated to facilitating copyright infringement. This doesn’t appear to be the case for the Carbon Games site.

The good news for Portuguese gaming fans is that the blockade is easily circumvented. In addition to using the non-www address which isn’t blocked, people can change their DNS to something that doesn’t rely on their ISP, such Google DNS or OpenDNS.

MAPINET has yet to comment publicly on the unusual blockade and we will update this article when we find out more.

Update: MAPiNET Issued a statement to TorrentFreak explaining that the Carbon Games site is not listed in their system. It’s still unclear why the site is blocked across various ISPs. The blocklist itself is maintained by IGAC so it’s likely that something went wrong there.

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


Source: TorrentFreak