Month: January 2016

The Pirate Bay Switches on New .MS Domain

pirate bayThe Pirate Bay has gone through a lot of domain changes over the past year.

When the operators found out that Swedish authorities might confiscate their .se domain as the result of a legal battle, the torrent site added six new alternatives last Spring.

In the months that followed this “hydra” was carefully destroyed as registrars and registries suspended the domain names in question. This most likely happened in response to copyright holder complaints.

Ironically, this meant that TPB was back to square one relying on the older .se and .org domains. However, starting this week the torrent site has added a new domain option.

The notorious torrent site is now also accessible from the Montserratian .MS TLD. Both the .SE and .ORG domains pointed to the new domain earlier, but this redirect has been turned off at the time of writing.

With the latest addition TPB now has three generic TLDs, as well as the .onion version which is exclusively available through the Tor network. Pirate Bay’s official forum has also added ThePirateBay.ms to the list of official domains.

Pirate Bay’s active domains

tpblocations

The TPB team registered the .MS extension several years ago but it hasn’t been used as a primary domain until now. Strangely enough the domain name is linked to the same registrar who previously suspended the other domains.

While TPB remains widely accessible some related issues remain. TPB’s Pirate Browser domains piratebrowser.com, piratebrowser.net and piratebrowser.org remain suspended due to an ICANN verification issue, for example.

There’s currently no known alternative domain for The Pirate Browser but the application can still be downloaded by visiting the site’s direct IP-address. Adding a new domain would be relatively easy but it appears that the TPB-crew has other priorities at the moment.

Time will tell how long the new .MS domain lasts. It’s expected that TPB’s operators will register additional domain names in the future to make sure that the site doesn’t run out of options.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

‘Fun’ Torrent Site Could Result in Jail, Millions in Damages

After being founded in 2006, authorities in Sweden branded private torrent site SwePiracy as one of the most important locations for the illegal distribution of local and international films.

Following a torrent site crackdown in the wake of the “guilty” verdict in the Pirate Bay trial during April 2009, SwePiracy disappeared for a few weeks, but reappeared less than a month later.

Anti-piracy group Antipiratbyrån (now Rights Alliance) said that in response to warnings for the site to close down, the operators of the tracker had taken measures to protect themselves instead.

Several years later during February 2012, authorities ran out of patience, with police in Sweden and the Netherlands taking coordinated action to shut down the site.

While Swedish police targeted the operators of the site, their Dutch counterparts took down SwePiracy’s servers in their jurisdiction. However, as is so often the case, overall downtime was relatively brief and SwePiracy laer reappeared via a new host in Canada.

Today, almost three years later, the alleged operator of the site will appear in court in Sweden. The now 24-year-old man is the alleged founder of the site and the person responsible for its resurrection after the raid.

According to District Prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson the man faces charges of violating copyright law due to unlawfully making available copyrighted movies online or assisting users to do the same. Rasmusson says that a lengthy custodial sentence is possible.

“Under the criminal scale he risks punishment ranging from fines to several years in prison,” Rasmusson says.

In addition to charges that he ran a site servicing tens of thousands of members, the prosecution claim that the man also collected around $100,000 in donations to keep the site running. However, it appears that the main motivation was not to make money, but to have fun.

“In this case, it is my assumption before the trial that the aim [for the accused] was to test the [torrent] technology and to share and make available video because it was entertaining and an interest he had,” Rasmusson notes.

But despite the absence of a financial motive, Swedish authorities have pursued this case for more than three years and the site itself for much longer, which suggests they don’t intend to go lightly on the 24-year-old.

At the time of the raid, Antipiratbyrån (Rights Alliance) said it also intended to seek damages from the site “according to The Pirate Bay model.” The case now centers around a sample 73 movies with the man being sued for more than $2.9m by local companies and international giants including Disney.

The trial is expected to run until Friday.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Startup Leverages DMCA Notices As Artist Marketing Tool

traceFor more than two decades online piracy has been a hot topic in the music industry.

The problem has motivated people to sue downloaders or target them with DMCA takedown requests, which are sometimes bundled with settlement demands.

Muzit is a new startup which also tracks millions of BitTorrent pirates. However, instead of punishing downloaders they take a more gentle approach. Muzit uses DMCA notices as a means to connect artists and fans.

Muzit’s TRACE platform keeps track of where illegal downloads occur across the world and the company shares these insights with artists. They can then choose to alert the alleged pirates through DMCA notices and include a marketing message in these emails.

“Muzit was created for copyright owners who want to reach out and build a positive relationship with their fans. As long as it’s friendly, artists can send any type of message they want,” Muzit CEO Tommy Funderburk tells TF.

Funderburk is a music industry veteran with a keen interest in file-sharing. He used the same BitTorrent tracking technology in a previous startup called PayArtists where a similar system was used to demand settlement payments from alleged file-sharers.

This punishment approach has now been swapped for a system that embraces P2P distribution, hoping to connect artists and fans. As part of this positive attitude the company also dropped the use of the term “pirate.”

“At Muzit we have eliminated the word ‘pirate’ from our vocabulary. We choose to regard individuals who use P2P as fans and potential customers.‘Fans not Foes’ as we like to say,” Funderburk says.

Muzit’s artist dashboard

muzit1

Muzit is currently working with several copyright holders including The Mavericks and the estates of James Brown and Isaac Hayes. Typical “offers” they send to downloaders include exclusive music downloads, merchandise and unique artist memorabilia.

“Recently The Mavericks used Muzit TRACE to encourage people to sign up for their fan club by offering a free giveaway of an autographed guitar. In this campaign, they were able to reach out to around 200,000 new fans,” Funderburk tells TF.

The Mavericks are happy with the results of their campaigns so far and see them as an ideal tool to reach an audience which they haven’t been able to connect with in the past.

“We were blown away. We had no idea we had this whole other world of fans sharing our music on P2P. It works and it sure beats the hell out of an email sign up sheet at the door,” Raul Malo, leader of The Mavericks, says.

Thus far Muzit’s database includes 8.6 million file-sharers but they will continue to expand. The company also makes it clear that artists can only connect to the people who have shared their work.

The company certainly takes an interesting approach, but it’s also an odd way to use the DMCA notification system. DMCA notices are generally not intended to include all sorts of additional messages. While some downloaders may appreciate hearing from artists, others may see it as a form of spam.

Still, that beats the settlement demands companies such as Rightscorp send out.

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


Source: TorrentFreak