Month: September 2015

AMC Chases “Fear The Walking Dead” Pirates

ftwdWith over 10 million viewers AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead broke rating records for a series premiere.

This success directly translates to illegitimate channels where over a million people downloaded the first episode quickly after its release.

AMC is not ignoring this unauthorized audience and has started to send out warnings to ISPs across the United States. TF has seen several warning letters targeted at U.S. Internet users.

The company wants the affected subscribers to “remove or delete all unauthorized copies” and ensure that their account is “no longer used to copy or distribute” the episode(s).

The warnings are sent through AMC’s anti-piracy partner MarkMonitor. They’re formatted as DMCA notices and their main purpose is to inform subscribers that someone is using their Internet connection to pirate the show.

“AMC believes that subscribers have a right to know when their Internet accounts are being used for content theft, or if they are otherwise unwittingly downloading or distributing files that are subject to copyright protection,” the notices read.

In addition to users of standard BitTorrent clients and Popcorn Time, they’re also targeting the eDonkey network as the example below shows.

ftwd-edonk

The notices further suggests that file-sharing can expose users to great dangers. It specifically mentions a consumer alert that was issued by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a few years ago.

“Online content theft can expose a family’s home network and the computers connected to it to dangerous viruses, spyware and identity theft,” the notices explain.

While some casual file-sharers may be spooked by the warning, these types of DMCA notices are quite standard. The copyright holder doesn’t know the identity of the alleged pirates, so there are no legal strings attached.

Nonetheless, AMC hopes that the warnings will deter some from downloading future episodes. And indeed, some users may panic when they see that their downloads are being flagged.

Others may respond by hiding their ISP IP-address from showing up in public, which appears to be quite effective in this case.

In addition to targeting torrent users AMC also targets torrent sites directly. Many original uploads of the first two episodes have disappeared from KickassTorrents and other sites in recent days.

Unfortunately for AMC torrents are like zombies, in a way; they keep coming back to life and are nearly impossible to kill.

fearkat

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Gucci Sets Trend for Broad Internet ‘Censorship’

gucciIn July the movie streaming site MovieTube was sued by the MPAA, which tried to shut it down with a broad injunction.

Last month a coalition of global tech firms including Google, Facebook, Twitter protested the MPAA’s request, which would require search engines, ISPs and hosting companies to stop linking to or offering services to MovieTube.

The MPAA eventually dropped the request as MovieTube shut down voluntarily, but we can expect more of these requests in the future. In fact, they are already quite common in the fashion industry.

This year alone Gucci has targeted hundreds of “infringing” websites that sell knockoffs without permission, and the fashion icon has no trouble getting courts to shut these sites down through similar injunctions.

Gucci’s most recent case was filed three weeks ago (pdf). It targets 221 websites and is similar to lawsuits that were filed previously, which accuse site owners of selling counterfeit merchandise.

In the complaint Gucci asks for a preliminary injunction to prevent all third parties from doing business with the site. This includes payment services, social networks and other online services.

Furthermore, Gucci specifically requests an order to prevent “search engines, Web hosts, domain-name registrars and domain-name registries” from facilitating access to the sites in question.

Gucci’s request

guccireq

While this case is still pending, the designer company has had success with previous requests. In May, for example, Gucci obtained an injunction which prohibits search engines from linking to 184 sites, while ordering domain name registrars to hand over the domains.

Unlike with the MovieTube case, there has been little public outcry about the Gucci cases. However, the Electronic Frontier Foundation believes that they pose a significant threat.

“The Gucci cases are certainly of concern for the same reasons as the MovieTube case, and they deserve more public scrutiny,” EFF attorney Mitch Stoltz informs TF.

“Vaguely written orders that could be used to co-opt numerous Internet intermediaries into blocking or filtering websites are an abuse of the law and threaten some of the same harms as the infamous SOPA bill did,” he adds.

In all fairness, Gucci shouldn’t get all the ‘credit’ here. Several other designer brands have successfully requested similar injunctions in the past, including Louis Vuitton and Chanel.

Similarly, media company ABS-CBN has been granted broad injunctions by American courts before.

Still, none of these cases triggered the same response as the MovieTube case did. Perhaps the involvement of the MPAA was needed to really hit a nerve with the tech companies?

In any case, it’s clear that Hollywood isn’t setting the trend here, they’re simply following a path already laid out by others.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

After Death of Wiziwig, Staff Create New Streaming Sports Portal

sportsFor several years, the Wiziwig forum was visited by millions of people looking to view a broad selection of live sports programming. The site didn’t charge users a penny and gained a fanatical following, but at the dawn of the year it all came to an end.

Citing a change in Spanish law where the site was hosted, on January 1, 2015, Wiziwig closed its doors leaving thousands of users without their sporting fix.

In the wake of the closure TF caught up with the site’s operator who told us that problems had been building for some time, in particular as a result of the English Premier League’s negative interest in the site. In the end the stakes were just too high.

As is common following closures, Wiziwig’s users dispersed to other sites, along with the site’s staff who only learned of the closure shortly before the rest of the world.

“The moderators of Wiziwig had no idea that it was going to close shop. We all got an email about 15 minutes before the public announcement was made,” a former operator informs TF.

While shocked by the announcement, the mods came to the conclusion that even though Wiziwig’s operator had had enough, they hadn’t. Led by around a dozen of the site’s former moderators, in the months that followed a new site began to take shape. Eventually ‘Streamhub‘ was born.

“We came back under a new name. We are not here to ride on Wiziwig fame. Most of the former moderators have joined us here at StreamHub. About a dozen so far,” a site operator informs TF.

“The mods that specialized in their areas at Wiziwig are doing the same here at StreamHub. Most specialize in different sports according to their passions and interests. Some have returned to their specialties in software and technology and P2P streaming; helping hobbyists. Some overlap on both sports and tech.”

While there will excitement among streaming fans that Streamhub is gaining momentum, there are plenty of other options if users want to view free sports content online. However, what most other sites don’t have is the same attitude towards free streaming.

Streamhub – like Wiziwig before it – is a community-driven site dedicated to providing a friendly and information rich platform for both streamers and consumers. The site is also a strong advocate of free-to-air programming, a business model in which sports broadcasters generate revenue from advertising and do not directly charge the end-user.

“This is a part of what I believe to be the larger questions: What is wrong with the current model of sport broadcasting?” Streamhub asks.

“Most of the moderators I’ve spoken to about this issue agree the Internet will be considered the public airways, much the same way as over the air broadcasting is considered today and always has been in most countries. I can’t imagine a world at some point in the future where this isn’t true.

“Broadcasters can not charge viewers for watching television or radio over the air and that should apply to the Internet as well. They receive revenue through advertising and this should (and we believe will) be the case for Internet viewing.”

While it seems highly unlikely that the world’s sports giants (English Premier League included) will be rushing to partner with those currently streaming their content for free, the operators of Streamhub have a tip or two on how to keep their video distribution costs down.

“Most official and unofficial streams today are server-based. Meaning the more viewers watching the more bandwidth is needed to provide everyone with a clear and stable stream. And the more it costs. P2P streaming is just the opposite,” the site explains.

“It’s (free) software based, and the only bandwidth needed by the originator is the bit rate of the stream times three. The more viewers, the more stable the stream as everyone is sharing the load.”

According to Streamhub the best solution currently on the market is StreamTorrent but even that could be improved to meet the requirements of broadcasters if they embraced the idea.

Also of interest is Streamhub’s approach to revenue. According to the site’s mission statement it doesn’t allow advertising and the team informs TF that money is not their motivation.

“We are different because we do not want to make money. We only want to help people everywhere in the world watch the events they are interested in watching. No hidden agendas. No ulterior motives,” they explain.

“Just good people volunteering their time, doing something important to extend freedom and fellowship around the world.”

Whether Streamhub will be able to grow into Wiziwig’s quite sizable shoes will remain to be seen, but with one of the most experienced teams behind the operation the chances are certainly improved. Old foes will start paying attention too, but that won’t come as a surprise and has been prepared for.

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


Source: TorrentFreak