Month: September 2015

Pirate Party Runs Privacy Campaign Ads on YouPorn

ppausAside from promoting copyright reform, Pirate parties worldwide are fierce defenders of online privacy.

Their position is no different in Austria where local politicians are slowly trying to increase state surveillance. Through the new State Protection Act which will increase monitoring, for example.

With elections coming up in the Linz region next week the party decided to advertise their policy, but not on the regular outfits most political parties prefer. The Austrian Pirates picked YouPorn as their prime adverting platform instead.

Personal preferences aside, people generally prefer not to be snooped on while they’re viewing porn sites. However, in this case they can’t escape the prying eyes of Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Austria’s Minister of the Interior

“Johanna wants to watch you!” the banner ad alerts YouPorn visitors.

“Johanna wants to watch you!”

pirateporn

The advertisements are written in German and targeted at Austrians, many of whom were surprised to see the Minister ‘snooping’ on their private moments. Exactly the effect the Pirate Party was looking for.

“We want to prevent the Orwellian dystopia – 1984 was not a guide to action,” says Claus-Peter Wiesinger, top candidate of the Pirates in Linz.

“We are aware that political issues are uncommon on sites like YouPorn. But as a young party we want to seize the opportunity to break into the comfort zone of Internet users there, to address the threat of mass surveillance,” he adds.

Visitors who click on the YouPorn banner are directed to a dedicated campaign site with more details and other useful tips against surveillance.

The party says it chose the minister’s image because she is the driving force behind the escalating surveillance efforts in Austria, through the new State Protection Act and by backing the reintroduction of data retention, for example.

The Pirates encourage people to speak out against these developments by voting for the party in the municipal elections in Linz or by signing the petition against the new State Protection Act.

“Strengthened by a council mandate in Linz, we want to continue our fight against the surveillance state. With 1.7% of the vote we are in,” Wiesinger says, referring to the upcoming election.

After this week’s successful campaign the Pirates are hoping to continue their advertising efforts on porn sites. They have already started a crowdfunding drive for the next round of ads which is on its way to reach the €600 goal.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Plenty of Ad Networks Still Love Pirate Sites

scamadIn recent years various copyright holder groups have adopted a “follow-the-money” approach in the hope of cutting off funding to so-called pirate sites.

Thus far this has resulted in some notable developments. In the UK hundreds of advertising agencies are actively banning pirate sites and similar initiatives are popping up elsewhere.

This week came another breakthrough when GroupM, the world’s largest advertising media company, adopted a set of anti-piracy guidelines. As a result it now requires media partners to agree to strict standards and ban pirate sites.

The MPAA applauded the initiative and expressed hope that other stakeholders in the ad industry will follow suit.

“The issues of ad-supported piracy is an important one for creative industries everywhere, and it is an important one for businesses whose brands are being hurt by having their advertisements associated with these illegal activities,” the MPAA’s Howard Gantman wrote.

GroupM’s announcement will definitely have an impact on the higher echelons of the ad industry. However, at the bottom and outside the public gaze, several companies are fighting for the grace of pirate sites.

Most regular visitors of pirate sites are probably familiar with the adult advertisements, gambling promotions and other dubious offers that are sometimes bordering on fraud.

These brands have a hard time finding banner space on legitimate sites but not on file-sharing services. The added benefit is that the cost per 1000 impressions is much lower on pirate sites, not to mention the opportunities for intrusive ad formats such as popunders and interstitials.

There are several ad companies that specialize in this area. They act as the middlemen between pirate sites and advertisers in return for a significant stake of the proceeds.

At TorrentFreak we have seen several emails from ad networks advertising their services. Instead of being wary of pirate partnerships, these companies proudly promote their cooperation with these sites hoping to convince others to join.

Below is an example of a company that offers “amazing results” with its popups, mentioning KickassTorrents as one of its top clients.

Email sent by ad company A

adplug2

Another advertising outfit already assigned an account manager, boasting streaming sites Watchseries, Movshare and Videoweed as partners.

Email sent by ad company B

adplug1

The above shows that the anti-piracy efforts are not going to stop money from flowing to these sites. What it will do is limit the already minimal presence of mainstream brands, trading them in for more dubious ones.

Whether that will have a significant impact on revenues is unclear, but it does make visits to pirate sites without an ad-blocker more risky.

That leads to a rather grim conclusion that the anti-piracy measures are helping the vendors and advertisers who peddle shady and malicious ads, instead of really hurting pirate sites.

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


Source: TorrentFreak

Popcorn Time Users ‘Fined’ Over Michael Douglas Movie

Considering its massive rise to fame in the past 18 months it’s little wonder that Popcorn Time is still causing controversy. With millions of users in dozens of countries the ‘Netflix for Pirates’ is firmly on the radar of Hollywood.

Just lately, however, Popcorn Time has attracted the attention of copyright trolls, the anti-piracy enforcers that inhabit the very bottom of the rightsholder food chain.

Infamous U.S. studio Voltage Pictures recently began targeting Popcorn Time users who downloaded the movie Dallas Buyers Club and in recent weeks troubled piracy monetization outfit Rightscorp launched its own questionable anti-Popcorn service.

Now users of the software in Scandinavia are coming under fire, with hundreds of Danish Internet account holders being hit with cash demands after their connections were linked with infringements of the Michael Douglas movie ‘And So It Goes‘.

The demands for compensation are being issued by lawfirm Opus Law acting on behalf of the Denmark division of Scanbox Entertainment. They appear to average around $320, a much lower sum than is usually demanded in the United States, for example, but still a considerable amount for a single movie.

Of course, in the background of what is portrayed as a generous initial offer, trolls often indicate that worse could be round the corner if Internet users don’t agree to settle. This case is no different.

“It’s clear that we did not start the case with the intention of ending up in court, but at the same time it is also clear that when we are ultimately faced with a case where we can not agree [to settle], then we need to go to court,” Opus lawyer Niels Hald-Nielsen told DR.dk.

As the publication notes, there have been no file-sharing related civil actions in Denmark since 2011, which means there is no precedent to indicate what kind of punishment a court might settle on in such a case.

Nevertheless, Hald-Nielsen feels that the settlement offer is a generous one and even suggests that Popcorn Time users are more damaging than users of other file-sharing software.

“The reason why I think that the amount I suggest – [$320] – is reasonable, is that when you distribute a film through Popcorn Time, it goes out to a much wider circle of people and the harm is just so much bigger,” the lawyer says.

These legal threats come on the heels of other recent Popcorn Time related events in Denmark. In March a local producer threatened to target users of the software and during August two men running Popcorn Time information websites were arrested by police.

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


Source: TorrentFreak