In a world where Internet connection speeds have risen to heights we could only dream about a few short years ago, for most people complex videogames still take an absolute age to download, even from legal services such as Steam.

The situation is not much different for people downloading pirate releases using torrents either, but there are people out there who aim to make life a little bit easier. So-called ‘repackers’ heavily compress pirate releases and place them online, helping those with limited bandwidth or low Internet speeds obtain games using limited resources.

With legions of fans, ‘FitGirl’ is perhaps the most well-known and best-loved ‘repacker’ on the Internet today. ‘She’ (gender is up for debate) regularly releases popular pirated videogames but according to Google, this shadowy figure also has other hidden talents.

FitGirl Racing Up The Charts

As the image below shows, Google’s search algorithm has given this famous pirate her very own ‘knowledge panel’ which has elevated her to the status of ‘musical artist’ complete with a list of her most famous ‘songs’.

Google’s full list of FitGirl’s most ‘famous tracks’ is also amusing. In addition to the self-titled track ‘FitGirl’, Google has amusingly conjured up the timeless song ‘Installers’ and, of course, the chart-topping classic ‘Repacks’. None of these tracks exist, despite the optimistic inclusion of a link to Deezer where her songs are supposedly available (they’re not).

That being said, it’s interesting to see that Google has linked FitGirl with Hiromitsu Agatsuma, noting that people who searched for her also searched for this Japanese musician.

The reason for this connection is that Fitgirl has included Agatsuma’s track ‘Tsuki Sayu Yoru’ in her installers, popularizing it among pirates. Indeed, checking the track on YouTube reveals people commenting that the only reason they’re listening to the artist is because of FitGirl’s releases.

Fun and Games Until The Malware Appears

While this amusing algorithmic anomaly will raise a few smiles, there is a darker side to this too.

The supposed song titled ‘Repacks’ has been given a pink joypad graphic which is of course entirely fitting if a little spooky given the data Google’s algorithms must be picking up. However, when clicked, we aren’t treated to extra information about this imaginary track but a ‘pirate’ search that throws up several results, including what some might conclude is the official FitGirl site, right at the top.

Despite the claims that Fitgirlrepacks.co is the “ONLY official site for FitGirl Repacks”, this site is far from official. As per the warning on the real FitGirl site, this is a fake, “made to infect you with malware, show you tons of ads and get your money as donations.”

The claim that the domain is a malware trap appears to be supported by anti-malware software MalwareBytes, which blocks the platform while warning of ‘trojans’. The big question is why this domain (and the several others that appear following a basic ‘FitGirl’ search) are promoted to the top spots by Google.

It’s hard to be precise but given that sites that are demoted based on the number of DMCA notices that are filed against them, the official site certainly suffers more in this respect, something which may have hurt its search ranking.

As reported earlier this month, Google’s code previously and inadvertently showcased YTS and YIFY pirate movie releases in a similar manner. That error was quickly fixed as this one will be too, cutting short what could’ve been a great musical career for one of the world’s most famous pirates.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Earlier this year, a popular Popcorn Time fork had its Twitter account suspended over an alleged trademark violation.

This was the work of anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper who, on behalf of the company 42 Ventures, used the “Popcorn Time” trademark as ammunition.

As it turned out, the Hawaiian company had registered a series of piracy-linked keywords including Popcorn Time, YTS, and Terrarium, as well as an image mark that’s pretty much identical to the logo of another piracy app, Showbox.

42 Ventures doesn’t hold any notable copyrights. However, its anti-piracy actions definitely stand out. As reported earlier, it tried to negotiate a licensing deal with Popcorn Time, which failed. And not much later it sued a series of YTS sites over alleged trademark infringement.

Today, we can report on yet another enforcement action. Armed with the Showbox-like image mark, 42 Ventures and Culpepper are targeting several websites that host or link to Showbox apps. This time they have opted for DMCA subpoenas, through which they hope to identify the operators of the sites.

These subpoenas are addressed at Cloudflare, Namecheap, Godaddy, and Domains by Proxy. These third-party companies offer services to the allegedly-infringing sites, which include movieboxpro.app, appvalleyapp.com, showbox.care, showboxvpn.com, moviebox.online, and many others.

Below is a copy of the subpoena which is directed at Cloudflare. It lists a series of domains and IP-addresses, ordering the CDN provider to hand over personal information on these customers.

“Owner is investigating Copyright Infringement of its visual design. Owner’s investigator has determined that the websites at following IP addresses infringe owner’s visual design. These IP addresses are associated with Cloudflare.”

Most of the targeted domains are specifically set up to link people to Showbox-type apps. These display the Showbox logo, which is indeed similar to the registered image mark. However, there are also some broader targets added to the mix, such as the publishing platform Medium.com.

Medium can’t be considered a pirate site. It’s an open platform that’s widely used by millions of people, including Fortune 500 companies and governments. However, 42 Ventures included it in their request, and want to know who runs it.

The requested information includes any physical addresses, web addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, as well as all IP-addresses, names, and payment details of these customers.

While these DMCA subpoenas are not uncommon, the trademark angle certainly is. TorrentFreak reached out to Culpepper to find out the purpose of these claims but he preferred no to comment on the most recent legal action.

Previously, the anti-piracy lawyer told us that it’s his goal to protect the rights of 42 Ventures. These rights are linked to Popcorntime4u.com, which indeed displays the Showbox-like logo, referencing “Popcorn Time” as well.

It is likely that 42 Ventures hopes to shut the sites down with these enforcement efforts, or at least negotiate some kind of settlement. While we doubt that Medium will be open to this, the strategy may work on some of the other sites.

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TorrentFreak obtained copies of the requested DMCA subpoenas targeting Cloudflare (pdf), Namecheap (pdf), Domains by Proxy (pdf), and Godaddy (pdf).

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

https://kodi.tv/article/kodi-builds-streaming-add-ons-and-free-lunches

But some are illegal. A few are both illegal and just downright nasty, and some rogue developers even think your hardware is their hardware.

These developers and the surrounding ecosystem only care about popularity or money. Yes, they do make money from you, selling that marvellous VPN that you so desperately need to feel safe, showing you ads galore, promising everything for free.

Now, if it sounds like it can’t be legit because it literally sounds too good to be true and that they must be dodgy or bonkers doing all this for nothing, I can tell you your spidey senses are absolutely correct.

It is too good to be true and there is no such thing as a free lunch.

We can see the appeal of Kodi builds, but please stop using them. Help us improve our documentation, suggest usability improvements, a feature, whatever helps us improve Kodi.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Despite dozens of legal actions against The Pirate Bay, including the jailing of its founders, the world’s most famous torrent site remains online today.

That it continues to operate can only be an irritant to the many companies that have partnered to take it down and at least for a while, it seemed that tackling the site may have fallen down the list of priorities. Now, however, there is clear evidence that movie companies in Scandinavia are back on the trail.

Svensk Filmindustri is the leading distribution and production company in the Nordic region. Denmark-based Nordisk Film is one of the oldest film studios in the world. With the assistance of Swedish anti-piracy group Rights Alliance, they have taken a keen interest in an Internet service provider and hosting company that they claim have “close ties” to The Pirate Bay.

Cloudflare Handed Over an IP Address Linked to TPB

The Pirate Bay’s real IP addresses are a closely guarded secret since these can be useful in tracking down where its servers are physically located. When people access the site they currently see IP addresses related to Cloudflare, the CDN company through which The Pirate Bay reaches the public. However, when faced with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare will hand over a clients’ hosting details.

After being issued with a copyright infringement complaint, Cloudflare recently handed over an IP address that was reportedly being used by The Pirate Bay on June 2, 2020. According to Dagensjuridik, the movie companies and Rights Alliance then used this information to formulate an application for an information injunction against the IP address operator, Obenetwork.

Staff at Obenetwork Have “Close Ties” to The Pirate Bay

The application is characterized by its urgency. The studios asked the court not to hear Obenetworks in the matter but to issue a swift order that would prevent Obenetworks from destroying information detailing its business dealings with The Pirate Bay or face a fine of SEK 100,000 (US$10,872).

“[T]here is reason to believe that the staff of the defendant [Obenetwork] have close links to Pirate Bay. There is a risk that the information requested by the applicant will be destroyed or prevented from being disclosed,” the application reads.

“Staff at Obenetworks have appeared in previous investigations against Pirate bay. There is thus a risk that the information referred to in the action could be destroyed or withheld from the applicants.”

Complaining of ongoing infringement of their copyrights via The Pirate Bay, the studios state that an order to obtain the information held by Obenetwork is the only option they have to enforce their rights.

Information Road to Nowhere?

The big question now is whether this information – should it be handed over at all – will be of any assistance to the movie studios in their quest to track down their prey.

The operators of The Pirate Bay are veterans when it comes to dealing with anti-piracy actions and they will be acutely aware that Cloudflare hands over server details when it has a legal obligation to do so.

On that basis, it seems reasonable to conclude that TPB’s operators knew this day would come and that the IP address at Obenetwork won’t yield anything directly useful. It could, however, provide another piece of the puzzle.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Manga comics and magazines are extremely popular. Early on this was mostly limited to Japan but nowadays it’s a global phenomenon.

In part, this worldwide success was facilitated by piracy. We use this loaded term lightly here, particularly when it refers to scanlation.

How Scanlation ‘Piracy’ Popularized Manga

When some of the early torrent sites appeared in the first half of the 2000s, many had anime or manga sections. At the time, this category was alien to the majority of western users but that changed over time.

This shift was in part the result of the efforts from manga fans who translated scans of manga magazines from Japanese to English, so-called ‘scanlation’. In the early days, official publishers weren’t bothered by this practice. Some even saw it as flattering.

As the years passed the foreign manga audience kept growing and growing, with dedicated ‘scanlation’ sites and groups showing up. What started as a small niche pastime became a massive community of new consumers. Consumers who could be monetized.

We’re not exaggerating when we say that the scanlation community created an entirely new industry – English manga – which created opportunities, challenges, drama, and conflict.

The Anti-Pirate Hyporite?

Last weekend an example of this drama was brought to the forefront on 4Chan, Discord, Twitter, and Reddit. The key player is On Takahashi, the owner of Irodori Comics, a company that works with Japanese authors to publish ‘Doujinshi’ manga overseas.

Irodori Comics basically turned scanlation into a business. It’s not alone in doing so, but On Takahashi did more than that. He also began to take a harsh stance against pirates and organized sites.

For example, he went after manga aggregators that posted scanlations without permission. This includes MangaRock, which turned ‘legal’ late last year after increased pressure from copyright holders.

This is quite an extreme stance for the owner of a company that built its business on what started as a pirate activity. These and other observations were shared in a Reddit post, which also revealed another intriguing detail.

Working With a Pirate Group

Apparently, Takahashi has close ties to the Shinmai Maou scanlation group, which posts translations without permission from rightsholders. Three years ago, Takahashi also helped the group by doing some translation work himself.

After this was brought to the forefront, his name was swiftly purged from the group’s site. By then, however, copies were already made and the whole episode blew up on Reddit.

Needless to say, this is not a good look. The post speaks for itself and raised some great points. It fits particularly well in today’s fast-pace social media-fueled discourse where siloed groups unite in pointing fingers at those who do wrong.

However, what intrigued us the most is why Takahashi would do this? It’s clear that he doesn’t like pirates, so why work with a group that can be defined as a pirate outlet, one that’s even charging people for access to full content?

Takahashi responds

When the news broke Takahashi remained quiet. However, the Irodori Comics owner was willing to talk to us to provide some background and context. This doesn’t change any of the facts really, but it shows how ‘complicated’ the relationship between piracy and manga can get.

Takashi doesn’t dispute large parts of the Reddit thread and he does believe that piracy hurts sales. That said, he starts out by pointing out that the tweet – where he supposedly condemned the use of VPNs and stated that an unauthorized download equals a lost sale – was faked.

Takahashi also admits that he wrote a translation for the ‘Shinmai Maou translation’ group. He is good friends with the organizer and helped out when he needed assistance a few years ago. In fact, he is still in good contact today and hangs out in the Discord channel.

Even though the group doesn’t have permission to publish these translations, Takahashi doesn’t see it as a pirate group because it focuses on older works that have no official English translation. These are “fair game,” he told us. Also, the group supports authors by sending any excess donations to the original authors.

“I still have a relationship with the group, because they aren’t a piracy group. It is a private group that only had the fantranslation between the people who funded it and the people who supported the official Japanese release and the artist. None of these guys are free-riders,” Takahashi says.

This is all a matter of perspective of course. Technically the group is pirating, whatever the intentions or motivations are. However, Takahashi draws a clear line between fan translations of manga that doesn’t have an official translation and those that have. The first is not piracy but the latter is, according to him.

Scanlation ≠ Piracy

The Reddit and 4Chan crowd see things differently. They don’t draw the same lines as Takahashi does, branding him a hypocrite. They view him as a pirating anti-pirate, one who helped to bring down MangaRock, which was a massively popular scanlation aggregator.

It appears that there are two rights and two wrongs here, depending on which position you take. If you see all unauthorized translations as piracy, the hypocrite label makes total sense. Especially for someone who has been a very vocal anti-pirate.

Takahashi, however, is fine with scanlations that don’t have an official version, but he does condemn groups and aggregators that publish scanlations that are also available legally. That includes MangaRock.

“Some might accuse me of being a hypocrite, but aggregator websites like MangaRock are completely different in nature to a scanlation group, and should not be lumped into the same category. That’s insulting to scanlators. The English manga industry’s foundation was built from scanlation after all,” Takahashi says.

“That’s why I took my stance against aggregator sites like MangaRock, that took from scanlation group’s labor of love and put it in their subscription system. But I’m not against scanlations of works that don’t have an official English version.”

The ultimate conclusion is that both sides are right. And both sides are wrong.

Pirate Roots

The positive historical links between piracy and the popularity of manga are undeniable. However, in recent years things have become more complicated as publishers and other companies work hard to get their piece of the legal pie.

With a legal translation business, Takahashi got his piece but with his strong anti-piracy stance, he clearly offended others in the scanlation community. This is a sensitive issue as some of the same people he now condemns helped to build everything up.

Just how thin the lines are is exemplified by the fact that Takahashi now sells content through Fakku, a massive publishing imperium that started out by posting scanlations without permission.

Ultimately, this article isn’t about who’s right or wrong. We merely want to provide some more context. Perhaps the real lesson is that ‘extremes rarely work’ and that piracy often plays a role in creating new industries. And that’s not limited to manga, of course.

Spotify also has pirate roots, and so has the largest online adult entertainment company. Pirate radio helped to create commercial radio, and even Hollywood started out with a pirate mentality.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.