Every year the Special 301 Report identifies countries thought by the United States Trade Representative to pose the biggest intellectual property-related threats to U.S. companies. Russia has been a ‘priority’ country for some time, not least due to the actions of one of its biggest and most influential websites.

VKontakte (In Touch), is Russia’s Facebook. It’s a huge operation with tens of millions of users, each of whom has the ability to upload music, movies and TV shows to share with their friends. And with their friends’ friends. And with their friends’ friends’ friends.

Needless to say, entertainment companies aren’t pleased that this social networking giant is facilitating piracy on a grand scale, especially when that content – music in particular – goes on to fuel countless free MP3 download portals all around the Internet. If you’ve ever downloaded MP3s from the free web, chances are some of that music has come from VK.

For some time VK has been keen to update its image by making steps towards becoming more rightsholder-friendly. That said, it’s never really been enough for the U.S. and as a result Russia has again found itself on the latest Special 301 Report. But there signs that things could be getting more serious.

VK Executive Director Dmitry Sergeyev told ITAR-TASS yesterday that consultations between his company and rightsholders were underway, with a view to the signing of an anti-piracy memorandum with telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor.

As the government outfit at the center of Russia’s web-blocking mechanism, Roskomnadzor has significant power. Its anti-piracy memo deals with the pre-trial settlement of disputes between sites and copyright holders and requires signatories to implement content fingerprinting and identification systems in order to filter and block unauthorized material.

“VKontakte will introduce content identification, which will be used to monitor and promptly delete published content protected by copyright,” a source close to the company said.

“This will be the first step towards eliminating the social network from of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report, which is currently limiting the company’s ability to raise funds abroad and sign agreements with foreign rightsholders.”

Anti-piracy memorandum signatory the Russian Anti-Piracy Organization (RAPO) will be the messenger of progress. The group says it will monitor VK for pirate content in the months to come and if there is significant improvement, the MPAA will be informed.

“During this year, the industry will be observing what is happening to the sites, including VK.com,” RAPO chief Konstantin Zemchenkov said.

“If pirate content disappears from the social network, we’ll report to the MPAA, which in turn will report that fact to the IIPA [International Intellectual Property Alliance], which will inform the US authorities.”

Since the Special 301 Report is based on the previous years’ data, even in the event of progress VK won’t be able to get off the list until 2015. The site has been included since 2011, so removal isn’t going to come easy. Other local sites, such as RUtracker.org and Rapidgator, remain on the list as thorns in the side of the U.S.

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

Over the years BitTorrent has become fairly mainstream, with hundreds of millions of people using torrent clients to download the latest entertainment.

Despite its popularity the downloading process can be cumbersome at times, especially for novices. Faced with this challenge Sebastian, a designer from Buenos Aires, Argentina, decided to come up with a piece of software that would make the process as easy as Netflix.

“As a designer I love the challenge of simplification. Take something hard for the common user and make it usable. I have a lot of friends who don’t understand torrents and I wanted to make it easy and effortless to use torrent technology,” Sebastian tells us.

A few months of coding later “Popcorn Time” was born, a tool that allows users to stream popular movie torrents with the click of a button. Popcorn Time offers instant access to hundreds of films, in various qualities and complete with subtitles if needed.

Popcorn Time

What started out as an experiment for a group of friends soon developed into something much bigger. Popcorn Time now has 20 collaborators on Github and continues to expand at a rapid pace. Developers from all over the world have added new features and within 24 hours it was translated into six languages.

Sebastian explains that Popcorn Time uses node-webkit and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. It’s basically a browser that users HTML, CSS and JavaScript to serve the movie streams.

“The technology behind the app is very simple. We consume a group of APIs, one for the torrents, another for the movie info, and another for the poster. We also have an API for the subtitles. Everything is automated, we don’t host anything, but take existing information and put it together,” Sebastian says

The torrent files all come from YTS (formerly YIFY), which has an API Popcorn Time taps into. The application can search this database and allows users to stream the torrent on demand. When finished the app will continue to share for a while after the download is finished, to avoid leeching.

Since Popcorn Time links to a lot of copyrighted movies, Hollywood is not going to be happy, but according to Sebastian the developers don’t expect any legal issues. They inform users that sharing copyrighted material is not allowed everywhere, and other than that they are just repackaging existing content, without a commercial angle.

“We don’t expect legal issues. We don’t host anything, and none of the developers makes any money. There are no ads, no premium accounts, and no subscription fees or anything like that. It’s an experiment to learn and share,” Sebastian notes.

All the people who work on the project are big movie fans themselves, and most have Netflix accounts. Sebastian believes that going to the cinema is the best way to experience a movie, but if people who want to enjoy a recent film at home they should be able to do so. This is often not the case, and that’s where Popcorn Time comes in.

“We hate that we don’t have the chance to watch some movies at home. Popcorn Time is an experiment to show that you can do something better for the users, and that you can do it with BitTorrent,” Sebastian says.

Popcorn Time is officially still in Beta, and will continue to improve in the weeks and month to come. However, one thing will never change, it will remain free and open source for as long as it exists.

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

Faced with a Pirate Bay website that simply refused to die, in 2010 Hollywood-linked anti-piracy group BREIN decided to take a different approach to the problem. If The Pirate Bay wouldn’t disconnect itself from the Internet, BREIN would force ISPs to disconnect their customers from the site instead.

The initial action, against Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest ISP, soon encompassed another. XS4ALL decided the case was too important to stay out of and joined its rival to fight against BREIN. The case took many twists and turns, with victory first for the ISPs, then for BREIN. Refusing to give in, the ISPs fought back and in January The Court of The Hague delivered a huge blow.

That ruling, which deemed that ISPs did not have to block their subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay, threw BREIN’s whole strategy into turmoil. With no ruling against Ziggo and XS4ALL, BREIN would be unable to get any kind of victory against KPN, UPC and Tele2, the other ISPs the anti-piracy group had unfinished legal business with.

Things soon started to unravel. Within days UPC said it had lifted its Pirate Bay blockade and KPN and Tele2 quickly followed. Agreement with BREIN had been reached in private, with most other details unavailable.

Now, in a fresh announcement, it’s clear that BREIN will back away from all legal action against ISPs pending the Supreme Court ruling it seeks against Ziggo and XS4ALL.

“BREIN has laid the case against the other providers to rest in anticipation of the outcome at the Supreme Court,” said BREIN lawyer Joris van Manen. “The ISPs have a golden rule that they will only block under judicial coercion. BREIN, however, is reasonable.”

While the ISPs will be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of around 18 months respite from legal action, they aren’t the only ones in the clear. BREIN says that it will also end hostilities against Pirate Bay proxies. These services, including Kuiken.co and one operated by the Pirate Party, worked hard to circumvent the now-defunct ISP blockades but were attacked for their actions.

“We’re not Don Quixote,” van Manen told Webwereld. “If there is no blockage of the Pirate Bay any more then a proxy makes little sense, and also any lawsuit against one.”

The fact that BREIN feels it has no legal basis to force proxies into compliance is very interesting. Earlier this week the anti-piracy group said it had killed in excess of 200 such sites in 2013.

Whether any will now return to their former glory remains to be seen but given that their services aren’t just of use to Dutch citizens (proxies are also very useful to Internet users in the UK) some are likely to restart their engines to operate legally from the Netherlands – at least until the Supreme Court ruling, that is.

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

Websites can’t function without them and a user must be allocated one before he or she can begin using the Internet. Without doubt, IP addresses one of the most important elements underpinning today’s online experience.

While website IP addresses are necessarily public information, IP addresses of individual users are by their very nature a lot more sensitive. Rather than identifying a web server designed to attract traffic, IP addresses operated by regular Internet users are often considered personal information.

Of course, it’s fairly common knowledge that the IP addresses of file-sharers become publicly visible when they enter BitTorrent swarms for example, but matching those IP addresses to real-life identities is a complex process wrapped up in privacy laws designed to protect the consumer. During the past week, however, it became evident that users of a Scandinavian ISP could be traced back to their real-life identities simply by using their IP address.

Discovered by Norwegian site Dinside, this privacy disaster stems from the software installed on routers supplied by local ISP NextGenTel. By simply entering the IP address of another NextGenTel user into a standard web browser, users were presented with a webpage containing router status information. The page also revealed the telephone number of the user behind the entered IP address.

Armed with a telephone number and a directory site such as 1881.no, all it took was a few clicks to find out the name and address of the person behind not only the telephone number, but also the original IP address.

After being alerted to the issue NextGenTel took action to fix the security hole by updating the relevant software, but the episode is a shining example of how years of care over personal information can be undone in an instant.

One of Norway’s biggest privacy cases in recent times involved a BitTorrent user who allegedly leaked a hit local movie to The Pirate Bay. Law firm Simonsen had the IP address of the leaker but desperately needed to convert that into a real-life identity in order to pursue legal action. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court when the ISP behind that IP address refused to hand over its customer’s private details.

Needless to say, that lengthy process would have been endlessly easier if that customer had been a NextGenTel customer. Simonsen could’ve accessed the Internet via NextGenTel, entered the IP address into their web browser, and used the telephone number to reach their target there and then – or called round for a visit, whichever was easier.

In a comment to Dinside, NextGenTel CTO Jørn E. Hodne said his company were taking the matter seriously and were attempting to put things right by fixing software and reporting themselves to the country’s Data Inspectorate.

“We’ve started the [software] update and even reported the matter to the Inspectorate,” Hodne said. “The world we live in is very complex, but this is our responsibility.”

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

Representing the major Hollywood studios, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) regularly patrols the Internet for sites that host or link to pirated movies.

In recent months the group has approached several site owners requesting them to take down their sites, or face legal action.

One way to identify the owners of said sites is through domain WHOIS information, which is publicly available. However, this becomes problematic when site owners use so-called domain privacy services, which hide their personal details from the public. At least, that’s what’s assumed.

As it turns out, not all of these services are as private as one might think. The operator of a linking site learned this the hard way when ‘Domains by Proxy‘ shared his personal details with the MPA.

The domain privacy service, which is owned by GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons, handed over his personal details without a subpoena, or any form of due process.

“We have received a possible legal complaint regarding your domain name xxx.com,” Domains By Proxy informed the site owner.

“Since we were provided with proof the complainant owns a potentially applicable copyright, we have disclosed your identity for the limited purpose of this complaint so that the complainant can communicate directly with you to seek resolution.”

The site owner, who prefers to remain anonymous, was shocked when he received the message. He says his website doesn’t host any copyrighted material and assumed that Domains by Proxy would at least notify him before sharing any personal details.

Soon after the email from Domains by Proxy arrived, the Motion Picture Association reached out to the domain owner, using the name and email address provided by the domain privacy service.

“This Notice requires you to immediately take effective measures to end and prevent further copyright infringement. All opportunities provided by the Website to download, stream or otherwise obtain access to the Entertainment Content should be disabled permanently,” the movie industry group wrote.

“If you fail to take the immediately required action to end and prevent further copyright infringements the MPA and the MPA Members expressly reserve the right to pursue all remedies available,” MPA added.

MPA email

Needless to say, the domain owner does not agree with Domains by Proxy’s action. He says that the MPA obtained his personal details without providing actual proof. In addition, he doesn’t understand why his personal details had to be handed over, as all emails directed to the email listed in the WHOIS are forwarded to him anyway.

“Domain by Proxy automatically adds yourdomainname@domainbyproxy.com, so any organization can contact the domain owners directly. There is no need to ask personal details from the WHOIS service without any proof of copyright infringements,” the domain owner tells TF.

“Other web services, such as LeaseWeb, don’t give details directly to MPA but force you to disable the service instead. Domains by Proxy should do the same I think,” he adds.

TF reached out to Domains by Proxy for a comment on the situation, but the company hasn’t responded yet. With the slogan “your identity is nobody’s business but ours” it’s odd to see that they hand over private details of customers so easily, but those who read the company’s privacy policy can see that this is common practice.

“We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process, to protect our property and rights or the property and rights of a third-party,” the privacy policy reads.

As it turns out, Domains by Proxy is judge and jury here, while due process is completely absent. That’s not really an ideal policy for a company that trades on people’s privacy rights.

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