Running pirate streaming platforms, such as now ubiquitous IPTV services currently available all over the Internet, is undoubtedly a profitable proposition for gray and black-market entrepreneurs.

For three men in the UK, however, that financial success has come with a hefty price tag attached.

According to information provided by the Premier League, three men from the UK were jailed yesterday for a total of 17 years for running streaming operations that defrauded the world famous soccer league.

After a four-week trial at Warwick Crown Court, Steven King – the scheme’s ‘mastermind’ – was sentenced to seven years and four months in jail. Accomplice Paul Rolston was imprisoned for six years and four months, while Daniel Malone received three years and three months behind bars.

The men offered illegal subscription packages to more than 1,000 pubs, clubs and homes throughout England and Wales, via their websites DreamBoxTV.co.uk and YourFootie.com. The companies behind these sites traded under the names Dreambox (an unincorporated entity), Dreambox TV Limited, and Digital Switchover Limited.

According to the Premier League, the defendants generated in excess of £5 million over ten years of operation. Data held by Companies House shows that Digital Switchover Limited was incorporated in 2008, with Dreambox TV Limited trading since 2012. Steven King is listed as the sole director of both businesses.

“The operation used a range of technologies to continue their fraud over the course of a decade,” the Premier League said in a statement.

“Most recently, the defendants engaged various third parties located in the UK and across Europe to create illegal broadcast streams, which they then sold on to their customers. Over the course of the conspiracy, premium content from more than 20 broadcasters around the world was fraudulently obtained and supplied by the defendants.”

One of the suppliers to the defendants was Terry O’Reilly, who received a four-year prison sentence in 2016 on two counts of Conspiracy to Defraud after standing accused of selling 1,200 illegal streaming devices.

When handing down some of the toughest sentences ever seen in the UK for similar offenses, the Judge was said to have described the operation as a “dishonest, dodgy business”. According to the Premier League, the defendants’ attempts to frustrate the investigation (including via logo-blocking) was an “aggravating factor” which contributed to their lengthy punishments.

“Today’s decision has provided further evidence that the law will catch up with companies and individuals that defraud rights owners and breach copyright,” said Premier League Director of Legal Services, Kevin Plumb.

“The custodial sentences issued here reflect the seriousness and the scale of the crimes. Using these services is unlawful and fans should be aware that when they do so they enter into agreements with illegal businesses. They also risk being victims of fraud or identity theft by handing over personal data and financial details.”

Kieron Sharpe, director at the Federation Against Copyright Theft, weighed in with similar warnings.

“The result of this case demonstrates that the illegal streaming of, and illegal access to, Premier League football is a serious crime. This was a criminal enterprise whose only function was to make money from defrauding the Premier League and the legitimate broadcasters,” Sharpe said.

“For those people using services such as this, do not think that this is a grey area – it is not, it is breaking the law. Do not think it is a victimless crime – it is not, it puts thousands of ordinary peoples’ jobs at risk. Do not think that the internet provides anonymity – it does not.”

After the ruling was made public, TorrentFreak sought comment from several other players offering similar IPTV services to the public in the UK but just one agreed to comment.

“Sharpe is right, what we’re doing is illegal. He has to ask himself why people keep coming to us. Fred Bloggs [a reference to the public] buys a line [reference to a subscription] because it’s all the money they have left after working in a factory all week,” one supplier said, on condition of anonymity.

“Selling to pubs is stupid. Sky and BT are sniffing round all the time and it’s only a question of time before a landlord tells them where they bought their line from. Oh and before you go, running everything through a company with your real name is retarded.”

While the supplier wouldn’t say whether the hefty sentences handed down would act as a deterrent to him, he was very interested to learn where the £5 million went and whether any of it (or other property) would be confiscated through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

TorrentFreak asked the question to the Premier League and we’ll update this article when we receive a response.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

The ongoing battle between copyright holders and pirates is often described as a cat and mouse game, especially when it comes to content protection.

While most regular releases can be ripped or decrypted nowadays, 4K content remains a challenge to breach.

Up until a few days ago, pirate sites had never seen a decrypted 4K download from Apple’s video platform. However, a flurry of recent leaks, including many titles from the iTunes-exclusive “James Bond Collection,” suggests that the flood gates are now open.

It all started earlier this month ago when a pirated 4K copy of Aquaman surfaced online. The file is a so-called “Web” release, also known as WEB-DL in P2P circles. This means that it’s a decrypted copy of the original source file. These were never seen before for 4K releases.

Because the Aquaman release was only available on iTunes in this quality at the time, the most likely conclusion was that Apple’s platform was the source. However, based on just one single leak, it was tricky to draw strong conclusions.

The news quickly spread among pirate videophiles though, with some hoping that this would lead to the release of more exclusive titles. The iTunes exclusive James Bond 4K collection, for example.

“Maybe we will be able to get the 007 catalogue off iTunes? In any way, exciting times!” a commenter on Reddit noted.  This is exactly what happened.

In less than a week, all 24 films from iTunes’ “James Bond Collection” surfaced online as 2160p WEB-DLs . It started with a copy of the latest Bond movie “Spectre”, all the way to the earliest titles, including “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love”.

The leaked movies originate from the DEFLATE release group and are marked as ‘INTERNAL’ releases.

These 4K releases are exclusive to iTunes, which means that the release group likely has access to some kind of vulnerability or breach at the video platform and/or Apple TV hardware, which allows it to decrypt the videos’ source files. 

In theory, it’s also possible that there’s an ‘inside’ leak with access to unencrypted source files, but that seems less likely.

The James Bond WEB-DL leaks are not the only iTunes-linked 4K titles that have appeared online either. We already mentioned Aquaman and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse previously, and this week pirated 4K copies of  Bumblebee and The Mule came out as well.

Interestingly, DEFLATE also released 4K WEB-DL copies of the first two episodes of the new TV-series “Now Apocalypse.” This title, combined with the release timing, are linked to Starzplay via Amazon. Since this is just one title, it is harder to confirm the source with certainty. 

In the past, we have seen other 4K leaks from streaming platforms such as Netflix and Amazon, but these were WEBRips, which are captured and encoded, instead of directly downloaded from the source file. 

How the release group pulled this off remains a mystery for now. We contacted Apple to find out whether the company has any further details, but at the time of publication, we have yet to hear back.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Launched in 2013, French-based search engine Qwant markets itself as a privacy-friendly service.

Currently one of the top 50 most-visited sites in France, the service claims not track its users, unlike competitors such as Google.

It also differs from the world’s leading search engine in other ways too, most notably in its support of one of Europe’s most controversial legislative proposals in recent times.

In an interview published in French publication Les Echos (paywall), Qwant founder and boss Éric Leandri says his company is actually in favor of the EU’s Copyright Directive passing next week.

On Article 11 (which opponents refer to as the ‘link tax’), Leandri told the publication that the current text is “the only chance” for press publishers to receive remuneration from US giants, including Google, who use such content without paying publishers “a cent”.

On Article 13 (‘censorship machines’ / ‘upload filters’), Leandri acknowledges that the text “is not perfect” but still wants it to pass, since he believes there is a way to make it compatible with the values of an open Internet.

“We consider, that besides the editors of press and journalists, the world of culture and creation must be justly paid,” Leandri says.

“But this article scares the advocates of a free Internet, which we are, because it requires all platforms, except the very small, to identify protected content that would be indexed illegally, which they have always refused so far, believing that it is unmanageable.”

Leandri also highlights problems with not only the expense of creating a system similar to YouTube’s Content ID, but also the fear that smaller platforms will be driven to companies like Google and Facebook for their filtering solutions. This would allow the giants to collect even more data on Internet users and monitor the business activities of rivals.

So why the surprising support for the Copyright Directive?

“The modalities of application of this article are to be discussed and transposed in each country. We propose, at this stage, to condition the directive with the setting up of a free and open public platform in which the authors, the photographers, in short all the players, would deposit their photographs, videos and texts,” Leandri explains.

“The idea would be that companies on the Web can [query this database] to see if the content they use is free of copyrights, or not. Clearly, you send the photo that you want to use and [the database] answers you, yes, or no, depending on the footprint that has been associated with it. It’s much simpler technically than you think. And more right.”

While this kind of system could perhaps go some way to calming fears over the creation of an “upload filter oligopoly” as described recently by Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Leandri’s plan doesn’t appear to address a key and fundamental issue.

A database of content – whether it’s stored within YouTube’s systems or elsewhere – does not have the ability to differentiate when copyrighted content is used legally, for “parody, satire, reporting or criticism purposes”, for example.

And the quote above is indeed just that – and it came from Qwant itself – dug up by TF on the company’s blog.

In a commentary published last year warning against Article 13 and titled “Putting our freedom of speech into the hands of robots”, the piece warns that automated systems can indeed hinder freedom of expression.

“We believe that when they rely on platforms to express themselves, citizens should be free to use content that they feel is needed to support their point of view, provided that this use is proportionate,” the article reads.

“This puts a heavy burden on robots that can’t determine when a human being is making a proportionate and legal use of a third-party content, for instance for parody, satire, reporting or criticism purposes.

“Putting our freedom of speech into the hands of robots that will look into what human beings share and assess the legality of what they say is not the Internet we want for our children. So while we understand the need for efficient protection of copyright, we believe the proposed path is not one to follow,” the company added.

While the idea of an external database is novel, Leandri’s solution doesn’t address the company’s own fears over Article 13, let alone those of the public. TF asked Qwant how these seemingly opposing views can be consolidated but at the time of publication, we were yet to hear back.

However, Leandri is also proposing something else. He says his company will lead the way by committing right now to paying creators a fair price for any works utilized by his company, whether the Directive passes or not.

“[T]o prove to you how much I support this directive, I announce to you that, without even waiting for its vote, Qwant will start to pay the editors of content, so the newspapers for the texts, the photographers for the photos, and the video and music publishers that our search engine indexes,” Leandri concludes.

Proponents of Article 13 are already praising Qwant on social media for its support of the Copyright Directive but the apparent conflict may yet prove an irritant to users of its service, who value its stated open Internet stance.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

With more than 1.8 million subscribers, ‘Golden Modz‘ ranks among the more popular game YouTubers.

The channel is linked to Florida resident Brandon Lucas, who uses it to share gameplay videos which regularly feature cheats and hacks. 

Game publishers are not always happy to see this type of activity. When Golden Modz uploaded several Fortnite cheat videos last summer, Fortnite creator Epic Games took action. 

Initially, the company just sent takedown notices to YouTube. However, when these were appealed by the channel operator, the game company saw no other option than to go to court. 

In the complaint, filed at a North Carolina Federal Court, Epic Games accused Brandon Lucas a.k.a. Golden Modz of copyright infringement. The lawsuit also named fellow YouTuber Colton Conter, a.k.a. ‘Exentric’, as a second defendant.

“Exentric” made occasional appearances in the videos that were posted on the YouTube channel. In the videos, the two referred to their cheats as “magical powers,” informing viewers where to buy these, while hosting giveaways as well.

Initially, Lucas denied that the videos posted on the channel were his. In an unsworn affidavit, he said that no videos using cheats were posted by him, nor did he own the websites where the cheats were sold. As such, he filed a request with the court to dismiss the case.

Epic Games wasn’t convinced of Lucas’ innocence. The company filed a response to the motion to dismiss stating that, among other things, Lucas previously stated that the videos and channel were his. These claims were made in response to an earlier YouTube takedown request. 

The court sided with Epic Games and denied the motion to dismiss the case. This prompted both parties to get together to see if the case could be resolved without going to trial. Fast forward four months, and Lucas and Epic Games have now agreed on a settlement and a permanent injunction. 

A stipulated order filed at the North Carolina District Court, signed by both parties, clarifies that Lucas did use cheating software in his videos, which he profited from. 

“Lucas publicly displayed the use of cheat software (‘cheats’ or ‘hacks’) to  third parties for personal gain via his YouTube channel, ‘Golden Modz’, by playing in squads with players who were using cheats while playing Fortnite in at least nine videos posted on his YouTube channel.

“Lucas infringed Epic’s copyrights in Fortnite by creating and publicly
displaying unauthorized derivative works of Epic’s copyright protected Fortnite code in videos of himself and/or others on Lucas’ YouTube channel,”  the stipulated order reads.

Both Lucas and Epic Games agree that the violations of the Copyright Act caused great and irreparable harm to Epic which can’t be fully compensated or measured in money.

Despite this claim, there is no damages or settlement amount mentioned in the paperwork. It is possible that Lucas agreed to compensate Epic Games outside of court, but the details of the settlement are not public. 

The stipulated permanent injunction is published in full. This prevents Lucas from engaging in any infringing activity of Epic Games works in the future. In addition, he is not allowed to develop, promote, or link to, any cheating tools for Epic’s games.

The operator of the Golden Modz waived his right to appeal and faces $5,000 in damages in the event that any terms of the agreed injunction are violated.

The co-defendant in this case, Colton Conter, also agreed to a similar settlement and injunction earlier this year.

Injunction or not, the popular Golden Modz channel remains online. It still features several ‘cheat’ related videos. 

Golden Modz wisely refrained from posting any videos with Fortnite cheats, but the same can’t be said for GTA V.

“USING AIMBOT in GTA Online to make kids rage on the mic! 5,000 likes for part 2!!! Buy Modded accounts and GTA 5 services here – https://gatorcheats.com/,” the description of a recent video reads.

While the injunction doesn’t prevent Lucas from using GTA V cheats, these videos are not without risk either. GTA V’s Take-Two Interactive has also filed several lawsuits against alleged cheaters.

In fact, the company just filed a new case against several John Doe defendants who are believed to be involved with the cheating and ‘griefing’ software Evolve. As such, the company may not be happy with Golden Modz activities either.

—

A copy of the stipulated order and permanent injunction is available here (pdf). While it’s agreed on by both parties, the US District Court Judge has yet to sign it. That’s usually just a formality.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

Running a torrent site anywhere in the Western world was once an extremely risky endeavor, with prosecutions regularly hitting the headlines.

These days there appears to be less law enforcement and civil action than there once was but for four men in the UK, their actions several years ago have now caught up with them.

Steven Pegram, 40, Mark Rollin, 37, Paul Taylor, 54, and Alan Stephenson, 42, were part of a group which uploaded movies to their relatively low-profile torrent site, TheFoundry.name. Importantly they also made movies available before their theatrical release, notably The Expendables 3.

The movie leaked in so-called ‘DVD Screener’ format during July 2014 and was downloaded millions of times before its official release August 15, 2014.

In November that same year, the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit revealed that two arrests had been made in connection with the leak. The men were aged 33 and 36, the same ages as Pegram and Stephenson would’ve been at the time of the arrests.

Information now provided by the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service states that Pegram, Rollin, Taylor and Stephenson shared the movie on their platform, causing producer Lionsgate Films an estimated £1.5 million ($2 million) in losses.

Other movies made available on the site affected members of the MPAA, including Sony, Disney, Fox and Warner Brothers. Their losses were calculated at £7 million ($9.26 million), with Godzilla and X-Men: Days of Future Past accounting for almost £4 million ($5.29 million) of that total.

According to the prosecution, Pegram owned the site and along with Taylor, paid for its servers. Both men uploaded content to the platform.

Rollin acted as an encoder and uploader and was found to have 47 “high quality” movies on his computer, including the titles Are You Here and Third Person, in advance of their theatrical releases. Stephenson was responsible for setting up and maintaining the torrent site.

Rollin and Stephenson earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the copyright owners. At the first day of their trial on December 3, 2018, Pelgram and Taylor pleaded guilty to the same charge.

The quartet were all sentenced yesterday, with Pegram receiving a prison sentence of four-and-a-half years and Rollin a sentence of three years. Taylor and Stephenson were each sentenced to two years imprisonment, suspended for 24 months.

“These defendants set up and ran a site which allowed users to download films for free via BitTorrent, including the Expendables 3 before its release in the cinema,” said Leigh Webber, a Specialist Prosecutor in the Specialist Fraud Division at the Crown Prosecution Service.

“All of them had clear knowledge of what the site was used for and were well aware they were breaching the copyright of the production companies.”

The saga surrounding the leak of The Expendables 3 has now been running for almost five years, with several individuals, groups, and platforms being held responsible for its distribution.

In August 2014, file-hosting site Hulkfile threw in the towel in the US after being targeted by Lionsgate after a user stored the movie on its servers. Almost a year later, file-hosting site Played.to reached a settlement with the movie company after users streamed the movie illegally.

In March 2016, United States District Judge Otis Wright granted a default judgment which ordered Muhammed Ashraf (LimeTorrents), Tom Messchendorp (Dotsemper), and Lucas Lim (Swankshare) to pay the maximum statutory damages of $150,000 each, again for offering The Expendables 3.

Then last December, a federal grand jury in California indicted five men for allegedly offering pre-release copies of hundreds of movies and TV shows via the Internet, The Expendables 3 included.

The indictment revealed that at least one of the men stands accused of accessing the California-based servers of a content-management services company which was used to store and distribute motion picture assets.

In 2013, the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) informed TorrentFreak that The Expendables 3 had been “stolen” from a “cloud-based system”, something which supports the information released in the indictment.

The unit later revealed they’d arrested a then 26-year-old man in the UK during April 2015 under suspicion of leaking The Expendables 3.

While it is still to be officially confirmed if it is indeed the same person, Malik Luqman Farooq (placed at 30-years-old in December’s indictment and said to be resident in the UK), is mentioned prominently by the Department of Justice in the US.

The indictment claims the unreleased copy of The Expendables 3 was obtained from a content-management services company and downloaded via TOR. The copy was then stored on an OVH server with Farooq later selling it to an undercover anti-piracy investigator working for the MPAA.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.