YouTube rippers are seen as the largest piracy threat to the music industry, and record labels are doing their best to shut them down.

In 2017, YouTube-MP3, the world’s largest ripping site at the time, shut down after being sued, and several other folded in response to increased legal uncertainty.

Not all stream-ripping sites throw in the towel without a fight though. FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com, owned by Russian developer Tofig Kurbanov, remained online despite being sued by several record labels last August.

Where other site owners often prefer to remain in the shadows, Kurbanov filed a motion to dismiss the case. According to the defense, the court has no jurisdiction over the matter. Only a small fraction of the visitors come from the US, and the site is managed entirely from Russia, it argued.

The RIAA labels, including Universal, Warner Bros, and Sony, clearly disagreed. In response, they argued that the operator of FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com downplays the connections to the US and Virginia. Therefore, he should stand trial there.

Yesterday, US District Court Judge Claude M. Hilton ruled on the matter. In a 14-page opinion, he clearly sides with the operator of the YouTube rippers. Kurbanov doesn’t have to stand trial in the US so the case was dismissed.

The ruling is merely about jurisdiction and doesn’t make an assessment of the alleged copyright infringements. The court carefully reviewed how the site operates and found no evidence that they purposefully targeted either Virginia or the United States.

The sites are available in the US and have plenty of visitors there, but that by itself is not enough.

“Even if the Websites’ servers knew exactly where the users were located, any interaction would still be in the unilateral control of the users as they initiate the contacts,” Judge Hilton’s opinion reads.

2conv.com

There could be personal jurisdiction if there’s a “commercial contract” involved. However, that’s not the case here. The site generates revenue from users through advertisements, but that’s not seen as a basis for a commercial contract, the court concludes.

“As the Websites are semi-interactive, the interactions with the users are non-commercial, and there were no other acts by the Defendant that would demonstrate purposeful targeting, the Court finds that Defendant did not purposefully avail himself of the benefits and protections of either Virginia or the United States.

“The Court finds that exercise of personal jurisdiction over Defendant would be unconstitutional as a violation of due process…” Judge Hilton’s opinion adds, before dismissing the case.

In addition, the opinion stresses that without personal jurisdiction the record labels don’t have the option to refile the case in California or elsewhere in the US.

The ruling

Val Gurvits, one of the attorneys who represented the site operator, is thrilled with the outcome. He believes this will also be beneficial to other foreign sites that offer similar functionality.

“This decision goes a long way towards curbing the copyright owners’ misuse of the US legal system to bully foreign website operators,” Gurvits informs TorrentFreak.

In many copyright-related cases, foreign defendants decide not to appear at all, but this case shows that fighting back can pay off.

“All too often plaintiffs file actions in US courts against foreign defendants that have no connections with the US – and all too often foreign defendants are subjected to default judgments for failure to appear in a US court,” Gurvits says.

“We are happy we were able to save our client from having to defend this action in a US court thousands of miles away from where the relevant business activities take place,” he adds.

The major record labels have yet to comment on the outcome. TorrentFreak reached out to the RIAA for a response, but we haven’t heard back thus far.

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A copy of the memorandum opinion supporting the dismissal is available here (pdf).

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The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has been protecting the interests of Hollywood since its formation in 1922.

It generates most of its revenue from contributions by the six major Hollywood studios – Disney, Paramount, Sony, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros.

But now, in a historic move, a significant new member has joined the movie and TV show trade association.

“On behalf of the MPAA and its member companies, I am delighted to welcome Netflix as a partner,” MPAA Chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement.

“All of our members are committed to pushing the film and television industry forward, in both how we tell stories and how we reach audiences. Adding Netflix will allow us to even more effectively advocate for the global community of creative storytellers, and I look forward to seeing what we can all achieve together.”

The addition of Netflix to the MPAA fold doesn’t come as a complete surprise.

As reported in 2018, the MPAA faces a shrinking budget following Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox. Despite reporting revenues of $57m (including studio contributions of almost $50m) in its latest public filings, that figure was down from $73 million in the previous year.

Disney previously promised to pay Fox’s MPAA contributions for a year after the finalization of the deal but that still had the potential to leave the MPAA down one-sixth in membership dues. Presuming that the streaming service will pay an equal share, Netflix’s membership of the trade group should go a long way to filling the Fox-shaped hole in its budget.

The addition of Netflix to the MPAA is groundbreaking on a few fronts.

Perhaps most significantly, Netflix isn’t a Hollywood studio, so its membership breaks with almost a century of tradition. And, of course, this is the first time that a dedicated streaming service has become so closely aligned with the interests of the 97-year-old organization.

“Joining the Motion Picture Association further exemplifies our commitment to ensuring the vibrancy of these creative industries and the many talented people who work in them all over the world,” said Ted Sarandos, Netflix Chief Content Officer.

“We look forward to supporting the association team and their important efforts.”

While Netflix settles in as the MPAA’s newest member, the streaming service is no stranger to working with the major Hollywood studios in respect of content protection.

In 2017, Netflix was revealed as one of the founding members of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment  (ACE), a global anti-piracy group featuring the studios of the MPAA and dozens of other companies. As a key member, Netflix was granted full voting rights on ACE business, including the approval of initiatives and public policy, anti-piracy strategy, budget-related matters, plus approval of legal action.

If the MPAA is looking to expand further still, it’s possible that Amazon could yet join the fold. Not only is Amazon a founding member of ACE, but the company was also touted as a potential new MPAA member during 2018.

Amazon, however, is still a member of the Internet Association, a pro-tech group organization that Netflix parted company with recently, just in advance of joining the MPAA.

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US music and movie industry companies helped to get pirate sites blocked in countries all around the globe.

On their home turf, however, pirate sites remain freely accessible.

After the SOPA protests, the blocking issue became a no-go issue in the US. Blocking efforts continued elsewhere though, including in the UK, where hundreds of pirate domains have been blocked.

Slowly but steadily, copyright holders now appear ready to reintroduce the idea of site blocking. Recent filings from Hollywood’s MPAA and the music industry’s RIAA believe that a new US-UK trade agreement is a good opportunity to do so.

The trade deal is required if the UK leaves the EU. To gauge what various stakeholders would like to see in a new agreement, the US Trade Representative (USTR) requested comments from the public.

Responding to this request the RIAA provides a list of priorities for the negotiations. This includes known talking points such as increasing liability for online platforms, but site-blocking also get a prominent mention.

In the UK copyright holders can request site-blocking injunctions fairly easily, and the RIAA would like to see the same in the US.

“Website blocking is a highly-effective form of copyright enforcement in the UK, and in numerous other jurisdictions around the world to combat infringing websites, and is a critical tool in ensuring legitimate trade in digital products and services,” the RIAA writes.

The music group adds that blocking has proven to be very effective in reducing traffic to the affected sites.

“Website blocking has been successful in the United Kingdom with 63 music sites being ordered to be blocked following music right holders’ initiatives. On average this produces a reduction in the use of those sites by UK users by approximately 75 percent.”

The RIAA further highlights the more recent “live” or “dynamic” blocking orders. These are currently targeting pirated football and boxing streams as they are broadcasted, and are limited to the duration of a season or event.

The music group is not alone in this request. The Digital Creators Working Group, which includes the Association of American Publishers, News Media Alliance, as well as the RIAA and MPAA, highlighted it as well.

In a separate submission to the USTR, the organizations list “website blocking, including “dynamic” blocking as provided in UK law,” as one of the priorities for a new trade deal.

The MPAA itself also sent in a list of priorities. In a carefully worded statement, which doesn’t mention the word “blocking,” it points out that the UK is ahead of the US in many regards when it comes to anti-piracy enforcement.

“With regard to online enforcement, a U.S.-UK agreement should include disciplines that can effectively address online piracy. In many ways, the UK has more nimbly and effectively responded to digital piracy than the U.S.,” MPAA notes.

The MPAA would like to pick the best elements from US and UK policy and combine them into an even more effective agreement.

“To promote a modernized IP trade framework, MPAA recommends moving to high-level language that reflects the fundamental principles on which the DMCA is based and which identifies key elements of the UK system, including no fault injunctive relief orders, as satisfying the standard. 

“Such an approach would be fully consistent with U.S. law and preserve the high levels of protection in the UK’s enforcement framework,” the MPAA adds. 

While blocking isn’t mentioned specifically, the “no fault injunctive relief orders” the Hollywood group refers to are generally used against ISPs to compel these companies to block pirate sites.

The submissions clearly show that major rightsholder groups are no longer avoiding the blocking issue in the US. This already became apparent a few weeks ago, when music industry outfits brought it up in comments sent to the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator.

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RIAA’s full submission is available here (pdf). MPAA’s response can be found here (pdf) and the  Digital Creators Working Group’s submission is here (pdf).

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With the support of the Japanese government, content creators in Japan are attempting to crack down on the unauthorized reproduction and sharing of copyrighted content.

Due to their effect on local markets, those who offer copyrighted manga and anime works appear to be a priority.

The latest to fall foul of the authorities are three men said to be the operators of once-popular site ‘Haruka Yume no Ato’, a platform that indexed links to manga content without permission from rights holders.

The initial legal action against the site was documented in 2017 when police arrested nine suspects under suspicion of violating the Copyright Act. According to Anime News Network, at the time it was one of the largest so-called ‘leech sites’ (platforms that index content hosted elsewhere) in Japan.

Now, after more than a year, three operators of the site have been sentenced for their crimes.

The Osaka District Court handed down prison sentences of three years and six months for the “mastermind”, three years for the server operator, and two years and four months for another key player.

According to a statement from local publisher Kodansha, which worked on the case with other publishers including Kadokawa and Square Enix, the men are former student graduates in their 20s.

“It is seriously meaningful that all three of the principal offenders have been sentenced to imprisonment,” the company added.

The Association of Copyright for Computer Software (ACCS) also welcomed the sentencing, noting that the three men had conspired with “multiple upload actors” to keep content flowing.

“These heavy prison sentences sound alarm bells for similar cases and we, along with our member companies, will continue to take decisive action against malicious acts of copyright infringement in the future,” the group said.

“We will promote activities towards the realization of a society where copyright is respected through dissemination of information and raising awareness of proper use.”

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Watching most top-tier soccer or football is an expensive option in most regions. Billions are paid out by broadcasters for the rights to matches and this cost has to be passed down to fans.

While millions dig deep to fund what has become a pricey sport to follow, others seek a free fix, often in the shape of an unauthorized online stream. These come in many formats, from websites with embedded players through to IPTV and streaming torrent links.

While these are widely available online, having these sources listed in one place is much more convenient for the end user. Until two days ago, Reddit’s /r/soccerstreams subreddit aimed to fill that gap.

With in excess of 420,000 subscribers, /r/soccerstreams was undoubtedly popular but like similar sections on Reddit offering links to infringing content, the subreddit was also plagued with copyright infringement complaints from upset rightsholders.

According to the moderators of /r/soccerstreams, these recently reached “critical mass”, something which effectively shut down the subreddit.

“I regret to inform you all that a few days ago, the Reddit Admins got in touch with us about an impending ban of this subreddit if changes weren’t made,” moderator ‘notsoyoungpadawan‘ wrote in an announcement.

“The only way to save it, from our perspective, was to cease all user related activity here.”

Since the users of the subreddit were the ones posting the links, the announcement means that while /r/soccerstreams still technically exists, the lack of any streaming soccer links means that the show is effectively over. However, the subreddit will now act as a “home base for the official Soccer Streams mod team.”

With /r/soccerstreams being used for announcements and news moving forward, the mod team has revealed that two new subreddits have been created for Premier League content and content from other leagues. There is also a Discord Server for the former.

“The aforementioned two are, for the moment, temporary solutions. We are working on a more permanent solution, however, due to the short notice we’ve had to work with what we have,” the mod teams says.

The indication that these are only temporary solutions is unsurprising.

While it’s unclear which leagues filed copyright infringement complaints with Reddit, it’s more than likely that the Premier League was heavily involved so will take a dim view of any new section set up to carry out the same function as /r/soccerstreams.

There seems little doubt that if they gain any traction on Reddit or Discord, these new sharing venues will eventually be shut down too since both Reddit and Discord have policies that outlaw copyright infringement and the increasing importance of repeat infringer policies.

This voluntary shutdown features just one in a line of similar subreddits that have been shut down following copyright complaints in recent times. Last year /r/megalinks suffered a similar fate as did /r/crackedsoftware.

 

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