When piracy hits the mainstream news, it’s often in relation to books, games, music, TV-shows and movies.

These industries grab headlines because of the major players that are involved, but they are not the only ones dealing with piracy.

In the age of social media, photographers are arguably the most pirated creators of all. Many people don’t even consider ‘copyright’ when sharing an image they find online.

That can be quite frustrating for people whose livelihoods depend on selling photos, especially when commercial outlets use their work for free. This issue was highlighted again this week by photographer J. Salmeron.

This summer he took a great shot of Alissa White-Gluz of the metal band Arch Enemy at the Fortarock festival. The photographer posted it on Instagram where it was well received. Even by the singer herself, who re-posted it on her account.

Technically, nobody is allowed to repost photos without permission but Salmeron generally doesn’t object to fans sharing his work. When it’s used for commercial purposes, however, it becomes a problem.

So, when the photographer, who also happens to be a lawyer, noticed that “Thunderball Clothing” used the photo to promote their goods – which the singer was wearing – he decided to take action.

Thunderball Clothing’s instagram post

In an email to the company, Salmeron pointed out that he would generally request a licensing fee of at least €500. However, in this case, he would be happy if the company donated €100 to the Dutch Cancer Foundation.

At this point, the issue could have been resolved without any fuss, but things quickly got out of hand. Thunderball Clothing wasn’t planning to pay and reached out to the band, accusing the photographer of making threats.

The band and the singer sided with the clothing company and sponsor, arguing that a payment is not required.

Apparently, the band’s management is under the impression that the band, fans, and sponsors can use the work of photographers free of charge. In return, they get exposure.

“I would like to ask why you are sending discontent emails to people sharing the photo of Alissa? Alissa’s sponsors and fan clubs are authorized to share photos of her. Thunderball Clothing is a sponsor of Alissa and Arch Enemy,” they replied.

“Generally speaking, photographers appreciate having their work shown as much as possible and we are thankful for the great photos concert photographers provide,” the band’s management added.

The account, which obviously only tells one side of the story, can be read in full at Metalblast and Petapixel.

After some messages back and forth, the photo was eventually removed, but the band also made it very clear that Salmeron is no longer welcome at any future gigs.

“By the way, we are sure you don’t mind that you are not welcome anymore to take pictures of Arch Enemy performances in the future, at festivals or solo performances,” the reply read.

“I have copied in the label reps and booking agent who will inform promoters – no band wants to have photographers on site who later send such threatening correspondence to monetize on their images.”

The irony of the situation is that the band itself is no stranger to copyright. It obviously doesn’t want people to grab their latest album illegally, even though that means more exposure.

The copyright clash itself also generated plenty of exposure for the band, but not the type they’re looking for. A tweet about the upcoming album triggered a wave of sarcastic responses.

While this example is rather extreme, photographers all around the world face similar issues. In this case, Salmeron attempted to resolve it directly, but many of his colleagues are going to court.

This year alone, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed by photographers over the unauthorized use of their work by various news outlets or other commercial outfits. The majority of these end in confidential settlements.

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

Many countries around the world have site-blocking regulations or laws in place or are considering implementing them. The Philippines sits in the latter category and is attacking the issue with gusto.

A new bill introduced by Senator Vicente “Tito” Castelo Sotto III highlights the thorny issue of online piracy and the reputation of the Philippines as a supposed “safe haven” for such activities.

“The Philippines is, unfortunately, one of the countries described by Internet pirates as ‘safe’ for uploading, downloading, linking, torrenting, and stream infringing content without fear of prosecution. The Philippines continues to be a haven for cyber criminals who illegally make content available on the Internet,” the bill begins.

“Years ago, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) was able to disrupt the notorious pirate torrent site, KickAssTorrents (kat.ph), by seizing the .ph domain – the country’s code domain. However, these prolific pirates simply changed their domain to that of another country – to .to for Tonga or .so for Somalia, just to cite an example.”

The bill seeks to “empower” the country’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) while forcing local Internet Service Providers to take “reasonable steps to disable access to sites whenever these sites are reported to be infringing copyright or facilitating copyright infringement.”

In broad terms, copyright holders will be expected to file a complaint against sites with the IPO which will then consider various aspects of their infringing, including the “flagrancy” of sites, whether operators demonstrate a “disregard” for copyright, whether sites have been blocked by courts elsewhere, and if blocking would be proportionate.

Within 15 days of an application, the IPO will have to produce a report and distribute it to copyright holders and ISPs. A Review Committee should then consider the case and if it agrees with the IPO, will issue a Notice of Approval within 10 days. Just five days after that, the IPO will be required to hand down an order requiring ISPs to take “reasonable steps” (URL, IP address, domain blocking) to disable access to the “infringing online location” listed in the complaint.

While ISPs will be able to file an objection if they disagree with the findings of the IPO, non-compliance with a finalized blocking order could have serious consequences.

“If the recommendation of the IPO to cancel the license of the ISP is proper and meritorious, the Commission shall facilitate the prompt cancellation of the license of the ISP,” the bill reads.

While site-blocking in other regions is usually carried out under the authority of a court order or injunction, this appears to be the first time that ISPs will find themselves under a direct threat to either block sites or go out of business.

The full bill can be found here (pdf)

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

After long negotiations, the Canadian Government agreed earlier this year that the country’s current copyright term will be extended by 20 years.

This change was part of the trade deal negotiations with the US and Mexico. By extending copyright protection to life plus 70 years, ‘rightsholders’ will be able to generate more profit, the argument goes.

While that may work in theory, Canadian singer Bryan Adams believes that large intermediaries such as the major record labels will benefit the most. Creators often sign away their rights early on, which means that they don’t benefit from any extensions.

In a brief to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Adams notes that copyright law is out of balance. As such, large companies stand to benefit more from a copyright extension than individual creators.

One of the problems, according to Adams, is the fact that intermediaries hold the bigger bargaining chip. Creators who want to earn a living may sign away their rights in their first deal, something they may regret later on.

“Creators deal with one or few intermediaries; they sign up creators all the time. Creators striking a first deal sign anything that is presented to them; an intermediary rarely needs to sign up this creator,” Adams writes.

“Copyright law is about balance, a balance which was and remains at risk between creators and intermediaries. Copyright law works not so much for creators as for intermediaries; extending the duration of copyright will benefit them, not creators.”

The imbalance can be easily addressed, according to Adams. While it may be too late to revert the agreed copyright extension, there’s a change that will put more power in the hands of creators. And it only requires changing one word in the Copyright Act.

Right now, Canadian copyright reverts to a creator’s heirs 25 years after “death.” By changing the word “death” to “assignment”, creators terminate a copyright assignment while they’re still alive.

This means that the starting artists who signed away their rights to an album to a major label at 20 years of age, can get those rights back at 45. It’s a major change, but not unprecedented, as the US has a similar copyright-termination policy after 35 years.

Adams’ recommendation

Adams already discussed the proposal earlier this year when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, but the brief he submitted discusses the advantages in great detail.

Among other things, he stresses that the change in termination policy would empower creators, which will also be good in light of the planned copyright extension.

“Including a termination right in Canadian copyright law would help to ensure that real world copyright law works more in favor of creators. It would also help reduce some of the unintended effects of the upcoming extension of copyright.

“Canada is now more or less duty-bound to increase copyright protection by 20 years, to ‘life + 70’. Extending the duration of copyright essentially enriches large firms of intermediaries. It does not put money in the pockets of most creators,” Adams notes.

By granting a copyright termination right the expected benefits of an extension don’t go to the intermediaries. At the same time, creators will be able to profit more from their work. It’s a giant step forward and only requires changing a single word in the Copyright Act.

—

A full copy of Adams’ brief, first highlighted by professor Michael Geist, is available here (pdf).

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

On December 22, famous cracking group CPY released a ‘cracked’ copy of City Patrol: Police online. While there doesn’t seem to be much to be excited about gaming-wise, the controversy around the release itself is quite extraordinary.

When release groups ‘crack’ a game, they release the title with an NFO (info) file. These text offerings contain information about the game itself and further details about the ‘pirate’ release, such as the protection defeated – Denuvo, for example.

The NFO released with City Patrol: Police is extremely special. Written by CPY, it contains a wall of text the group appears to have found embedded in the game’s files. CPY suggests the message was put there by anti-piracy outfit Valeroa.

The previously-hidden message

There is plenty of speculation as to what the above means but it seems likely that the partially-redacted names in the message allegedly placed there by Valeroa identify people in The Scene. That being said, CPY seemed fairly happy to re-publish the details, knowing full well that the information would be made public.

If we begin on the basis that the information and the assumptions about who put what where are even remotely accurate, it raises the question where the information was obtained from. If one adds two and two, the most likely explanation is that Valeroa either has connections with current Scene members or might even be active themselves, if only in an observational capacity.

Again, working on the basis that the speculation has some truth, absolutely no-one should be surprised that an anti-piracy company has pirate connections.

Nobody on this planet knows pirates better than pirates so it should be flat-out expected that some Scene members, past or present, will have crossed to ‘the other side’ to make some proper money from what are undoubtedly great skills.

And, one has to remember, this shift of personnel can have a big effect. Not only does a coder get to legitimize his or her skills while earning a decent living for their family, the process also drains some of the brains from the competition, a valuable tool in the overall war.

Indeed, TF is informed that prominent Scene members involved in software cracking were coaxed away to develop an anti-piracy technology for physical media in the 2000s. Even after changes in company identities and the passing of many years, they still appear to be working in similar business areas. Surprising? Not at all.

But it’s not just former pirates that are targeted by these kinds of companies. Just this week, the topic of discussion on the site Tuts4You was the ‘revelation‘ that a respected reverse-engineer had gone to work for Denuvo. While some people might find that objectionable, who better to recruit than someone who has the perfect skills for the job?

With all that said, the kind of behavior and posturing suggested in the CPY NFO is not conducive to peaceful co-existence. People’s identities in The Scene are (or perhaps should be) closely guarded secrets but even Sceners are human. Many have let their guards down because they’re super-comfortable with other members, have a close connection with them outside of The Scene, or have made a mistake or two along the way.

By suggesting identities are known in this fashion, it’s a bit like saying: “We know who you are – your move.” Trouble is, that’s what often happens. Someone makes a move, which prompts another one, which invariably leads to disaster. One only has to look at the GOD / IGG-Games fiasco for a recent example.

Even partially ‘doxxing’ people can have catastrophic results, particularly when it’s done in a malicious way. The scope for retaliation is very high indeed and as such nobody truly wins. Mutual destruction is not a successful outcome in any war, no matter how bitter.

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

At the end of every year we take a look at the most-downloaded TV-episodes among torrenting pirates.

The list was headed by Game of Thrones for six years in a row, but this reign has now come to an end.

With no new GoT episodes in 2018, the title was up for grabs and The Walking Dead has seized this opportunity.

This doesn’t come as a complete surprise, as the AMC series was already the runner-up since 2014.

Episodes of The Walking Dead are downloaded millions of times. The show has a steady following and is currently in its ninth season. The series may continue for a few more years as the producers previously said that they have enough material to keep it alive for several more seasons.

Apart from the change at the top, there are a few small changes. Most of the entries in the top ten have been featured in the list at least once before in previous years. Titans is the best-ranked newcomer in fifth place.

It’s worth noting that BitTorrent traffic only makes up a small portion of the piracy landscape. A lot of people use streaming sites and services nowadays, which generally do not report viewing stats.

Finally, while Game of Thrones is excluded this year it doesn’t mean that the show isn’t being pirated. GoT torrents remain the most sought-after season bundles on torrent sites.

In fact, if all downloads from previous episodes and seasons would count, GoT would likely still be on top. This is also what IKnowWhatYouDownload suggests. We, therefore, have no doubt that it will return for a grand finale next year when the final season airs.

—

Below we have compiled a list of the most torrented TV-shows worldwide (most shared single episode). The ranking is compiled by TorrentFreak based on several sources, including statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers and the DHT network. Full season downloads are not included.

Most downloaded TV-shows on BitTorrent, 2018

rank	last year	show
torrentfreak.com
1	(2)	The Walking Dead
2	(3)	The Flash
3	(4)	The Big Bang Theory
4	(8)	Vikings
5	(…)	Titans
6	(10)	Arrow
7	(…)	Supernatural
8	(…)	Westworld
9	(…)	DC’s Legends of Tomorrow
10	(9)	Suits

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