Many Internet traffic reports have been published over the years, documenting how traffic patterns change over time.

One of the trends that emerged in recent years, is that BitTorrent’s share of total Internet traffic decreased.

With the growth of services such as YouTube and Netflix, streaming started to generate massive amounts of bandwidth. As a result, BitTorrent lost a significant chunk of its ‘market share.’

This trend gradually increased, until recently. In some parts of the world file-sharing traffic, BitTorrent in particular, is growing.

That’s what’s suggested by Canadian broadband management company Sandvine, which has kept a close eye on these developments for over a decade. The company will release its latest Global Internet Phenomena report next month but gave us an exclusive sneak peek.

Globally, across both mobile and fixed access networks file-sharing accounts for 3% of downstream and 22% of upstream traffic. More than 97% of this upstream is BitTorrent, which makes it the dominant P2P force.

In the EMEA region, which covers Europe, the Middle East, and Africa there’s a clear upward trend. BitTorrent traffic now accounts for 32% of all upstream traffic. This means that roughly a third of all uploads are torrent-related.

Keep in mind that overall bandwidth usage per household also increased during this period, which means that the volume of BitTorrent traffic grew even more aggressively.

BitTorrent traffic also remains the top upstream source in the Asia Pacific region with 19% of total traffic. Percentage-wise this is down compared to two years ago, but in volume, it’s relatively stable according to Sandvine.

Other popular file-sharing upload sources in the Asia Pacific region are the Korean P2P app “K grid” (7%) and “Afreeca TV” (2%).

In the Americas, BitTorrent is the second largest source of upstream traffic. It has a market share of little over 9% and is most popular in Latin America. BitTorrent is only a fraction behind MPEG-TS, which is used for backhauling data from video cameras and security systems.

BitTorrent dead?

TorrentFreak spoke to Sandvine’s Vice President of Solutions Marketing Cam Cullen, who notes that more details will be released in the upcoming report. However, it’s clear that BitTorrent is not dead yet.

The next question is why BitTorrent traffic is on the rise again? According to Cullen, increased fragmentation in the streaming service market may play an important role.

“More sources than ever are producing ‘exclusive’ content available on a single streaming or broadcast service – think Game of Thrones for HBO, House of Cards for Netflix, The Handmaid’s Tale for Hulu, or Jack Ryan for Amazon. To get access to all of these services, it gets very expensive for a consumer, so they subscribe to one or two and pirate the rest.

“Since these numbers were taken in June for this edition, there were no Game of Thrones episodes coming out, so consider these numbers depressed from peak!” Cullen notes.

And we haven’t even mentioned non-filesharing traffic sources such as cyberlockers and streaming sites, which are even more popular than BitTorrent…

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Grindr bills itself as the “largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people.” Back in March the company faced a crisis with reports of security breaches with privacy implications.

The first involved the use of a third-party website, which was able to extract normally hidden information from Grindr, including the email addresses and locations of people who had opted not to share that data.

The second alleged that unencrypted location data was being sent by the Grindr app, something the company later denied. A third report indicated that Grindr had been sharing users’ HIV status with outside companies.

Then, less than two weeks ago, a further report criticized Grindr for the existence of a third-party app known as ‘Fuckr’. Released back in 2015, Fuckr gives users the ability to precisely locate hundreds of Grindr users to an accuracy of just a few feet, a privacy nightmare for those not looking for that kind of immediate intimacy.

Locations laid bare Credit: Fuckr/Queer Europe

“The technique used to locate Grindr users is called ‘trilateration’. Hereby, the distance towards a certain user is measured from three (or more) virtual points nearby them,” Queer Europe reported.

“This can be done by making a call to Grindr’s server, which is accessible via an API (Application Programming Interface). After having obtained the distance between users and the three virtual locations nearby them, it is simple to find out where they are located.”

As revealed by Github, Grindr took almost immediate action. Via a DMCA notice, the dating service demanded that the entire ‘Fuckr’ repository be taken down from Github.

“The purpose of ‘Fuckr’ is to facilitate unauthorized access to the Grindr app by circumventing Grindr’s access controls, such that ‘Fuckr’ functions as ‘an unofficial desktop Grindr client’,” the notice reads.

“Among other things, the Grindr app contains mechanisms that prevent users from identifying the precise geographic locations of other users. ‘Fuckr’ is designed to bypass those mechanisms such that users can ‘[p]inpoint any guy’s exact location’.”

Grindr also points out that Fuckr is able to spoof a user’s location as well as granting access to otherwise non-downloadable images. For these reasons, Grindr states that Fuckr is primarily designed for the purpose of “circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work” protected under the Copyright Act. Github responded by deleting the repository.

Fuckr – gone

But while the immediate threat appeared to be over, Fuckr wasn’t dead just yet. Plenty of forks of Fuckr remained available and now it appears Grindr is engaged in a game of Whac-a-Mole to have them taken down. In a fresh DMCA notice filed with Github yesterday, the dating platform demanded that dozens of ‘forks’ of the software be taken down.

“As you are aware, we previously submitted a takedown notice for the ‘Fuckr’ repository ([repository disabled per previous DMCA takedown]) as it violated the Copyright Act and the anti-circumvention prohibitions of 17 U.S.C. Section 1201. The original project was taken down on or about September 13, 2018,” the notice reads.

“The Forks of the ‘Fuckr’ repository are still active and equally violate the law, GitHub’s Terms, Grindr’s Terms, and endanger the safety of Grindr users by facilitating unauthorized access to the user’s location and exposing the user to real threats of anti-LGBT violence. Therefore, Grindr requests that these Forks be taken down for the same reasons as the original project.”

New takedown notice targets 90 Fuckr forks

The DMCA takedown notice targets around 90 ‘forks’ or clones of the original Fuckr desktop application, showing that the process of removing the threat is still far from over.

Grindr says it has attempted to contact “the infringer” (presumably the people behind the original Fuckr) using the only address it was able to find, but its letters were returned as undeliverable. With that, the company seeks Github’s help to mitigate the ongoing problem.

“[W]e are certain GitHub will appreciate the gravity of the above-described violations and will not knowingly allow its services to perpetuate such illegal and threatening activity without swift action to protect the integrity of GitHub and members of the public who use its platform,” Grindr adds.

“Grindr respectfully requests GitHub immediately take down the Forks for the ‘Fuckr’ repository and appreciates a receipt of confirmation once the take down has been put into effect.”

Checks carried out by TF indicate that Github acted swiftly to disable the allegedly infringing repositories yesterday.

With so many clones of Fuckr still available online, it remains unclear why Grindr can’t make changes to its system to prevent Fuckr from gaining access to its data. Until it does, it seems likely that Fuckr will still remain a serious security threat to the company’s users.

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

Earlier this year Hollywood’s Motion Picture Distributors’ Association stated that site-blocking was the only option left to beat online piracy.

While it’s impossible to completely eradicate the phenomenon, rightsholders generally see ISP blockades as one of the most effective tools at their disposal.

This is also true for Sky TV New Zealand. Last year the company took its first steps in this direction, and it is now pushing on. Newsroom reports that Sky hopes to file a lawsuit targeting The Pirate Bay and an unnamed sports streaming site before the end of the year.

The company just released the results of an extensive piracy survey which shows that 29% of all New Zealanders have pirated sport and entertainment during the last month. The majority of pirates prefer streaming, but downloading and pirate boxes are popular too.

“We’ve known that piracy is a problem for a while, but the scale is even bigger than we thought,” SKY spokesperson Sophie Moloney says.

“If piracy remains unchecked, it risks really hurting the sports and entertainment industry in New Zealand, and our ability to create great content,” she adds.

The lacking availability of legal viewing options is the main reason why people pirate, the research reveals. Legal content is either not available or it’s significantly delayed. Interestingly, non-pirates believe that people mainly turn to unauthorized offerings to avoid paying.

Sky TV, however, believes that there are plenty of legal option and will push its blocking plans through.

“Other countries are taking steps to stop piracy and encourage people not to steal content, and we want to do the same here in New Zealand, including by way of blocking pirate websites,” Sky TV’s Moloney says.

Surprisingly, there is even support for this effort among self-proclaimed pirates.

Just over half of all pirates agreed that they “would be happy for my ISP to block access to a piracy website if it was required by a court to do so.” This is also preferred over other options, such as tighter regulation or lawsuits against individual pirates.

“Site-blocking is used in 42 countries around the world, including Australia and the UK. It’s good to see that many New Zealanders would prefer that these dodgy sites are blocked from view using this approach,” Moloney notes.

Whether Internet providers feel the same way has yet to be seen. When Sky TV first announced its blocking intentions last year, local ISPs responded critically.

“SKY’s call that sites be blacklisted on their say so is dinosaur behavior, something you would expect in North Korea, not in New Zealand. It isn’t our job to police the Internet and it sure as hell isn’t SKY’s either, all sites should be equal and open,” said Taryn Hamilton of local IPS Vocus at the time.

ISPs instead pointed out that rightsholders should focus on improving the legal options. And with Sky TV’s research revealing ‘limited legal options’ as the main motivation to pirate, they are likely to stick with this.

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

Every day, countless thousands of pieces of infringing content are uploaded to the Internet including most movies, TV shows, games, and commercial software.

Rightsholders everywhere are struggling to the contain the influx, often having to resort to filing millions of takedown notices with Internet companies, the bulk of which target the world’s major search engines.

While this doesn’t take down the actual content itself, there is a theory that citizens often turn to search engines to find their fix. These sites, in turn, direct users to sites hosting infringing content. To combat this facilitation, copyright holders want search companies to remove these results from their indexes.

Takedowns like this are common in the West, with Google removing billions of links upon request. In Russia, however, search engine Yandex found itself in hot water recently after refusing to remove links on the basis that the law does not require it to do so. This prompted the authorities to suggest that a compromise agreement needs to be made, backed up by possible changes in the law.

It now appears that this event, which could’ve led to Yandex being blocked by ISPs, has prompted both Internet companies and copyright holders to consider a voluntary agreement. Discussions currently underway suggest a unique and potentially ground-breaking plan.

The initial meeting between telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor, Internet companies Yandex, Google, and Mail.ru, plus representatives of the Association of Producers of Cinema and Television (APKiT), the National Media Group, and Gazprom Media Holdings, took place September 19.

According to news outlet RBC, the topic of discussion was the creation of a special database holding the details of known infringing copies of content including movies, games, software and other pirated content.

The proposals envision that once details of content are placed in the database, search engines and video hosting sites that sign up to a memorandum of understanding with rightsholders will automatically query the database every five minutes for updates.

Once the details are fed back, search companies will remove links to pirate resources from their search results within six hours, without any need for a court process. This will run alongside the current database currently maintained by Roscomnadzor and utilized by ISPs, which contains links to sites that are blocked due to having multiple complaints filed against them at the Moscow City Court.

If adopted, this new extrajudicial process will go some way to clearing up the problems caused by the current legal gray area, which led to Yandex removing links to content from its video portal to avoid a potential ISP blockade, even though the company believes that the law does not require it to do so.

It’s suggested that the infringing resource database, should it go ahead, could be maintained by the Internet Video Association (IVA), which represents intellectual property rights holders. Alternatively, RBC notes, an alternative coalition of entertainment companies including legal streaming platforms could be put in charge of the project.

Talks appear to be fairly advanced, with agreements on the framework for the database potentially being reached by the middle of this week. If that’s the case, a lawsuit recently filed by Gazprom Media against Yandex could be settled amicably. It’s understood that Yandex wants all major Internet players to become involved, including social networks.

With the carrot comes the possibility of the stick, of course. Gazprom Media indicates that if a voluntary agreement cannot be reached, it will seek amendments to copyright law that will achieve the same end results.

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

As one of the oldest torrent communities around, Demonoid has run into quite a few rough patches over the years.

Whether it’s media industry pressure, lawsuits, blocking orders, hosting problems or police investigations, Demonoid has seen it all.

The site has established a reputation as the “comeback kid,” due to its tendency to go offline for weeks or even months, and then reappear in full glory as if nothing ever happened.

Over the past weeks, the site has hit some rough patches again. In August the site’s torrents mysteriously disappeared and while these eventually came back, more technical issues were around the corner.

While technical troubles are nothing out of the ordinary, there was a reason for concern as the site’s owner, Deimos, was missing in action as well.

Late last week things took a turn for the worse. Over the past few days, Demonoid has been completely unreachable, and its owner is still nowhere to be seen.

Demonoid staffer Phaze1G informs TorrentFreak that it’s unclear what’s going on. The domain names work just fine, but in addition to Demonoid, the tracker’s sister site Hypercache.pw has also gone offline, which is unusual.

“There’s nothing new, unfortunately,” Phaze1G told us yesterday, noting that all staff members are waiting in a small chat box, looking out for something positive to cling onto.

At the moment both the site’s users and staff are completely in the dark. There has been come continued activity in the official Reddit forums, but other than that things have remained quiet.

The site’s staff do want to highlight, however, that there are no proxies or other alternatives available. There are some copycats around, but these are all fake.

“Users should be REALLY aware that there is no: .onion address, mirrors, alternative Demonoids and such. Especially to avoid demonoid.to,” Phaze1G says.

The staffer believes that Deimos’ absence may be due to personal circumstances. However, the owner also made it clear that he would do his best to avoid legal issues if something concrete ever happened.

That said, Deimos is not the kind of person to leave the site adrift without reason. He resurrected it back in 2014, hoping to rebuild the great community it was during the early days. In a way, it’s his baby.

“In his vision, Demonoid is a place which helps the world to be just a tiny bit of a better place,” Phaze1G says.

“For example, when a user had cancer and needed money for a surgery, the Demonoid and its members helped to pay the bills, and there were cases where users had car accidents and got all kinds of support.”

Over the past several years, Demonoid was gradually expanding its userbase again. The current downtime is a major setback, but perhaps that’s part of the Demonoid’s spirit too. It’s the comeback kid after all.

“Demonoid will most likely return, but for now, we have to wait,” Phaze1G concludes.

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