Last month, Nintendo flexed its considerable muscles by targeting two retro-gaming platforms.

The Japanese gaming giant filed a complaint at a federal court in Arizona, targeting LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co for copyright and trademark infringement.

With potentially millions of dollars in damages at stake, both sites quickly shut down, taking libraries of gaming ROMs with them. But for fans of emulators and retro-gaming, the bad news wasn’t over yet.

In an announcement last week, EmuParadise, one of the web’s longest standing emulator and ROM download portals, announced that it will no longer be offering game ROMs for download. After 18 years of service, EmuParadise had fallen, largely because of Nintendo’s aggressive actions elsewhere.

This chain of events caused shockwaves in the retro-gaming community, waves that are already beginning to widen. A statement just published by fellow gaming site TheISOZone indicates that it too will make a sharp exit from the scene.

“Copyright infringement laws vary from country to country, but the premise in a nutshell is that copyright infringement is the cause of monetary loss or damage to the copyright holder. With retro gaming, there are no ways of purchasing the games – let alone the systems to play them on – in a way that would still generate the copyright holders revenue. None whatsoever,” TiZ from the site said.

“This is why retro roms have always been a grey area. The distribution of their works, although frowned upon, were never actioned against as in a court of law that is what they would have to prove – monetary loss or damages. And they couldn’t – because it’s simply not true.”

While lawyers in various jurisdictions will queue up to dissect his take on the law, TiZ says that times are changing, perhaps in a way that will allow copyright holders to more easily demonstrate monetary losses.

“There are now growing ways of obtaining these retro titles through avenues which DO benefit the copyright holders and it seems clear due to recent events, that there are a lot more avenues in development,” TiZ says.

“This is why we decided to throw in the towel of our own accord. It was a good ride and it was a just ride, however it is clear that in the not so distant future, distributing retro titles could be a serious case of copyright infringement.”

TiZ isn’t optimistic that any legal offerings by games companies will get the formula right, so he’s suggesting that operators of retro sites could team up with copyright holders to target gamers in the right way.

“We have ideas on how the archiving of retro titles and the pleasing of the copyright holders should be done and would love to pursue it eventually,” he writes.

“We think the webmasters of retro rom sites should come together and work with the copyright holders. It does not have to be this hard – and criminals should not be made out of passionate enthusiasts.”

In short, TiZ would like to see a Spotify for retro games. However, he also says he’s aware of a new project, run by retro gaming enthusiasts, that could see TheISOZone’s ROM archives rebuilt and offered to the public.

So, another life lost perhaps……but it’s not quite Game Over yet.

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

Last year several major record labels, represented by the RIAA, filed a lawsuit against ISP Grande Communications accusing it of turning a blind eye to pirating subscribers.

According to the RIAA, the Internet provider knew that some of its subscribers were frequently distributing copyrighted material, but failed to take any meaningful action in response.

Grande refuted the accusations and filed a motion to dismiss the case. The ISP partially succeeded as the claims against its management company Patriot were dropped. The same was true for the vicarious infringement allegations, as the court saw no evidence that the ISP had a direct financial interest in the infringing activity.

The labels were not willing to let go so easily.

They submitted a motion for leave to file an amended complaint including new evidence obtained during discovery. And a few days ago, they upped the pressure with a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Grande has no safe harbor defense.

In order to get safe harbor protection, the DMCA requires ISPs to adopt and reasonably implement a policy for terminating the accounts of repeat copyright infringers. According to the motion, it is clear that Grande failed to do so. As such, the company should be held directly liable.

“For years, Grande claimed in its online ‘Acceptable Use Policy’ that it had a policy of terminating repeat infringers. Grande continued to assert that claim in its pleadings and written discovery responses in this suit.

“None of that was true. The undisputed record evidence establishes that Grande’s Acceptable Use Policy was a sham,” the labels’ motion reads.

There can be little dispute over Grande’s failing policy, the labels state. They point out that corporate paperwork and testimony of Grande’s senior executives clearly show that there wasn’t an adequate repeat infringer policy.

“Indeed, the documents and testimony demonstrate that rather than a policy for terminating repeat infringers, Grande consciously chose the opposite: a policy allowing unlimited infringement by its subscribers,” the labels write.

At the same time, there was no lack of DMCA notices. The labels note that the ISP received at least 1.2 million notices of alleged copyright infringement between 2011 and 2016. This includes hundreds of thousands of notices from Rightscorp.

Despite these repeated warnings, the company didn’t terminate a single subscriber from October 2010 until June 2017, the labels allege. This changed after the lawsuit was filed, but even then the number remained minimal, with ‘only’ twelve terminations.

Based on the provided information, the record labels ask for a summary judgment in their favor.

“Grande’s failure to adopt and reasonably implement a repeat infringer policy renders Grande ineligible for the DMCA safe harbor. The Court should grant Plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment and reject Grande’s DMCA safe harbor defense as a matter of law,” the labels say.

If the court sides with the record labels, Grande will be at a severe disadvantage, to say the least.

Without safe harbor protection, the company can be held liable for the copyright infringements of its users, which could potentially lead to dozens of millions of dollars in damages.

—

A copy of the record labels motion is available here (pdf).

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Back in May, TF broke the news that Justin Sun, the entrepreneur behind the popular cryptocurrency TRON, was in the process of acquiring BitTorrent Inc.

Two months later, BitTorrent Inc. and the TRON Foundation confirmed the acquisition.

“With this acquisition, BitTorrent will continue to provide high quality services for over 100M users around the world. We believe that joining the TRON network will further enhance BitTorrent and accelerate our mission of creating an Internet of options, not rules,” BitTorrent Inc. said.

TRON’s Justin Sun added that the acquisition of BitTorrent supports his foundation’s goal to decentralize the web but more concrete details beyond this vision have proven elusive. The entrepreneur has mentioned the possibility of rewarding BitTorrent seeders but that raises even more questions.

This week, in celebration of TRON’s US and China teams meeting up for the first time, Sun dangled some additional information on why the acquisition took place and what TRON’s plans are for the future.

“Contrary to speculation, the main reason for the acquisition isn’t BitTorrent’s more than 100M active users, and it isn’t for an amazing commercial opportunity,” Sun said.

“Yes, these things are great perks, but the more important reason is that BitTorrent has always been committed to one value, which is ‘Democratize the Internet.’ This is very much in line with TRON’s ‘Decentralize the Web.’ The fact that our values are in sync is the driving force behind this acquisition.”

Following a short history lesson on Web 1.0 through to today’s Web 3.0, Sun highlighted BitTorrent achievements in the decentralized arena, one which enabled people to envision a totally decentralized Internet in the future. However, “profit-focused” companies like Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, and Netflix eventually stepped in with models that only served to further centralize the Internet.

“The mistrust in centralization naturally results in a public reaction where people are expecting government intervention to monitor big tech companies. However, history itself has been telling us repeatedly that the involvement of a more centralized power will only worsen the problem,” Sun said.

According to TRON’s founder, the solution to the above is his Web 4.0, “a decentralized, mass-collaborative Internet governed by the community, with highly effective, available, and convenient Internet apps and services.”

Unlike most standard apps used by people today (such as those used to access Facebook etc), ‘DApps’ – decentralized apps – are software applications that run on the blockchain. While the former access and provide data for centralized systems, the latter use the decentralized resources of other network users.

Sun wants TRON to become the largest decentralized Internet ecosystem in the world and this week offered four promises in respect of the TRON/BitTorrent partnership.

1. We will develop the TRON Protocol and make sure it grows to be the largest and the most dynamic blockchain protocol in the world.
2. We will develop the BitTorrent Protocol and its applications to guarantee BitTorrent’s dominance in global decentralized content distribution. We will also work to optimize the BitTorrent Protocol with blockchain technology.
3. We will explore and develop other decentralized Internet protocols, in areas such as decentralized storage and cloud computing.
4. We will develop a series of decentralized apps based on decentralized protocols, so that everyone in the world can enjoy decentralized Internet services.

But for those wanting a slice of exciting decentralized cake today, it may be wise to put on a pot of coffee – after first planting and then growing the beans several times over.

“This is a long-term mission which will take 10 to 20 years to complete. I’m 28 now. I will devote my whole life to the revolution of Internet decentralization,” Sun says.

“TRON is committed to rejuvenating the revolution led by BitTorrent at the beginning of the 21st century, saving the Internet from centralized monopolies, and establishing a free, transparent, and decentralized Web 4.0.”

We’ll have an update in 2028, see you then.

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

After years of careful planning and negotiating, the European Parliament was ready to vote on its new copyright directive last month.

With backing from large political factions and pretty much the entire entertainment industry, many assumed that proposal would pass.

They were wrong.

The Copyright Directive was sent back to the drawing board following protests from legal scholars, Internet gurus, activists, and many members of the public. Article 13, often referred to as the “upload filter” proposal, was at the center of this pushback.

The vote was a massive blow to those who put their hope on the EU’s proposed copyright changes. Following the failure of SOPA and ACTA, this was another disappointment, which triggered several entertainment industry insiders to call foul play.

They claimed that the grassroots protests were driven by automated tools, which “spammed” Members of Parliament were with protest messages, noting that large tech companies such as Google were partly behind this.

This narrative is gaining attention from the mainstream media, and there are even calls for a criminal investigation into the matter.

Opponents of the upload filters clearly disagree. In part triggered by the criticism, but more importantly, to ensure that copyright reform proposals will change for the better, they plan to move the protests to the streets of Europe later this month.

Julia Reda, the Pirate Party’s Member of European Parliament, is calling people to join these protests, to have their voices heard, and to show the critics that there are real people behind the opposition.

“We haven’t won yet. After their initial shock at losing the vote in July, the proponents of upload filters and the ‘link tax’ have come up with a convenient narrative to downplay the massive public opposition they faced,” Reda writes.

“They’re claiming the protest was all fake, generated by bots and orchestrated by big internet companies. According to them, Europeans don’t actually care about their freedom of expression. We don’t actually care about EU lawmaking enough to make our voices heard. We will just stand idly by as our internet is restricted to serve corporate interests.”

Thus far, nearly a million people have voiced their discontent with the copyright reform plans through an online petition. And if it’s up to Reda, these people should do the same away from their keyboard.

On September 12th, Members of Parliament will vote on the future of the Copyright Directive and the protests are planned two weeks earlier, on August 26th.

“Our goal is clear: The Parliament must adopt alternatives for Article 11 and Article 13 that don’t force platforms to install upload filters and don’t threaten links and snippets with an extra layer of copyright,” Reda notes.

The public protests will take place in several cities including Berlin, Ljubljana, Prague, Stockholm, Vienna, and Warsaw. The organizers hope to gain the same momentum as the ACTA protests did when hundreds of thousands of people marched the streets.

That would certainly make an impact.

Meanwhile, the tension between opponents and proponents of the Copyright Directive keeps growing. The latter will hope that the protests will only draw a small crowd, but if the turnout is high, they can always point out that many of the protest cities have Google offices.

Protest locations

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In the summer of 2016, shockwaves rippled through the BitTorrent scene when KickassTorrents (KAT), the world’s most popular torrent site at the time, was forcefully shut down.

The action coordinated by the US government saw alleged KAT founder Artem Vaulin taken into custody. Meanwhile, millions of former users scrambled to find alternatives elsewhere on the Internet.

Unsurprisingly, many dispersed to existing torrent giants such as The Pirate Bay and RARBG but it didn’t take long for new blood to enter the ecosystem. Soon after KAT’s demise, a new indexer called ‘iDope’ made its debut, largely as a tribute to the dismantled torrent behemoth.

“This project was developed the next day after we knew KAT was taken down, it’s very very new, and we are a very small team, so you won’t find anything about it on the Internet, especially when we never promoted it decently,” one of the site’s operators said back in 2016.

“We only intended to make simple products that everyone can enjoy, we don’t make bucks out of it, and thus we promise no annoying pop-up ads.”

In the months and years that followed, iDope gained a significant following and in January 2018, the relatively new site broke into TorrentFreak’s annual round-up of the world’s most-visited torrent sites. With similar traffic to the equally popular Zooqle, iDope bagged itself a joint tenth position in the list.

During the past week, however, problems have hit the site. Without any warning, iDope – which has operated very smoothly from the iDope.se domain since its launch – went offline.

The site’s Twitter and Facebook accounts have been dormant for some time and the recent downtime didn’t result in any updates. Unfortunately, that vacuum has left people to speculate on what has caused the outage, from technical issues to problems with the authorities.

TorrentFreak contacted the last known email address associated with the iDope team expecting that to be dead too. Overnight, however, we received a response, one that leaves hope for a smooth return for the popular torrent index.

“There are some problems with our domain idope.se, We are communicating with the domain provider. We believe it can be restored within a few days,” TF was told.

While iDope was down, other domains that appeared to be clones or perhaps mirrors of iDope remained up, albeit with indexes a few days out of date. In the first instance it was unclear whether those domains were operated by the site itself but we’ve now received information which suggests that at least two are official.

“Everyone can visit our website using idope.cc or idope.co,” iDope’s operator says.

At first view, the current downtime faced by iDope seems a little ironic, given that the site’s operators previously claimed that the site would never go down.

“[T]he server provider we chose will protect our servers even from hurricanes, earthquakes, nuclear bomb. Honestly [I don’t know] how they are capable of that, sounds pretty badass,” its operator previously said.

However, as the above shows, iDope’s server is actually standing strong and it’s only its .se domain that’s having a wobble.

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