Streaming set-top boxes have been selling like hot cakes over the past several years.

While these devices can be used to consume content legally, the entertainment industry also sees them as a potential threat.

For many copyright holders, the threat is viewed as a top enforcement priority, one that has already led to several arrests and lawsuits. Dragon Box is one of the devices that got into legal trouble recently.

Dragon Media and two of its resellers in Hawaii were added to a lawsuit by the rightsholders of the films “Mechanic: Resurrection” (ME2) and “Once Upon a Time in Venice.” This case started out as a ‘classic’ BitTorrent piracy case but switched focus to the streaming box.

The complaint describes how the Dragon Box can be used to access copyrighted material, including the works of ME2 and Venice. The defendants were well aware of this, it argues, adding that the defendants promoted the box with terms hinting at infringing uses.

“Simply put, Dragon Box is intentionally inducing infringement. Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court enter a preliminary injunction that requires the Dragon Box Defendants to halt their flagrantly illegal conduct immediately,” ME2 and Venice stated.

Dragon Box and its owner Paul Christoforo, as well as the resellers Naino Bettencourt and Jason Barnhart, who run “The Dragon Box Hawaii” and “JB Dragon Box-Hawaii Kai” respectively, all stood accused of contributory copyright infringement.

While copyright infringement cases can drag on for years, this lawsuit was resolved rather swiftly.

Yesterday, ME2 and Venice dismissed their claims against Dragon Media and its owner Paul Christoforo. The dismissal follows a settlement agreement by the parties involved, the terms of which have not been publicly released.

The two resellers also resolved their dispute with the filmmakers. Both Naino Bettencourt and Jason Barnhart reached a settlement and signed a consent judgment. The latter includes an injunction, preventing both from infringing any of ME2 and Venice’s works going forward.

Since the settlement agreements have not been published, we don’t know whether any compensation was paid. The injunction issued against defendant Barnhart does suggest, however, that the Dragon Boxes he sells will be ‘modified.’

“Defendant is ORDERED to refrain from directly or indirectly selling any of said streaming devices made by Defendant Dragon Media, Inc. including but not limited to the Dragon Box DB4 and the Dragon Box DB5 until notified by Plaintiffs’ counsel that a software modification has been performed to said streaming devices.”

While this matter is now resolved, the trouble for Dragon Box is not over yet. After all, this isn’t the first lawsuit the company and its owner have been dragged into this year.

The company was previously sued by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which represents several Hollywood studios, Netflix, and Amazon. That case is still ongoing.

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The stipulation for dismissal against Dragon Media and Paul Christoforo is available here (pdf). And here are the consent judgments of Naino Bettencourt (pdf) and Jason Barnhart (pdf).

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YouTube is without doubt one of the best places to watch video online. The site is packed with unique content, much of it produced by members of the public, but it’s also populated with plenty of commercial material.

YouTube’s interface obviously lends itself particularly well to the promotion of video content itself, such as movies and TV shows. To this end companies regularly upload teasers and other promotional material, including clips and trailers for upcoming films. Sony Pictures makes use of this feature but today managed to get it all wrong.

Sometime in the past few hours, somebody at Sony attempted to upload the ‘official red band trailer’ for its upcoming movie Khali the Killer.

“After deciding to retire, an East L.A. hit man decides to take one last job to help support his ailing grandmother’s end of life care. But everything falls apart, when he develops empathy for the targets of his hit, and he’s forced to make the toughest decision of his life,” the movie’s promo blurb reads.

The trailer, just 1h 29m long….wait….

We’ve picked a screenshot that doesn’t ruin the plot but as it clearly shows, this is no ordinary trailer. Weighing in at nearly 90 minutes it’s particularly long. In fact, it’s the entire movie – we checked.

When we started writing this article the movie had around 8,000 views. Just a few paragraphs later that had swelled to almost 11,000. However, while news may be traveling quickly, those numbers probably won’t reach epic levels anytime soon.

The movie has been out in other regions for some time already and if the 3.8 average reviews on iMDb are anything to go by, it’s a bit of a stinker.

As usual, the comments on YouTube are absolutely brutal. The section includes gems such as “Trailer gave the whole plot away. Pass,” “It’s just the trailer the whole movie will be 4 hours,” and the rather blunt “Someone’s getting the sack.”

There are, however, quite a few that suggest that the movie might benefit from the exposure, with a conspiracy theory thrown in here and there for good measure.

“Fact that they haven’t taken this down after 6 hours+. I don’t think it’s really ‘accidental’ but rather a smart marketing stunt. Internet is buzzing over a movie which otherwise wouldn’t have gotten this much attention on forums/social-media,” a YouTube user wrote.

Time will tell whether that’s really the case but if it’s not, Sony has a problem on its hands.

YouTube videos are easily downloaded and TF has seen reports of several users doing just that. If these copies leak onto torrent sites, the genie will be properly out of the bottle. However, given the YouTube video is capped at 720p, there might be demand for a better quality version later on. Or maybe not.

Update: Aaaaaaand, it’s gone…..

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Due to unlicensed copyrighted content being made available on YouTube and similar platforms, millions of citizens around the world are able to consume the same at rates close to free.

This, of course, is a situation that’s completely unacceptable to the content industries, the record labels in particular. While sites like YouTube compensate them for views of authorized content, the existence of unlicensed content uploaded by users means that the Google-owned video giant gains an unfair negotiating position, or so the claims go.

Soon, however, the labels hope that the free content ride will be over. In an attempt to plug the so-called “Value Gap”, they have lobbied strongly for new legislation (Article 13) that would see user-uploaded content platforms compelled to install filters to detect infringing content before it’s even made available to the public.

Two weeks ago, the Legal Affairs Committee of the Parliament (JURI) voted on Article 13. With a 15 to 10 majority, the proposal of Rapporteur Voss was adopted. This means that the plans move ahead in their current form, despite massive and persistent public outcry.

This Thursday, a plenary vote on the JURI mandate will take place, so it’s no surprise that both sides of the debate are rallying to ensure that their voices are heard. In recent days, more than 80 creative sector groups and companies called on MEPs to support their position, that “playing fair” is the only way forward.

Billions and billions at stake…

“We represent 4.5% of EU GDP and 12 million European jobs. We are the heart and soul of Europe’s plurality and rich identities. On July 5 we ask for you to back the mandate adopted by JURI on 20 June which is the result of long and intense negotiations,” they wrote.

“There is a cynical campaign from tech companies flooding the inboxes of MEPs with scaremongering that the copyright directive would be the end of the internet. Please note that this is the 20th anniversary of their first claim that copyright provisions would break the internet. This has never happened. We need an Internet that is fair and sustainable for all.”

The signatories to the appeal represent countless multi-billion dollar companies whose interests will no doubt cause MEPs to sit up and listen. However, opponents of Article 13 are not sitting idly and hoping for the best. In an open letter published this week by Copybuzz, more than 145 organizations hit back, warning MEPs that Article 13 represents a serious threat to online freedom.

Supported by groups including EFF, Creative Commons, COMMUNIA Association, Public Knowledge and Wikimedia, the letter highlights objections that the proposed legislation threatens innovation by making it more difficult for startups to go about their business without fear of litigation.

“We represent startups which generate 9.5% of total European GDP and 2.5% of the labour market. We are the innovators that have chosen to embrace the future digital enables rather than grasp at the past. We are the believers of healthy competition, where barriers to entry should not be raised by poorly thought through regulation, to the detriment of millions of European innovators,” they write.

“We represent human rights and digital rights who defend the core values of what has made the European Union’s democratic model thrive. We believe that our fundamental rights are priceless and we advocate for strong safeguards when fundamental rights are at risk, as in this case.

“By defending a democratic and open internet, we defend the same internet that allows human rights defenders to expose actions from oppressive governments and monopolies, while allowing a wide range of business models to enjoy their fundamental freedom to conduct a business.”

The groups warn that Article 13 poses a threat to education and access to information and will seriously damage the capacity to improve software via hubs that develop connected products.

“Because of all of the above, we urge you to vote for a public debate on the Directive and, therefore, against the negotiating mandate,” they conclude.

With the vote just two days away the pressure is likely to continue, with both sides digging in. At this stage there’s only one thing they can agree on – that the imposition of upload filters will change everything.

Who that will positively and negatively affect will be for history to decide.

The full letter can be found here (pdf)

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With pirate sites finding themselves squeezed by initiatives designed to deprive them of advertising cash, many have turned to more creative ways of generating revenue.

Last September, users of The Pirate Bay complained that their CPU usage increased dramatically when they browsed certain Pirate Bay pages. It was later revealed that the site had implemented a Monero cryptocurrency miner provided by Coinhive.

The development generated negative publicity which nudged the site’s operators to issue a statement.

“As you may have noticed we are testing a Monero javascript miner. This is only a test. We really want to get rid of all the ads. But we also need enough money to keep the site running,” they said.

Just a month later and after a short break, the miner was back again, to the disappointment of users. While many people objected to the mining overall, most seemed disappointed that they weren’t given the chance to opt out.

In the months that followed it was unclear whether TPB would abandon its mining efforts but developments in recent weeks have answered that question.

An initial report from an uploader, that TPB had added a miner to the upload page, was soon followed up with general complaints of a miner being implemented on other parts of the site.

Coin mining, once again

As the image shows, mining is throttled to 0.9 (in the past rates between 0.6 and 0.8 were used), but with reports of hot CPUs on record, it’s clear that people would prefer to have the option not to ‘donate’ their cycles.

Previously, TPB supermoderator Sid expressed disappointment at the existence of the miner and after the latest revelations he’s on record again and sounding rather less patient. The solution, he says, is to enable a good adblocker and spend as little time on the site as possible.

“All you require from TPB is a magnet link. Open the site. Find a torrent. Click the magnet link. Close the site. End of miner,” he writes.

“If you are ever on TPB for more than 5 minutes or so you’re doing it wrong. And if you’re ever on TPB without an ad blocker you’re doing it doubly wrong.”

While some ad-blockers can do the trick, dedicated coin mining blockers are available in the Chrome store, for example, which makes the process very easy indeed.

Knowledgeable users are also able to use such addons to whitelist sites they want to support.

The option to block TPB’s mining efforts was previously mentioned by the site’s operators in a blog post but novice users are unlikely to understand what’s happening to their machines, let alone do anything about it.

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They say that death and taxes are the only two certain things in life. We all expire eventually and in most civilized countries it’s almost impossible to avoid levies on everything from goods and services to essential fuels.

As Internet users we also pay taxes on our ISP bills but what if the government stepped in and taxed certain online activities as well? Starting yesterday, that’s now the reality in Uganda after the authorities introduced a controversial tax on people using dozens of Internet services including Facebook, Whatsapp, Twitter, and Instagram.

Passed in May by the Ugandan parliament, the legislation requires local Internet service providers to block a wide range of social media and telecoms platforms until subscribers pay a flat fee of 200 shillings (US$0.051) per day. While just shy of US$19 per year might not initially sound like much, per capita income stands at US$600 and millions of Ugandans survive on less than a dollar per day

Starting July 1, all taxed (credit)

In a joint statement, ISPs MTN, Airtel, and Africell informed their customers that the services listed above would be blocked until payment is made. Payment must be made in advance via mobile phones, with a small discount available if customers pay a month up front.

“Access will be granted for a calendar day until 12:00 AM for the day, i.e until midnight if the customer has paid for one day,” the notice reads.

While this kind of taxation appears unique, people’s desire to avoid taxes is universal. In this case, that is easily achieved by using a VPN, since they’re able to circumvent ISP restrictions placed on the sites listed above. As a result, VPNs are now suddenly at the height of fashion in Uganda, with searches reaching an all-time high on Google.

Tax on social media? Google has help for that

But with Ugandans restoring their online freedom in droves, the government isn’t happy at the prospect of losing its revenue. Within hours of the news that VPNs were gaining in popularity, the government stepped in to do something about it.

In a statement, Uganda Communications Commission Executive Director, Godfrey Mutabazi said that Internet service providers would be ordered to block VPNs to prevent citizens from avoiding the social media tax.

Mutabazi told Dispatch that ISPs are already taking action to prevent VPNs from being accessible but since there are so many, it won’t be possible to block them all.

In the meantime, the government is trying to portray VPNs as more expensive to use than the tax. In a post on Facebook this morning, Mutabazi promoted the tax as the sensible economic option.

“If you think it is cheaper to use VPN than paying Shs 200/day, I think it is very unwise to think that because the data consumption under VPN is very high, I think you’re aware of that,” his post reads.

“We have technology that will block the VPN services so that no one dodges the taxes. Different VPN systems continue to come with more advanced features to circumvent government crackdowns but governments around the world have continued to block them.”

While that may be the case, it appears that many Ugandans are outraged at the prospect of yet another tax and see VPN use as a protest, despite any additional cost. Opposition figures have already called for a boycott with support coming in from all corners of society. The government appears unmoved, however.

“If we tax essentials like water, why not social media?” said Frank Tumwebaze, Minister of Information Technology and Communications. “This tax will improve connectivity. It is all about connectivity.”

Citizens trying to access Facebook, Instagram and Twitter this morning may have a tendency to disagree.

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