As one of the most important infrastructure companies on the entire Internet, Cloudflare often finds itself embroiled in copyright disputes of other entities’ making.

Along with millions of other ‘normal’ websites, ‘pirate’ sites often use Cloudflare’s services. The CDN company has a stated aim of remaining a neutral intermediary but entertainment industry groups see the company as helping to facilitate piracy by assisting sites to more efficiently stay online while rendering their true locations harder to find.

While sites like The Pirate Bay, for example, are using Cloudflare’s services trouble-free at this very moment, the same cannot be said of Germany-focused music piracy site DDL-Music.to.

This morning, Tarnkappe informed TorrentFreak that visitors to the platform utilizing German IP addresses were being blocked by Cloudflare. While these kinds of claims are relatively common given the sometimes unreliable nature of pirate sites, in this case clarity is being provided by the CDN company itself, which clearly states that it has taken action.

Tests carried out for TF using the German-based IP address listed above returned a rare “Error HTTP 451” which, as the image shows, is deployed when a site is “Unavailable For Legal Reasons.” Tests carried out by us from IP addresses elsewhere in Europe accessed the site without issue, perhaps suggesting that any “legal reason” may be specific to German territory.

This is the first time that we’ve seen an Error HTTP 451 displayed by Cloudflare when attempting to access a pirate site. The special HTTP status code was approved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) back in 2015 as a more informative alternative to the “403 Forbidden” code utilized by some ISPs engaged in blocking.

“A really good Error 451 message would tell their customers how to challenge a block, how long the block’s expected to last, where the relevant legal documents are and which legal authority imposed the blocking order,” the 451 Unavailable project wrote at the time.

A nod towards providing this additional information is actually mentioned in Cloudflare’s own 4XX error code documentation that was updated only this month.

“Server is unable to deliver the resource due to legal actions,” the notes against Error 451 read. “The response should include an explanation in the response body with details of the legal demand.”

As the above screenshot of the Cloudflare error shows, no explanation for the blocking is provided. Why that is the case is currently unknown since Cloudflare has yet to respond to our request for comment. However, DDL-Music’s status as an obvious pirate site (and one with a history of being targeted by copyright groups) leads us towards a theory that Cloudflare may have been placed under pressure.

With that in mind, it’s perhaps helpful to look at the recent history surrounding ISP blockades of pirate sites in Germany and how they have played out, mostly without direct intervention from the courts.

In March 2019, Vodafone told TorrentFreak it had implemented a blockade of pirate platform Boerse.to following a notification from local music rights group GEMA, an action duplicated by its service provider 1&1. Around the same time, Vodafone also began blocking DDL-Music. Kabel Deutschland is also known to block access to the music platform.

The companies believe that principles established by the Federal Court of Justice require them to do so, without a specific court order.

On the same basis, Vodafone previously blocked access to several other ‘pirate’ sites including S.to, BS.to, Libgen and Kinox.to.

Whether Cloudflare is following a similar pattern of behavior with its restriction of DDL-Music is currently unknown but we will update this article as soon as the company responds.

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South Africa has found itself in the crosshairs of major US copyright groups, which are not happy with the country’s stance towards critical copyright issues.

South Africa is already subject to a U.S. Government review to see if trade sanctions should be applied.

The review was launched following a referral from the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA). This coalition of prominent rightsholder groups, which includes the MPA and RIAA, informed the USTR that South Africa’s current policies and actions are below international standards.

Among other things, the group is worried that the country’s newly proposed copyright law is far too flexible when it comes to fair use. This stance is echoed by other rightsholders but also heavily criticized by public interest groups and legal experts.

A few days ago the IIPA reiterated its critique in a new submission to the US Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR uses these submissions and other public comments to create its Special 301 Report, an annual list of countries that deserve extra attention due to various shortcomings that may hurt U.S. businesses.

The IIPA is one of the most loyal submitters, sharing its concerns for more than 20 consecutive years. Over these two decades, it has recommended that over 75 countries should be placed on the U.S. “Watch List”.

Until this year, South Africa was never mentioned, but that has clearly changed. In its 2020 recommendation, the IIPA classifies the country among the worst offenders, asking the USTR to put it on the Priority Watch List.

According to the IIPA, South Africa’s newly proposed Copyright Amendment Bill is fatally flawed. This includes the previously mentioned fair use issues as well as a wide range of other shortcomings which were detailed in several pages, too expansive to summarize.

In addition, the country’s response to the threat of online piracy is also said to be lacking. While more legal options have become available, many South Africans turn to piracy, the group notes.

According to the IIPA, increased Internet connection speeds are contributing to a piracy boom. This is in part facilitated by corporate and university networks.

“[O]nline piracy continues to grow in South Africa. Growth in bandwidth speeds, coupled with lax controls over corporate and university bandwidth abuse, drive this piracy,” the IIPA writes.

Throttling the bandwidth of an entire country isn’t a very popular solution. However, according to the IIPA, there are other options available. They include blocking and shutting down websites, which may require legislation to be updated.

Among the list of “priority actions” for the country is also a bandwidth-related suggestion. The rightsholders urge South Africa to ensure that the implementation of 4G and 5G networks doesn’t increase piracy.

“Monitor implementation of 4G and 5G networks to ensure it does not lead to a higher level of piracy, and improve education and increase enforcement commensurate to the increased threat,” the IIPA writes.

This is a rather unique suggestion. The IIPA’s full report lists over a dozen countries and spans 220 pages, but 4G and 5G are only mentioned in relation to South Africa.

The mention is linked to the recent decision of South Africa’s government to open the spectrum. This paves the way for the rollout of 4G and 5G networks, which can boost both legal and illegal consumption.

If piracy indeed gets a boost, the IIPA would like the government to step in to correct this through trade sanctions or other means.

All in all, the IIPA’s overview sums up a long list of shortcomings that it hopes the country will address. Needless to say, this sits in stark contrast to previous years, when they were never even mentioned.

The rightsholder groups hope that the USTR will agree with its concerns and place the country on its Priority Watch List, which is due to be released in the months to come.

—

The IIPA’s full recommendations for the USTR’s 2020 Special 301 Review are available here (pdf).

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In the United States, federal courts are still being swamped with lawsuits against alleged BitTorrent pirates.

While copyright holders avoid some unfavorable jurisdictions, these companies are a common sight in others, such as Southern Florida.

Over the past year or so, adult entertainment company Strike 3 Holdings has filed dozens of lawsuits in this district. While that’s nothing new, there are some lawsuits that stand out.

In a few instances, Strike 3 dropped their complaints within a day or two, right after the judge was assigned. When we took a closer look, we found out that in each of these cases the same judge is listed: U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro.

Judge Ungaro is a familiar name to those who’ve been following these types of piracy lawsuits over the years. More than half a decade ago she issued an order stating that an IP-address doesn’t necessarily identify a person.

Over the years Judge Ungaro remained very skeptical. Among other things, she is not convinced that IP-address geolocation tools are good enough to prove that a person actually resides within the court’s jurisdiction.

This also came up again last year. When Strike 3 applied for a subpoena to identify a person behind an IP-address, the Judge denied the request for this very reason.

“There is nothing that links the IP address location to the identity of the person actually downloading and viewing Plaintiff’s videos, and establishing whether that person lives in this district,” Judge Ungaro reiterated.

With this in mind, one can understand why Strike 3 isn’t too fond of Judge Ungaro. This may also explain why it chooses to simply drop cases as soon as this particular judge is assigned. This is exactly what happened twice in August last year.

In other cases, Judge Ungaro submitted a ‘sua sponte’ motion within a day, asking Strike 3 to provide more evidence before it could even request a subpoena. That happened again this week.

Immediately after a new case was filed, the Judge requested more evidence concerning geolocation accuracy as well as any link between the IP-address and the alleged pirate.

“[T]his Court requires a showing of the precise methodology and technique employed by Plaintiff in its use of geolocation to establish — to a reasonable degree of certainty — that Defendant may be found within this district,” Judge Ungaro wrote.

“Additionally, this Court recognizes that IP addresses are assigned to nodes connected to the Internet, but are not necessarily representative of individual end-node/end-system devices, and especially are not representative of individual people.”

Strike 3 obviously wasn’t happy with this swift response from the Judge. When it spotted the request the case was immediately dismissed. Perhaps the company acted a bit too quickly, as it submitted the dismissal request before replying to the court’s motion, as is required.

The rightsholder noticed this error and submitted its standard response, apologizing for “the confusion.”

Strike 3 didn’t even bother to wait for Judge Ungaro’s response to its reply, however. The end result was that two days after the new case was filed, it had already been dismissed.

With the dismissal granted, the defendant escaped being exposed. That wasn’t the first time either because the same IP-address was among those that were previously targeted in a county court, where the defendant objected to having his or her personal details exposed.

We have no indication that the same person will be targeted again. Since the company has thousands of allegedly-infringing IP-addresses on file it can simply ‘try again’ with the next target, until it gets a more favorable judge.

While Strike 3’s actions may be understandable, some people, and perhaps some courts, may frown upon it.

TorrentFreak spoke to Florida-based attorney Cynthia Conlin who has represented several defendants in these ‘trolling’ lawsuits. She believes that Strike 3 is “Judge Shopping” and may point this out in court.

Although the company may technically color between the lines, Conlin believes that Strike 3 is acting in bad faith, and she hopes that the court will eventually draw the same conclusion.

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

Every hour of every day of every week of every year, anti-piracy companies send out DMCA notices to remove supposedly infringing content from the Internet.

Many of these are legitimate takedown requests, targeting everything from movies and TV shows, to music, games, software and anything else that can be digitally reproduced. For copyright holders it’s a herculean task and as a result, mistakes can happen. The scale is such that it’s almost inevitable.

Unfortunately, however, some ‘mistakes’ are so ridiculous as to be unforgivable, especially when they target completely innocent individuals hoping to make a difference with the positive spread of knowledge and information. Case in point: Sinclair Target, the owner of computing history blog, Two-Bit History.

In 2018, Target wrote an article about Ada Lovelace, the daughter of Lord Byron who some credit as being the world’s first computer programmer, despite being born in 1815. Unfortunately, however, those who search for that article today using Google won’t find it.

As the image below shows, the original Tweet announcing the article is still present in Google’s indexes but the article itself has been removed, thanks to a copyright infringement complaint that also claimed several other victims.

While there could be dozens of reasons the article infringed someone’s copyrights, the facts are so absurd as to be almost unbelievable. Sinclair’s article was deleted because an anti-piracy company working on behalf of a TV company decided that since its title (What Did Ada Lovelace’s Program Actually Do?) contained the word ‘DID’, it must be illegal.

This monumental screw-up was announced on Twitter by Sinclair himself, who complained that “Computers are stupid folks. Too bad Google has decided they are in charge.”

At risk of running counter to Sinclair’s claim, in this case – as Lovelace herself would’ve hopefully agreed – it is people who are stupid, not computers. The proof for that can be found in the DMCA complaint sent to Google by RightsHero, an anti-piracy company working on behalf of Zee TV, an Indian pay-TV channel that airs Dance India Dance.

Now in its seventh season, Dance India Dance is a dance competition reality show that is often referred to as DID. And now, of course, you can see where this is going. Because Target and at least 11 other sites dared to use the word in its original context, RightsHero flagged the pages as infringing and asked Google to deindex them.

But things only get worse from here.

Look up the word ‘did’ in any dictionary and you will never find the definition listed as an acronym for Dance India Dance. Instead, you’ll find the explanation as “past of do” or something broadly along those lines. However, if the complaint sent to Google had achieved its intended effect, finding out that would’ve been more difficult too.

Lo, here it is in its full glory.

As we can see, the notice not only claims Target’s article is infringing the copyrights of Dance India Dance (sorry, DID), but also no less than four online dictionaries explaining what the word ‘did’ actually means. (Spoiler: None say ‘Dance India Dance’).

Perhaps worse still, some of the other allegedly-infringing articles were published by some pretty serious information resources including:

-USGS Earthquake Hazards Program of the U.S. Geological Survey (Did You Feel It? (DYFI) collects information from people who felt an earthquake and creates maps that show what people experienced and the extent of damage)

– The US Department of Education (Did (or will) you file a Schedule 1 with your 2018 tax return?)

– Nature.com (Did pangolins spread the China coronavirus to people?)

Considering the scale of the problem here, we tried to contact RightsHero for comment. However, the only anti-piracy company bearing that name has a next-to-useless website that provides no information on where the company is, who owns it, who runs it, or how those people can be contacted.

In the absence of any action by RightsHero, Sinclair Target was left with a single option – issue a counterclaim to Google in the hope of having his page restored.

“I’ve submitted a counter-claim, which seemed to be the only thing I could do,” Target told TorrentFreak.

“Got a cheery confirmation email from Google saying, ‘Thanks for contacting us!’ and that it might be a while until the issue is resolved. I assume that’s because this is the point where finally a decision has to be made by a human being. It is annoying indeed.”

Finally, it’s interesting to take a line from Target’s analysis of Lovelace’s program. “She thought carefully about how operations could be organized into groups that could be repeated, thereby inventing the loop,” he writes.

10 DELETE “DID”
20 PROFIT?
30 GOTO 10

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While most if not all gaming companies have piracy issues to contend with, Nintendo is among the most aggressive when it comes to protecting its intellectual property rights.

The company has a multi-pronged strategy that tackles the issue from almost every conceivable direction. When sites create archives of gaming ROMs available for download, Nintendo is happy to sue their operators and when entities are more difficult to pursue with direct legal action, it has taken to the courts to have ISPs block piracy-facilitating platforms.

While it has many adversaries on the piracy front, the infamous Team-Xecutor is perhaps the company’s arch-nemesis. With its development of hardware and software solutions to skirt Nintendos technical protection measures, such as those available for the Switch platform, Team-Xecutor is now one of Nintendo’s priorities.

Last November we reported that Nintendo had begun targeting Google with relatively rare DMCA anti-circumvention notices, which detailed URLs where Team-Xecutor and similar piracy-enabling products could be found.

Since these notices aren’t easily countered, Google removed many listings from its indexes, meaning that anyone searching for Team-Xecutor’s SX OS and SX Pro products would find related pages more difficult to find. It now transpires that on this front, Nintendo is keeping up the pressure, firing off more and more complaints to Google in an effort to reduce the popularity of these products.

In early December, following our last update, Nintendo sent a notice to Google targeting 91 pages on Team-Xecutor.com.

“The URLs listed below promote, and direct visitors to resellers of, circumvention software and devices called the SX OS and SX Pro,” the notice reads.

“The SX OS and SX Pro is designed to bypass technological protection measures in the Nintendo Switch video game system and allows users to play unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video game files that are offered unlawfully via the Internet.”

While that was certainly the case for many of the listed URLs, rival gaming companies also benefited from the notice. Intentionally or otherwise, Nintendo also requested the delisting of pages relating to modification devices for Microsoft’s XBox 360, including the Xecutor Sonos 360 sound module, for example.

Another, a couple of days later, listed another 65 URLs, again targeting a mixture of Nintendo and Xbox-related products.

While Team-Xecutor and sellers of the R4 range of backup cartridges are the main targets, these devices are distributed through networks of resellers, all of which Nintendo wants to render harder to find. Many notices in December also addressed this issue, targeting a range of sites selling Team-Xecutor and similar products.

After a six week hiatus, this month Nintendo began sending notices again, largely following the same format as before by deleting specific pages on a range of sites from Google’s search results. While this is a nuisance for the targeted platforms, three in particular appeared to have made the mistake of offering circumvention devices on their homepages.

As a result, sxswitch.com, mod-switch.com, and gogioco.com have all had their homepages deleted from search results. Team-Xecutor.com received the same treatment back in September 2019.

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