In July, Polish law enforcement officers arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of KickassTorrents, who’s been held in a local prison ever since.

The 30-year-old Ukrainian was arrested on behalf of U.S. authorities who want him extradited. According to a grand jury indictment, Artem is one of the brains behind the popular torrent search engine.

Artem’s defense team refutes these claims and has asked the U.S. federal court to dismiss the case in its entirety. At the same time, they have been trying to get their client released from prison on bail.

The case has now been heard before the Court of Appeals in Warsaw, Poland, but with a disappointing result for the KickassTorrents defendant. The court ruled that Artem should remain in custody during the extradition proceedings.

The defense argued that Artem should be released on bail while awaiting extradition hearing. Among other things, they questioned how the crimes alleged by the U.S. applied under Polish law.

In addition, they stressed that their client is in need of good medical care, possibly surgery, for a spinal hernia he’s suffering from. His release could have been under police supervision and Artem was willing to hand over his passport and remain in Warsaw, if needed.

The Court of Appeals reviewed the arguments and concluded that the alleged KickassTorrents owner will remain in prison, citing a fear of complications during the extradition proceedings.

According to Judge Marzanna Piekarska-Drążek, there are still valid reasons to extend the detention. She noted that the evidence provided by the U.S. authorities is “sufficient” to warrant this decision.

The health issues cited by the defense were not seen as severe, with the court noting that Artem could get the help he needs while in custody.

Artem’s Polish counsel, Tatiana Pacewicz, is disappointed by the outcome. She believes that her client’s rights are being violated and notes that the case has been referred to the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

TorrentFreak also reached out to Val Gurvits, who is part of the U.S. defense team. He told us that they are still not allowed to meet with Artem to prepare his defense. Meanwhile, the Polish authorities appear to have shared evidence with the U.S. without due process.

“We continue to be frustrated by our inability to have an attorney-client meeting with Artem in Warsaw,” Gurvits says.

“In addition, it seems that the Polish authorities prematurely handed over to the US authorities Artem’s personal effects including his laptop. This is troubling since Artem was denied his right to oppose this,” he adds.

The extradition hearing is currently scheduled for later this month, so more news is expected to follow soon.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

When peer-to-peer file-sharing was in its infancy, Internet forums were the places where the enthusiasts came to meet. Regular users hung out with file-sharing site owners, while developers offered the latest builds of their new clients.

For a number of years, these forums housed thriving communities but slowly but surely most fell out of use, hit by a double whammy of failing to stay current alongside the advent of social media. For many, sites like Facebook and Reddit became the go-to place for discussion and news.

Of course, these platforms can be used for outright piracy too, with users posting links to the latest content on groups dedicated to file-sharing. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the entertainment industries who often put sites like Facebook under pressure to take action.

According to anti-piracy outfit BREIN, that’s exactly what’s just happened. BREIN says that it complained to Facebook about nine groups which were being used to share several thousand music albums without permission from rightsholders.

“Links to infringing files hosted on cloud services were indexed on the pages. Knowingly posting links to infringing files is itself a violation,” BREIN says.

After being contacted by BREIN, Facebook responded by deleting all nine ‘pirate’ groups. However, this wasn’t the first time the social network has taken this kind of action. BREIN says that earlier this year Facebook removed a number of similar groups following complaints of infringement.

But while shutting down ‘pirate’ groups will have some short-term effect, the people that were participating in them are likely to regroup and set up elsewhere. Of course, BREIN can follow them to their new homes but it’s also aware of the value of targeting individuals.

“The posters of the infringing links are also often the illegal uploader of unauthorized files [on cyberlocker sites],” BREIN says, adding that in some circumstances it will seek to hold those people responsible for their actions.

“BREIN did this already with other intermediaries such as Google, Usenet providers and hosting providers of torrent sites, cyberlockers and streaming link sites.”

BREIN chief Tim Kuik says there are now plenty of affordable legal alternatives but choosing the unauthorized route could prove costly.

“Illegally offering free links and files causes damage to authors, rights holders and legal online services. They should realize that this can be expensive,” Kuik says.

That message hit home earlier this year when BREIN tracked down a prolific cyberlocker uploader who shared pirated music in a dedicated Facebook group. The man agreed to sign a €7,000 settlement and left the group, which was shut down soon after.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Over the years, many Germans have gotten used to YouTube’s blocking notice, which prevented them from playing music videos that are widely available in the rest of the world.

At the root of this issue is a dispute between the video hosting platform and GEMA, a local music group that claims to represent 70,000 artists.

YouTube and GEMA have been fighting several court cases for more than half a decade, but today they announced a breakthrough.

The two parties have signed a licensing agreement where the video hosting platform agrees to pay a fee for making the music videos of GEMA members available in Germany. As a result, the blocking notifications on many videos will disappear.

“This is a win for music artists around the world, enabling them to reach new and existing fans in Germany, while also earning money from the advertising on their videos,” says YouTube’s Christophe Muller.

“And for YouTube users in Germany, who will no longer see a blocking message on music content that contains GEMA repertoire, for the first time in seven years.”

YouTube created a special GIF to celebrate the occasion

GEMA is happy with the outcome as well, in particular because YouTube agreed to pay retroactive compensation for videos that have been published since the start of the dispute in 2009.

“After seven years of tough negotiations, signing a deal with YouTube marks a milestone for GEMA and its members,” GEMA’s Harald Heker comments.

“What is crucial is that the license agreement covers publications from both the future and the past. With this agreement, we can provide our members their royalties,” he adds.

Increasingly, music groups are criticizing YouTube for “profiting” from the hard work of artists without paying proper compensations, so it’s not unlikely that similar deals will follow in other countries.

On the other hand, music insiders have also complained about GEMA’s restrictive policies. Sony Music’s Edgar Berger previously said that millions were lost because of the YouTube ban. At the same time, some musicians complained that there were not able to share their music freely.

With this in mind, the current agreement is certainly a big step forward for both musicians and the public at large.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

In the US, Europe, and Canada, copyright holders have been teaming up with piracy monitoring firms to develop a new flow of revenue. Together they track down alleged pirates and hit them with a demand for cash settlement – or else.

This so-called ‘copyright-trolling’ hit Sweden earlier this year. An organization calling itself Spridningskollen (Distribution Check) headed up by law firm Gothia Law, said its new initiative would save the entertainment industries and educate the masses.

“One can compare it to a speed camera. In the same way that a speed camera only records those who drive too fast, only those Internet users who share copyrighted material without permission are logged,” said spokesman Gordon Odenbark.

Those ‘speeding fines’ were set at around $250 but backed up by threats that they would increase if file-sharers were uncooperative. Predictably there was a huge backlash, both among the public and in the media, but few expected the announcement that came yesterday.

“Gothia Law, who on behalf of rights holders in the film and television industry created Distribution Check, is now ending its involvement in the file sharing issue,” the firm said.

“In a short time, Distribution Check has given rise to criticism but also a decline in illegal file sharing. This without a single collection letter being sent out.”

Noting that in a short time the anti-piracy campaign had generated intense debate, the law firm also went on to claim that it had been a success.

“Knowledge of an individual’s legal responsibility is higher today than it was before the initiative was launched. It also established that the method to address a claim against a person who held a particular IP address through which copyrighted materials were distributed illegally, is in full compliance with both Swedish and European legislation,” the company added.

The claim that the campaign had somehow achieved its aims is somewhat weak, especially when one considers the legal and administrative costs that have been accrued in what was a sizeable operation.

That is further compounded by the fact that no letters being sent out means that a) all the threats and promises were hollow and b) zero revenue was generated. Perhaps worse still, those threats were made by a law firm that now has to deal with damage to its reputation among both its clients and the general public.

“The polarized debate focused on how to act to avoid the Swedish law. Many hold the belief that it is socially acceptable to withhold the truth in order to escape the penalty for a criminal act, which also seriously damages the cultural sector,” Gothia said.

“As legislation and public opinion differs in a significant way, Gothia Law has now ended its involvement in the file-sharing issue.”

It is quite something for a law firm to state that it’s backed out of a project because people have no respect for the law. Then again, it’s not unusual for law firms to get involved in this type of work only to find that it’s more trouble than it’s worth. Still, the company signs off with its successes, which were apparently achieved in just two months and without sending out a single letter.

“The initiative has meant a certain success for rights holders who will continue to protect their own interests in the file-sharing issue. Not only has the issue risen on the agenda, during the time that has passed since the initiative was launched, illegal downloading in Sweden also declined,” Gothia said.

While it’s reportedly true that file-sharing in Sweden is on the decline, it seems unlikely that this campaign had much of an effect on that since its launch in September. Nevertheless, Gothia insists that it did.

“The decline in sharing of the 150 titles represented by Distribution Check has been greater than the overall decline. For some titles, the download has fallen by 17 percent,” the company concludes.

It’s difficult to see the announcement as anything less than a damage limitation exercise but for local ISP Bahnhof, the news is still welcome. Bahnhof CEO Jon Karlung has been Distribution Check’s most vocal critic and through his company has been a thorn in the side of the project. Now it’s all over, people can relax again.

“This means that ordinary families do not have to come home to mysterious invoices that you have to think about whether to pay or not,” Karlung says.

“Hopefully this means that the copyright industry will seriously leave the 90s behind and put their resources into better experiences instead, such as Netflix and Spotify have done.”

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Not to sound ageist, but generally speaking 86-year-old women are not that interested in zombie games like Metro 2033.

This also applies to Christine McMillan from Ontario, Canada. In fact, she’d never even heard of the game until an anti-piracy group accused her of pirating a copy via BitTorrent.

McMillan is one of the hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been accused of copyright infringement under Canada’s “notice and notice” regime.

Due to a change to Canada’s copyright law early last year, ISPs are now required to forward copyright infringement notices to their customers. As a result, tens of thousands of Internet subscribers have received warnings in their mailboxes, with some asking for cash settlements.

The 86-year-old woman falls in the latter category. In the letter received from anti-piracy group Canipre, she’s threatened with thousands of dollars in damages, if she doesn’t comply.

“They didn’t tell me how much I owed, they only told me that if I didn’t comply, I would be liable for a fine of up to $5,000 and I could pay immediately by entering my credit card number,” McMillan told Go Public.

At first, McMillan thought she was dealing with spammers but Cogeco, her Internet provider, confirmed that the email with the settlement offer was legitimate.

The power of the settlement scheme lies in the uncertainty people face. Most recipients are unaware of the notice-and-notice system and fear that a lawsuit is looming. However, thus far not a single lawsuit has followed in these cases.

They are basically regular takedown notices, bundled with a settlement request, which are common in the U.S. as well. The rightsholders have no idea who the accused are and have no way to contact them directly.

McMillan is obviously not happy with the notice-and-notice legislation which she brands as “foolish.”

“That somebody can threaten you over the internet … that to me is intimidation and I can’t believe the government would support such action,” she says.

Canipre’s owner Barry Logan, however, doesn’t see anything wrong with the practice and says that his company is helping its clients to educate the public on piracy and theft. The threatening language in the letters doesn’t cross any lines, he notes.

For the anti-piracy group the new legislation has been a great success. By sending out tens, or hundreds of thousands of warning letters, they’ve collected about $500,000 in settlements since it was put in place last year.

This also means that Canadian Internet subscribers are half a million lighter as a result.

Interestingly, McMillan is not one of them. While she made herself known by going to the press, she has no intention of paying up for pirating a zombie game she’d never even heard of.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.