It used to be a little talked about secret but the fact that all Netflix users aren’t treated equally is now well and truly out of the bag.

Due to licensing deals with content providers, most regions in the world are granted access to differing levels of content. Users in the United States get the best deal from a choice perspective while subscribers in many other regions are offered much more shallow libraries.

However, for many years determined subscribers from all over the world have been using various tricks to gain access to the forbidden fruits of the U.S. Netflix library. This has largely been achieved through the use of VPNs and proxies, techniques which worked almost flawlessly until complaints from rightsholders forced Netflix into a crackdown earlier this year.

Nevertheless, other methods to circumvent Netflix blocks do exist. Some savvy individuals have been using something known as a tunnel broker, an online service which provides the user with a network tunnel. One particular type, known as an IPv6 tunnel broker, provides users with a modern IPv6 tunnel to sites via the much older (but massively more prevalent) IPv4 protocol.

One such service is provided free of charge by Hurricane Electric, the operator of the world’s largest IPv6 transit network. Called simply ‘IPv6 Tunnel Broker‘, the company describes the service as follows.

“Our free tunnel broker service enables you to reach the IPv6 Internet by tunneling over existing IPv4 connections from your IPv6 enabled host or router to one of our IPv6 routers. Our tunnel service is oriented towards developers and experimenters that want a stable tunnel platform,” Hurricane explains.

With noble goals at heart, this service is clearly not designed to give Netflix headaches. However, with tunnel endpoints in the United States that was apparently the net result, with people using the service able to access titles geo-restricted to the U.S.

Somehow this situation came to Netflix’s attention and during the past few days the company decided to take action. Numerous reports indicate that Netflix has now blocked users of Hurricane Electric’s tunnel broker from accessing its services, regardless of their intent. They now receive the message below.

A Reddit user called KeiroD contacted Netflix after receiving an identical message with the same error code – M7111-1331-5059. From the transcript of the discussion its clear that KeiroD already had a good idea why he was blocked.

“The only thing that I can think of that would affect us would be using the Hurricane Electric tunnelbroker but we’re US-based as is Hurricane Electric’s tunnel,” he explained. Netflix responded as expected.

“Yes it is possible as they work the same as the VPN or proxies. There is a way to find out if that is the reason, do you have a way to turn it off for a moment so we can try the service again?” customer support asked.

In response KeiroD turned off IPv6 in his router’s tunnel broker setup, rebooted, and played a random movie successfully.

General blocking aside, the sad part here is that KeiroD is based in the United States, so already had access to U.S. content on Netflix. The fact that his account with Netflix was registered in the United States and his endpoint was in Kansas City didn’t help at all.

Interestingly, the topic is also under discussion in Hurricane Electric’s forums. After years of people questioning whether he had access to the U.S. version of Netflix, a Canadian user there reported that his Netflix suddenly stopped working a few days ago.

“Turns out that I did [have the U.S. Netflix] and didn’t even know it! Now Netflix is blocking me, and after a long while I finally figured out that it was because of my IPv6 tunnel. The thing is though, I am in Canada, and I use the tunnel server in Toronto, also in Canada, but Netflix detects my connections as coming from the US!” he explains.

“Well of course this problem only affects traffic coming over the IPv6 tunnel. If I shut it down, then Netflix works fine over native IPv4. I obviously still want my IPv6 connectivity, and don’t have any easy way that I know of to specifically block only Netflix-related traffic from resolving IPv6 addresses and using the tunnel.”

Sadly, however, Hurricane say they can’t help.

“Our [subnet] is registered as part of a US company, and that is the address space being used there. We do not have any IPv6 allocations allocated and designated as ‘Canada’,” a senior Hurricane engineer responded.

“Our [subnet] is used globally, as-is. If Netflix has some sort of whitelisting system in place, perhaps the ranges used there can be submitted, if such a whitelist exists, Netflix willing.”

As an avid supporter of IPv6, Netflix’s decision to block Hurricane users is somewhat disappointing, especially when they have U.S. accounts and are also based in the U.S.

Understandably the company is responding to pressure from rightsholders but interestingly there’s no change in the current situation even when they aren’t a factor. Netflix previously indicated it wanted to improve licensing issues by creating its own shows, shows that can be accessed anywhere in the world without issues. But even they are off-limits, it seems.

“This started happening to me this afternoon. Called Netflix support, and based on that conversation I concluded they consider Tunnelbroker a VPN/Proxy,” another user on HE’s forums explains.

“They’re not wrong, but it’s still frustrating. Ironically the show I was trying to resume is a Netflix original. I wouldn’t have expected that there would be licensing issues on their own content.”

And so the whac-a-mole continues….

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

With well over 150 million active users a month uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client around.

In addition, the software also has a dedicated community forums with tens of thousands of visitors per day, and over 388,000 registered members.

According to a recent security alert these users would be to update their passwords, as the forum database has been compromised by hackers.

The uTorrent team, which is part of BitTorrent Inc, was alerted to the issue by one of their vendors earlier this week. While the vulnerability didn’t originate at the uTorrent forums, it was indirectly compromised.

“The vulnerability appears to have been through one of the vendor’s other clients, however it allowed attackers to access some information on other accounts. As a result, attackers were able to download a list of our forum users,” uTorrent writes.

The security alert is posted in the forums but as far as we know users haven’t been notified individually. There is no mention of the massive security breach on uTorrent and BitTorrent’s social media accounts either.

uTorrent forums with security warning

According to the uTorrent team it’s not entirely clear what data has been compromised by the hack. The company’s vendor has made some changes to mitigate the fallout, but the hashed passwords are likely compromised.

“We are investigating further to learn if any other information was accessed. Our vendor has made backend changes so that the hashes in the file do not appear to be a usable attack vector,” the uTorrent team writes.

“As a precaution, we are advising our users to change their passwords. While the passwords may not be used as a vector on the forums, those hashed passwords should be considered compromised,” they add.

In addition, users are strongly advised to update their passwords at other sites, if the ones they’re using are identical to the one deployed on the forum.

While uTorrent no longer reports the number of forum users, a few months ago it listed 388,358 members who together wrote over half a million posts.

The uTorrent forums use the Invision Power Board software. The same software also powers the separate BitTorrent forums, which given the lack of a security notice doesn’t appear to be compromised.

TorrentFreak asked BitTorrent Inc. at which vendor the hack originated and whether it intends to communicate the issue to forum users in a more direct manner, but we have yet to hear back.

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

With millions of visitors per day KickassTorrents (KAT) is currently the most visited torrent site on the Internet.

As a result, copyright holders have taken aim at the site in recent years, resulting in ISP blockades in the UK, Finland and elsewhere. Soon, even Australia may be added to this list.

While these blocks are somewhat effective, there are also plenty of ways to circumvent them. KAT itself is operating various proxy sites, for example, and today it steps up its unblocking efforts by joining the dark web.

Through a newly launched domain KAT users can now access their favorite site on the Tor network. Tor, which stands for The Onion Router, is an encrypted anonymity network that can’t be easily blocked by ISPs.

“Good news for those who have difficulties accessing KAT due to the site block in their country, now you can always access KAT via this address lsuzvpko6w6hzpnn.onion on a TOR network,” Mr. White announces.

Tor users can access regular websites, but also dedicated Tor sites that use an .onion address. People who want to access these addresses have to be connected to the Tor network, through the special Tor browser for example.

TorrentFreak spoke to KAT’s Mr. White who informs us that an .onion address was added by popular request, making it easier for users to bypass even the strictest blockades.

KAT is not the first torrent site to become active on the Tor network. The Pirate Bay has had an .onion address for several years already. In addition, there are also several smaller torrent and warez communities active on the dark web.

Thus far the response from KAT users has been mostly positive, with many welcoming bridge to the dark web.

“This is fantastic news. I had quite some difficulties trying to log in. Now no more,” one user notes. Another one adds, “welcome to Tor KAT family, nothing beats sailing on the dark net.”

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

Currently there is a huge and coordinated effort by the world’s major copyright holders to push for changes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

In a nutshell, key entertainment industry players believe that the DMCA is no longer fit for purpose and has been twisted out of shape by pirate sites, Google and even YouTube, to work against their best interests.

One of the main problems is taking down infringing content. The legislation allows content to be removed following the issuing of a so-called DMCA notice, but copyright holders say that this descends into a game of whac-a-mole, with content repeatedly reappearing.

To end this cycle they’re pushing for a new mechanism provisionally titled ‘Takedown, Staydown’ or ‘Notice and Staydown’. This would order web platforms to ensure that once content is taken down it will never appear again on the same platform. These proposals are currently under review by the US Copyright Office.

But while copyright holders feel this would be a great tool for them, it’s perhaps unsurprising that content platforms are less enthusiastic. After weighing in earlier in the year, the latest warnings from the Internet Archive, a gigantic public repository of a wide range of media, and are among the sternest yet.

Noting that even the current system is regularly abused by those seeking to silence speech, the Archive says that on a daily basis it receives wrongful takedowns for content that is in the public domain, is fair use, or is critical of the content owner. Therefore, further extending takedown rights could prove extremely problematic.

“We were very concerned to hear that the Copyright Office is strongly considering recommending changing the DMCA to mandate a ‘Notice and Staydown’ regime. This is the language that the Copyright Office uses to talk about censoring the web,” the Archive warns.

The Archive has a number of concerns but key issues involve due process and user monitoring. Once a platform is in receipt of a “staydown” order, it will be required to ensure that content never reappears, regardless of the context in which it does so. This means that users posting content subject to fair use exceptions will effectively be denied their right to issue a counter-notice when their upload is blocked, thus trampling due process.

But of course, blocking content also requires that users are monitored, and the Internet Archive doesn’t like that idea at all.

“The current statute protects user privacy by explicitly stating that platforms have no duty to monitor user activity for copyright infringement. Notice and Staydown would change this – requiring platforms to be constantly looking over users’ shoulders,” the Archive warns.

With free speech potentially at stake here, the Internet Archive says that taking content down and keeping it down has constitutional implications.

“Notice and Staydown has a serious First Amendment problem. The government mandating the use of technology to affirmatively take speech offline before it’s even posted, without any form of review, potentially violates free speech laws,” it says.

Such an automated system would amount to a censorship “black box”, the Archive adds, to which the public would be denied the key.

“It would be very difficult to know how much legitimate activity was being censored.”

Fair use has come up time and time again during this DMCA debate and the Internet Archive is clearly very concerned that it receives protection. Worried that content filtering technology isn’t even up to today’s challenges, the Archive warns that systems that can identify instances of fair use simply don’t exist.

“So far, no computer algorithm has been developed that can determine whether a particular upload is fair use. Notice and Staydown would force many cases of legitimate fair use off the web,” it warns.

“Further, intermediaries are not the right party to be implementing this technology. They don’t have all the facts about the works, such as whether they have been licensed. Most platforms are not in a good position to be making legal judgments, and they are motivated to avoid the potential for high statutory damages. All this means that platforms are likely to filter out legitimate uses of content.”

Finally, there is the not insignificant matter of who is going to pay for all of these systems should platforms be forced to adopt them. While copyright holders would apparently reap the benefits, sites like the Internet Archive would probably be expected to foot the bill.

“Developing an accurate filter that will work for each and every platform on the web will be an extremely costly endeavor. Nonprofits, libraries, and educational institutions who act as internet service providers would be forced to spend a huge amount of their already scarce resources policing copyright,” the Archive warns.

“The DMCA has its problems, but Notice and Staydown would be an absolute disaster,” it concludes.

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

Earlier today we wrote about the Copyright Alliance’s critique of the US-based Public Interest Registry (PIR), which is responsible for .ORG domains.

The group called out the registry as hypocritical, as it allows “criminal” sites such as The Pirate Bay to use its service. A few hours later it turns out that this criticism didn’t come out of nowhere.

The Pirate Bay’s registrar EasyDNS reveals that the RIAA sent PIR a letter last week, urging it to suspend the Pirate Bay’s domain.

The music group lists several European court decisions against The Pirate Bay, including the criminal convictions of its founders in Sweden. It states that the torrent site is clearly operating illegally, and hopes the registry will take its domain name out of circulation.

According to the RIAA, The Pirate Bay violates PIR’s anti-abuse policy and terms of service. As such, it hopes that a court order isn’t required for the registry to take action.

“When, as in this case, there is overwhelming evidence of infringing and abusive activity on a domain, along with court orders from several jurisdictions with well-developed copyright jurisprudence, it cannot be the ‘right thing’ or ‘in the community interest’ to hold out for those decisions to be processed before the U.S. courts before taking action,” the RIAA writes.

RIAA’s letter to the Public Interest Registry

The RIAA’s letter was sent last week and thus far PIR has not taken any steps against the domain. Instead, it forwarded the RIAA’s letter to Pirate Bay’s registrar, the Canadian-based EasyDNS.

TorrentFreak spoke with EasyDNS CEO Mark Jeftovic, who informs us that he doesn’t want to be seen as a refuge for torrent sites. However, he is committed to protecting due process, and for now he sees no reason to suspend the domain name.

EasyDNS forwarded the letter to TPB and intriguingly, the site’s operator replied that they are DMCA compliant. In addition, they waved away any concerns about malware that was distributed through third-party ads.

Infringements or not, EasyDNS says its abuse policy only covers net abuse, not copyright matters. This means that in order to get a domain suspended the RIAA would need to present a local court order, or a foreign one that’s served through the Ontario Sheriff’s Office.

“We would need some kind of legal finding here in Ontario, or a foreign legal finding that has been duly served to us via the Ontario Sheriff’s Office,” Jeftovic tells us.

Alternatively, EasyDNS says it will accept the outcome of a formal proceeding under ICANN’s rules and regulations. However, it won’t take action against a one-sided complaint.

All in all, this means that the RIAA’s letter is unlikely to achieve the result they desire. This also begs the question, what’s next?

Although the RIAA would prefer to avoid a legal case against The Pirate Bay in the United States, if only to avoid the media attention, it appears that they have few other options left than to go to court.

Court case or not, the TPB team isn’t worried. They are not tied to the .ORG domain and can easily switch to an alternative.

“TPB is more than just a domain, it’s a movement, and taking down one domain will have zero effect on our inalienable right to share culture with our peers,” TPB’s Spud17 told us earlier today.

And so the whack-a-mole game is likely to continue.

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