While it’s not widely publicized, many larger torrent sites regularly remove links to infringing files. This allows copyright holders to somewhat limit the availability of their works on the Internet.

Generally speaking, movie studios and other rightsholders hire anti-piracy companies to track down infringing content. These outfits then send takedown notices to the sites in question.

In India, the local Sony Pictures’ representatives are taking a different approach. This week they informed several torrent site operators about their upcoming release, Azhar, which premieres in theaters today.

However, instead of linking to torrents or specific URLs, the notice is a general warning urging site owners to keep the film off their sites. Citing the Indian Copyright Act, the company warns that distributing the film would break the law.

“By way of the present caution notice issued to you, we caution you and your website, not to indulge in any broadcasting, rebroadcasting, making available for viewing and / or communicating to the public, the film and any content associated thereof, without obtaining permission / authorization from our client,” the notice reads.

Sony Pictures Networks‘ anti-piracy partner MarkScan adds that they will keep a close eye on the developments, and warns that civil or criminal lawsuits may follow if the warning is ignored.

“We will be monitoring your activities for any act of infringement of the statutory and contractual rights of our Client and shall be compelled to initiate legal proceedings (civil and/or criminal) should you engage in violation of our Client’s rights despite the present notice,” they write.

While the language may sound intimidating, the torrent site operators we spoke with have no plans to take preemptive action. Besides broad keyword filters, there are few options to prevent users from uploading content that’s not available yet.

At the time of writing we haven’t seen any pirated copies of Azhar on torrent sites, but the soundtrack is widely distributed. Despite the threats, it’s likely that the movie will follow soon after the first releases leak online.

The Preemptive notice

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

Following the failed SOPA and PIPA bills, entertainment industry groups have switched their efforts away from legislation and towards voluntary cooperation with various stakeholders.

This has resulted in several agreements with Internet providers, advertising agencies and payment processors, designed to help prevent piracy.

Continuing this trend, the MPAA is now actively working on private deals with domain name registries and registrars. After teaming up with U.S-based Donuts a few months ago, the movie industry group is now going global.

Today, the MPAA and Asian registry Radix announced their new anti-piracy partnership. Radix bills itself as Asia’s largest new gTLD applicant and controls several domain extensions including .online, .tech, .space, .website, .press, .host, .site.

Under their agreement the MPAA will act as a “trusted notifier,” tasked with reporting sites that are clearly copyright-infringing. After several checks, these domain names may then be suspended by the registry.

“We welcome MPAA’s cooperation in helping us prevent intellectual property and copyright violations in our name space,” comments Sandeep Ramchandani, Business Head of Radix.

“We’re hopeful that our joint actions will not only protect creators from having their works stolen, but also protect Internet users from exposure to malware that is commonly found on sites run by unlicensed operators,” he adds.

The details of the partnership have not been released but they are likely similar to the Donuts agreement, which we analyzed in detail in our previous coverage.

Radix’s gTLDs

The new deal suggests that the MPAA is actively reaching out to registries to help them fight online piracy.

The Hollywood group previously lobbied domain name system oversight body ICANN to take action against pirate sites, without any result. Thus far, reaching out to registries directly has proven to be more fruitful.

According to Steven Fabrizio, the MPAA’s Senior Executive Vice President, voluntary partnerships should help to battle online piracy, and he hopes they will expand to other industries and domain name services.

“While this agreement is geared to film and television piracy, similar agreements could address other illegal activity online. Hopefully, it can become a model to be used with other players in the domain name ecosystem and Internet intermediaries,” Fabrizio says.

While the deal doesn’t put any major pirate sites at risk right away, it does limit the number of domain name options they have. It also means that sites such as yts.host, thepiratebay.tech and torrentmirror.online could soon disappear.

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

Consumers of audio-visual content – video in particular – are often granted access to different libraries of movies and TV shows depending on which country they’re accessing services from.

Netflix is a prime example. US customers get the best selection by far and even subscribers in various member states of Europe are restricted depending on their home country. This means that those traveling within the region can sometimes be denied access to content.

So-called “geo-blocking” is extremely unpopular with consumers who often go to some lengths, via the use of VPNs etc, to unblock content in other regions. However, last December a light appeared at the end of the tunnel when the European Commission published a proposal which would require streaming services to ban the practice as part of the EU’s wider copyright reforms.

“We want to ensure the portability of content across borders. People who legally buy content – films, books, football matches, TV series – must be able to carry it with them anywhere they go in Europe,” said Andrus Ansip, Vice-President for the Digital Single Market.

The proposals were generally well-received and after a report was published in March which further condemned widespread geo-blocking, it appeared that the European Commission was determined to move ahead with its plan.

However, a leaked document just published by Politico (subscription) reveals that the EC intends to propose exemptions for audio-visual services such as Netflix.

The revelation is tucked away on page 11 of the draft which states the following:

“The material scope of the proposal is aligned with that of Directive 2006/123/EC to the extent possible in order to ensure maximum legal certainty for traders and customers,” it reads.

“This means that, inter alia, non-economic services of general interest, transport services, audio-visual services, gambling activities, healthcare services and certain social services are excluded from the scope of this Regulation.”

Later, on page 18, the European Commission again references exemptions for services offering products that are subject to territorial licensing.

“Audio-visual services, including services the main feature of which is the provision of access to broadcasts of sports events and which are provided on the basis of exclusive territorial licenses, are therefore excluded from the scope of this Regulation,” the draft adds.

While the EC’s proposals are likely to be seen as a negative for consumers, copyright holders will be pleased that the prospect of having to rewrite their licensing agreements has disappeared into the distance.

It is believed that the European Commission will officially unveil these proposals during the next two weeks. Should they be made official they’re expected to come into force during 2017.

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

Playing old console games through browser-based emulators and spin-offs is a niche pastime of many dedicated gamers.

However, keeping these fan-made games online is quite a challenge. This is what Josh Goldberg learned the hard way when his browser version of Nintendo’s 1985 Super Mario Bros was pulled offline in 2013.

The “Full Screen Mario” browser game was unique in several aspects. It not only allowed people to play the original 32 levels, but also included a random map generator and level editor, features Nintendo later released in its own “Mario Maker” game.

After welcoming 2.7 million unique visitors, Goldberg received a DMCA takedown notice from Nintendo which made him decide to pull the plug. However, the code remained widely available on Github and was actively developed in recent years.

This allowed people to play the game on their local machines, or host a copy on their own servers. But now, after more than two years, Nintendo has decided to pull the GitHub repository offline as well.

“Nintendo recently became aware that certain material posted on the web page located at [GitHub] infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo,” reads a DMCA notice that was sent to GitHub a few hours ago.

“Nintendo requests that GitHub disable public access to the web page […] which provides access to software files that make unauthorized use of Nintendo of America Inc.’s copyrighted material from its Super Mario Bros. videogame, in violation of Nintendo’s exclusive rights,” the notice adds.

As a result, GitHub has taken the entire repository down, replacing it with a message pointing to Nintendo’s DMCA takedown request.

Full Screen Mario

Interestingly the takedown comes a few hours after Goldberg, who now works as a Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, highlighted Full Screen Mario’s success in an interview with Microsoft + Open Source.

Interesting timing, just like the release of “Mario Maker” which came out a few months after “Full Screen Mario” was taken down. According to the developer, his game may in fact have inspired the Nintendo release.

“I think it’s too much of a coincidence that in the fall they take down a fan site that was too popular for them, then in the spring and summer they release a trailer for this product,” he previously told The Washington Post in an interview.

“It has the same user interface I had in development, just way better, and it’s something I wish I could have made,” he added, noting that Nintendo never contacted him personally.

Now, roughly three years after Full Screen Mario was born, the project appears to have come to an end. While there’s a possibility that the project may respawn elsewhere, as there are still some forks floating around, it’s game over for the official repository.

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

In 2013, anti-piracy prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad filed a motion targeting two of The Pirate Bay’s most recognizable names, ThePirateBay.se (the site’s main domain) and PirateBay.se (a lesser used alternative).

Rather than take on the site and its operators directly, Ingblad filed a complaint against Punkt SE (IIS), the organization responsible for Sweden’s top level .SE domain.

Ingbland argued that since The Pirate Bay is an illegal site the domains are tools used to infringe copyright and should be suspended. Furthermore, the prosecutor insisted that as the controller of those domains, IIS should also be held liable for copyright infringement.

IIS naturally took an opposing stance and said that any decision on the fate of the domains should be decided by the court. Meanwhile, IIS refused to suspend The Pirate Bay’s domains.

The case was heard in April 2015 and a month later the Stockholm District Court ruled that The Pirate Bay should forfeit both ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se.

But despite ordering the domain seizures the case against IIS was essentially rejected, with the District Court dismissing the prosecution’s case and awarding the registry close to $40,000 in costs. As a result the prosecution took the case to appeal.

This morning, however, the Svea Court of Appeal handed down its decision which upholds the decision of the Stockholm District Court.

“In common with the District Court ruling the Court of Appeal finds that there is a basis for confiscation since the domain names assisted crimes under the Copyright Act,” the Svea Court of Appeal said in a statement.

This means that ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se are now set to be forfeited to the Swedish state and The Pirate Bay will have to find alternatives.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, IIS counsel Elisabeth Ekstrand says that her organization is pleased that the decision of the District Court has been upheld.

“We are pleased that the Court of Appeal chose to uphold the decision from the District Court. We think it is good that this issue has been examined. Now we need some time to read through the verdict before we can make any further comments,” Ekstrand told TF.

Both of the domains are held in the name of Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij and the District Court previously ruled that he is the owner.

“The prosecutor’s primary claim with respect to Fredrik Neij should be upheld and domain names should be confiscated from him in accordance with the Copyright Act,” the Court said.

However, speaking with TorrentFreak a few minutes ago, Neij denied that he is the owner of the domains and will file an appeal to the Supreme Court to protest.

“I will appeal on the grounds that I do not own the domain and that I did not commit copyright infringement as I am not involved with the site anymore,” Neij explained.

All of the parties involved are allowed to appeal so this case seems far from over.

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