In various publications and reports in recent months, the UK has been described as a world leader in intellectual property enforcement. Indeed, news of various operations and dozens of arrests carried out by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) have regularly appeared in the media.

This morning the UK Government has announced that it intends to build on this reputation with the publication of a new strategy titled Protecting Creativity, Supporting Innovation: IP Enforcement 2020.

The document outlines a four-year strategy which aims to provide an environment in which UK rightsholders have access to “proportionate and effective mechanisms to resolve disputes and tackle IP infringement” both at home and overseas.

The strategy has six key points, with reducing the level of illegal online content placed at the top of the list and strengthening the law closely after. The government also wants to increase its educational programs with the aim of building respect for intellectual property.

A significant emphasis on dealing with online infringement sees the government focus on a number of key areas, from those sharing files online to the sites facilitating infringement. Search engines also come under the spotlight.

Interestingly, the main points are all framed at helping the consumer to both recognize and then avoid copyright infringing websites.

Notice and takedown, notice and trackdown

Given the Copyright Office DMCA review currently underway in the United States, it’s no surprise to find a review of notice and takedown procedures heading the list in the UK. The government says that it wants to “improve and streamline the process” while considering the scope for introducing a Code of Practice for intermediaries.

More controversially, the four-year strategy also includes the possibility of introducing a system of “notice and trackdown” which would enable rightsholders to not only send notices but also take action directly against identified infringers.

Safe harbor (or platform liability as its referred to in the report) will come under the spotlight as well, with the government seeking clarification from the EU on current rules.

Dealing with pirating Internet users

On top of the “notice and trackdown” elements detailed above (presumably for the minority who post infringing links on websites etc), the report envisions effort being placed on encouraging consumers to buy from legitimate sources. Mainly, this will be achieved through the long-delayed warning notice system under development at ISPs.

“This government will also build on progress made under our voluntary anti-piracy projects to warn internet users when they are breaching copyright and work to ensure that search engines do not link to the worst-offending sites. This is in recognition of the fact that the clear majority of consumers want to do the right thing, to abide by the law and support our creative industries,” says Minister for Intellectual Property Baroness Neville-Rolfe.

“Helping those consumers to understand what is, and is not, allowed online, and helping guide them to legal content when they search, will help ensure that the vast appetite that exists for new and creative content benefits the legitimate creators, and not those criminals who cynically exploit the hard work of others.”

To help users make the right choice, the government is promising to give more support to industry initiatives such as FindanyFilm.com and the GetitRight campaign while encouraging education campaigns focused on children and students.

“We will work with intermediaries, rights holders and trade bodies to highlight all the UK’s legal sources of content,” the government says.

Targeting pirate sites, services, and their operators

In addition to honing the existing Infringing Website List (IWL), emphasis will be placed on depriving sites of their income via the “Follow the Money” approach and reducing the numbers of visitors they currently enjoy.

“We will continue to work with brand advertisers, advertising intermediaries and
law enforcement partners to highlight the value of the IWL and will support groups
such as the Digital Trading Standards group (DTSG) in promoting their UK good
practice principles,” the report notes.

Existing efforts to deprive sites of the ability to process funds will be maintained, with the government promising to seek commitments from payment processors such as PayPal, MasterCard and VISA to make it more easy for service to be declined following complaints from law enforcement.

Of course, no “pirate site” strategy would be complete without the inclusion of a blocking regime and as expected the UK government leaves no stone unturned.

“This government has also pledged to protect intellectual property by continuing to require internet service providers to block sites that carry large amounts of illegal content, including their proxies,” Baroness Neville-Rolfe explains.

“The UK has a good track record in the development of injunctive relief for online infringement, but this is something that must be preserved, and even enhanced to cope with the sheer numbers of infringing websites that spring up every month, and the new business models they employ.”

The government further sees an opportunity to make the blocking process easier to access for smaller businesses.

“We will continue our work to support businesses of any size to navigate and utilize the civil court system by improving the guidance that is currently available, including guidance on the minimum levels of evidence required for website blocking orders, and by ensuring that court judgments and cases are published on a regular and consistent basis,” the report reads.

The UK also sees potential for cooperation with the EU on injunctions, more on that in a moment.

Interestingly, it appears that ‘pirate’ set-top streaming boxes have rightsholders and by extension the government pretty rattled. They get a special mention in the report with the government noting that a greater understanding of the challenges they present is required. Furthermore, the report says that the government will consider what kind of new legislation might be needed to tackle them.

Search engines and social media

According to the report, the government will work with search engines and social media platforms to reduce the availability of infringing content. This will include a review of their current “notice and takedown” procedures and see the government considering the options for rightsholders to challenge infringers under “notice and trackdown” as detailed above.

The review process will also determine whether Codes of Practice are required for platforms including Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Overseas cooperation

While there are issues locally, the government sees the piracy problem as one to be solved cooperatively on an international basis. To this end there will be requests to partners overseas to carry out “domain and hosting enforcement action” when UK interests are at stake.

“This will include exploring with European colleagues the options for mutual recognition of the evidence required for injunctions and court orders in various member states,” the report reads.

This item is of particular interest since around 1,000 ‘pirate’ sites are already blocked by injunction in the UK. Streamlining the process EU-wide would be a major bonus for rightsholders.

The UK Government’s four-year IP enforcement strategy can be found here (pdf)

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

As one of its hottest properties, HBO has become very protective of Game of Thrones.

In recent weeks thousands of pirates have received warnings in their mailboxes, and the company is also fervently trying to take down links to pirated copies of the show, with some success.

Besides from actual copies of episodes, HBO also appears to have an eye on those who talk about what may happen during the rest of the season. The Internet is littered with spoilers which HBO doesn’t like, including those posted in Spanish by YouTube user Frikidoctor.

Unlike many others, Frikidoctor is remarkably accurate with his predictions, and claims to have a source close to the fire who feeds him information. HBO doesn’t like this and has pulled several of his videos, arguing that they are infringing their copyrights.

This also happened to the video featuring several episode three spoilers which was uploaded a few days ago.

“I uploaded the video and two hours later HBO decided to take it down on YouTube [claiming] copyright infringement,” Frikidoctor says, responding to the surprise takedown.

Removed, sorry about that

Frikidoctor admits that he used snippets of trailers and other promotional material in earlier videos that were removed, but says that the video with the episode three “predictions” didn’t include any HBO audio or video.

“In the last two videos they took down I had some frames from teasers and trailers they decided to share with everyone for promotional purposes. This time the video did not have a single frame or sound that belongs to HBO,” he says.

Instead, the video was just him dressed up in a Mexican wrestler costume, discussing what would happen in the upcoming episode.

“So, they think that me dressed as a Mexican wrestler talking about predictions for episode three of Game of Thrones is their property. That it’s copyrighted material that belongs to them,” Frikidoctor notes.

“Isn’t that misuse of the DMCA?” he adds.

Frikidoctor has appealed the takedown with YouTube and also contacted a lawyer to discuss what steps to take next. While he sees it as a violation of his right to free speech, he’s not sure whether he’s willing to take the issue to court just yet.

For now, however, he will refrain from posting any predictions, to keep the pressure off.

If Frikidoctor did indeed pursue a claim against HBO he would have a good chance of winning. Merely talking about newsworthy information obtained from a source is generally something that would fall under fair use.

It certainly isn’t something to be struck down easily with a copyright complaint.

‘Bogus’ YouTube takedown have become a hot topic in recent months. Earlier this year close to 100,000 people voiced their concerns about potential abuse of copyright takedowns.

The campaign, spearheaded by Fight for the Future and popular YouTube channel ChannelAwesome, stressed that copyright holders are too often censoring free speech with dubious or false takedown claims.

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

Every month millions of people download and share movies, TV shows, music, software and ebooks without obtaining permission from copyright holders.

In most countries that activity is illegal, meaning that huge numbers of Internet users are breaking the law on a daily basis.

While there are plenty of criminals around, most illegal downloaders don’t equate their hobby to being tantamount to theft, despite huge efforts by copyright holders to paint it so. To most it just doesn’t ‘feel’ the same and now scientists in Australia think they may have discovered why.

A three-stage study published by Robert Eres, a PhD student within the Social Neuroscience lab led by Dr Pascal Molenberghs at the Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, investigated why normally law-abiding people don’t have a problem with breaking laws which cover intangible items.

To that end the researchers investigated what happens inside the brains of people when they pirate intangible digital content versus stealing a physical item such as a handbag.

To begin, the researchers issued a questionnaire to discover whether people are more likely to “steal” non-tangible items (such as movie or music files) than their physical counterparts (DVDs and CDs). They found that their test subjects were indeed more likely to “steal” items that have no physical embodiment, no matter what their cost or associated risk of getting caught.

Next up the researchers carried out two sets of brain scans to try and understand why people are more happy to “steal” items that have no physical presence.

“The first brain imaging experiment revealed that people’s brains were much more active when trying to imagine intangible compared to tangible objects, which suggests people have more difficulty with representing intangible items,” the researchers write.

During the second set of scans, test subjects were asked to imagine themselves illegally or legally obtaining physical and digital versions of items such as movies, music, TV shows and software.

What the researchers found was that when imagining stealing an item, participants showed much more activation in the lateral orbital frontal cortex of their brains. Among other things, this part of the brain is associated with feelings of moral sensitivity and it was much more active when test subjects were thinking about stealing physical items than it was for intangible items such as digital files.

“The findings from the two brain imaging experiments suggest that people are processing the intangible and tangible objects very differently within their brains,” Mr Eres says.

Social Neuroscience lab head Dr Pascal Molenberghs says that this suggests that people have less problem breaking laws covering intangible items since they experience more difficulties imagining them so their brains feel less guilty when they “steal” them.

“Evolutionarily, we have interacted more with physical goods – particularly in respect to ownership so that is why we are hardwired to respect these more compared to intangible items such as ideas or software,” Dr Molenberghs says.

Finally, the researchers believe that the results of study have wider implications to other areas of online life, beyond Internet piracy.

“Overall, the data presented here suggests that the differences we see in moral behaviors (particularly concerning contexts of non-physical interactions; piracy, online surveillance and espionage) may be due to the differences in their neural representation and the discerning level of guilt felt for tangible items compared with intangible,” they conclude.

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

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

How to Be Single is the most downloaded movie again.

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise.

RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.

Ranking	(last week)	Movie	IMDb Rating / Trailer
torrentfreak.com
1	(…)	How To Be Single (Web-DL)	6.2 / trailer
2	(…)	Zoolander 2 (Web-DL)	5.0 / trailer
3	(1)	Deadpool	8.6 / trailer
4	(2)	Zootopia (TS)	8.3 / trailer
5	(…)	10 Cloverfield Lane (Webrip)	7.6 / trailer
6	(6)	Triple 9 (Webrip)	6.5 / trailer
7	(3)	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (TS)	7.5 / trailer
8	(10)	Baaghi: A Rebel For Love (DVDscr)	6.1 / trailer
9	(…)	Kindergarten Cop 2	?.? / trailer
10	(4)	The Jungle Book (TS)	8.3 / trailer

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

At TorrentFreak we regularly receive concerned emails from Pirate Bay users who have spotted an influx of suspicious torrents on the popular torrent site.

These torrents usually carry the name of popular new TV-shows or movies, and appear to be shared by thousands of people.

However, those who download the torrents will soon notice that the video files won’t playing. Instead, they urge downloaders to install suspicious software, or worse.

This spam phenomenon is not new and neither is it limited to The Pirate Bay. However, it does appear to have gotten worse in recent years, something several of the site’s moderators confirm today.

Most regular users of the site are probably unaware of the efforts ‘invisible’ moderators have to put into the site to keep it clean day in and day out.

To lift a corner of the veil we reached out to a few crew members to ask about the influx of spam, torrent removals, and their motivations to contribute to the site for free.

First up: who are these moderators and why do they volunteer to keep the site clean?

“We’re all ordinary downloaders at heart who share a love for TPB with millions of others. We put in the hours because we love helping others and we love TPB,” Spud17 tells us.

“I believe in the ideals TPB represents, that sharing is a fundamental human right,” veteran crew member Xe adds.

The overarching theme is that the moderators identify with The Pirate Bay’s ideal to share everything freely, without restrictions. Ironically, however, a large part of their job involves removing torrents, mostly fakes and spam.

“The Crew remove hundreds of thousands of fakes and torrents infested with malware, spyware etcetera. Spam and child porn are also removed,” Spud17 says.

While spam has always been an issue, it’s sometimes hard to contain. At some hours of the day there are no mods available to deal with it, which may result in batches of suspicious content getting through.

“The Crew volunteer their time as and when they can, so it’s inevitable that there’ll be periods where the fakes have piled up for a few hours. Users are welcome to report bad torrents and uploaders on our forum, and on our IRC channel,” Spud17 says.

“I should also mention that sometimes we delete legitimate torrents by mistake. We’re human. We have a forum where people can appeal such calls,” Xe adds.

The Pirate Bay crew recommends downloaders to use common sense, and educate themselves on how fake files and spam can be detected. And in case of doubt, it’s best to avoid newly uploaded content, they say.

“The best defense for TPB users against the fakers is knowledge. Read the FAQ on our forum and pay particular attention to the section on finding torrents – if you read and understand that, you should be able to spot the fakes easily,” Spud17 says.

In any case, fake files and spam never stay on the site for long.

“The important thing for downloaders to know is that the vast majority of crap is dealt with by staff within a day, but often much quicker,” Xe adds.

All moderators we talked to embrace TPB’s decision not to comply with copyright holder’s takedown requests. However, they do respect sites that do. Running a torrent site can be quite tricky, and if they feel it’s safer to adhere to the DMCA then that’s their choice.

However, the removal policies at some other sites also means that The Pirate Bay remains relevant today, as the true haven for ‘uncensored’ sharing.

“It is the only site I’m aware of which doesn’t delete content following DMCA requests,” Xe says.

“It is THE place to upload to avoid the disappointment of having your torrents deleted and THE place to download from when what you want has been deleted from elsewhere. It is the standard by which all other sites are judged.”

As the media industry keeps throwing up artificial barriers to prevent people from enjoying their content, people will keep flocking to The Pirate Bay.

“The Pirate Bay will always be relevant as long as money and location are barriers to accessing culture and educational media,” Spud17 says.

All in all, The Pirate Bay Crew take a lot of pride in what they do. The moderation team is not involved in keeping the site up and running technically, but they are vital to its survival.

Like last year’s temporary rift has shown, without moderators to remove the thousands of fake files TPB would soon turn into a spammer heaven. So, in a way, removing torrents is central to the site’s survival. As long as the pirated stuff stays up…

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