Compared to many other countries around the world, pirating movies and TV-shows is hugely popular in the Netherlands.

Up to a third of the population is estimated to download and stream copyrighted content without paying for it.

This high percentage is not surprising as the Netherlands has traditionally been a relative safe haven for pirates. Downloading movies without permission was not punishable by law until the European Court of Justice spoke out against the tolerant stance two years ago.

As a result the Dutch government quickly outlawed unauthorized downloading. However, breaking the habits of a large section of the population will take more than that and local piracy rates still remain high.

This has prompted Dutch filmmakers and distributors to hold the Government responsible and they’re now demanding compensation for the piracy losses they claim to have suffered.

In a letter sent to Secretary of State for Justice, Klaas Dijkhoff, a coalition of film industry companies claim 1.2 billion euros ($1.34 billion) to compensate for damages dating back to 2004.

“The Dutch State has maintained for years that copying from illegal sources was allowed. The result was that an entire generation of consumers believes that downloading without paying for it is simply allowed,” the filmmakers write (via Tweakers).

“Through this letter we hold the Dutch government liable for the damage. We want the Dutch State to take responsibility for its unlawful legislation and the resulting damage,” they add.

The companies base their billion euro claim on research from Considerati, which estimates the losses at 78 million euros per year. Including rent that comes to a total of 1.2 billion euros.

However, according to the movie companies the losses may amount to more.

“The actual damage is expected to be even higher. Recent figures show that the revenue from video-on-demand have dropped off massively in 2014 and 2015, compared to 2013,” the letter adds.

Among other things, the movie companies suggest using the damages for various anti-piracy campaigns. In addition, they suggest stronger enforcement against copyright infringers.

The Dutch government has until later this month to respond or else the movie industry companies will take legal steps.

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

PayPal is widely known for their aggressive stance towards BitTorrent sites, Usenet providers and file-hosting services, but VPN, proxy and SmartDNS providers might now suffer the same fate too.

This week PayPal stopped accepting payments for a company that provides VPN and SmartDNS tools, stating that these may facilitate copyright infringement.

So-called “unblocker” tools can be used to bypass geo-filtering blockades which Netflix and other video platforms have in place.

According to the message PayPal sent to UnoTelly and possibly others, these services are against the company’s policies because they help users to bypass copyright restrictions.

“Under the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, PayPal may not be used to send or receive payments for items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy, or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction,” PayPal’s email reads.

“This includes transactions for any device or technological measure that descrambles a scrambled work, decrypts an encrypted work or otherwise avoids, bypasses, removes, deactivates or impairs a technological measure without the authority of the copyright owner.”

PayPal informs the affected business(es) that their accounts have been permanently limited and that this decision can’t be appealed. This means that they have to switch to other payment processing providers.

UnoTelly informs TorrentFreak that the decision came as a shock, without any type of prior notice. The company is disappointed and sees the move as a direct attack on open and unrestricted Internet access.

“We are disappointed at PayPal’s unilateral action and the way it acted without prior warning. We provide both DNS resolution and secure VPN services. Our services are network relays that connect people around the world,” UnoTelly’s Nicholas Lin says.

Under PayPal’s policy every VPN and SmartDNS service is at risk of losing its PayPal account. However, it seems likely that the company will mainly take action against companies that market themselves as an “unblocker” service.

UnoTelly, for example, specifically mentions its ability to bypass geo-blocks imposed by streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu.

PayPal’s actions are not an isolated incident. They come a few weeks after Netflix started to increase its crackdown on VPN services and other unblockers, as requested by copyright holders. It would be no surprise if copyright holders are also behind PayPal’s recent move.

—-

PayPal’s email:

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

Late last year the main Popcorn Time fork, operating from the PopcornTime.io domain name, shut down its website unexpectedly.

The MPAA took credit for the fall announcing that it had filed a lawsuit against several of the developers in Canada. In response to these legal threats several key developers backed out.

Since the initial announcement there haven’t been any official updates on the case. TorrentFreak learned, however, that several of the accused developers have been negotiating a deal to settle the dispute out of court.

This week came the first public signs that the case is indeed moving towards a resolution. On Tuesday the PopcornTime.io domain changed ownership from Popcorn Time developer and defendant David Lemarier, to the MPAA.

This means that Hollywood is now officially in control of what was once the most popular Popcorn Time domain.

Whois Popcorntime.io

TorrentFreak reached out to the MPAA and Lemarier for more details several days ago, but both have yet to reply. The other defendants we contacted preferred not to comment on the case.

From the information we were able to gather in recent weeks it appears that the movie studios prefer a settlement over a full court battle. Perhaps to save costs, perhaps to avoid attracting more attention to the Popcorn Time phenomenon.

This would be similar to how they approached their case against YIFY/TYS, which was arguable the most prominent piracy group of the past half decade. However, instead of taking the operator to court the movie studios quickly arranged an out of court settlement.

With the PopcornTime.io domain now in the hands of the MPAA it is safe to conclude that this fork is not coming back.

Previously the software’s developers maintained that they were not involved in any infringing activity. Theoretically, some of the accused may still choose to put up a fight but considering the recent developments this has become less likely.

Meanwhile, several other Popcorn Time forks continue to operate, launching new features and services as if nothing ever changed.

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

The aim on most file-sharing and streaming sites is for users to either download or play content, whether that’s the former to their hard drive or the latter in a YouTube-style window.

It should be straightforward but all too often users are presented with an array of buttons, all of which claim to either ‘download’ or ‘play’ when in reality only one actually does anything useful. In conjunction with suspect advertisers, it appears that some site operators are happy to send users down a rabbit hole of frustration.

Users pressing the wrong buttons (and there are millions of them) often end up on dodgy sites pushing unwanted software or offering get rich quick schemes, subscription traps, or worse. But now, thanks to Google, their prevalence might be somewhat curtailed on file-sharing sites and other popular locations such as Facebook.

According to a new announcement from the company titled ‘No More Deceptive Download Buttons’, Google says it will expand its eight-year-old Safe Browsing initiative to target some of the problems highlighted above.

“You may have encountered social engineering in a deceptive download button, or an image ad that falsely claims your system is out of date. Today, we’re expanding Safe Browsing protection to protect you from such deceptive embedded content, like social engineering ads,” the company says.

Those receiving protection from Google and its Chrome browser will be presented with a message similar to the one below.

In order to qualify as part of a social engineering attack, content embedded in webpages must demonstrate a key feature – an attempt to lure the user into a false sense of security by masquerading as something they would ordinarily trust.

For example, content falling foul of Google’s rules would be that which acts or feels like a user’s own device or web browser, or even pretends to be part of the website the user is on. Content that tries to trick the user into doing something it would only normally do for a trusted third-party (such as sharing a password or calling tech support) will also be targeted.

In our recent article detailing sites that employ some of these practices, we highlighted those that mislead the user into thinking they need to update software (such as Flash or a media player) to play a video.

Google says that these kinds of techniques will also become a target for its systems.

“Our fight against unwanted software and social engineering is still just beginning,” Google explains. “We’ll continue to improve Google’s Safe Browsing protection to help more people stay safe online.”

In 2015 Google took action against major torrent sites on at least two key occasions, once in July and again in October. The warning messages were triggered by Google’s “Unwanted Software” scanner which flags websites that pose a potential danger to visitors. The issues were remedied when the sites weeded out some bad advertisers.

Google’s campaign will not just affect file-sharing sites though. The same kinds of techniques are being used all over the web and the tech giant hopes to get involved no matter where they appear.

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

With billions in entertainment industry revenues reportedly at stake, it’s unsurprising that the piracy debate has become so polarized over the years. With millions of illegal downloads happening on a daily basis, emotions rarely run anything but high.

As a result lobbyists have placed the public into two distinct camps – those who pay for all of the media they consume and those who frequent pirate sites and contribute nothing to the artist-supporting economy. It’s a convenient demarcation that has allowed for the celebration of one subset and the demonization of the other.

However, for a long time it’s been increasingly obvious that the battle lines are a lot less black and white. In fact, with the advent of services like Netflix now being delivered on an almost global basis, there are even greater opportunities for pirates to be simultaneous legitimate consumers. Over in Australia there are yet more signs that this is the case.

Billed as “Australia’s respected and reliable national omnibus poll”, the Essential Report is published by Essential Research. The report tracks voting intention while asking questions about pressing social issues of the day. The sample is around 1000 citizens.

Among other things the latest edition touches on media consumption, both from official and unofficial sources. Australia is often painted as a country of pirates but the survey finds that the majority prefers to keep things on the straight and narrow.

Downloading for free

When respondents were asked if in anyone in their household downloads movies, music or television shows for free, 64% said that to their knowledge no one does. That percentage was steady across male and female respondents, with 63% and 64% respectively.

There was some variation across age groups though, with 65% of the 35-54 year-olds and just 49% of the 18-34 year old group saying no one downloads content for free.

Interestingly the headline 64% figure has remained relatively unchanged for the past several years. In October 2013 an identical percentage said that there were downloaders in their households, a figure that was marginally up on the 61% reported in May 2012.

When questioned, just over a quarter – 26% – said that people do indeed download content for free in their homes. There was a perhaps expected variation across the sexes – 28% for men, 25% for women.

The age groups also provide few surprises, with the likelihood of people downloading falling as age increases. Around 39% of 18-34 year-olds said that there are downloaders in their homes, dropping to just 13% in the 55-year-old plus category.

The 26% of homes with free downloaders present is well down on the 32% reported in May 2012. However, there has been little change from the 27% reported in October 2013.

Subscription services, Netflix etc

Those surveyed were asked if anyone in their household subscribes to content streaming services such as Netflix or the more localized Foxtel. Overall an impressive 51% of respondents said someone in their house is a customer, with Foxtel coming out on top with 30% and Netflix in second place with 25%.

In respect of Netflix there is a considerable variation across the age groups, with 47% of 18-34 year-olds and just 8% of 55+ year-olds subscribing to the service. But perhaps the most interesting figures are those which demonstrate how many subscribers to legitimate services are also downloading content for free.

According to the survey, 36% of households with Netflix subscriptions also partake in content which they don’t pay for. However, when all streaming subscriptions are factored in a significant 66% of households who pay for their media are also obtaining content online for free.

These figures are another indication of how dangerous it is to demonize downloaders when they’re also some of the industry’s best customers. They also show the current popularity of Netflix but whether growth will persist in the wake of the recent VPN crackdown will remain to be seen.

The report can be downloaded here (pdf).

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