Of all piracy related news, a January 2015 report out of Norway gave the strongest indication yet that the key to eliminating piracy is a strong legal offering.

Following a survey carried out by music group IFPI it was revealed that just 4% of under 30-year-olds were still using illegal file-sharing platforms to obtain music, with 80% using legal streaming platforms instead.

Still hamstrung by inconvenient release windowing, the movie industry could only look on while wondering how to solve its own piracy problems. In March 2015 its response arrived, with the raiding of popular local unauthorized movie site Norskfilm.

The site first appeared on the radar of anti-piracy group Rights Alliance (Rettighetsalliansen) during 2014 and soon became the subject of a criminal investigation. During a subsequent raid carried out by Vestfold Police a 20-year-old man was arrested. He was charged with copyright infringement offenses including making available more than a thousand movies and TV shows and downloading hundreds of titles from The Pirate Bay.

“This is the first time we have succeeded in halting a page operated from Norway,” revealed Rights Alliance chief Willy Johansen.

The importance of the subsequent prosecution by companies including Warner Bros, Fox Paramount, Universal, Sony and Disney couldn’t be understated since the outcome would draw a line in the sand for other would-be pirates.

Together the studios went tough by demanding six months in jail plus more than $93,000 in damages.

But despite agreeing that the main had illegally made available at least 1,200 films and TV shows, downloaded around 700 from The Pirate Bay and then made them available to the public, the ruling from Tønsberg District Court falls far short of those demands.

According to information distributed to its members yesterday, Rights Alliance said that the Court handed the now 21-year-old a six month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay around $28,000.

“The illegal proliferation of films via the Internet has gradually degenerated to become a significant problem for the industry,” the ruling reads.

“The business is helping to undermine both the production of films and the profitability of licensees and others that are related to the legal market.”

While falling short of the studios’ demands, the sentence is still being described as the toughest ever handed out for intellectual property infringement in Norway.

“Although we only got a fraction of what we asked for, I doubt that we will appeal the ruling,” Secretary General Willy Johansen told Aftenposten.

“Had he been ordered to pay compensation for our losses for anyone who had downloaded those films illegally it would’ve amounted to several tens of millions. Nevertheless, [$28,000] is the highest amount someone has been sentenced to.”

The record (but comparatively light) sentence was welcomed by the former pirate site admin’s lawyer.

“[My client] had been very concerned that he could go to prison, it has probably been the biggest source of strain because he is so young,” explained Nikolai Riise. “In addition, the claim for damages had been of considerable size, so it’s a relief for him that requirement is so significantly reduced.”

While the studios didn’t get everything they asked for the man now has a criminal record, meaning that the way has been paved for others considering embarking on the same kind of activity. For Rights Alliance the fight continues and the next target is already lined up.

“Now we are working towards stopping the Popcorn Time service, which automatically shares a movie you download on PC or mobile with all your contacts,” Johansen concludes.

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

The Oscars is the most watched award show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.

A few days ago the 2016 nominees were announced and as usual this triggered a spike in interest from box office visitors as well as online pirates.

The latter group has been spoiled with a steady supply of pirated titles over the past several weeks. Ironically, many of these titles leaked from DVD screener copies which were sent out to reviewers, including Academy members who vote for the Oscars.

Inspired by the work of Andy Baio early 2015, we decided to take a look at this year’s contenders, excluding short and foreign films, to see how many films are already available on pirate sites.

To our surprise, all of the 37 nominated movies are widely available through unauthorized sites. Most are released in Blu-Ray or DVD quality, including several DVD screeners.

The list of leaked movies includes Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which is the only movie that’s not available in a decent quality. The only copies of the blockbuster are so-called “Cams,” recorded in the theater.

Due to the low quality the number of Star Wars downloads pales in comparison to other nominees such as The Big Short and The Martian, which have both been downloaded millions of times.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens ‘Cam’

Of all movies that leaked 17 were sourced from DVD screeners. This number of leaked nominee screeners is a record high for this decade.

In recent years the number of leaked screener copies was significantly deceased due to increased security measures. However, this trends was broken this year thanks to Hive-CM8, who released 14 screeners last month.

It’s unclear whether these screeners were intended for the Oscars or another award show.

Below this article we’ve included an overview of all the nominees, whether the films were leaked as a DVD screener, as well as the highest quality leak format in which they are currently available.

All 2016 Oscars Nominees (ex. foreign and shorts)

Movie	Screener leaked?	Best quality
torrentfreak.com
45 Years	No	BluRay
Amy	No	BluRay
Anomalisa	Yes	DVDscr
Boy and the World	No	WEBRip
Bridge of Spies	Yes	BluRay
Brooklyn	Yes	DVDScr
Carol	Yes	DVDScr
Cartel Land	No	BluRay
Cinderella	No	BluRay
Creed	Yes	DVDScr
Ex Machina	No	BluRay
Fifty Shades of Grey	No	BluRay
Inside Out	No	BluRay
Joy	Yes	DVDScr
Mad Max: Fury Road	No	BluRay
Racing Extinction	No	HDTV
Room	Yes	DVDscr
Shaun the Sheep Movie	No	BluRay
Sicario	Yes	BluRay
Spectre	Yes	BluRay
Spotlight	Yes	DVDScr
Star Wars: The Force Awakens	No	HDCam
Steve Jobs	Yes	DVDscr
Straight Outta Compton	Yes	BluRay
The Big Short	Yes	DVDScr
The Danish Girl	Yes	DVDscr
The Hateful Eight	Yes	DVDScr
The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared	No	BluRay
The Hunting Ground	No	DVDRip
The Look of Silence	No	BluRay
The Martian	No	BluRay
The Revenant	Yes	DVDScr
Trumbo	Yes	DVDScr
What Happened, Miss Simone?	No	DVDRip
When Marnie Was There	No	BluRay
Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom	No	WEB-DL
Youth	No	BluRay

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

As chairman of The Institute for Development of the Internet, Herman Klimenko already had a prominent role in Internet related affairs. But when Russian president Vladimir Putin eyed the 49-year-old to become his personal adviser on the Internet, Klimenko really struck gold.

Last week Putin signed a decree that officially enlisted Klimenko and it didn’t take long for him to address the issue of Internet piracy. However, instead of tough talk, Klimenko criticized web-blocking and suggested that copyright holders should wait for a better economic situation before “terrorizing” on the issue of piracy.

“Consumption of copyright content increases with economic growth, and when the situation is very serious, I think people do not have to unnecessarily terrorize these issues,” Putin’s adviser said.

“Pushing hard now on this topic, I think, is not worth it. When the economy improves, you should return to this issue.”

While Klimenko’s comments at least in part sound reasonable, copyright holders would’ve been disappointed by his lack of support. What they will be even more disappointed over is the allegations now surfacing about Klimenko’s links to online piracy.

Sources close to Russia’s Vedomosti have informed the publication that Klimenko is the owner of Torrnado.ru, a locally operated torrent site. As can be seen from the image below the site has a familiar feel and unless hell has frozen over the studios behind Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation and Terminator Genesis aren’t in agreement with their content appearing for free.

So how does someone like Klimenko end up with a torrent site under his belt? Well, it’s not being claimed that he’s the admin or sysop at Torrnado (that would be quite remarkable), but it appears that the site is indeed operated by a company owned by the Internet expert.

To begin, it helps to take a look at Torrnado’s WHOIS listing. We can see from the image below that the domain is owned by a company called ECO PC Solutions.

Checking out that company using company database SPARK Interfax reveals that the owner of ECO PC Solutions is Alevtina Jacobson. In December, ECO PC Integrated Solutions (with Jacobson at the helm) was announced as the operator of a brand new TV channel for MediaMetrics.ru, a service which measures Internet traffic to news stories from social media.

Completing the circle, MediaMetrics is owned by Herman Klimenko and he admits that Alevtina Jacobson was his employee.

Somewhat bizarrely, last evening Klimenko took to his Facebook page to comment on the reports that he’s the proud owner of a torrent site.

“An amazing story with torrents. On their own they are nothing illegal,” he wrote.

“You only need to cooperate with the creators and help them to fight for their rights.
Those who are not helping [rightsholders] are being punished. Those who are helping, are not being punished.”

A little later Klimenko posted again, listing various criticisms that have been made of him during his short time in power.

“Well of course the list of my sins is impressive,” he wrote.

“I’m shutting down [messaging app] Telegram. I’m building a Chinese-style Internet in Russia. I support the pirates. And i’m doing this all alone and at the same time.”

While Torrnado is hardly Russia’s most popular ‘pirate’ site (currently ranked 2,334 in the country by Alexa), the fact that it’s operated by a company owned by Klimenko is hardly something expected of a man in his position. Indeed, the law forbids those in “state service” to run a business, hence an announcement yesterday that his son Yuri would be taking control of some of his interests.

Whether the torrent revelations will affect Klimenko’s position as Putin’s adviser will remain to be seen but at the very least and at long last, someone in a position of authority actually understands how a torrent site works.

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

Last week Netflix announced that it would increase its efforts to block customers who circumvent geo-blockades.

This means that it will become harder to use VPN services and proxies to access Netflix content from other countries, something various movie studios have repeatedly called for.

With the application of commercial blacklist data, Netflix already blocks IP-addresses that are linked to such services, something also affects well-intentioned customers who merely use a VPN to protect their privacy.

Instead of providing access to the latest video entertainment, Netflix then serves the following error message to these blocked users.

A Netflix error several VPN users already see (U.S. server)

TorrentFreak spoke with several VPN providers to hear their thoughts on Netflix’s plans. Several are already dealing with the issue and promise to do their best to ensure that workarounds will remain available.

“This announcement comes as no surprise to us and we have been expecting a Netflix VPN crackdown for some time now,” TorGuard’s Ben van der Pelt says.

“Unfortunately, many legitimate paid subscribers will be left in the dark as an unavoidable outcome of overreaching IP blocks.

“TorGuard is monitoring the situation closely and we have recently implemented new measures that can bypass any proposed IP blockade on our network. VPN users who encounter Netflix access problems are encouraged to contact us for a working solution,” he adds.

SlickVPN takes a similar stance and says that the static IP-addresses they offer are less likely to be blocked.

“We work tirelessly to ensure our customers have access to the entire internet. If we find that our IP addresses start to become blocked we’ll migrate to new IPs as needed. We also offer the option of static IPs which eliminates the problem entirely,” SlickVPN’s Greg Lyda says.

Mullvad is one of the VPN services that’s already blocked by Netflix. The company doesn’t understand why companies such as Netflix have to make it impossible for people to pay for their services.

“Why do some companies insist on making it difficult or impossible to buy their products? Why does a company resort to blocking people from literally paying them?” Mullvad’s Fredrik tells TF.

“Seriously, this world would be a much better place if services like ours didn’t have to exist – Not for censorship, not for mass surveillance, and not for geographic restrictions. I love what I’m doing, but I’m even more looking forward to the day when Mullvad goes bankrupt from obsoletion,” he adds.

Andrew Lee, Digital Rights Activist at Private Internet Access, notes that their users are not experiencing any problems yet. However, he adds Netflix’s planned crackdown is clearly violating Net Neutrality.

“By blocking PIA and other VPN customers, it would be a very loud and clear message heard across the world: Netflix does not believe in net neutrality and will even go to lengths to block access to their service from privacy minded customers who live in the U.S,” Lee notes.

“Netflix is a for-pay credit card service that requires a billing address. There is no reason to ban a VPN unless the billing data is fraudulent,” Lee adds.

The last issue is also referenced by GoldenFrog President Sunday Yokubaitis, who operates VyprVPN. If Netflix knows where people live they can simply always show the same content library everywhere, which new European regulation also requires.

“As a Netflix customer, I know that they collect my billing information, including my mailing address and country. Why doesn’t Netflix use the customer billing information to display the correct content to users?” Yokubaitis asks.

This option would also eliminate the need to do any VPN blocking whatsoever. The only change would be that Netflix has to put more effort into verifying people’s addresses.

While most providers are planning to counter Netflix’s blocking efforts, not all are. IVPN informed TorrentFreak that their focus lies on privacy and that enabling customers to watch Netflix has never been a priority.

The company does point out that VPNs in part contributed to Netflix’s success, which makes the recent crackdown changes even more bitter.

“Netflix has clearly benefited from VPN service providers for many years. This has helped facilitate the rapid expansion of Netflix’s worldwide customer base whilst at the same time complying with the ‘letter’ if not the ‘spirit’ of their content providers’ restrictions,” IVPN’s Nick says.

“In reality Netflix has become a victim of its own success. Netflix’s content providers now wish to curtail the provision of material to markets that are not licensed by Netflix and their content providers,” he adds.

At this point it’s unclear how Netflix plans to block VPNs and proxies and what precautions Netflix will take to ensure that legitimate users are not hindered.

However, someone from the U.S. who wants to use a Canadian server to connect to the Internet is likely to be blocked, so with millions of VPN users around the world there will be plenty of collateral damage.

—

Disclaimer: PIA, SlickVPN and TorGuard are TF sponsors

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

As the phenomenon of chasing down alleged movie pirates continues around the world, so-called copyright trolls are continually honing their techniques in order to pin down individuals to force settlement.

While those accused rarely get off lightly in any jurisdiction, in the United States the situation is particularly grim.

Companies that pursue pirates have the luxury of huge statutory damages at their disposal, meaning that a failed defense of a willful infringement claim could mean that a defendant is on the hook for up to $150,000 in damages.

While such large awards are rare, it does mean that companies are motivated to spend more time on a case than they would in other regions where statutory damages do not exist. To that end, when faced with accusations from copyright holders, people who merely pay the Internet bill at a residence sometimes face deposition.

In these cases a deposition is a pre-trial hearing during which a witness answers questions under oath about the alleged offense. The idea is to find out what the witness knows but ultimately depositions allow plaintiffs to gain ammunition towards achieving their key aim – cash settlement.

At this stage the account holder might be the assumed (putative) defendant while remaining an unnamed ‘John Doe’ as far as the lawsuit goes. All that could change after the deposition of course, which is why people are advised to obtain legal advice before taking part in one. Sadly, people’s financial situations often dictate this is not possible.

However, an interesting find by the troll-watchers at FightCopyrightTrolls reveals that putative defendants in Oregon won’t have to walk blindly into a potentially damaging deposition.

In response to a wave of lawsuits filed by notorious troll lawyer Carl Crowell, Chief Judge Michael Mosman has decided that targets of settlement demands should have legal assistance, whether they can afford it or not. A recently drafted standing order details his offer.

“Plaintiffs have subpoenaed the Internet Service Provider (‘ISP’) to obtain the identity of the party assigned the ISP account associated with the infringing activity, commonly called the subscriber. The subscriber may or may not be the same as the alleged infringer,” Judge Mosman writes.

“In order to find out whether the subscriber is an innocent third party and, if so, the identity of the alleged infringer, plaintiffs request the Court to enter Orders allowing them to take certain action, such as issuing a subpoena to the subscriber for a deposition.”

The Judge notes that if Internet subscribers fail to respond, plaintiffs could ask the Court for a default judgment. It is therefore advisable for subscribers to receive legal advice. To that end, subscribers will now get that support regardless of whether they can afford it or not.

“The Court has established a panel of lawyers who are willing to provide assistance and advice to subscribers in these lawsuits at no charge for up to 3 hours,” Judge Mosman writes.

The offer of support before deposition will be welcomed by subscribers while a case management order issued alongside should ensure that lawyers like Crowell are kept in line. The order mandates that multiple does can’t be filed in a single case and, crucially, subscribers must be informed of the free legal advice being made available.

“The ISP subpoena must include a copy of [the standing order] from the Court regarding the availability of pro bono counsel with any communications to the subscriber/account holder,” the order reads.

The prospect of a deposition will be a scary one for Internet subscribers so the fact they have this support should certainly lighten the load, especially for those who simply pay the bill and have played no part in any infringement.

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