When it comes to enforcement of intellectual property rights, Brazil isn’t exactly a world leader. The country has long been criticized for its lack of progress in this area and has regularly found itself targeted by complaining authorities in the United States.

In 2009, former President Lula was even photographed cozying up to none other than The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde. But six years later and it appears that the tides have changed.

Yesterday Federal Police in Brazil launched Operation Blackbeard, a coordinated action to take down MegaFilmesHD.net, Latin America’s most popular pirate site.

Launched in 2010 and mainly serving the Portuguese-speaking market, MegaFilmesHD has grown to become one of Brazil’s most popular sites, with a reported 60 million visits per month.

Following a two month investigation, police executed 14 search warrants targeted at the alleged operators of the popular streaming portal.

A man and a woman believed to be a couple were arrested at their home on suspicion of copyright offenses. Four cars, two of them reportedly luxury (local media showed a $US58,000 Porsche SUV), were seized along with around US$5,300 in cash.

Police also questioned five alleged admins of the site and blocked seven bank accounts believed to be used for money laundering. Along with the site’s owners the admins will be indicted for running a criminal operation. Police say they face between three and eight years in prison on that count plus two to four years for copyright infringement offenses, plus fines.

Like many similar operations of its type, Mega Filmes HD listed thousands of movies and linked to files hosted on third-party cyberlocker-style sites. According to police the site generated around US$18,500 per month from advertising. Tests carried out by TF last evening revealed aggressive techniques, with most clicks resulting in the appearance of some kind of ad.

While it’s clear that the owners of Mega Filmes HD are now in serious trouble, the lawyer for the couple says that their arrest came as a complete surprise. Apparently one of his clients originally ran the business from Asia and expected no problems in Brazil.

“My client came from Japan and there the practice is common. He never imagined he would be arrested,” the lawyer told Globo.

Interestingly (although perhaps not surprisingly) figures reported by Brazilian police concerning Mega Filmes HD largely tie up with ones cited in a report the MPAA filed last month with the United States Representative.

“Megafilmeshd.net is a popular streaming linking site that currently offers more than 150,000 links to more than 6,000 illegally reproduced national and international titles including films, television series, and concerts,” the MPAA reported.

Also of interest is the current status of the site. Although its operators were arrested yesterday morning, until just a few hours ago Megafilmeshd.net remained operational. Currently the site is offline but that appears to be due to a massive influx of traffic following news of the raid.

Possibly complicating a shutdown is that MegaFilmesHD was only partially operated from Brazil. According to the MPAA the site had connections in both Poland and Bulgaria. Nevertheless, if it stays down the impact will be felt most locally. Police says that 85% of the site’s visitors were from Brazil, with an impressive 4.5 million followers on social media.

But despite the existence of MegaFilmesHD and a reported 41% of citizens downloading illegally from the Internet, legal services are thriving in Brazil. The country is now the fourth-largest market for Netflix behind the US, Canada and the United Kingdom, with Netflix chief Reed Hastings describing the country as a “rocket ship” for his company.

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

Lawsuits against alleged file-sharers are a common occurrence in United States federal courts.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been accused in recent years, most after using standard BitTorrent clients.

More recently there’s been a specific focus on Popcorn Time users, who were targeted in a series of lawsuits this summer.

One of the cases was filed by the makers of The Cobbler, who listed the IP-addresses of several Popcorn Time users in their complaint. The goal of the filmmakers is to identify the account holders and settle the dispute out of court, which some have already done.

However, not all of the accused are cooperating.

In a new filing submitted this week (pdf) the movie studio explains that while they have already settled with five Popcorn Time users, four Comcast subscribers failed to respond to their inquiries.

“Four of the subscribers have refused to respond to plaintiff’s letters and plaintiff is without means to obtain voluntary cooperation with its investigation to identify whom may have used their Internet Service to infringe plaintiff’s rights,” the studio writes.

Instead of naming the account holders as defendants, the filmmakers say they would rather depose the subscribers first to ask face-to-face if they can pinpoint the true Popcorn Time pirates.

“While the named subscriber is often the proper defendant, plaintiff wishes to ensure that investigations are complete and proper and submits that in this matter something beyond the mere identification of a subscriber by an ISP is proper before a defendant is named,” the company explains.

Through a testimony under oath the movie studio hopes to identify the real culprits so they can be named in the lawsuit. The depositions can take place at a location the account holders’ lawyers determine and should take no longer than two hours.

The movie studio’s request was granted a day after it was submitted, which means that the depositions will now go ahead.

In the accompanying subpoena (pdf) the subscribers are ordered to identify all persons who had access to the Comcast connections in question. In addition, they must bring along copies of any copyright infringement notices they’ve received.

While the movie studio states that the depositions should help to track down the offenders, more critical observers may note that they’re also an optimal tool to pressure ISP subscribers who choose to ignore settlement requests and other threats.

Depositions in these type of file-sharing cases are relatively new and not all courts are eager to grant them. A few weeks ago a Washington District Court rejected a similar request noting that it may be used as a threat just to get subscribers to settle.

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

In 2010, U.S. authorities launched Operation in Our Sites, an anti-piracy campaign aimed at taking copyright-infringing sites offline.

After targeting thousands of domains linked to counterfeit goods and making several arrests connected to file-sharing sites, renewed efforts last year saw the closure of two large music sites.

During October 2014, RockDizFile.com and RockDizMusic.com were taken offline to be replaced by the ICE – Homeland Security Investigations seizure banner.

Founded in 2011, RockDizMusic had acted as an index for popular new music while RockDizFile was a file-storage site serving as a storage facility for the former.

During the period of quiet following their shutdown it transpired that their operator, Rocky P. Ouprasith of Charlotte, N.C., had been arrested following the execution of an HSI search warrant.

Papers filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia last August claimed that both sites had been operated for profit, with Ouprasith sourcing pirated content online, uploading it to RockDizFile, and offering it for download on RockDizMusic.

According to the RIAA, in 2013 RockDizFile emerged “as the second largest online file-sharing site in the reproduction and distribution of infringing copies of copyrighted music in the United States.” Court documents placed the market value of the content pirated by the site at more than $6 million.

In response, Ouprasith entered a guilty plea, admitting one count of criminal copyright infringement. In return he risked five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000. Yesterday the 23-year-old was sentenced and it’s bad, but not as bad it could’ve been.

According to the Department of Justice, Ouprasith was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the Eastern District of Virginia to serve a total of 36 months in prison.

In addition, Ouprasith was sentenced to two years supervised release and was ordered to forfeit almost $51,000 and pay more than $45,000 in restitution. The latter will become payable 60 days after his release at the rate of $200.00 per month or 25% of net income, whichever is greater. No fines were imposed.

The DoJ said that Ouprasith admitted obtaining copyrighted songs and albums, some pre-release, and uploading them to RockDizFile while encouraging affiliates to do the same. Ouprasith further admitted that he paid those affiliates based on the number of times their content was downloaded from his websites.

Another apparently aggravating factor was how Ouprasith handled copyright complaints. Instead of taking down content as required, according to the DoJ he either ignored the requests or simply pretended to take remedial action.

Ouprasith’s attorney, Bobby Howlett Jr. of Norfolk, told the Washington Post that while he’s never happy with a custodial sentence, in this instance he’s satisfied with the conclusion of the case.

“I’m happy with the outcome — of course, I don’t want many of my clients to go jail and I hate that he’s a young kid with no criminal history facing this, but it could’ve been worse,” Howlett said.

The RIAA welcomed the sentence and said that Ouprasith’s incarceration should serve as a warning to others thinking of embarking on a similar venture.

“We congratulate the Department of Justice and Homeland Security Investigations and thank them for their diligence and hard work to bring to justice those who cause millions of dollars in damage to music creators,” said Brad Buckles, EVP of Anti-Piracy.

“This sentence should send a message that operating a flagrantly illegal business that steals from others by engaging in criminal activity online has real consequences.”

While three years is a long time inside for a young man, the Court did recommend that the Bureau of Prisons allow Ouprasith to “further his education towards obtaining his college degree” in a facility as “close as possible” to North Carolina.

The 23-year-old will also get time to put his affairs in order and spend Christmas with family and friends. His sentence is set to begin on January 4, 2016.

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

The main Popcorn Time fork operating from the PopcornTime.io domain name shut down its servers late October citing internal problems.

A few days later the MPAA took credit for the fall, announcing that it had filed a lawsuit against several of the developers in Canada. In response some developers backed out.

Faced with an abrupt ending several Popcorn Time users were keen to revive the defunct application. The effort has been a success, with a fully working fix now circulating on Reddit.

The fixed version uses new APIs so movies and TV-shows now show up again. Instead of using YTS as a movie provider the revived application uses TorrentsAPI, and the TV-show feed has been replaced by a custom API.

The Reddit fix is only the start. Users of VPN.ht, the VPN service associated with Popcorn Time, were also alerted about a new update to the movie streaming application recently.

“VPN.ht Movies API FIX installed,” the message read, prompting users to restart the application.

It turns out that the VPN provider made several changes which allows users to access the Popcorn Time website and client without any issues.

Popcorn Time alert

After the fix is applied Popcorn Time becomes fully operational again, filled with the latest movies as if nothing has happened.

For now the general public can’t use their old Popcorn Time client without manually applying a fix, but this may change in the near future.

Popcorn Time developer Wally, who also founded the VPN.ht service, informs TorrentFreak that he could revive Popcorn Time to its full glory.

“I am still considering a full comeback, I just do not want to release a half working version,” Wally says.

The developer, who controls both the official Twitter account and mailing list, first wants to make sure that all domain names are out of the MPAA’s reach. This is a concern, as the Canadian lawsuit is still ongoing.

Wally is not listed as a defendant in the Canadian lawsuit but his name was mentioned in the complaint. In addition, the VPN.ht company was mentioned in both the claim and injunction.

Instead of fighting Popcorn Time, Wally believes the MPAA should embrace its concept and technology.

“The popularity of Popcorn Time should be an example for the MPAA to a build a future streaming platform that will be open to the entire world,” Wally says.

Lawsuits or not, it’s clear that the technology is hard to stop. Even now that the original sources no longer work, people can still use the application as a basic torrent streaming client, manually loading torrents into it.

The MPAA is not going to be pleased with the plans to relaunch the popular Popcorn Time fork. However, neutral spectators may want to get the popcorn out, as this saga is far from over.

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

The idea is a relatively simple one. Every day millions of pirates are downloading content online without permission, so tracking them down and asking them to pay a fine should enable rightsholders to make a few extra bucks.

Of course, there are countless millions of infringements every day so those small payments soon add up, an attractive proposition for people doing business with Rightscorp, the US-based anti-piracy company hoping to turn piracy into profit.

There’s little doubt that Rightscorp’s clients are making at least some money from the deal. To date the anti-piracy company reports closing more than 230,000 cases of infringement, so at $20 and more recently $30 a shot, that’s a bit more than chump change.

However, as Rightscorp’s most recent filing reveals, the numbers in the whole package simply don’t add up.

For the three months ended September 30, 2015 the company generated revenues of $215,196, that’s 13% down on the $248,387 it made during the same period last year.

Not great, but since copyright holders get roughly 50% of collected revenues, Rightscorp paid them $107,598, a nice little return for doing very little. That said, it’s less than the $124,194 they received during the same period in 2014.

After paying out 50% of its revenues, Rightscorp not only has to run a business with what’s left, but also turn a profit. To date the company has not been able to do that. Its latest filing reveals a continuation of that trend and a set of issues that could hinder the company on a long term basis.

The rot starts with the company’s basic running costs. For the three months ended September 30, Rightscorp’s bill for wages and related expenses stood at $345,449, an amount way in excess of its total revenues for the same period. That, however, is just the beginning.

As previously reported Rightscorp has managed to get itself bogged down in several legal battles and they are costing the company dearly.

“Legal fees related to various matters totaled $295,865 for the three months ended September 30, 2015, compared to $90,552 for the three months ended September 30, 2014,” the company reports.

Overall, Rightscorp’s general and administrative expenses for three months ended September 30, 2015 amounted to $1,116,589. That means that the company recorded a net loss of $424,168. Bad, but certainly an improvement over the same period last year when it lost $894,241.

The totals, however, paint a dismal picture. Although revenues were up in the first nine months of 2015 versus the same period last year ($756,916 vs $688,801), the company’s costs ($1,355,407 on wages, $3,967,527 general and admin) meant the company managed to lose substantially more money.

“During the nine months ended September 30, 2015, we recorded a net loss of $3,120,197 compared to a net loss of $2,299,522 for the nine months ended September 30, 2014,” Rightscorp reveals.

As noted above, legal fees are a major problem. After spending ‘just’ $326,985 in the first nine months of last year, during the same period in 2015 Rightscorp burned through $1,058,188.

But the costs incurred are only part of the problem. Rightscorp says the time being spent on legal matters is having a negative effect on its core business.

“The decrease in revenues [during the last quarter] was due to a disproportionate amount of time being spent by the Company supporting clients in legal matters,” the company says.

Overall, Rightscorp’s position this year thus far can be boiled down to one sad statistic – for every dollar paid in fines by pirates, Rightscorp loses $4. That’s definitely not turning piracy into profit.

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