Over the past five years, Operation in Our Sites, the U.S. initiative tackling copyright-infringing websites, has produced several arrests and the seizure of thousands of domains.

In October 2014, ICE Homeland Security Investigations took action against a pair of large U.S.-based websites. RockDizMusic.com and RockDizFile.com were both involved in large-scale distribution of unauthorized music, with the former presenting itself as a music database and the latter its file-hosting partner.

At the time ICE didn’t respond to requests for comment but it eventually transpired that the sites’ alleged operator, Rocky P. Ouprasith of Charlotte, N.C., had been arrested.

According to papers filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia Friday, Ouprasith operated both sites from around May 2011 through to his arrest last October.

Structure

During that period Ouprasith sourced pirated content online and uploaded it to RockDizFile, while encouraging others to do the same. Ouprasith curated the unauthorized content and then presented it for download on RockDizMusic, which in turn acted as a user-friendly front for RockDizFile. ‘Affiliates’ who uploaded music were paid based on the number of times their files were downloaded.

RockDizMusic.com

“To operate these websites, OUPRASITH rented and used computer servers in the United States and abroad. OUPRASITH hosted the website RockDizMusic.com on servers originally located in France and later in Canada,” court papers read.

“One of OUPRASITH’s linking websites, at RockDizFile.com, operated from a computer server in Illinois furnished by the webhosting provider, GigeNET. A second linking website used by OUPRASITH, at SfShare.se, was hosted
from a computer server in Russia.”

Profit

According to the prosecution, Ouprasith’s aim was to profit from his websites. He sold premium subscriptions to RockDizFile at a cost of up to $90.00 per year, which offered faster downloads and VIP access. Also generating revenue were several deals he had up with to nine advertising firms.

This resulted in decent traffic, reportedly 1.65m visits from 937,000 unique visitors in January 2014. However, that doesn’t appear to have made Ouprasith a particularly rich man. Skype messages found on a laptop seized by ICE had the 23-year-old stating that in 2013 he made around $80k but spent $60K running the business.

RIAA and DMCA

Nevertheless, 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.”

RockDizFile.com

This growth caused both the RIAA and IFPI to target the site with hundreds of DMCA takedown notices but apparently Ouprasith failed to process them in a legally acceptable manner. A Homeland Security investigation found that although files were taken down, the same reappeared elsewhere on the site.

“In other words, OUPRASITH never took down the infringing files pursuant to the DMCA takedown notices. Instead, he simply created a new hyperlink to the same illegal content,” a statement of facts reads.

Arrest and guilty plea

On October 15, 2014, HSI executed a warrant to search Ouprasith’s residence in North Carolina. In Chicago, the RockDizFile server was seized, as were ancillary servers in both the Netherlands and France. Ouprasith appears to have cooperated immediately.

“After being advised of his rights orally and in writing, OUPRASITH waived them and agreed to speak with investigators,” papers read.

What followed was a near complete confession, including that he made between $3,000 and $4000 profit per month and that in response to DMCA notices Ouprasith would “delete the reported links to the content listed in the notices and then re-upload exactly the same content under new hyperlinks.”

In his guilty plea, Ouprasith admits for-profit infringement exceeding $2.5m but less than $7m, plus various other copyright charges including pre-release music piracy. He also agrees to forfeit almost $51,000 and any property used to commit and facilitate the infringement.

When sentenced later this year, Ouprasith faces up to five years in federal prison.

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

This week we have two newcomers in our chart.

Mad Max: Fury Road is the most downloaded movie for the second week in a row.

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	(1)	Mad Max: Fury Road	8.4 / trailer
2	(…)	Avengers: Age of Ultron (HDrip)	7.8 / trailer
3	(2)	Aloha	5.3 / trailer
4	(…)	A Brilliant Young Mind	7.3 / trailer
5	(3)	Terminator Genisys (Subbed HDrip)	7.0 / trailer
6	(7)	Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (HDTS)	8.0 / trailer
7	(4)	Pitch Perfect 2	6.8 / trailer
8	(10)	Insurgent	6.6 / trailer
9	(9)	Furious 7	7.6 / trailer
10	(5)	Hot Pursuit	4.9 / trailer

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

With roughly 150 million monthly users uTorrent is by far the most used BitTorrent client.

This dazzling number is a dream for most software companies as it presents major revenue potential. The problem is, however, that uTorrent is free.

In recent years uTorrent’s parent company BitTorrent Inc. has monetized the client through advertisements and bundled software. This works, but it’s also an annoyance for users and the company itself, as it associates the torrent client with riskware.

If it’s up to the uTorrent team, the added software will soon be a thing of the past. Over the past several months the people at BitTorrent Inc. have been discussing the possibility of replacing this revenue stream.

“Specifically, we want to find a way to improve uTorrent for our customers while financially supporting the amazing team that works every day to make uTorrent great.”

The uTorrent team says that it’s never been happy with the bundled software approach and wants to try alternatives during the weeks to come.

“As you know, uTorrent is a free piece of software. To support it, we use bundled software and offers to offset the cost that would otherwise be paid directly by the user,” they note.

“We’ve never been satisfied with this revenue model. It requires compromises that detract from a premium user experience. We want to find a model that adds value to our product and our users. We want to find a better way.”

What the alternatives might be is not yet clear, but the uTorrent team says it will be testing a few options during the next few weeks and months.

In doing so, their goal is to make uTorrent the best client out there while being transparent about the changes in the revenue model.

In addition the team says that there will be options for every budget. This suggest that uTorrent will start to charge users, at least some of them.

Or to use their own wording: “Provide our users with clear options for supporting uTorrent (with options for every budget)”

While we can only speculate for now, one option could be to ask for a monthly, yearly or even a lifetime subscription fee for future versions of uTorrent. With 150 million users, this can be quite profitable even if it costs as little as 99 cents per year.

A similar subscription (but more expensive) model is already in use for BitTorrent Sync, which is developed by the same company.

Another alternative is a significant fee for a lifetime subscription/license, but this may be too much of a hurdle for the average torrent user, so that seems less likely.

Similarly, a voluntary “donation” based revenue stream seems destined to fail, as previous experiments have shown that torrent users are generally hesitant to contribute freely.

Alternatively, BitTorrent Inc. may come out with a trimmed down version of the client with more limited functionality. Users could then upgrade this to a standard version if they choose to pay for it.

Again, we can only speculate for now, but the fact that the uTorrent team is hinting at asking users for money is destined to cause a heated debate.

We contacted BitTorrent Inc. for additional details but haven’t heard back from the company at the time of publishing.

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

Earlier this month an anti-piracy campaign from many years ago was resurrected by DMN.

Created for Universal Music, the 2007 campaign featured severed body parts alongside the line ‘Stop Destroying the Band You Like, Say No to Music Piracy.’

The gory manner in which the message was presented certainly touched a nerve but when compared to a new anti-piracy campaign just completed for Virgin Radio, the graphic images barely feel controversial.

Titled ‘If you knew what went into it, you wouldn’t steal it’, the campaign is the brainchild of Leo Burnett, one of the largest U.S. ad agencies with several thousand employees and dozens of offices worldwide.

Aimed at printed media and outdoor ads, the campaign features imagery and backstories associated with the lives of Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley and Amy Winehouse. Those expecting fun and nostalgia can move along now though as things are about to get very dark indeed.

In fact, the ads are so provocative that many will need assurance that this isn’t some kind of twisted prank. Sadly the campaign is absolute real and deadly serious – in more ways than one.

“The goal was to create a connection to each musician and the blood, sweat and tears that created the now-legendary music,” said Leo Burnett in a statement.

While readers will certainly form their own opinions on the campaign, Leo Burnett have already given it their gold seal of approval.

Using a 10-point assessment mechanism known as the “HumanKind Scale”, the company’s Global Product Committee has rated ‘If you knew what went into it, you wouldn’t steal it’ a 7.3.

“Work that receives a 7-point rating is considered to be the benchmark for excellence in craft,” the company says.

Feel free to leave your own ratings in the comment section below.

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

Since the release of Windows 10 last month many media reports have focused on various privacy intrusions.

The WiFi password sharing feature, for example, or the extensive sharing of personal data and information back to Microsoft’s servers. The list goes on and on.

While we’re the last ones to defend these policies, it is worth pointing out that many other large tech companies have similar privacy violating policies. Reading rants about Windows 10 privacy on Facebook is particularly ironic.

This week things took a turn for the worse. Slowly but steadily reports started pouring in that Windows 10 has a built-in piracy kill switch. If we were to believe some of the reports, Microsoft would nuke all torrents downloaded from The Pirate Bay.

The truth is nowhere near as dystopian though. The controversy originates from a single line in Microsoft’s Service Agreement which allows the company to download software updates and configuration changes that may prevent people from “playing counterfeit games.”

This change isn’t limited to Windows 10 but covers many services. Also, there is no indication that this will ever be used to target third-party games, which is highly unlikely.

Still, the recent privacy concerns have some torrent tracker staffers worried. During the week TF received reports informing us that several private trackers have banned Windows 10, or are considering doing so.

The staffers at iTS explain that Windows 10 is off-limits now because of the extensive amount of data it shares. This includes connections to MarkMonitor, the brand protection company which is also involved in the U.S. Copyright Alert System.

“Unfortunately Microsoft decided to revoke any kind of data protection and submit whatever they can gather to not only themselves but also others. One of those is one of the largest anti-piracy company called MarkMonitor,” iTS staff note.

“Amongst other things Windows 10 sends the contents of your local disks directly to one of their servers. Obviously this goes way too far and is a serious threat to sites like ours which is why we had to take measures,” they add.

While this may sound scary, Microsoft has been working with MarkMonitor for years already. Among other things, the company helps to keep scammers at bay.

There is no evidence that any piracy related info is being shared. Still, the connection is raising red flags with other tracker operators as well. More trackers reportedly ban Windows 10 and others including BB and FSC are consider to follow suit.

“We have also found [Windows 10] will be gathering information on users’ P2P use to be shared with anti piracy group,” BB staff writes to its users.

“What’s particularly nasty is that apparently it sends the results of local(!!) searches to a well known anti piracy company directly so as soon as you have one known p2p or scene release on your local disk … BAM!”

The same sentiment is shared at FSC where staff also informed users about the threat.

“As we all know, Microsoft recently released Windows 10. You as a member should know, that we as a site are thinking about banning the OS from FSC. That would mean you cannot use the site with the OS installed,” FSC staff writes.

While a paranoid mindset is definitely not a bad thing for people in the business of managing a torrent community, banning an operating system over privacy concerns is a bit much for most. Especially since many of the same issues also affect earlier versions of Windows.

Luckily, the most invasive privacy concerns can be dealt with by configuring Windows properly. Or any other operating system, application or social network for that matter.

Instead of banning something outright, it may be a good idea to inform the public on specific dangers and educate them how they can be alleviated.

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