In keeping with a global strategy to disrupt the operations of unauthorized file-sharing sites by attacking their infrastructure, Swedish authorities have been eying two domains operated by the notorious Pirate Bay.

In 2013, Prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad, the man behind the operation that took the site down in December, filed a motion targeting ThePirateBay.se (the site’s main domain) and PirateBay.se (a lesser used alternative).

Filed against Punkt SE, the organization responsible for Sweden’s top level .SE domain, the case reasoned that since The Pirate Bay is an illegal operation, its domains are tools used by the site to infringe copyright. Noting that Punkt SE supplies and controls the domains and is therefore liable for their (mis)use, the domains should be dealt with in the same way that other criminal tools would be, Ingblad argued.

Punkt SE, on the other hand, took the position that holding a registry responsible for infringement has no basis in law. Furthermore, disabling domains is an ineffective way to deal with infringement.

After two years preparation the case was heard at the end of April 2015 and just a few minutes ago the decision was handed down.

After a week-long delay the Stockholm District Court ruled that The Pirate Bay will forfeit its Sweden-based domains – ThePirateBay.se and PirateBay.se – after finding that they belong to Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij.

“The District Court’s conclusion is that the domain names are property that can be forfeited,” the ruling reads.

“Fredrik Neij has participated in the [copyright infringement] crimes that have been identified and he is the actual holder of the domain names. It is therefore no obstacle to confiscate domain names from him. The prosecutor’s primary claim with respect to Fredrik Neij should be upheld and domain names should be confiscated from him in accordance with the Copyright Act.”

While copyright holders will be pleased that two of Pirate Bay’s domains will be put out of action (they will be seized by the Swedish state), the District Court dismissed the prosecution’s case against Punkt.se and awarded the registry close to $40,000 (SEK 332,000) in costs.

“We have received the verdict and are of course glad that the court chose to decide according to our view,” .SE public relations manager Elisabeth Nilsson informs TorrentFreak.

“We think it is good that this issue has been examined. Now we need some time to read through the verdict and do a thorough analysis before we can make any further comments.”

At least for now The Pirate Bay will continue business as usual. An insider informs TF that the site has plenty of other domains in reserve and will make a switch when required.

We have also requested comment from prosecutor Fredrik Ingblad and this article will be updated as soon as further details become available.

Should the parties wish to appeal they must do so no later than June 9, 2015.

Update: Sara Lindbäck of anti-piracy group Rights Alliance informs TF that the decision was expected and will make it harder for pirate sites to operate from Swedish domains.

“Pirate Bay has on a commercial scale committed massive infringements against rights holders. The forfeiture is a clear and positive sign that society does not accept these types of activities,” Lindbäck says.

“[In future] it will become more difficult for illegal players to run their activities under the SE-domain.”

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

During the spring of 2005 several large TV-torrent sites were knocked offline, leaving a gaping void that was soon filled by a new torrent distribution group, EZTV.

For a decade EZTV has been one of the leading TV distribution groups. It turned into one of the most visited torrent sites, but today this run comes to an end.

Facing a hostile takeover the group’s founder and main operator NovaKing has called it quits.

Initially it remained vague how EZTV’s demise came to be, not least because NovaKing could not be reached. However, with help from several EZTV staffers including sladinki007 we can now explain what happened.

The group’s troubles started earlier this year when the .IT registry suspended EZTV’s domain name because of inaccurate Whois information. A few weeks later the .IT registry put the domain back on the market and it was snapped up by scammers.

The people who took over the domain name came in well-prepared. They registered the UK company EZCloud LIMITED, which is the same company name as EZTV used. Initially the takeover wasn’t much of a problem, as EZTV had already moved to a new domain name at EZTV.ch, but things quickly turned from bad to worse.

Using the EZCloud company details and by faking the director’s name, the scammers also managed to take over the EZTV.se domain through the EuroDNS registrar. NovaKing tried to prevent this from happening by alerting the registrar, but according to an EZTV staffer he was told to get a court order if he wanted his domain back.

The .se domain was linked to the mailbox of EZTV founder NovaKing, which allowed them to access the domain registrar account and various other services for which they quickly reset all passwords. As a result, NovaKing was locked out, losing control of virtually all of his domain names.

Initially, there was also the possibility that the servers were compromised as well. This prompted a thorough security audit and a site lockdown last month.

Eventually, even the new EZTV.ch domain fell into the hands of the scammers, completing the hostile takeover.

Sladinki007 says that NovaKing must have been devastated by what happened. A life’s work was completely ruined in a few days and access to personal domain names was gone as well.

While EZTV could technically start over using a new name the group’s founder decided to throw in the towel. Too much had already been lost. The group had always been a “fun” non-profit project, and the recent troubles took the fun away.

The scammers, meanwhile, continue to operate both the .it and .ch domain names and are now distributing their own torrents (sourced elsewhere) with the hijacked EZTV brand. They pretend to be the real deal, sending out misleading and false status updates, but they’re not.

Having control over NovaKing’s email address the scammers even reached out to other torrent site operators, claiming that EZTV was back in business. However, most knew better not to fall for it and have retired official EZTV uploader accounts.

A Pirate Bay moderator informs TF that they have suspended the EZTV user account. Many of the older torrents are still on the site, but TPB has added a warning urging people to stay away from the compromised domain.

TPB’s EZTV warning

Other torrent sites such as KickassTorrents, BT-chat and Rarbg have also disabled or suspended the official EZTV accounts after hearing about the takeover. In addition, KickassTorrents and BT-chat have added the same warning as TPB. This way they hope to keep people away from the compromised EZTV site, which is now serving various ads including pop-unders.

Former EZTV staffers also urge people to stay away from all EZTV sites and to inform others to do the same. The real EZTV is no longer active.

EZTV’s forced retirement marks the and of an era. While there are still plenty of TV-torrents around, the group will be dearly missed by millions.

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

As countries fight for prominence on the international stage, being recognized among trading partners and the global general public is an important part of the battle.

For example, London imagery and the royal family are powerful overseas marketing tools for the UK while superstar movie and music icons ensure that United States branding is funneled into hundreds of millions of overseas homes every single day.

In Sweden the government has its own agency tasked with understanding overseas cultures and promoting Sweden and Swedish issues globally. Founded in 1945, the Swedish Institute has approximately 140 employees.

This morning the Swedish Institute made an appearance at the Swedish consulate in Istanbul as part of a Curators of Sweden event discussing freedom of expression, the Internet and democracy. As part of a slideshow the organization highlighted a number of Swedish brands responsible for raising Sweden’s profile on the world stage.

As can be seen from the slide below (thanks Erkan Saka) some of Sweden’s most iconic companies sit front and center. Adorned in Sweden’s national colors, furniture giant IKEA makes a key appearance, closely followed by clothing outlet H&M and motoring legend Volvo. The final three need little introduction.

Interestingly, all three of the tech companies above have close connections to the file-sharing scene.

First up is Swedish-founded communications software Skype. While millions have used the tool since its launch in August 2003, most probably aren’t aware that its backend was first utilized by infamous P2P tool Kazaa. Indeed, Niklas Zennström co-founded them both.

And Spotify has close connections to file-sharing too. In addition to publicly admitting its service was “designed from the ground up” to be a product with appeal to pirates, one of its engineers is Ludvig Strigeus (Ludde), a Swedish programmer best known for developing BitTorrent client µTorrent.

And last – but certainly not least – sits the infamous The Pirate Bay. As famous for pirating music in 2015 as Swedish pop sensation ABBA were for creating it 40 years earlier, the site has certainly raised the profile of Sweden around the globe. Of course, some will argue that boost hasn’t always been for the best.

At the same time as gathering tens of thousands of headlines focusing on Sweden, the country’s connections to The Pirate Bay have also strained relations with key allies, including the United States.

However, what cannot be denied is how the site has raised global interest in Sweden and ensured that when it comes to discussion and progression in the digital age – especially concerning entertainment distribution – this small Scandinavian country (currently 90th in the world by population) remains at the cutting edge.

Soon, however, the Swedish legal system will decide whether to sever the country’s ties with the infamous file-sharing system. It’s unlikely the country’s overseas profile will diminish as a result though – that part of history has already been written and won’t be forgotten in a hurry.

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

This week we have four newcomers in our chart.

Ex Machina is the most downloaded movie.

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	(…)	Ex Machina	8.0 / trailer
2	(…)	Project Almanac	6.3 / trailer
3	(1)	Jupiter Ascending	5.8 / trailer
4	(2)	Furious 7 (Subbed/cropped HDRip)	8.8 / trailer
5	(4)	Kingsman: The Secret Service	8.1 / trailer
6	(3)	American Sniper	7.4 / trailer
7	(…)	Chappie	7.2 / trailer
8	(5)	Run All Night	6.9 / trailer
9	(…)	Focus	6.7 / trailer
10	(7)	Fifty Shades of Grey	4.2 / trailer

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

The RIAA has just submitted its latest tax filing to the IRS, covering the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014. Time for us to see where the music industry’s anti-piracy arm stands.

In previous years the RIAA reported a massive decline in revenue after the record labels cut back on their membership dues, but this trend now appears to have stopped.

Total revenue according to the latest filing is $24.2 million, a slight increase from $24.1 million the year before. Despite the stabilizing income, which mostly comes from the record label’s membership dues, the RIAA continues to trim employees.

Over the past five years the number of employees at the RIAA has been slashed in half, dropping from 117 to just 55.

In its most recent filing the RIAA lists 55 people on the payroll compared to 58 the year before. In total these employees earned $11.7 million of which more than 25% went into the pockets of three top executives.

Interestingly, while more than half of the organization’s workers have been let go, the RIAA’s top employees have enjoyed salary increases year after year, including some healthy bonuses.

The top earner in the year ending March 2014 was CEO Cary Sherman with a $1.6 million a year payout for a working week of 50 hours. Sherman’s base salary is a cool million dollars, but that was boosted with a half million bonus and other compensation.

Other high income employees were Mitch Glazier (Senior Executive VP), Steve Marks (General Counsel) and Neil Turkewitz (EVP International) with $776,616, $728,959 and $657,952 respectively, including over a quarter million in bonuses.

RIAA top earners

While these incomes are significant, they are relatively modest compared to other industry groups. For example, MPAA boss Chris Dodd earns $3.3 million, while its former General Counsel Henry Hoberman earned close to a million.

Looking at other expenses reported in the tax return we see that the RIAA spent $2.3 million on lobbying, a figure that has remained relatively stable over time.

The same cannot be said for the group’s legal fees, which dropped from $16.50 to $1.28 million in a few years. In part, this is because the expensive lawsuits against individual file-sharers and services such as Limewire have ended.

Most recently the RIAA started another lawsuit, this time targeting the music linking site MP3Skull, so perhaps the amount spent will increase again in future years.

The full 2013/2014 filing is available here.

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