In recent years the mainstream entertainment industries have largely come to the realization that chasing down individual file-sharers is unlikely to yield significant anti-piracy results.

With this in mind new strategies have been adopted, one of the most important being the attacking of ‘pirate’ site revenue streams. The theory under consideration is that such sites would cease to exist if a profit could not be made from their operations.

One of the key ways sites generate revenue is via advertising so pressure has been mounting on agencies and the companies placing the ads to do everything possible to stop their promotions appearing on pirate sites. On occasion, groups such as the Digital Citizens Alliance publish information aimed at naming and shaming big brands who’ve let their ads appear in the wrong places.

“Good Money Gone Bad: Digital Thieves and the Hijacking of the Online Ad Business” was a DCA report from February 2014 which estimated that the top “pirate sites” generate $227 million in annual ad revenue.

The report also called out big companies including Amazon, American Express, Dell, Ford, Lego and McDonalds for allowing their ads to appear on pirate domains. What it failed to do was point the finger at companies a little closer to home.

TorrentFreak has learned that during its monitoring of “pirate” sites in early 2014, the MPAA discovered that ads commissioned by entertainment companies close to the ones it represents were appearing on those very same sites.

In a five month analysis (Jan to May 2014) the MPAA found that Sony companies including Sony Online Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, Sony Entertainment Network, Sony Corporation, and Sony Mobile Communications, were placing ads on ‘rogue’ sites.

This wasn’t a few here and a few there either. In the first five months of the year Sony company ads appeared on “pirate” sites almost two million times, with the lion’s share placed by SCE and its partners.

Internal correspondence reveals that Sony Pictures were keen to eliminate this embarrassment, with the company’s content protection department writing to other divisions requesting that ads are kept aware from pirate networks in future.

Sony said its goals were threefold:

– “Starving pirate sites of any additional ad revenue generated by viewers clicking through on those internet ads”

– “Eliminating any semblance of legitimacy that ads for well­ known
brands might lend these rogue sites”

– “Protecting the reputation of our brand, since these sites often include malware and ads for questionable and/or illegal content.”

Noting that the information had been provided by the MPAA, Sony asked its sister companies to assist them in the fight against piracy. It’s unclear whether Sony has achieved its aims but in any event, don’t expect an MPAA partner company to be called out for supporting piracy anytime soon.

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

When Xbox and Playstation players wanted to test their Christmas gifts a few hours ago, they were welcomed by an unpleasant surprise.

Lizard Squad, who repeatedly DDoSed the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live’s servers in recent months, were back with a Christmas gift nobody asked for. Another DDoS attack resulting in yet more downtime.

One of the affected players was Kim Dotcom, who’s an avid Xbox player himself. But instead of cursing Lizard Squad to high heaven he decided to make them an offer.

Although the general belief may be that it’s best not to negotiate with “terrorists,” Dotcom decided to give it a try.

“Hi @LizardMafia, I want to play #Destiny on XBOX Live. I’ll give your entire crew Mega lifetime premium vouchers if you let us play. Cool?” he tweeted.

Lizard Squad is apparently easy to please as they were willing to stop the attacks in return for 3,000 free cloud hosting vouchers.

After getting approval from Mega’s management, Dotcom and Lizard Squad eventually came to terms through Twitter’s back-channel.

Once the vouchers were in Lizard Squad’s possession, the attacks did indeed slow down and Christmas was saved. While some still experienced some outages due to the earlier attacks, many players were able to join their favorite games again.

“Thanks @KimDotcom for the vouchers–you’re the reason we stopped the attacks. @MegaPrivacy is an awesome service,” Lizard Squad tweeted, confirming the successful intervention.

Dotcom, meanwhile, is happy that he can play Destiny but wishes that his other troubles could be resolved this easily too. Whether the U.S. Department of Justice will accept Mega vouchers is doubtful though.

“Obviously, diplomacy works. I recommend that the U.S. Government gives it a try. #MakeLoveNotWar #UseMegaVouchers,” Kim noted.

Of course there’s no guarantee that Lizard Squad will keep their promise during the days to come, but Dotcom said he will render the vouchers useless if attacks resume.

Merry Christmas everyone…

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

Game of Thrones has taken the crown of most downloaded TV-show for the third consecutive year.

With more than 8 million downloads via BitTorrent, the 2014 season finale is way ahead of the competition.

The Walking Dead and The Big Bang Theory complete the top three with an estimated 4.2 and 3.6 million downloads respectively.

Game of Thrones’ top listing doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Earlier this year it broke an all-time piracy record when more than 254,114 peers shared the same torrent file simultaneously.

Overall there is no sign that TV-show piracy is declining, on the contrary. The download numbers for the most popular shows continues to rise, sometimes exceeding the number of traditional viewers in the US.

Below we have compiled a list of the most downloaded TV-shows worldwide (single episode) for 2014, together with the viewer average in the US. The data is estimated by TorrentFreak based on several sources, including download statistics reported by public BitTorrent trackers.

Online streaming and downloads for file-hosting services are not included since there are no public sources to draw data from. Total piracy numbers will therefore be significantly higher.

Most downloaded TV-shows on BitTorrent, 2014

rank	show	est. downloads	est. US TV viewers
torrentfreak.com
1	Game of Thrones	8,100,000	7,160,000
2	The Walking Dead	4,800,000	17,290,000
3	The Big Bang Theory	3,900,000	18,240,000
4	How I Met Your Mother	3,500,000	13,130,000
5	Gotham	3,200,000	11,810,000
6	Arrow	2,900,000	3,920,000
7	Grey’s Anatomy	2,800,000	9,810,000
8	Vikings	2,700,000	3,560,000
9	Suits	2,500,000	2,800,000
10	South Park	2,400,000	2,400,000

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

There can be few Internet-savvy people around who haven’t, on occasion, downloaded an MP3 or two. Among those people’s parents, find a person who has never listened to a copied CD or cassette-taped LP and i’ll show you the bar where Bigfoot buys the Loch Ness Monster a beer on Friday nights.

These days piracy is somewhat socially acceptable, to the point that a little can fly alongside the average moral compass without upsetting it too much. This upsets the entertainment industries no end, however.

Times are changing though, there can be little doubt about that. Piracy is just as omnipresent now as it ever was, but educational and awareness schemes are at least giving pirates and potential pirates thoughts of what it might be like to be a more permanent fixture among the paying classes.

This awareness, coupled with better offerings of course, may eventually bring about steady change, but there is one area of IP infringement that the younger generation need little encouragement to understand.

Counterfeit items – whether clothing, sportswear, designer fragrances, watches or computer accessories – can be bought in just about every country of the world. By free-riding the brand awareness built by their trademarked namesakes they also tend to be massively cheaper in comparison.

This accessibility on pricing means that fakes always seem to sell well, which is particularly interesting since they’re a product with near zero street cred in the West. While some might not care about the stigma, kids – the so-called pirate generation – definitely do.

Those who can’t afford a pair of Nike sneakers quietly hope that their peers don’t notice that they’re wearing Mike. And dare to accuse a teen of communicating via a fake iPhone and expect rage to be the response. It’s as if by casting aspersions on their ability to own the genuine item you’ve somehow criticized their entire character.

That said, kids and teens do not generally feel the same way about digital piracy. While Pirate Bay’d MP3s (especially unreleased ones) can at times be the pinnacle of cool, the wearing of Peats By Drei earphones is treated like a four letter outburst in church.

Adults aren’t immune to counterfeit aversion either. Earlier this year my trusty HTC One found itself being upgraded to a shiny new Samsung S5 courtesy of a third off retail eBay auction. While waiting for it to arrive I inadvertently read about some S5 Chinese copies going around and how side by side they’re difficult to tell apart from the real deal. Some, functionally, are apparently very good indeed.

That knowledge developed into a little panic followed by creeping annoyance that I might have been scammed. This led to my questioning whether having a functionally identical but fake product would make any difference to my enjoyment of it, much like listening to a genuine and ‘pirate’ MP3 side by side. Would it really matter?

Damn right it would – I paid for the real thing, I wanted the real thing. Screw fakes and ready my PayPal chargeback. Fortunately it was a genuine Samsung device and I went back to feeling content with my purchase and happy I wouldn’t have to cover up being some kind of cheapskate down the pub.

That feel good, confident feeling, of having the real thing, is difficult to put one’s finger on. Kids and teens understand it, and in the right circumstances adults do too. That Gucci perfume? It smells good, for longer too. And just look at the quality stitching on that Prada handbag.

People might indeed be watching plenty of downloaded movies over the holidays, but they won’t generally be buying their loved ones counterfeit gifts this Christmas, will they?

How the entertainment industries bottle this emotional response to generally overpriced items and apply it to their own products is anyone’s guess, but especially among the younger generation there’s definitely something there to tap into.

Just don’t presume the big entertainment companies are going to get designer prices for whatever they come up with as those days are well and truly over. Everyone has limits on what they’ll pay for the real thing, as the thriving counterfeit market shows.

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

Facing a “terrorist” threat theaters all around the U.S. backed away from showing The Interview last week.

Sony Pictures was left with no other option than to find online platforms to show the controversial movie to a broad audience during the holidays, and they eventually did.

Yesterday afternoon news broke that the film was available for streaming on YouTube, Google Play and Xbox Live. A group of hackers shouldn’t be able to chill freedom of speech, Sony and Google reasoned.

“…after discussing all the issues, Sony and Google agreed that we could not sit on the sidelines and allow a handful of people to determine the limits of free speech in another country,” Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond commented.

Unfortunately, however, this free speech can only be heard by the U.S. public for now. People outside of the States will have to wait for weeks or months to see a film that was “trending” worldwide on Christmas eve.

And that’s where another group of self proclaimed freedom fighters come in.

Shortly after the first stream was made public various pirated copies quickly started to populate torrent sites and other sharing platforms.

Even The Pirate Bay jumped in by adding the hash of one of The Interview’s torrents to the top left corner of it’s site, linking it to a Google search. In addition, the site added a cartoon picture of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un.

With The Interview making headlines for several weeks, it’s clear there’s a massive interest in the film. This is reflected download statistics too.

Data collected by TorrentFreak shows that The Interview was downloaded an estimated 200.000 times though BitTorrent during the first 10 hours it was available, and this number is still growing rapidly.

Browsing through the commentary on various torrent sites we see that restricted availability is a common topic.

“Just signed up to say Thanks, since it was not released outside of US when it should be all at the same time. Will now be finally able to watch this,” one downloader told his peers.

Considering the unique situation, it’s a real shame that Sony didn’t seize this opportunity to try a worldwide debut. It would have certainly brought in extra revenue.

Yes, of course, those who pirate the movie are breaking the law in most countries. But honestly, is it really a surprise that so many people outside the U.S. are prepared to cross the line to see a movie tied to one of the biggest news stories of the year?

Update: The number of estimated downloads had exceeded 750,000 after 20 hours.

The number of active sharers on the most popular torrent is more than three times higher than 10 hours ago (close to 100k).

Update: The estimated number of downloads passed the 1.5 million mark after roughly two days, and the download rate is slowing down significantly. The download numbers are comparable to that of popular blockbusters, but they’re certainly not exceptional.

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