In what is becoming an increasingly competitive market, generating revenue by any means is a must for most significant sites, platforms, and services operating in the piracy space.

In Russia, pirate platforms have been experiencing an upward revenue trend for many years but according to a forecast just published by cybersecurity firm Group-IB, 2019 is set to be much less lucrative.

For background, in 2015 revenues were estimated to be $32m but a year later the picture had changed significantly with the market almost doubling in size to $62m. In 2017 there was a further 21% uplift to $85m but in 2018 things began to slow down, with a small 2.3% growth delivering estimated revenues of $87m.

In its latest analysis, the company states that for the first time in half a decade, revenues are set to collapse. Group-IB predicts a figure of around $63.5m for 2019, a drop of 27% compared to estimates for 2018 published last year.

The reasons cited for the dramatic downward shift are numerous. Russia has been tightening its anti-piracy laws almost every year, including site-blocking and in particular, the ability to block repeat-infringer sites and their mirrors/proxies on a permanent basis.

However, the “tectonic shift”, as the company describes it, came as a result of the voluntary anti-piracy memorandum signed in 2018.

Internet platforms including Yandex, Mail.ru, Rambler and Gazprom Media, in conjunction with major content companies, agreed to the creation of an infringing content database which signals which URLs to remove from search results. Around 600,000 links to pirated copies of movies and TV shows are currently included.

The arrangement officially expired early October but an extension was subsequently agreed, with an option to continue until the end of the year if a bill to enshrine its terms in law is submitted to the State Duma by the end of this month. In the meantime, the effects of the agreement haven’t gone unnoticed.

“In the previous years, even if pirated content was removed from a web page, a user still could open the web page, finding it in the search engine, and see the advertisement placed on it, bringing money to online-pirates,” says Andrey Busargin, Director of Brand Protection and Anti-Piracy at Group-IB.

“In 2019, on the contrary, a user was not always able to open a resource with pirated video content, even intentionally.”

Pirate site operators have other advertising issues too. Group-IB estimates that the average earnings for a pirate site via advertising are around $10,000 per month, with online casinos and gaming platforms providing most of the income.

“The active work of the Russian Federal Tax Service against bookmakers and gambling led to the pushing out of advertisers of pirated websites,” Busargin notes.

“For example, Azino777, a highly affiliated provider of advertising services for pirate CDNs, has already lost its leading position.”

Many streaming portals in the region utilize these ‘pirate’ CDNs which bundle video and advertising into a single package. As recently reported, however, several major players were either taken down after legal action by BREIN, the MPA, and the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, or shut down as a direct result. At least temporarily, this could be affecting up to 80% of the pirate streaming market.

Nevertheless, there remains a thirst among Russian consumers for pirated content, so solutions are likely to be found. Group-IB says that the volume of search requests seeking pirated movies and TV shows increased by 0.06% in 2019, to 10.4 billion.

But there is also a cultural problem faced by content companies. A survey published in September by security company ESET suggested that just 9% of respondents prefer legal content over pirated, with 75% citing high prices as their motivation.

That being said, their supply will only continue if pirate sites can make money at their end, so it will be interesting to see whether their 2020 revenues continue on a downward trend.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

With millions of regular visitors, file-hosting site Openload generates more traffic than popular streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go.

While the site has plenty of legal uses it is also a thorn in the side of many copyright holders, due to the frequent appearance of pirated content.

This pirate stigma most recently resulted in a mention on the US Government’s list of “Notorious Markets”. 

Today the site’s regular users are welcomed with a rather unpleasant surprise. Instead of the usual interface, allowing them to access the latest videos, they see a message from the global anti-piracy alliance ACE.

“The website is no longer available due to copyright infringement. You will be redirected to alliance4creativity.com,” it reads.

A closer look at the DNS information shows that the domain name now points to the ns3.films.org and ns4.films.org nameservers, which have been used in the past for similar seizures.

Whether the ‘takeover’ is limited to just the domains or whether any additional property has also been seized is unknown at the moment. TorrentFreak reached out to ACE to confirm or deny their involvement along with a request for additional detail, but the Alliance didn’t immediately reply.

It appears, however, that Openload.co, and many related Openload domains such as oload.cc, oload.club and oload.download, openload.pw and oloadcdn.net are not the only affected domains.

Streamango.com and Streamcherry.com, which are believed to be connected to Openload, both show the same ACE copyright notice.

With millions of daily visitors, the redirects are causing trouble for the ACE website too, which is slowing down and returning errors regularly. This is no surprise, as Openload.co alone has an estimated 65 million visits per month, according to SimilarWeb.

Without official confirmation, there is always a possibility that the domain redirects are the result of a hostile takeover or elaborate prank, but thus far all signs point towards ACE being behind the development.

This is a breaking story, we will add or update the article if and when new information becomes available.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

The online piracy ecosystem is constantly evolving.

Ten years ago the entertainment industries were mostly concerned with torrent sites. Today, different types of unauthorized online streaming are the main challenge.

To tackle this threat, some of the largest companies in the world bundled their powers. In 2017 they formed the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), which lists prominent members including major Hollywood studios, Netflix, Amazon, and other entertainment giants.

More recently, Internet providers started to join the alliance. Earlier this month Comcast was presented as the first ISP to join, but the Canadian company Bell is also a member. Yesterday, Charter was added to the growing group.

The addition of these names isn’t a complete surprise as most telecom companies are content companies as well nowadays. As such, they have a vested interest in limiting online piracy. Thus far, ACE has done so by focusing on bringing down unauthorized streaming services, including Set TV and Dragon Box.

However, there’s another threat on the horizon that needs to be addressed: password sharing. While it is is far removed from the typical piracy scenario where someone shares a file without permission, sharing a password is also seen as facilitating unauthorized access.

Most media platforms haven’t strictly enforced this type of unauthorized use but, according to ACE, the issue is now on the agenda.

A working group will focus on reducing unauthorized access to content. While this is a rather broad description, ACE adds that it will offer opportunities to share “best practices” on issues including “improper password sharing” and “inadequate encryption.”

Tom Rutledge, CEO of ACE’s newest member, Charter, immediately embraced the password sharing topic, which the company is looking forward to addressing.

“We are very pleased that ACE and its coalition of members have committed through this initiative to take on unauthorized password sharing and other content security practices, and we look forward to working together on this important issue,” Rutledge said.

According to Charter, both creators, distributors, and consumers will benefit from a unified strategy to tackle this and other ‘piracy’ threats.

“Consumer, creators, and distributors alike will benefit from collaborative solutions that make content more secure and curtail unauthorized copyright use and distribution, while preserving the customer’s ability to enjoy the content rights they’ve purchased on the network, platform, device, and locations to which they subscribe,” Rutledge adds.

This isn’t the first time Charter has mentioned password sharing as a problem. Last week, the company also highlighted this as part of a new content distribution deal with Fox.

Also, ACE’s focus on password sharing comes roughly two weeks after its member Netflix addressed the issue in its latest quarterly earnings call. There, Netflix chief product officer Greg Peters said that the company will continue to monitor the situation, adding that no concrete actions are planned yet.

“So we’re looking at the situation and, you know, we’ll see, getting those consumer-friendly ways to push on the edges of that, but I think we’ve got no big plans to announce at this point in time in terms of doing something differently there,” Peters said.

According to research published by Magid last year, Netflix alone could miss out on roughly $135 million in subscriptions alone due to password sharing, which is a rather substantial amount.

However, as is often the case with “unauthorized” access, these one-on-one calculations are not very reliable. It’s unrealistic to think and all the people who share passwords now will suddenly pay for a subscription if they can’t. In fact, some people may simply cancel theirs, if they can’t share a password.

This may be where ACE comes in. With all the major streaming players combined in a single anti-piracy coalition, they have the opportunity to streamline their strategies in “best practices”, so consumers don’t simply walk over to the next competitor.

With ACE’s focus on password sharing, it’s clear that the problem is being taken seriously, and that countermeasures are being considered.

TorrentFreak reached out to ACE for further details on password sharing and how it compares to traditional piracy, but the organization has yet to provide a comment.

We also asked the group about Charter’s involvement in a rather prominent piracy lawsuit, where several major music labels accuse the ISP of not doing enough to curb piracy. We have yet to hear back on that as well.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

The EU Intellectual Property Office has published its latest Intellectual Property and Youth Scoreboard Study.

Its stated aim is to better understand which drivers and barriers are the strongest among 15 to 24-year-olds when obtaining digital content online or purchasing physical goods, both legally and illegally.

In line with the previous study published in 2016, music remains the most popular content among young people. An impressive 97% stream or download music, 94% download or stream movies and series, with games following behind with 92%. Roughly eight out of ten access educational content (82%) with a similar number accessing other TV shows or sport (79%).

Of course, not all of these consumers access content legally. The study found that around a third use unlicensed sources but that’s down five percentage points on the findings from a similar study in 2016.

However, that 33% is split – 21% said they intentionally pirated while 12% said their illicit consumption was unintentional.

“Young people who use illegal sources intentionally to access digital content do so primarily to access films and series,” the study reveals.

“There has been a notable decrease in those using illegal sources to access music —whereas almost all young people download or stream music online, only 39% of those intentionally using illegal sources do so to access music — a decline of 17 percentage points since 2016.”

The motivations for deliberately using illegal sources aren’t new. More than half (56%) cite price as a factor (10 points down from 2016) but just under a third (30%) say they frequent illicit platforms due to content not being available legally or based on the perception that pirate sites offer a larger choice (26%). But at least some users of these platforms can be deterred.

“There are almost always reasons that would stop young people from using illegal sources to access digital content. Primarily these relate to having a more affordable offer (55%), followed by a risk of punishment (35 %), and a bad personal experience (29%),” the report adds.

The EU study also highlights that in respect of illegal content consumed intentionally, there is a “limited correlation” with more general consumption of digital products. While a majority of all respondents consume films, TV shows, sport, games, eBooks and similar content, intentional pirates tend to focus on streaming or downloading movies and series.

“More generally, it is rare for young people to rely exclusively on illegal sources — 80 % of the sample use legal sources to access digital content,” the report notes, adding that 51% have not “used, played, downloaded or streamed content from illegal sources in the last 12 months.”

The full report can be downloaded here (pdf)

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.

On December 9, 2014, the file-sharing world was in turmoil.

Swedish police raided the Nacka station, a nuclear-proof datacenter in Stockholm, and confiscated dozens of servers.

The raid caused downtime at many popular torrent sites including The Pirate Bay. While a TPB insider later denied that its servers were taken, it remained offline for nearly two months.

After the raid, it became clear that The Pirate Bay was indeed the main reason for the enforcement effort. Similar to the earlier raid in 2005, a criminal investigation was launched to hold the operators responsible and keep the site offline.

However, where the first enforcement action resulted in several criminal convictions, the most recent investigation had limited success.

Last week we reported that the police ended the investigation into Pirate Bay co-founder Fredrik Neij, who was seen as a prime suspect. Today, we can report that the entire criminal investigation is now closed.

While the prosecution gathered a substantial amount of evidence, the case can’t continue, simply because time ran out.

“The investigation was closed because the statute of limitations expired,” Anna Ginner, Prosecutor at the National Intellectual Property Crime Unit tells us.

There was enough evidence to pursue a case against a suspect, which we believe is Fredrik Neij. However, the prosecution was unable to reach this person for “final serving,” a process where defendants can review the evidence, which is mandatory in Sweden.

“The investigation was finished. However, we did not manage to contact the suspect to give him the possibility to review the investigation on final serving,” Ginner notes.

Although there are no criminal convictions, the police and prosecution did book some results, Ginner says. The investigation led to a legal battle over the thepiratebay.se domain name, which was registered to Neij. This case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which forfeited the domain to the Swedish state last year.

The prosecution may have hoped for more but the lack of a conviction doesn’t come as a complete surprise. In 2017, the then leading prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson already warned that time was running out and that oral evidence was weakening.

Due to secrecy provisions, the prosecution can’t comment on whether The Pirate Bay remains a topic of interest, but it’s clear that the investigation following the 2014 raid is now closed.

Last week Neij told us that he is pleased that the case was dropped.

“Now that the investigation is closed, I’m looking forward to being compensated for them unnecessarily holding all my computer equipment for four years and ten months,” he said.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN reviews, discounts, offers and coupons.