HDWTV招募通知 HDWTV招募录制人员。有卫星、机顶盒等高清录制设备，能够录制国内外高清电视台的会员，请点击[申请]进行申请。 特别是有条件录制湖南卫视、浙江卫视、江苏卫视的会员，欢迎加入，一起共享高清生活。 ps:请确定有时间进行录制，小组会根据个人情况安排一定的录制任务。 HDWinG管理组 English: HDWTV recruitment notification HDWTV recruitment of sound crew. Satellite, HD recording devices such as set-top boxes, capable of recording HD TV's members at home and abroad, please click [apply] to apply. Especially conditional recording of Hunan satellite TV, Zhejiang TV, Jiangsu TV, Member, join, share HD life. PS: Please make sure there is time to record, the group will arrange a specific recording tasks depending on their personal circumstances. HDWinG management group

Site issues There are still known issues, like submitting torrents and viewing the torrent page that are being looked into. No need to report errors at this point. Thanks for your patience! /Crew

2014.07.18 - Solemn Warning Recently discovered that there are certain members of the site forum posts pasted into Baidu Post Bar and other public occasions. Forum posts as a member of the improvisation, and regardless of its true or not, does not mean that the site view. Unauthorized Copy and paste the contents of these posts to the public, all pt stations strictly prohibited. Please take good care of their homes pt, mutual supervision, do not make some harmful pt mental behavior. In this solemn warning. Once again found that the above behavior, we punished! Welcome to report similar behavior, once verified rewarded, click here to report HDSky because of you so wonderful thank you for your understanding and support!

Tracker Name : HD-Mkv Signup Link : http://hd-mkv.me/index.php?page=account Genre : HD Closing Date : Additional Information :

Solarmovie, one of the largest video streaming indexes in the Internet, lost control of its domain name yesterday. A mysterious 'hacker' managed to access the name.com registrar and transferred the domain name elsewhere. The hijack appears to come from the same person who previously stole 1channel.ch. With millions of visitors per week Solarmovie is a thorn in the side of the major movie studios. The site indexes links to pirated copies of movies and TV-shows, which can be streamed directly through third party sites. Apart from the ISP blockade in the UK, Solarmovie hasn’t run into any significant trouble. However, that changed yesterday when the site’s owner found out that someone had stolen the Solarmovie.tl domain name. An unknown ‘hacker’ gained access to the name.com registrar where the domain was held and quickly transferred it to another registrar. How this could have happened is a mystery to Solarmovie admin Chris, who notes that they used a secure password. “We have no idea how the registrar was accessed. The account had a 10 character long randomly generated password,” Chris informs TorrentFreak. “I wonder why the name.com registrar didn’t send a confirmation link to the account’s primary email when it was changed. Registrars shouldn’t allow changes to login details in such an easy way without triple checking against swindlers,” he adds. The Solarmovie.tl domain was transferred to EuroDNS and redirected to Solarmovie.ag. Initially this new domain displayed a “coming soon” landing page but it’s now hosting a copy of the Solarmovie website. The ‘fake’ Solarmovie has put up a notification informing visitors that the .AG domain is the site’s new home. The “fake” Solarmovie.ag The ‘real’ Solarmovie, meanwhile, has reverted back to its old Solarmovie.so domain where it remains accessible as usual. They hope that the registrar can help them get the old domain back. Time will tell whether that’s possible. “Currently we are talking to our registrar about possible measures we can take to have the domain returned. As for now, we revert back to solarmovie.so domain,” Chris says. While it’s unclear who’s behind the domain hijack there are several signs that it’s the same person who stole the 1Channel.ch domain, which later became Vodly.to. For example, both vodly.to and solarmovie.ag use the same IDs for the Newrelic stats service. Whoever’s behind the stolen domains and however they pulled it off, other streaming sites should be warned. Update: Solarmovie’s Twitter account was hijacked briefly as well, but has been restored an hour ago.

As Spain struggles with its continuing online piracy problems, a local court has issued an order for several file-sharing sites to be unblocked by ISPs. The decision overturns a ruling in May which required the service providers to censor torrent and download sites on copyright infringement grounds. In the eyes of the United States, Spain still needs to do more in the battle against unlawful file-sharing. The country has been making progress though, and in some instances has actually gone much further than any U.S. court would dare. Following action by the MPAA-affiliated Anti-Piracy Federation (FAP), in May 2014 a court in the city of Zaragoza ordered local ISPs including Vodafone, Movistar and Orange, to block several sites allegedly engaged in copyright infringement. Within days, SpanishTracker, PCTorrent.com, NewPCT.com, PCTestrenos.com, Descargaya.es and TumejorTV.com were rendered inaccessible. The injunctions were not permanent, however, and could be appealed by the sites’ operators. As can be seen in the Alexa statistics shown below, direct traffic to NewPCT took a huge hit following the court order. However, the site quickly set up alternative domains and there were several reports in local media indicating that proxies and VPNs had quickly become popular with those looking to regain access to the site. But while the court order was cheered by rightsholders keen to see Spain dispel ideas that the country is a safe-haven for file-sharing sites, the celebrations were to be short-lived. The site blocks, championed by both FAP and the police Computer Security Brigade, were this week lifted by a court in Zaragoza. A judge sitting in Court of Instruction No.10 found that there “insufficient grounds” for maintaining the domain blockades to protect property rights, “especially when it is not absolutely necessary for the continuation of the investigation.” El Mundo reports that when the case was being processed back in 2013, a court already found that “the facts alleged did not constitute a crime.” The ISP blockades against the domains are expected to be lifted in the coming days, leaving local and international rightsholders to ponder whether changes in Spanish legislation due this year will help solve the piracy conundrum.

Tracker Name : Xbox-sky Signup Link : http://bt.xbox-sky.cc:8888/register.php Genre : Games Closing Date : Additional Information :

LEGi0N Merge To FraMeSToR Official P2P Release The well known release group LEGi0N Internal to BeyondHD have merged with release group FraMeSToR Founding member josuha08 (aka J08) Approached me to make the move as he seen it benefiting the site and with the downtime of one of his members from encoding for some time As LEGi0N are as of great encoders as FraMeSToR and visa versa I did not hesitate to agree to this move. As many of you already know LEGi0N have been internal here for a long time now and its encoders (j08 , RaVeN , greyshadow) have never lacked in quality over speed and have always impressed me by there ways of encoding and methods to innovate there skills in encoding. LEGi0N Group will still remain on site as a category if there are old torrents that wish to be uploaded FraMeSToR will take on some new category's of its own x264 BRRip XviD BRRip and a lot more 720p and 1080p encodes Feel free to spread this news to anywhere that will allow it as this is a major change in P2P Release groups especially for LEGi0N as there Fan / User base is very big.

Google's Chrome browser has started to block downloads of the popular BitTorrent client uTorrent. Those who attempt to download the software are told that it's malicious and harmful, hinting that the website might have been hacked. With millions of new downloads per month uTorrent is without a doubt the most used BitTorrent client around. However, since this weekend the number of installs must have dropped quite a bit after Google Chrome began warning users away from the software. According to Chrome the BitTorrent client poses a serious risk. “uTorrent.exe is malicious and Chrome has blocked it,” the browser informs those who attempt to download the latest stable release. Chrome does give users the option to restore the file but not without another warning. The browser is convinced that the file is harmful and suggests that the uTorrent website may have been hacked. “This file will harm your computer. Even if you have downloaded files from this website before, the website may have been hacked. Instead of recovering this file you can retry the download later.” Blocked The first reports of Chrome’s block came in three days ago and at the time of writing the problems persist. The warnings appear for the latest stable release (3.4.2.32354) and no other releases appear to be affected. Currently there is no indication why the software has been flagged, but a scan by more than 50 of the most popular anti-virus services reveals no active threats. Google’s safe browsing diagnostic page claims that the uTorrent website was involved in malware distribution in recent months, but no further details on the nature of the supposed malware are provided. “This site has hosted malicious software over the past 90 days. It infected 4 domain(s), including kioskea.net/, ziggi.uol.com.br/, majorgeeks.com/,” the diagnostics page reads. This isn’t the first time that uTorrent has reported problems with Chrome. The same happened late last year when the malware blocking feature was still in beta. At the time uTorrent parent company BitTorrent Inc. managed to resolve the issues after several days. Thus far, none of the developers have responded to user complaints in the uTorrent forums.

ReelRadio, a site that streams an archive of often decades-old historical radio shows, has been forced to take down much of its library after the RIAA complained that the site was operating outside the terms of its license. The letter of the law is tight, and the RIAA is insisting that the near 20-year-old site now meets all of its requirements. When sites like The Pirate Bay come under copyright holder pressure, there is often a big backlash from users who see such action as unfair. That being said, it’s generally accepted by both sides that The Pirate Bay courts trouble by, rightly or wrongly, laughing in the face of copyright law. The situation now faced by ReelRadio, a site dedicated to the streaming of archived historical radio, sits at the other end of the spectrum, but nevertheless the site is still facing potential dismantling by the RIAA. In existence since 1996, ReelRadio still looks and feels like a site made in, well, 1996. Its classic feel is further outdated by the content it hosts, decades-old ‘aircheck’ demo recordings which were often used to showcase radio announcers before being placed in the archives. Aircheck recordings appear to be popular among nostalgia hunters who can pick a memorable year from their life or another historical moment and become transported back in time. It’s a million miles away from what most people see as damaging piracy yet the RIAA is now applying the copyright thumbscrews to tax-exempt ReelRadio. The problem is this. Airchecks are broadly split into two categories. ‘Unscoped’ airchecks contain not only the DJ or announcer’s voice, but also the music played in between. Airchecks recorded for troops fighting in Vietnam, for example, contain music being played during that era. ‘Scoped’ airchecks have the announcer’s voice intact but the music removed, leaving edited recordings that fail to flow. ReelRadio streams both kind of recordings, or rather it did until the RIAA came knocking just over a week ago. Let’s be clear, ReelRadio does in fact have a license to play the music contained in its ‘unscoped’ airchecks. However, after years of operating trouble-free, the RIAA now wants the site to operate strictly within the parameters of its statutory license. “The RIAA has determined that our service fails to meet the requirements for ‘archived programs’, which must be at least five hours in duration and may not be made available for more than two weeks. The service must also display the Title, Artist and Album of each featured song, but only while the recording is being performed,” ReelRadio President Richard Irwin explains. The problems faced by the site are immediate. Irwin says he carries no airchecks with a duration of five hours and obviously the site makes them available for more than two weeks. Also, their streaming method does not cater to the display of meta-data. Worse still, it appears the RIAA also wants ReelRadio to do the impossible. “The RIAA insists that we obtain permission from the copyright owners of these old radio broadcasts. Many broadcasters understand the difficulty of this requirement, since nearly all radio stations have changed ownership, format, and call letters, many times over,” Irwin explains. “Nevertheless, we are expected to provide the RIAA with an explanation of how we have permission from radio stations that no longer exist and copyright owners who have no interest in historic recordings of their property.” As a result of the RIAA complaint, ReelRadio has been forced to remove more than 1,100 ‘unscoped’ airchecks. Its ‘scoped’ airchecks, which are not part of its license, remain available under ‘fair use’ provisions. The RIAA has given ReelRadio until August 8 to provide its response and holds the ability to close the site entirely by suspending its license. Whether it will choose to do so remains to be seen, but it’s clear that if it does there will be no gain whatsoever to the RIAA, but a really big loss to history. Legally the RIAA appears to be on solid ground, but the court of public opinion on preserving nostalgia is likely to see things quite differently. Those wanting to check out some unscoped airchecks can do so on YouTube. They won’t be going anywhere soon, there’s little doubt about that, so check out the gem below featuring the world’s easiest phone-in competition followed by a piece of unbelievable advertising for Winston cigarettes (1m 30s)

1、目前邀请系统已经打开，发烧及以上等级可以发送邀请，请您善用手中的邀请，切勿用于邀请马甲 或交易 2、我注册了一个账号但是却没有收到验证邮件，怎么办？ 点此查看 3、我邀请的朋友没有收到邀请邮件，怎么办？ 点此查看 4、哪些电子邮箱可能收不到邮件？请告诉我。 点此查看 5、未尽事宜请您关注论坛常见问题，点此查看 6、如发觉您邀请的用户有异常，请举报 =========================================== 联通的国际线路抽风。近期电信，特别是联通的国际线路不定期、经常性发生故障，本站感到无奈，并且无能为力 。 建议： 1）拨打本地10010投诉 2）如果访问站点无障碍，可以尝试将Tracker地址改成 http://hdcmct.org/ 开头，修改办法见：https://hdcmct.org/forums.php?action...6&topicid=3758 Translator: 1, The current invitation system is already open, fever above grade can send an invitation, please make good use of the hands at the invitation of never used to invite your vest or transactions 2, I registered an account but did not receive a verification email, what should I do? Click here to view 3, My friend did not receive an invitation message, what should I do? Click here to view 4, which e-mail may not receive messages? Please let me know. Click here to view 5, Matters not your concern Forum, frequently asked questions, click here to view 6, If you invite a user exception report =========================================== Unicom international routes the exhaust fan. Telecommunications in the near future, especially Unicom international lines from time to time, recurrent failures, this site feel helpless and powerless. Suggestions: 1) Local 10010 complaints 2) Barrier-free access sites, you can try to change the Tracker address to begin http://hdcmct.org/, modification, see: https://hdcmct.org/forums.php?action...6&TopicID=3758

In order to encourage people to do kind of conservation, we set up a "special incentive fund seeding rate", dedicated to Paul reward seeding rate and number of species meet the membership criteria, please donate a lot, a lot of participation. Fund Donation link: http://hdsky.me/forums.php?action=vi...1&topicid=2848 seeding rate reward link: http://hdsky.me/forums.php?action=vi...1&topicid=2846

The site code is being updated. Downtime and errors are not unexpected during the current modifications.

The summer is here and this will be the first contest. In honor of this, we are asking our users to create some style sheets for the site. Some of which will be officially added to the site. Everyone will have a chance to choose the best designs and the winners will be chosen by site wide vote. If there are at least 10 submissions the top 3 will be the ones officially added to the site and the rest will receive some consolation prizes. Rules: 1. Submit an original style sheet (CSS theme) that is at least compatible with both Firefox and Chrome (If you make them compatible with any other browser that will be greatly appreciated.) 2. You may submit multiple designs. 3. Please refrain from submitting anything offensive or questionable, and please use common sense. 4. If you add design themes for the login page and maintenance holding page you will receive an added bonus. 5. All Theme's that will be added to the site will need to be finished to include staff pages, so staff can use the new Themes (Dev Server login will be provided). Prizes: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will have their entries added to the site as official themes as well as receive 600GB of upload credit, Spartan(VIP) user class status, and 14 Freeleech Tokens (winner by site wide user vote will receive 1TB and 20 Freeleech Tokens). Top 3 will get 1h of 3:1 RatioBoost per 1 Vote in the Poll (Minimum 14Days). 4rd place will receive 500GB of upload credit and 10 Freeleech tokens. 2:1 RatioBoost (14Days) 5th place will receive 400GB of upload credit and 8 Freeleech tokens. 2:1 RatioBoost (12Days) 6th place will receive 300GB of upload credit and 6 Freeleech tokens. 2:1 RatioBoost (8Days) All other entries will receive 100GB of upload credit, 4 Freeleech Tokens and 2:1 RatioBoost (3Days) for giving it their best shot. NOTE:- Themes that dont make the Top 3 can still be submitted to AR's Official Theme list for a Smaller reward via the Theme forum area (will be created soon). Winners will be chosen by a site wide vote!! Contest ends on: 14th August 2014 Good luck to all!!!! submitted by AlphaRatio

Help wanted: new reports moderators! We really could use another moderator or three to help handle reports. The staff that we have now are also quite busy in real life these days, and we are stretched too thin. Other areas where you can contribute would be our IRC help channel, site contests, and generally helping to shape the future of this place we call Waffles. Keep in mind that this isn't a free ride - only the truly dedicated tend to stay on for the long haul. Basic requirements: Preferably, you have a good grasp on our torrent rules & related knowledge. A relatively clean record on the site Good grasp of the English language. Able to use IRC, to join the staff channel for training purposes Willing to donate one 6-pack of beer per week to yours truly Interested in the job? PM me telling me why you think you'd make a good Moderator. *Note: Please title the PM "Waffles Moderator" so that I don't miss it. Good luck! Serious applicants only.

Hello there. Again there are two things that we have to announce. The first one is that new group is starting with us. The group is called "Boss" and will provide us full retail bluray. From now on all Boss realeases are going be internal and freeleech! The second thing is that at August 1st HD-Space will have a birthday, so there will be few things... tongue.gif HD-Space is always looking for encoders and remuxers to become our internals, so we can provide to our great commutiny something unique. If you want to become our internal, please contact the staff via PM or Helpdesk. Last thing. Dont forget to support us,because we really need your help. Yeah, we have a problems with paypal,but still you can donate with them. We have a backup account, so if you want to donate, write us in the helpdesk and we will give you future instructions. Thank you for your time and for staying with us! Truly yours, HD-Space Staff

Together with our partners from SeedMyBox we thought we bring you a contest. Since we now have script H & R is your chance to do something good points seeding this seedbox. therefore competition consists story short (maximum 200 words) of the most funny / humorous stories from your life. rules: 1. Google friend not involved in all this because we will find what you posted and you will be disqualified and will receive and warn. 2. Your story does not contain swearing, obscene or defamatory words against someone. Prizes: 1st A seedbox for 30 days from SeedMyBox + 6 months VIP 2nd A seedbox for 30 days from SeedMyBox + 3 months VIP 3rd VIP 1 month + 5 + 1000 SP invitations luck! http://scenefz.net/forum-vt17555.html

Tracker's Name: bitGAMER Genre: Games Sign-up Link: http://bitgamer.ch/signup.php Additional Information : Great private tracker for all the games.

Open Registrations After careful consideration and feedback from our recent poll, we have decided to open registrations to all. We believe that this will help our torrents and peer swarms on the bG, and while we know certain "leechers" will register, staff will be making sure they are dealt with very quickly. If you see new members breaking the rules in any way, please use our report system. We want bitGAMER to grow and we want to welcome back former members, but we also know some will not be able to gain an invite without an open registration phase. This isn't forever and any opinions/suggestions are welcome using the thread below: http://bitgamer.ch/forums.php?action=viewtopic&topicid=468 //bG Staff

Kim Dotcom's emerging music service Baboom is inviting would-be investors to grab a piece of what should be an intriguing startup. Speaking with TorrentFreak the senior advisor handling the offer says that not only is it tracking "exceptionally well" but the company is being "overwhelmed" with support from the global indie music industry. It’s been under development for more than two years and in just a few months Kim Dotcom’s Baboom should be ready to launch. In the meantime the company has been outlining its vision for a listing on the Australian stock market. Baboom’s 41-page prospectus invites investors to take a share in a company aiming to provide a special service to both artists and users. While allowing the former to pick up an industry-beating 90% of the spoils, the latter will have the opportunity to listen to music for free, a combination that Baboom hopes will prove a tempting mix to potential investors. The company is issuing 11,250,000 shares at AUS $0.40 each, with the aim of securing “sophisticated or professional investors” able to pump in a minimum of $20,000 each. The target is AUS $4.5 million and according to Ben Yeo, senior adviser at Melbourne-based Novus Capital, the company is well on the way. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Yeo says there has been a large amount of interest from not only within Australia and New Zealand, but also from Europe and Asia. “While the offer has only been marketed to a select number of sophisticated investors, the offer is tracking incredibly well and we have extended the offering for an additional week so as [baboom CEO] Grant Edmundson can present to a number of potential cornerstone investors in Australia who have requested an in-person meeting with the Baboom Ltd CEO,” Yeo explains. The prospectus describes Baboom as a “cloud streaming and download service”, with users able to store their music library for retrieval anywhere in the world on both desktop and mobile devices. It’s estimated that users will get between 10 and 15 albums for free each year in the ad-supported model while their “locker” will max out at 50 gigabytes. It’s probably no coincidence that this limit is the same as that offered by Dotcom’s Mega.co.nz, with the prospectus citing links between Baboom and Mega as a “competitive advantage”. Not everything will be centralized, however. Baboom says it will also offer “unique user ‘peer2peer’ content streaming” features, with a “jukebox” listed as an example use. As previously reported, Baboom will also offer industry-leading audio quality via its FLAC streaming service and will integrate a worldwide ticketing and merchandising solution. Also of interest to investors is Baboom’s target markets. The company says it will focus on under-serviced regions with high growth potential to include South East Asia, Australasia, Southern and East Africa and Europe. Like Spotify before it, one of Baboom’s key aims is target markets with piracy problems. The company says it will deploy “robust marketing” in order to provide a legitimate music streaming and downloading platform in these regions. But while Spotify has achieved its success with the full support of the major labels, it’s impossible to see a situation in which Warner, Universal and Sony warm to the idea of dealing with a company affiliated with Kim Dotcom. That reality is certainly not lost on the management of Baboom, who detail the company’s market strategy as focusing on “independent labels, producer archives and unpublished material.” And according to Novus Capital’s Ben Yeo, things couldn’t be going any better on that front. “What Grant and I have been overwhelmed with is the level of support we have been receiving from the global independent music industry who have thrown their support behind Baboom and are eager to show their support by uploading content onto the platform,” Yeo told TF. On any platform of this type, content is definitely king, so potential investors will be encouraged that Baboom is receiving good support as it prepares for takeoff. The prospectus envisions a fourth quarter release for the service, but according to Yeo there is much work to be done. “By the time the offer closes I envisage the company to be in a strong position to develop its backend systems, mobile platform and content acquisition prior to the platform’s hard launch either late December 2014 or January 2015,” Yeo concludes. The early signs suggest that at least in its early days Baboom is unlikely to prompt a mass migration away from services such as Spotify. However, its unique way of remunerating artists could prove very tempting, particularly when played out against a backdrop of traditional middle-men struggling to remain both profitable and relevant in a changing market.

Footage from the brand new and yet-to-air series of Doctor Who has leaked onto the Internet. Clearly unfinished, the heavily watermarked video carries markers which suggests that the copy was destined for a subtitling company in Brazil. Leaks of material not yet available to the public are always a curiosity online. Anything pre-release can generate excitement, particularly so if the item offers a unique window into the usually hidden production process. Back in 2009 the movie Wolverine appeared on the Internet in advance of its official release. The copy was unfinished and provided a version of the film to downloaders that would have otherwise remained hidden forever. Now that same dubious status has fallen to Doctor Who. After appearing online over the weekend, what claims to be episode one of the new series of the hit show was uploaded to The Pirate Bay today. The 1.49Gb file is marked as a “pre air screeneer” with a claimed running time of one hour and 16 mins. While leaks of TV shows are much more rare than movie leaks, this copy is particularly unusual. Clearly unfinished, the video is both heavily watermarked and monochrome. Marcelo Camargo is the owner of Marc Drei Productions, a Brazil-based production company known for its subtitling work. There is no suggestion that Camargo or his company is responsible for the leak. This is the second serious breach in a matter of days to hit Doctor Who and the BBC. Just last week scripts from the new series leaked online after inadvertently being made available to the public by a BBC Worldwide office in the U.S. It seems likely that this video comes from the same source.

open again

Congratulations to Germany ! on winning the world cup ! (See.... Used spoiler tags this time :P ) To celebrate then end of the world cup which has been enjoyed by all we have decided once again to open the doors for a short period of time. We understand that it's not a popular move by some but at the same time we understand the need to grow our numbers. Not by much, which is why open sign ups shall remain for a short period of time and not be a regular occurrence. We would also like to thank everyone that took part in the Fantasy League ! We hope it was enjoyable, it was certainly more popular than I expected ! Thanks also to the staff that put their time into setting it up and getting it running. All prizes will be handed out over the coming days, with a return to our regular site layout alongside a few little changes and additions which we hope you will enjoy. Discuss it here

The American Bar Association has released a detailed white paper advising the Government on how to tackle online piracy. The lawyers recommend several SOPA-like anti-piracy measures including injunctions against companies hosting pirate sites. At the same time, however, they advise against suing file-sharers as that would be ineffective or even counterproductive. pirate-runningFor more than a decade copyright holders and the U.S. Government have been trying to find the silver bullet to beat piracy. This week the American Bar Association joined the discussion with a 113-page white paper. With their “call for action” the lawyers encourage Congress to draft new anti-piracy legislation and promote voluntary agreements between stakeholders. Among the options on the table is the filing of lawsuits against individual file-sharers, something the RIAA did extensively in the past. Interestingly, the lawyers advise against this option as it’s unlikely to have an impact on current piracy rates. According to the lawyers these type of lawsuits are also financially ineffective, oftentimes costing more than they bring in. In addition, they can create bad PR for the copyright holders involved. “While it is technically possible for trademark and copyright owners to proceed with civil litigation against the consuming public who [...] engage in illegal file sharing, campaigns like this have been expensive, do not yield significant financial returns, and can cause a public relations problem for the plaintiff in addressing its consuming public,” the lawyers write. “The [American Bar Association] does not believe that legislative action directly targeting consumers would prove effective in reducing piracy or counterfeiting at this time,” the white paper adds. While the above may be true for any of the cases that go to trial, various copyright trolls might tend to disagree as they have shown that targeting file-sharers can be quite lucrative. Pirates shouldn’t be too quick to cheer on the lawyers though, as the white paper also contains some pretty draconian suggestions. The American Bar Association says that future legislation should target infringing websites, and it names The Pirate Bay as an example. Since site owners are often unknown and therefore hard to prosecute in America, they advise a series of more indirect tactics. The lawyers are in favor of a “follow the money” principle where anti-piracy measures are targeted at strangling the finances of pirate sites. They call for legislation that makes it easier to cut off advertising, and to seize funds through banks or payment processors. In addition, the white paper calls for new legislation that would allow copyright holders to obtain injunctions against the hosting companies of pirate sites. The American Bar Association also considered similar injunctions against domain registrars and search engines, but it couldn’t reach agreement on these issues. Overall copyright holders will be pleased to see the recommendations put forward in the white paper, but it’s doubtful whether lawmakers will be quick pick them up. Several of the suggestions were previously listed in the SOPA and PIPA bills, so if these are ever drafted into legislation Congress can expect a lot of public backlash.

GitHub has just removed the repositories of several popular Popcorn Time applications. The action was taken in response to a takedown request sent by the MPAA. Whether this will do anything to stop people from using the "Netflix for pirates" has yet to be seen. popcorncensorThe Popcorn Time phenomenon is one of the biggest piracy stories of the year thus far. The software became an instant hit by offering BitTorrent-powered streaming in an easy to use Netflix-style interface. Needless to say this has been a thorn in the side for Hollywood. Today the MPAA decided to deploy countermeasures by filing requests with development platform GitHub to take down several Popcorn Time related repositories. “We are writing to notify you of, and request your assistance in addressing the extensive copyright infringement of motion pictures and television shows that is occurring by virtue of the operation and further development of the GitHub projects Popcorn Time, and Time4Popcorn,” the MPAA writes in its takedown notice. GitHub swiftly complied and starting a few hours ago the repositories were absent from the website, leaving the following note. In its takedown notice the MPAA specifically targets the “popcorn-official” and the “time4popcorn” projects, but it also urges GitHub to remove all related forks. “By this notification, we are asking for your immediate assistance in stopping your users’ unauthorized activity. Specifically, we request that you remove or disable access to the infringing Projects’ repositories and all related forks,” MPAA writes. Interestingly, the MPAA doesn’t mention the original Popcorn Time repository, which remains intact. To prove the infringing nature of Popcorn Time the takedown notice was accompanied by several screenshots of the user interface, as well as several pirated copies of Hollywood movies playing. While the takedown notices may hinder the development of the software, at least temporarily, the websites of the forks remain online. This means that the applications themselves are still available for download. Earlier this week the team behind the Time4Popcorn fork informed us that they have gathered millions of users over the past several months, and that the application is being downloaded tens of thousands of times per day. Whether the MPAA also has plans to target the Popcorn Time fork websites remains to be seen.