New research suggests that turning a blind eye to piracy can benefit consumers, creators and retailers, all at the same time. This win-win-win situation has a positive effect on the economy at large. Using Game of Thrones as an example, the researchers conclude that tolerating piracy to a certain degree can be a wise decision. Over the past decade, various entertainment industry groups have lobbied hard for tougher anti-piracy measures. The harder it is for people to download something through unofficial channels, the more revenue will flow to the creators, the argument goes. However, a new study by Indiana University researcher Antino Kim conducted together with colleagues from the University of Texas-Dallas and the University of Washington, suggests that this is not always the case. The findings from their economic impact model are published in the latest edition of the MIS Quarterly Journal, in an article titled “The ‘Invisible Hand’ of Piracy: An Economic Analysis of the Information-Goods Supply Chain.” According to their analysis, piracy limits the pricing power of both the creator and the retailer. This reduces the impact of double marginalization, which occurs when creators and retailers both add significantly to the price of a product. Because piracy is seen as a form of “shadow competition” the price of a product, such as an HBO cable subscription, is pushed closer to the economic optimum. At that optimal price point, everyone is better off, including the broader economy. “When information goods are sold to consumers via a retailer, in certain situations, a moderate level of piracy seems to have a surprisingly positive impact on the profits of the manufacturer and the retailer while, at the same time, enhancing consumer welfare,” Kim and his co-authors write. “Such a win-win-win situation is not only good for the supply chain but is also beneficial for the overall economy,” they add. The researchers mention Game of Thrones piracy as an example. The TV-show is widely known to be the most pirated series in history but HBO is not going to extremes to stop the public from sharing these episodes, which may be a good thing. Following the logic of the paper, the threat of piracy keeps the price of HBO cable subscriptions down. Neither HBO (creator) nor the cable and satellite TV operators (retailer) are overcharging, despite their relative monopolies. This means a better price point and more legitimate consumers. The authors of the article note that creators and retailers don’t have to encourage piracy all of a sudden. However, turning a blind eye to it may be in their own best interests in some cases. “The implication is simply that, situated in a real-world context, our manufacturer and retailer should recognize that a certain level of piracy or its threat might actually be beneficial and should, therefore, exercise some moderation in their anti-piracy efforts,” the researchers write. “This could manifest itself in them tolerating piracy to a certain level, perhaps by turning a blind eye to it. Such a strategy would indeed be consistent with how others have described HBO’s attitude toward piracy of its products,” they add. The findings are based on an economic model which is limited to retailer sold information goods. Piracy doesn’t always have a positive effect but this research shows that it can help keep market prices balanced, which is an intriguing conclusion. It highlights a positive aspect of piracy that has been overlooked before are certainly something for companies and governments to be aware of then they consider future anti-piracy measures.

New research published by anti-piracy outfit WebKontrol has revealed a 43% increase in pirate sites during 2018. Speaking with TorrentFreak, the company says the cause could be the appearance of 'mirrors' to counter site-blocking. The government, meanwhile, is sharpening its blocking system. Russia has firmly established itself as one of the leading countries utilizing site-blocking to counter content considered unfavorable by the state or corporate interests. Many tens of thousands of platforms are blocked for many reasons, from the promotion of terrorism to copyright infringement. Every week new sites are added to the country’s national blacklist which local ISPs are required to frequently check in order to prevent their subscribers from accessing forbidden platforms. Given that blocking is supposed to reduce piracy, new research from Russian anti-piracy company WebKontrol throws up a few interesting angles on this online war. For example, the company says that in 2017, the number of torrent sites offering content to the Russian market sat at around 1,300. However, last year – in the face of overwhelming blocking measures – that number grew to around 2,000. In 2018, torrent sites accounted for just over a fifth of the ‘pirate’ market (streaming platforms dominate with more than 70%) but due to multiple links to the same content appearing on most platforms, torrent links accounted for around 40% of the available links to pirated material. Further underlining the importance of torrents, despite a smaller share of the market, the company reports that in 87% of cases, the first public copies of premiere titles appeared on torrent sites first, before spreading out to other platforms such as streaming and hosting sites. “According to WebKontrol’s, data, out of various website types, the number of streaming resources had increased by 2% – from 69% to 71% [2017 v 2018] – which placed the streaming websites in the leading position,” the company told TF. “The share of torrent-trackers has also increased by 3% – from 19% to 22%. At the same time, the analysts have noted that the number of link sites and cyberlockers went down from 5% to 3%, and from 6% to 3% respectively.” In 2017, the number of pirate sites offering content to Russian audiences dropped by 10% but in 2018, WebKontrol detected a 43% increase, amounting to an additional 9,500 sites. But despite this bad news, overall piracy appears to have dipped slightly, with the huge increase in sites put down to site owners’ responses to Russia’s aggressive blocking system. “The overall traffic of pirate sites is decreasing notwithstanding the fact that the number of such sites is growing rapidly. Presumably, the main reason for this is the newly created mirror sites,” WebKontrol CEO Olga Valigourskaia informs TorrentFreak. “Administrators of the pirate resources tend to create mirror sites as quickly as possible after their original domains are blocked. Rights holders, on the other hand, instantly block these mirrors using an administrative procedure, so there is no chance for these sites to gain any significant traffic. Some pirates simply stop creating new mirrors after a few blocking procedures.” Meanwhile, Russia is further investing in site-blocking with the introduction of a new system. Telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor reports that to date, 660 large telecoms operators have switched to a new mechanism which allows sites to be blocked more efficiently. “The new mechanism allows service providers to receive data from the Unified Registry [national blacklist] for only updated or changed entries instead of downloading the entire data set,” Roscomnadzor reports. “Earlier tests have shown that the time taken by operators to reduce access to prohibited resources is reduced from 30–40 minutes to 4–6 minutes.” Adoption of the new system is not mandatory but given the importance of site-blocking to the Russian government, ISPs are being encouraged to make use of it in order to “increase the effectiveness of measures taken to limit access to illegal resources.”

The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent are in again. 'Bohemian Rhapsody' tops the chart this week, followed by ‘A Star is Born'. 'Aquaman' completes the top three. This week we have two newcomers in our chart. Bohemian Rhapsody 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 Web-DL/Webrip/HDRip/BDrip/DVDrip unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the articles of the recent weekly movie download charts. THIS WEEK’S MOST DOWNLOADED MOVIES ARE: 1 (10) Bohemian Rhapsody 2 (1) A Star is Born 3 (5) Aquaman 4 (…) The Grinch 5 (2) Hunter Killer 6 (4) The Girl in The Spider’s Web 7 (8) Bumblebee (Subbed HDRip) 8 (3) First Man 9 (6) Venom 10 (…) Widows

So... we activated our Hit and Run system and we are going to test it for a few days to see how it is behaving. The rules are very simple you either seed the torrents you are downloading for 3 days(User) or 2 days(Power User) or until you have 1:1 ratio per torrent. You download a 4GB torrent, you upload 4GB on the same torrent. Pretty easy, no !? Well if you don't do that and have 5 or more HNRs the system will remove your downloads rights and will give it back only if you get back to 2 HNRs. Ohh, i forgot to mention that you can remove HNRs for 200 seedbonus points per torrent directly from the hnr torrents page !? Make sure to check the hnr torrents page. The only things that are in your interest will be the SeedREQ value and the Ratio value. Ratio value needs to be 1 and SeedREQ 0:00. P.S When have HNR's you will get a notification and upon clicking it will get you to the hnr torrents page. Also you can see the HNR count number up above in the stats bar. P.S2 The system affects only User and Power User class, but other classes will also get hnr notification without being punished. Happy Seeding!

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Google Translate: We closed the last weekend of January with a new record number. We got close to 80,000, the new record: 79,505 Thank You!

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Google Translate: https://tvstore.me/pic/actorgia/janos-kulka.jpg This week, János Kulka was chosen. You can read more about it by clicking on your name or the Actorgia icon next to it. You can download the series with 0.5x download multiplier until this Sunday Sunday midnight, ie only half of your downloaded data will be billed (of course, the 0.5x multiplier will not apply). The affected category categories are: Neighbours

Hey,new member here.