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Twenty years ago, screener copies of all Oscar-nominated films leaked online before the official awards ceremony. Today, screeners have become a rare breed. This isn't only the result of increased anti-piracy protection. In fact, the shift to shorter release windows and streaming premieres likely had a much bigger impact.

oscarsThe Oscars are the most anticipated movie awards show of the year, closely followed by hundreds of millions of movie fans around the world.

It’s also a special event for movie pirates. Traditionally, the Oscar winners see a surge in unauthorized downloads. And in anticipation of the big day, pirated copies of award-screeners would often leak early.

From 100% to 9%
In the early 2000s, it was pretty common to see screeners of all Oscar contenders leak online before the winners were announced. This has changed dramatically over the years. In the past decade roughly half of all nominated movies leaked as a screener and, last year, this percentage dropped below 10% for the first time.

New data released by Oscar piracy watcher Andy Baio suggests that the downward trend continues. For all Oscar-nominated films of this year, only three screeners leaked, which is on par with last year’s all-time low.

pirate screener stats
Granted, there are still a few weeks to go before the awards ceremony. However, typically all screeners have come out already in February, so it is safe to say that the downward trend is intact.

The same graph also includes another key statistic. The number of “high-quality” leaks remains very high. These are ripped HD streams or Blu-Rays that are not screeners. Last year, a high-quality copy of all Oscar contenders was available before the awards, and this year 88% leaked already.

Screeners are Rare, Leaks Aren’t
This means that, while screeners rarely leak nowadays, leaks are still quite common. This can in part be explained by a drastically changing movie industry and the rise of streaming services.

Of all films that were nominated for the 94th Academy Awards, more than half premiered on a streaming service. Netflix has a dominant position, but HBO Max and Disney+ contributed to this change as well.

When a film premieres on a streaming service it’s generally available on pirate sites on the same day. These non-existing release windows are different from the months people have to wait for some theatrical-only releases.

As a result, pirates can get their hands on unauthorized copies of the movies much quicker. This effect is nicely illustrated by the median number of days between a movie’s official release and a pirated leak. That number tanked after 2020.

media leak
This doesn’t mean that screeners no longer exist in the streaming era. Depending on the release date, voters still need early access to a Netflix or Disney+ film if it’s not on the platform yet.

‘The Power of the Dog’ Screener
This was also the case for “The Power of the Dog,” which leads the Oscars field this year with 12 nominations. The film, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst, was released on December 1st but a screener copy already leaked last September.

Several other Netflix titles also leaked early but none of them were nominated. These leaks are not necessarily awards screeners. Information we received from the leaker suggests that they are linked to film festival screeners.

The other Oscar-nominated films that had leaked screeners are “Cyrano” and “Drive My Car.” These are not streaming releases but the latter has an interesting angle, as it was leaked by a group that used the “OSCAR” tag. This was prophetic, as the Japanese film received four Oscar nominations.

We expect that the screener heydays will never return. Pirates will still publish them if there’s no high-quality copy online yet but with shorter or non-existing release windows, there are simply fewer opportunities.

The MPA and Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment are pressing ahead with their campaign to eliminate as many pirate services from the web as possible. Their latest activities include the seizure of a number of pirate IPTV-related domains and additional pressure on Cloudflare and domain registry Tonic to hand over information they hold on yet more pirate site operators.

ACE logoThe Motion Picture Association (MPA) and their partners in the Alliance of Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) are on a mission to slash the online availability of pirated movies and TV shows.

The activities of the groups are rarely made public until services are actually taken down, following legal action in US courts, for example. However, OSINT sources can be utilized to find out which sites are already on the anti-piracy groups’ radar, including some that may have already fallen but yet to be announced. Today we can report a selection of both.

MPA & ACE Seize ‘Pirate’ IPTV Domains
One of the main priorities of ACE, of which the MPA is a key member, is to tackle illegal streaming. The groups tackle traditional web-based platforms such as video-hosting services and indexing sites (like PrimeWire) but also IPTV suppliers, distributors and resellers.

Actions against these types of players are often announced by ACE when they come to a successful conclusion, which can include site operators handing over domains and signing agreements. Sometimes, however, the signs are already in public view.

During the past few days a number of pirate IPTV-related domains began redirecting to the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment website, a pretty clear indication that for the people behind them, all is not well.

The first seized domain – techstudiony.com – used to be the website for Brooklyn-based electronics store TechStudio Electronics. Quite why the domain has been seized by ACE/MPA isn’t immediately clear but the company’s phone number is also used to sell various set-top boxes to the public. If any of those also came with an IPTV subscription, that could’ve proven problematic.

Other domains that began redirecting to the ACE anti-piracy portal recently include a number with similar formatting. Israelitvcompany.com, for example, appears to have sold IPTV subscriptions relevant to Israeli customers.

“Israeli TV is the innovative TV service from the Israeli TV Company, a pioneer in digital television. For the first time we present to you over 30 of the most popular Israeli channels in digital quality anywhere around the world on your TV!” the site used to read.

Similar domains that also began redirecting to ACE in the past few days include the following: turkishtvcompany.com, polishtvcompany.com, russiantvcompany.com, germantvcompany.com, frenchtvcompany.com and ukraniantvcompany.com. Given their formatting and former site layouts, they appear to be connected.

ACE/MPA Investigate Dozens More Domains
Late December 2021 it became evident that the anti-piracy groups were investigating dozens more domains linked to web-based illegal streaming operations and pirate IPTV services. In the new year, they aren’t letting up.

Three DMCA subpoena applications filed in US courts this month show that with the help of Cloudflare and domain registry Tonic, MPA and ACE are hoping to identify the operators of at least two dozen additional sites operating in the web-streaming, IPTV and torrent sectors.

Vumoo.to, for example, is a very popular streaming portal offering movies and TV shows. With help from Cloudflare (which provides services to the site) and Tonic (which operates its domain), the anti-piracy groups are hoping to identify Vumoo’s owners, presumably with the intention of shutting the site down and depriving around 11 million visitors per month of their piracy fix.

1337x.to, which is a giant in the BitTorrent space, is also of interest to ACE/MPA. The indexing platform, which offers access to torrents covering many content categories, currently has around 75 million visitors per month but whether the request to Cloudflare will prove helpful is open to question.

Over the past couple of years ACE, MPA and even the RIAA (1,2,3) have demanded identifying information from Cloudflare and/or Tonic on 1337x yet the site continues nonetheless.

The 10 million visitors per month YTS.rs domain is also on the MPA/ACE radar. The site, which offers magnets and torrent streaming, uses the YTS branding but like the more popular YTS.mx, it isn’t the official YTS site since that was shut down more than six years ago.

The full list of sites, for which ACE/MPA are demanding the full personal details of their operators, reads as follows:

1337x.to, 9jarocks.com, 9jarocks.net, assistirfilmesonline.pro, baixartorrents.org, dizibox.pro, filmeseries.top, hdfilmcehennemi.tv, la123movies.com, loveflix.online, maxseries.top, my9jarocks.net, my9jarocks.org, pobre.tv, pobreflix.org, putlockernew.site, rfilmesonline.com, Series9.me, Strumyk.tv, superflix.mobi, tudohd.top (redirect to tudohd.cc), uwatchfree.ph (redirects to uwatchfree.fo), Vumoo.to, yabancidizi.pro, yts.rs

The big question, of course, is whether any of these customers of Cloudflare have provided their real information to the CDN company.

A lawsuit filed in Japan against Cloudflare by manga publishers Shueisha, Kodansha, Shogakukan, and Kadokawa this month alleges that the US company fails to conduct due diligence, meaning that it’s possible for site operators to access Cloudflare’s free service without “sufficient verification of identity”.

Several copyright holders are urging the United States Trade Representative to help tackle the unbridled piracy that takes place in Iraq. They describe the country as a hotbed for online piracy services which are also exported to Europe and the US. Due to lacking copyright laws and systematic corruption, external pressure is needed, they argue.

iraqPiracy is a global phenomenon but some countries have better enforcement options than others when it comes to dealing with the problem.

In Iraq, tackling copyright infringement appears to have very little priority.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. When U.S. troops were still stationed in Iraq, rightsholders found out that American soldiers were picking up the local habit. As a result, “copyright notices” were sent to US bases and even United States Central Command was put on high alert.

Last December, the U.S. combat mission in Iraq officially ended so that’s no longer an issue. Iraq still faces plenty of internal issues, of course, but fighting piracy is nowhere on the agenda. That’s a concern for copyright holders.

Rightsholders Sound the Alarm Bell
Recently, several rightsholders mentioned Iraq in their submission to the US Trade Representative (USTR). The USTR uses these and other public comments to create its Special 301 Report, an annual list of countries that deserve extra attention due to various shortcomings that may hurt U.S. businesses.

Miramax and beIN Media Group are by far the most elaborate. The two companies sent a joint submission with over a dozen pages dedicated to Iraq. According to the rightsholders, the country faces massive piracy issues internally, but it doesn’t stop there.

According to beIN, Iraqi pirates are also exporting pirated broadcasts worldwide, including to the United States.

“More than one third of all internet piracy of beIN channels originates from companies based in Northern Iraq. After being copied by these companies, beIN’s channels are then re-streamed on pirate IPTV services generally, as well as from pirate websites accessible all over the MENA region, and the rest of the world.

“Some Iraqi operators are even distributing pirated content in the United States, through both physical goods channels and the internet. Again, none of these pirates has faced any enforcement actions by the Iraqi authorities, despite operating in clear view of those authorities,” the companies write.

Corporate ‘Pirates’ Profit from Lacking Copyright Protection
This widespread piracy is hard to tackle since Iraq doesn’t have any effective copyright laws to protect foreign content. The country isn’t part of the WTO and didn’t sign crucial copyright-related deals such as the TRIPS Agreement, Berne Convention, Brussels Convention, or the WIPO treaty.

The lack of enforcement has led to an environment where major companies in the country are seemingly profiting from piracy. This includes the largest Iraqi Internet provider Earthlink, which has a broad entertainment offering. Perhaps too broad.

Earthlink operates data centers, offers residential internet, and provides services to businesses local governments across Iraq. At the same time, however, it’s also offering a controversial IPTV service called Shabakaty.

“Shabakaty provides illegal access to beIN channels, as well as channels and content owned by major US, European, and international right holders, to an estimated 5 million of its customers,” the rightsholders write.

Widespread Problem, Hard to Stop
This isn’t limited to beIN and Miramax channels, but also pirated broadcasts and on-demand content from Netflix, Discovery, Disney, FOX, HBO, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.

The rightsholders provide several examples including screenshots of live programming and recent movies such as “Don’t Look Up” and “The Matrix Resurrections” that are on offer. According to the submission, these are made available without permission.

don't look up
In many other countries, these services would be taken to court, especially if they operate in the open. However, that’s not realistic in Iraq and Miramax and beIN have little faith that this will change in the near future. It seems that, after sending several cease and desist letters, they’ve given up already.

“beIN has sent cease and desist letters to Earthlink with no results. Given the systematic deficiencies in law enforcement in Iraq, there appears to be little, if any, prospect for meaningful enforcement action. beIN and Miramax consider that pursuing these operators in a civil action would be fruitless.”

To make matters worse, Earthlink is just one of the many companies that offer this type of content. The same also applies to Chaloos and iStar Media, which have a large user base as well. And locally, there are other “piracy” players as well, such as Al Nawars, Ahlina, Duhok, Saamira, Al Qush, Wadaq, Ahwar, Al Mulk, and Al Iraq Baghdad.

Failed Fatwas and Corruption
This issue isn’t new and beIN has tried to get the Iraqi Government on its side. However, that hasn’t resulted in any meaningful action.

Local beIN distributers even went as far as teaming up with religious leaders to release Fatwas and condemn illegal subscriptions, but that didn’t help either. There is reportedly too much “corruption” going on.

“[G]iven systematic problems with corruption in Iraq, the deficiencies in Iraq’s copyright regime, and our awareness of unsuccessful actions taken against pirates in that country, there does not appear to be a realistic prospect for meaningful IP enforcement in Iraq,” beIn and Miramax write.

The companies don’t mention any concrete examples, but they do highlight that the major piracy players in Iraq have close connections to the authorities.

“beIN understands that the owners and operators of Earthlink, Chaloos, and iStar (three of the major Iraqi pirates described above) have significant influence among Iraqi government officials, both at the federal and regional levels.

“This further supports the conclusion that there is little hope that the widespread piracy by these entities could be reduced or eliminated through the use of either civil or criminal judicial procedures in Iraq.”

Piracy Watchlist
Needless to say, these are big accusations. BeIN and Miramax ask the US Government to place Iraq on the piracy watchlist, hoping that this will help to change things.

Thus far, Iraq has never been featured on the Special 301 Watchlist. The companies submitted a similar request last year but that didn’t result in a listing. Instead, USTR highlighted other countries such as China, Russia, and Canada.

As previously reported, beIN and Miramax are not the only rightsholders that have mentioned Iraq in their submissions. The International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy, which includes the BBC and Dish Network as members, also highlighted the country as problematic.

The RIAA has secured a multi-million dollar victory in its piracy lawsuit against YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com. A Virginia federal approved the damages request after a hard-fought legal battle that took place over several years. The stream-rippers previously closed their doors to U.S. traffic but remain accessible elsewhere for now.

flvtoLast October, the RIAA secured a major victory in its piracy lawsuit against YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com and their Russian operator Tofig Kurbanov.

A Virginia federal court issued a default judgment in favor of several prominent music companies after the defendant walked away from the lawsuit.

According to the order, there is a clear need to deter the behavior of Kurbanov who failed to hand over evidence including server logs. “A less drastic sanction is unlikely to salvage this case,” the judge wrote.

RIAA Seeks Millions in Damages
Following this win, the RIAA asked for an injunction to stop the sites’ worldwide stream-ripping activities. In addition, the music group demanded nearly $83 million in damages. Both of these requests were taken up in a report and recommendation issued by Magistrate Judge Buchanan last December.

“Defendant’s Websites caused the Plaintiffs to lose profits and streaming revenue because of the enormous internet traffic to and use of the Websites’ stream-ripping functions,” Judge Buchanan wrote.

Mr. Kurbanov’s legal team opposed this recommendation, arguing that the music companies failed to provide evidence that any infringing activity actually took place in the United States. Also, if the court believes that damages are appropriate, they should be substantially lower.

The RIAA predictably disagreed and asked the court to stay the course and take over the recommendation. After weighing the positions from both sides, that’s exactly what happened.

$83 Million is Justified
In an order released late last week, Virginia District Court Judge Claude Hilton concludes that the recommendations are in line with the law. As such, the recommended damages amount is justified.

“Based on a de novo review of the evidence in this case, the Report and Recommendation, and Defendant Kurbanov’s objections, it appears to the Court that the Magistrate Judge’s Report and Recommendation is neither clearly erroneous nor contrary to law.”

This means that Mr. Kurbanov is required to pay the full damages award the RIAA requested for 1,618 copyright infringements and violations of the DMCA.

“Plaintiffs are awarded statutory damages for violations of the Copyright Act of 1976 and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the amount of $82,922,500,” Judge Hilton ordered while adding that Kurbanov also has to compensate the music companies’ legal costs and fees.

What’s Next?
In addition to the financial part of the judgment, FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com are also required to cease circumventing any and all technological measures. This effectively means that they are not allowed to operate in their current form.

Needless to say, this outcome spells trouble for other stream-ripping sites that offer similar functionality in the United States.

The order doesn’t specifically mention that its scope is limited to the US alone. Mr. Kurbanov’s lawyers previously suggested that an order of this magnitude would equate to a global shutdown demand. However, that may be up for debate.

Both FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com already closed their doors to U.S. visitors last year. However, at the time of writing, they remain accessible in most other parts of the world.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Mr. Kurbanov can still appeal the judgment. If that happens, the case will continue at a higher court.

Over the last few days there has been a new flurry of anti-piracy activity as rightsholders from all over the world attempt to tackle the rising threat of pirate IPTV services. With arrests, blockades, domain seizures and targeted DMCA takedowns, the gloves are certainly coming off in 2022 but the size of the mission ahead isn't easily understated.

IPTVAs illegal IPTV subscriptions maintain their popularity among those looking for a cheap live TV fix, rightsholders from all over the world are trying hard to counter the threat.

Broadcasters and sports leagues are applying significant pressure but with VOD services now a part of many pirate IPTV packages, Hollywood studios such as Disney and distributor platforms including Netflix and Apple are playing a leading role.

Yesterday we reported new activity by anti-piracy coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) which included seizures of IPTV domains. Today we can report new action, not only by ACE but others in the sports and broadcasting ecosystem utilizing a range of anti-piracy tools.

ACE Takes Down and Seizes Seko IPTV
In a 2020 submission to the United States Trade Representative, Spanish football league La Liga reported several illegal TV services for infringing its rights. Among them was Seko IPTV, a service that now, thanks to ACE, is no longer operational.

sekoiptv-packs
Seko IPTV first made an appearance more than five years ago in May of 2016. At the time it offered around 3,200 channels according to its own data, plus a VOD (video-on-demand) service offering movies and TV shows.

Promoted for Mag boxes, Smart TV, Enigma, VLC, Kodi, smartphone, tablets and other devices, more recently the service boasted more than 9,000 live channels and 20,000 videos in its VOD library. However, it now appears to have reached the end of the road after ACE and the MPA took control of its domains.

Sekoiptv.com, sekoiptv.ml, sekoiptv.live and sekoip.tv are now under the administration of the MPA in the United States, which tends to suggest that their operator/s may have reached some kind of shutdown settlement with ACE/MPA. All domains now redirect to the ACE anti-piracy portal so former customers of the service will be getting an unwelcome surprise.

Other IPTV-related domains seized by ACE/MPA in the last few days (in addition to the ones published at the weekend) include srvtekn.com, vpnuser.ws and smarteriptvmanchester.com.

Police Arrest Two For IPTV Piracy
Late Friday, Spanish authorities reported that following complaints made by professional football league La Liga, a Policía Nacional investigation was launched into the supply of set-top devices and subscriptions to an illegal IPTV service.

The region of Navarre was reported as a place of interest and the police investigation subsequently identified two suspects in the Merindad de Estella. Two operations codenamed ‘Lígalo’ and ‘Tyche’ were assigned to the Technological Crime Group of the Provincial Judicial Police Brigade (Grupo de Delincuencia Tecnológica de la Brigada Provincial de Policía Judicial).

After an Estella court authorized warrants, two people were arrested and detained under suspicion of supplying illegal subscription access to otherwise premium TV channels.

In common with other cases involving such services, the name of the platform has not yet been made available but according to local reports, the Policía Nacional has asked a court to issue an order that will compel local ISPs to block its domains to prevent further infringement.

Police Arrest Six, Seize 24,400 Pirate Boxes
This morning, Spain’s national police and the country’s tax agency further announced the arrest of six people and the seizure of 24,430 TV devices in Madrid. According to the authorities, the group sold the devices on various web platforms and via their own forum, from where technical support was provided to customers.

“The analysis of the bank accounts of those investigated has revealed income derived from the illicit activity of 1.2 million euros between 2017 and 2021,” a police statement reads.

Nagravision Takes Down Popular IPTV Repo
In a late January DMCA notice filed at Github, conditional access systems developer Nagravision requested the takedown of IPTV-org, a very popular location for people looking for free IPTV playlists.

Nagra claimed that some of the channels found in a particular playlist infringed the rights of various Discovery channels and as a result, the repo was completely disabled.

Quite what happened in the following days is unclear but potentially after the infringements were addressed, the repo is now back online, providing access to almost 30,000 channels via its own search engine.

In a DMCA notice filed with Github early February, anti-piracy outfit Group-IB demanded the removal of a script that enable users to watch movies for free using the IDs allocated to movies and TV shows via Russia’s official Kinopoisk video database.

“This script provides access to illegal content – a database of pirated players, which can be accessed using this script for any title with the id of Kinopoisk, which is a serious violation of the rights of copyright holders,” the complaint reads.

ISPs Set to Block Pirate IPTV in Malta
Finally, it appears that pirate IPTV subscribers in Malta may soon find access to their services disrupted after a judge ordered local ISPs to block hundreds of IP addresses used by infringing platforms.

Dory