Copyright holders have sent billions of takedown requests to Google. Their goal is to make it harder for people to find pirated content through the search engine. However, in some cases, takedown requests make it harder to find legal content too.

The purpose of search engines is to help people find what they are looking for. Today’s web would be pretty much unusable without them.

This urge to search also comes with a downside, as not everything on the web is posted with permission. Pirate sites are a prime example.

Removing Pirate Sites from Search

A few years ago this led to rather bizarre situations where some content on pirate sites ended up higher in search results than the legal alternatives. This problem has been dealt with through takedown notices and downranking algorithms and is not much of an issue anymore.

That doesn’t mean that pirated content evaporated. With the right keywords, it’s still relatively easy to find. This is why search engines such as Google still process dozens of millions of DMCA notices every month.

The goal of these notices is to make pirated content disappear from search results. However, in some cases, copyright holders accidentally flag legal alternatives, which is rather counterproductive.

Collateral Damage

These errors are not as rare as it may first seem. For example, we often see Wikipedia entries being flagged, and legitimate review sites such as IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes have been reported many times over the years.

More direct attacks are an option too. Some takedown notices confuse Netflix with a pirate site, and the same has happened repeatedly to Disney+ and Hulu.

Flagged Netlfix URLs

Needless to say, these takedown efforts are not helping people to find legal content. Quite the opposite. Luckily for copyright holders, Google catches most of these errors but that’s not always the case.

Making it Harder to Find Legal Content

Every now and then one of these errors slips by Google. Ironically, this also affects sites that are specifically designed to make it easier for people to find legal movies and TV series.

For example, the search engine Reelgood had 185 URLs flagged, of which 29 were removed by Google. For Reelgood’s competitor JustWatch, the numbers are even higher.

Over the past few years, 51,613 Justwatch.com URLs were reported in takedown notices. The vast majority were reported by a Netflix imposter but reputable copyright holders sent in complaints as well.

Luckily most of these takedown notices were ignored but when we browsed through the recent requests, we noticed that some Justwatch.com URLs were removed as well.

For example, a notice sent on behalf of “Binary Star Picture” removed a JustWatch page for the film “The Misadventures of Mistress Maneater” from Google’s search results. We don’t see anything remotely infringing on the page in question, which informs people that the film is available on Amazon Prime.

Pirate JustWatch page?

Google confirms the removal at the bottom of the search results where we read the following note:

“In response to a complaint that we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page,” Google notes instead.

Removal notice

Takedown requests by other rightsholders (or imposters of rightsholders) removed other JustWatch links, including the Russian page for “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations,” the Mexican drama series “As The Saying Goes, and the Indian series “Navarasa“.

The examples above are all from this month, and we didn’t even have to dive very deep to find them. That begs the question, how much other content is removed from Google without getting noticed?

When we take the massive volume of takedown notices into account it’s not surprising that some mistakes are made. That said, every incorrect removal is one too many, so there’s certainly still room for improvement.

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Update: The Google takedown system is heavily abused by imposters. Google hasn’t flagged any of the notices above, as far as we know, but it’s possible that some of the notices highlighted in this article are sent by malicious third parties

The IIPA, which represents the MPA, RIAA, and other entertainment industry groups, would like China to take a stand against online piracy. This includes targeting pirate sites and apps. In addition, the Chinese government should encourage technology giant Baidu to take more responsibility by applying rigorous filtering technology and terminating repeat infringers.

The American copyright industry generates billions of dollars in annual revenue and is generally seen as one of the primary export products.

Whether it’s movies, music, software or other goods, US companies are among the market leaders.

US companies also have a clear presence in China which, with more than a billion potential consumers, is a massive market. This offers enormous potential, but there are threats as well, including various forms of piracy.

A few days ago several of these threats were highlighted by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), which counts copyright groups including the MPA, RIAA, and ESA among its members. The IIPA shared its concerns with the US Trade Representative as part of the annual review of China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) obligations.

The IIPA notes that China has made some progress recently, such as copyright law amendments introducing broadcasting and public performance rights for producers of sound recordings. In addition, the maximum punitive damages for copyright infringers in China was increased ten-fold.

Criminal Action Against Pirate Sites

However, the US copyright groups see a lot more room for improvement. Online piracy, for example, remains a major concern. They hope that the Chinese government will step up its efforts on this front too.

“The Chinese government should be encouraged to expand enforcement resources and capability, commensurate with the scale of the evolving online piracy problem,” IIPA writes.

The US copyright holders note that civil lawsuits are insufficient to address major piracy problems. Therefore, they call for enhanced and effective criminal enforcement actions against pirate sites and services.

The online piracy problems in China are broad according to IIPA. They range from traditional torrent and hosting services, through a hybrid of both, to more advanced streaming operations.

“Piracy websites remain a serious concern, including illegal download sites; P2P piracy sites; deep linking sites; ‘hybrid’ sites […] which offer both hosting and torrenting services; cyberlockers; BitTorrent indexes, trackers, or clients; forums; streaming sites; social media websites; and online marketplace/auction sites selling pirated goods.”

Baidu

The piracy problem isn’t just limited to dedicated pirate sites. Legitimate platforms present problems too. The IIPA specifically highlights Baidu, which is China’s equivalent of Google, which offers a search engine but also various other services, including cloud hosting.

The rightsholders would like to cooperate with Baidu but, instead, they were forced to take legal action. Despite numerous complaints, the situation apparently hasn’t improved much recently.

“Unfortunately, Baidu’s services continue to be used for piracy, and their notice and takedown system has been ineffective,” IIPA notes.

To spur Baidu into action, the IIPA would like the Chinese government to get involved. In addition to implementing rigorous filtering technology, the tech giant should also take action against repeat infringers.

“China’s government should encourage Baidu to do more, including improving implementation of its takedown tools, applying rigorous filtering technology to identify infringing content, and taking more effective action to suspend or terminate repeat infringers to ensure infringing content and links are removed expeditiously.”

Piracy Apps and Devices

Piracy apps are a growing concern as well. This includes tools that aggregate copyright-infringing content stored on third-party servers. Going after these apps can currently be quite complicated under Chinese law.

Rightsholders also see China as a major hub for the manufacturing and distribution of piracy-enabling devices. IIPA specifically mentions Ubox which offers access to pirated video-on-demand and has more than 500 agents and distributors worldwide.

“China is a leading manufacturer of media hardware and accessories that can be modified to support the installation of third-party infringing apps, often, pre-loaded onto the device, allowing users to access pirated content. A prominent example is the ‘Ubox,’ which is manufactured and distributed by Unblock Tech.”

Gaming Piracy

The above is just a selection of the piracy landscape, which also covers other industries such as academic publishers and the gaming industry.

For example, game companies often have their work ‘cloned’ or ‘plagiarized’. This is a rampant problem in China, IIPA warns, encouraging the country to use its enforcement framework to effectively address the issue.

The same applies to manufacturers and distributors of circumvention devices such as mod-chips. These allow pirates to play copies of games on their consoles. According to the IIPA, criminal action is needed on this front as well.

“More targeted and transparent enforcement actions, and deterrent-level criminal sanctions and penalties against the manufacturers, suppliers, and exporters of circumvention devices and software components are necessary to meaningfully stem the downloading of infringing video games,” IIPA writes.

All in all the US copyright holders have quite a long list of wishes and demands. These are not sent to China directly, but IIPA hopes that, through the US Trade Representative, they will get a spot on the political agenda.

Ripio, a Latin American (Latam) exchange headquartered in Argentina, raised $50 million in its latest funding round, led by Digital Currency Group (DCG). The exchange, which has a stronghold in countries like Argentina and Brazil, will use these new funds to further expand to new countries in the area and consolidate its spot as one of the pioneering companies in the crypto exchange business.

Ripio Gets $50 Million in Series B Funding Round

Ripio, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latam, has raised $50 million in its series B funding round, aiming to keep growing in the region. The funding round was led by Digital Currency Group (DCG), the famous New York-based cryptocurrency venture capital firm. The round also had the participation of bitcoin investor Tim Draper, Amplo (investors of Robinhood), Marcos Galperin (CEO of Mercado Libre), and Martin Migoya (CEO of Globant).

These funds will help Ripio to keep growing its brand in Latam, after having acquired Bitcointrade, of the most recognizable exchanges in Brazil, earlier this year. The expansion plan of the exchange includes further cementing its position in current markets while also expanding to other countries like Colombia, Mexico, and Uruguay later this year. About this, Ripio’s CEO, Sebastián Serrano, stated:

This announcement is for us a natural step that allows us to continue expanding and consolidating our products in the region, with the mission of expanding access to the crypto world, building simple tools and offering quality information and resources to facilitate the path to the new digital economy.

Crypto Is Still Fresh for Latam Markets

Ripio wants to capitalize on how new cryptocurrency is to Latam markets. Outside of already-saturated cryptocurrency strongholds like Venezuela, Argentina, and Brazil, the region seems to be an especially fertile ground for new business. Juan Mendez, brand chief of Ripio, stated the company is preparing to announce the acquisition of an exchange in Colombia. Colombia is a country where some crypto firms have made inroads, but it is still in its initial stages when it comes to crypto usage and adoption.

DCG is also confident that the exchange will keep growing in the future, giving access to the cryptocurrency ecosystem to the underbanked in the region. Jason Yacavone, chief investment officer of Digital Currency Group, stated:

Amid regulatory scrutiny worldwide, global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to Australian users in 90 days.

Changes Coming to Binance Australia

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced some changes to its offerings in Australia Tuesday. The exchange will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to existing Australian users. Binance explained:

Effective from 2021-09-24 09:00 AM (UTC), existing Australian users will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for these products.

“Users will be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they will not be able to increase or open new positions,” Binance added. “Users will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions after 2021-12-23 11:59 PM (UTC). Thereafter all remaining open positions will be closed.”

Binance Australia has recently gone through some changes. On Aug. 30, the company announced that former Digitalx CEO Leigh Travers had joined Binance Australia as CEO. Digitalx is an ASX-listed blockchain technology company.

Meanwhile, the exchange has been heavily scrutinized by regulators worldwide, including those in the U.K., Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Lithuania, Italy, and Canada. Last week, reports indicate that U.S. authorities are investigating Binance for possible market manipulation and insider trading

Members of the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, have voiced concerns over Tehran’s restrictive policies towards innovations such as cryptocurrencies. Following the release of a study recommending a new approach towards the crypto industry, the lawmakers have called for the adoption of friendlier regulations.

Iranian MPs Urge for Change in Crypto Policies After Research

Some parliamentarians in Iran have set out to change the government’s regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies, citing opportunities to use them to improve the nation’s sanctioned and troubled economy. “Taking a restrictive approach only pushes innovative solutions underground,” the spokesman of the Majlis Economic Commission, Gholamreza Marhaba, told Iranian media. Commenting on the results of the research on the matter carried out by the commission, he also stated:

Our studies show that 50% of crypto activities are in the informal market. This is while supportive regulations can help enhance contribution of the digital currency to the economy.

The authors of the report, which was presented in the Iranian legislature last week, are recommending a new approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry, the English-language newspaper Financial Tribune reported. They believe the sector can contribute to Iran’s economy suffering from decades of foreign sanctions and mismanagement.

Under current government rules, crypto mining is legal in Iran for entities authorized by the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade. The minting of digital coins was recognized as an industrial activity in 2019. However, the trading of crypto assets isn’t tolerated and Iranian authorities have been cracking down on local exchanges with a notable exception — banks and licensed moneychangers are allowed to use digital currency mined in Iran to pay for imports.

Hadi Nejad Beigi, another member of the Majlis, noted that the administration of former president Hassan Rouhani had been reluctant to legalize crypto trade, fearing it would attract private investment. However, the growing popularity of bitcoin among Iranians prompted lawmakers to prepare a draft law which, while proposing to ban the use of cryptocurrencies in payments, at the same time aims to support mining and regulate trading.

Crypto Mining Can Help Iran to Expand Its Power Generation Capacities

According to the study, cryptocurrency mining can solve some problems facing the Iranian energy sector, including financial issues. That’s why the lawmakers have suggested that the government should allow miners to buy electricity through the Iran Energy Exchange or even directly from local and foreign producers. They have also put forward a proposal to introduce “barter deals” in which mining companies can pay for the subsidized energy they use with the digital currency they mine, selling it “at reasonable rates set by the Central Bank of Iran.” Beigi emphasized:

I think there are solutions. We need a mechanism to link the crypto miners and power plant owners.

A colleague of his, Ehsan Arkani, added that by promoting the development of crypto mining, Iran can accelerate the rehabilitation and expansion of its power plants. He also highlighted the potential use of cryptocurrencies to evade U.S.-led economic sanctions. “Cryptos are becoming an inseparable part of the global financial industry,” Arkani pointed out, stressing that “Policymakers need to be aware of this technology so that we can make benefit from it.”

The energy-intensive cryptocurrency mining has been blamed for electricity shortages and blackouts across Iran during the hot summer months. This spring, then-President Rouhani announced a temporary ban on the activity for authorized miners while the number of shut-down, illegal crypto farms has now exceeded 5,300. Last month, Iran’s state-run power utility, Tavanir, said restrictions should be lifted on Sept. 22 as energy demand goes down with temperatures.

Calls to legalize and properly regulate the Iranian crypto industry have been mounting this year. In May, the Iranian parliament urged capital market regulators to create efficient investment vehicles for legal crypto trade. Then in June, the country’s economy minister warned the government could not interfere with the development of crypto technologies for too long. And in mid-August, the country’s securities watchdog said the Central Bank of Iran should address the use of cryptocurrency by the Iranian people

YouTubers operating in the free TV/streaming niche are becoming pretty frustrated by the community policies, which are designed to prevent piracy instruction videos from appearing on the platform. The users claim that YouTube is becoming increasingly unfair with demonetizations but the cold hard truth is very straightforward - abide by the rules or publish elsewhere.

Twenty, thirty, even forty years ago, piracy of movies was something done relatively quietly between trusted suppliers, friends and family.

With the rise of the Internet, however, discussion of how to obtain movies without paying for them was opened up to the masses.

Sometime around 2010, the massive success of YouTube and social media tore away any remaining mystique, with a new and seemingly oblivious generation openly flaunting their piracy tools and activities.

On the one hand, this undoubtedly opened up piracy to a much wider audience, increasing uptake and fueling the rise of countless Kodi addons plus a swathe of piracy-focused apps and IPTV services. On the other, this presented a massive challenge to entertainment industry groups, one that was bound to elicit a strong response.

Having followed the illicit content market for decades, six years ago we predicted that massive mainstream access to piracy would have consequences but the seemingly unstoppable train continued nonetheless.

This included large numbers of YouTubers who used the platform to openly promote and sell their pirate IPTV services and, as the lawsuits against YouTubers now show, that didn’t go particularly well. But those aren’t the only issues with YouTube and piracy.

YouTube Attempts to Distant Itself From Piracy Promotion

More than three years ago we envisioned that YouTube would eventually run out of patience with users attempting to build channels based around piracy tutorials and the promotion of pirate apps and services. Indeed, not long after, the platform began banning people operating in this niche.

More recently, YouTube made its position clear, indicating that it would no longer tolerate videos that show users “how to use apps, websites, or other information technology to gain unauthorized free access to audio content, audiovisual content, full video games, software, or streaming services that normally require payment.”

For anyone who wants to abide by YouTube’s rules, the parameters are pretty clear – don’t do the above and you’ll stay out of trouble. However, there are many channels that have effectively made a business out of promoting piracy tools and as a result, are attempting to find workarounds to carry on doing what they were doing before, without suffering the consequences.

Expecting YouTube to Be Flexible is Simply Naive

A current case in point involves videos posted to various YouTube channels relating to the Android apps Unlinked, FileSynced and Applinked. These are new tools that stepped in to fill the vacuum left by Filelinked, which was shut down by the Alliance For Creativity and Entertainment for facilitating access to piracy apps.

After posting videos about these tools, several YouTubers reported falling foul of YouTube’s community rules as detailed above. Some argue that these tools are generic downloaders that can be used to install any software on an Android device, not specifically piracy tools. As a result, YouTube is being unreasonable by demonetizing or removing such videos, they argue.

Unfortunately, some of the YouTubers’ own videos tell a different story. To make apps easier to find, the above tools operate a code system, with specific codes relating to specific repositories. The most popular ones contain lots of piracy tools and YouTubers promote these codes in their videos as hot property.

In some cases these codes are promoted somewhat generically but it is extremely telling that, in order to show what the repositories contain, massive redaction has to take place to hide the huge lists of piracy apps so YouTube doesn’t delete or demonetize the videos. (example below)

Whether one agrees with YouTube’s policies or not (and plenty don’t) it’s naive to think that YouTube doesn’t notice these attempts at circumventing its community standards. And that brings us to the key point here. This isn’t a case of what is legal or not – this is simply a case of what kind of content YouTube will put up with and what it will not.

YouTube’s Platform, YouTube’s Rules

While there will be no shortage of people ranting at YouTube for its ‘censorship’ of free speech, this is not that type of issue. At least as far as we’re aware, people who publish piracy tutorials and information on pirate apps to their own sites are able to do so, even without anti-piracy companies getting involved. Given the environment on YouTube right now, that seems the only option.

The issue is only made more acute when people publish ‘forbidden content’ to YouTube and then expect YouTube to pay them to do so. Right now, at least one YouTuber is encouraging people to pressure YouTube on Twitter in the event that videos YouTube doesn’t like are removed from the platform.

Quite apart from the fact that this action is unlikely to yield any results in the majority of cases, people need to understand that YouTube doesn’t have to justify itself in any way. In short, YouTube can do whatever the hell it likes and when YouTuber’s operate in questionable niches, they will have a considerable job trying to explain their way out of the problem.

In short, if people want to promote or instruct people in piracy, YouTube is not a long-term proposition and trying to get the platform to bend to their interpretation of the rules is futile. Make a video about Netflix, Disney+ or Amazon Prime and the video will stay up. Promote tools that help people get free access to otherwise premium content and the video is likely to encounter problems.

It’s important to acknowledge that YouTube is not any user’s website and it never has been. The rules can be changed on a whim but this specific set of rules are not difficult to understand – unless people go out of their way to misunderstand them.