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bruceleelegend

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  1. "We have done it! We've made first Contact!" We had always looked forward to this momentous day with excitement but it has quickly turned into a nightmare. We are appealing to you, our users, we could really use your help right about now! We're not sure why we were chosen, but it's too late for second thoughts now. One of our users, ps4gamer, has been kidnapped! For safety, our team has been locked away in a private bunker. It took some effort, but we've managed to get this message out to you! The aliens sent us a message earlier today, but we are having trouble decrypting it. Since we are isolated in our bunker, we have limited resources. However, we feel partly responsible and can't just sit idly by! Can you help us decode this message and save ps4gamer? Here is the message they sent. We don't understand anything and need your help to make sense of it: To add to this strange turn of events, a super secret prototype of a new Medals system has suddenly been leaked; and we don't know how! We are unable to revert these changes, so it would seem we're stuck with this new system. There also appear to be some strange entities lurking around. We just can't make sense of it all. Could this be the work of aliens too? This is all very confusing and we don't feel well equipped to handle this event on our own! Are there any extraterrestrial experts on GGn? We could sure use your help! Edit: We just received a new message from the aliens! This time it was an image and it sure doesn't look good. We are very worried about ps4gamer. Be warned, this image is rather explicit and viewer discretion is advised. Message from the Aliens: Show Help! Please! Time is of the essence! Apologies for this horrible news and thank you for any help you can provide! -GGn Staff Disclaimer: This message has been sent from a super secret facility. Do not share the enclosed information with anyone else.
  2. thanks a really good tracker for anime
  3. Denuvo is the most well-known videogame anti-piracy system on the market and also the most controversial. Critics believe that the system is anti-consumer but is that reputation really deserved? TorrentFreak caught up Denuvo’s Chief Marketing Officer and was informed that the Denuvo team is compromised of passionate gamers who do not slow games down. Last month we reported how anti-piracy company Denuvo is in the process of recruiting a a Sales Director for its video games security system. For the right candidate, it will provide a unique opportunity to not only encourage uptake of Denuvo but also become part of a team that is on the one hand respected by game developers but on the other disliked by some elements of the gaming community. This is par for the course with Denuvo since when it works (by protecting games in their early release windows), developers love it and pirates hate it. When it doesn’t, which is relatively rare these days, the opposite is broadly the case. But what is it really like to work at Denuvo and what goes on behind closed doors? TorrentFreak caught up with Denuvo’s Chief Marketing Officer Steeve Huin for the lowdown. Denuvo: Passionate Gamers at Heart “The Denuvo team is a team of passionate gamers with software engineering & cybersecurity background,” Huin explains. “Working for Denuvo is great as you get to work with the coolest game studios in the world, advising them on security and design and getting access to the games before they are published so we can validate and optimize our technologies for their new games. Who would not want to be part of a team like that?” Obtaining access to games before release is certainly something that most if not all pirates would be interested in. But of course, it’s Denuvo’s job to delay pirate access for as long as possible, ideally forever. As part of that, Huin says that the team has to understand the latest trends, including new cheating and hacking techniques. Some of this research is carried out on the dark web, with the team reverse engineering code so that they can better understand what their opponents are up to. That being said, it’s not all about hiding in the shadows while gathering intelligence. Huin says that his team are all gamers and playing games is the best way to learn about the latest issues, cheats and trends. In that respect at least, they’re not that different from regular consumers or indeed pirates, so why does Denuvo have such a bad reputation in some areas of the gaming community? Gaming Performance: A Big Issue or Simply Overblown? To be clear, it’s not just pirates that dislike the presence of Denuvo. Many people who purchase protected games at retail have developed a mistrust of the system, with persistent claims that Denuvo slows games down or affects performance in other ways. Huin says that the claims are simply not true. “Denuvo is regularly blamed for decreased game performance. We guarantee to our customers (game development studios) that it’s not the case. We do this by benchmarking the game before/after applying our technologies (and they also see it for themselves). We would not be used by most of the large game publishers today if our technology was not great and had an impact on in-game experience!” While this makes complete sense from a logical standpoint, this is essentially Denuvo’s word against those of its detractors. If there was a way to confirm this, with public support from game developers, for example, perhaps some of the fears could be allayed. We put it to Huin that a joint and public Denuvo/developer response might be the solution but Huin says that’s unlikely to happen. “Sadly there is, in general, a lot of secrecy expectations from our customers, and that even includes the ability to mention which studios or which games we are providing security technologies for. It makes it therefore pretty hard for us to defend ourselves in practice. That being said, I can refer you to these independent testings (1,2),” he says. Denuvo: Being Called ‘Evil’ Comes With The Territory There are several online forums where hatred for Denuvo reaches its peak and unsurprisingly they are populated by some of the most dedicated pirates. In the English language, Reddit’s /r/crackwatch is probably the most popular due to its accessibility, with emotions swinging from anger when Denuvo is doing its job through to jubilation when a cracker manages to circumvent the company’s protection. These negative sentiments towards Denuvo’s work are expected, Huin says, given the company’s position in the market. “We’re sometimes depicted as evil which is not cool but I guess it comes with the territory – a possible parallel is with the traffic cops, for example, which are there for the greater good of the community but are not really appreciated – especially when you are stopped for running a red light or driving over the speed limit,” he says. “We are here to ensure that games studios can sell their games and recoup investments they made in the game and ensure they can then invest in the next games and that does not draw popularity amongst the gamers. Sadly, people have not realized that in our hearts we side with the gamers (as we are gamers ourselves). We’ve been recently more focused on anti-cheat technologies to make sure gamers have fun while playing, instead of games being ruined by cheaters – which is seriously uncool.” But Couldn’t The Presence of Denuvo Leave Buyers Exposed? Some gamers have aired concerns that DRM-protected titles requiring online verification might become casualties should those holding the keys go out of business. While that seems unlikely in the short term for Denuvo, does the company have any reassurances for those worried that legitimately purchased games will cease to work in a worst-case scenario? “Given that Denuvo is part of Irdeto, which is a Cybersecurity company founded in 1969, the risk is very low of Denuvo to go out of business (or even Irdeto, which is in turn part of a $2bn+ group a year). That being said, the game publishers can easily republish the games without the Denuvo protection without our help; and have all information on the legitimate purchases and can allow re-download of the games,” Huin says. “Our contracts are in place for time-limited protection for games (6 or 12 months for example, that may or not be renewed). After that period, games get released unprotected, so a process to republish the games without protection is already in place today for most games in practice.” Monitoring Crackers and Cracks It’s common for anti-piracy outfits of all kinds to have employees closely monitoring their adversaries and of course, this must also be true for Denuvo. But how much would the company reveal when asked directly about its secret work? Not much perhaps, but certainly better than the “no comment” offered by similar groups. “A fair amount of time is spent in the cracking and cheating communities to understand what’s going on to help our game studio customers (and ourselves) be best prepared for what’s coming next. We have as part of our wider Cybersecurity team, ex-law enforcement team members as well as white hat hackers. Some of our hackers have won worldwide hack fests – so pretty good and skillful people,” Huin reveals. On the law enforcement front, TorrentFreak asked Denuvo directly about Voksi, the Bulgarian cracker who abruptly ceased his activities back in 2018 after being targeted by a local cybercrime unit. Voksi said that Denuvo was involved, something that was later confirmed by Denuvo in a now-deleted post. So what happened there and are we likely to see a legal process featuring the Bulgarian or did he settle? Denuvo would not provide additional details but did confirm that legal action can take place at the behest of a publisher. “Overall, we focus our efforts on making our technology better but we do have indeed a Cybersecurity team that supports the game publishers in identifying what cracks have occurred, how and who’s been involved,” Huin says. “At times, on the request of the game publishers (who you can imagine are not taking it lightly when their investments are ruined by cracked games being published), we do support law enforcement agencies around the world. We however cannot comment on any possible cases and whether we have provided support or not.” Finally, then, the big question remains – what happens when things don’t go to plan? A game protected by Denuvo gets cracked by someone and placed online. Do sirens go off at Denuvo HQ propelling everyone to action stations? Maybe a little bit but Denuvo says it is concerned on other fronts too. “When a crack appears, then we go and investigate if it’s true (there are a lot of malware floating around pretending to be cracks or cracked versions of a game), we reverse engineer/understand how the crack has been achieved and then we focus our energy on making our tech even better,” Huin reveals. “More than anything we monitor that there are no issues with the game, and if there are, that we’re not the cause of it – as we want our customers to be successful and we want the games that we protect to be great, and the gamers to enjoy the gaming experience. “Of course we monitor the hacking scene too but that’s not as important as the launch of the games!” he concludes.
  4. The number of leaked pirate screeners has dropped to an all-time low. Thus far, only three screeners of Oscar contenders have been released, which slashes the previous low in half. While it may be tempting to conclude that Hollywood finally has the screener problem under control, shortening release windows and online streaming premieres appear to be the main driver. oscarsThe coronavirus pandemic has changed the world over the past year and Hollywood is no exception. Movies theaters had to close around the world, so studios started experimenting with shorter release windows or got rid of them entirely. This change was noticeable on pirate sites as well where high content started to appear quicker and camcorded films became a rarity. The latter is true for copies of pirated awards screeners, which dropped to an all-time low as well. Promising Young Woman, Nomadland & Minari Late December we covered what appeared to be the start of the yearly pirate screeners season, with leaks from Promising Young Woman, Nomadland & Minari. However, in hindsight, that was pretty much the end as well. Relying on data released by Oscar piracy watcher Andy Baio, we see that for all Oscar-nominated films only three screeners leaked. Indeed, those are the three that were pirated late last year. All-Time Low Three leaked screeners is an all-time low. The previous low was two years ago when only seven screeners leaked, or 23% of all nominated movies. This year that dropped to just 9%. For comparison, in the early 2000s pirated screeners came out for nearly 90% of all nominated films. It may be tempting to conclude that Hollywood finally has the screener problem under control. While it’s true that security precautions have increased over the years, there may be a simpler explanation. In the chart below, the red line shows the number of Oscar contenders for which a high-quality leak was released before the Oscars ceremony. The blue line represents the percentage of screeners that leaked. Oscar Contender Leaks (source: Waxy.org) This chart shows that while the number of screener leaks dropped, there was no shortage of pirated alternatives. At the time of writing, “The Father” is the only Oscar contender that hasn’t leaked on pirate sites yet. Screeners Lose Relevance Generally speaking, screeners are only of interest to pirates when there is no high-quality leak available yet. After all, there is no point in taking all that risk when there are already superior releases out there. In fact, that’s usually frowned upon. With the above in mind, it’s easy to see how changes in the movie industry have made screeners less relevant. In recent years we have seen titles from Netflix, Amazon, and other streaming services contend for Oscar awards. You won’t see any screener leaks for these films, as they are available in high quality on pirate sites soon after they are released. Coronavirus This year another factor played a major role as well. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many films had limited theatrical runs and digital releases were brought forward. As a result, high-quality piracy leaks were available sooner than usual. This means that while there are fewer screeners leaks than ever, there’s certainly not less availability on pirate sites. There’s just no point in pirating screeners when there are already ‘better’ leaks out there. Time will tell whether this trend will reverse in the years to come. Warner Bros. already decided to end their experiment with simultaneous HBO Max and cinema releases next year, so that may change things. However, with the growing dominance of streaming services, the screener heydays are unlikely to return. — Note: The foreign film and documentary categories are not included in the screener analysis.
  5. US-based streaming audio service TuneIn has failed in its bid to have a High Court judgment overturned in the UK. The Court of Appeal found in favor of plaintiffs Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, ruling that when TuneIn facilitated access to radio stations unlicensed for use in the UK, the aggregator service breached the labels' copyrights. TuneInIn 2017, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group sued US-based radio aggregator TuneIn for infringing their copyrights in the UK. TuneIn offers some premium streams to customers but describes itself as an “audio guide”, primarily acting as an index of streams offered by third-parties. However, when TuneIn offered links to radio stations unlicensed for transmission in the UK, Warner and Sony believed that amounted to a breach of their rights, when those channels carried their copyrighted content. High Court Finds TuneIn Liable for Copyright Infringement In a 2019 judgment, Judge Birss highlighted the opposing positions of the parties, noting that the plaintiffs believed that ruling in favor of the defendants would “fatally undermine copyright” and TuneIn believing that if the Court ruled in favor of the labels, that would “break the Internet”. The case itself was extremely complex but could be broken down into a handful of basic arguments. The labels argued that in order to facilitate access to channels carrying their copyright works, TuneIn needed a license. TuneIn argued that since it did not store any music and merely provided hyperlinks to content made freely available on the Internet, it did not. Judge Birss found TuneIn’s argument unpersuasive, ruling that TuneIn’s ‘making available’ amounted to a communication to the public. When that communication involved radio stations that are already licensed for use in the UK, TuneIn did not infringe the labels’ rights. However, when TuneIn provided links to unlicensed stations containing the plaintiffs’ works, that amounted to a breach of copyright. Judge Birss ultimately declared TuneIn “liable for infringement by authorization and as a joint tortfeasor.” TuneIn Blocks Non-UK Stations, Files Appeal In December 2019, the High Court allowed both parties to appeal the decision but pending the outcome, TuneIn took action which caused widespread disruption for its UK users. Around September last year, TuneIn began geo-blocking thousands of stations broadcast from outside the UK, whether they infringed the labels’ copyrights or not. Listeners found that using a VPN could restore service but for the majority who chose not to deploy this workaround, access to stations was severely limited. “Due to a court ruling in the United Kingdom, we will be restricting international stations to prohibit their availability in the UK, with limited exceptions. We apologize for the inconvenience,” the company wrote time and again on Twitter in response to complaints. Court of Appeal Upholds High Court Ruling In a judgment handed down Friday, Sir Geoffrey Vos (the second most senior judge in England and Wales), Lady Justice Rose, and Lord Justice Arnold found in favor of the labels by upholding the decision of the High Court. Given the depth and detail of the ruling, the judges could not be accused of being anything less than extremely thorough. For example, the concept of “communication to the public” was examined in the light of 25 previous judgments handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union over the past 14 years, including the GS Media, Filmspeler, Pirate Bay, and Tom Kabinet cases. While the UK left the EU on January 31, 2020, and the transition period ended on December 31, 2020, the Court of Appeal noted that this does not affect “EU-derived domestic legislation” and that remains in effect until it is repealed or amended. The Court also highlighted that 24 of the 25 judgments involve “retained EU case law”, meaning that they continue to form part of domestic law post-Brexit. According to the judgment, TuneIn asked the Court to depart from the decisions of the CJEU on hyperlinking (in respect of an injunction valid from January 1, 2021) but that was rejected. Indeed, the numerous cases revisited, including those listed above, appear to have left TuneIn with little room to counter the judgment of the High Court, with the Court of Appeal rejecting the radio aggregator’s criticism of the judge’s findings. Music Industry Welcomes The Decision “Today’s decision by the Court of Appeal of England and Wales confirms that TuneIn can only operate with appropriate licenses from right holders and therefore cannot continue to blatantly disregard its obligation to ensure that its service is lawful,” a statement from IFPI reads. “This is a big win for those investing in and creating music, reaffirming that services, like TuneIn, which generate revenues by providing online access to recorded music must be licensed to do so. Operating lawfully with an appropriate license is essential if music creators are to be fairly compensated.”
  6. The popular and entirely legal Steam Database has found itself in a precarious position following two erroneous DMCA notices from SEGA. Steam Database's host is being asked to suspend the platform due to a claimed lack of response to the first notice. This prompted the site to take down entirely legal content in an effort to address the problem. SEGAWith millions of visitors every month, Steam Database (SteamDB) has established itself as a formidable resource for gaming fans. The third-party service’s aim is to promote Steam by providing insight into the gaming platform and the masses of data made available via its official APIs. SteamDB’s front page provides data on Steam’s most-played games, displays real-time player stats, plus lists of trending games, popular releases, and other data. The site also embeds direct links for people to buy titles legally. As of yesterday, however, the entire platform was at risk of being taken offline following errors by one of the best-known brands in gaming. SEGA Believes Steam Database is a Pirate Site Yesterday afternoon, SteamDB creator Pavel Djundik took to Twitter with an appeal, asking if someone was able to get in touch with SEGA over a pressing matter. SEGA had apparently identified SteamDB as a pirate site illegally distributing its game Yakuza: Like a Dragon and had issued DMCA notices to have the game taken down. Of course, SteamDB was not hosting or linking to pirate copies of SEGA’s game but the situation was already reaching crisis point. Initial Complaint Sent to Cloudflare To find out more about the situation, TorrentFreak spoke with Djundik who informs us that SEGA sent a copyright complaint to Cloudflare on March 12, 2021, which eventually made its way to SteamDB, via its host, on March 19, 2021. “We replied to the e-mail address that sent it to Cloudflare asking for clarification [..] and explained that SteamDB doesn’t actually sell or provide any game downloads. Apparently they ignored said e-mail because today we got a longer and more serious DMCA notice that went out to our host directly,” Djundik says.
  7. The Russian operator of YouTube-rippers FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com can be sued in the US, a Virginia federal court has ruled. The court denied a motion to dismiss, concluding that fighting the case in Virginia is not an excessive burden for the defendant. The denial is good news for the major record labels, who want the YouTube rippers to be held accountable for copyright infringement. 2convThe major record labels believe that YouTube rippers are the most significant piracy threat on the Internet. These sites, which can be used for a variety of purposes, are used by some to convert free YouTube videos into MP3s. The Legal Battle Thus Far Three years ago a group of prominent music companies took the operator of two of the largest YouTube rippers to court. The labels, including Universal, Warner Bros, and Sony, accused FLVTO.biz and 2conv.com of facilitating copyright infringement. While many foreign site operators choose not to fight back, Kurbanov dug in his heels. With help from a seasoned legal team, he filed a motion to dismiss arguing that US courts don’t have jurisdiction over a Russian site operator who conducts his business outside of the US. Initially, the district court agreed with this defense, dismissing the case. However, the record labels successfully appealed, and after Kurbanov’s petition at the Supreme Court was denied, the case is now back at a Virginia district court. Remaining Question The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit previously determined that Kurbanov purposefully directed activities at Virginia. This means that the district court only has to decide whether it is “constitutionally reasonable” to sue the Russian site operator there. In an order released yesterday, US District Court Judge Claude Hilton concludes that it is indeed reasonable to continue the case in Virginia. As a result, Kurbanov’s motion to dismiss is denied. In his opinion, Judge Hilton considers the burden of litigating a complex lawsuit on foreign soil, agreeing that this burden is indeed great because of the geographic limitations. “Defendant Kurbanov resides in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, more than twenty hours by plane from the Eastern District of Virginia. Defendant does not have a visa to visit the United States, and the nearest U.S. embassy for him to obtain one is a twelve-hour drive from his home,” Judge Hilton writes. Burden is Substantial, Not Unreasonable While the court agrees that the burden is substantial, it’s not necessarily excessive or unreasonable. The extensive litigation history suggests that the operator can still fight the case through his US-based legal team. “Judging from the many filings defense counsel has made in the present case, Defendant appears to maintain satisfactory communication with his counsel. There is nothing to indicate defense counsel could not adequately represent Defendant’s interests in the United States going forward.” Virginia’s Interest In addition, Judge Hilton stresses that Virginia has an interest in resolving this dispute. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that Kurbanov had “plentiful” contracts with the state, noting that his sites collected data from more than 1.5 million visitors in the state. Citing earlier jurisprudence, the court adds that Virginia also has an interest in ensuring that copyright law is properly enforced. “Though the claims at issue in this case do not arise under Virginia law, Virginia maintains ‘an interest in ensuring that the nation’s copyright and trademark laws are not violated within its borders,’ lest the state become a safe haven for intellectual property infringement,” Judge Hilton writes. Motion Denied, But Case Continues Based on these arguments the motion to dismiss is denied. This means that after three years, the case is likely to move ahead on its merits. The ruling is good news for the music companies, who will get their chance to defeat the YouTube rippers in court. However, based on how Kurbanov and his legal team have fought this case thus far, this could prove to be quite a challenge.
  8. In January, Riot Games and Bungie sued the operator of GatorCheats in a US court, claiming that the cheat maker provided copyright-infringing tools designed to disrupt the gaming environments of Valorant and Destiny 2. According to a new filing in the case, the parties have agreed to settle, with GatorCheats required to pay $2 million and abide by the terms of an injunction. Destiny 2Cheating in video games has become big business. Just yesterday, the BBC reported that police in China had busted the “world’s largest” operation of its type, supplying cheats for games including Overwatch and Call of Duty. The operation was called “Chicken Drumstick” and reportedly generated around $76m in subscription revenues. However, there are plenty of similar businesses still in action, with others targeted by videogame makers in various legal actions, sometimes centering on violations of copyright law. In January we reported that a pair of companies behind two of the most popular online multiplayer games had sued a cheat maker in the United States for copyright infringement offenses, among other things. Riot Games and Bungie claimed that through the supply of tools designed to enable cheating in Valorant and Destiny 2, GatorCheats trafficked in malicious software contrary to the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. Lawsuit Alleged Supply of “Malicious Software” Filed in a California district court, the lawsuit targeted Albuquerque, New Mexico resident Cameron Santos, the alleged operator of GatorCheats. It also targeted 10 ‘Doe’ defendants, some of whom (“Hal,” “Matt” and “Megan”) were alleged to have provided customer support to cheat users. Riot and Bungie alleged that while GatorCheats was the largest of Santos’s cheating ventures, others including “Honeyhacks” and “Voidcheaters” were also infringing the gaming companies’ rights. GatorCheats had been served with a cease-and-desist notice by Bungie in November 2020 but the gaming outfit was not convinced that the operation would be shut down. Trafficking in Circumvention Devices, Other Issues According to the complaint, the tools and services offered by Santos were compromised of technologies, products, services, devices and components that were designed to circumvent “technological measures that effectively control access” to the companies’ games. As a result, the defendants were accused of offering to the public, providing, importing, or otherwise trafficking in technology that violates 17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(2), i.e the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA. In addition to the claimed breaches of copyright, Riot and Bungie further alleged that GatorCheats intentionally encouraged its customers to breach the licensing conditions they had agreed with the gaming companies, which disallow modification and cheating. The defendants were also accused of engaging in unfair competition under California law. Case Progresses With Response On March 24, 2021, Santos filed his response to the Riot/Bungie complaint and for the most part, it didn’t provide a particularly useful indication of how the case would progress. In its final paragraphs, the response suggests that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim for which relief may be granted, that any contracts referenced in the complaint are unenforceable, and that Santos is not subject to the personal jurisdiction of the court. Requesting a trial by jury, Santos also stated that the plaintiffs’ claims are barred by the First Amendment and the doctrine of Fair Use. Less than a week later, however, a different picture is emerging, with the parties informing the court that they have agreed to a permanent injunction and the payment of a considerable amount to settle the case. Settlement Including Permanent Injunction The injunction is comprehensive and prevents Santos from taking any steps (including assisting others) to create, distribute, advertise, market or otherwise make available any cheating software listed in the complaint (and any unnamed software), when that breaches the intellectual property rights of Riot and/or Bungie. Santos is not allowed to obtain, possess or access cheating software when it infringes the plaintiffs’ rights, including by circumventing technological measures as prohibited under the DMCA. He is also barred from selling, reselling, or processing payments for cheats, and/or sharing, transferring or distributing cheats to third-parties, when they infringe the plaintiffs’ rights. The defendant is further prohibited from operating or linking to any site providing information to assist others to access or develop cheats, investing in a cheating business, and/or reverse engineering or otherwise manipulating any game owned by the plaintiffs. All social media accounts used to promote cheats must be shut down and all related software destroyed. That leaves the direct financial cost to Santos. “Judgment shall be entered against Defendant in the amount of two million dollars ($2,000,000), due and payable solely pursuant to the terms set forth in the Parties’ Confidential Settlement Agreement and Release,” the joint stipulation reads. The agreement to settle the case is yet to be signed off by the court but given the consent of the parties, that is likely to be a formality in the days to come. The response from Santos and the parties’ joint stipulation can be found here (1,2 pdf)
  9. A group of movie companies is continuing to put pressure on the Popcorn Time app and VPN.ht. After filing a copyright infringement lawsuit earlier this month, they are now asking the court to freeze the VPN provider's PayPal funds. In addition, the movie outfits want the Popcorntime.app domain locked, to prevent it from being transferred. vpn.ht logoA group of movie production outfits, including affiliates of the film studios Millennium Media, Voltage Pictures and CineTel Film, has taken legal action against key piracy players in recent years. The makers of films such as “Hunter Killer,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” and “London Has Fallen,” have gone after individual file-sharers, apps such as Popcorn Time and Showbox, and pirate sites including YTS. VPN.ht and Popcorntime.app Earlier this month, the movie companies expanded their efforts by targeting VPN providers. This includes a lawsuit against VPN.ht, which was sued in tandem with a Popcorn Time app and hosting provider Voxility. VPN providers are generally neutral services that simply route the traffic of their customers. However, according to a complaint filed at a Virginia federal court, VPN.ht went much further than that. The movie companies accuse the service of actively promoting piracy. Thus far, VPN.ht has yet to respond in court and the same is true for the operators of the Popcorn Time app. Amended Complaint The plaintiffs aren’t sitting still though. This week, they filed an amended complaint, naming Mohamed Amine Faouani as the sole operator of VPN.ht parent company ‘Wicked Technology’. The movie companies allege that the VPN previously operated through a Belize company, which was dissolved after it was named in a Canadian Popcorn Time lawsuit. The amended complaint also adds the Hawaiian company 42 Ventures as a plaintiff. This company, which lists attorney Kerry Culpepper as director, owns the Popcorn Time trademark which it previously used to negotiate a settlement with the Popcorntime.app operators. The rightsholders accuse both VPN.ht and Popcorn Time of encouraging and facilitating copyright infringement, as we previously reported in detail here. Interestingly, Voxility is no longer listed as a defendant, but it’s not clear why the company was dropped. Freeze PayPal Funds Shortly after updating the complaint, the rightsholders asked the court for a restraining order to freeze the PayPal funds of VPN.ht’s parent company ‘Wicked Technology’ and prevent the Popcorntime.app domain from being transferred. In their motion, the companies mention that the owner previously dissolved the Belize company after running into legal issues, so they want to make sure that the funds are properly secured. “Without the temporary restraining order requested, Plaintiffs will likely suffer irreparable harm because the Wicked Defendants will transfer the funds from PayPal to a different provider in a foreign jurisdiction,” their motion reads. The movie companies don’t know how much money is in the PayPal account, but they believe that it’s less than the potential damages, which add up to several million dollars. “Although Plaintiffs do not know the balance of the Wicked Defendants’ PayPal accounts, it is likely that the amount of damages to which Plaintiffs are entitled [
] far exceed any amount contained in any of their PayPal accounts.” More Info From PayPal, Cloudflare and GitHub The plaintiffs further request permission to obtain information from PayPal regarding VPN.ht’s transactions. In addition, they want Github and Cloudflare to share any information they have on the anonymous operators of Popcorntime.app. “Plaintiffs respectfully request that the Court grant them permission to conduct limited expedited third-party discovery directed to PayPal, Github and CloudFlare for the purpose of seeking to identify Defendants and the scope of each Defendants’ activities,” they write. The court filings show that the movie companies and Culpepper are maintaining their pressure on the defendants. For now, neither VPN.ht nor Popcorntine.app have responded to the allegations but both remain online. —- A copy of the amended complaint is available here (pdf) and the request for a preliminary injunction and expedited discovery can be found here (pdf)
  10. The Office is one of the most iconic sitcoms and still draws a massive audience, years after the last episode aired. In the US, the series was available through Netflix but that changed on January 1st when it moved to Peacock, which has a much smaller subscriber base. This exodus is clearly visible in the US piracy numbers which more than doubled for a while. the officeThe first episode of the American TV-series The Office premiered more than sixteen years ago. The show is an adaptation of the British original released a few years earlier and both became a massive success with a dedicated cult following. Most Streamed TV-Series in the US This popularity didn’t end when the series stopped. The U.S. version officially ended in 2013 but last year it was still the most-streamed TV-series, with fans consuming more than 57 billion minutes, beating Grey’s Anatomy and The Mandalorian. The popularity was in part due to the fact that it was widely available. The show was part of Netflix’s content library which most people in the US have access to. However, that changed a few weeks ago. Leaving Netflix On January 1st, The Office moved from Netflix to NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which had bought the rights a few years earlier. This was a major disappointment to many fans, especially those who unfortunate enough to have their access cut off mid-season. The solution to this problem is easy. Fans can simply sign up for Peacock to watch The Office there. However, that would mean paying for another subscription service, which is a bridge too far for many. Instead, some people may have simply turned to pirate alternatives. To research whether The Office’s departure indeed has a noticeable effect on the piracy numbers we looked at the estimated downloads through torrent sites before and after January 1st, 2021. While this sample of torrent downloads is just a small part of the piracy ecosystem, which is dominated by streaming nowadays, it’s a good proxy for overall piracy traffic. Piracy Surge The graph below shows the daily number of estimated downloads based on data from Iknow. The blue line tracks the number of downloads from the US, which started to spike about the end of the year, as The Office left Netflix. the office downloads On Saturday, December 26th, there were an estimated 1,439 downloads of the American The Office series, which surged to 4,058 a week later on January 2nd. This increase was exclusive to the US and not visible in India and Brazil, which were second and third in the number of downloads. Absolute download figures can be deceiving, especially during the Holiday season where we often see piracy rise in general around the world. However, if we look at the relative popularity a similar pattern emerges. the office downloads percentage Mid-December, a little over 10% of all The Office downloads came from the United States. This percentage rose to more than 25% in early January and remained relatively high in the days after. Availability, Affordability and Profitability Based on these data it is safe to conclude that the increasingly fragmented streaming landscape directly affects people’s piracy activity. A show such as The Office may be legally available, but not everyone is willing to sign up for yet another subscription. Whether this will ultimately hurt copyright holders is a different question. Exclusive access and expensive licensing deals could bring in more revenue than the potential lost revenue through unauthorized access. In that case, piracy is little more than collateral damage.
  11. In the summer of 2020, a long-running case filed by several movie companies against Swedish ISP Telia was concluded in favor of the rights holders. The result was Sweden's first 'dynamic' blocking injunction against The Pirate Bay and several other platforms. The law firm responsible for that victory has now been handed a prestigious industry award for its efforts. The Pirate BayHaving largely given up on tackling individual file-sharers with direct legal action, the mainstream movie, TV, and music companies have been taking a different approach. The theory is that if pirates can’t easily reach torrent and streaming platforms using their regular Internet connections, then that will eventually result in more sales from legal platforms. Rightsholders try to achieve this goal by taking internet service providers to court and attempting to convince a judge that they should block access to infringing sites to avoid liability. The practice is underway in several regions, including in Europe, where thousands of sites are blocked by ISPs. In Sweden, the first big win came in 2017 when the Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Universal Music, Sony Music, Warner Music, and the Swedish film industry, ordering local ISP Bredbandsbolaget to block access to The Pirate Bay. But of course, this was just the beginning. Legal Action To Force Telia To Block The Pirate Bay In 2018, following legal action by the Swedish Film Industry, Nordisk Film, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, Disney, and Twentieth Century Fox, ISP Telia was ordered to block subscriber access to several ‘pirate’ sites – The Pirate Bay and streaming platforms Fmovies, Dreamfilm and NyaFilmer. The case was struck down on appeal but the matter was far from over. Following a second bite at the cherry, the Patent and Market Court ordered Telia to block access to the four pirate sites. Perhaps more importantly, however, the Court also responded favorably to a call to issue a flexible or ‘dynamic’ injunction. Instead of chasing pirate sites to new domains, proxies, mirrors, and IP addresses, new locations could be added to otherwise static injunctions, without the need for a new process. Telia didn’t like the outcome of that case and filed an appeal, arguing that website blockades are easy to circumvent and therefore ineffective. However, in the summer of 2020 the Court found that blocking efforts are effective enough to deter some people from piracy and any risk of over-blocking (i.e blocking non-infringing sites) is minimal. At that point, Sweden was given it very first dynamic blocking injunction. Law Firm Behind The Win Handed Prestigious Industry Award Earlier this week, Synch – the law firm that fought the case against Telia on behalf of more than a dozen film companies – was recognized by its industry peers for its achievements in Sweden. During a virtual ceremony in London for the Managing IP Awards 2021, the company was handed the Impact Case Award for the most significant case of the year. “In the case, Synch successfully represented a total of 16 Nordic and American film companies/studios against Telia where the court judged that the internet provider has participated in copyright infringement by providing internet connection to its subscribers who gained access to films and TV series that were illegally made available to the public by The Pirate Bay and three other services,” a statement from Synch reads. Synch notes that the Patent and Market Court of Appeal had to weigh the film companies’ interests in preventing copyright infringement against the costs of blocking for Telia, and the freedom of Internet users to freely impart and access information. Ultimately, the Court found that the rights of the film companies come first, partly because of the illegal nature of The Pirate Bay and the named streaming sites. “It’s fun and honoring that Synch won this prestigious award last night,” said lawyer Sara Sparring who together with lawyer My Byström and lawyer Jim Runsten ran the case at Synch. “The case has received a lot of attention because it is the first time in Sweden a court has issued a dynamic injunction.” The rest of this year’s award winners can be found here. Content source: TorrentFreak
  12. OpenTrackr helps millions of people to share files via BitTorrent. The software has been running on an old Dell server but in recent months it's suffered severe bottlenecking. To keep everything running smoothly, OpenTrackr's operator decided to order new gear. Part of the costs are covered by donations and the rest are chalked up as 'hobby expenses.' network connect worldEvery day, millions of people from all around the world use BitTorrent to download and share files. Most of these transfers are facilitated by third-party torrent trackers, which help file-sharers to connect to each other. When someone asks for information referenced by a specific torrent hash, the tracker will respond with a list of peers, if available. This is a pretty straightforward but resource-intensive process. While there are serverless technologies such as DHT and PEX, trackers remain a central part of most people’s torrent transfers. Despite this rather crucial role, the top trackers are mostly run by volunteers and hobbyists. OpenTrackr’s Rise This is also the case for OpenTrackr, which coordinates the transfers of close to 10 million torrents. The tracker’s operator Bart launched Opentrackr in 2015 because there was a lack of reliable alternatives at the time. His goal was to start a content-neutral tracker that would adhere to the law, which turned out to be a great success. At the time of writing, the tracker handles roughly 200,000 connections per second. This adds up to roughly six terabytes of bandwidth every day, which merely comes from passing on requests from file-sharers. The actual files that are transferred never touch the server. Hardware Bottleneck Thus far, OpenTrackr has managed to keep things afloat on an outdated server. The tracker is currently hosted on a 10-year-old Dell R410, which is running two Intel L5640 CPUs with four DDR3-1066 ECC 16GB memory modules. This setup is now experiencing bottlenecks. “The current server is strongly bottlenecked,” Bart tells us, mentioning that both the CPU and memory bandwidth are not cutting it anymore. “We currently use DDR3 ECC memory, ECC memory has bad timings that give it a much lower throughput. This results in the CPU having to wait longer for it to receive data from memory, while it’s already getting overloaded with requests.” In recent months, the urge to update the server became stronger and stronger. While that might be a logical step for a commercial operation, for a ‘hobby’ project it’s a different decision. Nonetheless, Bart decided to take the leap. New Gear After considering various options he settled for an AMD Ryzen 9 Pro 3900 CPU with 2x DDR4-3200 memory. The memory doesn’t support error correction code, but that shouldn’t be a problem. In addition, the new server will use a 10Gbps fibre network card, which will help the tracker to grow in the future. “The parts have been ordered, I hope to have the server ready and active next month if everything goes to plan,” Bart says. Needless to say, this hardware doesn’t come cheap. And while the tracker accepts donations through Patreon, that doesn’t cover all costs. “The new server is partly coming out of my own pockets. I don’t really mind, the tracker has always been a fun project and I’m happy to continue with it for many years. The new server will cost a total of about €1200, the old server should go for at least €150 so it’s costing about €1000 or so,” Bart tells us. Transparency It’s refreshing to see a service at the core of the BitTorrent ecosystem being quite open about its financials. At the moment, OpenTrackr is receiving €61 per month from 15 supporters, which helps to pay the running costs. The transparency doesn’t stop there either. Through Patreon, OpenTrackr regularly shares detailed bandwidth statistics too. And there are financial updates to show where the money is being spent. Even takedown notices are processed in the open. It is safe to say that OpenTrackr has succeeded in its plan to become a stable and content-neutral torrent tracker. The public doesn’t always notice, but it plays a bigger role than most people assume. Content source: TorrentFreak
  13. Hi Folks, IRC Server is up and running. irc.acid-lounge.org.uk port 6667 for non SSL and port 6697 for SSL - Which is preferred
  14. Site is not responding . You may face error
  15. Custom User settings for XXX Content | XXX is hidden by default, follow actions below to re-enable it Published On Mon, Apr 5, 2021 1:09 PM We have added a new feature, which allows every user to choose if XXX content should visible for him or not. This is by default turned off! If you want to enable XXX content, you must enable it, see below. In the upper right corner, click your avatar/profile picture. In the dropdown choose "My Settings". If you scroll down a bit, you will see the option as in the screenshot below.
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