This legislative change is the latest attempt to deter piracy in the European country. The potential fines should make pirates reconsider their habits, the idea goes.

Tracking Down Pirates

Handing out fines may sound like an effective strategy, but catching online pirates isn’t always straightforward. It’s typically not possible to know who is using pirate streaming sites or direct download portals, for example, unless the service in question is compromised.

Tracking BitTorrent pirates is easier. Torrent users broadcast their IP-addresses publicly and this activity can be monitored by outsiders. This is the main reason why pretty much all lawsuits against individual pirates are targeted at BitTorrent users.

The Lithuanian media watchdog is aware of this; the first three fines issued in August targeted BitTorrent users. The more unusual aspect here is that LRTK specifically singled out users of the private torrent tracker Linkomanija.

LinkoManija.net is the largest torrent site in the country and a local legend. The site has been around for more than two decades and continues to thrive. While it’s officially a private community, many locals have access; that includes the media watchdog’s piracy tracking partner.

25 Private Tracker Targets

This week, LRTK announced that it had fined twenty-five additional people who reportedly shared copyright-infringing content via LinkoManija. In all cases the offenders shared pirated versions of films owned by local movie companies.

“LRTK found that audiovisual works protected by copyright – the films “Tu mano Deimantas”, “Hypnotic” and “Paradas” – were illegally reproduced and made public on the linkomanija.net website without copyright consent from their IP addresses,” the watchdog notes.

IP-addresses don’t identify individuals so, technically speaking, the authorities don’t know whether those fined are actual users of the site. The fines simply target the people who are paying for the Internet bills, who are not necessarily the pirates.

The authorities don’t appear to be impacted by these technicalities and issued 140-euro fines to all identified subscribers, which is half of the maximum allowed penalty. If the same ‘people’ continue to pirate, potential fines can reach 850 euros.

Not Done Yet

The latest wave of fines is the largest thus far. Three people were previously penalized in August and eight more followed in September, bringing the total to thirty-six now. These offenders were all linked to the same torrent tracker.

LRTK warns all Lithuanians, and Linkomanija users in particular, that it’s not done yet. The watchdog says that it will continue to use its legal powers to monitor piracy activity and reduce the country’s piracy rate.

The private torrent tracker itself remains online, at least for now. A court previously ordered the country’s largest Internet providers to block the site, but that hasn’t stopped people from finding workarounds to access it.

ISPs in several dozen countries prevent subscribers from accessing a variety of ‘pirate’ sites. While new blocks are added every month, research on the effectiveness of these efforts is rather limited.

Piracy Blocking Research

One of the earliest pieces of academic research, based on UK data, showed that the local Pirate Bay blockade had little effect on legal consumption. Instead, pirates turned to alternative pirate sites, proxies, or VPNs to bypass the virtual restrictions.

A follow-up study added more colour and brought hope for rightsholders. The research showed that once a large number of sites were blocked in the UK, overall pirate site traffic decreased. At the same time, the researchers observed an increase in traffic to legal services such as Netflix.

There have also been several reports suggesting that traffic to domains decreased after blockades were implemented. This seems logical since blocked sites should be harder to reach. However, new research published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) suggests that’s not always true.

WIPO Alert Database

WIPO has an interest in the effectiveness of site blocking as it organizes and maintains the WIPO Alert database. This initiative gathers information on blocked domains in various participating countries, which include Spain, Greece, Italy, Korea, Peru, Lithuania, and Russia.

This online blocking repository can be used by various intermediaries to voluntarily blacklist copyright-infringing websites around the world. Advertising companies, for example, can use it to make sure that their clients’ ads don’t appear on problematic sites.

To gauge the effectiveness of site blocking, WIPO commissioned piracy tracking firm MUSO to compare traffic to pirate site domains, before and after they were blocked. The research was funded by the Republic of Korea, whose data was also part of the study.

New Research Shows Surprising Results

The findings of the study were published by WIPO earlier this month in MUSO’s “Unlicensed Demand Report“. While there are no hard conclusions to draw, there are some intriguing details that are worth highlighting.

For starters, it appears that traffic data on most blocked domains is absent. Of the 6,573 domain names in the WIPO Alert database, MUSO only has usable traffic data on 432 domains. This includes estimated site visits 90 days before a site is blocked and 90 days after.

An analysis of these 432 domains finds that, as one would predict, nearly 73% of all blocked sites saw traffic numbers decrease after the blocking orders were issued. This clearly shows that ordering Internet providers to restrict access to pirate sites works.

“The data shows that a significant proportion of blocked domains received little to no visits after being blocked. Specifically, 15.7% of domains blocked had no visits subsequent to being blocked,” the report reads.

“Furthermore, 41.4% of blocked domains had either 90% of their visits prior to blocking date or no visits at all after being blocked. This could suggest that infringing domain blocking is an effective measure for reducing traffic to piracy domains.”

Traffic Increased for Some

What’s not specifically highlighted, is the fact that more than a quarter of all blocked domains recorded more visits after they were blocked by ISPs. In other words, piracy increased for these sites.

Surprisingly, 56 domain names only received traffic after they were blocked, which is odd, to say the least.

The impact of blocking measures differs greatly from country to country, with some more effective than others. In Italy, for example, all domain names received fewer visits, but with a sample size of one, that doesn’t say much.

Regional Differences

Looking at the countries with a decent sample size, we see that in the Republic of Korea and Russia, roughly 73% of all domains receive less traffic after being blocked. This is comparable to the global average.

Nearly half of all sites blocked in Korea recorded more than 90% of visits before the blocking or simply no visits at all after being blocked.

In Lithuania, on the other hand, traffic to pirate sites mostly remained the same or even increased after blocking orders were issued. As shown below, close to half of the domains recorded the most traffic after being blocked.

The report doesn’t offer any hard conclusions, but MUSO informs TorrentFreak that if these traffic trends say anything about the success of site blocking, Russia and Korea are the most effective.

We also reached out to WIPO to hear their thoughts on the report, but the organization says that it’s still studying the findings internally.

Further Research

Overall, WIPO and MUSO’s work to measure and understand site-blocking efficacy is a positive development. That said, the report also raises some questions. Could it be that external factors partially influenced the results?

For one, MUSO used a fixed blocking date for each country, as provided by WIPO. However, typically, courts allow ISPs to block sites within a given window after an order is released, so it’s possible that some domains were still reachable after the recorded blocking date.

This delay would explain why people continue to visit the sites, and traffic might have even increased if these blocking orders hit the local news.

In addition, it would be helpful to have a larger domain sample for future research. In the current report, over 93% of all domains were discarded because they weren’t included in MUSO’s data source, or because there simply wasn’t sufficient traffic data.

Another day, another report from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment announcing the demise of yet another large piracy site, spanning several domains.

On this occasion the main target was WatchWrestling.ai, a site that until recently specialized in wrestling events by leading promotions including WWE, AEW, Impact, ROH and NJPW. These shows are extremely popular and traffic figures cited by ACE back that up, and then some.

“Over the past year, watchwrestling.ai and its associated domains have reached more than 253 million visits. Most of the traffic originated from the United States, the United Kingdom, India, and Canada,” the anti-piracy coalition reports.

ACE/DAZN Tag Team

ACE says that it worked closely with DAZN to take down WatchWrestling. DAZN is already a member of ACE but given the streaming service’s interests in the Impact promotion, it’s possible that specialist knowledge came into play.

ACE said it identified and then confronted the site’s owner in Uttar Pradesh, a state in northern India. This so-called ‘knock-and-talk’ approach has been successfully deployed many times over the past several years and DAZN seems happy with the results here.

“DAZN has invested significant amounts in building a successful business around combat sports, helping fund the development of MMA and boxing, as well as providing the best quality content and service for fans,” says Ed McCarthy, Chief Operating Office of DAZN Group.

“To continue to invest, DAZN has to be able to protect its intellectual property. The enforcement work ACE undertakes, as part of its joint Sports Piracy Task Force initiative, is a critical element of this work.”

A Closer Look at WatchWrestling

As mentioned earlier, WatchWrestling.ai appears to have been the priority target but as an individual domain it can’t account for 253 million annual visits. In July the domain received around 8.7m visits according to SimilarWeb data, but in August appeared to lose considerable traffic, with just 7.8m visits reported.

After losing another two million monthly visits in September, ACE turning up in India obviously had a negative impact. So, for the sake of building up a picture, we’ll assume an average of 9 million visits per month over the last year, giving us a total of 108 million annual visits for the .ai domain. That leaves us with just 145 million visits still to find.

WatchWrestling.ai (before domain was redirected to ACE

The domain WatchWrestling.in didn’t put up any kind of a fight. Using the same Google Analytics tag as the .ai domain made it extremely easy to find, but with just 289,000 visits in July (roughly 3.5 million pa), 140 million visits still need to be accounted for.

With around 462K visits per month, in theory WatchWrestling.gg provides a welcome five million or so visits per year. Unfortunately historical traffic data is thin, but since the domain has an official redirect to ACE, we’ll count its traffic anyway, before anyone notices.

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WatchWestling.gg lacks colour in caches (left) but ACE fixed that (right)

140 Million Annual Visits….For Someone Else to Find

With ACE sometimes reluctant to provide the full picture for operational and other reasons, digging below the surface for additional information is simply routine. Here we ran into multiple issues.

A domain linked with India is currently redirecting to ACE. It used to be a movie and TV show streaming site but right now its many sub-domain redirections are proving an irritant, and may not even be part of the equation.

And then there are the look-a-likes, clones, and other variants that look like WatchWrestling, many with similar domains, that either carry exactly the same or substantially the same content. It may transpire that some of these are destined to be handed over to ACE, the truth is we just don’t know.

Cut-and-paste, internet litter

At times like these, the scale of the task ahead for groups like ACE comes fully into perspective. Still, taking 250+ million annual visits out of the market is still a massive achievement.

Not quite on the level of events back in nineteen ninety eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

At a time when an older generation of file hoarders were still coming to terms with the disappearance of BBS-based communities, new friendships were being built in support of the next big thing.

Peer-to-peer technologies such as Napster, Gnutella, FastTrack, and BitTorrent, revolutionized file-sharing but without the support of dozens of thriving forum-based communities, where people shared P2P tutorials, tips, news, and each other’s company, things may have gone quite differently.

Still, having served their purpose, many forums found themselves deserted too, their members lured away by the temptations of social media. Others were just getting started.

19+ Years Ago, FileWarez Was Born

As far as we know, Brazil-based file-sharing forum FileWarez.com first appeared in August 2004, its domain name having been registered the previous month. The default language was naturally Portuguese and according to this image from the Wayback Machine, potential members needed a basic grip of the language to sign up. After all, Google Translate wouldn’t exist for another two years.

At some point in the years that followed, FileWarez shifted to a Netherlands .NL domain supported by filewarez.no-ip.biz, which may suggest a site regularly on the move. In 2008, unspecified problems saw the .NL domain dumped in favor of a new one.

Riding out problems, various issues, and bouts of downtime, FileWarez.tv stayed in place for the next 15.5 years. Then two weeks ago, after establishing itself as Brazil’s oldest file-sharing forum, FileWarez suddenly vanished.

Left in the Dark

When the main forum went down, other discussion platforms linked to FileWarez went down too. With its Discord and Telegram channels consigned to history, coupled with earlier news of a staff member passing away, not even the site’s moderators were able to provide solid information.

On Facebook, however, a post indicated that the site had been taken down by its operator. Sooner or later, the post predicted, the site would be targeted by law enforcement so in anticipation, all site data had already been deleted, to protect staff and users.

“Thank you very much for all these years of sharing, a big hug and may this message find you well.”

IFPI Announces Demise of FileWarez

In a press release Wednesday, global music industry group IFPI announced that “prominent illegal file-sharing forum, FileWarez,” was shut down following co-ordinated action by record companies, anti-piracy body APDIF, and local cybercrime unit, Cyber Gaeco.

“IFPI, the organization that represents the recorded music industry worldwide, alongside its Brazilian national group Pro-Musica, have welcomed the successful action against FileWarez.tv – one of the most prominent illegal file sharing sites in Brazil – by the Brazilian special cybercrime unit of prosecutor’s office of São Paulo, Cyber Gaeco,” the announcement reads.

“FileWarez was the most established illegal filesharing forum in Brazil, dedicated to sharing illegal music content. While active, the site had more than 118,000 registered users with at least 24,000 monthly active users.”

Celebrations and Disappointment

“We congratulate Cyber Gaeco on their action,” added Melissa Morgia, IFPI’s Director of Global Content Protection and Enforcement.

“The site operated with no regard for the rights of music creators and has undermined the legal marketplace in Brazil. This is an important action in the continuing fight against piracy in the country.”

For former members with fond memories, both the community and what the site offered will be sorely missed.

“I joined FW in mid-2013, I couldn’t believe it when I saw the organization, the care and especially the safety. Something truly done by the community for the community,” a former member wrote on Reddit.

“Being able to consume films, series, games and software that I could not afford to access at the time through official means in such a simple and safe way was magical. I fell in love with [FileWarez] from the first access. If it’s gone for good, it will be greatly missed, I hope not, but still, thank you very much for everything FileWarez and your amazing community!”

Replacements or Opportunists?

Links to alleged FileWarez clones and similar replacements present a dilemma for former users, especially those who can’t accept it’s all over. The temptation to check out similar-sounding domains might be strong, those listed below, for example.

Demonstrating perfectly that anyone can buy a lookalike domain, all of the above were registered on October 17 by APDIF, one of the anti-piracy groups responsible for taking FileWarez down.

It could’ve been worse.

Simply responding to takedown notices isn’t sufficient for all rightsholders, some of which mentioned Meta’s companies as potential “notorious markets” in recent recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR).

Meta Rebuts Notorious Markets Claims

Meta is not happy with this and this week the company responded with a rebuttal. For starters, it points out that the USTR’s Special 301 process is intended to map foreign copyright threats, not domestic ones. That would mean that as an American corporation, Meta has no place in the review.

Zuckerberg’s company writes that it fully supports the USTR’s Notorious Markets List as a means to flag global piracy and counterfeiting threats, but expanding it to domestic companies goes beyond its scope.

“(i)f the Notorious Markets List is to continue to advance U.S. trade interests internationally, it needs to remain focused on the underlying purpose of the Special 301 program: the identification of foreign countries and foreign markets that engage in or facilitate piracy and counterfeiting.”

Notorious?

Many Anti-Piracy Tools

Meta doesn’t stop there. It continues the rebuttal by outlining the wide variety of anti-piracy and counterfeiting measures it has implemented over the years.

Both Instagram and Facebook have anti-piracy tools that go far beyond the basic notice and takedown procedures required by law. This includes automated content recognition technology, for example, as well as an elaborate Intellectual Property Reporting API.

Instagram also blocks hashtags linked to potentially problematic content. For example, the #Z-Library hashtag doesn’t seem to exist, and tagging posts with #IPTV doesn’t lead anywhere either.

According to Meta, these types of interventions are meant to reduce the discoverability of potential copyright-infringing content. In the case of the hashtag blocks, it also allows Instagram to automatically disable accounts that repeatedly use these forbidden words.

Anti-Piracy Popup

Meta’s rebuttal mentions that it recently added a new ‘intervention’ technique to its arsenal. To reduce piracy and counterfeiting, both Instagram and Facebook now show popups to users who search for controversial terms.

It’s unclear how many problematic terms Meta identified, but “luxury replica” and “IPTV” are explicitly mentioned.

“Now, when users enter certain counterfeit- and piracy-related terms […] into the search bar on Facebook or Instagram, they are directed to a pop-up that explains Meta’s policy against IP infringement and offered a link to Meta’s IP Help Center to learn more,” Meta writes.

You Sure?

Facebook and Instagram users can still reach the search results if they want, but Meta believes that this nudge will help to educate users where needed.

“Only after users see this pop-up can they click through to see the results of their search. By adding this layer of friction, we are able to reduce users’ engagement with potential counterfeit and pirated content – all while providing further education and transparency,” Meta clarifies.

Just how effective these and other tools are is unknown. Meta probably collects data on how people interact with these roadblocks so it would be great – from a transparency perspective – to learn what the click-through rate is.

All in all, Meta believes that all the efforts it takes to combat piracy, should make it clear that their platforms should not be labeled as ‘notorious piracy markets’, even if they were foreign services.

—

A copy of Meta’s full rebuttal, which it sent to the USTR a few days ago, is available here (pdf)

Downloading content without permission is copyright infringement. These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

This week we have one newcomer on the list. “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” is the most downloaded title.

The most torrented movies for the week ending on October 23 are:

Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists.

The all-round pirate IPTV ‘product’ widely available today was relatively unknown just a decade ago. When acceptable quality, capacity, presentation, and availability collided, mainstream awareness was just a question of time.

The suggestion that broadcasters were taken by complete surprise underestimates their market awareness, but whether most expected the initial hors d’oeuvre to be immediately followed by a perpetual all-you-can eat TV banquet, seems at least somewhat improbable. The growing enforcement response seen today, on the other hand, was always inevitable.

Cross-Border Investigation

News this week of a major operation against a pirate IPTV network in Austria follows an increasingly familiar pattern; an initial rightsholder complaint to authorities followed by a significant law enforcement response.

During a media event at the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt) it was revealed that the investigation began in 2022 when a “large pay-TV company” filed a criminal copyright complaint. No specifics, but mentions of Sky and DAZN content suggest the general direction.

Inquiries in Germany led investigators to Austria and the Wiener Neustadt public prosecutor’s office, which in turn requested legal assistance from the Federal Criminal Police Office. A team of IT forensic experts went on to identify a large network of suspects operating in Austria.

Massive Operation in Austria

What followed were two large-scale raids, one in the spring of 2023 and a second during late summer. A team of 40 investigators targeted addresses in the Vienna, Lower Austria (Niederösterreich), Tirol, Vorarlberg, and Salzburg regions.

A total of 20 suspects were arrested during the raids. While all lived in Germany or Austria, the suspects and others in the wider network are said to be Turkish citizens. Aged between 23 and 35, the suspects are described as having computer science skills.

The authorities also seized €1.6 million, 60 bank accounts, and an Audi A7.

The ‘Big Money’ Business Model

At the top of the network, investigators say the IPTV business was lucrative. In the opinion of Gabriel K. and his colleagues, the main suspects generated profits in excess of €11 million over a three-year period, funds allegedly invested in real estate and various companies. Supporting figures released this week related to the operation’s sales structure make it difficult to assess whether the huge headline profit claim is reasonable.

The authorities claim that the IPTV service was advertised on TikTok, Facebook and similar platforms, but the parties responsible for that aren’t mentioned. It’s further claimed that some customers were recruited as subscription resellers. By whom is unclear and without that information, it’s impossible to say whether those sales add to the subscriptions already sold to existing resellers, or form part of subscriptions already sold.

Gabriel K. reportedly confirmed the existence of 15 known resellers in Austria, servicing between 300 and up to 2,500 customers each. The customer range here is too broad to draw any sensible conclusions on profit or revenue.

At one extreme this could mean a single reseller turning over €25,000 per month, based on 2,500 customers paying €10 each (estimates actually indicate around €8.50pm), thereby generating annual turnover of €300,000. At the other extreme, one reseller with 300 customers might turn over €3,000 per month, while generating an annual turnover of €36,000.

Multiplied out over all 15 resellers, overall annual turnover for the resellers identified thus far could be close to €4.5m or as low as €0.5m. Once the resellers’ sales margin is removed from the equation, revenue returned to the ringleaders may reduce these amounts by up to a third, give or take, and that’s before factoring in operational costs.

“Decrypting TV Signals” Since 2016

Investigators say that the men are suspected of decrypting TV signals since 2016.

“The signal is decrypted once and can then be passed on infinitely,” said chief investigator ‘Gabriel K.’ as reported by local media.

While it’s clear someone must’ve decrypted official TV channels at some point, the information currently available makes no mention of any hardware capable of that being seized by the police. A total of 55 “electronic data carriers” are mentioned (storage devices presumably) but nothing beyond that.

That raises the question of whether illicit streams were created by the ringleaders, or simply purchased to sell on. Several local reports say that the ringleaders are suspected of decrypting official TV signals but then go on to suggest the streams were supplied by others.

While these details are important, none really detract from the scale of the alleged offending and the charges of commercial fraud, money laundering and copyright infringement (criminal, presumably) said to await the defendants at trial. Potential prison sentences of up to 10 years in Austria only add to a civil case reportedly pending in Germany, which in itself could prove extremely punishing.

After seven months in custody, the suspects reportedly decided to confess and have been freed to await trial.

Launched by South Korean tech giant Naver Corporation in 2004, Webtoon gained popularity as a hosting platform for a specific type of short-form digital comic, known locally as ‘webtoons’

Almost two decades later, Webtoon Entertainment has over 85 million active users per month across more than 100 countries. In the United States, where the company now boasts 12.5 million active users, Webtoon seems destined for a public listing, potentially as soon as 2024 according to information shared by Naver during a recent earnings call.

In an August interview with Reuters, Webtoon Entertainment founder and CEO Kim Junkoo was certainly bullish on the company’s future. Rivals moving in on the short-form comic market, which include both Amazon and Apple, will struggle to build a viable business, Kim predicted.

Competitors Face Uphill Struggle

“To build a (webtoon) store, you need knowledge about serial services, user targeting, a fitting business model, educating users,” Kim told Reuters. “This takes time. But even if you put in time, you can’t recreate the creator economy we’ve built.”

Webtoon believes its artists and depth of content libraries will present significant challenges for potential Silicon Valley competitors. “If big tech is serious about this IP-creating business, they’d have to buy us out,” the company’s CEO explained.

Of course, online competition can take many forms. Unconventional market participants that have no interest in acquisition, respond differently to traditional market forces. As such, they present novel challenges that require a specialist approach.

Webtoon fully understands what it’s up against and is already considering a response. The sheer scale of the initial groundwork appears unprecedented.

The Calm Before the Storm

On an unspecified date in August 2023, in its capacity as agent for Webtoon Entertainment Inc., Texas-based anti-piracy company Remove Your Media, LLC, sent a complaint to CDN company Cloudflare.

DMCA notices can be unremarkable but here the undated document stands out as unusual. It begins with a “representative list” of copyrighted works owned by Webtoon, titles such as How To Tame My Beastly Husband, I Raised The Beast Well, Jungle Juice, and I’m Not That Kind Of Talent. However, it’s the overall number of allegedly infringed works that really catches the eye.

According to Remove Your Media, these titles and around 80 others like them were being made available for download by pirate sites, all of them utilizing Cloudflare’s services.

“The works primarily consist of animated motion pictures and digital comics published by WEBTOON,” Cloudflare was advised. “Please act expeditiously to remove or disable access to the infringing material.”

Some URLs remain, some have disappeared

Each block in the image above represents one of the 390+ URLs listed in the Webtoon infringement notice. The blank spaces indicate URLs that no longer exist at the time of writing, wouldn’t load for unspecified reasons, or in some cases link to sites that appear to have shifted to new or alternative domains. The majority of those containing an image remain online; the question is for how long.

A Silent Trip to Texas

Over a decade ago, then-junior attorney Evan Stone made headlines when he used four-letter expletives to slam ISPs and the adult industry, while revealing his personal vendetta against pirates, or “smarmy entitled little brats” to use the attorney’s terminology.

While much has changed since then, the appearance of Stone’s name on a declaration in support of DMCA subpoena application filed at a district court in Texas, shows that his pirate-fighting days are not yet over.

With Stone representing Remove Your Media, and both acting as agents of Webtoon Entertainment, the DMCA subpoena application filed in August but only now being reported, is a strong indication that reducing illicit competition is a priority matter for the webtoon company.

Webtoon Demands Identities of Hundreds of Pirate Site Operators

The primary purpose of a DMCA subpoena is to compel a service provider, in this case Cloudflare, to hand over the personal details of an alleged infringer to allow copyright holders to enforce their rights. Here, the application demands the following:

Identifying information, including name, e-mail address, physical address, billing information and any other relevant contact information for the alleged infringer(s) who control the sites at the domains listed in Exhibit A, or control the domains themselves.

What separates this application from most is the scale of the request and the sheer volume of site operators that face being caught up in the dragnet. It’s inevitable that some domains in the list will share the same owner but over 350 domains in a single subpoena is still unprecedented, and would remain so even if reduced by half.

Just a tiny sample

Strictly there’s no requirement for the clerk of the court to conduct a detailed examination of a DMCA application before issuing the stamp of approval. Given that the application was filed August 22, marked as terminated on August 22, and then issued two days later on August 24, it seems likely that no further examination took place.

The list of domains targeted in the subpoena, for which Cloudflare was required to hand over full operator details, is available below. What happens next is almost entirely down to the quality of information handed over by Cloudflare before the deadline expired on October 5. It’s likely that the information received is already undergoing evaluation.

Webtoon’s overall goal likely entails the removal of illicit competition from the market but the means remain unknown. In practical terms, not even the largest corporate entertainment giants see value in mass litigation. Even if Webtoon decided otherwise, balancing the books to make the exercise worthwhile would be complex and unpredictable at best; messy, unproductive, even counterproductive at worst.

Threats of possible litigation to encourage settlements may be considered a viable option, at least if any of the operators left any usable identifying information in Cloudflare’s hands, which most try to avoid.

______

The individual domains listed in the subpoena are shown below to illustrate scale. Due to the potential for errors following OCR and the extraction of domains from the full-content URLs in the subpoena, the list is not definitive. The DMCA takedown notice sent to Cloudflare, which contains full unedited URLs, is available here (pdf)

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While the continued proliferation of cheap albeit illegal pirate IPTV subscriptions is a problem for Sky, the broadcaster’s engagement with governments suggests that allocation of public crime-fighting resources would make things more manageable.

A public/private partnership featuring Sky and police forces across England has seen significant resources deployed to tackle various players in the IPTV ecosystem. Sky provides police forces with leads and supporting evidence and, if all goes to plan, suspects are arrested and processed through the criminal legal system.

Arrests like these are often publicized by the police, which adds weight to Sky’s public messaging; the ‘BeStreamWise’ campaign currently seen on billboards in Ireland is a current example.

Billboard photographed in Ireland by a Reddit user

A report published yesterday by Irish Independent (paywall) suggests that after persuading authorities in England to allocate law enforcement resources, Sky would ideally like the Irish government to follow suit.

Sky Ireland Chief Executive Officer Met With Enterprise Minister

The Irish Independent’s report cites correspondence revealing a meeting last May between Sky Ireland Chief Executive Officer JD Buckley and Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney.

Alongside trading issues related to Brexit and EU law, Sky reportedly asked the government to set up a “dedicated anti-piracy garda unit” (a reference to Ireland’s National Police and Security Service) to tackle the illicit pirate IPTV subscription/device market, colloquially known as “dodgy boxes.”

Who requested the meeting and where it was held are details absent from the report. However, public records reveal that Minister Coveney traveled to Sky’s offices five months ago where he had a meeting with Mr Buckley and Stephen van Rooyen, Chief Executive Officer Sky UK and Ireland and Group Chief Commercial Officer.

A public post on LinkedIn thanks Minister Coveney for visiting Sky’s office where “a number of Sky priorities for the year ahead” were discussed.

Sky Followed-Up on Piracy Discussion

How the Independent was able to review the correspondence isn’t clear, but the proposals themselves are presented in considerable detail. It appears that Sky wants to tackle IPTV subscription resellers; in other words, the people most often in direct contact with the public.

“There are dozens of such resellers across Ireland and it is these cases we really want to focus on, as taking out these significant suppliers will cause significant disruption and highlight to end-users the risks and illegality of piracy,” Mr Buckley said.

“I would appreciate if you could speak to your cabinet colleague in the Department of Justice to see if resourcing of this area is possible. We at Sky are of course available to discuss how we can support this objective.”

The Department of Justice said it had “no engagement” on the matters raised by Sky, the Independent reports, and the deployment of garda resources was a matter for Garda Commissioner Drew Harris. For unconnected reasons, Harris currently has other things on his mind.

An RTE report published yesterday revealed that an increasing number of gardaí are resigning from the job because of “low morale, bullying and unfair treatment, and work-related stress.” RTE reports that so far this year, 106 gardaí have left their jobs, a figure that matches departures for the whole of 2022.

Garda Siochäna Already Works With Industry

In a statement the Garda Síochána, Ireland’s national police and security service, said that it already works with industry and service providers to tackle illicit streaming, noting that money-laundering offenses and the freezing of accounts form part of their work.

Back in March, for example, warnings were issued to people suspected of providing access to illicit streams in the counties of Mayo, Limerick, Meath, Offaly, Dublin, Wexford, Cork, Wicklow, Tipperary, Kilkenny, Kildare, and Donegal.

This operation also appears to have focused on IPTV subscription resellers so, at least at face value, Sky appears to be seeking law enforcement resources to do more of the same.

Resellers are an important part of the pirate IPTV ecosystem. They supply large numbers of subscriptions to the public and in some cases to lower-tier resellers. More often than not, however, they are at least one and potentially many more steps away from those actually providing the streams. In layman’s terms, this strategy targets the ‘warehouses’ to prevent supplies from reaching the ‘retail’ end of the market, but in itself does little to halt the supply of streams.

That being said, resellers may also possess a different type of ‘intellectual property’ considered particularly useful to rightsholders. And who better to extract that proprietary information than those with the power of arrest, directly supported by those ultimately pulling the strings.

Early October the Motion Picture Association (MPA) submitted its latest overview of ‘notorious’ piracy platforms to the US Trade Representative.

In common with submissions filed in previous years, the MPA mentioned many well-known consumer-facing platforms in the web, IPTV, torrent, and direct download categories. More recently, however, Hollywood’s complaints have expanded to encompass the platforms upon which pirate services rely to remain online.

As a result, hosting providers, advertising services, and domain name registries considered especially problematic now receive prominent mentions. It’s a trend currently mirrored in reports filed by other rightsholder groups.

Submissions by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), International Broadcaster Coalition Against Piracy (IBCAP), and the Premier League list many services as problematic. Those shortlisted below appear to be the most egregious of all.

Private Layer (AS 51852) has been appearing in rightsholder piracy reports for close to a decade and takes the top spot in the AAPA’s report. The main complaint is that despite being sent thousands of DMCA notices, the hosting provider “refuses to respond” or “cooperate” with AAPA’s members. They describe the platform as an “offshore” or “bullet-proof” host, with a complex corporate structure typical of the market.

Squitter (AS213371) is described using similar terms; a bullet-proof host that could be based almost anywhere. In 2022, the MPA suggested links to Belize and here the AAPA agrees, while adding the Netherlands, Canada, Russia, and India.

Squitter is also known as ABC Consultancy, which the Premier League highlights as a complicating factor, but whatever the service is called, problems are widespread. IBCAP’s report also calls out Squitter after monitoring identified 54,700 pirate streams providing the fuel for web-based pirate streaming sites.

In summary, IBCAP’s takedown notices are ignored, AAPA’s are ignored, and the Premier League – which identified 77,000 illegal match streams in 2022/23 and sent a corresponding number of takedown notices – receives identical treatment.

HostPalace receives nominations from both the AAPA and Premier League. The part of the company causing headaches for AAPA claims to be based in the Netherlands but provides two addresses in India. Members claim that HostPalace hosts many online piracy services but has failed to show any sign of cooperation after receiving thousands of DMCA notices.

The Premier League’s complaints relate to HostPalace’s claimed base in the UK where 3,000 illegal match streams were detected in the 2022/23 season and almost 2,000 in the 2023/24 season thus far. Wherever it’s located, the service reportedly ignores takedown notices.

ISTQ servers (Istqrar for Servers Services Ltd) receives nominations from AAPA, IBCAP and Premier League, all of which have information to suggest that the company is based in Amman, Jordan. The bottom line is takedown notices being ignored right across the board; IBCAP says it’s generally required to send screenshots of infringing streams, which it does, and then the company ignores them anyway.

Amarutu Technology Ltd was placed on the ‘notorious markets’ list in 2022, and after being nominated by AAPA, IBCAP and Premier League this year, it’s unlikely to be removed anytime soon.

Also known as KoDDos, Amarutu gives the impression it’s based in the Netherlands according to most of the rightsholders, but according to IBCAP the “offshore” company has a base in Hong Kong. Other locations linked to the company include the Seychelles and the United States, with AAPA finding the geographical diversity typical of a “bullet-proof” hosting company.

Virtual Systems LLC appears on the submissions of AAPA and IBCAP, both in connection with infringing IPTV services. AAPA believes the company operates from Ukraine and together with IBCAP, cites text from the Virtual Systems website which notes the country’s “relatively lax content policies.”

In common with all services listed above, AAPA and IBCAP report that Virtual Systems routinely ignores all DMCA notices.

Notorious Overseas Markets Wildcard Slot

Finally, the AAPA’s nominations – for the USTR’s list of notorious overseas markets – conclude with United States-based CDN company, Cloudflare.

“While not strictly a hosting provider, AAPA members also report Cloudflare as a very significant player in the ecosystem for online piracy,” the entry reads.

“Cloudflare is a very large intermediary providing services which include DDoS protection, Content Delivery Network (CDN), and Domain Name Servers. As part of these services users also benefit from a level of anonymity as the source IP passing through Cloudflare’s infrastructure is obfuscated.

“Although Cloudflare provides a process that allows the submission of a DMCA notice to the company hosting the source IP, AAPA members report that it is opaque and inadequate given the volume of infringing content passing through its network every week. These significant levels of infringing content are also aided by Cloudflare’s poor Know Your Customer policies and poor implementation of a repeat infringer policy.”

Membership lists of both AAPA and IBCAP are detailed below, along with links to the referenced submissions

AAPA members include: Altice France, beIN Media Group, Canal+, Cosmote TV, CryptoGuard, Cyta, DAZN, DFL, Friend MTS, Irdeto, LeakID, LFP, Liberty Global, Nagra Kudelski, NOS, OPSEC, Premier League, Sky, Synamedia, United Media, Verimatrix, Viaccess Orca, Viaplay Group, Vodafone Ziggo, Wiley

IBCAP members include: BBC Studios, The E.W. Scripps Company, MSM Asia Limited, IndiaCast US Ltd, MBC FZ, International Media Distribution (Luxembourg), TV5 USA, Globo Comunicação e Participações, beIN Media Group, Times Internet (UK), DISH Network

Submissions: AAPA (pdf), IBCAP (pdf), Premier League (pdf)

The piracy group repeatedly opened “screener season” by releasing leaked copies of upcoming films. These included Oscar contenders, but also several Netflix titles that originated from festival screenings.

EVO was also the first to release an early Blu-ray copy of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ last year, and a high-quality copy of the blockbuster “Dune” in 2021, ahead of its official U.S. premiere.

EVO Busted

When pirates were eagerly awaiting freshly-leaked movie screeners last fall, none arrived. This was unusual in its own right and when EVO suddenly stopped publishing new content of any kind, it was clear that something was up.

From the get-go, there were rumors that the notorious group had been busted. These suspicions were eventually confirmed in March this year and, a month later, Portuguese police shared additional details on the crackdown which the authorities dubbed “Operation EVO 1.2”.

The enforcement action against EVO targeted piracy at the source. This impacted the availability of content on thousands of pirate sites which, in turn, serve many millions of users. For this reason, it’s not surprising that the EVO bust was prominently mentioned at the International IP Crime Conference in Oslo earlier this month.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) highlighted the importance of the action, describing EVO as one of the “most active pirate groups in the world” and a major threat to the industry.

ACE Awards Law Enforcers

To commemorate the achievement, ACE boss Jan Van Voorn handed awards to two units with central roles in the enforcement effort. The awards were presented on behalf of ACE members, which include the major Hollywood studios, Amazon, Netflix, and various other movie industry players.

The first recipient was the dedicated cybercrime unit of the Polícia Judiciária in Portugal (UNC3T), which handled a large part of the operation, including investigative work, house searches, and the arrest of EVO’s suspected leader.

The second award was handed to INTERPOL’s Illicit Markets Sub-directorate, which consists of the IP Crime and Digital Piracy unit, and the Public Health and Pharmaceutical Crime unit. This group is closely involved in INTERPOL’s Stop Online Piracy project (I-SOP).

On INTERPOL’s side, the EVO takedown was handled under the I-SOP project and, among other things, the international police organization helped to investigate the items that the Portuguese police collected during their raids.

“I-SOP deployed an officer to carry out analysis of the seized devices and provide a comprehensive report to authorities. Support will continue as the wider investigation progresses,” INTERPOL previously explained, while sharing the photo below.

Interpol Inspecting Seized Items

Prosecution Pending

The awards were handed out while the prosecution of the alleged EVO leader is still ongoing. ACE informs TorrentFreak that it continues to work on the case with INTERPOL, Portuguese police, as well as the local prosecutor’s office.

There is little doubt that last year’s action had a broad impact. For one, there weren’t any notable screener releases last year, which hasn’t happened since online piracy hit the mainstream two decades ago.

It’s possible that other groups and their sources were spooked by the enforcement action against EVO. While new screener leaks may eventually appear again, the stakes are clear, if they weren’t already.

The DMCA takedown process gives copyright holders the option to remove infringing content from the web.

It’s a powerful, widely-used tool that takes millions of URLs and links offline every day. This often happens for a good reason, but some takedown efforts are questionable.

Takedown Abuse

Shopify was targeted by a series of problematic DMCA requests earlier this month. The e-commerce platform typically receives thousands of takedown notices per month from rightsholders, which are in part processed automatically. That works well in most instances, but not always.

Starting on October 5, an unknown person created the account “Sacha Go” which was subsequently used to file dozens of DMCA takedown requests. The notices targeted listings on a variety of shops selling perfume products, claiming that they infringe copyright.

After being alerted by one of the targeted merchants Shopify looked into the matter, concluding that all takedowns were false. Instead of containing legitimate claims the DMCA notices were being used to harass Shopify and its merchants.

Shopify Files Lawsuit

The account information provided by “Sacha Go” turned out to be false. To stop this activity and any related to future accounts the defendant may create, Shopify filed a complaint alleging DMCA violations at a federal court in New York.

“Defendant Doe has sent Shopify dozens of DMCA takedown notices littered with misrepresentations, claiming that materials Shopify merchants have posted to their online stores supposedly infringe Doe’s copyrights. But Doe does not actually own any of the copyrights to which he claims ownership in these notices,” Shopify writes.

Shopify says that it’s not feasible for the company to investigate the validity of all takedown notices in detail. As such, these false claims resulted in actual removals and the affected stores also received strikes on their accounts.

Merchants at Risk

The strikes will be removed if the merchant files a successful counternotice, but those can take up to two weeks to process. Also, those who are not aware of their right to appeal risk losing their accounts.

“[F]or unsuspecting merchants who may be unfamiliar with the DMCA, a sudden onslaught of takedown notices can result in the termination of their entire store under Shopify’s repeat infringer policy,” Shopify explains.

The defendant stands accused of sending more than 70 fraudulent takedown notices from October 5 to October 13, targeting at least twenty perfume shops with bogus copyright claims. These false claims resulted in 52 strikes against various stores.

Shopify Seeks Damages and an Injunction

On October 12, Shopify launched an investigation and the company ultimately restored all items and removed all strikes, but that came at significant cost.

“Those efforts cost Shopify tens of thousands of dollars in personnel time and resources. The loss of goodwill that Shopify suffered from penalizing innocent merchants cannot be quantified,” the company explains.

The defendant’s motivations are currently unknown, but it’s certainly possible that they run a competing perfume store. If that’s the case, these takedown notices were likely intended to harm competitors.

Through discovery, Shopify hopes to identify the John Doe and hold them responsible for the recent wave of DMCA abuse. In addition to requesting damages, Shopify also seeks an injunction to prevent more false DMCA notices going forward.

—

A copy of Shopify’s complaint, filed at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York is available here (pdf)

In response to constant claims by Italy’s multi-billion euro football and broadcasting sectors, that pirate IPTV services were “killing football” and there was no time to waste, this summer Italian lawmakers delivered.

Mandatory ISP blockades, set to take pirate streams offline within 30 minutes, were just one part of an overall package designed to turn the tables on piracy services and, if necessary, punish the Italian citizens who subscribe to them.

After being passed mid-July, the legislation received telecoms regulator AGCOM’s approval just two weeks later. On August 8, 2023, the new law went live.

The new ‘Piracy Shield‘ blocking system did not; according to the authorities, it simply wasn’t ready. The system didn’t go live in September either and thus far there’s been no sign of it in October, or any updates indicating even a tentative launch date.

Meanwhile, work is pressing ahead to determine whether the law has a sound legal basis. The law authorizes preemptive blocking and since the aim is for that to take place within 30 minutes, and probably much sooner, blocking targets have no opportunity to mount an appeal and ISPs have no choice but to implement the blocks.

Warnings Fail to Prevent The Inevitable

Back in April, months before the law came into force, the Association of Italian Internet Providers (AIIP), a trade group that represents the interests of small to medium-sized ISPs, sent a memorandum to the authorities detailing its concerns over the proposals.

President of AIIP, Giovanni Zorzoni, feared the proposed blocking system would introduce a single susceptible ‘point of failure’ with the potential to undermine national infrastructure. The ‘Mega-Firewall‘ of Italy could also expose ISPs to liability, while end users would ultimately pick up the bill.

After the proposals became law, AIIP raised the alarm again, warning that round-the-clock coverage to protect the interests of football clubs and broadcasters could cost an ISP 200,000 to 300,000 euros per year.

No problem for the multinationals, of course, but for small ISPs turning over 500,000 euros in a whole year, the costs could prove devastating. Claims that IPTV piracy costs Italy 10,000 jobs were countered by an AIIP estimate that the law could disappear 2,000 businesses in the ISP sector.

With those warnings having had little effect, AIIP has now launched a legal challenge in the Italian courts; part of that entails obtaining certain documents penned by the European Commission.

Technical Regulations and the European Commission

At the end of July, telecoms regulator AGCOM amended its regulation with Resolution 189/23 (pdf). On page four of that document, AGCOM states that pursuant to EU Directive 2015/1535/EU, a notification dated March 22, 2023, was filed with the European Commission.

The aim of Directive 2015/1535/EU (pdf) is to prevent the introduction of new technical barriers to trade. It requires member states to supply the European Commission (and other EU members) with details of planned technical regulations at the drafting stage.

A further reference to the same directive appears on page 10 of the AGCOM resolution; it states that in April 2023, the European Commission filed requests with Italy’s Ministry of Business, seeking clarification on unspecified issues relating to the proposed technical regulations. AGCOM notes that after responding before the deadline, no further communication was received from the European Commission, so that was taken as a green light to press ahead.

No Public Access to European Commission Responses

After hearing of AIIP’s legal challenge we discovered that searches of the Commission’s vast library of documents were unlikely to surface its responses to notifications under 2015/1535/EU.

Fulvio Sarzana, a lawyer acting for AIIP in this matter, informs TorrentFreak that citizens in general are not granted access to the Commission’s responses. Details are shared with individual member states, but organizations like AIIPP have no access, even when they have a direct interest in the information.

Legal Challenge Banks an Early Victory

As part of the AIIP legal challenge filed at the Court of Rome, which targets the regulations issued in July 2023 and their implementation by AGCOM, AIIP requested access to the Commission’s responses.

“[AIIP] already raised the issue ten years ago, when the anti-piracy provisions were issued for the first time: but the EU Commission denied us access to the documents on the assumption that they were non-visible documents,” Sarzana explains.

“For this reason it is essential to see whether the AGCOM Regulation has been questioned by the EU Commission. We know the details of the anti-piracy regulation but we don’t know if, following the Commission’s findings, the rule has been modified, since a law in Italy was also changed.”

This week AIIP landed an early win when the Lazio Regional Administrative Court granted the organization’s request and ordered AGCOM to hand over the documents.

“[T]he Communications Regulatory Authority shall arrange for the filing of the documentary findings – it is repeated, as analytically identified – within the period of 60 (sixty) days from the notification, or, if earlier, from the administrative communication of this ordinance,” the court’s order reads.

So what revelations might the documents contain?

“[T]he anti-piracy provisions could be contrary to the Commission’s observations, as well as, in our opinion, violating the principles of the right of defense established by the EU and the safe harbor rules established by the Digital Services ACT,” Sarzana concludes.

In response to the barrage of negative news, several third-party providers including DreamHost, DDoS-Guard and Cloudflare have all banned the site.

These voluntary curation actions are just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, many other services refused to work with the controversial site. Hurricane Electric, a Tier 1 Internet backbone provider, reportedly refused to pass on the site’s traffic across the Internet.

It’s no surprise that companies want to distance themselves from the highly controversial forum. However, it’s a slippery slope when backbone providers start to censor speech on their own accord. Ideally, such restrictive measures should be backed by a court order.

None of the cases referenced above went before a court but Kiwi Farms and its founder Joshua Moon were sued for copyright infringement. A person who was systematically targeted through Kiwi Farms took the site and Moon to court three years ago.

Greer Sues Kiwi Farms

The copyright infringement claims were filed by Russell Greer, who was targeted by Kiwi Farms users when he sued Taylor Swift years ago. Greer wrote a book about his experiences and later recorded a song too. These copyrighted works eventually made their way back to Kiwi Farms, where pirated copies were shared by site users.

In response, Greer issued takedown notices to have his works removed from the site, but to no avail. Kiwi Farms’ Joshua Moon refused to remove the content and published the DMCA notices on the site, openly mocking the author.

These actions prompted Greer to file a complaint at a federal court in Utah, accusing Moon of contributory copyright infringement. The complaint alleged that Kiwi Farms users infringed Greer’s copyrights, that Moon was aware of this, and that he knowingly permitted these infringing activities.

Contributory Infringement Claim Fails

In a decision issued in 2021, a district court agreed that Kiwi Farms’ operator was aware of the infringing activities. However, to establish contributory liability, a defendant must “induce, cause, or materially contribute” to the activity. The court found no evidence of that and dismissed the claim.

The district court sympathized with Greer, noting that “it sounds like people on Kiwi Farms have said vile things about him and made his life miserable,” but concluded that his copyright liability claims fell short.

Greer wasn’t pleased with the outcome and appealed the ruling. This week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit concluded that the contributory copyright claims are indeed sufficient, so the case will now return to the lower court.

The reasoning behind the court’s conclusion is interesting. For starters, the court of appeal agreed with the lower court that simply refusing to comply with a takedown notice isn’t sufficient to establish contributory copyright infringement.

“We discern no error in the district court’s explanation that contributory liability requires more than merely ‘permitting’ the infringing material to remain on the website,” the decision reads.

Court of Appeal Views Publishing as Encouragement

In this case, however, the court of appeals believes that by publishing and mocking the DMCA takedown notice in public, Kiwi Farms’ operator effectively ‘encouraged’ the site’s users to continue their copyright infringing activities.

“Mr. Greer sent repeated requests to Mr. Moon, identifying the materials on which he held the copyright, as well as where and how his rights were being infringed. Mr. Moon not only expressly refused to remove the materials, he mockingly posted the correspondence to Kiwi Farms,” the court notes.

“Under the circumstances, this is not the passive behavior of one ‘merely permitting’ infringing material to remain on his site. Rather, we conclude a reasonable inference from the facts alleged is that the reposting of the takedown notice, combined with the refusal to take down the infringing material, amounted to encouragement of Kiwi Farms users’ direct copyright infringement.”

Put differently, site operators are not liable for copyright infringement when they refuse to take action following a takedown notice. However, when they publish that same notice online, they can incur liability.

‘What a Mess’

Summarizing pages-long rulings strewn with legal nuances isn’t straightforward, but in this case the court’s findings are puzzling to legal experts too. Law professor Eric Goldman points out several issues, including a mix-up of legal doctrines and how the court’s conclusions have the potential to negatively affect takedown notice transparency.

“[T]he court seems to be saying that Moon’s inaction was OK, but Moon’s inaction + posting the takedown notice is not OK. What?” Goldman writes.

“This suggests that all contributors to Lumen have exacerbated their legal risk by providing greater transparency into the shadowy world of copyright takedown notices. That cannot be the right legal standard, and I am reasonably confident no other court would reach that conclusion. Oy, what a mess.”

Indeed, the district court ruling was great news for online services, as it confirmed that they can’t be held liable for refusing to act on a DMCA takedown notice. However, if posting that same notice publicly makes them liable, we might see less transparency going forward.

Of course, there are plenty of nuances to this case. Kiwi Farms’ operator didn’t automatically publish the takedown notice; Moon specifically selected this particular DMCA notice and openly mocked it. That ‘active’ choice may be seen as a crucial distinction.

The court of appeals ruling means that the matter will now revert to the district court for further consideration. Given the unique characteristics of the decision and its potential impact, legal experts will be following it closely.

—–

A copy of the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit is available here (pdf)

Accurately predicting how, when and where the next wave of pirate sites will emerge to become the next big threat is much easier said than done.

At any point, one of several moving parts could rule a country out for a few years, or propel it straight into pole position. From rapid development of internet infrastructure to a new generation blessed with the right skills, joining the workplace at just the right time, anything is possible in the shifting sands of piracy.

The MPA accurately predicted the chances of Vietnam becoming an online piracy hotbed many years ago. Yet despite every conceivable effort, progress to disrupt sites like Fmovies and Aniwatch (formerly Zoro.to) which enjoy close to a quarter billion visits every month, progress has been slow when compared to efforts in other regions.

The current state of play features Vietnam as the home of some of the world’s most popular pirate sites, together servicing at least two billion visits each month, but potentially many more.

What Can Be Done About the Worst of the Worst?

Following a September report highlighting piracy of live sports in Vietnam, last weekend the Ministry of Information and Communications held a workshop where stakeholders discussed matters related to pirate sites.

Inevitably, notorious sports streaming sites operating under the ‘Xoi Lac’ banner received several mentions due to unusual resilience and overall share of the ‘pirate’ market. Xoi Lac has evaded every disruption measure deployed over the past five years while attracting the wrong kind of attention from rightsholders thousands of miles away.

In a recent report to the USTR, the Premier League said that it considers Xoi Lac one of the worst platforms it has ever seen.

[The Xoilac websites] are some of the most egregious the Premier League has encountered, with infringement continuing on the site despite Vietnamese authorities attempting to block access to domains associated with the service, and widespread news coverage highlighting that the sites are infringing. In total, the operators have created over 300 domains within the Xoilac family to try and avoid disruption efforts.

Pirate sites can benefit from the publicity that goes hand-in-hand with this kind of attention; as The Pirate Bay said on many occasions: “This will just give us more traffic, as always. Thanks for the free advertising.”

Becoming a household name is a considerable milestone for any website. Unfortunately, the millstones of infamy are less beneficial, harder to shake, and for those in power, an obvious potential target. When other crimes enter the mix, anything can happen.

“They Are Associated With Organized Crime”

The Premier League’s USTR submission states that Xoi Lac’s operators appear to be based in the capital, but the follow-up comment is potentially more interesting. Major overseas rightsholders claim to know the identities of the people behind several Vietnam-based sites, yet many continue to operate with apparent impunity.

“The operators of the site appear to be based in Hanoi, Vietnam and seemingly operate with little concern for enforcement action being taken against them,” the submission notes.

While that’s a major concern for rightsholders, comments made during the workshop may signal changes ahead.

“The issue of copyright infringement is associated with organized crime. For example, the Xoi Lac channel is not simply a form of live-streaming online; it is also associated with online fraud, online gambling, and loan sharking for football betting,” said Nguyen Thanh Lam, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communications.

Comments like these are uncommon, especially when accompanied by a commitment to fight piracy.

Ministries Combine to Form Specialized Unit

Lam told the workshop that the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Public Security, will establish a specialized unit to tackle copyright issues.

The Minister also highlighted the need to educate the public on why they should avoid pirate sites. That raises interesting questions in itself.

Aside from the popular state-run lottery, gambling is heavily restricted in Vietnam and those caught facilitating illegal gambling can end up in prison. Loan shark-style money lending is also illegal and an aggravating factor in illegal gambling prosecutions. Those who simply participate in illegal gambling face punishment if caught, yet even that hasn’t proven much of a deterrent.

On the assumption that the Minister’s claims about Xoi Lac are true, yet people still flood to the site, it seems likely that some are borrowing money from loan sharks to participate in illegal gambling. There are few scenarios in any country where that ends well for the in-debt gambler, people know it, yet still aren’t deterred.

That raises the question of what type of messaging could possibly deter people from watching pirated football streams, when anti-gambling measures have so obviously failed. A local report suggests that messaging may receive support from the police.

“In the near future, the Ministry of Information and Communications will have a plan to discuss with the police force to launch a peak attack and suppress crime in this field,” the report concludes.

The site has been around for sixteen years and weathered many storms, including a crackdown by Romanian law enforcement which seized its domain name in 2020.

Last weekend, the journey appeared close to an end when the site’s main operator, EboLLa, decided that he would rather spend time on other parts of his life. With no trusted successor in sight, shutting down appeared to be the only viable option.

Many people would volunteer to take over, but leaving the tracker in the hands of a relative stranger didn’t feel right for the operator. Running a private torrent site that stores sensitive personal data of numerous people is a massive responsibility.

In many cases, this would’ve been the end of the matter. After a few weeks, the site would cease to exist, turning into a distant memory with the passing of time. For FileList, however, the story isn’t quite over yet.

Founder Returns

The outpouring of support and shock following the shutdown announcement motivated one of FileList’s original founders, “God”, to return to the nest. He will take over the technical role of the current operator to ensure that the tracker can continue in the years to come.

“Your voice has been heard, even now. I am delighted to announce that the website will not be shutting down!” EboLLA writes.

“One of the founders of the website, God, is back and will take over the technical aspect to ensure the site continues to thrive. He is trustworthy, loyal, and things will certainly go well from this point of view.”

New Sysop

The new boss will team up with “Oana”, another trusted member of the site who is promoted to Sysop. In that role, she will handle all staff-related issues, server payments, and other internal matters.

“Together, they will continue the necessary work to keep this website alive,” EboLLa notes.

The message represents a sigh of relief for the many regular users of the tracker, some of whom have been loyal visitors for over a decade. For the current operator, those are also the last words he shares with the community, as he permanently retires.

For copyright holders and law enforcement, the sudden change of plans means that they can’t cross the popular torrent tracker off their list just yet. Instead, everything is back to the status quo.

The site, which catered to a French-speaking audience, had been on the radar of rightsholders for some time. After avoiding the long arm of justice on several occasions, the curtain eventually fell.

Following news of the site’s downfall, it appeared that not all people working on the site were French. The main suspect was located in Canada and the system administrator was from Ukraine. Several French suspects were identified too, but these were mainly seen as moderators.

Today, more than six years after T411 was shut down, L’Informe reports that a Criminal Court in Rennes has handed the two main suspects custodial sentences and an unprecedented damages order of almost a quarter billion euros.

Three Years Prison and Massive Damages Award

In a landmark ruling, the court ordered the Canadian creator of the torrent site, Mr. Jolicoeur, to serve a three-year prison sentence and pay a €150,000 ($158,000) fine. The defendant wasn’t present in court and a warrant for his arrest was issued, which Canadian authorities have to follow up.

In addition, the court awarded an unprecedented €489 million ($516m) in damages to rightsholders. This is the largest damages award against pirate site operators we have ever seen. For comparison, The Pirate Bay founders had to pay damages that totaled less than seven million euros.

The amount in this case appears to be based on the total number of downloads that could be traced back to the site. The prosecution counted over 190,000 torrents, which generated more than 270 million downloads across various categories.

Films and TV series were by far the most popular, which explains why the bulk of the damages, €471 million, goes to movie industry companies including Warner, Pathé, Gaumont, UGC and Film24. The remaining €18 million is awarded to French music group SACEM.

18 Months for Ukrainian Sysop

In addition to the main suspect, the court also sentenced T411 sysop Mr. R.V., who previously shared his version of events with TorrentFreak.

R.V., who now lives in Sweden, was present at the hearings and sentenced to 18 months in prison, of which 13 are conditional. The sysop already served this time in pre-trial detention so remains free.

The court also held the sysop responsible for 30% of the damages award, more than €146 million in total. That’s pretty much a monetary life sentence, which comes as a huge disappointment.

Speaking with TorrentFreak, R.V. says that he will appeal the judgment. He describes the damages amount as abnormal and half-jokingly adds that he might as well quit his job if it’s upheld.

“I’m not going to pay it, but even if I am forced to do so, I will quit the job and live on social benefits for jobless people instead. Otherwise, I need to work 3,500 years to pay such a fine,” R.V. says.

R.V. also notes that the defense had no opportunity to challenge the calculation of the damages amount, which is something that will likely come up during the appeal.

Modest Sentences for Moderators

In addition to the site’s founder and sysop, the court also sentenced several French moderators of T411. The five defendants must pay 250 euros each to all of the listed rightsholders.

L’Informe reports that the authorities began investigating the site in 2015. They were ultimately able to identify the suspects by cross-referencing their PayPal accounts, IP-addresses, and bank details.

For rightsholders and French law enforcement, the convictions amount to a major victory, but their work is not over yet. Shortly after T411 was shut down YggTorrent took its place and, despite multiple attempts to take it offline, the site remains online today.

In the absence of sudden momentous events, shaping entrenched public opinion requires astute calculations and considerable patience, built on a foundation of financial power.

Right now and most likely for the foreseeable future, the corporations behind the BeStreamWise anti-piracy campaign believe that given enough time, attitudes towards pirate IPTV devices can be shaped in favor of legal alternatives.

The main strategy observed to date aims to increase sensitivity to risk by constantly associating piracy with crimes against the individual; malware-infested devices stealing banking details, IPTV operators’ involvement in wider, exponentially more serious crime, and messaging that portrays subscription payments fueling that criminality, whatever it might be.

Sensational Can Work, Unbelievable Does Not

The final piece of the jigsaw uses practical actions in the physical world to show that IPTV operators and their customers face a genuine risk of legal action. Nurturing perceptions that prosecutions are both real and expanding are nothing new to the anti-piracy scene yet continue to face significant challenges.

In January, amplification led to widespread belief that police were visiting the homes of 1,000 Premier League pirates. Not only was that untrue but the end result was a doubled-edged sword. On one hand, huge numbers of people were exposed to a ‘new reality’ of heightened, imminent risk. On the other, the numbers were simply too big to survive a cheap calculator and common sense.

That no obvious effort was expended to correct the reports wasn’t a surprise from a commercial perspective. However, given the direct involvement of the police, tackling misinformation arguably forms part of the service.

Interestingly, it now transpires that police forces around the UK were under instruction to remain silent on specific details of the operation. Before we address that, here’s some fresh news for context.

FACT and Sky Target IPTV Service Providers

In a press release Monday, FACT and Sky announced details of a new operation conducted with support from regional police forces in the UK. After identifying “almost 50 illegal IPTV service providers” offering live TV and movies, the operators were issued with legal warnings “delivered in person, by post, and by email.”

The ‘cease-and-desist’ notices instruct those running the services to immediately stop their illegal streaming activity otherwise risk facing criminal prosecution. Addresses across the UK were visited in person, from London, Dorset, Cambridgeshire, West Midlands, North Midlands, West Yorkshire, Greater Manchester and to one address in Scotland.

FACT and Sky went on to clarify that exactly 47 legal notices were issued and that led to the majority of the illegal services being taken down. Such specifics are increasingly rare but welcome nonetheless; details expressed in non-ambiguous language build confidence and trust in the message being delivered, a plus for the overall goal.

Under pressure to tackle what is clearly a major problem for rightsholders, similar press releases worldwide trend towards vague language vulnerable to misinterpretation and reporting that portrays events as bigger, more dramatic, and ultimately more consequential than they really are. That can be a welcome bonus, but not always.

Metropolitan Police: “Don’t Disclose Details on Numbers of Visits”

The misinterpreted “1,000 homes” claim that exploded from news of a similar cease-and-desist campaign in January is now all but the truth according to Google’s search results. Whether early outreach to the media could have prevented the spread of misinformation is unknown, but it appears that police were under specific instruction not to discuss the scale of the operation.

Evidence appears in a document published by the Greater London Authority’s London Assembly, a 25-member elected body that scrutinizes the work of the Mayor and Mayoral advisers and holds them to account.

In February 2023, politician Susan Hall, a councillor on Harrow London Borough Council and then leader of the London Conservatives on the London Assembly, sought information from the Mayor on the “1,000 homes” operation. The question itself shows that even those with direct access to powerful political leaders are susceptible to misinformation.

“It was recently reported that the police are set to visit 1,000 homes to talk about their use of illegal online streams. How many of these visits will be/have been in London?” the question reads.

The official response, reproduced verbatim below, confirms that 1,000 homes were not visited. More importantly, it reveals that London’s Metropolitan Police asked forces around the UK not to disclose details on the number of visits carried out.

Date: Friday 10 March 2023

 

Between 9th – 24th January 2023, Operation Raider Plus, a national campaign to protect the public from harm online, led by the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) and supported by the City of London Police’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU), the Government Agency Intelligence Network (GAIN) and West Mercia Police, identified over 1,000 subscribers to illegal sports streaming services.

 

These individuals either received an in-person visit or were sent a cease-and-desist letter. Officers from the Metropolitan Police Services (MPS) accompanied FACT on visits in London, warning individuals of the consequences of cybercrime, which include funding criminal organizations and exposing themselves to fraud, scams, inappropriate content, viruses and malware.

 

FACT have asked forces not to disclose details on the number of visits made and letters sent, so as not to reduce any deterrent effect, and the MPS would ask that this position be respected.

On an ordinary level, deterrent effects are both valuable and worthy of protection, but this is no ordinary case.

While the campaign itself tackles a specific type of crime, first and foremost it’s described as “a national campaign to protect the public from harm online.” Nowhere is it mentioned that this and similar operations are initiated on behalf of rightsholders with the primary aim of reducing piracy and increasing sales.

Public/private partnerships like these are being promoted as the future of anti-piracy enforcement worldwide.

The Italian government, lawmakers, telecoms regulator AGCOM, broadcasters, and football leagues invested considerable resources to get new law over the finishing line in July.

While one aspect of the law focuses on blocking access to pirate services, another ramps up punishments for those caught supplying illegal streams and customers who buy subscriptions to watch them.

Financial Police Raid Pirate IPTV Provider

In what may be the first major action following the introduction of the new law, Italy’s Guardia di Finanza (GdF) says it has shut down an IPTV provider in the southern Italian town of Canosa di Puglia.

“The financiers of the Barletta Group, as part of an initiative dedicated to combating television piracy, following extensive investigative activity, discovered an illegal transmission center for the channels of the SKY platform,” GdF (Financial Police) reports.

After being named in connection with similar operations in 2022, investigators of the Fiamme Gialle are also credited here for the discovery of a server room in Canosa.

Equipment Seized

According to GdF, the Barletta Provincial Command investigators’ work led to a raid and the discovery of five high-powered computers, 33 decoders used to acquire the original broadcasts, plus 12 video encoders used at the rebroadcasting stage.

Aside from computers, a maze of cables, and nine power adaptors perilously plugged into a single mains power extension, one of the images provided by GdF reveals a monitor displaying a purple interface. Once zoomed in, the image offers more detail on how the service operated.

The text and interface in the image suggest that the sources of at least some original streams were satellite broadcasts decoded on-site using relatively cheap receivers configured for card-sharing (CCCAM).

The image below is not associated with the raid but shows the interface of a similar decoder when connected to a card-sharing server; the one in the police image has been disconnected.

In the police image the name of the card-sharing provider is in view but too blurry for positive identification at the resolution available.

The decoders, on the other hand, appear to be GT Media V8 devices, most of which have the protective film still in place. They’re inexpensive and widely available.

Equipment Was Fully Operational

Whether the suspect was taken by surprise or busy elsewhere isn’t made clear, but GdF says the equipment was fully operational when officers arrived.

“The equipment identified, functioning and operational at the time of the Financiers’ access, was used to illicitly transmit the pay TV contents to thousands of users, who are currently being identified,” GdF says.

The operator has been reported for copyright violations and if found guilty will face enhanced penalties under the new law. Police are suggesting that the provider’s customers may also face action; thanks to “seized materials it will be possible to identify the names of the end users and evaluate any proceedings against them,” GdF notes.

Italy has a lot of experience prosecuting suppliers but much less on the consumer side. For members of the casually-pirating public reliant on the media for information and guidance, legal detail and nuance tend to be lacking. As a result, the next few months could present a very steep learning curve for the less tech-savvy.

For those who signed up to the service with their real name, accurate contact details, and/or easily traceable payment methods, regret is likely to follow if the authorities take action.

Source

These torrent download statistics are only meant to provide further insight into the piracy trends. All data are gathered from public resources.

This week we have four newcomers on the list. “The Equalizer 3” is the most downloaded title.

The most torrented movies for the week ending on October 09 are:

Note: We also publish an updating archive of all the list of weekly most torrented movies lists.

These sites tend to be more community-oriented than public torrent and streaming sites, which most people simply visit with a hit-and-run mentality.

Troubles

Many private trackers have come and gone over the years. The Romanian-based tracker FileList.io is one of the bigger ones to survive, although it came close to shutting down a few years ago when Romanian authorities seized its domain name.

The enforcement action was a wake-up call for both staff and users of the members-only tracker, but it didn’t mark the end of the road. FileList simply switched from the seized .ro domain to an .io version and with the database unscathed, it kept on going.

According to recent traffic stats from SimilarWeb, the tracker hasn’t lost its appeal. With an estimated average of roughly six million monthly visits, the site continues to draw a massive audience. That, however, is about to change.

Pending Shutdown

A few hours ago, FileList sysop “EboLLa” informed the site’s members that the doors will permanently close in a few weeks. This isn’t the result of legal pressure; it’s a conscious and well-evaluated life choice.

“Unfortunately, I no longer have the time to run the site. A site like this requires quite a lot of commitment and my priorities in everyday life have changed in recent years. Time is the most precious resource for all of us and I have invested enough time here,” the operator writes.

The decision was a difficult one. FileList’s operator long considered handing the reigns to a successor, but that is easier said than done, especially after the dream candidate was no longer an option.

“I don’t have anyone to leave it to. ToXiC, the one who was going to take my place is no longer with us,” EboLLa writes.

Responsibilities

Of course, dozens of people will be eager to step up and run the site, but leaving the tracker to a relative stranger doesn’t feel right for the operator. Running a private tracker that stores sensitive personal data of numerous people is a massive responsibility.

There are various angles for potential abuse and handing this type of power and control to someone, even if they’re well-intentioned, simply doesn’t feel right. Instead, EboLLa prefers to close the tracker’s doors indefinitely.

“It is quite difficult to find a person who is integrated here and shares the same values and has the same dedication that you have enjoyed for the last 16 years. I decided that the best thing to do is to close the site rather than risk something like this.”

Goodbyes

The operator says that the decision was made with the community at heart, and he thanks all members for contributing to the site over the years. That includes all the files that were shared, the lively discussions, and financial contributions to pay the server bills.

FileList no longer accepts any donations at the time of writing and the current funds are sufficient to keep the lights on for a few more weeks. After that, the site’s users will have to go elsewhere.

“During this time you can still enjoy the site, download what you need from here and post your goodbye message in the thread. After ~3 months, sometime around January 2024, the site will be closed permanently,” EboLLa concludes.

Following a request by the Office of the United States Trade Representative for stakeholders to identify so-called ‘notorious markets’ involved in large-scale infringement, submissions are now publicly available.

After reporting on submissions by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) (1) and Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) (2) this week, today we present a roundup of three key submissions, all of which target the pirate IPTV / live sports streaming ecosystem.

Anti-Piracy Coalitions, Members, Overlaps

Submissions by the Audiovisual Anti-Piracy Alliance (AAPA), Football Association Premier League, plus a joint submission by beIN Media and Miramax, contain considerable detail on the problems faced by sports leagues and their broadcasting partners.

In some cases the nominated pirate services appear in more than one report. That’s not unexpected among companies in the same market but since some rightsholders are represented in more than one submission, for the sake of clarity those are shown in bold below.

AAPA members: Altice France, beIN Media Group, Canal+, Cosmote TV, CryptoGuard, Cyta, DAZN, DFL, Friend MTS, Irdeto, LeakID, LFP, Liberty Global, Nagra Kudelski, NOS, OPSEC, Premier League, Sky, Synamedia, United Media, Verimatrix, Viaccess Orca, Viaplay Group, Vodafone Ziggo, Wiley (S1)

Individual submission: Sole rightsholder Premier League (S2)

Joint submission: Miramax and beIN Media (S3)

Illicit IPTV Services

BestBuyIPTV heads the list of illicit IPTV services in the Premier League’s individual submission (S2).

“BestBuyIPTV is a very popular global IPTV service that carries channels from broadcasters located all around the world, including many that carry Premier League content. Investigations conducted by the Premier League have located the operator of the service in Vietnam.” (Premier League)

Forever TV (affiliates Chaloos and Mediastar) takes the top spot in both the AAPA’s submission (S1) and the joint beIN/Miramax submission (S3). The IPTV service appears second in the Premier League’s report and is considered a major threat.

“The service operates from a website at https://foreveriptv.net/ where it offers subscriptions to its service as well as a re-streamer and re-seller program, which rewards third parties for further distribution of its pirated content.” (AAPA)

“These services between them are responsible for the unauthorized provision of thousands of premium TV channels and on-demand movies and TV content. Chaloos was named by the United States Trade Representative (‘USTR’) on its 2022 Notorious Markets List.” (Premier League)

Other IPTV services listed by the Premier League include the following (comments summarized):

EVPad: One of the most popular illicit streaming services across South East Asia. The business is extremely sophisticated. A product purchased on behalf of the Premier League was found to provide access to over 1,700 channels, including 75 offering live sports broadcasts. The operators have been very careful to hide their location and identities, Premier League links them to Hong Kong and China.

Family Box: Nominated in both Premier League and beIN/Miramax submissions. “Family Box is both a terrestrial pirate organization covering Kurdistan, and an IPTV pirate organization with global coverage. Its offices are in Erbil, Iraq,” beIN reports. Almost identical text appears in the Premier League’s individual submission, most likely since they’re both members of AAPA.

Globe IPTV: One of the most prominent wholesalers of content to pirate services around the world. Has supplied multiple pirate services that have been the subject of historical and ongoing legal action. Rightsholders have identified Globe’s operator in Lebanon.
(TF note: Globe was a supplier to Flawless TV. The roles were later reversed)

SVI Cloud: An illicit streaming device very popular in South East Asia. Operates both online and through an extensive list of resellers with over 70 physical locations listed as selling the device on their official website. (TF note: 17 people were arrested in Singapore early October and 2,500 devices seized. Follows a similar crackdown in Taiwan.)

Pirate Streaming Sites/Cyberlockers/Others

Both AAPA and Premier League have nominated web-based streaming sites to the USTR and in some cases the same platforms appear on both lists.

Livetv.sx, a popular sports stream indexing site, receives nominations from both, with the Premier League noting its availability in 12 different languages and an estimated 129 million global online visits since October 2022. The site is subject to Premier League blocking injunctions in multiple jurisdictions. AAPA believes the site is operated from Cyprus, Kazakhstan and/or Russia.

Freestreams-live1 receives a nomination from the Premier League. Previously the site operated from the domain freestreams-live1.com, but after that was seized by Homeland Security Investigations, freestreams-live1.tv became the site’s new domain.

Totalsportek (Poland), VIPBox (Germany), and Xoilac (Vietnam) were also reported by the Premier League.

LSHunter.net, Streamonsport, Rojadirecta, Soccerstreams.football, Totalsportek.pro, Filmmoviplex.com, RLSBB, Soap2day (variants), 1movieshd.com, Papadustream, Score808, futemax.to, Pobretv.net, and YTS, were reported by AAPA.

We conclude with the AAPA’s cyberlocker and eBook nominations which include both Sci-Hub and Libgen due to publisher Wiley becoming an AAPA member.

The AAPA’s submission to the USTR is available here (pdf)

The Premier League’s submission is available here (pdf)

The beIN / Miramax submission is available here (pdf)

———-

Other AAPA IPTV nominations not detailed above: GoGo IPTV, Apollo 5, Yacine TV, Cobra TV, IPTV Smarty, IPTV Main, Bobres IPTV, SyberTV, Apollo Group TV, Xtreme HD, King IPTV, Orca IPTV, Dezor, META IPTV, 4KEVO IPTV, and XCTV IPTV.

(TF note1: AAPA reports that Cobra IPTV is “one of the most significant pirate IPTV services with worldwide popularity. TF note2: Sky obtained permission from the UK High Court in July to block IPTVMain’s servers. Others subject to blocking include BunnyStreams, GenIPTV, and GoTVMix)