YouTube is one of the most successful sites ever to grace the internet. The site is extremely easy to use and with almost no barriers to entry, it’s one of the best platforms to build an audience.

 

On the downside, using unlicensed content to gain traction renders successes vulnerable to sudden collapse on the whim of a copyright holder. That could mean a strike, a channel ban, or even a lawsuit.

 

After Arvin De La Santos restreamed the Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren fight on his YourEXTRA YouTube channel in April 2021, Triller filed a DMCA notice and YouTube removed the content. For a channel that specialized in “drama related” topics, the next year of events could’ve taken it to the next level.

Triller Lawsuit – June 2021

YourEXTRA built an audience of 113,000+ subscribers and generated 14 million views in just four years, but after Triller hit De La Santos with a full-blown lawsuit in June 2021, the channel went quiet. Filed at a California district court, the scale of Triller’s complaint probably contributed to the silence.

 

Triller described De La Santos as a business entity and sued for copyright infringement (making the content available on YouTube), vicarious copyright infringement (liability for YouTube viewers’ infringement), plus violations of the Federal Communications Act (alleged interception of satellite broadcasts).

 

When combined these overly ambitious claims stretched well beyond six digits but even a partial win for Triller would’ve been devastating for De La Santos. So, in its determination to send a message to pirates, Triller dug in. What the YouTuber needed now was a good lawyer and on October 18, 2021, intellectual property specialist Steven Vondram stepped in to answer Triller’s complaint.

Triller Accused of Deception

Defendants are required to file an answer but in most cases they consist of a tedious list of yes, no, or don’t know type responses. This one was different. According to the defense, De La Santos was “enticed to settle the alleged infringement” instead of going to court. He reportedly paid a settlement fee to Triller, which came with a release of claims. Things didn’t go to plan.

 

“Thereafter, [Triller] filed this lawsuit and returned the settlement fee (without interest) and now seeks to recover damages and attorney fees that they are not entitled to,” the YouTuber’s attorney informed the court.

 

“This is a deceptive act and practice under California law. The parties have previously agreed and resolved this dispute, which Plaintiff has now refused to honor.”

 

Alleged wrongdoing in hand, De La Santos attempted to turn the tables. He asked for the complaint to be dismissed with prejudice, judgment to be entered in his favor, plus an order for costs and attorneys’ fees incurred to date.

Neither Side Gives Ground

A joint report to the court in November 2021 revealed a damages claim adjustment but little progress. Statutory copyright damages can reach $150,000 per claim but the report indicated $140,000. Triller’s original complaint demanded $110,000 for each violation of the Federal Communications Act but the report cited an adjusted figure of $10,000.

 

For his part, De La Santos insisted that since he’d settled the matter, he would respond by sueing Triller for damages. Triller warned it would depose both the YouTuber and a “corporate representative” of the YourEXTRA YouTube channel, and conduct discovery to find out how the broadcast was obtained, how it was shared and with whom, and whether any financial benefit was accrued by the YouTuber.

Money Makes The World Go Round

In March 2022, Vondran told the California district court that a written retainer agreement between him and his client required payment for certain fees “if a settlement wasn’t achieved” and if the lawsuit “moved to litigation,” which it clearly had.

 

Court records show that De La Santos couldn’t actually afford a lawyer so Vondran requested permission to withdraw as counsel for the defense, noting that “YourNEXT is NOT a corporation.” De La Santos could either represent himself or find replacement counsel, but he’d probably be forced to default, Vondran wrote.

Triller Wins Partial Summary Judgment

With De La Santos apparently in no position to mount a credible defense, five weeks later Triller submitted a proposed summary judgment declaring the YouTuber liable on three grounds: direct infringement, vicarious infringement, and violation of the Federal Communications Act.

 

Against defendants Del Santos, YourEXTRA, and Does 1-10, Triller demanded $50,000 jointly and severally under 17 U.S.C. § 504(a)-(c), $10,000 under 47 U.S. Code § 605 (Unauthorized publication or use of communications), plus reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

 

Triller submitted a second, largely unchanged proposed summary judgment this June and in July, United States District Judge Dale S. Fischer agreed that Triller was entitled to summary judgment on the issue of copyright infringement.

 

“Triller has demonstrated that even if Defendants were not actually aware that their conduct constituted copyright infringement, Defendants at the very least recklessly disregarded that possibility or were willfully blind to it,” Judge Fischer wrote.

Triller’s Damages Claim Lacked Substance

Triller’s $50,000 statutory damages claim for copyright infringement was based on its assertion that “at least one thousand people” chose to watch the fight on the YourEXTRA YouTube channel instead of paying $50 each to Triller..

 

The theory presented to the court stated that De La Santos had made “several hundred dollars” by gaining around one thousand followers and one million views on his YouTube channel by airing the fight. Given that the fight was quickly taken down by Triller, these numbers didn’t appear to make much sense. There were reasons for that.

 

Surprisingly, Triller’s figures were not obtained directly from YouTube. They were reportedly supplied by social media tracker Social Blade but carried no markings to prove that was actually the case. Even more fundamentally, the viewing numbers related to the YourEXTRA channel overall, not the number of views generated by the infringing fight broadcast.

 

Judge Fischer concluded that the evidence was inadmissible.

No Evidence to Support Remaining Claims Either

Claims that De La Santos intercepted a satellite broadcast in violation of the Federal Communications Act also fell flat. Section 605 only applies when a broadcast is received from the air and since Triller’s evidence failed to establish that, its motion on that cause was denied.

 

Triller’s claim for vicarious copyright infringement fared no better. While the Judge found the company’s direct infringment claims convincing, no evidence of copyright infringement carried out by YouTube users was presented to the court. Without that, the claim failed.

 

In conclusion, Triller’s motion was granted in respect of willful copyright infringement but denied on all other grounds. Triller responded by filing a motion to dismiss all of the claims denied by the Judge, leaving a single copyright infringement claim intact. Good news for De La Santos then? Not at all.

Willful Infringement

Late October 2022, with liability for willful copyright infringement confirmed by the Court, it was all but inevitable that Triller would revise its claim. Statutory damages allow copyright holders to receive damages of between $750 and $30,000 per work but, when infringement is willful, the maximum is increased to $150,000. That’s exactly what Triller demanded.

 

In his judgment dated November 16, 2022, Judge Fischer awarded Triller maximum statutory damages of $150,000 for willful copyright infringement plus $20,626.25 in attorneys’ fees.

 

With no means to pay for a defense, De La Santos couldn’t even argue over the small change. If this was a boxing match, both arms would’ve been tied behind his back as Triller punched him in the face. Whether that constitutes a ‘landmark’ victory is for others to decide but if nothing else, a clear message has been sent once again thanks to the availability of statutory damages in copyright cases.

Final Thoughts: $150,000 in Perspective

The fight itself lasted one minute and 59 seconds meaning that each second cost De La Santos a cool $1,433. According to the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment Commission, Jake Paul’s official purse was $690,000, meaning that De La Santos is now on the hook for just over 21% of Paul’s declared earnings.

 

Triller reported 500,000 PPV buys at $49.99 each, roughly $25 million. Jake Paul reported 1.5 million buys, roughly $75 million.

 

De La Santos will likely regret that night for a long time and there’s no question that Triller wants to send a clear message to pirates. Boxing fans, on the other hand, might point to a much bigger crime.

 

Four boxers who fought on the same card were paid as follows: Jeyson Minda ($8,000), Junior Younan ($25,000), William Jackson ($8,000) and Quinton Randall ($15,000). If we combine all four fighters’ purses, 39 seconds of infringement by De La Santos on YouTube covers the lot.

 

Or it would do if he actually pays anything, which is doubtful.

 

The YouTuber was served at an address in Canada where U.S. Federal and State Courts have no jurisdiction over Canadian residents or companies. Canadian courts can recognize foreign judgments but can also deny them, if foreign judgments offend Canadian public policy.

 

Related court filings can be found here (1,2,3,4,5,6, pdf)

 

Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed the indictment and complaint against two alleged operators of Z-Library.

 

Following an FBI investigation, the authorities identified Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova as prime suspects. The pair were arrested in Argentina and now await potential extradition to the United States.

 

There’s little doubt that Z-Library helped to distribute millions of copyrighted books. Publishers have been aware of this for a long time and urged law enforcement to take action.

 

While it was the US Department of Justice that ultimately took action, these large-scale operations often rely on international cooperation. In some cases this is evident; when Argentinian authorities helped to arrest the two suspects, for example.

BREIN Pinpointed Z-Library Suspects

Most instances of information sharing take place behind the scenes so are not immediately visible. For example, Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN indirectly contributed to the recent actions against Z-Library. Without an announcement, that’s unlikely to have seen the light of day.

 

“The [Z-Library] investigation and action relied on multiple sources, including an extensive report by BREIN from 2020,” the anti-piracy group wrote this week.

 

This statement piqued our interest. To find out more we reached out to the anti-piracy group to ask for more details on the report’s content. According to BREIN director Tim Kuik, the information wasn’t shared with the authorities directly.

 

“We sent our report to relevant publishers, not directly to US authorities,” Kuik clarifies.

 

The report is not publicly available but Kuik says it included information about several Z-Library suspects, which proved useful to US authorities.

 

“[The report] outlined the domains and identified a number of suspects involved. We understand we were one of several sources of information. As is usual law enforcement authorities will do their own investigation before taking action,” Kuik tells us.

 

At the time, BREIN had already taken action against Z-Library. The site was disconnected by its Dutch hosting company following a complaint from the anti-piracy group. It then relocated to another country where it continued its activities.

Comeback Will Have Consequences

Two years later, BREIN’s report assisted the criminal investigation that led to the prosecution of two defendants. In addition, more than 240 domain names were seized by U.S. law enforcement, effectively wiping the site from the regular ‘surface’ web.

 

Z-Library hasn’t thrown the towel completely though. Despite some technical issues earlier this week, it remains accessible on the Tor network. In addition, it’s still operating on the peer-to-peer I2P service.

 

How many Z-Library team members are still in place is unknown. The site published a blog post last weekend, asking authors for forgiveness, but there’s no indication that it will throw the towel.

 

BREIN is aware of these developments and says that it’s keeping an eye on things. If Z-Library returns to the surface web, the group plans to obtain a court order to have their domains blocked by Dutch ISPs.

 

These are tough words but they also beg a question: why doesn’t BREIN request blocking orders for other large shadow libraries right away? After all, there’s no shortage of book piracy sites.

 

While there are no blocking requests active right now, BREIN’s director says that other book piracy sites could also be targeted in the future.

 

“Any structurally infringing site eventually will become subject to a blocking order if it persists in its illegal activities,” Kuik adds.

 

In the early days of file-sharing, many of those involved couldn’t believe that music could be downloaded for free. Today, many pirates not only expect more, they demand more, and get it too.

 

As a result, and when everything goes to plan, many of today’s piracy apps are indistinguishable from their legal counterparts. They are as easy to install and feature similar graphical interfaces, with all the latest movies and TV shows a couple of taps away.

 

Such is their prevalence, apps offering less are easily ignored. The most successful pirate apps offer access to superior content libraries than those available on legal services, without charging a penny. Hollywood, Netflix, and almost every other player in the streaming market would love to shut them all down, but that’s more easily said than done.

ACE/MPA Take Closer Interest

With finite resources, anti-piracy groups usually concentrate on higher-profile apps with larger audiences. This suggests a direct link between the success of an app and the chances of it being shut down. Piracy apps TeaTV, BeeTV and CyberFlix are clearly popular enough to warrant some extra attention.

 

Jan van Voorn is the Executive Vice President & Chief of Global Content Protection at the Motion Picture Association. He’s also head of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, the anti-piracy coalition that has shut down more pirate services in five years than most people knew existed.

 

Documents filed at a California court earlier this month are the first public sign that TeaTV and BeeTV are on the ACE radar. Signed by van Voorne, the DMCA subpoena application targets Cloudflare and requires the company to hand over whatever information it holds on the alleged infringers identified by ACE.

 

The subpoena requires Cloudflare to hand over the following: Information sufficient to identify the alleged infringers of the motion pictures described in the attached notification letter. This would include the individuals’ names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account history.

 

The deadline to hand over that information is today, November 25, 2022, so it’s likely that Cloudflare has already complied. Whether Cloudflare had anything useful to hand over is unknown, but from the last five years of ACE operations, we know that DMCA subpoenas are only the start and the group never gives up.

MPA/ACE Target Github Repos

Exactly a week after the DMCA subpoena application, the Motion Picture Association sent a pair of takedown notices to Github – one targeting TeaTV and the other CyberFlix TV, a popular piracy app with similar functionality.

 

Representing Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal City Studios, Warner Bros., Disney and Netflix Studios, LLC, the MPA described both apps as engaged in “massive infringement of copyrighted motion pictures and television shows” with infringement their “predominant use and purpose.”

 

The MPA also provided a document (Exhibit A) containing a “representative list of infringements” occurring via both apps. Those aren’t published by Github but it appears that the MPA wanted to present a clear case of infringement so that Github could see for itself that the apps needed to be taken down.

 

TeaTV is no stranger to publicity having hit the headlines following a high-profile article published by CNBC in Canada.

 

The situation for CyberFlix is also precarious. The app is reported to be a clone of Terrarium TV, which shut down in 2018 under legal pressure, widely attributed to ACE.

 

In 2021, the domain Cyberflix.app ended up in the hands of the MPA. No official announcement followed but seeing the CyberFlix app grow in popularity was always likely to result in a follow up from ACE.

 

Whether ACE was responsible for another recent shutdown is unclear. The developer of Cinema HD reportedly stopped pushing updates to the popular streaming app after facing “legal issues”, a not-uncommon event since ACE appeared on the scene.

 

Whether the same fate awaits TeaTV, BeeTV, and CyberFlix, remains to be seen but life in the spotlight has never been easy for piracy services. The only solution is to remain unsuccessful but that’s never been much of an attraction.

 

Court documents & DMCA notices can be found here (1,2,3,4,5)

 

Six years ago, the US Navy was sued for mass copyright infringement and accused of causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

 

The lawsuit was filed by German company Bitmanagement. It wasn’t a typical piracy case where software was downloaded from shady sources, but the end result was the same.

 

It all started in 2011 when the US Navy began testing Bitmanagement’s 3D virtual reality application ‘BS Contact Geo’. The Navy subsequently installed the software across its network, assuming that it had permission to do so.

 

This turned out to be a crucial misunderstanding. Bitmanagement said it never authorized this type of use and when it discovered that the Navy had installed the software on hundreds of thousands of computers, the company took legal action.

Bitmanagement Wins Appeal

In a complaint filed at the United States Court of Federal Claims in 2016, the German company accused the US Navy of mass copyright infringement and demanded damages totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

 

The Court initially dismissed the complaint so Bitmanagement appealed. Last year, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sided with the German software company, concluding that the US Government was indeed liable.

 

The matter was reverted back to the Federal Claims court, to determine the appropriate damages amount through a ‘hypothetical negotiation’ process at a behind-closed-doors trial.

Millions or Thousands in Damages?

Over the past several months, the court heard both sides and a crucial expert witness. The goal was to establish what the Navy would have paid for the software licenses if an agreement had been reached.

 

The court also had to decide how many copies the Navy should pay compensation for. Bitmanagement claimed that over 600,000 copies were installed but the Court of Appeals specified that damages should be based on “actual usage” of the software.

 

To reach its final verdict the Federal Claims Court relied in part on testimony from the Navy’s expert witness, David Kennedy, who has vast experience with establishing damages claims.

 

After reviewing various log files, Mr. Kennedy concluded that the software was used by a few hundred unique users at most. In addition, he believes that it’s reasonable that Bitmanagement would have agreed to a price of up to $200 per license.

 

This figure is lower than the $370 per install that was negotiated earlier. However, the expert witness believes that this is warranted due to the large volume of the deal and the fact that the software company’s cash position was rather low at the time.

Court Awards $154,400

Federal Claims Court Judge Edward J. Damich largely agrees with this expert opinion. In his order, he awards $154,400 in total damages.

 

The damages figure is based on 635 unique users and a license fee of $200. The court also awards an additional $350 for each of the 100 simultaneous-use licenses the Navy would have agreed to.

 

Judge Damich notes that these conclusions are supported by “objective considerations”, adding that the damages amount is “fair and reasonable”.

 

Whether Bitmanagement agrees with this conclusion has yet to be seen. The company requested $155 million in damages, arguing that the Navy has installed 600,000 copies of its software, for which it should have paid ~$259 a piece.

 

The $154,400 in compensation represents a tiny fraction of the claim, even if we add an award for delayed compensation, which will be established later.

 

—

 

A copy of the Federal Claims Court’s order, granting Bitmanagement $154,400 in copyright infringement damages is available here (pdf)

 

In a country where more than 770 burglaries go unsolved every day, it’s no surprise that some people consider free Sky streams the least of the UK’s worries.

 

If the topic was switched to fraud, opinions would likely be quite different, and herein lies the problem. In 2022, piracy might form the basis of an investigation, but more often than not, fraud, money laundering, and other serious charges are the outcome.

Sky Backed By Organized Crime Unit

Not everyone can afford Sky TV, so it’s no surprise that pirate set-top boxes are so popular. It’s a trend Sky is determined to reverse in partnership with the police.

 

The company doesn’t seem ready to tackle the public just yet, but it’s a completely different story for those involved in the pirate IPTV market.

 

A statement issued today reveals that a “large-scale” TV piracy operation is under police investigation in the north of England. The private/public initiative involves Sky, South Yorkshire Police, and the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit (YH ROCU).

 

During Tuesday morning this week, YH ROCU and South Yorkshire officers partnered with Sky to execute an unknown number of warrants in Doncaster and Barnsley. Police arrested a 43-year-old man who appears to have been involved in the supply of illegal TV streams, almost certainly including those owned by Sky.

 

“Providing the means to watch premium television content without a subscription is illegal. By taking action in this way we hope to make a significant impact on this kind of criminal activity,” says Ramona Senior, Head of the YH ROCU Regional Economic Crime Unit.

Much More Than Piracy

The suspect’s role in the illegal streaming operation hasn’t been revealed but police have plenty of potential charges lined up.

 

Alleged offenses under the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act lay the groundwork before a significant escalation into conspiracy to defraud. Specifics are yet to be released, but similar cases have featured offenses related to the possession or supply of articles for use in fraud – a pirate box or subscription, for example.

 

Since streams tend to be sold as part of a subscription package, any revenue is illegal according to the Proceeds of Crimes Act 2002. Police say the man arrested Tuesday is suspected of money laundering, which includes possession or handling of criminal property, or facilitation of the same.

 

Police also mention an offense under the ‘Serious Offences Act’ but probably meant to write Serious Crime Act instead. Charges under this legislation have succeeded against sellers of pirate TV boxes (1,2) and have also appeared in IPTV provider cases.

 

Police describe the arrest as “an excellent example of our officers working with private partners to enforce the law,” adding that the suspect is now free pending further inquiries.

 

How the case will progress is unknown, but the arrest itself doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Rumors that the police were planning something like this have been circulating since the start of the World Cup, but where and against whom remained a mystery.

 

Roughly a decade ago, the online piracy landscape was fairly straightforward and easy to navigate.

 

There were a dozen or so household names that drew most of the traffic, including KickassTorrents, Torrentz, YTS, EZTV, Rapidshare and Putlocker.

 

All of these sites have long since disappeared, but interestingly their brands live on. Opportunistic copycats often use these familiar names to build their own piracy empires, something seen more recently with 123movies, Cuevana, and other icons.

 

It’s perhaps fitting that sites that relied heavily on copying are being copied themselves; the original operators can hardly complain about that. But for unwitting users, the landscape can be quite confusing, especially when scammers and malware peddlers jump on board to make a quick buck.

Putlocker.com

A few days ago we saw one of these classic piracy names go up for auction at Namejet. The domain in question, Putlocker.com, enjoyed its heydays roughly a decade ago.

 

In 2011 the file-hosting service was added to Hollywood’s list of notorious pirate sites and subsequently featured in the U.S. Government’s notorious markets report. Not just once but two years in a row.

 

Putlocker wasn’t happy with these allegations and stressed that it took aggressive measures to take pirated content down. The owners eventually decided to let go of the name and in 2014 rebranded as Firedrive.

$102,499 Auction

Even though Putlocker.com hasn’t been in use for years, there was plenty of interest in the domain at auction.

 

After a bidding war, a lucky buyer going by the name of “pantaloons” scooped up Putlocker.com. This person ended up paying $102,499 for the domain name, a massive sum for an ancient piracy relic. Who in their right mind would pay that much for a controversial domain and why?

 

At first, we thought it might be a pirate with deep pockets plotting to restore the old file-sharing juggernaut but there is absolutely no evidence that’s the case. On the contrary, a domain broker, who prefers to remain unnamed in this article, offered a more down-to-earth explanation.

 

“The domain putlocker.com is valuable because it receives a large amount of targeted type-in traffic,” the broker says.

 

“A vast majority of this traffic comes from people mistakingly typing putlocker.com into their browsers while searching for one of the 75 or so clones across other TLDs and ccTLDs,” he adds.

Serving Ads

According to various estimates, Putlocker.com still has roughly 4,000 visitors per day. That isn’t a lot, but these are all people searching for something specific, which makes them more likely to click on advertising feeds.

 

Indeed, soon after Putlocker.com was auctioned off, it was monetized by a Zeroclick ads feed. This is basically a list of links with terms such as “Watch Movies Free” and “Free Full Movies” that may look rather appealing to confused pirates.

 

These ads point to other advertising pages that ultimately lead people to streaming services such as Crackle, Pluto TV, and SkyShowtime. There’s also a link to Chilimovie.com which looks like a pirate site, but isn’t. Instead, it tries to convert visitors into new customers for Amazon Prime Video.

 

These ad feeds have been abused by dubious and scammy services in the past but we didn’t see any of these on Putlocker.com when we checked.

 

It’s hard to tell how much revenue this advertising model delivers but it must take a while to recoup a $100k investment. According to our source, the buyer may have overpaid based on the ad-revenue potential alone.

Pirate Domains Have Wild Lives

Putlocker.com is not the only domain with a pirate history to be auctioned off recently. Moviesjoy.net was sold a few days ago for $15,800 and Primewire.ag, targeted in an MPA lawsuit last year, sold at auction for a few thousand dollars.

 

These domain names are not typically sold by the original owners. Instead, they end up at auction after the original registrants forgets or chooses not to renew them

 

The same happened to Thepiratebay.com which was actioned off for $35,150 two years ago and now points to an adult site. Around the same time, Piratebay.org brought in $50,000. The latter briefly promoted a mysterious film project and is currently redirecting to a non-operational proxy domain.

 

Legal action filed last week by two Arizona-based companies aims to prevent pirate sites distributing their content. That’s not unusual in itself but the case is far from ordinary.

 

Founded in 2005, CP Productions, Inc. produces adult entertainment media and uses its own website for distribution. Fornix Holdings, Inc. handles intellectual property matters for CP Productions and to date has registered 157 videos at the U.S. Copyright Office.

 

Both companies are owned by Arizona resident David Graves who appears to manage everything from production to his companies’ anti-piracy efforts.

 

At a district court in Arizona on November 15, Fornix Holdings and CP Productions filed an ex parte application for a temporary restraining order (tro) and preliminary injunction. The goal was to quickly end infringement on several pirate websites where CP Productions’ videos were offered illegally for free.

 

Piracy is a common issue in the U.S. affecting thousands of content-producing companies. What stands out in this case are the far-reaching demands on extremely short notice. That the court authorized strict anti-piracy measures in a matter of days is noteworthy too, especially given some of the unusual features of the case.

Declaration in Support of TRO

The core of the TRO application is straightforward. As laid out in David Graves’ declaration, the website DaftSex.com links to 1,734 pirated copies of CP Productions videos. Two other domains, daftsex.tv and daftsex.porn, redirect to DaftSex.com.

 

A second website, Pornwild.com, began offering CP Productions’ videos around May 2022, again without permission. Graves says the site links to 1,339 infringing videos while two other websites, Pornwild.to and Pornwild-to.nicepornproxy.com, redirect to Pornwild.com.

 

Through content-monitoring companies, Graves sent over 1,700 takedown notices to DaftSex.com, to an email address that used to appear on the site but no longer does. The 1,600 takedowns sent to Pornwild.com were sent to a withheldforprivacy.com address listed in the domain’s WHOIS records. Graves says no responses from the sites were ever received.

Application for TRO/Preliminary Injunction

In their preliminary statement, Fornix and CP note that since the operators of DaftSex.com and Pornwild.com concealed their identities, they are listed as Doe #1 and Doe #2 in their application. There’s no reference in the application but PornHub owner MindGeek actually made Doe #1’s identity public in September.

 

To overcome their identification problems, the applicants named EasyDNS, Namecheap and Cloudflare as defendants in the case. And since it “provides a search service that returns Defendant John Does’ sites” in response to certain searches, Google was also named as a defendant.

 

At this point readers will recall that MG Premium, a subsidiary of Pornhub-owner MindGeek, won a $32 million judgment against the operator of Daftsex.com on November 7, 2022.

 

Fornix and CP’s application for a temporary restraining order against DaftSex and Pornwild was filed on November 15. That’s more than a week after MG Premium won its own case against DaftSex and an injunction requiring Verisign to hand over the DaftSex.com domain to MG Premium.

 

Already under new ownership, DaftSex.com now redirects to RedTube, another platform owned by MindGeek.

Applicants Demand Everything – and More

To prevent the operators of DaftSex and PornWild from knowing about the case, Fornix and CP requested an ex parte restraining order in the face of “willful and ongoing infringing conduct.” Their demands included the following:

 

• Deactivate and cancel the DaftSex and Pornwild domains and prevent re-registration
• Deactivate the websites at daftsex.com, daftsex.tv, daftsex.porn, pornwild.com, pornwild.to, pornwild-to.nicepornproxy.com and delete all copies of infringing works
• Delete all copies of plaintiffs’ works uploaded by DaftSex and Pornwild to third-party sites
• Cease provision of all internet services to DaftSex and PornWild including domain name registration, hosting, security, content delivery, and reverse proxy services
• Compel Google to remove all DaftSex and Pornwild websites from search results

 

After the application was filed on November 15, Judge Diane J Humetewa responded by ordering a telephone hearing on November 17. In the meantime, summons were reportedly issued to Cloudflare EasyDNS, Google, and NameCheap. What happened during the telephone hearing isn’t revealed in the docket but it was subsequently reset for November 21.

Google Appears, Dismissals Begin

An entry dated November 18 shows that Fornix and CP Productions voluntarily dismissed their case against EasyDNS. Hoping to learn more about this fast moving case, TorrentFreak contacted EasyDNS with some questions. CEO Mark Jeftovic told us that he knew nothing about it.

 

“We have never been served any papers regarding this case. Your email was the first I’ve ever heard about any of this,” Jeftovic informed TF.

 

After consulting their systems, EasyDNS did manage to find some related information. One ticket related to a copyright removal request forwarded to a customer and later confirmed as complete by the complainant. Another contained a notice from Verisign advising that a domain was being moved onto the EuroDNS registrar tag to comply with the MG/DaftSex injunction. That left one more.

 

“[The third ticket] was an email thread amongst several lawyers asking if we will participate in some hearing five days ago, received the day of the hearing. Our agent responded ‘What is our involvement with this case?’ and we never heard back,” Jeftovic explained.

 

Jeftovic then offered a theory on EasyDNS’ dismissal from the case. “My guess is one of Google, Namecheap or Cloudflare did attend the hearing, pointed to Section 230 or other safe harbour provisions, and got all of the ISPs dropped from the defendants,” he said.

 

Coincidence or probably not, an appearance was made on behalf of Google on November 18. The very next day, Namecheap, Cloudflare, and Google were voluntarily dismissed too.

Temporary Restraining Order Granted

Following a telephone hearing this Monday, Judge Humetewa granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, minimal details as follows:

 

“Plaintiffs are not required to post a bond. Defendants are to disable infringing domain names, suspend service to those infringing domain names, and prevent transfer,” the entry reads, adding:

 

“Google shall, to the extent necessary, remove the infringing domain names from search results.”

 

The preliminary injunction will be handled separately.

 

Related documents can be found here (1,2,3,4,5, pdf)

 

With nearly 12 million books, Z-Library advertised itself as the largest repositories of pirated books on the Internet.

 

The site had millions of regular readers who found a wealth of free knowledge and entertainment at their fingertips.

 

Update: After roughly 24 hours of downtime the Tor sites appear to be working again.

 

This reign ended abruptly two weeks ago when the U.S. Department of Justice seized its domain names. Following an FBI investigation, the authorities identified Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova as prime suspects. The pair were arrested in Argentina and now await potential extradition to the United States.

Tor Network

As part of the criminal investigation, the U.S. authorities seized 241 domain names. This effectively made the site unavailable on the open web. But Z-Library wasn’t completely wiped out and continued to operate through .onion domains on the Tor network.

 

The remaining team members initially continued to respond to inquiries as well, suggesting that the two arrestees were not the only people running the site. Over the past 24 hours, however, Z-Library appears to have run into new issues.

 

Those who try to access the platform’s .onion domains receive an error message informing them that Z-Library is unreachable. This suggests that there may be issues with the server or the technical setup.

 

“Onionsite Not Found. The most likely cause is that the onionsite is offline. Contact the onionsite administrator,” the message reads.

 

Whether U.S. authorities have anything to do with these recent developments is unknown. The Z-Library team has yet to comment on these issues and didn’t immediately reply to our request for comment.

The Invisible Internet Project (I2P)

While attempts to access Z-Library are currently problematic, that isn’t confirmation that the remaining team members have thrown in the towel. At the time of writing, the library remains accessible through The Invisible Internet Project, also known as I2P.

 

I2P isn’t widely recognized among the general public but the network, which initially started as the “Invisible IRC Project”, has been around for more than two decades.

 

I2P relies on peer-to-peer transactions and aims to be an uncensorable, anonymous, and secure communication system. That sounds like a good fit for Z-Library but novices will find it harder to set up than other alternatives.

Disappointed

On social media, Z-Library users appear frustrated by the new Tor problems. As we reported earlier this week, these people still support the shadow library, despite the criminal allegations.

 

For their part, many book authors and publishers are disappointed to see this level of public support. While Z-Library ‘regrets’ that some writers suffered from its actions, the site is still not completely offline.

 

Further information on the progress of the criminal prosecution has not been made available. As far as we know, the two named defendants have yet to be extradited to the United States.

 

While pirated Hollywood blockbusters often score the big headlines, other industries have also been battling piracy over the years, sports organizations included.

 

Research has shown that sports piracy is prevalent around the world, with more than half of all sports fans regularly using unauthorized services.

 

Football, also known as soccer in some parts of the world, is particularly problematic. According to a report published by Synamedia last year, football is the number one gateway sport that turns fans of other sports, including Camel racing aficionados, into streaming pirates.

 

With the FIFA World Cup now underway in Qatar, this finding will be of great concern to sports rightsholders. The world’s largest sports tournament will draw billions of visitors from around the globe, including a large chunk tuning in via piracy sites.

FIFA World Cup Takedowns

In anticipation, some key copyright holders have taken action. In Canada, for example, the Federal Court issued a piracy-blocking order that requires local ISPs to prevent subscribers from accessing pirated FIFA World Cup streams.

 

Anti-Piracy coalition ACE is also aware of the threat. With sports broadcaster beIN now among its ranks, tackling live sports streaming has become one of the group’s priorities. And for the World Cup, everyone is on high alert.

 

Earlier this month ACE announced the shutdown of a major sports piracy ring in Latin America, targeting domains such as futbollibre.net and televisionlibre.net. A few days ago, its efforts shifted to Africa and the Middle East, taking down livekoora.online and yalla-shoot-new.tv.

 

These names may not be very popular in the West but they attracted millions of visitors in some countries. Livekoora, for example, had more than 17 million visits last month, with most traffic coming from Morocco and Algeria.

Settle and Shut Down

ACE is usually very conservative when it comes to sharing details on these enforcement efforts. However, the group confirmed to TorrentFreak that livekoora.online and yalla-shoot-new.tv were operated by the same person, a Moroccan resident.

 

The alleged operator was tracked down by ACE and agreed to a settlement deal. As part of this confidential agreement, the domain names were signed over to ACE.

 

“The sites were shut down via a confidential settlement that includes the transfer to ACE of the domain names connected to the illegal streaming services,” an ACE spokesperson informs TorrentFreak.

 

“ACE relies on its vast network of investigators and various legal tools such as subpoenas to identify and track persons of interest behind mass-scale piracy operations globally. The person has cooperated, and details of the settlement remain confidential.”

 

Indeed, those who access the two sports streaming sites today see an ACE banner, informing them that the site is no longer available due to copyright infringement.

We Will Find You!

The anti-piracy group has reported quite a few of these shutdowns over the past several months but none reference any type of damages payment. While it’s certainly possible that settlements contain a financial component, we get the impression that shutting down sites is the main priority.

 

These actions are then reported publicly to deter other site operators and to prevent aspiring sports pirates from joining the game. This is also stressed in a comment from ACE head Jan Van Voorn on the recent action.

 

“Working with our member, beIN SPORTS, we have sent a clear message to piracy operators around the world, including anyone planning to steal content from the upcoming World Cup games, that we will find you and shut you down,” Van Voorn said.

More Problems

It’s too early to tell if this strategy will pay off, but right now opportunities for new ACE operations are in abundant supply. While two major sites were closed recently, dozens of others with similar names such as live-kooora, kooora4lives, and yalla-shoot, remain readily accessible.

 

ACE is aware of this, of course, and informs us that this certainly isn’t their last enforcement action.

 

“This action, while important, is not the end of our planned live enforcement activities in the region. We will continue to take actions either civilly or criminally via our law enforcement partners,” a spokesperson says.

 

Notorious sports streaming sites are not the only problem. Beyond the ACE efforts, rightsholders also have to deal with FIFA World Cup piracy on legitimate social media platforms such as Twitter.

 

When we looked at the most recent copyright takedown requests received by Twitter, a large percentage relate to the World Cup. These takedowns are not just limited to live streams but also target short highlights, and even six second clips of a cheering audience.

 

In April 2020, Columbia Pictures, Amazon Content Services, Disney Enterprises, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment, plus three companies owned by Universal, filed a copyright infringement complaint at a California district court.

 

The plaintiffs alleged that Nitro TV offered subscription packages consisting of thousands of live and title-curated television channels available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the United States and abroad. The Office, Spider-Man: Homecoming, Toy Story 3, Star Trek Beyond, Homecoming and Joker, were among the many titles owned by the plaintiffs and illegally distributed by Nitro.

 

The complaint initially featured Alejandro (Alex) Galindo as the sole named defendant but in time Galindo family members Anna, Martha and Osvaldo also found their names on the docket. Richard Horsten (aka ‘Rik de Groot’), Raul Orellana (aka YouTuber ‘Touchtone’) and his company Firestream LLC, completed the set.

 

Just a handful of years ago, Nitro TV was among the most recognized pirate IPTV brands online, but will be remembered for the huge damages awards it now faces.

Judge Awards Studios $51.6 Million

In a judgment handed down on November 18, 2022, California District Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong found the Nitro defendants jointly and severally liable for $51,600,000 in statutory damages.

 

“This reflects an award of the statutory maximum of $150,000 per work for the Nitro Defendants’ willful infringement of each of Plaintiffs’ identified 344 representative works,” Judge Frimpong’s judgment reads. (sample below)

 

“This damage award also reflects an award of $27,200.84 per work for the Nitro Defendants’ willful infringement of Plaintiffs’ identified 1,872 Works,” the Judge added.

Interest, Costs, Fees

Given that interest is allowed on money judgments in civil cases, the Judge also held the defendants jointly and severally liable for an additional $1,976,280 under 28 U.S.C. § 1961(a).

 

The movie and TV show companies were further awarded $88,080 in attorneys’ fees and costs relating to their discovery motion plus $93,000 associated with a sanctions motion, both against Alex Galindo, as previously reported.

Permanent Injunction

The plaintiffs obtained a preliminary injunction in 2020 and with this judgment, that was made permanent.

 

It restrains the defendants and third-party companies, including those in control of various Nitro-related domains such as TekkHosting.com, NitroIPTV.com, Lalaluhosting.com, and Nitro.ltd.

 

Tucows, Namecheap, Domain.com, and Peter Sunde’s Njalla, must prevent any of the domains from being modified, sold, or deleted, until they are transferred to the plaintiffs.

Two Years of Litigation

The plaintiffs’ victory comes as no surprise but the case itself presented many interesting moments.

 

Alex Galindo was accused of violating the preliminary injunction and withholding and destroying evidence, including 1,500 emails from his Gmail account. He also pleaded the Fifth Amendment, ostensibly due to fears of a follow-up criminal prosecution.

 

Earlier this year, Galindo called for the case to be dismissed on the basis that the plaintiffs weren’t prosecuting him quickly enough. Meanwhile, Galindo’s attorney asked to be excused from the case after his client went quiet after failing to pay his defense bills.

 

It’s claimed that Nitro TV generated at least $7 million from illegal subscriptions, with YouTuber ‘Touchtone’ (Raul Orellana), receiving more than half a million dollars for marketing Nitro online.

 

Judge Frimpong’s judgment and order granting default can be found here (1,2, pdf)

 

With millions of regular visitors, Z-Library is one of the largest repositories of pirated books on the Internet.

 

The site has nearly 12 million copies of books in its digital archive, which is shared with the world for free.

U.S. Z-Library Crackdown

Many authors and publishers are unhappy with the ‘shadow library’ and are now receiving support from the U.S. Department of Justice. Earlier this month, the authorities seized 241 Z-Library-associated domain names, making the site much harder to reach.

 

The seizures followed an FBI investigation and an indictment and complaint against two alleged operators of Z-Library. After authorities identified Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova as prime suspects, the pair were arrested in Argentina and now face potential extradition to the United States.

 

While all this was ongoing Z-Library remained accessible through the dark web In addition, questions sent to the site’s official email address were still being answered after the arrest of the two alleged operators, suggesting that part of the team was intact.

 

The initial responses we received from Z-Library weren’t very helpful, however. They failed to acknowledge the domain name seizures and pointed to hosting and server troubles instead.

Z-Library Responds

After the indictment was unsealed, Z-Library’s position became untenable. That led to the publishing of an official response. It confirms that part of the Z-Library team is operational but refrains from commenting on the alleged involvement of the two arrestees.

 

“We refrain commenting on the alleged Anton and Valeria involvement in the Z-Library project and the charges against them. We are very sorry they are arrested [sic],” the announcement reads (Tor link).

 

Z-Library does, however, realize that its site is causing trouble for authors so asks for their forgiveness.

 

“We also regret that some authors have suffered because of Z-Library and ask for their forgiveness. We do our best to respond to all complaints about files hosted in our library if it violates authors’ rights.”

 

The above suggests that Z-Library will do its best to respond to all takedown requests from authors but that doesn’t mean the site will cease operating. On the contrary, it is still up and running on the dark web, serving millions of books to registered users.

Z-Library Thanks Users, Who Thank Z-Library

Z-Library doesn’t just respond to rightsholders. In its message, the site also addresses its users, especially those who continue to donate to the site.

 

“We see the resonance recent events caused, we see how many people support and believe in Z-Library. Thank you for your support, it is extremely valuable to us. Thank you for each donation you make. You are the ones who making the existence of the Z-Library possible.”

 

Donations may help to keep Z-Library afloat and that is what the site appears to aspire to. Instead of waving the white flag, it is doubling down on its goal to make knowledge freely accessible to people around the world.

 

“We believe the knowledge and cultural heritage of mankind should be accessible to all people around the world, regardless of their wealth, social status, nationality, citizenship, etc. This is the only purpose Z-Library is made for.”

 

This message resonates with many Z-Library users, with hundreds sending well wishes and words of support in response to the announcement, as shown in the selection below.

 

– Zlibrary is one of the best resources to ever grace the internet and ya’ll should be proud of the work you’ve accomplished. -brook

– Thank you for all you do. Zlib helped me during college when I couldn’t afford books. I still use this for college books and continuing education. -CJirishlez

– Thanks so much for everything. This site has helped me a lot with school and accessing the tools for education I wouldn’t be able to obtain otherwise. -Sahar098

– What Z-library is doing is a real noble work for all humanity. We support every principle Z-library stands for. Knowledge should be available and accessible to everyone and not a privilege a few can get. -aissami123

– You have definitely accomplished your goal in my case. As a citizen of a country where I could never have access to this amount of information, I am grateful for the extremely valuable service your provide. -ReadingPineapple

– You’re quite literally one of the most important websites on the whole internet for me, your work is a blessing for thousands of people. -antithesis29

– As far as I’m concerned the FBI and the Department of justice are the Villians in this story, Long live Zlibrary. -Pyrophilia

– You changed the internet, you changed the world, we thank you for your courage, not all heroes wear capes, some share the knowledge for all who are unfortunate to be able to pay for it. -Laith1294

 

The problem for Z-Library is that the U.S. Department of Justice clearly disagrees with these users, and will likely do its best to ensure that the remaining members of the Z-Library team will be also held accountable.

 

In any case, this certainly isn’t the last chapter in the Z-Library saga. How it will end is highly uncertain, however.

 

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.

 

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 two newcomers on the list. “Black Adam” is the most downloaded title.

The most torrented movies for the week ending on November 21 are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrent sites
1	(9)	Black Adam	7.1 / trailer
2	(10)	Smile	6.8 / trailer
3	(…)	Spirited	6.6 / trailer
4	(2)	Weird: The Al Yankovic Story	7.3 / trailer
5	(5)	Top Gun: Maverick	8.6 / trailer
6	(7)	Bullet Train	7.4 / trailer
7	(…)	Black Panther: Wakanda Forever	7.3 / trailer
8	(1)	R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned	4.5 / trailer
9	(4)	Enola Holmes 2	6.9 / trailer
10	(3)	Amsterdam	6.1 / trailer

 

 

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

 

Over the past two decades, pirate sites and services frequented by millions of users have been shut down following legal action. No longer useful for spreading files, many were repurposed to spread fear.

 

In the wake of Hollywood’s 2005 win at the U.S. Supreme Court, the website of file-sharing service Grokster was transformed into a personalized warning. Anyone visiting the site saw their own IP address alongside a message claiming it had been logged. “Don’t think you can’t get caught. You are not anonymous,” the message added.

 

Variations on this theme have since appeared on dozens of platforms, most famously via an MPA campaign that declared “You can click but you can’t hide.” These messages were designed to instill fear and uncertainty but didn’t lead to any notable action against those who viewed them. Until now, at least.

Italy’s War on IPTV Pirates Hits The Streets

Most top-tier copyright holders avoid targeting consumer-level pirates, mainly because the optics aren’t great. No matter how carefully targets are chosen, suing someone’s grandma is terrible PR and even when things go smoothly, results are limited.

 

Today’s general consensus is that hitting site operators is much more effective but whenever the opportunity appears, undermining user confidence should be part of the strategy. Italian police have been following the same model by shutting down pirate IPTV services (1,2,3) and warning users they’re up next.

No Bluff: Police Tracked IPTV Subscribers

Letters recently sent to homes in Italy reveal that police were not bluffing. A copy letter obtained by Iilsole24ore identifies the send as the Nucleo Speciale Tutela Privacy e Frodi Tecnologiche, a Guardia di Finanza unit specializing in IT-related crime. It refers to an anti-IPTV police operation in May.

 

The operation targeted around 500 pirate IPTV resources including websites and Telegram channels. At the time, police also reported that 310+ pieces of IPTV infrastructure, including primary and balancing servers distributing illegal streams, were taken offline.

 

Police also claimed that a tracking system made it possible to identify the users of the pirate streams. The letter suggests extraordinary and potentially unprecedented tactics.

“Italy’s ISPs Redirected National Traffic”

The letters state that Italian authorities were able to track the IPTV users by “arranging for the redirection of all Internet service providers’ national connections” so that subscribers placed their orders on a police-controlled server configured to record their activity.

 

In comments to Iilsole24ore, Gian Luca Berruti, head of investigations at the Guardia di Finanza, describes the operation as “decisive” in the fight against cybercrime. Currently deployed to Italy’s National Cybersecurity Agency, Berruti references “innovative investigative techniques” supported by “new technological tools.”

 

Technical details are not being made public, but it’s claimed that IPTV users were tracked by “tracing of all connections to pirate sites (IPs) combined, in real-time,” and “cross-referencing telematic information with that derived from the payment mechanisms used.”

 

The police operation in May was codenamed Operazione:Dottor Pezzotto. A Telegram channel with exactly the same branding suffered a traffic collapse at exactly the same time.

IPTV Subscribers Must Pay a Fine

Finding out exactly what techniques the police used in May will take time but at face value seem more suited to terrorists than people looking for cheap streams. The fine amounts are baffling too, especially given the extraordinary effort to track IPTV users down.

 

The letters refer to an administrative copyright infringement fine of just 154 euros or “in case of recidivism” a total of 1,032 euros. However, if people pay their fines within 60 days, the amounts are reduced to 51 euros and 344 euros respectively.

 

“It is important to raise awareness of all citizens, especially young people, on this issue and make them understand that financing this business means financing organized crime. We must protect the healthy economy and companies that respect the rules,” Berruti says.

 

Around 1,600 people are believed to have been targeted in this first wave of letters but according to Andrea Duillo, CEO of Sky Italia, this is just the start.

 

“These first fines show that it is doubly dangerous to use pirated services, because not only do you hand over your personal data to criminal organizations, but you also commit an offense for which you are fined and prosecuted,” Duillo concludes.

 

A redacted copy of the letter can be found here (pdf)

 

MindGeek is one of the leading players in the adult entertainment industry.

 

Formerly known as Manwin, MindGeek conquered the online adult market over the past decade by offering free porn to the masses.

The Copyright Switch

With help from user-uploaded videos, the company created massive databases of adult entertainment, much to the frustration of incumbent adult industry companies that often found pirated copies of their content on the site.

 

This bold business model paid off with billions of visits that provided a sizable revenue stream through sites such as Pornhub, YouPorn, Redtube, Tube8, Xtube, and dozens of others. And as MindGeek’s stature rose, it also transformed into a major rightsholder itself.

 

This imperium also includes a lot of copyrighted content. MindGeek subsidiary MG Premium, for example, owns brands including Brazzers and has more than 10,000 works registered at the US copyright office which it actively protects.

 

MindGeek’s subsidiary regularly files lawsuits against ‘pirate’ tube sites and users of peer-to-peer netoworks. The most impressive numbers come from its DMCA takedown campaign, which has been ramping up for over a decade.

121 Million URLs Since January

At the time of writing, MG Premium is the most prolific sender of DMCA notices to Google, according to the search giant’s transparency report. Since January this year, the adult company asked the search engine to remove more than 121 million allegedly infringing URLs.

 

MindGeek’s subsidiary officially began sending takedown notices in 2014 and since then has submitted well over half a billion links; 561,222,215 to be precise.

 

These numbers make MG Premium the copyright holder behind most DMCA notices to Google overall. The company reported nearly twice as many notices as the runner-up, anime publisher Viz Media. Music Group BPI reported slightly more URLs but it represents multiple rightsholders.

~60% Removal Rate

Not all reported URLs were removed from Google’s search results. The totals also include duplicates and URLs that were not indexed. For 1.6% of the links, Google decided not to take action, which suggests that no infringing content was found. This remaining 60.% was indeed removed, which translates to 327 million URLs

 

MindGeek also received DMCA notices for its own platforms. However, on PornHub, this number went down dramatically after the site started to verify uploaders.

 

All in all, it’s intriguing to see how MindGeek managed to transform itself from a company that was scolded for copyright infringement to one that protects (its own) copyrights at all costs.

 

Late 2011, Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom published a promo video that surprised even the most hardened file-sharers.

 

Produced by Printz Board, the catchy four-minute track featured personal appearances by stars including Kanye West, Will.i.am, Kim Kardashian, Floyd Mayweather, Jamie Foxx, Alicia Keys, and Snoop Dogg.

 

Through carefully edited soundbites, the celebrities gave shining endorsements of Megaupload, with tens of millions watching the video, mostly on YouTube. Arriving just weeks before Megaupload was shut down by the U.S. government, it was an audacious move on a scale unlikely to be seen again.

 

Dotcom was rumored to have sunk more than a million dollars into that video, but it transpires that equally audacious stunts can be pulled off with a lot less.

PikaShow – Not Just Another Piracy App

PikaShow runs on most Android devices, including smartphones and tablets. It allows users to stream live TV or download movies and TV shows for use offline. PikaShow is popular worldwide thanks to its subtitle capabilities and for those who prefer bigger screens, casting is also available.

 

PikaShow’s biggest draw, of course, is the price. It’s currently available via free download and generates revenue from in-app advertising, some of it provided by Google according to a recent analysis.

 

How much PikaShow generates is unclear but when the MPA filed a complaint with the USTR in October, the Hollywood group put forward an estimate of 10 million downloads. Part of this success is likely attributable to the “smooth” and “lag-free” streams PikaShow advertises. According to the MPA, the quality can be explained as follows:

 

The application sources most of the content directly from the servers of copyright holders (live TV and VOD) by circumventing their technological measures and then hosts the stolen content on third party cyberlockers and user-generated content platforms.

 

TorrentFreak contacted PikaShow’s developer for comment on the ten million download estimate. We received no reply but considering recent developments, that wasn’t entirely unexpected.

PikaShow Markets to the Masses

The MPA believes that PikaShow’s developer can be found in India. Evidence online tends to back that up and given PikaShow’s recent stunt, location theories will remain intact.

 

In North America, the most popular wood vs. ball sport is baseball. While 500 million fans worldwide can’t be wrong, cricket’s two billion fans provide perspective. In India, few things are more important than cricket so when the Asia Cup 2022 cricket tournament began late August, millions of TV screens became the country’s focus.

 

Asia Cup 2022 drew an estimated 200 million viewers in its first week alone, with broadcasts beamed into Indian homes by Star India, a company known for its zero-tolerance approach to piracy.

 

These pictures, broadcast by Star India, must’ve gone down like a lead balloon.

 

What prompted this audacious move is unclear and since PikaShow is maintaining radio silence, we may never know the precise details. However, it appears that following negotiations with the Afghanistan Cricket Board during the tournament, “Digital Video Streaming Platform” PikaShow became the new official sponsor of the country’s national team.

 

At that stage Afghanistan had no chance of winning the competition but still had one remaining game on the big stage. With India as their opponents, a massive TV audience and considerable exposure for PikaShow was guaranteed.

MPA: Sponsorship Was “Controversial”

That PikaShow even considered such an outlandish scheme is remarkable, but actually going through with it raises the stakes significantly. Unsurprisingly, the Motion Picture Association is fully aware of events and describes the sponsorship deal as “controversial.”

 

The Board of Control For Cricket in India is probably aware too. Even if the takedown notices it previously sent to Google had been forgotten, messages the organization received on Twitter would have served as a reminder, including the helpful: “If u want live match then download pikashow app.”

 

Perhaps most importantly, Star India knows all about PikaShow.

Good/Bad Results From TV Stunt

According to SimilarWeb data, traffic to PikaShow’s website increased by 25% in September following its TV escapades. October’s figures were only slightly down, a suggestion that the sponsorship exercise may have boosted traffic, but not all publicity is good publicity.

 

In a DMCA notice sent last week to Github, Star India called PikaShow “a rogue standalone pirate application” that has plagued the industry, OTT platforms especially.

 

“Based on our investigation, we have found that ‘Pikashow’ is using your services for ‘app update check’ functionality on their application. Which is further indulged in the act of copyright piracy by providing unauthorized streams of digital content without consent of the copyright owner,” the company wrote.

 

Github responded as expected by taking the repo down but Star India is nowhere near finished.

Civil Lawsuit, Injunction, Criminal Investigation

After Star filed a copyright complaint against PikaShow at the High Court of Delhi, Justice Prathiba M. Singh responded with an injunction last week (pdf) directed at the country’s ISPs, numerous intermediaries supplying services to PikaShow, and PikaShow itself.

 

Gambling company 1XBET and Github India are required to disclose any information they hold, including payment information, bank account details, plus any contracts in place with PikaShow.

 

Domain name companies NameSilo, Tucows, and GoDaddy, must disable several domains (pikashows.com, strms.in, strms.one, jonahz-viccen-i-202.site, i-cdn-0.jonahz-viccen-i-202.site, cdn4506.jonahz-viccen-i-202.site) and hand over everything they hold on PikaShow’s operator. India’s ISPs must immediately block a list of PikaShow-related names.

 

Whether PikaShow has any regrets over these civil matters is unclear but future prospects look bleak. On October 27, 2022, Star India filed a criminal complaint against PikaShow and an investigation by Delhi Police is currently underway. A second criminal complaint, filed by Disney, has also been recorded.

 

The next hearing is scheduled for January 25, 2023. Whether PikaShow will still be online remains to be seen.

 

When the file-sharing revolution hit the mainstream well over a decade ago, many site operators and users positioned ‘sharing’ as an ideology.

 

This altruistic belief has started to fade in recent years. For most pirate sites and services, money is the main driver, with piracy as the means to that end.

 

There are some notable exceptions of course, especially in the publishing industry where free access to knowledge is advocated by Sci-Hub, LibGen, and others. The law is often blind to these motivations but they are fuel for discussion, even among well-respected scholars.

PiLiMi

This year a new team entered the piracy arena in the form of the Pirate Library Mirror. As the name suggests, the team behind it is well-aware of the legal status of their operation.

 

“We deliberately violate the copyright law in most countries. This allows us to do something that legal entities cannot do: making sure books are mirrored far and wide,” they note.

 

The goal of the team is to preserve as much written material as possible. This included archiving a full copy of Z-Library, which was completed in September. That was just the start, however.

Anna’s Archive

This week, another chapter was added to the saga. “Anna”, who was one of the driving forces behind the Pirate Library, decided to release her own site, simply called “Anna’s Archive“. While this name sounds benign, its impact certainly isn’t.

 

Anna’s Archive is basically a meta-search engine that can find content from third-party ‘pirate’ sources. This includes direct downloads through Library Genesis forks and Z-Library, two well-known shadow libraries. In addition, torrent links are included as well.

 

The site presents all information in a slick and easy-to-navigate format that rivals commercial vendors. However, Anna’s Archive doesn’t come with a paywall or shopping cart.

 

“We strongly believe in the free flow of information, and preservation of knowledge and culture. With this search engine, we build on the shoulders of giants,” Anna writes.

From The Ashes…

The site isn’t completely finished yet and may still have quite a few bugs. But given the situation with Z-Library, the team wanted to get the search engine up and running as soon as possible.

 

The Z-Library links rely on the Tor version of the site, which remains online. However, the goal is to ultimately make all content available through IPFS as well. This would make it pretty much impossible to take down, similar to the Library Genesis forks, which also use IPFS.

 

Anna informed TorrentFreak that the Z-Library domain seizures came as a shock but not a deterrent. They only increased the team’s motivation to go full steam ahead, while being mindful of their privacy.

 

“For us, it underscores the importance of being careful, and the importance of this data being widely available and redundant across the globe,” Anna said.

Leave No Trace

The privacy angle is a topic that has become very relevant this week. Details of the criminal indictment of Z-Library’s alleged operators show that law enforcement has a lot of tools to track people down, even those who prefer to remain anonymous.

 

Anna and the team know the stakes. In a recent post, she wrote that Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyian, whose identity became public, risks being arrested if she travels to a Western country. This is why Anna’s team does all it can to remain anonymous.

 

“We are at the other end of the spectrum; being very careful not to leave any trace, and having strong operational security,” she wrote.

 

We asked a series of questions to find out more about the motivations behind the project but Anna says they’re not ready to do interviews just yet. For now, the team will focus on its archival ‘duties’.

 

“We are planning to write an in-depth essay about our motivations at some point,” she said, noting that in-depth interviews may be an option later.

 

Setting aside two hours to watch a movie can be a luxury these days, especially when the busiest among us claim they can guzzle 200 TikTok videos in much less than that.

 

So-called ‘Fast Movie’ channels appear to offer some middle ground. Popular mainstream movies lasting a couple of hours are edited down to around 10 minutes and then uploaded to YouTube. The aim is to keep the storyline more or less intact yet despite obvious drawbacks, millions of people enjoy watching them.

Fast Movie Crackdown

Signs that movie companies were about to send a message trickled through last year. Japan does not recognize fair use and even if it did, experts predicted that ‘Fast Movies’ would still cross red lines. People generating advertising revenue from ‘Fast Movies’ certainly wouldn’t improve things either.

 

In June 2021, three ‘Fast Movie’ YouTubers were arrested in Japan following criminal complaints from several media companies. All three faced potential prison sentences plus fines for crimes allegedly committed in 2020.

 

In the face of overwhelming evidence, the defendants entered guilty pleas and received prison sentences of between 18 and 24 months, suspended for up to four years, plus total fines of around $25,000, payable to the state.

 

But it didn’t end there.

13 Media Companies Seek Damages in Civil Lawsuit

In May 2022, 13 member companies of the Content Overseas Distribution Association (CODA) and Japan Video Software Association (JVA) followed up their win in the criminal matter by filing a civil lawsuit at the Tokyo District Court.

 

Listing 54 copyrighted works including ‘I Am a Hero’ and ‘Shin Godzilla’, Asmik Ace, Kadokawa, Gaga, Shochiku, TBS Television, Toei, Toei Video, Toho, Nikkatsu, Nippon Television Network, Happinet Phantom Studio, Fuji Television, and WOWOW, said that the defendants’ ‘Fast Movies’ had been viewed 10 million times on YouTube, causing two billion yen ($14.2 million) in overall damages.

 

For the purposes of their civil damages lawsuit, however, the plaintiffs entered a partial claim of ‘just’ 500 million yen ($3.56 million) against the defendants collectively.

Tokyo District Court Decision

In a decision handed down yesterday at the Tokyo District Court, Judge Masaki Sugiura acknowledged that the two defendants responsible for uploading the ‘Fast Movie’ edits without permission should compensate the rightsholders for the damages caused.

 

In line with the media companies’ reduced claim, the defendants were ordered to pay 500 million yen, roughly $3.56 million. Having sent the clearest possible message, the plaintiffs followed up with a joint statement delivered by their partner anti-piracy groups.

 

“This is a ruling that fully upholds our allegations, and we believe that it should be a great deterrent against copyright infringement in the future,” a joint CODA and JVA statement reads.

 

“Compared to other copyright infringement cases in recent years, the amount of compensation awarded in this case is large. The 13 plaintiffs acted in unity so as not to allow the criminals to get away with impunity whilst profiting from copyright infringement, and the significance of this judgment is immeasurable.”

More Work To Be Done

Another key goal of media companies worldwide is to prevent pirate sites from generating revenue from advertising. After receiving a request from Shueisha, one of Japan’s largest manga publishers, anti-piracy group CODA sought action from an advertising company in Spain.

 

“CODA confirmed placement of advertisements on 27 pirated manga sites in Japan and Hiroyuki NAKAJIMA, Legal Director of CBEP ‘Cross-Border Enforcement Project’) run by CODA in association with Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, requested in writing, thorough a Spanish law firm, to stop placing ads on these sites on 17th October 2022,” CODA says.

 

“The Ad Agency responded on 30th October pointing out that although it is impossible to grasp the contents of all the websites that it renders services, it had canceled the contracts with the sites in question and had stopped providing services to all the 27 sites, and promised to ensure that it would not provide services, nor would it enter into contracts with those who infringe intellectual property rights in the future.”

 

CODA says that it has continued to monitor the 27 sites and can now confirm that 26 carry no ads provided by the unnamed agency. The remaining site is under investigation.

 

A few hours ago, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed the indictment and complaint against two alleged operators of Z-Library.

 

Following an FBI investigation, the authorities pinpointed Russian nationals Anton Napolsky and Valeriia Ermakova as prime suspects. The two were arrested in Argentina and now await potential extradition to the United States.

 

There’s little doubt that Z-Library helped to distribute millions of copyrighted books but tracking down and then identifying people behind pirate sites can be a challenge. In this case, however, the FBI didn’t have to look very far.

 

Details laid out in the complaint show that it was fairly straightforward to connect the dots, largely thanks to data provided by Google and Amazon, which led directly to the suspects.

 

The complaint includes various statements provided by FBI special agent Brett Dohnal, who links various personal email addresses, phone numbers, and other records of Napolsky and Ermakova to the Z-Library operation.

Anton N.

For the investigation, the FBI used search warrants directed at various companies such as Amazon and Google. This showed that the personal information of Anton Napolsky could be linked to Z-Library email addresses and domains in several instances.

 

For example, Napolsky’s personal mail.ru address was used to register zlibdoms@gmail.com, Napolsky7@gmail.com, and feedback.bookos@gmail.com. His personal phone number was also linked to Z-Library email addresses.

 

“Google records reflect that a Russian-based telephone number ending in – 2458 (‘Napolsky Phone-1’) was used to register the email Napolsky7@gmail.com as well as the emails donation.zlib@gmail.com, zlibdoms@gmail.com and feedback.bookos@gmail.com,” the complaint reads.

 

Amazon data corroborate these findings. According to the FBI, Napolsky had two Amazon accounts in his name, using his personal phone number and overlapping street addresses, mostly located in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

 

With this account, several orders were placed and paid with Amazon gift cards, allegedly donated by Z-Library users.

 

“One of the accounts is registered with the email address ‘amazon@bookmail.org,’ and the other account, which is registered with Napolsky Personal Email-1, has a lengthy Amazon order history that includes at least 21 orders that were paid for using Amazon.com gift cards that originated as ‘donations’ by users to Z-Library.”

 

Amazon’s cloud hosting service AWS also linked Napolsky to Z-Library. According to the complaint, his name and email account is connected to the email service that was used by @bookmail.org.

 

This bookmail service was used by Z-Library to send ebooks to users over email. That was independently confirmed by undercover FBI agents.

 

“According to records obtained by law enforcement from Amazon, the Simple Email Service for @bookmail.org is connected to an AWS Account ending in 4421, which is registered to the customer ‘Anton Napolsky’ at the email address Napolsky Personal Email-1,” it reads.

Valeriia E.

The complaint also links Valeriia Ermakova to Z-Library, relying on data provided by Google and Amazon. Again, gift card donations from Z-Library users play an important role.

 

Special agent Dohnal specifically mentions a card that was donated around January 2021. Not much later, the person who made the donation received a message that the card had been received. That message was sent from Z-Library’s official email address zlibsupp@gmail.com.

 

With help from Amazon, the recipient of the donation was linked to Valeriia Ermakova, her email address, as well as her credit card records.

 

“According to records obtained by law enforcement from Amazon, the Donation was claimed by an Amazon customer account ending in -1502, registered to customer ‘Valeriia’ at email address kawaiihito22@gmail.com.”

 

“The account was registered on November 30, 2018, and has payment methods on file, including a Visa and a Mastercard in the name of Ermakova Valeriya with the billing address for each of Fontanka River Embankment 24 18, St. Petersburg, Russia.”

 

The donations weren’t all used to reinvest in the site, it seems. According to the complaint, Ermakova mostly used her Amazon account to buy clothes and beauty products.

 

“Since March 20, 2019, the 1502 Account has placed more than 110 orders totaling over $13,628.32, most of them for beauty and apparel products,” the complaint reads, without mentioning how much of this amount can be linked to donations.

 

In addition to the Amazon data, information provided by Google reveals that Ermakova’s personal email was accessed by an IP-address that also accessed Z-Library Gmail accounts.

 

“Based on subscription records obtained by law enforcement from Google, the Google account associated with Ermakova Personal Email-1 logged on numerous times from IP addresses that were also used to log into the accounts associated with the email addresses zlibsupp@gmail.com and feedback.bookos@gmail.com, indicating that a single internet access point was used to log in to all three accounts.”

Collaborating on and Controlling Z-Library

The complaint ends with an overview of evidence that aims to show that Napolsky and Ermakova controlled the Z-Library website and collaborated on this criminal endeavor.

 

Information obtained through search warrants link Napolsky to the Google Adwords account of Bookos.org and he also received an invoice for the domain registration of Booksc.org, among other things.

 

Z-Library used project management software Atlassian to manage tasks and projects. Atlassian’s software sent updates and tasks the team assigned, which purportedly shows that the defendants were collaborating on the Z-Library software.

 

All-in-all, the information suggests that Napolsky and Ermakova didn’t spend much effort concealing their alleged involvement with Z-Library. That said, all of these allegations have yet to be proven in court.

 

What we can say is that people with the same names as the defendants are surprisingly easy to find online, on social media, and elsewhere.

 

The criminal investigation of Z-Library also sheds new light on a Sci-Hub issue we reported earlier. At the time, Sci-Hub founder Alexandra Elbakyan said that the FBI obtained access to her Google account, suggesting that she may have been investigated too, perhaps in a separate case.

 

—

 

A copy of the complaint, which includes much more information than what we summarized in this article, is available here (pdf)

 

In the wake of Italian police shutting down a 900,000 user pirate IPTV service last week, police in Spain have followed up with an operation of their own.

 

Information provided by Policía Nacional and EUROPOL does not include the service’s name but according to the numbers, the operation appears significant. The IPTV service had more than 500,000 subscribers all over Europe, serviced by a network of resellers.

 

Police say they disabled 10 administration panels connected to 32 servers located in France, the Netherlands and Spain. Those locations are reported as playing host to “illegal television content” and related computer equipment.

 

Packages bought by subscribers gave them access to 2,600 live TV channels plus a library of 23,000 movies and TV shows. An interesting factor is the reported age of the service – at least a decade of operations according to Spanish police.

Investigation Launched in 2020

The investigation began in 2020 following a complaint from the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment. Police say that they uncovered a network, operating through various companies, that had been fraudulently commercializing video content since 2012.

 

Websites were used to advertise and sell the illegal subscription packages and like many similar IPTV platforms working at scale, a network of resellers helped to cascade sales from the top-level service into the consumer market below. Police say that than 95 resellers represented the service in Spain, UK, Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, and Greece.

Big Service, Big Money

Numbers provided today by Policía Nacional will almost certainly change, if and when a case goes to trial, but by most standards they remain significant.

 

Annual profit – not revenue – is currently estimated at 3,000,000 million euros. Investigators say the money was laundered in Spain and elsewhere.

 

Through bank accounts held by companies in Spain, the suspects allegedly transferred money to bank accounts held by other companies under their control, located in unnamed paraísos fiscales, aka tax havens. Profits also funded luxury homes in the Malaga region of Spain and the formation of new companies to support criminal activity.

Arrests and Seizures

Police say they seized two high-end vehicles with an estimated value of 180,000 euros along with 2,800 euros in cash, IT-related materials, and other documentation. Eight bank accounts were frozen and four people were placed under arrest.

 

“The operation ended with four detainees in the Málaga municipalities of Benahavís (2), Mijas (one person arrested and another under investigation) and Benalmádena (1),” a police statement reads.

 

Efforts to identify more people involved in the organization continue in other countries.

 

Update:The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment played a key role in this investigation and has just provided new information regarding the IPTV service targeted.

 

The service worked under various brands including TV Choice Spain, Great TV Choice, and Best TV Choice. ACE reports that the services were promoted via real estate agencies, mainly in the coastal areas of Spain, and were actually shut down on October 19, 2022.

 

Authorities raided the main suspects’ residences in Marbella, shut down nine IPTV servers, and froze bank accounts containing 3 million euros.

 

“ACE is proud to support the effective actions taken by the Spanish National Police and Europol against this illegal IPTV piracy ring,” said Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Chief of Global Content Protection for the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE.

 

“We are honored to continue our work with law enforcement agencies and other partners around the world in our crucial fight to combat large-scale piracy operations and protect the creative marketplace.”

 

There’s no denying the many victories of the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) over the past few years.

 

The anti-piracy group, which represents the major Hollywood studios and other prominent rightsholders such as Apple, BBC, Canal+, Sky, and Netflix, systematically hunts down key piracy players.

 

ACE is well-connected with law enforcement agencies worldwide and continues to expand with the addition of new members. Just this week, ACE added Saudi media conglomerate MBC Group to its roster.

ACE Successes

The coalition is also expanding its PR team and regularly reports new anti-piracy successes. These achievements are carefully communicated, which can be frustrating for reporters seeking more context.

 

ACE understandably acts in its own interests so alternative approaches are needed to get a glimpse behind the scenes. For example, ACE frequently obtains DMCA subpoenas at the California federal court to support its enforcement strategy. These court records reveal which sites the group is likely to target in the future.

 

Late last week, the alliance requested a new round of DMCA subpoenas that reference dozens of domain names. Through third-party services including Cloudflare, the TONIC (.To) registry, and hosting provider Zenlayer, ACE hopes to identify the owners of these domains and their underlying services.

Piracy Juggernauts

The legal paperwork mentions 41 domain names related to services of different shapes and sizes. Our focus covers the largest targets but a full list of all domains is available at the bottom of this article.

 

With over 83 million monthly visits, 9anime.gs is the most popular domain on the list. The anime streaming site gets close to a third of its traffic from the United States, followed by the UK and India at a respectable distance.

 

ACE hopes that Cloudflare will provide information on the site’s operators. The same applies to 9anime.vc and 9anime.se, which have 47 and 7 million visits per month respectively.

 

Other popular targets include the pirate streaming sites Soap2day.to, Goojara.to, and Flixtor.to. When combined, these have more than 100 million monthly visits according to SimilarWeb estimates.

 

The remaining domain names include variations of popular pirate brands such as 123movies, Cuevana, and Pelisplus. These are less popular than the aforementioned sites, but most are good for millions of visits nontheless.

Zenlayer

The DMCA subpoena is widely recognized as an ACE anti-piracy tool. Effectiveness depends on the reliability of information held by third parties, Cloudflare and Tonic in this case. In the past, however, we have seen several sites shut down after being targeted in similar subpoenas.

 

The most recent wave also includes a subpoena directed at cloud hosting provider Zenlayer, a service that to our knowledge hasn’t been targeted before. According to ACE, the pirate streaming app MagisTV used Zenlayer to host its infringing service.

 

Other than targeting a new intermediary, the request is the same. Through the MPA, ACE asks Zenlayer to provide all information it holds on the operator of MagisTV and the associated domain name Magisla.com.

 

“As is stated in the attached subpoena, you are required to disclose to the Motion Picture Association, Inc. (on behalf of the ACE Members) information sufficient to identify the infringers.

 

“This would include the individuals’ names, physical addresses, IP addresses, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, payment information, account updates and account history,” the request adds.

ACE Piles Up Pirate Domains

ACE legal action mostly plays out behind the scenes and targeted intermediaries commonly comply with requests after the court clerk signs off on them. ACE uses this information to track down site operators so that it can convince them to shut down their sites. When that doesn’t happen, it’s not uncommon to see sites featured in site-blocking injunctions.

 

Thus far, the strategy appears to be paying off, with ACE booking numerous successes over the past year alone. For example, earlier this month ACE announced that it shut down futbollibre.net and dozens of other domains names, which were connected to an Argentinian man.

 

This “major live TV sports piracy ring” was shut down a few months after ACE targeted futbollibre.net and related domains through a DMCA subpoena.

 

Finally, it’s worth noting that not all victories are publicly celebrated by the anti-piracy group. At TorrentFreak we keep a close eye on ‘seized’ domains that receive no official mention. These often end up redirected to the ACE site, presumably as part of a settlement.

 

Over the past month, these include betteranime.app, allpeliculas.org, an1me.su, cinecalidad2.com, yify.tv, aquipelis.me, cuevana.nu, ymovies.to, viperplaytv.com, mywidevine.kaufen, torgersen.co, gnula.li, 6thfloor.life, netfrix.biz, and megadede.org, among dozens of others.

 

With the recent DMCA subpoena wave, we expect that this list will continue to grow. A few of the new candidates are listed below.

 

—

 

A list of all the domains mentioned in the recent DMCA subpoenas (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).

 

 

India began blocking websites in the late 1990s and even today sites are blocked with no explanation. Just this week, VLC’s website was unblocked by ISPs after months in the dark but why it was blocked at all remains a mystery.

 

For at least the last decade, India’s courts have also authorized injunctions that compel local ISPs to block domains linked to alleged copyright infringement. The Pirate Bay was one of the more obvious targets but with blocking requests containing first dozens, then hundreds of domains, an overall picture was hard to determine.

 

Copyright injunctions are more easily tracked today but the pace is relentless. India’s Department of Communications has processed at least 130 court orders since April 2022, including one against Z-Library and another containing more than 13,000 domains. And the orders don’t stop at ISP blocking either.

ISPs Must Block Domains, Registrars Must Disable Them

Star India and Novi Digital Entertainment own broadcasting rights for various sporting events including cricket, football, tennis, hockey and Formula 1. In an effort to reduce piracy of cricket matches broadcast as part of the Asia Cup 2022, they asked the Delhi High Court for a site-blocking order targeting 11 domains.

 

In an order dated August 22, 2022, Justice Prathiba M. Singh was happy to oblige. Agreeing that the plaintiffs had a prima facie case of infringement, she issued an ex-parte interim injunction which required Indian ISPs to block access to the domains.

 

To prevent the sites from regaining an advantage by switching to new domains, the Judge said the order would be ‘dynamic’ and applicable to any new domains.

Domain Registrars Ordered to Take Action

In their application for injunction, Star India and Novi Digital Entertainment linked several domain name registrars to the domains listed above; Sarek Oy (Finland), GoDaddy, NameCheap and Dynadot (United States), Tucows (Canada) and Hostinger (Lithuania).

 

The Judge ordered these foreign companies to immediately block domains under their control and hand over their owners’ names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses, plus records relating to payments and processing.

 

The domain registrars were furthered ordered to identify any other domains owned by the 11 domain owners and hand those details over too. These orders would also apply to any other domains identified by the plaintiffs, the Judge added, further futureproofing the injunction.

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

When Star and Novi Digital requested a blocking injunction against the 11 domains, the Asia Cup 2022 cricket tournament hadn’t even started. The applicants’ said that since these domains were linked to earlier infringement, they might infringe their rights in the future. Justice Singh agreed and handed down an injunction dated August 22, 2022.

 

Asia Cup 2022 got underway just four days later and by September 11, 2022, it was all over. A filing at the Delhi High Court dated November 9, 2022, contains many of the Judge’s instructions in bold, underlined italics, suggesting that things hadn’t gone well.

 

Indeed, NameCheap, DynaDot, Tucows, Gransy and Sarek Oy, did not comply with the terms of the injunction, the plaintiffs say. In response to a call for compliance, NameCheap responded as follows:

 

In such situations, it is advised to appeal to a court of competent jurisdiction. In order for us, as a U.S.- based company, to take the actions you are requesting, we require a U.S. state or federal court order or subpoena. If a U.S. court order is received, we will abide by any decision stated therein. If you already have a U.S. court order, please forward it, along with your request and contact information, to our Senior Legal department directly via legal@namecheap.com.

 

After reviewing correspondence with other domain registrars (DNR), Justice Singh notes that the Court “reiterates its prima facie view that all DNRs have to abide by and give effect to orders passed by competent courts, government authorities, etc.”

 

The Judge says that the registrars are bound by the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (pdf), which requires them to appoint ‘Grievance Officers’ to ensure compliance with Indian court orders, orders that they have not complied with.

Domain Registrar Obligations

Justice Singh goes on to cite ICANN agreements governing relationships between registry operators, domain name registrars, and the domain name registry. These agreements “make it abundantly clear that DNRs have to respond adequately to governmental or semigovernmental authorities operating in any country.” In her view, the listed registrars failed to meet this standard.

 

Star India and Novi Digital previously admitted that they have no idea who operates the 11 domains or where those people are located, India included. However, a recent copyright case involving Telegram and handled by the same Judge found that India does have jurisdiction; the plaintiffs reside and do business in India, infringing content circulated in India, and the platform supplying the content was accessible in India.

 

Whether international domain registrars can be reasonably ordered to suspend domains on almost zero notice, based on allegations of copyright infringement violations that haven’t happened, remains to be seen. These things aren’t impossible to navigate but four days maximum doesn’t make the process any easier. Star India won the rights to the Asia Cup in 2018 leaving plenty of time to get a dynamic injunction put in place.

 

Of course, the Asia Cup 2022 itself is now resigned to history but Justice Singh is in no mood to move on without the registrars being held to account.

Judge Orders Action Against Registrars

In orders directed at India’s Department of Communications and Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY), Justice Singh allocates one week for action to be taken against NameCheap, DynaDot, Tucows, Gransy, and Sarek Oy, for non-compliance with the Court’s orders.

 

“The authorities shall also look into the question as to whether these DNRs ought to be permitted to continue to offer their goods and services in India,” the Judge adds, “if they are not giving effect to orders of Indian Courts and not complying with the applicable laws under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and the 2021 Rules.”

 

A further hearing is scheduled for January 11, 2023.

 

The August order, ISP instructions, and order of Nov 9, can be found here (1,2,3,pdf)

 

VPNs are valuable tools for people who want to access the Internet securely and with decent privacy.

 

These services are vital for whistleblowers, activists, and citizens rebelling against Government oppression.

 

The latter has become clear once again in recent months, with Iran pulling out all the stops to block VPN services that dare to offer protesters a window to the rest of the world.

 

In response, some of the more serious VPN providers have taken countermeasures by offering special servers to Iranians to bypass restrictions and using channels such as Telegram to reach out to them. This is having a positive effect but Iran isn’t sitting idle and its blocking efforts are continuous.

 

The situation in Iran demonstrates the crucial role VPNs play in the fight against censorship. However, Iran is not the only country suppressing access to these services; China and Russia are well known for their own restrictive policies.

ACT Against VPN Restrictions

These types of restrictions are problematic according to ‘ACT | The App Association‘, a trade organization that represents thousands of startups and small businesses in the software industry. The organization recently shared its concerns with the U.S. Trade Representative.

 

The U.S. Government completes an annual review of various trade barriers around the globe and ACT believes that overly restrictive policies deserve to be called out. This includes Russia’s VPN law.

 

Russia began cracking down on VPNs in 2017 to help deter copyright infringement. The Government outright banned services that allow users to access blocked pirate sites. Only companies that agree to block content are allowed to continue operating.

 

“This is an obvious trade barrier and real threat to the free market,” ACT writes in its letter to the USTR.

 

“The Russian government cites this regulation as an effort to keep people from accessing dangerous and illegal content. This regulation says that any internet providers that allow these to exist, or function without being blocked, will lose their market access.”

China Too

These types of issues are not limited to Russia. ACT makes no mention of the recent VPN crackdown in Iran but China’s VPN restrictions are called out.

 

Unlike in Russia, China’s anti-VPN stance has little to do with copyright infringement. The country’s policy is mostly in place to ensure citizens are unable to access websites that are banned by the state.

 

ACT believes that the VPN restrictions are a clear trade barrier that affects companies around the globe. It is opposed to China’s widespread blocking of websites, which includes the New York Times, Reddit and Wikipedia.

 

“China regulates and restricts the use of VPNs, leaving consumers in China out of the digital marketplace, while creating massive barriers to entry,” ACT notes. “China’s ‘extensive blocking of legitimate websites’ also threatens to impose significant costs on providers and users of services and products.”

U.S. Response

These concerns are not new. In an earlier trade barrier report, the U.S. Government previously called out China’s restrictive policies. They include a decision to ban VPNs, which also puts the privacy of foreigners at risk.

 

“This [VPN ban] has had a particularly dire effect on foreign businesses, which routinely use VPN services to connect to locations and services outside of China, and which depend on VPN technology to ensure confidentiality of communications,” the USTR wrote.

 

ACT hopes that the USTR will continue to press this issue. Whether that will make China reconsider its policies is an entirely different question. The same is true for Russia, which is unlikely to be receptive to U.S. critique at the moment.

 

What’s clear, however, is that the U.S. Government is already quite aware that VPN services can have considerable value.

 

A few weeks ago, the Department of the Treasury increased its support for internet freedom in Iran. Among other things, it carved out exceptions to the Iran sanctions, allowing U.S. VPN providers to continue operating in the country.

 

“These tools protect the ability of Iranians to engage in free expression and bravely resist regime oppression,” the Treasury wrote.

 

—

 

A copy of ACT’s trade barrier submission for the US Trade Representative’s 2023 NTE report is available here (pdf)

 

As part of a campaign against torrent sites in Denmark, local anti-piracy group Rights Alliance (Rettigheds Alliancen) targeted several members-only torrent trackers.

 

Early November 2021, the Public Prosecutor for Special Economic and International Crime (SØIK) announced that six people had been arrested following criminal referrals by Rights Alliance. All were members and/or operators of ShareUniversity and DanishBytes. One of those arrested was a 33-year-old man from Denmark.

Man Progressed From Site User to Staff Member

Following his arrest one year ago, this week Rights Alliance revealed more information about the now 34-year-old from Aalborg. The anti-piracy group informs TorrentFreak that the man was initially just a regular DanishBytes user but was later promoted to the site’s staff.

 

His position on the DanishBytes team led him to provide IT support to the site’s users. At that time the members-only torrent site offered more than 10,000 copyrighted works to around 5,000 members and, in common with similar sites, not all users understood how everything worked. Rights Alliance says the man did other work too.

Content Acquisition and Hacking

The anti-piracy group says the man was “active in file-sharing” and an uploader on DanishBytes. When users requested specific content to be made available, which included pirated copies of Danish weekly newspapers, the man fulfilled the requests when he could. But there was another side too, one usually hidden from public view.

 

The prosecution’s case included evidence that the man also uploaded video content to DanishBytes. The content was acquired from legal streaming services including Netflix and TV 2 Play, a subscription channel owned by the Danish government. Anyone can legally sign up to these platforms but obtaining content from them carries risks when redistribution is the end goal.

 

The man countered these threats by obtaining streaming service login credentials himself via hacking, and by downloading lists of credentials offered by other hackers. These lists typically contain email addresses and passwords exposed due to a data breach. When users deploy the same username/password combination across sites, all of their accounts face potential exposure.

 

In this case the DanishBytes user avoided paying for Netflix and TV 2 Play while ensuring that any copies he made would be associated with innocent users’ accounts. Rights Alliance couldn’t confirm if any copies were traced using watermarking or similar means. HOwever, it did confirm that the man’s role as a staff member on DanishBytes ended with him being kicked out after two months.

Convicted and Sentenced

Having been convicted for his offenses on DanishBytes and those related to hacking, this week the man appeared for sentencing.

 

“At the court in Aalborg, a 34-year-old man from Aalborg has been sentenced to 3 months’ probation and 80 hours of community service, as well as confiscation of IT equipment, including for having participated in the operation of the illegal file sharing service DanishBytes,” Rights Alliance reports.

Rights Alliance Thanks ‘Danish FBI’

Founded in 2020 with a vision to create a Danish version of the FBI, DSK (National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet) is a police unit focused on cybercrime, organized crime, and related financial crime. Following this week’s sentencing, Rights Alliance director Maria Fredenslund thanked the ‘Special Crime Unit’ for its work on the DanishBytes case.

 

“NSK, the Section for Legal Protection, has been enormously effective in catching and bringing the masterminds behind DanishBytes and other illegal Danish file-sharing services to court, as well as shutting down the illegal services. In this case, we have seen the hacking of the private data of ordinary Danes with the aim of accessing and retrieving content and then spreading it illegally,” Fredenslund said.

 

“NSK’s efforts have helped to clarify how password hacking is used to give birth to the illegal services with content, and it is gratifying that the masterminds are now being held accountable for their crime, which has consequences for the content industry as well as for the Danes who get their credentials hacked.”

 

The sentence handed down to the DanishBytes user is broadly in line with those handed down recently in similar cases. However, those cases did not feature hacking or stolen credentials so the sentence is likely to be considered lenient.

 

The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only.

 

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 two newcomers on the list. “R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned” is the most downloaded title.

The most torrented movies for the week ending on November 14 are:

Movie Rank	Rank last week	Movie name	IMDb Rating / Trailer
Most downloaded movies via torrent sites
1	(…)	R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned	?.? / trailer
2	(7)	Weird: The Al Yankovic Story	7.3 / trailer
3	(…)	Amsterdam	6.1 / trailer
4	(1)	Enola Holmes 2	6.9 / trailer
5	(6)	Top Gun: Maverick	8.6 / trailer
6	(3)	All Quiet on the Western Front	8.0 / trailer
7	(5)	Bullet Train	7.4 / trailer
8	(2)	The Woman King	6.7 / trailer
9	(8)	Black Adam	7.1 / trailer
10	(4)	Smile	6.8 / trailer

 

 

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