From a networking perspective, most Internet providers are generally not thrilled with BitTorrent users.

Historically, torrent traffic has placed quite a burden on the network , which is one of the reasons why Comcast quietly began throttling torrent traffic many years ago.

Another reason to limit torrent traffic is to reduce costs. BitTorrent users transfer large amounts of data that’s not always covered by cheap peering agreements , which can become quite costly.

Today, torrent traffic is a much smaller percentage of total traffic. Internet providers generally are better equipped to deal with it and all-out throttling has become a rarity in most countries. However, in South Korea, an even more concerning anti-torrent tactic was uncovered recently.

Last week, an in-depth investigative report from JTBC revealed that Korean Internet provider KT , formerly known as Korea Telecom, distributed malware onto subscribers’ computers to interfere with and block torrent traffic.

Webhard Torrents

File-sharing continues to be very popular in South Korea, but operates differently than in most other countries. “Webhard” services, short for Web Hard Drive, are particularly popular. These are paid BitTorrent-assisted services, which also offer dedicated web seeds, to ensure that files remain available.

Webhard services rely on the BitTorrent-enabled ‘Grid System’, which became so popular in Korea that ISPs started to notice it. Since these torrent transfers use a lot of bandwidth, which is very costly in the country, providers would rather not have this file-sharing activity on their networks.

KT, one of South Korea’s largest ISPs with over 16 million subscribers, was previously caught meddling with the Grid System. In 2020, their throttling activities resulted in a court case, where the ISP cited ‘network management’ costs as the prime reason to interfere. The Court eventually sided with KT, ending the case in its favor, but that wasn’t the end of the matter.

An investigation launched by the police at the time remains ongoing. New reports now show that the raid on KT’s datacenter found that dozens of devices were used in the ‘throttling process’ and they were doing more than just limiting bandwidth.

KT Reportedly Distributed Malware to 600,000 Users

When Webhard users started reporting problems four years ago, they didn’t simply complain about slow downloads. In fact, the main concern was that several Grid-based Webhard services went offline or reported seemingly unexplainable errors. Since all complaining users were KT subscribers, fingers were pointed in that direction.

According to an investigation by Korean news outlet JTBC, the Internet provider actively installed malware on computers of Webhard services. This activity was widespread and effected an estimated 600,000 KT subscribers.

The Gyeonggi Southern Police Agency, which carried out the raid and investigation, believes this was an organized hacking attempt. A dedicated KT team allegedly planted malware to eavesdrop on subscribers and interfere with their private file transfers.

“The team consisted of a ‘malware development’ section, a ‘distribution and operation’ section, and a ‘wiretapping’ section that looked at data sent and received by KT users in real time,” a follow-up report from JTBC explains.

The explosive allegation accuses KT of accessing and altering data on users’ computers to limit torrent traffic. Follow-up investigations have yet to get to the bottom of everything, but police have already identified more than a dozen persons of interest, who have been referred to the prosecutor.

Million-Dollar Questions

Why KT allegedly distributed the malware and what it precisely intended to do is unclear. The police believe there were internal KT discussions about network-related costs, suggesting that financial reasons played a role.

To illustrate what’s at stake, a sales manager from one of the Webhard companies said that torrent transfers save them significant bandwidth costs. This peer-to-peer upload bandwidth goes over KT’s network instead, presumably costing the ISP many millions of dollars per year.

KT, meanwhile, maintains that it merely intended to manage traffic on its network, presumably to keep everything running smoothly. Whatever the truth, that plan clearly backfired.

—

Note: This report is partly based on information translated and provided by a Korean software engineer who prefers to remain anonymous.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Nintendo is doing everything in its power to stop the public from playing pirated games on the Switch console.

The Japanese gaming company won several lawsuits in recent history, shutting down websites that distributed pirated ROMs .

Most notable, perhaps, was the criminal referral that resulted in the demise of the infamous hacking group Team-Xecuter . The group released several ‘jailbreak’ hacks for gaming consoles in the past and was widely regarded as Nintendo’s main nemesis.

With the win against Team-Xecuter, Nintendo hoped that the modding scene would fade into oblivion, but that’s not what happened. In recent years, new tools and hardware solutions were released, requiring Nintendo to gas the enforcement pedal once again.

For example, recently Nintendo went after various Switch piracy related sites and services, including the Yuzu emulator , Lockpick , and MIG Switch .

Nintendo vs. Modded Hardware

Nintendo also targeted Modded Hardware behind the scenes. The gaming giant reached out to its alleged owner and operator, Michigan-resident Ryan Daly, who also operates under the alias “Homebrew Homie”.

In March, Nintendo threatened to sue him, after which both parties agreed that the allegedly unlawful activity, which includes selling MIG devices and modded consoles, would stop.

Despite this agreement, Modded Hardware didn’t close shop; that led to further outreach by Nintendo earlier this month after which it still remained online. Daly said that he was looking for a new lawyer, but Nintendo’s patience had run out and it followed up with a lawsuit.

In a complaint filed at a federal court in Seattle, Washington, Nintendo accuses Modded Hardware of copyright infringement and violating the DMCA by trafficking in circumvention devices, among other things.

These unauthorized activities cause Nintendo substantial and irreparable harm, it argues, and the company wants them to stop immediately. In addition, Nintendo hopes to recoup damages, which can potentially run into millions of dollars.

Mod Chips, MIG Switch, and Pirated Games

The complaint mentions that Modded Hardware sells several pieces of hardware that circumvent its piracy protections. These include Mod Chips and the “MIG Switch,” a memory card that allows people to play pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games on authentic consoles.

In addition to selling hardware hacks, the defendant also offered mail-in modding services and modded versions of Switch consoles, for the less technically inclined. These were reportedly loaded with pirated games, according to the complaint.

“Defendant not only offers the hardware and firmware to create and play pirated games, but he also provides his customers with copies of pirated Nintendo games,” the complaint reads.

“Typically, when a customer purchases a Hacked Console or the Circumvention Services, Defendant preinstalls on the console a portfolio of ready-to-play pirated games, including some of Nintendo’s most popular titles such as its Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games.”

The selling of alleged circumvention devices is a problem, Nintendo writes, as that’s the only way for people to play pirated games. As such, Nintendo’s piracy problem persists.

“Indeed, because pirated Nintendo Switch games cannot be used or created without a Hacked Console and related software and hardware, it is only because of products and services such as those sold by Defendant that illegal marketplaces distributing pirated games exist and thrive,” Nintendo writes.

Overall, Nintendo alleges that Modded Hardware and its alleged operator trafficked in circumvention devices by selling mod-chips and MIG devices. That violates the DMCA, for which Nintendo demands damages.

In addition, the gaming company seeks damages for direct and contributory copyright infringement, accusing the defendant of adding pirated games to consoles. These hardware devices and consoles should all be destroyed, which may or may not include consoles that customers have sent in.

Archbox & r/SwitchPirates

In addition to the Modded Hardware lawsuit, Nintendo also filed a complaint at the Washington federal court against Arizona-resident James Williams, known online as ‘Archbox’. According to Nintendo, Archbox is connected to several ‘pirate shops’ through which copies of unauthorized games are distributed.

“Defendant is the operator, overseer, and driving force behind several Pirate Shops, through which Defendant has offered massive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games,” the complaint reads.

In addition to running these pirate shops, the defendant allegedly helped people to obtain and use circumvention software, so they could play pirated games. This activity was allegedly boosted through the SwitchPirates subreddit, where Archbox was a moderator.

“Defendant became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members. Since 2019, Defendant has posted thousands of comments and messages to the SwitchPirates Reddit Group,” the complaint reads.

“Defendant’s posts have included, by way of example, messages directing users to the Pirate Shops […]; and offering technical advice and encouragement to other users about how to use the Pirate Shops, how to download and install Circumvention Software, and how to play pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games.”

The pirate shops that Archbox is believed to be involved in include Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop and NekoDrive, which all shut down following a cease and desist letter Nintendo sent in March.

A fourth shop, LiberaShop, is still operational, presumably on Telegram, allegedly promoting and offering thousands of pirated Nintendo games to the public.

Self-proclaimed Pirate

The allegations put forward in the complaint shouldn’t come as a surprise to Archbox, Nintendo suggests. He is reportedly a self-proclaimed “pirate” who is not willing to pay for legitimate games, and also helps others to join the pirate ranks.

“Defendant is well aware that his conduct is unlawful and infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Indeed, Defendant has bragged publicly that he is a ‘pirate’ who ‘[isn’t] going to give Nintendo $50 for a game’,” Nintendo writes.

The complaint includes a wide variety of additional examples. Ultimately, it accuses Archbox of direct and contributory copyright infringement, various DMCA violations including trafficking in circumvention devices, as well as breach of contract.

Similar to the Modded Hardware complaint, the alleged damages are not specified, but can theoretically run into the millions of dollars.

—

A copy of the Modded Hardware complaint is available here (pdf) and the complaint against Archbox can be found here (pdf) . We will keep a close eye on both cases and will likely discuss these, as well as the responses, in more detail later

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In 2023, broadcaster Canal+ went to court in France with the goal of obtaining an order requiring local ISPs to block over 100 pirate sports streaming sites.

The French court complied with the request; ISPs including Orange, SFR, OutreMer Télécom, Free, and Bouygues Télécom, were ordered to implement technical measures to prevent access to Footybite.co, Streamcheck.link, SportBay.sx, TVFutbol.info, and Catchystream.com, among dozens of others.

Since the ISPs have their own DNS resolvers for use by their own customers, these were configured to provide non-authentic responses to deny access to the sites in question. Somewhat inevitably, some of the ISPs’ users reconfigured their machines to use third-party DNS servers, included those provided by Cloudflare, Google, and Cisco.

Canal+ Targets DNS Providers

To prevent these workarounds, last year Canal+ took legal action against three popular public DNS providers – Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), Google (8.8.8.8), and Cisco (208.69.38.205) – demanding blocking measures similar to those already implemented by French ISPs under Article L333-10 of the French Sports Code.

The Paris judicial court responded this May by handing down two orders; one concerning Premier League matches and the other relating to matches played in the Champions League. The Court ordered Google, Cloudflare, and Cisco to implement measures to prevent French internet users from using their services to access around 117 pirate domains.

Google previously indicated it would comply and during the last 24 hours, OpenDNS complied too, although perhaps not in the manner Canal+ or the Court had anticipated.

OpenDNS Suspends Entire Service to the Whole of France

Reports of problems with the OpenDNS service seemed to begin on Friday, and it didn’t take long to discover the cause. The technical issues were isolated to France and apparently parts of Portugal too, with an explanation having appeared on the OpenDNS website, perhaps as early as Thursday evening.

“Effective June 28, 2024: Due to a court order in France issued under Article L.333-10 of the French Sport code and a court order in Portugal issued under Article 210-G(3) of the Portuguese Copyright Code, the OpenDNS service is not currently available to users in France and certain French territories and in Portugal. We apologize for the inconvenience,” the announcement reads.

OpenDNS doesn’t appear to have elaborated on its decision at the time of writing, but it’s certainly possible that the operators of this technical information service strongly oppose being ordered to undermine its accuracy.

The demands of Canal+, with full support of courts in both France and Portugal, effectively require OpenDNS to lie in response to DNS inquiries. It’s not difficult to see why that would be a problem for the operators of entirely neutral internet infrastructure, not least because this order is almost guaranteed not to be the last of its kind.

It’s a bold move that some will undoubtedly criticize. For others, the OpenDNS decision represents the type of dramatic pushback required to draw attention to anti-piracy measures that are increasingly encroaching on the vital mechanisms underpinning the internet itself.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In the summer of 2017 , several of the world’s largest entertainment industry companies teamed up to create a brand new anti-piracy coalition.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment ( ACE ) aimed to foster collaboration, share knowledge, and leverage the group’s combined anti-piracy resources to tackle the global online piracy problem.

With dozens of members around the world, including Disney, Netflix, the BBC, beIN, Sony, and others, it lived up to expectations. While piracy has yet to be eradicated, the MPA-led group has claimed several major achievements around the globe.

This success is partly the result of planned resource sharing. As the coalition grew, collaborations expanded from the private to the public sector, forging bonds with governments and law enforcement agencies.

Much of this progress was made under former ACE head Jan Van Voorn, who recently left ACE for a new opportunity . With van Voorn’s departure, valuable experience walked out of the door, but his replacement is certainly capable of filling those shoes.

ACE has a new Boss

Earlier this week, the MPA revealed Larissa Knapp as its new Global Chief of Content Protection and the new head of the ACE coalition. Knapp is a law enforcement veteran who before taking on this new opportunity served as the fourth highest-ranking FBI official.

Knapp is therefore ideally positioned to expand ACE’s international contacts, particularly when it comes to collaborating with law enforcement offices around the globe.

“Her leadership will focus on deepening and broadening ACE’s partnerships with law enforcement agencies around the world, expanding its membership base, and growing ACE’s operational footprint in key markets to support the protection of creators and consumers,” MPA said, commenting on the appointment.

Knapp certainly brings plenty of experience to the table. At the FBI, she handled large-scale criminal investigations, leading teams of thousands of investigators. This included many intellectual property and cybersecurity cases.

FBI Lessons

Speaking with TorrentFreak, Knapp recalls that she handled one of the first federally prosecuted trade secret theft cases in her early career at the FBI. The investigation revolved around a contract employee who stole a billion-dollar proposal from a competitor.

The defendant was caught and sentenced after a private citizen reported them to the authorities. However, because this person sold the trade secrets for a small price, the punishment was rather low.

While this wasn’t a piracy case, the matter underscored the value of proper content protection. This is even more important in the present day and age, where most information is digital, and easier to transfer than ever before.

“For me, the case underscored the fragility of intellectual property and how companies must guard against theft – this multi-billion-dollar document was left in a conference room and taken by an individual who did not have the access or clearance to see such sensitive information,” Knapp tells us.

“It demonstrated the critical nature of partnerships and trust, specifically the willingness of the good corporate citizen to come forward and the victim company understanding what law enforcement would and would not do,” she adds.

Private & Public Sector Cooperation

Rightsholders, including many ACE members, would ideally like to see the authorities, including the FBI, launch more piracy investigations. This isn’t always possible, as resources are limited, which is one of the reasons why ACE exists today.

The coalition often collaborates with official law enforcement authorities and will continue to do so in future. In addition to going after pirate sites and services directly, it can also assist criminal prosecutions. These partnerships are valuable and key to booking progress, Knapp believes.

“I look forward to working with the IPR Center and the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA) in my new capacity to align strategies in the fight against piracy. Content piracy is a global crime, and we need a worldwide coalition with complementary areas of expertise to fight it,” Knapp says.

“Thanks to ACE’s worldwide footprint, we work closely with major enforcement agencies such as Interpol, Europol, the FBI and others. The synergies created by working closely with these partners are what make ACE effective in stopping piracy rings and bringing criminal operators to justice. It’s truly a collaborative effort.”

At the FBI, Knapp collaborated with the MPA and RIAA, and now she will approach the piracy challenge from another direction. The contacts and experience she has, will help to book future successes.

For example, Knapp mentions that she worked closely together with banking cooperations in the recent past. This experience will benefit future anti-piracy efforts, where it’s often key to trace the money flows of piracy operations.

No Borders

ACE’s new head is impressed with the progress the coalition has made in just seven years, and she plans to utilize her FBI expertise to take anti-piracy enforcement efforts to the next level.

This will involve global cooperation, since pirate sites don’t stop at borders. That’s a tough challenge, but Knapp is convinced that her experience will help to bring more pirates to justice.

“ACE works across multiple jurisdictions, each with their own set of laws, which adds a layer of complexity. There are multiple parallels between these scenarios and many of the cases my teams worked on at the FBI, and from experience I know which strategic approaches are most effective.

“I plan on applying similar strategies to address key issues such as live sports piracy with the goal of seeing more piracy operators face justice.

“Just last week, five operators were convicted in the Jetflicks case , and I’m confident we’ll see more victories like this going forward,” Knapp concludes.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Defying even the broadest definition of ‘justice’ or even basic common sense, more than 12 years after his initial arrest, Kim Dotcom is still fighting the New Zealand government on every detail of his case.

Given that the booby prize for not doing so is an all-expenses-paid trip to the United States, few could blame him. But why this has been allowed to drag on for so long can only be answered by New Zealand’s government.

Whether Dotcom is eventually found innocent or guilty, justice needs to be seen to be done. There’s no denying Dotcom’s significant contribution to undermining the case against him but, as the defendant, it’s his job to find errors and blunders to exploit. And there has been no shortage of those and from the outside, the optics are not great.

Seized Hard Drives

During the 2012 operation to shut down Megaupload, around 135 devices were seized by law enforcement in New Zealand. Yet it was a full decade before the High Court ruled that devices belonging to Dotcom, seized at his home a decade earlier, could be sent to the United States. The reasons for that delay are complicated but of course, nothing is ever straightforward or fully settled in this case.

The decision by the High Court in 2022 was inevitably appealed by Dotcom but according to RNZ , not until September 2023.

This week, the Court of Appeal reportedly dismissed the proceedings, suggesting that Dotcom has failed in his latest bid to prevent the government from handing the hard drives – and their passwords – over to the FBI in the United States. Given the history of the last 12 years, no one should be surprised if something else gets in the way of that actually happening anytime soon.

In 2020, a panel of judges at New Zealand’s Supreme Court ruled that Kim Dotcom can be extradited to the United States to face copyright infringement charges. The panel also said that due to Dotcom being wrongfully denied a judicial review in 2015, Dotcom could challenge the Supreme Court’s decision; via a judicial review, no less.

Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk

In May 2022, former Megaupload executives Mathias Ortmann and Bram van der Kolk revealed that they had signed a deal to avoid extradition to the United States. One month later, the men pleaded guilty to a series of crimes on the understanding that any sentence would be served in New Zealand.

Just over a year ago, the pair were sentenced to serve 2.5 years behind bars , initially at the Mt Eden Corrections Facility (MECF) in the central Auckland suburb of Mt Eden.

Last month, just 11 months after the sentencing of his former colleagues, Kim Dotcom claimed they were already free after spending “10 months in what US prisoners would consider a New Zealand Wellness Retreat.”

“They were originally charged with 186 years by the US DOJ for the so called ‘Mega conspiracy’ and got off with a 99.5% discount in exchange for false confessions,” Dotcom continued. “Obviously they just wanted to move on with their lives after 10 years on bail.”

Moving on after a decade of limbo was something Ortmann and van der Kolk had already been planning for. Since 2014 the pair had dedicated their business lives to the development of Mega, now one of the leading file-hosting companies on the internet. Due to their convictions, however, the pair have been banned from managing any companies in New Zealand for five years.

According to NZHerald , New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has confirmed that the ban will run until June 15, 2028.

“This prohibition protects the New Zealand public by ensuring that individuals with dishonesty convictions cannot be company directors,” Vanessa Cook, acting head of MBIE’s criminal proceeds integrity and enforcement team, told the publication.

“As the former executives were part of global criminal enterprise that cost copyright holders billions of dollars, it was imperative for us to ensure they are prohibited from managing or being director of any company.”

What Now For Kim Dotcom?

After claiming to be “ broke and destitute ” in 2015, Dotcom now lives in a dream home in a dream location in New Zealand while New Zealand’s government continues to spend public money, at last count around $20 million , attempting to counter whatever Dotcom comes up with next.

Last year, then Minister of Justice Kiri Allan said that while a warrant to extradite Dotcom required her signature, it’s likely that Dotcom would seek a judicial review to buy more time in New Zealand.

“I have received detailed submissions from Mr Dotcom. In due course I will receive further advice on those matters before making any decision,” Allen told New Zealand Herald at the time.

“Unfortunately, I cannot say how long that will take.”

After just 12 years, it’s quite remarkable that this year-old comment remains relevant even today.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In March 2022, YouTube began receiving DMCA takedown notices which claimed that content referenced in the notices infringed the rights of videogame developer Bungie.

YouTube responded by removing the videos listed in the notices, some of which had been uploaded by high-profile Destiny content creators.

Some notices targeted Bungie’s own channels on YouTube, but that didn’t prevent some in the Destiny 2 community concluding that Bungie itself was to blame. That compelled Bungie to clean up the mess, defend its reputation, and track down the culprits.

Lawsuit Demands $7.65m in Damages

Bungie filed a lawsuit at a Washington court in March 2022, a clear indication that it intended to hold those who sent the fake takedown notices to account. At this point, the identities of those responsible were yet to be confirmed.

In June 2022, Bungie filed an amended complaint that named YouTuber/gamer ‘Lord Nazo’, real name Nicholas Minor, as the person responsible.

Bungie’s investigation that led to the identification of Minor was impressive and suitably matched by the company’s claim for damages – a cool $7.65m, mainly for violations of the DMCA in respect of the fake notices.

Motion for Summary Judgment (DMCA component)

Bungie filed a motion for summary judgment on the DMCA component of its overall claim in December 2023. Minor appeared in the case as required, including for his deposition and to provide discovery responses.

The company previously reported that Minor had admitted that he “gravely messed up” and “fully accept[s] that this is [his] fault,” although he claimed he was “oblivious to the reprehensible damages [he] was causing to the community.”

Minor did not oppose Bungie’s motion for summary judgment. In a judgment handed down this March, Senior District Judge Marsha J. Pechman referenced Section 512 of the DMCA, noting that Minor’s violations were intentional, and that he lacked a subjective, good faith belief that the targeted material was infringing.

“Bungie has also provided evidence that the fraudulent notices harmed its reputation and caused it to devote significant resources to attempt to remediate the harm. The Court therefore GRANTS summary judgment in Bungie’s favor on this claim and GRANTS the Motion,” Judge Pechman wrote .

Final Judgment Handed Down This Week

With liability confirmed on the DMCA component of Bungie’s claim, other claims were still to be cleared up. They included false designation under 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a), copyright infringement under 17 U.S.C. § 501, business defamation, violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act, and breach of contract.

A stipulation and motion for entry of judgment filed by Bungie on Wednesday reveals that these additional claims will not be pursued. The copyright violations under 17 U.S. Code § 512(f) (relevant section below) in respect of the bogus notices stand.

In their joint motion, Minor and Bungie ask the Court to enter an order and stipulated judgment based on several conclusions. They include:

– Minor filed 96 false DMCA notices against Destiny 2 creators, without any authority.
– Infringement was directed against content featuring 54 of Bungie’s copyrighted works.

“Judgment will be entered against Defendant in the amount of $8,100,000.00, representing statutory damages of $150,000 per infringed work under 17 U.S.C. § 512(f),” the motion adds, noting that other claims not addressed are withdrawn.

Comprehensive Injunction

The joint stipulation continues with measures to restrain Minor (and anyone under his direction or control) from:

– Creating or using any kind of account that suggests any link, or claims to be, Bungie.
– Filing DMCA takedown notices against Destiny 2 creators on false pretenses.

Minor is further prohibited from “using any social network, video sharing, or digital messaging accounts” under his control to provide any content “relating to or featuring Plaintiff’s intellectual property or to impersonate Plaintiff or its Agents in any way.”

Among other things, Minor must delete Destiny, Destiny 2, and any other software that interacts with Bungie’s intellectual property, from any machines under his control.

“This permanent injunction constitutes a binding court order, and any violations of this order by Defendant will subject them to the full scope of this Court’s contempt authority, including punitive, coercive, and monetary sanctions. Any company or entity that Defendant controls in the future will also comply with the provisions of this Judgment and Permanent Injunction,” the motion continues.

“This permanent injunction is binding against Defendant worldwide, without regard to the territorial scope of the specific intellectual property rights asserted in the Complaint and may be enforced in any court of competent jurisdiction wherever Defendant or his assets may be found.”

The stipulated motion for entry of consent judgment/permanent injunction is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

The United Arab Emirates ( UAE ) is rapidly expanding its population, mostly through migrant workers .

The country, where Dubai is the most populous city, presents itself as a region where people from all over the world can do business and find entertainment.

UAE Pirates

The region appears to be a magnet for the rich and famous, but it’s not all fun and games. As it turns out, some people in the UAE are enjoying entertainment without paying for it; through pirate streaming sites or IPTV devices.

Earlier this year, the IIPA , a coalition of major rightsholder groups, stressed that the UAE Government should help to deter IPTV piracy. For example, by promoting website blocking and anti-piracy interventions by domain registrars and other intermediaries.

“The government has an important role to play in promoting piracy prevention efforts and needs to encourage ISPs to restrict access to illegal Internet protocol TV (IPTV) services and intermediaries that facilitate the operation of such services,” IIPA wrote.

LaLiga and UAE launch Anti-Piracy Lab

These piracy activities haven’t gone unnoticed by major sports rightsholders either. This prompted Spanish football league, LaLiga , to team up with local authorities to collaborate on this front. LaLiga has been operating a dedicated office in the UAE for ten years, so connections were already in place.

The discussions eventually resulted in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was announced to the public this week. At an event hosted in the Emirates, LaLiga President Javier Tebas Medrano signed the agreement with representatives from the UAE’s Ministry of Economy.

LaLiga and UAE are committed to launch an ‘anti-piracy laboratory’ with the specific aim of tackling online piracy, including sports streaming. Details of the agreement are noticeably absent, but according to LaLiga’s president, it’s a big deal.

“We have more than 10 years of experience in the fight against piracy across the world. This agreement is historic and unique. We’re not just defending LALIGA, but also many other sports and audiovisual properties. We have to defend the entire industry,” Medrano says.

Pirate Site-Blocking And More

The UAE also highlighted the agreement separately, while adding more context. According to the Ministry of Justice, the new lab will focus on website blocking and the development of technical anti-piracy tools.

“The Ministry of Economy signed a MoU with LaLiga to launch a project to establish an ‘Anti-Piracy Lab’ aimed at blocking pirate websites that infringe on intellectual property rights, copyright, and creative content in the UAE,” the Ministry writes on X.

TorrentFreak reached out to LaLiga yesterday, requesting additional information on the anti-piracy laboratory, but we have yet to hear back. If anything comes in later, we will update this article accordingly.

It’s clear, however, that LaLiga and UAE are determined to hinder online pirates and IPTV services. These measures are unlikely to hurt the wealthy in the country, who can pay for legitimate access. However, the UAE’s population is largely made up of low-wage, migrant workers, who are more likely to be affected.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Early last year, a group of filmmakers obtained a subpoena that required Reddit to reveal the identities of users who commented on piracy-related topics.

The movie companies, including Voltage Holdings and Screen Media Ventures, said they were not planning to go after these people in court but wanted to use their comments as evidence in an ongoing piracy lawsuit against Internet provider RCN .

Reddit wasn’t pleased with the intrusion. The company objected, arguing that handing over the requested information would violate its users’ right to anonymous speech. Reddit later responded similarly to a second subpoena request.

The movie companies took these cases to a federal court, asking it to compel Reddit to comply. The court refused to do so in the two mentioned cases, and this year followed a third rejection , related to the case against Internet provider Frontier Communications .

Movie Companies Persist

The courts concluded on several occasions that the movie companies have other options to obtain the type of corroborative evidence they’re looking for. For example, they can target the Internet providers’ subscribers who are central to the lawsuits, instead of commenters on a third-party platform such as Reddit.

The movie companies received the message loud and clear but still don’t agree. A few weeks ago, they asked for a ‘de novo’ review of their request for Reddit subscriber data at the California court. To their disappointment, that was denied as well, without much detail.

The rightsholders clearly haven’t had much success thus far, but they’re not giving up so easily. This week, they informed the court that the matter will be appealed at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Protecting Anonymous Speech

The movie companies haven’t filed their opening brief yet and have until mid-September to do so. However, based on earlier filings, we can take a guess at some of the arguments that will be included.

Previously, the rightsholders argued that the comments from Redditors are key evidence to show that Frontier Communications didn’t implement a suitable repeat infringer policy, and that this subsequently acted as a draw to pirating subscribers.

Reddit never rejected this argument, but countered that their users’ constitutional right to anonymous speech outweighs the interests of the movie companies, especially when the rightsholders have other ways to obtain similar evidence.

Anonymous IP-Address?

The filmmakers’ latest request for subscriber data was more focused than previous ones, asking only for the IP-addresses of the Redditors.

In court, they reasoned that an IP address is not necessarily ‘unmasking’ personally identifying information. Therefore, the rights to anonymous speech would not be an issue here.

Reddit countered by pointing out that IP addresses can be connected to subscriber data by the relevant ISP. In that case, it would certainly identify ‘someone’, albeit with an extra step.

To strengthen this argument, Reddit pointed out that the movie companies previously used a Redditor’s IP address to obtain the name and address of a subscriber, requesting their torrenting history and more .

To be Continued

Whether the ninth Circuit will be more receptive to the filmmakers’arguments has yet to be seen. However, this case is far from over, and its outcome will be important for similar cases in the future.

Meanwhile, the filmmakers can also try to obtain similar evidence directly from allegedly pirating Frontier subscribers in the underlying case .

Last month, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that Frontier must share the personal details of allegedly pirating subscribers with the movie companies. However, they are not allowed to ‘harass’ them.

In theory, these subscribers may provide the filmmakers with all the evidence they need. For now, however, they are not planning to let the Reddit matter go, and the appeal will move forward.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Reports seem to vary but if servicing a billion users each month sounds like a lot, TikTok is on a mission to push way beyond that.

Early January 2018, the platform acknowledged it had around 55 million global users then in December the same year, that figure had suddenly grown to 271 million.

A year later, 271 million ballooned to over 500 million, then a year after that, over 700 million users were active on TikTok every month.

While not yet in the same league as Facebook with its user base of over 3.5bn, TikTok’s format is also proving popular among its competitors, many of which drew inspiration from TikTok before launching their own, functionally similar services.

Another thing they have in common is copyright complaints. These are the unavoidable reality of expecting the public to think twice before bashing the like, subscribe, upload, and equivalent buttons, when there’s almost nothing to prevent them from doing so whenever they please.

TikTok Says Creators Are Valued

TikTok’s transparency report has been developing since its first release, covering the first six months of 2019. The platform has weathered many storms since then and, along with owner Bytedance, is currently hoping to overturn what it believes is an unconstitutional ban at the hands of the United States government.

Unsurprisingly, copyright issues have also thrust TikTok into unfavorable light, with numerous rightsholders arguing that the social media platform could do much more to protect artists’ rights. According to a statement alongside its latest transparency report, TikTok exists to help creators thrive.

“The creativity of our community is at the heart of what makes TikTok such an entertaining place. Our platform enables people’s creative expression to shine, and we do our best to protect it,” TikTok writes.

“Our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service prohibit content that infringes third-party intellectual property rights. We honor valid removal requests based on infringements of copyright law and trademark law.”

Copyright Takedowns at TikTok

TikTok says that upon receiving a “valid report of potential intellectual property infringement from a rights holder or authorized representative, TikTok may remove the alleged infringing content and temporarily or permanently suspend the infringing account.”

Released every six months, TikTok’s transparency reports bundle copyright and trademark takedown notices together. Using the raw data made available as part of TikTok’s reporting, we removed trademark-related statistics and homed-in on copyright matters, to produce the charts seen below.

TikTok Copyright Takedowns By Volume (2021-2023)

Data available pre-2021 shows that TikTok tested various types of reporting, such as isolating complaints received from the United States and Canada, and presenting those figures against takedown requests received from the rest of the world. Given the changing nature of the data, anything that pre-dates 2021 is excluded here.

For the first five months of 2021, data includes notices that failed to comply with the DMCA and its European equivalent. That may explain the sudden drop in reported notices but thereafter, reporting from TikTok is consistent.

Almost 50,000 takedown notices were reported in the second half of 2021, a figure that nearly doubles in the following half-year’s figures. Between July and December 2022, takedown notices processed by TikTok increased by 56%, to an all-time high of 168,141 over a six-month period.

Last year saw even bigger increases in the volume of copyright takedown complaints. For the full 12 months, TikTok says it handled 462,120 takedown notices, more than it received during the previous two years combined. Not all of these notices achieved what their senders intended, however.

Takedown Notices vs. Successful Takedown Notices

According to notes accompanying TikTok’s transparency reporting, a ‘successful’ copyright removal request is one that, in the first instance, meets the statutory requirements of the DMCA, its European equivalent (EUCD), or relevant legislation elsewhere in the world.

Having met or exceeded those standards, a takedown notice is deemed ‘successful’ if it results in the removal of the reported content and/or leads to an alleged infringer’s account being suspended.

TikTok ‘Successful’ Copyright Takedowns (percentage of total)

TikTok’s data shows that since the second half of 2021, successful notices have never numbered more than around eight in every ten of the total received. As a general trend, takedown notices have become increasingly unsuccessful over the past couple of years.

Details of why so many notices fail to achieve their aims are absent from TikTok’s reporting. Close to half failing to have any effect in the last six months of 2023 is an all-time low, if we discount the first half of 2021 as a reporting anomaly.

Running Totals Since 2021 – A Drop in the Ocean

It’s perhaps a sign of the times when the 800K+ takedown notices processed by TikTok between 2021 and 2023 seems like a small amount. As reported last week, Google processed over a billion notices in a four-month period in the first half of 2024, albeit thanks to a few billion more users.

That being said, ‘just’ a billion users at TikTok could be reasonably expected to generate more takedown notices than the 800K+ reported thus far. However, those sending ‘unsuccessful’ notices may also need to take note; 500K+ notices appear to have been dumped in the trash since 2021, well over half of the total number of notices processed by TikTok.

TikTok Copyright Takedowns (Running total since 2021)

TikTok’s full transparency report is available here

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.