No matter where people live or how much knowledge and experience they’ve accumulated, governments and corporations rarely shy away from an opportunity to offer behavioral advice.

Delivered via TV, radio and the internet, public service announcements enlighten the masses on topics seemingly so complex, they’re only fully understood by the few. Even if that was the case, 30 seconds of theatrics followed by what amounts to a blind order may have worked 40 years ago; today, people expect more than that and when it comes to anti-piracy PSAs, magnitudes more.

For the last few years the global anti-piracy message hasn’t wavered for a moment. There’s no memorable slogan to recall, but the message couldn’t be clearer: If people pirate content, using IPTV services in particular, more likely than not they will become infected with malware, have their identities stolen, credit cards maxed-out, and/or bank accounts emptied.

It’s one of the strongest and most united messages ever sent, and with multiple and significant caveats, even has some basis in truth. It appears to have done little to suppress demand, however.

Whether events unfolding in South Korea will dampen local demand remains to be seen, but the narrative playing out on national news could hardly be worse for pirate sites.

Piracy and Illegal Gambling Start Sharing a Cell

Before the advent of various international schemes that prevent gambling companies from advertising on pirate sites or contain an abstention agreement, gambling ads and pirate site were commonly seen together.

In South Korea, the government is no fan of piracy, but it tolerates illegal gambling even less. Online gambling within South Korea is outlawed, and government control in the rest of the market effectively amounts to a lucrative monopoly. When pressure mounted on former local piracy site Noonoo TV , the existence of ads promoting illegal gambling on the site receive dozens of mentions in the media.

While Noonoo seems to be dead, the local piracy/gambling nexus is reportedly in full swing. With black market gambling reportedly worth up to $80 billion, national TV news channel KBS has run dozens of stories over the past couple of months, all with a common theme.

Enjoy the Movie, Stay For the Gambling

The story at the heart of the current controversy dates back to September; KBS published a video report (below, English translation via subtitle) in which the presenter explains (around the one-minute mark) that the channel’s reporters tested out an illegal streaming site offering Netflix content for free. When a reporter clicked on one of the ads, it led to a surprisingly open criminal who confirmed the channel’s suspicions, apparently with no hesitation.

“When I click on the advertising banner on the screen, I am taken directly to an online gambling site. On other illegal streaming sites, similar advertisements appear on the screen,” the presenter says.

“After checking them one by one, most of them were the same company. A reporter contacted the online gambling operator and asked if he had anything to do with the streaming site, and he answered ‘yes’. So, it appears that they are making money by offering free OTT services and luring users who are misled by them to gambling sites,”

Commenting on the allegations, police confirmed an investigation into the connections between gambling sites and pirate streaming portals, adding that accounts linked to five sites had been frozen, with two sites shut down.

“The problem with these illegal OTTs and the gambling sites connected to them,” the presenter adds, “is that even teenagers are exposed to them without protection.”

Teenage Gambling Addicts

How KBS identified and then obtained permission to interview school kids who used these sites isn’t clear. The channel disguised their voices and blurred out their faces, but there’s little to hide their naivety. One of the opening statements appears to show a lack of understanding, if not complete ignorance, of exactly the type of disclosure that can ruin people’s lives.

“Even though I was a minor, I signed up immediately after entering my name, date of birth, and phone number, and that’s how I started ‘gambling’,” a student revealed.

“I was trying to watch it for free, but a lot of windows appeared at the bottom and a window at the top,” added another.

“While watching a free movie on an illegal OTT site, I inadvertently saw an advertisement. I clicked and entered the gambling site,” the interviewer was told.

“At first, out of curiosity, I went to the gambling site. The money I sent later grew out of control, and I even resorted to private loans.”

The final horror story manages to sound even more miserable than the others.

“This year I earned about 10 million won [US7,600],” the student said. “I originally saved up the money by doing a part-time job. But my mother and her parents had to give luxury goods and gold, and I took all of the collateral, because the interest rates on the losses jumped 100% in three days.”

Video From Inside an Alleged Gambling/Pirate Site Operation

KBS News doesn’t reveal who provided the video, but it was allegedly recorded inside an office where a gambling operation was based. The channel says it shows both the gambling platform and the pirate site being operated from the same room, enough evidence for the channel to conclude direct links between pirate movies and TV shows, and illegal gambling.

“There are adult sites and drama-watching sites. Those are the ones that work best,” a company official explained.

“These days, [gambling] sites don’t work without kids.”

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

⦿ Guy Owes $117m After pornEZ Suddenly Got Hard ⦿ “No Fees Ever” Tanggula TV Trafficking Targeted ⦿ Z-Library’s Domains Just Keep on Disappearing… ⦿ Anna’s Archive’s Sudden X / Twitter Vanishing Act ⦿ Sci-Hub Meets 24/7/365 UK Block Party

Mid-January 2023, MindGeek subsidiary MG Premium sued Nguyen Hoi , the alleged operator of unlicensed adult streaming site, Pornez.net. (2:23-cv-00349-CBM-PVC – MG Premium Ltd v. Nguyen Hoi)

Data from Google’s Transparency portal reveals that MG filed over 5.6 million DMCA takedown notices hoping to make the site less visible. On November 6, 2023, a California district court handed down a permanent injunction and ordered the defendant to pay MG Premium a cool $117,270,000 in statutory copyright damages.

Pornez.net is no longer online but sites with similar domains and extensions appear keen to emulate their namesake, not including the damages award, obviously.

Extracting massive damages awards from pirates is something DISH Network also enjoys. A DISH/Sling lawsuit filed last month in a Carolina district court targets Sentry Inc. and alleged owner, Michael Graziano. The complaint claims that the defendants “provide and profit from the sale of an illicit streaming service known as Tanggula” through which it’s possible to watch DISH/Sling programming without authorization.

Tanggula set-top boxes are advertised on social media platforms, sold via various affiliate and reseller schemes, and ‘reviewed’ regularly on YouTube .

According to the Black Friday offers currently being advertised on Twitter , $299 is the ‘bargain’ rate for a black and red Android-based device. However, DISH doesn’t appear too concerned about Tanggula boxes per ser , its focus is the software that runs on these devices and the thousands of live TV channels on offer. Indeed, after shelling out the initial sum, Tanggula says buyers can look forward to paying “no fees ever”.

DISH claims that the defendants sell access to packages via the websites www.alltvboxes.com and www.elitetv2023.com. Both websites were operational when the lawsuit was filed but are now offline. DISH investigators made undercover purchases according to the complaint (9:23-cv-05074 DISH Network LLC et al v. Sentry, Inc. et al, pdf ) , which seeks damages for alleged violations of the DMCA’s anti-trafficking provisions ( 17 U.S.C. S 1201 ).

Z-Library had dozens of domains seized last week , presumably some type of gift to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the initial law enforcement crackdown. During this wave the United States teamed up with Austrian law enforcement agencies ( more detail in our Nov 8 report ).

Z-Library confirmed the seizures late last week, noting that the domains were connected to Z-Library sub-projects. Since our initial report, an additional main/backup domain has also been seized.

Z-Library is still in control of its main domain (singlelogin.re) but lost singlelogin.asia in the recent round of seizures. It joins singlelogin.app, singlelogin.site, singlelogin.click, and a couple of hundred additional domains now under the control of U.S. authorities.

On a related note, Anna’s Archive appears to be still going strong but as a reader pointed out to us on Monday, the @AnnaArchivist account on X/Twitter was wiped out last week and no longer exists .

Finally, Sci-Hub and its mirrors/proxies will soon become less accessible for customers of the UK’s largest ISPs. As part of a High Court-sanctioned blocking campaign, Elsevier & Springer Nature recently added around a dozen new entries to the blocklist.

Sci-hub.pk and various subdomains of scihubtw.tw, sci-hub.se, sci-hub.st and unblockit.zip, join hundreds of previous blocklist entries targeting Sci-Hub and Libgen.

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

Given the sheer scale and reach of pirate sites either operated from Vietnam, or with direct connections to Vietnam, describing the country as a global piracy problem wouldn’t be a stretch.

After being briefed by Hollywood for the umpteenth time, that’s certainly the view of the United States government. Yet despite reported progress, including an overhaul of Vietnam’s copyright laws and promises to crack down on piracy, including the formation of a specialist anti-piracy unit , nothing has had any visible effect.

However, turn off a few legal TV channels inside Vietnam and suddenly piracy is a real concern.

International Pay TV Channels Withdraw

Sài Gòn Giải Phóng, a media outlet owned by the Communist Party of Vietnam, published a report yesterday claiming that during October and November, TV channels “disappeared” from pay TV subscription packages. National Geographic and Nat Geo Wild were named specifically along with their owner, Disney.

Other channels under the same ownership including Fox Movies, Fox Sports, Disney Channel and Disney Junior, were previously withdrawn, the paper reported.

To explain the exodus, the article cites Nguyen Thanh Lam, Vietnam’s Deputy Minister of Information and Communications. He says that film companies and other entertainment content businesses, Disney included, believe that traditional television has run its course and video-on-demand services are the future.

Since launching the Disney+ service, the article continues, Disney has begun to put everything it has onto the platform; it even had a message during the service’s launch ceremony: “Goodbye cable TV.”

Disney+ is indeed widely available; Aladdin and Anastasia can be viewed in Algeria and Albania, Bambi and Bagheera in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Unfortunately nothing for Vietnam, though, since Disney+ isn’t available there.

The article stresses the entire Southeast Asian market has seen international TV companies withdraw content but according to recent data, Disney+ is available in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

As things stand, there’s no real option to view the lost channels in Vietnam anymore, at least not legally.

Vietnam’s Government Voices Piracy Concerns

The theory that making content legally available is the only way to ensure legal sales appears clear to Vietnam’s government. The last thing a market needs is a gap opening up for pirates to exploit, as the article explains:

According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, although the withdrawal from the pay cable TV market in Vietnam is due to a change in the business orientation of the above channels, this also raises many concerns about the gap that these channels will leave behind. What is left is an opportunity for pirates, pirated websites, and illegal profits to run rampant when people’s need to watch sports, watch movies, listen to music….is very large

To show the scale of the demand, the article cites figures compiled by the Ministry of Information and Communications. As of October 2023, the number of pay TV subscribers in Vietnam reached 18.7 million, an increase of 12.3% over the same period last year. Pay TV revenue as of the third quarter of 2023 had reached VND 7,500 billion ($307.5 million), up 1.4% over the same period in 2022.

The government is apparently seeking recommendations on which companies can step in to fill the pay TV gap; it also appears to be painting the loss as an opportunity.

“From a positive perspective, the withdrawal of international television channels is also an opportunity for domestic television channels to have more customers,” the Communist Party-owned publication notes. “Besides, if people continue to support pirated websites, businesses providing official services will no longer buy copyrighted content at high costs – something that happened in the past. At that time, people will also be disadvantaged.”

If Only Someone Could Do Something

Regardless of the overt or underlying reasons for withdrawing the channels, entertainment companies have a primary mission to generate profit and if a business is profitable in certain regions or product areas, those are only discarded for exceptional reasons. There are significant problems in Vietnam regarding the country’s Cinema Law (report, page 10 ( pdf )) but the piracy problem never gets any better.

When Vietnam did conduct some kind of crackdown, the focus wasn’t on U.S. content being pirated and then distributed all over the world, it was on pirated sports content from overseas being consumed inside the country. Blocking a reported 1,000 sites presented few problems for the authorities then.

Yet according to the U.S. Department of Trade, despite Vietnam being host to the world’s “most egregious piracy sites” there is no clear or effective enforcement path available against these sites or their operators. ”

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

On November 12, 2005, I started a ‘blog’ to share news snippets and information about emerging file-sharing technology. At the time it would’ve been unthinkable that it would still draw visitors in 2023. But here we are.

Running a site like this on your own is impossible, so luckily Andy joined TF in 2006. Without his tireless input, the site wouldn’t be where it is today. I couldn’t have wished for a better partner to work alongside, period.

With two main writers and no other editorial staff we’re just a tiny operation compared to most other news sites. This means that we can’t cover every news story. Instead, we often try to focus on unique angles and perspectives.

A lot has changed in the (anti)piracy landscape over the years. Massive sites and services shut down and new giants appeared, in a cycle that continues to this day. When TF started, streaming wasn’t even really a thing yet, but today it’s everywhere.

Ideally, I’d like to write a lengthy overview of the highs, lows, and most pivotal stories, but today that’s not an option.

Life-Changing

Believe it or not, this article is coming to you from a hospital in the Netherlands, where a nasty health issue ‘brought’ me a few days ago. Luckily things are improving, but this explains why there are no recent articles published under my name.

As things stand right now, it will be hard to write anything substantial anytime soon. It’s ironic for this to happen on the verge of the site’s eighteenth anniversary. But, in hindsight, it’s an absolute miracle that TF managed to publish articles every single day for almost 18 years, through vacations, weddings, births, losses and all.

What the more distant future holds I don’t know. TorrentFreak has been my life and passion over the past eighteen years. It has taken priority over so many other things then last week, life itself passionately reminded me that health is more important than anything else. I need some balance.

Where this balance lies isn’t clear to me at this moment, and it’s best not to pressure myself into doing anything until the end of the year. Whether that means writing two articles, eighteen, or thirty-three, I just don’t know, but TF will still be here.

In closing, I want to thank everyone who helped TF to become what it is today. That includes the readers, ranters, tipsters, sources, and everyone kind enough to steer the site to where it is right now.

Thanks for reading and take care all!

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

A study published in September by the European Union Intellectual Property Office found that by late 2022, each internet user in the EU accessed websites offering pirated content at a rate of around 10 times per month .

Estonia and Latvia were called out as Europe’s most prolific infringers with around 25 accesses per user per month. German citizens and their Italian counterparts were highlighted as among the best behaved; 7.5 accesses per user per month, or roughly one pirate site visit every four days.

Yet when it comes to overall piracy rates and movie piracy in particular, no country in Europe can match the level of restraint shown in Poland. Not only do the Poles pirate less overall than any other country in the bloc, its citizens lead Europe on exposure to legal services.

The European average for buying from the internet or a pay TV platform in 2022 was just over four people in every ten ( pdf ) . Poland managed almost six in ten (59%), the best in Europe. All France had to show after 15 of years of monitoring, fining, and trying to reeducate pirates, was just three out of ten, the worst rate in Europe.

Poland Steps Up Piracy Crackdown

Last November, officers from Poland’s Central Bureau for Combatting Cybercrime (CBZC) arrested a then-28-year-old man on suspicion of connections to local platform, Zaukaj.vip. In January 2023, a 33-year-old believed to be the site’s founder was arrested and charged with fraud offenses dating back to February 2020.

A separate investigation began in May 2020 and ran until June 2023. The Department for Combating Economic Crime in Kraków, under the supervision of the District Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin, targeted the operators of Ogladaj.to (Watch.to) for illegally distributing movies and TV shows online.

According to information provided by police this week, the service was well organized and utilized content obtained from suppliers in Russia and Ukraine. Ogladaj’s outward appearance was somewhat typical of a web-based streaming service and the content itself appears to have been embedded in a YouTube-style player.

With just 25,000 visits per month, on face value Ogladaj’s traffic levels seem a little low to warrant three years’ worth of investigation resources, at least when compared to other locally-significant platforms.

For perspective, Poland-focused streaming site CDA-HD.cc receives around 1.7 million visits per month while Filman.cc, a site that claims to be registered as a legal business in Poland ( 1 ) , receives over 10 million.

Huge Losses to Rights Holders

Despite what appears to be a somewhat limited audience, police claim that Ogladaj caused losses to rightsholders in the region of PLN 15 million ($3,615,777). Customers reportedly paid for subscriptions by redeeming vouchers bought online, although just days after police wrapped up their investigation (and seemingly before any arrests were made) customer complaints about an inaccessible service had already begun to appear online .

Interestingly, the streaming service also accepted cryptocurrency payments. Police say these were processed through a crypto exchange office allegedly operated by one of the suspects.

In October police arrested a 36-year-old man, described as the founder of Ogladaj, at an apartment in Gdynia, northern Poland. On the same day, a 38-year-old IT specialist was detained in Lower Silesia. Both men were subsequently charged with crimes in connection with the unlawful distribution of copyrighted content.

There was some other stuff too.

“Internet portal with erotic advertising”

The report released by Małopolska police says that officers became aware that the alleged founder of Ogladaj was also responsible for creating an “internet portal with erotic advertising.” The arrested 38-year-old provided technical support for both websites, police say.

“During a search of the suspects’ places of residence, the electronic equipment they used was seized. In addition, money in various currencies, funds in accounts, luxury cars, as well as high-quality sports equipment, silver bars and gold collector coins were seized from the suspects for future fines,” the report reads.

The total value of the seized property is estimated at PLN 1,000,000, around $240,700, but whether all of that is attributable to the piracy operation becomes unclear when other potential crimes enter the equation.

“[The suspects] will also be held responsible for deriving financial benefits from prostitution,” police add, with no additional detail.

Suspects Must Not Flee

A third suspect in the case is described as a 30-year-old man who sold Ogladaj vouchers on his own website. If found guilty, police says the suspects face up to five years in prison.

The men were released and placed under police supervision, which includes a ban on them leaving the country. Given the rather unusual events of 2020, which saw one of the world’s most wanted pirates suddenly vanish into thin air , that doesn’t come as a surprise.

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

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the United States government’s crackdown on Z-Library , one of the world’s largest shadow libraries.

With legal proceedings underway in the United States, authorities have not given up trying to take Z-Library down. One of the site’s primary login domains, singlelogin.me, was seized alongside other domains early May this year.

Users were encouraged to switch to singlelogin.re, which remains operational today. The domain is supported by a laundry list of additional domains, subdomains, nameservers, and a maze of physical and virtual network infrastructure designed to keep the site alive in the event of new seizures.

It’s possible those new systems are being put to the test at this very moment.

New Domain Seizures With Overseas Assistance

In a move that coincides with the one-year anniversary of 2022’s tumultuous events, a few hours ago nameservers controlled by the US Department of Justice began handling queries for two new domains. According to the seizure notice, Singlelogin.click and IPFS.cat were both connected to Z-Library.

The image below shows how the domains transitioned from nameservers determined by their owners, to nameservers run by law enforcement authorities in the United States.

Singlelogin.click / IPFS.cat (seizedservers) / Click to Enlarge

Visitors to those domains today are greeted by the FBI seizure banner in the image below. The white graphic to the right reveals the involvement of the Bundeskriminalamt , Austria’s Criminal Intelligence Service, which serves as a national and international contact point for police cooperation in criminal matters.

The blue and red logo to the left is a reference to C4, Austria’s Cybercrime Competence Center in Vienna.

It Started With Two Domain Seizures, Dozens More On the Way

To our knowledge, the first domain – Singlelogin.click – hadn’t been widely or obviously publicized. However, with similar structure, functionality and an almost identical technical profile to other singlelogin.* variants, including those still in operation, the FBI appears to have had no problems scooping it up.

Singlelogin.click No Longer Functions Like This

At this point we originally intended to offer some detail on the IPFS.cat domain, but bigger news is literally breaking right now.

We’re supplying the following list of domains on the basis we believe they have already been seized or are about to be seized. Normally we would check each one to be absolutely sure, but the list is growing by the minute and we have no immediate prospect of keeping up.

The most significant seizure thus far is another singlelogin variant, singlelogin.site. Z-Library’s main domain, singlelogin.re, is currently intact but that could change at any moment.

We’ll continue to update this article for the rest of the day.

List of likely Z-Library linked domain seizures (TBC)

singlelogin.click
singlelogin.site
ipfs.cat
resist.tel
vietnamese-books.org
uzbek-books.org
urdu-books.org
ukrainian-books.org
turkish-books.org
thai-books.org
tamil-books.org
swedish-books.org
spanish-books.org
slovenian-books.org
slovak-books.org
serbian-books.org
russian-books.org
portuguese-books.org
polish-books.org
persian-books.org
pashto-books.org
norwegian-books.org
mongolian-books.org
marathi-books.org
malayalam-books.org
lithuanian-books.org
latvian-books.org
latin-books.org
kyrgyz-books.org
korean-books.org
kazakh-books.org
japanese-books.org
italian-books.org
indonesian-books.org
hungarian-books.org
hindi-books.org
hebrew-books.org
greek-books.org
german-books.org
georgian-books.org
fr-books.org
finnish-books.org
dutchbooks.org
danish-books.org
czechbooks.org
croatian-books.org
chamorro-books.org
catalan-books.org
bulgarian-books.org
bengali-books.org
belarusian-books.org
azerbaijani-books.org
arabic-books.org
afrikaans-books.org

Early November 2022, at first dozens then eventually hundreds of Z-Library domains were seized by the Department of Justice. With two alleged Z-Library operators already detained in Argentina, rendering Z-Library inoperable was a primary goal. The question now is whether the United States government has returned to finish the job.

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

New figures published by CharlieIntel predict that free-to-play, action role-playing game Genshin Impact, will have 63 million players in November alone.

These impressive figures suggest that the game’s developers give gamers want they want but for a significant subset of Genshin Impact players with specific needs, that itch has to be scratched elsewhere.

The overwhelming urge to obtain or merely catch a glimpse of videogame content before its official release is a condition as old as gaming itself. In today’s social media-powered arena, those with access to leaked content can build huge audiences by putting it on display; when that content relates to Genshin Impact, publisher Cognosphere regularly calls in the lawyers.

New DMCA Subpoena Against X/Twitter

A new DMCA subpoena application was filed at a California district court on Monday. Attorneys acting for Cognosphere inform the court that the company is the exclusive licensee of Genshin Impact in the United States and other territories, which includes any artwork, gameplay footage, and related audiovisual content.

Following the now-familiar formula, Cognosphere says that since it needs to take action against alleged infringers, Twitter must “disclose the identity, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail addresses(es)” connected to four Twitter accounts: @HutaoLoverGI, @GIHutaoLover, @HutaoLover77, and @FurinaaLover.

“Cognosphere has reason to believe [the accounts] are operated or have been operated by the same individual and/or under common control,” the application notes. “The purpose for which this subpoena is sought is to obtain the identity of the user(s) operating the Twitter Accounts who have posted the infringing content appearing thereon.”

Leaked Content Redacted in DMCA Takedown Notices

The locations of the allegedly-infringing content are laid out in eight-pages of DMCA takedown notices sent to Twitter on Sunday by anti-piracy company Remove Your Media.

Each contains links where the content could be found along with an identifying screenshot, all of which are redacted in court documents. The URLs relating to @HutaoLoverGI are still up ( 1 , 2 ) but the images in both tweets have been taken down.

For those not fully immersed in the Genshin Impact world, determining the nature of the leaked content is less than straightforward. The tweets themselves contain a Japanese-language hashtag (#原神リーク) which may provide clues elsewhere on Twitter, but regardless, the popularity of the tweets isn’t in question. One tweet was viewed 71,700 times, the other 191,300 times.

Cognosphere obviously considers the leaked content a problem, but importantly, a problem it can deal with under copyright law.

Notices Targeting Other Accounts

Other DMCA takedown notices sent to Twitter target content posted by three additional accounts; @GIHutaoLover , @HutaoLover77 , and @FurinaaLover . Copies of the notices sent in support of the DMCA subpoena application are similarly redacted.

Unlike the @HutaoLoverGI account, these three accounts are no longer accessible; two appear to have been suspended for breaking X/Twitter’s rules and in the case of @Furinaalover, because the account no longer exists.

The small white text on the right of each image are the allegedly-infringing URLs, so at least by volume, the @HutaoLover77 account is clearly the most problematic.

What Happens Next…

After obtaining DMCA subpoenas at courts in the United States, alleged leakers like the above (and others like Ubatcha and many others ) face Twitter, Discord, or any other platforms they use, handing over their personal details to Cognosphere.

Whether those details eventually prove useful depends on the quality of information provided or left behind on X/Twitter by the account holders. What happens after useful information is handed over is rarely discussed in public.

The law says that any information obtained as part of a DMCA subpoena may only be used by the copyright holders for the purposes of enforcing their rights. The scope is narrowly defined for a reason but content protection is a broad field and Cognosphere is unlikely to feel restricted.

The DMCA subpoena application is available here (pdf)

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

DMCA subpoena applications filed at courts in the United States provide a relatively inexpensive mechanism for compelling intermediaries to hand over the personal details of allegedly-infringing users.

Since Cloudflare offers reverse proxy services to websites as part of its free tier, most subpoena applications filed in the United States target the company. They typically seek disclosure of pirate site operators’ personal details, and it’s not uncommon to see a dozen domains feature in one application or more in a bundle filed at the same time.

As revealed in our report last month , South Korea’s Naver Webtoon filed a single application containing over 350 ‘pirate’ domains, easily the highest number we’ve seen in recent years, possibly the most ever.

After remaining silent for several months, late last week Naver Webtoon issued a press release. It claimed that after obtaining the subpoena and taking unspecified action, the company “halted the activities of 150 overseas illegal sites.”

That’s an eye-catching figure because in many cases Cloudflare has little useful information to pass on. It also represents a level of success currently enjoyed by no other rightsholders using the same process, which is highly unusual. That alone warrants a closer look but first, a brief summary of key statements in the release.

Naver Webtoon’s Key Statements

– After three months of hard work by Naver Webtoon, about 150 overseas illegal sites stopped operating. This is the result of Naver Webtoon’s action to issue a ‘Subpoena’ through a U.S. court, the first in the webtoon industry.

– Illegal site operator information, such as address, email, and payment details, is essential information for tracking and arrest. Subpoenas also have the effect of discouraging the activities of illegal site operators.

– According to the traffic statistics site ‘Similar Web’, the annual user traffic to about 150 illegal sites affected by Naver Webtoon’s action is approximately 2.5 billion.

– Naver Webtoon plans to share the information on illegal site operators obtained this time with investigative agencies and respond strictly with a zero-tolerance policy.

Right off the bat it’s worth highlighting that the subpoena listed 360 domain names, not 360 sites. To illustrate why that’s so important, one of the sites targeted appears to have begun life as ‘Newtoki’ but then registered subsequent domains that also include a number; newtoki1, newtoki2, newtoki3, etc.

A total of 19 of these variants appeared in the subpoena, as low as newtoki17.org and as high as newtoki310.com. There appears to be at least another 100 domains in a similar format, hundreds in total (some apparently owned by an anti-piracy company), but none functioning as a pirate site. Persistence may have paid off here, but there are nearly always more domains than sites and that can significantly distort perceived outcomes.

That being said, a bigger and perhaps more straightforward win may justify the campaign in its own right.

Closure of Just One Site Suggests Campaign Paid Off

Aquamanga.com was one of two sites mentioned specifically by Naver Webtoon following its press release last week.

Traffic to Aquamanga was significant to say the least. SimilarWeb data reveals a site receiving considerable traffic on an upwards trajectory; 61 million visits in September, up from 52.6m in July.

We’ve seen no evidence to show the site has reappeared under a different domain, and information suggests that the deterrent effect mentioned by Naver Webtoon may have done its job in this case. Overall, the closure of Aquamanga seems to be the highlight of the campaign and since it accounts for three quarters of a billion visits, understandably so.

Another Big Closure But Less Satisfactory Outcome

Another site that received a direct mention from Naver was Flamescans.org. The popular scanlation site was also doing well; SimilarWeb data for August and September shows between 18.1m and 18.7m visits per month, progress that was halted when the site suddenly went offline.

“Thank you to all of our community members for their continued support. Unfortunately, this site has discontinued all services related to the function and content hosted as of October 19, 2023. We appreciate your steadfast engagement and commitment to us through the years,” a notice on the homepage reads.

While the quality of the ‘artwork’ accompanying the goodbye message won’t keep Webtoon’s artists up at night, it strongly implies that things might not be over just yet.

The image above shows Flamescans to the left of the goodbye message and Flame-Comics to the right. They appear identical and show that while domains are important, they’re not as important as sites.

Interestingly, a bitcoin address on the Flamescans.org domain marked “Anonymous Donations” has received a total of 0.00000000 BTC ($0.00) thus far. It’s possible that pirate frugality and relatively complicated crypto transactions aren’t the best mix.

Also listed in the subpoena but still online are five ‘Agitoon’ .xyz domains beginning agit571 and ending agit577.xyz. They carry the same epilepsy-inducing gambling advertising previously seen on the now-shuttered Noonoo TV .

Naver Webtoon says that in addition to sending direct warnings to “selected” illegal sites, it also works to undermine their ability to do business. Domain registrars, hosting companies, ISPs, social media platforms and payment services are among the potential targets.

Due to these efforts, 23 unnamed sites witnessed a 30% fall in traffic in October when compared to July, the company reports.

‘Good News’ For the Entire Webtoon Industry

Summing up, Naver Webtoon says that its anti-piracy work isn’t just good for the company, it’s good for everyone involved in webtoons.

“This achievement is helpful not only to Naver Webtoon but also to the entire webtoon industry, which is suffering damage from illegal webtoon sites,” says Kim Gyu-nam, Naver Webtoon’s legal affairs chief and anti-piracy task force leader.

“The platform will do its best to eradicate illegal webtoons. We will continue to actively take all possible measures.”

Given the constantly shifting nature of many pirate sites, especially those that operate multiple domains and/or move to new ones hoping to evade various measures, it’s difficult to determine whether Naver Webtoon really did shut down 150 sites. In its press release it actually notes that “about 150 sites were completely deleted or temporarily suspended operations ” which does change things somewhat.

Still, if putting domains out of action was part of the mission, that seems to have been quite effective. The image below shows a screenshot/preview image of every domain in the subpoena. In the majority of cases, those with no image are out of action.

Whether any have moved to new domains is another question, but none will have welcomed the disruption and won’t welcome the future disruption Naver Webtoon is already promising.

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

With more than a billion impressions per month and over 30,000 active advertisers, PropellerAds is a serious player in the online advertising industry.

The Cyprus-based company works with advertisers and publishers from all over the world and while many are legitimate companies, Hollywood believes there are some bad apples too.

MPA’s List of Notorious Markets

Last month, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) nominated PropellerAds for inclusion on the US Trade Representative ‘s annual list of “notorious markets”. In the overview, the advertising outfit is flanked by traditional pirate sites such as The Pirate Bay, Fmovies, and YTS.

According to the MPA, PropellerAds is used by many pirate sites to generate millions of dollars in revenue.

“Although primarily based in Cyprus, Propeller Ads is an ad network operated by Russian individuals that has subsidiary offices in the Czech Republic, the Isle of Man, and the United Arab Emirates. The company is a significant ad provider to streaming cyberlockers,” MPA wrote.

The movie industry group added weight to its claim by referencing reports from the Digital Citizens Alliance ( DCA ), which show that illicit actors use pirate sites to display dubious or even harmful ads.

“According to DCA, Propeller Ads is among the biggest facilitators of malvertising on piracy sites, accounting for a quarter of their malvertising. Propeller Ads has been offering its services to dozens of illegal and infringing sites such as French-Stream.gg, Supervideo.tv, Vidlox.me, and Filmpertutti.lat, helping those sites generate significant revenues through advertising,” MPA writes.

This isn’t the first time that PropellerAds has been nominated for an appearance in the “notorious markets” overview; the MPA previously submitted almost identical recommendations to the USTR. These claims are a thorn in the side of the advertising company which has just responded with a scathing rebuttal in which it openly criticizes the MPA.

PropellerAds Responds

In a letter to the USTR, PropellerAds, represented by Boston Law Group’s Val Gurvits, describes the MPA’s characterization as baseless and libelous.

“In short, there is no basis to claim that Propeller Ads can be or should be alleged to be taking part in piracy. The assertions by the MPA that Propeller Ads is willfully funding piracy websites are not only factually wrong, but also legally baseless and libelous,” the letter reads.

The advertising company sees itself as an intermediary between advertisers and publishers, who use its platform to show billions of ads. It has no control over what’s offered on its clients’ websites, nor does it endorse or support any of the content.

In this intermediary role, the company believes that it’s not responsible for potentially problematic content. That’s in line with how courts in the US have ruled on this matter, the response notes, citing various legal precedents.

“In stark contrast to the MPA’s suggestion that advertising services somehow make Propeller Ads complicit in copyright piracy occurring on certain Internet websites, United States courts have explicitly found that an advertising network like Propeller Ads is not responsible for the infringing activities of its publishers.”

Reckless, Baseless, Inaccurate, and Misleading

As the rebuttal continues, the wording gets stronger. PropellerAds openly discredits the DCA research the MPA relies on, describing it as “reckless, baseless, inaccurate, and misleading.”

“The DCA Report not only fails to include Propeller Ads, but it does not even allege that any online advertisers or ad networks, in general, are responsible for illicit acts of piracy, credit card fraud, malware nor for any other potential risk to the health and safety to American consumers,” PropellerAds insists.

The MPA’s reliance on the DCA research to back up their “attacks” is “reprehensible and self-interested,” the advertising company notes. It stresses that there are close ties and financial links between the film industry and DCA, as previously reported by Vox .

PropellerAds indirectly suggests that DCA’s reports are used as ammunition for lobbying efforts. For example, the research is often referenced in legislative and policy commentary, without proper attribution and unbiased data.

“Indeed, all evidence demonstrates that the DCA created the DCA Report simply by relying on the unsubstantiated allegations of self-interested parties without conducting any reasonable independent research, with the clear intention of reaching a predetermined conclusion, defaming Propeller Ads,” the company adds.

“The DCA Report and all information therein about Propeller Ads is based on unconfirmed, farfetched, and false allegations without any actual evidence or justification whatsoever.

“The DCA Report provides no statistics or other real evidence proving that advertising intermediaries are in any way responsible for these bad actors. Therefore, all declarations, data, and numbers in the DCA Report as it relates to Propeller Ads are nothing more than mere speculations, expressions of malevolent opinions, and invalid assumptions.”

Harassment and Defamation

Propeller Ads says the MPA uses the USTR process to put pressure on third-party intermediaries, which can be seen as harassment and defamation.

“While the MPA holds itself out as a party eager to combat illegal activities on the internet, in reality, the MPA is using its platform and influence to baselessly harass and defame Propeller Ads and other major industry participants.”

If the MPA truly believes that PropellerAds is breaking the law it can take the matter to court; thus far, however, that’s yet to happen. While the MPA may not like some of the sites the company works with, that doesn’t make it liable.

For this reason, the USTR should not list the advertising company as a notorious market in its final report, the letter concludes.

“Propeller Ads respectfully cautions USTR to not adopt the MPA’s unfounded allegations and manufacture of evidence. The MPA’s cynical strategy is quite clear. The MPA is attempting to launder their own allegations through the USTR to advance the MPA’s own interest against Propeller Ads and other online advertisers.”

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A copy of PropellerAds full response, submitted to the US Trade Representative, is available here (pdf)

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