In recent years, many people have canceled their expensive cable subscriptions, opting to use cheaper Internet TV instead.

Those who choose the cheapest plans often end up at pirate services. These may work flawlessly for years, until they don’t.

Fiscal Police Raid IPTV Service

Today, one of the largest pirate IPTV services was taken offline by the Dutch fiscal police ( FIOD ). Four people were arrested while searches were carried out at various business and residential addresses, where cars, computers, bank accounts and large sums of cash were confiscated.

The raids and searches were carried out in multiple cities throughout the Netherlands including Amsterdam, Almere, Enschede, The Hague, and Den Helder.

The name of the IPTV operation is not mentioned by the authorities but it appears to be massive. Local anti-piracy group BREIN reports that TVs in hundreds of thousands of homes went dark due to the raids. Europol, which also assisted in the operation, mentions that the service had over a million users across Europe.

Criminal Case

BREIN applauds the action and notes that it will file criminal charges on behalf of several major rightsholders, several of which have already indicated that they want to join the case.

The IPTV service, which charged a monthly subscription fee of roughly 10 euros, carried more than 10,000 TV channels. It also offered access to 15,000 on-demand movies and TV series from popular services such as Disney+ and Netflix, causing substantial damages.

“This is the largest criminal investigation by the Dutch fiscal police FIOD and the Dutch prosecution into digital piracy in the Netherlands ever,” says BREIN director Tim Kuik commenting on the news.

“Illegal IPTV is the most serious threat to legal offerings of movies, series, television and sports broadcasts. This case concerns a criminal organization behind the large-scale sale of illegal IPTV subscriptions in the Netherlands and elsewhere. It involves tens of millions of euros in damages in the Netherlands alone.”

Kuik informs TorrentFreak that he prefers not to name any of the persons or companies involved. However, hr confirms that the targeted organization supplied third-party sellers, both online and through physical shops.

Data Center Offline?

Dutch police highlight that the IPTV service was distributed from a data center in Den Helder. While we can only speculate, this could be GLOBE DataCenter, whose office is located there. The data center’s website is unreachable at the time of writing so the entire network could be offline .

TorrentFreak reached out to GLOBE for a comment but the company didn’t immediately reply. However, these suspicions are strengthened (not confirmed) by a photo of the police action in a Dutch news report , which features the office of GLOBE.

Further details will likely come out as the investigation and the potential prosecution progresses.

This certainly isn’t the first large-scale IPTV takedown in Europe. We have seen several of these operations in other countries, including Spain where an ‘unnamed’ IPTV service with two million users was pulled offline.

Apparently, other IPTV services continue to step up to fill the void. This is no surprise; to some people, a potential revenue stream of one billion euros per year sounds like an opportunity, rather than a threat. However, today’s action shows that the risk isn’t just hypothetical.

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

If the best ideas are always the simplest, in 2016 software developer Elias Saba hit the jackpot.

Two years after Amazon launched its first generation Fire TV, there was still no easy way to transfer files to the device. Released on the Amazon Appstore in November 2016, Saba’s ‘Downloader’ app offered users just two things; an empty URL field and a download button. It was basic yet functional, and in time, extraordinarily successful.

The Amazon Appstore and Google Play currently account for more than 50 million installs of Downloader, underpinned by Saba’s decision not to charge a single penny for the software. At the time of writing, Downloader has 664,605 customer ratings on Amazon, averaging 4.3 stars out of a possible five. For several TV companies from Israel, Saba’s work, success and generosity are of no consequence; Downloader is in their way and has to go.

Google Kicks Downloader Out of the Play Store

In a notification sent to Sabas yesterday, Google informs the developer that “after a recent review,” Downloader was found to contain content that “doesn’t comply with the Unauthorized Use of Copyrighted Content policy” operated on the Play Store.

The review was prompted by a copyright complaint from Israel-based TV companies HOT Communications Systems Ltd, DBS Satellite Services (1998) Ltd, United King Distribution Videos (1990) Ltd, and Charlton Ltd.

“We have received an infringement notice that your app contains copyrighted content,” Google’s notice explains. “Your app has been suspended and removed due to alleged copyright infringement (according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act).”

Notices like this can be terminal

Google’s notification reveals that the TV companies supplied no details of specific original content or details of content allegedly infringed. As a DMCA takedown notice, it arguably fails at the very first hurdle. Instead, the notice draws Google’s attention to a feature added to Downloader more than six years ago.

The companies claim that this feature violates an injunction the TV companies obtained from a New York court in 2022. Neither the injunction, nor the process that led to its issuance, have anything to do with Saba or his software.

Since the TV companies claim otherwise, a little background may help.

Users Demand More, Get More

Within weeks of its launch, Downloader’s users were already requesting new features. For Saba, a former Fire TV Product Manager at Amazon, that didn’t come as a surprise. As a developer, it wasn’t a problem either.

“I added basic file management and a web browser to Downloader in February 2017 because users complained that it was too tedious to enter long URLs using a remote control and the on-screen keyboard,” Saba informs TorrentFreak.

The addition of a web browser didn’t just consign long URLs to history; for Downloader and its users, a little history was being made. While Downloader users happily searched Google and navigated to files displayed on a TV , bigger players in the software market were still playing catch up.

TV Surfing Pioneer Taken Offline on a Whim

When Downloader fueled free, accessible web browsing via TV sets, Saba says that filling another gap in the market was an accident, an “unintended side-effect” of the new feature.

“My app predated nearly all stand-alone web browsers on streaming devices, including Amazon’s own Silk browser and Firefox, which arrived on TV streaming devices six months after my app gained a web browser,” Saba recalls.

While popular in its own right, Downloader was about to get a huge boost. Popular open source media player Kodi was previously available from Amazon’s Appstore but after the company removed it , only unofficial installation methods remained.

In an April 2017 tweet , the people behind Kodi described Downloader as ‘The only correct way of installing Kodi on Amazon devices.” Over the years, millions of people followed that advice.

Saba estimates that over 45 million Fire TV users installed Downloader at some point. At the time of writing, Downloader has at least five million active installs on Android TV devices through Google Play. Downloader is free and the nearest thing it has to an advert is Saba’s blog, AFTVNews.com , loading as the browser’s default homepage.

Downloader’s browser feature is the start, middle and end of the TV companies’ complaint to Google.

Browser Can Access a Pirate Streaming Site

The bones of the complaint fit neatly into a single paragraph. Sent to Google by Eran Presenti, a partner at M. Firon & Co., one of Israel’s largest law firms, it reads as follows:

“[T]his app which can be downloaded to any Android based device including smart TV – allows users to view the infamous copyright infringing website known as SDAROT (www.sdarot.tw) against which the are 2 Isareli court and a NY Federal court judgments issuing permanent injunction against the saus website [sic].”

Google Chrome, an app that arrives pre-installed on millions of Android devices, also allows users to view the infamous Sdarot. The same is true for Safari, Edge and Firefox. All of them show an image similar to the one below in response to input featuring Sdarot’s URL.

Evidence that Downloader’s browser displays websites in response to user input is reportedly contained in eight screenshots listed by Google. Saba actually received eight filenames ending in .jpg, but no actual images.

A link to a website in the notice claims to provide a copy of an ‘Amended Default Judgment & Injunction’ dated July 6, 2022. The link was supposed to lead to sdarot.tv, a domain previously owned by Sdarot but later seized by the TV companies. A copy of the injunction isn’t available because the domain itself is completely broken.

Despite acting as the evidence behind Downloader’s removal from Google Play, Saba informs us that the screenshots and injunction remain a mystery to him. Fortunately, we know all about the underlying case and injunction; more interestingly, Google knows all about it too.

TV Companies Fight a War They Can’t Win

HOT Communications, DBS Satellite, United King and Charlton Ltd are on a mission to destroy Sdarot, Israel’s largest pirate site. The subscription streaming platform has been targeted in at least three lawsuits, all of them decided in favor of the plaintiffs, yet still refuses to die.

In May 2022, we broke the news that the companies had obtained an injunction from a New York court that required every ISP in the United States to block Sdarot and two other pirate sites.

What happened next remains shrouded in mystery but the record shows that after winning the injunction, the TV companies decided they didn’t want U.S. ISPs to block the sites after all.

The scope of the injunction remained a concern. It began with consumer ISPs but also prohibited any webhost, CDN provider, DNS provider, domain company, advertising service, financial institution, or payment processor from doing business with the sites’ operators moving forward. Cloudflare, Google, EFF, and industry group CCIA felt strongly enough to intervene in the lawsuit.

With no means to protect itself from an injunction that failed to narrowly target specific, identified defendants and their agents, and/or third parties in active concert or participation with them, Cloudflare refused to comply with its terms and the TV companies’ “blatant attempt at a power grab.”

The TV companies unwisely moved to hold Cloudflare in contempt but in the weeks that followed, the injunction was amended and the TV companies went after Sdarot instead.

Sdarot Remains Online, Downloader Targeted

For reasons that currently make little sense, the TV companies seem to have cited an injunction that appears to have nothing to do with Saba or Downloader, to convince Google that displaying the Sdarot website, after someone keys Sdarot.tw into Downloader’s browser, is a breach of its terms.

Since Saba’s initial appeal to Google was rejected, he’s since filed a DMCA counternotice to have Downloader reinstated. That’s currently listed as pending but at least in theory, Google should reinstate the software unless the TV companies file a lawsuit against Saba.

Thus far, however, legal action against intermediaries has failed to achieve its primary goal. A review of the position on the ground today suggests a situation that’s arguably worse than before.

Sdarot now operates from a Taiwan .tw domain which present its own legal challenges. As for the site’s hosting, Sdarot now spreads its infrastructure across several countries including Moldova and Russia, utilizing a number of hosts that are well-known for filing DMCA complaints in the cabinet marked ‘TRASH’.

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

Z-Library has become the go-to site for many readers in recent years by providing access to millions of books, without charging a penny.

The site’s continued ability to do so was put to the test late last year when U.S. law enforcement seized over 200 domain names connected to the site. Two alleged Z-Library operators were arrested as part of a criminal investigation.

Despite being in the crosshairs of law enforcement, Z-Library has no intention of throwing in the towel. The site remained accessible through the dark web and later made a full comeback. When the U.S. authorities seized more domains earlier this month, it still didn’t budge.

Serving Students and Teachers

Z-Library instead doubled down on its mission to provide free books to the public at large, including educational material and textbooks. This makes the site a popular repository for students all around the world, as statistics from Z-Library’s user database now reveal.

“It’s no secret that the most active users of our library are students and staff from various universities. We wanted to learn more about this and have collected statistics showing which educational institutions use Z-Library,” Z-Library writes on Telegram.

The team analyzed its user database to check how many user email-addresses are linked to universities, colleges and schools. This gives an impression of how many students and employees use the site but it’s likely a low estimate, as students may very well use their personal email addresses to sign up.

Still, the overall outcome and the global distribution of users is worth highlighting. China is the top country in absolute numbers, followed by India and Indonesia. This is no surprise, perhaps, as these countries also have the largest populations.

Looking at the full database, Z-Library linked 600,000 email addresses to a total of 30,000 educational institutions around the world.

United States and Australia

The only country missing from the top list, population-wise, is the United States. Z-Library notes that it intentionally excluded the country due to the criminal prosecution of two of the site’s alleged operators.

“It should be noted that when compiling statistics, we excluded all data related to the United States due to illegal arrest of two Russian citizens on suspicion of involvement in Z-Library,” the shadow library writes on Telegram.

There are also some relatively smaller countries in the top list, such as Australia. With a population of just over 25 million, Z-Library is relatively popular there, beating Brazil and Vietnam, which both have much larger populations.

The Australian Monash University also gets a special mention. Apparently, it is the educational institution where users have created the most public booklists. These lists are personal book collections that can be focused on any theme, including educational topics.

Friends and Foes

Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland, is the runner-up based on the number of created booklists. It’s worth a separate mention, however, as it also appears in the top 5 universities that donated to Z-Library.

The list of most avid Z-Library supported is led by the top Chinese universities, which are grouped for the purpose of this analysis.

The reported data clearly show that Z-Library is a valuable resource for many students. Comments from users also reflect that, since people from all over the world thank the site for saving them money on books, including textbooks.

That said, public appreciation doesn’t shield the site from legal trouble or the U.S. authorities’ continuing crack down. For now, however, attention only seems to make the current operators more determined to continue.

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

The insidious nature of a developing addiction often takes people by surprise, regardless of the substance involved, but especially when it’s freely available, all over the internet.

While an occasional copy-and-paste is known to alleviate boredom, peer pressure at a vulnerable moment can lead to a whole file or even an entire folder being permanently copied to a USB stick.

Most people feel no ill effects but for thrill-seekers, the instant high is over in moments, triggering a vicious cycle of increasingly risky copying and diminishing returns.

A new campaign unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival aims to raise awareness of this addiction and how creators end up suffering the consequences.

“Protecting Creation Against Piracy: Can We Go Further?”

Revealed during an anti-piracy roundtable at the Festival on Saturday, the campaign is the work of two French government agencies – CNC (National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image) and ARCOM, the new anti-piracy/audiovisual regulator in France.

CNC CEO Olivier Henrard and ARCOM’s Denis Rapone unveiled the campaign with support from Charles Rivkin, Chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association.

Google : United Against Piracy

“The ambition of this campaign, with a slightly offbeat tone, is to encourage more and more Internet users to change their habits in favor of practices that respect creation,” ARCOM notes.

“In 2022, 86% of French Internet users aged 15 and over have consumed at least one cultural good online, films, series, video games, music, etc.”

Recovering Piracy Addicts in Therapy

The campaign features a series of spots set to appear on television, cinema, radio and social networks, from June 15, 2023. They reveal the struggles of recovering piracy addicts as they transition from illegal to legal content with the help of Isabelle Champart, a certified anti-piracy coach/therapist.

It appears that with guidance from Isabelle, French piracy addicts will make a full recovery and have no further use for her skills. Here’s a sneak preview of six slots, with general translations from French under each.

TV and cinema spots

CNC and ARCOM film spot (all addicts)

Hector: “It’s been two years since I stopped everything, no relapse!”
Sam: “I loved this little thrill, the feeling of it being forbidden.” Isabelle: “And Now?”
Sam: “Now I’m back in line, coach. One movie or TV series per night, legally.”
Isabelle “You see, there is life after piracy.”

Clementine: “I think about it all the time!” Isabelle: “The key is breathing.” Clementine: “I still want it.” Isabelle: “Ah yes?”
Isabelle: “That’s good.” Hector: “Yes, I’m holding on.” Isabelle: “Bravo!”
Hector: “I’m hanging in there.” Isabelle: “Yes, I understand”
Voiceover: “Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

CNC and ARCOM film spot featuring Hector

Hector: “It’s true, I was hanging out on the internet a bit last week. I came across some cracked codes…but I didn’t crack!” Isabelle: “Bravo!” Hector: “I stood my ground” Isabelle: “I am proud of you.” Hector: “I’m holding on” Isabelle: “This is good.”
Voiceover: “Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

Anti-piracy awareness campaign: CNC and ARCOM film spot featuring Sam

Isabelle: “As soon as you’re on the verge of cracking, you put these mittens on. Try to go pirating wearing these.”
Sam: “It’s well designed! Thanks coach!”
Voiceover: “Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

CNC and ARCOM film spot featuring Clementine

Clementine: “I think about it all the time, I need to…..”
Isabelle: “I need you to relax. The key is breathing, and in the exhalation, we reject the urge.”
Voiceover: “Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

Radio Spots

CNC and ARCOM Radio Spot 1

Isabelle: “Hello, I’m listening!”
Caller: “Hello, I’m about to pirate a movie, I’m going to crack. Help me!”
Voiceover: “We don’t need a coach for everything in life. Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

CNC and ARCOM Radio Spot 2

Isabelle: “Want to put an end to piracy? I am Isabelle Champart, certified anti-piracy coach. My revolutionary method, you will hold all the cards and never need a coach again to stop pirating. Thank you to you who support creation by watching your films and TV series legally.”
Link

Compared With Similar Campaigns, Not Bad At All

Given the reaction (read: mockery) to traditional anti-piracy campaigns, it’s good to see a light-hearted approach executed with sophistication – not a bulldozer. Any campaign that begins with an air of superiority leading to blame, and then hammers that home to ensure everyone gets the message, ends up being part of the problem.

That certainly isn’t the case here.

While piracy itself doesn’t usually amount to an addiction, there’s no question that for some it’s a deeply ingrained habit. Even people who subscribe to legal services but still pirate on occasion report instinctively searching unlicensed resources first. It’s doubtful they need professional help but they may need a little more time.

Image credit: Pixabay/ TheDigitalArtist

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

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium and Brazil; just two letters of the alphabet and that’s already five countries that have implemented ISP blocking against The Pirate Bay.

The growing list, which continues with Denmark and persists through Finland, France and Germany, doesn’t stop until it reaches the United Arab Emirates and finally, the UK.

That’s around 30 countries overall, give or take, that have resorted to ISP blocking because no matter what’s thrown at it, The Pirate Bay simply refuses to die.

At least in part, the site is still alive after more than a decade of widespread blocking due to the existence of proxy sites. These sites tend to look and feel like The Pirate Bay but operate from different domain names that aren’t yet on ISP blocklists.

This means that otherwise blocked internet users get to enjoy broadly the same Pirate Bay experience as they did before. At least for a while.

Rightsholders Also Block Pirate Bay Proxies

As reported yesterday, one of the most popular Pirate Bay proxy indexing sites recently disappeared from GitHub.

ProxyBay was a significant player, one that had helped dozens of millions of users gain access to The Pirate Bay by directing them to active Pirate Bay proxy sites. However, in common with The Pirate Bay itself, proxy sites are also subjected to ISP blocking, which can render some of them redundant, not to mention inaccessible.

Given that proxy sites and proxy indexes contribute to the overall health of the Pirate Bay ‘hydra’, that got us thinking: Is the hydra alive and well? Or has it lost a few too many heads over the years?

Data Sources Used

While we’re aware that proxy sites face blocking in several countries, until today we’d never drilled into the details. It quickly became apparent that a complete overview would require significant time and resources but our short report today should help set the tone.

To weigh rightsholders’ responses to strictly Pirate Bay proxy sites, we obtained domain blocking lists used by ISPs in the UK, Denmark and Italy. The original plan was to include Portugal, India and a handful of other countries but the volume of data was soon overwhelming.

Instead of including those additional countries, we used data from the Infringing Website List (IWL) operated by the UK’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit.

Proxies Face Massive Blocking

After merging data from all four sources, we removed any duplicate proxy domains, any domains that weren’t clearly dedicated or directed at the Pirate Bay, plus any domains where their key role could not be identified due to downtime or other reasons.

The final total of Pirate Bay proxies, all of which are subjected to blocking and/or restrictions on business due to their appearance on the IWL, is 670 to 690 domains, give or take. While that remains a large number, including other countries’ blocklists would’ve inflated that number considerably.

The big question is whether all of those domains are live, in business, and helping to unblock The Pirate Bay. The simple answer to that is ‘no’. While we were able to test whether sites were active in some way, we couldn’t determine exactly what they were doing, unless we visited every last one and took a screenshot for proof.

…..So That’s What We Did

The image below is comprised of roughly 670 screenshots featuring obviously live proxies (mostly white), a lot of seemingly dead proxies (dark), and a surprising number of domains up for sale (mostly blue). (click to enlarge)

It’s not possible to determine the exact reasons why so many proxies appear to have thrown in the towel, in some cases on multiple domains. That being said, it’s highly likely that ISP blocking played an important role in dampening enthusiasm for spending more money on yet another domain.

Since the data was at hand, we decided to throw all of the live domains at their DNS and then wait for a list of IP addresses to come out. We fed those into an IP location service which produced the map in the image below.

The large blue blob on the left, representing the location where most Pirate Bay proxies point, is the home of Cloudflare and another kind of proxy – a reverse proxy.

That means that in all likelihood, the Pirate Bay proxies are hosted somewhere else entirely, not unlike The Pirate Bay itself. At least for now.

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

As one of the most notorious torrent sites, The Pirate Bay has been blocked by ISPs around the world.

In response to these digital roadblocks, several proxy sites have sprung up to bypass these restrictions. Besides that, there are dedicated sites that help people to find these backdoors.

The Proxy Bay

“The Proxy Bay” has long been one of the leading information portals. The site didn’t offer an official proxy itself but provided an overview of available options. As such, it proved to be quite useful in countries where site blockades are active.

In the UK, for example, where TPB has been blocked for over a decade, the site was particularly popular.

Since the blocking orders often allow rightsholders to add newly appearing proxies, this has turned into a game of whack-a-mole. When proxies are blocked, new domains are launched, which are then picked up by pirates through information portals such as The Proxy Bay.

GitHub Takedown Saga

This routine has been a major source of frustration for rightsholders. It reached the point where some of these linking sites were banned, and when City of London Police got involved in the matter earlier this year, it was clear that things were getting more serious.

It’s quite something when the police actively get involved in a copyright matter. In this case, it was particularly salient since “The Proxy Bay” was hosted at GitHub.

The developer platform swiftly complied with the takedown request, which wasn’t unexpected. However, after someone representing the proxy information site sent a counter notice , the domain was restored .

The brief takedown in January hurt the site’s traffic but, when it came back a month later, business resumed as usual. According to SimilarWeb, the site had 1.5 million visits again in March, which is quite a lot for a GitHub hosted page.

Mystery Disappearance(s)

The GitHub restoral was a significant victory for The Proxy Bay. Ironically, City of London Police’s takedown efforts may have actually raised the site’s profile, running contrary to the initial goal.

There was no celebration, however; quite the opposite in fact. A few weeks after its comeback the site quietly disappeared. Those who try to access the domain today will get a 404 error. This means that the site is gone, but why remains a mystery.

In theory, there could have been another takedown request but since there isn’t one documented by GitHub, that seems unlikely. The other option is that the owner of the page voluntarily removed it, perhaps spooked by the police taking an interest.

The latter explanation would run contrary to the counternotice sent earlier. However, it’s not clear if that was actually sent by the operator, especially since the notice referenced the incorrect .com domain name, instead of the .io one that GitHub pages use.

Rinse… and Repeat

Interestingly, all proxy domains that were previously promoted on The Proxy Bay have gone offline as well. These domains include unlockedtpb.org, thepiratebayone.com, and tpbproxy.info. The same is true for thepirateproxybay.com, which hosted the information on the same page as The Proxy Bay.

All these mystery disappearances, taking place shortly after the police takedown request, are at least unusual.

This doesn’t mean that there’s a shortage of proxies, though, new ones pop up all the time; also on GitHub ( 1 , 2 , 3 , etc ). This game of whack-a-mole has been ongoing for more than a decade and it’s unlikely to end anytime soon.

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

With over half a billion active users around the globe, Telegram is one of the most used messaging services.

The communication platform helps to connect people from all over the world, with end-to-end encryption providing improved security when compared to some other players in the market.

Telegram can also be an excellent medium to broadcast messages to a wider audience. Through dedicated one-way channels, people can share news, status updates, and emergency alerts, for example.

Telegram on the Anti-Piracy Agenda

Like all technology, these broadcast channels are not only used for legitimate purposes. Pirates use them too, as evidenced by regular mentions in piracy discussions. Not too long ago, the European Commission placed the Telegram app on its Counterfeit and Piracy Watch List.

The app was also mentioned in recommendations to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) this year, with the International Intellectual Property Alliance calling for stricter policies on Telegram’s part, including the addition of Know Your Business Customer (KYBC) rules.

“Telegram should be more accountable in relation to infringements occurring or being facilitated over its service,” the recommendation advised.

“IIPA recommends that more be done to encourage KYBC disciplines on intermediaries like Telegram and to encourage operators like them to responsibly cooperate.”

Courts Get Involved

Piracy concerns and policy musings like these haven’t been restricted to lobbying and policy efforts. Telegram has also been taken to court on several occasions.

In Portugal, for example , a local court ordered Telegram to block access to more than a dozen piracy-related channels. Similar measures were also taken in Israel and Italy. In India, Telegram a court order required Telegram to disclose the identities of several pirating users.

By now, Telegram is well aware of the piracy challenges but that hasn’t put an end to the problem.

While doing research this week, we randomly stumbled upon a Telegram bot that directed us to a channel sharing pirated movies. This wasn’t just some fringe channel; with over a quarter million subscribers it has a massive reach.

Takedown… And Repeat

This isn’t an isolated incident. Those who know where to look find no short of dedicated piracy channels and bots, some of which have massive audiences. That is, until they’re pulled offline.

TorrentFreak spoke to the operator of a popular channel, who prefers to remain unnamed. They note that Telegram takes down links and channels all the time but that doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.

Just as websites can easily switch to new domain names if they’re targeted, Telegram channels can rotate to new names as well. The operator we spoke with remained rather vague, but we get the impression that landing pages and bots are used to spread traffic and anticipate these takedown efforts.

130,000 Enforcements

We reached out to Telegram asking for some statistics and further detail on their takedown and enforcement efforts. However, the company did not respond to our request.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment ( ACE ) was willing to share its experiences. The anti-piracy group, which represents Hollywood’s major movies studios and Netflix, has dealt with Telegram for a few years now.

“Initially, Telegram did not respond to notice and takedown requests,” says Jan van Voorn, Head of ACE and Chief of Global Content Protection at the MPA.

Since then, Telegram has improved its effectiveness and as things stand today the majority of all takedown requests are processed within a day.

“We have been focused on improving their [takedown notice] compliance and now have over 130,000 enforcements on Telegram with over a 90% removal rate, including many infringements removed within 24 hours,” van Voorn says.

ACE also notes, however, that results are inconsistent and there’s still a lot of progress to be made in order to successfully crack down on piracy channels, bots, and repeat infringers.

Active Collaboration

This progress is in the making. The prevalence of piracy abuse on Telegram has resulted in more direct cooperation between ACE and Telegram, which aims to tackle the issue head-on.

“ACE has established cooperation to address urgent escalations and has continued outreach to seek further improvements in removing infringing channels, disrupting piracy bots, and terminating services to repeat infringers,” Van Voorn explains.

If this cooperation is successful, it may eventually become harder for pirate channels to survive. At least the ones with hundreds of thousands of members.

That’s not the case today, however. While we were writing this article, thousands of new members flooded to the piracy channel we referenced earlier, which now has 271,720 , 274,006 , 277,169 , 280,339 members.

Meanwhile, YTS, one of the largest torrent sites out there, also officially joined Telegram a few days ago. For now, it just uses the channel to share status updates, but you never know what will happen next.

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

When the French government formed a new anti-piracy agency called Hadopi, the mission was to significantly disrupt BitTorrent and similar peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Hadopi was a pioneer of the so-called “graduated response” scheme which consists of monitoring a file-sharer’s internet activities and following up with a warning notice to deter their behavior. Any future incidents attract escalating responses including fines and internet disconnections. Between 2010 and 2020, Hadopi issued 12.7 million warning notices at a cost to French taxpayers of 82 million euros .

The program’s effect on overall piracy rates remains up for debate but according to French internet rights groups, Hadopi doesn’t just take citizens’ money. When it monitors citizens’ internet activities, retains huge amounts of data, and then links identities to IP addresses to prevent behavior that isn’t a “serious crime,” Hadopi violates fundamental rights.

Protecting Rights

Despite its authorization under the new law, the official launch of the Hadopi agency in 2009 met with significant opposition. File-sharers had issues with the program for obvious reasons but for digital rights group La Quadrature du Net , massive internet surveillance to protect copying rights had arrived at the expense of citizens’ fundamental right to privacy.

La Quadrature’s opposition to the Hadopi anti-piracy program focuses on the law crafted to support it. One of the implementing decrees authorizes the creation of files containing internet users’ IP addresses plus personal identification data obtained from their internet service providers.

According to the digital rights group’s interpretation of EU law, that is unlawful.

Legal Challenge in France

With support from the Federation of Associative Internet Service Providers, French Data Network, and Franciliens.net, in 2019 La Quadrature filed an appeal before the Council of State ( Conseil d’État ), requesting a repeal of the decree that authorizes the processing of personal information.

The Council of State referred the matter to the Constitutional Council and its subsequent decision gave La Quadrature the impression that Hadopi’s position was untenable. For their part, Hadopi and the government reached the opposite conclusion.

Legal Challenge Reaches CJEU

The Council of State heard La Quadrature’s appeal and then referred questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for interpretation under EU law.

EU member states cannot pass national laws that allow for the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data. As a “preventative measure” on a targeted basis, retention of traffic and location data is permitted, but only when the purpose of retaining the data is to fight “serious crime.”

In CJEU Advocate General Szpunar’s non-binding opinion issued last October, friction between privacy rights and the ability to enforce copyrights were on full display.

Hadopi vs. Fundamental Rights

AG Szpunar described Hadopi’s access to personal data corresponding to an IP address as a “serious interference with fundamental rights.” These data points may not be sensitive in isolation but when combined, a person’s identity finds itself attached to the IP address and the content that was accessed behind it.

However, in common with criminal cases where retention is permitted when an IP address is the only means of investigation, the AG concluded that the same should apply in Hadopi’s case, “short of accepting general impunity for offenses committed exclusively online.”

Faced with an opinion that recognizes difficulties faced by rightsholders but runs up against case-law, AG Szpunar proposed “readjustment of the case-law of the Court.” This would ensure that rightsholders retain the ability to enforce their rights, when an IP address is the only means by which an infringer can be identified (CJEU, pdf) .

The first hearing in the case took place on Tuesday with another legal opinion expected late September 2023.

The CJEU is expected to hand down its ruling before the end of the year.

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

Just three short months ago, Spanish pirate site users were still coming to terms with bad news.

Private torrent sites Pixelados/HD-Spain were fan favorites in Spain, with localized HD movies and TV shows in plentiful supply. Then suddenly, they were gone .

It was later revealed that pressure applied by the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, which included a credible threat of legal action, persuaded the sites’ operator to throw in the towel. It’s a story that’s played out many times in recent years and led to the closure of hundreds of sites.

ACE revealed another blow for Spanish pirates earlier today.

AtomoHD Splits Under ACE Pressure

AtomoHD (Atom HD in English) appeared as a newcomer in 2020 but in less than three years, ACE says the platform received 235 million visits, averaging 9.7 million visits per month. Less than 10% of the site’s visitors were located outside Spain so its recent disappearance will be felt most acutely in the local market. The site’s operators reportedly live elsewhere.

“AtomoHD was launched in 2020 by a group of individuals, some of whom had prior convictions in Spain for intellectual property infringement and to evade justice, fled to Andorra,” ACE reports.

“AtomoHD enabled users to illegally stream and download content from a VOD library of more than 13,000 movies and 4,500 TV series in Spanish and other languages. The pirated content impacts all ACE members.”

Precise Terms of Shutdown Unclear

For the governing board members of ACE, currently Amazon, Apple TV+, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Sony, Paramount, Disney, and Warner Bros, the shutdown of AtomoHD represents another success, one shared with the 50+ companies that make up the coalition’s general membership.

“This takedown represents yet another major victory by ACE over illegal content distributors,” says Jan van Voorn, Executive Vice President and Global Content Protection Chief of the Motion Picture Association and Head of ACE. “It is increasingly clear that major criminal operators like AtomoHD are not immune from ACE’s enforcement actions.”

The precise terms of the AtomoHD shutdown are unknown but domain transfers are definitely involved. ACE says the platform has around 60 domains and as far as we can tell, the following domains are already under new ownership:

atomohd.nl, atomohd.care, atomixhq.xyz, atomixhq.club, atomohd.vip, atomohd.win, atomohd.vet, atomohd.yt, atomohd.ninja, atomohd.surf, atomohd.fans, atomohd.live, atomtt.com, atomohd.tw

Visitors to AtomoHD’s Telegram channel are greeted by a long list of alternative or replacement AtomoHD domains, with new ones posted on an irregular weekly/biweekly basis. The final announcement was made on April 28, with no new domains announced since then – on Telegram at least.

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