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BREIN Ends Pirate Bay-Related ISP and Proxy Lawsuits

Posted: 08 Mar 2014 01:25 AM PST

Faced with a Pirate Bay website that simply refused to die, in 2010 Hollywood-linked anti-piracy group BREIN decided to take a different approach to the problem. If The Pirate Bay wouldn’t disconnect itself from the Internet, BREIN would force ISPs to disconnect their customers from the site instead.

The initial action, against Ziggo, the Netherlands’ largest ISP, soon encompassed another. XS4ALL decided the case was too important to stay out of and joined its rival to fight against BREIN. The case took many twists and turns, with victory first for the ISPs, then for BREIN. Refusing to give in, the ISPs fought back and in January The Court of The Hague delivered a huge blow.

That ruling, which deemed that ISPs did not have to block their subscribers from accessing The Pirate Bay, threw BREIN’s whole strategy into turmoil. With no ruling against Ziggo and XS4ALL, BREIN would be unable to get any kind of victory against KPN, UPC and Tele2, the other ISPs the anti-piracy group had unfinished legal business with.

Things soon started to unravel. Within days UPC said it had lifted its Pirate Bay blockade and KPN and Tele2 quickly followed. Agreement with BREIN had been reached in private, with most other details unavailable.

Now, in a fresh announcement, it’s clear that BREIN will back away from all legal action against ISPs pending the Supreme Court ruling it seeks against Ziggo and XS4ALL.

“BREIN has laid the case against the other providers to rest in anticipation of the outcome at the Supreme Court,” said BREIN lawyer Joris van Manen. “The ISPs have a golden rule that they will only block under judicial coercion. BREIN, however, is reasonable.”

While the ISPs will be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect of around 18 months respite from legal action, they aren’t the only ones in the clear. BREIN says that it will also end hostilities against Pirate Bay proxies. These services, including Kuiken.co and one operated by the Pirate Party, worked hard to circumvent the now-defunct ISP blockades but were attacked for their actions.

“We’re not Don Quixote,” van Manen told Webwereld. “If there is no blockage of the Pirate Bay any more then a proxy makes little sense, and also any lawsuit against one.”

The fact that BREIN feels it has no legal basis to force proxies into compliance is very interesting. Earlier this week the anti-piracy group said it had killed in excess of 200 such sites in 2013.

Whether any will now return to their former glory remains to be seen but given that their services aren’t just of use to Dutch citizens (proxies are also very useful to Internet users in the UK) some are likely to restart their engines to operate legally from the Netherlands – at least until the Supreme Court ruling, that is.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.

Privacy Disaster: Type IP Address, Get Internet User’s Phone Number

Posted: 07 Mar 2014 10:20 AM PST

Websites can’t function without them and a user must be allocated one before he or she can begin using the Internet. Without doubt, IP addresses one of the most important elements underpinning today’s online experience.

While website IP addresses are necessarily public information, IP addresses of individual users are by their very nature a lot more sensitive. Rather than identifying a web server designed to attract traffic, IP addresses operated by regular Internet users are often considered personal information.

Of course, it’s fairly common knowledge that the IP addresses of file-sharers become publicly visible when they enter BitTorrent swarms for example, but matching those IP addresses to real-life identities is a complex process wrapped up in privacy laws designed to protect the consumer. During the past week, however, it became evident that users of a Scandinavian ISP could be traced back to their real-life identities simply by using their IP address.

Discovered by Norwegian site Dinside, this privacy disaster stems from the software installed on routers supplied by local ISP NextGenTel. By simply entering the IP address of another NextGenTel user into a standard web browser, users were presented with a webpage containing router status information. The page also revealed the telephone number of the user behind the entered IP address.

Armed with a telephone number and a directory site such as 1881.no, all it took was a few clicks to find out the name and address of the person behind not only the telephone number, but also the original IP address.

After being alerted to the issue NextGenTel took action to fix the security hole by updating the relevant software, but the episode is a shining example of how years of care over personal information can be undone in an instant.

One of Norway’s biggest privacy cases in recent times involved a BitTorrent user who allegedly leaked a hit local movie to The Pirate Bay. Law firm Simonsen had the IP address of the leaker but desperately needed to convert that into a real-life identity in order to pursue legal action. That case went all the way to the Supreme Court when the ISP behind that IP address refused to hand over its customer’s private details.

Needless to say, that lengthy process would have been endlessly easier if that customer had been a NextGenTel customer. Simonsen could’ve accessed the Internet via NextGenTel, entered the IP address into their web browser, and used the telephone number to reach their target there and then – or called round for a visit, whichever was easier.

In a comment to Dinside, NextGenTel CTO Jørn E. Hodne said his company were taking the matter seriously and were attempting to put things right by fixing software and reporting themselves to the country’s Data Inspectorate.

“We’ve started the [software] update and even reported the matter to the Inspectorate,” Hodne said. “The world we live in is very complex, but this is our responsibility.”

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and VPN services.