TorrentFreak Email Update

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• Kim Dotcom Faces Appeal in Seized Property Battle
• Pirate Sites Are Rife With Malware and Scams, Report Claims
• Accused Movie Pirate Wins Extortion Case Against Copyright Trolls
• VKontakte Signs Memo to Combat Movie Piracy

Kim Dotcom Faces Appeal in Seized Property Battle Posted: 30 Apr 2014 03:18 AM PDT While today Kim Dotcom appears to be doing well financially, a little over two years ago the flamboyant businessman was enjoying an even more lavish lifestyle. In January 2012, however, the bulk of his millions in cash and assets were seized following a raid on his New Zealand mansion. Two days before the raid on Dotcom's home, foreign restraining orders were granted to enable the seizure of the entrepreneur's assets. Those orders ran out earlier this month and fortunately for Dotcom an attempt by the Crown to have them extended was rejected by the High Court. Within minutes Dotcom took to Twitter to celebrate the upcoming return of his property but now, just two weeks later and on the final day the Crown could launch an appeal, the Megaupload founder is being met with renewed resistance. This fresh appeal by the Crown will almost certainly delay if not considerably hamper the return of Dotcom’s property. It also means that the fledgling politician’s supporters will have to wait for the return of his performance and classic car collection before he can make good on a promise to hire a local racetrack. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Pirate Sites Are Rife With Malware and Scams, Report Claims Posted: 30 Apr 2014 12:08 AM PDT Most seasoned visitors of torrent sites and streaming portals know that many of the “download” and “play” buttons present are non-functional, at least in the regular sense. In fact, many of these buttons link to advertisements of some sort, ranging from relatively harmless download managers to dubious services that ask for one’s credit card details. A new report backed by the UK entertainment industry has looked into the prevalence of these threats. The study, carried out by the anti-piracy analysts of Intelligent Content Protection (Incopro), found that only 1 of the 30 most-visited pirate sites didn’t link to unwanted software or credit card scams. According to a press release released this morning, the research found that of the 30 top pirate sites, “90% contained malware and other ‘Potentially Unwanted Programmes’ designed to deceive or defraud unwitting viewers.” The “Potentially Unwanted Programmes” category is rather broad, and includes popups and ads that link to download managers. In addition, the report links one-third of the sites to credit card fraud. “The rogue sites are also rife with credit card scams, with over two-thirds (67%) of the 30 sites containing credit card fraud,” the press release states. While it’s true that many pirate sites link to malware and other dubious products, the sites themselves don’t host any of the material. For example, none of the top pirate sites TorrentFreak tested were flagged by Google’s Safebrowsing tool. This nuance is left out of the official announcement, but the executive summary of the report does make this distinction. “We did not encounter the automatic injection of any malicious program on the sites that we scanned. In all instances, the user must be tricked into opening a downloaded executable file or in the case of credit card fraud, the user needs to actively enter credit card details,” Incopro writes. Most of the malware and “potentially” unwanted software ends up on users’ computers after they click on the wrong “download” button and then install the presented software. In many cases these are installers that may contain relatively harmless adware. However, the researchers also found links to rootkits and ransomware. The allegation of “credit card fraud” also requires some clarification. Incopro told TorrentFreak that most of these cases involve links to services where users have to pay for access. “There were 17 separate credit card schemes that were detected through our scanning, with many appearing to be similar or possibly related. Five of the sites had instances of two credit card fraud/scam sites, with the remaining 15 containing one credit card fraud/scam site,” Incopro told us. “An example is someone visits one of the pirate sites and clicks a ‘Download’ or ‘Play now’ button, which is actually an advert appearing on the page, which then asks for payment details to access the content.” This is characterized as “fraud” because these “premium” streaming or download services can result in recurring credit card charges of up to $50 per month, without an option to cancel. The report, which isn’t available to the public, was commissioned by the UK film service FindAnyFilm and backed by several industry groups. Commenting on the findings, FACT’s Kieron Sharp noted that those who fall for these scams are inadvertently funding organized crime. “Not only are you putting your personal security at risk, by using pirate websites you could be helping fund the organised criminal gangs who run these sites as a front for other cyber scams,” Sharp says. It is clear that the research is used for scaremongering. Regular users of these sites know all too well what buttons not to click, so they are not affected by any of the threats. However, there’s no denying that some pirate sites deliberately place these “ads” to confuse novice and unsuspecting visitors. Those visitors may indeed end up with adware, malware or run into scam services. This isn’t in any way a new phenomenon though, it has been going on for more than a decade already. Ironically, the same anti-piracy groups who now warn of these threats are making them worse by cutting pirate sites off from legitimate advertisers. — Photo: Michael Theis Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Accused Movie Pirate Wins Extortion Case Against Copyright Trolls Posted: 29 Apr 2014 11:40 AM PDT Early 2010 the law firm Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver brought mass-piracy lawsuits to the United States. The law firm teamed up with several film studios and sued tens of thousands of alleged BitTorrent users. A few months after the first cases were started the tables were turned. One of the alleged pirates sued the lawyers for fraud, abuse and extortion, due to their role in the “copyright troll” scheme. Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver were named in a class-action lawsuit together with movie studio Achte/Neunte and the German tracking company GuardaLey, who together went after thousands of people who allegedly downloaded and shared the movie 'Far Cry' using BitTorrent. Through the lawsuit, spearheaded by Dmitriy Shirokov, the troll victims were seeking relief based on 25 counts including extortion, fraudulent omissions, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud and abuse, racketeering, fraud upon the court, fraud on the Copyright Office, copyright misuse and unjust enrichment. Among other things, the “copyright trolls” were accused of building their case on shoddy evidence and a false copyright registration. Last year the Massachusetts District Court denied the class action, which meant the case continued with Shirokov as the only plaintiff. This severely limited the scope of the verdict. However, after more than three years Shirokov did win his case. During the proceedings, where the law firm remained as the only defendant, it became clear that Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver could not present critical pieces of evidence. The company claimed that the requested documents were lost in a computer crash. As a result, the law firm had no other option than to concede defeat, which it did through an offer of judgement. In a recent ruling Judge George O’Toole ordered Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver to pay $39,909.95, which includes attorney fees. TorrentFreak spoke with Jason Sweet, whose firm Booth Sweet represented Shirokov. Sweet notes that the outcome is a “bittersweet victory,” as the class action status was denied earlier. Also, the awarded fees are a far cry from those requested. Nevertheless, Shrirokov and his legal team are happy with the outcome. Their main goal was to make it harder for copyright trolls to operate in Massachusetts, and they believe that was achieved. “The case did accomplish what we wanted it to. That is, to deter others from starting similar cases in Massachusetts. It served its purpose,” Sweet tells TF. While the case does not mark the end of copyright trolling schemes in the United States, it won’t make them any easier either. As for Dunlap, Grubb and Weaver, they will now have to pay their dues. The law firm has left the copyright trolling trade already, and the recent verdict makes it unlikely that they will ever return. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

VKontakte Signs Memo to Combat Movie Piracy Posted: 29 Apr 2014 06:21 AM PDT VKontakte (VK) has long been criticized for its approach to piracy. The site is awash with unauthorized content including movies and music, all uploaded by the social network’s millions of users. As a result the United States Trade Representative labels VK a “notorious market”, a particularly unhelpful label for an operation with big ambitions. But now, in a move designed to allow the company to move forward, VK has reportedly signed a memorandum of understanding with Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecoms watchdog. The memorandum, which represents a consensus of how Internet companies should deal with pirated movies and offer legal alternatives, has already been signed by representatives of 36 Internet sites. Until now, however, VK has refused to sign. According to the document, reported by Izvestia, VK has agreed to block infringing content “within a reasonable time” and look towards the introduction of fingerprinting technology. This will enable the site to effectively deal with the reappearance of content already taken down by rightsholders. A source in Roskomnadzor said that VK will sign up before the start of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on May 22. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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• Police Raid “Miniature Pirate Bay” Run on Home Connection
• Danish Police “Threaten” Former Colleague of Pirate Bay Founder in Cambodia
• UK Police Suspend 2,500 “Counterfeit” Domain Names

Police Raid “Miniature Pirate Bay” Run on Home Connection Posted: 29 Apr 2014 04:33 AM PDT The raids against Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload back in 2012 were an extravagant affair, with dozens of armed police swooping on his New Zealand mansion. In 2006, Swedish police turned up en masse in their failed attempt to shut down The Pirate Bay but there are now signs that even the smallest of sites are attracting big responses from the authorities. Dreamfilm.nu is a tiny site by any standards. This torrent-focused project, not to to be confused with Dreamfilm.se, one of the country’s largest streaming sites, is today ranked the 2,794,493rd most popular domain in the world by Alexa. The Pirate Bay this is definitely not. Dreamfilm’s size is further underlined by the fact it was being run not from a dedicated webhost, but from a home Internet connection in Sweden. Nevertheless, this relative minnow with just over 900 Facebook likes managed to attract the attention of some of the world’s biggest entertainment companies. Last Thursday at 7:00am, a total of eight Swedish police officers raided the home of the Dreamfilm admin, who calls himself “Napster”. “When I asked to see the search warrant I was told in response: ‘This is not a Hollywood movie’,” Napster explained. Police did not have endless server racks to seize. Dreamfilm.nu was being run on a home computer and once that was taken away, the site came to an end. “The computer is currently seized and therefore Dreamfilm is down,” he added. The complaint against the site was initiated by Rights Alliance, the anti-piracy group previously known as Antipiratbyran. The organization told police that the site was offering torrents to 25 movies, three of which were pre-release. “The site is the Pirate Bay in miniature,” Rights Alliance lawyer Sara Lindebäck told Nyheter24. Prosecutor Henrik Rasmusson said that the man who was raided confessed to being the Dreamfilm admin, but maintained that his site was completely legal. “The suspect has admitted that he has been running this site, but says that he has not done anything punishable, Rasmusson said. In response, the 23-year-old clarified his position, maintaining that no illegal content had ever touched his server. It didn’t even store torrent files, only linked to them. “It’s hopeless for the police to take a search engine so seriously, confiscate my stuff, and put me in detention for around eight hours. They can stare at the server until their eyes start to bleed, dreamfilm.nu has never committed a crime and therefore there is nothing to download,” he said. “Dreamfilm.nu is a SEARCH ENGINE like Google . Google gets its information automatically using bots / spiders while Dreamfilm.nu must retrieve information manually and store it in a database.” While Napster’s fate will be revealed in due course, other longer-standing Swedish cases have been progressing to their closing stages in recent weeks. Last week the suspected operator of Tankaner.com was prosecuted for copyright infringement related to the illegal distribution of 32 movies in 2012 and 2013. Prosecutor Fredrik Inglad added that since there were ads on the site, he would be pushing for a prison sentence. Earlier this month, four men were prosecuted for copyright infringement related to the unlawful distribution of 28 Hollywood and local movies in 2009 and 2010. The men, all in their forties, are suspected of being the operators of the warez-scene servers known as ‘Darkside‘. The men admit to having downloaded movies but deny distribution. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Danish Police “Threaten” Former Colleague of Pirate Bay Founder in Cambodia Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:18 AM PDT At this very moment alleged “super hacker” Gottfrid Svartholm is being held in a Danish prison on suspicion of hacking into the computers of IT company CSC. The trial is expected to begin in the early days of September, more than four months from today and close to ten months since he was extradited to Denmark from Sweden in 2013. But while one might presume that the authorities already have everything they need to prosecute Svartholm, it appears that their investigation is still very much a work in progress. It’s no secret that Gottfrid’s last days of freedom were spent in Cambodia, a country that he came to call home and where he’d built a life and found work. Now, some 20 months since he left the country, the police investigation into his activities there have been revived. And, according to one of their targets, the manner in which it’s being carried out is a cause for concern. John, who has asked us not to use his full real name, is a former colleague of Gottfrid who lives and works in Cambodia. TorrentFreak has confirmed his identity and the fact that he and Gottfrid did business together. On April 2 he received an unexpected telephone call about someone he hasn’t seen for years. Mysterious police threats “The person who spoke to me on the phone was threatening and aggressive. He spoke with a thick European accent and initially said he was ‘with Nordic police’,” John explains. “At that point I didn’t think I was speaking to an actual policeman because really, ‘Nordic police’ is about as evasive as an introduction can possibly be. After I repeatedly asked for more details, he only specified ‘Swedish police’. No name, no badge number.” John was told he needed to go to a meeting to discuss Gottfrid but with such a mysterious introduction he was concerned at what might be waiting for him, including this not being genuine police business. “I felt uncomfortable with the situation, and due to the way the call had been handled up to that point, I didn’t want to meet them. I had no idea whether I was even speaking to a real policeman,” John explains. “I asked if this meeting was voluntary, and he specifically said that they would ‘use local police to force’ me into meeting them.” John was informed that the meeting would consist of him, the mystery Swedish policeman, a local Cambodian policeman, and a Danish policeman. “They allowed me to choose the location, but said it had to be the same day. I chose a very public cafe for my own safety,” he says. Due to the apparent urgency of the situation, John had no time to arrange for a lawyer to be present. Once the call had ended, John contacted his embassy but was informed that there was little they could do to help. Although apprehensive he decided to attend the meeting, set for the lobby bar in the Hotel Cambodiana. Meeting in the hotel “When I turned up to the meeting, the guy who threatened me on the phone wasn’t there, and instead there was Jens Jorgensen from the Danish police and Anders Riisager [pictured right, different occasion], who introduced himself as ‘Copenhagen Deputy District Attorney’,” John explains, adding that neither would reveal the identity of the person who made the earlier threats. With the meeting underway, John reports that Anders was being “nice” and apologized for the earlier telephone threats while clarifying it was neither of them. Most of their questions were “unanswerable”, as they were “based on the type of thing that one wouldn’t remember from three years ago, such as what kind of computer Gottfrid used, etc.” The million-dollar PC-access question However, police also showed an interest in who had access to Gottfrid’s computer in Cambodia. This is of particular interest because it was on this point that Gottfrid had his Swedish ‘Logica’ conviction overturned after the Court of Appeal couldn’t rule out that someone else accessed his computer to commit crimes. “I was threatened and bullied into attending this questioning, and yet they completely ignored the answers when it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. A good example is that they asked if anyone else had access to [Gottfrid's] computer. When I said yes, they didn’t even ask for a full detailed list of people, not that I’d have one though, it was years ago,” John explains. “The simple fact is that there were 50+ people with direct physical access to [Gottfrid's] computer at the time that the police were asking about. They were visibly pissed off [when I told them that], and given the threats that had already been made, it was an uncomfortable situation for me to say the least.” Why has it taken so long? Considering how closely John worked with Gottfrid it seems extremely unlikely that the police had no interest in him before this month, especially in respect of providing information in the crucial days leading up to and after Gottfrid’s arrest in August/September 2012. Yet this was the first time police had asked him anything. “The implication that this isn’t something they had already looked into earlier on is just bizarre. This was the first time I’ve ever been questioned by police in relation to anything concerning Gottfrid,” John says. “The most shocking part of the whole thing was just how ridiculous their questions were. These people are traveling around to third world countries refusing to identify themselves, making threats that border on being criminal, all so they can ask about rumors and hearsay that dates back over three years.” Desperate times? “You can all say what you want about Gottfrid, but the fact is, the actions of the people investigating this case are clearly the actions of desperate people who are grasping at straws. If they had any evidence, they wouldn’t need to go around behaving the way they are,” he says. Describing the whole episode as “shocking and outrageous”, John says that he hopes some good will come out of making his experiences public. “Gottfrid isn’t someone I feel I owe anything to, but this whole investigation is clearly ridiculous and without merit. It could have been any one of a whole bunch of people [with access to Gottfrid's computer] and they know it. I don’t want to cause problems for myself, but I’d like to see Gottfrid get treated like a human being.” Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

UK Police Suspend 2,500 “Counterfeit” Domain Names Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:10 AM PDT Over the past few months City of London Police have been working together with copyright holders to topple sites that provide pirated or counterfeit content. The police started by sending warning letters to site owners, asking them to go legit or shut down. Late last year this was followed by a campaign targeted at domain registrars, asking them to suspend the domain names of several “illegal” sites. In celebration of World Intellectual Property Day, the City of London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) has today announced the first results of their anti-counterfeiting campaign. According to PIPCU more than 2,500 domains names have been suspended thus far. The domain names are not listed, but all offered counterfeit products of major brands such as UGG boots, Abercrombie, Hollister, and Gucci. "The fact PIPCU can announce on World IP Day that in the eight months since launching we have suspended more than 2,500 infringing websites is further evidence of the expertise of our officers and the level of their commitment to clamp down on IP crime,” Andy Fyfe commented on today’s news. "Consumers also need to be aware that by accessing websites like this they are running the risk of their personal details being compromised and being used for other fraudulent scams, as well as the exposing their computer to malicious malware," Fyfe adds There’s little doubt that 2,500 domain names is a significant number. Interestingly however, the Police have had less success with domains names linked to “pirate” websites. When TorrentFreak asked the police about the suspension of pirate domains, we were told that this is still work in progress. “With regards to digital piracy, that falls under Operation Creative which is still an ongoing investigation in its early days. Therefore at this moment in time we cannot release any figures,” a PIPCU spokeswoman said. Previously PIPCU managed to suspend the domain name of ExtraTorrent and a handful of other sites, which continued operating under a new domain. — Photo Credit Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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• House of Cards Popular in India ‘Thanks’ to Piracy
• Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/28/14
• Buy a Fully Loaded Movie and TV Show Piracy Site for Just $200

House of Cards Popular in India ‘Thanks’ to Piracy Posted: 28 Apr 2014 03:46 AM PDT Every day millions of people download TV-shows without getting permission from rightsholders. While some do so because they find the legal alternatives too expensive, there’s a large group that simply has no legal options available to them. The latter is the case in India, where the Netflix original series “House of Cards” can’t be seen legally since the movie streaming service hasn’t rolled out there yet. As a result, Indians can only watch the popular series through unauthorized channels. According to House of Card’s Kevin Spacey, the Indians are turning to these pirate sources in large numbers. During the International Indian Film Academy Awards in Tampa, Florida, he noted that the TV-show is suspiciously popular in India. “House of Cards is really big in India, I discovered,” Spacey said at the red carpet event on Saturday. The actor isn’t all too happy about this popularity, and accuses the Indians of thievery. Since Netflix’ streaming services aren’t available in India yet, they literally don’t have the “right” to see it. “Except isn’t it funny that Netflix doesn’t exist there yet. Which means that you’re stealing it,” Spacey added. Whether Spacey is unhappy with the show’s fans in India, or the fact that they have no legal options is not entirely clear. However, the only real solution to the problem is to ensure that Indians can watch the show too, without breaking the law. The problem that’s highlighted by the House of Cards actor remains one of the major challenges for the TV-studios. For decades, the industry has gotten used to delaying international premieres for month or years, something that fans no longer accept. Luckily, a lot of progress has been made in recent years, with most popular U.S. TV-series premiering on the same day in dozens of countries around the world. While “availability” is no silver bullet that can stop piracy altogether, it’s a crucial first step to take. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Top 10 Most Pirated Movies of The Week – 04/28/14 Posted: 27 Apr 2014 11:43 PM PDT This week we have four newcomers in our chart. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the most downloaded movie this week. The data for our weekly download chart is estimated by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are BD/DVDrips unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart. Ranking (last week) Movie IMDb Rating / Trailer torrentfreak.com 1 (5) Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Cam/TS) 8.3 / trailer 2 (…) That Awkward Moment 6.2 / trailer 3 (…) Vampire Academy 6.3 / trailer 4 (1) Son of Batman 6.3 / trailer 5 (2) The Machine 6.3 / trailer 6 (…) Her 8.2 / trailer 7 (…) Rio 2 (HDTS) 6.8 / trailer 8 (3) The Physician 7.3 / trailer 9 (4) Ride Along 6.4 / trailer 10 (9) Frozen 8.1 / trailer Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Buy a Fully Loaded Movie and TV Show Piracy Site for Just $200 Posted: 27 Apr 2014 10:42 AM PDT During the past few years, streaming portals such as Movie2K/4K, Primewire, and other similar sites have gathered huge momentum. Offering movies directly in the browser after just a couple of clicks has opened these sites to even the least tech-savvy Internet user. With bandwidth costs reducing and apparently good money to be made from streaming video, dozens of streaming sites have appeared hoping to take a piece of the pie. In some cases this has led to confusion, with the appearance of sites deliberately designed to look like those operated by competitors in order to steal traffic. Those tired of such antics need to brace themselves, because thanks to a new service things are about to get a whole lot worse. Or better, depending on perspective. TVStreamCMS is a system designed to take the sting out of setting up a video streaming site like Movie4K or Primewire. When we say take out the sting, what we really mean is make it ridiculously simple. This content management system claims to condense months and years of hard work into a setup taking just a few minutes. Buyers get all the code they need to launch their own site, and movies and TV shows are added automatically by the suppliers. The operators of TVStreamCMS told TF that their motivations for creating the tool were simple. “The reason why we made this is not just to make it possible for everyone to have their own streaming site, but also to make it easy for all TV Shows and Movie webmasters, who have for some time waited and only dreamed of making an automated website,” they explained. “Webmasters no longer have to manually update the episodes daily nor update the movies as they come out in theaters because TVStreamCMS has it done automatically with the use of just their server.” Looking around the TVStreamCMS site the system seems fairly self explanatory. In exchange for a minimum payment of around $200, users can walk away with a script that creates a site just like XYZFLIX, a demo site that shows what the system can do. But is it really that simple? To find out, TorrentFreak spoke to ‘M’, the operator of a streaming portal built with TVStreamCMS. “It took me about 5-10 minutes to set up and then the best thing about the script is that it is all automatic so movies and episodes are added to the site automatically,” M explains. In addition to the basic package there are also some bolt-ons available. ‘M’ bought the ‘Primewire’ package for $400, which enables the user to make a site that looks and operates just like Primewire, such as the example shown here. TVStreamCMS claims it will add “50,000 movies from sources added to your site daily” and grab content from iwatchonline, SeriesGate, Project Free TV, Vodly and Primewire. So are many people taking advantage of the offer? At the moment there appears to be quite a few sites being indexed by Google and as illustrated by the image below, completely unsurprisingly they look very similar indeed. With the people behind the site selling packages to clone not only Primewire but also Sidereel, the potential for confusion among users is pretty high, and no doubt some buyers will attempt to maximize on that by operating domain names similar to already popular sites. If this cookie-cutter approach to site building really takes off theres the potential for dozens or even hundreds of similar looking streaming sites to appear. However, since each site will be relying on the same central sources for their support and content, they will all be vulnerable to the fortunes of others. It therefore seems reasonable to presume that one day buyers could wake up and find that nothing works anymore, but for $200 they might be prepared to take the risk. After all, it won’t take long to recoup with the dozens of popups and fake download buttons many streaming sites seem to enjoy. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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How To Make Pirate Bay Users Pay For Content Posted: 27 Apr 2014 02:30 AM PDT Over the past several years, numerous studies have shown that “pirates” are more engaged consumers than their non-sharing counterparts. They not only consume more media, but also pay more for legal content. While the average visit to The Pirate Bay doesn’t cost anything, the above suggests that it’s a good venue for indie creators to advertise their work. This is exactly what a group of indie sci-fi creators thought, so last weekend they teamed up with VODO to promote their work on The Pirate Bay. The end result is the “Otherworlds” sci-fi bundle, which includes a wide variety of content, such as books, games, music, comics and videos. The Pirate Bay was kind enough to promote the bundle for nearly three days, replacing the site’s iconic logo with a prominent banner. Those who clicked on the banner could download a torrent with free sample content, but those who wanted more had to pay up. Pay for content??? TorrentFreak reached out to VODO’s Jamie King, who organized the campaign, to learn more about the results. As expected, the Pirate Bay promotion generated a ton of traffic, over 100,000 visitors. Not all of this traffic resulted in sales, but overall results turned out quite well. “The Pirate Bay helped us to make about $5,000 of sales from 375 customers. The simple immensity of the traffic really helped to move some bundles,” King tells us. The “Otherworlds” bundle presents people with three payment options. A “pay what you want” option for five titles, a “beat the average” option with seven extra pieces of content, and a “beat the premium” option for the high rollers. Interestingly, Pirate Bay users mostly picked the latter option. In total, 232 Pirate Bay visitors chose the most expensive “beat the premium” option, paying $18.11 on average. Another 72 visitors went for the cheapest option with an average payment of $10.61, and 67 people ended up in the middle with an $10.61 average. Across all paying Pirate Bay visitors the average payment was $13.52. Interestingly enough, this is more than the average paid by people who came from other sites, or social media. That said, King notes that the ratio of incoming visitors to buying visitors was relatively low, about a tenth of that from other sites. Those who have been reading TorrentFreak for a while may remember that VODO has been around for a few years already. Initially it started out by sharing torrents for free, and asking the public for donations. While some people were happy to donate, this model wasn’t very sustainable. “To really create a success for a filmmaker, we’d have to generate literally millions of downloads. But it wasn’t do-able on a regular basis,” King tells us. “So for us, putting up a ‘pay what you want’-wall has been a really simple and successful move. We still offer free sample torrents / mini-bundles, but basically, if you want the proper bundle, you have to choose to pay something,” he adds. Conversions increased after the switch as more and more people started to contribute. The other advantage was that more creators were willing to join, as they were guaranteed a payment, while keeping control over how long their content remains available. “Particularly, we can get much better content than if we were using torrents. The truth is most creators don’t have the rights to share their work freely, even if they wanted to,” King says. In other words, if you want Pirate Bay users to contribute, the paywall system is a better way to do so than giving away everything for free in return for an optional donation. Perhaps this sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s how it works. Finally, it’s worth noting that VODO has built-in an option for those who are not happy with the suggested payments. Beneath each offer is a “that’s too much for me” button where people can suggest the price they are willing to pay. Interestingly, hundreds of Pirate Bay users suggested their alternative price. In a week or so VODO plans to honor most of these offers, generating thousands of dollars in aftersales. All in all, the above shows that sites such as The Pirate Bay can certainly help to promote indie creators, also financially. However, simply giving away content for free is not always the best option. As is often the case, people sometimes need a small incentive to contribute. The “Otherworlds” bundle is still available today, and those who are interested can check out the offer here. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

Netflix Considers P2P-Powered Streaming Technology Posted: 26 Apr 2014 11:59 AM PDT With over 33 million streaming subscribers in the U.S. alone, Netflix is one the major providers of online video entertainment. The company claims to be a piracy killer, and previously noted that unauthorized P2P traffic reduced in countries where their services were rolled out. Interestingly enough, the streaming service also has a lot to gain from file-sharing technologies. A recent Netflix job ad spotted by Ars Technica, reveals that they are considering using P2P technology to improve their streaming services. “Netflix seeks a seasoned Senior Software Engineer with a special focus in peer-to-peer networks,” the company writes. The description of the new position has a clear focus on researching the possibility to allow users to stream videos via peer-to-peer technology. - Research and architecture of large-scale peer-to-peer network technology as applicable to Netflix streaming. - Liaise with internal client and toolkit teams to integrate P2P as an additional delivery mechanism. - Design and develop tools for the operation of peer-to-peer enabled clients in a production environment. Netflix mentions that the company is currently responsible for over 30% of all downstream traffic. Should it move towards P2P streaming, Netflix will also be the number one in terms of upstream bandwidth, a position currently dominated by BitTorrent traffic. Netflix’ job ad The option of P2P-assisted streaming became of interest again this year, after Netflix signed a deal with Comcast to pay for direct access to its network. With P2P technology, Netflix has the option to increase its streaming capabilities without additional bandwidth costs. In fact, not only could the company achieve superior streaming quality by using P2P technology, its bandwidth bills could even decrease. Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, would welcome a P2P-powered Netflix. He previously said that video delivery via P2P is far superior to the systems currently used by Netflix and other video services. “The fact is that by using BitTorrent it’s possible to give customers a much better experience with much less cost than has ever been possible before. It’s really not being utilized properly and that’s really unfortunate,” Cohen said. According to Cohen, Netflix’s video streaming quality is currently less than acceptable. “I actually don’t have a TV at home myself, but I do watch stuff on Netflix and I find it very frustrating because the video quality is really terrible,” he noted. With P2P-assisted streaming it will be possible to stream videos in a higher quality than is currently possible, but whether Netflix will use a BitTorrent-inspired technology or something different is unknown at this point. In any case, it’s an interesting development to watch. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

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