TorrentFreak Email Update

Putlocker.BZ Loses Domain Name, Moves to “Safe Haven” Iceland

Posted: 04 Jun 2014 01:43 AM PDT

In recent weeks several piracy-related websites lost control over their domain names. Most of these issues could be tracked back to the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) in the UK.

In recent weeks PIPCU sent letters to various domain name registrars of alleged pirate sites, requesting a suspension of domain names that had been classified as “infringing” by copyright holder groups.

This resulted in a temporary suspension for the popular torrent search engine Torrentz.eu, while FileCrop, Cricfree, Delishows and others lost permanent control over their domains.

This week another popular site ran into domain trouble. Putlocker.BZ, a popular movie streaming site with millions of active users per week, had its domain name suspended yesterday.

“We are having an issue with .BZ Registry, so we had to move from putlocker.bz to http://putlocker.is/. IS is the domain name of Iceland – a safe haven for freedom of speech,” the site’s operator announced.

At this point it’s unclear whether Putlocker’s issues are related to the actions of UK Police. TorrentFreak contacted the site for more details but we have yet to hear back.

For now the site continues to operate via the new .IS TLD. Iceland is indeed a relatively safe haven. The domain registry ISNIC previously informed us that it would not proactively suspend a domain, and that it would only take action when an Icelandic Court asks them to.

"Such an action would require a formal order from an Icelandic court. ISNIC is not responsible for a registrant's usage of their domains," ISNIC's Marius Olafsson told TorrentFreak.

The above means that a letter from PIPCU would not be enough to suspend the new Putlocker.is domain name.

While PIPCU’s efforts under the “Operation Creative” flag may not eradicate piracy altogether, they may make some domain names and registrars a no-go area for these types of websites. Whether that will have any effect has yet to be seen, but copyright holders must be pleased with the close collaboration.

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

Honda Takes Down “Infringing” Jet From FlightGear

Posted: 03 Jun 2014 09:25 AM PDT

First released in 1997, FlightGear is one of the oldest flight simulators still available today.

The open source software is available on all popular operating systems and is used by millions of people, as well as professional organizations such as NASA.

Last week the FlightGear team was taken by surprise after receiving a takedown request from Honda, one of the aircraft manufacturers. In a letter the company asked FlightGear to remove the Honda Jet from the game, as it was infringing on their trademarks.

TorrentFreak spoke with FlightGear project manager Curtis Olson, who explained that in their long history the have never received a similar request.

“As far as I can recall, this is the first request of this type that FlightGear has had to address,” Olson says.

FlightGear has always been cautious to stay on the right side of the law and pays close attention to the licensing terms of source code and data. Until the letter came in, the team believed that the Honda Jet model could be used without problems.

“I am not a lawyer and not an expert in trademark law. FlightGear is simply trying to create an accurate simulation of the real world. If something exists in the real world, it seems fair game to create a simple representation of it in our simulator,” Olson says.

“FlightGear puts quite a bit of effort into always trying to do the right thing, so this situation did catch us off guard,” he adds.

In their letter Honda’s lawyers point out that FlightGear is infringing on the company’s trademarks. They note that the jet’s form and appearance is protected by trademark laws, and the same is true for the logos and names that are used.

FlightGear saw no other option than to comply with the request and has removed the Honda Jet model from its website and aircraft downloads page. In addition, the model has been removed from the FlightGear Git.

Through the mailing list Olson informed all developers about the decision. Initially, the idea of challenging the request might have crossed his mind, but in the end the safest option was take the aircraft down.

“I personally don’t have sufficient time, lawyers, experience and intelligence to battle something like this, and although it makes me sad, an all out legal battle probably is not in anyone’s interest even if we thought we had some sort of legal argument to make,” Olson concluded.

Why Honda would object to being included in FlightGear remains a mystery. While the lawyers probably have the law on their side, it is hard to imagine how the company could be harmed by being included in an open source game for aviation fanatics.

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