TorrentFreak Email Update

Dotcom Encryption Keys Can’t Be Given to FBI, Court Rules
Millions Watch World Cup Through Pirated Live Streams
Hackers Turn Music Industry Site into The Pirate Bay

Dotcom Encryption Keys Can’t Be Given to FBI, Court Rules

Posted: 02 Jul 2014 02:08 AM PDT

During the raid more than two years ago on his now-famous mansion, police in New Zealand seized 135 computers and drives belonging to Kim Dotcom.

In May 2012 during a hearing at Auckland’s High Court, lawyer Paul Davison QC demanded access to the data stored on the confiscated equipment, arguing that without it Dotcom could not mount a proper defense.

The FBI objected to the request due to some of the data being encrypted. However, Dotcom refused to hand over the decryption passwords unless the court guaranteed him access to the data. At this point it was revealed that despite assurances from the court to the contrary, New Zealand police had already sent copies of the data to U.S. authorities.

In May 2014, Davison was back in court arguing that New Zealand police should release copies of the data from the seized computers and drives, reiterating the claim that without the information Dotcom could not get a fair trial. The High Court previously ruled that the Megaupload founder could have copies, on the condition he handed over the encryption keys.

But while Dotcom subsequently agreed to hand over the passwords, that was on the condition that New Zealand police would not hand them over to U.S. authorities. Dotcom also said he couldn’t remember the passwords after all but may be able to do so if he gained access to prompt files contained on the drives.

The police agreed to give Dotcom access to the prompts but with the quid pro quo that the revealed passwords could be passed onto the United States, contrary to Dotcom’s wishes.

Today Justice Winkelmann ruled that if the police do indeed obtain the codes, they must not hand them over to the FBI. Reason being, the copies of the computers and drives should never have been sent to the United States in the first place.

While the ruling is a plus for Dotcom, the entrepreneur today expressed suspicion over whether the FBI even need the encryption codes.

“NZ Police is not allowed to provide my encryption password to the FBI,” he wrote on Twitter, adding, “As if they don’t have it already.”

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

Millions Watch World Cup Through Pirated Live Streams

Posted: 01 Jul 2014 01:04 PM PDT

While most people watch World Cup matches through licensed broadcasters, there is also a large group of people who resort to unauthorized sources.

These so-called "pirate" streams are available through dozens of sites, including Firstrow and Rojadirecta, which generate a lot of traffic during popular sporting events.

Before the World Cup started FIFA reached out to several of these sites, asking their operators to make sure that content is removed as soon as possible. Despite these requests, there are still plenty of illegal streams available for each game.

Content protection firm Viaccess-Orca, one of the companies that monitors these unauthorized broadcasts, is also tasked with sending takedown notices for some of the matches. The company informs TorrentFreak that up to last Friday they have sent 2,000 takedown notices to various sites.

One of the problems with live events is that takedown requests only have an effect when they are processed before the match ends. According to David Leporini, Viaccess-Orca Executive Vice President of Marketing, Products and Security, the linking sites have been rather cooperative on this front.

“The success rate varies per content platform but overall we manage to get 35 percent of the streaming links disabled before the game ends. I think this is a great success rate, especially compared to direct download sites,” Leporini informs us.

A success rate of 35% is pretty decent indeed, considering that the notices have to be sent and processed in a very small time frame. Also, the process is further complicated because many sites don’t publish the links to the streams until a few minutes before the game starts.

The content protection company also targets traditional social media sites where links to live streams are posted. Here, the success rate was the best at Facebook where half of all infringing links were taken down before the game ended.

“For the first ten days we have sent around 150 takedown notices to Facebook and Twitter pages. Among all content platforms notified, we measured a success rate of about 51% for link removals from Facebook pages.”

While Viaccess-Orca’s efforts may limit the availability of pirated live streams, there are still hundreds of thousands of people getting through. The company estimates that between 100,000 and 500,000 people tune in to an average game. Up until last week, Belgium versus Russia was the most-watched match with 471,541 unauthorized viewers.

Belgium vs. Russia streaming locations

Viaccess-Orca can measure part of the audience directly though P2P streaming services such as Sopcast and Acestream. This also allows the company to see from what location people are watching. As the overview above shows, Belgium vs. Russia was particularly popular in Europe and Asia.

The remainder of the streams go through centralized streaming services, with Hdcast and Iguide being the most frequently used. Rojadirecta and Wiziwig are the sites where Viaccess-Orca found the most infringing links.

Looking ahead, the content protection firm expects that the number of viewers per match will continue to increase, as will the enforcement actions.

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

Hackers Turn Music Industry Site into The Pirate Bay

Posted: 01 Jul 2014 06:51 AM PDT

There was a time when music and movie industry aggression against The Pirate Bay was met with aggression right back, with sites belonging to the MPAA, RIAA, IFPI and others targeted in retaliatory moves.

In recent times, however, that kind of reaction has largely been on the wane. It’s not immediately clear why, but it’s certainly possible that supporters have become used to the world’s largest torrent site being under assault.

And under assault it has definitely been, with web blockades now in place all over Europe. Yesterday the phenomenon spread to Argentina, where local music industry group CAPIF obtained a preliminary blocking injunction against the famous torrent site, the first of its type in Latin America.

The order issued by the 67th District Federal Court compels eleven ISPs to block 256 Pirate Bay IP addresses and 12 domains, which will soon render The Pirate Bay pretty much inaccessible across Argentina.

However, unlike their European counterparts, the Argentinians didn’t get the memo about not retaliating against music industry aggression. With the blockade now in place across several ISPs, it appears that local hackers have already turned the ban on its head in the most dramatic way possible.

Right at this moment, CAPIF’s very own website is operating as a fully functioning Pirate Bay proxy site. Visitors to adminlic.capif.org.ar are greeted with the familiar TPB homepage and are granted full access to the site.

It’s very likely that CAPIF will soon move to shut down access to the proxy, but already the damage will have been done. This act of rebellion has the potential to generate more headlines than the blockade itself, meaning that over the next couple of days all blocked Argentinian TPB users will know what a reverse proxy is and what they are capable of.

Activism in support of torrent and file-sharing sites might be an art on the decline, but its ability to send powerful messages remains, especially when it turns the resources of ‘enemies’ right back against themselves.

Update: After serving torrents for at least 10 hours the proxy has now been pulled offline.

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