Torrentfreak: “Manhunt Underway For “Possibly Armed” Kinox Pirate Site Operators” plus 1 more

Manhunt Underway For “Possibly Armed” Kinox Pirate Site Operators

Posted: 31 Oct 2014 01:13 AM PDT

Just a few days ago news broke that police in Germany had carried out raids in several areas of the country.

They were looking for four suspects believed to be the key individuals behind a range of sites including Kino.to replacement Kinox.to, a pair of file-hosting sites, plus two linking forums. Even streaming giant Movie4K was thrown into the mix.

While two people were arrested in Neuss and Dusseldorf, two brothers from a village near to the northern city of Lübeck evaded police and are said to be on the run. It is those two men who are now grabbing the headlines.

Police have just taken the somewhat unusual step of announcing a public manhunt for the brothers, publishing mugshots and their full names alongside details of their alleged crimes. This is something only usually carried out in exceptional and serious cases.

Pictured right is Kastriot Selimi. Born in 1989, the 25-year-old was born in Kosovo and later became a German citizen.

According to police he is one of the founders of the “criminal organization” behind Kinox, FreakShare and BitShare (In respect of BitShare, please see update at bottom of article).

Kastriot also has alleged connections to a range of other sites including stream4k.to, shared.sx, mygully.com and boerse.sx.

Kastriot Selimi’s alleged crimes include predatory blackmail, armed robbery, extortion, arson, copyright infringement and tax evasion. Police warn that he should be considered violent and could be armed.

Pictured right is Kreshnik Selimi. Born in 1992, the 21-year-old was born in Sweden and later became a German citizen. He is the younger brother of Kastriot.

Kreshnik is accused of founding and operating the same sites as his sibling and is covered by the same international arrest warrant. He is being classified as violent and police are warning the public that he too could be armed.

Kreshnik Selimi's alleged crimes include predatory blackmail, armed robbery, extortion, arson, copyright infringement and tax evasion.

According to information received by German publication Spiegel, the arson and extortion charges relate to alleged crimes carried out by the brothers against one of their former or even current business partners.

A spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office earlier revealed that the brothers had "made great efforts" to get rid of their competitors in the piracy market. "Sometimes even a car burst into flames," he said.

According to the Attorney General’s office the brothers have evaded 1.3 million euros in taxes, which suggests that overall revenues were in excess of 6.5 million euros. Even if that amount is overblown, it seems likely that the pair have considerable resources at their disposal.

The brothers’ whereabouts aside, the big mystery is why the sites named above are still in operation. All remain online, despite their alleged operators being subjected to an international manhunt.

Update: The CEO of BitShare has contacted TorrentFreak stating that his site is being wrongly linked to this investigation and its reputation damaged with zero evidence being produced against it.

“Our company has not even been contacted by ANYONE and still they are accusing us of being connected to these two guys or other websites,” he explained.

TF has asked the BitShare CEO for a full statement which we will publish in due course.

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

Pirate Site Operator Slapped With $10 Million in Damages

Posted: 30 Oct 2014 10:21 AM PDT

In August we reported how ABS-CBN was going after several website owners who link to pirated streams of its programming.

The Philippines-based company filed a lawsuit at a federal court in Oregon looking for millions of dollars in damages from two local residents, husband and wife.

The five sites they operated, including Pinoymoviefan.com and Watchfilipinotv.com, barely had any visitors. According to the main suspect, Jeff Ashby, he created them for his wife so she could enjoy entertainment from her home country.

'I created these websites for my wife who is from the Philippines, so she and others who are far from the Philippines could enjoy materials from their culture that are otherwise unavailable to them, Jeff Ashby wrote to the court.

The sites in question didn’t store copies of the infringing media but merely provided links to other websites, and Ashby shut them down voluntarily as soon as he heard about the lawsuit.

Nevertheless, ABS-CBN branded Ashby a hardcore criminal. In one of their own news report they managed to get the L.A. police to agree with them.

"[Piracy is] supporting their ability to buy drugs and guns and engage in violence. And then, the support of global terrorism, which is a threat to everybody," LA County Assistant Sheriff Todd Rogers told an ABS-CBN news outlet.

Now, just a few weeks later the case is over. The Oregon District Court ‘ruled’ in favor of ABS-CBN and ordered Jeff Ashby to pay a mind-blowing $10 million in damages.

The company nevertheless praises the ‘unprecedented’ victory in its own news coverage and warns that they will continue to pursue action against pirate sites.

“Jeff Ashby is the first of many pirates that we are pursuing,” says Elisha Lawrence, ABS-CBN’s Associate Vice President of Global Anti-Piracy.

“We have begun a relentless campaign to enforce against all pirate websites due to the numerous reports that these sites contain dangerous malware which cause substantial harm including identify theft of financial information and phishing attacks.”

While the $10 million may do well for PR purposes, the media conglomerate fails to mention that this isn’t a regular verdict. Instead, it’s a consent judgment (pdf) between ABS-CBN and Ashby which the court signed off on.

In other words, the $10 million in damages reported in public is a figure both parties agreed on, without putting up a fight. Needless to say, it’s likely that a separate deal was made behind the scenes.

In fact, a month before the consent judgment the court had already been informed that both parties had settled the case.

Most telling, perhaps, is the response of Jeff Ashby after he was ‘hit’ by the $10 million judgment. Instead of characterizing the damages as unfair and overblown, he now warns others not to mess with ABS-CBN.

“I wish to warn anyone who may be copying and/or publishing content owned by ABS-CBN without their permission, to stop immediately. Continuing without authorization can and will lead to very serious consequences,” Ashby comments.

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