Torrentfreak: “Copyright Holders Want Pirate Bay Blocked in Sweden” plus 3 more

Copyright Holders Want Pirate Bay Blocked in Sweden
Online Music Pirates Hit With Lengthy Jail Sentences
Vuze Debuts Chromecast-Compatible Android Torrent Client
ISP Wants to Understand Technology Used to Track Pirates

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 02:35 AM PST

The Pirate Bay is without doubt one of the most censored websites on the Internet.

Courts all around the world have ordered Internet providers to block subscriber access to the torrent site, and this list continues to expand.

Now the music and movie industries plan to bring the blockades to Sweden, Pirate Bay’s home country. To that end, record labels Universal Music, Sony Music and Warner Music teamed up with Nordisk Film and the Swedish Film Industry to file a lawsuit against one of the country’s largest ISPs, B2 Broadband.

The copyright holders demand that the Internet provider blocks access to The Pirate Bay as well as streaming site Swefilmer, Dagens Media reports.

According to the lawsuit, the companies previously asked the ISP to take action against the piracy that occurs on its networks, but without result. B2 doesn’t believe that it’s responsible for the actions of its users and turned down the request.

The copyright holders disagree. In their complaint they write that the ISP is responsible for the pirating activities of its users on both The Pirate Bay and Swefilmer.

“In each case, the objective conditions are met for B2 Broadband to be deemed guilty of being complicit in the copyright infringement that’s committed,” the complaint reads.

Attorney Henrik Bengtsson is convinced that the music and movie companies have a good chance of winning the case, as similar blockades are already in place in Denmark, the UK and elsewhere.

If they indeed win the case, Bengtsson believes that they may demand similar blockades from other large ISPs in the country.

Rick Falkvinge, founder of the first Pirate Party in Sweden, is not happy with the attempt to make B2 responsible for the traffic it transmits.

“It’s neither the first time nor the last that this parasitic industry has found it easier to attack the messengers. This is why we have messenger immunity, why the mailman is never responsible for the contents of a message and the phone company not liable for what’s said in a phonecall” Falkvinge tells TF.

“The Internet must catch up to modern civil liberties standards,” he adds.

Thus far the copyright holders have not commented publicly on the lawsuit to avoid a media spectacle. “We have deliberately chosen not to push this. Neither party wants to make this media process,” Bengtsson says.

If the court sides with the copyright holders it will be the first time that a Swedish ISP has been required to block a website on copyright grounds.

Whether such a blockade will be very successful remains to be seen though, as there are plenty of alternatives and circumvention tools available. This includes VPN services, the many proxies that make up 9% of The Pirate Bay’s total traffic, and TPB’s own PirateBrowser.

Earlier this year the Dutch Pirate Bay blockade was lifted because the court deemed it disproportionate and ineffective.

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

Online Music Pirates Hit With Lengthy Jail Sentences

Posted: 11 Nov 2014 01:26 AM PST

Early October it was revealed that the BPI was following the lead of the Federation Against Copyright Theft by pursuing alleged Internet pirates in their own privately prosecuted case.

Their targets were former members of the now-defunct file-sharing links forum Dancing Jesus. The site was taken offline in 2011 following an investigation carried out by the BPI and IFPI, with assistance from the US Department of Homeland Security.

Two men were arrested by City of London Police, one the owner of the site and the other one of the forum's top uploaders. Homeland Security played its part by seizing a Dancing Jesus server hosted in the United States.

After dragging on for years, in January 2014 site owner and admin Kane Robinson of South Shields pleaded guilty to illegally distributing music. Richard Graham, one of the site's top uploaders, went on trial early October 6 at Newcastle Crown Court. After the hearing began the Leicestershire man changed his plea to guilty.

In a decision that must have stunned both Robinson and Graham, yesterday Judge Deborah Sherwin handed the down the harshest sentences ever in a case involving UK-based music file-sharers.

For his part in offering a site with a reported 22,500 links to 250,000 titles, Robinson was given a jail sentence of 32 months, reduced from 4 years in recognition of his earlier guilty plea.

After reportedly making available more than 8,000 tracks, of which around two-thirds were pre-release according to the BPI, Graham was handed a total of 21 months.

Following his guilty plea, TF had the opportunity to speak with 22-year-old Graham but for legal reasons haven’t been able to disclose any information until now. He told us that he hoped that his young age at the time would help his case and that the site was filled with music lovers and was never a commercial concern.

“At the time they accused me of this, I was at school taking my exams, for which I gained excellent grades. Since I was arrested in 2010, I have gone to university and completed a degree, in fact finishing it before I was even told I would be prosecuted,” Graham told us earlier this month.

“I am still amazed by the fact that so much time and money was expended [prosecuting] a small website of music lovers who spent way more on music, gigs etc than the average person. I myself spent thousands,” he added.

“It’s also clear that no money was made from any activity, which also makes me wonder. People make thousands a week from piracy, why don’t they go for them? I believe they were just looking for an easy win after all their high-profile losses, and unfortunately they chose me.”

On the flip side David Wood, Director of BPI's Copyright Protection Unit, said the sentences handed down should serve as a warning to those running ‘pirate’ sites which give consumers a “sub-standard experience” and give nothing back to artists.

"Today's sentencing sends a clear message to the operators and users of illegal music sites that online piracy is a criminal activity that will not be tolerated by law enforcement in the UK or overseas. Piracy – particularly pre-release – can make or break an artist's career, and can determine whether a record label is able to invest in that crucial second or third album,” Wood said.

David Cook, a cyber crime specialist solicitor who was instructed to provide expert opinion to the defense in the case, told TorrentFreak this morning that the harsh sentence may be linked to the way rightsholders present their cases.

“When it comes to the sentencing in the criminal courts for intellectual property matters, rights holder groups proffer figures relating to the losses due to ‘IP crime’ and the damage that such offenses cause the industry. Of course, these statistics appear to be entirely self-serving, given the role of the rights holder group and their duty only to their members,” Cook explained.

“The gathering and presentation of statistics by these organizations is not open to scrutiny. The survey methodology used is not particularly transparent. Interviewer effects, the nature of questions posed and/or survey sampling bias may be significant. In terms of the values ascribed to the losses to the industry, the figures often seem ludicrously high and may be based more on apocryphal assumptions and calculations always based on ‘the worst case scenario’.”

Cook, whose previous case history includes defenses in the OiNK, FileSoup, SceneTorrents and Richard O’Dwyer cases, says that he finds the apparently harsh sentences “troubling” and “perhaps due to the extraordinary estimates of loss to the music industry forwarded by the prosecution.”

It is not yet clear whether or not there will be an appeal.

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

Vuze Debuts Chromecast-Compatible Android Torrent Client

Posted: 10 Nov 2014 10:55 AM PST

Years ago, obtaining content and then deciding it might be better viewed on another device presented obstacles for the average torrent downloader.

The first option, of watching the content on the machine it had been downloaded to, was clearly the easiest. Those (often Xvid) files could also be copied to CD or DVD for transferring to another machine, such as a laptop for example.

Those wanting to shift that content to a larger screen either needed to download DVD compatible files in the first place, or expend time and processing power to encode video into DVD format. Neither was ideal – one took too long to transfer while the other took too long to encode.

These days things are much more streamlined and thanks to Google’s innovative Chromecast device, shifting content from small to big screen is easier than ever before. The cost-friendly stick can be plugged into any TV HDMI port and have content streamed or ‘cast’ to it from compatible hardware and software.

The latest company to support Chromecast is torrent client developer Azureus Software, the company behind the popular Vuze client. In addition to powerful Windows, OSX and Linux desktop versions, Azureus also offers Vuze Torrent Downloader, a lightweight client for the Android platform.

Available for free from the Play Store, Vuze Torrent Downloader has all the features the mobile downloader needs, such as magnet link support and torrent searching from within the app. The new 1.6 version adds full Chromecast support, enabling content to be downloaded on tablets and phones and then streamed or “cast” to a TV or large screen.

“We’re excited to piggyback on the rapid growth of Google’s Chromecast product and contribute to the expanding ecosystem of devices and content available today,” explains Vuze General Manager Claude Tolbert.

“The new Vuze app makes it to simple to tap, share and stream torrent files on a larger screen along with better sound systems in a comfortable and convenient setting.”

As expected, torrents streamed to Chromecast from within Vuze can be controlled from the application’s interface using familiar pause, resume and skip functions.

Finally, Tolbert notes that Google has reported more than 400 million “cast” clicks since it launched Chromecast in 2013, an indication of the platform’s popularity in today’s multi-device world.

“People have adopted streaming as a form of new technology. By integrating Chromecast functionality into Vuze Torrent Downloader we’re able to help bridge what people want with relevant functionality in our Vuze app. It just makes sense,” Tolbert concludes.

Vuze Torrent Downloader can be obtained here.

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

ISP Wants to Understand Technology Used to Track Pirates

Posted: 10 Nov 2014 06:30 AM PST

Following a leak of the movie Dallas Buyers Club onto the Internet in January 2013, owner Voltage Pictures took the opportunity to extract cash payments from hundreds of US citizens said to have downloaded the movie.

The practice is lucrative, so much so that the company is now testing the Australian market. Among others, Dallas Buyers Club LLC (DBCLLC) are targeting subscribers of iiNet, a local ISP with a reputation for defending its customers.

(DBCLLC) recently applied to the Federal Court to have iiNet and others reveal the identities of people they say have downloaded and/or shared their movie without permission, but to date iiNet (which also owns fellow targeted ISPs Internode and Adam) is opposing the application for discovery.

Earlier today the parties were in Federal Court in Sydney before Justice Nye Perram. DBCLLC wants iiNet to hand over its subscribers’ identities, but the ISP suspects that instead of giving targets their day in court the movie company simply wants to scare settlements out of them.

According to ZDNet, Barrister Richard Lancaster, SC representing iiNet, told Justice Perram that the ISP needs to know more about the anti-piracy tracking system that was used to track the alleged copyright infringers.

DBCLLC hired Stuttgart, Germany based outfit MaverickEye UG, an outfit that claims to provide “world-class surveillance” of intellectual property on the leading P2P networks including BitTorrent. The company also claims experience with other law firms operating similar pay-up-or-else business models.

“Maverickeye UG work very closely with several law firms focused on the protection of intellectual property and specialized in filing legal claims against people who infringe on your intellectual property,” the company says on its website.

It’s now also becoming clearer why DBCLLC selected iiNet as a target. In its prolonged legal battle with movie company Village Roadshow which concluded two years ago, iiNet said it would’ve handed over subscriber information had there been a successful application to the High Court. DBCLLC lawyer Ian Pike told the Court today that he will indeed be relying on those statements.

Next Monday will see another hearing, this time on the issue of security and costs. To ensure that it’s not left with a huge legal bill, iiNet has requested that DBCLLC deposit AUS$100,00 (US$86,700) into a holding account in the event the movie company loses in its bid to obtain the ISP’s customers’ details. That amount is already in dispute with DBCLLC reportedly prepared to put forward just AUS$30,000 (US$26,000).

During December another hearing will determine whether iiNet will be able to call Maverick Eye’s Daniel Macek as a witness to determine whether the company’s anti-piracy tracking system is up to the job of identifying an infringer.

Then, during February 5 and 6, 2015, the full case will be heard. A win for iiNet could mean a significant setback for DBCLLC, while a victory could signal a green light to other companies plotting similar action. In the United States, DBCLLC demands payment of up to US$7,000 (AUS$8,000) from each person it targets.

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