Posted: 09 Nov 2014 04:29 AM PST

For years the world’s largest entertainment industry companies have been putting Google under intense pressure to do something about the prominence of ‘infringing’ listings in its search results.

Periodically the search giant has announced a tweak here and there, but in mid October Google said it was about to implement the most important change yet.

The effects were quickly noticeable. Within days the world’s largest torrent sites took an immediate hit in search engine traffic. So was this the holy grail the studios and record labels had been looking for?

Each week TF publishes a list of the top 10 pirate movie downloads and in our latest edition Dawn of the Planet of the Apes topped the charts. So, with the big sites mainly disappeared from the first pages of results, would the movie still be easy to find using “dawn of the planet of the apes torrent” as a search?

Simple answer – yes. Not only that, sites the majority of people have never heard of are now reaping the rewards of Google’s downgrades.

Rags to riches

The first result in Google comes from the suspicious sounding “yify-movies-official.com” which is definitely not an official YIFY site. However, not only does it comes up with the goods as promised, check out the effect Google’s downranking has had on its popularity according to Alexa. It’s a new site that started quickly, but the short growth plateau in mid October was soon overcome.

The next result pointed to TorrentsMovies.net, a site that boosted 20,000 places from nowhere following Google’s mid October tweaks. However, the site’s progress is dwarfed by that of the largely unknown KickassTorrents.link site.

Somewhat similar fortunes are echoed on ThePiratebay.org.in, a site that appeared just a couple of months ago. Thanks to Google’s new algorithm its growth looks like it could burst out of the top of Alexa’s chart at any moment.

But it’s not all fun and games

While torrents can still be easily found for this movie after the October downranking, there are some big negatives for anyone who relied on Google to provide them with the best possible results.

First of all, since Google is essentially gaming the system, it’s no longer possible to rely on the search engine to produce the best links on the most popular sites. It doesn’t matters if Pirate Bay or KickassTorrents links are the most trafficked torrents, sites with unusual names that few people know are now at the top of results. This has undermined a valuable commodity….

Trust

While the sites mentioned above are offering torrents and clearly benefiting traffic-wise, we have deliberately left out several sites from our report. Thanks to their lack of DMCA breaches some sites are much closer to the top than they should be when Google is presented with movie + torrent searches. Sadly these sites have something evil in mind – malware.

Hollywood might publicly warn that some file-sharing sites are havens for viruses and spyware, but Google’s actions have dredged up the real filth from the bottom and that will mean a lot of people paying the price. Having these sites downranked is not on the agenda.

Overall

All things considered, Google’s efforts have given its search results a very unfamiliar look which is bound to undermine trust and confidence. The big question is whether it has made unauthorized content harder to find. The answer thus far is a definite ‘yes’ although better results are obtainable by tailoring searches.

However, a much easier option is to switch over to Bing, which not only automatically and conveniently adds “torrent” to the end of a search for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but also presents the world’s biggest torrent sites on the first page.

When that fails users can simply visit the sites themselves, which the majority have been doing anyway.

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

AVG Monitors Torrenting Habits to Advise Heavy Downloaders

Posted: 09 Nov 2014 12:29 AM PST

In recent years anti-piracy vendors have shown a keen interest in file-sharing and online piracy issues.

Symantec, for example, has developed a technology that allows it to spot fake torrents and malware before they’re downloaded.

On the other hand, rival McAfee have taken an anti-piracy approach by inventing a system that can detect and block pirated material from any website and present users with authorized and legal alternatives instead.

This week we learned that AVG, another major player in the anti-virus business, is keeping an eye on BitTorrent traffic as well. Not to detect intruders or stop piracy, but to give users some friendly advice.

BitTorrent traffic can chew up a lot of bandwidth and cripple one’s local network, especially with badly configured clients. This can slow down web browsing to a crawl, something AVG is alerting its users to.

The following alert pops up for some BitTorrent users. In this case related to traffic generated by uTorrent, but it may appear for other clients as well.

Hey torrenter…

While not everyone may like the fact that their anti-virus software has begun commenting on their torrenting habits, the advice may be useful to some. As far as we know AVG is not looking at what people download, just the network load generated by the application.

Those who want to get rid of the notifications can tick the ‘AVG Advisor Notification’ box in the software settings.

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

Night Time Eiffel Tower Photos Are a Copyright Violation

Posted: 08 Nov 2014 08:55 AM PST

Most people know that they are not allowed to share copies of their favorite band or film without permission. However, in some areas even your own creations may be illegal to share.

In several countries architectural structures are protected by copyright. That means you have to ask permission from the copyright holder to use your own picture in public.

This is also true for the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The famous landmark was built in 1889 which means that it falls within the public domain. However, the light show was added later and this is still protected by copyright.

It may sound absurd, but taking a picture of the Eiffel Tower at night and sharing that online may be copyright infringement. The stance is confirmed by the Société d’Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel, who note the following on their website.

“Daytime views from the Eiffel Tower are rights-free. However, its various illuminations are subject to author's rights as well as brand rights. Usage of these images is subject to prior request from the Société d'Exploitation de la Tour Eiffel.”

The issue above was brought to the forefront by the EU Observer, who note that taking pictures of public buildings may lead to copyright violations in France, Belgium and Italy.

Dimitar Dimitrov, policy expert for Wikipedia’s European Wikimedia chapters in Brussels, told the EU Observer that nightly pictures of the Eiffel Tower may indeed be infringing.

"The lightshow is protected by copyright," Dimitrov notes.

Similar legislation also prevents the public from using photographs of some famous landmarks in Belgium, including the Atomium. This is also why the Atomium’s Wikipedia entry has censored versions or models of the building on its website, instead of the real deal.

Censored Wikipedia entry (Norwegian)

In most other countries in Europe there is no ban on photos of architectural projects, thanks to a clause in the EU’s Information Society Directive. However, in Belgium, France and Italy this hasn’t been transposed into law.

According to Dimitrov this effectively means that people are not allowed to publicly use photos of the Atomium, Eiffel Tower at night, or any other copyrighted architecture. Not even on social media.

"If you take an image of the Atomium and put it on Facebook, that is copyright infringement," Dimitrov says.

Good luck enforcing that…

^{Photo credit}

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

PirateBay

Torrentfreak: “Unknown Sites Dominate Google ‘Pirate’ Search Results” plus 2 more

Torrentfreak: “Unknown Sites Dominate Google ‘Pirate’ Search Results” plus 2 more