Monthly Archives: January 2011

TV Channel Uses ‘Torrentz’ Name To Beat Piracy

Posted on by

STAR World, a prominent English language television channel in India owned by News Corp, has just announced a brand new programming segment. Interestingly, it is named after the country’s most popular torrent search engine, Torrentz. With ‘Torrentz’, which will air The Good Guys, The Walking Dead and Detroit 1-8-7, the TV-channel hopes to offer a convenient alternative to ever increasing BitTorrent use in India.

Image is Loading....

The Indian TV-channel STAR World has just purchased three hot new shows from Hollywood. Starting in two weeks, The Good Guys, The Walking Dead and Detroit 1-8-7 will be broadcasted during the weekend in a programming block that’s named after one of the largest BitTorrent search engines.

‘Torrentz’ airs on Saturdays and Sundays and will feature some of Hollywood’s hottest TV content. The name was specifically chosen to appeal to the pirating audience and represents an unusual move for a channel that’s owned by one of the largest media conglomerates – News Corp.

“‘Torrentz’ is a unique initiative by the channel to curb piracy and relieve viewers from the inconvenience of downloading from the internet. Downloading from the net apart from being piracy, is a time consuming process and frustrating for the viewers,” STAR world proudly announced in a press release.

“By making available some of its latest shows fresh from Hollywood, STAR World ‘Torrentz’ hopes that its viewers will enjoy the ‘Torrentz’ advantage and not waste their time and energy in the inconvenient process of internet download,” it added.

It is strange to say the least that STAR World adopted the Torrentz brand. Although some may find it more convenient to sit in front of the TV than to download a torrent, the channel has forgotten the main reason why people turn to BitTorrent – namely, availability.

All the shows that are announced to air on Torrentz are already widely available on Google and every other torrent search engine. So if the Indian viewers really like the new shows, some may be inclined to ‘preview’ the next episodes on BitTorrent instead of waiting a full week for the official airing.

STAR World, however, thinks that the unusual name and the great content will discourage pirates, something they’ve learned from viewer feedback.

“With the accelerated growth of the internet and the digital medium, the consumer is inevitably spoilt for choices. It is therefore imperative for us as broadcasters to satiate our viewers’ needs in order to discourage internet piracy. STAR World – ‘Torrentz’ was conceptualized through the process of constant engagement with our viewers and insights about their preferences.”

We hope the channel is right, but we highly doubt it. BitTorrent is booming in India. The number of broadband subscribers has doubled over the last two years and for many BitTorrent sites India has become the main traffic source, even beating the United States. If the TV-channel really wants to discourage piracy it might be a good idea to get the release window down significantly.

Read REF

P2P Site Operator Appears in French File-Sharing “Show Trial”

Posted on by

The owner of a file-sharing site active more than 5 years ago went on trial today in the French capital, Paris. Vincent Valade is accused by entertainment companies of profiting heavily from the unauthorized distribution of more than 7,000 movies. If convicted he faces up to 3 years in jail, 300,000 euros in fines and compensation settlements running to millions of euros.

Following two adjournments, the trial of file-sharing site operator Vincent Valade got underway in France today. Scheduled to run for 3 days, the Paris Criminal Court will hear evidence that claims between 2005 and 2006, Valade “provided films without the permission of copyright holders.”

Now aged 25, Valade was the owner of ed2K link site Emule Paradise, which at the time was one of the most popular sites of its type. Indeed, the claims from the movie company plaintiffs including Association of Film Producers, the National Federation of Film Distributors, the Association of Independent Producers, Universal, Galatée Films and Pathé Rennare, are that the site attracted around 300,000 visitors every day.

From this traffic, say the plaintiffs, Valade generated a sizeable advertising income. During the two year period in question it’s claimed he had revenues of more than 416,000 euros which were placed in bank accounts in Belize and Cyprus. Five other defendants including the Future Net (Net Avenir) advertising agency will appear alongside Valade at the trial.

Valade, now aged 25, is accused of facilitating the illegal distribution of 7,113 copyright movies, some of which were pre-release, between 2005 and 2006. He is also accused of the illegal copying of 19 films which were found on his computer following his December 2006 arrest.

It is by no means certain that Valade will lose his case. A similar case brought by 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner against link site see-link.net failed last year after the plaintiffs presented no evidence to show that even a single infringement had taken place due to the site’s links.

“The underlying question is, can Vallade be held liable for links that are Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI), and not Uniform Resource Locators (URL),” Guillaume Champeau of file-sharing news site Numerama told us this afternoon.

“That is, if there is no evidence that the referenced content was actually shared when the .ed2K files were created, can you say it is infringement? Even if the content is shared, is it second degree infringement?”

In addition, one of the core arguments of the plaintiffs is that eMule Paradise offered the eMule file-sharing software for download – complete with how-to guides – alongside links to infringing downloads.

“[The plaintiffs] say that given ‘the context’ of eMule Paradise, with lots of links enabling the downloading of infringing content, the act of offering eMule for download is criminal,” Guillaume explains.

“Since the DADVSI law passed in 2006, it is forbidden in France to ‘knowingly and by any form, publish, make available or communicate to the public a device clearly intended for making available copyrighted works and material without authorization’.”

If found guilty Valade faces a 3 year jail sentence, fines of up to 300,000 euros and damages payouts potentially running to millions of euros.

Read REF


100,000 P2P Users Sued in US Mass Lawsuits

Posted on by

The avalanche of copyright infringement lawsuits in the United States, mainly against BitTorrent users, are about to hit a dubious milestone. In total 99,924 defendants have been sued in the last 12 months, and new cases are being filed at a rapid rate. Adult companies in particular have embraced the profitable pay-up-or-else scheme where tens of millions of dollars are at stake.

Mass P2P lawsuits have been filed all across the United States in recent months, especially by companies dealing with adult content. They have embraced this new revenue stream by the dozen and new studios are joining every month.

Through these mass lawsuits the copyright holders are trying to obtain the personal details of (mostly) BitTorrent users who allegedly shared their material online. Once this information is handed over, they then offer the defendant the opportunity to settle the case for a few hundred up to a couple of thousand dollars, thereby avoiding a full trial and potentially even bigger financial penalties.

In the United States the judicial system is currently being overloaded with new cases, but the scope of the issue was never really clear until now. An anonymous reader of ours has spent months compiling a complete overview of all the mass P2P lawsuits that have been filed in the US since the beginning of 2010, listing all the relevant case documents and people involved in a giant spreadsheet.

The research shows that between 8th January 2010 and 21st January 2011, a total of 99,924 individuals have been sued. The vast majority of the defendants have allegedly used BitTorrent to share copyrighted works but a few hundred ed2k users are also included.

Of the 80 cases that were filed originally, 68 are still active, with 70,914 defendants still in jeopardy.

No. Of Defendants Sued

Image is Loading....

What’s further worth noting is that although the makers of the Hurt Locker were one of the first to sue, this scheme has now been hijacked by copyright trolls and adult movie studios. Nearly all the cases filed recently involve adult material, and the law firm behind the pioneering United States Copyright Group has now accepted its first adult cases as well.

The mass lawsuits have had quite a lot of criticism from consumer rights organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in particular. One of the main points of critique is that the copyright holders have no intention of going to a full trial against each of the defendants. They are out to get a settlement, which means that the (possibly weak) evidence will never be tested in court.

Two weeks ago the EFF filed an amicus brief in which it asked an Illinois judge to quash subpoenas issued in pay-up-or-else lawsuits involving alleged illegal file-sharing of pornography.

“Copyright owners have a right to protect their works, but they can’t use shoddy and unfair tactics to do so,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “We’re asking the court to protect the rights of each and every defendant, instead of allowing these copyright trolls to game the system.”

All the information regarding these mass P2P cases can be accessed by the public though this Google spreadsheet that will be regularly updated.

“I am hoping that having the data available will stimulate discussion and that it could be of value to people actively resisting/fighting the suits. Even if that is overly optimistic, public access to the information that shows the scope of this bullshit is, in and of itself, a good thing,” the anonymous spreadsheet creator told us.

Stopping the lawsuits wont be easy though, considering the huge amounts of money that can be made by the suing parties. Just multiply the 100,000 defendants by an average settlement proposal of $1000 dollars and it’s clear that tens of millions of dollars can be made with this dubious scheme.

Read REF


Extremists on Both Sides Means Piracy War Goes On Forever

Posted on by

The war on piracy had simmered at a relatively low-level for many years, but with the advent of Napster and its predecessors it was inevitable that the entertainment industries would respond violently. But with that force comes the backlash and a hatred for those who would take everyone’s freedoms, especially online, to protect a business model. As a result, the vast majority of file-sharers get caught in the crossfire, between two parties who will always be at war. But peace can be found.

When referring to the so-called piracy menace, the entertainment industries love to draw beautifully clear battle lines.

On one side sit the music and movie creatives, leaking blood, sweat and tears over their latest masterpieces. The toils of their labor will bring joy and happiness to millions while providing much-needed employment and a positive effect on the economy. If you’re looking to join a team of damn fine upstanding good guys, then this is the side to be on.

If, however, you prefer the forces of darkness and intend to steal, thieve and defraud your way through the Internet, look no further than the opposing team. These scummy parasites contribute nothing, but instead munch their way through endless piles of media without a single thought for anyone but themselves. They never spend their money and are ruining the entertainment industries and the economy bit by bit, each and every time they connect to the Internet.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that when the piracy ‘problem’ is defined like this, with good on one side and bad on the other, reaching a compromise is unlikely. In reality the situation should be explained in much broader terms, to encompass the reality of the file-sharing landscape and to acknowledge the status of the majority in the middle.

Let’s not delude ourselves. There are people out there who won’t pay for any media, literally none whatsoever. If it’s not nailed down it’s getting downloaded. They won’t even pay for their cable TV and if a cloned modem or other hacked box is available, they aren’t paying for Internet access either.

Equally, there are some crazy people in the entertainment industries who think that some day it will be possible, given enough force, aggression, technical measures and political pressure, to force everyone to pay for every single last piece of media, not just once, but time and again.

Given these opposing standpoints with a veritable Grand Canyon between them, it’s little wonder that the file-sharing problem has turned into a war. But, in common with all wars, there are millions caught up in the middle who while tending to take sides, neither want nor deserve to be subjected to a massively polarized situation brought on by the feuding and unmoving factions on either side.

The other reality is that, to a greater or lesser extent, the millions stuck in the middle of this war are all pirates to some degree. It’s very difficult to go about our daily business without infringing someone’s rights in today’s environment. Many millions will also download music and a movie here and there, or take the opportunity to grab a TV show from BitTorrent that aired at an inconvenient time or in another country.

But these very same people buy and finance media too. They are consumers of regular TV, they go to the movies and pay for music in a dozen different forms, they go to concerts, buy products from ads with the latest Beyonce track in the background and make straight purchases from iTunes. They buy DVDs, they buy software, they buy magazines and they buy books.

Last year someone helping with one of my articles commented “you must be the biggest pirates in the world”, and then responded with surprise when I revealed how much I spent on all sorts of media and entertainment in the previous 12 months. Just because people have the means to pirate, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they do.

Nevertheless, for those who supplement their paid purchases with a visit to The Pirate Bay once in a while, the entertainment industries’ uncompromising stance means that they too are labeled in terms close to that of sub-human scum, but as millions of us know the piracy battle lines are nowhere near as clear cut as the industry lobbyists would have governments believe.

But we aren’t on the brink of disaster either. As long as the overwhelming masses continue to understand that they can’t pirate everything all of the time and that a reasonable amount of money has to be made on media in order for it to exist, things will be just fine.

However, if the entertainment industries continue with their current position – that they are absolutely entitled to their untold billions at any cost, that there is no middle ground, that all file-sharers are simply evil and should expect their activities to be monitored, throttled and legislated against – they should expect fewer moderates and more extremists in the future.

Peace lies in the middle with the moderates being treated as such, but if the extremists on both sides have their way we will all be dragged into the persistent fighting of a war that simply cannot be won.

Read REF