TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Anti-Piracy Group Accused Of Blackmailing Teen File-Sharers
- Police To Receive Evidence Against ‘Large Scale’ File-Sharers
- Admins Of Oldest BitTorrent Site Face Criminal Charges
| Anti-Piracy Group Accused Of Blackmailing Teen File-Sharers Posted: 22 Jul 2010 02:30 AM PDT Anyone familiar with file-sharing operations and those who seek to disrupt them will be aware that there are many techniques used by both sides to thwart the other. While tracking solutions, fancy technology and sheer numbers perpetuate the fight, there are claims that a more traditional technique is in use against file-sharers - good old-fashioned blackmail. But that weapon can work both ways. Today’s wars, no matter where they are fought or who is fighting them, are increasingly exposed to public scrutiny. While there are accepted guidelines for engaging in battle to which conventional and accountable forces must adhere, there are plenty of exceptions to these rules and many transgressions go on undiscovered. In the ongoing Internet conflict between file-sharers and pro-copyright groups, there are many fighting fronts. While much diplomatic pressure is exerted to create new laws and tighten up existing ones, other elements are using those laws to take down file-sharing sites and threaten ISPs. On the Internet itself, anti-piracy groups work largely covertly, spying on users and file-sharing sites and services alike, gathering intelligence on a daily basis. Since it is largely unseen, this type of anti-piracy activity remains somewhat of a mystery. How do the movie and music industries gain access to the most exclusive private trackers and FTP sites? How do they gather evidence on both site operators and site content for months without being detected? Perhaps of even more interest is how they manage to gather personal information on users of those sites. Antipiratbyrån (APB) regularly make the pages of TorrentFreak since it is one of the most active online anti-piracy groups. It has been effective in its investigations against individual file-sharers and has managed to infiltrate a number of exclusive piracy hangouts. How it did this has largely remained a mystery but according to a report from Sweden, some of that information is being obtained by old fashioned blackmail. From a source who has previously worked in law enforcement and also in the private sector, news outlet Nyheter24 has now revealed that APB have been tracking down teenage file-sharers and threatening them with reprisals unless they snitch on their friends and hand over information on the sites they use. Citing a situation which happened a few years ago, the source explains how APB received a tip that people were sharing files via a research institute FTP server. APB allegedly contacted a known file-sharing employee at the location and threatened the individual with reprisals unless they handed over information and helped with their investigation. APB subsequently used the employee’s login to access the server. APB later threatened to take the case to court unless material on the FTP server was deleted. Fighting back, the research institute threatened to report APB for hacking. In the end a settlement between the two sides was reached in private and no further action was taken. On a very similar theme, just recently Swedish prosecutor Björn Ericson announced that there would be no investigation into the activities of APB despite allegations that they had gained unauthorized access to another FTP server, this time in the ongoing ePhone case. “There was not enough concrete information about a specific crime," concluded Ericson. While anti-piracy groups and copyright holders aren’t immune to the law, they do work to less strict guidelines than the police do when they conduct an inquiry into a criminal case. Their quest to manipulate individuals through fear is a common strategy. Last year, representatives from several indie music labels infiltrated a private BitTorrent tracker with the aim of gathering information on both users and admins and using that data to force it to close down. One member, who had uploaded a lot of music to the site, was befriended by the infiltrators and over a period of several months was persuaded to part with sensitive information on site staff and other users. Armed with that information the label workers later revealed themselves to the site’s admin, along with a threat – close down or else. They quickly learned that two can play that game. With assistance from moderators at other sites, the tracker’s staff used the huge amounts of data they held on the infiltrators, from email addresses through to several pages of IP addresses, to hunt down their adversaries on other sites. There they found the same users happily downloading movies, software and TV shows, along with plenty of incriminating forum posts and in one case, a home address. That address led to a phone number, which led to an unexpected late-night phone call. Blackmail, it seems, can cut both ways. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
| Police To Receive Evidence Against ‘Large Scale’ File-Sharers Posted: 21 Jul 2010 01:29 PM PDT An IFPI-affiliated anti-piracy group has announced that it has gathered evidence on dozens of file-sharers and will shortly hand it to the police. The group says it will hand over the results of its investigation into large scale file-sharers to the authorities this month and warns that the law allows those convicted to be jailed for up to 4 years. While TorrentFreak tends to concentrate on the events surrounding the BitTorrent protocol, there are dozens of other ways to share files on the Internet. One of those methods is known as Direct Connect, a hub-based ‘shared folder’ type system. Direct Connect hubs are more difficult to access than regular torrent sites but once in, users tend to share their entire collections, be they music or movie based. The index of all this material is shared between the users of the hub to show what is available and files can be accessed whenever the ‘owner’ of them is online. They can prove an absolute gold mine of data. Unfortunately, as some users of Direct Connect in Sweden have discovered in recent months, proving large scale infringement against them is much easier than with BitTorrent. This has led to a number of arrests. While Sweden has long been considered a relative hotbed for Direct Connect hubs, according to AIMR (Asociatia Industriei Muzicale din Romania) – Romania's answer to the RIAA – their country is leading the world when it comes to Direct Connect. According to information just released, this month parent group IFPI monitored a total of 913 active active hubs in Romania. In second place came Italy with 526, ahead of France, Russia, Hungary, Sweden, Finland and Poland. The United States came in at 10th place with just 143. AIMR says that Romanian Direct Connect hubs have around 75,000 users at any one time, peaking to around 100,000 in the evenings and at the weekends. While these numbers may seems fairly low, the amounts being shared aren’t, with AIMR reporting that around 17,000 TB of data is being made available. Since users generally only get hub access if they are prepared to offer media to the pool themselves, it means that nearly everyone is a significant provider of music and movies and therefore quite a big target for anti-piracy groups, especially when compared to BitTorrent users. To this end, following an investigation in June, AIMR said it collected evidence against 40 ‘large scale’ users of Direct Connect hubs. In AIMR terms, this means people sharing more than 5,000 music tracks. “In general, this means those who have shared more than 20 gigabytes of music, who have a constant presence online and are repeat users,” said AIMR’s Valeria Constantine in a statement. “We identify them by IP address and then go to the police and each ISP to trace them to their homes. If it is proven that they uploaded music illegally then court proceedings can be initiated,” she added. “The whole process can take over a year.” AIMR says it will send its evidence to the Fraud Investigation Service divisions of several police departments during July. For those convicted of breaches of Art. 139, Legea Nr. 8/ 1996 (Article 139, Law no. 8 of 1996), there is a potential for harsh penalties – a maximum of 4 years in jail – but it’s unlikely anyone will be punished to that extent. Last year saw the first case against a Romanian music file-sharer ending in the accused having to pay compensation of around $3,000 to AIMR. A second case this year ended in a similar manner. AIMR hasn’t always successfully followed up on its anti-piracy warnings though. Following fears that The Pirate Bay might disappear after being bought by Hans Pandeya’s Global Gaming Factory, a complete copy of the site’s databases appeared online. BTArena created a clone of The Pirate Bay and was immediately threatened by AIMR with legal action. That site remains online today. Article from: TorrentFreak. |
| Admins Of Oldest BitTorrent Site Face Criminal Charges Posted: 21 Jul 2010 07:10 AM PDT Two administrators of Filesoup - the longest standing BitTorrent community - have been charged with conspiracy to infringe copyright for their involvement with the site. The case is the second against UK-based BitTorrent site operators. The first case was brought against the owner of the OiNK BitTorrent tracker, who was later cleared of all charges.
After years of operating the site without any noticeable trouble, in the summer of 2009 police and the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) conducted a raid on the home address of the site’s owner, known online as 'TheGeeker'. Another raid was carried out around the same time on the property of fellow administrator ‘Snookered’. Both were arrested and taken in for questioning. From the information that we received after the raids it became clear that the MPAA-funded anti-piracy group FACT had been the driving force behind the case, and that they were responsible for gathering the intelligence that led up to the arrests. Similar to other cases in the UK, such as that against TV Links, it was not the police but the private anti-piracy group FACT who took charge of property seized from the Filesoup operators. As it turned out, the police themselves knew very little about the suspects and their alleged crimes. This became clear when Geeker was questioned by the police after his arrest last year. In common with other FACT-run cases, the nature of BitTorrent proved difficult for law enforcement to grasp, with Geeker having to explain how everything worked – including what URLs and domain names are. Now, nearly a year later, Geeker and a fellow administrator Snookered have been charged with conspiracy to infringe copyright for their role in the site. Notably, Filesoup is mainly a discussion board and although torrent files are linked on the site, it hasn’t operated a tracker for half a decade. The full text as it appears on the charge sheet is as follows:
Both admins are currently out on bail but have to surrender to the custody of Taunton Deane Magistrates in Taunton, Somerset, during early August. Geeker told TorrentFreak that he has been in contact with the same solicitors who successfully defended the admin of the OiNK BitTorrent site, who walked free earlier this year after a UK court cleared him of all charges. He can’t give out any more details on the case at the moment, but has promised to keep us updated as soon as he can. Although OiNK and Filesoup are both BitTorrent sites, the charges are quite different. Instead of going for ‘conspiracy to defraud’ as with the case against OiNK admin Allan Ellis, the Filesoup operators are charged with copyright infringement offenses. It appears that FACT has instructed the authorities to try a different approach this time around since Allan Ellis was not convicted. The most worrying part in this and other cases is that private anti-piracy organizations have so much control of the authorities, up to the point where they can keep seized goods in their possession. Geeker is confident that he and his fellow admin have a strong case. He believes that, like Alan Ellis, he has never done anything wrong and hopes to convince the court of the same. To be continued. Charge Sheet (large)Article from: TorrentFreak. |
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