TorrentFreak Email Update |
- Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent
- After Police Raid, Mulve File-Sharing App Operator Cleared Of Wrong Doing
- US Government Responds To Domain Seizures, Ignores The Big Question
- Anti-Piracy Lawyers Sued For Fraud, Abuse and Extortion
| Top 10 Most Pirated Movies on BitTorrent Posted: 30 Nov 2010 04:24 AM PST The top 10 most downloaded movies on BitTorrent, 'Despicable Me' tops the chart this week, followed by 'Inception'. 'Easy A' completes the top three.
The data for our weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak, and is for informational and educational reference only. All the movies in the list are DVDrips unless stated otherwise. RSS feed for the weekly movie download chart.
Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After Police Raid, Mulve File-Sharing App Operator Cleared Of Wrong Doing Posted: 29 Nov 2010 03:09 PM PST After being in quiet development for some months, in September the Mulve music downloading app hit the mainstream. Very quickly everything went sour, with British police swooping on the guy who registered the Mulve domain and placing him under arrest on a range of charges from copyright infringement through to conspiracy to defraud. Today we can report the outcome. For once it's good news.
After being very well received and its existence reported in dozens of news outlets, in early October things took a turn for the worse. TorrentFreak learned that police in the UK had arrested an individual in connection with the application and we were told in no uncertain terms – Mulve was finished. For the first time, we can now reveal exactly what happened. “On the 6th of October, at approximately 8am a group of unidentified men entered my apartment and only later identified themselves as police officers. They then went ahead to confiscate all my electronic equipment. Laptops, flash drives, cell phones etc.” These are the words of Eric, the guy who registered the Mulve domain and the person we referred to in our earlier articles under the pseudonym ‘John’. Eric had nothing whatsoever to do with the coding of Mulve, another individual was responsible. "I am the sole author of the program. Eric has never even seen the source code, neither does he know how to program," Mulve coder ms3arch told TorrentFreak earlier. "The reason they went for Eric was because the domain was in his name for 1 day." Eric confirmed this morning that the authorities had indeed tracked him through a non-private WHOIS listing. He’d also innocently revealed his identity in videos and elsewhere. After being taken away for questioning, the grounds for Eric’s arrest were explained: - Copyright Infringement Eric informed us that what followed was 6 weeks of police bail. Fortunately, as no incriminating evidence was found to support the accusations levelled against him (surprise, surprise), Eric has now been told he is free to go. He will have to wait for the return of all his equipment though, that won’t return until next week. One has to wonder if these actions in the UK should be allowed to continue. The police are clearly being influenced and pressured by the music industry to take action, and they are taking the bait – hook, line and sinker. If the industry is so convinced they can get a conviction, perhaps they should try to do so through the civil courts where the burden of proof is much lower? As it stands the British tax-payer is picking up the bill for these pointless efforts which achieve nothing other than to turn the lives of people like Eric upside down and raise awareness of services such as those offered by Vkontakte. “Here’s a public thanks to all the readers and individuals who made this ordeal easier for us,” says Eric as he puts this ordeal behind him. What will follow from Eric now is a new and completely legal music project. Eric is very, very keen to stay absolutely on the right side of the law this time. Of course, we’ll keep everyone informed. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| US Government Responds To Domain Seizures, Ignores The Big Question Posted: 29 Nov 2010 01:46 PM PST The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have just confirmed the seizure of 82 domains as part of Operation in Our Sites 2. The authorities claim the actions were targeted at websites that were involved in the illegal sale and distribution of counterfeit and copyrighted goods, but fail to explain why a BitTorrent meta-search engine was included. Last Thursday we reported on the seizure of the music linking site RapGodFathers. As it turned out this was the first target in a growing list of domains that were seized in the days that followed, including the BitTorrent meta-search engine Torrent-Finder. All this time the authorities remained silent on the purpose and scope of the actions, until today. Apparently the DOJ and ICE had picked the label “Cyber Monday Crackdown” for their actions, and this meant that they couldn’t release their statement earlier. However, today a press release was finally issued, detailing which sites were targeted and why. “As of today – what is known as ‘Cyber Monday’ and billed as the busiest online shopping day of the year – anyone attempting to access one of these websites using its domain name will no longer be able to make a purchase. Instead, these online shoppers will find a banner notifying them that the website's domain name has been seized by federal authorities,” it was announced. “The coordinated federal law enforcement operation targeted online retailers of a diverse array of counterfeit goods, including sports equipment, shoes, handbags, athletic apparel and sunglasses as well as illegal copies of copyrighted DVD boxed sets, music and software.” The message below is posted on the seized sites“By seizing these domain names, we have disrupted the sale of thousands of counterfeit items, while also cutting off funds to those willing to exploit the ingenuity of others for their own personal gain," said Attorney General Holder in a subsequent press release. Since 95% of the domains were related to counterfeit goods, this explanation was kind of expected, but one question remains unanswered. In fact, this is the question that prompted so many news outlets to pick up the story over the last few days. Those who took a careful look at the list of seized domains will have noticed that there are some odd entries. Among the replica watches and fake sport shirts are three sites that were directly or indirectly linking to music. That’s not counterfeiting, although releasing music before it hits the stores is a criminal act so these targets can be explained. But there’s an even stranger entry, and that is Torrent-Finder. Torrent-Finder is not a typical torrent site where one can download torrent files. It’s merely a meta-search engine that redirects users to other sites. The site simply displays a search box and has no browsable archive. The site is not encouraging or even facilitating copyright infringement any more than other search engines such as Google. So the question that we’d like to see answered is what the grounds were to seize Torrent-Finder? Could it have been a mistake? Or perhaps a test? If the US authorities were to target BitTorrent sites then Torrent-Finder is arguably the least likely target. Still, the owner lost its domain without even receiving a notice. That doesn’t seen right somehow. If it’s so easy for the US Government to obtain a seizure order for a website that is simply a meta-search engine, and not by any means involved in linking to or hosting copyrighted material, then where does it stop? Meanwhile, TorrentFreak has been made aware of (many) additional domains that are on a Government seizure list. More info on this is expected to trickle in later in the week and might reveal more about the future direction of Operation In Our Sites 2 after “Cyber Monday Crackdown.” Full list of 82 seized domainsArticle from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Anti-Piracy Lawyers Sued For Fraud, Abuse and Extortion Posted: 29 Nov 2010 05:44 AM PST The US Copyright Group thought it had found the ideal scheme to turn piracy into profit when it started filing lawsuits against tens of thousands of BitTorrent users this year. But the defendants in the Far Cry lawsuits have now become the plaintiffs in a class action filed against the anti-piracy lawyers and their partners. Among other things, the lawyers are accused of fraud, extortion and abuse.
What first seemed to be a relatively effective and profitable way to turn piracy into a healthy revenue stream, is rapidly turning into a nightmare for the anti-piracy lawyers and their partners. To add to the growing problems and difficulties for the US Copyright Group (USCG), a class action lawsuit has now been filed by the alleged file-sharers. The accusations put forward in the 96 page complaint are not mild, and could potentially put an end to this and similar cases in the United States. The class action lawsuit is targeting all the parties involved in the Far Cry pay-up-or-else scheme. It was was filed on behalf of one of those accused, Dmitriy Shirokov, but includes others who were included in the Far Cry case. “This is a class action brought by Plaintiff, on behalf of himself and 4,576 other similarly-situated victims of settlement fraud and extortion,” the lengthy complaint starts. The tables are turned this time with USCG, law firm Dunlap, Grub and Weaver (DGW) and Far Cry copyright holder Achte/Neunte in the defendant’s seats. The complaint goes on to describe the practices of the anti-piracy lawyers as “lucrative trade in monetizing copyright infringement allegations,” and carefully dissects the operation and the numerous offenses that were allegedly committed by the lawyers and their partners. In total, the alleged BitTorrent users are seeking relief based on 25 counts including extortion, fraudulent omissions, mail fraud, wire fraud, computer fraud and abuse, racketeering, fraud upon the court, abuse of process, fraud on the Copyright Office, copyright misuse, unjust enrichment and consumer protection violations. One of the most prominent allegations against the law firm is that the copyright of Far Cry was registered at the Copyright Office after the movie was published, and after many of the alleged sharers were caught. It is claimed that the copyright registration was “intentionally obtained under false pretenses” and subsequently used to back up “baseless threats in the demand letters.” “The Letters falsely claim that the law allows Achte to seek extraordinary forms of relief, namely statutory damages and attorney's fees, for infringing Achte's copyright for the motion picture Far Cry, despite fatal defects in its copyright registration and the express provisions of the Copyright Act,” the complaint reads. This then leads to the following allegations of fraud, extortion and related offenses. “The Letters sent to the proposed Class are predicated on fraud—upon Plaintiff and the proposed Class, and upon the ISPs, the United States Copyright Office, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.” “DGW and its fellow Defendants are directly involved in perpetrating, conspiring to commit, and/or aiding and abetting this massive scheme of fraud, extortion, abuse of The complaintAnother key issue is that DGW threatened to sue each and every individual they targeted, but that this would be practically impossible to achieve with the small team of attorneys they have. Also, they specifically stated to clients that cash settlement is what they are after. “DGW does not genuinely intend to pursue most, if any, of these thousands of claims to trial. Operating through its alias USCG, DGW advertises its copyright business model to prospective clients in the film industry stating one overriding goal: to "obtain settlement"—not judgments, which would require litigating and proving its allegations,” the complaint reads. “With only thirteen attorneys on staff, DGW has issued a volume of demand letters that far surpasses its ability to litigate this volume of claims case by case. USCG tells prospective clients that civil prosecution of copyright claims has not been "practical," in light of the financial status of individual infringers.” The above is just the introduction of the complaint, which then continues with dozens of pages discussing the legal background, eventually concluding that DGW’s revenue model is not based on upholding copyright law, but that it capitalizes on fear and aims to intimidate. DGW extorted thousands of infringers by perpetrating fraud on the U.S. Copyright Office, the complaint alleges. “Fraud has infected each stage of Defendants' actions since that false registration, tainting their complaints, subpoenas, coercive demand Letters and websites.” The conclusions lead to numerous allegations and eventually a long list of 25 counts for relief. The plaintiffs demand a jury trial and are seeking a wide range of damages as well as restitution and reimbursement of the money plaintiffs have spent on the extortion scheme thus far. Among other things, the plaintiffs further seek dismissal of all court actions brought on by the anti-piracy lawyers, an injunctive relief to stop the scheme, and an injunctive relief to stop the identities of the proposed plaintiffs being revealed. The above is just a selection from a complaint that may very well crush the future of USCG’s pay-up-or-else scheme in the United States. If anything, the lawyers and the other defendants have some serious explaining to do. In recent months, USCG’s scheme has been copied by various other law firms, protecting a wide variety of copyright holders. Just last week the German based copyright profiteers Digiprotect launched their first two cases in the United States, and many more are likely to follow, unless a court speaks out against this type of creative use of the legal system. Article from: TorrentFreak. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This week there are five newcomers in the list. Despicable Me is the most downloaded movie on BitTorrent this week.
In September, the Mulve music downloading app burst onto the scene. It carried no music of its own, but instead allowed users to download material from servers owned by Russia's biggest social networking site, Vkontakte.
Since the beginning of this year the United States Copyright Group (USCG) has sued tens of thousands of BitTorrent users who allegedly shared films without the consent of copyright holders. One of the copyright holders who teamed up with USCG are Achte/Neunte, the makers of the movie Far Cry. | You are subscribed to email updates from TorrentFreak To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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