TorrentFreak Email Update |
- U.S. Resume Controversial File-Sharing Domain Seizures
- 670 Alleged File-Sharers Off The Hook As BitTorrent Case Dismissed
- TV Channel Uses ‘Torrentz’ Name To Beat Piracy
- P2P Site Operator Appears in French File-Sharing “Show Trial”
| U.S. Resume Controversial File-Sharing Domain Seizures Posted: 01 Feb 2011 05:23 AM PST Check out TorrentFreak's new News Bits feed! .
The site has well over a million visitors a day, and is listed among the 100 most popular websites on the Internet in terms of traffic. This morning, however, visitors were surprised by a warning from US authorities. Continuing the previous “Operation in Our Sites” actions, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had seized Rojadirecta’s .org domain. Rojadirecta is an unusual target for several reasons, not least because the site has been declared legal twice by Spanish courts. The site’s owners have previously fought a three year legal battle in Spain, which they won, but a single seizure warrant from US authorities has made this victory pointless. Without receiving a notification or the option to defend themselves, the site’s domain was seized this morning. “We have not been notified,” Rojadirecta’s Igor Seoane told TorrentFreak. As with the previous seizures the domain registrar was bypassed in the seizure. “According to Go Daddy they have not touched anything,” Seoane said. Similar to BitTorrent sites, Rojadirecta doesn't host any copyrighted material. Instead, it indexes HTTP links to sports streams that can already be found on the Internet, and also carries links to .torrent files which are hosted on other sites. The site is owned by a Spanish company that pays its taxes and has been declared to operate legally in Spain. In addition, the site is not hosted in the US either. The only connection to the US is that the .org domain is maintained by a US company. This indirect connection to the US makes the seizure a dubious action, according to Rojadirecta’s owner. “In our opinion the US authorities are completely despising the Spanish justice system and sovereignty,” Seoane told TorrentFreak. At the moment Rojadirecta displays the same message from DOJ and ICE as the sites seized last year, including Torrent-Finder. It is expected that Rojadirecta is one of the first of a new list of seized domains. Kingdom-kvcd.net is another domain that was just seized, and we will update this article as more information comes in. The message below is posted on Rojadirecta.orgThe sports streaming and P2P link site is currently looking for legal advice, both in Spain and the US, and its owners are determined to fight the seizure with all means they have. Despite losing the .org domain, Rojadirecta can still be accessed via rojadirecta.com, rojadirecta.es, rojadirecta.me, rojadirecta.in. The latter two domains are interestingly enough maintained by the same company as the .org domain, but Rojadirecta ensures us that they have many other domains that are not controlled by US authorities or companies. The seizure of Rojadirecta shows that commercial interests are high on the agenda of the US Government. Seizing a domain that has been specifically declared to operate legally in other countries does not appear to be an obstacle. In this light, one has to wonder if generic domain names should be controlled exclusively by US companies. |
| 670 Alleged File-Sharers Off The Hook As BitTorrent Case Dismissed Posted: 01 Feb 2011 03:43 AM PST Check out TorrentFreak's new News Bits feed! .
As revealed in our earlier article, the complaint stated that Mick Haig owns the copyright to the movie, but it was never officially registered with the Copyright Office. But as we will read, there were bigger, more terminal problems in store. The court appointed counsel for the Does, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Citizen, had argued that Mick Haig had wrongly sued hundreds of people in one case, in the wrong jurisdiction and were therefore not entitled to send subpoenas for the Does’ personal details. In the face of this criticism, last week Mick Haig and Evan Stone dropped their case, but not without some extremely harsh words for the EFF, PC and the Court. “Rather than choosing competent local counsel experienced in intellectual property law, the Court appointed a trio of attorneys renowned for defending internet piracy and renowned for their general disregard for intellectual property law,” Mike Haig said in their notice of dismissal. Going on to complain about various processes, Mick Haig concludes: “Now, four months after the initial filing of this case, with little chance of discovery in sight, Plaintiff feels it has lost any meaningful opportunity to pursue justice in this matter. As such, Plaintiff has notified all relevant internet service providers that this case is being dismissed and hereby notifies the Court of the same.” In a statement the EFF noted that copyright holders have the right to protect their works, but not if they use unfair tactics. “When adult film companies launch these cases, there is the added pressure of embarrassment associated with pornography, which can convince those ensnared in the suits to quickly pay what’s demanded of them, whether or not they have legitimate defenses. That’s why it’s so important to make sure the process is fair,” said EFF Intellectual Property Director Corynne McSherry. “This dismissal is wonderful news for the 670 anonymous defendants in this case, but troubling questions remain about the behavior of Mick Haig Productions,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman. “Given the extremely invasive power of subpoenas, plaintiffs have a duty to ensure that subpoenas are not misused. EFF is committed to ensuring that litigants are held accountable for taking shortcuts around the due process rights of their opponents, especially in cases such as this one where the very act of obtaining someone’s identity could be improperly leveraged into pressure to settle a claim.” Since the case was dismissed with prejudice, the Mick Haig cannot file cases against any of the 670 Does in this matter in the future, even in the correct jurisdiction. |
| TV Channel Uses ‘Torrentz’ Name To Beat Piracy Posted: 31 Jan 2011 01:06 PM PST Check out TorrentFreak's new News Bits feed! .
‘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. |
| P2P Site Operator Appears in French File-Sharing “Show Trial” Posted: 31 Jan 2011 08:01 AM PST Check out TorrentFreak's new News Bits feed! . 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 TorrentFreak 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. Update: According to Guillaume, the trial has been postponed. “The defense lawyers have shown flaws in the order of reference, and the court agreed that the case had to go back to the investigation judge. When the flaws are fixed, a new date for the trial will be decided. It should take months, if not years.” |
Rojadirecta is known as one of the world's major Internet sports broadcast indexes. The site links to broadcasts of many popular soccer matches plus other sporting events including NBA, MLB, NFL, NPB, IPL.
On 21st September 2010, a mass lawsuit was filed at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. The suit, which was filed by lawyer Evan Stone on behalf of Mick Haig Productions, targeted 670 BitTorrent users who allegedly shared an obscure adult movie titled Der Gute Onkel.
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