loveislife: TorrentFreak Email Update

Thursday, June 23, 2011

TorrentFreak Email Update

MPAA, RIAA, Major ISPs Preparing ‘Graduated Response’ To Piracy

Posted: 23 Jun 2011 12:40 AM PDT

As the Department of Homeland Security and ICE continue to seize the domain names of any site they believe to be engaged in infringement, wherever they may be, local approaches to illicit file-sharing are developing all over the world.

The mechanism preferred by the big recording and movie studios is the so-called ‘graduated response’ scheme, whereby Internet users are subjected to ever increasing punishments for their infringing behaviors.

Now, having faced resistance for so long, it seems that the MPAA and RIAA will get their way in the United States.

According to CNET, some of the country’s largest ISPs including AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon are close to striking a deal with Hollywood and Big Music to put in a framework of measures to progressively punish errant subscribers.

Although a final agreement is yet to be signed, plans are said to be “on track” and could be officially unveiled next month. The deal is believed to be structured as follows:

- Rightsholders track infringing Internet users and send notices to ISPs
- ISPs used this data to send warnings, called “Copyright Alerts”, to subscribers
- If subscribers fail to improve their behavior, further warnings will be issued

Eventually though, ISPs have agreed to get tough with customers who don’t heed warnings.

Sources quoted by CNET say that ISPs will be a given flexibility to select from a “menu” of sanctions, including throttling a subscriber’s connection through to limiting web browsing. One scenario would see the web almost completely removed, with access granted only to the top 200 websites. Other more gentle measures include copyright-awareness programs.

However, unlike the legislative changes already implemented in the UK, the range of sanctions in the US will not include the dreaded “3rd strike”, i.e complete termination of the subscriber’s account. Currently there is no mention of temporary suspensions either; they could prove a deal-breaker in this sensitive environment.

The agreements between the MPAA, RIAA and ISPs in the United States will be completely voluntary. The ISPs will insist that they are completely within their rights to amend their Terms of Service to accommodate such an agreement and will almost certainly do so quickly.

In March, during the House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet, it became increasingly clear that the US government would be backing voluntary agreements to deal with the subscriber end of infringement, rather than the legislative change approach favored for dealing with file-sharing and streaming websites.

“Voluntary cooperative solutions are a priority focus and we believe that, in combination with law enforcement action, voluntary actions by the private sector have the potential to dramatically reduce online infringement and change the enforcement paradigm,” said U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel.

“We will continue to push forward to encourage voluntary cooperative actions on multiple fronts. Our ultimate goal is to reduce infringement online so we will continue to assess our approach to ensure that it is as effective as possible.”

The costs of the ‘graduated response’ will be shared between the entertainment industries and ISPs, meaning that regular Internet subscribers will, as always, pick up the enforcement tab.

Source: MPAA, RIAA, Major ISPs Preparing ‘Graduated Response’ To Piracy

File-Hoster Returns With Guns Blazing After Police Raids

Posted: 22 Jun 2011 02:09 PM PDT

On June 11th Europe witnessed one of the largest piracy-related busts in history. The popular movie streaming portal Kino.to was shut down and more than a dozen people connected to the site were arrested. As the result of collateral damage, several file-hosting services connected to Kino.to also went down.

One of the file-hosting sites that suffered due to the raids was Duckload.com. The cyberlocker site lost 400 servers, worth more than 2 million dollars in total. In addition, the police also went after one of the admins of Duckload.com for his involvement in the site. However, despite being struck hard the site is not planning to quit their business anytime soon.

Instead of lying low, the people behind the site quickly redirected the Duckload.com domain to Video2k.tv, a site that is probably an even bigger threat to the entertainment industry. While Duckload was merely a file-hosting service, the new project is a complete video streaming portal, without ads and free of charge.

“We want to take revenge on the content industry and create the biggest streaming site worldwide. Bigger than any other site has ever been,” one of the admins responsible for the project told TorrentFreak. “We want to provide free movie and TV streams for everyone, everywhere.”

Looking at the traffic the site is on the right path to make this goal a reality. Just a few days after the site went live there are already close to 2 million page views a day, and this number is increasing rapidly. Many users come from German speaking countries, as the site is a direct replacement for the raided Kino.to, but the goal is to conquer the rest of the world as well, TorrentFreak was told.

Looking at the site’s features, it’s no surprise that many people are flocking to the site.

Video2k.tv features the latest movies and TV-shows, all of which can be streamed instantly. The site further offers subtitles and allows users to sort results based on IMDb rating, genre and much more. Combined with a completely ad-free layout, the site will no doubt appeal to a large audience.

This popularity comes at a cost though. The site will not go unnoticed to the various anti-piracy outfits either, which will make it a likely target of future actions by the authorities. However, talking to TorrentFreak, the Video2k.tv admin said that they are more than prepared.

“We have servers in three different locations around the world for now, and the goal is to add two more in the near future. If one place is raided we will switch to a new one,” he said, adding that they also have some 50 domain names in case the current one becomes the target of a seizure.

Without a doubt, Video2k.tv’s determination will be used by the entertainment industry to call for more tools to combat piracy, such as the PROTECT IP Act. Where that will lead and how it will effect the Internet is something that will undoubtedly become clear in the months to come.

Note: At the time of publishing Video2k.tv is dealing with a DDoS attack, causing the site to load slow or not at all.

Thanks Gulli!

Source: File-Hoster Returns With Guns Blazing After Police Raids