Keeping advertising off pirate sites has become one of the key goals of entertainment industry and anti-piracy groups.

The theory is that if brands can be encouraged not to place their ads alongside infringing content, pirate sites will be starved of much-needed revenue.

To achieve this goal, various coalitions have created their own pirate site ‘blacklists’ so that known pirate players can be screened out as potential advertising partners.

WIPO ALERT Database

Initially named BRIP (Building Respect for Intellectual Property), the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) now operates a system known as WIPO ALERT. Founded in 2017 and with early contributions from Italian telecom regulator AGCOM and KCOPA, the Korea Copyright Protection Agency, WIPO ALERT aims to collate national advertising blacklists into one big database.

Last week we reported that Russia had thrown its weight behind the project, signing a memorandum of understanding to add its own database of infringing domains to the WIPO ALERT database.

Japan and Ukraine Announce Support For WIPO ALERT

Japan-based anti-piracy group CODA has now revealed that on September 23, 2020, it too signed an agreement with WIPO, joining Italy, South Korea, Brazil, Spain, and Russia in the program. The difference in CODA’s case, however, is that while the other countries’ databases are run by governments, the Japanese anti-piracy group is the first contributor from the private sector.

At the same time as announcing its membership, CODA revealed that Ukraine had also signed an agreement to integrate its advertising blacklists into the WIPO system. The country’s ‘Clear Sky’ anti-piracy initiative confirmed the news, noting that the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture had signed a memorandum of understanding with WIPO.

“Today there are more than 1,500 such [infringing] resources on our list. We are delighted that WIPO has initiated a similar project at the international level,” said Vyacheslav Mienko, head of the ‘Clear Sky’ initiative.

“Ukraine, represented by the Ministry of Economy, joined the project, and this gives us the opportunity to declare our resources to the WIPO list, containing claims from Ukrainian rightholders. We are confident that the international status of such a list will create additional motivation for the advertising market to control the placement of advertising.”

Surprise Transparency From Ukraine With Predictable Results

As we mentioned last week, there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with advertisers wanting to keep their ads off piracy portals. That being said, with no country prepared to publish its blacklists in public, it’s impossible to examine those lists for errors, blunders, or questionable entries. Surprisingly, Ukraine changes all that.

Via its Blacklists.org.ua website, Ukraine helpfully provides a Google spreadsheet of all its blacklisted sites, i.e platforms rightsholders feel shouldn’t carry advertising from responsible companies so should be boycotted.

In the main, Ukraine’s list is a fairly uncontroversial read, with various rightsholders complaining about hundreds of known torrent and streaming portals that are clearly engaged in mass distribution of unlicensed content. However, when taking a really close look, there are sites on the list that will raise eyebrows.

Twitch.tv Set to Be Blacklisted by the WIPO ALERT System?

At the time of writing there are around 1,300 alleged ‘pirate’ sites in the list but as the screenshot below reveals, not all is well.

At position 1098 we can clearly see Amazon-owned Twitch.tv, a platform offering video game live streaming, broadcasts of Esports competitions, and sundry other streams.

While Twitch isn’t immune to copyright-infringements carried out by a minority of its users, in this database it’s clearly labeled as a problematic platform that shouldn’t be advertised on. The site’s responsiveness to DMCA takedown notices seems to been pushed aside.

The text in blue is a reference to the entity that reported Twitch to the blacklist, in this case the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association . Quite why this anti-piracy group has an issue with Twitch is unclear but given the fact that the list is about to be ported over to the WIPO to advise rightsholders internationally, Amazon might have a problem on its hands.

US-based Streaming Platform Veoh.com Also Blacklisted

Further down the list is another interesting entry, US-based streaming platform Veoh. The site was placed there following complaints from anti-piracy company 1+1Media but exactly why remains a mystery. Veoh has a strict copyright policy that not only removes infringing content but also terminates repeat infringers.

As a major contributor to the Ukrainian blacklist, which will soon form part of WIPO ALERT, no reasons are given for any of the hundreds of platforms 1+1Media has recommended for an advertising boycott. However, if people do have any complaints, they must direct their issues to the anti-piracy company contributors themselves. Clear Sky says that listings are not their responsibility.

Finally, there are a significant number of sites submitted to the blacklist by Getty Images. After checking a few at random it appears most are news sites which presumably used Getty’s photographs without permission. While that’s still infringement, these are certainly not pirate sites in the traditional sense.

That raises the question of where the red lines are drawn and whether any sites, not just obvious ‘pirate’ platforms, are at risk of being placed on these lists at the whim of an anti-piracy company or copyright holder.

Exactly Why Transparency is Needed

As mentioned earlier, Ukraine is the only country thus far to make its blacklist public and for that, it should be commended. While there some questionable entries, including very significant ones, it is this kind of transparency that will contribute to making more accurate lists that achieve their stated goals.

Whether WIPO will go down the same route with a published list of its own is unclear but if there’s a chance that blunders like the inclusion of Twitch and Veoh will get noticed, it should be worth considering. The alternative could be a mysterious fall in ad revenue for platforms that have absolutely no idea what is going on, despite complying with all relevant laws.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

During the summer of 2016, Polish law enforcement officers arrested Artem Vaulin, the alleged founder of KickassTorrents .

The then 30-year-old Ukrainian was apprehended at a local airport. He was later taken into custody and around the same time the infamous torrent site went dark.

Criminal Prosecution of KickassTorrents

The arrest was part of a U.S. criminal case which also listed two other men as key players . At the time, KickassTorrents (KAT) was the most-used torrent site around, so the authorities couldn’t have hit a more prominent target.

The criminal case meant the end of the torrent site, but also the start of a slowly progressing legal battle for the defendants. After being held in a Polish prison cell for nearly ten months, Vaulin was released on bail in 2017.

He soon moved to a rented apartment in Warsaw where he enjoyed relative freedom and, most importantly, the company of his wife and son. Meanwhile, the extradition proceedings continued.

Four years on, the case remains pending without any significant progress. There was an early court decision which held that the alleged KAT operator can be extradited , but that decision had yet to be confirmed. Based on new developments, it’s unclear whether that final decision will ever come.

Alleged KAT Founder Skips Bail

According to new information received by TorrentFreak, Vaulin is no longer in Poland. This was confirmed by United States Attorney John R. Lausch Jr., who just informed the federal court in Illinois that their suspect is ‘missing.’

“According to information recently received from the Polish Ministry of Justice, defendant Artem Vaulin has left Poland in violation of his release conditions, and his current whereabouts are unknown,” Lausch writes in a brief status update.

The release was not without conditions. Vaulin was not allowed to leave the country, for example, and was under police supervision. However, according to the authorities, these conditions were violated recently and the $108,000 bail was forfeited.

“According to the Polish Ministry of Justice, however, Vaulin has left the country and his bail was forfeited by the District Court in Warsaw on August 26, 2020. As such, extradition proceedings in Poland are no longer continuing,” the US Attorney adds.

Vaulin’s Legal Team Withdraws

We reached out to Val Gurvits of Boston Law Group, one of the attorneys who represented Vaulin in the US case. Gurvits said that he was just informed of these new developments by the US Government. His team hasn’t heard from Vaulin.

“We are not in touch with Mr. Vaulin and we will be withdrawing from the case,” Gurvits tells us.

It’s not clear why Vaulin left Poland or where he is now. However, based on this new information, it is not unlikely that the criminal prosecution in the US may never start. Without defendants, it can’t continue.

In addition to Vaulin, the US Government also indicted two other Ukrainian men in the KickassTorrents conspiracy. These defendants, Oleksandr Radostin and Ievgen Kutsenko, remain at large after four years.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

In June 2017, an unprecedented number of global content creators and distribution platforms announced the formation of a brand new coalition to collaboratively fight Internet piracy on a global scale.

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) initially brought together 30 companies to form a who’s who of the global entertainment market. With Amazon, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. leading the charge, the aim was to pool resources to combat the rise of illegal streaming services and other unlicensed content providers.

Since then the coalition has slowly expanded, adding various entertainment companies to what has become the world leader in content protection enforcement. A few hours ago, ACE welcomed the most important addition to the coalition since its founding more than three years ago.

AppleTV+ Joins ACE

Needing little introduction, AppleTV+ is the subscription streaming service operated by tech giant Apple Inc. Having launched in November 2019, AppleTV+ didn’t exist when ACE was formed but its addition to the global anti-piracy initiative cannot be understated.

Since 2016, Apple has been producing and distributing its own original content and by late 2019, its spend was believed to have reached more than $6 billion. While production is currently on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple will be keen to protect its works moving forward and given ACE’s experience and momentum, there’s arguably no better partner available today.

“The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE), the world’s leading coalition dedicated to protecting the dynamic legal market for creative content, today announced that Apple TV+ is its newest member and will join its governing board,” ACE said, officially welcoming AppleTV+ to the fold.

“The addition of Apple’s streaming service further strengthens ACE’s collective approach to disrupting a piracy ecosystem that harms creators.”

Not Just a Regular Member of ACE

Over the past two years, ACE has added several new members including Discovery, the UK’s Channel 5, Viacom-owned Telefe and even ISP Comcast . However, none of these companies will enjoy the power apparently being granted to AppleTV+.

The key term in the ACE announcement is that Apple’s VOD platform will join the ACE governing body. This group was initially limited to the founders of ACE – Netflix, Inc., Amazon Studios LLC, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc., Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Universal City Studios LLC, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures – so AppleTV+ is the first company to sit at the top of ACE having not been there at the start.

With this new standing, AppleTV+ will have considerable power within the coalition. Not long after ACE was founded, a confidential source shared an internal ACE document with TorrentFreak. It revealed how ACE was set to operate, including the power thresholds of various members and how much they would have to contribute to the operation.

At the time, governing body members were required to contribute $5m each annually, unless they were already a member of the MPAA (now MPA). This effectively meant that only Amazon and Netflix paid the full amount of $5m per year each but given that Netflix is now an MPA member, that position may well have changed. Nevertheless, being at the top of ACE brings certain privileges.

Governing Body Powers

With reference to the ACE founding document seen by TF, ACE governing members were set to meet at least four times every year, with each company nominating a senior executive as a representative at meetings chaired by the MPA’s General Counsel.

Importantly, the governing members (which now include AppleTV+) set the direction of ACE and are granted full voting rights on ACE business. This includes the approval of initiatives and public policy, anti-piracy strategy, budget-related matters, plus final approval of legal action.

On top, governing members have the power to vote for new members to join the coalition or expel those that are no longer needed.

AppleTV+ Could Be the Last Governing Member of ACE

Referring again to the ACE founding documents, the original plan was for the coalition to never have more than nine governing body members. With the appointment of AppleTV+, that limit has now been reached.

In a rapidly moving market, it’s certainly possible that will change in time, but given that even one persistent objection by a governing member is enough to stop any matter from being approved, adding even more new members to the governing body opens up the possibility of deadlock.

The Ascent of AppleTV+ Only Brings Benefits

As a content creator itself, Apple will be happy to utilize the anti-piracy resources available at ACE. Equally, having AppleTV+ on board will boost the strength of ACE itself and it will certainly welcome the considerable financial contributions from the company.

Whether those contributions will be used to boost overall resources or reduce the financial contributions made by other members will remain a closely-guarded secret. But whatever the outcome, it’s safe to say that ACE isn’t going anywhere – much to the disappointment of pirates everywhere.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Last week, the US Department of Justice indicted three alleged members of Team-Xecuter .

The group, whose modchips and software solutions help to facilitate game piracy, has long been a thorn in the side of Nintendo.

The authorities didn’t mention any involvement from the Japanese gaming giant in its investigation. However, considering the close eye that it kept on Team-Xecuter, the company was likely consulted down the line.

Nintendo Sued Switch Hack Stores

The timing of the criminal prosecution is interesting as well. It follows legal action in which Nintendo worked to shut down ROM sites and stores that sell Team-Xecuter products. In fact, one of the stores that Nintendo has an ongoing case against, Axiogame.com, is believed to be operated by Team-Xecuter.

Axiogame.com is one of the stores Nintendo sued in May . That case, which lists nine defendants in total, was filed against “John Does” as the operators are unknown. After filing the lawsuit Nintendo did its best to identify those running it, but without success.

Axiogame = Team-Xecuter?

The US Government appears to know more. Although all claims have yet to be proven, the Team-Xecuter indictment links Axiogame.com to game piracy conspiracy.

“The enterprise also sold its circumvention devices directly to individual consumers through its own online platforms. For example, LOUARN and CHEN sold modchips through an online marketplace called axiogame.com. This website sold modchips developed by the enterprise in addition to a variety of gaming accessories,” it reads.

After the criminal prosecution was announced Axiogame.com and Maxconsole.com, a review site also believed to be operated by Team-Xecuter, remained online. However, that changed yesterday and, at the time of writing, both can’t be reached.

Court Grants Injunction Against Switch Hack Stores

Nintendo has booked a victory of its own against Axiogame and the other online stores after a Washington federal court granted its request for a default judgment and permanent injunction.

The permanent injunction requires the store operators to stop any infringing activity, destroy any infringing products, and hand over their domain names. The injunction also applies to third-party services, including hosting companies and domain registrars and registries, who can be compelled to shut the sites down as well.

The injunction covers the sites Anxchip.com, Axiogame.com, Flashcarda.com, Mod3dscard.com, Nxcard.com, SXflashcard.com, TXswitch.com, Usachipss.com, Lowbr.com, Masterpl.com, Brujoon.com, Agresu.com, as well as any successors that may appear.

Axiogame.com’s downtime doesn’t appear to be a direct result of the injunction, as the site was already offline before it was issued. It seems more likely that it’s related to the criminal prosecution.

It will be interesting to see whether Nintendo will act on the information that was made public through the indictment. Now that it knows who’s allegedly behind Axiogame.com, it can replace the “John Doe” defendant with actual names.

—

A copy of the default judgment and injunction obtained by Nintendo against the various stores is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Team-Xecuter is widely known for creating ‘hacks’ that bypass digital restrictions on Nintendo consoles.

The group has been chased by Nintendo for years, but today, their operation has become the center of a criminal case prosecuted by the US Government.

The US Department of Justice just announced that two members of Team-Xecuter were arrested recently. Max Louarn, a 48-year-old French national, and the 51-year-old Gary Bowser from Canada are in custody and charged in a criminal conspiracy. The indictments also name a third defendant, a Chinese man named Yuanning Chen (35), who remains at large.

The three indicted members are just a minority of the total group. According to the US authorities, there are more than a dozen Team-Xecuter members scattered around the world. These members help to code and create the Nintendo hacks, but they are also suspected of being involved in the production and sale of these devices.

The indictment portrays Team-Xecuter as a criminal enterprise and notes that its members did their best to evade law enforcement by using a variety of brands, websites, and distribution channels.

“These defendants were allegedly leaders of a notorious international criminal group that reaped illegal profits for years by pirating video game technology of U.S. companies,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.

“These arrests show that the department will hold accountable hackers who seek to commandeer and exploit the intellectual property of American companies for financial gain, no matter where they may be located.”

At the time of writing the official Team-Xecuter website remains online. Various online stores are also still selling the group’s chips, including the latest SX Lite, and the SX Core for the Nintendo Switch.

Team-Xecuter has repeatedly stressed the legal uses of its hacks. Speaking with TorrentFreak, Team-Xecuter defended its work just a few weeks ago

“We are firm believers of the right to repair legislation, a growing movement to counteract the monopolistic control over hardware which is the property of the consumer who paid for it in the first place,” Team-Xecuter said at the time .

According to the Department of Justice and the FBI, this was nothing more than a facade.

“The overwhelming demand and use for the enterprise’s devices was to play pirated videogames. To support this illegal activity, Team Xecuter allegedly helped create and support online libraries of pirated videogames for its customers, and several of the enterprise’s devices came preloaded with numerous pirated videogames.”

The three defendants are charged with 11 felony counts including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Defendant Bowser resided in the Dominican Republic when he was arrested in September and has since been deported to the US. Louarn is in custody in Canada pending a U.S. extradition request, so he can stand trial in the US.

—

This is a breaking story, we may amend this article and will report on the exact details of the charges in future reporting.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Over the past several years, the Premier League has obtained blocking orders from the High Court of England and Wales, which compel ISPs in the UK to block pirate streaming services .

These so-called ‘dynamic injunctions’ are more flexible than their torrent and streaming site counterparts due to their ability to react more quickly, blocking streams as they appear close to and during match times. The idea is to frustrate customers of pirate IPTV services in particular, so that they migrate back to official offerings.

UEFA Begins to Block Pirate IPTV Streams in the UK

Back in 2017, UEFA, the governing body of football in Europe, decided that it too could benefit from this type of legal action. Following in the steps of the Premier League, UEFA obtained a similar High Court injunction that compelled ISPs including BT, Virgin, Sky and TalkTalk to block pirated match streams in the UK. The effort was expanded a year later .

Soon after, the Premier League expanded its blocking efforts to Ireland, obtaining a stream-blocking injunction against several major ISPs including Eircom, Sky, Virgin and Vodafone. This summer the league obtained permission to continue its efforts in Ireland , a path now being followed by UEFA.

UEFA Obtains High Court Order to Begin Blocking in Ireland

After a successful application to the High Court, UEFA has now been granted permission to compel several local ISPs to block access to pirated match streams during the 2020-21 season.

RTE reports that in common with the injunction obtained previously by the Premier League, Eir (Eircom), Sky Ireland Ltd, Sky Subscribers Services Ltd, Virgin Media Ireland Ltd and Vodafone Ireland Ltd are covered by the injunction. This means that they will be required to work with UEFA’s anti-piracy partners to render various IP addresses related to pirate servers inaccessible to their customers, at least during match times.

While the ISPs are now required by law to cooperate in UEFA’s blocking efforts, only Sky came out in support of UEFA’s application. While this should come as no surprise given its position as a broadcaster, companies including Virgin Media have a vested interest in stopping piracy of live games too.

As a result, the remainder of the ISPs did their part by remaining neutral, effectively guaranteeing that the injunction would be handed down, like those before it had too.

Of course, relevant issues were considered by the Court, including that such an injunction is not only necessary but not overly complicated either. Furthermore, costs of implementation must not be excessive while the interests of all affected parties – including those of Internet users – must also be respected.

However, having been down this path several times before, applicants and the courts are now very familiar with the procedure and the various parameters required to have injunctions signed off.

Blocking Injunctions Are a Well-Trodden Path

Despite their relative youth, dynamic blocking injunctions have developed quickly over the past three years but how they work from a technical perspective is a closely-guarded secret. The theory is simple; anti-piracy companies identify the broadcasting servers of pirate IPTV providers and feed these to ISPs so they can be firewalled but the precise parameters remain a closely guarded secret, albeit with some leaks .

These blocking efforts can usually be circumvented when IPTV subscribers deploy a VPN to nullify their ISPs’ blocking measures, something which is now common practice among a growing subset of IPTV subscribers. However, this year there is talk of a new state of play on the ground in respect of the Premier League’s ability to disrupt suppliers.

Precisely what is happening isn’t yet clear to us but there are reports that some IPTV providers are finding the Premier League’s efforts more intrusive than they were previously. The Premier League has already admitted that is has new powers for the coming season so time will tell who will come out on top, once the dust settles.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

When UK citizens move overseas they often report missing out on basic things they take for granted at home. Colman’s mustard, Yorkshire tea, Cadbury’s chocolate, Kelloggs Cornflakes and Marmite all get a mention, but entertainment is often high on the list too.

Brits are known for their love of soaps, including the long-running Eastenders and Coronation Street, for example. Moving abroad often means missing out on these home comforts but for many years ex-pats have found ways to access these shows abroad, with many turning to various IPTV services to get their fix.

UKTVEverywhere – Endorsed by the Rich and Infulential

One of the services established to scratch this particular itch was US-based UKTVEverywhere. The service offered a long list of UK TV channels that on home soil were ordinarily covered by a regular TV license. However, by capturing these signals in the UK and broadcasting them worldwide, the service became popular with viewers overseas, including some notable celebrities.

For example, business tycoon and The Apprentice star Lord Sugar (Alan Sugar) regularly took to Twitter to reveal that he was enjoying the services of UKTVEverywhere while living in the United States. There was no obvious sign that he was getting paid for the endorsements but on more than one occasion the businessman promoted the IPTV platform.

Catching up on Eastenders on http://t.co/rd74p6UO5c .The writers need to put Alfie and Kat back in the vic.The new cast are a total joke.

— Lord Sugar (@Lord_Sugar) January 2, 2014

Similarly flattering comments were also tweeted by outspoken broadcaster and journalist Piers Morgan, who said he was using UKTVEverywhere to watch a UK football show in the United States and highly recommended the service to “all Brits living abroad.”

About to watch #FootballFocus in NY using @Uktveverywhere – amazing device, highly recommend to all Brits living abroad.

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) March 9, 2013

But despite these presumably free plugs from the rich and famous, UKTVEverywhere was running on borrowed time. Many shows broadcast on these channels are owned by divisions of two broadcasters – the BBC and ITV – and it appears they weren’t happy with the IPTV service making money from its programming.

BBC & ITV Channels Disappear: The Beginning of the End

After previously noting that displaying their logos raised trademark issues, several months ago UKTVEverywhere announced that it would stop offering channels from the BBC and ITV. They weren’t the only channels offered by the IPTV provider but given the target audience, that meant that the big soaps and other popular titles such as Doctor Who and Love Island would no longer be available.

Without these, ex-pats were unlikely to favor the service and sure enough, it eventually disappeared leaving subscribers high and dry with reportedly no refunds issued.

As many expected, the demise of the service was linked to legal action by BBC Studios and ITV, a fact now confirmed by a message on the site’s homepage .

“This domain name has been transferred to the BBC and ITV in settlement of their copyright dispute against its former owner,” it reads.

“BBC One, BBC Two, BBC iPlayer, along with ITV and ITV Hub are not lawfully available outside of the UK. It is an infringement of copyright to distribute, publicly perform or reproduce the content on these channels, without the consent of the respective copyright owners, or to induce such infringement.”

A joint statement from the BBC and ITV puts more meat on the bones.

“As producers and distributors of premium content, we have the right and obligation to take action against piracy, in accordance with relevant laws in the territories we operate. Ensuring that our content is viewed legally, equally ensures we will be able to bring our viewers the programs they love and expect,” the companies say.

“BBC Studios and ITV both produce thousands of hours of quality British programming, which in turn gives vital employment to writers, producers, cast and crew. Illegal streaming of this content means a wide range of workers were being deprived of their rightful earnings.”

BritBox: New Domain Owner Standing By To Do Business

A check of domain WHOIS records reveals that the UKTVEverywhere.com domain is now owned by Denipurna Limited, a company associated with the BBC and ITV streaming service BritBox. Having launched in the United States during 2017, BritBox subsequently launched in Canada and then the UK, with an Australian release penned in for 2020.

Given that BritBox offers episodes of national favorites such as EastEnders and Coronation Street within hours of them airing in the UK, it is clear why both the BBC and ITV wanted UKTVEverywhere out of the market, a short-term mission that has now been accomplished.

However, there are dozens of other platforms offering similar services, including many mainstream ‘pirate’ IPTV suppliers, so the job isn’t done yet, not by a long way.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Piracy warnings come in all shapes and sizes. While some notices have no teeth, others should be handled with extreme caution.

Typically, alarm bells should go off when a letter is sent by a lawyer who knows who you are.

One such warning was sent to Mrs. Parks in early June, both by first class mail and e-mail. The Arizona woman is one of the people whose personal details were shared by the torrent site YTS, an issue we addressed in detail earlier.

Exposed by YTS Database Info

This YTS database ended up in the hands of anti-piracy attorney Kerry Culpepper, who’s actively exploiting it. The lawyer represents several movie companies and has used the information in the database to request out of court settlements from pirates.

Mrs. Parks, who allegedly downloaded the film “ Lost Child ,” was given the chance to resolve her case for $1,000 in four separate payments. If the first three payments arrived on time, the final $250 would be waived.

This same tactic is being used on dozens if not hundreds of alleged YTS users. It’s not clear how many people settle, but Mrs. Parks and her husband Mr. Dabney initially seemed willing to take the deal, which was confirmed over the phone and via email on June 8.

Agreement to Settle for $1,000

After this initial agreement, communications stopped for a while. Parks and Dabney never sent back the signed settlement agreement and a reminder on August 31 remained unanswered.

This course of events was written up in a complaint filed at a federal court in Arizona yesterday. The plan was to resolve the matter outside of court, even after the same IP-address shared another movie last week.

“On or about September 21, 2020, after still having received no communication from Defendants, Plaintiffs’ counsel determined that the same IP address Defendants used to download the torrent file for Lost Child (47.216.212.227) was used to download and share copies of the motion picture Saving Christmas,” Culpepper informs the court.

The complaint lists both Mrs. Parks and Mr. Dabney as the defendants. They are accused of using one and the same YTS account and allegedly downloaded the film “Lost Child” last year and “Saving Christmas” a few days ago, after which the attorney sent another settlement request.

“On September 21, 2020, Plaintiffs’ counsel sent Defendant Dabney a demand by email for the full $1000 of the settlement agreement and an additional $750 as damages for infringing the motion picture Saving Christmas,” the complaint reads.

Husband Responds With Tirade

After weeks of silence, Mr. Dabney responded to that request. He was not open to any settlements, however, and accused the lawyer of being “a fraud and a scam,” threatening to take action against the lawyer and his “fake law firm.”

The movie companies’ attorney responded by confirming that he would indeed file a lawsuit, reminding the alleged pirate that he wouldn’t get far in court with such scandalous language. That didn’t change the man’s tone, however, on the contrary.

“Look here. You will NOT get a dime out out [sic] me. You think that language was bad you ain’t seen sh*t fa**ot. That’s not a threat that’s a f*ckin promise. Put that in your records f*ckin bitch ni**a. Dude with a girls [sic] name. Get the f*ck out here and leave me family alone,” he replied.

In a follow-up email, Mr. Dabney further urged the attorney to “…stop looking at [his] IP address…” while accusing him of “…watching [his] 3 year old through the camera…”

Case Goes to Court

Instead of backing off, the attorney quoted these emails in the complaint he filed at the US District Court of Arizona. Representing the owners of the films “Lost Child” and “Saving Christmas,” he accuses the two defendants of both direct and contributory copyright infringement.

In addition, the complaint also includes a “breach of contract” allegation against Mrs. Parks, who allegedly failed to honor the settlement agreement that was agreed on earlier.

In court, the husband and wife now face damages claims that may end up being substantially higher than the original settlement. In addition to the damages claim, the complaint also requests compensation for legal costs and attorneys’ fees.

—

A copy of the complaint, filed on behalf of Santa Files Productions LLC, and Laundry Films Inc is available here (pdf)

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

Soon after the latest blockbuster movies hit cinemas, pirated copies are available for download from the Internet.

It’s a problem that studios have been struggling to mitigate for decades but the practice of granting an exclusive theatrical window leaves a convenient gap for millions of pirates to exploit.

Day-and-Date Movies Delivered to Living Rooms

In an effort to service the market by offering more choice, several companies have publicized plans to bring first-run movies to the small screen, notably Napster co-founder Sean Parker and his company Screening Room . Over in India, local media company Zee Entertainment Enterprises has a similar project of its own almost ready to launch but is now facing legal opposition from the US.

Set to go live on October 2, 2020, premium VOD service Zee Plex is primed to not only provide a legal alternative to day-and-date piracy but also offer a service to millions of customers who are currently unable to visit cinemas due to coronavirus restrictions.

“We are very excited to bring this new offering to all the movie buffs across India and around the globe,” Zee Studios CEO Shariq Patel announced earlier this month.

“While we all love to catch the latest movies at the nearest theatres, we sensed the need for a solution like Zee Plex, which gives the consumers flexibility and convenience, to catch their favorite films in the comfort of their homes, along with friends and family. We have received great interest from producers and are looking forward to release a strong slate of blockbusters across languages.”

The big launch day will feature the new blockbuster movie Ka Pae Ranasingam featuring local superstar actor Vijay Sethupathi but not everyone is pleased by the move.

Plex, Inc. Says Zee Plex is Trading on its Good Name

With roots as a freeware project to port XBMC (now known as Kodi) to Mac OS X in 2007, OSXBMC quickly took a different direction to XBMC and renamed itself Plex. In 2009, Plex, Inc. was founded to carry the Plex project forward commercially and over the next 11 years established itself as one of the most recognizable brands in the media player space.

According to Plex, Inc., Zee Plex operator Zee Entertainment Enterprises is illegally trading off that hard-earned goodwill.

“Plex, the popular global streaming media platform for all your favorite media, today announced it has taken legal action against Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited for trademark infringement,” Plex, Inc. announced last evening.

“In September 2020, Zee announced it was launching a competing video service, titled Zee Plex, in an obvious attempt to trade off of the Plex brand and global goodwill. Available to consumers globally, Plex is taking measures to defend its intellectual property, and specifically, in this case, to protect its trademark and brand.”

Plex is Not Just a Media Player – It’s a Streaming Service Too

Plex is often associated with piracy due to some users utilizing the software to organize pirated media to create their own personal Netflix variants. As a result, it has been slammed as a “dangerous digital player” by content industry lobbyists for not doing enough to police users’ behavior.

However, to dismiss Plex as “just another media player” is only telling half the story.

Last year the company revealed it had been forging deals to offer large libraries of licensed movies to its users and it now looks set to continue moving forward as a legitimate software and content distributor. This brings it face-to-face with various entities looking to trade on the Plex branding.

Trademark Breaches Are Common

Speaking with TorrentFreak just a few months ago, Plex told us that it was in a game of “whack-a-mole” trying to fight back against people using the Plex trademark for nefarious purposes. These breaches take many forms but at least one company had set up a VPN service claiming it was run by Plex, Inc. That software has now disappeared from Google Play but problems clearly still exist.

Plex, Inc. holds live trademarks covering various aspects of its business including ‘Plex’ (“ Downloadable computer software in the field of digital media management for use in playing, organizing, indexing, searching, and transcoding digital video, audio and images” .

Others that are “published for opposition” include Plex as “ Downloadable computer software for use in streaming via the internet of ad-supported video on demand, subscription video on demand, transaction video on demand, music and podcasts and transmission of ad-supported video on demand, subscription video on demand, transaction video on demand, music and podcasts .”

Plex, Inc. says its lawsuit alleging trademark infringement has been filed with the High Court of India and papers have been served on Zee Entertainment Enterprises via email. The matter should come up for hearing the coming days, Plex concludes.

From: TF , for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.