Internet infrastructure company Cloudflare provides a range of connectivity and security services to millions of customers around the globe.

In addition to Fortune 500 companies and governments across various continents, the American company also provides its services to pirate sites.

In recent years, rightsholders have urged Cloudflare to take a more proactive stance against piracy. Their primary concern is that Cloudflare ‘hides’ the true hosting location of pirate sites, making enforcement actions more cumbersome.

Cloudflare takes a neutral stance, but it does cooperate in certain circumstances. The company has a process in place to disclose hosting information with eligible rightsholders, for example, and will also share details of allegedly pirating customers in response to DMCA subpoenas.

As far as we know, Cloudflare has not terminated any customers solely based on copyright holder complaints. This frustrated Italian broadcaster RTI up to the point where it decided to go to court.

RTI Sued Cloudflare over Pirate Site

April this year, RTI filed a complaint at the Court of Rome in an attempt to compel Cloudflare to take action against ‘Guardaserie’, a site that offers access to pirated TV streams. Guardaserie is already blocked by Italian ISPs, but it continues to operate and repeatedly switches to new domains to evade blocking actions.

Through the court, RTI wants Cloudflare to cease providing its services to Guardaserie and block all associated domain names. In addition, the broadcaster wants Cloudflare to reveal all information it holds that could help to identify the operator or operators.

RTI informed the court that Cloudflare took no action in response to a cease and desist letter it sent earlier this year. According to the broadcaster, it is nonetheless undisputed that Guardaserie offers pirated content, which was backed up by an external report by the company SP Tech.

Cloudflare did not appear in court or present a defense against the allegations, but that didn’t stop the court from taking the matter forward.

Court Deems Cloudflare Liable

After reviewing the evidence, the Court of Rome agreed that the targeted website infringes Italian copyright law and that Cloudflare can be held liable due to its failure to respond to complaints.

According to the Court, Cloudflare’s inaction makes it harder for rightsholders to identify and block pirate sites.

“With respect to those infringements, it appears prima facie that the company Cloudflare inc. is a responsible intermediary pursuant to Article 156 of the Italian Copyright Law,” the decision reads.

“It provided services aimed at preventing the identification of the portals and the location of the servers of their owners, as well as technical support services to the portals, without taking any action to end those activities despite the cease and desist letter sent to it by the counterparty.”

Court: Disconnect, Block, and Identify Guardaserie

The Court of Rome ruled in favor of RTI and ordered Cloudflare to immediately cease providing services to Guardaserie. It further required Cloudflare to disclose any identifying account information connected to the operators of the infringing domains.

Guardaserie is a Cloudflare customer so, technically, domains should become unavailable through its services when the associated account is terminated. However, the court additionally orders Cloudflare to ‘block’ Guardaserie domain names.

And it doesn’t stop there.

The domain blocking order applies to all existing domain names, but also to domains that are registered in the future to bypass blocking measures. When RTI reports future domains to Cloudflare, these should be blocked as well.

“[The court] orders the blocking of said domain names that associate a different top-level domain with the same second level domain, burdening Cloudflare Inc. with notification to RTI of any additional names activated by Cloudflare accounts,” the order reads.

Cloudflare’s Stance

The Court of Rome’s order was issued late May but, as far as we know, hasn’t been publicly discussed until today. Cloudflare hasn’t mentioned it so far, and the company didn’t immediately respond to our request for comment.

At the time of writing, it appears that guardaserie.biz is still using Cloudflare’s nameservers that currently redirect to guardaserie.school. This new domain also uses Cloudflare nameservers.

Guardaserie.school leads to a partly broken website with missing content and a malware warning from Google, so the operators may have moved on by now. There are other domains using the Guardaserie brand that are still functional.

It’s possible that Cloudflare appealed the preliminary order, which could explain the apparent inaction, but we have no information to confirm that.

The Court of Rome’s order includes a penalty clause of €1,000 per day if Cloudflare doesn’t comply, so ignoring the order without proper cause could potentially come at a cost.

This is not the first time Cloudflare has faced legal action in Italy. The company was previously ordered to block pirate site domains though its 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver . It complied with this order by implementing a geo-block that only affects Italian users. An Italian court also ordered Cloudflare to terminate accounts of pirate customers in the past.

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A copy of the Court of Rome’s order against Cloudflare is available here (pdf)

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

TorrentGalaxy has had its fair share of issues over the past few months.

In June, many users feared that the site had thrown in the towel, displaying only a cryptic message that read “4ever?” to visitors. This came as a surprise, even to the site’s top staffers, who had no clue what was going on.

The site eventually returned as if nothing ever happened and resumed its operations. The purpose of the downtime was never clarified and most people forgot about it until the site went offline again in September with another cryptic message.

With the rumor mill in full swing, claims from ‘moderators’ about the site’s demise started to circulate. However, those turned out to be unfounded as the site made yet another comeback after a few days .

Meanwhile, users began noticing occasional technical issues with the site, including periods of downtime such as today. Visitors to the site currently see the following message: (site’s back on October 18)

“Site is temporarily unavailable due to automated maintenance or some mook spilling coffee in the wrong places.”

These recurring issues are unusual for TorrentGalaxy which never suffered from long stints of downtime in previous years. So, why is this happening now?

‘New Owners’

After speaking to several sources, we can now offer some broader context. Apparently, the site has changed owners recently. The initial ‘maintenance’ was presumably part of this handover and could also play a role in other recent issues.

TorrentFreak spoke to one of the TorrentGalaxy’s original founders, who confirmed the change of ownership. We tried to get in touch with the new operators to hear their side of the story, but they haven’t replied.

Takeovers of pirate sites are not uncommon, but given TorrentGalaxy’s community-driven history, this is a noteworthy event.

Finding out more details about the takeover appears impossible, however. The co-founder we spoke to claims not to have been involved in selling the site and the person who was in charge of the sale can’t be reached.

How it All Began

While we don’t know where the site is heading under its new owners, the co-founder did provide some more background on how TorrentGalaxy got started. That, by itself, is a story worth sharing.

The co-founder prefers to remain anonymous, so here we refer to them using the fictitious nickname “Genesis”. For the record, what follows is the account of one person and should be interpreted as such.

The origin story takes us back to late 2017, when ExtraTorrent had just shut down . At the time, Genesis came up with the idea to start a new torrent site. A developer was approached to code it from scratch, but the end result wasn’t satisfactory, so that initial project stranded.

During this time, many former ExtraTorrent members stayed connected, often using the chatbox of another popular torrent site, 1337x. When Genesis shared their plans for a new torrent site there, “Cameron” (another pseudonym), also a former ExtraTorrent user, offered assistance.

Both founders brought something essential to the table. Cameron had plenty of coding experience and took care of all the technical aspects. Meanwhile, Genesis helped out with the finances until the site could sustain itself though advertisements.

Within months, an idea born in a chatbox became TorrentGalaxy, which quickly built a thriving community. In just a few years, ‘TGx’ grew into one of the largest torrent sites, serving millions of visitors each month.

It was already public knowledge that former ExtraTorrent members founded the site, but this backstory adds some more color. What began as a simple chatbox conversation, triggered a transformation worthy of ‘ notorious pirate site status ‘, and the associated legal pressure that comes with it.

The reason for the site’s sale remains unknown. We understand that Genesis and Cameron are no longer in contact. Perhaps they prefer to leave the past behind, regardless of TorrentGalaxy’s future.

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

As the financial stakes increase and rightsholders become increasingly desperate to suppress piracy, the nature of information delivered to the media demands scrutiny like never before.

Almost all major announcements are geared to elicit a prescribed response, as part of an overall strategy to shape public opinion while delivering on various policy goals.

Claims in Italy, that the Piracy Shield system would virtually eliminate piracy, might’ve just been misplaced optimism. Perhaps claims of error-free operation can be dismissed in much the same way, along with assurances that companies like Cloudflare would be compelled to link to the Piracy Shield system, but legally could not .

Deterrent Messaging and the Pirate Subscriber

To this background and what appears to be plentiful supply of pirate IPTV services still operating in the Italian market, consumers are under the spotlight. People who subscribe to pirate IPTV services are being warned that every use of pirated content contributes to a trail of evidence that leads right to their door and ends in significant fines.

Despite the introduction of new law in August 2023, complete with a new system of fines for consumers of pirated live streams, it appears that no fines of up to 5,000 euros have actually been issued since then.

What effect that may have had on deterrence is hard to quantify but in March 2024, the public received reminders that fines were on the way, even for those who downloaded apps from legal marketplaces operated by Google, Apple, and Amazon.

AGCOM said that an agreement had been reached between the regulator, Italy’s financial police (Guardia di Finanza) and the Prosecutor’s Office in Rome, to facilitate the identification of users. While that turned out to be somewhat premature since nothing had actually been signed, fining pirates is now reportedly close to reality.

Memorandum of Understanding

The “collaboration protocol” between the Prosecutor’s Office, the Guardia di Finanza, and AGCOM, smooths the way for the exchange of information relating to individuals suspected of obtaining subscription-based live sports streams (for now, mostly football) from illegal sources.

“This is a fundamental step in the fight against piracy,” commented Luigi De Siervo, CEO of Italy’s top football league, Serie A, during a YouTube broadcast this week.

“Finally, thanks to the protocol signed by AGCOM with the Guardia di Finanza and the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, the identification data of the users of the pezzotto [illegal streaming devices] will be made available to the judicial authorities.”

The nature of that data, where and how it was obtained, and how it meshes together to prove that an individual consumed an illegal IPTV stream (or purchased a subscription), is currently unknown. Nevertheless, the prospects of almost limitless success are not being undersold; the messaging suggests that resistance is futile and automatic fines are on the way.

“Every illegal use of video content leaves an indelible digital Ariadne’s thread that will allow law enforcement to prosecute pirates who will automatically be fined up to 5,000 euros. No one can think of continuing to steal content illegally and get away with it,” De Siervo said.

Suggestions that highly advanced systems and new techniques are being used to track IPTV subscribers are certainly interesting, but more mundane methods can be just as effective.

All Things Are Possible But Low-Hanging Fruit Works Too

Even when restrained by limited funding, red tape, and a thousand other types of crimes to investigate, tracking down enough pirate IPTV subscribers to demonstrate a crackdown would be straightforward for law enforcement. Put bluntly, there’s a subset of pirate IPTV subscribers that are completely oblivious or dismissive of the risks.

A database of IPTV subscribers seen by TorrentFreak a few years ago, obtained by the authorities as part of a company investigation, revealed a surprising number of subscribers who opened accounts using their real names, home addresses and telephone numbers. Some of those who used apparently fictitious names, went on to settle their invoices with PayPal accounts registered in their own names at their home addresses.

Based on the assumption that law enforcement resources are limited, and all subscribers have the same basic value, prosecuting those who make the task easy makes complete sense. Given the number of services shut down in Italy in recent years, examples like the above should be in plentiful supply. Even if the authorities wanted to prosecute offenses committed in the past year, that would be very straightforward too.

After targeting a reseller with lacking security, police often gain access to the reseller’s panel and by extension, a subscriber list.

In theory, any customer is a potential target but eliminating any one-off or accidental purchases can be easily achieved by focusing on regular customers who subscribe month after month. Depending on the level of proof required for prosecution, something to show a subscribers’ intent might come in handy as additional evidence.

The chances of at least some subscribers providing their real names are pretty high, so finding corresponding social media accounts should be very easy indeed. In the event that subscribers use those accounts to chat about IPTV piracy or even buy subscriptions as members of an IPTV service’s group, Minority Report-style investigations are unlikely to prove necessary.

That being said, there has been no indication of the scale of prosecutions the authorities have in mind so more significant action can’t yet be ruled out. Even then, the authorities can’t prosecute everyone, but for the desired deterrent effect, they don’t actually need to.

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

For years, Fmovies presented a major threat to Hollywood, one that seemed near impossible to defeat.

The site’s operators were linked to dozens of popular pirate sites, generating billions of visits annually.

While MPA’s anti-piracy flagship ACE tied the operation to Vietnam early on, effectively shutting it down took years. In addition to gathering intelligence, Hollywood’s diplomatic powers were required to force a breakthrough.

This summer, these efforts paid off handsomely. After the main Fmovies site fell apart in July , related streaming portals including Bflix, Aniwave, and Zorox fell like dominoes in the weeks after.

Taking Down The Mothership

The combined traffic of these platforms arguably makes the takedown operation the largest of its kind, ever. So, understandably, MPA and ACE took credit for helping the Vietnamese authorities achieve this feat.

MPA CEO Charles Rivkin, for example, noted that anti-piracy efforts are bigger and bolder than before, equating Fmovies to the piracy “mothership”.

“We took down the mothership here,” Rivkin told Variety last month. “There was a time when piracy was Whac-a-Mole… Today, we go after piracy at its root,” he said at the time.

Rivkin didn’t exaggerate the size or impact of the takedown. The Fmovies wreckage included dozens of high-profile streaming portals including Vidsrc.to, a popular video hosting platform used by many third-party sites.

“Vidsrc.to, a notorious video hosting provider operated by the same suspects was also taken down, impacting hundreds of additional dedicated piracy sites,” ACE reported last month.

Pirate Empire Strikes Back?

MPA and ACE were rightfully proud of their accomplishments but when dealing with pirates, new threats can emerge out of the blue. That’s precisely what’s happening this week, as Vidsrc.to has made a surprise comeback.

While the video hosting site looks the same as before, there are no obvious signs that the Fmovies team is behind it. Instead, the videos appear to be sourced from an unrelated competitor, Vidsrc.me.

Apparently, these new people managed to get their hands on this valuable domain name, using it to further the interests of another fleet of pirate streaming sites. And more domains may follow the same path.

Vidsrc.to Auctioned Off

Traditionally, when the MPA and ACE shut down sites, associated domain names are redirected to its “ Watch Legally ” page. In some cases domains expire and are not necessarily renewed.

According to domain records, Vidsrc.to expired in July. Information received by TorrentFreak suggests that it was picked up by an unknown party, and sold through Namecheap for several hundred dollars a few days ago.

From there the domain’s new owner brought the site back to its full glory. We can’t confirm who’s behind the comeback, but Vidsrc.to uses a video player from its former competitor, Vidscr.me.

More Loose Ends

TorrentFreak reached out to the MPA, seeking a comment on this comeback and the lack of a more permanent domain seizure, but we didn’t immediately hear back. The organization still has control over some older ‘pirate’ domains, including Hotfile and IsoHunt , but it appears the same doesn’t apply to these recent actions.

Vidsrc.to is not the only pirate site domain that’s available for purchase, however. Looking through Namecheap’s listings we also see that Tinyzone.tv can be purchased for $3,911 . This site reportedly had ties to Vietnam too, and was taken down by ACE last November.

The same applies to ev01.net. That movie streaming site domain briefly redirected to the ACE website. It eventually expired and can be purchased through Namecheap for those who can afford $13,911.

These loose ends can cause trouble in the future, but whether anyone will pick that domain up seems doubtful. The ev01.net domain previously redirected to ev01.to, which remains online today, and still uses the ev01.net branding.

All in all, it is clear that these domain-related loose ends can be a source of trouble. MPA and ACE may have taken down the mothership, but the piracy galaxy doesn’t appear to rely on a single Star Destroyer.

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

Last December when the MPA and other rightsholders renewed calls for site-blocking measures to be implemented in the United States, much of the focus was placed on Fmovies.

Before its recent sudden demise , Fmovies was considered the world’s largest illegal movie and TV show streaming site, yet some lawmakers in attendance at last year’s hearing had never heard of it before.

Fewer still would’ve heard of pirate IPTV service Magis TV, but for the MPA and enforcement coalition Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment, Magis TV is the source of a persistent headache for which there’s currently no cure.

China and Latin America

According to the MPA, Magis TV is believed to operate out of China. Its focus is on the Latin American market where millions consume content mostly via the platform’s ubiquitous, subscription-based Android app.

Cybersecurity firm ESET has linked the popular app to malware and botnets, but that doesn’t appear to have had any negative effect on Magis TV’s continued popularity.

Indeed, despite being under significant pressure from anti-piracy measures across the entire region, limiting Magis TV’s ability to operate has proven quite the challenge.

An order published in Argentina dated September 13, 2024, reveals that the country’s Internet Service Providers are now required to block dozens of Magis TV-linked domains for violating intellectual property law.

Telecoms body ENACOM is responsible for arranging the blocks

The original order in Spanish (translation above) runs to four pages, most of which list Magis TV-linked domains. As screenshots of those domains shows, there’s no obvious design consistency, which suggests that whoever operates them have received no specific instructions from the owners of the IPTV service.

Chaotic, perhaps usefully so

Some domains on the list claim to offer services to those considering becoming a reseller, so at least in theory they may have closer links to the service itself. In other cases, site operators may not have any direct connections beyond buying subscription credits at one price and then selling them on at another. That’s not to downplay their importance, but it does highlight the difficulties when it comes to enforcement.

In total, 69 domains (full list below) must be blocked to ensure they’re inaccessible from Argentinian territory but how effective that will be at limiting access to the service remains to be seen.

ACE Has Already Seized or Shut Down as Many Domains

The Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment has been working on the Magis TV problem for at least a couple of years. In the summer of 2022, a series of DMCA subpoenas targeting dozens of illegal streaming sites aimed to unmask their operators, including whoever is behind Magis TV.

In November that same year, another subpoena sought information from Zenlayer. Whether any, all, or none of these efforts bore fruit is unknown, but ACE soon started to take possession or exercise some type of control over dozens of domains with links to Magis TV. As is usually the case, many began diverting to the ACE anti-piracy portal.

Quietly commandeered, no official announcement from ACE

The lack of an official announcement to celebrate such a big haul was somewhat unusual. However, it seems likely that having assessed the situation, ACE may have concluded that the seizures wouldn’t provide the clean kill the coalition is known for.

The true scale of the problem hasn’t been revealed in public but an ACE report seen by TorrentFreak suggests a continent-wide problem.

Focused on piracy in Latin America, the report reveals that by the end of 2023, the anti-piracy coalition had taken down around 50 Magis TV websites in the region. Starting in Chile and heading north, up through Peru, into Ecuador, then Colombia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and finally back on home turf in the United States, sites were systematically taken down.

The only issue, albeit quite a significant one, is that ACE concluded that Magis TV and/or its affiliates, including an unknown number of resellers, were together operating over 370 websites.

Inevitable Site-Blocking

Ecuador has been blocking pirate sites since 2019 and earlier this year it began blocking Magis TV .

In August, ISPs in Ecuador added a further 183 Magis TV-linked IP addresses to the existing blocklist, followed by a dynamic blocking order last week, which allows a rightsholder to add new blocking targets without a court intervention.

As the image below shows (right), Ecuador has also managed to place warnings directly on the screens of pirates watching illegal streams, while Bolivia (left) issued direct warnings as far back as July 2022.

Limited blocking also takes place in Peru (magis-tv.app, magstv.com, tvmagis.com, magistv.news, magistv-app.net) and other countries in the region. But with domains both cheap and easy to replace, pirates at the consumer end of what is effectively a pyramid sales operation, will always be one step ahead.

ACE has been keeping up the pressure by obtaining new DMCA subpoenas in March and June 2024 , so presumably intends to tackle this problem by taking out those at the top.

If they are indeed based in China, that’s unlikely to be straightforward; yet, with enough patience and the right leverage , nothing is impossible.

The domains listed for blocking in the Argentinian order read as follows:

magistv-la.com, magistv.net, tvmagis.pro, magistv-app.net, magistv.video, magistvplus.com, magistv.app, tvmagis.com, magistvonline.com, magis123.com, magistv.film, magistvoficial.net, magistviptv.com, magistv.live, magistvlatin.com, magistvlatino.es, fullmagistv.com, magistvv.com – redirects to > tvsnipers.com, magistv-ecuador.com, magistv.agency, soportemagistv.com, panelmagistv.com, magistvstream.net, magistvmas.com, magistv-venezuela.com, comprarmagistv.app, magistv.ai, descarga-magistv.com, magispro.com, magistvgo.com, magislatamtv.net, magistvecuador.app, magistvinternational.com, magiscr.org, magistv.mx, magistvmexico.net, oficialmagistv.com, magistv.so – redirects to > magistv.film, magistvapk.app – redirects to> magis-tv.vip, comprarmagistv.com, magistvmex.com, magisapp.app, magistvperu.org, magistvusa.net, magistvoficial.com, magistv-app.net, renovarmagistv.net, panelmagistv.net, magistvgratis.com, magistvpty.com, getmagistv.com, magistve.com, magistvoficial.org, magistvpc.com, magistv.la, magistv.club, tvmagis.pro, magistv.stream, magis.com.ec, magistvtv.com, planesmagistv.com, magistvpremium.com, magistv-latino.net, magistvhn.com, magistvplus.com.co, magisapk.com, magis-cr.com, magistvoficialchile.com, magistvapp.app

To our knowledge, ACE has shut down at minimum the following domains:

magistvgroup.com, magistv.global, magistv.org.pe, magistvnicaragua.com, magistvperu.com, magistvusa.com, magistvapk.com, magistvecuador.com, magistvlatino.app, magistvdemo.com, magistvargentina.com, magistvrepublicadominicana.com, magistvchile.com, magistvpanama.com, magistvfacil.com, magistvbrasil.com, magisglobal.net, magistvcostarica.com, magistvpuertorico.com, magistvmexico.com, magistvuruguay.com, magistvglobal.com, magistvoficial.vip, magistvparaguay.com, magistvbolivia.com, magistvcolombia.com, bolivia.magistvgroup.com, cuba.magistvgroup.com, colombia.magistvgroup.com, argentina.magistvgroup.com, magistvfull.com, magistv.biz, magistv.services, magistv.solutions, magistv.fyi, magistv.us, magistvoficial.online, magistv.group, magistv.social, magistvoficial.digital, magist.vg, magistvvenezuela.com, magistv.es, magistvglobal.co, magistv.place, magistvrepublishedadomenica.com, magistv.store, magistv.asia, magistvoficial.services, magistv.life, magistvoficial.info

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

In 2021, Germany joined a growing list of countries that have institutionalized pirate site blocking schemes in place.

Several large ISPs teamed up with copyright holders and launched the “Clearing Body for Copyright on the Internet” ( CUII ), which is responsible for handing down blocking ‘orders’.

While CUII doesn’t rely on court judgments, there is some form of oversight. When copyright holders report a pirate site for consideration, a review committee first checks whether the domain is indeed linked to a website that structurally infringes copyrights.

What Sites are Blocked?

If a website overwhelmingly hosts or links to pirated material, the site can be nominated for a blocklist entry. This can apply to torrent sites, streaming portals, and direct download hubs, as long as piracy is front and center.

Germany does not publish an official overview of the domain names subject to blocking. While decisions are made public and often mention the target ‘site’ by name, domain names, URLs, and even the requesting rightsholders’ names, are all redacted.

Redacted versions of the blocking recommendations are published on the CUII portal and a few days ago, a new one was added to the growing list. While it doesn’t mention any specific domains the name of the site, TotalSportek, is repeatedly referenced.

TotalSportek Blocked

This new addition matches with fresh data from the third-party blocking transparency portal CUIIliste , which reports that totalsportek.pro and www.totalsportek.pro were blocked a few days ago. The same also applies to soccerstreams.football.

TotalSportek is a well-known pirate sports streaming service. The website has been blocked previously in France and Kenya , for example, and was reported to the US Trade Representative as a ‘ notorious ‘ piracy portal.

CUII concludes that the site is indeed “structurally infringing” so the blocking measures, requested by an unnamed sports rightsholder, are granted.

“The request for a recommendation to block the website TOTALSPORTEK is justified. The website is a structurally copyright infringing website (SUW). There is a clear violation of copyright. The blocking is reasonable and proportionate,” CUII writes.

The recommendation mentions that TotalSportek is not specifically targeted at a German audience. However, it does offer content that’s predominantly of interest to Germans, including German language streams.

Ticking the Boxes

Before a site can be blocked, rightsholders have to pursue other options to take the site offline. Here, the rightsholder hired a private investigator to contact the site directly and track down various intermediaries including the domain registrars and the hosting party, but without the desired result.

“The host provider was contacted via an email address in the period from ***** to ***** notified and on ***** from ***** received a legal warning. The notifications and the legal warning did not lead to an end to the violations by the SUW or the identification of its operators.

“Any further action against the host provider has no prospect of success. The company ***** identified as the host provider does not respond to warnings,” CUII adds.

Similar attempts to get information from TLS certificate providers, domain registrars, and a CDN service didn’t yield any results either.

Blocked Domains

According to the third-party CUIIListe site, whose reports are unverified, totalsportek.pro and soccerstreams.football are included in the new blocking round. That said, the recommendation may include more domain names, which have yet to be picked up by the monitoring site.

For example, CUII’s recommendation mention a ‘mirror’ and a ‘redirect’ domain. The redirect could be soccerstreams.football, which currently links to streameast.best. However, this StreamEast copy is not listed among the blocked domains itself.

If the blocking targets are clarified we will update this article accordingly. Overall, however, it’s clear that Germany intends to steadily expand its pirate site blocking efforts.

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A copy of CUII’s latest blocking recommendation is available here (pdf) . Since 2021, the authority has issued 22 blocking orders, targeting hundreds of (sub)domains.

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

Music piracy has been around for decades and there are no signs that it will disappear anytime soon.

While legitimate subscription streaming services are commonplace today, some people prefer to download or rip music instead; particularly people with limited financial means. That’s a problem for labels and music publishers alike.

According to the RIAA, the U.S. economy loses billions of dollars annually due to piracy. This estimate is difficult to prove, of course, but ‘lost’ revenues are not the only concern. Specialized pirate sites and services frequently feature pre-release leaks too.

These leaks frustrate labels and artists and not just for financial reasons. Many musicians work months if not years on their tracks; seeing these being paraded on pirate sites, before their official release, stings.

Warner’s World-class Anti-Piracy Unit

Warner Music Group is well aware of the leak vulnerability. The company has taken action against various piracy threats in the past and, outside the public eye, the music company is building a dedicated anti-piracy unit.

The unit in question is not mentioned on Warner’s official site, but it did appear in a recent job offering, where Warner Music is looking for an Anti-Piracy/Content Protection coordinator.

“We’re looking for someone who thrives on searching the depths of the internet to find when and where unreleased music first pops up. We want someone to help our artists maintain control of their release plans.”

“This person will be the next piece in building a world-class anti-piracy unit,” Warner Music adds.

To find out more about the scope and goals of this team, we reached out to Warner Music directly. However, the company didn’t immediately respond to our inquiry. Luckily, the job description itself provides some more background.

Tracing Leaks & Spotting Pirates

The anti-piracy coordinator role is quite broad. It involves protecting digital and physical releases as well as merchandise. These protection efforts are in part guided by release schedules. After all, new releases have the most value, and deserve stellar protection.

Within releases there is also a priority ranking. The anti-piracy coordinator is expected to communicate these high-priority releases with third-party anti-piracy services, so these can tailor their takedown efforts accordingly.

The position also requires some familiarity with piracy services, and accompanying research capabilities. It involves managing leak alerts, as well as discovering new piracy platforms and services that pose a threat.

The job offering provides the following examples of typical work that the anti-piracy coordinator has to carry out.

– Monitor and protect all forms of Warner Music Group’s intellectual property
– Work with our label partners on priority release schedules
– Coordinate priority releases on a weekly basis with third-party anti-piracy services
– Receive and create leak alerts for infringing uploads
– Discover new platforms that infringe on WMG’s intellectual property
– Contribute to a growing team of global content protection specialists

Artificial intelligence isn’t mentioned once. That makes sense, as it’s not typically associated with piracy, but more with general copyright infringement, which is likely handled by the broader legal department.

Requirements

The job application provides a rough idea of what the anti-piracy unit does, but it’s likely just a fraction of its full scope. The required skills for the job don’t give away anything either and are quite mundane.

Candidates need a “strong attention to detail”, “work well independently”, have “excellent written and oral communication skills” and comfort with Word, Excel and PowerPoint-type software. A college degree and some anti-piracy experience would be a bonus.

For anyone interested, the job listing is still open and can be accessed through Warner Music Group’s official website.

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

The Canadian Government is no stranger to having its copyright policies critiqued.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), for example, has repeatedly placed its northern neighbor on a “ watch list ” because it fails to properly deter piracy, and then the EU followed suit .

To tackle copyright concerns, Canada has made several changes to its laws in recent years. Rightsholders can also obtain pirate site blocking injunctions at Federal Court but despite these developments, many rightsholders remain dissatisfied.

U.S. Copyright Groups Call Out Canada

This week, the IIPA put a spotlight on these alleged shortcomings in a submission to the USTR. The alliance, which is made up of various industry groups including the MPA, RIAA, and AAP, submitted its remarks as part of the ‘Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity’ ( APEP ) review.

This U.S. Government-enabled process allows third parties to share their concerns about the participating countries, which include Chile, Mexico, Peru and other American countries, such as Canada.

“APEP represents a critical opportunity to improve copyright protection and enforcement in the region, which would support APEP’s mission by strengthening regional competitiveness and integration and fostering shared prosperity and good governance,” IIPA writes

The list of issues highlighted by IIPA is long so for the purpose of this article, our focus is on Canada. According to IIPA’s submission, rampant piracy in Canada is a roadblock that prevents legal entertainment services from reaching their full potential in the country.

“Canada’s legitimate digital marketplace for copyright materials remains hampered by widespread infringement,” IIPA notes.

The association mentions a wide variety of piracy threats including stream-rippers, pirate streaming sites, pirate IPTV services, download portals, resellers of pirate services, devices, and apps, among others.

Online Piracy Haven

These types of comments are not new. In recent years, lawmakers have updated portions of the law to strengthen protection, but Canada does not blindly accept all suggestions. For example, it previously pushed back at such complaints, describing them as “flawed” and “one-sided” .

As a result, Canada remains on the USTR’s copyright protection “watch list” and IIPA still sees plenty of room for further improvement.

IIPA is pleased with Canada’s site blocking progress but the remaining list of “urgent and longstanding problems” shows that not all demands have been met. The U.S. rightsholders signal weak enforcement and a lack of legal incentives to combat piracy among the key issues.

“The country has made some progress in shedding its reputation as an online piracy haven, but too many Canadian Internet businesses allow their services to be abused by pirate operators, highlighting the fact that interindustry cooperation must be a priority.

“The Canadian government at all levels continues to allocate insufficient resources and strategic priority to the enforcement of copyright laws, especially online,” IIPA adds.

Copyright Industry Wishlist

The list of reported problems is long. Luckily, however, IIPA has made a bullet point overview of the key action points for Canada’s Government; this starts with prioritizing anti-piracy enforcement.

“Prioritize enforcement against online piracy (including stream ripping), the operation and sale of subscription piracy services, and the trafficking in [piracy devices], apps, and circumvention software tools and modification services,” the first bullet point reads.

This increase in enforcement will require additional law enforcement resources and training which, ideally, should be readily available to properly combat piracy.

“Provide the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Crown Prosecutors, and local law enforcement with the resources and training required to implement enforcement priorities,” IIPA suggests.

In addition to going after infringing sites, services, and apps, third-party intermediaries should also be ‘incentivized’ to take action. While it’s not spelled out, this hints at potential liability for online service providers, if they don’t cooperate voluntarily.

“Counter online piracy in Canada by strengthening legal incentives for Internet service providers (ISPs), hosting providers, and all other intermediaries to cooperate with copyright owners, in accordance with international best practices,” IIPA writes.

The overview above shows that the suggestions don’t stop at fighting pirate sites and services directly.

IIPA would also like to get rid of the fair-dealing copyright exception for educational institutions. Moreover, Bills C-244 and C-294, which give the public more freedom to circumvention of a technological protection measures, should be rejected.

Whether the U.S. Trade Representative will pick up any of these suggestions has yet to be seen. That said, rightsholders are sending a clear signal that they are not pleased with Canada’s approach to its copyright challenges.

More Countries, More Concerns

IIPA’s concerns don’t stop at the northern border. Southward, there is room for other APEP countries to update their laws and heighten local anti-piracy priorities.

For example, Mexico is encouraged to develop and adopt a high-level national anti-piracy program, that will help to target large online piracy operations in the country. Colombia, meanwhile, should implement a specialized copyright enforcement training program for judges and law enforcement.

In Chile, where lawmakers are working on an overhaul of the constitution, IIPA suggests that strong copyright protection and enforcement should be a priority. At the same time, Chile should make it possible for ISPs to be held liable for copyright infringement.

“Improve and update Chile’s legal framework for ISP liability and online copyright enforcement significantly to foster the development of a healthy digital marketplace,” the rightsholders write.

A full overview of IIPA’s comments and suggestions, submitted as part of the USTR’s ‘Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity’ efforts, is available here (pdf) .

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

When today’s home video gaming market took its first tentative baby steps thanks to more affordable hardware in the early 1980s, the details of Sony’s lawsuit against Datel would’ve been dismissed as outrageous.

This was a time of experimentation; one that thrived on the energy of pushing unimaginably incapable hardware by today’s standards, to perform in unexpected ways that often exceeded manufacturers’ expectations. In some cases, that included being able to run half-decent games, or even games at all.

Sony Wins Early But Cooler Heads Prevail

Software quite rightly receives protection under copyright law but in Datel, Sony wants a ruling that outlaws the modification of variables generated by software that only ever exist in RAM and form no part of the underlying copyrighted source code. Datel’s software simply ran alongside games like Motorstorm Arctic Edge, tweaking values in memory to modify how the game played.

In January 2012, the Hamburg Regional Court found largely in favor of Sony. The Court found that Datel’s software (Action Replay PSP and Tilt FX) intervened in the ‘program flow’ of Sony’s games and, by changing the flow, the original code was modified to create a derivative of Sony’s copyrighted game code.

The decision was overturned on appeal in 2021 and the case was dismissed. Sony appealed to the Federal Court of Justice which referred key questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling.

If Sony has its way and the protection software enjoys under the 2009 Computer Programs Directive is extended to transient variables in RAM, those who modify those variables – the users of tweaking software – would become direct infringers under copyright law. Creators of the software, in this case Datel, could be held secondarily liable.

Advocate General’s Opinion Nudges Case in the Right Direction

Advocate General Szpunar’s published opinion is not binding and the CJEU could ultimately decide on its own path.

The challenge, should one exist, would be to dismiss AG Szpunar’s conclusions as anything other than legally sound, impeccably researched, and flawlessy logical.

“[T]he value of the variables is not an element of a computer program’s code. They are merely data, external to the code, which the computer produces and reuses when running the program,” he writes.

“Those data do not exist at the moment that the program is created by its author or when it is loaded into the computer’s memory, since they are generated only while the program is running. They are therefore not such as to enable the program – or even a part of it – to be reproduced.”

Variables Are Not Creative Works

According to case law, the protection conferred by Directive 2009/24 is limited to source code and object code, both of which satisfy the criterion of originality set out in Article 1(3). Variables in RAM, on the other hand, do not satisfy the criterion of originality.

The variables are not the author’s own intellectual creation, AG Szpunar points out. On the contrary, the variables are the result of progress made in the game, and a direct result of the player’s behavior.

“It is indeed true that the author designed the categories of the variables that are recorded as well the rules whereby their value is determined in the course of the game. However, that value itself escapes the author’s creative control, since it is necessarily dependent on factors which cannot be foreseen in advance, such as the player’s behavior. That value therefore cannot enjoy copyright protection.”

Noting that the variables are “transitory, temporary and provisional,” and “often reset to zero” when a program is next run, the variables fail to meet the threshold for copyright protection since they cannot be identified with “sufficient precision and objectivity.”

More Restrictions, More Money

AG Szpunar’s opinion is lengthy, technical, and at times quite challenging to absorb. The blame for that sits squarely with Sony, whose mental gymnastics appear laser-focused on what it needs to win the case, and oblivious to almost everything else.

It’s perhaps telling that various intellectual property law firms commenting on the opinion are noting the AG’s advice, while also advancing theories that generated variables in RAM could reasonably be considered part of the overall creative package.

When work for companies like Sony pays the bills, advocating for greater restrictions on existing freedoms doesn’t lead to less business, let’s put it that way. That the opposite is being argued in legal matters relating to output from generative AI, is certainly interesting, if nothing else.

AG Szpunar’s Conclusion

Ultimately, AG Szpunar draws the following conclusion:

Article 1(1) to (3) of Directive 2009/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on the legal protection of computer programs must be interpreted as meaning that the protection conferred by that directive pursuant to that provision does not extend to the content of the variables which the protected computer program has transferred to the RAM of the computer and uses in running it, in the situation in which another program operating at the same time as the protected computer program changes that content, without however the object code or the source code of the latter program being changed.

Full opinion available here

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