Private BitTorrent trackers are niche sites in most parts of the world but in Denmark they are huge.

With millions of views per month, sites such as ShareUniversity and Asgrd are among the most popular sites in the country.

This was also the case with DanishBits until it suddenly went offline a few weeks ago. At the time, several sources informed us that the owner was arrested and, this week, official confirmation came in that this is indeed the case.

Danishbits Operator Arrested

Denmark’s State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime (SØIK) announced that a 33-year-old Danish man was arrested in Morocco. This followed an investigation by the authorities, which acted based on a complaint from local piracy group Rights Alliance.

The Danishbits investigation, which started in 2016, revealed that the site was run professionally and that the people involved did their best to hide their identities. Payments, for example, were made through cryptocurrency.

Despite these efforts, law enforcement officials managed to identify the operator, who was subsequently placed on Interpol’s wanted list. In October, the alleged ringleader of the site was eventually apprehended and jailed in Morocco, from where he will possibly be extradited to Denmark.

“It’s very satisfying that the investigation led to both the arrest of the suspected operator and shutting down the network. It succeeded thanks to the sustained collaboration between our specialized investigators, prosecutors, and IT experts,” says Deputy Police Inspector Michael Lichtenstein.

Nordicbits Shut Down, Operator Passed Away

Danishbits was not the only private tracker to disappear this fall. The same happened to Nordicbits. This site, which was smaller than its competitor, was also reported to the authorities by Rights Alliance in 2018.

After a detailed investigation, the authorities identified a 69-year-old Danish man as the operator. The man, who resided in Spain, was apprehended by local police in September.

After being questioned the Nordicbits operator admitted his involvement in the site and agreed to shut it down voluntarily. The Danish prosecution intended to take the operator to court. However, the man was seriously ill and recently passed away.

Targeting Users?

In both cases, law enforcement officials managed to seize data which will be used for further investigation. Deputy Police Inspector Michael Lichtenstein doesn’t rule out that users will be identified as well.

“The most important thing is clearly to stop the illegal services, but it can certainly not be ruled out that seized data can lead to the identification of the users of the two illegal networks,” he says.

Despite this warning, private torrent trackers continue to flourish in Denmark. The two sites that were shut down had roughly 45,000 registered users, many of whom went to other Danish trackers.

Rights Alliance says that the users of these sites know all too well that they are breaking the law. The anti-piracy group is also happy that the authorities will consider follow-up steps.

“We are pleased that the announcement of the State Prosecutor for Serious Economic Crime also reflects the importance of an increased focus on users’ illegal behavior,” Right Alliance CEO Maria Fredenslund says .

Thus far, however, these users don’t seem to be particularly bothered. After the shutdowns ShareUniversity saw a 500% increase in visits , and Asgrd’s traffic jumped up by more than 750% .

Right Alliance informs TorrentFreak that they are aware of the growth of these sites and urges them to give up their illegal activities. If not, they will get the same treatment as DanishBits and NordicBits.

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

Back in 2016, police in New Zealand received information from the Inland Revenue Service in the United States that a movie piracy website was being operated by a local man.

According to the IRS, the man and his associates were using online international money transfer services to send remittances between the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Vietnam. What followed was a three-year investigation and a raid on the man in 2019.

Police Raid Alleged Movie Pirate’s Home, Seize Crypto Haul

In June 2019, police swooped on software programmer Jaron David McIvor, making two visits to his home in New Zealand. The then-31-year-old reportedly lived in a modest rental property with no obvious wealth or expensive assets such as luxury vehicles.

Several months later in November 2019, it was revealed that McIvor had cooperated with police, handing over the keys to access $6.2m in cryptocurrencies and NZ$6.2m (US$4.4m) and NZ$800,000 (US$568,320) in banked funds. The assets were seized under the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act.

Later that month, police seized a further NZ472,000 (US$335,308) in cryptocurrency and NZ377,000 (US$267,820) in cash from a McIvor ‘associate’, later revealed to be his brother.

At the time, Detective Senior Sergeant Keith Kay, head of the Asset Recovery Unit in Waikato, said McIvor had helped to create a movie piracy site (which has still not been named) from which he received significant funds.

The site allegedly operated in the United States and when funds were deposited into various bank accounts via wire transfers, Stripe, and PayPal, a money-laundering investigation was launched. After “suspicious activity” was discovered on an account linked to McIvor, the raids and seizures took place.

Court Orders Seizure of Cash and Cryptocurrency

In a brief judgment handed down by the New Zealand High Court this morning, it is noted the McIvor was investigated for his role in the movie piracy scheme and as a result, significant funds would be forfeited to the state after he admitted profiting from copyright infringement.

According to the Court, the Commission of Police ultimately restrained funds in McIvor’s bank account totaling NZ$818,000 (US$581,066) and cryptocurrencies now worth an eye-watering NZ$21 million (US$14.9m). Additional funds “found their way” into his brother’s account too – almost NZ$386,000 (US$274,195) and cryptocurrency now worth NZ$1.77 million (US$1.25 million)

“The brothers recently agreed to forfeiture of all crypto-currencies and all but $400,000 (US$284,140). I approved their agreement with the Commissioner on 16 November 2020,” the judge wrote.

“I was satisfied this outcome was consistent with the purposes of the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009, and the overall interests of justice. I reached this conclusion because the overwhelming majority of restrained funds were forfeited, and litigation over the balance (of $NZ400,000) would be disproportionately expensive and time consuming.

“In short, I considered settlement met the public interest,” he concluded.

Movie Piracy Site Still Not Named

The High Court judgment makes no mention of any further legal action against McIvor and mentions no ongoing investigations or court cases in respect of his copyright-infringing activities. Neither does it mention the name of the site, which seems a little unusual given the apparent scale of the operation.

However, there are some similarities with a case in the United States, also based in movie piracy and involving large volumes of cryptocurrency. Just a month before the crypto seizures in New Zealand, United States authorities confirmed that they had seized around US$4 million worth of cash and cryptocurrency as part of an investigation into alleged movie piracy.

That investigation ended last November with a guilty plea from Oregon resident Talon White and the forfeiture of $3.9 million seized from his bank accounts, $35,000 in cash, cryptocurrency worth around $424,000, plus his home in Oregon, then valued at $415,000. On top, White was ordered to pay $669,557 in restitution to the MPAA and $3,392,708 in restitution to the IRS.

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

Under U.S. law, streaming and file-sharing are seen as two different offenses. Not just from a technical point of view, but also in the way they are punished.

Streaming is categorized as a public performance instead of distribution, which can only be charged as a misdemeanor, not a felony.

Lawmakers tried to change this with the Commercial Felony Streaming Act in 2011 , and later with the SOPA and PIPA bills. These bills were shelved after public outrage, with many people fearing that uploading copyrighted YouTube videos could possibly land them in jail.

As a result the gap between streaming and traditional file-sharing still remains today. This makes it hard to prosecute pirate streaming services. However, a new bill introduced by Senator Thom Tillis aims to change this.

The bill, titled the ‘Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020’, has bipartisan support and was drafted based on input from copyright holders, tech companies, and public rights experts. This resulted in a final draft that is less broad than previously proposed bills.

In short, the bill proposes to amend US copyright law by adding a section that allows streaming piracy services to be targeted. It is tailored towards services that exploit streaming piracy for commercial gain, leaving individual streamers out of the crosshairs.

Specifically, the bill makes it unlawful to provide a service that’s primarily designed to show copyright-infringing content, has no significant commercial purpose other than piracy, or is intentionally marketed to promote streaming piracy.

The bill is targeting people or organizations that provide a “digital transmission service.” This means that it doesn’t apply to ordinary users who stream something on YouTube, Twitch, or any other streaming platform.

This distinction is crucial as the opposition to previous bills focused on the fear that new legislation would send ordinary people to jail for accidentally streaming a copyrighted video or music track.

Instead, the ‘Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020’ intends to criminalize commercial streaming piracy services. Those who are caught face fines and a prison sentence, which for repeat offenders can extend to ten years.

Commenting on the bill, Senator Tillis notes that pirate streaming services are costing the US economy billions of dollars every year. The new legislation should help to change this without criminalizing regular streamers.

“This commonsense legislation was drafted with the input of creators, user groups, and technology companies and is narrowly targeted so that only criminal organizations are punished and that no individual streamer has to worry about the fear of prosecution,” Tillis said.

Lawmakers received input from rightsholders as well as the CCIA, which includes prominent members such as Amazon, Cloudflare, Facebook, and Google. The CCIA has previously been critical of streaming felony bills, but it will now remain neutral.

The same applies to the civil rights group Public Knowledge, which also helped in shaping the new bill. While Public Knowledge isn’t in favor of adding criminal penalties for copyright infringement, it sees the new proposal as a reasonable solution.

“[T]his bill is narrowly tailored and avoids criminalizing users, who may do nothing more than click on a link, or upload a file. It also does not criminalize streamers who may include unlicensed works as part of their streams,” says Meredith Rose, Public Knowledge’s Senior Policy Counsel.

With a more limited scope, the latest streaming piracy bill has a greater chance of passing than its predecessors. However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no opposition.

Aside from its contents, which not everyone will agree with, there is fierce critique on the process. Instead of letting the bill pass through the regular process, it will be added to the must-pass spending bill , together with other copyright proposals. That is not how copyright law should be created, opponents warn.

—

A copy of the text of the Protecting Lawful Streaming Act of 2020 can be found here . The bill is co-sponsored by Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), John Cornyn (R-TX), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), and David Perdue (R-GA)

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

Without prior warning, Torrentz2 suddenly started to return a ‘ 503 Service Unavailable ‘ error two weeks ago.

From one day to the next millions of regular visitors were left in the cold, effectively disconnected from their gateway to dozens of torrent sites.

Torrentz2 Troubles Continue

After more than two weeks have passed, the situation hasn’t changed. The same error is still present on the side and official mirrors, including Torrentz.pl and Torrentsmirror.com have the same problem.

Since our coverage, we have reached out to the operator multiple times, without any response. This is quite unusual, especially since the emails are being delivered just fine.

This isn’t the first problem Torrentz2 has encountered this year. In June, the official Torrentz2.eu domain name was suspended by the EURid registry, an action that was taken following an order from the Belgian Public Prosecutor in Brussels.

In response, Torrentz2 quickly moved to the .is domain name. The current problems, which are technical in nature, don’t seem to be going away easily.

Torrentz2 .Onion Site Works

Adding to the mystery, we found out that the official onion domain still gives access to the full site. Not just that, the site’s backend is working too as the search engine continues to be updated with fresh links.

The domain ‘torrentzwealmisr.onion’ wasn’t promoted on the Torrentz2 site over the past months but during the years before it was prominently listed on the site’s footer. So it’s certainly not a copycat.

Through the .onion address people can still access Torrentz2 over the anonymous Tor-network , with the Tor browser for example. In addition, it’s possible to access it through regular browsers by adding .ly to the .onion domain.

Good News?

Avid Torrentz2 users may welcome this news but it’s unknown whether this is really positive.

There is clearly something ‘broken’ at the main site. In addition, the lack of communication and action from the operator is troubling. Yes, the onion domain works, but for how long?

The problems at Torrentz2 are not just affecting the site’s operator and users, third-party torrent sites are also feeling it too. Some smaller torrent sites received a lot of traffic from the meta-search engine. That traffic is now missing.

For now, it appears that the uncertainty around Torrentz2’s future will continue. We will keep an eye on the situation and if there’s any news we’ll report on it in due course.

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

After years of hype, rumor, speculation and excitement, everyone knew the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 would be something special.

As soon as the game went live on various legal distribution platforms this morning, gamers were activating their pre-installs and making new purchases on a scale rarely seen in the video game space.

According to stats available from Steam, at one point this morning 1,003,264 players were roaming Night City. For comparison, the massively popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has an all-time peak of 1.3m, and that’s been around for eight years.

Of course, not everyone is lining the pockets of developer CD Projekt Red

Pirates Were Very Quick Off The Mark

Around 18:00 GMT last night, a good six hours before the game was released in the West, news began to circulate that a functioning pirate release may have already appeared online.

For several days now people have been uploading preload copies of the game to the Internet but none were viable without additional code. However, those necessary additions, which were quickly shared using file-hosting accounts and GDrive, were being passed around freely last evening, enabling people to play the game.

Infamous Repacker FitGirl Advises Against Early Downloads

In a Reddit thread where the release was vigorously discussed, infamous game repacker stepped in with some interesting tips which advised gamers not to bother downloading this early version.

The problem related to the extremely large patches being pumped out by Cyberpunk’s developers to fix various problems. The version that initially appeared online did not have these patches so anyone attempting to play would have a buggy version.

“My advice – don’t play dumb, you’ve waited years, you can wait for a few more hours and get a proper final game, not some pre-release,” FitGirl wrote.

Nevertheless, many reports suggested that some pirates just couldn’t wait, instead opting for a massive download in order to get into the action as quickly as possible. In the event, waiting a few hours would’ve been a better option.

CODEX Releases Improved Version, Download Frenzy Ensues

For those with the patience to wait another eight hours, a 55GB version by release group CODEX addressed the earlier issues by including the Day 1 patch, with the language packs (weighing in at 45GB) provided as an optional extra.

Even before release, the consensus was that not only would Cyberpunk 2077 be one of the highest-selling games ever, but also one of the most pirated. Early signs suggest it is well on track in both departments.

At the time of writing, a conservative estimate from public trackers alone indicates that around 100,000K people are downloading the CODEX release. Given that private trackers will have their own substantial audiences and that games are often shared through file-hosting platforms, there are likely to be tens of thousands more to be added to this rising total.

FitGirl Repack Likely To Provide Another Boost

As mentioned earlier, the size of the CODEX release represents a substantial download prospect for anyone and given the number of people trying to grab various torrents, it will take a while for those swarms to gain maximum efficiency. In short, most people are in for a long wait until those downloads complete.

What FitGirl does, as our recent interview highlighted, is make pirated game releases substantially smaller with sophisticated compression techniques.

While it is yet to be released, FitGirl is already predicting a 35GB download, a massive saving over the current offerings. But these things take time and there’s currently no indication of when the compressed version will appear online. It’s unlikely to be a long wait, however.

Meanwhile, developer CD Projekt Red is working with several anti-piracy partners to make these downloads harder to find.

Developer Sends Wave After Wave of DMCA Notices

Four days ago, DMCA notices began being filed by CD Projekt, initially to take down gameplay footage that had been leaked online. This notice , obtained by TorrentFreak from the Lumen Database, asked Vimeo to remove a video of the Xbox One S gameplay.

Soon after, however, notices began to flood in to remove pre-load files and anything else that looked like them. The image below shows just a small sample of the notices.

This appears to be an ongoing effort, largely to prevent users from finding useful download links via Google. However, it’s likely that the delisting program is being actioned behind the scenes too, in an effort to hinder platforms offering links to the much sought after game.

Such Popularity is Rarely Seen in Videogames

While the majority of games appear online eventually, the lack of obtrusive copy protection measures in Cyberpunk 2077 means that anyone who wishes to grab a copy for free can do so, with limited drawbacks – if time, bandwidth and malware-infested fakes are discounted, of course.

Nevertheless, the huge numbers of players on Steam alone suggest that this game is going to be a huge commercial success, which adds significant weight to the theory that good games will sell like hotcakes, despite piracy and despite the lack of DRM.

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

With millions of regular visitors, Torrentz2 is without a doubt the most popular torrent meta-search engine on the Internet.

Update December 4: Torrentz2.is remains down after a week. The 503 error is still the only thing that’s showing up. We repeatedly reached out to the operator without any response. This suggests that there may be more going on than a DDoS attack. When we know more we will write a new article. All proxies, mirrors, or alternatives that are online are unofficial.

The site took this spot from the original Torrentz site, which shut down unexpectedly during the summer of 2016.

Since then, not much has changed. The site has continued to operate quietly like its predecessor by indexing and linking to dozens of millions of links on external torrent sites.

Torrentz2’s Domain Issues

Earlier this year the site suffered a major setback. In June, the official Torrentz2.eu domain name was suspended by the EURid registry, an action that was taken following an order from the Belgian Public Prosecutor in Brussels .

Torrentz2 swiftly responded and moved to Torrentz2.is, while adding several backup domains such as Torrentz.pl and Torrentsmirror.com. While these domains still work fine, they also show the same error.

503 Service Unavailable

For more than a day, Torrentz2 has been returning a “503 Service Unavailable” error, as shown in the screenshot below.

“503 Service Unavailable” is an HTTP status code that typically indicates that the server of a website is overloaded. This is often a temporary issue but, in this case, it’s taking unusually long.

TorrentFreak reached out to the operator of Torrentz2 to ask whether the problem will be resolved in the near future, but we have yet to hear back.

Without an official comment, we can only speculate as to the reason for the ‘downtime’. It seems likely, however, that it is of a technical nature. That could include DDoS attacks, which are not uncommon for torrent sites.

Torrentz2 uses Cloudflare, which generally protects servers from DDoS attacks. However, if attackers know the origin IP-address, they can bypass that protection layer.

There doesn’t appear to be a connection to the domain issues from earlier this year, which appeared to be linked to Hollywood. Torrentz2’s main .is domain, which is managed by Iceland’s ISNIC registry, is functioning properly.

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

Next week, US lawmakers are expected to present the spending bill that keeps the government running.

This ‘must pass’ legislation, also known as the appropriations bill, is often padded in order to get unrelated proposals passed before the end of the year.

While the official content remains unknown at the time of writing, several groups and organizations are already sounding the alarm bell. Based on sources, there is fear that several controversial pieces of copyright legislation will be tagged on.

The CASE Act

The CASE Act is one of the bills that may be added. Short for “Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement,” it proposes to establish a copyright claim tribunal within the United States Copyright Office.

If adopted, the new board will provide an option to resolve copyright disputes outside the federal courts, which significantly reduces the associated costs. As such, it aims to make it easier for smaller creators, such as photographers, to address copyright infringements.

Opponents fear that the new tribunal will trigger an avalanche of claims against ordinary Internet users, with potential damages of up to $30,000 per case. While targeted people have the choice to opt-out, many simply have no clue what to do, they argue.

Despite fierce protests, the CASE Act passed the House with an overwhelming majority last year. And now it is possibly being added to the spending bill, Techdirt reports , which means that it could soon become law.

Streaming Piracy Felony Proposal

Another controversial proposal that may end up in the spending bill should sound familiar too. Protocol writes that Senator Thom Tillis will, once again, is trying to make streaming piracy a felony.

Under current law, unauthorized streaming is categorized as a public performance instead of distribution, which is punishable as a misdemeanor, not a felony. Lawmakers tried to change this with the SOPA and PIPA bills but these didn’t pass. The plan never completely disappeared, however.

Earlier this year it gained momentum again in Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property. Senator Tillis, who chairs the subcommittee, has reportedly picked up the baton and added the proposal to the spending bill.

Opposition

In addition to the two aforementioned pieces of legislation, the Trademark Modernization Act is also on the list of additions. Together, these bills present a volatile mix of copyright-related plans that should not be rushed through, opponents warn.

A group of civil rights groups, tech companies, libraries and educators recently shared their concerns in a letter (pdf) to the U.S. Senate.

“We write to you today regarding recently reported efforts to include a package of intellectual property bills in the year-end spending bill that includes the CASE Act, the Trademark Modernization Act and a felony streaming proposal,” it begins.

Unintended Consequences

The signatories, including the CCIA, the Internet Archive, the Internet Association, the Library Copyright Alliance, and the Center for Democracy & Technology, warn that these proposals will have negative impacts on many organizations and Internet users in general.

“All signatories have serious concerns with at least some aspect of the bills slated to be included in their current state, and we stand ready to work with Congress to avoid their unintended consequences,” the letter reads.

“In order to allow that process to take place, we ask that you decline to include this package of bills in any must-pass government funding bill, and instead allow these bills to be considered through the regular order process.”

While the addition of the controversial plans have yet to be confirmed, the opposition is already in full swing. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, for example, is calling on the public to urge senators not to pass the CASE Act.

“The CASE Act could mean Internet users facing $30,000 penalties for sharing a meme or making a video. It has no place in must-pass legislation,” EFF writes .

If these three proposals are indeed added to the spending bill, more opposition is likely to follow. That said, the bills also have substantial support in the creative industries, so there will be plenty of backing as well.

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

There has never been any shortage of Spanish-focused piracy sites. Many sprang up in the eDonkey days but the rise of torrent sites was perhaps most notable, with local law struggling to have much impact on their use.

Of course, streaming is now the ‘new’ big thing in Spain as it is elsewhere, with sites like Movidy.co attracting large volumes of traffic. But for this movie and TV show streaming platform the show is now over after its operator received some devastating news.

Movidy’s Operator Was Diagnosed With Cancer

Back in the summer, with Movidy pulling in around eight million visits per month, operator ‘Gabriela Algara’ went public with some awful news. Writing on Twitter, he told users that a month earlier he had been diagnosed with cancer.

Stating that he would be unable to continue with the site due to his health, Gabriela Algara revealed his intent to find a new owner and shut down the site on December 31. He set a price of $20,000 to encourage a quick sale. All money, he explained, would be donated to non-profit groups with any buyer set to recoup their money in around five months.

Health Deteriorating, No Suitable Buyer Found

In a sad notice published during the past few hours, Movidy’s operator explained that his situation coupled with the inability to find a suitable buyer for the site had resulted in the site being shut down with immediate effect.

“About 4 months ago I was diagnosed with cancer, after an operation without so much success and the one that literally ruined my life by plunging me into a debt that I will not be able to return even in 50 years.

“Because they deny me treatments due to said debt, I am forced not to continue with the project anymore. Every day I feel weaker and powerless, in fact this morning I woke up in a pool of blood after getting dizzy and hitting my nose against the table,” he wrote in a statement.

While users of the site were saddened by the news, some hoped that Movidy could continue under new ownership but that, its operator explained, is not a realistic proposition.

Potential Buyers Don’t Understand the Risks

“I thought of selling it and passing it on to someone so that they can manage it but of all those who have contacted me, none understand the risk involved in maintaining a website like Movidy, such as being convicted of piracy or evasion of taxes,” he wrote.

It appears that Movidy has been under pressure. While its owner says that he took the necessary precautions to avoid detection, he revealed that during the last month alone, he had received DMCA notices on a daily basis, filed through his server operator, domain registrar and even Cloudflare.

“[A]ll of them provided information about me without question, but they will not find anything since I have always been protected. This is one of the reasons why I prefer to close [Movidy] rather than to pass it to someone who is careless and could ruin their life,” he explained.

Indeed, Google’s Transparency report reveals recent and intense interest from companies like Disney, Netflix, Apple, Warner Bros., Sony, and NBCUniversal, all attempting to have large volumes of content de-indexed via DMCA notice.

Movidy almost doubled its traffic in the past few months, which may have contributed to the increased attention.

Saying Goodbye

“I created Movidy with the sole purpose of providing humble people with a way of being able to see content that they could possibly never had the pleasure of viewing in their life,” Gabriela Algara’s goodbye reads.

“With my programming skills it was very easy for me to create and design a platform that was at the same level of large corporations, without invasive or excessive advertising, without viruses, without disgusting pornographic images, that is, something to teach young children to use without fear of anything.

“But unfortunately like all things, they have a beginning and an end and this, my friends, is the end of Movidy.”

If the planned schedule has been maintained, at the time of writing all Movidy content, videos, links, and user accounts have been deleted. This means that a true reincarnation of Movidy, which is currently one of the top 130 sites in Spain, period, will be impossible.

“I write this statement with tears in my eyes, we have gone through a lot to get to where we are now only to see it fall in a matter of minutes. I am very proud of each and every one of you, thank you very much for being there supporting me, I hope to see you in future, either in this life or in the next,” he concludes .

Less Favorable Climate For Pirates Site in Spain

The closure of Movidy follows on the heels of the demise of another Spanish giant back in September. Megadede, an extremely popular streaming portal that was one of the country’s top 100 sites, gave no reason for pulling down the shutters, but legal pressure remains a possibility.

Back in the summer, Spanish police shut down an IPTV service with an estimated two million subscribers. That followed raids in April during which seven individuals were arrested as part of a similar operation.

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

Cyberpunk 2077 may well be the most-hyped videogame of all time. It will be released in two days’ time and for hundreds of thousands of gaming fans, those 48 hours can’t be over soon enough so they can empty their wallets.

Of course, piracy is always a risk, yet after a herculean development cycle utilizing hundreds of workers to put together what developer CD Projekt Red hopes will be its most successful title, the company will throw itself to the wolves by selling the game without copy protection.

While that is likely to please many gamers and the anti-DRM movement, the decision must have companies like Ubisoft, who seem to love Denuvo, scratching their heads. But CD Projekt Red isn’t throwing all caution to the wind.

Cyberpunk 2077: Meet Denuvo

During the past couple of days, reviewers lucky enough to have received an advance copy of Cyberpunk 2077 have been publishing their early opinions. Inevitable bugs aside, the majority seem to have been impressed by the scale and ambition of the game, something which will please fans and the developer alike.

However, news that those copies had Denuvo copy protection embedded had some observers doing a quick double-take. Denuvo? In Cyberpunk 2077? A mistake, surely?

To better understand why this revelation caused alarm, it’s useful to take a look at CD Projekt’s historical attitudes towards DRM. In addition to its development work, the company also owns GOG , a digital distribution platform for video games and video.

Unlike similar services, GOG forces no DRM on its customers, something that has earned it a unique place in many gamers’ hearts. In addition, GOG and CD Projekt are behind the FCKDRM ‘movement’ which highlights the numerous downsides to DRM while promoting DRM-free sources.

With slogans like “You bought it, you own it” and “Don’t hand your rights over to corporations that wouldn’t trust you,” FCKDRM is a truth-teller when it comes to DRM and DRM-like systems. The fact is that many games these days could one day refuse to run in the absence of an Internet connection, or could be assigned to history on the whim of a publisher.

In common with all gamers, GOG and FCKDRM believe that shouldn’t be the case.

So Why Has CD Projekt Turned to Denuvo?

It’s important to note that the official release of Cyberpunk 2077 will not have Denuvo, it’s only the free review copies that are affected. Nevertheless, some feel that the company should have shied away from DRM altogether since this clashes with the stated principles of CD Projekt/GOG/FCKDRM. Those people are completely wrong and the decision to use Denuvo, in this case, makes complete sense.

From a technical perspective, Denuvo does what it claims to do. It protects games in the important days and weeks following launch, making it a perfect candidate to prevent early piracy of Cyberpunk 2077. However, and perhaps more importantly, what CD Projekt is trying to avoid here is the possibility that its game leaks out on to the Internet before launch .

On day one of release, Cyberpunk 2077 will be a sitting duck for pirates. With no DRM, CD Projekt is putting its faith in its ability to convince people to buy the game and not pirate it. To quote company co-founder Marcin Iwiński, “We cannot force people to buy things. We can only convince them to do it. We totally believe in the carrot, not in the stick.”

And this is the key point. Until December 10 arrives, no one will be able to buy this game. The developers may have already convinced hundreds of thousands of gamers to buy Cyberpunk 2077 and not pirate it, but if there’s a pre-release leak, all bets are off.

Essentially, CD Projekt will have relied on the goodwill of fans and their belief that rejecting DRM is a good thing, and then found themselves beaten, not just by pirates, but by the fact they will be unable to compete for consumption of their own product. For a pro-consumer company, that can never be right.

Using Denuvo In *FREE* Review Copies Betrays Nobody

Anyone who closely followed the GOG/FCKDRM campaign will have understood its focus. The philosophy of the entire project was to highlight the negative effects that DRM (including systems like Denuvo) can have on consumers. Things like ‘kill switches’, systems that prevent users from modifying game files, and requirements for players to continually prove ownership.

While Denuvo arguably contains all of these to some extent, not a single line of Denuvo code will make it to a legitimate copy of Cyberpunk 2077 installed on the machine of a regular PC gamer. In this respect, CD Projekt will have kept every promise it’s ever made.

In much the same way they secure their company servers from hackers intent on grabbing content they have no right to access, its use of Denuvo in Cyberpunk 2077 in review copies is merely an extension of that, not a betrayal of its principles.

What the developer is saying, it appears, is that it believes it has obtained enough trust from players to invest in its creation, but it will never trust pirates intent on leaking its product before launch. And that stance, regardless of what anyone might say, is the smartest and most pragmatic possible under the circumstances.

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