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Thursday, November 6th, 2014
| Time | Event |
| 9:57a | Popcorn Time Now “Impossible” to Shut Down
The developers were informed that the suspension was the result of an ongoing legal investigation into the BitTorrent streaming app, presumably after copyright holders complained. Aside from losing its domain name and losing nearly all traffic, the domain troubles also affected existing users. Since the Popcorn Time fork required the domain to load the user interface, the application stopped working. The problems with EURid showed that the domain name was a weak link. The fork quickly moved to a .se domain and over the past several weeks the developers have been working hard to resolve the vulnerability. With the latest 5.0 beta release today they should be able to withstand a domain suspension. “EURid tried to take us down and instead of doing so, they just opened our eyes and made us better and wiser,” the developers inform TF. “Thank you EURid for making Popcorn Time unstoppable.” As of now Popcorn Time still appears to rely on some central servers, which may not be truly “unstoppable”. In the future, however, the fork hopes to distribute all data via P2P transfers. “We’ve built the 5.0 beta so that no one will be able to take it down. Popcorn Time from now on will keep on working as usual even if our domain gets removed, and in the future even the necessary data for Popcorn Time will be transferred purely via Peer2Peer.” Besides the improved redundancy, the latest beta also includes several other new features. The app has revamped its user interface and added touch screen support, for example. The developers have further added an anime section, a feature many users requested. Finally, the Popcorn Time fork says it will soon enable the option to continue seeding after a video stops streaming. This means that its users have the option share data for a longer period, so they’re not simply leeching from BitTorrent swarms. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| 3:24p | Domain Registrars Face Piracy Liability After Court Ruling
In most cases the buck stops with the service itself, but some rightsholders would like to extend that liability beyond the sites themselves and onto hosts and other providers of critical infrastructure. One such experiment was undertaken by Universal Music. In 2013, the German division of the label sent a takedown notice complaining about content indexed by H33T, previously one of the Internet’s largest torrent trackers. This ultimately led to the site being taken completely offline. The problem began when H33T failed to respond to a Universal Music takedown notice demanding the removal of a link to the Robin Thicke album Blurred Lines. Faced with inaction, Universal obtained an injunction against Key-Systems, H33T.com’s domain registrar. By order of the court Key-Systems had to end the infringement of Universal’s rights so it took the drastic decision to delete H33T.com’s DNS entries. That not only stopped further infringement but also disappeared the site from the Internet. The case later ended up at the Regional Court of Saarbrücken and earlier this year a fairly dramatic ruling was handed down. In its judgment the Court found that a domain registrar, in this case Key-Systems, can be held liable for the infringing actions of a site if it is “obvious” that it is committing offenses under copyright law. Lawyer Mirko Bruess from Rasch Legal, the firm representing Universal, told TF that the decision made perfect legal sense, but Key-Systems weren’t done. “Let’s just say that this was not the final word in the matter,” their lawyer Volker Greimann said. Key-Systems took its case to appeal but has not been successful. The Higher Regional Court of Saarbrücken has just rejected the complaint and confirmed the decision of the lower court. “The judges state that once notified of an obvious infringement, the registrar has to take action to stop the infringement,” Bruess told TF this morning. “[Key-Systems] argued the infringement was not ‘obvious’ because they were not in a position to make sure that the torrent on h33t.com was actually infringing and that our client owned the rights. The Court disagreed and states that the registrar had to assume that the claims made by our client were correct after contacting the domain owner (their customer) and not getting any response.” Also of interest was the position the Court took in respect of the power Key-Systems had over its torrent site customer and the terms of service previously established between them. “The Court also finds that the registrar was legally and technically in a position to stop the infringement. The domain owner was in a clear breach of the registrar’s TOS by running a torrent-site and not reacting to takedown notices. This gave the registrar the opportunity and the obligation to terminate the service by deleting the name from the DNS,” Bruess adds. Finally, the Court took the view that under the circumstances taking down the entire H33T site following the complaint was not an excessive response. “The Court argues that the termination of the (complete) site was not disproportionate, because it was in the hands of the domain owner to keep this from happening by reacting to the registrar’s notice and taking down the infringing content,” Bruess notes. Key-Systems did not immediately respond to TorrentFreak’s request for comment, but Universal Music’s lawyer was clear on the ruling and its implications. “The Court’s decision gives rights owners another option in the ongoing fight against the illegal exploitation of their content. We will have this in mind when looking at other domains that use our clients’ content without licensing,” Bruess concludes. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| 7:55p | Court Orders Cloudflare to Expose Pirate Site Operators
This includes many “pirate” sites who rely on the U.S. based company to server loads down. While Cloudflare may help to keep servers up and running, the U.S. connection also poses a risk of exposure for the owners. Through a so-called DMCA-subpoena, copyright holders only have to ask a court clerk for a signature to be able to demand all personal information of alleged copyright infringers. This is exactly what Japanese adult magazine publisher KK Magazine has done. After sending three takedown requests to Cloudflare asking them to take down content on the allegedly infringing Javrip.org and Jpav.tv sites, the company obtained a subpoena. Without oversight from a judge the clerk signed a subpoena ordering Cloudflare to hand over the personal details of the clients connected to these domains including their names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, IP-addresses, account numbers, credit card numbers and any other identifying information.  The magazine publisher’s subpoena doesn’t come out of the blue for Cloudflare. Two weeks ago the Japanese company sent a third takedown notice warning Cloudflare that it may lose its safe harbor protections and become liable for the infringements of its client. “You/your customer has actively and repeatedly collected, organized and introduced new direct download links containing the infringing videos corresponding to the foregoing Infringing Works. Such actions shall disqualify you from any safe harbors for which you may be eligible under [the DMCA],” KK Magazine wrote. “Regardless of the nature of the services you may provide, a service provider which fails to implement a repeat infringer policy is ineligible for any safe harbors under [the DMCA]. Based on the infringement activities provided herein, MAGAZINE intends to take necessary legal action.” Whether Cloudflare has complied with the subpoena is unknown at this point but the company has until next week to respond. For now both allegedly infringing sites remain up and running through Cloudflare’s servers. However, a notice on the Jpav.tv website suggests that some content was made inaccessible. “Hello friends ! We re-uploading files was removed. You try download again. thanks!” a broken English notice on the site reads.  Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
Who should be held liable when a torrent site or other file-sharing service fails to take down infringing content following a DMCA-style takedown request?
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