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Sunday, November 30th, 2014
| Time | Event |
| 9:33a | Torrent Site Admin Sentenced to Five Months Prison
This Thursday a case running since 2012 came to an end, with a particularly miserable outcome for the man involved. It began two years ago when anti-piracy outfit Rights Alliance filed a complaint against a man they believed to be the owner of torrent site Tankaner. Local police launched an investigation and the man was later arrested. In April 2014 the man was prosecuted for copyright infringement related to the illegal distribution of 32 movies during 2012 and 2013. At the time prosecutor Fredrik Inglad said that since there were ads on the site he would be pushing for a prison sentence. In his defense the 40-year-old claimed that he’d disposed of the site four years ago. But according to Rights Alliance lawyer Henrik Pontén, the court didn’t buy that version of events. “There was extensive evidence against the man in the form of signed contracts for the piracy server, login information, book keeping, e-mails and a photo in which he is posing in a T-shirt with ‘Tankaner’ printed on it,” Pontén told TF. “The man argued that he was innocent and that he had transferred the operation from him to unknown persons who had made alterations to his encrypted computer while he was asleep. The court did not accept this version of events.” Pontén says that the Court applied principles from the Svensson case previously referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union by Sweden’s Court of Appeal. “In the case the suspect argued similar stand points to the ones argued by the suspects in the Pirate Bay case and they were dismissed on the same merits. However a difference from the Pirate Bay case is that the man was convicted as a direct infringer and not for contributory infringement,” Pontén adds. On Thursday the Uppsala District Court sentenced the man to five months in prison. Rights Alliance are now seeking damages for one of the movies made available to the public. Meanwhile, Tankaner remains online. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
| 7:55p | Pirates Expose Their Download Habits Through Trakt
The service allows users to keep track of the videos they watch throughout the week, either manually or automatically via media players such as VLC, XBMC and Popcorn Time. Trakt processes and stores downloading habits so its users can keep track of what they’re watching. By default it also allows others to see this information as well, and that’s where things start to become problematic. Trakt appears to be relatively popular among pirates. A quick glance at the most popular movies shows that most are still playing in theater. These could technically all be manual entries, but the “currently watching” lists shows that this isn’t the case. For example, at the time of writing there were several Trakt users watching the latest box-office hit “Interstellar” via XBMC and Infuse. Also, the overview of the movie “Lucy” shown below lists several Popcorn Time users checking in a pirated copy of the film.  Of course people have to decide for themselves if they want to display their piracy habits to the rest of the world, but they shouldn’t complain if a movie studio comes knocking on their door. We’ve just spent a few minutes looking through the profiles of several Popcorn Time users, who all display their browsing habits in public. Needless to say, this offers unique opportunities for copyright trolls. Copyright holders only have to write down a few usernames and ask the court for a subpoena to expose their personal info. Trakt is very clear about the fact that it helps private parties to enforce and comply with the law, and will have no other option than to hand over the requested information if they’re faced with a subpoena. “We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas)…” Trakt’s privacy policy reads. So without too much hassle rightsholders can get their hands on pirates’ IP-addresses, email addresses, payment information, a database of files watched and at what times, etcetera. And then there’s the added risk of running into scammers. Many “pirating” Trakt users have profile images and usernames that can easily lead to a person’s identity. It took us less than a minute to dig up an email address of a Popcorn Time user, info that scammers could exploit to falsely threaten legal action while posing as a copyright holder. That’s trouble waiting to happen. Most pirating Trakt users are probably not aware of the risks above, but in any case it might be wise for the privacy minded to avoid the service. Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services. |
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